Standard Disclaimer: All rights belong to those whose rights they belong to, primarily the glorious minds at Rooster Teeth, though quite namely not me. Don't own a thing.

Beacon University, Vale
One Week Ago

The figure stood on the edge of the air pad, gazing out at the evening sky. Vale was lit up in the distance, all bright lights and bustle as the normal citizens of the kingdom went about their business.

Not that she'd know what normal looked like anymore even if it were to bite her in the ass.

The woman sighed softly, remembering a happier time when she could stand out there with her team and enjoy the weather, the fruits of a long day training or schoolwork or any number of things that seemed to be the center of their existence… Friendship… Love…

Foolishness.

"Bad day," she murmured to herself wearily. "Started out bad, stayed that way."

The woman chuckled ruefully. She was no stranger to shitty days, they just seemed to pile up, one atop the other, until they ran by in a blur. She was adrift and purposeless. Killing Grimm bored her to tears now, but what else was there for her?

What else indeed…

But the offer presented to her was so ludicrous, so insane… There was no way for her to do it by herself, not even to finally silence the regrets and pain by ending it all, letting herself finally go into the dark. No, this was too important, everything she'd done and sacrificed to get to this point would mean nothing if this wasn't dealt with. She needed help. She needed… the others.

Another figure, standing at a respectful distance away, so still that he might not even have been alive, finally broke his silence.

"I need an answer."

"Yes," she sighed wryly. "I suppose you do."

Time to play the cards I've been dealt, she thought to herself as she turned, determination flashing in her eyes to make the most of one more shitty day. Even with as crappy of a hand as it is. And with any luck, he'll accept the new deal.

With even more luck, they won't simply kill me on sight.

Beacon University, Vale
Today

Ozpin stood at the window of his office, looking out across the restored campus of Beacon. The view didn't have quite the same feel as before, even though both the tower he stood in and the buildings that made up the academy for Hunters were all rebuilt to the same exact specifications as the original architecture.

No, what was different was the newness of it all. The clear glass, absent any marks or dust. The fresh smell of the carpeting and the paint. Even the gears overhead, how they meshed together seamlessly and far quieter than before, absent the many small imperfections that had built up over the years.

His previous office had been well broken-in before it had simply been broken.

The headmaster shrugged minutely, taking a sip from his ever-present mug. Such things were to be taken in stride, minor annoyances as they were. He had far more momentous things to occupy his attention. One of which should be ready any moment now.

As if on cue, his intercom chimed gently. "Professor, they are assembled as instructed."

He smiled and reached across his desk to pick up a set of folders, tucking them under his arm. "Thank you, Glynda, I'll be right there."

His recovered cane tapped the floor as he entered the elevator, pressing the button for a floor midway down. As the elevator descended, he hummed to himself thoughtfully, glancing down at the inlaid marble tiles.

He liked the old flooring better.

At the proper level, Ozpin exited onto a windowless corridor, striding along with slow, measured steps. Glynda stood outside a door, her arms crossed irritably. Whether said irritation was due to the occupants of the room behind her, or the man standing next to her, he couldn't immediately ascertain.

"Oz," the raven-haired man rasped out. "This was a shitty assignment."

Glynda rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You only had the one to retrieve."

Ozpin nodded his head thoughtfully, picking up on the true source of her ire. "And I do appreciate your efforts. I know this was a… delicate situation for you."

"Damn right it was," Qrow grunted, taking a swig from his flask. "Still need me? I'd rather not be around when…"

"No, go on, old friend," he nodded. Turning to Glynda next, he tried for his most reassuring smile. "I won't need you either, Glynda, you may retire. I'm sure you have more important things to do."

"Professor," she protested, bespectacled eyes flashing in concern. "You know who is in there. No matter who they once were, they are now a dangerous collection of criminals and malcontents and…"

"Yes, thank you, Glynda," he murmured soothingly. "That will be all."

With an irritated huff, the combat instructor and assistant headmaster turned and strode down towards the elevator that Qrow was smugly holding for her. Once the echoes of her clacking heels were cut off by the closing of the elevator doors, Ozpin took a deep breath and walked into the conference room.

As soon as he entered, he could feel the tension. It bled over from each occupant's stance and closed-off posture, whether they were standing or sitting. The sole person by the window turned partially, her features barely visible from behind the hood of her black cloak before facing outwards once again.

"I thank you all for meeting with me," Ozpin began as he lowered himself across the table from the three who remained sitting, placing the folders in front of him in a neat stack.

"Like I had a choice," the blonde one scoffed.

"True," he conceded with an inclined head. "But I hope to make this worth your while."

"Somehow I doubt that," the young woman returned brashly. "But go ahead, ain't like I got anywhere else to be right now."

Ozpin nodded once more and regarded the four assembled before him. The blond reclined in her chair with feigned indifference, though the tenseness showed from her bloodshot eyes down to how tightly her arms were wrapped around her middle. He could view her green cargoes and brown combat boots beneath the tempered glass surface of the conference table, and her orange halter tank top was barely visible beneath the tan jacket. But even with her arms crossed, there was no mistaking the angular lines from her prosthetic right arm. Once-luxurious blonde waves of hair were now dull and limp, tied back in a messy ponytail that only came down to her shoulders, shorn a bit from her days at Beacon.

Next to her sat a diminutive girl with platinum hair cropped into a short bob and pinned back behind her ears. Her posture was ramrod-straight, hands folded in her lap, though they clutched the edges of her white overcoat with equally white knuckles. A pale blue blouse, crisp white trousers, and heeled white boots completed her attire. The familiar scar that bisected her left eye was now crossed by a new, fresher one that started at the bridge of her nose to trail down to her jawline. It was pinker than the other one, obviously sustained much more recently.

There was an empty seat between her and the next occupant, which was perhaps understandable. The Cat Faunus wore her ears without concealment, so very different from her time at Beacon. Her knees were crossed tightly, the black leather tights bouncing slightly with her matching heeled boot as she nervously fidgeted. She had left her black overcoat, lined with a deep purple, over the back of her chair, leaving her arms and shoulders bare from the sleeveless top that reached to her belt, with diamond-shaped cutouts along her collarbone.

And then there was the last member of the assembled, though disparate, group.

"Would you come sit, please?" the Headmaster inquired politely.

None of the other three reacted as the fourth complied, her black cloak billowing out behind her as she turned, revealing dark red lining the color of dried blood. Black combat boots stomped across the floor, matching the leggings and vest that she wore over a low-cut white blouse. As she sat, her functional black combat skirt flared to reveal the red lining that matched her cloak's. She pulled her hood back and brushed her long brunette hair over her shoulder. The action flashed a bit of color from the under-dyed red hair.

All four of them sat without looking at each other, distrust and unease practically screaming from their nonverbals.

The six years since the Battle of Beacon had not been kind to Team RWBY, even with as much promise as they had once displayed.

Ozpin flipped open the first folder and began to peruse it, murmuring comments as he went along.

"Yang Xiao Long, age twenty-four. Received a prosthetic arm after injuries sustained during the Battle of Beacon… eventually turned to bounty hunting as a profession…" He glanced up at the blonde who had abandoned all pretense of nonchalance as she looked off to the side, jaw clenched. "How is that working out for you?"

"Fine," she gritted out tersely.

"Hmm… Several bar brawls, including a few that resulted in some deaths… Arrested once for drunk and disorderly misconduct. And it would seem your last several bounties were a bit… botched, weren't they? One escaped to be picked up by another hunter, while the others were brought in dead, even though one bounty, in particular, had specified alive."

Yang shrugged, her face tight. "It happens."

Ozpin nodded, flipping through the pages. "I'm interested in this one bounty, for a certain criminal by the name of… Neopolitan." At the mention of the name, the creak of her metal hand clenching was clearly audible. "You collected the bounty on her corpse."

"I did."

"And yet the cause of death was… 'massive penetrating trauma due to several wide incisions'. That would appear to be a bit different from the blunt force trauma I'd expect from you, Miss Xiao Long."

Yang had no answer to that, but if anything she became more closed-off and rigidly controlled.

"I see," he murmured, closing the folder and moving on to the next. "Very well then… Weiss Schnee, also aged twenty-four and once heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation. Forcibly relocated from Vale to Atlas by your father directly after the Battle of Beacon."

"That is correct," the platinum-haired woman stated calmly, her words clipped and precise.

"Visited by your former team leader shortly thereafter…"

Weiss interrupted before he could continue any further. "I fail to see how that could possibly be relevant."

"Hmm. And then you set out to take over the SDC, it would seem." Ozpin looked up, cold blue eyes meeting his own levelly. "Your efforts took several years, but the only fruit they bore were bloodshed and division."

"Yes." Weiss looked down at her hands momentarily. "Things did not… go as planned."

He glanced back down at the folder. "And then you murdered your father."

"It was not murder," the former heiress snapped. "It was a duel, plain and simple. He exercised the same level of lethality that I did."

"Well, the end result of all this was your banishment from the SDC by the reconstituted board of directors, your younger brother Whitley discredited and publicly ruined, and your sister Winter instated as the CEO."

Weiss didn't answer this time, simply nodded slightly while her gaze remained focused on her hands.

"And since then," Ozpin sighed heavily, closing the folder, "you have been engaged in what some have called corporate terrorism, earning you a bounty on your head with your own sister's signature on it."

"Not terrorism," she once again protested hotly, pale blue eyes flashing as she looked up this time. "I was fighting the injustice of corporate greed and corruption."

Her defense was met by an ever-so-slightly audible snort of derision that came from the other side of the table. It caused the former heiress to stiffen, her lips clamped shut tightly and forming a thin slash of anger.

Ozpin turned his head consideringly. "And what of you, Blake Belladonna? Vanished into seemingly thin air after the Battle of Beacon was hardly over, only to reappear within the ranks of the White Fang after approximately a year. Though your parents are still alive and living in Menagerie, you were never in contact with them." He flipped through the pages of her folder. "Several warrants out for your arrest due to numerous acts of terrorism… Interestingly enough, you never wore a mask, though your comrades always did. Why was that?"

The Cat Faunus' ears flattened against her head. "It was not allowed," she murmured softly through stiff lips.

"Hmm… and then, shortly after the death of one Adam Taurus, you disappeared once more. In fact, you are the only Faunus in history to have left the White Fang, twice, alive."

Blake didn't respond to that, merely twitched her ears as intense amber eyes regarded him levelly.

With another heavy sigh, Ozpin closed the file and rested his hand on the last one. "And then there is Ruby Rose, former team leader." He gently pulled the cover aside to regard the pages within. "Currently twenty-two years of age. Saved several lives during the Battle of Beacon, including that of Miss Pyrrha Nikos. Even though the main culprit, Cinder Fall, escaped, you were hailed as a hero… And then you set out on your journey with Team JNPR into Mistral." Ozpin looked up at the brunette. "And that's where things seemed to go rather wrong, didn't they?"

The headmaster was struck by how much Ruby, in particular, had changed. Eyes once the color of quicksilver, lively and humorous and so very much like her mother's, now looked back at him, flat and gunmetal grey, without any emotion whatsoever. "I suppose they did," she responded neutrally.

He glanced back down at the substantially thicker file compared to the other three. "After the interrogation of a captured Mercury Black, you killed him in cold blood. Whyever for?"

Ruby didn't twitch, nor did her expression change even infinitesimally. "I was provoked."

Ozpin sighed, sparing a quick glance at the others. They seemed to be in the same stances as before, but he could tell they were all interested in Ruby's story.

"You separated from Team JNPR after that, over the protests of Miss Nikos, and struck out on your own. From there, your kill list expanded to include… one Emerald Sustrai, who was another known associate of your quarry. Finally, you cornered Cinder Fall in an industrial district." He shifted the paper to the side and shook his head slowly. "The entire neighborhood was scorched to the ground, though you succeeded in eliminating your quarry. Arrested afterward… Due to the muddied relations between the kingdoms at the time, you were released but deported. Standing warrant for your arrest should you ever set foot in Mistral again."

One edge of the black cloak drifted up slightly in a shrug. "The weather sucked anyway."

"Indeed." He carefully hid his smirk as he continued. "Once back in Vale, after collecting a few bounties on Grimm, you next set your sights upon a certain criminal by the name of Roman Torchwick, formerly incarcerated with General Ironwood. I understand you clashed with Mr. Torchwick aboard one of the airships during the Battle of Beacon."

Ruby nodded slightly. "Saved his worthless ass from a Griffon and he still kicked me off the ship."

"Well, I would say you paid him back in kind…" Ozpin pursed his lips. "And I daresay there is still doubt whether or not they found all the pieces. And that brings us to the next in your streak of kills… Neopolitan." He looked between the two siblings who were very carefully not reacting save for identically clenched jaws. With the younger sister's growth in both height and hair, they looked remarkably like two sides of the same coin now, one light and the other dark. "There was some disagreement with your sister over that target."

"There was," Ruby confirmed brusquely.

"Yet you got there first and eliminated the woman."

"I did."

"Well, that would explain the curious cause of death… But you allowed Miss Xiao Long to collect the bounty?"

Ruby glanced away. "I wasn't interested in the lien."

Ozpin cleared his throat, turning to the last page. "And one final kill."

The brunette stirred. "I don't-"

"Adam Taurus."

At the spoken name, several reactions rippled throughout the room. Ruby closed her eyes almost wearily, while both Blake and Yang regarded her with shocked looks.

Ozpin perused the paper in front of him, seemingly paying little attention to the room's occupants. "That was quite the fight, it would seem you barely escaped with your life… Actually ended up in the hospital, which is where you were found by Professor Goodwitch."

Ruby opened her eyes, staring back at him flatly. "I'm fine now. All healed up."

"That is fortunate indeed, then, as I have a use for the four of you." Ozpin regarded them all levelly as he closed the final file and shuffled them back into a neat pile. "I have need of a group of highly-skilled individuals who can work for me incognito. Your actions are your own, so long as they deliver results. If you are caught, however… I will disavow any knowledge of your assignment."

"That sounds like a fairly imbalanced deal," Weiss retorted crisply. "What is in this for us? Why should we work for you, or with each other?"

"If you complete the task I am setting before you," Ozpin replied with the faintest hint of a smirk. "I will clear your records of all misdeeds, including ones incurred while working for me."

Yang sat up straight at that, looking back at him incredulously. Weiss blinked rapidly as she assimilated the offer, while Blake's Faunus ears twitched furiously. Ruby was the only one to remain completely unfazed.

"As for further incentive…" Ozpin offered them a tight smile. "If you do not, then I will personally hunt you down and incarcerate you in a very dark, very deep hole where you will never see the light of day again."

The blonde gulped audibly. "Yeah, um, good incentive."

Both Weiss and Blake gave him quick nods, while Ruby simply inclined her head marginally once.

He lifted his mug up to take a sip, smiling serenely. "I thought you might see things my way."

A/N: Okay, then! So while work and life continue to smack me square in the face, and my ongoing stories languish… I figured I'd let this one see the light of day. It's only half written because I need to fix the latter half of the story and the bad guy plot… But what I have written is too good just to let it sit for another year. So, enjoy what I have so far, I'll post maybe once a week or so, and maybe I'll figure out eventually what I want to do with the rest of it.

This tale is heavily inspired by fanfics such as The Commission by CV12Hornet, The Rogue Rose by xxnarwhalxx, Last Huntress by Foxinstrazt, and Picking Up The Pieces by Etheriell (all excellent stories I highly recommend), and then the movie adaptation of the Suicide Squad comics, as well as the comic series 100 Bullets. It's been percolating in my head for some time, but solidified once I saw Suicide Squad in the theaters. And so this is born.

Also, I love slipping the "bad day" quote into stories as a tribute to the master himself, Joss Whedon. (Might remember it from another of my tales, Retired.)

The characters will often act OOC, but that's to be expected as they have all changed drastically, mostly for the worse. Some flashbacks will occur to provide more context, but in between the action (and there will be much action, much bloodshed) will be the meat of the story, as the four girls try to rebuild their relationships with each other, tenuously for certain, but definitely not to the point where they were at Beacon. The past is in the past.

Couple of other notes, there are a few obvious divergences from canon, though this is a post-Volume 3 story (pretty much ignoring Volume 4). Obviously, Ozpin survived. Pyrrha was saved (yay!) by Ruby arriving in the nick of time. And Roman also survived (yay!) though he was then killed by Ruby (boo!) before the story even starts.

This story will consist of quite a few morally grey areas. Clues will need to be followed, and oftentimes cannot be asked for nicely from those holding the secrets, be they criminals or Hunters. RWBY will be fighting a wide array of foes, and not all of them will be the 'bad guys'.

And I have to drop a quick thanks to my plethora of Betas, who between the lot of them (as time and schedules permit) have hopefully caught any errors: SilvanaCrowe, KellyConnely, CaliopeGrant, and the very talented kaiju62! Much love you guys!

Hope you enjoy, and please drop a review to let me know what you think!

Stay shiny!