Some people have been suggesting for some time that Emerald is going to get a redemption arc since she supposedly showed some remorse for the fact that she unleashed a horde of monsters onto a city. Seeing some of these thoughts gave me a thought in turn and an idea for a one-shot fic, since Emerald has an illusion making semblance, why not turn this into an idea for messing with the rest of Team RNJR by screwing with the one person who has lost something so dear to him?

As a tangent to that, why not give Emerald a bit of a redemption arc as an exercise in writing?

So this happened.

Do enjoy.

Night time in the woods in any place on Remnant was a dangerous and frightening prospect to the uninitiated no thanks to a certain group of black abominations that called the wilderness their home and readily preyed on any unsuspecting humans who dared to venture out into the darkness far from the safety of any form of civilization. Night time also robbed most humans –not the Faunus though- of their most useful asset, their sight. Even the most experienced of hunters deigned to confront the Grimm at night when they were most in their element and had a huge advantage over humans.

A green-haired girl with crimson red eyes sighed and looked up at the broken moon hanging in the sky.

She knew this and that was why she was currently only a stone's throw away from the village where a certain team of not-quite-professional-hunters stayed at. Of course there was a very good reason why she was not with them. Thanks to her part in the fall of Beacon Academy and the destruction of that robot-person-whatever-thing, one of them had tried to take her head from her shoulders on seeing her, which led to another almost pulverizing her into a bloody paste when the first had explained to them the situation before she had yelled at them to stop.

She was not with Cinder anymore.

Of course that was not going to make amends for anything, just because she felt a little guilty for the lives lost and the fall of Beacon Academy was not going to change the fact that she played a willing part in it from start to finish. Being responsible for the illusion that caused the champion of Mistral to overreact and destroy the Atlesian Robot, which in turn caused a massive increase in negativity that awakened a Grimm Wyvern that destroyed the CCT at Beacon and basically allowed the Grimm to completely overrun the academy with little difficulty. Also thanks to her, the last images broadcast over the CCT were those of Atlesian robots attacking civilians and other hunters, so now tensions were high between all four kingdoms, no one yet suspected the woman behind all of this and her little crew.

Emerald sighed and kicked at a stone, watching it roll away from her, there was so much for her to atone for that frankly, it might have been better for her to either just give up or if she felt that bad, throw herself off a cliff. It would certainly have saved Cinder the trouble of killing her and would have saved anyone else the trouble of taking her in, and yet something in her said no, she was not going to die just yet, so she might as well try to figure out what she was going to do from now on.

I hope this is worth it. She huffed to herself, leaving Cinder had not been the easiest of decisions, unfortunately the woman had gotten a little careless and had let slip that Mercury was to eliminate her after she had been deemed 'emotionally compromised'.

A crunching sound interrupted her thoughts, she jumped and spun around with both weapons raised, fingers on the trigger.

"Whoa wait! It's just me!" A lonely figure stepped out of the darkness as she slowly lowered her weapons. His armour gleamed in the moonlight, immediately identifying him to her as he stepped forward to show himself fully.

"Oh, it's you." Emerald let her arms fall to her side but kept her blades ready, as innocent as Jaune had seemed on their first real meeting; she was still unsure what it was that he had come looking for her for, and one could never be too certain, "Do you need something?" A voice in the back of her head told her that she already knew what he wanted and was just baiting him for the sake of it.

"Y-yeah, actually I…I was wondering…" He scratched his head awkwardly as he tried to formulate his sentence, and just like that he confirmed to Emerald what he wanted, "I know you've done it before for me already…but please…I want to see her again."

Her

That one word rang out in the former thief's mind, 'her' was of course his former partner.

"Can you…can you project my partner?"

"Your partner?"

"Her…her name was…is Pyrrha Nikos, she was the one who was…"

"Yeah I know who she is, you're saying you want to see her again?"

"If you could? Please?"

"She isn't real though, all I'm doing is projecting an illusion that only seems material, it's nothing but a very good fake."

"I know that! But still…"

At the time she had relented, figuring it a good way to not only get into the good-books of the team, but too also maybe get a new ally while she was at it. Someone who she could at some level rely upon to help her out if she really needed it, it made sense to her, after all even she could not do everything on her own.

But now this was starting to get out of hand.

"I've told you twice before, she's not real, it's just a clever trick of the mind." Well that was what it basically was at any rate, a clever trick to influence people into acting in specific ways for her benefit.

"I know that!" So he snapped, unfortunately he was beginning to prove that just knowing something was not quite enough to deter the temptation to use it, "I just want to…I have to see her again!" He insisted.

"You're just chasing a lie," Emerald tried to dissuade him, "Sure it may seem sweet but its false and you know it." Sure he did, of course he did, that was why he was here, "You're not going to be able to move on if you just keep trying to see her over and over again."

Why on Remnant was she even trying?

Why did she care so much?

Who was she even to make such a judgement?

A thief and criminal and enabler of death like her? Hah!

"I just need it this once…please." He was almost begging her.

That's what you said last time, She held her tongue this time as she tried to consider her options, the intense gaze that was locked onto her was making it rather hard to think properly and it was making her uncomfortable on top of that.

"I…I have to see her again," He sounded almost pathetic, "Please, just let me see her one more time."

A part of Emerald wanted to vomit knowing what he was asking of her, it was starting to become a drug, and it was far from harmless, "Once again, you know it's not her, it's just an illusion." She emphasized the point again.

"I need this." He pushed again, now his icy blue eyes were boring holes into her crimson ones.

No you don't, you just want it, and the more you want it now, the more you'll end up needing it later on. Was what she should have said.

Instead what came out was, "Are you really sure about this?" She tried to politely shoot him down again, "This isn't a good idea." A weak, half-hearted response.

Why was she even trying?

What was she aiming to get out of this?

Atonement?

Redemption?

Who was she trying to please anyway?

"Yes." A blunt statement was all she got, and was pretty much all she was going to get. What else should she have expected anyway?

"Alright…" Emerald finally exhaled sharply as she relented, it was clear that he wanted it far more than she wanted to prevent him from getting it.

Even if it was dangerously self-destructive.

"Just hang on for a moment," She focused on him, reaching deep into his mind, forming the image that she knew he so desperately wanted. She felt the world spin for a moment, such was the concentration that she needed in order to pull off such a feat, still it was not as though she had not done it before, goodness knows how many times she had used it for herself or her former master.

And now seemingly, to lead a newfound ally into a downward spiral.

Still, she ejected those thoughts from her mind as she noted the expectant look on his face, generating an image of his once-and-former partner for him to embrace; she materialized the image slowly, forming the perfect image of Pyrrha Nikos, Champion of Mistral and partner to one Jaune Arc. She drew on her own memories of the champion to solidify and complete the image in reality.

She knew the image had fully manifested itself when he started reacting to what would have appeared to be absolute nothing to anyone who did not know about her semblance and its uses, "Oh…Oh Pyrrha…" Jaune's eyes went wide and tears started falling from them, pooling at the tip of his chin and falling to the ground slowly. He strode forward and wrapped his arms around the invisible figure, seemingly holding it tightly to his own body, weeping and sobbing quietly as he did so.

Emerald watched the scene from the side in silence as she continued concentrating on the image, shuffling her feet uneasily as the scene played out in front of her. The first time she had seen it, it had been just plain revolting to her to watch the boy eagerly embrace a lie, the second time she had found it beyond pathetic, the way he tried to cling desperately to complete nothingness.

And now? She felt nothing save perhaps a small part of her that pitied him and herself for going along with it in the first place, what she had been telling him after all was only the truth, his partner was not here, she was dead, whatever he was seeing was a mere hallucination that would only make him yearn all the harder for her. He would not be stopped by the plain logic that she presented to him, would not be denied his chance to see her again no matter what he was told by whoever was telling it. She hated to admit that the same part of her that pitied him also enjoyed their interactions however hollow they were, he was just using her to get his partner –even if it was a fake- back after all, and yet for that reason he still came to her and spoke to her.

Still, it was a very far cry from the iciness exuded by the others; they would not even talk to her on a good day.

And so the scene continued playing itself out, him holding nothing in his arms, her staring at him blankly. From a distance away, for anyone who would have been watching the two of them it must have looked like something between the most ridiculous-possible scene and the creepiest-ever scene, a teenage boy hugging thin air while a teenage girl watched him passively. But to the two teenagers involved with the scene itself, it represented nothing less than their railing against the empty loneliness they suffered from and their deep desire for companionship against all odds.

Even if it was nothing but a cheap fake...a lie...an illusion.

The denial is strong with Jaune, the inability to accept that there is a problem is usually the first problem and a strong component of addiction in the real world that we live in. This is one point that I really wanted to emphasize, it's basically a drug and Jaune is more or less addicted to it. Emerald is like an enabler, although she shows some conscious in making the decision to let it happen, trying to dissuade him from actively loving a hallucination.

Reading through after writing, I know its not an especially gripping story, both of the characters might even be rather OOC.

A minor thought for a follow-up would be to show the rest of Team RNJR's reactions to finding out about this, but for now this fic is complete since I have few ideas for how that might go.

As a note, most of this was actually written before that scene in V4 with Jaune looking at a video of Pyrrha. The scene made me think about the whole "Five Stages of Grief" and whether or not Jaune will be able to eventually move past it and push ahead to the future whether on his own or with the help of his other companions. I can totally see him finally moving on by deleting the video in much the same way that the burning of letters or photos is used in other media to signify letting go of the person in question.

Of course that might just generate a whole lot of arkos rage instead, since when has a fandom ever been reasonable and stable when it comes to shipping?

The whole idea behind this story is basically that he can help Emerald grow into a less shitty person, and at the same time in a very weird way Emerald can help him deal with his loss. Whether or not it becomes the start of something more, I would think that this would be one more to start it, which is trying to grow together.

Blah blah blah somewhere along the way they fall in love, forgiveness, redemption and all that jazz.

Pretty cliché, but then again it's not like the actual series is well known for pitching brand new ideas, so here I am submitting an equally cliché idea just for the heck of it.

Tell me what you think! Do leave a review if possible!