Chapter 7: LXI-LXX 1/2

Author's Note : I'm going to address a couple questions here, because I can't see a way to do it in-story without getting really off-track.

Renato (Reborn) Sinclair: Yes, Renato Sinclair is Reborn's original name (supposedly) according to Amano Akira-sensei, who wrote the KHR! series. No, Sonya doesn't realize it's Reborn she's talking to. She more clearly remembers him as a cursed!baby, with the suit, fedora, guns, Leon the chameleon, and the 'Chaos' then later 'Ciaossu' greeting. None of which he has yet, as a sixteen/seventeen-year-old freelance hitman from Italy starting in on his international work who is old enough to shave. It's about another sixteen years before he gets cursed, and several before he has any of Reborn's signature ticks and habits. Cherep resembled his cursed!baby form at nine more than Renato does at sixteen, hence why Sonya doesn't connect the only biological sign, curly sideburns, and his Flame type to the World's Greatest Hitman Reborn.

Pairings: I have no expectation to pair up Sonya with anyone. Right now she's twelve, which is a bit ick to think about. Way, way far in later chapters there might be a bit, but for now there isn't anything but friendship going on between everyone. If you want to go ahead and start shipping, feel free to do so and tell me. I'll keep an eye on who all likes what and it might weigh in on what eventually happens, but be warned it will take a long time to happen. There is a lot of story to get through first.

Lastly, Cherep/Sonya shipping: Not something I'm planning on ever. They're going to be as sappy as an old married couple on occasion, sure. If Sonya does eventually consider Cherep her territory, having an actually romantic relationship with him will end up being all different types of wrong. And disturbing. If you really want it, give me an argument that makes it sound a lot less creepy and I'll think about it.

Hint-hint: Sonya's at the point of her 'territory' developing. It's in here, try and find it.

Now, we've kind of screwed up my plans for this story. There are a whole lot of time-jumps in this one, six months in one part and three between two of them. Might end up with more in the next chapter to get us back on track. Since we were only three sections off, this was written nearly at the same time as LI-LX and a few scenes were mixed up a bit between them. Don't think the next chapter will be nearly as fast, because I'm working on Pawprints' next chapter now.

Adding a couple more OCs, but they'll be reintroduced again later if they don't stick around for long.

Edited (4/24/2017) - General grammar corrections.

Edited (3/19/2018) - Final formatting and minor corrections.

Edited (9/3/2018) - Minor corrections.

Russian Roulette : Reloaded

LXI-LXX

LXI (Sunday the 4th of November, 1962. Arseniy & Lisa's home, Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

Sonya was very, very tired of doing jewelry store heists. Therefore, she decided her next one was going to be big enough not to have to do another for at least half a decade or so.

Hopefully long after she had the resources to leave the USSR.

Bigger, in thieves' terms, also meant 'hazardous'.

If she was going to try to steal more jewels than she'd use in five years, given the rate of decay of gemstone focuses between herself and Dmitriy to base a guess from, then she was going to need more hands.

"Tatiana? I would like to hire your group, please."

The redhead blinked at her, mouth full of the dinner Lisa had made and they were in the process of eating. Swallowing hastily, she put her fork down and gave the blonde her full attention. "For?"

"Backup for tackling the local branch boutique for Cartier." She informed her grimly.

The name attracted both Lisa's and Arseniy's attention, but Cherep merely looked confused.

She wasn't really surprised, Cartier was a brand name in jewelry designs that was international by the early 1900s. They were once famed to be favorites of the old Tsar family and nobility of Russia and still famed for catering to European aristocrats, American Industrialists, Hollywood movie stars, and an array of Indian Princes. Now almost sixty years later, it was a French store that still did business even in the highly xenophobic USSR.

Everyone needed their shiny stones to show off, even a communist society that wasn't supposed to have an upper class.

"Sonya? Is that necessary?"

"It is if I want to stop doing jewelry sometime soon." The littlest thief at the table sighed and set her own utensils down to give their foster mother her full attention. "I'm going to need extra spinel and red tourmaline gems, Dmitriy needs sapphires and would probably like a different stone if we can figure out what's better for his use. As it is entirely possible Tatiana would like to learn, she'd need a yellow gemstone found for her. If I keep doing smaller stores at the rate I have been, it's entirely possible I'll mess up somehow or get caught eventually."

Sonya made a note to learn how to slip jewelry off people while they were wearing it, because she was going to be stubborn about no longer doing jewelry stores.

"Okay so… terms, little sister?" Tatiana spoke up eagerly, likely because the last heist the two of them had done had turned out rather well for her.

"So long as we are not caught, and we get a decent amount of what I'm after, the bulk of the take is your groups' to deal with. You may even credit the amount we're going to tithe to the clan to me. We'll split any cash available between us, and whatever isn't jewelry or paper money will be decided on later."

The fourteen-year-old eyed her foster sister. "That's uncommonly generous of you."

"We will be doing this the week before Christmas' Eve."

"Ouch. Your usual style of slippery shadow take?"

The safecracker had a point, the security alone on all the custom orders before Christmas was going to be a nightmare to evade… but she didn't intend to do this like she normally did. "No. We're going to take out the guards and do it leisurely like."

"I think… you two should stop talking about this at the dinner table." Lisa interrupted them serenely. "You have all night to discuss terms. More vegetables, Cherep?"

The blonde winced, then glanced at her best friend. Much to her surprise, her fellow preteen looked rather bland as he accepted the older woman's pointed mothering and the ladle of soup.

Cherep gave her a glance, one that practically screamed 'did you want me to fuss?'

Aww… he'd learned tolerance somewhere. Just in time too, she was starting to get a little concerned about her latest habit of speaking quickly without thinking of who was around or what the topic was of.

Damn her developing social tendencies, apparently that paired with a Classical Cloud's nature did her no favors.

"My apologies, Lisa, Cherep." Sonya flicked her glance to the head of the table, but all she got out of looking at Arseniy was amusement. His sharp eyes were still on her for a long moment, but his attention returned to the meal before long.

She had been spending a lot of time with her supposed 'foster father' in the last year, but the vor was a rather hard nut to crack. She just wasn't used to trying to read people like him, and never got a very good feel for what he thought about anything of import.

Tatiana wolfed down the rest of her food, and the former pickpocket hadn't had the appetite after her realization to do Lisa's pirog much justice, so the girls relocated to the basement to plot not much later.

"So, everything loose and in certain solid rainbow shades is yours?"

"I only need purple and red gems of a certain type… but I really should do all of them available just to be sure. I would need all the blues and yellows like I said."

"If these yellow jewels are for me, wouldn't it be better if it was my part of the take?"

She gave her foster sister a look, trying to see if she really was serious about that. "Really?"

"Learning to do that fire thing you do? It means you'd have to spend time with me, hell yes."

The younger thief snorted. "Or I could do you like Dmitriy and set you up with a semi-responsive stone and some notes to make your own way."

She merely gave a smile in response, drawing up a loose contract she'd take to the rest of her group to get them on board with the heist. "So purple, red, yellow for me, but blues as well. Any other colors?"

"I suppose… green and orange. Maybe." Mist was what… a deep purple or blue shade?

That was already covered, so if she ran into a Lightning or a Sky she'd have the gems ready.

"You don't want the clear stones? Diamonds are a girl's best friend."

Sonya rolled her eyes at the slogan that made the colorless rocks so popular. "They also cut glass too."

"What? …really?"

LXII (Monday the 10th of December, 1962. Arseniy & Lisa's home, Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

Since Sonya proposed the job in early November, and Tatiana got a rather seriously interested result from her group of rogues rather fast, the girls pulled every building plan they could from the store in question and the surrounding city block to study.

Arseniy had reported to their higher ups their target, because the affluent members of the Zolotovs did frequent the boutique on occasion. He returned with an order, from their Pakhan no less, to avoid certain custom jobs the store was working on for him and a few others.

That meant the foster sisters had to plan to fake an interruption that would allow them to miss certain things, for the follow up investigation after their robbery so no one pinned the job on the Zolotovs from that alone.

With some luck, it would remain a 'planned' interruption and not be an actual one.

The former pickpocket also had the opportunity to meet several of the safecracker's pack of thieves, who also got the opportunity to talk to her instead of merely see her around the neighborhood. It was a learning experience for all involved because the blonde still didn't socialize well, and she was enough of a 'client' they put in the effort to do it anyways.

There was Adrik, a slim and sly boy that liked teasing whoever was in range and specialized in circumventing electrical security measures or using them against any security force. Nikolai, who was probably the muscle of the group with his stocky build but could banter almost as well as Sinclair did. Ziven rounded off the male side of the pack, he was a fellow blond built more for speed than strength, but Sonya clearly recalled him from hand-to-hand lessons under Aleksandr.

Ziven could probably out punch her in speed any given day of the week, so long as she didn't have something in hand to keep him at a distance.

Besides Tatiana herself there was only one other girl. Galina was a mousy brunette that clearly didn't like the youngest of the temporary group, but she was professional enough to bite her lip and keep quiet about it.

Their ages ran from oldest being sixteen, Nikolai, to thirteen, Adrik. Sonya was still the youngest at almost-twelve, but conversely was the senior thief for their joint heist. Tatiana and Nikolai jointly shared responsibility for the 'face' of their group, and thus most of the talking. Galina tended to plan out what they did, Ziven handled scout work, and Adrik handled flouting security measures.

Which might be why the only other girl had an issue with the younger sister, planning their job was supposed to be her responsibility. However, as the foster sisters had done more of that type with the eldest's group supplying the muscle, Tatiana was going to handle planning with some aid from Sonya.

Since it was a much bigger job than normal, even their 'foster parents' got in on the prep work.

Lisa took the redhead with her to scout the showroom floor on the excuse she was shopping for a brooch for a made up 'grandmother' of their foster family. Arseniy and the younger sister went to commission a piece for the older woman's birthday in April, which got them a good look at the back rooms where most of the jewel crafting took place.

Doing the scouting like that meant the girls and the rest of the thieves would have to wear face concealment, but it was worth the detail when they got a good note of security camera placements before going in. Adrik needed the information to provide guesses of how long he could fool anyone and the time frame they were looking at for the actual heist.

Galina was eventually placated by being given the responsibility of narrowing down the ways the group could enter and exit the building, and individual escape routes from every floor if needed. Getting away free was just as important as the method used to steal, even if their syndicate Boss had a word in on what was going with them.

Given the layout of the building, it was decided Tatiana got the offices and back rooms with Ziven as backup and Sonya would have to handle the show floor and the workshops with Nikolai. Galina and Adrik would help whoever were closest to them when they had the time, but those two would mostly be on lookout so they'd have to load them with whatever loot they'd take in between different rooms.

The plan to get in and out again was trickier, especially since they would not be trying to avoid the guards.

What they had to avoid was attracting outside attention, so Adrik would cut the power and phone lines to prevent a warning from getting out first and they'd use either rope or a nearby building to reach the roof of the store. They would look for an opened window, but if there wasn't one to be had Sonya would be opening one for them via force. She'd use the vents again to get into the top floor, Tatiana and Nikolai would use rope to lower the rest into the building, so they could find the guards first. The blonde thief would then have to go back up to lend her Flame given strength in order for Nikolai could get in, and maybe help Ziven take care of said guards, but the risk was deemed minor since her vent crawling had been proven useful before.

Getting out relied on several different factors. If nothing went wrong they could escape the same way they got in, with Sonya revisiting the same vents to both close the window and rejoin the others. If there was an interruption… it would depend on what they got interrupted on.

Either way it happened once outside, with or without loot in hand, they'd have to split up in six different ways to reach a Zolotov safe house or prearranged meeting point. They wouldn't get back together until the day after, making the slow way home on foot to avoid being noted as a group and having the stolen items transported back by other clan members in clan-controlled vehicles.

The former pickpocket turned cat burglar mentally promised Cherep that she'd get him something nice and legal in apology for ignoring him in favor of planning a heist.

Even if she had less than a month to go before said heist.

LXIII (Thursday the 27th of December, 1962. Arseniy & Lisa's home, Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

The week just before their target day, Arseniy came home rather abruptly and snagged Sonya to go back out with him. She could do nothing more than shrug at both Tatiana and Cherep before they left the house.

There was a car waiting for them on the curb which informed her this, whatever it was, was a lot more serious than she had realized. "What happened?"

"Your boy Dmitriy is in some trouble." The vor yanked the back door open, gesturing gruffly for her to get in. "Our Avtoritet sent for you while they gather the right vory."

Sonya blanched and almost threw herself into the backseat of the vehicle, wondering how the hell Dmitriy screwed up enough to require a council of vory convening to judge his actions.

Additionally, what the hell did he do that somehow connected to her?

Wait… "Arseniy? Is this somehow a Flame thing?"

"That's what they're claiming." Her foster father slid in next to her, kicking the back of the driver's seat to get the man to start the car moving. "The two were in one room, the garage the brat likes to frequent. The other, the driver of a rival Pakhan, somehow ended up unconscious. They're braying betrayal, Dmitriy insists he did nothing, but it has all the signs of your Flame of Rain being the cause."

That made no sense whatsoever.

She knew where the mechanic was in learning about his Flames, he was a little behind her even if he was older and working off what she had gathered beforehand. She couldn't even get a flicker of fire to spout at will without a gem in hand, Dmitriy only had sapphires that flickered internally and couldn't put a dog to sleep from everything he'd said about it.

The fact whichever rival Pakhan knew enough of Zolotov internal happenings to know there was a Rain Flame user in their headquarters was alarming. That could be her old childhood friend's fault, depending on when and how he practiced or played with his gem.

Sonya didn't really think it was likely, but the concern was there.

"I doubt it."

"Enough to bet your life on it?"

The tiny blonde gave Arseniy a long look as she weighted that in her head against the nature of Inverted Rains and the Rain in question's personality. "Yes."

He grunted, slinking down in his seat a little as some tension she hadn't noticed left his frame. "Can you prove it?"

Could she?

"…I will try."

The vor flattened his mouth in a thin line, but probably knew there would be difficulties no matter what was true or not.

It didn't take them much longer to reach headquarters, Sonya's first act was to corner Dmitriy and get his side of the story. A rather hushed conversation later, she still didn't have any remote idea how such a situation came to be.

Her friend admitted quickly enough that he hadn't liked the other young man still out cold on the garage floor, but he also didn't try to Tranquilize him. Arseniy drifted closer to them both, a signal that time was running out quickly. She rapidly questioned him on any and everything he tried his Rain Flames on, which was when they noticed it.

She then informed her father of the how and what with literally only moments to spare, because the unaffiliated vory were all assembled and ready to begin. Two of the seven looked as if they had been yanked out of bed, and the tiny thief knew this wasn't going to end prettily.

At least, not for the other syndicate.

Predictably, the assembled council of vory were not happy to be called over a slight spot of theft that backfired on the thief horribly. The truth of the matter turned out to be a stolen if rather badly fractured sapphire, which Dmitriy had been using as a focus and a crutch to gain control over his Flames.

A sapphire which had active if weak Rain Flames soaked into it. Which was leaking enough Tranquility to down a horse, much less a young man with little to no resistance to such things.

The Rain on trial had been immune to the effect and therefore hadn't known, it was his Flame therefore he was safe from it.

The fact a search of the insensible party's pockets by an unaffiliated vor until his fingers turned numb to find the gem also turned out a tranquilizing dart secreted away made the whole situation rather dicey.

Sonya and Dmitriy didn't get to see the results of that, they were escorted out with everyone else that wasn't necessary while the council debated what the consequences of assembling them unnecessarily should be. She got a rough hair ruffle from her foster father before that, who told the young mechanic that he was to guard her while there were unknown others invited into their headquarters.

"I didn't realize this Flame stuff was such a big thing."

"You're the one that stayed in the USSR, it's more common outside of it." She informed him blandly, poking around his tiny room.

It was a cupboard by nicer terms, had enough space for a small bed and a dresser but not much else. The location was it's only selling point, she was a little miffed this was what he had left their neighborhood and her foster brother for.

Dmitriy had collapsed on his bed, she had ignored that as it had been a rather stressful evening for him. "Did you know the gems retained enough to leak like that?"

"Nope, congratulations. You found something out before me. It might be something about sapphires paired with Rain Flames or just about Rain Flames themselves, but it's your bit of knowledge." It did give her some ideas, though.

"I'm ever so delighted to be of assistance." Said Rain grumped, shoving himself upright enough to look at her. "Why are you so insistent on teaching me?"

"You're staying put. Tatiana and I wish to be more long-range. If the clan requires someone with Flame knowledge, you're the best candidate I know of to dump it all off on."

"I feel so used."

"Get over it. After New Year's I'll come by with a different selection of stones, I'll need you to go through them and find one that works better for you."

"Loot from your next jewelry heist?"

"You heard that out here?" Sonya really did wonder about their clan's internal security. It really wasn't looking too good, with the news of a Rain being leaked out outside Zolotov control and news of her high-end heist already making the rounds so even a minor mechanic could hear about it.

Dmitriy flashed her a roguish smirk. "Have fun with that."

LXIV (Monday the 31st of December, 1962. Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

Relocking a lock with lock picks was tricky but doable. Sonya had almost re-secured the display cases she and Nikolai had cleared out when Adrik ducked into the showroom floor hurriedly. He gave the two of them a frantic wave to the windows, flicking his fingers to signify the flashing strobe lights of police cars.

She jerked her thumb up and flashed two hooked fingers to ask if the others had been warned, the slim youth just a year older than her nodded and gestured to his empty side.

Galina had gone to warn them, apparently.

Well, they had planned on faking an interruption. This was just… a lot more heat than they expected to work with. Loaded down with almost more jewelry, gemstones, and precious metals than they could comfortably move with. With a very flaky escape plan reserved for emergency extraction.

Joy.

Sweeping her arm around and then pointing down, the youngest thief got the two of Tatiana's thieves to follow her to the basement. Tatiana, Ziven, and Galina joined them and helped Nikolai barricade the only entrance behind them.

Palming a spinel jewel from the upstairs display cases, the tiny burglar took a deep breath and prayed to whatever power was out there that she wasn't going to destroy her hand.

Galina and Adrik marked out the likely location of an underground service tunnel from what they knew of the building's layout and the sewer lines underneath them all and Sonya punched the ceiling in, so they could escape that way.

As she had stood right over the spot she was attempting to weaken, she fell face first into the resulting hole in the floor and hit the rubble littered ground beneath that heavily. Nikolai was next, and even with his muscles he had difficulty moving her further into the now dusty gloom without Cloud Flame induced strength to help.

She bit her lip to keep silent, staggering up to her feet obediently so the others could get through even as she suppressed the desire to cringe at the pain radiating up her arm. It had been a lot worse than anything else she had used to hurt herself with, even when the practice staffs shattered under her and bits flew back to give her bruises or cuts.

Of course, she probably shattered a few bones in her hand this time.

They didn't have the time to do a field test on how Cherep did his 'never injured' trick, they had to clear out fast or risk getting caught red handed.

Or more 'red handed' than she was right now.

Nikolai left them first, he had the most weight next to Sonya and he squeeze her shoulder before he left. Adrik dithered only a moment but took off quickly as well. It took a few rather pointed gestures from her younger foster sister to get Tatiana to go off on her own, Galina had to provide the momentum for it. The brunette gave her a measuring look at the next turn off but stalked off on her lonesome easily enough.

Before Ziven went off he straightened the bones of her hand, proving that the worst of the damage was mostly fractures in her fingers and two messy breaks somewhere in her right hand. As the only thing they had to splint with was the jewelry they stole, and they were on a time limit before their arrangement with the nearest safe house was dropped, he couldn't spare the time to wrap them for her. What he did manage was more than enough for unasked for help.

She had the longest way to go, she volunteered herself to do so because of her Propagated strength. She cursed herself, the police, Flames in general, the gemstones she needed for her experimentation, Christmas merely because it generated some of the weight, and several other things in every language she knew… and several she didn't but picked up the swearing for due to the fact her neighborhood was multilingual in a broad sense of the word.

She was taking the next half a year off. No stealing, no Flames, no nothing.

Cherep would be ecstatic. Sinclair might just have a heart attack, given she usually left taking a contract to a bi-yearly thing and her fellow Flame user had been making a point of keeping a sharp eye on her.

The service exit Sonya had been assigned typically required fingers to open, she kicked it open instead. While it was an obvious sign that whoever blew a hole in the basement of a store exited right there, she didn't care much. It was next to a drainage ditch, it had the cover and length to confuse everything.

Also, she couldn't use her broken hand. She had limited options and was rapidly running out of patience for everything.

The long trek to her meeting point were some of the most painful hours of her life so far. The breaks ached, she could now feel the bruises forming, and there was sweat getting into her cuts from when she fell through a floor. Painful, aggravating, and very damn lonely.

Being able to unload the bulk of metal ingots and half a showroom stock to the waiting hands of her fellow Zolotovs was something the weary thief was pathetically grateful for, the fact they took the time to splint her hand for her even more so.

She would've kissed the person that gave her the painkillers had they not been older than Aleksandr and a bit toothless.

Getting home, injured or not, was something of a trial. The robbery getting noted mid-heist meant there were a lot of militsiya on the streets scouring for any suspicious characters. A tiny blonde girl walking alone in the early morning hours was just asking to be picked up, so instead the lamed burglar stuck to the backstreets and alleyways… which were never clear of their own type of trouble.

Being visibly injured meant they either thought her as weak or as troublemaking, it was only the fact one of the vor she had seen from the farce of a council called over Dmitriy's actions decided to shadow her to Arseniy's home kept her from making her hand worse.

In return for the aid, Sonya gave the man the spinel gem she used to try boosting her strength to smash through tile, concrete, and steel. The vor took it with a shrug and a bob of the head, stalking off since it wasn't territory he could work within.

LXV (Tuesday the 1st of January, 1963. Russian Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.)

Tatiana demanded to be taught how to use Sun Flames, since she had heard Sonya bitching about not being able to heal anytime soon. Lisa merely arranged for the nurse that normally just fudged records to come by and double check the set of the bones the youngest thief had broken, in suspiciously quick order after she finally got home.

Arseniy blinked at her the moment he spotted her on the couch getting her hand put in a cast, cocked an eyebrow at her injuries, raised his eyes to the ceiling when informed why she had them, and then patted her on the head on his way past when she informed him of her plans for the next half a year.

Cherep was a little worried when he woke up the morning she got home. Hearing her plans made him both happy and likely to sneak guilty looks at said broken hand.

She was just happy she'd likely never have to do another jewelry store robbery for years.

The take from the job included a lot of signature pieces that would require being sold in Mafia Land's markets, they would never be able to be fenced locally without someone squealing like a stuck pig. Lisa would take care of that, she got all Sonya's couriered mail from the island already and could inform Tatiana when they were sold for splitting the money once there was some.

They had left some of the crystal statuary in the store, to help with the image of being interrupted mid-heist. A couple found their way into the loot anyways, as well as decorative eggs and watches that had to be fenced elsewhere as well.

Aside the traceable pieces, there was a literal rainbow of loose gemstones and a massive pile of less intricate jewelry that could be sold right away. Several different types of metal ingots were included, ranging from the usual gold and silver in several purities the youngest thief was familiar with to platinum, copper, zinc, a bar of tungsten, and two bars of palladium.

Most of the metals would be going to the Zolotovs for their tithe of the proceeds, the tungsten and palladium would be sold elsewhere too, and the amount split between everyone that had pitched in for the heist.

Sorting it out, and keeping the labeling with the right stones, had been a week-long task.

Tatiana and her gang excluded Sonya from helping on the basis on her injured hand, but she got to watch them.

Aside the contents of jewelry shop safes they made away with, her elder sister and Ziven had managed a couple interesting finds themselves. There were more of the old-fashioned ruble coins available, which the girls decided was ornamental and therefore part of the take and passed them around. The redhead safecracker had cheekily grabbed several books from a bookcase on metallurgy, gemstones from around the world, crystal formations, and other geology assorted subjects. A few gold-plated pens, desk knickknacks Adrik wandered away with, and assorted personal items out of desks Galina found were tossed in the sell pile.

The former pickpocket was not surprised to be given the books as well as her half of the ready cash the store had held in the first hour of sorting.