Episode Jacob: Chapter 4: With the Wind

Chapter 4 of Jacob's story.

The Airspace between Vacuo and Vale

 

 

 

            As the airship cut through the air, Jacob and Pyrrha caught Sage up to speed about what they had been doing for the past day as well as what went down just above him.

            “You know,” Sage said pinching his forehead, “sometimes I get jealous about the shenanigans you and your friends would get entangled in back in our school days, but it looks like I may have dodged a major bullet.”

            “Don’t count yourself out of these types of shenanigans just yet” Jacob said with a smile.  “They seem to just crash a person’s life with no regard for said person’s life.  Anyways, we need to get moving.  Assuming Aeris left before Sage and I found each other, it stands to reason she will beat us to Aequo.  And given the fact that she knew where to find the third flash drive, it’s an inevitability she knows where to find the last one.”

            “But it still doesn’t make sense to me” Pyrrha said scratching her head.  “Why is she only after two of the four?  Clearly she must know that all four of them are more than likely detrimental to the Order.”

            “Maybe she knew we beat her to the other two so she figured get rid of us, then the problem is handled right?” Jacob contemplated as he took a seat in the pilot’s chair.

            “Except she ran and didn’t bother to finish me off after the giant Grimm started shaking the ground.  If she really wanted to finish the job, why not make sure it was finished and leave the fourth flash drive in hiding?  Besides, that doesn’t match what she said.  She said she was only after two.  So what specifically was on these two drives that was so important?”

            “I think stopping her should be your focus right now” Sage said stepping forward to the front of the airship.  “Then you can play Twenty Questions.”

            “He makes a good point” Jacob sighed.  “And even with a third person here to help us, I'm not sure that gives us much of an advantage against Aeris.  She’s been known to take on multiple opponents at once and still come out unscathed.”

            “We took on a god and came out alive” Pyrrha said with a smile.

            “Good point.  We could potentially hold our own.  And the nice thing is, that old house of mine where I spent most of the time growing up…..wait….hang on a second.”  Jacob then stood up and started pacing around in the back, racking his brain trying to recall something.  “That’s it!” he shouted.  “Okay, listen.  I have a plan.”

 

 

 

The Ruins of Aequo

Midday

 

 

 

            Jacob walked through the remains of the charred buildings and homes that still lay there after all these years.  The vegetation was beginning to come back.  Despite the Order burning the place to the ground, the ground was fertile enough for new life to spring up in its wake.  But it still wasn’t enough to hide the tragedy that had befallen this place so long ago.  Jacob pushed these thoughts out of his mind as he approached the ruins of his old house.  It was one of the largest if not the largest house available in the entire village.  Jacob remembered a lot of locals got upset because the normal order of things in Aequo was that nobody was superior and were all given the same to begin with.  But Jacob’s father didn’t care and had this building built anyways.  And in the ruins, most of the structure had been destroyed.  The second floor had collapsed, the roof was full of holes and had vines growing to the ground below, water trickled in from where the back door used to be from a spring that ran down from the nearby mountain, and in the middle of all of it rummaging through the debris was Lord Aeris, growing more and more frustrated with each passing moment.  Jacob cleared his throat, which caught the attention of Lord Aeris.

            “One would think that after all these years,” Aeris said with a groan turning around to face Jacob, “I would have learned I need to double tap to ensure somebody is actually dead instead of conveniently surviving.”

            “How did you rise to such a position of power without that mindset in a criminal organization?” Jacob said drawing his sword.  “Must have been a pretty disorderly Order.”

            “Perhaps.  But so long as the information in play is not compromised, things should return to how they should be.”

            “I think things are good where they are right now.”

            “Then you are just as big a fool as the girl who killed Lord Mortem and doomed us all.”

            “Somehow I doubt that.”  Jacob then rushed forward and clashed with Aeris who blocked the attack with her left chakram.  She then used her right weapon to strike Jacob in the side.  Jacob slid across the floor after taking the hit, but quickly recovered and resumed a normal battle stance.  Aeris charged forward slicing at his legs.  Jacob calmly hopped over the attack and landed a powerful blow on her head, knocking her into the ground.  Aeris slowly got back up, her anger growing more and more apparent.  She then charged forward again, with Jacob continuing to deflect the incoming attacks.  Over and over again the same motions of attack, defend then repeat for several rounds.  Both of them trading blows, but Jacob mostly going on the defensive while Aeris continued to lash out on the offensive.

            “What did you do with the flash drive?” Jacob yelled as he landed another powerful hit that sent Aeris sliding across the room.

            “Oh, you mean this old thing?” Aeris taunted pulling out the flash drive.  “Come to think of it, why do I still have this?”  As she said that, she tossed it in the air and sliced it into pieces with her chakrams.  Jacob gritted his teeth and prepared to attack again.

            “Why delay the inevitable?” Aeris taunted.  “You could barely hold your own against me when you had your famous cousin with you.  What hope do you have of defeating me now?”  Jacob gritted his teeth, but then saw a flare go off in the sky.  He smiled confidently and pointed his sword at Aeris in a triumphant way saying,

            “Who said anything about defeating you?”  As soon as Jacob said this, a loud explosion went off behind him clearing away a lot of the house debris and revealed standing just outside the ruins of the old house behind Jacob was Pyrrha, Sage, the remaining members of Team JCTB, and a slew of Atlesian soldiers with their guns aimed right at Lord Aeris.  Jacob turned back and smiled when Sage held up the final flash drive triumphantly.

            “What?” Aeris screamed.  “How did you get that?  I’ve been here this whole time.”

            “Yes,” Jacob said with a smirk, “but you weren’t at my first house.”

            “What?”

            “My dad had this place built when he didn’t like having a house that was just like everybody else’s.  Maybe he was scared the Order had secretly wire tapped it and he wanted a house he knew wasn’t bugged, or maybe he just wanted a bigger house.  I don’t know.  But regardless, you’ve been searching in the wrong place this whole time.  And oh yeah, what was that you said about numbers?”  Aeris surveyed the situation, and decided to make a desperate escape.  But the moment she tried to dash towards the entrance to the valley, she was met with Pyrrha’s shield striking her in the legs and then several soldiers flanking around and opening fire.  As Ty attempted to fire a rocket at her, Aeris fired gusts of wind from her hands to launch herself backwards all the while Brooklyn, Christy and the other soldiers opened fire while she was still in the air.  But Aeris had her Aura take all the hits until she landed and started running deeper into the ruins of the town towards the cliffs with everybody giving chase.  As the chase wore on, Aeris realized she had backed herself into a corner.  Not only had she reduced a large portion of her Aura in the fight against Jacob, but using her Semblance to do a fast about-face had put her Aura levels at critical levels to the point where she could barely muster a gust of wind at this point.  As the chase dragged on, Aeris found herself overlooking the cliffs at the edge of town, leading to a chasm below covered in dense fog.  Without any time to think Jacob sped away from the main group of the pursuing chase and pressed the attack.  Aeris was in complete defense mode.  She was doing everything she could to not let a single attack land.  But it wasn’t enough.  At one moment she tried to take a step to spin around Jacob and perhaps attempt a last-ditch effort to escape.  But the moment she began her spin and placed her right foot down to begin the spin, a bullet fired from one of the soldiers hit her in the foot, causing her to lose her balance and stumble backwards.  This left her wide open, and Jacob pulled back and hit Aeris with enough force to not just break her Aura, but send her flying off the edge of the cliff into the fog below.  Aeris didn’t even let out a scream as she fell.  She just started laughing as the fog consumed her, and all went quiet.

 

 

 

            The soldiers began packing up and preparing to head back to Atlas.  Sage was going over how his original mission in Vacuo bled into this mission with the commanding officer who was making sure all of his reports were straightened out.  Christy, Ty and Brooklyn were helping with the handful of wounded while also talking with General Ironwood going over what had transpired.  Jacob simply stood in front of the ruins of his original house, the final flash drive in his hand.  Pyrrha walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

            “I don’t know why I’m so nervous” Jacob said with a sigh.  “The second one was just data.  Why would this one be any different?  Knowing my luck, he saved any emotional parting message for the drive in Vacuo.”

            “Won’t know unless you try” Pyrrha said with a smile.  Jacob took a deep breath, then plugged in the final drive.  As soon as he did, once again several important files related to the Order popped up.  But this time, just like the first drive, a video popped up as well, with Jacob’s father sitting in his cell.

            “Hello my son.  If you are watching this message, then that means you found the first one and have completed the mission laid out before you.  If not, then this is just one of four drives that contains information about….”

            “Pretty sure he’ll find the one in Haven first” a voice said from behind the camera.

            “I can’t take any chances” Jacob’s father said with a sigh.

            “Look, just take my word for it, all right?”

            “Very well.  Now then, you have completed this task, and that means the world is in a much better place than it is at the time I am recording this message.  And it also stands to reason I have either been captured by the Kingdoms, I am still imprisoned by some dying faction of the Order, or I have joined your mother.  Jacob, I want you to know this.  I am sorry.  Your mother always tried to push me in a different direction than the one I was going down, but I was too stubborn to listen.  And then when you decided you wished to commit to Beacon instead of my original plan of Haven, I thought I had failed.  But I couldn’t have been more wrong.  You have forged your own path forward, and now you are leading the world into a new era.  I applaud you on this.  You have overcome adversity and found your own peak to climb.  I know everything I have done over the years cannot change what is.  But I know you will be better.  I tried to take over the Order because I wanted more.  I walked a path surrounded by snakes and vipers who wanted more just like I did.  You found a path surrounded by friends.  I envy you, yes, but more than that I feel pride that you will be better than me.  Continue to stand by the people you care about, and stay true to yourself.  Farewell my son.”  And with that, a figure wearing a black glove and sleave reached into frame and the video feed cut out.  Jacob wiped a few tears from his eyes and put his Scroll away.  Pyrrha simply smiled and helped lead him back to the airship.

            “Hey Pyrrha?” Jacob said looking over at his cousin.

            “Yes Jacob?”

            “Thanks for helping me out.”

            “When did I do that?”

            “Well with this whole endeavor first of all, but also back during my freshman year.  I was so enthralled with my own path I almost went down the same path my father did.  You helped me move back to my real path and find my friends.”

            “Well, what else is family for?”  They both smiled, boarded the airship, and headed back to Vale.  As the airships took off, all that was left was one of Aeris’ chakrams, simply stuck in the ground.  As the wind picked up, a figure approached it.  Wearing a black coat.

 

 

 

Family

Stands Together

Be By Blood

Or By Bond

Rally Behind Us

We Rally Behind You

 

 

Episode Jacob

END

 

 

 

Authors Note:

 

            If it isn’t obvious by just reading this story, I take a lot of creative liberties when it comes to the characterized versions of my friends.  Yes, the original nine and the two new characters in this anthology are all real people and I do draw from real world events for some elements of how the characters operate, but the majority of the backstories and motivations are built around what I feel best serves the story instead of being built around moments that happened in real life.  Case in point, Jacob’s character.  Who I’d argue I took some of the biggest creative liberties on.  When I originally began writing “Order”, everybody pitched in on different ideas for their characters.  What their Semblance was, what their weapon was and how they would use it, their own fight style, etc. etc.  Then I started adding elements that made these characters fit more in this world, and the majority of them were not pitches I got from the group.  As such, Jacob’s entire family drama I created off the top of my head solely for the story.  The group didn’t even know I was making him Pyrrha’s cousin in the story until I released that tidbit in the first book.  Granted, it is fanfiction and one that is very much so far out there the suspension of disbelief means people are able to separate their character from their real self and their real-life experiences (I hope).  But as a writer, it has always felt weird to try and create scenarios with family as the theme for people who I know have amazing families in the real world.  And with Jacob, not only did I create fabricated family drama not true of the real world at all, I always felt like I was giving his character more of a tendency to want to be alone.  Which is not indicative whatsoever of who Jacob is as a person and friend.  He is one of the nicest and fun people you could ever hope to meet, and carries a wisdom and compassion that many people never achieve in their lifetime.  I tried to address that in this anthology, addressing how he is somebody who makes great connections with people just by being who he is.  And yet it was a struggle to showcase how he leaves a great impact on our lives while not breaking away from his established fictional character so that character could go through growth in the story.  He always has had the backs of everybody in this group whenever we needed it.  And in 2019, when he was diagnosed with cancer, we all rallied around him.  I actually used his diagnosis as a plot point with the Relic of Death in “War”.  It was a trying time to be certain.  But he had been there for us when we needed him, so we were there for him when he needed us, especially his family.  Heck, Beanie was still in school hours away from where we all live and he still made the drive to be there for Jacob.  Today his is thankfully cancer-free, and is working hard at becoming a physician.  His drive and kindness is unparalleled, and the strength of his heart in the face of great trials and tribulations is unbound.  I cannot wait to see where life takes him from here and how he will continue to make the world a better place.

Author's Note

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