Disclaimer: I know nothing of the greater RWBY canon nor have I indulged myself in watching anything past Chapter 5, so my knowledge on subjects I will be covering is conceived of clips I have been accumulating over the past few months.

The pastel brown and greens of the local fauna has lost its childlike luster as the journey spanning the entire width next to them has begun to wear on Jaune. An endless expanse of green and brown flows Northward along their path, a winding road of trampled dirt clear of trees while sprouting green sprouts periodically. Weeds in this world sparkle in the sunlight and hum in the moonlight, a pale green shining like headlights through the bright day.

Jaune is beyond thankful that his traveling companion sports separate colors from the ones around him, her pink and brown hair sashaying through the wind with each footstep as she leads the spent Jaune Arc. Neo casually swings her umbrella around as she skips giddily down the path, leading onward toward their desired destination. Jaune's sword strapped to his side has almost turned to the same shade of green as the nearby foliage, painted in the blood of dead plants. For the past few hours, Jaune had been constantly swinging his sword to clear a pathway through the jungle until he finally reached the path they are currently on.

His footsteps feel heavy with every step, his body weakening as they casually walk along this dreary path. Jaune's armor now feels like tons lifted upon his shoulders, weighing him down as she slows to a crawl.

"N-Neo… can we take a break, please… I need to sit…" Jaune asks meekly to the villainess.

Neo turns around with a tense expression written across her face, he train of thought interrupted by the blonde-haired knight. Neo glances at his glistening features, sweat rolling down his face as he grows pale. His breathing deepens as his body seems to develop shivers. Neo thinks back to their work on the farm as she approaches him calmly.

She lays a hand on his shivering shoulder and holds up her notebook with a single line written on it.

'Let's rest.'

Jaune breathes out a sigh of relief as Neo points towards the jungle. Jaune nods as he follows her into the dense foliage. Neo swipes at the greenery with her rapier, though the thin foil does little to clear a path large enough to fit Jaune's wider-built body. Jaune finds himself constantly getting hit and bruised around by the green foliage as they find a spot to rest away from the path. Only after a few minutes do they find a small clearing in the forest with plenty of shade to protect them from the Sun's deadly rays. Neo places a stone at the entrance of their path to mark the direction back.

The cool air of the forest flows gently through the gaps in the trees to lower the temperature of this specific spot. A patch of dead sticks and leaves decorates the ground like a carpet as a couple of boulders sit neatly together to form sturdy seats. A jump of pain sears across Neo's vision as she swears for just a brief moment she could see an outline of a raven silhouette. Jaune has resulted in leaning against the dual-colored girl as he pants sheepishly and coughs violently. He curls his hand into a fist as he coughs into it, trying to keep the sound muffled. Neo gazes worriedly as she leans him up against one of the boulders. Jaune's body gently reaching the ground causes a couple of twigs to break beneath him, the rustle of leaves encourages the knight to make himself comfortable. Neo feels his head with her hand and quickly removes it, the heat of his forehead almost scorching her hand. Jaune coughs weakly, trying not to stare at the ray of sunlight piercing through the leaf top and hitting his retina.

Neo's normally playful features slump to a more worried pose, her mouth open slightly as the edges of her eyes droop. Jaune moans out in pain.

"Phyrra? Is that you?" He asks as he looks at Neo.

Neo shakes her head from side to side, putting two fingers on his wrist and feeling his rapidly increasing pulse.

"Why did you… why did you try to do it yourself…" Jaune asks before being thrown into a coughing fit and passing out immediately after it's finished. Neo checks his pulse again in a panic, feeling it start to decline off of the rapid-fire beat it had been moments before into a normal heartbeat. Neo lets out a sigh as she looks around at her surroundings.

She has grown accustomed to the darkness of the forest. Accepting that past a certain point, the density of the forest became so great that it all blurred together in a mesh of darkness. That doesn't mean she's still not weary of it. Each random sound could be a possible encounter. A thought Neo keeps closely in the back of her head as she once again feels Jaune's forehead. Still hot to the touch, removing her hand from his head causes her hand to receive a tiny singe mark. She looks at the small burn and contemplates to herself. What could be causing this? The two of them had done everything together since they arrived. Was there a sickness spreading through the camp that she didn't know about?

'Or perhaps it has something to do with the Jabberwalkers.' She thinks to herself. She slumps against the same boulder as Jaune but a significant distance apart from him as she tilts her head up peering through the opening of leaves above her in pensive thought. Mostly about the name which he had uttered.

'Phyrra… Phyrra… Was she the same girl who was to initially receive the Fall Maiden's powers..?' She thinks, staring up at the strangely colored mid-day sky. 'Roman spoke of a great warrior at Beacon… But I doubt he meant Red. Cinder must have told him about it… someone who would inherit a maiden's powers…' Neo's face visibly twists into disgust as she is reminded of the current fall maiden.

No matter what she would have her revenge against the flame traitor. The heterochromatic pauses for a moment, her eyes scanning the deep sky. 'I wonder what Little Red is doing right now…'

Neo turns to Jaune who appears to be sleeping peacefully against the rock. Neo scoots closer to the knight, her hair snagging gently against the jagged points of the rock. She looks over his sleeping visage, past his glistening skin and furrowed brow to his soft demeanor. He is clearly different from herself.

This illness is unlike anything she's seen before. Scorching skin, high fever, powerful chills. This illness is not of Remnant origin, so there must be someone here who can cure it. But carrying the heavy boy to civilization would only scorch her alive and leaving him would be dooming him to die. A small voice in the back of her mind speaks clearly through her jumbled mess of thoughts.

'So what? Why do you care? You're Neopolitan the Assassin. Mere moments ago you killed a man in cold blood because he would not give you the answers you desired. Why do you hesitate? Surely traveling by yourself would yield far better results.' The voice says to her as she stares at the blonde lick of hair. Neo clutches the staff of her umbrella tightly, gripping it with all her strength to keep herself focused. She shakes the thought clear from her head, physically shaking her head full of long hair from side to side rapidly before settling back into a resting position.

'Come on Neo~ Death is only but a blade away…' The voice taunts her as Neo starts to wonder if she's losing her mind.

Just as the thought is cleared from her mind, the Blonde knight jolts awake in a panicked sweat. His body lurches to a ready stance as his breathing increases. He unsheathes his sword and points it at Neo who remains on the floor of dead fauna, looking up at her temporary companion with a glimpse speaking fiercely 'I dare you.' narrowing her eyes to a slit.

Jaune does not falter, his breathing remains high as the two peer at each other. Jaune gulps down a batch of saliva forming in his mouth, ceasing his breathing for just that moment before he resumes his heavy pant. Slowly his breathing comes to a moderate gasp of exhaustion, sheathing his sword and leaning back up against the boulder with eyes wide open. Neo watches as he sets his gaze on the same patch of sky she had just seconds before, taking in shallow breaths that increasingly become longer in duration to fill his lungs. Finally, he returns to breathing normally.

He casts Neo a side glance as she looks upon him nervously. "What is happening…" He states plainly. Neo slowly reaches for her pad and quill, not wishing to alert the on-edge knight as she reaches behind herself and begins writing on the paper just underneath her previous statement.

Curiosity gets the better of her, as the quill spills ink across the page she can only think of one thing to ask him.

'You called me Phyrra just before you passed out.' Her writing is sweet as it is elegant, written in beautifully crafted calligraphy with pools of ink piling at the end of the word Phyrra.

"Oh geez, did I? Sorry. That must have been one strong illusion." He states sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Neo begins writing again, naming off all of the questions she's had since their first night together.

'Who is she?' She writes.

Jaune's face droops from his forced smile as he recalls the woman who once was Phyrra. His shoulders tense as his thumbs try to do anything to quell his anxiousness. He takes a deep breath in and out.

"Phyrra was… amazing. She was strong enough to move entire buildings but humble enough to let others take the spotlight. She shielded me when I was weak and cheered me on from the sidelines. She made me who I am today. I know I don't seem like it now, but I used to be a self-conscious idiot who could barely hold a sword. Who knew it would be a red-headed superstar that would become my reason to push harder?" Jaune laughs weakly, coughing out towards the end of his laugh. "She died the day you and yours invaded Vale." He spits out nonchalantly, the silence saying everything as the two sit for a moment to dwell on that fact. Jaune refuses to explain any more on his part.

Neo looks back down at her notepad and taps the end of the quill a few times on the page to get the ink running.

'I used to have someone like that too.' She grips the page as she writes. She hasn't told anyone about Roman since his death at Vale that very same day. 'He was brilliant and manipulative, knowing just what to say and when to say it. But he was also charismatic, trusting only a few and placing his faith in even fewer. Neo and I-' Neo scribbles out the following sentence. 'I had been sheltered my entire life. Never allowed to go outside or talk with anyone. Not that I could verbally. But Roman took me in and treated me as an equal, showing me that I as a person was worth more than even the stars.' She pauses for a moment, letting the ink from her quill spill out over the page. 'He died on the same night.'

Jaune had heard the tale of his death straight from the lips of Ruby Rose herself. At the time, he thought nothing of it. Blinded by the rage and anger associated with losing Phyrra, he couldn't have cared less that someone whom he considered to be a villain was now dead. And to an extent, that is still how he feels even now. But he understands the silent pain Neopolitan has been suffering through. A dense fog shrouding all reasonable senses and urges until nothing is left but revenge. Except Jaune had his friends to help him through his depression. Ren and Nora had been there for him every step of the way, with Ruby alongside them. He has so much to be thankful for. But his night terrors remain.

Visions of the red-headed warrior shoving him into a locker, the fresh scent of their romantic exchange etched upon his lips as he begs Phyrra not to take on Cinder. The fierce look of determination in her eyes in the last moment before their parting.

It takes everything within Jaune not to fall into a depressive mood as he thinks back on the memory etched upon his very heart. Neo seems to be struggling with the same as she pulls her legs closely to her chest, her eyes stooping towards the ground in pensive thought.

Neo has had no such comfort since the passing of Roman. Watching him being eaten by the Grimm as she watched on helplessly, dangling freely through the air and unable to say a word is the most heart-rending experience she's ever had to suffer through. If she had been there by his side, this wouldn't have happened the way it did. When her feet touched back upon the ground, a swelling desire for revenge quickly grew within her. She would kill the one responsible for separating her from the only person who had ever truly cared for her.

Deep down, she thought that aiding Cinder was the right thing to do to reach her goals. And for a time, however brief it was, the dual-colored villainess had considered her to be the last remnants of the man she once knew. How foolish she was.

Neo begins writing down on the notepad as she finishes collecting her thoughts. The sound of her quill etching lightly the words, in which she cannot say, onto the paper fills the awkward void of conversation. When she finishes she hands the notebook to Jaune who reads the line underneath her last.

'Do you still think about her?'

Jaune looks upon the words in deep melancholy. Thinking about what life might have been like had Vale not been attacked that day.

"Yes… constantly." He says, being thrown into a fit of coughing after he finishes the short thought. Sweat pooling upon his brow once more. "She occupies my dreams. Her voice still haunts my ears. Every time I think I'm getting over her suddenly I find myself thinking about her more and more. What could have been…"

Jaune pauses for a moment. "What about you?" He asks, trying to raise an eyebrow but his body simply does not respond.

Neo looks worriedly up at Jaune as his sickness does not appear to be calming down. She gently takes her notepad back before scribbling more upon it. Her beautifully written cursive is captivating to watch as Jaune glances down at the pad of paper she is so furiously scribbling onto. When she finishes, she hands him back the paper.

'I do not wish to forget him. Not ever. He was, as he always has been, my reason for living.' It's clear through the intensity of her strokes that she was putting pen to paper on thoughts that have occupied her mind for a very long time. 'I did not start living until I met him, and I don't plan on forgetting this gift he's given me. Just as I will never forgive the one who took him away from me. So I keep remembering him; in my dreams, in my motivations. And in this hat.'

Jaune turns to the girl as she rubs the rim of her bowler cap gently, pressing it between her fingers so she can feel the small tufts of fur between the smooth skin. She looks out shyly, scanning the perimeter for movement. Jaune looks back down at the ink-stained parchment and writes down his own thoughts, trying to mimic Neo's beautiful calligraphy the best he can to little success. He hands the pad back to Neo where she reads what he wrote.

'I wish I knew more about you before our constant attempts at trying to kill each other.'

Neo looks up at Jaune who has fallen asleep against the rock, sweating profusely across his brow as he does so. Neo dons a small smile and a pinch of red on her cheeks. For some reason, his words stuck within her. Neo grips the edges of her notepad sheepishly, holding dearly to the object.

Then, just as she lets her guard down, a twig snaps in the forest. Neo panics, spinning around so quickly her right calf never moves off the ground as she opens her umbrella in the direction of the sound. She holds her umbrella out in front of her, keeping just enough of a grip on it so that it does not accidentally fall out of her hands. Her eyes narrow like daggers pointed at the deep forest before her. From beyond the rock she and Jaune had both been lying on, a small rat-like animal bounces out clears its throat, and then runs away into the forest leaving Neo thoroughly confused.

That's when she felt it, whatever remained of her aura sending chills up her spine straight to her head. A static-like sensation fills her mind as the top of her hair stands on end upon her head. She can't see it, she can't feel it, but she jumps up high to avoid it. A flash of pink and brown and Neo is dancing on air. Time seems to slow for a moment as she reaches the zenith of her jump, twisting around like a gymnast up high bar. As she begins to come back down, her face is pointed to the ground for a brief moment. She watches as just below her a large black figure lunges out at where she once stood. The heterochromatic half-smiles as she pulls out her umbrella.

With the press of a button, the blade is removed from its holster within the umbrella and pointed fiercely straight down. As gravity begins to take its course and time begins to catch up, Neo expertly lands just on top of the gigantic sizeable figure, crouching her legs as she makes contact to soften the blow from landing. Just as her feet make contact, her umbrella makes an impact on the top of the beast. The silver tip digging deeply into the furry hide of the creature. The impact physically makes a crater in the surrounding land, throwing pieces of loose dirt and dead fauna everywhere. Somehow, none of this has awakens Jaune who continues to nap peacefully against the rock, now with dirt and a bit of the beast's greenish blood on his skin.

Neo smiles as she takes off her hat and twirls it around while she leans with all her weight onto the hilt of the umbrella which digs deeper into the beast who howls in agony. Neopolitan places the hat back on top of her head, smugly tracing the rim of it with two of her fingers. She removes the umbrella and jumps off the top of the beast, hitting the ground in the same manner she landed on top of the black-furred creature. Before Neo can even hit the ground, the beast already turns around and howls at her, taking the opportunity to take a bite at Neo. Neo is unfazed as she backflips away from the bite, connecting both her legs with the Ursa-like creature's jaw. The creature reels from the contact, shaking its head and breathing heavily to clear the confusion inflicted by the attack.

Neo swings her umbrella confidently around her finger as she approaches the bear. She looks the monster deep in the eyes and smiles smugly. She walks away from the creature, still swinging her umbrella. This causes the bear to burst into a furious rage as it swipes at Neo's turned back.

Neo drapes her umbrella across her back as the creature's claws make direct contact with the invulnerable cloth. Neo rapidly opens then closes her umbrella which discombobulates the not-Ursa so she can drive the spear straight at its face. It manages to parry it away but swiftly receives an elbow to the jaw as Neo's momentum carries her like a ballerina on a stage. Before her elbow is even finished connecting with the creature's face, her left leg leaves the ground as she jumps using just her right leg to do so. She twists around in the air so that she stands facing the monster, ready to bring down her leg to its skull.

She connects, but must swiftly dodge out of the way of a swipe before she can put all of her force into an attack, simply using the creature's long nose to bounce forward. She lands on the ground, using one of the cracks she created earlier to spin around the base of her heel at a speed the not-Ursa can't even comprehend.

She blocks a claw swipe from the front with her umbrella before unleashing a flurry of attack in rapid succession. She swipes upward with the blade putting a large gash in the creature's face. She then connects with a return kick this time using her right before returning with the momentum for a second slash which the lumbering creature manages to avoid, only scrapping a bit of fur off as it moves uncharacteristically quick for the briefest of moments. Neo blocks another attack, then returns the gesture by sheathing the blade and smacking it roughly against the side of its head. Two blocks in a row leaves the not-Ursa clearly frustrated.

By now, the fighting has moved deep into the forest and far away from the sleeping Jaune. Having to contend with thick jungle foliage, Neo takes every brief period she can to take in every branch on every tree. She can't seem to get free of this fight. 'Even one hit and I'm gone for good.' Since she learned to control her semblance she has always had the failsafe of shattering. Now, the only thing that will be shattering is her body. There won't be a Jaune to save her this time either. The thought ruins Neo's tempo.

Neo stumbles just as the monster tries to clap down both of its claws at the same time in a crushing blow. She watches as the two paws come nearer and nearer to her, waiting until the last possible moment to latch the handle of her parasol onto an underhanging branch. She uses the forward moment she gained by performing the move to loop around and decisively kick the not-Ursa with her built-up energy.

The two tumble forward into a clearing where suddenly Neo finds herself alone without anything to fight. As if transported to another dimension, the landscape has changed shape and the sky above is now black and full of stars. The moon shines gloriously down onto this strange clearing in the land. Neo has to hold up her hand so she isn't blinded by the moon's gift. What's more, the moon is shattered. The trees are all familiar as well, painted in monochrome but reminiscent of those found on the island of Patch in the Kingdom of Vale. They cast shadows in every direction, however not a single shadow exists in the clear-cut circle clearing Neopolitan finds herself in, painting a dark picture everywhere but in front of her.

A white glowing mist begins to appear from out of the woods, flowing as gently as a song on a midsummer's night dream. The stream of mist narrows as it approaches the center of the grotto which has a statue of a woman standing peacefully with her arms held close to her chest. The statue holds only one item between her hands. Roses, red as crimson itself. Her eyes widen in recognition. 'Little Red…' She thinks to herself.

Just as the thought crosses her mind, an apparition begins to form at the center of the grotto. The white streams of mist flowing like sand through an hourglass until the image of a middle-aged Ruby, white as the strands of mist she was created from, stands in front of her.

Neo holds her parasol at the ready, certain that what is about to follow is a trap.

"Do not be alarmed." The ghost begins talking. "You're alone and you're scared. You have no idea what's happening and that's alright."

Neo's shaky breaths cause her sword arm to shake in tandem. Neo's gaze drifts down to her uncharacteristically frightened body before snapping back to the ghost in front of her.

"Please. You're safe here. A limbo where all things begin and end in this fairy tale world." The transparent being gently moves toward the heterochromatic, her hips moving like a normal human being's would. A trail of white particles flows off of her as she moves, every moving piece of her otherworldly attire drifting off into white specs of nothing before disappearing. Neo straightens her glare, silently challenging the ghost to come closer.

"You've been asleep for a very long time, your aura is… non-existent." The woman says, a single rose petal wilting from the flowers the statue holds. The ghost woman looks back as the flower hits the ground and instantly dies upon reaching it, decorating the base of the statue in a black and wilted rose leaf.

Neo relaxes her muscles, the tense hold she's kept on them since their arrival is starting to strain. She does not however lower her guard, keeping her gaze like the edge of a sword pointed at the woman as she walks in a circle around Neo, observing everything about her from head to toe.

"My dear woman, you've killed one of them…" She says silently, causing Neo to take a step back in shock. Her bewildered face as the ghost seems to be able to see the past as well. "Great trouble awaits you now." She continues.

Neo watches as the ghost takes a 360 around her, spinning her head so that she never leaves her sight. "I'm sure you have many questions, but as you cannot speak I will only answer the ones in which I know you will need to know about." Neo pats her pocket to find her notepad but finds it missing, she panics for a moment and continues to check without taking her eyes off the ghost in front of her.

"In case it wasn't clear by now, this is the Rose I told you to search for." She says, causing Neo to pause and look over the girl. It's clear that she isn't the same girl from the village which leaves Neo slightly confused. Another rose petal floats to the ground and dies upon contact.

"We must speak quickly, we do not have much time." She says. "The world you are trapped within is known as The Ever After. A strange world born from the bedtime stories of remnant and given life through complicated means that I can't explain at this moment." She stops to emphasize the point.

"In The Ever After nothing is ever as it seems and everything is always as it is. The rules of this world will come to you in time, but time is not a luxury either of you can afford. Ever since you step foot into this place you've been put on a timer. This world is not meant for you to exist in it and it will do everything in its power to either force you out or assimilate you into its story. If your ill-suited bodies do not fall prey to foreign illnesses first." The ghost glances into the monochrome forest.

Neo turns around to look in the same direction, scanning the pitch-black forest for any movement. She returns her attention to the explanation.

"It has already stripped you of your aura and semblances. Given enough time it will strip you of your life as well. There is only one way to escape this nightmare without magical means. You must make it to the top of the Great Tree. Once inside, you must make your way to the top where there is an exit waiting for you. It will return you to any point in Remnant that you can imagine vividly."

The ghost's legs begin to fade into a cloud of thick white dust as time begins to catch up with her.

"Take care of each other. It's the only way you'll survive. If you keep moving towards the tree, you will find more people who can explain things in more depth there. I'm sorry about tricking you into coming here, but there are certain rules you must follow in this world. You will learn them, in time. But for now, I wish you good luck on your journey. This place got the better of me. Make sure it does not take the better in you."

Just as her torso disappears her head soon also begins twisting into white dust. Neo, still mildly in shock but understanding of most of the information simply just watches as white tears roll down her face. "T-tell my Ruby that I love her, and that I'm so so sorr-." the apparition disappears.

Just as the last petal falls to the ground and dies.

So does the monochrome world around her, crumbling like a house within an earthquake as Neo desperately tries to find a place to survive. With no other options, the dual-haired girl opens up her umbrella, takes a bow to the statue, and jumps off the crumbling world into a pitch-black void.

…

The sound Neo makes as she wakes up is nothing a person with vocal cords can make. She raises her head quickly to stop the rush of blood from making it to her brain. Her heart races at a thousand beats per second as her subconscious kicks her body into an adrenaline rush. Neo grasps her head tightly, trying to fend off the massive headache that threatens to wash over her body. Her breathing is heavy and quick as she sounds like she's about to hyperventilate.

"-y. -ey. Hey. Hey! Neo are you alright?!" Neo's hearing slowly comes back to her. The voice of someone she'd hardly just met a few days ago speaks to her as she experiences a panic attack. Neo looks up and sees Jaune standing a few inches away from her face, looking worriedly at the ice-cream-haired girl. Neo's breathing slows down considerably as her vision becomes a little more focused and her mind stops running at a few thousand miles per hour.

She closes her eyes tightly before opening them again, taking in her surroundings as she tries to calm herself down. She finds herself in the middle of the peaceful forest once again. Her back aches from leaning up against the solid rock for who knows how long. But the last thing she remembers is standing in the middle of the monochrome field as it disappeared beneath her. How did she end up back here?

She feels her back pocket and finds her notebook, sitting gently right where she had put it. Her parasol lying gently next to her, free of any not-Ursa blood. Her body also feels pathetically tired, like she just woke up from being sick. Neo looks around at her surroundings before coming back to Jaune with confusion sprawled across her entire face.

Jaune's worried expression soon lifts to one of relief as Neo begins to calm down. "How are you feeling?" He asks her. Neo is unsure how to respond. She feels weak, like she's been bedridden. She's also starving, a fact she only knows by the sound of her stomach growling at her, almost causing Jaune to crack a smile.

"You passed out last night soon after we arrived. Only really had time to have one or two conversations before you were out like a light."

Neo, still thoroughly confused, holds up four fingers before adding a fifth finger as she tilts her head. Jaune chuckles lightly. "It's day five, you slept through almost all of the fourth day." Neo is unsure how to process this information. It wasn't her that was sick, it was Jaune. Why does everything feel so… unreal? Is she reliving the same day again, just reversed roles? Neo pulls out her notepad and flips to the conversation from earlier between the two of them.

She lands on Jaune's last line 'I wish I knew more about you before our constant attempts at trying to kill each other.' Jaune blushes lightly as the two sit awkwardly for a moment in silence. Neo quickly flips to the next page and furiously begins writing. 'WHAT IS HAPPENING?' She writes out in all capital letters.

"Can you not remember anything? I suppose this would be a shock if you can't remember anything since Atlas-"

Neo is done writing before Jaune finishes his sentence.

'Not that you idiot, why is everything completely different from how I remember it?!' She asks through the paper. Jaune scratches his head in confusion.

"I think you might have just had a very vivid dream." Jaune says playfully, something that Neo does not find amusing. She had felt the pain. She could feel her muscles exhausting themselves as she fought against the ursa-like creature. He wouldn't be intentionally misleading her… would he..? She looks up at Jaune and yawns into his hand nonchalantly.

"Anyways, we should get moving. The longer we stay here the less chances we have of finding some help." He says after his yawn. Neo wants to say something, she desperately wants to tell him that he's wrong and that she's already found what they're looking for and even how to escape. But how could she without sounding completely suspicious? If she does tell him, then he'll either play it off as nothing or take it as an act of rebellion and shatter their brittle alliance in two. Neo thinks about the words of the ghost woman. The two of them need to stick together.

She'll tell him eventually after she's gotten everything sorted out and worked on exactly why this happened in the first place. However, now is not the best time. But she does need to tell him something. 'We need to get out of here as soon as we can.'

Jaune raises an eyebrow. "Still on this? We're not even in the village anymore there's nothing we need to fear, even if I do agree moving is the best possible decision."

Neo shakes her head no. 'We need to leave this place, this world, this Ever After whatever you want to call it. Right now.'

"Okay okay, but what brought this on?"

'Don't think about it, just start moving.' She holds up the pad, keeping it perfectly still as she walks past him. She stops a few feet ahead of him as she writes more down. 'If you really want a motive, just think of it as me trying to get as far away as possible from you.'

She sticks out her tongue playfully with a wide smile plastered across her face. Jaune snickers as he walks to catch up to her. "Alright alright, we'll get you out of here as soon as possible. Then we won't have to talk to each other ever again." The two of them laugh about each other's playful teasing, Neo does so silently and with a hand covering her mouth.

As the two of them walk with renewed purpose, Jaune glances through his mind as he watches Neo walk just ahead of him.

"That couldn't have been a dream, could it…?" He asks to himself, only loud enough for the wind to hear. Neo turns around as she swings her parasol in hand, waiting for him to catch up.

"We've got a lot of road to cover. And questions that need answering…" Jaune says, pushing the previous topic aside.

Neo nods in agreement, looking out towards the horizon and up at the massive tree that dominates the skyline in the center of the split islands.

"Guess we can only go forward." He says.

Neo simply stares at the world around her with a broad smile on her face. A clear goal set in her mind. She takes off down the road, skipping playfully as she twirls her parasol around her finger. A road to endless possibilities and countless explorations, all with a person who at least seems to tolerate her presence. How things have changed in such a short amount of time.

Jaune coughs meekly through his fist, trying to hide the sound from the prancing villainess.

Hello everyone, sorry it's been so long. I swear I've been working on this one for most of the entire time but with the holidays getting in the way and then moving back into college happening at around the same time it all ended up being a lot longer than normal. Not to mention the headache I got a few days ago. Anyways hopefully this one wasn't too confusing, like I've said I have no idea what the rules of this world are and refuse to learn them so everything is out of canon. Hope you all had a wonderful holidays and look forward to your feedback as always.