"Here she comes!" Titus shouted as he sprinted down the dirt pathway and met Coco before she could reach the camp, taking a whiff of her before turning slightly away and chuckling. "You smell like you might have had too much Whisky, Mrs. Adel." Coco looked him over and scoffed.

"And you smell like you haven't had enough," she rebutted. "Why so eager to come out here and meet me? You seem like a child who's overly excited about busting their sibling." He looked at her with a blank stare before clearing his throat.

"I just thought that it would be important for you to know that Eliana has been injured and it's partially in thanks to Neela," Titus exclaimed. Ilia leapt out of his body and hit him on top of the head with her fist.

"Man you're blunt. Do you get this excited when you write up your soldiers in the military?" Ilia asked.

"How long have you been in here?" Titus asked annoyed.

"I only jumped in when you headed over this way," she told him. "Why? Thinking things that you don't want me knowing?"

"Well it is my mind after all," Titus exclaimed. "It's not a place you can come and go as you please!"

"Somebody tell me what happened with Elli," Coco inquired during their fighting.

"Weiss had given Eliana some experimental ammo at Shadow's birthday party and it would seem that it was a little more potent than the Dust Queen had anticipated," Titus explained. "She's got a pretty good cut on her arm that might become a scar." Coco glanced at him.

"It broke her aura?" Coco asked.

"Almost instantly," Titus replied. Coco rubbed her forehead, Weiss had spent almost a decade working on advanced Dust science now, no one knew it better than her. Why would the ammunition have been so unstable? Even if it was experimental…

"Is she stable?" Coco asked.

"We wrapped her up the best we could," Titus told her.

"Neela's kind of beside herself though," Ilia added. "I tried to talk to her but she seemed like she wanted a moment to herself." Ilia looked at Coco as they stopped short of the camp, the fire burned dull as it needed more wood thrown onto it, Eliana lay in her sleeping bag, more than likely sleeping off the injury, Neela sat beside a tree with her back to them. Coco sighed and approached NITE's leader, sitting beside her.

"You okay kid?" Coco asked. Neela wiped her eyes and tried turning away. She nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Neela replied. "She got hurt pretty good, didn't she?" Coco chuckled, looking up at the night sky.

"I haven't actually looked her over yet, but from the sounds of it, none of you were expecting it," Coco pried. "A little on the showy side?" Neela looked at her to protest but came up short, she knew it was no use.

"We should have just killed them like we normally would," Neela confessed. "But they're just so easy to take on now, I thought we could let loose." Coco wrapped an arm around her.

"I'm not saying that you can't let loose," Coco told her. "I'm just telling you that you need to be careful about it when you do it. I made the same mistake once and it almost cost Yatsu his life."

"Really?" Neela asked. Coco nodded.

"There's a learning curve," Coco explained to her. "That's why you train for 4 years. Someday everything that you tell your team will be as instinctual as eating or sleeping. Trust me Neela, I know you've got what it takes, and Elli is fine." Coco stood up and stretched, helping Neela to her feet and brushing herself off. "I thought that he could take on a Beringel on his own, it probably wasn't the smartest thing that I've ever done."

"I heard that Aunt Ruby did that once, and even she had difficulty with it," Neela said. Coco rubbed her face and laughed as they walked over to Eliana.

"Yeah, well I wasn't equipped with that knowledge at the time," Coco told her. Neela laughed a little under her breath as they approached Eliana and Coco knelt in front of her. Coco gingerly took her arm, Eliana's body slowly rising and falling as she breathed in her sleep. She examined the limb, placing it back as Eliana shifted in her sleep, mumbling and smiling which gave Neela relief. "She'll be fine, there won't even be a scar or anything left behind."

"Thanks, Coco," Neela told her.

"This means I get to be the leader now, right?" Titus asked. Ilia socked him in the arm.

"It does not!" Ilia shouted.

"I was kidding!" Titus yelled back. He moved to the wood pile and tossed one onto the fire, prodding it with a stick and managing to flare it back up. Neela, Ilia, and Titus sat with Coco watching the flames as they licked the sky and Titus sighed as he leaned back, taking a deep breath and watching the glowing embers and ash float through the air. "I should try this relaxing thing more often, this is great."

"I don't think this kind of behavior suits you, Gargoyle," Ilia told him.

"Why not?" He asked.

"You're too tightly wound," Ilia replied.

"Hey, if I can find a way to relax, Titus can too," Coco told them.

"I'm not old enough to drink yet though," Titus nagged her.

"I didn't have that much to drink!" Coco yelled defending herself.

"Well, if anything, this sounds like the perfect time for a story," Ilia said. Coco thought it over for a long moment. "How about the first time that you and Velvet met!"

"I'm sure that Neela would love to hear that one," Titus snickered. Neela blushed.

"Come on Titus, she's sleeping right over there!" Neela scolded him with a shove.

"She's asleep," Titus replied. "You've got to tell her sooner or later, or someone else is bound to. Everybody else knows, and I do mean everyone." Neela covered her face and shook her head.

"I know, I know," Neela agreed. "I just… I need more time."

"Remember what I told you before," Coco said.

"Which was?" Titus asked.

"You know, for someone who likes to deal with things on his own, you sure like to pry into the lives of others," Ilia told him.

"I like to think of it more as profiling than prying," Titus informed them. Coco removed a small coffee maker from her pack and turned back to look at the three of them as they watched her unimpressed.

"Oh come on now, you don't actually think that I'd make it an entire week without a drop of coffee, do you?" Coco asked.

"You at least could have tried," Titus said. Coco pointed at him.

"Is he always like this?" Coco asked.

"An insufferable pain in the ass?" Ilia asked. "Yeah, for the most part."

"I can hear you," Titus said. She pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue causing Neela to laugh.

"I think Eliana is rubbing off on you," Neela pointed out.

"I don't think that's a bad thing," Coco added as she removed a small metal mug and glanced around. "Was there any water close by?"

"That way," Titus said directing her. She left them and Ilia cupped her mouth.

"You're telling us that story when you get back!" Ilia shouted. Coco waved them off.

"We can tell Eliana for you," Titus offered. Ilia leapt up.

"Lay off it Titus, would you?" Ilia snapped at him.

"I just don't want her to lose her chance like I did!" Titus shouted. They both looked at him and he glanced between them. He folded his arms.

"What do you mean?" Neela asked.

"Forget I said anything," Titus told them.

"Keeping it all you yourself still, huh?" Ilia asked.

"Maybe this is just a personal matter," he offered.

"Layoff of him, Ilia," Neela told her. "He deserves to have a few things to himself, don't we all?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Ilia replied. That sat in silence for a long minute or so until Coco returned to brew her coffee.

"Dust powered," Coco said holding up the machine.

"But you're against us using Dust to charge our scrolls?" Titus asked.

"I can go weeks without my scroll," Coco responded with a smirk.

"So… that story?" Ilia inquired.

"Right," Coco replied. "That Bun has always been a doll but it's really hard to imagine anything cuter than Velvet when I met her on the first day of school. She was completely and utterly helpless, and extremely clumsy, I'm pretty sure that she ran into me at full speed, her textbooks went flying everywhere and she landed on her butt pretty hard. She was so embarrassed, and those ears…" Coco blushed. "I helped her up during our initiation and introduced myself. From that point on, she was by my side… for the most part." She winked at Neela.

"I feel like there was more to that wink than you're letting on," Ilia said.

"I'll never tell," Neela replied winking back at Coco.

"You kids should probably get to sleep here pretty soon," Coco told them. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow, and it's going to be tough."

"I'm sure we can handle it," Ilia exclaimed as she stood and nearly tripped over the log she was sitting on.

"Sure," Coco replied.

"Look at this! How can they even make these, Grimm always dissipate when you kill them, don't they?" Eliana asked. Neela picked up the horn that was claimed by the merchant to have been made from the tusk of a Boarbatusk and looked it over. It did seem a bit odd, and she was a bit skeptical about it but she shrugged as she thought it over.

"Well," Neela said. "Lykos wears a Beowulf pelt, so there must be some way to remove parts of them without them being completely destroyed." Neela set it back down on the table and nodded at the man who mirrored her politely and they moved along.

"What's the point of keeping us separate again?" Eliana asked. "I would've liked to meet the mayor."

"I would have too, but Coco wants to avoid the bandits running if we happen to bump into them. They won't think that we're a group of huntsmen if we keep our weapons at camp and split up every now and then. Oh, and if anyone asks we're on a field trip from Signal." Eliana nodded.

"Got it," She replied. Eliana looked around behind her at some of the other stalls before grabbing Neela and forcing her to turn around. "Think that this guy could be one of them?"

"What makes you say that?" Neela asked. She watched for a long moment as a man with a machete clambered through, ignoring anyone in front of him though most people scrambled out of the way. He was a cross between well built and heavy set, a large sack slung over his shoulder, he wore jeans that were greasy and hole filled, a leather jacket covered a grungy white shirt on his torso. He was a touch taller than Neela, his opal eyes seemed to change colors suddenly as he glanced at Neela from across the way, his look was completed with a crooked smile that was missing teeth, his head bald with the exception of 5 blue spikes that were aligned to form a mohawk. She noted the tattoo under his eye, a small black cross.

"Should we follow him?" Eliana asked.

"We can try watching him for a bit, but I don't think we should stalk him until we have instructions from Coco after we report to her. He might just be a normal guy, you know?" Neela told her. Neela passed by a few more stands with Eliana until they were standing in a crowd that was enjoying a street performer that did tricks with Dust, she looked back over her shoulder at the man who looked around as if he was being watched before he stopped at a booth and set down his pack, reaching in and looking the items over before presenting cuts of meat to a man. The vendor carried on a conversation, smiling and laughing as he took the food and examined it, clearly satisfied with what had been presented to him. He paid a hefty sum of lien to their suspect who picked his bag back up, clearly still containing what Neela had to guess was more meat, and went along on his way.

"Well?" Eliana asked, more distracted by the show in front of her than anything.

"He was trading meat, seemed normal enough," Neela told her. The man formed a large snowflake out of ice, giving it to a girl in the crowd that was in awe and jumped up and down as she ran back to her mother who smiled at the man and he tipped his hat. He crushed a gravity crystal beneath his feet, kicking off of the road and leaping high into the air before twisting his cape before him and disappearing and the crowd applauded. Neela wondered how things were going inside of the town's meeting hall.

"So what brings you into my office today?" the older man asked as he hobbled to the door, closing it and gesturing for them to take a seat before his desk. He quickly made his way back over, leaping up into his seat and folding his hands together, his elbows on his desk. "I don't recall asking for any hunstmen or huntresses to come to Shion, and you don't exactly look like the students that attend Haven. So, how can I help?"

"Well, you see…" Coco began. She paused for a moment.

"Mr. Rivers," the man replied with a nod.

"Ah, the father's father," Coco replied.

"No, the father's brother," he replied.

"What?" Titus asked totally lost.

"It doesn't matter," Coco replied. "Sir, the reason that we were brought here was due to a distress signal that was sent to us from the woods nearby. The user had somehow managed to boost their signal temporarily, saying that they were more or less being chased around by bandits. They sounded like they were out of breath, and also mentioned that they'd been running from this group for quite some time. Do you know anything about this?" The man rubbed his heavily bearded chin and shrugged, kicking his feet up onto the desk.

"Nobody in this village has mentioned a thing to me about being harassed by thieves or bandits. Is it possible that it was an old message and that it was sent later than the intended date?" The mayor asked. "The Branwen Tribe was still in the area a few months ago before the military snuffed them out, perhaps that was the group they were referring to?" Coco leaned forward in her seat.

"I realize that this kingdom, or at least the majority of it, isn't as technologically advanced as the other kingdoms as a whole. Even if the message had sent out at a later time beyond the date of being recorded, we have ways of knowing the date of creation for the file. This file was only created about a week ago, the same day that the CCT tower in Vale brought it to my attention," Coco told him.

"Perhaps it was a prank," the man suggested. "Kids these days will do anything for attention." Ilia shifted with a sigh and he glanced at her before looking back at Coco. "Look, your team can look around as much as they'd like, but I haven't seen anything of the like here since the eradication of Branwen. The military means business and the clans know that now. If I did know anything, Stratford would already be aware." Titus cracked his knuckles, looking at Coco who shook her head.

"Not yet," she told him. She stood, moving to his desk and leaning over it. She lowered her glasses. "If you're lying to me Rivers, the odds are against you for keeping this post for too much longer. Stratford will be hearing all about this and he'll send someone over from Haven to keep an eye on the village, being such a nice vacation spot, I'm guessing it helps out the economy more than the other small towns nearby. Stratford doesn't like hearing that he's failing at protecting Remnant, trust me, I've met him a few times now. It's your choice." Rivers stood and pointed at the door.

"Get out," he demanded. Titus stood and Coco gave a smirk to the mayor before turning around to face her students.

"He's not worth our time," Coco told Titus. She walked out past Titus with Ilia close behind, Titus lingering for a moment longer. He moved to the desk and gripped the edge of it, easily towering over the figurehead who stared up at him.

"Even if you were able to give us the tiniest insight into this, as a lieutenant general of the Atlas Military, it's possible that I'd be able to cut you a deal and offer you protection," Titus informed him. Rivers looked away and gritted his teeth.

"If there is an imaginary group of thieves out there terrorizing my citizens, I'm guessing that they'd really hate Faunus," the mayor said. It wasn't what Titus had expected and he stood back up to leave. "You haven't noticed? There are no Faunus here, take a walk through the market if you haven't already." Rivers stood up and brushed himself off. "Get out, I've already told you more than I should have." Titus walked out without a word, closing the doors behind him.

"Well?" Coco asked. Titus held up a finger as he placed an earpiece in and pressed his finger against it.

"There were huntsmen here," Rivers said, obviously on his scroll. "I didn't tell them anything, I just wanted you to know to lay low this week. I'll let you know when they leave, of course. Yes, our previous arrangement still stands. Yes. Goodbye." Titus removed the earpiece and looked at her.

"Sounds like you were right," Titus told Coco. "He's either been paid off by them or working with them. Having me bug his desk was a smart idea." Coco smirked.

"Exactly as planned," she told him. "I wanted to make sure that the overhang on the front of the desk was wide enough for you to attach the listening device. Thank Oum for Atlas tech."

"He did tell me something that I found interesting," Titus told them.

"That he's actually the father's mother!?" Ilia asked. He shook his head.

"What, no! He told me that they aren't big on Faunus around here," he told them. Coco left the building and they headed towards the market where they found Neela and Eliana still admiring the wares.

"Then I guess it's a good thing that Neela's trait isn't overly obvious," Coco said.

"Anyone else want to try Gustave jerky?" Eliana asked. Coco shoved her out of the way lightly and looked the meat over.

"What the hell is a Gustave?" Coco asked the vendor. He looked up from his book and shrugged.

"Beats me, lady. The meat gets dropped off here prelabeled, I just pay for it and sell it under the premise that it's fresh and that it's the type of meat labeled on the package," he told her. He continued reading his book before Neela cleared her throat, forcing him to acknowledge them again. "You people plan on buying something, or are you just going to keep harassing me?"

"The man that dropped this off here before, who is he?" Neela asked.

"His name's Mallory Akeldama," the merchant said. "Works for a woman named Zilla Kennedy. A group of hunters from what I've been told. Look, I don't really pry into the lives of my suppliers, they come around once a week, so if you want to come back and talk to whichever one decides to show up next week, be my guest but unless you're buying something now, please leave me alone." Eliana smiled, handing him enough lien for the jerky and they left, thanking him begrudgingly.

"Who's this Mallory you asked about?" Coco inquired as they headed further into the town towards one of the city's parks.

"You should have seen him," Eliana exclaimed with her mouth full. "Real sketchy looking guy, kind of had a creepy vibe going on."

"He gave me a chill when he looked at me," Neela said. "His eyes were cold, to say the least."

"What Neela said," Eliana agreed. She stopped short of the park and they all passed her, Eliana looking up ahead for a moment without moving. Neela glanced back at her, dropping back and joining her best friend who had been rendered motionless and unblinking.

"Hey Elli, you in there?" Neela asked. Eliana's eyes looked wet and she nodded without saying anything. "You okay?"

"Yeah…" Eliana replied, her throat dry. Neela looked up at the tree in the middle of the park which Eliana's eyes were fixated on, Eliana hardly ever acted like this.

"Memories with your dad here?" Neela asked. Eliana nodded again, smiling and trying not to cry as she covered her mouth.

"The three of us used to come here whenever he could get off of work," Eliana explained. "The city was just regaining its wits, and it was busy here all the time, the park would be packed with people. As much as mom hated it, dad would let me climb the tree. He never let me climb higher than the bottom couple of branches, but it was still an awesome feeling, it was something I'd done on my own that was difficult, and I could see over all of the people. My dad said that it was a similar feeling to what he felt when he protected us and caught the bad guys." Eliana stopped talking. "I want to follow in his footsteps Neela. I want to help people like he did!"

"Elli," Neela said pulling Eliana into her chest. Eliana's eyes grew wide as she looked up at Neela. "Your father would be extremely proud of you, I know that Violet is. You're going to do great things Elli, and even if you didn't become a huntress, or police officer, or whatever, your father would still be ecstatic that you did the best that you could and that you became your own person."

"You're the best Neela, really," Eliana told her. Neela separated the two of them and smiled at her.

"Want to go climb the tree?" Neela asked. Eliana leapt once and threw her fists out.

"Do I?!" Eliana asked. She dragged Neela behind her and stopped at the base of the tree, Titus and Ilia the only other ones in the park, sitting on a nearby bench. Eliana threw her jerky at the two of them and it slapped against the side of Titus' face.

"Hey!" Titus shouted.

"Last one to the top is buying the other Dust next week when we get back!" Eliana told Neela.

"You're on!" Neela said.

"No using your hook," Eliana told her.

"I won't need to," Neela replied. They both began climbing the tree, Eliana had the distinct advantage, moving up swiftly and Neela hooked her ankle, pulling her down and watching her fall past. "What's the problem?"

"You cheated!" Eliana yelled laughing. She landed on a forcefield, creating a series of platforms and jumping up past Neela.

"That's not cheating?" Neela chuckled following just behind her.

"We never agreed that I couldn't use my semblance," Eliana said. She reached the top, her head bursting through the canopy and she looked out at the village. Neela perched next to her and smiled, wrapping her arm around Eliana. "It looks even better than I remember."

"We're supposed to be doing things that are mission-related!" Titus shouted up at them.

"What do you propose that we do?" Ilia asked him. "We don't have anything to go off of and Coco is looking into figuring out what to do next. Relax!"

"We could take some initiative you know," Titus told her.

"I'm with Ilia, chill Titus," Eliana declared. Neela moved past Eliana so that she was closer to Titus.

"As your leader, I'm giving you orders to enjoy yourself," Neela said.

"Technically Coco is in charge of us while we're here," Titus reminded them.

"I'm with them Titus, calm down," Coco told her.

"Mrs. Adel, I'm being ganged up on," Titus said. She sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Okay, whoever manages to break his aura gets to come into town with me tonight for dinner," Coco said.

"I was joking!" Titus exclaimed.

Strange things seem to be happening in town... but next week, things get crazier! Chapter 76 - Taken!

A big thank you to Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. All of their 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 classy!