Jet landed softly before Ozpin, within the boundary of Beacon's perimeter walls. He was physically drained. Normally, he wouldn't have had to fly for so long. Either he would have run.
Or… he could have…
No. THAT would remain a secret.
Until the time was right.
"So, the wings you bear are fully functional, I take it?" Ozpin asked, his expression one of bright curiosity.
"Yes, though my body is not fully designed for them originally, so using them drains me. It's even harder, but I can also carry a single person on my back when I fly." Jet responded. "Naturally, doing so will limit the manoeuvres I can perform."
"How interesting." Ozpin remarked, as Jet saw Ruby and Yang arrive out of the corner of his stinging right eye. "You did not use them when I tested you privately."
Jet remembered his private testing with the omniscient headmaster. He was one of the few people who knew the full truth about him, perhaps even more than Jet knew himself, and had conducted his examination of Jet in private. Ozpin had fought him personally, and Jet had shown him the height of his capabilities back then, sans his true power. He had promised never to tell another soul.
He had not revealed his wings back then.
"I only use them to gain access to higher terrain, and my limited movements make me a sitting duck." Jet replied. "And against you, I could not concede any weakness."
"Woah, woah, you did a fight with Ozpin?" Yang asked, Ruby having turned away. Jet knew why. He'd underplayed Ruby's punch. Truth be told, it had hurt like hell, but he'd hoped his aura would have healed it before she spotted it. First though…
"I did." Jet tilted his head towards his headmaster in response. "Before I was admitted, I was a little, what's the word?"
"Reckless?" Ozpin supplied, a humorous glint in his eye, one that Jet did not miss.
"Understatement of the year, sir." Jet responded, earning a chuckle from him. "I thought I could take him on, that what I had at the time was the peak of human strength. How wrong was I, sir?"
"Substantially. But your unique ability certainly surprised and concerned me." Ozpin replied. "It was not one I had seen for a long time."
"What was it?" Yang asked. Ozpin locked eyes with Jet, a question in his eyes.
'In my own time, please.' Jet sent. Ozpin raised his eyebrows, something Jet nearly mistook for doubt. 'When I'm ready for it to be known.' Jet continued. Ozpin kept his gaze on him for a moment longer, before turning back to Yang.
"Um, what were you two doing?" Ruby asked quietly from beside Jet, causing him to jump. He hadn't seen her move, nor any of the tell-tale rose petals that fluttered around after her semblance's use. There again, he hadn't been watching.
"I can use Izzet's telepathy." Jet replied, turning just in time to see guilty silver eyes on Ruby. He reached out and took her hand, so that they were walking side-by-side. A slight resistance, followed by an acceptance of his hold, and then a slight readjustment of her own.
"I'm sorry about your eye." Ruby said, a sheepish tone to her voice.
"Don't worry about it." Jet responded, glancing to his right side, only making the connection now that Ruby could see his sore eye. As expected, she looked very guilty, almost as guilt-stricken as she was on that day when he'd said the wrong words.
"Does it hurt a lot?" Ruby asked tentatively. Her bottom lip trembled.
It DID hurt like some of his more worse-for-wear injuries. But Jet knew better than to tell her that.
"No." Jet replied. "I said before that my aura had taken the worst of it. Don't worry."
Ruby had a look on her face that plainly said that she wanted to argue further. However, as they walked towards the dorm rooms, Jet deflected any further attempts to restart that particular conversation. The last thing he wanted was for his girlfriend to be guilty for something that she only partially had fault to.
Following a brief farewell to both the two sisters and Ozpin, Jet retreated to his own dorm room and opened the door to find only a darkness which could mean only one thing. One or more members of his team were in here, already asleep, but judging from the time, he reasoned that all three were in.
By the bare light of the unlit room, he leaped onto his own bed, before removing his jacket and shoes, tossing them off his bed in a pile below it. He then slipped underneath the soft purple covers, and laid his head upon an equally soft pillow.
Jet sighed happily as he sunk into his face-up sleeping position, staring at nothing but a black roof. He closed his eyes, listening to the whistle-like sound that was Izzet's every breath.
Sleep did not take long to claim him.
Lilac sat at the back of the alleyway that she'd agreed to meet Jet at. All she could see was light at both sides, flashing, glaring into this barely maintained grey corridor, with nothing to see within save two grey walls and a dark, night sky.
It was tomorrow. Tomorrow was the day when they'd get to go clothes shopping together. And Jet had agreed to accompany her while Izzet and Nouvelle got some bonding time of their own. She hadn't expected Jet to be so agreeable to her proposed friends' night out.
It often happened on a Saturday night. Jet would take her, Izzet or Nouvelle out for a night.
It had been enforced thoroughly that this was mainly time to work out any differences between teammates, back when the bonds between herself and the rest of the team hadn't been so strong. However, what was originally a night of reflection had been turned by Jet into a night of fun.
And Lilac agreed with that change.
Having familiarized herself with this spot, she prepared to walk back to Beacon. She'd come out very late, it was true, but Izzet knew where she was, and scaling the wall of Beacon undetected was easy when one could transmute her own hair into any material she desired (within reason, of course).
Lilac's blonde strings shimmered in the half-light as she started to walk out of the alleyway. Tomorrow would be a good night.
She only got three steps before her vision started to darken. As Lilac rubbed her eyes, attempting to clear them of this unnatural lessening of light, she heard footsteps behind her. Pronounced footsteps. They were closing in.
"Aren't you a sweet little catch?" a high-pitched, mocking voice sounded out from behind her. Lilac tried her utmost to turn around, to face this new threat. She couldn't even make out if it was a he or a she that had her paralyzed.
Her muscles felt like iron paperweights, useless body mass that clung to her. She couldn't move!
"Oh? You can't move? Perfect." the voice spoke behind her, followed by a shrieking laugh that left her shivering. Lilac's arms were sagging, hanging downwards. The darkness was deepening in her vision. Cold fear was starting to trickle down her back, icy droplets that bit with a shivering chill.
She was blind.
She couldn't move.
Lilac tried to rouse her semblance, tried to set her hair alight with a flame to light up this darkness, or at the very least try and attract attention from the people no doubt outside the alleyway.
It didn't work. Lilac couldn't feel any heat, nor hear any crackling, or see any light.
She tried again.
Nothing.
Then, she heard the baleful laugh again. It was much closer now. Sweat was pouring from her forehead. She wanted to scream, so, so badly. Please! Please! Someone!
But nobody came for her.
And no sound came out.
Things were beginning to roam across her body, many rope like things, feeling similar to a snake. The danced across the bare skin of her arms and legs, tickling and teasing. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she tried desperately to resist, to move, to do ANYTHING!
Nothing.
The ropes, snakes- whatever they were where moving up her legs, getting close to her core, lifting her skirt. Some were going down and up her top, coiling around her bra-clad breasts. A few were snaking through her hair. Hot breath was on her neck. Her panic was reaching its peak.
"Don't worry. I'm always gentle with my toys." the voice spoke, in a whisper against her hear. Lilac's breath caught in her throat. Something had shifted her panties aside, none of her clothes gone, and her underside was exposed. She was being lifted up, blindly, until her bare bottom was pointed towards her tormentor.
Lilac only barely felt the foreign touch of something on her entrance before her fear-filled mind blacked her out, ending her conscious' presence at whatever this person had planned.
Jet stretched as he opened his eyes. His bones let off little pops and cracks as he got his blood to flow once again, finally ending his morning ritual with a bigger stretch that caused his arms to go over the top of the head board of his bed, and his feet to emerge from underneath the royal purple sheets on the other side.
'Good morning, Jet.' Flux greeted, as he sat up in his bed. She sounded oddly like a normal, human girl, but her tones of voice were still similar to his own, albeit feminine. 'How are you today?'
'I'm fine. Team night's tonight.' Jet replied. He threw the covers off of himself, revealing dark grey pyjama bottoms, which followed the theme of his shirt, which had a grey butterfly wing-like pattern criss-crossing the front and back of the outfit.
Wait. Hadn't he fallen asleep in the clothes from last night?
Jet hissed softly. Flux could sometimes take control of him after falling asleep, and it looked like she'd changed into the pyjamas he often wore. While not unappreciated, as they were comfier than his usual wear, Jet did find it a little troublesome.
'Did you do this?' Jet thought, tugging at his pyjama top.
'I did. I do care about how comfortable you are, after all.' Flux returned. Jet didn't pass further comment. Sometimes Flux would do this sort of thing, just little things. His sister could be capricious at the best of times, or sometimes downright cheeky, but it was an endearing notion 100% of the time.
But even so, he had other things to track besides his sister persona's ways. The team night was one of them.
Lilac was the one he was going with tonight. And they were going clothes shopping, something which Jet considered an abhorrent waste of time. He never understood the sport of trying out several thousand different outfits and then not buy any at all (perhaps an exaggeration, but it was still ridiculous).
But it was something that Lilac enjoyed, and if he was being honest with himself, she would find a way to make it enjoyable for him, whether intentional or not. She'd always been the kind of girl who wanted to make everyone happy. And Jet was and always had been legendarily patient.
It wouldn't be so bad.
His eyes travelled across each of the beds of his teammates, which were hovering in the air in each of the three remaining corners of the dorm room, above a small, metal projector-like object that was pointed directly upwards.
Izzet was curled up in a ball around a pillow, facing his direction, her silver-haired head barely visible above the covers.
Nouvelle slept soundly, her head pointed straight up towards the roof of the room, small snores plainly audible in the sacred quietude. Her tanned skin matched the colour of her sheets, so much so that Jet would have considered it a camouflage of some kind.
But Lilac's bed was empty. There was no fun-loving blonde girl underneath her Hawaiian-style sheets.
'Where is she?' Flux mused. 'Wasn't she out last night?'
'Was she? I didn't check.' Jet responded.
'When I changed our clothes, I looked up on the beds. Lilac wasn't there.' Flux replied. 'She doesn't go out overnight often does she?'
No. Lilac might have been a girl of many escapades, but none of them were overnight. And she was always sending the rest of her teammates texts on their scrolls regarding both her location and when she intended to be back.
Jet hopped down from his own bed and turned around to the whitewood desk and chair underneath it, which was neat and tidy, all the books either within the matching chest of drawers beside it or in a stack to the far right of the surface. Jet's scroll was plugged into a socket, and he withdrew it before checking his messages, looking for and from Lilac.
Nada. Just a couple of adverts and a text from Izzet asking where he was at 9:48 last night.
'Good morning Jet.' Izzet's telepathic voice came moments before her hand laid itself on his shoulder. Jet put his scroll down.
"Morning Izzet." Jet responded, before turning around to face her. She smiled, the sleepiness in her eyes apparent even before he took in the rest of her appearance.
She shared Jet's taste in evening wear, wearing a similarly designed top that instead was a dull red colour, and matching bottoms that showed off pale, lean legs that had been clean shaven. He could have sworn that her top's design also went to some length to emphasize her bust, which Jet knew was a C-cup (he'd overheard an... intense debate between all three members of their team on the attractiveness of their own… 'ornaments').
'Where were you last night?' Izzet asked, putting a hand on her chin and tilting her head, a cheeky, if small, smile on her face. 'I texted you and everything. Novelle and Lilac wanted to say congratulations. I was worried.' Her smile dropped at this last sentence.
"Out with Ruby." Jet replied. "I was supposed to be on my own, but she found me within seconds." Memories of the match flashed by his eyes, dodging Coco's bullets, erecting a glyph to deflect them.
Using Dark Ultimatum.
"Are you okay?" Jet asked, dropping his gaze, staring at her feet.
'Yes. Why?' Izzet asked, the voice in Jet's head taking on a concerned tone.
"I didn't want to use Dark Ultimatum. I hate using it." Jet answered. "You shouldn't have to do that for me."
He remembered the fight. That moment.
Jet landed flat on his back with a painful crash, the metallic floor doing nothing to deaden the painful impact. However, he couldn't rest. He leapt to his feet and pictured a pentagram shaped barrier between himself and Coco, making sure to cover Izzet.
Just in time, as the high calibre shells came, pitter-pattering against the shielding glyph, but Jet felt the sting as his aura was drained from every impact. He could hear the roars of the crowd, though whether or not it was in his favour or Coco's he couldn't tell.
'Yatsuhashi's down.' Izzet sent as she rose up. 'But at this rate, we'll both fall to Coco if we don't do something.' She put a hand on Jet's shouder. 'Use Dark Ultimatum. All you have to do is hit Coco after that and she's finished!'
'No.' Jet responded, turning his gaze upon her own. Two mismatched, steely, determined eyes met his own. 'I won't use that power. I'm not hurting you to gain strength.'
Izzet let go of his shoulder and backed up, spreading her arms and baring her chest to him.
'One way or another, only you can end this fight. Choose, Jet. Win or lose.' Izzet said harshly. Jet was torn now, he didn't want to lose in front of everyone, including Ruby, but he was scared to take the strength he knew he could gain by sacrificing Izzet's aura. But that power… it came from the pain of an ally, something that made him feel sick inside.
He raised Midnight Rose.
Jet would regret this later.
And he brought the black scythe down upon Izzet.
'I… I'm sorry, Izzet.'
'Now, end this fight!'
'You were doing what I wanted you to do. If anyone's to blame, it's me.' Izzet said, breaking Jet's flashback. Jet looked up in time to see her own gaze had dropped.
'You didn't raise Midnight Rose. You didn't swing her at your own teammate. And you weren't the one who felt the sick strength from the act in the aftermath.' Jet responded. 'That was me. You might have been the one that forced my hand, but I always had the choice. I chose to break your aura to satiate my own.' As he said it, Izzet looked back up. Tears were in her eyes. They were small in the older girl's eyes, but they were present.
'Please, don't do this.' Izzet sent pleadingly. 'You agreed that if we were willing to sacrifice our auras for you, and that if you needed to, you would do it. The whole of Team LIJN agreed on that pact when we discovered Dark Ultimatum.' Jet sighed in response. She was right. They were a team, and if he needed to save them by using his power, then he would. He had sworn as much.
'I'm sorry. You're right.' Jet conceded. Izzet reached out for him, and he responded by coming into her embrace and hugging her. She patted him lightly on the back. It was a rare privilege to be hugged like this by Izzet. It was only something she extended to close friends.
And he had known Izzet for years.
Ruby strolled down the corridor towards LIJN's dorm.
Jet hadn't been at breakfast. Nor had the rest of his team, though Ruby only knew Izzet, so it was quite possible the other two had been there and she just hadn't seen them. Ruby wouldn't have put it past herself, for someone that went so fast, many things could slip by her.
She was watching the numbers on the doors as she passed by.
38, 40, 42.
What was it that Jet had said just before he'd left last night?
44, 46, around a corner and 47.
"..if you wanted to find me, I'll be in 45."
49, 51-
Wait a second.
Ruby smacked herself in the forehead with the palm of her hand. She'd gone too far!
She retraced her steps, reaching 47 before rounding the corner again and bumping straight into Professor Goodwitch, who had been about to come around the corner.
"Oh! Morning, professor!" Ruby greeted cheerily, at first surprised but then happy to see another soul wandering around the deserted corridors at the weekend.
"Good morning, Ms. Rose." Goodwitch responded, looking a little tired. Nevertheless, she was still as prim and proper as ever. "Were you looking for another team? Your dorm room is at twenty-two."
"Yeah." Ruby replied. "I was looking for LIJN. Jet said that he was in forty-five."
"They're not in." Goodwitch responded, her face softening a little. "All of them are most likely in Vale by now."
"Wait, why?" Ruby asked, rocking slightly on her feet.
"One of their members has had a rather nasty… accident." Goodwitch replied. "All of them are headed for Vale General Hospital, where Ms. Ayune has been admitted. If I were looking for any of them, I'd find them there."
Ruby's heart, which she hadn't felt beating faster until now, slowed down a little. So it wasn't Jet, but was it Izzet? After that Dark Ultimatum move? Both Izzet and Jet had disappeared afterwards, and she hadn't stayed to watch the aftermath.
"Was it that thing Jet did? Where he attacked Izzet?" Ruby asked. Her professor folded her arms.
"Ms Xinnerbell seemed fine when I spoke to her this morning, but she was not the one admitted to Vale General Hospital." Goodwitch replied. "That was Lilac Ayune. Jet is moving there as we speak with Professor Ozpin and his two teammates."
"Thanks professor." Ruby said, before walking back up the corridor, towards the exit of the building.
"Ms. Rose!" Goodwitch called. Ruby turned to see her with her arms crossed, having not turned to go the other way. "Jet mentioned that you might come after him."
Ruby halted in her tracks. Jet had left a message for her?
"He said not to worry, and that he'd be back by twelve-o-clock. He requested that no-one follow him, and that he and Ozpin would disclose information as they saw fit." Goodwitch continued. "That is all."
"Oh." Ruby said, turning away. Why had Jet not wanted her to come after him?
Clearly there was more to this than she first thought.
