Disclaimer I don't own RWBY nor Marvel.
Chapter 7: Neo
Criminals. People who've disobeyed the law or broken it in some way.
There are many types of "Criminals", there are those that are guilty of what they're accused of, yet it's never that simple. It's not white and black as some movies may portray it.
Some may steal because they had no other choice, some may kill in self-defense, some may even have been wrongly accused.
Yet there are still those that may kill because they wanted to, may steal because they can, and will probably put the blame on someone else if given the chance.
Neo believes she and Roman belong on option B.
Roman steals because he can, and it brings some thrill to his life. She has been sent to kill any upcoming hotshot who thinks it can mess with their criminal empire. And they have put the blame on the White Fang and other gangs several times.
Yet this doesn't mean they lack humanity, after all, that's just business.
So, when half the population suddenly decides to give up on living, they too were shocked. They had looked at each other with fear in their eyes, just waiting for the moment one of them would suddenly disappear.
And when they didn't, they fucked like crazy that night. If one could die just like that then they had to make the most of it.
Once the shock was over, it was hard trying to go back to robberies and heists…not for the lack of trying mind you, but they lost at least a third of their manpower and the White Fang cell suddenly went silent (most likely that they too suffered the same fate as many others).
Some would say that Criminal Empires, Families and Gangs would thrive in the chaos, and whoever said that would be right, except for the fact that they too need people to run their illegitimate business.
But even as the dust settles and the missing are numbered, some things may stay the same.
After 1 week the fiery bitch decided to call them.
Btzzz Btzzz Btzzz
"Ugh! who call at this hour in the morning?!" Vale's most notorious criminal grumbled while getting up from the bed he was sharing with his trusted partner.
Said partner just sat there while putting on her clothes, ignoring what her partner was saying.
"C-Cinder, how good to hear from you again" she heard Roman stutter, 'So the bitch survived, fuck' Neo thought finally putting her boots.
"Are you kidding me woman?! Isn't this enough chaos?!" she wondered what nonsense Cinder was spouting, whatever it was Roman was totally against it "If you have more power now then why do you still want to destroy the city?! Don't you see it's already destroyed?!"
Roman was shaking, quite possibly in anger, some seconds passed before he suddenly stopped.
"S-Sorry, I was out of place" another second passed "you hold the power, but look even the underworld was hit hard by this, I can't steal without the manpower to do so"
Neo was sure if she got close enough, she would be able to hear Cinder.
"Look, how about we hold a meeting, with this going around all has stopped. The economy, crimes, even law enforcement has stopped, the only ones that haven't stopped are huntsmen an even they are trying their hardest to kill any Grimm that wanders too close"
What followed was simply Roman saying "Aja", "Yes", and "Of course".
Finally he let the scroll drop.
"You know Neo" she perked up when she heard her name "I really hoped that bitch had died"
She nodded eagerly expressing she agreed totally with him.
"She said to meet this afternoon" she frowned showing her displeasure "I hate this the same as you do, but I have a plan"
She raised an eyebrow "This is our only chance, she didn't sound as composed as always, she lost her composure twice in that call, while both were in anger that had never happened before, you know what that means?"
She shook hear head.
"She's vulnerable, something has her agitated" he was sporting a grin, and I could see a plan formulate on his eyes "Come Neo I have a plan"
It was a very simple plan, and now that she heard it, why had they thought about it? It didn't matter, now they had a chance.
And now all they had to do was wait until it was noon.
Said wait felt way too long, were the nerves of what they were about to do getting to her? No, she shook her head, it was who they were going to do it to, that had her nervous. If they missed, they were as good as toast, quite literally.
Soon enough they she heard heels approaching and she quickly activated her semblance.
Cinder strode into the room with only her green haired sidekick, it would seem that robot leg wasn't so fortunate.
"Roman" she greeted with her usual sultry tone "so good we could arrange this meeting for us"
Neo could read under the line 'Good thing you answered, or it wouldn't have ended good for you'.
"Where is your little sidekick?" Cinder frowned as she looked around the room, searching for her. Roman clenched his fist hard, trying to sell the act "Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean that" and she bought it if her smug voice was anything to go by.
"I could say the same about your teen assassin" Roman said through clenched teeth.
Cinder lost her smile, but didn't look that much bothered "An unexpected turn of events to be sure, but not a critical one" her smile was back "what is good is that the city is on chaos and if we act fast, they should be overrun by Grimm in minutes, how much dust do you still have?"
"I have at least 3 containers worth of Dust, I would have less but the White Fang never appeared to collect it" Roman's answer pleased her, if her smile getting a little wider was anything to go by.
"That's good! Then we won't need those animals for this" she said while pacing around the vividly in the room "Gather what men you still can and have them make some bombs with the Dust" she said while heading for the exit, as if her business there was done.
"No"
Suddenly all silence was lost in the room. Neo readied herself, she only had one shot at this.
Cinder turned slowly, and Emerald had wide eyes seeing the two fires coming out of Cinder's eyes, which was weird because Neo could swear it used to be only one that did that.
"I'm sorry Roman it would seem I misheard you" she said slowly while the intensity of her eyes increased "but did you say 'no'?"
"Yes" and before any of them could say anything else Roman raised his cane and shot at the sidekick.
Emerald's eyes widened and Cinder turned to look at her most loyal companion, and that's when she acted.
The sound of glass breaking was heard, and Neo prepared her umbrella.
Aura was the physical representation of one's souls. The saying of the eyes being the key or door to one's soul wasn't too inaccurate either.
They were also a quick way to the brain from the right angle.
Moving with all the speed she could muster, she positioned herself correctly and aimed the pointy end of her weapon at the Bitch's right eye.
In what would be her last moments, Cinder locked eyes with Neo, and Neo could see the surprise in them, the fear, and the recognition of who would kill her.
And before she could lift her arm to summon any fireball or anything…
…Neo's umbrella was sticking out of her head, with some grey matter still clinging onto it.
All that happened in quite possibly in half a second. And the other half was the explosion from Roman's shot, which sent Emerald flying out of the room.
"Uff" she turned to see Roman collapse on the sofa in the room "Holy shit…we did it" he murmured as if he couldn't believe it "We actually did it!"
Neo wanted to nod excitedly, but suddenly she felt a rush enter her body. She collapsed on the floor, trying to stabilize herself with her umbrella.
"Neo!" Roman was quick to be on his partner's side "Are you ok?!"
Her body felt on fire with the surplus of energy, power entering her body, but she didn't know that, all she knew was that it felt strange.
She got back on her feet and looked at her body, Roman stood by too wondering what happened to her.
She looked at her hand and clenched it into a fist. She felt good, better even, as if she had gotten a Power Up!
She turned to see at Roman with a twinkle in her eyes, when she noticed something behind him.
Moving fast, she shoved Roman out of her way and raised her hand towards Emerald who cried an enraged battle cry as she tried to cut them with her scythes.
She didn't know how or why she raised her hand, but it felt like an instinct and out of it a fireball was shot from her hands.
Once again Emerald was shot out of the room, Neo turned her head to Roman and made a jerking motion towards where the red-eyed girl had exited through.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll deal with this loose end" he called as he was exiting with all the calm in the world.
Neo just dropped on the sofa where her partner had just been. She closed her eyes trying to let the adrenaline die down, when suddenly she smelled something awful.
'Riiight, the bitch's body is still in there' she sniffed the air again 'Aaand it seemed that she emptied her bowels, just great.'
She got up and exited the room in the abandoned warehouse.
She saw Roman at the base not looking pleased, she tapped his shoulder asking for what happened.
"The little girl managed to escape, she remembered she had an illusion Semblance"
Neo didn't much care if the girl escaped, after all where would she go? And if she tried to take "revenge" she knew she was more than capable of handling her herself.
"By the way, Neo" she perked up hearing her name "What the fuck was that up there? Why didn't you tell me you had a power like that?"
She quickly crossed her arms in an X form and shook her head vehemently, quickly conveying her message. She did not know what happened.
"Neo your eyes…" he said and brought a hand closer to her face, she blinked and looked up at him "They were similar to Cinder's, do you think…" he stopped and lowered his voice "…do you think you got her power because you killed her?"
Neo honestly didn't know, but what other explanation was there. She just shrugged her shoulders.
"Whatever, it's not even been 2 weeks since everyone died, and we get thrown into some shit" he complained "whatever, let's take it easy for this month and in the meantime…" he gestured at her "we'll figure out how to use your new powers"
As he was about to go back up to the office, she grabbed his arm and closed her nostril with her hand while shaking her head.
"What? Oh yeah! Cinder's dead body is up there" he smacked his head as he remembered that little detail, he did a 180° and headed for the exit "I never did like this place anyway, too rundown for my tastes"
And as they headed outside, Neo was sure that their criminal future was save, and with her newfound power, she would make sure of it.
Cut. I rewrote this chapter three times, each time it started differently but the end was always the same. I had a long time to debate what I wanted the chapter to be about. College doesn't help at all but neither does videogames. I just can't not play them.
Anyway, I hoped you liked the chapter.
-The Knoght in Dark Flames.