Chapter 12: A single friend

This was it. She had finally found her. Little Red. Neo watched Ruby, and three other people she had never seen before. A blonde haired boy with a sword and shield. A orange haired girl with a massive hammer. A black haired boy with a pink lock running through. But she wasn't concerned with those three. All she cared about was Ruby. Right here. In front of her. And she was going to kill her, no matter what it took. No matter how much of her own blood was spilled, she would kill her. It was time for retribution.

The four of them didn't even notice her as she silent glided down from the trees and came to a stop not too far away. She slowly creeped forward, ready to strike. Until she accidentally stepped on a twig. She quietly jumped back.

"What is it Ren?" It was the hammer girl that had just spoken.

"I thought I heard something." He stopped and took a good look around him.

"It was probably just your imagination. Come on, Ruby and Jaune are going on!"

Ren was still a bit uneasy, but he followed his friend.

Neo took a deep breath and continued to follow them, silently. She couldn't afford to lose this opportunity, not when she was this close. To her revenge. To what she deserved.

She followed them to a abandoned town, and knew that this was her moment. There was no cover here, nowhere for Little Red to hide. The other three would fight alongside her, and she was prepared for that. But she wouldn't let them stand in her way. She dropped down from the top of the building, quietly. She began to sneak up on them. They were chattering amongst themselves, but she wasn't listening. Forward she crept.

Closer… and closer… and…

All of a sudden, the black haired boy in green spun around, as if he had heard her.

"Look out, behind us!"

They all turned round and spotted her.

"Hey, are you-"

But she was already sprinting towards them, blade in hand. She may have missed her opportunity to sneak up on them, but there was no way she was letting them make the first move. She went straight for Ruby first, slashing at her quickly, but was forced to back up as Jaune swiped his sword at her. Ducking underneath a hammer swing, she then took out Ren with a kick. Swiping underneath Jaune's shield, she flipped over his head and went for Ruby again, but was unable to single her out, as Nora forced her back with a smash to the ground.

Growling, she stood back up.

"We're not looking for a fight!" Jaune shouted.

"Wait, you're the girl that Torchwick was with!" Ruby said. "On the ship. You have his… hat."

Not being amused with small talk, Neo charged again. This time, Ren went to meet her, but he was ignored when she jumped over his head. She dodged Nora's swing, ducked underneath Jaune's swipe, and was on Ruby in a whirlwind of blows. Knocking her back, she made to slash her throat, but Jaune jumped in front of Ruby, holding up his shield. Her blade glanced off it, and Jaune was soon taken out with a kick to the knee. Ren and Nora came in from both sides, and she leaped into the air, dodging both of them, before coming back down, landing on the hilt of Crescent Rose, and disarming Nora quickly when she was able to yank her hammer from her hand and kick her in the back.

Ren and Ruby tried to double team her, but it was clear their teamwork expertise was low, as Ruby was sent flying back. Ren went on the offensive with slashes and kicks, but she easily dodged all of them, and used her semblance to distract him momentarily, before taking him out as well.

Finally, Ruby was all hers. She deflected a few shots before yanking her scythe out of her hands and throwing it away. Nora tried to come at her again, but Neo cartwheeled over her slam and slashed her in the stomach.

"Nora!" Ren cried out. But Neo didn't care about her. All she cared about was the girl in front of her. Who had killed Roman.

If Neo's emotions hadn't been so high, and if she had been paying more attention, perhaps she would have heard the sound of a crow circling overhead. Perhaps she would have then heard the sound of that crow transforming into a man. Perhaps then she wouldn't have been so shocked when her attempted kill was blocked. By Qrow Branwen himself.

Jumping back, she scowled. What is he doing here?

Neo had been so close. So close. But now this stupid bird man had taken away her chance. Her chance, the one that that had been rightfully hers.

"Uncle Qrow." He looked at Ruby for a second, grinned, and then looked back at Neo.

"Look little girl, I don't know who you are, or what your doing, but you need to leave my niece alone."

So she was his niece. In a way, it would be even funnier when she killed him too. She smiled.

"I don't know what's so funny-"

She rushed him. Qrow deflected her first shot, and she tried to punch him in the face, but he grabbed her fist and threw her to the side. Landing on her feet, Neo tried to plant her boot in his skull, but he was quicker, and Qrow grabbed her by the foot and slammed her into the earth. He then tried to swipe at her, but Neo rolled to the side, and she deflected his follow up blow. Standing back up, Qrow came at her again, and she ducked underneath his shot, but he was quicker once again, kneeing her in the stomach, and kicking her back.

Neo was outmatched. She couldn't beat Qrow. But she was so enraged, so emotional, that she didn't care. She would kill him, and then kill Ruby.

Qrow ran at her, and jumped into the air, bringing Harbringer down, and she brought her blade up to meet him, and the two locked blades. They made eye contact, and Qrow smirked. Jumping back up, Neo looked above her as a plank of wood threatened to crush her. She slashed through it easily, but Qrow took several shots at her, catching her off guard, and she barely deflected them.

Snarling like a wild animal, she leapt into the air, and used her semblance to distract him, but it was all in vain as he was able to catch her with a punch to the lip and a Harbringer strike to the stomach.

She was then sent flying back. Putting her hand to her lip, she drew it away and saw there was blood on her glove. There was also a cut along her stomach. Travelling all this time, no food, no rest, had really taken it's toll on her aura.

But she didn't care. Struggling to her feet, she grinned through bloody lips and began chuckling to herself.

"What kind of a monster are you?" Qrow asked. They clashed again, and this time Neo was able to get the upper hand when she slid in between this legs and threw him to the ground. She continued to laugh maniacally.

Qrow dodged her follow up kick, and she tried to swing at him, but unbelievably, he grabbed her parasol and disarmed her. Bringing his weapon back, he struck her hard in stomach. She hit the ground so hard, some of the rock broke. Lying there, she could feel her aura flickering. With no weapon, this would have been the best time to get out of there. But Neo wasn't thinking straight. She had basically gone insane.

Does he think I'm a monster?! I'll show him just how mad I really am!

With no Roman to hold her back, Neo was a dog off a chain. Laughing out loud, she ran at Qrow for the final time, with no real way of defending herself. He dropped his weapon, cracked his knuckles, and punched her in the face. She continued to grin and laugh as he hit her, again and again. He then rocked her with a knee to the groin, and he grabbed her by the hair, and held her up.

"Do you think this is funny? Is this all a laugh and a joke to you?" He threw her back down. Standing back up for the last time, she pointed out her finger and made a "Come at me" gesture.

She welcomed the pain that she felt when he hit her with a barrage of attacks so unbelievably fast that even if she had tried, she couldn't dodge them. Qrow finished it up with a combination of punches, and hit her so hard that the whole world faded to black.

Do what we do best

Roman was whistling to himself as he pushed the shopping cart around the store. Now that everyone knew he was actually the twin brother of Roman Torchwick, not the man himself, it meant that he could walk around in public, a very welcome change from his old life. No more disguises. It was going to be great. He had been tasked with shopping for groceries this time around, and as much as he had grumbled and whined about it, Trifa was pretty persistent. It was fair, considering she had bought stuff yesterday, but Roman didn't get this far by being fair.

He threw a couple of sauces and pasta into the shopping cart, and continued on. He came to the ice cream section, and a scene caught this eye. A man had taken out some ice cream. Neapolitan flavoured ice cream. When Roman took a quick look in the freezer, he realised that was the last carton left.

That's mine!

That ice cream was rightfully his. That was the flavour Neo had loved eating, unsurprisingly. He had quite enjoyed it himself. Everyone loved it. Trifa probably would too. He was going to get it. He had stolen money from the highest security banks possible, stealing ice cream from a man should not be that hard. He waited until he had placed it in his trolley, and had turned back to one of the shelves. Roman began to slowly creep forward. The man suddenly turned around, and Roman stopped, pretending to be interested in noodles.

When he turned back round, Roman slowly began to go forward again. Why was this so tense? It was like taking candy from a baby. He turned around again, and this time Roman opened the freezer, looking at the other flavours. Then…

Got ya. Out it came easily. With it now in his hands, he made a quick run back to the cart and placed it in. He then pushed the shopping cart away quickly, whistling extremely loudly, not turning around to see if he had noticed it was gone. He went around the store, picked up a few other things, and then brought it to the checkout. It was one of those fancy "you can do it yourself" one's. As he scanned the items, he found himself wondering about the White Fang. After what Trifa had told him yesterday-

He sighed loudly as "There is something wrong with this item. Please wait for assistance" came up on the screen. Every time! So much for amazing technology! Couldn't even scan things right. When a member of staff had sorted it out, and he had scanned everything, he put it into one of the bags provided, and turned to leave. He walked out of the store and began to head back to the hotel. But yes, the White Fang with Adam now at the helm would certainly not be taking their cause lightly. Lot's of humans were about to die, hopefully not including him.

It was all pointless anyway. Faunus equality was simply not possible, he had accepted that a long time ago. Human's would always have the better weapons, the better tactics. It didn't matter if Faunus had claws, could fly, or could climb trees. The humans would win every time. They were the superior race, no matter what Adam Taurus thought.

Poor Trifa. If she really did work in the dust mines…

He felt sympathy course through him. He had heard about how the conditions were in those mines. It had sounded like pure utter torture.

He made it back to the hotel, walked upstairs and entered the room.

"Honey, I'm home!" He announced in a very exaggerated fashion. No reply.

Huh, is she not here?

Taking a quick scan around, it didn't seem like it. She must have gone out or something.

I wasted two seconds of my life saying "Honey I'm home." I'll never get those two seconds back…

Do what we do best

Truly tragic.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!