Neopolitan

She was the partner of Roman Torchwick, with the two sharing a close and possible romantic bond. Her weapon of choice is called Hush, a parasol with a concealed blade. She first appeared in "Painting the Town...". After the Fall of Beacon, she hunts down Cinder Fall in revenge for Roman's death, but subsequently joins forces with her, shifting her target to Ruby Rose.

## History

Neo, formerly Trivia Vanille, was born to the Vanille family in the city of Vale. Her father, Jimmy Vanille, was the city manager for the Vale City Council.

In the early morning hours of her eighth birthday, Trivia plays tiptoe tag with another, wilder girl named "Neoplitan" through the halls of a dark mansion. As the two play, Neo enters the family room, which she was not allowed to go into. During this, Trivia inadvertently knocks over an expensive Akaibara vase, shattering it, and alerting her parents. When the two arrive – her father, Jimmy, angry and her mother, Carmel, concerned – Trivia finds Neopolitan has vanished, and cuts her hand on a piece of shattered glass. Enraged, Jimmy pulls Trivia out from under the couch by her ankles, shaking her upside down. Jimmy demands her to speak for herself and tell him what happened, but Trivia is only able to produce a rasping sound. Carmel asks her daughter what happened, so the girl uses a communication board to spell out the name "Neo", blaming the other girl.

At this, the two parents argue amongst themselves about their daughter's condition, Jimmy is impatient with her and Carmel says Trivia has an overactive imagination, and that her doctor, Mazarin, told them to give the young girl space. As her father leaves, ranting about the things to provide for his family's wealth and ordering somebody to clean the mess, Carmel sits with Trivia. She asks her daughter if she knows that a friend who does something bad and leaves her to take the blame is a bad friend. She begs Trivia to say something, but when she gets no response, Carmel leaves Trivia in the room to clean up after herself, leaving her alone once more. However, as she looked up, Neopolitan has returned, and convinced Trivia to leave somebody else to pick up the pieces.

Neo is first seen at a gathering of the White Fang, accompanying Roman Torchwick as he addresses the group. She later aids Roman in his escape following his defeat at the hands of Team RWBY, and demonstrates her abilities.

Sometime later, Neo is on a train carrying large amounts of explosive cargo, once again aiding Roman. After Team RWBY boards the train, Neo ends up confronting Yang Xiao Long. Yang holds her attention, allowing Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna to pass by Neo without consequence.

However, after a brief, rather one-sided fight, Neo bests Yang and attempts to kill her via a blade in Hush. However, before she can, Raven Branwen appears, prompting her to flee.

Neo is seen participating in the Vytal Festival Tournament. She conceals her identity by changing her appearance drastically: she wears a predominantly black outfit and also changes her hair and eye colors. In the tournament, she competes as part of a team with Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black and Cinder Fall. The team has no trouble during their first match, in which Neo is seen mercilessly stomping on a hapless opponent.

After Mercury fakes a broken leg, Neo and Cinder, disguised as paramedics, evacuate Mercury via an Air Bus to an unknown location.

Later, Neo is shown freeing Roman, returning to him his trademark hat and Melodic Cudgel.

Aboard an Atlesian Airship, Neo hands Roman a Scroll with Cinder's virus on it. Roman plugs it into a control panel, infecting all of the Atlesian Knight-200 soldiers with a hostile AI. When Roman hears something crash into the top of the airship, he instructs Neo to find out what it is. Neo nods and leaves the room, heading to the airship's roof.

Once there, she uses her power to change back into her original outfit, reports to Roman with a text from her Scroll stating "Guess who?", and engages in battle against Ruby Rose. She easily dodges the swings of Crescent Rose and shatters in an illusion before Roman intervenes in the fight. Together, the two gain the upper hand on Ruby, with Neo quickly yanking Crescent Rose from Ruby's grasp and landing a roundhouse kick, allowing Roman to blast Ruby to the side of the airship.

As Neo slowly walks towards Ruby, she drags her blade along the airship and subsequently holds Ruby at sword point. However, amidst Roman's monologuing, she is defeated as Ruby opens her umbrella, causing the winds to blow her away from the airship. She flies away, clinging to her umbrella at the mercy of the raging winds and the surrounding Grimm, much to Roman's shock and dismay.

After the Fall of Beacon, Neo somehow makes her way to the kingdom of Mistral. Around two weeks after the Battle of Haven, Neo pays Lil' Miss Malachite for information regarding Cinder's location. When the Maiden goes to the gangster to get her information on Ruby's group, Neo appears to Cinder standing on the second-floor balcony. She then initiates a duel that eventually takes them outside the bar, where she drops her Semblance to reveal that she was using her illusions to mask her tattered clothes, and she is now wearing Roman's hat, implying she blames Cinder for his death. The battle continues until Cinder becomes frustrated and uses her Maiden powers to stop the fight and confront Neo, saying that they both want Ruby dead, before proposing an alliance.

Neo is then taken to the empty Vault beneath Haven Academy and learns of Cinder's mission to retrieve the Relic of Knowledge for Salem before Ruby and her group gets it to Atlas. Afterward, she is given the offer to kill Ruby, as the Fall Maiden is forbidden to do so by Salem. After taking a moment to ponder, Neo shakes Cinder's hand and seals the deal.

Neo steals a Mistralian airship and reconvenes with Cinder Fall, both of them wearing new outfits. She demonstrates her ability to disguise the airship as an Atlesian one with her mutant abilities, and it pleases Cinder so greatly that, boarding the airship, she tells Neo she still believes in destiny.

Following their arrival in Atlas, Cinder and Neo went into hiding in the city, taking a luxury apartment as their base of operations. During their time, Cinder ordered Neo to infiltrate the Schnee Manor during Jacques Schnee's banquet, where she was tasked to find the location of the Relic of Knowledge under the guise of a waitress at the party. Following Jacques' arrest, Neo returned to their apartment with the information needed, informing Cinder she had succeeded in her task.

Later, Neo and Cinder listen to James Ironwood and Robyn Hill's broadcast, revealing they are aware Salem's forces, particularly, Arthur Watts and Tyrian Callows, are in the kingdom's borders, to Neo's surprise. Cinder is angered at the two, calling them idiots, then tells Neo how Salem's original plan was to attack Vacuo next. Cinder confirms with Neo whether Oscar Pine has the Relic of Knowledge, ordering her to take it from him. Neo refuses, transforming herself into Ruby to get her point across, to which Cinder angrily restates they must get what she needs before getting what they want. Cinder smiles, explaining to Neo that she would find the Winter Maiden that night, citing that Ironwood's paranoia would lead her to the Maiden. Neo relents and transforms back into herself as Cinder tosses her the Scroll.

Neo thus then makes her way to Atlas Academy, where upon successfully sneaking into the school's dormitories, begins her search for Oscar and the Lamp and eventually successfully locates and ambushes him inside his Dorm room by using her Semblance to fool him by disguising herself as someone else. Her Battle against Oscar eventually ends with her successfully wrestling away the Relic of Knowledge from him and leaving him considerably tired and weakened after the hard struggle against the Gangster. However upon detecting Team JNPR searching for Oscar and due to not yet having escaped the school, Neo thus then disguises herself as Oscar and proceeds to lure in Nora Valkyrie by using his appearance to her advantage to get her to lower her guard against her and get close enough to attack her.

However just as the Nora was coming close enough to hug her, the real Oscar bursts in and successfully punches Neo, dispelling her mutant disguise and reclaiming the Relic as it fell off her belt and upon being identified by Jaune, Neo thus then brandishes her own weapon in preparation for her battle against Team JNPR and Oscar to retrieve the Relic. Their fight is interrupted when Atlas Soldiers begin chasing Team JNPR and Oscar, who are still on a wanted list. Oscar is exhausted from his previous encounter with Neo from before Team JNPR found him, and due to his exhaustion, he is unable to keep up with JNPR and becomes lost. Neo, having disguised herself as Nora, hides Oscar from the Atlas soldiers and steals the Lamp. She then flees, making it past Oscar and Jaune with her agility and then Ren by playing with his feelings for Nora. Due to more interference from Atlas soldiers, she manages to escape.

Neo later meets up with Cinder, gives her the Relic of Knowledge and seems annoyed at Cinder for taking it without a single word.

Soon after this, Neo and Cinder acquire a Manta airship and make their way to Monstra to meet up with Salem inside the whale. En route to the Grimm, Cinder is reminded of a memory of her past, prompting her to nervously scratch at the airship's chair, clawing at the seat. When the two arrive, Cinder gives the Relic of Knowledge to Salem and takes full credit for retrieving it, much to Neo's annoyance.

Tyrian soon arrives taunting the two, causing a small argument between him and Cinder which soon interrupted when Cinder introduces Neo to Salem, referring to her as an asset, which once again irritates Neo. Soon after, Emerald, Mercury, and Hazel arrive. Emerald is delighted to see Cinder, but Cinder harshly shuts her down. When Cinder declares that she will take the Winter Maiden power from Penny Polendina, Salem stops her, and to Cinder's dismay reminds her that while she's more valuable than a "pawn", she is not to act without Salem's orders. Cinder backs down, telling Salem that without her she is nothing, and makes her leave with the rest of Salem's group as their master summons a Grimm to track down Oscar Pine.

Neo and Cinder are encountered by Salem. Cinder bows before her queen, formally addressing her as "your grace." Cinder notices the Hound standing beside her master, prompting the Fall Maiden to nervously asks what it is. Salem tells her subordinate it's an experiment, the immortal woman asks what Cinder needs of her. Cinder requests that Salem should allow her in locating the Winter Maiden. Salem immediately denies Cinder's request and sarcastically talks to her pet, telling it of Cinder's thoughts and wants. Cinder scolds her master, saying without the powers of the Maiden, the Vault is inaccessible to them, and they are doing absolutely nothing to progress their victory. Salem coldly tells Cinder to as she says, Cinder tries to make a rebuttal, but the Hound roars at the Maiden, shutting down any further arguments. Salem tells Cinder to know her place, and she reluctantly agrees. Repeating the phrase, "without you, I am nothing."

After Salem and Cinder go their separate ways, Cinder rants to Neo, claiming Salem doesn't know of the capabilities Ruby and her friends have. She tells Neo they won't be gone for too long, they're only going to check on something. Cinder then says her enemies wouldn't abandon their ill-guided attempts at saving the world. Neo in turn, due her growing discontent for their "partnership" was shown to refuse to assist Cinder any further. Later Emerald would reveals herself and offers to help the two. Claiming she's been working on her semblance and promises not to tell Salem or anyone. Cinder, in response, angrily demands to know how much she overheard.

Neo, Cinder, and Emerald travel to Amity Colosseum, attempting to sabotage Penny, Maria, and Pietro, and to steal the Winter Maiden powers. As the colosseum is launched into the atmosphere, Cinder exclaims, she wished Penny's friends were with her. She taunts the robotic girl, saying she is just a tool to be used. Penny shouts back at Cinder, telling the Fall Maiden she doesn't know what she's talking about. Cinder proceeds to summon a barrage of black glass swords at Penny. Penny, however, summons her swords, and deflects the projectiles. The swords begin to overwhelm Penny, backing her into a wall. Luckily for her, Maria comes to her aid, and uses the mech she's piloting to shield the girl from the attack. Maria scream at Cinder, telling the woman to get away from her. Maria's sentence is cut short, as Neo rams the aircraft into Maria.

Maria wrestles with the aircraft and pins it to the arena floor. However, Neo puts the aircraft in reverse, releasing her from Maria's grasp. Emerald assists Neo by using her semblance on Maria. The aircraft rams into Maria's mech, rendering it useless. Neo opens the mech's hatch, Calavara impatiently asks what the mute girls wants, and the girl shape-shifts into Ruby. Still in her Ruby disguise, proceeds to attack Maria, but the elderly woman proves to be more than a match for her. Despite being younger and taller than Maria. Maria blocks, dodges, parries, and counters Neo's attacks. Neo becomes increasing irritated with her opponent and allowing her to be more open for attacks. As the fighting progresses, Penny is sent flying to the floor of the coliseum, and Maria abruptly stops fighting Neo to check on Penny. Neo sees the opportunity and knocks Maria away from Penny. Neo, embarrassed, and frustrated draws her blade from Hush. However, Off-screen, Penny's energy beam hits Neo, causing the mute to slam into the airship, and depleting her aura.

Right after Cinder's defeat, Emerald demands Neo get them out of there, to which the mute girl gives an angry glare, and pilots the ship back to Salem.

On the bridge, Neopolitan and the rest of Salem's subordinates are present. They learn of Watts' activity and witness Salem punishing Cinder. Cinder is given the task of freeing Watts and locating the Winter Maiden. As the Grimm destroy Atlas' outer defenses, Neo and the rest watch as Monstra touches down on the fields and regurgitate a pool of Grimm.

Later, she uses her Semblance to discreetly watch Oscar call forth Jinn from the Lamp, along with Hazel planning to help Oscar and Emerald escape. After the three leave, Neo deactivates her Semblance, making herself fully visible, and moves toward the Lamp.

Upon Salem finding Emerald escorting Oscar and Yang's Group to the Monstra's exit, Salem revealed that the Lamp has gone missing from her vault, confirming that Neo had taken it for herself.

After Oscar uses the Long Memory to destroy Monstra, Neo skips away from the corpse carrying the Lamp, disappearing into the cloud of debris and dust. Not long after, she sends Cinder a text, remarking that Cinder won't survive unless she has the Lamp to give back to Salem. Having learned Jinn's name from her earlier eavesdropping, Neo adds that, if Cinder wants the password for the lamp, she knows what she owes Neo: the opportunity to kill Ruby.

Later, Neo meets up with Cinder and Watts on the streets of Atlas.

After meeting with Cinder and Watts, Cinder apologizes to Neo for not up holding her end of her deal and help kill Ruby. Neo hands the Relic of Knowledge over to Cinder allowing Cinder to ask the final question and learn the heroes' plan. Neo would take part in the attack on the Atlas command center, seen kicking a stunned worker in the head, knocking them out. She would later be in the Central Location attempting to sneak up and stab Ruby in the back whilst she was distracted with Cinder's attack however Yang would see Neo deactivating her Semblance and jump in the way of Neo's attack causing Yang to fall into the void. Neo annoyed she hit the wrong target continues her attack on Ruby and has to fight off an enraged Blake at the same time though Blake stops and has to make a choice of helping Ruby against Neo or Penny and Weiss against Cinder. Neo is seen later carrying on her fight with Ruby and is batted by Weiss with the Staff of Creation through a portal though returns and knocks Ruby to a lower platform, picking up the Staff of Creation. Ruby fakes Neo out and uses her Semblance to get behind Neo and knock her off. As Ruby attempts to pick up the Staff she is blasted off by Cinder, Neo who is gripping to the edge of the platform with one hand, looks down as Ruby grabs onto her leg. Cinder takes the Relic of Knowledge from Neo's belt and proceeds to drive the bottom end of the Staff into Neo's fingers knocking her into the void.

While falling in the void, Neo once again attempts to kill Ruby by trying to strangle her. During the assault, Neo would transform into Oscar Pine, Yang Xiao Long and even Penny Polendina in an attempt to psychologically hurt Ruby as she tried to kill her. Eventually, Ruby fended her off and the both of them would end up landing in different acres in the Ever After.

Neo in particular would end up in the Darkness Acre of the Ever After, where she would fall and crash into as a pink comet. After getting up and getting her bearings, Neo angrily vented her frustration, hatred and contempt for both Cinder Fall and Ruby by uncontrollably transforming into the both of them, due to the first betraying her and the second for once again surviving her attempt on her life.

Neo would soon be approached by the Jabberwalker, who saw her descent into the world. However, her strong emotions caused her mutant ability to evolve, developing the new ability to create multiple physical clone-copies of herself. Surprised by her new ability, Neo tested her new power by having them gang up and attack the creature.

Sometime after this, Neo would use her mutation's new power to create a clone of the Jabberwalker, having them attack Team RWBY in the Mushroom Acre as they gathered ingredients to make a Growgurt Parfait. After destroying the clone and realizing it was the work of Neo, Team RWBY were soon surrounded by more Jabberwalker clones, forcing the team to flee.

Neo would later send more of her Jabberwalker clones to track down Jaune and Team RWBY, eventually making their way to the Origami Acre. The clones would then attack the Paper Pleasers Village, where Jaune and RWBY would intercept them. During this fight, one of the Jabberwalkers would come close to devouring Ruby, this clone would later transform into Neo and she would gesture a gun pointed at Ruby, fully showcasing how she was her target.

After Ruby had run away upset from the rest of her friends, Neo finally made her move. Using her Semblance and displaying power she never had before, Neo constructed a stage for her revenge against Ruby. Conjuring a replica of her childhood home, the Vanile Manor, complete with working lights, furniture and portraits of the most important moments in her life, Neo successfully lured Ruby into her trap.

Using her mutant ability, Neo created a highly realistic clone of Roman, who then served as her main “voice” that she used to communicate with Ruby in regards to her reasons for why she hates her. She would later reveal that she had also created clones of Penny Polendina, Pyrrha Nikos, Leonardo Lionheart, James Ironwood, Ozpin and Clover Ebi. All people who Ruby had failed to save in Remnant, all people, from a certain perspective, could be said to have died because of Ruby and her choices. Using Roman, Neo describe her desire to see Ruby completely broken and wiped from existence, planning to have her drink a cup of tea created from a leaf of the Great Tree and force Ruby to go through Ascension. Using these Clones, Neo delightfully described about how she will enjoy watching her break.

Using these Clones, Neo had them begin viciously attacking Ruby while taunting her about her failures and about how they all died because of her. Slowly overpowering Ruby and quickly whittling away her psyche as she begins becoming overwhelmed by guilt. As shown where Ruby was first taunted by her failure to save Pyrrha, followed by her failure to save Penny and allowing her to die twice, then by Ironwood, who berated her on her reckless plan to save Atlas and finally by Ozpin, who had begun viciously beating her using his cane on Neo’s command while screaming at her to realize that she is not cut out to save anyone. Trying to defend herself, Ruby attempted to destroy Ozpin’s clone, only for it to transform into Oscar, who Neo then made to look like Ruby had slashed him bloody to death. Taunting Ruby further, Neo transformed her other clones to look like Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Nora, Ren and Qrow looking at Ruby with horrified/judgmental disgust for her actions, Finally beginning to break her spirit as Ruby collapsed while hyperventilating and crying as Neo smugly approached her and offered her the tea.

However before Ruby could drink the tea, Neo would be blasted away by the Curious Cat, making a hole through Neo’s construct and throwing her outside. During this brief window of time, the cat would then try to possess the mentally broken Ruby. Unwilling to allow her long awaited revenge be disturbed by an unwanted guest, Neo immediately went back in to stop the Cat. Using her mutation to distract them, Neo snuck up behind the cat and struck them away using Hush. And upon noticing Little’s attempt to help Ruby, Neo proceeded to stomp them to death, finally mentally destroying Ruby’s spirit.

Neo would then watch as Ruby drink the tea just as her friends arrived on the scene. As Ruby was soon swallowed into a hole in the ground by the roots of the Great Tree. While initially bringing her the satisfaction she desired, Neo would go through her own crisis. Just as she accomplished her revenge, Neo came to the realization that she had nothing else to do, to live for. Her construct of Roman was initially delighted at their success and quickly recommended Neo to use her mutation to take over the Ever After, but Neo quickly brushed this off as she didn’t want that, causing her to have a existential crisis due to realizing that without her desire and goal of revenge against Ruby for Roman’s death, Neo had nothing else.

This realization caused Neo to enter into a state of shock as she numbly stared into space as her constructs crumbled around her, completely ignoring everything happening around her in a catatonic daze.

The Curious Cat soon returned to the scene, horrified that their ideal host had Ascended. Angry at Jaune for his continued obliviousness about the Tree's true nature, they soon noticed the broken Neo, delighting the Cat due to finding a new host. Blasting Jaune and his friends away, the cat transformed into a new and more menancing form as it pounced on the still broken and defenseless Neo.

Upon cornering her, the cat taunted Neo about how she lost something important and of how she was now empty and hollow without it, an ideal host for them to fill. Forcibly prying open Neo’s mouth, the Cat began to forcibly enter into Neo’s body.

The cat, now possessing Neo’s body, delighted in their new form as they quickly made use of Neo’s semblance alongside their own powers to escape the scene and make their way to the Great Tree to finally escape the Ever After.

Upon becoming possessed and NeoCat making their way to the Great Tree and to the door to Remnant, the Curious Cat would be surprised and enraged to learn that despite possessing a human body, they were still unable to crossover.

Trying numerous times to pass through the door and being continously repelled, the Cat would soon realize that the problem was Neo herself. Neo no longer had any attachments in Remnant, nothing and no one to return to, resulting in her not being able to pass through the door and thus preventing the Cat from escaping from the Ever After.

After Jaune, Blake, Weiss and Yang’s arrival in the Tree, NeoCat would end up engaging them in battle after they noticed Ruby was going through Ascension, with the cat intent on abandoning Neo as its host and taking Ruby as originally planned to finally leave due to Ruby having strong attachments to Remnant, unlike Neo.

The Cat would then continue using Neo’s body and Semblance to engage Yang, Blake, Jaune and Weiss. However, after the Huntmen burned the tree's leaves, the smoke reawakened Neo whose rush of emotions and memories overwhelmed the Cat and caused it to excorcize itself from Neo as it couldn't handle the full weight of her pain and regrets.

Following Team RWBY successfully defeating the Cat, Neo finished it off with her Jabberwalker clones in vengeance for possessing her.

Following the defeat of the Curious Cat, Neo, seeing that Ruby with her spirit and self confidence restored and upon seeing that she has friends while she had no one, realized that vengeance wouldn’t make her happy, nor fill the emptiness in her heart. The Roman clone asked if this is it and decided to let go of Roman and the clone acknowledges he’s not real and disappears. With a friendly bow to her former enemies, Neo jumped into the Great Tree to undergo Ascension into something new. Neo's wooden form appeared on the tree before Ruby and her friends passed through the portal into the Blacksmith's workshop. When asked what would become of Neo, the Blacksmith stated that "she will have the chance to return her broken heart and become something new."

## Personality

Neo is a mute who cannot speak and as such communicates purely through body language, miming, or text messages. She has been mute since birth.

Neo is stated to be cruel, vicious, and sadistic, as seen in her smile as she prepares to stab Yang in "No Brakes", as well as in "Round One" when she proceeded to brutally stomp on her opponents face with a cruel smile despite him being physically unable to continue their match.  However, she does seem to exhibit fear and hesitance when she knows she is outmatched, fleeing if her opponent proves to be as such. This can be seen when Raven Branwen appears and engages her on the White Fang cargo train. She is rather perceptive and is able to recognize superior abilities to her own, despite her confidence. Neo is also seen to have a vengeful side by her attempt to kill Cinder Fall in "The Coming Storm" for her part in Roman Torchwick's death, only stopping when she reveals her Maiden powers.

Neo is highly determined when she sets her mind to a task, often dealing with any problems presented to her efficiently and competently. During her battle against Team JNPR, Neo took notice of Lie Ren's protectiveness of Nora Valkyrie and took advantage of that by transforming into her using her Semblance to make him hesitate. She also used Emerald Sustrai and Hazel Rainarts's escape as a cover to steal the Relic of Knowledge and skip away in the dust cloud created from Monstra's explosion.

Additionally, she is extremely ruthless, easily turning to murder as a means of achieving her goals and often doing so with a playful demeanor. In "Worthy", she alongside Cinder and Arthur Watts massacred the people stationed at the Atlas Command Center.

Neo possesses a desire to be validated whenever she accomplishes a task, as well as to be treated as an equal by a partner or superior. She was happy with working with Roman, as he often acknowledged her for completing a job. However, while working for Cinder, she was irritated by her lack of recognition or respect towards her. She was further angered when Cinder took the Relic of Knowledge from her without a word of gratitude and failed to give her credit for successfully stealing the Relic, as well as taking credit for her accomplishments to redeem herself before Salem. These actions eventually resulted in her going against Cinder's orders for her own wishes.

Neo was extremely loyal to Roman and very close with him. She willingly carried out his demands and he was the only one she did not show contempt towards. Likewise, Roman never got upset with Neo like he did with others, and they were very proficient in wordlessly coordinating attacks. Neo was shown to be devastated after his death, and wears Roman's hat in memory of him. She is solely driven by a need to exact revenge for what happened to him and has gone to near suicidal lengths to do so, including facing Cinder alone. Neo had a previously lonely life until she met Roman, and after his death her life returned to said state. This is illustrated by her disheveled appearance in "The Coming Storm".

Currently, Neo seems to take fights slightly more seriously becoming even more sadistic, cruel, and merciless then before. Previously, during her V2 fight with Yang, Neo toyed with her before knocking the girl unconscious and afterwards unsheathing Hush. Similarly, in her V3 fight against Ruby, Neo opted not to use her sword to fight, and later used it to threaten Ruby, which ultimately turned out to be her undoing when she used Hush to send her flying. Comparatively, in current fights, while she continues to mock her opponents, Neo uses her blade more frequently and is shown dispatching foes much more quickly and not dragging out finishing moves any longer than necessary.

In RWBY: Roman Holiday, it is shown that Neo was abused by her father and mother for not being the perfect child, due to her inability to speak, heterochromia, and unruly behavior. She had an imaginary friend named "Neopolitan", who she subconsciously used as a scapegoat to take the blame for her own rebellious desires that she had externalized. This was due to her parents simultaneously punishing her for her wants while not taking them seriously, as well as her loneliness and desire to be free—"Neopolitan" was everything Trivia had wanted to be.

Eventually, Trivia realizes that "Neopolitan" was an externalization of her own desires—that she and "Neopolitan" were one and the same. All the violently lashing out at those who wronged her, rule-breaking and illegal activities, taunting, freedom and danger "Neopolitan" had pursued was just what Trivia had wanted, but felt she wasn't allowed to after a series of events—including her introducing herself as Neopolitan rather than Trivia to Roman, which she felt was "right" and gave her "a fresh start", with the metaphorical final straw being her mother physically shattering the illusion of "Neopolitan" conjured by Overactive Imagination in front of Trivia. When Trivia takes on her new identity and name as Neopolitan, she viciously and fervently enforces her own wants and whims in contradiction to how long she'd been forced to repress them. Similarly, she takes great pride in herself and cares little of how other people perceive or feel about her, in contrast to how her parents had insisted their image mattered more than anything else, including Neo's desires.

At the end of Roman Holiday, during the fight at the Vanille Estate involving Neo, Roman Torchwick, Senior Xiong, and Lil' Miss Malachite, Neo makes a split-second decision to trick Lil' Miss into triggering a Dust explosion on the third floor in order to escape the fight, though the explosion ends up unintentionally killing her father and she suspects also her mother. This is Neo's first experience with the death of someone known to her, uncertain of how to react and feeling that it didn't affect her, although she gains her iconic white stripes in her hair at this time, indicating she is impacted by their deaths no matter what she thinks. Her inability to legitimately process her parents' deaths is indicative of her larger inability to handle grief, as further shown by her single-minded revenge driven handling of Roman's death.

In “Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble”, after she finally gets her revenge on Ruby by driving her to ascend in the Ever After, she becomes a broken and emotionless person herself as she realized she only wanted revenge, not to conquer the Ever After, and now that she achieved it, she had nothing. She became so broken that the Curious Cat was able to take over her body to fulfill their own agenda.

In “Of Solitude and Self”, Neo was released from the Curious Cat’s control and upon being exposed to the smoke of the Great Tree’s leaves, Neo was shown to have gone through significant emotional growth, as she eventually realized that vengeance wouldn’t make her happy, nor fill the emptiness in her heart and would only leave her with nothing. The entire experience in the Ever After caused Neo to finally let go of the past, by letting go of Roman and accept his death, as instead of trying to continue attacking Ruby or her friends, she decided to go through Ascension in order to find herself and become something new.

## Powers and Abilities

In "No Brakes", Neo proves herself to be a highly skilled combatant, able to defeat Yang in a one-on-one fight, seemingly playing with her opponent as she was able to defeat her without taking anything more than a glancing hit. Her fighting style is highly evasive, dodging, deflecting or maneuvering around her opponent's strikes until she has exhausted them, or is ready for a counterattack. Neo also displays incredible reflexes and speed, dodging several of Yang's attacks with ease, even when holding her umbrella in one hand.

This is further shown in "Heroes and Monsters" where she is easily able to keep up with and defeat Ruby almost single-handedly, and in her fight with Cinder in "The Coming Storm", with Neo taking two hits and delivering four back to Cinder in a mostly even fight, only backing down when Cinder resorted to the use of her Maiden Powers. Cinder also commented Neo had 'grown stronger'. An example of that was shown in "The Enemy of Trust" with despite being completely outnumbered by both Oscar and Team JNR, she easily evaded, parried and dodged their attacks and overpowered and outmaneuvered them with quick and powerful strikes while doing so in a joking manner, hinting that Neo herself was not taking them seriously and was toying with them during the majority of their battle.

Neo has also displayed herself to be very acrobatic and exceptionally skilled in hand-to-hand combat relying on her agility to dodge and misdirect enemy movements and attacks, before retaliating with her own kick-based attacks resembling Bartitsu with the way she blocks with her parasol, and Capoeira with her acrobatic kicks. She learned this as a student at Lady Browning’s Preparatory Academy for Girls, where they had a secret program for training chosen students to be assassins with a wide variety of classes in fencing, self-defense, and escape artistry. Neo excelled in all these classes and even trained under a rogue Huntress, her skills reaching the point that she could stand up against the Malachite sisters when they tried to stop her from escaping the academy.

However, Neo has also been shown to immediately back out of a fight she knows she can't win. She instantly retreated upon seeing Raven in "No Brakes" and stopped attacking Cinder in "The Coming Storm" when she activated her Maiden powers, despite instigating the fight in the first place. It also appears that she has more difficulty against opponents equipped with a melee weapon, as opposed to barehanded fighters; she easily bested Yang in "No Brakes" but had a more even contest against Ruby in "Heroes and Monsters" until Roman arrived to reinforce her. During her fight with Cinder in "The Coming Storm", Neo initially held the initiative, but Cinder gradually gained the advantage once she equipped herself with dual swords. During her duel with Maria Calavera, Neo was consistently outmatched until Maria became distracted. When she faced Ruby again in "Worthy" and "The Final Word", she held the initiative, but fell for Ruby's attempt to goad her, lashing out in anger that enabled Ruby to get the better of her.

While using her weapon in sword form, Neo has displayed a sword style similar to Victorian Age fencing, as seen during her battle against Team JNPR and Oscar, where Neo held one of her hands behind her back as she made several swift sword stabs, jabs and swipes at her opponents. Notably, during her first few appearances, Neo never used Hush's blade to fight, only to down fallen opponents like Yang. Later, she is seen using it once, for a split second against Cinder and afterwards begins employing it regularly in fights.

By Volume 8, Neo's combat skills become powerful enough that she could easily fight multiple skilled opponents simultaneously. In "Worthy", she was able to fight against both Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna and largely keep them on the defensive.

Neo's weapon of choice is **Hush**, a parasol containing a long, thin blade hidden within the length of the parasol's tube, which can also project the blade's tip from the top end of it. The canopy of the parasol is made of an extremely dense, durable fabric that can repel minor Dust explosions, allowing Neo to use it as a shield or a glider. Unlike many of the weapons shown in *RWBY*, Hush does not appear to contain a concealed firearm or projectile weapon, therefore it can only be used for close quarters fighting.

Neo's mutant ability, **Overactive Imagination**, allows her to create "physical illusions that can be seen by everyone", as opposed to Emerald's Hallucinations, which usually only affect the person(s) she targets. These illusions are highly convincing and shatter like glass when she dispels them, or someone breaks them. Her most apparent use of them is creating illusions around her body, either to disguise herself or for her opponent to target while she escapes or moves unseen to another point of attack. They also seem to be somewhat resilient to damage. While fighting Cinder, the illusion concealing Neo’s outfit was not dispelled even after taking or landing some hits. This was revised however in Volume 7, as her disguise was dispelled upon receiving a punch from Oscar. Additionally, in later volumes, she has learned to use her mutant ability for psychological manipulation, exploiting the appearance of close friends and families in her enemies to torment and overpower them.

In "Our Way", Neo displayed her new mastery over her mutation, where she managed to completely disguise an entire Mistral Airship to physically resemble an Atlas one, implying that she could maintain the facade long enough to fool the Atlas Military and cross the continental border checkpoint into Atlas.

Neo also uses her mutant ability when communicating with others in lieu of her muteness, as seen in "Out in the Open" where she transformed into Ruby when arguing what to prioritize with Cinder.

Initially, unlike Emerald's hallucinations, Neo's illusions did not affect a person's hearing, as she was not able to mimic sound or voices; thus, if she was disguised and someone tried to talk to her, her muteness might give her away. Before her time in the Ever After, her illusions also seemed to be limited in their range; they typically only covered Neo herself, and either a short distance around her or something she was touching, such as the Mistral airship that she disguised as an Atlesian Airship in "Our Way". However, as seen in her battles against Yang, Ruby and Cinder, she *can* maintain an illusion after moving away- until something makes contact with it, after which the illusion will shatter.

As shown in "Witch", Neo herself has showcased the ability to create a camouflage illusion across her entire body in order to hide in plain sight. She altered her physical appearance, completely blending in with the dark crimson colors of Monstra's walls. Doing so, Neo was able to observe Oscar, Emerald, and Hazel accessing the Relic of Knowledge.

In “Rude, Red, and Royal”, Neo’s mutation evolved further, where she now has the ability to make multiple copies of herself. These clones are semi-autonomous, able to either copy movements of Neo or perform commands given by her. She can also control them at will and the clones themselves retain the ability physically attack others, such as the Jabberwalker.

In “The Parfait Predicament”, it is shown that she can create clones of other beings as well, such as the Jabberwalker, and can even have them mimic the speech and voice of the original.

As seen in “The Perils of Paper Houses“, her Semblance can seemingly replicate another being to the point of copying their unique abilities. This is implied when the Jabberwalker clones attempted to devour Ruby, suggesting that the clones also possess the original’s ability to permanently kill a Afteran by eating them. Though this is currently unconfirmed.

In "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble", Neo created clones of Penny Polendina, Pyrrha Nikos, Ozpin, Leonardo Lionheart, Clover Ebi, James Ironwood, Oscar Pine and Roman Torchwick. Her clones were able to perfectly replicate their voice, facial expressions and even to a degree, their personalities and fighting styles. She could also construct complex constructs such as appliances and even entire buildings, having replicated a copy of the Vanille Manor, complete with functioning lights and furniture and portraits of her memories. She could even create functioning weapons using her mutant ability, as shown where she recreated Miló and Akoúo̱, Floating Array, The Long Memory, Stalwart, Melodic Cudgel, Due Process, had Milo and Akouo, Due Process, Melodic Cudgel and Stalwart fire rounds, and Milo and Akouo change forms.

Furthermore, as implied in "The Perils of Paper Houses", Neo could project her psyche through her construct. As first shown where she remotely transformed one of her Jabberwalker clones into herself to send Ruby a message of her targeting her.

Neo's power is shown at its strongest when she has her final confrontation with Ruby in "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble": she creates a massive mansion for Ruby to walk in, hosting a tea party of sorts with fallen comrades of Ruby. Her projections have enough autonomy to speak, fight and even bleed. They speak in Neo's stead, acting as a way for her to verbally communicate what she hates about Ruby and how she has personally failed them, all which quickly break Ruby's spirit.

Neo herself proves to be a competent getaway driver and a highly skilled infiltrator, as shown in "Beginning of the End", where she, disguised as a paramedic, drives Cinder, Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai away to an unknown location in an Air Bus after they initiate their plan to frame Yang.

This has been proven to be one of Neo's greatest talents, as she showed that combined with her Semblance, she could easily infiltrate military compounds no matter how well guarded or secure they are. One of the best examples is when she is shown walking through an airship full of Atlesian soldiers she presumably killed to free Roman and later Neo again shows her skills in infiltration and hijacking, when she manages to easily acquire a Mistral airship after presumably infiltrating a Mistral air base to steal it without being detected or noticed by the Kingdom's military or officials. Later she showcased that she could even easily infiltrate the highly secured Atlas Academy and later escape from it with no one noticing her at all and managed to again hijack and steal an Atlesian Manta.

Neo has displayed a high level of cunning and skill in acting when using her Semblance, as seen when she observes and notices the close relationship between Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie and is able to use it to emotionally manipulate Ren into giving her an opening to attack and escape. The after her Semblance evolved, Neo’s ability to psychologically manipulate others using her Semblance has also increased, as shown where she was able to make her clones of Penny, Pyrrha, Ironwood, Ozpin and Oscar act, behave and sound like the originals to the point that they were able to effectively illicit emotional anguish from Ruby. Neo also showcased the ability to make her clones of Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Nora and Ren behave similary realistic.

With the aid of her Semblance, Neo is shown to have expertise in pickpocketing, as she is easily able to steal the Relic of Knowledge off of Oscar without him knowing until it is too late.

Although Neo is an exceptionally skilled melee fighter, she has a habit of dropping her guard when she decisively gains the upper hand, either out of smugness or anger; this sometimes allows opponents to make a successful counterattack. Examples include her gloating after defeating Yang in "No Brakes" and Ruby in "Heroes and Monsters"; in both cases, this gave her opponents (Raven and Ruby) time to turn the tables on her. In "The Final Word", after Neo disarms Ruby, Ruby provokes her anger over Torchwick's death, causing Neo to impulsively attack and fall straight into Ruby's trap. In "Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble", when Neo has Ruby at her mercy, she leaves herself open to a surprise attack from the Curious Cat, temporarily disrupting her attack on Ruby.