A/N: Welcome to My first fanfic folks, thanks for stopping by. Just a bit of a heads up but the first chapter is mostly exposition in the form on Emerald giving her testimony. Next chapter should be less dull but I wanted to get this first chapter out and test the waters. Please feel to leave constructive feedback and your thoughts on the story so far, always looking for ways to improve. Should hopefully get the next chapter out in the next coming days, hope to see you then!

A Re-cut Gem

There were many places Emerald had imagined herself being in her life, from dead in the gutter to atop an Ivory tower. The last place she would have seen herself would be in a court room watching as heads of state from across Remnant debate allowing her parole and a chance to move on from her dark past. In truth it was almost as terrifying as being in the presence of the mother of all Grimm, almost.

Turning traitor on such a person and her loyal followers had cost her dearly. It had cost her her first family, her first friend and partner... Her humanity. Emerald sighed as she looked past her silver prosthetic arms and hands to the warped obsidian black talons that were now her feet. Four long forward facing digits with a fifth extending backwards that would have ended in wickedly hooked talons if not for the constant trimming her jailers preformed on her every several days. She still awoke to the phantom pains as the Grimm parasite that bastard Watts had used on her twisted her body and mind into that of something both Grimm and human, one of the first hybrids that many were now calling 'The Shaded'.

Emerald was snapped from her darkening thoughts as she heard her name called from the Council member's bench. "Ms. Sustrai, the Council of Kingdoms have finished with Mrs. Arkos's testimony and now call upon you for your own version of what happened on the day of your defection." Emerald only nodded as she rose from her seat, stretching the cramps out of the ebony black Nevermore wings that Watts had grafted to her back as she walked to the stand she pasted Pyrrha Nikos to the stand.

The Mistralian champion had not come out from her faked death and months of experiments and 'conditioning' human either, having been subjected to the same Watt's earlier attempts at the Hybridization process. Her complexion was that of something that had not seen the light of day in years and gentle threads of red graced her limbs and body in gentle and simplistic patterns that were found on many Grimm. Poking from her hair, still done up in her signature pony tail, were several horns of bone that hugged the curves of her head, mimicking the diadem she once wore while human.

Along with several bone spikes protruding from her elbows and shoulders it could be said that she wore these inhuman additions with almost regal grace, being both beautiful and unsettling in equal measure.

As they passed Pyrrha's eyes meet the four of Emerald's the Grimm added pair being just above and slightly behind her original pair on her face. The spartan flashed her former enemy a reassuring smile and a quick thumbs up before making her way to her now husband Jaune as Emerald moved into the stand and took a seat. She shifted in discomfort as the wide back of the chair forced her fold her wings against her back with the tips hanging awkwardly over the armrests and causing her wings to frame her figure and highlight her inhuman appendages.

'A lovely way to start' Emerald gripped in her head as the representative of Atlas arched an eyebrow at the display.

"Please state your name for the record and then proceed with your account." Stated the Mistralian representative while shuffling her papers, not dignifying to meet the eyes of the defendant. Emerald bobbed her head while giving one of her practiced fake smiles. " Of course your honors, My name is Emerald Sustrai and I will do my best to recount the events of our escape."

Emerald took a breath to steady herself and briefly looked to Jaune and Pyrrha, possibly the only two people on Remnant that could relate to the experiences of being captives of Salem and her twisted minions before launching into her account. "I would think it best if I were to start at... the fall. Until that time I had unwavering faith in Cinder Fall and the plans for the future, one where she promised all would be equal and none would go hungry. To someone such as me who had lived day to day with no promise of a meal and looked down upon by those who didn't know what going hungry felt like it was as intoxicating and addicting as any drug, one I feel for all to readily."

The crude state provided prosthetics gave a hiss and whine of protest as Emerald's hands clenched as she began to dredge up memories she would rather leave dead and buried. Making eye contact with each and every representative she continued. "Until then I had told myself that every dark act, every questionable deed I had committed was in service to seeing a better world. But on that day, as I watch Beacon burn and so many innocents die and suffer... I began to see the truth behind her hollow promises and lies."

"The reality of just who I had cast my lot with became even more clear when I meet with Cinder's... allies and master, a woman I only knew as Salem, self proclaimed mother of Grimm. As you have heard from Mr and Mrs Arkos" Emerald gestured towards the two hunters sitting behind her in the gallery. "She appeared to be a Shaded, sharing many similarities with us, or more accurately us with her as she was most likely the first." This was, of course, a blatant lie, but one she had agreed to tell the council by the new wizard Oscar along with Pyrrha and Jaune.

It had been a requirement among many others that she had agreed with to secure the help from such powerful people and the large numbers of favors they had have to of called in to secure a chance for Emerald's freedom. Honestly it was most likely the only reason that Emerald was getting such a hearing at all instead of being tossed to rot in a cell the rest of her life or being outright executed. She also agreed from her personal experiences with the thought that the less the powers that be knew of the wizard and the maidens, and magic in general, the better off the world would be.

"As has been shown, some Shaded have the ability to... I hesitate to say 'control', so much as dominate and force our will onto a hand full of Grimm given several factors. Salem however, was able to control entire hordes of Grimm and seemed to prefer their company to that of humans or Faunus. To actually witness such a being made me certain that I had made a horrid choice but surrounded by such people as Cinder, Dr Watts, and Tyrian I had resigned myself to continued service of Cinder and Salem."

Emerald took a shaky breath, closing her eyes as the images of those dark days threatened to crack her composure. Upon opening her eyes she locked gazes with Pyrrha, the one ally, or so she thought, she had been able to find in the morbid spaces of Salem's fortress. "It was months after the fall before I learned of just what kind of things Dr Watts was doing in the dungeons and of who's screams and calls I heard daily. I was sent by Salem to 'assist' him with our hidden guest, Ms Nikos. When I learned of her survival and the hybridization experiments Watts was preforming I knew that I had to leave, no matter the cost."

"I was instructed to use my semblance to break and condition Pyrrha so that she would serve Salem. To that point traditional methods had yielded 'unsatisfactory' results and Salem's patience with Watts was growing thin. To that point Watts had been reluctant to enlist my aid, I suspect he might have been catching on to my growing discomfort, but fearing Salem's ire and wanting results himself relented."

"It was at this time that a plan started to form in my head, it was risky and would require sacrifice, patients, and cooperation with Pyrrha." Emerald glanced towards Pyrrha, seeing her face tighten in remembrance of the lengths the both of them had gone through. They had fully immersed themselves into the darkness, knowing full well that they would both be forced to commit acts that would never wash clean.

Emerald motioned to one of the many guards placed around her for water, accepting it with a visibly shaking hand. The intentionally crude state provided prosthetic only served to make the issue more apparent as the never signals that would have only cause slight trembles were read as erratic spasms, causing her arms and hands to twitch in an almost seizure like degree.

Emerald could only quietly curse as she unintentionally spilled half her water and barely finished what was left before crushing the glass in her grip causing several eyebrows to raise from several council members and representatives. "Ms. Sustrai." Began the representative from Vacuo in a surprisingly soft and comforting tone. "If you feel so uncomfortable, we can take a small recess for you to compose yourself and we can reconvene at a later time."

"NO." Emerald almost shouted, the whites of her eyes clouding to a obsidian black as the negative emotions coursing through her caused her Grimm nature bubble closer to the surface. Several guards tightened their grip on their weapons and several sharp breaths to be taken from the gathered councilmen and representatives before Emerald took a breath to steady herself and her eyes returned to their normal coloration. "This needs to be said, but do not mistake this a plea for forgiveness or absolution because it isn't. The choices and actions that we... I, had to do to Pyrrha, no, my friend was not because it was the easiest or least risky, but our only chance of escaping. Not a day goes by that I don't hate myself for the things I had to do."

"Over the months that were used for the preparation of the next phase of Salem's plan I had spent training and in that time I found that, given enough time and repeated exposure to my semblance that I was not only able to cause personal hallucinations but to brainwash. This was a trait that Salem and Cinder were all to willing to exploit. My first sessions with Pyrrha were... tense, to say the least as while going through the process of conditioning her mind I used this time to converse with her through the use of my semblance on any guard or watching Grimm. To use my semblance on more than one person is taxing on my mind, both physically and mentally but I was able explain my exhaustion away from the time and aura needed to fully bring Pyrrha under Salem's command."

"During this time I was able to convince Pyrrha that I wanted to break away from Salem and her insanity and that we would need to work together to have even a remote chance. I also learned during this time that Pyrrha had gained some for of connection with Ruby Rose, able to speak to her if only at a subconscious level which proved us with even better chances of success if she could strengthen this connection to communicate.

"While I would still have to brainwash her and she would have to resign herself to Salem's will, committing any atrocity that Salem commanded, I could leave Pyrrha's subconscious locked away and still active to work on the communication with Ms Rose and leave a trigger that would allow me to break the control and conditioning when needed. This however meant that Pyrrha would be a passenger and prisoner in her own body, fully aware of the acts it committed and unable to interfere in any meaningful way."

"It took longer than either of us had anticipated for Pyrrha to finally make contact Ms Rose and in that time we had both been forced to continue serving Salem to maintain cover. After contact was made we still had the problem of them coming for us which was proving an issue as only a select few where allowed to even know the location not to mention the swarms of avian Grimm that would tear anything not given clearance by Salem out of the sky."

"It was at this time that things started to wrong. Despite my attempts to keep my activities of collecting information and keeping Pyrrha from truly losing herself secret, I was discovered. Watts had always been distrustful of everyone, me more for my association with Cinder whom he considered a rival. Because of this he had been watching me through the use of some of his other 'experiments', failed attempts of creating the shade parasite that still retained some cognitive functions while I worked with Pyrrha to 'maintain' her brainwashing."

"The first I knew of my discovery was Watt's rejected experiments grabbing me and dragging be to Watt's lab to face the good doctor and Cinder fall." Emerald shivered at the memory of the twisted abominations that had barged into her room, piling onto her and dragging her roughly through the crypt like halls of Salem's home. "My partner, Mercury Black was also present and I could tell he was uneasy from his body language and forced to be present as I was made an example of."

"From there things only got worse for me as Cinder took my betrayal as a personal insult, excising her considerable power on me in both punishment and interrogation. The only thing that kept me alive was the usefulness of my semblance to Salem and Cinder's continued plans,one they planned to keep by letting Watt's trying his newest version of the Shade parasite on me."

Emerald absentmindedly ran her hands up and down her metallic arms as phantom pain surged in her arms at mere memory and caused her to grimace. "He had refined the Scarab's original power to absorb things from humans so that it could target much more specific parts of the soul, specifically memory and personality. They had reasoned even if I had became a unthinking husk I would still be able to use my semblance. He also wanted to test a 'theory' as to why shade parasites with avian based strains of Grimm tended to kill their host during the reconstruction phase of their takeover."

"He... amputated my arms, as in every case so far he had noted that when the parasite tried to warp the subjects arms into wing the massive strain this put on the body killed them, aura or no. Since the parasite cannot successfully infect a host unless their aura is not awakened or at least drained to a certain point they killed two birds by removing my arms and at the same time allowing my aura deal with the trauma instead rendering aid in keeping me alive."

"Might I ask just how you were able to learn of this information?" Asked a Atlisian scientist with interest on his face causing Emerald to click her tongue in mild disgust at the interruption. the scientist's clear lack of concern in Emerald's situation at the time caused hot anger to spike through her body, causing the whites of her eyes to cloud to pitch black once more as she answered in a clipped tone.

"If you must know it is because Watts is a talkative bastard and enjoyed nothing more than explaining just what he was doing to his patients. Just another reason that he liked keeping people awake and lucid during his 'experiments'.

There were several deep breaths from around the room from both Emerald's controlled outburst and her explanation. That Watts and indeed any who willing followed Salem had a disregard for human life but such brutal acts still managed to shock them. "I-I can't describe the feeling of having something attack you in both body and mind accurately, it is the most invasive and defiling experience I can imagine. Even while my body rebelled, feet turning talons and wings sprouting from my back the parasite attacked my mind. I... I lost parts of myself that day, I know that much but I can't remember what was lost. There are just holes where I know I should be able to recall something but can't. That I was able to retain as much of myself as I did is little short of a miracle as is the events that occurred next."

"while my transformation for lack of a better word was happening, Salem had sent Pyrrha to capture both Ms. Rose and Mr. Arc. They were apparently next on the list of subjects to be turned which is why I was being turned as well, they wanted to make sure that the next steps of their plans went as smoothly as possible. Mr. Arc was already being infected when I came to which is when my partner Mercury Black saved me."

"Was Mr. Black in league with you?" Emerald snapped from her trance like state at the question, looking at the Mistralian representative, blinking a few times before realizing they wanted an answer.

"N-no, he wasn't. In fact I had planned on having to fight him in the attempt of an escape. That he sided with me was an unexpected turn of events but one I was able to use. With his help we were able to find Ms. Rose and free her before Watts could begin his experiments on her. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for Mr. Arc as he was already in the beginning stages of the infection." Emerald glanced at the now white haired man and smiled sadly. "Thankfully even with his depleted Aura he was able to move as the infection changed him, allowing us to make or way to Pyrrha's holding area. After freeing her from the brainwashing and conditioning we made our way to the air dock and found the Bullhead they had been brought in still there. From there we were able to travel a good distance before the flocks of flying Grimm descended upon us, lead by Tryian."

"It didn't take long for those flocks of Grimm to force us into a crash landing but by then we had been able to make our way far enough to have a hope of actually finding civilization. It didn't stop Tyrian and his horde of Grimm from trying to kill us. With me and Mr. Arc out of aura due to our transformations and Ms. Rose having lost her weapon prior to being captured it was left to Mercury and Ms. Nikos to defend us."

"It didn't take long for the horde of Grimm to force us into a 'running' retreat. It was several days of our group running and hiding as Tyrian and his Grimm hunting us down. By then Mr. Arc had recovered enough to help with the fighting but was weaponless like most of us. It wasn't long after that Tyrian was able to corner us with what was left of his Grimm horde."

Emerald paused, fighting back her emotions as she recalled the next events and the friend and partner she had lost. "With me, Mr. Arc and Ms Nikos were actually able to either kill or turn the Grimm horde on themselves but this still left the threat of Tyrian. It was then that my partner, Mercury told us to run, saying he would hold Tyrian off long enough for us to hopefully get away. I... I honestly can't say what made him do this as we had always been more than a little cold to each other, nothing more than partners."

"Regardless of our past dealings he gave his own life for our escape. It took us nearly three weeks to make it to a town and by then I was suffering from infections from my less than careful amputations. It was a only thanks to Ms. Rose that me, Ms. Nikos and Mr. Arc received any treatment due to our new species or were outright killed. From there we were able to make contact with Mistral and Haven academy where I turned myself over and all the information about Salem, Cider, and the plans they had at the time."

Emerald sighed, leaning back into the chair awkwardly as she felt her wings pressed into her back. She looked towards the council members and representatives as they spoke in hushed tones before the Atlisian representative leaned forward with a face that had mixture of pity and sympathy written across it. "Quite the tale Ms. Sustrai, and I can say with certainty that the information that you provided the united kingdoms played an integral role in combating this 'Salem' and her forces. At the same time you and your role in the events that transpired at Beacon and the Vital festival caused countless deaths and injuries, not to mention the swell in Grimm attacks that still plague us."

Emerald could only wince at the tone of the representative's voice as half a dozen guards moved in on her. Without complaint Emerald held out her metallic wrists which mag-lock cuffs were secured to by one guard as another clasped her ankles in a matching pair of shackle. While this happen the representative continued to talk.

"It will take some time for use to again go over the accounts and come to agreement but a decision will be pasted down by the end of the day, of that you can be assured of. For now we will adjourn this council until a final verdict is made. Guards, please see Ms. Sustrai into the holding area for the time where she can await the verdict."

Emerald couldn't help put quietly gulp as two of the guards unceremoniously hoisted her from her seat and marched with her in their hands out of the court room with the remaining four guards walking just behind them. "I'd rather trust my luck to a coin flip." Emerald muttered as the heavy court room doors slammed shut behind her.