of fire dragons and singing stars
chapter nine
It felt as though the world was breaking apart all around them. Waves of malefic power emanated from the high school building, assaulting Santana, bending and warping reality around her and Rachel. Street signs drooped like dying flowers, and trees burst into columns of flame, leaves whirling off them to become tiny, menacing stars of flame, or deadly arrows, or – worst of all – dark, red-eyed bats with long fangs that dripped green poison. Santana shifted into her dragon form instantly, shielding Rachel with her wings and scales, knocking away everything that flew through the air at them to land on the ground around them and melt into sizzling pools of dark, viscous liquid before disappearing entirely.
Still she held Rachel in place with her eyes as the girl sang with tears of pure radiance leaving shining tracks down her angelic face. Her voice was crystalline, ethereal, and so loud that it was as if no other sound existed in the world. It sounded like her, and yet not – it was her voice laced through with magic, augmented by a power not seen in the world for more years than even dragons cared to count. It would have been terrifying if it were not so beautiful.
Santana felt Rachel trembling and shuddering with the power coursing through her small body even as her heart swelled with emotion at the charged words of her song. It was a dragonish hymn, a cry for peace in the heart of war, a bright light in the darkness of fear and chaos, and Santana had known it since she was a hatchling.
Sing, send your heart soaring in flight
Banish the night with the light of your flame
Spread your wings wide to catch the wind of justice
Take hold of your hearts, let none fall in vain
Gather your courage, fly fast and strong
Stare fate in the eye, sing loud and sing long
Hold fast, never falter, never fear, never doubt
Quicken your pace, turn your face, let your voice ring out
Into the night, be a light
In the darkness, let your cry of hope
Be a beacon to all
Never waver, never fear, never fall
Though the dark may be frightening
Though the peril be great
Let your spirit blaze like lightning,
Let love conquer hate!
When the dawn sends shadows fleeing
When the morning breaks true
Send your song high, rend the sky
Sing for each other, for me and for you
Sing for the fallen, the brave and the bold
Sing for the young who will never grow old
Sing for love, sing for beauty, sing for truth
Sing for those who sing no more, for the aged and the youth
Let your tears fall as you sing, to the ground where they lay
Let them anoint the bodies as their spirits speed away
Let not the hate that brought them low
Keep them from flying high, oh
Let them soar, ever more
To our home beyond the sky!
Inside the building, to say there was chaos would be to gravely understate things. Minds were being torn apart by the warring forces converging on the place. The harbinger lashed out indiscriminately as Rachel's power beat at it, trying desperately to keep hold of the pain and fear that fed its strength, and teachers, students and staff all found themselves brought to their knees and crying out in agony when the harbinger's power touched them. Students' heads battered themselves into lockers and their hands smashed into bathroom mirrors, teachers' bodies were scalded as coffee pots exploded and hot water gushed from faucets. Principal Figgins cowered in a corner, curled into a fetal position, praying to a god far younger than those the dragons knew, back when gods actually trod the soil of the world they helped create.
And yet, as Rachel's power surged forward and her song shook the walls of McKinley High, there were those who heard it on an even deeper level, felt it change them into something they'd always thought they could be, if only the magic existed to let them.
Noah "Puck" Puckerman felt himself grow taller and stronger somehow, as the words of Rachel's song took hold. Taller and stronger and filled with a thirst for justice. His eyes sought out the harbinger's hiding place, and when he closed them, he wished for a weapon to wield against this nightmare-born evil. He felt his hand wrap around something large and heavy, and smiled when his eyes opened to see the black iron mace that fit his grasp as though he had been born to hold it. Then he stalked out into the chaos-filled hallway, leaving behind the classroom whose door had been torn from its hinges, away from the desks that had been overturned and flung against the walls as if they'd been hardly more than pillows.
Tina Cohen-Chang had often dreamed of being a sorceress, a beautiful, powerful woman with the very force that bound creation together at her fingertips. Many times in her dreams she he had seen herself rise into the air, walk with her feet not touching the floor, carrying a long, shining sword sheathed in a scabbard on her back, seen herself reach behind herself and pull it free effortlessly, the blade's length ablaze with magic, sending dark creatures scattering in fear and whispering its name: Persuasion. She laughed when she realized that this was no dream, now: this was really her, now, and when a wave of students in thrall to the harbinger launched itself at her, her laugh grew louder amidst the din when she saw that her sword cut not through their flesh, but through their very souls instead, freeing them and placing them under her control. She used that control to send them fleeing from the building into the relative safety of the streets, where she hoped someone else was ready to protect them against whatever might be out there.
Artie Abrams knew his legs would never work again, no matter how much he wished they would. However, that didn't mean he couldn't borrow someone – or something – else's legs, so when he found his wheelchair gone, and himself suddenly sitting astride a long-limbed unicorn, all he could do was shake his head and wonder what Brittany would have to say when she saw him. Then he found himself fisting his hands in the creature's white mane when a voice spoke in his mind: Hold on, young mortal. You are mine now, and I will never let you fall. And forward they flew, the silver horn standing straight out from the unicorn's head glowing with a light like nothing he had ever seen before, running into the between, slipping into the space that divides space and time at a speed no human could ever comprehend, much less calculate – and straight towards where the harbinger was, for the unicorns never failed to find a destination once they had resolved to travel there.
Jumping and flying into the air, landing always on her feet, was a thing that came as easily as breathing to Brittany Pierce. It always had been, as long as she could remember. She was known by everyone – especially her fellow cheerleaders on the Cheerios – to be astonishingly agile, remarkably flexible, and completely fearless. Yet she had been afraid – terrified, actually – until she recognized the words of the song she had heard in her dream, the words that drowned out the world and set her soul alight. The power of the music unlocked something inside her, and before she even realized what she was doing, she was leaping over the onrushing tide of crazed students and literally bouncing off the walls, evading the enthralled mob with ease. She twisted her body this way and that almost bonelessly as the hands that reached for her, trying to bring her down and trample her beneath their unknowing feet, ended up grasping only at air. It seemed like a game to her, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew it was deadly serious, and that thought made her cat-like blue eyes narrow and her jaw set tight. No one threatened her friends. She felt angry at imagining any of them being hurt by this – whatever this thing was – and if it had bothered to ask anyone in the school, it would have known that it was a very, very bad idea to make Brittany Pierce angry.
As it weakened, the harbinger began to reach into the building's foundations with the intention of bringing it all down, and then using the power that killing every last being in the place would give it, to destroy both the Protector and the Prophesied with one last, massive strike. However, while it was undeniably an entity of great power, its intellect, was limited, and so it failed to truly understand the aspect of Rachel's magic that was about to be its own undoing.
There are beings here that resist my power! How can this be? They are nothing – less than nothing – yet I cannot bend them to my will? Imposs -
A blast of cold iron crashed into it before the thought could be completed.
"Hey! This is my school, whatever the hell you are! And that means only I get to mess it up!" Puck bellowed as he smashed the thing again, the impact sending a jolt up his arm and throughout his body. He had no idea how it was that he was even seeing it, much less hitting it; all he knew was that he felt as though he'd drunk about a thousand Red Bulls and acquired the strength of a bull – no, ten bulls – and that pounding the crap out of evil was his new favorite thing to do.
The harbinger had thought itself invisible to these beings, but the pain – pain! I have not felt its like in an age – but how? - disabused it of that notion.
Then, from its back, came a sharp, slashing, stabbing agony of a different sort, and it knew, from long dormant memories suddenly awakened, what had come for it.
One-horn! It snarled, speaking without a mouth, sickly green un-light oozing from where the unicorn had done its damage. I remember slaughtering a thousand of your kind with but a breath. A sweeter memory I cannot recall.
The unicorn flinched at this. Artie felt the muscles in its long, proud neck bunch with outrage, but its voice was as silky as the flowing mane he held twisted in his trembling fingers, and it held its head high and proud as it made its reply.
My kind will rejoice when you are destroyed, and they are avenged, this day.
Puck shook his head, trying to clear it of the voices reverberating in his skull. He wasn't a guy who liked to talk a lot. He liked action, and a lot of it. So he charged the wounded harbinger and swung the mace again, shouting as he did.
The entity's awareness sensed his attack this time, and a blast of force sent Puck sprawling, crashing into the wall behind him, leaving him dazed for a moment.
And in that moment, Tina appeared literally out of the air right in front of the harbinger, and Persuasion widened the cut in its ectoplasmic form, spilling more un-light. A cry of rage and pain accompanied the countering bolt of energy that sent the black-clad girl flying, the sword falling from her grip to clatter on the floor.
You carry weapons that were ancient when this world was first born. Pathetic children – you cannot possibly understand what it is you wield, let alone what you face. I am the harbinger of the Nil, whom even the mighty dragons fear! Yet you dare to strike me?
Tina rose to her feet, wiping blood away from the corner of her mouth, smiling at Artie.
"Oh, I dare. And so does she."
The creature's attention was suddenly drawn to yet another child, this one with golden hair and blue eyes. Was there no end to them?
"Hi. It's Brittany, bitch."
The cheerleader launched a roundhouse kick at the monster – how did I do that? - and even as it rocked with the force of the blow, Puck came charging back to connect with the mace once again. The harbinger howled. Its life essence continued to drain away through the cuts the unicorn's horn and Tina's sword had made.
Realizing it had no choice but to strike back as hard and fast as it could, the harbinger unleashed another blast of energy, flattening everyone but the unicorn, who stood resolutely in the face of its terrible power. Artie was amazed; as the only human here without some kind of supernatural power, he knew he should have been reduced to ash, yet his glasses had remained in place and his hair was only slightly mussed.
Away, you fools! I will crush your hearts to powder! I shall flay your souls for days unending! I shall -
"You will kindly shut the hell up," Santana said as she calmly walked into the room in her human form. "In case you haven't noticed, sparky, you're outnumbered and out-gunned here."
"Hot," Brittany and Puck both murmured in unison. Tina and Artie shared a grin.
This is unendurable! The thing shrieked in outrage. I will not be chided by such as you, stripling. I speak for the Nil, the Dawn-Enders! The Living Doom! Bringers of Reckoning and Lords of the Outworlds! They shall wipe this realm from the universe of memory forever!
The harbinger's words echoed in sudden silence.
The song - ? What – where is the Prophesied?
Its awareness could not encompass her – and that frightened the thing more than anything it had ever experienced in all the millennia of its existence.
And Rachel stood there, glowing with a light not seen since the dragons had last flown in force over the skies of this world, a beatific smile on her face. Stood there, and the harbinger could not touch her.
She felt the monster gather its power, felt it roiling in waves of fury and hatred toward her, felt it lashing out, but it was as ineffectual as a moth against the heat of a light bulb.
Understanding came to it at last, but far, far too late.
You – you are far more than we knew. Far more than even we could have thought, we who have rained destruction and despair upon worlds uncountable. You are...what...WHAT ARE YOU?
"I'm Rachel Berry," she said simply. "And you're done."
She opened her mouth, ready to sing the single impossible note it would take to end the harbinger's existence, but caught Artie's eye as the unicorn lowered its head towards her in reverence. The silver horn glowed even as the light in the room dimmed; Tina's sword glinted with its radiance.
"Please, Mistress," the unicorn said, and Rachel didn't miss the strain in the magnificent creature's voice as it fought to rein in its excitement. Un-light continued to pool on the floor, drops landing soundlessly in a steady stream. She felt the harbinger attempt to escape, to shift to another between, but a low whistle from her was all it took to hold it in place.
WHAT ARE YOU?
Then it screamed, and screamed again and again. Artie bowed his head. The unicorn's eyes held silvery tears even as its deadly horn tore the harbinger apart.
No one watched.