---

The White Fang base was crawling with Faunus and machinery alike. The new mechs emblazoned with the organization's sigil towered among them all; Torchwick still found himself bristling. Near them were crates of fresh dust, raided from dust shops and Schnee warehouses. Most of which were acquired by his hard work. He snorted to himself. He was waiting for Cinder Fall, whom he reluctantly referred to as his superior, for their scheduled meeting. He knew he would have to make the next dust shop raid soon. As if on cue, the aircraft that would bring Cinder to him could be heard outside the building. Within moments, Adam Taurus escorted her in the building. The Faunus leader quickly left before Cinder started to speak. "Nice to see you on time, Roman." she smirked in his direction and he could feel the bile rise in his throat, his entire body cringing at the sound of his first name on her tongue. Dust, he just wanted to get this over with.

"I'm always on time," he replied, reaching into his coat to pull out a cigar and light it. "I brought in the shipment of dust, as you requested." He nearly snarled the last part, glancing through his peripheral towards Neo. He couldn't have pulled off the operation without the mute girl's help, though he would never admit that aloud. At least not to Cinder, lest she find him incompetent.

"Good," Cinder said, with a sarcastic amount of praise, "Then you'll have no trouble with another. We need all the dust we can manage if we are to pull this operation off." Her hands went to her hips and her lips twitched at the snarl Torchwick released.

"More? You want more dust?" He brought a gloved hand between his eyes. He had nearly gotten his ass kicked the last time.

Damn her. That Red.

"Yes, that is what I said." The raven-haired woman snorted, lifting a palm to her face to feign nonchalantly inspecting her nails. Roman clenched his teeth- an action that caused him to bite into his cigar, seething.

"Why don't you have your useless lackeys, Emerald and Mercury do it for you?" he spat, just barely catching the cigar as it almost tumbled from his lips. Cinder's eyes flashed with fury and Torchwick felt himself recoil, taking a step back as she advanced. "Because, Roman, unlike you they seem to competent enough to rise above the ranks of a simple errand boy." she spat back with just as much ire, getting right into his face. Torchwick glanced toward Neo, more so out of habit- the fear he would require assistance. "You have yet to prove you can be of any use to me beyond that. You should stick to what you're good at," she followed Torchwick's gaze to settle on the peculiarly silent girl beside him, "And drag your pet with you."

---

A box can contain a lot, depending on the size of it. A small box can hold something small, whereas if you increase the size you can hold something large. However, a box does not need to hold one thing, but it can hold many. One's mind is like a box, it can hold many emotions. If it holds to many, the box will burst open. Neo's mind in particular is a box that holds many emotions that she can not release, or rather, will not. Neo refuses to speak out those emotions, feeling her voice will result in something being slipped out. It had been so long since she had last spoken that she forgot how to speak, or even what her own voice sounded like. It was like her voice, too, was being contained in a box. Boxes can also go missing.

One particular box was amusing to Neopolitan, and this one wasn't a philosophical one. It looked like the box was loaded with many small but heavy items, and Neo peered outside watching a member of the White Fang as he tried hard to pick up a box. Her neutral looking face was broken into a smile when she saw the White Fang member pick up the crate before dropping it on one of his feet. Finally, as Cinder Fall herself arrived, she saw that another White Fang member was helping the first to pick up the box and move it. Finally, Neo's lips returned back to a business type look, and she sat back to watch Torchwick and Cinder converse.

Torchwick's glances toward her only made Neo feel a sense of awkwardness; all it did was bring attention to her, attention she did not want in the presence of Cinder. The woman herself brought almost a sense of uneasiness into the building with her, and Neo felt she would be better suited outside and stalking White Fang. It would be fun to see what they got up to whilst nobody was looking.

Comforting Torchwick was definitely something she did not want to do; his final glance toward her only brought her attention to the she-devil. Cinder called her a pet, and Neo did not like that. The curious look that she didn't realize she had on her face morphed into a glare of rage that perhaps, if visible, would have shown lasers of whatever colour rage would come in shooting straight into the eyes of Cinder, a glare that showed that the comment was most definitely not respected. Without a word, a few moments later, Neo stood, and walked out of the room. If she was being dragged along to raid for dust, she would wait outside and watching the White Fang whilst she waited; away from Cinder.

Torchwick thought it best to end the discussion before the situation worsened. He straightened further, letting his cigar drop to the floor with a sigh. He crushed it beneath his shoe before sparing a glance toward the woman in front of him. "You'll have your dust by the end of the week." He muttered and left to find Neo. The girl had left in such a rush and the look on her face. He shuddered at the absolute hatred reflected in her irises. Shaking his head, he cleared away his thoughts. The White Fang still regarded him with disdain, he noticed as he made his way outside. Despite Adam informing them all that he was a new "business associate", they were still either wary of his advances or outright rude- not that being associated with any Faunus held any merit to him.

"Neo?" he called out, choosing to ignore the stares he recieved from White Fang goons in return. He perched himself atop a dust crate and tapped Melodic Cudgel against his leg in thought. He knew the enigmatic girl had to be nearby. She never strayed too far. "Forget about what she said. She insults everyone." Not Emerald and Mercury. He chose wisely not to add that, even if he was thinking it. "We have another assignment, you know the drill. We have to get moving."

There was a mix of anger and upset within Neo. Was that all she was, a pet? It built up like a legend, thoughts flowing through her. She ran events through her head, and wondered how best she could retreat from any situations where she could release any real upset at the situation. Her thoughts, however, were interrupted by Torchwick calling out for her. Following the sound of his voice, she eventually arrived behind him.

In a moment of humour, Neo decided to lean against a wall and see how long it took for him to notice that she was there; to see what he would say whilst she stood in silence. It wasn't like she wanted to say anything, anyways. Words could hurt.

Torchwick sat in silence for a few moments, realizing the only thing he was most likely succeeding in doing was talking to himself. He adjusted his hat upon his head before he kicked off the crate and stood with a frustrated sigh. Grumbling to himself now, he spun on his heels and started to walk away. He froze when a bit of pink flashed across his vision.

"Neo!" he nearly jolted, trying and failing to hide his surprise. "Were you there the whole time?" Torchwick huffed in embarassment- he should've known he'd try and catch her off guard- and folded his arms, his cane dangling on one of his wrists. "I bet you're really pleased with yourself. We have to go. We're taking Cinder's helicopter." he explained, his voice trailing off the minute he mentioned the woman. He wordessly pointed a gloved hand toward the general vicinity of where Cinder had arrived from.

Cinder was really something that neither of the two wanted to talk about. She was secretive, sketchy, and told Torchwick things on a need-to-know basis. Her secrecy and mystery was unsettling to say the least; and that was coming from a criminal.

Neo felt a smile growing on her face as she saw Torchwick turn to her with surprise on his face. It was enjoyable toying around with him, almost as enjoyable as toying with the White Fang. Almost as fun, because toying with Torchwick could potentially be dangerous. Though that could make it more fun! She smiled more at the thought of hiding from him and forcing him to find her, before walking in the direction he had pointed out.

She started to climb into the aircraft that Cinder had arrived in. Neo wondered of the implications of telling the pilot to take off without Torchwick. That would be enjoyable, watching his fuming face, however it would also require words that she did not wish to speak.

Torchwick clambered into the helicopter not long after Neo. He made his way into the cockpit to deliver the directions to the pilot. "Take us near central Vale. There's a dust shop getting a fresh shipment and Neo and I have work to do."

The pilot simply nodded and Torchwick left without another word. If they pulled this off, Cinder would finally be off his back. He could put his plans into fruition for once. He could be rid of the annoyances that permeated Beacon Academy once and for all.

"Neo, I feel it best that we formulate some sort of strategy. You're well aware of what happened last time we blindly conducted a raid." Or rather, the last time he himself conducted a raid- though he wouldn't admit that in front of Neo. Cinder had to save his ass from being pelted with hail from one Glynda Goodwitch.