Final chapter of this arc that went way longer than I thought it would have.

Jaune was too terrified to understand how, but he had enough wiggle room to quickly dodge the knife every time it came for him. His head and the blade avoided each other like they were the same sides of a magnet.

"I don't know whether I should be impressed at him or disappointed at you," the man said as he lit a cigar, which was then promptly cut in half. "Not cool, Neo."

Neo ignored him and rushed to stab Jaune in the face. Jaune dodged with the blade just barely touching his mouth. Then, as if on instinct, Jaune lurched his head forward and bit down on the blade. Neo gasped and struggled to get it back, but Jaune's grip was too tight. Neo's grip slipped and she fell on her put as Jaune threw his head to the side, throwing the knife out the open window.

Roman sighed. "Dang it Neo, what did I say about leaving the window open?" Neo sat up and looked at him with a scoff. "That's how we get bugs in the house."

Neo stood up while giving a 'yeah yeah whatever' hand gesture.

"Are you sure you're not talking about her?" Jaune cockily taunted. Half a second later, he realized that probably wasn't a good idea as Neo's heel met with his crotch and he screamed in pain. "Whyyyyyyyyyyy?!" This earned him a hard punch across the face.

Roman started to wonder if Neo forgot she was doing this to get Deadly Vanilla back. Then, heard someone shout "He's in that room!" from outside in the hallway. He peered through the glass peephole, and quickly backed away as a kid with a mace bashed the door open.

The door flew off the hinges with great force. A smile started to form on Jaune's face. He was saved! The smile didn't fully form and quickly turned into a frown as the door flew into him with enough force to throw him through the open window.

Zwei yawned and huffed as he sat alone in the alleyway. He was bored out of his mind. The man who shoved him in the locker earlier and his friends ran into the building and told him to wait here. The door closed before he could follow them and so he was stuck there.

Zwei's ears twitched and he stood up as he heard a familiar sound: Jaune screaming. It was the same scream he heard a while ago when Weiss taught him how to trip him on the stairs.

He looked up in time to see Jaune fall face-first onto the ground. "Whyyyyyyy," he moaned. But moaning meant he was alive!

"Bark!" Zwei ran towards him.

"Zwei?!" Jaune's headshot upwards and smiled in relief. "Holy crap you made it!"

"Arf!" Zwei went up and licked his forehead.

"Good to see you too. Can you help me out please?"

Zwei yipped and went to chew the ropes bounding him to the chair apart.

"Thank you." Before Jaune could bark again, they looked up at the sound of someone falling just in time to see Cardin fall into the dumpster, sending trash flying out from the impact.

Jaune winced. That was definitely a softer landing than his, but he could only imagine how bad that smelled.

"Goddamnit," Cardin complained as he climbed out and noticed Jaune. "When the hell did you get here?"

"When a door was thrown into my face and threw me out the window," Jaune responded.

"Oh… sorry," Cardin sort of half/not apologized.

"And thanks for sending us to the E.T.P.A. pound, really loved almost getting euthanized."

Cardin winced with a hiss. "I didn't know that pound was owned by them, sorry." This time he sounded genuine.

Before Jaune could respond they looked up to Russel screaming as he also landed in the dumpster, muttering profanity as he climbed out.

"You ok Rus?" Cardin asked.

"How is a little girl kicking our ass?!" He complained.

"Well… she is psychotic, and tried to stab me," Jaune rubbed the cheek.

"I also told you all not to go out. We don't need to collapse a wall or floor and accidentally kill someone," Cardin added.

"Look out below!" Sky cried. Russel wasn't fast enough and Sky fell on him. "Sorry."

"You're good," Russel crawled out and fell flat on the ground. Zwei booped his forehead to make sure he was ok.

Dove then fell but nailed a superhero landing next to them.

"How'd she get you?" Sky asked.

"Oh, I jumped out myself. I peaked out and saw Jaune so I figured there was no further need to fight," Dove explained.

"Smart," Cardin commented.

A slamming noise caught their attention and they looked up to see Neo angerly looking at all of them, gripping the knife tight as she stared into Jaune's soul.

"...can we run now?"

"Yes."

"Yep!"

"Please!"

"No argument here."

"Arf!"

Neo dusted off her hands with a smile as she watched the boys run. That was fun.

"Gahhhhhh, did you have to lead the fight to the kitchen?" Roman complained as he swept up the broken glass. Neo shrugged. "You know how hard it is to steal more kitchen glasses? … not really hard but still I shouldn't have to do that!"

Neo blew him off and turned the tv on.

"Ungrateful little… oh hey, where did they go?"

'Ran away like scaredy cats,' Neo sighed.

"...so, you let the only lead for finding Deadly Vanilla go?"

Neo's eyes widened in horror and jumped out the window after them.

"What a day," Jaune sighed as he laid in his soft, comfortable bed, happy to finally relax after what he's been through today. RWBY and his team were missing but he'd look for them later.

He looked over to Zwei walking up to the bed, looking at the ground instead of him, and let out a few quiet barks.

Jaune had to do that with his sister before so he knew what was up. "Apology accepted," he patted Zwei's head and he shook his tail. "And I'm also sorry for fighting with you, and framing you for chewing Blake's book."

Zwei perked up with an 'I knew it!' accusing glare.

"Hey, you tripped me down the stairs first. But still… we good?" He held a hand out.

Zwei didn't hesitate in giving him the high five.

The rest of team JNPR would return to find Jaune napping on his bed with Zwei curled up next to him. They were confused at the sudden 180 of their attitude, but they weren't complaining.

Neo sat on the windowsill, looking out into the night sky with tear-filled eyes. She kept looking for them well past midnight, but there was no sign of the blonde man or Deadly Vanilla anywhere. He really was gone.

She looked down at her scroll and went through the pictures of him. She took more than was necessary, but he was just so cute, especially when you scratched that sweet spot behind the ears. She even had a few pictures of the shopkeepers cowing in fear from him. He would have grown up into a strong and fearless and cuddly boy.

The thoughts of the future that wouldn't be let the tears flow freely from her eyes. Then her thoughts turned to the blonde boy who stole him, and her teeth gritted with rage. If she found him, she'll make his death as slow and painful as possible.

Don't worry, we'll see Neo again eventually.

Thank you for reading, have a great day :)