Chapter 161: 63
Chapter 63 – Jaune's Ladder
"Jaune?" Blake's arm froze, finger squeezed down on the trigger but not quite enough to pull it. She couldn't pull it. No matter how hard she tried. Her muscles twitched, hand shaking as she fought past his control. He had her arm, but why? Her opponent was drawing a weapon, taking aim at her at that very moment!
"What are you doing?" Jaune hissed from within her. She could feel his shock, his reluctance but also the strain holding her back was having on him.
"He's going to shoot."
"He isn't even armed! He's given up!"
That… that couldn't be true. He was taking aim at that very moment, taking his sweet time lining up a shot that would slam into her forehead. Even if her aura prevented the penetration, the force alone could badly hurt her.
"What do you see?" Jaune gasped, voice strained, "I can feel your fear it's… he's just stood there Blake. He's surrendered – the crowd's waiting on you!"
"I see him with a gun," Blake whispered, "It's aimed at my head – he's going to kill me."
"It's not real! Please, Blake, trust me… if you can put your trust in me, lower your weapon."
How could he ask her that? Her eyes had never betrayed her before and more than that she could hear Mercury Black, she could hear the weapon itself. If the fight was over then she would have heard the commentators, surely.
"Just… hold on one second," Jaune released her arm, Blake's muscles jolting as she regained the limb. She felt him leave her body too, yet something was wrong. Something didn't make sense.
"Where are you?" Her eyes flicked to the left, then the right. She could see her opponent, the crowds and the arena, but Jaune's ghostly form was nowhere to be seen. "Jaune?"
"I'm here," his voice spoke, no it didn't speak – it was projected into her mind. "I'm right in front of you. Something's wrong. The world you're seeing isn't real. That's why he's drawn a weapon – that's why you can't see me!"
That was a lot of assumptions to risk her life on.
"Trust me, Blake. You know I wouldn't put you in danger, right?"
Mercury grinned, turning sideways as he aimed his gun. She could shoot him now, take it out of his hands and stop it ever hitting her. Her brain demanded it. Every muscle in her body ached for it.
She dropped her weapon instead, letting it fall to her side.
"Thank you, Blake." Jaune whispered.
"Goodnight," Mercury chuckled, pulling the trigger.
Blake clenched her eyes shut as the explosion sounded.
And when she opened them once more, it was to a world different than the one she'd been in.
"Well," Professor Port called, "That marks the end of what is quite the tense fight, eh Bart?"
"Rightfully so old friend, I'm sure that our little display at the end there is nothing more than nerves and anticipation for the glory to come." Blake faltered, taking a step back as she noticed the crowd start to clap and cheer. She also noticed Jaune at last, smiling at her, floating less than two feet away. She brought a hand up in front of her face, inspecting the back and front of it.
And through her fingers she saw him. Mercury Black stood opposite her, having apparently given up.
But it was the look on his face which had her eyes narrowing, that had her blood boiling. He looked shocked… like he couldn't believe what had happened. Or perhaps it was that he could not believe what hadn't happened.
He masked it quickly, strolling forward with hand outstretched.
"Good match," he grinned, gripping her hand in his. Jaune floated behind him, eyes narrowed – only to fade from existence almost immediately. Blake's eyes widened.
"Blake?" Jaune's voice came from nowhere, or rather, it came from where he had been. "You okay?"
Mercury's grin turned vicious, the teen reaching behind him to draw a knife and slash it towards her face. Blake's eyes widened but she forced her body not to react. Jaune was there. He didn't make any sound of shock or horror.
She had to believe it would be like the last time.
The knife struck the side of her head, a sickening sound of impact that seemed to shatter what she saw before her, which was now Jaune once more over the shoulder of a surprised, silver-haired, teen.
"It was a good fight," Blake managed, voice raspy from shock. She tore her hand from his, turning and striding away.
"You're shaking." Jaune whispered into her ear. She knew he was right. She could feel her legs and arms tremble, she could feel her heart beating as though she'd come close to death. In her mind, she had. "What happened? Why did you go crazy like that?"
"I'll tell you about it later."
"He surrendered before the fight came to a close… our plan to possess him is screwed."
"It's no longer necessary," Blake sighed. She felt like she should be pleased to have had her concerns validated, but all she felt was mute anger.
"How so?"
"Because this confirms our suspicions altogether."
His team was up to something. Something big enough that they were willing to somehow cheat to ensure his victory. Or rather, her disqualification.
/-/
"Are you sure you weren't just imagining it?" Weiss crossed her arms, leaning back in her seat. "It seems a little odd for them to go through such trouble if what you're saying is true."
"I know what I saw," Blake scowled, "Whatever happened, it wasn't just an illusion… in my mind he was going to shoot me. I could even hear him doing that, and more tellingly I couldn't hear the end of the match being called!"
Convincing the others hadn't gone quite as well as Blake had hoped, mostly because they were high on her victory and also hadn't seen any of the things she had. "Don't look at me," Jaune said when she glanced over to him. "I've only got your word to go on here. I didn't see anything."
"All I'm saying," Weiss sighed, "Is that if they did cheat, then surely it would be better for him not to have given up first. If it's his semblance, then it isn't even cheating in the first place. It doesn't make sense for him to have surrendered."
Did Weiss think she didn't realise that? Of course it didn't make sense – very little of this did, but she knew what she had seen.
"Yang?" Blake asked, turning to her partner. The blonde was leaning against the wall. She flinched a little when Blake looked over.
"Well… it does seem a little weird…"
She doesn't believe me either?
"I'm not saying you're wrong," Yang rushed, no doubt catching her expression. "It's just… are you sure this isn't you still jumping at shadows after the White Fang and Torchwick? That's over, Blake. They were caught. We stopped them."
"This isn't about that! I don't know what these people have planned but something is wrong here."
"Well it doesn't matter now, does it?" Ruby asked, clapping her hands together. Blake turned to stare at her. Ruby laughed awkwardly. "Well, I mean whatever they have planned… you've stopped it now, right?"
"We don't know that."
"And you don't know either," Weiss said. "Look Blake, I'm sure you mean well but I think you're being a bit paranoid here. If it was something that affected how you saw the world, then it was probably a semblance. Either he was using it, in which case you beat it, or even if his team were cheating for him, it failed. You won. There's no need to keep stressing over it."
They didn't believe her…
"Yeah," Yang walked up to slap a hand on her back. "People will do anything to try and win something like the Vytal Festival," she laughed, "But you sent them packing, eh?"
I can't believe this, Blake thought, looking between each of them. They think I was imagining it… that this isn't a problem at all. She shrugged Yang's hand off her shoulder, ignoring her partner's call as she pushed her way out the room. As the door closed she heard Weiss telling the blonde not to follow, to let her get it out her system.
As if it would be that easy.
"I believe you," Jaune said, following her as he always did.
"Why?" Blake whispered. "Why believe me when no one else will? You said it as well as they, it's not like I have any proof."
Jaune floated before her, shrugging lightly.
"Is it because of your feelings for me?" Blake sighed, unsure why she was even bringing it up, "Because if so, then that's a stupid reason."
"Just because I love you doesn't mean I'd believe everything you said," Jaune laughed at the thought, making her relax a little. "I believe you because so far you've not been wrong. Because experience tells me despite how much I wish it, your paranoia tends to be spot on."
Blake smiled, eyes drifting shut. "It's a curse," she whispered. He believed her… someone believed her. That mattered more than she'd thought it would, especially because he had reason to believe her. Reasons that made sense.
"They didn't want to win that fight, Jaune. If they had that ability as a semblance, then all they would have needed to do was make me not see his attack. I'd have been knocked out and to everyone else it would have looked like I just had bad reflexes."
"There was no reason to surrender," he agreed, "I felt your fear, back when he got you with… whatever it was. It didn't affect me."
It hadn't… whatever it was, Jaune had proven immune. Then again, so had everyone else. Not illusions then, or everyone would have seen them… more than that, I heard Mercury say things he probably didn't say.
Could it be that Mercury's semblance had allowed him to get into her head, or maybe mess with her senses? If he'd created a world only she could see, then that would explain why Jaune was absent from it.
They didn't know he was a ghost following her around. They wouldn't have known to add his image to any illusion they made.
"If anything like that happens again, we'll need some kind of signal between ourselves."
"Something you can say to act as a signal… something you wouldn't randomly say in normal conversation." Blake nodded, watching as he adopted a thinking pose. It was an odd one, since he started to slowly rotate, sort of like a cogwheel would. "I've got it," his fist slapped into his palm, his body suspended upside down, "Sixteen-inch penis."
"Jaune, no."
"It's perfect, it's not something you'd randomly say."
"It's not something I ever want to say. I'll think up a code word. You just do what you do best."
"Which is…?"
Blake coughed but didn't answer, leaving him to figure it out on his own. Her team didn't believe in her story, not that she could blame them. Without proof and unable to use Jaune as such, she had no way of proving that she hadn't imagined it. What would have happened if she'd fallen for it? She had no idea.
She wouldn't have killed him, surely… that wouldn't have helped their team at all. Disqualification, certainly, but what benefit was that to Mercury?
It just didn't make sense.
But maybe she was just thinking about it the wrong way.
"There is one person we could go to about this," Jaune sighed, catching her attention. "Or I suppose that would be two people… or now that I think about it, maybe it's technically only one real pers-"
"Jaune."
"Sorry, sorry… anyway, yeah. The main reason we can't prove anything is because we can't use me as proof, right?" Blake nodded, already half-certain she knew what he was suggesting and already hating the idea immensely. "Well there are some people who already know about me."
"Oh gods no," Blake groaned, covering her eyes.
"It's just an idea." Jaune shrugged apologetically.
"And sadly, it's our only good one," Blake sighed, turning down a side corridor and spiritually dragging him alone. "Come on… let's go talk to doctor nutcase."
"Isn't his name Polendina?"
"I know what I said, Jaune."
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