Yang was doing her best to maintain her seriousness. She felt saddened that Ruby hadn't come over to them, and had remained with Jet. But she had a job to do, to restrain Ruby and bring Jet down. She had to admit, he looked intimidating in his suit, and that scythe, Astro Reaper, looked painful.
Shaking her thoughts off, she charged, with Blake and Weiss following, and she triggered her semblance, adding fire to her strength.
Jet smiled as Ruby disappeared into one of the physical shadows he had conjured. The crystals behind his suit aligned into a pattern and turned yellow, before he opened a portal right in front of Yang, who ran into it and disappeared. Jet then directed another opening at Blake, and Yang came flying out, directly hitting Blake, both going down.
Weiss immediately conjured several fireballs and sent them at Jet. A purple force field appeared around Jet, deflecting them, and he swung Astro Reaper, sending an energy blast straight at her with alarming speed. Weiss dodged it, but Jet fired two more, catching her leg with the third one, sending her spinning out of control, and she fell, disorientated.
Yang and Blake were both running at Jet now, Blake using her shadow clones in an attempt to confuse Jet. He waited until they got within striking distance, before unleashing a red shockwave from his suit's core, which covered every direction and blew Yang and the real Blake straight back to Weiss, and the three of them fell in a heap.
Weiss stood back up with her team and sent several more fireballs, but they were also useless against Jet's barrier. Bullets fired from both Yang and Blake were also ineffective, merely causing the shield to flash as they were deflected.
"We have to take that shield down! Blake, Yang, any ideas?" Weiss asked her team, crouching as Jet summoned fireballs of his own, purplish flames reminiscent of Shadow Meteor.
"Yang! We need to use the same attack as we did on Torchwick!" Blake called to her teammate, who responded by grabbing one end of Gambol shroud.
"No you don't!" Jet yelled, sending the five fireballs he had conjured straight at Blake. Weiss ran to block them, conjuring a big glyph to block four but one got past and she took the hit using her aura to minimise the damage. Even so, she was flung into the cave wall by the impact, taking even more damage.
Fortunately, the time she had bought had been enough for Blake and Yang to build enough power for their Bumblebee move. Jet turned to see the roaring ball of energy flying at him, and Ruby saw with a jolt that his eyes had turned black again. She knew what she had to do.
"Ruby! Attack!" Jet called, conjuring a shadow behind Blake, and Ruby triggered her semblance.
No-one would bring him down, not if SHE had anything to say about it!
She catapulted herself out of the shadow, catching Blake unawares, and with a howl, both crashed to the floor. Yang's charge was immediately re-directed, and she slammed into the same cave wall Weiss had been flung into.
Ruby leaped through a portal Jet created beside her and emerged back at her lover's side. Jet grinned wildly as his crystals assumed a red 'X' shape behind him, and he immediately pointed at Weiss, Blake and Yang.
"End of the line. Lock!" he called.
The three huntresses were instantly paralyzed, held in place by the same red aura they had seen before in Jet's fight against JNPR. Although all three of them struggled, none of them could break free.
However, Jet's victory was short lived, as the small pocket of space that he was in suddenly turned grey, and he was frozen in time! Ruby, knowing what this meant, dived into a shadow that was still present.
Ruby looked from her shadow to see Izzet, Nouvelle and Lilac joining the fray, and her heart sunk. If Jet was frozen, then this just got a lot harder.
The crystals on Jet's back were not frozen however, and were glowing white as they began to spin in a circular pattern. Izzet's eyes widened even as Nouvelle and Lilac begun to understand what was happening. Suddenly, the time stop was destroyed with a purple explosion of force from within it, and Jet freed himself. He looked far from happy though.
"That worked before." he said as he readied Astro Reaper, his voice quiet and deadly, "But now I have control of my mind, and that won't hold me down any more."
"You have control?" Lilac asked. "So then…"
"Yup." Jet grinned, his eyes resuming their green colour. "Ruby succeeded. So, either stop fighting now or face my new form."
Nouvelle audibly gasped. "So zis eez Jet Black Phantom."
There was silence. Then Nouvelle started to walk towards her team leader, weapon still undrawn. Izzet and Lilac followed. Nouvelle broke the silence.
"If you 'ave your mind, we 'ave no reason to fight you, Jet." she said, still closing the gap. "We only came to bring you back."
"We missed you, Jet." Lilac added, and Izzet nodded in agreement. Ruby couldn't help but feel the heart-warming nature of their re-union, but she suddenly felt the shadow she was hiding in fade.
"The one you can thank for that, is right here." Jet said, beckoning Ruby over. She did go, deciding to let Jet guide her actions for now. She could be patient, something she'd learned to be while having Jet as her boyfriend. Upon seeing her, Lilac immediately ran over to her, hugging her. Unlike Yang, whose hugs normally crushed like a vice, Lilac was gentle, despite having a similar build to the brawler.
"I don't know what to say, Ruby, thank you!" Lilac exclaimed, still embracing her. Ruby didn't push her away, but said sheepishly, "It was nothing."
Lilac tearfully laughed, then released Ruby. Her eyes went to her teammates, still locked by Jet, and she realised that she wanted a re-union with her own team. She turned to Jet, and he noticed the pleading look in her eyes. Sighing, he sent a telepathic message to Ruby.
"I'll unlock them, but we need to make sure they won't attack me until they know the truth."
Ruby nodded, and just before he was knocked over by all three members of his team, as he was now on the ground, he retracted the red aura binding Weiss, Blake and Yang. Ruby immediately shot to them at breakneck speed, trying to embrace all three of them. The result was a group hug, and Ruby could not remember being so happy as voices came from everywhere.
"We've missed you so much!" "Don't ever do that again!" "So glad you're back!" "Are you ok?" to name a few.
After a while, the two teams broke apart from their respective hugs, and sat in a circle, under LIJN's insistence. Ruby and her team complied, Ruby herself remaining at Jet's side, who started the proceedings.
"First of all, I want to say that due to my possession by my other side, I've committed actions which are unforgivable. The punishment for which will be severe, regardless of my mental state at the time." he said in a solemn voice. "Normally, I would turn myself in and focus on regaining control, but Izzet has alerted me to a potential outside influence. Flux… my Grimm half," he explained at their confusion, "is also sorry, but she has been manipulated. I don't know how."
'Showtime.' he thought to Flux.
"Whenever you are ready, sweetheart." Flux replied.
"Izzet, I need you to relay the other voice in my head to everyone. Speak your replies, he'll hear them."
Izzet nodded and closed her eyes. To all those present, Flux's voice vibrated in the nether of their own minds.
"Greetings." Flux growled, and Jet's eyes assumed their dreaded black. Jet relinquished control of his body, and Flux took over. To Jet, this takeover felt far more natural, probably because he had allowed it this time. "I am Flux, or as you seem to know me, Jet's Grimm half." she continued shortly, using Jet's mouth to speak.
"Why did you kill that team?" Weiss and Ruby both asked at the same time.
"Normally, I would have done it out of hunger." Flux responded sharply. There was no doubt in his words. "But that night was different. I felt so… overcome by bloodlust. A bloodlust so unnatural that even I was surprised. You have my word on that. This kind of bloodlust is only caused by manipulation, therefore someone set this up."
Weiss seemed to take it upon herself to speak. "Correct, Flux, but how would we prove to Ironwood and the police that you are innocent, let alone catching the one who did this? And why should we trust you?" she asked.
"I do not know." Flux admitted. "It may be that we will never find out, and instead Jet and I will take the punishment, the likely of which is expulsion from Beacon followed by imprisonment. But right now, we must be patient, as the law is still searching for me, and justice must be served. You must catch up with one another as well, you've clearly missed each-other. I shall go now."