It's a me, SilentCelica. I'm... back. I wanted to write something clever or heartfelt or something of that nature here, but I really got nothing and I'm sure you all are ready for the next chapter after six months of hiatus. As always, I appreciate you all, and I hope you enjoy. Hope to be back again soon. ;)

Failure. It comes in countless forms and varies in both definition and significance from person to person. It could be something as minor as forgetting to call to make an appointment and something as major as the loss of a battle. I've been on a losing streak for quite some time now. The White Fang attack on the school, failing to stop Mercury any of the number of times that I've run into him, and now this oversight today. I thought that Emerald could handle it, I really did. And if not Emerald, she had back up in the form of Stratford and Siobhan. After a while, it can really start to wear on you. The first failure, sure, you try and bounce back from it. It was a fluke, we'll learn from it and do better next time! But after this many defeats, sometimes it can be difficult to remember to look up from the bottom. Sometimes, the escape isn't as far away as you think.

Hours Earlier

"Are you sure about this?" Glynda asked Coco as they looked out over the school grounds from the tower above, the sun setting slowly over the cliff where it would spend the next hour sinking into the ocean below. Coco removed her shades and set them on the desk, leaning forward and staring intensely at her sunglasses before sighing and shrugging. "It's alright to doubt yourself every now and then…"

"Every now and then would be one thing," Coco exclaimed. "But it feels like I question myself constantly these days. No matter what I do, or try, or how I look at things, or if I shake up my approach, these Children of Salem always stay one step ahead."

"So we should call off the expo tonight and reschedule?" Glynda questioned, helping her through her thought process.

"If we do that, we might as well wave the white flag now," Coco noted. "We just have to hope that Stratford, Siobhan, and Emerald are enough. And if we lose again, I guess it's just no different than moving the date. It's a horse apiece."

"You can still beat them, you know that, right?" Glynda asked.

"Can I?" Coco exhaled. "Most days it doesn't feel like it anymore." Glynda chuckled.

"Then it's all in your head," she assured the strategist. "They want you to doubt yourself, they know that's when you'll start making mistakes."

"But what if the council and the enemy are right?" Coco pondered. "Maybe I have lost my touch…"

"Mom!" Lamar shouted as the elevator opened and he raced to Coco. "Mom! Look at my new sunglasses! They look just like yours!"

"Lamar…" Coco stated as she crouched and rubbed her son's hair. "You look great."

"Glynda invited us here," Velvet said as she made her way over. "I thought that everything was going okay, and I know that you'll say it is, but Glynda was concerned, so we came over."

"I wanted to remind you why you're fighting," Glynda told her with a smile as Lamar raced to the window, wide-eyed and gasping. "After tonight I'm making you take two weeks off to help you remember why you fight. The council is not allowed to call you, I've already informed Ruby, and Harriet will take care of things here at the school."

"I…" Coco chuckled to hold back her tears but it was no use. "Thank you."

"Remember when you lose the battles, you haven't lost the war," Glynda told her. "You have to keep fighting. For these two at the very least."

"Mom! I can see the airships from here!" Lamar exclaimed. Coco laughed and smiled as she moved to him quickly and scooped him up. Glynda was right, she had to keep fighting.

Now

Coco slowed to almost a stop as she reached the prison, mass chaos was the order of the night, if she could call what she was looking at order, and she needed to help them put a stop to it, but something that she recognized caught her eye and she simply couldn't be pried from it. She slowly made her way to an officer who was lying on his back, mouth agape and eyes wide open, freshly killed, his skin white as snow… White as Salem.

It was a condition that she hadn't seen in such a long time that she had to search her mind to pair a name with it, but once she did, she was sure that he was walking free and that everything else going on could wait. It was someone that she had Alex help her put away when he was nothing more than a rookie and was taking notes on helping the council from her. A bounty hunter by the name of Boyd Holter. A man who was just as hell-bent on death and destruction as Salem had been. At the moment, however, she didn't even know where to begin looking for him…

It quickly dawned on her, staring at the dead cop at her feet, blood seeping from a wound that had to have been created by one of Boyd's familiars, as the man couldn't bear the thought of sullying his own hands. A shoe print in the blood, one that had no doubt come from the killer, and would have upset him to no end. It was one of the things that Alex had noticed about him early on that she hadn't, but she wasn't about to forget it now.

"Boyd almost seems to have an obsession with keeping his shoes free of blood," Alex had noted at the time scrawling it down on his memo pad. "He must keep an extra pair on him, as the bloodied shoes are always found discarded nearby, and we know he isn't walking around barefoot.

Coco knew he wouldn't have had spares to change into, and she had a good idea where he'd head for a new pair. A short jog into town took her down what she assumed was the same path that Boyd would have taken and she slipped into Flynt's store as people stood around outside on their scrolls talking about the power being out, and messaging loved ones on scrolls to make sure that they were okay. In the middle of the store was Boyd, unphased by everything that was happening, and contemplating if he was going to attempt to pay for his new kicks or simply leave with them amidst the chaos. Coco crept up behind him in the dark slowly, pressing her purse against his back and chuckling to herself.

"Give me a good reason that I shouldn't just beat the life of you here and now?" Coco asked him. He didn't look back, but she could feel his knowing smile as he cleared his throat.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of having you come after me personally, Adel?" He questioned. "I guess it is a small world after all, but I'm going to assume that Alexander isn't with you today… considering his untimely demise and what have you."

"Doesn't answer my question," she growled. He tsked and shook his head.

"So impatient these days," Boyd noted as he cracked his neck. "Do you really think that you can take me down without Officer Latherus here to assist you? I do recall you finding it particularly difficult in the past."

"You're right, I am impatient, but I've also grown a lot since then. Last chance to tell me why I shouldn't fill you with enough Dust to power the Kingdom of Vale," Coco warned. She smirked and revealed to him a hefty explosive device on her person, but he rolled his eyes, believing it to be no more than a desperate bluff.

"Do you think that you could kill me fast enough to keep me from summoning Akukonta and creating enough chaos to call in another pack of Grimm for your dwindling Huntsmen and Huntresses to have to deal with? Something invisible, attacking bystanders in the chaos of the dark, now that seems like the perfect recipe for disaster," the bounty hunter remarked. "Let's take this outside before we dance, shall we?"

"You like the odds better out there?" Coco pried. He sighed.

"I don't remember you being so dense, but if there are two things I know about you, it's that you'd be torn up if even one civilian died on your watch and that you aren't going to kill me. Your team was responsible for the failure at Lower Cairn, weren't they?" Boyd insisted.

"Shut up and walk," Coco demanded. "Bring up my past again and I'll give you a one-way ticket back to your queen." Boyd nodded and followed her lead out the back door and into the alleyway, where she took a few steps back from him and let him turn around to face her.

"You see, I was right," Boyd pointed out.

"You're wrong," Coco rebutted. "I'll kill you if I need to. We're in the middle of a cold war against each other, and at this point, I'll take anything that I can get."

"And lose precious intel? Doubtful," Boyd taunted.

"And here I thought you wanted to dance," Coco reminded him. "Doing an awful lot of talking." Boyd raised his staff before slamming it against the concrete beneath him, the slightest tinge in his smirk giving Coco the tell she needed to start off with an advantage. It was imperceptible to the unknowing, but Alex always noticed. She wished she could thank him.

"When he leads off with Akukonta, it's always from my left, and there's always this shit-eating confidence to his grin," Alex explained during their briefing. "You really have to watch for it, but it's there. That's when he thinks he stands a chance. He frowns when he summons his Manticore, thinking he needs brute force to overcome his opponent."

"And his third summon?" Coco asked.

"I haven't seen it," Alex noted, staring at the wall before looking at Coco once more. "I've never pushed him far enough that he felt he needed to use it."

"I'm sure whatever it is can't be a challenge for someone like you," Coco replied, getting him to laugh.

"I think some of you have a little too much faith in me," Alex chuckled.

"Then let's dance!" Boyd demanded. Coco swung her purse up to the left as she charged at the man, impossibly timing her attack to nail his invisible Grimm in the jaw, taking him entirely off guard and shredding his confidence. He took a step back, lifting his staff once more and frowning, he was done playing and was ready to get this over with, which left her to wonder if he'd met resistance on his way out of the prison, and meant Coco had the upper hand. She slid to a stop short of him, transforming her purse and opening fire, forcing him off of his feet and dictating his need to put distance between them. Without a moment to contact the ground, he had no summons.

"I've gotten better since the last time we faced off," Coco noted. "What have you been doing?"

"What confidence," he roared. "And we've only just begun." As he landed she somehow reached him, his face twisting in sickened disbelief as she hit him with an open palm to the chest, gravity Dust amplified by her semblance strained his aura and sent him airborne.

"Did I shake your steadfast faith in Salem's power?" She questioned, reaching him once more before he even began descending.

"What trickery is this?" He pried.

"New gloves. Luna Sol. The gravity Dust is laced on the inside to make it unknown to your opponent," Coco offered, her purse cracking against his jaw.

"Dust that only exists thanks to Salem!" He declared as he careened away once more.

"Yeah, in a matter of speaking I suppose," she chuckled. The new trajectory sent him towards a building which he stuck his staff into and hung from, giving her that smug grin again that gave her pause. There was no way that he could… Akukonta cut her off as it grabbed her by the leg and forced her to the pavement.

"You really thought you had me for a moment, didn't you?" He questioned, now perched upon his horizontally planted weapon.

"Go to hell," Coco grunted before the panther Grimm tossed her against the building.

"Now that's not very hero-like," he chortled. She found her feet quickly with the assistance of her gloves, scanning for anything that might give away the location of the Grimm. She didn't have the upper hand that Alex did, who could use his shielding semblance to feel the beast out, and so she cautiously backed towards the wall. She just needed to get up to him, but with his Grimm watching, she doubted the odds…

"What the hell?!" Someone screamed on the other side of the wall before the bricks trembled and shattered around her, the Manticore missing his opportunity to gore her, but pinning her to the opposing building between his horns.

"Bravo," he mocked her as he pried the staff free and leapt down in one fluid motion. "You had me going there for a moment, but it seems that Salem has once again smiled upon her chosen." She prepared to swing her purse around to tear apart the Manticore when Akukonta reappeared and bit down hard on her wrist, making sure that her left arm was the last thing that was going to bring more harm to his master. "So much wasted potential with you. Running in circles like an animal chasing its tail for people that don't appreciate you as much as they should. And if it's victory that you crave, you could join us and show the Huntsmen once and for all what it was you were truly capable of. You wouldn't have to fear for your family's safety under the protection of the goddess."

"That's a rich joke," Coco spat, struggling to pry herself free as he exhaled slowly. She knew he was preparing to finish her, and she had no intention of just letting it happen. "I've been on this train longer than you have, and I know without a doubt that siding with her is almost more dangerous than opposing her."

"Say what you like, but I too was skeptical before being blessed by Salem," he claimed as his beasts disappeared and he swooped in with alarming speed, lifting Coco off of the ground by her neck. She clawed at his hands, trying to free herself as he continued on. "A name that struck fear in the hearts of all. That young and naive Ruby Rose, speaking out to the entire Remnant about an all-powerful being that controlled the Grimm and was going to destroy existence as we knew it. What could possibly be that strong? This news struck many with panic and terror, but as a lowly nobody with no aura or semblance who had grown up in the farmlands of Mistral with nothing to lose and everything to gain, I made it my goal to meet this anomaly. Little Miss Malachite had heard news that the tower falling in Beacon had more to it than the Atlas Military going rogue and so I managed to make the trek to the central continent. At the top of the tower was a beautiful beast that sent chills throughout my body, and despite its being turned to stone, I felt its gaze upon me.

It was then that I was swallowed whole by an ocean of tar that spoke softly to me, guiding me through the pain. It was undoubtedly Salem. She told me that if I could withstand the anguish of the pool, I would be given a new understanding of life and death, with power beyond belief. And now I stand here before you."

"Could you wrap this up, I got places to be," Coco managed as he squeezed tighter.

"Don't you understand? This is the end of your odyssey and the beginning of your legacy. Remnant shall be washed clean through destruction and will be born anew under the supervision of the goddess," he droned on. "But perhaps I've forgotten myself. Let me mark your words so that they might echo out into the echelons of the future, words on which I will take the first step in constructing the foundation of Salem's return. They will have little chance of winning without your guidance and you're aware of it too. Come, what say you?"

"I'll see you in hell," she grunted. He smirked, placing the tip of his staff to her neck as he had to Asteria. The dagger plunged in as Coco's mind filled with horror. If this was it, the explosive was the least she could do… His voice lowered to a whisper. "Despite our differences, I pray that Salem might greet you into the afterlife with open arms." She heard the timer begin as he injected the liquid. For a long moment, they were alone in the alleyway, motionless.

"No," He stammered. "No, no, no!" He retracted the blade and tossed her to the wall. He examined the staff, tapping furiously on the crystal. "Empty?!" Coco slowly found her feet, a crazed look covering it as she used the Dust in her gloves to reach him instantly, placing the device against his chest.

"This isn't," Coco stated. He met her gaze with his own, filled with disbelief over her suicidal idea of victory as she was violently pulled away by a black ribbon that wrapped around her torso. Someone from above landed in between them before he could dispose of the bomb against his body and their fist slammed into it, throwing both him and the explosive several blocks away.

"Coco," Yang stated as the explosion rocked the buildings around them, shocking even her saviors. "Glynda said you had that look in your eye, but what the hell was that?!"

"Don't worry, he's still alive," Coco noted, brushing herself off as Blake's clone disappeared.

"Should I follow him?" Blake called from down the alley, barely audible to either woman.

"No!" Coco shouted.

"Still alive?" Yang asked. "Even with full aura that should have mangled him pretty good." Coco chuckled as she touched her neck where the blade had entered and let out a sigh of relief.

"I don't understand the exact science, but it was filled with nothing more than nanites. Probably gave him a good scare, but the purpose was to get some of the nano trackers into his body," Coco detailed.

"So that he'll take you to Abigor," Yang pieced together.

"Or atleast Silvia," Coco claimed. She looked up at the sky as a Nevermore flew by overhead. A victory at long last. "Guess we'd better get back to work."

"Let us and the kids handle it, you need to get checked out," Blake explained, jogging to them. Coco nodded. She could rest easy for the first time in months. And soon, they'd know where Blood was.

Looks like Coco might have finally gotten the victory that she needed. Next time, Chapter 44: Heroics!

A big thank you to all of my readers, and to artists AG_Nonsuch, Helihi, Cadhla182, Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. The artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.

Until next time, stay healthy and stay classy!