Salutations! Ebony reporting in with another chapter! This is the final part of The Aftermath. After this the story will continue to move forward. In this chapter we will be dealing with Roman and Neo instead of team RWBY. It's a little short but I'm happy with it.

The Aftermath
Part II

"To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist."

~Robert Schumann

It had been three days. Three fucking days.

During those three days Roman still had no idea what was wrong with him. Why had he saved that annoying little girl in red? He was given several good chances to kill the stupid girl but he oh-so carelessly let them slip away. He had never hesitated like that before.

He had no problem shooting at that stupid cat - she was a filthy faunus. Or the Ice Queen - he hated the Schnee family as much as the White Fang. Sure he'd shoot at the annoying blonde girl but Neo seemed to enjoy fighting her so he always let Neo take care of her. But Red?

Red was a thorn in his side and he'd give anything to have her taken care of. She always seemed to be messing his plans up one way or another and he was getting fed up with it. So why the fuck did he decide to give her first aid? Or even protect her from the first explosion?

Was it because she was so young? Of course, even he had standards but he felt like he could make an exception for Red - she was a huntress after all. So why did he get a sick feeling in his stomach at the thought of killing her? Why did he feel like he wanted throw up when he saw her on the ground as if she had been tossed around by grimm? Why did he lie to Perry and tell him he couldn't find the stupid brat? She was right there! Perry could have taken care of her for him!

Maybe he was starting to lose his touch? No, that couldn't be it. He was only twenty-four for heavens sake! He was still in his prime! Some stupid little girl shouldn't be a problem for him. He managed to escape Ironwood - not that it was particularly hard to get away from that conceited ignoramus - and go right back to stealing. The authorities couldn't stop him so obviously a little girl should be no match for him.

Roman scowled at the target dummy in front of him and starting shooting it in the head. Next time he wouldn't hesitate. He would lift his cane and shoot Red right in her face.

"I think it's dead, Roman." a quite giggle came from behind him. The voice was soft and had a slight accent.

Roman lowered his cane and spun around on his heel. "Ah, Neo. It's always a pleasure to see you, my dear."

The pink and brown girl raised an eyebrow at him. "Did I just hear some sarcasm?" There was a smirk on her lips.

"Of course not!" Roman scoffed.

Neo rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.

"Did you need something?" Roman asked.

Neo's face suddenly got very serious and she narrowed her pink and brown eyes at the narrowed at the orange-haired criminal. "You spared her life." Her voice was low.

Roman was taken back by her bluntness but he kept his features neutral. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Neo's glare became more intense and her eyes starting changing colours. "Don't lie to me. I know you could have killed that girl."

Roman frowned and turned away. "What's it matter if I didn't?" He pulled out a cigar and lit it. "Are you going to report me to Cinder?"

Neo's face broke out into a smile. "Of course not. I'm just curious as to why you didn't just shoot her in the face when you had the chance. She's been nothing but thorn in the side for you."

Roman grunted. "Why didn't you stab that busty blonde when you had the chance?"

Neo gave him a swat with her umbrella. "You know why I didn't. That woman showed up and I had no choice but to flee."

"I'm sure you had other chances at the warehouse."

"No. She punched one the pipelines and things started exploding. Not even my aura would have protected me from that had I stayed."

"It doesn't matter I guess - it's not Red's friends that are the problem anyways." Roman took a puff of his cigar. "Next time I'm going to put a bullet right through that little girl's skull."

"I see." Neo appeared to be amused by his statement. "I think you like having her around - you think it's fun don't you?" she teased.

Roman lightly whacked her with his cane. "Shut up. I can't stand the little brat." He blew out a cloud of smoke. "I could say the same about you, Neo. You seem to have fun toying with Blondie - and don't say you don't. I've seen the look on your face when you get to fight her." He smirked a little, "You better be careful, or people might start to talk."

Neo had a sickly sweet smile on her face. "I find it fun to play with my prey."

Roman rolled his eyes. "And when you play with your prey for too long it gets away."

Neo stuck out her tongue. "Just make sure you have your head in the game next time. Cinder isn't going to tolerate another failure like this."

"I know, I know. It's not going to happen again."

Neo still didn't seem convinced. In fact, it appeared as if she knew a secret that no one else did. "Your secret is safe with me." Neo bowed and then suddenly vanished.

Roman let out an annoyed huff. It sure didn't sound like she was talking about him not killing Red when he had the chance - but if that wasn't it what was she talking about?

He loved Neo - really he did - but sometimes she annoyed the hell out of him. Of course she was the only one he could truly trust. He knew Neo would never betray him - not even to Cinder. Neo was the only real friend he had ever had. Of course he had Junior but he was always nagging him about something - usually about how careless he was. He and Neo had started calling Junior "mom" just to annoy him.

His mind wandered back to Red as he took another puff from his cigar. He set his cane down and brought his hand to his neck. He felt weird without his scarf - naked almost. He wondered if Red still had it. Probably not. She probably tossed it away the first chance she got. He was going to have to get a new one.

He sighed. Cinder would have his head if she found out he let Red live. There was no way he could screw like this again. Cinder would most definitely begin to tire of his continuous failures if he didn't step up his game. He was actually surprised at how well she had handled things when she heard they had lost so much Dust. In fact, she seemed almost indifferent.

Why did she even want that much Dust anyways? They already had more Dust than they could possibly use. They had stolen so much that the Dust companies were running low on what they could sell to the public so they were slowly raising their prices. Of course, he probably wouldn't get to know the reason until the last minute because Cinder always told him "you'll know what you need when you need to know." He hated being kept in the dark but there wasn't much he could do about it.

Crossing Cinder would be a death wish.

Tch. Was there any female that wasn't a pain in his ass? Probably not.

Salutations! This concludes The Aftermath! I know the chapter was a little short but the story will now be moving forward.

I'm sure everyone has tons of questions still and I promise that as the story goes on they will be answered.

Now onto Neo. I had her talk! OMG! I know a lot of stories have her as a mute but I decided she wasn't. At least not yet. Oops. Maybe I said too much. And what of this accent? I picture Neo having a soft, girly British sounding voice.

Once again, I would like to give a big thanks to my friend Luna for her support. She helps keep me motivated.

And I would also like to thank everyone who reviewed and added this story to their favorites/follows. Getting those emails always makes me extremely happy. And to AkiraTKWG I was going to try and PM you but when I searched for your name nothing came up in the search results, so I'll reply here: I love Peeves. The moment I started watching RWBY I was a Rosewick shipper so I was so excited when I found Rosewick stories. Still Dreaming is probably my favorite out of all of them.

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