I feel that the usual disclaimers should be repeated given the subject matter at hand. All characters fictional, no copyright infringement intended, it's a parody therefore I can do whatever I want, I'm not actually planning a terrorist attack, et cetera.

Also, if you're looking for light and fluffies after the last episode... find another fanfic, because this is going to be basically the opposite of that.

14: Heroes and Villains

"You don't want to do it, do you?"

Roman sighed, turning to face the annoying green-haired shit kid. "I'm a thief, not a murderer."

"You didn't have these reservations before, Roman," Cinder reminded him.

"I have standards," he replied. "I'll get violent if I have to. Otherwise, I'm happy to just disappear. It's a better, cleaner job if nobody gets hurt."

Emerald raised an eyebrow. "Which is why you have that psycho as your sidekick?"

Mercury was even more cynical. "In other words, you'll get your hands dirty if the money is good."

Roman dodged the question, knowing that the little shit wasn't far off the mark. "Let's just get this over with." He stood, picking up Melodic Cudgel as he did. "How do you want to play it?"

"We'll make it look like an accident, of course," Cinder replied matter-of-factly. She turned to her subordinates. "Get them and tie them up." Then to Roman: "Fuel."

Glad that he at least had the slightly less tasteless part of the operation, Roman crept out of the room toward the garage, Neo behind him. They could have easily set fire to the place with burn Dust- hell, Cinder could probably do it without, but it had to look like an accident. Things like cooking oil, cleaning solvents, gun lubricant. It wasn't like the police ever looked that closely, so they could probably just kick over a few chairs, but he was going to be thorough, damn it.

The garage was a mess, filled with boxes of old junk, random tools and bits of computer strewn across old wooden workbenches. He quickly searched the shelves, pulling out container after container. Plastic bottle of car wax- nope. Spray bottle of blue window cleaner- maybe, but he could do better. Large white can of paint thinner with a fire symbol on the front. Perfect.

He grabbed the bottle and headed back into the house. Cinder was ruthlessly efficient, and all three members of the Poole family sat bound against the sturdy living room table- wait, three?

"Where's your mom?" Emerald asked, one of her gun-blade things pointed at Brandon's head.

"She's at work! Jesus Christ, who the fuck are you? What the fuck are you doing?" He thrashed uselessly against his bindings.

Roman tossed the can of paint thinner to his partner, who grinned as she poured the contents around the screaming captives and the living room table.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Sarah screamed, thrashing against her bindings. "I thought you were my friends!"

"That's why you shouldn't trust strangers," Roman told her. He sighed melodramatically. "Picking up random strangers from the side of the road... what a brilliant idea."

Sarah's father begged, "Look, what do you want from us? They're gonna find you if you do this, but you can walk away right now and we'll make something up. Or, you know, we know some lawyers, maybe you can win the trial. If it's Maddy or the company you're after, I'm sure they can pay. I know powerful people"

Cinder shook her head. "This goes far above anything you could ever imagine." She smirked, eyes glowing. She lashed out with her hand, sending a tongue of flame toward the highly flammable mixture covering her captives.

"Sir, you don't have any tickets, and that weapon you're carrying is a banned item," the security guard insisted, holding up his hand.

Special Agent Daniel Gideon grumbled, irritated. Well, at least security was doing their job, though he had his doubts that they'd be able to stop an attacker who really wanted to get in. Keeping one hand on his rifle, the agent reached into a pocket on his vest with the other and pulled out his badge. "If you have any questions, you can call the field office in Dallas."

The guard scrutinized the badge for a moment before waving the agent and his team through. "Enjoy the show, sir... um, well... is there a terror threat or something?"

"Don't worry. Most likely, we'll go in, take a look, and leave."

"Um..." He didn't sound convinced, and if the armed agent was being perfectly honest with himself, neither was he.

Daniel had only been briefed a few days prior, and everything he'd been told bordered on insanity. He still didn't believe anything they'd said about interdimensional travellers. It was science fiction- science fantasy, really. Given the nature of the event, they could be what amounted essentially to plainclothes riot cops, but if the threat was that significant, shouldn't they be calling it off entirely?

No, most likely it was an exercise, but what kind of exercise and what kind of moron, completely out of touch with reality politician came up with it was something he didn't really want to know. With that being said, he was told to take it seriously, so he did. They watch their visitors, watch the people interracting with their visitors, and intervene in the very unlikely event it was necessary. There was also a possible terror threat on the horizon, but that was regarded as more remote.

He double-checked the sling on his rifle to make sure it was secure. Positive control of your weapon at all times. They weren't the only people carrying assault rifles, but theirs had the distinction of being real. The last thing they needed was some dumbass grabbing a "prop" and blowing a kid's brains out.

"So what do we do if someone asks why we're carrying assault rifles?" a female agent asked from behind him. Like Daniel, she carried an M4 assault rifle and wore heavy body armor.

He shrugged, defeated. "Pretend you're from Rainbow Six."

"I didn't think I grew this much..." Ruby muttered to herself, fumbling with her combat skirt. Once she was satisfied with the fit, she pulled Crescent Rose out of her duffel bag and clipped it to its spot on the small of her back. "And I forgot how heavy this is."

"Man, we're so out of practice," Yang remarked from beside her. She clipped Ember Celica onto her wrists, the familiar weight both comfortable and uncomfortable. "Good thing these are just really expensive props- or at least everyone's supposed to think they are."

"I'd still feel better with a real weapon," Blake argued. She shook her head. "But you know what? This isn't Remnant. We're not going to get in any fights... right, Yang?"

"Of course not! I can be responsible, you know. Besides, it's not like they're loaded."

"Just remember to stay in character," Weiss reminded her.

She replied snarkily, "I'm Yang Xiao Long pretending to be Linda Anderson pretending to be Yang Xiao Long."

"This is a bit strange," Weiss acknowledged.

"With any luck at all, we'll get to meet the people who created the show that just happens to be more or less the same as our lives, yet at the same time isn't. It's more than a bit-" Blake was cut off by a loud thump.

"There may be lots of bad stuff happening in the world, and maybe the bad guys will show up, but not today! Today is our day! Today is fun day!" Ruby declared excitedly from atop the coffee table, pumping her fist in the air for emphasis.

"A little late on the delivery, Rubes," Yang told her from the door of their hotel room.

"Damn it!" Ruby zipped after her, barely stopping to shut the door behind her.

"So, what's the plan?" Braith asked, a noticeable edge to his voice. He didn't trust the strange woman, but he was still lost, still confused, and sleep-deprived from trying to spend the night curled up against the side of a building.

"It's simple, really," she replied, in a tone that signalled that it definitely wouldn't be. "We'll sneak in around the back. Give us two hours. We will eliminate as many of the guards as possible. Then fight your way in through the front door. There won't be much resistance. Take advantage of the panic."

He immediately asked, "Why?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

"There's something very important that I need locked away inside," Cinder replied smoothly. "Without it, there's no way back."

"And why is it in there?" Siena interrupted, motioning to the building.

"If you wanted to hide the link to another world, what better place than in plain sight?" she asked rhetorically. "It's there. Hold up your end of the deal, and I'll hold up mine."

"Fine," Braith reluctantly agreed. "I'm only doing this because I have no choice."

"Good," she replied, turning to leave. "I'll see you in two hours."

"Wow, look at those lines," Yang remarked, pointing out the mass of people standing outside the convention hall. "Hey, Weiss, do you know what lines are?"

The heiress glared at her. "Yes, Yang, I've technically been here longer than you have."

"Look at all of them..." Ruby said quietly, glancing at a rather tall girl wearing a copy of her own outfit. "This is weird, guys. And there's people looking at us, too."

Yang clapped a hand on her shoulder. "No backing down now." She waved to a group of knockoff Yangs. "Hey, guys!"

Two of them waved back. "Hi."

She dropped her arm. "Okay, yeah, it's a bit weird. But kind of awesome, too, when you think about it."

"Hey!" a familiar voice shouted. "Guys, over here!"

"Okay, is that the real Jaune or someone with a really similar voice?"

"It looks like JNPR," Ruby said.

Weiss pointed out another version of the team at the opposite end of the block. "So do they."

Yang's phone buzzed in her jacket pocket, and she fished it out, quickly checking the new text message. "It's the real deal."

Ruby asked, "Wait, what was that? Who says?"

"It's the people watching us," Blake reminded them, glancing upward.

"Come on, let's go!" Ruby urged, not even pausing to hear Blake's response. She waved to Jaune. "Over here!"

"Hello," Pyrrha greeted, waving daintily as she approached. Her other hand was intertwined with Jaune's, something which Yang immediately noticed. She shot the other girl a knowing wink.

"Group hug time!" Nora shouted, loud enough for the block to here. Without a care in the world, she squeezed all four members of the other team together.

"Nora..." Ren sighed, facepalming.

"I was worried we wouldn't be able to find you guys," Jaune told them. "There's so many people here. And the ones dressed up like us are actually kind of creepy."

"Hey, cool, Arkos cosplayers!" someone interrupted, taking a picture of them.

"Okay, scratch that, everyone is creepy."

"You guys are so lame," Nora pouted. "It's not creepy, it's awesome!"

"Yeah, you know what, this is a bit weird, but it's gonna be fun, too," Jaune agreed, shaking his head. "Let's go."

The inside of the hall buzzed with energy. Throngs of excited people, some dressed up and most not, weaved their way between brightly lit, boldly coloured stalls. Loud conversation mixed with the soundtracks of games and movies as well as the occasional announcement. The place was alive, energetic, and seemed far bigger than it really was. It was a foreign experience for the former Beacon students, and the sensations filled them with excitement.

"Hey, over here!" another familiar voice shouted, breaking them out of their reverie.

"Great, who is it now?" Weiss complained.

"It's Sam!" Ruby answered.

"Holy shit, you guys made it here, too!" Sam exclaimed.

"Well, yeah, they've been talking about it for weeks," Isaac pointed out, surprised.

"I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who gets those message," Cliff reminded him.

Sam glared at him. "Why didn't you tell anyone else?"

He shrugged. "I figured it would be more or less self-evident."

"So, how are you guys doing?" Sam asked the "cosplayers".

"Pretty good," Ruby replied. "You know, it's still weird being here, but we're doing okay. And today we're just going to have fun-"

"Stuffed sloth!" Nora exclaimed suddenly, grabbing Ren and dragging him off into the crowds.

"Nora, wait!" Jaune shouted, running after her.

Pyrrha followed, hot on his heels. She called to the others, "We'll catch up later!"

"Oh, Nora, never change," Isaac laughed.

"Yeah."

"Hey, we're gonna go enjoy the show," Sam told them. "You guys should, too. This is gonna be an awesome day. Just sit back, relax, and let the weirdness flow around you."

"Thanks, see you around!" Ruby replied, waving with one hand and dragging Weiss with the other.

After they had left, Cliff asked quietly, "What does that even mean?"

"All I'm saying is that if we get the wrongs ones again, it's gonna be awkward. Again," a brown-haired man said to the woman walking beside him, English accent evident in his voice.

"Come on," the woman, distinguished by long, dirty blonde hair, said to him. She motioned with her hands. "Even if they weren't the real thing, we totally made their day?"

"Just... maybe ask first, this time?"

She turned, tapping a Ruby cosplayer standing with the rest of her "team" on the shoulder. "Hey, are you Ruby, Anna, Bella and Linda?"

"Terrible delivery."

"Yeah, that's us," the girl replied with a very familiar voice that sent chills down the woman's spine.

"Weiss" turned, staring at the duo with icy blue eyes outside the range of human norms and a scar that no amount of makeup could quite properly replicate.

"Yeah, that's them," the Englishman said quietly.

"Welcome- I guess, a belated welcome to Earth, too." The woman smiled and waved them along. "The crew is dying to meet you. Are you ready to meet everyone?"

"A long time ago," Yang replied with a voice nearly identical to her own.

Emmett Lyons frowned as he read the report.

The chief of the Gemstone station in Austin had been looking forward to this- it was supposed to be an easy assignment with a happy ending. Watch the foreigners- the current euphemism for their interdimensional travelers- and make sure they don't get into any trouble. They'd have fun, the security team could mostly relax, hell, maybe they'd even get some free swag out of it.

Unfortunately, that was not to be. There was possibility of another emergence in the southern United States, and the Austin office had been put on alert. That meant they weren't just dealing with their foreigners but also with a new potential threat. And if the police report in his hand meant what he thought it meant, it wasn't just a potential threat but a confirmed one.

He flagged down an officer who passed by his desk. "Des, have you seen this?"

"No."

"Read."

Des took the report, skimming through it. "Burned to death. Holy shit."

Emmett nodded. "Get Ms. Poole here now. If they try to stall, kick them upstairs. National Security."

"Yes, sir."

He didn't even wait for the junior officer to scurry away before picking up his secure phone. Washington needed to know about this, and they needed to know yesterday.

It wasn't instant, but it was close to it. Most of the Gemstone-cleared staff were on alert and remained at the White House. As soon as the call came in, the President, key members of his Cabinet, and several military and intelligence officers gathered in the Situation Room located in the West Wing.

With his staff gathered, the President pressed a button the secure phone, switching it into speakerphone mode. "This is the President speaking. Tell us what you know."

"We received a police report describing a family- the father and both children- burned to death in a suspicious house fire in an Austin suburb," Emmett's voice replied. "Madeline Poole- that's the mother, who was at work- stated that they had house guests. The police report doesn't go into detail but the descriptions match Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan, Cinder Fall, Emerald, and Mercury Black. We're already bringing her in for questioning."

"This is as close to confirmation as we're going to get," the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs quietly told the President.

He rubbed his temples, tired and stressed. "Declare Red Ruin. Give me options."

"Where are they headed?" the Secretary of Defense asked.

"We already know." the National Security Advisor replied. "As much as this makes them seem like comic book villains, it's fairly likely that Cinder will try to finish off RWBY."

"It's not real."

"They don't know that," the Secretary of Homeland Security quietly added.

"You have a mentally unstable individual going through some psychological phenomenon we don't understand, suddenly finding herself in a completely different world. You think she's going to care about the difference?"

The President held up a hand. He turned to Leon Fowler, a stocky man wearing the strips of an Air Force Major General. "I want to know what you think."

He chewed his lips for a moment. "It's likely, but not certain that's where they're headed. They're definitely in the city, and it's a good place to start looking. Either we'll have a lot of trouble picking them out of the crowd or they'll announce their presence loudly. My money's on the latter."

"What do you think they're going to do?"

"That's hard to say. We don't know her plans, or how much she's affected by transition shock. She may try to kill our visitors, or as many bystanders as possible."

"Jesus Christ," SecDef breathed.

"Recommendations?"

"Alert local authorities and current assets on the ground. Get Delta in the city and ready to go, along with support from Army gunships and Air Force drones with precision weapons. If this goes hot, they'll need it. Put the National Guard on standby in case things get out of control."

"Come on, it's five people!"

"No, Mister Secretary, it's five extremely lethal weapons with advanced capabilities that just happen to look and act human."

"What about the visitors?" the National Security Advisor asked. "Do we give them live ammo?"

He considered that for a moment. "It won't do more harm than good."

She looked at the President, who nodded.

"What kind of collateral damage are we looking at?"

"We don't know," the General admitted. "We don't know how durable the threat is. It depends on how much ordinance we have to drop on them to take them down."

The Secretary of Defence interrupted, "I hate to be the devil's advocate here, but what if we're wrong? What if they're not here, or they don't do anything?"

The President shook his head. "We can't take that chance. If this blows up, I want to be ready. We need to be ready."

"Ready to admit you have no idea?" Roman asked sarcastically for the third time.

Cinder didn't respond, ignoring the thief that was beginning to grate on her nerves. A small part of her grudgingly admitted that he had a point. Getting inside was easy. Scale the building, cut a hole in the roof access, go down the stairs and walk out onto the floor. Actually finding their targets among all the lookalikes was proving to be much more difficult.

He continued to pester. "How much time do we have left, again?"

"We still have time." Again, though incredibly irritating, the thief had a point. By her scroll, they had about thirty minutes left. It was doable, but she liked having a better margin. She had a backup plan, but it was not ideal.

"Hey, you guys look great," Emerald called to a group of cosplayers as they passed by. "Do you think we could get a picture together? Heroes and villains."

"Sure, that'd be great!" "Ruby" replied. They paused briefly to gaggle together, and Mercury took their picture with his iPhone- actually, some random girl's iPhone that Emerald had pulled out of her back pocket half an hour prior.

Once they had left, Cinder shook her head. "They looked close, but the voices were wrong. Let's keep searching."

Neo strode up to them, an ice cream cone in her hand.

"Where did you even get that?" Roman asked. "You know what? Forget I asked."

She tugged on his sleeve, motioning to the other side of the hall.

Roman nodded and turned to the rest of the group. "We should try the booths over there. Lots of RWBY types gathering around some pieces of red cardboard."

"Ruby, watch-" they heard a familiar voice shout before a red blur rounded the corner and slammed into Cinder, knocking her to the ground.

"Ruby, be more careful!" Weiss screeched at her partner. "That's the fourth time!"

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," Ruby apologized, both to her partner and the woman she'd run into. "I was just so excited and-"

"It's alright," Cinder excused, trying very hard to make her voice not sound like her own.

"Can I-"

"No, we're in a hurry too. Late to meet some of our friends," she replied, moving past them with the rest of her group behind.

"Those were our targets, weren't they?" Mercury asked quietly.

Cinder smirked. "Don't let them out of your sight."

Special Agent Todd Castello frowned as he listened on his phone. The convention wasn't really his style- he was more a renaissance fair kind of guy- but he'd been managing to enjoy it more than the average field assignment. What he heard sapped all the enthusiasm he had.

"Yes, sir. I'll get the ball rolling," he replied tersely before ending the call. He walked briskly and purposefully, searching for a security guard in the crowds of attendees. The sheer size of the crowds and the variety of outfits made it difficult.

Finally, he gave up and grabbed a tall, skinny guy with glasses wearing a shirt that identified him as a volunteer for the event. He was a kid, not one of their plants- that would have been too easy. "Special Agent Todd Castello, FBI. Where's your security?"

The colour drained from his face. "Umm..."

"Just find me a guard," he repeated, more gently.

"Okay," he squeaked, shuffling off toward the entrance. He waved to one of the guards at the front with a scrawny arm. "Bob! Bob!"

"Hold on," the guard said to the woman he had been talking to. He turned to the duo. "What is it?"

"Todd Castello, FBI." He showed his badge. "Take me to whoever's in charge, I'll explain on the way."

"We've given her two hours," Braith said quietly, putting down his binoculars. "Let's move."

"Braith-"

"We've been over this, Siena. It's take our chances with her or give up. Besides, we're dead anyway."

"Why?" she insisted. "Maybe this is a better world anyway. Who says we have to go back to Remnant?"

"Faunus don't even exist here, at least as far as I can tell, so how would things be better here?" Braith retorted. "Look, either you're with us or against us. We don't have the luxury of debating this. Do you trust me or not?"

She sighed, picking up her rifle. "If this goes wrong, it's on you."

"I know." Braith picked up his own rifle and vaulted over the side of the building. The drop was only a few stories, and he rolled as he landed, bringing his weapon up in a half-crouch.

He took a deep breath, took aim, and fired the first shot.

My favourite arc conceptually is quickly becoming my least favourite to actually write. I find the villains difficult as characters, I'm having trouble getting the chapters to flow nicely, and I have very little experience with most of the subject matter. Oh, and I keep writing myself in and out of corners. But I hope I eventually came out with something half-decent.

So, Sam and crew know about JNPR. How? RWBY told them, duh. It's a flagrant breach of opsec, but it's not like teenagers with phones from a looser world care very much about that. Also, remembering that characters are in relationships and then realizing you have no idea how couples actually behave... yeah.

Alicornication: Whether these are extraneous or important is subjective, but I'm glad someone liked the path I took with the chapter.

ItzABlueWulf: Try to review more if you can. Reviewing a finished story is of much less use to an author than reviews of an unfinished one. At that point, we can take some lessons to the next story but barring a rewrite (something which some authors are willing to do and some aren't), it's already too late to apply any feedback to the story in question.

rileasw: And... yeah, I guess I left things with a frustrating cliffhangar, didn't I?

demented potato: In-universe, nothing. Mostly, they got pushed off-screen (so to speak) to focus on other characters and plot arcs. In other words, Demoted To Extra. I did say that they would make an appearance in Convergence and I don't intend to go back on that promise.

knight7572: Revealed to the readers, but will the good guys find out? Will it matter? Those answers will come soon.

Atomicbarracuda: I do have plans, but I'm not ready to reveal them yet. I don't want to say she'll be a one-scene extra, but I don't want to say she'll be a main character, either.

Luhar1997: Given the kind of firepower one would need to take down someone like Cinder, I wouldn't expect them to leave the scene alive in most circumstances. While it's easy to distinguish them as inhuman and take out our anger under the veil of "any means necessary", I question whether this is productive or beneficial in the long run. Will it happen anyway? Perhaps, but there's a reason these things are frowned upon.

averhan: Wow, that's pretty neat. Summer will make an appearance some time before the end of Convergence.

Guest: I'm not sure what to do with the Maidens, though I'm thinking about it. At first, I didn't want to include them at all. After some thought, I realized that they might fit in nicely with the prospective plot of Emergence Next. Most likely, they will be present in some form but maybe not the same way as on the show.

Xman321: Neo is a hard character to pin down. Because she's mute (or acts like it), most of her personality comes through visually, something that's hard to replicate in writing. We also don't know much about her- how old is she, anyway? I'm going with older than the protagonists, and equal parts woman-child and psychotic murderer.

Swordfish27: First off, thanks for the compliments. I try. With that being said, the chapter definitely didn't come together as well as I was hoping it would, and I think the way it was written (bits here and there) came through in the final chapter. Emergence definitely had a global, epic kind of feel, a chase around the world that I miss as well. Unfortunately, I can't promise that the third arc of Convergence will change that. It won't be set in the United States, but it won't explore a new location, either.

Fallout24: Extremism is a thing on Remnant as well, but if it's politically convenience to push the blame on the nations of Earth, I would not be surprised if they did so. I would not be surprised by the inverse, either.

Guest: It's probably possible. However, a Dust detector would likely be more like the wands and scanners seen in security checkpoints- useful for checking people and cargo, but not for wide searches.

Guest: "Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States." - J. Bartlett Brebner. A broad, sweeping generalization with a tinge of stereotyping, but an amusing quote nonetheless.

BubbleTrouble: These are things which aren't really in the story itself, but have been discussed extensively in the authors' notes and comments. There is one confirmed hybrid, first mentioned in Tabula Rasa (a sort of spinoff/prequel). She is the biological daughter of Rosalind Drake, formerly known as Rosalind Drake. War is a common topic that comes up when Earth and any fictional universe are involved, and has been speculated both in and out of universe. Yang doing Gavin (the character introduced in Aliens Among Us, not the other one) is pure speculation based on one intentionally vague scene.

I realize the gap between the previous chapter and this one was longer than expected. I'm hoping to cut down the delays and get the next chapter finished within the next two weeks.