Emerald had not really taken all that well the fact that Cinder had brought Neo with her when she came back. Well, she hadn't thought much of it at first, assuming that was just a temporary thing because she couldn't have Emerald by her side until then, but after being shot down a few times by Cinder while she made sure to keep Neo around forced Emerald to face reality.

Had she truly been replaced?

She didn't want that. She desperately didn't want that, so when she saw that Neo didn't want to go along with Cinder's plan she jumped on the occasion. Everything to prove to Cinder that she was better than the tri-colored girl.

To her delight, Cinder had accepted her help, but Neo had still tagged along.

They drove straight for the Amity Colosseum, and even though the whole thing seemed to be sealed off Cinder melted a way through. Once inside, they met the robot girl and an old woman inside a large mech. Cinder started fighting with the girl and Neo used their airship against the mech while Emerald ran to the side.

These weren't fights she could directly participate in. The robot seemed to have has much maiden powers as Cinder did, and the mech was far too large for her weapons to do anything to it. Instead, Emerald decided to take a bit of height. The fight between Penny and Cinder might be going on too fast for her to intervene, but if she could see the old woman within her mech then she could use her semblance to help Neo defeat her.

Penny left the room, Cinder chasing after her, while Emerald managed to get a line of sight on the old woman and made her hallucinate. This allowed Neo to crash into her and take the mech down.

Emerald called for Neo. With the mech gone, they now needed to help Cinder out against the robot. The sooner this was over with, the less likely Salem would notice they were gone.

Neo refused, taking the woman out of the mech and throwing her to the ground. It seemed like she was intent on fighting her. Well Emerald didn't care. She was going to help Cinder, and Neo could waste her time here for all she cared.

She'll show Cinder that she was worth being the one by her side.

Neo grinned as she threw the old woman out of her mech. Her earlier observation had revealed something most interesting.

Name : Maria Calavera

Age : 81

Level : 30 (100%)

Class : Reaper [You use the deadliest weapon on Remnant, a scythe, to tear apart the grimm]

Path : Lone fighter [Nobody is strong enough to keep up with you. It's fine, you don't need anyone anyway]

Title : Grimm Reaper

HP : 6/6

AP : 128/128

STR : 8

CON : 6

DEX : 16

INT : 14

WIS : 16

CHA : 12

Semblance : Preflexes [You can predict things before they happen, giving you plus 3 to either one of your defenses against the next attack or on your next attack]

Status effects :

Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transferred to your aura]

Old age [You are old and your body can't keep up anymore. -10 STR, CON and DEX)

Silver-eyed warrior [You have silver eyes, which holds the power of the God of Light. It can be used to harm every single one of the God of Darkness' creations]

Blind [Your eyes are useless]

Defenses:

AC : 28

For : 25

Ref : 29

Will : 29

Now that was great. Not only would she have a good reason not to help Cinder, she would get a good fight against a opponent around her level. Well, if the woman hadn't been so old she would have been crushed, but thankfully she was seriously disadvantaged here.

It was a shame that the old woman couldn't use her eyes anymore, otherwise she'd have asked her to use them against Cinder. Still, Penny was fighting her, so she could only wait to see the outcome of that fight and decide what to do afterwards.

Her fight against Maria went… goodish? Well she lost her aura while the old woman didn't but that was to be expected. Her level combined with her semblance meant her attacks would be pretty much impossible for Neo to avoid as of yet, while Maria would also deal a fair bit more damage than she would, and while a distraction had allowed to knock her down and maybe drain the rest of her aura with her sword, Penny's last strike hit like a truck.

That being said, she still managed to hold on until the end of Cinder's fight against Penny, even if the last moments were with both Maria and herself being out of combat. Emerald brought back a barely conscious Cinder, but Penny herself was nowhere to be seen. Neo hesitated to try and kill her here and there, but decided against it. She had no idea what had exactly happened during the fight between Penny and Cinder, but given that Emerald was allowed to bring Cinder away it should mean Penny was in no capacity to fight.

She hadn't died, that much was certain given that Cinder still only had the Fall maiden powers, but Emerald still had most of her aura, and she had none. If she tried to fight, then she wasn't sure to win against Emerald before Cinder could regain enough bearing to run away, even if Maria decided to fight by her side, which wasn't very likely.

Another opportunity wasted.

As soon as they came back, Cinder was sent on a mission to get Watts, and through him Penny, while the Hound, Salem's disgusting creation, was sent to directly follow the robot's trail.

Emerald felt abandoned once again. Cinder hadn't cared about her more after they had nearly escaped Amity alive. Instead, it felt like she was blaming her for being unable to distract Penny at that crucial moment.

She still had no idea how Penny had found out which Cinder out of every illusion was the right one. Everything should had been perfect, the sight, the sound, even the feeling of heat coming from each illusion should have been identical, yet Penny had fired at the real one without hesitation.

Was there a sense in the robot she hadn't accounted for? But Penny was supposed to be built like a human, and her semblance affected the soul directly, feeding false information to it rather than go through the body's receptors. It would be obvious to a blind person that they shouldn't be seeing what she showed them, but Penny had eyes that worked just fine, so why?

And why was she so keen on helping Cinder in the first place? It was clear that the woman viewed her just as she viewed Penny, a tool to be used. Why had she even cared when everything Cinder did recently was not caring about her?

Should she make the same choice as Mercury? Should she help Salem instead? At least she complimented her when she did something.

It was lost in these thoughts that Emerald walked next to Ozpin's cell, just as he was trying to convince Hazel to walk out. It was then that she learned that all Salem ever wanted was to die, and that there would be nothing in it for them once she succeeded.

She rushed to warn Mercury. The assassin deserved the two ass in his profession's name, but he was the only one she felt any close to in this dreadful place.

Mercury didn't want to believe any of it. She almost ended up agreeing with him, figuring out that she might just be holding on to any excuse to get out of this place, far from Cinder who had hurt her, but then Tyrian barged in.

"Our mistress wishes to see the end of it all! There us no ideal more beautiful." he said while giggling just as madly as usual, if not a bit more, "If you couldn't see that from the start, you must be out of your mind."

That was the last straw for Emerald.

She needed out.

Neo groaned. She made a mistake. Cinder had truly been completely unable to do anything and now it was too late. The fire maiden was leaving on a mission on her own while she was stuck inside the grimm whale.

She kicked the ground, knowing it would do nothing to the beast but that at least it'll make her feel better. This was the worst, she might never have another chance at killing Cinder now.

She needed out. She needed to leave this place and find Ruby and her friends. If she couldn't trap Cinder, then the next best thing was to be where she was the likeliest to strike. Maybe she should grab Oscar and the Relic on the way.

She made her way towards Oscar's cell only to see him being dragged out by Hazel. Neo frowned, she had no idea why Hazel would do such a thing, but if it was because Salem had decided to finish him off on the bridge that would be kind of a problem.

Neo secretly followed Hazel and Oscar through the creature until they arrived before the Relic of Knowledge. There, they were joined by Emerald before they summoned the one they called Jinn.

Neo grinned as the three – well four – of them talked together. Now that was something she could use. She stayed there, away from sight, although she had a feeling Jinn could see her, somehow. She was already planning for the trap she was going to set for Cinder using the lamp when Oscar said they were going to take it with them.

"The moment we move that thing, this place goes on high alert." said Hazel, "Better to get you out first."

"But…" tried Oscar.

"I'll come back for it." interrupted Hazel, "Not like she knows the password anyway."

Neo smirked as the three of them left the room. So that name was the password, that was nice to know. Once she was sure they had left, she approached the lamp.

"Do you have a question for me?" asked her Jinn.

Neo shook her head. Cinder would never fall into a trap unless she was convinced she had the upper hand, and giving her a question to a being with ultimate knowledge would more than do the trick.

As for the poor Oscar who would be Salem's focus once she realized the Relic disappeared? Well, it wasn't like she had promised anyone to get him out of here.

Besides, Ozpin would simply find another soul to reincarnate in.

Emerald had been surprised when Salem had ran out in search of the Relic, and when they ran into blondie and her friends, but none so much as to when Salem caught back with them and grabbed her.

"You really have been honing that Semblance of yours." said Salem with a hint of anger.

Emerald almost cried, and the worst of it was that she wasn't entirely sure if that had been out of fear.

Or if it was because even when furious against her, Salem still gave her more compliments that Cinder ever had.

To be continued on November 6th

Name : Neo Politan

Age : 18

Level : 19 (01%)

Class : Illusionist [You add both your Intelligence and Dexterity modifiers to your AC and to Dexterity or Intelligence based attacks as long as you can still cast illusions]

Path : Me, myself and I [You live for yourself first and foremost, no matter what pain you might cause others]

Title : The Gamer

HP : 10/10

AP : 80/95

STR : 11

CON : 10

DEX : 19

INT : 22

WIS : 12

CHA : 16

Semblance : The Gamer

Status effects :

Gamer's body [Your body follows game-like mechanics. You can restore 1/4th of your total HP (rounded down) by resting 15 minutes. You can only die if your HP reach 0 and you fail your last breath]

Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transferred to your aura]

Words that shouldn't be said [Your last words almost caused you to lose your life. You cannot talk until you overcome your trauma]

Defenses:

AC : 27(31)

For : 20

Ref : 26

Will : 24