There was a hierarchy of noises that challenged Octavia's senses, catastrophically organized as they were. Her boots hammering the floor, the unholy screeching pressing at her back, and the blood rushing through her ears battled for dominance in turn. No amount of playing or praying offered any salvation. Slowly but surely, the overwhelming quantity of Dissonance was flooding the train with each passing second.

She, too, was sure to drown herself--if not from agony, then from terror alone. When the crisp, desperate cries of a flute, at the very least, joined her hellish cacophony, she could finally count one blessing. Octavia put her faith in her ears rather than her eyes, clinging to the sound as she ran in the general direction of the ballad.

The moment she had Viola in her sights, Silver Brevada locked onto her lips, Octavia's heart swarmed with relief. Relief wouldn't be enough to eradicate whatever swirling mass of murky purple approached from the far side of the car. The moon that had blessed them so generously with milky comfort may as well have been non-existent, replaced instead by the most obscured fog of the deepest evening. It, too, rolled onwards, accelerating at a pace far too quick to counter. Her heart raced as much as her hands, glued to Stradivaria's strings the second she'd returned to the others.

"Where were you?" Viola cried, catching her breath in between shrill notes. "I was worried sick!"

"I'm fine!" Octavia called back. Already, her focus was on her light, weaving the white-hot radiance of rippling rays so necessary.

"What's going on?"

"It wasn't a natural disaster!" she explained. "I think this is the train that took us out of Velrose!"

"That can't be right!" Madrigal shouted. She wasn't far, left with precious little distance by which to escape the fatal grasp of rolling agony. Her wind was staggered, and bursting gales left the skirt of Octavia's dress whipping against her thighs.

"Well, it would explain a lot!" Josiah snapped.

Octavia tensed. "What do you mean?"

He clenched his fists, eyes chasing the enveloping smoke as he inched closer to her. "After everything they went through, could you really expect anything less than this?"

Harper raised Royal Orleans somewhat, drawing a hesitant path to his lips that was never fully realized. "How did this even happen?"

"We can figure that out after we get the hell out of here!"

"Where are we supposed to go?" Madrigal cried.

Harper echoed the same. "We're on the side of a mountain!"

"Our only other option is suffocating!" Josiah argued.

"Then we'll fight."

Octavia hadn't noticed the words had left her mouth until after the fact. It might've been confidence that came with the burn in her fingertips. It could just as well have been inescapable adrenaline seeping into her voice. It could've been self-preservation. She would've believed any combination of the three, if not a drive to salvage their safety alone.

"You want to…fight this?" Viola sputtered, baffled.

"We couldn't even make a dent," Harper said.

"If it's all of us together," Octavia insisted, "we can do it."

"There's my fearless leader."

Renato's words were calm and steady in an environment so volatile. Even as the grotesque haze of violet drew ever nearer to him, he hardly flinched. Instead, the grin he flashed to Octavia dripped with such sweet satisfaction that her heart skipped a beat. Even now, even here, he was smiling.

"If you're down, I'm down. I'm not arguing with the Ambassador. You guys are really gonna doubt her like that?" he said confidently, Mistral Asunder already well at home between either set of false fingers.

"I-I…" Viola stammered.

"We…we have to try!" Madrigal cried. "We've never faltered in the face of the darkness before! We'll stand together and win the battle!"

She gave her gaze to Octavia, nodding resolutely. "Ambassador, the Magical Madrigal will not fail you!"

"You know I'll follow you," Harper offered. "That's that."

"We're seriously doing this?" Josiah hissed. "You people are insane."

Even so, he rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Then I guess I'm insane, too. This is gonna suck."

"Octavia," Viola murmured.

With her name on Viola's lips, she met eyes plagued with hesitation. "We can do this," Octavia reassured. "We'll do it together. Trust me."

Viola was silent for a moment. "I…I will."

"Still," Harper argued, "we can keep hitting it as much as we want, but it just keeps coming! It's everywhere!"

"I really am worried we're gonna suffocate," Josiah muttered.

Madrigal narrowed her eyes. "I have an idea. I need everyone to get on the floor!"

Octavia didn't question her, forgoing whatever looks of confusion that her companions offered the Spirited girl. With Stradivaria close to her chest, she did as she was told, dropping so low to the carpeted aisle that her face nearly kissed the floor. Before her, Viola did the same. If she twisted her neck, she could still see Madrigal standing well above her, slender fingers settling into position over Lyra's strings.

"I reeeeally think you should cover your heads, too!"

She raised an eyebrow. Even so, she did as she was told. Madrigal was alone, each Maestro grounded at her feet. With the Dissonance continuing to creep closer on every side, Octavia's heart beat faster every second she was unarmed. She prayed this would be fast--whatever "this" consisted of.

Madrigal was fast, to her credit. Rather, it was her fingers that flew, her eyes squeezed shut as she wove a song that bit the air. Crystalline notes and whirling winds assailed Octavia all at once, a sudden draft spinning to life with startling speed. Madrigal's gushing storm rushed violently through Octavia's ears, battering her skin and clothing in equal measure as it passed above. She had to battle the urge to keep her head down, straining to witness the spirit of wind in full force instead.

The vortex was almost intolerable, her braids whipping against the sides of her face so severely that Octavia feared she'd earn scars. Madrigal stood at its center, the beautiful eye of the storm who gritted her teeth as she strained and strummed. Her song was as vicious as it was loud, betraying the gentle touch of an innocent harp. Her curls were not immune, nor was her dress. The degree to which Madrigal's own ferocious winds wrapped her up in their whirling gasp left her somewhat angelic.

All at once, Madrigal cried out. Her fingers came taut against the copper strings as eternal screeching was shamed tenfold. Her storm disappeared in an instant, by which Octavia could've blinked. Initially, she'd believed it had been dispelled entirely, robbed by a force unseen. She was extremely wrong.

The explosive boom that rattled the floor she laid on was accompanied instantly by yet more rushing gales. They were perhaps even more vicious than Madrigal's own, flooding the car at every angle. Octavia was a victim of a crashing whirlwind, bursting shards of crystal serving as splattering rain to accent the storm. Unfathomable in number, their quantity was incredible.

The blasting gust Madrigal had birthed forced every last jagged, transparent sliver in the car to the floor. It was as good a time as ever to realize why she was supposed to be covering her head. Viola's scream solidified her revelation, somewhat, much of the same showering down not far from the Maestra's body.

Octavia hesitated to rise to her feet for a moment, for how much glass lay scattered and frosted so close. It took time to confirm her safety, and her guess came only in the form of Madrigal's stilling song. She pushed herself off the hazardous floor, although the scene that came with standing was more jarring than smashing gusts altogether.

Every last window, once obscured by the oppression of poisonous violet, had been absolutely annihilated in full. Even now, tiny shards of glass continued to stumble from frames, tipping both into the warmth of the train and out into the cold of the mountain passage. The moon had no chance to grant its earnest glow, still marred by raw agony as it was. Even so, silky beams poking through purple in the slightest was hopeful.

Madrigal brought two fingers over her eye in a split, victorious V. She beamed.

"God, I love this girl," Renato mumbled.

It was self-explanatory. By no means was the Dissonance dissipating. Instead, smoky clouds once pressed against every wall slipped through newborn passages into the night. They climbed ever higher, rolling and twisting with horrific wails carried aloft. Drifting on the steady current, the screeching was still just as painful outside as it was inside. The thick metal structure of the train car did little to insulate the Maestros from the noise. Even so, Octavia could breathe. They could move. She could see the moon again, even as the interior of the train seemed to ooze with Dissonance forever more.

"Smoke rises," Josiah murmured. "Smart."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"It's still coming," Harper said.

"Is this all from one person? Is the conductor Dissonant?" Viola asked, brushing stray flecks of glass from the skirt of her dress.

"There's no way all of this is from one guy. Not, like, a…normal guy, at least," Josiah self-corrected.

Octavia knew what he meant. They were in this mess in the first place secondary to one person who countered his point perfectly. Don't think about it.

Harper winced. "I'm gonna be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the conductor is dead, at this point. The cabin was nothing but Dissonance. It's either that, or there's no way he's not Dissonant by now."

"Does that mean no one's driving the train?" Madrigal asked.

Octavia blinked. That wasn't a very fun suggestion.

"Waiting on those orders, fearless leader," Renato joked. He tapped one drumstick rhythmically against his leg, his genuine grin enough to bless her with contagious confidence. Octavia appreciated it. She could work with it.

Still, she gulped. Ultimately, this had been her idea. "I-I…if we're gonna keep ourselves from drowning in Dissonance, we're gonna have to give the rest of it somewhere to go. Madrigal, can you break the rest of the windows in the other cars?"

Madrigal didn't falter, the same victorious pose offered to Octavia without hesitation. "Consider it done, Ambassador! This heroine will not let you down!"

"A-And then…we seriously need to check if someone's actually driving the train. Harper's right. The conductor is probably Dissonant, if nothing else."

She turned to Harper. "You've…done this before. Can you do it again?"

He grinned, tapping either end of Royal Orleans playfully. "Well, if you're not watching me, it's not much fun, is it? I've got this."

Harper tilted his head in Josiah's direction. "Can you drive a train?"

"Yes. It's a hobby. I'm an expert. I do it all the time. Are you friggin' kidding me?" he snapped.

"That's the spirit."

"No!"

Harper only continued to beam at him endlessly. Josiah growled in absolute frustration, rolling up one pant leg in the process. Octavia had, truthfully, forgotten about his sole line of self-defense.

He drew his knife, sharp as ever, from the strap around his calf. "I hate this!"

"And that leaves…actually…fighting it," Octavia murmured.

"You're not gonna be able to get all of it out," Viola interrupted. "There's still a lot of it inside, but I think most of it is rising out the windows."

"It's on the roof, then?" Harper asked.

"I'm assuming it's not just gonna…go away," Octavia said. "It's Dissonance, after all. We're gonna have to deal with it the hard way."

"If it's bad memories, they're gonna be stuck here," Josiah added. "There's no separating them."

"If…Madrigal and Harper are in here, then that can take care of what's left over," Octavia mumbled to herself. "Which leaves…"

When she turned her head towards Renato, the sparkle in his eyes was enough to shame the stars.

"Go ahead. Say it. I'll wait."

Octavia couldn't fight the creeping smile that bled onto her face. "That's…it'll take more of us to deal with the majority of it. Which would be you, me, and--"

"We're gonna fall," Viola deadpanned.

She did, at least, fight the urge to roll her eyes. "We're not gonna fall."

"On the roof of a moving train? I don't know if you've noticed this, but my balance isn't exactly the greatest. I'm not…athletic."

Renato was absolutely glowing. "Speak for yourself. This is gonna be a blast."

When Octavia turned to face them collectively, self-consciousness settled in. She held Stradivaria tightly, tactile comfort lost in the face of rushing winds and distant screeching. "I-Is…everyone alright with that plan?"

"You're the fearless leader," Viola joked. "You don't have to ask us."

She found her smile again, reflected in Viola's eyes. "Then…let's do this."

"Alright, Josiah, come on! Let's go drive a train," Harper called, his voice loaded with more enthusiasm than was necessary.

Teasing an irritated boy pursuing him with a knife in hand probably wasn't his best plan. "You know I'm gonna crash it, right? Why do I have to do it?"

"I'll see you on the other side, Ambassador! We can do this!" Madrigal cheered, her sandals beating softly against the carpeted aisle as she ran. Already, charging into the darkness, Octavia could hear her powerful strumming returning yet again.

"A-And everyone be careful!" she cried much too late.

She cast her eyes down at Stradivaria, motionless. Viola's gentle touch came to rest on her shoulder, rubbing delicately.

"I won't leave your side," she reassured. "No matter what happens."

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do this."

Renato's voice was low, satisfied, and laced with something Octavia couldn't pinpoint. Something about his sly grin was making her nervous, for once. He made a show of cracking knuckles he didn't quite have.

Octavia's eyes drifted upwards towards the ceiling. "How are we…getting up there, exactly?"

"Is there something we can climb?" Viola offered.

"Oh, no," Renato countered. "We're taking the easy route."

Octavia blinked. "The…easy route?"

"Just close your eyes. Both of you. It'll be less stressful."

Viola raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Back up a bit."

It was Octavia's turn to gaze at him blankly. "O…kay?"

Even three steps backwards, he wasn't satisfied. "More."

Several more, and her back was too close to the very open window for her liking. Viola, at her side, was equally as uncomfortable. "What are you doing?" she hissed.

"I know you don't like me," Renato teased, "but you don't have to like me to trust me."

"What?"

"Hold onto your instruments, don't move, and again, I seriously suggest you close your eyes."

Viola frowned, watching on with confusion as he backed away from the Maestras significantly. "Why would I close my--"

He'd always been really, really good at gaining height quickly. Forward, tumbling, spinning, and down again, the product of his momentum burst from the tips of Mistral Asunder with a boom that rippled through Octavia's blood. She'd never felt it at point blank before, her entire body vibrating beneath the shockwave. Her footing was gone, as was her breath. All she found in its place was a scream, involuntary and horrific in and of itself as she plummeted out the window.

Viola, at her side, did much the same, curled up into a ball as she shrieked in terror. With Silver Brevada in a death grip, her eyes had screwed shut so tightly that Octavia wondered if they'd ever open again. Her hair whipped against her face as she began a harrowing, sudden descent down the side of a mountain. Octavia was no stranger to a desperate grasp of her own on Stradivaria, violently-shaking fingers clamped around either portion of the violin. She fell in reverse, the train growing ever more distant as the depths of the mountain pass swallowed her whole. Renato joined her.

"Trust me!" he called with a laugh.

High above, she could only watch as he dove effortlessly out of the same window. With zero hesitation, he'd cleared a far greater distance than she'd fallen, somehow managing to launch himself well past her own body. If he was falling, too, then his descent was significantly behind her--possibly even lower. Why he was laughing the entire way down was extremely beyond Octavia, although it was at least a solid indicator of his positioning in the air. They could, if nothing else, all fall to their deaths together.

She heard another boom. She felt one, so soon after. The same shockwave that had more or less slammed her in the stomach suddenly blasted her in the back. She screamed a different scream entirely. Going upwards was its own flavor of horrifying. The feeling of her own spinal fluid crying out under the impact of compressed sound itself was indescribable, resonating through her bones forever. It didn't matter that it didn't hurt, so delicately and skillfully tuned to spare her fragile body. Falling was falling, upwards or not. Viola mirrored her terror, their screams almost identical as they flailed in panic. Renato was still laughing down there, and Octavia could've sworn he was doing it harder.

Octavia didn't land on the roof with grace. It was a miracle she landed anywhere adjacent to her feet, really. The reverberation of metal striking her ankles was extremely unpleasant as she stumbled. Viola fared far, far worse than her, not coming anywhere close to a reasonable landing as she nearly crashed onto her face.

It was by sheer luck that the height they'd cleared had spared them of bodily harm, by which any higher of a horrified descent could've been disastrous. It still wasn't fun. If the rush of wind inside the car was severe, then this was brutal. The ascent hadn't killed them, and that was one blessing. Octavia would be lucky if the raging gusts born of velocity into the night didn't send her hurtling into the darkness below.

Another boom from below came in the company of yet more, exploding in rapid succession. They offered up a Maestro cresting the rim of the roof, descending with substantially more finesse than Octavia could've managed. He did land on his feet, his acrobatic prowess doing him incredible favors all the way down. She hated that it actually looked impressive.

"You are absolutely insane!" Viola shouted, still bound to her hands and knees beneath the oppressive wind. "And you have the nerve to ask me to trust you?"

He shrugged with a ridiculously-proud grin, cocking his head. "I told you to close your eyes."

Octavia found the confidence to attempt to rise to her feet, at least. She wobbled as she pushed herself up, staggering somewhat. It took careful effort to adjust her weight to the quick, jerky movements of the rumbling train beneath her. Horrified and exhilarated all at once, she experimented with the motion of raising Stradivaria to her shoulder simultaneously. Walking would take significant effort--until she got used to it, at least. It took conscious thought to shift her body weight with each tentative slide of either foot forward. Calculating the correct distribution to keep her from stumbling was a challenge. It was to say nothing of plummeting.

Raising her head didn't do Octavia any favors. Finding her balance was her second-biggest concern. The first was excessively violet in every way.

If there was a night sky to be found, it had long since drowned in the erupting storm of agony above. Blotting out the world on her every side, the screeching and writhing masses of indigo rising to meet the evening practically swallowed the stars whole. It was abundant to a fault, ever more Dissonance climbing slowly from newly-obliterated windows below. With each distant burst of glass Octavia heard came more of the same, coagulating without hesitation as it funneled upwards. The most grotesque of splintering rivers streamed high, and the idea of being wrapped up in their deadly reversing currents was sickening. Octavia's fingers trembled around the bow.

"This is…so much," she breathed, dizzy for more reasons than one.

"It's horrible," Viola murmured. "Especially to know how it…got here. We're really gonna fight all of this?"

Octavia gulped. The sheer quantity of murky purple that swirled among gusting velocity was disorienting. They weren't at risk of suffocating within a noxious cloud of agony, granted. Still, it was far from the only way Dissonance could ruin her. "I-I…"

"I got it."

He wasn't scared. He wasn't shaking. He wasn't so much as robbed of the smug grin that had endured his entire volatile ascent. Of all things, Renato was stretching, making a dramatic show of loosening every muscle in his body. Octavia couldn't chalk his behavior up to blissful ignorance--doubly so, for how his bright eyes and brilliant smile challenged relentless agony itself.

"What do you mean you've 'got it'?" Viola asked, her voice somewhere between harsh and horrified. "Do you see how much of it there is?"

He didn't bother turning his head to acknowledge her. "I know what I said. I got it."

Octavia's eyes widened. "All of it?"

Renato shrugged. Either portion of Mistral Asunder was clasped firmly in his fingers as he took slow, unhurried steps in reverse. Face-to-face with the screaming fog staring him down, squirming and rolling in hateful violets and indigos alike, he didn't so much as flinch. Even given the way it swelled well above his head, climbing into the sky as wisps of a toxic cloud, he was calm. "Most of it," he answered nonchalantly. "Think you can take whatever's behind me?"

Octavia threw her gaze over her shoulder. Much the same haze awaited distantly at her back, just as terrifying at first sight. It, too, was abundant, sticking close to its metallic foundation as it wavered menacingly in the open air. Yet another variable tide ran well into the night, each twisting bend and curve of translucent purple far from crystalline waters she longed for. It was a lot. The Dissonance grew and swelled yet further, violet flames fueled by the same escaping substance below. It still wasn't as much as what Renato faced. He'd laid claim to the majority, well over two-thirds of the Hell that had awaited them atop the train.

"That's too much for you!" Octavia cried.

Viola didn't disagree. "You're gonna get hurt!"

Renato's radiant grin spoke to clear disregard of their warnings. Even so, Octavia couldn't help but take it as something warm. He met her eyes, the fire in his own thawing the chill that stung her blood. "You think so?"

Octavia paused. It had been so, so long since she'd seen him smile like that. She'd missed it.

"My sweet, beautiful, and fearless Ambassador," he teased, his low voice dripping with pride, "just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show."

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