RWBY: Dual Eclipse
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Change
Chapter 22: The Twist
"What the hell?" Nelius, having fired up the Dual Diver to perform a diagnostics check, noticed that a Soul Dive had been registered as happening the previous night. "Epsilon, did you happen to-"
"Impossible. I was doing some net-diving in the Scroll to look up more old legends." Epsilon replied, equally perturbed at the machine's log. "After what we had been discussing last night, I figured that maybe some more truth had been hidden behind the cover of an old tale, so I was looking up what I could. Besides, look at the time it was registered."
"11:49 P.M. That's some time after I chose to head to bed."
"Add to that the fact that we always made certain to take out the Dust Crystal or the Shatterpact Batteries once a session is complete..."
An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a moment as the implications of this finding began to sink in.
"...this is just like what happened with Ozpin... is the Dual Diver becoming sentient or something?"
"No real clue... this is a first for me, too."
"Hopefully there'll be a clue in the log... maybe a name or something." Nelius brought it up, scrolling through to see if he could parse any details. He started with the dive Ozpin had requested from yesterday, and began to work towards the most recent entry.
"Let's see here..." Just as he had finished reading the diagnostics relating to Ozpin's dive, the screen went blank. "The hell?!"
Lines of non-coding suddenly began to display.
[THE SOUL IS IN TURMOIL]
"What the balls? Who or what is doing this?" Epsilon went to interface with the Dual Diver... and found little to nothing implying that someone had altered it in any fashion. No hints of another presence trying to force her out or redirect her efforts...
[A DIVISION FROM LONG AGO SEEKS REUNION]
[WE SEEK TO SAVE THIS ONE]
[TIME IS RUNNING OUT; THE MONSTER OF THE PAST CLINGS TIGHT]
The screen blinked once more, and suddenly the Dual Diver had gone back to its original menu, as if the previous few seconds had never happened.
"...is any of this making sense to you, Epsilon?"
"Not one bit."
Beacon Academy, Ozpin's Office
Thursday, September 22, 11:05 A.M.
"I'll be honest, Ozpin..." Ironwood looked the Beacon Headmaster dead in the eyes, or as best he could over the conference call, "..if I hadn't seen it for myself, I'd have thought you lost your mind with that message you sent last night."
"Hence why I'm sharing this finding with you." Ozpin responded. "It's certainly a risk, but at this point..." He went silent for a moment, as if finding the right way to word his next statement. "I find myself... growing tired, James... tired of being on the defensive, just waiting for the other side to make its move."
"...Ozpin?" Now James was curious as to what sparked this change. He'd known the Headmaster to be more cautious, waiting to make a counter-move... now he wanted to change tactics? True, there was some merit in a sudden switch to throw Salem off-guard... but how would they proceed afterwards?
A dry, mirthless chuckle escaped Ozpin.
"I know, sounds much unlike me, doesn't it?"
"That's putting it midly." James responded, growing every wary of this new development. "Still, I am going to want to hear a few more details about this before I make my decision."
"Of course."
Further down, Cinder was eavesdropping thanks to the Black Queen Virus. Thanks to taking a seat in the back, she was able to carefully listen in on the converstion without drawing any attention from the Professor.
'So he could be changing tactics...an interesting play, but ultimately meaningless.' Recording what she could, she flipped her attention back to the lesson going on.
The Base
11:21 A.M.
"Third diagnostic check, and still no errors found." After that strange episode, Nelius had run a quick check to make certain the Dual Diver hadn't picked up any malicious coding. As he had just said, nothing indicating any kind of internal issue cropped up.
"...I'm starting to think that weirdness from earlier isn't due to a technological issue." Epsilon had spoken up after a moment.
"How so? Got any theories?"
"One, that weird chaotic power we were hit with in the previous world just flared up... or two, we just got contacted from beyond the veil by something."
Nelius was silent for a moment... but then spoke up.
"...what if it's a combination of both? There's still too much about this stuff we've yet to comprehend, and even with my dive finally putting that... thing to rest, I've yet to figure a way to properly control it. It could be reaching out to whatever supernatural powers still remain around here, what with the Two Brothers pissing off to parts unknown."
"That presumes this weird power could be properly controlled." Epsilon countered. "Either way, we got stuff we need to do. We'll just have to figure this out as we go, since we don't have any other sources to look to for hints."
"Right." Bringing the log back up, Nelius quickly found where he had been stopped by that odd episode, and resumed searching through it. "Huh... can't find a name for the dive target."
"That could be trouble. If someone is able to be accessed by the Diver and hide their name..."
"...assuming they have a name they identify with." Nelius brought up his own point. "My old man had mentioned once before that he had thrown away his old name after a dust-up with one of the old Seraphs."
"...wait, your dad's a Fallen Angel?"
"...bit beside the point I'm making, but yes."
'Suddenly this explains a fair bit about him.' Shelving that personal thought for later, she got back on track. "...I know we haven't had any luck in that department so far, but do you think someone from our side of the cosmos really could be here? Aside from displaying the Dual Diver to Ozpin and friends, only someone from our neck of the proverbial woods would know about this."
"If they were, unless they were going under the radar we should've been able to sense 'em out by now. Netherworld and Celestial magic have a different resonance to 'em when compared to the Human World's."
"Hm, that is a fair point. Suppose this'll have to be like that weird call we got yesterday?"
"Pretty much. Hopefully whoever or whatever this was will make contact a second time... and with better reception."
With the Dual Diver's last check coming back green, Nelius took this time to jot down his findings whilst Epsilon got to doing some more net-diving for information.
'Let's see here... White Fang appearances down overall... Trafficking suspects in Mistral rounded up by a mysterious Hunter...'
Warship Yoshitsuna
Unknown Time
"Time for a new attempt." Zio continued to check on the transceiver, trying to check throughout the different wavelengths to find more information.
He clicked to a new wavelength.
"Today marks the second year of the search for the missing Rhodonite heir. Trinity Defense Force fleets 6 through 17 are scheduled to patrol -"
Zio clicked to another channel.
"- up next on Netherworld Shopping -"
Click.
"- filming for Prism Rangers vs. Absolute Victory Unlosing Ranger had to be put on hold as the current holder of the Unlosing Ranger's Morphing Belt has gone missing -"
Click.
" - scandal erupted in the Netherworld Assembly when Senator Bigwig was revealed to have painted multiple lead bars in gold paint to offer up as bribes -"
"Hrm..." This clearly wasn't bearing any fruit... but still, the Onmyo Monk would continue searching.
Meanwhile, on another part of the ship, Brutus and York were doing a double-check on the weapon and shielding systems, making certain that the ship would be in tip-top condition.
Tarma and Tia were both listening with rapt attention. Even if this ship was merely a replica of the infamous vessel, learning about this could only benefit them in the long run, especially if they should happen to run into another replica... or Seraph forbid the real deal.
At the bridge, Mita was talking with Raphael and Hilde.
"Hadiya? That is the spirit's given name?"
"Indeed, Mita." Raphael confirmed. "I don't know how this spirit followed us, but I plan on contacting it once more to find out why it is following us, beyond finding its intended target."
"You certain you can trust it?"
"Precisely why I'm meeting with it again. I'd rather not be responsible for accidentally bringing a disaster down upon any unsuspecting victims."
"Fair enough. Just be careful."
Vale, The Base
11:54 A.M.
Nelius's Scroll chimed, indicating a new message had come in. He flipped over to the messages, seeing what had come in.
Sender: &*#*te&^* din(*&te&
Subject: (*&(tra*&(wor* ()(*)?
*&^ #((*!*)(nyo(* ^)(^)(*!&_*&)(*^$eiv*&^*&^(*$&%#*&*^*
(*$^)gat( *#^ &^!Al#() $&^ it$*(&'*(##*&&((
*&(^^(*^&%^%%^$^tra())()*&(
(*&(^(*&(*&DSD*^*(&^*&! )&
&&(*!$&^(*&!trac*&(*^)
&*(& ($(# *((!)*&B
"...what the utter shit is this?" Nelius hit the refresh function, to try and see if the message could be better deciphered. Unfortunately, it was the same garbled mess as when it first dropped into his inbox.
"Did something corrupt the message?" Epsilon tried to sync with the Scroll in an attempt to better transcribe the new message. However, after about a minute this quickly proved to be a futile effort.
"More and more we've got weird shit going on. First that call, then the Dual Diver acting up, and now this."
"Hmm..." Epsilon decided to try something a bit different. Syncing with the Scroll again, she made an attempt to track which CCT Tower the message might've been sent from. "Let's see..."
"Any luck?" Nelius asked after about two minutes had passed.
"Somewhat. It looks like this message came from Mistral, but it feels like whatever sent it wasn't another Scroll... might've been something incompatible that sent this message."
"Incompatible... only way I could see that happening is the use of pre-war tech, though how would my Scroll have picked it up? For that matter, who'd be using such?"
"Couldn't tell you. I'm getting the feeling that the only way we could figure this out is to go investigate ourselves."
"In that case..." Nelius flipped from the message app to connect to the CCT in earnest. "Let's download a couple of maps of Anima in general."
"...wait, we're gonna go right now?"
"Doesn't have to be right now, but having this kind of information on-hand in case we need to stay off the grid would help..." After downloading the maps to his Scroll, he disconnected it from the CCT and brought up the most relevant map image. "Then again, aside from our visits to Beacon and putting a wrench into Cinder's plans, do we have anything else major going on here in Vale right now?"
To that end, Epsilon quickly looked over her personal checklist.
"Right now, it doesn't look like it... Torchwick is locked up, so crime has come to a screeching halt... Cinder hasn't made her move yet at Beacon, and the Fang have been oddly quiet, so they've likely left the general area. If we are gonna head over, how long should this search go for?"
"I'd give it about... three hours from when we land there, assuming nothing else needs our immediate attention. If nothing crops up we'll call it a day and return."
"Sounds good to me. I can get an internal timer set for this."
With their destination set, Nelius took a moment to double-check and ensure he had everything he needed.
Weaponry? Armed. Dual Diver? Shut down and squared away. Scroll? Opened up to get relative positioning.
"Time to go." Exiting up the stairs, he left the base, faced east, and let his wings loose. Within seconds he had lifted off and began flying towards Mistral.
A passenger airship headed towards Vale suddenly felt a fair bit of turbulence that jostled everyone around. The pilot quickly checked over his instruments, trying to find the cause of that turbulence, but got nothing that lead to a definitive conclusion.
The only clue they had was the still rippling water.
Higanbana, Second Floor Bar
4:02 P.M., Mistrali Time
Qrow Branwen knocked back another shot of his favorite whiskey. To say that the revelations dropped upon him two days ago was still weighing heavily on his mind would be a gross understatement.
'Was sis right after all?' He still remembered that argument with his sister over whether or not to support Ozpin's cause. Her words still rang in his mind, decrying him a fool for deciding to stick by Ozpin's side.
At that moment, as he turned to stare out the nearby window, he nearly choked on his drink.
Sitting in one of the tree branches that was level with the second floor of the bar, though with their back to him, was a figure in an identity-concealing outfit. From what Qrow could see, the outfit itself was mostly white in color, with red boots, sleeves that ran red and black and ended in similarly colored gloves. A red, tri-pointed cape hung from their neck, and what he could only presume was a red helmet completed the ensemble, showing nothing of their hair.
'When did-' Qrow took another look at his drink. Was it a lot stronger than he thought, to have caused him to either hallucinate this figure or obscure it from his usual senses? 'Nah, couldn't be.. I've had this stuff before.'
In the time it took for him to look back to the window, the figure had already disappeared from sight.
'...maybe it's time to lay off the booze for today.' He quickly called over that cute waitress.
Said figure had already hopped down from the tree and was already partially into the wilds that surrounded the small town. Their "helmet" was a large, orange-tinted face covering visor that proved nigh-impossible to look through from the outside, concealing their identity. On the other side of the visor, information was flowing across it, mostly transcribed transmissions from Mistral officials about local goings-on.
That was soon to change as a new alert flashed up.
[Netherworld Life-form Detected]
[Energy Signature Match - Confirmed]
This proved a surprise. Something from the Netherworld made it here, and yet there were no reports of it rampaging about? That would explain why the Grimm weren't acting up, since they'd be drawn to the negativity... and of course there was the match to the residual energy that had been found near Vacuo. The trail appeared to have gone north towards Vale, but it had dropped off just as quickly as it had been found.
But at the same time, suppose it had a different methodology in mind, if it wasn't making the Grimm go haywire? Family history had proven their folks had rubbed shoulders with demons a number of times, and many of 'em proved to be fairly decent people, if relentlessly snarky at times. If not for a DNA test, then they would've sworn that those demons they met were distant familial relations.
Either way, this would prove interesting to go check out. The suited figure took off at speeds that ordinary human vision wouldn't be able to detect, the only clue of their existence being the still animate dust and leaves on the ground.
Western Anima
4:12 P.M., Mistrali Time
Nelius touched down on the western coastline, letting his wings retract into his back.
'So this is Anima... you can already tell it feels way different compared to Sanus.'
'The geography, according to what I read, is a mix of mountains and swamps. On this side of the continent is numerous caves and a large forest... if my aunt were here she'd love to explore this kind of place.'
'Oh? She's into nature and stuff?'
'Pretty much. She got a lot of respect from the local Wood Golems and Alraune whenever she came to visit.'
'Definitely gotta meet her one of these days.'
'Well, that'll depend on when we manage to finally get an extraction.'
He opened his Scroll up to check on the maps he had downloaded. According to one, he was fairly close to the village of Shion, and further past it was Higanbana. Mistral itself was further beyond, with Wind Path to its north and Kuchinashi to its south.
'Time to get to it.'
Epsilon's internal timer was set. They had three hours to do some poking around before they would head back to base. Mistral's CCT signal was incredibly weak this far out, but since Nelius wasn't going to bother connecting due in part to that strange bug they had picked up, it wasn't much of an issue.
The first stop would be Shion, given that it was closest. Nelius took off at a fair pace, causing the nearby trees to bend from the sheer speed.
Several Grimm didn't even have a chance to register they were under attack, as Nelius plowed straight through them, leaving behind nothing but a dissolving remain. The few that weren't in the warpath tried in vain to find whomever or whatever had killed the others, leaving them frustrated and agitated.
Within a few moments they were at the village of Shion. He remembered about how Mistral had a varying number of cultures that blended together, and from the look of things Shion looked to be a touch closer to what he remembered of what was said of Dragon Fang's general aesthetic.
Most of the people here were dressed in clothing that reminded him of a mix of what Zio and Virgil wore... he wasn't too aware of what to call this style of clothing, so he abandoned the thought.
Speaking of the people, he was starting to draw some stares as he headed through the town, taking in the sights. He could hear a few hushed whispers, most of them wondering as to the identity of the oddly tall stranger with an axe.
'OK, so what're we looking for over here?'
'Mostly anything that would be very out of the ordinary. If there is something here that doesn't line up with Remnant's usual technology, I figure your on-board programs should be able to sniff it out.'
'Only thing we can do is give it a shot.' She took a moment to try and expand her senses, looking for any signals that didn't match what felt similar to Nelius's Scroll. It took about ten seconds for something to crop up. 'Eh?!'
'Find anything?'
'Getting a really weird signal from up ahead... and it looks like it's headed right for us.'
'ETA?'
'About three to six minutes before it gets here. Whatever this thing is, it's hauling ass.'
'Anything else you can discern from the signal?'
'Not much else... though for some reason it feels weirdly familiar.'
'Guess we'll have to meet it head-on. No sense in dragging these people into a potential fight.' Heading through Shion towards the signal Epsilon had cottoned onto, Nelius clicked his gauntlets into place as he flared his own senses, trying to discern who or what was headed their way.
Strangely, all he was able to find was something akin to a void, like a large, conspicuous shadow in a brightly lit area. Whatever this thing was, either it had to have been a pure machine to not have a detectable life signature, or its ability to suppress its life signature was incredible.
Arriving at the outskirts of Shion, and onto the path headed for Higanbana, he headed out a small bit more, so as to draw as little attention from the town if this was to escalate to a fight.
Roughly ten seconds later, a humanoid shape skidded to a halt in front of him.
Unknown Location
Unknown Time
'Unnhh... where... what is this?' A woman found herself regaining consciousness, yet what surrounded her was an utterly alien landscape... and completely unfamiliar faces.
People walked all around her, going about their own business.
"Apologies, sir, but-" As she reached out to try and catch the attention of one of the passersby, her hand went through him! In shock, she looked towards her hand, seeing it transparent. "No..."
Nobody nearby even heard her screams of utter horror. Whomever this woman was, she was dead to the world, and none would come to her rescue.
Shion-Higanbana Route, Anima
4:42 P.M. Mistrali Time
The figure's dominant color was white, with red boots. Black and red stripes lined its arms and ended in black gloves with yellow-gold striping around the bands. A thick, orange-tinted visor protected the figure's identity, and a red tri-pointed cape hung from its neck. A red cowl came up high enough to effectively cut off any chance of seeing the figure's hair, assuming the visor didn't curl back enough to connect with the cowl. Assuming the suit was only adding about an inch or two of height, the figure stood roughly 5 feet, 10 inches in total.
'Wait a tick...' The detail that Epsilon had begun to cotton onto was the large yellow V that was displayed prominently across the figure's chest, which also matched a crimson-colored V on the figure's waist.
'Any idea who or what this is?'
'Some files are saying this should be a familiar person... but it seems like some of the data went missing... probably either purposefully deleted or accidentally corrupted.'
'I'd say focus on recovering what you can.'
The white figure looked at Nelius, though due to the visor it was hard to tell if the figure was looking at him specifically. What Nelius and Epsilon couldn't see was the lines of data flowing across the other side of the visor, trying to discern any amount of information that it could on the off-world demon. At that moment, it tapped something on the right side of its visor, and not less than three seconds later Nelius's Scroll chimed, indicating a new message had just been sent during that moment.
The figure then gestured to Nelius's pocket, as if telling him to go ahead and answer the message.
Nelius reached into his pocket, getting his Scroll out as he kept his eye on the figure. He flicked it open to see the new message... it had been sent through quick-chat, but...
{ &^(#(* #^*the&(*^*&* #?} The message was a garbled mess.
"Corrupted message... so it was you who sent the previous one?" He replied to the figure, whom was silent yet again. After about ten seconds, the figure tapped the side of their helmet, causing another message to spring up.
{*^$#*%(*! ?}
"Looks like your suit is incompatible with Scrolls." At that, the figure shrugged, and then reached into its pocket, withdrawing a Scroll that was royal purple with a gold trim to it. Simply holding the Scroll in its hands was more than enough to manipulate its message function, sending a new message.
{Your signature... are you someone from the Netherworld?} Needless to say, getting a message like this was quite the surprise.
'They know?'
'Seems like it. Hopefully we can pry a little more from them.'
"To so casually namedrop the Netherworld... you're also from my side of the cosmos?" The figure nodded, sending another message.
{I do appreciate honesty. How did you find this world?}
"Pure random accident. Right now I'm waiting for an extraction from some friends I made on another world... assuming they manage to intercept the message I tried sending." The figure tilted its head slightly in response.
{Accident, you say... it wouldn't have anything to do with a lightshow from outside Vacuo, would it?}
"Lightshow?"
{Here.} A video file was sent to his Scroll, and as he played it, he noticed the date... October 3rd, the date that he landed in Remnant. {There was a trail, but it quickly dissipated before I could fully understand it.}
"...yeah, if I tried to get into the specifics it'd take me a while to explain it. Long story short, I cleaved some asshole god's head in two, and I ended up here."
The figure was silent for about ten seconds as it processed that statement.
{...talk about wild.}
"Understatement of the day... and now I extend the same question to you. How'd someone like you end up here?"
{One of my siblings was messing with a prototype Dimensional Gate unit, and I ended up getting sent here due to a malfunction in said unit. I love my twin sister, but she can get a little too curious for her own good.}
As the conversation was going on, Epsilon was busy devoting a lot of her processing power towards memory recovery - something about this figure was screaming at her that she should've been more than informed about them.
'Why does this character look so familiar?'
Warship Yoshitsuna
Unknown Time
Another part of the Universe scanned, and once again no results.
Mita went to put away the results of this scan, when a hailing frequency suddenly flared to life on the console.
"Huh..." Bringing up the scanner, she noticed a new presence... scratch that, multiple new presences. "Other ships, out this far?" Now curious as to who this might be, she took a moment to alert everyone else before she brought up the front view of the ship... and she had been right.
A veritable fleet of ships was floating there, ships that Mita was only vaguely familiar with. The hailing frequency came again, and this time she answered.
A new screen opened up, showing a brunette woman in a dull green uniform. Dark grey eyes met red across the screen.
"Hello?"
"Well well..." The woman had a somewhat deep voice to her. "Never imagined we'd see life out this far...and is that a replica Yoshitsuna? Don't see one of those everyday."
"Yeah, there's a hell of story behind this acquisition, but it can wait. I'm Mita, the one who's more or less in charge. Who might I be addressing?"
"This is Admiral Aika of the 10th TDF Fleet."
"The TDF, eh? What brings you folks out this way?"
"I could ask the same of you and your ship, but you did ask first." At least Aika looked to be a fair sort. "One of the heirs to the Rhodonite family went missing a couple of years ago, and we've been assigned the task of tracking her down and bringing her home."
"Fancy that, we're in the middle of a search and rescue ourselves. Two of our own got caught in the middle of a nasty dimensional flux, so we've been scanning over different star systems to locate 'em. We clear to compare some notes?"
"One moment." The communication line went dead for about three minutes as Aika got in touch with her commander to report this. "Commander Tori has granted permission for assistance, but do note this will be recorded for future scrutiny."
"Very well."
Outside Shion, Anima
4:53 P.M. Mistrali Time
{So you're the one who was cleaning up the criminal elements in Vale?}
"I can't take all of the credit, though. I did have a fair amount of help in those endeavors."
{I see. It's just been me over here whenever I'm not over in Vacuo helping out a few pals.}
"Aha... I probably already know the answer to this question, but it bears asking - you don't have a way off Remnant, do you?"
{...regrettably, no I don't. The prototype Dimensional Gate unit died on me, and even if I had the materials to get it fixed I have no idea how it was originally programmed. You had mentioned an extraction headed this way?}
"Assuming my allies get my message, then yes. That dimensional flux was a nasty one... no real telling where in the greater cosmos we are right now. If I knew how to make a Pocket Netherworld it'd at least let us travel around."
{Duly noted. In such a case, here.} A Scroll number had been sent to his... the name associated with it was "Azura". {Should you learn anything about that extraction, feel free to contact me.}
"That'll work."
{Now then...} The figure going by the name of Azura stopped for a moment.
"? Something going on?"
{Apologies, but I must be off.}
"If anything comes up, we'll be in touch."
{Kindly do.} With that, Azura closed their Scroll, pocketed it, and within seconds was already speeding off towards Higanbana.
'Epsilon, your thoughts?' Epsilon was silent. 'Epsilon? You still there?'
'Huh, what... oh! Oh, sorry! I was a little lost in thought.'
'Did you remember something?'
'That outfit was looking mighty familiar, so I tried looking up what I had in my database. Memory restoration took a little longer than expected.'
'Well, don't leave us in suspense. What did you find?'
'Whoever this Azura is, they got a hold of the Unlosing Ranger's Morphing Belt.'
Chapter 22 - Complete