Chapter 1 – The Voice

Hearing voices inside your head is the telltale sign of a psychopath, but this voice is slightly more cooperative.

Neo was 8 years old when she learned that the world belonged to the rich, the influential, and the powerful.

It was her parents who fit into all three of those categories. The Vanilles, they were called, and Neo was supposed to be the next generation even if she didn't much care for it. They had resources and came from a bloodline with ties to Old Vale. Make no doubt about it, Trivia Vanille had her future all set for her.

Neither father nor mother dearest were particularly powerful in their own right, but they could afford to hire security out the wazoo. Hired guns and mercenary hunters from protection agencies had been a regular sight at the manor for the entire duration of her childhood.

Wealth, influence, and power – it was everything a little girl could want.

A normal little girl.

Neo was 18 years old when she learned that the wrong side of the law was the side she wanted to be on.

When the turf wars spilled too far into their territory and the Malachite spiders and Xiong gang killed them, Neo got a chance to see what real power like, not the stuffy powdered façade her parents had lied about, and she decided she wanted that. It mattered little to her that the people she idolized were crooks and mobsters. No, all that mattered to Neo was that these so called criminals tore through the 'good guys' her parents had hired for protection like they were paper.

Mother and Father, for all their riches, influence, and power, died screaming at the hands of criminals. So that's what Neo was going to be.

Neo was 19 years old when she learned what it felt like to be wealthy.

She and Roman had just pulled off the biggest heists in their entire careers up to that point, and they'd pulled it off without a hitch. Roman had staked out the dealership for well over a month, taking note of the details like when the armored truck arrived to pick up the cash, what route it took, and if the drivers changed at all. When it was clear that it was always the same two men who were hired to ferry the dealership's profits to the bank on the same route at the same time, they came up with the perfect scheme. Everything would be theirs, except the blame.

Neo had slipped some laxatives into one of the driver's coffee the morning of the pickup, leaving him no choice but to call in sick. And call in sick he did, but it was company policy to always have a minimum of two drivers. The new guy was a driver from a different route on the other side of town, called in on his day off with the promise of overtime. Because it was such short notice, the entire thing was a bit of a rush job.

A single nail was all it took to take out a tire and bring the truck to a halt. When the new guy went behind the truck to fix it, Roman, masking in the illusion of the other driver, knocked him out while taking care to be seen at least once. Then, the illusion was changed to the new guy, who viciously stabbed the experienced driver in the leg, stole the truck from him, and drove off into the sunset.

Roman had read about the outcome in the papers. The new guy thought he was being set up to take the fall for the stolen money, and the other guy thought the newbie had stabbed him in the back. Since both witnesses were accusing the others, the courts couldn't reach a verdict and let them both walk.

18,000 lien was their shiny reward. Looking back, it was small potatoes compared to some of their later jobs, but at the time, it had felt like all the lien in the SDC's back account.

Neo still remembered the moment she realized just how rich she was. She'd walked into a jewelry store on the fancy side of Vale, looked around, and saw that she could buy anything. Diamond necklaces, emerald-crusted bracelets, rubies and sapphires woven together – none of it was outside of her price range.

Naturally, she spent nothing and just stole whatever she felt like out of the store. That way, she had the money and the jewelry.

And the storeowner's watch. And his wallet.

Neo was 21 years old when she learned what it felt like to be the most powerful.

She and Roman had been stirring up too much trouble, making too many waves. Beacon had sent a plucky band of huntresses to bring them in called Team Valiant or Valent or something – Neo didn't quite remember.

The first huntress was the hardest to kill. It wasn't because she was particularly powerful or anything, but because Neo had needed to juggle the full four of them. Once the lady running point was down, things got a lot easier from there.

The next two to die had charged at Neo furiously, both enraged by the death of their comrade. Aggression made them sloppy, just like Roman said it could. Neo buried both of them alive at the same time by knocking aside one's Dust cannon to aim it the ceiling just as it went off.

Neo's partner hadn't trained her in some academy-sanctioned manner that would leave her fighting honorably and all chivalrous-like. No, he'd trained her to fight practically…to win. Her first lesson had been in unarmed combat – in that she was unarmed and he wasn't. He'd beaten her black and blue in five fights until she realized that the first lesson was actually in ignoring his bullshit rules, bringing her weapon, and stabbing him in the arm. Roman had never been more proud…or more screaming.

The last huntress to die was the one that made Neo feel the most powerful. With her teammates down, she didn't stand a chance. Her weapon was a sniper rifle crossed with a pike, and she did long range support while the other three fought head-on. Neo had toyed with her until she was thoroughly entertained, then disarmed her and severed a ligament in her leg. The adult woman, easily twice Neo's age, had cried like a bitch when Neo held Hush's point to her throat.

At that moment, Neo held all the power. She could kill the woman, let her live, cut her apart, hurt her, touch her, blind her, whatever she wanted.

In the end, Neo let her live, surprisingly. Not out of respect or mercy – heavens no. The reason the woman survived the lethal encounter where her teammates had fallen was because Neo had all the power, and she wanted to see what it felt like to spare someone.

It didn't feel all that different, so Neo murdered her two days later in her apartment just to tie up loose ends.

Neo was 22 years old when she learned what it felt like to be influential.

The woman, Cinder Fall, had brought her to Beacon. Her. Neo. Little Trivia, a common crook, fighting in the Vytal Festival Tournament. She knocked down her opponents, and the world cheered like there was no tomorrow. Her outfit was just some crappy illusion she'd thrown together as 'Mint,' and the next day there were at least ten dummies wearing the same gaudy thing in the crowd, down to the hideous white pigtail bows.

All in all, it was surprisingly intoxicating. Neo wouldn't trade power or riches for it, but she could at least understand why Cinder so desperately wanted to be respected. The poor child thought she was above it all, but she was clearly just as controlled by the opinions of others as the sheep in the crowd.

Neo was 22 years old when she learned that riches, power, and influence could all be stripped away at any moment, all by a gust of wind and a certain red hooded bitch opening her umbrella.

With Vale in shambles and Beacon out of commission, Neo wasn't sure what she wanted to do after the fall. Sticking around in the ruined city was an option, but Grimm still stalked the lands, and there were no hunters to fend them off. No Grimm would be a problem for Neopolitan, but what was the point in staying? As much as she liked to pretend the rest of the normal folk didn't matter to her, and they didn't, Neo depended on farmers for food when she got hungry, Dust shops for bullets when she was running on empty, pharmacists for cold pills when she got sick, and the like. Vale's economy was ruined, and the city was going to come crumbling down at any minute. Sure, it was her home where she'd built up her and R…her empire, but that didn't mean much. In a city where every pair of hands needed to put in hard work just to keep the system from imploding, there was nothing left for Neo. It would only be a reminder of everything she had lost…everything, here, referring to a single, suave, dapper, incredibly well-dressed man of brilliantly red hair who possessed the caniest of canes.

The question remained of what heading she would take when sailing out into the rest of the world. The outlying villages in Vale (or any of the four kingdoms, really) were equally in a state of being perpetually on the brink of falling to the Grimm, so those were no-go's.

Cinder and her people had some base in the Grimmlands, but Neo would sooner swear off ice cream…no, she would sooner intentionally eat non-dairy ice cream substitute than ally herself with Cinder ever again. It was that pile of garbage's fault Roman had been on the Atlesian flagship when it went down.

As for Atlas, they were a bunch of fuddy-duddies, already declaring anyone related to the Fall of Beacon as a top priority criminal. Major Robo-cop and his robo-police would be out patrolling and looking for Neo in particular. Yeah, there was no way in Vacuo she was moving to Atlas.

Speaking of good old lowkey, lawless Vacuo, that was always an option…except Neo sunburned like a motherfucker. Also, Hush would get faded if she used it for shade, and the dyes and pigments in that little instrument were more than just decorative. The mixtures of colors were essential parts of the essence of Neo's dear weapon. That meant no Vacuo, which lowered the options to…

Oh, she really didn't want to go to the cramped, clustered, crowded island of Menagerie. But the alternative was going to Mistral, where the crime families under Lil' Miss knew Neo's many faces.

Menagerie…ick…was where Neopolitan was going.

The boat was loaded exclusively with Faunus, save for the few human members of the crew. Neo supposed that made sense; after all, not many humans would want to commute to the heart of the White Fang's power base right after the largest attack on a civilian center in Remnant's history.

Neo wasn't exactly a fan of the Faunus. That wasn't to say she hated every Faunus or something racist, just that she disapproved of the direction the species had taken itself in. It wasn't because of their animal traits, but more the lack of action they took to combat the disrespect they all faced. When lowly crooks tried to muscle in on her territory in Vale, she'd kill them, or better yet make an example of them. The Faunus, though, especially the ones on Menagerie? They let the world walk all over them. Atlas told them to run off to some gross little island, and they just did.

Menagerie was founded on a bold-faced lie that the Faunus had accepted at face value. The human losers in the Faunus wars had declared the island to be their 'reward' for winning, and the Faunus victors trusted them. If there was one thing Neo couldn't stand, it was the weak.

No, not the weak. The weak couldn't be blamed for what they were. No, what Neo hated was the strong who rolled over and didn't fight for what they wanted. Adam, lunatic though he may have been, had once said that the Faunus were stronger than humanity – they had everything humans had and more – and Neo had found herself agreeing. If that was true, then it stood to reason that the Faunus deserved to be the dominant race on Remnant.

And yet they weren't. A few scattered pockets of White Fang resistance were the only thing that the entire species could put forth, and those were soon to be snuffed out. Wow, guy, real great job.

The White Fang may have claimed that they were invincible, but Neo had seen behind the curtain. Their entire organization numbered less than 150 men and women, with but 27 active aura users among them and no more than 10 hunter-grade fighters among them. The White Fang's only true strength was their anonymity and guerrilla warfare. If Atlas ever decided just to wipe out the island of Menagerie, the Faunus would be extinguished.

That was why Neo disapproved of the Faunus – because they were losers, even though they had held the power to be winners in the palms of their hands once.

Of course, Atlas held onto its pretend moral high ground like a baby clutching its dearest blankie and would never dare to level the island from their airships. If Neo wasn't sure that was absolutely sure going to continue, she would have tried her luck with the Spiders in Mistral instead of 'becoming' a Faunus.

Two false snake fangs stuck out of the bottom of her mouth, complementing her full body disguise and acting as her ticket in when the White Fang stopped her at the door. She was technically an ally of theirs, having aided them in the assault on Beacon that had halved their numbers, but the organization was far too disjointed to be able to competently identify its own allies. Adam probably hadn't bothered to inform her underlings who she was, and in the extremely unlikely event that he himself was among the welcoming party at the docks, he would just try to send her back to the front lines to aid in the attack on Haven. She could double back at the first chance with a new look, but that would be such a hassle.

Haven?

Thus, she wore a full-body disguise. Her cute little outfit, the especially adorable one that made her look like a vanilla cone with chocolate and strawberry drizzled on top, was replaced by some ratty navy-blue dress that went down to her knees. Her facial features were unchanged, but with blonde hair and the snake teeth, no one would be recognizing Neo.

Certainly not Miss Cat and Mr. Monkey. She saw them the second they stepped on the boat, even if they were still so caught up in chasing one another that they hadn't even noticed her yet. Honestly, if the cat thought she was supposed to be some sort of ninja assassin, she really ought to have been more practiced at stealth. Even Roman, Brothers rest his soul, could probably have kept a lower–

Miss Belladonna.

That was the cat's name. Neo remembered that Cinder had an interest in the whole team ever since Little Miss Red took it upon herself to go after the big lady herself, though she wasn't sure why the memory of the least important one had come to her all of a sudden. Yang mattered because she was the person Mercury had to break his legs on, and Ruby (though she'd forever be Little Red in Neo's mind) was impossible to forget, but the others weren't all that important. The Schnee was loaded, but Neo had no idea what her name was. Weebelo? Wenceslass? It didn't matter. She was probably dead, along with the scores of Beacon idiots that decided to stick around and defend architecture instead of regrouping at a more defensible location and actually beating the Grimm back.

Oh, and now Belladonna and her monkey man were fighting off a Sea Feilong. In the interests of staying incognito, Neo just left the two of them to their own devices, contents to only step in if they both died and the ship were truly in danger. It wasn't that the two of them knowing she was there would actually impede her goal of escaping or something, just that in the time it would take to fight and kill the cat, she'd have to endure some extremely boring, preachy, and long-winded lecture about the morality of aiding the White Fang or something. After Red, Kitty Cat was easily the second most holier-than-thou prick of the bunch, and she had a penchant for talking during fights.

Well, they killed the eel thing. That was good. They didn't die fighting it, but Neo supposed that beggars couldn't be choosers.

Unsurprisingly, Adam was not there to greet them at the docks.

Surprisingly, no White Fang checkpoint was there in his place.

Perhaps Neo had overestimated the hold that the terrorist group had held on the island. From the description Hei had given her, it sounded like they practically ruled the place – the current chieftain was also the founder, and Sienna Khan resided here, sitting atop her High Catgirl Throne.

Actually, something really didn't seem right about that. This entire thing smelled fishy, and not because of all the tuna stands. If Menagerie truly belonged to the White Fang, then the absence of dock security interrogating each and every entrant for spies was something to be alarmed about.

It was possible they had gotten a tip that Kitty Cat was coming and had set up an ambush, given how poorly the girl had disguised herself. They might have been unaware of Neo's presence, but she couldn't take the risk. Thus, when no one was looking, Neo slipped below decks, dropped into the water with the grace of an angelfish, and swam over to shore.

Getting wet was unpleasant, but Neo never actually placed comfort or beauty over survival. Adam Taurus was one of the few people on this planet that she didn't want to get into a prolonged tussle with, and he was the king here. Neo might have stood a chance back in Vale, but until she could build up a reputation and take over this island's criminal underground, she would have to keep to the shadows. That was fine, though; she had always been comfortable there.

As it was, the island wasn't nearly as bad as she'd been expecting. The beaches were actually quite picturesque and looked like the perfect spot for a bit of light sunbathing if it tickled Neo's fancy, with snow-white sand running along the entire coastline as far as she could see. Unlike the sand dunes of Vacuo, this place was more like a tropical resort, equipped with crystal clear waters and a lush jungle just beyond the walls that outline the main settlement. The novelty would probably wear off after a few days of getting used to the view and having to endure the hot sun, but for now Neo could still enjoy it.

Town was crowded, but everything she'd read suggested that the place was packed elbow-to-elbow with folks. Menagerie was truly more like a busy farmer's market than an overpopulated slum. Faunus were casually strolling about as they bought and sold lots and lots of mixed seafood, not running around like chicken with their heads cut off and blood spurting out the severed neckholes and organs pouring out of their…Neo made a mental note to find a chicken farm for some stress relief once she got settled in.

Honestly, this place looked like it was some settlement village deep in the frontier, not the self-proclaimed though heavily contested fifth kingdom. Because of its size (and possibly because of the White Fang alliance with Cinder 'Mistress of All Evil' Fall), it was clearly well defended from the Grimm to the point that there was no risk of collapse. The downside was they were behind on most of the important technological advancements that industrialized society could boast. That meant that the amenities would be poorer, but still passable for a woman of Neo's standards – yes running water, no kiwi-flavored sprinkles.

They did have ice cream, which was a must. Neo had seen several odd fruit-slush vendors purveying their freezy-drinks. It may not have been soft-serve, but Neo was not an ice-exclusionist. Any non-organic frosty treat that could give her her fix was appreciated.

The people didn't regard her oddly – in fact, they didn't regard her at all. Neo's disguised as a boringly dressed snake Faunus was working perfectly, and there was no reason to doubt that. There were the occasional robed White Fang members, but Neo just kept her head down and made her way down the streets.

Truth be told, she had no idea where on the island she was going. She would happily stop should any particular building or distract catch her eye, but otherwise today would just be a day of getting her bearings. And no, that wasn't a dig at the polar bear Faunus who walked past her. If Menagerie was to be –

Haven.

– to be her new home, she would need to know the streets inside and out. Finding a place to sleep tonight would be good, but she had plenty of time before sundown. Ideally, it would be something low profile – not like the fancy palace down the road. That ostentatious landmark looked like a good spot to break into when she needed some easy cash, but for now, she slipped the wallet of someone who ought to invest in tighter pockets into her coat. The mark didn't see a thing and just kept walking, meaning that Neo would not be expecting any trouble with Johnny-law today.

Getting lunch was a quiet affair, especially on Neo's side. There were very few restaurants, and she got the vibe that the common folk ate at the vendor stands, so Neo did too. Tourism at these kinds of beachy destinations was probably common, and Neo didn't want to stand out.

The place she decided to eat at was a rickety wooden push-wagon that sold some kind of local bird right out the back of the cart, served whole and rotisseried to oblivion. Neo didn't like the look of the crispy black layer of scorched meat that covered the piping hot fowl, but plenty of other people were milling about nearby, so she figured it wouldn't make her look like the odd Faunus out if she ate here. The vendor accepted her cash with a smile and handed her the meal on a paper napkin in exchange. No words were traded, only lien and food.

Neo took a table that only had one seat, lest some chipper young male snake Faunus think he had a chance of striking up a conversation with a potential mate. Men never bothered her (rather, they each only ever bothered her once), but she had no idea what a cloaca was and thought it sounded to nasty to cut off with hush.

Popping the bird flesh into her mouth, she founded that it actually tasted quite nice. Spicy, tangy, and oh so savory, but not a hint of the burnt flavor that she was expecting. It was a bit dry, but nothing that a little mid-afternoon slushie couldn't fix. Whatever this bird was–

Pintade.

Neo froze.

Unlike the unbidden memory of Belladonna's name or the niggling desire to finish some business in Haven that she couldn't quite put her finger on, that thought was not her own. But at the same time, she knew all about it. She knew that pintades were indigenous game hens native to Menagerie from long before the Faunus had been displaced there, she knew how to hunt them, she knew what they were supposed to taste like, and she knew that a touch of lime would be the finishing touch on this particular roast pintade.

This was not something she was supposed to know.

Neo immediately went to war. Semblances were powerful things, and if one could place thoughts in her heads, that meant she wasn't safe anywhere. Her eyes darted around, but she couldn't see anyone recognizable. There were plenty of residents at the umbrella-covered tables that filled this particular corner of the sun-drenched island, but that didn't mean there couldn't be someone. The semblance to control thoughts…

Team CVFY was here.

F-Fox something, the boy with the dull eyes that had scoffed in bitter disappointment from the bleachers when Neo's then teammates had triumphed over his own in the doubles round, he had a telepathy semblance. And unless another Beacon student just so happened to have randomly and accidentally followed a wanted criminal who brought about the fall of his school across the entire world and was now equally accidentally using his semblance on her, she was made.

Neo left the bird and ran.

This was worse than she thought. It had seemed at the time like Belladonna was on the same boat as her by a fluke, and the monkey–

Sun Wukong.

No, no, no, NO! Neo would not be tormented into insanity by a disembodied speaker. The voice was just the Beacon brat, Fox, trying to get into her head and distract her. He and his team wouldn't split up, meaning that however many of them had survived were here with the aid of Belladonna and Wukong to hunt Neo down for her crimes.

When she looked back over her shoulder to check for a tail (someone following her, not a Faunus trait), a cart hauling winter melons pushed right in front of her. Neo, in her infinite grace and talent, managed to flip right over it without missing a beat, but the idiot pushing it leapt back in surprise, and his damn melons rolled all out onto the floor. Still, Neo didn't become a criminal extraordinaire by losing her footing every time some oversized fruits were underfoot. Nimbly weaving her way around the interloping cantaloupes, she escaped the traffic jam in less than five seconds. No obstacle could trip her up.

Unfortunately, the round green obstacles could trip up the field trip of young Faunus children. All eight of them went down, and that was too much for Neo to avoid. Her desperation to not step on the first two kids led her to overextend, and her foot caught the arm of the third kid. That took her off balance, and she lost it even more in the next few steps she took. Her tiny body landed atop the fourth and fifth kids, pinning them down.

"Oh dear! Are you alright?"

Neo flipped herself upright and got a good look at the woman who was reaching down to grab her. She was a…a mouse Faunus?

The partner, Fox's mouse Faunus partner Violet, it was her! Frick! Neo moved like lightning, removing her umbrella's tip to slice off four of the five fingers of the hand reaching for her throat and blasting out the woman's throat with a quick…

Wait, why didn't her aura…

Was it a mouse? Actually, come to think of it, it was some other rodent, wasn't it?

The screams beneath her dragged Neo back to reality. The children were wailing and crying at the gruesome death. The gunshot from Hush had also inadvertently drawn the attention of every Faunus in the area, who were gaping and pointing at the murdered woman. Neo scanned the surroundings for Belladonna, Wukong, or any of the members of Team CVFY, then picked herself up and ran.

She hadn't seen who was chasing her before, but she could clearly see them now. White Fang agents were joined by some uniformed buck-toothed rodent man, likely the local equivalent of police. Neo had needed to abandon the crowded streets and run off into the jungle.

This meant the end of her time on Menagerie. After such a public –

Haven.

…no. After such a public murder, the island would be teeming with police looking for her. She would need to lose those losers, turn invisible in the jungle, and stay that way until she could hop on the first boat back to the mainland. Mistral wasn't the safest for her after she'd offended the Malachites so rudely when last they met, but at least they weren't–

"STOP! In the name of Chieftain Belladonna, I order you to surrender and face justice!"

No, she wasn't going to…oh. That voice was outside of her head. Neo ran into a tree and became its bark.

The uniformed man hadn't seen her do it, so he ran right past her, only to skid to a halt. Neo held her breath as he and his allies squinted in every direction.

"Where did she go?"

"I lost her!"

"It was like she vanished…teleportation semblance? With a huntress' weapon –"

"Well, we won't find her just standing around! Yuma, Trifa, scout to the west. Saber and I will go east."

"And if we find her?"

"Call the rest of us. We've no idea how dangerous she'll be."

"I…I meant, who will try her? The White Fang –"

"– is not in charge of lawkeeping of the island. Ghira will oversee her trial. But we need to find her first, you numbskull!"

There was grumbling among the ranks, and Neo filed the info she'd gleaned about some discord within the island's politics away for later. Eventually, the four Faunus ran off in the multiple different directions that Neo hadn't gone.

Two hours later, when she was absolutely sure that neither they nor the Beacon brats following her were on her tail, she let go of the tree she was hugging and lowered her disguise. She'd honestly have preferred to wait until night fell, but her aura was on the verge of breaking from exhausting use of her semblance to cast such a wide illusion, and she might still need it.

There had been no thoughts invading her head for the entire time, which was a good sign. A semblance typically only worked when properly aimed, so if Fox wasn't able to brainwash Neo, that meant he'd lost her trail.

Neo needed to get off this island. No, she needed to get rid of this island.

Just before she was out of the forest, she uncapped Hush. Striking its metal tip against a rock, she drew forth a shower of sparks onto the foliage beneath her feet. It was small, much like Neo. However, also like Neo, it was more than enough to get the job done. The fire spread through the vegetation with great speed, until the entire forest was quickly coated on it. Menagerie evidently didn't do enough controlled burns, and the flammable detritus was far too much for safety. Vale, for all its faults, was smart enough to not leave incendiary branches and sticks covering the floor.

She would destroy the boats, too, all except the one she took. That would prevent whatever Beacon huntsmen and huntresses who'd followed her from catching up. Without wood to build new boats, they'd be stuck on the island for a while. The CCT was still down for long range calls after Beacon fell, so it would take them at least several weeks to get the word out that Neo had escaped. Hopefully, by that point in time she'd be far away enough that it wouldn't matter.

The docks weren't empty in the evening, just winding down. The conflagration burning out of control at the center of the forest was drawing a lot of attention from the locals, even pulling some of them away to fight the fires, but it was by no means empty. Neo weaved a new disguised out of the light of the fire, wrapping it around her body in the form of a male dog Faunus. Mammal ears or tails, particularly house-pets, tended to stand out less – people remembered an orca whale tail or crocodile scales, but a fuzzy set of ears atop one's head blended into the crowd by its sheer frequency.

Neo made sure to occasionally turn around and gape in manufactured awe at the forest fire every now and again, just to deflect attention in the event someone saw her. She had no idea if the Beacon brats were still following her, but she was willing to bet that the White Fang and Menagerie police decided the fire was a bigger issue. After all, if it spread to their society's walls, that would be the end of their defense against the Grimm.

Neo hoped it didn't come to that. Killing the odd person was okay, but mass murder was too impersonal. She never once lost a wink of sleep a death she'd inflicted with her own two hands, but people who set off bombs or poisons the water supply were monsters.

And yet you let loose armies of Grimm into my –

Fox had to be somewhere near her, then. She turned around, disguising it as another glance at the fire. It didn't matter now; all she needed to do was steal the first seaworthy boat she could sail to the mainland, and then scuttle –

A sloop would be the smallest workable one-man vessel. Or one-woman, in this case.

You know, Beacon brats were easy to figure out. There was a sailor standing nearby, a nice juicy potential hostage. Fox and Team CVFY wouldn't –

Don't. I'll be quiet.

It was a good thing he was willing to negotiate like that. Neo would gladly have stayed quiet on this pitifully small island. It was Team CVFY's fault for following her.

Something in the back of her brain wanted to say something, desperately strove to tell her something, but the voice had promised to be quiet, and it seemed intent on keeping that promise. It wasn't Fox's voice, nor was it any of the Coffees, or even Belladonna or her boytoy. It sounded a lot more refined, more cultured, like a discount impersonation of Roman's suave gentlemanly persona.

"STOP!" said a second, slightly less ethereal voice. "IT'S HER!"

It was the buck-toothed guard from before who called out to her. Neo, in her moment of distraction, hadn't even looked over her shoulder in the last two minutes, meaning that he and his White Fang frenemies had managed to sneak up on her. There were four of them now, two in their terrorist robes and two in more of a conventional military uniform. All had weapons drawn and were surrounding Neo from a distance.

It would be child's play to down the quartet, but Neo couldn't be kept in one place for too long. There were up to six Beacon hunters –

Mr. Wukong is actually of Haven.

Neo must've been crazy, because the voice had promised to shut up, lest she actually put her murder umbrella to good use.

Well, I don't think I would especially object to the death of these White Fang miscreants. Though, if you could spare the members of the Menagerian Chieftain Guard, that would be most appreciated.

Neo drew Hush. The sun was beginning to set, but it was still bright enough to clearly see. It would actually be to Neo's advantage when the night fell, as the stupid men and women who were seeking to capture her no doubt thought she would be disadvantaged in the dark. Neo had gone up against enemies with night vision before, and she knew how to fight in minimal vision. Inevitably, they would underestimate her, and it would cost them their lives.

Buckteeth came at her first. Neo flipped backwards as he shattered through an illusion and slit his left Achilles' tendon, then immediately regretted the use of her semblance. He was clearly the leader, and while it was all well and good to take him down first, she probably needed the aura. This fight was the least meaningful one she would have to weather today, and she was already down to half aura from hiding for so long.

A white mass of stringy lines came from the hands of one particularly fucked-up looking Grimm Faunus, or so Neo assumed from the disgusting black bulbous growths on her hands. Spider, eh? Ew. Neo's umbrella blocked them, only for it to be yanked out of her hands by the woman. The vile White Fang member looked far too arrogant for having disarmed Neo.

Ducking a flailing club bash from the other Fang member, Neo stepped closer to the black-hand one and delivered three debilitating kicks. One was to her left knee to knock her off balance, the next to her web shooting hands to retrieve Hush, and the last was to her neck to bring her down.

As I understand, you are something of an enthusiast of death. If you feel that killing this man would satisfy your impulses, that would be far – LEFT!

Neo rolled her eyes and leaned backwards ever so slightly, just to make a point. She'd seen it coming a mile away and could easily have caught the weapons, but if the voice thought it was going to be giving her a helping hand, she would actively disobey it just to spite the motherfucker.

The Menagerian guard who'd thrown the spear decided to try his luck at hand-to-hand combat. Neo shot him once before he'd even thrown his first punch. He had no aura, and his chest popped open like a jack-in-the-box from the point blank bullet fire.

The White Fang would be far better targets for your bloodlust.

Sighing, Neo shot the spider Faunus as she was rising to her feet, then parried to club from the other guy before he could take her head off. Oh, and Buckteeth was back up. Simply wonderful. The only course of action left now was to kill them all.

Is it? You could simply spare them. They pose no threat to you.

Neo dashed forward and slit the throat of the last White Fang member, then cartwheeled behind Buckteeth and cut his other leg. He fell back down into a heap of failure and regrets, and Neo lightly rolled his body off the docks into the waters below with her boot.

Four enemies, four kills, minor loss of aura. Overall, not a bad fight.

And now the last. Fox was clearly upset with her actions, and Neo was starting to wonder why he hadn't already made his presence known. She clearly wasn't being driven insane by the voices in her head…

That meant there was likely some trap, or he would've given up by now. The fact that he had helped her during her fight rather than hindered her was moderately alarming, but she chalked it down to a huntsman enthused to see the White Fang killed by any means.

The docks were completely abandoned now, as no fisherman or ferry operator in their right mind would have willingly stuck around after the shooting started. Neo had her pick of boats, and assuming that hotwiring them was the same as airships and cars, she would be in Mistral by the end of the night. Lil' Miss and her stupidly effective information network probably already knew about this little disaster, but Mistral was big enough for her to lie low until it blew over. The city belonged to criminals, and no one could claim to be a better criminal than Neopolitan.

Neopolitan, then, with no last name. Neoz? Neozpinitan? M-Maybe we'll just stick with your name for now.

Okay, so it seemed like Fox had been snorting mountains of cocaine and was now babbling nonsense. That was interesting information, but not exactly relevant right now.

I don't know what obsession you have with Mr. Alistair, but I can assure you I am not him.

That didn't track. Semblances were unique, and she happened to know for a fact that the F in CVFY was the telepathy guy.

Except I am not communicating with you via telepathy. I am simply thinking in my own mind. Rather, in our shared mind. Worry not; I shall respect your privacy to the upmost degree.

The voice didn't exactly sound like Fox, but Neo didn't put it past him to manipulate his telepathic voice and lie. She hadn't risen to the top of the Valean underground by underestimating her opponents.

I can prove that I am not an external body trying to influence your mind. Would that convince you that my intent is not hostile?

It would not, but she was curious to see what this 'proof' would be.

Very well, then.

Neo's lips parted of their own accord.

"Good afternoon," greeted a pleasant, female voice that she'd never heard before.

…because it was her own.

Her lips continued moving, even as the jarring revelation that someone else could control them rippled through Neo's brain.

"My name is Headmaster Ozpin."

Neo was today years old when she learned that anything could be stolen, even her own mind.

Next Chapter: Who and Why

Neo and Ozpin get to know one another a little better, set up some ground rules, and share a few snacks.

Author's Notes

Alright, guess it's time to start.

Let's see, we got: ~170,000 words in 25 fully written chapters of comedy, action, adventure, and minor, minor romance. Updates will be weekly on Thursday on ffn net and AO3 (that will change to one of The Empty Seat days when TES ends). As always, comments and reviews are encouraged, whether they be positive or negative. I will try to answer any questions put forth provided I have an answer and it's not a spoiler. Remember to like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon. Please feel free to point out any typos or formatting errors I may have made.

Now, onto the fic specific stuff:

The basic premise here is that I read A Divine Comedy by ElektricAngel and really, really liked the idea. It was well written, very funny, and one of the fanfics that inspired me to write. However, in that story, Roman becomes a good guy and undergoes a substantial redemption arc. Here, I wanted to play with the idea that Ozpin's host wasn't so easily redeemed, and that she actively fought to wrestle control away from him on a regular basis. Their interests will align at times, but Neo is going to be far more defiant than canon Oscar Pine or Roman in Divine Comedy.

Specifically, it was inspired by the premise of Ozpin reincarnating into a baddy from A Divine Comedy, but it isn't a rewrite, a sequel, or anything of the sort. This is a brand new fic.

Neo does not speak. However, Ozpin can. Before you protest, Neo will not ever talk in this fic, I swear. Why Ozpin is able to speak while in control will be gone into in great detail in further chapters.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!