For most of the students at Beacon, the week leading up to the Vytal Festival meant a break from school work, late nights partying with friends, and sleeping in as late as their bodies would allow them. Unfortunately, team RWBY was not afforded that luxury. With Neo needing to perform so well in the upcoming tournament, and having only today and tomorrow before matches began, they needed as much time as they could get. It was about seven in the morning, the sun had only just risen, and four of the team's five members were still fast asleep. The fifth put a stop to that, the high-pitched squeal of her whistle caused the sleeping girls to sit bolt upright in an instant.
Ruby's wake up call was met by evil glares, but she still smiled as innocently as ever, "Good morning team RWBY!"
"I swear to God," Weiss growled, burying her head back under the covers. "If you blow that whistle one more time, I—"
"Calm down," Neo interrupted, putting her arm around the heiress' shoulders. "Like you said, we've got bigger things to worry about."
Weiss huffed, but didn't argue. The team went about their normal morning routine of showering and getting dressed while also planning out how to best spend the day. At first they planned on nearly six straight hours of combat training during the length of the afternoon, but Neo quickly put an end to that idea, saying she'd be too exhausted tomorrow to do anything at all. Eventually they decided on a schedule that everyone seemed to agree on, and moved to the next item on the list of things to do: Breakfast. The girls were elated as they exited the dorms to find the weather outside was just as nice as it was yesterday, since they would likely be on the practice fields until sunset.
The dining hall was just opening when they arrived, which meant no lines, the freshest piping-hot food at the buffet, and the best pick of tables to sit at. Normally team JNPR would've joined them by now, but its members were all still in bed, enjoying the ability to sleep in. If left on their own, they likely would've remained there until noon, however the smell of pancakes managed to drift out and find its way to Nora's nose, and there was no going back after that. About ten minutes after they'd staying eating, team RWBY was joined by a very energetic Nora, and a very tired rest of team JNPR.
"Good morning!" Nora sang as she took a seat. The stack of pancakes on her tray wobbled precariously when she set it down. "What're you guys doing up too early?"
"We've got a lot of training to do," Neo replied, giggling a little at the irritated faces of the rest of team JNPR. "I take it none of you wanted to be up this early?"
Jaune groaned, "What do you think?"
"Well, since you're up, you could all come join us out on the fields," Yang cheerfully suggested, and was met by three cold stares.
"ABSOLUTELY!" Nora shouted in excitement, the sugar from her breakfast already coursing through her. Neo found it somewhat odd that Ruby's breakfast of almost all chocolate chip cookies wasn't having the same effect on the cape wearer, but figured it would catch up with her later in the day.
Nora merrily went along after they all finished eating, however the rest of her team headed back to the dorms to catch another hour or two of sleep. No one could blame them, although Nora pouted at their lack of enthusiasm. The six remaining girls went straight to the practice fields and got to work right away. Neo felt a little uncomfortable knowing that Harley would be in control for the majority of the day, but there wasn't much she could do about it.
Two hours went by, and in that time they managed to go through ten sparring matches with short breaks in between to keep everyone from tiring out too quickly. The rest of team JNPR made their way out shortly after, now fully rested, and matches continued for another hour and a half. Having Pyrrha there to spar with was extremely helpful, seeing as she was the most talented fighter in the group, at least in terms of tournament-style combat, and that was exactly the type of opponent Harley needed the most help against.
At the end of the morning, Harley had won nine of the thirteen matches they practiced. To her, that wasn't good enough, although seven of those wins had been back to back. She struggled the most against Pyrrha, with three of her four losses going to the redhead, which didn't help her confidence seeing as most of her opponents in the tournament would undoubtedly be the same way. The group decided to sit and rest for a few minutes before going to lunch, leaving them some time to talk with Harley. The long morning of extended combat meant that she would remain longer before reverting to Neo.
"So..." Pyrrha started, looking over at the multi-coloured girl. Even though they'd spent the whole morning in each other's company, it still felt strange to be talking to a completely separate part of Neo.
Harley smiled, "What's up, honey?"
"Honey?" Weiss asked, folding her arms.
"What? You only said I can't call you honey."
"Well yeah, but... I dunno, it's weird to hear you call someone else that. Plus, we weren't dating then."
"Okie dokie, honey," Harley replied with a mischievous grin. "Anyway, what's up Pyrrha?"
"Oh, um..." Pyrrha said, forgetting her initial question. "I don't remember what I was going to ask you."
Harley rolled her eyes, "If you say so. God, it's such a nice day out. We should really do more with it than just training." There were a few half nods of agreement, and it seemed as though she'd get her way, but as usual, Blake was the voice of reason.
"Perhaps, but if you're going to place in the tournament, you need all the time out here you can get," the Faunus said, getting the agreement of everyone.
"Blah, you're no funny, kitty," Harley groaned, laying back on the grass and resting her head on her hands. Yang snickered at the nickname Blake had been given, while the cat-girl only glared.
"Don't call me that," she said sternly, earning a muffled laugh from Harley. "I mean it."
"Alright, alright. I'm just having fun with ya."
The group continued to lay there for another few minutes before Harley made a faint gasp, and tightly closed her eyes. After a few seconds of stillness, they opened again. Neo laughed to herself as she finished the transition back, "Wow, she had some pretty good comebacks for you, Blake. Although I'd probably be dead if she'd said them."
"You'd better tell me what they were later," Yang said with a grin, and Neo nodded. "Alright, well now that you're back to normal, is everyone up for lunch?"
An enthusiastic yes came from all members of the group, and they packed up their gear before heading out. Instead of eating in the dining hall again, they decided on going into town. Of course, Weiss fought it as much as possible, saying she didn't want to waste any time, but everyone more or less ignored her argument. Harley had been right, the weather was too nice not to at least take a walk, plus the closeness of the festival meant that tons of street vendors had set up shop around the city.
Everyone split off in search of their favourite food stand, and reconvened after they'd found what they wanted. That is, everyone except for Weiss. She acted like her usual proper self, as if this kind of food was too far beneath her to eat. Ruby and Yang tried convincing her for nearly fifteen minutes to try a deep-fried hot dog, but with no success. Finally, after a little extra prodding from the rest of her friends, and especially Neo, she gave in and took a bite. Then another, and another. A half hour or so of chatting, laughing, and sampling more vendors went by, the group decided they'd had enough time off, and returned to Beacon to continue training.
As expected, they were stopped at the gate by Ironwood's men to have their ID's checked, although the process seemed far faster than it had been before. Thankfully, the random checks while walking around campus had all but stopped. Roman's escape had the general far more concerned in other areas, and needed his men stationed elsewhere. The walk back to the fields wasn't too long, but lunch itself had taken much longer than anticipated, and it was now nearly one o'clock. If they wanted to get in as much practice as they'd hoped, they'd have to resume right away. Training didn't pick back up right away though, as much as Weiss would've liked it to, as everyone still needed time to digest before getting back into the swing of combat.
Another half hour passed and sparring matches resumed, but it was clear from the start that the rest of the day wouldn't be as productive as the start had been. Having the break to stop and eat gave their bodies time to realise how strenuous that morning's work had been, and it wasn't long before they decided to stop for the day and head back to the dorms. Weiss wasn't happy about ending so early, and tried her best to convince the group otherwise, but to no avail. Neo wanted them to continue as well, but knew that pushing herself more could leave her sore for the start of the tournament, and so they started the walk back.
A male voice called out to them not long after, just as they passed into the gardens, "Good afternoon team RWBY, team JNPR." Neo turned around in surprise to see General Ironwood walking quickly to catch up to them. "Had enough time on the fields for today?"
Weiss huffed, "Not if you ask me, but they seem to think so."
"Oh shut it, ice queen," Yang laughed. "So what brings you by, General?"
He turned his attention, as they knew he would, to Neo, "I'd like to speak with Miss Neopolitan for a moment. I assure you, it's nothing bad. Shall we?" He motioned his arm for the two of them to walk together.
Miss Neopolitan? Neo thought, a little confused. I've never heard him call me that before. I wonder what this could be about.
"Uh, sure," she replied, looking back at her friends. "I'll catch up with you guys in a bit." They nodded, said goodbye, and resumed their walk back to their rooms while Neo followed alongside Ironwood as he began walking in the opposite direction. "So, what's up?"
He sighed, "I believe I may owe you an apology. I made a number of snap judgements about you, and I should've known better to trust Ozpin's instincts. He's far more right than I am, but you can never tell him I said that." The general looked around at the various blooming plants along the path for a moment before continuing. "We recovered security footage of Roman's escape, and it would seem Cinder was the one who freed him."
That struck Neo as odd, and she looked up with a confused expression, "Wait, Cinder did it? You're sure it wasn't Emerald?"
"I'm positive it was Cinder," Ironwood replied, giving Neo a quizzical look. "Why?"
"That's really strange. She never does her own dirty work if she can help, especially when it's such high stakes. She always tries to keep her own hands clean when she can."
"Interesting. Can you think of why she would be so keen to do this on her own then?"
Neo stopped and thought for a moment, "Well... I can think of three things. First, something happened to Emerald and Mercury, but I doubt that. Second, she might figure that since I've already revealed who she is to you, she doesn't need to be as concerned with exposing herself. And third, Roman has some part yet to play that's so vital, she wouldn't want to risk anything going wrong with getting him out." The general was silent, motioning for her to continue. "My guess is the second or third, but I can't see Roman having any more of a role to play. We'd already stockpiled enough dust and weapons before I came here to move on to whatever she had in mind next. It seemed like he was only still along to take the fall or help with transporting everything from the warehouse. I suppose he–"
"Hold on a minute," Ironwood swiftly interrupted. "What warehouse?"
"The warehouse that we stored everything in," Neo said, sounding almost unsure of her own words.
Oh fuck, did I not tell him about that? Shit, this is not going to go over well...
The general's expression turned suspicious, "May I ask why you've waited until now to mention this?"
"I-I thought it told you about it weeks ago," she said, her voice getting higher as she felt a twinge of panic growing in her head. While an honest mistake, she knew it could have serious consequences, and was very afraid of what they would be. "Oh God, please don't be mad. I swear I didn't mean it, it just must've slipped my mind."
Ironwood put a hand on her shoulder as she began to hyperventilate, "Neo, calm down, I'm not angry. But please, come with me to Ozpin's office. I need you to identify the location of this warehouse." She nodded without hesitation and they hurried off. They arrived shortly after, informing Ozpin as to why they had come, and he brought up a map for Neo to mark the location on. She wasted no time in finding the warehouse, zooming in on the map until she could identify the street it was on and the buildings surrounding it. Ironwood seemed skeptical, "You're sure that it's this building?"
"Of course," Neo replied, not sure why he would question her. "I've been there plenty of times. Why?"
"I'm confused as to why it's in such an open, busy area. There are dozens of other buildings and stores around it, why have your operation based there?"
"Hiding in plain sight. Nobody questions crates being delivered to a warehouse, no matter where they're from or how many there are."
"I see," was Ironwood's reply. He turned to Ozpin, who hadn't spoken since bringing up the map. "How do you suggest we proceed?"
Ozpin looked surprised, "You're asking my opinion on how to engage them?" The general nodded, and Ozpin thought for a moment. "Assuming they're still based there, as that easily could have changed in the last month, then I see no reason not to move in. They certainly won't be expecting an assault now, and it will undoubtedly be a setback for whatever they have planned for the festival."
"I agree," Ironwood replied. "I'll send troops there immediately. Neo, what kind of resistance can we expect?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. It was only a handful a guard last I was there, but I remember something about a huge recruitment that was supposed to take place the week after I left, but I don't know how that went."
The general nodded, "I'll make the assumption it brought on plenty of new recruits, and send a large detachment. Hopefully we can end this here."
He turned to leave, but Ozpin stopped him, "One moment, James. Neo, can you think of anything else that the two of us should be informed of? I know that things like this warehouse or that recruitment event may seem insignificant in your mind, but we need to know anything and everything you can tell us. Is there anything more you can remember that could be important?"
She shook her head, "No sir. I'll keep thinking though, if I remember anything else I'll come straight to you."
"Very well," Ozpin replied. "You're dismissed then. In case I don't see you between now and the tournament, I wish you good luck."
"Thank you sir," she smiled before turning to leave.
"Actually, that reminds me of something," Ironwood said, turning Neo's attention over to him. "I made a call to Schnee Headquarters to find out the nature of your call from the other day, strictly as part of the investigation, and spoke to Miss Schnee's father. I wish you good luck in the tournament as well, I hope that everything works out for you."
Neo continued to smile, "Thank you, General."
With that, they both left, each taking a different flight of the double stairs to get to the ground floor. Neo set off back in the direction of the dorms, ready to take it easy for the rest of the day.