Jet jumped up high, in the bedroom, turning in the air to land with his shoulder, and slammed down onto his suitcase, hearing it lock with a reassuring click. Getting up, he turned to Ruby, who'd already finished packing and had watched the act.
"I hate packing already, but dealing with a case that fights back is infuriating." Jet remarked, wheeling it out of their bedroom. He pulled out his scroll and sent a quick text to Izzet as he continued, and noticed the number of unseen messages from his team numbered 37. Resolving to apologise later, he watched as Dennis and Ruby came to meet him at the entrance to the place.
Dennis seemed shocked at their sudden leave, but respected it, as Jet knew he would. Now, there was no time to waste. He had to return to Beacon now, as his mission now dictated. He'd gotten what he needed, and now, it was time to return. He couldn't waste any time now. If Phoenix was dead, then Flux had made her move. Time for his own.
Ruby watched Jet as they made their way to Hraesvelgr. That hard, determined look was back in his eyes, though Ruby couldn't work out why. Was it his mission? Ever since they'd been to see Phoenix, Jet seemed more purposeful. Almost as if he knew what came next in their journey, and was ready to face it.
At the airport, Dennis left them on the runway and made for the control tower to begin his shift. Jet waited until he could see them before he transformed into the large Burning Jet Venom, the compartment for his passenger opening for her, and she climbed into the rather large compartment and lay on her belly, looking out of the front window. A small green LED lit up on the side as the hatch closed behind her and she settled on the comfy leather padding in-between her and Jet.
"Comfy?" he asked, as clicking all around the suit meant it was locking for flight mode. She saw her and Jet's suitcases surround themselves in shields before attaching to the suit's wings, the engines spouting blue flames.
"Yup. Let's go." Ruby confirmed, and she felt them move, prone, along the runway. Ruby assumed that this thing had wheels for that, but was distracted by an orange light on the other side as a hiss indicated that the suit had now pressurized.
"J, you're clear for take-off. I got a special permit for you. Sayonara, buddy." Dennis reported over the comms.
"See you Dennis." Jet responded.
"Bye Dennis! Thanks for everything!" Ruby called, hoping Dennis would hear her. She heard a laugh.
"Bye little Red. Comm Tower 345, singing off." Dennis replied, before the orange light switched off.
"Let's go." Jet said, before the craft started to pick up speed, lifting off seconds later, before glowing with a purple light, and everything outside became a blur.
About an hour later, Ruby noticed the familiar sights of Vale, and soon beyond that, Beacon. To say she was nervous was an understatement. Now was the time to see if Weiss, Blake and Yang had resolved, everything they needed to resolve. Certainly, they'd had enough time to think about their actions. Mostly though, Ruby was scared about one thing.
Jet meeting Yang.
That was where Ruby was most fearful. What would happen between them?
"Hey, Jet?" she asked.
"Yeah?" he asked, as the purple light around the craft faded, and Beacon grew closer and closer.
"Please try and make up with Yang. Really try." she pleaded.
"I will, Ruby." Jet said, and Ruby was relieved. "I'll do what I can to make up. All she needs to do is reciprocate."
"Reci-what?" Ruby asked, confusedly, and she heard Jet audibly sigh underneath her.
"I should learn to stop using big words when I'm with you. It means 'give back'." he said.
As Jet prepared to land in the fields around Sunset Hill, he noticed a crowd of six up upon the snowy hill. His team. Ruby's team. Seems they all looked forward to having their leaders back.
"Okay, Ruby." Jet said, feeling the suit changing around him. The cushion in-between them disappeared into shadows and caused Ruby to land on top of him. Latches opened and Jet thrust his wings into each. "Prepare for a bit of a change in pace."
"What are you-" Ruby tried to say, but then, the whole suit disappeared into shadows, and Jet flapped his wings, feeling the wind catch them and force them up a little, before he began to soar smoothly. He saw their suitcases drop, but wasn't concerned as they were pretty close to the ground anyway.
Jet landed gracefully next to the suitcases and let Ruby off, who immediately stretched her legs. Jet meanwhile checked their surroundings, and upon finding nothing wrong, retrieved the suitcases, before he noticed a hand upon his shoulder that wasn't Ruby's. He knew whose it was when the world turned grey around them.
"Nice to see you too, Izzet." Jet spoke aloud, turning to meet her mismatched eyes. She smiled warmly at him, then gestured at the summit of the hill, where Lilac and Nouvelle would be.
'Let's go, you said when you got back that you'd have news only for our ears.' Izzet said, and Jet nodded, leading the way up to the summit to pull the remaining two members of LIJN into this time-stop.
"Jet? JET!" Ruby called, afraid. Jet had vanished from the spot, leaving only a single note of paper. She picked it up and opened the folded note to see precise and curly handwriting.
'Jet's with us now. He'll be back. Izzet.'
Oh, so Jet was now with his team. Why then did they need a time stop?
Ruby was distracted by the figures of three people coming towards to her, approaching with great speed.
The first was Yang, who tackled her in a crushing hug, though Ruby was thankful she wasn't still angry. As she hit the snowy ground, her eyes fell upon Blake, who smiled as she usually did, though her eyes had somewhat of a hard edge. Then Weiss. She looked upon Ruby with an unusual expression, almost as if she was trying to make up her mind.
"…so happy you're okay!" Yang finished, and Ruby realised with a jolt that she'd missed Yang's entire greeting. With a grunt, she hauled herself up, only to meet Weiss' gaze.
"Ruby…" she paused. "We would like to see Jet."
"That's not possible." Jet said, shocked.
"That's exactly what I thought when Izzet first told me." Lilac replied.
They were atop Sunset Hill, and on Jet's request, Izzet had stopped time, and they held hands in a circle. The white powder Jet sat atop was still cold, as was their grey surroundings. The sun hung frozen in the sky, casing a monotone glow on their surroundings.
"So Yang understood why Ruby left with me." Jet affirmed, and both Lilac and Izzet nodded.
"We tried to contact you, to give you ze good news." Nouvelle continued. "You must 'ave been very busy not to see them."
"I'll tell you the whole story later. And now?" he asked expectantly.
"They're probably looking for us. Or at least, they will when their reunion with Ruby is done. Yang's apparently taking the blame upon herself." Lilac answered, and Jet felt a little tug in his heart for his half-sister.
"I'm not entirely blameless." Jet replied, but Izzet cut him off by shaking her head.
'You don't get it.' she sent to the three of them. 'The thing with Ruby's mother's grave really made her think. Yang's known Ruby all her life, even practically raised her like a mother. To know that Ruby trusts you more than her would be a serious shock. It's forced her to change her thinking. I think she realises that getting angry with you won't help anymore, especially with how much stronger you're getting. I think that, as a sibling, she's naturally overprotective.'
"Even so, she's side-lining herself for Ruby." Lilac summarised, and Jet grinned at her. This could not have played out better.
"Well, I guess we'll resolve this, then you ladies and I have some stories to tell." Jet said, injecting a small drop of sassiness into his tone.
Ruby saw Jet and his team appear out of thin air at the peak of Sunset Hill. Jet was standing, the others were sitting. He looked pleased, though Ruby couldn't fathom why. As she lead the rest of her team up the hill, she watched as all four heads turned in her direction in unison. Jet stretched his wings outwards as she drew nearer, before folding them again. A loose feather fell, and Izzet caught it, before sticking it in her pocket.
"Hey Jet." Yang spoke from behind Ruby, causing her to jump a little, for the tone was somewhat downtrodden. She watched as Jet made eye contact with her sister.
"How goes it, sis?" Jet asked, keeping a normal, welcoming tone. If Ruby had to describe Yang's mood based on what she knew, it would definitely be 'surprised'.
"I need to talk to you. Just you, me, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake." Yang said, regaining her composure after a brief pause. Jet nodded, and turned to address his team, but they had already vanished.
"Feels like they know my orders before I give them." Ruby heard Jet mutter to himself. He stretched his palm towards the ground, and Ruby saw a strange golden glyph appear momentarily, before the snow on the summit quite literally vanished under a heat wave. Satisfied, Jet sat, and gestured for them to do the same. Ruby did so, noting the hesitance of her teammates before they too, sat down. She sat in-between Weiss and Yang, and they formed a kind of semi-circle in front of Jet.
"Mind if I start?" Yang asked. Jet nodded, and she took a deep breath. "I just wanted to tell you, when Ruby told me that she'd invited you to go with her to her mother's grave, I was… well, shocked. Ruby always goes with me, you see, and for her to choose someone else over me was eye opening. What she told me after that was heart-breaking, the fact that you had replaced me."
"Ruby was crying about it afterwards." Jet said, and Ruby nodded at Yang's sideways look. "It was one of the hardest things for her to say." How did he know?
"Afterwards," Yang continued, "I thought for a really long time. I guess you could say it's one of the only times I think so much about something. I want Ruby to be happy. And if she's happy with you, then I understand. But you've caused her pain, and that makes me angry, because you present a threat that I can't protect her from."
"She came to me and talked to me about it." Blake said, after Yang fell silent. "She can destroy any physical threat, and if Ruby's scared, Yang can comfort her."
Ruby was about to speak up, to tell Blake and Yang that she didn't need to be protected that much, but she heard a 'hush' in her mind from Jet. She decided to remain silent following that, and kept listening.
"But you, Jet. Yang can't protect her from any pain you might cause. You can break Ruby's heart if you wanted to. There's no other way of saying it."
"So, because I'm that much of an outward threat, and obviously my fighting ability and power level isn't helping, I'm the root of your frustrations because my pain is unblockable, and for that, you wouldn't trust me because I've unintentionally inflicted it in the past." Jet reasoned slowly, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Precisely." Weiss confirmed. "But with the way you are now with Ruby, attacking you will only cause more of that 'unblockable pain'. So we decided to make you a deal."
"A deal?" Jet queried, suspicion entering his voice.
"If you can promise us, all of us." Yang explained, gesturing at the entirety of team RWBY. "That you'll try your absolute best to never hurt Ruby, then I'll promise to lay off you."
"I'll do better." Jet replied. Everybody looked at him. "I'll make a vow. To all of you." He cleared his throat. "I, Jet, swear on my own life to never harm Ruby with intention. The sole exception will be when she asks, implies or otherwise allows me to harm her from either her own intent or from her own situation. Thus do I decree and place bounds upon myself, with both the twin gods and these four humans as my witnesses. Henceforth, I will enact my vow forthwith, until death parts me from it."
A silence met his words. Ruby was speechless. To think that Jet would place his own life on their bond. Ruby knew that Jet loved her dearly, and she loved him just as much, if not more, but to hear him swear this, with confidence, without question, told her how much he loved her, and how much it would break him if she left. Even so, it made things a little awkward.
"Those are very brave words, Jet." A male voice spoke from behind him. Jet wheeled around on the spot, while all eyes turned to Professor Ozpin, who had walked up behind Jet, unknown to them.
"Professor?" Weiss sounded surprised. "What are you doing here?" Ozpin smiled warmly, and Ruby was reminded of Jet, strangely enough.
"I had some errands to run, and two of them was with Jet and Ruby." Ozpin explained, as all of them stood. "After all, when two of our students take an unexpected journey off campus, naturally we want to know where they were going, how they were going to get there, and what they planned to do. Both of your teams tried to contact you both."
Ruby noticed Jet look down, and checked her scroll. Sure enough, there were around ten messages from her team with a similar subject; Information for Ozpin.
"My apologies sir." Jet spoke before Ruby could say anything. "A lot happened during our stay, so much so that it distracted us from happenings back here."
"Naturally." Ozpin replied, still maintaining his smile. "I assumed so. Care to share it with me? I know your teams would also like to hear about it."
Ruby moved over to Jet's side as he began to recount what they had done since their flight out of Beacon had begun.
Jet and Ruby recounted their landing in Theyl Nocturne, meeting Dennis and staying at his place, then going to the Meta Brawl arena, the accident, their fight in the arena. They left the visit to Phoenix's residence out, and rounded off with their flight back. They didn't mention any of their more intimate moments either, and for that, Jet was glad.
As he finished, having taken over from Ruby a couple of minutes back, he knew he was running out of time, fast. Whatever they might have thought of his absence, his mission came first. There was someone he needed to see.
"I must go. There's someone I need to see, quite urgently." Jet said.
"Who, if I may be so bold?" Ozpin asked.
"My mother, who's waiting to hear from me." Jet replied, shortly. "I'll see you later, Ruby." he said, when he saw her puppy eyes. Curse her for being so adorable. Either that, or gods bless his will of iron to resist.
He took flight, soaring up and over Sunset Hill. He pulled out his scroll from his pocket and dialled a number as he felt the wind catch his wings.
"So what's been happening?" Raven asked.
The dark haired woman had been waiting, fully armoured and helmeted on a flat rooftop. Jet himself landed on said rooftop, perching on the antenna, and wondering how on earth it was holding him. He hugged his knees and pressed his wings flat against his back, leaning forwards slightly to avoid falling off.
"I have it. The fourth semblance we've been looking for." Jet replied, looking down upon his mother, who stared right back at him. "But Flux has made her move."
"What happened?" Raven asked, removing her helmet as Jet leaped down from the antenna.
"Phoenix is dead. He was dying when I found him. Luckily, I knew this time, so I could get his semblance." Jet reported, as Raven pushed him onto the ledge and sat next to him.
"Excellent." Raven praised him, and Jet smiled in response. "And the Festung der Schatten? Is it still there?"
"Yes. Deus is there too." Jet confirmed, looking out at the view of Vale in the afternoon sun, and feeling Raven put an arm around him.
"Then everything is falling together?" Raven asked.
"Y-yes." Jet stuttered. Raven's eyes were instantly alight with concern, as Jet's new senses alerted him to. He knew why. He rarely stuttered.
"What's wrong?" Raven asked. "You can tell me."
"I know I wasn't meant to fall in love. I have, with the exact same girl you warned me against." Jet said, bowing his head.
"To be fair," Raven responded slowly, "I knew me telling you wasn't going to make much difference. But you have to remember."
"Remember what?" Jet asked.
"You're special. A one-of-a-kind person with two paths set out in front of him. Two existences." Raven explained, ruffling Jet's feathers. "You are a child of Asmodeus, which allows you to either make the ultimate combination of powers of the light, or take the ultimate power of darkness. Either path will take you to be on par with Flux. Just remember that no matter what path you take, I'll support you until the end and beyond."
"So you've accepted it then?" Jet inquired.
"Depends on what you mean." Raven replied smartly.
"You know exactly what I mean." Jet growled, turning to face his mother, who had closed her eyes and bowed her own head.
"I have. This time."