By the time the audio file petered out, whatever rage still smoldering in Cinder's heart had been extinguished. Punishing Emerald for her insolence, or Ruby for her crimes, felt utterly pointless.

"She… she just wants to kill herself?" The grand design of the immortal Grimm Queen, a machination thousands of years in the making… was all a preamble for history's longest suicide note? "That's it?"

Emerald had long since draped herself over Cinder's back, nipping and kissing at her neck in a futile attempt to comfort her. "She doesn't say it outright in her bomb drop with Penny, but… well, I can connect the dots as well as you can."

"So this whole time, all of my work to secure the maiden powers… to pry open those vaults—"

"All for the end of the world, Mistress," Emerald breathed, still whoring herself out while Cinder's entire life fell apart. "Just like you wanted."

"This is not what I wanted!" Cinder snapped. She stood up from her bed, staving off her pet's further advances. "I wanted the end of the kingdoms and the academies—of civilization itself!" No more laws, no more restrictions, just a perfectly blank slate for Cinder to wipe clean herself. What good was setting Remnant ablaze, if Cinder didn't get to watch it burn? "I just wanted freedom, not… not whatever desperate plea for help this is."

"Yeah, it's definitely anticlimactic…" Emerald's tone was one of casual acceptance, barely emoting whatsoever. "Tyrian makes a lot more sense now, at least."

"How are you so calm about this? Are you truly so dense that you don't know what this means for us—for me?" She paced about the room, burning more scorch marks onto her carpet. "I lost half my damned organs for this war, and my reward is to die with everyone else?" Cinder knew Salem was a cold and calculating monster, but even she didn't think her Queen was so… cliché.

"How else am I supposed to act? Our boss wants to end the world, and there's not much we can do about it. At least… not much I can do about it."

There was something veiled in her voice, like Emerald knew something that Cinder didn't. "Are you implying there is someone who can?" If she was about to suggest allying themselves with Ozpin and his posse of dick measuring huntsmen, Emerald could save her breath and be silent. "I am in no mood for games, pet."

"Well, I was just thinking—" Already a bad sign. "Do you remember when we jumped Amber?"

Cinder scoffed. "Of course. It was one of the greatest days of my life." The rush that Cinder felt when she first claimed the Fall powers was unmatched. Not even sex could compare. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"That glove you used on her… that's the same Grimm you still have growing inside you, right?" Emerald sprawled herself back on top of Cinder's bed, kicking her legs over her discarded scroll. "It's supposed to help you drain the remaining Maidens."

"Yes." This was obvious information that she didn't need reminders for. "Get to the point."

"Does it work on any magic user, or just the Maidens?"

Cinder blinked. "You… you can't be serious."

"Why not? You want power, don't you? You want freedom?" Emerald asked bluntly, as though they were simple yes or no questions in the context of betraying Salem. "Then take it. Who's stopping you?"

"You know exactly who's stopping me," Cinder hissed, lowering her voice in case one of Salem's Seer spies was outside in the hall. "Are you insane?" Had Emerald received a head injury when Cinder wasn't looking? She seemed more brain damaged by the minute. "Salem is the closest thing our world has to a God—second only to the Brothers themselves. Fighting her is suicide. That's the whole reason I joined up with her in the first place."

Emerald rolled her eyes, and Cinder almost struck her for that alone. "Fight her, don't fight her, it's suicide either way if Salem gets what she wants. Wouldn't you rather go down swinging?"

"I told you already, there's no point! Don't make me repeat myself—"

"I didn't fall in love with a coward."

Cinder froze, fury bubbling through her so suddenly her voice cracked. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me."

Emerald had been walking a thin line. Wearing Cinder's dress without permission, talking back as though she were even close to being Cinder's equal—

Her pet was in dire need of discipline.

Even though Cinder hadn't been in the mood, Emerald's flippant tone and demeanor did wonders at sparking back her interest. She reached out with her Grimm hand, Maiden fire gliding along her fingertips, as she sought whatever unscarred skin Emerald still hid beneath those pilfered clothes. Her bitch clearly needed another branding to remember her place.

But as Cinder stepped forward, the fire in her hands sputtered out. Assuming the lapse in magic was due to her exhausting fight with Ironwood's puppet, she tried to snap her fingers and will more heat into the air—

Except, her fingers only twitched, moving sluggishly in the wrong directions. "What is—" Her knees went next, buckling forward as her entire body shuddered and spasmed. It wasn't painful—the opposite, actually…

She couldn't feel anything.

"What… what did you do to me?" Cinder glared at Emerald, struggling to stand again as she grasped the edge of her bedframe. "If you don't stop right now, I'll—"

"What? Burn me?" Emerald propped her chin on her hands, elbows planting against silken sheets as she lied on her stomach. The position put her face just over Cinder's forehead, as though she were looking down at her. "Been there, done that. Temperature play can only be so exciting for so long… before it's just as stale as everything else."

Cinder seethed, but she found no outlet to direct that anger. Every muscle felt tense and limp all at once. Even her mouth felt clumsy. "How are you doing this?"

"Back before you grew that new arm of yours, you were in so much pain. Desperate, you asked me to take that pain away, before Salem stepped in and stopped me. But ever since I used my semblance to overload your brain, it made me wonder… could I use that as a weapon, instead of just as a painkiller?" She poked Cinder on the nose, yanking her finger back before Cinder could bite her for it. "So far… it looks like that answer is a yes."

Cinder vaguely remembered that moment, the Grimm parasite wriggling underneath the old rot of her scarred stump of a limb, before it hatched, tearing through her skin like the thin membrane of an eggshell. Emerald's involvement was more hazy to recollect, but she had… been there, supposedly. "So this really is your semblance. I hope you have an escape route planned for when your Aura runs out." Scars would not be enough to satisfy Cinder. Not this time.

Emerald sighed. "Do you really think so little of me? That I would do all of this just to run off without you?" Hopping off from the bed, Emerald walked around Cinder until she was directly behind her. "Cinder, my confession to you was dead serious. I fucking love you. I love you so much it hurts."

Emerald's hands looped around Cinder as she began to hoist her up onto the bed. Cinder tried thrashing against her grip, but her traitorous body was too slack and lethargic to do anything about it. "What are you doing? Unhand me this instant, you ungrateful bitch!"

Sighing again, Emerald ignored her. She lifted Cinder up onto the mattress, rolling her onto her back. Emerald climbed after her, straddling Cinder's hips as she sat on top. "There we go. Doesn't this take you back? All that time I spent nursing you back to health, your body barely able to move, no matter how much fire you threw up everywhere." She chuckled darkly. "The scars I have just from helping you shower are unreal."

Cinder scowled at the reminder of her recovery, but her anger curdled to something more anxious as she realized how little control she had over the situation. Emerald… she could do anything she wanted right now, and there was nothing Cinder could do about it.

The revelation made her stomach twist, and her body feel small.

"W-what… are you going to do to me?" Cinder's breathing grew ragged, wheezing as her Grimm side squirmed at the taste of her own fear. "Emmy, please, think about this for a second—"

Emerald's hand closed around Cinder's chin, tilting her face to look Emerald straight in the eyes. "Mistress… calm down, please. I'm not going to hurt you." Emerald's breath hitched at the same time as Cinder's. "I could never hurt you. You're my everything, remember?"

Cinder still thought that was nonsense, but she wasn't in a great position to disagree. "Then what is this? What do you want from me?" The longer Emerald loomed over her, the more Cinder's vision swam. She felt trapped, and her throat clogged up, like something was tightening around it.

"I want what I've always wanted. To be yours. As to what this is… it's a demonstration."

A low drone of music, an upper class Atlesian ambience that Cinder hadn't heard in years, started to replay in her mind. Staying still became painful. "O-of what?"

"You're scared of Salem, right? There's no need to deny it," she said quickly, interrupting the rebuttal already sputtering out of Cinder's dry mouth. "You want to drain her magic, become the Queen you were always meant to be… but you're scared she'll kill you before you pull it off." She leaned back, wiping sweat off her brow, and Cinder reluctantly admitted that the gold highlights of the dress made Emerald's scarlet eyes… noticeable. "With my semblance, though, I can give you all the time you need to drain her dry."

As the situation became more clear, Cinder's anxiety died down to a low simmer, and her Grimm side settled with it. She still shook her head incredulously, both at Emerald and the insane scheme she was pitching. "You're crazy."

Emerald laughed maniacally, and Cinder was struck by how delightful the fluttery sound was. Had it always sounded like that? "Crazy for you. Crazy enough to help you take her throne. Crazy enough to break Beacon. Even just joining you in the first place was crazy of me." Emerald dropped down until her face was touching Cinder's stomach, voice rich with reverence as she rested at her favorite altar. "If it's for you… I'll get even crazier. Just ask."

There was… something burning within the depths of Cinder's chest. Not anger, or lust, or hunger—none of the fires Cinder was accustomed to feeding or letting run wild. It was in reaction to Emerald, though, for that she was certain. It wasn't a bad feeling, whatever it was. She wanted to feed it more.

"You really think it'll work?" Cinder asked quietly, finally letting herself relax as Emerald nestled on top of her. It was a struggle; control was not something she relented easily… not that Emerald gave her much of a choice. "You're certain?"

"I'm confident," Emerald said without hesitation. Confidence and Emerald were practically antonyms in Cinder's mind, but through whatever leaps and bounds it took... the oxymoron worked. "I'll make you a Queen if you let me, baby."

Cinder shuddered at the finality of her tone. She… trusted Emerald's words. As much as Cinder could trust anything, anyway—which was still more trust than she'd given anyone besides herself (and one man she killed a long time ago). But before that trust could solidify, Emerald still had to do one thing to prove herself—

"You can turn my body back on whenever," Cinder said, even going so far as to phrase it more as a suggestion than a demand. "I promise to go easy on you for your… impudence."

When Emerald glanced up at her, there was a split moment where Cinder's fears returned. Whispers that her pet was lying to her—manipulating her—and wouldn't let her go unless Cinder stole freedom for herself. That was how autonomy worked—it had to be taken and earned without compromise.

But with one word, Emerald took both her doubts and breath away. "Okay."

Emmy's semblance unhooked itself from Cinder's nerves, the exact instant made obvious as pins and needles raked over her skin like an autumn breeze. Testing her magic, Cinder lit a mote of Maiden fire in her fingers. She glanced down at Emerald, who waited expectantly for whatever Cinder was about to do next.

Fear wafted off of her pet. Warm and refreshing, like a shot of caffeine just from the smell alone. It was warranted fear, after that stunt Emerald just pulled. In retaliation, Cinder could've slapped her, or burned her, or cut her—any of the violent things she normally loved to take out on her little gem. But she didn't. "Praise me more."

Emerald smiled, and some of that pungent fear faded away. Cinder's Grimm side whined under her ribs at the loss, but something else—gnarled deep inside of her guts—purred as Emerald spoke next. "You're a goddess."

Cinder shuddered again, expression half-lidded. "More, please."

"You're perfect," Emerald said gently, pressing a kiss against Cinder's breast. It wasn't even against her skin, because Cinder was still fully clothed (as ruined as those clothes were in her fight against the doll). It still felt nice, though, especially after the long, arduous day Cinder just went through.

More affirmations and nearly religious praise passed through those soft ministrations, each word etched on her body through tender and persistent worship. It was enough for the weight of the battle, and her reaction to Ruby's arrival and Salem's betrayal, to finally catch up with her. She didn't know when she closed her eyes, but the moment she did, her body felt more slack than it had under Emmy's semblance.

The future was uncertain, and there was still much work to do if Cinder was going to turn out on top—as was destined. But to guarantee her success, one factor had to be secured—

"Will you stay with me?" Cinder asked softly, sleep already partially cresting over her weary, bloodied body. "For tonight and… and whatever comes after?"

Another kiss carried her gratefully into the dark. "Always."

Emerald barely waited minutes after Cinder fell asleep before she stormed out of the room, beelining towards the one thing Oz wouldn't shut the fuck about about:

Ruby Rose.

"While I am grateful we are back on task, I must say you are quite lucky Cinder didn't notice your… ahem, sleight of hand."

Uh, what else was she supposed to do? The only way Cinder would've believed her is if she heard it from Salem herself. And since Emerald never actually hit the record button on her scroll, well… she ended up having to improvise. Making an interactable illusion of sound, texture, and weight all at once had definitely been a headache and a half, but it worked (thank the gods Cinder didn't try hitting the replay button). Fortunately, Cinder didn't notice how Emerald's scroll so conveniently disappeared after she was done using it.

"I was actually referring to the nosebleeds, Emerald," Oz chastised. "If your semblance struggles that much against a tired, limping Maiden, I doubt it will hold Salem for long without potential consequences to your health. I still don't understand how Cinder didn't notice the stains..."

"Wearing this dress helped," Emerald said dismissively, wiping a trail of blood off her nostril, and smearing it on her chest. "Red blends with red."

"Red blends with what?" Mercury said—MERCURY SAID!?

"MERC, HOLY FUCK!" Emerald's heart did a somersault, and did NOT stick the landing. "Warn a woman, damn."

Mercury laughed, slapping Emerald on the back as he started walking beside her. "Not my fault you got rusty while I was away. And, what, no hello after I was gone for so long? I'm hurt." He laughed again, but it trailed off awkwardly. "I, um… it's good to see you."

Emerald stumbled for a second (just… processing his words), before she mumbled back, "Yeah, uh… you, too, or whatever."

He smirked. "Oh come on—you can do better than that. Admit it; you missed me." Emerald tossed him an illusion of a brick hitting his face, but the fucker was quick enough to dodge it. "Okay, not that kind of miss me, Em. What happened to that excellent aim of yours, eh?"

"That was just a warning shot." Next time, Emerald was skipping the brick and just plopping an entire wall in front of him, see how fast he could dodge that. Illusion or not, it would hurt—wait… she was being so extra… she could just toss pain at him directly; throw him a stubbed toe, or a chafed nut or something. Yeah, she could cut straight past the middleman and just—

"If we could go back to locating Miss Rose," Oz interrupted. "That would be great. All of Remnant at stake, remember?"

Emerald sighed. Fine. Merc would feel his shriveled balls catch on his own zipper another time. "Sorry, Merc, but I'm a little busy right now, and it's late. Can we catch up later?"

"What? Too tired from un-maidening a Maiden?" He waggled his eyebrows, glancing down at Emerald's new wardrobe change. "If I knock on Cinder's door, is she gonna be wearing your crop top? That's a sex thing, right? Swapping clothes after swapping fluids?"

Emerald grimaced. "Gross."

"What's gross is fucking your supervisor on the clock," Merc said mock-seriously. "You should act more professional—like me."

"Professional?" Emerald repeated, snickering slightly as she noticed Merc exaggerating his stride in an impression of… gods it was so bad she couldn't even guess. "That's rich, coming from the guy who fucked up today's delivery."

"Hey, that was Tyrian who forgot to ring Watts— I was told we were good to go. It's why I'm here, not on Salem's bad side, while Tyrian is… I don't know, still cry-laughing as he stabs a bunch of Grimm, I think."

"His punishment was… fighting Grimm? That doesn't sound too bad."

"No, I think he's doing that for stress relief." Merc scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I think… I think Salem just pulled the 'I'm not mad, I'm disappointed' card on him. First time I've ever seen it pulled off outside a sitcom, but I swear to the gods that's how it went down."

While asking more details about Tyrian's mommy dommy issues sounded fun, her cerebral roommate was about to give her a heat stroke with how much he was seething behind the walls of her subconscious.

"Speaking of—where'd little Red end up getting stashed?" She tried bringing up the topic as naturally as she could… which was not very. "We got a torture chamber somewhere, or some shit?" Evernight Castle was a labyrinth in some sections—and Emerald had no desire to wander aimlessly into a Grimm pit in the basement (if she could help it).

Merc's tone became markedly less cheery. "Why are you asking?"

Shit—she needed a reason? Since when? "Uh… I'm bored?"

Grey eyes narrowed. "I thought you were 'busy'."

As Emerald stammered for better excuses, Mercury sighed and cut her off. "Em, I know what you're doing, and I think you should quit while you're ahead."

"Y-you do?" There was no way he knew—

"You're looking for Red behind Salem's back, aren't you?"

Holy fuck HOW? "I mean, I wouldn't quite phrase it like that—"

"Look," Merc cut her off again, glancing around the hall (probably for any Seers hovering around). "If Cinder wants payback for what Red did to her, I get it—trust me, I know the feeling." He scraped the stone floor with one boot, the metallic clang intentionally loud. "But if Salem doesn't want her seeing Red, she shouldn't be sending you off to be all nosey. Boss lady has killed people for less."

Crisis somewhat averted; Merc thought she was doing this for Cinder's sake… which wasn't quite wrong, actually. But still— "Salem doesn't want Cinder near Ruby? Why?" Wasn't the whole point of nabbing her because, well… Cinder wanted revenge?

Merc shrugged. "Beats me. She wanted me to throw Red in a hole, so I did. Didn't ask much before she sent me off. Especially since Watts wanted me for this new project he's working on. You wouldn't believe what he just offered me—"

"Yeah, cool, we can talk about that later—where's the hole?"

He clicked his tongue, leaning against the hallway in an irritated huff. "Sorry for being excited about something other than Maiden puss, you simp."

"I am not a simp!" Emerald snapped. She pointedly ignored the wizard who also disagreed with her.

"You are, too! You've been that way since before I even met you." He shook his head. "One of these days, she's gonna get bored of you, Em." His tone became more serious. "For real, you and I both know it's not gonna work out. You'll either do something to piss her off, or she'll find someone younger when you hit your flabby thirties, or any other number of petty-as-shit reasons. You've gotta have a fallback plan, and stop relying on her so much."

Wow. Rude. "Okay, first of all, fuck you. Second, I've pissed her off plenty, and I've still got puss privileges—"

"Gross—"

"So, I think I'm good, even without your sudden big brother routine." She scoffed—he'd only been back a few hours and already he had a stick up his ass. "Also, way to worry about the future, Merc. I'm not even in my twenties yet, and you already think Cinder is gonna drop me for being too old."

Mercury opened his mouth with another retort, but paused. "Wait… you're not?"

He… he couldn't be serious. "Mercury… I'm eighteen."

Another pause. "Bullshit."

"Uh, no shit. My birthday was a little before you and Tyrian ran off, remember? You made me take a day off from looking after Cinder, and you snuck me some whiskey from Watts' stash." What a train wreck of a day that was. Fun, though. "I still haven't drank any of it, by the way. Not really my taste."

"I would hope not! You're a fuckin' baby apparently…" He massaged his forehead, blinking rapidly. "Eighteen, you said?"

Emerald rolled her eyes. "Yes."

"You sure?"

She couldn't help laughing the second time he asked. "Yes. Why are you being so weird about it? Is it that much of a surprise?"

"I mean, at Beacon, we pretended to be third years—your huntress-in-training license said you were twenty-two!"

Emerald raised an eyebrow. "Uh… my forged license?" Come on, man, do the math.

"...Touché." He took a breath, pulling his shaggy hair back with one hand. "Shit. Yeah, I'm gonna need that whiskey back."

Out of all the lines to have, after all the murdering and subterfuge, Emerald would never have guessed that Merc's limit was… underaged drinking. "Whatever, sure. I wasn't going to drink it anyway. Back to Ruby, though…"

Her attempt to steer the conversation took an unexpected swerve as Mercury asked, "Wait… isn't Cinder, like, twenty-six?"

"Her license said twenty-three," Emerald said automatically, not liking where this was going.

"...You mean her forged license?"

Silence was a friend to them both, as neither really knew what to say next to the other. Emerald really just wanted him to shut up, while Mercury most certainly wanted the opposite, and both knew it just from a glance at the other. Conversation became a standoff, each waiting for the other to back down.

In the end, Mercury caved first. "Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you. I'm not a very sympathetic person to idiots."

"Or anyone…" Emerald mumbled, but Mercury scoffed at it just the same. Silence returned, but not the friendly kind. Emerald was the one to cave that time. "So, are you going to tell me where Ruby is, or…?"

Another scoff, and another grumble, and he glared at her the whole time. But, despite his blatantly wrong opinions, he eventually relented and sent a set of directions to Emerald's scroll. Emerald meekly thanked him, but he wasn't having it. "Don't make me regret this, okay? If you get caught, you're on your own. And Cinder won't help you neither."

"So you keep saying," Emerald replied flippantly, turning away from him as she started following the twisted paths that (supposedly) led to wherever Ruby Rose was being kept prisoner.

Before she could fully turn around the bend, though, Mercury asked, "Assuming you don't do nothing stupid… we still good for another sparring match soon? You owe me one from that time you got sick. And as stuck as I have been with Tyrian this whole time, I've… I've been looking forward to it." He quickly added, "Whenever you aren't 'busy'."

Emerald didn't turn around, not really sure if seeing his face would break this rare genuine moment between them. "Sure. I… I'd like that."

And despite herself, it wasn't even a lie.

Emerald, frankly, didn't know why she expected something less fucked up. Like, sure, there were only so many ways you could make abducting some seventeen year-old brat and throwing her into a damp dungeon not creepy, but still—

Were the rusted, bloodied hooks really necessary? Or the groaning, sloshing pipes that bent and curled through the ceiling and floor? It felt part chop shop, part abandoned meet grinding plant, part whatever the fuck all the holes were for.

Why couldn't it just be cages? Simple, expected prison bars and cells slotted side by side, instead of—

"A Nightmare," Ozpin finished for her, his own former eagerness tempered by the abrasive change of scenery.

Yeah, a straight horror movie-like nightmare—

"No," Ozpin interrupted again. "I mean there is a Nightmare in that display."

Emerald tilted her head curiously. A display? Following Oz' subconscious prodding, she turned until she noticed the glass canisters built into one wall. Metal tubing branched from above and below each vat, bringing water from one end, and something black and sludge-like on the other. Behind each glass pane, suspended in murky solution, were masses of thorny protrusions wrapped around singular, blaring red eyes. Each burning retina darted towards her for a moment, before she reached out with her semblance and cut herself from their notice.

She expected to have to deal with multiple minds at once (which would hurt), but instead they all seemed… connected. Each writhing mind only a solitary dendrite clawing desperately to hold on to the rest.

"Out of all the Grimm… why this one," Ozpin mused to himself (which, unfortunately, also included Emerald). "Ever since she created its first spawn, their purpose has always baffled me."

"It's scary, it fucks with people's heads—what more do you want?" She just wanted to move on, check on Ruby, and be down with this horror-show. Even the cold, dreary halls upstairs would be preferable.

"Yet they are such ineffective killers. The 'nightmares' they design are traumatic, on that I can attest. Yet, all it takes is well placed surgery to remove them, so long as they haven't rooted too deeply. Even then, strong enough flares of concentrated Aura can kill them, even if it takes a fever dream or two to get there. So much effort for so little pay off…" He trailed off, inspecting the vat more closely. "And this device only confirms my suspicions—there is something more at play here."

Emerald winced as a flare of pain struck behind her ears, and spread through her neck. Other little spasms began to spread through her nerves as she spread herself too thin with her Aura use. Was Oz done playing detective? What happened to the "urgency" of checking on Ruby?

Taking his silence and muted mumbling as a go-ahead, she moved on. More canisters, some with Nightmares, some with just Grimm fluid—and even dust sometimes—seemed placed sporadically, but all interwoven into the same pipe system that ran through the entire underground.

Eventually, Mercury's directions came to a head, and Emerald could barely make out the dull, violet glow of a crystal on the ceiling. It illuminated another pit, something geometric carved around its circumference.

Oz, as always, figured it out first. "Glyphs…"

Emerald frowned. "Like that Schnee semblance thing?"

"No—the original glyphs, not my failed experiment in Solitas. The magic circles used during the fabled age of Old Humanity."

Uh, his failed what now?

"We'll get into that another time." Cryptic bastard. "She shouldn't be able to use the Old Magic like this… her Grimm mutation should limit her to the powers of Destruction only—"

Both Emerald and Ozpin recoiled as a ghastly moan crawled through from the hole, reverberating into fractured echoes. The sound solidified as Emerald stepped closer, red flags waving high in her mind as she peered over the ledge—

And almost puked.

Suspended halfway down the pit, raised into the air by amorphous tendrils hooked by sinew and metal chains, was what could be described as a massive, mutilated human heart. Chambers and vacuoles were pried open, letting Grimm fluid spill like blood from its many orifices, each one lined with misplaced teeth and jagged bone. But worse, illuminated by the amethyst light above, was a quivering silhouette underneath the layers of Grimm flesh and viscera. The inhabitant was made obvious by the rhythmic flash of something white and sickly flaring with each beat of the Grimm heart.

"Dear gods…" Oz said shakily. "What has she done to you, Ruby?"

As though in response, a whimper curdled from the open ventricle tubes, her words wet and raspy and in delirious pain. "Mama…" With a lurch, the Grimm heart throbbed even more, the light inside fading beneath its black veins. "I'll… be… better."

There was a long moment where Emerald just… listened to the sound of Ruby Rose clinging to life. Her choked sobbing, muffled under the membrane ensnaring her in its metamorphic web. The sudden jolt of her thrashing inside, before the muscles bit down and she went still for what felt like far too long…

But Ruby survived. Her new heart made sure of it.

"Do can… what we…" Words jumbled into their wrong positions as Emerald struggled to look away from the throbbing prison below. "What can we do?"

Oz had gone quiet, but his presence felt active, especially behind her eyes. "If I am understanding this circle correctly… nothing." He spoke with a defeated confidence, one where he wanted to be wrong so, so badly. "Whatever this is doing to her, whatever transformation Salem intends… the spell will kill her if we interrupt it. A complication that I am certain is by design," he spat, before Ruby sobbed again and the anger left his voice. "The safest option is to wait and… hope that she comes out the same."

Emerald finally found the strength to turn away, though she still cringed as the person she was supposed to hate most in the world… cried. "And if she doesn't?"

He sighed mournfully. "Then we abandon hope for mercy."

Mercy? For the silver-eyed brat?

Mercy? For the bitch who hurt Cinder so badly to begin with, who caused her months of rehabilitation?

Mercy? For the wannabe hero who randomly showed up and ruined Emerald's plans of revealing the truth to Penny?

Mercy? For—

Another spasm, another gout of something black, viscous, and wrong. So much crying it made Emerald's own eyes tear up in sympathy.

Mercy? For… for a girl.

She was just a girl. Like her. Alone and damaged and gasping in pain. Wounds scabbed over by a tense layer of Grimm, swallowed whole by her own fears and vulnerabilities…

Mercy… huh.

"How much of this is you?" Emerald asked, wiping her face dry. "Are these feelings… mine or yours?"

His response was as solemn and unsatisfying as ever. "Why can't it be both?"

Ruby's broken voice interrupted them again, wordless but audible. Emerald's skin itched at the garbled sound, the desperation so clear it clawed through the air for anyone, anyone to hear.

After a moment of collecting herself, Emerald peered over the hole again, trying not to focus too much on all the squelching movement surrounding the poor kid. An idea, sentimental and stupid came to her mind, one she almost didn't voice—

But, of course, she didn't need to. "I think that's a wonderful idea, Emerald," Ozpin said. "It's… the least we can do."

Emerald kneeled, scrunching her face as she concentrated on wherever Ruby's mind was still floating amongst that bloody abyss. Her aura connected cleanly, if a bit strained. "I, um… I don't know what her mom looks like, though."

"...I do," Ozpin said softly. "I can take over, if you'd like."

Passing him the reins of her semblance (so to speak), Oz weaved an illusion of someone clad in a white cloak and a silver pendant. The figment passed from their mind, and into Ruby's, meshing with whatever muted reality she must have been going through. At the same time, Emerald focused on what few nerves she could reach through the clot of Grimm, and overloaded Ruby's pain receptors. Hopefully, it would be a comfort…

For a little while, at least.

"Mama…" Ruby whined again, but it was harder to hear this time. "I'll… fix it."

Ozpin kept weaving more into the hallucination: flashes of a woman's smile, a hearty laugh, the smell of something sweet cooling over an oven. Even a lullaby, corny and nonsensical, seemed to do the trick. The Grimm heart became still, its pulse slower and less labored than before. Ruby Rose, wannabe-huntress, had fallen fitfully asleep.

Despite feeling bad for the twerp (because… nobody deserved this), Emerald still shook her head at how little it took to calm the caped tyke down. "Is a mom really something that magical?" With no memories of her own mother, she couldn't relate.

She could feel Ozpin frowning, even if she couldn't see it. "You're still maintaining that lie to yourself?"

Emerald frowned for real. "What lie?"

A pause. "Never mind. I suppose your ignorance is a mercy of its own."

Emerald would've pestered him more about that, but her Aura exhaustion took its toll. The hallucination filling Ruby's head started to fade, and the little reaper began to stir in her grotesque cradle—

But Emerald, the caretaker that she was, put her own needs aside and tied another knot of Aura into Ruby's dreams. Despite her own blurring vision, and a migraine brewing behind her forehead, Emerald kept the illusion of Summer Rose alive, if only for a few more minutes.

At that moment, it was the only mercy she could think of.