It's a cold, down-pouring night in Mistral.

If you looked up, you wouldn't be able to see the moon or the stars. Nothing but the cold blackness of the night. It was all covered up by the unseen, raining clouds of the night.

In the busy streets of the city, people scattered around. It was a bit of a controlled chaos. In this chaos, it was very easy to get away with a lot of things you usually couldn't.

Enter, Roman Torchwick. 17.

A ginger teenager walking in the pouring rain, chuckling to himself. He had just managed to pickpocket some rich-looking guy off the corner, and just by looking at his wallet, he definitely was better off than most people.

"Alright... this oughta last me a good week or two!" He said to himself. The teen was in a drenching black T-shirt, as well as black dress pants. The rain illuminated his excited, green eyes.

He looked around, laughing at everything that was going on around him. Humans truly were just animals. Everyone fighting with each other to try to get to shelter. Fighting over umbrellas. Fighting over plenty of things. Just to get out of a little bit of water. It was pathetic.

"NOW GET OUT AND LEARN YER PLACE, STREET RAT!"

Roman turned his head towards the man that had yelled. He was the owner of a bar, and he had just shoved a girl out. She looked to be a little young. No younger than 14. The man continued yelling at the girl, and Roman grimaced.

"Ugh. C'mon, she's a kid." Roman sighed and watched. It was odd cause no one else was really watching it. She was probably just looking for shelter, since she looked worse for wear than he did. Roman walked up to the two and put his hands on the girls shoulders.

"So, SO sorry about whatever my lover here did, sir. She's been feeling a bit ill lately, and you know, with the rain and everything. I'm sure ya get it. Be seein' you." Roman then lead the girl away and sighed.

"Whatever you did, wasn't very smart. What happened back there?" Roman looked at her with a bit of an annoyed face, though admittedly he was worried. He kept checking the skin that he could see on her to make sure there were no bruises.

The girl was a pure brunette. Textbook, long brown hair, with brown eyes. She was really short for her age, which he was still sure was probably about 14. Though she looked afraid. Before Roman could say anything else, she had run off.

Roman sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Guess that's that, then. Hope she'll be alright."

The next morning...

Roman awoke on a sidewalk bench, still in the city he was in before. It was still raining about as hard as it had been the night before. Roman held his head up and closed his eyes, letting the rain fall on his face. It admittedly felt really refreshing after just waking up.

Soon enough he got up. The environment was much more controlled than it had been last night, so he wasn't weaving through people every second. Before he fell asleep last night, he had managed to pick pocket a few more suckers, so he now had enough money to last him at least a month.

Though in the now peaceful city, as fate would have it, he ran into the girl from last night. She simply laid on the sidewalk, drenched and asleep. Hopefully asleep, at least. Roman ran a hand through his hair and stared at her until hr was sure she was breathing. He then nodded and left for a moment.

As he was gone, he had bought an umbrella. A brown and pink one. Not too stylish, but it was the last one available. He opened it up as he then bought ice cream from the nearest vendor. A scoop of vanilla, a scoop of chocolate, and a scoop of strawberry. Neapolitan.

He then went over to the girl and gently poked her with the umbrella. "Wakey wakey, kid. It's morning."

The girl slowly woke up. Though when she saw Roman, her eyes widened and she looked worried. Roman chuckled and shook his head.

"C'mon, I'm not completely heartless. Here. I got ya something." He then handed her both the ice cream and the umbrella. She looked at him in awe, but didn't take it.

"Jeez. Not very talkative, are ya? C'mon, I bought them for you. Least you could do is take them." The girl then nodded her head and took the ice cream and umbrella. She held the umbrella over her head as she ate the ice cream and now walked beside Roman.

"So. Got a name?" The girl shrugged and shook her head, still innocently eating her ice cream.

"Parents? Siblings?" Once more, she shrugged. Apparently not only did she not have a voice, but she didn't know anything about herself. Either that or she couldn't explain it voiceless. Roman nodded and kept walking.

The girl finished up her ice cream and offered Roman some space under the umbrella. Roman declined and instead talked some more. "Not too sure why I'm being 'nice' to you. I just hate seeing youth wasted on the streets like they're nothing, y'know? I'm sure you could become something great."

Upon hearing this, the girl beamed and hugged Roman. Roman froze and didn't hug back, instead he patted her head. "Heh. Yeah... anyway. Why don't you hang around me for a bit? We could take care of each other."

The girl stepped in front of Roman and smiled more, before suddenly changing her appearence. Her hair was now half brown, half pink. Her left eye was pink, and her right was brown. She had changed herself to be like what Roman had done for her. He assumed that was a yes and chuckled.

"That's your semblance? Cute, kid. Could come in handy." He then outstretched his hand to her. "Roman Torchwick's the name. Let's call you... Neo. It would be Nea, for Neapolitan, but Nea sounds kinda weird."

The girl, now "Neo", nodded her head. She then shook his hand. "Alright. Neo it is, then. Welcome aboard, my new partner in crime."

Present day

"Y'knoooow," Roman said, talking to himself, "the great thing about being absolutely isolated is that you really have a lot of time to reflect on your life. I have no regrets!"

As soon as Roman had stopped talking, the ship's alarms sounded. Roman was inside of a dark locker with a seat, and all he could do was sit. It was too cramped to lay down or anything. They even took his hat, so he couldn't flip it around. He had no entertainment. None, other than knowing Beacon, as well as the rest of Vale, would soon fall.

Soon enough, the locker opened. In front of him stood a beautiful, yet familiar flight attendant. Roman chuckled and leaned back a little, finally stretching his legs out. "About time, my beautiful partner in crime."

Roman then stepped out, and took his hat and cane away from Neo. He stood gracefully and cracked his neck. Afterwards, he laughed, and pet Neo's head.

"Alright, Neo. Get to the top of the plane. It's about time to get this party started!"

To be continued...