RWBY: Dual Eclipse
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Change
Chapter 12: Players Converge
Ozpin found himself less than happy.
During Team RWBY's investigation into Forever Fall, they had reported finding more cages belonging to Merlot Industries hidden throughout the old ruins, and if that wasn't enough, an active freighter ship bearing Merlot's personal emblem was found there. More and more it was sounding like Merlot was indeed alive, or at least one of his personnel was making use of his equipment. Considering the role that man played in Mountain Glenn's collapse, Remnant was better off without him fouling up its presence.
Unfortunately, Oobleck had lost contact with them when they went to investigate the ship further, communications abruptly ceasing as they appeared to have been taken into a dead zone.
"Oobleck, the moment that communications are restored, patch me in immediately." Ozpin wasn't one to let his tempers run wild, but Merlot had already done more than enough damage back then.
Several floors down, Cinder continued listening in on Team RWBY's investigation into this Merlot Industries. The notion of Mutant Grimm caught her interest - Grimm weren't known to undergo such radical transformations, to the point that they surpassed their Alpha variants. These mutants had to be manufactured in some way... and the more that Team RWBY managed to uncover about these, the more she could report on.
She knew that the man that had created her virus would be rather fascinated by this information, and if she played her cards right it would get that irritant out of the way of her plans. Might as well take this opportunity to catalog this information and get some good graces back.
Vale-Mistral Passenger Airship
Friday, September 16, 3:33 P.M.
The Commercial Airship moving between Mistral and Vale was packed, many of its passengers excitedly chatting about the upcoming Vytal Festival, and their hopes of whom they would get to see compete. With them due to land in Vale in the next six minutes, their excitement was palpable.
One passenger, however, was focusing a bit more on something they had been asked to look into.
This passenger in particular was a somewhat short female, with fair skin slightly mottled with slightly darker spots here and there across what skin was showing through her rather modest outfit. Brown hair was tied back into a curled ponytail, and gray eyes regarded the other passengers with an air of disdain as she tried to ignore the cacophony.
She thought back on her assigned mission...
White Fang Headquarters
Friday, September 16, Unknown Mistrali Time
"High Leader?" She stepped into the main hall, where Sienna Khan was indeed seated upon her chair. "You had an assignment for me?"
"Indeed, Ilia." Ilia found herself a little nervous - that look on Sienna's face more than indicated something serious was going on. "Some curious activity in Vale recently reached me... many of our people were found committing a rather senseless act, including a familiar face."
The young Faunus took a look at the provided information, and immediately one of the provided images showed a familiar person. "Callan? Why is he there?" He was known to almost always be at Adam's side.
"That is what I want you to figure out. As much as I have no love for Vale or its governing people.." The latter term was said with a kind of revulsion that made Ilia inwardly flinch, "..the kingdom's citizens are, at the very least, making strides to see Faunus in far better lights than Atlas or Mistral. So for this to happen there raises more than a few alarms."
Ilia looked back through the provided images of the White Fang members that had been arrested, but a different image in particular stood out to her... it was a shot of Team RWBY, a first-year team at Beacon Academy whom, alongside Beacon Professor Bartholomew Oobleck, had worked to defuse the attempted breach before it could've gotten much worse. Testimony from the quintet had told of the Fang using Mountain Glenn as an attempted base of operations, and of how they had launched a still-functional train car towards Vale when confronted. A number of Dust-powered explosive devices had been found armed on the cars, though it was through some quick-thinking that they had been disabled before they could've been used.
One person in particular among that group had caught her attention, and immediately Ilia recognized them. If that person was indeed in Vale, then this mission just became twice - no, three times as important.
"When shall I depart?" Ilia spoke up.
Vale-Mistral Passenger Airship Landing
Friday, September 16, 3:38 P.M.
"Attention passengers..." The intercom had cut on, breaking the young Faunus from her thoughts."We're about to make our descend into Vale's airport. Please make certain all belongings are securely on-hand before departing."
Ilia double-checked to make certain everything she needed was with her, and soon she blended into the departing crowd. Once she was far away enough from the humans, she took off to find a suitable spot to act as a base during her investigation. Once that was squared away, she'd immediately begin finding out what the White Fang was up to out here... and if it was in the cards, perhaps try to see what her other target had been up to out this way?
As she made her way towards the Residential District to secure a place to stay at for at least a few weeks, she passed by a rather tall individual whom was exiting one of the shops.
'Hey, I had a thought.' Epsilon communicated to Nelius through their thought-link. 'If your gauntlets had the Notorious taking the forms of demons and such from back home, would weaponry and armor here in Remnant have Grimm in their place?'
'It's possible. Only real way to know is to get one of this world's Hunters who'd be willing to participate.'
'But that also brings its own risks, like someone deciding to ask a few too many questions, or them trying to steal the Dual Diver.'
'...might be a good idea to create an access code for the machine, then. That, and maybe think on making a personalized version.'
'Yeah, but still, we're gonna need an expanded test subject range once we get the final few kinks worked out.'
As the pair headed back towards their base to continue fine-tuning the Dual Diver, an idea was forming in Nelius's head as to whom could be in that test pool, but before that could happen, there was the issue of ensuring that this remained secret.
'...I might have an idea as to how we can pull this off, but there's something I want to check first.'
Meanwhile
Several Universes Away
Well above the universe of humanity, sat a world that appeared to float on or well above the clouds. This world looked to be made of several floating landmasses, each covered in gentle green topiary and structures made of flawless marble. Within the green grass grew pure white flowers.
This realm is Celestia, the world of the Angels.
On one of these landmasses, what appeared to be a young boy of five years old with short, violet-colored hair was taking a moment to appreciate the rather warm breeze blowing throughout this section of the realm he called home. Small, feathered wings spread from his back as he took this moment to stretch-
- but that was soon interrupted as a strange, almost gut-wrenching feeling nearly overtook him. He nearly stumbled forward, but quickly regained his footing as cautious brown eyes quickly darted about, looking for even a slight hint of what caused that emotion to flare up. For a moment, he saw nothing, but then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye...
There! Something was rustling over in that Yuie bush. He slowly made his way over to investigate, silently wishing that his older sister was here to help him...
"A soul?" Indeed, quivering within this bush was what appeared to be a soul, but it looked so... fragile, as if it were barely being held together with its own willpower. He could go and get one of the other angels, but in that time this soul might end up fracturing...
With little other option, he carefully scooped the soul into his hands, and quickly took off for the main area of Celestia. If he could find one of the older angels, then they could help him save this soul.
Nelius Raoul's Netherheart
September 16, 4:02 P.M.
"What the-"
In stark contrast to how everything looked before, his Netherheart had gained some color, the trees and grass looking a touch healthier than before, and even some of the damage inflicted to the surrounding areas during his earlier bout had been undone. Even the sky above looked far less forboding.
"Strange... did your victory over that thing restore a bit to this place?" Epsilon spoke up, taking holographic form to look around some more.
"Looks like it, but that thing did imply it'd return. Now's a good a time as any to take another look around."
Around the central area of his Netherheart, he took notice of a few new residents. He spotted another Healer close to one of the RosenQueen fascimiles, though close by was a violet-haired woman in armor, with a somewhat serious look on her face.
This woman was known as an Armor Knight, one of the female graduates of the Knight Academy, making use of their powerful armor to shield their allies in battle. Her function in this place, however, was to allow Nelius to take a closer look at his abilities, to learn new skills and empower his existing ones. Something else she taught was how to set up passive abilities to bring into combat... these passive skills, "Evilities", allowed for a wealth of options in battle.
Given that the Netherworld Assembly wasn't available to submit any requests, the Skill Shop owner would have to suffice in learning the Evilities that usually belonged to other demons.
'Well, since the Usatako's not going to be of much use against Grimm...' He headed over to speak with her.
As he was checking out the central area of this fascimile of his home Netherworld, Epsilon had decided to float over towards the house numbered 325. Curiosity getting the better of her, she touched the front door's knob... and immediately an old memory surfaced.
An Old Memory
Seven Months prior to Apprenticeship
KA-BOOM!
A young Nelius, around 9 years old and standing roughly 4'5", nearly toppled over as he launched a Fire spell that impacted several wild Ghosts, obliterating the spirits. Short brown hair did little to cover his pointed demon ears.
"Whoa-ho! Nicely done." Accompanying him was a green-haired man, standing roughly 5'10" tall. Sharp yellow-tinted eyes regarded the younger demon with a level of mirth to them.
"...I don't think Fire spells are supposed to explode like that." Nelius responded in turn.
"In fairness, son, Ghosts are mostly held together by their jackets, so you torching them did cause their corporeal form to rapidly dissipate. Add in the heat and pressure from the spell, and..."
"...wait. Aren't Ghosts said to be the souls of those that failed to become Prinnies?"
"Got it in one. That said, next time, try a Wind spell."
Nelius nodded.
"Now then..." The green-haired man tossed Nelius a set of sparring gloves. "Once your mother gets here, we're going to go wrestle some Dragons."
"Sweet!"
"Hope I'm not too late." A brown-haired demon woman floated on into the clearing about a minute later, letting her wings rest behind herself. She stood roughly 5'4" tall, with crimson eyes locking onto the two. Judging from her overall body tone, she wasn't afraid to get into any physical altercation.
"I'd say you're just in time. Let's get to it."
Nelius Raoul's Netherheart
4:07 P.M.
Epsilon blinked.
"Well, you did wonder what my folks were like." The sudden voice of Nelius snapped her from her thoughts.
"Those were your parents?" She looked to be in complete disbelief.
"Indeed they are." He then took a moment to look the Desco-unit square in the eyes. "And next time, do ask before you go touching things. You might end up seeing something you can't un-see."
"...right. Sorry..." At the very least, she did look rather sheepish. "Anyway, what all did you find out?"
"Seems that driving off big and ugly caused a few helpful residents to return. We have a Healer and a Skill Shop in here. Guessing there's more to explore if we want to get a RosenQueen Clerk... that or we use the Item Diver for that."
"Gotcha. Anything interesting in the Skill Shop?"
"Figured that since the Usatako's main function isn't able to be of much use against those Grimm, I wanted to see if we could reconfigure it for more general use."
"Hmmm... in that case..."
As the two began to discuss their options on their way back towards the central area, neither took notice of one of the residents watching them.
Mountain Glenn
5:34 P.M.
With a simple leap, Ilia made her way over the fence blocking off access towards the ruined expansion project. To think, the Grimm had assaulted this place relentlessly and destroyed it all...
She put that thought out of her mind. One of the still-standing structures had to have a staircase or some other method to get to the subterranean levels. Of course, there was also the possibility of running into Grimm out this far, so she couldn't afford any recklessness.
Personal weapon drawn, she began her search through the ruined buildings of Mountain Glenn. Hopefully the Fang branch acting here had left behind some clues as to their actions.
Unknown Island
6:20 P.M.
"Where are we?" Blake Belladonna, one of Team RWBY's members, tried to make use of her scroll to get a better idea of where the ship had managed to bring them, but the signal was intensely weak. Oobleck's voice was barely coming through.
"Hey, I see some towers over there." Ruby pointed to several signal towers further ahead. "Maybe we can use those to boost the signal." With few other options to pursue, the quartet began heading up the beach.
Unfortunately for the fledgling team, they had opposition waiting for them in the form of several robots. These red and black machines adorned with Merlot's personal symbol had polearms with a blade on each end.
As the team prepared to scrap these machines, Weiss couldn't help but wonder how this Merlot, or any one of his survivng staff, was able to get ahold of this kind of technology. Did he steal some of it from Atlas a long time ago? She had more questions along those lines, but decided they could wait for after the investigation was complete.
The Merlot Bots swiftly proved relentless foes, their weapons seemingly having reach that belied their appearance combined with the ability to quickly press the offense forced Team RWBY to take up more defensive stances... but as Blake soon proved through a careful use of her Semblance, the machines were ultimately basic in their logical routines.
As one of the machines tried to gut the Cat Faunus open, its blade seemingly found purchase in her chest... only for it to reveal itself as a doppelganger, one that was made of Earth Dust. The robot tried its damnest to pull the weapon free, but the Dust clone detonated first, chunks of earth managing to pierce structurally weak points on the machine. While it was distracted, Ruby Rose quickly dashed in and brought her scythe's blade down on its arms, severing them at the elbows. With no manner in which to defend itself, it tried to search for an acceptable subroutine to follow, but its search was soon cut off in the same instant its neck was severed.
Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster, her Multi-Action Dust Rapier, into the ground as the other machine closed the distance, intent on slashing her. This proved a mistake for the robot, as Ice Dust quickly froze the ground around the machine's feet, rooting it to the ground. Yang took this opportunity to deliver a punch to its midsection, one that had been charged up thanks to her Semblance. This proved too much for the machine's chassis to handle, and it crumpled under the strength of the blow, its internal systems shutting down a few seconds after.
With the robots defeated, Team RWBY turned their attention back towards finding a path towards the radio tower, to contact Oobleck and maybe get a better idea of where this island was located. Weiss made use of her Scroll to snap some images of these robots... no doubt General Ironwood would be interested in investigating these machines once Merlot was taken care of.
Little did the team yet realize their performance against the robots was being monitored...
The Infinite Depths of the Item Dimension
Croixshot, Floor 85, 6:31 P.M.
Now armed with the change in the Usatako's functions, Nelius had headed into the Item World belonging to his gun to test out his new configuration alongside getting some training in.
As he faced off with a Notorious taking the form of a Netherworld Warrior, Epsilon was busy running numbers on the permutations regarding this new setup.
Since the Grimm had no life force that the Usatako could make use of, the new strategy was as such: Nelius had chosen to first learn from the Horseman Units, demons that rode Skeletal Dragons into battle. A skill they were known for allowed their attacks to increase in intensity the more foes they felled, which created a loop that got stronger and stronger as the battle wore on.
Once he had learned that skill, he was going to return to the Skill Shop and learn from the Dark Knights, demons clad in dark armor and holding a crimson jewel in the center of their body armor. A skill they held made them gain greater offensive and defensive strength whenever attacking or being attacked.
Of course, there were others that he could consider: The Mage Knight's ability to turn their elemental preferences into extra power, the Twin-Headed Dragon's ability to strike twice with one blow, the Warrior's skill to turn an outnumbered situation into an advantage for themselves...
One might look at this sort of preparation and consider him going overboard, and in any other situation they might have had a point. But Nelius had learned over his countless years of inter-reality tripping that things could change at the drop of a hat. While he had configured the transmitter to find Mita's ship, in theory anyone could've tapped into the transmission, and it'd be on his head if he brought trouble.
'Guess my old man's rubbed off on me more than I thought...' Either way, he was here to do a job, and do it he shall.
Unknown Island
7:03 P.M.
There it was, the final tower. During Team RWBY's trip through the island, they had taken notice of the shipping yard that had a fair stockpile of resources they could use to arm themselves during the exploration. Of course, this also meant contending with a fair number of Grimm that decided to call the island their home... but what made this situation even stranger was that the androids weren't even considered targets by the Grimm.
Normally the Grimm hated anything manmade, if their constant attempts to disable the CCT relay towers were any indication, so to see them actively willing to fight alongside Merlot's machines made for one hell of a mental exercise.
Either way, the last tower was ahead, so it was time to disable the last device hampering their reception and finally get back in touch with Beacon. As Ruby removed the device, the team kept an eye on their Scrolls, waiting to hear Oobleck get through.
"Ahh, that's much better." That wasn't Oobleck. "I do apologize, but reception has always been so spotty out this way. Still, I do hope you've been enjoying your stay here so far. You're the first visitors I've had in... well, ever, actually."
"...did we get a wrong number?" Yang wondered aloud.
"Seems I'm forgetting my manners. Allow me to introduce myself - I'm Dr. Merlot."
"Wait a moment..." Weiss spoke up next. "According to all known records, you died when Mountain Glenn collapsed all those years ago."
"As you can plainly see, or hear in this case, some records tend to be a little inaccurate. Regardless, I'm actually quite thrilled to have you here. Promising Beacon students such as yourselves may be just what I need for a highly important experiment."
Beacon Academy
7:06 P.M.
Oobleck nearly jumped out of his skin as the voice of Dr. Merlot eminated from his link to Team RWBY's Scrolls. After taking a second to compose himself, he quickly sent a message over to Ozpin, one that consisted of only three words.
[Merlot is alive!]
Within seconds Ozpin was connected to the conversation... and unbeknownst to either of them, so was Cinder.
"So you're alive, Dr. Merlot." Ozpin was barely restraining a venomous tone as he addressed Merlot, something that Cinder found quite interesting.
"Ah, Ozpin. Or should I refer to you as Oz, like old times?"
"Everyone thought you perished in the Mountain Glenn disaster, something you played no small part in."
"A mere speedbump on the superhighway of scientific progress. You couldn't even begin to fathom the ramifications of my newest research."
"The world was a far safer place without you around."
Cinder was almost ecstatic - another foe of Ozpin? She continued recording what she could... this was getting good.
"Cinder, I-" Emerald didn't get a chance to inform her leader about her new discovery, as one of the older woman's hands went up, in that classic meaning of wanting silence.
Merlot's Island
7:08 P.M.
Sliding beneath a Beowolf's outstretched claws as she brought her scythe forward to sever the Grimm's legs, Ruby Rose found herself somewhere between alarmed and frightened at Ozpin's tone. Until now, she'd only really known of the calm, rational side of Beacon's Headmaster, so to hear him this angry... she made a silent resolve to never get on Ozpin's bad side.
Yang and Blake worked together to pin down another of Merlot's robots, Blake using her weapon to tie its legs together and force it to use its double-bladed pike to keep from falling over, and Yang using the opening to reduce the machine to scrap.
Weiss, in the meanwhile, was combining her Glyphs with some more Dust to freeze the ground further as a few Boarbatusks began to roll towards her. One swift dodge to the side courtesy of a Black Glyph and the warthog-Grimm found themselves robbed of a fair amount of their friction, forcing them to careen wildly and into a small group of Creeps, eliminating the bipedal Grimm before colliding with the natural rocks and cracking their own heads open, leaving them easy picking for the Schnee heiress.
"Calling me the dangerous one, Oz? Bit of pot and kettle here, considering you sent your students on this dangerous excursion." Merlot taunted back over the line.
"They're more than a match for your mindless automatons. Even now, what you're trying to accomplish is wrong."
"Trying to make Remnant a better place is wrong? Go ahead and say what you will - it won't change the fact that you're powerless to stop me."
"You'll screw this up somehow. You always have."
"Let's agree to disagree on that one. Much as I'd like to stick around and continue our banter, I've business to attend to. Farewell for now." With that, Merlot left the conversation.
"Team, we've been trying to locate Merlot's island, but we've yet to get a fix on its coordinates. I need you to continue exploring and report back with any evidence of his whereabouts."
As the team did a double check to ensure that the area was free of Grimm and robots, they took a moment to sit down and catch their breath before continuing on forward. This trip had confirmed that Merlot was not only alive, but might've been the reason Mountain Glenn collapsed.
The sun was beginning to approach the horizon, and there was still much of the island to explore.
'Kinda wish JNPR was here to help us out.' Ruby thoughtly idly as they packed up what they had before getting ready to continue exploring.
Mountain Glenn, Subterranean Tunnels
7.29 P.M.
Ilia heaved a tired sigh as she stepped away from yet another empty crate. There were definitive signs that the Vale Branch had been down here, but so far no clues were coming up as to what their ultimate goal was.
Ever since their attempt to rob the Schnee Dust Shipment some months back, they had gone rather quiet... she knew that Adam was a rather tempermental member, but he wouldn't have ordered the branch to do something this drastic... would he?
The growling of another Grimm broke her train of thought, and as she drew her weapon to defend herself, she then noticed the sickly green glow this Creep had. Now that she got a look at it, it was much bigger than even the Alpha variants.
"What in the..." It didn't give her much opportunity to dwell upon this new finding, as it immediately went on the attack, attempting to bite her. Ilia quickly switched her weapon into its whip-like form, and backed away to allow her weapon its maximum range. This proved a wise idea, as after an electrically-charged strike to its face, the mutated Creep suddenly detonated, leaving behind a noxious green cloud in its aftermath.
'What an odd kind of Grimm...' Of course, there were questions beginning to arise, such as if it had others like it, but those could wait until she was finished with her search. If more did happen to crop up, she'd merely have to deal with them.
She headed down another tunnel, keeping a wary vigil for any spot that looked like the Fang could've used it to store supplies... or any place a wandering Grimm might call home.
A few of the old train cars were nearby, yet some of them looked to be in somewhat better condition than the others. It was worth a look, at any rate.
The Base
7:35 P.M.
Nelius stepped back into reality, and headed over to pick up Croixshot. As he had expected, the gun had a new gleam to it, as though the ravages of time had been reversed. He'd give it a test run later.
Gun now holstered, he headed over to his Scroll, opened up the notes detailing his runs through the Dual Diver's modes, and then headed to the aforementioned machine's control panel. He ran a quick diagnostic log, largely to search for any potential anomalies so they could be addressed.
"Overall, it's looking solid. Now, how do we make an access code for this?"
"First thing's first, we-" Whatever she was about to say died on her metaphorical lips as the Scroll suddenly chimed. "Hm?"
"A new message." Saving and minimizing the notes, he flipped over to Messages, and saw that James Ironwood had left a message. "It's from General Ironwood... think he got a date for the meeting?"
"Only way to know is to open it up."
With little left to lose, they went to open the message.
Sender: James Ironwood
Topic: Promised Meeting update
Greetings, Raoul and Epsilon. A date has been finalized for the first meeting with our other supporters. It will be held on the 23rd of this month at Beacon Academy.
"23rd... that's next Friday."
"...well, this is gonna get interesting. Last we heard, Cinder and her two followers are still there. Hope Ironwood or Ozpin have a secure spot for the meeting."
Continuing on, it pains me to put this upon your shoulders, but in light of the information you provided us, and the skills you've proven to have in the field, we've been considering asking you to act as an interim guardian for a person of interest. More details will be revealed at the meeting.
"Person of interest... you thinkin' who I think it is?"
"Probably. Considering Cinder tried something with that Grimm Bug last year, they don't want a repeat of what happened before."
"Still, while her two sycophants know of me, Cinder doesn't right now, and they have no idea you exist. We might be able to use that to our advantage."
Beacon Academy
7:45 P.M.
Cinder finished gathering her info for the night, the virus making it unbelievably easy to find what she wanted. Now, to find out more on whomever that mystery person was that managed to subdue Torchwick.
She brought up the file, and opened it on her Scroll.
Name: Nelius Raoul
Age: 33
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Height: 7' 0" (213 cm)
Weight: 198 lb. (89.81 kg)
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Orange (Lost left in battle)
Weaponry on file: Maximov (Axe), Croixshot (Gun), Shatterpact (Gauntlets)
Known Family: None
History: Nelius claims to descend from one of several smaller settlements that lay somewhere between Vale and Vacuo... unfortunately, as these settlements have either packed up or been waylayed by the Grimm, verifying these claims will prove difficult. While he has no recorded attendance to any of the Hunstman Academies, he has shown great prowess with his weaponry, though more testing may be in order to see the full extent of his skills.
Cinder scoffed. He must've merely been lucky to subdue Torchwick... no matter. He could be easily dealt with, unknown past or not. Another pawn would be useful, but she was already this far in, and a distraction such as this would only get in the way.
Closing the file down, she returned to listening for Team RWBY's report on that Merlot character, and if they found anything useful.
Chapter 12- Complete