In a squalid building, little more than a hovel, in the middle of the Mantellian Wastes, a grey haired boy stared out of a window. It was not a particularly comfortable safehouse. No heating, lighting, or power. But it was out of the way, and that made it safe. If it was safe, Dad would leave him to his tasks without threats. His room was tiny, little more than a walk-in wardrobe, but it was his. It was safe.

Mercury Black was the only son, and only remaining family member, of Marcus Black. Once, he had a mother. But a year or so ago, she had tried to leave with him. And for a few peaceful months, they had been free from the monster, hidden away in a quiet corner of Argus. He'd even made friends! But all that had changed one stormy night, when his father had arrived to 'retrieve' him. He couldn't remember much from that night, only that there had been blood. A lot of blood. His mother ended up dead, and his father had dragged him out into the street and into a waiting car.

Ever since, the monster dragged him around, contract to contract. He was to keep whichever safehouse they were in clean whilst his Father went about his messy business with Tyburn, his axe. And when Father returned, it was his job to clean Tyburn up, more often than not so that his Father could go and drink. And He drank a lot. Close to a third of the lien he earned went to his alcoholism. Mercury knew this because Father had him 'deal with' his finances. It was boring and confusing, but at least he was good with numbers now.

But recently, his Father hadn't been drinking. And Mercury suspected that it had something to do with the offer of work that had arrived in a strange black envelope. To say his father had been unhappy to find a letter waiting for him in one of his more secret hideaways would have been the most colossal of understatements. But on the upside, the bruises Father had left had only lasted for a few days.

They had come to this safehouse some days before, but father had yet to tell him why. Father was even seeing to his own equipment for the first time that he could remember. Whatever the offer was, it had Father on edge. And that either meant that the offer was especially difficult, or worse, it was utterly heinous. Mercury hoped it was the former, Father enjoyed the latter contracts a little too much. This was especially the case when he got to use his semblance of Violation on them, ripping out other people's semblance in a perverse 'violation' of their souls.

"Boy!" Father's voice shattered the peaceful quiet. "Get away from the window!"

Mercury flinched at his Father's tone, and swiftly did as he was commanded. It never ended well to disobey. Father strode to the side of the window, and glanced outside.

"Idiot!" He snapped, before wheeling around and stalking out of Mercury's tiny room. "Now they've seen us!"

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Mercury got to his feet, and hurried after him. "Father? Who's they?"

But he received no answer. Instead he saw his father advancing on him with Tyburn in hand. He scrambled backwards, pressing himself against a wall and making himself as small as possible....

"Let's see if you're at least of use to me as a distraction, Boy."

But like most attempts to hide from his Father's wrath, it failed. Marcus Black swung his axe down, and Mercury began to scream.

___________________________________________________________________________

The AFV Sentinel had touched down in a clearing, surrounded by dense forest.

They would be attacking momentarily, at sunset. Four teams of four, with one person working support from the Sentinel per team. Two of the teams would be dealing with any Grimm that might seek to ambush them or the other two teams. Said other two teams were the ones that would be dealing with Black.

In the aftermath, one team would collect Marcus' body whilst the other collected his son. If the Brother's were with them, the operation would take less than five minutes.

In a darker corner of his mind, Albus wondered if it wouldn't have been considerably easier to have initially ignored the fact that they'd learned about Mercury Black and gone ahead as soon as they could without General Sleet's approval. If they weren't 'aware' of his presence, they could have gone ahead and carpet bombed the area and sent in a sweeper team to mop things up. It would have been a tragedy, and likely required his resignation and possible court martial, but his people would be safe and a dangerous enemy dealt with.

But they were aware, and more importantly, both the Archives and the General were aware that they were aware. There were laws. And knowingly killing a child, even for the sake of putting down a piece of scum like Marcus Black, would break a number of them. And no amount of reasoning that it would put the lives of his own soldiers first would dissuade his superior from setting the Blacks on him.

The last thing he wanted was a 'visit' from the Senior Captain of the Military Police, Zinnia Hague. Then again, most sane people would wish to avoid the wrath of The Lady with the Iron Spine.

If it wasn't for her utter inflexibility, he'd consider recruiting her for the Inner Circle. She was, after all, an intelligent, competent woman. One that was as good at dealing with Grimm as she was People. But Ozpin needed people willing to bend the rules a little, to do what must be done, not just what the law allowed to be done. A distinction precious few were able to make. Absinthe could, James could, but Zinnia could not.

He let out a sigh, and taking his seat, put his headset on. He mumbled through a prayer, before issuing his command.

"This is Hawthorn. You are clear to proceed with the operation. Gallows is go. I repeat, Gallows is go."