"So…you work for Gojo. But we haven't heard anything about you?" Weiss asked curiously.
Serena Blair, the young woman that had just saved them was looking into the distance as they flew through the skies on her flying hovercraft. She turned around to face Weiss, Jaune and Kara, the latter two huddling together as Jaune tried to comfort his daughter who was terrified after what had happened. Her eyes where however not looking directly at Weiss.
"I am a shadow agent for the Initiative," she started "it is my job to remain unnoticed and shadow people, enemies and allies alike. He gave me the job to watch you three in secret."
"Why would he feel the need to send you to watch us?" Jaune asked looking up.
Serena crossed her arms and sighed audibly, again looking away from the three of them. This silence told Jaune enough and he stood up, picking Kara up into his arm and still holding her close.
"He knew they were coming didn't he?" Jaune asked, his tone slightly angry.
Serena nodded "he didn't say it in so many words but…yeah that's what it comes down to…"
Jaune held back the urge to yell with his daughter literally in his arms. He couldn't really blame Serena, she was just following orders and she had just saved them so he was grateful. But all this just reminded him of what Gojo said to him this morning.
That his daughter was a liability.
Is this why he send Serena to secretly look out for them? In spite of his confidence and certainty that the Collective would never dare to enter this world as long as he was here, was he secretly thinking that they would risk it. Jaune knew enough. Thanos had send them to bring his granddaughter back home…
And what Silco said….was Weiss…the other Weiss still alive…
Jaune had a difficult time wrapping his head around the entire idea. If the other Weiss had been alive all this time why didn't she show up personally to collect Kara? Undoubtedly in spite of Gojo's great power he knew the other Weiss well enough to know that she wouldn't care who would get in the way of her objective.
"I'm sorry," Serena said looking down "I know you and Gojo aren't on the best terms and I know he can be a real asshole sometimes…well mostly all the time but in the end he was trying to look out for you."
Weiss spoke up "forgive my language. But screw Gojo. Good intentions mean nothing if the results are disastrous. It doesn't matter if he means well, so does Thanos and his goals are insane so Gojo has no excuse."
Jaune and Serena seemed to both be surprised by Weiss's sudden use of profanity, even if it was a mild form of it.
"What?" Weiss asked crossing her arms "I'm not wrong am I not?"
"No, no you're not," Jaune said as he smiled at her "you're absolutely right. Look Serena we truly appreciate your help and in spite of our feelings towards Gojo we need to inform him of the Collective being here. Maybe then he will finally deal with Thanos personally."
Serena again didn't look at him directly, as if she was nervous she meekly said "you're not a fan of Thanos aren't you.."
Jaune didn't respond at first instead he first asked Weiss "could you hold her for a second" and she agreed taking Kara into her arms and walking off towards the other end of the hovercraft as to make sure that Kara couldn't hear him.
"No I'm not a fan of him. Considering he is the cause of everything bad that happened to me over the past three years. He send me in this weird contrived plan to make his daughter, who happened to be another version of the woman I've been pining for, for years, who know suddenly is into me and I'm all confused. And next I'm drawn into some multiversal conflict, having to fight for my life and discovering I have a daughter which I didn't know about for two years and it's all because of him! Everything that has happened not just in my life, but the lives of my friends is all because of him and the only reason I don't go after him myself is because he is my daughter's grandfather."
It was pent up frustration of the highest order and he had just unleashed on this innocent young woman who had no part in it. The look on her face was one that Jaune couldn't quite make out but she almost seemed…downtrodden.
"I'm sorry I shouldn't have gone off like that" Jaune apologized, hanging his head in shame.
"It's okay…I sort of understand how you feel…" Serena started uncertainly "my dad he had similar feelings towards someone like you had, so I sort of get it…"
Before Jaune could respond, Weiss came running up to them, holding Kara tightly in her hands.
"Not to interrupt but this strange bird has been following us closely for quite a bit now" she said worried.
Serena's eyes widened as she walked over to the edge to see out in the sky and like Weiss had said and indeed she saw a strange looking bird following their hovercraft. Big bulging eyes that could stare into one's soul. It was trailing close behind them, almost catching up.
"Yoru!" Serena yelled before she returned to the helm of the Hovercraft and grabbed the control panel "she's followed us which means the rest can't be far behind".
The bird was above them and before the craft could push further, the bird had transformed into Yoru and landed on the craft, a sharp bone blade in her hand and the first thing she did was flung herself towards Weiss who in reflex blocked Yoru's weapon with her own.
"We're not done yet sis!" Yoru said angrily.
"I'm not your sister and you have issues!" Weiss shouted as she pushed Yoru backwards with enough force that she stumbled. Jaune kept Kara out of the line of fight but Yoru instead focused her efforts on throwing her knife right at Weiss's direction, Weiss ducked effortlessly and with a grin she said.
"Missed me."
Yoru instead smirked "wasn't aiming at you."
Weiss turned and saw Serena stepping backwards from the control panel as Yoru's bone blade was now lodged deep within it. "It's going down!" Serena yelled as she fell backwards as the craft took a nose dive.
"Everyone get to me!" Weiss yelled as she raised Myrtenaster in the air and produced a series of Glyphs underneath her as Serena, Jaune and Kara held onto her and the Glyphs lifted them off the platform and left them suspended in the air as the craft nosedived completely and Yoru went down with it.
Weiss concentrated deeply as she slowly lowered the Glyph they were standing on towards the ground. It took a good minute of intense focus until they reached the ground and they all reacted differently as Kara was crying and holding tightly onto Jaune and Serena and Weiss looked around to see where they had landed.
"Look over there it's the academy!" Serena pointed.
It was indeed the Academy, they had landed right near it. But the feeling was…off somehow. An eerie grim specter seemed to loom over the school which had been a safe haven for them for the past three months now seemed like a place of uncertainty. They could barely make out what seemed to be grey vines protruding from the ground and smoke coming from behind it.
"It seems Yoru and my hovercraft landed there," Serena said before turning to the pair "something is definitely going on over there."
Jaune stepped forward, picking up Kara and holding her in his arms "I remember this, this feels awfully familiar," he thought back "this is the same feeling I got when I was in the realm of that Vecna guy."
"So Creel is here. That's not good" Serena said worriedly as she procured her fancy dagger out of it's holster.
"That means the others might be in trouble. We need to help them!" Weiss said as she held Myrtenaster up and walked forward. Jaune stood backwards, clutching Kara tightly, there was no safe place to keep her at the moment and his main concern was her safety.
As he took a step forward he felt himself being pulled backwards with such a force that he dropped Kara. As he was flung backwards he glimpsed Weiss casting a Glyph which grabbed Kara mid fall and pulled her safely into Weiss's arms.
Jaune's back hit the hard ground as he heard Kara scream "Daddy!" and his eyes caught the sight of the armored warrior standing right there, his sharp razor brace ready and armed.
"You again!" Jaune yelled out angrily.
"You thought you could escape the Shredder!" Saki growled from underneath his mask as he lunged forward at Jaune who blocked his attack by quickly pulling his shield up to protect himself.
A little earlier…
"I tire of your games! Tell me where the girl is!" Vecna growled.
Maki and Yang felt completely helpless, underneath them the lifeless body of Yuta lay there and Panda and Inumaki where held up in the air like pigs for slaughter. Maki and Yang exchanged glances, a knowing one.
"Killing us of one by one will not make us tell you!" Yang shouted defiantly.
Vecna didn't respond immediately, his expression was unreadable and didn't reveal what he thought of her defiance. "Maybe not," he said "but getting rid of you pathetic scum is all well worth it."
A loud crash suddenly made Vecna turn his entire body around as he saw the door leading to the outside being blasted open and two silhouettes jump throughout "DEMON DOGS ATTACK!" was yelled as two canines, one black and one white where summoned ran forward and one immediately pinned Vecna to the ground, causing him to lose his concentration and as such Panda and Inumaki dropped to the ground with a large thud, unconscious but alive.
The other one tore quickly through the vines holding Maki and Yang captive, the latter upon release immediately activated Ember Cecilica in order to blast the vines to cinders. "Awww yeah I'm back baby! Wait Blake!"
Yang saw Blake still tangled in a nearby vine and Yang aimed and blasted the vine, it shrieking as it released Blake and Yang went and helped her up.
"I'm sorry Yang he overwhelmed me and…"
"It's okay as long as you're safe" Yang said embracing Blake, who blushed and returned the embrace just as one of the dogs went flying past them. They looked and saw an enraged Vecna getting up and looking at them with an intense anger.
"You….YOU…"
"Henry Creel!," a familiar voice said as the monstrous figure turned to the sound "by order of the Initiative I order you to cease this attack right now."
The voice came from Megumi Fushiguro and Power stood next to him, brandishing her trusty blood mallet.
"How dare you oppose me!" Vecna snarled at them.
"Because I am the mighty Power and I fear nobody!" Power yelled as she winked at Megumi and without another word dashed forward right to Vecna. The ghastly being raised his hands, and a pair of vines sprung up from the ground and went straight towards an approaching Power.
Megumi put his fingers together and yelled "Demon dogs shred the vines!" as his two canines appeared out of the shadows again and ran with incredible speed and began chomping down the vines.
"I'll help out too" Yang said as she armed her weapons and began firing from behind at Vecna who quickly lost his concentration as soon as the assault from Ember Cecilica made impact with his back. He turned back to Yang who immediately showed him her middle finger.
"You insolent little…"
"Hey Henry watch out behind you!" Yang yelled mockingly.
As he turned it was already too late and Power had closed in on him and her blood mallet had made impact with him. With a mighty roar and a swing, the Blood Devil gave it her all with a swing and knocked Vecna clear into the sky as he went flying with a big bow right over the roof of the academy and out of sight.
"AAAH YES BEHOLD THE GLORY OF POWER!" Power yelled out with a victory yell. The demon dogs dissipated and Maki immediately went to check in on Panda and Inumaki while Yang comforted Blake and Megumi smiled as Power skipped towards them wrapped her hands around his neck looking at him with a seductive grin.
"So how did I do?" she asked with a mixture of a seductive smile and a shy face.
"You where marvelous my love as always" Megumi replied with his usual stoic tone as he wrapped his hands around Power's waist, pulling her closer.
"Kiss me you crazy handsome man!" Power said as Megumi pulled her even closer and enveloped her in a passionate kiss, forgetting the world around them including all the people now looking at them with a surprised expression.
"Very romantic guys but now is not the moment!" Yang yelled at them as Power and Megumi separated. Power responded by sticking out her tongue at Yang.
"She's not wrong my love. We need to keep up because we don't know who else of the Collective is…" he was interrupted as they all heard a crash. They turned and saw a small hovercraft had landed on the ground and the figure of a young woman was sprawled on top of the ground, slowly getting up.
"Damn her and…" the young woman grumbled before looking up and seeing the group of people standing before her all looking at her. Her eyes glanced on directly to Megumi and how he was holding Power affectionately close.
"Wait isn't that?" Power started.
"Asa…" Megumi finished.
The scars where clear on her face, in her hand the bone dagger was clutched tightly as she began to angrily huff at the sight before her.
Megumi…her Megumi was holding this….this disgusting blood demon close. Yoru's eyes became fire and with a loud yell she lunged forward with her dagger in hand, aiming straight for Power.
