CHAPTER 2
The sound of the hovercraft blades in rotation drowned out all other noises. Dana stood holding on to the handle closest to the door, while the rest of her team stood at the ready behind her. She had that black stick in one hand.
"We have supplies, correct? In case we have to stay." Dana asked.
"Yep," Kayla said.
"Kayla, got your systems running?"
"All running, Dana."
"Good." Dana turned to her teammate. "What's the issue?"
A narrow panel on the back of each gauntlet unfolded to allow three parts of a glass screen to emerge and click into place. A tactical screen appeared on one, and a video feed on the other.
"Grimm." Kayla replied, as RWBY drifted closer to see over her shoulder. "An awful lot of high-level Grimm AND low level Grimm, massing in the southeastern corner of Mountain Glenn, near the border," Kayla replied.
"Then there's absolutely an Eridanus in the area," Utaria said.
"Yep, there's been an Eridanus sighting." Kayla fiddled with the touch screens. "The camera drone hasn't actually picked it up, though."
"Well, they do tend to avoid being seen at all costs," Sarah shrugged.
"Yeah. A heads up, the Grimm are heading through Mountain Glenn towards Vale. They've been swarming in to the town through every feasible entrance."
"Okay." Dana nodded. "Team RWBY?"
"Yes?" The younger girls asked.
She let go of the handle and walked towards them with surprising balance. She had pulled four metal canisters out of a bag on the ground, and now she handed one to each of them.
"Dust?" Weiss asked.
Dana smiled. "Special Dust. Dust that even your quarries would be hard-pressed to find."
Weiss's mouth fell open. "Is that...blackout Dust? I've never actually seen it in real life before!"
Dana nodded. "There's some standard Dust in there, too. It's up to you guys if you want to use it. If you don't know how, then I'd probably advise against it." She looked seriously at them. "Listen. Your skills are close to unmatched in your year. But be very careful you don't let cockiness overwhelm you. I figure you'll make quick work of most of the Grimm down there, but there ARE some Grimm present you've probably never seen before. Be careful, okay? I want us all to walk back to the ship on both legs under our own power." She cracked a smile. "We wouldn't have brought you along if we really didn't think you could handle it."
Ruby beamed, and Weiss looked quite pleased. Even Yang and Blake seemed flattered.
"The camera's having interference," Kayla announced worriedly. "Something's going on."
"Great," Sarah and Dana said in unison with an eye roll.
Dana turned back to team RWBY. "Okay. We'll be arriving in about two minutes. Weiss and Ruby, stick with me and Utaria. Yang and Blake, stick with Sarah and Kayla. Don't leave their sides, do exactly as they command." She exhaled deeply. "Okay. Get ready to land."
The four members of DUSK looked at each other nervously. They had never been responsible for more than themselves before, and these girls were a lot younger than they were. They'd already built a bond with the 17-year-olds.
Dana drew them into a huddle. "I really hope we're not dealing with an Eridanus. And by that I mean I hope that it leaves and decides Mountain Glenn isn't worth its time. Priorities are stopping the Grimm from entering Vale; secondary priorities are taking the Grimm out. If an Eridanus comes, our goal is not to kill it, it's to retreat and make sure that citizens of Vale can be evacuated, reinforcements can come in, and we can be prepared to fight it. But we WILL fight it if necessary. And we'll kill it, like we always do."
"Dana, the only living Eridanus hunting team is all the way in Mistral," Utaria said, slightly despairingly.
"That's WHY we seniors have to fight them, there are literally no more Eridanus teams alive."
Sarah sighed, "I really hope it's just Grimm."
"We can only hope," Kayla said.
"Landing now!" Dana called out to team RWBY, who all had their hands on their weapons. "There's too many Grimm to land, we'd be swarmed. We're going to need to jump. Is that okay with you guys?"
"Psh, Ozpin literally launched us into the air and told us to figure out how to land on initiation day!" Ruby said. "We all devised a unique and talented landing strategy—"
"I just landed on my feet." Blake said. Ruby frowned.
With a rush of wind and air, the door of the hovercraft slid open. Dana was the first to step forward, her ponytail blowing back wildly. She narrowed her eyes, and then charged straight for the opening and dove out of the plain. Utaria followed feet-first, and Ruby and Weiss ran after her. Sarah ushered Kayla, Blake and Yang out first, and then jumped out herself, and the airship turned and flew away.
Crescent Rose came to life with the sleek sching of metal unfolding, and she used the weight of the weapon to twirl around. She very nearly bumped into Weiss, who was falling spread-eagle, ready to cast a glyph to land on at the drop of a hat.
"Ruby! Watch where you're going!"
"Sorry!" Ruby called, before firing the gun. The recoil shot her down towards the earth even faster, plummeting like a bullet of red. She fired again as she swung Crescent Rose, this time at two medium-sized Nevermore flying up towards them, and went into a spin, slicing straight through a thick flock of the winged Grimm with a gleeful "Ha!"
"Hang on, Ruby, wait for me!" Yang folded her arms against her sides and fired Ember Celica, propelling herself after her sister and passing Weiss and Blake. Blake kicked off from one of her semblance shadow clones and shot after her partner. Yang turned a somersault in mid-fall so that Ember Celica was pointed at the rest of the Nevermore, drew her knees to her chest, and unleashed a barrage of shots that rocketed her up but tore through the birds as Ruby descended to earth, a whirling tornado of red and blades. Yang caught Gambol Shroud when it was thrown at her and Blake jerked the ribbon, firing the gun at the same time Yang fired her own shotguns. The combined blasts, and the momentum of the ribbon, all but threw Yang at the ground like a fiery comet, and she barreled straight through a small group of unfamiliar, panther-like Grim that had climbed up one of the abandoned skyscrapers, punching them each as she descended.
Weiss created a white glyph beneath her feet and shoved off, drawing Myrtenaster and taking off the head of a larger Nevermore that had come up. Bouncing from glyph to glyph, she darted towards the catlike Grimm while Blake landed on the rooftop and charged for them.
Utaria and Sarah came hurtling past. Utaria shot her whip out and grabbed Sarah around the waist, and spun her, launching the Faunus like another rocket down to earth. Sarah crashed into the ground with a bang and sent several Ursa flying, leaping up with her sword swinging. Weiss hit the ground a few feet behind her and flashed away in a blur of white to regroup with Ruby, who was slicing apart several lizard-like, two-legged Grimm that had come crawling for her when she landed. Utaria landed on both feet besides Sarah and charged after Weiss.
Kayla had shot off two grappling-hook-type projectiles from the gauntlets and now came swinging down. She released the hooks at the last moment and slammed feet-first into a Beowolf's face. It snarled, but Sarah snarled back and it hesitated, then turned and jogged away. Three Ursa came forward, growling. Sarah held out her hands, and the two girls grabbed each other's wrists. And then Sarah swung, lifting Kayla completely off the ground and swinging her around like she was preparing to throw a discus. When Kayla flashed past one of the Ursa, concealed blades in the soles of her boots flashed out and cut a stripe of red in its throat.
"Speed is optimal—let go!" Kayla cried.
Sarah threw her.
She hit one Ursa feet-first, the blades digging into its soft throat once again, this time deep, and she shoved off from the impact to flip over its head and shoot those same projectiles into its skull. Before it could even fall, anchored as she was, she had launched herself into another spin, breaking off the narrow wire to punch the last Ursa right in the face with her protected knuckles. The spikes that had emerged from the gauntlet to guard her hands stabbed into its eyes, and then Sarah had charged and cut its legs straight out from under it.
"Where's Dana?" Ruby asked, striking a Boarbatusk in the gut with the sharp butt of Crescent Rose.
Utaria pointed.
Dana was flipping, spinning, twirling—flying through the air at the level of most of the skyscrapers, seemingly under her own power. She could hurtle towards the ground at one moment and then swing up like something was pulling her along, turning a backward somersault into a wild spin of legs and arms. Every time she spun 360 degrees, a red flash slashed out and completely vivisected whatever Grimm made the mistake of going near her. Sometimes she was just a blur of bright purple light.
"How is she doing that?" Ruby gasped.
"Ruby, focus. We've got more Grimm to take care of." Weiss said, leveling Myrtenaster and forming a white glyph under her feet.
"Right, yes, sorry. Well, what are we waiting for!" She darted after Dana with a puff of rose petals, and Weiss shot after her in a flash of silver.
Dana had landed and was very gracefully beating the living daylights out of an Ursa that had made the mistake of charging her. Ruby saw some similarities to how Blake moved in the way she would launch herself into the air, legs out in either direction as she twisted her body around and then came crashing back down. But there was something else graceful and almost dance-like in the way she twirled away from the claws—and then ninja like in the complete backbend she pulled to avoid the swipe of a large paw. She was suddenly bent back, balanced on the balls of her feet with her torso parallel to the ground, and then without touching the ground with her hands she had kicked her legs up into the Ursa's jaw, spun around, and punched a blast of fire at it that took off its head.
"Whoa," Ruby said.
Dana paused to activate her comlink. "All right, stick to your upperclassmen!" She called. "We find the Eridanus, we assess the situation. Do not engage until we regroup! Kayla and Sarah, take your teams and go scout the east perimeter, we'll cover the north."
"Got it," Sarah's voice said in their comlinks, and Dana, Utaria, Ruby and Weiss began heading down the street. A band of Beowolves appeared in their path, but Utaria and Dana did not adopt a fighting stance. A few seconds later, a loud howl echoed through the air, and the Beowolves looked at each other, then one by one trotted off.
"Are they...leaving?" Weiss demanded.
"A few Beowolves aren't a threat, and yes they're leaving the city. Their alpha called them off, it would seem," Dana replied. "We have more important Grimm to deal with. That's a Goliath up ahead."
The ground rumbled, and the gigantic, elephant-like Grimm came into view. It shook its massive head, ears flopping back and forth, and waved its trunk.
"Aww, it's so cute. Do we have to kill it?" Utaria asked. "You know, as Grimm go, Goliath are pretty harmless."
"If it doesn't leave, we will kill it," Dana replied. "Utaria, warning shots?"
Utaria cracked the whip against the ground, then drew her arm back and let fly. The purplish coils of the whip split into five individual heads and purple Dust went streaking towards the Goliath with swirling trails of light behind them, before crashing into the ground in front of the Grimm. It snorted, turned and lumbered off.
"Incoming!" Utaria pointed. Now that the Goliath was leaving, they could clearly see several large Nevermores and a flood of Ursa, Boarbatusk and King Taijutus coming at them.
"Attack!" Dana commanded.
Ruby and Weiss both shot ahead. A few Beowolves came charging at them, not so much in a pack as they were stragglers, and Ruby ran through them and the Ursa, slashing at anything that moved too close to her. Weiss covered her flank, alternating between cutting with Myrtenaster, and blasting Grimm into walls with various Dust attacks. Dana and Utaria starting out flanking them, then moved to the front, forcing a wedge between the Grimm.
"That's a big Nevermore," Ruby said uneasily as she attempted to shoot the huge black bird out of the sky. "That's a LOT of Nevermores."
"Damn." Dana said. "There's definitely an Eridanus nearby. I was hoping there wouldn't be, but it seems we might have no choice but to deal with it. Utaria, Weiss, take out those three Ursas. Ruby, let's get those Nevermore."
Weiss and Utaria darted away, and Ruby charged for the first Nevermore, the biggest. It swooped at her with a scream, and she launched forward with a burst of speed, spinning aggressively. Part of its wing went flying, and before it could crash Dana had come streaking through the air in an arc, and it hit the ground with giant crystals embedded in its spine from Dust she had pulled from a pouch on her hip. Ruby went after the second one, which was slightly smaller than the others and had foolishly landed on the road in front of them. Its head went flying.
Dana tossed a series of crystals into the air that Ruby immediately recognized as more Dust, though she couldn't say she'd ever seen Dust in those colors, spun, and then six concussive blasts shot straight from her hands into the heads of three other Nevermore. They went down immediately.
Ruby anchored her scythe and started firing shots. One Nevermore crashed into a building and broke its neck on impact, and the other one turned and came back towards them.
"Ruby, come here!" Dana cried.
Ruby ran over. Dana grabbed her by the arm, then yelled, "Shoot!"
Ruby fired Crescent Rose at the same moment Dana shot some sort of fire blast at the ground to allow her to throw Ruby into the air. Ruby came flying for the Nevermore with her scythe behind her and opened like a war scythe, going faster and faster until she had crashed into the bird with streak of red. Flower petals flew into the air as the enormous creature came careening headfirst into the ground, forcing Dana to backflip out of the way.
"Ruby?" Dana called.
Ruby popped out from under the wing. "I'm here!"
"Good. Let's go meet our partners." The two ran after Utaria and Weiss.
"There's a plaza to the northeast of your location!" Dana called into her comlink. "Come around the buildings, clear any Grimm in your way. We'll meet you there!"
"Rendezvous at the plaza?" Utaria called when they met up, her whip around the muzzle of a King Taijutu. Weiss stabbed it in the eye, flipped over its head, and drove Myrtenaster down into the weak spot on its skull, and Utaria released the muzzle to send ten whip heads striking down on the snake's second head, this time with a silvery Dust imbued in the coil that cleanly severed the smaller white head.
"Yep," Dana said. "Good job, you two. Weiss, you're really graceful."
Weiss turned pink. "Why thank you."
The four of them turned and began jogging southwest towards the plaza. They slashed at any Grimm they could as they passed through, but as the plaza drew closer, they found that the number of Grimm was increasing drastically—and yet none of them were attacking.
"Hey, what's the problem up there?" Ruby called out.
"It's the Grimm. They're acting different," Utaria replied
"It's nearby," Dana said. "Grimm fear Eridanus, but for whatever reason—perhaps because of the evil and malice Eridanus exude—they are drawn to them. They'll sit and watch it, and wait for it to leave. If given the opportunity, some will run from it if they can. Or attack it if they can't, out of desperation. It's—"
Out of nowhere, a shriek of static came over the comlinks, followed by Kayla's scream.
"ERIDANUS!"
Then a howl pierced the air.
Dana, Weiss, Utaria and Ruby sprinted for the others. Ruby charged ahead before Dana could stop her, and froze in horror.
Kayla was lying on the ground on the other side of the plaza, blood pooling underneath her and Blake crouched protectively over her. Both she and Yang looked horrified. Sarah was standing protectively in front of all three of the others. And there, perched on the crumbled remnants of a formerly very large building, was a huge black shape, hunched over.
"Oh," Ruby whispered. "So that's an Eridanus."
"Yes," Dana said grimly. "Sarah, how bad is Kayla hurt?"
"Bad. It struck her in the side with—something, claw or feather or—"
At that moment, the words were drowned out by an ear-splitting, horrible scream.
The sound was deafening. It was an awful, metallic, tri-toned roar of dull hollow iron and high-pitched claws on a chalkboard—inhuman, hideous, a sound no animal or living creature on this earth could make. And then the thing unfolded.
Nothing could have prepared Ruby for the sight. It stood at least nine or ten feet tall, and it had the body of a human—except with massive spines running up its arms to its shoulders, where they stuck out sideways like some bizarre pauldrons. Its arms split at the elbow to form two pincers on the top limb, and the hands on the bottom, but the hands were claws, three-fingered talons with glowing red nails nearly a foot and a half long. Its back was mostly covered in black feathers, its legs were dual-jointed, and sprouting from its back were six gigantic black wings whose pinfeathers looked like they were made of metal. But its face was the worst part. It looked like someone had taken a human face and stretched it forward into a snout, or a beak. Instead of lips, it had huge, jagged black teeth. Its cheekbones were like knives. Its eyes were sunken into its skull, and they were red glowing spheres that bled dark blood and oozed black smoke from the sides. A thick mane of coarse black hair sprouted where the white facial skin became black feather, and then it opened a second pair of eyes.
"Humans." The voice was as cold as the void, so gravelly and growling that it was almost glottal. A hideous, bubbling laugh welled in the thing's throat, and it spread an eigth pair of wings as its laugh turned into a terrible screeching cackle. "Humans!" It roared, and Ruby felt the ground under her shake. "And Grim!"
And then it roared. Wind buffeted them and knocked them off their feet, sent them tumbling back along the ground. The very ground shook from the force of its terrible roar, and then it had launched itself into the sky.
Ruby stood in shock as the beast flew into the air; it seemed so majestic, and yet so terrible. The starkness of its black silhouette against the pale sky made it seem even more powerful than it had against the building.
"Utaria, get to Kayla!" Dana shouted. "Weiss, Ruby, RUN!"
They both stared at the Eridanus in awe and fear.
"NOW!" Dana roared, knocking them aside as a white blast struck the ground where they had just been.
Across the plaza, Sarah once again looked as she had earlier. The red markings glowed on her face and her eyes burned as she tipped her head back and another howl pierced the air.
Utaria charged past her, and then Dana, but Ruby could only stare at the monster in motion, eyes wide. Blasts were being fired at it, but it didn't seem to even care. It wasn't until she felt a sharp yank on her throat that she realized Weiss had been trying to drag her to her feet.
"Run," Dana exclaimed, almost incredulously, as if she couldn't believe they hadn't. "I said RUN!"
The Eridanus unleashed another scream and drove its wings down as it flew higher, sending out a wave of wind that sent their hair flying back. "DIIIIIEEE!" It shrieked, and then it lunged. It moved so fast Ruby herself couldn't even see it in motion. Dana went flying past her towards it and Sarah went shooting forward from the other direction. Before they had converged on the Eridanus, there were a series of howls, and then a bunch of Beowolves came flying over the remnants of a building, snarling and barking, and jumped at it, dragging it down and forcing it to land. The minute it was distracted, Sarah hurtled at it, spinning through the air—and bounced right off its.
"It's armored!" Dana shouted, skidding to a halt and backflipping in the direction she'd come as it started firing red blasts at her from seemingly the air in front of its head. Each one exploded with a vast puff of smoke, fire and dust upon striking the ground, and Dana was engulfed in the cloud before she could retreat far enough.
"Dana!" Weiss exclaimed.
Sarah tried to charge the Eridanus again, but it lashed out with a foot and didn't kick her so much as sent an explosive blast of wind right at her middle, hurling her back into a wall. Yang and Blake were dragging Kayla to safety while Utaria covered their retreat, striking stray blasts out of the sky with her whip's swirling coils.
Dana darted out of the smoke and charged the Eridanus, but it blasted her back and sent her skidding across the ground hard enough to raise a cloud of dirt. She picked herself up from where she'd landed near Ruby. Her hair was in her face and her skin scratched, her sleeve torn open—there were five enormous, pale and knotted scars on her shoulder. But over them were markings. Almost the same color as her skin, the intricate symbols and flowing designs resembled strange shadows, both imprinted into the flesh and wavering on top of it like a mirage.
"RUBY!" Dana roared. "MOVE, NOW!"
"But I can help!"
Dana screamed again, "You are no use to us dead! Now obey your orders!"
The Eridanus screamed again, and it seemed to snap Ruby out of her reverie. She bolted towards the rest of her team across the plaza, trying to keep close to the buildings while Dana ran after her.
"Look out!" Dana shot forward and knocked Ruby flat on her face as another blast hit the wall inches above them. Ruby squeaked.
"Use your semblance. GET OUT OF HERE!" Dana shouted, hauling her to her feet and all but shoving her towards Utaria and the rest.
Ruby shot away, praying the Eridanus wouldn't hit her. That fear propelled her to go even faster, and she opened Crescent Rose and discharged three shots, each one flinging her faster and faster, until she'd smashed into the wall near where Weiss was taking cover.
"Ruby, watch out!" Weiss exclaimed.
"Move, now!" Ruby heard Dana shout, and, hiding behind a rock, she and Weiss turned to watch. Dana threw more crystals into the air, and a ring of red formed around her before a series of blasts exploded out, smashing into the Eridanus's face and sending it reeling. The scream it made was apocalyptic.
"Sarah, Utaria, now!"
They executed a perfect pincer movement. Sarah shot at it from the right and Utaria from the left. Her whip lanced out and split into 8 pieces that smashed into its neck with explosive blasts at the same moment Sarah's foot collided with its face.
The red ring still around her, Dana brought her arms down in front of her chest, drew them back, and then leapt into the air and spun. Every kick and punch sent another blast smashing into the Eridanus, and then she spread her hands apart as a white ball of light grew between them.
Utaria's whip grabbed her wrist, and she went swirling through the air in a blur as Sarah beat the Eridanus back with several swings of Earthshaker, fighting to keep the weapon from flying out of her hands whenever it made impact with the protective, invisible barrier around the Eridanus. And then Utaria launched Dana. She slammed into the Eridanus's face in a streak of white light, sending it reeling. It let out a gross scream and staggered into the wall of a building behind it, causing the entire thing to shake and a section of one of the exposed floors to collapse. Ruby realized she'd underestimated its size by a lot. It was more like 13 or 14 feet tall.
"How dare you use techniques like that," It snarled, glaring directly at Dana.
"While it's distracted, let's run!" Ruby cried. She and Weiss jumped up and turned to bolt towards their teammates.
And then it fired.
The blast hit the ground in front of them, and the very ground seemed to rise up as dust and debris formed a cloud around them.
When Ruby opened her eyes, there was blood on her hands and dripping into her eyes from where she'd smashed her head and hands on the ground. The explosion had thrown her a good ten feet, and her ears were ringing.
"Get up! Get up! Ruby! You dolt, we have to run!" Weiss was audible at last. She was bleeding from a cut on her leg and there was dirt in her hair, but Ruby was still dazed. Climbing to her knees, she started crawling after Weiss. Weiss was halfway to the others when she looked back for Ruby and ran back to drag her to her feet. She hooked Ruby's arms around her neck, gripped her tightly by the wrists, and began dragging her forward. "Of course. I always do seem to be the one carrying the team."
"Look out," Ruby croaked.
They froze not a moment too soon. A laser-like blast of white light the size of a train car tore straight through the building in front of them with an awful droning scream that made their very bones vibrate, sending dust and debris flying all around. It tore straight through the building and out the other side, bringing the abandoned structure down on itself. They could only stand there in horror, watching the Eridanus fire another beam into a building on the opposite side. Utaria had roped it around the neck with her whip, and Sarah had gone sprinting up the whip to deliver a powerful blow to the wing. One lone feather fell off and crashed to the ground; it was solid black metal. And then it began to dissolve before their eyes.
Dana suddenly appeared behind them, hair wild and her eye paint smeared. "Come on, keep moving." She said, grabbing one of Ruby's arms and turning to help carry her along.
"Dana!" The cry came from Utaria, and Dana only had time to turn. Nothing else. The Eridanus had unleashed another blast, and it was headed directly at them. Weiss's eyes widened and so did Ruby's.
Weiss and Ruby went tumbling, both sprawling in the dirt, against the violently shaking earth. Weiss raised her head shakily, and her mouth fell open.
The blast had hit a yellow dome of energy that had exploded around them in the half a heartbeat before they should have been obliterated. The sheer force of it had still knocked Weiss and Ruby to the ground, but they remained unscathed as blinding white energy streaked around them on all sides, screaming, ringing, the whole world shaking. Dana had also been flung backwards, but she had dropped to one knee and dug her fingers into the ground to gain purchase. Blood dripped from her fingers as she slowly rose.
Ruby tried to stay awake, to see what was happening, but this second blow to her head was too much for her, and everything went black.
Weiss sat there with Ruby's head in her lap and watched open-mouthed. Dana had calmly pulled the black stick off her belt, and now, in her hand, it began to throb with the same brilliant light as the shield around them. The blast from the Eridanus ended and the shield vanished, but when the beast roared with rage it sprang back up.
And whatever was in Dana's hand...unfolded.
It opened like a flower—an intricate, terrifying metal flower, piecing itself together to form an enormous spined thing. Small gears turned as narrow, tiny pieces of metal unfurled and touched, interlocked and grew, covering the gears, forming parts, parts coated over by a strange overlay that seemed to grow from the metal itself, like fibers of a fabric turning on themselves. Intricate pieces of heavily detailed metal now curled around her hand. More pieces swept forward, and Weiss watched in awe as a sword hilt with a Dust magazine literally built itself into existence around Dana's hand.
And then the entire thing turned red. It began to glow, brighter, first yellow and then orange, deepening to a vivid, neon scarlet, and a cloud of shimmering red Dust particles flowed forward from the ground and the air, spiraled together, and formed a four-and-a-half-foot-long, glowing, two-part scarlet blade.
On the other side of the plaza, Blake and Yang's mouths fell open. "What is that?!" Yang cried. "Is that a sword?!"
Dana raised a hand. A swirling field of orange energy formed around her, rising up from the ground at her feet and stopping three feet above her head before expanding, and as it stretched out a series of rectangular red glyphs appeared in a ring around her at eye level, made of pointed, interconnected triangular shapes and lines. Each one seemed to pulse a different shade of red. The dark markings on her arm and, Weiss saw, peeking out from under her shirt, glowed a brilliant red and began to rearrange themselves over her skin to form a different pattern. They glowed so brilliantly she could see them through her black shirt.
The Eridanus screeched in rage, eyes bulging. "You dare?" it bellowed, and it inhaled, its feathered chest expanding—and unleashed another blast straight at them.
Dana's eyes suddenly glowed completely red. The markings on her arm turned yellow.
She moved like a ballet dancer, suddenly whipping the long sword into the air and then bringing it slashing down through one of the glyphs like she was slicing it in half—and an answering purplish-pink blast exploded forward and collided with the Eridanus's attack midair.
There was a deafening explosion in the air as the two attacks met, and the concussive wind from it ripped Weiss's hair out of it's ponytail. The Eridanus was staggered, but Dana was not. She spun again, as the glyphs before her rotated, then threw her weight forward as if she was going to charge. Weiss saw the red blade turn orange, and fire exploded from the crossguard, raced town the blade, and an unproportionally massive shockwave of fire and light slammed into the Eridanus's face, flinging the creature's upper half back against the building behind it. There was a split second where everything seemed to hang suspended in time, and then an audible crack rent the air as the creature's lower jaw suddenly twisted and snapped with a spatter of blood against its face. It took a second for it yelp in surprise, and it tried to close its mouth, but its jaw had fractured.
It didn't get a chance to recover. Another blast hit it squarely in the chest, less than a second after the first even though Dana couldn't possibly move that fast. It dropped to one knee, and Dana brought one leg up in a pirouette, twirled around, and stabbed the sword through another glyph, creating a blast not unlike Yang's Ember Celica—only far larger.
Weiss's eyes grew wide. She recognized the moves Dana was using. It was the Attack of the Crane, a combat-ballet set she had wanted to learn as a child. The teacher had always told her that she was too young, and sent her away. Even years later, when she had tried to learn it, it had proven too hard for her to get past the first few moves, nevermind trying it with Myrtenaster in her hand. Now here it was, performed to perfection against the Eridanus. In real combat. With a sword almost three times Myrtenaster's size!
Dana spun again, jumped into the air, and flipped, kicking a foot and then a flinging a fist through two glyphs. Two fireballs shot out and smashed into the Eridanus's face, and it bellowed with rage and dove forward. Utaria charged back, leaping into the air with her whip flying. It split into ten individual heads at the end and sent streaks of purple energy hurtling from each barbed tip down to the Eridanus, who snarled and twisted in her direction just in time to be struck in the face. Utaria and Sarah moved in, blasting and striking it alternatively.
The Eridanus tried to bring a wing down on Sarah, and Dana's hand flashed out. Sarah's body was suddenly surrounded by a red outline, and she was yanked back as the wing struck the ground. Dana now swept her hand forward, and Sarah was propelled towards the Eridanus with a battle cry, Earthshaker high above her head. Weiss noticed the sword glowing in the exact same way as Sarah and Dana's hand before the glow faded, the red glyphs rose again, rotated, and Dana unleashed a barrage of attacks, spinning and slashing and twirling in her little circle as a myriad of attacks shot out of the glyphs. Barrages of ice crystals, balls of electricity, balls of fire, jets of lighting, of light, continuous streams of fire like napalm, red lights that burst into explosions in midair or the moment they hit the Eridanus, and caused a shockwave. Weiss knew that the weapon was using Dust, she could tell by the flashes of color from the half-concealed Dust magazine every time the weapon changed attacks, but she had never seen it used in this way, or seen glyphs like these—no two semblances were identical, so this couldn't be Dana's semblance...could it?
Dana spun again, leaping up and bringing her knee up to turn herself, and a whole array of fire blasts shot at the Eridanus as she spun, before she had raised the sword to her cheek, gripped the hilt with both hands, and then thrown all her weight into a full spin. The blade slashed out, and all the red glyphs dissolved as an enormous blast of white light lanced out from them in all directions. Weiss ducked as the blast struck the wall behind her head and small pieces of rocks rained down—the full strength of the attack had been concentrated on the Eridanus, and this was just discharge. The dance of the crane had nothing to do with these glyphs or these blasts, and that blast—it was identical to the Eridanus's in every way.
She could do nothing but watch the perfect combination of art and battle as tears sprang to her eyes. If this was true war, she knew she was headed in the right direction.
Dana shot forward several feet and swiped out with the blade, going down on one knee to do so, and the blade of the sword turned white. A silver streak cut the air and blinded everyone as the Eridanus went flying back.
Her expression of cool concentration never once wavering, Dana charged forward in short bursts of speed, twirling to launch a blast with a sweep of her sword with each twirl as she got closer and closer. It kept trying to rise, but each blast kept knocking it back down, and the blasts grew progressively stronger, until she had lunged, the sword discharging a series of vibrant purple flashes that made the Eridanus roar in pain, and then Dana had flipped into the air. For a moment she hung in the sky posed with her torso turned, one arm extended and the blade's tip pointing between her fingers as she aimed for the perfect spot on the creature's skull.
Sarah lunged. Utaria dropped into a crouch, Sarah jumped onto her shoulders, and Utaria launched her into the air and straight for the Eridanus, which she slammed into sword-first, impaling it in the shoulder. It roared in rage.
"Hit it now!" Sarah screamed.
And Dana fell like a comet, a blaze of brilliant purple gathering around the sword and then there was an explosion that rocked the earth—and it would have knocked Weiss out if that yellow dome hadn't sprung up around her. The shockwave suddenly turned into blackness, and the yellow dome faltered and died. Something like smoke swept over her face, but it was too thick, too tangible, too much like...gaseous ink. It swept over them all, choking them, blinding them, covering her mouth and nose and eyes, suffocating, and filling her with a horrible coldness and a terrible feeling, like blood on her skin. And then it had gone.
When it was done, Dana was standing in the middle of a shimmering fiery field on a pile of massive bones. The bones began to dissolve into black dust, and Dana hopped down from them.
Utaria came running over to Weiss and Ruby now, along with Blake and Yang. "Are you okay?!"
"That was incredible," Weiss whispered, still staring at the fading carcass of the Eridanus.
"She's alright," chuckled Utaria. "But how's Ruby?" She knelt down next to Weiss and glanced between her and her teammate.
Weiss looked down. "Oh, her? She's fine. Give her fifteen minutes, and she'll be up and moaning about how she missed the best part."
Blake was staring at Dana with something like horror, and Yang had no words.
Dana came over, and Sarah turned now to look around them. It was only then that they realized they were being watched by hundreds of Grimm. They didn't move, didn't do anything, just stared.
Sarah let out a soft bark and a whimper, and the Beowolves turned and retreated to the forest. The rest of the Grimm remained, watching.
"Well," Yang finally said. "That was a thing."
Sarah bent down and picked up Kayla, and Yang picked up Ruby. The group began to head back towards where the hovercraft would meet them, Dana in the lead.
All around them were the Grimm—Ursi, Boarbatusks, Nevermores, Goliaths, Creeps, King Taijutus, Deathstalkers, and many more they didn't recognize. Even now, as they walked down the roads and turned corners and navigated the abandoned city, they didn't make one move.
"Why aren't they attacking?" Weiss asked.
"They won't stay like this forever," Dana replied. "When an Eridanus dies and dissolves, it sort of freezes all Grimm in place. But they'll come after us soon enough. Maybe the smarter ones will turn tail after seeing what we can do. Plagis might deter some more. But the rest will attack."
When they arrived at the small square they'd first landed in, Dana directed them to split up and find somewhere to sleep that would be easy to defend.
"We can sleep in that building," Blake said, pointing to one with stories that not even the cat-like Grimm seemed to want to climb. "It'll be a walk, but we can make it. The inside seems to be in good shape as far as I can tell."
"I think it would be easier and less time consuming if we just ran up the walls," Weiss said. "My gravity glyphs will allow this, but I'll have to project for each of you."
"Okay." Dana nodded. "Go. Sarah, carry Kayla up and then come back for Ruby once Utaria is safely up there with Kayla."
Sarah nodded.
One by one, Weiss sent them running up the building wall and into one of the open windows on the 16th floor. Dana had Weiss go up before her so that she could catch her if she happened to fall, and then Weiss used the glyphs for Dana to scale the wall.
"How's Kayla?" Dana asked, going immediately to Utaria.
Utaria had already attended to Kayla's wound, and she was unconscious but alive and stable. "She'll be okay. She won't be able to fight for a little while because some muscles were damaged and there are going to be scars, but she's just sleeping it off now."
"Why...why didn't her Aura protect her?" Weiss asked timidly.
"Aura defends us from lethal blows, but it only lasts so long, and it has to pick and choose what it protects you from, since each blow will deplete it. Little scratches, small scars, you'll get, while a blow that should slice you in half will just give you a serious bruise and a faint scar. But blows like that significantly lower Aura." She shook her head. "Every hit from an Eridanus does twice as much damage as a hit from a human. Some Eridanus are strong enough that they can slice through your Aura like it's not there."
"Kayla's the reason it didn't have ten wings like it started out with, but it didn't like that at all," Sarah added. "It only took one of those big blasts and another from its talons in just the right place and down she went. And still—she'd be dead without Aura."
The group nodded slowly.
"And Ruby? How is she?" Dana asked now.
Utaria squeezed Kayla's hand, then walked over to the younger girl and brushed back her hair to feel her pulse and put a hand on her forehead. She closed her eyes and gripped Ruby's wrist for a moment, then let go. "She's fine. She'll be up shortly; I got rid of the concussion."
"Don't spread yourself too thin, Utaria," Dana said. Utaria nodded. She and Sarah got out the compressed food from the packs, unfolded a pot from Utaria's pouch, and Dana pulled a tapestry off one of the walls and set it on fire with a touch.
The group sat in silence for a while while they were waiting for the water from Sarah's canister to boil, before Weiss finally blurted out, "THAT was an Eridanus? It was HORRIFYING!"
"That was a weak one." Dana said expressionlessly. "One of the many variants, anyway. They all look a little different, and corruption changes how they look completely. That one was heavily corrupted at best. And young, too."
"A weak one?" Blake cried. "You mean that was easy?"
"It's never easy," Kayla said quietly.
Dana closed her eyes. "Different Eridanus degrade faster than others, and there are different rank levels. This was a tier four Lesser, and it was probably on its fifth or sixth regeneration. They get less powerful with each regeneration, until eventually...they stop functioning entirely."
"Wow," Weiss said, "Are we...sure we want to do this, guys?"
Blake and Yang couldn't even speak.
After a moment, Weiss asked, "Why were all those Beowolves attacking it?"
"Sarah." Dana said. "Small Grim normally run from Eridanus, big ones may attack them. Sarah's semblance is, in part, the ability to call Beowolves to her aid."
"Don't worry, guys," Utaria added. "Eridanus are extremely rare, and they're normally not much stronger than that. It's the less-corrupted ones you have to worry about. Those are the REALLY dangerous ones."
"Yeah" Sarah said, still looking like a Grimm herself, "It's ones like those that give you scars like these." She gestured to the scar on her chest. "Nearly killed me when I first got it."
"Yikes," Weiss said.
Blake, however was staring at Dana with something akin to fear. She had remained apprehensive since the battle and been giving Dana a wide berth, and now that they were sitting down with everyone tended to, she voiced her concern. "Your sword."
Dana looked up. "What?"
Blake shook her head. "It's Eridanus."
"What?" Weiss exclaimed.
"Your weapon." Blake pointed to the inert, innocent black stick hanging on Dana's hip. "That's an Eridanus's sword."
Sarah and Utaria looked at Dana apprehensively. Sarah knew what the sword meant to Dana and Utaria knew how powerful Dana was with it.
"What the hell do you mean by that, Blake?" Weiss demanded hotly. "It's just a sword. There's no way it could be an Eridanus—"
"How did you know?" Dana asked softly.
Weiss's mouth fell open. Yang gave a suspicious glance towards Dana before returning to staring out the window.
"When I was...in the White Fang," Blake admitted, "We tried to steal an Eridanus weapon from a wealthy human family who owned it. We were briefed on the thing, extensively. My former partner, Adam, had a run in with an Eridanus that wielded a broadsword once and he was lucky to escape with his life and limbs. If I'm right, you sword is sentient, capable of protecting itself and you without your permission, it can generate its own ammunition, it's made of Dust, it doesn't like it when anyone but you touches it, and it's one of only six Eridanus weapons known to still exist."
"And?" Dana raised an eyebrow.
Blake's eyes flitted down uncomfortable. "And, how in the world did you get an Eridanus weapon? One of the only ones left in the world?"
Dana gripped the sword. "My mentor."
The mouths of everyone in the room fell open.
"That doesn't make sense," Blake argued. "Eridanus weapons will KILL whoever tries to use them that isn't their creator. How did your mentor get one?"
Dana closed her eyes. "What happened when you tried to steal that weapon, Blake?"
Blake fidgeted uncomfortable. "It blew up the room and killed three people. I have a small burn scar on my ankle from where I got hit with flaming debris."
Dana nodded. "Exactly. This weapon is known as Plague Master, or Plagis Dominum. It chooses who wields it. It was my mentor's, and then it chose me." She said quietly.
"But how did your mentor get it? Only Greater Eridanus can create weapons and there aren't even twenty of them alive. And the weapon is literally an extension of the creature, part of it, that's why it only serves one master. How?" Blake demanded. "If your mentor killed a Greater Eridanus, the weapon would kill him for touching it."
"My mentor was unique," Dana replied. "And more powerful than you could imagine."
"So he forced an Eridanus weapon to bow to his will?" Weiss gasped.
Dana just kept her eyes closed. "He's not the first human who's forced an Eridanus weapon to serve him."
"But what about those techniques you used?" Blake asked. "That Dust—some of things you did on that battlefield, I don't think were the sword. I've never seen anyone, not even Weiss, use Dust like that. Fight like that. What are those markings on your arm? What were those glyphs?"
"They were Eridanus," Dana said quietly. "As I think you've already guessed."
The triumphant flash in Blake's eyes seemed to indicate Dana was right.
"My mentor taught me to fight like one, with the powers of one." Dana explained. "We lived outside the kingdoms, like I said. We ran into a lot of Eridanus, and he wanted me to be able to defend myself from them if I was ever alone. The best way to do that? To attack them with their own attacks and techniques.
"What about the domes of energy?"
Dana gestured to the sword, which was hanging as an inert black stick at her hip. "It responds faster than I can. Is there a reason you're interrogating me?"
"So, wait, you're Eridanus?" Ruby suddenly interrupted. No one had realized she was awake and had been for most of the time, listening silently. Before Dana could respond, she shook her head. "But...you're so...normal."
Blake shot her a glance. "Just because someone looks normal doesn't mean that they are, Ruby."
Ruby raised her hands. "Wait, no, that's not what I meant. I just meant that she's not as monstrous as that other thing we faced. I mean—" Her face grew as red as her cape.
"I see you're feeling better," Dana said. "Head okay?"
"Yes."
"Do you feel dizzy?" Utaria asked.
"No."
"Okay then, Dana, feel free to chew her out," Utaria said, winking at her leader, and Dana narrowed her eyes back before turning back to Ruby.
"I'm human," she said. "I am not an Eridanus. I am not one of those...evil things."
"Oh," Ruby looked down, humiliated.
"It's okay, Ruby," Utaria said gently. "It's an understandable question."
Over by the window, Yang snorted. "Hmph."
"I didn't know humans could wield Eridanus weapons," Ruby said. "I didn't know there WERE Eridanus weapons."
"Before a little while ago, you didn't even know there were Eridanus," Yang said. "Is that really such a shock?"
Ruby frowned. Yang wasn't usually so snappy. "Well no, but—"
"Give it a rest, Ruby."
"Yang?" Blake looked rather surprised. Ruby looked hurt.
Out of nowhere, there was a loud pulsing hum and then the sword had unfolded on Dana's hip with a metal sliding sound, and it sat there shimmering like its blade was red glass encasing a fire. A low humming noise droned from it quietly, and the shimmers in the blade started to flicker at intervals.
"What is is doing?" Weiss asked uncomfortably. The humming continued.
"It senses tension," Dana replied, suddenly focused on the weapon. She detached it from her belt and turned away from them, and after a moment of her squeezing the handle, it made a low droning noise and reverted to a simple black shaft, and went silent. "It was upset."
"How the hell can a sword be upset?!" Yang asked.
As she spoke, Kayla stirred and opened her eyes. Dana and Sarah hurried over to their teammate, who Utaria had been next to the whole time.
"Hey," Dana said gently. "How do you feel?"
"It hurts," Kayla said weakly. "But Utaria patched me up. Did we kill it?"
"Yep," Sarah said, smiling. "Plagis got pissed off."
Dana smiled and nodded. A softer hum emanated from her hip and she held up the dormant sword. "Hey, look, it's happy to see you're okay."
"A sword cannot be happy," Yang said. Dana shot her a glare.
"Enough," Sarah said. "We're all stressed. Let's just rest and wait for dinner."
"Ill take first watch," Yang said, almost sourly. "I'm already on it."
"Okay," Dana replied. "Dinner will be ready soon, the inflatable chili needs to finish cooking."
Yang turned back to the window, and DUSK drifted away towards the fire and to stand by Kayla.
When Dana came back over towards RWBY with the food, Blake looked up at her.
"So...what does corrupted mean, then, exactly?" she asked. "You said early that less-corrupted Eridanus are...stronger?"
"All Eridanus can regenerate after death," Dana explained. "It's something that they activate if they can tell that they're going to die soon. Or, they activate it and it stays active waiting for the Eridanus to die. They die, then they can come back."
"So... when you kill them, do they get regenerated again?" Ruby asked, tracing a foot across the ground.
Weiss rolled her eyes. "She just said that, Ruby."
Dana shook her head, though. "It's not quite like that. Certain blows, like from another Eridanus, or an Eridanus weapon, or a significant number of extremely powerful blows from a large number of hunters, can end an Eridanus permanently, stop it from ever regenerating ever again. And others will kill it, and it'll come back. But it's sort of like the half-life of a radioactive isotope. With each regeneration, they decay a bit more. Different tier levels have a different number of regenerations they can choose to use before they no longer have that choice; say that a tier three Eridanus is allotted two regenerations. As soon as they choose to use both those two regenerations, it no longer matters if they want to regenerate or not. They will keep regenerating every time they die, and it will get bad enough, eventually, that they'll regenerate at the simplest provocation. Sometimes for no reason at all. And with each regeneration, they lose their mind a little more, become more feral, more aggressive, less likely to think. After a certain point it becomes impossible to stop, and they just regenerate automatically. That's when they start becoming mindless, insane monsters."
"So that's why it yelled out 'Human'," Blake muttered.
"Oh yeah, that's right," Ruby exclaimed. "Why'd he do that?"
"They don't like humans. They see us as prey." Sarah said. "Faunus too. We're all the same, to them."
"But their arrogance is our salvation." Dana said. "No Eridanus would willingly believe that it might need to regenerate. They can't fathom that something might defeat them. They used to be gods among sheep, back when our two races began. They were stronger than anything."
"Oh good. So they weren't humans." Weiss exhaled.
"No, they were never human," Dana said. She and Sarah and Utaria were looking at them oddly, and Kayla was snoozing again. "Did...did no one ever tell you about Eridanus?"
Ruby shook her head. Weiss hesitated, then shook hers too. Blake answered, "Only when the Fang wanted that weapon, and that was mostly about the weapon anyway, and not the creatures that make them."
"Well, I'm not entirely sure how they began or where they're from," Dana said. "There's a lot of mystery surrounding them, and how they live, what they live on, why they exist and where their powers come from. But back when humans first faced off against the Grimm, Eridanus were on our side. The reason some human beings have semblances is because Eridanus had a natural ability that they taught a large number of humans to use. It was through semblances that humans discovered Dust—but what was a power source to us became the bane of their existence. It corrupted them. It turned them into demons a hundred times worse than Grimm when they used it or even went near it, and their regenerations and abilities spiraled out of control the more they used it, and soon humanity had two deadly foes to contend with. In the Eridanus War, that's when the first Hunters and Huntresses were born—not to fight the Grimm. To wipe out the Eridanus."
"There used to be truly awful Grimm, but the Eridanus eradicated them...and then became worse than them." Utaria added.
"Oh, I see...how tragic." Ruby said.
"So why didn't they go extinct already? If you've been hunting them for so long. They couldn't have been as numerous as the Grimm, or we'd hear a lot more about them. As it is, most people I know didn't hear about them until they got to one of the combat school and realized Eridanus hunters were...a thing. And they cant breed, can they?" Weiss asked.
"Not that we know of," Dana said. "If they can, they haven't in centuries. There hasn't been a baby Eridanus born in god knows how long. Which is probably a good thing. The thing is, there's so much we DON'T know about them. Whenever you destroy one, it evaporates. There's never a corpse to study, and its impossible to take one alive. And then they regenerate. Recon teams have stated that there are only about 700 active known ones, and yet there seems to be a never-ending supply of them. Maybe they do reproduce. Though most of the time, you can't tell if they even have a gender." Dana went quiet for a moment, then said, "You know, a lot of Eridanus scientists—Ozpin among them—postulate that they're quite literally made out of Dust."
Ruby puzzled over this, while Weiss's mouth dropped open. The idea of something being quite literally made of Dust was a hard one for her to understand, since she had a better knowledge of Dust's molecular structure than most. It was a type of crystal. Period. Except when ground into a powder. How the hell could something be made out of that?
"So, you mean that they're beings of Dust? Could they just be made from Dust coalescing into a form?" Blake asked.
"That's the most common theory." Kayla said. She'd woken back up, and Utaria helped her sit upright against the wall, taking off her overcoat to provide a blanket. Sarah took off her jacket to be a pillow.
"Did you see how Plagis's blade formed?" Dana asked. She extended the black stick, and it unfolded mechanically to form the hilt—and then red glimmering Dust swirled in to form the blade from the very air around them, appearing before their eyes. "Eridanus weapons are literally part of their creator. They do this, and they generate their own ammo the same way. That's the main reason people think Eridanus are Dust coalesced into a sentient form." She said.
"Wow, that's incredible," Weiss said, her eyes large. She pressed forward. "I had no idea Dust could do that."
Dana held out Plagis. "You can touch it. It won't hurt you, but it may shock you very lightly when you first touch it. Like when you cross a carpet and touch a doorknob. That's how it lets you know you aren't its master."
"That's also how it lets Dana know she pissed it off," Kayla said with a grin.
Weiss reached out a hand, but yanked it back after a slight touch. "Oh," she exclaimed. "I see what you mean."
Dana smiled. "That was pretty mild as shocks it's given go, especially to new people it's never met before."
"Swords can't meet people," Yang muttered under her breath. Blake looked at her with concern, but no one else had heard, and if Sarah had she gave no indication.
"I wanna try," Ruby exclaimed, reaching out a hand and clamping on to the weapon just in front of the crossguard before Dana could tell her that was the wrong place to grab a sword. The shock she received blasted her across the room. "Whoa! It really does shock you!"
Blake giggled.
"Blasting off again, I see," Yang said. "You never learn, do you?"
"Nope!"
Dana looked alarmed. "I think you startled it. It normally doesn't respond like that. And, um, for future reference—don't grab swords by the blade, Ruby. Your hand is bleeding."
Ruby looked down at her palm and deflated slightly. "Oh. So it is."
"I'll get that," Utaria said.
"Is Ruby's Aura weakened from her injuries? Or is Plagis just strong enough to break through Aura?" Weiss asked.
"Both, but only when it's on the defensive."
"I thought I grabbed a not-sharp part," Ruby said, frowning, as Utaria wrapped her hand in a quick bandage.
"Ruby, there are no parts that are not-sharp." Dana put a hand under the blade on the flat part and the other under the hilt and held it up. "I mean, look at it."
The hilt had a sweeping crossguard that resembled wings, but with tapered blades on the outer curve of the wings. It also had a bell guard directly behind the crossguard that protected both the Dust magazine and Dana's hand, and each pointed recurve of the four-pronged bellguard had a blade. The pommel of the sword resembled the head of a spear and came to a vicious point. There was a hooked apparatus coming out of the crossguard that Ruby had grabbed, but it too was sharp. However, it was the actual blade itself that was frightening. The thick, flat part of the blade that resembled a broadsword was a good two and a half feet long, with a deep fuller and one regular bladed edge; and the other edge with a distinct second edge, a knife edge as it was called. The final half of the blade was narrower, and triangular like a rapier; the riser rose up high enough to be a third edge. One edge was serrated so finely it was hardly noticeable, the other had a knife edge, and the last was a normal edge. The point was so sharp it seemed to taper into nonexistence. While the hilt was distinctly metal, or at least meant to look that way, the blade was made of something that seemed somewhere between satin, metal, and frosted glass, and was constantly glowing a soft red that sometimes seemed to shift and shimmer like live coals. Parts of the hilt were a darker red, close to black, and the bladed parts of the hilt were brighter. The actual handle part, the part that everything unfolded from, was black.
"That thing is terrifying," Ruby said after looking at it closely. "I changed my mind. I don't want to meet your weapon."
At that moment, a low, heavy humming noise filled the air, and Plagis's glow brightened and began to pulse mildly.
Dana smiled. "It's saying hello."
"Hello," Ruby waved, as if she hadn't made her previous comment.
The blade sparked.
"Yikes!" Ruby flinched.
Weiss rolled her eyes "Amateur." She said, then stood and bowed to the blade. "Pleasure to meet you."
The blade crackled. Dana smiled. "It seems pleased to meet you all. It isn't making that angry noise, anyway, and it's not crackling weirdly. It doesn't actually speak. It just sort of...feels."
Blake nodded towards it, while Yang waved a hand.
Ruby inched closer to it. "So, sword. How are you?" It was a lame question, and everyone winced.
The hum began again, higher in pitch, and then began to wobble between pitches before stopping. Dana grinned. "It seems happy. It likes it when people admire it, I know that much."
The blade started changing colors, and she rolled her eyes.
"What's it saying?" Blake asked.
Dana put a hand on the blade part and blinked. "Well, it feels...flattered? In a slightly more arrogant way? Not sure how to describe it. It's showing off and it likes your attention. Usually, the only colors the blade turns are red, orange, black and occasionally white and yellow. And only because of the Dust it's using. It's just trying to impress you. The colors are meaningless."
The sword darkened to a rather terrifying shade of red in response, and she stuck her tongue out at it. "Stop that."
Ruby retook her seat. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Sword. My name's Ruby."
"If it could say hi, it would." Dana paused. "Oh. It just showed me an image of your face. Not sure what that means, but I think it's acknowledging your hello."
Weiss almost pushed ruby aside. "You'll have to pardon my friend's rudeness. A sword such as yourself must be very important. I'm sure you'd prefer company of a higher caliber than these common folk."
"Wow, Weiss, way to be an asshole to us for a sword," Yang said.
The sword's blade turned white. "It showed me your face. It's acknowledging you as well," Dana said. It turned yellow, then black, and she gestured to Yang and Blake. "And you two as well. It knows you're friends."
"Good. I want to be its friend," Weiss said, smiling at it.
"No offense, Weiss, but it's a sword. I don't think it really cares." Yang continued.
Weiss turned on Yang. "You shut up. You're being rude for no reason and I don't like it. Furthermore, you don't know what you're talking about. "
"Oh, and you do, Ice Queen? It's a sword. It can't think, it can't like you and it doesn't give a damn about is." Yang snapped.
"The nerve of you—!"
"You wanna go?" Yang flared. Her fists came out armed.
"Please. I'm much too refined to dirty myself like that," Weiss flipped her hair.
"Why you little!" Yang had to be restrained by Sarah as Blake jumped up in alarm.
"Yang, what in the world has gotten into you!? And you, Weiss, show a little respect to your teammates!" She exclaimed. "You're both acting like children!"
A high-pitched screech suddenly filled the air and the blade startled crackling with electricity. "It's annoyed." Dana warned them.
The group flinched. Weiss immediately began apologizing to the sword, and Yang settled aback against the wall.
"Wimp," she muttered.
Blake glared at her, then turned and sat back down.
Sarah and Utaria looked at each other. Most people hated the sword, and initially it had seemed that RWBY would too. And now they—well, Weiss at least—were treating it like royalty.
Weiss noticed everyone looking at her. "What?"
Dana shook her head. "I'm glad you like Plagis, Weiss. Most people detest its existence."
"Detest? But why? It's such a powerful weapon. It's practically sword royalty. Not to mention it's alive, and it's Eridanus. It's done things with Dust I could never have even imagined—it's amazing!" Weiss waxed on about the sword.
"Oh would you shut up already? Just kiss the damn thing if you love it so much," Yang called out from the window.
"You don't like it," Dana said quietly, looking at Yang.
"It's not that, it's this whole thing. These Eridanus," Yang waved a hand. "This whole idea of something worse than the Grimm"
"Oh...Yang," Ruby said.
"It's not a fun truth." Kayla said quietly from her seat. "But we exist to make it a lie, if you think about it."
"Yeah, well I'd rather you didn't. I'd rather this whole thing didn't exist," Yang said.
"Yang," Ruby said quietly.
"It's the world you were born into," Dana said, somewhat testily. "We all were. You don't have to become an Eridanus hunter. You're just shadowing us because Ozpin believes an Eridanus might be behind the White Fang."
Yang's weapons came out, and the sword sparked angrily. "You shut up too," Yang snapped, whether at Plagis or Dana, they were unsure. She stormed towards the door. "I need to cool off."
"That was very unlike Yang," Weiss said after a moment.
"She's hot-headed but...that was new," Blake agreed.
"Blake, keep an eye on her." Dana said. "I don't want her out alone."
"I'll go," Ruby said. "I know what's bothering her."