Greetings, my lovelies! We're here with my first commission piece in what feels like a thousand years. It's for Mackenzie Buckle, who wanted a 7-chapter Minty Gin beauty. As someone who loves poly ships, Team JNPR, and Emerald, I was more than happy to oblige.

Enjoy!

Emerald was no stranger to manipulating people. It was how she survived on the streets for as long as she did. She was, however, new to the idea of manipulating the same people for an extended period of time. Usually, she never saw any of her victims again after using her Semblance to rob them of whatever she could get her hands on. She'd just be gone, leaving little more than a memory behind.

Still, for Cinder, she would learn. She would adapt. For Cinder, she would do anything.

Cinder was the only one who had ever given her hope. She had offered Emerald a chance to not only survive, but thrive. She was going to create a world where class meant nothing and strength meant everything. She had promised that Emerald would never starve again, and Emerald believed her wholeheartedly.

She loved Cinder. She loved Cinder, even if her savior didn't feel the same way, even if she occasionally lost her temper and beat Emerald for a failure or a misspoken word. Even through the physical and mental pain, being with Cinder made everything easier, even talking to an overly-hyper, way-too-peppy student.

"So, that's why we stopped saying the V-word around Zwei," Ruby Rose finished with a smile.

Cinder chuckled softly. "Your dog sounds like quite a character."

"He is!" Ruby agreed. "I hope my dad brings him to the Festival. You guys would love him!" She looked from Cinder to Emerald. "Do either of you have pets?"

Cinder shook her head. "Unfortunately, my family doesn't have the extra money. I may get a cat in the future."

"I do like cats." Ruby smiled at Emerald. "What about you? Are you more of a cat person, or a dog person?"

"Um…" Emerald found herself stammering a bit. She honestly wasn't good with cats or dogs. They were too high maintenance. "I've always liked reptiles," she admitted, hoping that wasn't too strange.

To her relief, Ruby nodded enthusiastically. "One of my classmates at Signal had a bearded dragon. They're super smart!" She noticed something behind Emerald and Cinder, her smile growing. "Hey, guys! Come meet my new friends!" She zipped past the two and toward a team of students from Beacon that was approaching down the hallway.

Cinder took the opportunity to take Emerald's wrist, squeezing painfully for a brief moment. "You're too tense. Act more natural."

Emerald gritted her teeth at the feeling of a hard, hot palm pressing into her wrist bones, even as she felt a shameful thrill at Cinder's touch. "I'll try." The squeezing became more painful and she flinched. "I will," she corrected herself.

"Good." Cinder smoothly let go, her face somehow maintaining its calm smile the whole time.

Emerald stood up straight as Ruby returned with the four other students. She barely resisted the urge to hold her hurt wrist.

"Emerald, Cinder, this is Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren! They're Team JNPR."

Cinder inclined her head. "A pleasure to meet you. I'm Cinder, and this is Emerald. We're from Team CNEM."

"It's nice to meet you too!" the taller, red-haired girl said. Emerald recognized her as the famous Pyrrha Nikos.

The smaller ginger girl, Nora, giggled. "Team Cinnamon? That's so much cooler than Juniper! I mean, Ren makes great cinnamon roll pancakes, so I'm kinda biased. I'm not sure if you can even eat juniper berries."

"You actually can," the black-haired boy, Ren, commented. "They're used as a seasoning and are a key ingredient in gin."

Nora rolled her eyes. "None of those sound like they can go in pancakes."

"Some places sell maple syrup that was kept in whiskey aging casks," Emerald piped up. "Not sure if they do the same for gin, though."

Nora's eyes widened. "Wait, that's a thing?! How does it taste?"

Emerald shrugged. "Not sure. I just heard about it."

"Ren, we have to get that!" Nora insisted.

"No way!" the blond boy, Jaune, cut in. "Not after what happened to our dorm room last week. You were a literal hurricane going through there!"

Nora folded her arms with a huff. "You're exaggerating."

"I'm sorry, but he really isn't," Pyrrha said, giving her teammate a look that somehow held both exasperation and deep fondness. She smiled at Emerald, Cinder, and Ruby. "If you'll excuse us, we actually have class in a few minutes with Professor Goodwitch."

"Yikes! You don't want to be late for that," Ruby commented.

"Nice meeting you," Jaune called, waving as he led his team away.

Emerald noticed Ren glancing at Cinder, noticed the way his eyes briefly narrowed when he looked at her. She looked at Cinder, wondering if her leader had seen that brief glance, but Cinder's expression, as usual, gave nothing away.

A few days later, the team was having a meeting in their dorm room. Neo, as usual, was absent. No one really cared, honestly. She was just there to fill in the last slot for their team. Besides, she was a lacky to that stupid Roman, who Cinder hoped to arrange an accident for once he stopped being useful. There was no point in getting attached.

Emerald felt a little nervous about that. What if Cinder suddenly decided that she or Mercury weren't useful?

Mercury was recounting a recent sparring class, where Pyrrha Nikos had defeated her opponent within minutes. She would apparently be fighting an entire team later on. "I'll see about fighting her too," he said. "See if I can figure out her Semblance."

"Good idea," Cinder said, giving Mercury a smile. "Emerald, why don't you make friends with this Pyrrha woman, and the rest of her team while you're at it. See if we can get some use out of any of the others."

"Of course, Cinder," Emerald replied. She was getting better at interacting casually with people. That hyperactive Ruby was actually good practice, as she was mostly oblivious whenever Emerald slipped up.

Already, she was figuring out the best way to introduce herself to this new team of idiots. Even if it seemed trivial, the fact that Cinder thought it was important just proved how shortsighted Emerald was compared to her. Cinder knew best, and Emerald would do exactly as she was told.

Her chance came the following day, after a sparring class where Ren won against a much larger and heavier opponent with his duel pistol/daggers. She approached the team and greeted Ren. "Hey. That was a pretty cool move you did at the end." She felt a small measure of caution when talking to him, remembering the look he had given Cinder earlier.

Ren's response was a very genuine-looking smile. "Thank you. I noticed that our weapons are somewhat similar."

"Dual guns for the win!" Emerald grinned. "The kama add a bit of extra flare for me."

"Nothing wrong with flare!" Jaune assured her. "That's why I'm perfecting some sweet attack names for the tournament."

The other three groaned.

"Ugh, Jaune! When will you just settle on a few names? You change them every other session," Nora grumbled.

"It does make things a bit confusing," Pyrrha noted.

Emerald noticed a slight hesitance on Pyrrha's part to criticize her leader and filed that information away for later. "What kinds of attack names?"

"Okay, so," Jaune began eagerly. "I was thinking Golden Hammer for Pyrrha and Nora, since Pyrrha's weapon is gold-colored, and Nora's is a hammer."

A group of invisible, metaphorical crickets chirped.

"No," Nora said. "That's…not even kind of good."

Jaune pouted. "Hey, I'm trying!"

Emerald found herself letting out a small laugh, an involuntary one, at Jaune's hilariously-exaggerated, wounded expression. Wait, where did that come from? Should I have laughed? Before she could panic too much, Nora joined her laughter and elbowed Jaune.

"See? Told you. Try a better name and talk to us again later."

"My ribs…" Jaune groaned.

Pyrrha shook her head, that fond/exasperated expression back on her face. "Be careful, Nora. We don't want Jaune injured for the dance, do we?"

"No way!" Jaune said. "I gotta be ready to show Weiss my moves." He flashed a grin and winked.

Emerald saw a brief look of sadness dart across Pyrrha's face, and immediately realized what was happening with those two. Stupid school crushes. I can't wait for this part of the plan to be over.

Out loud, she said: "So, I saw that they're setting up for extra sparring sessions throughout the school. I was wondering if you guys were looking for new sparring buddies."

"That sounds grand!" Pyrrha said enthusiastically.

"Ooh, yeah! That'll help us get more practice for the tournament!" Nora commented.

"Would you like to exchange Scroll numbers?" Ren asked.

"Sure!" Emerald was surprised at how purely easy this was.

Then again, these guys probably never spent a day on the streets, she reasoned. Most of these Hunters grew up in cushy houses with fancy weapons their daddies bought. None of them know what true fear or danger are. They have no reason to be suspicious.

Her thoughts were spiteful, though she couldn't help but feel a touch of envy. How nice would it be to not be afraid of everyone, to not question everyone's motives? Sure, it's an attitude that sets one up to be screwed over, but isn't ignorance bliss?

Emerald couldn't let herself think too much about it. She had a mission to carry out, and she just got one step closer to getting more crucial information for Cinder.

Maybe, just maybe, Cinder would smile at her for her success this time.

…

"So, what do you think about Emerald?" Jaune asked later on in the Team JNPR dorm room. It had become a sort of ritual to talk about the new students they met at the end of each day, comparing notes on how they would fare as friends, sparring partners, and opponents in the tournament.

"She seems a bit nervous," Pyrrha commented. "She tries really hard to hide it, though. I have a feeling that she had to work up the courage to talk to us."

"I like her," Nora said. "She's nice. What about you, Ren?"

"I like Emerald just fine," Ren muttered, thinking back to a few days ago. "But, I'm not so sure about Cinder."

The others turned to look at him, confusion written on their faces. "Why don't you like Cinder, Ren?" Nora asked. She hadn't seen anything wrong about Team CNEM's leader, but she also knew that Ren was better at picking up things that most people missed.

"Remember when we first saw them?" Ren asked. "While Ruby was talking to us, I happened to glance at the two. I saw Cinder holding Emerald's wrist really tightly. There was a look in her eyes as she said something to her, a look I didn't particularly like. It was almost angry, even though there was a smile on her face. Today, I noticed that Emerald has a bruise there, and a few more on her arms."

Jaune's expression immediately darkened. "You think Cinder's bullying her teammate?"

"Let's break her legs!" Nora immediately declared.

"Hold it, Nora," Pyrrha cautioned. "We don't know the full story yet." She looked at Ren. "Ren, do you really think Cinder is hurting Emerald on purpose, or could the bruises perhaps be from sparring?"

"I'm not sure," Ren admitted. "I just know what I saw. I don't know if I misinterpreted it. I wouldn't have even noticed the bruise on her wrist if it wasn't for the look Cinder had that one time. I could be totally off."

"Maybe we should just keep our eyes open for now," Jaune suggested. "I mean, we're going to be hanging out with Emerald, so we'll probably get a chance to figure out what's going on one way or another, right?"

"But, if we get one hundred percent proof that Cinder's a bully," Nora continued. "Then, we break legs?"

"No, Nora," Ren said. "If we let you break her legs, we'll have to turn you loose on Team CRDL too."

"I see no negatives to this plan."

Ren gently ruffled her hair. "You can't just break the legs of every person who causes trouble."

Nora blushed, giving Ren an innocent smile. "But it would make the world a much nicer place. I'm just trying to do my duty as a Huntress."

"No, Nora," Ren said, his voice soft and kind.

Pyrrha and Jaune watched the two, exchanging a brief look of "Oh my god, they are so oblivious," before taking out their study materials for the night.

….

A cold wind blew through the filthy alleyway, disturbing the newspapers Emerald had used to cover herself. She trembled, curling herself in even tighter, alternating between focusing on the numbing of her fingers and toes, and the emptiness of her stomach. If she focused on one for too long, she would start crying, and she was already dehydrated enough.

She had gotten only a few coins that day from passing strangers. Most of the people who walked by ignored her, looking away as if the sight of a hungry kid made them too uncomfortable.

Well, sorry if my suffering makes you feel queasy, Emerald would often find herself thinking. She didn't let her emotions show on her face, though. It was the nice and happy or pitiful and sad homeless people who got coins, not the cranky ones.

The coins were cold in her pocket, making burning, freezing circles on her skin through the threadbare cloth. She hadn't spent them, since there wasn't enough to make a single Lien. She couldn't even buy a stale hotdog with that little.

The wind blew her newspapers away, and she stood up. There would be no sleeping tonight, so she'd might as well walk around to get the blood flowing. She'd have to be careful, of course. If a lustful man on the prowl noticed her, she was in trouble. There were only a handful of places to hide, and very few people who would offer her help at this time of night, or any time of day.

She stepped out of the alley and walked down the street, hands in her pockets, glancing around nervously as the chill wind made her shake. The frost-coated streets were deserted. As she walked, she found herself looking at the stars, which somehow looked even colder and more pitiless than the ice on the ground.

Then, she smelled something. Something warm. Something edible. Immediately, she ducked around a corner, starting toward the source of the smell: a dumpster that sat behind a restaurant. It smelled like bread, leftover meats, and so many other things that-

Emerald stopped when another scent intermingled with the food smells: bleach. Bleach that the shopkeepers had poured on their garbage, specifically so that the food would then be poison to anyone who tried to eat it. These yuppies were so high and mighty, even their garbage was too good for someone like Emerald.

Bile rose in her throat and tears welled up in her eyes at the sheer injustice of it all, and she turned to leave. Just as she neared the end of the alley, she saw a man walking by. He wore decent clothes and walked with purpose, as if he had somewhere to be. He wasn't like her, which meant he had money.

It had been a long time since Emerald last tried to pickpocket someone, but she was desperate. She fell into step behind the guy, staying close to the walls. She focused on him with everything she had, hoping that he wouldn't see her. She got closer.

Please, don't see me, she silently begged. I'm invisible. I'm not even here. No one is reaching into your pocket right now.

To her astonishment, the man kept walking. There was a moment when he turned his head, but it was like he was looking directly through Emerald. That was weird. Homeless people were often ignored, but they weren't invisible, especially if they were "too close" to someone.

Yet, this man didn't seem to realize she was there. So, with her eyes still fixed on his face, Emerald slid her hand into his pocket, withdrew his wallet, and backed away.

She was just walking down the sidewalk when another voice shouted "Hey! Stop, thief!"

Immediately, she ran. She turned into an alleyway, the voice following her. She noticed a weird glow around her. Her Aura? Why was it activating now? It didn't matter. All she could do was run away and clutch the wallet for dear life. She reached the end of the alley and collapsed, suddenly exhausted. Everything started to go black

Emerald sat bolt upright as she woke up, gasping for breath. It took a moment for her adrenaline to settle, for her to realize that she wasn't in a cold, dirty alleyway, but a warm, soft bed in Beacon.

"Pipe down over there," Mercury's muzzy voice called from his bed. "We're trying to sleep."

Emerald bit her lip, carefully sliding the covers off of her and stepping outside. She wrapped her arms around herself, taking deep breaths.

It was normal for her to have dreams of her earlier days. Tonight, for some reason, she had dreamed about the night she had first discovered her Semblance. That had been a good, but scary night that had ended with her fainting due to using so much energy while literally starving.

After that night, she had honed her abilities, learning when to use them and when not to. She always used her Semblance for big thefts, like jewels or money. Using it to just steal food did no good, as the energy required usually burned up what food she managed to steal.

The dreams scared her because of how real they were. She didn't want to return to that life. She didn't want to see another dumpster filled with bleach, another uncaring yuppy tossing pennies to the ground at her feet, another piece of moldy bread again.

That was why she was here. She was fighting for a better life for herself. She had weapons. She had a purpose. She had Cinder telling her exactly what she needed to do and how she needed to do it.

It didn't matter that there was no one to hug her when she had her nightmares. It didn't matter how scared she was now. One day soon, she would finally be free of her past. She would be one of the people who brought new order to the world. She would sleep in a bed, eat full meals, and fight for something other than a half-full stomach and a handful of coins for the rest of her life.

For that, Emerald would do absolutely anything.

I have several headcanons concerning Emerald's backstory and why she's the way she is. There's a lot of bitterness and mistrust in her character, along with an unhealthy attachment to Cinder, as we especially saw in Volume 5. However, there's also a definite sense of hesitance and regret when it comes to the rest of what she signed up for, such as the Fall of Beacon and Salem in general. I feel that, out of all the villains, she's the most likely to be redeemed later on. Stay tuned for lots of character bonding in the upcoming chapters!

In case it wasn't clear, I'm open for commissions. Three open slots are left. Message me for details.

If you like what you see and want to show extra support while earning sweet rewards, my P/atreon is Solora Goldsun.

Peace out!