Main theme: Can't Trust Anybody Now by Jeff Williams
Arc Theme: Deep Stone Crypt from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack
Theme: Second Thoughts from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack


"What name?"

The girl looked to him as they sheltered in a damp alleyway, a rat scurrying away nearby as they sheltered underneath a patchy tarp and wet cardboard, the rain falling onto them and wetting them underneath their poor cover, "...What?"

"Name," the both of them were children born into the streets. As such, neither of them had an education. They only knew the words that they were mimicking from the people around them. The boy patted the girl next to him on the side, "Name?"

The girl tilted her head to the side. Her body was malnourished, her paling skin clinging to her bones and exposing her ribcage as her cheeks stayed hollowed in her head, and a few of her teeth missing. Her hair was long and messy and greasy, and she was missing some of her nails, with slash marks and bruises covering her weak flesh, gained unwantedly from a fight over scraps of food earlier. A fight that they had lost. Bare rags covered her skin, leaving her practically naked against the cold as she clung to herself for warmth.

She was starved, weak, and so very hungry.

The boy next to her was very much the same, with blistering skin that clung to his bones and invited infections, a bare rag around his waist, ugly scars patterning his flesh, and withered cheeks and eyes, with dark bags underneath them as his hair clung uselessly to his scalp.

She shook her head. No name. She then tilted her head back to the boy next to her, "Name?" she asked him with a poke.

The boy closed his eyes, "No."

"No?"

"Name. No name."

Up above them, the sky flashed with light and clapped with sound, echoing around them. They both jumped and huddled closer together, the girl clutching in her hands a broken shard of glass.

A makeshift knife.

"Us no names," the girl quietly said to him.

He nodded in agreement, "No. No names all."

Then, nearby, as they sheltered underneath their makeshift home, they heard the muffled sound of a group of people passing by. Poking their heads out of their shelter, and letting the rain pitter-patter against their heads, they saw a group of people in fancy looking dresses and clothes running by underneath those... What were they called? They were like mushrooms on thin sticks that they held over their heads, shielding them from the rain.

"Come now, darling! Come on!" a man in a nice, rich-looking suit said as he passed by the alleyway, a woman the same age as him in a green dress running alongside him, admiring an expensive-looking ring on her finger as they ran, "We must get back home before we are soaked by the rain!"

"I know dear, I know!" she spoke in a typically posh, upper-class accent. Were they visitors from that sky-city that they had heard so much about? She must've still been admiring the ring around her finger- He remembered it to have a green pearl in its middle, and immediately began thinking about its cost- As her fading voice called out, "But I just can't help but admire the ring that Stephanie gave me! Can't you see it? It's a real emerald! A pure cut emerald!"

She called out something else, as did her partner (Boyfriend? Husband? Boyfriend that she was cheating on her husband with?) But neither the boy or the girl could make them out as they faded into nothingness against the ceaseless tapping of the rain around them, leaving the boy and the girl on their own in the alleyway once more.

A thought came to the boy's mind.

"Name."

The girl looked to the boy as they retreated back into their shelter from the rain, "Hm?"

The boy nuzzled his head against hers, "Name. You."

The girl tilted her head to the side as well, "Name mine?"

"Hm?"

"What name?"

The boy paused once more, moving his head away from her, and leaning back, trying to pronounce the word in his mouth.

"Em... Er... Ald," another pause, "Em-Er-Ald."

He then looked back to the girl, and poked her again as he said:

"Name Emerald."

"...Name mine?"

The boy smiled, "Yes," he looked up to her, "Hair green like emerald," his smile grew in genuineness, "Is emerald."

The girl's eyes widened, "Em... Er... Ald..."

And then...

Emerald smiled.

"Emerald."

The two of them stayed together, hiding away from the scary world outside as they cherished what was now hers- What was now theirs together- And theirs alone...


And then the dream changed.

From a memory, to a vision of the imagination.

He was be standing in a field of grass that stretched on forever over rolling hills of nothingness, only interrupted by a silver castle that stretched up high into the sky, it's central tower almost touching the non-existent clouds and splitting the air in twain like a knife through butter. The sky would be clear and infinite, and a plethora of colourful nebulas and cosmoses would fill the universe beyond the blue veil of the atmosphere. The air smelt like the sweetest of roses, and he could even taste the sugar like air on his tongue. Fresh water coloured in rainbow patterns and glistening in the sunlight flowed through small streams up and down the mountains, and great flat-topped mountains with mountainous bottoms floated through the air, with cities of stone and cobble and Verdigris and veins and shawls of moss, flanked by trees of pink petal blossoms, and surrounded by fields of fresh grass and growth.

This was heaven, surely.

Suddenly, he would be surrounded by figures, big and small, their bodies and faces shrouded by a grey, almost silver, glow, leaving him unable to make out their appearances as all of them staring at him with emotions that he couldn't register or understand. Not fully. Not yet.

And all of them were made up of nothing but white light.

But then...

They started chanting to him.

They reminded him of his own insanity with their repeating words, and they chanted and chanted two simple words:

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

WAKE UP

"Wake up, Jaune."


Orion...

Orion!

"Orion!"

Jaune's eyes awoke to a blinding white light, obfuscated by the head of a dark-skinned girl with green hair and ruby-red eyes. Blinking once, twice, then thrice, his eyes adjusted to the light, and then widened in recognition.

"E... Emerald?"

Emerald smiled, "You still remember me then?"

"Y-Yeah," was the response from Jaune, before his face froze in fear, and he shot up in his bed (Bed? Why was he in a bed, of all things?), "T-The sniper! The ship! We need to-"

"Hey hey hey, easy," Emerald stopped him as she placed her hand on his chest- He wasn't wearing his armour anymore?- And eased him back into the bed, "Your aura's still healing your ankle and head, but you might agitate them if you move around too quickly. You might even make them worse. Believe me, I know."

"You..." Jaune muttered to himself, before wincing as both his head and ankle gave off a dull ache (Just like she said), and resting back down onto the bed underneath him, "Yeah, o-okay then..." and then finally took notice of the room around him.

He looked to the room around him, being a rectangular, pale white and cyan-blue room, with the walls covered in pale tiles, separated from each other by cyan lines, with white ceilings lit by bright strip lights and long curtains pulled over the windows. Around him were multiple other hospital beds, almost all of them empty, and the door was cyan-coloured with a grey metal handle, with a slim, rectangular faceplate embedded into it, with writing engraved into the metal that he couldn't make out.

He didn't pay it any attention, though. Instead, he looked to the side, back to Emerald, to see her looking back up to him, with a sort of stoic kindness across her face, whilst nearby, her friend- The one that she had called Mercury- Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and an annoyed look over him, and to the door, a pair of-

Huh?

-A pair of Providence soldiers in blank-white armour stood on either side of the door, carbines in hand as they scanned the room, standing tall and still as statues.

"What are..." Jaune pointed to the mercenaries at the door, "What are they doing here?" neither of them paid him any attention.

"No idea," Emerald answered, sparing a glance to them as well, before turning back to him, "I guess whoever was in charge of the fight back in Gris Square decided that you're worth the extra security."

"And me too."

Jaune jumped in place, and then looked to his other side, to see Ruby Rose- Dressed in a hospital gown like him- Laying down in the bed next to him, the girl giving him a week wave and a smile.

"Hey," she muttered to him, "Glad you weren't at least awake for the scrub-down," she shivered, "It was... Unpleasant."

"Scrub what?"

"You were covered in a lot of blood," Emerald quickly cut in with, shooting Ruby a look that Jaune couldn't pin down the meaning of, before continuing, "The nurses had to clean it off to make sure that none of your wounds get infected."

"Oh, so they-"

"They saw your dong, yes," she gave him a sly look, "Though I'm sure that there wasn't much to look at anyways."

"Oh, hah hah hah to you too."

"Yeah, I'm fucking hilarious."

Jaune couldn't help but laugh at her comment-

Emerald smiled, "Validation."

-But then winced and grabbed his head, looking to both Ruby and Emerald on his sides, before asking, "What... What happened? Last thing I remember was standing in Gris Square, looking up to the ship in the sky, and then... Nothing."

"You blacked out," Emerald answered for him, "Passed out, I mean. Collapsed. I guess the adrenaline and the blood loss finally got to you," she shrugged, "Either that, or the shock did it for you. I don't know, I'm not an expert in these things."

"Wow," said Mercury behind her as he clapped his hands together, "So humble. That's such a change for you."

"Bite me, asshole."

Jaune blinked at their interaction, unsure of how to process the quick interaction between the two of them- As well as Emerald's vulgar, and almost hostile, reply to her friend- Before deciding to get them back onto the subject, "Okay, so I passed out, and now I'm... Here?"

"In the Greater Valerian Medical Centre, yeah," this time, it was Ruby who piped up into the conversation, "The GVMC. Providence were kind enough to give us all a ride down here, quick as anything. Got an armed attack shuttle and personal security as well," she chuckled mirthlessly, "How kind of them, right? To keep the victims safe?" she looked to the side, a bitterness to her, "I guess... I guess they're right to do so. They didn't want to take any chances with bringing us to harm, I suppose. I guess that's why the guards over there are here: To make sure nothing bad happens to us."

"...Are you... Are you, um, okay, Ruby?" Jaune asked, unsure of what to make of the girl who, surely not too long ago, was happy and chirpy, but now seemed... Agitated, at their circumstances. After all, if Providence had gone out of their way to assist them to safety, then that was a good thing, right? Then why did Ruby have to make it seem so unsettling? "You seem a bit... I don't know. A bit."

"Uh," Ruby grunted in surprise, before looking to him and going, "Ah, sorry, I just- I felt helpless. I feel helpless. I don't like- I've never really felt like it before. I don't remember- No, I have felt like that before, but I just... I don't like it."

Emerald didn't hold any sympathy for her, "Get used to it," she curtly said, "It'll reflect your skill level."

Mercury snorted, whilst Ruby shot her a sour look. Jaune, meanwhile, decided to change the topic and cast away the tension, "What about- What about the people in Gris Square? The people in the protest groups? What happened to them?"

"Don't know, don't care," Emerald waved it off dismissively, "They could be dead for all I care."

"Wha- Emerald!" Jaune was shocked by her words. How could she just- Okay, maybe he could understand why she was much more dismissive of the lives of others (A bit like him, as much as he hated it), But that didn't excuse her behaviour (Or his), "Those were innocent people! Good people!"

Emerald laughed, "So were we, Orion. We were innocent once. Good once. And look what happened to us. What we were born into."

"Em-"

"Yeah yeah, I know, sanctity of life, and all that. I got it."

"I don't think-"

"I don't think so either," Emerald cut off the conversation with, before shrugging, "Then again, I don't really care."

"I can tell."

It wasn't Jaune who said this, but Ruby. Jaune looked over to her, to see the black and red-haired girl staring at Emerald with sharpened, narrowed eyes. Emerald shot back a narrowed look of her own, before looking back to Jaune, her lack of empathy for, well, anyone else other than Jaune- Than Orion, clear to her.

Ruby was in the right for her glaring. A hospital really wasn't the place to be speaking callously about the dead and the dying. Nor was any other place, truthfully. Jaune would have to have a word with Emerald about that later on.

If he ever got the chance, after all.

(He would have to word it carefully as well, less he make himself a hypocrite. His shared life on the streets with her taught him about the value of not seeing people as just that, after all, and it would be... Incorrect to say that some of those lessons still lingered within him.)

"...Um," Mercury raised his hand as he made his presence known once more, "I'm still here, by the way."

Emerald's eye twitched as she looked at him, "You act like your point is valid. Or that you are valid at all."

"Fuck you."

She scoffed, "Yes, I'm sure you'd love too," before turning back to Jaune and going, "Ignore him. He thinks that he's more important than he actually is."

"Oh, okay then," Mercury frowned, "I help you save your boyfriend, and this is the thanks I get. Great, just-"

"Thank you."

Mercury looked down to Jaune, "What?"

"For looking out for her," the blond boy added, "And me as well. Thank you."

There was a moment's pause from the silver-haired boy, before he let out a chuckle, and looked to Emerald with a smug, teasing smile, "Hear that, Em? Your boyfriend likes me."

Emerald didn't give a reply.

Outside, there were muffled voices flowing from between the cracks in the door. How many, Jaune didn't know. The two Providence mercenaries at the door looked to each other, and one of them pressed a finger to the side of his helmet, the both of them talking through the radios in their helmets, hidden from the rest of the room, before one of them reached for the door handle and pushed it down.

{THUD}

The door slammed open, almost pulling the Providence mercenary to the ground if he(?) Didn't retract his hand in time. Through the door, a blonde-haired girl with long, luscious hair flowing down to her waist, an orange scarf around her neck, a tan jacket over a yellow crop top, her midriff exposed and revealed a muscular six-pack underneath, with a pair of black spandex shorts under a brown belt, and brown knee-high boots over asymmetrical orange socks and a grey bandana over her left knee, whilst on her hands, she wore bright, bulky yellow bracelets around her wrists, and black, fingerless gloves on her hands.

"Ruby!" the blonde-haired girl cried out as she ran forwards and pulled the red and black-haired girl, now sitting up in her bed, into a tight hug, "Oh god, you're alive! You're okay!"

"Ack- Yep! Yeah I am, Yang!" Ruby got out as she- "Augh! Yang! Smothering me! Need air!"

"Eh?" went the blonde girl- 'Yang'- As she looked down and realised that she'd been smothering Ruby with her- Ahem- Chest assets, "Oh god!" she went as she allowed Ruby to push away from her and gulp at the air around her, "Oh, Ruby, I'm- Well I'm not really sorry, because I always give out the best hugs, but still!"

"That's okay Yang, I just-" Ruby took in another gulp of air, "I just need a minute," another gulp, "Or two. Or two minutes."

Another person came through the door. A tall man, sharing characteristics with the blonde-woman that had arrived before him- His daughter, perhaps? Her father?- Being a blond-haired man with stubble on his chin and blue eyes- Not lilac, like Yang- With brown cargo shorts on his legs, accompanied with black shoes on his feet, a brown vest over a tan dress shirt with one of the sleeves missing, with a red bandana on his left arm, and a metal spaulder on his right arm where that missing sleeve should be-

A bit of an elaborate aesthetic choice, in Jaune's opinion, but who was he to judge?

-Followed by a familiar woman with her blonde hair tied behind her head with a red bandana, black tube top, and purple trousers. Winry. She must be really close to Ruby, or at least the people that know her.

"Ruby!" This time, it was the blond man who enveloped Ruby into a hug, though thankfully not suffocating her this time, "Oh gods above, I'm so glad that you're okay!"

"Ah- Thanks Dad!" Ruby replied as she returned the hug-

"No affection for me," Yang pouted.

-To her- Ah, the blond man was her father, then, even though they didn't look the same at all. Adopted, maybe? "I'm glad that you're okay too!"

"Ah, Ruby, I wasn't even there," her father sent back to her with a regretful tone to his voice, "I wish I had been down there for you. Wish that I could've gotten you out of there."

"Me too," Winry replied with as she leant herself against the wall next to her bed and rubbed her hand over her other arm, guilt covering her face, "If I had known that you might get caught up in whatever the hell happened in the square, I never would've sent you out into the city. I would've just kept you in the shop."

"You don't- You don't need to apologise for it," Ruby said sincerely to the older woman, "I mean, you couldn't have known what would happen, so there's no need to beat yourself up over it."

Winry just looked away, the expression on her face unseen by all of them.

Jaune was pulled away from his viewing of this interaction by a pat on his arm, and looked to see Emerald standing up from her seat, "Since these guys are all here, I'll... I'll make myself scarce. Give these guys some breathing room."

"Wait, seriously?" Jaune asked incredulously as both Emerald and Mercury began to turn to the door, the Providence soldiers stepping to the side to let them out, "But we- We only just saw each other again!"

"Don't worry," Emerald turned to face him with a gentle look upon her, a look that betrayed the earlier rough personality that she had portrayed to them, "About trying to find me, at least. When the time comes, I'll come find you."

As she and Mercury made a move to leave, Jaune then called out to them, "Wait! Why were you in Vale? Are you trying to get into Beacon Academy as well?"

She stopped in place.

"...Are you trying to enter Beacon Academy?"

"You mean, entering to train as a Huntsman? Yeah."

"...Ah... I see."

"Are you as well?"

"...Maybe. I'm not- Not sure."

"Oh, really?" Jaune tilted his head to the side, "I figured that you were already training to be a Huntress. You know, with your weapons and your fighting, and stuff."

"...See you around, Orion."

"Huh?"

Emerald and Mercury moved towards the door-

"Hey, wait-"

-But stopped in place as another pair of people walked through the door.

One of them was the blonde-haired woman with the glasses, black and purple cape, though now without the riding crop. The other was a middle-aged man with sharpened features, silver-hair (And black eyebrows, strangely enough), brown eyes, and wearing shaded spectacles on his face, a black suit over a green buttoned vest and shirt, dark green trousers, black shoes and socks. His hands seemed to be phantom-gripping around something that wasn't there.

"..."

"..."

Emerald and the middle-aged man, for some reason, seemed to stare at each other for a long period of time, making moments and seconds feel like minutes and hours as neither of them made any attempt to move...

Before Emerald led Mercury around him, and out of the room.

Jaune didn't even get to say goodbye...

The blonde-haired woman looked over to the pair of Providence soldiers standing by the door, and narrowed her eyes, "Remind me, why are mercenaries guarding two injured children?"

"Captain's orders," said one of the soldiers. He couldn't tell which one, "They were injured, under fire only an hour ago by unknown attackers, and in need of guards."

"And why couldn't you leave this to the local authorities?"

"Because the local authorities had attempted to execute them alongside their attackers."

"Glynda, leave them be. They have a point," the middle-aged man said to 'Glynda', "They are merely following their orders, in response to the now-evident corrupt within the police force," there seemed to be a hint of distain within the voice of the man with the cane, but Jaune had to listen extremely carefully to him to notice it.

"Was always evident," one of the Providence soldiers muttered. Again, Jaune couldn't tell which one.

"That being said," the man said as he waved them both off, seemingly ignoring their previous statement, "We can take care of everything in here. You are both free to go."

The Providence soldiers looked to each other, before one of them tapped the side of his helmet once more, and gave the other a nod. A few seconds later, they were through the door, and out of the room.

The man then turned back to Ruby and Jaune-

Actually it... It looked like he was looking more at Ruby than Jaune. Almost like he wasn't paying Jaune any attention at all.

-And then introduced himself, "Hello there. My name is Headmaster Ozpin, of Beacon Academy, and I would like to make you an offer."

(For once, the voices in Jaune's head were quiet).


"Seriously? What the hell was that back there?"

Emerald didn't give Mercury an answer. Not when they walked down the halls of the GVMC and out of its atrium and into the open world outside, not when they had crossed the busy streets in the middle of the night and slinked away into the cover of darkness thanks to her semblance, and certainly not while they had been weaving their way through the backstreets and alleyways of the city of Vale.

She hadn't said a word at all.

Not until now, at least.

"That's not for you to know," she had retorted back after a long silence as they came to a stop and faced each other in a dark corner between a pair of buildings.

"Oh, so now you- Actually, you know what? It is," Mercury prodded her in the chest, "Considering the fact that you might've got me killed in that fight, and also the fact that you've just exposed us to not just a bunch of kids, but the whole of the public- And possibly even that old crone in Beacon- As w-"

"Keep it down!" Emerald hissed as she prodded him this time, before looking around them, "Someone could be listening in on us."

"Oh, no. No, you don't get to dodge the question like that," Mercury swatted her hand away, "Who was that kid? Why was he so important to you that you decided to go out and risk your life like that, and endanger Cinder's plans?"

Emerald winced, and regretted it immediately. But she didn't pay it any mind as she repeated, "Like I said, that's not for you to know."

"And like I said, it is."

"We can keep going on with this conversation forever, Mercury. I don't care how long it takes. I'm not telling you anything. That's for me to know, and for you to shut up about."

"Then what about Cinder? Do you think that she's going to accept that answer?"

"..."

"Exactly."

"...Why did you say that?"

"What?"

"Back in Gris Square... You said you-"

"It was a slip of the tongue," Mercury interrupted with, "And you'll be missing yours if you can't think of a good answer to Cinder."

"I-I'll think of something," Emerald turned away from him, trying to indeed think of something- A way to explain this all to Cinder without disappointing her, which, at this point, would surely be an impossible feat because she hadn't given her any thought since she found Orion earlier in the day and Orion was back and she had reunited with him after a decade of absence and she just wanted to save and be with the boy that she had once-

"Don't think."

Emerald and Mercury froze.

"Obey."

Emerald felt the life escape from her as fear took hold.

"That is the one lesson that I give the both of you, and now... Here we are."

Emerald slowly turned herself around to face the speaker, ruby eyes shrinking and shaking as sweat rolled down her face and her entire body trembled and chattered and-

A red hot hand clamped around her throat.

Another went to her crotch (Emerald had once fantasised about that. Now it felt intruding and unwanted).

There she was. Onyx-black hair, shoulderless dress with glowing fiery accents, woven in fabric the colour of blood, and with eyes so amber they almost looked to be made of fire.

Cinder Fall.

"Emerald... I think it's time that we discussed the importance of obedience.

Emerald never even got the chance to scream as the fires burnt her.


Reviewer response time:

Xealchim: Yeah, I checked out her artwork when I saw your review, and all that I have to say is... Nice.

bosterflaming: Thanks! I'm glad that you liked it all!

bosterflaming (Again): Like I said in the previous chapter, The Dark Knight was a hell of a big inspiration for that chapter's scene!

VV: Oh, she's going to have quite a few conflicting loyalties for a while. And I'm not sure about the 'One for All' moment in this fic. Maybe. I don't know. It might be more drawn out. There's a lot more things to considering, and I'm putting a lot more thought into pacing now, so it may be further down the line.

Fyr RedNight: Thank you so much! I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

ReDestrobo: Thanks for the point about Emerald. That really helped with this chapter. It reminded me that she isn't actually supposed to care about most other people (Whereas in this fic she's made an exception). But we all know that she likes to just project this image outwards because we all know that she's a big old softie on the inside, because if she didn't, then she wouldn't have defected to the good guys in Vol. 8, would she? Emerald's a good girl, or, well, better than Mercury, at least.


In case you guys missed the implication, Cinder did just move to... Do the thing to Emerald...

Yeah, I really don't like Cinder. She's just an awful person with hardly any redeeming qualities in canon, so I just thought: Why not throw something else in to fuel the fire!

Anyways, as a side note before we end, a lot of the weapons and technology that we shall see Providence using are based off of the weapons and tech used in the Clone Wars and the Bad Batch by both the Republic and the early Empire. Things like the DC line of weapons, the Nu-class Attack Shuttle, the LAAT Gunships, the walkers, and so on. Even the individual soldiers are based off of the Clone Troopers in their phase 2 armour, with the red and white soldiers seen not too long ago being based on the Coruscant Guard Shock Troopers.

I'm going to be having a lot of fun with these guys.

And to add to that, the big fight in Gris Square was specifically based on the Kamino hanger bay shootout in the first episode of the Bad Batch, with the armour of the sniper and his men being inspired by the Elite Squad Troopers that would feature later on, spliced together with elements of the Death Troopers from Rogue One.

Because we all know that the Elite Squad Troopers are going to be the prototypes of the Death Troopers. It's obvious. They've got the same colours down to the green lenses in their helmets, they're called 'Elite Squad' Troopers, hell, the DC-15As that they're using have even been modified to look like the E-11D that the Death Troopers use! It's all coming together, folks!

But I digress.

Anyways, with all of that said and done, leave a review, follow and favourite, and I shall see you all next time!

Titanmaster117 out!