Hi there! This time I come bearing dragons, silly card games, and eggs!

13. They Can't Fire Me if I Quit First

Justice had never smelled so many faunus in one place before—it was like the wind itself was welcoming him home. His tail couldn't stop twitching with excitement. These were the people he was supposed to help. These were the ones like Ilia, the ones who were fighting for freedom.

Another smell. Justice reared, his nostrils flaring. Human.

The source of the scent approached alongside a young woman with tiger ears. Justice hissed, letting his hot breath ruffle the human's dark hair. He didn't flinch—it looked like he was suppressing a smile.

"You're Ilia, then?"

Ilia folded her arms. "And you're Hazel." Then she turned, ignoring him. "Sienna. What do you need me to do?"

The woman named Sienna glanced at the human. "Go ahead to the cave. We have matters to discuss beforehand." He nodded and walked away.

"Discuss?" asked Ilia. "What—"

"Follow me. I'd like you to take a look at the eggs. I know you weren't involved in much of the incubation or injections at Haven, but you might notice something we missed."

"I... okay." Ilia glanced at Justice. He cocked his head, unsure of why she was looking at him. "Lead the way."

They passed into a small tent, connected to a much larger one with a canvas curtain. Justice sniffed at it curiously—there was a chemical tang, and under it...

"No." Ilia pulled his head away. "Pay attention, Justice."

He snapped at her, annoyed. But he didn't try to push into the other room, because he was distracted by the rows and rows of incubators. All of them were humming softly, and he suspected they might be where the chemical smell was coming from. He sniffed one, and Ilia touched the back of his head gently.

"Careful," she murmured. Her eyes were wide, bouncing all around the room like she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. "There are so many..."

Sienna nodded. She was staring at one egg in particular, a faraway look in her eyes. A technician wandered in from the larger tent, and Justice craned his neck to peek past him—but the curtain closed too quickly. The man was carrying a needle, a package of what looked like bits of paper, and a glass tube that was glowing bright orange.

"Is that...?" Ilia breathed.

"A hybrid."

The man tapped the needle against the egg. Justice stared, awe-struck. Was this what had happened to his egg before he hatched? He gave an involuntary shudder as he watched the needle go in, and only relaxed when the technician patched up the hole with some of the paper he'd brought in. It was clear, and he could still see the small dimple that had been left in the shell.

Sienna tore her eyes away. "Wind and Fire. We're experimenting with lower concentrations of Dust—we'll see where that takes us."

Ilia nodded.

"Any insight you can offer us?"

She shook her head. "No. I didn't see the injection. I might be able to help at a hatching, but otherwise..."

"Excellent." Sienna started walking again, out of the tent this time. "I have one more thing to show you."

Justice smelled him before he saw him. A thrill of excitement went up his spine—it was a scent that reminded him of Rudder and Jade in almost equal measure, and that must mean...

A small head poked up out of a pen. Grey eyes blinked at him, with teal rings flashing around his pupils. Justice touched his nose to the smaller dragon, marveling at his bizarre shape.

"We actually...?"

"This is Harbinger, our first successful hybrid," Sienna said. "We've had some difficulty replicating the feat." She pursed her lips. "The... individuals we've partnered with want us to concentrate on finding new hybrids, instead of duplicating the same formula."

Ilia frowned. "Why?"

"We don't know. And for the moment, we don't ask."

"Right." Ilia bent down and scratched the hybrid behind his ears. "Hello, there."

Harbinger blinked at her, then turned his stare on Justice. "Hello," he said shyly. "You're like Brand."

Justice had never met Brand. He'd only heard the name a few times from Ilia, but he decided he might as well humor the young dragon. "We're both fire dragons."

"Is he bonded with you?" Ilia asked, but Sienna shook her head.

"Fennec takes care of his basic needs. Corsac trains him."

"Right."

Sienna walked away, gesturing at them to follow. Justice snorted in annoyance. He spared a last glance for the new dragon, who was still staring at him.

"I don't understand," Ilia admitted, as they moved past the last of the tents and into the woods. "Why the tour?"

"In a moment." Sienna stopped and turned to face them, giving Ilia a calculating look. "There's one more matter I'd like to discuss before we get to that."

"And that is...?"

"You were close with Blake, weren't you?"

Ilia stiffened, and Justice let out a low growl. Who did this Sienna think she was? But the name, Blake, was one he recognized. It made his rider hurt like this before, too.

"I was," Ilia said softly. Then, colder, "Why? Did something happen?"

"Has she contacted you since you left for Haven?"

Ilia scowled. "No."

Sienna stared at her for a moment, searching. Then she nodded. "Sorry. I had to ask."

"Why?"

The woman's shoulders slumped slightly. "There's been an... incident. I'm sorry, but Adam's dead."

Justice hissed. He'd heard of this man. Ilia didn't like him, but he was on the right side. Ilia, her skin now the color of a bruise, asked the question that he wanted answered—"Who?"

"That's... complicated."

"Complicated?!" Ilia went electric yellow. "How is it complicated?"

"We're not sure which dragon it was."

"Which..." Yellow turned to green, and Ilia put a hand over her mouth. "What happened. What...?" Then, in a tone of dawning horror, "And why did you ask me about Blake?"

"He went to Beacon. As far as we can tell, he tried to kill her near the earth stables, and the dragons... took issue with that."

The color slowly leeched out of Ilia's skin until she was ashen grey. She groped at the air, then found Justice's shoulder and leaned against it. "Gods..."

"It's a mess." Sienna's lip curled. "He couldn't have picked a worse way to go about it. The only person who could claim to have been his second in command was responsible for his death, and that leaves the rest of us to pick up the pieces. Part of the reason I showed you around is that you have more influence around here than most, and I trust you to do what's right for our people."

"You aren't seriously making me the leader."

"No. Ironically, I think the best word for what we have right now would be a council. The Lieutenant, the Albains, and I have been running things the best we can. Now that includes you."

Ilia heaved a sigh. "Any other bombs you want to drop?"

"Yes, actually. The cave Hazel went to? Brand is chained up in there."

His rider swore so violently that Justice reared his head back. "How long has he been there?!"

"Almost two weeks."

"Adam had the key?"

"Yes. And he's... temperamental. I'd like you to talk to him, tonight if possible. We sent a message to Blake, and he seems to have calmed down since she's started seeing him, but considering her loyalties that obviously isn't ideal."

"She—right. Of course."

Sienna's eyes narrowed slightly, but she all she said was, "I'll give you directions, then."

Justice was flagging by the time they reached the place Sienna had described. He'd been walking or flying for most of the past several days, and he knew he'd have to slog all the way back to camp before he could finally sleep... but all that fell away the moment he saw the cave's entrance. A thrill of excitement sent him charging forward, stopping only to wait for Ilia to enter first.

The human greeted them. He was sitting just inside, cross-legged. And there, about twenty feet away from him, was Brand.

He didn't know what he'd expected. He knew Brand had just lost his rider. He knew he'd been chained here for days, unable to hunt. There were bloodstains on the floor, and he could guess by their smell that someone from the White Fang had been bringing the dragon deer... but it was obvious that his health was suffering. He was thin and drawn, his scales dull and his eyes sunken. They stared out of their sockets in an eerie, half-empty sort of way, and every exhale was laced with smoke.

Justice paused just inside the cave, staring.

"She told you, then?" The human glanced at Ilia, who nodded. He hardly had to look up to talk to her, even with him sitting and her standing.

Justice hissed at him, then cut off abruptly when he heard a warning rumble from further in the cave. Brand stirred, chain links clinking, his eyes narrowing. Then they went wide. "Lah?"

Ilia swallowed. "Hello, Brand."

"Lah!" He jerked forward until the chain stopped him. Justice growled, but the gigantic fire dragon only pressed his forehead into her palm. Near the entrance, the human watched with a small smile on his face. A smile Justice wanted to scare off.

Ilia scratched Brand under the chin. He gazed at her a moment, his eyes half-lidded. Then he squeezed them shut and said, "Ad?"

"I know." She stroked his forehead. "I know, Brand. I'm sorry."

He whined, low and pitiful, and retreated away from her and into the corner of the cave. That was the last Justice saw of him before he curled up into a ball and hid beneath his wings.

Ilia backed away until she was standing next to the human. "He's..."

"Better. He didn't threaten to bite you."

"So... Blake was here."

"Mm." He rolled his shoulders and adjusted his seat. "I don't know what the story is there, but I can tell you one thing—this place is neutral ground. You got that? Nobody fights."

"Is that an order?" Ilia asked, turning the same shade of orange as Brand's scales.

"No." The human nodded at the scaly lump in the back of the cave. "It's for his sake. If you can't get along, figure out some way to miss each other when you visit him."

"...Right." Ilia glanced back into the cave, her hand tightening into a fist. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Traitor!"

Ruby jabbed an accusing finger at Emerald. Next to her, Mercury snickered into his hand.

Emerald just shrugged. "All's fair in love and war. Plus your sister set half my kingdom on fire—"

"I can't be held responsible for what Yang sets on fire!"

"—and I need a bigger army if I'm going to fight back. So. Gimme."

Ruby groaned and rested her head against the table. She didn't pick it up when she reached out and handed Emerald three offensive cards from her hand.

"Ooh, Huntsmen!"

"Ouch." Yang winced. "That's rough."

"Ugh." Ruby sat back in her chair, glaring at her now much diminished armed forces. She'd been about to use that card to take the fort Mercury was using to launch attacks on her.

"I still think this game is dumb," Mercury said, poking at his deck. "I mean, what would've stopped her from telling you she only had—" he stretched back in his seat, ignoring Emerald's angry curse, "—Atlesian androids? Why the hell would Vale have Atlesian androids?"

Emerald smacked him upside the head with her cards. "Maybe you think the game's dumb because you have to resort to cheating to win," she said loftily.

He started belly laughing. "Oh, yeah, sure—I'm just... just not honorable enough for—ow! How many cards did you take, it feels like you're hitting me with a fucking dictionary!" Ruby exchanged a bemused glance with Yang.

The brief scuffle ended when Emerald slapped Mercury's cards out of his hands and he had to dive onto the floor to scoop them up. Yang leaned to one side, smirking when he swore and tried to cover them with his body.

"Ah, dignity," Emerald sighed, propping one hand on her fist. "So nice to have."

He aimed a kick at her and accidentally sent one of his cards sliding until it hit Ruby's foot. She picked it up and giggled. "You dropped your Nevermore."

"...I hate this game."

He dropped a few cards facedown onto the table and rooted around for more. Yang was still looking over the edge, probably memorizing all of them. Emerald made eye contact with Ruby and raised a finger to her lips. Then she slid the cards under the edge of the map. Ruby had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing. He kept piling them up. She kept hiding them.

Eventually he straightened up, plopped down in his chair, and stared at the space in front of him. "Ha," he said dryly, glaring at Emerald. "Very funny. Where'd you put 'em?"

"I have no idea what you're—"

"He what?!"

Ruby startled so badly she knocked over her chair. The shout had come from across the hall—and a few seconds later she recognized the speaker.

"Well what did they ask for?" Weiss demanded, only slightly more quietly than a moment ago. And, after a short pause, "What—he wouldn't even have to honor that, why—no, I know..." The words got too muffled for them to understand after that. Ruby groped for the chair and set it back on its feet.

"Well." Mercury drummed his fingers on the table. "Someone's really overestimating dorm soundproofing."

"I'm gonna go see if she's okay," Ruby said, going for the door. She and Yang had been hanging out in Emerald and Mercury's room, which was halfway down the hall from their own. So Weiss had probably been shouting really loud for them to hear her that clearly. And if Ruby was right about that call...

They found Weiss sitting on her bed with both legs tucked under her, looking at her scroll like she'd just watched it strangle her firstborn. Blake was next to her, biting her lip, reaching out tentatively to touch her shoulder.

"Um... hey!" Ruby poked her head through the doorway and waved. "We um... sorta heard the noise."

"Oh. Right." Weiss rubbed her temple. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Are you..." She stopped herself, because 'Are you okay?' was a really dumb question to be asking right now. "What happened?"

Weiss' mouth twisted. "Winter called me. Apparently our father doesn't intend to negotiate with the people who took Whitley."

"What?" Yang stepped into the room and sat on her other side. "But..."

"I mean, the demands would have ruined the company—they essentially asked us to stop using Dust to inject dragon eggs, which is almost half of what we do, on top of giving up the secret to the ice dragons. But he'd only have to comply with the first one until Whitley was back, and the ice dragons could be made public knowledge after the fact. It'd be a setback, but..."

Ruby climbed over Yang so that she could hug Weiss. She couldn't not—hearing her making calculations like that, like she was trying to convince someone who wasn't even in the room with them, was just... too sad. Dad wouldn't have been able to think that far even if he wanted to.

It was a lot like hugging a wooden post, though, so she let go and squished herself between Weiss and Yang, wishing she had some clue what to say. A silence fell between them, heavy like the others were wishing the same thing.

They kept wishing for a long time.

Sky couldn't remember when he'd given up all pretense and started eating lunch in Mudslide's stall. He thought it had probably been around the second time he'd hand-fed he, when he'd decided he may as well feed himself while he was at it.

She was always too exhausted to eat after flight lessons. And he always sat with her, letting her rest her head in his lap, wiping vegetable juice and dragon spit on his ratty trousers. Then he usually sat for another hour or two, because she'd fall asleep on him and he wouldn't be able to move until the late afternoon.

If any of the other stable hands noticed he was spending hours on end sitting around instead of working, none of them said anything.

He found that he looked forward to those afternoons more than he did his days off, or the few times he'd been able to splurge a little and see a movie in Vale. As he headed towards the earth barn with a paper bag under his arm, ready to haul the metal trough onto the floor, he couldn't keep a smile from his face.

That was how Cardin found him. He was just leaving—Sky stopped dead, too busy wrestling with his own shock to form words. He hadn't seen Cardin in the stables in weeks. Most of the time Mudslide met him at their classes, now that she didn't need him to unbolt doors for her.

"The fuck are you smirking at?" Cardin demanded, giving Sky a shove.

Sky's fists clenched, but he managed to keep his cool. "Just been a good day," he said cheerfully, as if the past few months had never happened... though he couldn't resist a little dig. "Most of the riders remembered to clean up after their dragons, so I haven't had to shovel much shit."

Cardin's lip curled. Sky kept on smiling—it was actually a little exhilarating. What Cardin saw as his greatest humiliation had no power to hurt him. He had bigger things to be ashamed of than mucking stables.

"Didn't think you'd take so well to being a servant."

Sky shrugged. He wanted this conversation over—he hadn't had any incidents with Cardin recently, but he'd seen him walking around campus like he owned the place. Apparently Ozpin had gotten tired of the pathetic slap-on-the-wrist punishments he'd been giving out and decided to just let Cardin do whatever the hell he wanted.

It was a new power he was obviously eager to show off. He snatched the paper bag away from Sky and grabbed the sandwich from inside. "You're not really gonna eat this, are you? Seems like if you're sleeping in their stalls you might as well share their food, too."

He'd probably be healthier if he did—Mudslide ate mostly nuts and root vegetables, all he'd need to do was pick out the hay. "Whatever," he said, and tried to go around. Cardin grabbed him by the bicep.

"Hey, hey! I don't want you stealing from my dragon, alright?" He smirked. "Though maybe if she ate a little less she'd have a better time getting off the gr—"

The next thing Sky knew, Cardin was prone on the ground and he was standing over him. His wrist hurt. He shook it out, watching blood trickle from Cardin's nostril with a sort of primal satisfaction.

Then he realized what he'd just done.

"Shit," he muttered. "Shit—"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Cardin demanded, sitting up and putting a hand to his face. His voice was nasally. "I'm getting your ass fired this time." His eyes glittered. "Actually, fuck that. You should be arrested."

"Don't be such a wimp," Sky snapped, though his head was spinning.

"It's a repeat offense." Cardin smirked. "You've got a pattern of violent behavior. If we're not careful you might be a bad influence on the dragons."

Sky's back went rigid. He stared at Cardin for a moment, searching his eyes. There was a glitter there—he knew. He'd done that on purpose.

His ears were ringing. A hand reached out and closed around an old, rusted shovel, leaning against the barn wall a few feet from where the man in red had died.

"Hey!" Cardin backed up a step. "If you want to be a free man again before everybody here's sending each other pictures of their fucking grandchildren—" Sky swung at him. Missed. The shovel hit the side of the barn at an odd angle and almost jumped out of his hands.

He wasn't sure what Cardin saw in his face. Whatever it was, he didn't say another word—just turned and bolted towards the school. Sky chased after him, then hurled the shovel in his direction. It landed in the dirt with a quiet thump. Cardin kept running.

Mudslide jolted from an uneasy sleep when Sky burst through her stall door. If it had been anyone else she would have bitten them—she might still have bitten him if she wasn't so tired.

"Hey, girl," he whispered, casting a fearful glance over his shoulder. Mudslide tensed, then whined as the muscles in her chest burned. He knelt down to stroke her forehead softly, and her eyes slid most of the way shut.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, until Mudslide started to drift off again. Then Sky shivered and said, "I fucked up."

She opened one eye halfway, still more curious than alarmed. The look on his face brought her fully awake. A questioning rumble came from deep in her chest.

"I saw Cardin."

Her tail shifted weakly in the hay.

"I hit him. And tried to brain him with a shovel." He started to shake again, his shoulders drawing inward. "I'm sorry, girl, but I've got to go. Ozpin's defending him now, he'll—"

Mudslide lunged, catching his sleeve in her teeth and holding him there. He tugged at it and muttered a curse under his breath. "I have to," he said again, pleading. "If I don't they'll take me away anyway."

She pulled and Sky overbalanced, catching himself on her shoulder. "Mudslide..."

"Nnn..." The growl was low and edged with desperation, more panicked instinct than first word. "Nno!"

"I can't take you with me. They'd hunt us down, they'd try to—I can't do that."

She growled again. No words this time, just a clenched jaw. Seams popped and threads snapped, each one severing another little tie between them.

"I'll be back." He touched her forehead with his free hand. "I swear. If that psychopath could sneak in with a gun, I can come see you."

"No!"

He flinched. "You don't want me to—"

Again, panicked. "No! No!"

"...You want me to stay."

She nodded, his arm waving up and down with the motion.

"Do... do you want me to visit?"

A small whine.

"I have to go. Either I go now, before Cardin can report me, and I can visit you later... or I might go away for good. I don't know."

That wasn't a choice at all. Why did Sky have to be so stupid sometimes—you didn't fight Cardin. Nothing good ever came from fighting Cardin.

In a sudden surge of anger, Mudslide yanked on his sleeve. It tore, and he stumbled back towards the stall door. "I'm sorry," he said again. "I'll come see you as soon as I can, I swear."

Her roar shook the walls. On either side of her, neighbors whimpered and put their paws over their ears. All except one, at the very end of the line, in a stall that had gone unused for most of the year. Its occupant padded across the barn floor, then poked her head over the door.

"Are you alright?" Jade asked. Mudslide growled at her. She sat down outside, resting her chin on the door, waiting patiently for Mudslide to speak.

Eventually, she did. Jade spoke back. And an hour later, she left.

Alright! I will be back Friday, with a chapter that I am super excited about. For... reasons!