Chapter 94

After arguing about it for a good ten minutes, then being told to shut up because he was wasting time, the still-injured boy finally gave in and sat himself down in Weiss's room with her mother and Klein. Weiss accompanied her brother to their father's room, while Ruby and Blake made for the generator on the other end of the compound. Jaye kicked back in a nearby chair, pulling his scroll out of his pocket and rolling out his shoulder. The painkillers were finally kicking in, but he could tell it was still stiff and swollen. He focused his aura over the area, doing his best to boost the healing.

'Like I'm effing disabled.' He grumbled, pulling up his contacts list and calling one of the few names there. The phone rang for a minute, before a pair of furry ears appeared on screen. 'What up bitch?'

'The ceiling!' Kamina grinned, and the image spun briefly before the scenery abruptly changed in a tell-tale flash of orange, and Jaye reasoned the boy must have teleported. 'Now the sky!'

'Funny. How are things?'

'Eh pretty good.' Kamina flipped over a pair of claws, kicking the grimm in the face as he opened up it up from the stomach to its neck. It vanished in a puff of black smoke, and he loosed a girly scream as several sabretooths pounced at him from off-screen. The image spun again, and now they were looking over the scene of carnage where the twins were still fighting. 'Cowgirlie's been really running us ragged. What've you been up to? Aside from failing I mean.'

'Screw you.' Jaye said, blinking to reorient himself as the image abruptly changed once more. 'I swear your teleporting is super disorienting.'

'Now you know how I feel!' The fox boy laughed, plunging a claw into a grimm and reducing it to ash. 'You still haven't answered the question.'

'We're at the Schnee Manor. The Amity launch seems to have succeeded, but it went down right after. Penny fell out of the sky or something; she's really banged up. And honestly so am I.'

'Did you lose to the Ace Ops?'

'In a two on five. I got caught by dog boy's semblance, then Nora exploded a door and sent me off the side of a sheer drop while I was cuffed. Then she passed out, and now my shoulder's jacked up.'

'Same one that got jacked up before?'

'Yep.'

'Sounds fun. Did you live?'

'Nah.'

'Tough break.' Kamina gave him a pitying look, earning a finger from the injured boy. The twins popped onto screen, and Jaye grinned at the identical faces staring at him. 'What's up twinsies?'

'Sky.' Apollo replied. 'What are you blind?'

'You two are becoming more and more like Mina by the day I swear. What is he teaching you?'

'More than you ever did.' Artemis scoffed, taking the scroll out of the fox boy's hand. 'What've you been up to?'

'All kinds of crap. None of it good. How are you holding up?'

'We're tired but alive.' She said, pointing the camera around the area. Jaye peered closer at the screen, initially confused at the construction of the surrounding buildings, before realising they were in the slum region. He grimaced as he realised how far the grimm were pushing into their safe zones, almost wishing he'd stayed behind to help instead. 'Too many grimm, too little of us. Doing the best we can but… we could really use your help.'

'You won't be getting it.' The boy shook his head. 'We're two down right now, just got back good old robo-girl and she's pretty close to dead too, so we're really ill-equipped to help with anything. May's on the way back to you, but… I don't really know how much more can be done.' He shifted in his seat. 'On the bright side, once we get the power back on here, we should be able to send some cargo ships your way. No idea if there's any dust in them, but at least you should be able to get some people out of there. What we do after that though, I have no idea.'

'Well shit. Guess we die.' The cate girl shook her head, placing her free hand on her hip. 'Seriously though, you lot get your shit together and let us know if you find a solution. We'll keep an eye out for those cargo ships.'

'Thanks twinsies.' He said, the image spinning again as they tossed the scroll back to Kamina. The fox boy's shit eating grin appeared on screen again, his face turning serious for a moment. 'What?'

'We uh, haven't heard from blondie in a while.' Kamina said, scratching his ears. 'Last we heard was some… thing took your boy Oscar, and they were chasing it down. Since then… we don't know.'

'They're probably fine. They're tougher than that.'

'This one's different.' Kamina grimaced. 'This grimm was different. It was intelligent; it used the boy as a shield.'

'What?'

'Yeah, horror movie shit bruv. And it spoke too; just one word though.'

'That's already more than any grimm ever before has managed. If that's the case… we have to assume there are more of them.' Jaye muttered, glancing about the still pitch-black room. Without warning, the candles flickered sequentially on, and the boy heaved a sigh of relief. 'Well there we go. That wasn't so hard now was it.'

'Oh no, you said the thing.'

'What thing?'

'The thing you say right before everything goes wrong.'

'Ah shit.' The boy groaned, getting up from his chair as a massive boom reverberated through the manor grounds. 'I hate it when you're right. Gotta go.'

'Keep your head attached. And all your other parts too.'

'You too man.' He shut off his scroll, touching his hand to his radio. 'Girls, what's going on?'

Blake's voice came on over the radio. 'Jaye! There's a grimm that–look out!'

The sounds of fighting poured over the open channel, and the boy grimaced, glancing at the other occupants of the room. He flexed his still stiff arm, figuring it was better than nothing, and turned to the door.

'On my way down now, keep it busy for two minutes.' He took off towards the door, Weiss's voice halting him in his tracks.

'No, Jaye, we need someone inside protecting our wounded. You're the best candidate to lock down a position by yourself; I'll go back them up.' Weiss said, glancing at her brother and ignoring Jaye's frustrated growl over the comms. 'Can you handle this?'

'Assuming you can handle that.' The heir replied, and Weiss rolled her eyes.

'Ugh.' She took off towards the sounds of fighting in the distance. 'We still need to work on your attitude.'

Back in the room, Jaye pressed his face to the glass window, staring out at the rest of the compound as he tried to monitor the battle from the distance. He squinted at the grimm that was flapping its wings above the small generator compound, and he cursed as he spotted an inert figure between its claws. His radio crackled to life.

'Jaye, there's one hell of a grimm here, and it's probably got backup. Keep everyone together and call if there's trouble.'

'You got this?' Jaye asked. He dug through his jacket, finding his mini telescope and zooming in on the figure clutched between its claws. He cursed as he recognised the dark hair streaked in red, the only thing preventing the grimm flying out of reach being Gambol Shroud's bungee cord wrapped around its ankle. 'It doesn't look like you got this.'

'I might need some help, but for now I need you to keep my mother safe.' Weiss said, loosing a blast of ice at the grimm hovering above her attacks. 'I trust your skills more than anyone else on this team.'

'You got it boss.' He muttered, spotting Willow pouring herself a drink out of the corner of his eye. Her trembling hands fumbled the glass, losing grip on the bottle as well, letting out a terrified whimper as they dropped to the ground. The boy grabbed the bottle before it hit the floor, his stiff right arm just a touch too slow for the glass, and he raised an eyebrow at the woman, who, far from being reassured by his presence, seemed to be all the more terrified for it. The glass shattered against the floor, scattering bourbon into the carpets.

'Madame, please try to calm yourself.' Klein said, doing his best to placate the woman, and Willow practically sprinted out the door as fast as her pencil skirt would let her.

'I can't do this. I can't!' She cried, slamming the door shut behind her. Jaye watched her go with a growling sigh, running straight out the door after her. Klein lowered his hands with a sigh, unsure what to do in this situation, and started heavily as a figure rose behind him. He whirled on it, gasping in surprise as Penny stared lifelessly at him.

'Goodness! Try not to exert yourself now.' He said, his words cut off as the shoved him to the side. Her eyes blazed a fiery green, her maiden powers activating as she just barely found a way to push her way to consciousness. She grabbed her head, staggering back as wind swirled around her.

'No, not again!' She gasped, falling to her knees as the cold wind blew around her.

Jaye chased the woman down the halls, tracking her panicked gasps as she ran through hallways he barely recognised. Cursing his inability to find his head if it weren't attached to his body, he rounded a corner to a dead end and swore at the suit of armour nearby. He backtracked quickly, glancing across the doors he'd passed, and noticed one slightly ajar and bundled his way through it. He jumped as his radio crackled to life once more in his ear, placing a finger on it.

'Jaye, Klein, it's coming inside! Stay quiet; I'm on my way.' She said, and Klein's voice came on as well.

'Do hurry; Whitley and Willow have yet to return.' He said, and Jaye grimaced as he charged down the hallway only to be met by yet another branching path.

'What? Where'd Mom go?' She exclaimed, and Jaye grumbled under his breath.

'That's what I'm trying to figure out!' He kicked open a door, staring into the empty room. 'Why the hell is your house so huge and confusing? And why the hell is this woman so afraid of me!'

'Why do you think?'

'How the bloody hell would I know?'

'You kill people for a living! And didn't you invade my house a whole bunch? How do you not know where you're going?'

'Well it's not like I still have the map on speed dial!' He rolled his eyes at literally nothing, skidding to a halt as he nearly crashed into a suit of armour. He pushed through the final hallway, spotting two huge double doors flung open on the other side, and he dashed through it to find a whimpering Willow reaching for a bottle. He sighed heavily at the woman, who started as he cleared his throat. She gasped as he approached her, trying to back away into the desk, and he took the bottle out of her hands. He eyed the label, raising an eyebrow at her.

'I know you're not happy to see me, but this is a little excessive, don't you think?' He shook the bottle with contempt, the alcoholic beverage sloshing around in its glass belly, and Willow whimpered again, screwing her eyes shut as the boy continued to stare at her. Jaye sighed again, heavier this time, placing the bottle on the table, and he took the woman's hands gently into his own. Willow opened her eyes with frightened confusion, her eyes moving anxiously between his hands and his face. 'What is it about me that scares you so much?'

'I-.' She started, her voice catching in her throat, her sentence turning into a whimper instead. The boy watched her quietly for a moment, releasing her hands and scratching his head. His eyes fell back to the bottle on the table, and he picked it up slowly. He took a long swig, the liquid draining down his throat, thankfully numbing his shoulder back up where he'd managed to stress it a little, and offered the bottle to her. She took it from him, grasping her own wrist to stifle her trembling, and finally found it in her to speak.

'Whenever you came, I always knew what you were here to do. You were always here on business with my… with him. And I knew it was you who nearly assassinated the General; he was very vocal about what a shame it was that you failed.' Willow finally met his eyes, but almost immediately tore them away. 'It's just, you were so close to… to my daughter. Winter. If you'd tried to assassinate the General, I knew she would have had to try and stop you. And when I heard about the attempt on his life… I couldn't tell you how relieved I was to hear that my daughter was safe. How relieved I was that you didn't kill her.'

Jaye scratched his head awkwardly, staring at the women's portrait plastered against the wall of the room they were in. Winter stood next to her mother, Weiss seated between them, smiling brilliantly in the painting with a smile he'd never once seen worn on Winter's face. Spotting the bed in the centre of the room, he reasoned that he must be in Willow's bedroom. He registered that she didn't share a room with her husband, noting it as absolutely no surprise at all. He cleared his throat nervously.

'Well if it clears the air, I've never even fought her before. Like, not even in training when we were working with the Ace Ops before all of this. That day, she led a team to capture us, yes, but they never even got close. Our attempt on Ironwood's life failed because the Ace Ops returned early and went directly to his office to report to him.' Jaye scoffed at the wall, folding his arms in irritation. 'As if the world didn't want him dead, they entered the office right as I was about to put my sword through his heart. Of course, that meant that I couldn't deal a mortal blow to him, though he sure as hell wasn't walking for a few weeks after that. Winter and her squad were dispatched immediately to restrain us, but only the Ace Ops caught up to us and tracked us through the streets of Mantle. That eventually culminated into the legendary fight that I suppose you probably heard about from Winter, where we demolished their entire team, Clover aside God rest his soul, in about five minutes.'

Finally done reminiscing, the boy noticed the look of abject horror on the woman's face, and realised he'd done the exact opposite of reassuring her. He made a sound of frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers.

'Look, I know nothing's going to wipe my ledger clean. And I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to be a better person every day from here on, and if you can't clear your fears of me that's okay. But don't let it get in the way of me keeping you safe.' Jaye placed a hand on her arm, shaking the woman gently. 'I told Weiss I'd protect you; and I don't go back on my word.' He smiled as gently as he could at the still trembling woman. 'Honestly, I would die for those girls. So if Weiss wants me to protect you with my life; then my life is hers to command.'

'I-.' Willow's voice caught in her throat again, watching the boy as he slowly took his hand off her. She glanced at the bottle in her hand. 'Thank you.'

'You're welcome.' He grinned. 'But you need to make an effort as well; getting drunk here isn't going to help anyone. If there's anything at all you can do that can help us… well, this is one.'

Willow stared for a long moment at the bottle in her hand, and almost abruptly cast it aside. It shattered loudly against the short flight of steps nearby, scattering the clear, pungent liquid over the marble surface. Jaye raised an eyebrow at the shattered glass, his eyebrow ascending even further at the number of random steps there were in her room and wondered which moron designed a room so easy to fall down in.

'Well you could've just put it back on the table but sure I'll take it.' He said, glancing around the room. 'Alright, let's get you back together with the others.'

'Wait!' Willow said, whirling around to the table behind her. She opened her scroll, pulling up several cameras that were installed in the house in some unseen way, and Jaye raised an eyebrow at the woman. Willow gasped in horror as a black mass partially blocked out a section of an image. Unmistakeably a grimm, they could only assume that it was the creature that they had been fighting all this while. Jaye recognised the interior decorations with a start; it was the main hall. He squinted at the screen over Willow's shoulder, and the mother's breathing quickened as she recognised the figure in the image, standing below the creature, unbeknownst to the danger lying in wait for her.