Jacques paled as he watched the van carrying Raven and Taiyang back into the garage. The vehicle rattled and rocked slightly as it moved, and the deep blue paint job was scratched and covered in filth in several places. A large dent was prominent on the right rear quadrant, and the front bumper seemed to be nearly detached on one side.
"What in the… hey! Are you two alright!?" Jacques called as he hurriedly approached the van.
Taiyang was the first to exit the vehicle, looking disheveled and limping slightly as he sucked in a breath.
"We're alive. That's about all I can say," Taiyang offered as he made his way around the front of the van and met up with Raven. The girl descended from the cab, holding her side and looking even more beat up than Taiyang. Red marks were around her neck in a circular pattern, and her eyes looked bloodshot and raw. Taiyang took her free hand in his, and the two approached their employer with a pair of miserable looks.
"Jacques… I'm sorry," Raven started. "It's my fault th-"
"Stop," Jacques commanded. The man took a deep breath before shaking his head and rubbing at his temples. "I don't care about the vehicle. What the hell happened to you two?"
"We were attacked," Taiyang began. "Ambushed out on the road by a guy named Hazel Rainart."
"He was looking for revenge for my part in putting his sister away," Raven added. "He... also said something about expecting me to be alone. I might be dead if I had been."
Jacques transferred a hand to his chin and rubbed lightly at his goatee. His brows furrowed as he mulled over the possibilities, until he finally looked back up at Taiyang.
"…and you remained hidden when delivering to Leonardo, like I asked?"
"Yeah," Taiyang answered. "You don't think…?"
"What else could explain it?" Jacques asked as he folded his arms across his chest. "We're done with him, moving forward. I'm not one to gamble when the odds are against me- and this would also explain why he only wanted two of you. Where's Adam?"
Raven and Taiyang exchanged uneasy glances, before Taiyang sighed and shook his head.
"…with Leonardo. If you're right, then we can't just leave him on his own…"
Raven jumped slightly as her scroll began to vibrate in her pocket. She immediately took out the device, half expecting a distress call from Adam. Instead, she found the words SUMMER ROSE bannered across the display.
"Hold on. Summer?" Raven asked as she held the device up to her ear. "Now really isn't a good t-"
"That doesn't matter!" Summer interrupted. "Professor Ozpin wants to see you in his office immediately. He said it's urgent, and he already has Qrow with him. Raven, what's going on?"
Raven paused, her insides freezing over at her leader's words. She found herself unable to think straight, and at a total loss as to what was happening.
"Raven?"
"I don't know," the girl responded automatically. "But if the headmaster is calling for me on the weekend…"
"Yeah. I'll meet you by the elevator?"
"What? No!" Raven said emphatically. "This has nothing to do with you, a-"
"You and Qrow are on my team, so it has everything to do with me. If you're in trouble, I want to be there to help you out. Professor Ozpin will see that. He has to!"
"Damn it," Raven seethed as Taiyang gave her a worried look. "I'll… fine. I'll see you there."
"What's going on?" Taiyang asked.
"I have to go," Raven said quickly. "I can't tell you why, or where, but I just… I'm needed. Qrow's in trouble."
Taiyang's eyes widened and he turned to Jacques with an open mouth, only to be cut off as the man raised a hand.
"I have two bikes, in addition to this van. Both of you, take them, go back to OKRA and figure out who is going after Adam, while I keep Leonardo tied up with a less than friendly call," Jacques offered. "Divide and conquer."
"Thank you," Raven said as she returned her scroll to her pocket. "I'll pay you back for this. I promise."
Jacques turned his raised hand into a dismissive wave and shook his head.
"Go. I'll handle my end."
Raven nodded quickly and began to sprint for the other side of the garage, her heart and mind racing with nervous energy.
"Raven!" Summer called as she watched her friend run down the long, brightly-lit hall of the upper corridor of Beacon Academy's central building. "It's a good thing you're back already! Professor Ozpin showed up at the dorm in person, and… he… what happened to you?"
Raven winced as she watched Summer raise a hand to cover her mouth. She could feel her sweaty hair matted to her forehead and her head pounded with a migraine.
"What, it's that bad?" Raven asked with a heavy sigh. "It's… it's nothing. And this is probably nothing. You shouldn't be here, Summer."
"There's nowhere else I should be right now," Summer insisted as the pair approached the glass elevator that seemed to rise all the way up into the clouds. "I'm here to support you. It's what a leader should do in circumstances like these."
Raven watched with a blank expression as Summer lightly grabbed both of her hands and dragged them forward. Upon looking up into Summer's eyes, the icy, terrified feeling in Raven's chest eased a bit, and she gave her leader a slow nod.
"…okay. But if this goes badly… don't do anything stupid. You're here for your own reasons, and I'm here for mine. I know that we're a team, but that simple fact remains. I don't want you putting yourself on the line for Qrow and I," Raven cautioned.
"Not just a team. A family," Summer insisted.
Somehow, Raven had known that the word was coming, but the significance of it hadn't occurred to her until that moment, when it overwhelmed her mind like a crashing, all-encompassing tsunami. Once again she locked eyes with Summer, and her tone turned heavy and dangerous as she gripped the smaller girl's hands tightly.
"Ow! Raven, what a-"
"You cannot come with me," Raven interrupted. "I think I know what this is about, now, and I think it will end badly if you get in that elevator with me. I need you to stay behind on this one. I need you to trust me, for your own good. Please."
Summer held Raven's gaze for an uncomfortable amount of time, in which neither girl blinked. Finally, Summer nodded, her face very pale.
"…I'll walk away if you tell me one thing, and I need you to be honest with me. If you're right about whatever's going on… are you going to be okay?"
Raven kept her eyes locked on Summer's, unblinking.
"…yes. I've been training for this moment my entire life. I'll be fine, and so will Qrow. Just promise me that you'll go back to the dorm, and you will not use your semblance," Raven demanded as she gave Summer's hands one last little squeeze.
Summer sighed and pulled a face.
"…am I that obvious?"
"Yes. Yes you are," Raven replied as she finally let her grip upon Summer's hands drop.
"…fine. But one day, I'm going to ask you to return the favor," Summer warned as she folded her arms across her chest. "And no matter what, in that moment, I'm going to need you to trust me. Promise."
Raven rolled her eyes and blew a lock of hair away from her eyes as she pressed the button beside the elevator and stepped inside.
"…ugh. Fine, I promise. Don't be so dramatic."
"Wouldn't want to steal your thunder," Summer replied with a grin. She watched as Raven folded her arms across her chest while the elevator began to rise, only to let out a long breath that she didn't know she had been holding once the other girl was out of sight. Summer turned and shook her head as she began to walk down the long hall with her hands clasped behind her back, alone once again.
"…but I already know I will, one day…"
"…it is a rather fine piece of work," Professor Ozpin praised while he ran his hand over the segmented blade of Harbinger as is laid atop the surface of his desk. "You've quite outdone yourself, Maria."
Maria Calavera smirked, though the expression was barely visible beneath her golden skull half-mask. She crossed her arms and shrugged noncommittally at her superior from her place standing at his side.
"Perhaps I've gotten better at giving advice and bringing out potential in my students, but the credit really goes to this young man. After all, he nailed down the details and did most of the work."
Qrow smiled nervously from his seated position on the other side of the massive desk. The boy raised a hand and scratched at the back of his head as he echoed Maria's shrug, before he followed it with a small chuckle.
"Well… thanks, both of you. It's been a project for months, now, and I couldn't have done it without Professor Calavera, or some of the friends I've made here. But… did you really call me here just to discuss weaponry, and how my year's been going?" Qrow questioned. "This all just… seems really unusual, especially on a weekend."
Professor Ozpin and Maria exchanged knowing looks with each other as the older man gripped Harbinger by the hilt and rose from his seat. He slung the weapon up over his shoulder as he began to walk slowly around the chair and toward the wall of windows behind his desk.
"Does it? If you ask me, this entire year has been most unusual, thus far. Especially for the two of you."
"I'm not sure I understand," Qrow bluffed as he shifted in his seat. "It's been a pretty typical experience for me, so far."
The sudden ding of the elevator arriving at Professor Ozpin's office caused Qrow's heart to leap in his chest, and he looked back over his shoulder to confirm his fears. Raven Branwen strode out of the cab at a brisk pace, looking every bit as tired and dirty as she had in Jacques' garage. Qrow left his seat immediately and ran to meet his sister, his face full of worry.
"Raven? What happened? Are y-"
"Never mind that," Raven said icily as she walked past Qrow and stared intently at Professor Ozpin's back. "Why did you call us here? What is this?"
"Raven!" Qrow hissed as he hurried to once again stand with his sister. "Don't act like that! He's the headmaster!"
Professor Ozpin merely smirked, his reflection in the glass of the windows giving his expression away to the twins before he turned to face them. He transitioned the point of Harbinger downward to balance perfectly against the floor of the office and leveled both of his hands atop the hilt as he spoke, his voice ever calm.
"…Raven Branwen. From the few one-on-one interactions you and I have had so far this year, I know that you're an incredibly gifted girl. Intelligent, skilled in combat, pragmatic, and observant. Figured it out, have you? I can tell, just by the look on your face," the headmaster offered.
"Well. So did we," Maria added. Qrow's face paled as he watched the woman withdraw her twin short scythes from within her dusk-colored robes. "This is about the insignia etched upon the ball bearings within your sword, Raven. Both of your combat styles in Goodwitch's class, and the fact that when I called Haven Academy to check in on your 'previous instructor', he had never heard of you, Qrow. This is about your father, and the reason you really enrolled in Beacon Academy."
Raven grit her teeth as she watched the taller woman approach, the tip of one of her scythes dragging along the floor as she went. Professor Ozpin tilted his head downward slightly, regarding the Branwen twins over the rims of his circular glasses.
"Now, there are two ways this could go. We could have a civil discussion, in which you inform us of the location of Those Above All and a few other key details, or we c-"
"Raven! D-"
Qrow was a second too late as he tried to grab Raven's arm. The girl rushed forward with incredible speed and drew a sparking saffron blade from Omen's sheath as she leapt into the air, aiming for Professor Ozpin. She made it nearly to the man's desk before a whirling dervish of deep blue and gold seemed to almost appear atop the furniture, spinning in a hail of gunfire and blades. Raven's strike was repelled as Maria spun to a stop and pointed the gun barrels at the top of the scythes' hafts at the teen, who landed in an unstable stance off to the side.
"Qrow is all yours. I've got her."
"Of course," Professor Ozpin replied nonchalantly before seeming to almost blink across the room.
Qrow backpedaled immediately, yelling all the while for Raven to stop her assault. Thinking quickly as he watched Professor Ozpin disappear and reappear as he approached in a zig-zag pattern, Qrow grabbed the chair he had been seated in and raised the piece of furniture aloft to protect himself. The curved blade of Harbinger impaled the seat from below almost immediately afterward, and Qrow found the chair ripped from his hands and flung across the room as Professor Ozpin twirled his scythe and held it pressed behind his back.
"Professor! We don't have to do this!" Qrow insisted as he once again began to jog backward. "I don't want this! I've been against our dad since the beginning!"
"And yet here you are, standing with her," the man said coolly as he began a slow, menacing walk forward. "Family ties run deep. We'll end this soon, and come to a resolution that benefits all of us. Trust me."
Raven punctuated Professor Ozpin's statement with a frenzied yell as she traded blows with Maria, who deftly parried each and every attack thrown her way. The woman's robes obscured her flashing blades as she kept to deflecting strikes, her eyes cold beneath her mask.
"You know, I've never liked that weapon," Maria offered casually as she whirled her twin scythes and joined them into a bladed staff. "But I couldn't put together just why, for the longest time."
"You think this is a casual fight!?" Raven roared as the mechanism within her sheath whirred furiously. Finally, she settled upon a deep purple blade, the steel dripping with a sizzling liquid as she brought it down toward Maria's head.
"Somewhat," the professor insisted as she spun her staff and hooked one of her blades around Raven's katana. The teen disengaged the hilt of her sword just as the older woman dragged the weapon off to the side, resulting in the blade itself flying away from her as Raven brought the hilt back to the sheath and instead drew out an icy blue sword. "Good form!"
"Shut up!" Raven cried as she launched into another series of attacks, crystals of ice forming in midair as she battered Maria with increasingly desperate strikes. Maria simply ducked beneath each of the attacks before thrusting the blunt head of her staff into Raven's stomach and firing off a shotgun blast, which caused the girl to slide backward across the room as her aura flickered a desperate scarlet.
An odd, clacking sound echoing from the other side of the room drew Raven's attention for a split second, and she turned her head to catch sight of Qrow and Professor Ozpin in a deadlock. The Branwen boy had grabbed the headmaster's cane from its place leaning beside the desk and held it horizontally above himself in a defensive position. Professor Ozpin seemed to be shifting instantaneously from side to side as he battered Qrow's guard with impossibly fast strikes with the flat of Harbinger, seemingly trying to pressure the boy into dropping the weapon.
"Your defense is solid- far more so than any other first year I've seen. That being said, it won't be enough," the headmaster said with a hint of disappointment. "You'd do well to give up now, before I'm forced to injure you."
"No!" Qrow barked as he spun the cane and made a desperate thrust for Professor Ozpin's neck, which the man easily dodged with a subtle motion. "I won't just give up without knowing what you're going to do to Raven! She's innocent in all of this! She's just as much a victim a-"
Qrow's aura flickered rapidly as Professor Ozpin landed countless strikes upon the teen in a mere instant, his movements a blur to everyone in the room. The man's cane spiraled through the air as it flew from Qrow's grip, and the boy was soon upon the ground with the blade of his own sword leveled against the back of his neck as Professor Ozpin planted a foot firmly into the small of his back.
"Do not move," the headmaster warned as he turned his eyes to Maria and nodded.
The woman backflipped up onto the headmaster's desk to avoid another of Raven's sweeping strikes, only to echo the man's sentiment as Raven sheathed her sword once again.
"Pay attention to your surroundings, girl," the professor warned. "You've lost this battle."
Raven's chest heaved as she turned her attention to Professor Ozpin and Qrow, and she felt her breathing quicken as she processed what was going on.
"No…" she stated breathlessly as she locked eyes with the headmaster. "Don't! You wouldn't! You can't!"
"No, I wouldn't" the man replied calmly as he kept the edge of the sword pressed to the back of Qrow's neck. "But I certainly could. Lower your weapon, Raven. It's time to talk."
"About what!?" the girl cried, tears clinging to the corners of her eyes. "You could never understand! You don't know what happens on that mountain! We have no choice! It's either by you, or him, but one way or another, we're going to die!"
"Calm yourself," Maria instructed in an almost motherly voice. "You're not thinking rationally. You are safe here at Beacon, but we need you to cooper-"
"Safe? Safe?" Raven asked incredulously. "Our clan killed the last headmaster! Our father could have agents here now, just waiting for us to fail! I have to succeed! I have to do this, to keep us both safe! You can't protect us!"
"Do we not stand a greater chance against him united?" Professor Ozpin asked. "All I want from you is information. We can take care of the rest, and we can guarantee your safety."
"You can't!" Raven insisted, her eyes suddenly streaming. "No matter what, we'd have to lower our guard for you to attack him! You can't be here and there at the same time, and I'm sure Qrow and I are being watched! If I could take you there now, I would, but there's no safe way to do this! You have to fight us, here and now! We need to win! We need to end this and return to him successful, or…!"
"That isn't going to happen," Maria said flatly as she returned her weaponry to the inside of her robe. "You would really rather die here and now, in this room, than even try for the alternative? Waste so much potential when your heart clearly isn't behind Arowana's cause, all out of fear? Are you that weak, Raven? What is it that you really want to fight for, as a huntress?"
"I… I-I…" Raven began to reply, her chest heaving as she felt herself begin to hyperventilate. Her grip tightened around the hilt of her sword as she wrung her fingers against the cord in a fit of nervous energy.
"I want to protect Qrow! I don't care what happens to me, so long as he can live and finally get what he deserves!"
As Raven drew her sword to punctuate her cry, her aura surged with a devastating rush all across her body. Her entire form flashed and crackled in scarlet as Omen seemed to rip a crimson hole through the air itself in front of her, leaving a deep red line like a bloody wound in the previously unoccupied space. Slowly and steadily, the hanging gash of aura widened, until it expanded all at once to form a portal tall and wide enough for two people to fit through side by side. Raven screamed in fear as she rapidly stepped backward to get away from the opening, only to fall onto her rear and send Omen clattering harmlessly across the floor and away from her.
Qrow felt his heart miss several beats as he stared into the portal, the space inside of which was a bright, eye-searing blue in contrast to its deep red edging. Tiny flecks of snow fell through the gate and onto the floor of the office as the gate remained open, and the boy had to try several times to choke out his thoughts as words.
"Is… is that… home?"
The pressure on Qrow's back eased as Professor Ozpin stepped off of the boy and approached the portal. He stopped for a moment to gather Omen and its sheath from the floor before he walked around the swirling gate and stood before Raven. Slowly, he kneeled down and looked the girl in the eye, his voice soft and comforting.
"It would seem that opportunity has arrived, at a most critical juncture," he began. "By unlocking your semblance, you have provided us a gateway directly to him, and a potential solution to all of our problems at once. Will you join me, and end this, once and for all?"
Raven stared dumbfounded as Professor Ozpin sheathed her katana and offered the entire thing to her with a steady hand. She looked around his shoulder for a brief moment to see Maria helping Qrow to his feet, before the woman moved to collect the headmaster's cane. Several moments of silence passed as the duo walked slowly to stand on either side of Professor Ozpin, looking at Raven expectantly.
"…let's go," the girl managed to croak out as she took the weapon from the headmaster and pulled herself up to her feet. "We don't know how long that thing is going to stay open."
Author's Note:
Here we go…
-RD