Chapter 20: Negotiations

"Now kids, I'm gunna be straight with you, there's not much chance you're surviving this." The orange haired man says. "But, I am not a monster." Vak notices one of the people staying back in the shadows stepping forwards before the other stops them. "If you had just left, you might have had more options, but as it is, you have two." He says, holding up two fingers, mimicked by the girl with him. "First, you can die, either to me or them." He says, indicating to the shadowy figures with his head before putting down one finger. "Or, you could join us." He says. Vak looks around, trying to find a way out of this situation. He dropped his spear without realizing when Cardin pulled him down, but Cardin has his mace next to him still, although maces are slow compared to Vak's usual weapons of choice.

"I'm considering it." Vak says to Cardin's surprise. "But, I would like to know who I would be working for." He continues, thinking that it would buy some more time if he didn't refuse outright.

"Well, well." The man says. "You seem calm for a situation like this. Do you really think you can make demands like this?"

"No, but I don't think you're exactly trying to hide who you are, not like your friends back there." Vak replies confidently, having met his type before.

"Well then." The man replies, stepping back from the two. "I'm assuming you're not from Vale, since everyone knows who I am, I bet your friend over there could even answer that." He says, pausing for a few seconds. "Well?" He says towards Cardin.

"Oh... w-well, he's Roman Torchwick, he-"

"Okay, okay, enough." Torchwick says. "I can make my own pitches." He says, indicating to the girl next to him, who produces a bag and passes it to him. "Tell me, what skills do you have that will be useful to me?"

"I'm skilled with most forms of close combat weaponry and hand to hand combat." He says, thinking of a way to take out his scroll, giving up and thinking of a way to make a lot of noise without being too suspicious.

"Well, if you want to go for the simple stuff, then sure, however I'm more interested in what more you can offer me." Torchwick says, resulting in a confused look from both Vak and Cardin. "With the skills I've seen you use, you could be one of my higher minions, but I figure you might have something... more." He continues, resulting in a similar reaction from both boys again. Torchwick sighs. "If you still don't get it then I'll make this simple. Information, resources, access to restricted areas, stuff like that, do you understand, or are you really this stupid?" Torchwick complains. Vak suspected that's what he meant, of course, but he thought it would buy at least a bit more time for someone to find them or for him to come up with a plan, neither of which happened. Vak nods in response, worrying what Torchwick would do if he looked too clueless. "Good, do you have anything like that then?"

"Well..." Vak stalls, thinking what he could possibly give without giving away too much. He had his family name, which Torchwick, or one of his grunts, might know but offering his family resources would put his brother at risk, as well as risking them taking him hostage then. The only thing he could think of was... "I can work as a double agent inside the-" He says before Torchwick smacks his in the stomach with the handle end of his cane, only managing to slightly damage his aura but interrupting him all the same.

"That was a warning. Don't try to mess with me, kid, or your friend may have to suffer the consequences." Tourchwick says, moving his cane to hover the end over Cardin.

"But..." Vak says, stopping himself. If he doesn't want someone inside the academy, then that limits his options. In which case, it didn't give him much choice, either sell out his family or sell out his team, and it isn't really a question for him. "I..." Vak hesitates, unsure, wanting to find another option. He still has the option of making some noise, but Cardin, or even the rest of his team, might be killed before anyone arrives. When it comes down to it, only one choice makes sense to him. "I know... some important people..." He says, pausing to consider how to word it before seeing Torchwick raise his cane again. "I suspect someone on my team is the Midnight Demon!" He blurts out, seemingly stopping Torchwick mid swing. He doesn't really believe what Artemis said about Luci being this living legend, but decides that if this conversation is working, it's worth continuing. "He's a lot stronger than he lets on and he uses similar weapons to what the story says! I might... will convince him to join as well, but only-" He continues before being cut off as Torchwick steps towards him and begins talking.

"You said Midnight Demon, right?" Torchwick says, with a glint in his eyes. "Tell me his name." He demands. Vak considers for a second before being interrupted again. "Actually, he probably changed it. Tell me what he looks like."

Vak thinks about what he could do, thinking that he might have made a bad decision mentioning that as his first point. It got Torchwicks attention, but if he's asking for what he looks like, he might know the Demon in some way, although Vak doesn't know enough about the story of the Midnight Demon to say that they know each other for sure. If Vak lies, he might be putting Cardin and himself in more danger, but if he describes how Luci looks, it might put him and the team in danger. "He..." Vak thinks over the conversation again, but doesn't see a way out of this now, he's locked himself into this one answer.

"Hurry up, if he's not here, we have to figure out where to search next." Luci says, ducking under some branches. Artemis looks back and sees that, although he's ahead of Judy, he is still struggling not to trip over anything. Artemis suggested this route since it was the quickest, according to the map, as well as being the densest part of the wooded area, making it easier to hide if needed, but she didn't realize they would be so bad with their foot work. Artemis rolls her eyes and looks ahead, waiting for a clearing to drop them off and look around without being dragged down by them.

"... Demon!" Artemis hears faintly, causing her to stop.

"What's wrong?" Luci asks, slowly catching up to her.

"Quiet." She whispers, listening as hard as she can.

"He's a lot stronger that he-" She hears Vak say.

"I hear him shouting, it sounds bad." She says, pointing to their right. "That way, not sure how far though, we need to go fast."

"You're hearing must be-" Judy begins.

"No time for small talk, jump up the trees and run along the clearest parts, don't wait for each other, just get there as fast as possible." She says, jumping up immediately. Luci and Judy look at each other for a second but Luci quickly follows Artemis.

"Damnit." Judy says, jumping up before Nixi pulls her up the rest of the way with her arms.

Artemis listens out attentively, trying to get a better read on the direction, but can't hear anything anymore. She looks around as she runs, seeing if there are any clearings, since Vak would probably want to fight in a clear area rather than surrounded by trees based on what she's seen of his fighting style.

Artemis stops suddenly after hearing some murmuring, noting that she's going in the right direction but that the voice wasn't Vaks. She considers the voice might be Cardin or another member of his team, but it doesn't sound like them, although she knows her voice recognition skills are nowhere near her animal sound recognition skills, so it might just be her mistake. She continues to jump from tree to tree, only slowing down to listen better one she begins to hear the conversation better.

"... black knife. Black hair with a stripe of-" Vak says.

"Green? Down the front, right?" the voice asks.

"... Right..." Vak responds, sounding hesitant. The voice begins to laugh, not very loudly but loud enough that Artemis can hear it clearly.

"We finally found him." The voice says. Artemis sees a clearing ahead and assumes it's where the voices are coming from, stopping at the edge to see in without being too noticeable. She sees Vak and Cardin standing in front of a man and a woman, assuming the voice came from the man. Luci arrives shortly after and takes out his knife before Artemis indicates to stop. Luci looks confused, expecting the fight to already have started, before looking down as his eyes open wide and his mouth drops.

"No..." Luci mutters under his breath, bringing his free hand to his mouth to stop himself from saying something. Artemis dashes closer to him.

"You know them? I think they're talking about you." She whispers. Luci stands up as much as he can, looking like he's about to jump. "Wait, what're you-?"

"Don't worry about me." He says. "Once Judy gets here, she might start fighting right away, stay hidden and cover her." He explains, immediately dashing towards the trees trunk and pushing off it to fly towards the man.

"Wai-" Artemis begins, stopping once she realizes it's too late and readying her bow.