.

"Everything's fine now. Your mama will take good care of you."

The baby bird made a small, high-pitched noise as Yang gently placed him back into the nest he had fallen out of. The poor little guy's mother perched on the edge of the nest and pushed her baby deeper among his siblings, before turning to the human who had helped her and gave her a small, grateful nod.

"You're welcome," Yang replied with a smile.

Once her mission was complete, she jumped off the small stone platform she had created for herself, and transformed into a falcon to fly to the base of the cliff to join Rook before nightfall.

Apparently, a SDC train had been attacked by a Nevermore a few weeks ago, and some of the cargo had fallen off the cliff. Officially, the SDC had taken so long to send people to retrieve their stuff because they were waiting for the Grimm to move away from the area and not put anyone in danger, but according to Rook, it was because they had assumed it was an organized White Fang attack and that the cargo had been stolen. They hadn't even bothered to check…

Flying over the area, Yang quickly arrived at the location of the Dust crates, not too far from the cliff. In reality, she couldn't see much from up there, the forest was too dense and a few large gray blocks couldn't be seen at all from so high up in the middle of the shades of green, they had to do their research on foot to find them and it had taken quite a while.

Landing, she found Rook staring at her Scroll, tapping her foot anxiously.

"Anything new?" Yang asked her.

Rook let out an awkward chuckle, "No, I was just tracking the contracts, just in case."

Yang wasn't convinced. She didn't like the worried and frustrated look on her mentor's face a few seconds ago, and she didn't like how quickly it had disappeared. Her mother did the same thing, she often looked exhausted when she was alone, but the moment she noticed Yang watching her, she would straighten up, smile, act like everything was fine and lie through her teeth that she was alright.

Yang clenched her fist. It was her fault that Rook's reputation had taken a hit, it was because she had thought she was stronger than she was, because she had failed to control her fear and anger, because she had let her weakness show to the wrong person at the wrong time. She had to make up for it, but how? Sure, she did her best during missions, but if they didn't have missions, what was she supposed to do? How could she help?

"I set off the beacon, a ship will arrive by tomorrow night to pick up this stuff, we stay here and clear the area of Grimms in the meantime." Rook told her as she put away her Scroll, "The sun is starting to set, you take care of the campfire while I set up the tent."

Yang nodded and went to find some branches. With her powers she could create a stone circle and light a fire with a snap of her fingers, but she couldn't make dry branches appear out of thin air. She knew that Maiden's powers could work on plants, at least to some extent, but that was one of the most difficult applications of magic. Plants were living beings, not just matter like earth or water, and even if they didn't have an Aura, they had just enough consciousness to resist her magic.

The camp was quickly set up and night fell soon after, and the only light was that of the campfire, the moon being hidden by the clouds. Yang sat on the ground, her legs folded against her chest silently admiring the embers, while Rook… was on her Scroll. Again.

Mantle must really be in big trouble for her to be so stressed out about it, all because of Yang.

But that wouldn't happen again, she had much better control over her powers now, if Ozpin was on her trail she could turn into a bird to escape him, and in the worst case scenario she could take refuge in Menagerie.

Everything would be okay now, she had to stop worrying and focus on the missions, it was the least she could do after everything Rook had done for her.

Once she was sure Falcon was asleep, Robyn pulled out her Scroll again, but instead of opening her job listings like she had done dozens of times throughout the day, she went to her contacts and made a call.

Qrow picked up almost immediately.

"You girls miss me already ?" he asked with a hint of mockery.

Robyn rolled her eyes, "Sure, if it helps you sleep at night."

"So kind of you. Seriously, no problem with firecracker?"

Not enough contracts, not enough paychecks, Falcon to protect, May angry at her, Mantle counting on her.

"Nope. So far so good, Falcon controls her powers perfectly, we have missions to do, and no one suspects anything," she said, trying to sound relaxed, as if she hadn't spent the majority of the day with her eyes glued to her Scroll, looking for a good contract that never came.

Qrow didn't answer immediately, and for a moment Robyn expected him to have figured out that she wasn't telling the whole story, but thankfully he continued without mentioning anything.

"Great. Why are you calling me then? A problem with Mantle? I can go check it out if you need." he asked with a genuine concern that would have warmed Robyn's heart if she didn't feel so guilty about the situation there.

"No no, everything's fine. Well, 'fine', nothing urgent or dangerous. You know how it is with Atlas. But it's fine. I've got this. No, I'm calling you because there's something I'd like you to check when you have some free time."

"In case you forgot, I am more or less unemployed and on the street right now, I have all the free time I want. What do you need help with?" he replied with a sad laugh, he must have cut ties with the rest of his team by now, like he said he would. Robyn felt bad for him, she knew it would be hard for her if she had to do the same with her friends in Mantle. In fact, all of this was already damaging her friendship with May. But she knew that Qrow was in a much worse situation than her so she shouldn't complain her own.

Robyn glanced quickly at the tent Falcon was sleeping in, as if to make sure she wouldn't hear the rest of the conversation despite knowing how heavy the girl's sleep was.

"Remember Mercury? The kid Falcon went on the mission to Atlas with?"

"Yeah, she told me about him. Why? Did he come back to cause you problems?" Qrow asked.

"No, Falcon just ran into him in town the other day and they hung out," Robyn explained, "I'll spare you the details, but I'm worried about him. His father is dangerous. I know that just because he's teaching him to be an assassin doesn't necessarily means he mistreats him, I mean look at us, but I know Marcus, I've work with and against him, he's violent, arrogant, drinks even more than you, and he's the angry type of drunk. He doesn't even let his son use his Aura during their training."

Qrow remained silent on the other end of the line, probably thinking about the situation.

"I know a random kid is none of your concern," Robyn said insistently, "but he's literally Falcon's only friend."

She really hoped he would agree to at least take a look at the situation. She had too much on her plate already, but she couldn't just turn a blind eye and leave the poor kid alone with an abusive father.

She heard Qrow sigh and take a few sips from his flask.

"Alright, I'll check it out," he finally replied, "And don't worry, I stopped working for Oz but I'm still a Huntsman, it's still my job to take care of this kind of stuff, even unpaid."

Robyn let out a sigh of relief. She was a little afraid of coming across as a hypocrite by asking him that, he had just resigned from espionage and she was already sending him on another case that had nothing to do with him.

"Thank you. I'll text you what I know about the situation. I don't know exactly where Marcus lives, but I don't think you'll have any trouble finding him."

"Give me two weeks and I'll be on his doorstep," Qrow assured her with a hint of pride.

Qrow had been on Marcus Black's trail for over a month now. The search had been much harder than expected, but he had finally found him, in a small, ordinary-looking house on a small, open hill, surrounded by forest, not too far from a nearby village. It almost looked like Tai and Summer's place.

In Qrow's defense, he didn't expect such an exposed location, but it was probably on purpose, no one would expect a renowned assassin to live so… normally.

Perched on the roof of the house, he had been observing the two assassins' 'training' session for a few days now, and unfortunately, it seemed that Rook's suspicions had proven correct.

"What the fuck did I say about Aura?!" Marcus shouted as he saw the silver glow on his son's leg after he had kicked it hard enough to break it if it hadn't been protected.

Before the kid could even get up, another blow came his way, which he dodged by rolling to the side, before lunging at his father and attempting to deliver a powerful kick to his face, but Marcus grabbed his ankle and used it to roughly throw his son to the ground. Mercury quickly got up and ducked to dodge a blow, and managed to land an impressive punch to his father's stomach, who immediately responded with a knee to the face, sending his son flying.

Qrow clamped his claws on the tiles of the roof to keep himself from intervening. This wasn't training, it was an excuse to beat up a child, the only reason this boy was learning anything was his incredible adaptability, aided by a reaction time far better than average. A natural talent for fighting. It was the same kind of talent that had allowed the twins to make a name for themselves in the tribe, but even for them back then, as hard as the training had been, it had been real training, with real advice and varied exercises to prepare them for any situation, not a disguised beating.

Before, Qrow would have tried to get involved as little as possible, he would have reported his location to the police and let the local Huntsmen take care of him, as for the kid, he would have just had to play the victim card to get away without reprimand and be offered a place in Haven, or in the worst case, run away and live his life as he wanted. But that wouldn't be enough. Qrow wasn't here just to get rid of a criminal and be done with it, he was here to save his niece's only friend from his abusive father. He had to find a way to get the kid out of this situation and make sure he stayed safe afterwards.

But how? From what he had observed in the last few days and from what he had learned through Rook, the kid didn't seem like he wanted to leave, and although he was clearly afraid of his father at times, Qrow knew how to recognize a child who sought his parents' approval, he had seen it far too many times throughout his career. If he wanted to get him out of there he would first have to make him understand that his father was an asshole. Except that a kid like him was surely not going to listen to a stranger. He had to earn his trust first, but he wouldn't be able to do that as long as Marcus was around.

It might take a while…

Marcus had left for a mission, leaving Mercury alone to guard the house in his absence. The instructions were the same as always, keep the place clean, no taking down the food supply, no touching the whiskey stock, keep training and most importantly, no Aura training, ever.

That was stupid. At first, Mercury wanted to believe his father when he told him that relying on his Aura was a bad idea, after all he had some seemingly good arguments, like when he explained to him that relying on his Aura to win a fight risked leaving him defenseless once it ran out. But the more he thought about it, the less sense it made, Aura came from the soul, it was a natural protection, basically a body part, he was supposed to use it, and it wasn't even that hard to maintain so it didn't even distract him.

In his father's absence, Mercury trained alone in the forest, following Falcon's advice. To get an idea of the size of his Aura reserves and how long they would last, he had to hit a tree repeatedly while keeping his Aura activated until it broke, see how many hits it took, how strong they were, and compare it to the amount of damage he usually received in a fight. It sounded easy, and it was, but it was also very long, repetitive, and boring. His father leaving him home alone was one of the rare moments of peace he had, and he would rather spend them sleeping in and watching TV.

The tree's bark splintered into hundreds of small chips with the next kick, and Mercury backed away to avoid the debris.

Marcus had to have a good reason for wanting to stop him from learning how to use his Aura, Mercury had a hard time believing that his father would be stupid enough to refuse to use such an asset without a solid reason, but none of his arguments really stood if he thought about it for more than half a minute, something Mercury had never thought to do until Falcon pointed out the flaws in his father's logic.

Was his father hiding something from him? No, no way. As good of an assassin as the old man was, he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut, not even in front of customers, much less in front of his own son, and especially not when he had been drinking, which was most of his time at home.

Mercury got back into position in front of another tree, his Aura activated all over his body, and prepared to deliver another kick, when the sound of footsteps in the grass just behind him caught his attention.

Without wasting a second, he turned towards the direction the footsteps were coming from and prepared to fight the intruder. He knew it wasn't his father since he was on a mission, and even if he had turned back for some reason, getting caught practicing using his Aura would inevitably end in a fight, and most likely a defeat, so he might as well prepare himself.

Fortunately, the man who interrupted his training was not his father.

"Wow! Calm down kid, no need to be so nervous!" The intruder exclaimed with a slight embarrassed laugh as he raised his hands.

Mercury stood his ground, his eyes fixed on the intruder, and especially on the sword he carried on his back. A Huntsman. Armed. Near his home. He hadn't even heard him arrive, as if he had appeared out of nowhere. He had short black hair, dusty red eyes, he was slim, tall, at least a head taller than Mercury, with a relaxed posture and tone to his voice that were vaguely familiar somehow.

"What are you doing here?" Mercury asked suspiciously.

The Huntsman shrugged as he casually put his hands in his pockets, "I was just passing by when I heard someone training so I decided to come take a look."

Mercury fought the urge to roll his eyes with all his might. As if he would believe such an excuse.

"Well too bad for you, I was just done with today's session." he said, stretching as if he actually believe the lie and relaxed.

At this rate, if he didn't leave soon, Mercury might end up having to kill him, and even though he had already killed Huntsmen during missions, especially lately, he wasn't sure he would succeed this time, he wasn't prepared, he had no information on his opponent's abilities, he hadn't studied the field… Wait, the field was his home.

"Want a pro tip?" the Huntsman said, taking him out of his thoughts, "Practice activating your Aura only on the area that comes into contact with the tree. It leaves the rest of your body open, but when you're almost out of Aura, you better be smart with what little you have left. Might save your life one day."

This time Mercury didn't know what to say. It sounded like good advice, and Falcon had told him about a similar exercise too. It must have been something common and basic.

Curious, he turned to the still intact tree, and focused his Aura on the top of his shin, before delivering a kick that barely scratched the bark. The blow wasn't much less powerful than the previous ones, but Mercury felt that he had also lost less Aura. It was harder than he expected, as soon as he had diverted a tiny fraction of his concentration from his Aura to the movement of his leg, all the concentrated energy had tried to escape to cover the rest of his body, it was like doing two actions at once.

"Not bad. A little practice and it will become natural, you'll see." The Huntsman told him.

"Yeah yeah, I know…" Mercury replied with a shrug. Practice. That was Falcon's main advice. Practice until it becomes natural. She made it sound so easy…

"I'm serious, most kids your age wouldn't get it right the first time."

Obviously, since they had probably never been in real fights, always supervised by teachers, against other people their age with similar training, with a delimited combat zone, and forbidden moves that were deemed 'too dangerous' even though they were pretty basic. They did not know the need to succeed in a move on first try and to master it as quickly as possible at the risk of being killed, whether by a Grimm, an enemy, or their own father. They did not know what it felt like to genuinely fear for their life during a fight.

"What can I say? I'm just that good."

"And humble. You remind me a bit of my niece, she too is a quick learner and likes to show off and it often ends up getting her into trouble, but I can't deny that she's got the skills to back it up. You two should fight each other again sometime." The Huntsman said with a smirk before starting to leave, "I'm sure the fight would be interesting to watch."

Mercury watched him disappear into the forest without answering, then let out a half-relieved, half-annoyed sigh when he finally stopped hearing the footsteps.

He would have to keep an eye out for the next few days to make sure the Huntsman was gone, and if he was still there, get rid of him before Marcus got back. Luckily there was no evidence of their criminal activities at their house, his father had a Huntsman license to justify the weapons, all the documents and contacts were on his Scroll, which he always took with him on missions, and Mercury was more than old enough to stay home alone.

That didn't mean having a Huntsman around wasn't a problem. Mercury wasn't afraid of getting caught by the police, he'd escaped from Atlas soldiers when he was barely thirteen, disappearing into the forest of Mistral would be child's play. His father on the other hand? If he found out he'd let a Huntsman get too close to their house, whether he suspected anything or not…

Besides, did the Huntsman even have any suspicions? There was no way he was actually just passing by, but he seemed way too relaxed for someone who knew he was talking to an assassin. Or maybe he was a really good actor. Or maybe he just underestimated Mercury because of his age. After all, he had given him some pretty basic advice, and he had compared him to his niece, probably a spoiled brat who had learned to fight by hiding behind a schoolteacher. He was almost tempted to agree to fight her again just to give her a taste of the real world.

Mercury got back into position and prepared to strike the tree, but froze mid-movement.

Fight again?

As in 'not the first time'? When had he ever met this guy's niece? All his fights ended in his opponent's death, the only people he'd ever fought that he hadn't killed were his father and Falco-…

"Wait what?!" Mercury cried as he turned around, but the Huntsman was already long gone, only the young assassin remained, and a crow that seemed to be mocking him, perched on a branch.

Yang flew between the trees at full speed, dodging branches with remarkable agility, until the forest disappeared to make way for a cliff.

The falcon continued to advance above the void and turned around, and a disgruntled look crept over her face as she saw that the Beringel who was chasing her had not been stupid enough to fall to it's death.

With a sigh, Yang turned around and transformed back into a human a few meters above the Grimm. Habit made her try to draw the katana normally attached to her right hip, but she didn't have it on her, she only had her pair of tantos arranged crosswise on her back. Her mother's last gift.

She felt a little bad for not having used them sooner, her mother had spent time and money to find her the perfect weapon for her fighting style, but Yang had preferred to cling to her sword, unable to advance on her own without someone holding her hand.

But not anymore.

Just as she was about to take the Beringel's fist to the face, Yang drew one of her tantôs and sliced the Grimm's arm lengthwise, using its broad shoulders as a support to change the trajectory of her fall and land graciously behind the beast. The Beringel spun around, mad with rage, but before it could do anything, a thin metal cable wrapped itself around its neck. Yang pressed the button on the handle, and the cable with the short blade at the end retracted with enough force to decapitate the Grimm.

It was a good weapon, she just needed to get used to the lack of range of the blade and practice using the cable.

Yang put away her tanto and set off towards the village where she and Rook were spending the night, when her Scroll began to ring.

"Hey Uncle Qrow, how are you?" she asked happily.

"Someone's in a good mood," he pointed out, and Yang's smile grew.

"Well, I just killed a Beringel all on my own so yeah, but you know, it's not that big of a deal." she explained with a falsely humble tone.

"Not bad. Tell me, I just ran into your friend, the one with the gray hair…"

"Mercury?" Yang helped him.

"Yeah, that's him. I passed by his house recently and he looked pretty bored all by himself, do you mind if I give him your number?" Qrow asked.

"No, not at all." Yang replied, "But I thought he didn't have a Scroll?"

"He does now." her uncle said simply. For some reason, she was certain he was smirking.