RWBY: Black Cat

Chapter 13

I'm starting to like doing this dedication thing - I'm going to do it more often. This one's for three amazing friends, DaffodilLion99 , Itacat and EmoraBreeze , simply because it's long overdue :)

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As soon as they'd been alerted of the rest of team RWBY's disappearance, Raven, Neo and Glynda had set out immediately to find them. It had been Ozpin's suggestion. No-one really knew why Ozpin wanted them specifically to go. Raven figured the mystery that was Professor Ozpin might never be solved, least of all by her.

Team RWBY's motives weren't difficult to decipher - find their friend. Their friend was last seen in the Forest of Forever Fall. Therefore the forest was the most logical place to look. Neo had asked Raven why she didn't just see where Yang was with her semblance, but she was still really drained. She'd gone back to wearing her mask, her defence being it was too bulky to carry.

They went through the trees, an awkward silence between the three. It was clear Glynda was torn about Neo - whether to trust her or not - and frankly, Raven didn't blame her, especially after what had happened on the train with Yang. Raven was better at hiding this notion, but Neo definitely didn't look happy about Glynda's mistrust. (Then again, who would?)

And it was so awkward. Raven felt like she was in the middle of this tension which just wasn't going to release itself. Not even when they'd shared cronuts which Neo had brought with them - they'd always had an inside joke about cronuts. One time, for a team ANGL Secret Santa, Neo had no idea what to get Glynda, so she got her a bulk pack of cronuts. A literal crate of them. For Neo's birthday the next year, Glynda had got her the same thing, and since then they'd been used as a sort of peace offering. But Neo refused to eat any Adam offered to her, and now Glynda appeared to be shunning Neo in the same way.

Raven ate Neo's cronut, despite the Yang incident. She'd suspected for a long time that being around Roman changed her. At Beacon, she'd always been a little sadistic, not so much in terms of physical pain, but she took pleasure in watching people who hadn't prepared for assessment and presentations squirm. And she had the ability to get really angry, holding grudges. (See: Adam.) But with no-one to ground her, things had spiralled out of control, by the looks of it. Being completely honest with herself, Raven was always afraid that the old Neo wouldn't be there, whenever they reunited after being apart for a while. But it was always okay. She was still loyal to Roman, which wasn't great, but she was distancing herself from Cinder, and Raven had seen at the train station that day that the old Neo wasn't gone completely.

However, she suspected that it wasn't Neo that Glynda had a problem with. It was probably Roman. When she looked (see: glared) at Neo, she saw nothing but the criminal she was allied to.

But that wasn't all. Raven guessed was Glynda was also tense because of Leif.

Glynda had always had a strange attachment to Leif. It definitely wasn't love in the romantic sense, though multiple people had suspected that on multiple occasions. It was something like extreme sisterly concern. Raven knew that they went back pretty far, before Beacon, but neither of them talked about it. Ever. They just exchanged sad glances, like a pair of depressed puppies.

"I still can't believe you've ended up with Roman," Glynda muttered under her breath at Neo, cutting into Raven's thoughts.

She took a deep breath. Really? Gosh, I never would have guessed.

Neo's expression said something along the same lines. Glynda sighed. "Why?"

Neo folded her arms. I told you.