Ch 146; I'm the One

I'm the One (That Your Mama Said, 'Don't mess with them or you'll end up dead')

Within the Evernight Castle, Tyrian was shown within the halls of the palace, attempting to move his broken arm out of his cast. Upon hearing (and feeling) another snap, he howled as he put his right arm back into place.

I can't believe this. My own misfortune… How cruel. Hopefully Salem can draw on my negativity. But even if her drawing on me being a Lantern helps her, I can not help but lament that I have failed My Lady again. Such a wonderful yet awful contradiction.

He went to the window, looking at some of the new Grimm forming from the Grimm pools, tiny Beowolves running around the obsidian crystal shards.

And to add more salt to my wounds… I can no longer command the Grimm. Damn you, Ruby Rose for destroying my link to the Goddess and her beautiful Grimm subjects.

He turned away from the window.

Thinking carefully though… All of the Gifts from the Goddess… almost all of them have been lost or destroyed.

The scorpion tailed faunus thought of himself, his allies and the items they have or once had, briefly becoming angered as he spoke to himself.

"The amulet was destroyed by that pesky silver eyed girl, Cinder supposedly had an enchanted dagger and magical compasses which were in turn given to Mercury and Emerald. Watts had the GPS, capable of tracing anyone, magic or not, with or without the CCT system online, thanks to a lock of hair from the Goddess before he ultimately lost said device. And Hazel? He had an enchanted armor plate, designed to perfectly fit the wearer and to prevent all injuries. Alas, he ultimately misplaced it upon having to flee from authorities and it was never recovered afterwards."

He sighed yet again. "I don't even know what I should be doing right now. I feel like I'm in prison."

And you were actually in jail for quite some time before Lady Salem had to bail you out. Tyrian reminded himself. But isn't there someone else in prison? Someone you haven't spoken to in a very long time, even before she was imprisoned for her crimes?

An image of the face of Pearl Callows came to mind. He envisioned her sobbing before lashing out in anger.

She was always too emotional. She became too attached; and when she lost the one thing that mattered most to her, she lashed out and lost it all. And she called me the crazy one.

He cackled to himself.

It's so easy to forget her existence. She's been in prison much longer than I ever have, and she will almost certainly be there for the rest of her days. She is a fool. Who needs a lost love when you can destroy all that you desire?

The psychotic madman laughed, thinking about the lives he took in Solitas in Anima.

Figaro Pickerel was always a cut above the rest. Smarter than his superiors. But no one believed him. They denied his requests. A good thing too…

A brief flashback of Tyrian was shown in a wooden cabin, poisoning a man with green eyes, brown hair with green streaks and fair skin. The man was shown wearing his white pajamas as Tyrian's stinger struck him. Blood and venom came flowing down and as he stepped back and tried to reach for his gun, Tyrian used The Queen's Servants to strike him in the head. He laughed maniacally.

I got my revenge on Pickerel, but many of my other foes still remain. No doubt the Little Valkyrie has fallen to my venom, but what of the Vengeful Ninja she so dearly beloved? Or the Metalbending Murderess? Or any of their other friends?

Tyrian imagined Ren, Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby and Qrow walking along the long, lonely path to Mistral in the dead of night. A saddened Ruby and Jaune led the pack, the former drooping as she walked forward. Jaune glanced back as Pyrrha followed behind, her eyes closed and her hands still stained with Alva's blood. Ren held a dead Nora in his arms, tears falling down and landing on her corpse. In the far back, an exhausted Qrow held a torch with his one good arm, both for light and for the one they lost.

The psychopath then imagined himself getting revenge on his foes by poisoning all of them and having Ruby bound in chains. Ruby screamed out in terror as everyone close to her was lying dead on the ground.

He soon returned to present with a sigh.

"I suppose I should be resting, so I can return to My Lady's service as soon as possible! Yes, when you heal, you will make it up to Her… somehow."

With this, he quickly ran back to his quarters.

Similarly in the Dark Lands, Emerald found herself in combat with Mercury within a circular training room. She was soon knocked down.

"Hey Em, you doing okay? You don't seem to be at full fighting capacity and we've only been training for ten minutes."

Sitting up, she folded her arms, turning her head away from him. "I don't want to talk about it."

Mercury glanced at her, borderline concerned and annoyed. "Don't tell me you've been starving yourself?"

"Just for today- I have no appetite."

At that moment, her stomach slightly growled. "You're lying through your teeth. You better get some food and fess up before your performance slips up."

A few moments of silence passed before Emerald sighed and made her confession.

"Cinder's been holed up in her room even more than usual. I thought her recovery was over."

He offered her a different possibility. "Who says her recovery is even over?"

Emerald folded her arms. "I didn't think you cared."

Mercury raised an eyebrow. "Who says I don't care?"

"Look, we're friends. Or if nothing else, mostly friendly acquaintances." Emerald sighed as she stood up. "We may be stuck in this 'endless quarantine', but we want to continue our work for Cinder and/or Salem with our collective sanity still intact, we need to keep our heads straight."

"Maybe you're right. We've been here for months with nothing to show for it."

The two of them went from standing in the training room, to a deserted cafeteria, each of them having their own plates of food.

The thief and the butcher ate in silence for several moments. Eventually, they spoke.

"Merc.." she started.

"Em…" he began at the same time. "You go first."

"Why did you join us? Why did you agree to help Cinder pursue the magic she craves?"

Mercury gave a long sigh before going silent for ten whole seconds. "The short and not-so-sweet version is that I killed my horrible dad, left to escape enemies and authorities, and to lash out at the world. The full version is more complicated. You might remember Cinder mentioning the name Marcus Black, right?" She wordlessly nodded. "Then you might recall her mentioning him as a great assassin, killing whoever the target was. But his dirty deeds were not done dirt cheap. He drove hard bargains to those seeking him out, and rumor has it that the Atlas Council considered hiring him to kill Gorlois Moss, a notorious criminal in Atlas. Probably false, but he was certainly one of the most skilled assassins of his time.

"The two of us often moved around in order to avoid being caught by the authorities. By the time you and Cinder had found us, we lived on the outskirts of Cachée, a small middle-of-nowhere village that's often overlooked by Vale natives and foreigners alike. I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise that no one was going to help, but I learned the hard way that heroes are all selfish."

Emerald winced, trying to steel herself for what she was about to hear.

"Marcus's work was often stressful- there was only one thing that took away the pain- alcohol. One day, after a particularly stressful mission, he found himself at a bar in Aquarian. He was heavily drunk, and so was the woman beside him. From what I was told, and saw on my birth certificate, her name was Veronica Vi. Marcus said that she was studying to be a doctor at that time, highly stressed from medical tests. They were both drunk, they ran off with each other in the night, and… you can figure out the rest."

"You were born nine months later?"

"Technically seven and a half, but yes, that meeting resulted in my existence. Vi didn't want her education to be impacted nor did she want to be involved with Marcus anymore than she was, so she didn't name my father on the certificate, gave me up after I was born, shut her mouth and never looked back. It's hard to tell when the abuse from my father actually began, but the earliest memory was not pretty."

[Fifteen years ago, wooden cottage in Patch]

A scene was shown of a young Mercury, wearing white and gray clothes as he looked over the contents of a suitcase. He was shown holding a drawing in his hands and showing it to his dad.

I was four years old. We were moving for what seemed to be the third time. I was running behind in packing my things, and he slapped me for wanting to bring along a picture of a field I had drawn, saying it looked horrible and served no purpose.

An image was shown of Marcus, his gray eyes sunken and gray hair gradually turning white. He was wearing a gray polo shirt and black trousers carefully rolled up to barely show his ankles. He was wearing black socks with white and dark red tennis shoes, an odd contrast to an otherwise dark outfit. The father looked at the picture, slapped it out of his hands and then slapped her face.

About two years later, while in Mensonge, he started me in combat training, unlocking my aura and everything. But combat training… was rough.

Another flashback was shown, this time wearing a pair of black boots as they started combat training outdoors. Mercury was shown getting a punch to the face, breaking his aura and leaving him on the floor. Marcus groaned and exhaled, his cool breath seen in the frigid air.

I could see and smell something in the air. Eventually I realized it was alcohol.

Marcus was shown downing a bottle of red wine, much to the concern of an eight year old Mercury.

He was almost always drinking, and he was even worse when under the influence.

A brief training montage began; showing Mercury blocking punches from his father with his arms and his father knocking him down, at the ages of ten, thirteen and sixteen.

Training was always rough, but some of the missions we did went pretty well.

Sixteen year old Mercury was shown with a gray glow surrounding his hands as he slapped and punched his opponents, while Marcus focused on a skilled huntsman firing two guns at him. Soon the guns glowed, increasing their fire rate. The scene was an open field, the ground stained with blood and sweat. Those touched by Mercury found themselves surrounded by gray energy and soon felt weak, collapsing to the ground. Marcus was shown grabbing the huntsman, his hands glowing back and leaving the huntsman weak and vulnerable as pain flowed through his target.

With our semblances, we were unstoppable. Marcus had the ability to steal other's semblances with a simple touch, which he would often use against his opponents. Those with semblances lost them and fell to his wrath. Those without semblances still met their downfall all the same. Almost no one who went up against him survived.

Mercury was shown using his semblance against a huntress before kicking her down and Marcus delivering a killing blow with a sword. Both of them smirked as they ran from the scene.

It took a long time for me to unlock my semblance, but once I had it, I believed it would be mine forever. Everything seemed like it was finally getting better.

The scene turned to black.

Until suddenly, it wasn't…

Marcus was shown shoving his son against the wall. "What were you thinking?!

"You wanted me to kill them!" Mercury argued. "We couldn't leave any witnesses behind!

"You've been using your semblance too often. You're not taking the work of being an assassin seriously!"

"Didn't you once say that as a fighter and assassin that you need to have everything you have in a fight?"

Marcus didn't answer, but the hands glowing black told Mercury all he needed to know. He backed away, attempting to run, only to be outpaced and knocked down into the floor.

"No, no!"

Marcus's hands glowed with a black energy and grabbed his son's wrists; his veins feeling like fire as Mercury's semblance was taken.

"You will only get this back when you have proven yourself."

Marcus left the room, leaving Mercury getting up in disbelief and horror.

With this, my semblance, my power, was gone. He had taken it about six months before you and Cinder found me.

The scene briefly returned to the present as Emerald asked, "What… was your semblance?"

He gave a hesitant sigh. "I never had a name for it other than Poison. I could poison anyone with a simple touch. I'd bring enemies to their knees, begging for mercy that would never come."

And as I tried to get my semblance back, I realized that true heroes didn't exist. If I had any chance of getting it back, I'd have to earn back his favor. But it seemed that I was cursed from birth to fall short…

There was a scene occurring in the alleyways of an unknown location, a heavily drunk Marcus glaring at Mercury.

"What did I do wrong?!" Mercury screamed.

"Everything! You've only been bringing me down! I wish you had never been born!"

Marcus pulled out a gun, and fired at Mercury several times. Once his aura broke, there was nothing left to protect him from the onslaught.

There was only one witness; a woman with red hair and a flowery dress with a collapsed weapon at her waist. She was shown making a phone call to the police before seeing that Marcus was staring at her. With this, she backed away until Marcus fired at her, forcing her to form a green aura shield.

The vision faded to black as the woman ran from the scene.

Mercury was shown in the hospital, his legs gone and some words being spoken to him by some doctors.

He shot both of my legs, requiring them to be amputated and replaced with prosthesis. Thankfully, no one recognized me or knew who my old man was. I was on bed rest for a long time, but it was during this time that I plotted my revenge.

Mercury was shown buying some ammunition for his prosthetic leg projectiles.

Realizing that he was lying to me, and foolishly hoping that if I killed him that his curse would end, I chose to murder him.

A quick montage began; Mercury was shown, dodging every punch for Marcus….

A candle being knocked over, setting the house ablaze…

Marcus shoving Mercury into a wall, destroying the wooden wall...

Taking every hit from him but getting back up.

Eventually Marcus's aura broke and Mercury gave a series of rapid punches, first to the gut and then to the back, bruising him and finishing him with a kick to the back, firing a projectile blast that broke his spine and made him bleed.

With this, the montage ended, and Marcus was dead.

And with this, the beatings and pain ended. But in some ways, the pain was never gone…

The scene turned to the present once again.

"Damn… that's really messed up." She threw her arms around him. "I'm really sorry…"

Mercury was shocked for a moment or two, but soon resumed his stoic demeanor. "Oh spare me."

"But you deserve better." the thief protested.

The butcher backed away and folded his arms. "And why are you here?"

Emerald slightly hesitated. "Do you know the name Urdin Sustrai?"

He scratched his head. "I think I remember hearing of him."

"That man, that infamous criminal… is my father." she confessed. "He hails from Mensonge, a village of thieves on the outskirts of Vale."

An imaginary sequence of events began, showing the village divided into different directional grids, starting from the north, going blue, white, red and green.

Back twenty years ago, give or take, the town of Mensonge was ruled by four different criminal clans, each with their own brand of twisted rule. To the north was arguably the most peaceful; the Cearra Clan. To the east was arguably the second kindest, the Galere Gang. To the west was arguably the most wicked; the Ruined Ring. And to the south was the worst of them all; the Sustrai Syndicate.

The scene showed three different groups, many of them pointing their guns at each other. Murmurs of discussion were heard before the gunfire began.

These clans all fought over territory, seeking to out-do each other. As you can imagine, Urdin Sustrai was one of those leaders. However, the Sustrai Syndicate has a malevolent tradition. When the heir turns eighteen, he must go out of the village and commit twelve crimes within a year, all without being caught or held accountable for any of them. The rules were that he had to commit at least three class A felonies, at least two violent crimes and at least one rape.

Even Mercury was shocked and appalled as the scene briefly turned to the present. "What's wrong with them?"

"I know right? Disgusting. Oh, and of course he had no assistance from anyone. He traveled all around the outskirts of Vale. From Aletheia to Aldwy, to Aquarian and even Cachee near the kingdom's border."

The imaginary sequence resumed, showing a clawed man with white hair and red eyes chasing down a female target obscured by a blurry lens. The rest of the scene showed Urdin Sustrai tackling her down and afterward faded to black.

From what I heard in passing, his target for the last crime was a poor woman in Aquarian- name unknown to me. He had his way with her and passed the test all too well.

The scene switched to Urdin in a throne room, many bowing down to him.

With this, he became the head of the Sustrai Syndicate, and took a woman named Eleanor to be his bride. I never knew why she was chosen. My best guess? Her father needed to pay off his debts or she once tried to take them down herself.

A woman with light green hair hidden under a large veil was shown walking down the aisle.

Her last name was also never known to me, but supposedly she was part of the normal names movement. Whatever the hell that is.

The scene turned to an obscured feminine face, sorrowful while Urdin Sustrai smirked. A young infant Emerald Sustrai was shown crying, much to Urdin's exasperation. He left the room, leaving Eleanor alone with her newborn daughter.

Within a year or so, I was born and everything else fell apart not long thereafter.

Another scene took place;

A woman was shown speaking with some police officers before giving them a note.

It was a well known fact that the Cearra Clan had an alliance with the village police force, and soon enough, the police had known where all of our hideouts were. Some of the criminals ran away, others stayed and fought. Mother, who never loved me, used it as an opportunity to escape and ruin Sustrai's legacy.

Eleanor was shown running away, raging fires in the distance behind her.

The imaginary sequence ended as Emerald recalled her earliest memory;

Mother hid me away in an orphanage in Vale's city at the age of three. And the only reason I knew any of this was because she mistakenly left her journal behind. I would eventually read it, and was horrified. To this day, I have no idea what became of the clans, or if my horrible father was ever arrested or killed for his crimes.

Ten year Emerald was shown reading the journal in an abandoned church, horrified and shocked.

But that hardly mattered to my childhood self. About three years after she left me, the orphanage burned down in a tragic accident. I was lucky enough to have unlocked my aura that night and survive the whole thing.

A sad, six year old Emerald was shown with a pleading look as the raging fire reflected in her eyes, clutching the journal to her chest.

From there, I pretty much had to steal to survive.

Emerald was shown stealing a couple of baguettes before running away, breaking one of them into pieces before eating them, stealing a green bag at the age of seven, stealing some clothes a year later, and settling into an abandoned church hall.

Oftentimes I had no home.

Emerald was shown sleeping on one of the benches with a pillow she had stolen from a dumpster. She was shown shivering from a lack of sheets and blankets to keep warm.

There was a brief period where I lived in a decommissioned church.

The scene showed the property being sold to a professional-looking business man. Emerald soon took her bag and left the building as the sold sign was stuck into the ground.

Until it was bought and converted into a restaurant.

A flashback was shown of her discovering her semblance. Emerald was shown wearing a valuable stolen bracelet around her left wrist. Flinching in terror as a police officer came towards her, only for him to see a stray cat instead of Emerald. The stray cat ran away and soon the officer left, speaking some words into a walkie-talkie.

At ten, I was lucky enough to unlock my semblance. I tried not to rely on my semblance, but over time it became harder and harder not to use it.

The scene showed a younger Cinder and Emerald in a deserted warehouse. Cinder gave her a piece of bread, which Emerald quickly wolfed down.

Cinder found me using it, and she told me about magic. She was the first to show me any real kindness in ages. She promised me that I'd never go hungry again. That she would be there for me. And… I want to believe she plans to keep that promise.

The scene returned to the present, both criminals having finished their meals.

"And do you think Cinder has any humanity left?" Mercury asked.

Emerald didn't immediately answer. "She has to; she's not like Salem."

Yet… she quietly mused.

Another horrifying thought entered her mind.

But what if she does become a monster? What if Cinder becomes… a Grimm paradox?

She looked around with a sigh; Mercury was gone, leaving her to her thoughts.

Unbeknownst to her, Cinder was siphoning off the negative energy she emitted. A stream of black energy was shown to be connected through her Grimm arm.

That's it, Emerald. Keep crying... Soon, I'll be able to sense negative emotions from other areas. Perhaps I should thank her for letting me expand my powers. But that would defeat the purpose. Soon enough, I should be able to take from other sources. It's only a matter of time.

Author's Notes;

-Well, that took longer than I thought it would to write. Whew. Finally finished...

-Sorry for no updates in a while. Not only was the chapter hard to write, I've also been having to adjust to a new job. (Props to you if you can guess what it is.)

-Also, has it really been five years already? (checks publishing date) Damn, time flies. Happy five year anniversary, Everlasting Light! And with over 600,000 words to boot!

Anyways, thanks for your patience. Hopefully the next chapter will be out in a week or two.