RWBY: Dual Eclipse
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Shift
Chapter 10: Reach the Present
Nelius found himself waking early this time, a quick glance at his personal Scroll confirming that it was only around 6:45 in the morning. With a slight huff he closed his eye and tried to go back to sleep, but several minutes passed before it was quickly proved a futile effort.
'Well here I am, awake already.' No use in simply sitting around. He flipped out of his hammock and stretched, getting his relaxed muscles warmed up. A growl from his stomach told him that grabbing some food might be a good idea.
With gauntlets and gun secured, he headed out. He figured he wouldn't need his axe for a simple stroll, and if a request did come in, he could drop into an alley and summon it out beforehand.
Monday, September 12
Vale Commercial District, 7:30 A.M.
The sun was barely rising over the horizon as another work day was about to get underway. However, what few people even realized was that something was headed their direction.
Nelius browsed around the Commercial District as he finished eating a breakfast sandwich comprised of two strips of bacon, a folded fried egg and some cheese on a toasted bagel. His eye was busy checking the local shops he had yet to visit as he flipped through his Scroll to figure out which remaining parts would need to be studied and then crafted for the Dual Diver.
Some of the shops wouldn't be open for another hour or two, so that left wandering around for a little while.
'Might as well burn some time with some sight-seeing.' Most of the places he'd been to were either business-oriented or for food. Scroll in-hand, he began flipping through to see if there were any points of interest that Vale had become known for.
Then again, he'd pretty much been all over most of these districts already, so there wasn't a whole lot left to look into. In that case, he might as well flip through a few news groups, see what else was going on elsewhere.
Vale Commercial District, 7:43 A.M.
Roman Torchwick waited inside of an alley nearest one of the Dust Stores, waiting for Cinder's signal to begin the ploy. A few of the Axe Gang members were hidden nearby, also waiting for Roman to receive the signal.
'This had best be worth it.' Cinder had been insisting that things were all going according to schedule, but if all the prior evidence was any indication, someone was definitely onto her scheme.
About two minutes later, his Scroll pinged, and sure enough, Cinder was giving him the go-ahead to hit up the shop, her team already on their way to "apprehend" him. With a simple wave to the other members, he slipped out and carefully broke into the shop alongside the gang members. Sure enough, within minutes they had obtained the Dust, though Roman knew that this shop in particular had a new alarm system. In fact, that had been the reason why this one was selected... they wanted to have as many witnesses as possible to solidify the story.
Exiting the shop alongside the gang members, Roman took off down a particular side street, one that had been agreed upon for the ploy to be successful. He could hear police sirens in the distance, signifying that things were going as planned. Partway down this side-street, he had a part of the group fission off with the goods while he prepared to take the heat.
As he turned down another alley to wait for Cinder's group to find him, he could hear a few of the Axe Gang members suddenly giving shouts of alarm, followed up with the sounds of the members being swiftly defeated. Immediately, he turned around - and what awaited him wasn't Cinder or her group, but some incredibly tall guy with an eyepatch that was dispatching the Axe Gang members with ease.
The tall guy grabbed one Axe Gang member by the wrist when he tried to swing his crimson hand-axe at the giant, and with one casual movement flipped the gang member ass over tea kettle onto the pavement, taking him out.
'That's odd... Cinder didn't say anything about getting a new friend.' Torchwick didn't get much of an opportunity to dwell on this, as the brunette man was going on the attack, having already dispatched the Axe Gang members. He brought his cane up to shoot a Dust round at the brunette, only for his assailant to pull out some weird gun and fire at the same time.
Both rounds collided, creating a loud BANG that he was certain had to have gotten the attention of both Cinder's group and Vale Law Enforcement. Through the smoke the brunette man emerged, fists aimed for Torchwick's face. The career criminal was immediately on the defensive, only barely managing to keep ahead of this stranger, but it was as he brought his cane up to deflect an attack the stranger punched through it, shattering his favored weapon into splinters.
'Ohhh shit...' His favored cane had been a part of his ensemble for years, but his general feelings of anger over its destruction were muted by the fact that this character could potentially do the same to him! He couldn't speak for anyone else, but he preferred to be in one piece.
Torchwick turned to get the hell out of dodge, but he had only gotten about six feet away before Raoul immediately darted over with clearly inhuman speed, and with one swift kick the criminal was nursing one hell of a stomachache as the wind was solidly knocked from him. He didn't get a chance to recover from this, as with one twisting motion that same foot delivered a heeldrop, knocking the criminal out cold as his head hit the pavement.
Unbeknownst to Raoul, a certain blonde woman, one Glynda Goodwitch, had caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye whilst out on a morning patrol, no doubt drawn due to the explosion of Roman's Dust round, and whilst he was busy taking the criminal down, the Headmistress of Beacon Academy was quickly trying to pull up any recorded information of him.
What had really caught her attention was a noted lack of trackable Aura on this character - her Scroll showed nothing on that department. Then again, while it would explain his pragmatic fighting methods, it also raised other questions... what did he train against to be able to shatter someone's weapon in a single blow? If he did get his Aura unlocked, how much more powerful would he have become?
Unsurprisingly, no concrete information came back about a character matching his description, though it appeared that she was not the only one that had taken notice of him, as a character matching his description was noted from eyewitness testimony concerning an Axe Gang heist months ago. A pending message notification came up as she was in the midst of reviewing this. Opening it up, she saw it was from Ozpin.
{Glynda, might there be a reason you're looking up this one?}
{This one was found apprehending Torchwick.} Manipulating her Scroll, she sent the Headmaster some quickly recorded footage of the aforementioned man shattering Torchwick's cane before disabling him. {It would appear this isn't the first time he's been within the Kingdom.}
{The reports I gathered mentioned him being quite adept at fighting and fulfilling some extermination requests that usually required a full team. I see now they weren't empty words.}
{Shall I detain him?}
{Get whatever information you can from him. James and I will be on our way to personally speak with him... he's done much more than just fight off Grimm, it would seem.}
Closing her Scroll, Glynda turned to the officers and had them go apprehend Torchwick and his hired help, one calling for a medical unit to come in. Ironwood would be on his way to transfer Torchwick to a higher-security prison after taking care of a little business.
However, this was where things took a turn for the unusual, as tremors could be felt throughout the area. Both Goodwitch and Raoul stopped.
'Hang on... I thought Vale never got earthquakes.'
The tremors were getting stronger... no, they were approaching from outside Vale.
'From that direction- wait, that's from the southeast area..'
Further into the city, the remains of an engine car jutted up through the street, and those that didn't immediately scatter in full panic mode would've found four very familiar students emerge from what looked like a icy, flower-esque bubble. Law enforcement was pouring into the area as officials visiting from Atlas also began to swarm the scene. Looks like someone had some explaining to do...
Within the jutting train, several White Fang members were being carried out by one of Beacon's Professors, and he was being assisted by what looked to be a grey and white corgi... said dog was remarkably strong for its size, able to drag a few Fang members by himself.
'A train, and Fang members... were they trying to use Mountain Glenn as a base?' Raoul observed for a moment as more Fang members were pulled from the train car. Perhaps a trip into the desolate expansion project would be in order...
"Sir." Glynda immediately caught Raoul's attention as she walked up.
'Hey, ain't this that woman from months back?'
"I was hoping you could answer some questions..."
"I see no reason to refuse at this moment. Where should we start?"
Meanwhile...
On the other side of the area, Cinder found herself in a bit of a tight spot as she caught sight of the arrest, Goodwitch already conversing with some brunette man in a jacket. Goodwitch got to Torchwick first, but considering his prolific career in thievery, he ought to be confined on one of Ironwood's ships, putting him in position for her plans to continue forward. From what tidbits she was able to hear, this random stranger had gotten there ahead of her, putting Torchwick down rather swiftly.
'No matter. He's done our work for us.'
"...Em, it's him." Mercury hissed to Emerald, the latter of whom didn't even respond to her unofficial nickname. The memory of how he had killed their chances to take out Tukson was still fresh in their minds. Seeing that he could take down Torchwick with ease proved that his muscle wasn't for show. The temptation to go after him was immense, but Cinder hadn't yet known that it was his interference that prevented Tukson's death, and they weren't keen on letting her know.
"Focus on that for later." The green-haired thief chided her teammate. For now, he'd live. They'd get their chance later on, once Cinder's plan was underway.
The trio began to head back towards Beacon.
Back with Glynda...
"Either way, I couldn't just let him walk off." Raoul finished explaining on how and why he had chosen to go after such a prolific criminal.
"On that note..." A new voice halted whatever he was about to say next. As he turned around to see who had addressed him, he saw a silver-haired man in green, a cane of sorts in his hand. "I was hoping you might be able to answer some questions I also happened to have."
During this time, Glynda had taken a moment to aid in the cleanup of the interjecting train car, making use of her Semblance to send the car back down into the old tunnels, before sealing the makeshift entrance back over.
Raoul quirked a brow at this.
"This way, if you don't mind." The silver-haired man gestured for the tall demon to follow him. "I know of a much more private place to chat about this incident."
Vale, 8:11 A.M.
Around the same time that Nelius was being lead into town by Ozpin and Glynda, Mercury and Emerald were on a Bullhead travelling back to Beacon, Cinder doing some last-minute checks on the operation.
Mercury wasn't bothering to listen to Cinder's subtle gloating over how, even with this unexpected development, everyone and everything was in place for the next stage of their operation. Instead, he had taken to staring out the nearby window. Seeing that brunette man out there made his blood boil over; it was like his presence was mocking him over how the prevention of Tukson's death got Emerald and him into hot water with Cinder...
Once Cinder's plan was in full swing, he was going to take the opportunity to put that brunette interloper into the ground. Sure, he might've put Torchwick down, but Mercury fought by a very different set of rules.
Present Day, Interrogation Room, 11:45 A.M.
"And that's what has brought us to this moment." Nelius concluded.
"I do thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Raoul." Ozpin was the first to speak up. "Having heard about all of this does shed a new light upon this situation." Outwardly he had seemed the calm, rational Headmaster, but internally he was adding things up, coming to the conclusions he had pieced together.
Ironwood's mind was going about at a frentic pace. When Ozpin had called him down to help question someone brought in, just mere minutes after the apprehension of one of Remnant's Most Wanted followed by what looked like a Fang attempt to upheave the city, he had imagined it to be someone from among those that had committed either act. Instead, he had borne witness to the story of this so-called demon, Nelius Raoul, and his apparent AI companion... if their testimony was indeed truthful, then there was an entire race of people equally as strong as he, if not potentially more so, and he intended to call them here just to help him get home. Yet, at the same time, he had uncovered so much evidence of multiple plots... the attempt to steal the Autumn Maiden's powers, the Dust thefts... how was it that a lone being, an effective alien to Remnant, was able to find out what trained investigators could not?
'Such irony to be found here.' He grimly noted as he tuned back into the conversation.
"Regardless, as stated before, even if your actions helped Vale through returning stolen goods to their owners and aiding in rounding up a notorious criminal... vigilantism, theft of Atlesian property, not to mention technical squatting... these cannot be overlooked so easily."
Ozpin mentally sighed. 'Leave it to James to focus on the minor issues at hand...'
"Well then, how do you suggest I exonerate myself for such?" Nelius looked the General dead in the eye, whom had gone silent as he processed this information.
"In a matter such as this... I would have to suggest full cooperation with us to finally unravel this situation. As it stands, you have key information that could lead to a much more peaceful defusing of this scenario."
"Perhaps, but at the same time there's still a lot to be learned, such as why this Fall woman wants to see Vale badly crippled, alongside why she'd go after this Autumn Maiden with that Grimm insect."
Ozpin had his suspicions pretty tightly secured as to why this Cinder was doing such, but he was willing to see how things played out, and if any more evidence would further solidify his thoughts. This unknown factor had brought so much evidence to the table, yet he was apprehensive about sharing his perspective on the matter.
"If that's everything accounted for, then I believe this is the part where I head home for the time being." Nelius had already stood up.
"Your reason being?" Ironwood interjected.
"Well, I do have that Bullhead down there, alongside the Scroll I picked up. I mean, if you're saying I can hold onto them-"
"I would have to say otherwise. You also promised a chance to see that recording." The demon shrugged.
"I tried. Any place you want the Bullhead dropped off at?"
"I believe the Docks should suffice. Plenty of room to ensure a successful delivery." Ozpin suggested, one that Ironwood broached no real objection towards. "As for the Scroll... perhaps one of your Specialists can help in decoding it, James?"
"I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to."
"Very well. See you soon." With that, the otherworldly demon got up, bid them a politeful farewell, collected his gear from the General, and was off. It was about two minutes before the Atlas General turned to address Beacon's headmaster, now that their topic of interest was out of earshot.
"Ozpin, what are you thinking?"
"James, I understand your trepidation towards him, especially after everything he's both told and shown us over the last few hours. Even I admit to some level of hesitance about how to address him, given what we still have yet to know..."
"But..."
"...but if he is someone truly dangerous, it may be a far better idea to keep such danger pointed away from us. His abilities may not be completely understood, but if they can be put towards finally concluding this issue..."
Outside the Station, 11:49 A.M.
As Nelius headed back towards the south to bring the Bullhead back up to the Docks, he could see the people of Vale trying to go back to their daily routines, but in the back of his mind he could feel the mounting tension welling up within many of them.
Sure, Torchwick had been captured and locked up, and the Fang's apparent Breach attempt had been quickly dealt with before it could potentially become something worse, but Cinder and her two were still within the Kingdom's walls, and if Torchwick's hand in all of this could be considered complete, then what else could she be planning?
'No doubt in my mind now.' Epsilon spoke up. 'That Cinder woman must be planning on running Vale imto the ground.'
'Definitely sounds like a smash and grab mixed with a slash and burn. We need to make her trip herself up before the next strike so she can be taken down.'
As he made his way back south, a certain red-eyed corvid was watching this... its curiosity stoked by this effective unknown being the subject of Ozpin's curiosity, not to mention how well it fought to take down Torchwick. It began putting its own plans together to investigate this character.
Atlas Prison Vessel, 12:23 P.M.
With the story and interrogation now done, Ironwood had gone back to the ship that currently had Torchwick under solitary confinement. After a quick stop to answer a call from the Vale Council, he headed into the cell block. Approaching one cell in particular, he instructed the two on-duty guards to back away, so he could have a chat with the criminal held within. The door opened, revealing its held captive.
"I've been informed that you've refused all requests to cooperate with the authorities." To this, Torchwick had merely raised his head to look at the General, a snide remark already working its way up. There was a bruise that could be seen on his head above his right eye, even though several bandages did their best to cover it up.
"Might be a bit of a shocker here, General, but the local law enforcement and I aren't exactly on the best of terms."
"And what of Remnant's strongest military power?" The General simply crossed his arms over his chest, staring the longtime thief down.
"First impressions... leaves a lot to be desired." Undeterred by this flippant answer, Ironwood simply continued on.
"One chance, Torchwick... one chance to confirm whom is really behind this."
"I thought it was obvious, General..." Torchwick leaned forward before sitting a bit more upright with a defiant grin on his face, Ironwood raising a brow in question. "You're looking at him!"
"Hm. We'll see how long that belief holds up." At that, Ironwood began to walk off, the guards getting ready to move back into position.
"Aw, come on. I thought you wanted to talk." With the door to the cell still open, Torchwick was able to lean out just enough to continue heckling Ironwood. The two guards were close enough that he didn't dare press any chance of trying to run. Bullets in his back weren't exactly comfortable.
"We'll have plenty of chances to talk." Ironwood replied back to the career criminal. "The Council and I had a bit of a discussion before I arrived. They've given me custody over you for as long as I see fit. So I hope you're comfortable in there."
"Oh, lovely." He waited for the General to be out of earshot, then began chuckling to himself as the cell door closed. 'Old Ironwood has no idea of what Cinder has in store for this city..' His face then turned a bit pensive. 'Hopefully Neo won't cause them too much trouble.'
'Not speaking of that Cinder woman at all...' Ironwood thought back on Raoul's testimony, and with him due to drop off the stolen Bullhead and the Scroll for study, figured that now would be a perfect time to arrange a meeting in the future, namely to call in that favor...
Beacon, Ozpin's Office, 12: 24 A.M.
Ozpin heaved something of a tired sigh as he looked out over Vale.
The Vale Council had called in, regarding the capture of Roman Torchwick alongside the Fang's attempted breach. While this was a momentous occasion, the fact that it had taken this long to finally corral him had them feeling less than impressed, not to mention how the Fang had managed to acquire enough resources beneath his watch. In turn, they had placed Ironwood in charge of security for the upcoming Vytal Festival.
His position as Beacon Academy Headmaster was also going to be called into question once the Vytal Festival concluded next month.
He already had a sinking feeling as to how this was going to go. While James had his heart in the right place, investing in robotics to keep people off the battlefield, the androids had something of an uncanny appearance to them, even with his earlier advertisements. Undoubtedly people would be a touch apprehensive of them, and to potentially have so many of them around Vale as security would make people a little too nervous. All it'd take was enough people getting nervous to start getting the attention of the Grimm, and even with Vale's natural defenses and trained Hunters, the Grimm would have plenty of avenues with which to come visit... and of course there was what Team RWBY had found out about the White Fang's use of the old Mountain Glenn tunnels.
All he could hope was that Cinder's plans would be brought to a halt. She was already within Beacon's walls, and must be planning her next move already. Still, his mind couldn't help but return to the thought of that glove with the sigil upon it, as Raoul had described it to him.
He needed to gather some extra evidence on the side, but had to do so in a way that wouldn't tip his hand too early. If Cinder cottoned onto his suspicions, then it'd be more than likely she'd go to ground and make her escape afterwards... and if it turned out that Cinder was indeed reporting to whom he had in mind...
'Perhaps his friend's recording can shed more light on this...'
Southern Vale, 1:03 P.M.
"Well, so much for that mobile base idea." Nelius idly thought aloud as he did some last-minute checks over the Bullhead. "Guess I'll have to acquire one the legitimate way."
"Won't lie, that might take a long while." His companion responded as she did her own fine-tuning, getting the tracking program recorded and copied down to her own memory banks so she could add them to his legitimate Scroll. "But I have been wrong before. We'll just have to see where the chips may fall."
"Thinking back on it, back during the War with No Victor, there was widespread use of Pocket Netherworlds. If I knew how to make one, it'd solve our base issues real quick."
"The War with No Victor... don't think I've heard too much of that one before."
"Wouldn't be too surprised. It was said to have erupted rather quickly, and then ended in a single night. Details on that event are still a bit sparse, even with it having happened a fair time ago."
With everything in order, the Bullhead lifted into the sky, and turned towards the docks. Within seconds it took off.
Vale Docks, 1:08 P.M.
The Bullhead slowed its pace as it approached several Atlesian Craft that were nearby. Tilting the engines vertically, Nelius slowly landed the craft.
"Man these things are far too sensitive." As he stepped out of it, a pair of Atlas guards swiftly stepped up to reclaim the craft, checking over the systems for any anomalies or anything they could use. Reaching into his pocket, he handed over the Scroll he had nabbed from Torchwick's men months back. However, after it was claimed...
"Your other Scroll."
"Huh?"
"Ironwood wishes to speak with you at a later date. This is so he may contact you."
"Ah."
With that cleared up, Nelius handed his personal Scroll over, and a few seconds later his Scroll's number had been sent to Ironwood's. With that, they returned his Scroll to him, and departed back to their posts.
'Wow, friendly bunch...' Business concluded for the time being, the pair began to head back to the Commercial District, to see if any of the parts stores were open yet.
However, he had gotten barely halfway there before he got the feeling that someone was tailing him. A quick glance around revealed nothing suspicious, but as he entered into the Commercial District's borders, that feeling flared up again. Eye narrowed, he decided to lure his pursuer further south, towards the abandoned parts of the Residential District. Once there, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting caught in the potential crossfire.
Deliberately taking a slow, twisting path through Vale, Nelius lured his potential stalker towards the far southeast end of the Kingdom, where most people didn't dare to tread after the Mountain Glenn disaster.
Feeling that he had gotten far enough away from any other prying eyes, which easily took him about twenty or so minutes, he walked in-between two of the abandoned houses, mostly to give himself enough cover and time to summon his axe out from its resting place within his right wing. Keeping it concealed beneath his jacket as best he could, he continued on his path, just waiting for whomever it was that was tailing him to reveal themself.
It was about another minute before that feeling of being tailed swiftly changed... in fact, it felt a LOT like the same signature that Amber had given off when she was being assailed by Cinder's group, and as he turned and pulled his axe from its hiding spot beneath his jacket he caught sight of a swift red and black blur very close to his person, and within microseconds his weapon clashed with a dark red blade. Weapons locked, he took appraisal of whomever this was.
This figure was clad in red and black armor, with matching gauntlets and black boots. Judging from the breastplace and skirt, this person was female, and a bit of a pallard one as well if the scant bits of skin were anything to go by. Black hair flowed out from behind what looked like a Grimm Mask, only it was much more avian in its appearance, and covered her entire face. At her left side was what looked like a massive sheath, one easily able to house several more blades like the one caught against his axe.
"Hell of a way to greet someone." Nelius snarked as he stared down this individual. She didn't share his sentiment, as the second she pulled her blade away she lashed out at him with it, going for a rising diagonal slash from his left. Quickly flipping his axe around to a reverse-grip, he brought the axehead up to block the slash. Axehead met blade, sparks flying from the impact.
The blade-wielding woman repositioned her blade for a slash at his midsection, only for him to use his gauntlet-covered right hand to palm slap the attack away. He decided to counter with a slash of his own, one going for her face, only for her to quickly back away. She sought to capitalize on the swing by closing the distance, blade at the ready. She let loose several quick slashes, the majority of which were blocked by his axe, but when he sent a surprisingly quick swing of his free hand out, it caught the side of her blade, shattering it into red shards as she decided to put a little space between them.
Nelius kept his weapon at the ready, eye staring down his mystery assailant as he prepared to get his gun out. She rotated something in her sheath, and planted her hilt into it, drawing a new dark blue blade out from it, but rather than press another attack, she sliced at the air behind herself, a blood-red portal coming into existence.
'Wait, this broad can make portals?'
'I'm sensing no magic from it... maybe it's another Semblance?'
"Trusting Ozpin is a mistake." With those words, she slipped through the portal. It closed about a second later.
'Who the hell was that, and what's her grudge against Ozpin?'
'Guess we'll have to ask him in person next time we meet up.' He reached down to pick up the shards of the woman's shattered blade, idly checking them over. 'Is this Dust?'
Unbeknownst to Nelius and his friend, a certain other bird had been watching the short tussle. It found this situation rather interesting, and left to put a few notes together.
Chapter 10- Complete