The Tarnished Gem
It had been three months since the White Fang attack on Beacon and capitol city of kingdom of Vale, the creatures Grimm overrunning the streets and buildings, killing anyone who was left behind by being drawn to the fear and despair they gave off. Emerald stood on the roof of a building in the outskirts of the city, red eyes watching as a pack of Beowolves hunt down what was probably the last person in the capitol besides herself and those associated with Cinder.
She watched as the pair were flushed out of their hiding place by the roaming pack, a mother with a common face and brown hair was running desperately, her arms wrapped around her child as she sprinted with her last bit of strength. The pack closed in around them cutting off any escape and any hope of survival. Seeing this, Emerald's hand went to reach for her revolver on the back of her hips to help them, no one deserved that kind of fate. Just as she was about to act, she felt a presence beside her, her blood froze in her veins as her breath caught in her throat. The glass heels clicking as Cinder stood beside her and stared out at the scene as it unfolded.
The two women watched as the pack circled the mother and child, and in her last moment of life the mother set her child down and stood it up. Tears streamed down her face as she whispered her last goodbyes and empty promises that everything would be okay. In one hand she cupped her child's face and directed it's attention away from her other hand holding a pistol. Placing the muzzle against the child's head, she gave her flesh and blood one last act of mercy, and fired a round through the brain, saving it from being eaten alive.
The loud crack made Emerald jump lightly, her eyes unblinking as the child's body flopped onto the ground like a doll. With deep breaths, the mother looked up at the creatures as they grew closer and closer to her. She raised the pistol, placed it against her temple and pulled the trigger, only for an empty click to echo through the silence. With her eyes wide in horror, the creatures pounced and tore her apart. She didn't even scream.
The two women watched as the pack devoured the woman for long minutes before Cinder spoke, breaking her train of thought. "We have an operation in Mistral that I want you to head" Emerald looked over and looked at her. Her red dress immaculate, dark hair hanging over her left eye gently, a large band covering the place where it used to be as well as a large scar cupping her other eye, her only working eye still not looking away from the human feast that was unfolding.
"An opportunity has presented itself to us, and I mean to capitalise on it" Her eye glowed slightly as she handed her a large scroll. Numbly, Emerald grabbed it and looked at it, the file must have already been downloaded before the Dragon destroyed the tower. On it was someone she recognised.
"That Arc kid?" She asked as she looked through the files, each page was filled with useful information that could be used for anything from blackmail to hostage demands and torture. "What are we doing with him?" She asked as she tried to block out the sounds of bones being snapped and flesh being torn off by powerful jaws.
"Something happened between him and his friends, he's in Mistral now while the others are in one of the neighbouring cities along the coast" She said as her gaze moved from the pack of Grimm finishing off their snack to the large tower with the Dragon still frozen on the side.
"What would you like me to do?" She asked as she lowered the large scroll and looked at the woman who had given her so much over the last three years. Emerald was so grateful to her, but a feeling in the back of her head continued to gnaw at her stomach, she pushed the feeling aside and set her free hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow as her eyes moved from Cinder to Mercury, who was busy recording the whole event to be posted somewhere for propaganda purposes hopefully, and not for his own horrid hobby.
"If you want him out of the picture, I think we should just put a bullet in his head and call it a day" Emerald said simply as she continued to watch Mercury as a grin crept up on his lips from reviewing his video.
Suddenly, Emerald felt the back of Cinder's hand gently caress her cheek. Her red eyes shifted over as her body froze from the contact. Normally, such contact from the woman would have warmed her heart, but now it simply chilled her soul. This simple gesture would have been seen as endearing, but if one knows Cinder for any length of time, this gesture was the equivalent of being backhanded across the face.
"Don't think..." Cinder spoke with her velvety voice as the back of her fingers gently trailed down her jawline and off her chin only to come back up and cup the other side of her face affectionately. "Obey" The woman's left eye began to glow like an inferno raging inside of the beautiful colour, her voice spoke of love and affection, but her face showed anger and hatred bubbling just beneath the surface. She was still angry about the red girl appearing and putting a stop to the dragon in a flash of brilliant silver, she would not tolerate any further failures. "I don't want him dead, I want him broken"
"Yes ma'am"
An entire month of travelling, tracking and planning went into the next operation. The sun was just beginning to set when Emerald walked through the rank and file of Mistrali soldiers running back and forth through the frozen land on the northern part of the kingdom, preparing for Atlas's assault after they finally got word from Vacuo about their attack and subsequent Fall.
The ruins of an ancient city was filled with several thousand soldiers and three hundred special forces personnel, easily worth fifty soldiers each, if not them, two dozen airships floated in preparation for the impending battle. Far off in the distance, the Atlesian Second Assault Force was could be seen, making their way over the ocean and towards them. Twice as many destroyers and dozens of smaller dropships and bullheads ready to deploy uncountable ground soldiers on a moment's notice.
It took another hour to track the blond man down, sitting on a crate and looking down at a red and gold sword in his hand, two bands of copper around the blade and two small emerald tear drop pendants hanging off the end of the handle. His hair had grown out a bit since she had seen him last at Beacon, his black hoodie was dirty and white armour scuffed with dried mud and filth.
A stubble apparent on his chin as he ran his fingers down the flat of the blade slowly. The dark skinned woman took a few deep breaths to calm herself as she took one last look around to make sure no one was looking at them or would notice what was about to happen. Closing her eyes and concentrating, she spoke just loud enough to get his attention. "Jaune?"
His body tensed up. Wide, blue eyes looked up at her and his jaw dropped slightly. "Pyrrha?" He slowly stood off his seat and stared directly at her. If anyone would look at this, they would see a dark skinned woman with mint green hair talking to a boy with blond hair. What Jaune saw was the long dead woman he spent an entire year with standing before him. In the entire month of preparation for this moment, Emerald had trained and studied the Invincible Girl to be able to dawn her body like a costume and become her.
"Is that really you?" He choked back a sob as tears welled and slipped from the corner of his eyes. To sell the disguise, Emerald tilted her head lightly to make Pyrrha doing the same, a soft smile graced her lips as he let out a sob and began to wipe his face with his sleeve, trying to clear off his tears. "I've missed you. So much, Pyrrha" He said as he began to walk towards her.
Emerald allowed him to come to her, he began to ramble on about everything that had happened, how he attacked Ruby and the rest of his team. Blaming the red girl on Pyrrha's death for not being fast enough. Going to Mistral to try and apologise to her parents only to find them drafted into the military. How stupid he was for never noticing her before, and only through hindsight did he realise her feelings. Eventually, he held up her sword. "I fixed your sword!" He exclaimed with a desperate smile,"I mean kinda, I guess? I had to use your circlet to forge the pieces back together, and I can't get it back to the rifle or spear because of that..."
He showed off the repairs he made, tears continued to fall from his eyes as he finally lowered his arm. Behind her, muted bangs got everyone's attention. A few seconds later, explosions ripped through the city as the battle finally began. Jaune looked down at the ground and sighed. "Atlas is attacking, I know I promised your parents that I would fight for your home, but I don't think I'll survive this fight..." He said softly as he looked past her and saw bullheads beginning their descent to drop ground forces off. "I'll be seeing you soon though, so it's not all bad..." He said with a soft smile.
Cinder's voice echoed through her mind. Taking a step forward, Emerald/Pyrrha placed her hand on his breastplate and the other cupping his cheek. "Jaune, you can't die. Not yet" Her voice was soft and warm. Leaning in, Emerald gently brushed her lips against his, the kiss slowly formed as his hand slowly moved up and was placed on her hip. She felt him kiss back as his eyes closed and tasted the lip balm Emerald spent a week to track down for this moment.
A simple kiss to seal the deal, to make him do anything she wanted. To her, a kiss was nothing. She had done much worse for far less in her time as a petty thief, as skilled as she was, pick-pocketing made enough to just barely stop starvation, but she still needed a place to sleep. She was ready to kiss him, she was ready for him to kiss her back, but she was not ready for was the weight of his Aura that came crashing down around her.
Jaune was channelling his Aura and all of his feelings for the dead woman into Emerald. She quickly became lost in his arms, how could one man's Aura be so massive? She felt like a mouse in front of a giant, but for how much power he held, she felt completely safe in his arms. His Aura wrapped around and flowed through her, she felt her soul glow in his warmth, she felt how much he loved the woman she was pretending to be.
Her mind went fuzzy, she was getting drunk off his love and deepen the kiss against him. Her hand slipping from his cheek and ran through his blond hair, pulling him closer against her. Her heart hammered inside her chest as she felt the tiny pricks of his stubble as they brushed against her face, her mind racing, trying to find a way to live her life pretending to be someone else, just to stay by him.
An explosion nearby forced them to break the kiss, she stumbled as Jaune suddenly pulled a bronze shield from his back and blocked the most of falling debris from hitting her. Quickly realising that her disguise broke with the distraction, she rallied her thoughts as he turned around to look at her. Quickly, before he could notice she was not Pyrrha, she grabbed his face and forced another kiss to close his eyes. He easily fell back into the kiss, she tried to rein her feelings and her mind back into place as his Aura flowed through her once more.
Concentrating, she pulled the dead woman back over her features and broke the kiss slowly, keeping one hand on his cheek, she brushed her cheek against his as she guided his head into her neck. She felt his lips gently pressing kisses against her skin as her breath moved over his ear, in a tiny whisper she whispered her command to him. "You can't die, Jaune. I haven't forgiven you yet" Pyrrha's voice whispered into his ear. She felt him pull away from her gently, but she kept his head against her neck. "You will fight" She continued. "And fight, and fight, until you die. Only then, can you be forgiven"
She released him, and used her Semblance to simply disappear in front of his eyes. Taking a few quiet steps back, she watched as Jaune Arc began to desperately look around, searching for the ghost of his love. "Pyrrha?" He called out to the nothing around him. Tears fell from his eyes as he fell to his knees and clutched the blade he had reforged. Sobbing into the steel, she felt her own heartbreak as she stood before him, hidden with her powers. After a few moments, her words finally sunk in. He slowly got to his feet and gripped the blade and shield hard, his hands shaking with pressure as Atlas forces made it to the ground and deployed their foot soldiers.
Gritting his teeth, soft blue eyes turned hard, love turned to hatred as he let out a bellowing war call and sprinted to the battle for her forgiveness. Emerald stood numbly and watched as he ran as fast as he could, he was lost in a mass of bodies and explosions and was lost from her sight. She stood there, staring out to the battle, trying to find him but ended up turning away and began to head back to where Cinder was waiting on a hill overlooking the battlefield. A gust of wind blew past her and she felt cold through her heart and soul.
Making the climb back to the top, Cinder was waiting for her. A small smile on her face as she looked over the battle as it developed from far away. Risking a look back, she could see Jaune in the far distance, fighting back a tide of while soldiers and Knight robots as explosions littered the sky, a number of Atlas destroyers fell apart in the air and began to fall back towards the ground. "Beautiful..." Cinder whispered as the carnage continued. The Fall Maiden looked over at Emerald and gently placed a hand on her cheek, forcing her to look into her burning eye. "You did a magnificent job" She said as she leaned in and place a gentle kiss on her lips.
Normally, Emerald would do anything for that, she would even saw her own leg off just to kiss Cinder, but now, she felt even colder than before. The black haired woman pulled away and licked her lips in thought. "Wipe that off, it tastes awful..." She said as she gently brushed Emerald's lips with her thumb before walking away slowly. Emerald tasted her own lips as she looked back out to the war, several more Atlas ships were falling out of the sky, as Mistrali forces were beginning to turn the tide.
All Emerald could taste on her lips was the last visage of a dead girl, Jaune, and burnt remains of the woman's namesake. Cinder went inside of her tent without another word, Mercury was busy recording the battle on his scroll with a grin plastered on his face. She walked to the fire pit in the middle of their little camp and sat down on a fallen log as the air was filled with the sounds of explosions, war and death. Placing her elbows on her knees, she ran her hands through her pale green hair and gripped tightly, trying to get control over her feelings. How could she fall for him of all people? The only person she had ever wanted kissed her and felt nothing!.
She was about to take her frustrations out on the log she was sitting on when a hand was placed on her back and began to rub lightly. Looking over, she saw little Neo give her a sad smile. She had been really quiet ever since the Fall. Well, more quiet than the mute girl usually was, she was always full of expression and often had a little smirk, watching someone you care about die tends to do change people. Accepting the little bit of reassurance, Emerald got up and walked over to the tent she shared with Neopolitan and got ready for the night. The multicoloured girl followed her in and she tried to sleep with the sounds of war stopped her from getting any actual sleep.
Hours passed, the battle had stopped. She didn't need to see to know which side had won, but they were far enough away that they would not be found right away. With Neo cuddled up to her side, she slowly slipped into a sleep, only to wake up in a new place.
Looking around, she was suddenly standing in the middle of a large round disc, all around her was an endless white void with massive gears spun and clicked together above her head and all around her. Spinning around slowly, she made one whole rotation when a was suddenly a desk sitting where one wasn't before. Behind it, sat a man with grey hair and small brown eyes with a pair of small circular tinted glasses on the bridge of his nose. The Headmaster of Beacon academy sipped from his coffee cup before setting it down silently. "Hello, miss Sustrai." Ozpin said gently as he relaxed his shoulders. In a panic, Emerald reached behind her and pulled out one of her weapons and pointed it at the man.
"Where the hell am I?" She demanded. "How did I get here?"
A soft smile came from the man dressed in a green turtleneck and a black jacket. He took another sip of his drink before speaking again. "You're dreaming, miss Sustrai." And to prove his point, he gestured to her with his cup and her weapon fired on its own, but instead of a bullet coming out, a bouquet of flowers popped out of the muzzle. Examining it, she released her grip on the weapon and it fell to the floor, only for the ground to ripple like water and the weapon lost under it.
"Okay..." She said lightly as she looked back up to the man. "So...are you part of my dream or are you actually here..." She asked slowly as she took another look around the room.
"That all depends on you" He began. "If you want, you can wake up and simply continue living your life. Or, you can try to change it for the better..." He suggested as he leaned back in his seat and sipped his drink, pausing to collect his thoughts. "What I'm offering you, is a change of heart" He produced a black pawn chess piece and held it up to her. "If you stop working for her start working for me, you can undo everything she had worked towards. Fix the world she made" He placed the black pawn down and when he moved his hand, it became white.
Emerald shook her head and gestured around her. "How can you fix this? so many are dead! Entire nations at war with each other! There will be no one left at the end of this"
Ozpin nodded slowly as he set his mug down and laced his fingers together. "Humanity will survive, it always has" He said gently. "You think this is the first time humanity was threatened?" Emerald blinked slowly, thinking as he continued. "Information, Emerald. Is what I'm asking for" He said simply as he raised his hand to her. "Anything you can tell us to help stop Cinder's plans in the future. Please think about it" He said simply as he reached up, snapped his fingers.
Just like that, her eyes opened and she sat up slightly. The tent shook with the rough winds but was otherwise still warm with the her and Neo sharing the small space. With a deep breath, she laid back down in her sleeping bag and held her hands over her eyes and pressed down, trying to come to a decision for the man's offer. A gentle hand rubbed her shoulder slowly, looking over, she saw Neo looking at her with her off coloured eyes, an almost pleading look in her eyes. With a few blinks, Emerald spoke quietly.
"You took his deal, didn't you..." After a few moments, Neo nodded and looked down lightly. Emerald took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling of their tent, and made her up her mind. "I'm with you, Neo" The smaller woman smiled and nodded. Just like that, Emerald had betrayed Cinder, and she didn't feel bad about it. In fact, she felt relieved.
Emerald sat on a tree stump, looking across the camp fire that was made when Yang, Neo and herself moved after killing those people near the lake. Neo simply stared into the fire, she didn't want to remember that day, but Emerald told the story to Yang because she was done lying, done hiding. The blonde woman simply stared at her, wide violet eyes refusing to blink. Slowly, she shook her head and tried to form thoughts. Silence between the tree woman spanned several minutes before Yang finally spoke. "I can't believe that..." She said simply. "No. No way in hell did Jaune do all that..." Yang looked over and Neo, who simply nodded to Emerald story.
"It really happened, Yang" She said numbly. "You weren't there when he went off, he's not the person you know anymore." Emerald took a deep breath and stared into the fire. "I tricked you into attack Mercury on Cinder's orders. I made Pyrrha destroy Penny because it was Cinder's orders. And then, I went to a man, kissed him and fell in love with him, then turned him into a monster because they were Cinder's orders. I was simply used by her to achieve her goals. What I thought was affection was simply possession. Jaune showed me what actual love feels like, and Cinder didn't love me"
Silence overcame the group again and Emerald slowly stood up and stretched her back a bit, groaning out in strain as she looked at the other two members of her party. "Go ahead and get some sleep, I'll take first watch" The two nodded and set up the two sleeping bags that were in the emergency kits they took from the bullhead and settled next to the fire.
Emerald watched them for a few moments before walking into the woods to gather up a few small twigs and scraps to throw into the fire, when she lost sight of Yang and Neo she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small dark red tube. She looked down at it and ran her thumb down the side lightly before pulling the cap off and twisted the bottom to pushed a little bit of the lip balm out of the top.
She didn't have much left, her only memory of the one time she felt loved in her life. Applying a small amount to her bottom lip, she pushed it around to coat her full lips before replacing the cap and pocketing it once more. With a heavy sigh, she looked up at the stars and the broken moon and allowed her mind to play out that kiss one more time before returning to the other two, but not before wiping a few tears off her cheek.