Emerald pressed her ear closer to the door. They'd been about to spring the trap. Emerald had spotted Qrow and was readying her Semblance when she'd felt a blow to the back of her head and passed out. She'd woken up in a windowless basement room, lit only by a naked bulb in the ceiling. Whoever had put her here had taken her weapons and tools, and left the room bare, save for a mostly flat pillow and a ratty sheet in one corner. The relief of not being dead had given way to gnawing anxiety as she'd realized that she couldn't escape, and that wherever this was, the masonry suggested it wasn't in Salem's palace. Which meant that this wasn't some abstract punishment Cinder had devised for failing so early in the plan. They'd all failed.

Cinder was strong. She had probably survived whatever trick Ruby's uncle had devised, even if she had been forced to retreat. But if they'd had enough force to drive off Cinder, they'd had enough force to hurt her. And Ruby had wounded Cinder before…

She pushed past the anxiety, and listened closer to the voices outside. She couldn't make out any of her captors' words, but she thought she recognized Qrow and Yang based on the tones of their voices. A third voice murmured, familiar, but hard to place.

"Hey!" Qrow shouted. "You've got too much baggage, let me do the talking. Upstairs, now." Emerald heard Yang grumble and stomp up a distant set of stairs. Footsteps approached the door and Emerald shrank back from the door, wracking her brain for the best use of her Semblance. Nothing Qrow feared would be hiding in the room, he'd left nothing that could allow a plausible fake suicide, and there was no place to hide. So Emerald retreated back to her bedding and shrank back against the wall.

Qrow unlocked the door and closed it behind him. Emerald glared at him wordlessly. Qrow grunted and moved forward, never breaking eye contact. As he moved forward, Emerald padded around Qrow on bare feet, maintaining the illusion that she was still huddled in the corner. Her nerves screamed at her to bolt, but she forced herself to walk to keep from making any sound.

"You gonna say anything, kid?" The illusion stared up at Qrow, showing far more nerve than Emerald felt capable of displaying in that moment. He went to snatch her wrist.

"If you're not gonna talk, then—dammit!"

Emerald bolted for the door. She conjured another illusion of herself on the opposite side of the room, but Qrow moved straight for the door. Emerald stumbled two yards from the door, landing on her hands and knees. Qrow lunged at the sound, but went sliding past her. Her palms scraped and throbbing from the fall, Emerald climbed to her feet, threw open the door, and slammed it behind herself, locking Qrow in. He'd break down the door with his sword, but it would take him at least half a minute to hack through the thick wood.

Emerald scanned the larger basement room and saw her weapons lying on a shelf. A window large enough to climb through sat high in the opposite wall. She threw on her gun belt and pistols, spun to face the window—and found the Raven blocking her path, sword drawn, wearing her helmet.

Emerald smirked as she conjured a half-dozen illusions of herself. She didn't need to make eye contact to use her Semblance, she only needed to see her victim. Raven edged towards the side with more illusions, offering Emerald a clear shot at the window. Her smirk became a grin, slipping by as easily as she'd passed by Qrow while Raven cautiously swept her sword around her like a blind woman with a stick. Emerald drew even with Raven, then crept past her.

Then Raven flipped her sword into a reverse grip and rushed at Emerald. Emerald and two of her illusions raised a kama, but Raven shouldered through the fake weapons and ducked under the real one to slam the pommel of her sword into Emerald's stomach. Emerald doubled over, gasping, and her illusions blinked out.

Raven removed her mask. Her eyes were closed. Emerald tried to stagger away, but Raven followed her breathing and grabbed her around the waist, making her wheeze. She dragged her towards the door Emerald had just come through.

"Qrow, don't break the door!" Raven said. "I'd like to have a chat with our friend.

…

While Emerald regained her breath atop her bedding, Raven placed a pair of cushions and a tea set next to her. Then she waited, patiently cleaning her helmet with a cloth. When Emerald managed to climb to a sitting position, she conjured an image of herself holding a knife to Vernal's throat. Raven frowned at Emerald.

"You know, my brother insisted on keeping you blindfolded so you couldn't find a target, and bound so you couldn't remove it," Raven said, rubbing furiously at a spot on her faceplate. She set her helmet down and turned her attention to Emerald. "Much as I enjoyed teasing him for that, I'm beginning to think he might have a point."

Emerald scowled, then let the illusion disappear. Raven gave her a satisfied look.

"So she can be reasoned with."

"Where's Cinder?" Emerald asked.

"No 'What do you want?'; no 'Why am I here?'. Your first question is where did your manipulative boss go? I wish I was surprised."

"She's *not* manipulative," Emerald said, gritting her teeth.

Raven pursed her lips and looked up, contemplating Emerald's words. "Okay," Raven said, looking back at Emerald. "Let's say I didn't see how you looked at her in my camp, like she was your biggest hero. Why do you work with her? It's not money, I saw all the Lien cards you've stolen among your possessions. You don't hesitate to hurt people if necessary, but you lack the bloodlust I've seen in thugs and murderers—you're not looking for an excuse for violence. There are much safer and less questionable ways to fulfill a thrillseeker's urge. So I think you're repaying a debt. If it were the result of bad choices or coercion you wouldn't be so quick to defend her, so it's personal. Maybe she showed you kindness, maybe you think you could deepen your bond beyond master and disciple. But you do *feel* you owe her."

Emerald swelled with pride. "Cinder saved my life," she said. "She taught me how to survive."

"Don't say that," Raven groaned, rolling her eyes. "She picked you up when you were just old enough to demonstrate that you were useful. You were what, fifteen, sixteen? Do you mean to tell me that you made it to that age by sheer dumb luck? You can teach a person to hunt, spar, forage, build a shelter, practice first aid, steal, and kill. You can teach survival skills, but you can't teach a person to *be*a survivor. Those skills make you better, but you wouldn't have lived long enough to meet Cinder if you hadn't possessed the right mindset. If anything, she made you weaker by nurturing this dependence on her."

"She protected me."

"Of course she did. She did it for the same reason I oil and sharpen my sword: because it's useful to me. Cinder was just taking care of a helpful tool—one that's less useful now that your enemies know what you're able to do."

"That's not true!"

Raven's eyebrows shot up in mock-surprise. "Oh my! So this is all part of some cunning plan on her part? You'll just break through that door behind us when we don't expect it and tell Cinder where we are? No, it's a long con where you pretend to reform and stab us in the back down the road."

Raven scoffed and sipped at her tea. "Cinder would try it…*if it ever occurred to her*. She's too passionate, too single-minded to build contingencies into her plans if they fail. Face it: Unless she meant to fail to ambush my brother—in which case this is the most pathetic, transparent ruse I've ever witnessed—she got scared when Qrow's niece blinked at her, and decided discarding you was preferable to risking her other eye like the coward she is."

Emerald lunged at Raven, snarling. Raven leaned back with the attack and grabbed her wrists. She rolled Emerald onto her back so she knelt atop her, and pinned her wrists to the floor.

"Let me go!" Emerald shouted.

"Not until you realize you've picked the wrong side!" said Raven. "I *really* don't like Oz, but at least he won't try to hunt me down and murder me in my sleep. If I stoop to helping him, I can walk away when things get out of hand. If I side with Salem, my tribe dies one way or another. Help me help my brother, and afterwards we can go where none of them will ever find us."

Emerald leered at Raven. "So I get to be your tool instead? Just like the Spring Maiden?"

Raven slapped Emerald, whipping her head to the side. Emerald cried out and curled into a ball, clutching her cheek. Raven stood her shoulders heaving.

"I would never stoop to using someone like any of the egomaniacs in this war," Raven said. She stood, clutching her wrist like she was restraining her hand from striking. Then she produced a small package and tossed it next to Emerald.

"Eat," she said, as she walked towards the door. "We have a lot to talk about later."

…

Emerald had waited until she was certain no one would enter the room, then scarfed down the contents of the package, dried meat and a thick heel of bread. She sat in the corner, pulled her knees to her chest, and drew the sheet around her.

Cinder would come for her. They'd fought alongside side one another. They'd kept each other alive by splitting a sleeping bag when they'd been caught in a blizzard. Emerald had nursed her back to health after the events at Beacon. She cared for Cinder. Cinder didn't always show it well, but she cared for Emerald. Chaos had unfolded after she'd been knocked out. Cinder's attention had been drawn elsewhere, and she'd only realized Emerald was missing long after they'd retreated. The things Raven said were lies to plant the seed of doubt. It wasn't the first time someone had tried to divide them like this.

Emerald gripped the sheet tighter and buried her face in her knees. She sat like that for a long time, listening to voices drift down from overhead and hearing the floorboards creak. After what felt like hours, she heard a low droning sound. Red light filled the room. Emerald looked up to see Raven stumble out of an oval of red light in the center of the room, holding a bottle of something. The light vanished and Emerald saw she looked…tired. She swayed on her feet, and her face looked haggard. She smirked at Emerald.

"I still can't believe that works," she said.

"What do you want?" Emerald asked. She scrunched up her nose. Raven smelled like her brother.

"I told you already," said Raven, sitting on one of the cushions. "Help me, by letting me help you."

"You're acting awfully nice for a ruthless bandit."

"You're a survivor like me. Being that woman's lap dog is not what a survivor would do."

"A survivor wouldn't believe empty platitudes either."

Raven smiled, satisfied. "A girl with your mind is wasted on her."

Raven drew a small oblong flute from around her neck. She placed it to her lips and played a short tune. It was barely a minute long, and so simple a child could play it.

But Emerald made a choking sound when the song hit her ears. A bittersweet ache welled in her chest. A vision flashed in her head. A sun-dappled field. Tiny arms wrapped around a tall man's neck. A safe warm space on the grass nestled between two larger people. A memory so old she'd forgotten if it had ever been real. She clutched her chest as if she'd been stabbed.

"What did you do?" Emerald asked.

A rueful look crossed Raven's face. "I still can't believe it. He loved playing that song for you."

Raven pressed her hands to her thighs and took a deep breath.

"I have a daughter," Raven said, her voice tight like she'd been crying. "I abandoned her when she was very young. I wanted to return to my tribe, but I was afraid that they'd reject her as weak when they saw how I'd raised her. I was afraid they'd reject me as weak for bearing the child of an outsider. I didn't think I'd love another man after that. But I met one shortly after my return. I'll admit, he was a rebound at first, but in time we grew close. Then we had my second child. I thought to myself; 'I can be a proper mother for this one. I can raise her in a way that will help her survive this harsh world.' And for a time, we were happy. But three years later she and her father died in a Grimm attack."

Emerald was breathing hard now, paralyzed by conflicting emotions. Raven swallowed a lump in her throat and continued:

"I wasn't sure at first. Your face was so similar to his, and the beads on your wrist were like the ones around her neck. I thought it had to be a coincidence. But you never left my mind since that meeting in our camp. And when my brother and I were planning our counterattack against your master, I noticed my Semblance was able to create a new portal. But it wasn't new: it had just been closed because I thought the person it connected to died years ago. Seeing you opened it up again."

"This is a trick," Emerald said, but her voice cracked as she spoke. She felt tears stream down her face.

Raven's eyes glistened as she met Emerald's. She pulled Emerald into an embrace. "Everyone upstairs wants to know what you can tell us about Salem. But before that…Emerald, is there anything you'd like to know about your father?"