Since coming to the inn, Jaune had been preoccupied by his thoughts, thinking of the things he'd heard.
"I didn't think drinking would be that dangerous for me." He muttered, only to perk up at the sound of yells.
"MY fault? Your first thought, after nearly killing me... is asking if it's MY FAULT?"
"Is it?"
"I'm sorry, I guess if I hadn't been stuck with a blonde dumbass all day, so YOU could get off on his suffering, I wouldn't be FEELING tired and exhausted, would I?"
The voices came through the wall, to the neighboring room, Jaune standing up as he recognized the voices speaking, heart racing.
"Listen to me! This! Isn't! YOU! Look at yourself, look what these Grimm implants are DOING to you!"
"Be QUIET!" Cinder snarled. "Who gave you the right to talk?! Don't forget that I can kill you at any time. Are you in THAT much of a hurry to die? Huh?!"
"... Do you even see what this is doing to you Cinder?"
Cinder didn't answer for a long moment of time, but Jaune hearkened nonetheless, looking around the room, wondering what a viable weapon could be made out of.
"Why do you keep trying?" Cinder asked. "You're afraid of me. You hate me. Why are you still here?"
Emerald breathed a sigh, noting the disappointment she felt.
In that moment, she felt calm, calmer than she had ever felt before, even looking up at Cinder's expression, filled with a wrath fueled by confusion.
Suddenly uncaring of the consequence, she answered.
"Because I love you."
Cinder furrowed her brows at this reason.
"You... love me?" She asked, tone skeptical.
Emerald stared at her, then closed her eyes tiredly.
"Cinder... Please, listen to me." Emerald said. "Just... Look at yourself. Look at how much you've suffered, for all of this."
"... When you're fighting this sort of fight, you can only expect getting hurt." Cinder responded, tone cold.
"That's not what I meant." She told her, sighing.
She sat up slowly, reaching up to gently stroke Cinder's cheek, looking to her scars, before her other hand moved, trailing along to the Grimm arm.
"You're hurting. You're KILLING yourself, for these cravings you have. First it was power. Then it was revenge. And every time, you suffered for it, more and more." Emerald frowned. "I don't know what would've happened, if I hadn't followed you down to the Vault. But... I doubt you'd still be alive. Jaune almost killed you, because Ruby was there. RAVEN would've killed you, if I hadn't caught you at the last second."
She gazed up at her, expression pained, and Cinder gazed at her, unable to form a response.
"You're killing yourself, going like this. You're driving yourself closer and closer to the edge... and eventually, you won't be able to get back up. You'll drive yourself so low that you won't even recognize yourself anymore. I can barely see the person I fell in love with... All I can see right now is someone who doesn't care about anything, even her own safety, unless it's what SHE wants, no matter how dangerous it is." Emerald held her gaze, then looked away. "I'm sorry... But I can't do this anymore. I can't watch you get yourself killed. I love you too much... And I don't know what I'd do, if I lost you."
Cinder gazed in stunned silence at her, and Emerald shifted to get up.
"... You're going to leave?" Cinder asked.
Emerald didn't respond.
She only tried to get up, Cinder standing up, taking lumbering steps towards the door.
"You'll die if you back out now. You know that, don't you?" Cinder asked, and this seemed to stop Emerald.
"I don't deserve to live anyways." Emerald answered solemnly. "After everything we caused, all the people I let get killed... I deserve to die."
"So you'd just leave me alone?" Cinder asked. "After everything, it ends over this?"
Emerald lowered her head.
"I think... This has been a long time coming Cinder. It's not just this. If it were just a dumb, mean prank taken too far, or something like that... I could take it. But... you're too reckless. You don't know how hard it was before, seeing you so hurt that you couldn't even speak. When you started to recover, I was so happy, and so scared. Scared it might happen again. But... I didn't do enough. Enough to stop... THIS from happening."
She gestured haphazardly to the room, and Cinder was unsure of whether she referred to the current situation, or their positions in general.
"... You do enough Emerald. Enough to show that you care." Cinder said, though the emotion behind her words, that slight intonation of regret she gave, was hollow.
Emerald turned around, looking back to her.
"Then why do you blame me whenever you get a blood frenzy? I'm obviously doing something wrong, aren't I?"
"No... I was wrong. You were right. I HAVE changed since before." She sighed, then took slow, careful steps closer to her. "But... Things will get better, I promise. I won't hurt you anymore. This will be the last time."
"... you promise?" Emerald asked her, and Cinder smiled.
"Yes." Cinder said as she neared the girl, reaching up to cup her cheek with her human hand, only Emerald to step forward before she could do so, closing the distance between them as she looked into Cinder's eyes, the woman watching her gently wrap her arms around her, leaning up.
Cinder closed her eyes, leaning forward, only to reopen them upon feeling Emerald's lips against her cheek, looking to the girl hugging her, before her form dissipated, her eyes widening before looking to find Emerald standing halfway out the door, deactivating her semblance.
Her eyes had filled with tears, more exhausted than Cinder had ever seen her.
"I want to believe it... But I can't." She shook her head. "I'm sorry Cinder... But this is goodbye."
Cinder narrowed her eyes at her.
"There's really no talking you out of this?" Cinder asked, her Grimm parts sensing not the slightest ounce of fear present in Emerald.
Surely Emerald wasn't GENUINELY thinking of doing this? she wondered.
Once more, Emerald didn't respond for a moment, gazing at Cinder.
"... Take care of yourself." She finally said, the words being forced out, her trying to close the door without waiting for a response.
Just before she could close the door however, Cinder's Grimm hand shot forward, wrapping tightly around Emerald's ankle before harshly tugging her foot from under her, Emerald giving a surprised yell into the hall before being forcibly dragged back inside, dragged along the floor before Cinder raised her foot, slamming it down into Emerald's chest.
"I don't think you heard me." Cinder said down to her, Emerald trying to push herself back up, only for Cinder to push her back down onto the floor, the girl wheezing under her. "You'll DIE if you back out now."
Emerald looked up at her, finding her forming a jet black bow and arrow from her flames, aiming the point down at her.
"Is that what you want?" Cinder asked her.
Emerald stared at the arrowhead, shock and surprise making her unable to immediately answer the question, and as Cinder looked down at her, waiting for her answer, she perked up at the sudden sound of a fire alarm going off, looking up in time to see the man skidding to a stop before the open door.
She recognized that it was Jaune just before he raised the item he had in his hands at her, squeezing the nozzle and shooting a stream of white at her.
Her first reaction was torn between covering her face and covering her modesty, and Emerald, seeing the opportunity, pushed up against Cinder's foot, making her balance become uneven while Emerald scrambled to her feet, stepping towards the door with the intent of running as Cinder made a barrier of aura around herself.
Cinder reasserted her balance a second later however, and she whipped her human hand up while channeling her Maiden powers, a potent gust of wind ramming into them, Emerald hitting the wall while Jaune was sent flying into the hallway, the power behind it blowing a massive chunk of the wall into the hallway.
Jaune's bearings were scattered when his back rammed into the wall, denting it, before he landed on his knees, losing his grip on the fire hydrant as he looked up, seeing Emerald laying atop a pile of rubble, trying to get up but struggling to do so.
He looked up to find Cinder raising a hand, a spear of fire forming into her palm, Jaune hurriedly clamoring for the fire extinguisher, hand gripping it just before he ducked, him concentrating his aura around himself, only for the arrow in question to glow brightly, imploding violently, sending him sprawling onto the floor.
Emerald lifted her head up, looking to the person before her.
"Why...?" She rasped, Jaune looking to her before forcing himself back up, positioning himself next to her just before placing a hand on her arm, activating his semblance while attempting to channel it into her, the sensation of his aura entering her body making her weak and shaking body find strength, Emerald snapping her eyes up to find Cinder still walking over to them.
Cinder saw the pair rising up to their feet, attempting to run off, her narrowing her eyes before firing a column of flame from her palm to the pair, only for their forms to dissipate upon impact, Cinder's eyes widening, just before Jaune appeared a second later, right before her, him swinging the fire extinguisher at her face as hard as he could, her seeing him too late to put up an aura barrier as the blow hit, making her stumble back briefly, only to concentrate her aura into her hand and ram it into Jaune's stomach, him being sent hurtling through the air and into the wall, over Emerald and then behind her.
Cinder grit her teeth, hand speeding forward to grab the knight, Emerald standing up grasping her Grimm arm as it stretched in this manner, her grabbing her gun, letting the knife end come out, before swinging it down on the inhuman limb, cutting it off as Cinder gave a pained yell, arm retracting itself as she grasped it.
Emerald turned, reaching for Jaune and using her best to hoist the taller man to his feet and pull him along the hallway, Jaune managing a run after a few seconds, Cinder looking after them, about to go after them, but stopping herself, remembering her lack of clothes, looking over to her dress and moving.
"Emerald," Jaune began to say, "do you know where my sword and shield are?"
Emerald looked back at him, incredulous.
"Don't you get what you're dealing with right now?" She exclaimed.
"YES," Jaune answered bluntly, "that's why I set the alarm off, so people would leave! Do you know where my weapons are?"
Emerald looked back at him, before looking to the staircase, then back down the hall.
He seemed to read the answer from her expression.
"It-It's back there?" He asked.
"In that bathroom closet." Emerald said, and Jaune turned, her eyes widening, but her grasping his arm. "Wait, it's me she's after right now. You don't have the strength to fight her."
"What if she attacks someone else?" Jaune asked, concerned.
"She won't. Right now she's just angry at me." Emerald told him, before looking to find Cinder getting out of the hole she put in the wall while wearing her red dress, both youths feeling their blood run cold.
They didn't discuss it further when Cinder started flying down the corridor after them, them instead turning and bolting down towards the door as quickly as their feet could carry them, Emerald looking back and finding Cinder reaching behind them, Jaune looking back before his eyes widened at the sight of the Maiden stopping, but not attacking them, the pair not stopping as they went past several people to flee, running as quickly as they could from the inn.
The innkeeper watched the pair running off, eyebrows raising themselves up, before looking to the woman standing at the top of the staircase, her quickly going about going down.
In light of what sounded like a set of explosions earlier, the innkeeper decided to go about getting everyone outside first.
Despite her calm exterior, Cinder mentally frowned, calming herself down for the sake of not drawing the attention of the many potential witnesses if she tried her hand at attacking the fleeing pair, putting on an act as she always had.
As they ran through the streets, Emerald's heart raced with fear, Jaune eventually stopping to look back.
"Do you think we've run far enough?" He asked, looking to Emerald.
"I don't know." Emerald said, holding her head, trying to comprehend the last few minutes of her life, before looking to Jaune, finally asking the obvious question. "But... Why did you try helping me?"
He had known, by then, that she had been working for Cinder already, which made his getting involved all the more jarring in her case.
He looked at her, but found himself not understanding himself quite yet, but him being honest.
"You're not working for Cinder anymore, right?" Jaune asked.
"... How do you know?" Emerald questioned.
"The way Cinder was yelling... I heard you two talking, so I tried eavesdropping, when I realized who you were." Jaune explained to her. "When I heard what you were saying, about not being able to do it anymore, and how Cinder was responding, warning you about it, I... I didn't know how else to react, hearing what I'd heard. I didn't know where my weapons were, you guys apparently have a thing where leaving equals getting killed, and Cinder was there. I just grabbed the fire extinguisher, heard you yelling, and after that I was just hoping for the best."
Emerald stared blankly at him, then began walking away, gesturing for Jaune to follow.
"Okay... So..." She crossed her arms, thinking about his last question about his weapons. "You know what's been happening? What... I've been doing?"
"I had an idea of it." Jaune admitted, explaining further.
He recalled the events of the night before, when he'd first asked the innkeeper about his weapons.
"I'm surprised you don't have your stuff back yet." The innkeeper responded.
"What do you mean?" Jaune asked, confused.
"Your wife came along, asking to take them back." He explained. "I figured there wouldn't be much harm to it, so I gave it to her, before she stepped out with them all."
Jaune found this strange for several reasons, but didn't suspect anything right then.
"Do you know where she went?"
"No, sorry. You can wait for her, if you want."
Jaune, despite this suggestion, went out and asked around if anyone had seen a girl carrying a pair of swords, as Weiss used a rapier in combat.
Instead of hearing of such a person, the few people who were still lingering about and seeing anything resembling that gave descriptions that were quite decidedly not of Weiss, but of Emerald.
This caused Jaune increasing worry as he went searching around for Weiss, only for his search to end with him giving up and thinking it best to just go back and wait for Weiss back at the hotel room.
Due to Emerald taking an extremely long time walking however, Jaune was left feeling antsy, pacing the room for several minutes, going out to search more, and wondering how he would tell Weiss what happened.
By the end, however, he was simply so exhausted from said worrying and searching that he resolved to simply wait to wait for Weiss and tell her in the morning.
Hearing Jaune's take on the whole thing, Emerald recalled how she'd been walking aimlessly for several hours straight, thinking over her memories and nightmares over her role in Beacon's fall, along with what she'd done to Jaune in the very recent interim, culminating in said walk around the area.
In the end, she'd resolved to tell Jaune the truth herself, and put his weapon away in a safe spot in the meantime.
"Was that when you figured it out?"
"Not really. I didn't realize until we'd first heard about our... Night on the town." Jaune flushed in embarrassment. "Everyone sounded like they were talking weird, at random times, and it didn't make much sense to me, since I was the only one who noticed. The whole thing of Weiss turning into Yang... SOMEHOW was even weirder. I didn't know what to think, since nothing made sense. Then I had a weird thought, that maybe I was just seeing things wrong somehow, even if I couldn't explain it. Then I actually HEARD you two yelling at each other, and... the rest sort of fell together."
"How did you get that out of us yelling?" Emerald questioned.
"You said that if..." He stopped, trailing off. "If you hadn't had to spend time with me all day, "you probably wouldn't be so tired." You didn't say my name specifically, sure, but you mentioned someone blonde and dumb. That sounds enough like me."
Emerald winced, rubbing her head.
"I'm sorry Jaune. I didn't mean for things to get out of hand like this."
"At this point, I don't know what to say." Jaune said. "But you didn't want to work with Cinder anymore, because of how things had changed, right?"
"Yeah, basically." Emerald sighed.
"I don't know what to think right now, but if you have a target painted on your back, you wouldn't want to do all this alone, would you?"
She looked up to him as they kept their brisk pace.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, curious of his intentions, given his helping her previously.
"I don't know. I'm just... Trying to figure out what to do next."
"Cinder isn't after you." She reminded him.
Jaune was skeptic.
"What were you two going to do to me, once you got tired of this whole marriage thing?" He asked.
Emerald's expression turned blank as she remembered Cinder's plan for all of this.
"She... Wanted to take you hostage." Emerald answered.
Jaune sighed.
"I think we should try finding Haven again. At least we'd be safer there."
"What do you plan on doing with me, once we get there?" Emerald asked.
"I don't know Emerald, something other than you getting hurt?" Jaune responded.
"Hm."
With her having time to calm down, she thought over the situation, mulling over the fact that she was going to Haven, where what waited for her would probably be war prisoner related, given everything that she'd done.
She wondered, however briefly, if taking her chances to run would be worth it, given that Cinder was still looking for her.
This question served to fixate itself in her mind for several minutes as they walked through the crowds.
A/N: And thus, Ending 1 is done.
I say it's Ending 1, but it's really about as far in this direction that I'll go for this route of the story.
When I thought out the overall plot, and the endings, this one came up as being the one I call the Loose End ending, simply because it's how things would turn out if I had plotted the story different.
The other two endings are more towards the end, where the problems are fixed.
This ending still has a couple major things left open, and is more or less the groundwork of a completely different story about Jaune and Emerald going along towards Haven Academy while running into Cinder and detailing the struggles to be had with this.
I got ambitious with this story, since it feels like the first multi-chaptered one I'll actually finish, so here I am, posting two different chapters in two days.
Now the story's two-thirds of the way done.
I'm getting there, slowly but surely.