"STOP LOOKING LIKE THAT!" A man yelled as his hand came down to smack a crying child.

The child coward in fear with tears running down her face. One after the other the man kept striking her. This was the third time he had done this to her today. To be honest it was an easy day, normally he did this to her more than that. Three was still to much but the girl would take what she could and any reprieve was better than nothing. This man terrified her but under that fear she hated him, despised him, she wanted him dead. She just wanted him to drop dead, but she knew that wouldn't happen. Instead she wished he would just kill her, that way she wouldn't have to suffer like this anymore.

While he was wailing on her, her eye's met another set of eye's. Her sister stood there half hidden by the door. She looked at her sister with pleading eye's, eye's that pleaded for help, for comfort. Nothing, she got nothing, her sister simply broke eye contact and walked way. She should have expected this, it's not the first time her sister simply ignored everything. She cared more about herself than she did her. She had her freedom, she was spoiled and treated like a princess. But what did Neo get? She got nothing, nothing except beatings, neglect and starvation. There was a time when her sister promised to always be there for her, to protect her, but it was all apparently a lie. A lie that became apparent when her sister actually struck her. Every so often that THING would come in bringing her sister with him. He would then encourage her to hit Neo. This wasn't common, but this was the cause of her finally breaking.

And the rest of her family? They were never around, honestly she didn't think they even knew what was going on. How could they know when they were never around. Apparently everyone's own lives and freedoms were more important than her. These people were supposed to love her, care for her, protect her. But they did none of that, they did the opposite and she hated them. She told herself that if she ever had the chance she would kill them, give them the same pain they gave her. That hate is what she sometimes believes keeps her alive.

"YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE..." She didn't even hear the rest as she finally passed out.

Neo woke up, instantly going to a sitting position while in a panicked and fearful state. She brought her knees to her chest and curled up as she started crying. Those dreams were not uncommon for her and she always dreaded the possibility of having one every time she went to sleep. Despite all her confidence, she was still a scared little girl. That was something she would never admit to someone. You can be confident, you can even be happy but still have weaknesses like this as a result of fear and trauma. Neo was for the most part fearless, but she did still have fears, almost everyone had fears. For her, she simply didn't like admitting to her faults and weaknesses. Roman could get her to talk about some of it but mostly only the small stuff. The bigger stuff though, she kept bottled up.

The girl was nudged by the small head of a peacock that was trying to cuddle with her. Huckleberry was her pet, though Neo didn't like considering him a pet. To her, he was a friend and family. The reason she would put him into a cage sometimes was in order to protect others from him. He was very protective and didn't like most people, while also having a knack for screwing with others. The peacock seemed to get enjoyment from messing with people very much like Neo herself did. The fact that he also had an aura and semblance just made it easier for him. He could camouflage himself as if he was invisible. Though it wasn't invisibility, not really, more like bending the light and stuff. Honestly she couldn't really be bothered to explain it. Someone could still see huckleberry if they tried hard enough or had really great eyesight. Basically you would be able to see a blurry shape, like that alien in that one movie Roman liked.

She dropped her knees and allowed Huckleberry to climb into her lap and lay down. She ran her hands over his feathered back getting a peacock equivalent to a purr from him. Neo always found comfort in her feathered pal. When she found him being used and abused in animal fighting she took it upon herself to save the animals. He took a liking to her almost instantly so she elected to take him home with her. Roman wished he could have been surprised when she brought a living peacock home with her to keep as a pet, but he wasn't. The man had wanted to tell her no but simply couldn't. When she gave him that smile of her's, he did what he always did and broke down.

She had been here at Beacon for a bit over a few months. It had been decent, frustrating at times but decent. She had gotten in trouble after she stabbed Cardin in the hand with a fork pinning it to the table. On top of that she had also attacked the rest of team CRDL. The only reason she got off lightly was because she had been defending a student dealing with Cardin and his team's racism. She may be a criminal but her and Roman did have standards. Team JNPR she was reasonably okay with. She got along with Nora rather well, Ren wasn't much of a talker but didn't seem to dislike her. Juane was nice but she liked picking on him. Phyrra was nice as well but didn't like how she picked on Juane.

With her own team things have been rather chaotic to say the least. Weiss was constantly bitchy, so Neo ignored her most of the time. Ignoring her also pissed the other girl off more, normally leading to her throwing a tantrum and then storming off. It probably didn't help that Neo was stealing from her a lot, specifically snatching her dust and lien. Though she didn't think the Schnee really even noticed that they were missing because she had so damn much of it. She thinks Weiss was just assuming she was stealing from her. Weiss would constantly refer to her as 'The Criminal' which was annoying, but mostly Neo just didn't care. Weiss and Blake had smoothed things over but things were still tense between them. The one thing that seemed to piss Weiss of the most was that Neo's grades and scores were always better than hers. To add insult to injury Neo never studied for anything. Or rather when she did study it was very briefly and mostly just skimming through stuff.

Roman made sure she had a good education, plus Neo was an avid reader with a natural curiosity to know things. The advantage Neo had though was the fact that she could recall memories, things she has read and heard and even remember details of things she saw, all with near perfection. Essentially Neo was a prodigy, the kind that didn't come around often and one of only a handful currently living. This was something Ozpin had come to realize very quickly, even Glynda noticed and was impressed.

Now things with Blake have been awkward. They had dated, she was the one Neo had just gotten over. She had met Blake at a bookshop, but at the time didn't know she was with the white fang. She only found out after she and by default Roman were hired by Adam (or rather Cinder). Of course this was before the rest of the fang, or at least before Adams sect of the fang knew about them working with humans. So of course Blake didn't know anything about it at the time. She only figured it out not long before she had left and ghosted her. Sure Neo felt bad for not telling her but at the time she simply couldn't and had hoped Blake would figure it out on her own. The faunas woman had been so kind, so caring and most importantly very understanding. She didn't care that Neo didn't want to be touched sexually, she understood. She understood that it wasn't that Neo didn't want to, just that it had to do with past trauma.

The woman had even promised not to abandon her like others had. But it had been a lie, one day she had just disappeared. She didn't call, didn't write, no nothing. Then Neo finds out that Blake had been dating Adam as well. Adam knew nothing about their involvement, at least not until after she disappeared. Despite his anger he surprisingly didn't take it out on her or blame her. Honestly Neo was perplexed by the faunas man sometimes. He was complicated, he had a lot of anger and hate yet at the same time he did seem to want to do good. It was like he was fighting, or rather struggling with himself. A war between wanting to do right and wanting revenge, and the darker side of him was definitely winning, as he seemed to become more fanatical. Personally Neo didn't care if he burned the whole of the SDC to the ground. She knew about how they treated faunas, and most of all she knew about Adams face. Those pompous atleasian assholes could burn for all she cared.

Blake did apologize to Neo, and has been trying to make it up to her. Not by getting back together or anything, but by trying to earn her respect and trust back. It wasn't that Neo didn't understand why she left once it was explained. However it was the fact that Blake didn't try to contact her at all, but instead ghosted her. That was on top of her having been in a relationship with her and Adam at the same time. Despite what she said, Neo felt Blake didn't trust her enough to not go to Adam if she had messaged her. The multicolored girl was conflicted on how she felt about Blake. On one hand she would like to have her as a friend but on the other she wasn't sure she could trust her again.

Yang Xiao-Long, that was a name Neo despised and hated. The two women had encountered each other once before, but only Neo seemed to remember. They had history and yet Yang didn't even know it. Out of everyone at the school she trusted yang the least and also hated her the most. Hell she liked Cardin better than she did the blond. Their time together in classes and as partners were spent arguing and name calling (which was really only verbally on Yangs side). Neo refused to say why she hated Yang or how she even knew her. The mute was constantly antagonizing her and even breaking and tampering with her things. Neo would even use her semblance to get Yang into trouble. At one point Neo stole Yangs family photo and burned it. Yang was furious at that, it was a photo that was also her favorite. It had her, her dad, sister, step mother and uncle in it. For her it was a happy photo with happy memories that she cherished. The incident with the photo almost resulted in a fight that was luckily stopped by Glynda.

Her lose of the photo had caused a part of Yang to break. Blake had found her alone in the dorm crying. That picture had turned out to be one of a kind. With her step mother dead there was no replacing it, and both she and her dad had never been smart enough to make copies. Blake had comforted the blonde and was even able to get her to talk about her family. Yang seemed to focus on her uncle and sister the most. It wasn't uncommon for anyone to find Yang on the phone talking to her sister who she referred to as Rue. The two seemed to really start bonding after the picture incident and honestly it made Neo sick. It made her hate Yang more but also made her distrust Blake more than she already did. Admittedly some of her hate for Yang also comes from her petty hatred of Raven.

Neo had met Raven once and something about the woman terrified her. Now technically, Neo already knew who Raven was, her tribe was well known by many criminals and hunters after all. They had met when a job her and Roman took had caused them to cross paths with the Branwen tribe. At first Raven had been pissed that they trespassed onto the tribes territory. Pissed enough to threaten Roman, which caused Neo to attack her. In the blink of an eye Neo found herself flat on her back with Raven's sword to her throat. It was the first time anyone had anticipated her reaction, the first time anyone had ever beaten her, and so quickly and thoroughly. Neo had found herself completely terrified and frozen stiff with fear. Roman wasn't even able to move because he was afraid if he tried anything Neo would get hurt.

Raven stood there unfazed and staring at her. There was no anger, or any kind of emotion on the older woman's face. There was however a look of curiosity slightly mixed with surprise, even if it was barely noticeable to most. The woman put her sword away and let Neo get up. Again she stared at her, looking her over, analyzing her. Raven was willing to let their trespass go, even let them keep most of their ill-gotten gains. But in exchange they paid a small fee and Neo was to spend a few month with the tribe. Roman was vehemently against that second part but Neo assured him it would be fine. Honestly the idea scared her, but if it meant protecting her father then she didn't care.

The time she spent there was harsh living, harsh because it was filthy and dirty. There were tones of insects, and she had to actually hunt for her own food. For sleeping it was either roughing it on the ground or sleeping on a cot, neither of which was comfortable. Oh sure, she shared a tent with Raven, a tent that was rather huge and well furnished and cleanish but it was still crap. On top of all that, it was hot and sweaty and her clothes were absolutely ruined. Raven was demanding in her orders, she was strict but also fair, though Neo hated her demanding attitude. It pissed her off even more that Raven had a strange interest in her. She took it upon herself to personally train her. Sure her fighting abilities and physicality had dramatically improved but that was besides the point. She hated not being able to be pampered here like she was at home. She hated working for and with someone who wasn't her dad.

She had no clue as to why Raven had taken such an interest in her (she surprisingly knew sign language, which did impress Neo). Apparently the tribe as whole knew sign language. It was considered to be an advantage for non verbal communication when they needed silence for a job. Raven would actually try to chat her up with small talk, talking about a daughter she had abandoned but spies on (which was creepy). The whole sharing a tent thing, training her, being some what nicer to her than everyone else, and always being somewhere near her. After awhile Neo just bluntly asked her a question that was on her mind.

"Are you a pedophile?" Neo bluntly asked with a sign she had materialized. This caught Raven completely off guard and shocked her enough that she started choking on her food with a look of surprise and disgust.

"W-what!?" Raven choked out.

"Cause if you are, your barking up the wrong tree!" Neo quickly switched the signs. "I'm only 13 back off!"

"I am not..." Raven took a deep breath to calm herself. "We don't do those kinds of things here, it's disgusting."

"Your bandits." Neo said.

"We DO have SOME standards." Raven emphasized with a glare.

"And yet you have a creepy interest in me." The small girl raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I have an interest in you, but not in THAT way." The taller woman said having regained some of her composure. "Your very skilled and have a lot of potential."

"I'm still not convinced." Neo glared at the woman, getting a sigh from her.

"I have been trying to get close to you in the hopes I could convince you to stay, permanently." Raven finally admitted.

"There is no amount of sucking up that could get me to stay." Neo signed.

"Phrasing." Raven remarked.

"This place sucks. It's dirty and filthy and hot. You people are also very rude." Saying this simply got a raised brow from the older woman who found it rather amusing.

"You just don't like it because you don't get pampered." The woman rebuttaled with Neo simply ignoring her.

Okay so Neo would of asked admit that her dislike for Raven was pure pettiness. But she would also admit that she was a petty person in general.

Neo had gotten along with team CVFY for the most part. Her and a Fox got along well and were able to communicate without even talking (sign language or otherwise). Of course the mute girl and blind man got along. Yatsu she found was a gentle giant and was a very nice guy, he kind of reminded her of Ren in a way. Coco, she was the one who she had fought at the dust shop. She was gorgeous and Neo definitely found herself drooling over the dark skinned beauty. Though Coco didn't want much to do with her because of what happened. Of course Neo wasn't one to give up, so she kept up the flirting. However that flirting normally ended up with Neo being smacked, punched or thrown across the room. Sometimes she was forced to take cover as Coco when in a particularly bad mood would shoot at her. In all honesty though it was Neo's fault, not that she would admit to that. It was always because Neo would end up using some cheesy inappropriate pick up line. She might not outwardly admit to it, but Coco kinda liked the attention the shorter woman gave her.

Velvet was friendly with her but obviously still weary, Neo couldn't blame her since she was a criminal. Being a criminal would kinda put some people off even if only for a bit. But Vel was slowly coming around, and beginning to trust her enough to hang out with her more. Velvet has been a good influence on Neo and was even able to get her to stop doing what Roman never could. She was able to get Neo to stop being so handsy with people, wether it be sexually or violently. She slipped up of course, and at times consciously did it anyways but it was a work in progress. Velvet was even able to get Neo to stop stealing things from people...mostly, more like just not doing it as often. But there was just a part of Neo that was always going to be prone to violence and crime, it's just part of who she is.

Eventually Neo came to think of the rabbit faunas as a best friend, she even allowed her into her room, and even to borrow her books. She was not one to let others even touch her books. She had many special editions, 1st edition/1st printings, signed, and expensive antique books. While some books were simply just very special to her.

Aside from allowing the bunny faunus into her room and allowing her to borrow books, she was also fine when Velvet discovered another one of Neo's hobbies. Neo liked making and fixing things, and one of the things she enjoyed making was dolls. She had a big cupboard where she kept all the dolls she made. They were all intricate and well detailed figures of real people. Some of the dolls even had little nativity scenes. One of the scenes was of Junior's bar with Junior and the twins running it. Another was a bank setting that had Roman and Neo herself in it, they were robbing it of course. There were dolls of people Velvet didn't recognize, people like Cinder, Emerald and Mercury.

Neo had even made dolls of many of the teachers and students of Beacon. Glynda running the combat class while Ozpin drank from his mug, Port telling a story in class, Obleck writing on his chalk board while holding his coffee. There was a Weiss doll that was being beaten up by a boartusk. Juane being attacked by what looked like a peacock. Blake having fallen from a tree and being attacked by a small dog, Nora eating pancakes while Ren cooked. There was a doll of Velvet training with her team. Though the Coco doll was standing victoriously on top of a mound of grim. Most of the dolls and their scenes were adorable even if a few were odd but there were a few other's that were disturbing.

One of the dolls was badly beaten from obvious years of abuse and neglect. Velvet might not have known it but that doll was of the monster who abused Neo. Neo would sadisticly abuse the doll as a form of stress relief and coping. Another disturbing doll was of Yang which didn't even have its own scene, it was just hanging on the door of the cupboard with a knife keeping it there. The doll was made up to be bruised, blooded and all around beaten, the doll was even missing an arm. The detail of the injuries represented on the doll was disturbing to say the least. Velvet knew Neo didn't like Yang but never suspected that her disdain for the blonde went this deep.

"Do you really hate Yang that much?" Velvet asked.

"She hurt me." Neo said using a sign she had materialized. "Broke my heart." The sign was swapped. "And doesn't even remember because she doesn't care."

"You make it sound like you two da..." Velvet was caught off as Neo held up another sign asking her to please drop it. "Okay, I won't ask." Velvet said with a reassuring nod. Neo trusted her so she didn't want to rock the boat and lose that trust. "You know you never have told me where you keep getting those signs from."

With a mischievous smile Neo walked up to velvet. Coming face to face with the faunas and getting a slight blush from her, Neo looked into her eye's. After a brief moment Velvet found herself looking directly into her own eye's.

"EEP!" The bunny girl yelled out as she fell to floor landing on her butt. "Y-your me, I mean turned into me!"

"My semblance." Neo signed with a smile before she did a little ballet spin. During the spin she changed into multiple other people, Ozpin, Glynda, Roman, and a few others before turning back into Velvet. Looking down at her body she patted her butt and grabbed her chest. "Not bad." Neo chuckled as she signed.

"H-hey! Don't touch me like that, I mean yourself or whatever, it's creepy!" The other girl huffed before something in her head clicked. "It's been you!" She pointed at Neo who simply tilted her head. "All the weird stuff people around the school have been doing or getting in trouble for. Things that were out of character for them. You have been turning into others and doing things as them!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Neo smirked.

"Miss Goodwitch threw the headmaster out a window!" She frowned. "Putting him into that position wasn't very nice."

"It was funny." Neo silently laughed.

In the dorm of WBY the three women were sitting there talking. Or rather one of them was trying to convince the other two to not go through with their scheme. Weiss and especially Yang were planning to break into Neo's room when was in class. They wanted to find out more about her and hopefully find something to they could use to against. Specifically something they could use to get her to stop being bitchy with them. They had no bad intentions exactly despite not liking the multicolored girl. They didn't hate her, just wanted things to at least be tolerable so they could work as a coherent team. Though Yang mostly wanted to find out why the girl hated her so god damn much. Blake was against the plan but figured if she couldn't stop them then she could at least go and keep them from screwing things up.