Cranked it out just in time! Depending on how the next episode goes down depends on how this will branch out from it's current location. I'm taking vacation so hopefully it'll give me time to get a lot of work done. Expect more of everyone and expect lots of growth, without further ado A Show Of Power!

RWBY: The Darkness Within

Season 2- Chapter 7

A Show of Power

The Greatest show of Strength, is Self-Restraint, not Cowardice

Caradin sat in Port's class taking in his teammates in their usual environment, Knives sat with his feet propped up and the music in his ears rather loud. He dressed as he always did, with the unbuttoned jacket and shirt and no tie. He air drummed as he mouthed, "Leave behind the renegades, cross the desert through the haze."

He looked at Luxus, who had recently stopped wearing his coat into class, if at all, must be because of his father. Deverou was the same, he seemed pretty twitchy since their incident in the library. Caradin watched the timer on Weiss' desk and grabbed his coat off the back of his chair and put his beanie on. The alarm went off and Knives left with Luxus as they talked about Atlas' arrival and that display a few days ago. Caradin instead tailed Deverou out of the classroom and wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulder. "Sup dude?"

"Um nothing," Deverou said looking mopey and lost in thought.

"Come on, what's your problem?" Caradin asked with a coy smile.

"Xich said there's no way to undo the damage from the trials I underwent, that I just have to compartmentalize information better." Deverou said.

"Oh my god, dude, you should learn the Mind Palace!" Caradin said excited.

"Have you been reading Knives fiction books again?" Deverou said raising an eyebrow.

"How about, shut up?" Caradin said with a smile, "Just because I found it in one of his books doesn't mean it's not real, Sherlock Wayne uses it in Sherlocked to try and find the combination to a safe where Simon Moriarty hid the schematics to a bomb he was using to frame Vale for an attack on Vacuo. It's a technique that allows you to compartmentalize and withdraw information easily and rapidly."

"That sounds too good to be true." Deverou said.

"Nah, it's easy if you can really focus and empty your mind." Caradin said as he used his scroll to open their door. He sat Deverou down and turned on some music and gave Deverou some tea.

"Is this Lady Weiss?" Deverou asked.

"Yeah, she sang once and it was nice, but she also sings when she thinks no one else is around. Incidentally, that tree outside their window is a great place to hang out, me and Sun will go there to eat fruit and pull pranks on people." Caradin said as he hurried around the room cleaning it.

"Caradin!" Deverou cried.

"What!? We don't do anything weird, jeez." Caradin said as he got a chair and sat down himself, "Close your eyes."

"What?"

"Just do it!" Caradin cried exasperated. Deverou did as he was told and met with the usual darkness.

"Okay, now what?" Deverou said, not seeing a point in this.

"Construct Schnee Manor with your mind." Caradin said leaning back.

"Um, okay?" He said as he brought up the four walls of his living quarters, but nothing else.

"Don't miss a detail; smells, lighting, sounds, everything."

Deverou focused, and the sunlight came through the window and the birds chirped outside as his room was just the way he lift it, his bookshelf with the manuals and protocol doctrines. His desk and footlocker were pristine and free of Luxus' clutter or Knives loose clothing. It smelled fresh and he reached out to the peace lily he kept on the bookshelf.

"Okay, now walk to your desk." Deverou did as the voice told him, and the screen popped alive on the top of his desk. He typed his password into the touchscreen and the hologram popped up, "Prioritize your information, open your list of friends and foes side by side." He looked at the lists and saw all the people who were high priority on his list, Roman Torchwick, Phoenicia Kasai, and Romeo Blue. He noticed Neptune was on the list and it was odd, because Sun was on it too as well as Ryzia, Mary, and Ragnar.

"Reorganize the list." He dragged names he reconized as fellow students over to the friends column and quickly reorganized both lists to ensure everyone was in their proper file, "Now store that somewhere important, and close it out." He did as he was told and slowly came out of his mind palace.

"That was insane." He said with a grin.

"Well, I think we may have a winner." Caradin said, "We'll keep working on your whole mind palace thing until it's down pat and then we'll use it for more than that."

"Sounds fun." Deverou said as Caradin went over to play video games and Deverou toured his mind palace a little longer, slowly organizing everything.

Communication is Key in Any Good Relationship

"So why are we going to the CCT?" Ellone asked as she trailed behind her tiny teammate.

"Because I need to talk to Sinon about what's going on, she still hasn't arrived so I'm worried." She said picking up her pace.

"I see, so we're here to make sure she will arrive alright?" Ellone asked again, even more confused by all this.

"Yes, we need to be sure she is in fact on her way and that she can hop right on the assignment, it's why we had Ragnar and Odette follow Knives to that demonstration. So let's hurry up and make this call." She said as she stormed towards the tower.

"Hey, is that Ruby and Weiss?" Ellone cried.

"Distractions Ellone." He teammate said casually as her teammate's mind tended to wander.

"Right." Ellone said as she began to munch on her candy, they arrived inside the building and went to place their call. Sarais cousin appeared on the monitor, her hair ragged with bags under her eyes.

"This had better be good, I had to miss sleep, because SOMEONE decided to call me in the middle of a job!" She yelled, drawing way to much attention.

"Easy, easy, you made your money, I was just wondering if you were in Vale yet and if you'd done some research on your target?" Sarais asked.

"Yeah, here's a copy of what I've dug up, I'll send it to your scroll. My problem is that transcontinental travel isn't as easy as transcontinental communication." She said.

"Where'd work take you this time?" Sarais asked.

"Atlas, near Haven actually." She responded.

Sarais ran her eyes over the file as his criminal record made her eyes grow as wide as saucers, "I'm gonna have to let you go, I think we need to talk to my team."

"Okay," Sinon said as she got ready to hang up, "Oh, by the way, a contact of mine said he saw Romeo leaving the docks recently and when he investigated the room he was staying in he found pictures of Knives. I think someone put a hit out on him, so don't let him out of your sight."

Sarais hung up and immediately contacted Odette, "We have a big problem."

Fear drives us to Fight, Anxiety drives you to Run

"I got you." Odette said as she hung up, "Ragnar we need to keep an eye on Knives, things could get tricky."

"Already on it." Ragnar said as he tried to get closer as Knives admired the Atlesian Knights. They revealed the Paladin, when a girl started running and the guards chased her, Ragnar was about to dismiss it, when Knives took off full speed after them, "Shit." He said as he pushed through the crowd after Knives. He wasn't subtle about it, because Knives saw him and ran faster. He ran, and Odette matched his pace.

"Now what?" She called.

"Run faster!" He yelled as he picked up the pace. Knives was flying ahead of them, being far more slender than Ragnar and knowing the streets, but Ragnar used to run in the mountains so this was nothing. The car almost hit that soldier, but Knives watched them go and then slid over the hood as Ragnar and Odette just kept running. Odette was showing a toll though as she began to fall behind, Knives saw this as an opportunity and watched as Ruby slashed through the supports of a scaffold and he ran straight at the wall vaulting off the boxes as they fell and grabbed a fire escape and started climbing. Ragnar caught up quick, and continued to climb as Odette lagged behind, but quickly he heard the sound of the chainsaw blade cutting through the supports holding the fire escape. It began to whine and tilt backwards as it slowly started to come off the wall. He heard a cry from below as Odette rocked back and forth.

"Odette!" He cried as he looked up at Knives and abandoned his pursuit for the sake of his teammate. He leapt down and caught her, jumping to the ground as the fire escape fell on top of them. Ragnar grabbed the bar and set her down to try and slowly lower the escape onto the ground, but it was heavy and he ended up tossing it to the side. "Son of a bitch!" He cried after Knives as he turned to check on Odette who was sulking.

"He got away because of me." She said.

"He got away because he's crazy paranoid and knows how to get around." Ragnar said, I just hope he'll be fine."

Knives was not in fact fine, as the paranoia slowly faded he began to assess the situation. "Okay, so we know that the two people chasing us were not trying to harm us I think." Knives said to Johann.

"Well I know they ran like rabbits to get you, so they must've wanted to do something. Convert you to their religion, pull out a few teeth, or smash your skull into the pavement, your choice." The hallucination replied.

"But what if they were my friends trying to flag me down?" Knives said.

"Well then they would've called out to you dumb-dumb!" Johann declared, "They were obviously associates of Cain, and speaking of associates, you might want to turn around."

He wheeled around to look down the barrel of a revolver in the middle of a K-Bar knife, "Hello there, Bloody Knives, you've just made me one rich man."

In the Darkness, forces Conspire for Greatness

"Cyan Silver?" The large man asked.

"Yes, and you must be Amadeus Cain." The mercenary replied, "You know I have half a mind to kill you for what you did to my cousin."

"But you won't, because we clearly outnumber you." Cain replied motioning to the youths and strange suited men around him. "Now on to business, I've come to hire your services."

"Why should I agree?" He said, gripping tight the handle of his scythe.

"Because if you don't," The man said before a sip of tea, "I will kill your brother. I know how much family matters to the Bluts, so I assume you'll listen."

He resisted the urge to rush the fat bastard and cleave him a new one, "Go on."

"For a man scorned by the world for my 'radical' ideas, I tend to keep in touch and make sure I have my finger in everyone's pie. And it has come to my attention through a reliable source that two factions have put a hit on your cousin, one of them is even focused on you and your brother." He said with another sip before handing it off to someone, "Another faction has been hired to protect him, Sinon Campbell, The Phantom Sniper. Have you heard of her?"

"I'm familiar with her work, it's clean and efficient, if a little amateur." He said, "So who's got it out for us?"

"Well the good sir Rayfor who helped me for a while has decided to kill Knives for petty personal reasons and has hired Romeo Blue, and the Moonstreams have hired The Sandman to deal with the Bluts of Vale." He replied nonchalantly.

"You'd best be kidding." Cyan said, until he saw the serious face of Cain, "Shit, Romeo's a half-cocked idiot who just happens to make up for it in strength, but Sandman, he's a killer through and through."

"I'm guessing you'll handle it?"

"Yeah," Cyan said, "I'll be the fourth assassin in this game."

Well that was fun, and it's so nice to see Cyan after so much time, now that all the players are in this let's see where it will go now!