Far in the distance, Beacon burned. Amity listed, adrift and abandoned. Screams and reports of guns echoed up to her from the city of Vale below her. Chaos and terror ran rampant as far as her multihued eyes could see, even into the forests as people fled the ruin of civilization. Chaos and terror, all thanks to ingenious Roman's handiwork. She twisted around to get another lookup behind her. The ship was plummetting to the ground; it looked like its engine had exploded.
She wasn't worried, though. Roman was a survivor. He could survive a measly little airship crash, and that Little Red certainly wasn't enough to threaten him! She looked forward to meeting back up with him at their pre-arranged safehouse. She twisted back around on the handle of Hush as she floated daintily through the air. It was a long way down. Roman would have had sense enough to not kill Little Red. He'd know that Neo would want to take some time to pay back this little insult.
It had been a dirty trick, opening her parasol like that. If it hadn't been at her expense, Neo might even have approved the underhandedness of the move. It had been at her expense, though, so she had spent several minutes of her descent considering how she'd mutilate the young huntress. Shaving her head? Yes. Making her eat her own hair? Definitely. Cuts and stabs in non-vital locations for a while. Fun things. Neo didn't know if they'd be able to drag Ruby to their safehouse, or if they'd be forced to wait for the fires to smolder out before Neo could catch the little huntress for her payback.
A screech shook Neo out of her thoughts. It was close. Really close! The sound came again, and Neo spied two pairs of glowing, ravenous red eyes swooping down at her. She swung her legs out, letting her evade the incoming strike with a pendulum motion, but the creature came around for a second, then third, attempts to snap at her. Neo realized that, hanging onto her weapon, she was defenseless.
Except for her semblance, that is. In a moment, she was gone. Lucky for Neo she was mute, otherwise, she may have been tempted to laugh aloud at how stupid the beast must feel as its quarry vanished. Grimm sure were stupid!
The griffon swept by her, its wing clipping against her - shattering her illusion in a shower of pink sparkles. It roared in surprise at her reappearance and came back around for another attack. She tried swinging away again, but this time it used a new tactic; instead of diving at her like a falcon, it hovered up to her and clawed at her with its sharp, taloned feet. Neo clambered up Hush, using it as a shield. The griffon cawed angrily and shot away into the darkness. She was safe again, for now.
The wind whipping around her alerted her to a new danger. The beast's claws had torn strips out of her parasol, and it no longer held her aloft. She was quickly gaining momentum; she was free-falling down towards the ground.
City or forest? She angled herself towards the city. At least there she'd be in her natural element. She didn't know the first thing about roughing it or camping.
The griffon returned with a vicious caw, grabbing onto her parasol and dragging her along with it. Its hind claws tore at the parasol until it was little more than tatters, at which point it lost its grip and she fell away. Now over the forest, all Neo could hope to do was land in something soft or swing through a tree.
Like a pinball, Neo bounced through branches and vines and leaves, twirling and spinning in the darkness. Neo crashed to the ground and instantly collapsed to the forest floor, her face planting itself in soft earth. She'd landed on her feet, with her aura bearing the brunt of the impact. Acute pain lanced through her entire body, but more concerning was her realization that she couldn't get up. She writhed about until the futility of it was apparent to her; the vines she'd fallen through had wrapped around her tightly. Neo's eyes, filled with pain-fueled tears, went wide as she realized her predicament. Stuck in the forest, unable to walk. She couldn't even stand up!
After a bit of trying, she was able to wriggle her hand to her pocket so that she could pull out her scroll. She pressed Roman's contact picture. It rang several times, but there was no answer. She realized her stupidity - Beacon's CCT was wrecked. Of course she wouldn't be able to make a call right now. Even under ideal circumstances, it would take the city days to repair the tower - like that time a big windstorm from the sea had damaged it two years ago. With the city swarming with monsters and such, Neo wouldn't be able to call Roman for a while. What would he do when he arrived at the safehouse and she wasn't there waiting for him? Obviously he'd come looking for her, but he'd have no idea where she would be. She rolled over onto her back, wincing at the new pain that shot through her from the movement.
She struggled against her bindings for a bit, rolling back and forth in the dirt. She gave up and lay there, looking up into the darkness of the forest. She was at a loss for what to do. She wasn't physically strong enough to just burst out. She couldn't see well enough to finesse her way free. She was stuck.
Then, a new sound.
"...over here, I swear I heard something." The male voice said. "Come on, we're supposed to be on watch, right?"
"Yeah, watch over the camp. We're not supposed to be wandering off like this." Chastised a second male voice. "It's probably nothing."
There were sounds of grunting, slashes at the thicket of bushes and vines to carve a path, and cursing at the forest.
Then, finally. "Oh-ho. What do we have here? And you said it was probably nothing. I'll wait here while you eat your words." The first voice celebrated. Neo still couldn't see anyone - had the men stumbled upon some other treasure adjacent to her position? It sounded like they were almost right beside her.
"Fine. I guess you were right. She looks alive, too. But what are we going to do with her? Can't just take a human back to camp, can we?"
Human.
Neo realized that just because her eyes couldn't see them, didn't mean these newcomers couldn't see her.
They must be faunus.
She'd heard them mention a nearby camp. Refugees from the city wouldn't have had time to make a camp out here, yet. Which meant she'd happened to nearly land upon a White Fang encampment. That could be good news for her - Roman had worked with them on this whole operation. By extension, these two were her allies... or something close enough to that to warrant a sliver of hope in the petite criminal.
"Well, we can't just leave her here. Looks like she fell from the sky. Those vines are from the upper branches, see? You can see where she tumbled down." The first faunus said. "Miss, hello, miss? My name is-"
"Don't tell her your bloody name, you idiot!" The second faunus interrupted. "You want her to ID you later or something? I bet next you'll be untying her so that she can go tell people where she saw us."
"ID me to who? City's on fire. Nobody cares anymore. We won, bossman's plan went off with barely any casualties." First faunus shot back. "Say, there's an idea. We can let the boss decide what to do with her."
If Neo could make noise, she would have cheered. She gave a little smirk. The boss the faunus mentioned must be Roman! Roman had been the one ordering these filthy animals around before Little Red and her gang of wannabees had spoiled their operation out in Mountain Glenn. She should have known Roman still had an open line to these underlings.
"Could have a bit of fun, though, before she makes it to the boss." The second faunus said. A boot poked Neo on her hip, and she understood what the man was talking about. She should have known that, in the chaos of the city's fall, the faunus were enjoying themselves to the spoils of victory as men do. Neo threw an arm across her chest, and another grasped her belt buckle. She wasn't a stranger to adult intimacies, but neither was she feeling like being molested by two strangers in the woods. She wasn't in much of a position to resist, though. These two were her best hope for getting to safety, to Roman. If her saviours exacted a toll for carrying her out of her desperate state, then it could not be considered an unfair exchange.
Slowly, she released her buckle and brought her other hand to the top-most button of her vest. Better to cooperate than try to fight them off.
"Man, are you kidding? Shelly finds out I did something like that, she'd bite my ears off. I just got her to forgive me for putting her scroll in the laundry last month." First faunus replied.
The boot shifted off of her hip. "Oh man, you're back with Shelly? I thought you two had called it quits after you found her with some other guy."
"That was all just a misunderstanding. That guy's just her cousin from Mistral, he came in with the rest of you guys. She hadn't seen him in years."
"Man, you're a total cuck. No way that guy was her cousin. None of my friends ever mentioned having family over here they wanted to see."
"You don't know what you're talking about. Shelly and I are gonna be together forever, we're going to settle down on the outskirts or maybe Patch and have a happy little litter. I won't mind being so close to Vale now that things have changed, ears won't always be ringing and shit."
Just as Neo was beginning to feel a bit forgotten and ignored, hands reached down under Neo's armpits. Hands grabbed onto her knees.
"Looks like her ankle might be a bit sprained, I'm seeing a bit of a bruise. This is probably going to hurt, miss, but we've got no gentle way to carry you." He paused and released her. "Should we put a piece of bark in her mouth to bite down on?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea. Or to gag her in case there's any more of them out here." Said the other. "Here, try this." A piece of wet bark was shoved into Neo's mouth; she realized she'd had her mouth open to breathe rapidly, panting from the sprain in her leg; she bit down and accepted it as one of them wrapped a bit of cloth around her head to keep it in; at least she wasn't any weaker for being gagged by the wood. It wasn't the sort of wood she had thought she'd be getting right now.
Brutes! Villainous assholes! They'd teased her with the promise of possibly pleasurable sex time, but all they'd given her was disappointment and humiliation! She hated this! This day had been just awful!
At least she could look forward to seeing Roman once these idiots got around to messaging their boss with her location for him to come get her. Then, once she was safe with Roman again, she'd make sure to remember these two's faces so that they could make it onto the revenge list with Little Red. Especially the one with his hands supporting her by her armpits - he was definitely taking pains to avoid any contact with her breasts, as if to torment her even more!
The awkward hike back to the White Fang camp was probably no more than a couple hundred metres, but it felt like an eternity of shaking, stumbling steps, and branches brushing against her face and catching on her beaded necklaces. When they finally laid her down next to a small fire, they had attracted a fair amount of attention from the other faunus in the camp. In the light of their fire, Neo saw herself being surrounded by faunus. Wood-wise bandits and forsaken folk of the human cities, the lowest rung of the social order, encircling her while she was helpless. Whatever dark, depraved impulses they chose to insist upon her, she would have no choice but to accept her fate. She felt her left hand rubbing along the metal edge of her belt buckle, her right hand brushed errant hairs away from her doll-like face. These lowlives had complete freedom to treat her as despicably as they wished - there was no law left in the land to punish them, no moral objections against such incivility ingrained on bestial creatures such as themselves. Neo knew that until Roman arrived, until her body healed, her flesh was at their mercy. If she submitted to their desires, then perhaps they would not treat her harshly. It was a dim hope, but one that she managed to cling to with what fervour was left to her.
The faunus surrounding her looked to one another, exchanging knowing glances that implied whole conversations. Finally, after a few moments, they began speaking as the surprise of her arrival dulled and their curiosities were aroused.
They wanted to know who she was.
"We'll ask the boss." Was the reply.
One of the faunus stepped up and got a closer look at Neo. "Hey, I remember her. She was at Mountain Glenn. That human bodyguard that hung out watching us do all the work."
There were murmurs of recognition from some of the rest. Neo rolled her eyes. It was about time she got a little bit of respect for who she was here! She was kind of a big deal, the sort of woman none of them would ever have a chance to encounter under regular circumstances.
The faunus continued to crowd around her. They wanted to know if a human was allowed in the camp.
"We'll ask the boss." Was the reply.
They wanted to know what was to be done with her.
"We'll ask the boss in the morning." Was the reply, "but until that's decided, there's no point in loosening any of those vines - it'll be easier if she can't move around while you show her some... hospitality." The way he paused before that last word sent a shiver up Neo's spine. Two faunus had been one thing, she'd accepted and made her peace with that possibility. But an entire camp of them? Even she wasn't sure she was tough enough to hold out until her reunion with Roman if things were going to be like this. There were cheers around her as the faunus all grew giant grins, their eyes running up and down her body, devouring her with their gazes. Neo had no way to tell what indignities their savage imaginations were devising for her.
With that, the pair that had found her walked off, out of sight, abandoning her to their pack's wildest whims. Neo could barely manage to keep her eyes open to take stock of her rescuers' faunus traits - dog ears and a furry tail, possibly a lynx? The burly figures remaining around her had a variety of faunus features, too, but between the dimming pain from her fall, the flickering dim light obscured by their strong, muscled frames, and her prone perspective, she couldn't take a proper tally of them all. Hooves, fangs, ears, and similar things flashed by her as she was quickly covered in their firm, calloused grips. She steeled her resolve to endure whatever came, for the sake of seeing her precious friend Roman again. Whatever deplorable acts they had in store for her, she would weather them with grace and human pride!
Then she was promptly given basic medical care by the assembled faunus, who bound a splint to her leg tightly in clean bandages after applying a soothing ointment to the bruised skin, gave her water to drink, and put a blanket over her after laying her by the heat of a campfire.
None of them made any sexual advances on her, nor did any of them touch her in an arousing manner whatsoever.
It was like none of them even knew how to properly celebrate overthrowing a city! She was an attractive, helpless woman, ripe for their bodies to sate themselves with, but not a single one of them acknowledged the fact! Left unspoiled, her expectations denied, given nothing but time to mull over her own thoughts and dwell on the pain slowly ebbing from her legs as her aura healed her, Neo frowned while she watched the embers of the fire.
Useless animals!
Neo passed out in the dim light of the flame, knowing that when she woke up things couldn't be any worse for her at least.
"Boss wants to see the human." A voice said as something pointy and hard pressed against her cheek. "Should we untie her so that she can walk there herself? I don't want to have to carry her..."
"Nah, don't bother risking it. Let the boss decide whether to release her or not; until then, those climber vines mean she won't cause a fuss."
"Ugh, this sucks. Why am I the one who has to bring her? Why can't you?" The voice whined, followed by an actual whimper. It was dog ears, the one who had refused to ravish her earlier. After a moment, she felt his hands reach under her arms again and lift her up, then she was slung over the faunus' shoulder so that her head was dangling against his chest staring down at the ground.
Neo perked up, shaking the sleep out of her eyes. She was being taken to see Roman! Craning her neck around she searched for some sort of vehicle - had Roman come out to the woods, or was she being taken back into the city? There was no vehicle nearby. In fact, there wasn't even a road. It was dense forest. How had they even gotten word to Roman so quickly about where she was? How long had she been asleep for? Her leg felt fully healed.
Her body shook and wobbled in the dog-faunus' grip as he gingerly kept her stable atop his shoulder. "At least you're pretty light I guess, so that makes this easier."
He carried her through the camp; there were many camouflaged tents scattered about, and the dense canopy kept any passing airships from spotting them. It was a well set-up position for them to strike at the city without eliciting undue suspicion; now it served as a good place to fall back to now that the attack was concluding. While she admired their position, a voice boomed through the camp from a number of small radios. The faunus were using radio to communicate with one another. Neo had to admit that that was clever; knowing that the CCT would be out of commission for a while, they had realized that they would need a new way of communicating during and after the attack. Radio had been considered obsolete technology after the advent of the CCT, but criminals and small communities still used it with enough regularity to make the devices easily accessible. Roman himself still liked radio, too, saying that it was just a good solid technology. She considered the strong possibility that Roman had been the one to suggest that these faunus rely on radio - yes, he was the clever one, so that made much more sense than these creatures coming up with the idea themselves. Still, they were smart for using radios one way or another.
She wasn't going to praise them out loud, though! Even if she could! Lousy beasts. She couldn't wait to be out from their yoke and back at Roman's side.
"My friends. We have fought hard, and achieved a great victory. The menace of the human's Cross-Continent Transmitter has been extinguished. For years they ignored our complaints that the frequencies it emitted were audible to many of our people, day and night. They viewed our suffering as inconsequential; their scientists even dismissed what we knew to be fact as 'mechanically impossible'. Well, today we have taught them that we will not be brushed aside! We will make ourselves heard by any means necessary! Today is the start of a new era - one where the faunus show that we can and will take what we deserve! We will be heard, not just seen!"
Nearby faunus began chanting and cheering. "We will be heard! We will be heard!"
Neo tuned most of the speech out. She did sympathize with the bit of being frustrated about feeling unheard. That was a cause near and dear to her. She hadn't even wondered why the faunus had joined Cinder's plan; she'd assumed Cinder had just bribed them with a bit of lien and all the dog food they wanted. Neo hadn't even considered that there was a reason that the CCT had been the target of the White Fang's destructive intentions beyond how it was a visible landmark whose destruction would reverberate through Remnant. Now she learned that the CCT may have been aggravating some of them with sensitive hearing for years, and they'd only saw fit to have politely complained about it until now?
The thought of their passivity soothed Neo's ego a bit. It was hardly any wonder none of them had taken advantage of her last night - they probably were too shy to take such initiative, docile and domestic as they were after years of human servitude. Lynx-tail had probably only suggested it because he was one of the newcomers from the White Fang's headquarters in Mistral, where their cultural media was a bit more explicit.
He stopped in front of a tent. It looked a bit larger than the others, but maybe that was just because she was right up next to it now. It certainly didn't look like the sort of accommodation Roman would use in any circumstance. The entire camp probably didn't even have running water! Neo looked around, her head swivelling around quickly trying to gauge whether this was some silly faunus prank or such.
Dog-ears had a serious expression, though. He wasn't really looking at her like he was waiting to see her reaction to his joke. He used his foot to tap on the tent's entrance.
"Hey, boss! Got that human we found out in the woods last night."
The tent was opened by a weaselly-looking faunus man. "Ah, yes. Enter."
All hope of being reunited with Roman that Neo had clutched to were dashed. Sitting at a large table covered with a map of Vale and its surrounding territories was not Roman Torchwick, though the red locks adorning the man's head could be cause for confusion. No, it was instead Adam Taurus, the White Fang's most-wanted terrorist agent, that sat in the tent appraising her through his smooth white grimm-style mask.
After several tense moments of looking at her, and of her looking at him wearing as brave and defiant a face as she could muster, he spoke.
"What... is this?"
"Human woman. Found her in the woods last night with her legs all messed up." Dog-ears reported.
"Why is it here?" Taurus asked, his mouth settling into a scowl. "Are those our camp's bandages on her legs?"
"Well, we took far less casualties last night than we expected, thanks to your leadership, so we had some to spare."
"Still seems like a waste. What good is she to us alive?"
"If I may, sir." The weaselly faunus interjected, "she is a known associate of Roman Torchwick. We're not entirely certain as to the nature of their relationship, but she could be a useful bargaining chip."
They were going to use her as a hostage? They were going to use her to hurt Roman?
She wasn't going to let that happen!
She wriggled and head-butted her way to freedom, encouraging dog-ears to release her with a swift blow to his jaw. She rolled to the ground and began worming her way to freedom. She made it several body-lengths before she felt herself get picked up.
"Oh, I'm sorry, do you think I gave you permission to leave?" Adam asked her. He roughly slammed her into a chair. "Know your place, prisoner. Sit. Stay. Be quiet while we decide what is to be done with you. If you can't do that, then I won't have any qualms about adding another kill to my count."
Given the vines wrapped around her limbs and her lack of a voice, it wouldn't be too difficult for her to comply with his orders; even if she didn't want to.
"You have done well to bring her to me. Leave us." Adam directed, and dog-ears left the tent. Adam looked at his other companion while stroking his chin. "After being forced into this entire debacle by Cinder, I'm not sure we really want to have any more dealings with humans. Even a great victory like this has cost us a lot of faunus blood. High Leader Khan will not be pleased. What do we have to gain by negotiating with Roman Torchwick? My understanding was that the human represents the absolute worst traits of his species when it comes to his views on ours, so associating with him is not, as Sienna would say, 'on brand'. The casualties from the Mountain Glenn expedition alone made most of us balk at the thought of continuing on with the operations."
"Indeed, we have suffered greatly for this victory, but suffering is not a new thing for our people. When the High Leader sent us here, she expected you to deliver results. Better living conditions for our local people, effective changes." The weasel faunus cooed to his master. "Torchwick is a prominent figure in the local underworld. In the aftermath of the battle, he might be useful in securing supplies. With his talents and connections, we can ensure that our people are the ones in control of the remaining resources and storehouses of dust, water, and fried chicken."
Adam nodded. "Fair enough. That might offset Khan's reservations about our motives for all of this, and ensure our people's future here. Have we heard from Torchwick since the fighting stopped?"
"No. Our people are still taking a tally of the events and fallout from the attack, it might be a week or so until we find out what happened to particular individuals, but I can put the word out for our people to keep their ears up for him specifically."
"So I have to keep this human alive for a week?" Adam sighed. "I think there are tasks more deserving of my attention. For instance, the small matter of the traitor I found hiding at Beacon and a promise I made to her. If Blake Belladonna thinks that she can just walk away from me - from the White Fang, I mean!- then she has to be taught that-"
Adam stopped talking, his attention now coming to rest entirely back on Neopolitan. Or, more specifically, the female cat-faunus with black hair Neo's semblance was making her appear to be.
"What the- Blake?" Adam stood up and slowly walked over to Neo-Blake. He held out a trembling hand and brushed it against her hair. "It's hard. Like glass?" He pressed a little bit harder against the illusion, and it shattered into bright pink sparkles. Neo was Neo again, and Adam looked away, biting his lower lip thoughtfully. "On second thought, I should take the time to deal with this latest little distraction and learn what I can; she may be useful. Blake is out there licking her wounds for now; it would be foolish to waste effort hunting her until she makes her next move." He waved his hand at the door. "Go make sure the camp is secure, and gather more information about what we've gained from this operation and what we've had to sacrifice to see it through. And find out what happened to Roman Torchwick. I'll deal with the prisoner alone."
The weasel-faunus bowed deeply, then left the tent. Adam closed the tent securely behind him as he departed.
He looked straight at Neo for a minute in silence, maybe waiting for Neo to move or make an attempt to speak. "You can look like Blake?"
She nodded. She could look like anyone she knew, or could imagine. She could be Cinder. She was Cinder. She could be Emerald. She was Emerald. She was Adam. She was Ruby, Yang, Weiss. She was Roman.
"Remarkable." Adam said. "Say, when you make yourself look like someone, how much control of it do you have? Can you choose what the clothes look like?"
Neo nodded. She was wearing Roman's hat, then she was smoking a non-existent cigar just like Roman probably was right now as he celebrated a job well-done and waited for her to show up at the safehouse.
"So, when you look like Blake, you could choose to... I mean, if you wanted, you could-"
Neo nodded. Suddenly, Blake was sitting in front of Adam with a lot less clothing adorning her body.
"-be wearing the bow to hide her ears or-" Adam continued, then stopped talking as his masked face turned back down to regard his captive.
Neo slowly shook her chest from side to side with a coy smile on Blake's face. Neo's chest was, despite her smaller stature, on par with Blake's, so the movement was easier to imagine into vision. Dare she say, it had a downright accurate amount of jiggle.
"Aaaagh! What the - why are you naked?" He shielded his eyes with his large, thick fingers. After a moment, quietly, he asked in a hushed whisper, "is that what Blake looks like naked?"
Neo nodded confidently, but Adam wasn't looking to see her response.
"Why would you know what Blake looks like nude?" Adam queried, still averting his gaze.
The answer to that was long and complex, hard to communicate for a mute girl to a guy that wasn't looking at her, but it mostly boiled down to an explanation of the interesting uses of an illusion-semblance to be a voyeur in a communal changing-room and shower area. Nobody ever really kept track of little details like whether the showers were two metres wide or one-and-three-quarters of a metre wide. Sometimes, sitting in a shower stall pretending to be part of the wall had been a fun way to amuse herself - some of those huntsmen and huntresses knew how to give her a show. Not Blake, specifically, but Beacon hadn't been without its highlights when she'd been forced to masquerade as the fourth member of Cinder's team.
"You know what, I don't think I even want to know." He decided. He sat back down, crossing one leg over the other to try to hide the happy bulge straining against the crotch of his pants. "Still, a skill like that might be useful in taking everything away from her. Force her to come crawling back to me - us. Force her to come back to her true home and people."
Neo wasn't invested in whatever petty squabble existed between Blake and her dangerously sexy faunus boyfriend. She was much more invested in maybe getting a taste of the dangerously sexy faunus boyfriend for herself. She was sore, he was in power, and if she was going to survive long enough to get back to Roman her instincts screamed at her to latch onto Adam with everything she had. His strong presence, his commanding charisma over his subordinates, it all started making sense to Neo. Those other faunus outside had left her untouched because they weren't the alpha of the faunus pack; it hadn't been something wrong with her that had made them leave her alone, they'd just been obediently saving her for their leader! They didn't have the right to rut that came with being the top male. Adam did. Adam was the alpha here, confident and dominant. Just being near him she felt the tug of attraction towards his muscular, lithe body. He would certainly have no qualms about making Neopolitan feel good the only way she could without dairy-desserts or fun murder times; taking from her whatever he wanted, he answered to no man as the rest of them did. Her aura would heal the hurt in her legs, but she needed something more tangible to fill the dull ache tingling from higher up in her body.
Her illusion shattered, and Adam peeked back at her as she continued to sway her bust back and forth with a smile still on her face.
If he liked seeing Blake topless, then he'd surely love seeing au naturel Neo!
Take your time finding me, Roman. I think I've found a nice new toy to play with.