Writer's Note:

This one's more of a filler chapter, all things considered. I just wanted to preface that, since not much happens in this one, aside from setting up some important plot points for later on. TLDR is at the bottom for those who want to know the plot of this chapter, without having to sit through filler content. As a content enjoyer, myself, I can understand that filler content is not the most enjoyable, sometimes. However, it can be a necessary evil at the worst of times.


Chapter 13: Institution, Intrigue and Invention.

The team meeting was surprisingly brief once everyone returned to their dorm rooms. Thea and Rylee forced Oberon to apologize which, to his credit, he did swallow his pride and apologised for insulting her, doubting her abilities and, lastly, not giving her a chance to prove her worth. Of course, that didn't stop Neo from slugging him across the face before she called things even.

With Oberon translating Neo's sign language, – albeit more begrudgingly than usual – she explained her thoughts on the matter to the other two members of the team.

'I don't think I'm much of a leader, honestly,' she began. 'I don't have a lot of experience leading a group, and my communication usually stems from my body language, which cannot translate complex feelings very easily. With that being said, I think it would be best if we divide the group into various roles, instead of the group simply having a leader.'

"Different roles? How so?" Thea asked, intrigued by the idea.

'I may be a leader, but my knowledge is unmatched by Oberon's, I cannot see the world in the same way that Thea does, and Rylee's quick-thinking and bravery is something to be admired. What I'm trying to explain is the fact that I'm not perfect. As a team, we should rely on each other and depend on the strengths of the group, whilst covering each other's weaknesses.' Neo continued.

"I…hadn't considered that. Officially designated roles within the group makes a lot of sense." Rylee murmured to themselves. "What kind of roles are you thinking?"

'Well…I was going to designate Oberon to be the Strategist; in charge of various combat positions, co-operative attacks, and tactics to use in the heat of battle. Rylee would be the group's Weaponmaster, in charge of helping to train the group, maintain weaponry and armour, and advising augmentations. Thea would be in charge of Covert Operations since she can see in the dark and excels in stealth.' She suggested, honestly making up the latter half of her suggestions on the fly.

"And what would you be, Neo?" Oberon asked, raising an eyebrow. Looks like someone was sharp enough to notice that Neo was just subtly trying to foist her responsibilities on others, whilst retaining the title of leader which had now been stripped of any accountability.

'I'll still be the leader of the group, in charge of making sure the group gets along well with each other, and that we function like a well-oiled machine. So, a mediator of sorts, with final say in general decision-making.'

"I suppose that's fair, since she was originally assigned leader." Thea commented.

"And defended that title, too!" Rylee added, firmly bumping Oberon's arm whilst he just grumbled something indecipherable.

'Any objections?' Neo signed, with Oberon translating, one last time. Nobody raised their hand… until Oberon, himself, did.

"I'm not objecting; just wanted to make my first suggestion as the team strategist. You may notice that this room is very cramped because it is poorly laid-out." He then took out a small model of the room from his satchel and placed it between everyone. The room had been divided down the middle. One side was along the far side of the room, and the other was on the near side of the room, making a pair of long rectangles. As one entered the room, there was a table and four chairs to the left, and a worktable on the right which could be used for weapon maintenance, armour tinkering or simply as a desk which interacted with one's handheld scroll to project many different screens. On the far side of the room was a particularly curious design. Essentially, by adding in some platforms and wardrobes stacked atop each other, there were now four smaller rooms within the larger room. One for each member of the team, whilst still leaving room for the large window in the middle, and a space to store weapons, armour, shoes, and the like underneath it, by the bookshelves. He had even mapped out which person should have each miniature room. Neo gets the top left, Thea bottom left, Rylee top right and Oberon bottom right. Needless to say, they were rather impressed with the care and attention to detail which Oberon had put into designing the layout of the room.

"As you can see, I have redesigned the structure of the room to maximize – "

"Wow…that's really amazing! There'll be so much more space if we rearrange it like that!" Thea beamed, picking up the small model and rotating it around in her hands.

"Well…that's true, but where are we going to get the raw materials? A structurally-sound series of platforms and wardrobes won't just fall out of the sky." Rylee said.

"As it just so happens…I have the solution for that." Oberon replied, before reaching into his satchel once more and pulling out a series of wooden beams, nails, hammers, and slides. "It will take some hard work, but I believe it shouldn't be too difficult, with all of us working together."

And so, the first couple of days of their daily lives of Beacon was spent making their room into their own little scoop of paradise. There were many splinters, tea breaks, lamenting about how they were going to get the bed up onto the top floor and, of course, moving various items around, almost nonsensically, until it was finally complete.

They beheld their work with great satisfaction. Each little cubby was personalised with a custom-made thick and heavy curtain over the front for the option of privacy. It was designed to muffle sound, too. Neo's was, naturally, pink, white and brown and the inside was rather modest, as she didn't have much baggage to store away. Her pyjamas were bundled into the wardrobe, with Hush hooked on a metal pole which ran horizontally across the inside of the wardrobe. A small bedside table would house her hat and scarf when she wasn't wearing it, and her boots were neatly stored underneath her bed, which doubled as a small storage area. Neo enjoyed her space, modest as it was, because she liked being up high. It made her feel regal and important, even if it just meant that she had to walk up the makeshift staircase when she wanted to go to bed.

Thea's was similar, but her curtains were like a dimly lit sky, with the stars just beginning to come out. Oberon had been the one to make it for her, after she described what she wanted it to look like. Her cubby was kept dimly lit since she didn't need to have a lit lamp inside. However, she did still have one, in the rare event that she invited someone inside. The lantern shone a bright blue colour, as if the lunar rays of the moon were manifesting within. Inside her wardrobe were her spare clothes, extra bandages, and space to store her various cloaks, hoodies, and metal sparring plates.

Rylee's was quite different to Thea's, even though it was innately similar. Their curtains depicted a beautiful golden sunrise over a forest and distant mountain. Their cubby was well-lit and practical. They insisted on having a small armour stand and some racking to hold their weaponry. Inside their wardrobe was a mix of books on a small shelf, each with somewhat stereotypically masculine topics, such as sports, cars, gym guides, war studies and military tactics. Everything had a place to be, and they were quite obsessive over it. Bets were made in secret as to what Rylee's biological gender was, with Oberon insisting they were female, Neo thinking they were male, and Thea just finding the subject to be amusing.

Oberon's room had a black and purple colour scheme, from his bedsheets to his curtains. A small table had been tucked into the corner, alongside a filing cabinet which he used instead of a wardrobe. Various blueprints and schematics were drawn, redrawn, revamped, scrapped, and remade from nothing over and over again. And Neo was forbidden from even looking at them.

It really made her annoyed when he allowed Rylee to look at them, but explicitly said Neo wasn't allowed to. She even tried bribing Rylee to spill the beans, but they proved to be too honourable to the promise they had made to Oberon, regarding not letting Neo in on the details. However, after a few days, she relented and just gave up caring about it, since she had recently been preoccupied with a different subject: making a journal of her memories, key dates, events and, lastly, what her plans were, in order to capitalize on the situation as much as possible.

Ultimately, pretty much every event on the list was a tragedy and each one was worse than the last. From various dust robberies to the full-blown downfall of Beacon as a whole. Even the good things on the list, like the invention of the Paladin and Atlas's new design of robotic soldiers, would ultimately serve to be tools of evil. As if things could not get any worse, Neo knew better than anyone that all these terrible events were not only interconnected, but part of a larger scheme. Since the first phase of the plans were already underway – considering that she noticed an influx of dust robberies as of late – it was only a matter of time before the next phase began. The first major offensive on Vale (and humanity, as a whole,) would begin in only a matter of weeks, assuming that her knowledge of events wasn't misinformed.

Now then… according to her knowledge, there were several key individuals who were integral to… just about everything. Ruby Rose, Roman Torchwick, Cinder Fall, and Adam Taurus. Naturally, Ruby Rose was first on the list of people that she needed to meet, since she was so close by, and she had other business with her. Namely, apologising to her for…something? Next on that list, however, should be Roman Torchwick. Tracking him down would not be so easy. Whilst she did have a good idea of where his base of operations would be located due to her premonition, she couldn't just walk in there, pull up a chair and share a cup of tea with the man. Whilst getting in and out wouldn't be a problem with her semblance, having a conversation with him without jeopardising herself would be incredibly difficult. If she was going to converse with him, it'd have to be on her own terms. And that meant finding the man and, potentially, forcing him into submission.

"You're looking serious." Oberon stated, peering up at Neo from the sitting area. She looked back down at him, before closing her scroll and sitting up to get a better look. The young man was holding a small box in his hands and seemed…happy. Not smug, like usual, but actually rather merry. "Mind if I talk to you? In… private?" He asked.

Neo just sighed. Why did her teammates always have to intervene whenever she's in the middle of something? Nonetheless, she moved over a little on her bed and gestured for him to come up and sit beside her, since there wasn't really anywhere else to sit in her miniature section of the room. There was a delicate silence as he ascended and entered, closing the neapolitan-coloured curtain behind him. He sat down next to her and placed down the box between the two of them but rested his hand upon it, as if to imply that he wasn't giving it to her just yet.

'This might be…difficult to put gently, so I'll just ask what's been on my mind.' He signed, using two floating hands. It was preferable to speaking, since nobody could overhear what they were discussing. ''Neopolitan' isn't your real name, is it?'

She just blinked, confusedly. Was that really it? Oberon, the guy who could outsmart a supercomputer, was now asking if this girl had truly been named after ice cream when she was born.

Neo answered by shaking her head, confirming that it was not her birth name.

'It's 'Trivia Vanille,' isn't it?' He asked, his face completely serious. It wasn't arrogant, even when Neo froze up upon seeing the name signed out. She wanted to deny it, claim that her real name was…err… Scarlet, or something. But it was already too late. In that moment of hesitance and baffled astonishment, she had already given it away, and she knew that Oberon had picked up on it. There was no point in hiding it, now.

'Don't tell.' She signed, having regained her composure.

'Had I planned to tell, I wouldn't have gone to you, first.' He replied. Though she saw the logic, it only made Neo immediately assume that this was going to be some kind of blackmail attempt. Maybe that time he'd caught her when she fell would finally be repaid in full, and then some. 'It is good to see that you've had some kind of a change of heart, though. Even if it is unexpected for someone to turn a full one-eighty. So, why become a Huntress?'

Neo raised an eyebrow. His question and statements were quite confusing. Why was he talking to her as if her old name carried some kind of weight to it? She remembered nothing about the name, itself, or anyone associated with it, aside from herself. To her, it was just her old name which paled in comparison to her new one, which fit her much better, and she was more comfortable to be known as. As for her motivation to be a Huntress, she had just wanted a place to hunker down, find her bearings and then enjoy the perks of a Huntress' License. It's not like she was driven towards protecting people out of the kindness of her heart or anything so…mundane, stereotypical or cliché. So, she decided to just dodge the question, entirely, and flip the script.

'Change of heart? How so?'

'Well, you and Torchwick were one of the most successful crime duos in Vale, until you both slipped under the radar about a year ago. So, given up on –?'

'Hold on a moment. Torchwick? As in… Roman Torchwick?' Neo interrupted.

'…But of course…? Your former partner in crime. Don't tell me that you don't remember.'

Wait a minute…this 'Trivia Vanille' character was actually in league with the serial dust thief? Was it possible that he had been the one to leave her in that alley without anything to her name? It would explain quite a lot if that were the case. It was the only lead she had to her past, as it currently stood.

'But I don't remember!' Neo exploded, before laying back in her bed, feeling defeated. If only her memories weren't clouded over. Then she could have used her knowledge to find him, get some answers, and slow the dust thefts considerably, all at once! Urgh, and yet here she was spilling all her life secrets to someone who really had no business knowing them. Just when Neo was about to give up and close her eyes, a pair of floating hands appeared above her, and signed to her once again.

'What is your most distant memory?'

'Waking up in an alleyway on the day that I first attended Beacon.' She reluctantly replied, still laying down in lamentation. It then dawned on her that he had no reason to believe her, an ex-criminal.

'That was less than a week ago.' The hands spoke, before gesturing to Oberon, himself. Hesitantly, Neo sat up and looked at that robot of a man. He signed with his own hands to her. 'Are you okay?'

For some reason, that seemingly innocent question was the one to finally highlight the fractures which she had hidden from even herself. No. No, she was not okay. How could she possibly be okay in this situation?! She was lost in a world which didn't resonate with her. A world where everything felt familiar, but entirely different. Shackled with the knowledge that everything around her would crumble to dust in only a few months' time unless she somehow did something to stop it. Surrounded by people she once thought to be dead, as if plagued by ghosts which stirred from their slumber just to torment her. Stuck living out a fantasy of being a Beacon Academy student, just to try and hide the agony and evade apathy. And she had to bear all of it without a voice to call her own.

She couldn't find the words to describe the situation, without giving away even more details, so she just shook her head. Getting into the subject of her memories would only open more cans of worms.

Oberon now felt just plain awful. He had been so rude to her, without considering how she was feeling, or the circumstances which she was going through. He once thought she was some kind of lucky little girl who had managed to cheat her way into Beacon. But he was wrong. When he came into this conversation, he had expected to hear excuses, threats, blackmail, and denial, but here she was admitting that he was right, and telling him that she was not in a good place, mentally speaking. It took a lot of courage – or a lot of fear – to do that. And he knew that he was not a therapist.

But there was one thing he could do.

He calmly reached out and opened the box which he had brought with him. Inside was a delicate pair of pink, brown and white gloves which had been designed with Neo in mind. He reached inside and passed them to her.

'Try these on.' His floating hands signed to her. 'They won't be able to take away any of that stress… but they certainly will be quite useful to you.' He smiled, trying his best to be reassuring.

Neo looked the gloves over, happy to find a distraction from that ever-spiralling train of thought. They were quite the work of art if she was honest. The fingers of the gloves were a delightful hue of pink, the palm and back of the gloves were a pure, elegant tone of white, and the wrists of the gloves were a dark hue of brown. Neo slipped off her usual pair and tried them on. They were sleek and soft, but she could feel just how durable and grippy they were. The gloves clung to her skin tightly, as if it were perfectly crafted to fit her hands.

Oberon then reached forward and pressed a small button, hidden on the back of her hand, causing the fingertips to gently pulse with a faint, white glow.

'Sorry that these took so long. The coding and programming took a while, alongside the various voice lines. But… if you're to be our leader, then I think these will help give you a voice of authority.'

Neo looked over the glowing runes upon her fingertips. At first, she was wondering if he intended for her to write in the air. But then she realised that that was not the case since her fingers left behind no visible light trails. Was it possible that…he had somehow managed to…?

'Give it a try.' He prompted, gesturing for her to go ahead.

And so, Neo signed the words, and a voice spoke from Oberon's scroll. It was a soft, yet bold, womanly voice which Neo didn't recognise, but it gave her gesture a voice which everyone could hear. This would be one small gesture for Neo, but one giant leap towards living a life which did not rely upon mere gestures, body language, and sass, alone.

"Thank you."


TLDR:

Team Nitro have a group meeting, in which Neo assigns everyone a role. Oberon: Strategist, Thea: Covert Operations Leader, Rylee: Weapons Master, and Neo: Leader.

Neo organises a list of dates and a timeline of events as she knows it, which she intends to use to compare to this timeline and use as a basis for her plans going forward. She also plans to investigate integral people to the key events of her last dimension: Ruby, Roman, Cinder and Adam.

Oberon confronts Neo about her past as Trivia Vanille and finds out about her lapse of memory. He gives her a gift: a pair of gloves which integrate with a scroll in order to translate sign language into speech. (Don't worry, this won't be used as often as you might expect. It's more of an upgrade to her previous 'last resort' communication tactics.)