RWBY: Dual Eclipse
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Change
Chapter 15: Sudden Shift
Ilia double-checked her belongings one more time before she prepared to go to bed for the night.
'Let's see... clothing, check. Dismantled "evidence", right here... Scroll's recordings, properly labeled and filed away... it's a bit of a shame I couldn't see if she really was here..'
When news had come in that the person in question had outright left after a mission, Ilia felt her heart sink, not yet knowing of why it was they fled. She shook those thoughts off, choosing to redouble her focus on getting back to headquarters. Once this business was squared away, then she could get to dealing with her personal search.
With everything secured, Ilia got into bed, placing her Scroll on the bedside table. Once the morning came, she would board a passenger flight back to Mistral and present her findings to the High Leader. She didn't want to risk transferring the recordings through the CCT, and having a random Atlas official intercept them while they were here for the Vytal Festival. With Ironwood heading security, the risk of being found out would only exponentially rise.
The time on her Scroll read 10:32 P.M., with an alarm set for 7:15 A.M. This would give her enough time to prepare for the earliest flight back. She tried to settle in as best she could, but sleep would continue to elude her for a time, her mind going over everything she had discovered.
Several Universes Away
Celestia, Current Time Unknown
With the soul retrieved and placed in a special chamber, several of the higher-ranking angels began focusing their magic to try and heal it. Needless to say, when information of this soul's condition began to spread, speculation wasn't far behind.
"...what could've done this?" One of the angels wondered aloud, echoing the feelings felt by the others that had borne witness to the sight.
"Archangel Virunga has a plan to get some information, but it requires this soul to heal first." Another informed, albeit the tone of their voice implied a level of uncertainty to whatever method was in the works.
Ayatane, after informing some of the other angels of where he had found the soul, opted to head back home. His mother was going to be working with the other angels to help restore the soul, and with his lessons done for the day, he had little else to do until his older sister came back. He was about a third of the way there when something moved out of the corner of his eye, halting his movement.
Looking over, for a brief moment, he would've sworn on Lamington's name he had seen someone else headed back towards another part of Celestia... someone whom wasn't in the usual white and blue / grey garb that most wore up here.
In the time it took for the young angel to blink, the person was gone.
'...what was that?'
Nelius Raoul's Netherheart
Sunday, September 18, 10:21 A.M.
Nelius, having little else to do at the moment, had decided on taking a journey into the deeper recesses of his heart. Knowing that the beast made by those chaos powers was still lurking somewhere, he wasn't going to give it much of a chance to plan for another assault. From what he remembered of his home Netherworld, there was a town out towards the east that would've provided plenty of cover for a beast that large, and if this representation of his heart was accurate to his memories, it'd be a good place to start looking.
That being said, that beast was far from the only obsticale he would encounter.
Within one's own heart lurked the subconscious, manifestations of varying issues that worked to suppress one's own potential from coming forth. Weakness of the mind, prejudice towards others, the inability to objectively hear another viewpoint, personal pride, and many others.
These subconscious could be seen as something akin to the Notorious of the Item World, working against their host, but whereas the Notorious were outwardly aggressive and did everything they could to hinder one's progress, the subconscious were cautious, preferring to sequester themselves away within remote areas of the heart in a bid to be left alone. Other demons would easily call these hindrances a cowardly lot.
As Nelius approached the outskirts of that town in particular, a number of figures appeared. Among the crowd were multiple Wood Golems, Dragons, Ghosts and various other kinds of demons from back home, but at the same time, they weren't moving to attack, or flee...
"...OK, those blank stares are starting to get a little creepy..." Epsilon piped up, seeing the hundreds upon thousands of eyes staring them down.
Nelius ventured closer, and they remained still.
"...this does seem a little odd. Normally they'd be running." To test a theory, he withdrew Croixshot and fired at the feet of the nearest creatures.
The bullet impacted the ground nearest their feet, but they remained unflinchingly still, as if they didn't even register being shot at.
"...are they scared stiff?"
"If that's the case, then it's possible that big and ugly could be in here." Holstering Croixshot, he tightened his gauntlets. "This is an opportunity for us."
"Wait a second - didn't they run from him the first go-around? Why would they stand guard if it was in here?"
"Maybe to keep other residents from being attacked?" Speculating was only going to get them so far. Now prepared for a fight to erupt, Nelius ventured closer to the group. Some of them moved to impede his progress.
"Can't let you through. Won't let you through!" One of the Ghosts piped up, an expression on its face that was a mix of resolution and slight terror.
"We can hold him... we must hold him." A Dragon spoke up, its voice subdued and more quiet compared to most other Dragons.
"You do realize that's a temporary solution, right?" Nelius fired back. "If you beings do represent my heart, then you should know that this will fail sooner or later... all seals tend to."
"No!" A Gargoyle shot back. "We can do this! We will..."
"Just stand aside. That beast must be confronted before it can do any more damage." When the crowd refused to disperse, and instead packed more densely together, he gave a sigh which was a mix of irritation and resignation. "I didn't come here to fight you bunch, but if you're intent on doing this then I have little other choice."
'Let's hope the fighting won't wake him early...' Epsilon privately wished as Nelius prepared to do battle with the crowd. The subconscious manifestations swarmed in, attempting to drive him off.
Ducking beneath the claws of a Dragon, Nelius brought his fist up and buried it in its gut, cracking its scales and bones in one blow. Removing his fist and kicking the remains of the subconscious away, he swiftly drew Maximov and cut through a Wood Golem, splitting it in half height-wise. He immediately followed up with a Fire spell, to torch the golem's remains and ensure it wouldn't recover.
Several Ghosts pooled their magic together to try and pin him down with a paralysis spell. Nelius felt himself lock up, giving a few others time to close the distance, but after managing to identify the parties responsible, he shakily pulled his arm up and launched a Wind spell their way. The Ghosts were immediately torn to pieces, their shrouds no longer capable of keeping their corporeal form stable. A moment later the paralysis wore off.
'Note to self... gonna need to invest in status protection.' Shaking off the effects as best he could, he quickly flipped to get out of the way of a Gargoyle that tried to drop on top of him from thousands of feet above. He then retaliated with a punch to its face, caving it in.
As the fight continued, each subconscious taken down slowly but steadily released long dormant potential power within Nelius... dormant power that had been lying in wait ever since his first steps in leaving his former boss's employ, and into the greater beyond. While his years of training and battle had done wonders to make him stronger, this method of increasing one's potential worked in tandem with the former, and was but one of the myriad ways that Netherworld Demons became amazingly strong.
What he didn't yet know was that not all of the subconscious' hidden power was being directed his way...
The subconscious saw they were fighting a losing battle, and quickly retreated. Some scattered to parts unknown, whilst the others decided to run into the place they had been trying to blockade.
"Path's open." With no more subconscious barring his path, he ran into the area suspected to house the mystery monster formed from the previous world's events.
Vale, Beacon Academy
10:26 A.M.
Cinder was by herself in the shared dorm room, taking advantage of the relative quiet to double-check her plans for Beacon. Thanks to the virus now comfortably resting within the CCT, she would effectively have complete control over the festival's events.
Emerald and Mercury had headed into Vale to do their own thing. However, as Emerald was headed out the door, for a split second Cinder thought she had seen a look of pessimism cross the young thief's face.
'She might feel a little better once we're out of here.' Ultimately she chose to put the thought aside for the time being.
Neo, on the other hand, was idling about somewhere on campus, probably also keeping tabs on the students and looking for any weaknesses they could exploit. She'd need to remember to ask the diminutive woman about any findings once she returned.
From what all she had gathered, most of the student teams would be easy to pit against one another, so little to worry about there. That said, Pyrrha Nikos was a favorite to win, with both student forums and other sites claiming such.
Cinder felt the gears in her head turning even more so as she re-reviewed the records detailing Miss Nikos' accomplishments, alongside what Emerald and Mercury had observed during the latter's spar with her prior to the Dance. One hell of an idea was brewing, but it needed something more to have the best effect.
The next step now was gathering information on whatever other student teams were showing up for the festival. Her notes on the Beacon students were saved and squared away, and a new sheet was prepared for the other teams.
She put her Scroll down and took a minute to flex her fingers out and remove some amount of stiffness from them.
Nelius Raoul's Netherheart
10:29 A.M.
"Whoa... it's super-dark in here."
The area Nelius had entered lay within a thicket of trees, easily reaching well over 700 feet into the air. Such a dense growth of foilage had effectively, efficiently blocked out any kind of light from reaching within. For most anyone else, they wouldn't be able to see their own hand in front of their face. As such, Epsilon had to take a moment to adjust her eyesight.
"Kinda how this place got its new name, the Town of Midnight. My home Netherworld used to be a human world, but when it got converted the demonic power made this place's trees grow to immense size... don't think I remember what the old name was."
Many of the trees in question had been partially carved out to make dwellings for any inhabitants that decided to reside here. In fact, one could see a few signs indicating the local RosenQueen branch.
"Huh. I'm looking around, yet I don't see any clearing big enough for our target to hide in."
"Then again, this is but a visualization of what lies within. We shouldn't take it at face value."
The two searched around the town, but after around twenty minutes it became increasingly clear that Epsilon had been onto something - there wasn't any clearing large enough for their target. At the same time, the subconscious that had fled into this town weren't anywhere around either.
"Was this a ruse?"
"...might've been. There's only one other place I can think of that would suffice - the old port further east. Dimensional Vessels showed up there all the time - it'd be a perfect spot for someone as big as him."
"Oh, but I have no more reason to stay my hand." A familiar voice thundered, and as Nelius looked over to where it originated from, what awaited him wasn't the hulking form of the multi-eyed monstrosity, but... a mirror image of himself?
Indeed, this character looked much like Nelius, but his coloration was more drab and muted, as if a more subdued variation.
"...so what's this supposed to be, an imitation attempt?"
"No mere imitation, I can assure you." The mirror-Nelius opened its eyes, revealing the same shade of munsell that the beast had on its main eye. "Thanks to those subconscious throwing themselves at you, I've gotten all I need to take over."
"You really think it'll be that easy?" Nelius, in response, had undone his eye-patch, pocketing it. The eye-socket that acted as a gateway to his formerly sealed powers glowed with an orange spark. "I've had years to come to terms with that issue."
"This is far from being about that issue. Why do you deny your demonic roots - this world is easily yours for the taking, just like the last one! Just let me take control-"
"I think not. That'd make me no better than the other fools."
"And there it goes again, with this talk! You are a demon, not some soft and weak Celestial or human. Act like one!"
"If that's your only argument, I believe I've heard enough. Time to put this to bed."
Gauntlets tightened, Nelius sped in to fight his doppelganger.
Vale, Beacon Academy
11:10 A.M.
Ozpin took a moment to get up from his desk and stretch. Despite it being Sunday, he still had a mess of messages to sort through, not to mention his own thoughts.
Within the past week or so, he'd learned that demons and angels exist, were far different compared to the legends and other tales he'd known of, and that an agent of his greatest foe was right here inside Beacon. Add in the fact that Dr. Merlot was out there somewhere and it added up to being one of his more stressful days-
- scratch that, his desk's computer just pinged, indicating a new message. Leaning over so he could bring up the message...
Sender: Qrow Branwen
Subject: Regarding Leo
Got little time to explain this one, Oz. Get Jimmy on the horn and find us somewhere we can speak in private. I'll be at Beacon by tomorrow afternoon once I finish some business at Signal.
'For Qrow to say this... did Leonardo catch wind?' Either way, he had to open a private line to Ironwood.
About a minute later, a video conference call opened up to Atlas, but it wasn't Ironwood on the other end. Facing him in the video chat was a woman with hair as white as snow. Icy blue eyes stared back at Beacon's Headmaster, and from the state of her uniform one could tell she was one of the Specialists hand-picked by Ironwood himself.
"Headmaster Ozpin, now this is unusual." She replied with a crisp, no-nonsense tone. "Normally it's us needing to call you."
"Specialist Schnee, should Ironwood return let him know one of my own has some urgent information regarding Lionheart's current silence. He'll be here tomorrow afternoon."
"Will do." With that, the call ended.
'Looks like this mess got even more complicated...' Friday couldn't come any sooner.
Nelius Raoul's Netherheart
11:22 A.M.
The trees shuddered and splintered as the battle between Nelius and his muted doppelganger continued on. Each punch that collided with one another released shockwaves that threatened to collapse the town around them. Every kick that met its opposite tore at the ground beneath them, creating gaping fissures that were poised to swallow the town whole.
His doppelganger made an attempt to bite down on his throat, but this was swiftly countered with a throat grab of his own, and with a twist of his body Nelius tossed his enemy down towards the ground. The doppelganger spread its own wings, slowing its fall to allow it to right itself, touching off the ground and flying towards Nelius.
"Why do you persist?!" The doppelganger growled out, clearly frustrated at its stalled progress. It tried to bring a trans-morphed wing up as a blade, but was stopped by Nelius' own wing hardening and acting as a shield. It brought the wing-blade away, only to receive a blast of Fire magic to its face, causing it to roar in pain.
That moment was all Nelius needed to drive a fist into its midsection.
"I'm going to defy those old rules that did nothing but hold us all back." As he removed his fist from his doppelganger's sternum, he drifted backwards a bit for what was about to happen next.
"Defy?! How could-" The doppelganger didn't get much of a chance to finish its question, as it felt a horrendous tugging sensation where it had been struck. It looked down, only to immediately pale. "No! NO! SHI-"
In that instant, when Nelius had buried his fist into his opponent's gut, he had used one of the strongest close-combat techniques the Netherworld had ever developed.
The Big Bang. Named for the same event many believe was responsible for the creation of the Universe as a whole, if not potentially the Multiverse and beyond, the user punched with enough force to collapse the point of impact unto itself, creating an immensely powerful well of gravity that drew in any unfortunate enough to be close enough to it.
Of course, there had been many variations of this skill. One simply hurled the enemy into a star, when then exploded. Another had the user strike a celestial body hard enough to fracture it and send its debris crashing down upon the hapless foe.
The version Nelius had used was developed during the Veldime Incident, creating a smaller, more localized gravity well that drew his doppelganger into it, despite their best attempts as escaping. A few seconds later, the impact point glowed with intense beams of light escaping through several cracks before ultimately detonating.
The detonation reached high into the skyline, searing an immense hole through the canopy of the trees and causing light to enter this area for the first time, illuminating the now wrecked town.
The doppelganger violently slammed into the ground, blood flying from its mouth. Its skin was cracked, with wisps of steam escaping here and there from muscles that had been seared to a degree unheard of. Its eyes were bloodshot, and its breathing was ragged and choked.
"W-w-why..." It barely managed to choke out amidst horrified coughs. Any attempt at moving was quickly halted by the immense damage taking such an attack would entail, and if the damage alone wasn't enough of a hindrance, the pain from it all only sealed the deal.
In response, Nelius bent down, his hand just large enough to wrap around the doppelganger's face. He lifted his foe to its feet, and in-between his fingers he could see his foe's eyes staring him back, abject terror filling them.
"I've seen where acting like that has gotten demons killed. If you truly are a part of me, then you'd know precisely what I'm referring to. Those whom don't learn will repeat past mistakes."
His doppelganger said nothing, save for raspy breathing.
"With or without you, I'm going to continue on my own path. What will you decide?"
His doppelganger stared back, unable to give a coherent response at that moment.
Several Universes Away
Celestia, Unknown Time
It had taken what felt like days, but the soul was beginning to stabilize. The angels assigned to help restore the soul were already feeling winded, but they were determined to see this through. Archangel Virunga, however, had these angels step down for the time being to get some rest, whilst a new bunch took their place.
One of these angels was on her way back home. Long violet-colored hair hung in a braid behind her, and she stood fairly tall for a Celestian, easily between 5'11" and 6'2". However, one standout feature to note was her eyes, which were always seen closed, not unlike the Female Healers of the Netherworld. Despite such, this particular Celestian was more than capable of performing whatever tasks were needed.
'I can only hope the Archangel's plan succeeds.' Upon hearing that a holy soul was in such a state, she had felt her blood run colder than when she had felt the backwash of a Giga Ice spell during training all those years ago. Actually feeling the state the soul was in made her heart sink, but at the same time it made her even more determined to save it.
Either way, she had done what she could. Now the matter was in the hands of the other angels working with Virunga. For the time being, all she could do was rest up and be on-call in case she was needed.
Her trip home was cut short by the Celestial Gate glowing with dimensional energy, signifying that someone was coming through. While angels were known to travel and in out of Celestia, mostly down to the Netherworld for training, those leaving to do so usually always sent a report back before using the gate.
As the glow died down, a trio of figures could be seen emerging from the gate itself.
"Home at last." The first one to speak up was a Female Celestial with blonde hair. There was something of a weariness to her voice.
"It's been too long." The second to speak was a yellow-furred, bipedal animal with a pair of feathered wings on its back. Its face was notedly canine in appearance, and a pair of curled horns framed its face. This was a Holy Dragon, a subspecies that had evolved to live in Celestia.
"First thing's first, we need to check in with the Seraph." The last was a Male Celestial. He looked up to find the quickest way to the Seraphic Sanctuary, only to immediately lay his eyes on the violet-haired angel. "Hold a moment... Miss Hale, is that you?"
"Hm- Raphael? Aliya? Michael?" The one identified as Hale was stunned. "It's been years since we got your last report. What on earth happened?"
"Long story short, we were trapped on a world that had long since turned inward on itself. We'll gladly explain more once we give our report to Seraph Lamington." Michael spoke up.
"Then let's not waste any more time." Hale's trip home could wait a few minutes longer. The quartet began their trek back towards the Seraphic Sanctuary.
Vale, Beacon Academy
Monday, September 19, 3:43 P.M.
Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood were all waiting for Qrow to show up so he could deliver this supposed news. To keep things quiet, Ozpin had requested that their Scrolls be shut off, and had even shut his desk's system down to prevent any interruptions.
A few minutes later, the doors to Ozpin's office opened, and Qrow walked in. His usual flask wasn't at his side, nor was it in his hand. The usual odor of alcohol didn't emanate from him at all.
"So then, Qrow... what was so important?" Ironwood broke the silence after a few tense seconds.
"This." Qrow withdrew his own Scroll, opening it to tablet mode and bringing up a certain image before flipping it around. "Took me forever to find a way to sneak past Leonardo."
The tension in the room could be felt as the trio looked the image over. The image in question was of the strange, jellyfish-esque Grimm hidden in the secret chamber.
"Believe it or not, Oz, it only gets worse. I heard her voice coming from that thing. He's got something lined up with the Haven Professors when the Vytal Festival kicks off.. likely at her command."
If the tension in the room got any thicker, one would need something far sharper than a knife to cut it.
Ozpin grimaced, his fears coming to pass.
"James..." The Beacon Headmaster spoke up after a moment. "...we might have to push that meeting up early."
"Hm? You mean with-"
"Yes. Him."
"Uh, Oz... who're you talking about?" Seems it was time to give Qrow the rundown.
The Base
3:57 P.M.
Nelius stepped into the base, exiting the Item Diver and shutting it down for the time being. Checking on the Electric Dust Crystal, he made a mental note for a replacement. He then headed around to the other side of the machine and picked up Croixshot, checking it over.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave it back there like that yesterday?" Epsilon piped up. "Won't it just make another attempt to usurp control?"
"Hopefully it won't, but I've made my stance known." He holstered his gun, satisfied with its progress. "Whether or not it accepts that will remain to be seen. For now, best we can do is focus on other present matters."
Walking over to his Scroll, he went to open his notes and record his findings, only to notice a new message icon flash up about a minute later. After putting his notes down and saving it, he flipped over to the messages tab to see what this was all about.
Sender: James Ironwood
Subject: Promised Meeting Update - Urgent
Greetings, Raoul and Epsilon. Circumstances have changed, unfortunately not for the better, and as such it's becoming projected that our meeting will have to happen sooner.
"Circumstances, huh..." Epsilon seemed curious as to what would force them to change the meeting date.
Instead of this Friday, Ozpin is looking to have the meeting tomorrow at Beacon, roughly around noon. Will you be able to attend?
"At Beacon itself, eh?" Nelius admitted to a level of curiosity as to what the Combat Academy taught its students, but that could wait for another time. He hit the "Reply" button, and began to type out his response.
Sender: Nelius Raoul
Re: Subject: Promised Meeting Update - Urgent
Epsilon and I will be there.
Nelius was about to send the reply, but then got an idea. He decided to add more onto the response.
Speaking of the meeting, something Epsilon and I have been working on is complete. Perhaps once business is attended to we can give a demonstration of it.
The reply was sent.
"You're really doing this?" Epsilon asked, feeling personally uncertain about the idea of displaying the Dual Diver so openly.
"It's why I had all the security and backup measures added. 'Sides, it'll also let us check off those questions we've had for a while now."
"Let's just hope this won't come back to bite us. Though, how exactly are we going to get it up there?"
Several Universes Away
Celestia, Unknown Time
Lamington, the Seraph of Celestia, was mentally pondering the series of events that lead to Raphael, Aliya and Michael's return after all these years... the most he could do at the moment was hope that whomever was now in charge of that world would run it far better than its predecessor had.
"Still, what do you plan to do from this point forward?"
"I know Mita said she's planning on scouring the greater Cosmos to find Nelius and help him get home... kind of a paying it back deal for helping to get us all out of that mess." Micheal spoke up. "I would love to join her, but the events on that world played havoc with my senses."
"I promised Farris I'd help get Michael back into better condition." Aliya spoke up next.
"And yourself, Raphael?" Lamington looked towards the one that had yet to speak up. There was a moment before an answer came forth.
"I plan on assisting Mita in her search. Only fair we help get our last man home."
"Very well. May your search be fruitful."
With that, the three excused themselves from Lamington's presence, and exited the Seraphic Sanctuary.
"How did it go?" Hale was waiting outside for them.
"Rather well, but Michael and Aliya are sticking around. I'm not."
"What? Why?"
"Promised Mita I'd lend her my assistance. One of our group got seperated, so she's taking this time to stock up so we can find him. 'Sides, Michael's not in the best of shape, even with our trip home giving us plenty of time to shake off what went down over there."
"Sounds like he was important."
"Everyone was, but he ended up doing a lot of the legwork. Only fair we help him return home."
"I see. Still, be careful out there. I don't want to have to entertain the thought of losing any of you again."
White Fang Headquarters
Unknown Mistrali Time
Ilia didn't waste any time. The moment she had gotten off the airship and away from the crowd she beelined straight for HQ. Thankfully for all involved, the HQ was deep within the more woodland areas to the south, so being tracked wouldn't be much of an issue.
Bounding up the stairs as quick as she could, Ilia didn't even pay notice to one of the members that had been watching her mad dash into the building.
'My... Sister Amitola's in quite the fervor...' This member wore a white-trimmed red hood which doubled as a cloak, made of two pieces held together by yellow buttons and matching string. He was clad in a black tunic with white trim, and at the rear of his white pleated pants an opening had been sewn in to give his fox tail freedom to move. Detached white sleeves, bound at the bicep and at his wrists by black gloves completed his ensemble.
Ultimately putting it out of his mind for the time being, he circled around to the west side of HQ, where a stolen airship was waiting to transport him to Menagerie.
Ilia entered the main hall, but Sienna Khan wasn't present on the High Leader's Throne. For a moment she began to wonder what the High Leader was doing, but as the re-purposed airship lifted off and began heading south, she realized.
Now she not only had to wait even longer to deliver her report, but she also had to keep this information on the down low. Taurus was something of a divisive member of the Fang, given his extreme outlook concerning the Faunus' cause, but this...
'No, no, focus on hiding this first.' Her room at HQ should still be relatively safe, and if need be she'd find other places to stash away this information.
Chapter 15- Complete