RWBY: Dual Eclipse
Author: Master C.V.G.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Change
Chapter 28: Revelation
"Got you, you little shit!"
At least three different men were holding down the young boy, who was trying his damnest to escape. Two of them each had an arm, whilst the last was holding his legs together to ensure he couldn't kick at them.
At least two others were sporting black eyes, with another one, if the shoeprint upon her torso was any indication, having been kicked far away and hard enough to almost embed her into the dumpster in the alleyway.
"Why are you doing this?! I haven't done anything to you!"
"Shut it, you freak!" The lead of this gang, a woman with a nasty scar across her lips, brought her hand back to full-on punch the child. "Filthy things like you should know your place!"
She went to bring her fist foward... only to find it not moving. In fact, someone had grabbed her wrist with a rather terrifying amount of strength, to the point that no matter how much she pulled, her arm would not budge.
"Who the-" She turned her head to catch sight of who dared to restrain her, only to see a pair of terrifying crimson eyes staring her down. "Wha-"
The sight of crimson eyes would be the last thing she'd see as a fist buried itself into her face, knocking the woman cleanly unconscious. She crumpled to the ground, and didn't get up.
"You bitch!" Another of the hoodlums withdrew a dust-blade knife and went to attack, only to find his own body unable to move. Keen eyes would've noticed thin, nearly invisible threads keeping the man still. "...I can't move... I can't move!"
The two men holding the child's arms found the consciousness stripped from them as the pressure points upon the sides of their necks were ruthlessly pressed, causing all feeling to quickly disappear from their bodies as they slumped to the ground.
The last member of the group quickly let go of the child's legs, not wanting to suffer the same fate as his unconscious pals. A wise decision on his part, as one of the trio dismantling the group soon stepped into view.
It was a slender, older-looking man, who looked to be in his upper forties, maybe on the range of hitting fifty soon. He stood about 5'7", and was clad in a dark-blue colored formal suit, with matching tie and slacks. Chestnut-colored eyes regarded the last of the group that tried assaulting the child as he tightened one of the gloves on his hands.
"...no way..." The hoodlum currently tied up recognized who it was he was seeing, horror quickly dawning upon him. "...Ten-Threads?!"
"Never mind him, he brought company!" The company in question was a woman with crimon-colored eyes and matching hair that was only beginning to fade, being in similar age to her companion and standing about three to five inches taller. Much like her friend, she was clad in a formal dress, albeit one that was black in color and showed off a set of muscular yet slim arms and legs. "Vacuo's Bandit Killer..."
"Then who-" The tied-up one looked over to who had knocked the others unconscious, only to find his breath hitch in his throat.
Currently piling the other bodies into an easy-to-find heap was a mountain of a man, easily well over six and a half feet tall, and his dark green formal wear did little to hide his physique. A pair of yellow eyes could be seen looking over the group, and at a glance one could see that the eyes were mismatched in shade, one being light and the other being much darker. Dark green hair took on a bit of a sinister shade in the lower lights.
"That appears to be the last." The tallest of the group reported with a deep, intimidating voice. "Well, aside from these two."
Attention was now drawn to the two remaining members, the free one trying to shrink himself down so as to escape scrutiny. No such luck for him, sadly.
"Now then..." The one called "Ten-Threads" approached the tied-up one, "...mind explaining why you were harassing this child? Depending on how you answer you might leave this alleyway conscious."
"Why do you give a shit about this Faunus-kid?" He responded. "He's just like all the res-" The threads tying him up tightened, digging into his skin and threatening to draw blood. "Grrkk.."
"If this is going to be yet another spiel on the stereotypes of Faunus-kind, I'm just going to leave you for the Ace-Ops to deal with."
That name struck fear into the gang members - Ironwood's Ace-Ops were known to be the best of the best... and considering one of the members was a known Faunus...
"Answer the question - why were you harassing this boy?"
The free member of the gang tried to scoot away and towards freedom, only to find the one called "Bandit Killer" blocking his path. Judging from the look on her face and the cracking of her knuckles, she was more than eager to start breaking limbs.
After about fifteen seconds of uncomfortable silence, the tied-up one simply had nothing to say.
"...a pity." With a mere gesture, "Ten-Threads" caused the threads holding the gang member to tighten enough to strip the consciousness from him.
So focused on the Drifter was the last member that he didn't notice the overly-tall one walk up behind him, and with one swift application of his index finger to the gang member's neck, he too was knocked out.
The young boy was completely bewildered. These three... they were so strong...
"Are you all right?" The tallest of them asked. It took a moment for the question to register in the child's mind, and he got a quick nod in response. At that, the tall one's expression softened.
"...say.." The redhead looked the child over, "...now that I get a closer look, I think I've seen him before."
"Oh?" Ten-Threads sounded quite interested in this development.
"Yes - running errands for many of the locals down here in Mantle. They've had nothing but good things to say about him."
"Speaking of, we should get him back to the Doctor's place." The tall one responded. "Old guy's been pretty worried about him."
"The Doctor?" The child spoke up, confusion apparent on his face... which then turned to curiosity. "Do you mean the guy with the walking chair?"
"The very same," At that, the child's eyes lit up. "C'mon, I'm certain Dr. Polendina would be relieved to see you unharmed."
The young one leapt to his feet, eager to get out of this alleyway and away from these people that wanted to hurt him merely because of the horns on his head.
The quartet left the alleyway, leaving the knocked out gang members to be picked up by the authorities... however, a close inxpection of one of the child's footprints from the earlier scuffle would show traces of burn marks...
The Base, 9:27 A.M.
Monday, September 26
"Well, it's about that time." Nelius did one final double-check on the Dual Diver, to ensure everything was secured within the case. The time on his Scroll rolled over to 9:28 A.M.
"That reminds me... should we let Ozpin know about that Cinder chick being targeted by the Diver?" Epsilon piped up as Nelius closed the case and locked it.
"Assuming Qrow hasn't already filled him in." Nelius responded. "Either way, everything's secure, got my weapons, got the notes... unless we're missing anything, I believe we're ready to go."
"Yeah, that's everything on the checklist. Hopefully this won't backfire..."
With everything assembled, Nelius took the case with him as he headed upstairs and out towards the Airship port in Vale. What neither of the offworld demons had noticed was a pair of spirits following them, adamant on adding their two Lien to the situation.
"And you're certain about this?" The first spirit asked.
"I am. Leaving something unfinished isn't something I do, and I'm not going to let death stop me."
"...but, do you not worry about what will happen next?"
"I've had years to mull that over, and if I didn't take this opportunity I'd be kicking myself well into whatever other life I have after this!"
That outburst made the other spirit flinch a bit, clearly a bit unnerved by the other spirit's determination.
Meanwhile, Nelius had gotten onto one of the Bullheads and was on his way up towards Beacon. The trip upwards towards the Academy was a quiet one, with a few students returning to classes after spending their free time within Vale. Some of them did regard him with a wary gaze, and at least one muttered something about Yatsuhashi not mentioning having a brother, but ultimately turned their attention back to other matters.
The Bullhead landed at Beacon's Airship Dock, and Nelius disembarked. He immediately began heading for Ozpin's Tower, still unaware of his two guests following him.
Entering the CCT, he stepped into the elevator, being greeted by the elevator operator through the speaker. The time read 11:21 A.M.
"I'm here to see the Headmaster." He held up his Scroll to verify his identity.
"Welcome, Mr. Raoul. Headmaster Ozpin has been expecting you."
With that, the elevator began heading upwards.
'Hm..' Epsilon's voice could be heard in the back of his mind.
'Something on your mind?'
'It's about the Mental World of Miss Rose. Been mulling over how we're going to explain this whole deal to her... I mean, we have no idea what she's like - is she smart, is she denser than a bag of hammers?'
'I imagine Ozpin and Goodwitch have a way to explain it to her. I'm mostly wondering when Qrow will show up, given this is his niece we're talking about.'
The elevator eventually reached the top, and as the doors opened Nelius stepped into Ozpin's office.
"Welcome, Mr. Raoul. Glynda will be here with Miss Rose in an hour."
To this, Nelius nodded, and headed over to Ozpin's Desk to extract the Dual Diver from his case and assemble it.
"Before they arrive, I am curious - how do you imagine this will pan out?"
"Hard to say - I've not met this Ruby Rose, so trying to predict how she'll act with this recent development is up in the air. That said, anything you're legally allowed to divulge on her would be a good foundation to begin from."
Ozpin remained silent for a moment, his mind carefully crafting a response. Nelius continued setting up the machine, powering it on and doing his usual diagnostics check to ensure everything was in working order.
'It's almost time...' One of the spirits was getting a bit 'd been waiting a long time to finally do this. That hour couldn't pass by any sooner.
Warship Yoshitsuna
Unknown Time
Another planet with a broken moon, and another failure.
The list of planets that Aika had provided to Mita's crew was being chewed through at a rather astounding rate, and there were zero readings for Nelius's signature.
York, in the meanwhile, was busy reattuning the transceiver to find the signal from earlier and get a better idea of which direction it originated from. After a few moments of little luck, he got a different idea.
'Let's see here... maybe I ought to take a better look inside this thing and see what makes it tick.' The Prinny quickly shut the machine down, and began to disassemble it. Zotia idly watched as York got to work, exploring the inner circuits of the machine.
"Ugh, Kurosugi clearly didn't bother with upkeep on this thing, dood." The Prinny groused as he tried cleaning some of the components, wiping away years of accumulated dust. "Geez, some of this stuff is way out of date... next chance we get, I'm getting this thing upgraded, dood."
Zotia was about to say something, but then an idea crossed her mind.
"Say, would it be possible to run an Item Dive on the transceiver?" That got York to stop for a moment and consider...
"Truth be told, I have no idea if that'd work at all, dood. If you want to give it a shot, feel free."
With that, Zotia exited the room to see who was available to try this experiment with her.
Beacon Academy, Ozpin's Office
12:20 P.M.
'All right... no further anomalies detected.' With the setup complete, Nelius decided on a last-minute bug check, largely to cover his bases, and nothing came up on that front.
Now came waiting for Goodwitch to arrive with Ruby in tow, and of course for Qrow to also arrive as he had promised.
After what had felt like the longest ten minutes ever, the elevator ascended back upwards to Ozpin's Office, and the doors opened, revealing Goodwitch and Ruby Rose.
'Hey, that's the kid we saw way back when, the one that tried to stop Cinder and Torchwick.'
'Indeed. Kid looks kinda nervous... then again, considering the Dual Diver's been picking up on her...'
'True... so how are we gonna go about this?'
'Only way I figure is to be honest about this. We may need to adjust as we go.'
Ruby stepped back into the Headmaster's office, her own mind racing as to what this could be about.
"Ruby Rose, I presume?" Nelius spoke up, startling the young Huntress-in-training. When she got a good look at him, her eyes widened.
"Whoa he's tall - Ah! I mean, yes, that's me, Rose Ruby - I mean Ruby Rose!"
Nelius simply blinked at that outburst. Epsilon suppressed a laugh.
"..anyway, Miss Rose... Headmaster Ozpin here tells me that you've been having odd dreams, of familiar surroundings in grayscale?"
To that, Ruby nodded.
"For that, I actually owe you an apology." Now it was Ruby's turn to blink in astonishment.
"What."
"I was testing out the finished production of a prototype one of my friends made-" He tilted his head towards the Dual Diver, "-and despite a number of security features that were added, it seems you were targeted by accident."
Ruby had quite the blank stare on her face. It was becoming increasingly clear that his words were starting to fly far over her head.
"For one, this prototype was only supposed to activate its intended functions for those whom gave their full and willing consent... though I suppose in this particular case, it might be much easier to simply demonstrate."
Now that got Ruby's attention. Nelius turned to the Dual Diver on Ozpin's desk, and began activating it. The machine hummed to life, data and commands flowing across the console screen.
"That said, if at all possible, I would ask of you to-" He didn't get a chance to finish that statement, as with a loud beep the machine flashed a message.
[ALLOW ME TO TAKE THIS FROM HERE]
"Oh sh-"
With another brilliant flash of light, those present in the room disappeared, their destination already set. Yet, there was one person who was missing from this exchange...
Ruby Rose's Mental Landscape
Unknown Time
"..ehh? I'm back here again?!" Ruby, needless to say, was not a fan of this moment.
All around her was the familiar surroundings of her home back on Patch, but once again it was awash in grayscale colors, as if something or someone had sucked all the life away. She looked down at herself, sighing a small breath of relief that she hadn't gone grayscale as well. Thankfully, she had remembered to bring Crescent Rose this time.
"...Mr. Raoul, what just happened?" Ozpin and Nelius had found themselves separated from Ruby and Glynda. All around them was a veritable expanse of trees.
"A confirmation to what I had been considering - I don't who or how, but someone from beyond the grave hijacked the Diver. While undoubtedly responsible for this trip, they might've also been the one to cause the first jump back during the meeting... assuming that wasn't the doing of your first incarnation."
"You mean to tell me a ghost did this?"
"Pretty much, yes." Epsilon spoke up. "They also used the Dual Diver's screen to communicate with us a number of times."
"...truly, this is the oddest case I've experienced yet."
"Like I said before, shit's only going to get weirder from here, Headmaster." Nelius responded. "For now, we should find Goodwitch and Rose before the Subconscious begin to take notice."
Speaking of Goodwitch, she found herself up in a tree, also in a separate area. Not even bothering to question how she ended up here, she took a moment to use her vantage point to her advantage, trying to locate either Ruby or Ozpin.
Sadly, it didn't work for her, as all she could see from her vantage point was more trees, stretching out as far as her vision could see.
Ozpin's Office
12:33 P.M.
"Oz? Glynda?" Qrow had stepped into the vacant office, seeing nobody else about. On Ozpin's desk, however, was the Dual Diver, currently active.
'Oh great - did it activate on its own again?' Crossing the room quickly, Qrow looked for the console screen. Finding it, he took a look over - assuming he was reading it correctly, they were already inside of Ruby's mind... that sounded all kinds of wrong.
It was then that the screen went blank, a new message beginning to scroll across it.
[HELLO AGAIN, QROW]
The drunkard blinked. Did that thing just-
[IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME]
"...this ain't some kind of prank, is it?"
[PERHAPS I SHOULD REMIND YOU OF THAT BET YOU LOST, THE ONE THAT ENDED WITH YOU IN A SKIRT]
Now that caught his attention - there were only two people alive that knew of that bet.
"Is that-"
[YES QROW, IT'S ME]
He felt his blood run cold... there was no way this could be possible.
"...no... no way..."
[THIS IS NO PRANK, OLD FRIEND]
Ruby Rose's Mental Landscape
Unknown Time
Ozpin and Nelius continued their way through the nigh-endless expanse of trees, looking to locate Ruby and Glynda.
"Something feels amiss about this situation... almost as if we are going in circles." Ozpin spoke up after about a few minutes of internally debating his own thoughts.
"What makes you believe such?" Nelius inquired.
"I got suspicious a few minutes back, so I made a small mark on some of the trees we passed... look, there." The Headmaster pointed to an upcoming tree... one with a distinct mark on it.
"...now you've got me thinking. Let me test something." Taking a few steps forward, Nelius allowed his wings to emerge from his back, and with a mighty leap upwards he flew straight up, aiming to break through the canopy.
At his current projected speed he should've broken through within at least three seconds... so after about thirty seconds of upwards flight, he stopped. When he went to descend, he reached the ground in under five seconds.
"You're onto something, Ozpin. Something here is hindering our progress." Nelius let his wings retract into his back. "This shouldn't be happening."
"Well, to be fair..." Epsilon spoke up, "...we are technically strangers in her heart. If Miss Rose isn't the kind to be immediately open with others, especially with whatever kind of sensitive matters lay within here, then her own heart could be rejecting us, refusing to grant us passage until she wills it."
"If we were rejected, then we'd be back in Ozpin's Office already. Whoever's behind this might want a private audience with Ruby before we get the details... main question then is who..."
Meanwhile...
Ruby took her time to explore this grayscale facsimile of her home on Patch. Everything was as she remembered leaving it early this year - the comic book she had been trying to read to calm her nerves before it was time to depart, Zwei's favorite napping spot when the afternoon sun was just in the right place...
Yet, where were the Headmaster and Miss Goodwitch? Was she alone in here again? What did that super tall guy's machine do?! Her mind began to race and loop in directions she wasn't quite certain she was ready to go!
"Ruby-" A female's voice called out to her...
"AAAAAA!" She yelped in complete surprise, head whipping around to try and find the source. "Who's there?!" Her hands immediately went to Crescent Rose, preparing to whip her sniper-scythe out to take on whoever was there.
To that, the voice... chuckled?
"Eh?" Ruby was confused. "Who..."
"Over here." Ruby followed the sound of the voice, only to see... herself, sitting at the dining room table?! Aside from her cloak being more of a white color, this person looked just like her - same face, same kind of clothing... even the same silver-colored eyes.
"Wha... who... huh?"
"Do you like how this place looks?"
"Wha- why do you look like me?"
"Of course you wouldn't recognize me in-person, so to speak. It has been years, after all."
Ruby was about to make a remark, but as she took in her doppelganger's features, something in the back of her mind began to click... an old, buried memory...
"...Mom?!"
Chapter 28 - Complete