AN: I just want to quickly answer a question asked in the reviews. They asked why Ruby's eyes not having flames didn't tip Ironwood off that she's not a Maiden. Remember that a Maiden's powers have never been partially stolen before. He has no idea what half a Maiden would look like. As far as he knows, maybe not having all of a Maiden's powers might mean that the flames don't happen.

Anyway, onwards!

Chapter 49

Peter finished grooming his mustache, a must for any man's morning routine, really. A man's facial hair is his crowning jewel and must be taken care of, of course! And like well-groomed facial hair, a true man must be ready to spring into action at a moment's notice!

It was for that reason that Peter opened up his scroll, observing the security systems set up in the Emerald Forest to make sure there weren't any Grimm that needed culling.

He really hoped there were Grimm that needed culling. He waited for the security feed to load, taking a sip of his morning coffee. He liked it black, of course. The device beeped, informing him that it was finished.

…So then why wasn't he seeing anything? Infernal thing! It must be on the fritz again! Barty would probably know what to do about this.

Ruby nervously opened the door to Mom's office, seeing the woman sitting at her desk. She looked up at her and smiled.

"Hey, sweetie," Mom said. "Come on in." Ruby walked into her mom's office and closed the door behind her. "What's up?"

"U-um," Ruby said, fidgeting nervously. "Would you be able to get in touch with General Ironwood?"

"The general?" Mom asked. "Why?"

"I have something I want to talk to him about. It's kind of important."

"Is it about Amber?" Mom asked, her voice taking on a warning tone. "I told you not to get involved with that."

"No, it's about something else. Would that be okay?"

"I don't see why not," Mom said, pulling out her scroll and dialing him up. His face appeared on her display after a few seconds.

"Aqua," he greeted. "This is a surprise. Did you need something?"

"Actually, Ruby wanted to speak to you," she said, passing the scroll to her daughter.

"Miss Rose?" he asked. "What did you need?"

"U-um, well, I was wondering…" she said, knowing that what she was about to ask was never going to happen. "I was wondering…If I could… Maybe… Talk to Torchwick?"

"What?" Mom asked.

"Why would you want to do that?" General Ironwood asked.

"I spoke to him yesterday, when I was in the cell next to him," Ruby said. "I think I can help somehow."

"Well, I'm afraid that's impossible," the general said. "He's tried to kill you on several occasions. What did you even want to talk to him about?"

"I want to know why he's really doing this. When I spoke to him last time, I got the impression that he really didn't want to do this."

"I'm operating under the assumption that he wasn't working alone, either, but so far he's not talking. But I'm still not sure what you have to do with anything."

"When he kidnapped me in Mountain Glenn, I saw that he had an assistant," Ruby said. "It was a young girl around my age. He called her Neo. It was the same girl from the CCT during the dance."

"So that's his accomplice," General Ironwood said. "Thank you for the information, Ruby. I'll put her description out."

"Please, wait," she said. "I think she's more than just his assistant, or accomplice, or whatever. They seemed really close. He told her to make sure that she was off the train before it crashed, and he even hugged her and gave her a kiss. And she had a perfect opportunity to kill me and Yang, but she just let us go."

"So, what are you asking I do?" the general asked.

"I don't know, maybe make a deal with him," she suggested. "Maybe offer to protect Neo if he gives you what you want?"

"She's a criminal, too, Ruby," General Ironwood said. "Why should I offer her my protection? Or strike a deal with someone like Torchwick?"

"Because I think he loves her," Ruby said. "And I can tell that this isn't what he wants. He may have done bad things, but he's not pure evil. Someone pure evil can't love someone the way Torchwick seems to love Neo. I can tell that there's good in him somewhere. I think he deserves to try and make things right."

"Ruby…" Mom said, misty-eyed. They could hear the general sigh.

"Very well," he said. "I'll look into it. I can't make any promises, though."

"Thank you, general!" she said happily.

"You have a good heart, Ruby," General Ironwood said, a small smile on his face. "I hope this line of work doesn't make you lose sight of it." He hung up, leaving just Ruby and her mom, who instantly pulled her into a hug.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you," Mom said. "When did you get so mature?"

"Mooooom," Ruby whined. "Stooop."

"Nope."

"Well, Barty, what do you think?" Peter asked as his green-haired colleague looked at the security feed. "The confounded thing is broken! Can you do something about it?"

"The problem doesn't seem to be originating from your computer," Barty said, pulling out his own scroll. "My own feed seems to be interrupted as well. I would say that the problem seems to be originating from the security monitors themselves. Perhaps a node has malfunctioned."

"Meaning?" Peter asked. He had no time for technical jargon!

"Meaning someone needs to go out into the Emerald Forest and examine the node directly for any signs of damage."

"…Team RWBY?" Peter asked.

"Team RWBY," Barty said with a nod.

"Just once I would like to actually have a day off without having to go out and kill something," Weiss said, stabbing a Creep in the head with Myrtenaster. The team had made their way to a part of the Emerald Forest that they'd never seen before, this area covered with more ruins. "Is that too much to ask?"

"Honestly," Blake said, shooting at a few more of them with her pistol. "after the week we've had, I kinda prefer this." Ruby used her Shotlock to dash through the last remaining Creeps, leaving the area empty.

"Nice job, Team!" Ruby cheered.

"So, Prof," Yang said into her scroll, talking to Professor Port. "What are we even doing out here?"

"Yeah, all you said was 'Girls, we need you in the Emerald Forest!' and then hung up on us," Ruby said, doing her best to imitate the professor's deep voice.

"Right," the Professor said. "We noticed that the Security Network we use to monitor Grimm activity in the Emerald Forest went down earlier today in that sector. We need boots on the ground to investigate!"

"Which naturally means us," Weiss said sarcastically.

"Exactly!" Professor Port said enthusiastically, not noticing Weiss's sarcasm. "Good luck!"

"I really don't like him sometimes," Weiss said, sulking further into the ruined section of the forest.

"I think this might be kinda fun," Yang said, putting her hands behind her head nonchalantly as she followed after the heiress. "Take a break from all the terrorists and world-changing revelations for a change and just kill some Grimm? Sign me up!"

"Well, I'd rather have spent today relaxing," Weiss argued. "We never really got the chance to just rest after coming back from Mountain Glenn."

"Well, this shouldn't take too long," Blake said. "We can wrap this up and head back to Beacon before lunchtime."

"Yeah, a couple of Grimm is gonna be no problem for the unstoppable Team RWBY!" Ruby yelled excitedly.

James sat in front of his computer, looking up the criminal databases for anything he could find about this "Neo" girl that Miss Rose mentioned. So far, it wasn't much.

He had a full name: Neo Politan. She had never been seen outside of Roman Torchwick's company, and even then, she only ever was present to help him escape. She never actively participated in any of his crimes, and thus her criminal record was clean for the most part. She was also definitely young. Exactly how young she was remained to be seen, but it raised a few questions as to why Torchwick seemed so close to her.

It seemed that Miss Rose may have been on to something. Why would he have a young accomplice that he never has do anything other than protect him? And one that he seemed to love, when by all accounts Roman Torchwick has never loved anything but money?

Ruby was more insightful than he had initially given her credit for. He could definitely use this to try to get something out of Torchwick.

"Are we getting close?" Yang asked the professor through her scroll.

"The security control center for this sector should be inside a cave," Professor Port responded. "Do you see one?"

"Yes," Weiss said, pointing at the entrance to a cave directly in front of them.

"Go inside and look. Maybe we can discover what the problem is." The girls looked at each other and shrugged.

At the center of the cave was a large chamber, and in the middle of it was a computer terminal. Ruby walked up to the terminal, holding her scroll in front of it so the professor could see what they were looking at.

"That's the node we're looking for," Professor Port said. "Let me get a closer look." Ruby held the scroll closer, and she noticed a small metal box attached to the side, with a "M" emblazoned on it.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Hm, I'm not sure, Miss Rose," the professor answered. "It's some sort of foreign object. I feel like I've seen that symbol before. Ah, nevermind that! Miss Rose, plug your scroll into the terminal so we can undo the damage." She did as instructed, and saw a progress bar appear on the scroll's screen. Within a few seconds, it had filled up. "Well done, team. It seems as if this box was a hacking device designed to bring down the security network. Our program seems to have the trick, and the network for this sector is back up and running. I'll see if any of our staff can find anything about that mysterious symbol. In the meantime, I have some bad news."

"Oh, this'll be good," Yang said.

"It seems another security node has gone down in another part of the Emerald Forest." The girls groaned. "We need you to head over there next and investigate. If we're lucky, maybe we can find out who's behind this. Over and out!" The professor hung up, and three of the girls glared at Blake.

"…What?" she asked.

"'This shouldn't take too long', she said," Yang said in a mocking tone. "'We'll be done by lunchtime', she said."

Neo sat on the roof of the visitor's dorm, hugging her knees to her chest. She looked up at General Irondouche's flagship, where Roman was being held prisoner.

It was hard to stop the tears again. If it weren't for her, he wouldn't be stuck up there, and she wouldn't be down here, alone.

Again.

"Stick with me, and I promise you'll never have to be alone again."

He had promised, and because of her, he had to break it.

Damn it, Dad, she thought, finally letting the tears go.

AN: So, I've seen enough sources list Neo's full name as Neo Politan instead of Neopolitan, so I'm going with it being two words so it's more like a pun. So, the transition arc between V2 and V3 is going to be an adaptation of RWBY: Grimm Eclipse. There's a good reason why I'm doing this, but to spice things up a little, this arc will also explore Roman and Neo's relationship a little bit more, and I'm also planning on giving Roman and Ruby a couple more heart-to-hearts. That part I'm really excited about.

As always, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next time!