Neo ran.

She ran as fast as she could away from the fight and at that moment she didn't care if Jaune had Hush or where Ruby was as long as she got away and lived. Bushes and leaves crunch underneath the girl's feet as she heads deep into the forest. She ignores the slight sting of the branches whipping her face and tries to focus the sounds around her, ears searching for if the knight was following her.

Neo flinches slightly as she hears her illusion get shattered behind her. 'There goes the last of my aura. Now there's nothing but distance between me and him.'

The dark look in the boy's eyes flashes back into her mind and sends a slight shiver down Neo's spine knowing if he catches her that will be the last thing she ever sees. The idea of being caught fills the girl with terror as she tries picking up her pace.

Not hearing anything, Neo takes a second to look back to see if he was following, and luckily for her she saw nothing. Unluckily for her she looked back a second too many. Neo's foot catches onto a root she wasn't able to see and she flies through the air hitting the ground roughly. Her momentum causing her to flip and roll through the dirt and weeds before hitting a tree and quickly coming to a stop on her face.

'Today's been one fuck up after another and with how it's been going its starting to feel like this is karma.' Neo silently groans in pain, really starting to feel the bruises and cuts as she rolls herself onto her back. 'This has to be what it feels like to be a punching bag.'

Neo takes a brief moment to think about how weird and shitty today has been for her from getting kicked off the side of a bridge made of light by cinder, and talking to a really weird looking tree to losing two fights against the worst fighter of Red's little group. After the brief run through of the day's events, the girl hops to her feet before starting to brush herself off.

'This outfit is trashed… damn.' Neo feels the several holes in her clothes, cussing as she feels her now ruined outfit 'Where the hell am I supposed to get new clothes out her-'

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Neo's thoughts are interrupted as an ear piercing screech fills the air causing the girl to freeze mid brush. Goosebumps shoot up the girl's arms and the hair raises on the back of her neck. Neo can tell immediately that it didn't come from the knight and is definitely from some other creature that lives here making that horrible sound.

Neo quickly decides whatever made the noise is too close for comfort and she starts sprinting again. A branch whips her cheek, slicing her. The girl hisses as the blood trickles down her face and collects at the edge of her lips. Neo starts to taste iron, the blood seeping into her mouth as she runs. The small thief wipes the liquid off her face with the back of her hand smearing the blood across her face, and giving the assassin an even more deranged look.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!"

Neo hears a second scream soon after this one a bit quieter than the last, and definitely the knight. The girl, not taking a single moment to stop her running, sends up a prayer to the brother gods hoping that it's the knight dying a horrible death even though Neo knows though that she could never be that lucky.

Neo runs for a while longer and doesn't hear anything following her or anymore screams so she slows her pace to a stop and takes a moment to catch her breath and wipe off the blood that was still dribbling down her face. As she takes the moment to rest Neo feels a cold breath on her neck, and the assassin's heart jumps to her throat. Neo tries to keep her breathing normal and act like she didn't feel anything so that she has the best odds for what she's about to do next.

Neo spins quickly, pivoting on one leg and kicking as hard as she can at where the things face should be hoping to stun or knock out whatever is behind her. Neo's leg flies at an incredible speed sure to devastate whatever poor creature decided to sneak up on her. As she follows through on the kick, Neo is shocked to feel and see…

'Nothing?'

Still nervous and catching her breath, Neo lets her eyes adjust to the darkness and tries to calm down a little. For some reason only some parts of the forest are covered in darkness and shadows while the rest of the forest is bathed in an almost hazy gray light. The canopy dilutes the little sunshine that comes through making the light that is able to enter paint everything in a muted gray.

Neo looks around spotting several different shadows, and all of them look terrifying to the girl. The light that does sneak into the forest does little to ease her mind and she can't help but imagine what creatures could be lurking behind or even making the shadows she's seeing.

The assassin looks to her left and sees something so large it has to be a tree. The girl's overactive imagination makes Neo see a huge creature with long limbs, a large head and horns jutting out of its skull. Neo can almost feel the killing intent coming from the 'shadow'. On the other side Neo sees a shadow that can only be described as that of a dragon the size of a small house. The creature has to be a tree as its wings look like nothing but bones and its head is twisted at an angle that would make it very hard to survive.

Right in front of Neo though is the most interesting shadow to the girl. This shadow looks like a fairly large cat hanging from a branch by its tail. The girl slowly creeps towards the shadow wondering what would possibly make a shape like that. As Neo moves closer and closer to the 'shadow' she spots what looks like the form of a person out of the corner of her eye.

Taking her eyes off of the cat 'shadow' Neo looks over to the shadow of the person. As Neo focuses in on it she is shocked to see that it looks like the knight. Neo wonders how he could have caught up to her in such a short time without her hearing and how he could've found her in the dark before her brain's alarms finally kick on and she remembers the reason she was running from the blonde in the first place. Neo pauses as her brain reboots and immediately gets into a fighting stance.

Neo waits like a statue watching the shadow, her eyes searching for any sign of movement from it. The shadow stays deathly still, not even appearing to breathe. After about a minute of waiting Neo makes the first move sprinting at the shadow ready to carve her way through the knight with her bare hands. As she gets closer though the girl starts seeing what made the shadow more clearly and quickly slows her pace as she realize that it's just another trick of the light

Neo breathes a sigh of relief. A fight that would've been her last has been avoided for now. The girl walks back to where she saw the 'shadow' of the cat and the beast hoping she can finally get a good look at what was making the cat shadow. After following the small trail of broken twigs and crushed plants, Neo gets back to the tree and looks up to see that the shadow is gone and that nothing is hanging from the branch at all.

Confused Neo circles around the tree looking for where the thing might be. The girl hops up onto a low branch to get a closer look and ends up finding nothing. Neo hops off the tree, landing lightly and taking one last look at it. The girl searches for another minute, slightly unnerved that she can't find what was making the shadow. Neo steels her nerves and starts turning her back to the shadows.

'Maybe it's a good thing I can't find it.'

Mid turn Neo sees one of the shadows jump from one tree to another. The mute's head snaps towards the tree where she spotted the movement. The girl focuses on where she thinks she saw something. The feeling of being watched returns full force making the girl's skin crawl as she scans the treeline trying to see if it moved to a different tree. Neo starts holding her breath hoping it will help her hear and focus on seeing if anything is in the trees.

After a minute of no luck spotting what it might be the girl lets out a gasp and tries to right her breathing while still searching for what was in the trees. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, the girl starts to walk backwards away from the tree still keeping an eye out for any movement. Soon deciding she's far enough from the shadows and if she doesn't keep moving something or someone might catch up to her. Neo turns around and continues her run to the heart of the island…

Neo's mouth is starting to taste like iron and each breath stings but Neo just can't escape from the feeling that something is watching her. The feeling is unbearable to the girl, her curiosity and intrusive thoughts get the better of her. Turning around the girl once again searches the forest for any sign of movement that's not natural.

The feeling of eyes on her stays but Neo can't see what is watching her. It's at times like these where Neo wishes she had a voice so she can call out to whatever is watching her to come out and face her. Maybe it's for the best though because everything is much more real when you can see it.

The sound of leaves rustling slightly to her left catches Neo's attention and she just glimpses the last of a creature jumping into the crown of one of the nearby trees. If Neo wasn't scared before she definitely is now. Her body starts to tremble and her breaths become short and rapid, quickly becoming lightheaded from the mixture of constant running and panic. The girl realizes what's happening quickly and starts trying to calm herself down, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths, while trying to talk herself out of it.

'Why would I be scared of animals in a forest? If anything I shouldn't be here...' Neo's first attempt at trying to ease her nerves ends unsuccessfully, as she remembers that she definitely shouldn't be here.

'Nothing is wrong. I'm just on edge because of the fight. That's all. I'm probably still a bit out of it after the knight cracked me in the head.' This time Neo is much more successful, and is able to calm herself down a bit, her breathing becoming a bit more even. Neo takes one final deep breath before starting to breath normally and resume her journey. Now taking a rest from the constant running and letting herself walk trying not to focus on the feeling and instead imagining all the different ways she is going to torture the knight when she got a hold of him.

'I was just seeing things that weren't there.' Neo thinks back to the shadow of Jaune and the cat. Unfortunately for her the thought is answered immediately by the sound of a branch snapping followed by something hitting the forest floor, and a loud hiss.

The girl one again whips around facing the dark mass on the ground. Large neon blue oval eyes open and stare at Neo. Something about the eyes makes Neo feel really uneasy and triggers Neo's urge to run, but she can't seem to make herself move. The eyes of the thing bore into Neo like it's searching for something in her soul. The creatures oval pupils thinning until the creature's eyes look like a snake or a cat.

The eyes are too bright and the soft glow they emanate makes the shadows around the creature look 10 times more terrifying. A mouth forms on the creature and an inhuman smile splits the empty air under the floating eyes. A set of needle-like teeth make an already creepy grin into something straight out of nightmares.

Neo pops out of her stupor and the eyes blink at Neo in confusion as the silent assassin turns on her heel and runs as fast as she can away from the bright eyed creature, her heart pounds as she sprints. Neo couldn't think all she could do was run, and run she did. Too bad she didn't hear the creature's warning…

Neo's legs should have given out 10 minutes ago but adrenaline and fear has kept her on her feet for this far. The adrenaline starts to wear out for the girl and she starts slowing down her pace quickly slowing from a sprint to a shaky walk. Neo pushes off of the trees with her arms to help propel her to what hopefully is a way out of the forest. Soon the forest is so dark that Neo can no longer see where the next tree is and launches herself into nothing. Her legs finally give out and she falls to the ground.

That's when the whispering starts. At first it's inaudible and Neo doesn't notice it. But slowly whisper by whisper the voices get louder and shadows of people start to form around the girl.

"Why didn't you save me?" The first whisper Neo hears takes the voice of Roman. The girl pinches herself to make sure she's not dreaming again, the stinging sensation on her arm unfortunately confirming what she's hearing is real "You weren't there for me when I needed you… I thought we were partners."

Neo's chest tightens as she hears the man's voice. looking around her to see where he is before spotting the familiar looking shadow a stone's throw away. Neo crawls towards the shadow, but as she gets closer to it the shadow moves farther away. "You can stop following me. I don't want you near me."

Neo doesn't listen and keeps moving towards the shadow. Tears well in the corner of her eyes as she tries calling out to roman, her mouth moves but no noise comes out. The next voice the girl hears makes Neo start to panic again. This voice belongs to the knight. Neo tries moving towards roman faster but the shadow just keeps backing up getting farther and farther away from her as the knight taunts the girl.

"Running to a man who wants nothing to do with you so you can use him as a human shield? Shows how much you really loved him." Neo desperately looks towards the shadow Roman and silently pleads for him to help. The shadow responds by turning its back to her and slowly walking even farther away.

"Why didn't you finish me Neo? It could've made everything much much easier but you couldn't finish the job like always…" Jaune speaks up again, breaking Neo's attention off of Roman as he reminds Neo of her most recent failure. This one doesn't hurt her as much but the reminder still stings.

"All you had to do was kill me. You had every opportunity to do so. I'm not very surprised though you couldn't even kill Ruby." Neo silently screams for Roman to come back. Immediately the shadow of the thief appears next to her and whispers directly in her ear, the cold breath of the thing tickling her slightly.

"Couldn't even avenge my death… Pathetic." The last word bounces around Neo's skull, and everytime it echoes the girl's heart cracks just a little bit more. Neo covers her ears trying to stop herself from being able to hear the insults, but even as she presses her hands as hard as she can to the sides of her head it doesn't stop her from hearing anything. "I should have just let Cinder burn me to ashes. At least it would have been quicker than how you let me die." The last sentence drives Neo over her breaking point, and she starts to weep uncontrollably the stream of tears now accompanied by silent body wracking sobs.

Other voices join in after the shadow of Roman finishes, soon getting so loud that when Jaune and Roman start to talk again their voices blend in with the rest of the voices from her parents and other people she's killed or hurt over the years asking her over and over again why she killed them and what they did wrong.

Even Team RWBY showed up to torment Neo telling her that she should kill herself since she was only good at killing innocents and people she cared about. Neo soon breaks down even more, her body shakes violently as she starts apologizing hoping it will get the voices to stop and leave her alone.

A small voice rings through the rest of the voices, the voice of a little girl that Neo doesn't recognize. "Why did you kill me?" Neo's head shoots up and she looks around for the girl.

"I was just going with my daddy to get ice cream when you brought monsters into the city. Why would you do that, Miss Neo?" The little girl's voice starts to crack and break as she keeps on talking to Neo asking the thief why she would hurt her.

Neo drags herself over to where the voice is coming from trying to find the girl and apologize, but the mute is unable to find the girl within the dozens of shadows surrounding her. Neo collapses and Jaune's voice breaks through the buzz of whispers as the shadow speaks right into her ear.

"Why bother apologizing? You don't really mean it…"

'Shut up'

"If you were really sorry you would have apologized on your own. You're just sorry because now your actions are coming back to haunt you."

'SHUT UP!' Neo tries screaming out for everyone to leave her alone but it doesn't help, her voice is still as useless as ever.

Shadow Roman once again makes itself known as it hisses at her "Why should we be quiet? We are all just making up for lost time after being SILENCED by you…"

'Kill me please…' Neo begs the knight's shadow right beside her.

"That would be too kind."

'I'm begging please kill me. I can't take it anymore.'

"How do you think I felt, Neo? When I begged for you to come back and help me but you left me alone to know what it's like being murdered because the person who was supposed to be watching your back wasn't there to watch your back?"

'I couldn't get to you… I tried, I promise.'

"You didn't try hard enough then." Roman hisses

"Maybe if you put as much effort into saving Roman as you did trying to kill Ruby he would still be alive…" This time it's Jaune in the girl's ear.

'I TRIED AS HARD AS I COULD!' Neo tries screaming once again every word tearing at her throat yet still dying before they exit her mouth, the only sign that she screamed at all being the taste of iron. Neo's body still shaking violently as she sobs, her eyes squeezed shut trying not to look at the surrounding shadows.

That's when something strange happens. The girl's body starts glowing despite being out of aura for hours. The light becomes brighter and brighter making the shadows vanish and the whispers leave with them until only two remain. The two constantly switch their voices in panic trying to get the girl to stop what she's doing, but no matter who's voice they choose, the light keeps getting brighter, and the two last shadows are quickly erased.

The pink light eventually gets so bright Neo can see it through her eyelids. Neo also notices the whispering has stopped. Slowly Neo opens her eyes to see the shadows are gone and the area around her is bathed in pink light. Behind Neo the pink light starts forming a body…

Neo falls over on her side, her body giving out from the crying and running the almost blinding pink light subsiding back to a small glow around her body. The sound of leaves crunch behind Neo but she's too tired to care. The girl instead curls her body into a ball and closes her eyes again. Neo hopes death will take her quickly, and that when she opens her eyes again that she'll no longer be in the forest.

The hand she feels on her shoulder is cold and Neo lets out a soft breath ready to leave this world, the voice she hears accompanying the hand, helps confirm her suspicions that she was dying.

"Neo." The girl opens her eyes hoping to see a different world but is disappointed to see the same dark forest surrounding her. Still Neo refuses to look at the owner of the voice not wanting to see the look in his eyes as he looked down upon her.

'Leave me alone. Just let me die in peace.' The girl begs hoping that she can die without anymore torture by the forest.

"I'm not one of them. You should be able to know that I'm real. Please believe me Neo." This Roman pleads to the girl trying to gently roll her over to look at him without any success. The girl squeezes herself into a tighter ball and clenches her eyes shut again not trusting anything related to the thief after her last two encounters.

"I'm not like them. I'm real. I promise."

'Roman never promised anything. He also couldn't hear my thoughts or know about my dreams.'

"This is a weird place Neo. Everything is all fucked up and wacky here. Me being able to hear what you can think is probably the most normal thing that's happened to you today."

Neo's brow furrows as she thinks about all the weird shit that's happened to her from fighting Red on weird light bridges and losing to the knight not once but TWICE, to the weird clock tree that spoke into her mind. As Neo keeps going over the events from the day she has to admit that Roman may have a point. The small assassin can't help but still be slightly wary and untrusting of this Roman though, the last two versions she saw still very fresh in her mind.

"Would I ever tell you any of those awful things? We're partners, and you did all that you could. I

couldn't ask for more." Roman tries once again to softly roll the girl over, and this time he succeeds. Neo opens her eyes and tears spill out as she sees the thief, looking just as amazing as she remembers. Her doubts are immediately vanquished as she looks into the warm green eyes of Roman Torchwick.

"It's time to get up Neo, we need to get out of here and you can't do that lying down." Neo responds by launching herself into Roman, knocking him back and cracking his form slightly. Neo doesn't notice though as she buries herself in his chest, her aura immediately healing the construct as it returns the embrace.

"Please get up, we need to leave this place before the knight finds you." The mention of Jaune is enough to make the tiny assassin seethe with anger. The girl letting go of Roman and clenching her fists.

"You can't beat him right now Neo. You don't even have a weapon." Neo answers by forming a construct of Hush in her hand and making several stabbing motions.

"It's not strong enough to break through his aura, and wouldn't be able to deflect or trade blows without being shattered. It would be a better idea to sneak up on him and take hush back."

Neo nods in agreement letting the glass weapon fade back into pink energy and absorb itself back into her body. The girl immediately comes up with another idea just to be quickly shot down once again.

"He's probably going to be prepared for you. You're also not on his level in this state." Roman looks Neo up and down causing said girl to pout slightly, and reluctantly admit that he once again has a point.

"Of course I do!" the thief laughs "Have I ever once had a bad idea?"

Neo tilts her head to the side looking at her partner before counting the many bad ideas Roman has had in the past one by one on her hands, the girl quickly runs out of fingers and instead spreads her arms as far as she can.

"Okay I get it. I may have had a few bad ones in the past, but most of the time my ideas are great." Neo rolls her eyes and smirks at the thief, her response not even needing to be heard by her partner in crime.

"Alright, Alright. Let's just get going now. I think that's a good idea at least." Roman extends a hand out for Neo. His partner immediately takes him up on the offer and places her hand in his, giving a light squeeze.

And so the two thieves go along their way heading out of the forest and towards the heart of the land. Not a whisper to be heard nor a shadow to be seen as they head towards what Neo hopes is a much happier future.

Authors Note:

Why this chapter was so late:

I made a lingering injury much worse by accident on my trip, and have been in constant pain for around a month. Combining that with the trip to see some family and several doctors appointments it's been pretty hard to write but I still have been trying to get this chapter out as fast as I could while still maintaining some quality.

Another problem I had with writing this chapter was how to write it and despite having a lot of the chapters planned and writing outlines for a good amount. This time instead of giving myself an outline to work with like I usually do I ended up just trying to wing it and come up with stuff as I went hoping it would be faster (spoilers: I was very wrong). I really just ended up just making writing the chapter that much more hard on myself. Hopefully the next chapter will come out quicker but I am also still in the middle of dealing with medical stuff, and if I'm lucky I should be able to get surgery by early next month. This chapter will more than likely be rewritten later.

Story stuff:

I actually spent a good while thinking about what to call this chapter and couldn't decide whether to call it Sprint! or A Trick Of The Light. I ended up deciding on a trick of the light because I felt it fit better with what happened in this chapter. The curious cat being able to camouflage was a fun idea so I decided to implement it. I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts about it.

Neo's emotions are all over the place in this chapter because that's how I wanted it to be. She's in a dark and scary forest after exhausting her aura and getting hit by a rock. She's definitely going to be a bit loopy and unfocused after the day she's had.

The little girl was something I added later because I thought it would be an interesting idea to make a "physical" representation of Neo's guilt for participating in the breach and Cinder's schemes in general even if she didn't have a choice.

Also I apologize for the short chapter, Feel free to review and comment on what you liked or didn't. I once again thank you for reading.