RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'Thoughts'
Scene Change

Chapter 9: Misfortune

Raoul had his Scroll open as he flipped over to check some compiled notes regarding their activities whilst on Remnant.

"That crimson chick has Torchwick and the Axe Gang on her payroll. They've been stealing a shitton of Dust and weaponry, which we've been sending back to their original owners."

"Not only were prices going sky-high, people are honestly worried about all of this activity." His companion brought notice to several articles they had bookmarked in the interim. While some entries were proving relieved that someone was taking action against the crime spree, others were quick to disparage the fact that Torchwick remained free to roam about Vale, with those same people showing a complete lack of faith in the local law enforcement.

"Undoubtedly they're tense about all of this. Add in the White Fang making their rounds-" He flipped the Scroll's page over to an opinion piece expressing concerns about the docks incident,"-and that tension's gonna be a five-star alarm for the Grimm when it hits critical mass."

"...you think maybe that's her ultimate goal? Steal the good stuff and let the kingdom get overrun?"

"A smash and grab mixed with a slash and burn? Wouldn't surprise me too much if that was the case, given these recent activities." He flipped over to another page. "Though now I wonder where they're operating out from, if that is the ultimate goal. We've checked around the near entirety of the Industrial and Residential Districts, and so far no real clues."

"If they're able to get about within Vale so easily, I'd imagine they either have multiple hangouts like the hideaways where Torchwick's supplies were stashed, or they're keeping to a place where nobody'd look twice. We might need to get a foothold in the Upper-Class District if we want to expand our search area." At the same time, she was tying several other notes together. "It might also be possible they've got an external base set up somewhere, probably using another Bullhead to get in and out of places quickly."

'Well, no use just sitting around here." Raoul closed his Scroll and donned his usual gear. "Let's do some poking around. If we're lucky, we might be able to catch them mid-move. How's your sensor array?"

"All systems green. Ready when you are."

Vale Streets

Thursday, August 11, 10:21 A.M.

'Hey, what's that?' Several people were gathered around what looked like a stage. Approaching, Raoul could see several grey robots standing in front of what looked like transport modules. A holographic display of a man in a white suit was playing as he talked about the robots, and how Atlas technology was constantly innovating new fields in its research.

'Well, this confirms that this world does have decent robotics.'

Suddenly, as the holographic display touted a new breed of robot, the modules opened up, revealing sleeker, much cleaner looking robots in comparison to the dark grey machines. These newer machines then kicked the older robots down... and were they doing bodybuilding poses? Either way, the crowd of people seemed to enjoy the display, if the applause and a few cheers were any indicator.

'Huh, using robots to keep people off the battlefield... can't deny, this guy does have a good ethic about it.'

'Perhaps, but machines are still machines. Anything without a true will of its own could easily be turned against someone.'

The hologram of the man disappeared, only to be replaced by what looked to be an immense bipedal mechanical suit, touted as an Atlesian Paladin. From its design, this was meant to be piloted by a single person. If what the holographic recording said was true, then these would be soon put into use within the upcoming year.

'Looks a bit too unwieldly, if I may be honest.'

'Hmmm... we'll need to commit that thing to memory.'

'Huh? Why?'

'Remember the weapons we found in a prior operation, not to mention the Bullhead that the Fang somehow nabbed? Something like that would be far too tempting to pass up.'

'True, but how would they even manage to steal one of those?'

'I'd imagine the same way they took everything else... wait for an opportune moment, then strike.'

Aside from the tech show, there wasn't much to be seen here, so off they went to scour the city some more. Well, two security personnel took off in a direction, likely going after a person of interest, but that wasn't his business at the moment.

His companion had her scanners going on full tilt, trying to find traces of the two that had shown up at the book store. If those two could be found, then it'd be a quick lead to wherever the crimson woman was hiding out at.

White Fang Rally, Industrial District, 7:56 P.M.

A Consequence of Actions Taken

Callan looked out over the crowd, and found himself grimacing ever so slightly beneath his mask.

Turnout for the rally had been much lower than expected. While the uniformed Fang members were in high attendance, as per the usual for security reasons, the number of potential new recruits was depressingly low. For a second he'd have sworn he saw someone familiar in the crowd of new recruits, but ultimately brushed it off as a trick of the mind.

He scowled. Vale had more than enough Faunus here to easily help bolster the ranks of the Fang... so where were they? One of the first thoughts to cross his mind was that Torchwick had some hand in interfering, but according to a few informants, his appearances throughout Vale were becoming rarer and rarer, and that got him to wonder if maybe the local law enforcement had finally wisened up and began tracking him down in earnest.

Vale, progressive though it may be, wasn't known as the best place for having high tolerance of Faunus, so the idea of most being comfortable in the kingdom was already in question. Word had been spread of the rally, so that wasn't an issue either...

The small crowd of Faunus that had gathered to hear about the rally were beginning to get a little restless. He'd give it another minute for any last-second walk-ins, then he'd get this kicked off.

The minute passed without incident, and so he cleared his throat.

"Before we begin, I'd like to extend a personal thanks to those that chose to come here. For those currently not in the know..."

As Callan gave a small speech about what the White Fang represented, and how they would change the Kingdoms' way of thinking concerning all Faunus-kind, one of the "recruits" in the small crowd was here for something else... ever since the incident at the docks, the gravitas of what the Fang had become was slowly beginning to sink in. At first they thought it restricted to one of their fellow members, but this... the organization they once called home was turning into something even worse.

They'd heard Callan's spiel a long time before, having once been up there alongside a few other Fang members... a bit of anxiety was beginning to set in as Callan went on. If the Fang were finding a place within Vale to operate from, then it had to be close enough that the local law enforcement was blind to it.

"Some of our people have already moved towards the south-east, but for those that would prefer to keep within the city, we'll be counting on you to keep open ears and eyes-"

This was it! That was the information they needed. The south-east... if memory served, that was the old Mountain Glenn area, now little more than a deserted ruin. As this information was processing, the clues began to sink in as to why this location was chosen.

Unbeknownst to either Callan or the two masked infiltrators, one of the Fang members silently slipped out.

A small distance away from the warehouse where the rally was taking place, one Faunus adorned in the Fang's garb removed her mask as she reopened her Scroll, sending a quick message with video to another ally of hers. She proved gray-eyed with blonde hair, and stood about 5'5". Small cat-like ears sat atop her head, mottled with black spots.

'You owe me big for this one.' She was quick to ditch the White Fang uniform and disappear from view as the sound of the departing Faunus grew louder, many of them discussing the recent event. 'Let's hope this works...'

The two infiltrators silently made their way out, but once they had managed to seperate from the crowd they discarded the masks and high-tailed it back to Beacon Academy, Scrolls at the ready.

The Base, 9:12 P.M.

Raoul was outside on this nice, warm night. Thanks to the manuals he had picked up from Tukson, he had been learning much more about the stolen Bullhead, getting a solid knowledge base of what compartments would need to be checked over to ensure the aerial craft would properly function. There was also taking it for a few nightly test flights, to ensure he was able to pilot it effectively.

In fact, the Bullhead was currently hovering over the Mountain Glenn area, which served as an out of the way practice ground for his piloting skills. The desolate former expansion was all he could see out the cockpit window, a stray Grimm prowling about here or there.

His companion had been making use of the filched Scroll to tap into whatever broadcasts she could intercept. So far, nothing had come up concerning either Torchwick's movements, or the Fang for that matter.

'Hmm... I begin to think we might be out of range to intercept any messages.'

'I doubt range would be much of an issue. They may be flying under radio silence right now.'

'Fair point.'

With little better to do with his time, Raoul locked the Bullhead's controls and kept it in its hovering mode as he flipped down the right side-hatch and leaned out.

'Dare I ask what you're doing?'

'Target practice.' His gun set to semi-automatic fire, he lined up some shots and let them loose. The Grimm on the ground, mostly Beowolves and Creeps, would've heard a faint sound before several of them had their heads shredded apart by the bullets. Try as they might to look around, they weren't able to get enough of a bead on whomever was attacking to retaliate.

About ten minutes of Grimm-sniping later, Raoul figured it was time to head back. Dropping back into the pilot's seat, he unlocked the Bullhead's controls, and began to head back to the base... little had he realized what was transpiring beneath his nose.

A few members of the Fang began filing into the area, finding the dissolving remains of several Grimm, but ultimately paid it no mind as they got to finding old stations that lead into the lower levels.

Saturday, September 10

Commercial District, 10:33 A.M.

Word was going around the Commercial District that Beacon was hosting a dance party later tonight, and quite a few people seemed interested, if the scattered bits of animate chatter were any indication. Raoul didn't bother acknowledging such, continuing to look through a few scrap shops near the Industrial District for the parts he needed to understand so his companion could create her own.

The transmitter was on the cusp of completion. Feeling emboldened by this, the two had decided to check through the shops to acquire parts so they could jury-rig their own Item Diver based on Atreya's design.

'All this party talk reminds me...I've never been to one before.'

'Truthfully, you're not missing much. Most humans and demons I've met use it as an excuse to perform idiotic actions... and they're too loud for my personal taste.'

'A regular workaholic, aren't you?' He bit back a derisive snort.

'That's a bold-faced lie. If I'm going to go out and enjoy myself, watching people act stupid while 150+ decibel noise is blasting in my ears is easily at the bottom of that list. I'd much rather go exploring new places.'

'Then why don't we go do that once this whole thing is wrapped up?'

'Well, aside from finding the crimson bitch and taking her forces down, there's also us finding a spot to launch the transmitter, and so far we've been largely around Vale. I'm curious as to what the other kingdoms are like from a first-person perspective.'

'Sounds good to me.' Finding a few items of use, Raoul paid for the scrap parts and departed from the shop. He flipped his Scroll open, to see if any new requests had come in further south.

The requests all looked to be full up. Ah well, there's always next time. Guess it was time to head back and study these parts and begin to formulate their own. He closed his Scroll, stashing it back in his pocket.

They'd do another check around for any lingering stashes that either Torchwick or the Fang had later tonight.

Torchwick's new base, unknown time

A Consequence of Actions Taken

Roman looked over the plan that Cinder had come up with.

Since the Fang couldn't be drafted to assist in her plan, and had already attacked him once before, the new idea was as such: Roman would go out for one last hit on some Dust shops, where Cinder and her accomplices would "stumble across" him, and after some amount of "fighting", he'd be captured and turned over to the Atlas Special Forces.

General Ironwood was known all too well for his displays of military might, if the multiple Atleasian craft hovering outside of Beacon were any indicator. When he asked why he wasn't being turned over to the Vale Police, Cinder simply pressed a Scroll into his hands, which he took a look at with an expression of curiosity.

This Scroll had the image of a Black Queen Chess piece overtop a red background, and she showed her own Scroll having the same display. All Neo would need to do is bust him out, and all he had to do was upload that into the ship's computer systems. Then the fireworks would really begin.

He took a long drag from one of his cigars. This was getting a little too risky for his liking - ever since the initial hits to the operation months back, supplies had been dwindling further and further, forcing him to make more outings into Vale and risk getting caught by whomever or whatever had been hot on his heels. While the idea of turning Ironwood's machinery and comptuers against him was a fun idea, it made him wonder what the hell Cinder was thinking, trying to keep this going. What sort of grudge did she have against the kingdom if she was willing to go this far?

He felt someone poke him in the side... there was only one person who'd do that.

"Was wondering when you'd get back, Neo." He turned to regard this presence.

Compared to Roman, this person, a female, was rather small, easily a bit under five feet tall. Her hair was parted into two colors, brown on her left and pink on her right. Her eyes were of similar colors, but in opposite position. She was clad in a white jacket with a pink interior, brown pants, black gloves, and black and white high-heeled boots. Beneath her jacket was a brown corset, and around her neck was plenty of haphazardly worn necklackes.

Neo simply stared at Roman. As she blinked, her eyes seemed to change color, her brown eye turning white.

"Tell me about it... while Cinder takes her kids off to enjoy fun and merriment at a school dance, we're stuck out here getting ready to put on a giant stage play with all of Vale as our audience."

Another blink, Neo's eyes both going pink.

"I know, I know, I just can't help but feel that maybe this isn't as cracked up as Cinder said it'd be."

Neo tilted her head, her right eye going brown this time as she put on a questioning look.

"The busts, Junior's boys getting beat by the Fang, even our operations getting some scrutiny... we need an exit strategy in case this doesn't work out."

Both of her eyes went brown at this as an eyebrow raised.

"Believe me, I'm more than aware, especially with how deep we are in this. Still, if Cinder's plans are going to go down in flames, she's going alone on that one."

He went back to looking over the Scroll Cinder had provided him with, eventually handing it over to Neo for safekeeping whilst he was playing prisoner.

This whole thing had best be damn well worth it.

Beacon Academy

Sunday, September 11, 12:24 A.M.

Cinder Fall entered the dorm room alongside her two disciples, Mercury making a beeline for the bathroom ahead of a peeved Emerald. It had been child's play to sneak into the CCT tower and implant her end of the virus that one of her colleagues had designed... probably would've been easier if that brat with the oversized scythe hadn't seen fit to try and intervene. Come to think of it, if what she remembered from before was accurate, that same child had been at two of Roman's heists... how did someone so young manage to have such an uncanny sense of knowing when to show up?

Thankfully all the Dust she had Roman steal went a long way in keeping her identity a secret, so there was no risk of that girl or Beacon security being able to figure it out. It was going to take her a long while to weave more into her clothing if she needed another disguise; a task that, despite her skills, she wasn't looking forward to. A bit of a waste of resources as well, but one that was necessary to see this through.

Now came waiting for the virus to begin propagating throughout the CCT, something that would be aided by countless people tapping into it. Once it had fully spread through, then the ultimate stage of this plan would begin. During that time, Roman should be finishing preparations of his end. The multiple hits and the subsequent police raids had stymied resource acquisition somewhat, not to mention that her disciples' attempt on Tukson's life was foiled, despite her clearly telling them to not dirty their hands... but, all in all, she had acquired more than enough to ensure that this surprise would go through. After all, how could they prepare for something they'd never see coming if their attention was focused elsewhere?

In all honesty, Cinder was not a patient woman, but she understood the benefits of keeping her cards close to her heart. Just a little longer, and the payoff would ensure she got her wish and carried out her task at the same time.

Still, there hadn't been any signs of the Fall Maiden being kept here, and her contacts elsewhere reported no signs of her at all. She had to be alive, as there were no stories going around of a random female suddenly flinging fire or electricity without using their Semblance. There had been a supposed sighting in Vacuo, but that was months ago - she could've easily hidden out somewhere else. No information came in from their informant in Mistral, and she'd never be welcome in Menagerie...

'I'll have to get in touch with our Atlas contact...' It'd be a bit of a stretch, but Ironwood would easily oversee the Fall Maiden's safety if she should find herself up that way. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Emerald watched with a heavy heart as Cinder got in touch with her elsewhere contacts. She knew this was her fault, as she had thought that taking Tukson out when Torchwick had failed to do the job would earn Cinder's praise.

'Instead that brunette man shows up and nearly catches us and now all this has happened...' She knew something had to be done to regain Cinder's trust. Mercury had been thinking of finding that witness and taking him out... perhaps in the middle of the plan the two of them could carry it out? If he were caught up in all the ruckus they could make it seem like he got jumped... yeah, that could work. Between her Semblance and Mercury's own skills, this could be pulled off with ease.

The Base, 8:32 A.M.

Raoul got out of his hammock, stretching to loosen up his muscles. He flipped his personal Scroll open, only to see that the network was undergoing maintenance at the moment. It'd be back on shortly.

'Hey, the app's ready to be tested. Get the stolen Scroll and we'll begin.' Setting his Personal Scroll into standby, he headed over to where the filched Scroll was charging, and opened it up into its phone mode. 'Access the extra menu hidden in the Contacts Tab.'

He did so, finding the hacked menu allowing for easy access to the Scroll's internal programming and coding.

'All right, which one?'

'Tap the one at the very bottom.' He did so, and the screen went white before a small red triangle outlined in black appeared at its center. There was a circle nearly overlapping it, just off to the left slightly. In the top right corner, there was a large black X, presumably to close this out.

'Interesting.'

'Took me nearly forever to get this to work how I wanted it to. This Scroll coding is something else, even with that book we picked up giving me better context.'

Raoul backed away slightly, seeing the other circle smoothly shift away, revealing it to be a light blue in color. As he then moved to his right, the light blue circle was seen moving away, confirming it to be his personal Scroll.

'Hm, using the unique signal patterns of different Scrolls' numbers for tracking, I would guess.'

'Something along those lines, though there's much more to this that I could do as I learn more. We can take it into the city for a larger-scale test.'

'Sounds good.' Switching the Scroll back to its usual mode, he pocketed it alongside his official one. Though what to do today?

The Dust Thefts seemed to have leveled off altogether over the past few days. He had taken a few nightly patrols in the prior days, just in case this quiet period was merely a ruse, but it really did feel like Torchwick's spree was coming to an end... nah, it couldn't be that convenient. Guy had to be planning something else. Nobody would just pack up and leave after a spree like that, especially someone with that many cohorts at their beck and call.

Something else to consider was the White Fang. Ever since they were spotted attacking Roman and his henchmen at the docks, murmurings of them trying something else was on the minds of several people. Some sites on Vale's Network had been slowly filling up with messages concerning a potential repeat of what Atlas had to deal with two years prior, when it was hosting the 39th Vytal Festival.

Also, try as he might, he found neither hide nor hair of the red woman's two followers. After their supposed attempt on that Tukson guy's life, he had left, and those two hadn't been seen around since... he knew the police hadn't found anything worth talking about. His companion had made use of the scanned data to try and locate them, but the traces were fairly faint within the city, feeling as though they criss-crossed and doubled back upon each other before ultimately dispersing.

Either way, a trip into the city sounded good. Tukson's Book Trade was apparently still open, but if the guy himself was long gone, it was likely being handled by someone he appointed. Officially, it had been stated on a few newsfeeds that Tukson had departed to sort out a family issue.

Tukson's Book Trade, 10:15 A.M.

Raoul walked up to the store, seeing the sign in the door read "Open". The windows weren't tinted like before, instead letting the sunlight filter in.

Entering the store, he heard the distinct chime that signaled a customer's entry.

"Just a second..." That was a woman's voice. About ten seconds later, a mop of blonde hair could be seen exiting the back room, books stacked high enough to obscure her field of vision. She set them down on the nearby counter, and for a brief moment Raoul could see she had a pair of cat ears mottled with spots. He swore that he heard her mutter something about not expecting this to be what it was.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade-" And as she looked over to address her customer, two grey eyes met a lone orange eye. Almost immediately Raoul could see the barest look of apprehension cross her face, before disappearing. "What can I help you with?"

"Mostly looking to see what all is new around here. Place has been pretty good to me so far." As he stepped in and closed the door, he went to looking for anything related to mechanical engineering. Hey, if he had struck gold with the Bullhead and Scroll manuscripts, then why not go for a turkey?

'So this is the guy that walked in on those two trying to off Tukson...' The blonde Faunus warily watched the seven-foot tall man browse the shelves. 'It had to have been a lucky break...'

It was about ten minutes later that he walked up to the front desk, setting down a book to purchase. She took a look at it to ring up the price, and found herself mildly surprised at his choice of reading material - an old manual on electronic reconstruction.

"25 Lien." The money was handed over, and the book was now his. "Come back again."

"Certainly." As he exited the store, she found her opinion of this character changing a bit. Not many people would walk in and ask for something like that. Usually it was the aspiring Hunter teen looking for comics or some other nonsensical material.

Commercial District, 10:55 A.M.

Raoul continued on his way through the streets. Thinking on it, the CCT should be back online by now. He flipped out the filched Scroll and opened it up, connecting it to the main network.

Indeed, the tower looked to be back up and running at full capacity. Satisfied at that, he flipped over the extra menu and brought up his friend's app. The screen went white once more, and as the arrow denoting this Scroll formed, several more blue dots began to show up around them.

'Looks to be working pretty well.'

'I still see room for improvement, but at the very least it'll give us something to work off of.'

He felt his left arm shift slightly, signaling that the final batch of parts for the transmitter were ready to be extracted. That could be taken care of once they got back to the base.

'I'm gonna have scars all up and down this arm at this rate.'

'I hear some people are into scars... while we're on the subject, since this is our option for creating our gear, maybe we should get the Item Diver parts prepared as well.'

'You said you still have the diagnostics and other files within memory... let's get the transmitter finished first, then find a place to launch it from. If this works as intended then we'll know that we can get the Diver parts constructed.'

Back towards the base they went. As they headed back, Raoul closed up the filched Scroll and pocketed it.

The Base, 12:32 P.M.

Carefully cutting his left arm open once more, Raoul carefully fished for the grown parts.

'Yeah, we're gonna take a fair break before we start making the Item Diver parts.'

'Agreed. I'm going to use that time to double-check our files.'

The parts extracted and now lying on a paper towel sheet, he used another healing spell to close his arm back up and restore it. After taking a moment to make certain he still was able to operate his left arm, he immediately went to putting the parts together to finish the transmitter, his companion occasionally directing him as to which piece would be installed where.

Around 25 minutes (and some reconfiguring) later, the transmitter was complete, a small cylindrical tube of violet and green. It looked like something fissioned off of his left arm, which wouldn't be too far off in accuracy. A small eye, violet in color, opened near its top.

"OK, here goes..." Pressing his left hand's eye to the transmitter's own, the recording began.

"Hey Mita, Atreya, Carl... everyone. It's us. We're both alive, somehow. I don't know the exact details, but our current location is a world called Remnant. This world's got its own hangups, but if things go as expected, you should be able to come extract us or form a pickup gate if you're able to track this signal." Raoul then went silent to let his companion speak her piece.

"This world, Remnant, has some interesting technology and resources, but as Mr. Raoul said, this place has its own problems, kinda like what happened in the other world. Either way, it'll be great to see you all again. Look for a shattered moon - its nearby world is where we are."

The recording complete, he removed his hand from the transmitter, and the eye upon it shifted from its violet color to green, signifying that the recording was a success. His companion listended intently, switching her internal receiver onto different wavelengths to ensure that this would work. It was about three minutes later that she spoke up.

"All right, I'm able to hear the message on the wavelengths that Mita should be able to pick up. Looks like everything is in order. Now we just need to find a location with which to launch this into space."

To that, Raoul opened his personal Scroll up to look up a general topographical map of Remnant. Mountainous regions would work, though he could always fly out over an ocean and give the transmitter a serious fling into space. While Vale had some areas he could potentially use, his initial entry point into Remnant would also work as a good launching point, given how far it was from the Kingdoms.

"If we're going to send it out, might also be a good idea to either do so late at night or early in the morning."

With the plan set, they began looking over the schematics for the Diver.

Meanwhile, within Vale itself, multiple Bullheads were taking off from Beacon Academy. As part of their curriculum, many first and second-year students would be shadowing professional Hunters in the field. One of these Bullheads went right overhead the Base... towards Mountain Glenn.

Little had anyone known or realized what this string of events would lead to, as within that Bullhead were four students, one of them carrying a canine companion, all shadowing one very quirky Professor... excuse me, Doctor.

The Base, 10:45 P.M.

'Should be late enough now.' With only about an hour to go until this timezone hit midnight, Raoul picked up the transmitter and made his way out of the house. As he was far enough south in Vale that nobody should see him, he unfurled his wings and took to the sky, flying south and down towards his initial impact location. He arrived within seconds, hovering above the crater.

'OK, this spot should do it.' Now flying further skyward, he felt himself hitting the upper atmospheric layers. Breathable air would be close to non-existant at this height, but being a demon, he didn't need oxygen, and he had experience in being in the upper layers from his previous worlds' excursions. Charging a bit of his personal mana into the transmitter to ensure it would properly send the message out, he turned and flung the transmitter towards the moon.

He watched carefully as the transmitter left his field of vision, steadily flying towards Remnant's natural, albeit broken satellite. If his calculations were right, then the transmitter would touch down on the most solid piece of the moon, ensuring that it wouldn't randomly drift off elsewhere.

Sure enough, about a minute later the transmitter made its mark on the moon, and after confirmation from his companion that the signal was readable from this distance, dropped back down to Remnant. Time to head back.

Present Time, Interrogation Room, 11:38 A.M.

"And well, as far as this morning went..." Nelius tilted his head towards where the Police Station's entrance was. "Kinda speaks for itself."

Now was the time to confront the Goliath in the room. Ozpin mentally sighed, knowing all too well what this meant confronting.

'The Council is going to not like this...'

"Speaking of which.." Raoul's companion soon spoke up. "How exactly did you all take notice of us amidst everything that was going on?"

"I noticed you when I was responding to that call." Glynda took over answering this one. "Torchwick's known to go after Dust stores in the dead of night, so seeing him try an early-morning heist was certainly curious."

"That said, how did you get caught up in all of this?" Ironwood dropped the big question on everyone's minds.

"Would you believe it was happenstance? I woke a bit early this morning, and since I couldn't go back to sleep, figured that walking around Vale would burn some time."

Chapter 9- Complete