"Get out and stay out!"

The scrappy looking boy in black slowly clambered to his feet and pointed back at the door slamming before him with nothing short of hatred in his eyes "You'll regret that! I'll be back here someday and you'll be... y-you fat fuck!" he grimaced at his lack of wit, his silver tongue not having been nearly as sharp since the incident. He began to walk away, picking up his pace when the door opened up behind him and just managing to get out of sight before he was made victim to another verbal and possibly physical bashing.

"God damn it" he muttered to himself, down on luck and even more down in cash.

Yes, Mercury Black had been down in the dumps for a while now. A heist gone wrong. Emerald had been witness to it all and she had been the one to sponsor his removal from the 'team'.

He grit his teeth at the memory.

"Please! Don't hurt my baby girl!" Mercury stopped in place, balanced on one leg with foot outstretched, crusted blood on his boots and legs from the other dozen he'd curb stomped or severed with force only he could muster with a simple kick.

His eyes softened as he looked at the sight of the young girl, faunas though she was. He was a murderer, he'd killed many just moments ago and their blood still stained his boots, leaving a trail of death with every step.

Yet he'd never been asked to kill a child before. Could he? Of course he could, a child couldn't even begin to defend itself. No. Not like that. Could he bring himself to do it?

"I-I..." his eyes were twitching and his brow began to sweat. He couldn't. He watched them scurry away during his break in composure, breath ragged and heavy like he'd never known before, not even during the debilitating fight he'd had out with his old man.

"Was that the right choice?" he thought it had been his conscious for a moment but I moment of thought was all he needed to remember that this was indeed the voice of his literal partner in crime Emerald Sustrai. And she was giving him a look that reminded him so much of Cinder when she looked upon any subordinate unfortunate enough to get tangled in her web.

Unimpressed. Condescending. He was worthless in her eyes.

He struggled to say something, anything. It was a futile effort.

"You saved a cub and its mother. Congratulations" her words were venomous as she strut in closer to him, hands at her hips once she began to circle him, plaguing him with the thoughts he had been holding back. "They saw you, you realise that one word from them and you're out of the operation right?" he had no answer "Imagine when you show up at Amity. She'll be watching, everybody will be watching." his breath hitched "And she'll point you out and squawk the moment you show up"

He whirled on her went to grab her throat, as easy as if she let him. They had banter at all times, constantly at each other's throat but never this bad. Cinder always stopped them or they were far too aware of the fact that they had to at least tolerate one another to keep on working.

Now he was adding pressure to her throat, trying to choke the life out of her because he was terrified. Terrified and acting on impulse. His impulse to kill, something he knew how to do.

"You- think this will... help?" she forced out, Mercury adding his other hand and adding pressure to her throat, bringing strangled noises from the girl.

He had screwed himself already. Cinder caught wind of this and his well of use had already dried up. Cinder didn't need another known criminal, she had Torchwick to be the face of her operations already. His job was to infiltrate, he could hardly do that if the authorities were out for his head.

He felt Emerald begin to struggle, hands finding his wrists, her weapons clattering against the ground in her feeble grip. He was hyperventilating and his pupils began to sporadically dilate. He couldn't see her face anymore, tears welling as his life fell apart because he couldn't just kill an innocent little girl.

He roared and threw Emerald to the side, her gasping for air heavily audible. She turned to glare at him, throat bruised and weak from the enormous lack of oxygen that was slowly beginning to diminish. But it was too late as she collapsed against the ground unconscious, leaving Mercury as the only conscious human.

He continued to weakly gasp for air but his mind was made up. He couldn't go back. They'd kill him if they found out. He was useless and knew too much, they'd slaughter him just for that. Cinder didn't like loose ends and he was now one of them.

So Mercury had done what he did best and ran. He didn't even have the mind to find the door out, kicking walls down every which way just to find the quickest route to escape this place. He was rewarded with a seven storey drop but that did nothing to slow him down, using his boots to vault forward onto a smaller building rooftop and rolling to decrease the momentum, continuing to sprint onwards, onwards until his legs gave up on him.

And they had, three towns over from where he had been, now living in the slums upon the island of Patch.

He was out of money because he couldn't find work. Nobody wanted a grimy cripple with no apparent skill. How could he display skill when he was forced to use cheap knockoff prosthetics that were weak and unbalanced. His usual legs were worn and he couldn't have performed proper maintenance on them without a proper supply of dust and other necessities he couldn't find without a decent budget.

They were top of the line and it had been Cinder who had paid for them; as good as if not better than actual legs.

He had killed three people since his 'retirement', and those had been out of necessity. Three White Fang mooks who had informed him of his 'removal' from the team before making an attempt at his life. They were skilled, enough to have destroyed his left leg and heavily wounded him across his right shoulder and his chest. They must've been high ranking because Mercury was still in use of his decent prosthetics at the time, though worn with usage and lack of upkeep. He had stabbed one through the eye and brain with a shard of glass, lacerating into own hand before managing to plant a foot through the ribcage and against the spine of the other, managing to ruin the right leg with the gore clogging the systems.

The last one had fortunately been downed earlier in the fight, and even the limping, weak Mercury had been able to hold enough power over him to force him to squeal out the details of this little incursion.

It was simple: Emerald had snitched (not that he could blame her honestly), Cinder had decided he had outlived his usefulness and then this party came to silence him.

They hadn't found him again since then but they were no doubt still looking for him. Maybe because they assumed he'd still be functional somewhere rather than bumming off of scraps like he was. Mercury was good, Hunter rank or likely beyond. They knew that and expected more of him, even Cinder with her habit of looking upon everybody else as worms.

And yet even that was too much for him, and now he couldn't even afford to drown his sorrows in liquor.

He sighed at his self-depreciative trail of thought and decided to sit himself up. He just couldn't sleep like this, and if he was left with his thoughts any longer he felt they'd take a turn for the worse and he just didn't want to put himself in a corner anymore.

He stumbled towards the town centre, where everybody would undoubtedly give him a berth as if he had the plague and whisper insults and disgust his way as if they knew his life story. Two months prior he could've killed them all and had no problem, but becoming one of them forced him to sympathise further and while he found killing just as easy as before.

He at least chose his targets more wisely now.

And not just because he had to be wary of any average human in his current state.

Lights surrounded him now, and it was only occurring to him that being lost in thought had brought him here before he'd even been aware of it. He walked into the main street, no doubt smelling as bad as he looked given the expected gap of space people gave him. He held his composure as always, pretending he didn't hear the insults and didn't feel the stares from every direction like knives to his skin. If he weren't raised to be so hardy. didn't live to be strong then he would've cried. Dropped to the floor and cried.

And for all the self-depreciation he had been forced to bear lately. He at least understood that he was no lesser man to have made it this far with what he had been dealt. He had just made some bad decisions is all. He'd be back on top if he just stood firm against the storm.

"HEY!" he fell to the floor, wincing as his aura failed to take the blow, something he'd been having happen to him more lately through what he assumed was perhaps a disarray with his soul mixed with the constant traumas of living on the ground against the constant cold of the coming Winter. "Watch where you're going trash" his eyes went up to the group of young males towering over him, a group he recognised from his other visits in town just through passing, an imbedded skill within the assassin being to remember faces wherever possible.

Mercury decided to play possum as best he could and just nod and hope it would be over with, knowing that nobody would come to help. He found himself yanked up as one grabbed him roughly from either side, bringing him up to face the scum who had purposely bumped him down, his smirk one that told tales of how he was looking forward to shaming him in public like this. mercury's eyes glanced about unseen to scan his surroundings, finding numerous onlookers but no allies to be found here.

He hated them more than his current assaulters, even as they shouted at him, gripped him too fiercely and otherwise just hit him for not replying or giving them the time of day. He could handle this much pain, he'd suffered far worse far more. Break his bones or carve his skin and he would stubbornly refuse to scream for them, to give them the satisfaction.

But them. His eyes caught the onlookers again, glaring hate at them as they naturally took offence to his despising them for just standing there.

To themselves they were innocent, not partaking in the violence. To him they were worse, people who tried to justify their actions with kind words or insults to the lowlifes hurting him.

Words were cheap he had learnt early on. Actions were what he valued and these people gave him nothing to work with so they were no better.

He felt his nose break against one vicious right hook to his face, his blood splattering his left shoulder and the curb beneath them. "Damn, another stain to deal with..." he muttered, referring to both the blood and the stain on humanity currently beating him, only working up more ire with his total aloofness to it all.

The brute snarled and reeled his fist back again, preparing for another strike "Deal with this!" he roared smartly, Mercury staring back at him with uncaring eyes as the fist soared towards his temple.

At least with this i'll be able to get some rest. He thought darkly.

Only for the fist to never reach him, eyes lashing out towards the hand that held the fist just inches from his face.

"Fancy seeing you here Thistle" came the voice of the elder male before him; blonde and well built from first glance, the blue eyes and stubble brought Mercury to a conclusion only confirmed by 'Thistle's exclamation.

"M-Mr Xiao-Long Sir!" he shouted out, all of the group stepping back in a rational fear of being punished, leaving Mercury to fall into the arms of somebody else. He looked up with tired eyes at what was one of the last people he wanted to see.

"You okay kid?" His breath smelt like booze and those burnt red eyes couldn't be mistaken. Mercury was afraid, more now in the 'safety' of Qrow's and Tai's support than when he was getting his face punched in just moments ago. Why? Not only were both of them Hunter's of incredibly high calibre but Qrow had even seen him before back during the fight with Amber.

"Y-yeah" he responded, tuning out the sound of Taiyang chewing out the scumbags behind him. "Th-thanks by the way" he would have to just seem like a grateful kid down on his luck and get out of here before he could be recognised, it seemed that it hadn't clicked in for the hunter extraordinaire yet so he'd just have to make an excuse to leave as soon as possible. "I'll just be going, sorry for the trouble"

A hand clamped down on both of his shoulder, eliciting a silent groan as both men now stepped in front of him, the bullies long gone.

"You aren't going anywhere kid" had he been noticed?! Play it cool.

"Yeah I've heard enough about you that I can't just let you leave" had he even told Taiyang about it?! Damn, this seriously wasn't good.

He swallowed silently before exhaling a breath, working out a plan to get out of here. It sounded impossible honestly, the idea of escaping two of the most experienced hunter's in the field in his current state. Hell, even with Taiyang retiring into teaching. He wasn't even sure he had a hope in hell if he was still in his prime, not that he was.

That was all unnecessary thought though, he needed to make a break for it now before they had a chance to properly seize him.

Both Hunter's were caught off guard when Mercury quickly pushed off his feet back into them, roughly knocking them back in their unprepared states.

"Hey wait!" Taiyang called after the boy as he began to escape them as fast as he could, still impressively quick for somebody with a clear limp in their stride, only knowing half of the story since he didn't even know that the legs were mechanical and mismatched at that.

Shit, how far will I need to go to evade them? he questioned internally, rounding into the side streets in an attempt to lose his pursuers, hearing nothing to betray their movements but knowing that people as skilled as they would surely be capable of moving fast and without a sound. Hell, Mercury himself could normally do that under better circumstances.

He winced into every step, the prosthetics boring into his stumped thighs every time the metal feet met the ground beneath his feet, not made to withstand this much force against them, his current legs being the cheap alternatives for those who simply wanted to wander around their house. They just weren't meant for this kind of strain, and it showed when his right leg finally bust after a good five minutes of running.

He continued to hop forward on his other leg but he felt that even that was beginning to show wear, deciding to spare himself from full immobility and just hide himself amidst the trash beside him.

He slouched against the wall and allowed himself to gradually slide down against it. Well, looked like this would be his home for the night. Oh how the mighty have fallen, gone from taking lives to taking dumpsters as places to lay his head.

"Busted your leg huh?" Mercury's eyes darted up in horror at the sound of the familiar voice, coming up to find the eyes of Qrow. He was sympathising with him. Patronising. Condescending. and now he was gonna throw him into the clink or off him here. No of course not, he knew too much. He'd be lucky they didn't interrogate him or just outright torture him. He wasn't with them anymore but he wouldn't give them anything, not out of respect for Cinder but out of hate for the people seeing him as nothing more than a clue to a riddle.

The assassin decided that there was no out here, just letting his head fall back against the stone wall "So what now? Gonna finish what those other bastards started?" he questioned, eyes impassive once again. He had accepted that this was how his life was now, what it had slowly been amounting to even before the dismissal. "Feels good to be in power doesn't it? I wouldn't know because i'm always the puppet dancing along by the strings to whoever holds them at the time" he grit his teeth even harder at Qrow's look of sympathy, once again reminded that he was a show to people like him, just somebody to watch to make yourself feel like a better person for thinking you or somebody else should maybe do something to help.

But nobody ever would because people are naïve enough to think that it's simply the thought that counts.

Hell he forgot that it was that kind of thinking that got him believing in Cinder that he wanted to see the current Remnant topple into something else, maybe a new world where he didn't feel nothing but disgust for anything and everything.

But that was naïve of him.

"Come on kid, take my hand" his thoughts derailed "Lets get you patched up" and even more at that. He looked up and saw nothing but genuine care in those eyes and came upon a sudden realisation.

He doesn't know who I am.

Mercury took the hand and let himself be pulled up. He even accepted the arm wrapped around his back to support his on his one functioning leg.

He reasoned that it was because doing otherwise would arouse suspicion. He didn't have any reason to refuse such a kindness after all, acting like the bad guy would just bring Qrow to the conclusion that Mercury really didn't want him to realise.

"Your legs" Qrow began "They're crooked" he supplied simply, to which Mercury just hummed in confirmation.

"Yeah, the best I could scavenge" and he wasn't saying that metaphorically either, having managed to buy one for the bare minimum once his first leg bust and then being forced to salvage another one from the trash once his pocket had long since run dry and his other good leg had finally gone to scrap. "The left one was suited for my height two months ago and the right one is about an inch and a quarter longer than that" and they'd made hell for him to work with, one leg becoming too small and the other forcing him to have a near constant tilt a the knee to compensate for the overextended length.

"Sounds rough" another hum of agreement, Qrow knew that much was obvious. "How about we get you some new ones?"

Mercury saw Qrow smirk at that and he simply had no idea how to respond to that.

So he didn't.

Ruby held her glare strong and the other held it back, equally fierce in their unyielding war of sight. Seconds dragged on like minutes and soon like hours until finally...

"Aha!" Ruby pointed dramatically "You lose again dad!" she announced victoriously, arms crossed proudly and head held high. Or as high as possible considering Taiyang towered far above her even now as he slouched forward in defeat.

"And now my eyes hurt for nothing..." he droned aloud to Ruby's apparent amusement, the girl giggling like a kid before assaulting her father in a launched hug.

"I still love you dad" and yet Taiyang found that he wasn't in the mood to care since this marked his thirty-first loss to zero wins. He remembered when he used to be a badass fighter who took down criminals like nothing. And now...

He looked down at his younger daughters imploring and innocent silver eyes and grimaced inwardly. He just couldn't bring himself to let her lose at anything, lest he see those beautiful wide eyes go all teary like back when she was a baby. His heart broke every time.

Being a dad was hard...

The door opened and Tai instantly took the opportunity to break his gaze from Ruby and see what became of his search for the boy from before. At first he hadn't wanted to leave it to Qrow since he too had wanted to help but Qrow had been insistent and Tai knew that if there was anybody he could trust to get a job done, it was Qrow Branwen.

He saw Mercury besides his old friend and saw the older of the two nod seriously his way, understanding instantly and nodding back. Both men had known of Mercury for a while, Patch wasn't too large a place after all and news travelled quick so it wasn't unusual that almost everybody had at least heard of the wandering boy on the streets.

When the two had finally happened across it after a quick round up the bar then he had decided enough was enough, he was taking the boy back home with him to at least give him some time to recuperate. He was far too roughed up and couldn't even walk straight and now...

Taiyang's eyes softened at the sight of the destroyed metal leg, the other hardly looking any better. The boy didn't even have flesh and bone to walk on, legs like these needed maintenance and these surely hadn't seen any for a long time.

The blonde Hunter was resolute as he held his hand out in greeting "I'm Tai, welcome to my home" and Mercury to that day had never seen a smile so warm and genuine.

It frightened him. It frightened him to feel so comfortable in the first time in forever.

"Thanks" he replied simply, just not knowing what else he could say. It seemed like enough since Tai quickly turned back into the room he had just come from

"Ruby!" he called before a scuttling of feet was heard and hardly a second passed before a girl with black and red hair suddenly came into sight "This is our house guest, please treat him like you would any of us" but Mercury saw that she wasn't paying full attention, her undivided gaze falling upon his legs, visible now through the further wear and tear of his pants. Most people would be offended by her staring but Mercury saw that look in her eyes and knew that it wasn't horror or disgust or anything even remotely similar in them.

He heard Qrow chuckle and knew that he too had realised that the girl before him was simply marvelling at them.

"Meet Ruby Rose" came the rough voice of Qrow, Mercury not allowing his gaze to escape Ruby for even a second. Her gaze quickly shot up to meet his, a blush on her cheeks at having been caught staring so obviously "She's gonna be the girl who fixes your legs"

And it was at the sight of this innocent young girls awkwardly shy smile that Mercury felt the despite all that had happened so far, maybe this would be the beginning of his next big break.

YO! Haven't written in a while so yeah I have to apologise about that sincerely, I'm currently working on a new chapter for almost all of my stories, so look forward to that if you happen to already be a fan of my previous works (as short-lived as some of them may be).

So! Opinions on this please, there aren't many Mercury focused stories out there so I thought i'd like to do something to change that. Not a massively different AU in which Mercury is already a good guy or anything like that, instead I decided to take the canon Mercury (or at least my take on him pre-series after the Amber incident) and put him under a different set of circumstances and see where we get from there.

I can't stress enough that I need to know if people want me to continue with this because it isn't something i'm sure will be well received so I implore you to give me your opinions in whatever form you can.

From here on it's going to be a case of Mercury meeting people and warring with his own opinions on situations that he will come across as time passes by. This all happens pre-Beacon so Ruby and Yang are still at Signal so we'll see how things go from here on.

Beyond that I hope you enjoyed my work and I hope to see and hear from all of you soon.

Au Revoir for now Readers! ^^