Neela glanced over her textbook, desperately trying to study and get any of the information to soak in, but she was failing miserably. Sleep had not been on speaking terms with her recently, and after the scare with Ebony two weeks ago, she wasn't sure that she'd be able to sleep normally for a while even if she wanted to. That fight had turned out better than she could have hoped, she had at least lived through it. When she woke the next morning she found Coco and Velvet by her bedside, she pled with Coco not to tell Blake and Coco agreed. It was the last thing that her mom needed on her plate. Neela rolled her eyes in a typical teenage manner as the doctor informed her that she should be more careful and that he was surprised to find that the majority of the issue was exhaustion.
Of course, she hadn't told anyone that she had pushed her semblance that hard, and she'd also told no one that when she tried to use her power lightly it gave her a splitting headache. She was sure that she'd be able to use it again normally at some point, but it was going to take time. The library door closest to the table she sat at opened up and there stood Eliana, her arms wrapped around Ivory's neck and smiling.
"Did you see the look on Vinny's face when we told him?" Eliana asked lighting up. Neela slowly stood and watched in horror as the two kissed. She glanced over at Neela and smiled, the same way as always. "Hey, Neela! I don't think that I've had a chance to introduce you and Ivory yet."
"No!" Neela screamed.
"Neela!" Titus shouted, snapping her out of the daydream. She glanced over at him, she was still sitting at the table with Lykos, Bái, and Titus, studying for their last exams before the winter break would begin. Titus watched her with concern as she glanced at the three of them, trying to act as if nothing had happened.
"What?" She asked pretending not to know.
"You just shouted 'No!' and we don't know why," Bái told her. Neela looked down at her textbook, the words swimming around the page as fatigue kept her from focusing on the information. She shook her head trying to free her mind, but it didn't seem to help and she sighed, closing the book.
"Did I?" Neela asked sounding pained. Titus grabbed her arm tenderly and she looked at it for a long moment before glancing up at him. It was crazy to think that they'd come this far. He'd hated her to begin with, he didn't think that she was fit to lead, and his issues with past leaders had made him insecure towards everyone around him. Now he was trying to comfort her and she appreciated it more than he knew.
"What happened?" He asked. "You can always talk to us."
"I know," she replied. "I'm just dealing with a lot of stress with the White Fang being back and trying to balance school and my job, not to mention being nervous about Eliana because of that new Faunus girl being around and…"
"You think she's White Fang?" Lykos asked. Titus chuckled as he removed his hand.
"That's not what she's worried about," Titus stated. "You're worried that Ivory has a thing for Eliana, aren't you?" Neela flushed and stood.
"Or the other way around," Neela admitted sheepishly. Titus stood as well, collecting his own books as the last two followed suit.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much Neela," Titus told her. "Eliana just wanted to feel how soft Ivory's wings are. That's why she went with Ilia to meet Team IVRY the other day. I went yesterday with Ilia and met them all as well. They seem nice enough, though Rowan is a little standoffish and Yvonne seems very full of herself. Ilia doesn't like meeting with Vincent alone. She's not sure if she trusts him yet or not, but I'm sure she'll overcome that at some point."
"So there's nothing going on between Eliana and Ivory?" Neela asked embarrassed that she'd been worried about it in the first place. Titus laughed and led them out into the hallway, walking to the building entrance and leaving, the outside world covered in snow, small forts built along the sidewalk and scattered across the lawn, barrages of snowballs and other icy projectiles flying about.
"No, I'd say that Ivory has a thing for somebody else," Titus said with a wink. Neela thought it over, Ilia had mentioned that Ivory and Vincent used to date. Titus grumbled as they neared the dorm. "Look at all these careless and juvenile upperclassman. Playing in the snow when they could be studying or training." Neela smiled at him and laughed. "What?"
"There's the Titus that we know and love," Neela told him. They opened the door to the dorm to find police tape scattered about the hallway and a commotion in the rec room. They all looked at each other with confusion and walked slowly down the hall, peering into the game room, finding Neptune, Sun, and Neo talking with each other, Neo stood with her back turned towards the kids. Sun and Neptune wore fake mustaches and aviators, and all three of them wore police uniforms. "What in the name of Salem's realm is going on here?"
"Something serious happened here?" Lykos asked. Titus sighed.
"I doubt it," Titus replied.
"Something kinky?" Bái suggested. They all grew wide-eyed and glanced at her. "What?" Titus looked her up and down repeatedly in disbelief before shaking his head and stepping into the room with Neela behind him. The three teachers turned and looked at them, Neptune and Sun posing and thrusting their badges towards them.
"Stop right there!" Sun exclaimed. "We're detectives with the Beacon Police Department!"
"And you know we're legit because we have badges!" Neptune added.
"And mustaches!" Sun further explained. Neo turned around and posed as well, revealing her mustache and aviators, a smirk on her face as she nodded.
"Beacon doesn't have a police department," Neela said.
"Oh really?!" Sun shouted. "Then where did we get these badges?"
"And these mustaches?!" Neptune cried out. Neo pointed to her sunglasses, striking another dramatic pose.
"Seriously, what's going on?" Lykos asked. Bái watched on, her eyes lighting up and filled with wonder.
"The chief told us to stay down here and await further orders, but we may need to interrogate the two of you!" Sun exclaimed pointing at Lykos and Bái.
"No," Lykos replied dryly, turning to leave and head up the stairs.
"Where do you think you're going?" Neptune asked. Neo teleported into the way and blocked the steps. "No one's allowed up there!"
"Your floor is on lockdown!" Sun informed them.
"Lockdown!" Neptune parroted. Lykos looked back at Neo and she nodded.
"Lockdown for what?" Neela asked.
"It would seem that there is currently an ongoing investigation into a hostage situation taking place in Team CBLT's room and there are several suspects involved, including but not limited to; Ilia, Tawney, Eliana, and Cobalt," Neptune told them. Neela raised an eyebrow.
"Who did they take hostage?" Bái asked still full of awe.
"Classified," Neptune said shooting her down. "The four of you are free to stay here until the situation is under control." Neo rapped her umbrella on the floor three times and Sun and Neptune immediately stood at attention, holding a salute as boots could be heard coming from the direction of the front door. Neela and Titus turned back to see Coco standing in the doorway in full uniform, including a hat, with Velvet standing beside her. Velvet was also uniformed, wearing Coco's usual sunglasses, and taking notes. Bái nudged Neela, forcing her to turn and look at the girl, a wicked look in her eye. Something kink… Oh God No! Neela spotted the handcuffs on Coco's hip and raised her hand, placing her free hand to her mouth.
"You all enjoy this," Neela replied. "I'll be in the bathroom across the hall." She pointed to it and squeezed through the door past Coco.
"Officers Neo, Sun, and Neptune. I trust that this building is secure?" Coco inquired.
"As soon as Officer Yang arrives we'll have total control over all of the building's exits," Sun informed her. "Yang will be stationed at the building's front door, through which you just entered."
"Good work Sun. Has the perpetrator attempted to make contact yet?" She asked. Neptune shook his head.
"No, ma'am. We gave him ten minutes to decide on his terms of negotiation or surrender, but it's been at least fifteen minutes now with no response. At this point, we can only hope that the hostage is still alive," Neptune explained. She slammed her fist against the wall and took off the aviators, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Hope isn't good enough, we need proof that he's still alive dammit!" Coco shouted. Velvet held her scroll out to Coco who looked at it for a long moment, taking a deep breath. Titus had moved to one of the couches, he had no choice now but to watch it unfold. He glanced across the room at Lykos who still stood at the bottom of the stairs.
"Join me?" Titus asked. Lykos shrugged and moved across the room, taking Bái by the arm and also leading her to the couch.
"Does anyone have the tap so that we all know what's going on?" Velvet asked. Neo nodded, teleporting away and reappearing moments later with a wireless speaker. Coco nodded, rubbing her head and configuring the scroll before making the call. The scroll rang and tension blanketed the room as Coco motioned for Sun and Neptune to move upstairs to the next floor. Sun left a clone behind at the bottom of the steps.
"Tawney, have you decided on your terms of surrender?" Coco asked, her breath heavy as sweat beaded on her brow. Cobalt laughed into the scroll, cackling maniacally and no doubt throwing his head back. Coco slammed her fist against the doorway and clenched her jaw. "Damn, I should have known."
"You all thought that Tawney was the mastermind behind this plot, but it was me! Cobalt!" He exclaimed.
"Was that another anime reference?" Tawney asked in the background.
"Silence!" Cobalt replied. There was a temporary struggle that could be heard and Cobalt cried out in abrupt pain before clearing his throat. "We have come up with our terms, but we will not be surrendering. We will get what we desire. I'm more than willing to negotiate, but I never expected that they'd pull out the big guns and put you on this case, Officer Adel." Coco's eyes grew narrow and she trembled.
"So you've heard of me?" She asked.
"It's more than that. It's more than you can imagine. I'm the one who personally snuck into the teacher's lounge this morning. I am the one that took him hostage. I am the one who drank the last of the coffee and didn't make a new pot," he informed her. She gasped in horror.
"You bastard! You'll pay for what you've done!" She yelled into the scroll.
"Coco, don't let your emotions get in the way!" Velvet shouted at her. Coco looked up at her for a long moment before looking back at the scroll.
"You're right Officer Bunbun. Thank you for keeping me in line, I might have done something that I'd regret," Coco told her. She placed the device to her ear once more. "How did you do it? How did you kidnap him?"
"It was simple. Eliana was her ditsy self, distracting Secretary Camellia as Tawney, Ilia and I, snuck in. Tawney fought valiantly, keeping Neo preoccupied enough to let us reach our objective, deep in enemy territory. Ilia rode my body using her semblance until we reached the lounge, guarding the door as I set part two of my plan into motion. Using one of my clones as a decoy we were all able to make it out and return to our secret base, though I'm not sure how you found it so quickly," Cobalt explained. Coco smirked and chuckled.
"I have my sources," she replied. "Before we make any kind of agreement, I want to see him. I need to be sure that he's still alive. Now." Cobalt laughed and shifted.
"Of course," he complied. Coco looked at the scroll and Cobalt's showed her live video of the hostage. A cherry cheesecake sat in the middle of the table.
"Don't worry! You'll be fine, they aren't going to hurt you, mama's coming!" Coco yelled. "Tell me what you see! Are there more than four?! Are they armed?!" The feed died and Coco shook with rage as Cobalt placed the scroll back to his ear. "Put him back on."
"You'll see him again soon enough, but now I think it's time to negotiate. You might want to comply quickly, my subordinates are getting hungry," Cobalt pressed her.
"Alright fine!" Coco yelled frantically. "Anything! What do you want?"
"A bigger selection of manga in the librar-" There was a crash and the sound of resistance, grunts came through the scroll and Coco's eyes became intense and she tried imagining the scene.
"I did not steal a cheesecake from the teachers just so that you could get some more of your stupid ass picture books in the library!" Tawney shouted. Ilia managed to grab the scroll up in the commotion.
"We demand extra credit on the end of the pre-winter break exams," Ilia told her. Cobalt and Tawney both glanced up at her from the floor, silent. Coco gritted her teeth and swore under her breath.
"There's only one problem with that," Coco told them. Neo took off up the stairs as Sun's clone gave the thumbs up.
"What's that?" Cobalt called out.
"I don't negotiate with terrorists." Coco could hear the door slam open, chaos ensuing as she handed the scroll back to Velvet and ran quickly up the stairs.
"We're taking you punks in!" Sun yelled as he tackled Ilia. Eliana grabbed the cheesecake and threw the window open, glancing back at the door.
"Halt!" Neptune shouted being tackled by Cobalt. Neo rushed in but Ilia managed to grab her leg and struggled to take her body.
"You can do it!" Cobalt yelled to Eliana as she glanced down to the snow-covered yard below. "Don't give up on the dream of excellent literature!"
"Extra credit you dumbass!" Tawney shouted at him. Coco reached the doorway, staring at Eliana for a long moment that seemed to happen in slow motion as Eliana smirked and leapt out of the window, Coco running through the room, navigating the chaos before reaching the window to find that Eliana had safely reached the ground below. Coco gripped the windowsill, turning around and moving quickly down the stairs, nearly knocking over Velvet who was on her way up. She tore out of the building, running past Neela who'd finally come out of the bathroom and slowly moved to the door to watch Coco give chase.
"Hey, little bird!" Yang exclaimed as Neela stepped out. She turned and looked at her mother standing beside her… in full uniform.
"Not you too!" Neela screamed running back in and to her room.
"Stop!" Coco yelled as she chased Eliana through the snowball war that had grown even larger than before, prompting Coco to take cover momentarily as she found herself caught in the crossfire of a team that was using their semblances to send high impact projectiles at their opponent's fort. Eliana stopped for a moment, crouching in an abandoned fort to catch her breath and check the cheesecake. Still intact and in one piece. If she had to keep this up it would surely end up mangled, something that neither side wanted. She placed it on the ground, covering it in snow and freezing in place as Coco called out.
"I'll cut you a deal, Eliana! You're a smart girl, you don't need that extra credit, do you? But I saw the way that you looked at that dessert. Doesn't it look delicious? Just think of how tart the cherries are, and how smooth and creamy the cream cheese is. You'd like to have a slice, wouldn't you? How much is your mouth watering?" Coco asked. Eliana slowly moved to stand but felt something drive her back to her knees. She couldn't give up, her friends needed that extra credit… but the cake did look amazing. What was she supposed to do?
"I can't do that!" Eliana shouted. Coco turned towards the fort and transformed her purse into its gun form.
"I admire your tenacity," Coco admitted before opening fire and mowing down the fort, forcing Eliana to hit the ground for cover. As Coco walked towards Eliana, she noted someone out of the corner of her eye, the laser blasting into her as Cobalt swept in and wrenched the cake out from under Eliana.
"You'll never take me alive!" He shouted taking off. Coco looked back up at the window.
"How did you two let Cobalt get away?" She demanded.
"It turns out the one up here was the clone!" Sun replied. Eliana looked up at Coco who came over to help her up.
"You'll never break me!" Eliana told her. Coco extended her hand helping her up.
"You made it as convincing as you had to," Coco told her. "Good work. Where's the real cake?" Eliana smiled.
"I told Camellia what their plan was. Neo swapped out the cakes before they were able to sneak through the administrative department, the real one is in the mini fridge under Camellia's desk. That cake's just a pan full of cherries," Eliana explained. "I figured I would tip you off, Cobalt had mentioned last night that he saw you arrive from Vale with some items for the teacher's lounge and that he was determined to steal the cake."
"So, you still want a slice?" Coco asked. Eliana's eyes lit up.
"That would be amazing!"
"Neela asked you not to tell me, didn't she?" Blake asked Coco as they sat down in Glynda's office. Blake sat at the headmistress's desk, rubbing it gently as Coco sat across from her and glanced back to make sure that the door had been locked behind them. Glynda had already left for her winter vacation so they wouldn't need to worry about any intrusions.
"Of course she did, Blake," Coco told her. "You've been a wreck ever since you found out that the White Fang is back. You can hardly even teach your classes without having some kind of outburst. We're all worried about you. Especially Yang and Neela. They hate seeing you like this. Maybe it's because they're also dealing with their own demons." Coco looked out at the schoolyard below. "I still see it. I still see this job being yours someday. You have a natural desire to teach, to let these kids know that they're more than enough. Just like the potential you saw in Neela."
"It wasn't the first thing I saw in her you know," Blake told her. "The first thing that I saw in Neela's eyes was me. I had been there myself as a child. Deathly afraid of humans. Angry at a world that had rejected me. Terrified that one day someone would come in and end it all. I didn't want Neela to have to live in that kind of world, but now they're back and they're after us specifically. And I'm sure it hurts her. I'm sure she's terrified that the Fang are coming. I'm sure she's angry about how the Fang goes about doing things and how it gives her and other Faunus a bad name. And I'm sure that if things go wrong, she might come to fear humans again."
"She's strong Blake," Coco told her. "I don't want to sound like a broken record, but sometimes I feel as though you need constant reassuring."
"How do you just forget Coco?" She asked. "How do you forget the pain that nearly destroyed you, forget an ideology that turned you into the monster that you didn't want them to see you as? I know you can't discuss it, but I know vaguely of Salem's War. They say it was a bloodbath. How did you just forget about it?"
"I'll never forget about it Blake," Coco said quietly and solemnly. "But I couldn't let it control me. If I let the entire rest of my life hinge on something as large as Salem's War and the mistakes that I might have made during it, I wouldn't be able to function, and that's what's happening to you." Coco stood. "I'm not saying that you need to forget, but for your sake, your family's, and your students', you need to move on."
"It's not that simple," Blake responded standing.
"You're right," Coco said. "But you need to remember who you are. You are Blake Xiao Long. Children in history classes across Remnant look at the team that saved the world from Salem, Team RWBY, and they think 'Wow. I hope that someday I'll be as strong as Ruby, or Weiss, or Yang… or Blake.' They look at all four of you, not just one of you. None of you could have taken her alone, and you are not alone now, you just need to remember that. Yang is still beside you like she was the first time that you ended the Fang. Afraid for Shadow? Understandable, but you can protect her as you did with Neela the day you rescued her."
"I know," Blake said. "But…"
"No. There is no 'but'. There can't be. You defeated everything that has ever been placed on your path on the way to the happiness you have now! Fight Blake. Train with these students like your life depends on it, and when Athena finally shows herself, I can only imagine that you and Yang will strike down the last Taurus as you did Adam. Together." Coco's chest heaved. "We're all here. Everyone on this staff. The kingdom. The council. You are not alone this time Blake, and we won't let you be." Blake tried to find the words to protest, but they wouldn't come out.
"Did you know that they were back? The White Fang?" Blake asked. They stood in silence for a long moment, Coco had turned towards the door.
"Only for a few weeks before you discovered it," Coco told her. "Let's not fight each other Blake. Let's fight together." Blake nodded and exited in front of Coco, leaving her there for a moment.
"I'm going to call Neela to check on her," Blake told her. "Thanks for talking with me." Coco smiled and nodded.
"Anytime," Coco replied as Blake closed the door behind her. Coco clinched her teeth and gripped her chest, seething as tears formed along her eyelids. Dammit, why did she have to bring it up? Coco reached into one of her pockets and shook the pill bottle that she'd removed. There were a few left, and she'd definitely need help sleeping tonight.
Next week, Neela and Eliana share a moment under the Mistletoe?! Chapter 45 - Winter Festival!
A big thank you to Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. All of their artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.
Until next week, stay classy!