Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

Three Days Before the Sarasaland Party

BGM: Dr. Toadley (Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story plus Bowser Jr's Journey)

"There we go, easy does it…" Pietro said as Mercury sat back up. "There, you look good as new."

"What do you mean?" Mercury asked as he looked at himself in the mirror. "What…? Am I back to normal?"

"Actually, no. But we put a coat of paint on you so you'd feel normal again." Pietro explained.

"You're still 95% cyborg, but now you won't feel like you're a complete robot." Nitori smiled.

Mercury tapped one of his arms, hearing a soft clang when he tapped it. He let out a chuckle. "Well, it's better than looking like that monster from those Exterminator movies." He said as he hopped off the table, deciding to morph his arm into an arm cannon before turning it back to normal.

"You feel like you could get used to it now?" A voice asked as Mercury turned to see Emerald leaning on a wall.

"Em, I've had metal legs for a while now. What's a few more prosthetics? …Of course, I'd feel a lot better if my insides weren't cybernetic, but what can you do?" Mercury said.

"You're… taking this well."

"Hey, you and Cinder managed to get me out of my funk."

Emerald sighed. "Right… I'm honestly surprised you can talk to her without feeling disgusted with her."

"Well, I've had my suspicions with her even before the revelation came, so it didn't hurt me too badly." He sighed. "If anything, the only thing I regret about walking away from Cinder was that I should've taken you with me."

Emerald looked down. "I'm… struggling to forgive her. How you managed to forgive her is incredible."

"Oh, I haven't forgiven Cinder. I'm just more… neutral."

"That makes sense, I guess. Alright, let's go."

"Yeah." Mercury nodded as the two walked out, but not before Mercury turned her head and waved to everyone before walking out. "By the way, who's the girl with the blue hair?"

"Nitori?"

"No no, not the one from Gensokyo. The one that's next to Penny."

"Oh, her? That's SAPR. Penny's sister."

"...She has a sister?" Mercury blinked, rubbing her head. "The hell did I miss when I was gone?"

Emerald laughed. "A lot… you saw that woman with the Aperture logo on her shirt?"

"Yeah?"

"That's Caroline… well, to be specific, GLaDOS. She's an android."

"...Let me guess, she's Penny's mother."

"No, she used to be a killer robot on this Aperture Science planet before Samus put the planet out of its misery."

"...Beg pardon?"

Emerald snickered. "Oh, it'll make sense when you figure it out."

"I see."

"Oh, and she has a bunch of popular virtual singers residing in her body."

Mercury stared at Emerald with an extremely confused look in his head. "Uuuuh… what?"

"Yeah, Hatsune Miku, Len and Rin Kagamine and Luka Megurine. Futaba jokingly calls them GLaDOS's daughters… or son, in Len's case."

"Again, I repeat… WHAT?"

Emerald laughed. "Oh, Merc… I missed this."

Mercury chuckled. "I missed you too, Em." He said and then right on cue, they would see Esdeath waiting for them.

"Ah, I see you got yourself situated." Esdeath said. "You ready?"

Mercury sighed, before taking a deep breath and had a more focused look on his face. "Let's get this shit over with."

End BGM

Once at Atlas…

The Ice Phoenix landed on the ground as the three of them hopped off. "Aren't you freezing?" Mercury asked.

"Eh, once you live in Atlas long enough, you get used to it." Emerald said. "Are you?"

"Ha! I'm keeping myself warm with an internal heater. I'm good."

Emerald chuckled. "Lucky." She said as they walked ahead, but they were quickly surrounded by Atlesian soldiers and the Ace Ops.

"Mercury Black! Put your hands up in the air! Down on the ground now!"

Mercury did what he was told as Harriet walked over and put cuffs around his wrists. "Alright, let's go."

"Yeah yeah, better to be locked up than be with those deranged lunatics. Prison sounds more like a vacation, honestly."

"...What?" Harriet wondered. "...Never mind, let's go."

The soldiers and Harriet took Mercury away, leaving behind Emerald and Esdeath. "You sure this was the right call?" Emerald asked.

"Well… it was the best dad could think of." Esdeath said as they both walked after them, the former gently putting her hand on Emerald's shoulder in comfort.

Later…

"Mercury Black." Ironwood began. "You had done a lot of time working with Cinder to overthrow Beacon Academy and working with her to try and stop the heroes from stopping Bowser and Eggman from creating an intergalactic empire."

Ah, just get to the point already… Mercury thought.

"However, you had ran away after Cinder had been outed, and from what I can tell, you had been through a lot of hell when you ran into a group of individuals who had turned you into a complete cyborg. Thanks to Emerald and Cinder's help, you managed to break free of the chains."

Yeah yeah, just sentence me already.

"In all honesty, I personally believe you had served your time when you were unwittingly roped into those individuals. I hereby declare that you are a free man now."

…Wait, what? Mercury blinked in surprise.

"Congratulations, you are now a member of the Winter Ops."

Wait… WHAT? Mercury thought as Ironwood walked over to him and put his hands on Mercury's shoulders. What the hell just happened? He thought as he looked at Ironwood, where he could have sworn he was giving him a genuine smile, and to further surprise him, he gave him a hug.

What the hell…? Mercury thought. "I… uh… thank you…?"

Mercury walked away, looking confused as he walked side by side with Emerald. "Well… that was different. I thought for sure I'd be locked up." He turned his head. "I could've sworn the big ol' Ironguy was a hardass."

"He has a soft spot."

"I can see that… though, why did he hug me?"

Emerald shifted her eyes to the side. "Oh… uh… he likes to hug everyone."

You're hiding something… Mercury thought. "He had a genuine smile too, like he didn't regret his decision. For some reason, that's bugging me."

"I'm sure he has his reasons."

"Right… I'm also not sure how I feel being cooped up in the military."

Emerald smiled. "I'm gonna be honest, I'm not sure how I felt about it either when General Esdeath recruited me, but I honestly grew to love it. The Winter Ops are filled with the kindest people."

"I'll take your word for it." Mercury said as they opened up the door to see the Winter Ops chilling.

"Hey, look who it is." Wave said.

"Hello Mercury!" Bols greeted warmly.

"A pleasure to meet you, I guess." Mercury said, shifting his eyes to see Seryu. OH SHIT! He thought, slowly backing up.

"Hi!" Seryu waved.

"Uh… aheheheh… what… what's she doing here?"

Emerald took his hand. "Don't worry. She got treatment. She's not gonna cause a massacre."

Mercury sighed with relief. "That's better…"

"I'm a hundred percent sane now!" Seryu knelt down. "Isn't that right, Koro?"

Koro barked happily, licking her face as Seryu let out a giggle. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You are~! You are~!" She scratched him behind the ears as Sheele smiled at this with a soft blush on her face.

Seryu then approached Mercury. "Former criminal?"

Mercury nodded. "Former criminal."

"Sweet. Now we're friends~!"

"Cool… wait, what?" Seryu hugged him to the point where he managed to squeeze him. "Gack! How are you managing to squeeze my robot body!"

Some missions later…

Mercury walked around the area, his arms folded. I don't get it… I'm getting used to being part of the military as Emerald had said, but the way Ironwood has been treating me lately. It's not with respect… It's like he's a different person. He's suddenly a lot nicer and kinder, not to mention soft spoken… what does he see in me?

Mercury walked by Ironwood's office, turning his head to see the door ajar and kept walking… but he backed up and decided to take a peek.

Inside the office, Ironwood paced around his room grumbling to himself. His hands behind his back as there was a corkboard with pictures of him and Mercury. Esdeath was also in the room.

"Rrrgh! How is this so difficult!" Ironwood grunted.

"Hey, you told me to go fetch him."

"I know!" Ironwood said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Training with Ryu to get myself under control is one thing, but when I found out that Mercury…" He sat down on a chair, sighing. "Ugh… this is a lot harder than I thought it'd be."

"How did you find out again?"

"Found it under my files when I was keeping close tabs on her."

Her? Mercury wondered.

"I was beside myself when I found out that Marcus Black killed her in a drunken stupor." Ironwood said. "Even if I broke off our relationship, I still kept tabs on her… we remained good friends."

Esdeath sighed. "Well, you have to tell him eventually."

"You don't think I don't know that? It's not like I can just walk up to him and go "Hey Mercury, guess what? I'm your actual father. Not Marcus!"."

Mercury let out a gasp. "What?!" He whispered loudly in shock, which was enough to catch their attention.

"Hmm?" Esdeath turned her head. "...Mercury?"

"Oh shit…" Ironwood groaned as Esdeath walked over to the door and opened it up, only to see Mercury running away.

"Mercury, wait!"

Mercury kept running until he eventually reached Emerald's room, quickly opening the door as Emerald had her headphones on and was jamming out to music while coming up with military strategies.

"EMERALD!"

"Hmm?" Emerald turned her head. "Oh hey Merc." She turned her music off. "Sorry, I was just jamming out to Sea5ons. What's… uh… you okay? You look pretty steamed."

"Did you know!"

"...About what?"

"Don't give me that bullshit, Emerald! Did you know!"

"What exactly are you-"

"Did you know that General Ironwood is my FATHER?!"

Emerald's eyes widened. "Oh gods…" She said.

"...So you knew. Does anyone else know!"

Emerald looked away. "Merc, just… calm down."

"Calm DOWN?! Are you shitting me?! How can I calm down over something like THIS?!" He yelled. "Now answer me! Does anyone else know?!"

"Merc…"

"Does the Winter Ops know?"

"Merc…"

"Does the Ace Ops know?!"

"Merc!"

"DOES THE ENTIRE MILITARY KNOW?!"

"MERC!" Emerald yelled. "Yes! Everyone knows! The Winter Ops, Ace Ops, the military, Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, Sakura… even Team FNKI knows! They just got back from Beacon just yesterday and they caught on to what was going on! Hell, even Ozpin knows and he warned General Ironwood that you'd find out and you wouldn't take it well!"

"Well, I guess Ozpin was right on the nose about that!"

Footsteps walked in as Mercury turned around, seeing Ironwood and Esdeath walking in. "You…" Mercury growled. "How the hell could you be my father? My old man was Marcus Black, not you!"

"You think you're not taking this well?" Ironwood asked. "When I found out about this, I took a DNA test… and, well…"

In the past…

"General… I've come back with the test results." An Atleasian doctor said. "Ozpin requested Mercury take a DNA test. The results came back… and… it's a perfect match. Mercury is your son."

"Does he know?"

"No. According to Ozpin, Mercury thought the DNA test was random but he didn't think anything of it." He said. "It's official though. Marcus Black is not Mercury's father. You are."

Ironwood sighed. "Dammit…"

In the present…

"Admittedly, I didn't take it well either."

"Explain yourself then! How am I your son?!" Mercury yelled, his voice cracking as his legs buckled and fell to the ground. "How… how…"

BGM: Stillness (Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World)

Ironwood knelt down. "I'll explain everything… you see, long ago, when I was young and stupid, I met this girl at a bar and she was rather pretty. We talked, formed a relationship and… let's just say we had a one night stand. A few days later, that same girl came up to me and… informed me that she was pregnant. In that moment, I was terrified… I didn't know how to be a father. In my panic, I ran away and broke off our relationship. However, a few weeks later, I decided to contact her and apologized. She was pretty angry with me, but didn't hold it against me. She even apologized for insulting me as I ran away."

Ironwood closed his eyes. "That woman… was your mother." He said. "During those weeks when I was trying to work up the courage to apologize to her, that's when I had met Esdeath and took her in. I had kept in contact with her, until I had found out that Marcus had killed her in a drunken stupor. I was beside myself… I wanted to kill him, but I couldn't find him. When I heard the house burnt down, I assumed the worst. However, when I heard from Emerald about you, I nearly had a panic attack that my past caught up to me again… and now, here we are."

"...So I'm your son…" Mercury looked over to Esdeath. "And she's… my sister…"

"Yes." Ironwood nodded solemnly.

Mercury trembled. "You… you're the reason for everything…" He said, giving Ironwood a hateful glare. "You're the reason why my mother died! You're the reason why I lost my semblance. Why I lost my legs… why I lost 95% of my body! I lost EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"And I'm truly… deeply sorry over the whole thing. You didn't deserve any of this." Ironwood put his hands on his shoulders and pulled him into a hug… only for Mercury to headbutt him and knock him down.

"Get away from me!" He yelled as Esdeath approached him and reached out to him. Mercury shot her a glare as well. "Don't touch me!" He yelled as Esdeath flinched. "Everything… all my life was nothing but a lie…"

"Merc… just calm down!" Emerald approached him. "We can easily-" Mercury shot her a glare too, tears swelling in his eye as Emerald took a step back.

"Forget this… I don't even want to be a part of this military anymore." He said and then ran off.

"Mercury, wait!" Esdeath exclaimed as Ironwood rubbed his head as they tried to chase after him, but Mercury kept running, activating the thrusters in his legs and flying away. As he flew out of the military, he flew past Laxus who was walking toward the building.

"Mercury?" Laxus turned his head as he turned to see Ironwood, Esdeath and Emerald running. "What happened? What's got him all riled up?"

"It's… a long story…" Esdeath said, looking away in sadness as Laxus immediately closed his eyes, putting his hands in his pockets.

"He found out, didn't he?"

"Yes." Ironwood nodded. "He… took it as well as you'd expect."

Laxus shook his head. "I told you that he'd take it poorly… though I wasn't expecting him to run away."

Ironwood sighed. "I knew that one night stand was a mistake…" He looked back at Laxus. "You were going to have him be part of the Thunder Legion, weren't you?"

"Yes. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him."

"Just… don't be too rough on him." Esdeath said, looking away with tears in her eyes.

Laxus nodded, walking up and ruffling her hair. "I won't." He said and turned to Ironwood. "You going to be okay?"

"I'm just… gonna need a moment." Ironwood said.

"Alright." He nodded and then looked at Emerald, ruffling her hair. "I'll make sure he won't do anything stupid."

"Thanks…" Emerald said, tears swelling in her eyes as Laxus turned around and took off to find Mercury.

End BGM

Laxus would soon find him at the edge of Atlas, where he could actually hear him crying. Laxus calmly approached him and sat down next to him. "Hey."

"...What do you want…"

"Heard about what happened."

"You knew too, didn't you? Tch… can't say I'm surprised, you're Ozpin's grandson. You know everything." He wiped away his tears. "I don't even know what to do… my whole life has been nothing but a lie…"

He turned to Laxus. "What the hell am I gonna do now? The family that I thought I had destroyed was right there in front of me this whole time… I hate him… He's responsible for all of this!"

"I don't think he had realized you would go through a lot of hell. He did keep in touch with your mother and, I wouldn't be surprised if he would come by to visit to see you. Unfortunately, that Marcus guy threw a wrench into that."

"Yeah… obviously." Mercury mumbled.

"I get it, it's a lot to take in. But maybe give your old man a chance."

"Why would I?"

Laxus chuckled. "Because now you know he's alive, and hey, you got yourself a sister too. And, they're not the only family you have. Turns out that there's a split bloodline between Gajeel and Levy. The Winchesters are descendants of Levy."

"...Wait, so I have Redfox blood in me and those people have McGarden blood in them?"

"Yes."

"Wonderful…" Mercury mumbled.

"So, I honestly think that, once you have had time to mull it over, you can take time to get to know everyone."

"Oh, I've had plenty of time to get to know my father…"

"But, perhaps on a cleaner slate." Laxus said, putting his hand on Mercury's shoulder.

"At least I know Em's okay… apparently she sees Esdeath as a motherly figure to her." He then looked at Laxus. "So what, you gonna take me under your wing?"

"Well, I was thinking about rebuilding the Thunder Legion, yes." Laxus nodded. "You want in?"

"...When do we start?"

Meanwhile, in Vale…

"This is due back on the eighteenth. Have fun reading it!" Nesta waved as the customer left, and then her scroll went off. "Hmm?" She looked to see it was Ironwood.

"He knows."

"?"

"Mercury knows."

"...Oh. I'm assuming he took it as well you'd expect?"

"Yes."

"James, I told you that going out with that woman for a night of drinking at the bar was a bad idea, and running away from her was even worse... now he probably hates you for it."

"Well, what do you think I should do? Laxus is taking care of him now."

"How about visiting him when you're not training with Ryu? I'm pretty sure Merc could need it."

"You mind coming with me to visit? I'll probably need help…"

Nesta smiled with a giggle, texting him back. "Of course I will. What's family for, you big lug?"

"Thanks Nesta."

"Anytime."

Nesta put her scroll away and leaned back on her chair. "James… you big lovable hard headed doofus…"

So this Gaiden idea was inspired by DarkRebellion and Log... and I think Jacob pitched in on a few ideas too.

Ibuki: Holy crap, he needs ALL the hugs!

Oooooh yeah.