RWBY YA Novel #3

by E. C. Myers

Roman looked up and began climbing up to the Bullhead as quickly as he could, Neo right behind him.

  When they reached the aircraft’s cargo area, Neo moved to the front of the ship to disengage the autolock while Roman closed up the doors.

  He took a moment to catch his breath. And settle his stomach. And clutch his aching head. Then he joined Neo in the cockpit taking the copilot’s seat.

  “How’d you learn to fly this thing?” Roman asked.

  Neo held up her Scroll.

  “ ‘How to Fly a Bullhead,’ ” Roman read. “You’ve always been a quick study.”

  They sat in silence for a while, which was pretty common. But this time it was awkward because there was too much that needed to be said.

  But since Roman could speak, he went first. “You put another tracker in my hat.”

  She giggled.

  “And I’m guessing you didn’t actually turn me in to Lil’ Miss Malachite?” Roman said.

  Neo shook her head emphatically. Then she tilted her hand back and forth: It’s complicated. She tapped at her Scroll and started sending him prewritten text messages.

  Roman scrolled through the history of the text messages Neo had written that night, building a picture of what she had been through and what was at stake.

  “Wow,” Roman said. “So you did make a deal with Lady Browning, but you changed your mind about turning me over.”

  She shrugged.

  “Neo, I forgive you. Trust me, I’ve done a lot worse. The important thing is you rescued me. Actions speak louder than words.”

  Neo grinned.

  “Only problem is, I don’t have this data drive you mentioned to Xiong.”

  Neo reached into her pouch and pulled out a metal brick. She tossed it to Roman and he caught it clumsily.

  “Okay, then,” he said. “Now what? You’ve pitted Xiong against Lil’ Miss Malachite, and they’re both going to want this data—and us. The police are working with Xiong, too. How do we turn this”—he held up the data drive—“into a winning scenario for us? Where do we even go where we’ll be safe?” Even though he’d had an involuntary nap not long ago, he was exhausted. Too much adrenaline and anxiety. He needed to rest to clear his head, figure out their next move.

  Neo pursed her lips. She sighed and then turned their ship south.

  For the first time in six months, Neo saw the house she had grown up in. She’d never had a view quite like this one, of course, looking down on it from above. It had loomed larger in her imagination, but from here it was small, more like a doll’s house. It was amazing what a little change in perspective could do.

  “I thought we were going to your house,” Roman said.

  Neo looked at him. She threw her left hand out, gesturing toward the house.

  “Is it behind that mansion?” he asked.

  Neo put her hand to her forehead. She shook her head.

  “You live there?” Roman asked.

  She stretched the right side of her mouth and shrugged.

  “Right. Not anymore, since you went to school.”

  But Neo didn’t live at the school anymore, either, not after stealing the data drive and trying to expose Lady Beat and Lil’ Miss’s racket. If she didn’t live here, either, then where did she belong?

  “I’m guessing they know we’re coming, since this thing makes a lot of noise. Where are you going to put us down?”

  She circled the house once. They had repaired the damage to her old wing on the top floor. Like nothing had ever happened. Like she’d never even been there.

  Neo brought them down on the front lawn with a jarring stop. She’d have to practice her landings. Then she just sat there.

  “Let’s go?” Roman asked.

  The front door opened and her parents appeared. She hadn’t seen them in the last six months, either. Mama stayed in the doorway while Papa stomped toward the Bullhead in his bathrobe.

  “Hey! What do you think you’re doing? You can’t park that here!” he shouted.

  Roman put a hand on Neo’s arm. “You’re afraid of talking to them after everything you’ve done in the last six months? After tonight? You jumped out of a plane tonight. You fought a group of Spiders in a moving vehicle. You faced down Vale’s toughest crime boss and stole his property!”

  Neo smiled and wagged her finger, then pointed at Roman.

  “Right. I’m the toughest crime boss in Vale.” He looked upward. “I’ll remember that. What I’m getting at is you are astounding. And I’ll be right there with you.”

  Neo blinked back tears and hugged Roman.

  “Hey. Don’t wrinkle the suit.” But he put a hand on her head and over her shoulder, and that felt more like home than that house and her parents had in a long time.

  Neo took a deep breath. She stood up and changed into the brown-haired, brown-eyed girl they expected.

  Roman shook his head. “Show them who you really are.”

  Neo changed back into herself, but swapped out her school uniform for her favorite suit. Roman handed her his parasol.

  They opened the cargo bays and walked down the ramp to the lawn. Papa met them there.

  “I’m calling the cops! You hear me?” he shouted.

  “Please don’t,” Roman said. “We’ve kind of had a rough night.”

  “Who—” Papa stepped closer. “Roman Torchwick! You can’t be here. And you—” He turned to look at Neo. But it took him a moment to really see her. His face registered shock, sadness, and finally settled on anger. Neo folded her arms. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting.

  “Trivia! What are you doing with this criminal?” Papa said.

  Neo put a hand on Roman’s arm and shook her head. He’s not a criminal; he’s my friend. Well, I guess he’s both.

  Her father threw up his hands. “Do you know what she wants to say?” he asked Roman.

  “I do, actually.” Roman looked at her fondly. “I’m surprised you don’t.”

  Defeated, Neo took out her Scroll and typed: He’s my friend. A real friend.

  Papa’s eyebrows shot up. “We sent you to school to keep you from getting in trouble.”

  Yeah, about that …

  Mama came running down the lawn. “Trivia! Trivia!”

  She grabbed Trivia in a hug. “I’ve missed you! How are you? Oh, who’s this?” She looked at Roman.

  “That is Roman Torchwick,” Papa said.

  “Torchwick?” She drew away. “Here? Trivia, what is going on?”

  Roman cleared his throat. “Her name is Neo.”

  Mama looked confused. “Neo? Neopolitan?” She looked at Trivia. “Is that what you’re calling yourself now?”

  Neo looked at the ground, hands folded together. She nodded.

  “Well, I still need an explanation for why you’re here and where you got this—” Papa gaped at the Bullhead. “This is Hei Xiong’s.”

  “It’s a long story. Mind if we, uh, crash here for the night?” Torchwick asked.

  Neo jabbed him in the side with an elbow.

  “Okay, okay, the landing wasn’t that bad.”

  “This is Trivia’s home,” Mama said. “She’s always welcome here. And her friends. We’ll have plenty of time to sort all this out once you’ve had a chance to rest.”

  Neo felt a tiny surge of warmth and affection at her mother’s words. She hadn’t heard from her parents since she’d been enrolled at the academy, so she had assumed they had all but forgotten her.

  Papa nodded distractedly. “Yes … Of course. It’s good to have you home, Trivia.”

  She forced a smile. Neo had become better at reading people in her time at the academy. She knew Papa was hiding something. But it wasn’t like she and Roman had any better option at the moment. They just needed to recover a little, and then they could move on.

  “Probably won’t be long before someone finds this.” Roman kicked the side of the aircraft. “And us.”

  “Who’s looking for you?” Papa asked. “I have a right to
know if you’re under our roof.”

  Roman walked toward the house. As he passed her father, he tipped his hat. “Oh, everyone really. Take your pick.”

  Neo shrugged and ran after him.

  “Sooo … You’re rich,” Roman said, lounging on the sofa beside her with his feet up on the antique coffee table. Even now, the gesture made her wince; she sat on the edge of the cushion, back straight, trying not to touch anything. She had been punished just for playing in this room as a kid; it was used only for her father’s business meetings, guests like Hei Xiong apparently.

  “You could have mentioned that at least once, maybe before we went out to steal something you probably could have put on Daddy’s credit card.” He nodded at her parasol. “You could have paid for that by yourself.”

  Neo shot him an annoyed look.

  Roman put his hands up in surrender. “Sorry! I know it isn’t your money. Yet.” He winked. “But it’s still a lot to take in. There is a giant portrait of you on that wall right behind you and it is kind of freaking me out.”

  Neo hated that painting. It showed her and her parents posing together as if they were a happy family. But it was all a lie. Right down to the two brown eyes on twelve-year-old Trivia. For all her parents’ criticism of her imagination, it was them who had been living in a fantasy.

  “You were a cute kid. What happened to you?”

  Neo sighed.

  “I’m kidding. Come on, you’re usually the fun one. Being back here really bothers you, huh?”

  She glanced up to the ceiling. That was an understatement.

  Roman kept staring at the family portrait. “There’s something off about this picture.”

  Neo waved her hand and fixed the color of her right eye in the portrait.

  Roman snapped his fingers. “Much better.”

  Neo’s mother and father came in. Mama carried a tray with a teapot, teacups, and Neo’s favorite little cakes. Neo was surprised they still had those around when she wasn’t even home.

  “Tea?” Mama asked. The glasses rattled on the tray. Her hands shook and she was squeezing the handles of the tray so hard her knuckles were white. Neo didn’t know why she was so nervous; Roman wasn’t the first criminal she had entertained in her home.

  “Absolutely. Thanks, Mrs. Vanille. I’m starving,” Roman said.

  “Please, call me Carmel.” Mama poured tea, sloshing a fair bit of it out of the cup. He picked up the cup and showed it around so everyone knew he was holding it properly with his pinkie sticking out.

  Neo sipped her tea sullenly. She made a face. Tea usually made everything better, but even this tasted wrong somehow. Too bitter.

  It was very strange to have Roman here with her parents. Like her two worlds were pulling at her. She was starting to feel more like Trivia than Neo again, and it was unsettling.

  She didn’t want to stay here.

  Mama and Papa exchanged uncertain glances.

  “You can stay the night, Torchwick,” Papa said. “Tomorrow morning you will leave, without our daughter.”

  Neo looked at Roman in alarm. He glanced at her, and then he downed the rest of his cup and threw it against the wall.

  Neo flinched at the sound of breaking glass. She looked at her parents worriedly. What were they going to do?

  “That was unnecessary.” Mama wrung her fingers together.

  “We can’t harbor criminals here,” Papa said.

  Neo laughed, but it came out sounding like a hiccup. Everyone looked at her.

  She pointed a finger at her dad.

  “What are you implying?” Papa asked angrily.

  She transformed into Hei Xiong for the second time that night. Her father visibly recoiled.

  Roman watched all this with interest. “You’re in with the Xiong family, eh?”

  “I manage business contracts for the city,” Papa said. “That requires me to deal with a lot of people.”

  “Then you’re definitely in with them. Every businessman works with him or for him—or he has something on them. What does Xiong have on you? Kickbacks, I bet. Giving him insider knowledge? Plum deals? You made him the biggest Dust distributor—”

  “That’s enough!” Jimmy said.

  Roman looked around. “City employees typically don’t live this good. Which is why they all work with the crime syndicates.” Roman put his fingers and thumbs together to make a circle. “The circle of life.”

  “How dare you.” Papa advanced toward Roman, but Mama held him back.

  “I will not be lectured in my own home by a low-rent crook!”

  “Low rent? My rent is at the top of the scale for Vale, and it’s probably going to get higher because of the damages.”

  Neo narrowed her eyes. Papa was right: He didn’t have to put up with this kind of treatment. Which begged the question, why wasn’t he doing something about it? She cocked an ear, listening for sirens or the roar of a Bullhead’s engine. Maybe he wanted to keep them talking for some reason …

  She slammed her cup down on the table and it split in two. The remainder of her tea pooled around the broken halves. She stood and gestured to Roman. Let’s go.

  “You sure?”

  Neo nodded. Or tried to, but she couldn’t get her head to move. Her eyes flew open in panic. Her face abruptly felt numb and she couldn’t feel her hands and feet.

  “Neo?” Roman asked. “Neo!”

  She tried to take a step, but it felt like weights were tied to her leg. She barely moved her foot an inch before she was falling over. Papa caught her and held on tight.

  From this angle, she saw that Roman was similarly paralyzed on the couch, a look of concern frozen on his face. Concern for her.

  And then Papa started dragging her away.

  Roman watched Jimmy Vanille haul his own daughter out of the room, furious. He wanted to stop him, but he couldn’t. Not yet.

  He followed Carmel Vanille with his eyes around the room as she tidied up. She went to pick up the shards of the broken cup Roman had thrown across the room and tsk tsked over the spilled tea on the carpet and the walls.

  “You’ve clearly been a bad influence on Trivia,” she said. “She was always a sweet girl.”

  Roman made a sound like a choked laugh.

  “She had her problems, but what girl doesn’t?” She looked at the painting on the wall with a wistful expression. With Neo out of commission, it had reverted back to its original state—an idealized portrait of a family for a woman who had lost touch with reality.

  Naturally that meant Hei Xiong’s Bullhead was visible for anyone looking for it. Their time here was short.

  Carmel whirled around. “You think we don’t know who you are, Torchwick? You think we don’t know what’s going on in our daughter’s life, even when she isn’t here?”

  She lifted the chain around her neck and showed him the pendant dangling from it. A triskelion.

  Roman groaned inwardly. Neo’s mother had graduated from Lady Browning’s Preparatory Academy for Girls, too. No wonder she had shipped her daughter off there.

  And it seemed that she was a bit more involved in Lady Beat’s plans than most of her former students. In fact, he wondered if Jimmy knew his wife had been using him to spy on Hei Xiong’s operations.

  But Roman couldn’t ask any of the questions spinning around in his head. Fortunately it seemed Neo’s mother didn’t have any trouble talking.

  “We were in deep,” she said. “Deeper than we should be. Jimmy didn’t want to be under Hei’s thumb forever. He wanted to start a little side business, and, well, you know how that goes.” She looked at Roman. “Here you are.”

  She straightened a chair that had been nudged maybe half an inch when Neo had stumbled and been pulled away.

  “I tried to change his mind, but Jimmy never listens to me.” She rolled her eyes, in a very Neo way. “I’m just supposed to look pretty and smile a lot. Which is harder work than you think. But I was trained for that. ‘Be seen but not heard, that’s livin
g the dream,’ as Lady Beat drilled into us. ‘The better to watch and learn, and plot and scheme.’ ” She laughed. “Jimmy has no idea what’s really going on. He never did. I knew what Trivia needed, but he wouldn’t let me give it to her. He didn’t want her to grow up like him.” She chuckled. “But that was going against her nature.”

  Carmel approached the couch. Roman felt his already sore muscles tighten. She slid his legs off the coffee table and frowned at the marred surface.

  “Lady Beat will be pleased when I return the data drive you stole. And when I hand you over to Lil’ Miss Malachite, I’ll make sure she gets Hei off our backs once and for all. With him out of the picture, the Dust trade will be up for grabs, and Jimmy will rally the council to give him emergency power over the Dust imports, distribution, and sales.” She winked. “But we know who’ll really be in charge, don’t we?”

  In one fluid motion, Roman grabbed her, taking her by surprise, holding her arms at her side with one arm and covering her nose and mouth with the other.

  “You talk too much,” Roman said.

  She struggled, her screams muffled, but she couldn’t break his grip. Gradually she stopped fighting him as she ran out of oxygen and passed out.

  He dropped her on the couch. “Thanks for the tea, but one of the first things I learned on the street is to be careful about what you eat. I didn’t have to go to a fancy school for that one.”

  He grabbed curtain pulls from around the room and tied her up with them. Then he waited by the door for Jimmy to come back.

  He walked into the room completely oblivious to his unconscious wife, texting on his Scroll.

  “Darling, Hei is on his way over here. Once I give him this data drive and Torchwick, he says all my debts are forgiven. I can’t believe this opportunity dropped right into our laps. Isn’t that splendid news?” Jimmy looked up. He saw his wife.

  “I’ve heard better news,” Roman said.

  Jimmy spun around, reaching into his pocket, but Roman whacked him on the head with his cane. Jimmy went down.

  Roman checked the man’s pockets and relieved him of a pistol and the data drive. Roman weighed the thing in his hand.

  This information was hot, but it wasn’t the kind of thing that increased in value the longer you held on to it. Some of it would still be damning evidence, but the real usefulness of it was in the current deals going on, which must be why Xiong and Lil’ Miss wanted it so badly. Maybe even more than they wanted Roman.