The next morning, Neo and Ruby left the house with bags packed for their journey. They were still very tired from the night before but left the house nonetheless. The forest was full of Grimm that neither of the girls had seen before. It looked like the Grimm were evolving into entirely new species, and dangerous ones too.
The duo ran into a part of the forest with no trees, it almost looked like an arena. Suddenly four massive legs emerged from the ground, revealing a four legged spider Grimm. The two had no choice but to fight, they pulled out their weapons and charged. The Grimm had four dust crystals, fire, electric, water and ice that he could use. It was like fighting a giant mech with multiple blasters. Ruby and Neo's weapons were useless against it, this Grimm was like no other.
Ruby: What do we do? We aren't doing anything against it!
Neo: I'm not sure, Cinder did mention that the Grimm leader experimented on certain Grimm, those experiments were so successful, that the Grimm were almost impenetrable!
Ruby and Neo jumped to dodge a flame blast coming towards them. Suddenly a large blast came from the forest behind Ruby and Neo, hitting the fire dust crystal, causing it to blow up damaging the Grimm's body.
Neo: What was that?
Ruby: I'm not sure, whatever it was it damaged the Grimm!
Neo: That's it! That Grimm has now weak points because they are all hidden under the layer of armour! The only way for use to kill it is by destroying the armour.
Ruby: And to destroy the armour, we need to…
Ruby and Neo: Destroy the dust crystals!
Ruby and Neo separated to target different crystals. Since the flame crystal was destroyed, the Grimm was now unable to use flame attacks. Neo pulled her blade from her hush and charged at the ice crystal while Ruby shot at the Grimm to distract it. Neo landed a direct hit while Ruby managed to destroy the water crystal at the same time. The Grimm's armour was severally damaged, one more crystal explosion and it should go down. The Grimm let out a loud shriek as it equipped the electric crystal, which was also the strongest one it had. Neo and Ruby both charged at the crystal with their melee weapons and managed to just barely break it. The Grimm's armour had been destroyed as the Grimm let out an even louder shriek from the one before.
Neo: It's vulnerable! Now is our chance!
The Grimm had planted it's legs into the ground causing puddles of black goo to emerge from the holes. Miniaturised version of the titan Grimm were emerging from the puddles at an alarmingly fast rate. Neo and Ruby were soon overwhelmed as the Titan Grimm had extracted four new crystals from the ground, allowing it to reforge its armour. The titan Grimm and many of its smaller variants began to march through the forest towards a watchtower-like structure.
Neo: Where is it going?
Ruby: I think there's a village nearby, I think it's going to it.
Neo and Ruby dealt with the last of the titan Grimm's underlings and began to rush to the village, even though they knew they weren't gonna make it time.
Neo: Grab on!
Ruby did as she was told and grabbed onto Neo as she opened her umbrella and caught the wind, allowing her to fly them over the titan Grimm and towards the village.
Ruby and Neo soon landed at the village, the town had already began to evacuate. This was strange since the fall of Beacon disabled communication between all four realms, the only communications available were inside the four major cites and some other exceptions. Neo had seen the titan Grimm had increased in size, explaining the evacuation that had already commenced.
Ruby: My aura is below halfway, yours?
Neo: The same, we barely survived the first time we fought this thing and there's no way we'll both survive it again.
Ruby: Then we don't, we hold them off for the village to evacuate completely. If we die, we die protecting others.
Neo nodded as the two turned to face the incoming swarm. The smaller Grimm were weak but had strength in numbers, soon it became too much for the two to handle. Ruby's aura was almost completely depleted, and the Titan Grimm had arrived at the town, destroying the front entrance wall in the process. It launched a fireball towards Ruby and Neo was not about to lose her second friend and only ever girlfriend. Neo jumped in front of Ruby and opened her parasol to block the shot. The smaller Grimm grabbed it from her hands causing the fire ball to hit Neo, depleting her aura completely.
Ruby: Neo!
Neo was now on the ground unable to get up, Ruby still had part of her aura but she was unable to get up as well. The Titan Grimm prepared to finish the two off for good until a hooded figure showed up and deflected the shot, destroying the ice crystal held by the Titan Grimm.
?: Are you two alright?
Ruby: Who are you?
?: I am Chris, and we have come to aid you.
Ruby: We?
Ruby at the corner of her eye the only other person who she knew had a scythe, her uncle Qrow. Chris grabbed a bottle of strange liquid and dropped it on the floor, causing it to shatter into pieces. Like magic, Neo and Ruby's auras were maxed out and the two were ready for anything.
Qrow: How do we beat the big guy?
Ruby: Aim for the dust crystals, their explosions do damage to its armour. Once its armour is destroyed, attack its main body before it gets more crystals and creates more Grimm!
Neo aimed for the fire crystal while Qrow and Chris went for the water and electric crystals. Ruby continued to fight the horde of Grimm. One by one, the crystals were destroyed and the Titan was now vulnerable once more. The four focused all their power onto the Titan but even that wasn't enough. Neo had no ranged weapons but she had no choice but to go melee, however this allowed the Titan to grab her. Ruby, scared for Neo reflected on Beacon and the giant stone creature on top of the tower. She focused all her energy and unleashed a blinding light onto the Titan, the Titan had frozen to stone, allowing Chris and Qrow to destroy it once and for all.
Chris: Well it's safe to say we won!
Qrow walked towards Neo while she got up from the ground. Just as Neo got up on her feet, Qrow rushed to Neo, Pinning her to the nearby wall.
Qrow: Aren't you one of the attackers from Beacon? What are you doing here? Are you the one who brought that Titan Dweevil here?
Ruby: Uncle what are you doing to Neo?!
Chris: Qrow back off, she's with us.
Qrow: How can you trust her after all she did?
Chris: Cause you weren't the only one who lost something at Beacon! Ruby lost her team, you lost Ozpin, and Neo lost her only friend, the only person who understood her.
Qrow: Well so what? Her "friend", was a criminal and so is she!
Chris: If you kill her, you betray on Ozpin's main belief!
Qrow: Which is?
Chris: Everyone deserves a second chance, I've kept an eye on these two, Neo is doing nothing but good now, her past life of crime is over for her, all that's left is the good in her.
Qrow took this into consideration and released Neo. Neo gasped for air since Qrow's hand was applying choking pressure. Ruby knelt down to make sure she was on as Qrow walked away.
Chris: Where do you think you're going?
Qrow: I've got some things to sort out.
And with that Qrow disappeared leaving the three alone in an empty village.
Chris had brought Neo and Ruby to his tent just outside town to heal them.
Ruby: what was that Grimm.
Chris: Titan Dweevil, new Grimm species. The Grimm have a leader, they have been… creating new Grimm, and I have managed to record every new Grimm species via this book, it creates a new page for every new type of Grimm made.
Chris handed Ruby the book. Neo on the other hand, had a different question in mind.
Neo: Who are you?
Chris: I'm Chris, I've already told you.
Neo: I mean who are you really?
Chris: … I'm a huntsman without licence, a rebel if you will. I specialise in stopping Crime and Minor Grimm invasions. You have met me before, but you wouldn't have known then.
Neo: You're the guy who interrupted Roman's dust shipment transports, the one with the same semblance as me.
Chris: Correct, I go by a different name, Thutmose, Chris is my real name, and yours is Trivia Vanille, am I correct?
Neo froze, as if on the verge of tears. She had told no one of her true name, how did he know?
Ruby: Neo? Are you alright?
Neo wasn't about to reveal her past, she got up and left the tent, all you could here were her faint sobs.
Chris: Tell me Ruby, how well do you really know your friend? Well… Girlfriend I suppose.
Ruby knew that Neo had a troublesome past and did her best to forget it. Chris had just gone over the line.
Ruby: Do you have no shame at all?
Chris: I beg your pardon?
Ruby: Do you spy on people just to break them apart? Do you enjoy others suffering? We could have won without you.
Chris: Oh please! If it wasn't for me, you would've never figured out how to break it's armour. I am the one that saved your asses more than once might I add, You would be nothing without me!
Ruby: And that's where you're wrong.
Ruby Grabbed her and Neo's stuff and walked to the exit of the tent before stopping.
Ruby: Do us a favour, and DON'T follow us.
Ruby caught up to Neo who was walking through the forest.
Ruby: Neo…
Neo: Why did you choose to be my friend? You knew nothing about me or my past, you could have just left and never bothered with me. So… why did you?
Ruby: You were a person going through a tough time like I was, and to be honest, I was looking all over for you. After Roman's death, I felt responsible for it, I made it my mission to find you and make things right.
Neo: Ruby…
Ruby: Neo… you helped me find a part of myself that was missing and now, I want to return the favour. I may know nothing of your past, I may not know who Trivia Vanille is, but what I do know… is who Neopolitan is.
Chris came from out the tent with a serious expression.
Chris: I know you two have no current mission, but I know where you can start.
Neo: … Go on.
Chris: I know Cinder fall and the White Fang are going to Mistral to steal something very important to the Grimm leader. That item is located inside Haven academy. I won't follow you, but what I will do, is Give you this.
Chris handed Neo a weird object toughly cuboid shaped.
Chris: It's a good luck charm, I think it would be in your best interest, to keep it. Good Luck!
Chris walked back into tent as Neo and Ruby turned to begin walking to Mistral. They held hands and smiled as they moved towards their next goal.