Writer's Note:
Yep, it's that time again. A somewhat filler chapter has reared its head again. As usual, I'll leave a TLDR at the bottom if you'd rather not read what is basically a long discussion about what the girls, Jaune, Oberon, and Rylee(?) are going to do next. Still, I'd like to say I've tried to make this filler content somewhat interesting. One problem with writing with multiple perspectives is that, sometimes, you need one side to catch up. And that can be tedious. Once again, I apologise and hope you can enjoy it, regardless.

Chapter Thirty: Bound by Belief, Divided by Doubt.

A mechanical beep broke the silence as her scroll was read by the processor, which was shortly followed by the twisting of the handle and the creaking of the door hinges. The room was dark and eerily quiet as Ruby stepped inside, before flicking the lightswitch and looking around to see her room to be devoid of her teammates. Taking a moment to kick off her boots, before using her semblance to easily access her bed, she laid down atop the sheets with a gloomy look on her face.

As it so happened, she'd been with Thea earlier that afternoon, searching one of the other White Fang hideouts. Unlike Blake and Sun, their mission was purely stealth based, as infiltration was even riskier when you had to fake faunus features. Unfortunately, they hadn't uncovered anything useful about the location of Neo, nor Roman. Only that Roman had ties to the White Fang and was, apparently, providing them some heavy ordinance which had been stolen from the Atlesian military.

That wasn't what had her down, though. Not that she wasn't saddened by her lack of success in the field, of course. But when she heard she'd missed out on a massive mech chase and the chance to properly lead her team to victory against a giant robot, she was somewhat bummed out. And then she learned what had actually transpired underneath that bridge. Or, well, had scrapped together bits and pieces from what Weiss had messaged her.

She withdrew her scroll from her pocket and opened up her inbox, only to read through the message once again.

'From: Crushed Ice

Hey Ruby. Something complicated came up. We fought a mech. Neo was there, disguised as you. We confronted her, she turned into a monster, we fought, and then she ran off (still as a monster.) We're a bit worse for wear. Just glad Pyrrha and Vomit Boy showed up, else we'd have been done for. We'll be late back. Need to file the reports and make sure Yang's alright, since she went under in that last fight. (She'll probably be fine, knowing her.) Not sure when we'll be back. See you soon.

Received: Two hours ago.'

It was just… so much to take in. She'd read it and re-read it ever since she got that message. She had been lucky enough to see the news of the mech since the television and internet were already going wild about the sudden destruction that the mech had caused. All the action made her lament not being there to help. Well… sorta. She was there. But it wasn't her. It was strange to see herself doing things that she had no memory of doing. It was even stranger to see that the things she was supposedly doing were things that she probably would have done, herself, given the circumstances. She even saw that the false her was using her own callsigns and co-ordinated attacks. She wasn't even sure how Neo knew those unless she'd been watching them train. Though, knowing Neo and Oberon, that wasn't particularly odd. In fact, she'd been Neo's sparring partner from time to time, but could barely touch her. Even when they did full-team battles, NTRO was typically one of the strongest contenders. It was kinda uncanny just how powerful that team was, what with both Neo and Oberon serving as team intelligence, Thea shutting down any attempt of trickery, and Rylee strongarming their way to victory. Each member of the team was their own kind of scary. They were still working on the teamwork, but she highly doubted they'd be easily defeated come the Vytol Festival. In fact, they were the team which pretty much everyone at Beacon had their eyes on. A group of seemingly untouchable oddballs.

Wait a minute, she'd gotten sidetracked. Guess that showed just how much she kinda admired that team. They'd really opened her eyes to what was possible. When she first attended, she thought Yang had to be the strongest, since she was her big sister. Then she saw people like Pyrrha. And then seeing Neo and Pyrrha fight made her realise she had so much to learn.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Neo was fighting that mech, standing in Ruby's shoes in order to properly unite the group and co-ordinate them. She had mixed feelings about that. Initially, she'd felt sad that she hadn't been there, herself. If she had been, maybe she'd have been able to prevent the need for Neo to fight at all, and then they could more easily get to the bottom of her situation.

Then, she'd felt a little bitter about it. Was there any reason, at all, for her to pretend to be her? That was her Crescent Rose. Those were her clothes. That was her face. Seeing Neo pretend to be her… and succeed in tricking her friends into thinking that it was her standing there… It made her wonder… if she was so easily replaced… was there really any point in her being there at all? If anyone else could so easily replace her, was she not special? Had Ozpin been wrong after all about her position as leader of the team?

She shook her head in disagreement. No. She was wrong. It was because she was irreplaceable that Neo had to be her. Who else could properly lead her team to victory against insurmountable odds? If Neo had turned into someone like Thea, or Oberon, and began issuing orders, there would be doubt. Hesitation. Distrust. So, she'd turned into someone which they recognised to be a trusted ally. Ruby Rose. If anything, that showed just how much Neo knew Ruby meant to her friends and, by extension, how much Ruby meant to her. Or, at least, that's how she imagined it.

Back to the matter at hand, once more. Neo had, supposedly, turned into a monster and fought the group. Unfortunately, Weiss had not been very descriptive. Was that statement supposed to be literal, or metaphorical? Was she supposed to assume that Neo had just gone crazy and began attacking the group, only to run away shortly afterwards? Considering what she knew about Neo and how life was impacting her, it wasn't entirely unlikely that that was the case. However, there was something in the wording which implied otherwise. Namely, the 'and then she ran off (still as a monster)' part. The fact that she had to clarify that Neo was still a monster implied that it was supposed to be taken literally. But if that was true, then they had a whole new problem ahead of them.

Ruby let out a groan as she rolled herself onto her side and took a look at the clock. It was just turning 11pm. If she didn't want to be tired next morning, she had better get some sleep soon, but it felt impossible to relax, knowing that there was so much that she craved to know from that night. Still, she decided to at least make the effort. As such, she hopped down from her bed and began to get changed into her bedwear, before hopping back into bed and tucking herself under the covers.

Her mind raced with possibilities. The supposed time-traveller was also a full-blown shapeshifter? Sure, she already knew Neo could alter her appearance, but she saw how well she had pretended to be her, and now she was also being some kind of monster, likely with monstrous attacks to match. She'd have to grill the others for details when they got back. But she was, admittedly, feeling rather… drowsy. She could stay awake a little longer, though, right? Her eyelids were just getting heavy, is all. No harm could come from closing them for a moment, right? It'd make thinking easier. Yeah…

Hold on, her scroll was buzzing. She sat up once more and… HOW WAS IT MORNING, ALREADY!? Her scroll was buzzing because her alarm was going off, so she quickly silenced it with a plethora of swings from her flailing, panicking arms. Having shut up her scroll, she glanced down from the bed, to find her teammates there, sleeping soundly. Though she did notice that they were certainly, as Weiss had mentioned, worse for wear. Yang's head was bandaged around her temples, for starters. It looked like Blake and Weiss also were sporting bandages, but not around their heads. Moreso around their limbs. Still, they were clearly fine enough to get themselves to bed last night, so she doubted much damage would linger now that they'd slept on it. Still, she'd feel bad if she woke them up after they had had a long night. And so, she quietly pulled the duvet off of herself and climbed down to the floor, before sneaking slowly towards the bathroom, intending to have a shower and get changed whilst letting the others get their sleep. She doubted that Weiss was planning on going to bed without setting her own alarm, anyway.

As she reached for the door to the bathroom, only to be suddenly blindsided by the sound of her scroll ringing. One hand covered her mouth as she stifled a shriek, whilst the other hand flailed to answer her scroll. The world seemed to slow down as her silver eyes stared down at the blurred words written on the scroll as she went to answer it. 'Incoming Call from Mad Scientist.' Her shaking hand tapped the accept button, whilst she glanced over with a creaking neck at her teammates, sighing in relief that they didn't seem to be stirring.

"Umm…hello?" She whispered to her scroll.
"Good morning, Ruby. I apologize for calling you so early, but I felt it necessary to organise another meeting to discuss the events of last night. Would you have a word to the rest of Team RWBY when they awaken?" Oberon replied.
"Oh, umm, sure." She whispered once again, glancing over to Yang, swearing that she saw her begin stirring from sleep. "…Same time as usual?"
"I believe that would be best." There was then a slight pause, followed by a deep sigh. "I'm sorry I wasn't there." For a moment there… it almost sounded like Oberon was feeling… blue.
"…I'm sorry I wasn't either. I… wonder how things could have gone if we were." Ruby smiled back, her lips trembling slightly.
"I'll… see you later."

The call was ended, somewhat unceremoniously. And, once again, Ruby went to enter the bathroom, only to hear another voice behind her.

"…With stealth skills like those, I'm surprised you didn't get caught last night." Weiss murmured, turning over to face her. Her white hair was strewn all over her pillow and her pale skin and blue eyes made her look like more of a celestial creature, as opposed to being a supposed 'Ice Queen.' Even after the somewhat hurtful and sarcastic words she spoke, Ruby couldn't help but smile awkwardly at her. It was like looking at a sleepy puppy.
"Hey! Oops, I mean… good morning, Weiss." She mumbled, quietly. "I've got so many questions… but I'll ask you later. Rest well!" She smiled, before sliding herself into the bathroom before anyone or anything else could stop her. Almost slamming the door behind her, she drew a deep breath as she slid on her heels against the door, eventually ending up in a sitting position.

Most of the day flew by shortly thereafter. Classes were hard to concentrate on, and the others pretty much refused to answer Ruby's questions for the most part. Not out of rudeness, but because they didn't want more rumours to spread around the academy, like what had happened when Neo had been arrested. As such, they said they'd spill the beans during the meeting, so that only those in the know would know. Or, well, know the exact details, since the media had already covered a large amount of it. Aside from that, the only other notable thing which took place was the combat practice that day. It was the first time since the incident that team NTRO tried their hand at team battling without their leader. Since they were outnumbered, Professor Goodwitch offered to let someone else substitute for Neo, but they declined, opting to fight on without additional help. Even when it was three against four, they did rather well, even though they did lose almost every battle they were put up against, only winning against Team CRDL. Each battle was otherwise a close loss. It was hard to watch their sudden lack of teamwork when Neo wasn't there to lead by example. Oberon did his best to strategize, but it was often not enough to make up the difference. A lot of their planning and co-ordinated attacks relied on Neo in some form or another. Without her around, their co-ordination and morale plummeted.

Eventually, it came time for that meeting. The usual suspects were brought into Team NTRO's room. Namely, Team NTRO, Team RWBY and Team JNPR minus Ren, and Nora since they were occupied. 'Looking for pancake-scented body wash,' was the excuse. Honestly, Oberon just surmised that Ren wasn't particularly interested in the whole ordeal and Nora went wherever he did.

Just like the last few gatherings, the mood was gloomy. Moreso than ever, in fact. It seemed that a mixture of desperation, depression, and doubt had filled the room. Even so, Oberon took a moment to down a large mug of coffee, before simply tossing the whole thing behind him, letting it shatter on the wall behind him. He planted his hands firmly together, before staring intently at the group with a sleep-deprived look which was much worse than usual.

"…Let's begin." He stated, his fingers quaking from the anticipation and caffeine. His gaze first rested upon Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, and Pyrrha. "I'd like to hear what happened after the mech was defeated, and you learned that Neo was disguised as Ruby Rose." He made no effort to beat about the bush or hide his blatant directness.
"Well… when she showed confusion about Team Jabberwocky, she became unresponsive. We began asking her questions… and then…" Weiss began, before trailing off, unsure about how to describe the next part in her own words.
"Then I grabbed her by the neck." Yang scowled. "Almost pummelled her, too, before the Golden Girl stopped me." She glanced over in mild irritation to Pyrrha, who just looked sympathetic.
"You did what?!" Thea hissed, standing up as if to threaten Yang, only for two of Oberon's floating hands to grab Thea's shoulders and shove her back down before anyone else reacted.
"Enough. Sit down." He commanded, before turning back to the group. "Please, continue."
"I shoved Yang to get her off of Neo, causing both to fall to the ground, in which Neo's illusion of Ruby completely shattered, revealing that she was transforming into some kind of… purple creature." Pyrrha explained. "I was…shocked. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was…horrifying. Like a Grimm beyond what I thought possible, and I've seen massive Nevermore and Ursa."
"Description, please." Oberon requested, as if he were conducting a police investigation.

The five who were there looked to each other for a moment, before eventually pulling together a description.

"Tall, purple, had a grey mask for a face, four horns, big claws, a tail, semi-bipedal, yellow highlights… spoke in a weird alien accent, always saying what it was doing…" Jaune explained.
"You mean like the Jabberwalker?" Ruby chirped.

A silence filled the room as every eye turned to face Ruby, who now began sweating bullets, wondering what was so strange about what she said.

"…What did you say?" Rylee asked. "What's a Jabberwalker?"
"It's from that book… urgh… what was it called? Something about falling, right?" Ruby stammered. "Don't you remember, Yang? Uncle Qrow read it to us one time whilst he was babysitting."
"Nope. No idea what you're talking about." Yang shrugged.
"…The Girl Who Fell Through the World?" Oberon asked. "The fairy tale?"
"Yes, that's the one!" Ruby beamed.

Everyone just looked at her as if she implied the sky was actually green.

"…That's not funny." Rylee stated. "Now is not the time for light-hearted jo- "
"Hold that thought." Oberon interrupted, opening up his satchel and taking out a small model which he held out for the others to look at.
"…That's it." Jaune stammered, looking at it closely. "That's… exactly what Neo turned into."

Oberon smirked as he then stood up and turned around to face away from the group, as a plethora of floating, holographic screens filled the air. His fingers moved across them as if he were a frantic conductor which was rapidly progressing from allegro to presto in five different orchestras.

"The Jabberwalker, also known as the Jabberwocky, is a creature supposedly created by the Gods in Ever After which is designed with the sole purpose of destruction. It is the reaper of the cycle. The one who brings about the final end for those otherwise doomed to reincarnate forever." Oberon stated, already walking back and forth in thought. "I wonder… does this have any significance… or is this merely some kind of coincidence…?"
"…You know… in hindsight, maybe it was kinda obvious… you know, since we named one of our temporary teams after it without realising it." Ruby chuckled, bashfully.
"…Go figure." Thea huffed, finding the whole state of affairs to be quite infuriating.

Oberon continued his pacing for a while, but eventually sat down and sighed.

"I don't know why she turned into a Jabberwalker. Did she seem in control in any way?" He asked, now grabbing at straws.
"I don't think so. She was completely unresponsive, ever since we figured her out." Blake stated.
"Actually… I don't think that's entirely true." Pyrrha began.
"What do you mean, Pyrrha?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow. Had she observed something?
"I noticed a detail about the Jabberwalker which Neo, herself, was in." She began, before going on to explain. "It fought much like Neo would have done. Playing tactically and turning losing situations into winning ones at the drop of a hat. The other Jabberwalkers fought more like savage animals. Her one fought intelligently, even to the point of retreating when it realised it couldn't defeat us."
"So…it's possible that Neo was controlling the creature?" Rylee asked.
"I don't think that's true. When I damaged its face and saw her inside, I saw her try to say: 'save me.'" Pyrrha stated, doing her best to put on a stoic face when, in reality, she could feel the impression of trauma rapidly surfacing inside her head.
"Then… perhaps it's using Neo as its own weapon. Using her strategies and knowledge to their advantage." Oberon muttered to himself, before a light quickly manifested in those sullen, defeated eyes. "Wait. Which direction did the creature run off to?!" He exclaimed, slamming his hand down on the table with a sudden urgency.
"…Uhh… South, I think?" Blake murmured, somewhat put-off by Oberon's dramatic performance.
"Towards the mountains?" Oberon asked, enthralled.
"…Yeah?" Weiss shrugged, not seeing what the point of this excitement was.
"YES!" He yelled, slamming a fist in the air. "YES!"

Everyone looked at Oberon as if he'd won the lottery and was refusing to share the wealth despite it being a joint effort. Then, Team JBWY stared at Team RPORT. Team RPORT stared right back. Each side assumed that the other side knew what Oberon was so excited about, but both were wrong.

"…Why is that a good thing?" Weiss asked, very much lost.
"…Hmm…" Oberon murmured, having suddenly regained his composure. "I'd like to make one thing perfectly clear before we proceed." He stated, leering at everyone. "Do not mention this to anyone. Don't talk about it in public. In fact, don't talk about it at all if you can help it. What I'm about to inform you about may very well change the way you view reality. If you would prefer not to be involved with what that entails, leave the room now, or forever hold your tongue about this matter."

Before anyone could raise a hand in agreement, Thea spoke up.

"Are you sure we should be telling them about that?! That's Neo's biggest secret. She hasn't even told us about it, herself! Are you sure she would want them to know?"
"Frankly…" Oberon began, leaning closer to Thea, such that she could feel his breath against her nose. "I don't believe we could have made it thus far without their efforts. Keeping them in the dark about this when they have put in just as much work as us would be incredibly rude."
"Still. That is not our decision to make."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Didn't you say something similar to me when we first gathered the group together?"

Thea gritted her teeth in annoyance. Rylee moved an arm to comfort her, but Thea batted it off, combatively.

"Anyone objecting… no? Good." Oberon smiled, having given everyone plenty of time to raise their voices, before he reached into his black lab coat-esque inner-pocket and withdrew the black book. The Prognosticus was calmly placed down in the middle of the table.
"What is that book?" Weiss asked, immediately noticing how delicately Oberon had treated it, as well as how it seemed to be treated as sacrilege to even talk about.
"This is 'The Prognosticus.' A book written by Neo about the events of the future." He explained, flicking through the pages with utmost care.
"The future? Impossible." Blake murmured.
"Yes, you see, our two-toned friend is actually some kind of time traveller who has witnessed the destruction of the world as we know it." He continued. "It is my belief that she has come here to attempt to prevent the downfall of humanity as we know it."

Yang's mouth hung agape, shortly followed by Weiss and Blake's. Jaune just seemed a bit lost. Not because he didn't understand what was being spoken about but, rather, because he still had his reservations.

"You mean…Neo's actually some kind of hero?" Yang asked, flabbergasted. "But she's a sicko and a psycho! She's done nothing but endanger my sister ever since she showed up!"
"Yang, that's not true!" Ruby protested. "She's done nothing of the sort!"
"Have you forgotten that she dragged you into a closet and bribed you? Or how she coerced you into tracking down her former partner in crime? Or why she burned down a military compound!? Where's that little detail in that precious notebook of yours?!"

Ruby tried to calm her down but seemed quite oblivious to reason as she rapidly lost herself to rage.

"I refuse to believe that girl is actually someone with good intentions!" Yang exclaimed.
"And that's because you're right." Oberon smirked, watching as Team JBWY's faces fell into confusion and suspicion. "Have you not realised that when a person travels backwards through time, there would exist two of that one person?"
"So… what you're saying is…?!" Jaune mumbled, beginning to catch on. "The one who burned down the compound is the other Neo?!"
"Bingo." Oberon smirked. "Seems you caught on quite quick. I'm glad I was wrong about you, Jaune."
"It's just…why would the other Neo do something so horrible? I thought she was trying to save the world." Weiss asked, now wrapping her head around it, too.
"That's because she's a criminal in this world. One which hasn't seen the outcome of fate, yet. They're living their life blissfully unaware of the rapid decline of the world. Do you not believe that someone who's seen the destruction of everything would want to go back in time to stop it, regardless of whether or not they were a law-abiding citizen at the time?"
"But…!" Yang went to interrupt, but Oberon raised a floating hand to hush her.
"Neo is, above all else, a free spirit. The sort of person who wants to live her life, free of consequence. But you cannot live a life, of any kind, if you are dead. So, I ask you; do you believe that anyone can be a good person… if they simply try to be one? Or do you think that she's unforgivable just because she's made a lot of big mistakes on the road to being a hero?"

There was a short pause for a moment, as Yang, Blake, Weiss and Jaune contemplated this for a while. By all accounts, it was a very difficult truth which they struggled to find fault in. It was just… very hard to believe that this schoolgirl which they had been training alongside with for a couple of months, was actually a powerful time traveller which was here to save Remnant.

"…I still don't think this 'other Neo' exists. The Neo you know could have done that, herself." Yang stated, her fire slowly dwindling, but not yet burned out.
"Yang… how would you feel if someone showed you filmed footage of Ruby doing something like robbing a store?" Thea asked, seemingly off-topic.
"I'd beat the crap outta them and tell them they don't know my sister. She'd never do that."
"Yang…" Ruby murmured, almost in disbelief.
"…That's how I feel when you sit there and tell me that the person that I love like a sister is a violent sociopath." Thea stated, her lips quivering between a frown and a smile. "Neo means a lot to me. She saved my life. I thought she was a rude, crass, sassy lost child who didn't know the difference between a Beowolf and her own rear end. But she was willing to lay down her life to save me, a stranger who'd done nothing but be rude to her the whole time. If you're going to call anyone a murderer, you'd better call me one first, else you'll have a self-fulfilling prophecy on your hands."

Yang took a long sigh, before smiling to Thea and then holding out a fist.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realise Neo was selfless like that. I… I guess I just felt a little overprotective about Ruby and I let that cloud my judgement of her. Do you… think she'll give me another chance?"

Thea pressed her fist to Yang's with a smile. "Might give you a punch, like she did Oberon, but yeah."
"Hah. I can respect that." The blonde grinned.

"So…about the mountains, Oberon?" Rylee murmured, not wanting to disrupt the two forming a newfound acceptance of each other, but also wanting to get to the matter at hand.
"Yes, right." He murmured, before straightening up and addressing the group once again. "It is written in The Prognosticus that the dust thefts were done to gather as much ordinance as possible as to attract a large number of Grimm and then launch a large attack into the streets of Vale via abandoned subway tunnels which led from the ruined civilisation of Mountain Glenn, to the now renovated and blocked-off sections of the city."
"…Why is that a good thing?" Jaune asked. "That sounds bad. Like, really bad."
"Because, Ex-Vomit Boy, that's a place which Neo wants to go. If her subconscious is leading the Jabberwalker towards Mountain Glenn… then we can track her down on the way there."
"You mean… we can find her!?" Pyrrha beamed.
"If."

Writer's Note:

TLDR: Ruby comes back to Beacon to find the others are still away and she's left in the dark about the details of what happened earlier that night. Oberon calls her the next day and wants to organise a meeting with everyone. During the meeting, it is revealed that Neo had turned into a Jabberwalker. Team JBWY are introduced to the Prognosticus, and Thea confides that she thinks of Neo as a sister. Yang is, at first, still distrusting of Neo but is eventually persuaded to see reason. Lastly, it is believed that JabberNeo is heading towards Mountain Glenn, and the group intends to find her before she can endanger herself to the Grimm and evil groups which occupy the abandoned civilization.

I've been lucky enough to have some free time on hand, so I decided to make good use of my writing mood to get some chapters out. It might be some time until the next part, since I have a test to study for. Wish me luck, and I hope you've enjoyed the series thus far.