Suggestion

"Jesus, Arthur…" Emerald could hear a woman's voice nearby, her eyes weakly flickering open but quickly shutting as she felt an intense headache that kept her down.

"I know, I went to far…" a boys voice followed the woman's, this one familiar to her, her mind was hazy, the last memory she had before she blackout being a haze to her.

"To far!? TO FAR!? No shit!" the woman's voice sounded infuriated with the boy

Slowly Emerald's headache began to disappear, not entirely but enough so that she could push herself up and let her eyes flicker open as she grabbed the side of her head, to calm the pounding in it while also letting out a groan.

"She's awake" the woman said, "Help her Arthur, after what you did it's the least she deserves" the woman's voice disappeared with the sound of a book slamming shut.

"I was intending to…" the boy muttered, and walked up to Emerald who's unsteady eyes looked to him, slight recollection in them, yet her headache preventing her from putting a name to his face.

"Hi" he said as he kneeled next to the bed she was laying on, Emerald unable to remember when she had gotten to a bed.

"How are you doing?" the boy asked her, a worried expression on his face.

"Apart from feeling like someone's taken a shiv to my brain, perfect" She mumbled and looked around the room, the floor was a white laminate, with the walls a light gray, the bed she was on had black linen and pillows.

On one side of the room she could see a door leading to the bathroom as well as a cloudy glass window, "Where am I?" she asked, her head letting out a small burst of pain, "And what the hell happened?"

"We are, um, in a 'hotel'" The boy coughed into his hand, "I brought you here after you blacked out" he answered her.

"Yeah… and I'm sure you brought me to a hotel like this out of the kindness of your heart" she grumbled, knowing full well what the glassy window in a hotel room meant.

"Well, I didn't exactly have a choice, it was awkward enough carrying you here, I was expecting some cop to just tackle me at any moment for kidnapping you, and I tried the other hotels… they weren't to enthused by the guy carrying an unconscious girl into their lobby" he told her, knowing full well how bad this looked.

After she was done with her inspection of the room she turned her gaze the the white haired and eyed boy, trying to remember who he was, "Who are you… you look familiar" she mumbled, her face scrunching up as she collapsed to the side another wave of pain shooting through her head, ending up caught by the boy.

"Thank you" she said, a small, non-committal smile on her face as she sat up with the help of the boy.

"No problem" the boy responded, Emerald noticing that his expression turned sour when she asked him who he was, most likely meaning he hadn't expected the question or her slight amnesia.

"It's Arthur, do you want anything to eat or drink, it should help… hopefully" he asked her, his voice evidently guilty at something, 'was he the reason for this headache?' she questioned herself.

"Actually… that would be great" she said, getting a small nod from Arthur who turned around and walked over to a small fridge in the wall, Emerald staring at his back with a light squint, she hadn't actually had a headache when she fell onto Arthur, that was instead her way of misdirecting Arthur as she tried to pickpocket him for his wallet or scrolls, hoping to get a better idea of who or maybe what happened to her, yet he didn't have anything on him except for this book in a satchel on his hip.

Looking around the room again to see if he might have placed them down somewhere else, she still didn't see anything, only seeing her own scroll on the night stand next to her, quickly grabbing it from the night stand Emerald pushed it under the covers as Arthur turned around, carrying a bottle of water and what looked to be cream puff.

Arthur handed them to her her and asked, "You remember anything?" worry in his voice.

"Yes, but It's all hazy" Arthur sighed in relief, as she picked up the plate and bottle, resting the plate on her lap while she opened the bottle and began to drink.

"Good, at least it doesn't seem permanent"

Taking a bite from the cream puff Emerald asked, "So what exactly happened? I feel like I had a nightmare" she mumbled as she ate.

"That is… I sort of went a bit to far" he seemed to really regret what he did as he gave her a small nod in apology, "I was frustrated, and I ended up taking them out on you and I went a little…" he paused, "I went way to far"

Emerald already had an idea that he was the one who cause this headache of hers, and it honestly really pissed her off, "It's okay" she said after a few seconds and a small sigh, "you seem really kind so far, so whatever was frustrating you must have been really bad… just please, don't use me as your 'punching bag' again…" a cruel smile formed on her lips as an idea came to her, "But I do know someone else you could use" that of a certain grey haired boy.

"I actually don't think I'll do anything like that to anyone again, it was just cruel" he shook his head and sighed.

"You're figuring that out now after causing a girl to lose her memories?" her voice went blunt.

"As I said, it was cruel" Emerald flinched once again as she felt the headache dying away, bringing flashes of images to her, one of them being of a wooden version of her hanging over a pit with Mercury cutting the strings holding her and Cinder staring down at her like she was nothing.

Her eyes began to tremble as she dropped her water bottle, her hands going to her head as the flood of memories assaulted her creating a new headache in their place. Arthur quickly picked up the bottle before more water could spill onto the bed, and moved to Emerald's side, realizing that everything he had done was coming back to her.

Her memories returned piece by piece, each one causing her stomach to drop further and further with each one, until it got to the point she unconsciously began to feel tears streaking down her cheeks, "Stop it… no… she wouldn't do that" she mumbled as her nails began to dig into her temples.

And it just seemed to get worse the longer it went on, "No, shut up, you're… you're not Cinder!" she shouted in her delirium, her words sounding fake even to herself, "I-I'm not a disappointment! Just -just give me another chance…" her nails dug even deeper into her skin.

Arthur decided this wa enough as he stood up and placed his leg atop the bed and pulled her hands away from her head, which now had numerous small indentations from her nails, pushing her hands against the wall to keep her restrained he began to speak to her, "Emerald, look at me" he said softly, Emerald being to delirious from the sudden surge of memories, making his words seem like whispers to her.

"Look at me" he said softly once again, and continued to repeat this, each time Emerald's mumbling began to quieten down and her eyes regaining some clarity but were still hazy, her unfocused eyes barely able to look at Arthur's face as they seemed to lose their colour and lost their shine.

"Emerald?" Arthur asked, concerned at this state she had gone into as it resembled something he was very familiar with himself, catatonia.

Releasing her hands, he watched as they limply fell onto the bed, "Can you hear me?", Emerald remained unmoving for a few seconds before giving a small, weak nod.

"Are you okay?" she didn't move as she stared unblinkingly at him, she didn't even react when he waved his hand in front of her face.

"Something's off about this" he muttered, feeling that, yes this resembled his catatonia but it felt different somehow.

An idea formed as he quickly said, "Emerald, raise your right arm" and she did, her right arm raised up and remained held at a ninety degree angle until Arthur said, "Let your arm down", with a weak voice.

Falling back into his own chair he realized exactly what was happening, "Suggestion…" he muttered, remembering his new ability which made his words more likely to affect someone's actions or behaviour, which essentially meant, he could hypnotize people.

And the state Emerald was in right now would be the best moment to make 'suggestions' that could possibly change the very person that Emerald currently was, maybe even permanently if his suggestions were potent enough.

"I can't do that" he muttered, trying to figure out what to do with the now vulnerable Emerald who had entered a trance, giving her another look, Arthur sucked in a deep breath and once again sat on the bed in front of her.

"Emerald, look into my eyes" and she did, "Emerald, think for yourself, you do not have to please Cinder, if you want to, then continue to do it" he suggested.

"When you wake up, contact her and tell her you were unable to capture me and that you were interrupted by Qrow Branwen, the man who stopped her from taking the maidens powers completely" he grit his teeth as he thought of Ceres and her cracked body, which was the next thing on his plate that he really needed to deal with.

"But say you were able to use your semblance to stop him from seeing your face or appearance, but not me, do not mention anything about me knowing about her or Mercury, and that I only know your appearance, but not you're name"

Emerald still blankly stared at him, sighing he continued, "When you wake up, the things you saw in the illusion will seem like a really bad dream, think about it, try to learn from the dream"

"Nod if you understood everything I said"

Once again after a few seconds Emerald weakly nodded. Getting off the bed Arthur broke from her eye line, "Get comfortable in the bed ready to sleep, but do not fall asleep", she slowly pulled the blanket over herself and rested her head on the pillow, resting on her side, her eyes still open.

"When you hear the door shut, you will awaken and forget about our encounter in this room, you came here to hide from Qrow Branwen, now close your eyes" seeing her eyes shut Arthur walked to the door and exited the room, pulling the door shut with enough force that Emerald could hear it.

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Emerald's eyes flickered open, her body shivering as she recalled the nightmare she had just had, "Calm now Emerald" she muttered to herself and looked around the room she had gotten to keep low from the irritating Branwen that kept getting in the way.

Letting out a sigh of relief as she didn't see anything out of place, throwing the blanket off herself she threw her legs off it, hearing a small thud as her Scroll fell onto the floor, rolling her eyes she leaned down and picked it up, placing it on the night stand next to the plate which had some remnants of cream puff on it, as well as a mostly empty water bottle.

Getting up she walked to the small fridge to get a new bottle and another cream puff, yet confusion on her face as when she opened it she didn't see even the packaging for them, only a few small alcohol bottles and water bottles, on top of the fridge was a small menu card where she could order food, but otherwise there was nothing in the room.

"Strange…" she mumbled and picked up the bottle, opening it and downing half of the water at once as she walked back to the bed, placing the bottle on the night stand and picking up her scroll, quickly dialling Cinder to inform her of what happened, yet she hesitated for a moment just as her finger hovered over the call button.

Squinting at this Emerald berated herself for hesitating and pushed the button, letting it ring for a few seconds before Cinder picked up, [Emerald, what is it? Did you finally get the boy?]

"N-no, I was close" she replied, nervousness in her voice at how she would react.

['Close' is not good enough]

Emerald felt annoyed at Cinder's tone, which for her was a strange feeling, "Yeah, well I had a problem" she said, not bothering to hide the irritancy in her voice, "Qrow Branwen is in Vale, he stopped me before I could pick the boy up"

The line went silent, [Are you sure?]

"Yeah, same scythe and stinks like alcohol" She answered.

[Did he see you?]

"No, I was able to hide myself from him, but Arthur, he saw my face, he doesn't know my name though, or anything about you or Mercury"

[Good… Good, where are you now?]

"In a hotel, laying low for a bit"

[Get back here soon and lay low, I'll get someone else to get the boy] Cinder said.

"But I can…!" Emerald wanted to retort but her voice died off at the last moment, "Fine… I'll be there in two days" she said through grit teeth as Cinder hung up, "Goddammit!" she shouted and threw her scroll against the backboard of the bed.

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Alternate Chapter names: [Hypnotism] [This chapter is very suggestive]

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