RWBY: Dual Eclipse
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Change
Chapter 13: Realization
Ilia made her way back towards her temporary abode in Vale's Residential District, grateful she had chosen to take a small back-alley so she wouldn't be potentially stopped by any local law enforcement. With the Vytal Festival soon to start next month, quite a few policemen were being supplemented by Atlas' Androids... something that left a foul taste in her mouth, but she had to let it go for the time being.
Once she had made it back, she swiftly locked the door and headed over to the kitchen table, dumping out the contents of her bag onto it: several components to multiple Dust-powered explosives. She was familiar with this particular kind of explosive, having used some of them a fair number of times herself. These breach charges were meant to blow through walls, but the more she began to examine them, pick them apart, the more it became apparent these ones were enhanced variants, perhaps powerful enough to blow holes through the ceiling of the Mountain Glenn tunnels... a ceiling that would be directly connected to the streets of Vale.
'What were they planning?' Speculating was all well and good, but she'd need to find an actual member to get any idea of what the Vale Branch was planning next. She could only hope that they were still in the general area.
Once she had made certain these wouldn't function any more, she packed up and prepared to check the nearby outskirts of Vale for any traces of Fang activity.
Beacon Academy
9:55 P.M.
Ozpin did not like hearing what Team RWBY had discovered.
During their foray onto Merlot's Island, they had come across a strange, blue-green substance that, according to one report, not only smelled awful but was likely highly toxic in nature. What made this discovery all the more alarming was that Merlot was harvesting the substance, and as they fought past more robots and Grimm to follow the pipeline...
'It seems Merlot has been busy since Mountain Glenn...' The thought of Merlot easily establishing a base out there left a foul taste in his mouth. Things only got worse as they ventured further into Merlot's base, fighting off more Grimm and robots... they found several tanks full of the prior substance, only now it was being refined into some kind of material, and the green glow it was giving off made it all too clear to him now.
This new material, this serum, was what caused the mutation of the Creeps and Beowolves that Team RWBY had reported about. If this were to get loose, and potentially injected into other species of Grimm...
He pushed that thought from his mind, knowing from personal experience how a prevailing thought could end up coming true. Team RWBY was currently searching through the lab to find whatever they could to transmit the island's coordinates back to him. Once he had those coordinates, he'd get an extraction team over there as soon as possible. Of course, he had given them free reign to destroy whatever they could to hinder Merlot's plans.
Several floors down, Cinder continued listening in. A serum that could enhance the Grimm... that was beyond useful. Once Team RWBY transmitted the coordinates, that would be her ticket towards regaining favor. She needed to wait a bit longer...
Elsewhere on Beacon's grounds, Mercury was taking a little time to walk around the grounds, mostly to look for anything that Cinder could use. The sight and sounds of many of the students having a good time internally pissed him off, but he had learned to keep that feeling down... he had to learn how to do so.
Regardless, once Cinder's plan got fully underway he could finally enjoy himself.
Merlot's Island
10:15 P.M.
With the destruction of several of the serum processing tanks, alongside the Grimm that were drawn to the substance, Team RWBY continued their tour / systematic dismantling of the Laboratory... which Merlot seemed all too confident he could easily replace. However, further in they found a gigantic bank of computers, their screens flashing with information of all kinds, largely pertaining to whatever else Merlot was working towards with his robotics.
One of them had to be open access... no dice. All of these computers had no access ports for their Scrolls.
"Hm?" Ruby had looked a little further ahead, and there was a lone terminal. Venturing closer, she gave it a quick look-over, and upon seeing there was an access port, she quickly waved her team over. "This one!"
"Perfect." Weiss took over, slotting her Scroll in to begin figuring out the coordinates of this Island, and to get the results copied over to Ozpin. "Upload in progress."
"Excellent!" Ozpin replied. "Proxy the signal over the Scroll to me."
Unfortunately, Merlot didn't like that too much, having realized his error in judgment.
"Did you just - oh no. Get them!" With that, a surge of more Grimm and Merlot Androids began to swarm in on the quartet. Several of the androids, a stark white in color, actively tried shooting the console, so as to terminate the proxy and render the information upload useless.
Beacon Academy
10:20 P.M.
As Team RWBY fought off the onslaught, Ozpin was busy at work grabbing all the information he could about Merlot's Laboratory - coordinates, robotic schematics, whatever was relevant to the situation at hand - but the most important information was about the most vulnerable areas of the lab. Merlot hadn't invested in any kind of electronic security, and Ozpin was going to use that to his advantage.
The Headmaster of Beacon soon hit pay dirt after a little more digging - the Manufacturing Wing was a few floors down, and looked to hold the machinery that was vital to the final processes of the serum. With that taken out, Merlot would be out of options.
As he directed Team RWBY to head to the Manufacturing Wing and totally destroy it, he sent a message to one of the Bullhead pilots, directing them to head to the provided coordinates and extract Team RWBY.
The Base
10:35 P.M.
Nelius reclined back on his cot, feeling personally satisfied with his work tonight. Much as he wanted to head out and test out the Usatako's new configuration, not to mention the new power of his equipment, it wasn't like the Grimm or the Dual Diver would be going anywhere anytime soon. A chance to double-check everything would also prove more beneficial.
Now that he put some more thought about it, there were other Grimm out there - he had heard about Goliaths, large Grimm that resembled a combination of elephants and mammoths. From what he remembered, even the younger ones often required a team or two to take down. Some were known to get as tall as twenty-story buildings. Either way, plans for later.
As he settled in as best he could to get some sleep, Epsilon had decided to connect with his Scroll and go surfing around Remnant's version of the internet. After the Scroll connected to the CCT, she began looking up various topics and such, even popping her virtual head into a few open forums to see what most everyone was thinking about.
Unsurprisingly, most of the chatter was about the Vytal Festival next month. While many of the comments were about who the various posters were excited to see debut in this year's tournament, other people were placing preemptive bets on who would come away victorious, and a number of people were expecting a "Pyrrha Nikos" to be the one to win, having won four Sanctum Tournament Circuits in a row in prior years. Having finished several of her fights with minimal to no damage at all had earned her the nickname of "The Invincible Girl". At the same time, others were deriding such a choice, expressing that they'd like to see someone able to actually challenge Pyrrha, if not dethrone her.
'Chick must be pretty good, for being human and all. Probably has a good Semblance.' Now this sparked her curiosity, prompting her to search out any information she could find.
Needless to say, various videos of past Sanctum Tournaments were easily located with a quick search, and as she began viewing the first few videos, it slowly became apparent that the redhead had incredible fighting skill against her opponents. There were several close calls where it looked like Pyrrha should've been hit, but she managed to get away without even a scratch.
Yet at the same time, as she slowed down these close calls, and did a frame by frame analysis, something began to seem... off. What once appeared to be an incredible evasion now looked a touch more like either an intentional opening of her guard to bait her opponents, or that the opponent's weapons seemed unwilling to actually get close, like they were being repelled.
The latter theory began to look more and less incredulous, if such was even possible, thanks to a quarter-final match between Pyrrha and someone wielding a fully-wooden automatic crossbow. The crossbow-wielder had Pyrrha on the defensive for a fair bit of the match, but a shot from the redhead's weapon jammed the crossbow, and before it could get a chance to be fixed Pyrrha had gone on offense, quickly turning the tides.
'If she did have a repulsion effect, it should've also affected the bolts...' Another quick comparison began to uncover a critical part of the mystery - up until the crossbow-wielder, all of Pyrrha's opponents had been using metal weaponry. Did her Semblance only affect metal weaponry? If it was some level of magnetism / ferrokinesis, would non-ferrous metals be unaffected? Questions for later.
With that out of the way, Epsilon continued on with her net-searching, unaware of something lurking within the CCT.
Merlot's Island Laboratory
10:55 P.M.
With the very last of Merlot's processing equipment destroyed, Team RWBY was more than ready to finally call it a night. Sadly, Merlot had a few more androids and Grimm to call upon, so once more unto the breach...
What they hadn't counted on was Merlot's last surprise.
"A Mutated Deathstalker?!" Indeed, this Deathstalker had the same green glow as the mutant Beowolves and Creeps, which mostly showed in its eyes, stinger, fangs and parts of its pincers.
"Don't be shy, now!" Merlot taunted over the comms. "You could learn so much from this enhanced specimen."
And learn they did - the monster had more than just its claws and stinger to make use of. For a Grimm of its size it was frightfully fast, able to burrow underground and track one of the huntresses-in-training with minimal issue. Its most dangerous tactic was somehow launching spikes from its tail, a skill that even the older species couldn't do. These spikes began melting the ground wherever they hit.
To bring this abomination of science down, a plan was quickly formed. Blake and Yang, the speediest and hardiest members of the team respectively, would alternate tactics in drawing the monster's attention.
Blake had taken notice of how the Mutant Deathstalker had begun calling forth other Grimm on occasion, and Merlot was sending it backup via his Androids, so her tactic was to goad the beast into launching its spikes at her, whilst at the same time Yang was pushing the Grimm and Androids into the path of the spikes. End result? Melting Grimm and corroded metal and circuitry.
Weiss had made use of her Time Dilation Glyphs and her remaining cartridges of Ice Dust to keep the beast still as best she could. When the beast had gotten fed up with Yang raining punches down upon its carapace, it had decided to forsake its pincers and go with the stinger.
To its detriment, the stinger got stuck in the floor, and Ruby took the opportunity to strike at where the stinger itself met the tail, remember the tale Nora had told them of how JNPR had handled the Deathstalker during initiation.
As the stinger was wrenched free from the floor, Ruby noticed a bit of green fluid leaking from the stinger's base, indicating that her gambit had paid off. This, however, agitated the monster even further, resulting in its movement and attacks becoming increasingly erratic. It had begun to rely on the toxic spikes much more, which made striking the tail an uphill task. Blake only narrowly avoided being nicked by one of the raining spikes, and even Yang feared that her Semblance wouldn't be able to take many hits from those spikes.
Though its strength had been boosted by Merlot's serum, its mind was beginning to deteriorate as Team RWBY was slowly, but steadily gaining ground. Ruby had taken a risk, and made the beast swing its pincers at her, inadvertently cleaving several more Androids and Grimm into bits, which helped take some pressure off Blake's evasion tactics. This, in turn, gave Weiss the opening she needed to freeze the ground beneath the Deathstalker's legs, causing it to trip up.
Merlot, too, was growing increasingly agitated at how these four schoolchildren were managing to take on his prized specimen, and not get immediately killed.
'It should've eaten them alive by now!' Faced with the prospect of actually losing, he needed his own plan, one that definitely included escaping.
The Deathstalker impacted the icy ground, unable to regain its footing. This was all the impetus Ruby needed to sever the stinger from the tail. It screamed with a sound unlike any of its brethren, and as it flailed about, trying to get back up, Weiss used her Glyphs to speed up Yang, and the blonde brawler aimed a wicked haymaker right between the Grimm's eyes. The sound of bone splintering filled the air, and with one final shudder the mutant Grimm flopped to the ground, dissolving away.
"No! My one of a kind specimen!" Merlot was beside himself in a mixture of rage and grief. It had taken him two dozen Androids to capture that Deathstalker alive, and another six to properly inject the serum... and now these four had killed it?!
"It's over for you, Merlot. You've nothing left." Ozpin's voice came in over their Scrolls.
"That's where I would disagree. There is one thing left - ending it with a BANG!" With that, the Grimm-obsessed doctor entered in one final code, and alarms began blaring.
"Team, Merlot's going to detonate his laboratory. Find an exit, immediately!" Team RWBY didn't need any further prodding - there was one exit out of the makeshift arena, albeit blocked with some debris from the battle. They furiously worked to clear it away, and as they discovered what looked like a hangar for aerial craft, the Beacon Bullhead pulled in.
The instant they were aboard, the Bullhead turned and flew away from Merlot's Island, and not five seconds past the Bullhead reaching a minimal safe distance the entire facility was engulfed in explosions.
Merlot's plans crumbled away with his laboratory.
The ride back to Beacon was a quiet one, but nothing needed saying anyway. The team was dead tired, and through Ozpin promised to meet with them as soon as they landed, sleep was calling to them all... well, a nice, hot shower and then some sleep, in that order.
The Base
Saturday, September 17, 8:43 A.M.
Nelius awoke from his slumber, and after doing some stretching to get his muscles warmed up for the coming day, reached over to grab his Scroll. Opening up the browser, he flipped over to the request boards. It looked like they hadn't been updated yet, so that left his schedule open for a while.
He could go out and get some food, tune up the Dual Diver, or go test out his equipment and the new Usatako configuration against those Goliath Grimm.
Right as he was about to collapse his Scroll, a new message popped up.
"Hm?" Flipping over to the Mail tab, he brought up the message. It looked to have been sent about... two minutes ago?
Sender: Unknown
Topic: Immediate Discussion Required
I hope this message reached you easily, Nelius Raoul. I've been noting your progress within your own heart - which is why I wish to speak with you.
Enter your heart. I will be found near the center.
"...how in the hell?"
"...this is getting weird." Even Epsilon sounded a little wary of this. "You think it's legit?"
"Only one way to know." Closing his Scroll down, he headed over to the Dual Diver, and got the Soul Diver up and running once he replaced the Dust Crystal. Upon formation of the gate, he walked in.
Nelius Raoul's Netherheart
8:49 A.M.
Upon arrival in his Netherheart, Nelius took a quick look around.
The facsimile of the castle town he grew up in was looking much cleaner than last time, though there were still some signs of battle damage here and there.
'Now where's that being we were supposed to meet?' He headed for the center of the town, eye shifting back and forth for whomever sent that message. For a few minutes, he peered down some alleys and between residences, hoping that he could find this character ahead of time and get to the reason for the message.
'Maybe it was a hoax?' Epsilon piped up.
'Couldn't have been... nobody else knows that the Dual Diver was completed, much less that we've been smoothing out any wrinkles in the system.'
Something dropped down in front of him, prompting the off-world demon to immediately draw his axe in preparation of an ambush.
"Greetings." Standing there...
"Wait a tic... my Belderiver transformation?" Indeed, before Nelius was something that resembled the humanoid mass of shadows that he first transformed into in a bid to defy death at the hands of a cosmic being long ago.
"That is correct." A glowing orange eye met his.
"...I'd ask how you managed to contact my Scroll, but I have the feeling that explanation would take all day." Nelius put away Maximov. "Anyway, why did you call for me?"
"The reasons are many fold. First, do you remember the odd dreams you had, speaking of a merger?"
"...something about how each time I transformed into you, I'd be made more closely merged?" At Belderiver's nod, he continued. "Truth be told, for a while I thought I was just going nuts... I mean, hearing another voice inside my head, especially one that responded back-"
"That was no fever dream, nor was it madness. How do I put this... when you undid your former employer's seal..." At the mention of the Overlord he once served, Nelius's mood soured. "I was supposed to slowly bleed into you, to allow you to regain that which they attempted to steal away... but the battle against that cosmic being forced my awakening."
Nelius thought back on that day... of how it helped him defy death, but he felt like the literal weight of the cosmos was upon him afterwards. Ever since that time, he had tried to hold the transformation and attune himself to it, and to his credit he was able to hold it longer and longer each time.
"Is that why I always got so winded back then, 'cause I never got used to having that kind of power?" Belderiver nodded once more.
"Indeed.. that seal was a vile thing, meant to keep everyone from being able to strike back. Though, your repeated transformations and longevity training allowed me to bleed in even more effectively than I would have on my own."
"So what'll happen to you, if you're supposed to be a part of me?" At that question, another one arose in his mind - if this was happening to him, what of the other vassals he worked alongside? Did any of 'em get wise to what was going on and decide to leave as well? It had been decades since that day...
"In time, I will fade away... and as I fade, you will regain your full strength, perhaps even moreso. But before that can happen, there is the second thing to consider."
"That being?"
"Of course, it relates to that beast that now resides within you."
"Figures. Big and ugly hasn't shown back up since our previous encounter, has it?"
"Not yet... it seems to have retreated elsewhere within the recesses of your soul...likely biding its time for another attempt at usurption."
"Well, that'll make dealing with it much less of a headache, if it's gone quiet for the time being. Gives us time to properly formulate a plan."
"Whatever it's made of, you need to make certain that you dominate it utterly, and give it no quarter with which with to rebel."
"I know... I still remember those words from the other world." Nelius tightened his gauntlets. "Regardless, anything else I need to know?"
Belderiver nodded. "Something in this world... I don't know what it is precisely, but it feels as though something is missing, lost to time..."
"Hm... should you get a more concrete idea of what that is, feel free to call."
Belderiver nodded once more, and then faded from sight.
"Something missing, huh?" Epsilon spoke up after a moment. "What do you think it is?"
"Dunno - even after a year of being stuck here, I'm still finding things out about this world. Whatever that something is, I imagine we'll find it soon enough."
With that, Nelius turned to exit his Netherheart. Since he was wide awake now, might as well go get some food.
Beacon Academy
9:21 A.M.
With one final message, Cinder sent the information she had stolen back to her allies. This should go a long ways towards restoring what good faith she had left.
Her mood soured as she thought back to that shadowed-thing stopping her from taking the Fall Maiden's powers, but she knew that she'd have another shot. It had been confirmed that the Fall Maiden had sought asylum in Atlas, and once her plans for Vale were accomplished, it'd be increasingly likely that Ironwood would isolate Atlas, both to protect the kingdom and the Fall Maiden...
'But even the safest cages have a blind spot.' Once she was isolated there, it'd be child's play to sneak in, obtain the powers, and then begin working from within. Peace made people sloppy, after all, and the most technologically advanced Kingdom was no exception to this.
Still, the Fall Maiden was known to have a wanderlust, and so eventually she'd find her way towards any of the other Kingdoms, escort or no. Either way, as long as that shadowed-thing wasn't able to interfere, she'd get what she had coming to her.
But it was time to shelve those plans for another day, and to play her role of exchange student from Mistral. She just had another month of intellect-gathering on the students and their potential skills, and then the plan would be ready to go once the festival kicked off in earnest.
Further upstairs, Ozpin reviewed the information Team RWBY had gathered about Merlot's Island, sharing several of the notes with Ironwood.
The General of Atlas had taken notice of the robots Merlot made use of, recognizing them as an offshoot of a much older model that had debuted well over 30 years prior. While he had privately wished that some components could've been salvaged during the investigation, he could also send a team out to the island to recover whatever was left after Merlot decided to detonate everything to cover his tracks.
'And on that note...' He made a few personal reminders to keep an eye out for if or when Merlot would try something similar to this once again. Experimenting on the Grimm was already dangerous enough.
Meanwhile...
Celestia, Unknown Time
The young angel child quickly ran towards the Seraphic Sanctuary. Many of the higher-ranked angels were granted access here, and someone inside had to know how to save this soul.
There were always a pair of angels stationed as guards out front. One of them would know who to contact.
"Hm?" One of the angels in question, a blonde-haired female, saw the young one approaching. "Hey, isn't that Hale's boy?"
"It is." The other guard, a male with a dirty-white coloration to his hair, affirmed. "Looks like he ran quite the way here." It was as the child drew closer that he noticed something. "What's that in his hands?"
"Only one way to know." As the child got close enough, she floated over. "Hey Ayatane. What do you have there?"
The child known as Ayatane came to a stop, panting all the while.
"Found this soul... it's hurt... real bad..." He held his hands out, the soul in them.
"...my word." The female guard felt her own blood run cold, seeing the poor state the soul was in. Her fellow guard quickly disappeared into the Sanctuary, to bring this to the attention of the other Archangels. In that time, the remaining guard would work what magic she knew to try and save this soul.
Vale, Mountain Glenn Outskirts
10:01 A.M.
Having finished up a late breakfast, Nelius had made his way back towards the former expansion site, weaponry in tow. Having easily hopped the fence, he strolled through the dilapidated town, mostly looking for Grimm to test the Usatako's new configurations upon.
However, something caught his interest. One of the buildings he had seen standing upright yesterday was now crumpled over, and there was a massive sinkhole in the ground as well. Signs of fresh battle damage could also be seen here and there.
'Looks like there was one hell of a party here.'
'But who'd be out here in the middle of this dump?'
'There was the White Fang - according to that news story, they were using Mountain Glenn as a base for launching that train.'
'Perhaps, but this looks like it all happened within a 36-hour window... maybe someone was scavenging for whatever the Fang left behind, and ran into some Grimm?'
'Still wouldn't explain the building and sinkhole, unless someone was being exceedingly reckless or ran into one hell of a Grimm.'
'...come to think of it, maybe this was why everything looked slightly off-kilter after the first test yesterday.'
The sound of something large hitting the ground broke their mental conversation, and as Nelius looked over to see what had made that sound, he noticed some more of the building had fallen over, revealing a curious logo.
'...Merlot Industries. Probably was also a victim of this place's collapse.'
The telltale sound of growling gave way to the presence of Grimm. A small group of Beowolves had chanced upon him, lead by an Alpha. Most likely it was the earlier sound that caught their attention.
"Either way, new chance to make certain this works." With Maximov drawn, Nelius strode forth to dispatch the group of smoke monsters.
Two of the juvenile Beowolves tried to hit him in a pincer movement - that was swiftly defied with the Beowolf on his left getting its head cleaved off at the jawline courtesy of his axe, and when the one on his right made an attempt to avenge its fallen brethren, all this accomplished was getting everything above the neckline vaporized in a single punch.
As the battle, much as it could charitably be called such, continued on, Epsilon was busy checking over the Usatako's configuration. Sure enough, even though these Grimm had no life force, the new additions were beginning to kick in. With each Grimm Nelius felled, his power began to grow, not that he'd easily notice given the difference in strength.
The Alpha Beowolf howled in rage over seeing its brethren so easily slaughtered by this being, and darted forth in an attempt to avenge them. In a repeat of what had happened during one of his Grimm Extermination jobs, Nelius caught the claws that intended to rake across his chest with his free hand, but this time he raised his left foot, and slammed it down hard on the Alpha's right upper-thigh.
The thigh came loose from the stomp, and it was only through Nelius's grasp that the Alpha didn't fall over, though that did little to mitigate the damage. With one swing of Maximov the Alpha was decapitated, and soon began to dissolve away.
The sound of the rubble moving about caught his ear, and he turned in time to see a large Creep burrow up... and it had a strange, green glow to it as well.
'...what in the?'
'...new kind of Grimm?' The Mutated Creep tried to get in close to bite and tail-smack the demon, but it was soon stopped due to a bullet from Croixshot into its cranium. However, instead of dissolving, it began to quake uncontrollably before exploding into a green vapor. '...suicidal Grimm?'
'Either way, I managed to get a good look at it thanks to my eye. Maybe we can compare notes with Ozpin and his bunch during the meeting on Friday?'
'Sounds good.. oh yeah, the results of the new configuration...'
'Feels like everything is working as intended, though we might need to get some stronger test subjects.'
'Fair enough.'
With little better to do until the appointed time, Nelius headed back towards the base to further tweak the Dual Diver some more... and perhaps get some more supplies through an Item Dive.
Never hurt to have some extra stuff on the side.
Chapter 13 - Complete