AN: In no way am I connected to Rooster Teeth

It was a Saturday.

For the first time, the girls of RMEY had stayed a Beacon. The reason for that had been Mercury had been called the day before to see if he was interested in a mission.

Mercury had been.

It was simple enough: security nodes that monitored Grimm activity were down and they needed someone to help manually fix them, provided they hadn't been completely destroyed. An amateur could do it. Apparently Ozpin had been thinking about using it for first years as one was in Emerald Forest and the other was about a half mile from that.

Now Ozpin wanted Mercury to meet him in his office.

He better not have changed his mind.

Honestly, he wanted something far more challenging, but while Mercury's aura had been fine he hadn't yet been in the field to test it under pressure. He also was going alone, so he could test his new weapon without worrying about hitting anyone or getting awkward questions.

Ozpin was working on paperwork when he entered. Mercury sat in the chair opposite, relaxed and waited. When Ozpin put the sheet down, Mercury tilted his head slightly to take a peek. It looked like a test result.

"Most students aren't interested in paperwork," Ozpin commented without looking up.

"Well you do have a lack of anything in this office." Mercury looked up. "Save for the gears. Are they for the clock?"

"Partially, but the clock can function well enough if something damages them." Ozpin put the pen down and turned his attention to his guest then. "This particular test is Ruby's."

"She tells me she's doing well."

"She is." Ozpin was quiet for a moment, obviously thinking something through. "Mercury, can I ask you when the last time you saw your friends? Your family aside."

Mercury shrugged. "Two months ago at Zephyr's funeral. I do work a lot of the week though, so I wouldn't see them much."

"The time before?"

"The Wednesday before that to tell them about said funeral."

"And before that?"

What was he getting at? Mercury thought back. "When I…returned to public. Four months ago. Why?"

Ozpin digested that for a moment. "Would you believe me if I told you they were the only times they left Beacon? Blake aside."

Mercury blinked. "Come again?"

"If they were first years, I would think nothing of it. However, last year, you all visited Vale at least once a week. Save for the times you mentioned, they have not been to Vale or even out of Beacon."

"That's…weird." Not even for a dinner out or bowling or mini golf or anything? "Never? You're sure?"

"I'm sure. Security was a little stricter after LiaGuard was taken and people had to use their names if they wanted to borrow an airship and those cameras are still working. No more joke names."

Mercury chuckled. Good times.

"On top of that, they have been spending most of their free time in the gym or in the library. There are almost no pranks or stupid decisions from them in the same time either."

Hence their sudden rise in grades. Mercury did recall the last time he saw Ruby and she showed him a move he would have suggested she wait until she had grown a few inches. He was slightly surprised she hadn't smacked herself in the head.

"Are you complaining that they're doing better in school?" That wasn't the problem and Mercury knew it. He was trying to find something he had missed.

"Academic wise, no. Emotionally, I worry for them. Had you noticed anything?"

Well, to be fair, Ozpin had lived for a while on Earth with Remedy and Burgundy so Mercury could see why he was rather attached to them. It was also remarkably difficult to discuss those two teams without Jump involved now.

Mercury raised an eyebrow. "You do realise that I'm the one they're trying to act normal around, right?" Then he shook his head and sighed. "But I have noticed a few things. If you think it's that much of a problem, give them the name of that therapist you suggested to Emerald. What did Qrow and Tai say?" Because there was no way this hadn't been discussed with them.

"That four months did count as a pattern, that they were behaving fine at home and to treat you like an adult about both discussions."

Ozpin treated Mercury like an adult anyway.

"…Both?"

"I'll get to that." And from the look on his face, it wasn't a discussion Ozpin wanted to have either. "But what I wanted to ask was if you noticed anything and if you were willing to let the girls join you on your mission today."

It was irritating, but it didn't require much thinking. "Yeah sure. Things go well and we'll be back by lunchtime. If it's a type of sabotage we'll be lucky to catch dinner."

"From anyone else I would take that as a joke. With you, I feel the need to point out how easily you find trouble, especially when you're alone."

"Part of the reason I wanted to be alone in the first place." In his defence, Glade Town wasn't entirely his fault. The Vytal Festival was completely his fault though; he was willing to admit to that. "Think it'll help?"

"Possibly. If nothing more, it might show exactly what is happening."

Mercury leaned back in his chair. "You're a learned spirit Ozpin. What do you think?"

"I'm not a doctor Mercury."

"What I know is that the memories that stick with normal people are the traumatic ones. Those are the ones that are going to be clearest."

Ozpin sighed with a smile. "Not a bad theory. Not entirely inaccurate either but I'm not going into that. What I am thinking is that they're trying your approach to trauma. Or rather, what they think is your response to trauma."

Mercury groaned. "Good grief. If that's true, something's going to snap eventually." Detachment and contentment was not something they would understand, so they would think it was suppression. Which would not end well because emotions do not like to be bottled up.

Still…Why would Emerald pick his way? She should be enjoying the finer things in life. She had her own way of dealing with things.

He didn't think that Ozpin was entirely right, but he couldn't be sure the man was entirely wrong either.

"They're coming with me. What's the second discussion?"

"Something that is going to depress me and aggravate you. Another time."

Fine by Mercury.

He had far more important problems.

Mercury stood up and stretched. "Anything else I need to know?"

"No. The closest security node is inside the cave next to where Jaune's locker landed last year." The 'with him inside' went unsaid.

Thinking back, Cardin had backed off Jaune after that. Had that been because of the teachers rather than Jaune learning how to actually use his weapons?

"We'll start there then." Once he found the girls anyway. Emerald Forest wasn't far and didn't require an airship to get to.

"I'm not sending a professor this time Mercury but do keep in touch."

"Of course," Mercury smiled innocently.

Now. Saturday morning.

They should be enjoying the free morning or doing something remarkably stupid that they could only get away with because they were in school. Something that was an utter waste of time but was still greatly enjoyable.

But if Ozpin was right, they would be in the gym or the library.

Where to start?

"Hey Mercury. Good to see you."

Mercury glanced around, finding the speaker. It took a moment for the name to come. "Hey Drake." Short for Drakinion. Mercury could see why he shortened it. He would be fourth year now. "How's Vanessa?" His crush last year. That was probably different now.

"Taking her out to dinner tonight." Huh. Go figure. "Nice try though."

Mercury shrugged. "Me and the grapevine don't get along well."

"Oh, I know. Some guys and gals are heading to the warehouses by the docks tomorrow night for some fun. You interested?"

The last time he went out with these guys and gals, they had decided that playing dodge with a machine gun spinning down from the roof was a good idea. Mercury was still surprised the gun managed to completely empty its magazine on the trip on the pole they sent it down. To be fair, when the police showed up due to noise complaints, the ones responsible for the idea had quickly owned up to it.

"I'll pass."

"Street car racing."

Then again, that sounded interesting. But his response was currently the same. "Probably not."

Drake shrugged. "Just give me a call if you change your mind. Bring your team too if you want. I can see the sisters doing well."

"Why?"

"Well, we all know Ruby's Semblance so stick her behind the wheel and she could be brilliant." A fair point if Ruby actually knew how to drive a car. Which she didn't. "And I know Yang has a bike. I bet she could have won that race hands down."

Mercury blinked. "She turned bike racing down?" If that didn't say something was wrong, nothing would. Yang had once joked to him that, after Huntress, bike racing was her preferred profession.

"Yep. That sucker should never have won and I swear he stole his ride."

Mercury was still thinking about Yang, but he continued the conversation anyway. "Who was the sucker?"

"Noir Blanco."

"He definitely stole it."

Drake threw his hands in the air. "Thank you!" Then he caught sight of his watch. "Shit. I got to go. Your girls are either in the gym or library. See you around." He ran off towards the school.

Mercury ran a hand through his hair, thinking.

He knew that the girls had some problems. After that first night, he had always been joined in bed when they were home. They just couldn't last a night without having a nightmare; any of them. If they weren't in his bed, they went to one of the other's. After the third weekend, Mercury gave up and suggested they sleep together in the living room. None of them had had a nightmare then.

After a moment, Mercury headed into the school. He didn't aim for the library or the gym. Instead, he went to the dorm room. His key for it had been in the locker with his other belongings in LiaGuard luckily, but then if Pepper was determined enough she would have probably tried to get in through the window while invisible. However, Cinder had kept sending them on jobs away from the school.

Mercury was honestly surprised she stuck to that deal.

One look inside the dorm and Mercury could tell: neither of the single beds had been slept in for quite some time.

At least they're sleeping fine here.

Beacon was well known to them. It was safe. Home was obviously safe. It was somewhere where they instinctively relaxed. It was somewhere that some could force themselves to relax.

They may respond differently in the field.

So. What did he do?

Mercury let out a long breath.

He had been hoping that this mission wasn't as simple as it looked. Now he wasn't so sure. Something simple would be better as they would be safer because unpredictable things seemed popular around him but something more might knock them out of their comfort zone. Is that a good idea or not?

Won't know until we get into the forest. But if they're in denial rather than suppressing…

The library was the closest. On top of that, last year they had had their study sessions on Saturday mornings. That may have been moved with Yang, Ruby and Emerald going home every weekend.

To every weekday apparently.

But even if the girls are more traumatised than I thought, then what about the others? Why are they behaving this way? Blake goes home often so maybe I should talk to her but…What's going on?

Pyrrha glanced up and, oddly enough, there was relief in her eyes for a moment.

That hadn't been there that Wednesday evening.

Funerals were a time for depression.

Jaune looked up without any cue from Pyrrha. Maybe they had been working on aura reading. "Morning Mercury. Heading out?"

"Soon." Mercury glanced over Weiss' shoulder to look at what they were doing. Grimm Studies on Beringals and Griffons.

"Where's Talaria?" Emerald asked with an accusatory frown.

"She's not my bodyguard today." He looked at her properly then. She didn't normally like hoodies and he was sure that one had been left at Patch. "You three are."

"Finally," Weiss muttered very quietly. The others didn't hear.

"What." Yang's pen dropped from her hand.

"It's a job in Emerald Forest. Easy enough for first years, so it's a fun trip out. Now go get your stuff."

For two seconds, none of them moved.

Then Emerald shifted. They all got up and left. Silently.

Mercury took Ruby's seat. "Okay. What's been going on?"

"No idea," Melody replied instantly. "They're driven. Almost obsessed with getting stronger. It's getting beyond crazy."

"And you lot?"

Jaune understood his question first. "It just doesn't feel right leaving them out and they're not really interested in anything else. We've managed to coax them into a hand-to-hand combat club but everything else…" He shrugged helplessly. "Personally, I'm getting worried. They might seriously hurt themselves one of these days."

"Yang turned down a bike race. Know anything about that?"

They all looked appropriately confused and dismayed.

"I know it was a month ago; a few of my friends went." Melody groaned. "I would have called you if I heard about Yang turning it down. Raine told her about it and I was sure she went. She kept dodging the issue when I asked and…" She too shrugged.

"When did it start?" If the problem was just with his girls then the logical answer was when he vanished.

"After you came back," Ren stated.

Mercury wasn't expecting that.

Jaune continued. "It was the opposite for when you were gone. They put all their energy in trying to be normal; acting like everything was fine. When you returned…I mean as soon as they returned to Beacon that day…That's when. We only caught it two weeks later but…nothing's worked."

"You're the problem," Weiss said simply. "You're the key to fix it."

"Weiss!" Blake hissed.

"She's not wrong," Mercury cut in before anyone said anything else. He rubbed his temples. "I've just got to work around the fact that I am the last person they want to think anything's wrong."

Person.

…

That might get somewhere.

If Harry wouldn't open up to Sirius but did open up to Padfoot…

"Don't suppose they can talk to your parents?" Nora asked.

"We all know I'm the problem. If this trip doesn't pan out, then that'll be next. I just don't think it'll work and neither do they." The sole reason Tai and Qrow hadn't said anything. They had suggested to him before to let them tag along on his first mission, but he had wanted to do it alone.

He just hadn't realised how bad it was.

"That mission Emerald was injured on." Blake's amber eyes were soft. "What she needed to do was to admit to herself she needed help. You may not be the entire problem."

Jaune made a sound that was a cross between a groan and a growl. "Mercury you're not the problem-"

"Jaune." Mercury met his eyes. "I appreciate it but you don't need to tell me what they mean. I know." He glanced behind him. Still no girls. They shouldn't take that long.

"I moved Yang's gauntlets after our sparring yesterday," Pyrrha murmured.

Mercury chuckled turning back. "You have a death wish."

"Precisely the point. I'm just surprised she hadn't noticed earlier."

"This was first thing. She wouldn't have noticed until she was looking for them." Even so, that wasn't a big dorm to search. "Where'd you put them?"

"Under the cabinet in the bathroom with a few things to hide them from view. Enough to think that she didn't put it away properly."

"I won't mention it." His eyes fell on the old drawing of a Beringal.

Ren smiled. "Seems like ages ago, doesn't it? Initiation."

"I'm doing the advanced course. I'm getting worried what they're going to do to me for Graduation."

"I can give you a few suggestions," Nora offered.

"I'll hear them but…" Seeing as he wasn't sure when he wasn't going to see them next. "Weiss, can I talk to you alone? About your brother."

Weiss hadn't been interested until he said 'brother'. She nodded and stood up; him following her. The others said nothing and watched them go.

There were a few greetings from loads of people to both of them. They replied hello instinctively. Seeing as Yang was probably ripping his old dorm apart, Weiss took him to hers. Other than being a lot more organised than he remembered, it was the same as ever.

"Right." Weiss sat on her bed. "What do you know about Whitely?"

One thing Marcus Black's School for Assassination never taught: how to deal with the relatives properly.

"Right." He didn't want to tell her, but she deserved to know. There were also other people who could tell her so she might find out in a worse way. Then again… He sighed. "I killed him."

That almost certainly wasn't the way to tell her but was there even a good way to say it other than being blunt?

…

…

"Explain." Her face was stone hard.

Mercury took a deep breath. "What do you know about psychological triggers?"

"Get to your point."

"That is the point." How to explain it? "Okay, that dog experiment. Ring a bell, give food and they salivate. Ring the bell, don't give the food and they still salivate. That was the basic idea. In humans, it's a little more complicated, especially what they were trying to do to him."

"What were they doing?" No change in emotion.

"They put a trigger in his brain. Say a certain key phrase and he would act a certain way. Wasn't even aware he was doing it and wouldn't remember it. When I saw him, they were testing it by having him perform surgery on people. Unless you are going to tell me he has been doing organ removal since he was one, it definitely worked. Not a millimetre wrong."

…

"You're sure it was him?"

"Very."

"He performed surgery on you." That wasn't a question. Her face was very flat.

"He did, but it was my appendix and I don't need that." Could have done without being awake for that but he hadn't been in much position to argue. A flicker across Weiss' face and he realised he shouldn't have said that. "Other people weren't so lucky. Thing is…They were going to send him back home."

Weiss' eyes narrowed a little at that. But she didn't say anything.

"Basil worked with them. He thought you would do something to get yourself disowned and everything goes to Whitely. But they couldn't be sure. How easy would it be to kill someone within your house? You have butlers but…Would your father call the police or anything?"

Weiss still didn't say anything.

"After he was done operating on me, he was ordered on to somebody else. At least six others. The drugs keeping me immobilised eventually wore off and I had a choice. I killed him to protect you. Your father didn't factor into it."

Ginger and Basil knew they were in trouble then. They hadn't been quick enough to stop him and, against all orders, hadn't kept him chained down. They hadn't thought Mercury would do anything and he hadn't tried to escape before, mainly because he knew he couldn't. Everything he had was needed to keep him alive and somewhat healthy.

Whitely was part of a long term project and should never have been near Mercury in the first place. Now they had to try and cover it up. Whitely went into the time simulator to throw off time of death and no doubt they had blamed someone else. That was when Basil had drilled screws into his spine. Mercury was sure he had been trying to kill him, but in a way that could look like a sadistic accident.

He never saw Basil after that. Only Ginger and any 'friends' she brought. He had been surprised to learn that Basil had been killed by Zephyr and not Cinder or any of her accomplices.

"He didn't do anything to deserve to die."

"Whitely? No." Mercury was sure he had no idea what he was doing. The problem then became he couldn't stop it.

One minute.

Two minutes.

"Let's go back to the others. I have an essay to finish and employee data to go over. You have a mission and a problematic family."

That…wasn't what he was expecting.

He had been expecting her to get very violent. He would have let her; taken any hit she threw. It wasn't like she would have actually managed to hurt him. Her quietly accepting it hadn't entered his mind as a possibility.

"Weiss…"

"I don't want to discuss this now. I will let you know if I want to know more. At the moment, that's enough."

"…Shall I tell your father?"

"No one is going to tell my father. I see no need to take this further. You confessed to me. I will decide what to do with it."

Mercury nodded slowly. He had not intended to tell anyone else. "You have my number."

Now he could get back to his family problem.

"How are your studies coming along?" Mercury blinked as he turned his attention back to Weiss. She had become friendly once more. "You don't have access to the school library."

"So far, the library in Vale has had what I need." Had Weiss hated her brother that much that she didn't care he killed him? "The professors are satisfied I'll pass the physical once I get back into shape." He was sure he was, but he had yet to try a field test.

"You will, though I'm sure the missions will help. I'm more concerned about them than you."

"Right now, I'm worried about you." Because he was quite sure this wasn't normal either.

She thought about it. "I…mourned Whitely when he went missing. His death wasn't a surprise, though the circumstances are. I cannot say I was close to him but for now…I feel very little. That will change soon I'm sure, but I will get help if I need it. I don't wish to talk about it unless I bring it up."

"Understood." Surely Weiss was smart enough to know better than to do nothing if it gets to her.

Which it should. But maybe not today.

At least everyone was already on edge and it wouldn't go unnoticed.

They certainly noticed a change in Weiss when the pair sat down again. They didn't say anything though; just gave the pair and each other significant glances.

Weiss picked up her pen once more. "We were occupied with a Death Stalker. What was your strategy to deal with the Beringal?"

Rather than just tell her the strategy that worked, he gave her a full account of their testing beforehand as well. They all took notes, but Mercury's attention remained on Weiss. Mourning came and went from what he could tell and maybe it hadn't truly hit her yet, but she was holding up well enough. Maybe she could sort her mind to focus only on the topic at hand and she could push everything to the back of her mind easily if required.

Ruby, Emerald and Yang have their family. They know I'm the problem. Weiss' problem is obviously about her brother, but she can't really talk to her family about it. As long as she doesn't get herself or anyone killed, though she's entitled to take a few goes at me, then there's not much more I can do.

The story didn't take long, but it was still another five minutes before the three finally made an appearance. How in the world had it taken that long? It was just as well they weren't on a schedule.

They were all apparently in a very good mood, laughing about something.

"Have fun!" Nora waved as they left.

"I will," Mercury replied. Whether they would or not depended on how angry they got at him. When they got into the corridor, he spoke again. "What kept you?"

Emerald shrugged. "Yang couldn't find her gauntlets and then Ruby wanted to bring along some gravity Dust but couldn't remember where she put it."

"I left it at home," Ruby grumbled. "Won't happen again." Then she brightened up again. "So where we going?"

Interesting. That was definitely intentional.

"Emerald Forest. The security nodes have been going down. Someone needs to be out there to manually fix them."

"Sounds simple enough." Yang stretched.

"It's a first year mission. It should be." Provided that the nodes had gone down to Grimm and not sabotage. It honestly wouldn't surprise him, especially with Cinder's presence there even if it was some time ago.

"Good."

The other two didn't disagree.

Odd. The entire time at Mountain Glenn they had been looking for trouble. That was what they did.

Yet now they wanted something easy?

I know this bothered them but…this much?

The entire time on the way to Emerald Forest, Mercury waited for them to choose the topics. What they picked was all mission related and literally nothing else. Ruby was suggesting team ideas for them to try out, but that was all.

If this kept up, it was going to be a long day.

It only took five minutes before fifteen Creeps showed up. Mercury was slightly surprised there were fifteen Creeps in the area and they were barely in. He hung back and watched; something that was very easy to do with the Grimm completely ignoring him.

Emerald was fast and efficient. Nothing too off.

Yang obviously had a lot of pent up anger, but her Semblance hadn't activated yet. Even so, those Creeps did not deserve the battering they had got.

This was the least flashy he had ever seen Ruby. As these were Creeps he was perfectly fine with that but it was still odd.

What did bother him a lot was how quiet they were. Not a word. No trash talking from Yang and no childish but endearing commentary from Ruby.

Catching sight of a small Beowulf pack nearby and approaching, he focused his attention completely on them. He knew where the girls were standing and he saw a weak spot in their little stance. He reached out with his will to the Grimm and commanded them there.

There was a very good reason why he asked Ozpin if Salem reincarnated. The Grimm had ignored him at Mountain Glenn. After he returned from LiaGuard, he once spent an entire evening playing fetch with a Beowulf as if it were a dog. The instant Tai was in sense range, it stopped all games but didn't go after him.

Mercury hadn't told anyone that he now had some control over Grimm. He had no plan to. That was just begging for trouble.

But it had meant no Grimm showed up for Zephyr's funeral.

Emerald noticed the Grimm first. He wasn't sure how as they were out of her sight range and they had been silent. "Three Beowolves to the right."

Ruby and Yang responded. Yang sidestepped to cover her side and Ruby used her Semblance to tear through the Beowolves. There was still nothing. They didn't seem to be enjoying it.

Okay. May as well do it now.

They weren't complaining Mercury wasn't fighting. They didn't seem to be paying much attention to him. Maybe they didn't want him fighting at all.

They hadn't told him to stay back, but those three Beowolves were really aiming for him from their position. Slipping through their defences. They had been very quick to close it.

Okay.

He had seen enough.

Mercury would let them a little more affectionate than he would like because he knew they needed it but there was a limit to how much overprotectiveness he would tolerate and this was far past that limit.

He was not going to put up with this all day.

Trying to babysit someone was far too much stress and the fact they had chosen to do this certainly explained why they were so abnormal recently.

So he was going to be a little cruel.

Creeps and Beowolves were very easy to deal with, but Emerald took no chances. One mistake was all it took to lose and lose a lot. She had learned that lesson when she was young, but had forgotten it. That would never happen again.

She closed her eyes and 'felt' the area around her. She couldn't sense any more Grimm nearby and there was very little natural wildlife in the area, most of which were birds. There was no Qrow. Ruby and Yang were still by her side-

Where had Mercury gone?

"Mercury?" Yang had noticed. "Mercury!"

Was he hurt again?

Emerald was going to kill him.

Where is he? Where is he…?

He should have been safe. He was with them; how did he just vanish?

Please no…

She thought she could sense him. He wasn't far but he didn't feel the same. It wasn't the same difference from that wrong aura animal either. This was something else.

"It couldn't…" Ruby mumbled, hyperventilating a little.

"He's nearby and I think he's fine." He wouldn't be when Emerald caught up with him though. She could barely look at him without seeing his state when Qrow carried him from that simulator. She couldn't shake that image now.

He hadn't gone far. Only a few feet.

Emerald stared.

Ruby and Yang had stayed right with her.

They stared.

The grey-eyed black fox flicked his half dark silver tail.

…

A memory of Qrow changing into a crow…

"Mercury…?" It was a question, but she thought she was sure.

It nodded once.

…

"He's adorable!"

Yang burst out laughing.

Fox-Mercury growled at Ruby.

That set Emerald off. She laughed. It felt good to laugh.

"Well, you are!" Ruby cooed. "So cute and fluffy!"

They just laughed harder.

Fox-Mercury just growled louder.

Ruby completely ignored it and dashed over to him. She reached out and petted his head. He didn't seem to mind that. Then she picked him up, causing the fox to let out a very indignant yelp. He did mind that.

Yang looked like she was ready to pass out; she was laughing that hard.

"Your fur's soft too. Like a cuddly teddy bear. Can you stay like this forever?"

That idea…Emerald could picture it perfectly…

That was so funny.

If a fox could look incredulous, Mercury was managing it.

It was difficult to focus, but Emerald somehow managed. Still chuckling, she reached out and showed Mercury an illusion of what she had just pictured.

Now Mercury had had enough.

He squirmed, trying to get out of Ruby's grip.

Giggling, Ruby just held him tighter.

The fox literally fell through Ruby's arms and quickly trotted away. A moment later and person Mercury was standing there with his arms folded, glaring at Ruby.

"I am not cute!"

That set all three off again, but Emerald was sure he could hear their stammered disagreement.

That did not mean she was going to forgive him anytime soon.

Well.

They had laughed. Properly.

It occurred to Mercury now that it was the first time in a long time he had heard that. They had sounded so carefree. So different and so right.

"Cute," Mercury scoffed as they continued on. He wasn't entirely sure what to expect when they saw him in that form, though he was thinking a response like that from Ruby and/or Yang. But cute? Adorable? Cuddly?!

"You were," Ruby half whined. "You'd make a great pillow."

"You use me as a pillow anyway."

"I know. But not like that. I think you'd be more comfy."

He probably would be, but that was not happening. "Nope. Nu-Uh. Not happening. Use Zwei if that's what you want."

"But-"

"No."

"You-"

"No."

Ruby opened her mouth.

"No."

She sighed. "That's not fair."

"No." Mercury gave her a friendly smile.

Ruby stuck her tongue out at him.

Yang ruffled her hair playfully. Then she turned to Mercury. "Do you need a rabies jab?"

Mercury snorted. "That and probably every other jab I should have gotten when I was growing up."

Emerald shrugged. "I managed fine. Besides, if you let a rabid dog get that close to you, you've really lost your game."

Mercury wasn't going to mention he had somehow managed to find himself the target of a fox hunt when he had no control or memory of shapeshifting. "I'll keep that in mind."

"So how did you do it?" Yang piped in.

"Not sure. Qrow shapeshifts into a crow with magic and we think he accidentally gave some to me. Which resulted in both of us transforming and then waking up with no memory of how we got anywhere. So Ozpin had to sort it out as he gave it to Qrow in the first place." And Raven but he wasn't bringing that up.

Apparently Talaria had been letting Fox Mercury out of the window and following him around. It would have been nice if she told him that.

"Do you have fox instincts?" Ruby cut in. "What do foxes do?"

Quite a bit, he had learned. "Sort of. They're there but easy to ignore." He thought about it, then added. "Save for the time I ate a spider before I could stop myself." He had been pretty hungry. Seeing Emerald's revulsion, he chuckled. "Yeah, it tasted horrible. No idea why Talaria likes it so much."

Ruby giggled.

Yang gave him a pat on the back. "A spider? Was there something wrong with the beetles?"

"I wasn't a fan of their music."

Yang just laughed. "You have no taste for the classics."

"Being a classic is no excuse for being rubbish."

"Little brother, you don't know a thing about good music."

That did not dignify a response.

Still. That little trick had done some good for Ruby and Yang.

Emerald was going to be a little bit harder. That stunt had probably made things worse. He should have just stayed where he was and shifted.

"Ooh, Griffon. Dibs!" Ruby vanished in a burst of petals over the cliff.

Yang shrugged. "Fine. I get the Ursa." And over she went.

Which conveniently left him alone with Emerald.

With an idle thought of what Griffons were even doing in Emerald Forest, he turned to her. "Emerald-"

She wouldn't look at him. "Do you have any idea-"

"A rough one," he cut in. "I left you with Ginger. That was a mistake." One he still regretted and that was before Ginger showed him exactly what had happened.

"Very. Different."

Ruby had just done a triple spin, bounced off the ground and was now riding the Griffon with a gleeful almost cackle. Two Ursa down and two to go for Yang, who seemed to like dancing around them.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't care."

Mercury tried not to wince at her harsh tone. He didn't know how successful he was.

He swallowed. "What do you want me to say Maia? That the drug won't work on me anymore because I've now got too much aura? That I'm working on a way to shatter my opponent's aura by just touching them? That my new weapon makes fighting long range a lot more practical?"

"…Is that true?"

"Well yeah, but that's not the point, is it?"

"No. It's not."

…

Ruby appeared, bobbing on her heels. "That was awesome! Griffon Express! Think we'll see a Goliath?"

"Really hopefully not," Emerald replied with a smile to her. She bopped Ruby on the nose. "Come on. The first one isn't far."

Yang had already gone on ahead and it looked like she had caught a Boarbatusk with her hands. How nice that there were four of them in this little area, though that cave would be a good place for them. It seemed a little small though. This might be where Port got his Grimm for class.

May as well try it now.

Mercury's new weapon didn't look like much. In fact, it only looked like a sword handle without the sword. Rather than aesthetic designs, he had put Dust powered Runes into it. It could separate into two so he could dual wield if he wished, but the Dust crystal remained in one and not the other. Only that half could use the Dust power.

It had been Weiss' rapier that inspired this. However, rather than rely solely on replaceable Dust (which was fine if you were a Schnee and had constant access to it), Mercury had found a way to manipulate his aura to use the Dust effects, but not use the Dust itself. That had been remarkably tricky and exhausting. Nine times his aura had spontaneously shattered when he tried. The Dust crystal within had been the one Zephyr had gifted. Half rainbow Dust, half black Dust. He had yet to figure out what the black Dust actually did, but he had managed to access all the elements within the rainbow Dust, which was famous for having all of them.

The reason that there was no blade was because it was made entirely of aura.

Mercury could pick any shape for the blade when it was only his aura. What he preferred to choose was Qrow's, although if necessary he would also go with a katana not unlike Raven's. However, if he used an element, he didn't really get to pick what shape it was. Most weren't practical.

For a Boarbatusk, it wasn't necessary. But Mercury wanted to try it out.

Then he had to finally pick a name for it because Ruby would never let it go otherwise. Boots were one thing; this was something else entirely.

The Boarbatusk went into its roll and charged full speed at him.

Mercury raised the blade and twisted it sideways, effectively making a barrier. The Boarbatusk bounced off it. If he hadn't seen the hit, Mercury probably wouldn't have noticed. He had barely sensed anything.

It bounced backwards.

Timing his strike, Mercury dashed forward and drove the 'blade' straight into its vulnerable stomach.

It was dead instantly.

While anti-climactic, his aura had taken what should have been a strong hit to a normal person, which didn't even qualify as a scratch to him, and regenerated back to full before it was even a centimetre back. So far so good.

And good luck to Ironwood if he's doing the smart thing and trying to create an aura-suppressing collar that would do a proper job on me now.

After pulling his aura back in (making the blade vanish), he looked around to see how the others were faring.

Emerald had just set hers on fire. Interesting. The fire wasn't burning the grass below so it wasn't going to spread. She was looking at his toy with a raised eyebrow, but she didn't comment. He didn't say anything about that display either.

The other two hadn't seen his or Emerald's 'battles'. Ruby had gone the route to play dodgems and let the Boarbatusk uncurl itself rather than attack it. Yang was having too much fun wrestling it to kill it quick. But as soon as it lost and hit the floor, she punched it into oblivion.

Boarbatusk. Griffon. They were a challenge for first and sometimes second years, but no problem for Ruby and Yang. They had certainly improved.

The Beringal in Emerald Forest for their Initiation should not have been there. Ozpin admitted that and if it had been any other group that didn't have Emerald and Mercury in it, the professors would have stepped in.

Nice to know we were singled out from day one. At least he didn't underestimate us.

Griffons though…

They shouldn't be here. Creeps: cannon fodder. Beowolves: easy. Ursa: fine. All alpha and major okay. But nothing higher.

With the security nodes down, they wouldn't have known it was in the area. Maybe it wasn't sabotage but more powerful Grimm than they were equipped to handle.

"And there's the dent in the ground that Jaune's locker made."

"Oh yeah."

"Still should have broken his legs," Yang muttered.

"In here?" Emerald asked, to which he nodded. He stayed with the blood sisters but heard Emerald head inside. It might be a good idea to give her some space for now.

"Mercury. Come here."

Or maybe not. He turned back to the cave entrance, but she wasn't in sight. The other two hadn't responded at all though. That was an impressive improvement for her Semblance.

"Give me a minute," Mercury half asked.

Ruby shrugged. "Sure. Em seems pretty mad at you."

"For good reason."

"Please don't kill each other," Yang sighed. "You're both impossible to replace."

Yang said that as if she was talking about her favourite movie.

"Err…Thanks." He thought.

The tunnel into the cave was longer than he expected. Not long, but longer. The size the cave was meant there were probably many Grimm in here. Did he want to keep them away for a proper talk or let them come in so both could let off some steam?

Something he did know was that he didn't care that Yang and Ruby were most likely listening in.

He didn't step into a cave.

He stepped into their living room.

Mercury didn't fight Emerald's hallucination. He looked around, but didn't move. Nothing was here because of happenstance; it was here because that's how Emerald remembered it or she was making a point.

He had heard the tune that was playing before. That was Yang on the kalimba; the same song. He liked that song.

He wouldn't like the rest of this.

The three girls were curled up in pile. The blood sisters looked like they were trying to sleep. Emerald wasn't. She just lay there in an eerie familiar gaze to him now. He had seen that blankness in some of the broken victims from both Marcus and LiaGuard. Ruby was wearing one of his shirts. Tai was on the couch nearby, looking like he hadn't slept in weeks. There was a crow on the back of said couch, feathers ruffled and sagged.

The music continued, but the scene changed.

It took Mercury a moment to place this one. It was a carnival, but it was the one from the Vytal Festival.

All the people around were nobodies, but he couldn't see his family anywhere. There was no point in moving; he saw what Emerald wanted him to see. The general games faded away into blackness. The mirror maze remained. Until that faded and the image was from inside.

The cracked mirror wasn't a surprise. The images inside it were.

Both were photos.

The now well-known STRQ photo was above the other, but it was wrong. Summer was covered completely in blood. Raven had been blurred out to the point she was impossible to recognise. Qrow and Tai…They were older, as they looked now. But the look in their eyes…

Mercury ripped his gaze away to the other one.

It was one that Tai had framed and had in the living room, taken right before they left for Beacon. It too was altered. Ruby's silver eyes were dull, no life in them. Yang's eyes weren't purple or red. They were black. In her left hand was a bloody pair of sunglasses. Emerald looked like the Emerald he first met, but worse. An Emerald before Cinder found her.

"Emerald."

It shattered.

Reality returned.

Emerald was standing there. Perfectly normal. "Do not do that again."

"I won't."

She nodded curtly before wandering around to the side of the cylindrical thing. "If this is the security node, this would be the problem."

Mercury, cautious of her mood, walked closer to her to have a look. "Guess it was sabotage after all." He had never seen that symbol before though. He pulled out his scroll, took a picture of it and sent it off to Port. That was his point of contact for this mission after all. Then he rang the man.

"Ah Mercury. Good to see you are making good progress."

Beowolves and Creeps were circling now. A few leapt for Emerald. She spun and sliced quickly. The Beowulf that went for him was easily kicked in mid-leap, smacking it hard enough against the ground to kill it.

"When was the last time you saw a Griffon in Emerald Forest?"

Ruby and Yang had run in now, probably due to the Grimm's snarls and growls. With a happy squee, Ruby jumped right at them. Yang stretched before she joined in.

"Not for some years. That is a worrying development." Putting the scroll on speaker and back on his belt, Mercury felt around this odd rectangle. His finger hit a snag and the whole thing came off. There were no electronics inside, so he dropped it. "For now, let's get the security node running again. There should be a hatch underneath the second red ring."

"All yours Merc," Yang called happily.

Mercury knelt down as he had a look. He touched what was a slightly more orange than red colour in the right place and it popped open. "Okay. Got it." He knew a little about mechanics, but the core of most things was the same. This was running on a parallel, not series circuit. "I think I see the problem. Let me try something." That little cube didn't look like it belonged. He might have got an electric shock for his troubles, but the red lighting inside switched to green. "How's that?"

"Perfect. Well done." Apparently Port was checking it on whatever passes as security in Beacon.

"No Grimm did that."

"Indeed not. Most likely it is to do with that mysterious symbol. I will investigate it. For now, press on to the second security node. It is just south of the ruins, half a mile from Forever Fall."

"Got it."

"A word of caution Remedy. There are much higher concentration of Grimm in the nearby area than normal. There are also four more Griffons and one Beringal nearby. A side mission for you is to exterminate them. I have sent the data to your scrolls."

These security nodes were pretty good and probably very necessary. "Sure thing." Mercury hung up.

He had heard the noise of battle, but had ignored it at the time. There were no Grimm around when he looked up. Ruby was already on her scroll, probably checking the map.

"The Griffons are together not too far here. The Beringal's back the way we came though. It would be quickest if we split up or does everyone want to stay together?"

The other three looked at each other. As one, they shrugged.

"Okay. I call leader privilege." That's a thing now? "Me and Eris will take the Griffons. Artemis and Maia, Beringal's yours."

Again, the three shrugged in unison.

Honestly, Mercury would rather take the Griffons than the Beringal. He hadn't fought those four legged winged beasts before. It could be fun.

"Bet we'll be back before you will," Yang claimed. "And no using your Semblance or aura animals. That's cheating."

"How much?" Mercury asked.

"Twenty lien."

"That's some confidence." Theirs might be closer but still. "I'll take it. No magic either."

"Hear that Ruby? No fluffy cuddly fox."

Ruby pouted.

"Fair enough," Emerald replied, no sign of the anger that had been there before. "See you then."

The cave had three tunnels. Yang and Emerald headed back the way they came. Ruby and Mercury headed down one that they hoped would take them outside. If there was no exit, then Mercury would just use his Semblance to walk through the wall with Ruby.

"Leader privilege?"

"Well yeah. If no one says what they want, then I get to pick. Then they can't complain." Ruby shrugged at his raised eyebrow. "Well, if no one picks anything, we're going to be here all day."

A fair point that had nearly happened before.

These tunnels snaked about and were far longer than Mercury originally thought. He took a glance at his scroll but they were still heading in the right direction.

"I'm sorry Merc."

That was rather out of the blue. "What for?"

"Everything. I mean…Back then…I…"

"Ruby."

She bit her lip. But she stopped.

"None of it was your fault." They had never got around to talking about it…What happened at the Vytal Festival. "What happened between us was completely my fault."

"…Some things just don't work out," Ruby mumbled. "But it wasn't your fault. And you're still special to me."

That hurt. A lot.

It didn't help that it wasn't supposed to hurt.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for any of it to happen."

"I know that Eris and I'm not angry and it wasn't your fault. I just…It was wrong. You shouldn't have been alone that night."

"They were after me Ruby. I didn't realise that until it was too late. I was trying to lead them away from the Stadium, but they wanted me more. If you were there, it wouldn't have made any difference to the fight. Only that there would have been two captives rather than one. I don't regret that Ruby."

After he said it, he realised he shouldn't have said it.

But Ruby didn't flinch. She just slipped her hand into his.

The cave opened up into a meadow. Mercury had never been here before. The Griffons had been completely docile, but then they noticed the shadows the pair cast. They were also a little smaller than most of the ones depicted in textbooks and the one Ruby killed earlier. They must be very young.

She gave his hand a squeeze. She grinned happily.

"I fancy a game of hop scotch."

Mercury looked at Ruby. He looked at the Griffons. He looked at Ruby again.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Never felt better."

That wasn't exactly what he asked, but it was what he meant.

Her aura felt calm. Excited even.

She was looking forward to a good day out.

I guess I am too.

AN: I do apologise for how fragmented the recent chapters have felt. I forgot to put in a timeline, so I'll say now that they are halfway through their second year at Beacon. As for the plot, very little actually happens for that before, which is why I focused more on the people. It's also why the narrative is more focused on Mercury recently, as he is more actively and inactively involved than many of the others.

Thank you for reading