There is a special quality to the loneliness of dusk, a melancholy more brooding even than the night's.
-Ed Gorman
Ruby woke up to Weiss shaking her shoulder. "We're going to be LATE, Ruby! Wake up!"
"L—late?" Ruby asked blearily, stretching, yawning, and then trying to put her face back in her pillow. Weiss shook her shoulder even harder. "Late?" She asked again. "For what?"
"Meeting the upperclassmen team, of course!" Weiss hissed.
"Team DUSK." Yang said mildly. Blake and Yang were both awake, Yang still lying in bed and Blake in the process of pulling her sleeve on, her bow draped over her shoulder to be tied around her ears.
Ruby sat bolt upright in bed, "Oh my gosh! What time is it? Are we going to be late? Where's my skirt?!"
"Relax," Blake said calmly, as Ruby motored around the room frantically and knocked over Crescent Rose in her haste to find her dress. "We have a little time. Weiss just woke you up early because she's nervous."
Weiss glared at her.
"Yeah, well, the earlier the better, right?" Ruby asked, hopping on one foot as she pulled her combat tights on. "I don't want them to think anything but the best of Team RWBY!"
"Which is why I woke you all up early," Weiss said, crossing her arms. "I'm glad someone else understands the importance of this."
"They're just upperclassmen, Weiss," Yang said.
"They aren't just upperclassmen!" Weiss exclaimed indignantly. "They are the best non-professional Eridanus team in all of Remnant! Their leader is considered the best student fighter in the world—and she's STILL ranked in the top 97th percentile of ALL fighters in the world!"
"Weiss has a crush," Yang teased.
"Shut up! I do not!"
Ruby buckled her belt on and attempted to untangle her hood. Weiss turned to Ruby's sister. "Yang, why aren't you dressed?!"
"Because we don't have to GO anywhere for another fifteen minutes! You're just in a panic, Ice Queen."
"Hey! I am not!"
Yang hopped off of her bunk and walked in to the bathroom to put on her usual outfit. Weiss wasn't wearing her typical bolero and combat skirt, but rather the outfit affectionately christened "Snow Pea" by Ruby—the one she'd worn when they went 'undercover' and wound up taking out Roman Torchwick and his Atlesian Paladin. This time, however, she had the Schnee crest emblazoned on the sleeves and back in pale white, showing up whenever the light hit the jacket properly.
"You look spiffy, Weiss," Ruby offered as she clipped Crescent Rose onto the hooks of her belt.
"I debated between this and my usual, but I felt I ought to dress up for the occasion," Weiss replied, adjusting her skirt. "So, thank you."
"No prob."
Yang stepped out of the bathroom and adjusted her gauntlets. "Okay. Ready to rock and roll."
"Me too!" Ruby piped up.
They quickly left their room. Weiss was a whirlwind on legs and the rest of them had to jog slightly to keep up.
"Why is this so important anyway?" Yang asked as they jogged after Weiss. "I'm perfectly happy with just hunting Grimm. Why do we have to shadow the Eridanus team?"
"I figured you would want to advance to Eridanus, Yang," Weiss said with some surprise. "The 'thrill of the hunt and all."
"Okay, but do you know how many Eridanus hunters die every year? I said I'm 'in it for the thrill of the hunt', not 'suicidal'."
"I think Ozpin wants us to shadow them because he suspects Eridanus involvement in the White Fang-Torchwick gang issue." Blake said quietly. "At least, that's my theory. It's the only reason I can think of."
"That's unnerving," Yang said.
Ruby remained silent. Eridanus were immensely dangerous, even more dangerous than Grim, and very rare—but she'd heard they were hardly sentient, so how could one be involved in the White Fang/Torchwick plot? Were they using Eridanus like they'd used Grim to attack the city—luring the creatures to places full of people to cause chaos and destruction? If so, to what end exactly?
The group came to a halt outside the amphitheater where they had first been admitted to Beacon. "We're meeting them here?" Ruby asked.
"Yes," Weiss said, somewhat testily.
"Sorry. Just wanted to make sure." When no one said anything, Ruby rocked back and forth on her heels. "Anyone else, uh, nervous?"
"Pshh, nervous? Please. I'm not nervous at all," Weiss said, flicking her hair back.
Blake just blinked. "Oh really? You said yourself they're top of their class. Ranked higher than any other Eridanus teams from all the other schools. Which, like you said, means they're at the top of Remnant's Eridanus-hunters-in-training." She cast her amber gaze to Weiss. "Of course they must be quite important. Sure you're not nervous?"
Weiss flushed. "N-no. Not at all."
Yank rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh. And I'm the White Fang. Uh, no offense, Blake."
Blake shook her head. "None taken."
"Where are they?" Ruby muttered. As far as she knew, first-years had no dealings with upperclassmen, not like this. ESPECIALLY not when said upperclassmen were fifth-year Eridanus hunters. Team RWBY hadn't even declared themselves—if they were going to pursue Eridanus, or remain focused on Grim. It was a decision that everyone at Beacon faced at the end of their second year, and it was the decision of each individual. If you wanted to move on, but your teammates didn't, you wound up in another team. Ruby had a feeling—or maybe it was just hope—that her team would remain together, not matter what it was they chose to fight. But she wasn't sure. Weiss didn't like Eridanus, she hated them more than the White Fang. Seven members of the Schnee dynasty had fallen over the last hundred years to the claws and teeth of Eridanus, back when the Schnees were mostly Hunters and not businessmen, but that didn't necessarily mean she wanted to fight them for a living (Probably, though. It was Weiss, after all.) Blake's feeling's on them, Ruby couldn't say. And she'd never really heard Yang's opinion on them until now. As for herself...that was something else she couldn't say. She'd never actually seen an Eridanus. None of them had.
Weiss shrugged, looking slightly annoyed. "Well, obviously they're running late. I mean, what do you expect? They spend all their time hunting those creatures. They probably think they're better than us and that it's okay to keep us waiting."
Blake touched her shoulder. "We're all anxious, Weiss. Relax, okay? We are a little early."
Weiss seemed to deflate slightly. "Yeah. I guess you're right. But—"
"Hey," Yang interrupted.
The door leading into the amphitheater opened and the entire team turned. "Sorry to keep you girls waiting," Professor Goodwitch said, stepping out and adjusting her glasses as she held open the door. "I merely wanted to discuss some things with DUSK first."
"No problem!" Ruby said cheerfully.
Glynda cracked a sliver of a smile, then closed the door behind the four young women who had filed out behind her. "Team RWBY, meet Team DUSK."
All four of the girls next to Glynda Goodwitch were taller than Team RWBY. The first, and third tallest, was dressed in a blue fitted overcoat with baggy elbow-length sleeves and rust-red lapels. It was cinched around the waist with a brown, corset-like belt, and she had matching brown leather gauntlets around her wrists and knee-high leather boots with short, thick heels. She wore cream-colored, tight-fitting breeches that matched the pleated shirt under the overcoat, and a lighter brown material up to her thighs, almost like a boot underneath a boot. Her dirty-blonde hair was pulled back in a loose bun, save for what hung in her face, and her bright hazel eyes were friendly.
The next girl was several inches shorter than the one in blue. She wore a black off-the-shoulder shirt with halter straps holding it up, and translucent reddish-purple tights under black shorts. Her boots came up to just above her knees, and her dark brown hair was cut short in a fauxhawk, longer on the right side and slicked up in a sort of crown across the back of her scalp as well as straight down it. She had gauntlets on her arms that immediately caught Yang's eyes.
The third girl was the tallest, and the black wolf ears denoted her as a Faunus. She had a long flop of orangey-blond hair hanging down the right side of her face, but the hair underneath it on all sides was cropped close to her scalp and a smokey black that seemed to be slightly red at the tips in some places, and frosted over with whitish tips in the back. She wore a maroon military jacket open over a white, fitted tank-top with ribbing that vaguely resembled a corset, white pants with a maroon stripe down the sides, and white boots that went up to her knees. Her eyes, however, were unnerving. Her pupils were a strange milky white that simply shouldn't be, and her irises were dark scarlet.
"Hello, Team RWBY," The Faunus said with a smile that revealed pointy canines. The calm playfulness in her voice relaxed the younger girls, who quickly saluted team DUSK. "No need for that now," she chuckled. "I'm Sarah." She gestured to her teammates. "Come on, guys, introduce yourselves!"
The blonde smiled at them warmly. "Hi, guys. I'm Utaria Odenheimer." Ruby saw Weiss perk up at the name.
"And I'm Kayla," the shorter brunette said with a wide grin. "Nice to meet you."
The final girl took a step forward out of the shadows where she'd been hiding. She was as tall as the Faunus girl, and there was something in her expression that made RWBY stiffen. She had black knee-high boots covered in buckles with a thick one-inch heel. Her pants were some sort of black knit with faux-leather fronts, and she had purple metal bands around her thighs that curled just above her knees. Her violet belt was studded, and her midriff was bare save for lavender swirls that came off her black shirt and seemed to curl over her skin. It covered only one shoulder, and lavender swirls crept across her collarbone to form a black turtleneck—it seemed to be made out of some skintight, stretchy fabric similar to spandex. Its only sleeve was sheer with a dark purple floral design, and her other hand had black leather wrapping around the palm up to the elbow. There was a large scar on her rib, and her dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Heavy black surrounded her eyes, past smokey and veering more towards soulless voids—a non-smearing reflective sunblock makeup designed for combat. Out of all of them, her and Sarah looked the most dangerous—but there was something about her cold, emotionless face and the way she carried herself that made goosebumps prickle on Ruby's skin.
"And I'm Dana." She said. Her voice was surprisingly icy and expressionless. "The leader of Team DUSK. Utaria is my partner, and Sarah and Kayla are partners. It's a pleasure to meet you."
It does not sound like you think it's a pleasure, Ruby thought apprehensively.
Sarah rolled her eyes at Dana, who shot her a glare that could have curdled milk.
Ruby cleared her throat and presented herself to Team DUSK as professionally as she could. "Hello! It's very nice to meet you. I am Ruby Rose, and this is my partner Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and her partner, my sister, Yang Xiao-Long."
Weiss curtsied, Blake managed a nervous "Hi," and Yang winked—winked—at the older girls and grinned. " 'Sup?"
Weiss huffed indignantly.
Kayla prodded Sarah gently in the ribs. "Looks like we have two Faunus now, no?"
Sarah rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "You're very funny, K."
"Two?" Blake stammered.
"Oops." Kayla grimaced. "I'm sorry, Blake, I—Professor Ozpin briefed us about all of you before we met you, so, we were informed that you were a Faunus. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"No, it's fine, I'm just surprised that—"
"We also know that you were formerly affiliated with the White Fang," Dana said. Blake turned white. The violet, expressionless eyes of the leader bore into the younger girl's very soul. "None of that matters to us."
And then she turned and started walking away. "Come. I want to test out Team RWBY's battle skills and weapons before we go into the field or even to any classes. We'll train in the Eridanus Hunters' training arena after we attend brunch."
" 'Attend brunch'?" Ruby whispered to Weiss.
"Just roll with it," Utaria whispered back. "Hey, Blake—no one's judging you for past affiliations. Sorry to bring it up again; if it makes you uncomfortable we won't mention it. But I just want you to know that we don't think anything bad of you for it."
Blake flushed. "Thanks," she muttered. Yang patted her shoulder.
"So, you're upperclassmen?" Yang asked. "Tell me, what was the school like in your time?"
Weiss moaned in the background, but Ruby giggled.
"You'll have to pardon my sister, she's a bit of a jokester," she said.
"It's fine." Sarah smiled.
"It won't be fine when you hear all the awful puns," Weiss muttered under her breath.
"School was, well...I guess like it is for you, minus the whole 'saving the world'." She glanced at Kayla, who nodded. Dana alone remained silent.
Ruby jogged a little to keep up with everyone else's longer strides. "Haha, yeah, but it's no big, you know? Nothing a few Hunters like us can't handle."
"Hunters?" Dana asked. "You haven't even finished your first year. You did a commendable job taking down Roman Torchwick, but did you actually think that four teenage girls could stop all the crime in the kingdom in just one battle?"
Ruby bit her lip. "Well, I did, until you said that..."
"Except all crime has stopped." Utaria spoke up. "Well, all White-Fang related crime. No gang activity. No terrorism. No robberies, no attacks—absolutely nothing."
"So...why is that a problem?" Ruby asked timidly. "It sounds like once Torchwick got nabbed, everything ended..."
"Torchwick is not the head of the White Fang," Kayla replied.
"And that's why it's a problem." Sarah finished.
"….I'm not seeing the problem." Yang said.
"The problem is that Roman Torchwick was a human, and the White Fang would never work with humans. No matter WHAT." Dana had stopped, and now she turned to look at the younger team. "Think about it. The White Fang have never needed that much Dust, in their entire history—even Beacon, the largest school for young Hunters and Huntresses in all the four kingdoms, does not use as much Dust as they stole. And the weapons they stole don't use that much Dust either. Even if you added together every known White Fang member and every estimated White Fang member, and the Dust consumption of every weapon they stole, including that old train, that only accounts for 60% of the Dust they stole."
"So what on earth are they stealing that much Dust for? To cripple us?" Weiss asked.
"A good thought," Dana said approvingly, and Weiss beamed. "Perhaps, yes. However, Ozpin fears something much more sinister."
"An Eridanus," Blake said.
"Precisely," Dana replied, and continued walking again.
"Okay, so...why is the lack of White Fang activity concerning, then, even if an Eridanus is involved?" Yang asked.
"If Roman Torchwick is not the mastermind behind this robbery, who is? And it's unlikely Roman would be. For one, the White Fang don't work with and certainly not for humans. Two, why does he need all this Dust? Three, if he was the mastermind or had some sort of control over the White Fang and is now in custody, what has stopped them from continuing their original agenda? All of this points to someone or something else being behind the White Fang, and the fact that they're not doing anything now that Roman is gone seems to mean that they're working on something bigger. We know that RWBY's arrival in Mountain Glenn pushed them to go ahead of schedule. It's highly likely they're working to make sure the next venture doesn't go so horrendously ary. But hundreds of Faunus died in the tunnels under Mountain Glenn when those bombs went off and the Grimm came through, nevermind when the train actually crashed through the barrier. Why are they still working for whoever they are working for, this mastermind behind everything, when so many of them died? What or who is this person that holds so much sway? Ozpin fears it's an Eridanus."
"I knew it," Blake muttered.
"Knew what?" Dana asked.
"No—I mean, I knew that was why Ozpin wanted us to shadow you. Because you're the top Eridanus Hunters, and the four of us have experience with the White Fang and Torchwick."
"You're right," Kayla said. "Ozpin thinks an Eridanus is behind this and that's why he wants us involved as well."
"Okay, so we kill it!" Ruby said excitedly.
Dana's face became downright terrifying. "You kill it? No. Eridanus should not be taken lightly." Ruby instinctively shrank back.
"Here we go," Sarah said under her breath.
"Eridanus are deadly." Dana continued. "Deadlier than Grimm. And you haven't even faced truly dangerous Grimm yet—save perhaps the Giant Nevermore. But of course, you've never seen one, have you? An Eridanus?"
The younger girls paused, then shook their heads. Even Weiss and Blake had never seen an Eridanus.
"Well, I mean, no, but...I get Eridanus are dangerous. I was just..." Ruby glanced at Yang, who shook her head back.
"We know." Kayla smiled at Ruby gently, and she felt a little less chastised. "Dana is just passionate about Eridanus."
"So we see," Blake said.
Sarah patted Ruby's shoulder as the rest of DUSK walked on past. "Chin up, kid. She isn't always this...abrasive."
"Is that how I came across?" Weiss asked Ruby and Blake, slightly concerned.
"You're far nicer," Yang muttered.
As they walked in silence, Ruby watched the members of the other team, trying to discern their various weapons. Utaria had a thick black coil hanging off of a clasp on her right hip, and every now and then the light slid over it just right, allowing Ruby to make out the texture. It looked like it was braided. Possible a whip? She'd never seen anyone fight with a whip before. Sarah had something square and metal on her back, hooked onto her jacket by a strap, and Kayla's weapons likely had something to do with her gauntlets. But she couldn't for the life of her locate a weapon on Dana.
"So what are Eridanus like?" Blake ventured after a moment of silence.
Utaria and Sarah both adopted very serious expressions, but it was Kayla who spoke.
"They are infinitely worse than Grimm could ever be."
Sarah drew back her jacket to reveal a large scar on her chest. "Grimm are cakewalk compared to these monsters."
Team RWBY looked worried.
"But don't worry about it right now," Kayla said quickly. "We're here, so that hopefully you won't have to fight the Eridanus itself—if there even is one. They're so dangerous, it's entirely possible the White Fang wouldn't risk working with one."
Sarah returned to cheerful as well. "Yeah, let's focus right now on getting some grub."
As they walked, Ruby meandered her way forward past her teammates and then past Utaria and Sarah so she was walking right behind Dana, who had a rather obnoxiously long stride and moved quite quickly. For all the older girl was frightening and intimidating, she was also very interesting and she wanted to see if Dana had a visible weapon anywhere.
She didn't have a single pocket or Dust canister on her belt, or on her legs, and she could see no weapon or jewelery that might have the potential to transform. The scar on her ribs, however, extended all the way down her back to her opposite hip, and there was something that looked like a tattoo hidden by the lavender swirls on the bottom of her shirt.
Ruby was curious. Always had been, always would be be. So she asked.
"Hey, uh, Dana—what's that?"
Weiss looked absolutely horrified when she noticed what Ruby was pointing at.
Dana frowned over her shoulder at the younger girl. "What's what?"
"This scar and...I guess tattoo? The one under your shirt."
Dana gave a soundless snarl.
"That is the first question we don't ask," Kayla said.
Weiss grabbed Ruby by the hood and yanked her away from the older girl. "I'm really sorry. Feel free to ignore her. She doesn't realize how rude she's being."
"The scar is from a Grimm," Dana replied, and then started walking even faster.
"Most of us have scars somewhere," Kayla said, trying to keep Ruby from feeling too embarrassed. "I've got these, and they're from Grimm. It comes with the territory of being a Huntress." She gestured to several running up and down her bared left arm.
"Anyway," Utaria said quickly. "Our schedules and yours have been altered to mesh together, so first we go to your brunch, and then we have the Eridanus training room to ourselves for an hour and a half. And then you should be off to your own devices for the rest of the day. You'll meet up with us again tomorrow morning, right after breakfast, instead of your first weekday class, and then you have the rest of the day as usual. But for the most part, where you go, we go."
"Yeah, but right now, it's brunch time," Sarah said.
"So, RWBY," Kayla said politely. "Team RWBY—Do you guys have any friends you usually sit with? If you'd like, we can sit somewhere else so you can hang out with them."
"Oh, of course you can sit with us!" Ruby grinned. "Our friends won't mind!"
Weiss and Blake winced, but nodded. "Yeah, they won't mind."
When they entered the dining hall, Nora immediately flagged them down with a wave. DUSK trailed behind and waited until RWBY had taken their seats before sitting down.
"Hey, Nora!" Ruby cried.
"Hey, Juane," Yang said.
Pyrrha's eyes widened excitedly when she saw the newcomers. "Is that Team DUSK?"
Ruby nodded excitedly. "Yes!"
"Team who now?" Juane asked.
Dana narrowed her eyes, but Utaria stood up and introduced her team. "I'm Utaria, this is Sarah and Kayla and our leader, Dana."
"They're our new friends," Ruby said excitedly. "They're hunters too, but they're older than us. And they hunt different prey."
"Whoa!" Nora gasped. "Do you meant they're Eridanus hunters?"
"Eri-what?" Juane asked.
"They are the best novice Eridanus hunters ever, practically celebrities!" Pyrrha gushed. "It's such an honor to meet you!"
"Well, thanks," Sarah said, smiling.
"You have some celebrity status yourself, Pyrrha," Kayla said, "You're one of the most skilled young huntress around."
Pyrrha blushed. "Well, it's nothing quite like the four of you. Each one of you was the best of your respective teams when you declared you wanted to pursue Eridanus at the end of second year. Your leader is the best-ranked novice huntress in the world, and got in to Beacon without any formal training at all—a year early!"
Team RWBY stared at Dana. "Wait, really?"
Utaria was the one who nodded. "Yep."
"Are you younger than the rest of DUSK?" Ruby asked. Weiss sighed.
"No," Dana replied. "I got in a year early, at sixteen instead of seventeen. I had to repeat my first year because of...issues...with my teammates."
"How did you get in without any formal training?" Ren asked. "It's next to impossible to pass the Beacon entrance exam without it."
Blake fidgeted in her seat.
Dana sighed. "I lived outside of Remnant until I was 15. It's kill or be killed outside the kingdoms."
"How did you manage that?" Juane asked. "Living outside the kingdoms, I mean."
Dana grimaced. This didn't seem to be a story she wanted to tell—in fact, she didn't seem to want to talk at all. "Well, I lived with a group. There were four former White Fang members who were disillusioned with the terrorist practices of the group, three former Hunters—one was a Shade Academy dropout, the other two were likewise disenchanted with the place of Hunters and Huntresses in society. Then there were about two or three Faunus and several other humans...and then myself and my mentor."
"Your mentor?" Ruby asked.
Sarah was behind Dana waving her hand across her neck to signal 'no, no, no.' Dana nodded, though her expression hardened. "He's dead."
"How did—" Ruby began, but Weiss stepped on her toe. Hard.
"Do you break Eridanus's legs?" Nora asked.
"Nora!"
Utaria laughed. "We try."
"What are Eridanus like?"
JNPR, DUSK and RWBY chatted for the next fifteen minutes while they ate. Dana picked at her food and seemed overall irritated and impatient, especially when Sarah tried to nudge her and get her to join in a joke or story.
"Hey Sarah, why are your pupils white?" Ruby asked. "I've never seen eyes like yours before."
Weiss face-palmed. "Ruby!"
"I used to be blind, but it was fixed." Sarah said with a shrug. "Well, by fixed I mean they could fix my sight but not the cloudiness of the pupils."
"Oh, so your eyes are naturally red?"
"Ruby!"
At exactly 10:30, Dana stood up. "All right, we have to go. It's time to test your skills."
"We just got here!" Ruby whined. Weiss kicked her under the table.
"So we did. But less time socializing leaves more time for training."
Sarah looked up at her leader, "They aren't used to how we work, at least let them eat without feeling rushed. We have plenty of time to train." Sarah spoke calmly and gave Dana her puppy dog eyes.
In response, Dana's eyes narrowed and almost seemed to darken. This wasn't missed by Yang, who squinted at the other girl curiously. Her own eyes changed to red when she was angered, and she had never known why. Was it possible this happened in other people?
But at last, Dana sighed. "Fine. Fifteen more minutes. That's all."
"So, if you don't mind my asking, how do you all know Team RWBY?" Ren asked.
"We've been paired with RWBY," Utaria said with a smile. "We'll be seeing a lot of you guys, I suppose. With the whole crisis going on, Ozpin thought it would be good to have an Eridanus team involved."
"You there's Eridanus involvement?" Ren asked with some surprise.
"He suspects there is." Dana said.
"Oh, wow," Pyrrha said. "That isn't good, is it?"
"No." Kayla replied. "It isn't. But hopefully, we won't be needed."
Weiss nodded, her face solemn. "But in the meantime, anything we can do to help."
"Did you always know you all wanted to be Eridanus Hunters?" Pyrrha asked. "It's impressive, that you are all ranked so highly in your individual fields and you're all on a team together. It must have taken a lot of hard work."
"Everyone in DUSK was chosen for a reason." Dana replied. "We didn't start out together as freshmen. Most don't, in the Eridanus hunters. We all came from different places."
Yang spoke up first. "So, you...all of you, left your teams?"
"Two of my teammates quit," Utaria admitted. "And the last remaining one, my partner, didn't want to move on to Eridanus. Teams split up, it happens. Eridanus teams form in the middle of the third year, when the professors and a board of Eridanus hunters observe who works best with whom and whose skills are best utilized in conjunction with whose. And then those teams are together for the rest of the next two years, unless something happens."
"I did leave my team," Kayla said. "I miss them. They're Hunters now, fully fledged."
"I left my team—or what was left of it. Two of us got eaten by Grim third year. We had all moved on to Eridanus together, and then the other girl left Eridanus training." Sarah said.
"I never had a team for very long," Dana's comment once again ended the conversation for a good few minutes, before RWBY and JNPR began talking about classes. Eventually, they finished their meal, and everyone got up from the table and prepared to leave. JNPR said their goodbyes and headed off in their own direction.
As they were heading out the door, Juane bringing up the rear, Team CDNL drifted over, with that self-absorbed swagger in the movements of each and every one of the boys. Cardin, the leader grinned. "Hey, Juane."
"Ugh. Not now, Cardin. " Juane tried to push past him.
"Oh dear," Blake said.
"I thought Juane told him to fuck off?" Yang growled.
"What's going on?" Dana asked, aggravated that her team wasn't following her.
"Cardin Winchester is picking on Juane. Again." Weiss pointed.
"Where are you going, Arc?" Cardin asked, grinning. This time, when Juane tried to shove past him, he grabbed the shorter boy's arm. Pyrrha immediately stepped forward angrily, but Ren held out an arm. Juane did need to fight his own battles, and it would only embarrass the blonde boy if Pyrrha stepped in.
"Hey," Ruby said angrily.
"This isn't our fight, Ruby!" Weiss hissed.
"No, actually, it is." Dana strode past Ruby, her heels clicking menacingly on the floor, and stepped directly between Cardin and Juane. At first, Cardin looked alarmed to see her there. Then he tried to move past her, but she sidestepped and wound up directly in his path again, face cold and vaguely annoyed.
"Is there something you'd like to say to Juane, Winchester?"
"Look, lady, I wasn't exactly talking to you." Cardin said, annoyed.
"Oh, but I was talking to you." Dana put her hand on his shoulder when he tried to move past her again. It was not a friendly gesture, and Cardin glared at her—up at her. She was taller than he was, and that was clearly not something the tough was used to. "You may find it amusing to pick on other people, Winchester, but I don't. And I don't mind starting fights that I have no business starting. Especially when I know that I'll be the one ending them."
Cardin stepped back. Sarah had drifted over to stand near Dana and Utaria and Kayla were flanking the Faunus with dark expressions. He took in these newcomers, taller, stronger, and the decidedly dangerous aura they were giving off, and looked at his gang, then took another step back. The last thing he wanted was to get his ass kicked by a bunch of women. "Let's go, guys."
"As I thought," Dana said darkly, before brusquely striding away.
"You okay, Juane?" Utaria asked.
"Yeah. Um, thanks." He rubbed his neck, slightly embarrassed.
"You don't need to get in trouble for breaking anyone's legs," Kayla said with a wink. "Dana, on the other hand, doesn't mind getting yelled at by the school board." Juane flushed.
"He's just lucky Plagis didn't lose its shit." Sarah said mildly as they left the dining hall. Dana cast her an annoyed glance, but said nothing.
Ruby mouthed at her group. "Plagis?" They shook their heads.
As they walked away, Ruby couldn't stop staring at the scar across Dana's back. It was big, and if Dana was really so tough, how'd she get so badly hurt? It looked like a wound that would have been debilitating for at least a good year, depending on how her Aura had played a role in healing it.
So she asked. "Hey. If you're the best Eridanus Huntress, how did a Grimm give you that scar? And how did you heal from it? It looks real bad." Dana looked to Sarah, who gave her a pleading look, then looked to the young Ruby.
"Accidents happen." She said coldly, almost witheringly. "Not even the best hunters go unscathed. Even the most powerful people...the strongest..." She seemed to be trying to say something, and finally just spat angrily, "I've seen people more powerful than you can even IMAGINE felled in battle. It's a harsh reality you need to get used to if you plan on hunting Grimm OR Eridanus."
"Ruby, you need to stop asking rude questions," Weiss said as Sarah jogged past to calm Dana. Ruby bowed her head, chastised. Slightly, anyway.
Sarah put a hand on Dana's shoulder, which the team leader did not shrug off. Even though Dana and Utaria were partners, she and Sarah seemed slightly closer.
"Calm down. They don't know. They are curious and want to learn—not only about Eridanus, but about us. And thank you."
Dana pushed her away, but not roughly. "Anyway. When we get to our destination, RWBY, present your weapons, run through your skills and moves, and then we'll break into teams."
"Sooo, where are we going anyway?" Yang asked, hoping to ease some of the tension.
"The Eridanus Hunter's training room," Utaria said. "We want to see how you guys fight."
"Of course," Blake said. "So, who will we be fighting?"
"I want to see your weapons first." Dana said from the front. "We'll discuss more when we reach the room."
It was clear that, while Team RWBY mostly made decisions as a whole, Dana was the de-facto leader of Team DUSK—they all deferred to her.
"If that's all, why not just ask?" Ruby said, skipping forward. "We'd have taken them out ages ago. This one time, we had a food fight in the dining room and we didn't have our weapons but we used the food like our weapons..." Ruby went off about the food fight and didn't stop even when the reached the large metal doors marked with the Beacon seal. Dana's face grew tighter as she listened, and the rest of the DUSK showed varying degrees of concern and amusement.
At last Dana raised a hand. "That's delightful. What are your weapons."
Ruby took out hers. "This is Crescent Rose. I made it myself—it's a high-impact sniper rifle." Then she pulled a switch, and the gun unfolded. The barrel of the gun opened, turned, and formed the vicious crescent blade of a very large scythe. "And a scythe! It uses two kinds of ammo."
"That is a lot of scythe for one small girl," Sarah said approvingly.
"Thanks!"
Yang flicked her arms and Ember Celica activated, "Dual-ranged shotgun gauntlets. I prefer hand to hand combat with an edge. What do you think?"
"They fire kinetic blasts, or incendiary blasts?" Utaria asked, impressed, looking at the cartridges in Ember Celica.
"Well, the yellow ones are regular buckshot. But they emit muzzle flashes that look like fire. The red ones are incendiary rounds that explode on impact. I can use the recoil to move, kinda like Ruby and Crescent Rose." She grinned proudly. "They're pretty sweet. Named 'em Ember Celica."
"This is Myrtenaster," Weiss said, pulling her sword free and sweeping it gracefully. "Different Dust cartridges change what it can do, and I often use it in conjunction with my semblance, which is glyphs. It's a rapier; it was my grandmother's."
"I wield a whip," Utaria said. "It uses Dust too. How about you, Blake?"
Blake pulled out her weapon. "This is Gambol Shroud. Katana, gun, and sheath. It can fold up to be shot like a pistol, but in either form I can also throw it and pull it back with this ribbon. Its sheath also has a sharp edge and can act as a sort of cleaver, or a shield."
"That's impressive," Kayla said with a friendly smile. "My weapon isn't exactly a weapon, to be honest. They're just two screens on these gauntlets. They can block sword blades and gunshots and they DO have a cutting edge, but mostly they're for tactical displays. I'm kind of the tactician of the team. When I activate it, I get readings through it on my opponents and it uses Dust to create attacks specified to the target. I mean, it also just shoots like Ember Celica."
"How does your whip use Dust, Utaria?" Weiss asked.
"There's a Dust cartridge in the handle," Utaria produced the whip, which looked very long, coiled even as it was. "The long end, the coil part, can split into ten separate pieces depending how I flick it. Each head shoots dust—have you ever seen Glynda Goodwitch shoot dust with her crop? It's a little like that, except it still functions as a whip. My attacks are ranged, mostly, and I work healing with my semblance. Sarah's are close-combat, Kayla's are defensive but can be considered ranged."
"Yeah," Sarah interjected, "I'm not hand to hand like you, Yang, well most of the time I'm not, but I go for a simpler weapon." She pulled an immense sword off her back, and swung it around like it was nothing. "This here's Earthshaker. It's just a sword. A massive, sharp, deadly sword that I swing around like it's plastic."
Dana rolled her eyes. The others deferred naturally to Dana, but Sarah seemed to run by her own rules.
Sarah winked at Dana with a mischievous grin. "I also have these," she said, then extended her hands and bared white claws.
"Faunus only have one or two animal traits..." Blake said quietly to herself.
"Well, they're a part of my semblance, which you will see soon enough." Sarah winked again, this time at Team RWBY, and Dana rolled her eyes again.
"What's your weapon, Dana?" Ruby asked the question that had been on the tip of her tongue for most of the time they'd been with Team DUSK.
Dana reached for her belt, and drew out of seemingly nowhere a black...thing. It was roughly five inches long, and shaped like it was the handle of a gun or some sort of power tool, with grooves for Dana's fingers...but that was it.
Ruby cocked her head at Dana's weapon. "Um, what's that?"
"This is Plagis Dominum. Also known as Plague Master. I prefer not to unveil it unless absolutely necessary, as it is...volatile."
RWBY nodded, but curious stares remained until Dana put it away.
"All right. I'm pairing each of you with one of my teammates. Ruby Rose, with me. Yang Xiao-Long, Sarah. Blake, Kayla. Weiss, Utaria." Dana announced. "Split off into your groups, find some empty space and go to town." She swiped her scroll over the door's control panel, and the large frosted-glass doors slid back to reveal a huge room made of sleek pale steel, glass, and techno screens. As RWBY looked around in awe, Dana walked forward across a blue line of light in the floor and activated a technoscreen control panel that rose up out of the glass floor and came to a halt at waist height. She plugged in her scroll, and fiddled with several buttons.
With a gentle whirring noise, two of the walls slid back a ways, widening the room and creating more floor space. In four different areas, holographic figures popped up, standing stiff and rigid with targets on their chests and heads.
"Does this room generate Eridanus training dummies?" Blake asked.
"Yes, to a degree. Eridanus all look very different depending on strain, powers, age, number of regenerations, Greater or Lesser, Feral or not, male or female—they have no set, standard model."
"Ooh, can we see one?" Ruby begged.
"No." Dana adjusted two more settings to brighten the room's lights, then gestured. "Everyone, find your spots."
Sarah and Yang grinned at each other. "Let's do this," they said in unison. Sarah drew her sword and Yang activated Ember Celica. Utaria and Weiss jogged off to the far corner of the room, and Kayla gestured for Blake to follow her to the adjacent corner. "Ruby," Dana commanded, "Follow me."
Ruby followed in silence, both amazed and intimidated. Dana was scary, but she had reason to be. She wondered if the Dana had been through anything similar to what she'd been through as a child, losing her mother and all.
Dana took them to the circle of holographs closest to the control panel, which had retreated back into the floor, and gestured to Ruby to step into the middle of the ring. "All right, let's see your moves, Ruby. And don't ask me to bring out my weapon. It's...like I said. Volatile."
Ruby set herself in a ready pose, and cocked her weapon. "Is that all? I expected a harder challenge."
Dana scoffed. "Oh, it's plenty hard. Go for it. Show me your best moves."
Ruby smirked, and then took off the minute the holographic training dummies began moving. She twirled the scythe with a good deal of skill despite its size. Crescent Rose likely weighed almost as much as Ruby herself did, even if it was made out of a significantly lighter carbon-steel and Dust alloy. Aura likely accounted for about 80% of Ruby's ability to raise and effectively spin a weapon with that much weight, and sheer strength likely made up the last 20%—which was impressive. She had of course seen videos of the younger girl in action, but seeing her movements in person was different. For example, it was apparent that she mainly bludgeoned her foes with it, only utilizing the blade part when the momentum of her twirling body could swing the heavy end around with enough force to do sufficient cutting damage. It was easy for a regular human's eye to miss, but Dana could see that the scythe blade would rotate back, so that it was extending straight off the shaft instead of at a right angle, and this allowed Ruby to sweep it in wider arcs and catch more foes with the blade, and indeed do more slicing. Her abilities were impressive, and the more Dana watched the more she was sure the wielding of Crescent Rose had to do with Ruby's Aura. Whether or not she was consciously using her Aura to allow her to manipulate the heavy weapon with such dexterity, the fact remained that she instinctively used just enough of it to strengthen herself such that the weapon's weight decreased. She was also so well attuned to her weapon and so capable with it that she could alternate between scythe and rifle in mere seconds without once stopping her attack.
"What's your semblance?" Dana asked curiously when the last holograph was sliced in half, flickered, and died.
"Semblance?" Ruby paused, then shrugged. "I'm...not 100 percent sure. I think it's speed, of some sort—well, Yang thinks it's speed, anyway. But for the longest time I just thought that it was Crescent Rose, not me."
"What do you mean?"
Ruby unfolded the scythe, spun it around behind her so that the muzzle of the gun, which stuck out of the end with the blade, was pointed away from her, and then started running. Mid-sprint, she fired, and the recoil from the rifle quite literally launched her across the room, where she smashed into a wall and came zipping back, Crescent Rose folded neatly up. "Like that. Weiss says I use the force of the recoil to fling myself."
"Well, you do." Dana tapped her foot, then held out a hand. "Mind if I hold on to Crescent Rose for a few minutes while you test something for me?"
"Sure. Careful, it's heavy."
And it was. Exactly as she'd expected it to be. Ruby's Aura was definitely behind her skill with the weapon, at least in part.
"Okay, what do you want me to do?" Ruby asked, clasping her hands behind her back.
Dana turned to the controls of the room and pushed the farthest wall back a good thirty feet more. The room was located within the large square area at the center of Beacon's northernmost building, allowing the walls of the training gym to expand in almost all directions, form a domed room, the possibilities were vast. Blake had been showing Kayla how she utilized her shadow-clone semblance as well as how she controlled Gambol Shroud with the ribbon, and now they paused to watch and see what was about to happen.
"All right," Dana said, activating a holo dummy all the way at the other end of the room. "Kayla?"
"Yes?"
"I want you recording her speed. Let me know how quickly she accelerates."
"You got it."
She turned to Ruby and pointed to the holo. "This dummy will measure velocity and force when you hit it. Go as fast as you can."
Ruby nodded, dropping into a runner's crouch and wiggling her hind right foot, preparing to push off. "Just tell me when."
"You're going to break the wall if you have her do that, you know," Weiss called out.
"These walls are made to withstand Eridanus Hunter weapons," Dana replied. "Which, if you'll forgive me saying, are a far cry stronger than yours. Ready, Ruby?"
"Yep!"
"Okay...get set...GO!"
And Ruby went.
The small girl shot forward with a rush of wind that blew Dana's hair into her face, and picked up speed until she had turned into a red swirling bullet. Rose petals seemed to fly into the air behind her, and then, with an allmighty crash, she had struck the holo dummy with enough force to completely obliterate the thing. A hollow whump echoed from the metal wall as the wind vortex she'd created in her wake hit it.
"Amazing!" Kayla exclaimed. "Readings on the dummy say she was going nearly a hundred and twenty miles per hour. She accelerated from zero to fifty in a second and from fifty to one hundred in two seconds, and gradually increased speed from there."
"Damn," Dana said, looking genuinely impressed for the first time. "That's amazing."
"I'm even faster with Crescent Rose!" Ruby called from the other end of the room.
"I imagine you are," Dana replied.
"When your kid sister can hit terminal velocity," Yang said, grinning as Ruby darted back over at a reasonable, human speed.
"All right, everyone, let's try some practice battles," Dana said. "Face off with your partners. We're just dueling; don't get over-zealous. No seriously dangerous shots, and go easy on one another. DUSK, you know exactly what I mean and I expect you to uphold these rules." She shot a glance at Sarah. "Come over here, Ruby, I'm going to have you work on your semblance just a bit more."
Everyone went back to their places. Weiss and Utaria began a heated battle of glyphs and swords and whips, Utaria nimbly dodging Weiss's attacks and striking with her whip again and again. Both of them changed Dust attacks so quickly that the air was filled with puffs of different-colored smoke as they danced around each other. Utaria's weapon was ranged, and so Weiss remained in more or less the same general area, twirling and parrying the different heads of the whip and sweeping up glyphs to block the different Dusk attacks while launching her own. It was not a heated battle by any means, but a simple two-person workout that both seemed to be enjoying. Likewise, Blake was using different ranged attacks on Kayla, who was keeping her shields up and then occasionally launching projectiles that Blake had to dodge before she could go back to attacking.
Yang and Sarah squared off, grinning. Yang struck first with a flurry of shotgun punches that Sarah deftly deflected. When Yang paused to reload, Sarah capitalized with series of attacks, leaving Yang unable to reload. She blocked the attacks and threw a punch that hit Sarah square in the jaw. Sarah sprang back, allowing Yang the crucial seconds needed to reload and ready her gauntlets, and when Sarah came back in with her sword swinging, Yang unleashed a barrage of blasts that Sarah was forced to knock out of the air, giving Yang the opportunity to launch in and punch Sarah back. Unfettered, Sarah swung her sword, but Yang blocked it with her right gauntlet and punched with the other. Sarah vaulted over Yang's head, swinging at her back as she did so, and Yang spun around and shot an incendiary slug directly at Sarah's face.
Dana's eyes narrowed, and she held up a hand to stop Ruby, who was in the middle of twirling Crescent Rose around. Yang and Sarah weren't in a practice duel anymore. Both of them seemed to have forgotten that they were only sparring in the thrill of the fight.
Sarah charged Yang, who lunged back with rounds discharging from both gauntlets. Sarah knocked her hands aside with Earth Shaker and kicked Yang square in the jaw. Yang responded by unloading two slugs right at Sarah's face once again, but Sarah knocked them aside with Earthshaker and in doing so punted Yang back several feet.
Several strands of yellow hair hit the ground.
"Oh shit!" Ruby exclaimed.
At that moment, Dana shouted, "HOLD IT!"
But there was no stopping Yang at this point. No one touched the hair. Her lavender eyes turned red, and she launched herself at Sarah as a wave of fire shot out from her scalp like she herself had become an explosive. Sarah dodged, trying not to attack and disobey orders, but a shotgun punch to the chest, right in the middle of her scar, triggered something. She landed hard on her back, and when she sat up her eyes had turned completely red—pupils, irises, sclera, all a brilliant, furious scarlet. Strange red markings, similar to the ones on Grimm, appeared on her face, and the sharp claws on her hands seemed to grow sharper.
Yang snarled and charged, and Sarah charged back with a wolflike howl.
A wall of fire roared to life in between the two girls with a concussive blast that knocked both Sarah and Yang onto their butts and shook the room, leaving the floor cracked and burning when it had disipated. Yang shook her head, eyes reverting to violet, and Sarah likewise looked normal again. All eyes were on Dana, but she had already put away whatever had created the explosion.
"When I say enough, it's ENOUGH!" She shouted.
"Sorry," Sarah said, almost meekly, bowing her head and taking several steps back and away from Yang, who looked bewildered. Dana nodded. She had seen that she was trying to stop and not get punched at the same time; sometimes it was just out of Sarah's control. But the rest of Team DUSK looked concerned, and Blake had run over to her partner to make sure everything was all right.
Sensing that all eyes were still on her, Dana was about to say something else when a strange beeping sound interrupted her, and all of DUSK reached to their belts and pulled out their scrolls.
"No. Damn it!" Kayla exclaimed as they all immediately ran into a huddle, RWBY standing awkwardly to the side while the older, taller girls converged.
"This is too soon," Sarah said urgently.
"They really aren't ready to go out in the field." Kayla insisted.
"They have to." Dana was frowning again.
"Can't we just leave them here?" Utaria asked.
"No. We can't. This is Mountain Glenn—they know the place and it's possible there might be White Fang there. We need them on this one."
"The timing of it all," Utaria huffed. "Don't you think it's just a little too convenient that we get a call for Mountain Glenn while they're with us?"
Dana shook her head. "Either way, they're coming. They've handled Grim, the White Fang and Torchwick's goons simultaneously. They can deal with this."
"Are you sure?" Sarah asked. "Yes. I'm sure. Now we have to go." She turned to RWBY. "Looks like we test the rest of you in a real battle."
RWBY clustered together. "What do you need us to do?"
Dana gestured as they began hurrying out of the training room and towards the hovercraft hangers. "Yang and Blake, stick with Kayla and Sarah. Ruby and Weiss, you're with me and Utaria. Under no circumstances do you leave the side of your upperclassmen; you do exactly as I say when I say it and you do anything my teammates tell you."
"Are we gonna fight a real Eridanus?" Ruby asked, both nervous and excited.
"No. We might, but you will not. I want you four to listen to me." Dana stopped in front of the hovercraft and turned to RWBY. "You are perhaps the best huntresses of your age range. But none of you have ever even seen an Eridanus, much less fought one. There's a reason Eridanus hunters train an extra year. You can fight Grimm, you can fight White Fang if there are any, but if there's an Eridanus, you four RUN. AND. HIDE. Are we clear?"
"Yes, ma'am," the group chorused.
As they headed towards the hovercraft, Yang turned to Blake. "What was it that made that explosion? Did you see?"
"Not really. Whatever it was, I wasn't paying attention and it folded back up too fast to see. But looked like it may have been Dana's weapon, whatever it is."
Kayla called to them, "Come on! We don't have time for lolly gagging and chit chat."
The two hurried onto the ship, and took their seats as the doors closed, and the ship lifted off into the air and headed for Mountain Glenn.