Every floor was a crucible in and of itself…
The doorways into each new part of the tower thrust a new memory into Jae's mind, forcing the jeers and taunting from time past back into the forefront, though all of that blended horribly with the horrific rhetoric that the false Penny whispered in his ear.
By the time that he got further and further through this tower of his own inner being, he was already feeling the fatigue setting in his body as he propped himself against a wall. "Can't stop…Not now, not when I've got a ways to go."
"You have to stop and look." The fake Penny said as she stood over him, the chipper look on her face that normally was a comforting one had been soured by the words that she said to him then and now. "You won't escape until you confront everything."
"I plan on it." Jae said as he tilted his head back to rest against the wall. "The moment I see that lookalike back on top of the tower, I'm shoving his head through that crystal."
Penny tilted her head as she watched him unblinkingly; "And that is why you won't escape…Because your first instinct when you're cornered isn't to assess, it's to fight and struggle…And that only adds more when you refuse to acknowledge anything."
"I told you to shut up." Jae growled as he refused to look at Penny. "I know what I did and I don't need YOU or anyone else around me to remind me about that!"
"You say you do." Penny said with a low tone as she saw him get to his feet and storm off towards a large, ornate set of doors ahead. "But until you can truly accept everything, you will be doomed to fail with everything."
The doors then opened up and revealed something is particular floor was a gallery that had rows upon rows of canvases…But something was off about each picture; They each had different artists in each frame but all of them seemed to be focused on watching him through painted eyes, that was when it clicked for Jae…Every person in those pictures were people that he knew, though even though he already felt on edge about being under their eyes, on these paintings all started showing different things on closer inspection.
Each picture showed a different shadowy person with that Jae could recognise through their hair in varieties of poses and a lot of them were something that a pornographer would be proud of seeing; Some dozens of pictures had Weiss and Yang going at each other top to toe, there was a portrait of Blake tying herself up with the ribbon from her Gambol Shroud or her tying up Yang…And it didn't stop there.
"What…What the hell is all this?" Jae thought to himself as he glanced to the pictures and immediately turned his gaze away from them as he continued to walk, the entire room was lulling itself with the sounds of every act and every movement that populated each painting.
"You must be holding back a lot if this is what is stuck in the back of your mind." Penny said with a curious voice that seemed to teeter between sincere and mocking. "All these imaginings with the people you're close to…and this is what you've degraded them to? You really are a Demon in more ways than one~"
"I never once thought of them like that!" Jae snapped at the fake Penny who seemed to revel in grinding his resolve down while a batch of new pictures appeared on the wall; These ones showed more people like a shadowy Emerald straddling someone's waist while a shadowy Cinder looked like she was sitting on a person's head, the triad of his former Demon teachers like Lady, Nico and Trish together in a bizarre tryst with each other. "No…No, this isn't my mind! This is the last thing that I think about!"
"And yet here they are, displayed for all to see, for all to desire…And for all to envy." A voice that sounded almost identical to Jae's rang out from the back of the room, the only reason that Jae knew that it wasn't him was because the voice sounded…off. Like it was someone trying to use his voice to lure people or like talking through a filter, this particular voice had the warmth that Jae had when it came to talking with friends but it also gave off an underlying chill which made that sincerity ring hollow like a siren's song.
"But that's not me! I have nothing but respect for people, doing this is just…It's just wrong!" Jae argued back to the dark where the voice was coming from, just hearing the ambience was enough to insult him but to hear this condescension with his own voice made it all the worse. "Yes, I may have affection for some people but to degrade those feelings to this?"
"You can deny it all you want but there's no one here to justify it to, you're lying to yourself….And that's the one person who knows that you are talking the utmost of garbage." The other Jae taunted him as he then gestured to a picture of what looked like Jae and Ren in that moment before they split up in Anima. "Because I can tell that despite all of your complaints…You want that love from anyone more than anything, regardless of man or woman."
"Lying about what exactly?!" Jae snapped back as he averted his eyes from an image of what looked like a shadowy head of red hair similar to Nora's bobbing up and down on something. "Because contrary to what everyone else says, I'm not using people for that! The only people that I've actually done this with are people that I care about and were willing to do…Isn't that the good takeaway from this?"
"You're missing the point." The voice said again as it stepped into view; This Shadow took on a more physical form and began to fully resemble Jae, however this version was completely naked and had longer hair that cascaded along a body that was riddled with love marks ranging from scratches to bites and lipstick marks. "The point is that you're lying to yourself about the most natural thing that a person can feel…And for someone like you, you can do a lot better and a lot more than just three people."
Jae shook his head, not willing to agree with what this other him was insinuating. "But I don't want more…I just want the people who I've bonded with already, I'm not looking to expand because I'm happy with what I have."
"And what DO you have?" The Other Jae sneered as he summoned up a shadowy Yang, Weiss and Pyrrha in front of him. "Because so far one girl isn't here for you and may not even hold interest in you now." He said and the Weiss shadow vanished into the floor.
"One kicked you to the curb because for all you know, she doesn't even want to be around you anymore." Shadow Yang turned it's back on Jae and ventured into the darkness.
The remaining Shadow that was Pyrrha suddenly turned from a girl into a burning fire that ignited the whole room, showcasing that this gallery of repression was far larger and more detailed that Jae had imagined. "And the other one died because you were too slow to uphold your promise to protect her…And now here you are, back to square one and now painfully alone because you can't let any of them go."
Jae had enough and with a yell that echoed through the whole chamber, he swung forward and punched the other self so hard that he came off his feet and landed on his back. "You don't get to decide how many relationships I have because you're some greedy, self centered nugget of my brain…I'm better than that…And I won't be lectured by someone like you!"
The now floored Other Jae didn't even bother to move from his spot. "Who said I was lecturing you? Don't you forget, I'm YOU and I want it all…I'm that part of your brain that WANTS to share that love and affection with others, I want women and men to share a bed with but you think so little of me that you believe that what I want is bad." He remarked as he then dissipated the fire. "You yourself said that life gave us a shit hand and I agree…Life dealt us a shitty, abusive, vile hand and then slapped us in the face with that hand because we dared to want something fair."
Jae remained silent as he watched the Other Jae talk. "So what's your point?"
"My point! Is that for the last however many years that we have fought, suffered and been beaten down by people who call us less than dirt…Why shouldn't we try to get as much as we can, there's nothing wrong with being greedy! We got whipped like dogs and now we have the chance to say that I deserve it…That WE deserve the chance to be loved and adored by as many people as we want!"
Jae's anger dimmed a little as this imposter of him finally said something that he agreed with. "Maybe you're right about that…But this? This stupid harem fantasy is not me…I don't want hundreds of girls to want me…I just want the ones close to me to love me…"
A hollow chuckle came from the Other Jae as he listened. "And here I thought you were going to turn around…You're forgetting, I exist because of you…You deny being a Demon when you are, you deny wanting people to love you like this when you've craved people to love you ever since you were born…I'm a part of you and that will never ever change…And if you recall, it's not just you that put that want for more in your head…The people you shared a bed with thought so too."
Jae was going to question that last comment but then the Other Jae vanished and the doors opened up, the sooner he could get out of this chamber then the better. "That's not right…I don't want anything like that…" He mentally asked himself as he stopped to look at the picture nearest to the door.
This portrait was one that brought him a small sense of bittersweet joy as it was of him, Yang and Weiss in one side of the frame in the aftermath of their first time together while the other side was of him and Pyrrha together. "I promised Pyrrha that I would help to try and save the world because it meant that I could do it alongside her…With her love and with their's."
By the time he got through those doors, another question dug itself in: "But without her…Without Yang or Weiss…Can I even hope for something like that to come again? No…Not after everything…I am the last person to deserve it…" Once the doors swung open, he saw the open area that he was thrown from with another Jae standing in the centre; This particular other him was staring at him like the real Jae stared at Grimm, wearing his battle gear and the numbers of weapons that he had gained from killing Alpha Grimm were dotted around like displays.
"So you've finally dragged yourself out of the muck…But I can see you haven't changed at all." This New Jae brandished his guns and pointed them at Jae. "You won't escape at this rate."
"I plan on it…Even if I have to face however many versions of me in order to do it." Jae grimaced as he summoned his sabre and put himself in a stance. "I've got nothing to confront and nothing to accept anymore than I already have."
"Then you'll be stuck here until you atrophy." The Other Jae taunted as he began shooting at Jae with a monochrome version of Carmen and Electra, taking every chance to take verbal potshots as well as actual shots.
Jae made every effort to block and deflect every bullet with his sword and then reached to summon one of the weapons that were out of reach but none of them responded at all, the only reward for his attempt was a wall of fire that fanned outward and knocked him backward into a wall. "What's going on?!"
"It's our Semblance…What else would it be?" The Other Jae remarked as he took another shot with his guns, acting as though Jae was asking the stupidest question to ever be heard. "You know it better than anyone."
"No! Ou-MY Semblance is Galvanisation, it makes weapons out of Alpha Grimm…Not whatever this was!" Jae argued as he moved closer and started to clash with sword against spear, each move was perfectly timed and reflected off of each other like fighting a mirror…Which he technically was.
"You really are clueless, aren't you?!" Other Jae said with a more annoyed tone as he pointed the barrel of his gun at Jae and fired a concussive shot into his chest, knocking the original to the ground in a winded heap. "You deny EVERYTHING! You block out anything about yourself because you're set in your ways and you refuse to truly acknowledge anything about yourself!" He ranted as he kicked and stomped on Jae. "And because you only have your eyes on destroying that part of you, you not only threaten to walk a path where you will die alone…You'll also let the one person who deserves this to get what she wants…"
Jae silently took his beatings but then brought his legs out to sweep out the Other Jae's legs out from under him when the imposter tried to stab with his sword, using the momentum to grab him by the collar and swung his head up to headbutt the doppelganger…Hard. "I accept my Demon stuff and I know it's there…So shut the hell up about it and stop with this acceptance crap!" Jae finally yelled back as he then grabbed the Other Jae in a chokehold. "What's there is there, I don't need to dwell on it and I sure as hell don't need you to tell me what to do…So let. me. OUT! Before I snap your neck for good."
The Other Jae didn't budge, in fact he was barely phased by the fact that Jae was about to break him at the neck. "Then I think we're done here…" He muttered before vanishing from Jae's grip and then slapped a hand on the crystal that was dead center of the arena, causing the hard surface to ripple and the world around the two started to fade. "You want to blend in with humans so bad…Then I'll leave you with a little gift that'll help…But be assured of this, I will be the horse you ride to this task of your's…But I refuse to play horse to a rider that is weaker than me. Someone who's blind denial and hesitation will end up getting us both cut to pieces. If you aren't willing to assert your strength and retain the crown, then I'll kick you off…And smash your head in and gain control myself, are we clear?"
"You'll be waiting a long time because I won't back down now." Jae promised as he watched this nightmarish tower fade away into the blackness, though one last sentence kept that concern well sat in his chest.
"For your sake…I hope you do."
Blake meanwhile had been wandering the streets in Menagerie's night time; She and Sun had spent the whole day trying to pass out flyers for the White Fang's efforts to help Haven Academy, though the initial press release to the public to out Adam's plans were mostly derailed by Ilia's outburst…which while validating some of Adam's claims had also reminded everyone of why they escaped to Menagerie in the first place.
Ilia had also left her a message for them to meet at the same time that they were going to start prompting the Nocturnal Districts, her request? "Meet me in the alleyway…Come alone."
After a moment of watching the moon in it's pieces glimmer in the light, Blake finally saw one of her old friends appear out of her camouflage. "Ilia…Look, I'm glad you want to talk, it's a good start but we'd welcome your help to make this better."
Ilia however looked more serious then relieved that Blake was hearing her out. "I know what I said back there was out of line…But you need to understand what people here are fighting against."
Blake shook her head. "No, I understand why you're angry…Trust me when I say that I got so…SO frustrated that my parents wouldn't do anything to help." She said as she began trying to bridge the gap. "Things are different now, we can actually make changes but we need everyone we can get in order to do so…And I know you can help."
"I'm sorry…" Ilia said as she felt her stomach twist in knots when she saw Blake's hand reaching out to her, if it had been under any other circumstances then she would have been happier to take her chance with Blake…But right now they were too different.
Blake chuckled a little. "You can make it up to me by helping us get more people, I can help talk my piece but you know the people of Menagerie better than I do."
Ilia knew what she had to do…And now was the time to show it. "No…I'M sorry…" She said as she closed her fist, making the signal for their move to be made.
Blake barely had enough time to register before she was hit with webbing from behind and then pinned to the floor by a man with bat wings. "What is…Ilia! I don't understand, I thought you wanted to talk?!"
"I do want to talk, you just have to listen." Ilia stated with a voice that was far colder and more restrained than their initial meet at the rally. "This can no longer be ignored…Everything that you and others are trying here will be for nothing, no one is going to listen to peaceful talks, the only way that those humans are going to listen is if they have a knife to their throats."
"And that's your big solution? Threaten to kill an entire species just because? There's more people at stake than just the bad humans…What about the men, women and other people who've never even said a word towards the Faunus?!" Blake begged for Ilia to see reason, she knew from her initial argument with Weiss way back when that law, good and evil was not that clear cut. "What kind of world are you living in where that wins everything?"
Ilia grit her teeth as Yuma kicked the weapon on Blake's back towards her and then picked it up. "The same one as you! You're forgetting that there are those who pass on the hate that gets Faunus hunted down, violated, beaten and worse…But even worse are the ones who you talk about: The ones who stand to the side and just let it happen!"
Blake struggled in her bindings as she was roughly pulled to her feet. "You can't just keep threatening everyone forever! All it will do is just change the positions, that's what Adam wants! Not equality! Not peace! He just wants to control the Faunus and make humanity into slaves!"
"If that's what it will take for Humanity to listen to us and start making amends for everything, then I say do it!" Ilia growled with narrowed eyes; In her eyes, Blake was the one who was stubbornly opposing the "Right Way" and she could only hope that she could convince her before taking the task that she was initially set for. "Humans never once listened to peaceful words, you know what they respond to? Fear…And we've seen it work…"
"You have to stop, Ilia." Blake said with an almost pleading tone in her voice, it was hard for her to stay focused when the childhood friend that she had grown up in the White Fang was getting twisted by Adam's beliefs. "What happened to you? This isn't like you!"
"Yes. It. Is!" Ilia spat out as her angry expression changed to one of softness as she got closer to Blake, mirroring their prior encounter. "But you were always too busy falling for Adam to notice…Not that I blame you."
Blake's expression changed, a small part of her agreed that her feelings or what she thought were her feelings bloomed after Adam took her in as a disciple…But that also led to another question once she saw the look that Ilia gave her.
Ilia's chameleon-like features that formed scales on her face burned with a faint pink as she gently rested her hands on Blake's cheeks, softly stroking them. "I was always jealous of the way that you and Adam looked at each other…" She said with a begrudging tone but then her scales lit up brighter as her eyes were filled with admiration, softness and what could only be described as a locked away desire burning to the surface. "I wanted you to look at me that way…Or for him to…"
Blake was stunned into silence at the fact that Ilia had all but confessed that she had feelings for the cat Faunus, though part of her stun was down to the fact that even though Ilia was her enemy, she could feel some form of comfort by having Ilia's fingers gently stroking her cheeks…Before she pulled away.
"But we can't always get what we want, can we?" Ilia said as her blush had diminished and her eyes were now shimmering with a darker pink colour that seemed to hold nothing but resentment, envy and outright disdain as her mind got back on track. "So…You won't be going back to your parents...You're going to be taken back to Mistral…To Adam."
Hearing that made Blake's stomach sink like a stone as she struggled harder. "No…Ilia, no! You can't! You have no idea what he's planning!"
"I do…" Ilia said coldly as she placed her mask back on. "And from what Yuma has said to me on the way here…You'll be in familiar company alongside him." She remarked as she then turned her back on Blake and rested a hand on her hip where her weapon was.
"Wh…What do you mean?" Blake asked as she was feeling her brain swim in the violent torrent of anxiety and resurfacing trauma, unaware of what she was getting at.
"You'll find out when you get there…Now move!" Yuma snapped as he shoved Blake roughly in the back to get her moving while Trifa the Spider Faunus held on to her web rope like a leash. "Because when this night is through…There'll be nothing left of the Belladonnas to protest."
Blake then put the pieces together and realised that she couldn't stomach any of this. "NOW!" She yelled upward to the skyline of the houses as she gave a hard pull to yank Trifa off balance.
With the signal now triggered, Sun jumped from the rooftops and delivered a swift kick to knock the Spider Faunus off balance and to the ground in a heap. "You're not taking her anywhere!" Sun warned to both Yuma and Ilia as he turned to face them.
Yuma smirked as he unholstered his weapon: A pair of gloves that had what looked like skinning knives fastened to each finger, his own desire for blood to spill was growing in the dark of the night. "Good, give me a reason to exercise…It'll break up the monotony of hostage delivering."
However neither Sun nor Blake could ever have expected for that electrified whip to strike Yuma down from behind…And standing there was Ilia with the whip coiled around his neck, paralysing him long enough for her to knock him out with a kick. "I-Ilia?" Blake asked, her voice was dry with shock, concern and now she was more confused than anything.
Ilia looked at the two warily as she dropped her White Fang Mask to the ground but kept her distance. "I just need you to listen to me and trust what I'm saying is true."
"Hold on…Trust you? YOU?!" Sun asked as he was rightfully indignant about even being in the same vicinity as Ilia, while he was willing to begrudgingly overlook her sleight on her cohorts…It was still a little hard for him to trust her enough to not try to stab him again.
"I know…I know that it's hard for you to believe me at my word…For BOTH of you to believe me but I couldn't risk doing anything until it was time." Ilia explained as she holstered her weapon. "Corsac and Fennec have their eyes and ears everywhere and since I've been in their charge, they ensured that I can't even so much as wander Menagerie without having spies watching me."
"Yeah…Or stabbing me." Sun grumbled under his breath as he crossed his arms. "So say that I DO believe you enough to hear you out…Why exactly should we take your word on things and not just tie you up with the others."
"Because I know about what Adam is planning: Yes, he is going to attack Haven Academy on the next semester but he's going so far off course with what he said his plan will be." Ilia explained as Blake nodded along. "You know that Sienna Kahn is still alive but he's doing so for a different reason…"
"What other reasons would there be?" Blake asked as she tapped her fingers together while she kept a cautious gold eye on Ilia. "Sienna Kahn was his teacher so maybe he's using her for council."
Ilia shook her head. "It's for the same reason that he wants you dragged back to him kicking and screaming…And why he's asked for the murder of your family once we have you in custody." She explained before dragging the unconscious Yuma to a back alley.
"Ilia…Did you…mean all the things you said back then?" Blake asked as she did the same thing for Trifa, she looked like she was about to prompt for something but then shook herself out of it to ask a more practical question. "About the Faunus?"
"If I had said what I really meant then everyone would have gotten suspicious." Ilia explained with a more guilty expression, rolling up her sleeve to expose a long string of burn marks that ran up her arm from elbow to shoulder. "And those two barely tolerated me failing to get the Scroll back…Showing this side would have gotten me killed."
Sun winced when he saw the inflicted marks but Blake felt all the more angry at the Albain siblings for this. "So what will you do now?" Blake asked as she walked towards Ilia.
Ilia glanced to the Gambol Shroud in her hands before handing it back to Blake, her eyes now changed to a pale green to match her guilt. "I'm going back to Kuo Kuana…Corsac and Fennec still believe that I'm on their side, that will give me enough of a chance to get close enough to them."
Sun still wasn't sure about how he felt, he could appreciate another person wanting to sock those creeps but from what he saw of Ilia he knew that any changes in her weren't subtle. "They're probably gonna notice that you're not batting for their team…especially when you're rocking up to the house WITH us."
"Then we act as though nothing changed." Blake said quickly as she was handed her weapon back. "Sun's right, if you come back with us then Corsac and Fennec will be more suspicious…They will kill you outright if it suited them enough."
"So we just act as enemies until then…" Ilia said as she looked to the two. "The attack should be starting soon so we should hurry…" She warned before using her whip to traverse to the rooftops.
"So…Are you just as confused as I am right now?" Sun asked as he ran, nobody could blame him for struggling to process that the girl who stabbed him was on their side in secret.
"We'll find out more…But first we need to get to my parents before something happens." Blake said and then followed suit as she ran in another direction towards the house, dialling up her mom's number to try getting through...Though another thought entered her mind, back from when Ilia had her hands on her. "Ilia...If we get through this...You and I are in for a talk."
However the plan to silence the Belladonnas was already underway as Kali was caught in a shootout and Ghira was fighting off invading soldiers that broke into his office.
"I believe it is time for our chieftain to step down…" Corsac mumbled as he pointed a Wind Dust infused knife towards the towering Ghira.
"Yes brother…we are already behind schedule as it is." Fennec agreed as he poised his matching dagger, one that was infused with Fire Dust.
"i can promise you two one thing." Ghira warned as a wild cat's growl rumbled in his throat and his claws grew from his fingernails. "Raising your hand like this to your chieftain is one thing...To threaten my family and my people! You had better hope that my wife and daughter catch you first because right now...I'm in no good mood to be civil with you manipulative backstabbers."