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"You know, kid, I… Really probably shouldn't be surprised to find another underage squatter in my room when I get back from a trip." Qrow sighed that night when he came back, a fresh pack of nice bourbon bottles, straight out of Mistral and into his hands, clutched under one arm. "Sometimes, though, I would like to come to my room and not find some brat squatting in it."
"I don't understand…" The silver-haired young man murmured confusedly, brows furrowed as he stood up from the windowsill he'd been sitting on. And that, judging from it being open, he'd used to break into his room. Seeing where his older eyes went, the young man shrugged, "It, uh, it was unlocked. Or, well, the lock wasn't latched right, so… I didn't technically break in?"
"What? Again? But I just got it fixed the other day…" His fucking Semblance… Even the statistically impossible could very well happen, as long as it ruined someone's day in the process.
"I mean…" The silver-haired kid shrugged again, the night lights from outside bouncing off his pale hair, and he waved his hand at the window dismissively. "It was busted, so I guess it didn't get put in right or… Or something."
"Or something is right, yeah…" Sighing, the man walked across the room and knelt, slowly setting the fresh bottles of brown heaven inside and grunting, "What do you want, and who are you?"
"I, uh… I'm Mercury. Mercury Black, and…" The young man grimaced, turned a bit as though he was readying himself to leap out of the window and escape. Where to, he had no idea, given the Grimm filled woods separating Beacon from the rest of Vale. "I work for a woman named Cinder… Who works for one named Salem."
"Salem… What?" The man grimaced, and his head shrunk into his shoulders like some anxious pantomime of a turtle, and Qrow's eyes widened as he slowly rose, one hand on the handle of his scythe. "You had best tell me your Salem has a last name real fuckin' quick, Black, or we're going to have some problems."
"She doesn't- Wait two minutes!" Qrow's sword paused at the man's raised hands with his sword between them like a barrier, looking at the limbs that stood bare of any weapons he could see. A pause of wariness - an open hand could, for instance, be for a Semblance's use - but the younger man took it for a chance and spoke as fast as he could. "I-I'm not here for her. She doesn't even know I exist, I don't think, and definitely doesn't know I'm here. I'm not here to start anything. I swear."
"You work for the Grimm witch!" He accused, leveling the sword out at his opposite's chest, forcing him away from the window with the edge and stepping around towards it so that he stood in the closest middle between the door and the window, and thus best able to stop any attempt to run. "Why should I listen to you?"
"Because I just want to help my partner!" Mercury snapped, voice hard but low, wary of drawing attention from the people sleeping around them. Voice pleading, he went on, "My partner, Emerald… She's only eighteen. Cinder saved her barely two years ago, took her right off Mistra's slum's streets. You've seen her, right?"
"Name?"
"Emerald Sustrai." Qrow gave a gentle shake of his head and the man grimaced, reaching slowly into his pocket. Painfully slowly, in fact, so as not to frighten Qrow and start an attack. More evidence, to the aged man's eyes, that the kid really wasn't here to fight, as now would be the time. Still nervous, the boy grunted a short, "Just a Scroll. Gotta… Put my code in and find the picture, I'm not trying anything. Okay?"
"Yeah." Qrow answered. Just as slowly, the young man flicked open the Scroll and did as he said, putting in his code and flitting through menus through menus before, finally, he reached out with the little device to give it to him.
"Just a picture of her, to… To make my point." Qrow hesitated and, anxious, the boy reassured him, "If I was planning to blow a bomb with it, I would have. A Scroll explosive wouldn't work on a Huntsman, and you have me under your guard, and about two decades of experience on me. My dad was an assassin, if I wanted to try something, this wouldn't be how I did it."
"...Fine."
Lowering the weapon enough to step towards him, but keeping the edge curved in to bat him back if he tried anything, Qrow stepped in and took the device. Mercury let him, releasing the silver little electronic and backing against the wall to let Qrow bring his guard back up, and the aged Huntsman looked at the screen. A vibrant green-haired, red eyed girl looked back at him, with a lithe figure that had the womanly curves needed to charm, and bright, popping eyes and hair, he knew what Cinder had saved her from.
An exotic beauty like that, in Mistral's undercity, had one end point.
"Fucking hell…" Damn his Semblance, and damn his kind nature, under the surly, bandit drunkenness he put forward… He blamed Summer, Brothers take her soul, for it. "And this is the girl your 'Cinder' saved, hm? I recognize her. You three attacked Amber."
"Who?"
"The Fall Maiden."
"Ah, uh… Yeah." The man grimaced and bobbed his head and shrugged his shoulders unsurely. "Sorry? I was just… Following orders, you know. Nothing personal, just wanted to eat and keep my legs."
"Your legs?"
"Uh…" Raising one, he kicked his own shin, a hollow and recognizable ding echoing across the room. Qrow's brows rose regardless and, using his foot like a man trained to, Mercury kicked his boot off and raised his clearly metal foot. "Prosthetics. My old man was a bastard, and tried to kill me for not livin' up to what he wanted. My knees were ruined in the fight, and Cinder bought me a new pair."
"Real saintly, ain't she?"
"No way, she's a total bitch, and I won't even try and argue that. Better luck hosting a Beowolf to run for Council." Qrow snorted at the image of a suited Beowolf, hunched over a microphone huffing and chuffing about foreign policy. In a more serious voice, Mercury went on, "But she's done right by us, I owe her. And besides that, Emerald is crazy about her, and Salem just… Handed her off like-like I dunno, a sack of flour, to that Overlord guy. And Em's worried."
"Shit, kid..." Jaune, the Overlord, was a decent person deep down. But he had a vicious streak a mile wide, and the power to back it up. He'd seen how bloodthirsty he was first hand, and how sadistic too, when they'd gone to get payback for what had happened to Ruby. "So, where does breaking into my room come into this, then? Don't tell me you got the wrong room."
"I… Couldn't find the blonde bim-" Qrow's brows furrowed and he grunted and Mercury rushed to amend, "Y-Yang's dad anywhere. So, uh, next best thing. Figured you could find out if Cinder was okay for us, calm Emerald down, or… Or I don't know."
"Don't know what?"
"What I want you to do, or what you can do, I just…" The young man sighed, grimaced, and grabbed the back of his head, face awash in confusion. Finally his cheeks puffed up and he blew air out of his mouth before, at last, admitting, "I just… I just want Em to not be upset, you know? I dunno why, she's aggravating as hell, but she's so upset and I don't like it. I can't stand it. She doesn't even snark back when I make snide comments!"
The older man stared him down after that before, almost a minute later, he swore and dropped his weapon, letting it collapse and tossing it back onto his waist with a grunt. "Hand me some of my Brothers damn bourbon and tell me every single gods damn thing that happened up 'til now. Everything you know about Emerald Sustrai, Cinder, Salem, Hazel- The whole fuckin' lot of 'em."
"What do you-"
"You want my help, then you work for me, now." Qrow cut in, plopping down on the edge of his bed and meeting the younger man's eyes with his own narrowed ones. Mercury swallowed anxiously but, after a second, nodded and turned to get one of the barely chilled bottles of fine bourbon. Qrow accepted it and, with practised ease, popped the lid free to rake a swig. "You grab one too, and fuck the drinking age crap, shit you've been through… You get some damn bourbon."
"I won't argue with that, uh, sir." Qrow grimaced at the designation but nodded, waiting until Mercury had taken a bottle and slid down to sit against the wall beside his little fridge, sipping at it and grimacing. Hacking gently, he gave the bottle a look through a grimace and complained, "Tastes like shit."
"Means it's the good shit." Qrow nodded, grinning and then grunting shortly, "Now, talk. Start with meeting bitch one and Emerald, then get to big bitch, and then keep going down the line. Front of the story to the back. Got it?"
Qrow settled in for the long story, and the long night, with a sigh as Mercury started to talk. Somehow, though, he had an odd feeling this was some kind of turning point. For what, he had no idea, but for something certainly.
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"So we talked, he gave me barely anything, but…" Qrow sighed when morning came and Jaune found him waiting outside the Tower with a disheveled and annoyed Gnarl, who would only say that Ruby had 'asked nice for him to go get him.
"And you believed him?" He asked, head tilted to the side to show his own disbelief. "He works for Salem, up the chain of command anyway, after all."
"Yeah, but… S'complicated." Jaune snorted and Qrow's arms folded across his chest, the man leaning against the great doors that let out at the base of the tower and into its courtyard. "He was bein' honest, I could tell. He just wants his partner to relax, and feel better about all of this. And the two of 'em woulda died without the red bitch, so he owes her, but cares about the green haired girl."
"It does sound complicated, Master." Gnarl offered, shrugging unflinchingly when his Overlord glared at him. "Fine, fine, your advisor will stop advising now, as you like, your Lordship."
Around him, a dozen Guard-Minions waited, armed and armored for a trip up to the Portal and off to get the next quarter of his evil army. And he stood there in the slowly falling morning snow, all spikes, Overlordy charisma, and still looking the defeated man when he gave Ruby a look. The girl's brows rose and she held her hands up in front of her as though to ask what she should have done.
"It could have waited…"
"Would you have made me wait if I was upset like this?" Ruby asked quietly, giving him that little smile that screamed at him to give her a hug but at the same time aggravated him because of the trust there. She knew he'd want her taken care of, after all, and would do anything up to take a bullet for her.
Well, that wouldn't be new, but the point stood, he told himself.
"I feel for Emerald, I do. But I'm not letting the woman walk, not yet at least." Jaune grunted simply, shifting his weight unsurely and once again looking to Ruby. The girl gave him a thumbs up, smiling unsurely, and Jaune once again turned back to look down on him. "Mercury didn't tell you much, but I can tell you this. I have no intention of killing her, or hurting her all that much even. Not unless I intend on accepting Salem's offer and I haven't-"
"Got any reason to give her what she wants." Ruby cut in, the Minions collectively turning to her and then back to their Overlord quietly, metal sliding and grating gently as they did like something out of a cartoon Jaune could remember watching when he was younger. He turned to Ruby with a grimace she couldn't see and her brows shot up. "What? We don't, right?"
"Ruby…"
"Don't 'Ruby' me, Jaune! We aren't considering siding with the queen of the- of the- I'm sorry Uncle Qrow," the man waved her off with a bemused smile, watching the little tempest round on Jaune again, "We aren't considering joining the side of the queen of the f-f-fucking Grimm! We just aren't!"
"Ruby, I get it, okay?" Boy did he… He'd been killed by one, and been pushed to bleeding and screaming by them a hundred times since. Shaking his head, he sighed gently and added, "I don't intend to kneel for her, or anyone else for that matter."
"Okay… I trust you, Jaune." Ruby nodded, seeming relaxed by his words. Part of him felt like she should have just trusted him, but at the same time, he had… Slipped, from time to time, and not lived up to what she probably wanted him to be. "So," she started, cutting off his musings, "what do we do about Mercury and Emerald, then?"
"Good question…" What to do indeed…
He couldn't just let Cinder go after everything, he had no idea what that would do or cause so it was off the table.
But on the same cuff, he couldn't just ignore Emerald and Mercury now that Qrow was involved, because if Qrow gave a damn then Ruby would soon too. On the topic of Qrow, though…
"Did you take me talking to Salem to Ozpin?" He asked quietly, leaning on his axe and reaching up with his other hand to grip it and let it hang comfortably. Qrow shook his head and, hidden behind his mask, Jaune smiled. "Qrow, go back to Beacon and have those two brought here. Can you do that for me?"
"Sure, I guess." The man shrugged, raising an eyebrow and asking, "Gonna toss 'em in a cell too?"
"Funny, Qrow, but no. That won't work as a favor to a friend like you, now will it?" The man shrugged but didn't argue and Jaune turned to Ruby and grimaced. "Ruby, I know I promised you could come with…"
"Jaune…" She sighed, giving him a deadpan look with her brows raised. "What do you want?"
"I need you to watch Gnarl-"
"Oi, Master!" The creature squawked indignantly, Ruby chuckling at the reaction but otherwise ignoring the grumbling creature like Jaune did.
"-and make sure that Blake's… Person, I guess, doesn't cause any problems while those two are here." She was skittish, which was a different thing to being afraid. Skittish meant she might do something stupid, jump to conclusions and cause him problems, or try and protect herself from him for something she perceived. Ruby pouted at the request, though, and he sighed, shoulders boughed under the weight of her displeasure more than a pine's under a blizzard. "I know you wanted to see Ansel, Ruby, and I promised, but… I need your help to help them."
"I dunno…" She pouted, turning at the hip slowly in a show of her unsurety. "I really wanted to go and see Ansel…"
"You can use the Forge to bake cookies, and make Gnarl help you, too." He offered, the young woman instantly brightening and bouncing on her heels excitedly. She was a good girl, better than he deserved really, and he knew that. But sometimes, she could be the most manipulative person in his life… And he knew Gnarl and Ozpin!
"You got a deal, mister." She nodded, giving Gnarl an excited, beaming smile, "Cookies, Gnarl!"
"I hate my existence with a passion that could only be matched by the insufferable sweetness of chocolate chip cookie dough!" The creature whined, sinking to its knees dramatically, clawing at its hair and punching the ground as it grieved. "Why, Master?! Why must you betray me so greatly!"
"I like Ruby better." The girl snorted and Jaune shrugged, "She's cuter than you."
"Et tu, Lordship!" Gnarl cried, scrabbling towards him and clawing at the air like an overdramatic actor. "Et tuuuu, master!"
With a roll of his eyes, the dark Overlord of the Tower of Evil… Turned and ran up the stairs into the Tower, before the dramatically sobbing creature could snag his boots. Echoing behind him, he heard the creature's pained cry and Ruby's echoing, malevolent laughter followed by a single whispered word.
"Cookies!"
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Salem sighed, sitting in a chair made of carved wood custom fit to her shape and backed in fine padding and Atlesian clothwork. Beside her sat an equally fine table made of the same wood and topped by a thick Vacuoan tapestry colored in bright reds bordered by dark blacks to match the rest of her admittedly small lounge.
Behind her, a Seer floated idly, ready to turn and retrieve a drink or food as she needed from the little refrigerator across the carpeted, stone brickwork room. All of which was, of course, of only the finest and best quality to be found on Remnant, courtesy of her most money savvy servant.
Not for the first time she was grateful for having spared Watts when he was brought to her, watching the Nevermore flock fly from one side to the other in shapes as she ordered them. She used to sit and do this exact thing, a thousand lifetimes ago, with Osma beside her calling out shapes in an ever continuing game for her to try and match.
A better time, she though for also not the first time. One where her children could be heard laughing, Osma's hand often filled hers, and they ruled as gods over the lesser people of the shattered, quite literally gods forsaken world that knelt before them.
Now, she was barely a myth to most people… An old tale passed around fireplaces, and always with inaccuracies that offended even her ageless self.
An ancient, lonely myth.
"My queen." Ah, but she wasn't so lonely, at least in one sense. Turning, she looked at the massive form of Hazel standing behind her, having returned to her now to await new orders. She hummed a question and he grimaced, picking his words carefully as ever to avoid upsetting her like the good, fearful servant he was. "You… Summoned me, Ma'am."
"I wanted to ask how you felt about the Overlord, and the odds of him joining his cause to ours with the offer of young Cinder to do with as he wishes." The man's grimace told her one thing she already knew.
He detested her decision to hand off Cinder and, seeing it, she finally deigned to address it. "I don't aim to leave her with him, you understand, unless he agrees to kneel to me. Something that I know will never happen, most likely, but my little tactic has bought us either time to learn more or an ally more powerful than you could know."
"Ma'am, I would never question your decisions." He was on the defensive, now. Knowing she'd read him and had responded to it.
"Oh Hazel, I know you would not. You're no fool." His face paled and he braced himself for whatever would come, barely more than the tensing of his shoulders, but she waved him off. "I wouldn't ask your opinions and then punish them. You're an honorable man, however, and I would not estrange you over a misunderstanding."
There was only waste in throwing aside a useful pawn over the pawn misunderstanding orders and plans, after all.
"I understand, Ma'am." He nodded, and relaxed as well. She nodded and, after only a second, he asked, "Will that be all, Ma'am?"
"No, no it will not." She rose from her chair, feet swamped in thick, soft carpet, and turned to look at the man. "Jaune Arc is the Overlord, and he is a man with two desires, so far as Watts' checks have shown. He wants his Minion hives, and he wants his family and loved ones safe and sound."
"Understandable…"
"Watts is being saddled with tracking down every single Arc and selecting which one will do to send our message." A message stuck to the corpse of a sister would do, perhaps, if one was available. Or his father, perhaps, given his profession and its inherent risks to life and limb. Smiling, she gave the man a simple order, "The red Hive is somewhere on this continent, I know that much for a fact. I've seen the little cretins along the western coastline a few times, with my Grimm."
"I will find it, Ma'am." Hazel nodded, understanding the order she was giving him. Bowing his head politely, he rumbled, "I will leave right away, Ma'am, if you will allow it."
"Yes. Go, Hazel, and find the little monsters for me." She nodded and the man turned, striding to the door in several long steps and leaving her behind. Smiling, she turned to the flocking Nevermore outside and held up a hand. The birds took the form of it, but left a hole for the sun to peek through.
Like the glowing gem of the Gauntlet that she would soon have, one way or another.
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"The Portal-Shrine is in ruins, and I want it fixed enough to use when we return with the Hive." He ordered, standing at the highest peak that surrounded Ansel, overlooking Arc Manor far below. Behind him, several Guard-Minions squabbled, gripping the large sections of ancient, ruined stone and hauling it to the edge of the enchanted stone. Watching them over his shoulder for a moment, he made a mental count and snapped, "Wretch, Snatch, Scratch, Thatch, I want you all to stay here. Get this mess cleaned up and guard the site."
"For the Overlord!" The four crowed, continuing their work on moving the stones.
He sighed and left them to work while he walked to the edge of the cliff and knelt, looking down on Ansel while his long cloak snapped in the wind beside him, like a flag emblazoned with his symbol. A symbol not of his choosing, that represented everything the Jaune from Ansel would have despised, but that the Jaune from the Dark Tower stood proudly for.
A dissonance he... Wasn't sure what to do with.
Ignore it, he guessed.
The gem in his hand thrummed at the thought. Or more likely, at his emotions and proximity to the Shrine, but he took it for an answer regardless and set the thoughts aside.
"Ansel…" He'd never seen it from this angle, high above and behind Arc Manor itself, but he didn't think it would matter what angle he saw it in after so long. After so much, really. He stared down at the manor and frowned, Gauntlet tapping out a staccato on the bare rock that made up the barren peak of the frigid mountaintop. "I never returned Crocea Mors, I don't think… I don't think father even knows where it is."
At the bottom of the chasm at the far edge of the forest, most likely. At least as far as his dad would assume, and while Jaune was sure his dad had climbed all through that chasm, he was equally sure he'd found nothing at all. Crocea Mors, broken and ruined as it was, was at the Tower after all.
But there was still the temptation to go down and see the town. Ruby would say he should, if she were here…
"A matter for another time perhaps, Master." Gnarl prodded gently, soft spoken either for hiding from Ruby or for actually being sympathetic for once. Probably the former, but with the way his chest was aching, he decided to bank on the latter. "Being the Hero is your dream and wish, Master. There's a young woman that needs your Minion's tending, is there not?"
"Amber, yeah…"
"And would a Hero favor seeing his family over saving an innocent young woman's life?" He didn't answer, but gnarl knew the answer regardless. After a moment, the creature spoke again, "The cave system is only a half hour's climbing and walking away, my Lord. See it done, and play the hero."
"I'll save Amber, if I can." Jaune nodded, rising and stepping back from the cliff in one smooth motion, sighing and enjoying the chill air for once. If only because it soothed somewhat the burning in his chest.
"Yes, well… I was referring to you saving me, actually." The Head Minion snarked good naturedly, shrieking in abject terror a moment later. "Master! Master, Mistress Rose found me! Master, please, hurry and- Ack, the spoon of doom!"
Chuckling dryly, and putting aside the less fun thoughts he had whirling around his head, he turned to his Minions and ordered them to follow. With his personal guard in place, he began the peaceful walk to collect the next batch of his growing army.
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Originally, I intended there to be a cool mountaineering scene and a skirmish with the Grimm preceding the recovery of the Blues. As of this morning, though, I found out that my grandmother passed away and… I just am not in the state for it, but didn't want to sit staring at a screen and not letting any of you know what is going on.
So instead, it's just a milk run in every sense of the word. Go, get the Blues, come home. Instead of a fight, I added in the character drama and conflict I was already intending to with jaune, and you got the main part of this cake with Mercury, Qrow, Emerald and company.
I apologize to anyone disappointed by the length, but I'm just… Not in a state.
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Ehbon 172 :
Glad you're enjoying the story! And yeah, that's kinda my main thing, making Jaune as confused and 'I want to be good, but this feels GREAT, oh hi Ruby' as I can, while ALSO juggling a real enough feeling harem with the explanations given in-story for WHY that develops and is needed.
Is a fun challenge!
Dragomemoirs :
Good luck on writing yours story, and I'm glad you enjoyed mine! Feel free to join my server and post it there if you want, we have several writers that do on occasion.
Dirtrevor :
Oh, Cinder… The adventure with her begins. XD
Digimak :
As stated in another review, that's entirely on purpose. If anything happens and he gets angry, he slips into 'evil mode', so to speak, where he just wants to gloat and indulge. But Ruby even being around can curb it. So yes, he rubber bands between maniacally butchering enemies and bathing in their blood and screams, and laughing while Neo teases Ruby. It's a show of the mechanics involved. When I stated earlier in the story that Ruby was a balancing force for him, I meant it literally.
Cinder's situation specifically, though, is like when Jaune realized the 'Fang weren't the only ones involved in what happened to his people. Now Salem is included in that, and a dead Cinder doesn't answer questions.
Also, Jaune is a man of his word, and promised not to kill or maim Cinder. He does have principles, in spite of, you know… Being basically more polite Sauron at the moment.
Tamult :
It's only an implication, so I'll let the secret out: Ozpin calls the Overlords tyrants, slavers and despots. Gnarl calls them rulers, kings, and heroes who protect their people. Both are simultaneously true, but told as a story from two different perspectives. Ozpin didn't know *any* Overlord as well as he knows Jaune, he simply assumed based on them conquering that they were evil in a classical sense. And Gnarl doesn't mind those nasty aspects to empire building, so he doesn't dwell on them.
Evil, domineering despot or heroic empire builder. The Overlord is something in between what Ozpin and Gnarl both say, and to be decided by Jaune.
I hope that helps.
The Impossible Muffin :
Best summary of Mercury I've seen in a minute, actually.
Dr Killinger :
Maybe~ XD