//------------------------------//
// Flight to Beacon (New) 
// Story: SAPR 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Flight to Beacon


Pyrrha drove her spear down into the boarbatusk's neck. The grimm struggled for a second or two, squirming, wriggling, trotters scrabbling against the ground, before the creature fell silent and its head dropped down to the ground, dead.
Smoke began to rise from the body.
Pyrrha looked up. The night's darkness might conceal much, but she could not see any other grimm present, or even approaching; she could not hear them either, and grimm were not usually the sort to mask their coming in silence.
Although that is not to say they cannot, I suppose.
"Another scout," Arslan muttered. "At what point are they going to stop scouting and send in a real attack?"
"Don't tempt fate," Pyrrha replied, darkly.
Arslan snorted. "I'm not complaining, much," she said. "But I'm starting to wonder if this is as much about gathering intelligence as it is about fraying our nerves. They have to know it's just the four of us here by now—"
"But they don't know how close the others are, or where they are exactly," Ren pointed out. "After all, we've already led them into an ambush once; how can they be sure that we aren't doing so again?"
"I suppose," Arslan admitted. "But they could still find a better way of going about it than this, don't you think? This … do they expect this to get them anywhere?"
"Maybe they're hoping to get lucky," Nora suggested.
"Or maybe this is all just to keep us occupied while they come up with a plan," Ren suggested.
"That is a grim thought," Pyrrha murmured. "I hope you're wrong, Ren."
"I hope I'm wrong too," Ren replied, in a very soft voice.
"Pyrrha!" Blake — Blake?! — called out from behind them.
Pyrrha turned, wondering for half a moment if she had misheard the voice, but no, it was Blake, back again so soon, running towards her from the direction of the main body retreating ahead of them.
"Blake?" Pyrrha asked. "What are you … I thought you'd gone back to the Atlesian lines?"
"We did," Blake replied, slowing to a halt just a few steps away from Pyrrha and the others. "And now, we're back. Jaune told me that I'd find you this way." She paused, looking at Ren and Nora. "They also told me … about Yang. I'm sorry. She was … you know better than I what she was. I'm sorry."
"Thanks," Nora murmured. "Really. But you didn't come all the way back here again just to tell us you were sorry, did you?"
"No," Blake admitted. "I'm afraid I didn't. I'm here for Pyrrha," she turned her golden eyes on Pyrrha once again. "You need to come with me. Rainbow's waiting with the Skyray."
"Come with you?" Pyrrha repeated; she had not expected that, but at the same time, perhaps she ought to have, all things considered. Why else would Blake be here, back again, after all, except to whisk them off somewhere? "Where? And why?"
"I'll explain everything once we're together," Blake assured her. "Jaune, Penny, and Ruby are waiting at the airship; come with me and—"
"Wait, please," Pyrrha said, gently but firmly at the same time. She glanced at Nora and Ren; for a little longer, she glanced at Arslan. 
Ruby had told her, when the others set off to hunt for the Apex Alpha, that Pyrrha had better stay here, lest her being seen to flee disheartened the Haven students. Pyrrha hadn't liked that advice, hadn't liked seeing Jaune depart without her one bit, but … what Ruby had said at the time was just as true now. If this was another mission for which they thought they might use her help, then … then she might have to decline.
On the other hand, it might be something of greater import. She couldn't know. She couldn't know because Blake hadn't said.
"I understand," she said, "why you and Rainbow might want to wait and only explain everything once, but I have responsibilities here. I'm sorry, but I can't just leave with you upon your word and wait for the explanation. I can't desert everyone, it would…" Pyrrha searched for a way to explain that it would risk disheartening them without sounding unbearably pretentious, or obsessed with her image. "People are counting on me," she said, and hoped that sounded more reasonable.
Blake hesitated for a moment, biting her lip.
"Professor Ozpin's dead," she said bluntly.
Pyrrha gasped. Professor Ozpin … dead? She … Pyrrha could not say that she liked the headmaster, not since … well, not since he had asked her to climb into that infernal machine and mingle her aura and her soul with Amber's; she would not mourn for him as for a friend, but at the same time, he was their headmaster, the leader of the struggle against Salem, a hero to Vale, and for those reasons, his death would come as a heavy blow. And, being older, Professor Ozpin had acquired that quality that the old sometimes possess — the Lord Steward had it also — of seeming permanent, eternal, someone who had been there when you were born and who would still be there, always, maybe even when you were not.
In the case of the headmaster, that was less hyperbolic than might otherwise have been the case. As the headmaster he would quite literally still be there, at the school, once all the students had departed and been replaced by a new generation.
Or so he would have, had he lived.
Pyrrha did not look on Professor Ozpin with great affection, but she could readily admit that he was trying his best, according to his lights and the many heavy burdens laid upon him. He had tried his best, for according to Blake, he was now dead.
They were in the midst of a great battle, perhaps the greatest battle since Ares Claudandus overthrew Lagune at Fort Castle; many valiant souls had fallen already, Yang among them, and yet despite all that, to learn that Professor Ozpin, too, was dead came as a shock.
"WHAT?" Nora exclaimed, displaying her shock more vocally than Pyrrha had. "Professor Ozpin's dead? Are the grimm attacking Beacon again?"
"No," Blake said, without taking her eyes off Pyrrha. "Amber's back."
She did not say any more. She did not need to. What she had said was enough to make it clear. Professor Ozpin was dead, and Amber had returned to Beacon to claim the Relic of Choice that she would then hand over to Salem.
"How do you know this?" Pyrrha asked softly. "Are you certain?"
"Yes," Blake said. "But as for how, that will have to wait. Rainbow can explain it better … and we don't have a lot of time."
No. No, they wouldn't have much time, not if Professor Ozpin was already dead, not if Amber was already at Beacon … if Amber was still at Beacon. Time might have already run out, depending on how long it had taken Rainbow to fly over here.
No. No, time has not run out until the Relic is in Salem's custody; until then, though it may have been removed from the vault, we may be able to take it back. 
She would have to go. There could be no question of her remaining behind this time. She would not — could not — leave Jaune and Penny to fight this battle without her, to face a Maiden and her allies.
Together, the five of them had triumphed over Cinder and her half of the Maiden powers, but they were without Sunset now, and for them to also be without Pyrrha too … no. No, the idea was not to be borne.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly to Ren and Nora, turning towards them. "I have to go. Arslan, can you … finesse my absence, with the others? Perhaps?"
"You mean make up an excuse," Arslan said. "Or something else?"
"As you will," Pyrrha replied. "Call it an excuse, if you like—"
"I'd rather not," Arslan told her. "Where are you going? What's so much more important there than the battle going on here?"
"I have no time to explain," Pyrrha declared. "Not now, at least, maybe later; for now … the battle going on here, even if it is won, will all be for nothing unless things at Beacon are … taken care of."
Arslan looked into Pyrrha's eyes. Her own eyes of olive green narrowed for a moment, then returned to their usual size. "Okay, P-money, have it your way," she said. "I'll trust you, for now. I'll tell everyone … I'll come up with something. Use all my charm. Well, if you're going back, and if I need to go back to speak to the others for you, then you two should come back as well, unless you want to be stuck here by yourselves. We can organise a new rearguard in Pyrrha's absence."
"Right," Nora agreed. Ren nodded silently.
"Very well then," Pyrrha said. "Thank you, Arslan. Lead on, Blake."
Blake led on without a word, turning her back on Pyrrha and the others, the ribbon tied to the hilt of her sword bouncing and flowing just a little behind her, even as her wild black hair rose and fell with her movements as she bounded back the way she had come.
The moonlight glinted upon her silver honour band.
Pyrrha followed her, as did Arslan, Ren, and Nora, all of them retreating backwards — fortunately, they were not retreating in the face of any enemy that were close by — following in the footsteps of the main body, until they came to an Atlesian Skyray, landed on the ground, side door open, with Jaune, Penny, and Ruby standing nearby.
Rainbow Dash, too, was outside of the airship, although Ciel remained within, looking down upon those without.
The other huntsmen and huntresses of Beacon and Haven, plus the remaining Mistralian soldiers, had stopped moving; none of them were too close to the airship, but they were all looking at it curiously, perhaps even in some case warily.
As Pyrrha approached the others — Ruby, Jaune, Penny — she wondered if they knew that Professor Ozpin was dead. If they had been told, or if Rainbow and Blake had refused to explain, keeping it to themselves until everyone was together. Had she, by her obstinacy, learned more than they? Was the shock yet to land on them?
How great a shock would it be to them?
Rainbow looked at Blake as she approached. "You found her okay, then?"
"Yes," Blake said to her. "I had to tell Pyrrha a little to get her to come with me."
"You know more than the rest of us, then," Jaune said, in a light tone that, combined with his words, told Pyrrha that he was not yet aware of everything that was happening.
Rainbow glanced past Blake, past Pyrrha, to Ren and Nora and Arslan. "How much?" she asked.
"Not too much," Blake told her. "Less than Sun heard."
"'Sun'?" Pyrrha repeated.
Sun stuck his head around the side of the airship. "Hey!"
"Okay," Rainbow said. "Well, the important thing is that everyone's here, so get onboard, and we'll brief you all once you're in the air."
"This," Ruby said quietly. "This is a … this has something to do with—"
"Our secret," Penny said. "The one that we share, with General Ironwood and Professor Ozpin."
With General Ironwood, at least, and with Professor Goodwitch, I suppose, Pyrrha thought. Not with Professor Ozpin any longer.
"Yes," Rainbow said. "Yes, it is, and it's urgent, which is why we need to go—"
"Yes," Ruby interrupted, taking a step back. "Yes, you do need to go, all of you." She looked at Penny and Jaune and finally at Pyrrha. "But I'll stay here."
"'Stay here'?" Penny repeated. "But why?"
"Because together, the six of you," Ruby began. "The seven of you, with Sun, should be able to take care of it, whatever it is, even if it's … what I think it might be. But I might be the only one who can take out that dragon, if I can just get my eyes to work properly. And not get hit in the meantime. I think I can do more good here than I can with you, and I have to do the very most good, since I'm fighting for two now." She looked at Pyrrha and smiled wryly. "It's my turn to stay behind and let everyone else go."
Her words made sense; just as they had made sense when she was bidding Pyrrha to stay behind, so too did they make sense when she was condemning herself — or volunteering herself, to be gentler — to remain behind. Her silver eyes had driven the dragon off, although they hadn't killed it; no Atlesian weapon or Mistralian hero could say the same; if she could, as she had said, not get interrupted in the middle of her attack, then maybe she could destroy the dragon. Maybe she was right, and her eyes were the only thing that could destroy it. Certainly, they would not be of much use against Amber and her allies.
"You … you're sure about this?" Penny asked, sounding somewhat unsure herself.
"I am," Ruby declared, without a trace of uncertainty in her own voice.
"Then … take care," Penny said. "And we'll be back as soon as we can."
"Right," Ruby said, nodding her head. She glanced across their number one more time. "Take care of each other."
"We will," Pyrrha said softly, before she climbed up into the airship.
Jaune didn't say anything, but he put a hand on Ruby's shoulder, and the two exchanged a wordless look for a second before he, too, climbed aboard.
Penny also got on, and Rainbow Dash leapt up and rushed into the cockpit.
She didn't close the side door on the Skyray; she must have been more concerned with getting the airship up into the air, because the doors remained open as the Skyray ascended up off the ground. As Pyrrha held onto one of the straps that dangled from the ceiling, she could see Ruby watching her from down below, and Arslan too, and many others.
Arslan waved to her as she went. Pyrrha didn't wave back; she was a little worried about what it would look like if she did. She hoped that Arslan wouldn't take offence.
But it seemed to be Ruby who watched them all most closely, her eyes — too small at the increasing distance to really make out the silver in them — fixed upon their airship as it turned away from her, and from all the rest of them.
The doors closed at last, concealing Ruby and Arslan and Ren and Nora and all the rest of the world from their view. There was only the group of them now: Pyrrha, Jaune, Penny, Blake, Ciel, Sun, and Rainbow Dash, barely visible at the controls of the airship.
A moment passed in silence, everyone holding onto the ceiling straps as the airship carried them quickly across the land.
"So," Jaune said. "Do we get to find out what's going on now?"
"Professor Ozpin is dead," Pyrrha said softly. "And, from what else Blake told me, the Relic is in danger. Isn't that right, Blake?"
"As far as we know," Blake murmured.
"'Dead'?" Jaune repeated. "Ozpin's dead? How … how do you know that?"
"Lyra called me!" Rainbow shouted from the cockpit.
"'Lyra'?" Penny asked.
"You mean … Lyra Heartstrings of Team Bluebell?" Jaune guessed.
"Do you know any other Lyras?" asked Ciel.
"She was seen with Amber," Pyrrha said. "Benni told us that: Amber, Dove, Bon Bon, Lyra, and Tempest Shadow." She frowned. "But why would she call you?"
"Are you asking why she'd call me specifically or why she'd call anyone?" asked Rainbow from the cockpit.
"The latter," Pyrrha replied. "I assume the former is because you were at Combat School together, weren't you?"
"Right," Rainbow said, raising her voice to carry into the main section of the airship. "Lyra's not a bad person. She never was, when I knew her … although I gotta admit that I never would have thought that Bon Bon was a bad person either from when I knew her, and it seems like I turned out to be wrong about that. She was bad enough to work for Salem, anyway. But Lyra…"
"From what Lyra said, it seems she didn't really know what was going on," Blake explained. "She said that she wanted to help Amber escape; she didn't know what that would involve."
"That does sound like a good person," Penny murmured. "If you didn't know all the details, then what Professor Ozpin was doing to Amber must have seemed pretty terrible."
"Some of what Ozpin wanted to do was pretty terrible," Jaune muttered.
"But he didn't deserve to die over it," Pyrrha pointed out.
"Lyra did not have all of the details, but it is clear from what she told us that Amber and her comrades returned to Beacon intending to obtain the Relic of Choice and give it to Salem to bargain for her life and safety."
"Just as Cinder guessed," Pyrrha muttered. If only I had listened.
If only we'd all listened.
"It's not all on you," Jaune said, guessing what she was thinking. "Ozpin, Sunset, why should any of you have listened to Cinder when she was just … talking, with nothing to back it up? Why should you have listened to Cinder over Amber?"
"Because she turned out to be right?" suggested Pyrrha.
Jaune didn't reply to that. Pyrrha thought that might have been because there wasn't much of a response to make.
So Pyrrha asked, "How did Professor Ozpin die, do we know?"
"No," Ciel said. "Only that Tempest Shadow was responsible, while Amber … Amber—"
"Amber didn't stop it," Blake said.
Ciel glanced at her. "Precisely."
"That's when Lyra realised that she'd got herself into," Rainbow called from the cockpit. "She took off, called me…"
"But her call was cut off," Blake said softly. "She managed to get us all the details, but…"
But she is likely dead too, Pyrrha thought. She could not say … she had known Lyra well enough to have any particular feelings for her, but it was a pity that someone who had wanted to do the right thing should perish in such circumstances.
Jaune frowned. "When was all of this?"
"Not too long ago," Blake said. "But a little time. General Ironwood ordered us to get you. Because you know where the Relic is, don't you?"
"It's really weird to hear you talk about all this stuff without understanding what it is you're talking about," Sun remarked.
If that was a ploy on his part to get people to explain to him, it didn't work, but then, Pyrrha doubted that it had been such a ploy; more likely, he was simply expressing his honest opinion.
"Yes," Penny said. "Yes, we know where it is. Amber showed us, and Ruby and Sunset."
"Penny and Pyrrha know where it is," Jaune corrected. "I don't. Amber only showed the girls."
"An intentional nod to the peculiarities of the vault or a reflection of the fact that you were not amongst her favourites?" asked Ciel.
"I don't know," Jaune replied. "Maybe just the fact that I was closer to Dove."
"'Peculiar' … is this something else I don't know about?" asked Sun.
"Briefly, Amber has a great power that was passed down to her through a line of women," Blake said. "It can only pass between women, and that power is what will enable her to remove the Relic from the Vault and deliver it to our enemies."
"Assuming that she hasn't already done that," Jaune said. "I mean, how long would it really take to get the Relic and get out? Won't they be long gone from Beacon when we get there?"
"I don't know," Rainbow called. "How hard is it to get the Relic?"
"It was a little difficult to get to the Vault," Penny said. "But not that difficult, if you have someone who knows the way."
"But how simple or difficult is the final step?" asked Pyrrha. "Amber showed us into the antechamber, but we never saw the Relic itself; that was hidden further on, behind barriers that only Amber could open. Perhaps it isn't so simple as opening a door. Certainly … layers upon layers of distractions and attacks to keep us away from Beacon, it must be a concern that retrieving the Relic will not be a swift and simple task, or why not risk doing it quickly and discreetly?"
"You think they'll still be there?" asked Jaune.
"I hope so," Pyrrha replied. "But if not, then just because the Relic is gone from the Vault does not mean that it is out of our reach. Amber and the others must first get it out of Beacon, and out of Vale for that matter, either by airship or on foot. Whichever they choose, we can still pursue them."
"If they planned on leaving by airship, that would explain a lot," Rainbow said loudly. "They've gone after our air strength so that they can't just be shot down as soon as they try and take off from Beacon."
"That…" Penny began. "How are…?" She trailed off, and then started again. "I'm glad to see that the three of you are okay. When the … we could see the dragon attacking the Atlesian line from over where we were: the cruisers, and the dragon coming down on … I'm glad that you're okay, all of you."
"We have been fortunate," Ciel said softly. "But not all have been so blessed. Team Funky is … all gone, save only Neon, and she is gravely wounded."
"Neon?" Penny asked. "I'm so sorry, Ciel."
Ciel looked at her. She said nothing for a second or two, before she said, in a very calm voice. "Thank you, Penny."
"Is she going to be okay?" Penny asked.
"No," Ciel said. "She will live, if God is good, but okay … she will never again be as she was."
"But that doesn't mean she can't be something else," Penny said. "And that something else can be a kind of okay too, right?"
Ciel pursed her lips together briefly before she said, "We shall see."
"How bad was it?" asked Jaune. "Apart from … well, you saw that we were falling back, and most of the Mistralian troops are gone."
"Including their leader," Pyrrha added.
"Our forces are falling back also, under pressure from the grimm," Ciel explained. "The dragon breached our line in two places, and the grimm poured through. General Ironwood is still alive, though I cannot vouch for battalion commanders." She paused. "The retreat will, or may already, have left the approach to Beacon exposed. Once we arrive, we may be on our own, with no more reinforcements coming."
Alone, Pyrrha thought. Not so alone, with Jaune and Penny, Rainbow and Ciel, Blake and Sun. Seven of us, all told; seven against Amber, Bon Bon, Dove, and Tempest Shadow. There are more of us, and with all due respect to Dove, we have not only numbers but better quality on our side. Tempest is the only one I do not know, but of the ones I know…
Amber is the only one that worries me. She is more skilled than you would think, given her attitude, though of course, it is her magic that is the cause for greatest concern. 
Yet, even with her magic, we defeated Cinder last night; we can defeat Amber too. 
I wish you were here, Sunset, but I also hope and believe that we can do this without you. 
Not alone and far from hopeless. 
Trust us, Professor, we won't let you down.
The Skyray jerked to one side so sharply that Pyrrha's feet left the floor and she dangled, legs kicking at the empty air, by the strap on the ceiling. Others weren't so lucky; Jaune lost his grip, and it was only thanks to the fact that the doors were now closed that he didn't fall clean out of the Skyray, only slamming into the side door with a solid thump. Blake lost her grip too, though she managed to make a lighter landing on the door.
Blake, in turn, was thrown as the airship jerked again, landing flat on her face on the floor as the Skyray righted itself. Jaune flopped down beside her.
"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked, reaching out for him with one hand.
"Rainbow Dash, what is going on?!" Ciel demanded.
"The dragon's back, and it's right on our tail!" Rainbow shouted. "Everybody hang on tight; this is going to get rough!"



Rainbow could feel a little touch of sweat on the inside of her gloves as she gripped the controls tightly.
On the sensors, she could see the large form of the dragon — an ominously-sized red blotch on the scope — position directly behind the Skyray.
Behind and getting closer.
Rainbow shifted from side to side while she thought about what to do. Never fly straight and level in the combat area, that was one-oh-one, and while that was kind of intended for enemy airships with guns, it applied to big grimm with sort-of laser weapons as well. Side to side, up and down, never letting the dragon line up for a clear shot on her with its breath attack — it was not something she wanted to get hit with. After seeing what it had done to the Ardent, she doubted that their aura would protect them from it.
But what to do? What to do?
Rainbow's mind worked faster than the airship she was flying. They were on the Beacon Road, or just beyond it; they were closing in on their destination, but that wouldn't do them a whole lot of good if they landed at the school just to all get killed by the dragon's breath. She needed to shake this thing before they got to Beacon, but how? A dive? The dragon had shown that it was pretty willing to go all the way down to the deck, and pretty good at slowing itself as well; she couldn't rely on it to slam head-first into the deck and even if it did, it would probably just get up again anyway.
Going down wasn't an option, but going up — yes, up; if she could get up, above it, if she could get up fast enough and then loop behind it, get into its blindspot, and then when it flew off looking for them, she could take the opportunity to detach and then reach Beacon before it realised what had happened.
It wouldn't necessarily be that easy, but as Rainbow hauled upwards on the control stick, yanking it backwards towards her chest, she couldn't think of a better plan.
It wasn't as though there was anything that could kill this thing, after all.
She could try and request support, see if there were any air units available to back her up, maybe draw the dragon's attention to let her get away. But, if she made that request, then she would be asking Atlas pilots to put their lives at risk for her sake against an enemy they couldn't take out, and that … Rainbow wasn't comfortable doing that. She didn't want to be the reason some poor guy's picture ended up on These Are My Jewels, no matter how important their mission was.
She would get them out of this herself, with her own flying.
And it all started with pulling up.
"Hold on!" Rainbow shouted to everyone in the back, who would get thrown into the back of the airship if they didn't take care; things were probably going to get hairy for them anyway, but there was no helping that: she had to climb.
She had to climb while moving from side to side as well in case the dragon decided to take a shot at her while she was on the rise.
Instead, the dragon's icon on her sensors became narrower, flattened out; she might have thought that it was coming up after her, but its altitude was dropping, not just relative to hers but absolutely.
It was going down.
Rainbow threw the Skyray to the left just in time to avoid the dragon's tail; she could see it flick past out of the cockpit window. The dragon must have dived and lashed out at her with its tail as it dived. Rainbow kept heading to the left, taking her just a little away from Beacon, but more importantly, it was taking her away from the dragon's tail in case it wanted to swish at her again.
She kept on climbing, although the dragon—
The dragon was also climbing, shooting upwards like a rocket to catch up with the Skyray.
Okay then, variation. 
Hope you're all still hanging on back there. Rainbow hadn't heard anyone slam into the sides since she started flying like this, at least. She threw the control stick forwards and to the right, turning the Skyray until she was facing downwards, nose pointed straight at the dragon as it erupted through the sky towards her.
Rainbow shot down to meet it, the descending thunderbolt towards the rising ash cloud.
She was glad that, in here, she couldn't hear the grimm out there.
But she could see when it opened its mouth. Rainbow jerked to the right to avoid a blast from the dragon's breath, the yellow column rising rapidly upwards into the sky, narrowly missing the Skyray, not even scraping the wing, or they might have been in trouble.
Rainbow didn't fire; this airship still had a couple of rockets, and it still had rounds in the cannons, but Rainbow didn't use them; what would have been the point, other than annoying the dragon? And Rainbow didn't want to do that.
Now that it had fired its breath weapon, she shifted back the way that she'd come, back closer to its mouth. She had to get in close, or this wasn't going to work. It might not work anyway, but it was the best plan that she could come up with, so…
The dragon didn't fire its breath at her again; Rainbow thought that maybe it couldn't fire continuously, it could only go so long and then it needed to take a break to recharge. Or they were getting close enough where it would rather bite them with its fangs than fire again.
Or perhaps, although Rainbow was sticking close, she still wasn't flying completely straight and level, and the dragon couldn't aim at her.
But the two closed in on one another. Rainbow went down, and the dragon went up.
Rainbow was glad that there was no one else in the cockpit with her, or they might have thought she was nuts and tried to take the controls off her, but she knew what she was doing.
She hoped that it would work out.
Although she moved a little, to throw off the dragon's aim, Rainbow was still mostly going down and forwards, pretty straight towards the dragon.
If she kept on going like this, then she was going to end up in its gullet. Something the dragon seemed pretty well aware of; its mouth was open, ready to swallow her up.
Rainbow shifted a little to the right.
She throttled back on the speed just a bit, keeping her hand on that particular lever ready, waiting.
The dragon didn't slow down one bit. It kept on coming, mouth open, teeth at the ready.
It lunged, neck stretching, mouth opening even wider.
Rainbow dodged, throttling the speed up to its maximum as she threw the airship just around the dragon's mouth, swaying around the closing jaws then throwing the airship back as quickly as she could, as quickly as the airship could move, towards the dragon's body.
Everything depended on speed right now. If Rainbow could get behind this thing before it saw what she was up to, then she would be golden; if not, it would all be pointless.
Rainbow raced down to the dragon's flank; out of the window, she could see the black bulk and see the occasional bone spur — not very many of them — coming out of its flesh. She could see the gash that the Ardent had made with its ram, a gash that didn't seem to be slowing the dragon down or hindering it in any way, just a cut in the blackness that revealed more oily blackness underneath.
Rainbow flew down the dragon's side, past its shoulders where its body widened out — she hugged its side as close as she could — down its body, past its thighs, and then Rainbow turned, throwing the left engine into reverse to spin the Skyray around on a pinhead so that she was flying directly behind the dragon's body, its tail stretching out above her and behind. Rainbow was tucked in behind its hind legs — its only legs — between them. The dragon couldn't see her, and even if it turned its head to look behind it, Rainbow guessed — she hoped, she really hoped — that it still wouldn't be able to see her because its own body was too big for it to see around, and even the dragon's neck wasn't so long that it could stretch back and see past its own thighs.
They were safe here. The fact that the dragon wasn't turning around to get at her — and that it hadn't yet used its tail to grab their airship and crush it — told her that they were safe here; it didn't know where they were, and all they had to do was—
The dragon moved, towards the right; Rainbow kept pace with it, keeping the fork of the dragon's legs directly in front of her, staying in its blindspot and letting the size of its own body hide her from view.
Right now, the dragon would be wondering where they had gone. It moved to the left as it had moved to the right. It dropped down, which was the moment of greatest danger as it might be in a position to look up and see them, but it didn't. It kept its face down as it dived, looking to see if its prey had gone to ground. Rainbow kept in the blindspot and made sure that she stayed that way when the dragon rose up into the sky once more.
It was taking a little bit of time, this, but that was because the dragon was searching the same area for them. It was circling now, looking in all directions for the elusive airship except for the one direction that it couldn't see.
Rainbow kept her position; though it was a little bit of a struggle, though she could really feel herself sweating inside her gloves right now, she maintained her position out of sight.
The dragon was circling just beyond Beacon. The Beacon Road was beneath them, although Rainbow wasn't in much of a position to look at what was going on below. She was more concerned with staying out of sight of the dragon, waiting for it to guess that they'd gone, that it had missed them, then it would have to head somewhere else, and then it would be a matter of racing Beacon and hope that it didn't spot them out of the corner of its eye.
The dragon began to move — more slowly now — in the direction of Beacon.
Come on, come on, look somewhere else already.
Now that the airship was flying level, everyone had their feet on the ground once more, which meant that Blake was free to come into the cockpit, one hand on Rainbow's chair, leaning forwards a little.
"What are we doing?" she asked.
"Hiding," Rainbow said. "Waiting for this guy to get bored."
"Do we have time for this?" asked Blake.
"I don't know, do we have time to get eaten?" asked Rainbow snappishly.
"Sorry," Blake murmured.
There was a moment of silence, the two of them looking at the slowly moving dragon, its body dripping black grimm ooze down onto the ground.
"It's weird, isn't it?" Blake asked. "Do you think that's how grimm are made?"
Rainbow glanced at her. "All grimm are the sweat of really big grimm like this?"
"It's possible," Blake said quietly. "We still don't know where they come from."
"That's right," Rainbow nodded. "But there'd need to be an awful lot of grimm like this dripping an awful lot to—"
She stopped, as something hit the top of the airship with a thunk like a … it sounded almost like rain.
Like a very large raindrop dripping down.
Rainbow tilted the airship to the right, one wing pointed downwards.
Slide off, slide off, slide off. 
She heard something, felt something, something scrabbling on the wing, something … were those claws digging into the wing? Had something come out of the pool already?
Rainbow tilted the airship further, as much as she dared; she wasn't afraid of a young grimm, but she was worried about what a young grimm would reveal to the dragon.
There was another scraping sound, and then a moment of silence.
Then an explosion sounded from the right. Alarm klaxons sounded in the cockpit as shards of debris buried themselves in the door. Warnings told Rainbow Dash that the right engine was out. The fact that the airship was spinning out told her the same thing.
Rainbow fought with the controls, throwing the remaining engine into reverse to create a counterforce to the spin; if she could get the airship to stop moving, get the control stick to stop jerking in her hands, stop it from trying to—
Rainbow barely just about saw the dragon's tail coming, whipping towards her. Rainbow threw herself on the stick, hurling her body against it to move it downwards. The airship dropped, partly, unevenly; the dragon's tail didn't hit the fuselage and obliterate the Skyray completely. It just sheared the other wing off.
And sent the airship plummeting in a renewed spin towards the ground.
"Strap yourself in, Blake!" Rainbow shouted as she fought the controls, for all the good that it would do. She couldn’t keep them up now, not with no working engines; this wasn't a Skybolt. The only thing that she could hope to do was crash land in the right way. "Everyone, buckle up if you can."
Blake managed to throw herself into the copilot's chair, fumbling with the restraints.
Rainbow's breathing was heavy as she fought the physics that had the airship in their grip, sending it down and down. She pulled at the shaft, trying to get the nose up, trying to get the undercarriage pointed at the ground.
"Hey, Blake," she said through gritted teeth. "Have you ever heard the one about the guy who fell off the edge of Atlas?"
"What?" Blake demanded.
"As he was falling he told himself 'so far, so good; so far, so good.’"
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because we haven't been eaten or vapourised yet," Rainbow pointed out. "So … so far, so good."
The ground rushed to meet them. Rainbow closed her eyes at the moment of impact, feeling rather than seeing. She felt the harness wrenching at her chest as she was pushed forward and restrained at the same time, she felt her neck jolted, she felt something — glass, probably — nip at her aura as it showered her.
She heard groans of pain from behind her.
She heard the klaxons sound even louder.
Rainbow opened her eyes to see red lights flashing in the cockpit. She turned her head sideways — at least she still could — to see Blake, pressed against the limits of her restraints, breathing heavily in and out.
They had landed at an angle, about forty-five degrees on their side; the one side of the airship — Blake's side — was partly buried, and a little dirt had gotten in through the shattered windshield.
They still hadn't been devoured by the dragon or fallen victim to its breath. Looking up, out of the shattered cockpit, Rainbow couldn't see the dragon, although she could hear grimm outside. How far away outside, she couldn't say, but she could hear them, and from the amount of growling and howling they were doing, they were in a pretty good mood.
Rainbow grunted as she pushed herself back in her chair to unfasten herself more easily. "Sound off," she said. "Everyone who's alive."
Sun groaned. "I'm still here."
"Me too," murmured Jaune.
"My aura is still intact," said Pyrrha.
"And mine too," added Ciel.
"I'm still combat ready," said Penny.
"Is anyone's aura broken?" asked Rainbow.
Nobody answered.
Rainbow unfastened herself and rose unsteadily out of her chair. "Blake?" she said, holding out one hand to her. With the other hand, she opened the door on the side of the airship facing upward. It grunted a bit, and groaned, but it eventually sounded like it was moving. When Rainbow bent her head around out of the cockpit, she could see it was moving, exposing the starry sky above them.
Blake managed to get her restraints off and took Rainbow's hand, accepting a little help out of the chair and then, leaning a little, out of the cockpit.
Everyone else was picking themselves up or had already done so. Pyrrha was out of the airship already, leaning back inside, reaching out to help Jaune up. Penny formed a cradle with her hands for Ciel to put her foot into.
Rainbow leapt up, grabbing the lip of the door — what would have been the bottom if they'd landed properly — and pulling herself up and out — not only the ground, but first balancing on the lip of the doorway, then sidling along until she was standing on the fuselage just beyond the open doorway, near the shattered cockpit.
It wasn't much of a vantage point, but it was a little bit of one.
Rainbow pulled her goggles down over her eyes, activating the night vision.
She could see grimm. A lot of grimm, coming this way. They weren't right on top of the huntsmen yet, but they were definitely coming towards them, with no sign of any troops or other huntsmen nearby to help them out.
It looked like an arm of the horde — or an arm of one of the hordes — detached to block the Beacon Road and stop anyone from getting up to school, including those who had gotten there before them.
Rainbow turned around. Beacon was behind them; she could see the CCT Tower rising up above, high up into the sky.
The dragon flew overhead, ignoring Rainbow and the other huntsmen and huntresses; it let out a roar as it went past, a big, long roar that echoed through the night sky. It was headed for Beacon too; that would be a problem, to say the least.
Less of an immediate problem though than all the other grimm, which were closer to the students than the students were to Beacon. Even if they could all outrun the grimm — and while Rainbow could, she was a lot less sure about Ciel or Penny, and she was absolutely certainly that Jaune couldn't, maybe not even Sun — they wouldn't like to try and get to Amber with a whole load of grimm on their tails.
Not to mention whether everyone was in a state to immediately start running. They were only just getting out of the airship.
Trying to get this done with the grimm on their heels would be pretty bad.
Blake scrambled out of the airship and came to stand beside her. Her nightvision cut through the dark to show her what Rainbow could see.
"That doesn't look good," she observed.
"No," Rainbow agreed. "No, it doesn't."
She sighed. Put the kettle on, Kogetsu, I might be calling 'round.
Rainbow edged her way across the top of the airship doorway, bending down to just about reach the rotary cannon mounted on the ceiling. She gave it a sharp tug, and then another; the mounting squeaked in protest before Rainbow wrenched it off with a snap and a groan of the metal, lifting the big gun up in her hands as she stood on the side of the airship.
"As you can hear," Rainbow said, "there are a lot of grimm coming this way. So I want everyone else to head up to Beacon right now, and I'll hold them off here."
"Why don't we just fight the grimm together?" Penny said. "And then once we've killed them all—"
"Even if we had time for that, Penny, there are too many of them," Rainbow said. "We'd never get through them all."
"But you can all by yourself?" Penny demanded. "That—"
"Believe me, Penny, I'm not singing and dancing for joy over this," Rainbow cut her off. "But it's … it's an hour to play and the last man in. Now get a move on, while you can."
Penny opened her mouth.
"Come, Penny," Ciel said. "As Rainbow said, time is of the essence." She looked at Rainbow. "The Lady protect you."
"Keep her protection for yourself; you might still need it," Rainbow muttered.
Ciel and Penny jumped down. Pyrrha said something, but unfortunately, she said it in Mistralian, which meant that it was all Mistralian to Rainbow Dash. She jumped down with Jaune — Rainbow didn't look back to make sure that they were all going; she just trusted that they were heading up to Beacon as fast as they could — and then Sun.
Rainbow was left up on the fuselage with Blake.
Rainbow tried to come up with a few words in what might not even be seconds before Blake left. She couldn't think of anything cool, but then, cool words were probably a little overrated; they might mean more if they were sincere.
"Hey, Blake," Rainbow said. "Tell Twilight—"
"Tell her yourself; I'm staying right here," Blake declared, switching Gambol Shroud into pistol configuration.
Rainbow blinked, eyes boggling behind her goggles. "Huh?"
"I'm staying here," Blake said. "With you. Together, we can double the time that we can hold off the grimm." She paused. "Besides, if I just left you here, and … how would I face any of them tomorrow?"
Rainbow stared at her. "You don't have to do this," she whispered.
"I know," Blake said softly, but serenely. "But I don't want to leave you."
Rainbow stared at her. She stared at Blake and smiled, in spite of all the grimm charging towards them.
"You're the best," she said.
Blake didn't reply, but one corner of her lip turned upwards.
“Blake?” Sun called out. “Did I just hear you say you were staying?”
Blake paused for half a moment before she said, “Yes. Yes, I am.”
“Well, don’t let me start walking before you tell me!” Sun cried. “I’m staying too; just let me get up there.”
Blake opened her mouth, as though she wanted to say something, but then closed her mouth again and said, “Okay, but hurry up; the grimm won’t wait for you.” She glanced at Rainbow Dash. “You don’t mind if Sun joins us, do you?”
“What kind of a question to ask is that?” asked Rainbow. “But no, I don’t mind.”
Rainbow faced the grimm, who were getting closer and closer by the second, eating up the yards as they rushed in a black mass.
She gripped the rotary cannon as best she could, cradling it in one arm, her other hand upon the trigger. She aimed low, knowing that it would kick the moment she started to fire.
Rainbow glanced at Blake. Blake nodded.
Rainbow opened fire.