Disclaimer: For the purposes of this story I have given Sapphire's father a semblance that allows him to freeze people in time. As I have not fully ironed out the character of Janus Rode everything presented in this story regarding his character is subject to change.
 
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[center][i]The wrong thing done for the right reason is still the wrong thing. 
- Phoebe Halliwell[/i][/center]
[YouTube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlWRiZo7T4I[/YouTube]
Sapphire starred at her reflection in the dull mirror. In the ten years since graduating Beacon she'd changed a lot. She was a bit taller and her muscles stronger, her figure more toned but the most notable difference was in her face. She looked lost, she had deep bags around her eyes which seemed to have sunken into her skull. Her face was thinner as though she hadn't eaten in a long time and she looked as though she hadn't slept in weeks. Her hair had been cut short but in dim light it looked more black than blue.

Sapphire's usual clothes were also gone along with the bracelets that used to hold her most treasured weapons. Now she wore a rather unflattering burgundy jumpsuit with the number 24601 stitched over her left breast. She had a brown studded collar wrapped around her neck. Its purpose was simple, to deliver an electric shock if her aura activated.

Sapphire looked deep into her opposing image standing in the mirror. She could remember what she'd done to land herself here in the most vivid of details. She'd been so angry, filled with righteous fury that she hadn't cared about the consequences, about who saw what happened. All she had cared about was that [i]that[/i] man paid for what he'd done. She'd cornered him outside his home building. She'd reached up to his temples her hands open and outstretched. Blue light shot between her hands solidifying her power over him. Sapphire's semblance had grown in leaps and bounds over the last ten years, instead of merely altering herself out of the realm of conscious perception now she could actively take control of everything that a person could hear, see, smell, touch and even taste. Of course creating an absolute illusion like she was about to required unwavering focus and contact, both of which she now had.

Sapphire could remember what she'd said in her interrogation, how she'd confessed. "He deserved it." she'd told the detective with her jaw set and steel in her eyes. 

"How did you kill him?" the detective had asked her. 

She'd smiled, it had all seemed like one big joke at the time, like it wasn't quite real. "Isn't that what you have witnesses for?" 

The detective took a breath, calming himself before answering. "Witnesses can only tell us so much. You promised us the truth Ms. Rode. I suggest you deliver."

"It was so simple, I made his mind think he was drowning. Think that he couldn't breathe. He stopped drawing in oxygen and he suffocated right there in front of me. He [i]deserved[/i] it."

That was six month previous. Now sitting in the dim light of her cell Sapphire shook her head. Those words had sealed her fate. She'd known then what would happen to her. What the public had been screaming for, her head, she was to be delivered to the chopping block. 

Things had changed in the world of Remnant in the last ten years. Vacuo, the entire kingdom had been destroyed and more and more creatures of the Grimm started to appear, pushing closer and closer into the other three kingdoms. Panic had run through the populous like wildfire till as was inevitable a political leader took advantage of it. Nathaniel Rakim claimed that the use of aura was what attracted the Grimm to them. That the hunters had been using it as a tool to keep themselves useful to the kingdoms. While everyone was born with an aura it usually took another aura user or a very traumatic event to activate it. This meant that the number of people in Vale with naturally active auras were negligible compared to the number of people who didn't. With Rakim convincing everyone that aura was the source of the problems with the Grimm people clamored for something to be done to stop it. 

Though the Huntsman academies were still very much needed every aura user was now required to register with their kingdom authorities and wear a metal cuff on their arm that tracked movement, measured aura levels and use. Anyone using aura without being registered or above a certain level without justifiable reason was arrested. Aura users had become pariahs in the streets. Some establishments had even reserved the right not to serve them for fear of a Grimm attack.

Sapphire was the first of them to be executed, the first to commit a crime serious enough to warrant it.

There was a knock on Sapphire's cell. "Time to go witch." The guard told her none too kindly. The two guards that led her to the execution chamber were clothed from head to foot in protective material that did not conduct aura as a precaution in case Sapphire tried to manipulate them into letting her escape.

Sapphire walked in silence not saying a word when they shoved her along down the pristine, sterile and depressing concrete corridor. Sapphire walked through the door to the execution chamber with her head held high. Even after she'd fallen so far Sapphire still had her pride. The execution chamber was completely made of concrete, on one wall was a window with a small control room on the other side. In this room was the much loved Nathaniel Rakim along with various members of the press as well as Gren, Abel and Shiro. Sapphire could see the bands on their arms that kept their aura levels in check and it broke her heart. She gave one nod to them. A last farewell.

The method of execution was not humane but then Rakim had dehumanized the aura users to the point where the public didn't care. Sapphire was just as guilty as the Grimm in their eyes and far more easily punished. It was a large concrete post sticking up out of the ground. The area around it was grated and underneath that was several hoses meant to funnel gas into the room where it could be ignited. Sapphire shook her head in disgust. [i]Burned at the stake, Rakim was really starting his own private Witch Hunt.[/i]

Sapphire pulled herself free of her guards and walked to her death. She allowed them to unshackle her then rechain her to the post. She watched as Rakim gave a speech about the good of humanity and then when he gave the word technicians on the other side of the glass started to flip switches, preparing to pump in the gas. Sapphire heard the countdown start. 3... This was really it, she was going to die. 2... Sapphire kept her eyes open looking straight into the cameras of the press, she tried to stop it but she knew a look of fear had crossed onto her face. 1... She waited for the end with her breath held. Zero would come and she would die.

But it didn't, at least not yet. As Sapphire stood there everything froze, Nathaniel Rakim, the other members of Team Swansong, the technicians at the controls just about to hit the final switches and the press. All of it frozen.

Sapphire looked around searching for the source. She knew what had happened before she saw it. Three people came running into the room. Sapphire knew each of them. The shortest undid Sapphire's cuffs while the other two pulled her off the pyre. "Come on Sapphire, we're getting you out of here." said Janus Rode. The years had been good to him, while his hair was severely graying he still retained his hunter’s physique. Janus pointed to Sapphire's two sisters, Demetra and Cecily. "We've got a ways to go and they won't stay frozen forever." he said pointing to the glass room. Janus' semblance while impressive was not impervious, it would wear off. He was right, they didn't have long.

It was all Sapphire wanted in the world, right then to leave with her sisters, to leave with her father. For a moment as they pulled her towards to the door she wanted to walk through it. But she couldn't, she wouldn't. "Janus stop." she said summoning all the force she could into her the command but she was so scared her voice cracked with the effort.

"What are you talking about?" Sapphire's little sister Demetra said, searching her face for some explanation. Demetra was twenty years old now, for a brief time she'd been an actor in Vale but after the destruction of Vacuo she'd joined Beacon in the attempt to defend the kingdoms.

Sapphire looked her in the eyes. She'd grown up so beautiful, just like their mother. Though it broke her heard to say it they had to understand. "You have to leave." She grabbed Demetra by the shoulders willing her to understand. "I deserve to be here." she said.

"Don't be a ridiculous Sapphire, you killed a murderer and a rapist. You shouldn't be punished for that." When Janus said the word 'rapist' the eyes of three of the Rodes were drawn to Cecily.

"Sapphire," the girl in azure's eldest sister said. "You don't deserve this." she said pointing to the pyre behind them just about ready to light up in flames. "If anyone deserves to be punished its him." she said pointing at Rakim. As though a new idea had occurred to her Cecily tapped the black boxed on her bracelet, Demetra had them too. The complete set: Morpheus, Phobator, Somnus and Melinoe. All four of the nightmare blades, both generations.

The blade popped into being in her hand and Sapphire knew what she was doing. "Cecily don't." Sapphire said grabbing her sister's arm. "Don't become a murder too. It has to end with me." Sapphire eased the blade out of her sister's hand and collapsed it back into a box.

Demetra grabbed Sapphire's shoulders. "Sis, he [i]was[/i] evil. He deserved what he..." 

Sapphire cut her off, you could hear the sound of approaching tears in her voice. "The wrong thing done for the right reason is [i]still[/i] the wrong thing. Demetra, Our job..." she shook her head trying to get the words out without crying. "Our job is to protect the innocent. Not punish the guilty. I crossed a line and I know that," the tears started unwanted to stream down Sapphire's face. "Now," she said trying to wipe them away. "You need to know that too."

Janus stepped closer and for the first time since Melanie's death he didn't look serious or imposing. If anything he'd shrunk since coming into the room. "We're not leaving here without you Sapphire."

"But you have to!" Sapphire shouted, her voice cracked again and tears blotted her face. "Being a hunter, whether the people want you or not means protecting those in trouble. Those you love." She started to sob. "If you take me out of this place [i]he[/i]" she said jabbing at Rakim "will never stop hunting us, he'll tear apart everyone we've ever cared about, anyone we've ever loved. This will never end and it has to. I don't want die," her breathe came in uneven gasps as she spoke those last words "but I don't want you to die because of me. This will keep you safe."

Wordlessly the four Rodes in the room pulled to a hug. "I love you." Sapphire whispered to them as they embraced. She kissed her sisters on the cheek before breaking the hug.

Sapphire Rode walked back to the pyre and reshackled herself to the post. "Daddy," she said looking at Janus. "I forgive you. For everything that happened after Mom's death I forgive you." In that moment Janus broke down, the tears flowing from his eyes. Sapphire closed her own and concentrated on her family. Concentrated on making sure no one saw them as the people in the little glass room resumed moving.

0...

Sapphire felt the gas burst into flames beneath her, felt it's raging heat course up her skin. She felt her flesh liquefy and her bones crack and then she felt no more.

[center][i]To sit in solemn silence on a dim dark dock
In a pestilential prison with a life long lock
Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock
Form a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block[/i][/center]
[h3]1998 Words[/h3]
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