"Yo Blondie." Mercury called as he rounded the corner. "Long time no see. You up for a rematch."

She hesitated for a moment, back to him, arms crossed in front of her in the dimly lit hall way. "You know you could just let me go Mercury. Emerald told us you're only here because of Cinder."

"I'm a killer Yang. Assassination is in my blood. That makes me a bad guy by your definitions, where else am I supposed to go? To fucking Vale? They'll throw me in a cell!" Mercury laughed but it was hollow. He knew as well as she did that he was only doing this gig because there was no other option.

"You're only a bad guy if you let yourself be one." Said Yang. "God knows I've come close to going rouge this past year but something just won't let me."

"You know if you're going to lecture a guy on good and evil you could at least face him." Mercury said as he settled into a fighting stance. "C'mon are we even going to fight, we havrn't seen each other in a year, I wanna at least see if you're on my level now. I'll even let you win, I gotta admit, not too fond of this whole destroy humanity deal."

Slowly Yang turned around but her stance was guarded, something seemed off. The cocky arrogance which had rolled off of her at the Vytal Festival was gone and in its place was hesitation and obvious self-doubt. And then he noticed it, the glint of cold steel and the subtle glow of dust crystals.

"Shit who did this to you?" Mercury dropped his stance and moved to look at her arm but the look on Yang's face stopped him.

"I thought we were going to fight? Can we do that? It seems much preferable to this conversation." Yang said, her words rushed and strained. Why was he giving her his sympathy? She didn't need it, she was strong wasn't she? It was just an arm she reminded herself. So why was he looking at her like that, with uncharacteristic concern.

"Blondie come on –"

"Just fight me okay?" But Yang's voice was strained and cracked on the okay as she aimed a punch at Mercury's face which he deflected with practiced ease. "It was Adam. The night of the Grimm invasion. He was going to – fight back would you?!" Tears were staining Yang's cheeks as she delivered a volley of punches and kicks.

"That prick." Mercury grabbed her Prosthetic stopping a punch in its path before returning it with a roundhouse aimed at her head. "Bet he was monolouging wasn't he? Never liked that asshole. After your Faunus friend –"

"Blake."

"- After Blake left he turned really strange, like he was obsessed with finding her. Creeped me out. It was awful, he wouldn't let anyone else search for her, reminded me of my father after my mother left."

"Sorry."

"What are you apologising for? Shitty parent's happen, nothing anyone can do about it." Mercury gave a grim smile. "Guess we have that in common too."

"Don't remind me." And she meant it. Yang wasn't interested in having this conversation, and Mercury picked up on that.

"I gotta say that the craftsmanship on this thing is amazing? Who made it? Really love the intricate scroll work. Classy stuff." Mercury had stopped the fight and was just holding Yang's prosthetic and studying it. "What does this button do – oh."

"It activates the grenade launcher you idiot." Yang yanked her arm out of Mercury's grip so she couldpush the launcher back into place. "Ruby made it, Weiss did the scrollwork, she thought that the version Blake and I designed was too plain and utilitarian. I almost thought I was going to end up looking like one of her doilies, but I like it."

"It looks beautiful. Way cooler than mine." Mercury banged a fist against his kneecap. "Way less style, all business, though I didn't have the luxury of a team to design mine."

"Hey I had a hand in building mine!" Yang gave a genuine smile for what felt like the first time in months.

"There we go." Mercury said. "Acting more like your old self."

"It's kind of hard to be normal when you go through something like this." Yang moved to sit leaning against the wall. "You understand right? Everyone keeps moving on and acting like I'm fine, or worse acting like I need babied."

"I remember that." Mercury said as he sat beside her. "First week I joined with Cinder and as soon as I took them off for maintenance I was like I was helpless. I may have cracked a few heads together."

"I can agree with that." Yang nodded. "Who built yours? Yours are pretty awesome too. Nice clean simple design. They're guns too right? Sorry I hope you don't mind me asking."

"I built mine, and yeah, they're guns. My boots are mostly just for storing ammo." Mercury said with a dark look in his eyes. "And I'm not keen on talking about how or why I got them."

"Is it okay if I ask you somethings about the prosthetics? Like about how you maintain them and stuff? And how it was right after you got them? Because Ruby and Ironwood keep telling me that things are totally normal, and I'm really not sure." Yang spilled forth. "Again sorry."

"Nah hit me, I'm happy to help. Shit was terrifying when I first got them. I couldn't believe how much they ached. Nothing prepared me for that." Mercury rubbed his left leg. "Still do sometimes, but that is usually an issue with the fit and I can fix that."

"Exactly! And everyone was like what do you mean it hurts? I mean Ruby is really good about tinkering with it when I have issues but some people can be so annoying." Yang paused for breath. "Do you get creaky joints in the cold and how do you deal with them?

"Stop using Schnee's brand lubricant in the cold weather. That stuffs designed for use in Vale, Vacuo, and Menagerie because they use it the most. When its cold you need to use a different lubricant from Mistral, it's designed for cold weather use. I'll give you the number for my supplier, tell them Mercury sent you, they'll give you a good deal." Mercury explained. "Do you get in trouble for spending too much time on maintenance? Cause I get that a lot."

"Ugh Weiss is the worst for it, apparently I 'make too much noise' and my 'headlamp is too bright'. Goddamn princess." Yang muttered the last part under her breath. "You know I should probably be meeting up with my team."

"Just tell them I was harder than expected."

"That's what she said." Yang quipped.

"Two jokes in one conversation? Jeez I must have been doing something right." Mercury smirked as he pulled Yang to her feet. "Tell you what, one day when this is all over and if we both survive me and you will have to get a drink together."

"Sounds like plan." Yang waved good bye with her prosthetic as she walked down the hall. "Try not to die then!"