Torchwick's complex, months before…

Reaper was woken by the construction crews working on her new mansion of a private house. She had no idea what she would do with that much space, but it was cool to say she had a place like that. If only the workers could, y'know, not wake me up all the time. Seeing today was going nowhere good, she dreaded what was in store for the rest of it.

She walked to the kitchen area of the temporary housing where she slept while her mansion was being completed and halfway there she heard a knock on the door. Opening it revealed a tall, raven-haired woman. Reaper raised an eyebrow. "Ummm… Who the hell are you?"

"Torchwick's secretary." She replied eagerly.

Reaper gave an empty blink. They had moved the gang down here just a few weeks ago, and Torchwick was already on his third secretary? Reaper resolved to stop learning their names, starting with tall, dark, and sexy here. "Gotcha. Alright, Legs, what does Roman want? Is this about that lady that owned that shop? Cause she attacked first, and he knows damn well how that goes."

"No, he more or less anticipated that outcome and has already cleaned you from the scene." She answered, slightly blushing after being called 'Legs'. "There's another situation, a couple of brothers who are stubbornly holding onto their factory." She handed over a folder and Reaper looked over it. The factory was right in the middle of territory the gang already owned. It could be very dangerous to leave independent agents within their terrain.

"Wine brothers. Must have been teased horribly. Francis and Johnathon. Doesn't look like they'll be easy to persuade." Reaper noted.

"Mr. Torchwick is prepared for any contingency." The secretary told her.

Reaper rolled her eyes. She just knew this was going to be a bad day. She pulled on her cloak, took up her new weapon, Brutal Thorn, and left the caverns. She managed to slip out without being seen by Neo. That girl was becoming a bit much, seemed to stick to her like glue lately. Maybe she's put off so much work to stalk me she needs today to catch up, Reaper reasoned.

The factory soon towered above her. She highly doubted the brothers would be willing to open the front doors and let her in. She looked around and saw an open window… three stories up. Reaper smiled and walked ten feet in the other direction. Turning on her heel, she sprinted at the building and used her speed semblance to race up the side. She almost had enough momentum to catch the sill. Almost. Before she could fall, she used her speed to unfold Brutal Thorn and use the scythe blade as a hook on the open window.

Ugh… that's much easier with Weiss's glyphs…

Reaper pulled herself through and stalked the railings and corridors of the factory. She didn't know what the machines here actually made, but she did know that the workers produced something far different and far less legal. She eventually found what she figured was the main office, and saw the brothers inside.

"Roman will likely send one of these two to deal with us." The short, thin Francis said, pointing out pictures of Reaper and Neo.

"Neopolitan? Seriously? I thought our name was weird…" The taller, burlier Johnathon noted.

"You know you can keep your factory if you deal peacefully." Reaper announced her arrival as she stepped from the shadows. The brothers turned in shock. "Just join us. It's easier on us all."

"Our family has had this operation for generations." Francis spoke. "We won't lose it to some upstart!"

"Oh my god, all of you whiny bitches are like broken records…" Reaper sighed. "I'm tired of this shit, are we going to deal, or are you going to fight?"

Reaper felt herself smash through the door and across the catwalk beyond, landing hard on the grating. Great, the big guy has strength… fucking ow Johnathon, the brother who had punched her several feet through the air, stepped out of the office and saw Reaper's eyes glow under the darkness of her hood. She flashed toward him, moving faster than his eye could see, and brought her scythe bade forward. The blade stopped dead in in tracks, held less than an inch from Johnathon's gut by a white glow. She quickly stepped away before he could strike again. "The hell…"

Johnathon laughed. "My semblance. Impenetrable Shield. Like it?" He gloated, brushing off where Brutal Thorn should have eviscerated him.

"Shit…" Reaper dodged his next attack, unsure what to do next. She couldn't let the brother hit her. If she went into a Red Haze, he would just shield himself until he could counter. If I'm not careful, this man may actually kill me… She had to flip off the catwalk do avoid his next swing. She hooked her scythe's blade around the walkway of a catwalk a level down and swung herself safely on a catwalk a level further. The brother jumped, falling both levels and landing on the catwalk, his shield saving him from fall damage.

"Shit!" Reaper barely avoided another attack. I need a plan and I need it NOW! Maybe I can overwhelm his semblance… I don't want to be close if I'm wrong… She jumped down another level to the ground floor and saw workers dashing from their stations where they were busy brewing the drugs a moment before. She head the brother fall through the air behind her and she took off for the drug lab. Hopefully that cocky bastard is the kind to slow walk to his target…

Reaper pulled all of her Burn rounds from her belt. Pocketing one, she used her strength to break the rest and poured the red dust into various beakers and all over the table and the equipment. She set herself above the doorway and waited. The brother followed into the seemingly empty lab. "Where are you hiding, Reaper?" He goaded.

She dropped from the ceiling, bringing down Brutal Thorn. She knew it would do nothing, but with the barrel pointed the way it was and against Johnathon's back, the scythe master pulled the trigger. The air round and her semblance put distance between her and the lab area, and hopefully the sheer force at least staggered the brother. Guess I'm field testing this… Reaper thought glumly, top loading her remaining Burn round.

She brought the scope to her eye and aimed at the spiked equipment. Please don't detonate in the chamber again… She pulled the trigger and felt the bullet leave properly. It hit a beaker and activated all the red dust. The drug lab explosion could likely be seen from Beacon and heard in Patch. The inferno blazed, and Reaper could hear Johnathon screaming in agony. She watched on as the fire only grew and the screams grew quiet.

"Johnnie…" Francis's eyes were wide, focused on the fire. Reaper turned to speak to the shorter brother and saw him pointing a gun at her head.

"You really don't want to-" Bang!

She never finished her warning. The bullet bounced off her forehead, stopped by her aura. Yang's semblance aggravated and the Red Haze took over. By the time Reaper came back to her senses, Francis was little more than a puddle on the ground. Being the sole target of an entire Red Haze when you didn't have an aura was not pretty…

Reaper sighed. "I tried to warn you…" Reaper looked around at the chaos and felt it was best to leave before authorities showed up.


RWBY dorm, Present day…

Reaper finished recounting the tale to her team mates. She looked up to see them wearing predictably horrified faces. "Yup. Ignorance is bliss."

"That explosion was a drug lab? That explosion was you?" Weiss asked.

"I had to do something to hurt that big fucker." Reaper shrugged.

"And you now think Johnathon Wine survived? That he's Creature?" Blake continued the questioning.

"The lab equipment was on his left side when it went off. It would have taken the most damage. Hence the cybernetics. And Ember's full strength against an 'Impenetrable Shield' is more than enough force to bend anything, including Brutal Thorn." Reaper explained.

"And he's after you because…?" Weiss asked.

"I hurt his family. Someone especially dear to him. That kind of thing is difficult to get past." Reaper looked the heiress in the eye as she spoke. Her face softened and she nodded.

"Well," Weiss spoke, "there has to be some drawback to a semblance that powerful. Just look at yourself! Yang's semblance affected her anger, and affects yours worse. You have so much aura that you really shouldn't, and two semblances, one you weren't actually born with. Once you really think about it, it's no wonder your mind is broken. No offense."

"None taken." Reaper told her truthfully. She had accepted her own madness a while ago now.

I knew you loved me

"Shut up, Ember." Reaper replied quickly.

"He sounded pretty sane before the explosion." Blake noted. "There has to be some kind of weakness, maybe beyond overwhelming it. If we can find one, we can fight him."

"Because he is definitely far from done with me." Reaper agreed.

After a few more moments of silence Weiss spoke again. "Was Neo at lunch today, by any chance?"

Reaper's face fell and she shook her head 'no'. "I hope Creature doesn't have her…"

"We'll start looking for her, and Creature, as soon as I'm cleared by the doctor and Weiss to move in Vale." Blake promised.

"We better wait until you're combat ready, in case we run into him." The heiress pointed out. "Which shouldn't be a massive delay, Reaper."

Reaper nodded, her thoughts on her multi-colored friend. Please be okay Neo… If you come walking back, just fine, you are so going to get sub-par lunches for making me worry this much. None of your favorites for a week, I swear.

Unfortunately, Neo was far from okay. Another two days in Creature's captivity did little for her spirit. She was starting to doubt she could escape at all. What does Reaper think of me vanishing? Maybe she just thinks I started working again? She has to know I'm missing by now… Is she worried at all? Even if she was, where would she begin looking for me? For Creature? I need to see her again… I need to get out of here… it's on you, you crazy mute.

Once more she struggled against her chains. Creature stared out the window, oblivious of his captives bid for freedom. The chains grew slick with blood as the small girl struggled to slip her hand through. That was when she felt it. The chain felt tighter. Her wrist slipped, just a little bit. It's working after all… Neo's heart sped up. IT'S WORKING! Her spirit renewed, she worked her other wrist and felt it slip. She braced herself for the massive pain to come and pulled with all her strength.

She bit her lip and started breathing quickly and shallowly. The voiceless girl could moan, and unfortunately, scream. The only two noises she ever made. The many times she wished for a voice, and she was trying so desperately not to make a sound right now. The next noise that was made was a thump as she fell to the floor. Creature turned quickly and Neo flashed away. His rage climbed exponentially, and he screamed at the spot his hostage used to be.

Neo found herself outside and saw it was night time. Creature would be after her soon. After being trapped like that for an entire week, she didn't have much energy left. She couldn't run for long, she needed to get to a safe place quickly. But where was safe for her? Nowhere, really… except, perhaps… She had never been there herself, but she had a general idea where it was. She hasn't made a blind jump in a long time, and she had never jumped this far in a single teleport before.

I can do it, she told herself. I need too… She heard Creature screaming after her, coming closer. Damn his eye… She had to teleport now. She looked across the skyline, hoping to find… yes, Beacon tower. She could gauge where campus was, and that oriented her location in Vale. She looked behind her and saw Creature's blade coming at her. She shut her eyes tight and focused on her destination.

There was a flash of light, and Creature's blade struck the pavement, unbloodied. Again, he screamed in a rage.


Reaper sat at the desk, trying to study in spite of the mess of worries in her head.

At least you're not drawing Neo all over the place again.

I suppose there is that… still can't think about anything else…

At that moment, a flashbang went off in RWBY dorm. At least, that's what it felt like, with all the bright light and the loud banging noise. It woke the Checkmate couple up and Reaper spun in her seat. The three couldn't believe their eyes. Neopolitan lay on their floor, next to the coffee table it appeared she crashed into.

"Neo!" Reaper shouted, rushing to her friend's side. The girl was bloody and bruised. Her wrists were nearly worn to the muscle, and Reaper could feel in the way she held her that at least three ribs were broken. "Oh my god… where have you been…? What happened to you…?"

"We need to get her to the infirmary!" Weiss jumped out of bed. Neo shook her head.

"No, Weiss." Reaper cut in. "People will notice a non-student in the infirmary. You may not arrest her, and even Ozpin might not, but if the police force caught wind? Ironwood? I told, I won't betray friends."

"What else could we even do?" Weiss asked.

"Criminals aren't fond of hospitals." Blake spoke up next. "Between us, Reaper and I may be able to do quite a lot. Those are skills you tend to pick up. We're no doctors, but we can patch physical injuries."

"And Neo does have an aura. Once it's at strength, she'll be on her feet in no time." Reaper explained.

Weiss knew she was outvoted. It felt like the bunkbeds all over again. "Fine, but how do we get what we need?"

"It's called plausible deniability, Weiss." Reaper told her as she set Neo on her bed. "You don't ask, I won't tell." With that, Reaper was out the door. She returned in mere moments with medical supplies Weiss could only assume were stolen from the infirmary. The heiress couldn't believe they were actually doing this, hiding Neo in their dorm and playing nurse. Just a week ago, she would have arrested the multi-colored girl on the spot.

She shook her head in disbelief of what she was about to ask. "Is there anything I can do?"

The girls did their best to patch Neo up, and their best turned out to be surprisingly well. It helped that Reaper also picked up a few medical journals from the nurses lounge. Once everything was clean, set and bandaged Reaper drew the blanket up over her friend. "I'll be fine on the couch." She answered the question in saw behind the multi-colored eyes.

Thank you, Neo smiled. She knew it was risky coming to Reaper with the heiress nearby, but she trusted her friend would stand up for her.

"Neo… did Creature…?" Reaper asked unsteadily. Neo nodded, and felt the scythe master's anger rise. "I'm sorry… If I had known… if I knew where to start looking, I would have."

"She was ridiculously worried, by the way." Weiss told the criminal. "Unreasonably so, if you ask me."

The revelation made Neo smile. "I know who Creature is, Neo." Reaper took her friend's attention back, her tone serious. "We have a plan." Neo expression changed to one of worry and she shook her head vigorously. "Neo, he's going to keep coming after me, hurting my friends… He's dangerous, he needs to be stopped." Neo frowned. She didn't like it, but she knew it would be impossible to dissuade Reaper.