Chapter Six

House Arrest

"So."

Mercury was certain his face reflected that of a gaping fish. Jet was behind him, infinitely more calm and unconcerned with Qrow fucking Branwen's sudden appearence, and Qrow, Qrow, stared the boys down with a suspicious and deadly look in his red eyes.

"Want to explain why you boys are spying on my nieces?"

And, just like that, Mercury's brain exploded.

"Nieces?" He whirled around to look at Jet, who stared with some amusement. "Nieces?!"

Qrow's voice, much more concerned and confused, rang from behind him. "Uh… kid?"

Jet shrugged, said in a low voice so Qrow couldn't hear. "Um. Yeah. That's Grandpa Qrow."

Mercury felt like melting into a puddle. Of course, what did he expect? Of course his future son would happen to lead him to his future wife and future sister-in-law's house, and it would lead him to meet Qrow Branwen, the huntsman that stopped Cinder from receiving all the Fall Maiden power, and, of course, Qrow Branwen happened to be his future wife's uncle. Of course.

Qrow pointedly cleared his throat. Mercury pinched the bridge of his nose.

He pivoted on his heel so he was facing Qrow again. Okay, he just needs to stay calm. Qrow hasn't tried to cleave him in half with that monster of a sword, so it's a fair assumption that Emerald cast an illusion on him fast enough that he couldn't get a good look at any of their faces. Right now, they just looked like a couple of creepers, which, really, wasn't much better, but he could work with it.

"Uh, sorry, sir. My-" What was he supposed to call Jet? God, he didn't know. "Jet needed a place to focus, and, well, he ended up here."

Mercury suppressed a wince when Qrow began to stride forward slowly, eyes narrowed. He didn't believe him, of course.

"That so? And he just so happened to be staring at my nieces while he focused?"

It was at this point, Mercury realized, Qrow came here with one thought in mind, and had no intention of being convinced otherwise. He stepped back as Qrow stepped forward.

"Look, if you just let me explain-"

"I'm from the future."

Both Mercury and Qrow whipped their heads toward Jet, who now stood with a determined gleam in his silver eyes. Mercury vigorously shook his head. "Jet, shut up."

"No, he can help," Jet objected before he turned his focus on Qrow. "I'm from the future, and all of my siblings were also warped here because… well, I don't know, but you have to help!"

Qrow stared at him with a flat look. "Future. Right. So, do you really think I'm that stupid, or are you just crazy?"

"I can prove it," Jet said with a hand raised. How he was so calm, Mercury had no clue. "Your name is Qrow Branwen. From Team STRQ, and your semblance is Bad Luck. Down there, your nieces? Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. Ruby can burst into rose petals while Yang can take all the damage she received and dish it out at her opponents as long as her aura isn't broken before she can! And your sister, she can create portals to people she cares about."

The passive, uninterested look morphed into seething rage written clearly on Qrow's face. "Oh? And you need to be from the future to know that? Because it sounds like you're stalking my entire family, boy."

Jet took the challenge with clenched fists. "You want more? Fine. The Staff holds up Atlas. The Lamp lays dormant in Haven. The Sword stopped the Great War. And the Crown-"

Qrow's hold on his sword tightened.

"You're a part of Ozpin's inner circle and are actively trying to stop Salem's plans by tracking down the people she's employed to, uh-" Jet faltered, glanced at Mercury for a brief moment, then blurted. "To steal the Fall Maiden's power and find the Beacon Relic!"

Mercury stared. What. The Fuck.

He didn't even have the brainpower to unpack all of what Jet was throwing at him indirectly. What Staff can hold up a kingdom? How can a Lamp lay dormant? What Sword stopped the most prominent war in history? And Salem? Who the hell was Salem?

"What can I say to make you believe me?" Jet questioned with a frustrated growl. He ran a gloved hand through his black and red hair. "Look at the registry in Vacuo! I was born there, and since I don't even exist yet, you won't find me. Look for Jet Black!"

Qrow, torn between befuddlement and anger, looked at Mercury. Mercury, with all his energy sapped away at the amount of information spewed from his own future son's mouth, merely shrugged, uncaring, and said, "I'm his dad."

The seasoned huntsmen dropped his head in his hand. "Oz doesn't pay me enough for this."

"Okay, so let me get this straight: you are the father of him, who is one year younger than you, but he has traveled from the future because of something that happened with his sister's semblance, but you refuse to tell us where this sister is?"

Mercury sighed. "Well, when you say it like that…"

The blonde haired man, who Mercury discovered to be Taiyang not twenty minutes ago, reared back in his seat, glanced over at Qrow, and asked in incredulity, "And you're believing this crap?"

"No, what do you take me for?" Qrow groaned as he shook his scroll with a condescending look. "Waiting for Oz's input, Tai."

After Jet's info bomb, and the following crumble of both Qrow and Mercury's remaining sanity, Qrow forcefully shoved them to the Rose-Xiao Long-Branwen residence as he dialed Professor Ozpin with a very irritated grumble. Jet, of course, had no issues with this, since his currently young mother resided here, but Mercury felt like hurling on the spot at the idea of not only being within spitting distance of one of Cinder's mortal enemies, but also being in the same house as one Ruby Rose, her allegedly overprotective sister Yang, and, now, the wildcard that was her father, Taiyang Xiao Long.

And now, here he was, sitting in his future wife's kitchen from her childhood home.

"Fine." Taiyang's shoulders slumped as he turned back to the two boys sitting in front of him. "Look, Jet, can you at least tell me the names of your sisters? You said you had more than one, right? If you really are from the future, we need all the information possible to help you."

Jet, with wide and unblinking eyes, nudged Mercury. "Should we?"

Mercury sighed, louder and longer than before. "Go ahead."

"Okay. My older sister is Pearl. Summer is a year younger than me, and Eirian is the youngest."

"Right. And would you be willing to explain the semblance that caused this?" Taiyang asked.

"Well, I'm not sure if it was just Summer's semblance," Jet admitted as he rubbed the back of his head. "Summer can open portals, but not in the way Raven can." Taiyang and Qrow visibly recoiled at the namedrop, but Jet ignored it. "If she concentrates hard, she can to an extent, but more often than not it ends with her getting a bloody nose and a splitting headache. Lots of times she just uses portals in a fight to confuse her opponent, teleport to one place or another, or to shove her opponent in so they fall into a trap. Basically, Summer opened up a portal, and at first it was fine, and we could see the entrance and exit portals, but suddenly, the exit portal disappeared and showed up right in front of this version of Dad." Jet jabbed his thumb in Mercury's direction for emphasis.

"It was a bit of a scarring experience," Mercury remarked dryly.

Qrow scoffed a near unnoticeable chuckle while Taiyang nodded solemnly. Tai admitted, "That's a fair response to something like this… and, well, the fact you just dropped Raven's name… I don't know. Professor Ozpin would be able to say for certain."

"If your sister opened up a portal, then has she tried to open another to try and get home?" Qrow questioned.

"Yeah. It didn't work. But, well… her semblance wasn't the only one active when this happened."

Mercury whipped his head to Jet. "You didn't tell me that."

"Oh, yeah, sorry, you were a little too busy denying our existence," Jet snapped back, but he reigned in his venom. Mercury frowned, but, well, Jet did have a point.

"What other semblances were active, and what do they do?" Tai refocused Jet.

"Mine and Eirian's were. Eirian can rewind time while I can pause it. Summer had just passed through one of her portals when Eirian hit her with a reversal so Pearl could hit her. Uh, we were training, by the way. Eiri and Pearl were a pair and Sums and I were a pair. And, well, when I saw Eirian was reversing Summer back into Pearl's blades, I hit Summer with Pause. She was halfway through the portal at that point."

Qrow mumbled, "Two time semblances clashing with each other… never heard of them causing something this catastrophic."

"Oh, well, that's just great. I'm glad Sums and I are special."

Taiyang sighed and stood from his seat. "We'll figure this out, Jet. But, no offense, before we can verify you're actually, well, from the future, I'll have to ask you and your… father… stay in this house."

Jet crossed his arms and clucked his tongue. "Sure. When Pearl calls I'm handing the scroll to you, though."

"Uh, sure? Look, Qrow, can you stay with them? I need to talk to Yang and Ruby about this."

Qrow nodded wordlessly, and Taiyang walked out of the kitchen and disappeared from sight behind the swinging kitchen door. Once Taiyang was out of earshot, Qrow stomped to the vacated seat, sat, and leaned forward to stare directly into Jet's eyes.

Mercury leaned forward, an instinctive protectiveness rising within. "What are you-"

"Relax. I didn't notice before, but now I'm just noticing the color of your eyes." Qrow stared intently at Jet, who only responded by thinning his lips and shrinking in his chair. Qrow pointed at Mercury without breaking eye contact. "You say he's your father. He doesn't have silver eyes."

"What's your point?" Mercury asked gruffly. One of his hands found its way to Jet's shoulder without his permission.

Qrow finally turned his gaze away from Jet, and smiled coldly at Mercury. "There's two ways someone can have silver eyes. One, is if one of the parents has silver eyes. You, Mercury, don't have silver eyes. You see where I'm going here?"

Oh. Well. Now, instead of worrying about the fact Qrow was actively trying to track down and kill Cinder, and by extension him, he was worried about being murdered for an entirely different reason. How fun.

Jet looked to the side, then smirked. "Hi, Grandpa Qrow."

"What."

"Jet, do you want him to kill us?" Mercury blurted out with a thick scowl.

With a resigned sigh, Jet shook his head. "Okay, fine. Sorry, I'm just… you don't know me but I know you and normally my snark doesn't bother you. Ruby's my mom, okay? Now can you not kill my currently-a-teen dad? I know you nearly broke his damn hand when you first met him."

Qrow's ire lessened and his sharp crimson eyes floated back to Jet. "What else did I do when I met him?"

"Well, you-" Jet sighed, then looked to Mercury. "Sorry, Dad, but I gotta spill something."

Mercury furrowed his brows. "Hold on a second-"

"You were upfront and told him that you knew about his father," Jet explained, and when Qrow merely stared blankly, Jet narrowed his eyes and prodded. "You know? Marcus Black? Prolific assassin in Mistral, general trash bag that deserves worse than a dirt nap?"

If there was any air left in Mercury's lungs, he probably would have choked on it.

"Marcus Black?"

My reputation precedes me! Hahaha!

Oh God. Marcus's voice mocked Mercury with false concern.

What's wrong, son? Not proud of your pop?

Mercury stumbled from his seat. "Shut up."

Qrow raised a brow. "Excuse me?"

That's no way to address your father. Looks like I brought you up good anyway, didn't I?

"Shut. Up." Mercury's eyes wandered to the kitchen door. It led to the living room, and the front door.

"You're not in any position to talk to me like that, Kid," Qrow snapped. Jet, Mercury noted briefly, lurched and clamped a hand over Qrow's wrist as the huntsmen went to rise from his chair.

You've got a wife, got some kids, I did great! I wonder, did you teach them how to aura heal like I did?

"Stop talking!"

"Let him go, Qrow, just let him go!" Jet urged.

He didn't register anything else in the house until he burst through the front door. He focused on the path, the tree line, the vibrant green grass. He staggered over to a lone tree about twenty feet from a small shed, pressed his palm on the bark, and, after a few deep breaths, he turned and leant his back against it as he slid down to sit on the dusty ground.

He couldn't deny it. They were his kids, and they knew about Maidens, Magic, things called Relics, and they knew every detail about him he swore to lock up and never let out again. This was a nightmare.

He dropped his head onto his metallic knees, and his hands balled into fists in his hair. He wished he never met these kids, so everything could stay the same and they could tear Beacon down to its foundations. But, how can he, knowing Cinder turns on him in the future?

Why should he help her at all?

Qrow might hit the bottle a lot harder than usual after this one, lol.

merendinoemiliano: Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you as well!

The Night Whisper: I wonder sometimes, does Qrow have the bad luck semblance, or does Mercury? XD

Car ride: Aw, I'm glad you enjoyed both Wilted and Quicksilver Kids! Even though I don't watch the show now, these two stories in particular are my babies, I can't just leave them unfinished!

Have a lovely New Year, everyone, and lets pray 2021 brings good fortune to outweigh the horrors of 2020!

Happy writing, Lonessa out.