Emerald Sustrai wasn't an idiot. She knew Cinder Fall was using her for her semblance.
That was why she was so eager to prove her worth. It was why she was so eager to try and please Cinder. So long as Cinder was happy, Emerald was happy because she knew her boss, though master would be a more accurate and fitting term, wouldn't fly off the handle and kill her in a fit of rage.
Cinder saw herself as a seductress and master manipulator. Emerald had seen twelve year-old orphans run better cons than her on the streets.
It was there she had also learned that everyone had a motive. Cinder wanted to please her mysteriously ominous boss, which in and of itself was a terrifying thought. Just how bad did you have to be in order to control someone like Cinder Fall? But it explained her motive behind trying to cripple one of the four kingdoms.
Cinder's motives for manipulating her were simple. She needed her semblance for her plan to succeed. But what would happen when Cinder no longer needed Emerald's semblance anymore?
She'd kill her. Cinder wasn't the time to keep loose ends running around.
Mercury, the rat bastard, knew this too, except his skills as a sociopathic assassin meant Cinder would keep him around afterwards in case she needed someone offing when she couldn't be bothered doing it herself.
Emerald wasn't trained to be an assassin. She was a thief, a street rat. Once her purpose was fulfilled she would be gutted and left to rot in a ditch somewhere.
It wouldn't be instantaneous of course. Her semblance was too unique and useful for her to be instantly discarded. But the second Cinder found someone else, probably another street rat, with them being the easiest sort of people to abduct, she'd be replaced and killed.
Part of her was angry at that. Most of her was scared.
She needed a way out but she was in too far deep now. If she went to Beacon's staff she'd be arrested and then killed in her prison cell, either beaten to death by corrupt police officers she knew Torchwick had planted across the VPD or beaten to death by her fellow inmates who'd likely be just as equally bribed by Cinder or Torchwick on Cinder's behalf.
Not to mention that whatever Cinder was searching for was here at Beacon somewhere. Just what sort of people were the faculty at Beacon? Were they part of some conspiracy? Could they even be trusted?
She didn't know the answers to the first two questions, but that last one was a definitive no. There were too many unanswered questions around them for her to be able to trust them even slightly. Too much uncertainty.
Emerald sighed. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to inflict death and misery on thousands of people just because her boss was a psychopath.
"What am I going to do?" Emerald asked herself softly, leaning her legs up against her chest and wrapping her arms around them, staring at the glittering stars above her. She was sat in the middle of Beacon's gardens, and she would only have a few more minutes before she would have to return to her dorm room thanks to Beacon's curfew.
Normally she wouldn't adhere to such a stupid, insipid rule-but Glynda Goodwitch terrified her almost as much as Cinder did.
"I asked myself that once." A soft voice said, startling her and making her jump. She turned to see a blonde boy who was vaguely familiar standing nearby, smiling at her sheepishly. "Sorry for making you jump. I just saw that something was on your mind so I figured I'd offer you some help."
"Do I even know you?" Emerald asked curtly, hoping the less than warm response would deter the blonde, her mind still scrabbling as she tried to remember who he was exactly.
"Oh sorry!" The blonde exclaimed, slapping a hand against his forehead. "I really am a dunce. Hi. The name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. The ladies…don't really love it all that much."
"Then why are you approaching me?" Emerald asked, wearily taking the hand he offered and shaking it. She couldn't be too mean to the boy, as he was friends with Team RWBY, who Cinder wanted her to be buddies with for whatever reason.
"Because I know what you're going through." Jaune said solemnly, so serious that she almost believed him for a minute there. "I was bullied a few months ago too, and before that as well. I was just wondering if you wanted some help-why are you laughing?"
Emerald couldn't help herself. She was laughing a genuinely amused laugh and she honestly couldn't remember the last time she'd been so amused before. This guy was pure entertainment, no wonder Cinder wanted her to be buddies with Team RWBY if it offered prime entertainment like this.
"S-Sure." Emerald giggled, wiping her eyes and letting the boy pout. "I guess you aren't that wrong. Who do you think is bullying me?"
"Your team." The boy, Jaune?, replied quickly, so quickly she almost offed him right there, even with her lack of weapons. It was too quick, too accurate, too right for him to have just guessed it. He had to have known the truth somehow. "I don't know about the quiet girl who keeps disappearing," Damnit Neo, "but it's kind of obvious with the other two. That Mercury guy obviously takes it too far and your leader…it looks like she has some kind of blackmail over you. It's the only reason why you always hurry away to do what she says."
It was too right. Too accurate. Too good.
"You can't tell them." Emerald said, heart pounding as her mind bickered between the urge to spill and not to spill the beans. This could be her chance. Her out. "They'll kill me. Literally."
"I won't tell a soul." Jaune promised. "I swear it on my word as an Arc, and an Arc never goes back on their promises."
For some incredibly inane, stupid reason, Emerald believed him. He was just too obviously, painstakingly honest for him to be lying or being only half-truthful. It was a weird, but refreshing feeling.
The sceptic inside her remained a cynic, already trying to find an angle or reason as to why he was doing this, going through the effort of getting to know her and approaching her.
But for once, just once, Emerald allowed herself to hope. To believe she'd found her escape Cinder's clutches and that of the streets, that she'd found a genuinely good person for the first time ever and that for once her future would be bright, rather than another twist into an even darker, crueller world.
Just for once, Emerald believed that soon there would be no chains wrapping her down, keeping her enslaved to the coldness of the streets or the malice of Cinder Fall.
For once she hoped.
"Sit down." Emerald told him, patting the bench next to her and ready to lay into the story of half-truths she'd fantasised telling someone for months now. "I'll tell you everything I can. You promise you'll help me? You'll do what I say?"
"I do." Jaune smiled, sitting down next to her and holding out his finger. "I promise to follow your lead on however you want to deal with it as well. But if you want I can always just sic Pyrrha on them."
That made her giggle. That plan wasn't half bad. Cinder was clearly worried about the so-called 'Invincible Girl' after all. Maybe there was a good reason behind that fear. A reason that would see Cinder defeat and Emerald finally, finally free.
Emerald smiled back at him, and wrapped her own pinkie finger around his.
It was good to finally feel good.
A/N: So this was actually a much better, much longer story expect I didn't save it like I thought I had, so instead of editing it like I thought I would have to do-I actually had to re-write the whole damn thing.
I didn't do that because I'm still furious it happened. I'll probably re-write it at some point in the future though.
