Hundred's of flying Grimm screeched and swooped as black smoke spewed out of the buildings that surrounded Beacon Academy. Atlas fighters maneuvered in and around the huge flocks that had covered the sky in darkness, trying to take back control of the skies that hours ago was infested so enough Grimm to block out the sun. Central command had only fully taken back control of their hijacked cruisers and were finally mounting a respectable offensive. Even though the hijack of their ships lasted for barely half an hour, it was enough time for the almost endless stream of Grimm to take control, sending the people of Vale into a frenzy of fear and panic.

In the middle of these chaotic skies was a a lone figure, clad in a clashing outfit of pink, white and brown, struggling as she slowly floated down while holding on to her umbrella. Both laughing and cursing at herself for giving letting her opponent catch her off guard, she skilfully evaded the flying Grimm around her as she gently brought herself down back towards the ground. She looked back and saw, to her dismay, the Atlas cruiser she was on disintegrate. Like a rock it fell back down to Remnant, explosions rocking it all the way down. She gritted her teeth upon seeing a red-hooded figure pogo-shoot her own way back down, with no signs of her own partner making it out of their former predicament.

As the skies slowly cleared and she got closer to the ground, she grabbed on the the highest tree branch within her reach and perched herself on top. Surveying the area around her, she figured that she was in a forest of some sort near the outskirts of Vale. The cruiser they were on crashed a couple of miles to the west, towards the direction of the school. She could still see the flames coming from its direction, though she didn't know if it was the ship or the city of Vale itself burning to ground. She hoped it was the later, not simply because she somewhat relished the thought of Vale's destruction, but also because it meant a higher chance of her partner surviving. Undaunted, she leapt down and made her way towards the wreck.

Taking the guise of a local police officer, she entered the north east suburbs of Vale. She trekked towards the chaos while the rest of the populace ran in terror in the opposite direction. Around her were hundreds of Grimm engaged with hundreds of Atlas mechs, with the occasional huntsman assisting. She decided to avoid fighting either human, Faunus or even Grimm to avoid putting attention on herself, but all the while she resisted the urge to strike the huntsmen she saw down. Even though her goal was to reach the wreck of the Atlas cruiser, her impulse to test herself against the best huntsmen she could find was almost irresistible. She could feel herself smirk every time she felt like she had an opening to strike one down, but in the end she chose not too. Not right now at least.

The buildings were already crumbling as she made herself through the wide streets outside Vale's metropolitan core. Grimm had already made their way almost in every street and alley in Vale, courtesy of a what was the first large scale invasion of a major city in perhaps a hundred years. She couldn't help but smile at herself for what she had helped achieve. All this mayhem, all this chaos, all this terror in the eyes of Vale's citizens, she had helped bring it all out. She was, in a word, proud. For what it was worth, they had succeeded, but she still had to find her partner if they were to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

As she made her way ever so closer to the wreck of the cruiser, she eventually managed to see clearer the remains of Beacon's central tower, now all but a wreck pointing itself to the sky. She was slightly shocked as she saw the outline of the giant Grimm they had summoned perched as if frozen on the very top. Half a dozen Bullheads buzzed around the tower's immediate vicinity, apparently trying to make sense of what had just happened. She too was puzzled at what kind of enormous power could stop it dead in its tracks, a beast so massive and powerful that Cinder had mentioned on occasion that it would be the harbinger of Beacon's destruction. All that remained of it was a silhouette, stopped in time on the very structure it was supposed to destroy. She felt herself worry even more as to the fate of their plan, and the fate of her partner.

The buildings of north west Vale that started out as rows of houses eventually gave way to high rises. As the smell of salt in the air began to enter her nose, she realized she was getting close to the western coast of the city. Her mind raced through the possible locations of the wreck, already mortified at the idea that the wreck might have crashed into the sea. As she thought of her contingencies should the wreck be in the water, she eventually found herself just beyond a small, fenced off clearing littered with tents. On one end of the clearing was a makeshift landing pad where a couple of Bullheads were taxied. Another Bullhead had just landed with medical crew carting off almost a dozen wounded people into the tents. She figured that this was a field hospital for the victims of the Grimm invasion. She became elated at the prospect that, perhaps, her partner might have been rescued and brought here. Even though everyone by now knew who he was, the medical teams wouldn't deny him medical care if he was injured. Realizing that this was the best place to look for him, she headed inside.

Now disguised as a nurse, she made her way into the tents. They were full of people in varying states of injury. Some had limbs ripped or cut off. In another tent people had various stab wounds and other penetrating injuries. One tent in fact was a makeshift morgue, full of corpses covered in white sheets and their corresponding friends and relatives wailing in agony. In the one closest to the surgical tent she saw a familiar face: A young sleeping blonde, now missing her right arm. She suppressed the urge to laugh as she watched the blonde's stump of a right arm slowly get soaked with blood. She knew this person wasn't worth her time now, as she would no longer be a cause for concern without her trusted gauntlets.

In another tent, however, was someone who made her blood boil. A red cloaked girl was also sleeping comfortably on her bed in one corner of the tent. She felt a surge of anger and hatred swell inside her at the very thought that this girl had made it out alive, while her partner was still missing. Within her reach, she grabbed a scalpel. She gripped it tightly in her hand as she approached the sleeping girl. She stood at her bedside, scalpel in hand, and once making sure that the tent was empty of medical personel, she brought her hand above the young girl's face.

"We've found the wreck!"

A mere second before she would have brought her hand down with the full weight of her body, a shout emerged from outside. Putting the scalpel on the bedside table, she went outside and overheard the words of the rescue teams about an Atlas cruiser that had crashed just a few miles to the north, along the coast. She knew immediately this was the wreck she was looking for. Hurrying into the rescue team's tent she quickly disguised herself into a field medic and hopped aboard the Bullhead headed for the wreck alongside other rescue teams.

It took a few minutes for them to reach the crashed cruiser. It was, quite literally, a wreck. The cruiser was broken apart in three places with flames emanating from almost every hole and tear. Fire crews doused the flames with sea water in an almost futile attempt to put them out. The periphery of the vessel was littered with dead Grimm and broken mechs. There were no signs of life as rescue crews pulled out body after body, all of them dead. She inspected every corpse to come out of the vessel, and none of them were her partner's. Eventually no more bodies were pulled out, yet she could not enter the vessel itself as the flames still burned heavily, the cruiser's plentiful Dust stores feeding the raging fires.

She had one choice. She jumped up on the wreckage and made her way onto the deck, the very same place where she and her partner fought that red-hooded girl mere hours ago. Near the command tower was a decaying corpse of a large Grimm. In front of the Grimm's corpse was a sight that widened her eyes. There, stuck upright on the deck, was a cane with a black bowler hat hanging on top. The hat and cane were pristine and clean unlike the rest of the ship and its remains. It stood proudly on the deck, surrounding by the remains of all the Grimm and mechs.

Smiling, she took the bowler hat and put it on her head. She took the cane and strutted towards the far end of the deck like she was dancing. He eyes changes to dark green. She looked towards the the starry horizon to the west.

He was alive. She knew it.

Author's Notes:

I distinctly remember reading somewhere that Roman was confirmed dead by... someone? Probably just hearsay, then again, one doesn't exactly just escape from a Grimm's stomach, bowler hat and all. I'm more akin to believe that he's not exactly dead, probably something like a 50/50 possibility.

On the other hand I wasn't expecting to write a Neo bit for this, but the idea popped up while I was at work and I ended up exploring what exactly she'd end up doing during the entire chaos after being... Mary Poppins'd out of the finale.