Ruby&Neo pov
After they got back the pair decided that they would do one on one training. "Are you sure i can do this neo?" Words appeared above neo's head (yes it's just dance. I have full faith that you can do this) and then the girl turned on a song. It was a very melancholic rock song. Ruby took neo's hand and she made it look like they were both in black dress clothes with skull face paint. Ruby had a suit and neo a full black dress. "Is this really necessary?" Neo raised a brow and words appeared in the stars (You got a problem with fitting the song?) Ruby shook her head and said. "No, it's actually a really nice song. What's it called?" Neo smiled and the words changed (dance macabre)
Then she spun and held her hand out to the sharp dressed ruby, and more words said (let's dance!) And so they did, ruby stumbled a bit. But neo was a very fine dance teacher, after she spun ruby the younger sister asked. "Why are we dancing though?" Neo made words follow ruby's eyes in motion (blake told you, sword fighting was like dancing, so that's why) Ruby then seemed to put her heart and soul into the dance. Neo noticed this and restarted the song. "Now with my semblance!" And then ruby and neo started dancing in the moonlight with gusts of fire and ruby was flowing like a river, into neo's moves.
That made neo smile, not even emerald was as good a dancer then ruby who just started. And they kept dancing, neo did a backwards flip and wink at a tree while ruby couldn't see it.
Blake pov secret reading spot a few minutes earlier
While she was finally enjoying some peace and quiet away from all the noises of her home. It was a good day, ruby was now 5 and she had legs again. She started to read her next chapter when she was interrupted by music. "Grrrr." Blake angrily tried to ignore the music and continue reading. After the song ended she smiled. "At least that's ov-" She was cut off by it starting again. "That's it!" She turned around and climbed higher into the tree, to see what the big idea was. "!!!!" But the sight shocked her. It was ruby dressed in a suit with skull face paint dancing with neo who also was themed to the song.
Blake couldn't help but stare at ruby, her sensitive cat ears picked up on the mechanical rotor sounds, and she could even hear her own heart beat pick up speed as her face felt warm. Even the smell of salt on the breeze, and the taste on her tongue. Every sense made it a breath taking moment. Blake got out her scroll and took a picture, then she almost fell out of the tree, when neo bent backwards and clearly winked at her. Blake panicked 'gah! she saw me! she's going to tell ruby that i was staring!!!' But curiously, they kept dancing without a care in the world. Every now and then ruby would stumble or fall, but she always got back up, 'just like when she saved velvet, and all i did was watch. i even thought ruby of all people would join in on the bullying, i'm so stupid'
Blake just watched every moment of ruby, eventually standing and mimicking her moves on the branch. Blake closed her eyes and imagined she was dancing with ruby, the thought brought a smile to her face. And she vowed maybe one day she could ask ruby to dance.
Ruby&Neo pov
After they finished neo smiled and the illusion broke with a *CRASH* she began panting, causing her sister to burst away somewhere with a *WOOSH* and re appeare with a harsh *SNAP* ruby ran at a normal pace, now comfortable with her new legs. And gave neo a bottle of water. [thanks ruby] Ruby smiled brightly and said. "No problem neo! Thanks for not giving up on me, it was really hard there for a bit."
Neo smiled and signed [i will always have your back ruby, no matter what. and i mean that] Ruby replied. "Same here neo." They then hugged and went back to the belladonna's estate to sleep.
Cinder pov
She was currently getting ready to train with raven. "Now, the first thing about the maiden powers is that they can make elements bend to their will. The most powerful that you can use is based on your maiden hood. So yours is fire." Raven then said. "Hit that target with a controlled burst of fire." Cinder nodded took a breath and yelled. "Ghost fire strike!" And threw a knife made of hellfire steel. It hit the target with a *Thwang* and raven said. "Good aim but i said destroy the tar-" and before she could finish cinder looked at her and snapped her fingers, then with a loud and fast *BANG!* The knife popped off like a massive fire bomb.
Raven took a step back in obvious shock. "What's next?" Raven looked at the smug cinder and glared. "Next, is something different. Flying." Cinder looked curious and said. "What?" Raven smirked and then started hovering with a gust of wind. 'uh, zarathos? can we fly?' 'NOT THAT I AM AWARE OF, YOUNG FALL, BUT WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING' Cinder was nervous, as this was something that could ruin her only remaining lie with raven. 'okay, think cinder, you're clever. lying is in your blood just like my semblance... wait?... my semblance!!!' Cinder focused on her mind scape and as she reunited with her criminally underused semblance she realized something was different.
Her body was surrounded by weird orange sparkling bands. She recognized them after a minute of looking at them 'glyphs! just like that schnee girl used! what did doctor ooblek say?... ah ha! glyph semblanceses are rare and can be experimented with to marvelous degrees if the user can be as sharp as a blade with them' Cinder then moved them with her glowing hands and a band took shape beneath her, and her semblance turned it into glass, and hovered up to raven wobbling a little but stood confidentially, red scarf flowing heroically in the wind, as cinder flared her eyes up and grinned at the clearly flummoxed raven.
"That's not flying!" Cinder put her hand upon her hip and made a show of checking her nails on her other hand. And blowing on them like she'd seen in all those dumb movies that shasta made her watch, a mean girl classic as she had put it when torturing cinder in their time at beacon. "Heh, what's wrong spring? You jealous of my pyro kinetic skills to pay the bills?" That made raven grind her teeth angrily. "Now then, Catch!" Cinder said flying her glass disc at raven and raven looked shocked and got hit by her as raven fell cinder made a show of making an umbrella and floating down gently as was seen in a film her and neo liked.
All while raven hit the ground with a mighty *THUD* Cinder landed and disintegrated the umbrella and bowed. "Alright. That's enough for today. I need to come up with a better training method." Raven got up cracked her back, and walked away. "Hahah, that was fun! Can't wait for next lesson Raven sensei!" Raven glared over her shoulder at cinder and grumbled as she left. Cinder smiled and actually skipped away a fare bit of distance. But stopped getting a weird feeling and she said. "Alright, come out." *CRASH* and with that came surprisingly just her daughters and not their two friends.
"Wow, that was so cool!" Exclaimed emerald, and ruby said. "Yeah! You floated on glass with those weird circles!" Neo just ran up and hugged cinder like she would disappear. "Ooof, hey kiddo, what's up?" Neo pulled back and signed nervously. [can i not hug my mother just because i love her?] That made cinder smile and she embraced neo in a warm hug. And whispered in her ear so only she could here. "You can hug me whenever you want. I love you more then most things in this world." She felt neo start shaking and hug her tighter. Cinder smiled and signaled for the other two to hug as well.
The other two joined and cinder used a very light controlled version of her old semblance to warm her arms and gave the girls a toasty warm hug. They all sighed content. And left the warm embrace and cinder looked at all the other girls, and followed what her new secret book on parenting said. "Do you girls want to do something fun today? We can do whatever you want." The girls looked shocked and joined a huddle and after the murmuring of two voices and the wild gesturing of one they came back and ruby stepped forward. "We request training instruction by you." Cinder smiled and shook her head, it would appear that these were indeed the girls she raised.
"Okay then, assemble everyone at once." The girls all communicated. ""[Okay!]"" And left to assemble the team.
Cinder and team NVEBR pov
"Alright then the goal of today's exercise is to remove three red cloth sashes off of my arm. I won't be using anything supernatural on you. Just me and my skills. Go!" They all looked toward neo who gave them signs. And they all nodded, and ran full force at cinder. "Going straight at me? That's stupid and stubborn!" And cinder threw a punch at neo who was in the lead but instead of connecting with the ice cream themed girl, it was met with a *CRASH* and suddenly all the kids shattered. "Oh shit!" Cinder then noticed the blue sky change into black as pitch. And heard some kind of music like an ice cream truck but slowly and eerily long tuned.
"What's the matter? Can't take the changes?" Cinder was trying to call their bluff. "What's the matter? Can't see that we almost won?" Somehow her own voice came from somewhere and she checked her arm, and three sashes were there but 2 broke into glass with a *CRASH* So cinder yelled "damn you Blake!" And suddenly the world went back to normal... well kinda. Everything was grainy and black and white, while some old school music played. Suddenly neo appeared, and maybe to her design only her pink was in color. And bright pink letters appeared that said (You and me sparky!) As neo did a come here gesture with her finger.
Cinder smiled 'gods, she's to much like me' So cinder replied. "............?" Cinder looked around and suddenly a black word bubble appeared above her that said (if it's a fight you want- huh?) Then neo began laughing and the words (Ha ha ha ha!) Appeared above neo in bright pink. Cinder was now mute, and neo surely did that to make a point. "........." Then the words (okay then silent) Appeared above Cinder. "..........." Then once again words appeared that read (I don't need words to fight) neo then used a whistle and she tossed her sword away and instead received ruby's cane that roman got her. Then she twirled the cane and began tapping her foot to the beat that picked up, and more pink words appeared (come at me then, unless you're scared)
Cinder made a steel sword appear with her semblance as she used a vial of dirt on her belt to make it. Without attempting to speak another word cinder charged and thrust her sword forward, but the movement was to her surprise easily re directed by neo, who then did the unthinkable, she stomped cinders foot, and as cinder curled down in pain, she gave a strong punch followed by an uppercut. As cinder recoiled slightly the words (Stomp! Strike! Bam!) Appeared and neo began shuffling her feet in a dancing motion. So cinder tried a more complex strike.
She thrusted her sword forward again, but then she thrusted a left hook along with it. And once again neo dodged the blade, and grabbed cinders wrist with the hook of the cane and twisted it aggressively. "...!" The word (gah!) Appeared above Cinder earning a silent laugh from the girl, and then neo slid under and behind cinder and hooked her ankle and tripped cinder right into the dirt with a dull *THUD* neo then stood confidentially and waited. As cinder got up she turned around and signed [that's it, no more freebies] neo made lip gestures and the words (Ha! You think those were freebies? Well whatever you have to tell yourself i guess) Cinder charged and neo smiled.
Fore if anyone knew Cinder they'd understand that she had a violent temper, that usually left her victorious. But as team NVEBR communicated long ago, they realized that all of their strengths can easily be weaknesses. Ruby couldn't control her direction very much once she popped off with her semblance, blake couldn't use her shadows very well yet and the toll of using any illusion semblance in combat was heavy on the mind. And so they all decided that neo was the best natural born fighter of them, so an emerald illusion of neo would fight. While emerald would make it look like she was there all the time, while neo would help protect the other three in case something went wrong. The other three would each take a turn with their sash removal based on neo's signal.
And as cinder hit her target, her blade went right into her and it didn't shatter her, this caused cinder a moment of immense panic at the thought that she stabbed neo, but the neo looked at her smiling away. And then disappeared along with all the world changes. "Huh?" Then suddenly a whistle caught her attention, so she turned and there stood a confident neo. A sick and pale looking emerald and blake velvet and ruby who each had a sash on their foreheads. "How? What? Huh?" Neo signed. [we never fought, it was emerald all along, she made it look like we were fighting but we weren't. the only things i did was hit you based on emeralds signals so you'd be convinced i was real]
Ruby said. "Neo said that you wouldn't think that we could beat you in a fight, and that she doubted that we could as well. So we used your temper and illusions to completely manipulate you and instead got the victory because you are predictable." Blake then stepped forward saying. "When someone is too strong its better to trick them and win and live versus try and fail." And finally velvet replied. "You're a scary opponent miss fall, but we knew if we could trick you, then we could trick anyone." And emerald who looked exhausted said. "And we all agreed we needed to push my semblance the most, so if i failed at all we'd fight you for real. But thankfully i was able to focus long enough to succeed at a full fight illusion." Neo just smiled, not confidently, but kindly.
So cinder got up and bowed to the girls, and said. "You all have done me and yourselves proud. Keep striving to be the best and someday we can fight for real, and you might just win." All the kids began cheering and hugging each other and cinder knew that no matter what would happen next in their lives, that they would be alright.
Author's notes
Woo boy was that fun to write! I can't wait till we get the girls in beacon academy, but for now we are reaching our epic conclusion to the menagerie of chaos arc, that's right dear readers. We will be ending this arc with the next vytal festival tournament! And don't think that this will be a simple festival like last time, this time something far more sinister is in motion! But until then please join us for chapter 25! Here comes the dawn. But until then true believers excelsior!
Bonus! Check out this amazing fan art of our favorite resident bird man, qrow branwen! Done by my eternally lovely best friend @Glass_demon25 on Twitter please stop on by and show some love to their artwork