When Neo slept, she rarely dreamed. But when she did, it was always of him.
Sometimes they were quiet, peaceful dreams, cobbled together from old memories. He'd come home— which was usually to a hotel room or some abandoned building they'd taken up temporary residence in— smugly twirling his cane in one hand, the other carrying a carton of ice cream. Her eyes would light up, the pink and brown irises of her eyes brightening and sometimes switching sides, before she'd bolt off the couch and run to him. Sometimes he wouldn't be sure whether she was happier to see him or the treat he brought her, until her arms tightened around his waist.
Sometimes the dreams were darker, more sullen. Times he'd looked grim— that expression had seemed so entirely out of place on the face that had almost always carried a smirk— and she'd felt worried. He'd held her close, ruffled her hair, and told her to just focus on the next heist they had planned. But his smile hadn't reached his eyes.
Tonight, Neo's dream was more vivid than all the others. She was back on the airship again.
The wind burned in her face, but she loved it. Everything inside of her was alive when she was spinning and dancing in the air, using that annoying little red huntress' own shoulders to flip herself over and stab the girl shallowly in the small of her back.
A single kick with all of her might sent "Little Red", as Roman called her, flying over the edge of the deck. The girl's silver eyes were wide with terror as she clung to that oversized gardening tool she called her weapon, looking down into the floundering sea of Grimm below.
Neo stood next to Roman, knowing without even having to see his face to know that he was delighted. He was proud. They walked forward together, and she unsheathed the long blade from her lace-covered parasol, dragging it along the steel of the airship before pointing it in Little Red's face. The girl was going to pay dearly for ever having threatened Roman in any way.
"I may be a gambling man, Red, but I know there are some risks you just don't take." Roman laughed, but it sounded almost hollow, and for a tiny moment, Neo felt worried. She hesitated.
"Like it or not, the people who hired me are going to change the world," he continued, still addressing the small huntress clinging for her life at their feet. "You can't stop 'em, I can't stop 'em, so you know what they say. If you can't beat 'em—"
Neo had no way to know that those was the last words she'd ever hear him say.
Before she even had time to realize what was happening, Little Red reached up and pressed the button on the handle of her parasol. Terror shot through Neo's heart like a spear as her feet were swept out from under her and she was flying helplessly through the air, through the sea of Grimm wings, away from Roman.
She saw him run to the edge of the airship. "NEO!"
A scream tore from her throat, but no sound came out.
Neo jolted awake, her petite body shaking and drenched in sweat. It took her a few seconds to realize that she wasn't dragging herself up off the ground from a ruined street in Vale, only to look up just in time to see a billowing cloud of fire and smoke rise from behind a building nearby. She was on the floor of her and Cinder's room on Monstra, her body curled up into a ball and her hands clenching around the steel blade of her parasol.
She sat up slowly, still trembling all over. It was the same nightmare, the same memories, and the same hole in her heart.
Neo looked over at Cinder, who was lying on her side facing the wall. At first, when she'd run down the street and vaulted clear over a seven-foot iron fence, tearing her skin and her clothes to reach the flaming wreckage of the Atlesian airship, she'd blamed Cinder Fall. She'd screamed silent curses as she scrabbled through the ruins, searching desperately for Roman, or anything even left of him.
She'd never found him, but she'd found his hat, charred and covered in soot. She'd clung to it like a lifeline, screaming silently into the night as tears rolled down her face. Somehow, she'd managed to half-crawl, half-stagger away from the ship's ruins, so numb and exhausted that she'd fallen down behind the toppled wall of an old building and lost consciousness.
Since the morning after, when she'd woken up covered in tears and ash, she'd wanted nothing more than to see Cinder Fall lying in a pool of her own blood. She became fixated on it, obsessed with it even.
Months had passed, and eventually Neo had found out from a.. convenient source that Cinder would be at the Spiders' hideout in Mistral. Alone— probably not unarmed, but Neo wasn't afraid of her weapons. Nor was she afraid of Cinder herself. She never had been, because Roman hadn't.
Neo had reveled in every second of her fight with Cinder. It was what she'd lived for, because it was for Roman. If he— they— had never gotten themselves roped into the pyrokinetic woman's schemes, then he'd still be alive; he'd still be with her. Frankly, she hadn't even cared if she died— all that had mattered was the sheer rage and joy she'd felt when she finally landed a kick on Cinder's chest, sending her flying backward in a shattering of gold that was her aura.
And then the dark-haired woman had unleashed a terrifying power. A whirlwind of air, crackling and sparking with light; Cinder was suspended in the middle of it, balls of flame in her hands. Neo knew of the Maidens, but had never witnessed one's power before. She'd felt stricken with fear, her eyes blanching white.
"I didn't kill your boss, girl." Cinder's lone eye was glowing with fire and her words came in a low growl. "You can keep putting the blame for Roman's death on my head, but every time you do, this is how it's going to end."
A blast of flame reeled straight into the ground at Neo's feet. The petite yet dextrous girl barely had time to leap out of the way before it exploded.
The whirlwind vanished and Cinder landed on her feet, breathing heavily. While she was visibly furious, she also looked exhausted. Haggard even. She walked slowly toward Neo, who stood there silently, her head bowed and her parasol held open in front of her to shield herself from fire and shrapnel.
"Once and for all," the maiden hissed, "I did not kill Roman Torchwick."
Neo said nothing, less because she physically couldn't and more because her mind felt blank and hollow. She kept her parasol open, keeping the distance between herself and Cinder.
"Roman died because Little Red decided to intervene at the most inconvenient time."
Neo bristled at hearing the nickname of the tiny huntress with the billowing red cape and an indomitable smile. Vivid memories of the airship battle came flying back. Every tiny detail, every sound.
"You'd do well to focus on a more.. appropriate target, Neopolitan." Cinder offered an almost predatory smile. "You're not the only one who wants Ruby Rose dead. You have your reasons, and I have mine." She drew aside the long black bangs that hung over her left eye, which was now covered by a small eyepatch.
"We can either go around in circles, hunting each other, or we can hunt down the one who's truly responsible for all of this." The maiden's eye narrowed, and Neo felt a prick of fear that she hated. "I won't offer again. Make your choice, girl."
In the present, Neo sighed and looked away. When she'd first joined forces with Cinder (however unwillingly), she'd been fully intending to stab her in the back as soon as she got what she wanted. Neo was no fool, though— she knew the firebending maiden was leagues away from actually trusting her, but she'd turned out to be easier to control than you might think, if you knew just the right buttons to press.
Since then, Neo had found herself presented with several golden opportunities to carry out her original plan and cut Cinder's throat.. tonight being one of them, in fact. The dark-haired girl was sleeping on her side, clearly worn out from the incident in the shower and all the memories that it had dredged up.
Neo drew the blade out of her parasol, Hush, and stood up, tiptoeing silently across to the bed against the far wall. Strangely enough, Cinder was sleeping in something like a fetal position. Her Grimm claw was tucked under her head and her human arm was wrapped around herself, and her knees were curled up to her chest. Her throat was completely bare except for the small, gold-rimmed black collar that she always wore.
Neo gritted her teeth and bent over the bed, but Cinder didn't even stir, her breaths deep and even. This was too easy. Hands shaking with anticipation, she poised her blade to kill, bringing it down—
She stopped.
What am I even doing? If I kill her now, it won't be five minutes before I'm dead, too. Salem isn't exactly going to take kindly to the fact that I killed one of her top lieutenants.
Neo had hated Salem intensely the minute she laid eyes on her, but she was afraid of her. With good right, Cinder would probably say. The dark queen was immortal, and she held the power to control the Grimm with hardly so much as a thought. There had been rumors all along— even back in the days before the fall of Beacon Academy, when she and Roman had first gotten swept into all of this—that Salem wielded other unearthly powers as well. Some form of ancient magic that had long since died out of the living world.
Neo might've been a master of illusion and disguise, and even of escape, but like everyone, she had her limits. She knew it was foolish to try to test them with the queen of the Grimm. No, it wasn't foolish— it was a death sentence.
She couldn't kill Cinder.. not here, not yet, at least. Besides, they were still far from reaching Ruby Rose. If Neo was going to successfully avenge Roman's death, she needed to wait. After all, that's what he'd always done— patiently waited for the best opportunity, biding his time with a puff of his cigar and a half-cocky smile that never failed to cheer even the darkest of Neo's moods.
A silent tear fell down Neo's cheek. She slipped the blade back into her parasol and lay down on the floor again, staring up at the ceiling into the dark.