Author's note: Yo! Hope ya'll had a happy holiday and new year! The chapter after this one is almost finished, so I might upload it relatively soon after this one :)

Warnings will be at the end of the chapter from now on.

"Come on!" Rose groaned, pushing an already stumbling and rather exhausted Yakko in the direction of the punching bag he hadn't even made sway "A baby squirrel could punch harder than you!"

"Well maybe if I hadn't been running for three hours nonstop earlier-" he panted, turning his head to scowl at the girl, debating on using his fists to pummel Rose to the ground instead of the punching bag in front of him "Maybe then I would be able to punch harder than a baby squirrel."

"I don't care if you've been running for three hours or chipping rocks for a whole day under the burning sun like a goddamn prisoner" Rose growled at him, taking a step forward "I want you to use a right hook to take that bag off the air and onto the ground."

He might as well have fallen to the ground in shock at her words.

Surely she didn't actually expect him to be able to do that? After all the abuse his body had already gone through that day? He was pretty sure it was impossible.

"You're demanding too much of me!" he gasped out, his chest heaving up and down with the effort to even keep himself upright "I'm at my limit here!"

Rose shook her head, glaring at him, the artificial light over her head making a menacing shadow fall over her face "You're not. I know what your limit is, and this isn't it. My job is to force you to surpass your limits, make you stronger! Faster! More agile! I'm not going to go soft on you just because you're still a newbie."

"Jesus, I'm just asking for a little rest!" his legs were shaking so much they could be jello with an odd flavor. Nobody wanted warner-leg jello. Not even Wakko would eat it.

"And you will rest" Rose nodded, but before Yakko could even think of being relieved, she finished with "After you take down that bag and do fifty squats."

He did a double-take.

"Are you trying to kill me!?"

"No, you're more use to me alive. If I do kill you, it'll be after we dethrone Athena."

At any other time, Yakko would have understood that that had been a joke, albeit a slightly tasteless one. As he was now, he was honestly in danger of dying and was actually worried Rose would murder him because of over-exertion.

"But-"

"No buts. I want to see you punching that thing until-"

"Rose."

Thankfully for him, StarDust chose that very moment to interrupt, walking quickly across the short distance between the door to the hallway and the inside of the gymnasium, where they were in. She was holding an envelope in her hands.

"What is it Star?" Rose's entire demeanor changed when she faced her older sister, her expression now relaxed, no longer looming. Yakko just let himself fall on his bottom and tried to stretch his sore muscles. His expression was one of pure misery.

StarDust didn't say anything else, she merely handed Rose the letter with the wax seal and watched as Rose's peaceful expression turned into a deep frown. And when Rose groaned like she was just done with everything life had to offer, Yakko, as usual, couldn't stop his curiosity from popping up.

"What does it say?" he asked, wanting to stand up and look over Rose's shoulder to see what had annoyed her so much, but he couldn't really stand at the moment. Or move at all.

"We've been summoned" was all a glaring Rose said to him through gritted teeth as she threw the letter in the air. StarDust, as if anticipating her younger sister's childish move, merely caught the piece of paper fluttering in the air, giving it a read herself.

"Summoned?" finally regaining some of his breath, Yakko stood up from the cold gym floor, walking forward to follow Rose back to the hallway "Summoned where?"

"To the castle" StarDust answered him, having finished reading the letter. Her eyes were even more serious than before; maybe even a little angry "Athena wants to see us."

He froze when the monarch's name was uttered "... The queen?"

From all the things Rose had told him about her, Yakko didn't want to have anything to do with the woman. Considering that they were supposed to take her off the throne, this was certainly a good thing, but... He was scared of meeting her in person. What if she was a frail, frightened old lady who cowardly hid behind her guards to protect herself? Would he really be able to hurt such a pitiful creature?

He'd been thinking about his morals and what he would be prepared to do should he be told to far too much lately. Ever since he'd questioned whether he would be able to kill someone on command a week before, when they'd all been happily eating pizza that he'd cooked, these thoughts had been plaguing his brain.

What unsettled him wasn't the thought that he would probably have to kill someone... In fact, it was that which unsettled him, the fact that he wasn't distressed by the thought of having to kill. He'd never actually been afraid of having to murder someone- just of the thought that he found it... oddly not scary. Awful, yes, something he rebelled against completely, but not scary. Never scary. No, he was scared of himself for treating the matter so calmly and logically, almost completely disregarding any sort of emotional reaction he might have had.

He wondered if the sisters felt the same, if he'd just gotten this feeling early into the game and it was merely a secondary symptom of being a veteran in this field. He wondered if Rose would laugh at him if he told her in a worried voice that he was scared of not being scared of killing someone, if she would tell him it was okay and that his feelings had become numb for his body to function correctly in such a traumatic situation.

But he had the feeling that, instead, she would look at him oddly, and ask him if he'd ever committed murder before; if it was something normal for him. Because he was scared of such a response, he decided he wouldn't ask.

Instead, he set out to follow Rose outside of the gym, through the hallway and to the entrance of their little modernized cave. He heard voices from the hallway, heard Marilyn and StarDust calling for Wakko and Dot, who'd no doubt been busy with their own work.

In a bit, they were all standing in front of the big metal garage door, the three sisters muttering among themselves. His siblings sent him questioning looks, but Yakko merely shrugged because he wasn't so sure what was happening yet. Marilyn did eventually turn from the conversation she'd been having with her sisters to talk to them, but by then Rose had already punched in the code on the panel with gritted teeth and the garage door lifted up.

"We're going to see Athena back at the castle" she explained, her mouth contorted in a grimace, and Yakko wondered how they would even be able to face the woman and act like nothing was wrong. Clearly they all had very bad impressions of her "We've been gone for so long that she 'wants to see us' or something equally as staged. It's kind of a thing we do every now and then, and we've been putting it off."

Marilyn huffed, and StarDust shook her head at her obvious dislike for their mother "Keep the grimace to a minimum, Mary. Athena will be suspicious."

"Yeah, I know" she sighed, but walked over to the lifted garage door without further protest. StarDust followed her.

When Yakko was about to ask what they were supposed to do while the girls were gone, Rose kept her distaste away from her face for long enough to tell them "Go make yourselves useful and buy some groceries. Also, don't bother hurrying up" she let out a long breath, exhausted "I have a feeling this is going to take a while."

The siblings only nodded, and Dot started walking to the kitchen immediately, declaring that she would write the shopping list because Wakko and Yakko always seemed to forget something or another. Wakko just shrugged and went to follow her, saying he'd get the bags to grab what they needed, all as the Milers went out the door.

Just when Yakko was about to go to the kitchen as well though, he heard Rose's voice from the tunnel "Don't forget you still have to do fifty squats when I get back, Yakko!"

The door closed and Yakko groaned, his joints protesting at the thought of more exercise, but instead of complaining any more than he already had, he just walked to the kitchen to help his siblings.

In a few minutes they were ready to begin their little shopping trip. Crossing the field to get to Artemis' market was a torture they were getting used to, and they only complained maybe one or two times each before they reached it.

There were more people at the market than Yakko expected, but it wasn't a large crowd either. There were more warners buying food produce than the last few times he'd been there, taking out their tiny purses out of their bags and letting a few shiny gold coins fall onto the stands. He couldn't help but think of the time he'd seen Rose let a small brown sack plop down onto a homeless warner's hands, and wondered if some of the coins had been given to them by the Milers during one of their usual escapades without the siblings.

Still, he couldn't just stand still and stare, so the three of them walked over to the stands that had the food they wanted, making sure they didn't miss anything on the list that they might need. Yakko had added a few more items to the list Dot had written, mainly because he wanted to try new dishes with different kinds of spices and ingredients they'd never bought before. Luckily, Rose had already told Yakko that if he wanted to buy things that weren't explicitly necessary for survival, that that was fine, just as long as he bought from the lower classes. Wouldn't make much sense to help the rich, unless they had something they absolutely needed that they couldn't get anywhere else.

When they'd bought everything that was necessary (i.e. bread, cheese, potatoes), they set off on a search for the less commonly used food Yakko wanted to experiment with. At this point, Yakko was almost expecting the calm instead of the danger; everything had been going so smoothly that he wasn't worried that something would happen randomly anymore. He felt like he could keep his feeling of anxiety for when they would have to do missions, where he should expect the unexpected.

Actually... everything was going too smoothly.

Their first mission would be in less than a month, and yet they were all perfectly calm, including the voice. He had been pretty accepting when it came to Yakko spending time with Rose lately, even when it wasn't explicitly necessary, like training was. He appeared reluctant, but didn't tell him not to again. Yakko wondered if their little chat had made the voice decide to stop babying him and if that was the conclusion the voice had come to when he'd said he "shouldn't be berating him for trying to make friends".

Either way, Yakko was glad that he didn't have to fight with the voice over this anymore. But, like he'd said, everything was a bit too good at the moment. It made him feel like... like something bad was coming.

Wow, what a pessimist, right? So what if he had a bad feeling in his gut, telling him that this was just the calm before the storm? He should enjoy the good things while he could, and this was exactly what he was thinking of as he and his siblings walked a ways away from the most crowded part of the market to the least habited. It was a bit darker than the rest of the market, since there were taller, conjoined houses stuck together that made it harder for the sun to peek through, but Yakko didn't mind. He was calm.

Too calm.

Wakko and Dot eagerly searched for the "secret ingredients" Yakko would put in his experimental meals, and the oldest simply listed off the things they needed aloud to the two and cheerily explained when his siblings didn't know what certain things looked like.

That was when he saw something.

A figure quick as lightning passed by them in the shadows, but when Yakko went to look with wide eyes, there was no one there. He slowly lowered his gaze back to Wakko and Dot, walking closer to them just in case the figure was a thief or something that wanted to steal their coins.

To his immense relief, nobody came out of the shadows with a gun demanding that they give them their money, and when his siblings had collected and paid for everything Yakko needed, he was perfectly calm again as he told them they would start walking back to the base. They quietly slipped through the people at the market, but just as they were reaching the end of it, the voice spoke.

- ... Someone's following us. -

Yakko almost stopped in his tracks - he'd known the figure was set on them, he'd known it! - but instead he decided it was smarter to guide his siblings through some crowded alleys, trying to lose their invisible tracker.

When the voice didn't say anything else, seemingly calm again, Yakko decided it was time to keep going, and they got to the vast field, preparing their legs and feet for the long walk ahead.

They got back to base with tired legs from walking and tired arms from holding all the bags with food. Yakko easily punched in the code Rose had taught them to get in, and in a moment, he and his siblings were getting inside the tunnel. He didn't think to look back just in case the person that had been following them had gotten back on their trail. He just wanted to get in as quickly as possible.

He waited for the tell-tale sound of the mechanism of the mountain closing the opening behind them, and though he did hear it, almost immediately he heard a noise that made him turn around. Just like the first time however, there was nothing there, and this time the siblings were also surrounded by darkness.

- I don't like this. -

- I don't like it either. -

His heart started picking up speed as he led his siblings, who... looked oddly as tense as he was, past the tunnel and through the garage door after he'd punched in the code. When they entered the base, he definitely heard a sound behind them before the garage door closed.

The voice gasped.

- Look out! -

He barely had a few seconds to react before a fist was flying to his face, but Yakko had reflexes, and he caught the hand in his, effectively stopping the attack.

They hadn't even flicked the light switch on and he was already in a fist fight. What a day.

He heard his siblings gasp as the figure he'd seen in the market earlier tried to punch him with their other hand, managing to use the time Yakko took to dodge it to deliver a swift punch to his chin with the hand they'd gotten out of his grasp. Luckily he didn't bite his tongue off, but it still hurt like hell.

He tried to think of the best way to incapacitate his opponent, who was hiding their face with the hood of the cape they were wearing, without hurting them, but then he realized- he wasn't fighting Rose. This was a real fight, a fight with a stranger. Rose wouldn't ever really hurt him, even if he messed up. This person would. He had to fight, not to better his skills, but to live.

This seemingly made some sort of survival instinct inside him kick in, because the next thing he knew, he was moving to kick the person's leg, just as he'd done with Rose, but when his opponent's first instinct was to jump to avoid him, Yakko didn't hold back on the punch he delivered to their gut.

He wasn't fighting Rose. He could hurt this person without feeling remorse.

His opponent coughed, winded by the punch to their stomach, grabbed at it and groaned, but when Yakko lifted his leg up to deliver a kick straight to the person's chest, just as Rose had taught him, his opponent pounced on him.

They snarled something at him Yakko couldn't understand as they fell onto the floor, Yakko's back hitting the hard unforgiving tiles.

- Are you okay? Do you need help? I'll kick their ass if you want me to. -

The voice sounded frantic, but his tone was almost a growl, as if saying that, if asked, he'd kill his attacker. But Yakko didn't have time to answer the voice, because the person on top of him, who was doing nothing more than pinning Yakko's wrists to the floor and hissing at him, finally said something he could understand.

"Where are they? What did you do with them?" the person snarled, clutching at Yakko's wrists tighter, making him hiss at the pain of their nails sinking into his flesh.

"What are you talking about?" though Yakko tried to free himself, even kick his legs to push the person off him, the stranger merely sat firmly on his legs, causing his circulation to cut off there. He wanted to ask his siblings for help, but at the same time he didn't want to alert the stranger of their existence and chance them trying to hurt them.

"Who the hell do you think I'm talking about?" the person hissed back at him "Marilyn, Rose, StarDust; where are they?"

Oh, so that's what this was about.

Now he was a bit less scared, especially since he chanced a glance at his siblings and saw that each had a frying pan in their hands and were slowly advancing toward the stranger, preparing to hit them with it and knock them out as soon as they were close enough. The stranger didn't seem to notice because they were too frazzled.

So, Yakko responded naturally and without any fright "They went to see Athena."

"Bullshit, why would they want to go see Athena?"

"Uh, because she called for them?"

"And why would she do that?"

Yakko rolled his eyes "It's some sort of regular visit? I've no clue, I don't know Athena personally."

The person's hands tightened even more around his wrists "Sure you don't, because you're not a spy or anything" they were saying this sarcastically. Where had they gotten that idea?

He was starting to get worried, because this person seemed to think everything that spewed out of his mouth was a lie, and he didn't know how to convince them. Who were they anyway? In this darkness and with the hood over their head, Yakko couldn't see their face.

However, at that moment, Yakko heard a noise- a very familiar noise that told him he was safe.

He heard the sound of the garage door opening, and a second later someone flicked on the light switch.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Thank the Heavens that Marilyn exists, though she looked very bewildered at seeing Wakko and Dot holding frying pans a few millimeters away from a hooded person that was pinning Yakko to the floor. Rose and StarDust trailed in behind her, sporting equally incredulous looks, though StarDust looked less shocked and more like she was about to tell someone off. Probably him about the dangers of not paying attention to people who can potentially follow you home.

Also thank the Heavens for the fact that, at seeing the three Milers, the person jumped off him at the speed of sound.

"There you are" their voice sounded fond, and now that Yakko wasn't worried that the stranger would take out a knife and slit his throat, he could tell their voice was a little deep. The way they extended their arms as if preparing for a hug was strange, but even more so was the spark of recognition in Marilyn's eyes.

"... No fucking way..." she whispered as she approached the figure, and though StarDust muttered a 'language' under her breath, she didn't stop her advance.

When Marilyn reached the stranger, she slowly, as if expecting to find the secret of life, slid the hood off the person's head. She gasped at what she saw and her hands flew to her mouth, though all Yakko could see from his angle was a head of black short hair.

"You... How the hell are you alive?" Rose approached the person as well after a moment, her mouth suddenly becoming an incredulous smile. She looked tempted to hug them.

The stranger laughed lightly "I have my methods."

"Clearly" with a small smile, StarDust approached as well, so that the three sisters were in front of the person.

Obviously, they knew each other, but Yakko didn't have the chance to ask to be introduced to the person who'd attempted to bash his face in, because Marilyn, with hands still to her mouth, made a tiny high-pitched sound, like one would make when they see a puppy doing a cute trick.

"... Ellie... Ellie!" she squeaked for a moment and then hugged the previously hooded figure tightly, and Yakko noticed there were tears at the corners of her eyes "You're alive! You're okay! I was so worried!"

'Ellie' sighed softly and wrapped their arms around her as well, patting her head softly "It's okay Mary. I'm okay. Sorry I didn't even send a letter."

"It's fine" Marilyn sniffed, burying her face further in Ellie's shoulder. Yakko felt like there was something going on there but it was none of his business, so he didn't comment "I'm just happy you're okay..."

"Um, I'm sorry" Dot interrupted all of a sudden, making the three sisters, but not Ellie, look toward her. Her expression was annoyed "But why is it that whenever someone new meets with us they try to murder Yakko?"

Yakko felt like this was a very good question and wanted a damned answer.

Rose snorted, Marilyn just buried her face in Ellie's shoulder again, and StarDust shook her head "He's just that annoying. Who wouldn't want to murder him?"

"Shut up" Yakko pouted, but then addressed the matter at hand "Who are they anyway?"

"Ah yes, you deserve a proper introduction" StarDust said, and when Ellie groaned and asked if they had to, she lightly hit their head and forcefully turned Ellie around.

The three Warners almost jumped out of their skin.

This was... This was impossible. There had to be a mistake.

Had someone suddenly put a mirror in front of him?

"... Holy..." Wakko, in a daze, looked back and forth between Yakko and this Ellie person, his brow slightly furrowed "I'm seeing double. Dot, did you hit my head with the frying pan?"

Dot only shook her head slowly, in a daze just like her brother "No... I'm seeing double too."

Yakko could only stare dumbly.

This person... looked almost like a carbon copy of him. They had a fringe that obscured a bit of their forehead, their eyes a little smaller and not leaning downwards like Yakko's were, but other than that, they were almost identical. Their build was also a lot rougher, all sharp lines and wide shoulders while Yakko was more curvy and soft.

Somehow this didn't shock Ellie at all, because their brow only furrowed in distaste.

"... I'd been hoping you'd look less like me from this close up" Ellie took a step back as if grossed out.

Yakko just shrugged numbly "Sorry for crushing your dreams, I guess."

The three sisters, Marilyn included because she'd let go of Ellie sometime during their exchange with StarDust, looked back and forth between them, eyes wide, as if just now realizing they might as well be clones.

"Uh..." Rose blinked repeatedly, and then pinched herself once to check if this was real. When it was confirmed this was, indeed, happening, she shook her head in disbelief "This is weird but... Um, these are Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner. They're our pupils."

And when she introduced the stranger, Yakko thought he would faint from the way his head was spinning.

"Yakko, Wakko, Dot. This is Elias Warner, the prince of WarnerStock."

What the actual hell was going on?

Warnings for this chapter: None.

Author's note: Be gentle with me, I made many mistakes when I started planning this story and when I actually figured out what should be a thing and what shouldn't be there were too many aspects of the story that I could no longer change without making a total mess of things. So... You're gonna get a few cliches, but at least I make them obvious.