[Opener is "Tornado" by Owl City]

[Hey, if Kip and the DJs can have a chapter, why not other non canon characters? I'm sure some of you are dying to know more about him anyway. At least I hope.]

Teach was flying the ship, while Calico was on his scroll.

"We had no choice but to take them, Annie--Annie, listen, I know, blast you, but they saw too much. Don't worry, the little 'motivators' will have finished them off by now.... How could they survive that?... I'll bloody check if you want me to!"

He swore some more. "Women!"

"She might be right," Teach said. "I've heard stories about that Pine person. And Zapato survived the Grimm attack in that town we heard about. Should have just killed them ourselves."

"This way our weapons won't be implicated, I told you," Calico snapped. "Both you and Annie, you're such worriers."

He walked toward the back.

Cinder, hearing this, formed a glass bow in her hands, with an arrow.

Oscar shot her a look. 

"What are you doing?" he mouthed.

Cinder pressed her lips together thinly in a look Oscar didn't like.

Oscar put a hand on her arm. "Don't," he said in the faintest whisper he could manage.

"Why does it matter?" Cinder's hand was shaking, despite her expression.

She actually didn't know if she'd go through with it. She hadn't before when she had the chance in the dock.

But things seemed more hopeless now.

"It matters because you can't do this," Oscar said. "Even with two witnesses, you know you shouldn't risk it."

"I've been exposed already. It's all over." Cinder's old nature would have been to take these guys down with her if she was going down anyway, and Oscar knew it.

"No, it's not too late. I don't think you've been exposed." Oscar hurried because the guy was getting closer. "Just let it go. Don't throw away all that work for this guy."

"Yeah, he's not worth it," Royal added, though he was mostly just trying to think of something he could use as a weapon.

"Just some thief," Oscar said.

"They have Grimm on their ship. Are they even really normal?" Cinder said tightly.

"Cinder...really?" Oscar didn't have to say more than that.

Cinder bit her lip so hard it was surprising she didn't make it bleed.

Then she lowered the bow slowly, and it turned into shards of glass.

Somehow, the act of giving up the idea made her feel shaky, like she'd been on the edge of a precipice and not looked down till then.

Oscar was relieved.

"Hey, if he's coming back this way, I have an idea." Royal spoke as if that hadn't happened at all. "Follow me."

He moved back toward the back wall.

The other two had no wish to go towards the claws, but it wasn't like going toward the crazy pirates was much better, so they followed him.

Royal backed up to the wall just in front of them.

"We're out of sight here," he said. "And luckily they can't hear us too well. Teach will have that headset in. We can take the other guy out, and he won't know a thing, then it's just him. Should be easy."

"Oh, okay, that's a good idea," Oscar agreed. "Uh...Cinder, you might want to step back."

Cinder shrugged. "Why not just lure both of them back here?"

"But who would fly the plane?" Royal asked.

"They could put it on autopilot," Oscar pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but this area has been known to have Grimm in it, at least if we're around Argus still but not in the towns. I figure we have to be south. There's lots of Grimm between Argus and the other cities. They're small usually, but still, if you can't see them.... And there's the floating rocks too," Royal protested.

"We could risk it for a few minutes if you could get to the front," Oscar said.

Cinder gave Oscar a look.

"Oh...right," he said. "I forgot about that. Okay, Id think it's a good idea. But then we should make some noise."

"Maybe knock some of the crates over. That should do it," Royal suggested. "As long as they don't hit us when this thing turns."

"I guess one problem at a time." Oscar was so used to dodging stuff in training that this sounded like a small issue in comparison.

Cinder just nodded curtly.

"What...?" they heard Calico say suddenly. "Where did she go?"

Cinder tensed.

"She can't be free. She'd have killed us by now," Calico went on talking to himself. "Maybe she crawled around to try to hide. The other two should be long dead by now, but if those Grimm killed her too, the customers will not be happy."

He moved closer to them.

The pause was really dreadful. It took seconds, but it felt like hours.

Oscar tightened his grip.

Cinder, knowing to stay out of his way, stepped back a little more.

She was closer to the screen and the Grimm now, which she didn't like, but they had made no move to grab any of them before, after Oscar hit them, so it was probably okay.

She wondered to herself if she was still covered or if Argus had figured out it was her. Maybe not if the air pirates hadn't told them themselves. Would they have?

Could Winter or Raven hush it up? Would they want to?

Probably not.

This was all Faye's fault. This would never have happened if she'd just gone to Argus herself.

Cinder reflected way too late that thinking negative thoughts in front of Grimm was not the smartest idea.

At the same time, Calico stepped around the boxes and saw them all standing there, totally not dead, and stopped short.

"What the h---?!" he said.

"Heaven." Oscar readily used one of Shine's lines.

Calico didn't get it.

"Teach!" He began to holler. "Teach, they didn't die!"

He held out his weapon.

Royal knocked some of the crates toward him, and Oscar shot his spear out--it extended farther than it used to--then he pressed a button, and a coil came out of the tip of it and lashed around Calico's taser-like weapon. Oscar then yanked it out of his hand.

The crates crashed down and made a noise that was startlingly loud after all that whispering.

Teach heard it, dimly, and started to look back.

"Jack, what's going on back there?" he yelled impatiently.

Oscar lunged at "Jack" before he had much time to recover, and started to ram him into the wall.

Jack fumbled to pull out a gun instead of a taser.

"Oscar, careful!" Cinder said warningly.

A bullet going off in here could be bad.

"Did that just move?" Royal was looking at the screen hiding the Grimm.

Cinder turned in time to see one of those claws slashing through it like it was paper--which, in fact, it wasn't much thicker than paper.

They seemed to be aiming for Calico himself at first, from their direction, but as he was too far away, they soon turned toward Cinder, as if sensing her fear.

Cinder moved to back up and hit a crate instead of the floor, making her stumble.

The claw lashed out, as in fact Grimm tended to only be egged on by someone running from them, and grabbed her almost at the throat but missed and went more to her collarbone.

Claws pierced her skin before she could activate her Aura.

Cinder had a terrible moment of thinking of those demon plants with their tongues that had nearly killed them all.

What had they been? Pride? Shine had said that was the root of all the others. Maybe these things were pride too.

But there was no sickly, pleasant feeling from this, only the sense of energy leaving her body.

"Cinder!" Oscar was distracted.

Calico kicked him, making him almost drop his spear, and he fell back onto the floor.

Calico pulled out his gun and tried to shoot him, but Oscar deflected it with his spear, as any Beacon student would have.

"I'm okay," he told Royal, who seemed to be wondering what to do here. "Get her off of that before it's too late. Cinder, fight it!"

"Shut up and give up, you little brat." Calico tried to stomp on him, and Oscar twisted to dodge and then kicked his feet out from under him. Calico fell back again.

Oscar thrust his staff down on the guy's head and knocked him mostly out; he might still have been slightly aware.

Royal grabbed Cinder's shoulders and attempted to pull her off the claw.

Cinder was trying to pry it off of herself but couldn't get a really good hold.

"I got it." Oscar slashed his spear through the arm, and it dissolved.

The impact knocked Cinder and Royal both over into the crates and made another crashing sound.

"That's it," Teach muttered to himself, pressing the autopilot button.

"Cinder, are you okay?" Oscar was a little pale.

"Do I look okay?" Cinder frantically pressed at her collarbone. 

"Stop touching it. You're just going to make it worse," Oscar said. "Just calm down. Activate your Aura."

"Activate my Aura? Sure, that's going to help!"

"It might, if you'd just shut up and do it." Oscar was way more salty than he used to be.

Too much hanging around Ruby or Qrow maybe.

Cinder, naturally, wanted to slap him, but she put her hand down, and slowly her Aura activated.

"The good news is, I don't think it's that deep," Oscar said, after a moment. "And they missed your heart, thankfully. I had a really sickening sense of deja vu there. Remember th--?"

"Don't say it!" Cinder cut him off.

"Sorry, I know, that makes it worse," Oscar said. "I think I can help actually."

"That's right. I've heard you can heal," Royal said. "And please hurry up. This is not the most comfortable position."

"Move already." Cinder was mad.

"Be quiet before Teach hears you both," Oscar hissed. He held out his hand, and his own aura lit up. "This is something I've picked up from Jaune, though it's not as strong as his, but with yours already working, I think it'll do the trick."

Cinder's Aura brightened as he took her arm.

The bleeding stopped, and the hole closed quickly.

[Incidentally, why does no one but Jaune ever use that? It's supposed to heal everyone.]

"There, it worked," Oscar said.

"I'm not good enough for the staff healing thing now?" Cinder was terse because she was embarrassed that she'd gotten hurt at all.

"I don't want to treat it like a fix-all. It seems disrespectful," Oscar said. "Can you stand up now?"

"Yeah, yeah." Cinder pulled herself up on one of the crates. "That was close."

She glanced at the wall. "Slimy, little b-----ds."

"Kind of an understatement." Royal stood up. "What are they?"

"Whatever they are, I think it's time we got rid of them." Oscar held out his staff. Aura shimmered over it.

The claws pulled back.

Oscar sliced through most of their roots.

They evaporated.

Cinder shot glass shards through the rest, and they trembled before dissolving.

"I'm worried they'll just grow back, though, if we don't get rid of the source," Oscar said. "It can't be this ship. They weren't on it before."

"Yeah, they weren't." Royal was offended by the idea.

"So where did they come from? Maybe we need to question this guy before we knock him out," Oscar said.

He didn't get much chance to discuss that. Teach came around the corner right then.

He already had a gun, looked like a pistol.

They all stared at each other.

Then Teach pointed it at Royal.

"I'm sure you two huntsmen/terrorists can use Aura to block bullets, but I doubt he can," he said coolly.

"I'm disgusted, Ed," Royal said. "I thought you were a better man."

"Oh, shove it, Princey," Teach said. "What do you know about needing money?"

"Why would you call him that?" Oscar was puzzled.

"Just a little breakroom banter." Royal didn't sound like he thought it was funny. "I'd take it in stride, but that would imply we were colleagues."

That was a better roast than you'd have thought for being about a breakroom, but it didn't impress Teach.

"How did you survive?" he said instead.

Cinder was watching him for any sign of the Grimm.

She didn't see it right off, but she still felt uneasy.

"What happened to you?" Oscar asked, in an oddly neutral tone. "I mean...before you kill us, I gotta know, how did you get Avarice Grimm on your ship? I mean, without getting eaten?"

"Oh...those." Teach looked as if he was the type to like to brag. "It was an impressive feat."

"But how did they get here?" Cinder cut him off. "They only ever were in the Grimm lands, which no longer exist."

"Oh, look, the witch knows her geography," Teach said scornfully. "They're your old pals, aren't they? I would have thought you'd have felt right at home."

Cinder paled, maybe from anger, maybe from fear, maybe from something else.

"Isn't that a bit rich from a guy who has one living on his shoulder?" Royal spoke up, but he was tense.

"Eh?" Teach seemed to think he was being metaphorical. "Anyway, corralling them was the hard part, but they were pretty tame. They're not very strong. Just enough to encourage people a little to pay more for stuff."

"The Avarice cause you to be greedy," Oscar said evenly. "Why would people pay more money?"

"You have to direct the greed at the right thing. People will sacrifice everything if they want someone else bad enough," Teach said.

Cinder winced.

"I see," Oscar said. "But that doesn't explain how they even got here. The Irasci can fly, but how would these have crossed the Sea of Souls?"

"You can ask that in the afterlife," Teach said. "Now here's the deal--I figure you're probably pretty valuable also, twerp--" Meaning Oscar still. "--and the witch, but I don't see any reason to let the other fellow live.... Unless you need some incentive to cooperate."

Cinder didn't buy for a second that they wouldn't just kill him afterwards.

She had no reason to really care about the pilot, but the implied insult to her intelligence was just too patronizing. She was incensed.

Oscar no doubt knew that, and Royal couldn't have really bought this either, judging from his grasp of the situation so far.

In fact he was thinking that this was pretty weird.

"Wait, why would anyone want a huntsman and...well, whatever you think she is?" he asked. "They're not super rich."

"People don't always just care about money, you fool," Teach said. "I don't mind telling you, since it'll only make it worse for you to look forward to it. There's a lot of people who don't care for the witch there. They lost family, friends, or professions in those kingdoms. Or all three. And even those who didn't, know that things are harder now all around because of it. As for the junior professor, he's a famous hero. Plenty of people like to kill those for kicks. On top of which, he's been making it hard for their racket by spreading word around about Grimm and other stuff. Not appreciated."

"But that could only help them also." Oscar was puzzled.

Cinder narrowed her eyes.

"Do you mean that you're actually marketing Grimm?" she said, in disgust. "Somehow? How would that even be possible without Salem to control them?"

"There's other ways." Teach shrugged. "And aren't you no one to talk? D---, don't you get tired of being a hypocrite, Fall? Who was it who released bucketloads of Grimm and a Wyvern into  Beacon?"

Cinder frowned.

"And she no longer thinks that's a good idea," Royal spoke. "Doesn't that tell you something? In the long run, it backfires to mess with Grimm."

"I don't know that I see that. She seems to be Grimm-free now," Teach said. "And she's losing, so really much weaker than before. Really, it's almost a shame. We used to at least think she was strong, if cruel--and cruel is fine, if you get the job done. I'm not one to judge, but this...watered down version of a decent criminal, it's just sad almost. Really, putting her out of her misery is the only kind thing to do."

"Listen, you snake--" Cinder's temper was always kindled by someone calling her weak. "--I didn't stop all that stuff because I was weak. It was the weakness itself. It eats away at you. And you've clearly already been infected, which is hardly surprising. I think we should just cut it out of you the way they did with me--only that might kill you."

"Watch it," Teach warned. "I'd hate to lose my reward for turning you in, but dropping you out of the plane would still be pretty satisfying."

"That's so awful." Oscar wasn't really past the part where they might be trading Grimm. "How could you do something like that?"

"Again with the hypocrisy. Aren't you friends with someone who did? It just does beat all that you think it's so monstrous," Teach said.

"I can think it's monstrous and still be friends," Oscar said. "We can help you too, if deep down you don't want to be this way. Don't let the Grimm control you. I'm sure, once, you didn't want that. It must have latched on. The Avarice does that. It acts like your friend at first, but then it devours you. That's why it let you bring it here. So it could get rooted in."

Once he said it, he realized it must be true.

"You're a real know-it-all, kid," Teach said. "I don't need to hear about your papers, all right? This is business. Right, Calico?"

Now they found out why he'd stalled so long. Calico had come to and approached from behind them, with a cutlass drawn.

Teach shouldn't have warned them--that gave them time to react.

"Just get them already!" Cinder said loudly before anyone could move.

Oscar thought she'd lost her head, until glass shields appeared in front of Royal and him on both sides.

He was impressed that her Semblance had gotten this much stronger. Before she'd have probably not made anything that big in that amount. Clearly she'd worked on it since losing magic.

Also her glass was stronger than regular glass, apparently, because Teach shot at it directly and the bullet didn't pierce.

Cinder winced like keeping it up was straining her.

"Witch!" Calico maybe took it to be magic instead of just a Semblance and lunged at her.

Royal was ready by then and tripped him, since he was distracted.

Then he tried to grab his cutlass.

Oscar lost no time slipping around the glass, activating his Aura so that he'd be safe, and attacking Teach again.

Cinder dropped the shields, panting, and then stepped around the fighting and rushed to the front of the plane.

Not a second too soon. The radar already said Grimm were approaching, drawn both to the other Grimm and to the fighting itself, no doubt.

Cinder didn't really care about them; they'd probably be small ones.

She sat in the pilot seat and turned off the autocontrols button.

Then she pressed the intercom.

"This is your captain speaking," she said, because of course she couldn't resist the flair of sassing them. "I suggest you hang on to something."

"What is she doing?" Royal stopped short.

Calico, who thought that Cinder was crazy, of course, immediately assumed the worst.

"Oh, she's going to kill us all!" he yelped, forgetting the fight. "She'll open the doors and dump us all out."

"I have a landing strategy." Oscar couldn't resist the team's favorite joke.

"If we go, we're taking you with us, you b-----ds!" Teach cried, trying to grab at him, but Oscar dodged. Teach was much less well trained than him.

Royal pressed a button on the wall.

"Hey," he said over the intercom, "don't do anything stupid. Flying these things is harder than it looks. It's not like a car."

Cinder ignored him completely and pulled the steering at an angle that made the plane tilt sharply to the right.

She did it to make them all hit the wall.

Oscar grabbed onto something, and Royal was already by the wall, so it barely affected him.

The other two guys slid into it painfully, though they tried to break their fall.

"Does this chick think she's actually flying?" Teach said contemptuously.

He shouldn't have said that. Cinder heard him.

"I'll show you flying," she muttered.

Now, while Cinder could fly just fine, she probably shouldn't have attempted to do anything unusual--her experience wasn't that much.

But that had never stopped her from doing things she probably shouldn't have done.

She made the plane shoot much higher into the clouds, sending those who didn't have a good grip, the two pirates, flying back towards the back of the ship now, hitting the crates.

Oscar hit the intercom. "Cinder, I think I see what you're trying to do, but those crates could come loose."

"Get in the cockpit," Cinder replied dismissively.

"That's not the easiest thing to do with you doing that." Oscar could barely stand at all.

Cinder leveled out at a speed that would have made Jaune airsick for sure.

"It's a tight fit, but I think I see her plan." Royal gripped Oscar's arm and hurried to the cockpit. He was more used to running on a plane.

The cockpit was not separated from the back of the plane by a full wall at all times, but Royal hit a button and one came up.

"It pays to know the ship," he said.

"Whatever." Cinder gripped the wheel. "Now, I think I can make both of those buffoons sorry they ever stole this ship and us."

"The dust crates might explode." Oscar rubbed his arm where he'd slammed into it a few seconds ago.

"I doubt it. They're too tight." Cinder frowned at the horizon. "The problem is there's Grimm on our tail now. If those two did go down, we can handle them, but both at once..."

"Where did you learn to fly?" Royal had been watching her hands and realizing that she knew what she was doing.

"Here and there." Cinder didn't think "illegally" would impress him too much with her skills.

"I remembered once you said that thing before that you can fly," Oscar said nervously. "Ruby told me that. You and Roman both. He flew in the Grimm lands, I remember.... Didn't you...attack Glynda?"

"Not with a plane," Cinder said, like that made it better. "Though it might have been more effective to do that in the long run."

"I missed so much," Oscar sighed.

"How do you think I feel?" Royal said. "Can I take over now?"

"Actually, maybe she should," Oscar said. "This way we can both fight.... Do you have weapons?"

"If they didn't take it..." Royal looked. "Aw, here it is." He picked up his shotgun. "I guess it wasn't their style. But now that we're up here, I can radio to Argus..."

He pressed that button.

Cinder glanced back. Teach and Calico were up again.

"Brace yourselves," she told Oscar and tilted the plane again.

Oscar almost hit the wall.

Royal kept his balance more easily.

"Watch tower?" he said. "Do you copy?"

Some static, and then, to his relief, a voice answered.

"Regina? Is that you? Do you read?"

"I read you. Listen, my ship was hijacked, and we have a bogey on our tail and two hostiles aboard still. Could use some backup."

"What are your coordinates?"

"It's hard to say. We weren't flying out here ourselves," Royal said. The scanner didn't really help here. "The autopilot course was set for..."

He read some numbers off.

"That's in the middle of nowhere. We can send help, but it could be a while before they catch you. Are you in immediate peril?"

"It's incoming if the Grimm catch up to us."

"Then we suggest landing and taking cover, if you have weapons. We can find you faster if you stay put."

"The terrain might not be the best for that, but I can try," Royal said.

Below were lots of trees and rocks.

"Why did they fly us out here?" Oscar asked. "Is it on the way somewhere?"

"Could be any number of places, but the base would follow this ship once they knew it was stolen. I'd think they'd just ditch it," Royal puzzled. "So they have somewhere they're going to hide. This entire thing is a little above my paygrade--I don't know much about criminal organizations."

"You're sure it's an organization?" Oscar asked. "I mean, that Grimm smuggling thing is...pretty dark."

Cinder gave him a look.

"Really?" she said sardonically.

"I just thought the only people crazy enough to do that were Salem's people," Oscar said. "Who else could control Grimm enough for it?"

"People capture Grimm all the time," Royal said, "for training schools. It's not that hard. But not ones like those."

"Wait, so they also use them to attack people with?" Oscar said.

"My gosh, Pine," Cinder said. "Are you really that sheltered? It never crossed your mind that if that stupid school uses them, some criminal might?"

"I just thought only trained huntsmen would risk it..." Oscar said, feeling embarrassed. "But it is...obvious. I just can't imagine anyone would want to get near them. The longer I walk in the light, the less I feel like I can tolerate Grimm at all. They just feel gross to be around."

"Not everyone feels so abhorrent towards them," Royal said. "Though it would be nice if they did. And they're getting closer."

"I know. What am I supposed to do about it?" Cinder said.

"I could do something about it if you'd let me fly," Royal said.

"Just take care of those idiots," Cinder grumbled.

"If this is some kind of power trip, you know, it's not healthy," Royal said.

"Power trip?! We're trying not to die!" Cinder almost shouted that.

"Hey, can you stop?" Oscar said.

Why did he always end up doing this, whoever he was around?

Royal glanced back.

Teach and Calico were pretty battered by now, but they were still moving.

"I guess we should just take care of them."

"I could just dump them," Cinder said.

"That's the same as killing them," Oscar said.

"Oh, we're pretty low. I'm sure they'll be fine." Cinder wasn't actually sure, but she was sick of them by now and wanted them gone.

"Just make them put on a parachute, I guess," Royal said.

He pressed the intercom.

"Listen, fellows, much as it pains us to part ways, we just can't carry so much extra baggage. If you'd be so kind as to put on parachutes and exit this vessel, we'd be much obliged."

"And what will you do if we don't?" Calico asked.

"Open the hatch and let you fall," Cinder snapped.

They looked at each other.

"Going once," Royal said helpfully.

They swallowed and rushed to grab parachutes.

"The Grimm could eat them," Oscar said.

"Not our problem," Cinder insisted. "This is no time to play hero, Oscar. And they'd kill us if we let them stay."

"I just don't feel much better about this," Oscar said. "We should at least kill the Grimm once they jump."

"If we could," Royal said. "It's not that many, but..."

"Both of you are so insufferably noble!" Cinder didn't mean that as a compliment. "You can't just take the win--you always have to one-up it."

"You're one to talk," Oscar shot back. "Why can't we one-up it by being better than them at being good instead of at fighting? It's still one-upping them, isn't it?"

Cinder paused.

"That was more persuasive than I expected," she said. "But stupid. It's still stupid. No one wins who plays that way."

"Well, there're things more important than winning," Oscar said. "I know you're scared, but we can't let that control us."

"I never said I was scared," Cinder said way too quickly. "Fine, you want to kill the Grimm, go ahead. But don't blame me if this blows up in your face."

"That worked?" Royal muttered. "This kid should go into politics."

"Heh--no." Oscar was vehement about that.

Cinder opened the hatch.

"I'll get you for this!" Teach was furious. "No one steals from me!"

"Oh, just you steal from them then," Royal said.

"You might not want to provoke him." Oscar knew perfectly well what the Mind Grimm might make someone do who was in their way.

In fact, his fears were justified.

Calico, who seemed less affected, jumped without further comment.

Teach, however, took one of the crates and unlocked it, revealing dust. They all looked at the fire dust that the kingdoms had worked their tails off to get.

Sure, it wasn't that much, but it stung after all that effort.

"Hey, don't!" Oscar leaned on the wall and cried.

"See you in hell!" Teach called, taking his gun up again and firing at the dust before jumping.

It exploded in the back of the plane.

The impact knocked the ship off balance, sharp, to the side.

The Grimm appeared over the edge of some trees right at the same time, as if they'd waited for an opening.

Cinder finally pulled at the wheel to get the plane to right. It was on fire.

"Can you put that out?" Royal asked.

"I don't know!" she said in almost a shrill voice for her.

"Try, please!" Oscar pleaded. "We're going to crash if that hits the engines."

It wouldn't get to them right away, but the smoke would get to them if nothing else.

Cinder got up and rushed to the back.

Deja-vu-ish.

She formed glass and tried to smother the fire, but it was too big to do this so easily; she was really tired.

She put out some of it, but the wind rushed into the ship from the open doors, making some of it fly upward.

Royal finally got the ship leveled out a little more, but it had already begun to feel off from it heating up.

"If the fire gets to the turbines, we're in trouble," he said to Oscar.

Like most Atlas ships, the turbines for this one were on the top as well as the sides, and fire in those would be bad.

Royal was lowering the plane more.

"Would we die if we crash from here?" Oscar asked.

"If you activate your Aura...I don't know. How good is your strategy?" Royal said. "Might have to get parachutes."

One of the Grimm suddenly landed on top of the plane.

It was a lancer.

They did frequent Mistral, though it was farther south of here they usually were.

It dug its barb into the ship.

"Great," Cinder said.... Suddenly she thought it was the same marking as was on the other ship. They'd been to this area before.

Probably extensively then.

What was out here?

Cinder threw shards at it.

Her Aura was starting to feel drained. She hated being so weak again!

Not a wise thought to have, but...

Suddenly something grabbed at her feet.

She looked around.

The claws...they had grown back...or more had popped out, trying to snatch her by the ankles.

She screamed.

She also almost lost her head actually this time and jumped out of the ship, but instead she just sort of hung out the door by one hand.

Oscar peered back.

"They're back!" he said. "I've gotta help."

The lancers didn't come close, probably because the ship was still on fire. They just waited.

Oscar rushed to Cinder and jabbed his spear at the claws.

They pulled back.

"Cinder, come on." He held out a hand, "Don't jump yet."

Cinder didn't want to try it with her Aura this low.

"I wasn't going to" She tried to grab his hand.

One of the lancers suddenly shot its tail at them.

Oscar ducked.

"Whoa!" he cried, but the tail stuck into his boot instead and then almost yanked him out of the plane.

This was probably its intention all along, rather than try to fight them.

Cinder just kept a grip on him barely, and tried to dig her feet more into the plane.

Oscar was now dangling helplessly.

He didn't have any way to fly.

The spear almost slipped out of his hand.

He tried to press the button to use the hook on it to maybe get a grip.

Cinder was trying to pull him in, but gravity was too much against her favor.

"Hey, help!" she called, out of options.

Royal looked back. "Holy s---!" he said, dipping the plane lower.

He saw water up ahead now. They must have been heading to the coast in all this time, or along it probably.

That gave him an idea.

He set the plane to fly right over the water.

Then he got up and rushed to the back.

Oscar was slipping.

"Maybe you should just let go," he called. 

The lancer was having a hard time keeping up with the plane now, but it would no doubt fire again at any moment.

"Do you have a way to land?" Cinder was gritting her teeth.

"I'm sure I'll figure something out before I hit the ground," Oscar said, not at all sure.

"My arm is going to come out of its socket," Cinder gasped.

Her feet slipped suddenly. Dratted glass shoes! Why had she even put them back on?

[Actually driving without shoes on is like the worst feeling, for you kids who don't know, so I get it.]

"Cinder!" Oscar felt her slip.

"Gotcha." Royal managed to grab her just in time.

He tried to pull them both up. He had grabbed an emergency rope off the wall.

And he probably would have succeeded, if the lancer hadn't decided now was the time to shoot its barb.

It missed Oscar's head, thankfully, but hit Cinder's and his hands hard to make them let go.

"Oh no!" Oscar yelled as he plummeted.

"Oscar!" Cinder grabbed after him.

No use.

Gritting her teeth, she made glass shards in the air below him, trying to cushion his fall.

But her range maxed out after half a hundred feet, and Oscar fell the rest of the way.