Chapter Text
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Everything hurts… By the gods, it feels like you’ve been hit by a truck… How did you get here? How did it all end up like this? Maybe…. Maybe if you were able to remember when it all began…
Many years ago…
You can still remember feeling the rush as you run through the alley, the constant yelling from the rich human male chasing after you, and the shine from his golden watch, which you not-so-sneakily stole from him, shining in the occasional dim light you pass in the graffiti-covered alleyway.
Taking a right down a less well-lit area, you manage to lose the man in the darkness. Watching him run past the turn off, you take a deep breath before looking down at the watch. This’ll make you lots of Lien when you eventually sell it.
However that feeling of hope is soon, quite literally, stolen from you by a figure which you can’t see. Immediately, you start giving chase. “H-Hey!” You call out. “I need that!” Your young legs desperately attempt to keep up with the thief. You had to steal that watch once, and you’re prepared to do it again if it means you’re able to eat for another day.
The thief knocks over trash cans and ladders, as well as other alleyway junk, in an attempt to slow you down, but you manage to keep up and eventually tackle them to the ground, causing the watch to slide across the unforgiving concrete.
You go to reach for it, only for the thief to flip you over. As they do, you’re able to see a pair of black and pink eyes, and a head of hair of the same colours, for a brief moment before she lunges towards the watch with equal desperation.
You grab her leg, causing her to come crashing to the ground, which eventually leads to a scuffle. The two of you are so focused on each other that neither one of you notice the man who you originally stole the watch from, with a few police officers by his side, bend over and pick up his watch, leaving the two of you on the ground like a pair of deer in headlights.
That’s where it all began. A botched robbery, a look which could kill from a mute girl, and a ride in the back of a cop car. It’s funny to think that same girl would, in time, become your closest friend.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
You spent the next week being watched by a guard in a prison cell with the girl who you were fighting with in that alley as the authorities attempted to find some sort of family, or at least figure out what to do with the two of you. One day, during a rotation of the guards, you were able to steal the keys to the cell from the new guard on duty, who was clearly too distracted with whatever was going on on his scroll to notice you. You even brushed your hand against him a few times, critical errors that would’ve gotten you caught had it been any other guard. After about half an hour, the guard left the cell, presumably for a bathroom break.
He was still too focused on his scroll to bother calling someone in to take his place.
When you open the door, you motion for the girl to follow you. Obviously skeptical, she refuses at first, but a quick explanation about how two people escaping is better than one later, and how this is more than likely her only shot at freedom, the two of you start making your way throughout the prison.
Even now, while your head beats like a drum, you can still remember the sheer havoc the two of you caused while escaping… Well… More so the havoc Neo caused. She would purposely open whatever cells she could whenever she had the chance to divert attention away from the two of you and onto the now freed prisoners.
Running from the guards' attention brought the two of you to the roof, where Neo "convinced" you to jump three stories into a pond to clear the outer fence.
And by "convince you", you of course mean "violently push you". Whether this was done to help you escape or outright kill you for getting her trapped in this mess, you still don't know to this day… Nor do you want to ask, but knowing what you know now, she more than likely wasn’t exactly on your side at all during these early days.
The two of you had to live in the woods surrounding the prison for days before the two of you could start moving again. They surprisingly didn’t check the woods, and instead were too busy dealing with the other, more dangerous prisoners. By the time you two were even considered, half a day had passed already, so they had assumed that the two of you ran as fast as you could, being a couple of kids after all. So staying in place so close to the prison, which was Neo’s idea, seemed genius and admittedly it was… At least, that’s what you thought was happening anyway. In reality, Neo was just trying to get you caught again so she could escape and put you back behind bars. Needless to say, she was astounded that the authorities didn’t even consider the trees.
Maybe it was this time alone that made her decide to keep you around for a while.
Those memories… They seem almost nostalgic in a way. The two of you were too young and dumb to truly understand what was going on, and how inexperienced the two of you were still makes you chuckle to this day. But, those days were the most carefree. You didn’t have to worry about whatever rules and regulations a group had set on you, you didn’t have to worry about tarnishing some kind of reputation… It was true freedom to do what you wished…
But just because you had true freedom, that didn’t mean you had a stable source of Lien. Or a reliable way to get food and water. Shelter was a luxury, and to not feel cold for one night was seen as impossible.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
3 years after the previous events…
You and Neo creep through the alley, watching every move the two of you made. This part of town was known for being run down and a hotspot for crime. But you brought Neo here for a reason.
You feel her tap your shoulder in an attempt to get your attention. You turn around to notice a worried look on her face. By this point, Neo has developed a way to pseudo-communicate with you. Tapping on your arm a couple more times, she tells you her concern about being here, of all places.
"We'll be okay, Neo." You reassure her. "I’ve been scoping out a place around here. I saw it after we robbed that bookstore a couple blocks away. We got split up, remember?” You ask her, to which she nods. “Yeah. I’ve been coming back here every night since then.”
With a pout, she smacks you up the back of the head.
You yelp in pain, before rubbing the back of your head. “Okay, I admit it was irresponsible for me to leave you on your own like that for a couple weeks, and I’m sorry. But I promise you this’ll make up for it, Okay?”
She crosses her arms before sighing, giving you another slight nod.
You then hold up your hand, making her stop in place. “We're just around the corner. Stay close behind me. Ready?" You ask, and she gives you another nod of confirmation. With a peek around the building, you make sure nobody's around before motioning for Neo to follow you and bolting towards the door of one of the above-a-store apartments.
"If you see anybody, tap my back, okay?" You ask her before taking off your old and torn brown backpack, which you stole from a dumpster, and pulling out a dirty paperclip.
Bending the clip ever so slightly, you slowly push it into the lock of the knob. Soon, the 4th pin goes up in place. Followed by the 5th and then the 1st. While working on pins 2 and 3, you feel Neo tap your back frantically.
"Damnit. How many?" You then feel her tap you twice, then dig her nail into your back. Two cops. "How much time do we have?" As you feel the 2nd pin give, you also feel two fingers press against your back, followed by the side of her hand.
20 seconds is all you have.
"I'm almost done…" You mutter as Neo taps you frantically, basically slapping you at this point, trying to get you to leave the lock and hide. But you refuse to leave.
The 3rd pin gives you trouble. But soon, it gives way as well. "Go! Go! Go! Get in!" You whisper, holding the door open for her.
She grabs your bag on the way in, and you follow behind her, shutting the door gently yet swiftly as you enter the apartment.
You let out a sigh of relief as you slide down the door and onto the floor. "Well… That… That was close." You say.
Neo pouts at you once more. With a hand on each hip, she starts tapping her foot, expecting you to have a good reason to not only break into an apartment in this part of town, but to also almost get the two of you caught AND leave her alone every night for two weeks.
"I know you're not happy, but keep an open mind." You get off the floor and brush yourself off, the moonlight from the window in the door illuminating you as you do so. "There's a reason I wanted to break in here. It’s because… Well…" You walk forward before looking back at Neo. "This is our new home. From what I'm able to tell, the store owner doesn't care about this place anymore, and now only uses it to keep old furniture from the person who last lived here, because it's too old to sell and too big to be worth the time it takes to move. So as long as we keep it down during the day, we should be okay." You explain with a slight smile.
Neo looks around in awe. Admittedly, it’s… Not exactly in the best shape. Cracks in the drywall, a nasty breeze from the broken living room window, very poor lighting, which can’t be used anyway unless the curtains are kept across at all times past sunset, and holes near the bottom of the walls which undoubtedly hide bugs, rodents, and whatever other small creatures want to pay you a visit.
The furniture left behind is cracked and torn, with the couch having one spring completely broken and the TV being old and having a large crack through the centre of the screen. The bedframe was on the verge of breaking, and the bed itself was a bare mattress. Not even a pillow to rest on, or a blanket to cover up in.
But the fridge and stove worked… For the most part. In fact, most of the kitchen was intact, compared to the rest of the apartment.
But at the end of the day, it was a roof and four walls. Something that the two of you haven’t had since your brief time in jail, and Neo was overjoyed to have a place the two of you could call home, no matter how run down said home is.
You smile with her as the two of you sit down on the couch, something that’s not a cold bench or tipped over trash can for once, and enjoy feeling the inviting fabric as opposed to the harsh concrete. Sleeping in that bed also felt like a tiny piece of heaven, especially after the two of you stole some blankets and pillows.
You can still remember how happy the two of you were to finally have a place to rest without worrying about being robbed in the middle of the night or dying of hypothermia in a snowstorm. And no more staying up to keep watch over the other in the night.
For the time being, it was true peace once again.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
8 years later...
It was years ago now since You and Neo were sitting in the abandoned above-a-store apartment. Life was so peaceful… At least… As peaceful as two criminals could be.
However, the two of you ran into a bit of an… Oddity. A young upstart of what would eventually become the leader of one of the biggest crime syndicates in Remnant, who goes by the name of Roman Torchwick, showed up to the apartment about five years ago on this day. While at first he wanted the two of you gone one way or another, wanting to take control of the upstairs apartment so he can drill through the ceiling to the store below and, in the dead of night, steal as much lien as his pockets could hold and take anything else he needed, the two of you held your ground, and you both managed to impress him enough to the point that he decided to take you both in under his wing.
However… This is where a split began.
As the alarm clock blares in your ear, you groggily reach over and slam it off. Sitting up in your bed, you wipe the sleep out of your eyes as a knock comes from the door. “I’m up, I’m up.” You call out, letting out a stretch and reaching for your weapon as your feet hit the cold concrete floor.
Slinging your weapon over your shoulder and letting it hang across your back, the knocks get louder. “I’m coming.” You groggily repeat before making your way over to the door and opening it. On the other side, you can see a member of the White Fang standing there. You give a quick nod. “Good morning.”
“(Y/N)! Roman wants to speak with you in the main storage area of the warehouse. He’s had us packing everything up recently, so it probably has something to do with that I imagine.” He explains in a casual tone, a tone which none of the White Fang would even think about using towards Roman, or even Neo for that matter, or else they’d go to their superiors. It’s yet another thing to keep the White Fang and their faunuses suppressed… And You have a burning hatred for it.
You sigh. “What’d that idiot do this time…?” You mutter to yourself, rubbing the bridge of your nose. “Alright. I’ll be out in a second…” You shut the door halfway and with a quick flick, your overcoat was on. After putting on your shoes with no regard for socks, you walk out into the hall, fully shutting the door behind you. “Hey. Did Roman say anything degrading to the White Fang recently? Can’t help but notice that people have been giving him a few glares recently.”
“What? Are you suddenly his biggest admirer?” He scoffs as the two of you take a turn, passing a pair of deer faunuses on your way. “Yeah. One of the people on guard duty overheard him going on about some rant about how faunuses can’t get anything done on time or done right.”
“Well isn’t that a bit ironic? Last I checked, me and Neo had to save his ass because the last job went so sour that what went awry also went awry.” You groan. “I’m still not even sure how that’s possible.” You mumble, not noticing that the faunus had stopped walking a few seconds ago. You turn around to see what’s going on, when you’re whacked across the forehead with a pink umbrella, knocking you to the floor with a loud grunt of pain.
After recovering from your stun, you follow the silhouette of the person who attacked you, locking eyes with a more than infuriated Neo. Arms crossed, foot tapping, and a pout on her face.
You and Neo have spent over ten years together. The two of you are as close as two people could be, trusting one another like someone can only trust themselves. But one place the two of you adamantly disagree on is Roman. Neo ADORES Roman. She looks up to him as the father figure she always wanted, and desperately wants the three of you to get along, so she can have her little paradise of a triangle of happiness.
You, on the other hand, see Roman as nothing but a brutal faunus hater who cares more about profits and personal gain than loyalty to his underlings. You don't hide this from him either. Everyone is aware of your… Discontent. And Roman feels the same way towards you, calling you every name under the sun and even toying with the idea of having someone… Silence you.
But every time, Neo would step up and get everybody on the same page. No matter what she had to do, she'd either get the two of you to agree to disagree, or at the very least not try to kill each other for another week.
However, you did learn a lot more under Roman than you would've on your own with just Neo. So… Perhaps it wasn't all bad.
“Good morning to you too, ice cream…” You say, rubbing your head. “Argh, you hit hard, y’know that?” You get back up and brush off your overcoat, before Neo hooks the handle of her umbrella into your shirt collar and starts practically dragging you through the warehouse, as you desperately attempt to get away from her but to no avail...
It wasn’t long after that day Neo was shipped off Beacon Academy, leaving behind specific instructions that if either one of you died in her absence, she’d kill the survivor. But she didn’t have to worry about that after Roman got captured during a botched train job which lead to Grimm flooding the streets.
Yet another case of Roman being too incompetent for his, and everybody else’s, own good.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
6 hours ago…
You race through the trail on the back of the motorcycle you got off of one of the White Fang members. As the breeze nearly deafens you for going so fast, the tallest tower of Beacon Academy looms over the trees, and the cheers from Amity arena blare from your scroll as the live feed from the currently ongoing match plays. Soon, however, a little notification blip causes you to pull over to the side of the trail, crushing a few roses under your motorcycle as you do so. It’s a text from Neo.
Neo: I can see your scroll signal getting stronger… Were you serious about coming over here!?
(Y/N): I’m just outside of Beacon Academy now. I’ll be there within half an hour.
Neo: I told you to stay back at the warehouse! I can handle rescuing Roman myself!
(Y/N): Weren’t you the one who kept telling me to try and mend the bridge between me and Roman?
Neo: I did, yeah, but this is just stupidity! How are you gonna get into Beacon!? You’re a criminal! Your face is plastered across every town and city in all four kingdoms!
(Y/N): Well, I found out about your guys’ little plan, the real reason you were sent to Beacon. I’m sure you know how I’m getting in now. Look, meet me by the small landed airships when everything goes to hell, okay?
Neo: How did you…!?
Neo: By the gods, you’re an idiot… Fine!
There’s a brief pause and just as you’re about to start up the motorcycle again, she sends one last text.
Neo: Thank you for not listening to me… I might actually need your help.
You smile before starting up your bike once again and continuing down the trail. Parking the motorcycle along one of the walls to the school, you make sure your weapon is secure on your back before leaning against the wall and waiting for your time to make your move.
It takes a few hours, but you soon see the chaos erupt in Amity Arena and the cut of the feed, you use your weapon to scale the wall. While on the top of the wall, you look out towards the onslaught of Grimm currently on their way. Letting out a sigh, you jump down and land on your feet. “Working with Roman is gonna get one of us killed…” You mutter under your breath before charging further into school grounds…
But everything after that feels like a blur...
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
In the present time…
Your eyes slowly open as you can see Neo kneeling over you. Her face is drenched with tears and you can even see them dripping down her face and onto your shirt, leaving a little wet spot right over where your heart is.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
She hits you in the chest three times, desperately attempting to wake you up, unable to see your semi-open eyes through her glassy vision.
“N… Neo…?” You weakly get out as she prepares for another three hits to your chest. Your voice is no louder than a whisper, and your body feels like it's been hit by a truck.
You hear her gasp as she cups your face, wiping the tears out of her eyes before hugging you as tight as she can, not letting go of you, almost as though she's afraid that if she lets go of you, you'll slip away from her.
You try to return the hug, but something seems wrong with your left arm, you can't feel it nor lift it. But you do manage to embrace her with your right arm and you notice it's covered in cuts and bruises.
Despite her taking up the majority of your field of view, you're able to see flames well behind her in the distance. "I-I'm okay, Neo…" You lie in an attempt to calm her down a little, but it's clear to see that you're not.
She shakes her head and only holds you tighter than before. After a moment, she pulls away and wipes the tears away once more before propping you up against a rock so you’re no longer just laying there. Even her just sitting you up makes you yelp in agony.
Now that you’re sitting up, you’re able to see the source of the fire. It appears to be an Atlas airship. In the background, you can see Beacon Academy in ruins. As you watch the flames, you remember what happened now… You managed to get into Beacon to help Neo break out Roman. Everything was going great until some girl looking like Red Riding Hood showed up, kicked Neo off the side of the airship, and distracted Roman long enough for a Grimm to eat him alive. You shutter as you remember the blood curdling noises the Grimm made as it swallowed him.
It wasn’t long after that, the airship started to plummet towards the ground. You managed to make it back inside and hid in a closet before activating what remains of your semblance, “Iron Body”, after the battle, and bracing yourself for the crash.
That’s when you’re suddenly taken out of your reminiscing session by a sharp pain in your left leg. Letting out a yell, you look down to see Neo frantically using your weapon and her umbrella as a makeshift, and highly ineffective as she’s not exactly trained in this sort of thing, splint to protect your leg from further damage. The entire thing is held together using cut strips of fabric from your left pant leg, which she probably managed to cut using either your weapon or her umbrella.
“N-Neo, I- ARGH!” You groan, trying your best to get up. “I think we need to-”
She puts her hand on your chest, pushing you back down to the ground, shaking her head adamantly and pointing to your leg. It’s clear to you she’s trying to say that you’re in no condition to go anywhere as of right now, and you know that.
“We can’t just sit here and wait for the Grimm to come and get us, Neo! We have to leave.” You protest, trying to get back up once again.
This time, Neo’s open palm is what knocks you down. Your cheek stings from the sudden slap across the face. Looking up at her, you can see Neo is experiencing a mixture of emotions right now. Rage, sorrow, terror, relief… She’s overloaded with emotions, and her brain is on hyperdrive attempting to comprehend all of the misfortune that just fell on her within the span of a few hours.
That’s when she gets to your right side, pulling you away from the rock before wrapping her arms around your chest and starting to drag you away from the crash site. You want to protest, but after that hard smack, you don’t think it’s wise to attempt to stop her again, but you do try and help by pushing yourself with your good leg. Whether it helps or not is debatable.
As the crash site slowly gets further and further away, you feel as though now is when you should tell her about Roman. There’s never going to be a good time or way to say something like this… But she deserves to know. “Neo…” You start to say. “Roman, he… He didn’t make it. That red girl distracted him, and the Grimm got to him while he wasn’t looking.”
Despite the news, she continues to drag you through the dirt. Although, you soon feel a single teardrop hit the top of your head. You try your best to comfort her, but nothing you can say or do will bring Roman back, so the very least you can do is be there for her when she really needs it. You hated that man more than you could put into words… But for him to die like this? Something about it doesn’t sit right with you.
It takes a while, and many stops for Neo to take a breather, but eventually the two of you are far enough away from Beacon that you don’t feel the need to worry about the Grimm. Now of course, whether that’s true or not is also up for debate, but the two of you decide to take a rest in the woods as Neo desperately attempts to catch her breath once again, pulling over a small log and sitting on it.
As you rest on the ground, you can’t help but notice that Neo is holding Roman’s hat in her right hand, which she more than likely got from one of her times stopping to catch her breath, and a single blood red rose petal in her trembling left hand. She looks at the two, desperately attempting to calm her racing nerves, but to no avail.
You watch as she shakily puts the hat on her head and crushes the petal with a look of pure hatred and rage in her eyes before throwing it to the ground and grinding it into the ground under her heels.
You can already see where this is going, and you don’t like it. Roman isn’t worth Neo throwing her life away pursuing some senseless revenge for. You haven’t been able to convince Neo of much. Hell, she’s probably the most head-strong person in Remnant, but… You have to at least try. “Neo… I know what you’re thinking… Think this through before-”
She glares at you, her gaze enough to cut you off mid-sentence. You’ve never seen her look at you like this before in your life… Not since the first day you met her in that alleyway all those years ago when the two of you were being dragged away by the police.
You let out a gulp. Now you’re trying to calm your nerves as well as help Neo get back to a level head. “Neo, you know I want what’s best for us. I know you do too. But this… Going on this revenge plot is only gonna get you killed! Killing the girl is only gonna cause more suffering, making the entire situation worse! Killing her also won’t bring Roman back! He’s-”
At that line, Neo snaps. Lunging from where she was sitting, she reaches for her umbrella, ripping apart the impromptu splint and drawing her blade, tossing the other part to the side, before going to thrust it into you, only to stop it just short of your throat as you writhe in pain from having the splint so violently ripped apart.
Your fingers scrape the dirt as you take deep breaths, attempting to reduce the pain as you look at the blade’s shining tip before looking up at Neo, making direct eye contact. The two of you stay there like that for what feels like a year, before she looks down at the extra damage she caused to your leg. She slowly lowers herself down onto one knee and starts fixing the splint, before sitting on the ground, taking deep breaths as she once again fails to steady her nerves.
You slowly pull yourself over to her with your good arm and hug her the best you can. The two of you stay there as you listen to the wind blow ever so gently, a calming breeze in such a nightmarish situation. “... If you seriously wanna do this, Neo…” You say, looking down at your weapon-splint. “As soon as I heal… I’ll help you. I’ll be with you every step of the way…”
She lets out a sniffle, before hugging you. With how focused on work the two of you have been since joining Roman, especially over the last two years, the two of you haven’t had very many chances to talk like you used to. But starting now, it seems as though the two of you will be alone with each other once again. Only this time, you have a new, clear-cut goal… Or at least Neo does…
Find Ruby Rose.