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Neo was surprised that Cinder was surprised that she was attacking her. The woman couldn’t have been that clueless, could she? Sure, she hadn’t known her subordinates were fucking each other until she walked in on them, but she thought it was pretty easy to put two and two together here. Neo had every right to be furious at her. It was a fury that had been stewing for months. Simmering since that day at Beacon. Since the day that...
She was grateful to Lil’ Miss and her independent attitude towards her clients. Otherwise, she may not have told Neo that Cinder had come to her for information. The same information that she had asked for, in fact. And she told her when Cinder was coming back. She was at least pleased to see that Cinder had been taken down a peg since she last saw her. A missing eye and a fucked-up arm was a small step in the right direction. But it still wasn’t enough. Cinder hadn’t lost in the magnitude that she had yet.
So why was the bitch surprised when she sought to correct that?
To her credit, she defended herself well. But Neo had cold-blooded rage on her side, and she refused to let up. Even when they moved outside, she wouldn’t back down. A measly fireball wouldn’t deter her from avenging Roman.
“I don’t have time for your misplaced blame, girl,” Cinder spoke down to her, “I didn’t kill your boss.”
...her boss? Her boss? Was Cinder really that stupid? Did she really not know?
How about, “her savior”? How about “her only real family”? How about, “the love of her life”? How about, “the future—”
—no. No. Not that one. Not anymore. That was Cinder’s fault too.
The bitch continued, “If you want revenge, take it up with Little Red.”
Ah, yes, the girl. She was probably the one who fucked Cinder up. That made Neo even less vengeful against the former student of Beacon.
Cinder continued to implore her as she attacked, “You’re not the only one with a grudge against Ruby!”
But in reality, she didn’t. Truth be told, she didn’t even blame Ruby for Roman’s death. Not entirely. The way she saw it, if it hadn’t been her, it would’ve been some other goody-two-shoes trying to “do the right thing” by taking them down. She was still going after her—it’s what Roman would’ve wanted—but she didn’t have any real qualms against the girl.
But with Cinder she did. It was her plan that set the events in motion.
If she hadn’t dragged them along, they would’ve been free to continue with the regular crimes that they were used to, the ones entirely for profit and not some deeper agenda. Roman wouldn’t have been taken away from her with his arrest. He wouldn’t have had needed a prison break during the chaos that was the Grimm attack. They wouldn’t have had to deal with Ruby on the airship. He wouldn’t have been stolen from her by a passing Grimm, and Neo wouldn’t have lost...
...so no, Neo didn’t have much of a grudge against Ruby. But she did have a grudge against Cinder.
She was close to beating her too. But then the bitch knocked her back with her weird magic powers, eyes blazing and wind whirling. Was that a new trick?
“Listen!” Cinder bellowed, “We both want that girl dead.” She was still wrong, but Neo made no move to correct her when she started floating.
Shit. The bitch had gotten stronger. Neo recognized the punch behind that kind of power and knew she didn’t stand a chance against her in that state. Cinder now had a certain spark that made her tougher than average folks. She had seen that same spark within that lady on the train while battling the blonde.
She knew she couldn’t win.
“So quit wasting your time fighting me,” she spoke menacingly, “and let’s discuss how we kill her together.”
Neo recognized that she had been backed into a corner. There was no point in trying to fight Cinder now. She’d just end up joining Roman. And as much as that thought appealed to her, she still had business to attend to.
So, Neo agreed to a truce. She would play nice with the bitch that took her family from her to take out Ruby Rose. For him. Because she knew he’d want that.
But the second she saw a way, Neo would get her revenge on Cinder. Maybe not by killing her, but somehow, she would make her lose just as much as she had.
It was all that was keeping her going.