That first day the Neo slept well into the afternoon. When she awoke she was alone in the dorm. She panicked for just a moment until memories of the night before returned to her. She looked to her side to see a plate of food and two notes written out for her.

Had to attend class. Don't open the door for anyone. If someone besides us comes in somehow, hide. I'll be back at lunch. Reaper.

Came back for lunch. You slept through the whole thing. Hopefully the food isn't too cold by the time you get it. Changed your wrist bandages, and your aura seems to have started working on them. See you after class. Reaper.

Neo smiled. The food was cold, but she was too hungry to care. After she finished eating, she looked around RWBY dorm. The school had a completely different feel to it than Vale, especially the side of Vale Neo was used to. It was a comforting, homey environment, especially with the den area set up in this particular room. Part of her could feel why Reaper wanted to stay.

The door began opening and Neo shimmered out of sight. Team RWBY walked in alone and turned to Reaper's bed. Neo breathed a sigh of relief and faded back into view.

"Hey, you're up." Reaper smiled. "How are you feeling?"

Neo shrugged. About as well as I can be.

"I get that." Reaper nodded.

"Don't forget to work on your studies. Blake and I are going to see about her fighting condition." Weiss told the ex-criminal as she and her girlfriend picked up their weapons.

Reaper rolled her eyes. "Yes, mother." Weiss and Blake left and Reaper pulled open the front of the desk. Neo watched with intrigue as Reaper pulled all the drink ingredients out of the hidden compartment and made one to have with her work. Neo shakily stood up and went over to open the secret compartment and found the inside cold. She also found she wasn't wearing her usual outfit.

"Don't worry, I changed you. It's not like I haven't seen it all before." Reaper assured. "The fridge is cool, though, huh? Made it myself… And I swear that wasn't a pun."

Neo found a nearby mirror and looked over herself. The black tank top had an interesting heart design and the white bottoms had roses all over them. It didn't feel like something she would willingly wear on any other occasion. Wait, roses…

"They're my old pajamas. It was either those, or one of Weiss's nightgowns. Everything else was far too large for you." Reaper explained. "Even those are a little big."

The bottoms were indeed rolled up a little. Neo smiled. If it was Reaper's old clothes, even from when she was 'Ruby', then she supposed she could deal with it. It didn't stop her from wondering where her own clothes were, a question she posed as soon as she found writing material.

"We managed to slip them in the laundry with all our clothes. The machines can handle blood. This is a combat school." Reaper answered. Neo nodded and elected to watch Reaper study for a while. Schooling like this was not an experience Neo had firsthand, and now that she was here she couldn't help but be curious. She quickly concluded that studying was absolutely boring.

Neo smiled. There was something she missed, a distraction they could both use right now. There problems would still be there for them to handle when they were finished. Neo hung off of Reaper's back and traced a hand down the taller girl's front. A hand that was stopped and held by Reaper's own. "Neo, if we start that and don't finish and clean up before the others get back, which by the way I am confident we won't, it would lead to a very awkward situation I'm sure neither of us want to have." The scythe girl explained.

Neo frowned and let Reaper refocus on her work. She was about to go back to the bed but realized Reaper had yet to let go of her hand. She simply held it there, across her stomach, forgoing her drink in the process as she worked. Neo smiled and figured she could give this whole watching her study thing another shot, looking over her object of desire's shoulder at the home made worksheet. There were a few things on there Neo actually knew the answer to. One of them she got to point out when she saw Reaper was stuck on it. The scythe girl thanked her and circled the answer.

The door began opening sometime later, and Neo jumped off Reaper and illusioned out of view. After Weiss and Blake shut the door, she disillusioned herself and sat on the bed.

"So when can we start looking?" Reaper asked immediately, her tone deadly serious.

"It's a little harder to get used to than I thought at first…" Blake admitted.

"How long?" Reaper asked again, wanted to get straight to finding this guy.

"A few more days, at least, just by eyeballing how well she did today compared to what she was like before." Weiss answered.

Reaper's impatience was palpable. If there was one thing Ruby and Reaper truly shared, it was that they cared for those they called friends. With Reaper's anger issues, this meant she wanted nothing more right now than to pound Creature into a bloody mess. This man had not only hurt Blake, but also tortured Neo, all in his efforts to come after the scythe master herself. But she couldn't leave school grounds on her own, and Weiss was making her wait until Blake was ready to join them.

She growled as she returned to her worksheet. She didn't see why Weiss wanted to wait until Blake could join them. They could always go without her. But she didn't want to begin arguing with the heiress again when she was more frustrated at herself and angry at Creature.

We can busy ourselves watching over Neo until Blake is ready.

Yeah, I suppose…


It was day three of her stay, and Neo felt well enough to remove her bindings. There was some redness and soreness around her wrists and one rib that had a particularly nasty fracture when she arrived, but all that she could do was wait for it to go away on its own. She decided she was well enough to explore, as long as she remained invisible. Knowing her plan would get shot down in an instant, she made the brilliant decision not to inform team RWBY that she was going to follow them around Beacon all day to see what classes were like. The girls shared breakfast in the dorm with Neo before taking off. Neo made sure she was invisible and barely made it out the door before it closed.

The first class of the day was a lecture with a rather large and brilliantly mustachioed man. She knelt on the floor beside Reaper, leaning on the desk part of the classroom stands. Pity there's no free seat… Reaper stiffened visibly and cursed under her breath. Neo noticed this and cursed under hers. Reaper spent how long feeling my illusions? No way she doesn't know I'm here now… Neo resolved to finish the day out regardless. She wanted to see what was so appealing about Beacon.

The lecture finally began, and the teacher, Professor Port according to his desk, began to talk about a few different breeds of Grimm. Neo assumed the lecture would turn to their various strengths and weaknesses, but she was soon listening to some grand tale that was supposedly from Port's personal history. The multi-colored girl could smell bullshit all over it. She looked over Reaper's shoulder at her book and saw that this was indeed a 'Grimm Studies' class. She looked around the room and could only pick out five people who were still awake, including herself. Team RWBY and a girl with a gold headband over bright red hair being the others. Make that four, Neo witnessed Reaper's head hit the desk.

A few classes later and they had a history lesson with a Professor Oobleck. Neo knew enough about learning from past mistakes to see why a history class would be important for huntresses. She also found herself greatly amused the man himself. He reminded Neo of a green chipmunk on speed, zooming around the classroom with nothing aiding he fleet-footedness but the power of way too much caffeine. He scolded a boy name Cardin for not calling him 'Doctor' Oobleck, because apparently he worked hard for that.

Next was lunch and Neo tried to make a mad dash back to the dorm, but felt a hand clasp around her arm. Neo frowned as Reaper dragged her into the bathroom. Thankfully it was unoccupied. Neo knew it was pointless to remain invisible from the scythe girl.

"What the hell are you thinking?" Reaper asked her as she shimmered into view. Already frustrated from a lack of hunting Creature, she was not in the mood to deal with this. Neo crossed her arms and hung her head, trying to wear 'I just wanted to see what classes were like' on her face. "I wouldn't mind as much if it was just me hiding you, but if you get caught, you'll be dragging Weiss and Blake down as well." Reaper told her friend. Neo frowned. She really wanted to see what the rest of classes were like. Reaper looked at her friends sad face and sighed. "I swear to god if you get caught, I will never forgive you." Neo eyes went wide and she nodded vigorously to show she understood. Reaper shook her head in disbelief she was allowing this. "Stay close to me. If I feel you leave my side, there better be a good reason."

Invisible once more, she finally got to see the place where all the food she eats comes from. Weiss and Blake were waiting in a corner by the door. "So were you dragging off you-know-who?" Weiss asked.

Reaper nodded. "I can't stop her when she gets like this. All I can do is try and help her do it safely."

"Wait, is she here now?" Blake shifted uncomfortably. Neo ventured to poke the cat girl's shoulder, and the faunus froze for a second. "Great…"

Weiss was pinching the bridge of her nose. "Whatever. It's too late now. Let's just get through this. At least the whole school knows you're crazy. No one's going to question you dragging off thin air..."

The girls sat down, and Reaper felt Neo lean on her to stay close in case someone wanted to sit on that side of her.

Or she's just leaning on us to lean on us. Girl's crazy for us. As in 'literally insane with affection'.

Oh, shut the hell up!

Even you can't deny it anymore, Reaper. She came straight to us, even risking being around Weiss, when she was hurt.

Unfortunately the proof was in favor of the fact Reaper continued to ignore. She looked down and saw cat ears, a leg, and a question mark drawn in her mashed potatoes. She quickly shoved the evidence in her mouth before answering Neo's question.

"She got it replaced with a cybernetic leg. A very expensive one." Reaper told her. Blake looked to the spot next to Reaper, where she could see an indent in the scythe master's cloak.

Neo nodded, making sure Reaper could feel the action against her shoulder. She didn't realize until she second day that Blake was walking around on two legs and hadn't found a place to ask the question until now.

The next hour was elective classes for team RWBY. Weiss had some business classes, which she only took to have the official scores for her future and head of the SDC. She complained often that she knew more than the teacher. Blake had no elective and used the free hour in the gym to work on her coordination with her new leg. Reaper, who Neo was now officially stuck to like glue, headed off to Weapon Engineering.

Reaper was recently cleared to re-enter this class, and after fixing Brutal Thorn, spent a lot of time as an unofficial teacher's aide, using her hard won expertise to help the lower level students. Something Neo noticed immediately was who else was in this class. Velvet was already at a desk when they walked in, tinkering with her weapon and helping a blonde monkey faunus with his four red pistols. It was strange to be just a few feet away from a girl she had tried to kill twice.

Velvet felt the unease of someone staring at her and an energy that , while she couldn't place it, felt uncomfortably familiar. She looked up, straight at the invisible girl. Neo thought she was caught until the rabbit panned left, then right, then left again. The brown eyes soon found Reaper, and they grew sad and settled back on her work. The monkey boy looked up at Reaper and placed a comforting hand on Velvet's back.

Reaper watched Sun and Velvet interact and smiled. Good for them.

After the electives, team RWBY regrouped to go to combat class. Neo was hoping to see Reaper, or rather Ember, fight in class today. She entered and felt the sheer strict energy of the teacher, Professor Goodwitch according to her desk. She could already tell this was the teacher no one fucked with. She settled close to Reaper, the bleacher set up of the seats here allowing her to actually sit down and rest.

The first match of the day was between Weiss and a boy named Jaune Arc. She recognized him as one of Reaper's friends. She also recognized that he got absolutely creamed by the icy heiress. Next a boy named Cardin got his entire team, CRDL, to challenge one girl, the redhead from earlier, whose name was Pyrrha Nikos. She was ready to feel bad for Pyrrha, the girl alone against four opponents. Until Pyrrha wiped the floor with CRDL.

"Cardin and his team are all jerks, and Pyrrha's a world renowned competition fighter." Reaper clarified for her small, invisible friend. Neo nodded. No reason to feel bad for the losers. Blake versus a boy named Lie Ren was the next fight, and far more even than the previous battles. She actually didn't know who would win, but eventually it was Lie Ren with 16 aura points to Blake's losing 14 points.

"We have time for one last match…" Goodwitch announced. "Reaper, you've sat out the last few. Why don't you and Ember try?"

Reaper considered turning her down, but her only reason was to stay in the stands with Neo. With a sigh, she got up and went to the combat floor. She told Glynda to choose her opponent, and it turned out to be the monkey boy from Weapon Engineering, who Neo now learned was named Sun. Neo smiled, this is what she was hoping to see above all else today. On the edge of her seat, Neo waited for the fight to begin.