Chapter Text
The plan is extremely simple.
Cinder had managed to rally the troops into attempting a covert stealth invasion of Beacon Academy in an effort to find the Relic of Choice. Since, y’know - the first time had gone so well. It’s not like their attempts to have the Grimm invade Beacon AGAIN, this time through the Emerald Forest, had been a foolproof plan, but still - Neo hadn’t expected their defenses to be just so high. And the issue was compounded when their resident experimental loose canon, Oscar, had done what Neo had been anticipating for the last three months - figuratively and literally explode. She remembers Hazel screaming at all of them to leave, everyone else looking on in horror, but Neo?
Staring at that massive column of pure, magical force- well, she was just impressed. It must be nice to be able to detonate an entire bomb when you’ve decided enough is enough and the evil immortal witch that’s your current boss sucks. If she’s going to destroy the world, she could at least have the decency of being nice to the people she’s duping into helping her.
But that’s besides the point. Point is, Oscar got out, and Neo is genuinely kinda proud of the kid.
Now, to follow in his footsteps.
She’d been planning an escape for months now, ever since she had used the Relic and discovered the truth. She had gone over scenario after scenario, but none of them ended with her survival. That was, of course, until she overheard Emerald and Mercury planning the same thing.
She’s always been on fairly good terms with the two of them, even if Mercury tried too hard and Emerald was a bit too soft for her taste. They had good heads on their shoulders, and - well, if Neo’s being entirely honest with herself, they were extremely good at stealth, and that was something Neo needed if her plan was gonna succeed.
So, here’s the plan.
- Wait until everyone else is deployed on the ground.
- Sneak back on to Watt’s airship, where he’ll be stationed doing recon.
- Immobilize the stupid bastard. (Ideally, kill him, because Neo’s had enough of the guy and he’s just gonna cause problems if he’s still alive.)
- Pilot the ship out of there.
- Jump out while it crashes, and boom! Faked deaths.
And that’s literally it. No cuts, no butts, no coconuts. It is the simplest plan in the entire goddamn world. You would need to be a literal moron to mess this up.
This, however, does not stop Emerald from looking like she’s gonna hurl as Watts steers the airship Neo’s cloaking down towards Beacon. It’s just before dawn, so the patrols should be in the middle of changing - a perfect time to strike, or so says Cinder. Neo isn’t gonna be the one to tell her that if the guards are switching out, that means there’s gonna be double the amount of people if they get caught.
The woman in question wears a stormy expression on her face. This is a plan born out of desperation - none of them want to come back empty handed, least of all Cinder. Not after last time.
Emerald swallows, and Neo glances at her, trying to tell her to calm down with only her eyes. It doesn’t work, and Emerald’s expression only tightens, a bead of sweat running down her temple.
Mercury, in one of his expressions of gentleness reserved only for Emerald, places a calming hand on her shoulder. He whispers something to her that Neo can’t hear-
“Stop panicking. You’re going to be fine.”
Emerald wants to believe Mercury. Really, she does. But this is Salem they’re talking about. This isn’t peanuts.
She, Mercury and Neo have poured over the plan what has to be hundreds of times by now, stealing moments away at the makeshift camp they had all set up in the wilds outside of Vale. Sneak off, knock out Watts, steal the airship. Sneak off, knock out Watts, steal the airship. Sneak off, knock out Watts - god, but what if he’s ready for them? What if Salem’s ready for them? What if she knows about what they’ve been planning this entire time? She’s not here, but her monstrous Seer is - what if it had been listening in on them?
“Emerald,” Mercury whispers, and it’s part concern and part urgency. “You need to calm down.” You’re going to blow our cover, goes unspoken.
“O-okay,” She murmurs back.
Neo glances at the two of them, expression unreadable. Emerald’s still not sure why exactly Neo decided to join their escape plan - as far as she knew, Neo had no reason to just get up and leave. She never seemed particularly bothered by the violence, and didn’t seem all that concerned about ‘saving the world’ or whatever. Emerald liked Neo well enough, but she also got the sense that Neo was the kind of person who cared very little about the average person unless she really knew them. And Emerald and Neo certainly weren’t that well acquainted.
It was probably something personal. And Emerald isn’t one to ask.
The doors to the ship slowly open, revealing a riverbank, the tall towers of Beacon looming just over the hill. Emerald swallows, memories suddenly flooding back all at once-
Screaming all around her, flames in the buildings, choking on soot while pretending to laugh, standing on the rooftops, filming, filming, filming, this should be a triumph, the day she’s waited for, she can’t breathe, she can’t-
“Em,”
Cold encases her hand, and she stops.
Mercury looks back at her, grey eyes looking nearly silver in the early morning sun. He grasps her shaking hand in his own, armor plating chafing against her calloused skin. It’s the softest look he’s ever given her, the softest he’s ever let himself be, and some massive, undefinable emotion wells up in her chest, filling all the holes and crevices the world has carved out.
She meets his grey gaze. There’s a litany of words that pass between them, all unspoken and too big to name.
What he says out loud instead, is; “Let’s do this.”
To everyone else, to Cinder, Watts, Hazel and Tyrian, it’s a statement of cruel determination.
To Neo, it’s a call to action.
But to Emerald?
It’s a ‘stay safe’, it’s a ‘let’s go,’ it’s a ‘I need you to do this.’
It’s ‘I can’t lose you’.
And she can’t lose him either.
So she nods.
The moment passes just as soon as it begins, and the three of them turn to leave-
Only for Emerald to stop.
Because Watts isn’t turning around.
No, he’s… strapping his revolver, Moriarty, to his belt.
Emerald’s eyes widen. She turns to look at Neo, who’s just as confused as she is. I thought you were staying with the ship, she signs.
“Oh, I’ll be back,” He says, an air of smugness in his voice. “There’s just… something I need to take care of first.” He points at Neo, rings on his fingers glowing, just slightly. “Neopolitan dear, would you be so kind as to accompany me? I’ll need you to pilot this ship over to the buildings proper and hover it there while I go… retrieve the goods.”
This wasn’t part of the plan.
Emerald frantically turns to Mercury, who shakes his head slightly, just as lost. “I-isn’t this supposed to be the rendezvous point?” Emerald pipes up, trying to keep the nervous tremor out of her voice.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be back before you’ve ever realized we’re gone,” Watts replies languidly. “But I’m under direct orders from her majesty.”
Fuck.
“Salem… knows about the plan?” Mercury interjects, fists clenched.
Watts scoffs, throwing his bag over his shoulder. “Of course she does,” he replies. “I wasn’t just going to let Cinder off the leash by herself.”
This is bad. This is really, really bad-
Emerald catches Neo’s eye, as she stands right behind him. For a moment, it’s still, before she nods, once - the signal to go on ahead.
Emerald swallows. “…I-”
“Emerald! Mercury!” She flinches, turning at the familiar sharpness in Cinder’s voice. She stands, as Hazel and Tyrian make their ways towards the school, hands on her hips. “What are you two still doing back there? I told you to move!”
“But-” Neo nods again, more frantic this time, as she blinks rapidly.
(Morse. Neo had taught them both that.)
Go. I’ve got this.
Emerald exhales. “...Coming!” She replies. She and Mercury both turn, sprinting towards Cinder, as her heart pounds in her stomach.
Okay then. We’ll have to play this by ear.
Emerald’s always had confidence in her lying and improv skills, but now?
Well, for the first time in a long time, she feels like that same, scared, unsure child again, standing in a supermarket in Vacuo, pocket burning with the pack of crackers she didn’t pay for. Like any and all of the skills she had attained in the last ten years had been stripped from her.
A flash of silver, and Emerald looks up. Mercury meets her worried gaze once again, blinking rapidly.
I’m here.
She exhales.
She can’t trust herself and she's not sure where she stands with Neo, but dammit, she trusts Mercury with her life.
It’d have to be enough.
“Well, they certainly seem to hate when things deviate from schedule.” Watts remarks, settling back down in the driver’s seat. He inputs some coordinates into the airship’s console, flicking his wrist in Neo’s general direction. She rolls her eyes at him, before placing a hand on the side of the ship’s wall, letting her Semblance coat the surfaces, smooth glass wiping away all traces of its appearance from the outside. Her stomach churns, and not just from the effort of cloaking the entire ship, but she ignores it. She’s had to do worse.
However, like this, she can’t talk - more specifically, she can’t ask Watts what’s going on. She’s almost certain that he’s aware of this, and that he’s set it up this way on purpose, the bastard. He goes out of his way to learn sign, only to never listen to her and always purposefully turn away whenever she’s signing. It reminds her of back in Atlas, those rich elites always averting their gaze away from her hands when she attempted to talk.
(God. She’s so ready to chuck this dude out of the airship. Watching him plummet to his death is going to be extremely satisfying.)
Stuck here, unable to speak, she can only watch as he slowly steers the ship back towards the buildings, towards the edge of Vale. Digging into his bag, he pulls out a pair of obnoxiously high-tech binoculars, and points below, eyes squinting at something Neo can’t see.
He smiles.
“Right on schedule.” He drawls. He presses a few buttons on the ship, before standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulders. “Neopolitan, watch the ship until I return.”
Wait.
An opportunity. An opening- he’s going to be leaving!
Neo’s heart soars, and she tries to disguise it with an eye roll. She takes her hand off of the side of the ship, channeling her energy into where the metal of the ship’s floor comes into contact with her heels - it takes a lot more energy, but it’s going to be worth it- and moves over to the pilot’s chair. Watts pays her no mind, marching into the cargo-bay, automatic door sliding shut behind him. After a moment, she hears the sound of the bay doors opening, then shutting. Looking out the window, she can see Watts’s figure as he plummets down through the clouds, before a glider made of Hard-Light Dust pops out behind him.
Showtime.
Cinder leads them through an old sewer passageway, half collapsed after The Fall. It was the way she had gone to get from the CCTV tower to Beacon Hall, all the way back when they were posing as students there. Mercury remembers that night well. It was the first time he could really say that he had done anything remotely ‘normal’ for someone his age - the school dance. It had been… alright. Half of the time, he was consumed with anticipation for Cinder’s updates, and the other half, he was chatting shit with Emerald about how stupid the entire thing was. Seriously - doilies AND fog machines? Who decorated the place, a five year old?
Still, the actual dancing part hadn’t been that bad. Getting Talaria to move in such a delicate and careful way was always a challenge - the weapon had been made for fighting, large kicks and undersweeps, not bobs and dips. Nevertheless, Emerald had done her best to lead him through the steps, warm hand on his cold back.
He’s not quite sure why he’s thinking about it right now, as they make their way through darkened tunnels. Staring at her back, he’s consumed with this strange feeling that he can’t quite describe, mind racing through everything they had done together since they had met. How she had hated him at first. How he brought her ice when Cinder hit her for the first time. Recon missions together.
God, listen to him. He’s weak. She’s made him a sentimental fool. He should’ve turned her away the second she even began to think about betraying Salem-
“Quiet.” Mercury hadn’t realized that he had let his steps echo throughout the tunnels. He freezes in place, as Cinder looks around, glowing eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Do you hear-”
And then, the first shot rings out.
Hazel, being the biggest target, takes the brunt of the fire as all hell breaks loose. Turrets spring from the walls, hidden panels sliding open, as several Huntsman all pour down the opening of the tunnel. Cinder takes a shot to her left shoulder, aura sparking from the impact, and it’s only thanks to the chain of Thief’s Respite that he’s yanked out of the way just in time, down one of the diverging tunnels. There’s the sound of an explosion, and roaring - Hazel’s activated his Semblance, no doubt jabbing Dust into his arm, but Mercury’s not paying attention to that, no, he’s too busy following Emerald as the two of them dash down the tunnel, scattering like rats.
“REGROUP!!” He hears someone shout, but he’s not sure who. The gunshots and voices get further and further away as he and Emerald continue running, feet splattering against the muddy water, until-
“Go,” Emerald pants, pointing to the ladder in front of them. The manhole cover is vaguely loose, no doubt ejecting them somewhere in the city. “I’ve got your six.” Mercury nods, heart pounding in his ears uncharacteristically, as he scrambles up the ladder, kicking the cover out of the way with his armored knee. Normally during missions, all emotions fade, replaced only with an ironclad determination, covered by cruel smiles and mocking. But now, stripped of all titles, of all sureties, he can’t muster up that same facade anymore. He feels like he’s a child again, racing through the woods behind his house while his father chases him.
But when he looks back down, he’s greeted with Emerald’s determined gaze, red glinting in the dark.
That familiar weakness crawls up in his chest again-
-only now, he can’t quite find it in himself to mind.
They pull themselves up onto the surface. It’s some kind of alleyway, in one of the neighborhoods just off the edge of Beacon. Mercury recognizes this place - these were the homes that he had stood on top of as the city burned around them. Or, at least, this is where they were. The houses beside him are unfamiliar, looking clean and new.
Emerald pushes the manhole cover shut with her steel-tipped boot. Shaking the dust out of her hair, she quickly pulls her scroll out, frantically swiping through the messages. Several blurbs of text pop up on the screen, no doubt from Neo.
“What does it say?” Mercury asks.
Emerald’s expression changes from determination, to muted horror.
“We’ve gotta go to where she is,” Emerald finally replies.
Mercury’s eyes narrow, not liking where this is going. “...Why?”
“Well, because according to Neo, the ship won’t move.”
“What?!”
damn thing wont budge no matter what i try!!! Neo types with one hand, the other frantically mashing every button on the ship’s console. She had tried to move the steering wheel, only to discover it was locked in place. Once she had tugged on it so hard it nearly popped off, she had moved over to the terminal, only to discover that she couldn’t type any new coordinates in. i think watts installed some kind of override so only he can control it. the ships stuck @ a set point. She sends over the coordinates, fingers shaking despite herself. This was supposed to be simple, an easy plan for their getaway, but all at once, everything had gone wrong.
No, this was fixable. Here’s the new plan B - once Watts gets back up here, the three of them would need to beat him into submission in order to get him to run a manual override on the autopilot. THEN she could toss him out of the ship. She has no clue what the hell he’s doing down there, but whatever it is, it’s buying them some time.
She just needed Emerald and Mercury to get over here, now.
Mercury and Emerald both stare at the coordinates Neo sent, before slowly looking up at each other. Mercury’s silver eyes meet her own, wide with uncertainty.
“...We need to go.” Mercury finally says, standing up. “If we blend in with the city crowd, we can be out of here by nightfal-”
“We’re not leaving Neo.” Emerald snaps.
“Em, for fuck’s sake-”
“We’re NOT!”
Emerald’s sudden burst of volume echoes throughout the quiet streets, surprising even her. In the distance, a few birds chatter, before flying away.
Mercury stands before her, eyes wide, before his expression settles into something harder, something colder. “This is our one chance out of here,” He starts, “And I’m not gonna blow it on some - some random fucking woman we barely know!”
“Neo’s risking her life to try and help us escape-”
“Because SHE wants out!” Mercury snaps, throwing his hands up in the air. “And we don’t even know WHY! Are you really going to trust someone you don’t even know?!”
“Yes!!” Emerald shouts back before she realizes what she’s saying. “I’m not leaving her alone here!”
“I CAN’T LEAVE YOU ALONE HERE!!!”
Emerald stops.
Mercury’s stone expression cracks, eyebrows twisted up in real, genuine fear, and for the first time since Emerald’s met him, he looks his own age. He looks terrified out of his mind - not for himself, but for-
“...I can’t.” Mercury repeats, tone quieter than she’s ever heard it. “You- you said that we’d get out together. You and me.”
Emerald’s heart cracks.
“...I can’t watch you get yourself killed,” He continues, breath shaky. “You’re the only fucking good thing I have in my life and I can’t lose you.” He grabs her hand, uncannily gentle. “I just - I can’t.”
She takes a look at this man - the one person in her life that’s shown her anything resembling real kindness. Who she hated at first, until he extended a hand to her, the ice he brought for her face the first real gesture of kindness. Who had been with her throughout it all, who made awful things more bearable. Who she could do unspeakable things with, if only because they were together.
And now, here he stands, looking at her like she’s the world, shattering in his hands.
His eyes gleam silver in the light.
She squeezes his hand back. Rubs her thumb against his palm.
“...I have to do this.” She finally says. Hoping he understands.
He looks back at her, expression two-parts anguished and confused. “...How?” His voice cracks on the vowel, all at once childish and extremely, painfully aged. “How can you trust her like that? What if she betrays you?”
She leans forward, resting her forehead against his own, feeling the years of pain they’ve both endured rest on their shoulders. Close up like this, she can see the mole just beside his eye, the chip in his tooth, the glints of white in his pupils. She squeezes his hand tighter.
“...I don’t know,’ Emerald finally says. “But I’m tired of being afraid.”
And isn’t that just it, huh. Fear has been the predominant emotion throughout all of Emerald’s life. It’s all she’s been allowed to feel - fear keeps you sharp, keeps you alive.
But it also keeps you alone.
The first time she let that mask of fear truly slip away, was when she took that icepack from Mercury’s hand the day Cinder hit her for the first time. The day when that little trust she had built had completely shattered. And in the rubble, Mercury had reached his hand out, and she had taken it. Dusted herself off.
And she thinks back to Neo. Neo, who had taken her hand when Emerald had extended it. Neo, who, upon Emerald witnessing her moment of weakness in the halls of Evernight, her moment of sorrow and agony - had let Emerald in. Had taken her hat back when Emerald had picked it up off those cold crystal floors, the one thing she had left of her best friend. Someone who clearly meant the world to her.
Emerald could relate.
And maybe, She wanted to trust Neo. That maybe, deep down, Neo didn’t want to be alone anymore either.
And Mercury. Gods, Mercury.
Mercury, pouring his guts out to her now. Mercury, steel face completely shattered. Semblance ripped from him, pride, joy, life, childhood - everything had been taken from him. All of the light, snuffed out before he could even understand what exactly it was he had lost.
But yet, for all Mercury’s talk of the world being a cold and cruel place, of all of his attempts to distance himself from pain, from all of his attempts at being indifferent-
-here he was. Begging her to stay.
She feels his hand tremble, and she clenches it again. She cups her free hand against the side of his face, brushing away sweaty strands of hair.
“Hey,” she murmurs. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Mercury lets out a half laugh, half cry. She smiles back at him, uncertainty and hope and doubt and emotion blooming in her chest all at once.
“...Okay.” Is all he says back.
She stares at him, unsure. “Okay?”
“Okay.” He repeats.
The word sits in the air before she laughs quietly again, and he does too, and before she can really think about it, she presses a light kiss to the corner of his mouth. It’s a quiet gesture, and neither of them point it out, but it sits heavy between them, maybe a confirmation of something they already knew, but didn’t want to acknowledge. Later, sits there too. Another time.
Because there will be a later.
A wooshing sound interrupts their moment, and they look up to see the figure of Watts, carrying another figure with him, flying upwards towards the clouds in the distance. The cloud nearest to him shimmers, before Emerald can make out the faint outline of an airship.
“Come on,” She says, standing up. “We’ve gotta get up there.”
They make their way up to the roof, watching Watts’s figure recede into the distance. Mercury watches at Emerald steadied her grip, pointing Thief’s Respite directly at that shimmering cloud. They sit there, waiting in anticipation, before slowly, the cloud begins to move, making its way over, slowly, slowly, almost there-
BAM!
The chains burst out at top speeds, extending further than he’s ever seen it go before. They stretch further and further, and just when he thinks that they’ve missed, that they’re done for-
He hears a faint clunk, and the chains go taunt.
“Hold this,” Is all Emerald says before she tosses one of her guns at him. He nearly fumbles the thing, before it yanks him forward, the ship towing them clean off the roof and into the air. As they rise into the sky, the city getting smaller and smaller below them, Mercury copies Emerald’s movements as she presses a button on the side of her pistol, causing the line to tow them upwards. He does the same, and feels his arms strain with the force as he shoots upwards, chain pulling him up, up, up into the sky-
All of the sudden, his legs hit something solid. Underneath his boots, pink glass ripples, revealing the hull of the airship. They’ve attached themselves to the front, thank god, and the disguise falls away for one brief second as Neo opens the side door to the cockpit. For a second, their eyes meet, and he thinks that she’s going to throw them off the ship- before she extends a gloved hand outwards, looking genuinely happy to see them.
And despite himself, Mercury lets a smile cross his face.
Guess Emerald was right.
She hauls them both inside, slamming the door as soon as they’re both in. As they pull themselves to their feet, she darts in front of them, breath shaky, and eyes frantic. Watts is in the cargo bay, she begins signing, fingers shaking so hard that Mercury’s having trouble keeping up. I let him in, but couldn’t see what he had with him. He just sent me a message to open the cargo bay doors.
“Wait, it was just him?” Emerald whispers. “It looked like he was carrying a person with him.”
A person?
Mercury doesn’t hear the rest of the conversation, no, he’s too busy looking out of the window on the door between the cargo bay and the cockpit.
He can see Watts standing there, placing his bag down as that disgusting Seer Grimm floats out of it. He says something that Mercury can’t hear, before he turns around, and begins to speak to someone else.
Mercury turns his head to the light, peering just beyond his point of view-
-And his heart just about stops when he sees the person tied to the chair in front of Watts. More specifically, his heart stops when he realizes who exactly that person is.
Because, despite everything he had seen, despite the explosion in the Emerald Forest, despite reports of being killed in action-
-well, he just should’ve known better than to listen to that.
Because Oscar Pine’s got a pretty good track record of not dying when he’s supposed to.