RWBY: Black Cat

Chapter Three

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A small girl sat with one leg crossed over the other on a train, staring out the window as golden, wheat-filled fields rolled past. She was small in every sense of the word - certainly vertically challenged, and her face had child-like features and charm. Even her presence was small - people passed her without a second thought.

A pale pink parasol adorned with lace sat propped against the seat, by her feet. She was reading. Her arms rested on the table of the booth, as did a croissant she was halfway through eating. A strand of her bi-colour hair hung over one eye. Her eyes were unusual - one of them was a warm brown, and the other pink, but each of them flashed a pure white from time to time as she read. Her hair was similarly strange. Half of it was chocolaty brown, the other half pink like cotton candy. It was relatively long, and a pink sidefringe was swept behind her ear.

The snapped the book shut as she heard footsteps approaching, and laid one hand on her unbrella.

"It's just me," said a feminine voice as a girl with skin the colour of coffee and soft green hair that almost glowed slid into the booth, sitting opposite the one with the umbrella. Her clothing was...minimal, to say the least.

"We need to talk, Neo."

Neo scoffed. Talk? She narrowed her eyes and smiled slightly in a mocking gesture. No, we don't.

"You can't just abandon us."

The girl's smirk widened. What? You need me, Emerald? My alligances lie elsewhere. It was good fun helping you for a while, but I'm over that now.

Emerald glowered at her, letting out an exhadurated sigh. "Will you just talk, for Christ's sake?"

Neo stuck her chin in the air. Nope.

It wasn't too hard for Emerald to read Neo's body language, although she didn't know exactally what the mysterious huntress was thinking. "Neo, you've been trying to run from us for too long. This needs to stop-"

Emerald gagged as she found herself in a choke hold. Her red eyes widened as she struggled to breathe. Neo glared furiously at her. I. Don't. Run. I am not rejoining you. Roman has been arrested, and Cinder has been keeping us all in the dark for far too long. I'm tired of it, and you can't make me come back. Understand?

Once she was sure Emerald had gotten the message, she released her, and Emerald fell back into the chair, coughing. "I...I get the idea...I think," she said horsely.

Good.

Emerald stood up, and turned her back on Neo, making her way out of the booth. Then she glanced over her shoulder, stating, "If you are not a friend of Cinder's faction, you are automatically an enemy, Neo. Please keep that in mind. And whoever you're allied with...they'd better watch out too."

Then she grabbed one of the croissants, and left.

***

The train rattled onward toward the forest. Yang gazed out the window, falling alseep with her chin in one hand as she leant against the window. Blake was reading. Weiss was inspecting Myranaster.

Ruby glanced around as the red forest came into view. It had been visible for only a couple of seconds before they had disappeared into a tunnel, and the darkness swallowed them up.

"Hey, Blake?"

All three of them looked up at Yang's voice. Blake only raised her eyes, indicating that she wasn't reading. "Yes?"