A small figure shivered in her cold, damp cage, her arms shackled behind her and her ankles bound, a short chain ran from the wall to her thick metal collar around her neck. Her eye was dull and tired and her frame was thin, her ribs visible through her pale skin. Soft and shallow breathing was the only sound that filled her otherwise deathly silent cell. Her burned wrist still seared with pain every waking moment, the same for her burned, blinded eye. Sleep had been nearly impossible between the agony that gnawed at her from her arm and face and the horrifying nightmares that plagued her, replaying the moments of her greatest suffering, tormenting her in even in her sleep. She was never free.
How long have I been in this cage? It's been a long time since I've last seen anyone… since Cinder burned my arm. Maybe a week? It's impossible to tell from in here. I- I'm missing them… I miss Cinder and Mercury… and Emerald. I don't want to be alone, I don't want to die in here alone. They killed Penny and Pyrrha, they destroyed Beacon and tried to kill my friends… and I actually miss them.' A very small and bitter smile tugged at her lips as she realized her feelings in her heart too weak to lie to herself. 'I want to be with them, I know they'll hurt me but I don't want to be alone anymore. Is this what Emerald meant by breaking? Th- this is easier… it hurts a lot less, it's less scary knowing that I want to be with them no matter what they do to me. Emerald said just give in… maybe I should stop fighting it.
She closed her eye, her breathing becoming slower and steadier as she focused in on the pain, letting it flow over her, consuming everything that she was, scouring clean her spirit, burning away her sense of self. As she let go she felt it, she felt herself descending into a free fall, shedding her soul on the way down into the deepest darkness she could reach. With the vision Emerald had planted deep inside her mind, the image of her sister burning alive at the hands of her captors, she felt her grip on the deepest bond she'd ever known slipping away along with her last shreds of hope.
Yang can't save me, she shouldn't save me. If she comes to this place, dying would be the best possible outcome. Same goes for Weiss and Blake. I don't want to see them, I don't want Yang. I don't want anything more than Cinder, she controls my world now, I'm just a broken doll for her and the others and- and that's exactly what I want… because once I'm broken, I won't have hope anymore… I won't hurt anymore, I will never be truly alone here, I will be safe as long as I give in. Let go… just let go.
Her frail body relaxed as she felt her heart begin to die, a fire in her soul snuffing out by her own will. After so long in isolation all she wished for was to be with her captors, her tormentors, because as much as the wounds they inflicted hurt, they were nothing compared to the pain of hope, loss and loneliness. If I'm nothing… I won't have anything to be afraid of.
"Hey, you awake?"
A familiar voice ripped Ruby from her deep trance, her heart skipping a beat as her eyes shot open, straining in the darkness until she saw a young woman kneeling on the floor on the other side of her cage. She held a tray in one hand and a cup in the other and on her face Ruby could see a soft and wistful smile.
"Emerald… yeah, I'm awake." Her voice was soft and raspy, her throat parched and her eye now fixed on the glass in her captor's hand.
"Good, I've brought some food and drink. It's not much but we haven't fed you in a while so it's better than nothing right?" Emerald's tone shifted, losing its hint of melancholy and becoming that playful, dark note she typically carried in her voice as she slipped the tray under the bars in a small slit at the bottom.
"Thank you." Ruby said dully, nodding as she struggled to inch forward, her hands still at her back and her legs bound all she could do was stumble forward on her knees before falling, her neck choked painfully as her weight came to bear against her collar anchored to the wall.
She was just barely out of reach, her chain separating her from her food by only a few torturous inches as she desperately strained against the cold metal biting into her neck. She lowered her head, the hard and rough stone floor biting into her knees as she tried to cover the small space between her and her food, sticking her tongue out as far as she could in the vain hope that it would somehow bring her food closer.
"Oh you don't need to eat off the floor like a dog." Emerald giggled, but in Ruby's state she couldn't tell if it was a truly happy laugh or something more sadistic. She stopped trying to figure it out as she heard the bars of her gate screech open, emerald smiling warmly as she crawled into Ruby's cage with her, placing the cup down while she crossed her legs underneath her, sitting beside the chained girl.
"I'll feed you." Her words were soft and tender as inched a little closer to their captive, putting the tray in her lap. It really wasn't much, a loaf of bread and an apple, with a cup of water to wash it down.
Ruby sat herself up, slowly and carefully siting at a very slight angle towards Emerald as she stared at her captor, her expressive silver eye glistening with the spark of life, though Emerald couldn't be sure what feelings leaked through in that brief moment, somewhere between curiosity and gratitude if she had to guess. Ruby however, wasn't sure what to make of the gesture, if it was kindness or just another tactic to break her.
"So," Emerald began with a cheerful tone behind her words as she broke off a piece of bread, holding it between her fingers before bringing it up to Ruby's mouth. "How's that arm doing?"
"It hurts… a lot." Her voice became dull and weak and the spark of life died in her eyes. With a barely audible sigh, Ruby opened her mouth, her soft lips brushing against the tips of Emerald's fingers as she took the small piece of bread.
"Yeah, I would imagine." She gave a halfhearted huff of laughter as she pulled a piece of the loaf off, feeding it to herself before pulling another one off for Ruby. "What about your eye?"
"It hurts." Ruby repeated, taking the bread into her mouth, it was light and fluffy on the inside and hard and flaky on the outside. It was the best food she had since she was captured.
"Well, you're doing pretty good in here, better than I thought you would anyway." Emerald shrugged, picking up the glass beside her, taking a small sip before handing bringing the rim of the glass to Ruby's lips, slowly tilting it as she gulped it down.
"I'm trying to take your advice, I'm trying to break." Ruby paused as she was fed another, larger piece of bread, for every bite she took, Emerald also took one. "I understand what you mean now. Giving in is so much easier than fighting, it hurts so much less than keeping hope. I'm trying… I really am."
"It'll get easier in some ways. We aren't going stop hurting you, in fact, it's only going to get worse." Emerald tore the final piece of bread in half, sizing them up for a short moment before bringing the larger of the two halves up to Ruby's mouth. "It's going to be getting really bad for you soon, but breaking will make it go easier, even though the pain will be the same. There are worse things to be than broken."
"I- I don't want to be saved." Those words trembled as they left Ruby's lips, her eye glistening with tears as she looked down at the damp floor. "I realized that, I'm starting to not want to leave because having hope hurts too much. I actually started missing you and Mercury and even Cinder while I was in here alone. I don't know if that means I'm broken… but I feel so empty, like I'm hollow inside. And the worst part? A small part of me is… is actually looking forward to being broken, to being nothing but a broken toy for Cinder. I actually feel sorry for what I did to her, after everything she's done, I feel guilty. I can feel who I am slipping away and I'm actually helping it go. There won't be anything left of me soon… and that's what I want."
"Don't be so melodramatic kid." Emerald's voice was barely a soft and cold whisper as she leaned her shoulder against Ruby's, the moment of contact was the only warmth Ruby had felt in so long she didn't even know how to respond to her touch. "You're just doing what you need to do to survive. You don't want to die and breaking is how you'll keep on living in here. Breaking doesn't mean you're weak, it just means you're cutting out the weakness in you so you can handle what's about to come. Just let it die… you don't need it here."
"Right… sorry." Ruby dipped her head, looking ever so slightly away from Emerald, just enough so that the girl by her side couldn't see the delicate smile forming from her lips.
"As nice as your cage is, I don't want to spend all day in here." Much to Ruby's sorrow, Emerald pulled away as she grabbed the apple from the tray, holding the red fruit gently against Ruby's lips. "Eat."
Ruby hesitated… but only for a moment. She could feel Emeralds soft warm fingers against her chin as she sank her teeth into the crisp apple, the fruit giving a satisfying crunch as she bit into its flesh. Juices rolled down her lip to her chin, trickling down Emerald's fingers as Ruby pulled back, taking a large chunk of apple into her mouth, the sweet flavor washing over her tongue as she chewed. Beside her Emerald took a small bit from where Ruby had bitten, going all the way down the to core of the fruit.
"Emerald…" Ruby said her name softly as she swallowed down her bite of apple, turning her eye to the girl beside her.
"What's up?" Emerald responded as she took another big bite of the fruit, tearing off a large chunk, the juice glistening on her lips in the low light.
"Why are you so kind to me?" At that, the atmosphere in her cell suddenly changed, a cold and silence surrounded them as the look in Emerald's crimson eyes cooled to a deadly chill. With a soft breath Emerald crawled out of Ruby's cage and got to her feet, glass and apple in hand as she glared down at the small, chained girl.
"You could call me a lot of things, but kind isn't one of them." Her voice was pure ice as stared into Ruby's eye and without pause or hesitation… she dropped the glass still half full onto the cold stone floor. The glass shattered into dangerous sharp shards scattering across the floor, the precious water inside quickly flowing over the hard stone leaving Ruby's staring blankly at the mess of glass.
"I am not your friend." And with that painful reminder… Emerald walked away, leaving Ruby alone with the sharp fragment in reach. Still, Ruby payed no mind to the tools left to her that could end her suffering, instead, she watched the girl's back disappear behind a door, leaving her alone once again with the darkness.
Maybe… but I think there's more to this. I couldn't do it, when Cinder commanded that I smile through the pain, I couldn't do it, but Cinder didn't seem to notice. I think Emerald used her Semblance to make it look like I never stopped smiling. I think Emerald... cares.