Chapter 13: The Emperor's Friend

The museum only grew as they climbed higher. There was a bit of a slog to Jaune's steps now, as if the air pressure had gotten harder, denser. The faceless tour guides prattled on and on about the great Neptune this and that, while the patrons gaped and crowed in abject amazement. The halls were a great web of darkness, barely kept back by the guide's lantern, and ghost-lit chandeliers hanging from the murky ceilings. Almost gave the museum a hazy feeling.

As for where he needed to go, Jaune had no fucking clue.

He looked at Mystery, who gave him a half-shrug, like she was expecting him to have all the answers. Wasn't she the veteran here? Yes this was his target, but now that he was in the center of his inner reality, he didn't know what to do. He'd seen more of Neptune's memories than he had ever wanted to. Felt like he'd lived his life in some ways. The longer he lingered, the more part of his heart he felt.

What was he supposed to do now?

"We'll be pressed for time soon."

Jaune looked at Mystery. "What?"

"My overshadow is going to wear off soon." She paused. "Don't you know what that is?"

"No."

Her eyebrows shot up behind her black bangs. "Strange. Who is training you?"

"My—" Jaune sent her a glare as he clamped his mouth shut. "What's overshadowing?"

Mystery's smirk was that of a child caught trying to sneak a cookie. "When two hearts come into contact with each other and aren't close to each other in terms of strength, the stronger one has the potential to cast its will over the other. It allows them to change the properties of the Heart World in a variety of ways. This is called overshadowing. Its the reason the waves calmed, why the storms receded. Remember that?"

It was hard to forget, but Jaune was surprised he hadn't thought to ask more about it in the moment. Because he was too busy staring at her breasts? No, that couldn't be it.

"If its not arrogant of me, I'm rather skilled at overshadowing. And even if my heart is more powerful than your mark's by a humbling margin, I'm still not strong enough to hold it for long. I'll be reaching my limit soon." Her eyes hardened. "After that, there's no telling what will happen to this museum. Or anyone in it."

That wasn't horrifying in the slightest. "What will you do?"

She grinned. "Are you afraid I'll leave you?"

"Kind of."

Another blink, then a giggle. Even that was somehow disconcertingly hot. "Well I applaud your honesty. No, I think I'll stick around after my overshadow fades. If only to see how it affects your mark."

Jaune paused. "What do you mean how it will affect him?"

"Well, one can't simply force their will on someone's heart without affecting the heart itself. Once subject to overshadowing, it is more susceptible to Despair, hastening its spread. And after the overshadow, the Heart World will be weakened, which only helps it spread faster. That storm we were in? That is how your friend's Despair has taken form. There's no telling what they'll look like when—"

Jaune didn't think. He snatched Mystery by the collar, pulled her toward him, damn near lifted her off the ground. His every instinct told him to punch her, and the way his own voice came out was like dripping acid. "You did what?"

"Knight, be calm." He'd seen a flash of fiery fury in her eye, even felt her body temperature rise, but she let it go. "I didn't do it with the intent of harming your mark. We saw the Alter, did we not? Did it look like the Despair got to him?"

Jaune had no idea that it could come in different forms, so who the hell could say? He let Mystery go, realized he'd accidentally torn her shirt and exposed more of her cleavage, and looked away in shame.

"I assumed you know about the effects of overshadowing. Its an elementary lesson for Hunters." She hedged. "Don't get angry at me for saying this, but your teacher is not doing their job correctly if you don't know this information."

That or he'd gone against her orders despite not knowing a goddamn thing. Shit. He'd only made things worse for Neptune. "How is this affecting him in the real world?"

"I can't say for certain. But heightened emotions are the most common. I've had marks that exhibit drastic shifts in behavior, often negative. If your mark was not in a good state of mind before, it will be worse now."

Jaune buried his face in his hands. "Shit. God damn it!"

Mystery came up and moved his hands. He didn't see guilt in her face, it was too hard and unflinching for that. "My apologies. I thought the subjugation of the Alter would go more quickly than this with your help. It was a miscalculation not to attack in the ballroom otherwise this wouldn't be an issue. That is my fault. I didn't mean to harm your mark."

"He has a name," Jaune said, pulling his hands away and standing straight so she had to look up higher at him. "He's a human being. Not a bullseye to throw darts at. I'd appreciate it if you'd treat him that way."

There was a steely silence between them, and Jaune didn't doubt he'd touched a nerve with her. She did a good job not showing it through, crossing her arms under her chest, pushing up her cleavage again, but now Jaune was hard enough that he could ignore them. Man, that came out so wrong. Fuck, so did that.

"If it will keep you from being upset with me, then I will. Neptune it is. Now what do you suggest we do? As stimulating as these exhibits are, I feel the situation calls for change in pace. Shall we look for the Alter and confront him?"

He wasn't the expert. He was just fumbling around in this place, figuring it out as he went along. The halls were silent and empty now that the tour group had gotten ahead of them. Nothing but dark crossroads, where every branching looked the same, poorly illuminated by the glowing chandeliers. Felt a lot like an episode in that damn mystery bunch cartoon. This'd be about the time for the leader to split everyone up for no reason. Jaune had always hated that trope.

So imagine his frustration at having to now use it. "We have to split up."

Mystery put a hand to her chest with a gasp. "Say it isn't so? I fail to see who is going to protect me."

"Your exceeding charm." Jaune nodded down the left hallway. "That way's all you, and if you really need rescuing then just scream. I'll come." Oh son of a bitch.

"Oh, I bet you will. But as you please. Good luck." Jaune watched her disappear down the hallway, the darkness swallowing her up like some malevolent murky fog. He couldn't help but feel like she'd be right at home there.

All alone now, and only then did he allow himself to breathe. This search was taking longer than he preferred—he'd thought the fighting would be the hardest part, but so far there'd been very little of it. And every exhibit of Neptune's fucked life left him feeling not only guilty, but incredibly… exposed. Like some long held secret of his had been revealed over an intercom. Gods if he knew why, he searched his head again and again and came up with nothing.

"It doesn't matter," Jaune whispered to himself as he faced the right hallway. "Not much time. Gotta find the Alter. Think about everything else later."

More hallways met him at the end of that path, and more after that. It was a festoon of branching roads all looking the same, a massive web of confusion. He wasn't lost yet, having chosen to keep straight, but the feeling that he was going in the wrong direction kept wheedling at him. It was only when he saw something, a shape in the middle of the path, that he stopped.

Human-sized, human shaped, a girl. A naked girl. Jaune might have looked away, but found that the important bits of her body were gone. And in fact, the girl had no flesh. Instead it was sheen, polished wood, and her joints had mechanisms and gears in them. Her face was completely blank. No eyes, no nose, no mouth, which should have made it difficult to figure out who this puppet was supposed to be.

But the long white hair done up in a side ponytail solved that mystery right away.

Jaune took a few cautious steps forward, summoned his shield just in case. Closer. No weapon on her, no claws or teeth or anything that could be used to attack besides her limbs. The hell was it doing standing here in the darkness?

The Weiss puppet began to give off a series of clicks as its body convulsed, like the rapid snapping of a camera reel. Only when it stopped did its featureless face spin on him, and a soft, echoing voice mewled out, "Did did did I do something wrong?"

"What?"

"I was w-w-wrong. To call you. Forgive me." The puppet convulsed again. "I-I-I like… I like... you." It was like a malfunctioning machine, sputtering nonsense. "Do not… do do do not leave…" It poised straight up and Jaune had nearly reached out to touch it.

But it was suddenly flying backward, vanishing in the darkness like someone had reeled her in on a fishing line. Jaune darted after it, could hear the miserable echoes of the puppet as it repeated everything it said before. Before long, the darkness was receding, giving way to the long hall with elaborate paintings and gold plaques, a red carpet straight toward the end like a longue.

The puppet sat at the bottom of the flight of steps, only the sound of its sobs could be heard. Jaune stayed wary as he approached it, went rigid when it lifted its head up at him, two disturbing holes in its face for eyes, like someone had taken a drill to it. Black tears oozing out of them as her puppet mouth quivered with a clacking violence, like it might break off any minute. "M-my love?" Hope dripped out of her soft voice.

"I'm here."

Jaune startled at something behind him, stepping back as something came walking up. Someone. Neptune. A trident perched lazily onto his shoulder. He passed Jaune a glance, one he couldn't get a read on, smirked, then held his hand out to the Weiss puppet. "Come, Weiss. It's time for our favorite show."

The Weiss puppet was standing now, and not only that, it was wearing a frilly white ballroom dress, long silk gloves up to her forearms, shining slippers and a sparkling silver necklace. She put her hand in Neptune's, face spasming for a moment before snapping still. Crick, crack, bits of wood began to tear away as a crack slowly split from one end of the face to another. A crooked smile, twisted with forced joy and deep sadness. "Y-yes."

The two preceded up the stairs, hand-in-hand, leaving Jaune to watch them, feebly trying to make sense of it all. Well, he'd found the Alter, as well as a surprise cognition of Weiss that made a puppet? And now they were going to a show? This place was only getting stranger.

But it might take too long to go back and find Mystery, he needed to investigate this on his own. He shoved down his hesitations and sprinted up the steps three at a time. Double doors awaited him at the next floor, a faceless doorman waiting beside them. He thought he might have to force his way through, but the doorman made a gesture as if he was expected, invited even. He watched him regardless, at least until the doors were behind him.

It was a theatre, indeed. A play stage. But instead of the hundreds of rows of seats and big walls, the room was fairly small and empty. Save for the two seats banked out before the stage, occupied by the very much not lovely couple. Jaune would have liked to say the show they were watching was interesting, for it certainly was, but not in the way he wanted to watch.

A puppet woman in a white gown jerked up onto her feet, her every movement commanded by string. She gasped, hands to her cheeks in surprise. Her face was completely blank besides three exclamation points painted on it. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, my husband has returned from work early!"

Another puppet, male and with no distinguishing features other than that he was naked, was running around in circles like a chicken lost its head. "Oh no, oh no, whatever shall we do?"

"Oh no, oh my, oh dear, oh why!" The woman despaired, pacing back and forth as a third puppet came walking onto the stage in a business suit. "Lewis, my husband, allow me to explain!"

The Lewis puppet's face was drawn with a question mark. He looked between his wife and the naked puppet running around, then it morphed into an interrobang. "Unfaithful whore! You have betrayed this family!"

Jaune moved closer to get a look at the Neptune Alter, who craned back in his seat, watching the play with unparalleled boredom. Like he'd seen it all a million times. The Weiss puppet was next to him, their hands joined, and her head spasming just like it had before. Then back to the stage, where Lewis had backhanded his wife and her lover was darting off stage. Lewis's face was now a throbbing exclamation point. "I shall tell your son of this harlotry, and he will forever be ashamed of you. I will make him a man, one without the need for you."

"You mustn't, oh husband of mine! For I've only one child! Do not take him away!"

Another puppet came onto the stage, pre-teen aged and wearing a swimsuit. Lewis clutched him to his side and pointed a stabbing finger at his wife. "Look there, son. A woman cannot be trusted. Do you see how she has betrayed us? You must never allow a woman to distract you." He kneeled down to him, clutched his arms so hard that Jaune flinched at the cracking wood. "Do as I say, and we will be a great success. You have my latent talent. And you must use it for your poor father, do you see?"

The young puppet was staring at his mother. Tiny question marks popping up on his face, and more by the second. Alter-Neptune watched on with a look that was somehow glazed and rapt at the same time, cheek resting in his palm as he leaned onto the armrest.

Lewis picked up his wife in both hands, raising her over his head. A part of the floor opened up into a gaping black pit and he dropped her inside, all while his son stared down the hole with frozen horror. A cardboard cutout of the sun came swinging down, birds of sticks came flying in, puppets dressed as bushels of flowers came up and started dancing on stage. Lewis took his son into his arms, lifted him like he was an infant. "Don't worry, my son. We never have to see her again. I will make you the greatest man you can become. And I will not stop until you are!"

A chorus of applause came up from nowhere, a great din of universal clamor, drowning out anything else the actors were saying. The teen puppet continued to stare into the hole, even after the father began to head off stage with him in tow. That young blank face dotted with so many question marks that the ink was pouring off his face. One hand reached for that black abyss, reached for his mother. It even looked like he might struggle out of his father's grip, but the burgundy curtains snapped closed as quickly as a slammed door, and the theatre's lights eased back on.

"Booo!" jeered Alter-Neptune as he threw something at the stage. Jaune only realized after the fact that it was the Weiss puppet, and she broke into several pieces once she hit the ground, her head rolling away into a corner. "What is this medieval Vale? People don't talk like that anymore, you idiots! God!" Alter-Neptune hawked up with a gurgling violence, then spat it impressively at the curtain. "Gotta be fucking kidding me."

It felt a lot like he was in the presence of a friend raging over a video game and not wanting to say anything. Alter-Neptune took a raspy breath and turned to him, eyes narrowed. "Oh, you? You're a long way from the tour guide."

"I got lost." muttered Jaune. "I take it you didn't like the play."

"Good guess."

"Yeah."

His target was right in front of him. This was it. This was the moment to take him down. Whether the mood was right or not was irrelevant, he couldn't expect things in the Heart World to just be telegraphed to him. And yet Jaune did not attack, unsure of what choice to make. Attacking now just seemed wrong somehow.

He glanced at the Alter, who watched the stage with narrowed-eyed anger. "You spend a lot of time up here?"

Alter Neptune dropped in his chair. "Whenever I'm not entertaining my guests or porking my mannequins. Why?"

"No reason." Jaune steeled himself. Clearly, the Alter could manipulate the elements, so what he needed to do was take him out quickly. He didn't look physically strong, which of course proved jack shit, but he felt more confident in his approach believing he was frailer than he likely was. Just had to keep him distracted while he molded his inner aura for a Reflect. He'd cast it around them both and then jump him. Whatever happens after that?

He supposed he'd figure it out when he got there.

"That kid, on stage? Looked like he wanted to see his mom again."

Neptune scoffed. "Parents are useless leeches, he's better off without them."

"That so?" Jaune took a slight step forward. Gave the room a quick once over. The Weiss puppet wasn't moving, and none of the stagehands or actors were around. No Grimm. It was just him and the Alter. No better opportunity than this.

"All they want is for their kids to live out the things they couldn't. That or they pretend to care about them out of some stupid obligation." Alter-Neptune scoffed. "Fuck them, am I right?"

"Uh, right." A little closer. The spell was ready.

Alter-Neptune curled an eyebrow at him, a pensive twist to his mouth. "You look kinda familiar. Who are you?"

Strange. He hadn't immediately recognized him, which had to mean that there was some kind of dissonance between the Alter and the real Neptune. Maybe because he hadn't known Neptune long enough to be a factor in his heart? Sort of made him wonder what shape Neptune's cognition of him would take. The villain maybe, since he hadn't exactly left Neptune on the best terms.

Then again, was he not the villain right now, attacking Neptune's heart even if he was trying to help him? Jaune looked into Neptune's eyes, swallowed and said, "I'm your friend."

The Alter blinked, and that was when Jaune began. The spell burst to life around them, a great dome that closed them together in the space of a second. Strangely, Neptune only looked around with mild curiosity, and Jaune hadn't had time to think about it before throwing himself at him.

Then, everything was burning.

The world flashed blinding white. Made his eyes feel like they were melting into his skull, his blood felt like it came to an unnatural boil. Had he gone flying? He wasn't sure. All he knew was that he was on his ass, his back was against a wall, and the heat coming from his red-hot chestplate burned his chin. That and it was hard to move.

"Oh that was slick, I'll give you that, guy." Alter-Neptune strode up to him, sparks sizzling off his hand. He flapped that hand like he was air-drying it. "That's the first time someone attacked me. You an assassin?"

Jaune groaned, pressed one hand on the ground to try and stand. Another surge of heat. Lightning. It cracked and sizzled and came straight from above as if God himself had willed it. His body convulsed, shook, skin crawling with a violence, disturbed beyond description.

"And you're still alive after two of my thunder spears? You're built pretty hard, dude." Did you have to say it like that?

Neptune stepped back, seemingly bored by the pain he'd just inflicted on him. "Is trying to kill your friends normal where you come from?"

"I just," Jaune shuddered, his armguards so hot that it seemed through the fabric and burned his skin. "I just want to help."

"Thanks man, but I'm good." He snapped a finger and pointed at him. "But look, I'm gonna go. I like to watch the ocean around this hour. I'd invite you, but you sorta tried to murder me. My dad'll show you the door. Hey, pops, get on it!"

The ground shook for a second. Then the ground exploded into a shower of splinters and water as something rose to the surface. An Apex, and a big one. Heavy white bone-armor coated its entire front, strong and uncracked like it had just gotten it fresh from the forge. Shining red eyes burned like angry stoplights, left trails of red streaks as it thrashed about, tearing up more of the floor. It opened its gaping mouth, so many teeth that it looked like the inside of a shredder. A giant bit pressed to its upper mouth, and there was a yell as someone cracked the reins. A man standing on top of the beast. The Lewis puppet.

Finding some strength, Jaune got to his knees and summoned his shield, and had to prop himself up by stabbing the corner into the floor. Alter-Neptune patted the Apex's gills as he passed, shooting Jaune one final look before leaving through the double doors.

Jaune frowned as he forced himself to stand on his burning legs, glared at him and his father and the Apex defiantly. Not exactly the most graceful way to start a fight, but it got things moving. What else was there to do but fight?

The Apex's mighty roar pushed the air into his face like the winds of a tornado. The echoing sound ringing Jaune's ears to the point that he formed an instant headache. He sneered up at the Grimm, at the puppet Lewis. Stupid monsters. Couldn't they see he had bigger fish to fry?

God, that line was so lame.

I don't know why, but this chapter was just hard to write. Took me freaking forever.

Damn it Cinder, you can't just overshadow people's hearts without consent. Not much else to say here, hope y'all enjoyed the read and see you in the next one.