My head canon for this is to justify why Neo, Emerald and Mercury are not around for the first series and why Cinder only appears in the first episode. Also as other teams from Haven were around during the Vytal festival, surely Cinder's team would have to had established their cover story for a few terms beforehand. It overlaps with the time frame of Initiation Day, but it is not necessary to read Initiation Day to read this.
Roman and Neo were sitting in Roman's "office" in the warehouse where they had stored most of the dust they had acquired over the last few months. The warehouse was situated in the police precinct of Vale which Roman characterized as containing corrupt dumb cops. They were awaiting the arrival of Cinder Fall and her two sidekicks. She was already twenty minutes later than the time she had said the meeting would start. However, in Roman's own mind until she was more than thirty minutes late, she was on time and indeed if she had arrived at the time she said she would, he would have known that something was wrong.
He did not understand why she needed to play these games – she had taught him his place months ago and now it just was wasting time. Perhaps it was because he and Neo had retaliated by ensuring that they had things to do while waiting so that when Cinder arrived they could pretend they had not noticed her because they were too engrossed in what they were doing. Today he was preparing his official tax return and Neo had a book open at the end of a chapter in her lap. If Cinder was more than thirty minutes late, she would retrieve a bowl of ice cream from the office fridge and start eating it. She would then leave a spoonful which she would ostentatiously eat when Cinder entered.
Forty minutes late, Cinder arrived with laughing boy and the simpering girl in tow. While he and Neo may be close, at least she did not worship him. Cinder ignored the ice cream although the girl glared at Neo and the boy smirked (having checked he was behind the other two). "Ah, dear Roman, so busy, busy, busy. I trust you are on schedule with your dust collection, I would be displeased if you were wasting your time on trivial matters"
He took a puff of his cigar and said, "Yes, we are currently on target" and handed her an inventory of what they had collected so far using their agreed codes. He paused, there were signs that the thefts were getting more difficult, but he decided that he would wait until the next meeting when he could raise the issue while pointing to steps that had been taken to overcome these problems. He suspected that Cinder was intolerant of pre-emptive excuses. He also wanted to discuss what he was meant to do with the dust. While the police were dumb and corrupt round here, this was a lot of dust to keep in one location and it would be safer if it could be dispersed.
Cinder continued, "Good. I will need to devote more time to other plans elsewhere in Remnant. Emerald and Mercury will spend the next seven months in Mistral and I will spend most of my time there, although I will visit you from time to time to ensure that you are not slacking and to give you further orders"
Roman tried hard to hide his relief and said "I am sorry to hear that. Still me and Neo will carry on the good work in Vale while you are away"
Cinder then dropped her bombshell. "You certainly will. However, your little friend will be joining us in Mistral. She will be going to Haven Academy as a huntress in training along with Emerald, Mercury and me until returning just before the Vytal festival. I have decided that we need a plan B"
Roman dropped his cigar and said "But Neo is needed here for plan A. We have taken the low hanging fruit. The SDC has already improved its security and the dust shops have reduced their opening hours and the amount which they hold in stock. The delivery vans are more frequent but carry less dust. There are rumours that they are considering employing hunters to travel in some of the vans and lurk in some of the shops. This is likely to mean that our raids may will need to be redirected towards the warehouses rather than the retail outlets. While I have made plans for dealing with these changes, many of these rely on Neo being around. In addition, it is always possible that a robbery will go wrong and Neo's talents are invaluable in such circumstances."
Cinder said "I realise that. However, I have some plans to provide you with more support in your robberies and to reduce the need to carry out robberies yourself. Tomorrow, I will introduce you to your new allies. In the meantime, for the dust shop robbery you have planned for tonight, I suggest you recruit some local muscle from your friend Junior. I will observe how you manage without Neo from the getaway bullhead. The day after tomorrow we can discuss any remaining concerns you may have, but I suspect these will turn out to be unjustified"
Roman decided to play for time. "I am happy to see if we can make this work and will see if I can up with constructive suggestions. It would as I have said before help if you could provide me with a better idea of what the aim of these plans are. At the very least could you explain to Neo what her role in Mistral will involve and what preparations will be needed. For example, it does seem a little late to apply for the academy. Also, will she be expected to attend classes, produce essays and fight in the Vytal festival?"
Cinder said, "Surely you can explain to her what being a huntress in training is like in Mistral. In any event I can assure you that there will be no problem about her or our admission to Haven. The initiation process starts in ten days and we will leave in five days. I can confirm that it is my intention that we will be participating in the Vytal festival and that she will play her part in the opening rounds."
Cinder had departed, leaving Emerald and Mercury to check the inventory downstairs before authorising the latest payment to Roman. Neo and Roman stared at each other in horror. Roman said to her, "Let's think about how we can get her to change her mind and talk tonight. For now, I had better call Junior to arrange to hire some of his goons. With luck they will be so incompetent, she will think better of the whole idea."
He arranged to meet Junior at his club in an hour and to hire five of his men.
He then turned to Neo. "While you and I can think of many good reasons for not doing this, we need to find reasons which she will accept. This means that we cannot tell her that she looks even older than the students in "Faunus House," "Mantle Creek" or "Dust" and cannot plausibly pretend to be 18 or 19. By the way, it seemed to me that the Street Rat was about as happy as we were about the idea. Perhaps you can eavesdrop on her and the punk while I meet Junior and see if they have any ideas we can work on. In addition, while they will not willingly help us, if they have not yet realised what an endearing roommate you would be you can bring it home to them, they may do so on their own account. Perhaps you can also give some thought as to who might recognise you from the old days in Mistral and in particular from the breakout."
Neo tilted her head to one side, nodded and vanished.
Downstairs Mercury and Emerald were discussing the unexpected addition to the team. Mercury decided to wind Emerald up by saying "On the plus side she won't be a noisy roommate and she is easy on the eye. It will also be good to have someone competent to practice combat against and can cast illusions which fool more than one person at a time."
He knew it was cruel, but Emerald was so insecure and so desperate for Cinder's approval he could not resist it. Anyway, the little shrimp was a better fighter than Emerald and he suspected could give him a run for his lien.
Emerald momentarily panicked. Could the small girl supplant her as Cinder's best girl? She knew that there were times when Cinder found her devotion a little much and pushed her away. The few times she had seen Neo fight she had clearly had a sense of style which Cinder had praised by faint damming. While Emerald considered that her illusions were higher quality and that there were advantages in targeting the illusion on a single person, she had been impressed by Neo's ability to misdirect multiple pursuers and to gain admission.
However, she was used to Mercury teasing her and could reply in kind, "She would also make an excellent assassin as she could sneak in anywhere looking like a servant or some other person with a valid reason to be there."
Mercury said "Ok, let's agree that we can both understand why Cinder thinks she would be useful. We may both be justified in fearing that she could replace one or both of us if we cease to please Cinder and she does."
They both thought about this, they both knew that if Cinder decided that they were surplus to requirements, they knew too much about Cinder and her boss to be simply dismissed. They would be terminated with extreme prejudice.
Mercury shrugged "Actually, I think that may be less of a danger the more time she spends with us. That is for reasons which makes me uneasy about spending seven months in the same dorm as little Miss Psycho and Cinder. You and I know how Cinder expects us to behave to her and are content to do so. You are happy to do so because you have a crush on her. I because she is better than my late unlamented Father, she pays well and the opportunities for mayhem are excellent"
Emerald blanched at this, "Do you remember how insolent they both where when we first met them. Roman is now house trained, but she is still the epitome of dumb insolence. She does not fear Cinder in the same way Roman does. It tends to require Roman to stare or cough to get her to behave."
Mercury nodded at this, "She clearly was not overjoyed at the prospect of spending time with us. Clearly, she and Roman are close, but she does not fear him and takes liberties with him I would not dare to take with Cinder. I have no doubt that she would push Cinder as far as she thinks she could get away with."
Emerald said, "Cinder would soon teach her a lesson"
Mercury shrugged "To do so would risk breaking our cover with too many people if it happened in the dorms. While Cinder assures us that her contact has influence at the highest levels in Haven, an all out team fight with Cinder at full force would noy go unnoticed and getting rid of the shrimp would leave a hole in the team and reduce her hold on Roman. At the very least Cinder would have to wait before putting her in her place and would let out her frustrations on us until she could do so. I will be spending a lot of time training and sparring during that period"
Emerald said, "Even once Cinder does get her to behave towards her, it is unlikely that she will insist on her behaving with us."
They contemplated that. Cinder ignored their bickering unless it disturbed her and tolerated Roman snarking at them so long as he did not threaten physical violence in her presence. She took the view that it made them stronger to deal with such irritations. A bored and irritated Neo was no doubt capable of a lot of provocation.
"OK" said Mercury. "at the very least you should suggest to Cinder that she makes it clear to Neo that she will make life uncomfortable for Roman if Neo takes liberties with Cinder. Indeed, I wonder whether having her with us is in part designed to ensure that Roman does not vamoose once we have left Vale. "
Emerald nodded, she thought she could manage to float the suggestion when she next met Cinder by complaining about the disrespect shown to Cinder by how Neo had insisted on finishing her ice cream, before turning to Cinder.
Mercury said, "Just in case, you are right that bringing her along is a guarantee on roman's good behaviour, perhaps we should think about other ways of ensuring he behaves."
Neo had listened to all of this with interest. There were some suggestions she could make to Roman and at the very least she could prepare to make Mercury and Emerald's lives miserable in Mistral. There were reasons why Roman and her had stayed put in Vale for the last four years and perhaps these could be explained to Cinder. She decided that there was no need to wind them up this evening as they had clearly grasped her talent for mischief. She decided that she would wait for Roman outside Junior's and then follow him to the robbery and observe what happened. She adopted her default young courier disguise and headed off to Junior's.
Roman was waiting for Junior at the bar. The Malachite twins had come over to keep him company and had asked after Neo. They told him that they had some news for Neo about an old acquaintance of theirs which she would not believe and suggested she arrange a meeting with them soon. He agreed to pass the message on. While their mother was safely in Mistral and was relieved to have them a continent away from her, there was no harm in being on good terms with her and them. He still had a few favours to call in with her and she might be able to provide him with useful ammunition. It was even possible that the twins could be persuaded to ask the questions themselves without using up the favours. He made a note to ask Neo to arrange a meeting with them tomorrow – perhaps brunch would be good.
He and Junior had worked with each other since Roman and Neo arrived in Vale with the twins. They had dropped the twins off with Junior who had been happy to do a favour for the divine Miss M and had discussed business opportunities. Junior had been in the process of repositioning himself as a semi-legitimate businessman. He had reached the stage of becoming the type of criminal the authorities felt comfortable with and so dropping or sub-contracting some types of work suited him. Roman and he paid the other the respect of not treating each other as chumps. Admittedly Junior had pointed the Scarlet terror in Roman's direction, but Roman believed him when he had said that he had not expected it to have been anything more than a one off heist.
Junior came over and they quickly agreed a price for the five goons. Junior explained that they were not his best, but were fine at collecting protection money. As Roman left the club he saw a blonde walking in as if the club belonged to her.
He briefed the goons, scrolled Cinder that they would be visiting the Dust shop shortly before closing time and suggested a good place to park the bullhead. He donned the white jacker and hat and applied the eyeliner. Curiously, people remembered the clothes and make up rather than his features. It had taken him by surprise how many people failed to recognise him without the uniform.
As they strode towards the shop, it amused him to see people scurry out of their way. They entered "From Dust Till Dawn" – he wondered why dust shops and hairdressers competed on bad puns.
In principle, he saw the advantage of having multiple henchmen on a raid. It speeded up the process of collecting the dust and should reduce the risk of heroics. He did feel uncomfortable doing a job without Neo as back up. She knew how he worked and her semblance was extremely useful for getaways.
He noticed that there was a young female reading a comic and wearing headphones in the back of the store, but with his scroll blocker in his pocket he intended to leave her alone. His own experience was that comic readers listening to music would ignore everything if they were reading something which interested them.
He returned his attention to the shop keeper and gave him advice on what evidence he would need for the insurance claim and even on ways he could pad the claim. It amused him and distracting the victim reduced any residual risk of an outbreak of heroism. Leaving the lien behind also reduced the risk that the owner would be stiffed by the insurers.
Perhaps he should have paid more attention as one of Junior's henchmen decided to challenge the teenager. Even so, the worse that Roman had feared was some screaming from the girl and unnecessary violence from the goon. He was not expecting him to come flying from the back of the shop. He motioned another goon to investigate. He was then startled to see that one fly through the plate glass window, closely followed by a red and black blur. The blur turned back into the girl who then drew a scythe which seemed to be at least twice her size. She clearly had aura which both increased the trouble but gave him more scope for mayhem without fatalities. He motioned the remaining goons to deal with the girl, sent a message to Cinder to bring the Bullhead in closer and started filming the girl curb stomp the henchmen.
His initial reaction was this proved exactly why he needed Neo around. He waited until the last goon fell to the ground and muttered "You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." He then addressed the girl. "Well Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around, I'm afraid this is where we part ways." He fired Melodic Cudgel at her hoping that this would stun her or at least scare her off. He then fired the grappling hook and used the reel to take him swiftly up the fire escape towards the roof of the building where he had asked Cinder to meet him.
He reached the top of the building and ran towards the bullhead when he heard a high pitched "hey" from behind him. He turned round and saw that somehow the girl had escaped unscathed from the bullet. Indeed, she had also actually caught up with him. He muttered to himself "persistent", jumped on to the bullhead, tossed a red dust crystal at the girl and fired at it to cause an explosion. While he would prefer not to kill the girl, she clearly was some form of junior huntress and was not prepared to give up easily.
He started to gloat, but then realized that an older woman had joined the girl and was firing at the bullhead. He swore – the woman was clearly stronger than he was and looked capable of downing the bullhead. He informed Cinder that she was needed and took over the controls. His composure was not helped by the fact an ice spear came through the roof of the bullhead and narrowly missed his head. He then swiveled the bullhead to deflect another ice spear without causing structural damage. Clearly Cinder went to full strength on the fire storm as he could feel the heat from the cockpit. He was relieved to make his escape in the bullhead.
He supposed that he should be careful what he wished for as it had finally clicked that the woman had been Glynda Goodwitch. She was an ex-Vytal festival champion and was deputy head at Beacon. He wondered what on Remnant she had been doing in Vale at this time of night. He had not expected hunter patrols for another month or so and that one of Junior's informants in the VPD would have given some warning.
Cinder returned to the cabin and pretended that it had been a stroll in the park. Roman decided that it was best for him not to say I told you so, but simply hoped she would think about it for itself. Still, he had yet to meet the new allies she had referred to and they could hardly be less competent that Junior's men.
Neo had watched the fight with interest. She had not intervened as she had presumed that Roman had wanted to demonstrate why she was needed in Vale. She had been relieved to see the Bullhead fly off with only minimal damage. She watched the girl and the huntress come down the fire escape, talk to the shopkeeper and police. She thought that the huntress had been well dressed and to judge from what she had seen from street level would be added to the small list of those who should not be fought unless totally unavoidable. From what she had seen of Cinder, unfortunately the fallback plan of her and Roman terminating Cinder with extreme prejudice seemed to be rather too high risk for comfort, especially if Emerald and Mercury were also present. She returned to their apartment, adopting the studious schoolgirl illusion as she entered the building and caught the lift.
Roman returned an hour later and filled her in on his version of the events of the evening. He declared that they should make a note never to pull heists in the three days before term started at Beacon. There were clearly too many wannabe heroes wandering around for comfort. She signed to him what she had learnt from listening to Emerald and Mercury. She agreed to meet the twins tomorrow and to see if she could persuade them to ask their mother whether it was safe for either of them to return to Mistral. Roman said that even if he could not talk Cinder out of her plan he would try and visit every few weeks, but that they should just check that they had both been forgotten. She also wondered who on Remnant was the mutual friend that the twins had referred to. They stayed up until 3 in the morning rehearsing arguments that they could make. Roman thought the best solution would result in Emerald and Mercury being students, while Cinder would be a professor or a graduate student.
Emerald and Mercury were called into Cinder's room in the hotel they were staying in. Mercury saw immediately that she was in a bad mood and was looking for an excuse to take it out on them. She talked about the useless henchman had been defeated by a little girl, that Roman had run away and left her to fight the huntress and the girl. While to hear her describe it, she had wiped the floor with the huntress, both the huntress and the girl had clearly survived and it sounded as though Cinder had had to use her full powers.
Mercury bit his tongue to avoid snarking too obviously. Luckily Emerald had put her foot in it by taking Cinder at face value and asking for too much detail about the condition of the opponents after the fight. He remembered that later today he could look forward to the first meeting of Adam Taurus and Roman Torchwick. He really did not see this as being the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The thought of the two jerks confronting each other cheered him up sufficiently that he was genuinely sympathetic to Emerald when they returned to their room and reassured her that Cinder would have forgiven her by the morning. He also wanted to discuss with her the plan which he had for changing Cinder's mind about taking Neo with them to Mistral and it would need them to cooperate with each other in suggesting things to Cinder.