The first thing Emerald realized was that, save for the raincoat she wore, she walked along a red carpet without any idea of where it lead to.
All around her, rain fell, and she supposed it was something to help get her out of the rain.
At the end of the carpet, thankfully, was a ramp leading her inside a small structure, her finding a small room with an open closet and windows, while a small white rat sat next to a radio on a table.
"You seem new here." A voice spoke from the radio, tone pleasantly surprised, Emerald pausing as the rat looked up at her with beady eyes. "Are you okay, Miss?"
Etched onto its fur was a red cross, and though she neared the rat, it didn't scamper away.
"I can help if you want me to. I'm a healing rat." The voice on the radio spoke merrily.
"... You... talk through a radio?" She asked, her reaching up and scratching at her wrist, at a rash situated there.
"You shouldn't scratch at something like that." The rat ignored her, hopping down from the radio and peering at her rash for a closer look. "It might make it worse. I don't think it'll be permanent though. I think it'll even heal over, with the right kind of treatment."
She frowned.
"I'd rather not take advice from a talking rat." Emerald said, looking to the window.
It was pouring rain outside, and the rat ran over to the windowsill a second later.
"Maybe we can watch the rain together. It's really calming." The rat kept speaking anyhow.
"How does this radio even work?" Emerald asked.
"I'm just the healing rat. I don't know how I talk through my radio, it just lets me."
Emerald turned to the radio itself, then tuned it to a different channel, curious.
"Curious, aren't you?" A new voice spoke, and the rat jumped up in place, Emerald freezing up.
The self-proclaimed healing rat darted over desperately, garbled static flooding the room as it squealed frantically, trying to retune the radio to the right channel.
"Don't do that!" The healing rat yelled fearfully once it did so, Emerald taking a step away.
"What... Why?" Emerald asked.
"Bad things happen when you do that!" It said.
"Alright." She said, taking a step away as she looked back to the only other thing in the small room, a closet filled with various clothes.
Curious, she stepped closer to look at them, pulling hangers along the rack.
It took her a moment of looking before she found something that made her freeze: a red dress, with golden engravings lining the sleeves and chest area.
The engravings lit up, a pair of golden eyes opening up against the inside of the dark closet, staring at her.
Eyes widening, Emerald felt a sharp but intense sensation of heat shooting through her arm, her flinching away with a shriek as she stumbled back, an invisible force suddenly pulling the dress off of the hanger.
Immediately, she was struck with the need to leave, her terror stricken body carrying her feet towards the ramp she took to enter, only for a hand to suddenly grasp her calf mid-step, violently pulling her back as she fell, catching herself on her hands, but not dating to look back at her assailant as she tried reaching up the ramp to flee, but the hand grasping her leg relentlessly pulling her back.
Desperate, she looked back, trying to kick at something, anything, to get it off of her, but she only kicked at empty air, her writhing body getting dragged back down the ramp before she looked up, seeing the pair of disembodied golden eyes gazing down over her before narrowing with impish delight.
"No- please, stop-"
The creature's unseen hand grasped over her mouth, silencing her as it floated down over her, struggling still until, finally, her body could only slump over from exhaustion.
By that point, it had coated itself into her entire body, and, not a second after her struggle ended, flames burst out, slathering and burning into her body.
She snapped up, screaming aloud as she woke with a cold sweat, the sounds of her own voice being almost enough to drown out the sound of the person next to her.
"You're okay," they said, grasping her shoulders, "you're okay Emerald!"
She instinctively flinched away from him, trying to get away, before she stopped, the person holding her maneuvering her before laying her down so she laid her head against her lap.
It took several moments before she finally felt herself slipping back into sleep.
When she awoke, Emerald groaned, slowly sitting up in place as she found herself laying down on someone on a bench.
Sluggish, she sat up slowly, only to look up to find she'd been laying on Jaune's lap, her eyes widening before she flinched away, his eyes widening at her surprise.
"Uh... I... I can explain, I think?" Jaune said awkwardly.
"What are you talking about?" She asked, holding her head.
"You wanted to get away from the hotel, and we ended up sleeping on this bench." Jaune answered. "Did you rest okay? You aren't hurt, are you?"
"I..." She looked down at herself, seeing her uncharacteristic attire, the memories of the night before flooding back to her mind. "... I'm okay."
She wanted to question why he wasn't more surprised by her being there, but, ultimately, decided it didn't matter.
At least this way, she didn't have to constantly alter his senses.
"Do you... need a minute to yourself?" Jaune asked, concerned.
"I'm fine." She shook her head. "We're supposed to be headed for that Rosario guy's office again, right?"
"Yeah." Jaune nodded. "Should we get going now then?"
She nodded curtly, standing up.
As with the night prior to them finding a lone bench, Jaune took note of how silent Emerald was, but kept his concerns to himself, still unsure, even then, what to make of their current situation.
When they reached their destination, they went about getting an audience with Rosario again, with the man having the annulment paperwork finished and accounted for, sans their signatures and the like.
"I'll leave you to read over these, make sure you know what you're signing." Rosario told the pair, Jaune noting that the man brought them to what could be considered a break room, the papers on a table. "Once you do, I'll come back and take these papers."
"Thanks again for this." Jaune said gratefully, to which the elderly man nodded.
"Don't mention it."
As he said this however, he glanced over to Emerald, who stood with something of a focused expression on her face.
"That sweater looks nice on you." He complimented the girl, who looked up to him.
"Thank you." She said slowly, arms crossing, the motion awkward. "Jaune bought it for me yesterday."
"I thought it might look good on you." Jaune rubbed his scalp sheepishly.
"That's nice. It's a shame you two decided to end it." Rosario commented. "But the decision is yours. Before you leave though, could I talk to you in private, Emerald?"
She looked to him, wariness welling up inside her, even as she nodded a moment later, following after Rosario through another door that led to a sitting area, Jaune watching after them and looking to the window close to them, seeing Ren on a tree branch there and waving.
A greater sense of safety washed through him as he saw they were able to make it there.
In contrast, Emerald had rarely ever felt more on edge, looking at the back of Rosario's head as he led her inside and closed the door behind him.
"I take it things have been going well, these past few days?" He asked, keeping a cordial tone and expression as he glanced to Emerald from his peripheral, the girl needing a moment to respond.
"It's been fine." She said airily, Rosario giving a look to her briefly before looking to a table situated there.
"I'm glad to hear it. If I could say though, you seem a bit... different today." He pointed out, looking fully back at her. "Did something happen?"
Externally, the woman looked neutral at this question.
Internally, however, the memory of the events of the night before made her instinctively stiffen.
"I'm fine." She answered shortly, crossing her arms more tightly than before, though this motion made her arm, recovering from its previous tortures, ache from the wounds.
"I see." He didn't lose patience, but kept prodding the subject he had brought her in for. "What about your roommate?"
Emerald saw him as he gave her a guarded, cautious look, and anger welled up in her.
"Why do you care?" She asked.
"You seemed to have a lot of problems crop up because of her, near as I can tell." He responded. "Of course, that could just have been the alcohol talking, but I'm a bit concerned."
Rosario glanced down at Emerald's arm, and she frowned.
"I'll be blunt - I know you've been burnt." He said, matter-of-factly, looking along her arm, then the rest of her body. "There are plenty of second degree burns, but there are even more third degree ones. While I obviously can't do much about third degree burns, I can at least give you something for the second degree ones."
Emerald gave a surprised, then confused, reaction to this.
"... How do you...?"
"It's a... family semblance." Rosario answered, wearily. "I can see a person's body structure, and how much functioning muscle or bones they have, along with any parts of the body that're sensitive, be it to pain, pleasure, the works. It's useful for when someone gets hurt. I can tell exactly how fit they are to fight. Beyond that, I have other uses for it. But I'll leave that to your imagination."
Emerald watched as he walked away, going to a cabinet and pulling a vial out, returning with some ointment.
"I can't in good conscience let you leave in this state. At least tend to your wounds a bit."
Emerald looked to her arm, then back to him.
"So you see... ALL of my burns?"
"It's more like I sense all of them." He replied. "If you'd rather apply this yourself, be my guest. I'll go about getting a wet sponge."
"Thanks." She said softly, her exhaustion becoming clear on her face as she took the ointment from him.
"Did you put on any bandaging?"
"No."
"I'll get some for you then." He decided, walking off to get the supplies.
After several minutes of waiting - wherein Jaune had begun to feel curious, and later concerned - Rosario came stepping out with a grim expression on his face.
"Is everything alright?" Jaune asked as he stood up from the seat he'd made.
"I have to ask this, first and foremost: Did you know about all the burns she had?"
Jaune's eyes widened.
"Burns?"
"There are at least 30 of them, some more severe than others." He told him. "They weren't there when you two left last night, so I'd like to know, how did she get them?"
As Jaune processed these words, his bafflement grew to become confused horror, him wondering just what sort of things had happened when he'd left for Haven the night before.
"I'm not sure. I wasn't there with her when it happened. I knew she was acting strange yesterday, but this..."
"You bought her new clothes, ones that would cover her wounds, but you really didn't know how hurt she was?"
"I didn't, honestly." Jaune answered at his skeptic voice.
Rosario gave him a hard look, then sighed.
"Do you know who it was that did this to her?" He asked.
"I have an idea, but... Even if I'm right, I'm not sure what to do about her."
"I don't know what sort of relationship it is you two have right now, but if you can identify them, it'd be helpful. Most times, people burned as bad as her would need surgery. The problem is, there are so many burn areas that it might not even be possible for her." Rosario glanced to the door. "She doesn't have any medical insurance, on top of that, so it would be expensive to get her that sort of treatment."
The knight-in-training winced.
"What is she doing now?" Jaune asked.
"Putting some bandages on the burns. I gave her some ointment for it too."
"I can heal her with my semblance." Jaune said. "Can I go in to see her?"
"A healing semblance?" Rosario quirked an eyebrow. "Do you know how it works, exactly?"
"I pass my aura onto other people, and the boost in aura helps them heal... I think."
Rosario seemed to think on it.
"People tend to heal faster, when their aura levels are high enough. But I'm not sure if that would be advisable or not at this point, given the nature of the burns."
"I see." Jaune looked down.
"This is as far as it goes for how much I can help you, I'm afraid. Even WITH insurance, there's no possible way to treat burns THIS numerous, financially speaking."
Impulsively letting his empathy move him to speak, Jaune asked, "How much would surgery like that even cost, without insurance?"
"Just for ONE burn it'd cost..."
Jaune listened to the Lien amount, and, upon hearing it, he balked in horror.
"And that's assuming there isn't any scarring, infections, or anything else to treat." Rosario elaborated grimly. "And she has SEVERAL burns."
Jaune looked down, closing his eyes.
"Thank you for all your help so far."
"Don't mention it. Just... Take care of yourselves, you hear?"
With this, Rosario walked away, leaving Jaune to his own devices.
He glanced towards a nearby window, seeing Ren crouched on a tree branch with Nora, the latter waving to him.
Looking around, listening to see if he could hear Emerald or Rosario nearby, he stepped up to the window.
Immediately seeing they'd gotten his attention, Ren started to send hand signals over to Jaune then.
In moments, the pair communicated with basic sign language to get an idea of what the plan was.
It took several minutes more for Emerald to walk out, red eyes downcast, as Jaune stood waiting for her.
"Emerald?"
Looking up to see him still there, she frowned, but said nothing.
Pausing for a moment, Jaune rubbed his head.
"If you wouldn't mind it... Could I treat you to something to eat?" He offered, tone unsure yet hopeful.
Emerald gazed at him for a few moments, then looked down again.
"I'm not really hungry."
"Have you eaten at all though, these past couple of days?"
"Not really."
The shortness of her responses had concerned him before, and still did then, but knowing the circumstances of all her burns, he didn't pry.
"Would you like to at least take a walk with me for a while?" Jaune smiled faintly.
She looked up at him slowly, moving to cross her arms, but stopping, expression flickering with pain, letting her arms fall back down.
She considered it, then questioned it.
"Wouldn't you rather go back, to get your weapons?"
"Well, you know where they are, right? There's no real need to rush. I can't imagine you want to be anywhere around there right now." Jaune mused, and though Emerald looked at him with something akin to suspicion of how much he knew, she stiffened instinctively at the prospect of going back.
She didn't reject the chance to put space between herself and Cinder.
"I can probably do with something small."
A/N: It's surprising just how long it took me to actually post this.
For a while, I've been mulling over all the things I wanted to put in, but I think this is enough.
I'll try to be faster about this though. My quota was one chapter a month, at least, but... Welp.