Oh noes! How will Byleth save Dorothea this time?
Chapter 26 – Plummet (Verdant Rain Moon)
The wind and rain whipped through Dorothea's long brown hair as she fell from Conand Tower, but neither could drown out her screaming. She knew she was going to die, despite how desperately she wanted to live. And even though the rain thoroughly soaked her as she fell, she could acutely feel the tears streaming from her eyes.
In her panic, she did not see that Byleth had dove off the side of Conand Tower. It was not until Byleth had grabbed the girl mid-fall that Dorothea realized it. Yet Byleth's grasp did nothing to stop her screams.
"Grab onto me!" Byleth shouted.
Without even thinking, Dorothea complied, gripping the professor as tightly as she could. Byleth then spun the two around in mid-air and swung her right arm, still grasping the Sword of the Creator, at a nearby barred window. The sword lashed out in its whip form, its segments flying precisely through the metal bars and, as if alive, the blade wrapped itself around two of the bars, locking in place as the blade went taut.
Dorothea stopped screaming as her fall was abruptly halted. At the same moment, Byleth let out an agonizing shriek of her own as her arm nearly popped out of its socket. The teacher held her blade as tightly as she could, despite that her arm felt like it was about to be ripped off.
Still in a panic, it took Dorothea a few seconds to realize that she was not dead. Slowly she opened her eyes and found herself looking into Byleth's gaze. She bore a look of pain across her normally stoic face. It was all it took to make Dorothea realize how dire their situation was.
"P-Professor?" Dorothea whimpered.
"Don't—URGH—thank me just yet…!"
Doing her best to ignore the pain, Byleth glanced around at their surroundings. The two were dangling from Conand Tower, still around a hundred feet off the ground. The sound of crumbling bricks caught Byleth's attention, so she looked up briefly to see the window bars that were holding them were starting to come loose. They didn't have much time.
She looked down below. Her eye caught the sight of a small balcony nearby, some twenty feet below them, but about eight feet off to the side. It was their one chance to survive.
"Dorothea, listen to me," Byleth said quickly. "We're going to swing ourselves over toward that balcony below us. It's our one chance to – NNGH!"
The two suddenly lurched as one of the bars above broke, leaving the Sword of the Creator only clinging to one last bar. Dorothea let out another terrified shriek at the brief drop.
Byleth knew they were out of time.
Nearly hysterical, Dorothea shrieked, "P-Professor, I – I don't want to die! I don't want to die like this!"
"Dorothea, I promise you, you're not going to die! We're not going to die!"
As Byleth said this, she began to swing her long curvy legs. The two began to swing back and forth as they dangled from the barred window, slowly gaining momentum. But with each swing they made, the remaining bar that held them up became more and more unstable. Soon it would break.
"Hold on, Dorothea! We're almost there. Get ready! One! Two! THRE–"
As Byleth shouted, the bar finally gave way, and the Sword of the Creator came loose from its anchor, slightly sooner than Byleth had expected. Dorothea let out another ear-splitting scream as the two plummeted. Byleth looked down at the balcony as the two rapidly descended toward it. They were going to land on it, but just barely.
Byleth let out another howl of pain as her feet struck the balcony, taking the full force of the impact. The jolt caused Dorothea to lose her grip on Byleth, and she stumbled back as her feet touched the stones, falling onto her rear.
But as Dorothea landed safely, the stones beneath Byleth's feet, right at the edge of the balcony, broke away.
Byleth let out a yelp of surprise. Reflexively her hand shot out and grabbed for the edge of the balcony, her fingers barely catching onto the crumbling side.
And then, a few seconds later, the stone she held onto broke off as well.
"PROFESSOR!" Dorothea shrieked as she lunged forward and grabbed Byleth's arm.
Byleth yelped again as Dorothea caught her, her arms searing with pain as she found herself dangling from the singer's grip. Despite her prior panic, Dorothea slowly began to pull Byleth back up onto the balcony. It took a full minute of exertion from the singer before Byleth was finally up on solid ground.
The two couldn't find anything to say to what had just happened for a good two minutes. Byleth panted in exhaustion as she lay on her side, while Dorothea was on her knees as she sobbed in relief. The pouring rain soaked them through their clothes, which clung to their figures, but neither of them was in any state of mind to care.
Then Byleth pushed herself up as she asked, "Dorothea, are you alright?"
Breathing heavily in relief for a moment, Dorothea then said, "Let's… let's never do that again, okay?"
"I concur with her, you buffoon!" Sothis shouted, startling Byleth. Byleth managed to mask her surprise with a loud wince as pain shot through her limbs. She was surprised that she hadn't broken her legs from the landing.
"You're hurt!" Dorothea said in concern as she raised her hands and began to channel her Mana.
The pain in Byleth's arms and legs began to dim as Dorothea's healing magic took effect. It wasn't completely subsiding, but at least it didn't feel like Byleth's limbs were about to fall off.
"Do you have absolutely no concern at all for your well-being, or my own?!" Sothis continued to rant. "You knew I could not yet reverse time for you and yet you still leapt like a lunatic after that girl! Were you dropped on your head as an infant?!"
Byleth did her best to ignore Sothis as she said to Dorothea, "You've been practicing…"
"Yeah, I have," Dorothea replied. "Turns out I have a knack for it. I mean, I'm nowhere near as good as Mercedes or Manuela, but still…" Finishing her spell, Dorothea then asked, "That feel any better?"
"Yes, it does. Thank you."
Dorothea made a short smile to this, but then she turned her gaze down to her knees and, despite being soaking wet, Byleth could see her crying.
"Why did you do that…?" the singer asked somberly.
"What…?"
"Why did you jump after me like that? You almost got yourself killed for my sake! Why?"
"Are you listening at all?!" Sothis shouted. She clearly did not like being ignored. "Why in the world did you do something so STUPID?!"
Byleth was silent for a moment as she thought of what to say. Then, in a way that she could answer both Dorothea and Sothis, she said, "Because I wanted to save you, Dorothea."
Dorothea looked up at Byleth, disbelief written across her face. Sothis, in the meantime, was dumbstruck by Byleth's simple answer.
"But… why me?" asked Dorothea. "Why would you risk your life like that for someone like me? If I died, no one would've cared! I'm just some girl from the streets! I'm not some important noble or royalty or anything! I–"
Dorothea stopped as, suddenly, Byleth clasped her hands in her own. When the singer looked up at the professor's face, her own lit up in surprise.
It was the first time Dorothea had ever seen Byleth smile.
And then another voice interrupted them. "Dorothea! Professor!"
The two of them turned to the balcony's entrance as the sound of footsteps rapidly approached them. Seconds later, Edelgard came rushing into view, her face one of uncharacteristic worry that turned to relief upon seeing the pair alive.
"You were saying?" said Byleth.
"Thank goodness you're both alright!" Edelgard said as she ran up and knelt next to them. "When you went over the side, we all thought you were done for."
Claude then strode into view as he said, "Gotta admit, Teach, you diving over the side like that is a kind of crazy I wouldn't have expected from you."
"You can say that again!" Leonie interjected, having been fast on Claude's heels. "Why'd you go and do something like that?! Not that I'm not glad you and Dorothea are alright, but what would I have told Captain Jeralt if you had–"
"Leonie, that is quite enough," said Lorenz, earning a glare from the Sauin hunter.
"Yeah, Leonie," added Caspar. "You should be thankful that everything worked out!"
"I am in agreeance with Caspar," said Petra. "I have gratitude that you… I mean, I am gladdened that you both unhurt."
Then, just as Leonie was about to chime in again, a loud wailing cry came from the group as Bernadetta rushed forward and threw herself at Dorothea, who caught the purple-haired girl.
"D-D-D-Dorothea, you're aliiiiive!" Bernadetta cried. "I thought you w-were a goner!"
"B-Bern, I–"
"Pleaaaaase, don't ever scare me like that agaiiiiin!"
Still on her knees as Bernadetta cried into her shoulder, Dorothea watched as the others came running down the tower, each one with words of thanks and relief at their survival. The only exceptions were Dedue and Felix, who were busy carrying a wounded Gilbert on their shoulders, yet their expressions showed that they too were glad that Dorothea and Byleth had survived.
Stunned, Dorothea could only stammer, "I… I…"
The others' words stung Dorothea's heart with pangs of regret at her words. How could she have been so foolish to think no one would have mourned her if she had perished?
"I'm sorry…" Dorothea sobbed as she buried her face on Bernadetta's shoulder. "I'm so sorry I…!"
She couldn't even finish her apology before she broke down in tears.
Byleth had to get that Smash move from somewhere, right?
Also, I'm sure people are going to raise eyebrows to how tall I made Conand Tower and how far Byleth and Dorothea fell (even a 15 foot fall height can be deadly in real life). Try to suspend your disbelief with it, and remember that Byleth is technically superhuman.