Secrets! Okay, so no Luxus mangling this chapter because of reasons, but it's the day of backstory! And ciphers and card games...not on motorcycles, so please do read on my beautiful audience.
RWBY: The Darkness Within
Season 2- Chapter 5
Ancient Secrets
You keep it on the Inside, because that's the Safest place to Hide.
"So dude, you ever gonna tell us about yourself?" Mason said as he threw knives at a bulls-eye he had tacked onto the ceiling.
"I," Safe started before reconsidering his stance on the matter, "Don't think that's such a good idea."
"Oh come on, man!" Mason said as he sat upright and tossed another knife without looking hitting the center of the target. "I mean I opened up!"
"Telling everyone you have a thing for Ryzia is not really opening up." Lee said as he turned the pages in his book.
"Oh shut it!" Mason yelled, "Fine, what more do you want?"
"How about a family history?" Lee said, "At least let us learn something about you."
"That's reasonable," Ora piped up from the corner, "We'll all share!"
"Fine!" Mason yelled as he leaned back with a frustrated sigh, "I'm from an assassin family like the Tenebrous. My family is the Suzuki clan of Vacuo, they specialize in herbal poisons and neurotoxins versus Dust. Dust is too flashy, and so we prefer more subtle methods than the usual cloak and dagger thing the Tenebrous do."
He said as he showed off his daggers and the chains they were attached to that wrapped around his whole arm. "The weapon itself has a liquid and aerosol dispersion system depending on the setting I use; the chains are attached to the end of the thin bracers I keep under my hoodie. It's a basic weapon we use, but we tend to stick to the sharper tech than the gun-tech-stuff." He said drifting off in thought, "So you can say my home life was interesting. Dad always expected the best, so my older brothers got free reign to beat the crap out of me at their leisure. So after a while I was just sick of it, I went through the motions and learned as much as I could, but I wanted more out of it so I decided it was time to look for greener pastures and my mom signed me up for combat school."
He chuckled thinking back to it. "I was considered antisocial and potentially dangerous, so once again I got picked on, difference was I kicked these kids asses. So after a bit of fighting I met Lee and we fought, he was the one guy who I couldn't beat and who couldn't beat me. After winding up in the nurses office he just laughed, I didn't know why it was funny, but I couldn't help but laugh too. Since then we've been close friends, and after meeting him I opened up more and learned about a few things. Like music, hey Lee, we still haven't formed that band we always talked about."
"We still need a singer, keyboarder, and guitar player." Lee said, "So I guess it's my turn since you've transitioned the focus to me. Well, my family is pretty average back in Vacuo. My dad was a banker and my mom was a seamstress, but I didn't really want to do either of those. I apparently got my dad's intelligence and my mother's deft hands and keen eyes, so things for me as a kid were just a struggle to keep from being bored. I quickly learned that one thing I was good at was fighting, as my older sister would try to beat me up when I 'messed with her' by typically being in the same room and asking her to either turn town the TV or to stop doing something so I could read. I could easily see through her attacks and calculate what she'd do next, so I would always win. A buddy of mine at our local school said I should apply for combat school and become a Huntsman. So when I turned thirteen I applied and got accepted after the aptitude exam, then I met this asshole and things became different. We both became cheerier as we got older, but the difference between him and me, is that I'm an intellectual and he's a guy who learns by doing."
"Hey, screw you too!" Mason said punching his friend on the shoulder, "So what about you Safe?"
Safe looked around the room nervously, "I-I'm still not comfortable with this, I need to go."
He walked out quickly and took off down the hallway, "What's that all about?" Mason said.
"Give him time," Ora replied, "He's so used to being introverted on everything, he thinks it's safer to keep secrets than to share information. We'll see where he stands soon."
Three may keep a Secret, if Two of them are Dead.
"Ugh, where is he!?" Rory groaned as he tapped his foot against the wall impatiently as he lay on his back.
"Maybe he fell into a well," Brandon said hopping up and making a mocking smile, "Come on Rory, where is he boy?"
Rory revealed his favorite finger to a roar of laughter from Brandon, "Oh come on now, that was classic! Hey Zero, what's your opinion?"
"Seven points for the classic comedy, you get a bonus three if you return my girlfriend's candy." Zero said with a sly smirk.
"Oh you're just ganging up on me now." Brandon said as he opened his drawer and tossed it over to him.
"A pleasure doing business!" Zero said as he popped one of the confections into his mouth, "Ugh, too sweet, I don't honestly know how she does it."
"Same way you do your whole lone ronin thing when you train." Rory said, "Where'd you learn to fight like that anyway?"
"Um, outside one of the kingdoms. I had a really good teacher, same one as Blake actually. He caters specifically to people with certain skills." Zero said as he lifted his lip to show off the fangs as well as extending his claws, "I'm a Faunus, but it doesn't really show."
"So," Rory said connecting the dots slowly, "She's a Faunus?"
"It was pretty obvious dude." Brandon said, "But she's good at hiding it from everyone else so I'd say she's fine."
"Yeah," Zero said, "Blake was way more skilled than I was, but then again that's because she trained more. I used to believe in my master until I found out he was White Fang, so I left and did some training on my own until I was strong enough to get into Beacon."
"Cool story bro," Rory said, "Does it come with a happy ending?"
Zero threw a pillow at his roommate, "Shut up man."
There was a knock at their door and Brandon hopped up to get it, "I think this is for me." He said throwing open the door to find Ryzia, "Ready for our date?"
"You guys are dating? Mazel tov." Rory added with a clap of his hands.
"Shut up man," Brandon added, "We were going to study, dumb-dumb here is failing Port's class."
"All he does is tell stories." Rory said.
"Well it's not as easy to pay attention as you'd think!" Ryzia shouted her face flushed.
Brandon stepped out before his teammates could say anything else, "That was a nice touch with the blush and the voice crack."
She punched him very hard in the arm, "Don't ever call me stupid again."
"Okay, I'm going to go with ow." Brandon said sarcastically rubbing his shoulder, "Besides who cares, the idea behind a good cover is to make it believable."
"Still." She said legitimately pouting.
"Whatever, is she here?" Brandon asked.
"Yeah, and I think she wants to see us." Ryzia added.
"Are the wonder twins in tow?" Brandon asked thinking back to Emerald.
"Yup."
"Great, as if we need three thieves in a room." Brandon added with a roll of his eyes.
"Don't lump me in with yourself." Ryzia added as they arrived at the appointed location near the library, Mercury leaned against a wall flipping a coin into the air and catching it.
"Sup." He said to them.
"Always good to see you Mercury," Brandon said, "I'm guessing the kiss ass is here too?"
"Oh, and here I thought we were meeting so you could report your findings to Cinder for brownie points!" Emerald added stepping out from behind Mercury, "You're such an ass Copper."
"If you want we can settle this here." Brandon said getting closer as Mercury and Emerald became alert and ready for a fight.
"Enough!" They all turned to see their boss walking towards them, "Brandon I'd appreciate it if you'd not fight with any participants in the plan. So what did you want to tell me?"
"I'm guessing Roman told you about Bloody Knives, related to Cyan Silver, and how it'd be good to add him in?" Brandon said as he handed over his scroll so she could transfer all the files onto her own, "But my problem is that he's unpredictable. His mental state is the problem I have with him."
She glanced at the scroll, "Multiple personality disorder that manifests in heavy schizophrenic episodes. Does he suffer any other symptoms of schizophrenia?" She asked locking eyes with Brandon.
"Never seen him talk to anyone other than his alternate, but it's safe to assume with his level of detachment and paranoia that he does have other hallucinations." Brandon added.
"Interesting, and he's in the library now?" She finished.
"Yup, why you gonna go make friends?" Brandon said sarcastically with a giddy expression.
"Something like that." She finished with a smirk as they walked off.
While all Deception requires secrecy, all Secrecy is not meant to Deceive.
"Okay, so the rules are simple. We play a standard game, but we go by Consular standards, that means each General has a Vizier that advises their decisions and takes over after their generals' defeat." Caradin explained as Deverou stood behind him.
"So basically conquer the four kingdoms, but each person gets a second life?" Luxus asked as Newt looked at the cards in his hand.
"Yup," Pyron said as David read a book behind him, "So the teams are, David and I, Caradin and Deverou, Luxus and Newt, and then Mary and Sammy?"
Mary smirked at them, "Come on then pansies, show me your stuff."
Knives looked at them as they took advantage of Ruby's board game she had left as Teena and Carlos both consulted each other on X-Ray and Vav, while Edan caught up on some of his homework. Knives himself was heavily preoccupied with the documents he'd given to Professor Oobleck, who'd translated them for Blut Talonspeak into an old war cypher used during the time of conflict for the side the Blut's served. He felt it was a good distraction from last night and his embarrassing show of weakness in front of Glynda and Ruby.
"This ensured that the only ones to translate the Ciphers were the Blut, so that then the usual code breakers would translate it, and then there was supposedly a third Cipher." He remembered Oobleck saying. "However, it is difficult to break this code seeing as these documents aren't meant to be translated into the War Cipher."
He scanned the pages and compared them to the translated War Cipher trying to crack the code, "What were you trying to write down?" He wondered as he tried to think like Alexei.
"Having trouble there?"
He looked up expecting to see Johann, but instead it was a woman with long black hair and orange-gold eyes. "Great, now I'm seeing women, what now?"
"Gutentag homie!" Johann said as he dropped down next to him with a bag of chips. "What did I miss, oh she's hot."
"Um, are you trying to translate that old war cipher?" She asked.
"Yeah, surprised you know it, also surprising I see you here when no one else is around." Knives said as he waved her off, "I don't have time for hallucinations, I'm busy."
"Yo, dude, I need some help!" Luxus said as he ran up, "Oh hello there." He said to the woman causing Knives to take a double take, she was in fact real. "Um I know Newt is supposed to help me, but I've never played Vacuo before."
"Use your raiders, then use either sandstorm or wilted drought." Knives said looking back at the documents.
"Thanks!" Luxus said taking off.
Knives continued to work, then looked up at the girl, "Well are you going to sit and help me or stand there and stare absently?"
She chuckled, "Anyone ever tell you you're a bit pushy?" She said sitting.
"Lots of times, I prefer to think of myself as objectively driven with little time for bullshit." He said. "Do you see the librarian around?"
She looked around, "No?"
He hopped up on the table and disabled the smoke alarm as he popped out a cigarette and lit it. "That's better."
She laughed and looked at the pages, "This looks like a massive jumble."
"Yeah, Oobleck said that so many words were out of place he wasn't sure how to get the next step going."
"Well traditionally each word has a value, did you try it that way?"
"Yup, I also tried a numeric rearrangement." He said leaning back, "Nothing."
She thought hard as she looked at it, her eyes a flurry of movement, before stopping on one word, "Blood, did you try doing both at the same time?"
He stopped and looked at the placement of the word Blood in the center of the page and realized that the words were organized by syllable and purpose, as Blood was at 0'0. "Why is blood at the ground zero?" He saw started circling the words that appeared at the same axis throughout the paper, and wound up with a large X. "So how is this supposed to be organized?"
"Maybe try combining them to form sentences?" She asked unsure.
"Yeah like that's going to…" He said as he stopped and the words floated off the page and appeared before him.
"Come on now," Johann said, "You see the pattern, don't you?"
"Wait." Knives said as he reached out and tapped the word Blood as it turned into blood and splashed over the page highlighting the words red. "On the cover of the manuscript there was something, 'The blood of the clan will light the way, the House of Blut will rise another day.' It's blood. The Talonspeak had certain words in red, if I can give it to Oobleck he can translate and arrange the manuscripts!" Knives declared grabbing the pages and getting up, "Thanks again, um?"
"Cinder," She said, "You're pretty odd."
"I hear that one a lot too." Knives added.
She chuckled, "Well I'm visiting from Haven, so I hope to see you again?"
"We'll see." Knives said with a slight smile before taking off. She was an interesting individual, but there was something off about her. It didn't matter to him right now, he needed to know the truth about his clan, and Oobleck had the answers.
BLOOD MAGIC! I mean uh, so yeah, writing in blood, that's a thing. But uh, Cinder has some alterior motive for getting close to him. Will we see some CinderXKnives show up? Yes...no...maybe? Idk, they could have Cinder X Ruby X Knives and...OMG...SOMEONE GET ON THAT NOW!