Ruby was about to speak when, to her surprise, another Neo appeared and stood in her face. She was deliberately obscuring Ruby's view and performed a shushing motion while she was doing it.
This Neo's sudden appearance startled Ruby and the way she was blocking her sight of her sister peeved her off. When Ruby was about to say something to the seemingly mute girl, Neo aggressively began moving the hood enthusiast so her back would be on the wall. Putting her finger on Ruby's lips, after removing it from her own, in a hushed motion. With Ruby in a corner, more or less, Neo ceased her shoving and, with her other hand keeping the dark haired girl quiet, began typing a message for the would be huntress on her scroll. All Ruby could hear as she waited was the sound of buttons clicking, and glass shattering.
No talking. Put out your hand and type whatever on the scroll I'm about to hand you.
Ruby stared at Neo for a moment, not even remotely trying to hide her ill will towards the pushy girl, but put out her hand for the scroll. Ruby was expecting to be handed the same scroll that Neo was using but, strangely enough to Ruby, the silent girl instead gave her a different scroll.
Seeing that moment of confusion, thanks to her highly trained eyes, Neopolitan began typing down another message with her free hand.
You didn't really expect me to just give you my scroll, the same scroll that can activate or deactivate your' collars, did you?
Ruby, not as quickly as Neo, began to type a message on her scroll.
Why did you bring me here?
Neo closed her eyes for a solid two seconds, as if she were agitated, and effortlessly started typing an answer without looking at her scroll. The goading gaze she had before had changed to one of malice, and it was focused on Ruby. After a more than a minute of focusing all her attention on the girl before her, Neo brought her scroll up for the silver eyed girl to read.
The blonde, I believe you called her "Yang," needs as few distractions while I train her as possible. I've fought her before you arrived and she's never gotten my aura below the 95% mark. Her technique gets worse when she lets her anger take control and her precision sometimes dips because of it. Her stance needs work, more specifically her footing. She has a bad habit of taking unnecessary risks that hinder her more than help, even if they did work. She utilizes her semblance poorly and refuses to focus, likely because she lacks interest in my training with her. So the last thing I need is for her to check on you while we fight or for you to potentially get caught in the crossfire. Especially since while Cinder told me not to hurt you, I won't bat an eye if you get hit by a stray shot. It would be your own fault for not paying attention to your surroundings while you're hurt.
Ruby was about to protest but caught herself before she spoke, and possibly brought about the wrath of Neo upon herself. With her voice in check, Ruby shifted her attention to her scroll to reply.
Why don't you let me talk to her then? I'm sure she'll listen to me.
Neo had a response on her scroll in less than ten seconds, amazing Ruby with how quickly she wrote her lengthy answer.
You have no experience with hand to hand combat, so you won't know how to help her improve. For what I have planned I need her to be a warrior, not just a huntress. Normally making one with a semblance and heritage like hers would be easy, even if she wants to be difficult. But with Cinder's orders I can't beat the defiance out of her or be too rough with her during training and orders are orders.
Ruby was about to write Neo another message when the latter's scroll began to ring. After hearing her scroll, Neo released Ruby and began walking back to where Yang was. Recognizing this as Neo permitting her to return, Ruby began to hurry back. Unfortunately she still hadn't recovered enough to use her semblance. When she got back, she saw a tired Yang charging towards a Neo in front of her while another stood behind her.
Yang's fist was ready to punch through Neo, regardless of if it was a duplicate or otherwise. The Neo didn't even budge when the feisty girl was just outside her fiery arms reach. Before Yang's arm could extend, she was shot square in the back by the Neo behind her. Ruby could tell Yang had over exerted her body and judging by the way she reacted to the Neo's sneak attack, she definitely continued fighting with almost no aura.
"Yang!" Ruby screamed as she ran across the room to make sure her sister, who fell to the ground, wasn't badly injured.
Ruby began examining Yang to determine just how severe her injuries were. But to the black combat-skirted girls surprise, her sisters body had minimal damage. This puzzled Ruby, but she didn't get to give it much thought before the scroll Neo gave her went off. It was a message from Neo.
She needs more work than I thought. All I really did was let her tire herself out while I chipped away at her aura. I'm actually disappointed seeing as how she IS the same girl who beat Mercury.
"Is that all you can think of?!" Ruby snapped, the sight of her sister unconscious pushing her over the top.
Neo's sadistic smirk returned in full force, Ruby could've sworn that she saw a glimmer radiate off the ice cream themed girl. Neo carried herself with a taunting strut to slowly close the gap between her and the two sisters. But Ruby didn't care. Ruby stood her ground, though in actuality she was still crouching with Yang in her arms. Neo continued her strut until she was around 10 feet from Ruby, then she just stopped and her smirk changed to a grin. One similar to that of a predator once it's started to play with it's prey and told Ruby that Neo knows something she doesn't. Hardly able to contain herself, Neo eagerly pointed towards Yang. Ruby didn't want to take her eyes off Neo, but had to avert her gaze to make sure her sister was okay. When she shifted her eyes to the girl in her arms, Ruby didn't see the blonde hair of her sister. But instead the brown and pink hair of the very girl she had just taken her eyes off of.
Startled by this, Ruby quickly dropped the Neo in her hands. However this Neo faded into light before it could hit the ground. After her eyes got over the brief flash of light, Ruby felt her scroll buzz again and quickly gave it her undivided attention. Figuring Neo had something to so and that she could've already attacked her if she really wanted.
It's your turn.
Upon reading this Ruby, expecting a sneak attack, tried taking up a defensive stance. One that she had seen Yang and her dad take countless times. Even though the tightening of her muscles the stance caused made her body ache and scream out in pain.
Neo took two steps forward before raising her scroll up to her face, confusing Ruby. Ruby thought that this was a ruse, but to her surprise Neo's scroll emitted the unmistakable sound of one taking a picture. Which was followed soon after by Ruby's own scroll going off. Still expecting an underhanded sneak attack, Ruby ignored her scroll. Instead opting to kept her focus on the ice cream themed girl, who -just like the previous one- disappeared with the accompanying sound of glass shattering.
Ruby, fearing for an attack from behind quickly turned her body around and hoped her body had recovered enough aura to protect her from at least one strike. One that never came, instead of an attack Ruby found Neo -still looking amused- dangling the scroll Ruby thought she had in her pocket in front of her face. Neo clearly wanted her to read it.
I've seen enough already, we're done here. We'll have to start after you've healed.
Ruby was about to interject, but took notice of a second message that her scroll received. It was a picture of her when she was in her defensive stance. In the background of the picture; just behind her was another Neo, one who was holding a blade to the side of her neck.
The weapons nerd in Ruby couldn't help but try and determine what kind of bladed weapon the Neo was holding, judging by the angle she could see Ruby was able to narrow it down to three plausible choices: either a longer than average misericord, a swordstick, or a shikomizue. This was something Ruby thought was necessary to think of for when she and Yang try to make their escape, determining Neo's preferred weapon could help Ruby figure out the best strategy for beating her. If it was just an extended misericord then that would mean it's primarily used for poking and eventually puncturing enemies, the thought of which made Ruby feel uncomfortable. If it was a swordstick then that would mean that there was a larger variety of possible uses, this versatility made Ruby feel like this was the most likely candidate, and the more uses Ruby thought of the more frightened she became at the thought of how Neo could use it. The last choice: a shikomizue was in it's essence a sword modeled after either a katana or a rapier that, like a swordstick, is thin enough to fit in a sheath disguised as an everyday object. If it was either of the second or third option, this complicated things due to the fact that Ruby recalled seeing her using a parasol in their first encounter with her. But Neo also demonstrated to Ruby that she is very knowledgeable with hand-to-hand combat as well. This has made Ruby wonder, can she (and Yang) beat Neo? Yang apparently hasn't been able to on her own, and Neo made sure to let her know that she had more than three different chances to kill her already. Neo might just be more dangerous than any White Fang or Grimm...
Neo gestured for Ruby to follow, Ruby listened. Not having any options, the huntress in training followed the dangerous girl as she went out the door Mercury had brought her through earlier.
Author's Notes
Neo is going to have a large role, so I hope I can continue to make her seem like a combination of dangerous and somewhat sassy. I intend for her to be reluctant as possible with anything that doesn't pertain to her goals, interests, or tasks at hand. Basically she lives to torment Yang while she trains her, and now Ruby, because riling Yang up is more fun for her than the training itself. I plan to do a new RWBY story, but I won't cease my writing for this story. Besides, we haven't even found out what Weiss and Blake are doing, or Neo's training Ruby and Yang for yet.