Chapter-40

The burden of keeping everything hidden must have been heavier than Jaune realized. That night he slept like a baby, out like a light as soon as his head hit the pillow. There were no dreams or nightmares, just sweet, sweet uninterrupted sleep – at least for most of the night. In the early hours of the morning, Jaune felt the mattress dip around his hips as something light settled above his waist, waking him from his peaceful slumber. Had one of the girls snuck in to see him? Eyes slowly blinking open, he was greeted by the sight of a very familiar, very pretty face.

The room was dark, the only light coming from the window and the broken moon hanging high above the floating city of Atlas. It gave everything an ethereal, pale hue with deep, dark shadows. He could only just barely make out the person sitting atop of him.

Mismatched eyes peered down at him in amusement, a sly smirk tugging on a pair of luscious, kissable lips. Jaune stared for a moment in confusion before adrenaline surged through his body, his heart pounding as his brain finally clicked into gear. A hand seized around his throat before he could yell, strangling the sound deep in his chest. He thrashed in a panic but his arms were underneath the blanket, pinned at his sides by her powerful thighs as she straddled him.

He froze when he realized that struggle was futile.

How had she even gotten into their room? Their door was locked, sealed with electronic locks that couldn't just be picked like some regular key and tumbler lock. Without a registered scroll keyed into the Atlas Academy network, without their huntsman identification numbers, those doors wouldn't budge.

That hadn't stopped her.

Neopolitan placed a single finger against her mouth in the universal signal to be quiet. She waited until he nodded before releasing his throat, and he gasped, coughing lightly as he breathed in and out rapidly.

He could hear the faint breathing from Nora and Ren, the two fast asleep only feet away. Now that she had released him, it would only take a quick shout and they would be awake in a flash. There was no way that Neo didn't know that. The fact that she released him at all told him she wasn't here to kill him. She could have done that without ever waking him at all.

She had come for the Relic. So she had seen him with it and finally made her move, though a quick glance across the room showed the outline of the lamp, still sitting where he had placed it before going to bed. It was in full view, perched on a small end table. Even in the darkened room, Neo wouldn't have missed it. If she had really wanted to take it, the silent girl could have swiped it and left without anyone being the wiser.

There was no reason to wake him up. No reason if the lamp were her true goal.

She really was turning on Cinder.

"I have some information for you," he said, and Neo tilted her head in question. "Something that Cinder might be interested in."

Neo frowned.

"We were hoping you might make contact," he whispered. "If you saw me with the lamp. I'm glad you didn't just sneak off with it."

She pulled out her scroll and tapped away at it before flipping the screen his way.

" I knew something was fishy when I saw you with the relic. "

Neo wasn't stupid. For Jaune to suddenly have the relic and carting it around everywhere he went, something must have been up. There was a good chance that she had been keeping an eye on him ever since they had arrived from Mantle which meant she'd been watching him this entire time. Suddenly having the relic with him would have struck her as odd. Why would he be its keeper now when someone else had been watching it before? If she had been watching him all this time, then that meant she probably hadn't immediately made her move because of the possibility of a trap. That she now appeared before him meant that she had figured out that if there was a trap, it wasn't for her.

"We had no other way of contacting you," he explained. "You didn't exactly leave me with your number."

Neo blinked at him before smiling coyly. She rolled her hips gently, wiggling her butt against him. Jaune felt a certain part of his body react immediately, reaching for her soft warmth. He'd once thought that petite, slender girls were his type. Neo was even smaller than Weiss and Fiona, though she had a larger chest than either of them.

She was directly in his strike zone.

Jaune clamped down on those thoughts before they could run away on him, calming his heated blood. He'd just worked things out with Team RWBY. He needed to focus at the task at hand, not on how wonderful it would feel to spin them over and fuck Neo with the full length of his cock. She'd be so tight he knew it, with how flexible and strong she was.

Focus , he scolded himself.

"The Winter Maiden," he said, and Neo was suddenly all business, her hips stilling as her eyes narrowed at him. "I want to tell you who the next Winter Maiden is going to be."

He had her fullest attention.

"Winter Schnee, General Ironwood's right hand," he continued. "Not such a surprise, right? Let Cinder know – I'm sure she'll be pleased with the information."

Neo typed her reply.

" And then what? "

"Something will happen," he said seriously. "Something big – you'll know it when it does. It'll be impossible to miss. There is no chance that Cinder doesn't take the opportunity to strike. That'll be your signal. When she makes her move, we'll take her down. You'll help us?"

He could see the vindictiveness in her expression as she grinned.

" I'll help you gut the bitch, " her screen read. " Then I'm gone. I help you, you help me. Understand? "

The warning in her eyes was clear. Don't fuck with her after the fact. When Cinder was taken care of, she got a free ride out. Neo knew she was in a very precarious position. If they failed to take care of Cinder, then she was as good as dead. Cinder and Salem would not forget her betrayal, and would not stop until she was six feet under. She knew too much. If they did succeed, she was still a criminal – someone that had helped facilitate the invasion of Vale and Beacon. There was a chance that Ironwood could try arrest her after Cinder was neutralized. It was a very real possibility.

Neo was taking the ultimate risk, surrounded on all sides by potential enemies. She wasn't doing it because it was the right thing to do. It wasn't because she had a change of heart and regretted her criminal ways. She was doing it for revenge. Jaune understood that feeling all too well.

Avenging Roman Torchwick was worth it to her.

If this plan worked and Cinder fell, Jaune would not get in her way. He couldn't say the same for the others, couldn't make a promise that wasn't his to keep.

"I'll let you walk," he promised. "But I can't say the same for everyone else. Ironwood might try something but – I'll do what I can."

She shot him a doubtful look.

" And why would you do that? "

"I asked you once before but – you approached me because of Pyrrha, didn't you?" he met her eyes and didn't look away, even when they changed colors when she blinked. "You knew I wanted Cinder dead more than anyone else – as much as you do. We have that in common. You've given me the chance to right this wrong, to avenge my partner. Letting you go is a small price to pay for that."

Her face was blank, carefully controlled as they stared at one another for several long moments. Then she leaned in and seized his lips in a searing kiss, her tongue slipping into his mouth passionately. Her hands cupped his cheeks as she poured every ounce of emotion she had in that tiny little body of hers before pulling away, leaving him breathless.

"Cinder will die."

Jaune watched as Neo slipped off him and walked over to the door, moving like flowing silk. She shot him one final look over her shoulder before she slipped out, the door opening and closing with a small hiss.

His lips tingled fiercely and his cock throbbed, his desire stoked.

"Fuck," he whispered, covering his eyes. "Fuuuck."

There was no sleeping after that. He tried but it just wouldn't come, no matter how much he changed position to get comfortable, no matter how he tried to clear his mind. There was no chasing away the searing heat of her tongue in his mouth, the feel of her small, sexy body against him. He'd been having such a wonderful rest, as well.

Neo destroyed any chance of that happening now.

Getting out of bed, Jaune checked the time and discovered it was just after four in the morning. At least it would only be a couple of hours until the sun rose. He was thankful for small mercies.

With nothing better to do, he hit the gym. At this time, the place was completely deserted. He had the entire facility to himself. He hit the weights hard, working out his frustrations one lift at a time until his body was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. No matter how hard he pushed his muscles, they felt little fatigue. He only needed the barest minimum of downtime before moving onto the next exercise.

While his body was occupied, his mind was a whirlwind. Excitement warred with caution, knowing that the first part of their plan had been completed. Neo would take the bait to Cinder, now it was on them to entice her out of hiding. His heart pounded not because of strenuous activity but because of nerves. This was their chance. This was the moment.

"Pyrrha," he whispered as he completed his squat. The bar was heavy across his shoulders, the metal straining against the weight at both ends. He lowered his body in another rep, pushing through powerfully. His thighs burned as he fully extended his legs, rising to his full height. "We are going to stop her. I promise you. She won't cause anymore pain."

He knew his partner wouldn't have wanted him to chase after revenge. She wasn't that type of person. But she would have also understood. And in the end, revenge or not, Cinder Fall needed to be stopped. If he took some pleasure in being involved in stopping her, in taking her life – well, that was something he would have to come to grips with. He wouldn't let it consume him. Not like he had let his anger fuel his every waking moment after Beacon.

He just hoped that everything worked out as planned. Cinder was a slippery snake. Even without the Maiden powers, she wouldn't be an easy person to take down. With magic at her disposal, they would need to use every ounce of strength they possessed to bring her low. Even then, the threat she posed could not be denied.

They needed to succeed where Raven had failed. No false deaths; not this time.

After finishing his weight training, he hit the treadmill and ran until the sun started peeking through the high windows and casting everything in a soft orange hue. Some of the older students began trickling in, keeping to their routine even in these troubled times and Jaune took that as his signal to finish up. He took a quick shower before returning to his room.

"Jaune," Ren greeted when he entered, awake and nursing a cup of coffee. Nora was also awake but still buried in her blankets, eyes blearily making contact with his own. "You were gone when I woke – couldn't sleep?"

"Something like that," he replied, grabbing out some fresh clothes. "Neo paid us a visit last night."

Ren froze with his cup halfway to his mouth while Nora sat up, looking a right terror with her hair sticking up every which way.

"What?" the girl exclaimed, tossing her blanket aside. "What do you mean she visited us last night?"

"She snuck in here like a brisk breeze and left just as quickly," he said. "Seems like they need to look into their security on these doors – it didn't even slow her down."

Ren hesitated before lowering his cup, looking troubled. A quick glance across the room assured him that the lamp was still perched on the end table. "She didn't take it."

"No," Jaune sighed, sitting down. "No, she didn't. It looks like she really is on our side. For this, anyway. She could have killed all three of us and we wouldn't have even been able to fight back. She could have swiped the relic and been gone, and we wouldn't have known for hours. No – she came because she wanted to talk. She figured that something was up. Ironwood pegged her correctly."

"You told her, then," Ren met his gaze and Jaune could see the intensity. "She knows. The plan is going ahead."

Jaune nodded. "Yeah. I need to let Ironwood know. Come with me?"

"Of course," Ren stood and in an uncharacteristic move, downed the rest of his coffee in one large gulp. Nora giggled when he almost choked. "We are with you."

That certainly lightened the mood a little. While Nora showered and got ready, Jaune got dressed and attached the lamp to his belt. Now that Neo had been informed, he wouldn't need to carry around this replica anymore. Jaune considered the lamp and wondered if it could still prove useful in another way.

They stopped by Team RWBY's room on the way. Weiss was already awake and when Jaune let her know what was going on, she quickly woke the rest of her team. Jaune had never seen a group of girls get showered and dressed so quickly before and it wasn't long at all before the seven of them were gathering outside of Ironwood's office.

They were met by Penny.

"Good morning, friends," she greeted cheerfully. Ever since the election, Penny had lost some of her good cheer. It was good to see that she had finally bounced back but it can't have been easy knowing that people had been planning to use her to sow chaos among the people she was sworn to serve and protect.

"Morning Penny," Ruby chirped happily, giving her friend a hug.

"What brings you here at such an early hour?" the android girl inquired with a curious tilt of the head. "Do you wish to meet with General Ironwood?"

"We do," Weiss said seriously. "Do you know if he is awake?"

"He is meeting with other members of the council," Penny revealed. "I will inform him of your arrival. I take that it is urgent?"

"It is," Jaune confirmed. "Let him know that Neopolitan has made contact."

"Certainly," Penny gifted him with a wide smile. "You are looking particularly handsome this morning, Jaune."

He blinked. "Er – thanks, Penny. You are – uh, looking very beautiful yourself."

If possible, her smile stretched even wider before she spun about and pranced through the secure doors, her skirt swishing about her thighs as she skipped away. He'd never seen the girl do such a thing before and stared, a little thrown by the giddy gesture.

"Well – that was a thing," Yang commented with a quirked eyebrow. Ruby and Weiss snickered, shooting each other knowing looks.

"What was that about?" Blake asked.

"Oooh, noooothing," Ruby drew out, sounding about as unconvincing as possible. Weiss continued to snicker. Those two knew something that the rest of them didn't and it looked like they were unwilling to share, content with holding it over their heads.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever. Now that we have a bit of time, I want to know a bit more about what happened this morning."

Lilac eyes focused on him and Jaune had the impression that she wasn't impressed.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I don't like that of all times to approach you, she did it while you were asleep," Yang glared. "I don't trust that bitch. Are you sure she didn't do anything to you?"

He hadn't told them that Neo had kissed him. He didn't want to hide it but he knew that it would upset them, and now wasn't the time for elevated emotions. But the longer Yang glared at him, the more he felt like spilling the beans. It wasn't like he had done anything wrong. It had been all Neo.

"She did something, didn't she?" Ruby gave him a shrewd look. "I can see it all over your face."

Weiss arched an eyebrow in question while Blake frowned.

Nora just looked confused, glancing between the RWBY girls. "What do you think she did?"

"I dunno," Yang crossed her arms beneath her large chest. "Well? Did she?"

"She – uh, choked me a little?" he tried.

"She what?" Nora looked at him angrily. "You didn't tell us that!"

Jaune raised his hands. "She was just trying to make sure I didn't scream. I sorta woke up with her sitting on top of me, so there was a good chance I'd yell and wake you guys up."

"Sitting on you," Blake mused darkly.

"She choked you?" Weiss gave him a once over with her eyes, concern clear on her face. "She didn't hurt you, did she?"

"I'm fine. Really!" he said as she stepped closer. "It was a bit shocking but she wasn't trying to harm me. If she wanted to, she could have done a lot worse without waking me up."

Yang scoffed. "I hate to agree with him when he is defending that bitch but he's right. She'd slit his throat without hesitation."

Yang was getting worked up. Jaune couldn't exactly blame her. They all knew about how Neo had kicked her around that train car in humiliating fashion, down in the bowels of Mountain Glenn. The blonde girl had a lot of pride in her fighting prowess and that pride had been stomped on viciously by the tiny woman. Stomped on and ground to dust beneath her heeled boot.

"Is that all she did?" Blake peered at him closely, amber eyes narrow.

These were his girlfriends, right? He didn't want them to get upset but he didn't want to lie to them either. They really could have picked a better time to question him about it, though. He hesitated, waiting for Penny to return with impeccable timing but there was no such luck in store for him.

"She may have... kissed me?"

"I'm going to kill that fucking slut," Yang declared in all seriousness without missing a beat. "I swear to god, the next time I see her, I'm going to beat her to death."

" Another one ?" Blake grumbled under her breath.

"Jaune – Neo is really dangerous, I don't think you should – uh, you know ," Ruby flushed as she made an obscene gesture with her hands, drilling her finger between her pointer and thumb.

The only one that didn't say anything was Weiss. She continued to overlook him with an air of concern. When their eyes met, she smiled at him.

"I'm still your number one, yes?"

The absurdity of the moment struck him and he snorted before laughter bubbled up inside him. Yang scowled as he laughed, throwing his head back to let it out.

"This isn't funny!" she thundered.

"Are you really surprised at this point?" Weiss rolled her eyes. "And it isn't like he instigated it. We'll be encountering this more and more, so you better get used to it. We are his favorites. They are nothing but desperate distractions after nothing more than his fat cock."

"Excuse me – what ?" Ren uttered with a scandalized face. The normally emotionless boy stared at Weiss incredulously. "What did you just say!?"

"Oh," Weiss looked down sheepishly. "Oops?"

It wasn't like Ren wouldn't eventually find out anyway. Jaune had hoped he'd be able to break it to his friend personally, though. It was the type of thing that required an extensive explanation.

"Good one, Weiss," Ruby rolled her eyes. "I didn't know you had such a filthy mouth."

"S-Shut up, Ruby!"

Yang shook her head. "Wow. Who would have thought?"

Blake smirked. "Repressed."

Weiss glared at her.

"Jaune-Jaune has a thing ," Nora attempted, though she looked a tad uncomfortable. She was no doubt remembering her reaction to his thing . "We'll tell you about it later. Oh~! So they all know now?"

She was looking at Yang and Blake in particular.

"Yeah," Jaune said, rubbing his face. "Yeah, they know."

Penny finally returned, saving him from any further questioning.

She peered at all of them with a curious expression before saying, "The General will see you now."

"Thank you, Penny.

She really did have impeccable timing.