Chapter 231: Eighth Interlude - Tiangou

Chapter 231: Eighth Interlude - Tiangou

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Eighth Interlude - Tiangou

Layers shifted as he moved, crashing against one another like tectonic plates even as they intermingledinside and out. Instinct tore a snarl from his throat, the sound raised to thunderous proportions by his sheer size, and that same part raised his hackles. After all this time, it was easy to recognize the Grimm and even easier to understand what they were.

Enemies. His enemies, the enemies of those he would protect, the enemies of his master, friend, and arguably creator. Underneath it all, that was all he truly needed to know; that what was before him was something he had to kill. That if they didn't die, they might harm that which he would protectand his right to protect lives inherently trump their right to take them. It was so simple that he didn't even need a true mind to understand it.

But he had one anyway. He could remember the moment it came upon him, a sudden shift in perspective that had changed everything. A part of him wanted to jest that he was of two minds about it, but that wasn't the case, not reallythere was nothing within him wrestling for control, just layers to what was there and things that had been built atop them.

Granted, the change had been rather jarring, all the more so because he'd been alone when it first happenedand didn't that bring back bad memories? He didn't like being alone, like he had been before he'd been saved by Jaune; alone in the alley, alone in the dark, alone on the streets, and alone in the home from before it. He could still remember those days, if not in quite the same way he remembered things now; they were more a matter of familiar scents, sounds, and sensations. Raised voices, the touch of hands, the chill of the rain and the days of pain that followed; things he'd know if he heard them again, not that he'd gone looking.

He'd thought about it, of course, of returning to the place from which he'd come, a place he'd now be able to understand. He knew, logically, that he was very powerful, that he could frighten them as he'd once been frightened. Demand reparations, explanations, apologies. If he truly desired, he could probably just step on the places that had once filled him with dread.

The mere thought was laughable. Those places, those people, those memoriesthey were a part of him, but they didn't matter anymore. Certainly, he could do it, but why would he even bother? It didn't matter anymore. He'd been hurt by people, by larger animals, by the streets of Vale, and in the end he'd been left struggling to survive beneath a dumpster full of trash, clinging to the world that had hurt him simply out of a primal desire to live. The world had never cared about his choices, about him, but he'd wanted to survive so badly that it had hurt almost as much as his injuries. There'd been no hope for him, he'd known that even then, but he'd still fought.

And then he'd been saved.

A part of him occasionally wondered if perhaps he had died in that alleythat this might be his afterlife, his 'Heaven.' It was a bit more war-torn then most depictions of Paradise, admittedly, but Jaune was an Angel and he'd seen enough oddities that the possibility sometimes lingered in his thoughts. But no, he knew the truth, for all that it was even more astonishing. Someone had found him, healed him, saved his life, and taken him in.

He wondered, now and again, if Jaune truly understood how much he affected the world around him. To him, so many things seemed minorcasual, evenbecause that was what they were to him. He thought nothing of saving someone's life with a touch; it was something as easy as breathing to him, something that he just did. The same went for interfering, resolving and creating situations around him, saving more lives that way or at least changing them. He'd leave in the night, race across land, sea, and air, and slaughter a thousand beasts of legend, simply in preparation of challenging his ancient foe, perhaps knowing only vaguely that he might have saved countless lives doing so, down the line. He'd given new life to a fallen soul, changed the course of entire organizations, forged connections to people of great power, and simply continued on like a storm.

And whether it was fate, luck, or something else, he'd found him, saved his life, and given him everything he'd ever wantedlife, a purpose, a family, a mind. Even before he'd become whatever he was now, that had been a simple fact. And when he suddenly felt things change and was thrown off kilterthough it had been startling, terrifying, and confusing, the first thing he'd done was try to find Jaune. In the dark and empty house that had been his first true home, he'd tried to cry out and call for help.

He'd realized in the process that he could. When he thought about things, words, concepts, and even images would come to his mind. When he spoke, the sound would change, translating easily between his brain and mouth, and the world around him had come increasingly into focus. He'd even known exactly how to find his way to Jauneand that Jaune wouldn't have wanted him to. He'd felt Jaune's emotions then as he felt them now and they were startlingly similar. Fear, confidence, surety, dread, anger, pain, hope, and loss all fluttered down the line that connected them in a mass that he could somehow translate. Jaune wouldn't have wanted him in that fight, because he would have been afraid he'd get hurt.

And his friend felt the same way now, even though he was only on the periphery of the battle, dealing with the chaff as Jaune faced down the dark king of this place. Even with the scale of their battles so disproportionate, Jaune was more worried about them than he was himself.

He didn't mind getting hurt if it was in defense of his familyand Jaune probably understood that and was all the more frightened for it. Even before he'd grown stronger, if it kept his family safewell, he wouldn't fear the loss of an eye or limb. Now?

Now such things meant nothing.

The Grimm attacked, most of them now tiny compared to him, though no less dangerous for their size. Of all the members of their team, he drew the most attention and thus the most fire, with claws raking his flesh, blasts of scorching light burning him, and worse besides. Several of the Grimm had moved to climb him, sinking their hands deep into his skin as they climbed his flesh and ripped away at him. In this fight alone, he'd already taken amounts of damage that would have killed almost anyone else; he'd suffered massive burns, bleed rivers, had his eyes punctured, and worse.

But that wasn't why he was here. He was a guardian and he kept an eye on his family, drawing attention and taking any blows that might be dangerous. His senses let him pick those out among the chaos of battle and so were more useful to him than a thousand more mouths.

And it was those same senses that made him the first to become aware are the situation changed. He saw the cracks growing in one of the invisible walls that surrounded this pace and shifted slightly to better position himself in front of his family. But as a figure appeared alongside Jaune, holding him by the throat, his senses also made him completely aware of the truth.

This wasn't someone he could beat. It wasn't somehow he could stop or fight or kill; trying to do so would mean his death.

He considered that for a moment, giving the thought the weight it deserved, and promptly decided it didn't matter. If that was true, it was more important that he make his actions count. Should he cover for Raven? Yes, that was the smartest thing to do. Raven was close enough to Adam to reach him in at a moment's notice and draw him through a portala portal she'd no doubt take up to Autumn, grabbing her as well. So long as he could defend her for a second, she should be able to get both of them to safety. Would she come back afterwards, putting herself in danger? It was regrettably possible, but Autumn and Adam's safety was worth more than his life; worst case scenario, those two could take care of one another and Jaune himself was unlikely to die, given what they knew. It was everything besides death that he needed to be concerned about. He could take care of them both, so long as they escaped, and another Familiar could be found.

Besides which, he was the largest target.

He reached out, being carefully delicate with his Psychokinesis, and planted a paw-shaped construct on Raven's upper arm, signaling her. Her chin lowered and rose less than a centimeter, which was the only sign she'd noticed with her gaze perfectly steady as she looked at the figure, who was Gilgamesh and not Gilgamesh.

Slowly, he braced himselfand made the first move, diving fully in front of Raven even knowing what it could mean.

"Oh, a volunteer?" He heard, but couldn't even see the new figure moveinstead, there was flash of pain as his outer layer shattered completely, coming apart into dark energy that swirled and reshaped itself into something perhaps half as large. For that brief moment, he was thankfully protected as his next layer was drawn out into conventional space, hopefully slowing his enemy downbut the next layer shattered the moment it formed, along with the next and the next, until he was suddenly himself, lying on the ground at the strange figure's feet.

Raven, however, was already gone.

It was worth it, then.

"Buying time for your friend's to escape?" The figure asked, and though he had no mouth he sounded as though he were smiling. "What a brave puppybut you know, I'm the master of portals. It's a little trick to create them when I'm like this, but it's not impossible, and I know where she went. It's justit's always more fun when people think their safe. Isn't that right, Jaune?"

The figurewho must have been Malkuth, given his crude dispositionreached out to him with the hand that wasn't clasped to Jaune's neck.

"Still, it was a good effort," He continued. "What's say I give you an original death, to make it worth your while?"

Some kind of strange, violet light gathered around his hands and he thought this was it.

Butthis was okay. Dark as the situation may have seemed, he knew Jaune would do somethingthat he'd figure out a way to keep them safe in what little time they'd bought.

So this was enoughand a pretty good effort for a dog who should have died in an alleyway, besides.

Light flashed and he waited for the end to come once more, but this time without fear.

And just like before, he was saved.