Weiss was watching with disdain as she stared through the bars of her cage at the captors who took her away after their crash; Her run-in with the bandits had resulted in her getting taken to the Camp where Raven had set up shop and now she was under their watch, at first it wad your usual rich girl hostage fare with the Bandits mocking her as a rich girl or trying to get her to sing, after the sun went down and the drinks came out it became a different story…
Bandits came up to her and yelled at her in drunken stupors about her lineage and her place in life, some would leer at her and threaten plenty of disgusting things to her, though some were content to watch her like a bird in a cage.
"I have to admit…Most snobby rich kids would be crying and begging to be let out at this point." Vernal said with a smirk as she sat on guard duty, mostly because she ended up sick of hearing drunk Bandits bellowing about her. "You know, you don't HAVE to go back,…Pretty sure someone with your talents would make it big here."
Weiss remained unperturbed in the face of her captor even with this olive branch that was offered, her eyes never lost their cold sharpness. "You mean like how your leader tried to convince Jae to join? Because I can give you the same answer that he gave her…I would never stoop to your level…Not then, not now and not ever."
"Oh, so you heard about that~?" Vernal asked with more of a smirk as she leaned closer to the bars. "I never knew that the Schnees would be interested in that kind of thing…Though I'm sure it'll make for an interesting sight and a dream come true for some people here." She said with a lilt in her voice that confused Weiss more than anything.
Weiss watched Vernal who seemed to get more amused with the fact that the white haired girl seemingly had no clue. When her, Yang and Jae all got together for the first time, the topic of how each of them were drawn to each other was one of many questions during the afterglow; One particular question being what kind of offer that Raven tried to sway him with when she scouted him, however Jae never said the whole thing which left both of them curious and equally concerned. "What exactly is it?"
Vernal laughed a little at this but started toying with the tip of Weiss's confiscated Myrtenaster. "Not my business to tell…But right now, you have more important things to focus on, especially considering your position." She remarked cryptically before leaning against a barrel, irking Weiss more as she fondled her weapon.
Weiss narrowed her eyes as she had a pretty good idea on what she meant and this only served to sour more. "You're planning on ransoming me back to my father, aren't you?"
Vernal snorted a little as she didn't take her eyes off of the rapier. "You're forgetting that there is more to the world than just your family, little lady…Sure, we could make sure you stay a good girl until you get shipped back to daddy's mansion, though they aren't the only ones who would jump at the chance for a Schnee."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Vernal sighed as she knew this was going to be a night. "What I'm saying is: Contrary to what your family thinks, the world doesn't revolve around you…And there are plenty of people who would loooove to have their hands on the heiress to the Schnee Dust company in their hands."
Weiss growled a little as she couldn't do much else but look angry, though she did still keep quiet.
"Like those Demon Hunters for instance…I know for a fact that those holier than thou crusaders would salivate at the chance of having someone as "Pure and cleanhearted" in their ranks to help slay the hordes of Demons that still totally exist." Vernal said and then layered on the sarcasm at the latter part,
"They do." Weiss pointed out, her desire to be a knowitall ended up outing that…And the fact that Jaune's encounters with her still terrified her to this day but she wasn't going to give Vernal any ideas. "Though after what happened at Beacon, they'll be so far underground that no one can find them."
Vernal chuckled a little. "True…Anyone who is even related to that overdeveloped beau of your's would be so stupid to show themselves in public that it'd border on suicidal." She said and used Weiss's weapon as a prop to hold herself up, not caring if it irked it's wielder. "But you're forgetting someone else…Someone who would find such such justice to have you that they would think it was heavensent."
A fresh crunch of boots against dirt alerted Weiss to another person's presence and once she saw exactly who it was, she realised that everything she had imagined so far…Would get so much worse.
"You see that Schnee? Anything you could have wanted here and you traded it away for this…" Vernal's words rang in Weiss's ears before she used a tranquilising spray to knock her out. "You get the girl and we get our payment…Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Yuma."
Jae was wandering the halls inside of the tower he found himself trapped in, so far all he could see were mirrors that lined the walls and each one being a window directly into his past…
Peeks into his life back when he had his parents around, the fun times of seeing his father drill those lessons on how to wield weapons properly in the hopes that he could make a master of all weapons as a Huntsman…Though trying to teach these to an 8 year old was one that only a drunkard or an idiot would think of…Unfortunately for the son, Amon Cielo was both.
Jae sat there and watched as the younger him got the snot beat out of him by a shadow in the shape of what he recognised as his father, all because he failed to land a hit.
"Get up! I said UP, you little weevil!" Amon snapped with harshness in his voice as he continued to whack the child with the training sword. "I thought I was training you to be a Huntsman, not a training dummy!"
"Amon, stop! You know he's a child so stop acting like this!" Jae's mother could be heard as a voice from the dark over the sound of violent hitting.
A hollow bark of laughter was heard as the Shadow Amon quickly turned towards the dark expanse and swung his hand outward, a unwelcome reminder to Jae about how things went in that house. "That THING is not even human! If it was a child then I'd feel bad for the little monster."
"He is still your son, as much your blood as mine!"
The shadow flickered and bristled in anger as it slowly turned it's body towards the darkness where the voice was supposed to be coming from and vanished into it, only for the sounds of a woman crying and the visceral sounds of a beating echoed loud enough to make the mirror vibrate…The child that had been curled up on the floor after the beating was now sat up and staring at the older Jae through the mirror, causing the original Jae to widen his gaze in recognition.
That day was all too well; the childlike Jae was battered and bruised with an eye swollen shut, his long hair sticking up in a tuft from where his heavy handed father had grabbed him. "His lesson stuck…"
Jae shook his head. "No…What he had tried to teach me was how to fight, that no one was going to take chances with me and that I would need to fight back hard if I was going to be a Huntsman." He said with a low tone, knowing full well that this wasn't real and that he was seeing a pattern. "But the jokes on him…I've got the skill to be a Huntsman when he couldn't."
"Not that lesson…Don't you remember?"
Before Jae could question it, the mirror was empty save for his reflection and one simple word emblazoned on the front.
"WEAK"
Jae bit the inside of his lip and marched off deeper into the tower, hearing a familiar set of growls and roars as it was now clear that he wasn't the only thing in this tower.
Standing guard to the multitude of stairways and mismatched doors were malformed Grimm: Beowolves that were seeping purple ooze like they were rotting from the inside out, Ursi that were perforated and had parts of them smashed in like they had been in a fight along with a shadow of a man that Jae didn't recognise himself standing in the back.
"Fine…You want me to work through whatever lesson is in this shithole…Then I'll repeat this cycle of acceptance bullshit until you kick me out!" Jae said as he tried to summon up his Grimm Hammer but the only thing to emerge out of his hand was Titan Fang, the saber that served as his first ever weapon.
"You won't be getting an easy way out…This is your good hard look at yourself, weakling….The dark is going to stare into you and you are going to stare back at it!" The Shadow remarked before splitting off into multiples and vanishing up the stairs.
Jae sighed as he got into his stance and rushed at the venomed Grimm, cutting down each one with the same pent up anger he felt when he stared into each mirror…Each flash of silver brought along a fresh memory that etched that recognition deeper into him but Jae stifled that pain down as he fought through it all.
By the time he got to the middle floor, he saw three of the Shadows meld into one; This particular Shadow-Jae rose out of the floor, long silvery hair sprouting from his head, wearing a prisoner's uniform and broken shackles on his wrists, something that looked very similar to the Nega-Jae that taunted him within Blake's subconscious. "Let me guess: Ghost of Past, present or Fu-"
The despondent Shadow rushed forward with the Behemoth Hammer in hand and swung heavily, knocking Jae off of his feet before he could finish his quip. "You fail at everything."
Jae coughed as he rolled onto his front and got to his feet, that blow knocking the wind out of him and making him focus. "Not everything…I like to think I improve steadily."
"Did you improve steadily when you couldn't stop Father from beating Mother to the point that she was carted off in an ambulance?" The Shadow asked with an unchanging expression. "Or when you were nearly arrested after you killed the bully back in the foster home?"
"And what was I supposed to do in either of those cases?" Jae asked rhetorically as he felt irked by this fake trying to needle him. "I was 10 years old when that happened! Plus that bully was older and bigger than me… What else is a 10 year old supposed to do to stop someone when they nearly kill them?"
"You stood by and watched her…Like a coward…" The Shadow snarled, it's formerly despondent tone growing venomous before the hammer in it's hand pulsated and grew in size. "And then when you finally DID defend yourself, you ran away from what you did."
"So you're telling me that the right thing to do is to stare down my problems?!" Jae asked incredulously as he saw the mirrors surrounding him; Each one replaying those moments in painful details and every word, every noise drilled itself into his brain to remind him.
"You run." The Shadow taunted him as it started swinging the hammer at Jae, mercilessly running him down and forcing him to keep on the back foot; Using Behemoth, Vajra and Samael to lay into him. "You ran away when you were in the right…And you hide away just as much…You pretend that you're confident and that nothing and no one can hurt you anymore…But I know the truth, you are still that scared child that refuses to do anything but run and hide…Even now."
Jae yelled angrily as he twisted on his foot and spun his sword hand around to dig into the shadow's neck, forcing the appendage to separate and hit the ground. "I…I am no coward…I don't hide any more, from anyone or myself."
The Shadow began to melt away, leaving behind the weapons for Jae to pick up once more. "Liar…You are…A coward and a liar…." It spat out in venom as it finally dissipated for good, leaving the next door open for Jae to leave through, guarded by the hordes of Grimm that looked poisoned and rotten at their cores.
Every climb upward weighed heavily on Jae; Memories of bullies that tormented him in the little ways and the big ways, each one slowly reminding him of who he was…And then he saw something that made these moments fade away.
It was a girl with vibrant orange hair and a very similar outfit to someone he knew, someone he had recognised with that same pleading look in her eyes when he snapped out of a frenzy…Someone who had died because she was perfect for a statement. "Salutations!"
Jae felt like his heart was suddenly dipped into a bath of ice as he saw how this shadow moved and acted, his mind frantically trying to discern the reality and whether what he saw was real or not. "No….Nononono…This isn't real…I KNOW it's not real!" He muttered to himself, hoping that somewhere in his mind, those voices would reassure him like they did before….But no one was there this time: No one could be heard in his head.
Jae was alone in this…Alone in his thoughts, alone in this tower and nothing to say to him except for what his most innermost demons seem to have.
"Jae? Are you sure you're okay? Of course I'm real." "Penny" said with her usual tone, though it seemed to be concerned as she tried to peek at Jae's face every time he tried to avert his gaze away from her. "We've been friends ever since we first met at the Vytal Festival."
"Stop it…" Jae growled as he tried to move away and carry on through the hallways, he was already a mess enough as it is but this was going to be the death of him if he stopped now. "You're just a vision and nothing else."
"Penny" shrank back a little at this comment but continued to walk behind him. "Do you know the way out?"
Jae wasn't sure how to answer any of this and he was less sure about this shadow that seemed to walk, talk and act like Penny…All he knew is that the longer she stuck around him, the more of a weight he felt on his back. "Top of the tower…I find that guy who threw me down here and I'll make him get me out."
"Penny"'s stare seemed to bore into his back as he walked away, her tone changing from her worried one to a more accusatory one. "So you'll just leave everything? Pretend like nothing you see here is real? You can't even look at me."
"I'm not looking at you because none of this is real!" Jae argued back at her, refusing to entertain the notion and knowing from what Ruby told him that what happened was because of Emerald's illusions. "The sooner I can put this behind me, the sooner I can go back to normal."
"There is nothing normal about you…Not anymore." "Penny" said with a dull voice as she walked closer to him. "Everyone saw you that day…The girls who fawned over you, the officials and the teachers who thought you could keep control of yourself…they know what you are…Why don't you?"
"I'm not listening to you." Jae stated bluntly as he kept walking, ignoring the sudden change in their tone and adamant on his decision. "I know what I did just like everyone else does…But I'm not what people say."
"No…But you're also not what you say…" "Penny" said as she then began to deform; luminescent blue liquid began to seep from the corner of her mouth and even formed bright artificial tears in her eyes, her stomach darkened and started to shine as her front dripped with the same coolant…She became less of the girl that wanted to stay at Beacon with him and Ruby and the horror show that he was greeted to at the Fall's apex. "You are a coward…Hiding from everything around you…You let your guilt and your shame turn you into a wreck that can't even face the truth, so all you do is all you know how to do best….You kill…." She droned, her voice becoming more raspy and cold towards him as she summoned up shadowy versions of her swords. "Just like you killed me…And just like-"
Jae refused to let this fake talk and act with Penny's face as he drew his sword to point at her, his face a picture of barely restrained anger at this incessant poking. "Finish that sentence…I dare you."
"You've already killed me once so ferociously…It'll only be a matter of time before the others follow suit." "Penny" said as her normally serene face was now twisted in a morbid grin. "How long until the others join her? Or perhaps the better question is…how will you live with yourself when you-" She started to say but then decided to disappear when Jae's sword swung out at her.
Jae's hands trembled at his sides; Whether it was out of rage, trauma or the slow realisation that every second he spent here was changing him, he couldn't stop it now. "Just keep walking…I need to get out of here…Before it gets worse…" Those words repeated in his head as he rounded the staircase and the heavy wooden doors shut as he ventured ever upward.
Clueless to what would come next…