Jaune and Adam were facing each other in the dimly lit room of the Belladonna's home. Both of them circled around the other as they took stock of their surroundings, Jaunes eyes flicked around to get familiar with the surroundings.
Adam only looked at Jaune with a wide grin and a faint unnerving chuckle.
"You're going to die here, and then I'm going to find Blake. You can walk away, no one would think less of you for it." Adam said. "All you have to say is please."
Jaune silently scoffed at the idea as he twirled the bat around in his hand.
"Oh wait, you can't, can you?" Adam laughed out.
Once Jaune was sure of his chances and had a good lay of the room he dug his heels in and waited for Adam to come to him.
Adam didn't disappoint charging in and swinging his knife directly at Jaune's face shouting in glee at the act.
Jaune leaned back barely evading the first swing of Adam's knife. When Adam tried to catch him on the backswing he threw up the bat to block it bouncing the knife off the hard oak.
Now holding the bat in both hands he thrust the butt of the bat out in front of him catching Adam in the forehead sending him back. Jaune capitalized and made a full rotation of the bat for momentum; he swung the bat at Adam, catching him in the ribs and knocking him even further off balance.
For a moment it looked like that would be all she wrote. Jaune swung again and this time glanced it off the side of his head causing Adam to stumble.
Jaune backed off when Adam swung wildly with his knife trying to catch Jaune off guard only to slice the air as Jaune momentary retreated granting Adam his desired breathing room.
"You won't get anywhere near them you son of a bitch!" Jaune screamed in his head as he swung the bat with both hands at Adam narrowly missing and taking out a table lamp with a loud crash.
Adam replied by tossing another Lamp at Jaune which forced him to learn to evade taking on directly.
Adam took advantage of the window and closed the gap in on Jaune Kneeing the mute boy in the stomach and unbalancing him.
Adam Capitalized by pushing Jaune back with a brutal gut kick that knocked the wind out of him. As Jaune began to stumble Adam reached out grabbing him by the collar screaming "Time to die pretty boy!" as he stabbed down at Jaune with his Knife.
Jaune, however, had almost as many years of fights under his belt as Adam did and with both hands firmly on the bat he threw his arms up blocking the knife back and leaving Adam exposed before he slammed the bat forward into his face causing Adam to stumble back holding his nose.
When Adam pulled his hand away from his face, Jaune could see that he had broken Adam's nose with that strike. Adam's smile was gone and he howled in pain and rage as he rushed Jaune a second time ready to cut the boy down where he stood for what he had done.
Jaune braced as Adam charged him again…
Meanwhile, Tai and Harriet were tearing through the streets from their precinct on a direct course to the Schnee residence as fast as they could. The sounds of the sirens and the screech of their wheels and tires tore through the early evening as they raced towards their destination.
"Were still about ten minutes out Harriet, any word from Clover?" Tai growled towards Harriet.
"No, he's not picking up at all…" Harriet said back as Tai made a tight turn at almost forty miles an hour "Christ sakes Tai we won't do anyone any good at the Belladonna place if we die in a car wreck on the way there!"
"This ain't my first rodeo, and I know exactly what these cars can and cannot take!" Tai shouted back
"Well I don't and I'm more worried about Clover than you are right now!" Harriett shouted as Tai drifted through an S-curve.
"I want that son of a bitch nailed to the floor before he hurts anyone!" Tai shouted through gritted teeth.
"Tai, don't forget you're a cop, we take him in alive if we can!" Harriet barked back.
"Are you seriously lecturing me right now? For all, we know we have an officer down and a house dead teenagers that were driving towards.!" Tai barked back
"All I'm asking is for you to let me take the lead here, I don't want you doing anything stupid and losing your badge!"
"Look… let's just get there and pray to God we're not too late…"
Tai and Harriet sped through the darkening skies towards what they hope would be a happy ending to this story...
Jaune found himself on the back foot, Jaune wasn't hurt and that was his advantage, But Adam was fueled by his rage which was his advantage.
Adam forced Jaune to either dodge or take wild blocks and swings to drive Adam back to give Jaune room to breathe. When Jaune saw an opening he'd swing, hitting Adam in a limb or in the body. But Adam would just take the hit almost like he was beyond the point of being able to feel the pain.
"Christ sakes fall already!" Jaune thought as another blow caught Adam in the Ribs.
When Adam wound back to swing again Jaune saw an opening and swung at Adam's head, the force of the blow would have been enough to almost take his head off…
Had Adam not reached out and caught the bat leaving Jaune Dangerously wide open. Tim seemed to slow as Adam yanked the bat towards him pulling Jaune into close range where it would almost be impossible for him to avoid being sliced open by the knife Adam was swinging at him.
Jaune didn't have a choice, he let go of the bat and threw an arm up to try and block the knife. Jaune thought for a moment that if he could just hit his wrist or something he could make it out clean...
It wasn't enough and Jaune silently howled as he felt the knife slice into the back of his right arm just above his wrist. It was a shallow cut, it was already bleeding and it caused Jaune to lose his focus for a second.
Adam exploited his lapse and swung Jaune's bat catching him in the side and sending Jaune into a stumble before Adam threw the bat away.
"Well shit, that fucking hurt, and now I don't have a weapon! What the fuck am I-" Jaune's thoughts were interrupted as Adam howled in a berserk rage and charged at him knife out ready to run him through with it.
Jaune lunged to the side and pushed off against Adam knocking him off course as he tried to create an opening. When one became available to him Jaune threw a mean right hook at Adam ignoring the pain and knocking Adam off balance. Jaune followed through throwing a series of jabs followed by a strong straight punch to Adam's already broken nose causing him to stumble back in clear pain.
It, however, was taking a toll on Jaune as well as he slowed due to the pain that shot up his arm, Jaune feared that the cut on his arm was deeper than the first thought as Adam stood up and spit blood out on the ground.
"I am going to enjoy watching you die…" Adam said coldly as he flipped the knife around in his hands and charged Jaune once again.
Jaune focused entirely on evading the almost feral slashes Adam was throwing at him. Now almost fueled entirely by a healthy sense of fear. Jaune was taking more care to protect himself and to try and let Adam tire himself out.
When that started to fail Jaune ripped a lamp off an end table he was standing near and threw it at Adam forcing him to stop for a moment to evade the flying lamp. Jaune reached out grabbing the light end table the end table was sitting on by two of its legs and swung it at Adam striking him with the full weight of the object causing him to fall.
Jaune, now fighting without thinking and ruled by a desire to end the fight at all costs, started to pummel Adam on the back with his improvised weapon. Jaune dared allowed himself to think he was going to get out of this mostly unscathed, that he would be able to win the fight and keep the others safe.
That's when his right leg exploded in pain as he was reaching back to smash down with the end table a final time. Jaune lost his grip on the end table sending it clattering to the ground as he silently howled out. When he looked down he saw blood flowing freely from his leg. He stumbled back, every movement he made sent waves of burning agony up his leg from when Adam had just stabbed him.
Adam pulled himself to his feet, battered, bruised and bleeding from his face. He backhanded Jaune hard and with contempt sending his wounded opponent staggering back.
Adam wore a bloody grin on his face as he approached Jaune hooking his knife back onto his belt. Adam was no longer content to merely stab his opponent to death he instead started to throw punches and kicks at Jaune to try and defend against.
"I'm running out of options here, I need to think of something or else he's going to punch my ticket here!" Jaune screamed in his own head so his thoughts would be heard through the pain. All Jaune could do was block the punches and tank the kicks. Unable to put weight on his hurt leg limited Jaune's options for fighting back a great deal.
Jaune gritted his teeth and tried to brute force an opening throwing wild haymakers, it was a high-risk high-reward action in his own mind, but his clumsy strikes were being easily batted aside by Adam. Adam started to counter Jaunes flailing strikes with precise strikes of his own. A Jab here, a hard straight punch there.
Jaune stumbled back, feeling every new bruise he was earning in his fight and feeling light-headed as the blood loss started taking its toll he faced down Adam as he put up his fists and waited for Adam to come at him.
Adam didn't leave him waiting as he slowly walked up to Jaune saying as he wiped the blood off his face "You put up a hell of a fight, better than most I'd say." Adam reached down and pulled the knife off his belt loop and grinned "But all good things come to an end, don't worry, when I tell people about how I killed you, I'll be very respectful about it."
Jaune groaned as he forced his body to stay upright through the pain, the throbbing of his arm, the burning hell that was his leg from where he was forcing himself to put weight on it. All of it was slowing him down, breaking his ability to focus. When Adam closed the gap and swung his knife at Jaune. It took almost everything to block the strike by hitting Adam's arm. All that managed to do is Earn Jaune a punch to the face that busted his lip and caused him to spit blood on the ground.
AS Jaune was reeling from the punch his side exploded in pain as Adam once again stabbed Jaune, this time the knife dug deep into his side. The pain in his right hip combined with the pain in his right leg caused his leg to give out, sending Jaune tumbling to the ground on his back as Adam pulled the knife out of him.
Adam didn't hesitate to take full advantage of the situation and to Knelt down over Jaune before he trusted down with his knife firmly in both hands to stab Jaune in the chest. Jaune managed to catch Adam's arms with his own hands as he desperately tried to hold off Adam's blade from piercing his heart, but Jaune knew that he was only buying moments. Moments he prayed Blake and Ruby were using to get very far away from the house.
"Give up, just fucking give up already! Your dying, your bleeding to death on this fucking floor and all you going to have to show for it is giving Blake another few seconds of life!" Adam shouted into Jaune's face as he threw his weight into trying to push the knife down into Jaune's chest.
Jaune's thoughts were also equally pessimistic as he saw the knife slowly push towards him. "He's not wrong, I'm getting weaker, I'm starting to feel faint, I don't have much time left and all I can hope for is that Ruby and Blake got far enough away to save themselves…"
A sense of peace washed over him as a light appeared over Adam's shoulder. When he looked he saw Pyrrha looking down at him with a look of pure agonizing sorrow. As he struggled against what seemed like an almost certain end to his life he heard the voice of Pyrrha as she said one sentence.
"I'm sorry…"
Jaune felt a surge of strength as he remembered why he was doing this, as he thought of the people he had to protect. He pushed back against Adam as the enraged and clearly insane Redhead trying to murder him pressed down against the knife that was getting closer to him still.
"Stop fighting, everyone you care about is surely dead by now, your family, that girl Penny, that bitch Yang, they're all dead by now, it's just you!" Adam screamed at Jaune. "You're not important, you don't matter anymore!"
Jaune mentally screamed in rage as the knife was now less than a couple inches from his chest, for a moment his mind flashed to that horrid night in his Kitchen, he wondered how this would have played out if he died that night. It may not have mattered now that he was looking at death in the face...
But they would live, Ruby and Blake would live!
"Looks like you're fresh the fuck out fight now, you got any last words you want to pass on to Blake?" Adam said As Jaune heard noises from the kitchen. "Oh, of course not, your Mute, you can't speak! Guess you can keep them to yourself."
Jaune Saw a flash of movement off to the side and prayed he wasn't wrong and that his dying mind wasn't playing tricks on him. Pushing past the weakness of his blood loss, pushing back to the pain of his wounds. Jaune decided to bank on one final gamble. Jaune jerked Adam's arms to the side and let the knife bite into his right shoulder sending a new wave of pain through him.
With his one good arm, he reached up and grabbed Adam by the throat and the first words to come out of his mouth since he was three years old spat out with traces of blood. In a roar that barely came out only slightly louder than another person's speaking voice he shouted.
"Go... Fuck... Yourself!" Jaune roared as he used the last of his strength to push Adam up by his neck.
And into the path of the heavy Cast Iron Frying Pan that clobbered him in the side of his head causing him to fall into a tumble with a light spray of blood.
Jaune was barely conscious as he looked at the person who swung it. Ruby stood in front of Jaune with rage in her eyes.
"Get the fuck off of him!" Ruby shouted as she charged the prone Adam and started to pummel the downed Adam with the Frying Pan she was wielding. Jaune then looked over and saw Blake running into the room as well with a Pot in her hands hesitating to charge in.
Jaune couldn't even muster the strength to even sit up let alone stand and fight with them. Ruby was beating Adam down hard but he feared it was a temporary advantage at best.
Those fears were well-founded as Ruby reached back to once again finish off Adam only to end up getting a hard kick to her stomach that sent her tumbling to the ground. Jaune could only watch in horror as Ruby struggled to get her breath back and reach for the Frying Pan when Adam kicked her on her back and wrapped her hands around her throat to strangle her.
"You fucking deaf bitch, you really think you had a chance to stop me!" Adam raged as he began to strangle Ruby causing her to gasp and struggle to force Adam off of her.
Blake was only able to stand there shaking like a leaf knowing that her pot would do little to stop him from killing Ruby in front of her. Jaune knew he had to make a choice to help Blake find her strength. Feeling the knife stuck in his shoulder he grabbed the hilt of the knife and with deep raspy breaths ripped the knife out of his own shoulder with a surprisingly audible gasp of pain.
"Blake!" Jaune managed to shout to her, catching her attention as he slid the knife over to her feet. Blake knew what she had to do, as she reached down and picked up the knife and charged Adam with a howl as it was becoming clear Ruby only had moments before she would pass out from the lack of air.
Adam didn't even realize what was happening before Blake drove the knife straight through his back with enough force that the tip of the knife started to poke through his chest. When he realized what had happened he turned to look at the person who had just stabbed him looking Blake in the eyes before coughing out a "You… You fucking bitch…"
Adam spat out blood as he started to gasp for air due to his one of his lungs collapsing and failing on him. Jaune and the others looked outside as the red and blue lights of the police cruiser that had arrived started to light up the outside from the police car that had just pulled up.
Adam let out a grim bloody chuckle as he realized the extent of his failure. As the last ounce of his rapidly failing of his strength gave out he fell flat forward onto the ground in the entryway of the home.
After Ruby took a moment to let her lungs fill back with air she scrambled with Blake over to where Jaune was laying. Now that the worst was over and he could see with his own eyes they would be okay. He felt his own body begin to shut down.
His job was done they would be okay...
"Jaune stay the fuck awake, don't close your eyes!" Blake shouted at him.
Jaune's eyes turned to face her as he just nodded but he was barely seeing her at that point. He felt the ground under him become wet with blood as slowly bled out on the ground. Ruby held his hand and was screaming at him to hold on before she turned and signed at Blake to get the police to call an ambulance.
Blake nodded and got up running out of the front door shouting for help. Ruby then turned around and looked at Jaune.
[Please… hold one… just look at me okay? Don't close your eyes just look at me goddammit.] Ruby signed while openly sobbing at the state Jaune was in.
[I… I did what I could…] Jaune signed [They'll be okay now…]
Ruby blinked for a moment looking at Jaune in confusion until she realized Jaune wasn't looking at her when he signed out.
Jaune was looking just a bit over her shoulder at a person only he could see, Pyrrha was staring at him as he bathed in light openly sobbing as well "Yes Jaune, they will be okay now."
Ruby turned Jaune's head to look at her [Whatever your seeing, focus on me, stay with us okay?]
Jaune silently groaned out in pain as his good arm reached out and clutched his bleeding side for a moment before, with a now bloody hand, he signed out slowly and deliberately [I… I think it's time I got some rest…]
Ruby turned as she heard Blake yelling to an officer as she started to bring them in.
Ruby sobbed out and put a hand to Jaune's cheek seeing how much pain he was in. Her heart sank looking at him suffering as he laid there bleeding on the ground.
Blake was still standing near the pair of officers, one of them was her own father as he talked with Blake and were screaming for the paramedics to hurry up into Harriet's radio.
Ruby sobbed as she turned and signed to Jaune [I love you...] Before she paused fearing an ambulance would never make it in time. [But you can rest now okay?]
Jaune forced a smile to Ruby as he looked back in the direction that he saw Pyrrha, and just before his eyes closed he heard her say "It's going to be okay, you can come home now…"
Jaune let out a sigh as his eyes began to close shut and the world started to fade out. Even if he never woke up, at least he would be able to go peacefully knowing his friends were safe.
For one last time...
And so Adam exits the story for good. It felt damn good to finally reach this chapter, the pay off for what was almost a ten chapter arc so far someone pointed out that in the past I rightly tended to create arc's that last around 20 chapters or so, and I think this arc is going to break the mold somewhat. Also as much of a bastard I am for ending this chapter on a cliffhanger, it's going to be a bit worse when I announce that your getting what amounts to next weeks chapter early. I'm going to take a short break to bang out some chapters of my next novel.
So I want to as always touch on the reviews for last chapter, I appreciate you all for not eviscerating me for not butchering a beloved fan favorite character the way that I did with Winter. I know the wording for the state she was in at the end of last chapter was worded very ambiguously and that's on purpose. I know that your minds as readers can imagine far worse than what I put to paper, so sometimes less is a bit more.
EmperorCookies you more or less called the end of the fight, Jaune's condition is up in the air at this stage, but Adam was also killed off as well. I admit that Adam's death here was a bit of a call out to how he went out in canon, just with one only person stabbing him, not two. Also I thought Blake should at least get the last blow in, it didn't feel right any other way.
DragonLord, Yeah that did hit hard what happened to Winter, I honestly considered skipping that chapter, but I needed that set up for this chapter it created still. so here we are.
Malkor13, your comment kinda confused me, I didn't recall ever mentioning that Winter played Rugby and I went though every chapter to see if I ever used the word, and it didn't look like I had, I know that winter was a generally athletic woman in story as she was, both a former member of Greenpeace and a trained Physical therapist. But A Rugby player? I don't' recall establishing that.
In any rate, I will return soon with a new chapter and the continuation of this story arc... oh I'm sorry did you think that the Adam storyline was over just because he was dead? Oh no this is where the fun part starts :D
As always, thanks again for reading, and i'll see you all next time.
