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June 13, 2016; Battle Ground, Indiana

Chelsea was the first to strike. She vaulted over a temple terminal and went straight for her baton, which she flicked out as she charged at Jacob with a shout. He looked at her, smiling, and swung his own baton, catching her’s as she struck.

“Chelsea! So great to see you again! How’re the kids?”

“I'm gonna kick your ass and then your ass’s ass!” she shrieked in rage.

“Sorry. My ass is off limits today.” He shoved her back and stepped aside, flicking his baton towards her. She wasn’t prepared for it when his staff extended, smacking into her side. He spun it around himself, planting it on the ground. He leaned gently on it, still smiling. “Now can we be peaceful? Or do we need to repeat Chase Tower?”

Chelsea's eye twitched. She shoved her baton back into its sheath and slipped her electric brass knuckles over her fingers. “I'll be peaceful when you're dead!”

“Chase tower it is, then.” He collapsed the staff, pocketing it, and gestured to Chelsea. “Bring it on. I need a warmup.”

The other’s watched as Chelsea charged forward, knuckles sparking with electricity. Jacob barely even flinched, ducking and weaving, only so often batting a hand away that got to close, that insane smile never leaving his face. “You really need to chill out, Chels. You might open that wound back up.” He pulled back, one of Chelsea’s punches narrowly missing his face, then slammed his palm into her arm.

As the fighting went on, the other three stood and watched, bewildered. “Uh…” Ruby said. “Should we… you know… help?”

Ava frowned. “Yeah quite honestly I think we should,” she declared, memories going back to that night her brain was fried. She grabbed her karambit from her belt and darted forwards, rushing to Chelsea's side. Ruby looked at Ben, who simply shrugged and grabbed his own baton and charged as well. Ruby followed suit, grabbing a couple of pistols and leaping forward like her favorite action heroes.

Jacob pushed aside one of Chelsea’s punches, narrowly missed Ava’s karambit, and grunted as he shrugged off a hit from Ben’s baton. Seeing Ruby aim with her pistols, he made his decision. He grabbed his baton and extended his staff, surprising the two, flicked his dagger towards Ruby, and began to actually fight back. “4 against one?” Jacob said. “Hardly sporting. Hey Ben. Hey Ava.”

“Hi,” Ava spat back. She swung her karambit, trying to swipe it across his neck but instead only slicing the air as he dodged. “Been a while. Bet you've got a lot of stories to tell like how the hell you came back from the dead?”

“Doesn't matter,” Cheslea said as she lunged and got thrown off again. “He's going to be dead in a minute and this time I'm gonna make sure of it!” She shouted and charged, knuckles raised and crackling.

Jacob was getting slightly winded from the onslaught of the three of them, but he jammed his staff against her fists, forcing her aside. “Magic stick,” he said. “Go figure. And I’ve got one hell of a story to tell you guys. Once this bi-” He yelped as Chelsea finally connected, throwing him down. He planted the staff, letting it carry his weight. His face had a burn on it from the connection, his hair standing on end, smile gone. “I was trying to talk to Ava! Rude!”

“Shocking,” Ruby laughed. Everyone stopped for a split second and stared at her in disapproval.

“See? She gets it. Hey Ruby.” He ran straight at Chelsea, face grim now, ready to take another swing. She gripped her knuckles tight and readied herself, jumping up right as his baton swung towards her and flipping over his head. She went for another punch, but Jacob ducked down just in time, causing her to punch faster and harder, desperate for the satisfaction of another strike.

Jacob began blocking her strikes with the staff, hoping to cause pain to her hands. He was starting to get bored. He flipped away from her, leaning against a wall, retracting the staff again. “Chelsea, please,” he continued. “We’re at a standstill. The only reason you got that punch in was because I was talking. Which isn’t very fair.”

Suddenly, something connected with his temple again. Ava stood behind him as he recoiled away, the fist she just used to hit him white from how tight it was clenched. “Neither was being put into a coma for 3 weeks,” she said.

“You know I feel this would go a lot faster without the banter,” Ben said.

“Shut up, Ben,” everyone told him at once.

“Yeah okay.”

The four Assassins circled around, trying to find the best positions to strike. “Hit him all at once!” Ruby said. They all nodded and charged, each one with their weapons drawn. Ruby cocked her pistols, Ava readied her karambit, Ben swung back his baton, and Chelsea spun up her fists for one nasty punch all at once.

Jacob rolled his eyes, and just as they closed in he ducked down, whipped his baton out for the third time, extended his staff, and spun it as fast as he could above his head. It knocked them all off kilter, and he stood up, pulling his staff up beside him, winded. “Aren’t you guys tired yet? This fight is taking too long.”

“Oh don't worry,” Chelsea said. “It'll only last until next fall!” She swung her legs around and kicked Jacob's feet out from under him, sending him to the ground with the rest of them. She lunged like a cat, grabbing him by the collar and preparing to pummel him.

“I got it!” Ruby said, aiming her pistol at their opponent. She pulled the trigger, but instead of hitting him, the bullet went wide and smacked into some of the temple tech, causing it to spark and crackle. On the other side of the room, the hologram of Gabriel started sputtering back up. He stretched and yawned.

“Wah, morning already?” he asked. Then he looked over at the fight that was going down, and his eyes widened. “Hey hey hey hey! Guys stop!” he pleaded.

“Stop my ass!” Chelsea spat. Jacob used her outburst as his chance to knock her off of him and roll back to his feet. The others quickly stood back up as well and the brawl continued.

“Guys I mean it!” Gabriel begged. “You don't understand! He's here to help! He's just being an ass because you guys are being asses!”

“Yeah, like he has a reputation of being helpful,” Ruby said.

“I'm serious! Let him talk!”

“Bastard probably went straight to Morgenster and told him all our secrets!” Chelsea said, charging forward with another punch.

“I mean you’re half right-” Jacob started.

“Okay that's it!” Gabriel yelled. He moved his arms upwards, causing the temple to shake as engravings in the floor lit up bright gold and walls of light sprang up, trapping everyone in their own little box. Chelsea's momentum made her smack into the wall and bounce back to the floor with a painful thud.

Jacob covered his eyes as the light sprang up, stepping back. “Gah! That’s brighter than my future!” Partially covered, he blinked over and over, trying to regain sight. “Hey Casper the friendly host, I’m safe in here, right?”

Gabriel rubbed his eyes in irritation. “For the love of God…” he moaned. “You guys are supposed to be the ones taking down the Devil himself. I'm starting to think I made an error in the timeline calculations.”

“Rude,” Ruby pouted.

“Wait, you already know about that?” Jacob looked devastated. “You mean I spent a month getting tortured for nothing? That really takes the cake. Go ahead Chelsea, I’m ready to die now.”

“If Buzz Lightyear over here would let me out of this goddamn box!” Chelsea said, pounding on the wall.

“None of you are coming out until I have full agreement to not beat the crap out of each other,” Gabriel said. “Both of you have stories you need to hear out.”

The two glared at each other, insisting that the other one started it, till finally pulling back.

“Fine.” Chelsea submitted. “I promise not to gut the traitor.”

“Aaw,” Jacob mocked. “And I was gonna let you. Yeah, all right. I’ll play nice.” Jacob plopped down onto the floor, leaning against the wall.

“Alright,” Gabriel nodded. “Weapons away.”

They all complied.

“Good.” The walls flickered and dimmed until they faded away back into the floor. The four Assassins stood facing the sitting Jacob, who met their wary expressions with a toothy grin.

Around the corner, Kiki poked her head out, eyes wide as she slowly came out of hiding. “I literally leave for ten minutes…” she croaked. “What the hell is going on?”

------------

“Alright,” Chelsea said once they were all day down in a nice little circle near Ruby's tech station. “Spill it, Singer,” she said to Jacob. “I don't care how you're alive, but I do want to know what managed to give you the balls to show your face around me again after last time.”

“In all honesty, I actually wanted to apologize for being a dick,” he said. “Turns out what I was saying may not have been what I was saying.”

Knowing full well how confusing that sounded, he continued. “I spent three weeks with Morgenster, stuck in an Animus reliving memories. My own and some douchebag’s. I think the Staff was really messing with me, and what I was saying wasn’t coming out right. I’ve been trying to kill Morgenster from the beginning, and that thing I did on the Chase Tower was meant to kill him, not rewrite history. After a bit of soul searching, I escaped from Lucifer, grabbed my things, and tried to find you guys. But it seems you already knew about Lucy’s plans to break reality, so I’m just here to help.”

The four looked at him, taking it in. He seemed sincere for the first time in a while. Chelsea still seemed disbelieving, but even she sat back and listened.

“And Ava? I truly am sorry about what I put you through. I know you’ll probably never forgive me, but I am glad that you seem okay. Did it affect you that badly?”

“Well my brain kinda shattered and I got sent into a coma for three weeks,” she explained. Her face was a bit bitter at first, but it softened. “But… it did give me the chance to do a little soul-searching too. Did a bit of memory exploring for answers and that's how I found out about Lucifer and his plans, and how it's up to us to stop it.”

Jacob was silent for a long moment, fingers pressed together over his mouth. “So it did help the bleeding effect. Good to know.”

“No,” she said, frown coming back. “A friend helped with that…”

Jacob began to speak up, but noticing her frown, he closed his mouth.

“Guys,” Gabriel warned from the other side of the room. “No rough housing. Devil on the loose, remember?”

“Sorry,” Ava said.

Jacob’s eye twitched slightly and he cleared his throat, nodding. “Right,” he said. “Well… Lucy’s kind of a tool, anyways. I mean, his guards were the only issue after I punched him in the dick. And his whole plan seems based on finding another one of those precursor thing-” He stopped talking, brow furrowing in apparent pain. “Bad magic stick. Bad.”

“You've been to his hideout,” Ben said. “What can you tell us? Is he close to finding what he needs? Is he mounting any plans to stop us?”

“He was talking big game as I was escaping. As for stopping us, he sent Yolanda to blow- Where’s Carter?” Jacob blinked, just noticing his friend was missing. He looked around, concerned. “He is here, right?”

“No,” Ruby said. “He and Jess went to go watch over the hideout back in Indy.”

Jacob stood up, grabbing his gun. “Sheol’s on her way to send the hideout to hell! We have to warn them. Now!” He checked his equipment and hurried to the door.

“Wait what?” Ava said, standing up.

“What do you mean send it to hell?” Chelsea barked.

“She’s gonna blow it the hell up!” he yelled, breaking into a sprint. “Get on the phone and call them!”

“Crap!” Ava yelled, rushing for her equipment. She strapped on her blades and grabbed a gun. “Ben, Ruby, Chels, You stay here and keep the place running. One of you call Carter and Jess. I'm going with Jacob.”

“Woah woah woah!” Kiki said, grabbing her daughter by the shoulder. “Just you and that scruffy guy? No way! I'm not going to let you charge into a building that's at risk of blowing up!”

Ava frowned and shook her mother off. “I'm not going to let my friends die, mom,” she snapped. “I don't care if you don't like it. I'm not going to lose anyone on this final stretch.”

She turned and sprinted towards the exit after Jacob, pulling up her hood as she did. Her mother called after her, begging her to come back.

But she was already out the door.

Description
June 13, 2016; Battle Ground, Indiana

Chelsea was the first to strike. She vaulted over a temple terminal and went straight for her baton, which she flicked out as she charged at Jacob with a shout. He looked at her, smiling, and swung his own baton, catching her’s as she struck.

“Chelsea! So great to see you again! How’re the kids?”

“I'm gonna kick your ass and then your ass’s ass!” she shrieked in rage.

“Sorry. My ass is off limits today.” He shoved her back and stepped aside, flicking his baton towards her. She wasn’t prepared for it when his staff extended, smacking into her side. He spun it around himself, planting it on the ground. He leaned gently on it, still smiling. “Now can we be peaceful? Or do we need to repeat Chase Tower?”

Chelsea's eye twitched. She shoved her baton back into its sheath and slipped her electric brass knuckles over her fingers. “I'll be peaceful when you're dead!”

“Chase tower it is, then.” He collapsed the staff, pocketing it, and gestured to Chelsea. “Bring it on. I need a warmup.”

The other’s watched as Chelsea charged forward, knuckles sparking with electricity. Jacob barely even flinched, ducking and weaving, only so often batting a hand away that got to close, that insane smile never leaving his face. “You really need to chill out, Chels. You might open that wound back up.” He pulled back, one of Chelsea’s punches narrowly missing his face, then slammed his palm into her arm.

As the fighting went on, the other three stood and watched, bewildered. “Uh…” Ruby said. “Should we… you know… help?”

Ava frowned. “Yeah quite honestly I think we should,” she declared, memories going back to that night her brain was fried. She grabbed her karambit from her belt and darted forwards, rushing to Chelsea's side. Ruby looked at Ben, who simply shrugged and grabbed his own baton and charged as well. Ruby followed suit, grabbing a couple of pistols and leaping forward like her favorite action heroes.

Jacob pushed aside one of Chelsea’s punches, narrowly missed Ava’s karambit, and grunted as he shrugged off a hit from Ben’s baton. Seeing Ruby aim with her pistols, he made his decision. He grabbed his baton and extended his staff, surprising the two, flicked his dagger towards Ruby, and began to actually fight back. “4 against one?” Jacob said. “Hardly sporting. Hey Ben. Hey Ava.”

“Hi,” Ava spat back. She swung her karambit, trying to swipe it across his neck but instead only slicing the air as he dodged. “Been a while. Bet you've got a lot of stories to tell like how the hell you came back from the dead?”

“Doesn't matter,” Cheslea said as she lunged and got thrown off again. “He's going to be dead in a minute and this time I'm gonna make sure of it!” She shouted and charged, knuckles raised and crackling.

Jacob was getting slightly winded from the onslaught of the three of them, but he jammed his staff against her fists, forcing her aside. “Magic stick,” he said. “Go figure. And I’ve got one hell of a story to tell you guys. Once this bi-” He yelped as Chelsea finally connected, throwing him down. He planted the staff, letting it carry his weight. His face had a burn on it from the connection, his hair standing on end, smile gone. “I was trying to talk to Ava! Rude!”

“Shocking,” Ruby laughed. Everyone stopped for a split second and stared at her in disapproval.

“See? She gets it. Hey Ruby.” He ran straight at Chelsea, face grim now, ready to take another swing. She gripped her knuckles tight and readied herself, jumping up right as his baton swung towards her and flipping over his head. She went for another punch, but Jacob ducked down just in time, causing her to punch faster and harder, desperate for the satisfaction of another strike.

Jacob began blocking her strikes with the staff, hoping to cause pain to her hands. He was starting to get bored. He flipped away from her, leaning against a wall, retracting the staff again. “Chelsea, please,” he continued. “We’re at a standstill. The only reason you got that punch in was because I was talking. Which isn’t very fair.”

Suddenly, something connected with his temple again. Ava stood behind him as he recoiled away, the fist she just used to hit him white from how tight it was clenched. “Neither was being put into a coma for 3 weeks,” she said.

“You know I feel this would go a lot faster without the banter,” Ben said.

“Shut up, Ben,” everyone told him at once.

“Yeah okay.”

The four Assassins circled around, trying to find the best positions to strike. “Hit him all at once!” Ruby said. They all nodded and charged, each one with their weapons drawn. Ruby cocked her pistols, Ava readied her karambit, Ben swung back his baton, and Chelsea spun up her fists for one nasty punch all at once.

Jacob rolled his eyes, and just as they closed in he ducked down, whipped his baton out for the third time, extended his staff, and spun it as fast as he could above his head. It knocked them all off kilter, and he stood up, pulling his staff up beside him, winded. “Aren’t you guys tired yet? This fight is taking too long.”

“Oh don't worry,” Chelsea said. “It'll only last until next fall!” She swung her legs around and kicked Jacob's feet out from under him, sending him to the ground with the rest of them. She lunged like a cat, grabbing him by the collar and preparing to pummel him.

“I got it!” Ruby said, aiming her pistol at their opponent. She pulled the trigger, but instead of hitting him, the bullet went wide and smacked into some of the temple tech, causing it to spark and crackle. On the other side of the room, the hologram of Gabriel started sputtering back up. He stretched and yawned.

“Wah, morning already?” he asked. Then he looked over at the fight that was going down, and his eyes widened. “Hey hey hey hey! Guys stop!” he pleaded.

“Stop my ass!” Chelsea spat. Jacob used her outburst as his chance to knock her off of him and roll back to his feet. The others quickly stood back up as well and the brawl continued.

“Guys I mean it!” Gabriel begged. “You don't understand! He's here to help! He's just being an ass because you guys are being asses!”

“Yeah, like he has a reputation of being helpful,” Ruby said.

“I'm serious! Let him talk!”

“Bastard probably went straight to Morgenster and told him all our secrets!” Chelsea said, charging forward with another punch.

“I mean you’re half right-” Jacob started.

“Okay that's it!” Gabriel yelled. He moved his arms upwards, causing the temple to shake as engravings in the floor lit up bright gold and walls of light sprang up, trapping everyone in their own little box. Chelsea's momentum made her smack into the wall and bounce back to the floor with a painful thud.

Jacob covered his eyes as the light sprang up, stepping back. “Gah! That’s brighter than my future!” Partially covered, he blinked over and over, trying to regain sight. “Hey Casper the friendly host, I’m safe in here, right?”

Gabriel rubbed his eyes in irritation. “For the love of God…” he moaned. “You guys are supposed to be the ones taking down the Devil himself. I'm starting to think I made an error in the timeline calculations.”

“Rude,” Ruby pouted.

“Wait, you already know about that?” Jacob looked devastated. “You mean I spent a month getting tortured for nothing? That really takes the cake. Go ahead Chelsea, I’m ready to die now.”

“If Buzz Lightyear over here would let me out of this goddamn box!” Chelsea said, pounding on the wall.

“None of you are coming out until I have full agreement to not beat the crap out of each other,” Gabriel said. “Both of you have stories you need to hear out.”

The two glared at each other, insisting that the other one started it, till finally pulling back.

“Fine.” Chelsea submitted. “I promise not to gut the traitor.”

“Aaw,” Jacob mocked. “And I was gonna let you. Yeah, all right. I’ll play nice.” Jacob plopped down onto the floor, leaning against the wall.

“Alright,” Gabriel nodded. “Weapons away.”

They all complied.

“Good.” The walls flickered and dimmed until they faded away back into the floor. The four Assassins stood facing the sitting Jacob, who met their wary expressions with a toothy grin.

Around the corner, Kiki poked her head out, eyes wide as she slowly came out of hiding. “I literally leave for ten minutes…” she croaked. “What the hell is going on?”

------------

“Alright,” Chelsea said once they were all day down in a nice little circle near Ruby's tech station. “Spill it, Singer,” she said to Jacob. “I don't care how you're alive, but I do want to know what managed to give you the balls to show your face around me again after last time.”

“In all honesty, I actually wanted to apologize for being a dick,” he said. “Turns out what I was saying may not have been what I was saying.”

Knowing full well how confusing that sounded, he continued. “I spent three weeks with Morgenster, stuck in an Animus reliving memories. My own and some douchebag’s. I think the Staff was really messing with me, and what I was saying wasn’t coming out right. I’ve been trying to kill Morgenster from the beginning, and that thing I did on the Chase Tower was meant to kill him, not rewrite history. After a bit of soul searching, I escaped from Lucifer, grabbed my things, and tried to find you guys. But it seems you already knew about Lucy’s plans to break reality, so I’m just here to help.”

The four looked at him, taking it in. He seemed sincere for the first time in a while. Chelsea still seemed disbelieving, but even she sat back and listened.

“And Ava? I truly am sorry about what I put you through. I know you’ll probably never forgive me, but I am glad that you seem okay. Did it affect you that badly?”

“Well my brain kinda shattered and I got sent into a coma for three weeks,” she explained. Her face was a bit bitter at first, but it softened. “But… it did give me the chance to do a little soul-searching too. Did a bit of memory exploring for answers and that's how I found out about Lucifer and his plans, and how it's up to us to stop it.”

Jacob was silent for a long moment, fingers pressed together over his mouth. “So it did help the bleeding effect. Good to know.”

“No,” she said, frown coming back. “A friend helped with that…”

Jacob began to speak up, but noticing her frown, he closed his mouth.

“Guys,” Gabriel warned from the other side of the room. “No rough housing. Devil on the loose, remember?”

“Sorry,” Ava said.

Jacob’s eye twitched slightly and he cleared his throat, nodding. “Right,” he said. “Well… Lucy’s kind of a tool, anyways. I mean, his guards were the only issue after I punched him in the dick. And his whole plan seems based on finding another one of those precursor thing-” He stopped talking, brow furrowing in apparent pain. “Bad magic stick. Bad.”

“You've been to his hideout,” Ben said. “What can you tell us? Is he close to finding what he needs? Is he mounting any plans to stop us?”

“He was talking big game as I was escaping. As for stopping us, he sent Yolanda to blow- Where’s Carter?” Jacob blinked, just noticing his friend was missing. He looked around, concerned. “He is here, right?”

“No,” Ruby said. “He and Jess went to go watch over the hideout back in Indy.”

Jacob stood up, grabbing his gun. “Sheol’s on her way to send the hideout to hell! We have to warn them. Now!” He checked his equipment and hurried to the door.

“Wait what?” Ava said, standing up.

“What do you mean send it to hell?” Chelsea barked.

“She’s gonna blow it the hell up!” he yelled, breaking into a sprint. “Get on the phone and call them!”

“Crap!” Ava yelled, rushing for her equipment. She strapped on her blades and grabbed a gun. “Ben, Ruby, Chels, You stay here and keep the place running. One of you call Carter and Jess. I'm going with Jacob.”

“Woah woah woah!” Kiki said, grabbing her daughter by the shoulder. “Just you and that scruffy guy? No way! I'm not going to let you charge into a building that's at risk of blowing up!”

Ava frowned and shook her mother off. “I'm not going to let my friends die, mom,” she snapped. “I don't care if you don't like it. I'm not going to lose anyone on this final stretch.”

She turned and sprinted towards the exit after Jacob, pulling up her hood as she did. Her mother called after her, begging her to come back.

But she was already out the door.