So first foray into writing. Hope you enjoy

Mercurial Chapter 1

The cold night air whipped across his face as the landscape below shifted and blurred. The rhythm of his wings soothed him and helped chase away the adrenaline running through him.

Qrow knew that it would be a simple mission, however he still wondered why he was chosen. A village on the outskirts of Mistral was being targeted by the Grimm and Ozpin knew that Qrow was the only one fast enough to get there.

"This isn't my normal sort of mission Oz." said Qrow in disbelief.

He couldn't remember the last time that he was told to just help a village and not sent on some round-the-world chase related to the Queen. He understood the reasoning behind it, why waste one of your agents on simpler assignments when he could be targeting the root of the problem, but at the same time it left a bad taste in his mouth. All his training to be a huntsman was now being twisted from its original purpose to fit some grand design.

'Although,' he thought, the tired cynic within him rising to the surface once more, 'it's not like I had a team to fight with anyway.'

"I understand that Qrow, but we have no more leads to follow up on and the staff and I are caught up with preparations for the school year." replied Ozpin. "The village has a fairly large population and if the scouting reports on the number of Grimm are correct then it won't end well."

"Ok… Shouldn't it be dealt with by other huntsman, is it really a good idea to send me?"

"I'm aware of the problems caused by your Semblance but you have to realise that the people there don't have anyone else." said Ozpin, "No other huntsman or huntress have responded as far as we know and they have less than 2 days till the Grimm are upon them."

Qrow closed his eyes at that. No words were said as he let out a large sigh and reached down to his hip to retrieve his flask. Only after taking a long pull from it did he trust himself to speak.

"Fine. I'll try to help them but I can't promise anything."

That was how he found himself making his fastest trip ever to a medium sized village with hours to spare before the wave of Grimm engulfed them.

Arriving at the village he quickly contacted the leaders who were organizing the protection and guards and helped coordinate them away from the Grimm, all the while praying for his Semblance to leave the people alone.

By some miracle he avoided screwing up any of the preparations. It was decided, largely down to his decisions, that an evacuation would be a better idea as one huntsman wouldn't be able to stop the amount of Grimm. Only hold them back for some time. He hated to uproot the people like this but there was no way that he could stop a horde this large.

'This might be easier than I thought' hoped Qrow.

However, life, always eager to jump on opportunity, was no less keen this time.

A lone Beowolf heralded the arrival of the Grimm. From his rooftop perch Qrow spotted the dark figure with the white-bone mask and red markings glowing from the darkness. The long gangly limbs were paused in their movements as if the Grimm was waiting.

Qrow tightened his grip on the hilt of 'Forevermore' letting its familiar weight settle in his hand. The sword was currently in its active form with the blade extended ready to respond.

In the brief moment, it took him to ready his weapon, the Grimm were upon the town. Beowolves, Ursai and Boarbatusks by the street full.

He leapt from the rooftop and began cutting his way through swathes of Grimm. There was still one more party to be evacuated and he had to at least distract the Grimm long enough for them to escape.

The blade flashed and sliced through the air. Qrow's mind went onto autopilot as he let his hunting instincts take over.

'Slash, dodge, parry, dodge…' was the constant mantra being repeated in Qrow's head as he danced.

A singular Beowolf managed to break its way through the tornado of steel and flung its paw wildly striking Qrow in the side with its claws. He flew back using 'Forevermore' to slow himself. Pulling his sword from the ground the gears in the sword began running to reveal a shotgun. He fired and blew the Beowolf's head off scattering bone mask fragments on the street.

Keeping his shotgun loaded, Qrow proceeded to fire shell after shell into the horde each shot killing a different Grimm or severing their limbs with the force of the shot.

Considering the brief seconds it took for the clockwork mechanism to revert, Qrow flipped nimbly backwards to avoid a Boarbatusk roll that clipped the edge of his cape only making it more tattered.

Even though he seemed to kill a Grimm with every swing of his blade the horde refused to thin and, no matter how good of a huntsman he was, there was only one of him.

Looking to the back of the village he could see the airship still packing up with the villagers and came to the stark realization that he might actually be unable to help them moving at his current speed. The Grimm were just coming too fast and thick. He still had one more trick at his disposal though.

Rolling out of the way of the Grimm surrounding him, Qrow pulled the trigger on the lower half of his sword causing the clockwork mechanism to spring to life, moving and shifting. He heard the hiss of the hydraulics as his blade extended and curved and the groan of metal as the red edge of the blade revealed itself. Finally, in a cacophony of sounds the handle extended and the blade turned leaving him with his prime weapon. A scythe.

The appearance of the scythe seemed to cause a shift in the Grimm as more of them turned to face them. They made a wild dash for him intent on finishing the only obstacle standing between them and the despair emanating from the back of the village.

It was all for naught however as 'Forevermore' whirled through the night air and seemed to split the very wind itself. If the huntsman had seemed fast before it was nothing compared to the speed his was fighting with now.

Nothing could pass him as he spun and fought, black ichor coating the blade and the ground around him. The smoke from the dissolving Grimm bodies was beginning to become a hindrance from its sheer volume blocking his vision.

Glancing back to the airship he could see it taking off. Previously he had told them to leave him behind and, only after much protest from the village leaders, they agreed and said they would evacuated as fast as possible.

Once the airship was away he got as far away from the Grimm as he could, holding them back with repeated blasts from the shotgun sending them flying back.

Once he cleared enough distance between him and the Grimm he shifted into his avian form and flew off seeing the wave of black, white and glowing red cover the village, the buildings crumbling under the pressure. He felt guilty knowing that these people were uprooted from their lives and wouldn't be able to return but glad that they hadn't suffered any casualties.

He realised his luck at the lack of Nevermore as they would've taken the airship and probably him out of the air.

'Heh. First time my Semblance hasn't fucked things up' he though sardonically.

He was now on his way back to the Airship station in Mistral's main city to catch a flight back to Vale. It was late and although he was tired he wanted to see his family as soon as possible.

15-year-old Yang and 13-year-old Ruby were the last good things in his life along with his former teammate Taiyang. Even though he couldn't always get along with Tai they both cared for each other and, if push came to shove, would have each other's backs.

'I can catch some shut-eye on the ship'

Fate was not so kind to Qrow Branwen however and as he travelled he began to smell hints of smoke and flame whispering through the air.

Stopping his rapid movements, Qrow looked for the source of the smell. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a house flickering with orange flames sending sparks and cinders into the air.

'Damn my luck.'

Qrow flew straight down towards the flames.

Landing on the path leading up to the burning house Qrow shifted again and drew his weapon in its sword form. He slowly began to make his way towards the building keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of the Grimm.

'Damnit, just can't catch a break, always have to deal with this shit- ' were just some of the grumblings that went through Qrow's head as he continued to make his way to the door of the house.

His limbs were heavy and his eyes were struggling to stay open.

'That fight at the village took a lot more out of me than I thought, I have to be careful approaching this'

Knowing he wasn't even close to a hundred percent made Qrow warier than he would normally be. He began to hear sounds of a struggle. Flesh on flesh and grunts of pain rung out. That wasn't the sound of Grimm, there was no screaming or terror, no snarls or roars.

Abandoning all caution Qrow began to run towards the house and searched frantically for the sound coming across a shocking sight.

A young man with grey hair was sitting on top of an older man chocking the life out of him. Both were sporting signs of a fight, bruises and blood present. Qrow's Aura thrummed in response to Auras present in the area.

Unbeknownst to most civilians, Aura users with enough training can use their Aura as a downing rod towards others to determine whether someone has Aura even if it is empty.

Qrow felt Aura on both and knew they had to be fighting for a while to both have such obvious injuries on them and to have depleted their Auras.

As he moved towards the pair intent on ending the fight he saw the boy twist his hands and heard the subtle crack from the older man's neck. The man stopped thrashing and was still.

Qrow stopped, he knew that they were fighting, but for the younger man, who looked about Yang's age now that he got a clearer look at him, fighting with killing intent and to commit murder. Qrow looked down at the older man's still body.

'What did he do to him'

The younger man was finally drawn out of his daze and looking up at Qrow, his eyes darting around taking it every inch of Qrow and finally settling on his weapon.

Looking at the kid's eyes Qrow was surprised to not see any panic but rather a hardness and resistance that spoke volumes to what was going to happen if Qrow approached too close with his weapon drawn. Even if the kid had no Aura he would still attempt to fight any threat towards him.

'Still cautious and not panicking. Interesting'

"I'm just going to put this away, and then we can talk, ok?" Qrow spoke across the clearing.

The kid was still looking at him with that steel stare and Qrow was beginning to get irritated.

"Listen kid, I'm a huntsman, I'm not in the business of fighting people." Even as the words crossed his mouth Qrow knew that he was lying to himself. Huntsman and Huntresses may be a bastion of defence against the Grimm but many more of them served as contractors or mercenaries for the right pay. It sickened him to think that those people would waste their training.

His words seemed to have the right effect as some of the hardness left the kid's eyes and he begrudgingly nodded his head.

Qrow stocked his weapon and began to speak.

"What happened?"

The kid considered this.

"I had enough of him… asshole got what was coming" he responded his voice lanced with pain and coming in short gasps.

"Who was he?"

"…My dad"

Qrow's lips tautened as his previous thoughts were confirmed. He needed to find out what happened but at the same time he had more pressing matters. The kid was obviously in a large amount of pain and needed some form of treatment. He had basic first aid but not enough to stop anything major.

"You need some help. Let me see where you're hurt."

Qrow didn't understand where the words were coming from. The kid wasn't his problem. But something about the defeat and hurt in his voice broke through his shell. If he just left the kid he knew the Grimm would be here soon and whether it was out of some protectiveness due to the kids similar age to his niece or just due to his regret at not being able to save the village.

Even though the kid was wary of him he was still young and realised that he would need help or he would probably die along with his old man. He nodded once again to Qrow and moved to the side.

Qrow walked up to the kid and removed the first aid kit clipped to his belt. The kid gestured to several different wounds on his body which Qrow cleaned and patched up. However, the worst damage wasn't to his body.

The kid gestured reluctantly to his knees and Qrow winced at the amount of blood soaking the fabric. He took a pair of medical scissors and cut away the cloth and fought the urge to gag. His knees had a large rough gash across them and seemed to be sawn about halfway down. Qrow could see the fragments of bone peeking out.

'How was the kid even standing, he's tougher than he looks. His aura would've dulled it enough for him to fight I guess'

Qrow knew he didn't have enough to fix this but he could stop the bleeding. As he began to wrap his legs he spoke.

"What's your name kid"

"Mercury"

"Mercury huh, well I'm going to wrap your legs and then get you to a hospital ok?"

Mercury's eyes widened.

"No hospitals!"

"You need one if you want to survive"

Some of the fire seemed to leave Mercury as Qrow said that.

'Damnit, I didn't mean to be so blunt'

Letting out a sigh, Qrow removed his flask and drained the last of it. He noticed Mercury eyeing it with disgust.

"What's your problem kid"

"Let's just say that my dad had a fondness for the stuff and look where that got me" he said gesturing to his knees

'Shit' thought Qrow with anger, 'I should've figured it was something like that'

"Look kid. Mercury. I can't treat this. You need a hospital otherwise things will be bad"

Mercury considered this and looked straight at Qrow. Mercury was surprised when he saw a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"Fine, but I can leave whenever I want to."

"Good, then I need to make a call."

Walking off to the side Qrow took his scroll from his pocket and connected to the global CCT network. While most people needed to go to a CCT tower to make cross continental calls certain more expensive degrees of scroll could directly connect to the CCT network.

Moving through his sparse contact list Qrow found who he was looking for and began to ring them.

In a short amount of time the call was connected and he was presented with the face of Ozpin.

"Qrow, is something wrong?"

"Now why would you think that?"

"You never give mission reports over a phone or call during a mission, so for you to call even this soon after completing a mission, it's a bit out of the ordinary"

"Yeah well, the village was evacuated" Qrow bit back the sting of regret at those words, "This is another situation"

"And that is?"

"On my way back to Mistral, I found a kid, about fifteen, name's Mercury."

Ozpin nodded to show that he was following

"The kid was fighting his father and, from the looks of it, the fight had been going for a while. Both had depleted Auras and multiple wounds"

Ozpin seemed curious at the mention of the father.

"Why was he fighting."

"Let's just say the kid's dad was not father of the year material", Qrow took a deep breath, "He sawed halfway through the kid's fucking legs Oz."

Ozpin paled at this

"What do you need and what happened to the father" said Ozpin knowing Qrow's temper.

"I need a bullhead as fast as possible at my location and the father is no longer with us"

"Did you...?"

"Yes." responded Qrow

'I can keep some of the heat of the kid. I know Oz would be understanding but for this next part I need to keep him clean'

"I need one more favour Oz."

"Which is?"

"I need you to call Jimmy and arrange for some prosthetics to be sent to Tai's house"

General James 'Jimmy' Ironwood. Leader of the Atlas Military and also controls distribution of the most advanced prosthetics in Remnant. Qrow figured he was in for the long haul and knew that the kid wouldn't want to stay here.

"Why is that?"

"The kid's knees are beyond repair. Aura or not he won't be able to walk after this. I'm hoping that I can rig something up to help him"

Ozpin paused. He seemed to be having some sort on internal conversation

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks Oz. You can get my location from the scroll"

After making the call Qrow walked back to Mercury and sat with him. He gave him some rations from his pack and did everything he could to keep him awake.

After what felt like an eternity the bullhead arrived and Qrow loaded Mercury on the ship much to the latter's disgruntlement.

The trip was done in silence with only brief disturbances from Qrow keeping Mercury awake.

After arriving at the hospital Mercury was rushed into the ER while Qrow was sent to the waiting room.

4 hours later a nurse walked out in blood-spattered scrubs.

"How is he?"

The nurse considered this.

"Better than we thought he would be. Whatever happened to him its lucky that it didn't sever any major arteries." She paused, "What happened to him?"

"Grimm attack."

The nurse looked at him with an expression of disbelief.

"Those cuts, while rough, are still too clean for any Grimm and too precise."

Qrow hardened his face.

"Like I said. Grimm. Attack."

The nurse relented under his stare. Qrow felt bad as she was just doing his job but he knew that Mercury wouldn't appreciate the coddling from the medical staff and definitely wouldn't appreciate his spreading the story.

"Can I see him?"

"Only family can visit"

"I am family," said Qrow thinking rapidly, "I'm… his dad"

"Uh-huh" said the nurse looking at Qrow for any resemblance

"He's adopted"

'That's going to bite me in the ass later'

"Alright, follow me"

Qrow opened the door to the hospital room and saw Mercury lying there. From his relaxed expression Qrow knew that they had him on painkillers.

"Hey kid"

"Hey Qrow"

"How're you feelin'."

"Better, less pain now, can't really feel my legs though"

Qrow grimaced and removed the bedsheet covering his legs. From the knee down the legs had been amputated. The surgeon had finished what his father had started. In some twisted way Qrow saw why Mercury didn't want to go to hospital.

"Ah shit. I'm sorry kid"

Mercury's face darkened

"Yeah well it's better than the alternative. But I can't really fight anymore"

"What do you mean?"

"My fighting style was based almost entirely on my legs. That's why my asshole of a father targeted it. He wanted to replace them with prosthetics of his own design. Things he could control"

Qrow's fists tightened. The more he heard about this guy the more he wishes that he was the reason he was dead.

He paused for a moment, considering what he was going to say next.

"I've got a proposition for you kid"

Mercury looked at him for a moment.

"I got a friend to send some advanced prosthetics to another's house in Vale. If you come with me I can see about getting them set up for you."

Mercury paused, a look of confusion on his face.

"They're better than anything that you'll get from a hospital and since you don't seem to have anything but the shirt on your back I'm guessing they're better than anything you can afford"

The confusion only seemed to grow on Mercury's face.

"Why… would you do this… for me?" whispered Mercury, "You've already done enough bringing me to the hospital and helping me"

Sighing Qrow took a seat at the side.

"What can I say. You been given a bad hand and judging from the state of the house you can fight pretty well. So, I have a question for you. Did you ever consider being a huntsman?"

Mercury got a surprised look on his face.

"A huntsman. I thought about it but never really got anywhere past following the family business"

"What was the family business"

"My dad was a hitman. He was training me for taking over for him. I had doubts and that's kind of how we got to where we are"

'It couldn't be something like a pet shop or something?' snarked Qrow to himself.

"Well if you come with me to Vale you can get combat-approved prosthetics and maybe apply to Beacon"

"I haven't been to a combat school though. I've got nothing to apply with"

"Let's just say that I have some friends at Beacon that might be able to pull some strings for you"

Mercury paused again.

'Seriously, what is up with this kid and the pauses'

"Ok."

"You'll come?"

"Yes"

"Ok then. Get packed we're leaving as soon as possible"

After some choice words with the medical staff and several prescriptions of painkillers, Mercury was released into Qrow's custody who had to push him around into a wheelchair much to Mercury's chagrin.

A day later they booked into the airship to Vale and a few hours later they reached the Vale airship station.

Another few hours they reached the island of Patch and both Qrow and Mercury were tired and grumpy. Mercury felt an ache in what was left of his legs and Qrow's flask ran out far too long ago in his opinion but they finally arrived at the Xiao Long-Rose household.

Knocking on the door twice he called out.

"Tai. You home?"

"Qrooowww" called Taiyang from inside coming to the door. "We got some delivery on behalf of- what the hell!"

"Listen. I don't need questions. Do you have a place for the kid to sleep?"

"Yeah the guest room but Qrow- "

"Not right now Tai."

Qrow wheeled Mercury into the house and watched as he looked at the obvious love present in the house. Pictures of the two girls present in the house covered most surfaces and the smell of baked goods permeated the house.

Looking at Mercury's face Qrow saw the hollowness and the hope beneath it. The idea that he might be able to have something like this one day and the sadness at seeing how others his age lived.

He saw a hint of blond peering around the corner and slightly lower than that a set of sliver eyes belonging to Ruby. He knew Mercury wouldn't be in the mood for questions so he wheeled him to the guest room which was thankfully on the ground floor.

Moving Mercury to the bed he said.

"Get some rest kid. You'll need it to practice with the prosthetics"

Mercury nodded and lay down closing his eyes. Qrow walked out of the room closing the door behind him only to be faced with lilac and silver eyes.

"Unclllleeee Qrow" was the last thing he heard before he was tackled by two teenage girls.

"Hey short-stuff"

"Who's that?" asked Ruby curiously.

"Just someone I owe something to"

"Really didn't expect you to be the helping type" teased Yang.

Taiyang moved from the behind where he was standing.

"Excuse me girls. I just need to talk to Qrow for a moment"

Ruby and Yang recognized the tone and wisely moved into the kitchen. After they were out of earshot Taiyang spoke.

"Who is he?"

"He's a kid I found who got dealt a really bad hand"

"Does that hand have something to do with his legs?"

Qrow sighed.

"Yeah. To make a long story short, his dad was an asshole who damaged his legs"

Taiyang froze. His Aura began flickering around him.

"His father did that. To him."

"Yeah don't worry. He's no longer with us"

Taiyang calmed at this but still looked wary.

"So why is he here and why do I have a package from the Atlas military sitting in the kitchen"

"That would also be on me Tai. I called in a favour with Oz and got Jimmy to deliver some prosthetics to fix up the kid here"

"Why? You never do stuff like this. Why is this kid so special?"

Qrow hesitated. He pulled his flask and drained half of it. Wiping his mouth, he said.

"You didn't see the kid like I did. He was at the end of his rope. If I had gotten too close to him he probably would fought me even with his Aura broken."

"He has Aura?"

"Also down to dear old dad. Wanted to train the kid to be a hitman. Tried to replace his legs with controllable prosthetics due to tendency to fight with kicks."

"God" whispered Taiyang.

"Yeah, but the kid has other ideas and they both fight. The kid with his injury. From what I saw if that is what he's able to do with an injury like that I can't imagine how good he would be with proper training and weaponry"

"So, you're his mentor now?"

Qrow paused to glare at Taiyang.

"You know I don't do mentorship. The only reason I'm teaching Ruby is because of the number of people around to dilute my Semblance. If he was one-on-one with me then he would be in too much danger"

"I don't like where this is going- "

"I know but just listen. Once I fit his prosthetics and he gets used to them Ruby can help develop a weapon and I'm going to use my pull at Signal and Beacon to see whether he can get in."

"And where will he be staying during all this?" he considered something, "Also how old is he?"

"He's the same age as Yang and I'm hoping… he'll stay with you"

Tai looked at him.

"What?"

"He has nowhere else and it could be nice for you not to be outnumbered"

"I don't even know the kid. Why would I let him stay with us?"

"Out of the kindness of your heart" quipped Qrow. "But seriously, he has nowhere else and as far as I can tell he's not a bad kid. He just had to deal with too much shit too early"

Taiyang sighed.

"I hate when you pull the sympathy card." Pausing he continued, "Fine he can stay for now. But if somewhere he can go comes up he'll leave. Also, no flirting with Ruby or Yang"

"That sounds good and I doubt he'll be one to flirt"

Taiyang got a grin on his face. It was times like this that reminded Qrow that this man was father to two of the brightest girls from two different women. Ruby was a weapon nut sure but that didn't mean her father had any less appreciation for engineering.

"So, when do we start on the legs?"

I hope you enjoyed my story. If people are interested then I'll continue writing this one. Leave a review to tell me whether you're interested or not.