Beacon was not what they had expected. Not by a longshot.
They knew the bare minimum from their mission briefing with Cinder, but the way she had described it had made it seem like this school was a hellscape filled with indoctrinated and brainwashed enemy child soldiers. And yeah, maybe that last part was true. But Beacon felt more safe than anywhere they had ever been before.
Cinder was out doing what she described as 'last minute preparations,' but Emerald and Mercury both came to the conclusion that she was talking to the boss. So she would definitely be out for a while and would undoubtedly return even angrier than she had left. It was best to enjoy her absence while they could, and as glad as Emerald was for some temporary peace and quiet, she couldn't shake her longing for her return.
They sat there, in that dorm room meant for children and tried not to feel their age. They tried not to lay in the beds that were too soft and too warm and think about how right this felt.
They tried everything to ignore the fact that they would bring it all to the ground in the following days.
"Mercury?"
He looked up from his perch on the windowsill, the starlight bathing him in a soft, innocent glow. He looked younger. Less haunted and burdened. More his age.
"Yeah, Em?"
She took a second before responding. Her throat choked up and her eyes began to burn with unshed tears. She refused to let them fall. Not now. Not yet. Finally, she looked him in his eyes.
"I think we chose the wrong side."
His gaze softened. To an outsider, to anyone who didn't truly know Mercury Black, they wouldn't have noticed any change. But Emerald saw. She always did.
He laughed bitterly.
"Yeah. I think we did."
It was pitch black in Salem's Land of Darkness. Fitting, really. Very much on brand. The fact that it was nighttime didn't help things, either. The only light in their room was the fractured and faint glow of the moon. It seemed to be their only constant in this world. No matter where they were or what they did, the moon would always be there when they looked up. And it would always, always be broken. It was comforting - to think that something so obviously broken could exist for so long and remain strong and constant. Despite it all, it was still beautiful. It made them think, just for a second, that they could be too.
"Merc? You awake?"
After a moment, he rolled over in his bed with a groan and rubbed his eyes.
"Yeah Em. What's up?" His voice was tired with sleep.
Silence and a broken sob was the response. He shot up in his bed before blindly stumbling his way in her general direction. Yes, he was cold sometimes, but he wasn't just about to let her cry when he might be able to do something about it. If it was anyone else, he probably would've ignored them, but this was Emerald. He finally found his way to her and grabbed her arm, moving them to where they could see each other faintly in the moonlight. Her cheeks were stained with glistening tears.
"Hey, hey. What's wrong?"
Her eyes were so full of pain it physically hurt him. "Cinder killed her, Merc. She killed her and she's so proud of it."
He shook his head, trying to shake the remnants of sleep from his head so he could fully process this conversation.
"Huh? Who?"
Her sobs became even more broken and desperate.
"Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos."
Oh. Fuck. He didn't think Cinder would actually be able to do it. She just seemed so...invincible. But Emerald wasn't done.
"Sh-She. She trained with us once, remember? And she invited us to eat with her in the cafeteria, and she gave us leftover cookies, and offered to help with homework and-" She couldn't bring herself to keep going.
They sat there for a bit, not saying anything. Just Mercury's hand on Emerald's arm as she sobbed. As she realized for the umpteenth time that Cinder was a bad person. And perhaps she was, too.
Mercury had already come to that conclusion many, many moons ago.
"Do you think we ever had a choice, Em?"
Their shared room in Salem's whale was relatively cramped, though remarkably sparse. Two beds and a gracious door were all they had to their name. Salem might have had eternity to prepare for guests, but evidently, not well.
Emerald, already laying beside him on his bed, merely turned her head to face him.
"At what?"
He scoffed and threw his arms in the air to indicate his point. "This. This life, Cinder...her. Was this all we were meant to be?"
The question hung heavy in the air. The weight of it seemed to crush them even more now that it was said aloud.
Emerald took a long, shaky breath. "I don't know. Maybe? But looking back at it all...maybe there was somewhere we messed up."
"Too late now."
A beat.
"Is it though?"
Mercury didn't say anything. A series of indescribable emotions crossed his face in an instant before he found the strength to look at her. He spoke softly, as if daring to hope too boldly would diminish it before his eyes.
"...What are you saying Emerald?"
She sat up and pulled him with her. They sat across from each other. She leaned closer to him and spoke at a volume almost nonexistent, not willing to take a risk that someone would overhear.
"I'm saying that maybe we can leave. We're going to Atlas. Ruby and her friends are there, right? They were always nice to us at Beacon, maybe they'd hear us out-"
Mercury firmly grasped her shoulders. "Emerald. We are their enemies. Why would they help us after all we've done to hurt them?"
Emerald didn't back down and shrugged his hands off of her shoulders before firmly grasping them in her own. Somehow, despite it all, she was smiling. It was small and hesitant, but it was the first time he'd seen her genuinely smile in so, so long.
"I don't know. They might not. But we have to try. If we stay here...if we stay here, you and I both know we won't last much longer. She'll dispose of us soon enough at the first sign of weakness. This is our chance. This is our chance to finally choose."
He broke her gaze for just a second before being pulled back.
"Please. No matter what, we'll have each other, okay?"
He noticed that there was hope in her eyes once more. And Mercury knew there was hope in his, too.
"Okay."
And together, they began to dare to dream.
It was a long journey to Atlas. Their decision to escape had taken place in the first couple weeks, and since then, they had created some semblance of a plan. They would wait until they got to Atlas, and in the ensuing chaos after Salem had begun her attack, they would steal a ship and sneak out via the landing pad. With how little she acknowledged their existence, they presumed she might not even notice they were gone.
Their plan didn't go quite as smoothly as they had hoped. On their way to the landing pad, they had to pass the cellblock.
And in a cell was a little boy. More specifically, the boy Hazel had fought at Haven.
They stopped their sprint, staring first at the boy and then at each other in shock. The boy was just as confused as they were. Mercury spoke first, rushed yet as nonchalant as he could be given the circumstances.
"What's your name kid?"
He took a second before responding, his face scrunching up and moving as if he was having an entire conversation within himself. "Oscar. And you're Emerald and Mercury."
Before they could ask how he knew their names, the boy nodded seemingly in response to something before he stiffened, his entire body language changing within an instant. His hazel eyes opened. They were different, somehow.
"Hello. I believe you know me as Professor Ozpin."
They remembered the fight at Haven, Hazel screaming the man's name while attacking the child. It confused them at the time, and it certainly confused them now. Salem hadn't bothered to fill them in on whatever this was. But considering the man that had run the most powerful school in the world and was a warrior dangerous enough to be considered a threat to Salem was right in front of them, they weren't about to complain. The duo shared a glance and quickly came to a conclusion. If they were going to start over, if they were going to finally choose their life? It began now - with this single choice.
Emerald looked back at Oscar - no, Ozpin, at the moment. "We're getting out of here. Wanna come?"
The man barely looked surprised. He allowed himself to smile and nodded.
"Welcome to the team."