Chapter Text
Mercury panted, leaning against a wall as his breath came short. Silver moonlight streaked down from the cracks of what used to be a flawless mansion, desecrated by a battle that ended just a few moments ago. He slid down into a sitting position silently, barely able to walk any farther. He had sustained heavy injuries on his legs, and he probably needed to get to a hospital or any kind of treatment if he wanted to keep them.
He glanced over at the two dead bodies keeping him company. One was of some guy, a businessman who was becoming too successful and had a rival that wanted to shut him down. The beautiful home had belonged to him, recently purchased, with gorgeous artisan furniture and a chandelier currently strewn all over the main entrance. Some of the shards of glass cut into his finger but he hardly registered it, mind too occupied by the intense pain in his thighs.
The second body was his father. Marcus Black, a well-known assassin who had decided to bring Mercury along on what looked like a tough mission. Mercury’s job was to help out in getting rid of the security without alerting anyone. Mercury was fine with assisting. He didn’t want anyone else to be around when he killed Marcus Black once and for all.
The businessman was surprisingly strong, someone who had dropped out of Huntsman training but still remembered all of his moves. He had given Marcus a tough time, and although Marcus never once let his guard down, he was distracted. It was an opening, big enough for Mercury to attack him but small enough for Marcus to fuck Mercury over one last time by delivering a final blow to his legs.
At least it was over. Mercury wasn’t quite sure what to do. He needed help, but there wasn’t anyone here, not to mention it’s extremely risky to be caught in a public place, especially with how prolific his father was.
Eh, if he didn’t have options, just fuck it and leave it be. It’s not like anything would change if Mercury died. He didn’t even know why he killed his father. That certainly didn’t change anything. Mercury leaned back, cold air cooling the heat underneath his skin. His face felt hot. He could register the cold, but it felt warm.
There were footsteps. Mercury froze, eyes immediately locking onto the scroll next to the businessman. Shit, how could he have been so stupid? Of fucking course he would call for back up. Just Mercury’s luck that it happened the one time he could barely even move.
Mercury tried making himself small and unnoticeable by crawling behind a flipped table. Maybe if the backup didn’t see anything, he could bide his time and get away.
The perfect wooden flooring didn’t creak under the person’s footsteps, only making pristine clacking sounds. Mercury around the table, attempting to get a peek of who his newfound companion was.
A Huntsman. Dangerous. Red eyes, dark hair, giant weapon. The standard description of pretty much every Huntsman ever. Mercury felt his heart stop. Something about him made Mercury’s fight or flight activate, and for good reason. Not only was this guy experienced, Mercury was also almost half a person. He was no match for him in this state.
Red eyes scanned the perimeter of the room. The Huntsman made a move to turn and leave. Mercury was already out of breath, and trying to quiet his breathing was difficult. The pain in Mercury’s legs spiked. His breath hitched.
The Huntsman’s eyes locked straight onto Mercury’s. Time felt like it had frozen. Mercury always thought that those moments were just cliches, part of stories people made up to exaggerate what really happened, but that moment felt so long he wasn’t even sure how much time had passed.
He didn’t know who made the first move, but in a single moment the table he was hiding behind got kicked to oblivion and Mercury scrambled backwards. The Huntsman tried to swipe at Mercury but missed, Mercury rolling underneath him to avoid impact. He winced as his legs throbbed in protest at the movement. He lifted a leg to fire a shot at the man before attempting to stand up.
Mercury’s legs were crying out in pain as he got on his feet, shakily limping towards the closest exit. He knew he wasn’t going to get very far and he didn’t, immediately getting slammed into the floor with a groan.
He thrashed weakly as a hand grabbed at his throat. His hands, one of the working parts of his body, did practically nothing against the firm arm grabbing at him. The man reeked of alcohol, reminding Mercury of the fact that there were going to be a total of three new dead people in the room.
A hand grabbed at his chin and forced him to look straight at the Huntsman. He seemed a little taken aback after seeing Mercury’s face. Mercury managed to muster a sneer. “What, am I ugly or something?”
“Oum, I can tell you’re going to be annoying. What color are your eyes?”
That was a weird ass question to ask. Hopefully this guy isn’t a creep or something. “Gray?”
The man’s hand moved to grab at Mercury’s left eyelid, forcing it open and staring intently at his irises. Wow, it really was a creep. This was really going to be the last person Mercury interacted with before he died. The man muttered something under his breath. “Ozpin’s going to want to see this one.”
Something about the name felt familiar, but Mercury was also on the verge of passing out, so he didn’t have time to make a connection. The Huntsman dropped Mercury on the floor unceremoniously, grabbing a flask from Oum-knows-where and taking a large swig. “I’ll be abducting you now.”
“Wait, wha–” With a single hit to the head, Mercury lost consciousness.
Qrow sighed. This was going to be a long and arduous process.
****
Mercury woke up in a white room. “Is this heaven?”
“No, it’s a hospital.” Mercury’s head snapped to the direction of the voice. He almost landed a punch the second he saw who it was. It was the Huntsman that beat him up. Once Mercury deemed himself to not be in an active battle he took a good look at his surroundings. It really was a hospital, with some IV bags off to the side and a monitor next to him. There were a couple of empty blood bags in a trash can nearby.
Mercury tried to steel his nerves and play it cool, but when he tried to stand up out of the bed the lower half of his body wasn’t moving. Nothing was there. He threw off his sheets and gaped at what he saw.
His legs from mid-thigh to below were just… gone. They were wrapped up in bandages, and he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the fact that they just, well, weren’t attached to him anymore. Where do limbs even go when they get amputated?
Qrow took another sip of his drink. This kid, or rather Marcus Black’s son, was taking the news better than he thought. Well, his job here was done. Now it’s Ozpin’s turn to do whatever he was planning to do. Qrow got up from his chair and cracked his neck.
“Listen, kid, no funny business while I’m gone. Ozpin’s going to be explaining some stuff to you, the reason we kept you alive, what’s going to happen next, yadda yadda.” Qrow ran his hand through his hair and exited the room.
No funny business my ass. I’m going to be doing all the funny business. Mercury quickly got up on his… not feet and observed his surroundings for anything he could do. Even if there was a window or a door, his mobility was severely limited, and someone like Qrow could make light work of him if he chose to. The best decision he could make at the moment was cooperation.
He stayed put. Mercury stared at the label of one of the weird medical bags, attempting to decipher its ingredient list for a few minutes before the door opened again.
A man with gray hair and black glasses made his way into the room. “Good evening, Mercury Black. I’m Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy.” Mercury stayed silent, keeping an eye on Ozpin’s movement as he sat himself down on a chair. “You probably know it’s not every day people like you aren’t imprisoned. People like your father.”
Ooh, that struck a nerve. Mercury bristled a little, but otherwise didn’t react. Ozpin continued. “Have you heard about the Silver-Eyed Warriors?” Mercury continued his silence. “You may recall a fairy tale about people born with silver eyes, destined to become great warriors and protect people. Some may even say people with these eyes have the power to defeat Grimm with a single glance.”
Ozpin gauged Mercury’s response, which was no response at all. Tough crowd. “The reason I am telling you this, Mercury, is because I believe you are someone with those eyes, and I believe you have the power to protect others for a reason.”
Mercury scoffed. “Protect other people? Sorry to burst your bubble, old man, but I’ve done just the opposite of that.”
“Well, that brings me to my second point. I would like to give you an offer, Mercury Black, to be excused of all your crimes and misdeeds.” This caught Mercury’s attention.
“There’s always a catch. People like you don’t make deals with ‘people like me’ without one.”
“In return for pardoning your crimes, you must attend Beacon Academy and join the Huntsman training program.”
Mercury raised an eyebrow. “That’s really it?”
Ozpin smiled a little. “Believe it or not, Mercury, silver eyes are extremely hard to come by. In fact, there are less than a handful of these warriors in Remnant. Being able to gain another in our fight against the Grimm is a chance I am willing to take.”
Another voice chimed in, and the gruffness told Mercury it was the original Huntsman that brought him in here. “You’re the only person that would want to take that chance.”
“Qrow, please.” Mercury finally found out the man’s name was Qrow. Something sounded decently familiar about that name too, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“You need someone you want to protect in order to use the eyes, don’t you? I’m pretty sure the only living relative of this kid is dead, and he doesn’t really look like he has very many friends.”
Ozpin got up, resting his hand on Qrow’s back. “That is going to be part of the rehabilitation process. If what we assume is true, he needs more training in the human relations department than the actual combat department. We’ll also need to teach him how to use his eyes.”
Mercury grumbled. “I don’t even have legs! What, are you just going to carry me around the battlefield like a sword? Smack the enemy with me? My legs are everything. Or, were everything.”
Qrow observed Mercury. “Yeah, he is taking the leg-less thing better than I thought he would.”
Ozpin intervened. “That’s part of the deal. If you accept, we will be able to make leg prosthetics that are just as good, or possibly even stronger, than your original legs. They will be specially made to fit you, and better than anything you could get from anyone else.”
In Mercury’s case, it was especially damning to be without legs. Some people could pull it off, sure, but that would mean over a decade of training gone down the drain. He didn’t know what Ozpin wanted to do with him, but as Qrow said, he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. At the very least, once he got the legs he could just take them and run.
Mercury leaned his head back against the pillow. “Fine. I accept. Leg me up, or something.”
Ozpin smiled again. “Your prosthetics are already being developed. We should be able to get them on you tomorrow. Someone is coming soon to speed up the healing of your legs, but this will knock you out for some time.”
Mercury grumbled again. “So I really didn’t have a choice.”
Ozpin smiled even wider. “Nope.”
Mercury put his arm over his eyes and shooed the two men away. “Leave me be. I’m going to take a nap.”
The two men left, and Mercury was left to his own thoughts.
Maybe killing his father really did change something. He laughed to himself dryly. He didn’t even think he was going to make it out alive, but here he was, sitting in a hospital bed with Beacon Academy’s literal headmaster, and a man that drank just as much as Marcus. And they wanted him. Because he had silver eyes.
The hell even were those? His father had never told him anything about it, and he certainly didn’t inherit it from Marcus considering his eyes weren’t silver. He most likely got it from his mother, but considering Marcus was dead and he didn’t know what happened to his mother it’s not like he could get answers. Most likely something Marcus failed to mention because it’s not like it had any meaning to the Blacks, anyway. They killed people, not Grimm.
Yet another person walked into the room, interrupting his train of thought, and he looked up. It was a woman who quickly moved in front of him, hovering her hands above his legs. “This should be quick, though it’ll tire you out pretty bad.” Without any more explanation her semblance activated, and it was like the life was getting sucked out of his body.
It happened so fast Mercury could barely react. He was out like a light. Guess he’ll figure out what his new legs are like when he wakes up again.