Roman had begun training Emerald on what to do at her press meeting before it was even scheduled. All it was was him going through different points and statements with Emerald awkwardly repeating them back to him. Her new life story involved her migrating to America from an unnamed "foreign country." Then, instead of going to the streets when her parents passed, she was raised in a convent. Soon she met Mercury, feel deeply in love, and so on and so forth.

"What's the convent called again?" They were going through it for the first time in Emerald's cell, Mama hovering in the doorway.

"The, uh, the special heart?"

"Sacred Heart. Don't forget to do the Sign of the Cross when you mention it," Torchwick reprimanded. As Emerald rolled her eyes she could see Malachite silently shaking her head and chuckling.

"You both laugh, but the papers eat up this stuff. Ok, next off..." Roman continued to walk Emerald through her story, until he got to a part that made her skin crawl.

"You seriously want me to say I had a love affair with that sleaze?"

"Instead of sleaze, try saying manipulator. How about that?" Roman said, standing up from his seat by Emerald's bedside table, organizing his things. "Chew on that fact tonight while you go back through your statement,"

"And where do you think you're going?" Emerald snipped.

"Emerald, you seem to be forgetting you are not my only client, and not my most prioritized," Roman practically laughed.

"Prioritized? I'm going to be strung up at the gallows, in case you are forgetting," Emerald pushed herself off her bed.

"Emerald..." Mama Malachite warned. Roman tipped his bowler hat at the warden as he went passed her to leave. Emerald sat back on her flimsy mattress with a huff. From her pillow case she pulled some cash.

"Is this enough for some skin corrector and hair product?" She held the wad out to Mama, who gave a large grin.

"Plenty."


Emerald wanted the press conference over before her and Roman were even at the podium. The hours spent stressing over her makeup and finger waves in the prison bathroom mirrors that morning left her tired yet frazzled. The weeks of rehearsing his bullshit story left her drained, and her journal from that time was filled with nothing but complaints. She legitimately felt like sucker-punching Roman in the gut when he bullet-pointed her backstory at her while they were passing through the rich marble lobby of the courthouse.

"-we both reached for the gun, I know, I know. You can stop yapping about it," she snapped, her heels clicking along at a constant velocity. When they were close to the pillared entrance to the hall, Roman gripped Emerald's shoulder and spun her around to face him.

"If you want to make it through this you are going to have to follow my lead, understood?" Her lawyer hissed under his breath. Emerald stayed completely still, choosing to keep her steely eyes locked with his narrowed ones. "You're as good as dead if you don't do this right, understood?"

Emerald gave a slow and small nod. Roman's face split into a monstrous smile, canines glinting. He clapped the same shoulder he clutched a moment before.

"Perfect, let's get to it then!" Roman continued onwards to the glass doors, Emerald following him at his side. In unison, they stepped out onto the terrace.

The moment the doors swung open, countless finely-dressed reporters scrambled to the base of the marble staircase in a pack. Their cameras flashed like mini-spotlights bursting at random, making Emerald's vision hazy with spots. They were all yelling questions over each other, questions directed to and involving her.

Roman stepped up to the podium first, as was planned. "Gentlemen, gentlemen, Ms. Salem." Roman smiled down at the only woman there, who simply glared in return. Roman cleared his throat and readjusted his suit collar. "My client has just entered a plea of not-guilty. We look forward to a trial at the earliest possible date. Now: are there any questions?" The woman raised a singular finger. "Salem."

"As you know, my paper is dry," Salem began, an almost triumphant smirk on her pale lips, "do you have any advice to young girls seeking to avoid a life of jazz and drink?"

Emerald smiled sweetly, beginning to open her mouth.

"Absolutely," Roman answered. "Mrs. Black feels that is was the tragic combination of jazz and liquor that led to the downfall. Next question please—"

"I would just like to say," Emerald interjected, "I am ever so flattered you all came here to see me today."

"Yes," Roman gave a kind-hearted grin, but his eyes shot silent daggers at Emerald. "Mrs. Black—"

"You see," Emerald sighed loudly, "I was… I was a moth, crushed under the wheel, you know? A butterfly drawn… drawn to the flame… I…" she pursed her lips, then gave a level stare to her audience. "I bet you want to know why I shot the bastard."

Roman let out a boisterous laugh while gracefully ripping Emerald away from the mic. "Shut up." He muttered into her ear, still smiling. He left one of his hands on the small of her back as he leaned back into the microphone.

Emerald could see it.

"Mr. Roman Torchwick at the press-conference rag." Junior Xiong's voice rang from backstage. The only living person on the stage was Torchwick. He sat in a simple chair with a large red curtain behind him, and a puppet that was an exact replica of Emerald on his lap. "Notice how his mouth never moves. Or, well, almost." Roman shot a glare at where Xiong must have been.

"Where'd you come from?" A reporter shouted from the crowd.

Roman tapped Emerald's back. "Mississippi," the answer spilled from her lips in a rush. The reporters proceeded to laugh at her answer, Roman chuckling along. Emerald felt her cheeks heat.

"And your parents?"

"Not very wealthy." Roman moved the Emerald puppet's mouth, speaking for it. His mouth didn't appear to move.

"Where are they now?"

"Six feet under."

"But she was given a brand new start!" Roman uttered enthusiastically.

"The convent of The Sacred Heart." Roman moved the puppet's wooden limbs to form the cross.

"When'd you get here?"

"1920."

"How old were you?"

Emerald shot a glance at Roman, who simply stared in return. "Don't remember." She answered as smoothly as possible.

"Then what happened?" Emerald swallowed back what she believed to be vomit before answering.

"I met Mercury. Then he stole my heart away, convinced me to elope one day."

"Oh, you poor dear, I simply cannot believe what you have been through." Salem said in a silky voice. "A convent girl, a runaway, now tell us Emerald…"

The curtain was pulled back, revealing row upon row of wooden replicas of the reporters, sitting in chairs as spotlights flashed constantly. The puppet representing Salem was lifted by the strings tangling its limbs and sang. "Who was Callows?"

"My ex-boyfriend."

Another reporter-puppet bolted upwards. "Why'd you shoot him?"

"I was leaving."

"Was he angry?" All of the reporters chanted, standing upright.

"Like a madman. Still, I said 'Tyrian move along.'"

"She knew that she was doing wrong!" Roman proclaimed.

"Then describe it," the reporters were moving their wooden mouths in unison.

"He came towards me."

"With the pistol?"

"From my bureau," Roman made the Emerald puppet point in dramatic recreation of what he was narrating.

"Did you fight him?"

"Like a tiger," the Emerald puppet pathetically raised its fists.

"He had strength and she had none!" Roman practically shouted into the microphones.

"And yet," Emerald sighed heavily, "we both reached for the gun."

The crowd of puppets behind Roman sat completely still, their wires taut. Roman used the brace on the back of the Emerald puppet's back to make it lurch forward while reaching out in desperation. It bounced to the fast beat.

"Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes we both
Oh yes we both
Oh yes, we both reached for
The gun, the gun, the gun, the gun
Oh yes, we both reached for the gun."

The strings from the ceiling began to practically toss around the reporters as they sang along.

"Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes they both
Oh yes, they both
Oh yes, they both reached for
The gun, the gun, the gun, the gun
Oh yes, they both reached for the gun
For the gun."

"You see?" Roman smiled. "It's the story of a poor girl manipulated into being in a situation she didn't want to be in, and ended up with a cruel choice of her life and the life of her attacker.

The music slowed. Torchwick carefully took the puppet off his lap and placed it in his chair. He positioned the puppet's mouth to form a perfect smile, with hands folded in its lap. He moved away from it, singing while analyzing the reporters .

"Understandable. understandable
Yes, it's perfectly understandable
Comprehensible. Comprehensible
Not a bit reprehensible
It's so defensible!"

The music sped up again, and Roman rushed back to the Emerald puppet and placed it back on his lap right as the reporters began asking more questions.

"How're you feeling?"

"Very frightened," the puppet shrunk back.

"Are you sorry?" Salem called out from the crowd.

Emerald scoffed. "Are you kidding?"

Torchwick pulled the puppet closer to him.

"What's your statement?" The reporters continued on, unfazed.

"All I'd say is: though my choo-choo jumped the track, I'd give my life to bring him back."

The vomit came back.

"And?"

"Stay away from…" The reporters leaned in close to hear the words of Torchwick's puppet.

"What?"

"Jazz and liquor..."

"And?"

"And the men who…"

"What?"

"Play for fun," the Emerald puppet winked.

"And what?"

"That's the thought that."

"Yeah!"

"Came upon me."

"When?"

"When we both reached for the gun!" Roman was so excited he flung the puppet to the stage floor and leapt to his feet.

"That…" Salem nodded sympathetically, jotting down words in her notebook, "is perfectly understandable."

Emerald pushed herself onto her knees from her crumpled position on the ground. She gazed around her as the puppets, perfectly still other than their nodding heads, began quietly chanting.

"Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, they both

Oh yes, they both

Oh yes, they both reached for…"

Roman smirked down at Emerald, then shouted. "Let me hear it!"

"The gun, the gun, the gun, the gun

Oh yes, they both reached

For the gun

For the gun," the puppets were a gentle crescendo, their voices rising slowly but surely.

"A little louder!" Roman Torchwick continued to egg them on. It worked, they began to dance, their moves symmetrical and choregraphed.

"Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, they both

Oh yes, they both

Oh yes, they both reached—"

"-Oh, yeah!" Roman shouted. Emerald got to her feet. She clapped along to the beat, enraptured by the quickening melody.

"For the gun, the gun, the gun, the gun

"Oh yes. They both reached

For the gun

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, they both

Oh yes, they both

Oh yes, they both reached for

The gun, the gun, the gun, the gun

Oh yes, they both reached for the gun."

"Now you got it!" Roman grasped Emerald's hand and they began to dance to the wild rhythm as the puppets continued to sing.

"Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, they both

Oh yes, they both

Oh yes, they both reached for

The gun, the gun, the gun, the gun." Roman let go of Emerald's hand, sending her spinning. She watched as he pulled out a glass of milk, seemingly from nowhere.

"Both reached for the..." he began to drink, but a voice projected a single syllable: "gun."

As all the puppets collapsed for the final time, Emerald applauded.


A/N

That took such a long time to come out. School has been insanely busy, and whenever I had free time I felt so burned out I didn't want to do anything but laze around. But hey, better late than never. And trust me, the idea of dropping a fanfiction is too horrid for me to consider, so I'm not going anywhere.

This chapter was the one that excited and scared me the most to write. This is probably the best number in movie musical history. The Broadway production is also great, but it doesn't have the same flexibility as the movie with its set, dancers, and lighting. Paired with the lyrics, this number in the movie is full of symbolism. I tried to replicate it as best as I could, but I had to change some things because of the divide between books and movies as to not make my writing janky and awkward.

Thanks for reading!