Chapter Text
Emerald wasn’t exactly sure where Cinder had gone, but it didn’t bother her. Not one bit.
“Cool it with the pacing,” Mercury complained. “She’ll be back soon.”
“Whatever,” Emerald muttered, sending a glare Mercury’s way as she plopped herself on the couch across from him. She pulled out her scroll to see what was happening on the news. Maybe they would have some information on what Cinder was doing…
“Emerald, you kicking your feet like that is not any better,” Mercury whined. “If you’re that restless, go take a walk or something. Steal some dust, maybe.”
Emerald gave Mercury a heated stare for several seconds before slowly standing, not looking away from Mercury as she walked out the room.
Emerald hated to give Mercury credit, but he did have the right idea. Begrudgingly, she decided that going for a walk outside was her best bet for feeling a bit better about what was going on. It would help her keep her mind off how Cinder was once again hiding things from her, and how much it stung to be kept out of the loop, and how no matter how loyal Emerald was-
Emerald shook her head. She shouldn’t be thinking like that. Cinder saved her. Cinder gave her everything. Emerald owed her this.
Emerald walked through the streets of Vale. They weren’t particularly busy, but they certainly weren’t empty. She preferred to steal when there were less people around, so she might hold off from doing anything more than snatching a handful of dust crystals from an unsuspecting shop owner.
She walked for several minutes, keeping an eye out for a store she could swipe something from, when she spotted an antique shop. There was nothing in there that was particularly eye catching, but she found herself drawn in anyway…
Strange. Emerald cautiously approached the door. The shop appeared to be open, with an older man sitting behind the desk…
She pushed the door open, wincing at the loud creaking noise.
“Hello, welcome,” the man greeted, his voice shaky with age. “I have all sorts of treasures that might interest you.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Emerald said dismissively, glancing around. What had possessed her to want to come in here?
Emerald was about to turn to leave when something caught her eye. A jeweled necklace, specifically.
She walked up to the necklace, looking over it carefully. It wasn’t particularly flashy, the biggest jewel being an emerald only slightly bigger than her thumbnail. The central gem was surrounded by a circle of tiny sapphires, all held together by a gold plate and strung on a thin gold chain.
“Is that necklace something you fancy, dear?” the old man behind the counter called.
“Maybe,” Emerald said cautiously.
“Why don’t you bring it over here, sweetheart?”
Emerald carefully wrapped her fingers around the pendant, lifting it off the hook it had been hanging from. She approached the desk of the shopkeeper, holding it out to him.
“This one for you?” the man said, a glint in his eye. “Tell you what, young lady, why don’t you just take it? No need to pay for anything, a gift from you to me.”
Emerald’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re just letting me have this for free?”
“I think it’ll do you more good than it could ever do me,” the man told her. “And something tells me you had no intention of paying for it anyway.”
Emerald tensed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I was like you once,” the older man said simply, giving her a smile with a twinkle in his eye. “Have a lovely day, young miss.”
“Thank you,” Emerald said, keeping uncertainty out of her voice as she turned to walk out of the shop. She glanced over her shoulder at the man behind the counter one last time as she opened the creaky door and saw him smiling warmly at her.
She left as quickly as possible after that.
By the time Emerald made it back to the apartment she was crashing at with Mercury and Cinder, the gems in the necklace Emerald was clutching had dug indents in her palm from how tightly she was clutching it. She walked right past Mercury, brushing off his attempts to say hi to her and retreating right into her room, locking the door behind her. She knew it wouldn’t keep him out if he really wanted in, just like she could get right past his door lock, but the locked doors were their way of telling each other that they needed to be left alone for now, and Mercury was going to respect that.
Emerald sat on her bed, staring at the necklace in her hands. She didn’t understand why this felt like such a big deal, why this necklace felt so oddly heavy and yet light.
A breath in.
A breath out.
Clasp.
The necklace sat around Emerald’s neck.
A moment of silence as Emerald’s breath caught in her chest.
“What the fuck?”
Emerald startled so hard she toppled off her bed, thudding on the ground as a foreign feminine voice pierced through her thoughts.
“What the- what the fuck is this? Where am I? Who are you? Are we in hell?”
“Hell- what? No, we’re in Vale- what- get out of my head!” Emerald quickly yanked the necklace off her neck, throwing it across the room.
“I don’t know what you did to get me in here, but that did not get me out,” the voice in her head said, sounding freaked out. “Vale?? Where the fuck is that?”
“You know, between Vacuo and Mistral, below Atlas- How do you not know where Vale is?” Emerald demanded.
“...Are we in fucking RWBY?” the voice cried, sounding absolutely devastated.
“Are we- no, we’re not in a ruby, we’re on Remnant, what the hell are you talking about?”
“No, the show RWBY, R-W-B-Y, and- hold on, are you Emerald Sustrai?”
Emerald tensed all her muscles. “How do you know my name?”
“Oh, fucking hell- where are you at in the timeline?” the voice demanded.
“I don’t understand why I should tell you anything about what we’re doing until you tell me who you are, where you are from, and what you want,” Emerald snapped.
“You know what? Fair enough,” the voice conceded. “My name is Sapphire.”
“Sapphire. Like the gems on the necklace,” Emerald said, looking at where she’d thrown it to.
“What- oh, right, the necklace you were wearing when I got shoved into your brain.”
“You mean you weren’t in the necklace before?” Emerald asked warily.
“Huh? No, had you just put that thing on when I got here?”
“Yeah, something about putting it on must have triggered it, but you weren’t in the necklace before?”
“No, I wasn’t,” Sapphire insisted. “Or if I was, I wasn’t awake for it. And I’m from Earth.”
“Where the hell is Earth, Vacuo?” Emerald questioned, racking her brain. It didn’t sound familiar to her, but it wasn’t like she was the most book-smart person out there.
“I’m from a different universe, Emerald,” Sapphire stated as if it were the most obvious thing on the planet.
“Excuse me?”
Sapphire sighed deeply. “Where I’m from, you are a character in a television show called RWBY. You’re a villain in the show. Which means I’m a villain now. Great.”
“I’m in a TV show in another world,” Emerald said disbelievingly. “And I’m supposed to believe you because…”
“Well, I already knew your name, Emerald Sustrai. You work with Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, Roman Torchwick-”
“Who the hell is Roman Torchwick?” Emerald demanded.
“Oh, so we’re really early on if you don’t know who Roman is yet,” Sapphire mused.
“What does that mean?!”
“Maybe even pre-episode 1, though of course we don’t see a ton of you until season 2…”
Emerald cleared her throat. “Sapphire.”
“Yes?”
“Whose side are you on?” Emerald asked.
“Yours,” Sapphire said instantly.
Emerald tried to shove down the instant rush of strange happiness that welled up inside her at hearing someone jump to her side so quickly. Judging from Sapphire’s giggle, she was not successful.
“...So, what are some things I should know about my future?”
“Well, I have no idea if what I know is going to be accurate, given how long it’s been since I watched the show plus there might be other people out there like me influencing things and who knows if the show is even accurate to what is actually going to happen anyway-”
“Sapphire. Do you know anything?”
Sapphire groaned. “I mean, kind of? I remember major plot points. You sneak into the Vytal festival, Beacon falls-”
“You mean we successfully take down Beacon?” Emerald asked, a thrill in her voice.
“In the show, yeah,” Sapphire said, “But again, no clue if that’s accurate to this world or not. You lose at Haven, there was a lot of chaos in Atlas where a lot of the people ended up in Vacuo, there were another couple of seasons I didn’t watch… Roman Torchwick died during the Fall of Beacon but again, you don’t know who that is… Do you know Pyrrha Nikos? Oh, have you attacked the Fall Maiden?”
“Yeah, Cinder has half her power. Pyrrha Nikos… name sounds familiar, but I don’t know from where.”
“Yeah, she’s a student at Beacon. Cinder murders her,” Sapphire said with contempt in her voice.
“Hey,” Emerald said sharply. “If Cinder killed her, then she had to have had a good reason for it. We can’t have people getting in our way, after all.”
“Right,” Sapphire agreed, a bitter edge to her voice.
Emerald tensed her shoulders. “Hey, I thought you said you were on my side.”
“I am on your side, but that doesn’t mean I’m on Cinder’s,” Sapphire insisted.
Emerald rolled her eyes. “If you’re on my side, you’re on Cinder’s side, because we’re on the same side.”
A wave of uncertainty flooded Emerald, and she could tell that Sapphire was holding something back from her. “Emerald…”
“What?! I can tell you’re holding something back,” Emerald demanded.
“You might be on Cinder’s side, but she’s not on yours,” Sapphire said plainly. “With how she treats you-”
“She treats me fine!” Emerald snapped. “You don’t know me! You barely know anything about this world, and you know jack shit about my relationship with Cinder! It’s none of your business, so stay out of it!”
“...Okay,” Sapphire conceded. “For now, at least.”
“Fine.” Emerald stood to stride out of the room, hesitating as she saw the necklace.
She walked out of the room with the clasp fastened around her neck and the unfamiliar weight of the pendent on her chest.
—
Cinder arrived later that night.
“We’re going to be working with Roman Torchwick-” -Emerald felt a satisfied ping from Sapphire as the name they’d previously dropped was announced- “-to get our hands on more Dust,” Cinder told Emerald and Mercury. “I’ll be going out later tonight to help him with an operation, and I expect you two to stay here and wait for me. No leaving the apartment this time,” she added, shooting a glare at Emerald.
“Hey, now, I was the one who kicked her out for pacing up a storm,” Mercury drawled. “She gets anxious when you’re not here to baby-”
“I do not!” Emerald snapped, glaring daggers at Mercury.
“Oh really? Then why all the nervous energy? Does it-”
“That’s enough from both of you,” Cinder cut in, looking unimpressed. “You two are some of my strongest allies, and I need to make sure you are kept out of sight for now. I don’t want to risk you being seen, so you will not be coming with me.”
“But I could help you-”
“Emerald,” Cinder said, “When I need your help, you will be told what to do. But I don’t need you right now, so you will stay here in this apartment. Understood?”
Emerald bowed her head. “Yes, Cinder.”
Cinder walked out of the room, and Mercury looked amused. “Do you think we should sneak out to spite her and see if she notices?”
“Cinder told us to stay here, so we will stay here,” Emerald stated. “If you leave, I will tell her you left and leave you to deal with the consequences.”
“Geeze, Em,” Mercury said, raising his hands in surrender. “Okay, I won’t be leaving.”
“Good.” Emerald retreated to her room once again.
“...She doesn’t treat you kindly.”
“Shut up.” Emerald pushed the new voice out of her head as she changed into pajamas and climbed into bed.
Emerald forced the unease away as she drifted off to sleep.
Cinder cared about her, she knew she did.