Chapter 22

As Weiss returned from the restroom, she saw a tall brunette draping herself over top of Neo in a wholly inappropriate and overly friendly manner. However, Neo's stiff body language told Weiss that she was not enjoying this woman's attention. The tactician in Weiss directed her to take a wide berth around their table, around the perimeter of the room, so she could approach Neo from the front. As she positioned herself and walked towards their table, Weiss was acutely aware of Neo's eyes. No longer the bright green of a few minutes ago, they were completely white; her expression was terrified. As she approached, she noticed that Neo had kicked her shoes off and had rolled her foot underneath her parasol. As Weiss took another step closer, Neo flicked the item towards Weiss with her foot and jammed a hard elbow back into the woman's midsection.

Weiss caught the parasol and gave the handle a twist to draw the blade. The grip and weight were completely different from Myrtenaster's, but she was going to have to make due.

Neo ducked forward as she made contact with her elbow and tried to roll away, but the taller woman tightened her grip and prevented her escape.

Weiss struck a defensive position as she withdrew the blade, poised and prepared to attack.

Cinder knew what Neopolitan was capable of, but she saw the armed white-haired girl as a more immediate threat that needed to be dealt with. She wrapped her fingers in Neo's hair and slammed her head into the table before stepping back and conjuring a glass bow and arrow from her dust stash. Weiss easily parried the phantasmal arrow and watched as the raven-haired woman closed her arms, causing the bow to disappear, and reopen them to conjure two wicked scimitars, one in each hand.

Weiss activated a series of glyphs as she leapt to give herself aerial platforms to use as she launched a rapid-fire attack against this obviously skilled warrior. Weiss chanced a look at Neo and hoped she was conscious and able to fight; this isn't going to end well for me if she isn't.

Shaken, Neo tried to gather her senses and locate Cinder as she heard the muffled sounds of a fight through her daze. As she turned her head from side to side, she finally caught sight of Weiss as she launched herself through the air off one of her glyphs, diving headlong at Cinder. The light blade was not much match against Cinder's dual scimitars, but Weiss's proficiency in swordsmanship meant that she was giving the woman a much tougher battle than she was expected.

Neo took a couple quick steps and launched herself through the air in a flying side-kick. Her right leg fully extended and her left tucked up into a picture perfect position. The foot made contact with Cinder's ribs, but she failed to seriously injure her as the woman's aura absorbed the majority of the impact.

Cinder turned to try to figure out where the hit came from. To her dismay, Neo was clearly up and had joined in the fight, as she saw Neopolitan gracefully land. Neo went on the attack again as she stepped her left foot behind her right, planted it, and spun clockwise, to execute a strong follow-through spinning heel kick. Cinder tried to block it, but Neo tucked in her leg to avoid the block, and used her momentum to carry her through. As her right foot landed, she planted it and continued her spin with a left-footed instep roundhouse and simultaneously lashed out her right hand in a spinning back fist.

The onslaught proved an effective distraction as Weiss managed to get inside of Cinder's defenses and landed a straight on jab with the tip of the sword into Cinder's left side, just above the waist. Weiss felt the blade puncture skin and watched as a small stream of red blood began to run from the wound.

Cinder wheeled around to face Weiss, opening herself up for attack from Neo. With a step through side kick, Neo made contact with Cinder's right hip and knocked her off balance and send her to the ground. As Cinder fell, she rolled backwards and continued through until she planted her feet and used them to launch into a back flip to put some distance between her and her opponents. Cinder very soberly came to the realization that she was outmatched by her opponents and decided it would be best to end this fight before she ended up in custody, or dead. As it's best to live to fight another day, she clutched the bleeding wound at her waist and darted through the kitchen and vanished into the night through the service entrance.

Chasing after Cinder, but losing her as soon as she entered the alley, Weiss stomped her foot and muttered something not wholly appropriate for a Schnee as she realized that Cinder was going far too fast for her to catch. Angry at herself for losing the fiend, she stormed back into the dining room and picked up the parasol. She resheathed the sword and tossed the reassembled parasol to Neo with a quick 'thanks'. Neo's eyes were back to their normal pink and brown combination as she racked her brain trying to figure out why Cinder was here in Vale. Did Cinder manage to track her down? Should she be worried about this development? As she reached out to accept her parasol from Weiss, she was immensely thankful that the girl was with her; I don't think I could take out Cinder on my own. Not now.

Weiss Looked around the restaurant and noticed it was far less crowded than when they entered; the staff was busy trying to pick everything up and return the dining room to some semblance of normalcy.

"Man, I'm going to have to leave a huge tip to make up for this…" Weiss muttered to herself. Their table was in complete disarray. She grabbed the upturned chair she was sitting in and took a seat, as if it merely fell over and she was continuing on with her evening. First of all, she was hungry and second, she didn't really want to leave yet; Ozpin probably already knew about this 'incident' and was preparing to question her as soon as she returned to Beacon. And currently Weiss had no answers for any of the questions she anticipated Ozpin would ask her.

Neo reclaimed her seat across from the silent, brooding Huntress-in-training. She reached out and took Weiss's hand, softly running her thumb in circles over the back of it. Weiss didn't move.

Without looking up, "Was that woman one of your associates?" Weiss practically hissed the last word. Neo wavered her hand a little before raising it above her head, palm parallel to the floor then raised her other hand above that one in a similar manner.

"She was above you?"

Neo lowered her hands, nodded, and turned her right hand, prodding Weiss to continue.

"She was the top one of your two hands?"

Another nod.

"She was calling Torchwick's shots?"

Neo nodded again.

"So, was she leaning over you to give you some sort of warning?"

She looked at Weiss and slowly drew a finger across her neck.

"Understandable… Considering where you are now, there's certainly the assumption that you could share whatever information you know about her."

The manager came over to the women's table and cleared his throat, "I'm sorry, ladies, but it seems as though the other patrons aren't exactly comfortable with you remaining after the earlier incident. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Wh.. WHAT? Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Ma'am, please leave or I'll have to request that the authorities, which are on their way, remove you."

Weiss was livid. She gritted her teeth in a twisted scowl and actually growled at the man as she stood and stomped away.

Neo simply shrugged before she followed her friend out. I guess it's looking like noodles, after all. When she caught up to Weiss, she could see the girl's barely contained rage, so she thought it would be best to just follow behind her. After they were a short distance away from the restaurant, Weiss spun around to face Neo.

"Can you believe that? We chased that criminal rapscallion out of there. We protected those people. And now we have to leave? That is very not okay!" Weiss paced as she was talked. Neo had a hunch that it would be best to just nod in agreement as she let the girl vent and wear herself out before trying to proceed.

"I mean, honestly, it's not like we provoked the incident." Weiss paused and thought for a moment, "Well, I kind of did by taking you away and bringing you to Beacon. But they didn't know that! I mean…"

Neo decided that it was definitely best to just let Weiss wear herself out. As she looked around for a bench or somewhere else to sit, her eyes finally settled on a trio of benches at the edge of a small pocket park on the next block. She took Weiss's hand and guided the girl towards the park, intent on sitting rather than standing in the middle of the sidewalk with the ranting heiress.

"… And another thing,"

She's going to be at it for a while; we might as well get somewhat comfortable. Neo took a seat off to one side of the bench, but Weiss kept pacing, apparently unwilling to be content until she's complained about everything. With a deep breath, Neo put her arms on the back of the bench, and let her head fall back as she stretched her legs out.

Neo's relaxed appearance apparently upset Weiss further, "How are you so relaxed? There was no reason at all to treat us like that."

Neo cocked her head to the right and raising an eyebrow to make it clear that she didn't agree with Weiss's claim. The manager calmly asked us to leave and only at the behest of the other patrons.

Neo sat up and reached out to Weiss, the girl accepted the offer as she sat down alongside her. "Ozpin's going to question us when we get back. He hammered Blake pretty hard the night she was at the docks and interrupted Torchwick and the White Fang while trying to steal another one of Schnee Dust Company's shipments." Weiss looked up to the sky, disappointed at the heavy cloud cover and lack of stars. "He's going to have a ton of questions that I have no idea how to answer."