The Dark Place and the Flickering Light

Nega-Ruby pounded on the barrier with both hands as she tried to get her way back out again once Beast Adam reared his head, the words that she previously thought were sincere now echoed in an almost mocking tone to her as she saw Jae transform Ripper from it's Bike Mode into it's Dual Sword form; "With Adam escaping, I realised just how dangerous things are here…The desert storms outside the palace and now his corruption at the hands of the world around him, I will be making sure that no one else will suffer the same way…No one shall be allowed in or out of the Palace." Nega-Blake's voice rang in her ears as she kept desperately trying to escape.

"Okay, ugly! I'm not sure I'm familiar with you…but if you're haunting Blake's nightmares then I really can't have that." Jae remarked as he twirled one of the swords like it weighed nothing and pointed it at the giant beast, twisting the handle to make the sword rev and spin it's teeth lined chain.

Beast-Adam took the threat far more personally as it howled in fury and began to swipe it's giant claws at Jae with pure malice. "BREAK! KILL! ELIMINATE THREAT TO BLAKE!"

Jae however seemed to evade and dance around each swing of it's arms and swung his swords to deliver swift cuts, though none of them seemed to do anything more then scratch the surface as he weaved around.

"This isn't working…even the Ripper's teeth aren't scratching the surface on this…whatever it is!" Jae thought to himself as he pulled back Ripper.

"You can't win against it! He's the former head of the Empress's Guard!" Nega-Ruby pleaded with Jae as he then held both blade in front and got himself into position.

"Heh…Go figure, but I can't back down." Jae remarked as he stabbed the two blades into the sand and made it rev faster and faster; "Come on then, Scalie…I'll turn that ass into a purse!" He goaded Beast-Adam and waited as the giant began to charge.

Nega-Ruby began to turn away as she realised that he wouldn't back down or run for the hole; "It's no use…I watched him get thrown in the prison but I just can't watch this version throw himself away like this!" She took a quick glance at Jae and noticed something; he didn't look scared or defeated, there was a determined focus as if to say "I can do this!"

Jae kept revving as Beast Adam drew his head down in an attempt to gore him; "Come on, think! If I focused all my strength in my arms to get that ability to counter blast the other Yang back then maybe…I can channel it into my weapons instead!" He came up with an epiphany as he kept revving the handle of his blades; noticing that they were starting to spin faster and the edges of the swords where the teeth were spinning on were turning red from the heat. "Come on, more! MORE! I can't take chances!"

"KILL! KILL! KILL!" Beast-Adam roared out as it thrust it's horns upwards with a hefty jerk of it's neck. With the sound of the desert wind permeating around him, Beast Adam looked around for the body that he thought for certain that he hit.

Then the sound of pained howls echoed through the desert and the oasis as both of the Beast's colossal horns dropped onto the sand. "Over here!" Jae yelled as he had one sword resting on his shoulders and the other with it's blade tip pointed at Beast-Adam. "Looks like you missed me, you overgrown iguana!"

Ruby was in awe as she gazed at the Beast's now disarmed head and to the horns on the ground; "Those horns killed a dozen of the Empress's armed guard during his escape…Yet those chain swords cut through them so cleanly!" She thought with a degree of fascination, now with a renewed sense of hope for him.

Jae nodded as he revved up the blades once more; with all his energy and focus pumped into making sure he could keep the fire both figuratively and literally going.

With it's fury renewed; The Beast-Adam rushed at him again with it's bladed tail raised in a seconded attempt to run him through; "DEMON! WEAK! KILL YOU! BLAKE MINE!"

Jae twirled his swords and rushed towards him; he felt the pounding of his heart in his ears and the heavy rumbling of the buzzing swords in his hands but they helped keep him centred rather then distract him. He swung one sword to the left as the spinning teeth dug into Beast-Adam's hand and pushed it away, before swinging his other sword upward to aim for his head.

Though it looked like the Beast was learning as it unconsciously ducked it's head down under the sword thrust and pushed his head forward into Jae's body, sending the young man off his feet and flying backwards.

Luckily for Jae; no horns meant no impalement, however the incredibly dense head and scaled top of the head meant it hurt that little bit extra. "I…I'm oka-GAH!" He mumbled but felt his chest pushing down on his inner organs. "Broken ribs…That's not good…" 

"Forget broken, they're barely holding together…But you can fix it yourself, healing factor remember?" Jae heard that same laidback voice from earlier talking about the several ribs that had splintered like a cheap toothpick.

"My ribs are practically dust…I don't think Aura can heal that!" Jae mentally yelled at the voice as he was struggling to get to his feet; wondering how he can feel pain in a dream world.

——Meanwhile in the Real World——

"JAE!" Ruby yelled out as she saw the motionless boy suddenly spit up blood and his chest slowly began to slow compress while the breathing slowed.

Weiss snapped to as she saw what happened as Ozpin glanced over to examine what was going on; "What's going on with him?!" Weiss asked Shion as she remained focused to hold the spell.

"Even though they are still physically here; These three are fighting and struggling in their metaphysical forms, they can still be hurt and sustain injuries and that carries over to their physical bodies." Shion explained.

Ruby opened up Jae's shirt to see if she could stop whatever bleeding she can find, it was only when she pressed her fingers on his chest that she was shocked; "W-We have to stop this! I can feel his ribs cracking apart!"

"Be patient Ruby, even though they aren't here, Aura still flows through them so they may heal, albeit slowly." Ozpin assured her while he haphazardly tapped the head of his cane.

——In Blake's Mindscape, in the Palace's dungeon——

"This is where you've been keeping him all this time?!" Yang was yelling at Nega-Ilia in a combination of shock and with her red eyes blazing pretty hard, she. was. pissed.

"The Empress wishes for her Darling to remain safe, since he had tried to escape into the desert when Adam did…It was prudent that he be kept here where it is safe, His room upstairs didn't seem as safe with Adam now free so I made the decision to move him here." Nega-Ilia responded with a calm and almost cold tone; Being especially frosty when she practically spat out the word "Darling"

Yang's anger bubbled all the more when Nega-Ilia didn't bother hiding how she felt and even more so when she admitted it was her idea to keep him like this. "Safe?" She practically whispered before getting fully into Nega-Ilia's face with a level of anger that far surpassed what she felt when someone messes with her hair; "WHAT PART OF ANY OF THIS MAKES YOU THINK IT'S SAFE?!" She fully screamed at her as she aggressively pulled Nega-Ilia to look into the cell.

Inside of this dark room was someone that Yang quickly recognised: a slim figure that was cuffed around the wrists and wearing what looked to be some semi-luxurious looking clothes but have since been worn away by dirt and age, his hair was around back length and he had a blindfold over his eyes but he had a collar around his neck that simply read "Darling". In this world; This was what Nega-Blake had been imagining him to look like for her but Nega-Ilia's overseeing of him warped that while he was jailed. "Jae…What did they do to you here?"

However a faint skittering could be heard as a tendril reached out from the darkness and wrapped itself around Nega-Jae before pulling him into the darkness with a low moan. It was there that a large red light started to glow and illuminated it's black and white body. The Nightmare had found it's weak link in Blake's psyche.

——Out in the Desert——

"My ribs are practically dust…I don't think Aura can heal that!" Jae mentally yelled at the voice who started to hush him.

"Okay, remember that moment when you unlocked that Guard move against Bizarro-Yang? Well that ignited the Demon Energy in you so now rather then activating with adrenaline, it should be perpetually flowing through you alongside your blood."

"The heck does that even mean?! And I thought all that acceptance I did back at the docks meant I had full control over my Demon side!"

"It's like therapy, buddy…The first step is acceptance; A Demon's like a bottle of soda or champagne, accepting you're a Demon loosened the top…Now that you're starting to push all your focus and to another extent: Your Demon energy to reinforce yourself, you've essentially popped the cork and now you have both Demon and Human Aura running through your body in tandem."

"That's…Anyway, what does that have to do with my ribs?" Jae mentally questioned quite a number of things at this point.

"That girl did say you've got a lot of Aura in you…and the Demon gene can improve on that so just breathe slowly; over time it'll heal you but I wouldn't recommend that you rely on it until you've trained up on it…" The voice advised as it vanished.

Beast-Adam lumbered over to Jae like it was a cat ready to finish toying with its prey; "KILL….TAKE PLACE…AS BLAKE'S LOVER…"

Jae could feel his body tense as it got closer but did his best to slow his breathing; his heart pounded against his broken ribs but with each new breath, he could feel his body slowly stop the aching and his breathing improve with each new step that brought his opponent closer.

Nega-Ruby bit her lip in anxiety as she saw what she thought was Jae with his back against the wall; "If he doesn't get up, he'll die…Wait, that's it!" She had an epiphany and yelled out to him as Jae staggered to his feet. "Go for the white patch! Yang burned away all the scales there so that should be your target!" 

"Huh…I guess that can work, though I can probably give off a couple more of those types of attacks…The problem lies i-" Jae mentioned to himself as he raised up the swords but the sudden feral howl of the giant beast put him back on guard. 

Jae no longer wished to mess around as he held on to the two swords and stared down the de-horned Beast Adam; "I've spent too long on you, if you want to keep living then back down…Now." He warned as he gave an alerting rev of Ripper.

Beast-Adam stared him down and instead of recognising the threat; his desire for Blake made him too stubborn to refuse as he rushed towards Jae; "KILL…KILL…BLAKE IS MINE!"

With a small sigh; Jae revved the Ripper Greatsword as much as he could; the blade slowly turning from silver to a burning red; "I don't know what it is…Adrenaline…The weird Demon blood thing that voice was talking about, but I feel like…"

Beast-Adam closed the gap and slammed his clawed hands together in an attempt to crush him, however when he looked down, Jae was gone; "BLAKE…Mi…ne…" Beast-Adam hoarsely growled before a plume of flame erupted from a thin line that started at the tip of his snout and ended at his lower back before he collapsed to the ground in a smoking, almost bisected heap.

Jae was panting heavily and then stumbled a little as he propped himself up with his sword while catching his breath.

Nega-Ruby couldn't even track all of what happened since most of it was blocked by the giant beast's frame; She saw Jae getting into a stance and then a brief flickering of fire before Adam stopped and keeled over. "Wha..What was that?" Nega-Ruby quietly asked as Jae tentatively touched the barrier and then waded through to the other side to reach her.

"I…I don't exactly know myself, all I really know is that I just thought "I can do it" and then I just took a swing." Jae did his best to try and explain since admittedly, he himself wasn't sure what to make of it.

Nega-Ruby nodded as she was about to say something but decided to focus on the mission at hand; "Alright, You upheld your side of the bargain…Now for my part; Go into the forest and dig in the undergrowth, there should be a door that leads to the cellar of the Palace."

Jae smiled a little and walked towards the giant expanse of greenery where the palace await.

However in the canopy of the trees, another figure watched him with a look that was shielded by a mask; "He esca-No…He looks too different from that mongrel in the cell…Regardless, I won't allow any outsiders to threaten my Empress's well-being…" Nega-Ilia mentally swore as she tracked him down through the brush.

Meanwhile, Yang was out of breath as the barrier blocked the way out through the destroyed wall and her target was blocking the doorway out of the cells; "Jae…It hurt me to see you crumpled up on the floor in training…please don't make me do it again…" She pleaded as she hesitantly held up her fists to the broken free Nega-Jae; now that he was in the light she could see him as the Nega-Blake wanted him to be.

Now that he was in the light, Yang could see him for what he really looked like here; The shirt was missing and exposing a lean body with numerous bruises which on closer inspection looked like love bites, his hair was long and swaying in what little wind there was but the biggest difference was that Jae's hair wasn't it's usual brown, it was silver and shimmering like an ethereal creature from one of Blake's more romantic fantasy novels.

"I'd much rather not but you're hurting Blake so you've gotta go…" Yang resolved to herself as she rushed forward to attack him.