RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Transitions

Chapter 5: One's Loss, Another's Gain

Surprise after surprise seemed to keep piling up today. If there had been any doubts in Ozpin's mind about Ruby Rose, today's meeting had effectively erased them. She truly was her mother's child.

However, with the night winding down, it was prudent for him to get some sleep. Caffiene could only keep him awake so long, and he had hundreds of potential students to address before the year officially began. Introductory speeches don't write themselves in a single night, you know.

It was around six minutes after he had exited his office and headed for his personal quarters that the computer system at his desk finished another comprehensive look through the databases of registered people... and came back with an unmatched person of interest. It began compiling a list of times and locations this unknown had been to.

Vale, 7:54 P.M.

Sometime earlier...

Raoul had tailed the strange VTOL-like jet all the way through to the west end of the Industrial District, very close to the border of the Commercial District that seperated it from the Upper Class District. He was certain he had passed by the warehouse that he had used as a hideaway, but that was for another time. The aircraft lowered down near one of the other warehouses, and two people emerged from it.

One of them was the woman in red, but the other was a taller man with orange hair in a white suit and a cane in one hand. Perhaps this had been her getaway pilot?

'Come to think of it, the guy's overall look does match the description of that Torchwick person...' But he pushed that thought to the back of his mind for the time being. Focusing on the two, he could hear something ... the crimson bitch seeming a bit unimpressed that her cohort was given so much trouble by a teenage girl. Raoul would've liked to get closer, but didn't want to risk getting seen. Keeping as low as he could, he studied their current location.

From his vantage point, he could see more of those black-suited humans milling about the area, some of them being ordered by the guy with the cane to move things out of the VTOL and into the warehouse. The woman in red had already headed off elsewhere, several of the suited men following the cane guy into the warehouse with nondescript black suitcases and baby blue crates that seemed to have a snowflake on the exterior. As the VTOL was emptied of its cargo, the woman in red returned about four to five minutes later, telling the guy with the cane to do something with the supplies as she took the craft elsewhere, ostensibly for repairs.

'Hey. Haven't we seen that snowflake before?' Raoul's companion had taken notice of the emblem.

'Yeah... that Dust company, if memory serves. Looks like the bitch in the red dress has that suited guy on her payroll.'

'From trying to murder that magical girl in cold blood to mass theft... if this place played by what Netherworld rules I do know, this chick might've made for a typical demon.'

'Either way, shall we steal their shit right out from beneath their noses?' If his companion had a visible face, she'd have a grin to make the devil himself shiver with nervousness.

'One better. We're gonna completely mess up her operations... and he's gonna lead us to them.' Upon hearing that, Raoul had an unsettling grin of his own.

'I like the way you think. Let's show them some real Hell.'

With that, the two of them set the plan into motion. Part one - wait for the guy in the suit to depart.

Inside the Warehouse

8:00 P.M.

Today was not a good day for Roman Torchwick. Not only had most of his hired help been knocked out by some teenage girl with an oversized harvesting tool, one of Beacon's residing teachers had seen fit to intervene as well, forcing his erstwhile employer to extract him. Truth be told, Roman wasn't exactly fond of this woman, this... Cinder Fall, but it'd be a cold day in Vacuo before he would tell that to her face.

Something else to consider was her two understudies, the grass-headed thief, Sustrai, and the son of the infamous Marcus Black. He stopped for a moment to think on that... news had been going around for the last few months that Marcus was dead - made him wonder who could've gotten the drop on him. The old bastard was known for having been a cautious sort, given his profession as a hitman - then again, he wouldn't have been too surprised if his own son was the one to kill him. The little punk certainly had a lot of Marcus' mannerisms.

'Guess that apple didn't fall far from the tree after all.'

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. For now, it was best to focus on running these Dust thefts and keeping Cinder's attention on that.

'Speaking of which, Neo's running late.' He flipped out his burner Scroll, which had been thankfully modified so as to keep certain information off the CCT-grid, so to speak. Wouldn't do him much good to be easily traceable, after all.

{Neo, what's your status?} Message tapped out, he hit send. It was about two minutes before a response came back.

{On my way back. Made a bit of a stop. Problem?} Well, there's one concern down.

{Cinder's been lighting a fire under my ass to get more Dust. So, y'know, the usual.} He reached into his coat for his lighter and another cigar. If tonight was going to set a precedent for any other problems he'd be facing in pulling off these heists, he was going to need this. {Would be nice to know what it is she needs all this Dust for, at the very least. Hate to think I'm risking my neck for nothing.}

{Want me to tail her next time she heads out?} He took a moment to mull this response over as he lit up one of his favorite Vacuo-brand cigars.

{Novel idea, but we can't have her getting too suspicious of us, else she'll clam up with her whole "You'll know when you need to" nonsense. Find out what you can, just keep subtle about it.}

{Can do. See you back at home. :)} As he closed the conversation, he weighed his options as he exhaled a puff of smoke. He could go hit up a few more places tonight, but most of those places would be closed, requiring a break and enter, and much as he was glad that Junior was more than willing to hire out his personal gang for these operations, they weren't exactly the brightest or strongest of the bunch, if some kid acting like a Hunter was able to knock them around. That, and there'd be no telling if that blonde Hunter would be on the lookout for any activity.

No. Tonight was enough. It'd be a better idea to lay low for a bit, and let tensions cool off before he struck again. That would give him enough time to compile a quick list of what places would be ideal to visit next. Besides, once Beacon started up its classes, their professors would be tied up trying to keep the kids from turning unruly. That'd give him plenty of time to get to work.

He turned and left the warehouse, heading back to one of the safehouses that he set up within the Upper Class District. He was fairly confident that little would happen while he got some shut-eye and planned out the next place to hit up, but figured that if complications did arise, Junior's boys would be competent enough to contact either Neo or himself. A number of Vale Police Officers weren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, so keeping his ill-gotten gains away from prying eyes should be an easy task.

Sadly for him, things were about to take a turn for the worse. As he exited the warehouse, he was unaware of a pair of eyes keeping tabs on him from above. One of those eyes in particular was analyzing Torchwick, gathering whatever information it could on him.

'OK, got a rough fix on his biometrics... and saved. We ought to be able to track him with this.'

Roughly five minutes after Torchwick had left the area to go rest for the night, Raoul sprang into action. Dropping down from his vantage point outside and keeping to the shadows as he peered in through a window, the offworld demon took count of the number of hired thugs inside the place, counting about four in total. Each seemed to be armed with a crimson-colored machete or hand-axe, and didn't have much else on them.

Finding an open window on the ground floor, likely to allow for some ventilation on this surprisingly warm night, he climbed into the warehouse, making certain to land softly, lest he make too much noise. Nearest his position on the warehouse's right side as he ducked behind a crate, there were two of the suits, idly conversing.

"Man, easy pay for this work." One of them noted. "Ain't like anyone's gonna come sniffing around for this stuff."

"Don't get lazy. You heard about what happened to the ones that initially went with him, right?" The other suited man chided his co-worker.

"Yeah, yeah, some kid acting like a Hunter, and one of Beacon's own. Still, by the time either of 'em could get here we'd be long gone with the goods."

It took about a minute for the two of them to part ways. The one that remained behind took a moment to stretch and yawn, and it was in the moment that Raoul struck. A hand went around the suit's mouth, and as he was dragged backwards he tried to unsheath his machete and alert his cohorts, only to fall unconscious a few seconds later as an arm went around his throat, depriving him of vital oxygen.

The suit was carefully placed behind the crate, and Raoul set his sights on his next target. The other suited human had come around, and not seeing his co-worker there did raise his suspicions. A hand went to his back, keeping a hold on his hand-axe as he looked around for a moment.

"Must've gone for a leak. Could've at least called it in first." He eventually muttered to himself, turning to check out another window... and that was when he met the same fate as his cohort, even being placed next to him.

'Up there... the other two guys.' Up on the second-floor catwalks were the two other guards, these ones smartly placed across from each other. If one went down, the other could respond quickly. Hell, if something down below had caught their attention, they'd be able to call it in... thankfully Raoul had been making sure to keep quiet in dispatching the two on the ground floor.

Their patrol was a good one as well, likely assigned by the guy in the white suit - they kept across from one another, only stopping at the corners of the catwalks to check over things. It took them about a minute to walk around to their next point. Then again, much like the two suits down here, they had refused to get rid of their shades, and while they did look pretty stylish, eyewear meant to darken out bright lighting wasn't the greatest choice of wear in these sub-lighted conditions.

Waiting for one to pass overhead, Raoul leapt up to the catwalk behind the suit, making certain to keep his landing quiet, and once the usual muffling gesture was applied he choked the breath out of of this one, silencing him. Now came taking care of the last one... and that would be an easy task with the others unconscious. He began a speedy prowl up to the other guy.

As the last of the suits came up, he sighted his fallen cohort and scrambled to get his machete ready, his other hand going for his pocket to get out the burner Scroll supplied as means of communication. It had taken a fair bit of doing, but these Scrolls were coded to brick themselves if any sort of authority tried to download whatever information was available, thus keeping any heat off their boss.

Something tapped him on the shoulder, and as he whirled around with his weapon outstretched, hoping to hit whomever it was that tried to get the drop on him, a fist buried itself into his gut, and with a pained wheeze his vision went black as he went down. Raoul hefted the two goons down to pile them with their compatriots, but he then remembered that last one was going for something in his pockets, and so decided to check.

Looks like these suits were getting cash down for the guard job, as a few Lien cards were found. Something else caught his attention - the guy whom he just gut-punched had one of those strange, phone-like devices... a Scroll, if his memory was on point. This one had a white coloration to its exterior.

'This device... maybe we can use it to our advantage..'

'Very well. Let's see what else was left here.' With the suits out cold, there was nothing stopping him from checking out whatever else they had grabbed. Might as well take his time and closely inspect what all they had fleeced.

That said, an idea crossed his mind as he checked out the varying crates of Dust that were stockpiled within this place... might as well take a page from his old man's book.

Sunday, March 6, 12:03 P.M.

A Consequence of Actions Taken

"The robbery was lead by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, whom continues to evade authorities. If you have any information regarding his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. And now onto our follow-up. Over to you, Lisa." The mugshot of Torchwick disappeared as the reporter in question, a lavender-haired woman, was shown on the broadcast.

"Thank you, Cyril. While the whereabouts of Roman Torchwick are still unknown, Vale Police have made a breakthrough in the recent Dust theft string sweeping the Kingdom." The screen changed, showing an aerial shot of the Industrial District as one of the warehouses was cordoned off with caution tape. "An anonymous tip had come in shortly before nine-thirty yesterday evening about suspicious people being sighted within the Industrial District, and as a few officers were dispatched to check on the situation, what they found astounded them."

The image on-screen shifted to show the warehouse's contents. Nearest the doors, four men in matching black suits were found unconscious, loose wiring being used to tie them together. On an airship headed towards the prestegious Beacon Academy, two sisters shared a look of recognition, and when they had seen that the other had the same look upon their face...

"Four members of the infamous Axe-gang were found tied up outside an open warehouse. What baffled the officers even further was what was found inside the warehouse - around two tons of stolen Dust crystals and powders of various quality."

The screen shifted once more, showing one of the Officers detailing where the stolen goods had been found at within the warehouse. This got a few of the airship's passengers talking.

"When asked about the potential identity of whomever called this in, concerns have been raised in regards to whomever it was that took on such a dangerous group of individuals..."

As Torchwick himself watched this news bulletin from his hideaway within the Upper Class District, his expression changed from curiosity to anger and straight into annoyance. He'd made damn well certain to keep off the radar to prevent things like this from happening in the first place... one of Junior's men must've screwed up.

'Gonna have to have a long talk with the old bear about his hired help.' As the report turned to something about a Faunus protest that turned into a riot, he grabbed his hat and cane before turning his television off.

Beacon Academy, 12:45 P.M.

Ozpin looked over some new information that had come up since the other night. It seems that out of all the matches that were being run throughout the night, a blank had finally come up.

This person proved to be a male, standing about seven feet tall, with wild, dark brown hair. He had an eyepatch over his left eye, and combining this with his orange-eyed gaze, it gave the impression of someone whom broached little nonsense. His clothing looked well-worn, as if it had been through many a battle, and if he had to take a guess as to this one's age, he estimated it lay somewhere between the late twenties to mid thirties. Oddly, when this unknown entered the kingdom's limits through the Agricultural District a little over five months ago, it seemed that an axe and gun could be seen on his person, yet when seen elsewhere, they were missing, replaced by a pair of gauntlets - he must have found a place to stash them away, yet there were no records of anyone matching his appearance purchasing a place to rent or own.

He had been seen frequenting the public library, and from what the security footage from around there had shown, he had proven polite, yet quiet, looking up historical topics and present-day issues if his forays into certain sections of the library could attest to such. He didn't appear to be a threat, as one of the security personnel seemed to be on a named basis with him, but as Amber's encounter with the three assailants had proven, one didn't need to look deadly in order to be so.

Tidings of this same man, named Raoul according to the testimonial footage from the library, helping in killing any Grimm that got close to the Agricultural District proved that point. Whomever he was, he easily performed the work of several Hunters at once, able to take out even Alpha Grimm with ease. Fortunate, but also very concerning.

He slid his gaze over to another side of his desk's screen. Seems it was almost time to address the students that were to gather today. Putting this information away for later study, he got up from his desk and grabbed his favorite cane. He could return to this matter, alongside the others, once he had some free time.

Occupied Warehouse, 1:10 P.M.

Raoul took a quick look over his acqusitions from the other night. In all, he had taken around 500 Lien from those suited gangsters, at least if his cross-reference with the money he had earned from killing the Grimm further south was accurate. There was also the matter of this strange device, this Scroll... it seemed that aside from a flatscreen phone mode, it could be stretched out into some kind of tablet-esque form.

As he tapped through the device, he explored whatever features it had available. With this, at last there was a portable connection to the CCT - now he could start looking things up in earnest whenever the library wasn't an option. Looked like there was a messaging system, a live communications service, this world's version of the internet... seems there was also video and audio recording and playback features.

His erstwhile partner, in the meantime, had taken to trying to interact with the device over a wireless connection.

"Hm... this programming language is something else..." He could hear her mutter idly as she tried to make heads or tails of it. "I wonder, maybe if I..." It was about another two minutes before he heard her speak up again. "Well, this is something."

"What's up?"

"As I check out the coding for this thing, I begin to notice holes in it... sporadically, yet deliberately in a few spots. I think this thing was gutted previously."

"Then again, if it was in the use of that suit, whom was working for that crimson chick, I'd imagine being traceable would be ill-advised." A few seconds passed before an idea clicked. "If this thing was hacked, think we can add or remove some features of our own?"

"Interesting idea, but I'm gonna need more time to fully understand this thing."

"Very well." Letting his partner continue on with her examination of the Scroll, he turned his thoughts towards plans for the future. While contacting everyone and getting an evacuation home was highest priority, that was the endgoal once everything else had fallen into place. For right now, gathering supplies was a must. There was also learning more about the other Kingdoms... There was also Menagerie, the island of the Faunus...

His stomach rumbled, giving off a burbling sound akin to some kind of horror from the deep rising up, ready to devour all that got in its path.

"And there's a universal sign. Time for some lunch." Taking the swiped Scroll, he pocketed it in his jacket as he placed the Lien cards within his pants pocket. "Think you can still keep working with it in that form?"

"Yeah, I still have the connection."

"All right." Letting his wing coat his left arm again, he headed out. Time for something a bit more filling. An idle thought then crossed his mind as he hit the streets towards downtown. 'Say, that reminds me...'

'What's up?'

'Did you ever decide on your new name?' At that, his partner went quiet, contemplating this.

'To be honest, not yet. I'm still mulling it over.'

'Understood.' Deciding to not push the issue further, he looked on for a place to get some food. Hm, seemed this stand was selling noodles... might as well give them a try.

Beacon Academy, 2:21 P.M.

Ozpin sat back in his chair as he assessed the schedule for the upcoming year.

Initiation was already planned out for the first-year hopefuls, so nothing to worry about there. Once teams had been formed, then schedules would be sent to their Scrolls. He could only hope that these hopefuls caught the meaning behind his speech this year.

Right now, he needed to address a number of messages that had come in.

First on the chopping block was one from Qrow.

Hey Oz, it's me.

Right now, leads on Amber's assailants are a little touch and go. I'm going to be in the area for a little while before I hit up Mistral again for some clues. Knowing Leo, I'm going to drop him a line first so he doesn't go any more prematurely grey than he already is.

Not exactly promising, but giving up now wouldn't help matters.

Moving on, he got a report from Vacuo concerning Amber herself.

To Ozpin,

Amber's been an honest delight to have around Vacuo. But, all good things must come to an end eventually, and as such she's going to be heading back northward. She mentioned that she wanted to head back to Vale and stick around the area for a time, but ultimately she's going to pass on the idea and go further northward to Atlas instead.

Give James my regards.

He couldn't fault Amber's logic. Insight as to whom these three assailants were specifically was at a premium, and she didn't want to draw undue attention to herself. Though if she was headed northward, she'd have to pass by Vale unless she took an aircraft to circumvent the trip.

As he worked to move his messages into sorted inboxes, he gave a sigh of restrained frustration as he saw the next message to be moved - it was from James Ironwood, the Headmaster of Atlas Academy and Commander of Atlas' Military Forces. When he had given James the update on the situation with Amber months prior, his almost-immediate reply was one of nearly telling Ozpin to take a much more proactive approach to not only the situation with the Autumn Maiden, but also in the investigation into whoever or whatever this Belderiver was.

'I wish James would take a moment to consider the other side of this coin...' Much as there was a point to be made in tracking down both the assailants and Belderiver, what Ironwood was proposing was something akin to a full-on raid throughout the Kingdom's various living areas and other places. Too much activity would give rise to a cautious nature for both targets, perhaps altering their own schedules to try and avoid the search. Combine this with the already rising tensions regarding the Dust thefts, and it'd be a magnet for the Grimm. Lax as his own methods were, they played to the targets' feelings of security, letting them move openly, unaware of whatever eyes he might have spread throughout. What was needed here was scouts, not soldiers.

'Days I feel like I'm getting too old for this...' Opening up a new message, he gave Ironwood a quick heads-up in regards to Amber stopping by Atlas before she came back down towards Vale. It'd give him something to occupy his time, and give Ozpin the time needed to unravel the identities of Amber's assailants.

Vale Industrial District, 3:52 P.M.

Raoul returned to his warehouse hideaway, looking over his various purchases made with the money he lifted from the gangsters. He had noticed increased police presence around the area, no doubt due to that tip he left last night. Thankfully there was more than one way into this warehouse... while the Police were casing around outside, they didn't really think to look skyward.

Of the 500 Lien he had obtained from the gangsters, about 45 had gone to the noodle stand. Guy made some delicious stuff, and it only felt right to tip him a touch extra. For things not within the perview of food, he had taken to checking the local electronics shops, mainly for anything related to Scrolls. About 330 Lien later and he exited with not only another Scroll, this one being his official one for business and research, but also two extra chargers. This one he picked up was a dark orange with a royal blue trim to it. Combined with his earnings from the Agricultural District, that left him with around 2200 Lien, which should see him through the next few weeks or so.

"I have to say, the coding for this thing is a bit spotty." His companion's voice broke him from his thoughts.

"What makes you say that?"

"As you theorized before, this Scroll you stole from that suited guy was definitely hacked. From how much coding was cut, added and swapped around, seems it was made to be single-purpose."

"No surprises there. Like I said before, being traceable would put a serious target on their backs. Anything else you managed to find?"

"Open it up and I'll explain further." He did so, opening the stolen scroll into its phone mode. "All right, here's the rub. According to the coding found within this folder's contents-" The folder in question lit up with a red outline, "-something is coded to brick this entire thing if someone else tries external data recovery on this device. I'm not even going to try and mess with it, lest we crash this thing before we can get anything good off it."

"It'd have to be disguised as something harmless, like a cookie packet or something similar. Hell of a way to cover their tracks."

"Oh, it gets better. Flip over to the contacts." Raoul did so, bringing up what seemed to be an empty list. "Tap the third one from the bottom." He scrolled to the end of the list and tapped the seemingly empty bar, bringing forth an entirely new menu. Among its commands were a full reset, adding or deleting necessary programs, and even one to completely crash the file recovery mechanics.

"This seems to be much more than a simple hacking job. How'd you figure this stuff out so quickly?"

"To be honest, it was a bit of dumb luck. Once I did a little cross-checking with the coding types I knew of, I applied knowledge from each of them to try and crack this open. Some quick switching about and here we are."

"It truly was good fortune you managed to stick close. I'd have probably either taken longer or screwed this up entirely.. software programming wasn't exactly my forte."

"We're not entirely done yet. This Scroll you filched could be our ticket to finding out more about where the bitch in the red dress has been laying low at."

"All right. Guessing we're taking tonight to look these Scrolls over?"

"Mostly the stolen one, but yes." The sound of someone undoing the lock on the front door of the warehouse alerted Raoul to their presence. Grabbing his purchases and putting them back into the bag, he quickly headed up to the second floor, where the window he had used to enter was open enough to allow him to slip through it. Making certain to grab his other belongings, he slipped out the window and onto the back end of the roof.

Down below, several Vale Police Officers swept into the now empty warehouse, searching for any clues regarding Torchwick. They found nothing related to him, but did find footprints belonging to someone else, which had the warehouse security deciding to review their patrol routes.

'That was close. Don't need the local law enfocement thinking I'm some squatter or something.'

'We kinda are, though.'

'Either way, guess we either wait for them to leave, or we find a new hiding spot.' As a few more officers could be seen coming to investigate the warehouses, the option was cast for them to find a new base of operations. Sneaking around to the back end, he dropped down and made his way out.

Present Time, Interrogation Room, 10:34 A.M.

"This Scroll you obtained... where is it?" Ozpin inquired.

"Back at our base." Raoul's companion spoke up. "At the time, there was still a fair amount for me to learn about it - we were getting ready to check out more about its source code when everything happened."

"If it is indeed hacked, then it seems Miss Fall might have more friends on the side."

"It may prove tricky to extract the data without compromising the system." Ironwood mused, mostly to himself. "Regardless, evidence is mounting to having those three brought in for questioning."

"Sure... if you want them to attempt escape and potentially fleeing back to whomever else they have as allies." Nelius countered, getting a hard glare from the General in return. "Whatever they're planning to spring on Vale, it requires them to be anonymous faces in the background. So long as nobody can trace anything to them, they're able to move about as they wish."

"I see...but at the same time, that strategy also proved to be a double-edged sword." Ozpin was catching on. "They put their efforts towards remaining unknown towards Vale as a whole, only for another unknown to see through their plan."

"Right now, Fall doesn't know of either myself or my friend here. We'd like to keep it that way, if it's not too much trouble... the less they have to learn of us, the worse off their plans can be."

To this end, Ozpin glanced over to Glynda, whom had been diligently taking down notes on this matter. The Headmistress immediately began deleting the more sensitive bits that the interrogation had uncovered, such as his actual identity as a demon, overwriting it with much more mundane details. If Cinder and her associates were indeed within Beacon's walls, then it'd be much safer to disguise the truth for the time being.

Chapter 5- Complete