Boredom was an unfamiliar feeling for Weiss. Normally, she would have at least something to keep her attention, but something felt off. Neo hadn't responded to Weiss' last few messages for more than a day, a concerningly long time for someone who practically lived on their Scroll. The worries Weiss had for her girlfriend outweighed any other thoughts, and so she was laying on her bed, trying to think of what could have caused this. Weiss was so trapped in her thoughts that she barely even noticed Ruby entering the dorm.
"Heya Weiss. Are you okay? You've been kinda moody today, or, well, more moody than usual," Ruby asked as she brought a chair over to Weiss' bedside. Ruby knew something was up, otherwise Weiss would've complained about being called 'moody'.
"Ruby, have you seen Neo lately, or heard from her?" Weiss asked back, her gaze not moving from the underside of Ruby's bunk above her.
"A few days ago, I think. Why do you ask?" Ruby replied.
"She hasn't replied to me for more than a day and I'm worried. Did she ever do that to you?" Ruby thought for a moment.
"I… don't think so. I mean, not while we were friends with benefits," Ruby answered, a thought coming to her as she spoke. "Oh, that's probably not a good sign."
"Ruby, could you come with me to Neo's apartment? I… I want to check something, and I want you there in case something bad happens," Weiss asked, hoping for the best. There was only one possible answer in Ruby's mind.
"Of course I'll help you, Weiss. I mean, what are friends for?" Ruby reassured.
Later that afternoon, Ruby and Weiss made it to Neo's apartment building, weapons ready and loaded, just in case. They carefully made their way up the stairs to Neo's apartment and to Neo's apartment. Their first worry was when they saw the damage on Neo's door, mostly focused to the side of where the lock is mounted, with a very clear dent in the wood.
"Someone kicked the door in," Ruby observed, making Weiss even more worried. She tried the door handle and was surprised when it opened immediately. "That's not a good sign. Neo would've locked it."
"There's still a chance that she could've gotten away," Weiss said, not sounding fully convinced of her own thoughts.
"Just gotta hope for the best." Ruby carefully and quietly opened the door, and the sight the partners were met with dashed all of those hopes. The main room of Neo's apartment had been ransacked. The couch had been overturned, large gashes had been gouged out of the floor and walls, with even a few on the roof, and the door to the bedroom had been partly knocked off its hinges. "That's… not great," Ruby whispered, making quite the understatement. Before Weiss could respond, there was a sound from the bedroom, like something had just fallen to the ground. Quick as a flash, the partners drew their weapons, Weiss pointing her rapier at the door while Ruby switched Crescent Rose to its gun form, also pointed at the door. "Huntsman! Come out with your hands up!" Ruby called out with more authority and force than Weiss had ever heard from her. There was a tense silence that felt like an eternity, before the pair heard slow, heavy footsteps. Preparing for anything, Weiss loaded up some ice dust to freeze whoever it was, while Ruby's finger hovered just over the trigger guard, ready to slide it in and pull the trigger if she needed to. Then, a pair of dark skinned hands passed through the door, glad with olive green half-gloves.
"Don't shoot, please," Emerald's voice called back.
"Emerald? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked, her fingers moving away from the trigger, but she kept her gun up and ready.
"What did you do with Neo?!" Weiss accused, her hands shaking just a touch..
"I didn't do anything, I swear," Emerald insisted. "I'm trying to find out what happened to her too, and I think I have an idea."
"And why should we trust you? You were following me and Neo on our… you were following us," Weiss questioned. There was a pause as Emerald's hands dropped slightly.
"I know… that this is probably my fault," Emerald admitted, "but I never thought anything would happen to her, or even you. I was just doing what Cinder told me."
"Trusting Cinder never ends well," Ruby warned, an obvious hint of regret, or perhaps sadness, in her voice.
"You might be right… but I've never had someone like her to trust before," Emerald said reluctantly. "I… I actually haven't had much of anything until she came along."
"I… sort of know what you mean," Ruby responded, earning a surprised glance from Weiss. "She was the first person to see me as more than just a huntress with a baby face, the first person who, I thought, would give me what I wanted, and I thought I could trust her too. She doesn't care, though. Everyone else is just a tool to her."
"You think I don't know that?" Emerald questioned, her anger rising. "I'm not naive, I know what she's like, I just…" the anger drained from her voice, leaving her sounding tired and small all of a sudden. "I don't know what I'd do without her."
"Well… I don't know if my word's worth anything, but if you help us, I could talk to Professor Ozpin, see if there's anything he can do for you," Ruby offered. There was a pause as Emerald mulled it over. Then, after a long, tense moment, Ruby and Weiss had their answer.
"Okay, I'll trust you two if you two trust me."
Neo could tell that she didn't have very many options. Her hands hadn't been untied from the moment she had been taken from her apartment. The shipping container she was locked up in would have been hard enough to escape from even if she had free movement, being almost pitch black and not having any way to open it easily from the inside. On the rare occasion that the door was opened to toss in a pittance of food, Neo did not have the time to try to rush for freedom before the door was shut in her face, and she didn't even have the ability to try and plan for it, as the times she was fed was random, and the door she was fed from was just as random. To make matters worse, what little food she had would not be anywhere near enough to fuel enough expansion to make herself strong enough to bust out. All she could do was sit and hope that someone was going to get to her.
The three girls in Neo's ruined apartment stood around the kitchen bench, looking at a blocky red and grey pistol. On its own, it would have proved nothing, as it looked like the standard cheap pistol anyone with a little extra cash could get their hands on. However, there was a clear identifying sign on it that made it clear who was responsible. A beowolf's head in front of 3 claw marks, all in red, was marked on the grip. Without a doubt, the White Fang had been here, and they were almost certainly responsible for Neo's disappearance.
"Where can we find them?" Ruby questioned Emerald, while trying her hardest to keep her eyes locked on Emerald's eyes, even with how tempting it was to let her eyes wander to survey the rest of Emerald's voluptuous body.
"There's a few places I can think of. I can search for her, give you two a location. I hope you have a plan to get her out," Emerald stated.
"How long do you think it'll take to find Neo?" Weiss asked. Emerald pursed her lips in thought for a moment.
"Depends whether I get lucky or not. Maybe half an hour if I find her at the first place, three or four if it's at the last place. Aren't you two going to need more time?" Emerald replied.
"If Weiss is thinking what I'm thinking, that should be enough time. Just let us know if we'll have to deal with Cinder," Ruby said with reassuring confidence.
"Got it." With that, Emerald took off, slowing momentarily to make sure her wide hips didn't jam or bump into the door frame as she passed through it.
"So, Ruby, what were you thinking?" Weiss asked.
"Well, I figured now would be a good time to put your new abilities to good use. Hope you've got your stretchy clothes on, 'cause we've got some eating to do," Ruby suggested. Weiss' eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Really? Now? But I'm nowhere near as good as you are at it, let alone fighting while expanded…"
"Weiss, you're comparing yourself, a first year huntsman in training that's only just started to learn this stuff, to me. I've been an officially licensed huntsman for years, and I've been using these abilities for even longer. You might not be as good as me, but I know you're good enough to take on some White Fang goons," Ruby reassured. "But, we're not gonna get anywhere with inspiring pep talks. You go out and grab as much food as you can carry, I'll do the same, and we'll meet back here." With a nod of agreement, the pair dashed out to the shops. Weiss went with online orders to every nearby fast food place that took those orders, grabbing all the burgers, pizzas and other fast food that she could. Ruby, meanwhile, let her sweet tooth guide her as she ransacked the confectionary and soft drink sections of the nearest supermarket.
A little while later, the pair were back with a mountain of food. Weiss was carrying so much that her arms had gotten tired just from that little trip. They righted Neo's couch, set out the food and dug right in. It was strange for Weiss, not eating like this for fun or pleasure. Instead, she was eating solely to power herself up. She would never have thought such a thing would happen this time last year. Without the chance to really enjoy herself, Weiss basically went into autopilot, piling food into her stomach. She barely even noticed the taste of the food, it was going in so fast. Once this was all over, Weiss told herself, she needed to treat herself and Neo to some fun stuffing.
About an hour of non-stop eating later, the pair had finished all of the food that they had. Ruby was acting like it had just been a light snack, and by her standards it very well could have been, even though her belly made her look like she was hiding a beach ball under her clothes. Weiss, on the other hand, had struggled in comparison. The stress and worries she had hadn't helped her appetite, but she did still manage to eat roughly as much as Ruby did.
"Oof, Ruby, do you do this before most of your fights?" Weiss asked, her head rolling back as she rubbed her belly.
"Eh, depends on the fight. If I'm taking it seriously and I've got prep time then yeah, usually," Ruby answered, fairly nonchalantly. Any further questions or answers were interrupted by Weiss and Ruby's scrolled buzzing. Ruby immediately checked it, and found a message from Emerald. All it contained was an address, not too far from Neo's apartment.
"Now, c'mon, focus your aura, deal with that food. We gotta go rescue your girlfriend," Ruby encouraged as she hopped up off the couch. She put her hands over her stomach and made them glow with the red light of her aura. She gently pushed on her stomach and the stuffed ball receded until Ruby's belly was as flat as ever. Then, her body began to grow all over. She grew taller, everything growing in proportion until Ruby was a whole foot taller. Her thighs and rear plumped up the most out of her body, her thighs each ending up wider than her normal waist, and her rear growing so large that she risked outgrowing her skirt. Her arms thickened up a decent amount, with a good amount of muscle getting a layer of fat over it. Her breasts doubled, then tripled in size, making Ruby's stretchy clothes a downright necessity. However, despite all that, Ruby's belly stayed mostly flat. Sure, her waist had widened a touch, but that was mostly to accommodate a stronger core, one that her waist cincher mostly covered up. Ruby's body looked like the body of a completely different person, and only the fact that Ruby's head was atop it convinced Weiss that Ruby hadn't swapped herself out for someone else.
"Right, I suppose it's my turn. Could you help me up?" Weiss requested. Ruby offered Weiss a hand, and as soon as Weiss took it, Ruby lifted Weiss up to her feet single handedly, an especially impressive feat due to how much extra weight Weiss was carrying in her belly. Speaking of that belly, Weiss followed Ruby's example and put her light blue glowing hands over her belly. However, unlike Ruby, Weiss did not push her belly in. Ruby didn't notice a difference at first, but when Weiss turned to pick up her waist sash, which had undone itself to escape Weiss' growing belly, she noticed Weiss' belly jiggle as she moved. Her suspicions were confirmed when Weiss tied her sash back on, making it dig into the big, fat potbelly Weiss was now sporting. "Okay, I think I'm ready to go, especially with all this aura stored up," Weiss confirmed, giving her belly a jiggle.
"Okay, let's do this!" Ruby cheered, as she led her partner out of Neo's apartment and off to wherever it was that Neo was being held.