Chapter I: Stranger In a Strange Land

AN: Yeah, things have been kinda shit over here. Apologies for that.

Let's get right down to brass tacks here, where our handy-dandy RWKY RoadMap(TM) shows that we… have a reunion coming up. Huh, that's nice. Nothing could possibly go badly with that, right?

Right?

How long has it been? Six years? Seven?

Emerald was completely ignoring the people around her as she tried to shoulder her way through the crowd, completely ignoring her boss and her new coworker. The Rosettes had to be here somewhere – if nothing else, they were more than a little hard to miss if you knew them. Sure, Crimson was always pretty scrawny, and Munsell was always the shy guy, but Stizza still seemed to be her usual flamboyant self.

She stopped only long enough to take a breath, mind wandering back to… to better times. And Oum almighty if being a homeless seven-year-old was considered a "better time," but she'd take it over her stay in Vale. Gods, they really had been little runts, hadn't they? Emerald had first met them when they were all what, five, six? Events were easier to remember that far back than times, but she did remember that she'd only been a couple days out of her own orphanage when she ran into the four of them, apparently on the run from a completely different orphanage.

The Rosette Quadruplets. Had to have been hell on their mother, that's for sure, but Emerald was more than thankful for the woman that did the deed. The five of them had been the only people they could rely on for years. For so long, it had just been Falu, Stizza, Crimson, Munsell, and Emerald, doing what they could and what they wanted. The only thing that could have stopped them was themselves, truthfully, even at that age. Which is, naturally, what happened. When they found a boat headed for Vale, Emerald had been all for going – that Kingdom was better to those who were on the bottom, so she'd heard, and their collective reputation was starting to make things pretty dicey as they were all growing up. It had been such a good idea, it had even tempted her to part ways with her friends, seeking a better life elsewhere…

Emerald snarled, before her eyes caught a glimpse of a dark red ponytail. Either that was incredibly well dyed, or – no, wait! Three more heads of hair with it, all the same color! She redoubled her pace, intent on getting back with the first family she'd ever known.

Leaving was the worst thing she'd ever did, and something she'd always hold against eleven-year-old Emerald. But now, that didn't matter. Now, she could be back with them. Not just be back with them, but offer them what they – and Cinder – had offered her: a family. A home. A place to be. She could even picture it; Falu would welcome her back with open arms, Stizza would get far too clingy for comfort, the scrawny little runt that Crimson always was would-

"Visitor."

The voice that rumbled was sharp, gruff, yet full of energy. And when the person that said it finally locked eyes with her… that was Crimson's face, alright. But since when the hell did he go from the smallest one among them to being damn near as wide as he was tall?!

"Of course there's visitors, Crim, you can't go five feet without bumping into… wait." The young woman that roughly shouldered her way past the monster movie caricature of Crimson Rosette stopped dead in her tracks, before her eyes went wide in recognition and her jaw dropped. "No way. No fucking way."

Despite the… surprise, Emerald couldn't help but break into a huge grin. "Hey guys. Been a while."

"You could say that," the third voice popped up. And sure enough, squeezing her way just between her brother and sister, was Momma Bear herself. Complete with… a gigantic frigging burn across half her damn face. Emerald's smile vanished as Falu came up. Guessing at the reason for her friend's shock, Falu added, "Yeah, sorry about the mess. It's Sitzza's fault, as usual."

"Hey – hey!" Stizza suddenly barked. "That one wasn't me for a change, and you damn well know it!"

"You trying to burn down wherever we're staying down every week isn't helping things!"

The sisters' usual banter got Emerald's grin to come back, and she wasted no further time in snatching Falu in a hug. "It's so good to see you guys again. I thought I'd never…"

"It's okay, Gemma," Stizza reassured, dragging Emerald into a hug once Falu had her fill. "We've kinda forgiven you for running off on us."

"Ignore her," Falu remarked, no doubt based on how hard Emerald had flinched. "She likes getting under people's skin. Really damn good at it, to… like how she fucking gave Nikos a free win and cost us six months' rent!"

Now it was Stizza's turn to flinch at the sudden glare and shout, before she turned a glare of her own on her sister as Crimson exacted his toll through a hug that nearly broke Emerald's ribcage. "I told you, something was fucking up with that shit! Equalizer kicked completely off, you know our guns don't have that kind of recoil!"

"Well maybe if you had spent half as much time tinkering with them as you do trying to light shit on fire, it wouldn't have –"

"Emerald."

One word, her name. Raspy, hoarse, soft. It was still enough to get Falu and Stizza away from each other's throats, as the fourth member of the crazy, messed up group they had made himself known. And when he finally managed to get into eyesight, Emerald could do little but stare. That was Munsell, alright, but… he looked different. Wrong. Like someone was doing a super-good impersonation of him, but something was just off. Was this what her illusions were like?

Something flashed across Munsell's face, but it was too fast for her to get a read on what. What was –

"Holy shit, he just spoke." The tension flowed out of the space, probably into that breath that Stizza just sucked in. Turning to Falu, she said, "Did you hear that? He just fucking talked. He,"

"Heard you the first time, Stizz."

A scowl and a glare were Munsell's answer, combined with an annoyed growl and an elbow being dug into Stizza's hip; if her soft cry of pain was anything to go by, he'd managed to hit a spot that the Nikos girl had hammered a little bit ago.

"It's… good to see you," Emerald remarked, clumsily trying to fill the void. Godsdamnit, why was this so awkward all of a sudden?

Mercury's voice called out from behind them, about twenty feet if she had to guess. "Damnit, Em! Where the hell did you run off to?"

"More visitors," Crimson grumbled, and before Emerald could turn around and yell back a hand grabbed her shoulder and started pulling her back. She flashed back around in panic, but calmed a little when she saw it was Falu's hand. Her right hand was itching at her back, where Emerald could see some sort of weapon – sword, maybe? – tucked under her shirt. Stizza, too, similarly armed herself, bringing the same shotgun she used in the arena out and ready.

Okay, not good. Emerald needed to solve this now, before her new family and old family decided to come to blows over a misunderstanding. "Over here!" she shouted, drawing startled looks from Stizza and Crimson. She reassured, "It's okay, guys, I know them."

"We'll see," Crimson grumbled, not backing down for a moment. Stizza and Falu, at least, seemed to calm a bit.

"C'mon, Em, since when are you the troublemaker?!" Merc groaned, pushing forward before stopping on a Lien at the sight of her sandwiched between the Rosettes. Immediately, his mood and posture changed, leaning forward and getting ready to launch himself at the five of them. "Alright, bud, let her go."

Emerald tried to get in front, tried to get between them and try to keep a fight from breaking out, but her squirming was halted when Crimson used a hand most the size of a dinner plate to push her further back. "No," he growled. One ward, delivered with all the grace of a rampaging Ursa, and enough to get the tension ratcheting up to 11.

Falu tapped her shoulder, just in time for Cinder to show up – and holy shit this was getting out of hand. "You're sure it's safe?" she whispered. Emerald nodded frantically, hoping that Falu was as good as talking them all out of trouble as she used to be.

"Emerald," Cinder bit out. "What's going on?"

"Stand down, Crim," Falu barked out suddenly.

For his part, Crimson seemed startled by the order, risked a hasty glance back. "But enemies," he shot back quickly, quietly.

"Not enemies," Falu denied. "I said, stand down." Taking a look to her right, where Stizza had tensed back up, she added, "You too, Stizz. Em says they're good, they're good."

Finally feeling able to take a breath and calm the hell down, Emerald took the opportunity to push past a reluctantly relaxing Stizza and Crimson and get in the middle of everything. "We all good? Good. Guys, this is…" Emerald waffled for a few seconds, trying to figure out how best to put it. She eventually settled on, "This is my boss, Cinder. Mercury here is my coworker. Cinder, Merc, these are the people I wanted you to meet. Falu, Stizza, Crimson, and Munsell Rosette."

"Charmed," Stizza threw out, dragging attention back to her.

Cinder raised an eyebrow, still tense from the situation that nearly happened. "A colorful group. How do you know them, Emerald?"

"Oh, Em and us go way back," Stizza started with a grin, only to get elbowed in the side again, this time from Falu. She raised her own brow at Emerald, doubtlessly trying to ask how much to tell. Emerald gave a smile and a nod. Cinder got her off the street, gave her a life and purpose – she wasn't about to hide anything from her.

"We met each other when we were six," Falu explained. "We pretty much grew up together."

"You never told us you were from Mistral, Em," Merc pointed out, opting to lean against a convenient concrete support next to them and crossing his arms.

Emerald took a quick breath – and pointedly ignored the smirk and wink he specifically sent Stizza's way – and explained with a shrug, "It never really came up."

"So, you know us," Falu interrupted, putting herself firmly in Cinder's center of attention in the process. "We still don't know a damn thing about you guys, though. Care to spill the beans?"

Cinder didn't answer immediately; Emerald could tell she was weighing her options. When that small smile – that 'I-like-you-and-want-you-to-like-me' smile that only came out with people she wanted to work with – came out, Emerald knew she'd gotten the intrigue she wanted from her boss. "I ran into Emerald about ten months ago, actually. She'd just gotten away with a rather daring heist, and as someone who appreciates the skill something like that takes, I took her on. We've been working together ever since."

"And we picked up Merc just a month or so ago, actually – right here in Mistral, if you believe it," Emerald helpfully added on. "That was…" a dangerous glare from Mercury made her cut off her retelling of how they found him, making Emerald instead opt for, "… something. And also not my story to tell."

"Well, any friend of Em's is a friend of ours," Falu announced. "Welcome to Mistral."

"Got any embarrassing stories to tell?" Stizza suddenly asked. "I'd be willing to trade."

Emerald's eyes widened – if she even thought about telling them about what happened at the Hydian Way… "No they don't," she barked out suddenly. Grabbing Stizza by her jacket, Emerald added, "And no you won't."

Merc chuckled. "Ooh, sounds like there's a story there."

"Aaaand there goes Stizz," Falu muttered, not paying attention to how Emerald all but collapsed at seeing Stizza and Mercury getting along far, far too well. But, Emerald though, she should've seen this coming a mile away.

Desperately trying to distract herself from what Merc and Stizz were talking about, not to mention try and get the excuse she needed to start bringing the Rosettes into the fold, Emerald turned to Falu and asked, "So, a Huntsman tourney, huh? You guys looked pretty darn good out there!"

Falu smirked and answered, "Yeah, we've, um… let's say we've got some experience. And when we see a payday this good for something that won't get us arrested, we jumped at the chance." Her eyes narrowing and looking over at Stizza, Falu belted out, "Even if the person we sent to the finals went and threw the match on us!"

"Man, fuck you!"

Falu sighed and dropped her head into her hand as Emerald gave her a sympathetic look. "What's done is done though, I guess. Now, I… now I gotta figure out how we're gonna make rent. Or how we're gonna eat…"

"Actually, I think I might be able to help with that."

And those were the words Emerald was waiting to hear. Emerald knew her boss, and as Cinder strutted up with a smile that was half a smirk, and half warm and motherly, she could almost see and hear what was about to happen before it even did.

"Tell me, Falu, was it?" Cinder began, "What kind of work do you and your siblings tend to do?"

"Eh, all kinds of things, really," Falu answered. Looking around to make sure nobody was paying any particular attention to them, she leaned in and said more quietly, "We do a whole bunch of mercenary work for the local gangs and shit. Crim's the muscle, Stizza helps him with that – not to mention a pretty good tinkerer – Munsell's good with the delicate stuff, and I'm good with the quiet stuff." Leaning back and fixing a new look on Cinder, she followed up with, "How come? You got business we can do?"

Cinder's smile grew. "Perhaps. Is there somewhere else we can meet? Somewhere we can discuss our… wholly legitimate business proposals?"

"Perhaps," Falu smirked. Raising her voice, she yelled, "Stizz, quit your damn flirting! We're moving out!"

"Would you piss the hell off for, like, five godsdamn minutes?!"

Emerald blinked at the reaction, before staring at Falu as she started leading the seven of them out of the now mostly emptied stands. That was way more aggressive than she remembered their interactions being; sure, Stizza had always chafed a bit with Falu, and Falu had always had her hands full keeping Stizza in line. But that…

A drunken man stumbled past them, knocking into Munsell and nearly sending him to the ground. Crimson reacted immediately, casually picking him up by the throat and growling almost animalistically. It took Falu staring him down for him to put the guy down, who seemed both instantly sober and terrified for his life as he tore down the hall. Crimson seemed entirely unapologetic – a complete 180 from the complete pushover who couldn't hurt a fly when they were younger.

What the hell happened while she was gone?

"Welp, here we are!"

Emerald was expecting this from the start, but expectations still didn't seem to meet up with reality. Sure, she and Cinder didn't have anything close to luxury, but even they during their time in Vale could at least expect their apartment to be warm and dry, with some amount of food in the cupboard. Their beds were functional, and their bathroom was clean and in good working order – most of the time, anyway. Compared to that, though…

Stizza opened the tap for the sink in their "kitchen" – and that was being generous – and Emerald couldn't help but wrinkle her nose when the water came out more brown than anything. Seeing her reaction, Stizza laughed and said, "Yeah, water's pretty shit around here. Gotta let it run for a few minutes to get the worst of it out."

"Damn, what the hell happened to the rest of our ramen?" Falu muttered, drawing Emerald's eyes to the one cupboard the room had, where Falu had dug out two packets of instant noodles and evidently struggling to find more food. After doing some more digging, she muttered, "Shit, looks like I get to skip dinner again. Okay, Stizza gets one, she needs it after her fight today, but then…"

"Munsell gets it," Crimson volunteered, drawing everyone's attention and a grunt from Munsell that Emerald couldn't tell if it was supposed to be disapproval or alarm. Apparently judging it to be disapproval, Crimson defended, "You need it more than I do."

"So… looks like you kept the decorating sparse," Mercury offered weakly from the other room, earning a snort from Stizza and Falu and prompting Emerald to go into the second room of this… this squat, calling it an apartment was being too generous. "Where's your beds?"

Stizza followed Emerald into the room, flopping down to take a seat and leaning against one of the walls. Shooting a cross look at Merc, she retorted, "Exactly how much money do you think we have?"

Merc put his hands up in a placating gesture and answered, "Okay, I get it, sorry. You can put the claws away."

Emerald was only paying attention to the conversation in passing, more focused on the room. Four walls, a door into the kitchen, a bare carpet. No furniture, no windows, no power outlets, no anything. Hell, the only things in the room other than them were two weapons in the far corner leaning against the wall. She raised an eyebrow at the massive tower shield taking up a good chunk of the back wall, over four feet high, covered in thick spikes, and looking like it weighed as much as she did. Propped up in the corner looked like some kind of rifle, a sniper if she had to guess. Both of them looked like, erm, creative use of local resources if she was being generous, and garbage sculptures if she wasn't.

"Sorry about the lack of pomp and circumstance," Falu announced, getting everyone's attention as she made her way into the main room. Leaning against the wall opposite her sister, she added, "We don't exactly have a lot to work with. Gangs have actually been pretty quiet lately, work's been dried up for the past couple months."

"So I see," Cinder said quietly, lips creased and brow furrowed. Her eyes flashed angrily, dangerously, before she closed them and took a calming breath. When she opened them again, Cinder asked, "There's a fourth member of our group I instructed to meet us here. I trust that won't be a problem?"

Falu seemed to give it a bit of thought, before shaking her head back towards the kitchen and ordering, "Crim, watch the door." She turned back to Cinder before asking, "Who's he looking for?"

"White, pink, and brown," Merc answered suddenly. "Colorful as all hell. Hard to miss."

Crossing the room with an economy of motion that could've been considered laziness were it not for the sharp alertness in his eyes, Crimson casually picked up the shield with one hand and hefted it before turning back to the entrance. "I'll watch," he rumbled.

While he crossed back through everyone's field of view, Emerald finally nailed down what had been bugging her the most about this place so far. "Where's your bathroom?"

"Outside," Stizza answered from her corner of the room.

"You don't even have-" Cinder whispered quietly, quietly enough that Emerald was pretty sure only she caught it. She cut herself off quickly though, forcing the thought away with a small growl. Putting on a smile that Emerald could tell was just a bit on the forced side, Cinder began, "As it so happens, I could help you with that situation. I trust, before we start, that you're not averse to more… unsavory work?"

"Nope," Falu replied. "Hell, depending on what kind of 'unsavory' you're talking about, that's their favorite kind."

"Not yours?" Cinder prodded.

Falu hemmed and hawed for a moment, trying to decide how to best word it, before eventually settling on, "I don't have to enjoy my work to be good at it." Still a bleeding heart, it seemed.

Cinder noticed it also but seemed content enough with the answer. "There's a few things my team and I were hoping to get done while we were in Mistral. One of them was to procure a sizable shipment of Dust that should be making its way to the Kingdom's borders in the next few days. I would like the four of you to intercept it in our stead."

"Good ol' fashioned Dust heist, huh?" Stizza wondered, her eyes being closed doing nothing to conceal her interest in the conversation. Her lips pulled up into a smirk as she added, "Been a little while since we've done one of those."

"How 'sizeable' are we talking about?" Falu asked.

"Three box trucks," Cinder described. "The first two are the payload: five tons of Dust each. Highly refined, top quality. You can understand my desire to get a hand on it." At Falu's nod, she continued, "The third truck is the security detail. Two squads of surplus AK-130 androids, as well as two representatives from Hammer Security."

"I know them," Stizza piped up suddenly. Her smile turning vicious, she added, "Tested some toys out on them a couple weeks ago. Don't think they've forgiven me for that one quite yet."

"Tends to happen when you firebomb people, Stizz," Falu sighed, face dropping into her palm. "What are we dealing with?"

Her sister shrugged. "Washed up ex-Hunters looking to make a quick buck in private security. Bigger game than we usually take, but not by much. Sounds like typical smash-and-grab."

"With one complication," Cinder said, inserting herself back into the conversation. "There's a need to make its owners think it arrived at its destination, while still taking it for ourselves. The trucks themselves need to remain undamaged, and you'll need to pose as company representatives."

Falu frowned at that. "We can't exactly pass off as pencil pushers. Especially if these people are going to be pre-vetted."

"Which is why you'll be getting help with that aspect. Who should be arriving –"

"She's here."

The words got everyone's attention as Crimson stepped aside to reveal a new girl. White calf-length high-heeled boots, brown leather pants with a darker brown belt gave way to a dark brown corset being worn over a white jacket with pink interior. Emerald locked eyes with the girl and smiled, who gave a toothy smile in her own right as her eyes kept switching between the same shades of pink, white, and brown as were in her hair.

"These are them?" the girl asked, and at Cinder's nod she rapped her parasol on the floor of the kitchen before theatrically bowing. "Neo Politan, everyone. Con artist, cat burglar, and criminal mastermind extraordinaire. Pleasure to meet you."

Emerald looked over, just in time to see Falu raise an eyebrow at their newest guest and Stizza… wait, was she drooling? "Nice to meet you, too," Falu said, bringing the attention back to her. Turning back to Cinder, she asked, "I take it she's good with disguises, then?"

A throaty chuckle brought attention back to Neo as she leaned on her parasol like a cane. "Am I good with disguises?" With a snap of her fingers, she treated everyone to the show that was her Semblance as what looked like glass shards swept up her form, before they saw a second Falu stand before them all. "Am I good with disguises?" Neo repeated, and all four of the Rosettes did a double take as she even managed to nail down Falu's voice. Shooting a cross look at Falu, she asked, "Is water wet?"

Emerald rolled her eyes as Merc scoffed and called out, "Show off."

"While Emerald, Mercury, and I will be attending to other matters in the city," Cinder picked back up, drawing all attention back to her as Neo snapped again and dropped her Semblance, "Neo here will be assisting you with this job. Succeed, and not only can I promise generous compensation but future employment as well."

All four of the Rosettes shared glances with each other, but as Falu opened her mouth Stizza cut her off with, "How generous we talkin' about?"

"How does ten thousand Lien each sound?"

Emerald still had no idea how Cinder could pull that kind of money out of nowhere, but she was glad she could. And as all her old friends' eyes grew wide, she knew that she'd done it. Her new family and old family, all together. Finally, all those years, all that struggle, all that hardship… this just made it all worth it.

Quick nods from her siblings sealed the deal, and Falu gave a small smirk and answered, "Sounds like you're about to have more Dust than you know what to do with."

AN 2: And, there we have it. Looks like the band's been brought together. Hmm, Cinder with four more orphaned youth of extraordinary talent, what could possibly go wrong there?