12: Aiding and Abetting

The trip was odd, Sarah reflected to herself. The cosplayers she'd picked up had been awfully quiet, and whenever she tried to start conversation, it quickly died down. She knew they were from California, knew they were going to RTX, knew that something had happened earlier in their trip, and not much else. She found it odd that they didn't want to talk much, but some people were just like that. Maybe they were just tired.

"So, you never told me how you ended up on the side of the road," Sarah asked for the fifth time.

"No," Roman- Angelo, she mentally corrected herself- answered, voice flat.

She laughed. "Come on, that's not an answer. It couldn't have been that bad!"

"If you must know, the last driver did not appreciate that we couldn't afford fuel," Cinder- Phoenix, not Cinder!- said from behind them. "Or, rather, that Tangelo could not afford fuel."

Sarah cracked up. "Wait, so you just got dumped in the middle of the road because you didn't have gas money?"

"This is not funny," Emerald snapped from the back of the van.

"I don't get it," Sarah questioned. "Why'd they leave you in the middle of the highway?"

"They didn't," Phoenix answered. "We walked from the fuel station."

"How far?"

"It was in Fredericksburg."

"Damn. That's like a three hour walk!" She went quiet, then after a minute asked, "Hey, Phoenix?"

"Yes?"

"Do you always sound like Cinder Fall? Because you're really good at it- I mean, you sent shivers down my spine back there, you know?" Before the woman in question could ask how Sarah knew who she was, she continued, "Are you the real Jessica Nigri? Cause that would be pretty awesome. But it's not like I'm gonna kick you out if you aren't- you're still cool."

Cinder quickly closed her palm, extinguishing the panicked flame that had begun to flare. "Sorry, I'm just Phoenix."

"It's a cool name," Sarah said awkwardly. "Do you have a last name, or is that your last name?"

"Yes," she non-answered.

"Come on, that's not an answer. Oh, is it, like, not your real name? Like a nickname or something?"

"It's the name I use."

"Okay," Sarah turned in her seat to face their heterochromatic companion. "What about you, Lavender?"

"She doesn't really talk much," Emerald answered helpfully.

"Is that why you're cosplaying Neo? Do you feel, like, some kind of connection there?"

She didn't respond.

"Okay, sorry, maybe that was offensive. Did you find that offensive?"

Neo shook her head.

"Well, we're going to be hitting Austin soon," Sarah told them, turning her eyes back to the road. The bright lights of the city were plainly visible on the horizon. "Where are you staying?"

"Just drop us off downtown," Roman told her. They could find- or swindle- something.

"Right. Where downtown?"

"Just downtown."

"Downtown's pretty big. Which hotel do you have?"

"Any one will do." Which was a bad answer, but naming a hotel that didn't exist was probably an even worse one.

"Any one?" Sarah asked incredulously. "Wait, so you couldn't afford gas, but you're planning on checking into a random hotel, late in the evening, two days before RTX in the middle of downtown Austin?"

"Uh..." Roman groaned inwardly, realizing that he'd backed himself into a corner. It did happen, but not often, and certainly not to him. "We're resourceful."

Sarah snapped her fingers. "You can stay with us!"

"What? That's very generous, but I'm not sure if-"

Sarah cut him off. "Nonsense! I'm sure my brother's really excited to meet you, and my parents' house has lots of extra room-"

"Your parents? Are you sure they'll be okay with this?" Mercury- Greyson- asked from the back.

"It'll be fine! They'll love to have you!"

"Right..."

The sun had firmly set below the horizon by the time the green minivan pulled into the suburban neighbourhood. Sarah drove halfway down the street before turning sharply, parking the minivan in front of a two-story house beside a silver sedan and half on the grass. She shut off the engine before shutting the door and striding up to the house, humming to herself.

She knocked three times before a smiling young man two years her younger, but with very similar features, answered. Loudly, she proclaimed, "I'm baaack!"

"Hey, big sis, welcome..." his voice trailed off when he noticed the party trailing her. "You took them here?"

Sarah replied casually, "Yeah, I mean-"

She was interrupted by a loud, tall man who pulled her into a tight hug. "Hey, baby gir- who are these people?" The man released Sarah, eyeing the costumed visitors. "New friends, Sarah?"

"George!" a woman, shorter and twenty years older than Sarah but otherwise looking very similar, said, pushing the man out of the way. "Don't be such a- oh, my."

"I made new friends on my way back!" Sarah explained, seemingly oblivious to her parents' discomfort. "They hitchhiked here all the way from California, and now they need a place to stay!"

"A word, Sarah," her father said gruffly, pulling her inside the house without giving her time to argue.

The visitors shared a look. That definitely wasn't good.

"Well, come in," the woman said- much more positively- after a pause, waving them inside. "We'll see what we can do, but I'm not going to leave you just standing out there. I'm Maddy, Sarah's mom."

The foyer wasn't very big, at least not with seven people inside. It was a split entrance, with stairs leading up toward what looked like a kitchen and into a dark basement below. Dark wood paneling that had seen better days covered the lower halves of the walls, with comparatively fresh cream paint above. Dark wood balusters lined both staircases.

Brandon stood awkwardly in the corner, playing with the strings on his brown hoodie. Maddy closed the door behind them. Roman noticed Sarah disappear with her father into a side room upstairs, followed by a muffled But daaaad!

"You look starving," Maddy said, waving them upstairs. "Oh, please take your shoes off. Where was the last place you ate?"

"Atlas," Mercury mumbled. He followed her upstairs. There was a narrow hallway between them and the kitchen, leading to bedrooms one way and a spacious living room the other.

"Fredericksburg," Roman replied. He knew he'd get a lot of mileage out of that town, even though he had no idea where it was or what it looked like.

"But we walked five hours before your daughter picked us up," Emerald added, remembering the detail.

"Wow!" she replied. "We weren't really planning for such a big party, but I'm sure we can figure out something."

"You're taking this remarkably well, Miss..."

"Madeline Jennifer Poole- nee Sands- but Maddy is just fine," she replied with a nonchalant wave, disappearing into the kitchen. "Our daughter's wonderful, but she's a little too good at making friends. Brings people home all the time. We're used to it now."

"Um."

"Come on. Brandon! Could you get the extra chairs?"

"Sure, Mom." He started moving back toward the stairs- usually, the extra chairs ended up in the basement.

A few seconds later, Maddy called from the kitchen, "Wait, no, I'll get the chairs. Dinner will be ten minutes, so entertain our guests."

"Uh, sure, mom," Brandon replied. He motioned them to the living room, which contained the usual sofa and chairs, along with something their guests guessed was a weird video screen. Family portraits hung from the walls.

He turned to the guests and asked awkwardly, "Uh, you guys want the wifi password?"

"That'd be great," Roman answered. He had no idea what the local net looked like.

"It's password, but with a capital P and two fives instead of of s's," Brandon answered. "The name is "

Mercury pulled out his scroll and tried it. No AirCNP attachment points found, the device blinked angrily at him. "It's not working."

"Maybe your phone is too old?" he suggested. "It's a new AC router. But it should work with N just fine-"

"Brandon, put in some effort!" Maddy called from the kitchen before anyone could do anything else.

"Right..." Brandon cringed, realizing how awkward he had been. "Sorry, it's late and I'm pretty tired. Shouldn't have spent all last night playing League. I'm Brandon Poole. I'm Sarah's sister."

"Tangelo," Roman answered.

"Mer-" He quickly corrected himself. "Greyson."

"Chloe," Emerald replied.

They looked at Neo expectantly.

"Are you going to tell them your name?" Roman asked his partner. "Oh, right, you can't."

She pouted.

"Her name is Lavender," Roman explained. "She doesn't really talk."

"Really in character or really mute... sorry, that was insensitive."

"It's fine," he sarcastically excused for his partner.

Brandon looked over the motley group again. "Wow. I mean, I don't really watch it, but you guys are spot on. So, I guess you guys are really into RWBY, huh."

Roman almost replied with something about being too old for that not to be creepy as hell, but then remembered that Cinder and her minions were pretending to be seventeen again- like that would work. The minions, maybe, but Cinder could pass as an adult student and only an adult student. He replied neutrally. "We've met."

"I meant the show."

"Oh." What show?

"What part of California are you from, anyway?"

"The central part," Roman answered vaguely.

"So, like LA?"

"Well-"

"I'm surprised your sister picked us up and brought us here without even asking your parents if it was okay," Emerald interrupted. "I mean, we could be murderers for all you know."

"Are you?"

Yes. "No?"

"Ha, well, she's really... trusting. She sees these cosplayers headed to RTX that got roughed up- how did that happen, anyway?- and picks them up. She doesn't really think about what you could be. Maybe." Brandon shrugged. "But nothing bad has happened yet, so either she's lucky or actually a really good judge of character. I dunno. We trust her. She's my weird sister, it's just what she does."

"Do you all lack common sense- ow!" Mercury rubbed his side after Emerald ribbed him.

"Don't piss them off!" she hissed in his ear. "People are actually being nice to us!"

Seconds later, Sarah and her father came back up the stairs and walked into the living room. She looked flustered and uncomfortable, despite her best attempts to hide it. Her father, on the other hand, simply looked resigned.

"What's the verdict?" Brandon asked his sister, loud enough for their guests to stay.

She gave him a weak thumbs-up before turning to the people she'd brought in. "You can stay."

"Dinner's ready!" Maddy called from the dining room.

"I'm not sure if that's a relief or not," Emerald muttered to Mercury, following him into the dining room.

The dining room was a good size for a normal family, but became somewhat cramped with nine people inside. A large table covered in a light blue tablecloth dominated the room. Six matching and three mismatched chairs encircled it. Spread across the surface of the table was a pan full of meat in sauce, a bowl full of corn cobs, a large bowl of greens, bread in a basket and a bunch of condiments and stuff.

"That looks delicious," Mercury commented. He took a seat between Emerald and Neo, near the living room.

"We're a Christian family, so we say grace," George told them, taking a seat at the end of the table. "But if that's not your religion, we don't mind if you don't join us."

He recited, "Bless us, oh Lord, and these your gifts which we are about to receive from your bounty. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen."

"Amen," the family echoed.

"Are they part of some kind of cult?" Roman whispered to his partner. Fortunately, nobody else heard.

"So we have pork chops, corn, and spinach salad. Oh, and these rolls," George announced, motioning to the food on the table. "Uh, none of you are kosher or halal, right? Or vegan... shoot..."

Maddy slapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Relax, George, I'm sure it's fine."

"It's fine, sir," Emerald told him. The food smelled good, but slightly off in a way she couldn't describe. Still, she was hungry, and spooned a decent portion onto her plate. She whispered to Mercury, "I think these people are nuts."

The heterochromatic girl shrugged in response and went back to her pork chops.

"So, what brings you to Texas?" George asked, grabbing a pork chop for himself and beginning to cut.

"RTX," Roman replied, relaxed. He had no idea what RTX was, other than that it apparently had a good reputation, at least among the three people he'd met so far, and that people dressed up like criminals and weirdos and went there. None of which made any sense, but he was willing to roll with it for the time being. Let them believe their own story.

"Fans of the show?"

He had no idea what show they were talking about, so he gave a noncommittal shrug.

George accepted that as an answer. "Sarah says you came all the way from California."

"That's right." There was something odd about his pork chop, but it didn't taste like any poison he knew of, so he kept eating it anyway.

"You hitchhiked the whole way? Where'd it go wrong."

"Go wrong?" Mercury asked.

"Well, you're dressed in ripped up costumes and I didn't see any bags," he said. "You left somewhere in a hurry, I think."

"Fredericksburg." One of three relevant place names Roman actually knew.

"Damn. All the way from California, and it all goes south fifty miles from victory," he said with a nod. "Can't say I've ever been there myself."

"Consider yourself lucky." Roman told them before going back to his meal.

"So, how's the food?" Maddy asked.

A chorus of agreement, some real and some feigned, echoed through the room.

She nodded, then asked, "Do you work, or are you students?"

"They're students," Roman answered, motioning toward Mercury, Emerald, and Neo. "Right now I'm between jobs. I used to work in acquisitions." Which was the most honest yet disingenuous way of describing what he really did.

"For what company?"

"A little store back in California. They're... well, I don't think they're going to be in business much longer." It wasn't in California and he was the reason why they wouldn't be in business much longer, but hey, a story is a story.

"That's a shame."

"Say, we've been a little out of the loop while we were traveling," Roman said, picking up his corn. "What's going on in the world?"

"We're still bombing the shit out of ISIS, refugees are flowing into Europe, and Trump's beating Jeb in the primaries. My money's still on Burnie, though."

"No way, he's too socialist," Brandon argued. "Either another Bush or another Clinton as President."

President of what? Roman almost asked, but they'd probably look at him like he was growing a second head.

"Nothing about the White Fang?" Emerald asked as casually as possible. She had no idea what George had just said.

"Is that some kind of furry convention?" George asked.

"It's a militant Faunus rights group," she answered, tone neutral.

"More like a Furry ISIS, dad," Sarah clarified.

Brandon shook his head. "Faunus al-Qaeda."

"What's a Faunus?"

"It's like a person with animal ears. From RWBY."

"Oh, okay, so it's not like a real thing. There isn't really a furry ISIS," George wiped his brow with mock relief. He paused. "That's the web show with the red and blue robots, right?"

"No, that's Red Vs. Blue, and they're not robots."

"Wait, what?" Mercury asked, confused. Not just about Red Vs. Blue, but everything before it. He dared not ask any specific questions, though.

"You guys never watched Red Vs. Blue?" Brandon asked, surprised.

"Not every RWBY fan watches it," Sarah reminded him.

"I guess."

"Thank you for dinner," Cinder said for everyone, noticing that everyone had more or less finished and wanting to cut the increasingly strange conversation short. "Do you need any help-"

"Oh no, it's fine. You must be very tired. Sarah will show you to your room."

"Here you go!" Sarah announced, throwing the door open.

Their room was a large space in the basement, with dirty white walls and worn blue carpet. Two sleeping bags, a cot, and two air mattresses were on the floor, between a very deep TV, an old stereo, and a broken exercise bike.

"It's a little dirty but there's lots of space," she told her guests before heading back upstairs. She called down the staircase, "Feel free to call if you need anything!"

"Okay, good night."

"Good night!"

Emerald shut the door behind them. "Weirdos."

"So, we're in a strange home full of really weird people, in a city not part of any of the Kingdoms, which smells horrible by the way, everyone is talking complete and utter nonsense, and apparently they think we're not real," Roman ranted. He turned on Cinder. "What is it that you know that we don't?"

"Nothing, not now, but I will find out. We'll keep a low profile until we can get back on track. This is a small setback, nothing more. The plan will go-"

"Cut the grandstanding. I think this is little more than a small inconvenience," Roman shot back. He motioned to the wall behind them, or rather the large map on it. "Please turn your attention to the map of the world that clearly is not Remnant."

"It must be some kind of joke," she dismissed. "If this is another world, how do they know who we are?"

"Were you not listening? They think we're fictional characters."

"That makes no sense."

"None of this makes any sense."

"Let's face it, we got played. You got played. And now we have absolutely no idea where the fuck we are. You have no idea what you're doing, and you refuse to admit it."

"Watch your tongue," Cinder snapped, eyes burning as she leaned toward the irritating thief. "We'll find a way back. We will move forward."

"You'll try," Roman corrected, refusing to flinch. "But you know what? Let's deal with it tomorrow. Goodnight." He turned and strutted toward the other side of the room.

"I'll do more than try."

"I think your boss is going off the deep end," Roman whispered to Mercury before tossing himself on the couch. Louder, he announced, "Goodnight."

Dawn was beginning to break when Braith and his four companions began to stir. All were Faunus, and though they wore the uniform of Gradient Corporation security, that was not really the group they belonged in. They were on a sidewalk, halfway into an alley.

"Boss, where are we?"

"Looks like Vale."

"Can't be Vale."

"How the hell did we end up here?"

"Quiet," their leader said, silencing them all. "Ditch the uniforms. We need to keep a low profile. Let's find out what's going on."

Not really happy with the flow and dialogue in this chapter, but I'm basically forcing myself to fight writer's block and get this finished. This has probably been the most difficult to write out of Convergence so far, and it's the chapter I'm the least happy with.

We'll see about the next ones. I'm going to try to increase the pace to approximately one chapter every two weeks, but whether I'll be able to keep to it or not really depends on how the next term goes.

linkthetoaoftime: Yes and no. Emergence-Cinder is not canon-Cinder. In canon, Cinder is implied if not stated to be a carefully plotting chessmaster that's behind everything. In Emergence, Cinder is a high-level pawn with delusions of grandeur and significant mental instability. In this case, Roman is the sane one.

RobotWarsDiego: No comment, but you'll have a pretty clear answer by the end of Convergence.

Guest: I think Remnant's militaries could adapt to asymmetrical warfare fairly quickly, and maybe even become more adept at it than we are. With that being said, they can't really afford an occupying force, not with their own borders constantly under threat. And yes, the diplomatic option is generally the better one.

Guest: I don't have an answer. You'd have to ask them. My suspicion is that they are trolls- possibly even the same troll- but Poe's Law applies.

rileasw: As for Neo, I'm really not sure how to characterize her. The popular theory is that she's a maniac who likes killing people for the fun of it, but that would make her a terrible partner for Roman, who is a thief, not a murderer. Either Roman is pretty good at controlling who she kills or she actually has more restraint than we think. With that being said, I don't think either one of them would have qualms over removing a witness, and certainly Cinder and her group wouldn't.

Guest: That's a really strange question, but the answer is yes.

Assassin4Ever: Where was it ever suggested that Remnans are strength-obsessed eugenicists? If you assume that fighting ability is hereditary, this probably was true at some points in time. However, it's not sustainable, because you end up with inbreeding. Even if culture hadn't shifted enough to make this a non-issue by the time Yang was born, practical concerns would have forced it. And what we're seen of modern Remnan society doesn't suggest it at all. That's not even getting into the issue of getting together with who you like instead of who society says you like, which is a totally moot point since they're literally on another planet.

ElfCollaborator: Looking forward to seeing Weiss Reacts to the rest of Convergence, though it might be a while since the rest of Convergence is coming so slowly.

Mastermind: A friend actually just gifted me Undertale, but I haven't had a chance to play it yet.

Fallout24: We'll see. I'd like to expand on it, but I can't write romance for shit and I don't have a lot of time to write these days.

Sans WHO: I still haven't watched the latest WoR, but I bet there are loopholes in that. Having their own people at or near Hunter level, but technically not Hunters. Or hiring ex-Hunters or even current Hunters as civilian contractors.

I don't really see an invasion going anywhere from either side. Both sides are fairly powerful in a way that makes occupation a nightmare, both sides are death worlds, and both sides have limited resources. Not a great recipe for an invasion. One faction or another might try it, but they're not going to get very far.

Guest: At this point, Cinder's plans are so far off the rails that it doesn't really matter a damn anymore. A dance battle would be funny and awesome, but I don't think it would translate well to the written word.

Crow T R0bot: I'm honestly kind of surprised that there aren't more of this type of fic around. Before I wrote Emergence, I could count the ones I'd seen on one hand, and even them it was a bit of stretch. Also, I'd like to clarify that it's Rosalind that has a half-Terran child, not Yang.

Guest: I understood that reference. But it wouldn't be a tornado.