Returning home for the weekend instead of hanging out in the dorm with her team was strange for Lily. Then again, at least this was more productive than binging a cartoon for three days straight as she had last week. But with the show being on break, Lily saw no better time than to check up on her mother and Neo for the day.

Lily almost opened the door right away on instinct; she'd never bothered to knock when it was just her and her mother, but now that Neo was there, she figured to get it a quick tap, just in case.

It was Emerald who opened the door, greeting Lily with a smile.

"I'd almost forgotten you were coming over," She told her warmly. "Good thing I haven't made any lunch yet." She stepped aside to let Lily in.

"You don't need to feed me," Lily assured her as she entered. "I have a big breakfast. And I'm looking after myself now, remember?"

Emerald followed her into the living room. "Hey, as long as you're under my roof, you're eating my food. I've just brought fresh bread and I'm not about to let it go to waste."

Lily sighed affectionately. "Fine, but only after the session. We'll be hungrier by then."

"Right," Emerald sighed. "Training."

Lily glanced at her sympathetically. "You know you'll need to if you want to be able to get your license." She reminded her.

Emerald sat down on the couch. "I know that," she replied. "And I don't regret agreeing to back into it, so don't worry. It'll just be…" Her face creased. "…Hard to get used to fighting again."

Lily sat beside her, shrugging. "It wasn't that long ago that you last trained me. This'll be just the same, right?" For years, they'd sparred in the paddock out the back of the house, first with foam weapons when she'd just been a kid, then wooden, and then real weapons. Everything Lily had learned up until Beacon, she'd leaned from her mother.

Emerald smiled at her. "True. But it's not the sparring I'm worried about. It's what comes after."

Lily leaned over as she gazed at Emerald seriously. "If you're really not sure, you can always tell someone that you're not ready." Lily could understand now, why Emerald had been so hesitant to see her off to Beacon. There was a lot of weight behind the decisions they were each making, and their choices were not for the faint of heart. Then again, Emerald was anything but faint-hearted. Just tired, and weighed down by a guilt she didn't need to have.

Emerald shook her head insistently. "I've been sitting around doing nothing for over twenty years," She stated simply. "If I want to make up for what I've done, it's about time I started using my skills for the right things." She blinked, and her eyes flared with red flames as she produced a small, weak flame that hovered over her palm. "All of my skills."

Lily felt a glow of pride towards her. "So long as you're sure." She blinked at the flame as it flickered gently. "Just uh…maybe don't use that on me."

Emerald chuckled, switching her powers off again. "Of course not."

The sound of something being placed down in the kitchen caught Lily's attention, and she looked up as Neo walked into the living room with a yawn. The short woman looked in far better shape than the day Lily had rescued her, no longer dressed in old, torn clothing, and her hair much neater and cleaner. Adourned in a dark green sweatshirt and tracksuit pants that both drowned her, she hardly looked like a dangerous mercenary anymore. Lily almost chuckled.

Neo stopped short when she saw her, offering a small wave of greeting.

"Hey, Neo," Lily replied. "Have you been doing okay?" This was her first time speaking wither her face-to-face, outside of when she'd tested the new scroll Ruby had given her, but she still felt strangely at-ease around her. Perhaps because she knew that Neo was the only person she knew for sure who would genuinely never judge her or Emerald based on the past, not even subconsciously. Few people were going to understand them more than Neo.

Neo signed back what Lily could roughly translate as 'Hey, kid. I'm doing fine.' She'd been studying sign language in her spare time, hoping to be able to better communicate with the mute woman.

Turning to Emerald with a mock glare, Neo signed something else, though Lily only caught 'house' from the swift movements.

Emerald laughed. "She says she's not a fan of the house arrest," She explained to Lily. She looked back at Neo teasingly, before adding. "And she wouldn't be on house arrest were it not for the fact she's still a wanted criminal."

Neo poked her tongue out at her in response, a gesture that needed no translation.

"Did you guys figure out what to do about that?" Lily asked curiously. "She can't stay stuck inside forever."

"Ruby and the others are going to talk to the police about pardoning her," Emerald replied for Neo. "Without mentioning that she's The Ghost, of course. There haven't been any records of her actually killing anyone when she was working with Roman or Cinder, so if they can get them to look past the theft, she should be free to walk the streets again."

Neo nodded in confirmation.

"What will you do then?" Lily asked her. She doubted going back to doling out vigilante justice was much of an option.

Neo shrugged, before signing 'I don't know'. Something soft crossed her features before she signed something Lily didn't recognize, glancing slightly at Emerald.

Lily glanced at her mother for a translation and saw Emerald smiling slightly.

"Might stick around, huh?" Emerald's slightly teasing tone didn't match the touched look on her face, until she added with a grin, "Even though it's so boring here?"

Neo signed something back. Emerald chuckled, but didn't translate for Lily. On that note, Lily remembered something; the second reason she'd come by.

"Oh!" She jumped to her feet, pulling her old scroll from one of her jacket pockets. She carried it over to Neo and held it out to her. "I wanted to give you this. It's my old scroll. I don't really need it anymore."

Neo stared for a moment, before gently taking the blocky piece of technology from Lily's outstretched hand.

"It doesn't have a camera and only has really basic games," Lily explained. "But I thought it might help you talk to everyone better, until our sign language improves. I've already added myself, my mom, and all of RWBY and JNR as contacts."

Neo turned the scroll over in her hands, before looking back up at Lily. There wasn't a hint of her usual sassy expression on her face, only genuine surprise, and gratitude. She moved an outstretched hand from her chin forward, one of the first sign language phrases Lily had learned- 'thank you'.

Lily smiled at her. "No problem. Just thought it could help." She turned and walked back to her mother as Neo turned on the scroll to inspect it further.

"Did you want to get started, then?" Emerald asked, standing up from the couch.

Lily pulled off her jacket and laid it over the arm of the couch, making a mental note to remember to pick it up again before she went back home. "Sure."

Emerald glanced at Lily's empty holsters. "Hand-to-hand, I'm guessing?"

"I forgot to bring Evening Jade," Lily admitted. "So yeah, that'll have to do for today."

Emerald shrugged. She turned to Neo, who was still figuring out the scroll. "Did you want to come and watch?"

Neo looked up and grinned. Lily didn't need to translate what she said to recognize that she wanted to.

The three of them headed out into the backyard, where Emerald unlocked the gate to the paddock. As she and Lily strode into the wide, open area, Neo hoisted herself onto a fencepost and watched expectantly.

Lily paced a few steps away from her mother before turning to face her.

Emerald stretched briefly. "You ready?"

Lily lifted her arms. "Ready."

She knew that Emerald would go for her the moment the words were out of her mouth and dodged as she was proven right, leaving her mother to swing at empty air. With the advantage, Lily swung a leg out to trip her up, but Emerald had recovered in time to block her, grabbing her leg and throwing her off-balance.

Thankfully, months of training at Beacon meant that Lily's physical strength was as good as ever, and she twisted out of her mother's grip with an expert spin, balling her fist at the end of it, and was able to land a punch on Emerald's arm that might have hurt were it not for Aura. Emerald staggered a little but did not back down, retaliating with a blow that caught Lily's shoulder, though not making her sway in the slightest.

Lily had always known her mother was a powerful fighter, but it seemed now, she realized, that she was out of practice. She was slower than Lily remembered from their previous training sessions. Her blows didn't hit as hard either, or perhaps Lily was just more durable now. Either way, she could tell that she was winning.

Emerald dove at her with a full-body slam, but instead of dodging this time, Lily planted her feet firmly on the ground and braced, realizing now that she'd be able to take the hit. As Emerald slammed into her, Lily caught her by the arms, using her mother's own full weight against her to turn and throw her to the ground, where she landed with a heavy thud. The fight was done.

Lily was hardly out of breath, her muscles aching far less than they usually did after a sparring match at Beacon. She glanced at her mother as the older woman picked herself up, wiping grass off her clothes.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked her. She knew Aura would have prevented her from any pain. It was Emerald's pride that Lily was worried about.

"I'm fine," Emerald replied. "Let's go again."

Several more matches commenced, all ending as quickly as the first. In a couple of cases, Emerald had managed to get the upper hand, but mostly towards the end, when Lily was getting out of breath. Otherwise, Lily won every fight with little trouble, and it worried her. Was this just her own training coming into play, or was Emerald not giving it her all?

As Lily rested on the grass after the most recent match, she watched as Neo, who'd been watching every fight with interest, hopped down from the fence and strode over. She signed something quick, pointing to herself, then stretched, before looking pointedly at Emerald with a challenge in her bi-coloured eyes. It wasn't hard to figure out what she'd said: 'My turn'.

Emerald blinked at her in surprise. "You? Are you sure?"

Neo replied with something that Lily couldn't translate.

"That isn't the case," Emerald told her. Whatever it was she was replying to, Lily could tell she was lying. "I just don't want to risk seriously hurting anyone. Not her or you."

Neo signed something else, before crossing her arms pointedly.

Emerald sighed. "Fine. One match."

Neo smiled. She went and stood opposite from Emerald, hands on her hips. Curious to see how this would play out, Lily stood up and hurried over to sit herself on the fencepost where Neo had been sitting earlier.

There was no preparation for this one. Neo flew at Emerald with surprising speed the moment Emerald raised her hands. Lily expected to see her taken down in an instant, but she dodged away. Instead of stumbling, though, Neo turned with totally smooth movement, as if she'd been expecting Emerald to get out of the way in time. Lily wondered if she'd picked up on Emerald's tactics from watching the previous fights, or if her way of fighting was something Neo had known before Lily had even been born.

As the fight continued, Lily had a feeling it was the latter. The two matched every blow the other dealt with near-perfect harmony. There were no stumbles, no jolting movements. They were graceful, more like dance partners than two people sparring. Lily was mesmerized by it.

Neo didn't have her weapon. Either it had been left behind in the alleyway where Lily had found her, or she'd lost it before even then. She still fought as if she had it though, striking at Emerald with quick jabs and blocking her every attack with her arms. Her movements were elegant, even playful. Lily could see her enjoyment in every second. She wondered how long it had been since she'd had a non-serious fight like this. Probably decades.

Emerald's style was rougher, and she hit harder, the few times she hit at all, anyway. But this also made her slower, Lily noted; it took her longer to recover from when Neo turned things around on her. All the same though, Emerald was definitely hitting harder this time. It dawned on Lily what Neo must have been saying before- that Emerald had been taking it too easy on Lily, intentionally or otherwise. But now that she had what Emerald probably considered a more equal opponent, one she was much less afraid of genuinely harming, she was faring much better.

After several more minutes, Lily could tell that the fight was drawing to an end; Emerald was getting tired, this fight probably only adding to the last several. Neo, on the other hand, was still raring to go. As Emerald swung at her, she stumbled. Taking advantage of the moment, Neo nudged the other woman off-balance, before swinging out a leg and sending her hurtling to the ground. But just as Neo had been quick to the blow, she was just as quick to whip out a hand and catch Emerald before she hit the grass.

For a couple of moments, the two stared each other in the face as they panted heavily before Neo pulled Emerald to her feet again and gave a quick curtsey.

Lily leaned forward. She'd seen that fleeting look of tension, passed between the two women. She'd seen that look before. For a moment, she wondered if she'd imagined it, or if there was a deeper connection being formed between her mother and this ex-criminal than she'd thought. She found herself unsure of how she felt about the idea of the case being the latter.

Emerald was still breathing heavily. "That good enough for you?" She asked Neo, a half-smile on her face.

Neo grinned in response.

Emerald dusted herself off with a huff. "Well, glad to know you had fun. But I think that's enough for the day."

Neo shrugged good-naturedly. She gave Emerald's shoulder a pat before heading back in the direction of the house. Emerald gazed after her, her expression showing exhaustion, but affection as well, before following her. Lily hopped down from the post and hurried after them, curiosity still pricking at her. But as Emerald prepared sandwiches and neo got back to figuring out the scroll, Lily didn't ask.

About an hour later, Lily said her goodbyes and began heading back to Beacon, looking forward to a warm shower and muscle-relaxing body wash. As she walked, she felt her scroll buzz in her pocket, and she pulled it out. The screen flashed that she had a text from Neo and, curious, she checked it as she walked.

'Try not to worry too much about your mother. She's already pretty tough, but I'll help take care of her. If you let me, that is.'

Lily smiled and found her earlier uncertainty slipping away. She liked Neo, and the more she got to know her, the more she felt that she could trust her. And if she made Emerald happy, regardless of whether it was platonic or otherwise, Lily could accept that. She sent a text back.

'Thank you.'