As I made my way to the center of Vale, the previous city that was the heart of culture on Remnant was now a shell of its former self with Grimm prowling the streets in search of a new victim and plunged into a darkness that could only be rectified by the rising sun.

The streets of Vale were filled with burned-out buildings and the bodies of the dead, many of whom had missing limbs surrounded by dried blood. Vale's once-clean and ordered streets were now painted a macabre color, with innards littering the streets and sides of buildings. The smell of ash and dust blended with the dried puddles and stench of blood. Despite the unpleasant atmosphere I was unworried as Hush comfortably swung in my right hand at my side giving me a sense of stability.

My journey was filled with the removal of Grimm who saw it fit to prevent me from piecing back together my currently fractured family.

While thankfully, my semblance worked on the Grimm, I couldn't find the reason in me to use it as I was tempering my rising anger with the destruction of any Grimm that made the mistake of crossing my path.

Despite the urgency and importance of finding Roman, I still found the time to end some of the attacking Grimm slowly.

'It's rather unfortunate that Grimm don't scream in pain when attacked or tortured. I'll just have to make do with the screams of anger they produce when you shatter their knees with a kick and grind their faces into the dirt.'

My thoughts were soon interrupted by the scream of an Ursa which was accompanied by the shattering of the wall next to me which was once a beautiful storefront to a Dust shop.

'This must've been one of the shops that Roman robbed with Junior's goons because I would've remembered a shop that was as extravagant as this. I'll be sure to give Roman a piece of my mind later for not taking me on THAT mission.'

With thoughts of petty revenge in my mind I swiftly performed a backwards somersault that would've made Lady Beat give a nod of acknowledgement in response.

Once my body was upside down mid somersault I swiftly planted my hands on the ground and moved my legs into a split as the right handed swipe of the Ursa began barreling towards me. The attack sailed over me harmlessly and once the arm of the Ursa made its way to the middle of my legs I swiftly wrapped my legs around the arm letting the momentum of the swing bring me towards the Ursa.

Noticing the additional weight the Ursa took another step into his swing in order to find enough force to try and throw me off. Unfortunately for this Grimm I had no intention of letting go meaning I was here to stay.

When the Ursa neared the end of its swing, I nestled my head under the Ursa's side and grabbed hold of its arm. I then straightened my left leg and hooked it around the Ursa's neck before swiftly jerking my entire body to the left, forcing the Ursa to lose its balance and fall to the pavement below.

I maneuvered the Ursa's head towards the pavement for the few moments we hovered in the air, which was quickly rewarded with a horrific crunch as its head slammed into the ground, the bone mask around its face splitting in protest.

I swiftly dismounted my victim and activated the blade portion of Hush and smoothly removed the head of the Ursa while it gave weak growls in anger and protest.

With a small huff at the impromptu battle I collected myself and did a courtesy check and continued my trek through the city. As I continued I soon came across the destroyed bodies of Atlesian Knights and prototype Atlesian Paladins that Roman was once gifted.

I huffed angrily as I remembered one of the numerous reasons why I was in this predicament in the first place as I remembered who gave us the Paladin.

'Damnit Roman why did you get us involved with that bitch?! Why couldn't we just cut our losses!'

My rage sprang up again, and I did my best to contain it before it consumed me. As I stalked across the city, my hold on Hush in my right palm tightened as my rage began to boil to the surface as memories of working under Cinder sprang forth.

'All of the hardship we suffered, and the hard work we put in was all put to waste as she came in and trampled our freedom and forced us into chains and had us dance as her puppets. When I find her, I will be sure to pay her back tenfold for all that she's done.'

My grasp on Hush loosened as I struggled to regulate my breathing, so I came to a halt to try to regain control. As I struggled to slow my breathing and retake control of myself, ragged breaths escaped my throat.

'Calm down, Neapolitan. Before you even think about getting revenge, your main priority is to find Roman first. You need to get him out of here and get him to safety, and then you'll plan your next move.'

As my prior rage diminished, I continued on my journey to find the highest concentration of billowing smoke in the sky, hoping it would help me find the airship Roman was on.

'Knowing Roman, he should either be holed up inside the remains of the airship or in one of the nearby buildings. I have no illusion that he got out of that unscathed, so his best bet would be to find shelter for the time being. While Roman is strong, I have doubts that he can handle a hoard of Grimm.'

As I got closer to the source of the smoke, which appeared to be a few city blocks away, I increased my speed. I couldn't help but feel energized as a glimmer of hope began to bloom within me.

My hope quickly changed to dread when I heard a Beowolf's characteristic howls near the source of the smoke. As I began to run through the ruined city with panic, my speed accelerated into a sprint.

Despite my skill I kept the acrobatic moves to a minimum as I wanted the lowest chance at tripping and extending the time towards my destination while conserving my energy. The most I gave was smooth vaults over ruined cars and toppled street lights as I continued to my destination.

As I turned the corner to the center of the smoke I was meant with Beowolves prowling around the wreckage.

My eyes narrowed as I counted how many Grimm there were and calculated how many I'd have to battle until more showed up.

'While I could sneak in the wreckage and try to find Roman and pull him out with my semblance I'd rather take out the Beowolves present so I can search through the wreckage without having to worry about him getting found. Then again if I'm busy fighting I might miss them going for Roman if he is located somewhere in the ruins. Shit! What do I do I got-...'

I halted my thoughts before they could spiral out of control, and rob me of my current advantage I held over the Beowolves in having the art of surprise on them.

'Okay wait, think about this calmly. Even if I do find Roman in the wreckage our movement is going to be massively hampered if he's injured. It'd be best to try and remove the Grimm now so there's no risk of him getting caught up in a fight or us bumping into Grimm if I need to carry him out. Plus if he's uninjured he's sure to hear the battle and either cut his losses and run while the Grimm are distracted or help me when he notices it's me. I'll just need to risk him not running away if he's uninjured because that would be the best of the terrible scenarios that could play out.'

Giving a slightly strained breath, I once more took stock of the Beowolves around the wreckage and began to make my move.

'Okay, there's a slightly above average pack of Beowolves, with there being 10 in total. There are three in front of me and once I leave cover from the corner of this building in between me and the wreckage. Another five were on the main platform of the airship, with the last two sniffing around the bridge.

I quickly manifested a copy of myself and sent it out towards the front three Beowolves. They reacted as I thought they would, and they all jumped at once, looking to dogpile and gore my copy. Upon seeing them jump, I swiftly left cover and moved towards the soon-to-be dogpile.

My copy jumped into the air and quickly released the canopy on hush and began floating above the Beowolves, keeping their attention on my decoy as they collided into one another where my copy was previously. While they were distracted with keeping their eyes on their prey while trying to detangle themselves from one another, I gave three precise thrusts piercing where the Beowolf's brains would be.

I immediately unmanifested the copy above me and, with slight strain, produced two in front of me and sent them towards the platform of the airship.

I swiftly followed, being only a few steps behind them as the Beowolves on the runway began charging towards me and my copies. Unfortunately, I drew one of the short sticks as I was saddled with a group of two instead of a lone Beowolf rushing towards me.

I put my two decoys on dodge duty as they approached their Beowolves while I focused on the fight in front of me. The Beowolves were running side by side with the one on the right being a few steps ahead, which opened with a choreographed right handed swing towards my head.

I swiftly ducked under the strike and twisted Hush in my grip and quickly slid it towards the middle of the canopy while flipping my weapon around and slamming the handle into the elbow of the Beowolf, shattering it. After my hit, I quickly grabbed the Beowolf's wrist while hooking the handle of Hush around the now decommissioned joint and tossed the Beowulf and the second one.

The second beowulf stopped in its rush and braced its torso for the hit, but was then toppled as a force slammed into its legs, taking it out. I followed up the hit with a jump towards the Beowolf with a slash, removing its head while it was pinned under the crippled Beowulf, and gave a swift thrust to the head of the crippled Beowolf, ending it.

I began mentally congratulating myself since the second Beowolf managed to fall for my quickly put-together illusion of the crippled Beowolf being hurled towards the top half of the second Beowulf when in reality I sent the impromptu Grimm missile barreling towards its legs.

I hurriedly turned towards my decoy that was tasked with dodging around two Beowolves and quickly backed it up by running up and taking out one that had its back turned to me by sending Hush through its head.

I soon heard a snarl from the other side of my decoy as the other Beowolf leaped towards my decoy in front of me. My decoy stood still while I leaped into a forward handspring with Hush brandished. The Beowolf soon crashed through my decoy and was met with broken glass with its shattering resonating in the air.

With the Beowolf continuing its journey forward due to finding no purchase in my decoy he continued forward ending up right below me as I was sailing overhead. As we lined up I thrust Hush into its head ending it mid air.

After finishing the Grimm I caught myself with only my left hand and finished the handspring with practiced fluidity. After landing I turned towards the last Beowolf and swiftly ended it with a nimble thrust to the back of the head while it was focused on my decoy.

Suddenly I was tackled to the ground as one of the two Beowolves in the bridge jumped on me while I was distracted. Thankfully I was able to hold onto Hush so I wouldn't need to look for it to take out the Beowulf.

The Beowolf then pinned me to the ground and with its hind legs and I bucked my hips up in order to throw them off which succeeded in making the Beowolf topple overhead. As the Beowolf soared over me I began to stand up while hooking Hush around the Beowolves ankle and yanked Hush towards me as soon as I felt movement coming from the Beowulf.

I performed a flic flac with Hush brandished and striked the Beowolf in the back of the head ending it while landing past the now decaying corpse. I then heard a growl behind me and dropped into the splits on the spot. Upon doing so, the last Beowolf began flying overhead, and I caught the leg of the Beowulf with Hush. Upon getting a grip, I grabbed Hush with both hands and yanked backwards and fell onto my back, pulling the Beowulf overhead and slamming into the concrete behind me in a one-legged suplex. I quickly performed a back spin and flared my legs into the air and then brought my right foot down into an ax kick onto the left knee of the Beowolf, which broke with a satisfying crack.

Not wanting to lose momentum, I did a kip up, making sure to land on the Beowolf's already damaged knee, and then lunged forward with a slash, taking off the head of the grounded Beowolf.

I gave a quick scan of the area around me to make sure there were no more Grimm looking to ambush me and kept myself prepared for another attack.

After a few moments while scanning and rescanning my surroundings, I deemed it safe enough to search the airship.

As I was making my way to the opening of the bridge, I gave myself a quick onceover to make sure I didn't receive any injuries during my fight and was thankful to find that my Aura protected me from any injuries I may have gotten.

I can't believe that overgrown mutt got the drop on me. I didn't even hear the thing leave the bridge! Oum, I can already hear Roman's obnoxious laugh as he tells me I'm starting to lose my touch and that I'm getting old. Seriously, fuck that guy. Why do I even bother with him sometimes.'

Despite my thoughts, I wore a small smile on my face at the thought of reuniting and bantering with Roman and began picking up my pace to the bridge.

As I was a few feet from the opening, I gave a scan around the room to make sure there weren't any Grimm laying in wait inside the airship.

'Thankfully, it looks like its cle-'

My thoughts screeched to a halt as my blood ran cold and panic began filling my entire body. Disregarding properly checking the rest of the bridge I ran to the center of the room and had the rest of the breath in my body leave me in a chilling exhale.

I felt my knees suddenly give out beneath me and was too frozen in shock to properly catch myself. My eyes began to widen with pinpricks of tears beginning to scratch at the corner of my eyes.

Sitting there in front of me taunting me with its lonely appearance was Roman's signature bowler hat with no sign of its owner in sight. I began dragging myself across the floor of the bridge until I was within arms reach of the hat.

The signature feather that I gave the hat that hosted the tracking trip was gone and I felt my heart sink in terror. I began reaching out to the hat with a single set of trembling fingers that looked like they belonged on a jeriatric instead of a professional thief.

Once the tips of my fingers brushed against the smooth material of the hat I felt myself gasp as my breath suddenly escaped my lungs and had all the strength I had remaining not to flinch my hand away from the hat. I began slowly tracing my hand around the brim of the hat before I picked it up and delicately began bringing it towards handling it with absolute care as if it was going to shatter like one of my illusions.

I softly cradled the hat against my chest as I blankly stared at the ground with shock in my eyes as tears began streaming down my face with a burning heat that highlighted my uselessness.

I desperately began trying to get my breathing under control as it kept coming out in shallow and erratic exhales. I then tightly shut my eyes together and felt a burst of tears exit my eyes which then made a silent and painful scream erupt from my mouth.

This brought on a new wave of tears as I cursed my condition and how, even in my most desperate moments of grief, I couldn't express myself and was locked in silence, accompanied by my belittling thoughts.

As I began to drift from consciousness, one thought echoed in my thoughts as I continued my agony while melting into a puddle of insecurity and anguish on the floor.

'I'm alone again.'

A/N: Fun fact I looked up breakdancing and acrobatic moves in order to help illustrate Neo's fight scenes. Also, this marks the first time I've ever written fight scenes, and I'm extremely happy with how they turned out. Working on these fight scenes was some of the most enjoyable moments I've ever had while writing. It makes me wish I'd written stories with more fight scenes before this.

I would love to hear feedback on the fight scenes if they were too unclear or if there are ways I could improve them for next time. While it may take you a while to look up some of the moves, I feel as if that gives you a better understanding of how the fight scene is happening. If it doesn't, let me know and I'll be sure to try and make it more understandable next time.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I appreciate the support. I hope everyone takes care of themselves and has a good rest of their day.

-Unlucky Roll