Warning: This chapter contains violence, blood, and mentions of injuries. Nothing excessively graphic, though.


The sound of the huge glass window suddenly exploding into lethal shards jolted Ruby into a hellish reality. She gasped and twisted weakly around in her chair, her heart plunging when she saw the monstrous shadow that rose only ten feet away from her. Familiar blood-red eyes burned from a bone-plated skull and fanglike teeth gnashed as a low growl emitted from the Ursa's throat.

Sheer panic bolted through Ruby's mind. She couldn't remember having been afraid of a Grimm since she was a small child, but her father and Qrow had been around then to kill the ghastly creatures (and teach Ruby to do the same). As she'd grown older, she'd had Crescent Rose there to make sure no Grimm posed a threat to her. But no one was there now, and Ruby was completely defenseless without her scythe, her semblance, or her aura.

The ursine Grimm snarled as it surveyed its helpless prey. Then, abruptly, it bared its teeth with a hideous roar and charged toward Ruby.

The silver-eyed huntress screamed as the massive, black-furred body collided with hers. The impact caused the metal chair that she was strapped to to break from the floor and topple sideways; Ruby felt her rope bonds give way, sending her sprawling painfully across the floor. Her chains screeched and burst, raking bloody trails on her wrists and ankles.

In an instant the Ursa was on top of her, growling and snarling. Ruby gasped in pain as she fought with all of her strength to push its massive, blood-soaked jaws away from her face, but it was no use. Searing agony jolted like a shockwave through Ruby's body as the Grimm's fanglike teeth pierced the flesh just below her neck.

I'm going to die.

The next second, an object whizzed through the air above Ruby's head and the Ursa released a bellowing roar of pain. It leapt up, snarling and writhing as an inky black substance mixed with blood dripped from its jaws and splattered over Ruby's body and the floor around her. The creature fell to the ground and eerily dissolved into a smoking pile of ash, and then nothing. Something metallic fell from it and clattered on the ground. Peering closer, Ruby saw that it was a long, thin blade.

In her daze of shock and agony, Ruby saw someone standing in the doorway of the cockpit, a parasol resting on their left shoulder.

"N-Neo—?"

In the few seconds that followed, Ruby was aware of something soft being pressed hard against the wound on her throat and a pair of arms wrapped around her body tightly. Whether she was walking with a lot of assistance or being carried, she didn't know.

The last thing she saw was the shattered moon glowing above her in the night sky, and then everything went black.


Roman sighed as he walked down the long, deserted hall of the warehouse. His usually jovial mood had been disrupted by a meeting with some prominent members of the White Fang, who apparently thought it was his duty to reward them after participating in the destruction of Beacon Academy. A few nonchalant twirls of Melodic Cudgel around his wrist had silenced them, but that had done little to improve Roman's mood.

He looked down the hall and spotted Neo walking toward him. Instinctively, he smiled and started to ask her where she'd been for most of the night, but then he noticed something very disturbing. Neo's white blouse and black leggings were covered in large splotches of blood and her multicolored hair was hanging loose and disheveled around her shoulders.

"Neo, what happened?" For once Roman didn't make a witty or clever quip; his voice was filled with concern as he hurried to close the gap between himself and his small partner.

I went out to the airship and a Grimm attacked, Neo signed with her hands.

"A Grimm attacked you?" Roman echoed, taking a hasty step forward, but Neo shook her head. A pink shimmer surrounded her petite form for a few seconds as she used her semblance to don the form of Ruby Rose, tapping her throat pointedly.

"I see." He sighed, briefly rubbing a black-gloved hand across his forehead. "Did she survive?"

Neo nodded, quickly shifting back into her natural form and gesturing to the bloodstains on her clothing. Her aura's down, she signed, and she lost a lot of blood. The Ursa bit her throat. Neo glanced away from Roman, an unusual gesture for her. I took her to our room, and yes, she's tied up, she finished with a small smirk.

"Did anyone see you bring her in?" Roman asked, lowering his voice as he glanced around them.

Neo shook her head and signed, Don't be such a dum-dum. There was a glint of affection in her eyes, but Roman couldn't help but notice that their colors shifted subtly from pink to a pale green. That was usually a sign of anxiety; a very rare emotion for the petite, playful criminal.

"Good. Cinder's on the warpath tonight; I'm pretty sure I don't want her to know we have an uninvited guest. Might send her over the edge." Roman smirked and Neo rolled her eyes in agreement, but her petite body was visibly tense.

Roman gently rested a hand on his diminutive partner's shoulder. "Hey, what else is bothering you? It's not like you to get so shook up over a Grimm," he chided lightly. "Knowing you, you probably got quite a thrill out of the fight."

Neo nodded and a smile brightened her face, but her eyes were still pale. She took Roman's hand in hers and tugged him gently down the hall toward the back rooms of the warehouse, which the "higher-ranking" residents of Cinder Fall's faction were allowed to temporarily live in.

Thankfully, the assassin's brooding son, Mercury, and Emerald, the mint-haired girl that was always fawning over Cinder, were apparently already asleep in their room next to Roman and Neo's. At least he wouldn't have to do any explaining to those two about their… special guest.


Ruby blinked her eyes open slowly, noticing a hazy golden glow drifting around in the darkness. She shuddered as ghost sensations of pain and pressure skittered over her body, settling on her throat and chest. For a few seconds she thought that the Ursa was still on top of her, probably ripping out chunks of her flesh, but something wasn't right.

Grimm feel cold as death to the touch. Why does this one feel so warm?

A pair of mismatched pink and brown eyes blinked down at Ruby, and then she remembered. The Grimm that had attacked her had been killed.. by Neo..?

"H-How.. w-why..?"

Ruby's voice came out a raspy, barely intelligible croak, accompanied by a burning sensation in her throat. Every bone in her body hurt. She squeezed her eyes shut to restrain an instinctive yelp, knowing that that would probably only cause her further pain.

Neo was currently lying on top of Ruby, her small hands brushing over her shoulders and collarbone, just beneath the large bandage that covered the bite wound from the Ursa. Ruby gasped and stirred faintly, but she was too exhausted to think of much else besides how welcome the warmth was. Her skin was bitterly cold and her body ached with bruises and hunger. Her mind was screaming at her to remember the danger, that there was a tiny psychopath literally on top of her, but it was becoming increasingly hard to think clearly at all, what with so much heat, so much softness, so much stimulation.

A familiar male voice suddenly drew her out of her reverie, crooning gently in a tone that was barely above a whisper.

"Feeling better now, Little Red?"


A/N: I just want to take a moment and say that by no means is this going to devolve into a fluffy romance story where Roman and Neo forsake their evil ways for the love of a certain silver-eyed huntress.

A/N II: You also might notice a few small creative additions in this chapter, such as Neo's eye colour shifting (sometimes unconsciously) along with her emotions. This is just a small list of her eye colour/emotion references, in case it's not clear enough from the writing itself. Normal brown and pink: Neutral mood, Both pink: Happy or excited, Both brown: Annoyed or displeased, Red: Very angry (probably about to kill something), Green: Anxious or uneasy, White: Terrified