So we meet again

Vito and Jack had things pretty much to themselves now. But of course, it didn't work like that. Chase felt something cold on her forehead, and looked up to see Vito, his wand in her face, before he was tugged away. What did he want from her? Was he really so angry as to kill her right in front of Jack? Chase couldn't even bring herself to move a few feet over. She slowly lifted herself to one elbow though, and looked up at Vito and Jack.

Jack, her Jackles was defending her against.. her guy. Chase winced and yelled out in sudden pain. Before she hadn't even realized it, having been dragged to her feet, and then tortured, but she gasped and collapsed in on herself when she felt where he had kicked her in the side earlier. He must have either broken or fractured a few ribs when he had kicked her, and she was just now feeling the pain of it.

"Jack.." She whispered softly, her arm wrapped around her middle, as she staggered to her feet. She slowly put her hand on Jack's shoulder and looked at Vito carefully, her gaze much steadier then she felt it should be. She crumpled against Jack for a moment before struggling to stand upright again. "Lets just go, please.. take me home.." She whispered, her knees shaking hard. Blood dripped from her hair and mingled with the water that was still attempting to wash it away, and a bruise was raising on her eye, her lip was torn, and her wrist was bent in a very odd angle. "Please.. just leave him alone! Just.. leave him, please.." She begged, tears filling her eyes, only to disappear in the rain again. Her hand pressed against Jack's shoulder hard, simply because she was using her to keep herself upright. Had Jack moved Chase would have fallen down again.

He did not reply when she spoke of how much she got to him, because it was true, she irritated him and angered him to the point where he wanted to tear at his own skin, but she knew that, she had made that much clear.

A bark of laughter escaped Vito’s lips before he had the chance to bite his tongue to keep it from slipping out; he didn’t enjoy his laughter much, and preferred to keep it inside of him- but that was a bit too amusing for Vito, “Oh Jack, looks like you’ve figured me out,” he spoke in a sarcastic tone; of course he enjoyed the drama, the chaos, all of it- he lived for it after all. However, Vito’s momentary amusement vanished completely when Jack shot a spell at his hand. He pulled his arm away with a hiss, while his other arm was pulled in the same direction by Jack herself. “Back off,” he shouted.

That seemed to be a reaction that only Jack could get out of him, but it surprised him every time he heard his own voice any louder than his usual tone. Vito yanked his arm out of Jack’s grasp, and met her gaze for a moment. The need to be in control of the situation, it was in his eyes, as it was in hers, and it almost looked as if it were a staring contest for a moment.

Vito parted his lips, and it almost looked as if he were disgusted with the female before him, “You don’t tell me when I’m to stop,” he told her slowly and just as sternly as his voice had been when he had ordered her to leave. He honestly had hoped that some miracle would occur and she would have actually listened to him, but such things didn’t happen, Vito knew that, so he couldn’t quite understand why he had expected such.

The poltergeist’s next breath caught in his throat when he realized what sort of position he was in; Jack had the power to do whatever she wished with his secrets; his weaknesses. He took a step closer to her, his eyes shone darkly with a mixture of both rage and fear, “I’ll kill her in a heartbeat,” he whispered, slowly bring his wand arm upwards, his wand pointed in Chase’s direction.

She had managed to get to her feet and make her way over to Jack, leaning against her. There were two sides there, Vito’s, along with Jack’s and Chase’s, it was clear by where they were each standing, and a tense feeling in the air.

The rain was lightening up, but the clouds overhead seemed even darker than they had been when the storm had been at its worst, and the air was still as cold as ever. A shiver ran down Vito’s spine once more; he would have a sickly cold once this was all over, he was sure of it, and it seemed sounded like such a burden to him. Vito considered for a moment, just letting the pair leave so that he could go back to his club, dry off and enjoy himself, but for some reason he felt that he needed to prove to himself that he could harm Jack freely if he chose to- it was probably a result of the dream he had had, and the words of that young man which had been there with him.

Again Vito lost his cool because of her and he shouted at her. She did not jump because she knew that the fact that he was yelling was not cause for more alarm. He was weakening, if it could be counted as that. He was getting more flustered and she knew that meant that he was going to be more frustrated and unpredictable. It was not yet time to get worried...

Yet.

His eyes met hers again and she squared her shoulders, refusing to break eye contact with him. It was something that was not difficult for her anymore. She was used to staring back into those hard, but lost, eyes. It did not faze her. Especially because reflected in his eyes were two redheads. One defiant and one hurt and terrified. The latter needed the former to be strong. And she would be.

He told her not to tell him when to stop but in the next moment she saw the effect of the realization of where they actually stood. He was cornered, as was she. But the question was, who would back down.

Jack stepped in front of Vito, feeling Chase cling to her. She had ignoed Chase's words. IF they tried to Apparate, Vito would just grab her arm and then they would be no better off. This had to be defused like a bomb. Slowly, carefully. Jack stood in front of Chase, her frame covering Chase's. She stared back at Vito. She blinked for a moment, her face softening slightly, less to resemble that of a daring rival and more of that person that had sat in his apartment with him, helped him through his hangovers, held him as he broke down. She blinked at him, the wand now pointed square between her eyes. "You could, couldn't you?"

They weren't talking about Chase now. What she now meant was that Vito could kill her, Jack, in a heart beat. But here was the question now...

Would he?

Chase just wanted to leave. She wanted to go home and nurse her wounds, and let the terror wash over her, but Jack wasn't going to move. There was something a lot deeper going on now, and Chase could feel it in the air. Even though the rain had slowed, and was almost at a stand still, it was almost night time dark out, even though it wasn't yet close to sundown. Chase could feel her body trembling, and Jack was hiding her from view. He had threatened to kill her, yet again, only now, Jack seemed to be thinking something else.

Chase could feel her strength leaving her quickly, and she staggered slightly. Her ankle giving out on her, she stumbled to the side and hit the wall. Yelping slightly, she slid down it, and stared up at the two. She had no doubt in her mind that she was all but forgotten. They weren't even looking at her now. Something so much deeper was going on, and Chase sat on the ground, holding her wrist tenderly. It had snapped pretty bad, and she couldn't even move her fingers. It wouldn't take more then two seconds to heal with magic, but Chase had lost her wand a long while ago, and now she didn't know if she'd ever see it again.

Chase closed her eyes, and pulled her knees to her chest as close as she could. Hoping that they would just forget her and duel out their problems, instead of turn on her and beat her up again. She didn't know how much longer she could stay conscious, and because the rain had slowed so much, she was now suddenly aware just how much blood was coming from her scalp where a chunk of her hair had pulled out. She raised her hand to touch her head and felt something hot and sticky. Pulling her hand back into her vision, she saw vivid red blood on her fingers, only to see it be washed away by the rain again.

Resting her head back, she closed her eyes and let her weariness wash over her, she was used to pain and torture, but her mind was now exhausted trying to keep up with the whole ordeal, usually it was just, get tortured, somehow survive, and go on with life. Now she had a friend fighting for her, her enemy, who was her friend's friend standing before her. It was to much to take in, and Chase felt the exhaustion seep into her bones.

"You could, couldn't you?"

Vito stared at Jack for a moment, examining her face and her eyes; she was practically daring him to kill her, challenging him to. The poltergeist killed when he got bored and never thought about those people again, so what made her think that she would be any different? What made it hard for him to keep his wand pointed at her head?

"No. Mine." She smirked and brought it to her lips, drinking again, vaguely recognizing how out of character saying 'mine' was. She set down the drink after swallowing down the weird water and said, "Anyone, if you drank out of it then I would have to order a new one. I don't want to catch the 'evil.'" She smiled teasingly.

Perhaps it was the change in her expression; she was wearing that same expression she had when he had had a mental breakdown at his club and she had comforted him, and it made it that much harder for Vito to part his lips and speak the incantation that he knew would kill her in a heartbeat.

"I don't hate you." She turned on her heel and began walking away, with customers staring in her wake. She pushed open the door and headed out of Satin's.

It made him feel weak, or as if he was loosing that never ending game that the two of them played- but if he killed her, the game would be over anyway. So was it really worth it?- Of course. She had crossed him, had interrupted him while he was in the middle of a kill. No one crossed Vito Dee Symons and lived- well... that wasn’t exactly true, Jack had… several times.

“I hate those eyes of yours… I just want to pull them out of your f*ckin’ head,” he spoke threateningly, but he seemed to be putting up some sort of fight with himself. He spun around to face the mirror and smashed his fist into the glass.

Vito narrowed his eyes and slowly moved his wand away from her forehead and down to her heart, “You are no acceptation to death, sweetheart,” he whispered with an icy smirk, “Avada Kedavra”.

Jack could see the dilemma playing out on Vito's face and she just stared back at him, her wand loosely and helplessly at her side, though her face did not portray this. She did not let herself guess what Vito's next move would be. She had long since known that it was useless to even try...To even get her hopes up.

She heard Chase slump behind her and Jack would have turned and helped her, but she would be putting them both in danger by doing so. Her leg twitched but she stayed where she was, looking up into the cold, struggling eyes of Vito... Her friend's enemy... the person she was trying to save.

She saw the decision made on his face and she flicked up an eyebrow. At his words, she realized he had once again lost the internal battle and she flung herself away, just as a jet of green light went right where she had been and blasted the wall of the building lining the alley.

The words sounded harsher coming from Vito. She had heard countless evil lips utter those words, the worst being Nerezza, but never had they sounded so terrible and so painful to hear. She wondered for a moment if he had hit her with Crucio, but she realized it was not her body that felt like it was dying...it was something inside...

She landed with a thump, skinning her hands and hitting her chin. She bit down on her tongue and immediately spit out some blood. Her head had hit something as she had fallen too, probably the wall and a trickle of blood ran down from her forehead and across her cheek. She turned herself around, sharply intaking breath. Her wand had clattered toward
Chase. She turned and scrambled after it, groping to grab it. Her fingers fumbled and caught it.

She twisted around, still on the ground and looked up at Vito in a way she never had before. Sadness, disappointment, and betrayal emanated from her eyes. She felt the wall as she stood up, leaning against it after her fall. She wiped the blood from her lips but did not touch the blood on her face. She held her wand low but pointed defensively at Vito and her chin trembled so slightly she doubted anyone would catch it. Her eyes prickled painfully but she pulled on a defensive face and said in a strained voice, "Good job Vito." She nodded. "Now you're a man, aren't you?" She sniffed and rubbed her nose and mouth with her arm, staring back at him. "You feel better?" she said fiercely, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

Blood trickled down the side of her head slowly, and Vito couldn’t tear his eyes away from the crimson droplet. That flash of green light that had emitted from the tip of his wand was still there somehow, blurring his vision like the aftereffect of a camera’s flash. His fingers were cold- and not like the rest of his body because of the icy rain, it was some different, numbing feeling that almost caused him to drop the piece of wood he was holding, to the ground. That look in her eyes disgusted him, but not in the same way she usually disgusted him, instead, it was a sickening feeling in his gut that made him feel as if someone had punched him there as roughly as possible.

He stood there silently for a moment, keeping his face as blank as it was possible for him to with so many thoughts marching around in his brain. He had expected her to die, but she hadn’t, and the fact that he had expected her to die made him feel as if the fact that she hadn’t, was him loosing a war that had been going on between the two of them since the beginning of it all.

Vito had crossed that invisible line that the they both had drawn in order to keep their rivalry somewhat friendly- or, at least friendly enough for them not to kill each other- and now that he had crossed that line, he couldn’t back up and step back over it to get to the side he was suppose to stay on…

…But then there was that part inside of him that was always hateful and enraged that made him want to beat the shit out of the young redheads in front of him. What was keeping him from doing so? The other half that felt that walking out of the alley and back to Satin’s to clean up and spend the evening in luxury would be more satisfying.

That never-ending internal debate… it was starting to really irritate Vito. He had given in to both sides so many times, but it was never fulfilling enough, as if having only two sides to choose from wasn’t enough. Vito scowled, but just when it seemed he was going to finish off what he started, he walked forward and out of the alley, shivering in the cold as he went.

Raindrops rolled down his skin and his clothing, but when he attempted to brush them off of himself it did no good; the sky refused to stop punishing him, that much was clear as he made his way down the street, his head throbbing as more blood escaped the wound on his head.

Why would nothing end the way he’d planned anymore? Sure, entertainment was the easiest thing to find with a twisted mind like his, but there was never a guarantee that that entertainment would come without pain and the destruction of yet another of his favorite suits.

He had almost killed Jack. The wall that had exploded behind her head, fell on Chase and nearly cracked her skull open. Chase yelled out, and using her free hand, she put it over her head. They were fighting, and she knew someone was going to die, whether it was her or them. Chase was crying softly as she pulled her legs in as close as they could get. A loose brick that hadn't fallen with the rest fell off and landed on her good hand with a sickening crunch. She cried out and looked down at her hand. The brick lay over it like it was stuck to her hand, and her hand looked oddly flat from this angle. "Shit.." She whispered and felt the cloudiness fog her vision.

When Chase came to, which couldn't have been more then three or four minutes later, Vito was gone, and Jack was okay. "Jack.." She whispered, her throat parched. She felt like a mess, a clump of her hair, scalp still attached was laying on the ground not far from her hand, which she couldn't move because of the brick. The bruise was almost fully developed, and her bottom lip was swollen and cut. Her side stuck out at an odd angle, and her clothes were torn and shredded in places that revealed cuts from Vito's shoes.

She was a real mess, and she knew she was, but she was more concerned for Jack at the moment. "Jack.. are you okay?" She asked softly, and pulling on her hand, she yelled out in pain as the brick slid off her now broken fingers, and her hand fell limply in her lap. She attempted to get to her feet by using her shoulder to push her way up the wall. "Did he hit you? You aren't dead.." She said, and then fell to her knees, her arms limp at her sides. She curled in on herself and let out a cry of pain as the full force of pain struck her with an almighty blow, and it felt like all of the pain over the last hour had come to her all at once. Her hands started to throb, her ribs hurt so bad she was surprised she had been able to stand up before. Her ankle throbbed, and so did her head, which she knew had a bald patch that was still bleeding freely.

"Jack.." She whimpered and let out another cry of pain as though the first had just been an after shock. She curled over on herself, and tears fell to the ground like the rain from above. "Why does he hate me? I don't know what I did to him! And you defended him, he almost killed you! Jack he was going to kill me! He said so! I was going to die, thank you so much for saving me." She was sobbing, as though words could mask the pain in some way, her voice was slightly slurred because of her swollen lower lip. "I'm so sorry we fought earlier, I was just upset.. but now I have reason too.. he didn't need to go after me.. but he did! Where's my wand? I'll kill the bastard!" She cried out lifting her head and looking around, but the pain was so intense she fell onto her unhurt side and lay in the rain for a long moment, breathing hard, tears falling down her broken face. "I'm sorry Jack, I'm sorry." She sobbed heavily.

Jack stared at where Vito had disappeared to and as he left she closed her eyes, tipping her head back down against the wall. Her eyes closed and she gasped for breath as her wand clattered down to the ground. She slid down to the ground, closing her eyes as tightly as she could and sucking in her lips.

It was all over. She had failed. She WAS just a stupid, seventeen-year-old girl who had no idea about how the world worked. She had gambled her friendships, her sanity, her safety, basically her life. And now...well...it appeared that she had lost.

She heard Chase call out to her and ask if she was okay. Jack let out a breath and her eyes opened slowly. She turned her head to face Chase. Suddenly, Chase cried out in pain and then began to spout out a list of woes. Jack closed her eyes, half-listening and half-not. From what she could glean, Chase was not only accusing Jack but also forgiving her as well as cursing Vito.

Jack could not concentrate because she was desperately trying to hold on to the part of her that could believe in people, but it was slipping. She winced as she heard Chase curse at Vito and her blood ran cold.

Even now...even now, she did not feel hatred towards Vito. She banged her fists into the ground and turned her head up to the heavens. "DAMN IT!" she screamed, tears streaking down her face. It was an angry lament to fate or whatever made her so damn stupid.

She heaved for breath and violently scraped away the tears on her face. She urned back to Chase. "No, I'm fine. Sorry. My..h-head hurts." She shook her head and swallowed...

And there it went. Jack's eyes clouded slightly and she nodded. "Right. Let's get you to St. Mungo's..." She stood and held out a hand, planning to Apparate Chase back to the hospital.