Well. It's... certainly been A Week, hasn't it? Skjlksjg

Anyways! I hope everyone stays safe and healthy, aaaaand here's a dragon distraction!


113. Detach


The world should have stopped. All the hybrids and the fires and the distant roars should have gone quiet and still, while Phoenix dived in to save Quake and Tai.

But the din only got worse, and it was all Tempest could do not to leap in after them, even though she knew she'd make it harder for Phoenix. Seconds dragged by. She knew she should be paying attention to the hybrids attacking them, but she couldn't do it. So she hunkered down over the eggs and waited and waited until she could hardly breathe.

It felt like an eternity, but it couldn't have been more than half a minute before Phoenix emerged again. In only a glance, Tempest knew something was wrong. Tai hung limp from her jaws by the back of his riding jacket, his face and hair streaked with ash. Quake wasn't with her.

Tempest surged forward. Was he stuck? Could she not lift him? He was heavy, wasn't he, and there was only one of her, and what if there wasn't time to find another fire dragon—

"I'm sorry," Phoenix said miserably. Gently, she bent her head to lay the human on the grass. He was breathing, though he wheezed on every inhale. "He was already—and I needed to get Tai..."

Qrow hit the ground and stumbled, skidding to a halt beside Tai. He swayed and almost fell over when he put a hand on his chest and felt his heartbeat. Raven followed him at a walk, hesitating like she expected someone to stop her. Salty moved towards the building as if in a daze.

"Stay here," Phoenix told them, and darted back into the burning building. Tempest stared blankly after her—why was she going back inside? Why was anyone still doing anything?

"Hey!"

She turned her head. Whisper was talking to them, her ears drawn back. "We need help over here!"

The eggs.

Tempest hesitated—but Salty was already crouching protectively over Tai and Qrow and Raven. So she rushed into the fray with a roar that left her throat raw. It's not their fault, she told herself, but it was so hard to hold onto that when all she could see was Tai on the ground and Phoenix's drooping ears and the place where Quake had disappeared.

Soon most of the eggs were gone, carried off by other dragons to relative safety. The attacks of the hybrids slackened off as more of their side arrived. Tempest kept on fighting, desperate for something to distract her.

There was a groan behind her. Tempest twisted around, ignoring a hybrid that was trying to gnaw on her shoulder. Tai pushed himself onto his side and started to cough. Raven's hands twitched, like she wanted to reach out. Qrow put a hand on his back and helped him sit up.

"What's... where's..."

Tempest pushed the hybrid biting her away and bounded over to Tai, pushing her muzzle against his chest. He'd been there for her, when—the memory was still jagged and sharp to the touch, even after all this time, and she shied away from it. But she curled protectively around Tai, nuzzling his hair as Qrow held his hand and told him what had happened.

He didn't roar and thrash and claw like she had. The only noise he made was a little huff, like the air had been knocked out of him, before he fell back against Qrow's shoulder. He didn't speak. Didn't even cry. Just... went away. Tempest whimpered and bumped his shoulder with her nose. She didn't want Tai to go away.

Tempest was so focused on him that she hardly even heard Phoenix land. She looked up, then, and felt her insides twist. Maybe part of her still hadn't believed it, had been expecting her to come back with Quake slung across her back.

Instead, a tiny grey hatchling hung limp from her jaws, trembling and coughing up gobs of molten rock. Tempest tensed, but he didn't seem to be making any more. And, when she looked closer, it didn't look like he was the one who'd made all the lava in the first place. Especially since more of the stuff was still oozing out of the main building.

"He was drowning," Phoenix said, and put him down. He didn't move to attack them—only curled up in a ball with his head tucked underneath one trembling wing. The metal plate was still on his head, but it had buckled and warped. They were tough, but apparently not tough enough to survive under lava for several minutes.

Tempest looked away. She felt like she should be glad to see him free, but all she could think was that she wished Phoenix had come out with Quake instead. But she hadn't, and that meant he was gone, really gone, and what were any of them supposed to do now?

"We need to go," said Raven.

Tempest snarled at her, baring her teeth. Phoenix yelped and moved between them.

"Don't—"

"They're running away." Raven grabbed the straps dangling from Phoenix's saddle. It wasn't enough to hide her shaking hands. "The Council are running away, and if we don't stop them they're going to get away with it."

She whirled on Qrow and Tai. "So get up, and let's go kill them."

Tempest was about to snap at her again for talking to Tai like that—but it seemed to bring a little life back into his eyes. He stood up.

"It has to stop here," he said. He sounded dazed, like he was half asleep. "It has to, or what was the point?"

Salty growled. Qrow took that as his cue to swing up into the saddle. Tempest knelt down beside Tai, and waited for him to climb into the empty saddle on her back. She'd agreed to wear one just in case...

Just in case wasn't supposed to mean this.


The chase moved upward.

There wasn't any other choice. As long as they were above the rooftops, Watts couldn't slow them down by blowing up buildings. But that meant all the slit-pupiled hybrid's attention was on them.

Jade snarled and banked to one side to avoid another glowing spark. Her eyes were fixed on Watts—she wanted nothing to do with his hybrids. It was him that did it. His fault Emerald was gone.

"Easy!" Ruby shouted, patting her back. Jade shook herself and refocused—the hybrids weren't the ones responsible for any of this, but they were dangerous.

Behind her, an excited whistle cut through the howling wind. Jade risked a glance and saw Specter had caught the icy dragonet and was holding her against his chest with one paw. She was scratching and biting and struggling to get free, but she was tiny and didn't seem to be doing much real damage.

An ominous whistling sound made her ears twitch. Jade ducked instinctively and winced as a blast of hot air washed against her side. A miss, but if it had been any nearer it could have knocked her right out of the sky.

If the slit-pupiled hybrid was getting tired, she didn't show it. Fang pulled up beside her and did his best to disrupt her flight, darting in and slashing at her wings, but the silver dragonet caught on and flew closer to her. He had to back off or risk being touched—Jade wasn't sure why they were so adamant about not doing that, but after seeing Pit almost crash headfirst into a building to avoid him she decided to take their cue and keep her distance.

The hybrid leading the chase took a hairpin turn. Pit pulled on him at just the right moment to put him on a collision course for a nearby building. He had to slow down to avoid it, and Jade managed to slip past another explosive spark and finish the turn only thirty feet behind him.

You're mine, she thought, her eyes narrowing on the back of Watts' head.

The hybrid he was riding twisted its head around. Its eyes met hers. An arc of brilliant white passed between its horns and her stomach. Jade tumbled in midair for a gut-wrenching second, too stunned to spread her wings. When she finally recovered she was falling sideways, dazed, her ears pricking up at the sound of a whistle—

She realized too late to dodge. All she could do was roar, "No!" and force one wing open. She spun around so that it was her chest, not her back, which took the brunt of the blow.

A sharp crack.

Never again, Jade thought, and started to fall.


"Jade!"

They all lunged to help her at the same time.

Pit dropped his powers away from Watts' hybrid and himself, focusing all of his energy on slowing her fall. Fang lunged forward and managed to snag the straps of her saddle in his claws. Specter streaked past them, flying straight at the slit-pupiled hybrid and wrenching her head to one side. He recoiled the instant her aim was ruined, like he'd just been burned.

Pit hit the ground, but he hardly noticed. All his focus was on Jade. With Fang helping him, he deposited her gently on the ground beside him. But while were his powers focused on her, Watts and his hybrid shrank alarmingly quickly into the distance.

"Get them!" Pit roared, when Fang hesitated. "I'll stay!"

Blake fumbled her way out of the saddle and sprinted towards Jade. That left Pit free to focus just as intensely as he had before—but this time, all his efforts went into stopping Watts' hybrid. He fought him with every beat of his gigantic wings. So Pit grabbed his left wing and forced him into a sharp spiral. He corrected the dip seconds later, but Specter was already right on his tail.

The slit-pupiled hybrid took a shot. Fang got there just in time, plowing into her and sending the attack way off-course. Specter reached out and grabbed one of the quick hybrid's wings. Between him and Pit, Watts' escape slowed to a crawl. And, seconds later, Fang caught up to them both. The slit-pupiled hybrid couldn't shoot at them without hurting Watts, and there would be a similar risk if the silver hatchling came near them.

Pit let his powers drop and swayed on his feet, breathing hard. He turned his head towards Blake—she and Ruby were examining Jade's chest, and when Blake noticed him looking she called out, "Broken ribs, we think!"

His legs went out from under him.

Broken ribs. Jade probably wasn't feeling great, right now... but she'd be okay.

It took everything Pit had not to fall asleep on the spot, and instead to crawl towards Watts, Fang, and Specter.


Damn them!

Doctor Watts waved his hands frantically, the rings on each of his fingers glittering in the light. Trying to think of some response his hybrids could make that wouldn't kill him in the crossfire.

Decades of work. The contract from the Council that should have been his, that James had given to Polendina. All his machinations against them, and Jacques, and Cinder... damn them!

"Detach them!" shouted the Schnee girl over the wind, as three dragons and a hatchling plummeted towards the ground. "We know you can!"

Watts sneered back. "You children won't let us hit the ground."

The fire dragon lashed out with its claws. Watts jumped and held out a hand, like that would somehow stop the attack—but it hadn't been aimed at him. His legs slipped free of the straps that had just been severed, until he was falling a few feet above the hybrid.

The blonde one smirked. "Who said anything about us?"

Watts made the mistake of looking down. The tops of buildings rushed past on either side, and the street below yawned wide like an open mouth.

"Detach!" he shouted, flailing his arms in an attempt to catch the hybrid's saddle. Which actually wasn't a verbal command his devices would recognize, but he didn't like his chances of arguing such a fine point while in midair. So he shouted nonsense and then did the actual work of setting the devices to idle by twisting his fingers. That done, he squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself. He heard the snap of dragon wings opening against the wind. A swooping sensation in the pit of his stomach as they slowed. Then, impact.

Watts bounced off the hybrid's back and cracked his head against the pavement. He lay there a long moment, groaning, fumbling to reactivate the hybrids—

A gust of hot air washed over him, smelling strongly of sulfur. He looked up, directly into the open mouth of the fire dragon. Watts swallowed convulsively.

"Get them off," Yang snapped. "All the way."

"You idiots! Do you have any idea what they'll—"

A shiver ran down his spine. Watts turned, and staggered backwards. The ice dragon was standing over him, its fathomless black eyes boring into his own.

"Nnow," it hissed.

He detached the devices of the four hybrids nearest him... and pandemonium broke out.

One, the ice and wind hybrid, lunged for the ice dragon. It caught the hybrid before could attack, pinning it under its paws. The water and gravity hybrid, which had still been flying, lost its bearings in an instant and started to fall. The enemy hybrid caught it with its powers and lowered it gently to the ground.

A tail whipped towards Watts—his wind and lightning hybrid. He threw himself to the ground and rolled frantically away, bracing himself for the next attack. But it wasn't an attack at all. Every limb kicked and thrashed, sending it crashing into the fire dragon. They both went down in a heap. High above, the lightning and fire hybrid let out a deafening roar and smashed into the side of a building. It fell several stories and landed badly, with one wing clearly broken.

Watts couldn't have imagined a better distraction.

He turned on his heel and sprinted down the street, eyes scanning frantically back and forth for somewhere to hide. Escape wouldn't be the end of this, of course—he'd have to withdraw as many of his hybrids as possible from the battle at the Council Headquarters, if he wanted to be sure he'd have at least one device make it back to him. Without the distraction, James would come looking for him, but he knew how to lie low. Jacques might still be willing to fund him, if he played his cards right...

Something smashed into his back and bore him painfully to the ground. When he tried to twist his head to look, he found the fire dragon glaring down at him. The other hybrids were still panicking and thrashing about, but the enemy hybrid and the earth dragon were doing their best to help. Emerald's earth dragon—another damn loose end.

"You're not going anywhere," Yang said, glowering down at him from the dragon's back. "Now let them go."

"Do you really want me to do that?" Watts raised an eyebrow pointedly at the fire and lightning hybrid, which was shrieking in pain and cradling its broken wing.

That wiped the smirks off their faces, at least. He scowled as the three other teenagers approached him, looking down at where he was still pinned under a dragon's paw.

"You did something else," Ruby said. "Before. When we were falling."

"I idled them," he replied. Slowly, in consideration of his audience. "It's the mode I set them to when I don't want them to do anything. Especially things like clawing themselves to ribbons or smashing into buildings."

"Okay. So idle them."

The others turned to stare at her. Ruby made a face. "I don't like it either, but if we get rid of all the devices at once we'll be stuck with the same problem we have now. Maybe worse. This way we can take them off one at a time, when the hybrids are somewhere safe."

"You heard her." Yang nudged him in the side with her boot. "Do it."

He wiggled his fingers.

"How are we supposed to know if he actually stopped them all?" Weiss demanded.

Watts, who had just directed a force of about two dozen hybrids to fly to his location, smiled pleasantly. "What would I have to gain by lying to you, know that you've caught—"

Blake pulled out a scroll and held it to her ear. "Sun? Are any of the hybrids moving right now?"

Damn it.

He idled almost all of them—leaving a few to come to his rescue, of course.

"Try again," Blake drawled.

Something struck him in the ribs. Watts swore and flailed at the offending boot. Yang again.

Watts idled all the hybrids, but kept a careful eye on Blake—the moment she closed her scroll, he could—

Weiss started snatching the rings off his fingers.

"There," Yang said pleasantly. "That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

Watts opened his mouth to say something scathing, but the retort died in his throat. He could feel... something. A tremor coming from underneath him.

Blake twisted around, her ears twitching. "Guys? I... think we have a problem."

"Oh, for—what now?" Weiss burst out.

The tremors grew stronger. Like a rain of artillery hitting the ground. Or the footsteps of something absurdly enormous.

Yang's eyes widened. "Shit!"

Hybrid 3 came barreling around the corner. It tried to turn, clumsily, and crashed into several shopfronts. They crumpled like they'd been made of cardboard.

"Hey!" Ruby ran forward. The others scrambled to follow as the giant shook off the impact and started running again. Every footfall shook the earth, by sheer weight rather than any kind of elemental power, and it was headed right for them. All six eyes fixed on Watts.

"Let me up!" he shouted, struggling against the fire dragon's paws. "It's going to—you dimwits, I thought you'd killed it, not set it loose!"

No one was listening to him. Ruby kept sprinting directly towards Hybrid 3, her hands spread wide. "Wait!" she shouted. "It's okay, he's down! We're going to get all the devices off!"

Hybrid 3 did not understand human speech. Watts had proved this conclusively, and just as he expected her impassioned plea did about as much good as talking to a brick wall.

He'd always known it would be other people's stupidity that killed him, but this seemed too cruel.