Second Chances

Well, fans of this fic are in luck, because moonwatcher13 commissioned a second chapter! They wanted to see things from Neo's point of view this time, picking up directly from where the first chapter left off. And I'm glad they asked for more of this fic, because it was very fun to write!

A/N: Again, please remember that Neo's character has been changed for the sake of this fic. She's not the same sadistic character the canon makes her out to be, but rather a person who was unwillingly brought to the bad side of things. I'm surprised to find out it's a rather popular theory people consider about her, so I'm glad you can enjoy that being explored in this fic!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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													Chapter 2. Second Chances

It was strange.

Ironic, even.

Darkness had always been her cover, the shield that concealed her presence when her illusions couldn't.

It's what they'd taught her in all the years she'd been with them, committing their crimes for them and getting her own hands dirty so they wouldn't have to.

Shadows were her shield when nothing else could be.

Because there were always shadows. Especially when the light shown brightest.

So why was it that now, in the dead of night, where nearly every inch of the planet was shrouded in darkness, there was nowhere for her to hide?

All she could do was disappear on the wind, take herself out of the blonde huntress' sight.

And now what? Run back to that damned hideout like some kind of rat? Slink back into that sorrowful, crusty bunk they told her to call a bed? Curl up, pretend none of this had ever happened, and then be roused in four hours' time to begin the next robbery?

She didn't want to go back. After all she'd just done, after all she'd just heard in that girl's voice, after all she'd seen in her eyes...

How was she supposed to go back now? To either side?

Her shoes tapped in forlorn echoes over the rooftops of buildings she'd helped rob half a dozen times.

Not a soul was out and about at this hour, not even a stray mutt.

She'd never considered herself as someone who had a soul. A flea had more of a soul than Neo knew she ever could.

In the past, many, many years ago, she'd had a chance at one.

But not after they had found her, dragged her into their illegal business, conditioned her from her earliest years to do what the fairytales had always said not to do.

She knew which side she was on.

She knew it each and every day.

And she despised herself for it.

As she continued to run, she opened her parasol, using it to catch the wind, allowing it to carry her over the space between the buildings until she could land on the next rooftop and begin running all over again.

Her shoes weren't taking her back to the hideout, and her mind didn't force them to change course.

She didn't want to go back. Even at the risk of her absence being discovered, she didn't want to go back there. Not ever.

But she knew.

She knew that even if she were able to escape to the other side of Remnant in a single night, it still wouldn't be enough. They'd find her, capture her, drag her back by the hair.

And once they had her back and began inflicting their punishments, she'd beg for death.

She'd seen it happen with her own two eyes. None of the things she'd witnessed back in that hideout had ever been illusions.

There had been others before her. Many others.

Ones who had tried to escape.

Ones who had tried to rebel.

Ones who had been too weak.

They'd all met the same fate.

At first, Cinder would hire some of her own men to silently execute the problematic ones, sending them on missions they never had a chance to come back from.

But the lazy or rambunctious ones were always taken care of quickly and silently, their existences wiped off the face of the planet as though they'd never once been there in the first place.

It was the ones who tried to betray that suffered the worst of fates.

Cinder changed her tactics when dealing with those.

Neo had watched, as had all the others, gathered in the dank, dreadful basement of whatever building they were using at the time. Cinder would make them watch, to show them what would happen if any of the rest of them were to misbehave.

She had the most brutal ways of killing.

The people around Neo would always cheer, laugh, or if permitted, join in on the vicious attacks.

As for her, it was often all she could do to keep plastering on that smile, act like she was enjoy these sadistic rituals.

Because if she didn't, she'd be next.

And now, this was the closest she'd ever been to guaranteeing herself a spot in the center of that bloodthirsty mob.

She'd never snuck away before, never done anything to get herself into trouble or placed under suspicion. And now she'd risked everything she'd ever worked for to keep herself alive in that prison.

All for what? A huntress? A girl?

The dire weight of her mistakes only piled higher and higher as she continued to run, following the aimless wind without direction or conviction to arrive at any particular destination.

Fear was a cinderblock in each pocket, dragging her down into a cold, dark river. The more she struggled for the surface, the quicker she went down.

She'd been drowning for years.

That river was always around her.

It was always dark, dark enough that when she'd find herself alone, she'd create an illusion of light.

It was always cold, cold enough that she'd create an illusion of heat if she could.

And it was always lonely.

That was always one thing she could never trick herself into believing she had.

Companionship.

Someone who'd actually reach out to try and take her hand to pull her back up.

Someone who cared about her.

And tonight, she thought she'd actually seen a ray of sunlight.

And it hadn't been an illusion.

The moonlight between them had been cool and calm.

But just on the other side – just mere inches beyond that – there had been a warmth like no other. It had been everything Neo had ever dreamt of.

And she'd tossed it all away in the blink of an eye.

She hadn't realized the water dripping down her cheeks until now, when her blurred vision almost caused her to miscalculate a jump. She skidded to a halt, bringing a hand to her mouth so she could bite it, stifle the sounds of her sorrow.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd cried before tonight. If anyone back at base ever found out she'd shed a tear for herself – no matter the reason - she'd be interrogated and ridiculed beyond recovery.

Crying had always been a sign of weakness, the worst kind of weakness.

Emotional weakness, pain from the heart.

But it was the only thing that proved to Neo that she still had a fraction of a soul.

She stood there, hunched over the edge of the tall rooftop, her mind a blur of thoughts, her chest a blur of emotions. Things she'd locked away for years and forbidden herself to feel now all suddenly came rushing back to slam over her in waves.

Waves that picked her up, carried her towards the surface and the light - taunting - only to push her down deeper into the depths of the drowning river.

No matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried, she never broke the surface. She never breathed.

But she'd broken too many rules tonight.

There were too many things she'd done that would get her killed in the worst of ways if she were to return to base and it had been discovered she was missing.

At the very least, she'd never spoken to any of them, for as long as she'd been there. As far as they all knew, she was incapable of speech.

Tonight, when she'd spoken to the huntress, it had been the first time she'd used her voice in over a decade.

She'd almost forgotten she could use it.

She'd almost forgotten a lot of things.

Like even though she was constantly drowning that there was a surface.

Even though there was darkness all around her that there was still light.

And even though she'd been feeling numb with cold for quite some time now that there was still warmth in the world.

She simply wasn't in the right place to experience them.

And she never would experience them again if she didn't take action.

It was her life. No one else was going to make an effort to act for her.

She'd been offered the helping hand she'd always longed for. It had quite literally been presented to her on a silver platter, lined with moonlight.

And she'd... refused?

For what? Why?

Again, it was the same answer, the very same weights that were dragging her deeper down, even right this very second.

Fear.

She was always too scared to do anything other than what she was told.

But... she didn't want to be scared anymore.

She wanted to be brave.

And bravery would be to take that huntress' hand and allow herself to be pulled up.

Until now, she'd considered it as cowardice, more weakness to allow someone else to free her instead of being able to free herself.

But wasn't it all the more cowardly to keep telling herself she could help herself when she clearly couldn't? Wasn't it more cowardly to be unable to admit that she needed help?

Tonight's incident caused Neo to open her eyes, without the mask of illusions to cloud her vision.

She knew now. She knew what she had to do.

Inhaling a deep breath, she let the crisp night air fill her lungs.

It had seemed like such a long time since she'd breathed easily.

But now, it came naturally, which was such a foreign feeling, it almost made her hesitant to try again.

She wiped her arm over her eyes, not because she was ashamed of her tears any longer, but merely because she needed to see with unobstructed vision for what she was about to do.

She opened her parasol and lifted it up to the breeze, then kicked off as quickly as she could. She doubled back the way she'd come, bound not for the current hideout, but for the old warehouse.

Because there was something there that she wanted. Needed.

She couldn't ever remember needing anything so badly before.

She needed this more than air, more than bravery.

So she went as quickly as her effects could take her, cutting through the winds that tried to work against her, and using the other currents in favor for her speed.

She veered around the brick structures and corners of the buildings she'd just crossed coming from the opposite direction, her target destination set in her mind.

She'd mapped out this city in her mind ages ago, knew every back alleyway and hidden doorway that the rest of the innocents never could've dreamed existed. She used every shortcut, every narrow passageway, every convoluted forbidden path she knew of just to get back to that warehouse as quickly as physically possible.

Within minutes it was in sight. It was barely still standing after the previous incident at the White Fang rally that had left it in shambles and ready to be demolished.

And yet, despite the precariously dangling bricks off the corners of the gaping hole in the wall, this place now felt like the only safe haven she'd ever known.

How long had it been since she'd left? Since that huntress had arrived here and made Neo an offer she'd been scared enough to refuse?

Perhaps she'd lingered. Perhaps she was still here somewhere.

Neo slipped inside with a flash of faint color, more silent than a bat and just as unnoticeable, if not more so.

It was mostly unchanged since she'd last been here, fewer than ten minutes ago. The same barrels and boxes were still stacked up, looming, silent shadows that had overlooked what had transpired between Neo and the blonde huntress girl just moments earlier.

But there were three things different about this place that she immediately noticed.

The first was the barrel she herself had knocked over in her moment of insecurity, in an effort to chase the other girl off, to make her run away so she wouldn't involve herself with Neo further.

The second was that the shaft of moonlight that had been shining through the rafters not terribly long ago was now absent. It had shifted and moved on, shrouding the warehouse in complete darkness once more.

And the third was perhaps the most devastating.

Neo was alone.

Beacon's huntress – the girl who had been insane enough to stop Neo during a fight, converse with her in secret, arrange a midnight rendezvous, and sneak out to meet her – had gone.

The person Neo had risked her own safety and wellbeing for.

The only person she'd shared her voice with in over a decade.

The only person who had ever offered their hand to her.

She was gone.

/No.../

Neo scoured the building, darting around the perimeter, hopelessly searching for something she knew was no longer there. The stinging heat rose up behind her eyes again, and she fought vehemently against it.

"No..."

Her own voice sounded to strange to her. It was so raspy and devoid of emotion after so many years of not being used.

But she'd used it for her, for the blonde huntress they'd called Yang.

Hoping the sound of it may draw her back, she used it again.

"No... please wait..."

Neo rushed back to the collapsed wall and searched the outside of the warehouse, but the results were fruitless. The property was vacant.

"No..." she croaked. "Come back..."

She cast her gaze down the sidewalks visible from her vantage point, hurrying to the highest roof she could locate.

She looked everywhere, as far as her eyes could go and then some.

But not a soul stirred the darkness down below.

Neo hissed and wiped her eyes again.

She refused to believe it. That she'd let her one and only chance slip through her fingers.

Her fingers...

She lifted her hand – the one she'd touched Yang's with.

She'd only maintained contact with her for a few seconds. Just a few seconds.

It hadn't been anything like the other times they'd touched – roughly, violently, in combat.

The touch they'd shared tonight, beneath the silver moonlight...

It had been gentle.

Hesitant.

Human.

She'd been so warm...

Neo felt she could still recognize the heat of the huntress' fingers.

She'd pushed them away from herself. She should have accepted that hand.

But it was too late now.

It always seemed like it was too late.

Her only chance at escape, at starting over with the new beginning she'd always imagined, was gone. Probably on some Air Ship back to Beacon, already hundreds of miles away.

Neo knew she'd never get that chance again.

But as she stood atop the cold roof with the nightly breeze pushing through her hair, she realized something.

Perhaps she hadn't been rescued tonight.

Perhaps she hadn't taken the huntress' hand.

But she certainly hadn't left empty-handed.

There was nothing physical, aside from perhaps some residual feeling of heat in her fingertips.

But there was something else. Something intangible.

And that was even more valuable than anything she'd ever stolen.

Yang had given her something after all. Something Neo had never before received in all her life.

A chance.

She'd given her a chance.

She'd believed that there was something within Neo's soul that was still worthy of being saved.

To think that a person could discover something – anything – that could be considered salvageable within the turmoil that was Neo's life was a benison in and of itself.

That alone seemed to take the weight from one of her pockets and toss it away.

It brought Neo a little closer to the surface, closer than she'd ever been before. It was ever so slight, but it was easier to breathe again.

Neo wanted to stay there, in the shallower waters, far away from the unfathomable depths.

And perhaps one day she'd break the surface for good.

But for now, she'd been given a push. Or rather, she'd been pulled a little higher up, from someone who lived their life in the warm sunlight.

Such a person had bothered to glance down into the water and reach in for her.

Neo hadn't refused her hand. Not entirely.

She'd touched her, felt her fingers, felt her warmth.

She hadn't abstained.

She'd touched that hand.

There was something to be said for the fact that she'd made any contact at all.

There had been a time when she'd never believed she could, and that time had extended until tonight.

But the thought had been shattered beneath the stream of moonlight.

She'd made contact with someone from the other side of the water, the other side of the darkness.

There was still hope for her. If there was someone like Yang who hadn't given up on her, then she'd taught Neo not to give up on herself.

Yang had helped, but Neo would have to save herself from here.

She stood there, still breathing in the nighttime air, savoring the feeling of having her lungs filled. The tears hadn't stopped, but they were quiet and small enough to go unnoticed.

She made sure to breathe in a few more times before turning her back.

Neo slipped back inside the building, heels clicking on the cement ground as she retreated to the spot where the moonlight had once been. She stepped into that space, her shoes covering the faded tear stains that had been left behind here. She lifted her face to the ceiling, to the hole where the light had once poured through.

And she did what Yang had done.

She closed her eyes.

And she truly believed she could feel the sun.

A subtle warmth resonated within her hand, and it was almost as though Yang were beside her once more.

Neo could see her, taking her hand, leading her to Beacon, taking classes with her, laughing in the cafeteria, smiling true smiles...

She opened her eyes.

Yang wasn't there, but Neo felt that was okay.

Even if she could never have that scenario become reality, she felt privileged to have been able to dream of it at all.

But maybe – just maybe – there was still hope.

The ebb and flow of the waters were unpredictable, and with one weight removed, Neo knew she could swim now.

Now that she knew there was someone who would still give her a second chance, she decided to believe in herself as well.

She trained her eyes on the starlit sky, where the broken moon hung just out of sight, though she knew it was still there.

She knew the blonde huntress couldn't hear her, but she spoke for her and only her.

"Thank you..."

Maybe not tonight.

Maybe not tomorrow.

But one day, Neo would tell her in person.

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A/N: When I started writing this chapter, I had a vague idea of where I wanted it to go, but as it went on, it changed a bit. I'm glad it did though, because it was originally just going to be sad and angsty, but I rather like the prospect of a good or somewhat nice ending for Neo in this.

Now I think this story is finished, because I really wouldn't know where to go from here. Thanks for reading!