Jet wiped the sweat off his brow. Izzet took a deep breath. Their lips met for the first time.

The two were balanced on the tip of the antenna of Beacon's information building. Izzet's legs were wrapped around Jet's waist, and he held her close with a single arm. Jet's wings were outstretched, which gave him the look of an angel of death in the pale moonlight. He smiled at his secret lover, who wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"It's funny." Jet remarked as he gazed down at the clouds below. "I thought you were afraid of heights, Izzet."

'I am.' the telepath replied, kissing Jet back lightly. 'But with you, I'm not afraid.'

"I feel as if you are my tether, just as Ruby is my anchor." Jet said. "But up here, at the pinnacle, I have a request to make of you." At Izzet's questioning look, he continued. "I have the four semblances of Asmo. And now, I can entrust someone with my protection while I wield the holy powers of light. All I need you to do is love me as you do now, and to stay safe. Can you do that for me?"

'Jet, I will. You know that I will.'

"Then." Jet's free hand started to glow an incandescent white. Izzet reached with one of her own and clasped it.

A white flash engulfed the peak of the tower they stood upon.

Ruby felt herself awaken groggily. Her eyes silts, she looked up at the roof of their room, which reflected the daylight from the window, the curtains of which were open. As her eyes slowly opened, only one question was on her mind.

What happened?

Then, it clicked. She'd felt this before.

Jet's sleep poison.

Ruby felt the small scab on her neck where she'd been jabbed by him.

"That sneaky little-" Ruby started to say, but then her eyes snapped open once she realised what had happened to her room.

The whole room was decorated with Christmas streamers and banners, from floor to roof. Slogans such as 'Happy Christmas!' and 'Merry Christmas!' were everywhere, and as Ruby looked down from her bed, she saw a small Christmas tree, where she recognised her gifts intermingled with other wrapped presents.

Now she knew. Jet must have put her to sleep so that he and Izzet could set this up. And judging by the still sleeping forms of her teammates, they must have found them and done the same. Ruby immediately reached for the whistle under her pillow, only to not feel anything. She rolled over in bed and found a sheet of paper in a scrawl that she recognised as Jet's handwriting.

'Nope. You're not waking them up like that. I took your extra too. Let them wake up on their own.' it read. Ruby groaned a little in frustration. She didn't have to resort to yelling often, but before she did, she saw a little arrow on the message, and she turned the sheet of paper around. On the back was a continuation of the message. 'Don't think about yelling either. I'll be spending today with my team, but if you come outside the canteen at 9pm tonight, we can have our special Christmas together. Don't be late!'

"Yes, Dad." Ruby muttered to herself as she hopped off her bed and onto the carpeted floor. She desperately wanted to tear into her presents, but she restrained herself with difficulty, wandering into the shower, and turning it on before she undressed.

After about five minutes, Ruby returned, fully dressed, and sat next to the Christmas tree, waiting for her teammates to wake up. Unsurprisingly, it was Weiss who first woke up.

"Wha-what happened?" she asked, uncharacteristically soft. "I was talking to Neptune when-" she let out a long yawn.

"You too huh?" Ruby replied. "Looks like Jet got us all."

"Jet? I don't- wha?" Weiss said, before her sleepy eyes fell on the decorations. Her eyes widened in shock.

"Jet did this too." Ruby explained as the shocked heiress took in the whole scene.

"It's surprisingly simplistic." Weiss commented, but when she looked at Ruby again, she spotted the younger girl's glare. "But nice." she quickly added with a smile.

"Happy Christmas, Weiss." Ruby said, and Weiss responded in kind.

"Happy Christmas, Ruby." both Weiss and Blake, who Ruby hadn't seen wake up, replied.

"Oh! Blake!" Ruby said, startled, as the girl in question got out of her bed and looked upon Yang, who was still asleep. She whispered in the blonde's ear, Ruby barely making out the words.

"Time to… sleepy…" Blake whispered, and Ruby heard a groan from Yang.

"Five more minutes, kitty cat." Yang moaned, rolling over in her sleep.

"If you don't… I'm… to-"

BABABABABANG!

An ear-splitting series of explosions sounded from near their window, making Weiss and Blake jump, Ruby to scream and wrap her arms around Weiss' arm, and Yang to swear loudly before falling out of her bunk. Ruby immediately let go of Weiss, opened the window and looked out at the courtyard to find Jet, flat on his back, covered in soot, and Nouvelle and Lilac running towards him, looking concerned.

"Well, that's one way to rudely wake up everyone." Jet commented. "Why'd you fire that at me?!" he asked his two teammates angrily. "You both knew how powerful those are!"

"Sorry Jet!" came Nouvelle's panicked voice. "I dropped ze thing! Eet needs some getting used to, no?"

Ruby felt herself being shoved out of the way by Weiss, who opened the window fully and leaned out of it.

"HEY!" she yelled. "Keep it down!"

"Merry Christmas to you too, and if it's any consolation," Jet yelled back, getting to his feet and dusting himself off, "those were supposed to go off ten times the distance in the air, but I think you can see what happened already!"

Ruby noticed the familiar sounds of Glynda Goodwitch's heels and indicated this to Weiss, who nodded and closed the window. Jet would get his comeuppances for that, especially as they now had to deal with-

"Who made that noise?" a grumpy Yang growled.

"Jet and his team. Goodwitch's probably yelling at them now." Ruby replied, not turning around.

"Good. Bastard disturbed my sleep." Yang's voice came from behind her, and Ruby waited for the- "Holy crap. What the heck happened?"

"Jet did this." Ruby said happily, turning around to see Yang and Blake looking around the room, and Weiss now sat on her bed.

"Just get me up." Jet growled. He knew what would invariably come next, and had prepared. The heels signalled this as Lilac hauled him to his feet.

"And just why would you three cause such an upheaval, especially on this current day?" Goodwitch asked. Jet already had his answer pre-prepared.

"Apologies." Jet said, mentally sending 'let me handle this' to Lilac and Nouvelle, who both nodded. "One of my presents for Nouvelle was being tested, though it was supposed to be fired up into the air. I underestimated the kick however, as Nouvelle dropped Burning Meteor, causing the projectiles to instead hit-"

"Yourself." Goodwitch finished. "Nouvelle, do you have anything to add?"

'Just apologise, and say that it was a really big kick.' Jet sent to her.

"Sorry, madame. Eet was more than I expected." Nouvelle answered. "Eet felt like a shotgun compared to a pistol. Zey are powerful though."

"Be that as it may, why did you feel the need to do this now, here and not later, on the firing range?" Goodwitch queried. 'Lilac?' Jet asked.

"My fault, miss." Lilac said, her eyes drooping convincingly to Jet. "I was just excited to see it, what with it being Christmas and everything." At this, Jet chuckled internally. He knew who came next. The girl herself materialised beside him, panting a little.

'Sorry I'm late.' Izzet sent to everyone, including Goodwitch. 'Um, what happened with the explosions?' She was wearing a dark leather jacket that Jet had gotten for her with a hood, and combined with her eyes and dark jeans, made her look a little intimidating.

"Your teammates had the bright idea of firing a new weapon up into the air, waking most of the other students, and on this day no less." Goodwitch explained.

'What were you thinking?' Izzet sent at all of them, and all three looked down, acting as if they were being scolded. 'I apologise on behalf of my team, miss, but we need to go to the training arena pretty quickly. We booked a spot there, you see.'

"I suppose I'll forgive you, on account of this merry day." Goodwitch replied, rolling her eyes.

"Thank you, miss. I promise, we'll think a little more next time." Jet finished, before he beckoned his three teammates to come near him. He linked their hands and stopped time, not hearing Goodwitch's reply.

"Done to perfection. Nice one, ladies." Jet grinned as they walked across a grey courtyard that bordered on the arena at Beacon. "Consider that my first Christmas present, orchestrating a way of everyone waking up and seeing the work we've done, on top of getting away with it."

"Figures that Veiss would be ze one to yell out ze window." Nouvelle commented loftily.

"I hope Yang isn't too moody." Lilac muttered as they walked towards the arena.

Jet walked to the left side of the training arena. He knew his three teammates were on the other side of the arena. This time, he would take on all three of them at once.

He tested his new powers as he walked, summoning a ball of white light in his palm, before flicking it upwards and watching it pop in a shower of white sparks. 'Good, so it works.' he thought to himself.

'I can hear you, you know?' Izzet's voice came from the back of his mind.

'You scared to face me? Consider what you and I unlocked.' Jet sent, this time knowing she'd hear him.

'A little.' she admitted. 'But we want you to have as much power as you can get. So, if you can defeat all of us easily, I'd say we've accomplished that goal.'

'So be it.' Jet replied. He turned to face his team, seeing the aura indicators on either side flash on before their aura was displayed.

"On your ready!" Jet yelled. He felt his new powers well up inside him, almost making him feel saddened at the prospect of battle, but he steeled himself against these feelings, telling himself it was necessary to do so and practise for the real battle. The one that truly mattered.

His team immediately started moving, and he charged his red pulse, unleashing it a moment later as Izzet teleported next to him and stopped time himself to move away, taking the time to check the aura and saw Izzet had dropped to 65% with that one hit.

He started time again and fired several fast-moving white bolts at Lilac, but she was shielded by fire from Nouvelle's semblance, who was running at him, Burning Meteor alight and flaming. Jet waited until she was close, before jumping up and extending his wings, causing Nouvelle to crash into Izzet, who had teleported behind him, and drop both their auras.

Jet summoned a whirlwind of snow that shone with light as it swept the two dazed opponents away from him. Still unarmed, he sent the whirlwind at Lilac, who was forced to run to the side to avoid it. Narrowly dodging another attack from Izzet in the air, he closed his wings and plummeted to the icy ground, punching it on impact and causing the ground to shake briefly, knocking his three opponents over.

He then looked at the aura indicators. His own aura was at 80%, the damage coming from his own attacks. He didn't have time to check his opponents', because Izzet chose that moment to strike again, this time appearing behind and delaying her attack. Having seen this tactic before, Jet evaded it, but was smashed in the back by Nouvelle and Lilac together.

Jet went flying, landing face-first on the ground, and stopped time immediately to recover. He moved behind his opponents, before thinking.

He reached a decision. He reached upwards, and a long sliver of light appeared in his hands. It solidified into a shimmering katana-like sword, except it had two blades that curved inwards, meeting at the tip of the sword, leaving a hole in the center of the blade. He read the name of the sword on the blue leather hilt.

Crescendo.

He didn't even realise that the time-stop had ended. Jet surrounded himself in light, holding the sword high, outstretching his wings as he almost tasted the power of this sword in the air.

"Dispelling the darkness in favour of a shining hope!" he yelled. "Rise now, the new blade that guides my justice! Crescendo!"

The light vanished, and Jet saw the metal blade of the sword was glowing with a faint blue light. It looked every part of what he'd hoped for; a new weapon never seen before which resonated with his new powers. He glanced at the aura indicators while he stared his team down, blade in hand, and noticed something truly unexpected.

The aura indicator was rising. Slowly, but it was rising.

Crescendo was healing him!

As he realised, Jet noticed he was slowly regaining energy and strength that would have been drained by the darkness he normally used.

Without hesitation, he surrounded himself with a shimmering light and charged with enhanced speed, striking Izzet with an attack that, had he been using darkness, would have taken her out of the fight instantly.

It didn't, and she countered, kicking Jet on the back of the head as he passed, taking off the aura he had regenerated. Jet skidded to a halt, and checked that that had actually happened.

"Guess I heal instead of damaging myself." Jet muttered to himself as he watched his team approach. "But my attacks aren't as strong."

He shook his head, and charged them.

The fight lasted longer than his regular fights using his dark abilities. Jet noted feeling far better coming out of it rather than feeling fatigued like he normally did (though he normally also had enough strength left to move out of sight before resting.

He was walking beside their team back to the dorm rooms. He'd hoped all the presents had been opened by that point, and lazily tapped into his teammates' conversation, not realising what the subject had been.

"…but how is it possible that you're able to use light? You've never done it before." Lilac said.

Realizing that this was about him, Jet quickly snapped himself back to attention.

"Well, you three know about the fact that I'm a child of Asmodeus, right?" Jet asked, addressing all three. "If I'm a child of light as well as darkness, it makes sense that I'm able to use both powers."

"I wonder what happens eef you use both ze light and ze darkness?" Nouvelle commented.

"Not sure, actually." Jet replied, walking ahead of them, then turning around and walking backwards so he could face his team. In the back of his mind, he used his sensory semblance to know the path behind him. It was showing off, sure, but whatever.

'Aren't they anathema to one another?' Izzet asked. 'Surely it would be bad if they connected. For you, at least.'

"I don't know, but one thing's for sure." Jet replied, dodging around a pole he would have collided with had it not been for his sixth sense. "Ruby's going to be happy, what with her belief in the light."

He hoped that was the case, though, as he turned back to face the right way. He, Lilac and Izzet had made a convincing argument in the other direction.

"What's this?" Jet asked, taking a small present from Izzet that she'd slipped cheekily into his hand as she passed him. They were sat in their dorm room, having already opened the majority of their presents. As he said it, Lilac and Nouvelle drew closer as he unwrapped one of the last presents his teammates had gotten him.

It was revealed to be a set of cards for a game the girls seemed to enjoy, known as Remnant Elements. Jet, having watched the girls play, but never having played himself, understood the rules. He recited them to himself as he looked through the 30-card deck. It seemed that his two elements were Light and Dark, out of four possible others; Fire, Water, Wind and Time.

Figures.

Jet knew that they'd wanted him to play, and them dragging the box out from the wardrobe confirmed it. He shuffled his deck, deciding not to reveal the fact that he knew the rules perfectly fine.

Izzet set the box between them and pulled out her own deck. In silence, they set their decks on the positions displayed on the box. It was ornate; a gift from Izzet's grandmother, who'd sadly passed away. Magic symbols adorned every surface of the bronze playbox.

He watched Izzet draw four cards, and copied her. Two black spells, one white, and one black and white spell. She pushed a button and the whole thing lit up.

"Do you know ze rules, Jet?" Nouvelle asked.

"I have a fair idea." Jet grinned, and Izzet mirrored him.

'Prepare to lose, for once.' she thought.

"You wish." Jet replied, getting an 'ooh' from Lilac. He watched as two symbols were randomly generated and holographically projected in front of them. Jet felt the activate button on his left. Pushing it would enable him to play a card, but he needed the symbols, which were randomly generated.

Two flashed up.

Red and Black.

Izzet instantly hit her button before Jet could react. She held up a red card, and holographic fireballs flew from it, but they burned him like real fire, causing him to recoil. His green health bar, which was indicated on his side of the box, decreased by 5% and turned orange, flickering a little.

Recognising the Burn status, Jet watched the symbols.

Black and Blue.

Jet hit his own button, beating Izzet to the punch, and feeling his health decrease by 2%. He flashed a black card that had a bloody claw on it. Shadows appeared behind Izzet and she hissed a little in pain. Her health decreased by 10%, and his was restored by 5%, putting it to 98%.

No one was speaking, and Jet knew why, as he drew a white card. These games could be tense affairs.

Halfway through the game, Izzet was beating him pretty badly. She was at 80% health, and Jet was at 20%. He was also at Burn status as well, which was impacting his dwindling life further. Izzet drew another card from her deck as he felt said burn status drain his health by 2%. She was smiling, but Jet wasn't phased.

He drew another card (by an effect of one of her cards played three turns ago; Jet couldn't even remember which) and froze. A gold card that had a white and black background and a shining image was there. A balance breaker, which Lilac had said was one of the most powerful cards in the game.

He maintained his poker face as the symbols appeared.

Cyan and Green. Neither player pushed their button. Jet felt his life decrease.

Again. Cyan and Blue. Izzet didn't react. Another hit from the Burn.

Again. Red and Blue!

Izzet held up a golden card of her own, Burning Defeat, and Jet felt every part of his skin burn as the Balance Breaker activated, surrounding him with blue fire. He'd seen that card before. If Izzet was more than 30% above her opponent, and said opponent was at 20% or less with a Burn, she could end the game with that card!

"Good game." Lilac said sadly.

'Gotcha.' Izzet taunted, but Jet grinned.

"Not over yet." he grunted under the pain, and flashed a grey card. The fire stopped, and he put all cards from his hand except his Balance Breaker on the bottom of the deck. His health stopped at 1%. "By discarding 3 cards from my hand," he explained to their shock, "if you would finish me using a Balance Breaker, I can instead be left with 1% health, and my status is cured." As he said it, his heath bar turned a reassuring green, thought it was a mere line away from empty.

'Fine. All I need to do is hit you once.' Izzet thought as he drew another card. He watched the symbols, saying nothing and waiting. They stopped.

Black and White.

"Let me introduce you to my own Balance Breaker!" Jet said, having hit the button barely before Izzet. He held up his own Gold card, and Izzet was enveloped in a purple mist. "If I'm 50% below my opponent, I can drain half your health." Izzet's went down by 40%, then his rose by 40%. "Then, if I had 5% or less health when I activated this card, you take the other half of your health as damage!"

"What?!" Both Nouvelle and Lilac shouted in surprise, and Izzet's face showed the same shock as her health decreased to 0%.

"Goodnight." Jet grinned, as the game shut down. "I win, Izzet."

With that, after checking the clock, he vanished from the spot, dropping a note for them.