RWBY: Dual Eclipse
Author: Master C.V.G.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Change
Chapter 30: The Trail
As the Yoshitsuna's repairs were around halfway complete, York had brought Mita with him to ask around about any planets known to have a shattered moon within their orbit.
While a fair few had been mentioned, these were ones that Aika had already submitted information on, so no new leads were found.
"Classic hay in a needlestack, dood..." York groused.
"Considering how big the universe is, can't say I'm surprised." Mita replied. She was about to say something else, but a monitor caught her attention. "What's this here?"
York looked up at the monitor as well, though he had to reposition himself due to a slight bit of glare from the lights.
It looked interactive, and so Mita went to take a closer look. Three pieces of text were glowing, depicting them as recent additions to the news panel.
[New Sector Exploration: Departure for Sector 0-UM in Seven Days]
[Trading Ship V-01-D ETA: 3:12:29]
[Dubious Royalty Claims to Sol System]
Mita tapped the first option, and it expanded.
[Trinity Defense Fleet 20, headed by Commander Montreal, has received confirmation to explore a new sector of the universe. Coded Sector 0-UM, this unexplored sector had remained such due to unidentified EM waves that scrambled radar and other sensory arrays, marking the area as either holding high concentrations of radiation or wild magical surges, making conventional travel too high a risk.]
[Recent innovations in insulation and energy filtration have allowed for potential safe passage through this new region. Field testing has been underway to ensure complete safety for passing vessels - and with a remarkable 98.6% efficiency achieved through multiple field tests, travel towards this sector has been cleared.]
[The trip is currently charted to take roughly three days to arrive, and another four days to fully map out the system. Fleets 21 through 25 will be assigned to this task.]
"A new system, huh... how much you wanna bet our people of interest could be there?"
"Sounds way too convenient to have happen, dood... but considering the weird stuff we've encountered..." Having said that, York began to get an idea of his own, but it'd have to wait until repairs were complete.
Shrugging, Mita closed the first option, and then clicked the second.
[Trading Ship V-01-D, piloted by the mysterious Sli M. Cognito, is due to arrive at this station upon countdown completion. Cognito's crew has been known to travel to several of the most dangerous sectors in the universe, to find rare and exotic materials. His stock is known to change with every visit, so all beings with a vested interest are encouraged to keep an eye on this post.]
"Rare and exotic materials, eh?"
"Mita, is it wise to stick around too long, dood? The ship's getting close to done as is."
"No harm in seeing what wares he has. Who knows, he might have something that'll aid our search."
Ozpin's Office
2:13 P.M.
"Whoa!" Without warning, Qrow's vision went a stark white as a brilliant flash of light illuminated the entirety of Ozpin's Office. With it being the middle of the day outside nobody out in the courtyard would've noticed unless they had been looking directly at his office.
By the time the drunkard's vision finally restored itself, he could see the other occupants - Ozpin, Glynda, Nelius-
"UNCLE QROW!" Before he knew it, a red and black blur immediately tackled him in a hug, and given he was caught off-guard by the sudden light show, it left him unable to properly brace for Ruby impact. His back hit the floor and his breath was knocked from his lungs as a familiar weight glomped onto him.
Epsilon suppressed a wheezing laugh at the sight as Nelius looked over to Ozpin.
"...does she do that often?"
"She had mentioned that Qrow was the one who taught her how to fight, so the two of them being close would make sense."
"Aaaaaah it's so good to see you!" Ruby was so enamored by seeing her beloved uncle that she had completely pushed the recent events to the back of her mind. Qrow, once he managed to regain some semblance of feeling in his arms, reached a hand up to ruffle Ruby's hair.
"Hey Kiddo, been a while."
As Ruby excitedly regaled Qrow with stories of her current time at Beacon, talking about her team and JNPR, Nelius walked over to the Dual Diver, a look that mixed confusion with slight annoyance crossing his face.
"Something amiss, Mr. Raoul?" Ozpin asked after a moment, getting a slow nod from the offworld demon.
"As I said before - measures were put in to prevent incidents like that from happening. How did she circumvent those methods?"
"Incidents?" Ozpin found himself curious as to what Nelius meant.
"Originally, anybody could walk into another's heart given the right method, and I'm fairly certain I don't need to explain the implications of that kind of action."
Ozpin remained silent, internally weighing the information as the offworld demon explained.
"After a large-scale incident was kicked off through such tampering, measures began being put in place to ensure it wouldn't happen again, such as needing the explicit permission of the owner to enter..."
Nelius looked back over to Ruby and Qrow, the pair not even paying attention to the conversation.
He then turned his attention back to Ozpin and Glynda. "So how did Summer get that permission?"
"..." Ozpin had an idea of how it could've been done, but stopped himself from saying so aloud.
"Oh, um... Headmaster..." Ozpin looked up to see Ruby standing near her uncle, whom had finally gotten off the floor. "...am I allowed to return to my team now?"
"Quite, Miss Rose - but before you go..." Ruby had frozen mid-step to the office door. "-it would be advised to keep this matter private, as there is much we're still learning."
"Understood!" With that, she was but a blur out the door... and having to wait for the elevator, which seemed to take an uncomfortably long time to arrive.
After Ruby had boarded the elevator and was on her way back down, about ten seconds had passed to ensure she was long out of earshot before Qrow turned his attention to the group.
"So, what did I miss?"
Atlas
4:15 P.M. Atlesian Time
Ironwood stepped away from the screen, mostly to let his eyes recover from the strain.
The absolute best of the best in programming and data recovery had been selected. If they were going to remove this foreign coding from the CCT before it had its chance to spread further, these fine men and women would get the job done.
However, he had a different dilemma to consider: the one who planted the coding would undoubtedly be monitoring for any changes, and if there were any detected changes they'd likely alter their strategy. As for how that alteration could go, they could either have a different virus at the ready, or an exit strategy should they be outed...
Once again, he felt his right arm twitch... he stopped, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. Part of him wanted to immediately return to the screen and do a double-check, but he relented for another moment.
Something was off. Then again, his mind had been almost constantly abuzz with the revelations found within Ozpin's heart... that still felt somehow wrong to state.
"Ten minutes... then back to finalizing."
The twitching in his arm slowly died down. He could only hope this wasn't a sign of worse things to come.
Ozpin's Office
2:31 P.M. Vale Time
"...Oz, if I hadn't already seen this stuff for myself, I'd have thought you finally went off the deep end." Qrow, true to form, was entirely blunt.
"Trust me, Qrow, I'm still having a time of trying to wrap my owm mind around this whole situation." Ozpin's reply was equally to the point.
In the meantime, Nelius was again looking over the Dual Diver, still quite perplexed at how Summer's spirit was able to take control of the machine. Then again, Ozma had managed to do so even without a power source...
'...maybe this is related to what Summer said to us...'
'You mean the whole business of Remnant being unbalanced?'
'Indeed... though now I wonder what she specifically meant by that...'
'Admittedly, I do have one potential idea of what Miss Summer meant... and it involves a certain pair of absentees.'
Nelius blanched at the thought, but the more he began to think on it the more things began to click into place.
'Figures - those two asswipes are causing problems even when they're long gone.' The urge to cave their faces in with his fist was rising... but it would need to wait for now. Currently they already had a fair bit on their plate to deal with.
He eventually stepped away from the Diver's main screen.
'Might just need to ask Summer directly on how she did that.'
TDF Drydock 19
Unknown Time
At one other end of the drydock, a relatively small carrier-class vessel was seen rotating around to back into the station. From the size of it, it looked to be about half the size of the Yoshitsuna war vessel.
From the back end of the ship, a loading ramp unfolded from the ship's bottom, and down it descended what looked to be an armored truck. It rolled down the ramp, coming to a stop about one-thousand feet from the ship before rotating around, the tires acting in the same manner as tank treads.
At the back end of this car, a trio of small holographic kiosks began to illuminate. Above them, a rectangular peephole opened, and all that could be seen from it was a pair of eyes, albeit mismatched in color - the left eye was a stark blue, the right eye red. However, those whom were able to get a closer look would've noticed a swirling pattern within the irises.
"The wait's over, ladies and gentlemen." A smooth, almost beckoning voice could be heard. "I'm back~"
TDF Staff were on-hand to ensure a quick and efficient queue system - patrons to Cognito's Trade would be given a full fifteen minutes to browse his wares before needing to finalize any purchases. This system was enacted about three years ago, after several patrons held up the line for roughly two hours, intent on cleaning out the entire stock.
Mita and York had their queue ticket in-hand, and it was about roughly 45 minutes later that the pair got their chance to check out the wares.
The kiosk's list seemed to scroll on forever - modular packs for weapons, decorations that could only come from another galaxy, illustration packets, sculptures...
"Well well, got us an interesting pair here." Cognito seemed quite interested in the pair. "Not everyday I see someone in possession of a replica Yoshitsuna Warship."
"You seem well-informed." Mita looked a bit impressed that Cognito had identified York and herself at a glance.
"Word's been getting around that some people in possession of one put Kurosugi back into the Underworld. Good riddance to that bitch, I say - more than once she's tried ambushing me on one of my collection missions."
"Not like it's stopping her fanatics from causing trouble, dood." York groused. "How did she get so many followers?"
"One of the 12 mysteries of the Greater Cosmos, buddy."
Mita continued looking over the list, but very few things were catching her interest. She was about to step away, when something did catch her eye. It looked like a brilliant half-white and half-red crystal.
"What's this here?"
"Oh, that thing? Found it around the edge of that newly identified sector, alongside what looked like ship and satellite wreckage. I'm willing to bet some salvagers got jumped."
"Assuming the EM waves didn't get to 'em first."
"Yeah, that place is a galactic storm - those EM waves nearly toasted my ship more than once, and that was just on the sector's edge. Hope these TDF folk know what they're doing, trying to venture into that hellscape."
The crystal's properties were noted as being a complete unknown, as various attempts to check its composition with known minerals turned up empty.
Spying the listed price, Mita decided to purchase it. Inserting some converted HL notes into the kiosk, a smaller opening revealed itself below her kiosk, and the crystal slid out.
"All righty, anything else?"
"Think this'll do for now." Mita pocketed the crystal, intent on doing her own study on it. "How long you gonna be here?"
"I usually stick around for about two days before I head off to the next dock. Stop by again - my stuff's always in rotation."
"I'll keep that in mind." With that, Mita and York left the kiosk and began to head back towards the Yoshitsuna.
Meanwhile...
Aika was busy looking over a new report, a look of confusion across her face.
[To all Personnel]
[Planetary System TR-215 has collapsed. This system was known to have no military or magical presence capable of this level of destruction. Current speculation is planetary crackers sent to strip-mine the system for resources.]
[Investigation into this destruction will be underway.]
'Planet-crackers... but those devices were outlawed about two centuries ago..' Aika turned her attention to the attached images depicting the system's destruction.
The planetary cluster, numbering about six, was now nothing more than a new asteroid group.
'Couldn't be... those devices were far too neat in their dissection.'
As she flipped through the images, something caught her eye. Magnifying the image as best she could, she could vaguely make out some kind of indentation in one of the larger planetary pieces.
'Claw marks? Or teeth marks?' This drew concern; what kind of monster would be large enough to leave visible marks on an asteroid of that size? 'I should let command know about this.'
She made a copy of the image in question, pointing out the marks she had noticed and quickly typing up a small report of her own before sending it.
Unknown Location
Unknown Time
"Amber... Amber..."
"Hrm... huh?" Amber's eyes fluttered open, only to see that she wasn't in her assigned room. Panic quickly flooded in as she quickly got to her feet.
The landscape that spread out before her wasn't one she was familiar with... it looked to be a modest house out in the middle of wilderness. The house looked a bit weather-worn, and the surrounding grass was starting to look a touch overgrown. If the sky was any indication, it had to have been in the afternoon.
"Where..."
"Ah, welcome." An inviting female voice called to the Autumn Maiden, and as she looked over to see whom was addressing her, she about jolted in shock.
Sitting upon a tree stump was a woman whom looked remarkably similar to Amber, though she did look roughly three to four years older, being slightly taller and with a somewhat more pronounced figure, and for a brief moment Amber felt a slight tinge of jealousy arise. The most remarkable feature noted was her eyes, which had a odd, yet familiar shimmer to them.
"Who...wha..."
"I suppose introductions should be in order... you can simply refer to me as Autumn, and as to what brings us here..." She lifted one of her hands, and a familiar swirl of wind magic began to encircle a finger.
"Wait... you're-"
"The embodiment of the Autumn Maiden. You're far from the first one to inherit this power."
"Then... how're you speaking to me? Why now?"
"As to how, I'm... actually uncertain of that. This is an honest first for me."
Amber felt her confusion growing with each passing minute. The Maiden powers could do something like this? How much did it know?
"But, I'm not going to let this opportunity go to waste. I'll be blunt; I've been passed around a large number of people throughout my existence. Some of them benevolent, others much like that one that tried to use that insect on you."
Amber bit back a shiver upon thinking about that incident. If not for that shadow-being, Belderiver, she'd likely be dead.
"...so, what's on your mind, Autumn?"
"Simple - I want to show you a few new tricks." At the look on Amber's face, Autumn continued. "For as long as you've had me - which I admit, probably could be taken out of context - there is still much to learn. Some of the previous wielders have come up with some interesting techniques."
"Such as?"
"For one, there's this." Autumn stood up from the stump, and as the aura around her eyes flares to life, she took a deep breath, before exhaling a white-hot stream of flames from her mouth. "Just imagine what something like this could've done to that red-clad woman."
Amber took a moment to actually think about it - the moment the red one pulled out that insect and tried to shove it in her face, she could've popped it... and given her assailant third or fourth-degree burns. While it wouldn't have stopped them from trying anything else, the threat of that insect would've been dealt with.
"...how many tricks do you have to show me?"
"Years of 'em, if you got the time and will to learn."
"Deal."
The Base
4:55 P.M. Vale Time
Nelius descended into the basement area. The moment he opened the case he quickly withdrew the Dual Diver and set it upon the table. Slotting in the Electric Dust Crystal, he brought up the diagnostics logs on the main screen.
"Hey, had a thought." Epsilon appeared via hologram out of Nelius's left arm. "You mentioned wanting to speak with Summer's spirit back at Beacon. Any idea how to do so?"
"Through the Dual Diver - she's managed to contact us through it, no reason we can't do the same. Either we add a new function, or we could simply speak aloud."
After doing one final check, he took a breath. He didn't really know if this was going to work, but ultimately it was worth a chance.
"Summer, are you present?"
The diagnostics screen went blank.
[HELLO?]
"Summer, that you?"
[I APOLOGIZE, BUT MY NAME ISN"T SUMMER]
"Eh?" Epsilon found herself caught off-guard.
"Then who might you be?"
[...MY NAME IS VIVEK]
Chapter 30: Complete