Day Twenty-Seven: I Don't Know If They Will Accept This

Characters/Pairings: Jake/Rose; Huntsman; Lao Shi

Rating: T

Content warnings: possession (?); character death(s); suicide

Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!

~TLL~

Heat was everywhere.

Rose had to squint to see through the haze of dragon fire. She moved carefully, slowly, not wanting to make enough noise to attract attention. The siege of the Isle of Draco was not going the way that the Huntsman had intended and Rose knew, dressed as she was, that the dragons would fire first and ask questions later. It would be deserved. Even though Rose had been able to tip off Jake, and through Jake the Dragon Council, that the Huntsclan was planning on something during their yearly conference, she hadn't been completely sure what it was. Master was freezing her out, it seemed, and Rose suspected he suspected and that was why.

Rose hunted around the edge of the island, taking bits of usable weaponry off of discarded Huntsclan bodies. It had been going so well for the Huntsclan in the beginning that Rose had been afraid for Jake, Lao Shi, and Haley. Even Fu was caught in the fray somewhere. Then, the dragons had gotten their footing and were winning the slaughter. Rose wove through the dead, her heart falling into the pit of her stomach whenever it was a dragon corpse. She would always rush to make sure it was someone she loved. She was lucky that she hadn't found any of them yet but that didn't mean that no one else had. Rose kept coming across dragons and Huntsclan members, screaming and crying in their death throes, so she did the most merciful thing she could think of.

It made her feel sick and it stained her body and soul.

Rose picked her way through the wreckage, hoping to find Haley. Jake and Lao Shi would be at the main fight and Rose didn't want to be a distraction for Jake. Rose could make sure that that Haley was safe and kept from harm. It was the least she could do since she hadn't been able to stop the massacre.

Rose struggled over a rocky ledge that had been coated in someone's blood. As soon as she crested the ledge, she came to face to face with the Huntsman, his face alarmingly white and his chest shockingly red. The Huntsman let out a groan. Rose crouched down out of sight, a flash of understanding running through her. The dragons were winning because the Huntsman was not injured enough to die and transfer his power to lead but was too injured to be of any use.

The Huntsman grunted. "I see you."

Rose stood hesitantly.

"Oh, Huntsgirl." Master coughed, leaving blood on his lips. As Rose got closer, she realized she could see his organs puling in his chest. "Come to finish me off?"

They both knew she wouldn't. As immoral as Rose found the idea of keeping him alive just so the Huntsclan would continue to fail, he had trained her too well not to do it. Rose could tell from the way that he was looking at her that he knew she was a traitor to the Clan and everything he held dear.

Rose used the remains of his jacket to put pressure on the large wound that could have only come from a large dragon's claw. It wouldn't keep him alive forever but every breathe he took was another change that Rose would see Jake alive again.

"Tell me how it happened," the Huntsman ordered in a death rattle.

Rose didn't play dumb this time. Whatever happened next, the Huntsman wasn't making it off this ledge alive.

"I fell in love," Rose confessed, staring her once Master dead in the eyes. "With the American Dragon."

Rose was glad she was actually able to see his face when he found out.

"You stupid child," he growled. "I'll have you killed."

"No, you won't. You're not ever going to do anything again."

"I won't but they will."

Rose regarded him suspiciously. "There's no way for you to get the word out now."

The Huntsman's eyes rolled skyward, his words becoming incoherent as he spoke to people who weren't really there. Rose sat, transfixed by his death speech.

"Not a good idea … She is … You can't with a wild card … Huntsboy 4 …"

The hair on the back of Rose's neck stood up. Huntsboy 4 was supposed to take the Huntsman's place, when the Huntsman either died or decided to retire.

"Are you strong enough?" the Huntsman asked the sky. Then, his eyes rolled back down, staring down at Rose. He repeated, "are you strong enough?"

Rose could kill him now. Huntsboy 4 would feel it, immediately, and she didn't know where he was or the damage that he could do. He was proven in battle and as a leader on a small scale but no one had expected the Huntsman himself to be taken out in the battle and not so early. Rose hesitated. What if she made a mistake? What if letting him live was the mistake? But, also, what if killing him was the mistake?

"Huntsgirl, my mask."

Rose took the Huntsman's wolf-head mask into her hands and went to hand it to him. His hand slipped, touching the bare skin of her hand. He felt unnaturally hot and then there was a whisper in her brain, like that of another person. Rose swung her head around but there was no one but the Huntsman. He continued holding onto her hand and then there was another voice. Rose tried to rise but there was an unnatural strength and determination to the Huntsman now.

"Do you hear them?" he whispered, his eyes lighting up. "Do you hear that?"

"What is happening?" Rose cried.

"You are going to be the next Huntswoman and every voice you are starting to hear are the voices of the Clan rulers that came before you."

"What?" She wasn't going to rule the Huntsclan; she was going to drive it into the ground or disband it. Surely, the Huntsman knew that. But the self-satisfied smirk on his face made panic start to bloom her chest as the voices in her head began to multiply. "Master, the rest of the Clan, Huntsboy 4. Listen, it's not right. I don't know if they will accept this. I know I can't."

"You can because you must and they will because they must." The Huntsman closed his eyes. "There is no free will with the rulers, Huntsgirl. They considered this active punishment for you."

Rose opened her mouth to say more but the Huntsman stopped breathing. There was a torrent of noise in her head, a cacophony of previous generations screaming at each other. Rose clamped her hands over her ears but it made no difference because everything was inside of her. They weren't even just in her head but funneling themselves through the rest of her body, into her arms and legs and chest. Before Rose knew what she was properly doing, she had picked up the Huntsman's wolf-head mask, which now fit over her head as if she had been the one that it was destined for.

Now kill, the voices said. Lead the Clan to victory.

The Clan rulers had it all planned out and before Rose could react, that plan was being sent to every able-bodied Huntsclan member still out there on the Isle.

No, Rose pleaded, no, we won't.

But, her voice was lost. She was a person trapped; her body was just a vessel.

Despite all of her intentions, Rose picked up the Huntsman's abandon weapon and turned, heading into the belly of the fray.

(-.-)

"The Huntsman is dead! Long live the Huntswoman!"

Every single Huntsclan member that Jake could see intoned the chant, starting to fight more vigorously than they had before. Jake retreated to Lao Shi's side, worried about his grandfather. Lao Shi was breathing hard, was bleeding harder, and Jake didn't know how much further either of them could go.

"The Huntswoman?" Jake said, as if Lao Shi had some hidden knowledge that he didn't, because that was often the case. "Wasn't Huntsboy 4 next in line?"

"That was what we were told."

Jake was separated from Lao Shi, trying to stay afloat when the Huntsclan was suddenly filled with a strength that Jake didn't understand. He tried to keep his eyes on Lao Shi, struggling to get back to help him, but when Lao Shi was overwhelmed by Huntsclan members and Jake knew that he couldn't help, he found himself unable to watch. He threw himself into hurting as many people as could, thinking that this was never a person that he was meant to be. He hoped Haley was okay. He hoped that Rose wasn't one of the maskless that he was batting aside. He hoped that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, even though his grandfather was definitely dead and nothing could be right ever again.

"Huntswoman!"

Jake looked up, his paw on a Huntsgirl's throat. There was the wolf-mask of the Huntsman, worn on a body that Jake recognized on sight. It was such a relief, actually, to see Rose wearing the mantle. She loved him; she was on their side. Whatever trick she had done to accomplish this, he actually applauded her for it. If she was in charge of the Clan, she could force them all to stand down.

Rose made a beeline for him and Jake went to greet her, thinking about when they were alone and could hold each other and cry about all of the horrors. It wasn't that he was looking forward to it but he needed to know that they would both be there and that they would still have each other.

"Rose!"

"Jake!"

There was a panic in Rose's voice and Jake wondered just what she had gone through out there. As he got closer, he could see tears streaking down her face behind the mask.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Jake whispered when they were close together, even though it definitely wasn't the time or the place. "I was worried about you."

"NO!" Rose screamed, her voice like a feral animal. "Don't make me! NO!"

"Rose?"

Jake stuttered backward a step, looking down at his chest. There was so much blood.

Oh.

His blood.

Jake gripped the Huntstaff in his hand and then slowly pulled it out.

He had been stabbed.

Rose had stabbed him.

Jake looked at her with confusion and she was sobbing wildly.

"They made me! I'm not me! I'm not!" Her voice was garbled and she went to grab at him but Jake fell backward, hitting the ground hard. She threw herself over him, taking the spear into her hand. "NO!"

The last thing Jake ever saw was Rose putting the spear through her own head.