Neela stood on the edge of the cliffside, standing beside the graves that belonged to both Summer and Raven as she stared out at the landscape below and kept her bow trained on an area where she was sure that she had just seen a Nevermore roosting, preparing to take it down once it took off again for some reason, whether it be that it noted that there was a human nearby, or one of the many packs of Beowulves in the area decided to chase it off in defense of their territory. Her dark blue leather armor which covered her torso kept her warm in the waning light of the summer, fall was around the corner and school had already started, she'd been in class for a few weeks, though things seemed to be off to a rockier start than her first year. She padded something in on the touch screen on her wrist, choosing an earth arrow to take down the beast as she took a deep breath and knelt, settling in and using her semblance just long enough to make sure it was still in the same place that she had last seen it. Her bangs blew in her face and she brushed them out of the way with her hand, staying steady as she felt the wind pick up, reminding her of the beads that she wore that Eliana had customized for her. Violet had given them to her after discovering them in her daughter's bedroom after the girl had left for Mistral.

She did her best to act like things were going alright, though she could feel herself unraveling at the seams every time that the memories crossed her mind. Eliana had left her too quickly for the two of them to resolve anything that had happened, so it was hard for Neela to be sure if the two of them were on the best of terms or not. She forgave Eliana days after she'd tried kidnapping Shadow, and in her mind, none of what had taken place was by any means the fault of Eliana, but she wondered if Eliana still felt that it was. She tried to hold on to the fact that Blake assured her that Eliana would come back on her own terms, but the wait was killing Neela and in turn, her grades and her performance. She shook the thoughts off. The best thing that she could do for herself was not to think about it. Thinking about Eliana never resulted in getting anywhere, it only made Neela feel more anxious than she needed to. She drew the arrow back, preparing to kill the monster before it could take flight, running out of patience waiting for it to leave.

"Neela," came a voice from behind her that took her off guard and she stopped for a moment, lowering her bow slowly and she turned carefully in disbelief, as though she didn't want to scare them off much like she wouldn't want to scare off something that she was hunting. She shook violently, her chest knotting up as she found her best friend standing across the meadow, tears streaming down her face as she brushed her purple hair out of her face and before placing her hands down at her sides, staring at the ground instead of making eye contact with Neela. Neela stood slowly, putting her weapon and arrow away as she moved slowly before sprinting to Eliana and throwing her arms around the girl. She was warm… her aroma was intoxicating, there was no way that this wasn't Eliana, this had to be her, finally! Neela felt tears in her own eyes as she held tight to the girl and shook her head.

"I'm sorry," Neela sobbed. "Whatever I did that made you want to leave, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! We can start over, we can just be friends if that's what you would rather do…" Eliana cut her off with a kiss, her lips soft and warm, Neela mewling as she gave in to Eliana's tender embrace, holding Eliana tight as the girl's advances filled her with a renewed sense of liveliness. Eliana's lips were more amazing than she ever could have dreamed and being this close to her and finally sharing something that she'd desired for so long. It felt… perfect. It felt perfect. It felt…

Perfect.

Eliana disappeared, leaving Neela alone on the cliff, her body shaking with rage and sorrow as she turned out to the cliff and slowly pulled herself back to her perch before the land gave way beneath her and she was falling, the world cracking and crumbling around her before there was nothing left and she fell into a body of water, naked as she slowly sank towards the bottom if there even was one. She refused to breathe, though the water felt amazing on her skin and filled her with familiar warmth. Where was Eliana? Was she dreaming again? Did she give herself over to the feeling that was overtaking her? After a while longer she had no choice but to take a breath and as she did she emerged from the pool, now dressed in Athena's clothing as she wielded the woman's sword.

"Neela!" Ebony yelled as the scene formed before Neela. The temple constructed itself around her, rocks and bricks shifting and uncrumbling into place as Crimson joined the Panther Faunus and they knelt before her as she sat on the throne. "The humans, the ones that survived the attack at Beacon, they're attacking!"

"What should we do, Mistress?" Crimson asked. Neela looked at her hands as she dropped the blade, it crashed against the floor, the sound thundered in her ears as if it was the only sound that had ever existed, forcing her to cover them quickly as Crimson and Ebony stood their faces contorting before disfiguring and finally settling on Athena's, both of them identical and staring hard at Neela as they came closer and she tried to back away but found that the room was closing in.

"You betrayed us!" Athena shouted.

"Betrayed the White Fang!" The other Athena screamed.

"You'll pay for what you've done!" The first insisted. They ran their blades through her and as she flinched, she found herself in the hallway of the cabin, Eliana's body destroyed by Yang's punch as she stood over the girl, her eyes filled with rage as she glanced towards the kitchen at Neela, pointing at her with a wicked grin and sauntering over, hunched as her arms swung with her movements.

"This is all your fault!" Yang cried out. "If we'd left you to die in that hut, Eliana would still be alive!"

"Athena never would have come after us," Blake spoke softly, grabbing Neela's shoulders and pulling her back down into the abyss forming below her. Neela reached out for something, anything, only to see Eliana's body transform into a Grimm and surround Shadow.

"No!" Neela called out. "Stop this!"

"We'll always betray you!" A voice stated as Neela landed, sitting in class and noting Eliana standing at the lectern, Shadow tied up beside her, the small girl's eyes filled with horror as she thrashed and called out for her sister to save her but no sound came out of her mouth. "We'll always betray you, Neela. Just like you betrayed the White Fang. It was your destiny!"

"I refuse to believe that!" Neela shouted as she stood.

"Neela," said another version of Eliana who banged on the door behind her. "Neela! Get out of there!"

"Elli!" Neela called out as she ran up the steps but they seemed to continue extending, she couldn't get any closer to the Eliana that she needed.

"I'm not coming back," both of the Elianas exclaimed in unison.

"You have to! I forgive you!" Neela cried.

"I don't deserve it," Eliana whispered. It filled Neela's thoughts as she was allowed up the steps and she crashed through the door. She found herself in the school hallway, Eliana was nowhere to be found and the locker doors crashed open and closed around her, throwing papers everywhere. Neela used her semblance but couldn't find her friend… if only she tried harder!

"Neela!" Called another voice that she couldn't quite place but she ignored it. "Titus!"

"Not again," Titus replied.

"Come on, Neela," Eliana spoke now standing at the end of the hallway. "We can be together forever, just like you wanted."

"Elli!" Neela shouted again, sprinting for her as she turned the corner and out of Neela's sight. "Wait!"

"What do we do?" Ilia asked, her voice echoing in Neela's mind.

"Go in and try to wake her up, I'll get Jaune and Ren," Titus declared.

"Right," Ilia agreed. "Neela, if you can hear me, we need you to wake up!"

"What?" Neela asked as she stopped for a moment at the mention of her name again.

"Aren't you coming?" Eliana asked from around the corner, just out of Neela's sight.

"Yes!" Neela asserted, sprinting after her once more.

"This can't be good," Ilia noted as she forced herself in and appeared in the White Fang temple, confused by the manifestation of this room as she looked around for Neela or any clue as to how to wake her. "Neela. You have got to wake up, I don't know what you're seeing or you think that you're doing right now, but in the real world you're having a nose bleed and your Aura is decreasing rapidly. We gotta get you up before you crash."

"It's better this way," Neela's voice stated as Ilia turned around to find Neela in her normal battle attire sitting on the throne, though Ilia found herself unnerved at the fact that the girl was wearing a White Fang mask.

"I don't believe that you're Neela," Ilia stated as she held a defensive stance against her friend.

"You think that someone else is in here with us?" The Neela asked as she stood and chuckled.

"That's not it," Ilia corrected. "I think that you're one of Neela's misguided ideals of how she should be." The clone threw its head back and laughed, Ilia could see its eyes glowing through the mask.

"She's the misguided one," the clone offered. "I'm how Neela was meant to be!"

"I know you don't believe that!" Ilia shouted out into the temple. The clone looked around amused.

"It's just us," the clone laughed.

"Shut up!" Ilia demanded. The clone stood slowly and cracked its neck.

"Good, I prefer killing humans," it claimed. Before Ilia could move she found an arrow in her chest and Neela had grappled to her, her blade running through Ilia's torso. Ilia looked at her wide-eyed. "You really have no idea how strong I am, do you?"

"And you were too busy in Atlas to know that I've gotten stronger too," Ilia coughed. She faded, a second Ilia impaling the imposter as she chose fire Dust. "This is my playground." Neela's eyes shone brighter and she chuckled.

"I wonder what will happen to you if she crashes while you're in here!" The Fang Neela exclaimed.

"Here!" Eliana shouted as she disappeared and the real Neela entered the temple.

"Ilia?!" Neela exclaimed. The fake ran the blade through her own body, also impaling Ilia who grunted for a moment before disappearing once more.

"Just who I wanted to see," the clone sneered.

"Ilia, get out!" Titus called from the void.

"I… I need to help!" Ilia replied through Neela's mouth. Titus looked at Jaune and Ren.

"I don't know what's going on in there, but we're going to force her body to shut down," Ren explained. "You need to get out."

"Okay," Ilia replied. She stumbled out of the body into Titus as Ren injected Neela with a needle full of blue liquid that shattered Neela's aura, stopping her body on the spot.

"What was going on in there?" Jaune asked.

"I… I'm not sure…" Ilia told him. "Her psyche began fighting itself… I don't know if it's just my semblance, but it felt real."

"That's the way your body just interprets what's happening while you're in someone's mind," Ren assured her. "She'll be fine. She just needs to accept the fact that Eliana might not be coming back soon." Titus assisted the men with moving Neela to a stretcher and followed along with them as they took her out of the building, leaving Ilia alone in the room.

"It's the fourth time in two weeks," Ilia sighed as she watched them out the window. "You can't keep going on like this."

NITE Year 2

Year two is underway at Beacon and we're a couple of weeks into the new semester. We find ourselves following CBLT on an unexpected mission that came up that morning, delivered to them early, before they were even awake, by a message from Coco Adel the school's lead tactical instructor among other things, asking them to investigate an unusual gathering of Grimm that had gathered in the Emerald Forest, almost 15 minutes outside of Vale. The team has been on a tear so far to begin the school year, a determination and fire burning inside of them passionately as they find themselves in a position to pass NITE as the top team of the second years. They're currently in the heat of battle.

The most handsome member of the team and charismatic, Cobalt Thénard, leads the team with cunning wit, flawless to a fault in the instruction and directing of his teammates who rely on the finality of his decisions to ensure their every victory. Without them they would be lost, nothing, a couple of extras that had been haplessly tossed together to form a team with no driving force, save Tawney's desire to destroy Neela in every way possible. Yes, it was quite clear that if Cobalt wasn't there to head up their operations they surely would have died by now. But where would such brilliance be without a team to support him?

Bái Lung was the forever optimist of the team now that Lykos had helped her overcome her previous insecurities. Short, quiet, and cute, the girl was more dangerous on the battlefield than Lykos and Tawney combined (though obviously not Cobalt because, I mean, come on. It's hard to top perfection). The ice powers that resided within her didn't seem to feed off of her aura, letting her fight longer than the others could, and it seemed unnatural. When she'd come to the school there were rumors that she was a demon, but if she was, she was the kindest oni that Cobalt could recall. She had little recollection of her past, only noting that after she'd woken up from a supposed coma, she was offered a place to stay if she attended Beacon.

Lykos Asimi. He had that kind of bad boy feel and didn't say much, though it appeared he was always thinking and contemplating something, wearing that anomaly of a Grimm pelt, as everyone knew that when a Grimm was killed they dissolved to dust. He was a bit of a hard-ass, to begin with, but in much the same way that he made Bái feel accepted, he lightened up a bit after they started dating. He was a little less doom and gloom, and he might have smiled… once? Maybe twice? I don't quite recall the details.

Tawney Lupara was the punk of the team. Edgy. Listened to punk when she wasn't jamming to Casey Lee Williams. Probably skateboarded in a past life? The girl had been dubbed as the Maniac of Mistral as she hadn't lost a single fight in her time participating in Haven's illegal fighting ring which had ultimately cost her the safety she had once known after refusing to throw a fight. She had one goal in life. Beating Neela Xiao Long at anything and everything. Thumb wrestling, fighting, arm wrestling, regular wrestling, eating, sleeping, spending more money at the Dust shop, better grades, you name it. It was probably the least memorable rivalry in all of history, but at least Tawney was convinced that they were rivals and it drove her to become better anyway.

You know, if you haven't read Year One, it might be better if you go read that and then come back here and find out what we're in the middle of. It'll make way more sense and considering the fact that NITE already had their opening scene if I introduce them later like this it's just going to seem lackluster, isn't it? Yeah, go check that out first.

"Cobalt, I don't know who the hell you're talking to, but could you maybe help us out?!" Tawney shouted as she blasted an Alpha back towards Lykos who wrapped his whip around its neck and removed its head from the rest of its body. Bái held back even more that were coming in with a wall of ice as she gave everything she had to keep it sturdy as a mass of Alphas crashed against it on the other side. Cobalt leapt down from his cliffside perch and assessed the situation, which was mostly a review of what Coco had explained to them that morning. Something wasn't adding up, which was ironic to think, considering the fact that the Grimm wouldn't stop adding up in the area.

Zephyr's Lookout was a popular spot for families in the surrounding Vale area, as well as tourists, to camp out in the kingdom's countryside due to its seemingly supernatural ability to deter Grimm from entering the site. It was almost as if there was a barrier or agreement amongst the Grimm that the area wasn't to be touched. It had remained that way for as long as anyone could remember, since the naming of the bluff shortly after the Great War after the Vale hero General Zephyr. 100 years it was safe from danger, but this morning all hell had broken loose. Cobalt tore through a few of them with his sword, splitting it in half before leaping back with Tawney.

"Does anyone else hear that noise?" Lykos asked them as he and Bái fell back as well.

"Just barely… what is it?" Tawney asked.

"Some kind of electronic scream, right?" Bái noted.

"That could be bringing them in," Cobalt offered, "But it sounds too far off. We haven't been able to find anything that would bring them here specifically. We can't leave until we finish off the rest of these Alphas, I doubt that the survivors made it too far into the city yet."

"We're going to be late to class," Bái replied nervously. Lykos placed a hand on her shoulder.

"This is more important," he told her. Tawney nodded.

"Anyone else running low on Dust?" Tawney asked. Cobalt was beginning to worry. Their numbers seemed to be dwindling, but how much longer could they hold out. He glanced at the ice wall, noting that it was beginning to crack and that at any moment now their break would be cut short and it would be back to fighting the beasts. There was one trick he had up his sleeve, but he thought it best to wait to play his ace. The fact that so many Alphas had been gathered here was also disturbing. Beowulves traveled in packs, but more often than not they only had one Alpha leading them, the Alpha's usually fought each other over the food. Unless…

"Wall's going down," Lykos pointed out.

"Showtime!" Tawney laughed as she charged into the shattering ice. Lykos created a Goliath that caught the Beos off guard, growling at it as they knew it meant to steal their kill from them. It stamped and huffed at them, forcing a couple of them back and into Bái and Tawney's attack as the others either ignored it or attacked it. Lykos managed to bat a few of them away before it dissipated.

"Still struggling with manifesting?" Cobalt asked. Lykos grimaced.

"It's not like your clones," Lykos explained, tossing a few of his shuriken to Cobalt. "It uses psionic energy or something like it, and it uses a lot of my aura." Cobalt shrugged as he formed his clone and pointed towards the far side of the clearing. It nodded and took off.

"I get it," Cobalt noted. He stabbed one of the Alphas getting too close to him and threw it back towards the mass. "I really hope we get some back up soon, you'd think that Coco would have thought something was wrong when we didn't come back yet."

"She probably just thinks that we're off on another one of your dead end schemes again," Tawney noted. "What are we stealing this time? Maybe the last of the Dust in the Vale reserve?"

"Funny!" Cobalt replied sarcastically. After the attack by the Stardust Gang, in coordination with the attack at Beacon by the White Fang, a majority of the Dust used to power Vale's reactor was either lost in the several explosions that took place, or from contamination due to the debris and dust caused in the confusion. Vale had the least Dust it had ever seen since the Great War, and the SDC was doing everything that it could to find more, but without access to Menagerie over the fear of an attack or worse, they were having little success.

"You ready?" Lykos asked.

"Yeah," Cobalt noted. His clone threw the shuriken out in a spread, allowing Lykos to pull them back in quickly with his electromagnets, the stars ripping through the horde as Tawney ducked under one of them and glared back at him, smashing an Alpha in the face without looking.

"Could you be a little more careful?" Tawney asked. Lykos smirked as he joined the fray with his whip formed again.

"That wouldn't have killed you," Lykos noted.

"Sounds like a lame Cobalt excuse," Tawney replied, rolling her eyes with a chuckle.

"I heard that," Cobalt noted.

"Good!" She yelled back. "Now get in here! And where is that clone of yours?"

"Give him a minute!" He shouted. Cobalt sighed. "You think I don't know the drill?"

"I think you're having us do all of the hard work," Tawney grunted. She slammed through a few of the Grimm, chasing down the clone and connecting her tonfas before blasting him off of the cliff.

"It's a good thing that my clone and I don't share experiences with each other," Cobalt pointed out.

"Good for you," Tawney said. "I'm sure that he has feelings too." Her eyes lit up and she smashed several of the Alphas into bits as another pack came in from further out in the woods.

"More?" Lykos exclaimed.

"Bái!" Cobalt announced over the chaos. "It's time!" She smiled and nodded.

"Right!" She agreed as she swung her staff around over her head before pointing it in front of Cobalt, forming a giant lens made of ice.

"Perfect!" He noted.

*RECOMMENDED PERCENTAGE… 75%*

"Sounds good to me!" Cobalt declared as he formed the blades back into one sword and charged the core.

"They're coming quickly!" Tawney shouted as she broke an Alpha's jaw.

"It takes a few seconds," Cobalt explained.

"Lykos!" Bái yelled.

"Let's see what I've got," Lykos said. The Grimm were coming closer at an alarming rate and Cobalt was unsure that he'd get the shot off.

*REDUCE POWER TO ENSURE SURVIVAL*

"No…" Cobalt grunted as he poured his aura into it as quickly as he could. "Just a few more seconds…" Lykos tried for another Goliath but it was torn apart quickly.

"What?" Tawney mumbled in disbelief taking care of the last one from the first mass.

"They don't seem like they're in a rush to get here…" Bái tapered off.

"It feels more like they're running from something," Lykos offered. Bái quickly lifted her staff, freezing the feet of the front row and they trampled over each other.

*75% POWER ACHIEVED*

"Awesome!" Cobalt hollered as he blasted the laser through the lens and it cut through the entire army of Grimm like scissors through paper. They exploded, a cloud of dark matter rose up from the woods and scattered on the wind into the atmosphere.

"Yes!" Tawney shouted nearly tackling Cobalt as she threw her arm over his shoulder. "That's the stuff right there! At this rate, we might pass NITE by the end of the first quarter!"

"Crazier things have happened," Lykos pointed out.

"We might make it back in time for second period!" Bái stated excitedly.

"Maybe," Lykos shrugged.

"We have a Dust reserve to stop at first," Cobalt said with a wink. Tawney shoved him hard and began walking towards Vale.

"No," she stated.

"It was a joke you know!" Cobalt called after her. There was a blood-curdling load roar that stopped the four of them in their tracks and rendered them motionless for a few seconds before they turned around to look at it. A Beowulf that had far more plates than that of a regular Beowulf, and was probably twice as big as an Alpha. "G-G-Guys!"

"What the hell?!" Tawney asked.

"An Omega?" Lykos mumbled.

"I thought they were extremely rare!" Bái shouted.

"We've never seen one before, so it stands to reason they are," Cobalt pointed out. An Alpha only became an Omega if it lived for at least a hundred years, and that was after the ten years that it took to become an Alpha. Cobalt readied his blade. "We can't let this thing get into town." They all nodded.

"Right," they answered in unison.

"Same song and dance as always," Cobalt instructed as he took a moment to stretch as it roared at them again. "Bái, immobilize the thing. If it won't stay put, Lykos can distract it. Tawney can bring the thunder and I'll bring the lightning."

"You do understand that that analogy makes no sense," Lykos informed him.

"I'll think of something better later," Cobalt replied. The Omega slammed his fists on the ground, shaking the team as Bái second-guessed herself and took a step back.

"We can do this," Lykos assured her, placing a hand on her back to stop her.

"Right," she agreed, lifting her staff.

"We need to do something quickly because he seems to have a few tricks!" Tawney commanded tackling Bái out of the way and leaving Lykos and Cobalt to dive away. The Omega had lifted his head up as they reassured Bái, gathering energy in his mouth before firing at them and causing an explosion. It threw Bái and Tawney a way down the path towards the road which was all downhill. Cobalt quickly moved to his feet and glanced at Lykos.

"Keep him busy!" Cobalt yelled. Lykos nodded and charged in, manifesting a decoy that the Omega simply ignored.

"He's not really paying any mind to it," Lykos noted.

"I noticed!" Cobalt yelled out.

*ONLY 10% RECOMMENDED TO AVOID BEING LEFT WITH DANGEROUSLY LOW LEVELS OF AURA*

"That won't even be enough with Bái's lens," Cobalt groaned. "I knew we should have waited longer to do that."

"Back up plan?" Lykos asked whipping at the beast that seemed mildly annoyed with them.

"Tawney as soon as she gets her ass back up here…" Cobalt quipped. Tawney flew past them on an ice path, slamming into the Omega and forcing it to take a step back.

"I heard that!" She shouted.

"That's why I said it!" Cobalt argued.

"Less fighting each other," Bái pleaded as she slid in and attempted to freeze its feet. It easily kicked off the ice, roaring at them once more, this time the soundwaves throwing them away.

"What do we do?" Lykos asked Cobalt as he slammed into a tree and grunted in pain. Cobalt had slid away and thought over their choices.

"We could let Bái go unrestricted," Cobalt suggested.

"Over my dead body!" Lykos shouted. "You know how that went when we tried it a few weeks ago! Tawney nearly caught hypothermia because it took us so long to free her from the ice!"

"You got a better idea?" Cobalt groaned.

"We call Coco?" Lykos questioned raising an eyebrow as he shrugged over exaggeratedly.

"I mean… that's one option, but we got this," Cobalt sheepishly offered as he peeked around the tree he was taking cover behind. The beast fired again, destroying the tree covering Cobalt and throwing him off of his feet.

"Do we?" Lykos shouted irritated. Tawney rushed back in again, sliding through its legs and landing a few decent blows before it swatted her away towards the cliff.

"Tawney!" Cobalt shouted as he rushed back the Grimm and sprinted for her. An ice wall caught her just as she was about to roll off and Cobalt slid to a stop, chuckling nervously before helping her up. "I'll call Coco."

"Not a chance," Tawney refused as she headed back in.

"Check your scroll, Tawney!" Lykos demanded. "We're all running pretty low!"

"That means we still have some left!" Tawney pointed out.

"That wasn't the take away from that conversation!" Cobalt yelled at her. Tawney managed a few more hits, this time avoiding his arms as they swung around, though was quickly met with the creature's tail. It batted her into Cobalt and the two of them tumbled away from it as it roared one last time before turning its focus towards Vale. It glanced back at Cobalt and Tawney before rushing down the hill like a freight train.

"This is bad!" Bái exclaimed.

"Should have called Coco!" Lykos announced before grabbing Bái and giving chase to the monster.

"Blame Cobalt!" Tawney yelled shoving him off of her and following her teammates. Cobalt stood and sighed as he surveyed the area. They secured the bluff, hopefully they'd at least get positive marks for that much.

"We'll take it from here!" Someone shouted as they flew by faster than Cobalt could see. The force of the speed threw him off of his feet before littering the area in rose petals.

"Guess that saves me from having to call the school," Cobalt noted as he stood and watched the scene unfold.

"You kids stay back!" Ruby demanded as she landed in front of the creature that roared at her and she smirked. "He's a big one, Uncle Qrow!" Ruby's smile faded as she glanced past the beast to note that Qrow was only now reaching Zephyr's Lookout. "You're getting slow in your old age!" He took his human form, landing next to Lykos and Bái.

"We can help!" Tawney exclaimed.

"You heard her," Qrow stated. "Best you kids stay back and take notes."

"You ever seen one this big before?" Ruby asked.

"Once," Qrow chuckled as he leapt over its tail and met the back of its arm with the flat of his blade as it swung back at him. "No sweat." Ruby chuckled.

"Sure," she agreed, rolling her eyes.

"Backup's here!" Cobalt stated as he joined his team again.

"Shut up," Tawney demanded.

"That's fair," he grumbled.

"Let's see what he's got then," Ruby said as it roared at her and she planted her scythe, the force blowing past her.

"You really want to fight this thing?" Qrow asked as he walked around to it, deflecting another blow from the beast.

"You scared?" Ruby pried. He laughed.

"No, but we could just get rid of this thing with a flash from your eyes," Qrow pointed out to her.

"That would be boring," Ruby groaned. The beast charged up another blast in its mouth, firing only to have Qrow swat it back and it stumbled away and roared from the explosion.

"We were having the worst time with this thing and they're just playing with it," Cobalt told his teammates.

"I guess we have a ways to go yet," Bái considered.

"You were hoping for a fight," Qrow guessed.

"Yeah," Ruby pouted "The kids must have taken care of all the Alphas because this seems to be the only Grimm left in the area." Ruby took a step forward, swinging her scythe around the monster's torso and pulling her trigger, firing a shot that effectively cut the beast in two. Cobalt hit his knees.

"We're not worthy! We're not worthy! We're not worthy!" He repeated before Tawney lifted him up by the collar.

"Can you try acting normal for once!?" She requested.

"Great job, Team CBLT," Ruby told them as she walked towards them with Qrow. "I look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow during the medal ceremony."

"We're honored," Lykos replied as the duo walked past them back towards the bluff and CBLT headed back towards town. The council had contemplated their options for quite a while before deciding to honor the students that protected the school during the attack with a medal identifying them as heroes, as well as a ceremony for publicity purposes. Yep, it was just another day…

"It's tomorrow already, huh?" Bái's thoughts meandered.

"Crazy to think that we were there," Lykos added.

"Crazier to think that there were no repercussions from Glynda for being late," Tawney included.

"I'm guessing we'll get ours at the same time as NITE," Cobalt noted. There was a long pause between the four of them.

"Do you think that Eliana is going to be there?" Bái asked. Lykos, Cobalt, and Tawney gave each other a knowing look before Lykos pulled her close.

"We can hope so for Neela's sake," Lykos pointed out. Ruby and Qrow watched them disappear over the road before turning their full attention to the campsite.

"Do we know what happened," Qrow questioned. "Or more appropriately, why it happened?"

"Maybe they were all running from the Omega?" Ruby offered as she picked up parts of the littered tents and backpacks.

"They wouldn't have stopped to attack if that was the case," Qrow pointed out to her.

"Hard to say then. Last time we saw anything cause Grimm to gather like this was when we were in the possession of the lamp, but those old relics are all still locked up," Ruby stated. "Not to mention, what is that strange noise?" They were silent for a few seconds. "Do you hear it?"

"Probably just a strange frequency coming off of the nearest CCT relay, hard to say," Qrow explained.

"Guess we should probably get Coco and the police force out here to be a little more thorough," Ruby suggested as she removed her scroll and glanced over at Qrow who was taking a long swig from his flask. "I thought you were done with that stuff."

"I was done with the last few drops of what was in here before," he chuckled as she shook her head. "You have to admit that I've cut back."

"Sure," she agreed, rolling her eyes. She discussed the conclusions that they'd come to for a long couple of minutes before hanging up her scroll and motioning towards Vale with her head. "She said that they can take it from here." Qrow nodded.

"Why is it every time that we come into town something like this has to be taken care of?" Qrow asked. Ruby shook her head and began walking for the city.

"I feel like you're exaggerating slightly," Ruby noted.

"There was that stray Goliath that had wandered away from the pack a month ago, and Athena before that," Qrow reminded her as he joined her.

"Athena is a little different, it was our duty as council members to get rid of her," Ruby said. "Besides, that's the whole reason we're here this week anyway. Even if it was Raven who finished it off, those kids did a great job holding their ground."

"I'm not saying they don't deserve recognition…" Qrow began.

"You're just saying that you're getting too old for this?" Ruby pried with a smile. He shoved her and laughed.

"Not that I'll ever admit," Qrow replied with a smile of his own.

Then the area was silent for a long couple of moments as the wind swept over the lookout, tattered tents slapped in the breeze, a reminder of the carnage that had suddenly tidal waved over the bluff and destroyed everything in its path. The campfire was nothing more than embers that held on desperately to stay alive, only to be extinguished minutes later by the officers that showed up to check out the area. The water hissed as it greeted the last signs of the raging flame that once lit the area the night before, washing over the charred wood and mixing the ash in a mess of dirty liquid. The officer stood slowly as Yatsu placed a hand on her back.

"I really feel that I would be better suited for freelancing," she told him with a sigh.

"Coco wanted to further your training with the department, Cerise," he reminded her. "It's really not a bad idea to get a feel for things from the pros."

"I understand that, but all we've done so far is show up after the action has already happened," Cerise groaned.

"Excuse me!" A voice called as a woman appeared over the crest of the hill. She came into view, several other lackeys wearing lab coats trailed slightly behind her as she was clearly leading the group of scientists. She wore black high heels, stilettos that she commanded with so much of a saunter that she could have easily won over any man without having to speak a single word. She completed the look with a black leather skirt that was somewhere between a mini and micro skirt, and a matching black strapless tube top. She wore her lab coat open, flowing in the wind as she walked directly for them, determined to speak with them before they made another move. Cerise noted her golden eyes, contrasting well against her garnet-red hair that was short and combed back, almost giving it a slicked look.

"We're going to have to ask you to leave the area," Yatsu told her, raising his hands up as they continued to approach. The woman ignored him, stopping only inches from him as she reached into her coat and removed an ID that she held too close to his face for him to possibly be able to read.

"As am I," she told him. "Silvia Blood. This area was being used as a testing site for new equipment for the council and they're already going to be pissed off that I told you that much." Yatsu took the badge from her and shoved her a step back which seemed to anger her as she tried to wrench her identification back away from him but he held tight. It was official, her name was indeed Silvia Blood, and with the council's insignia stamped on the card, he couldn't deny the fact that she had indeed been hired by them to do some kind of work.

"What kind of equipment?" Yatsu asked as he handed it back to her. She snatched it back quickly, fixing her glasses and folding her arms.

"You must be a special kind of dense," Silvia replied. "I already told you as much as I can without completely compromising this operation. Leave! Otherwise, I'll be forced to inform my supervisors!"

"Fine, we're leaving," Yatsu replied as he waved Cerise to him. "Let's go!"

"But Ruby didn't even know what was happening out here," Cerise argued. Yatsu stared at her for a long moment before looking back at Blood.

"They don't teach kids anything these days, do they?" Silvia asked as she placed her hand over her face and spread her fingers. "We're with the Vacuo council. Olesia sent us. Council members get one pass a year during their meetings to refuse to give up information on a project if they fear that another kingdom is going to interfere."

"You're an awfully far way from Vacuo," Cerise stated as she joined Yatsu. Yatsu glared at her and Silvia chuckled with a smirk.

"She's quite observant, isn't she?" Silvia noted. "There aren't any Alpha's in the desert, so we needed to come here in order to test it."

"Test what?" Cerise pried once more. Silvia sighed.

"Leave!" She shouted at them suddenly. Yatsu strong-armed Cerise and pulled her through the crowd of lab coats.

"Yatsu," she strained against him.

"She was sent by the council," he explained, dragging her back to the car. "Even if something seems off, there's nothing we can do about it." Blood waited for the car to drive off before she looked at the campsite and shook her head.

"Those damn kids ruined any data that we could have collected!" She shouted balling her fists up. "Dammit!" Her body heaved and she opened her hands, they shook as she swallowed hard and steadied her breath. "A minor annoyance, but not all is lost. It operated as intended. Collect any samples that you can and once Fenris gets here I'll have him take care of the device."

"That had better be some kind of joke!" The man shouted from a nearby tree, watching them from above before leaping down. "You know how much I hate the sound that thing puts out."

"Strange, most people today couldn't even hear that it was all that close," Silvia pointed out with a smirk.

"Remind me why I put up with you again?" He asked. The man seemed out of place among the scientists, looking more like the rejected leader of a biker gang. He had a silver, full mohawk despite the rest of his head being shaved with a soul patch to match, his eyes the same color as Silvia's. A black leather jacket covered his torso, or most of it, as the rips and tears in the worn piece of clothing revealed an olive green stonewashed shirt beneath. His boot cut jeans were in a similar state, though more oil-stained than anything and his black cowboy-style biker boots finished it all off.

"Because we're siblings," Silvia noted as she jotted something down on a clipboard she'd been handed. "Could you be a dear?" He stared at her for a long moment before slamming his fist through the campfire and into the earth, removing the device from the ground and handing it to her, his teeth gritted as he seemed to be having trouble standing the noise.

"Turn the damn thing off!" Fenris demanded.

"Of course," she obliged, flipping the small switch on the bottom. His body immediately relaxed and he shook his head.

"Did it work as well as you hoped?" Fenris questioned.

"It did," she admitted with a smirk as she looked it over. "It turns out that tweaking the frequency results in different kinds of Grimm being attracted to it." She smiled and laughed. "I mean, in theory, it could even be used on Faunus!"

"Strange that you'd find that interesting," Fenris told her as he removed a pack of cigarettes from his jacket and tapped it against his hand. "Last I checked you only cared about Grimm." She turned to him.

"Make no mistake, we're only doing this to finish grandfather's work," She explained. Her smile faded and her face was masked with rage. "And to prove that asshole wrong! We were so close last time and they cut me off!"

"Last time had nothing to do with Grimm," Fenris reminded her as he walked to the edge of the bluff.

"They promised us funding!" She rebutted. She stared at the back of his jacket at Merlot's emblem. "We will finish this, grandfather."

Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of the new year! Next week, Chapter 2: Heroes!

A big thank you to 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 week, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay classy!