Hi again! I've got another chapter, this one featuring Neptune making progress and Pyrrha the MVP.

36. Wrangling

She should be feeling something. Vindicated, maybe, or at least angry. Looking at the chaos below, Pyrrha just felt hollow.

Pepper touched down near the northern end of Shade's campus, landing just long enough for Professor Port to give both Pyrrha and Professor Goodwitch a surprisingly crisp salute. "Good luck, ladies!"

Then he and the dragon were gone, and it was just the two of them standing there, flightless. Without the wind howling in their ears the noise was worse, shouts and roars and screams from dragons and rider's alike. "What... what do we do?"

There was a dark look on her professor's face. "We pick up the pieces. As always." She approached a downed pair, a dragon curled around its rider and cradling one broken wing to its side. A murmur, coaxing it into lifting the other so that Goodwitch could treat the faunus slumped underneath it. Pyrrha couldn't tell whose side they'd been fighting on.

She ran. Not really towards or from anything, just moving in the hope that she'd feel a little less useless if she did. She didn't know how to deal with injuries. Couldn't participate in these fights with only a weak human body. Couldn't fly alone.

A roar jumped out of the noise around her. Maybe because it was closer, louder, or maybe because the rage in it made her heart race. Pyrrha turned a corner, ducking between two buildings, and froze.

One of the pit dragons clung to two buildings, its long neck winding between them, its eyes burning crimson. Patches of asphalt were melted into bubbling slag, and a few charred scraps were all that was left of the grass. A younger wind dragon stood there trembling, its wings flared defiantly despite the fact that one of them looked dislocated. It wasn't even half the size of the fire dragon—probably less than a year old. And slumped against a wall, between her dragon and Pyrrha, was its rider.

She tried to think of what she would have done, if this was a wild dragon she was supposed to wrangle. The only problem was... if she'd found a dragon that big and that aggressive in the wild, she wouldn't have tangled with it. Ever.

The pit dragon snapped at the smaller one, sinking its teeth into its shoulder. "Flurry!" Its rider reached out, but didn't have the strength to stand. Flurry scratched at the pit dragon's neck. It hardly seemed to notice.

Pyrrha sprinted towards them. She jumped over the pools of melted tar, sweat plastering her hair to her forehead, her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. If she'd been forced to wrangle a dragon this size, she would have... would have...

And then there was no time left to think. She jumped while the pit dragon was still wrestling Flurry to the ground, hauling it to the side to get at its rider. Usually she went for the junction of neck and shoulder, where a rider would sit, but the pit dragon was still holding itself above the ground... and she didn't think she'd have been able to reach the spot even if it was lying down. Instead she grabbed one of its clawed forelegs and started to pull herself up.

She was still hanging there when its head turned. Its mouth opened, already billowing heat, glowing on the inside. But Flurry saw her too, and clawed at the pit dragon to keep its attention.

When she finally got her feet under her, Pyrrha reached out and just managed to snag one of the spines on its neck. Her hand didn't even wrap all the way around. Then her legs were swinging in empty air, and it was twisting around like a snake to bite. And as she scrabbled for some scrap of advice, anything from her wrangler training that would help here, she came up blank.

So she let go. As she fell, she saw the dragon's eyes widen slightly. Then she landed directly on its face, grabbing hold of the ridges above its eyes to keep herself from sliding down its nose. Its scales heated up in an instant, and every point of contact—her hands, elbows, knees—lit up with searing pain.

"I'm on your side!" she shouted.

Pyrrha could feel the snarl in the way its scales bunched up. It didn't believe her—of course not. So she squeezed her eyes shut and forced it out. "My dragon, Titan, they... they killed him."

Slowly, the snarl fell away. Its scales cooled slightly. Those scarlet eyes stared into hers, weighing. Judging.

"If you want to make them pay, there's no point going after first years."

It seemed distinctly unimpressed. Honestly, the feeling was mutual. Pyrrha glared at it as sternly as she could, given the fact that she was currently hanging from its brow. "Do you only want to fight dragons that are barely out of the shell?"

Another flash of heat, and an indignant growl.

"Well?"

It glowered at her for a few more seconds, before huffing and giving its head a light toss that almost sent Pyrrha flying. She just managed to keep her grip, and when it held still for her afterward she climbed to a slightly better position between its horns. She looked down its long neck. The spines might work decently well as a ladder—

But before she could even think about trying it, the pit dragon was already clawing up the side of a building, its wings spread. Pyrrha had just enough time to seize its horns in a death grip before the ground fell away beneath them. All of a sudden she was flying without a saddle, on a dragon even wilder than the ones she used to wrangle, while the wind ripped away her shout of terror and exhilaration.

Neptune lost track of Sun almost immediately.

In his defense, he also lost track of everything and everyone else. The only reason he hadn't lost Nymph was because he was strapped to her back. There was a swarm of pit dragons, and all of them were very picky about personal space, so he just sort of... held on tight while his partner did her best not to run into any of them. By the time that was over, he could see one of Raven's rogues... and no one else he knew.

There wasn't time to do much about it. Shade's dragons were everywhere, and some of them were fighting the pit dragons and others were trying to help, and a lot of the pit dragons were attacking both sides, and—

Neptune spotted Sage and Zircon and steered Nymph their way. "Hey!"

The other two didn't hear. They were circling above a massive lake where Neptune guessed Shade's water dragons took their lessons. All their attention was preoccupied by a smoky grey fire dragon that knocked against Zircon, grappling at him with its claws.

"Come on!" Neptune shouted, but Nymph was already diving.

It was a council rider—she lashed out with her whip, catching poor Zircon across the chest. Sage unbuckled his legs, leaning forward to snatch it away. Neptune yelled a warning. Another dragon swept down on them, this one a water dragon, and he wasn't sure who its rider was trying to help... until it smacked Sage with its tail and he went flying.

Or, not flying. Falling. Before Neptune could do much of anything, he plowed into the lake, water flying everywhere, and the water dragon followed. Zircon howled, but he was still in the claws of the fire dragon.

Neptune gritted his teeth. "Nymph? Get Zircon."

She obliged, sweeping over the lake. Neptune unbuckled his legs. And... and... he was still very high up. "I hate this!" he screamed, and jumped.

The water was freezing. He broke the surface, gasping and swearing at the top of his lungs, almost too cold to move at first. Then he dogpaddled gracelessly towards his teammate.

"Sage!"

"Neptune?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes." Sage brushed wet hair out of his face. "I'm very glad this lake is here."

Neptune made a face.

"Listen..." Sage glanced up, towards where Nymph had just slammed into the fire dragon and ripped it away from Zircon. She raked her claws along its side, and it finally retreated, sweeping behind a few buildings to regroup. "I appreciate you coming down here to help me."

"You're welcome?"

"But... this wasn't your whole plan, was it?"

Neptune treaded water. Sage treaded water. An ominous ripple started to circle them.

"In my defense, if I'd thought about it I wouldn't have been able to jump."

"...Right."

A roar overhead announced Pepper's arrival. She dropped like a stone, directly onto the ominous ripple. The two thrashed and clawed at one another. Neptune dunked underwater twice as the massive waves they were generating crashed over him.

"We should—" a wave hit his face, and he spat out a mouthful of water, "—probably go."

"Pyrrha!"

Twiggy scanned the ground below. She'd only looked away for a second, but then she hadn't been sure where Pepper was, and there had been dragons everywhere, diving at one another in midair. But she must have dropped Pyrrha off somewhere...

Jaune stood in the saddle to get a better look. She could feel the way his weight shifted, tried to fly as straight as she could to help him keep his balance. He sat down again a moment later, putting his hands on her neck. "Try circling around. Pepper might have tried to land somewhere safer—"

Both of them were so busy looking down, scanning Shade's campus for a glimmer of red hair, that they hadn't been paying any attention to the sky above them. A shadow fell over them both, and claws raked at her back. She twisted in the air to get Jaune out of the way, and saw a water dragon. She was fully grown, all steely-grey muscle, and her rider wasn't carrying a whip... which meant he was probably a professor.

Twiggy tried to escape, at least long enough to find Freya or Ao Guang, but it was hard enough just staying in the air with Jaune on her back. Another swipe from the claws caught her shoulder.

There was a roar that she felt right down to her bones. Twiggy flapped frantically, throwing herself out of the way of the biggest dragon she'd ever seen just before it smashed shoulder-first into the professor's dragon. For a second she thought he had to be one of Raven's rogues, somehow, even though she knew she'd never seen him before—the pit dragons didn't have riders. Then she realized that the 'rider' was on his head... and there was a familiar red ponytail trailing her like a banner.

"Pyrrha?!"

On impact with the other dragon, she lurched forward on the pit dragon's head and clung even tighter to his curved black horns. Twiggy couldn't understand how he was even flying like that. He snarled and lashed out at the professor with his claws. The other dragon roared, enraged, and grappled the pit dragon.

The two of them rolled sideways. Pyrrha swung part of the way upside-down, clinging to the dragon's horns and hooking her feet around two of the spines jutting from the corners of its jaws. Twiggy let out a cry of distress—and heard another call echo it. Freya and Ao Guang swept over the roof of a nearby building, though both made a wide circle around the two brawling dragons.

Twiggy understood why... but she had to do something. She edged closer. The pit dragon tried to cuff her with one of its wings, but she dodged and hovered close by its head. Jaune leaned out of the saddle, his arm stretching towards Pyrrha. "Grab on!"

"I can't!" A tail slammed into one of the pit dragon's horns, almost jarring Pyrrha from her place on its head. If she let go to try and grab Jaune...

The pit dragon snapped his head forward, his teeth sinking into the other dragon's throat. In an instant they were falling, tangled together, and the professor's expression went from fury to terror. "That's enough!" Pyrrha shouted. "They're down!" There was no way either the dragon or her rider could keep fighting with injuries like those. "Let go!"

He ignored her. The professor reached out to pry his jaws apart, but one of his arms was hanging limp, he couldn't reach, and even if he could he wouldn't have been strong enough. His dragon's struggles were getting weaker.

Pyrrha leaned down to glare into the pit dragon's eyes, and slammed a hand down on his nose. "No!"

He let go—but not out of obedience. The instant he wasn't attached to the other dragon, he whipped his head to one side and flung Pyrrha into open air.

Twiggy, Freya, and Guang all dived. She got there first, wrapping her forepaws around Pyrrha as she fought to keep her wings extended. There was a warning twinge in her chest, and she was still dropping much too fast.

Then Freya was there, and Nora grabbed Pyrrha's wrist to pull her into the saddle, and they all not-quite-crashed in the middle of Shade's lawn. The enormous pit dragon and the professor's partner landed a few dozen feet away. She curled up on her side, baring her throat in surrender. He nipped it again, this time lightly and without drawing blood, then stalked away with smoke billowing from his nostrils.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune launched himself off Twiggy's back. "Are you okay?!"

She blinked at him a few times. At some point her hair had come loose from her ponytail, and it was sticking up in every direction. "...Yes," she said, looking down at herself as if slightly surprised.

Nora burst out laughing. "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" she squealed, and grabbed Pyrrha in a hug.

"Nora," she croaked. "Air."

When she slipped from the saddle, Jaune caught her and pulled her in close. She yelped. He let go immediately, stammering apologies, but Pyrrha just shook her head. "It's fine, I just... well..." She extended an arm, showing the burns on her hands elbows. "I don't think that dragon appreciated being ridden."

Twiggy growled low in her throat, turning her head to glare off in the direction he'd gone. If he were still there—well... okay, that would go terribly, she was pretty sure his tail was longer than her entire body, but being enormous didn't give him the right to burn her human!

Ren laid a hand on her shoulder. "Probably not, but I'm sure the professor's dragon is glad you did."

"Yeah." Jaune tried another hug—this time being careful to avoid any injuries. "That was... incredible, I'm not gonna lie, but... please don't ever do it again."

Pyrrha made a half-hearted attempt to brush her hair out of her face. "Trust me," she said, with a slight smile. "I wasn't planning on it."

Emerald took slow, deep breaths as she clung to Jade, reeling from the chaos all around them. It was taking an effort not to retch. Shade was... bloodier than Haven.

Better not to look. She had a job to do—couldn't lose focus. So she urged Jade on, and the two of them loped around to the side of the main building. The dragon handled the door. She could've picked the lock, but it was a lot faster to break it down.

"Urr?"

Emerald almost jumped out of her skin, but when she whirled around it was just one of the pit dragons. It didn't look hostile, either. Just fixed her with a curious stare, flexing its forepaws. Its claws were missing, and it was wearing a leather muzzle.

"Hi?" She backed into the building with Jade behind her. It followed. Judging by its orange scales, it was a fire dragon. There was a stripe of gold running from its nose to the back of its neck, almost like a crown. "Are you... looking for someone?"

Blank stare.

Well. She supposed this would make it easier to start a fire, afterward. "You can follow me, if you want."

Emerald half expected it to hiss at her—she'd only been around them a few hours, but she'd already noticed that most of the pit dragons didn't take very kindly to being told what to do. This one trotted after her like an obedient puppy.

Jade walked side by side with the other dragon. Emerald thought she must be trying to talk to it... and judging by her confused snort, she wasn't having much luck with that. She was glad when they finally reached the door Cinder had told her to look for.

"Okay. Go time."

Jade took a step towards the door... and the pit dragon pounced at it, slamming it off its hinges. It looked up at Emerald, its tail wagging, its ears tilted halfway up as if it was hoping for praise—and worried it might be punished instead. After a shocked pause she mustered, "Er, thanks?"

It rumbled contentedly and backed up, letting her step over the shattered remains of the door—and into Shade's injection lab. There weren't any eggs this time of year, but there were shelves crammed with expensive equipment for incubation and injection, as well as instruction manuals for using all of them. Emerald shoved as much as she could into several bags strapped to Jade's saddle. Then when she was finished the pit dragon nosed at the remaining equipment, nudging it into a little pile and looking at her expectantly.

"No thanks," she said, still a little nonplussed. "I don't have any more saddlebags. And you don't have a saddle." Its ears drooped pathetically. Emerald glanced around. "But... you can help me with something else." The way it perked up was almost cute, if she didn't think too hard about what people had been ordering it to do before it was rescued. "I just need to take this muzzle off first, if that's okay?"

Several minutes later they were back outside. A fire could be seen through the windows, merrily devouring everything she hadn't already stolen from the lab. The pit dragon looked quite pleased with itself. Without thinking, Emerald reached out to scratch behind its ears—and snatched her hand back as her instincts screamed at her for doing something that stupid. But the pit dragon didn't try to bite her. Instead it backed itself against the wall of the academy, its wings curled around itself.

"I'm sorry—" Emerald tried to soothe it, but it just scrunched itself into an even smaller ball. She sighed and pulled out her scroll.

Cinder's smooth voice came through the line. "Are you finished?"

"Yes. I took everything I could, and one of the pit dragons set the place on fire."

"Good. Anything... else?"

Emerald gripped the scroll a little tighter. "I found formulas. Old ones, from before the ban on hybrids."

She could hear the satisfied smirk. "That's very good. We're pulling out now, before the council's reinforcements can get here."

"Right."

A click, and then silence.

Emerald reminded herself that the students were still getting used to the fight they were in. They wouldn't understand the kinds of sacrifices Cinder had to make. She was saving the dragons, but to do that she needed help, she needed hybrids. And getting them... wasn't as simple as finding some old formula.

So later, when she told the students like she'd been ordered to, there wasn't going to be even a quiver in her voice. She'd look Ruby in the eyes and tell her exactly what she needed to hear.