BOOM!
Ruby and Penny had gone with each other to the docks when they heard the first explosion and saw what was happening; A container crashed onto the ground, Blake and Sun currently trying to hold off Torchwick but after he knocked them back. The mobster smirked as he took notice of Ruby on the roof.
"Oh hello there, Red~ Isn't it past your bedtime? I already dealt with your little friends and I'm more then happy to settle scores." Roman said cryptically as he rested his hand on his cane.
"Ruby…is that person your friend?" Penny asked as she saw Roman on the ground but could barely react as Ruby ended up flying off her feet before she could warn her to step back.
That didn't take much for the redhead to jump down and draw her weapons: a set of floating swords that seamlessly moved around Penny as she attacked the White Fang members that tried to rush her. "Do not worry for me, Ruby! I am combat ready!"
Meanwhile Blake and Sun were pounding on the industrial container that fell; they had seen Jae underneath it and that put an unimaginable fear in them, Sun was trying bust it open and Blake knew that Jae could get up from anything; "But can he get up from this?" One intrusive filled her head as she tried her best to hold it together and not think of the worst; "Come on, Jae…I've seen you take a hit to the face by Yang, you've been training with Pyrrha…and if you're right about what you think you are…then I know that if anyone can walk away from this then it's you!" Blake yelled as she pounded on the container before turning to the fleeing Torchwick with a slowly growing anger inside of her.
"So much for Would-be Huntsmen and Huntresses…they'll be too busy scraping that kid into a bucket to stop this!" Roman bragged before he felt Blake tackle him to the ground with a look of anger in her eyes and her blade pointed down at his throat; "Well...Looks like you've been thinking the same thing I have~" He remarked to taunt her.
"I'm not letting you get away from here…Not after this!" Blake growled as she felt her hand shake a little.
"From what exactly? The robberies, the fact that I took your little animal friends from the White Fang or the fact that it looks like I turned your boyfriend into a pretty pink mulch~" Torchwick sneered; his eyes not looking away from her's.
"He's not my boyfriend…But I can still take you on without anyone's help!" Blake warned him as she looked like she was ready to take him out
"Then maybe you should start to take that chance because who knows when you'll get ano...Clank!…ther?" Roman trailed off as he heard a loud metallic noise from the container he shot at; noticing that Blake had glanced away for a brief moment, he swung his cane up and knocked her in the side of the head, pushing her off of him and took his cue to escape.
Sun was stepping back from the container as he could hear the sound of creaking metal coming from underneath him before he started to see the container move; "What…the…?" He mumbled to himself as he saw the container that was three times his size slowly push itself upwards, thinking the worst, he peeked under it and saw a heavily beaten up Jae struggling to lift it from underneath him as the sound of his exertions were now heard. Without a second though; Sun used his semblance to make doubles and made them move under the container to help lift the load. "JAE! Hold on, man! I'll get you outta there before it crashes!" Sun yelled out to him as he saw Jae shake his head to stop him, the light clones dissipated after some hesitation and Jae took the full weight back on him and collapsed to one knee.
"I'll say this now Sun…I'm a Demon, I've always been called one and now someone said it might be legit…so I'm gonna make sure I live up to the name…as a Huntsman!" Jae roared as he slowly got to his feet and sent the container off the ground with an almighty push into the air. Even though it didn't go far, the container hit the water by the dock with a heavy splash.
Sun ran over to help him get back to his feet after he saw the now heavily injured Jae stumble and hit the ground; "I don't think I've ever seen anyone go that far to prove a point...And for something that people will hate you for on top of that."
"I spent all my time as a kid being called a Demon, so I may as well embrace it." Jae wheezed between labored breaths, if he wasn't feeling battered and bruised than he certainly looked it; his clothes were all ripped up and dirty from being pressed into the ground, though he was still confused as to how he was able to lift that large container with all his might whereas before he could only stagger an Ursa.
"Still…I didn't know you could lift that." Sun mentioned as he hobbled Jae over to a spot where he could sit.
"Honestly…I didn't think I could, but it could be the adrenaline kicking in so pinch of salt." Jae would remark but out of nowhere: he felt his joints pop and then every inch of his body seared with a burning pain as everything went white.
—Some Time Later—
Penny was able to fight off the White Fang along with the others but Torchwick still managed to escape in an airship, commenting on weird kids getting weirder.
By the time that the others showed up; the police had taken the caught White Fang into custody and they were all questioned but Jae had been placed on a stretcher and being monitored in an ambulance.
Jae could overhear everything that was being said from Weiss and Blake but he wasn't expecting to be bombarded when Nora, Ren and Pyrrha rushed to him with a number of questions; most of them being if he was okay. "Well…The doctor in there said that it was lucky that I was able to be conscious after that container falling…but he said that with enough pushing then I can beat anything."
"NO…I said it was a miracle that you survived that at all and that with all those wounds on your body, I wouldn't push too hard." The doctor corrected Jae before looking to his team; "Regardless of that, your friend is responding well to the recovery. Though I wouldn't recommend that he does something like this in the future." He would look back to Jae; "Agreed?"
"Uh huh…Got it." Jae mumbled as he then fell back to sleep in the stretcher but the Doctor had more questions.
"I got the statement from him and from the other boy, can any of you tell me if your friend has any Semblance relating to healing or durability?" The Doctor asked curiously.
"No…He can make weapons with his…You said he was going to be okay, he will…won't he?" Pyrrha asked with worry as she knew this kind of question wasn't without a particularly specific reason.
"Well, seeing as you three are his team mates then there should be no harm in telling you this; for all intents and purposes, that falling crate should have killed him…There's no Aura on record for someone this young could stop something like this. Even seasoned Huntsmen and Huntresses can rarely take this kind of impact...The fact that he withstood several tons of pressure and remained conscious for a brief moment is honestly something unheard of." He explained, sounding equally as confused as they were; "When we got him on the stretcher, we counted…I can't even tell you how many injuries that we counted…but after we got him to the ambulance: they had already started to heal on their own…"
"You mean like cuts and bruises?" Ren would ask curiously, looking at Jae resting in the bed and noticing that despite his clothes looking shredded and messy; he didn't have any scratches or cuts on him at all, not even so much as a bruise.
"I'm talking broken bones, torn muscles and not to mention what should be a considerable amount of internal bleeding." Doc explained; "By the time we got to scanning him, the bones had reset themselves and his muscles had already started to recover…almost like he wasn't just hit by the equivalent of a speeding bus." He added before getting up; "You should be able to take him home tonight, but I'd recommend that you keep an eye on him."
The three nodded as they mulled over what was said but their moods dropped when they saw Weiss coming over, "How is he doing?" She would ask them as she peered into the back of the ambulance to check on him.
Suffice to say, nobody forgot about the things that Weiss said and did…Ren seemed the most calm on the surface, Nora had a rather terse look on her face and Pyrrha was the epitome of not impressed. Especially when the last few hours were the straw that broke the camel's back.
"They say it's mostly exhaustion and the worst of it's all done with, though they can't seem to understand why…" Ren would say; even though he looked unaffected by Weiss's presence, he was keeping his talking curt and to the point with her.
"That's…Good, he was always a stubborn….Person to say the least." Weiss said with an almost awkward tone as she was still trying to change how she talked and felt about Jae.
"Oh, now you care that he's okay." Nora said bluntly as she raised an eyebrow at Weiss.
"Nora…" Pyrrha would say in surprise as while she was not going to give Weiss the benefit of pretending that she hadn't hurt Jae on a deeply personal level, she hadn't expected Nora to be the confrontational one
"No, I'm gonna say it since no one else will…Why have you suddenly turned around? You never liked Jae and any time you either saw him or talked about him, he was like something you stepped in." Nora pointed out as she crossed her arms, the fact that Weiss wasn't responding like she normally would've proved that she wasn't exactly wrong.
"I…I grew up with a lot of people pretending that I was a bad person for my name…When Cie-I mean Jae was talking to me the way that he did, it just rubbed me the wrong way and I just…acted on instinct." Weiss explained though the last few hours of looking inward on herself regarding Blake and Jae, she had come to realise just how horrible she had been.
"Instinct? That's a poor excuse and you know it!" Nora argued back; "He saved you from falling back at the forest…Did you ever once try to be nice to Jae after that? Try to make him understand that you're not that bad of a person?! NO, you didn't! You sniped and jabbed at him, pointed out every one of his mistakes and commented on his look or how he was lower than you!" Nora ranted at her before she was gently pulled back by Pyrrha.
Weiss had felt more then a little bad but Nora's harsh truths seemed to drag her down further to the point that she felt like tears pricked her eyes. "I know that what I said was wrong….VERY wrong, but I want to change things, to be a better person and make things right…I promised that I'd be there for my team mates and my friends…I want Jae to be one of them." Weiss tried to explain but felt like she'd shrink under Nora's intensive stare.
"Weiss…I will tell you this right now, Jae may look like he's tough and he is but he's still trying to figure things out for himself…Dealing with things that have hurt him both then and now, if you do anything to hurt him…intentionally or not…I will personally make sure you regret it." Pyrrha warned Weiss with an absolutely serious look on her face, she might've wanted to take things nicely but with what she heard and with remembering Jae's outburst from earlier in their school year…She was determined to ensure no one would hurt him like that anymore.
Weiss meekly nodded; she understood that her behaviour wouldn't be an instant forgiveness but knowing that they're willing to let her try making things right was a start at the very least. "I promise…" Weiss complied with a solemn and meaningful promise.
—At a hidden warehouse in Vale—
"I cannot believe that those stupid mutts from the White Fang couldn't even handle a group of kids for one simple robbery!" Torchwick ranted as he lit up a cigar; "Still, it's not like Little Red's the only problem now..there's that weird girl with the swords and that one kid with the Grimm looking hammer, either he's the edgy kid in her class or he's got something else going on…" Roman thought to himself as he saw a girl with a parasol and multicoloured hair skipping through into the warehouse to meet him; "And where exactly were YOU all day?" He would ask the shorter girl, his accusing eyes gazing into her mismatched ones.
"I was grabbing something to drink at one of those rooftop cafes when I saw some scruffy looking kid jump onto the roof. He was real mopey looking…and kinda cute~" The girl "talked" though her version of talking was holding up her scroll while he read the line of text.
"Didn't I tell you that we had a heist planned tonight, Neo? Honestly if you don't show up on time then our jobs become that much harder." Roman rolled his eyes and then sighed in resignation; "Besides, I've had my fair share of dealing with mopey teenagers today; Little Red…Miss Meow Meow and some hammer swinging kid claiming he was a monster, a demon or whatever people will say to sound cool…"
"You mean like this one?" Neo held up her scroll and showed a picture of Jae sitting on the roof of the cafe and talking with Blake.
"Yeah…That's him…And that's the little kitty cat there too…Huh, maybe this is something we can use." Roman mused to himself once he recognised them but turned around as he heard the sounds of clacking heels.
"Looks like you've got something planned, I trust you haven't forgotten our arrangement~?" A feminine voice was heard as a woman with dark hair and a burning red dress stepped into the light. "Because what I have planned takes priority, remember?"
"I already told you that I'd help you out, Cinder. We just happened to run into a little snag on our last job tonight." Roman explained as he kept his eye firmly on the dark haired woman.
"That's wonderful to hear, now what's this snag that you were talking about?" Cinder asked him while tapping a manicured finger against her cheek; "Because I don't like loose ends, Roman." she would warn him and lit a flame in her hand.
"It's nothing you need to worry abo-"
"He mentioned a Demon, or more specifically someone calling themselves a Demon." A dark skinned woman with mint green hair chimed in as she practically appeared in the light alongside her associate.
"You know, it's rather rude to eavesdrop on business." Roman warned the girl before looking back at the taller woman. "I ran into some kid with a weird Grimm looking weapon in his hands…Strong little bastard too, he managed to lift a container full of Dust…before he dropped it into the bottom of the harbor."
"I see, well you call it a hindrance...But I think this is something that can work well in our plan, if what you say is true than that's something we can use to our advantage~" Cinder said with a soft chuckle.
—Back at Beacon—
Jae was let off with a stern warning from the doctor and given the chance to go back to the dorms; he was surprised at how well he had recovered after taking a shower, though he was taken out of his thoughts when he ended up running into Blake on the way back to his room. "Looks like you stuck around this time." He would joke to her and smiled a little as he remembered that Blake finally managed to patch things up with everyone.
"Yeah, I guess I took your thoughts into perspective when I ran out." Blake mentioned as she looked him over; if she hadn't watched him fight at the docks, she'd wouldn't have believed that he tanked a hit from a falling and very heavy metal box without an aura to shield him.
"My thoughts?" Jae asked and raised an eyebrow as she certainly piqued his interest.
"Remember back in the ballroom? You told me that it was fine having your own company but it's better with the right people around?" Blake would quote him as she had a small smirk; "I mean things aren't exactly quiet but it's…nice to know that when things get bad that I have people to rely on."
"Yeah, not to mention the fact that Yang was probably the most worried about you…But you wouldn't have guessed with how she normally is." Jae mentioned which seemed to bring a little pink to the normally pale girl's cheeks.
"Is that right? Well, I…I guess that she didn't want to make Ruby worry if her big sister starts freaking out." Blake commented as she then poked his chest; "Still…I want to thank you for being there even though I'm not a part of your team…You stuck your neck out when it came to the White Fang, most people don't normally do that for a study partner."
Jae wasn't sure why he said what he said but his mind worked on autopilot at this point; "You're more than just a study partner to me Blake…You cared enough to help me out when I needed it so it only seemed right that I do the same for you, besides, I can find any number of books but there's only one you and that's better then any book."
Blake thought on his words and then felt herself smile a little bit more once she heard him speak so genuinely about her. "Wow…That's probably one of the nicest things that someone's actually said to me." She admitted and was honestly taken aback.
"Well, it is the truth after all." Jae said with a rather embarrassed smile as Blake then heard a beep from her scroll as she saw a message from Ruby saying that there was a Team RWBY Reunion party in their dorm; "Well…looks like they're expecting me, I'll see you around." Blake started to walk past him but then paused before stepping backwards; leaning up to his face and gently planted a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you…I really mean it."
Jae felt his body grow warm as Blake began to walk off and round the corner, if he wasn't already running the high of being complimented…this practically short circuited his brain as he kept stammering and a blush coated his cheeks while he walked back to his dorm for the night.