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“Try it and he’s dead,” Cinder snarled, pulling Mercury up by his throat.
Mercury blinked the blood out of his eyes as he watched the little girl in red look back, her figure blurred against the desert heat. It was hard to think between the blood loss, lack of air, and the numerous burns courtesy of Cinder, but the ridiculousness of the situation meant he found himself letting a harsh, barking laugh.
“You…think she actually cares…about me,” he gasped. “Gods, I forgot how stupid you were.”
That was of course, a really dumb thing to say but he was going die anyway. And he was proud to say he was planning on dying as he lived: being a complete and utter asshole.
“You don’t know Ruby Rose,” Cinder snarled, her Grimm claws sinking into his neck. “She’s a hero. Aren’t you?”
Ruby didn’t answer. For some reason she still hadn’t moved. He couldn’t make out her expression, but what she was waiting on was beyond him.
It wasn’t really his problem right now.
“I killed her friends,” he reminded Cinder. “You’re the one who doesn’t know what you’re talking about you dum bi-“
Cinder’s claws tightened, efficiently stopping him from what he was saying next. His vision began to white out from the pain and he could feel the blood steadily trickling down his neck. He could only stay conscious like this for so long, and the second he went out he went out for good.
Gods this was stupid way to die. He knew joining Ruby’s team of goodie-goodie would never end well for him or anyone else. But Emerald had decided to do so and he wasn’t about to let her do it alone. She at least, was with the others and safe for the moment. At least he had bought them all some time. That was the plan at least: he, Ruby, and Polendina take out Cinder themselves before she could reach Shade. The Winter Maiden and two silver eyed warriors. A robot, an assassin, and warrior with personality of puppy dog run off to kill a fiery bitch before their friends can catch them and talk some sense into them. It sounded like a bad joke.
And now they were all probably going die. Penny was unconscious, Mercury was seconds away getting his throat sliced open, and Ruby was, for some reason, not using her silver eyes. Were they just not working again?
“Stop!” Ruby shouted. “You said you would kill him only if I attacked you. I’m not attacking you? See?”
There was a dull thud and had she just thrown down her weapon? How stupid was she?
“Now let him go,” she said steadily.
Cinder laughed, but loosened her hold on him. He could suddenly breath again, but not very well. Her claws had done a number on his throat.
“You really are foolish,” she said. “Now there’s nothing to stop me from killing all three of you.”
“You’re wrong. I don’t need a weapon to kill you. I can and will use my eyes if you don’t let him go. Right. Now.”
Mercury’s ragged breathes were taking in almost as much blood as oxygen. He was dying. He was dying and somehow the girl who had every reason to hate him was trying to save his life.
“You use your eyes and he’s dead,” Cinder purred.
Ruby didn’t answer that.
“You heroes are so easy,” Cinder continued. “Your weaknesses make it simple to destroy you. You’re desperation to protect any man, woman or child, even your worst enemy, gives an—“
Mercury cut off her little villain monologue right there and then. His legs were both useless: one melted into slag and the other badly crushed. His arms were badly wounded along with the rest of his body. He had no semblance, no aura, and he still couldn’t use his eyes.
But Ruby could.
All she needed was someone to protect. And she cared enough about him to risk her life she cared enough about him to use her eyes.
The first time she used it, wasn’t it because she had watched a friend die front of her? Pyrrha. He had helped with that one. Oh, this was ironic.
Ignoring the pain from the burns running along it, he managed to pull his arm up and rip his nails into Cinder’s cheek. It didn’t do much damage, but the pain was enough to make her forget about the hostage situation entirely and sink her claws deeper into his neck.
Then several things happened at once. The first was him gagging as suddenly the little air he had vanished and blood filled his mouth. The second was Polendina rising, regaining consciousness. The third and final was the sound of Ruby’s voice screaming wordlessly and a clear silver light filling his vision.
Then he was curled up on the ground, silver light gone, watching his blood sink into the warm sand.
Well that had done it. Guess he was dying now. He spat the blood from his mouth and desperately tried to breath. He was only moderately successful. Around him he noticed vague shouting, but whatever was going on seemed secondary to him trying to get enough oxygen. Cinder at least seemed gone, or dead. He hoped for the latter but they probably weren’t that lucky. At the very least though, she was probably hurt bad enough that she wouldn’t be back for a while. That meant Emerald was safe for the moment and he hadn’t gotten himself killed for no reason.
It was a small comfort but more then he had ever expected to have on his death bed. And every ragged, bloodied breath he drew only confirmed he was indeed on his death bed. If he didn’t suffocate or drown in his own blood, he’d probably end up bleeding out from his numerous other injuries.
It was only a matter of time.
He wanted to see the sky one more time. It took a great amount of effort, but he managed to roll over on his back. The desert sky was a clear, brilliant, almost vicious blue. Not the same as the stars (he had taught Emerald all their names for reasons he still couldn’t figure out back then), but it was oddly comforting looking into the vast blue nothing. Peaceful.
“Mercury, you just stay here okay. I’m going to get Jaune. Penny you just try…stop the bleeding. I’ll be fast. I promise. Just hold on okay?”
Ruby Rose. Her voice was shaky, frightened, worried about him. Cinder was right. He really didn’t understand her. He didn’t understand heroes in general. Would she cry for him like she cried for Penny? She really was crazy. Although he was the one who had thrown his life away because it might give his girl a chance at survival. That hardly put him in a position to talk.
Not that he could regret it. His mind wandered back to a conversation with Yang. “What’s living without someone to die for?” she had said, defending the idea of love and sacrifice. He had scoffed at that. And yet here he was.
A hand touched his shoulder and he turned his head to see Polendina kneeling awkwardly next to him. She was frowning slightly. This would be the perfect time to say sorry, to beg forgiveness for getting her killed in the first place. That’s what a decent person would have done. But he wasn’t a decent person, and he wasn’t going to spend his last few minutes pretending to be.
He couldn’t talk with throat torn up anyways. Turning his head away he went back to looking up at the endless blue of the sky. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he felt a hand at his throat. Polendina. Had she decided to get her revenge? He was dying anyway, maybe she wanted to be the one to finish it. That seemed fair enough. He had killed plenty of people, but most were scum like him. Polendina was an innocent, and her death was probably the worst thing he had done. She at least would be a lot quicker and cleaner about it then he was for her.
Polendina was wrapping something around his throat. Despite the fact that every instinct he had was screaming at him to fight back he refused to move or even flinch. It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid, he just was finally too exhausted to fight anymore. He tried to focus on the sky.
“There,” she said quietly. “I hope that will stop the bleeding.”
Had she…bandaged his wounds? His hand went his neck, finding the makeshift bandages she had wrapped around him. It didn’t make sense. The sheer insanity of the entire situation hit him like a bullet: Ruby throwing down her weapon instead of just letting Cinder kill him, sounding worried about him, and now the person he had helped murder bandaging his wounds. He felt something damp on his cheek, and Polendina frowned.
“Are you…crying?”
Was he crying? That was ridiculous. He hadn’t cried since he was what—four? His hand rubbed away the tear, smearing blood on his cheek. He looked at it, the red of blood against the blue of the sky. The world looked blurry, and he wasn’t thinking straight. It was the exhaustion and the blood loss and shock and the fact that nothing here made any sense. There was a sudden, hollow ache in his chest that nothing to do with the broken ribs.
“You stay awake,” Polendina commanded. “Don’t die.”
He didn’t.