Chapter Two: Reaching Out


The Early Hours

Neo waited up for him. Even knowing he'd made it out okay, she had no intention of sleeping until she had the additional confirmation she'd sought. When he finally stepped back inside, she rushed to embrace him, to hear his heart beat against her head and take in his scent. Roman knew to indulge her and without anyone around to witness this brief moment of affection and vulnerability, he returned the gesture by holding Neo to him and letting her take in her fill.

Once Neo was sated and relaxed her grip, Roman stepped away from her and pulled out a cigar. He didn't usually smoke in the apartment; but given the expression he wore and the way his hand shook when he tried to flick on his lighter, he really needed something to calm his nerves. Neo guided him to their couch and sat beside him, taking the lighter from him and helping him with the cigar.

Roman took a few seconds to inhale, intentionally breathing out away from Neo, to mitigate the smoke as much as he could. He showed no one else such consideration; no one but her. "I met with our benefactor again tonight," Roman explained. "And she wasn't thrilled about me botching the job at the docks."

There weren't many who shook Roman's confidence. It never suited him to be so timid, but this mysterious woman employing them could stop the deadly criminal in his tracks. She could put a leash on a man freer than any Neo had ever known, and that alone was reason to fear her… and to hate her.

"And she wasn't alone," Roman added. "She brought in two others to our meeting; more cronies she's forcing me to work with. There were already more people in on this job than I was comfortable with, and now she wants to add more moving parts, more targets for us to seize."

Neo had tried to dissuade him from going to the docks with the White Fang without her. Roman had convinced her to undertake another important mission instead; and good thing he had, because the White Fang might've already seized what Dust had already been secured if Neo hadn't put a stop to them. If she hadn't met a blue-eyed boy...

Neo put that thought from her mind. She needed to help Roman through this. He was doing her the kindness of trusting her with his problem. She'd save sharing the detail about the boy (and whatever friends he may have had that screwed up Roman's plans) once she had some more solid information there. She settled close to him, no matter how much he smelled of smoke. She listened intently to what little he had to say.

"I've got to up the quota," Roman went on. "And… I have to do this fast, and I have to do this discreetly." He turned his attention back to Neo. "And I need to do this without you."

Neo scrunched up her face and glared at him. If he thought for even a moment she'd let him do this again-

"I need you to watch the storehouse," Roman explained. "She insisted on knowing where it was and moving her White Fang there. And I need someone in there I can trust… and someone who won't be seen."

She was still upset, but Neo was starting to understand what he meant. She'd be worried about leaving him alone –worried more than ever- but once again he was entrusting with her a task, and a task he could only leave to her. Eventually, after maintaining her glare a while longer, with his green eyes staring right back at her, Neo's expression softened and she nodded.

Roman slid a hand beside her head, sliding his fingers through the brown strands and pulling her head in close. With his free hand he pulled the cigar from his mouth and out of the way, so that when he pressed his chin to her he wouldn't dribble any ash on her head. He held her there a moment, taking initiative and showing her affection for a change.

Neo lived for this feeling. To know someone cared for her, and would hold her close. It shuttered any memory of being alone, of being unwanted. It gave her contentment in a way all the Lien she and Roman made never could.

Roman held there for several moments before he released her, and explained where he'd be hitting next and how long he'd be before he could rejoin her. Neo listened closely, counting each additional score and weighing how long it'd be until their task was done and their payment rendered.

Until at last Roman was truly free again.


The Same Night

Blake reached her arm to the side of her bed, searching for him. When she found only mattress and sheets, when her fingers clenched the folds of the cloth and felt nothing more, she woke, looking at the empty space where she'd expected to find him. She pulled her arm back and pressed it to her chest, clenching herself tightly and trying to will the cold away.

She hadn't woken like this since the first few unfamiliar nights at Beacon. She hadn't thought of him much at all if she could help it, and after a period of adjustment she'd finally managed to sleep through the night and once again become accustomed to sleeping by herself.

It was silly to think of him resting beside her in this tiny bunk bed. It was stranger still to think she'd expect to find him there beside her… that she'd want to find him there and feel his warmth.

All because earlier in the day her past had caught up with her. The White Fang had crossed a line she'd have never condoned by working with a criminal anarchist like Roman Torchwick, presumably splitting their score of Dust with him. The White Fang stealing from the SDC wasn't so unusual, but that their choice in allies…

The White Fang dominated her thoughts now. And as a result, she was thinking of the better times when she'd heartily embraced them and their mission. She was thinking of when she'd been so passionate as to march in lockstep with the soldiers –possibly even some of those same men she and Sun fought against earlier today- and when she'd been so committed to the mission that she believed violence was called for, that the humans oppressing them had earned it paid unto them.

And when she'd doubted herself and her mission, she reached an arm out and held onto him, and her faith had been restored. She had only to feel his presence to center herself and put her mind at ease.

When she left him on the train, it had taken her a long time to swing Gambol Shroud and separate the two cars. For a brief moment she considered stopping herself, because she did still love him, no matter what he'd changed into. If she'd been a little stronger, if he loved her like she loved him, then maybe she could bring him back from the dangerous path he was on, and return him to the good man he'd been before.

It was so much easier to run then. So much easier to forget her feelings in that moment, knowing that Adam wouldn't catch up to her… that the White Fang, that her past, that her love were all trapped in a train car a long way down the rail from her.

But then she'd stepped off the train and realized she was still carrying Adam with her. Every step reminded her what she'd left behind, and the path she'd diverged from… and more painfully, that she would now walk alone. It was not so easy to forget that.

Blake sat up in her bed and looked around the room. Ruby slept peacefully in her precariously swaying bunk. Yang was snoring loudly beneath her. Weiss would toss and turn on occasion, but she was asleep, at the very least. She may have been troubled, but clearly not so much as Blake.

She cared deeply for her new friends, and was grateful for them, accepting her after all the terrible truths they'd learned about her. Weiss had made it clear that whatever reasons they'd had to dislike each other, she would not be troubled by the actions of Blake's past and instead judge her by her character in the present. And Blake liked to think she'd become a better person since she'd stepped off that train.

But still she reached for him… still she tried to find a violent and angry man to settle her thoughts. Still she tried to envision her life as it had been, with him in it, with him providing answers, and providing her with companionship. Still she wondered what could have been if she'd just managed to stay behind and finish what they began together.

Would the White Fang have ever fallen so far if Blake had stayed there with him? Would Adam have continued to get worse, or could she have made him better with her love?

And most of all, Blake wondered if he woke like this too, cold and alone and reaching out for her.

Blake fell back into bed and rolled onto her back, spreading out her arms and legs and trying to take up as much of the bunk as possible so she wouldn't reach to one side in search of him.

All that meant was it was easier for the cold to find her.


The Second Semester, the Day Before Classes Resume

Professor Goodwitch had done most of the hard work for them, putting the tables back into place and collecting the food and trash into a single location. Then Yang came crashing through the ceiling and kicking up another mess. If Goodwitch had any patience left after cleaning up the wreckage of the epic RWBY/JNPR battle, it was clearly gone by the time Yang added to her workload.

Goodwitch stitched up the hole in the ceiling and then ordered them to clean up the remaining mess. Professor Ozpin interceded to stifle Professor Goodwitch's rage, but even he agreed that the students should clean up the mess they made; he was just a bit more good-natured about it.

Blake had spent most of her time gathering the food trays they'd scattered about. It was better than the rest of her teammates, stuck cleaning up the food they'd spilled. And Weiss had the temerity to waste a perfectly good swordfish, so it seemed a fitting punishment.

She glanced around the room. Pyrrha was using her Semblance to right the vending machines they'd knocked over while Nora gathered the various soda cans that had been knocked around. When she started drinking from the unfinished ones, Ren stopped trying to separate trash from recycling and moved to stop her before she took in too much caffeine. Jaune was collecting the various student belongings, including Weiss's Vytal Festival plans that had become Ruby's BEST DAY EVER agenda.

And a smaller notebook, unmarked but full of doodles, including of a blonde Faunus boy with a weapon strapped over his back. Jaune didn't seem to notice what it was; only opening to the page that had been recently creased and searching for a name or other identifying characteristic.

Blake abandoned the food trays and started discreetly making her way over to him. She doubted he was trying to ascertain more about Blake's private thoughts on Sun, but she'd been just as quick to shut down Yang before Blake's own partner noticed anything. Jaune would eventually notice what Blake wrote about him and ask (loudly) all about the Faunus exchange student from Mistral.

Fortunately, he was still searching the same two pages for a name (rather than the front or the cover) and Blake very casually asked: "Do you need help?"

Jaune was still scouring the pages… the same two pages he'd held open the entire time. "Most of the stuff here was labeled, but I can't seem to find a name on this one."

Blake tried to be patient with him, formulating a way to take the notes from his hands in such a way that didn't involve anything too aggressive or too blatant. "I'd be happy to trade with you," Blake suggested. "I'd much rather be looking for names than hauling all those trays around." None of that was true, but Blake thought it might sound as such.

Jaune immediately handed the book to Blake. "I'll get right to it." He then pointed at what had already been completed, backpacks and notebooks and errant Scrolls nicely organized on the clean tables. He'd actually made quite a bit of progress before Blake interceded and her notes had befuddled him.

Jaune stepped past and gathered up the food trays Blake had been collecting. She found herself watching him gather them up, taking a big unsteady tower in his grip and moving them out of the way. He finished rapidly, and Blake had made very little progress by the time he'd returned, only managing to hide her notes away and go through a few nametags.

Jaune then rejoined her, moving rapidly in acquiring the various student possessions and hoisting up the heaviest items. Blake found herself staring again as he performed the difficult manual labor in conjunction with the delicate search for names, once again making very little progress… her mind was too busy wandering.

Two weeks earlier, before their break, Jaune had joined them at the docks, fished out of the harbor by the cops, soaking wet. He'd apparently tried to swim across the water to reach them, and despite his strength and energy hadn't quite made it. Like the rest of her friends, he'd been searching for Blake when she was missing. Maybe he'd known she was a Faunus, maybe he'd known she was once a member of the White Fang, maybe he hadn't. Either way he'd come to her aid and offered what help he could, even if it had cost him to do so. And now, even after Blake had given him an out from their cleaning duty he remained to help his friend, and not even a friend who happened to be his teammate.

Blake casually glanced back at the other members of Team JNPR. Blake could feel Pyrrha's green eyes digging into her, simply because she was standing somewhere in Jaune's vicinity. Pyrrha was much too nice to glare, but she was no less possessive of her partner than Blake had once been, whenever he'd stopped to talk to any girl, even a girl like Ilia Blake considered a close friend.

Jaune had no idea how fortunate he was to have someone so protective of him. He was also incredibly dense to not notice, but such was Jaune's way. It probably helped Pyrrha to be forgiving of Blake that Jaune was helping Blake because she was his friend, and not just helping her because she was a pretty girl batting her eyelashes at him. It probably made it quite a bit easier for Pyrrha to bear knowing that six of Jaune's closest friends at Beacon were girls, and they really couldn't do much to help that fact.

But Jaune had made other friends. When Pyrrha reached them at the docks, she'd explained how she and Jaune had gone through the city making inquiries of all the shopkeepers, all of whom he'd been on friendly terms with. And then Blake recounted how after Jaune had finally stood up to Cardin he'd made efforts to make amends with Velvet for the way she'd been treated by the same bully (and when Blake had quietly, deliberately ignored the plight of a fellow Faunus), and then thought again to him apologizing to Blake herself for when Nora accidentally knocked her off a cliff during initiation…

So many thoughts of Jaune. Why?

Because he was right next to her, surely. Because of this unusual circumstance that brought them together.

Blake set another notebook beside her own. While she'd initially planned to use this as a disguise, to bury her own belongings amid a crowd of strangers, she found herself opening it again. Peering over her notes to the back of Jaune's scraggly blonde head, Blake observed he didn't look quite so different from Sun from the back.

Then Yang poked her head over Blake's shoulder and loudly inquired: "Wait, is that Sun?!"

Blake wished for a quick death.


The Storehouse

Neo had been carefully hidden from the others, using her tricks to conceal herself from even the enhanced senses of the White Fang. Roman asked her to keep an eye on things when their benefactor dropped by, and Neo was eager to see the woman who'd managed to convince Roman into this massive undertaking. Roman was on the ground floor, keeping one eye on the Faunus and one other on the various shipping containers they now had full of the stuff.

From her vantage point, she had a good view of the floor. She immediately spotted the two people out of place: the green-haired girl with dark skin and the silver-haired boy with some sort of strong metal in his legs, given the sound of his footsteps.

"Oh look, she sent the kids again," she heard Roman muse. "This is turning out just like the divorce."

"Ugh," the girl uttered from somewhere under his glove. "Spare us the thought of you procreating."

Neo hated the girl immediately. The silver-haired boy was a bit more subdued, but also snarky without the wit and timing Roman had to offer. Neo was sure they had reason to be confident, but they couldn't hope to match Roman.

The discussion turned heated, and Roman remarked: "Listen, you little punk- if it were up to me, I'd take you and your little street rat friend here and I would-"

"Do what, Roman?"

Such a cold voice. It wasn't often something struck Neo with its force, but that voice brought the room down a few degrees with just three words.

Neo heard the sound of clinking glass and then the elevator descending from the second floor.

It wasn't often Roman Torchwick was scared of anything. Yet he was uncharacteristically timid when he nervously replied: "I'd... uh... not kill them?"

"Cinder!" the girl remarked.

So their mistress had a name. Neo carefully positioned herself. She wanted to see this force of nature that could cow Roman. It meant leaving herself partially exposed and easier to detect, but she was determined to see this 'Cinder' for herself.

The force of nature had some legs, and her every footstep sounded like glass striking the metal floor. "I thought I made it clear you were to eliminate the would-be runaway?"

"I was going to..." Roman tried to placate her.

"He was going to escape to Vacuo!" the green-haired girl accused. Unfortunately, this Cinder cut her little spiel short and reined her in too. If Cinder cowed Roman, she terrified the two subordinates she'd sent ahead of her arrival.

Roman then went into a big spiel about being busy stealing Dust, pointing at the innumerable shipping crates he'd collected. Neo had to admit she enjoyed watching him flail about.

"Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn't mind filling me in on your grand master plan, it might actually make my next string of robberies go a little smoother," Roman suggested.

Cinder stepped a little closer. "Oh, Roman, have a little faith..." Her voice was much warmer now, with just a little bit of tease to it. She sauntered over to Roman, pulling up her right hand on his cheek. "You'll know what you need when you need to know it."

She spoke in a coo, and seeing her hand pressed to Roman's face, seeing him look at her pretty amber eyes and lustrous raven hair...

It wasn't often anyone put Roman off-balance. And a woman touching his cheek... for some reason Neo hated that more than the way she bossed him around. Their eyes met for a long moment, and Neo felt herself getting madder and madder the longer Roman looked at this beautiful woman.

Then her faith was restored when he scoffed and looked away. Apparently her charms hadn't won him over, at least not completely. And if he'd been tempted by her before, now he was only confused when she announced they were 'done with Dust' and proceeding to 'phase two.' This ran quite contrary to what Roman had told Neo about the plan; she was expecting them to fence the Dust for a huge payday and then move on, not stockpile it for… whatever new mission Cinder would now have Roman undertaking.

When she and her cronies finally left (and one of them stole Roman's lighter), Roman discreetly moved over to Neo. He knew not to make her wait without an explanation. He knew she'd spent too long in the dark.

"I never meant to keep it a secret," Roman admitted, bitterly shaking his head, the unlit cigar still uselessly poking out of his mouth. "I knew she had something big in the works, but I didn't think we'd be sticking around to see it through."

That wasn't enough and he knew it. Neo only waited, not revealing herself, not allowing him to get any sense for her thoughts until he'd given a more satisfactory answer.

"Look, kiddo, she's a lot tougher than she looks," Roman explained. "She's out of our league."

Neo conceded she had to have something impressive to cow Roman. But did he really think this woman was so powerful they couldn't just escape out from under her thumb? Did Roman really fear her so much to keep playing along even after she'd violated the terms of their deal?

"It's not just us and the White Fang," Roman added. "There's something really big planned. Something that's really gonna put a hurt on Vale. Cinder's been telling me about this tech Atlas is working on and about a tunnel that leads to Mountain Glenn and all the other weird stuff they were up to over there… and she's crazy. She's not looking to make a buck, she's looking to make a change."

Roman wasn't a believer in such things. When he mused on it to Neo, he sounded bitter about what lay ahead. This wasn't an opportunity for gain, but a necessary action made in the name of self-preservation. He didn't need to say it in so many words. His tone –his honestly that only Neo ever got to hear- conveyed it all.

"There's no need to watch the score anymore kid; the Faunus are taking it all," Roman mused. "Go home and get some rest. I'll clean up things here."

Neo really didn't want to leave him alone, but she knew he was right to send her away before one of the White Fang found her hiding spot. Some of them knew about her, but the only two who'd ever seen her were somewhere at the bottom of the harbor. Better Roman keep his sole remaining advantage close to the chest, at least for now.

"I'll be there soon," Roman promised. "Watch yourself out there."

She had a little time before he'd return to her. That gave Neo an opportunity to look around.

And see if she could –if nothing else- learn where their benefactor slept. If only to file away.

For future reference.


Beacon

The sun was setting on campus. RWBY had a full day of activities planned that was only slightly hindered by their food fight and cleaning duty. JNPR had a quieter day in mind, but their dinner plans had been marred somewhat by the dining hall closing early, before Jaune and Pyrrha had finished their sparring session. Left with the possibility of a hungry Nora, Ren placated her with what he could find in the pantry while Jaune headed into the city to restock before they had to abide by curfew again. This left Pyrrha alone in the dorm room, thinking on the day's events.

And Blake.

It was a silly thought, that Jaune had eyes for her. He was plainly interested in Weiss, and had mentioned being embarrassed at being removed from the fight before he could show off some cool move he'd come up with to impress her. That should've been where her jealousy was focused, but instead her thoughts were for that moment when Jaune had returned to help Blake in organizing the students' belongings.

Jaune had made an incredible effort in trying to reach Blake the night she'd gone missing. Pyrrha recalled fearing for his welfare when she saw him soaking wet, privately angry at Blake for prompting him to take such a risk at all. Now she felt the same quiet, simmering anger at the sight of Blake so close to Jaune today, and Pyrrha really wished she wasn't feeling that way. But she had little else to think on. Jaune was away, and when he wasn't nearby, Jaune was all Pyrrha thought of.

She'd tried not to reach this state –fought and fought against it- but there was no denying how she felt now. What had started as mere kindness -a sort of desire to nurture and aid her teammates in whatever capacity she could- had become particularly focused with Jaune. It wasn't friendship that motivated her to keep him around her now, much as Pyrrha had pretended it to be such… much as she still pretended it was, no matter how she tried to subtly imply her feelings to him without ever being too blatant about them.

She didn't want to put such pressure on him, but now that Pyrrha clearly knew how she felt she was having trouble processing those feelings. She was doing what she could not to be bothered by Jaune getting attention from all their female friends, but unfortunately they were all beautiful girls (in one way or another) and Pyrrha's brain kept construing the worst possible motivations for his acts of kindness.

She knew that wasn't his intention, not even with Weiss. He wasn't being kind just to impress them, he wasn't playing with anyone's feelings for his own self-gratification, and he wasn't motivated by anything more complicated than a genuine desire to help.

He was all too rare. Perhaps that was why Pyrrha now found herself so deeply…

She couldn't even think the words. How could she possibly say them to him when she couldn't even bring herself to think them?

There was more to life at Beacon than Jaune Arc. There were other friends she cared for, whom she could focus at least some of her thoughts on. She knew it wasn't healthy to think only of Jaune, not when there were others important to her, and more goals in her life than just convincing her partner she wished more of him than he'd realized.

Another day, a better time… all she needed was the right moment, and maybe she could finally express herself and this troublesome jealousy would go away.


Vale

Neo had no luck finding her quarry; apparently Cinder and her subordinates were better at covering their tracks than their bold entrance had indicated. Neo expanded her search outside the docks and into downtown, growing increasingly frustrated as her search bore no fruit.

These people were screwing up Roman's plans, and thus Neo's as well. She wanted to see what plans of theirs Neo might eventually be able to meddle in, so long as she remained an unknown element who could complicate things for them. And if she was very lucky, she might ascertain what other promises this Cinder had made to Roman that she might eventually break.

But she found no sign of them, and eventually Neo's tracking turned to aimless wandering, moving about the city and searching for anything out of the ordinary. Roman promised he'd be home eventually, but Neo doubted he'd remove all the Dust before midnight at the earliest.

So she scoured around, moving away from the shady fronts and towards the legitimate businesses, passing by a bunch of different people, always keeping her head pointed to the ground, always keeping one eye concealed by her hair so no one would notice.

As a result of only looking around in sidelong glances, she marched straight into another person who wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, holding a few bags of groceries in one hand and staring at directions on a Scroll in the other. Neither were walking very fast, and when Neo crashed into him, her head embedded in his chest. She barely moved his tall frame, but he nearly knocked her over, and he reached out to catch her, willfully abandoning his bags of food and letting them crash into the pavement.

Neo felt a hand grasping her arm to steady her. She wasn't used to such an act and prepared to unsheathe the blade in her umbrella, before she looked up and met those familiar blue eyes… blue eyes that did not waver when looking upon Neo's own.

"You!" the blonde boy realized. "Wow, I haven't seen you since that thing at the docks…" He smiled at her, apparently unbothered by all the food he'd lost in reaching out to catch her. "I'm glad you're okay."

Neo remembered taking hold of his hand… his grip around her arm now was just as firm, though only for a moment, as he immediately released her and drew back. Not to flee from her… just not to squeeze her so tight.

Not the lead Neo had been intending to find, but one she was eager to follow up on just the same. She inclined her head ever so slightly, lowering her umbrella as she returned his smile… and not with her usual arrogant smirk, but a quiet upturn of her lips.

He lowered his head slightly to address her, still holding her gaze in a way so few could. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you before… what's your name?"

Only one person in Vale knew her name. At least until tonight.

Neo was surprisingly slow to respond as she reached for her Scroll. She felt as timid as she had when she'd finally told Roman who she was.

She typed in three letters and held up her Scroll. The blonde read it. "Neo?" When she nodded, he extended his hand again. "I'm Jaune Arc."

Neo looked down at his extended hand. Just as it had been when he helped her to her feet, Neo hesitated to take what was freely offered. She was so unused to anyone showing her kindness she wasn't immediately sure how to react.

And when she placed her hand in his and he wrapped his fingers over hers', Neo once again found it quite difficult to let go.