• Published 31st Aug 2018
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SAPR - Scipio Smith



Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby are Team SAPR, and together they fight to defeat the malice of Salem, uncover the truth about Ruby's past and fill the emptiness within their souls.

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Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer

The smile slid off Sunset’s face like water slipping off a plate when it comes out of the sink. She watched as Pyrrha got to her feet; she was conscious of Jaune staring at her, and others as well as everyone on the battlefield – all the huntsmen at least, the ones who knew who she was – seemed to be moving closer to her, clustering around her.

Pyrrha said nothing, and now that the moment of peril had past Sunset found that there was an icy hand gripping her stomach as all of her fears and misgivings came flooding back to her. What if Pyrrha was about to rebuke her or reject her?

“I’m supposed to be here,” Sunset said quickly. She reached into her pocket for the parole she’d gotten from the Warden. “I have a note…I know that sounds really childish in the context but I really have a note from the prison warden allowing me to come out here and fight as I promise to go back to jail when the fighting is over. And I-“

“Sunset,” Pyrrha said softly, but however soft her voice was it yet had the power to still Sunset’s babbling.

“Yes,” Sunset said, flinching away and turning her eyes downward.

As a result, she wasn’t looking right at Pyrrha, and so it was the other girl’s strong arms around her shoulders that she felt first, and only looked around as Pyrrha drew her in and held her close and tight and warm.

“I’ve missed you,” Pyrrha murmured.

Sunset stood still, frozen with surprise for a moment before she allowed herself to believe that it was real and, knowing it was real, sagged into Pyrrha’s embrace. “I mean…it has only be a day.”

Pyrrha let out a very weary laugh. “It feels like a very long day.”

“I’ll bet,” Sunset said. “So…did you win the fight?”

Pyrrha was silent for a moment, and then she started to laugh. “Sunset, are you serious?”

“I don’t get TV in my cell, you know.”

“The grimm are literally at the gates of Vale,” Pyrrha said, taking a step back so that she could look Sunset in the eye. “Our army is trapped beyond said gates with said grimm, the gates being barred to us, you have been released from prison to participate in a desperate defence and control of the skies has been lost to us and your first question is to ask if I won my fight against Penny?”

Sunset shrugged.

“Yes,” Pyrrha said. “Yes, I won. Just.”

“Never a doubt,” Sunset said. “Congratulations.”

Pyrrha looked at her.

“I didn’t get to celebrate with you at the time,” Sunset said.

“Nobody got to celebrate at the time,” Pyrrha said softly.

Sunset considered that. She hadn’t realised…had the attack started right after? “Oh, right.” She glanced over Pyrrha’s shoulder. “Hey, Jaune.”

Jaune smiled. “It’s good to have you back. I’m surprised, but glad.”

“I was a little surprised myself,” Sunset said. “But after I saved the prison the warden owed me a favour.”

“Saved the prison?” Jaune said.

“I haven’t just been sitting around while you’ve been doing all the work.”

“Just mostly sitting around, huh?” Rainbow asked, as she walked towards them with Ciel and Penny in tow.

Sunset smiled nervously. “You could say that. Hey.”

“Hey?” Rainbow repeated. “What’s that ‘hey’ for? What are you so nervous about?”

“Well, you know…” Sunset said. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“It should be,” Ren said, from where he stood a little way off, glowering at Sunset with his arms folded across his chest.

Sunset didn’t really know how to respond to that. She guessed that Ren was angry at her for what she’d done, although she didn’t think that he would be more angry at her than anyone else. “For whatever it might be worth,” she said. “I’m sorry, about what happened. I shouldn’t have…it wasn’t right, what I did.”

“No,” Ren said, half turning away from her. “It wasn’t.”

Nora looked apologetic, but said nothing.

“I’m just glad that Team Sapphire is back to full strength again,” Penny said good-naturedly.

“Speaking for myself I would like to see this piece of paper that I believe you mentioned.”

“Ciel, come on, you don’t need to be like that about it,” Rainbow said. “Don’t we need everybody on the dance floor tonight?”

“You’re asking us to take a great deal on trust,” Ciel said softly.

“And you’re not showing any trust, come on,” Rainbow said.

“Rainbow, it’s okay,” Sunset said.

“No, it’s not,” Rainbow said. “The only way that we win this, the only way that we survive is if we trust each other.” She raised her voice so that it carried across the field. “We can’t afford to be giving one another stink eye because of where we’re from or who we are or what we’ve done. You’re here to fight with us, right?”

Sunset nodded. “Of course I am.”

“Just like you’ve fought with us before,” Rainbow said. “Just like you’ve been fighting since we’ve known you. That ought to be enough. That is enough. It’s enough for me, and it’s enough for everyone because the only that matters tonight is that we are huntsmen. Right? Everyone? We are huntsmen, and we’re going to stick together and we’re going to win this. Am I right? Say it with me everybody: we are huntsmen.”

“We are huntsmen,” said Penny and Applejack, loyally.

“Come on!” Rainbow said, raising her fist in the air. “We are huntsmen.”

“We are huntsmen.” This time the word was taken up by Sunset, Jaune and Pyrrha, and by Ciel too even if she sounded a little reluctant.

“Louder! WE ARE HUNTSMEN!” Rainbow roared.

“WE ARE HUNTSMEN!” the cry was ripped from the throat of every young huntsmen and huntress present, even surly Ren who still had his arms folded, although he lowered them as they shouted out the words until their throats began to hurt, shouting defiance at the grimm.

The grimm who had already begun to fall back, retreating away from Sunset’s shield, probably not in fear of the shouts of the huntsmen but driven by some other need or thought or plan that Sunset could not guess at. Nevertheless, for whatever reason they did it the grimm began to retreat, and as they began to retreat the gate into Vale opened up behind them.

Pyrrha gasped, as she looked from the retreating grimm to the open gate. “Everyone inside!” she shouted. “Help the wounded in first, then the other men, then the Cataphracts; the huntsmen will be the last through the gate, and the rearguard in case the grimm return.”

“You’re…giving orders?” Sunset said.

Pyrrha nodded wearily. “I’m…I seem to have found myself in command of the Mistralian forces.”

Sunset just stared at her for a moment, waiting for the punchline of the joke, or else waiting for the moment when Pyrrha’s face would crack and she would admit that she was, in fact, joking.

There was no such sign.

“Celestia, you’re serious, aren’t you?”

Pyrrha nodded again. “Must as I wish I wasn’t,” she added, as she drew a sword from across her back; not her sword, but a different one, a sword with a green blade with intricate patters woven across it. “It was given to me…not entirely with my consent.”

“I’ve missed a lot, haven’t I?” Sunset said.

“Mostly it’s just been a lot of fighting and trying to stay alive.”

“With a few slightly important details,” Weiss said quietly.

“Weiss,” Sunset said. “I…I didn’t see you.”

Weiss’ eyebrow rose. “Nobody has ever called my outfit inconspicuous before, thank you. I tagged along with your team, since they were undermanned. Obviously not the case right now, but I think I’ll stick around anyway. I think I can do as much good here as I could anywhere else.”

“What does your own team think of that?” Sunset said, though she recognised at once from the look on Weiss’ face, the way it fell, that that that had been the wrong thing to say. “Weiss…did something happen?” Flash. No, Flash, can’t be dead. Please let Flash not be dead. She hadn’t even thought about him being caught up in the maelstrom of the battle, her thoughts had been for her own team and to a lesser extent for RSPT but now, confronting Weiss with that look on her face, Weiss all alone, Weiss with the rest of Team WSTW nowhere in sight she found that…No, it can’t be.

“Flash and Cardin…they were both wounded,” Weiss said.

That was both horrible to hear and yet at the same time it also brought sweet relief to Sunset. “Badly?”

Weiss nodded. “Flash…he’ll probably end up losing a leg.”

Sunset’s breath caught in her throat. Losing a leg? Sure, they could do marvels with prosthetics in Atlas these days but losing a leg? And he danced so well. “I’m sorry.”

“I know,” Weiss said. “But I should be the one who’s sorry. I’ve been a terrible leader.”

“None of us who were chosen to lead have really covered ourselves in glory tonight,” Pyrrha said softly.

“Speak for yourselves,” Rainbow said. “I have been a totally awesome leader.”

Weiss, Pyrrha and Sunset all stared at her for a moment. Sunset shook her head. “You don’t ever change, do you?”

“Why mess with what’s already awesome?”

“Guys!” Ruby cried excitedly, as she – followed by Twilight, who kept on glancing at Ruby’s advancing back – pushed her way through the crowd of Mistralian soldiers going the other way to run towards the huntress. “Guys, you’re okay. And Sunset…” she skidded to a halt. “How are you here?”

“The Warden let me out,” Sunset said. Behind Ruby she could see Twilight wrap Rainbow Dash in a strangling hug. “I have to go back once I’ve helped save Vale.”

Ruby blinked. “Is that allowed?”

“Do you want to see my note?”

Ruby shook her head. “I…Sunset, I…I know that it might seem like I…I’m sorry that-“

“You haven’t got anything to be sorry about, Ruby,” Sunset said. “I’m the one who should be sorry, and I am. I betrayed your trust, I betrayed our friendship, I betrayed everything that a huntress of Beacon is supposed to stand for and I’m sorry for all of it. Tonight might be my last night on the battlefield but I’m going to do better while I’m here. I’m going to be a real huntress in my last fight.”

Ruby smiled. “That…that’s great to hear. Really. I just…I want you to know that I never wanted-“

“I know,” Sunset said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay,” Ruby said softly. She looked around. “Wait…where’s Yang?”

Sunset abruptly noticed that she hadn’t noticed Yang up until now. She hadn’t said anything when Sunset came back, she hadn’t said anything when Rainbow tried to pump them all up, and she was nowhere to be seen now.

“Yang?” Ruby called. “Yang, where are you? Ren, Nora, where is she?”

“I don’t know,” Nora admitted.

“We got separated during the fighting,” Ren said.

“YANG?” Nora bellowed. “Hey, Yang, get over here.”

There was no answer. There was no sign of her, there was no response of any kind, and no one piped up to say that they had seen her and they knew where she was now.

That left one terrible option, pressing down upon them all like a great weight from the heavens intended to crush the spirit.

“Yang?” Ruby said, softly, in a voice that was almost childlike with desperation. “Come on, Yang…this isn’t funny. Yang? Yang, where are you?”

“Please, no,” Pyrrha murmured, covering her mouth with her hands.

“Ruby,” Jaune said softly, walking to Ruby’s side and putting one hand upon her shoulder.

“Where is she?” Ruby demanded, looking up at Jaune. “Jaune, where’s Yang?”

Jaune looked helplessly down at her. “Ruby, I-“

“She has to be somewhere,” Ruby said. “Because there’s no way that she’d just…she can’t be…she wouldn’t just leave me.”

Jaune hugged Ruby, letting her press her face against his chestplate as he put his arms around her. “I’m sorry, Ruby. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Is this my fault?” Ruby asked.

“No!” Jaune said. “No, Ruby, of course not, this isn’t anybody’s fault. Why would you even say something like that?”

“I stopped Twilight!” Ruby wailed. “I…Twilight was going to open the gate, or make them open the gate. But I stopped her. I wouldn’t let her because…because it was the right thing to do. It was what a huntress would do. Is that why…is that why Yang’s dead? If I’d let Twilight open the gate…or am I being punished for putting the things I believed in ahead of my sister?”

“Don’t think like that, Ruby,” Sunset said. “You can’t let yourself think like that. What happened to Yang…I’m so sorry, we’re all so sorry, but you can’t blame yourself and you can’t blame it on the fact that you did what you thought was right just like you always do. You are such an inspiration to all of us, such a shining light for the rest of us to follow and Yang knew that just as much as I do, just as much as we all. Your sister was as inspired by you as anyone else here. And she…I don’t think that she’d want you to lose that.”

Ruby nodded, but Sunset didn’t think that she had succeeded in convincing her. She didn’t say anything else, but a light had gone out of those silver eyes, and whether it would return again…something that Sunset would have needed to be able to see into the future to be able to tell.

Ruby pulled away from Jaune, and her voice shook a little as she said, “So what do we do now?”

Pyrrha’s scroll began to buzz.


“General! The dragon is…it’s moving directly towards the CCT!”

Ironwood cursed under his breath. Without the CCT then communications across all of Remnant would go down…but there was nothing that he could do to stop it. He’d already thrown everything he had at that monster, and sacrificing his remaining ships and squadrons wasn’t going to save the tower.

Which meant the tower would fall, and communications would go down. And there was nothing that he could do about it.

“Transmit all logs to HQ immediately,” he ordered. “Inform the council and all units: communications are about to go down, Blackout Protocols are in full and immediate effect. Do it now.”

“Yes sir.”

Ironwood got out his scroll, his fingers frantic as he called Oz. “Ozpin, that dragon is headed right for Beacon Tower. You need to get out of there now.”

“I’m already out, James,” Ozpin said. “And I see it coming now.”

“You need to get clear,” Ironwood insisted. “When that tower comes down there’s going to be a lot of debris coming down, not to mention it spawns grimm.”

“I’m well aware, James,” Ozpin said in a tone of mild reproach. “Nevertheless, this is my school, and if I cannot defend it then I can at least not abandon it at the slightest provocation.”

“Oz-“

“Don’t worry about me, James,” Ozpin said. “You know better than most how hard I am to kill.”

Ironwood grunted. It’s not just any Ozpin we need right now. “Take care of yourself, Oz.”

“And you, James.”

Ironwood hung up. “Report.”

“Log transmissions almost complete, sir. We’ve had acknowledgements of Blackout Protocols from the Council, Home Fleet command, Argus, Cold Harbour…we’re still waiting on responses from outlying bases in Vacuo and Mistral.”

No time, Ironwood thought, watching the large red icon representing the dragon on his map make contact with the Vale CCT. For a moment all the screens in the CIC went dark, and although some of them returned after less than a moment – including the map of the battlefield, displaying his units as they retreated through the now open gates behind the Red Line – others, the international displays, did not.

A second earlier he had been connected to the most powerful and widespread military in the world, able to issue orders to units, ships and bases scattered across all four corners of Remnant; from the bridge of this ship he had been able to direct all of the vast apparatus of war under his command, to send orders in an instant back to Atlas and the Home Fleet that defended it, to the garrison based at Argus, to units scattered across the vast breadth of Anima or dug in amidst the desert sands of Vacuo.

Now he was blind to all of it. Atlas could be wiped out, the fleet reduced to falling pieces of wreckage, and he wouldn’t know. Atlas Academy could vanish and he would be completely ignorant of it. His forces could be attacked in detail and wiped out and he would not find out. He was blind. The whole world was blind. The lights were going out all over Remnant.

His sphere, of knowledge and of influence, had been reduced to this single force in Vale, within the reach of local communications. Everything else was fog to him.

That was why you initiated the protocols. Blackout Protocols were a contingency designed to mitigate against a situation just like this, by devolving authority onto local commanders (granting them the freedom to make all necessary decisions without either the need for higher sanction or the fear of later censure from that same authority) within the bounds of standing orders that prioritised self-preservation followed by the re-establishment of contact with other nearby units and eventually with Atlas itself. Even now, assuming that the message had reached them in time, all his units would be hunkering down, ensuring the defensibility of their positions, and then beginning to reach out to their closest neighbours.

Hopefully. They’d never actually done this before. They’d never had to.

They had hoped - perhaps in their arrogance they had expected – that they would never need to.


“Wait, what?” Saphron demanded, as the television that had been broadcasting non-stop news about the battle unfolding in Vale suddenly turned to static.

She and Terra had put Adrian to bed a little while ago – he didn’t need to watch this; even if he understood what was going on that didn’t mean that it was good for him to see it – but afterwards they had come back down into the living room and had been glued to the TV ever since, hoping to get a better understanding of what was going on and, in Saphron’s case, hoping to find out if Jaune was still okay.

And now there was nothing but crackling static.

“What’s going on?” Saphron asked.

“I don’t know,” Terra said.

Saphron got out her scroll and tried to call her dad, her mom, her sisters…nothing. No signal available. “I can’t get through to anybody.”

The static disappeared, replaced by a white card stating ‘Government Information Notice’.

“This is a public safety broadcast,” a calm, cool, pre-recorded voice declared. “Inter-continental communications are currently unavailable. This problem is being looked at and will be resolved as soon as possible. Please do not be alarmed.”

Saphron and Terra looked at one another. “Don’t be alarmed?” Saphron said. “Is that supposed to help?”

“I don’t know,” Terra repeated. “I just…I don’t know what’s going on any more.”


Kendal came downstairs just as Sky stomped into the living room. The Arcs’ new television was still projecting nothing but static.

“It’s the same everywhere,” Sky said. “Nobody can see a thing and nobody can get a signal on their scrolls.”

“The CCT must be down,” Dad said.

“Oh, god,” Mom murmured, covering her mouth with her hands. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re better placed than most,” Sky said. “We grow most of our own food around here.”

“We also sell a lot of it,” River said. “What are we going to do for money if we can’t export?”

“The trains will still run,” Sky said. “But I understand what you mean. That’s why the Mayor’s called an immediate town meeting in the hall. I’m just going to grab my bullhorn and then I’m going to go out and let everybody know. You guys should head over there.”

“Good luck with that,” Kendal said. “I’m heading out.”

“Heading out?” Mom repeated. “Where are you going and…and what are you doing with that gun?”

Kendal patted her trusty pistol, her last resort in the wild. “If the CCT is down then the only way we’re actually going to find out what’s going on in Vale is if somebody goes to Vale, right? And who better for that than me?”

“Just because you’re the best person for the job doesn’t mean that you should actually do it,” Sky said. “Do you think that all those monsters have disappeared just because you can’t see them any more?”

“You thought that they didn’t exist because you couldn’t see them,” Kendal pointed out.

Sky opened her mouth. Then shut it again. Her face turned. “Yeah, well…I was an idiot then but you’re being an idiot now.”

“I’m not proposing to fight my way through a horde of grimm,” Kendal said. “I hope the battle will be over by the time I get there, and if it isn’t…if I can’t find a safe way into Vale then I’ll come back and tell you all that. But if I can…if I can find Jaune, find out if he’s okay, isn’t it worth trying? What else are we going to do, sit around here and fret?”

Mom bit her lip. “Are you sure that you can do this? Are you sure that you want to do this?”

Kendal took a deep breath. “Yes,” she said. “I…yeah, I am.”

“Then wait here a minute, I’ll be right back,” Mom said, getting up and heading upstairs.

Kendal frowned, but when she looked at Dad or Sky or River they were all just as clueless as to what she might be doing up there – or why Kendal needed to wait for it – as she was.

After a little more than a minute – but who was counting – Mom came down, holding a ring on a chain in her hand. It was a plain ring, old, almost antique looking, a band of gold with a modest sapphire on top.

“If…when you see Jaune,” Mom said. “Give this to him, will you dear? It belonged to your grandmother, and I always meant to give it to him one day, and if the towers are down and everything else going on then…this might be our last chance to get in touch with him for a while.”

“You always meant to give it to Jaune?” River said. “What about us?”

“Well, if you ever find a nice boy then he’ll just have to buy his own ring, won’t he?” Mom said.

“Saphron?” Kendal said.

Mom blushed just a little. “I suppose I’m just a little old-fashioned, I’m afraid. You will take it, won’t you?”

“Sure,” Kendal said, plucking the ring out of her mother’s hand and stuffing it, chain and all, into her back pocket. “Although…I don’t know if Jaune’s ready for that yet.”

“He doesn’t need to be ready,” Mom said. “Like I said, I don’t know when we’ll see him again…this way, when he is ready…he’ll be ready, if you know what I mean.”


The dragon struck the tower hard enough to completely demolish the upper storeys, sending the spire and the gears of the clock and all the detritus of the tower’s highest levels crashing down into the courtyard of the school below, where they crushed some of the grimm that the dragon itself had spawned on its flight across the school, beowolves and boarbatusks reduced to paste as heavy blocks of broken stone fell down upon them.

The dragon perched atop the ruined tower as though it were its nest, roaring defiance at the sky, daring any foe to be brave enough to challenge it. Black ichor dropped from its belly, spawning juvenile ursai who began to pick their way down the tower’s outer wall, finding cracks and crevices in the stone with which to grip their claws.

The dragon remained on top of the shattered tower for a moment, roaring, waiting. Then it spread its wings and rose up into the skies once again, heading out across Vale, heading for the outer defences.


Jaune stared as the emerald lights winked out on the other side of Vale. The tower was…gone? That was…was that even possible?

Obviously it was, because it had just happened, but it didn’t seem as though it ought to be. That was Beacon Tower they were talking about, one quarter of the world’s communications network located in one of humanity’s four fortresses. The emerald lights had always been there, benevolent eyes watching over them, visible even from far away. Returning from their missions into the Forever Fall it was easy to tell that they were getting close to home because you could see those bright green lights glimmering in the distance, getting closer and closer, welcoming you back. Beacon tower was like a lighthouse, guiding you back no matter how terrible the storm around you.

And now that lighthouse had been snuffed out.

The tower was gone, the CCT was gone…Professor Ozpin, was he okay?

Everyone was looking at the tower, whether they were from Beacon or not they were all staring at where the lights had shone just a moment ago and now suddenly gone.

Even the students who weren’t from Beacon looked aghast, because they knew what this meant.

The only person who wasn’t transfixed by it was Ruby…because she already had something far worse to be upset about, and nobody could blame her for that. She’d just had enough sorrow to last a lifetime.

Pyrrha answered her insistently buzzing scroll, pulling it out while not taking her horrified eyes off the tower. “Yes?”

“Miss Nikos,” General Ironwood said. “I take it you’ve just seen the tower go down.”

“Yes,” Pyrrha murmured. “We can see it from here.”

“What you can’t see is that that grimm is on its way back and its coming right towards you.”

“Here?” Pyrrha said. “But…the rest of the grimm are retreating.”

“Indeed, right after an unexplained energy surge was reported from your position, is there something that you want to tell me?”

“That was me, general,” Sunset said apologetically.

“Miss Shimmer? I’m surprised to see you out on the field.”

“I have a note,” Sunset said.

“Is that so,” General Ironwood said. “My best guess is that the dragon is going to smash a breach in the Red Line just like it did the Green and then the rest of the grimm are going to resume their attack.”

“But if they do that then the whole of Vale will be open to them,” Jaune said. “We can’t let that happen!”

“Ideally we wouldn’t, Mister Arc, but what do you suggest?” General Ironwood said. “We haven’t had much luck in hurting it so far.”

“I…” Jaune hesitated. But they couldn’t just do nothing, not with the whole of Vale at stake like this. “Sunset, can you do that…whatever it is that you just did?”

Sunset shook her head. “Doing it that one time took a lot out of me, and even if I was at full strength it would be touch and go with a grimm that size.”

Jaune gritted his teeth. “So what do we do?”

“You’re asking me?”

“You’ve always got a plan,” Jaune said.

“I just got here, what’s your plan?”

“Me?” Jaune asked.

“Come on, you can almost beat me at chess you can certainly outthink some oversized flying monster,” Sunset said. “You can do this, Jaune: call it.”

No way. There was no way that Sunset was looking at him, there was no way that he was the one who was being asked to come up with a plan that would save all of Vale from a monster that the strongest weapons in the Atlesian military had failed to scratch.

Except she was. She was looking right at him and she even looked sincere. Everybody was looking at him. Pyrrha was looking at him with nothing but support and belief in her eyes, Ruby looked as supportive as she could be in her position. Even the Atlesians were looking at him – Penny was smiling at him and nodding in encouragement. Didn’t these people have any ideas of their own? Why were they all looking at him? They were all so much stronger than he was-

Then you’d better start pulling your weight in other ways.

Jaune blinked. He had no idea where that thought had come from but…it made a kind of sense. He could train for the next ten years and he was never going to be as good as Pyrrha or Ruby; he was getting better – he’d gotten a lot better – but that didn’t mean that he was going to suddenly catch up to or surpass them. He’d spent so long so worried about pulling his weight that he’d never really stopped to think that he could do other things, things that maybe only he could do.

They were all counting on him, his wonderful friends who had never turned their backs on him even when some others might have done.

How could he let them down when they needed him the most?

Think…think…think quickly because they didn’t have much time. How to bring it…bring it down.

“General Ironwood, sir,” Jaune said. “I think I might have an idea, but I’m going to need…a lot of help. Can you patch me through to the other huntsman teams?”

“Doing it now, Mister Arc.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jaune said. “Okay, everyone, listen up. That…I’m Jaune Arc of Team Sapphire. You don’t all know me but…but that dragon is coming back and it does it’s going to smash a hole in the wall and then there’ll be stopping the grimm from overrunning all of Vale. I don’t want that to happen, and I think we can stop it if we work together. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I really think that we can do this if we try. So who’s with me?”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of Pyrrha’s scroll, and for a moment Jaune feared that he had been so uninspiring that he had actively driven people away – yeah, it wasn’t much of a speech but it wasn’t that bad! – until he heard a voice coming from the other end of the line.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is with you, Jaune Arc! Along with her glamorous assistants Starlight and Sunburst!”

“Lycus Silvermane here, Team Pastel is in.”

“Team Jasmine is in, whatever you need.”

“Team Coffee, count us in.”

“Let’s see what you’ve got, Jaune Arc,” Weiss murmured.

“You know that we’re in, right?” Rainbow said.

“Count us in, too,” Nora said enthusiastically.

“And don’t leave me out either,” Arslan said.

“Or Team Sun,” Neptune said.

“We’re all right behind you, Jaune,” Pyrrha said.

Jaune nodded. “Thanks, guys. Okay, so here’s what we do.”


Jaune stood on top of a water tower, perched upon the flat metal ceiling of the structure, high enough up that he could see almost across the whole of Vale. He could see the wall, where the Atlesian troops were now taking up positions and behind which the Mistralian soldiers still huddled protectively. He could see the stump of Beacon tower far off on the other side of the city. He could see the remaining Atlesian cruisers, illuminated by all their lights shining in the darkness. He could see all the houses and the towers and the offices and the factories.

He could see the dragon making its way slowly towards them, taking its time as it loosed lots of grimm on the streets below as it flew.

He couldn’t see all of his friends, although he knew – or hoped – that they were all somewhere down there.

He himself was all alone up here, all alone except for Starlight Glimmer of Team TTGR, who had just her hand upon his shoulder.

“Is that it?” Jaune asked. “I didn’t…feel anything.”

“You won’t,” Starlight said. “That would give me an advantage, if we were fighting. You wouldn’t know that I’d just copied your semblance until I started using it against you.”

“I’m not sure it would do you that much good,” Jaune said.

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Starlight said. “This is a pretty useful semblance you’ve got here.”

“So…how does it work? How long-“

“About an hour, as long as I don’t copy anyone else’s semblance in the meantime,” Starlight said. She adjusted her hat on top of her head. “Plus, for whatever reason, I copy your semblance at full strength, so right now I’m actually stronger than you are.”

“Right,” Jaune said. He’d understood that already. That was why it was Starlight Glimmer going down there to help Ruby and Rainbow Dash with Penny instead of him.

The fact that it made sense didn’t make him feel much better about it.

“Anyway,” Starlight said. “I should get going.”

“Right,” Jaune repeated, with a nod of his head.

He looked away, hearing her descend down the side of the water tower without actually seeing her do it. His eyes searched the night for his friends. He could see Ciel in her position, and he could see Pyrrha with Neptune (a lesser man might have hesitated to leave his girlfriend alone with a guy like that but Jaune…okay, so it wasn’t so much him being a better man so much as Pyrrha inspiring that much trust), but of the others…he couldn’t see them.

“Hey, everybody,” Jaune said. “Are you in position?”

“Ciel Soleil here, in position and ready to begin on your word.”

“Penny here, we’re ready to go.”

“Starlight here, I’m not quite there yet but I will be.”

“I’m ready, Jaune,” Pyrrha said.

“Arslan ready.”

“Applejack here, waiting for this hoedown to start.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is ready!”

“Weiss ready.”

“Sage ready.”

“Yatsuhashi ready.”

“Medea ready.”

“Sunset here, I’m in position.”

Jaune sighed. “That’s everyone, I think. We’re ready to go.”

“Jaune?” Pyrrha asked. “Are you alright?”

“He’s upset that you don’t have a part to play, aren’t you?” Sunset said. “Well, don’t be. You wrote the script, this is your show. So sit back and enjoy it.”

Enjoy the fact that you’re all risking your lives and I’m not? “Sure,” Jaune said. “Okay. Let’s go. Ciel, you’re up.”


Ciel stood on the roof of a low rise towards the outskirts of Vale, a few streets away from the wall itself, overlooking an open square almost large enough for the dragon to land without causing too much damage to the building around it. There would still be some damage, but as little as they could possibly cause.

“Ciel, you’re up,” Jaune said through the earpiece she was wearing.

“Affirmative,” Ciel said, raising her rifle. Her part was the opening of this engagement. Not even Penny could be as accurate as Ciel when she was using her semblance.

Her eyes glowed a brighter blue as she activated her precognition and sighted on the dragons.

Or perhaps that ought to be the dragons. She could see two of them: the dragon that was, and the dragon would be, flying ahead of the actual and present grimm like an afterimage that went before.

It was the latter that she wanted to aim at.

Wind direction: accounted for.

Wind speed: accounted for.

Distance to the target: accounted for.

Lady of the North let me aim true.

This plan of Jaune’s was fraught with risks, yet Ciel found that she could not conceive of a more viable alternative. It was this or Vale would fall.

And the whole plan rested on her. If she couldn’t get the attention of this monster…it worried Ciel somewhat that this was the weakest part of Jaune’s whole scheme: why should the grimm pay attention to her when she couldn’t harm it? Why should the elephant concern itself with the mouse?

Yet this mouse had to get the attention of the elephant.

Comms out, navigation out, one engine on fire and a storm raging outside.

Now would be an excellent time for a miracle.

Ciel raised Distant Thunder to her shoulder and sighted on the dragon’s future image, where it would be in future.

She took aim, breathed in, and squeezed the trigger.

Distant Thunder roared. Ciel worked the chamber, the spent cartridge hitting the ground at her feet with a thud. She was already reloaded by the time her first shot hit the dragon just behind its snout.

Ciel fired again, and once again she hit the dragon’s bony face, just so that it knew where the fire was coming from.

The dragon roared. Ciel’s rounds might be mere irritants to it but it was clear that they were…irritating. Ciel fired again, letting her muzzle flash expose her position as the dragon, still growling, banked across the sky and began to fly straight towards her with increasing speed.

Ciel worked the chamber, one round fell with a clank and another took its place. She took aim, but did not fire. This wasn’t technically part of the plan, but if she could pull it off it would be worth it.

Lady, let my aim be true. For Atlas and for Vale.

“Ciel?” Jaune said. “What are you doing?”

“Taking one last shot,” Ciel replied.

“Ciel?” Jaune asked, as the dragon closed in on her. “Don’t you think you should get out of there?”

“Not yet,” Ciel said.

The dragon opened its mouth. Ciel could see all the way down its maw. She could also see one of the beast’s great eyes growing larger in her scope.

The dragon roared.

Distant Thunder roared right back as Ciel fired, her shot flying through the night air to strike the dragon in its right eye, which exploded in a burst of red leaving an ugly smear upon the creature’s bony head.

The dragon let out a shriek that was part pain and part fury as it descended upon Ciel’s perch.

“Great job, Ciel!” Jaune yelled into her ear. “Trixie, are you ready?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie has you covered!”

The dragon swooped down upon Ciel. Except that by this point it was not Ciel, but an illusion created by Trixie’s semblance, a moving copy of Ciel that appeared to be trying to reload her rifle even as the real Ciel, shrouded from the sight of the world, ran to the edge of the roof and leapt across the narrow gap to the next building, then kept running across the roof, leaping across another gap to the building across from that.

Meanwhile the dragon’s jaws closed upon empty air as Trixie’s illusion dissipated, and the dragon ploughed into the building itself, smashing through the stone and bricks as it landed heavily in the square, its wings slamming into the buildings on either side as they beat up and down.


Jaune watched from his lofty elevation as the dragon’s head burst out of the pile of rubble that had temporarily covered it, shrieking and bellowing in anger as it reared up onto its legs.

Then it caught sight of Ciel again.

It wasn’t really Ciel, this was just another of Trixie’s illusions, a phantasm of Ciel appearing to try and run away from the dragon, but it was enough to get the enraged grimm to lunge at her, its long neck diving down the street to snap after the illusory Ciel, which dissipated into smoke just as another Ciel – this one Lycus Silvermane of Team PSTL, using his semblance to assume Ciel’s appearance – charged the other way, towards the dragon, dodging its enormous mouth and vicious fangs by the skin of his teeth to strike the dragon’s muzzle with his fists.

Lycus – still wearing Ciel’s appearance – retreated back a step as the dragon drew in its neck a fraction in preparation for another lunge to try to swallow him whole.

“Thorn,” Jaune said. “Go!”

“Understood,” Thorn Hubert, also of Team PSTL, murmured. There was a flash of light from the other side of the square, behind the dragon, as Jaune watched a single arrow, glowing a cold blue, arc across the night sky before, at the very pinnacle of its arc, explode with a soft blue cloud, turning a single arrow into a score of smaller missiles, each a glowing blue-white, which descended like the rain upon the dragon, striking its tail, its feet, and even its wings. And where they struck, each gently falling shard of ice dust expanded into a block of ice encasing some part of the dragon and either weighing it down or freezing it to the cracked cobblestones of the square beneath.

The dragon howled, and as its mouth opened Jaune could see the golden light of its beam attack preparing to fire.

“Pyrrha, Neptune, do it now!”


“You know, Jaune’s actually pretty cool,” Neptune observed, as the first phase of Jaune’s plan brought down the dragon and trapped it on the ground where it was vulnerable.

“I know,” Pyrrha said, as she watched the dragon thrash and struggle, and waited for the word that that it was their turn. I only wish that he could see how cool he is for himself.

She and Neptune were holed up on the top floor (which was the only fourth floor, in this building) of a Life Assurance office on the left hand side of the street into which the dragon had heedlessly plunged its neck and head. They were crouched down, concealed in the darkness that enveloped the abandoned office, waiting for the word from Jaune to reveal themselves.

“All the same,” Neptune said. “If you ever start to get bored you know-“

“Neptune,” Pyrrha said. “You seem like a decent person, and I would like there to be the possibility of friendship between us, so please don’t finish that sentence.”

“Sure,” Neptune murmured. “This school. All the cute girls are either taken or not interested.”

“Pyrrha, Neptune, do it now!” Jaune said.

“Right,” Pyrrha said, leading the way and trusting Neptune to follow. She held Akuou before her as she leapt forward, shattering the glass of the window as he hurled herself through it and out of it to land atop the dragon’s neck, straddling it like a bull as she drove Milo straight down into the dragon’s oily black flesh. Neptune landed behind her, grabbing hold of one of the dragon’s bone spurs to steady himself before he drove his spear into the dragon’s neck as well and discharged an electrical jolt through it into the grimm.

The dragon screamed as it reared its neck upwards, trying to buck them off as they used their weapons like anchors to hold them in place.


Jaune forced himself – tried to force himself – not to worry too much as he watched the dragon shaking its neck and up and down trying to throw Pyrrha off, tried not to let his concern for Pyrrha overwhelm him as she clung on to the dragon’s neck. This was part of the plan, part of his plan, one more thing to keep the dragon distracted, keep it occupied.

He watched as the dragon discharged that icky black goo down on the stones of the square beneath it, goo which started to spawn into lesser grimm to back it up while it was trapped and helpless. The dragon shrieked, and for all Jaune knew that might be a signal for more grimm to come and help it out.

“Support teams, move in!”

The huntsmen emerged from the left and right, led by Coco Adel on the left-hand side and by Jason Ash of Team JAMM on the right, they charged out of hiding to do battle with the lesser grimm who spawned from the dragon’s sweat. Sunset was there, Jaune could spot her flaming sword even if he couldn’t exactly see her in the darkness and the press, and so were Ren and Nora and RSPT’s friend Applejack, and Medea’s skeletal minions of her semblance joined them too as every grimm that spawned was met with sword and spear and gun.

“Yatsuhashi, Sage, Weiss, you need to go now.”

The dragon was starting to pull itself free from the ice now, the icy blocks in which it was imprisoned starting to crack under the sheer force that the monstrous grimm was able to bring to bear as it struggled to free itself. But if they let it take flight now then they would never get it, and so Yatsuhashi and Sage, two of their strongest fighters with those enormous swords, plus Weiss who could not summon an armoured knight with a sword that was even bigger than either of those wielded by the other two, were too ignore all the other grimm that their comrades were fighting and focus wholly and exclusively upon severing the dragon’s wings.

The three of them – the two huntsmen and the summons, if Jaune remembered what Weiss had called it correctly – waded into the battle going on around the dragon but did not join it; the other huntsmen kept the grimm off them and they, trusting their team-mates and comrades, ignored the grimm around them as they hacked at the dragon’s wings with their greatswords, slicing through the thick black spurs and through the scarlet leather of the wings.

The dragon howled in pain even as, freed from its trapped wings, it rose up, rearing its whole body upwards as it sought to free its still frozen legs and tail.

Pyrrha and Neptune, knowing what was coming next, leapt clear.

“Ruby, Rainbow, Penny,” Jaune said. “Now!”


“You got it Jaune,” Rainbow said. “Are you ready to do this, Ruby?”

Ruby nodded, subdued, not that Rainbow could really blame her. “Let’s do this.”

“Penny?”

“Ready!” Penny declared with an almost unholy glee as Rainbow and Ruby carried her, holding her between them like a missile they were bringing to be loaded on the underside of a wing.

Starlight Glimmer stood between them, her hands held out, hovering just over the pair of them as said hands glowed with the white-gold light of Jaune’s semblance, a light which in turn started to cover the pair of them as she used the power that she’d taken – okay, she hadn’t actually taken it, but to be honest Rainbow had always found Starlight’s power to be kind of creepy even though she only used it with good intentions – to boost their auras. Jaune, who had been using his semblance quite a bit over the course of the battle, wouldn’t have been able to give them much, but Starlight still had a lot of aura in the tank and so had a lot more to give. Rainbow could sense her own aura getting stronger and stronger as the light flowed over her like a warm shower. She’d be even faster than normal now.

“On three,” Rainbow said. “One, two, go!”

They took off, Ruby and Rainbow running as fast as they could, rose petals mingling with the rainbow trail as they surged down the street with Penny beaming like a fiend in between them even as the force of their combined speed buffeted at her.

They rounded the corner – Rainbow running off the wall as they made the turn without slowing down one little bit – and came face to face with the dragon, the wingless roaring dragon that was up on its legs and presenting a nice big juicy target to them.

“Out of the way!” Rainbow yelled as they charged down the street. “Penny, do it!”

Penny was still beaming as her Floating Array unfolded out of her back and assembled in front of her and her two carriers, spinning rapidly around and around so that they formed a kind of drill of swords.

A drill of swords that fired a laser bream upwards to strike the dragon where its heart would have been if it had one. The dragon shrieked. Ruby and Rainbow kept on running, faster and faster and Penny’s laser kept on firing, the swords of Floating Array spinning round and round as Rainbow and Penny leapt upwards.

All three of them were roaring at the top of their lungs – or whatever Penny had – as they flew straight for the dragon’s chest, where Penny’s whirling blades struck at the site marked by her beam and proceeded to drill right through the dragon and out the other side.

The three of them landed on their feet, having made a giant hole right through the dragon.

Rainbow’s only regret was that she didn’t have her sunglasses with her as the dragon, with a last croak, turned to dust behind them.


They were already celebrating by the time that Jaune got down from the water tower. They were all down in the square where the battle had taken place. Yatsuhashi of Team CFVY had hoisted Penny upon his broad shoulders while Arslan was leading some of the huntsmen in a chant of ‘Dragonslayer! Dragonslayer!’

Penny looked thrilled at the attention. She had a smile on her face as wide as Jaune had ever seen, she looked as though she was consumed by the ecstasy of the moment the heady joy that came from accomplishing something immense and the even headier sensation of being feted by it.

Jaune stood at the edge of the crowd, smiling softly, tempted to join in the chant except that he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. This moment belonged to those who had fought, all he had done was tell them what to do.

But Penny saw him, and her smile grew even wider – was that even possible – as she waved to him. “Jaune! It worked! It really worked!”

“Yeah,” Jaune said. “I guess it did, didn’t it?”

“It worked wonderfully,” Pyrrha said warmly as she pushed her way gently through the crowd towards him. She kissed him on the cheek. “You did so well, Jaune, I…I hope you don’t take it the wrong way when I say I’m so proud of you.”

“But I didn’t do anything?”

“You did everything,” Sunset said. “None of this would have worked if you hadn’t dreamed it all up.”

“Penny’s the dragonslayer,” Rainbow said. “But you were the general of this little fight. Penny and Jaune!”

“Penny and Jaune!” everyone cried, and Jaune was afraid that some big guy might pick him up on their shoulders too, if Rainbow’s scroll hadn’t chosen that exact moment to go off, followed less than a moment later by that of Pyrrha.

Rainbow pulled out her scroll and snapped it open. “Blake?” she asked Pyrrha.

Pyrrha’s face had suddenly turned very grave, and a little pale. She shook her head. “Ozpin.”

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