We didn't have any time to waste. We quickly prepared to split up again, only this time we weren't going to break up our teams. Team Rainbow would come with me to try to take down Sleepslicer, possibly for good. We would probably never get a chance to catch him off guard like this ever again, and it was only a matter of time before he came after me and my team anyway. Team Ruby would be in charge of stopping the bomb. If they failed, many would die. Because team RWBY's mission was so important, we were also going to give most of the file to team JNPR to show to Ozpin and General Ironwood in hopes that they could get there if team RWBY should fail.
My teammates and I quickly boarded a bullhead and prepared to depart. Luckily Recherche had good piloting skills. I sat next to Wolf as the aircraft began to ascend, and stared out. Yang gave me an encouraging nod before she and her team ran in the opposite direction. I sighed and leaned against Wolf.
"Are you going to be ready for this?" He asked softly, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
"I have to be," I told him. He said nothing and rested his head on top of mine. Even though he was silent, I could tell that he was just as afraid as I was. Scary Neo in control or not, I wasn't sure that I would be strong enough to defeat the man that had taught me everything that I knew. Bolt looked back at Wolf and I and gave me an encouraging nod. I had to be strong enough to do this. Not just for me, but for my team and my friends.
We landed the aircraft in the middle of a wooded area and decided to go on foot from there. I used the maps that the Librarian and the Bandit girl had sent me to navigate my team through the thick trees.
Soon enough we came to the edge of the woods. We crouched under cover of the trees and observed the scene. There was a small clearing with a few black tents before there was a large cliff edge. A few troops patrolled between tents. They looked almost like white fang, but their armor was mostly black with bits of purple. They were Sleepslicer's personal army. They would be harder to beat than the mostly untrained white fang soldiers that we were used to fighting, and on top of that there was no way to tell how many more were hidden in the tents.
"We can't take all of them on," Bolt said in a hushed voice.
"Do you know where Sleepslicer is?" Recherche asked me.
I shook my head and replied, "No, the Librarian's spies didn't dare to get any closer than this."
"You can find him pretty easily though," Wolf cut in. He looked me in the eyes and said, "He may not be the man that you thought he was, but you still know him better than anyone." Wolf was right. I looked to my teammates.
"I should be able to find him without drawing too much attention," I told them.
Rech took control and came up with a plan. "We'll go in stealthy then. Bolt, you stay here for cover fire. Wolf, you and I will go in with Neo and take out as many as we can as quickly and quietly as possible. Neo, you know what to do." I nodded, agreeing that this plan was best, and we were off.
We moved silently down to the camp and crept between the tents undetected. We crept between the tents with caution. I motioned for Wolf and Rech to stop behind me, hearing a few of the patroling henchmen just around one of the tents. Wolf crept around the other side of the tent as Rech and I continued forward. Two of the guards spotted us. Before either of them could react, Rech threw her daggers at one. I noticed that she only hit him with the hilt of the knives, but struck some sort of pressure point that knocked the man unconscious. The other man gasped and pointed his gun at me. I smirked at him and gave a little wave. He looked at me in confusion, taking no notice of Wolf, who crept up behind him, wrapped the handle of his ax across the man's neck and pulled it back, strangling him.The man gasped for breath, but made little sound until he too lost consciousness and Wolf let his body slide to the ground. He nodded to me and we continued on. We pulled a few more similar stunts, managing to take out quite a few more men, until our luck ran out.
We crept along the edge of another black tent. Wolf was leading us and motioned for us to stop and held up three fingers, indicating how many men there were. What we weren't prepared for was the man exiting the tent at the same time. He noticed our presence before we noticed him, and moved to bring a sword down on Rech's head, but a yellow flash struck him, and he couldn't move. For just a split second I was confused as to what had happened, but I realized quickly that one of Bolt's aura arrows had paralyzed him. I hit him hard in the head with my umbrella, knocking him out cold. His body fell to the ground loudly.
"What was that?" said a voice from behind us, as another patrol group headed our way.
"I think I heard something," said another patrolman from the group of three just ahead. There was no way to escape and no way to take them out quietly.
"Neo go ahead," Rech whispered. Part of me wanted to argue to stay, but I knew that she was right. I nodded my head, listening to our team leader. She and Wolf could handle themselves, plus Bolt was watching closely. I opened my umbrella and teleported some distance away. The thing that I really didn't like about teleporting to a place that I can't see like that is being unaware of my surroundings. I barely manage to duck behind a pile of crates as another trio of patrolmen headed towards the commotion that Wolf and Rech were creating. I could hear a couple of people shouting and shots firing, but I kept moving. I needed to find sleepslicer soon or the whole camp would corner Rech and Wolf, and it wouldn't be long after that someone would find Bolt too.
I quickened my pace, creeping around tents and avoiding even more patrolmen. I came to a tent towards the center of the camp. It was a circular tent, the only one that wasn't like a square and was quite a bit bigger. This had to be it. I took a deep breath and pushed open the curtain that acted as a door.
There he was, running ha and through his purple slicked back hair as he looked down at a table, the only surprising thing was that the table was full of glass tubes and vials and had a weird assortment of colorful chemicals in them. Just for a moment I caught a glimpse through the mask of confidence that he had always taught me to wear. He was genuinely surprised to see me. He quickly held up a beaker in his hand that held a sort of orange liquid that almost seemed to glow.
"So you managed to find me. I should have known. I did train you after all," he told me with a smug smirk. He then shook the beaker in his hand slightly, careful not to spill the contents. "Do you like it?" he asked. "This will be your salvation Neo. I won't have to destroy you. Instead this little beauty will burn out all of that nonsense about you caring about people and not obeying orders."
I glared at the vial curiously. How the heck could a bunch of chemicals do that? Burn out everything that made me care. That made me feel. All that would be left was Scary Neo. I eyed the substance warily as Nick began to laugh.
"Don't worry your pretty head just yet darling. It's not quite finished. I suppose that means that you're going to attack me now. Pity," he sighed and set the orange liquid carefully on the table and picked up his umbrella. I watched him carefully but glanced back to the table. Nick could kill me and my friends, but whatever that substance was could unmake me and have me kill my friends. So which should I attack first?
"Oh, and you might want to hurry. I've got quite a few friends on this base, and I'm not quite sure how long your friends can last against them," he smirked. It was amazing how much that one simple and harmless gesture could really piss someone off. I gritted my teeth and charged at him.
A/N: I know this wasn't a super eventful chapter, but I needed to separate this from the next one or the next would be too long. The next chapter will be the last. Thank you everyone for reading and sticking with me this far, I really appreciate it. See you in the next chapter :)
