In a sense, it tickled just like that of a feather, but stung of salt shoved into freshly sliced skin. Neo wasn't a virgin to pain, but this ghostly, near ethereal memory of something she couldn't quite pin down rattled across her skin; or, perhaps, just below it.

"So, are you coming or what?" Mercury made no attempts to hide his impatience, but she could tell it was fake. The guy didn't really care how late they were; he was more or less acting the part so Emerald would quit her whining for once.

Staring just a second or two longer at the girl in the distance, Neo cataloged the experience away for later examination and returned to the duo who'd been just kind enough not to bother her for the solid minute or two she spent staring. That girl, the one always referred to as "Little Red" by her partner/caretaker/the guy who plucked her up from a life of worthlessness, she felt… 'odd' to be around. Even just looking gave her this phantasmal sensation of unease.

Normally, Neo wouldn't be feeling uneasy around anyone, but this one was different.

Ruby Rose was her legitimate name, and while the girl sparked Neo's interest in many ways now, she was kept from investigation due to her role in the plan; a plan she had no idea about, mind you, but a plan she'd been ordered to partake in by Cinder. The dynamic duo led her along to their room, where she was finally able to kick off her metaphorical boots and flop on a bed.

They hadn't really done anything today other than show up, but just being around the goons of her eventual mark tired her out immensely... Well, Emerald drained her - Merc was okay, though.

"Welcome to Beacon Academy everyone." And right then, Neo's precious few seconds of reprieve were stamped into the ground by her newest arch enemy. Forcing her head out of the pillow and turning it right around, she spied Cinder kicking their door closed, all the while wearing that repugnant smirk. "I hope you've gotten a feel for the place. Make any new friends?"

"None worth our time." Emerald tossed out with a similar flair of self-importance; albeit less notable due to her ultimate irrelevance compared to Cindy. "Although, I figure they'll become more than acquainted with us in time."

"Wonderful~" Falsified appreciation in every sense of the claim, and yet their resident petty thief ate it up with reckless abandon. At least the silver kid wasn't so convinced. Then again, Mercury looked and acted the type to lop himself in with whoever was providing the highest pay. Or, in simple terms: his loyalty was as strong as the client's wallet.

That, at least, was something she could understand and somewhat respect; he wasn't stupid, to him money and power shared a common priority, because Cinder sure as heck wasn't paying him a crazy amount. He stuck around because it kept his head in place, as opposed to having it rolling down the pavement charred like a burnt marshmallow.

"And what about you?" Neo blinked, silently challenging Cinder's sudden intrusion within her personal space. With a curt, albeit stupid smile and a flick of her eyelashes, Neo huffed and removed herself from the bedding. Cinder, being the self assured prick she was, hummed as if not getting an answer was a good thing, before babbling some more. "Ah~ I guess today has been rather tiresome for you. Not quite used to being looked at with anything other than scorn, no?"

And that was her cue to leave. Sending a small grin back, Neo waved her goodbyes and introduced herself to the door, not at all missing the darker edge of her boss's eye. Why should she care? Cinder hadn't been good enough to do anything before, and she wouldn't be good enough now. Instead of letting the fires of her mind be washed up in hate towards a problem she couldn't reasonably do anything about right now, Neo instead drew a new route on her map.

Little Red had shown herself; or, rather, Neo had spied the darting little ladybug.

Cinder wanted her to get all up in Beacon's business while they were here? Alright then, she would. Passing through the halls again, she returned to the sight of her mental itch, seeing the tail end of her cloak slip into the door before it shut revealed the girl's room; it seemed they'd finished up at the cafeteria. Her team would probably be inside, but they wouldn't be an issue. After all, while Ruby may have been a bit spry with Roman, Neo had no ill will towards the kid.

Heck, the tot might just prove a decent distraction from the suck-ups she was forced to adhere to and tolerate while here at this oversized kindergarten.

Being the dainty little princess she was, Neo gave a courteous couple knocks to the door, and once it opened up, put on her best shining smile.

"Can I... help you?" The blonde, Yang if she recalled, was looking down confused. If she recalled right, this woman right here was the bitch who broke Junior's balls a while back. Every now and then, Neo still laughed thinking about it. She must have mimicked the motion, because Yang was now sporting a mildly twerked grin. "What's funny? Come on, share it with a sister."

Ignoring her, Neo peeked around to see if Ruby was inside, and upon spotting her, made to move. Big sis ended up cutting her off though.

"Woah ho ho. Hold up there a minute -'' Neo, in turn, placed a finger over her lips, shutting the trap of the tramp and flicked a look of her eyes which promised a night of debauchery. That stunned Yang enough to get a physical gulp, and using that weakness Neo slipped in. "Ooookay then."

Bow-girl gave her a questioning look, but returned to her erotica soon enough when Neo made it clear that Ruby was her target - still, she sent little spying glances between every presumably sentence, but clearly, 'Ninja's Of Love 2: Falling Heaven' had her in a vice grip. Ruby shot her eyes from the textbook in her hand and up at Neo, who waved cutely. Ruby probably would have said something had the Schnee next to her not blabbered out.

"Excuse me, can we help you?"

Fluidly, and with the utmost care, Neo reached for and took the snowy maiden's hands in hers, pulling the slightly stunned lass up and gently guiding her over to the bed of the probably porn addict. Sitting the girl down on her arse, Neo patted her on the head before returning to her prize.

.

.

Ruby... Ruby wasn't sure what was going on.

On the one hand, seeing Weiss being treated like a toddler who'd just misbehaved was funny, but the weirdness that was this strange girl's demeanor kind of gave Ruby the heebie jeebies. As the twin-tailed doll leaned in, setting both hands on her lap, Ruby leaned back away from the unnamed woman.

Goth girl blinked, and Ruby blinked. Goth girl tilted her head like a cat, and Ruby tilted her head like a cat. Goth girl split a sultry smile between her lips, licking them as her eyes narrowed lustfully, and Ruby wanted to call out for an adult. Sadly, they were the adults, technically, so Ruby was left all on her lonesome - well, Yang was here, but she wouldn't jump in unless things got really uncomfortable; this was mildly creepy at best. With nothing else in her bag, Ruby made the elective decision to make first contact, and charging the willpower she'd drudged up from knowing her sister was probably only laughing a little bit, she gave a tiny wave.

"Hi."

The indecipherable girl who was nearly her size returned the wave, and her grin went from 'let's make out' to 'let's put glue on a toilet seat.' Okay, so maybe the mischievous look she was getting had Ruby thinking back to some of the tricks Yang and her used to get up to when they were little; the face twin-tails wore pretty much mirrored that of the younger Yang in her memories.

Although it got bothersome again when she reached out and stretched Ruby's lips up into a smile, squishing her cheeks afterwards like some kind of grandma. Already, Ruby could hear the other's murmuring in the background, and she was sure the lady manhandling her could too, as her smile stretched greater than the one Ruby's mouth was forced into a second ago.

"Are you going to do something about this?" Weiss asked, shooting Yang a mildly perplexed face. Yang, in turn, shrugged.

"Not the weirdest thing one of her pals has done before."

"She's getting handsy with your sister."

"Look, so long as those hands stay above the chest, I'm not gonna start a brawl."

"Really?" Weiss, losing her patience, attempted to win the argument - which was somehow happening as the girl kept playing with her face. "Seeing your sister uncomfortable is fine with you?"

"If Rubes was really uncomfortable, she would have zipped away the second it happened." That was true. Really, she was more intrigued by who this weirdo was. Yeah, she herself was socially awkward - Ruby wasn't oblivious to that fact - but this fancy chick played in a completely different ball park. Who knows, maybe she was an old friend of hers who'd graduated a few years back - wouldn't be the first time someone slipped her mind.

People changed over the years, and Ruby figured this may just be a long time buddy who's a bit too excited to see her. Yeah... yeah, okay: even she herself wasn't buying that one. Still, Ruby viewed this comical study of her face as more of a game. Maybe this was the 'hazing ritual' she'd heard rumors of while eavesdropping on everyone else at the lunch tables back in Signal.

Whipping away a step, the girl nodded, showing her satisfaction with the current state of Ruby's face before diving back in again. Squishing up against her, Ruby had only seconds to stare at the scroll being aimed directly into her eyes before the tiny click of the photo app. Reeling the scroll back in, Ruby spied a playful grin spread over the goth as she showed her the photo of them mashed together. Her first selfie of the year, and she had her eyes closed.

While embarrassing, that was nothing compared to the stilted silence within as Ruby realized she couldn't move.

Again?!

The goth girl then, nonsensically, split in two. The half that stood to overlook the photo taken was solid and completely normal looking. But from her peripherals, because she couldn't move her eyes, a more invisible specter wandered around and out of sight. That half was nothing but an outline of aura, which was the only thing Ruby's eyes could pick up on as they tingled and nearly burned.

.

.

"You're sending me that later." Turning back around, Neo watched as the blonde sported a toothy grin while addressing where she should have been. Neo smiled, hearing the ruffle of clothes in place of her body turning. She'd probably flashed a peace sign or whatever, even if her Death Space was completely invisible to her.

It was funny watching the trio through where they thought she was. Seeing through her soul as opposed to her eyes was always a fun ordeal. Everything was made of energy, but since her mind already knew how said energy was visualized via her eyes, that same understanding was then hoisted into the consciousness of her soul. Or, in layman's terms: she knew what it looked like, so it would look like that. This idea applied to all of her senses, and so she could hear just as well.

However, Neo did not know what 'nothingness' looked like, and so the space itself took on an invisible appearance, and without the rain to outline her, she just had to guess how she would have reacted in the situation - without light it should have been pure black, but again, she was seeing energy, not light.

Well… that was a bit of a lie. While she couldn't see what she was doing, she knew what she was doing, and where she was; had this not been the case, she'd never be able to enter the world again, and so chalked this quirk up as another part of her semblance.

The idea of souls being able to sense and remember the world was kind of ridiculous and a little dumb in rationalization, but the people of Remnant called upon superpowers from their souls to fight shadow monsters addicted to bad vibes, so Neo just lumped it in with the rest of the known world's insanity. And with said mania being ever so prominent, she'd opted to ignore most of it, focusing on what she wanted out of life as opposed to conforming to any one line of logic.

This was, of course, a thinly veiled excuse to hide her own madness and keep it out of mind - as if such a thing even mattered anymore.

Neo peeked around the team's room, less focused on the other girls and more curious as to any dirty secrets they may be hiding. Ruby was supposedly Roman's greatest foe, and what better a reason to want to snoop around for some dirty blackmail material; it would make Roman happy at least, seeing as she beat him so badly he wouldn't quit bringing it up whenever he got the chance. Then again, Roman was a bit of a bumbling - albeit lovable - buffoon when it came to dealing with kids, so the loss was partly on himself too. He never said it aloud, but he wasn't a fan of fighting children, let alone taking their lives; he'd do it if he absolutely had to, but only if he had no other choice. He'd act like it was nothing, but Neo knew better; Little Red wasn't the only kid he'd faced down over the years, but the process of loss was the same - even though she'd embarrassed him so bad he wouldn't quit bitching.

Such mercy came down to more personal reasons than a strict code of conduct on his part, but Neo paid it no mind. Considering Ruby legitimately won against him, she was all the more intriguing - especially with the tingle Neo felt at the sight of her. Cinder wanted them to make friends here at school, and so that's exactly what Neo would do. Who better to start with than her pop's 'arch nemesis,' for irony's sake?

Finishing up her observation - one minute total, which was a new record - Neo pranced around back to the front and slipped back into time, where she was admittedly texting something out: a message, since she couldn't exactly speak. It essentially read something along the lines of "text me later, kay? Here's my number," which wasn't the worst thing she'd ever put to words, but it would do. Unlike before, Neo made damn sure to perfectly match up in place where she was supposed to be, and aligning herself in such a way she'd, at best, jitter from their perspectives, Neo planted herself back within her afforded space in time.

Standing tall now that she was back amongst the commons, Neo grinned and shoved her phone in the little tike's face. Neo expected the gal to pull back, before ultimately stuttering out a response - that response being yes, of course.

What she did not expect was to see Ruby whip her head around back, and then front again.

"Was that your semblance?"

Yep... Neo's brain had somewhat fried upon hearing that.

.

.

"Not exactly the best thing to question when someone's trying to be friends."

Ah, poor innocent Ruby, so unwise to the ways of common companionship. That's why she was here, after all. Yang Xaio Long: big sister extraordinaire. When it came to reading the room and dancing the groove, not a better person for propping up the party could be found. Bringing the heat was her forte.

"No that." Ruby shook her head, right before hitting Yang with the weirdest line ever - in this context anyway. "I mean back there."

"Back... there?"

"Yeah." Little sis then snapped back with another brand new sentence. "When she split in two."

Weiss, however, was here to be the brains of the group when her own was reduced to mush; at least the hardass was good for something. "Ruby, what are you talking about?"

Leave it to Ice-Queen to make a single question bitchy. Expectedly, and Yang couldn't even fault her sister for the face she made, Ruby dropped a heavy frown and waved behind her.

"The other her." She said, as if plain as day, when in actuality that smack was mucky like the bogs which made up the edges of Vale's countryside. "The one who went along back."

Knowing for a fact she wasn't the only one, and wanting to save her little sister from embarrassing herself, Yang took charge. Opening her mouth, she made herself ready to back up her little sister... until her mind processed what was just said, and then she sort of idled there.

"Huh?" Was all the woman could muster before Weiss took the mic.

"That's absurd." Weiss calmly informed their young leader, leaving Yang speechless as the flies settled into their new home. "I get that she was picking at you." Ice-Queen shot a glare at the girl. "Rude, by the way." Before swinging back around on Ruby. "But she hasn't moved anywhere other than here."

"Are you feeling alright?" Blake put her book down, leaning over on her place in the bed. Ruby clammed up a bit, sitting on the edge of frustration. Yang, by now, had firmly retaken the castle of her mind from the rogue ideas, and even patched up her jaw so it could move again.

"I believe you." She spouted without so much as a justification, earning concerned and mildly irritated looks from the two unrelated teammates. Coughing into her fist and clearing her throat, Yang elaborated with a nail-biting save. "What I mean is, I think you might be a bit woozy from being so close to her - not to mention the weird face groping." Yang grumbled out that last bit.

Strangely, the goth seemed... somewhat frozen upon a quick check, printing a blank look into her features before correcting it with an embarrassed smile. Following up with a lightning quick nod, Yang and the rest got no more than a short wave before the girl saw herself out. This had everyone staring at their front door, each one understandably mystified about what to make of the scene.

Although, from the corner of her eye, Yang caught a glimpse of Ruby fiddling with her scroll.

.

.

Nononononono~

Neo, being a master at keeping her cool, couldn't even prevent herself from sucking in huge swaths of air once she got a decent distance across the hallway. Not stopping there, she made for an open, empty space, all the while keeping her panic from breaking free. The school had a park, with a few large trees. Yeah, that would do. Nearly knocking over some blonde guy carrying a stack of books and some red-head, Neo pushed out past the double doors and into the open air, where she proceeded to shoot for the nearest bush.

Within the sanctity of solitude, involving shrubbery who'd never betray her location so long as she didn't move, Neo began to categorize the short series of events which had just transpired. Teasing Little Red? Check. Snooping around for anything interesting just because? Also check. Having Little Red call out her bullshit? Check check check.

Why was that being checked?!

Neo had to calm down a bit, and reasonably think this through. Her semblance, while super crazy invincible - according to a lifetime of testing - stuck her outside her place in time, and also space, but they went hand in hand so that was a given. While it did so, the world carried on as if she was still there and doing her thing; the stabbing of her corpse was perhaps the newest reminder of how little reality cared about her actually being present within her murder... again.

With all of these elements combined, there was no way in whatever the heck grimm-covered underworld awaited her when she died that Ruby could have seen her. And yet, after she jumped back in place, the brat had the gall to question her on it.

What in the flying haymaker was that about?

A tiny idea itched at the back of her mind, an idea the young maiden of destiny dreaded to consider, because it ripped the 'invincibility' part of her semblance asunder. Little Red's semblance, according to what Roman made it out to be, focused on speed. With that in mind, was there some ridiculously narrow, rice length of a chance that this correlation with speed somehow allowed her to see how things moved?

No... that was stupid; eyes saw with light. That girl had seen her soul.

Neo began calming down; that little thought kind of warranted it, and as the welt in her noggin receded, more pleasant and enlightened thinking was granted access to its desired place. One tiny note to recall about the entire encounter would have to be the kid's eyes: they were glowing a little. She'd only spied it when stepping back inside the world, but ignored it, assuming it was just a trick of her mind.

Now though, thinking back on it, even the bits of aura more visible to the outer gaze beyond the veil of fate never shimmered so vividly. Aaaand it was happening again.

Peaceful thoughts, peaceful thoughts.

Okay, let's try this again, she figured; no harm in giving this a few theories-

"Excuse me, miss?" Neo locked up, forcefully disregarding the friction of her newly rusted form and twisting her head and neck on their robotic swivel to look up at the elderly man in overalls. He perked up his peak cap, sheers in hand, and addressed her kindly. "Would you mind moving to the bushes over there?" He pointed to the opposite end of the school's park, where a couple untouched hedges laid up against some light steel fencing. "I've gotta give this one a trim today. But you can come back here after if it's a bother."

Begrudgingly, Neo obliged, and continued her now dampened panic on the other side of the park. The new bushes were not so comfortable.

And the text she got on her scroll was even worse.

"Hi. It's Ruby. Can we meet up later? I wanted to ask you something."

Author's note

...

Yeah, only 5 chapters and the jig is up - kind of. Surely Neo will save face somehow, but that's what she gets for being reckless with her power.

We got a whole run-around this time. From Cinder to Ruby, to a panic-stricken Neo to Ruby texting. Pretty sure everyone can guess what separates Ruby from the rest, but you'll find it significantly harder to guess why.

Also, I changed the synopsis; this new one gets the point across faster and better than before, at least I think so.

Anyway, that's all for this time. Later.