This was another chapter that was originally in the first rendition of Cult of Silver, meaning that it doesn't align properly with the events that I have depicted in the previous chapters. However, like the Penny chapter, I feel that this can still work to the current story with some modifications and editing here and there.
If there was one thing that Neon Katt had always clung too as a child, it was fashion.
Growing up in the streets of Mantle had been tough and lonely, and in an impoverished family such as her own, it had taught her the importance of warmth.
Clothing brought her warmth, and though as much as the bare rags that she wore on her skin as a child were itching and uncomfortable, Neon clung to them jealously.
They kept as much of the chill as they could at bay, and Neon loved them for it.
As such, whenever she was beaten, starved, burnt, and tormented by those from Atlas, seeking to torture and hate her due to her tails (The one that she wore at her back, and the one that she was born with between her legs), She hugged and held onto the bare rags that sheltered her from the cold.
It was all that she could do as she stared doe-eyed at the clean, sharp and stylish suits and dresses of the Atlesians who beat and bullied her, wondering what she would look like if she was dressed in them, how she could improve them, and seeing what she would look like if she added so many pretty colours and accessories to them, prettying herself against the blood and the bruisers that spilled from and covered her.
Until one day, she was approached by a very lovely looking lady and a very lovely looking dress, saying that she was looking for a very lovely looking model for her fashion business.
Out of all of her six sisters, Neon had been the first to volunteer, and she had done so with gusto.
From there, the young Faunus, along with her adopted sisters, had spent an entire year, from five years old to six, working for this aspiring fashion company, performing photo shoot after photo shoot, trying on outfit after outfit, and going on model walk after model walk, becoming something of an icon for the people of Rosa Town- Or Animal Farm as it was derogatorily called- As she and her sisters, even at such a young age, being a mix of both humans and Faunus, became a symbol of the future- Of possible cooperation and communication between both human and Faunus kind for the future.
And sure, on the side, some of their photo shoots were more risqué than others, but she hadn't minded: They had given her and her family of stragglers a roof over their heads, fresh food on the table instead of waste from the rubbish, and new clothes that sheltered them from the cold. They gave Neon everything, and even at such a young age, she would give them everything in return.
But then Hector Blau and his mob of Human Liberation Front members and sympathisers marched into Rosa Town and burnt it to the ground. The town within Mantle was turned into a warzone between Brigadier Ironwood's Atlesian forces and Hectors HLA attackers, and the fashion business that Neon was sheltered in was burnt to the ground.
But Neon's family... They were hunted down like dogs by the HLA- A symbol of unity between humans and Faunus wouldn't serve their purposes in the slightest, after all- And slaughtered. Torn to pieces and left for dead. Neon's eldest sister and father had sacrificed their lives to allow her to survive, the six-year old girl forced to watch through the floor of an old building as they were murdered and turn into pleasure toys by the men of the HLF, their blood and dead fluids dripping between the wooden floorboards and onto the shivering, scared girl as she quietly whimpered to herself for hours and hours after the fight was over, and Rosa Town was reduced to a burnt husk and fading dream.
It was on that day that Neon Katt learnt a valuable lesson about life:
The strong survived. The weak perished.
And grow stronger she would. Over the next eleven years, she would learn how to fight. She would learn how to survive.
Most importantly, she would learn how to hide her pain and anger behind a smile.
She would cover herself in colourful outfits and accessories. She would learn to joke and laugh. She would lose herself in disco and dancing. She would indulge in the wants of the body, both of sex and drink. She would learn how to pretend that the nightmares of watching her family murdered- Of watching her sister and father raped and murdered- Didn't bother her at all.
And she would learn how to look up into the sky, at the floating city of Atlas, and not growl in anger at the sight of it.
She continued this practice for so long- For years and years and years- Until she was seventeen years old, and approached by Brigadier- Now a general-Ironwood, who, desperate to seek amends for what happened in Rosa Town years ago-
"Why are you apologizing about that?" Neon had asked him, "You did nothing wrong."
"No," Ironwood agreed, and then added, "But I could've done so much more."
-Had offered her the chance to, in her own words, get some payback on the people who had done her wrong, and, in his word, direct her anger towards a meaningful target, by joining Atlas Academy.
There had only been one caveat, though:
She had to pass the initiation process, like everyone else, to prove that she belonged there.
Neon had taken that as a challenge.
The initiation process was simple: All they had to do was cross over part of the Solitas tundra from point A to point B, as quick as they could, whilst fighting off any Grimm that got in their way. Only a certain amount of people would be able to get in, so speed (Of which was Neon's specialty) Was essential. If they didn't make the rendezvous in time, or if they encounter significant difficulty during the initiation itself, then their scrolls would automatically notify Atlesian overseers, and Bullheads would be dispatched to pick them up and take them back to the academy, where upon their arrival they would receive offers to either travel to other academies and take the initiation there, or go into other forms of service within Atlas itself, in either support function within the Atlesian military and academy, or a myriad of other roles that Neon hadn't been bothered to remember.
All in all, it had seemed like a simple affair. Perhaps this really was her way of getting revenge on the HLF bastards that had destroyed her family and her life years ago, and then so much more: She could do so many things that she had only ever dreamed of, like getting a proper roof over her head, creating her own fashion business, finally getting bottom surgery and cementing herself as a woman.
For once, there finally seemed to be hope in Neon's miserable life.
Right until the Cult of Silver had attacked.
The Atlesian defenders had been toppled almost immediately in multiple rapid attacks by the cultists, and the entire tundra that the initiation had been taking part in had been overrun entirely. Almost all of the initiates were kidnapped, drugged, and then taken away by the cult, somehow before the Atlesian military could respond at all.
Neon had been among them.
Soon, she had woken up in a soft bed, in a grand golden room, filled with ornate furniture and silver curtains that bled in golden sunlight between the windows and sheets around the queen-sized bed. The fruit in the bowl nearby, Neon found, was fresh and juicy and held within a pure silver bowl, dripping orange and red juices down her lips as she bit into and ate the heavenly food. The clothes that she wore were white with silver laurels running down them and was lined with fur and the softest of velvet fabrics.
She felt like a queen waking up within her kingdom.
But then she felt like a captive within her cell.
But then...
But then...
She had been proven wrong.
When she met her.
Her.
The first of her new gods and goddesses.
Ruby Alter.
Ruby Alter, who had split her mind open and forced herself within, breaking her bones and mind only to reforge and regrow them stronger than ever, filling her mind with thoughts and feelings of devotion and adoration as hands of red velvet strokes over her like she were glass, reforging her through pain, and then pleasure, and leaving her weeping and sobbing with joy as her mind was broken and remade into something new- Something better.
Something silver.
Now, she looked upon her gods and goddesses, and felt something new. Something strong. Something that she had not felt, and had not been given, in so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so long.
Love.
She loved her new gods.
She was in love with her new gods.
And they loved her.
They were in love with her too.
They adored her just as she adored them. They were devoted to her just as she them. They worshipped her just as she worshipped them- Just as they loved, adored, were devoted to, and worshipped all of their followers.
She felt love, and she was in love. She love love love love loved them, so much so that when she even spared a glance at them her body wept and her fce turned red and her pussy wept with joy and love and lust as she-
What?
She had a what?
She didn't have that which marked her as not a woman? She...
Oh.
Oh...
She had found another reason to love and adore her gods.
They had reforged and remoulded her body and made her a woman.
They had done away with what marked her as a woman in a man's body and had blessed her with her true form.
If she had any doubts about the cause that she was fighting for, they were all washed away as she fully gave herself to her gods and goddesses, and they rewarded her devotion by showing her the pleasures of her new body- Showing her the pleasures of a woman- And had made the sweetest love to her that marked her and scented her and filled her with so much more bliss and wondrous love that it showed her the emptiness and hollowness of all of her nights of empty sex that patterned her life so long before.
She gave herself to her gods. She would devote herself to her gods. She would become their tool, their willing slave, an extension of themselves as she gave them her body, her mind, and her soul, all for them to bend and break and use and destroy and remake to their heart's content.
Oh gods above, what was wrong with her? What had they done to her body? Her mind? Her soul itself? Why was she so devoted to them? Why had they decided to brainwash her? Why why why why why?
Those were questions that Neon would've been asking herself if she were still herself.
If she were still sane.
But she wasn't, was she?
They'd made her go insane.
In that case, if being insane meant that she would feel all of this love after being left angry and hollow behind empty smiles for years upon years, then she would've given her sanity and everything else to her new gods.
One of her goddesses, with silver eyes and white hair, took her lips off of Neon's new lips, leaving a trail of sweet shining juice between them as she- Baobhan Sith- Smiled, and asked, "What we are going to ask you to do, our dear thrall, will be cruel to some. It will be evil to some and others, and it will cue you to lose a piece of yourself? Are you sure that you are willing to give yourself to our cause. knowing all of this?"
Neon Katt just gave her and her gods a drunken smile as her eyes flashed a beautiful silver.
"You have given me everything, my goddess and gods," she answered with all of the love within her being, "For you, i would give everything that I am, and then so much more."
Her blessed goddess Baobhan Sith smiled, "Oh thank you, my beautiful girl," and then kissed her on her mouth and lips, allowing the Faunus to taste her own womanly taste as her gods once more began to give her the sweetest love that she had ever been given.
What she had said had been true. For her new gods, who had finally made her beautiful- Made her herself fo the first time in her life- She would give them everything.
And if they really wanted her to burn Atlas to the ground?
Well...
It was a small cost for finally becoming beautiful.
Neon Katt couldn't wait to give her gods the gifts that they were due.
I don't know why, but when I was writing this out, I wanted to include Neon Katt as not just a character, but as a villain.
Don't ask me why I wanted to do this - I can't remember the exact reasons - but I know that I wanted to make Neon Katt a villain. No idea why. I just had to.
