RWBY: Dual Eclipse
Author: Master C.V.G.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Scene Change

Author's Note: Really need to apologize for how long this one took. Due to some personal things going on, the writing bug has been avoiding me. Add in work getting crazy due to the bitter cold blowing in and my will to write has been at something of an all-time low.

Hopefully if / when the weather warms up I'll finally be able to get more chapters out.

Chapter 35: The new player

Without warning, red lights began to flash throughout the Yoshitsuna as alarms started blaring.

"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!"

"Wha-how?" Mita ran an immediate diagnostics. "No ramsleds detected... did they teleport aboard?!"

"Running scanners!" Brutus got right to work, firing up the shipwide biological scanners and camera systems. "...signature located - down by the engine rooms!"

"We're on it!" Raphael and Hilde immediately began running down towards the engine rooms, Zotia and Cordelia joining them a moment later.

When the quartet arrived, they found a curious character standing by the engine room doors, his gaze intently on the plate above it.

This character was clad in a dark-violet armor that almost matched Hilde's own, covering him from his neck all the way down to his feet, with a slightly pulsating red jewel inset into the chest. A white cape with a tattered design, red lining and red shawl flowed from his shoulders, and if one looked closely they could see some of the armor coming upwards to cover his chin and cheekbones.

From behind dull brown hair a pair of crimson eyes turned away from the door and towards the trio. As Raphael and Cordelia kept their eyes on the newcomer, Hilde flicked hers over to Zotia.

"Any idea who or what this is?" She got a nod in return.

"A Dark Knight, best known for their involvement during the War with No Victor. A class of powerful blade-wielders known for lightning-fast strikes and the power to drain life essence from their targets."

"Fought one of 'em before?"

"No, but my sisters have told me about them. They were thought to have disappeared after the end of the war."

After what had to have been one of the longer stretches of tense silence...

"...this doesn't seem to be the concert venue." The Knight suddenly spoke, breaking any tension in the air.

"...concert?" Raphael parroted, confusion clear in his voice, to which the Knight nodded.

"Lanzarote's new Summer Tour is beginning, and I was on my way to secure tickets for my sister."

"...and somehow you ended up here, on this ship, on the complete other side of the cosmos?" Cordelia didn't quite believe him.

"It happens occasionally. Where exactly am I?"

To that, Raphael simply sighed. This was going to be quite the day.

The Base

Saturday, October 1, 10:02 A.M.

Tools in-hand, Nelius was busy rearranging a few parts inside of the Dual Diver.

'If we do this right, this should allow for a more effective cooling of the internal systems, especially after a longer dive.'

'That reminds me...' Epsilon spoke up after a moment. 'Connect me to the breaker - I have a little bit of an update for it.'

From beneath the wrist of Nelius's grafted left arm, a small wire-like blood vessel slithered out, and was quickly connected to the part acting as the central system.

'What'll this do?'

'Give us a quicker heads-up if the power is about to run out or fail. Last thing we need is to be deep into a run and get suddenly booted out... or have something worse go down.'

Update completed, the blood vessel retracted back into his arm. About another minute later, the internal parts had been swapped around, and Nelius replaced the paneling.

'Looking good so far. Let's-' His train of thought was interrupted by his Scroll pinging, indicating a new message had arrived. He picked up his Scroll and took a look.

Sender: Headmaster Ozpin

Subject: Meeting

I do apologize if this request seems out of the blue, but General Ironwood has brought in a new face to aid in the current predicament.

I would like to request the presence of Miss Epsilon and yourself around 1 P.M. today, and be certain to bring your machine.

"At 1 PM, huh? Only gives us about 3 hours."

"Wonder who the General brought on to assist with this."

"Guess we'll find out when we get there. For now, we got a bit of time - might as well double-check everything to ensure nothing's out of place."

Physically, everything was back in order, and a quick debugging run of the systems came back green. Grabbing his axe, he set it on the side of the Diver and decided to do a quick dive into it.

2.5 Hours Later...

The Elevator to Ozpin's Office had reached its destination, and Nelius stepped out, Diver secured in its case.

Ozpin and Qrow were present, as was Ironwood. However, there was a new presence - an elderly-looking gentleman seated in a chair that had four large, mechanical legs.

"Gonna guess this is that new face you mentioned?" Nelius looked over to Ozpin, whom nodded.

"Indeed." Ironwood took over. "Mr. Raoul, this is Pietro Polendina. Pietro, Nelius Raoul."

Nelius simply nodded as he set his case down, extracting the Dual Diver and setting it up. Pietro cast a curious expression over to Ironwood, whom simply gestured back to the offworld demon.

The elderly man's eyes widened as a light-blue swirling vortex opened by the machine's side.

"Had to change the venue a bit - hope you won't mind."

"Wha-" Whatever Pietro was about to ask about promptly died on his tongue as Nelius stuck his head into the vortex for about seven seconds, before withdrawing it and giving a gesture for the trio to follow him in. Ozpin and Ironwood both followed, and Pietro was the last to enter, somewhat more cautiously.

Nelius Raoul's Netherheart

1:03 P.M. Vale Time

The vortex would cause the quartet to exit into what looked like the heart of a castle-encompassed town. Blue skies, little to no cloud cover...

"My stars..." Pietro looked absolutely bewildered by the sudden change in scenery. "Where..."

"That machine is a little something my friend and I made - the Dual Diver. This is a representation of my heart." Nelius explained. "It also makes for a nice spot to pass messages without letting certain people be able to listen in."

"Speaking of which-" Epsilon quickly appeared, startling Pietro. "We should be clear to chat about what-" She found herself trailing off, noticing the elderly man's surprised expression. "..oh, right, probably should introduce myself. Name's Epsilon, though right now I'm currently revising a new name for myself."

"What, precisely, are you?"

"I'm a fifth-generation Desco Unit. Long story short, a scientist in our corner of the cosmos got the idea to mix demonic DNA with human technology to make the original Desco. I'm one of... several, spliced offspring from the original."

Just as Ironwood had predicted all that time ago, Pietro looked to be beside himself in curiosity.

"There is so much I have to ask about."

"In due time, Doctor Polendina." Ironwood chided. "To business."

Nelius brought out his Scroll, and Epsilon worked her coding magic, bringing out the string of coding that tried to infiltrate her systems. Pietro looked it over, and the grim expression on his face said it all.

"Well, don't leave us in suspense, doc. Any idea who this belongs to?"

At Nelius's inquiry, Pietro nodded.

"My old colleague, whom was said to have gone missing a long time ago." When Ironwood's eyebrow raised, he continued. "Dr. Arthur Watts."

Warship Yoshitsuna

Unknown Time

"And you would be..." Both Mita and Aika were curious about this newcomer.

"I am Thorndyke." The Dark Knight responded in a flat tone.

"How did you get aboard the ship?"

"As I said to these four, I was supposed to be buying tickets to Lanzarote's new summer tour. My younger sister kept insisting. I entered the concert venue to get the tickets, and somehow I ended up here."

"..." Mita didn't look convinced. Aika, on the other hand, looked to be checking on something that was off-screen.

"Thorndyke, you say?" Aika spoke up, catching the Dark Knight's attention. "Someone matching your description and name had been found about three months ago nearly walking into a high-security prison in Hades."

To that end, a video of the incident in question appeared, showing a Dark Knight walking out of one of the doors that lead to the guards' posts right outside of one of Hades's deeper layers. At that moment, a alarm quickly blared and about five different demons quickly ran in to find the knight looking a bit lost.

"...explains why it was rather warm that day."

"...I've heard of having a horrendous sense of direction, but this guy is on a whole other level." Cordelia had leaned over to Zotia, whom could only stare in confusion.

"...is he cursed to never arrive at his destination?"

"Ya got me."

Nelius Raoul's Netherheart

1:12 P.M. Vale Time

"You're certain of this, Pietro?" Ironwood wanted clarification.

"Without a doubt, General. He and I worked together long enough - as an old friend of mine once put it, coding is much like one's own fingerprints."

"Say, General.." Nelius had looked over to Ironwood. "What's the story with this Watts character?"

"He was one of Atlas's top coders and programmers; many of the innovations he devised still being in-use today." It was then that the General had a look of regret. "Unfortunately, when I chose to fund Pietro's robotics and prothesis research over his programming, he didn't take the rejection well, and left. It was so many years ago that he'd been declared dead at one point."

"Well, looks like he'd been lying rather low, in that case." Epsilon spoke up. "Say, did he have any apprentices that would've continued where he left off?"

"None. He was always particular about keeping his coding methods a secret." It was here that Ironwood looked over to Pietro. "How difficult would it be to extract this coding from Beacon's CCT?"

"Knowing Watts, he likely coded it to ensure the whole system would go down if anyone other than the original planter tried to manipulate it. In short, it'll be an uphill challenge."

"...that gives me an idea." Epsilon spoke up. "I admit to not knowing much about how coding is done here on Remnant, but do you think it'd be possible to make our own counter-infiltrator?"

"Come again?"

"Whomever planted this thing still has to be nearby, to be able to manipulate it. Think we can use this coding to infiltrate their system under a guise of 'receiving information', then use our infiltrator to grab as much information as we can? The biggest advantage they have is being a face in the crowd, so if we can properly identify that face..."

"So, giving them a taste of their own medicine? Have to say, I like the sound of it."

"Teach me your ways~"

As Epsilon and Pietro headed off to begin the lesson on coding, with Ironwood following to supervise, Ozpin took a moment to look at the surroundings. He knew that this was a representation of what lay within Nelius's heart, but it heavily contrasted with his own mental image.

With little else to do, Ozpin found a place to sit.

Chapter 35: Complete