Archive of Our Own ^beta

Of course, it would end like this. Mercury had always had a feeling it was going to end this way, from the moment Emerald’s horrified eyes peaked out from behind Cinder in the firelight of his childhood home. From a young age, he had always known there were only three types of people. People to be afraid of, people to kill, and people to protect. Granted, after he failed to protect his mother, he had revised that to people too weak to survive. Or maybe he was too weak to keep them alive. Either way, they wouldn’t last long.

Cinder was obviously someone to be afraid of, and therefore someone to follow if he wanted to stay alive. Emerald, with her wide, innocent gaze, was obviously someone too weak to survive without the protection of someone like Cinder. And someone like Mercury. It wasn’t because she wasn’t strong - she was an amazing fighter, even better than him in some ways.

Not that he’d ever tell her that.

No, it was because her heart was still too big, too good, too pure. She projected that goodness onto the soulless around her, including himself, no matter how many times he had told her to cut it out. She saw something in Cinder that he knew wasn’t there anymore. She insisted that it was still in him, and maybe it was, because he hadn’t put her out of her misery while she was sleeping yet. Maybe it was that last part of goodness in him that made it so hard for him to become what he knew he had to to survive. It scared him more than Cinder and Salem combined - because he knew it would be the death of him. And here he was, proving himself right.

Standing in the desert with Jaune’s sword impaled in his gut, staring into shocked ocean eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to be that upset. He had known what he was doing when he didn’t block or dodge, knowing that only a stone’s throw away from them Emerald’s aura was being ripped apart by Tyrian’s semblance. That team of goody two shoes would only be able to hold him off for so long before he poisoned one of them, and he couldn’t let it be Emerald.

Granted, he hadn’t exactly been planning on someone like Jaune going straight for the kill, but after everything he had to respect it. He had never gone easy on himself either, after all.

“I - didn’t - “ Jaune breathed out, somehow managing to go even paler than the literally dying person in front of him. Mercury would laugh, if he didn’t feel blood coming up his throat. Instead he choked, the blood trickling down his chin as he felt his knees go weak underneath him. This seemed to shock Jaune out of his frozen state, and he pulled the blade back on instinct, causing Mercury to hiss in agony as it sliced more of him on the way out. He stumbled, hands coming up to the wound as if that would help hold his guts inside of him.

“Fuck, I’m sorry, I - I didn’t mean to -” Jaune was crying, which seemed silly. For all he knew, Mercury was going to kill him. He didn’t know about the tiny seed of goodness Marcus and Salem failed to snuff out - unless Emerald told him? Maybe that’s why he was upset, because Emerald was going to be. That is - if she survived.

“Go help her!” Mercury managed to spit out around the blood in his mouth, using the last of his strength to weakly push at the boy as he fell forward into the sand. At least the sand was warm, and soft. Not the worst deathbed ever. And at least two people were going to be crying over his corpse, which was more than he had been expecting.

Stupid heroes. Upset when they lose, upset when they win. It’s not like Jaune knew his aura was full of weak points. Really, a blow like that would probably glance off a warrior with a proper Aura. It wasn’t the blonde’s fault Mercury was twisted and broken and incomplete. He found himself hoping Emerald got the chance to tell him that. He knew what it was like to have someone’s life on your conscience, even if that person deserved it. It took a toll on your soul.

Just as he closed his eyes and tried not to think about what comes after death, he felt a hand as warm as the desert sun coming to rest on his side. He opened his eyes and peered up in confusion at Jaune - but he wasn’t looking down at him, he was staring in Emerald’s direction - with his other hand raised towards her and the rest of his stupid friends, glowing bright with the most beautiful aura Mercury had ever seen in his life. It was like starlight and liquid gold. Okay, maybe the blood loss was getting to him.

A glance down to his side showed that yeah, he was covered in his own blood, but his aura - it felt like nothing he had ever experienced before. Where Jaune’s hand was covering the wound, it was glowing brighter than he had ever seen it glow. And the dark spots and tangles in the light that had plagued him ever since his father ripped out his semblance - they looked like they were underwater, the way they started to ripple and relax.

The lines of tension that had wrapped around his entire being felt like they were finally being soothed, like someone had dunked him in a hot spring for his soul. Nothing he had ever done to his body his whole life had ever made the feeling go away, but this - he felt like he was a little kid again, suddenly able to breathe and think fully for the first time in years. What on Remnant was this goody two shoes doing to him?

“Why?” Was all he could find his voice for, feeling tears start to well up in his eyes. And they weren’t at all related to the slowly fading pain.

“I should be asking you that. I know you did that on purpose.” Jaune responded, his eyes and other hand still trained on his team. It was hard to see from where Mercury was laying, but from underneath Jaune’s arm he could make out some things - and it looked like Tyrian was losing. Good, he hoped they killed that fucking bug.

“There’s something wrong with you. What is it?” Jaune’s voice said from above him, bringing Mercury’s eyes back to him. He blinked.

“I...have a hole in my stomach?” He responded, genuinely confused as to what he was being asked.

“No, I mean, there’s something wrapped up in your aura. Like barbed wire. It’s blocking me, so I've gotta get rid of it. Hope it wasn’t important, cause it’s not gonna be there much longer.” Jaune stated apologetically, like he hadn’t just flipped Mercury’s entire life on its axis for the second time in five minutes.

Something - his aura had always been tangled, but he thought that was just a side effect of what his father did. Because he was missing something, something that had been taken from him...right? What the hell did this guy mean by getting rid of it? Did that mean - no. He couldn’t get his hopes up. Surviving for the next hour was already a miracle. Trying to think ahead of that would surely break his brain further.

And then, with the swing of a scythe, he heard Tyrian’s maniacal laughter cut short. He wasn’t sure which scythe user had dealt the blow - maybe both. Either way, he was finished. Good riddance.

“Mercury!” A familiar voice practically screamed, and then there were rapid footsteps across the sand as Emerald practically dove to kneel next to them, her eyes still as wide and fearful as the day he met her.

“He let me win, and I - I didn’t mean for it to be this bad, I swear, but it’s okay, I'm healing him. And fixing whatever was strangling his aura.” Jaune rapidly explained to Emerald, his voice still a bit shaky, as if stabbing the enemy was a horrible thing to do.

“He let you win, huh? Is that all you know how to do, dude? Take a dive?” Suddenly, there was another blonde head of hair above him, as Yang leaned down over him with a judgemental expression on her face. At least, he assumed it was judgemental. It was hard to tell when she was upside down from his perspective.

“I didn’t ask for him to heal me!” Mercury said, trying to sound defensive, but his voice was still as weak as his body. He had lost a lot of blood into the sand very quickly, and he had a feeling Jaune’s semblance couldn’t magically replace it. The girl huffed and shook her head.

“Yeah, I bet you didn’t. You’ve got a real martyr complex, don’t you?” Yang was….teasing him? On his deathbed? He hated these people.

“I know you, of all people, aren’t complaining about someone else’s martyr complex.” The Faunus girl seemed to materialize above him alongside her partner, with a very unimpressed expression on her face.

“That’s not the same!” Yang protested, but the snickering of her sister and Weiss seemed to rule in Blake’s favor.

“Is he okay to be moved?” Emerald asked, reaching out to take Mercury’s hand in hers. She checked his pulse, and he couldn’t help but smirk. What good was checking his pulse gonna do but remind her he was still alive? She was so sentimental like that. Exactly why he had to protect her.

“Not yet, the wound might look closed on the outside but I can sense it’s not doing good on the inside still. I...the wound is deep. And half my effort was focused on helping you guys, and then half of what I have left for Mercury is being used up fixing his aura alone. But that means he should heal better than he would have before on his own.” Jaune seemed to find some comfort in slipping into his field medic role, putting all of the bare knowledge out there and fixing what he could.

“His aura?” Emerald’s grip on his hand tightened even more, and they shared a loaded glance. He knew that the hope he was so afraid of having was probably already gleaming in his eyes, and it was reflected back in hers. They both knew what this could mean. If there was even the slightest possibility…

Mercury found himself putting his other hand over Jaune’s and squeezing, the way Emerald had done with him. That drew the ocean to stare back down at him, and he tried his best to smile in a non-assholish way.

“Thank you.” Mercury whispered, knowing only Emerald would understand what he was really saying. Jaune seemed happy to accept it nonetheless, because he gave a firm nod.

“So, does this mean you’re on our side now?” came a voice he had been dreading. Ruby. The rest of her team parted like a wave, and she moved to stand above him, not even bending over as she gazed down at him with an unreadable face. Her voice was...not the same as it used to be. It was calloused from all the pain she had endured. Pain he had taken a part in inflicting.

“If you’ll let me join your little suicide mission, yeah.” He found himself feeling like he was being stared down by Salem once again, every inch of him laid out and dissected for flaws. The last time they had made eye contact like this had been at Haven, and before that...the Vytal Festival. Penny. If he hadn’t stopped her, things would have been different. How could she ever forgive him for that? She couldn’t, she shouldn’t.

As Ruby met him with silence, he glanced down at the end of her scythe, dripping red with blood. She could kill him right here, right now, and none of her friends would be able to stop her. Certainly not Emerald - he had seen how fast Ruby could move now. It would happen in the blink of an eye, especially with her standing over him with the bloody scythe like he was nothing more than a field of wheat. Would she allow him to keep growing? Or was he standing in the way of her harvest?

“Please, Ruby. He’s like a brother to me. He has good in him, I've seen it.” Emerald broke the heavy silence that had fallen over the group, her voice cracking on her words like glass.

“It’s okay, Em. I’m not like you. I deserve whatever comes my way.” Mercury felt his strength returning in the way he was able to project a false sense of calm into his voice once more. Perfect, he was going to need it for this next part. Emerald’s gaze whipped back to him, and fuck, she was crying. He hated when she cried. Before he could stop himself, he lifted his other hand to wipe her tears. That just made her cry harder, shaking her head in his grasp.

“Is that why you did this stupid shit? Because you’re convinced my life is worth more than yours? Are you really that determined to prove your dad right and join him in the ground?” She shot back bitterly, and he retracted his hand as if he’d been burned. Because it felt like he had. He had never told anyone the things he told her, and she was throwing it back in his face because what? He actually did something good for once?

“What do you want from me?” He barked back.

“She wants you alive, and by her side. And i’m not going to take that away from her, and neither are you.” Ruby declared, with all the certainty of the sunset, before turning away from him dismissively.

“Yang, Jaune and Qrow will have to take turns carrying you until you can walk on your own. We have a long way to go to get back to the others.” She announced, walking over towards where her uncle was kicking sand over the body of a dead scorpion.

Mercury huffed, letting his head fall back against the sand. This was not what he expected when he woke up this morning. He thought he was gonna die, and now he has to help save the world from certain doom. Just great.

Although...being carried by Jaune didn’t sound half bad. Maybe he would pretend to be a little weaker than he really felt, for a little while. The guy had nice arms.

Yeah, this day really wasn’t going how he expected it to. And he was surprisingly okay with it.