Dark Rose
Chapter 14: Never A Break
After what felt like an eternity, Jett and Ruby parted lips, and looked at each other again. "Did we-" "Yup." "Are you okay?" "Yup." "..." "..." "Do you want to do that again?" "Yup." They locked lips again, and held each other in a passonate embrace. The two parted lips a second time, and they started to giggle, smiling at each other. Jett looked to the side, and saw everyone from the party with their faces pushed up against the glass, watching them. Yang was in the dead center, beaming from ear to ear. Blood rushed to the lovers' faces, and Ruby squealed. She disappeared in a plume of rose petals, and Jett followed suit, disappearing in a flash of lightning after Ruby.
...
After some time, the two landed in a field just outside of Beacon. Ruby fell out of her petal vortex, and landed on the ground with a thud. Jett landed next to her, turning off his Semblance. "Here, let me help you up." Jett said, extending a hand to the disheveled girl. She accepted it, and pulled herself up to her feet. Ruby immediately kicked the ground in anger, her pale face now flush with anger. "I can't believe they did that!" she screamed. "I expected it from Matilda, but all of them?" Jett said quietly. "I can't show my face at the dorm now!" Ruby exclaimed. "Why not?" The girl looked at Jett with a look of astonishment. "What do you mean 'Why'?" she asked, raising her voice. "Because they'll think that I'm...I..." "Like boys?" Jett added, finishing the end of her sentence.
"No! That, I..." she trailed off, looking off to the side. "Ruby.." Jett said softly. He walked up to the distressed girl, and held her hands with his own, gripping them gently. "You don't want to be with me?" he asked playfully. "No, it's not that!" she exclaimed. Jett smiled, and put his hands on her shoulders. "Look, sure that was pretty embarassing. But if we don't show ourselves after something like that, we could never live it down later, right?" Jett explained. Ruby slowly nodded, still looking at the ground. "I'll be right here beside you, so we can both take the embarassment together." She looked up, and into Jett's eyes. "Promise?" she asked, holding her little finger out. "Promise." Jett replied, locking his finger with hers. "Thank you. You're the best, Pink Slip." A cricket chirped in the background as silence fell between them. "...Did you just call me, 'Pink Slip'?" "Yup!"
"Well, we should probably head back to Beacon now." Jett suggested, pointing back to the school in the distance. The two turned to walk back to the school, when Jett suddenly heard some bushes rustle behind them. "Leaving so soon?" a voice asked from behind. Jett whipped around, and saw a figure in an inky black cloak with it's hood pulled up standing at the edge of the clearing. Something told Jett to run, but he ignored the impulse. "Who are you?" he asked, putting himself between Ruby and this stranger. "Oh, just an old friend, my boy! Hehehehehe!" The man cackled maniacally. Jett's hands moved to his holsters, and found that they were empty! "Looking for these?" the stranger asked, holding up Ebony and Ivory in the air in front of him.
He held out Jett's weapons to his side, and charged at the pair. Jett put his arms in an X in front of him, and tried to gather enough Aura to block the blow. He closed his eyes to focus. *Ting* What? Jett opened his eyes, and saw Crescent Rose's blade inches away from his face, blocking the assailant's attack. "Don't. Touch. Him." Ruby growled. "Oooh! This Rose has thorns!" the stranger cackled. Using Aura-fueled strength, she pushed back the attacker several feet. Whipping her scythe around her, she aimed the barrel at the man in the cloak, loading a bullet into the chamber.
"Let's get more comfortable!" the man exclaimed, gripping the edges of his cloak. In a single motion, he ripped the fabric in half, revealing the person beneath. The assailant appeared to a be a middle-aged, fidgety man. The man had a slicked back head of black hair, trailing down his back into a tight braid. The man wore a white undershirt, black cargo shorts, with suspenders that went over his shoulders. He wore a crazy look on his face, his tongue half out, as he was giving an insane smile. A long, slick, black scorpion tail revealed itself from behind his back, it's cherry-red stinger coming into view. On the man's bandaged wrists, a set of curved blades lay folded to each side of his wrists, attached to a central control mechanism. In the middle of the blades, Jett could swear that he could see two barrels sticking out slightly. The man howled, and threw Jett's blades to the side, unfolding his own out. Now that Jett could see them extended, they looked very similar to scorpion pincers.
"Time to kill! Hehehehehehehe!" the man shouted excitedly, charging at the two of them again, this time with his own weapons. Looks like I might have to use Mirror Blade. Jett thought, flexing his legs. I really hope Ruby can pick up my slack when I can't fight. Ruby deflected the blow again, but Jett could tell that she was getting tired. "Ruby?" She looked at Jett. "Yes?" she panted. "I have a plan. But it'll put me out of commission for a little while when I do this. Can you cover me?" he explained. Straightening up, Ruby twirled her scythe around her. "You got it, Pink Slip." Jett grunted. "We have GOT to come up with better names for each other.." he grumbled. "Done ploting over there?" the man shouted, impatience straining in his voice. "Go ahead, Ruby." She nodded, and charged at the assailant, bringing her blade down on his.
Jett closed his eyes for a moment, and sighed. "In terms of passing, we become immortal. Those closest to us become strength, and those against us become fodder!" Jett muttered, screaming on the last line. He forced his eyes open, and they immediately filled with pink energy. His aura changed colours, turning from bright yellow to bright pink. Jett's face contorted and he focused harder, his aura becoming even brighter than before. Soon, Jett's Aura became a single pillar of light in the middle of this clearing, raging all around him. He cast his hand at the assailant, his eyes swimming with power, and Jett uttered a single phrase: "Mirror Blade!" Time slowed down to Jett, and he saw the assailant look in Jett's direction in surprise. Ruby noticed what Jett was going to do, and disappeared in a display of rose petals. Suddenly, copies of Jett appeared out of the ether, dashing to and fro past the attacker, slashing him as they past. This melee continued for several more seconds, before Jett dropped his arm in exhaustion. He dropped to his knees, his Aura completely depleted, hundreds of cuts started to form all over his body.
Jett looked up at the attacker, and saw the man paralyzed in pain, hundreds of cuts covering his body, as well. "How did you...?" the man choked out. Blood began to pour out of his wounds, and pool onto the ground. Jett smiled, but dropped it quickly as he began to feel his own wounds start to ooze blood from them. Ruby reappeared next to Jett, holding his shoudler, and looking down at the wounds he accumulated all over his body. "How? Why?" she exclaimed, trying to put her hand over the largest wound on his abdomen. Jett smiled slightly. "It's the same...ability you saw in Professor Port's class when I fought with Weiss." he managed to get out. "Why did this affect you more than before?" she frantically asked. "Because last time, I didn't pour all my Aura into the attack, so some of it took the hit for me. This time, I pooled all of my Aura together, and it tore me up the same as...him." he explained pointing to their attacker.
"Speaking of which, I'm not dead!" No. It can't be. I poured everything I had into that attack. It should have killed him! The man picked himself up off the ground, slipping on his own blood halfway up. "Also, NOW I'M PISSED!" The man howled in pain, and charged again, moving faster than before. There's no way either of us will survive this attack. We're goners. Heh, and I just got a girlfriend too... Jett closed his eyes, and accepted his fate. Ruby tried to raise her scythe, but was too exhausted to pick it up properly. "DIE!" "I think not." a proper voice rang out to the left of him. Suddenly, another figure in a dark green cloak intercepted the angry assailant mid attack, holding the blades on one of his gauntlets together with one hand. No blood poured from the new strangers hand, so apparently he must have hand somthing metal blocking the blow.
"Tyrion, must I remind you that you were not suppose to kill him? Only detain him." the man growled. The assailant, apparently named Tyrion, recoiled, trying to snatch his arm back from the man, to no avail. "But The Mistress wouldn't have cared if I roughed him up a little, would she?" Tyrion asked, giving a sly grin. The man glared at the Faunus with barely restrained anger, his eyes glowing embers. He released Tyrion's arm back to him, which the faunus gratefully snatched back. "Now if you'll excuse me." Tyrion murmured, flipping his blades on his gauntlets back out. "No, I will take him." The scorpion Faunus looked up at the giant in the cloak with a sneer. "And are you going to stop me, FREAK? Hehehehehe!" Tyrion cackled. "Yes. Leave now." The stranger's eyes bore into the deranged man, apparently unerving the Faunus, who back down and flipped his blades closed. "Fine, on your head be the consequences." Tyrion stated grimly. The Faunus man turned, and ran into the forest, disappearing into the night.
The man turned to face the two of them, and walked slowly over to them, before kneeling in front of them. Jett lifted his head from where it hung and looked at the stranger. "If you're going to kill me...just do it already..." Jett said weakly. "Oh, I have no intention of killing you, Jett." The stranger's eyes dimmed in brightness as he grabbed for his hood. He cast off the fabric and revealed the distorted face of his attacker from earlier on in the week! "Son." he said kindly. So many questions raced through Jett's mind; all of his neurons firing at once, desparately searching for the answers that he needed. He held his head in shock, and felt woozy from the blood loss. "Easy, easy now." Jett's father said as held the boy upright.
Jett looked to the side wearily and saw Ruby in a similar state of shock. She gripped the edges of her skirt tight, making her knuckles turn white. "H-How is this possible?" She asked shakily. "Y-You're a...Grimm!" The deformed man chuckled, his voice making a low, guttral sound. "I'll explain everything on the way. Don't worry, I'm not capturing either of you. I just want to take care of my son." he explained. Jett glared at the man. "Oh, so now you care...!" he muttered, struggling to stay concious. "Just sleep. Me and your girlfriend here will take care of everything." The last thing Jett saw before he passed out was Ruby's alarmed face at that statement. Seconds later, the world went black, and Jett drifted off to sleep..