Yang Xiao Long burst through the front door of the building with a single blast from Ember Celica. She was frantic with worry, after not seeing or hearing from Ruby for over two weeks and suddenly getting an urgent SOS. However, in an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous setting, her trained sense of caution as a Huntress kicked in.

"Ruby?" she called out tentatively, "Where are you?" She waited a minute for any type of sound. It wasn't long before she heard something. After a few seconds of listening, she identified it as scared noises. Ruby! She bolted into the house, searching for her scared little sister. The sound was coming from the living room, so that was the first place she headed.

/

"Ruby?" A voice called out into the abandoned house. "Where are you?"

Neo grinned evilly. Finally. She'd been waiting for hours since she sent that fake SOS. Now she'd finally get to have an uninterrupted rematch with her rival, Yang Xiao Long. A little subterfuge shouldn't hurt...

She sat in the middle of the room, on a chair, and imagined her disguise. She focused on the colours, red and black. Then the clothes: a black combat skirt with a red hem, black tights, black boots with red soles... then the body. Slightly taller, innocent face, silver eyes, short black hair with faded red tips...

The pinks and browns and whites of her usual colour scheme faded away, and were replaced with what she could see in her mind's eye. To anybody who happened to gaze upon her, she was merely Ruby Rose, albeit in appearance only. It didn't have to be perfect; just good enough to where it'd be able to trick Yang from a short distance in low light.

Next, she put her hands behind her back and imagined tape around her wrists and ankles, looking like she was secured to the chair. For a finishing touch, she imagined a scarf tied around her mouth.

To complete the act, she started making noises. Scared moans and screams, muffled by the "gag". Perfect. Trap set, bait is out...now we wait.

/

As Yang ran into the room, what she saw made her stop in her tracks. Her little sister, bound and gagged to a chair, looking scared, struggling to get free. Yang's protective side shifted into gear, rushing to help her sister.

"Ruby, thank God you're alright! What happened? Who did this?" As she reached for the tape, she stopped. Something wasn't right. Why couldn't she grab the tape?

Ruby's arm shifted. Wha—

A fist impacted the side of Yang's face. Stunned, she reeled back. After regaining her senses, she looked back at the chair. Empty, but Ruby was leaning next to it, smiling. Grinning. The gag was gone too.

Yang's eyes shifted from lavender to red. "You're..not Ruby."

The grin on the impostor's face got wider. Yang bared her teeth. "Who are you and what have you done to my sister?" she growled.

Neo cocked her head to the side, still unsure if she wanted to drop the disguise now or play with it a little longer. She decided to have a little fun. She blinked, willing her disguised silver eyes to change back to her pink/brown colour scheme, then back again.

Predictably, Yang roared in rage and charged, delivering a haymaker, which Neo swiftly dodged, following up with a left hook. The punch curved downwards and impacted the floor, coupled with a blast from the brawler's gauntlet. Neo jumped into the air and flipped backwards, willing her disguise to disappear. Gone was the guise of Ruby Rose, replaced with Neo's true appearance.

Yang stopped, recognition in her now-lavender eyes. Neo smiled. Now her opponent knew who she was dealing with.

Yang forced herself to remain composed. This pint-sized woman had gotten the better of her before, and she was not going to let that happen again. Neopolitan was going down this time. Looking her over with calm eyes (she needed to remember to thank Ruby for that lesson), she began sizing her up.

Neo patiently waited for her adversary to finish assessing her. She smirked. If you haven't noticed by now, you never will, Blondie. She wanted to make this as much of a "fair" duel as possible. It wasn't often that she faced an opponent whom she respected in terms of battle skill. Contrary to what other people thought, Neo wasn't a psychotic killer, and she certainly wasn't a dainty little damsel.

Yang stepped forward with her left foot. Years of fighting experience told Neo that leading with the left foot meant an incoming attack with the right arm. She shifted her weight onto her left leg, ready to jump. If Yang attacked with a normal punch, she'd easily dodge it, but it was the blast from Ember Celica that was the most worrying. Splash damage could hinder her movement slightly.

Yang looked to her right, Neo's left, further cementing Neo's strategy. An attack from the left, easily dodged, followed by a brawler's standard one-two. In which case, Neo's counter would be to quickly strike the pressure points on Yang's arms. Her dexterity allowed her to move relatively fast in comparison to Yang's slow, brutish boxer-style.

It happened in a flash. The right side of Neo's face erupted in pain. The sudden impact left her reeling. Shit! Neo quickly regained herself and jumped back. Slightly dazed, she tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Yang let out a satisfied grunt. Her ploy had worked. Her left jab had left Neo stunned. She jerked her head to the side, feeling the satisfying crack of her own neck. "Alright, Ice Cream, let's see what you've got."

Neo slowly brought her hand up to her face. She felt something wet. The corner of her mouth was bleeding. Wiping the blood away, she smiled, twisting into an evil grin. Bending down to retrieve her parasol, she inwardly cursed herself for being led. Yang had learned from their last encounter, and it wouldn't be as easy to provoke her this time. Still, Neo had faced worse opponents while she was at her most vulnerable, and managed to come out on top. She adopted a defensive fighting stance and waited for Yang to make her next move.

This is going to be a very interesting fight, Blondie.

/

Below her, on the ground, the nearly-unconscious Yang moaned in pain. She had been bested (utterly beaten, really) and was bracing herself for death. Neo smirked and blinked, causing her mismatched pink and brown eyes to swap. The blonde brawler was definitely a challenge for her, but she'd been so clumsy at fighting the first time they traded blows. She counted this as the second time they'd dueled like this, and the second time she had beaten the brawler. Yang closed her eyes and drifted off. Seeing this, Neo licked her lips as she drew and raised her misericorde to deliver the killing blow.

Something changed her mind. She hesitated. Maybe she could use the blondie. Her skills with fighting were definitely a force to be reckoned with, sure, but they could also be a valuable asset. Roman had always told her to look for assets even in the enemy. Yang Xiao Long was definitely someone whose fighting talent could be useful. Upon that decision, she lowered and sheathed the misericorde inside her parasol.

With effort, Neo dragged the unconscious blonde into the van. Taking care to remove Yang's gauntlets and bind her hands and feet, she sighed. Honestly, she had to admit, Yang had style. Her fighting techniques, while brutish in origin, had proven to be effective against the usual opponents. A slow tsk-tsk escaped her lips. If the enemy's stronger than you, there's always another way to beat them, kiddo. Remember that. Roman's voice came unbidden to her mind.

Roman.

Neo didn't know where her partner-in-crime was. He'd just disappeared after breaking out of the Atlesian prison. Cinder was nowhere to be found either, though that was to be expected. Neo hated Cinder. The way she'd strutted her way into Roman's heart, took him away from her with seductive words... Everything was fine just the way it way, before that witch came into their lives. She shuddered. I hope she's dead, she thought.

Pulling her mind back to the present, she had work to do. In the back of the van, Yang stirred slightly. Neo thought it'd be a good idea to gag her as well. Visual illusions she could handle, but try as she might, noises were a dead giveaway, and she didn't want to take the risk of some nosy Atlas MP discovering her because Blondie decided to wake up and make a ruckus. She quickly put some duct tape over Yang's mouth and climbed into the driver's seat. With the click of the alternator, the van came to life, and she sped away in the direction of her safehouse.

"First, your body," Neo said, half to herself, half to the unconscious Yang. Her own voice came out in a hoarse whisper, the product of an accident in her childhood that caused a large fire and scorched her throat and lungs. "Then your mind, and finally, your soul."