' Hope.
A measly word for such a gigantic ideal.
Walking hand in hand with mere strangers to become heroes of the day.
Heroes that cannot and will not win, come the end.
The end that I foresee.
This isn't a tale of heroes and villains Ozpin.
This is a tale of how your fractured idea of hope will crumple under the weight of it's own fallacy.
Hope remains by my side and will continue to long after I have everything that I desire.
That desire starts with her...'
Dark rolling skies lurked above the decrepit and chaotic palace.
The outskirts glooping with boiling black puddles and the sounds of gurgling and gargling bubbled as the grim emerged out of the ground.
Cinder clenched her body tightly, the raven wine beginning to pour out of her left eye. Her whole body buckling under the strains of further turmoil. This was her fifth training period today alone and after a while even she could stop calling it training and start calling it torture.
"Stop fighting it girl." came a pale but pungent voice from the doorway.
The new fall maiden opened her right eye and saw the ghostly image of Salem approaching, gliding over to her like a soft petal swept up in an excitable breeze.
Salem relished her training and was eager to see her results. The hours drew on but time stood still in this place - for Cinder this was nothing but the prelude to the afterlife for her.
"Anything?" the queen asked her looking over her right eye. She wasn't checking to see if the maiden girl was okay but to see how much blood she lost before she became too weak to continue.
Cinder could only look at her with a winced expression as she tried to find any words that could get across the pain she was feeling. The air was dense however and the barely audible screech from her lips told Salem that her training was going no where.
SLAP
The red stayed on her cheek for a good few seconds before vanishing away into a pale skin tone across her face. Cinder gasped as she took the blow, the sound ricocheting through the room.
"You were the girl who came to me and wanted power. I gave you that power and this is how you repay me? By refusing to take your training seriously!" the mad bark resonated through the hallway and struck the ears of the mint haired girl who was anxiously stood leaning against the outside wall, trying to be as quiet as she could.
Salem looked her up and down before deciding that enough was enough and sent her back to her recooperating chamber.
"Go back to your room girl and think about your future some more. I'm planning my next task so I need you out of my sight." and with her final words Salem continued her graceful glide over to her chair at the head of the table.
Cinder grit her teeth and her eyes drew daggers towards the gothic witch as she watched her sweep past, as if she no longer existed. The urge to turn around and let loose was getting more prevalent every passing day – at least something was getting stronger inside of her. Suddenly a reflective image of herself standing tall over the invincible girl appeared before her eyes and the gold armour scattered onto the floor in front of her.
"Ma'am please." a voice from behind her spoke.
Emerald continued to hold her fingers against her temple, hoping to calm Cinder down by any means necessary. Cinder turned around and her venom left her body and she let go of the tension in her jaw. She gave Salem one final look before turning her whole body around and staggered towards her companion.
Emerald took the fingers away from her head and slowly reached out in front of her. The urge to see if Cinder was okay, to see if she needed help or if she could even do anything made her lunge forward as the girl buckled onto one knee. A quick brush of the hand soon stopped Emerald in her tracks as she looked down towards the floor in guilt.
"Sorry Ma'am.."
Cinder shook her head and made it back to two feet. From the hallway she slowly made her way back to her chamber letting the memory of her pain toy with her from inside out.
The young girl watched on, hoping that she could eventually feel the return of the affection she feels every day for every things she did for her.
It wasn't too long before Salem looked up and noticed the minion of Cinder's was still stood rooted on the spot.
"Yes child?"
Emerald had already planned something special for her inside her head. She was going to use her semblance to trick Salem. It was all set up: First she was going to blindside Salem by conjuring a distraction. Next was to try and sneak Cinder out of there by clouding themselves in a mirage shroud, covering them as they escaped. It would be extremely tough on her stamina but it didn't look like there could be a problem with it.
"What's the matter child, want to try using your powers on me? I already told you they are of no use. I can see right through it." came the elegant voice of the crimson eyed woman.
However, on this occasion, there was one obstacle that made those entire plans fall through. Salem is enigma personified. Even Cinder isn't fully aware of this being's true power so for Emerald to risk it all against something as powerful as her, she wasn't going to; Cinder is far too important to risk for that.
Emerald glanced forward and gave her a forced response.
"No definitely not...Ma'am." she added.
"But since you are here, I'll let you in on a little mission for you both. Go fetch that other young boy and come join me here at the table." she said.
An hour had passed as Emerald and Mercury began walking down the hallway from the meeting they just had. Her skin began to crawl thinking about every word that the witch had said as it bore into her and grabbed hold with it's cold grasp. The Queen here was truly something to be scared of. Nothing in Emerald's past or what happened at Beacon even came close to the amount of evil she could sense just from looking in her wicked eyes.
"So looks like we gotta hunt down our "friends" after all." said Mercury.
"Well if that crazed lunatic hadn't failed to bring the girl in, we wouldn't be the two sent to get her." Emerald snapped in her usual tone towards her partner in crime.
Mercury raised his hands behind his head as he continued cocky walk along the corridor with her.
"I take it you don't wanna go?"
"No of course not! I can't be away from Cind...Ma'am while she's in pain. I hate this! I want it to stop!"
Mercury grinned as he knew exactly why she wanted to be close by.
"Oh yeah of course Em' "oh Ma'am is there anything I can do for you?, Ma'am do you need any help Ma'am?, how about I give you a nice full body massage Ma'am?" his grin turned to a full snigger as he made gestures with his hands.
Emerald was less than impressed and drew her gun-blade in front of his face.
Mercury's expression refused to change and he grinned at her even more so.
"Heh, I knew you have a thing for her."
"Merc seriously shut the hell up before I make you."
Eventualy he raised his hands back at her and stopped grinning.
"Hey don't start turning against me now, after all we're in this together remember?"
"Actually I never wanted you on the team to begin with. You're like an anoying pesky little brother who won't do as he's told."
"But can you blame me?" he said.
"On one hand we gotta follow orders from your girlfriend whose order's come from that pale faced witch with no chill." raising his left palm as he spoke. "and on the other hand we could be back on the streets, having to lie, steal and kill just to get by." he added raising his right hand.
Emerald gave him a satirical look as she knew full well what Merc was getting at.
"But you are totally in it for the killing regardless, does it not bother you murdering innocent people?" she said.
"Nope."
A jarring yet steady silence fell upon them both as they carried on walking down the corridor.
Emerald had gotten to her room before decided to just take a breather and a step back. Her room was fairly cramped and provided nothing in terms of aesthetic taste. All Gothic candles and sickly sour purple colours everywhere she looked. Broken mirrors, offering no true reflection of who you were or what you looked like anymore. The place was just a poor excuse of a prison where fear induced subordinates would see out the end of their days. That's just the way Salem likes to operate, all take and no give. At least the floor was even so you could rest the spine properly.
Emerald gruffed at the sight of it all and began to let her worrying thoughts in once more.
What can I do here?
I don't think I can win.
If I want to get Cinder out of here I need to challenge Salem:
If I challenge her head on, she'll defeat me and then she'll fully corrupt Cinder and I'll lose her.
I somehow manage to defeat her? Who knows what effect that will have on Cinder's training, will it hurt her? Will it kill her? If so I lose her.
If Cinder somehow manages to complete her training and turn on Salem, she'll be a completely different person and I'll lose her! Either way I'll lose and she'll win!
She slammed her hand against the wall as hard as she could.
She has this all planned out. No wonder even the likes of that big guy with the gruff voice follows her orders. She truly is terrifying.
A sudden clicking noise got her attention and brought her back to her surroundings. She turned towards the open crevice by the wall, the wall ajacent to Cinder's chambers. Emerald had specifically requested to be nearby incase she was ever needed.
"Yes?" she shouted out only to get another click in response.
Emerald quickly left her room and high tailed it all the way around the palace to the chambers. It was a long walk, taking a flight of stairs and a long corridor to reach the other side but she made it in quick time. When she came through the door she saw Cinder, sat up in bed, shivering.
"Yes Cind...I mean Ma'am?"
Cinder had taken her dress off as it was stained with blood and sweat, choosing to lay in just her underwear and bra. She quickly gestured to the quilt that was laid on the floor next to the bed and in no time at all Emerald brought it up to her and covered her up as best she could. Cinder had to take a moment to look away, the embarrassment starting to show in her face. She turned back to face Emerald who had just smearred away a small fleck of blood from her nose.
"I...S..."
Emerald cupped her ear closer as she tried to hear the pathetic words of Cinder as she attempted to speak to her.
"I SM..L...B.D" she weezed.
It took a while but eventually Emerald was able to briefy make out her message.
"Oh! No Ma'am you don't smell! It's only a little blood and sweat on your dress. I'm sure it'll come out." she replied.
Cinder looked downwardly at the quilt as she took onboard the young girl's words.
"T...K Y.O"
"It's no problem."
Cinder watched on as Emerald went about the room doing various things; getting her some water and food, making her more comfortable by fetching her own pillow from her room – everything the mint haired girl could to ease the pain.
"D.D SH. H..T Y.O?" came a small whimpering voice as Emerald moved closer to hear.
"No Ma'am I'm fine. In fact she's given me a task. To bring in the girl directly to her. She said my powers would be better suited to infiltration and kidnap as opposed to that Tyrian guy." she said.
"I S.E"
"But don't worry, I'm going to get her and bring her back, then we can work on getting you better. I want to be by your side while you recover...Ma'am."
Cinder didn't say anything after that choosing to look outside the window next to the bed. Emerald bowed in guilt thinking she said too much and stepped back as she continued to monitor her for a while.
After a while the silence was broken when Mercury came through whistling to himself.
"Yo Em we've been given the green light. Let's go."
"Okay.." she whispered as the thoughts and feelings of leaving Cinder behind began to creep up on her.
"We're to head to haven academy, apparently that Watts guy made contact with the informant and he knows the whereabouts of that Ruby chick." he said leaning against the wall as he waited for her.
Emerald mustered the strenth to get up and said her goodbyes to Cinder who still gave no response. After that she made her way out towards the door.
It's okay Em, you can do this.
Go get the girl and come back to her, she'll need you.
And just as Emerald and Merc had made their way out into the corridor a faint voice tried to make it's way out to them but failed to reach them.
The faint voice of the girl who wiped a small tear from her eye.
"P...E C..M B..K T. M." the faint voice said.