Professor Arc

Chapter 48

Jaune paced about his new, temporary, room. It was smaller and neater, a sign that no one had lived in it for some time, but in terms of design was almost a mirror of the last. All of that went ignored as he wore a hole in the carpet. Team EMBR, Cinder's team... what a failure trying to find them early had been. Mercury and Emerald had spoken to him on multiple occasions – and far worse – they'd already become close friends with Team RWBY.

Did that mean Cinder had plans for the team? Or had they only been drawn into the crossfire because of how close he was with them? Did he need to look out for them, or were they just a means to making that team's cover seem more realistic? As always, there were more questions than answers.

With a great sigh, he turned to the short girl sat on the edge of his bed. "Cinder didn't say anything about what the plan was?" he asked. "Not a thing?"

Neo looked up from her bare feet and to him. She was back in her multi-coloured form, which he could admit to finding more familiar than the black-haired Mint disguise. The girl shook her head, then pointed to herself and ran a finger across her lips.

"She's told you to be quiet?" Jaune asked, betrayed.

She shook her head and pointed to herself, then made the silence motion again.

Jaune caught the meaning. "Ah, her team is being quiet around you."

Neo nodded.

Well, that wasn't good. If they were already being careful around her, then that meant their trust in her was waning. On the one point that took away one of his few advantages, but that was only a secondary concern. "Will you be safe with them? If they're wary around you, isn't there a chance they'll try and get rid of you?"

She shrugged her shoulders and nodded. When she saw his worry, however, she made a dismissive motion.

He wasn't quite so amused. With great steps, he strode up to stand before her, his height towering above hers. "I'm serious here, Neo." he said. "Your safety isn't a joke, even if you're confident you'll be okay. Do you have an escape planned if something goes wrong?"

Mismatched eyes blinked up at him for a moment, before – to his surprise – her cheeks darkened and she looked away. Neo poked two fingers against one another and sent a sideward scowl his way. She did nod, though.

"You have a plan to get out if needs be?" She nodded again, and it was that which allowed him to fully relax. "Good... this is bad enough without having to worry about losing you as well."

She shrugged and kicked her feet together.

Neo will probably be fine. If she says she has an escape planned, I'll have to trust her. She's stronger than me anyway. That still doesn't help against Cinder's team though, and honestly, I'm not sure if I should focus on them at all.

Cinder definitely had plans for them, otherwise why involve them at all, but if he spent his time focused on them, then the larger catch would escape. Whatever Cinder wanted them to achieve would almost certainly be less important than what she planned to do. Why trust weaker people to do a good job when she could do it herself?

Maybe that was where he'd been making mistakes before. It had always been what he could do to stop Cinder and her minions, which looking back was fairly arrogant considering how weak he was. Maybe he could leave her team to someone else... or some other teams.

"Neo," he said. "Your team has become close with Team RWBY, right?" He waited for her nod before continuing. "Does it seem like the team has plans for them in any way? Have they asked them to do anything or said anything suspicious to them?"