"You mentioned that you need power to fight Flux. Why?" Ruby pressed.
"As a part of me, Flux has my skills in combat plus her own set of abilities. She's getting stronger even as we speak. So I need to match her power." Jet replied, holding his gaze.
"What was that thing that you called Deus? Was that the dark god?"
"So you did follow me."
"Well?"
Jet sighed.
"I have two options available to me, either I can find the semblances of Asmo and become her champion, an angel of light, or I can fulfil the requirements of Deus and become his champion, a devil of darkness. I saw Deus to simply confirm my theory about the requirements, which are a strong presence of dark emotions, and someone to become my partner in a bond." he explained.
Ruby gasped. So he was attempting to stop his alter ego, who wanted nothing less than death unto Remnant, and was prepared to accept darkness to do so?
"Why didn't you tell us, even your team, about this? We could have helped you take Flux down." Ruby asked. At this, Jet turned his eyes to his legs, a grimace in plain view.
"The path I tread leads to great danger. If I was to allow you, RWBY, and LIJN to accompany me, I can't keep you all safe. I'm one of the only ones that has even a chance of taking Flux down. I wouldn't be able to go on if anything happened to you." he said.
"So you kept me out… to protect me?" Ruby slowly inquired. At Jet's nod, she frowned. "You didn't answer my question earlier. Was the Grimm you found Deus?" Jet nodded again, and she smacked him upside the head, causing him to recoil with a yelp of pain. "Why would you ever embrace the darkness we're trying to save humanity from?" she asked sharply.
"Well," Jet said, almost timidly, massaging his chin, "there's two reasons. The first is that a part of me IS that same darkness, and I can draw strength off of it. The second is that I'm running out of time. Why do you think it's so wrong?"
"Because if we fall to dark temptations, if we lose sight of ourselves, then we'll cause our own destruction. My mum taught me that." Ruby answered. At this, Jet chuckled, and Ruby saw his aura rise to defend against another slap.
"Ruby, if there's one thing I wish everyone could see, it's that the fairy-tale world of good and evil doesn't exist. We fight, not to prevail against evil, but to survive. We may have opponents who both use and are born from darker powers, but this doesn't mean its pure evil to use their weapons and abilities for oneself." Jet explained, and reached his hand out tentatively. When Ruby didn't resist, he put his hand on her shoulder. "Take a look at me. I fight to ensure humanity's survival, yet I use the powers of darkness myself. The guy you love uses the power of 'evil', if what you say is true."
"But you're not evil." Ruby replied, and wondered briefly why she wasn't shrugging Jet's hand off.
"Exactly. But, I digress." Jet continued. "I know the real reason you let Izzet take you and I here, and why you didn't immediately reject this." He rubbed her shoulder with the hand on it. "I'm sorry, Ruby. This happening, it was all my fault." he confessed.
"Just tell me one thing." Ruby insisted, taking the hand on her shoulder in both of her own. It was a familiar feeling, holding Jet. "If you had to choose, on the spot, to take your light or dark path, which would you choose?" She made eye contact as she finished the question.
"Honestly," Jet closed his eyes, a pensive expression on his face, "it would depend on the timing. If I knew that I could gather the semblances before Flux's plan was complete, I would choose Asmo. But if there was no hope of that happening, I would choose Deus."
"Thanks. Now come here." she said, and he opened his eyes to see her beckoning him to hug her.
She was unprepared for when he literally jumped on her, putting his arms around her, but she merely wrapped her arms around him, and spun so that she was on top of him. For someone so strong, he sure was light. Then, she brought her lips to his own, feeling relief flood her system.
They stayed like that for what felt like hours, neither going any further from a simple, sweet kiss, until they slowly broke apart. Ruby leaned down toward Jet's ear.
"That was for saving me from Cardin." she whispered.
"Heh, he was tougher than he seemed, I'll give him that." Jet whispered back. "It's a pity you were hurt. I think together, we could have crushed him."
"You might be able to test that hypothesis." a voice from above spoke. Ruby looked up with Jet to see Blake and Yang standing above them, and the couple jumped in fright.
"H-how long were you there?!" Jet shouted.
"Long enough, you two adorable little things." Yang cooed. As Ruby blushed, Jet fired off his red pulse, the shockwave seemingly passing through Ruby, but gave Yang and Blake reason to jump out of range, laughing. As he and Ruby got to their feet, the former helping her to her feet, they heard a familiar clicking sound, and realised that Blake and Yang were armed.
"We were asked to test your combat prowess as a duo." Blake explained, as Ruby felt Jet move to her side.
"Tournament Rules." Yang added.
They didn't need to say anything more. Ruby glanced at Jet beside her, and saw the familiar confidence that told her everything she needed to know. She didn't even want to know how they'd forgiven Jet so easily.
"C'mon then Jet." she growled, as she and Jet took a combat stance, the latter's wings spreading behind them both.
"Let's get them." she heard Jet's telepathy, and she almost felt like their auras were merging, their minds becoming one, in sync.
In perfect mirrors of one-another, both lovers unfolded Crescent Rose and Midnight Rose, and spun them in identical motions before embedding the blade of their scythes in the ground, guns pointed directly at their opponents, who stared wide-eyed at this display of their bond.
"We are that which resides in light and dark!" Jet yelled.
"We are they who knock 'em all out of the park!" Ruby chorused in response.
"Tremble in fear, death is here, far from painless!" Jet continued, and Ruby heard something in the back of her head, and grinned evilly. It was perfect for them.
"For we are the Roses of Darkness!" Ruby finished their chant, and both she and Jet charged at lightning speed towards their targets. She was a blur, spinning around Blake and Yang, Jet out-maneuvering Yang's obvious punches, and for all her speed and agility, Blake's blade merely cut thin air where she was previously.
Rose petals, black and red, swirled around the combatants as Ruby and Jet disengaged. She clambered swiftly onto his back as he took off, circling around the now dazed Blake and Yang, who had been spun around in circles during their attacks. He stopped and hovered upright, Ruby supported by his arms around her legs as they hovered in place, watching their two victims like a pair of vultures. Soon, their eyes found the airborne pair.
"Either surrender, or we'll hit you with everything we've got!" Jet yelled down at them, then started to telepathically communicate to Ruby.
'I've discovered a new power, one that only works with you and me. We need to take a few hits though. Let them damage us.' he thought.
'Hope you know what you're doing.' Ruby thought back, before launching off Jet at their opponents, who instinctively ducked. Jet chuckled quietly to himself before swooping downwards, the rail-gun of Midnight Rose pointed directly at his target.
The impact from Jet's fall sent Yang flying off into the distance, and Ruby glanced up in time to see her smash into a tree before crumpling. Blake immediately moved into a defensive stance, but Jet immediately teleported behind her and attacked simultaneously with Ruby. Blake deflected Ruby's scythe, but Jet struck her unprotected back and dealt the final blow to Blake's aura, taking her out of the fight.
"Is that it?" Jet asked, but Ruby saw an all too familiar flame coming their way.
"Nope." Ruby replied, popping her 'p' and pointing to the oncoming Yang. Before Jet had any time to react, she closed with lightning speed and smashed him full in the face with a devastating right hook. Aura glowing in response to the hit he'd taken, Jet went straight up into the air, but stopped himself falling by extending his wings.
Ruby looked into the furious red eyes of her sister, and realised that she was at critical levels of damage. She raised her own scythe defensively but was blasted backwards by Yang. She went sailing up into the air, but was caught by Jet on the way back down.
"Now's the time. Final Phase!" Jet yelled, tossing Ruby back up into the air!