Apparently two weeks went by a lot faster than I thought. Damn. Anyways, I'm trying something a little different for this chapter, so I hope it doesn't feel too disjointed or seem like a lesser chapter because of it. This is something I've been meaning to do at some point in the story for a while now, but I came up with another hook to play alongside it, so this chapter is the culmination of those two ideas. And on that note, here is the latest chapter since I don't want to take up too much time with my author's notes.

Frost slowly opened his eyes as a feeling of grogginess passed over him. His mind was fuzzy as he started to move into a sitting position, his body sore all over for…some reason that he couldn't remember. It was as though all of his muscles had been overused at once, and were choosing now to protest to him in varying waves of discomfort and numbness. He tried to think back to what could have caused this, but nothing seemed to come to mind after he had tried to stop Yang from attacking Emerald. Everything after that seemed to fade into a blurry haze that his brain couldn't seem to decipher.

His mind continued to work overtime as he tried to figure out what seemed off about the current situation, so much so that he was completely unaware of a presence walking up behind him…

"Where is he?!" Neo practically screeched as she barged through the door to the cottage in her frenzy.

"Down the hall, second door on the left!" A familiar male voice called from within, Neo immediately moving to reach said room in her haste to check on Frost's condition. However, the moment she reached the door, she hesitated, unsure of what she would find within based on Frost's deteriorating state of mind. It seemed like the time left before he succumbed was rapidly being pulled out from under all of them, and that thought alone nearly had Neo running in fear to simply avoid seeing him eventually become the monster she had nearly become…or worse, were he to try something drastic to prevent that from happening, knowing him.

But she held firm, and with a forcefully determined look on her face opened the door to the room, silently hiding away her fears and reservations as she stepped over the threshold and witnessed the contents of the room.

Frost slowly walked along the path through the woods as he continued walking in what he felt to be the right direction, unsure of exactly where his destination was or how he had gotten into this area in the first place. He continued to have a feeling of wrongness about everything around him, as well as a constant nagging feeling that he was being followed, however every time he moved to look behind him his body would stop as though saying that he shouldn't do that despite his curiosity. And so he continued walking, his footsteps silently hounded by a beast hungry for its next meal.

His body was calm and motionless as it lay on the mattress of the bed that he had been placed upon by Penny and Taiyang. Neo would have noticed that Penny was standing by in case of assistance while Taiyang patiently attended to his injuries from his battle with said android had she looked anywhere else, but her eyes could only seem to focus on Frost's face. It appeared calm and at peace for the time being, but she knew that was only a mask for what truly went on his mind as the days went on. The two of them had developed a sense of understanding for one another from when they were young- even before their village had been assaulted that allowed them to better know when one was lying or attempting to hide something from someone else.

"How…how is he?" Neo asked as her eyes remained focused on Frost even as the other two turned to face her at the sound of her voice.

Taiyang chuckled lightly as he turned back to finish wrapping a bandage around Frost's more heavily wounded arm. "Well, aside from a few bruises and some minor concussions from being thrown into things a bunch it seems like he'll pull through just fine. Thankfully I've got some familiarity tending to injuries like these given Yang's fighting style, so that worked out well I suppose. However…" Silence hung in the air for a few moments before he turned to face Neo with a more serious expression. "I've never seen someone go into such a bloodthirsty rage like that before, and Yang's Semblance is literally a temper tantrum. He never acted like that when the two of you visited before, so I'll ask you now. What was that? And do we need to keep an eye on him in case it happens again? You may have helped in some way to bring my daughter some hope again, but I won't stand idly by if a threat walks, or in this case collapses, into my home without warning."

"I…" Neo hesitated as she thought about Frost's increasingly frequent outbursts as of late, as well as the number of nights he had awoken with a yell and a cold sweat that had startled both herself and Emerald on some nights. Tears came to her eyes as she struggled to give an answer to a question even she wasn't sure how to reply to. "I don't know. I don't-"

She would have tried to say more were it not for her legs giving out as she collapsed to her knees, tears freely falling down her face as she whimpered in fear, her arms wrapping around her sides as once again her life seemed to collapse around her, taking everything she cared about away in a single breath. Penny, being the one currently standing, was the first to reach Neo as Taiyang stood to hastily move to her as well, a guilt-stricken expression etched across his face as he felt responsible for reducing her to this state of being. The two of them kneeled beside her and tried their best to console her, even as the other three arrived at the door from finishing their discussion outside, only to be witness to the current scene of Neo in tears on the floor while Frost lay silently in the bed.

The trees began to thin as Frost continued walking along. His mind still failed to remember anything beyond getting into a disagreement with someone in the clearing outside Yang and Ruby's home, and so he surmised that it must have turned into a brawl that had launched him into the tree line and away from the house. The fact that he had been walking for what seemed like such a long length of time and not seen any signs of people or the clearing began to enact an increasing worry in his mind that something had gone horribly wrong or that he was walking in the entirely wrong direction. However, each time he tried to deviate from the direction he was going, his body would again refuse to allow him to change his course and he simply continued to walk straight ahead.

The first thing that he began to notice as the trees thinned further was a slight smell of smoke in the air. He increased his pace as the smell became more pungent, his desire to protect taking hold as his mind told him that he needed to make sure that no one was in danger as he broke the tree line and came to the outskirts of a village on the verge of ruin. Fires raged all over even as chunks of buildings collapsed under their weakened structures. Screams could be heard over the crackling and snapping of wood as people fled back and forth trying to escape the chaos of what was happening.

While his mind wanted to do nothing more run to help the people calling for aid or for someone to retrieve them from a collapsed building, his feet simply continued to walk straight through the village on what seemed to be a predetermined path. Buildings raced by as he sprinted through the streets past houses and people, the screams growing stronger and more frequent as he seemed to bound over debris and bodies with an agility that he didn't know he possessed. By now, even with the use of his Semblance to leap over so many objects and to move so far it would have used a rather sizable chunk of his abilities to maintain such strength in his limbs. However, he felt no signs of fatigue or weariness as he pressed on.

His stride eventually brought him to a building that seemed…familiar…for some reason. His eyes scanned over the building, noticing that it appeared to still be in good condition despite the apparent damage to the other homes in the village. His mind continued to itch, the feeling of wrongness only stronger the closer to the building he moved. There were signs of scratches and minor damage done to the yard and a few burn marks on one wall, but otherwise things seemed oddly safe for a place so near to so much damage. His attention was rapidly refocused however as he sensed a hostile presence off to his side, his body quickly moving to intercept it before it could hurt him. His reflexes were only just quick enough to shift his position to narrowly avoid a large broadsword aimed directly at the center of his torso, a man with broad shoulders and a determined look standing across from him as he panted heavily.

"Honey! I found another one trying to reach the house! This one's quicker than the rest though, might need a hand with stopping it!" His powerful voice carried over the din of fire and chaos, even as another voice responded from what sounded like the opposite side of the building.

"We're a little busy with what looks like a pack of Beowolves behind the house! Can you try to delay it at the very least?"

"Dunno! This guy's pretty quick, and I'm not sure how much muscle he's got under there! I'll see what I can do though!" The man called back even as he took a stance opposite Frost, even as Frost felt himself hunch slightly towards the ground as though to pounce directly at the man despite the large sword he wielded. His mind screamed at him to run, to get away from the threat and from everything here that just felt WRONG, but his instinct seemed to demand that he see this fight through, even if it meant his own demise.

With a mighty yell, the man started running forward even as his body seemed to fade from existence for a brief moment with a shimmering of light. Frost's body responded in turn as he clenched his teeth and sprinted towards the man as well. His hand reached out to grab onto the man's hand and attempt to create a struggle over the possession of the sword, only for it to pass through what felt like warm water as the man's attack continued unhindered into Frost's abdomen, his body lurching back slightly as the sword stabbed into his gut and lodged itself there as he stumbled back. It didn't hurt as much as Frost had expected however, and the man also seemed surprised by the fact that he was still alive even after being stabbed in such a vital part of his body. His hand reached down to pull the blade from his body, and after a brief struggle to remove the offending piece of metal from him, it slid away even as blood began to quickly leak from the large wound, though also not as much as he would have expected to be losing.

His arm swung a few times to test the weight of the weapon even as the man slowly began to move towards the house and away from the person he had just stabbed with a look of fear etched across his face. Frost would have normally turned and walked away, knowing that the man was now unarmed and unable to harm him. But he had stabbed him, and that had hurt. It seemed only fair that he return the blade to its owner besides. The protests from his mind continued on, though much quieter now as he slowly stalked towards the man as he ran around the side of the building, likely to join the people he had been calling to moments before.

"Danielle, Collette! Get the kids and run! This is worse than we feared, it's too dangerous!"

"What are you talking about Will?! We just took down the entire pack with ease between Danielle and I! What could possibly be so bad about one person...Where's your sword?"

"Back there, in the hands of that "one guy"! I don't know what kind of Semblance he has, but it's like the blade barely fazed him, and he's barely even losing blood even from such a large wound! We'd be too focused on fighting just him that we wouldn't be able to protect the others at the same time! We need to reach the landing zone for the escape vehicles so that we can get away from all of this!"

"A Semblance that slows bleeding and might even have some regenerative effects? Pfft, I can deal with that with my eyes closed, remember?"

Frost continued marching slowly around the house even as he heard a third voice join the mix, even as the other two continued to debate.

"Danielle, if he's too fast for even William to hit, how are you supposed to hit him even without a Semblance? You can block Semblances for a brief amount of time, but physical skill is still something you have to go up against all the time! Your weapon is too large and unwieldy for going up against a broadsword like Will's!"

"Hey, just because I thought it would be more effective to wield a mace to knock people out quickly doesn't mean I don't know how to use it against something quick! If I recall correctly, I've won against you and Will loads of times even with your faster weapons. I've got this."

"…Fine. But be careful. Something about all of this still doesn't sit right with me."

Frost slowly finished walking around the side of the building even as three figures all turned to face in his direction as one of his feet crunched some twigs and leaves underfoot. Before any of them had time to react however, he quickly pounced with a speed that didn't seem right, even to him, as he plunged the blade into the side of the person closest to him, a woman that wielded what looked like a large bow with blades on the tips that likely acted as a means of slashing any opponent that came too close to her. His eyes briefly passed to her back, looking for a quiver to hold arrows for said bow, but that thought was quickly interrupted as a bright projectile of energy lanced out of her opposite hand with a wide spread, launching him through the air for a few feet before he landed and slid to a stop back at the other end of the yard.

"Shit…" The woman grimaced as she held the same hand, now shaking, to her side to attempt to stop the bleeding from the large wound. "You didn't mention he was THAT fast…"

"Because he wasn't! If he had been able to move like that, then I shouldn't have been able to stab him in the first place!"

"So…what? This guy has more than one Semblance? You do know how that sounds right?" The third woman asked as she moved to stand slightly in front of the other two as she hefted a large mace onto one shoulder as she brushed back dark brown hair from her face and away from her eyes. For a moment, Frost thought he saw one eye flash to a different color, but then they were the same again, and it simply left his train of thought.

"I don't like it as much as you, but it's something we've known could happen for a while. Are you still sure that you can fight this…thing? I'm not sure calling it a person is applicable anymore if I'm right." The man asked with a worried tone even as he had the wounded woman leaning against him for support. "Can you even stop two Semblances if their coming from the same place?"

"Dunno. It's never happened before so I've had no way to test it. Guess the only way we're getting out of here is if we test it to find out. Get the kids away in the meantime; I'll delay it as much as I can."

"And leave you to die? We already lost one of our team; I'm not letting you die too!" The man refused to move, even as the woman on his side pushed off of him to stand on shaky legs under her own control.

"We may have all accepted that Logan has been gone for a while, but that doesn't mean we're letting you join him so soon. Especially since you still have some family left to care for until they're old enough to fend for themselves. We're staying to finish this."

"…Fine. But after this, we're even. Got it?"

The other two nodded even as they all turned back to face Frost. He'd heard the words they had been speaking, but for some reason they meant very little as they passed into his ears.

The only thing he was focused on was the fight that was about to happen, and he intended to win!