RWBY: Dual Eclipse
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Change
Chapter 14: Discoveries
Ilia, having found little to no trace of the Vale Branch around the southwest of Vale's outskirts, decided to stop back at the Vale Commercial District to stock back up on a few essentials.
Exiting a grocery with some easy assembly lunch packs, Ilia was left to wonder just what in blazes the Vale Branch was doing. Ever since the "Breach Attempt", as the local newspapers had called it, they seemingly dropped off the face of Remnant as a whole.
Sienna would be sorely disappointed in her if she returned with little to no information. After a quick double check to ensure her supplies were in order, it was time for another hunt around Vale's outskirts. Having mapped out most of the southern areas of Vale, she was planning on looking around the Forever Fall area to the north. Multiple train lines were known to run throughout the forest, more often than not carrying Dust shipments to Vale from Atlas.
It would be a very tempting target, one that Adam wouldn't pass up considering how much he loathed the Schnee Dust Company.
Beacon Academy
12:52 P.M.
Neo found herself getting increasingly bored with waiting for the Vytal Festival to arrive within the next month. Between Cinder's scheming and Emerald's moping over not yet being aware of said schemes, it was dragging the mood down considerably. Neo had a suspicion as to another reason why Emerald was moping around so much, but it wasn't anything she had stakes in.
She rolled over on the bed assigned to her within their dormitory room. Emerald was over at the other side of the room, absently tapping away at her Scroll and fidgeting on occasion.
With Roman currently locked up and likely being questioned for his crimes both before and after Cinder entered the picture, it didn't afford Neo much flexibility in being able to move around as she pleased. At this point she was considering taking a page from Mercury's book, and hopping onto a Bullhead headed down to Vale so she could pass the time in her own fashion...
Now that she began putting some honest thought into getting out of the Academy for a while, Roman's hideaway in the Upper-Class District shouldn't have been ransacked by the local law enforcement, so if the place was still stocked she could go hang out down there for a time.
With it being Saturday, today had been a half-day on classes, so everyone had gotten to go free a few hours ahead of schedule, and Mercury had taken that opportunity to leave Beacon's grounds posthaste.
Ultimately, she had gotten up from the bed and headed for the door. Emerald looked up and saw Neo already halfway out the door, but by the time she was about to speak up, the diminuitive woman was long gone. The thief was already dreading the prospect of having to explain to Cinder where Neo had decided to disappear off to.
Ever since that shadowy-thing stomped them into the ground and prevented Cinder from taking the Fall Maiden's powers, Cinder had been much more focused on whatever this scheme of hers was. Sure, the ability to control the elements sounded and looked amazing, at least when she wasn't on the receiving end, but why was Cinder so hell-bent on getting those powers?
Much as she wanted to know why all of this was so important, Cinder had taken her Scroll with her on another one of her walks, so Emerald couldn't simply sneak a peek at it.
'This sucks...' Looks like she'd have to wait for Cinder to relax her stance, however narrow the possibility.
Speaking of Cinder, she was currently down in the Courtyard, idly watching the passing students and matching faces to names, and thus names to Semblances and abilities. To everyone else, she was merely enjoying the good weather. Seeing the students so happy and carefree despite the many dangers lurking outside the walls did stoke her anger for a brief second, but just as quickly it was squashed beneath years of learning how to quell such emotions.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Goodwitch making her rounds. For a split second she thought a look of recognition flashed across the blonde's face, but ultimately decided she was seeing things... she had been down here on her Scroll for a good while, and while Aura was excellent for healing up wounds, it wasn't quite able to deal with eyesight issues that arose from staring at a closeby screen.
Maybe it was time to head elsewhere, and give her eyes a little rest.
Atlas Prisoner Ship
12:54 P.M.
Roman merely reclined back in his solitary cell, having finished yet another rousing round of questioning by Ironwood and his lackeys. Cinder was already inside Beacon, alongside whatever else she was planning. All he could be held accountable for was his numerous Dust robberies, and it was with one of the most smug, satisfied grins he made certain to let them know such.
'Gotta admit, there's something fun about seeing ol' Jimmy get the runaround with all of this.' If he had a watch, he'd personally time how long it took before Ironwood decided to call it a day with the questions.
Still, he couldn't help but think back on the deal that lead him into Cinder's pocket.
Sometime Last Year
Vale, Unknown Time
"Roman Torchwick?" A woman's voice danced through the warehouse that Roman had currently claimed as his hideaway for the upcoming heist.
"And who wants to know?" The career criminal turned away from his latest heist's spoils, to see a rather alluring woman in red, flanked by two others - one girl with green hair, and a young man with grey hair that, for a split second, he thought looked all too familiar.
Still, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. This chick didn't look like of Vale's usual officers, but she could've easily been a plainclothes. If that were the case, then Neo picked a bad time to head down to Junior's.
"Someone who has... need of your considerable talents." Now this was something different. He usually got anonymous requests via Scroll, so someone coming up in person was new.
"Fair warning - my services don't come cheap."
At her gesture, the grey-haired one held his briefcase up, and with a simple click the locks were undone. Roman's eyes widened with some level of surprise as he saw the Lien lining the insides.
"Payment won't be an issue. Now, let's discuss..."
Present Time
'...damn, has it really been that long? Time really does fly when you're having fun.' He thought back on those early days, quickly becoming the talk of Vale... wasn't like he could do anything else in here until Cinder's big plan finally took off. He knew Neo would be on her way to bust him out during that time, and then he could do his part in all of this.
As predicted, the forces didn't even think to check the innards of his favorite coat, so at least he still had the special Scroll... too bad it couldn't connect to anything, what with having the wireless functions stripped out to make room for a more potent connection port. He didn't dare bring it out of hiding, lest the cell door suddenly open and - oops, how did he get that Scroll? Then it'd be a matter of time before it got taken apart and the virus was found, and then Cinder's big plan was over.
About the most he could hope for was that Cinder would uphold her end of the deal. After going through all of this trouble, he'd be pissed if he were to be simply tossed aside and relegated to an afterthought.
The Base
1:01 P.M.
With one last bug test for the day coming back with no detectable errors, Nelius switched the Dual Diver to standby, and began to run a program to create a password system, so if it somehow did get into the wrong hands, the Dual Diver wouldn't be exploited by whomever managed to take it.
'Now, what should be the password...' He racked his mind for names or terms completely alien to Remnant or the Netherworld, needing something that wouldn't cross the minds of anyone.
His folks? Sure, their names weren't likely to crop up, but that wasn't a chance he wanted to take.
His weapons? Nah, too predictable.
'...maybe I'm overthinking things.' He could always change the password whenever, so he could set one now, and then set another later. His fingers tapped away at the screen, entering in several letters. 'There. That should do it.'
He then immediately tested out said password, to ensure that he hadn't locked himself out of using the Dual Diver... that would suck.
'Excellent.'
In the meantime, Epsilon was doing more surfing around Remnant's version of the internet, and at the same time she was comparing notes to what she had in her memory banks. Yet, her mind didn't seem to be all into it...
'Hey, Nelius...'
'Something on your mind?' With the password check complete, he had shut down the Dual Diver for the time being, making a mental note to go get some more Electric Dust Crystals.
'Can't help but wonder... do you get the feeling Ozpin's not telling us everything on what he knows?'
'You mean in regard to Cinder and her group's actions? I get the feeling he's triple-checking things - I might not know all the details, but if someone was able to command the Grimm like she did with that insect, I'd be wary as all hell too.'
'Not just that. Back when we were spilling the beans out to them, for a split-second I thought I saw this look of deep regret cross Ozpin's face, like he's seen this sort of thing happen before.'
'Well, we're due to meet with them again in six days. Plenty of time for us to jot down what questions we'd like answered the most.'
Epsilon didn't seem all that confident in such reasoning, but with Friday still a fair time away, speculating was about the best they could do until the meeting. She went back to her net-surfing, gathering up what information about Vale they hadn't yet found out about.
Forever Fall
2:11 P.M.
'I see how this place got its name... if not for the Grimm this place would be quite lovely.' Weapon firmly gripped, Ilia looked around the area for any signs of the Fang. A couple of Creeps had tried to waylay her, but the bipedal Grimm proved little challenge to overcome.
One of the main sets of train tracks that lead to Vale was further in, so it'd be as good a place as any to start. That said, on her way towards those tracks, she took notice of all the old ruins, the signs of civilizations past... maybe her eyes were deceiving her, but some of them looked like they had been forced open, no doubt the work of someone looking to pillage them.
Curiosity getting the better of her, she went over to investigate one.
'Cages?' Indeed, within the first set of ruins she went to investigate, there were several cages, a sigil depicting an M on each one. To her surprise, there had been some Grimm within the cages, mostly Creeps... had being the operative word here, as right before her eyes some of the Grimm simply flopped over and dissolved away, leaving nothing behind. She'd heard of how captive Grimm simply died after a time, but to see it happen-
"Over here, sir!" The voice of a man snapped Ilia from her thoughts and forced her to find a hiding spot within the ruins. Blending in with the surroundings as best she could, she watched as several men and robots, undoubtedly from Atlas, flooded into the ruins.
"It's as Ozpin's team said - Merlot was capturing Grimm for those experiments." The presumed commander of the group signaled for the robots to take the cages out of the ruins.
'Merlot? Experiments on Grimm?' She made a mental note to look up this "Merlot" once the coast was clear.
"There's more said to be further ahead. Move out." With the cages and other loose bits of evidence secured, the Atlesian forces moved out to the next point of investigation.
About eight seconds after the last Atlesian left the area, Ilia slowly emerged from hiding. Something about all of this felt off, but that could wait. She needed to finish her own investigation into finding the Vale branch.
Leaving the first set of ruins, she had to creep by the other investigating forces to get a head-start on them. By process of elimination Adam had to be camping out somewhere in Forever Fall... the other outskirts of Vale were already checked over, and the Emerald Forest was right in Beacon's backyard... large force or no, the White Fang was basically no match for whatever Hunters that Beacon had at its call.
As she continued on, a thought crossed her mind - if the Vale Branch was hiding out in Forever Fall, then unless they moved out early it'd only be a matter of time until the investigating forces would end up stumbling across them. The events from two years ago still hung over the air, so both groups meeting would easily end in a bloodbath.
She took off running, hoping to get as much distance from the investigating forces as possible. She would need all the time she could afford to track down the Vale Branch.
Mistral Bar
5:21 P.M., Mistral Central Time
Qrow took a seat at one of his favorite bars, a half-drained glass in his right hand. In his left hand was his Scroll, and on-screen was a message from Ozpin that had been sent to him on Wednesday, the 14th... which was the reason he was in Mistral in the first place.
Sender: Headmaster Ozpin
Subject: Recon work
In light of some recent information that came our way, Ironwood and I have noticed a disturbing lack of contact coming from Headmaster Lionheart. I'm more than aware of what amount of work can pile upon a Headmaster, but even so this is much unlike him.
Find out what you can about Leonardo's sudden silence, but try to be discreet about it. I'd prefer for him to not clam up about things even further. Whatever you manage to find may help clear up several suspicions.
'Discreet, huh...' He knew of one method that was discreet enough to work, but since Lionheart was a part of Ozpin's Inner Circle, the Haven Academy Headmaster might easily see him, and then change up his story.
Guess it was time for Plan B... which he'd get started on in a few hours with the cover of night working in his favor.
Vale, Forever Fall
2:51 P.M., Vale Time
Footprints in the dirt, and they looked relatively undisturbed.
Ilia studied the direction these tracks were headed, and quietly followed them. She roughly estimated there was about a good hour or so before the Atlas forces investigating that "Merlot" guy would catch up to her current position, which should give her plenty of time to confirm if the Vale Branch was nearby.
One of the major railways was visible from here, and as she approached, she took notice of a small clearing where a few tents were up. It was slightly covered by another tent due to Ilia's position, but she swore she saw the White Fang's emblem.
'Is it Adam's group?' She crept in low, to reduce visibility, and put her hearing to work, trying to get a read on how many were present.
There were no sounds of movement, but that alone proved nothing concrete as to the number of inhabitants. She'd have to risk getting closer. With a sigh of resignation she crept into the encampment, making certain to make as little noise as possible.
Nearing one of the first tents, she peered in as carefully as she could. Nobody in here, but there were some supplies. Looked like some vacuum-sealed packs, to keep the food as fresh as possible.
Another tent looked to have been set up to house at least four people. Nobody here, either.
The third tent was more of the same-
'Hm?' What caught Ilia's eye was a lone Scroll sitting next to a map. Curious - nobody in the Fang ever left a Scroll unattended, much less a map. Taking one more quick look around to make certain nobody had cottoned onto her presence, she snuck into the tent to get a better look.
'Best make this quick.'
The map was one of Forever Fall, with intricate notes of the railways that ran from further north and through the forest into Vale. Some times were also posted near a few marked sites, either times the train would be going through the area or when the Fang members would set up shop in anticipation of it.
As for the Scroll... unfortunately, it was password-locked. Ilia cursed her unfortunate luck, meaning that she'd have to stick around the area and wait for that Scroll's owner to return and unlock it.
She crept away from the encampment, and withdrew her own Scroll.
Sender: Ilia Amitola
Subject: Vale Branch Update
Found an Fang encampment in Forever Fall. Nobody present, though. I'm going to keep watch and see if it's Adam's group. Time isn't on my side, as Atlas forces are sweeping through the area.
Message sent, Ilia went to go find a secluded spot and set up a vigil on the camp. She could only hope that whomever was heading this camp returned before the Atlas people got here.
(Formerly) Merlot's Island
4:56 P.M.
Atlas forces were picking through the remains of Merlot's secluded island laboratory, hoping to find some remnants of the disgraced doctor's research to take back.
So far, their searches were turning up very little - the self-detonation of the entire island had pretty much ruined everything. A few scrapped components of Merlot's robots were found and secured away, but a majority of Merlot's computer banks were not only blown apart, but it looked like there had been a small pulse meant to fry the systems and purge all relevant information.
The shipyard was also in ruins, crates of supplies jostled loose and floating in the waters, if they hadn't been blown apart. Whatever was salvageable was quickly taken back to the Bullheads.
"Looks like this was a wash." With that, the Atlas forces packed up what little they had found out here and took off to report back with Ironwood.
Hardly two minutes after the departure of the Atlas forces, a stray Bullhead touched down where they had just been.
Out stepped a tall, middle-aged gentleman with a slim build and graying black hair. He was clad in a grey overcoat with yellow lining, a yellow dress shirt and a black necktie, his pants matching his overcoat's color. Finger less gloves matched to his cordovan shoes, and green eyes peered out over the ruined island.
His face scrunched a bit in disgust, seeing all of this useful technology having gone to waste.
'Perhaps her information was too little, too late...' Still he was here to do a job, and with a slight smoothing of his mustache, he strolled out onto the island proper. Perhaps there was something here that was overlooked...
Vale, Commercial District
6:30 P.M.
Nelius walked out of one of the local restaurants, having finished grabbing a bite to eat. As he headed back towards the base, he took a moment to just look around for a bit, and listen to the night life.
Animate chatter about the upcoming Vytal Festival was increasing, with a few Vale natives actively looking forward to seeing what teams would be coming in from the other Academies. Others could be heard taking bets on which Beacon teams would make it to the finals and who'd get eliminated early on.
Apparently, out of the Beacon teams, two of the first-year teams, Ruby and Juniper, were supposed to be up-and-comers with prospective talent. A second-year team, Coffee, was also looking to be a favorite to get to the finals.
'...I could understand Ruby and Juniper being team names, but coffee? Someone must've been pressed for time-'
Suddenly, Nelius stopped, looking over his right shoulder.
'Something up?'
'...thought I felt someone watching me.' After a moment, the feeling faded, and so he continued heading south.
Elsewhere in Vale's Commercial District, Neo had exited one of her favorite stores, and was headed right back for the Upper-Class District. Her Scroll had buzzed a few times, likely Cinder wondering where the hell she was for the last few hours, but she could wait.
Having to share space with the trio cut into her personal time, and while she had to keep up appearances at Beacon for classes, outside of that she wasn't going to spend any more time with them than was necessary.
Besides, there was still about two to three hours left before the Bullhead to Beacon made its last trip for the night, so she could unwind in her own personal way.
Forever Fall
6:41 P.M.
The sounds of rustling and activity jostled Ilia from her thoughts. The camp was becoming more animated as its group members returned. From how things looked from her vantage point, they had just robbed one of the Schnee Dust Company trains, if the snowflake emblem on the sides of several of the crates proved anything.
Ilia found herself wishing it was darker out, so she could sneak closer-by and find out if whomever owned that Scroll had unlocked it yet... true, a Faunus's enhanced night vision would've robbed most of the advantage night's cover provided, but at the same time she had a way to compensate for it. Whatever she was about to dwell upon next was hushed as Adam Taurus walked up to the camp from a different direction, Callan greeting him from the raiding party.
She strained her hearing to try and get an idea of what it is the two were conversing about.
"...new orders... moving out..."
"...again?... odd behavior... High Leader."
That got Ilia's attention. Sienna hadn't told her of any orders for Adam's group to be doing any raids out here.
She waited a few more minutes for Adam's group to pack up the camp and newly stolen Dust, then begin heading out to find the new spot. Once they were safely out of earshot and sight, she pulled out her Scroll.
Sender: Ilia Amitola
Subject: Urgent Update
Adam's group has been located. However, I overheard claims that orders had come down from you to be stealing Dust from the Schnees. I plan on following to gather better information.
Message sent, the young Faunus dropped out of her hiding area and began to track Adam's group. Silently, she thanked her luck for the Atlesian forces not running into the Fang group.
The Atlesian Forces investigating the Merlot situation had gone a completely different path, investigating even more of the old ruins and stumbling upon a shipping yard.
Haven Academy
9:25 P.M., Mistrali Central Time
Staring out the open back window of his office, with a deeply contemplative look upon his face, was a man with dark brown eyes. He wore a brown greatcoat with a matching mantle, cross emblems on each side. He also wore a white dress shirt beneath his coat, a necktie and carried a pocket watch. Dark brown slacks and dress shoes completed his ensemble.
However, anyone familiar with him would've recognized him from his veritable mane of tan-grey hair and matching beard.
This was Leonardo Lionheart, Haven Academy's Headmaster. Behind him, his desk's display was showing several missed messages from various people, chief among them Ozpin. More than anything else he wanted to respond to them truthfully, but a certain something had him metaphorically around the neck, forcing him to respond with vague reports of things being well. Sadly, it seemed Ozpin wasn't convinced by his reports.
He looked back over to his display, seeing that it was approaching half past the hour. With a heavy heart he stepped away from the window, and approached his bookshelf. Pressing a small space next to the shelf, it slid over, revealing a hallway into a chamber beyond.
After double-checking to make certain his office doors were securely locked, he entered the chamber. Thankfully most of the other professors were teaching well on the other side of the campus, so in the time it'd take for them to arrive he'd be done with his business.
Unbeknownst to Lionheart, and much to his own dwindling luck, a crimson-eyed corvid had flown into the office, thanks to the open window allowing some cool air in on this warm night.. Originally, they were going to start looking for information, but that odd chamber proved more interesting.
The bird quietly followed Lionheart into the chamber, and the shock of what it saw around the corner nearly made it lose its concentration.
Floating in the middle of the chamber and surrounded by a bunch of lit candles was a kind of Grimm not yet seen before. It was spherical in appearance, roughly the size of a human's head and covered in sporadic bone plating, and had red tendrils ending in bone spikes. Within that sphere was a red cloud that seemed to look like an eye.
What disturbed the bird even more was when a female's voice began to emit from the Grimm.
"Your report, Leonardo?"
"Yes, Your Grace." With a slight hesitation, he continued. "The schedules for the other professors is in place. Once Cinder's end in all of this is complete, I'll be putting it into play."
"Good. Any news on the Spring Maiden?"
"Unfortunately, still nothing. I've had some of my best looking for her.."
"Continue doing so. She will be necessary for what comes next."
The bird immediately high-tailed it out of the room once Leonardo turned to leave, and within seconds it was out the window and elsewhere. The Headmaster of Haven was none the wiser as he slid the bookshelf back into its position, covering the chamber's entrance.
'I wish I could tell her her plans would amount to nothing...' He shuddered. '...but there's no way I could oppose her. How could I, anyway?'
White Fang Headquarters
10:52 P.M., unknown Mistrali Time Zone
Sienna got up from the High Leader's seat, looking over to her two guards.
"Zareen, Albus, it's late. Get the night patrols on duty and get some rest."
"Understood, High Leader." With that, the two guards stepped down from their positions and headed off to find the night shift and assign them their posts.
Sienna took this time to walk towards her personal quarters, and once inside she locked the door behind herself. Withdrawing her Scroll from the pouch on her right hip, she opened it one last time to check for any messages that needed attending to.
Seeing nothing here, she shut the Scroll down, connecting it to the charger to keep it ready for tomorrow's business. With that, she looked over to her personal dresser, and as she opened one of the bottom drawers, instead of looking for suitable sleepwear, she pulled the drawer completely out and reached into the gap, finding a secret compartment she had installed. Within said compartment was a crimson-colored Scroll with a grey trim.
Sienna opened the Scroll up, and as she connected it to the Mistral CCT, several messages from Ilia popped up, and as the High Leader read through them... her eyes narrowed.
'Either he's deliberately ignoring my orders, or...' Copying these messages to a document, she shut the power off and placed the Scroll back in its hidden compartment, replacing the drawer soon after.
She was going to need to formulate a plan.
Chapter 14: Complete