"DAMMIT!" Jet yelled in frustration as Penny revealed the cards in her hand. 'She had, what was it, a flush?' Ruby thought, as Jet revealed his cards, showing a two pair. Penny smiled sweetly at him, then took all the beads in the pile.
It had been several days now since they had run away. After Penny had explained that she'd been sent out to hunt for Jet, she left during the evenings to return to beacon in order to report back to Ironwood. During this time, Jet and Ruby had been foraging for food, playing in the river, and having a good time despite the lifestyle they were forced to live.
Penny had secretly delivered a pack of playing cards, which Jet had used to pass the time. He'd taught Ruby poker, and she was quite good, though today she had tough luck, owing to her small bead pile.
While Jet was better than Ruby, Penny was an utter demon at this game, as her skills at mathematical processes were clearly superior to Jet's allowing her to work out probabilities and use them to her advantage. Jet had made it his mission to beat her one day, but that day wasn't today, as Jet had just run out of beads.
"How are you this good?" Jet asked Penny. The two had gotten along well, and were now friends. Penny had only heard about Jet's Grimm half, and it was nice for Ruby to see Penny's realisation that that half was merely one side of Jet's coin. Jet had gotten up, presumably intending to go out and get some more food, and Ruby continued her game with Penny. She didn't last another hand, with Penny forcing her to use all of her beads.
"You got me." Ruby said, and Penny beamed at her. Jet had returned, carrying Crescent rose. Ruby took her weapon, giving him a questioning look.
"Penny?" Jet called. "Do you mind doing me a favour?"
"Certainly, friend!" Penny said, jovially, leaping to her feet.
"I need you to pull out your swords." Jet said. Penny did so, deploying her 8 swords, which hovered defensively.
"What for?" Penny asked curiously. Jet said nothing, but reached out for one of the swords, and Ruby saw what he was about to do. As he touched the blade, the familiar shadows gathered around him, coalescing into 8 blades, duplicates of Penny's, except his were glowing blue, and the hafts were black.
"He just copied your swords." Ruby explained to a confused Penny. "It's part of his semblance."
Jet experimentally swung the swords that were hovering in mid-air. "Their name is also a derivative of your weapons. Penny, you've just helped me create the Shadow Sirens."
Penny's swords returned to her backpack as Jet's vanished.
"So you can copy things?" she asked.
"Only weapons and Aura abilities." Jet said. "Now, we should train. Penny, do you mind if I spar with Ruby?"
"Sure." she said, and backed away. Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose as Jet drew out a dark version of… MYRTENASTER?
Ruby instantly readied herself. If Jet was using Weiss' strategy, he would be defensive. She took a couple of swings at him, but he easily deflected both, and made a swift jab at her shoulder, but this was blocked. He changed his mode to red, and an aura the colour of dried blood started emanating from the weapon, before using it to conjure a fireball which he hurled at Ruby, but she easily dodged the slow-moving projectile.
Penny sat against a wall of the dimly lit cave, entranced by the duel that was happening. She'd never thought that two of her only friends were both this talented. She ducked as an ice shard fired from Jet missed Ruby and nearly speared her in the eye, and resolved to pay attention to the fight.
Ruby was relentless in her attacks, but Jet maintained his defence, swiftly blocking every attack, but Ruby gave him no chance to counterattack. Realising that he'd need another means to fight, he surrounded himself in shadows, and teleported away to the other side of the cave. Ruby watched him, wary.
"Now combine!" Jet called, as his weapon disappeared. "Silver Sliver and Midnight Rose!"
Darkness gathered around his chest, and when it cleared, Ruby saw that he now had a gemstone with a small metal plate attached to his chest. The palms of his hands sported a gem each too, and all three glowed a menacing blood red. Grinning at Ruby, he immediately conjured three fireballs, and threw all three at Ruby with surprising speed. Dodging them, she used her semblance to close with Jet, but before she could touch him, Jet threw up an ice shield, blocking her attack and embedding her weapon in the ice.
As Ruby struggled to pull her weapon out, she saw Jet throw two more things into the air which merged into one dark cloud, coalescing on his arms. Two long, black blades now protruded from his arms on the sides, each triple the length of Jet's arm and reaching backwards as well as forwards, which gave off their own bloody aura. Jet swung his first blade at the near defenceless Ruby.
Ruby shut her eyes, expecting the knockout blow. It never came, merely a clang of metal on metal. She opened her eyes to see Penny, who had thrown herself in-between Jet and herself, swords out, one of them in her hand. She broke the ice encasing Ruby's weapon as Jet jumped back.
"So I'm to face both of you now?" Jet asked, amusedly. Despite the seriousness of the duel, he was still the confident Jet Ruby had known.
"Of course, if you don't mind." Penny said cheerfully. "I'm combat ready."
"In that case, let me assume a more powerful form." Jet said as Ruby and Penny faced him.
"What do you mean-" Ruby started to ask, but Jet raised both his arms, his weapons vanishing. Midnight Rose, Silver Sliver, the Shadow Sirens, the Ember Graves, along with what Ruby could only assume to be a dark copy of Gambol Shroud. All of these weapons surrounded Jet, and a dark shadow filled the cave. All Ruby could hear were the clinking or machinery.
The shadows receded. Stood before them was Jet, with his eyes glowing a bright green as he stood before them, and both Penny and Ruby's mouths both hung wide open at the sight of him.
"The combination of darkness with the weapons of team RWBY and Penny's." Jet explained, and he grinned as they took his full profile in. "Jet Black Phantom. And armed with Astro Reaper."
Jet was clad in a full body purple armour suit, with blue lights on his chest, arms and the bottoms of his boots. He was not wearing a helmet, but behind Jet hovered a strange pattern of blue and purple dust crystals, which moved when he moved, maintaining their shape. They were long and thin, with nasty-looking spikes pointed outwards, and radiated their own glow. He looked similar to the Paladin mech Ruby had fought with her team once when Torchwick had stolen it.
Jet's scythe, Astro Reaper, was similar to Midnight Rose, but had several changes. The laser blade was thicker, longer and now glowed crimson. The gun that it was had also become larger, and also had two sparking energy cells next to the trigger. The final change was something only Ruby noticed. Her symbol at the hilt and base of the blade had changed. The red rose was now intertwined with a black rose, and both had thorns.
Jet looked terrifying, even more so when they both discovered that he wasn't actually standing on the ground, but hovering in mid-air, the crystals likely causing that effect. He grinned at them, and even Penny looked impressed.
"What do you think?" Jet asked, twirling his scythe, the blade's glint visible in the semi-light.
"Sensational!" Penny exclaimed just as Ruby said in awe "Wooaaah."
He didn't have much time to revel in his new form, however. A fireball came from the cave opening, one that looked familiar, nailing Jet in the back and pushing him forwards slightly. Turning, they saw the familiar sights of Weiss, Blake and Yang. While Ruby wanted desperately to greet and hug her team, she knew with a heavy heart that if they had attacked Jet, they were probably going to try and capture or kill him. They'd have to get through her first.
She stuck close to Jet even as the three figures drew closer, and Jet stopped hovering, landing on the ground. Penny dived into a portal Jet had summoned for her as he called out to them.
"Greetings, friends." he called. All three of the new arrivals wore a look of grim determination. For once, not even Yang ran to greet her team leader. Something was really off.
Weiss cleared her throat. "Jet and Ruby, we are here to take you into custody. Don't resist, or face all three of us."
Ruby was about to move forward, but Jet held out his scythe and stopped her. He used telepathy to speak to Ruby.
'Let me handle this.' he whispered inside Ruby's head, and then turned back to the rest of her team.
"You intend to capture one side of a coin, one that is currently not present. I assume Izzet showed what happened last time someone tampered with me?" Jet asked.
"She did." Blake said, taking a step towards Jet. "But we are to capture you regardless of your mental state."
Jet stole a glance at Ruby. "I wish it didn't come to this. But, this is our answer to your earlier question." he said, quiet and serious.
Crescent Rose were unfolded, and as Ruby got into a combat stance, Jet began levitating again, the crystals behind him realigning, before readying his own scythe.