My hands were shaking. I had never done anything off on my own initiative before. I always thought that Romans and Cinders plans were poorly thought out and unnecessarily blunt but now as I was enacting a plan of my own I doubted myself and wondered if I was missing something that they would spot. I had 'cased', as I think it was called, this bank for a week now. I had drawn a map of the bank floor, estimated the police response time, and did heavy research on their security system. There wasn't any dust infused in the metal of the bank vault or any machines that interrupted Aura or Semblances. 'Ok ok. You can do this. Your awesome. Your a super badass teleporting, illusion making, master criminal. Well, assistant master criminal. More like amateur bodyguard to an above average criminal. Shut up, thats not helping. Just breathe. If you get caught its only life in prison. Oh god what am I doing' I thought.

I closed my eyes, winced, and then did it. I opened one I eye and saw nothing. Dammit. I knew I was missing something. It was pitch black in the bank vault, why wouldn't it be. It's not like there would be a window or something. I didn't bring a light with me. I straitened my back and tried to feel around the dark vault. All of a sudden something popped out of the darkness. It was red and bright and ... a trip-laser.

The alarms were barely audible in from inside the airtight vault. Of course there was no red flashing light that illuminated the vault. I know I was robbing them but didn't the security analyst give a single thought towards courtesy. I thought about just teleporting back to the White Fang warehouse and forget this ever happened. No, I needed to do this, I needed to know I could become more than just some hired thug. I fumbled around in the darkness until I bumped into a table. I felt the stacks of lien on the table. I didn't waste any time as I slid stack after stack of the currency into two bags that I brought with me. My surroundings began to illuminate as the vault door was being opened. I heard the shouts of police officers preparing to storm the vault.

'Was I dead?' I thought. I didn't hear the sound of a gunshot but everything was dead quite now. I opened my eyes abruptly when I heard the fog horn of a ship. I was standing at the docks of Vale with two bags in my hands. A grin grew on my face that my mouth simply couldn't accommodate. I opened one bag and looked at the money stored within. Cinder's faction and her mysterious plan could go to hell now. I walked from the docks contemplating how I would spend my newly acquired, not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of lien. My grin persisted as I thought how this all could not be possible without that cute blond huntress.


Three weeks earlier - Shortly after the train incident


I still couldn't believe what had happened. I had won and by some divine intervention that masked woman had known that I was about to finish the blond and popped out of nowhere. This infuriated and scared me. 'Who was she and why did she stop me?' Neo thought. 'How could she see me? Was she watching me right now? Would she come for me in my sleep?' Neo fretted. The masked woman's message was clear though, don't kill that cute blond. As I thought about why this woman was protecting her a realization popped into my head.

Why would I even try to kill anyone? I mean I can teleport, thats why Roman hired me so I could teleport him around as well as watch his back. Wouldn't it always be cleaner to just teleport people I don't like to another kingdom or a dungeon?

They might make it back or break free but it would take them weeks and the consequences for kidnaping someone would be far less than murder, especially if that masked woman was protecting my enemies. After a week I still couldn't sleep. I was obsessing over that woman. I needed to find her and conclude things, either peacefully or not, and I knew how to draw her out. I checked the newspaper to see who was facing off against that blond ... Yang in the Vital festival tournament. That person would be taking a sudden vacation to Atlas.


One week before the Robbery - Vital festival tournaments.


Yang entered the ring with the rest of team RWBY and several others cheering her on. Yang hadn't researched much about her opponent in the first round, only his rating. He was low enough for her not to do any additional research on him.

"Representing Beacon academy Yang Xiao Long" called the announcer. Yang raised her arms and drunk in the applause. "And representing Minstrel David Kidney" the announcer finished.

The applause started and then abruptly stopped. He didn't show up. There were several moments of silence and the event coordinator shrugged.

"Aw come on I wanted to get warmed up." Yang said in disappointment. Suddenly there were sparks somewhere off to the side of the ring and without warning the dome energy shield that was supposed to lock Yang in with her opponent isolated Yang. A bright white flash appeared at the other end of the ring. Neo was standing at the opposite end of the ring.

"YOU!" Yang yelled out in anger. Neo just smiled cutely at Yang. Yang observed that Neo looked ... bad ... like she was tired and unkempt.

"Yang wait!" Ruby yelled from outside the ring "Just fend her off until we can get in there and help you.". Yang wasn't listening. Yang had wanted to beat this girl to a pulp ever since the train.

Yang charged at her enemy. Yang had decided that she had held back for too long on the train because of this girls passiveness. A mistake that she was not going to make twice. Yang hit the girl and she shattered into glass. Yang looked around for her opponent but she was hit from behind before she saw her. Neo was more offensive now, following up on successful hits. However, this didn't interfere with her normal technique of dodging every blow that Yang could throw at her. Yang got confident as she felt she hit something but that confidence shattered like the illusion of Neo at the end of her fist. Yang swung around behind her, expecting a repeat of last time but she hit nothing. Yang was alone in the ring now. Yang was enjoying fighting this girl a lot more now that Neo seemed to be giving it her all. It was the running away and the passive fighting that irritated Yang the most about Neo.

Yang saw flashes of light popped up all around the arena and each one left a copy of Neo in some kind of fighting pose. Yang couldn't keep track of all the white lights and started shattering copies that appeared closer to her. After realizing her efforts were futile, Yang jumped in the air and slammed her fist against the ground. The resulting shockwave shattered all the copies but Yangs victory was short lived. A single flash of light occurred above her and seconds afterwards Yang felt a weight pressing down on the back of her neck. Neo, with Yang pinned, looked up at the cameras and the onlookers and smiled. As Neo unsheathed her sword from her parasol the crowd gasped in fear. Neo raised it above her head about to strike down. But when nothing happened, Yang was surprised at how long it was taking Neo to finish her and Neo was confused as to why the masked woman hadn't shown up yet. 'There is no way she doesn't know whats happening here. It's being broadcast on every channel.' Neo thought. Still more time passed by and Yang struggled free and flipped onto her back but Neo put her foot down on her throat once again pinning her.

Suddenly the energy bubble was released and the rest of team RWBY jumped into the ring. 'Time to go.' Neo thought. Blake charged and sliced at Neo but the illusion just shattered. However, to the teams dismay, the illusion of Yang shattered with her.

Neo didn't notice Yang had traveled with her and released the pressure on Yang's throat. Yang took the opportunity to stand back up and resume her fighting stance. Yang looked around and was confused by her surroundings. The arena and stands filled with spectators were replaced by trees. There was a city in the distance but Yang couldn't take too long to observe it. Yangs eyes locked on Neo once more.

It didn't matter to Neo if the blond came with her here. This was just one of her escape areas. A place that was easy to picture in the mind so she could teleport quickly. Neo turned to face her again and smiled cutely at Yang. Neo found it so fun dodging her every attack and watching her cute little face get all flustered when Yang realized that she couldn't hit Neo. Yang had learned from her last two fights with this girl and wasn't about to fall into the same strategy.

"Come on. Are you scared?" Yang taunted as beckoned to Neo. Neo just cocked her head with both hands on her umbrella. Minutes went by and neither Yang nor Neo attacked.

"Well this is boring" Yang announced, relaxing her posture. "Are you ever going to attack?". Neo shook her head. Yang let out a sigh of frustration. 'I wonder what would have happened if I just walked around her on the train?' Yang thought. Neo was getting frustrated too and she considered just teleporting away but she figured she had nothing better to do so she stayed. Yang had to admit to herself that when she wasn't fighting, Neo's smile was pretty cute.

As Yang reminded herself of what happened on the train a question popped into her head.

"Hey I know this is a little unorthodox but as long as we are just standing here and not fighting, do you know who that woman was on the train?" Yang asked. 'She doesn't know who she is? Well that makes things weirder.' Neo thought. Neo shook her head and then gestured to Yang.

"No I just woke up when she left." Yang replied. Yang let her guard down completely as she was pretty sure the smaller girl would not attack. Awkward silence fell on them again.

"Can I ask you another question?" Yang asked. Neo sighed and then shrugged. What did it matter to Neo.

"If you can do something like teleport why are you working for Roman and the White Fang? I mean it can't be for money, I'm sure you would have just teleported into a bank vault if you needed money." Yang stated. A shocked look came across Neo's face that was visible, even where Yang was standing.

"Oh my god, you really never thought of that did you?" Yang said in a monotone voice. Yang burst out laughing.

"Oh ... thats a good one ... everyone always says that criminals are stupid but that ... that is just the bee's knees." Yang stated as she laughed. Neo was blushing and embarrassed now. It wasn't her fault, when Roman recruited her it was her first experience with crime. Besides, Roman and Cinder were supposed to be the brains of the operation. 'Why hadn't they asked me to steal from a bank' Neo thought. Neo was starting to get angry at the cackling blond. Neo waited for her to stop and then bowed, presenting the city in the distance. Neo then stuck her tongue out and teleported away from Yang. Yang wiped a tear away from her eye, as she had been laughing so hard, and looked out at the city. Upon closer inspection of the city Yangs mood instantly turned sour.

"That's not Vale is it." Yang said to herself.