Primordial Origins

Chapter 25: The Trap

 Once we arrived we were surprised by the humble brick and marble exterior, The windows seemed to have been closed with shutters and the clientele exiting seemed to be incredibly satisfied with their meals. The inside of the building was constructed of solid hardwood walls supporting the ceiling, a bar was present in the center of the room however most of the space was taken up by many empty tables and booths. It was to be expected as the lunch rush had just ended. "Hello, how may I help you?" The waitress at the pedestal smiled as she greeted us. "Table for two please." I replied to her and she nodded, pulling a pair of menus and silverware from the pedestal. She turned and began walking. "Follow me please." With a quick glance at Yang we followed after her and eventually sat down at a booth in the back of the restaurant. She placed the items from before at the table and we sat down as she spoke. "A waiter will be with you momentarily." We both nodded to her before she walked off presumably back to the pedestal where she was stationed. We both took a moment to read through the menu which had a wide variety of foods from the seafood the place was known for to pizza and burgers. For drinks they had cocktails, mocktails, whiskey, vodka, gin and soda. "How are you two doing today?" With that I turned my head to see our waiter. "Pretty good." "Good, good, my name is Jack, and i'll be your waiter for today. Can I get you two started off with something to drink?" I gave Yang a look and she went first. "Strawberry sunrise, no ice, Oh, and one of those cute little umbrellas." He wrote it down on his notepad and turned to me. "I'll take a neat pour of your favorite 12 year wiskey and a glass of water, no ice." He nodded before speaking up again. "Alright, i'll be right back with your drinks."

 I turned back to Yang and spoke. "So any idea about what you're going to order?" "Hmm, it all sounds good but I think I'm gonna go for the Poached Coconut & Ginger Snapper with asparagus and cream corn, it sounds interesting. What about you?" At that Jack came back with our respective drinks and asked for our order. Yang got what she mentioned before and I got the Shallow-Fried Carrot & Coriander Monkfish, Poached Pine Cockles, and Paprika Buns. At the amount of food I ordered Yang's eyes widened and after Jack walked away she spoke up. "That's a lot of food, are you sure you're gonna be able to eat it all?" "I'm throwing two days worth of food into one meal. Trust me I've eaten more before when I was bringing down those barriers for the first time." We both chuckled and talked while awaiting our food. When it got here we dug in and remarked at how good it was. The reputation of this place was truly deserved and we sat back with full bellies and satisfied smiles. We sat and talked for a while longer, eventually deciding to ask for our check. The moment I raised my hand to ask Jack for it the front door was kicked in. "EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND NOW!" Some guy in a ski mask yelled waving around a rifle and firing a shot into the ceiling while three more scattered into the room.

 I sighed. "Well, It wouldn't be a very good date without a dance now would it." I smiled at Yang and she smiled back. "Yea, but I could've done without one this time around I was really enjoying this time with you." We both stood and I offered my elbow to Yang which she took and we walked up to Jack. "Excuse me, while my girlfriend and I take this dance would you mind getting us our check?" I saw him nod mostly in confusion and took that as a good sign. "You're a champion. Thanks so much." We walked past him and into the main bar area where we were finally spotted by the thieves. Two approached rifles at the ready. "Hey, get your asses on the ground now or we will shoot." One of them called out to us. "You want the first move or should I take it." I asked Yang. "I'll take it, need to let off some steam from them interrupting us." I shrugged and looked at the two thieves who had approached us. "Sucks to be you guys." I heard the sound of Ember Celica and her robotic arm's shotgun activating and Yang flew forward. Both goons went down quickly and the remaining two came up to put us down. Seeing them approaching I dropped into a ready stance and danced around the two of them giving quick jab's wherever I could to bring them down quickly. A single leg sweep sent one sprawling as I turned to the other. He dropped his gun and drew a sword at his belt for some reason before swinging at me with full force. I ducked into the attack and locked his arm before breaking it sending him unconscious from the pain. I turned back to where Jack was standing with our check in hand and took it from him as the fourth thief stood behind me. "I'm not done yet you bas-" With one more shotgun blast from behind I heard a thud from the goon hitting the ground revealing Yang standing behind him with a smoking barrel. "Here you go." I tossed Jack the required amount of Lien along with a healthy tip for seeing all of that before offering Yang my elbow again and we walked out. We spent the rest of the day just exploring the city on my bike before heading back to the house to meet up with the others for our meeting with Leo.

When we finally met up with Leo at the main hall of Haven academy I immediately noticed something was wrong. He seemed far too nervous for just a simple meeting about bandits, and there seemed to be, something, flitting between the shadows of the hall. I tuned out most of their conversation to focus on the shadows trying to identify just what they were but before I could adjust to their movements Yang called out something which pulled me from my trance. "Mom?" Qrow shot at a raven that was perched on a railing above us and it took off. It passed behind Leo and transformed into Raven with her helmet, weapon and everything. "Raven." Ruby said as Nora seemed to finally believe what Ozpin had told us. "They-they really are magic." Raven took off her helmet before speaking to Qrow. "If you're going to shoot me, shoot me. That was insulting." "What are you doing here?" Qrow asked a fairly good question and I had a bad feeling about where this was going. "I could ask you the same thing. You've been scheming, little brother. Planning to attack your own sister." "Leo." Qrow shifted focus back to the headmaster. "What have you done?" "I-I" Leo tried to speak but was interrupted by Raven. "Leo did what any sane person would in his position. He looked at all the information he had in front of him, assessed the situation, and made a choice. And it seems you all have too." She seemed to direct that comment at Yang who dropped further into a ready stance. 

"You have the spring maiden." Qrow spoke to Raven again. "I do." She replied. "Then hand her over and let's work together. We can beat Salem." Qrow pleaded with his sister sheathing his weapon in a show of good faith. "All that time spent spying for Ozpin and you still have no idea what you're dealing with. There is no beating Salem." "You're wrong." A small voice spoke up and heads turned to see that Ruby was the source of the voice. "We've done things most people would call impossible. And I know the only reason we were able to do it is because we didn't do it alone. We had people to teach us. People to help us. We had each other. Work with us. At least I know we'll have a better chance if we try together. Please." Ruby pleaded with Raven one more time and she seemed to seriously consider it before her face hardened. "You sound, just like your mother." Raven said drawing her sword and opening a portal which shot out a fireball straight at Ruby. I tried to intercept it but the shadows that were flitting throughout the room charged at me at that very moment forcing me to go on the defensive as three seperate blades barraged me at incredible speeds and it took all of my skill to fend them off until they backed off towards the portal revealing that they were more than just shadows and blades but fully armored men. As they stepped into the light I got a better look at their weapons one was holding a standard straight sword, one a greatsword and the last was holding not a sword but a glaive. None of the weapons seemed to transform at all but that didn't mean that they would be easy to take down. They stepped into the light as Cinder, Mercury, Emerald and that girl that served us tea back at Raven's camp stepped through Raven's portal. "Hello, boys and girls." Cinder spoke up upon seeing us.

"Cinder." Ruby said as she recovered from the fireball that had struck her directly in the chest. "Come on guys. Is that any way to greet your old friends." Mercury spoke to us mockingly. Yang growled at him and Qrow spoke to her. "Everybody stay calm." Just then the doors behind us opened and a very large man walked through before turning and shutting the doors while speaking. "The White fang is prepping demolitions, and securing the school grounds. No one's getting in, and no one's getting out." As he finished he turned and walked towards us. "This was all just a trap?" Weiss spoke out. "It appears so." Ren replied. "Raven." Qrow questioned. "Tell me, how long have you been with them?" Cinder however was the one to answer his question. "Aw. Don't take it personally little bird. Your sister was a recent addition. The lion on the other hand. Entrance into the Vytal festival was a real treat. But Leonardo's been sending Salem all sorts of information for a very, very long time. Isn't that right professor?" "Stop it." Leo spoke up trying to get Cinder to stop rubbing it in. "It was you." Qrow spoke out. "You sit on the Mistral Council. You had information on every huntsman and huntress in the kingdom, and you gave it all to her." "I-'' Leo tried to say something but was interrupted. "I couldn't find any of them. Because you let her kill them." "Aw, now don't beat yourself up about it lionheart. I'm sure Tyrian and Hazel would've found them on their own eventually." "What is wrong with you." For the first time Jaune spoke up with his head down. "How can you be so broken inside? To take so many lives, and then come here and rub it in our faces like it's something to be proud of." Everyone was looking at Jaune as he finally looked up with tears streaming down his face. "Jaune." Nora tried to call out to him and was ignored. "All with the damn smile on your face." At that everyone readyed their weapons before Qrow spoke up again. "Everybody. Stay calm." Cinder's smile turned into a frown as Jaune drew his sword. "I'm going to make you pay for what you did. Do you hear me?" "Kid." "Well, say something." Jaune screamed at Cinder who took a moment to respond. "Who are you again?"