In no way am I connected to Rooster Teeth

This was irritating.

While not all of the Atlas fleet had left, enough had done so that the remaining could be easily explained by the Dust robberies in the area. No longer were people wondering if there was something more sinister going on. On top of that, the number of friendly competitions other than the traditional tournament was providing a much happier atmosphere, along with less hostilities.

To the general public, the Huntsmen and Huntresses were protectors, but they was also a fear in the back of the mind. 'What if they go rogue?' They were not often viewed as people, but as a league of their own. The public were right, but not in the way they were expecting.

However, this fear was quickly becoming a memory. With the Huntsmen and Huntresses in training being shown as children, it was more difficult for them to fear what they could do to a civilian. When they were out of combat attire, a different image was shown.

This was seen best in the singing competition.

While it did not overshadow the tournament, the children in training for combat could be compared to civilian children of the same age that were training to be shopkeepers or something as innocent. It removed much of the degree of separation between Huntsman and civilians.

What annoyed Cinder the most was that this wasn't done to counter the plan. It had been an idea from someone who had no idea what was going on and competent people had made it happen because people would enjoy it. There was no ulterior motive behind it, but these things were a small problem. Not a huge one, but a problem nonetheless.

Public opinion was a fickle thing.

However, it mattered not.

Qrow wasn't sure what he was looking for. The good General may have listened to them about the fleet around Vale, but they didn't have any reason for a snap inspection of a prison, especially when they were sure an invasion would happen elsewhere.

As such, he did not have the approval of those in the know in Atlas and he had no excuse otherwise.

All he had heard were whispers. They couldn't even be called rumours. Ironically enough, this wasn't enough for Ironwood to order a snap inspection until the Vytal Festival was over.

However, this was something they could not afford get wrong.

LiaGuard was a prison that the public didn't know about. Officially, it didn't exist. It was essentially an island in the middle of the sea, which was heavily guarded both inside and out. There was some of the most powerful weaponry there to protect from the Grimm that occasionally attacked. It was for people that had been given life sentences. These were people that could easily be argued for the death penalty, but for a variety of reasons unique to each, they were imprisoned instead.

I get that we need info, but these guys aren't talking. All these years and only three have ever been cooperative.

However, there were very few that knew exactly what resided in that prison. Qrow did not approve and had argued for it to be destroyed. He had been overridden by both Ozpin and Ironwood.

As Ironwood had provided a lot of the security, it was hard to argue with him. If there was the slightest chance these prisoners had information that could save lives, Ironwood wouldn't hear of it. Ozpin tended to refer to him when it came to LiaGuard, except for the cases that the convicted would end up in this particular prison. That needed approval from all four governments.

To put it simply: it would not end well if Salem got her hands on this fortress.

While Ironwood agreed they needed to check it, he was going to wait until after the Vytal Festival. Ozpin and Qrow had both argued with him, but he stood firm. Most of his fleet leaving Vale had only made him more stubborn.

Here was the main problem: there were a lot of Atlas robots and personnel on site, as well as a lot from Vacuo and Mistral. Conducting checks without manpower or any idea what they were looking for would be a real issue.

He was currently resting on the roof in crow form, watching the latest shipment of resources arrive. He had learned the protocol and had seen nothing awry. However, he now had to decide if it was worth risking heading inside. There were no crows around here and he had very little defence against their weapons. Qrow would be risking his life for what could be a dead end.

The whispers weren't what had him worried.

It was Zephyr Oakley/Solgale. He had told them that they were interested in 'technology that didn't exist'. LiaGuard certainly qualified. On top of that, they had never figured out the reason why Cinder had led Ruby to the Police Headquarters that night. Even if it was a distraction, why pick there?

Everything Qrow could see was what it was supposed to be. He had managed a few seconds as human to take a photo so Ironwood could confirm everyone who could be seen was supposed to be there.

He did, with a lot of patience, but Qrow still wasn't sure.

At the moment, he was not going to risk getting shot and killed. Qrow took to the wing. He didn't approve, but the Vytal Festival was the more imminent (known) risk and that was where his kids were. That was where he would focus for now.

It was now Thursday. The preliminary rounds were over and they were onto the doubles round.

It wasn't a difficult decision for Blake to make. Ren and Nora had been friends for forever and worked together so well, she sometimes thought they could read minds. They certainly enjoyed fighting together.

Besides, they wanted it the most.

Still, they were at lunchtime and they hadn't been called up yet. Nearly everyone that had were the older years; people Blake didn't really know.

The first match after lunch was CFVY vs LGHG. Coco and Yatsuhashi vs Hadrian and Galon.

Yang chuckled and rubbed her hands together. "Finally."

"Since when do you get along so badly with them?" Blake asked.

"Since Monday," Emerald replied. She had also leaned forward in anticipation. "But it's more that they're a bit too arrogant."

Nora sniggered. "Too arrogant? Is there such a thing? Can't be as bad as all of us, idiots and morons included. And most of those magicals as well."

"She's got a point," Ren replied.

"These guys passed the first round only because Ghita bailed three of them out. Twice." Now that Emerald mentioned it, she did remember it. "In fact…I wonder why she's not up there."

"Maybe she didn't want to be," Blake responded. She couldn't see Ghita in the crowd, but it would be odd if she missed her team's fight.

Galon and Hadrian had a simple strategy: use their heavier weapons to hopefully overpower their opponents. This may have worked against some teams, but Coco and Yatsuhashi were not one of them. They also had heavy weapons, but Coco's gun was something that Hadrian and Galon would need a lot of speed to avoid. They couldn't just power through it.

Then again, I can't think of many that would be fast enough to dodge that.

The one time they did get close enough, Yatsuhashi intercepted and smacked them back again, taking off 20 of Galon's aura and 34 of Hadrian's.

Finally, the two retreated behind the rocks.

Coco and Yatsuhashi didn't immediately follow. They had a brief discussion before approaching slowly. Suddenly, Yatsuhashi leapt up high in the air and slammed his sword into the centre of the rocky field.

The result was an earthquake.

"I would say that was 6.2," Dr Oobleck decided.

Yatsuhashi remained low. He didn't stand from his crouch. When Galon and Hadrian steadied themselves, they immediately ran forward to attack.

"Bad idea," Emerald muttered. "That's a trap."

It was.

Yatsuhashi had stayed low to avoid friendly fire. Coco had managed to get into the perfect position without Galon and Hadrian noticing. Once caught in the volley of rounds, they weren't able to get out. Their aura quickly dropped into the red.

"And with that, Coco and Yatsuhashi are the winners!"

The cheering was deafening. Blake clapped happily, catching Velvet out of her seat in the corner of her eye. On her other side, Ruby was bouncing up and down in her seat.

The noise continued as the randomizer appeared on the screen again and started spinning.

"Ruby and Yang from Beacon vs Roland and Warrick from Haven!"

Only to land on RMEY and RNBW.

Yang smashed her fists together. "Well, it's about time."

Ruby bounced off her seat. "Finally!"

Velvet chuckled. "They're certainly excited." She then stood up.

"You're not staying Velvet?" Blake asked.

"I'm sure Mercury is going to be showing up soon and he said he still had stuff to do at the stage that would take him most of the day. I'll go cover for him."

"Thank you," Emerald murmured.

Velvet hesitated. "Emerald, keep an eye on him, alright? Something's off; almost like he's tired but he doesn't act it."

Blake nodded her agreement with that. Recently, Mercury had always been on the move; always another job to do. Something was off. He knew more about Zephyr and who he worked for; that could be part of the reason.

Or it could be something else…

Not a minute after Velvet and Fox left, Mercury turned up. Emerald smiled at him and offered popcorn when he sat down next to her. He chose to give her a one arm hug instead, before settling back.

Blake turned back to the arena. A fire side and an ice side. Ruby and Yang were excited to get going. Roland and Warrick had a calm confidence, but it wasn't quite arrogance.

He may or may not have been trying his hardest, but Basil had lost to Ruby before. They weren't going to be underestimating them.

Roland had a double katana, held together by little more than a band of metal barely big enough for his hand. Warrick had dual pistols. They had remained pistols in the match with JWMP.

"Go get 'em girls!" Jaune and Nyall cheered in perfect sync.

When the buzzer sounded, Ruby and Yang split up. Ruby vanished in a shower of petals, but there was no sign which direction she went in.

Going for sniping. Might take them a while to figure out where she is and until they do, they're easy targets.

There weren't many sniping spots, but they were far enough away from each other to be an issue.

Yang went on the offensive (as if she would ever do defence). She placed herself between Roland and Warrick. While this did mean she was attacked on both sides, one dodged strike results in friendly fire.

Yang's aura may be draining, but so was Roland's and Warrick's.

Eventually, the pair both jumped back together. Roland ran forward to engage Yang again. Warrick aimed, but stumbled as something knocked into him. A flash of red heading in the opposite direction revealed what caused him to stumble.

Again.

And again.

Mercury chuckled. "Someone's getting frustrated."

Warrick was. He had completely forgotten about Yang and was trying to hit someone that could move almost faster than he could see.

Ruby and Yang's Semblances were well known. Emerald and Mercury's weren't. So most people thought those two would go forward and prepared for a very different fight. However, just because you knew what your opponent could do did not guarantee you a victory. Especially if they didn't know what you could do.

But Roland and Warrick did not use a Semblance. Maybe theirs weren't designed for combat.

Then Warrick said something and Ruby became visible. She was in shock at first, which was when Warrick tried to hit her. That only set her off again.

Emerald winced. "That was a stupid thing to say."

"What'd he say?" Melody asked hesitantly.

Mercury answered, cringing. "He said that it was just as well her mother was missing as she would be very disappointed in the coward her daughter was. Her Emery would soon do the same."

All of them winced.

"Okay." Jaune glared. "He deserves everything that's coming to him."

Anyone who believed Ruby was a sweet, innocent girl would never believe how brutal she could be when someone hurt (including insults) someone she really cared about. Taunting her by saying stuff like that was the worst thing you could do.

Ruby vanished again. The petals circled Warrick, slowly at first until it was an almost swarm of red. Blake couldn't see inside it. The whirlwind just grew in speed and height.

Only after the buzzer sounded did the hurricane stop and Warrick was lying on the ground, panting. 1 aura left.

Roland had been staring at the whirlwind. Yang had punched him into it. He had drifted around it a few times before he had smacked the wall separating them from the audience. He may have 59 aura left, but it was a ring out.

"And, in an incredible display of speed and beauty, Ruby and Yang are victorious!"

Blake was out of her seat and clapping. A glance around showed most of Beacon were. Emerald and Mercury grinned at them before giving a casual salute and heading towards the exit.

No doubt they were going to reassure Ruby that Warrick was wrong. No doubt their celebrations were well deserved.

Mercury's Gems were very aware of his absence in the colosseum recently. It was his absence elsewhere that was the problem.

Ruby thought it odd. Okay, they knew full well that he wasn't coming to the concert as it would probably give him a migraine and they had known a few others weren't going, so he would be fine. She wasn't too bothered about his absence from the colosseum as she always saw him outside it and in the fairgrounds. He was at their match. Velvet, Coco and Weiss had easily persuaded Ida and Blake to work backstage during the show from the very beginning so he could be with them.

At dinner after their match though, they could see for themselves that something was wrong.

And then he was reluctant to let them aura read him. He only did that when something was really bothering him.

The next morning, they woke up and he was gone. The pattern continued: he would missing for most of the day, although he would appear for lunch and breaks (and as soon as Emerald called him). He met them in their seats for the singing competition (which had a lot of people that didn't qualify for the tournament), but when they went to bed, he vanished.

Ruby tried staying awake for when he returned last night. She thought she felt his arms wrap around her and a kiss to her hair, but it was so dreamlike. He was gone again by the time they woke up.

It was Saturday. There were no matches to avoid, so what was he really up to?

Emerald: Where are you?

Mercury: Ozpin's office

Ruby frowned. "He seems to be spending a lot of time in there."

Emerald scowled. "Especially when Qrow is with Tai and we just saw Goodwitch and Ozpin. So he must be with Ironwood and I don't trust him."

Ruby knew that she meant she didn't trust him with Mercury. Bringing up the fact that they hadn't seen Miss Amber and so she might be there as well wouldn't help. It would just make Emerald more on edge.

"I don't like how often he's in there," Ruby responded, sadness in her tone. "Why is he?"

Something flickered across Emerald's face. Her anger faded and resignation replaced it. She wrapped an arm around Ruby while she sent a message on the eleven person group chat. Apparently, there was nothing else going on that needed to be approved or anything like that.

Ruby shoulders dropped. "Why not just ask him? There must be something…"

"…Soon." Emerald gently tugged Ruby closer, who curled into her. "When we fly." From Emerald's sudden depressed mood, she might have an idea about what was wrong and really hoped that she was wrong about it.

Was that fear?

Ruby really hoped it wasn't fear.

When we fly…He can't block aura reading when we fly…He promised we would go flying tonight.

"When we fly is a little unfair Em."

"I know Ruby. But he's gone this far and not told us. Either he's not trying to hide it or he just hasn't noticed we've noticed. Whatever's bothering him…He's not sleeping well Ruby. An hour or two a night isn't enough."

Seriously, why did he insist on getting up so early? It was a habit he should have left behind by now.

Emerald: How long will you be?

…

Mercury: Probably a while

Emerald sighed, dropping the scroll on the wall they were resting on. Ruby snatched it and sent a message to Uncle Qrow. Mercury shouldn't be in there alone; he didn't trust anyone in there. He wouldn't feel safe.

Ruby wanted to be angry at him. But something really wasn't right here.

Seeing Mercury walking away from Uncle Qrow outside the tower an hour later made that feeling worse.

"Qrow?" Emerald was as hesitant to ask as Ruby was.

"You three haven't had a fight, have you?" Qrow's eyes went to them.

"If we don't get an answer soon, I will."

Ruby opened her mouth, not sure what to say to calm Emerald down. Instead, she swallowed and turned to her uncle. "What happened up there?"

Qrow let out a frustrated growl. "I don't know. He claims Ironwood was drilling him about Zephyr and Cinder. I think it's something more, but he's not being very helpful."

"But why would he lie? Or not tell us the truth?" Ruby didn't understand. Mercury had never lied to them and he normally had a good reason for not mentioning things when they asked.

"…I don't know Ruby. But something's going on." His gaze went upwards. "And if Silvertongue's not going to tell me, I'll ask our good General." With that, he strode inside.

He's mad.

Emerald watched him with narrowed eyes. She then turned and headed in Mercury's direction. Ruby thought this was a bad idea, but she also moved forward.

It took a little while to catch up to him. Mercury had gone to the little cove where he had asked them to go to the dance with him. He was resting his arm on one knee with the other leg out. He was looking out to the ocean. Not at them.

"Hey girls."

"Girls?" Emerald asked. "Not Gems?"

"You're angry at me. I don't want to make you angrier."

"We're worried about you Merc," Ruby responded, her voice quieter than she would have liked. "The other day you said you weren't going to listen to the General and now you seem to be meeting with him often."

"And he really doesn't like us," Emerald tagged on. She sat down opposite Mercury and folded her arms. Not sure what to do, Ruby remained where she was.

Mercury remained quiet for a little while. "It's just answering questions Emerald. He's getting very paranoid."

"If it's just questions, then why aren't Qrow or Ozpin there?"

"Because after a three hour straight grilling session, Amber had enough and kicked me out to 'have a word with him', I believe she said. Now he thinks they're trying to interfere with keeping the people safe." A very bitter chuckle followed that. "Stupid fool. He didn't take kindly to me telling him that they weren't afraid of his toy soldiers."

"Miss Amber kicked you out?" Ruby repeated.

"So why do you keep going back?" Emerald demanded. "Ironwood has no say over us!"

"And who do you think is going to take the fall if things go south Emerald?" Mercury was glaring at Emerald now. "Who do you think Ironwood is going to point the finger at? It's not going to be himself. It's not going to be Ozpin or Qrow either; he has nothing on them."

"He has nothing on you unless Amber says so!"

Mercury laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound. "Still so naïve Emerald. I thought you knew better than that. All Ironwood needs to do is show a connection between me and Marcus Black. Easily done. Public opinion and tabloids will do the rest. Who won't believe that the son of a mass murderer was partly responsible for the fall of Beacon?"

Both Ruby and Emerald went as still as statues.

"He can't move against you Emerald. I'm disposable; I always was. People are going to want to trust in Atlas and that's easy enough for Ironwood to do. Even if things don't go south, it doesn't matter. He can leak that whenever he wants and let the public get worked up enough that his army is needed. Might even get an 'I told you so'-"

"Shut up!" Ruby snapped furiously.

Mercury fell silent, his grey eye as hard as diamond.

Ruby took a deep breath. "That won't happen. Even if it did, all Ironwood has is lies or stuff he can't say. Everyone at Beacon, whether they like you or not though most at least respect you, they'll fight for you. Who are the public going to believe? A man who brought an army to Vale for no reason or the teenagers that know they can go to you to set up singing competitions or dancing competitions or plays or something else? A man they only know by reputation or their own kids?"

"It may take two sides to fight a war Ruby," Mercury almost snarled. "But it only takes one man to start it."

Emerald finally spoke up. "You haven't changed your name and no one's made the connection yet. 'Black' is a rather uncommon name, but may be common enough that these people don't see anything wrong with it."

A thought occurred to Ruby. "Before we met you, me and Yang had never heard of Marcus Black."

"Your father had," Mercury responded.

"My point is that he wasn't on the news. Ever. Dad's a Huntsman; he probably heard from that."

Mercury growled. "You're missing the point, Ruby. It doesn't matter if people have heard about him or not. Publish a criminal record and that job's done. Ironwood doesn't think things through properly. Bringing an army to Vale could have brought to the Grimm, but he didn't think about that. Keeping me out of Beacon could result in bringing the Grimm and who is he going to blame for that?"

"It would be his fault."

"Yet I'm the one that's hung out to dry."

"Uncle Qrow would never let that happen."

"Who's to say he would have a choice?"

"Both of you stop."

Ruby looked at Emerald, trying to plead her to get through to him. Mercury just scoffed and his attention went to the sea again.

When Em spoke, her voice was calm and controlled. "If you're that convinced Merc, why do you still meet with him?"

The smirk he had was not one Ruby liked. "Insurance."

"Insurance?" Ruby repeated. "What do you mean?"

"It's your word against his," Emerald interrupted before Mercury could explain. "In your scenario, that doesn't end well."

Mercury still didn't look at them. His hand went into his pocket and he threw Em his scroll. Em put in his code (the day they attacked the Fall Maiden, despite Ruby begging him to change it) and she started to go through things.

Then her fingers stopped moving. "You recorded it."

"Everything. Ironwood never noticed. Send it to Qrow, who removes the things they don't want know, and he can make a much better case than Ironwood can. Still results in the Grimm coming, but I won't end up dead for it. I didn't survive Marcus and escape Cinder so that one man who has no authority to be here can destroy everything."

Ruby winched. She hated it when the two spoke like this. When they spoke about themselves as if they were anything less than people. Like they didn't have any rights.

"Why didn't you tell us this?" Emerald muttered. She was still skimming through his scroll, something he didn't seem to care about. "Why didn't you tell anyone about what you thought?"

"Because Ironwood would just deny he threatened me with it. He and Qrow have had issues for years and Ozpin has recently been on his 'useless person' list. We might know that Ozpin will act way more boldly when he can, but Ironwood doesn't see it that way. There was nothing they could do about it anyway. It's handled."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ruby echoed Emerald. She had been afraid Mercury didn't like spending time with them anymore. With her.

"Ruby, you are atrocious at lying." Ruby chuckled weakly at Mercury's gentle tone. He wasn't wrong. "You want me to ask Em to keep that a secret from you? On top of that, you have a sense of justice that I can't understand, but can predict. I don't want to cause you any trouble." After a second, he added: "Well, any more trouble."

Emerald snorted at that. Ruby could feel the anger climbing again. Ironic as the fight seemed to have left Em.

"So you deliberately didn't tell us that Ironwood was trying to blackmail you?" Ruby growled. Yeah, she was very miffed at that. At Mercury for not telling her and at Ironwood for trying it. She hadn't decided yet who she was angrier at.

"Yes." Mercury looked her in the eye then. The mask that she could see and so few could still sent a shiver down her spine. "You knew something was wrong. That was enough."

"That-"

"Ruby. You're biased. So is Qrow and Ozpin. Amber agreeing with them hasn't helped his mood. He has had no evidence to suggest I'm not working for Cinder. He's not wrong to be distrustful."

Hearing Mercury agree with Ironwood wasn't helping Ruby's mood. It was only making it worse. Em's silent agreement made her snap again.

"When exactly were you going to tell us about any of this?!"

Mercury. Flinched.

Her stomach clenched when she realised it wasn't from her words, but from her tone. She had never snarled at him like that before. She hadn't seen him flinch at all since-

"After the Vytal Festival," he muttered, not meeting her gaze now. "After we knew what had happened, if it was good or bad."

Ruby didn't know if she wanted to hug him or yell at him.

Emerald hadn't made up her mind either. She refused to look at him. "So why change your mind?"

He sighed. "It wasn't too bad at first. An hour here, an hour there…Now it's starting to cut far too much into what little time I have. Yesterday, I was up there since seven and when I came down, first thing I did was find you." At dinnertime. "He was suspicious of that as well, by the way. Idiot stuck a tracker on me."

Okay, Ruby could stand the General questioning Mercury if he agreed to it. A tracker was not allowed.

"Where's the tracker now?"

"Slipped it into Qrow's pocket. He probably noticed, but won't have a look until he's alone."

Ruby almost wished she could be there when Uncle Qrow exploded. Almost.

"He's way too focused on you," Emerald muttered. Ruby couldn't tell what she thought.

Mercury shrugged. "He thinks he's onto something and the rest of them are blind. He would think the same of you Em, if he didn't have a real reason for keeping an eye on you. He's never seen anything that suggests I'm not working for Cinder." Ruby opened her mouth. "All he knows is that, for some unknown reason, Qrow adopted the kids that tried to rip a certain woman's soul out and has been told that they trust me." Mercury scoffed. "I wouldn't believe them either."

"….You're not him anymore," Ruby mumbled.

"It's not me that needs convincing." Mercury stood up. He sighed. "One day, you two might have to make a choice: me or the rest of the family? Me or Remnant? At this rate, it'll be someday soon. I've tried, but we've seen how difficult it is to sway someone from their beliefs, no matter how much we disagree." He headed towards the tunnel, but stopped just before he left. "For the record, I'm sorry."

Ruby tried to follow him.

But he was far too quick. He was just gone.

Ruby knew what she chose. She chose not to choose. She was never going to let it get into the situation that she had to choose.

Emerald hadn't moved. She was still leaning against the wall of the cave, watching the rain that had started to fall. Ruby sat next to her.

"I don't understand Emerald. I thought…" Ruby didn't know what she thought.

"Cinder went looking for Marcus Black, Ruby. That should tell you enough about him. Mercury's not wrong; if Ironwood wanted, he could get him killed. Mercury's asking if we're willing to allow Cinder to destroy Beacon if it means keeping him. For me, that choice is easy. The choice between him and our family…I won't."

Ruby swallowed. Then she glared. She wasn't either.

"Still…If Ironwood is used to dealing with the father of our family, maybe we need to tell the mother exactly what has been going on."

Mercury never came back to bed that night. When the pair entered the dorm, the eagle and quetzalcoatl were waiting for them on the bed. He never responded when they tried to talk while aura reading.

Emerald pulled out the big guns.

AN: The weekend spelled the end of the doubles round. The following week is solely for the one on ones.

Thanks for reading.