Hello again! Today, Neo drops some eaves and Specter has no words.
47. Frostbite
Neo could tell something was wrong the instant she and Mercury returned to camp. It was too empty, for one thing. A few of the pit dragons ranged through the woods, but she couldn't see any of the students or their dragons. There was a strange tension in the air. Roman noticed them through one of the windows and came to greet them.
"Where the fuck is everyone?" Mercury demanded. "Weren't they supposed to get here before us?"
"Word is, they bolted."
Mercury's eyebrows shot up. "How'd they get cold feet on that job?"
"Beats me." There was a familiar glint in Roman's eyes. "Anyway, don't you have a queen bee to see?"
He glanced over his shoulder. "Yeah. Do you know where Emerald is?"
"Behind the cabins. As far as I can tell, she's trying to set them on fire with her mind." Roman kept up his grin until the boy was out of sight. Then it melted away, replaced with a troubled frown. "There's something off about this."
Neo gave him her best no shit expression.
Roman drew her into one of the cabins and shut the door firmly behind him. Then, after another cautious look around, he switched to signing. "Cinder and Arthur are in his lab. You can use the air vents."
"You're really worried about this, aren't you?"
"Those kids were pretty gung-ho. Then they up and leave with no warning? Cinder sent the pit dragons away at the same time, they got back just before you did. Fishy doesn't really cover it."
"Fine. But I'm doing this my way."
Her way did not involve air vents. It was way easier and less claustrophobic to slip in through the back door. Watts' lab had two rooms, and it only took a quick glance through the windows to find out which one he and Cinder were in. Roman watched too many movies, that was his problem.
She pressed her ear to the door, tensed and ready to dive behind a desk if she heard them coming towards her. At first she thought she'd missed her chance—the other room was silent. Then, Cinder's voice. "You say that like they ran off out of the blue. What did they find, Watts?"
"I can't be sure. Something in my lab, and I assume based on her reaction it had something to do with our little act of sabotage."
"Why didn't you hide it better?" Cinder snapped.
"I did," Watts replied testily. "Anything really sensitive, I keep under lock and key."
"Obviously not everything."
"There are a few mentions of the chemical," he admitted. "Nothing anyone out of the loop would understand—"
"You didn't think a Schnee might happen to recognize something?"
"They think of it as old, useless, and boring. You stole more than ten drums and no one cared enough to go looking."
"That isn't the point, Watts!"
"Of course not," he agreed. "On a more pertinent note—they know far too much. What are you going to do about it?"
"We can't exactly hunt them down. There's too many of them."
Watts' voice turned smug. "I told you not to bring on so many at once."
"...You're fired."
"No, I'm not. You need me. If your pets had been able to follow through, we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place."
The next thing she heard was the other door slamming shut behind Cinder. Neo slid under the desk instinctively at the sound, and froze when her fingers brushed against a small rug. She rolled her eyes. Peeling up one corner revealed that yes, there was a keyhole hidden underneath it. Obviously Watts had never been part of a competent burglary—nobody put rugs where no one would see them unless they were hiding a safe.
Whatever was in there, it wasn't worth the time it would take to break in. Especially when she could hear Doctor Watts' heavy footsteps moving towards the door. As she slipped out of the building, she caught his last words. "If you won't do anything..."
Hours later they still flew in an empty sky. Storm almost wished someone would chase them, just so she could stop anticipating it.
Pursuit is unlikely, Penny told her. We have a significant numerical advantage. I estimate the probability to be less than one in fifty.
I know. Storm kept her eyes on the horizon. It's just... weird.
They'd been mostly silent up until now, trying mostly to put as much distance between themselves and Cinder as they could. Twiggy was the first to ask the question that they were all thinking.
"What do we do now?"
Pepper flicked an ear back towards them. She was starting to look a little tired, mostly because she was carrying both Pyrrha and Professor Goodwitch, as well as her own rider. "We will rest soon," she said. "Then we can all decide together."
"Are we going back to Raven?" Fang wanted to know.
No one had an answer.
"What about the pit dragons?" asked Zircon.
No one knew that, either.
Storm whined, a small sound that the wind ripped away before it got any further than her own ears. She tried to comfort herself by watching the landscape below them—rolling hills covered with trees, glittering ribbons of water winding this way and that... it was all so much more wild-looking than anything she'd grown up with at Beacon. From the air, it almost looked like nothing was wrong. No Grimm, no council, no Cinder.
She would have shaken her head, if she wasn't busy flying. Enough gloomy stuff! All of them had made it out, no one was even scratched. Maybe they couldn't stay with Cinder, but it was better to find that out sooner rather than later. It wasn't even like their trip here had been wasted—they'd freed Pearl and Paprika and the other prisoners, and Cinder had returned Penny. This is good.
It really is, Penny agreed. I don't have enough data to say for sure, but it seems close to the optimal outcome.
I guess... Now that she was thinking about it like that, Storm felt a pang of guilt. Ruby will be sad, though.
Why?
She wanted Emerald to come with us.
...I don't understand.
Neither do I, really. But she's nice, and now we might have to fight her.
Penny considered that for a moment. I will be sure to enable nonlethal parameters if we encounter Emerald again.
Storm felt a little better. It didn't change much, she would've been careful not to hurt Emerald anyway... but it was nice to remember they'd gained a friend, as well as losing one. And it wasn't the kind of loss that was permanent, either—they could convince her. Eventually. Or, well, Ruby could.
Thanks, Penny.
She felt the other presence recede a bit, as Penny concentrated on the scenery underneath them instead of talking. Normally she could do both, but at half power she was... a little bit sleepy, or maybe just smaller. Storm felt a warm bubble of contentment radiating from her as she watched through the dragon's eyes.
As they passed over increasingly hilly, mountainous land, Storm glanced around at the others. The JNPR dragons were clustered around Pepper, so that they would be close to Pyrrha, while the SSSN dragons seemed like they were talking to one another about what to do next. She didn't catch much of the conversation, because they were flying a bit behind her and she had a hard time seeing or hearing them very well.
Pit's freckles were glowing—he'd started using his powers on and off while flying, to give his wings a break in mid-air. He noticed her looking and drifted close enough for them to touch wingtips. Fang, a bit above her and to the left, was looking at... Specter.
He seemed fine—but Storm suddenly remembered how quiet he'd been all day. He and Weiss had been in the Doctor's lab together, hadn't they? Storm dropped down so that she was close enough to talk.
"Are you okay?"
No reaction.
"Hey!" Fang called out. "Remnant to Prince Fusspot!"
Nothing.
Storm drew even closer. She had to be careful to synchronize her wingbeats to his, so she didn't accidentally knock into him. He finally turned to look at her. His black eyes, always striking, had gone eerily blank. Like he could see right through her.
"Specter?"
He listed sharply to one side. She yelped as their wings tangled together. "Specter! What's—"
Pain.
Wind whipped around her as she fell. Penny shouted commands for herself, frantically trying to spread armor over Storm's wing joint. Specter's needle-sharp teeth had already sunk to the bone. Frost crawled across her scales. The pain ebbed away. The ground rushed up to meet them.
Ruby was screaming. Weiss and Fang were screaming. It seemed to Pit like everyone was screaming—everyone except for Specter. He was perfectly, horribly calm, even as he and Storm tumbled from the sky.
"Stop it!" Weiss stood up in the saddle and yanked on the reins. "What are you doing?!"
Fang dove in close and reached for one of Storm's flailing forelegs. She yelped and tried to dodge. "Grab on!" he shouted. As soon as she realized he was trying to help, she caught hold of his tail and clung to it. He flapped hard, struggling to slow their fall.
Pit did what he could to help. He concentrated on his powers with everything he had, letting himself drop along with them. It was too much—the three of them combined weighed more than Pepper did, and Fang wasn't as strong a flier as Storm.
Weiss hadn't stopped shouting, ordering Specter to stop and tugging uselessly at his spines. Mist rose from his scales. She flinched away, slipped, teetered for an instant on the edge of falling. He twisted, and Pit's stomach sank—he could see the instant she lost her balance, flipping backwards over the end of the saddle.
"Dive!" Blake shouted over the wind. He reached out with his powers, drawing Weiss closer until his rider could lean out of the saddle and grab hold of her' wrist.
Mountains rose below them like jagged teeth about to snap shut. Above were the others, some diving down to try and help, others circling and shrieking in alarm. There wasn't time, they were still falling too fast. His powers strained against gravity, and he howled with the effort, and for an instant it felt as though they might finally stabilize—
Specter's tail whipped through the air, heading straight for Pit's back. He tried to twist to one side to protect Blake and Weiss, but there wasn't time—and Fang struck, catching it in his teeth and holding it there. Yang ripped herself free of the straps on her saddle and climbed up Fang's neck so that she could thrust an arm into the melee, grabbing Ruby by the shoulder.
Mountaintops shot past them. Pit got close enough to grab the ice dragon's neck in his teeth. He pulled as hard as he dared, trying to break his grip without hurting him, but then Specter stuck out a wing and it caught the wind and all four of them were spinning.
Something smashed into Pit's shoulder. His howl mixed with the sound of splintering wood, and colors blurred as their spin turned into a full nose-over-tail tumble. He caught a glimpse of pine branches outlined against a blue sky, then of the ground littered with a carpet of orange needles, hurtling towards him.
There was no time for anything, except to fling himself free of the tangle and angle himself so that he would hit the ground belly-first. Pit squeezed his eyes shut and let the earth smash into him.
This can't be happening.
Weiss watched in a numb daze as Specter reared up onto his hind legs. His teeth were red.
Blake dragged her out of the saddle. She only registered the motion when her feet hit the ground. The moment they were safely off his back, Pit charged, his freckles shining like silver stars. Spines rose on the back of Specter's neck. He screeched and clawed at Pit, his beautiful black eyes cold and blank. Like a wild animal.
That roused her. "Stop it!" she shouted, her voice hoarse with past failures. Specter didn't even notice. Storm crawled away, one wing dragging in the dirt. Fang leaped over her to grapple her dragon's other side, he and Pit working together to try and wrestle him to the ground.
Was this what Father had meant?
Weiss started to run. Blake shouted something unimportant and tried to grab her wrist. Specter loomed over her, suddenly so much bigger than she remembered, thrashing and snapping at everything in his reach. Pearly mist billowed around him, cracking the other dragons' scales.
She remembered Glacier lunging at her, remembered his horrible, haunted wail—but this was Specter. He'd curled up in her lap while she fed him frozen apple slices. He wouldn't hurt her. If she could just reach out and touch him, she knew he'd stop.
"Specter, it's me." Weiss raised her hands, taking a few slow, careful steps. "It's going to be alright. Just... just stay still. Please."
His struggles slowed. His eyes fixed on her. Hardly daring to breathe, she moved forward—and noticed, too late, the frigid bite in the air. Her dragon, her partner, blew a cloud of deadly mist right at her.
There was a flash of light. Weiss threw an arm over her face to protect it from a surge of heat. When she opened her eyes, Pepper stood between her and Specter, and steam rose from grass that had been flash-frozen and scorched to a crisp in less than a second. The fire had passed just a few feet in front of her, blocking the attack that would have killed her.
This time, when Blake caught her left arm and Yang grabbed hold of her right, she didn't resist.
Dragons were all around them, now. Huo jumped headfirst into the fight. A crowd formed around Storm, blocking her from Specter's sight, while Ruby knelt by her head and murmured soothing words in her ear.
Specter didn't stop struggling, even when he was pinned under the weight of four other dragons. He scratched at their faces, whipped his tail across their backs, formed icicles on their scales. They kept him still, barely. It was hard to do without hurting him... especially when he obviously didn't care if he hurt them.
Weiss stared helplessly at the fight. Her mind was jammed, stuck on the simple fact that Specter wouldn't do this. There had to be a reason. He couldn't be like Tornado—there would have been signs! Had she missed something? Had she done something wrong, like Father had with Glacier?
Then, as Specter snapped at Huo's shoulder, his head twisted to one side. Sunlight glinted off something buried in his frills. Something metal.
Her teammates' grips had slackened when she stopped fighting them. Weiss twisted free, making a mental note to apologize later for elbowing Yang in the stomach. If she didn't die in the next few minutes.
"Hold him still!" she shouted. They were already trying, she knew, but at her words Pit let out a low groan, and Specter's body flattened against the ground as if a massive weight pressed down on him. Weiss clambered onto Fang's back, hauled herself up by one of his spines, and jumped from him to Pit. His head came up in surprise as she climbed his neck. When she reached his head she hung there for an instant—and let go.
When she was a little girl, she'd once wheedled Winter into going on a walk with her in the middle of January. It had been pitch dark out, the air so cold that every breath burned her insides. She had stuffed her snow-soaked gloves into her pockets. There had been a wrought-iron fence, beautifully sculpted, and she'd reached out—
—curled her hands around Specter's horns. The feeling was the same. Everywhere her bare skin touched him, the cold burned. She clung to him as he twisted and bucked, snatched at the metal object nestled into his frills. Missed. Tried again, grabbed it. Pulled... but it was fixed to his scales.
On the ground, a lot of people were shouting at her—but her eyes met Blake's. She must have seen what Weiss had, because she scooped a rock off the ground and called out, "Here!"
Weiss caught it one-handed, drew her arm back, and brought it down on the tiny metal plate with all her strength. Once. Twice. Again and again, until it dented and sparked and fell away. It hit the ground with a muted thud.
And after that... silence.