Chapter 63

"Eesh sloppy." you winced as you hung over Neo's shoulder staring down at a burner scroll displaying a video feed of you kicking ass, taking names and getting burnt and your throat torn out like an utter scrub.

'Why'd do you that?' Neo asked, pointing down at the video of you jumping in front of the huge fireball for Emerald.

You shrugged, "Emerald's amazing ass is worth dying for?" you joked. You sighed when Neo merely gave you a deadpan look with her own dual coloured eyes of pink and brown, "One part was just instinct, the other was that I honestly didn't know jack shit about magic at the time, I thought those flame powers were a semblance and that I'd be able to absorb the aura out of it and not take all that much damage."

Boy were you fucking surprised at the time when your body outright rejected the energy fuelling that big ass fireball.

'It was fucking stupid,' Neo rolled her eyes, 'That fat ass bitch isn't worth you getting a cut, never mind your life.'

"Maybe so," you shrugged again, yet you didn't regret it, "But I'm a greedy asshole like that. What's mine is mine and nobody is allowed to touch what's mine." take everything you desire, give nothing back. That was the rule of the streets and the kind of creed you had lived by for a long long time. While you weren't the type to take from others unless they deserved it, what you considered yours, you would jealously guard and never give up.

'Emerald's Fire Bitch's through and through.' Neo shook her head.

"Heh," you smirked, "Somehow, I doubt that." your feelings on Emerald were complicated, but you knew just the same for her. If she was Cinder's through and through, the girl would have actually attacked you full on instead of the sloppy hesitant way she had back then.

Mind you even if she did attack full force the results would have been the same, your semblance was just a hard counter to hers after all and you were just that much superior to Emerald in fighting ability.

'Whatever, I already know a losing battle when I see one, I'm washing my hands of that wide load,' Neo shrugged lightly. Then, she directed a small impish grin at you, 'So you won't give up anything you considers yours no matter what huh? So where do I fall on that scale?'

You snorted, "Is that even worth asking?" you asked, and shook your head when she rose an eyebrow at you, "Absolutely mine, you're stuck with me."

For a long, long time actually if you had anything to say about it. You'd been mostly out of it, but you'd heard what Professor Ozpin had told Yang when you more or less blacked out upon gifting her that regeneration ability. You hadn't intended for things to go like that, and done it on instinct, but the results spoke for themselves.

'Is that so?' her other eyebrow joined the first.

"Oh yeah," you nodded, unashamedly, "You fall under that sweet spot of peerless treasure and priceless artifact, I'll never let you go Neo."

A smile spread across Neo's face at your words, 'As I should be,' she nodded. The busty little thing stopped and struck a pose, putting her arms behind her back and pushing out her chest, stretching out the jacket she was wearing and making her bodacious cleavage rise up, 'None of the little skanks you've picked up have got anything on me.'

It was hard to deny as well. Neo, was short as all hell, but in a word or two, she was perfectly proportioned. Full grabbable hips, tits that looked bigger than Xiao Long's on her frame despite actually being smaller. A big, full and round ass that stretched out anything she wore below to the limits, it was an ass that was easily on par with Nora or Emerald's asses, despite being smaller. And and a beautifully cherubic face that was like a combination of Ruby's cuteness, with Weiss' high class, fairy tail princess like face.

"You've definitely got it going on." you nodded, your eyes feasting on the cleavage presented to you from below.

It was honestly near beyond imagination that a woman as short as Neo, could have such absurd curves.

'Damn right,' Neo gave you a smug smile, before picking you up and lifting you around to face her, '..I really did miss you.' she told you.

"I missed you too," you replied, smiling softly. You held her gaze for a moment as you both just basked in the others presence, before you lifted your paw and booped her on the nose, "We're not going after Cinder right now though."

The moment passed and Neo scowled at you cutely, 'Why the hell not?' she stamped her for and then pouted, 'You may have come back, but that bitch killed you. And she's the reason Roman's dead too, I won't be happy until she's dead at my feet., preferably after some gutter trash have run a train on her nasty cunt.'

"Yeah, right there with you," you nodded, "But Momma Malachite said she had a bunch of other people with her right?"

'A few yes, like five or six in total I think? I can't remember, I was too angry at the time.' Neo shrugged, 'Between me and you though, we could take them, like look at that video if you weren't being such a little simp for the fat ass, you could have killed those three yourself and the Fall of Beacon would never have happened.'

Ouch, you winced. You'd never been called a simp before. It actually made your heart ache. "If it's just guys on their level? Sure," you nodded, "But, Cinder works for the Wet Dream Grimm Queen, and she apparently has the full maiden power now. She most likely has Emerald and Mercury with her, but what about the other two or three? I'm betting one of them is that crazy fuck Tyrian and he's strong as fuck."

'Who the fuck is Tyrian?' Neo cocked her head.

"Salem's biggest fanatic apparently," you replied, "And he's absurdly strong. So fucking strong in fact I'd have been hard pressed to beat him myself I think before I died. If the other ones with them are anything like Tyriant, we'll need way more help, especially if they're teaming up with the Branwen Tribe."

Neo scoffed, 'The Branwen's? Only two of them are worth anything though.' she replied.

"I agree with you, but according to Qrow, Raven Branwen most likely has the Spring Maiden with her," you shook your head, "Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Tyrian, one or two other followers of Salem, and Raven Branwen and the Spring Maiden? Me and you, we're fucking good, but even we can't take those odds."

..You could give Neo a boost like you did Xiao Long though. It would drain your magic even more, but you had a decent enough amount to spare, and Neo was absurdly strong. You didn't know how fully strong she was now, but back in Beacon you'd have been hard pressed to defeat her yourself. If she had a way to counter Emerald's illusions, she'd have been able to beat the trio of Half-Maiden Cinder, Mercury and Emerald as well, possibly even easier than you did.

With her being even stronger, and you giving her the maiden physical boost, using one of your powers as a template, Neo would be absurdly powerful. So much so, that you doubted even a Maidein could beat her.

'Are you saying you want me to team up with that blonde bimbo, Little Red and your other little friends?' Neo's face drew up in distaste, 'Qrow Branwen and Ozpin would be a help, but the little kiddies aren't worth shit, they'll hesitate to kill and get in the way. Besides, the second they see me, they're gonna attack me, especially with how easily I slapped around the Bimbo before, I would have killed her if Mommy Branwen didn't come to her rescue.'

...Yeah, that might be a problem. Xiao Long had a temper enough as it was, but Qrow was quite protective of his nieces, once he heard Neo had tried to kill the busty blonde brawler before, there was a good chance he would attack on sight.

'It's just too much hassle,' Neo sighed with a shrug, 'We're better off with just you and me, sure we're outnumbered and outgunned maybe, but that's only in a straight up fight, between my semblance and your new absurd powers, we can just gank them when they aren't expecting it, then run off and repeat till we're done.'

She makes a convincing argument actually. And as much as you loved hanging around Weiss, Nora, Ruby and the others, it was a bit tiring being around so many people. You could only suppress your ability to sense human emotions so much.

Xiao Long wasn't the only one with a ton of issues bubbling underneath the surface. Even Ozpin, as calm and cool as he was keeping, you could feel the desperation coming from not only him, but Oscar as well. And the sheer defeat and hopelessness the both of them felt.

Your heart honestly went out for Ozpin. He'd been fighting Salem for hundreds, if not thousands of years, futile struggling and dying over and over again while trying to keep humanity alive and safe and beat back the darkness of the creatures of grimm and their queen. After being torn from the afterlife and cursed by the brother gods, as he'd confided in you.

There was hope, a lot of it directed at you, but it was buried in hopelessness and fear. Fear of betrayal. He really did feel like everyone was a step away from betraying him. It was a horrible thing.

Being betrayed was not a nice experience. Emerald, hadn't even fully betrayed you, and instead was just more unsure what to do and desperate, nothing malicious about it all But Ozpin? He'd been betrayed so many times over the hundreds, if not thousands of years that he was expecting it to happen, and resigned to it.

And the truly saddest thing about it all. Was..Ozpin truly did care about everyone within the group. You could feel it, the amusement, the fondness, the happiness in interacting with you all and imparting his knowledge upon those willing to listen, yet he was resigned to everyone there betraying him in the end.

It was a horrible, horrible thing to feel to be honest. You didn't like that one of the people you actually respected, felt like that all the time.