Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Mercury does not like the Land of Darkness.

It’s cold, and dark, and so incredibly unnerving.

Evernight castle is worse.

Fear is not an unfamiliar feeling to Mercury. Growing up with Marcus was filled with pain, fear and anger. He’s gotten remarkably good at tucking away any feeble fear in favour of numbness, but seeing Grimm crawl out of the oozing black pits, makes fear grip at his core. He sees Emerald cover her mouth in horror at the sight in his peripheral before a snap snatches their attention.

Cinder. Maimed, and weak Cinder- bested by a school girl, reduced to rasping breaths, and down an eye and limb- summoning them to her side. Obediently he makes his way to her side, only to be bumped to the side by Emerald and her dumb insistance on being the one next to Cinder. He rolls his eyes, but says nothing.

The scientist makes a remark that sets an already on edge Mercury off. Emeralds arm stops him in his tracks, and he grits his teeth and steps back. He focuses intently on glaring a hole in the floor as Tyrian raves about revenge, and only once the doors creak open does he allow himself to look up.

The moment he lays eyes on Salem his instincts are screaming at him to run. His eyes widen as she elegantly glides across the room, not sparing any of them a glance, and his whole body stiffens as she sits at the head of the table. He didn’t believe in the gods prior to this, but now he’s thankful to them for putting him furthest away from her gaze. He can’t tear his eyes off of her, as she gives orders, and commands. Then she goes quiet. Tyrians manaical laughter doesn’t even make him flinch, Salem's eyes have found their way to him and suddenly he can’t breathe.

Her gaze hardens, it’s a fractional change, but one Mercury is all too familiar with, and despite not having done anything Mercury knows he’s fucked.

“Tell me child… What colour are your eyes?”

He feels the stares of the occupants (glare in Cinders case) turn to him. His heart pounds in his chest, but he forces his expression to remain neutral.

“Grey… Ma’am” He hopes his voice remained steady.

She stands, calmly, coolly, and slowly, agonisingly slowly, makes her way to where he’s stood. Mercury forces his gaze down, as a familiar instinct kicks in, his shoulders are impossibly tense and his heart is in his throat. Salem towers over him. He feels like a child again.

His breath hitches as soft hands guide his face to look up at the woman before him. Everything else seems to fade into static.

“Are you in the habit of lying to your superiors?” she asks softly, an icy tone hidden beneath it.

Mercury doesn’t know how to respond, his brows furrow in confusion, his eyes are wide and wild, he suppresses the urge to flinch. A moment passes, then the once gentle hand suddenly clenches painfully around his jaw. This time he can’t stop himself from flinching as his face is tugged.

“Are you lying to me boy?” She demands, her sharp nails digging into his flesh.

“No!” he cries, “They’re grey! I swear!”

Then her hand is gone, Mercury sucks in a stuttering breath.

“Hmmm... “ Salem ponders, “What a surprising turn of events… tell me boy, what do you know of the Silver Eyed Warriors?”

Mercury's head reels as he scrambles to recall any information about silver eyed people.

“Nothing Ma’am, just that there was one in Beacon” He braces himself for a hit, as his eyes remain fixed to the floor once more.

A low chuckle causes his head to snap up. Salem is looking at him with mirth, and a condescending gaze that would normally make his blood boil. Now it turns his insides to ice.

“You truly are a tragic little thing aren’t you?” She coos pityingly, ”I doubt they’d even function given part of your soul is missing…”

Panic builds inside him as she snaps her fingers and he’s suddenly forced to the ground by monstrous hands.

“W-what are you doing?!” He yelps.

Mercury’s eyes dart around the room in a panic. He spots the understanding that dawns on Hazel's face, the joy that overcomes Tyrian, the morbid curiosity that’s written all over Watts face, the rage that emanates from Cinder, before finally settling on Emeralds watery eyed terror.

His heart is pounding in his ears as he gazes back at Salem. Desperation screaming at him to do something! Anything! His eyes itch. Salem motions to someone. Somewhere in the back of his mind he notices Emerald, Cinder, Hazel and Watts leaving. He feels a hand on his back, and the familiar sensation of his aura shattering making him see stars, a sharp pain to the back of his head, then… nothing.

___________________________

Emeralds heart is racing as she hurries after Cinder as she storms out of the room.

Mercury has silver eyes.

Her thoughts are racing as she jumps from thought to thought. The rage is clear on Cinders face, and makes Emerald shy away from asking any questions. A tired sigh jolts Emerald from her thoughts as her eyes land on Hazel.

“I’m sorry about you friend” he rumbles.

Emerald feels her voice get caught in her throat. “A-are, Is she going to kill him?” she forces out.

He doesn’t answer immediately, and Emerald feels her heart plummet.

“... No… He’s proven useful, and hopefully he continues to do so.” and then he’s gone, stalking off with lumbering steps. She realises she’s alone outside the room, but she can’t bear to leave.

The door groans as Tyrian skips out giddily. She forces herself out of his sight.

She thinks back on her time with Mercury. She hated him at first, tried to get rid of him multiple times. But no matter what she did he never seemed flapped. No matter who threatened him his reaction always stayed the same. Always angry, annoyed, or smug. Never scared.

Seeing his wide eyed gaze out the window was more than enough reason for her to be afraid, seeing the exposed dread in his eyes as Salem stood before him was enough to petrify her. But hearing the unadulterated terror in his voice as he was forced to kneel before Salem suffocated Emerald, and forced her to question everything.

Tears threaten to spill as conflict rages in her head. One side reassures her that Cinder will protect her, while the other screams that Mercury- unflappable, strong and just as much Cinder's partner as she is- is in danger, and Cinder did nothing to save him.

Then a terrible sound tears her from her thoughts.

Ice shoots down her spine. It’s Mercury. He’s screamingr. Tears are no longer threatening to spill as they slip down her face. She helplessly covers her ears trying to block out the animalistic howls of agony tearing themselves from her partner- her friends throat. He’s sobbing, pleading, begging for Salem to stop.

Emerald recalls the first time she met Mercury, how his body trembled- from exhaustion or pain she couldn’t tell. How his knees buckled, but he forced himself to remain standing despite the bloody bandages. How he never made a sound during the gruesome fight against his own father, one of the most feared hitmen in Remnant.

She’s sobbing now, her shoulders shake, and her breathing rattles. She doesn’t know how much time passes, but she quickly runs out of tears to spill. So she sits there, frozen and numb, not able to bring herself to move. The room fell silent a bit ago and Emerald can’t tell which is worse, because at least when he was screaming she knew he was alive…

The door groans, and Emerald scrambles to hide. She manages to slip into a small crevice between a pillar and a wall, and watches as Salem strides past, more of her hair is down, missing the black ribbons that normally hold them. Emerald pales at the dark substance coating her fingers, blood… She feels sick. Bile rises in her throat and she brings her hand to her mouth.

Once Salem rounds the corner she waits a moment, ensuring she won't return. Before cracking the door open just enough to slip through. Of course the stupid thing creaks and groans she cringes at the sound as she slips in before the sight before her causes her to freeze in her tracks.

Mercury is trembling, and this time Emerald is sure it’s because of the pain. Blood and black ooze drip down his face and splatter to the floor, his legs are steady as he braces himself, one of his fists is clenched tightly at his side, while the other lays lightly at the end of the table by where he stood earlier. His teeth are grit in defiance as his head tilts back to look above Emerald. A gasp forces its way out of her. The missing ribbons from Salem’s hair are wrapped around Mercury’s eyes, and it takes less than a second for the connection to be made.

She took his eyes.

Emerald lets out a shaky breath. Mercury’s head snaps lower, his mouth twitches in a grimace.

“...Em?” he rasps, she winces at the state of his voice, and the wariness. She would never normally allow him to call her that

“Gods Mercury…” she begins, her voice cracking with emotion before she trails off.

It’s almost painful to see the way his body slumps in relief. A clearly forced crooked smirk settles on his face as he looks in her general vicinity.

“Good to see a friendly face”

A wet laugh bubbles out of her, and Emerald almost wants to hit him.
She sobers quickly though as he tries to rub the blood, ooze, and what looks suspiciously like tears from his face He takes a few steps forward before faltering standing lost between the door and the table.

Emeralds heart shatters at the sight of her friend's unsure form as he struggles to maintain his confident facade. She takes a deep breath focusing on her semblance.

She hears Mercury’s breath hitch.

“Em… Are you…You’re...” he struggles for a moment before finally settling with ”I knew you liked me” They both understand.

She scowls, gingerly walks towards him, standing next to him so she’s looking the same way he is.

“Trippy'' he mutters under his breath, before they start off. It takes a moment for Mercury to get used to seeing things in a perspective that's not his own, but they quickly manage to slip into Emerald's room.

Emerald sighs as Mercury flops onto her bed, hissing quietly at the pain in his head.

“I can see you staring at me” he says after a moment, and Emerald flushes as she remembers he’s watching through her eyes, “I knew you wanted me” he quips and Emerald scowls once more.

“You good if I turn this off?”

Mercury shrugs, “Sure, I mean it’s your semblance, not like I got much say in it”

She purses her lips as she flops down face first onto the bed next to Mercury.

“How- Why… how are you so nonchalant about this?” She asks, voice muffled by the sheets.

Mercury stills, she can practically hear the gears turning in his head.

“I… didn’t have much of a choice, so what’s the point of being anything but?” She feels him shrug next to her ”... Besides you know this isn’t my first time” the implications of that hit her like a sack of bricks. She remembers the first time she saw his legs. They were brand new when they met…

“Aren’t you in pain?”

“I’m strong, it doesn’t bother me” He says hoarsely, and something twists painfully within Emerald at the blatant lie.

They fall into silence after that. Mercury cleans his face of the mess of blood and black ooze. Time passes but there’s no indicator of how long. The sky remains dark, haunting howls echo from below, but Emerald and Mercury lie side by side, content with doing nothing for now.

-

Emerald almost has a heart attack when Mercury shoots up. Sitting bolt upright face angled at the door and it takes a split second for Emerald to hear the faint click of heels that they both so strongly associate with Cinder.

Mercury seems to debate something before deciding to lay back down on the bed, but he remains tense. Emerald remains sitting straight as she keeps her eyes on the door. The steps grow louder before arriving outside the room.

The door swings open without warning, revealing Cinder. She glowers at the two of them.

“Cinder!” Emerald exclaims, ignoring Mercury’s quiet scoff, “Wha-” She forces herself to stop, not wanting to question the fuming woman before them.

“What are you doing here?” Mercury pipes up from where he remains lying on the bed. Cinder turns her glare to him, the moment her eyes land on the dark ribbons wrapped around his eyes something in her shifts. Emerald can’t read it for the life of her, but it makes her uneasy. Her eyes flicker to the shawl that covers where Cinders arm used to be, and she barely suppresses a shudder. Cinder snaps her fingers at Emerald, and Emerald quickly scurrys to her side so she can translate.

“She says… to learn respect, and that Salem wants all of our presence at dinner now… in the council room.” She glances back at Mercury who seems unfazed.

“Alright, Em can you toss me a less bloody shirt”

Cinders face twists as she scowls at Mercury before turning on her heel and striding out the room.

“I could’ve sworn she was more collected at Beacon, is that just me? I could practically feel the knives she was glaring at me” Mercury begins after hearing the door click shut, he edges his way towards the pile of bags filled with his very few earthly possessions. Emerald sighs, she quickly reaches the bags and yanks out the first shirt she grabs before tossing it at Mercury. It hits his chest unceremoniously, and Mercury jumps at the sudden contact.

“A little warning next time”

“I forgot…” She faces the wall as he wriggles out of his old shirt and slips on the new one.

He huffs out a laugh as he does it.

“Okay,” he says after a moment, “Shall we?” He offers his arm in a mocking fashion and Emerald grimaces at the inaccuracy. The moment she takes a step towards him he quickly readjusts himself.

“Why are you like this?” She fondly bemoans as she stands next to him before focusing on activating her semblance.

“You love it,” he quips back, readjusting to the slightly off view point, then they’re off.

Chapter Text

“Okay,” he says after a moment, “Shall we?” He offers his arm in a mocking fashion and Emerald grimaces at the inaccuracy. The moment she takes a step towards him he quickly readjusts himself.

“Why are you like this?” She fondly bemoans as she stands next to him before focusing on activating her semblance.

“You love it,” he quips back, readjusting to the slightly off view point, then they’re off.

_________________

As they arrive at the large doors of the council room Emerald falters, but before she can do anything Mercury is confidently pushing the doors open, and striding into the room.

If it weren’t for the fact she saw him earlier, and the dull thrumming of her semblance in her head she wouldn’t know he was blind.

Emerald blanches as she realises the only two vacant chairs are opposite each other: One between Hazel and Watts, and the other between Cinder and Tyrian.

Mercury doesn’t hesitate in choosing the seat between Cinder and Tyrian, and Emerald can’t tell whether it’s relief or annoyance that floods her as she quickly seats herself across him.

Mercury shifts in his chair, twitching his fingers, and subtly moving his hands. Emerald watches for a moment before realising he’s adjusting to the new perspective. Tyrian lets out a bark of laughter and Mercury immediately stills.

One would have to be blind to not notice that all eyes are fixed on the mass of ribbons that cover his eyes. Tyrian claps happily as he leans towards the teen in order to inspect his face. Mercury scowls at him, leaning back marginally.

“Back off freak” he snaps much to Tyrian's glee.

“Such hostility!” the faunus cries, “I just wanted a closer look at our Queens handiwork… it’s such an honour to receive after all” his voice lowers as venom seeps into his voice.
“Maybe next time you should volunteer then” he bites, raising his elbow to force the maniac away from him.

Mercury can’t see his face, but from what he can see through Emerald, something shifts. Tyrians eyes narrow and his smile twists, he looks dangerous, but before he can do anything the door opens and Salem strolls in.

Mercury's face hardens as she walks behind him, he sees her lips quirk as she passes his chair, and he grits his teeth.

As she stands at the head she motions for them all to sit.

“It’s our last night all here in Evernight, let us enjoy one meal together before Hazel departs”

Her tone is soft and motherly, despite this Emerald and Mercury both tense further. With the snap of her fingers the doors creak open once more, and food is delivered in the grips of grimm. No one looks comfortable, aside from Tyrian who seems to be enjoying the spectacle.

“Let us eat,” Salem declares warmly as she picks up her cutlery, “Mercury, is it?” She asks, as she cuts into the steak in front of her.

The room is silent other than the sound of cutlery. Mercury gulps.

“Yes, ma’am” he turns his head in her direction

“Tomorrow I would like to see you before Cinders training,” despite the soft tone Mercury recognises the order, “I will send an escort to your room”

“Thank you” he forces out. She hums, content, and then comments:

“My it’s quiet in here” Tyrian of all people manages to pick up the hint, and begins casual conversation with Watts over the meal, Hazel adding comments every now and then.

Mercury grabs his cutlery and awkwardly stabs at the plate. He lets out a silent sigh of relief when Emerald's gaze shifts to his plate. He quickly cuts his food and begins to eat before Emerald’s shifts her attention to Cinder. The woman looks furious from her seat next to him, and Mercury has an inkling as to why. He hears her wheeze beside him, he grits his teeth and exhales.

“Yes?” He asks.

She grabs his arm, he sees the way Emeralds eyes immediately jump to Cinders hand “What are you doing?” she demands in a barely audible wheeze.

“I’m trying to eat my dinner,” he responds easily. Her grip tightens. Mercury doesn’t react, “ unless you’re referring to my accepting direct orders from your boss.” he adds in a lowered voice. Cinder snarls before retracing her arm and focusing on her own dinner, seemingly content in ignoring Mercury.

The meal passes smoothly after that.

As soon as Salem dismisses them he joins Emerald at the end of the table, before they stroll out, and quickly retreat to their room.

As soon as they enter Emerald lets out a groan, and Mercury’s vision flickers before going black.

“You okay? You should have stopped if it was bothering you.” Mercury says bluntly, and Emerald makes a noise of offense.

“You’re welcome asshole”

“Just saying…” Mercury says, lifting his hands on mock defence before carefully finding his bed.

“What did Cinder ask?” There’s a slight undertone of defensiveness as she questions him, and Mercury would roll his eyes if he could. He could never understand why Emerald is so obsessed with pleasing Cinder, or her desperate want for praise…

“She wanted to know how I manage to look so radiant all the time,” He drawls in response “why do you care?”

He hears Emerald huff in annoyance.

“I don’t” she states, an obvious lie if Mercury ever heard one.

‘Then why do you ask?’ Mercury thinks, “Whatever” he says instead.

His thoughts turn back to Cinder. She’s angry at him, furious at him, and for the life of him he can’t figure out … “oh…” he whispers under his breath.

He remembers how Emerald behaved when he first joined them. The hostility and defensiveness, let alone the actual (albeit terribly executed) murder attempts before they finally settled into their comfortable dynamic.

Cinder’s jealous.

Mercury is a threat to her dynamic with Salem, she was meant to be the only special one, then he strolls along with a special eye colour and now suddenly Cinder has to share…

“...fuck”

“What was that?” Emerald asks from her bed.

“Nothing”

Mercury cringes, it’s bad enough to have to watch out for Tyrian, Watts and Salem, but now Cinder? A maiden? He resists the urge to groan. Hopefully Cinder won’t try murdering him, it would kind of suck given he literally wouldn’t be able to see it coming if she did.

“... What do you think Salem’s gonna do tomorrow?” Emerald asks tentatively.

Mercury hadn’t actually given it much thought. He knows Cinder has been receiving some sort of training from the big woman herself, and she seemed fine, and if not, he’d survived 14 years living with Marcus. Despite the reasoning Mercury can’t dispel the trepidation that’s thrumming in his veins.

“Beats me”

“Aren’t you worried?”

‘Yes! Of course I’m worried, I’m fucking terrified!” he wants to snap, his eyes, or where his eyes used to be, have been painfully throbbing all evening, his complete helplessness has been driving him up the wall, and there's a nagging voice in his head asking how much more he’ll have taken.

“No.” he states coldly, “I’m going to sleep” he adds before she can say anything else.

He hears Emerald sigh, it’s tired but she doesn’t try to say anything else.

-

That night Mercury doesn’t sleep well. It’s fitful and unsatisfying. The few moments he does dream he finds himself back in his childhood house - he doesn’t dare call it home- with his father looming over him with a wicked grin, and agony; or he sees Salem towering over him in the council room, with the patronising smile that promises nothing but pain. He gives up trying to sleep after his 5th time starting awake.

He lies still in his bed facing the ceiling. All he can see is darkness, he can almost pretend he has his eyes, and that the only thing stopping him from seeing are the ribbons that are secured to his face. Almost. The familiar sense of phantom pains that throb in his skull are hard to ignore.

He feels tears well up, and get soaked up by the ribbons and scowls. Of course he can still cry, it’s pathetic… but he can’t stop. His breath hitches as tears continue to flow out into the ribbon, he doesn’t move, and he refuses to make a sound. So when his chest starts to tremble with the effort of keeping his sobs inside be bites at his lip painfully in a vain attempt to trap any sound that might want to escape.

He buries his head in his pillow to muffle his choked breaths and prays that Emerald doesn’t wake up, or question him. He’s furious at himself for crying, gritting his teeth and telling himself he’s been through this before. His lip is bleeding. He can taste the copper in his mouth and he finds himself forcing himself to focus on his stinging lip, rather than the throbbing in his eyes.

Time passes quickly.

Mercury soon finds himself feeling a familiar void in his chest, a cold emptiness that seems to consume him. A lump has settled in his throat. The distant echoes of grimm roars float into the room, he can hear Emerald shifting in the next bed, and if he holds his breath he can hear her faint snoring. He sighs softly, wondering how much time until Salems ‘escort’ comes to escort him. He hopes it’s Hazel, he’s the least insufferable and insane of the lot.

After another eternity seems to pass Mercury decides he might as well try and change out of his sleepwear. He cautiously edges his way to where he assumes the wall is. A shaky smile breaks onto his face when his hand comes into contact with the familiar cold stone. He slowly follows the side before he feels the bag come into contact with his prosthetic. His smile shifts into a triumphant grin as he crouches and feels for the zipper.

He manages to pull out some clothes and traces his hand across the wall before sucking in a quick breath as he almost falls through the bathroom door. He slips into his clothes, thanking any deity that he wears clothes that are difficult to get back to front and inside out before feeling around for the sink and brushing his teeth.

A soft knock makes him jump.

“Mercury? You in there?” It’s Emerald, she sounds half asleep still.

He spits out the toothpaste in his mouth, and rinses before fumbling for the door.

“Morning, you’re looking good”

Though he can’t see it he’s certain she’s scowling. He can picture it clearly and offers her a smirk.

“You’re the worst” she says flatly

“You pronounce best weirdly”

A moment of silence passes, and Emerald brushes past him.

“I uh… Just rolled my eyes” Emerald explains, stumbling over her words as she remembers his lack of sight. Something twists painfully in Mercury’s gut, but he snorts nonetheless.

“Nice one” he snarks as he steps out into their bedroom. He scuffs his feet across the floor as he finds his bed before blindly feeling for his boots. He doesn’t know what to do with himself, so he lies motionlessly on his bed.

Ten minutes later the bathroom door clicks open, and he hears Emerald padding to her things.

A knock echoes throughout the room not five minutes later. Mercury takes in a slow breath. He stands calmly and finds the room appearing before him. He turns to Emerald. It’s strange seeing oneself in third person, Mercury sees himself nod solemnly as Emerald approaches him. Then the two of them open the door.

It’s not Hazel. It’s not Tyrian or Watts either. Emerald recoils next to him at the monkey esque grimm. It stares at them with chilling eyes. They’re no different to most grimm eyes, glowing red encased in an inky blackness. Mercury hates them. Their ‘escort’ doesn’t give any reaction, or indication before it’s swiftly reaching for Mercury. He jerks back. The grimm gaze remains unfocused, uncaring as it bores into him. It pauses a moment before spinning on its heel and clambering away. They follow after a second of hesitation.

The small group travels through the winding halls of Evernight, Emerald sending nervous glances around as they begin entering new territory. They soon find themselves outside a large door. It towers them, it’s wood gnarled and worn.

The Grimm pushes it open with little concern, and as the doors swing open an arena styled courtyard is revealed, along with Salem, whose back is facing them.

She turns slowly, looking down at them as they step through the doors. If it were anyone other than Salem Emerald knows Mercury would have made a comment, but her partner stiffens, he keeps his head straight and level, but she can see the tension in his jaw and shoulders.

“You brought your friend,” Salem notes, before turning to Emerald, “You may leave.”

Emerald hesitates, shooting Mercury a look. He doesn’t react, so stiffly she bows and retreats. She prays he’ll be okay.

-

Mercury’s vision vanishes the moment he hears the doors click shut, and he knows he’s alone with Salem once more. He doesn’t move, he barely dares to breathe.

“It’s very sweet of your friend to lend you sight with her semblance…” Mercury’s breath hitches, “however that won’t be necessary” He can’t stop himself from recoiling as Salem's cold hand tilts his head upwards. She hums calmly, as she slowly unravels the ribbons.

“They say that eyes are the window to the soul.” Mercury holds his breath as he feels the cool air hit where his eyes used to be, his stomach lurches, and he swallows harshly, gritting his teeth in an attempt to fight any tears. “It’s almost poetic that your eyes are… gone... “

Gone is one word for it.

Stolen, ripped from him, mangled beyond repair, are some others.

“I was told you were quite impressive, a powerful fighter like your father, even without the years of experience, I heard you were quite useful in creating the chaos in Ozma’s main playground...so imagine my surprise when you show up, a child with a incomplete soul” Her voice hardens, Mercury sucks in a breath and braces himself, “with silver eyes on top of that. Normally I would dispose of such people, but it would be a waste of such potential in this case, after all… you are a member of this team aren’t you?”

The threat is clear to Mercury’s ears, if he’s not then he’s dead, and he didn’t kill Marcus to be killed for being insolent.

“Of course” He keeps his answer short. Less chance of screwing it up if he says less, he learned that the hard way.

Salem’s hand gently smooths his hair, and he supposes it’s almost motherly. “Good boy, in that case how do a pair of eyes sound?”

Despite the phrasing, it’s not a question, but Mercury nods nonetheless.

“Very well… let’s begin” She says wickedly.

Chapter Text

His ‘session’ with Salem can’t have lasted more than an hour, but by the time they finish Mercury feels like he could sleep a month. His eyes are bandaged up once more, but now he can feel the foreign sensation of grimm fluid filling them. It leaks out of his eyes every now and then, he can feel the cold viscous liquid as it gets soaked by the bandages. He tries not to think about it.
Salem says it will take time for his body to adjust to the solution, and that much like Cinder, it will take time to heal. She expects him back tomorrow. As he steps outside he hears the click of heels as they stride towards him. It unfortunately isn’t Emerald.

“Cinder” He nods respectfully as he feels a cold hand grab him by the forearm, he assumes it’s the same grimm as before, but that doesn’t stop the uneasiness that rolls around his stomach. They take a couple of steps before he feels a warm hand grab him by the shirt and pull him down. He curses himself for jumping, before he feels Cinders hot breath in his face.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but make sure you remember your place”
she wheezes darkly, as she releases the fabric of his shirt with a sharp shove. Mercury shifts his feet to avoid stumbling, but he feels a cold fire light within him.

“Oh I will” he promises, smirking, as she pushes past him. He turns his head to follow the noise of her heels, and keeps his chin up, unmoving, until he hears the doors groan closed.

Only then does he allow the smirk to slide off his face to be replaced by an annoyed frown. He takes a couple steps forward, the grim gets the idea and begins leading him through the long halls of the castle. He hates the helplessness of the situation, he can’t tell where he is, where he’s going, it’s all just… nothing.

The Grimm jerks beside him, letting out a shriek before its claws tear into him as it’s dragged away. Dark laughter makes Mercury growl.

“What do you want?” He snaps refusing to move.

“Testy aren’t we?” Tyrian Says from behind him, Mercury tenses and whirls around throwing a punch. He realises his mistake the moment his fist makes contact with Tyrians face. He can’t defend himself if he can’t see, and Tyrian would be well in his right to strike back… He hears the older man exhale sharply through his teeth and laugh lowly. Mercury braces himself, taking a step back, and raising his hands into a familiar defensive position.

“That’s quite enough,” Watts voice cuts through the tension, and Mercury hears him stalk towards them, “such violence between compatriots is wholly unnecessary, and quite brutish… Besides, it’s hardly a fair fight is it?” he continues, flicking Mercury’s head as he approaches as if to prove his point.

Mercury jumps and scowls, swatting at the air.

“What do you want?” Mercury huffs at the scientist, Tyrian he gets, the psycho wants chaos and to make them squirm. Watts on the other hand Mercury doesn’t know what he wants, and that makes him uneasy.

Watts chuckles, like Mercury made a hearty joke that wasn’t particularly funny.

“So you are blind, impressive show last night… well I don’t want anything, we just happened to run into you on the way to my lab… though it should be interesting to see your recovery… mechanical legs and magic eyes, ha! What’s next on your list? not that you have too much left,” he laughs at that, and Mercury’s chest clenches painfully. “I offered to make you prosthetics, eyes are such an interesting feature to replicate, alas, Salem had other ideas”

Tyrian cackles loudly to the side of Mercury. The teen winces internally at the helplessness of the situation.

“To be personally modified by our queen is such a high honour!” The scorpion Faunus giggles,” It’s just a shame you weren’t up to scratch hto begin with” his giggle erupts into full blown laughter.

“Shut it creep” he growls angrily, it’s a vain attempt to get them to back off but he tries anyway. He feels something tugging at the ribbons around his head, “leave me alone!” he roars, slapping the hands away and whirling around, “you wouldn’t want to mess with … your Queens, newest project would you?” he quickly amends.

“Goodness no!” Tyian cries, “that would be terrible! Perhaps another time then…” Mercury fights the urge to shift uncomfortably.

“Come along Tyrian, and Mercury,” Mercury tilts his head towards the scientist's voice, “ good luck getting to your room” and with that they walk away, growing fainter as they leave. It takes Mercury a minute to realise Tyrian exterminated the Grimm.

He groans in annoyance, before taking a deep breath and searching for the wall. As he searches he realises he doesn’t even know which direction he’s meant to be going anymore, he whines in frustration. His hand meets cool stone and he quickly weighs his options.

He can go either direction and hope for the best, or he can stay where he is until someone finds him. He realises that should he remain where he is, the people most likely to find him would be Tryian and Watts, and quickly settles on the former choice.

Trying to recall which way he was initially facing, Mercury sucks in a breath and starts off heading right, keeping his left hand brushing lightly against the surface of the wall.

Door after door Mercury finds himself knocking, only to receive no response. Anxiety begins to claw its way up his throat as he takes turn after turn without any success in finding his room.

His face twists into a snarl about an hour into his fruitless attempts.

“Come on!” he bellows angrily slamming his fist angrily against another door. No response. He feels like screaming, and kicking. Realistically nothing is stopping him, so he forcefully kicks the door he just tried, and bites his lip as he feels something wet streak down his face. He quickly brings his hand up to wipe it, it’s almost sticky, and he relaxes knowing it’s not a tear. Clenching his fists he huffs before continuing down the hall.

He meets a dead end.

“Are you kidding me?”

Defeated he leans against the wall and slides down. His knees are drawn in, with his head resting on his arms. His throat tightens and he holds his breath to fight tears of frustration.

He doesn’t know how long he stays there, in his own little world where he’s comfortably lounging on his bed, reading his comic, but a pair of heavy footsteps jolts him out of it.

Mercury scrambles to his feet and leans casually against the wall, crossing his arms.

“There you are” A gruff voice declares. It’s Hazel.

“Yeah, here I am” he snarks, doing small jazz hands, despite the wave of relief that came crashing down on him moments before.

Hazels rough laughter echoes around the hallway. “How’d you end up all the way over here?”

“Does it matter?” Mercury spits

“I suppose not, Emerald is looking for you, she seems awfully worried, asked me to help look for you lest you got into trouble”

Mercury’s jaw clenched tightly, he doesn’t understand why she’s so obvious about her emotions. It’s a sign of weakness, and to just expose it makes no sense, and on top of that she asked for help. He doesn’t know how she’s survived as long as she has.

“Better not keep her waiting then” he drawls sarcastically, pushing himself off the wall. He hopes he’s walking straight because if he walks into a wall he would not look tough at all.

Mercury jumps a bit as Hazel's hand lands on his shoulder. Neither comment on it.

One foot in front of the other, Mercury is led through the halls. He tries to draw a mental map of his path but finds it a useless effort as they take what seems like the millionth turn.

Eventually Hazels steps slow, and his heavy hand lifts from the teens shoulder. Mercury reaches out and takes a tentative step forward. His hand meets a door and a smirk twitches at his lips as he pushes it open. He hears a sharp intake of breath.

“I heard you were worried?” He jokes, before being thrown back by a sudden weight.

“Mercury!” Emerald cries.

Mercury’s hands jerk before stilling. Emerald hugs him tightly, arms thrown around his neck, and surprisingly, Mercury doesn’t hate it. Something flutters within him at the display of affection. She lets go and Mercury refuses to admit he feels a little sad at the sudden lack of warmth.

“Where were you? You’ve been gone for hours! And don’t tell me you were with,” he hesitates a second, “Salem. I know what time Cinder met with her”

Mercury snorts at her lecture, she stops with a huff and pinches him.

“Wha- Hey!” He exclaims

“Well?” She demands.

“I thought I’d explore the castle... You know see the sights” He waggles his fingers as he smirks. She punches his arm, it’s not hard, but hard enough for Mercury to understand to be serious.He sighs dramatically, “later”

A beat passes.

“Fine”

Vision flickers into view in his mind as Emerald stares him down. He can’t help the way his shoulders relax slightly as Emerald turns to face Hazel. Mercury turns as well, sending the towering man a laid back smirk.

“Thanks for the tour, it was… enlightening” he turns on his heel and Emerald's gaze follows him as he lazily salutes while striding into the room. She turns back to Hazel.

“...Thank you” she says quietly, sending him a small nod before following her partner into their room.

She closes the door behind her and examines Mercury. He’s lying on his bed, like a puppet with its strings cut, black ooze is smeared across his cheeks.

“I know you can see me staring” She cuts in as she sees his mouth open, “Just thought you’d like to see how shit you look”

His mouth clamps shut, and Emerald can’t stop the triumphant smirk that settles on her face.

“Whatever” he mutters as he drags himself off of the bed to trudge to the bathroom.

She follows him and watches as he splashes water on his cheeks and roughly scrubs. As she approaches she notices that fresh streaks are making their way down his face.

“Stop!” she orders, grabbing his wrists to prevent more damage.

“What’s the big idea?” he barks back, snatching his wrists out of her grasp.

“You’re making it worse!”

A moment passes, and Emerald knows Mercury can see the way new black sludge is trailing down his face. He scowls in annoyance.

“This shit again, give it a minute it’ll stop soon”

“Again?!” she asks incredulously

“Did I stutter?” he snarks, as he reaches for a towel. He tilts his head back as he begins wiping at the grimm ooze again. Emerald wants to protest but she bites her tongue. Gently she reaches up to take the towel from his hands, soaking it under the sink for a moment before closing the toilet seat and sitting down lightly pulling Mercury along.

“Sit” she says

“What?” confusion is written clearly across his face

“Sit” She repeats attempting to push him down.

“Why?” he asks, straightening his back.

“Just do it!” she cries, exasperated “I’m going to help you ok?”

He shifts for a moment before awkwardly sitting down with his back between her legs. She softly tilts his head and gently wipes the fluid off of his face. He remains tense for a while. She knows he hates the idea of being perceived as weak, and a soft smile finds its way onto her face as he lets her help. His fingers twitch, and she notices him clench and unclench his fists, he stills when she sends them a glance.

“You really don’t like accepting help do you?”

“No.” he says curtly, and Emerald freezes for a second, she hadn’t meant to force him, “ I- it… I’m not used to it” he quickly adds, and she feels him tense.

“Oh … “

“Yeah…”

An awkward silence hangs over them until his face is clean.

“..You said you know when Cinders training starts?”

“I did”

“I finish then”

Emeralds eyes widen for a second. “You’re going again?”

“Salem's orders…”

“Alright” She purses her lips. He doesn’t need to say what he meant for her to understand, just as she doesn’t need to add anything for him to get that she would be waiting for him tomorrow.

Chapter Text

That night Mercury dreams of nothing.

It surrounds him, expanding endlessly, making him feel tiny and insignificant. He’s alone, and the silence is deafening. He looks around frantically for a sign of anything. Nothing. He tries to move, but finds himself stuck, and no matter how much thrashing he does he remains in the same place. Weightless. A familiar solution is trickling out of his eyes he roughly wipes it away before realising it’s not streaking down his face like it should be, rather, it seeps upwards, and before settling around him. He tries desperately to stop the flow but it seems to accelerate in spite of his efforts. Soon the droplets become puddles, and then the puddles become pools and he’s suffocating, flailing madly trying to escape the darkness as it invades his body, burning as it forces its way down his throat and into his lungs.

He bolts up, gasping. Shaky hands find their way to his eyes, they’re moist and cold. Sucking in a deep breath he reasures himself that he’s not drowning, and despite the inescapable darkness, he feels himself relax at the sounds of grimm shrieking into the night . Lowering his hand to the sheets he grasps them tightly, grounding him. Once his racing heart slows he slumps against the headboard and sits there motionlessly feeling the grimm ooze painfully trail down his cheeks and drip from his jaw, feeling like fire as it goes.

Emerald wakes a few hours later. She groans as she stretches before lazily sitting up in her bed. Scanning the room her eyes land on Mercury’s prone form. He turns to face her

“Rough night?” She asks, her tone teetering the thin line between joking and concern.

He huffs out a laugh, “you could say that” he shoots her a tired smile as he stands up, wincing as he feels his leg go screwy.

He always said he could fix his leg blind, but he never thought he’d actually have to do it. He grimaces as he tries to take a few steps. It's not excruciating, but it’s certainly not comfortable.

Emerald softly pads to the bathroom, and begins to brush her teeth before she steps back out into the room to find Mercury blindly reaching around for his utility knife. She watches as he clasps it firmly in his grip before fiddling for the worn screwdriver and setting to work. He runs his fingers down his leg before stopping at a screw and efficiently notching the screwdriver and making quick work of tightening it. She sees the way his lips purse as he tightens it more before setting the tool aside and feeling around for something Emerald can’t see, if the twitch of his lips are anything to go by he finds it quickly, and twists at it. Seemingly content with what he did, he rolls his shoulders before standing up once more, and testing the fix. He shifts from side to side, a triumphant smirk playing at his lips, and then Emerald realises she’s been staring and quickly turns away, glad she wasn’t using her semblance.

He comes striding into the bathroom shortly after, brushing past her to reach his own toothbrush. They get ready in a comfortable silence, and before they know it a firm knock echoes throughout the room. Emeralds semblance flickers to life, and Mercury straightens with his sight returned to him. The same kind of Grimm waits for them, and this time they don’t hesitate to follow it’s lead.

As they approach the door Mercury puts his hand on Emerald's shoulder and pulls her to a halt.

“See you on the other side” He smirks as the grimm pushes the door open.

He sends her a salute as he strides in, and she can’t do anything but watch as the large doors creak closed behind him, effectively cutting him off from her.

-
An hour passes with Emerald impatiently pacing the hall outside. She can’t hear anything through the thick doors, and that makes her stomach twist. She’s pulled out of her worrying by the sound of heels clacking against the floor, she looks up to see Cinder.

“Cinder!” she cries stepping towards, “Good morning! How is your traini-” she’s silenced by Cinder sharply raising her hand. Frozen, Emerald glances down at the floor, Cinder is scowling at her. She seems to be doing that a lot more after Beacon, her smiles became crueler, and baring teeth became much more frequent, Emerald can’t say she’s a fan of the change, but unlike Mercury, she’s not going to voice that.

Emeralds posture stiffens as her eyes glued to the floor. Cinder sneers at her..

A warm hand is placed on Emeralds shoulder, and subconsciously she leans into it. Cinders rasping voice makes its way to her.

“Know who you’re loyal to” she wheezes, “Remember who gave you everything you have today” her grip tightens almost painfully.

Emerald swallows painfully, her mind jumps to her life before Cinder. How the hunger clawed at her stomach, the empty ache that twisted painfully everytime she passed a restaurant, the desperation she felt as she scavenged through dumpsters for something, anything she could consume. The constant wariness that came with living on the streets, the fear that she’ll lose the very few possessions she has.

Cinder gave her everything, and even if she’s colder now, crueler, Emerald owes her everything.

“I owe you everything Cinder, of course I know who I’m loyal to”

Cinders sneer twists into a smile, but it’s not kind, it’s the kind of smile a rabbit would see before a wolf lunges for it. It’s predatory.

Their attention shatters at the groan of the double doors revealing Mercury being led out by the familiar Grimm. He’s leaning to one side, swaying slightly, but despite this his shoulders are tense as he appears to be trying his best to stand tall.

Emerald misses the sneer that appears on Cinders face as her eyes land on him, and she definitely missed the snarl that twists at Cinders face as Emerald hurries to Mercury’s side.

He jumps slightly as her hand comes into contact with him in order to help support him, before relaxing. A tired crooked grin plasters itself onto his face as he tilts his head towards her. He opens his mouth to say something before snorting.

“What?” Emerald asks indignantly

“Nothing, nothing” he says airily, she pushes him lightly, but it still causes him to stumble a bit, “Hey! Your bedside manners are terrible, I can see why you’re not a nurse” he cries dramatically

Emerald rolls her eyes, “oh shut up” she says light heartedly, finally remembering to let her semblance flicker to life. She turns to face the corridor, and immediately feels Mercury stiffen as he sees Cinder, he forces himself to relax.

“Cinder” he acknowledges formally, nodding his head at the woman before them, his voice void of any emotion, steady and calm. It always takes Emerald back how swiftly Mercury can slip on the mask of indifferent professionalism.

Emerald watches as Cinders gaze shifts from Mercury back to her, and she can’t quite suppress the shiver that shoots down her spine as Cinders eyes narrow.

Mercury must have noticed, as he nonchalantly steps away from Emerald, and crosses his arms casually.

“We shouldn’t keep you from your training any longer,” he says loudly, Cinders eyes snap back to him, and she says nothing as she strides between the two of them, and into the room.

A beat of silence passes.

Mercury huffs, “I would roll my eyes if I could”

The Grimm steps up to him, taking his arm, and this time Mercury lets it. Emerald wants to protest, but her mind flickers back to the narrowed eyed glare Cinder sent her. She knows what Emerald is doing, and she doesn’t seem happy about it.

“She’s having a rough time…” She says quietly, and Mercury doesn’t respond. Emerald's gaze finds her feet as they walk.

“You can stop with your semblance if all I’m gonna see is the floor” Mercury states after a while. Something within him twists at the thought that Cinder knows he's is relying on Emerald's semblance to see, and a part of him feels uneasy at the thought of using Emerald. He forces those thoughts to the side, and shoves those feelings away clenching his jaw. He’s not supposed to feel uneasy, he’s not meant to feel at all.

Emerald keeps her head up after that.

-

Three Days

That’s how long it takes for Mercury to see again. Three days of sticking closely to Emeralds side as she silently, and without question lets him see through her eyes. Three days of his stomach rolling and twisting uncomfortably at the thought of relying on someone else, let alone someone else's semblance to function, as the echo of his fathers voice screams at him that he’s pathetic.

When Salem unravels the dark ribbons from his face he blinks blearily as dim light floods into his vision. His eyes widen as excitement rushes through him. He lets out a breathy laugh.

Salem humms contemplatively as she pushes his hair out of his face and inspects his eyes. He can’t see her, not properly. Her form is there, stark white standing out from the dim room, but it’s her eyes that he manages to lock onto. He didn’t notice during their initial encounter, but they seem to glow, a menacing red, his brow creases in confusion. Surely he would have noticed that.

Dread fills his core.

Mercury squints as Salem steps away, the room seems brighter now. He still can’t make out more than Salem's figure, he can feel his eyes leaking again, the familiar thickness slides down his face, but this time it hurts, more than it ever hurt previously. He clenches his fists as he brings his them up to wipe his face, it throbs, and stings, at the same time, it’s like acid running down his face, involuntarily he lets out a gasp.

“We’ve been through this child, you have to make it succumb to you, my tools will not work for the weak”

A familiar chill consumes him as terror floods him.

Mercury grits his teeth, and forces his fists down to his side as his gaze levels on Salem.

He bares his teeth, as he attempts to stomp out the nagging voice in his head that sounds suspiciously like his father that sneer that he will never be strong enough.

“I am not weak” runs like a mantra through his head, as flashes of his upbringing come to mind. He survived the fall of Beacon. He survived ruthless daily beatings. He survived his legs being ripped from him as punishment for trying to escape. He survived having his soul mangled and torn apart.He survived Marcus Black.

‘Weak’ will never be a word that can be used to describe Mercury Black.

He exhales harshly, and the pain quells, but his body remains tense. The steady stream stops, but Mercury does not react.

“You’re better at this than Cinder I must say…” Mercury didn’t think it was possible for his shoulders to get any more tense, “such a convoluted boy, but so…”She pauses for a moment, as if searching for the right word, “obedient, very quick to pick things up. You were clearly taught well”

Mercury face twists into a snarl before he can think about it. The moment he realises this his eyes widen fractionally before he forces his face to fall neutral. He clearly wasn’t fast enough if Salem’s chuckle is anything to go by.

“I said taught well, not taught kindly… I was a mother once,” Mercury looks up at Salem, shocked at the wistful tone and revelation in equal parts, “It was a long time ago,” her tone grows cold, “sometimes being a parent isn’t easy and difficult decisions must be made”

Mercury can’t stop himself from sharply recoiling. Marcus’s voice rings in his ears, echoing an old sentiment his old man would often repeat: “I wouldn’t have to do this if you weren’t so pathetic”, “If you weren’t so weak”, “If you were stronger”

Mercury’s breath stutters, his heart pounds loudly in his chest, and he fears that she can hear it.

His eyes start to burn again, but he doesn’t dare to react. He tries to calm his racing thoughts to no avail. His eyes leak once more, and Salem tuts disappointedly.

“Such a new procedure, there are bound to be some hitches” she laments. Mercury sees her white hand gesture, and suddenly the droplets are no longer falling down his cheeks but are pulled upward. His breath hitches for a brief second as he recalls his nightmare from the other night, but Salem smoothly discards it.

“Perhaps that is enough for today” she states cooly. Mercury doesn’t respond, he closes his eyes as she approaches him with new ribbons and firmly wraps them around his head. “Same time tomorrow” she dismisses him, and he curtly nods before striding to the door, he hears the chilling sound of the increasingly familiar grimm stepping out of the shadows as it joins him. His heart races as the doors groan open, he barely reacts when Emerald semblance kicks into action. He swallows nervously, he wants to say something witty, lighthearted, to show he’s okay, but his flight instinct is still screaming at him to run.

“Let’s go” is all he can muster, and he can see the sideway glances Emerald sends him out of the corner of her eyes.

Chapter Text

Two weeks later Mercury’s eyes are deemed up to standard. No longer does the Grimm fluid leak down his face against his will, no longer does his head throb constantly, and so the ribbons no longer find themselves secured to his face. It’s a little off putting at first, not having the ribbons, he grew accustomed to them, briefly he wondered if he could keep at least one, but he quickly shoved the thought from his mind…

Then Cinder appeared, and Salem dismissed both Emerald and Mercury to do as they will with the day.

The world looks different. Mercury isn’t surprised. Colours are dull, barely there, but not completely. As he looks at Emerald he can see a soft, barely visible glowing green surrounding her, he has to focus in order to see it, but it’s there. They’re lounging around in some sort of library, Emerald’s engrossed in some ancient romance novel, and he rolls his eyes before glancing out the window. He catches his reflection and looks away quickly.

Grimm eyes. He always loathed them. Haunting red glowing in pools of inky darkness. They’re inhuman, monstrous. So seeing them every time he catches himself in a reflection makes him squirm. He thinks back to Watt’s comment “What’s next? Not there’s much left” he shakes his head, ‘he’s wrong’ he argues. Mercury still has his hands, his head, his thoughts but a small voice wonders if any of those are really his, and not just tools for whoever finds a use for him, like a puppet. Marcus took his legs as a punishment, a sick and twisted reminder that Mercury can’t run from him, he took his soul to make him ‘stronger’- but a part of Mercury thinks it was to show that nothing is truly his, and that nothing is sacred. Marcus was a monster, and he trained Mercury to be like him. The saying goes: “eyes are the window to the soul”, and seeing the inhuman eyes that stare back at him everytime he sees his reflection Mercury thinks that maybe he never really was human, and that Marcus got his wish and the only thing that has changed is that now it shows... It makes him feel sick.

He closes his eyes. Listening as Emerald regularly turns a page of her book. He could never get into reading, he found that the letters danced around the page, shifting just enough to make it almost impossible to focus. The blonde teacher from Beacon mentioned something about ‘dis-something’, the name eludes him, his line of work doesn’t necessarily need reading so he didn’t care to remember it.

Time passes peacefully.

For the first time in a while Mercury feels himself relaxing. Cinder sent them away upon arriving in the familiar chamber. He thinks about how orange flared around Cinder when she laid eyes on him, how she grit her teeth before stalking forward. He recalls seeing green blaze around Emerald as they both entered the room with Salem, how it burnt brighter when Cinder coldly waved them away, and how it slowly faded out as the distance between them increased.

It makes sense that he would see negative emotions really. If he looks at it from the right angle he could pretend it’s his semblance… but he doesn’t, the persistent emptiness in his chest makes sure of that.

He sighs.

“You good?” Emerald asks, pausing from where she was turning another page in her book.

“Yeah, just bored” Mercury looks at her lazily, his eyes meet hers and his stomach churns as green flickers around her. He looks away, biting at the inside of his cheek.

Somewhere in the distance a clock chimes.

-

Mercury finds that his vision remains relatively unchanged in the dark. When Emerald pulls the thick curtains shut that night Mercury can still see everything with perfect clarity, idly, he notes it as an advantage, but as he stares blankly at the ceiling he finds himself growing restless.

He gives up after a while, electing to stealthily slip out of the room. He pads soundlessly throughout the castle, spinning on his heel and retracing his steps whenever he comes across a dead end (and doing so even faster when he finds Watt’s lab, with Watts still inside). He finds the kitchens, another training room, an outdoor patio, before finally finding himself in a familiar room.

The high walls of the courtyard seem to extend forever before finally curving in to hold a single window in place. A sky light that the remains of the moon gleams through. Mercury stands beneath it, taking a deep breath. He can almost feel the cool sensation as the beams wash over him. Looking up he stares at the shattered moon, and in that moment he feels a wave of tranquility he hadn’t known he was capable of flood him.

Sinking to the floor, Mercury’s gaze stays fixed on the celestial body, his eyes trail the trail of debris and shards, and he wonders if it was always like that... or that if it was like him, whole at one point, and destroyed by something stronger?

Regardless, Mercury watches.

Time trickles by, and a few hours later Mercury snaps out of his trance. He swiftly stands, shutting his eyes, and taking a moment to bath in the light for one last moment before silently striding out of the room before Salem can make an appearance.

He trails through the halls before arriving at his and Emeralds room. He pauses a second before gently slipping in to be met with the familiar click of thief’s respite loading.

“Good morning to you too” he greets Emerald sarcastically, green shines brightly around her, but upon seeing him it dims slightly as she tucks her weapons away.

“Better safe than sorry,” she grumbles, “Where were you?”

“Awww were you worried?” he coos teasingly, she scowls

“Shut up” she says as she throws the covers over herself once more.

Mercury dramatically flops onto his bed, being sure to be as loud and obnoxious as possible.

“Emmerrallddd,” he whines, “I’m starving, lets get breakfast before we go to Cinder”

“Ugh you’re so annoying” she groans from under her covers, “can’t you just go by yourself?”

“By mySELF!?” he exclaims dramatically.

“Yes. By your- ugh whatever fine you win” he smirks triumphantly, “but you better not be smirking by the time these sheets are off, or else you’re on your own” he quickly wipes the smirk from his face, in time for Emeralds disheveled head to appear from beneath the blanket. “I’m taking the bathroom first” she declares, eyes half lidded.

He mock salutes “whatever you say”

She shoots him a wary side eyed glance as she passes his bed, her blanket trailing behind her. As soon as the door clicks shut Mercury hops off the bed and slips on a clean outfit before leaning casually against the wall to wait for the bathroom.

Emerald comes out 5 minutes later looking much more refreshed and awake than she did when she went in. Mercury slips into the bathroom, avoiding looking at his reflection. He knows he’ll have to accept them as a permanent part of him at some point, but ‘some point’ isn’t now, and acceptance doesn’t mean he has to like them. He brushes his teeth and scrubs his face quickly, before drying his face and running a hand through his hair as he leaves the bathroom.

Emerald is idlily fiddling with Thief’s Respite, she looks up when he re-enters their room.

“Ready to go?” he asks nonchalantly

Emerald rolls her eyes in response, “I could be sleeping right now”

“But then you wouldn’t be blessed with my company”

“That’s the best part of being asleep,” she shoots him a sarcastic smile, “you’re not there”

“Don’t lie to me Em, I know you dream of me” he easily retorts, returning her smile with an equally sarcastic smirk.

“Ugh, you are impossible!” she exclaims, throwing her hands in the air in mock frustration, but she can’t stop the genuine smile that slides onto her face. Mercury laughs, sarcasm slipping from his face.

The way eating works here is… Strange, to say the least.

They stroll into the dining room and sit next to each other on the long table that sits in the middle of the large room. It’s similar to council hall if he’s being honest, large windows take up the walls, allowing light to flood the room, the only difference is that there’s no platform at the end, no throne that ominously sits above everything else.

A suit of armour with a very obvious grimm mask comes in soon after, carrying trays of neatly chopped fruit and a few juices. Neither know where the food comes from, or who prepares it, but neither dare question it. The kitchen was empty last night, and Mercury has a hard time imagining Salem or some Grimm grocery shopping, let alone preparing food in the kitchen.

Green flares around Emerald as she spots, it crackles around her as it draws near them like lightning it dances around her, it jumps around less than it did when she was face to face with Salem. He wonders vaguely if it’s unique to her, as he thinks back to how Cinders aura flared, spiking up into jagged shapes when she laid eyes on him yesterday.

A plate is placed in front of him. He stares at the mask indifferently as it pauses, before clanking back out of the room. Once the doors slam shut, the green around Emerald seems to disperse.

“Ugh, no meat?” Mercury bemoans as he examines the plate before him.

Emerald sends him an unimpressed gaze, and Mercury’s eyes jump to the harsh spikes that flare around her for a second… ‘interesting’ he thinks to himself as he shrugs, picking up an apple slice and dropping it into his mouth.

“So I’ve never actually stuck around for Cinders training, what’s it like?” he asks through a full mouth.

She looks at him, bored as she pops some berries into her own mouth, “She has to train her arm... something about making it subservient to her… I’m not permitted to attend her maiden training”

‘So that’s what Salem meant by being better at it than Cinder’ Mercury thinks, to himself as he hums, “so what do we do? Stand there and look pretty?”

Her aura flares with sharp edges again, before she huffs.

“She still has trouble talking”

“Right, so you translate, and I stand and look pretty”

Emerald huffs again, “you stand there yes, however, unfortunately for everyone it’s impossible for you to look pretty”

Mercury blinks at her, mouth dropping open as he dramatically claps at his chest, “rude!” he exclaims before snickering loudly. Emerald is smirking smugly, and Mercury smirks right back. “But unfortunately true, ‘pretty’ is not a word that can be used to describe someone as handsome as me”

Emerald rolls her eyes fondly as she throws another mouthful of fruit into her mouth.

They finish quickly after that, and start towards Cinders room. They stand contemplatively outside her door for a few minutes before Mercury gets bored of waiting and knocks firmly on her door. He takes a step back as Cinder pulls the door open, somehow managing to look down on Mercury despite the fact he was noticeably taller. Orange bursts around her in sharp angles, his eyes flicker up for a second at the jerky movement of it, before he evenly meets her eyes.

“Good morning boss!”

Cinder takes a deep breath,and the orange dims around her. She partially acknowledges him as she strides past him, and rolling his eyes he follows along side with Emerald.

Mercury’s brows furrow as they arrive at the council hall instead of the training court. Cinder pushes the doors open and bows curtly as Salem turns, Mercury and Emerald hastily follow suit. Lines like static jump around Cinder and Emerald alike, and Mercury finds his eyes jumping between them, then glancing down at his own aura something clicks.

Fear.

He’s seeing their fear. His eyes widen marginally at the realisation. If he can see fear, then that means every negative emotion has a tell…

Salem motions for Cinder to sit, and Cinder obeys, orange still jumping around her like lightning, and Emerald stands beside him also flickering violently. Mercury shifts, casually placing himself between Emerald and the table, where he proceeds to lean indifferently against the door.

Cinder grunts as Salem's hand twitches, and he has no doubt as to what’s happening, he grits his teeth, quelling any semblance of sympathy or pity.

Salem says something, and Mercury turns his head sharply as his name slips from her tongue.

Cinder glares at him furiously, the orange lightning jerks to familiar sharp angles -’anger’ he notes to himself-, but they seem to shatter and jitter around her. Mercury pushes off from the wall, and meets her glare calmly, ignoring the rolling in his stomach as his gaze slowly shifts to Salem. She curls her fingers softly and Cinder hisses in pain.

“Don’t get upset with the boy because of your own incompetence” she coos cruelly and Cinders gaze snaps to the table, orange melding back to the stuttering lightning. The door creaks behind him and Salem purses her lips as she sits down. Mercury tenses as unsettling clicks begin to echo throughout the room. Stiffly, the turns to look, Emerald has pushed herself against the door, green jumps higher and more sporadically, his eyes widen as they land on the barbed grim that slowly glides past him. Thin tentacles hang from his globe like top, it seems to scan the room, clicking as it goes.

All eyes remain fixed on it as it halts next to Salem’s throne. She looks into it intently, her eyes narrow, eyebrows furrowing in annoyance.

“Cinder… I am going to ask you this one more time...” She begins, voice quiet and screaming a warning, “did. you . kill. Ozpin?”

Neither Emerald or Mercury can see her face, but the way the orange lines jump higher and higher in their jittering Mercury knows she’s terrified.

Her remaining hand curls subtly before she gestures to Emerald, who quickly takes a step forward.

“No!” bellows Salem, slamming her hands on the table. Her eyes glow brightly for a second, and Emerald jumps backwards ducking behind Mercury, who turns without thinking, blocking Emerald from sight. “I want to hear you say it”

Cinder takes a moment, as grated wheezes escape her mouth. She clenches her jaw, swallowing, before managing to force out a raspy “Yes”

Salem sits back, calmly placing one hand atop the other as if she hadn’t just snapped.

“Re-enforce our numbers at Beacon, the relic is there” she orders the strange grimm. It bobs, silently, before clicking and gliding back out the door. Mercury’s fists loosely clench as it passes once more. Contemplatively, Salem glances to the side, “What are you planning…” she murmurs.

The session is dismissed after that.

“See me after you’ve eaten,” she looks at Emerald and Mercury, “you two won’t be necessary”

--

Once the large doors of the council hall slam shut Cinders flickering orange turns bold, sharp. She lunges at Mercury, grabbing his collar and dragging him down to her level. Mercury’s arms jerk up, and he has to force them back down to his sides.

“How?” she rasps in his ear

He knows she’s referring to taming the grimm parts, he opens his mouth to sarcastically respond, but he sees Emeralds fear surrounding her, not as large as when they were with Salem, but large nonetheless, he sees her wide eyes jumping between him and Cinder… Mercury bites his tongue.

“I’ve been through worse, I ‘ve known suffering, and I know I’m not weak” he responds lowly in Cinders ear, before pulling himself out of her grip, “have a good day” he says curtly, nodding his head before stalking off, only pausing to make sure that Emerald too is dismissed, and following behind him.

Chapter Text

Cinder must have learnt something from Mercury's advice. The next day Salem hums, seemingly content at Cinders results.

“Impressive improvement...” The ancient witches’ red eyes slide from Cinder to where Mercury is standing at the end of the hall.

Seemingly feeling her gaze he looks up from the floor and meets her contemplative gaze, ignoring the ice that shoots down his spine. He idly wonders if she can see fear the same way he does, and he barely manages to suppress a shudder at the thought. Cinder follows her gaze, and Mercury sees the anger spike around her, once again shattering and jittering around her, he swallows apprehensively. Salem turns her gaze back down to where Cinder sits.

“Perhaps we should move onto your maiden training…” she stands gracefully, making her way to the doorway as Cinder dutifully follows. Both Mercury and Emerald bow their heads preparing for dismissal, “you two are to accompany us today”

All heads snap up to Salem. She doesn’t look at any of them, instead staring evenly ahead. Mercury feels Emerald's gaze land on him and his face hardens. He nods solemnly, and Emerald follows his lead.

“Come along then” Salem states as she begins striding down the hall regally. Cinder doesn’t spare them a glance as she follows Salem, but Mercury can see her annoyance as clear as day.

As they parade through the parlance Mercury softly nudges Emerald with his elbow, she shoots him a glare. “This should be fun” he whispers cheekily.

It is not fun.

Watching Cinder incinerate grimm after grimm, clearly exhausted and struggling is uncomfortable to watch. Mercury doesn’t know what Salem’s angle is, and that makes him nervous. Emerald is basically a beacon of negative emotions next to him, but he’s too wrapped up in trying to figure out why Salem brought them along, that he doesn’t realise what that means until there’s a beowolf lunging at her. Mercury’s eyes widen as Emerald stands still, hands frozen halfway to her weapons as she looks between Salem and Cinder. Then two things happen at once: Cinder staggers to her feet and lets out a hoarse grunt of effort as she tries to throw flames at the grimm; and Mercury shoves Emerald aside, kicks up, and sends a bullet clean through its throat.

The grimm disintegrates slowly, starting from the bullet hole in its neck. Mercury’s heart is racing as he watches the ashes flutter to the ground, and only when there’s nothing left to watch does he turn to Emerald. She’s staring in horror at where the beowolf once stood, green jumping around her like a storm, her eyes slide to Mercury, and he doesn’t miss the way she flinches slightly as her gaze meets his. He becomes painfully aware that his eyes are just like the grimm he just killed. She seems shaken, but okay. Relief floods through him at that deduction, and he doesn’t know what to say. He can feel Salem's sharp gaze bearing into his back, so he bites his tongue and he shifts his gaze to the floor, and after a moment of hesitation offers his hand. Emerald takes it after another moment, pulling herself up, she wipes her palms on her trousers, wincing slightly. Mercury lets his eyes flicker up to hers, and subtly nods in question, Emeralds lips twitch upwards for a split second, before her jaw clenches and she nods back. He holds her gaze a moment more, before turning back to face Salem and Cinder.

Tension hangs in the air.

Cinders face has twisted into something unreadable as a myriad of negative emotions flicker around her, he catches anger flashing brightly, along with another he doesn’t recognise.It seems to drip off her slowly, falling to the floor. Salem is staring at him calculatively, a small smile, cold fixed on her face. She hums thoughtfully as her gaze turns to Cinder.

“It seems you’ve reached your limit for today,” she announces, Cinders whips her head around to look at Salem nervously, “it’s fortunate Mercury stopped that beowolf, otherwise it would have been unpleasant to clean up the mess.” Both Emerald and Cinder recoil at the comment, and the tension grows heavier. Salem turns away, “Same time tomorrow.” she states and the sentiment of dismissal is clear.

Mercury turns on his heel and stalks out, nudging Emerald as he goes. They wait for Cinder to join them in the hallway, the lighting is better now they’ve left, and Mercury notices Emeralds elbow got scrapped from her fall, a frown tugs at his lips, but Cinder finally makes her appearance before he can say anything. She looks blankly at the two of them, her face hardens as she looks at Mercury, but her gaze lingers on Emerald before she waves her hand at them to leave. Mercury nods in acknowledgement, and Emerald hesitates before doing a quick half bow and following Mercury back to their room.

-

“Are you hurt?” Mercury asks bluntly as soon as they’re through the door of their room.

“Just some scrapes” Emerald replies, revealing her red palms. They sting and throb lightly, but it’s nothing Emerald isn’t used to, regardless Mercury heads to the bathroom to get their first first aid kit. He comes back a moment later, kit in hand, and damp toilet paper.

“Sit.” he orders, and Emerald scoffs.

“I can handle it myself”

“I know,” he says, but makes no move to give her anything. She rolls her eyes and sits down, and Mercury makes quick work of wiping away any dirt from her palms and elbow, and gently applying antibiotic, before inspecting them to see if they need bandages. They didn’t, so Mercury takes a step back. “You froze. Why?” he demands “That could have gotten you killed”

Emerald scowls, “I realised, but I didn’t want to mess with Cinders training”

Mercury snorts it’s a cold hollow imitation of a laugh, “so what? You’d let yourself die? If you and I were training would you just let me hit you?” he asks icily.

“What? No!” she exclaims, “What’s your deal?” she snaps

“You!” He cries angrily, “You could’ve gotten killed!”

“But I didn’t, did I?” She yells back

“And why is that?”

“I could have handled it!”

“Then why didn’t you!?” They’re both shouting now, and Mercury can see the anger rolling off of her, but he’s too angry to care.

“Are you dumb? I already told you!”

“Cinder didn’t save you did she? I did! She’s not gonna protect you! She doesn’t CARE!”

“You don’t know that!” Emerald shrieks

“I don’t know-” Mercury scoffs incredulously, “Look at me Emerald! SHE DIDN’T PROTECT ME DID SHE?” he bellows.

Emerald recoils as if she’d been slapped. Mercury almost feels bad. He sighs, shoulders sagging, he runs a hand down his face. He won’t admit that his eyes felt painfully wet.

“She doesn’t care.” he says again, quieter this time, “We’re a means to an end and that’s it”

Emeralds bottom lip quivers as she glares at him with watery eyes. She doesn’t respond. He can see anger spiking from her, but there’s something else, soft flames, almost dripping upwards. He realises with a start it’s sadness and something inside him twists painfully. Anger he can deal with. He can’t handle sadness. She’s still glaring at him. He sighs once more, eyes finding the floor.

“I’m- “ he hesitates, he’s what? Sorry? No, she had to hear it, Right? He knows that but that’s definitely not the right thing to say, “leaving.” He settles on. She needs space, time to process, and to time cool off.

He swallows thickly as the door slams behind him. His chest aches with an unfamiliar pain, he knows it’s not physical, somewhere in the recess of his mind he recognises it as guilt. He doesn’t like it one bit.

Punching something will surely help.

-

The other training hall is larger than the one he was in earlier. Windows span the upper quarter of the long wall, and mats line the floor. There are a few punching bags lined in the farthest corner and Mercury is glad to see them. He stretches as he crosses the room, then painstakingly drags one away from the wall, and then he’s punching and kicking. He forgoes wraps, gloves, and aura as he falls into a familiar routine.

Punch, punch, dodge.

Punch, punch, kick, kick, dodge.
Kick, kick, knee, dodge.

Punch, punch, dodge.

Repeat.

His mind goes blank as he delivers blow after blow. Never letting up. Ignoring how his knuckles sting with every punch. Sweat begins to form at his brow, his breathing increases. He doesn’t stop.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been there when Tyrians cackle echoes throughout the room.

He still doesn’t stop. But now he makes sure he’s also focusing on his surroundings. Tyrian steps into the light at the other end of the hall. So the freak is back from his mission.

“My my, what do we have here?” He giggles as he galivants across the room.

“I’m not in the mood.” he states coldly.

Tyrian seems to think that’s a good joke. He barks out a laugh, “After a lovers quarrel like that, I can only imagine.”

Mercury stops his routine. Glaring at Tyrian. “How much did you hear?” he growls. Tryian giggles.

“So that’s what was hidden under those ribbons, how monstrous!” he exclaims joyfully as he leans into Mercury's space, reaching for his face. Mercury slaps his hand away and scowls, ignoring the discomfort that rolls in his stomach at both the encroachment of his personal space, and the reminder of his inhuman eyes.

“How much did you hear?” he demands again.

Tyrian rolls his eyes, “Such disrespect from youths nowadays,” his tail flicks behind him, and Mercury notices a bandage where his stinger used to be, “does it matter how much I heard?”

Mercury grits his teeth.

“How much?”

Tyrian laughs, “Goodness you are a moody one aren’t you? I suppose we’d have good old Marcus to thank fo-”

Mercury punches at him without a second thought. Tyrian very narrowly dodges, and Mercury’s eyes narrow.

Laughter bubbles out of Tyrian, “touchy too, straight to violence, just like your father”

Mercury’s insides go cold. He lets out a roar, as he kicks at Tyrian, throwing his usual caution to the wind. Tyrian smirks as he blocks with his forearms and flips backwards, catching Mercury with a swift kick to the chin. Mercury manages to twist into a spring flip and lands some distance away. He starts thinking of everything he knows about Tryian, and a worrying amount comes up blank. He’s never seen the man fight. Tyrian runs at him, hand outstretched. Leaning backwards, Mercury feels the breeze as it slides past his face. He follows the momentum and attempts to pull the same trick Tyrian did earlier. He misses, as Tyrian dodges to the side. Quickly he shifts his hands and does a spin kick that manages to land a solid hit. Tyrian lets out a yell as he brings his hands to his face as Mercury gets back on his feet.

‘Think! Think!’ He screams at himself internally as he watches purple spike around the older man, ‘aura… Aura drain!’ He remembers the day Salem took his eyes and how Tyrian gleefully put his hand on Mercury's back shortly followed by the sensation of his Aura shattering.

Mercury grimances. Tyrian seems to be back in the game, and furious. Mercury can work with anger. Then Tyrian's hand and eyes glow purple as he grins, and Mercury is a little less sure. The sharp purple fades away from around him and Mercury sucks in a breath. If he can keep him on defensive then maybe… Tyrian runs at him again, keeping low to the ground, Mercury jumps up, somersaulting into a heel kick, and when that misses, quickly shifting sweeping his leg around in an attempt to unbalance Tyrian. The man laughs, “now this is interesting” he reaches for Mercury's leg, but Mercury spins around before directing two consecutive kicks that Tyrian is forced to block. Using the momentum of the second one he lands upright on his feet again before spinning into a roundhouse kick that Tyrian easily dodges. He twists on his heel and brings his foot down. Tyrian also dodges that, but he hums contemplatively as he does it, and then horror rushes through Mercury as he realises Tyrian isn’t fighting him. He swings his leg around, using the momentum to flip away from the faunus. His breathing is laboured and in that moment exhaustion hits him, he’s had a long day, and this fight is fuelled by nothing but anger and adrenaline… but he can’t go down without a fight. Tyrian is looking at him curiously.

“What’s wrong boy? Giving up so soon?”

Mercury sneers at him, “Bite me”

Then the fight continues, but this time Mercury makes no move to attack. Only blocking, dodging, ducking and weaving. Tyrian catches on quickly, and somehow the man increases his speed. His foot connects with Mercury's chest and Mercury grimaces as he’s knocked backwards, Tyrian darts behind him, eyes glowing purple, and Mercury quickly deactivates his aura as the older man's glowing hand lands on his shoulder. Tyrian chuckles darkly, and Mercury smirks as he grabs Tyrian's wrist, and elbows him in the stomach. Pulling the older man over his shoulder brings Mercury great satisfaction that is unfortunately short lived, as Tyrian's tail pushes him upright almost immediately.

“Relying on your semblance? Thought you were better than depending on a crutch… guess not” Mercury taunts.

“You are a clever one! What a surprise!” Tyrian cackles. They circle each other for a few moments more, “Unfortunately for you,” the smile slides from his face, as his eyes narrow, “this is getting boring”

Then Mercury is jumping back, frantically trying to block blows. One of Tyrian's hands continues to glow menacingly, so Mercury doesn’t dare reactivate his aura. Blow after blow, Mercury grits his teeth and grimaces as Tryian takes his time wearing Mercury down. Eventually, he feints a punch and knees Mercury harshly in the stomach. When Mercury lurches forward from the force he’s painfully head-butted before he receives a sharp punch to the face that knocks him down.

Instinctually he curls up on his side. ‘Protect the head, protect the chest’ he thinks to himself idly. He doesn’t know if Tyrian is like his father, so better safe than sorry.

“So full of potential...Tragic” Tyrian scoffs from above him, and then he’s gone. Sauntering out of the room, whistling merrily.

Once he hears the echoes of the door slamming shut he allows himself to unfurl and lie on his back. He sighs, wincing as his chest twinges, and reaches up to pinch his nose which has been steadily bleeding since Tyrian punched him. Reactivating his aura he revels in the cool sensation of it washing over his injuries. He frowns as it flickers for a moment, and the pain returns before it stabilises and the pain washes away once more.

He doesn’t know how long he stays there, lying pathetically on the floor. He stays long after he feels the bruises fade from his face, and the ache in his ribs and abdomen disappear. Remembering his fight with Emerald causes a whole different type of chest pain that he would much rather not deal with… So he doesn’t. He wipes his face half heartedly as he stands. He wants nothing more than to sleep, and there’s no way he’s staying the night in the training hall. So dragging his feet, he makes the trek back to their room. He hesitates outside the door. He and Emerald have fought plenty of times, more often than not they’re bickering, but it never felt this serious, this painful. He leans his head against the door, taking a deep breath then quietly opening it. The curtains are drawn shut and he sees Emerald shift in her bed as she peaks her head out from beneath the covers.

“Sorry... if I woke you up” He says hollowly as he trudges to the bathroom. Emerald looks alert now.

“Where were you? It’s-” she checks her scroll-” two in the morning”

“Oh” is all he responds as he flicks the lights on for the bathroom, “you can go back to sleep”

“Is that blood on your face?” Mercury shrugs in response, stepping into the bathroom and nudging the door, “Mercury!” she says frantically.

“Just go to sleep Emerald”

She doesn’t listen to him, of course. The door creaks open as Mercury splashes running water onto his face and neck. He notices it got on his shirt and he huffs.

“Mercury what happened?” she asks.

“Doesn’t matter”

“You were hurt”

“And now I’m not, move on”

“Why are you making this so hard?” she demands harshly

“What do you want from me? I picked a fight and lost, okay? I got hurt ‘cause I wasn’t good enough, is that what you want to hear?”

Emerald purses her lips.

“You lost to Watts?” she asks incredulously, ignoring 75% of what he said, and Mercury can’t help the huff of laughter that bubbles out of him.

“No way, Tyrians back”

At this Emeralds eyes widen

“You fought Tyrian! He’s psychotic, are you insane? You’re lucky he didn’t kill you!” Something within him lightened at the display of worry.

“He didn’t even try Em, if he wanted me dead I would be dead… but I don’t think he’d mess with ‘his Queen's pet project’”

That didn’t seem to make Emerald feel any better.

“Are you sure you’re okay?

“I’m fine Em, promise, just tired… go back to sleep, we need to be up early if we’re gonna get breakfast before Cinders training”

She doesn’t move, not immediately, green bubbles seem to drip from her before they pop, and one look at her face tells him exactly what they represents.

Worry.

“Seriously Em, I’m fine, I’ll be out in 10 minutes, just gotta brush my teeth and change.”

That seems to have done the trick, as she quietly bids him good night and slips out of the bathroom.

Mercury makes quick work of washing his face and brushing his teeth, then quickly grabs his sleepwear and slips back into the bathroom to change.

He’s done in less than ten minutes.

He flicks the bathroom light off, before realising he didn’t actually need it on. Narrowly suppressing the urge to face palm, he slips into bed and mulls over the day's events.

Losing to Tyrian came as no surprise to him. Mercury lacks experience, and strength, and from what he can gather about Tyrian he’d be a hard match for even the best huntsmen… Still, the way he toyed with him, as if the fight were a game leaves him feeling insulted, then he remembers the last 2 minutes of the fight and figures that maybe it was for the best that the faunus didn’t completely try.

He’s genuinely surprised Emerald was worried about him. She was furious and sad when he left, by all means she should still be ignoring him...Though he guesses it makes sense... If Emerald came back in the dead of night with blood on her face he supposes he’d be worried too, but he and Emerald are two different fields, it’s in Mercury’s job description to fight, it’s expected he won't come out unscathed every time… Regardless, the light feeling in his chest returns as he realises that he has someone who actually cares about him. Despite a small voice in his head jeering that trusting someone or letting someone care “is a sign of weakness, a crutch,” a smile tugs at his face at the thought of Emerald caring,

He sleeps peacefully that night.

Chapter Text

The next week passes without incident.

Cinder finally regains her voice. Mercury continues to avoid looking at his eyes, and makes sure to avoid the training rooms and any area Tyrian would lurk. Emerald sticks closely to either of the above. Neither Emerald, nor Mercury bring up their argument from the week before. Emerald doesn’t believe him, so Mercury doesn’t apologise. Water under the bridge.

Cinder decides to take training into her own hands and has Emerald create illusions to fight… fight may be a strong word though given Cinder doesn’t move from her place and fires repeatedly at the same spot. Mercury comes with her and watches critically. Emerald looks uncomfortable, but not physically, not yet anyway… He wonders what she’s inducing, but says nothing as he leans casually against the wall next to her.

The last day of the week, Salem calmly informs them that she has been aware of Cinders private training, and is pleased with her initiative. Cinder smirks, there’s smugness to her that suggests she knew all along that Salem knew. Mercury doesn’t like it. So when wave after wave of Grimm are sent once more Cinder deals with them with ease, as Mercury leans against the wall watching for any wayward grimm.

Then Salem turns her gaze to the two of them, focusing on Emerald, and Mercury feels his shoulders tense as green flares around her.

“You’ve been assisting Cinder with her private training,” it’s a statement, but Emerald nods anyways, “well then, let’s see what’s been so useful”

Both Mercury and Emerald's eyes widen fractionally. Emeralds gaze darting to Cinder for confirmation. Cinder gives Emerald a firm nod. Mercury keeps a careful eye on Emerald as she focuses. He doesn’t even know if Emerald's semblance will work on Salem, Salem carefully watches Cinder as the woman focuses on the air in front of her.

A stream of fire shoots from Cinders hand, and Mercury can feel the heat from where he’s leaning against the cool wall. His gaze stays fixed on Emerald. She sways a bit, and grimaces lightly, but she stays standing. His eyes dart to Salem, who has a dark smile on her face.

“Very good Cinder, I believe you’re finally ready to reach out to the spring maiden… I will brief you along with Watts tonight at seven over dinner, and you are to set off tomorrow morning… your disciples needn’t come” and then with a graceful wave of her hand she dismisses them.

The three of them file out swiftly.

They stand in a circle outside of the hall, “you will meet me at 6 tomorrow morning to be briefed, and you will be ready to leave before then, understood?” She says, her voice is still raspy and a bit quiet, but it’s still sharp and steel like.

“Yes ma’am“ Mercury says lazily, and Emerald respectfully replies “yes Cinder”

Cinders eyes narrow at Mercury’s nonchalance, but she doesn’t comment on it . Annoyance flares around her, and Mercury holds her gaze steadily, unwavering. Her mouth twitches into a frown for a second.

“Good, then I will see you tomorrow,” she states, before turning on her heel and stalking off.

Emerald and Mercury watch her go, unmoving. When she finally rounds the corner at the end of the corridor Mercury turns to Emerald.

“You good?” He asks

She stares at him for a moment, “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Two people and all that, what were you making them see anyway?”

Emerald grimaces a bit at that, bringing her hand to her temple, as if she’d forgotten about the pounding headache that over exerting her semblance causes her. “It’s nothing bad”

“The obvious discomfort on your face suggests otherwise”

She shoots him a glare at that, “it doesn’t matter, drop it”

“Whatever you say,” Mercury says, holding his hands up in mock surrender, “come on, we got a whole rest of the day to waste”

-

They find themselves back in the library, much to Mercury’s displeasure. Emerald back to reading her story, and Mercury splayed across a sofa, tapping the armrest restlessly.

Mercury listens to her turn page after page, as he stares blankly at the ceiling.

Flip…. Flip… Flip…

…

…

“Mercury?” She asks tentatively, he looks at her humming in acknowledgement, “h-” She hesitates, looking away, he can see the trepidation seeping off of her, “have you ever had to watch someone get killed?”

Mercury snorts at that, “yeah, of course,” Emeralds face twists into something resembling discomfort, “why?”

She seems to contemplate her words for a moment, “it’s just… Cinders training…” Mercury sits up, “I have to conjure Ruby-”

“The silver eyed red one who beat Cinder right?” he interrupts, she nods, the book she was reading is closed on her lap as she wrings her hands.

“A-and make her say this whole spiel about how there’s a better way, and that we have to have hope, and-”

“Hold it as Cinder burns it” Mercury finishes for her, his own face grim at the revelation, she nods again, looking relieved that he understands.

“They were so annoying, but… “

“Don’t overthink it,” Mercury states, “We’re not friends, we’re not even on the same side, they cross us they get hurt, simple as that,” but even he fights the urge to grimace at the thought of burning someone like that. He’s seen his fair share of gore, but burning seems excessively cruel.

Emerald looks stricken at the statement, but she understands the ideal behind it, growing up on the streets ensured she knew the mentality, even if she never had to properly enforce it.

“You’re right…” she says, and Mercury’s face lights up as he smirks at her.

“Did you just say I was right?” he asks

Emerald huffs in disbelief at this, “You’re unbelievable” she says exasperated

“Come on,” he goads her, “let’s hear it again”

She rolls her eyes, a fond smile tugging at her lips as the tension melts from her shoulders. “Never”

Mercury snorts at that, and she can’t help but grin.

-
The next morning Emerald and Mercury find themselves shoving their few earthly belongings into rucksacks, and slinging them over their shoulders as they trudge down to eat breakfast.

They eat breakfast in silence, for the first part, but when Emerald almost falls asleep- her face narrowly missing becoming very closely acquainted with the bowl of oats she was meant to be eating- Mercury laughs so hard that Emerald feels the sleep seep away. He doesn’t usually laugh, let alone that hard, so despite the burning in her cheeks from embarrassment, Emerald sends him a sheepish smile.

They find themselves outside Cinders door soon after. Emerald holds a tray of breakfast in her hands as Mercury knocks on her door. It’s exactly 6am.

Cinder lets them in (taking the tray without so much as a thank you Mercury notes).

Cinders room is different to theirs, bigger, with more furniture. She places the tray on a table, sitting down as she does. She doesn’t offer them a seat. They don’t ask.

She fills them in on what they missed last night.

They’re to travel to Raven Branwen’s bandit tribe and get her to hand over the spring maiden, or at the very least get the bandits to work alongside Salem. Raven Branwen rings a bell in Mercury’s mind, images of dealings his father made with a dark haired woman come to mind, but he can’t be certain.

“Branwen? Like Qrow Branwen?” Emerald asks, and Cinder shoots her a sharp look.

“Yes, like Qrow Branwen, they’re siblings” she states coldly. Emerald shrinks into herself. Mercury’s lips twitch downwards for a second.

They set off soon after.

Watts is waiting for them down at the landing dock, standing near an airship. He sneers at them as they approach.

“Couldn’t control your children?”

Cinder clenches her jaw but doesn’t reply, opting to stride past him and onto the airship. He smirks at her lack of response and clambers onto the ship after her. Mercury and Emerald follow suit.

The trip is tense. No one piping up, or starting a conversation. Mercury stares out the side, watching as they pass the landscape. This is the first time they’ve left the Land of Darkness since they arrived after the fall of Beacon. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t relieved to be going, murky red and black were getting tiring.

A chill passes through him as they pass through the portal back into Remnant, and Mercury swallows harshly as he takes in the scenery. The sun is peeking over the mountain, the morning glow should be casting a vibrant light over the forest, the sky should be vivid blue, and the trees lush green… but it all looks dull, washed out, and something clenches in Mercury’s chest. He looks away. He sees Emerald grinning brightly at the scenery, he watches as her eyes scan the view. She closes her eyes, basking in the sun… Mercury looks away again.

They silently drift over the land, passing settlements, and more trees as they go. When night begins to fall they touchdown a little while out of a large-ish town, and Mercury stays behind, watching as Cinder, Watts and Emerald trek towards the town to get some food.

He sighs once they’ve disappeared into the tree-line, and then climbing to the top of the ship he lies there, letting time pass him by. He knows why he couldn’t go with the group, his eyes would raise suspicion and spark fear among the people. He pretends that doesn’t sting, it’s not like he ever belonged with people anyways…

The group come back a while later, Mercury watches them lazily from the airship as they approach. Watts scoffs at him before stalking back into the airship, Cinder shoots him a look of disapproval, and Emerald looks at him contemplatively. She’s holding a bag with what Mercury assumes is food.

She nimbly climbs the airship, joining him on the roof. Rummaging through the bag she produces a sandwich. Mercury takes it, unwrapping it and giving it a sniff.

“You didn’t poison this did you?” he jokes. She smacks his arm lightly, “I’m kidding! I’m kidding… but seriously, you didn’t right?”

“No I didn’t poison your sandwich” she rolls her eyes, laying back, shooting Mercury a look.

“Seems like something someone who’s poisoned my sandwich would say” he says through a mouthful.

She laughs quietly, before looking up at the stars.

“I missed the stars” she says after a while, Mercury turns to look at her, her eyes trail across the sky, he looks up as well.

“Yeah, me too…” he says, crumpling up the paper the sandwich was wrapped in, and laying back as well, “do you know the constellations?”

Emerald shrugs next to him, “no, I didn’t get to see that many, growing up in the city… light pollution and all that…”

Mercury hums contemplatively, “Back when I was growing up I loved looking at the stars, they kept me sane, knowing that there’s so much more out there, they made me feel less alone... “ Emerald stays silent, Mercury never talks about his childhood, she knows it must’ve been bad given he literally murdered the man who raised him and had fresh prosthetics. Something warmed inside her, knowing he trusts her enough to share… He points up,”That’s the northern star, Solitaras,” Emerald points up with him, and he gently guides her arm to the right star, “the end of the brother’s spear constellation” he explains. He moves his arm a bit to the right, “and there’s the beowolf claw constellation, see how to looks really, and I mean really, vaguely looks like a claw?” Emerald nods next to him, then he points to the left, “and that’s the crown of choice, and the king just below it”

Emerald tilts her head trying to draw out the constellations in her head. Mercury’s arm moves again, and he’s pointing out another constellation and explaining it, but Emerald finds that her eyes don’t trail the stars, they trail down his arm, stopping at his face. He’s looking up at the sky, still talking about the stars and their stories, but his profile is illuminated by the moon, mouth moving, and quirking. He has a small scar at the corner of his lip that stretches every time he smiles. His eyes seem to glow in the night, but the light in them is unlike any grimm eyes she’s ever seen, it seems warm, alive, content. There’s a spark in them that’s never present during the day, never present with anyone else, completely different to the defiance and power that seem to burn within him, and Emerald can’t help the fluttering in her chest, knowing that she’s one of the few to ever see it.

She looks up at the sky once more just as Mercury jerks his arm to the side and he quietly gasps, “shooting star” he says giddily.

“Make a wish” Emerald says absent mindedly, Mercury turns to look at her curiously.

“What?”

“You’re supposed to wish on a shooting star.” she explains.

“... why? It’s just a meteor burning up in the atmosphere…” he puzzles, Emerald shrugs beside him.

“It’s just something kids do, like… Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight;I wish I may, I wish I might, ,have the wish I wish tonight, it’s not real…”

Mercury stays silent for a moment…

“City kids are weird” he finally declares, and Emerald makes an exaggerated noise of offence.

“Not everyone can be a feral wolf boy”

“Man I WISH I was raised by wolves, that sounds awesome” Mercury jokingly laments

“You really are impossible”

“It’s all part of my charm”

Emerald suddenly sits up, “oh! I forgot, I got you something”

“So you stole me something”

“Shut up, it’s not my fault it’s easy pickings,” she retorts, Mercury chuckles at that, watching as she reaches into the bag once more and producing a rectangular box, “here, I thought you’d want something like this so you could come with us next time…”

It’s a pair of glasses, the lenses are tinted, and Mercury brings them up to his face, sucking in a sharp breath when he realises that even in the night the colours seem brighter.

“Emerald…” he says breathlessly, turning to look at her, “I… Thank you”

He’s never gotten a gift before, and his heart flutters at the feeling.

Emerald smiles at him softly before stating, “What do you know? You do know how to say thanks”

He smirks at her “Don’t you think you’ll hear it often”

“I wouldn’t dream of it”

Chapter Text

The next day they set off once more, smoothly gliding through the air.

Mercury scans the landscape, feet dangling out the side, and mouth stretched into a smile as he admires the colours through his new glasses. Emerald sits next to him, content in watching the clouds as they drift past. Watts and Cinder sit firmly inside the ship, in a tense silence, Watts taps at his scroll, ignoring Cinder completely, as she plays with fire between her fingers.

They land a little past noon in a clearing not far from the bandit camp, and a midsized settlement. They see it as they descend.

“Go,” Cinder orders, “scout we’ll follow behind”

Mercury and Emerald nod firmly, before walking into the trees.

For such a renowned bandit tribe they have practically no defenses, and a neat path that leads them straight to the front gates.

Three bandits stand outside, two standing armed at each side of the gate, and one in the middle, seemingly giving orders. The two guards seem focused on the orders he’s giving, not really keeping watch. Mercury scoffs. They’re literally in the middle of the path.

“Hey boss man” he jeers as they approach. The centre guy whips around, drawing his weapon. He’s a greasy looking man, long tangled hair, and as he scowls at them, Mercury notices he’s missing a tooth. Mercury smirks, as if there weren’t three guns trained on them. They make no move to fire.

“Is Raven Branwen home?” Emerald asks casually from where she stands next to him. They’ve stopped their approach. The centre guy's aura flares in annoyance at the question, and he lowers his weapon, bringing his other hand up to pinch the space between his eyes.

“You know… I’ve had a real bad week,” he looks at them once more, raising his weapon, “So I think I’m gonna take it out on you two” he sneers, slowly pulling back the revolver's hammer.

“You hear that boss?” Mercury drawls, unaffected by the threat, “looks like he doesn’t want to cooperate”

Cinder laughs from behind him, the weasley looking man tilts his gun to the side, and then his eyes widen as they dart to something behind Mercury and Emerald. Mercury smirks cruelly, he angles his face slightly so he can see her and Watts approaching out of the corner of his eye.

“Is that so...” She smirks, and Mercury turns back to face the man. His gaze hardens at the appearance of the older duo. Cinder steps forward again, flames flickering to life around her eyes, “Lets see about that”

The man is afraid now, as are his comrades. Lightning jumps around them at the sight of the maiden powers.

“Okay! Okay! We’ll let you in!” He yelps, raising his arms in surrender. He motions to his companions, and they begin to open the gate

Cinder hums triumphantly from next to Mercury, she briefly places a hand on his shoulder stopping him from stepping forward..

“Take off those ridiculous glasses, we’re here for business” she hisses, before continuing on her way, Emerald a step behind her. Mercury frowns.

Watts steps next to him, “As much as I loathe to agree with her, I must concur, you’re much more fearsome with the glasses off”

Then he’s gone, stalking after Cinder, Mercury clenches his jaw, but calmly pulls the glasses off, safely tucking them into his pocket. He looks around, readjusting to the dull colours before catching up with the group. He makes sure to hold his head up, and keep his stare level.

As they pass through the gates weary eyes follow them. He sees the array of colours flickering and flaring with an array of emotions. He scans the camp as he goes, but every time he catches someone's gaze he sees their aura crackle around them as fear seeps into them.

It causes a complicated feeling to twist in his chest.

Part of him feels cruelly empowered at the fearful gazes he receives. They recognise him as a force to be reckoned with, as they should, he is. He’s gone through so much shit in his short life, that he deserves the respect, even if it came in the form of fear.

Another part goes cold, as something grips at his heart and squeezes tightly. He had never been one to interact with people, his father made sure of that. Seeing the flurry of emotions his presence wroughts drives a knife into his chest, he’ll never truly be a part of something, never get to live a normal life. He supposes it’s for the best that isolation and pain is all he’s ever known.

They come to a stop in the centre of the camp, the largest tent sits before them. Impressive and grey, elevated a level above the rest. Clearly the chiefs abode.

As if hearing his thoughts she appears. Pushing back the tent flaps and standing tall on the platform. Her face hidden behind a mask she looks out to her tribe.

“I don’t recall inviting so many guests into our home….Either I’m losing my memory, or you’ve all lost your spines!” She announces, not sparing their group any mind.

Unease ripples throughout the camp, none of the bandits speak up… Cinder, however, does.

“Don’t be too hard on them Raven… your men simply recognise the power of a maiden when they see one,” he voice is thick with smugness, and she brings a hand up to her chest, her eyes igniting with flames as if to prove her point. Then, her tone shifts, her eyes narrow, and she continues, “Which is why we’d like to have a word with you”

Raven looks at them through her mask for a moment, before she barks out to her tribe: “Leave us! Pack your things and break down camp! We’re moving!”

The crowd of people disperses, retreating back into the other tents.

Watts looks around unimpressed. “A little late to run and hide, you’ve been on our masters list for quite some time, so you must understand that we cannot allow you to slip away”

“I know all about your master, but I don’t believe we’ve met...” she says coldly as she descends the steps, pointing at them blasely. Something burns around her as her gaze passes over him.

Mercury bites his tongue, oh they’ve met before, but he doubts she’d remember the broken child that followed Marcus around obediently.

“I’m Cinder Fall, this is my associate Arthur Watts, and my disciples… Emerald and Mercury”

Raven scans their line up once more.

“Two children you tricked into following you, a disgraced Atlesian scientist, and a fall maiden with a surname so appropriate she probably picked it herself…” she tips her head to the side, crossing her arms, “something tells me you’ve got more than a slight case of egomania… is that about right?”

Mercury and Emerald exchange looks, Mercury’s brows are furrowed, but his lips twitch upwards in amusement for a second as he shrugs. Emerald doesn’t find it funny at all.

Watts clears his throat. “Technically I was also a doctor, but the rest was spot on”

Cinder scowls, “Aren’t you perceptive” she sneers

Raven tilts her head up, “it’s what’s kept me alive” she says coolly, but there’s a mocking undertone that causes Cinders aura to flare around her.

“I’m afraid the only reason you’re still alive is because you have something our master wants,” she rebuffs hotly, before taking in a breath, and continuing calmly, “Of course… If I’m wrong…” She lifts her hand, as flames encompass it. The threat is clear.

Raven turns her head, back towards the tent. “Vernal!” she calls, and a second, shorter woman makes an appearance.

Vernal pauses for a moment, looking down at the group. Her blue eyes are cold and uninterested, but Mercury can see how unease rolls off of her.

“So… This is the long lost spring maiden” Cinder hums condescendingly, her eyes harden before she continues, “prove it”

The two bandits exchange a glance and then Vernal closes her eyes and slowly lifts her hands. As she does so wind starts to whip around them, the sky darkens as clouds storm ahead. Mercury brings his arm up to protect his face, Emerald and Watts do the same. Somewhere in the recess of his mind he notices that Vernal doesn’t have the familiar flames around her eyes, but he dismisses it as a spring maiden thing, more focused on the impressive display of power.

Then Vernal lowers her hands and the wind slows, but the sky remains dark, ominous. Raven places a hand on her shoulder. “Vernal has done well under my guidance… I’d take that into consideration before you try anything.”

Cinder huffs in amusement. “Raven, I don’t underestimate your intelligence so please don’t insult mine, you claim to know our master, and if that’s true you know starting a fight is futile…” Raven tilts her head at that, annoyance and something else burns around her, “but we’re not here to fight… no, we come bearing an olive branch”

At this Watts steps forward, standing his full height he saunters towards Raven. “The maidens are only a means to an end, Salem's true desires are the relics locked within th,” he says as the distance between him and the Chieftain closes, “come with us, let Vernal here to unlock the relic of knowledge, and all previous acts of defiance against Salem will be forgiven,” he leans down from where he stands in front of her, face leaning closer, “you and I know that’s the best deal you’re both gonna get” he finishes lowly before turning on his heel and stalking back to their group. Tension radiates off of both bandits, but they stand their ground.

“You talk as if walking straight into Haven will be easy…” Raven bites shifting her position- better defensively, Mercury notes.

“That’s because it will be,” Cinder declares with a smug smirk, “Headmaster Lionheart is loyal to Salem now, all we need is the key to the vault ” Raven takes a step back, scanning their line up once more, Mercury feels her gaze linger on him and he smirks as red glows around her. “You’re not the only one to turn their back on Oz, Raven” Cinder says with a cruel smirk in response to Raven's silence.

Raven does not like that.

Red crackles around her in sharp edges. Her head whips back to Cinder and her hand claps the grip of her weapon. “I’m not helping Salem. I’m not helping Oz. I don’t want any part in this” She spits at them as she crouches subtly.

“That ship sailed as soon as you decided to harber a maiden” Cinder quickly rebukes, with a sickly sweet smile “but if you come with us we’ll let you, your people, and even your little secret, live the rest of your days squabbling in the wilderness…” her face smile falls as her eyes narrow, “we just. Need. The relic” the says dangerously.

Still holding her weapon Raven quickly glances at Vernal, “I need time to-”

“You don’t have time” Watts cuts her off, “in two days Haven will be destroyed by the white fang.” He states uninterestedly before looking up, his green eyes searching her helmet, “you’re going to choose now.”

Raven takes another step back, red arcs around her in a different way to the fear Mercury is used to, he squints as he looks at it. “Backing me into a corner, huh?” she chuckles, her aura melting into a more familiar flare annoyance.

“So are you with us, or against us?” Cinder demands impatiently.

Raven hesitates a moment before reluctantly pulling her hands away from the hilt of her sword and towards her helmet. Pulling it off harshly she glares at their group.

“Agreements like this are built on trust, so forgive me for saying, but I don’t trust a single one of you” She spits a them, “You’re gonna have you give me more”

“You are in a poor position to negotiate” Watts splutters, but Raven continues, ignoring his comment.

“I want my brother dead.” Her eyes are cold and hard as she says it, her mouth pulling into a frown.

Mercury’s eyes widen for a moment, ‘that’s unexpected,’ he thinks to himself as his neutral expression slides back into place.

“Qrow?” Cinder questions surprised. Raven smirks.

“He’ll become a problem if he’s not dealt with, and lords know I have enough problems... So,” she declares dramatically, before a calculative smirk settles on her face “do we have an agreement?”

“You sound like you have a plan” Cinder states coldly, “care to share”

“If you insist” Raven jeers, “An ambush. You say Lionheart is loyal to Salem, have him lure Qrow into his school, we attack, we take him down- with one v six it should be easy, you take your relic, and we all live happily ever after. It’s quite simple” She explains with a wave of her hand.

“But he’s not alone” Emerald pipes up nervously, “he has students who survived the fall of the beacon…” glancing at Cinder, she continues, ”He has a silver eyed warrior” She shrinks into herself as all attention turns to her,

“Qrow doesn’t have a reputation for nothing,” Mercury speaks up, all eyes jump to him “we know he has at least four partially trained huntsmen accompanying him… disposing of one body is hard enough, let alone five huntsmen” Ravens head tilts very slightly as her eyes scan him briefly before she meets his sharp gaze.

Watts interjects before any agreement is made “We have one objective, and one objective only” he begins stepping between the women, “Retrieve the relic, while Qrow Branwen is most definitely on our list of individuals who we would very much like dead, we cannot jeopardize that objective.

Cinder steps forward, a cold smile stretching her face,” Then we wait, we coordinate our attack with the White Fangs demolition of the academy, and allow any evidence to be destroyed with the school, kill two birds with one stone so to speak” Ravens eyes narrow at the saying, but she nods nonetheless. Cinder lifts her hand, holding out, but before she can take any steps Watts grabs her wrist. Anger bursts around Cinder, but Mercury sees green spike out of the corner of his eye too.

“If this falls to pieces because of your grudge against a child I will take no blame” He scowls in a low voice, as Cinder snarls at him.

“Then what are you worried about?” She grits as her eyes flicker with flames. Watts jerks his hand away as his gloves smoke, he glares at her as she strides past, but Cinders eyes are locked with Ravens, “Sounds like we have a deal” she almost purrs.

Raven glances down at the outstretched hand, then back up at Cinder. Her eyes narrow, but she simply takes her hand, shaking it sharply.

“So we do.”

Chapter Text

The group stays a while after the agreement, they’re invited into the central tent to work out the details. Cinder, Watts and Raven chat amongst themselves pointing out flaws and issues within each other's ideas, with Mercury butting in every now and then with points.

He, Emerald, and Vernal sit in awkward silence for the most part. Emerald and Mercury behind Cinder and Watts, while Vernal sits next to Raven.

After Mercury interjects for the third time Vernal snaps at him, an earthy yellow flares around her.

“Why are children present in adult matters? What does this brat even know?”

Mercury smirks, “I think you’ll find that I know quite a lot,” he declares smugly, then his expression falls into something serious, dangerous, “it’s the family business...” exemplified by the inhuman eyes, he can see the annoyance give to a bit of unease. She huffs, rolling her eyes. Cinder and Watts are shooting Mercury dirty looks, but he seems unphased. Raven on the other hand, has an almost contemplative look on her face.

“If you can’t show the respect required then perhaps you should wait outside” Cinder hisses at him, orange flaming around her. Mercury clenches his jaw, fighting the urge to roll his eyes.

“Yes ma’am” he says curtly, meeting her gaze steadily. A beat passes, Cinder narrows her eye slightly, and Mercury shrugs lightly.

“He will behave, but perhaps his expertise will be… advantageous” she says, turning back to the table.

“And what would his expertise be?” Raven says coolly, “he’s a child,”

“Assassination” Cinder rebuffs coldly

“Is that so... “ Raven scans his face, he shoots her a sarcastic smile, she blinks. Leaning back she looks at Cinder once more, “Alright, let’s hear what he has to say”

CInder jerks her head, at Mercury, and Mercury acknowledges the cue as he trudges towards the table.

He looks at the map of the main hall of Haven academy sprawled on the table as he settles next to it.

“This is your hit,” he says bluntly, “I don’t know anything other than the superficial about the target, Qrow Branwen has a reputation that needs to be considered, you guys have a solid plan, sans the theatrics but you’re all banking on all the huntsmen students fighting,” he taps the entrance on the map, “when the flight instinct still exists” he says almost boredly.

Raven huffs a laugh, “not bad for a kid...but you really think students would run?”

Mercury smirks at that, shrugging non committedly, as he crosses his arms.

“They did in Beacon, and they’re trained to fight grimm. Not humans, but take it or leave it” replies easily.

The adults continue their planning, and Mercury listens silently.

Hours pass, and the sun is starting to dip before Cinder concretes their plan. Raven doesn’t look 100 percent convinced, and Watts just looks bored. Mercury doesn’t say anything, it’s overly showy for his tastes, but she’s covered both exits, and he knows she wouldn’t settle for anything less.

“So the plan is settled”

“... it’s settled” Raven agrees, albeit reluctantly.

“Perfect” Cinder replies through a cold smile.

Raven doesn’t offer to let them stay the night. Her tribe has successfully packed their belongings where they now sit in piles of bags and boxes outside of the many tents.

“Two days” she declares as they leave.

“Two days,” Cinder replies.

She catches Mercury’s gaze just before they leave, there’s a stoniness to them, she wants to talk. He turns his back and strides out, falling into step with Emerald.

They trek back to the airship in silence. Cinder and Watts discuss the intricacies of the plan in low voices. Watts continues to seem pissed off with the whole ordeal, his ridgid shoulders and jerky hand movements seem to be easier to read than his simmering aura.

As he scans their surroundings he realises they’re being followed. It’s the maiden from the camp, she’s good, staying a solid distance away. Her appearance allowed her to blend in almost seamlessly into the environment, but the low glow of yellow catches Mercury’s eye. It crackles slightly as he forces his gaze to pass over it. He decides to not to expose her, Raven wouldn’t try to betray them, not with the looming threat of Salem hanging over them.

When they arrive back at the airship the light of day is fading into warm oranges and yellows, that appear dull to Mercury without his glasses. Cinder and Watts have resorted to bickering quietly as they clamber into the airship, Mercury and Emerald follow suit.

Emerald has been tense since the tent, and Mercury can’t figure out why. He’ll have to talk to her about it later, at the moment Cinder is holding her bag out at him, and looking at him expectantly.

He blinks at it in confusion, he doesn’t take it like she wants him to.

“What?” He asks puzzled.

“Take my bag, we’re not sleeping here another night, we’re going to nearby settlement they’re bound to have an inn”

“I’m not a pack mule” he rebuffs coldly, Cinders eyes glint dangerously, Watts watches amused.

“You are whatever I say you are” she spits icily, “do not forget your place”

Mercury holds her glare for a moment. Orange is flaring around her in sharp angles, and jagged shapes. Then he relents, snatching the bag out of her hand, Cinder preens smugly as Mercury goes to grab his own bag. He tosses Emerald her bag before turning to Watts.

“I’m not carrying your bag” he states bluntly before he stalks off. Watts lets out a laugh.

“You needn’t worry about being my mule,” he jeers condescendingly, “I’m going to be ‘flying back home to tinker with my machines’” he sneers sarcastically as he shoots Cinder a glare, “Salem must be updated on this… change of plans”

Mercury rolls his eyes at Emerald who gives him a look on exasperation. Mercury shruggs as he hops off the airship. A quick scan of the foresst reveals nothing and Mecury assumes Vernal went back to the tribe.

“Why am I not surprised he’s not gonna be fighting?“ He whispers to Emerald with a smirk, this time Emerald rolls her eyes.

The sunset is starting to give into night.

Cinder hums condesendingly. “ We better let you do that then,” she purrs, “you’ve been away from your toys for an awfully long time… Safe trip” she sneers silkily.

Watts rolls his eyes from where he stands in the air ship.

“Don’t screw this up” he scoffs at them before turning his back on them and walking further into the ship. Mercury snorts at this, and Cinder sends him a warning look.

The three of them watch as the airship noislessly rises into the air, and slowly glides away.

“Lets move” Cinder says after a moment, reaching for her scroll. The flash light function flickers on as the trudges into the forrest line. Emerald follows suit, her own scroll flickering to light, Mercury doesn’t bother. He can see just fine.

They make it to town within the hour. The sky is already dark when they arive, Mercury pulls out his new shades as it comes into view, comfortably sliding them onto his face. There aren’t many people around, but the few who are out shoot them weary looks. Cinder asks one of the residents for directions to the inn and he answers curtly, before scurrying away from them. Cinder sneers at his retreating form and both Mercury and Emerald snicker.

The inn is… acceptable. At least to Cinders standard. Cinder gets two rooms, one for herself, and one for Merc and Emerald to share. Mercury hands Cinders bag back to her as she hands him the room key. Emerald wishes Cinder a good night.

Mercury groans as he stretches once they step through the threshold of their own room.

“Guh what a day” he bemoans before flopping onto his bed.

“Yeah, pissing off two maidens, must have been tough” Emerald drawls as she collapses on her own bed, “you shouldn’t have pushed them like that” she adds quietly .

Mercury sighs, “yeah yeah… it’s not like they did anything” he responds easily.

“But what if they did?”

“It would’ve been detrimental for both parties”

An uneasy silence sits over them. Mercury is content to lay on his bed, doing nothing as time passes… Until his stomach grumbles.

He sits up, and stretches, “ I’m gonna go see if I can get some food, want anything?”

Emerald shakes her head, pulling out some food bars from who knows where. Mercury swears she has a secondary semblance that just lets her pull snacks out of thin air.

“You shouldn’t go out without telling Cinder…” she warns

Mercury snickers, “I’ll be back before she knows it, besides, it’s not like she’ll check on us,” he waves her off as he crosses the small room, “later” he says as he slips out the door.

It’s a nice night, like the night before the air is cool and still. Mercury twirls the lien between his fingers as he strolls through the street, glasses firmly fixed on his face as he scans the streets. He didn’t feel like eating in the inn. His eyes land on a noodle shop towards the edge of the settlement, they’d passed it when they arrived.

Sauntering up to the shop, he’s pleased to find that there are quite a few people still eating inside. Laughter and chatter spill out through the door as Mercury steps into the shop. He’s promptly seated at the bar where a menu is placed in front of him.

He looks around, the people don’t pay him any mind, scanning the menu he smiles easily. He’d missed noodles while in Evernight.

“What can I get’cha?” A friendly looking man asks from behind the bar, Mercury doesn’t miss the way he looks at his glasses curiously. Not that he blames the guy, it’s night, and he’s indoors, the glasses are a bit strange.

“Pork noodles thanks” he answers casually, pointing at the item on the menu.

“Anything to drink?”

“Just water”

“Alrighty, we’ll get right to it” The waiter hums as he turns back to look at the chefs who are chatting animatedly to each other.

Mercury watches as the two chefs get to work preparing his meal. A glass of water is placed in front of him by the same waiter who gives him a cheerful smile.

Mercury knows that it wouldn’t be so cheerful if he wasn’t wearing his glasses, or if the guy had known what he’d done.

-

The noodles were good, and tragically short lived as Mercury gobbled up the meal within minutes. He lounges about for a while, watching as the number of patrons trickle down, before tossing his lien on the table and sauntering out of the now mostly empty establishment.

He doesn’t want to go back to the inn quite yet. The fresh air lets him forget about everything and just be…

This doesn’t last of course, because despite his slow pace, and endless detours he soon finds himself standing in front of the inn. He looks up at the nondescript building. It's clearly an old building, the wood is wearing, and the colours have faded, but it seems well cared for, warm, welcoming.

He stares at it for a while, debating whether he should enter or not. It’s getting late, and Emerald is probably waiting for him… A bird squawks above him, from where it circles him high in the air, and somewhere in the back on his mind he recognises it as a raven. He snorts to himself at the irony before taking a step forward towards the inn.

The bird clearly doesn’t agree with his choice as it dives at him causing him to jump back in surprise.

“What the fuck…” he mutters to himself as he watches the bird rocket back into the air, where it continues to fly in loose circles.

He tries to enter the inn once more. This time the bird dives down, pecks at this head, and tugs at his hair with its talons.

“Ow! What the fuck!” He exclaims a little louder bringing his hand up to his hair. The bird has once more resumed it’s loose circles. “Fucking bird,” he grits quietly. He brings his hands up in an aggressive ‘what?’ motion as he looks up at the bird.

It does one more circle before looking at the forest and deviating from its path to arc towards the said forest. Mercury rolls his eyes and moves to the inn for the third time.

Then the bird takes his fucking glasses.

Mercury’s heart plummets as the warm colours get yanked away with the lenses.

“What the fuck? HEY!” he shouts as he runs after the bird. It’s lucky that the streets are empty, as following a high flying bird while keeping one’s head down is an impossible task. Once they hit the forest line the bird drops, flying low enough for Mercury to track it through the trees.

As he dodges and weaves through the trees he sees the bird pull further away from him. He stumbles on a root, cursing as he regains his balance. He loses sight of the bird for a second. He sees a glimpse of it’s tail feathers taking a sharp turn past a trunk and into a clearing. He pivots sharply, eyes widening as the bird disappears to reveal- “what the fuck...” he breathes, before straightening, and schooling his face back into one of neutrality, “Raven.” he acknowledges cooly. She stands in the centre of the clearing, twirling his glasses between her fingers nimbly. The way she smirks at him makes it clear his shock wasn’t nearly as well disguised as he had hoped. “A bit on the nose isn’t it?” he jibes petulantly crossing his arms over his chest.

She laughs at that, before tilting her head, placing a hand on her hip, “Mercury Black…” she says, gauging his reaction. He stands a little straighter, his arms fall back down to his side, his eyes harden. “It’s been a while”

“Oh, so you do remember” he says coldly, “What do you want?”

“I was surprised to see you in the Vytal Tournament, shame about your leg…” Mercury snorts humorlessly, “how’s your father?” she asks seriously.

“Dead.”

Raven hums… “Good for you”

“Yeah...” Mercury scoffs, “good for me” resentment bubbles up within him, but something strikes him as odd. Why would Raven -of all people- be watching the Vytal tournament, as he holds her gaze he realises something. She bears a striking resemblance to the girl he ’fought’ in the finals, the one Emerald called a bimbo.

“So how’d you end up with the egomaniac? Don’t tell me she offered you candy” she asks dryly.

Mercury rolls his eyes, “Right place, right time, What’s it to you?”

Raven contemplates this for a moment.”Nothing really… Are you happy?”

Something twists in Mercury’s stomach at the question. He looks away.

“As I’ll ever be,” he says hollowly, then he bitterly continues, turning his sharp gaze back to the woman before him, “You’ve never cared before Raven, why the change of heart?”

Ravens gaze hardens, “you’re engaging in an impossible war as nothing but a pawn, and with a life as miserable as yours call it morbid curiosity, not a change of heart”

Mercury snarls at that, “Is that why you dragged me out here? To tell me I have a miserable life? That I’m expendable? As if I didn’t realise?”

Raven shifts in her place, placing her hand on the hilt of her sword. Mercury scoffs.

“Then why are you here?”

“You took my fucking glasses”

“Why are you with Salem?” She asks forcefully.

“You’re not my mother Raven, I don’t have to answer to you. You do your job, and I’ll do mine” he spits back. He’s not working for Salem, he’s working for Cinder… Who just so happens to be working for Salem.

That seems to strike a nerve as sharp edges of red flares around her. She brings her hand up to her face and pinches the bridge of her nose.

“Fucking kids nowadays” she mutters to herself, before looking up at the agitated young man in front of her. “You’re right, I’m not your mother, but I’m gonna ask you one thing: Is it worth it? Was losing your eyes worth it? You’ve had a shit life Black”- Mercury twitches at the name, “but you are strong, you are ruthless, and you’re willing to kill for what you want,” she punctuates each statement with a step towards him, “unfortunately, you don’t seem to know how to think for yourself, so take your glasses,” she lazily tosses them to him, he catches them carefully, “and go back to being a good little soldier, but ask yourself: Do you really want to die fighting someone else’s impossible war?”

With that she turns on her heel and strides towards the forest line once more, “oh, and Mercury?” She doesn’t turn to look at him, “I’m not sorry I didn’t help you as a child, Marcus was a powerful man, with the reputation of a monster, and I’m not in the business of saving people, especially people who are too weak to save themselves, but I’m glad it was you who got to end him” and then she disappears behind a tree and a raven caws as it flaps away.

Mercury watches as it flies away, still clasping the glasses. He sighs, as he processes the rather one sided conversation he just participated in. A storm of emotions rage within him. He sighs again, running a hand through his hair. The fact he can’t figure out what Raven wanted nags at him. The fact she wasn’t sorry for letting him suffer as a child sparks anger within him. His legs ache as a painful reminder of the last time he thought he could free himself. He knows he’s stronger now, but the fact is he’s not the strongest, his eyes are a testament to that.

He has no choice but to be a ‘good little soldier’ ; it's all he’s ever known.

Cinder doesn’t hurt him. She doesn’t have anything over him, he doesn’t owe her anything like Emerald-

His mind jumps to Emerald, and with a start he realises how late it’s actually gotten. Turning on his heel Mercury hurries back to settlement.

He pushes the conversation out of his mind as he steps into the in, and climbs the steps up to their room. There’s no point in worrying about a pointless conversation.

Emerald is passed out as he silently cracks the door open. The lights are still on in their room, meaning she was waiting for him to come back. A strange feeling washes over him as a soft smile slips onto his face, despite the exasperation he feels with her blatant display of caring.

Mercury stealthily gets ready for bed, softly clicking the lamp off as he slips under his covers. He tries to sleep, but two sentiments echo around his head keeping him awake:

‘Is it worth it?’

‘Do you want to die fighting someone else's war?’

Chapter Text

Emerald wakes up the next day with a crick in her neck. She blinks a bit, stretching as her eyes adjust to the light. Glancing over at the other bed she sees Mercury asleep, curled up beneath the covers. Relief floods through her, she had worried that he wouldn’t come back. She sighs quietly bringing her knees up to her chest. Her mind jumps back to the previous day, the nervousness that wracked her body as she stood before the bandit chief, as she spoke up to remind Cinder that Ruby, the girl who crippled her, ruined her, was with Qrow. Then to how her heart clenched anxiously as Mercury spoke his mind, snarking with the maiden in the presence of one of the most deadly bandit leaders in remnant. She admires that about him: His fearlessness in the face of danger and threats, though she sometimes wonders if it’s genuine, a really good facade, or just straight arrogance.

Everything seems so big now, and Emerald just feels so small. Back in Beacon, sure the stakes were high, but Emerald felt like she was a part of it. A key player! Cinders right hand. Now… Now the stakes are higher, but she doesn’t know what part she’s meant to play. She feels lost, afraid… The introduction of Salem and the concept of a centuries old war mortifies her. Something shifted since Cinder woke up, she seems colder, despite the added flame powers. Her gazes seem sharper, crueller, and Emerald doesn’t feel the same confidence she held before in calling herself Cinders’ partner… Then Mercury lost his eyes, and Emerald's resolve shattered. This new Cinder is not the Cinder from Beacon, there was no stepping in and defending them from her associates, no motherly soothing or scolding, no honey laced encouragement…

She owes Cinder everything, that’s the one truth that she knows for sure, and she grasps almost desperately to it. But there’s no denying that despite their rocky start, she cares for Mercury, and somehow that terrifies her more than anything, because she knows there’s a very real chance she could lose him.

She slips out of her own bed and tiptoes over to his. He looks peaceful when he’s sleeping, his face is relaxed, and he breathes evenly...

She almost feels bad when she pokes him sharply in the side. He jerks violently, flailing as he falls off the otherside of the bed, hitting the floor with a thump. He immediately scrambles to his feet in a defensive position, eyes wild before they land on Emerald. It takes a couple seconds for the recognition filter into his eyes, and the feral gleam to fade.

His hands drop to his sides as he shakes them, and he rolls his shoulders in a bid of nonchalance .

“Em. What the fuck?” he deadpans.

“Good Morning to you too” she smirks

He rolls his eyes at her as he brings his arms up into a stretch. As he does so the hem of his shirt lifts, and Emerald finds her eyes jumping to his now exposed stomach. It takes a second for her to realise, and her face darkens as she forces her gaze away. He notices, a cocky smile stretches across his face.

“Shut up” Emerald mutters darkly

Mercury laughs at that, “I didn’t say anything”

-

They have most of the day to kill. Cinder waves them off with a warning to not cause trouble, and to meet her by the bandit settlement at 3. So they aimlessly wander the streets of the small town, ignoring the strange stares from the people.
It’s a lovely day, the sun shines brightly, as she feels the rays warm her skin. She tilts her head back, and closes her eyes. Light filters through her eyelids, as she breathes deeply. Mercury bumps her and she quickly snaps to attention.

“Hungry?” he asks, as he expectantly stares at her through his shades. She never thought she’d miss the way his grey eyes would glint in the light like diamonds.

She shrugs. “Sure”

“I know a place”

He saunters ahead, leaving Emerald to follow. She rolls her eyes but trails behind him as he leads the way. Eventually they find themselves at the edge of the settlement, Emerald watches as Mercury enters a small shop. She eyes it critically. It’s shabby, clearly not a luxurious establishment, but she enters after him. He’s settling into a bar stool, a waiter looks up and recognition flashes on his face. She sits next to him.

“Hello again!” The waiter chirps as he slides to stand beside Mercury. Emerald resists the urge to roll her eyes at his overly enthusiastic greeting. The worker then notices Emerald, “you brought a friend!” he beams, “anything to drink?”

“Just water” he replies curtly, the waiter's smile doesn’t waver as he turns his quizzical gaze to Emerald.

“King cold, if you have it”

“Not a problem” the waiter smiles as he notes it down, “I’ll be back with your drinks and leave you a minute to have a look at the menu” he salutes as he slides away. Emerald rolls her eyes again as the waiter leaves, she turns to Mercury and is surprised to see a small easy smile plastered across his face. Her brows furrow in confusion, he catches her confused gaze and the small smile morphs into a familiar smirk. She scoffs.

“I’ll get whatever you get” she mutters as she boredly scans the menu.

“Good choice, my taste is impeccable after all”

For the third time, Emerald rolls her eyes. The waiter comes back with their drinks, and Mercury orders for them as Emerald rests her back against the bar-like table, slowly scans the room. It’s not very full, only a few other small groups are seated at tables as they talk quietly among themselves, a wave of laughter breaking out every now and then. The group of men sitting in the corner look like easy marks if the pints of alcohol that litter the table are any indication. It would be so easy to swindle their lien, she could probably-

Mercury bumps her arm. She turns her narrowed eyed stare to him. He looks unphased as he stares curiously into the kitchen, lazily sipping his water.

“Cinder said not to cause trouble” he says without turning to look at her.

She scoffs, “you don’t know what I was thinking”

He snickers into his glass, “I could practically hear you scheming”

She opens her mouth to retort before snapping it shut, “Whatever.” he mutters as she spins on her stool, and dramatically takes a sip of her King Ice.

They sit in comfortable silence, watching the chefs dance around the kitchen preparing food as they sip their drinks. Their meal comes quickly, and the waiter delivers it with a smile which Emerald returns in thanks. As they eat Emerald contemplates ways they could waste the next couple hours, the settlement is tiny and she has no idea what people do for fun. One Mercury slurps the last of his broth; he tosses some lien on the table and looks at her expectantly.

“You done?”
Emerald looks down at her more or less empty bowl and nods, he nods back slowly before slipping out his seat and heading for the door.

“Wha- hey!” she calls after him as she tips the last of her King Ice into her mouth and scurrying out the restaurant after him. “What the crap Mercury?”

“We have…” he pulls out his scroll, she sees its screen light up “another hour till we have to meet Cinder at the settlement, anything you need to do here?” He glances around before turning his stare to her. Despite the dark glasses over his eyes she can feel the intensity of the stare. She can’t read it, or figure out why there’s a sense of urgency to it.

“Uhmm.. not that I can think of?”

“Good. Let’s go” He turns and begins to stride towards the forest.

“Mercury!” Emerald exclaims as she follows suit, into the forests “you said we have another hour!”

“We do. I just have some… unfinished business.” He responds vaguely.

“With what?” she snaps, annoyance flaring at his newfound secretiveness

“With Raven.” He answers curtly. Emerald falters, stopping for a moment as the answer sinks in, nervousness courses through her before she shakes her head and closes the distance between them. Firmly planting herself in front of Mercury, she stops him in his tracks.

“With Raven? Like bandit chief Raven Brawnwen? What did you do?!’

Through the dark lenses of the glasses she sees his eyes widen a bit at the outburst. His glance flickers between her, the forest behind her, and then to his scroll. He sighs, shoulders dropping a bit of the tension he was carrying earlier, slipping his scroll back into his pocket. He puts his hand on Emerald's shoulder, turning her to continue in the direction they were originally going.

“Nothing. She came to me- stole my glasses last night,” Emerald’s narrowed eyes widen at the statement as she looks up at him, he remains staring forward as they walk,” we, uh, have a history of sorts, I just … need to clear somethings up”

Emerald's mind reels at the new information as she dumbfoundedly continues walking at his nudge. ‘A history? With Raven?’ She can’t even begin to comprehend what that could begin to mean, and frankly, that scares her. Mercury has a lot of secrets, he’s guarded and doesn’t talk much about anything, especially his past.

“It’s not a big deal Emerald” He says after a bit of silence. That seems to snap her out of her musings, her gaze snaps to him. He’s still walking, mostly facing forwards, but head angled enough that she meets his eye. He doesn’t keep his gaze on her, focus seemingly rapidly shifting to something just above her, or just to the side. She turns but sees nothing. She notes that he’s been doing that quite a bit recently.

“What kind of history?” she dares to prod. He doesn’t respond, but his jaw clenches. “You don’t have to answer, I- I shouldn’t have asked..” she trails off, internally kicking herself, her pace falling so she’s walking a few steps behind Mercury as opposed to next to him.

He turns to look at her, eyes flickering around her once more. Taking in a breath he forces his gaze forward as he curtly explains “She ran in the same circles as my dad, so I’d see her around, that’s all”

Emerald's mind still whirls at the concept of young Mercury having any connection to anything, let alone Raven, but she accepts the answer easily enough as the trees thin and the path leading to the camp becomes clear. As they begin to follow the path Mercury pauses, Emerald turns to look back at him. His face is stony, guarded and calculating, he meets her eye through the glasses. “I need you to trust me on this” .Emerald brings a hand to her hip, head tilting as she looks at him, eyebrows raised as if to say ‘are you for real?’. If she didn’t trust him she wouldn’t have come. “Just- let me do the talking, even if you think what I say is insanely stupid” he continues. Emerald straightens, trepidation creeping into her, she prepares to object, “...please…” he finishes, and Emerald knows he’s serious. Any objection dies in her throat.

“... okay” She finds herself saying instead.

Chapter Text

Mercury is well aware that his current ’plan‘ is hair brained and bordering stupid. Hell, it could barely be called a ‘plan’, But hey, he never really learned better. Emerald trusted him, and he had at least half an idea, so he’d make it work.

As they approached the gate to the camp he smoothly slipped his glasses off his face and into his pockets. Squaring his shoulders and hardening his resolve, he locked eyes with the guard, twisting his mouth into a snarl he nodded to the side. Relief washed through him as they hurriedly moved to the side, allowing them passage into the camp.

Mercury had to give the bandits credit. They were good at packing up. The camp was barren, the bandits now securing their belongings to several carts. Only the chief's quarters remained untouched, though as he pushed through the flaps acting as doors he saw that only applied to the outside. There was a metaphor there somewhere he couldn’t place his finger on. Vernal’s head snapped towards them as they intruded. Emerald's protest fell on his deaf ears, and then fell silent at the murderous gaze of Vernal who was carrying a crate of what Mercury assumed was Ravens stuff.

“You…” she growled

“Me.” Mercury indifferently responds, eyes passing over her as he scans the room “where’s Raven?”

The crate clattered to the floor as Vernal drew her weapons, he could see the nerves and anger flaring off her, just as he saw green flare up to his side. Emerald had also drawn her weapons.

He doesn’t know why he’s surprised.

Regardless, he doesn’t get a chance to respond as Raven emerges from outside, helmet in hand. Annoyance is evident on her face, and her expression darkens at the sight of the stand off before her. She closes her eyes with a terse sigh, bringing her hand up to pinch at her bridge.

“What-“ she begins through gritted teeth,”- is going on here?”

“Chief Branwen!’ Vernal snaps to attention, weapons still drawn and pointed at the two of them, “these two have infiltrated and barged in like they own the place!” She reports indignantly.

Raven, un-pinching the bridge of her nose, looks up at her momentarily, before shifting her gaze over to Mercury. She doesn’t waver as he meets her eye. He shrugs disinterestedly, not disputing Vernals story. Raven sighs once more. In another world, in another time; it could almost be perceived as motherly.

“Stand down Vernal” Raven orders tiredly as she finally moves away from the entrance, looking away from them. She places the helmet on a table as she marks something on the map. “No Master?” she begins tauntingly, before continuing, “I suppose this is you wanting to carry on the conversation from last night” She says not looking back at Mercury. Straight to the point he supposes.

“You could say that.” She looks back at that. Not fully, just a slight turn of her head, just enough that he knows she can see the two of them. Just enough to know she’s interested.

“You brought a friend” it’s not a question.

“I did” he answers regardlessly

She turns more, Mercury can see her eyes flit between him and Emerald, a smirk stretches her lips as she lets out a quiet huff of laughter. Mercury shifts ever so slightly in front of Emerald, a subtle attempt at blocking her from Raven's sight. Raven’s smirk grows, and Mercury clenches his jaw.

“Will she be joining the discussion then?” Raven asks flippantly, gesturing to the table, inviting them to sit.

Unease rolls of Emerald in waves, she meets his eyes, only her aura betraying the second of discomfort at his grimm eyes, but determination is evident in her gaze. She won’t be leaving without a fight. He concedes, they don’t have time to argue.

“Yeah.” His gaze flickers over to Vernal, “Will yours?”

Even without the sparks of her aura showcasing her agitation it’s clear by her face that she’s infuriated at the situation unfurling before her. He doesn’t blame her, he would be too. Raven hums contemplatively.

“I’m sure there are more valuable things for her to be doing with her time, Vernal, if you will,” she nods at the door, leaving no room for arguing.

Anger and hurt burn bright around the woman at her dismissal, but she bites out a “Yes Chief Branwen” before shooting the young pair a vicious glare as she stalks out.

Mercury and Emerald approach the table as Raven sits.

“You’re full of surprises aren’t you?” she begins, “So, what brings you here without the egomaniac? Don’t tell me you’re defecting” she asks humorously

Green flares nervously next to him, Emerald shoots him a wide eyed look.

“No.” He shuts down the thought immediately, he would be stupid to think that defecting would be a good idea, Raven doesn’t seem surprised.

“Well? Then why are you here?”

“I-” Why was he here? Shit. He thought he had a plan, but it seems to have slipped through his fingers. Raven raises a brow. He doesn’t know.

He can feel Emerald's gaze burning into him, he brought her here. She thinks he has a plan. He had a plan. He needs a plan.

“You?” Raven mocks at the pause, and he feels his hackles raise. Mercury sharply exhales through his teeth.

“It’s not worth it.” He settles on, Ravens eyes widen, she had not been expecting that, “But I’m a bit too far in to bail now,” he gestures to his eyes “if this is what happens when I play along, I’d hate to see what happens if I’m caught being a ‘traitor’”

Raven takes a moment, using that time to school her features “So why are you here?” she repeats. The humour is gone, replaced by cold professionalism.

“Because you know things that I don’t, so tell me about this ‘impossible war‘“

—-------

Emerald doesn’t know what to make of the whole situation, but as she sits silently on the airship next to a solemn Mercury she’s not sure that she wants to make any sense of it. If she felt small before she feels like a speck in the grand scheme of things now, and as the sun set she wasn’t sure if she shivered from the cold, or from the new information that Raven shared.

In a day they would be ambushing Qrow and the others.

She looked over to Mercury. He was looking down at the forest passing below them calculatingly, lips pressed together in a frown. Part of her is cursing Mercury for bringing her with him, she wishes that he left her in blissful ignorance. Squeezing her eyes shut she sighs.

‘Get your head in the game Emerald’ she thinks to herself, trying to shake any doubt out of her head.

She turned to look at Cinder. She sits firmly inside the airship, eyes fixed on the opposite seats where Raven and Vernal sat tensely looking at the beautiful views outside. A scowl still etched onto her face. It seems to be her default expression these days.

She must still be pissed that she and Mercury went ahead without her. Emerald feels herself slouch and shrink in shame as she remembers the glare Cinder gave the two of them upon seeing them with Raven and Vernal outside the camp walls.

She’s pulled out of her musing by a bump on the shoulder, she looks up at Mercury. He doesn’t acknowledge her, but his expression has softened, his brows still furrowed, but into something more resembling concern as he continues to look down at the passing scenery. Emerald feels a shadow of a smile pull at her lips. She lightly elbows him in response, Mercury would rather eat glass than admit to caring, but she appreciates the gesture. His eyes jump up from the forest below and meet her gaze from the corner of his eye. He pulls a face between scandalised and disgust and the shadow of a smile on Emeralds face becomes real as she stifles a snicker.

Mercury’s expression softened once more as his mouth quirks into a small lopsided smile.

—-

They arrived at Haven at dawn. Groggily and half asleep they trudge their way to a safe house near the school. Emerald didn’t know what she was expecting but she’s pleasantly surprised to find that it’s an actual house. Upon entering Cinder immediately marches upstairs, and a door clicking shut makes it clear that she’s not to be disturbed.

“Make yourselves at home I guess” Mercury jeers as he moves towards the stairs. Emerald quickly follows after him, turning back to see Ravens unamused expression and the scowl etched on Vernalls face. Emerald doesn’t know where he finds the effort to be snarky after a sleepless night.

Emerald doesn’t even bother surveying the room she and Mercury end up in, her vision zeroes in one of the twin beds and she pushes past Mercury to flop onto it dramatically.

“Unless the house is literally burning down, do not wake me up” she muffles into a pillow as she feels sleep tug at her.

The last thing she hears is Mercury snarking a response.

Chapter Text

Mercury wakes up at noon. The sun gleaming through the drawn curtains tugs him from his slumber. He scrunches his face in annoyance as he glares at the offending light, as he shifts away, he draws the blanket further up in an attempt to get more sleep. It’s a pointless attempt, as even as he closes his eyes he feels wide awake. Huffing, he throws his legs over the side of the bed, scowl etching his face. Emerald is fast asleep in the bed across from him. Her breathing even, a puddle of drool soaks her pillow, he rolls his eyes at the sight, but cannot stop the way the sight softens his scowl.

He seems to be the first one up, which doesn’t surprise him. Tonight they ambush Haven and get the relic, ideally killing Qrow in the process. Mercury’s lips twitch into a frown as he goes over the information Raven divulged the day before. This war has apparently been going on for centuries, and no one even knew. The old man from Beacon literally reincarnates apparently. If he thought it wasn’t worth the effort before, it all seems even more fruitless now. Mercury sits on one of the many sofas in the living room. He can’t be bothered to do any training. There is no point in staying, but there are even less points for going. Raven tried to ‘leave it all behind’ and yet here she is. Still being hunted down, still getting dragged back into it. Chances are she won’t leave this conflict alive, or at the very minimum her precious Spring Maiden won’t. Cinder wants the power of all Maidens for herself, Vernal won’t be leaving the vault.

The stairs creak, Mercury turns to the source of the sound. Raven descends, unbothered by his presence. She levels him with an indifferent look.

“Morning” She greets impassively as she heads for the kitchen. Mercury doesn’t respond as he hears her rummaging through the cupboards. Raven clicks her tongue in annoyance, in the living room Mercury hears her grumble “no fucking good tea”

Mercury doesn’t move from his spot as he continues to brood about the current situation. A kettle whistling with boiling water pulls him from his musings as he feels his stomach clench. He’s hungry, he realises as he purses his lips. Letting out an annoyed sigh he hauls himself up and into the kitchen to scrounge up some food. Raven's gaze flickers up to him as he enters as she fills a tea cup up with boiling water. She doesn’t say anything.

As Mercury goes through empty cupboard after empty cupboard he lets out a groan.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he hisses under his breath.

“You’re telling me” Raven responds dryly from where she sets the kettle aside, picking up the cup and turning to face him. Mercury snaps the cupboard door shut, glaring at Raven from over his shoulder. Unphased, Raven takes a sip of her drink, scrunching her nose at the taste, “Someone must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed” She mocks in response.

Mercury narrows his eyes, “Shut up” he grits. Raven rolls her eyes, she mutters something under her breath as she shakes her head and leaves the kitchen, he has a sneaking suspicion it's about ‘teenagers’ again.

Emerald clambers down soon after, turning into the kitchen and finding Mercury stone faced and glaring at the cupboards from where he leans against the opposite counter, arms crossed.

“Morning” She greets as she stretches, “What’s with the sour face?”

“Afternoon,” he greets in response, “There’s no food”

Emerald snickers, his glare shifts to her.

“So why didn’t you go get any?”

“I only just found out”

“Ah.” responds Emerald, as the realisation sinks in, it's not like they could go outside at the moment. It’s the middle of the day, no doubt the markets would be busy, and given the fact their faces were plastered on about every noticeboard with big fat ‘WANTED’s and a neat list of their crimes against the kingdoms, it would be stupid to even try.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve got some breakfast bars left if you want some?” Emerald offers, she’s relieved she took the time to get a few boxes when they first left the Evernight, but even so she’s surprised at herself for offering.

Mercury seems to be too, if the quick furrow of his brow is anything to indicate. Before Emerald has a chance to backtrack or further dig herself into the hole she’s found herself standing in he shrugs, “I won’t say no to food”

The day passes agonisingly slowly after that. Not much happens, Vernal manages to get some food that they eat in tense and hostile silence.

Mercury and Emerald find themselves back in their room as the sun begins to set. Emerald sits anxiously, knee bouncing as she sits on the bed. Her mind races with every possible outcome, her stomach rolls as worst case scenarios play out in her head. Mercury stoically does push ups on the floor in front of her, in a way it reminds Emerald of their time at Beacon, back when things were simpler, when things made sense. She pulls out her scroll to check the time for what feels like the millionth time.

15 minutes till go time.

Mercury scoffs from where he is on the floor and Emerald feels herself bristle at his nonchalance. “What?” She snaps at him, her heart is pounding in anticipation for this plan, and her confidence is shaken. When the plan happened in Beacon she felt untouchable, they were the big fish, the ones pulling the strings, the ones in control. Then bit by bit it all fell apart. Cinder was almost killed by a first year. They found out about Salem. Mercury- stupid, arrogant Mercury- was…, then Raven filled in the blanks of this fight, and now more than ever she feels terrified of this fight going wrong. She sees Mercury's glance flits to the space around her, his lips twitch downwards, she tries to follow his gaze and sees nothing, and that only seems to agitate her more. “What are you looking at?” she snaps again, throwing her arms out as she stands up above him.

He pauses his push ups, holding his position as his eyes dart back to look at her face, before jumping to the ground as he seemingly deliberates something.

“Nothing. You need to calm down” He finally states neutrally, resuming his push ups. Frustration claws at Emerald's throat. He’s not telling her something, she can tell. She clenches her fists. She doesn’t get him, she’s seen him don the facade of an unbothered professional countless times, and the fact she’s seen him without the facade made her feel less alone. She thinks of his expression when he asked her to trust him yesterday, the almost desperation in his voice.

“Mercury. Drop the shit.” Emerald says darkly, hoping it doesn’t come across as the plea she knows it is.

He finally stops doing his push ups, as he stands up. Emerald hates the fact she has to look up to meet his eye. He holds her gaze, breaking eye contact for a split second as it flickers to the side of her for a split second. “I don’t know what you mean” his face is unreadable, a blank slate, and Emerald’s brows furrow in response. She doesn’t know why his coldness stings.
“We have a job to do, save that energy for the fight, don’t waste it on giving me shit for no reason”

Emerald exhales sharply as she steps back, checking the time once more. 10 minutes.

“Fine.” She bites, “We better get downstairs” She turns taking strides to the door, as her hand closes around the doorknob Mercury speaks

“Em-” She turns to look at him, door half open, “Good luck” he says with a quick nod.

“Yeah. You too” She responds curtly before turning and heading downstairs with him shortly behind her.

—

Mercury feels like kicking himself as they step through Raven's portal. He shoves his toiling feelings of his spat with Emerald to the back of his mind as a smirk slides onto his face as the ragtag team of ‘huntsmen’ and Qrow all step back in shock at the sight of them.

An array of colours fill the air: Anger mostly, but shock, hurt, and fear are far from lacking. The blondies are alight with rage, Mercury almost can’t tear his eyes away from how brightly they burn.

His smirk grows “Come on guys, is that anyway to greet old friends” he taunts. He watches the rage grow brighter. As the bimbo takes a step forward, gauntlets at the ready. She opens her mouth to retort but is interrupted as Qrow snaps at the teens to remain calm. Hazel enters and everything seems to drag.

Mercury is itching to fight as they stand off, Cinder dramatically rambling, Qrow heroically snapping back, then the blonde guy steps forward, his aura burns around him clashing shapes and movements flow from him as he shouts to Cinder about her past crimes.

“...Who are you again?” She finally responds boredly as he demands an answer. His aura turns sharp and he charges. Finally. Red jumps to his defense, and as Emerald yanks her down with Theifs Respite informing her that she wouldn’t get near Cinder, Blondie begins charging forward.

Mercury jumps in front of her with ease. “Hey there Blondie, I think you owe me an apology for my leg don’t you think?” he sneers as he readies himself for the fight.

She snarls, “Sunglasses indoors at night? Just when I think you couldn’t be a bigger asshole” and with that they leap into combat.

Gauntlets and boots meet as they zip across the room, dodging and weaving between each other's attacks, Mercury smiles as she lands a hit, retaliating with two more of his own. Colours flash in his peripheral blending with the coloured shots from weapons, he forces himself to concentrate. He slams his boot down, narrowly missing blondie when he hears a yell. He stands, glancing over to where it came from. Red.

Red and her stupid fucking glowing eyes that are going off, he see’s Emerald lifting theifs respite as the white surrounds him. His head feels like it’s exploding. His vision goes dark as he yells out in pain. He stumbles back, hands clutching at his eyes under the glasses, he feels the stickiness of the grimm fluid dripping into his hand. He grits his teeth as he continues to step back trying to grapple with the pain that threatens to overwhelm him. He hears Emerald call out to him as a gauntletted fist shatters his already shaky aura. He feels the wind knocked out of him as he hits the floor, he hears his glasses clatter away and a horrified gasp as the world go dark.

—

As Ruby falls prone Emerald hears Mercury yell. Her blood turns to ice as she watches him stumble back, hands clawing at his face. Her feet are moving before she even thinks.

“Mercury!” She cries out as she attempts to close the distance, but she’s too far, Yangs fist is already moving. She sees it connect with his chest, the shot going off and his aura shattering as he falls. His glasses fall as she approaches his side and she notices Yang step back in horror at the sight of the black fluid coating his face. Emerald fires her weapon, snapping Yang back into the moment, forcing her to jump back from where she stood over Mercury’s prone form, sliding in front of him weapons raised. Her heart pounds as she snarls “Get away from him!”

Yang stares in horror.

Another scream pierces the air. The heiress. Everything happens in a blur. Yang dashes away, as Emerald drops to her knees checking her friend. She distantly hears a heavy grinding as a pathway is revealed she turns to see Cinder surveying the scene, her eyes go cold as they land on Emerald. Cinders lips twitch into a scowl as she nods at the ex-beacon students in a way that Emerald recognises as an order. Then she turns and steps onto the platform with Raven and Vernal, and disappears.

Shakily Emerald stands. Mercury is out cold but breathing. He’ll be fine, she tells herself, he’s always fine. As she makes her way over towards the centre of the room. She notices Yang rushing towards the platform and uses her semblance to try and stop her. Mercury stands before her, grimm eyes blazing as he taunts her. It stops her in her tracks, giving her enough time to throw thiefs respites chains around her arm to pull her back. Yang lurches backwards before turning and meeting her eye. There’s a cold fury in them, but she doesn’t charge for Emerald, instead, she nimbly reaches her arm and Emerald stumbles a bit as it comes off cleanly. “No! Wait!” She yells as Yang carries on to the shaft Cinder and the others went down and jumps.

They’re outnumbered. Two against seven, and Emerald feels her stomach drop. She stands motionless in the centre of the room, blood roaring in her ears. Hazel carries on his rampage, keeping Qrow and three others busy. She glances to where the Schnee had fallen, the Jaunes aura is flowing into her, that makes six, but then where’s - Emerald barely has time to react as Ruby slashes at where she was. Her face grim, Emerald can tell they’re past talking.

Emerald neatly ducks and dodges her attacks, using any opportunity she has to strike, but Ruby is fast, zipping about her leaving her no choice to defend to the best of her ability.

Hazel crashes through the entrance behind her, and everything falls to shit. The heiress is back up, lights shine through the window as orders of surrender blare from the helicopters above. She turns to get to Mercury but an ice wall erupts before her. She lets out a strangled scream of frustration as she hits the wall. It doesn’t even fracture.

Facing the group once more she notices the last member of team RWBY join the fray as Hazel charges back in once more. The platform rumbles signifying the return, and everything grinds to a halt. Emerald watches with big eyes, desperation clawing at her insides as she waits for Cinder to return. Once Cinder is back it’ll be fine, they’ll get what they needed and get ou-

Solemnly standing in the middle of the platform is the lone figure of Yang. No sign of Cinder.

Something fractures within Emerald, tears fall from her eyes as she drops to her knees. Hazel inches his way towards her as she screams. All her terror, her fear, her desperation whips its way around the room as Salem, the culmination of it all appears in her minds eye. She feels Hazel grab her and start run, as she weakly reaches out. “Mercury…” She tries to remind him, but he doesn’t hear her as she falls limp.