Time To Say Goodbye

"How quaint." Cinder glanced around the apartment, gaze lingering on the picture frames on the walls, full of pictures of a family she shouldn't recognize. Neo agreed: room 211 was only her home as Cinder was concerned. Torchwick knew her real room. Others, like the white fang, thought she was across town. To the police and the public, she hopefully didn't live anywhere at all.

The room was a deception for one. And it wasn't even working.

ᴡʜᴀᴛ's ᴛʜᴇ ᴊᴏʙ

"To the point. Still have your Atlesian threads?"

ᴏғ ᴄᴏᴜʀsᴇ

"You've got a big night ahead of you. You're about to earn your bonus."

Did Neo still want to... she didn't know. She couldn't decide. No. No she didn't. Ruby made her choice, so Neo would have to make hers.

But at the same time, Neo made a habit of regrets. As lifestyle choices go, or wasn't one she preferred.

ɪɴsᴛᴇᴀᴅ ᴏғ ᴍᴏɴᴇʏ, ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴀ ғᴀᴠᴏʀ.

"Oh?" it was a first, as far as Cinder knew.

So Neo would hedge her bets. ʟᴇᴀᴠᴇ ʀᴜʙʏ ʀᴏsᴇ ᴀʟɪᴠᴇ

Cinder sighed and took out her scroll. She was... was she checking the time? "Fine." she smiled. "Me and mine will avoid it if possible. And should an accident occur, I'll double your rate."

It was as much of a guarantee as she would get. ᴡʜᴏ ɴᴇᴇᴅs ᴛᴏ ᴅɪᴇ?

"Oh, you're going to love this one."

The dropship lifted off from the pad and headed east. Unfortunately, Vale just wasn't Atlas. The path from the airfield to the front had the audacity to pass near a nonmilitary building.

The pilot either didn't know, or he didn't think it was close enough to be a problem. Or maybe he was just trained to conserve fuel.

Neo held her umbrella above her head and leapt from the roof. It wasn't flying, or even gliding, really. Neo could only fall.

Neo let go of the umbrella and tucked into a roll. The whole operation was blown if they heard her land. The umbrella drifted away as the plane moved so she grabbed the cane from her belt and hooked the handles together.

Oh dear. I'm afraid this may end up being too fun. Neo put them back, lay down on the ship's dome, and waited for landing.

The destroyer came into view, followed by two others. Sure, three to the east. But Neo had no idea they would be so close! That didn't change the plan, it just made it much riskier.

Now that Neo had finished waiting, it was time for the main event: more waiting. She got out her scroll and opened back to page 411 in Red: Dust And Its Applications, Part Four, As Compiled By The MDRF. Below, the men unloaded boxes of whatever, set the craft to refuel, and left. There would almost certainly be a camera pointing at the door inside and another on the flight deck itself. Neo wouldn't go that way.

Her scroll vibrated. Neo was on the clock.

Neo inched up the dome to survey the landing area. If she jumped up from where she was, she'd pass over the cam's sightline. There were some windows overlooking the deck, so she waited for them to empty and jumped up the ship's wall.

At the top of the ship was a lookout's post. Neo slid her blade into the seal around a window and pried it open. It was the only spot on the ship where an open window would trigger a warning light instead of an alarm. And what luck, it was close to the comms center too. The ship's designer evidently thought they were more likely to need an analog communication fallback than get invaded by a woman with a combat umbrella.

The door to comms was closed. Neo kept walking and turned right. After a few more turns she passed an older man in an intersection. He walked a few more steps and then turned around to watch her.

It was the hat on her belt, or maybe her hair: Neo got to be Neo today. She kept walking, slowing a bit, and he followed.

He caught up to her mid-hall, next to a door below two cameras. Neo spun and hooked the cane around his neck, slamming his face into the door, then pulled the cane while kicking his back. Something cracked, and it wasn't aura.

What kind of soldier doesn't have unlocked aura?

Neo removed the lanyard from the body and swiped his ID in the reader. The door unlocked to a dark room and she dragged the body inside. The dead kind.

Neither hall camera was facing straight down. And given that there was no alarm, the room's interior camera wasn't being watched.

Back to comms.

The door opened without any fuss. One man and a woman, both turned from their consoles to look at her. Neo raised her umbrella and fired the front at the woman, then threw the sword towards the man. The umbrella, not open, bowled the woman over. Her sword sailed past the man into his console, showering him in sparks. While he ducked, Neo dashed to the woman and struck her with the cane, twice, three times, then back to the man and kicked him in the chest. When he went down she retrieved her sword and stabbed the woman in the neck.

Neo threw it again, knocking the scroll from the man's hand, along with a finger or two - no telling who he was dialing. With her free hand, she shook a reproachful finger. She slipped the cane back into her belt next to the hat, and took out her scroll.

sɪʟᴇɴᴛ ʀᴜɴɴɪɴɢ

The man nodded about a hundred times in five seconds and got onto his former partner's console. Neo watched him as he worked, but besides keys slipping on blood he seemed honest.

"All right, the ship's in" she killed him.

Torchwick. Torchwick! Captured on her watch, Cinder had finally let Neo free him. Neo would've done this job for free. She left the comms room, ran into two guards wondering why their scrolls stopped working, and killed them with the cane for a change of pace. She'd have to go back to the flight deck first, to break any escape ships.

Neo giggled.

Let Ruby abandon her. Roman would love to hear what Neo could do.