"Something up?" Now, Mercury wasn't one to really pry into other people's business, or even care for that matter, but the way Emerald was staring off into the distance with a stale glare kind of had him on edge. Not so much for their safety or anything, but more or less due to her unusual... How could he describe it? Her lack of bitchy behavior.
Emmi's response for him at first was to just tighten her glare, to the point you'd wonder if she was having trouble seeing what was right in front of her, but it lasted only briefly before she spilled the beans... only to then open a whole other can of worms.
"Cinder hasn't contacted us since Watts went on about his plan."
"Okay?" That wasn't all that strange, seeing as Cinder hadn't made any efforts to contact them period. But Mercury supposed that was for the best; Salem made it clear many times over their employment that screwing up wasn't an option. Either you came back with better news after a failure, or you never came back at all. Sure, she had those calmer moments where she seemed reasonable, but his own killer instincts were quick to warn of that trap; during those times, she was no less volatile.
"And neither has Watts."
There it was: the actual bugger under the couch.
"Yeah..." Now somewhat interested himself, Mercury mulled over the fact that their "favorite" scientist had yet to send word back of his astounding success or progress. Watts was, undeniably, a brilliant man when it came to technology, but a humble one he was not. Still, despite his personal opinions on how Watts really needed to kick that weakness to the curb - and it was a weakness - before it got him into trouble, Mercury opted to say nothing to the guy's face. "He's usually sending word through Tyrian about how great he's doing."
"Something happened." Emerald stated flatly, humming out her anger - although that rage was probably coaxed from her prolonged staring out towards Atlas. "I don't know what, but they should have been visible by this point.
"Watts said he had everything under control last time." Crossing his arms, Mercury sent her a careless smirk. "I say we just leave him be. If he's really so desperate and in trouble, it'll force him to suck up his precious pride and call for backup."
"If he's in danger, then so is Cinder." A little harsher than before, but still nothing extreme. Her lack of nonsensical obsession when mentioning their past boss - besides the still present crush bleeding through her concern - had him wondering if their separation had been having a better effect on his partner: she wasn't so eager to lay at Cinder's feet anymore.
While he didn't really find her crush all that offensive, it blinded her from the very blatant fact that Cinder saw her as nothing more than a tool.
Mercury knew she saw them as tools, and that was fine with him as the pay and promise of power was more than a good enough trade-off for what ended up being not much more than a little henchmen work. But when he looked over at Emerald and saw her desperate desire to earn Cinder's affection, he honestly felt a little sorry for her... and heavily creeped out - seriously, she needed some help in discerning healthy affection from fanatical obsession.
Despite her progression into being a self-sufficient person, Mercury couldn't let Emerald get in over her head to the point of doing something stupid; they were safe right here, and he wanted to keep it that way. And so, he playfully taunted her, letting his words slither out like the venomous snakes they were.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten how strong she is." Hitting her with a fake 'ha,' he continued on with, "Weren't you the one always preaching about how Cindy knows best?"
That appeared to get her ripe and ready now.
Whipping back around, Emerald laid into him just how strong her faith still was, all the while trying to dismiss his attempt to make fun of her, to mixed results.
"I never "preach." I just end up having to remind you, every single time, of just how powerful she is." Speaking through a clenched jaw, he saw it relax a tiny bit as she went on. "And I haven't forgotten that power either, but you've seen what a single set of maiden's powers did to her."
"Yeah." Adding onto that with a swift whistle, he had to give her that. "And I thought she was scary beforehand."
"That's right." Losing most of her ire now, Emerald set her eyes back on the city. "But she's not the only one with that power. Raven's still out there, and at any moment she can zip right to any one of us."
"Wasn't she only helping out because we were holding her tribe at gunpoint?" Mercury knew most leaders would cave under that scenario, but Raven wasn't quite like most people. "And yeah, who wouldn't follow orders when faced with that? But you remember what Cinder offered to seal the deal, right?"
"The tribe and her would be left alone." Emerald finished for him, provoking him to carry on as his face slightly skewed.
"She fell in so easily after that."
"I know..." Scowling harder than before, Emerald spat the following insult through a whisper. "She's a hopeless coward."
"Then why worry about her?" This only got silence from Emmi, so thinking quickly, he tried a different tactic - fueled by a wayward bit of skepticism he had on his mind. "You aren't really worried about Raven, are you?" When she didn't respond, he kept going. "Even if she were to come back, she'd be no match for Salem." Emerald still said nothing, and Mercury, seeing this quickly skewing downhill, just cut his losses and dropped it. "Fine. If you don't feel like talking, then don't. Just try not to lose focus on what's right in front of you. We're winning this war for now, but we need to be ready for when the tides change. Don't forget that."
Emerald looked to struggle for a second, before something different happened.
"Do you think it's wrong to abandon a family you've never had?"
"... What?"
"I have a sister down in Mantle." Emerald let some of her fumes fade. "Well, a half sister; one I can't remember much about, and one I never really knew or cared for."
Oh you have got to be kidding me?! This couldn't be it, it just couldn't.
"Uh... Remnant to Emerald. We're kind of in the middle of taking over the world here. Don't you think it's a little late to be wondering about right and wrong?" What was this, a fucking stage play? That, like most things so far, failed to get a vocal response, and so he sighed, sucked in a breath, and adapted. "Whatever. You just want a straight answer, right?"
With her accompanying nod, he huffed, breathing hard out of his nose and looking to the sky as he searched for something to say that wouldn't lead to more bullshit. Brother's sake, this is stupid.
"If you didn't know her much, and you never shared something akin to a decent relationship before, then it doesn't matter if you're tied together by blood or whatnot: you're not family." Mercury could attest to that, as despite his dad training him and keeping him alive, the man was a shitbag who Mercury hated with his soul; he was glad to kill the fucker. "Family are the people you choose to believe in, and who you choose to care about."
She gave him, quite off puttingly, an outright pathetic look. By now, Mercury had had enough, and straight up ripped another bandage off, hoping to at least understand an increment of what was going on.
"What does it matter to you? Heck, why are you even caught up in this now of all times?"
"I needed a second opinion."
"For what?!" He flinched after that one; spat it out a little too hard. Emerald, slipping past his expectations again, chuckled. Now it wasn't a happy or playful chuckle, it was more like those 'I know I'm fucked' kind. She calmed back down quick enough after, and then went right from zero to one hundred, kicking him down multiple times throughout the spiel.
"I know what family is, but I needed someone else to back it up, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to believe it." Singing a somber sigh, she actually looked him in the eyes while speaking. "Ever since Cinder was separated from us, I've developed... let's call them "conflicted feelings." While I hated it for a long while, I've slowly come to recognise how much... easier, everything has been. It's no longer Cinder ordering me to do this or that, and I'm not faced with the fear of letting her down much anymore."
Oh my god... This is happening... It's actually happening! Flabbergasted, Mercury could do nothing but listen silently as Emerald opened up.
"I used to hate not being there for her, but then, I started to look back on the highs and praise I got from doing well, and I ended up realizing that they never matched up with the lows I got for failure or subpar performance. I just... ever since it's been just you and me, I've become more... relaxed, or is it focused? I can't wrap my head around what it is, but something's changed, and that's got me wondering if the life I had before was really what I thought it was."
Emerald turned around to stare back out at the city, looking quite frankly tired of it all.
"When Cinder offered to take me in, I thought I'd finally found somewhere I belonged; I thought I had family. I looked up to her, admiring her... probably more than I should have. But now... I don't know anymore. I want to see her like that again, but the more I look back without the rose-tinted glasses, the more I'm starting to see her in a different light. I'm beginning to wonder if she ever cared about me... about us, at all."
Mercury had to pause after that, genuinely at a loss for words. He never thought the day would come where Emerald would abandon her crush; even less so for her to see who Cinder truly was. It actually kind of scared him in a way. Everything was changing so quickly that he was finding the act of reading the room and power scales of the world more and more difficult. He never was one to let himself care about people freely, seeing them, at best, as buddies to probably hang out with once every blue moon. But Emerald... she'd just earned his respect, but not through raw power or cunning.
Through sheer perseverance and reflection, displaying freely the rare mental fortitude required to look at yourself and be able to change... to adapt.
"I'm sorry to say this, but Cinder has never once cared about us." And so, with this new respect in mind, he would let her down gently. "We were always pawns to her; pieces in a game she was playing against the world." When she faced him anew, he relaxed his posture. "As sad as it is to say, I don't think Cinder is even capable of feeling for people. She's always been dead set on her goals, to the point you could see her disregard for everything written on her face."
"I never saw it." she said, sheepishly.
"You never looked," he said, getting a flinch from her.
"No... I guess I didn't-"
Out of nowhere, a strong - and he meant strong - pulse shot up through his body from the floor, and to go along with it the whole whale shivered.
"What the heck?" Seeing the shock twisted on Emerald's face only added to his own confoundment. "Did you feel that?"
She didn't respond immediately, as something in the distance appeared to catch her eyes, because they stretched wide and she raised a finger, pointing out and exclaiming, "Look!"
Turning back, Mercury wanted to slap his forehead. Low and behold, some tomfuckery had chosen now of all times to bother them. And this wasn't just the people of Atlas pulling off a few measly victories against the endless horde of Grimm their organic battleship was spewing through its spit; what they were looking at was purely unbelievable, and yet there it was.
"Brothers..." Not bothering to hide his feelings, Mercury let the sharp scowl take its rightful place across his mug. "It's like a sea of bloody milk!"
"It's glowing." Emmi pointed out, "And spreading fast."
"Think it'll get here any time soon?" Merc really didn't want to come face-to-face with the soapy looking ooze, especially with that sickening glow.
"I can't tell..." Squinting again, Emerald analyzed the scene as best she could from their cozy little spot. "It seems to be frozen in that one area over there. I think it's trying to spread, but it looks to be... evaporating; there's steam rising up, I think."
"That can't be Atlas's work, can it?"
"Who knows-" Again they were cut off, but by a very obvious boom from back inside. Whipping around, Mercury was certain both of them were sharing the same thoughts, but he spoke up first, just to be sure.
"That can't be any of the others... Think V finally had enough?" He shot a look to her, but Emerald zoomed right by him. Sighing, Mercury hurried after, mumbling under his breath, "Well an answer would have been nice."
.
.
Salem was toying with them; Ruby didn't even need her nightmares to tell her that.
Yang rushed in for a head-on jab, backed up by Weiss who zipped by with her glyphs. Blake had leapt back, firing off rounds and using her ribbon to latch on to the various protruding bones that made up the makeshift remains of what she believed was supposed to be a hanger - due mostly to the ship that escaped with V. Ruby hung back at first, priming a round centered right on the ancient monster's forehead, but then she'd stopped.
Salem did nothing to defend herself in the precious few seconds after letting them go, and Ruby instantly noticed the expanding hole of torn and broken flesh spreading across various parts of her body as Blake let loose her unending gunfire. Yang, upon closing the gap, fell into a slide with Weiss coming around from the back and launching up into the air. Enabling her semblance to wreath her hair in flames, Yang shot up and connected a fierce uppercut to the bottom of Salem's chin.
A strong feeling of doubt filled Ruby to the brim. Salem went flying... she wasn't supposed to do that.
Hadn't she connected herself to the ground? Wasn't that what allowed her to spring up walls, like the one that blocked off the fleeing ship? Ruby assumed this was done by extending her almost goopy body through the whale and rising it up wherever she pleased. Of course, Salem might have just been controlling the whale to create those barricades; this thing was one of her creatures, so she should have full reign of it... right?
Regardless of which idea turned out to be true, it didn't stop the fact that Salem should have been, essentially, bound to the ground.
The way her body bent and stretched as it sailed upwards, like a rubber noodle being tugged from both ends - despite lacking tethers on both ends - was straight out of a cartoon. This odd bodily behavior flew by the rest of her team, and Weiss, from her position above as Salem flew high, summoned a glyph under her feet which had been raised up to give her the appearance of someone diving at a forty-five degree angle. An echoing jingle, as was common with her partner's glyph usage, rang out, and Weiss bolted through the air. The tip of her sword easily skewered Salem's stretched midsection, and Weiss looked to put some force behind her hand; enough to somewhat kick off the dark queen, letting her abandoned weapon nail Salem to the adjacent wall in the distance.
"Take that." Yang kinda sounded cool when she muttered her musings in a grumbly tone. "Humanity's greatest threat my ass..."
"It did nothing." Ozpin whispered from her side, and Ruby spared a look in time to see the growing resentment displayed through Oscar's features. Rather than respond immediately, he turned back quickly, mouthing something to her aunt Raven. The darker image of her sister nodded, turning around after. Ruby didn't have time to see it, because she heard the slushy sloppy sound of jelly wriggling and plopping.
Salem had begun sliding down the wall, with bits and pieces of her body dislodging and flapping against themselves as it clumsily dribbled down the surface it had been forced into by her teammates' assault. The blood they'd drawn disturbingly appeared to lubricate the slushy flesh, making Salem's descent quicker by the second. Everyone was too stunned to really do anything about it, and when the mass finally touched down on the floor, it squished together, erecting into a stalagmite before reshaping and coloring itself back into the woman of the hour, with her back to them all.
A pleasing sigh came from her, and Ruby swore a shiver shot up her spine from the floor - wriggling even. Salem didn't so much turn around as she did invert her surface. Her back popped out a front, and from the edges, Ruby could see how her abandoned front pressed into a back. She'd heard about clothes you could wear inside out, but this was ridiculous.
"It's been a while since I've felt... physical pain." Pulling in a sensual sigh, she finished it off with a satisfied smile; eyes half-lidded and looking disturbingly pleased. "Honestly, it's a tad thrilling to feel my nerves screaming out in agony once again~"
A bolt of blinding lightning punctured her chest, blowing a hole clean through it, and the wall behind her, rattling the very room itself. From her side, Ruby watched as Ozma strongly approached, stopping just ahead of her sister by six or so meters and touching his cane down before him, as she remembered he used to back at Beacon. A faint glow faded from the orb above the trigger which extended and shortened it, with his hands resting calmly atop it.
"Then bid me this chance to entice you, for all the long years we've missed."
Salem's smirk, while deadly, held within it a playfulness.
"Very well then, dear." Salem spread her arms out, inviting his wrath. "Dazzle me~"
Author's note
...
Oh, the old bait and switch.
Yeah, this was more of an Emmi and Merc sort of chapter. At the very least, we get a portion of some fighting near the end, and a teaser of Ozpin stepping in for once.
The two had their moment, with Emerald even looking to have tamed her obsession of Cinder to a degree. Along with that, They get to witness the effects of Pyrrha's demise, and even feel the battle back inside the whale; giving a decent timeframe of when everything is happening with regards to each other - not super important in this particular instance, but neat nonetheless.
Next time, we'll get to see how Ozpin plays ball.
Until next time.