"How long has it been since the last time that we saw him or even heard from him?" Neela asked as she walked at the front of her team, the war-torn and crumbling buildings of Vale painted a bleak outlook for their future as she stopped momentarily, opening the door of a rusted car that was overgrown and clearly inoperable, rummaging through the glove box for anything that might come in handy before lucking out and finding a small canister of Dust, tossing it to Ilia behind her.

"It's only been a couple of weeks, that doesn't mean that he's dead," Eliana replied. "Maybe he went into hiding and has been waiting for us to show up and bail him out."

"That's possible, but it seems unlikely," Ilia added as they kept moving. Birds chirped at each other, flying from building to building before settling into a large tree that was growing in the middle of the road.

"To think that a Dust bomb from the Atlas army would be enough to wipe out the entire city," Eliana speculated.

"That was nearly 10 years ago, imagine what they could do now," Neela replied before stopping in her tracks. Something shifted, drawing her attention and she drew an arrow as she focused on the rustling of tall grass down the street.

"Is it one of those mutated Grimm?" Ilia asked as she prepared to open fire as well.

"It could be," Neela began before the grass shifted violently, a wave of mice that had been mutated by the Dust bomb charged for them, a vain attempt in hopes of consuming their flesh as Ilia and Neela obliterated them, using Eliana semblance to hold them back. "Even the regular animals have been affected?"

"It is the first time we've run into anything like that," Eliana noted. "Not to mention that this is the closest we've ever been to the actual location of the explosion.

"Drop your weapons!" Someone shouted standing on a stack of vehicles that seemed to be arranged for the purpose of cover from gunfire. Neela trained her bow on the man who was heavily cloaked, the hood and scarf over his face made it hard for her to identify him and she continued towards him.

"That's not going to happen!" Neela replied. "Who are you?!"

"I said drop your weapons," he shouted again. Another man exited from behind the pile and shook his head as he opened his arms.

"Neela!" He yelled and she ran, immediately recognizing her former teammate.

"Titus!" She called out giving the signal for Ilia and Eliana to follow her.

"Been a long time Gargoyle," Ilia offered. Titus chuckled as he pulled them all in for a hug.

"I don't remember you being so touchy," Eliana added as they laughed.

"Can I come down now?" The cloaked individual inquired.

"Yes, Cobalt," Titus informed him. Neela released Titus and looked up at him.

"You were going to shoot us?!" Neela asked.

"My scanner is on the fritz and Titus said that I couldn't be too careful!" Cobalt replied leaping down.

"You know us, asshole!" Ilia scolded hitting him in the arm.

"He said that I couldn't be too careful!" Cobalt repeated.

"Where is the rest of your crew?" Neela asked. Cobalt laughed nervously.

"That's why I wanted to talk to you," Titus said as he led them into the courthouse building. They stepped through the doors, people were strewn about the hallway, talking and whispering to each other before their eyes grew wide at the sight of NITE.

"It's them," someone noted.

"Can it really be?" Another pried.

"I heard that the girls had died in the explosion!" A third exclaimed. All of the rooms off of the wings had been repurposed. One was a makeshift kitchen, and more than a few of them served as bedrooms for all of the runaways and refugees simply trying to get on their feet.

"Have you had any luck finding a way out of the city?" Titus asked as they entered the old courtroom and closed the doors behind them.

"Atlas made sure to cover every possible option that we'd think of," Neela noted. "They don't want the radiation or anything that's been created as a result of the attack to escape, as if this was a reasonable alternative for letting us try and stop Salem. We hadn't even reached her by the time the bomb hit."

"And worse yet, we don't know that it killed her for sure," Titus mentioned. They all looked at him.

"You're not suggesting…" Neela began. He nodded.

"Alleged sightings," Titus told her as he led them to the front where Tawney and Jaune waited for them.

"Where's Coco and the rest of the militia?" Eliana asked Jaune. He rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"They're the ones that reported on believing they'd spotted Salem," Jaune informed them. "They headed out this morning to confirm what they'd seen."

"We're going," Neela commanded to her team as she made her way to the door.

"Neela," Titus began.

"You're not talking me out of this," Neela replied.

"Neela!" Titus shouted.

"What?!" She bit turning to face him, her face bright red and eyes wet.

"We haven't heard from Bái and Lykos in a while," Titus explained. "If you see them, bring them back."

"I will," Neela agreed taking a deep breath. She left with Ilia and Eliana placed her hand on Titus's shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure that she doesn't get herself killed," Eliana assured him. "She's bound to do something rash since she feels like if only we'd reached Salem sooner, her parents would still be alive." Titus nodded and sent her off, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced at Jaune who motioned with his head.

"Go with them," Jaune told him. "I can watch things here."

"Tell Neela to kick some ass for me," Tawney told him with a smirk.

"And for the love of Oum take Cobalt with you, he's been driving us crazy," Jaune laughed. Titus nodded, grabbing Cobalt on the way out and they headed further into the city.

"You know what I just got to thinking about?" Cobalt asked them as they inched closer and closer to the location Salem was spotted.

"Ugh," Ilia groaned.

"What's that?" Eliana asked.

"The longer that this fantasy goes on for, the more I think it would make for a really cool AU or spinoff, you know?" Cobalt noted. Neela looked at him annoyed.

"What fantasy?" Neela asked.

"This one, with the bomb, and the whole being trapped in the city and our friends are AWOL and whatnot," Cobalt rambled on. Ilia chuckled.

"You should have shot him off of that pile of scrap earlier," Ilia told Neela.

"Probably," Neela agreed.

"Hey, don't be like that!" He pleaded.

"Help!" Someone shouted. They all looked at Neela who began sprinting and waved for them to follow.

"That sounded like…" Neela was cut off short as she was nailed in the chest with a large mass of ice that picked her up off of her feet and threw her into the air.

"Neela!" Eliana called out as Neela regained her wits and grappled to the nearest rooftop.

"You came!" Bái exclaimed as she stepped into the middle of the street with Lykos beside her. "I was afraid that I wouldn't be given the luxury of meeting you all again so that we could finish this properly." Cobalt stepped out to the front of the pack.

"Bái?!" He shouted at her.

"It might look like Bái, but it's not her," Titus informed him. Bái's white skin and red veins were obvious even given the block length distance between them. Lykos was part Grimm, something that they could only imagine at this moment was not an illusion. "It's Salem."

"And here I thought that we'd have a little fun before I was outed," Salem told them.

"What did you do to them?" Ilia asked preparing to fight.

"She had so much excess power flowing through her that she just didn't know how to use, so I took her body for my own," Salem stated as they began to move towards NITE and Cobalt. An explosive arrow landed at Salem's feet and she absorbed the energy as it exploded. She chuckled, wiping her hands against each other as she continued her march. "And now, I'll finish this and no one will be able to stand in my way of finishing what I came here to do."

"Cobalt!" Neela shouted.

"On it!" He replied. The laser cut through Bái's body from behind, his clone disappearing from beside Titus as Salem burst into smoke and the street was filled with pits of tar that Grimm began emerging from.

"Looks like we called each other's bluff, Xiao Long," Salem's voice echoed through the city.

"Neela!" Eliana shouted. Neela grappled Eliana and pulled her up as she turned in time to block Salem who came down at her with a large black sword that appeared to be dripping with the same contents of the pools below. Eliana formed a forcefield as she leapt onto the roof, blocking a second attack.

"Titus…" Ilia began before being forced to fight off a beowolf.

"Cobalt and I can handle the Grimm and Lykos!" Titus replied as he knelt, his body covering itself in stone as he crossed his blades. She leapt, compressing herself against them before he launched her, giving her more than enough height and speed to clear the top and she met Salem head-on, both of her blades blocked by Grimm tentacles that had sprouted from Salem's back. She opened fire, the bullets seeming to pass right through the woman as she overpowered Ilia and tossed her off of the roof.

"Now!" Neela shouted. Eliana placed a forcefield behind Salem to keep her from moving, Neela attempted to run her through but Salem blocked with her own blade before pulling it down and nearly removing Neela's arm. Eliana had thought quickly, another forcefield protecting Neela's shoulder and she dashed in, trying to use her prods to electrocute the woman, but instead passing through much like Ilia's bullets.

"Is this the real one?" Eliana asked in a panic. Salem tossed Eliana away with her extra appendages, preparing to shatter Neela's sword with a powerful attack as Ilia leapt from Neela's body and ran her blades through Salem. The body dissipated as another pool opened behind Neela, allowing another Salem that appeared as Bái to emerge.

"How much longer can your auras hold out?" Salem inquired. Neela's eyes lit up and she ducked, just dodging a decapitation as she rolled forward, Eliana pulling her to her feet and forming a forcefield to separate them from the clone.

"It's Lykos!" Neela shouted.

"What?" Titus asked. Lykos grinned as he looked up at Cobalt and Titus, shrugging slightly.

"Clever girl," Lykos uttered in Salem's voice. Lykos' body exploded, replaced by a fully Grimm creature that slammed Cobalt to the ground and forced him into one of the breeding pools.

This didn't end in the way I expected at all…

"Maybe you should get some sleep?" Bái offered as she glanced over his shoulder at the paper in front of him. He looked up at her before looking back at the paper.

"Heh, these are just science notes," he laughed nervously.

"I've been reading the entire time," Bái informed him before walking away. She stopped before reaching her bed. "Do you really think that could happen?" Cobalt looked the notes over again before crumbling it up and tossing it into the trash.

"Pfft… No."

"I'm home!" Neela shouted into the cabin as she opened the door and peeked inside with her teammates standing behind her. The house seemed empty from what Neela could tell at first glance and she listened for a reply before deciding that they might have beaten her parents home. Titus looked into the building past her before sighing and stepping back out, wiping his brow and looking around the yard for signs that anyone was there. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Are you sure that we're having dinner here?" Titus asked. "They're probably waiting for us back at the apartment, wondering why we aren't more punctual than this, always being late." Ilia shoved him and Eliana chuckled as she leapt off of the path onto the lawn and headed for the shed. "Where are you going, Eliana?"

"Checking to see if the bike is here!" Eliana shouted out.

"I'm still not sure they said that we're having dinner here…" Titus muttered.

"I was there, I'm sure that's what they said," Ilia exclaimed walking past him to follow Eliana with Neela close on her heels.

"You can wait here, we'll only be a moment," Neela instructed him as he folded his arms.

"Yeah, sure, why not? At least text them and make sure!" He yelled at her as she dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"Why are we doing dinner here instead of at the apartment?" Ilia asked her.

"Normally Blake and Yang start making regular trips back to the house towards the end of the school year to make sure that everything is in order for when they move back in," Neela explained as Eliana threw the shed doors open and let the sunlight pour in. She coughed for a moment as a gust of wind swept in and threw the filament of dust that had coated the floor into the air, taking her off guard. She stumbled away as she searched for untainted oxygen, allowing Neela to step in past her, glancing around.

"There are two bikes here," Ilia offered. Neela stared in disbelief for a long couple of seconds as Eliana rejoined her.

"Where's Bumblebee?" Eliana questioned. Neela stepped in and pulled the tarp off of the two new bikes, nearly identical with the exception of the paint jobs, one detailed with purple and the other with yellow, making it easy for Neela to determine whose was whose.

"That's kind of what I was wondering…" Neela managed, taking a step back into Ilia.

"Bumblebee?" Ilia inquired as she admired the motorcycles in front of her. She pushed through and ran her hands over Yang's. "Oum, what I wouldn't do for a crotch rocket like this." She laid her body against it and whimpered. "I love it."

"Let's take it easy," Eliana said removing her from it. "Vin might start getting worried if this goes any further."

"Bumblebee was Yang's first motorcycle," Neela recalled fondly. "She used to let me help her work on it all the time. It didn't even matter that I couldn't ride it, or that I didn't really understand how it worked when they first adopted me… I just wanted to spend time with Yang in any way possible."

"So you have no interest in riding?" Ilia asked. Neela chuckled.

"My fondest memories of Bumblebee were when I was much, much younger," Neela laughed. "I would give anything to ride it now, it's the coolest! Yang would never let me because it was her pride and joy and Blake would never let me because I was her pride and joy. Though it was limited edition when Yang bought it even, so getting my hands on the same model would be impossible now." Ilia and Eliana laughed as Titus reached the shed.

"What's going on in here?" Titus asked.

"Nothing that you would know anything about," Ilia grunted as she let herself out.

"What's that mean?" Titus questioned as he looked at the bikes.

"Ever ride one?" Eliana pried as he stepped closer.

"Once," he said abruptly. Ilia lit up and rushed back to them.

"What?" She questioned.

"It was for a mission," he stated.

"Man they start you kids early up there," Neela noted.

"Were you even of legal driving age at that time?" Ilia wondered.

"That information is classified," he coughed, clearing his throat. Ilia sighed.

"Yeah right," Ilia smirked as Eliana stood behind her, forming a mouth with her hand and making it say 'That information is classified.'

"Discussing the details of any mission with any person who is not either a member of the Atlas Military, or an official who is a part of the council or works directly for the council is not allowed and is punishable by Atlas law," Titus droned on.

"Huh?" Eliana muttered.

"It's not allowed!" Titus exclaimed.

"Why didn't you just say that?" Eliana asked.

"I was…" He stammered before groaning. "Ilia didn't believe that it's not allowed, so I explained to her why it isn't."

"It is still way too easy to push your buttons," Ilia stated.

"I hate you," He exhaled. She beamed and left the shed ahead of the rest of them as they all piled out.

"I don't buy that either," Ilia laughed.

"What are you all doing in there?" Blake asked as they approached the house from down the dirt trail, Shadow leaping down out of Yang's arms and making a beeline to Eliana before attaching herself to the girl's legs.

"Trying to figure out if you were home or not," Eliana admitted.

"Where's Bumblebee?" Neela cautiously inquired as she took a step towards Yang.

"Yang," Blake asserted. Yang glanced at her before staring at the ground and kicking at it.

"Well you see, Neela," Yang began.

"You didn't sell it, did you?" Neela begged, taking another step closer.

"I know that bike meant a lot to you, but it was starting to border on antique. Apparently it had become some kind of collector's item, and I was offered a sum of Lien that I just couldn't refuse and Blake was wanting to get a bike to ride with me, so we got two new ones with the money from Bumblebee," Yang explained. Neela nodded her head slowly and looked away.

"Yeah, okay," Neela muttered.

"I'm sorry," Yang offered.

"It's fine," Neela dismissed her. "I just wish you would have told me, or at the very least would have let me ride it one time." Yang nodded as she walked to Neela and pulled her in for a hug.

"I should have, you're right," Yang agreed. "I'm sorry." Blake looked at the other three and motioned them into the cabin with her head.

"You three hungry?" Blake asked. Ilia and Titus followed her in with Eliana trailing behind, giggling with Shadow who was still clinging on to her legs for dear life.

"I can help," Ilia noted. "We can make Titus work too."

"I'll have you know that my mother taught me how to cook," Titus argued.

"Hurry up, Sissy!" Shadow called out. She wanted to reply, but was afraid of crying harder and opted not to, though Yang could hear her sniffling against her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Yang questioned. Neela avoided eye contact and nodded her head, sniffing once more as she searched for the words.

"Yeah," Neela choked out. "I guess I was more attached to Bumblebee than I realized." Neela smiled at her, a tear streaming down her face. "I'll be fine." Yang wiped it away and smiled at her daughter.

"When you're finally ready to get one of your own, I can help you pick it out if you'd like," Yang assured her. Neela nodded before hugging Yang once more and laughing lightly.

"I'd like that," Neela admitted. "We can work on it together, just like we did Bumblebee."

"Of course," Yang agreed. "Like you'd know what you're doing." Neela shoved Yang off and they both laughed.

"Hey!" Neela defended. "I learned a thing or two from helping you!"

"You're gonna have to prove it to me at some point I guess," Yang chuckled. "All I recall you doing before was handing me the wrong size wrench."

"Only because you'd ask for the wrong one!" Neela protested.

"Debatable," Yang replied as she draped her arm over her daughter's shoulders. "Love you, Little Bird."

"I love you too, mom."

Oh, Cobalt and your overactive imagination. Next week, Chapter 111 - Changing Seasons!

A big thank you to Helihi, Cadhla182, 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!