A/N: Kept you waiting, huh?

When a certain blonde laid eyes on the ice cream colored hair, her traditionally characteristic anger flared up. "What are you doing here, Neo? How dare you show your face after what you did to my friends!" Neo had been a dangerous enemy in the War, and had personally killed several allies of RWBY and several enemies. Probably the most brutal of those was when she went toe to toe with Mercury and pierced his heart with her umbrella's pointy bit. She was a wild card, fighting for neither side and attacking anyone that got in her way. She even gave Yang a run for her money a second time.

Of course, this wasn't the same Neo. Ruby had to quickly silence her sister by clamping a hand over her mouth. "Sorry about my sister," she sighed, "you just... look like someone she knew." If this girl was truly bad, they probably wouldn't have let her in. And since Penny was bantering, it was probably just a personal rival of hers, not a true enemy.

"Apologies, blondie. Not exactly sure for what. But I'd rather not walk around knowing there's someone with a nasty temper chasing after me. Penny here is enough."

Penny sighed. "I'll beat you next time." She said as she made a fist and extended it outward. "And I'll bring honor to Fairy Tail."

"I have no doubt that you will. Besides. I have a score to settle myself. Gray Fullbuster is the one who took me down after all."

She glanced at the other people present.

"I feel like you all have a personal grudge against me. I didn't sleep walk and ruin a party of yours, did? If so, I offer my deepest condolences."

Blake was the one to answer, albeit cryptically. "Where we come from, there was someone with hair like yours that hurt a lot of people we care about. And a few we didn't. Let's just say that girl was a wild card in our battles that we weren't exactly happy about..."

The others nodded, though Yang still looked like she wanted to punch Neo. At least she didn't start the altercation. Doubtful it would be perceived as well as Penny's little Ruby Bullet was. Thinkin on that, Yang thought it was adorable how flirty Penny was being with her. It would be really nice for Ruby if she could open up to someone new, maybe even make with the smoochies. What? Yang liked to see her sister happy and knew that she had been interested in both boys and girls since Signal. Though no one could ever really handle her brand of crazy...

"Look, we just thought you were someone we knew. No need to be sarcastic about it," grumbled Ruby, taking the lead again. This Neo was starting to sound like Cardin.

"No need to be sarcastic indeed." Erza said as she stepped in front of the others. "I thought I told you stop this bad habit of yours, Neo."

Neo laughed lightly. "What if I don't wanna?"

Erza summoned a sword to her hand. "Then I'll have to discipline you. As a childhood friend of yours, the responsibility falls on me to make sure you stay on the right path."

Only Yang, Blake, and Natsu would know that she was basically eluding to the fact that Neo was also a slave at one point.

"No matter how much you try to hide it." She said. "Your sadness is visible to me. You can't run from it forever, Neo. You can't ignore the fact that he's not coming back."

For a minute, Neo's smug facade faltered and it looked like she was about to break down. She thankfully caught herself though.

"I don't need you to tell me that." She said through grit teeth. "I know that better than anyone."

Neo hissed at the other. "You have no right to lecture me. I didn't join your stupid guild for a reason!"

Blake and Yang traded a quick glance, wordlessly wondering if by 'childhood friend' she meant 'was a fellow slave'. They chose to keep quite, but a small amount of sympathy opened their hearts a bit to this new Neo. Perhaps she wasn't as bad as her Remnant counterpart.

A small frown found its way onto Ruby's lips. Their Neo had also grieved over Roman's death, and after going through what she did with Qrow... things started to make a bit more sense to her. All of a sudden, she appeared at Neo's side, hesitantly reaching out to her. Just to shake her hand. "I've... lost someone important to me too. Recently. Very recently. Just... I want you to know... if you wanna talk about it... I'm available." Her last words were a whisper, "I'm sure Roman's proud of who you've become."

Neo locked eyes with this new girl. And while at first she was about to take her hand, something about the girl made her flinch. That rose pendant hanging around her neck.

Roses.

She instantly stepped back, growing fear in her eyes. For a moment, she could see him.

"G-Get away!" She shouted, raising her arms in an attempt to defend herself.

It all came rushing back to her. The roses. The thorns. His smirk. Roman's sacrifice.

She added up with her back against a tree, her entire body shaking. "Stay away." She mumbled, tears falling from her eyes. "D-Don't hurt me."

Erza's eyes widened. "Did that mission really traumatize her that much? . . . I was untactful. I didn't realize . . . "

"N-Neo?" Was or something she said? No... wait... something about a mission. If she was right and Roman was killed at some point, if the person that killed him looked like her or something, that could trigger her. But she didn't react like that until she got... up close... "Neo? Is it.. is it my emblem?" She pulled the chain on her rose pendant and slid it into a pocket. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize... I wouldn't hurt you. I don't even really know you. I'd like to though!" Fumbling over her words, she slowly approached the other girl, crouching to her level and tugging back her hood. "It's okay... I'm not here to hurt you... I come from another world. A world that had a you and a Roman and a Penny. Different yous. Different thems. But still you and them."

Well. So much for any secrecy.

Neo wasn't able to process anything Ruby said. All she could spit out were broken sentences. "Underworld King. Tartaros. Monsters. Roses . . . thorns."

She was slumped against the tree now, completely out of it.

"Did you say Tataros?!" Erza exclaimed before realizing she had to elaborate on something.

"There are two different types of guilds in Earthland. Legal Guilds that follow the Kingdom's laws like Fairy Tail and Dark Guilds which operate only by their own rules and relish in causing chaos. Tartaros is one of the strongest Dark Guilds. They're mostly shrouded in mystery, but they're not to be messed with. We fought against two Dark Guilds who claimed to be its equal and both times we nearly all died.

If Neo came face to face with Tartaros . . . then that means they're on the move."

Tartaros... a Dark Guild that was hurting people. It didn't matter that she didn't know this Neo. Or this Roman. Both had been hurt by this evil group of... dare she think it- bastards! Ruby could count on one hand the people she dared call such a bad word, and even then she never said it out loud. Well. There was that one time when she fought- no, slaughtered- the man who killed Uncle Qrow. She had sworn like a sailor then.

"So they're on the move..." Ruby muttered, rising to her full height. Which was arguably not much, but she still had an intimidating presence when she wanted. "Natsu!" she called, turning so abruptly the edges of her cloak opened, revealing the tight fitting corset and combat skirt she wore beneath it. "Fight me." There was a certain fire burning in those silver eyes. "We're going to stop Tartaros from hurting anyone else!"

"It isn't that simple, Ruby." Erza said, cutting her off. "Legal Guilds aren't allowed to start a war with a dark guild unless it's via counterattack. Not only that, but we need permission from the Magic Council. They're the people who regulate Wizard Guilds."

"It' doesn't matter." Neo suddenly said. "Even if you were to fight them, you wouldn't stand a chance. That man. He wasn't human. He was like a monster. The power that radiated off of him. It felt like something and nothing at the same time. And he felt ancient . . . very ancient. As if he had lived for eons."

"Could he perhaps be related to Zeref?" Penny chimed in. "Zeref is immortal right? Maybe he has something to do with this."

"It's possible." Erza said. "But no one knows where Zeref currently is, nor what his goals are."

They had completely forgotten that their new friends likely had no idea who Zeref even was.

"Zeref?" muttered Ruby. The other new members of the guild looked just as confused as she did, but the four also held a certain sense of trepidation. The name had this... haunting edge to it. Something about the name sent a shiver rolling down her spine, and casual glance to the others confirmed that they were experiencing the same effect. "We don't know him, but he sounds as bad as our Salem..."

"As for the Dark Guild... I get that we can't exactly go knocking on their door. I just... we've seen enough people get hurt. As long as Team RWBY is here in Fairy Tail, we will not stand for anything like that, regardless of any uppity council's rules." Clenching her fist, Ruby grimaced. "If these Tartaros guys are as bad as you say, we're going to need everything and everyone we can to beat them. And if we can't act without them attacking first, so be it. We should find out if there's any pattern to their attacks and try to stop them before anyone else dies..."

"Zeref is known as The Dark Wizard. He's said to be over 400 years old and the strongest wizard to ever walk the earth. There isn't a single type of magic he doesn't know. He also created Demons who have terrorized Earthland since their creation."

She sighed.

"The cult that enslaved me as a kid was a cult dedicated to worshiping Zeref. He is revered as a god by some and feared as a devil by others. There is not one corner of this world that his influence hasn't reached."

"And that is precisely why this new girl has the right idea, correct Erza?" A man's voice said out of the blue. "You say you want to stick to the rules, but you know we Fairy Tail wizards are notoriously bad at that."

Erza's eyes widened at the voice before turning around and noticing exactly who was standing there.

A man about six feet tall with slicked back auburn hair, pale white skin and piercing yellow eyes. He wore a red tunic and white pants with black boots. A confident smirk played upon his lips.

"You. You're back from your mission?"

"Just in time too, it seems."

Erza turned to Ruby and others.

"Ah, this is-"

The man held up a hand. "No need. It wouldn't be polite if I didn't introduce myself personally. Greetings. I am one of Fairy Tail's S-Class Mages. My name is Cinder Sleigh, but most just call me Cinder."

His smirk transitioned into a smile.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance."