Whelp. I'm gonna just... duck behind this rock here...
21. We All Fall Down
Three twenty-two in the morning. Clouds covered the moon and stars, leaving only little puddles of light where the pathways of Beacon Dragonry wound under ornate iron lamps. The stillness was absolute. And, as the crickets and night insects suddenly stopped, as if alarmed, so was the silence.
Ragnar's bellow shattered both. It reverberated off the walls, shook the ground, and startled Scarlet so badly he fell head-first out of bed. He groaned, kicking his legs in a fruitless attempt to free himself from a tangle of sheets. Sage helped him. Neptune was already up and staring out the window, his hands clenching the windowsill. Sun had dived under his bed, and soon emerged dragging a large duffel bag.
"Is it...?" Scarlet didn't dare finish the question.
"I don't know." Sage shot a grim look towards the window. "We need to go and find out."
They met RWBY and JNPR on the stairs. Other teams were emerging from their rooms, too. Everyone was groggy and confused, with their hair sticking up in all directions. Some had dressed hastily and were carrying bags over their shoulders.
This wasn't right. They were supposed to have more warning than this.
"Come on." Sun jogged ahead of them and sprinted onto the grounds. An instant later he swore and ducked back inside. The beam of a flashlight swept across the lawn.
"Students of Beacon." The voice was tinny, amplified by a megaphone. "Proceed to the cafeteria in an orderly fashion and wait for further instruction."
"Oh yeah," Sun said. "It's them."
Yang shrugged and strode out the door. Ruby yelped and jogged after her, and that set off everyone else. There was an unfamiliar rider outside. She was perched on the back of a sleek water dragon and had a long whip coiled in her right hand. They were blocking the path that led towards the barns. As they approached her, hoping to go around, she flicked the whip and her partner sprayed them all. Neptune flinched.
"Proceed to the cafeteria in an orderly fashion," the rider repeated. "Wait for further—"
"Get bent!"
Someone else in the crowd of students hurled a rock at the rider's head. The dragon snapped it out of the air with one paw and hissed.
"Who threw that?!"
Russel Thrush burst out of the crowd, tossing another rock from hand to hand. "I don't think you heard me! I said—"
A jet of water blasted him off his feet. He knocked into Ruby, who hit Yang and Sun, and then Sun slammed into Scarlet and they all went down.
Sage helped Scarlet back to his feet, and didn't let go of his hand once they were both standing.
"I'm sorry." Weiss stepped forward, both hands on her hips. "I must have misheard you. Are we being accused of something?"
The rider pulled a gun and rested it against her thigh. "For your own safety, please proceed to the cafeteria in an orderly fashion and wait for further instruction."
They went—there was nothing else to do.
All along the route there were more council soldiers, all of them armed. The students walked in a tight clump. As they walked, Ruby whispered, "What do we do?!"
"Follow along for now," Blake said. "Wait for an opening."
"What if there isn't an opening?" Jaune craned his neck to check over his shoulder.
"We walk past them." Weiss glared at the nearest rider. "They can't just open fire on a crowd of students."
Blake grimaced. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."
"Why not? If nothing else, they have to care about public opinion. Murdering teenagers would get anyone who so much as made a coffee for someone involved in this fired twice over."
"I think you're underestimating how much they could warp the story before it even got to the public."
"Guys?" Ruby glanced between the two. "Maybe now isn't the best time for this argument?"
"Well," Weiss said, "it seems like a pertinent—"
"What is the meaning of this?"
All heads turned. Ozpin and Goodwitch both stood on the path, between the students and the cafeteria. It looked like they, too, had just gotten out of bed—it was the first time Scarlet had ever seen Goodwitch's hair out of its usual bun. Ragnar stood to Ozpin's left while Nautilus paced around the two to settle on Goodwitch's right.
Someone stepped forward. His uniform had a patch on one shoulder that was more elaborate than the others. "Surprise inspection," he said. Scarlet had guessed that much, but hearing it still put a knot in his stomach.
"You don't have that authority," Ozpin said mildly. "The Dragonmaster must always be informed—"
"You are not the Dragonmaster of Beacon Academy. We've got reason to believe you've been hiding defects on a mass scale." The soldier glanced over his shoulder at the milling students. "Get the hell out of the way so we can get them inside."
"I'm afraid I can't do that without going through the proper channels. If I am being removed from my post, I must be given at least twenty-four hours notice—"
"Move, old man."
"I'd like to speak to the council in person on this matter. Rouse them if you must."
"The council sent us. And we're saying you need to move. Now."
"No." Ragnar growled to punctuate the statement. "This is my school, and these are my students until such time as a member of the council informs me otherwise. They will not be held without charge under my watch."
"Yeah?" The soldier put a hand on his gun. "Well, you have a charge. Obstruction. So get the fu—"
Somewhere in the distance, there was a small pop. Ozpin stood there for a moment, swaying slightly. Then he crumpled.
Ragnar's second cry brought Ruby to her knees, both hands clamped over her ears. It rattled around in her skull and vibrated in her chest—a horrible long, anguished, piercing wail. Her heart wrenched. Was Ozpin...?
Another scream. This one human. Ragnar charged the line of council soldiers, roaring and beating the air with his wings. They fell back, and one of them drew a gun, and the crowd of students dissolved into pandemonium.
Ruby grabbed Yang's wrist in one hand and Emerald's in the other, clinging as the crowd jostled them.
"What do we do?!" Jaune hissed, panicked.
Before anyone had the chance to answer, there was another roar—this one coming from somewhere in the distance, near the barns. A blast of fire hit a tree, creating an island of light in the darkness. Council riders circling around the school converged on the area, grappling with dragons on the ground.
"Come on!" Ruby tugged on Yang and Emerald, hoping the rest would follow as she burst through the line of soldiers. They were too busy with Ragnar to care—and as she watched one of them was knocked clean off his feet, flying like a ragdoll for several yards before he hit a wall.
Where was Ozpin? Ruby searched the ground, but there were students and soldiers everywhere now and she didn't remember exactly where he'd been. Then she pushed her way through a group and caught a glimpse of Professor Goodwitch crouching, both hands on his chest, speaking urgently in a low voice that rose with every second she waited for an answer that wasn't going to come.
The crowd tore them away again. They sprinted across the open field towards the barns, Yang draping Blake's arm over her shoulder to support some of her weight. The first wave of dragons collided with the swarm of students at a run. As the groups mixed, all other sound was drowned out by frantic calls as they searched for their partners.
"Storm!"
Ruby scanned the crowd, but she couldn't see—there! Not Storm but Pit, barreling down a small hill with his tack in his mouth. The others followed right behind him, all carrying their gear with them. Finally, she saw Storm.
It took a long time to fight through the crowd and get to them, and when she was finally close enough she threw both arms around her dragon's neck. Storm whined in distress and dropped the tack, which Ruby scooped up and dropped on her back. Her hands shook as she fumbled with the straps, very aware of the council riders overhead.
"They can't attack with us here," Yang said, looking up as she got Fang's saddle tightened. "As long as we're mixed together like this—"
A blinding flash. Ruby found herself on the ground with her arms over her head, smelling ozone. Storm howled and nudged her with her head until she rolled onto her back, staring at the sky. There was a winged shadow overhead, turning, and as she watched a glowing mote dropped from it.
The Dust went off on impact, creating a gigantic fireball several dozen feet away. Huo was the only one in the blast radius. He flapped his wings and screeched, but she knew it was more alarm than pain—fire wouldn't hurt him.
They were dropping bombs. Ruby scrambled to her feet and hauled herself into the saddle, shouting for Storm to run. Someone else screamed, "Scatter!" but when she twisted around she couldn't see who it had been. The others were all saddled up now.
"The ramps!" Sun shouted. They sprinted across the field, jumping every time there was an explosion or gunshot in the distance, until they reached the four takeoff points. The field was deserted—most of the students still had to get their tack out of the barns.
Ruby craned her neck upwards. There were two dragons flying overhead, now. Another Dust bomb began its descent. She followed the movement, mesmerized, until she caught a glimpse of the school behind them. A great winged silhouette was grappling with another in midair, both shrieking and flapping and clawing at one another. Ragnar.
There was no one to talk him down.
"Ruby!" She realized she'd pulled on the reins and slowed Storm. Her team and Emerald were all on the ramp, gesturing for her to follow.
"I have to do something about Ragnar." She urged Storm into a gallop.
"You what?" Weiss gestured frantically at the sky. "Ruby, they're—"
"I'll catch up," she promised. Storm took off easily, then veered back towards the two grappling dragons.
When Ruby turned around, she saw that Fang and Jade were both following her. She winced, but there wasn't much she could do—it was impossible to argue with them in midair. Instead she kept flying towards Ragnar.
As she watched, he slammed the council dragon into the side of the cafeteria, crushing a stone gargoyle. The rider hunkered in the saddle, clinging with both hands as Ragnar snapped at him over the other dragon's head. Then the ledge they grappled on gave way, and Ragnar flared his wings to slow their descent. The other dragon hissed and slashed at them, tearing several long gashes in the thin membrane.
Ragnar disentangled himself from the brawl just instants before the other dragon slammed into the ground. It screeched in pain and curled up, one wing bent at an awkward angle, its rider slumped against its back.
"Ragnar!" Ruby stood up in the saddle, holding on with one hand and leaning towards the dragon, as if that would make him understand her. "Ragnar! You have to go!"
His square head turned, his ears lying flat against his skull as he growled deep in his chest. A thrill of fear went through her. Could he even recognize her?
"Please!" Storm passed over his head, then banked to the side to stay close to him as he climbed laboriously back into the sky. "You're hurt! You need to fly away while you still can!"
He roared. Ruby flattened herself to Storm's neck, squeezing her eyes shut at the sound. It was like it had been torn out of him, all grief and rage and a deep, helpless despair.
How was she supposed to convince him to stop? He didn't care if he got hurt or not, all he wanted was—wait. That was it!
"They didn't do this!" She gestured at the soldiers, at the dragons flying overhead. "Or... they're not the ones who decided it should happen. It's the people in charge that hurt Ozpin, and you can't find them if you die now!"
He grabbed onto the side of the cafeteria and hung there, motionless, for a long moment. Then his eyes fixed on Storm and he rumbled low in his chest. His gaze turned to Ruby. "Safe."
She didn't understand... but Storm must have, because she flew higher, sweeping towards the forest. Jade and Fang converged on either side of her.
Behind them, Ragnar took to the sky and glided out over the forest. Already he was flapping hard to stay in the air, and the farther he flew the harder he seemed to struggle. She twisted in the saddle to watch him disappear into the distance, gripping the reins hard.
"Please," she murmured to herself. "Please be okay..."
Pit's paws pounded the earthen ramp as he sprinted upward, his lungs burning. There wasn't time for dozens of takeoffs—he had to go now.
The air was thick with fleeing dragons. Nimbus, at the head of the group, was already dwindling to a small speck over the Emerald Forest. Pit reached the end of the ramp and launched himself, flapping heavily, and just managed to stay in the air. Already his chest was straining with the effort.
Behind him, he heard a shriek. He tilted his head just enough to catch a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of a council dragon tearing towards them, fire roiling between its jaws. He tried to flap harder, but he was already at his limit. Too slow—
Another dragon intercepted the first. It was Gust, wheeling through the air with practiced grace. Oobleck crouched in her saddle, his wild green hair streaming in the wind. She slammed the council dragon off course just before a glowing speck dropped from its back. It landed in an empty stretch of field, instead of in the midst of the dragons charging up the ramps, and a jagged crown of icicles grew up around the spot.
Pit had to look away to keep track of where he was going. He was only at the edge of the forest. Zircon, who had taken off a few seconds after him, was already pulling ahead.
Blake put both hands flat on his back. "Pit! You need to use your powers!"
What? But I can't! What if he used them and it scared her while they were flying? What if—
Another shriek. This one was pained, not angry. He craned his neck to see. Gust and the other dragon plummeted towards the ground, tangled up in one another as they fought. As they disappeared behind the main building, there was a final, defiant roar. He couldn't tell which dragon had made it. Then, silence.
"Pit!"
He snapped his head back towards the forest, suddenly very aware of a dark shadow gliding towards them from the right. The air felt so thin... he was dropping, now, his back legs skimming the tops of the trees.
An anxious warble was torn from him. He wasn't supposed to use his powers—they were scary and wrong! But every muscle from his chest to his wingtips was screaming in protest as he fought to stay aloft, and there were more shadows, now. Many more. They were swarming up over the field he'd just left behind, human and faunus soldiers.
And then there was a bang that he felt right down to his bones, a flash of another time—the narrow pathway between two barns, red hair, Blake lying very still...
A tree exploded into splinters. Less than a second later there were three more cracks in quick succession. Zircon howled and dropped so abruptly that for a sickening instant Pit thought he must have been hit—but a moment later he righted himself and kept flying.
"Do it!" Blake shouted, "Now!"
Pit obeyed. He focused on the pull deep in his guts, and his freckles started to glow. His wings came down and he soared, gliding through the air like he wasn't carrying Blake at all—like someone had tied a thousand balloons to his back. It was so easy! Was this what flying as a wind dragon felt like?
The sound of gunfire faded away. All he felt was the wonderful lightness and Blake's hands on his scales. She crouched low over his back, murmuring soft praise. Then, when even the cries of the dragons still at the school had faded, "I'm not sure how they're going to find us." Storm and Fang and their riders still hadn't caught up with them.
Pit tried to rumble comfortingly, hoping that even if she couldn't hear it over the wind, she would be able to feel it. She scratched his scales, as if in thanks.
They kept flying. His freckles kept glowing.
I'm a liar.
Twiggy made her second jump from the ramp. She flapped hard, but spiraled downward until her paws hit the field.
Far above, Pyrrha clenched her hands on the reins. Titan kept circling.
There were soldiers at the end of the ramp. She urged Titan into a dive, shrieking and howling as he swept over their heads. They scattered, and she heard one of them shout a curse. Twiggy took the opportunity to dart past them, charging up the ramp for another try.
Titan landed at the end of the ramp, flaring his wings and roaring a challenge. Pyrrha's voice caught in her throat. She wanted to say no, to tell him to fly away... but how could she, when Jaune and Twiggy were still grounded?
Her eyes squeezed shut at the sound of gunfire, but when she opened them again they weren't even facing her. All of them aimed at the sky as the silhouette of another dragon bore down on them. Pyrrha recognized the flat tail of a water dragon instants before it banked hard to one side, revealing Professor Goodwitch. She was holding one of the council riders' whips in one hand, and as the pair of them passed close to the soldiers she lashed out and knocked several of them to the ground. Nautilus took care of the rest with a blast of water, then climbed back into the air and circled, ready for another pass.
"Go," Pyrrha urged Titan. He took off a second time, but then she spotted Jaune and Twiggy huddled together at the base of the ramp. He was gesturing wildly with both hands while she sat, her paws digging stubbornly into the ground.
Titan landed beside them without prompting. Pyrrha tore herself free of the saddle straps and sprinted towards Jaune, grabbing his arm the moment she was close enough.
"Professor Goodwitch is buying time. We need to go, now!"
Jaune shook his head. "I'm staying."
"What?!"
He turned to Twiggy. "Go with Pyrrha and Titan. I'll be okay, my family should be able to help me."
"They're shooting people! Jaune, you can't—"
"What am I supposed to do?!" He gestured at the sky. "I dropped my bag, but we just... we can't take off." He grabbed Twiggy's head in his hands, stroking her nose. "They'll hurt you if you stay," he said, pleading. "They won't hurt me."
"No!" She lunged and grabbed a bite of his hoodie, rooting him in place.
"I'll stay," Pyrrha decided. "You can take Titan—"
Titan and Jaune both protested at the same time.
"Pyrrha, it's too dangerous."
"It's your plan!"
"Earr-ra." Titan nudged her side with his head. "Nno."
"We need to do something," she insisted. Could Titan carry the two of them? No, that would be more of a strain on him than Jaune was for Twiggy. But maybe if—
A shadow passed over them. Pyrrha tensed and looked up so quickly she cricked her neck. Then the dragon overhead banked hard around, and flew low enough that she could recognize its rider's red cape.
"What are you guys still doing here?!" Ruby demanded, as Storm landed heavily in their midst. Then she glanced up and, seeing Yang and Emerald both gliding above them, waved her arms frantically, gesturing with a hand across her throat to signal that they should stay in the air.
"We can't take off," Jaune explained. Twiggy's ears drooped, and she let out a piteous whine.
Ruby bit her lip, glancing from them to the sky and back again. "Jaune, switch with me. I'm probably light enough."
"Are you sure?"
She hopped off Storm and forced a grin. "Nope! But let's give it a shot."
Pyrrha urged Titan into a run the second she was in the saddle, ignoring the straps for the moment. She might need to get off again, if worse came to worst and one of them had to stay behind and face the council.
She held her breath as Twiggy reached the end of the ramp. Then she jumped, flapped frantically... and steadied herself. Flying was obviously a struggle, but she kept above the treeline even as her tail skimmed the upper branches. Storm took off with Jaune easily. Then it was Titan's turn, and all three of them joined Yang and Emerald in the air.
A horrible shriek made Pyrrha twist in the saddle, craning her neck to look behind them. Just as she turned, she saw Nautilus hit the ground with enough force that his legs buckled under him. There was a circle of council soldiers around him now, aiming...
Pyrrha swallowed a rush of nausea. It curdled into fear as some of the soldiers turned their attention from the elder dragon to the fleeing students. More gunfire. A shot hit the trunk of a tree, showering splinters. Some of them caught in her hair...
Crack.
Titan shrieked and veered hard to the left. She clung to his neck, searching frantically for the wound, and spotted a puncture just a few inches from his wingtip.
He lagged behind the others, now. Pyrrha flung her bag into empty space without a second thought. Then she murmured encouragement she knew he couldn't hear over the wind—he was so brave, and so strong, and if he could just keep going a little longer they would fix his wing...
Three more gunshots. Then a fourth that made Titan cry out again. Pyrrha pressed her face against his neck, her cheek resting against the row of spines. They had to be almost out of range.
The others had heard the noise and were circling back. If they came too close...
"Down," she urged Titan. "Get below the treeline!"
He tried to obey, but before he had the chance there was another volley. These sounded different—louder. When one of them struck home, Pyrrha felt it. A jolt went through her, locking every muscle, paralyzing her. Titan began to fall.
Wind tore her from her seat. As soon as she could move again she grabbed the reins and hung upside-down from the saddle, shouting at Titan to snap out of it.
He did. He twisted in midair, tearing the reins from her hands, and reached for her with both paws. His wings wrapped around her. For a moment everything was very dark, and very quiet. Pyrrha was surrounded by his heartbeat.
Impact.
It was muted, cocooned as she was. For an instant she felt like something was pressing down on her. There was a sharp pain in her shoulder and her hip, and just like that it was over. She lay there, dazed, staring at Titan's scaly chest. One of his wings had dropped away. The other was draped over her, limp. He wasn't breathing.
She fought her way free. His neck curved around towards his body. His head rested motionless in the dirt. Pyrrha knelt beside it, deaf to the distant gunfire. She stroked his brow and waited for his eyes to open. She felt as though she was at the top of a slide, poised above dark, freezing water... suspended in the instant her hands started to slip.
Gunfire woke her. Mudslide shivered in the small hollow she'd dug for herself and pulled a wing over head, remembering the awful noise that had heralded the death of Tornado. She curled up tighter, wishing it would go away. Wishing everything would just go away and let her sleep.
A dragon howled. Then another and another. There was rumbling in the distance, and shouting. All coming from Beacon.
Mudslide roused fully. She got to her feet and prowling through the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever was going on. Her heart hammered in her chest as she approached. Was there another stranger at Beacon?
Was this another culling? Were they here to cull her?
And, though she hated herself for thinking it, What about Cardin?
The first dragon flew overhead. Mudslide crouched beneath the trees, hunching her shoulders to make herself smaller, hoping her brown scales would blend in with the earth under her paws. More followed the first, a stream of them fleeing in every direction. The flow slowed to a trickle. Then, more gunfire. An agonized shriek. And the last of them started to fall.
Mudslide ran towards the place where the dragon would land, keeping her eyes peeled for any others that might spot her. It was easy to find the crash site—a tree had been hit, and now lay in splinters as long as her tail.
Titan was curled on his side, his head lolling on the ground, his rider petting his snout. Mudslide stayed very still, watching. Waiting for him to get up and fly away. He didn't.
Shadows passed over the clearing. Twiggy, Storm, and Fang, and Jade, the one that had listened to her. In the distance, there was another dragon—a bigger one. Its rider was pointing at Storm.
Another bang. Storm kept flying. A miss.
Mudslide knew right down to her bones that this was the council. They were here for the others that were like Tornado. They didn't want the students to get away.
She burst out of cover, charging towards Titan and his rider. Pyrrha looked up sharply, then stared at Mudslide, her mouth slightly open.
Mudslide tried not to look at Titan. No, not Titan. Just the empty shell he left behind. She focused on his rider, grabbing the back of her shirt in her jaws and giving her a tug.
"No!" The rider struggled. "Get away from us!"
Ignoring the words, Mudslide glanced around, chuffing irritably when she realized there was no good place to take off. Still holding the rider in her teeth, she began to climb the fallen tree. It had gotten tangled up with several other trees as it fell, so that it lay at an angle. Her claws scraped the bark. Pyrrha's flailing foot struck her shoulder and she growled.
As tempting as it was, she didn't drop the human. She just clambered up the tree until it creaked alarmingly under her weight. Then she deposited Pyrrha on her back, stretched her wings out wide, and took off. She had to veer hard to the left to avoid hitting another tree, but within a few moments she made it above the tangle of branches and into open sky.
She met Twiggy in the air, the smaller dragon pulling up out of a dive. It only took a moment of wide-eyed staring before she understood. A wrenching howl echoed off the distant walls of the dragonry.
"Shut up," Mudslide snapped. "You'll bring them over here."
"Where is he?!"
"It doesn't matter anymore. They're—" Mudslide stopped. Titan's rider was pounding a fist against her shoulder.
"Stop! I can't leave, you have to turn around, go back!"
A rallying cry from Storm. "Here! This way!"
Mudslide wheeled towards her, eager to escape Twiggy's accusing stare—she hadn't done anything...
Others converged on them. All the dragons Cardin had decided were enemies, and more besides them. Mudslide recognized a strange water dragon as she drew closer—Rudder, Jade's brother. Barracuda and Tank swerved in from the south, letting out triumphant bugles when they saw her. She couldn't find it in herself to return the happy greeting, even though she was glad to see them.
"There's a safe place," Storm called out, once they were closer. "Ragnar told me!"
Mudslide stared at her. Safe? What could be safe when they'd attacked the dragonry?
She followed anyway. Because Twiggy and the blond boy were going, and she knew she should give back Titan's rider. Because there was nowhere else to go. And because safe meant the quiet confines of her stall after she'd moved to the earth stables, curled up on sweet-smelling straw while Sky fed her by hand... and that was what she really wanted.