Ruby sat atop Sunset Hill as she waited for Jet. She curled her new crimson cloak around her as she looked at the chrome rounds that now sat in her rifle. She'd seen nothing of LIJN, and she felt slightly worried as they hadn't been in their dorm room, nor at the cafeteria. Speaking of which, she'd left a note for Jet that she'd be here, and had even texted him with her scroll.
There again, maybe she was just worrying about nothing. There were two members of their team that could move in frozen time, practically teleporting themselves and their teammates around.
One of them appeared behind her as soon as the clock on her watch hit 9:00. She could feel his presence. Arms, smooth and strong, wrapped around her front, and she leant back into the kneeling Jet's embrace.
"Merry Christmas, sweetheart." Jet whispered into her ear.
"Merry Christmas." Ruby replied. "Where did you get that name for me?"
"Well," Jet said very coyly, swirling around so he faced her, a small smile present on his face, "you're sweet, and you have a heart purer than most. That's why." Wow. How unusually… sweet.
"Can your sweetheart have a favour?" Ruby asked, raising her hand and holding her middle finger against her palm. At her signal, Yang walked around from the sole tree that was present on Sunset Hill. "Can we fight?"
"Fight?" Jet asked, tilting his head towards Yang in greeting and standing up as Ruby did.
"She wants to test out some of our presents for her." Yang said with a smile. "We think we might be able to beat you, and you don't have anyone with you this time."
"You sure?" Jet asked, and Ruby noticed Izzet walk out from behind him. "Us two against you two."
"Damn." Yang said from behind Ruby as Jet and Izzet vanished, reappearing in the clearing below Sunset Hill. "How does he call his teammates like that?"
"No idea." Ruby replied, before she leapt from the hill, landing in front of her two opponents, hearing Yang land beside her with a 'nailed it'.
"And now, you fall." Jet said, before he surrounded himself in a white light. Ruby, caught by surprise, was blinded by the light, as was Yang. Only when the light had faded did she see Jet in an entirely new form. Her mouth dropped open.
Jet stood before her in a white and pale-yellow curved suit of armour, complete with a snow white cape that twirled in the winds behind him. In his left hand was a sword Ruby hadn't seen before, but she read the name Crescendo on the azure blue blades. On his right was a white mechanical gauntlet that shimmered with blue light as well.
"Well, that's new." Yang deadpanned beside Ruby, who stood in shocked silence. HE USES LIGHT?!
Izzet smiled proudly, and she too transformed with a blinding flash of light. When Ruby's eyes had recovered for the second time, she saw pure white wings had sprouted from her back, and also emitted blue light. She stepped behind Jet as he pointed his new blade at them, her own blue and red blades drawn.
"Surprised?" he asked. "It's too early to be surprised."
He conjured a white glyph underneath Izzet, and she was surrounded by a shimmering bubble of blue light.
A shield.
She didn't have much time to think though, as Jet flew at them, cape swirling, and Izzet folded her swords into twin Uzis before firing a hailstorm of bullets at Yang, who was forced to run to the side to evade as she closed with Izzet. Ruby fired behind her to fly at Jet, the chrome round giving a bigger kick, and as Jet drew rapidly closer, he moved his blade across his chest to block Crescent Rose.
Ruby herself flew past him and whirled around, but Jet was faster and turned before firing a bolt of light from his gauntlet, Ruby narrowly avoiding the blast. He was on her within the next second, using her semblance and forcing her to do the same, so much so that they became a whirlwind of blades and flashes of light and rose petals both black and red whirling around them.
Suddenly, Jet disengaged and retreated backwards, giving Ruby a chance to check her bearings. There were no aura indicators to check, so Ruby could only guess. Jet's aura looked low as it was crackling round him, and Yang's yells of anger along with repeated explosions meant she was probably doing fine against Izzet.
"This FUCKING SHIELD DOESN'T BREAK!" Yang yelled over at Ruby, and Jet grinned. Apparently she wasn't doing well.
"You won't get to Izzet." he growled, and his aura looked like it was refilling. "First of all, my light ability is shielding Izzet. You can't get to her without beating me. Also, I'm actually healing myself passively."
"Focus on Jet, Yang!" Ruby called, and Yang nodded, her eyes focussing on Jet and charging, only to have him fly upwards with his wings and unleash a series of lightning bolts from the sky, coupled with another withering burst of bullets from Izzet. Ruby fired backwards once again in order to jump and reach Jet, but he parried and Ruby was sent plummeting to the ground.
"Take THIS!" Jet roared, firing two pure white beams of light from above, one aimed at each of the sisters. Ruby dived out of the way, but heard Yang yell out in pain and looked over to see she'd been scorched by the powerful attack. Before Ruby could even move to see if she was alright, Jet landed between them and fired another laser at her, forcing her to use her semblance to dodge as he swept in a 360 degree spin before firing at Yang again.
Ruby took the opportunity to strike at his back while he was distracted, and she connected with a swift strike, but her blade hit a fully formed aura as opposed to the damaged one she'd seen on Jet before. She realised with a jolt, as Jet warped away to avoid any other strikes, that his aura was regenerating instead of depleting!
The scenery around her was starting to turn grey, and so was she. Ruby looked up to see Izzet, both hand clasped and outstretched towards her.
She was trapping her in a time-lock!
Ruby charged, scythe outstretched towards Izzet, desperate to attack her before she completed her lock.
A moment later, her target vanished and she was instantly disarmed and pulled into a hug by Jet. Her aura was gone.
Adrenaline pumping through her, Ruby struggled for all she was worth against his iron grip, but Jet held firm.
"It's over, Ruby." he said, over her grunts and efforts to get away, and upon hearing him, Ruby stopped struggling. "We beat you."
Ruby sighed in defeat, and turned to Yang, who leant against the same tree she'd hidden behind, and was being tended to by Izzet. She caught Yang's eye, and the blonde replied with a sad smile, as if to say 'I'm sorry.'
"What happened?" Ruby asked, taking Jet by the hand and sitting next to her sister. Yang hissed in pain a little as Izzet pressed her hand to a burn going across her legs.
"You were frozen in time by Izzet." Yang explained. "Once I found out, I went after Izzet, but I couldn't break that shield."
"I went after her." Jet picked up. "We fought, and both of our auras went low, but I was able to take her down. It was close." he tilted his head to Yang in respect. "After that, I simply hit you while you were frozen until your aura was done."
"I've got a question." Yang said, and Jet turned to meet her gaze. "How were you that tough during our fight? Normally you're a lot more fragile than that."
Jet grinned at that.
"I'm sure you've both noticed by now, but I can also use light in battle as well." he replied. "Where I drain my own aura by using darkness, I actually heal myself when using light. So in answer to your question," he fixed his eyes on Yang, "I'm just as 'fragile' as before, but I was healing passively, so it seems like I had more aura that time."
As Izzet finished healing Yang, she turned to Ruby, a silent question in her worried eyes.
"I'm fine, Izzet." Ruby reassured the telepath, and she smiled, before she caught Jet's eye. He nodded, and Izzet took Yang by the arm before they both vanished.
"They're returning to Beacon." Jet explained as he leaned back against the cool tree. Ruby sat next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her and held her close as they gazed up at the starless sky. "If someone had told me when I first arrived that I would have loads of friends and the best girlfriend I could have ever dreamed of, I would have never believed them."
"Same here." Ruby replied, content to snuggle into his side, wrapping her new cloak around herself and Jet as a cover against the elements, and Jet began to radiate his heat. He was literally like a human hot water bottle when he did this, and Ruby felt herself melt into him.
"Do you know?" Jet asked. "The first night I stayed here, I came out here after being bullied into sleeping outside."
"You were bullied like that?" Ruby asked, shocked.
"I hadn't discovered my full powers, and back then, people were stronger than me. I only had a couple of semblances as well. But that's beyond the point." He pointed up at the sky. "It was a clear sky back then, but after that night, I could never see those stars again. At least, until now."
"Until now?" Ruby queried suspiciously, and turned to see Jet's smile.
"I'd like you to see them as well." he whispered, and held up a hand in front of him, which she didn't realise was glowing until then. The sky seemed to darken even more than normal, almost as if a great black fog was being dispersed.
Then, Ruby saw them.
Lights in the sky, shining as pinpricks of hope in the gloom of the night. Immense clusters dominated sections of the sky, and she looked all around them as tiny gems shone from all directions, the proud glamour evident in their shine.
"Woooow." Ruby whispered slowly in the silence. They were beautiful.
"I like to think that they came out for me when I was feeling the most pain on that day." Jet explained quietly. "When many rejected me and used me as a punching bag."
"Who did it?" Ruby asked, catching Jet's eye and wondering if she should find said people. Teach them a lesson. As though reading her mind, Jet smiled at her.
"Cardin and his cronies, Nouvelle, couple of other teams I can't remember…" Jet replied. "But don't worry. I'm over them, in more ways than one."
"Good to know." Ruby replied, leaning in for a kiss, but Jet moved back a little. Ruby pouted at him, disappointed.
"I just need to say one thing." Jet said with a grin. "I love you."
With that, he grabbed Ruby and tried to get on top of her, but ended up overbalancing, and with a 'oh no' from Jet, the two of them tumbled down the hill, intertwined, rolling until they stopped at the bottom of the hill, with Ruby on top. Covered in snow, Ruby met his gaze.
"I love you too." Ruby whispered, and met his lips with her own in a passionate kiss.