Chapter Text
“Salem… she’s here.”
Ruby stared up at the darkening sky in utter disbelief as the great whale-like Grimm flew through the air over the floating city of Atlas, its dark, torn hide illuminated by flashes of red lightning. The pain in her head subsided, but the image of Salem’s face that had accompanied it felt burned into her memory.
“Well, things just went from bad to a whole lot worse,” Raven said.
“We need to do something,” Nora said, raising her fists. She glanced around at the others all standing in the back of Team BRIR’s beat-up airship—Team RWBY, Team JNR, May Marigold, Raven Branwen, Oscar Pine, Team BRIR, and Penny Polendina in the body of a former Venatrix drone. Not many looked quite as determined as Nora did. “…Don’t we?”
Ivy Thickety gestured out the window. “And what are we going to do against that in this rickety old boat?!”
Ruby saw movement from the corner of her vision—Penny. She was backing away from the window, backing away until she hit the opposite wall. She slumped against it, sliding down until she was sitting, eyes wide.
The girl had only recently been returned to the world of the living… and the nightmare outside was the first thing she had seen.
“Well we can’t just do nothing!” Yang shouted at Ivy, arms gesturing out to her sides.
“Yang, there’s nothing we can do,” Ruby said, turning her attention fully to her sister.
Yang’s face screwed up with more anger. “What?!”
“We’re all worn out from what we already did tonight,” Ruby said, motioning to the others in the aircraft with them. They’d done quite a lot—stolen back Penny’s core, fought the Ace-Ops, fought countless Venatrix drones… managed to survive Cinder and Neo. “If we go in there like this… we’re all as good as dead. We don’t even know what we’d be walking into.”
Yang seethed but remained silent as Blake walked up beside her, putting her hand on her shoulder. “Ruby’s right. I know it doesn’t feel good but sometimes the only option is to fall back and regroup.”
Ruby glanced around the ship, seeing a lot of sullen faces staring down at the ground. Nobody said anything… but that meant nobody argued either. They knew it was the right call, though that didn’t mean anyone was happy about that fact.
“In that case,” Roane Ashwood said from the pilot’s chair, red dreadlocked braids falling over her shoulder as she looked back into the hold. “I’m taking us back down to Mantle. Us and the Happy Huntresses already had a place we were lying low at.”
Ruby nodded at her. “Sounds good.”
Ruby looked out the window again, hearing the distant cry of the Grimm whale as it begin to shrink from her view, the airship pulling away. Salem… her mother’s murderer. Right there, closer to them than she’d ever been before.
Ruby turned away, looking at Penny again—she was still on the floor in a state of complete dissociation.
Ruby walked over to her, crouching down in front of her. “Penny? Penny, can you hear me?”
Penny didn’t speak, but her green eyes flicked up to Ruby.
Ruby took her hand between both of hers. “I know this is a lot for you to take in right now, and I… I’m so sorry this is what you had to come back to. I promise, I’ll explain everything I can once we’re somewhere safe.”
Penny’s mouth parted, shaking for a few seconds before she said, “Is there anywhere safe now?”
The hideout Roane referred to turned out to be an old, closed-down restaurant. It had apparently belonged to Roane’s parents and, when those parents passed on, it was left to her. As a huntress, Roane didn’t exactly have the time to devote to running a business, so the place was shuttered—though she did still come by to check on it and keep it from collapsing every now and then.
When the Happy Huntresses had gone completely underground, they’d left behind their old sanctuary, avoiding any chance of being ensnared just in case anyone in the AUF happened to know it was theirs.
For the first time in what Ruby assumed must’ve been years, there was more than one person walking the building’s rooms—in fact, there were now seventeen with the rest of the Happy Huntresses, aside from Robyn, having already been there when the others arrived.
Ruby walked through the old kitchen, filled with rusted pots, into the unkempt dining room. There were chairs and tables set up, Fiona and Joanna sitting at one with May while she filled them in on all that had happened.
Ruby looked down at her shoes. She wanted to have a plan—she wanted to have a solution. But… she didn’t. She’d meant what she said before about taking time to rest up before doing anything, but she still didn’t even know what they’d be resting up for. Even at their best, she had no idea what they could do to that Grimm… especially with Salem herself inside it.
Ruby groaned, scratching the back of her head and asking herself why it all had to turn out this way. She hated it. Everything with Ironwood had fallen apart and now Salem was here—and the Leviathan was still heading their way. She longed for the days when Torchwick’s dust robberies were the worst of her concerns.
Ruby started walking again, and in short time saw the rest of her team and Team JNR all crowded together outside of a closed door. Raising an eyebrow, she walked over to them.
“So… what exactly are you guys doing?” Ruby asked.
They all turned, most looking at her with embarrassment. Blake gestured back to the door with her thumb. “Penny is in there. We… we all want to talk to her, but we know she probably wants space right now. Don’t want to overcrowd her too soon.”
“You know,” Weiss said, folding her arms and tapping a finger against her elbow. She looked at Ruby. “You were always closer to her than the rest of us. Maybe you should go in first? Check on her?”
Ruby gave a nod. “I wanted to talk to her anyway. There’s a lot for her to take in and I think she’s pretty overwhelmed right now. Hopefully I can… make that easier for her instead of worse.”
Weiss frowned a little at the self-deprecating comment, but stepped aside with the others to give Ruby a clear path through.
Ruby walked up to the door, staring at it for a moment. She wanted to talk to Penny… but part of her didn’t feel ready to have that conversation. There was so much Penny didn’t know, and so much of what she didn’t know was going to be painful to hear.
Ruby took a breath, closing her eyes. She raised her fist and knocked on the door.
Silence for a moment. “...Who is it?” Penny’s voice, muffled beyond the closed door.
“It’s me, Penny,” Ruby said. “Is it alright if I come in?”
Ruby heard footsteps and the door opened, revealing Penny. It was still so surreal to see her there—Ruby had seen an almost exact copy of her face on the Venatrix units, but something about the real thing could never be replicated in those soulless machines.
Penny was in a repurposed Venatrix body, one slightly damaged from the scuffles at Atlas Academy. She’d let her hair down, unlike the drones that always had it tied up under their blue AUF caps, her eyes were green, freckles dotted her cheeks, and she’d changed into some spare clothes of Ruda’s, a t-shirt for some Mantle sport team called the Smelters and pink pajama pants with Pumpkin Pete’s cartoon rabbit face all over them.
Penny looked at Ruby… then to the sides of Ruby, where all the other members of Team RWBY and JNR stood. Nora gave a grimacing smile and an awkward wave.
Penny, of course, waved back with a perfectly pleasant smile of her own. “Come in,” she said, turning her focus back to Ruby.
Ruby walked in, Penny shutting the door behind them. The room seemed to have once been a storage cabinet, but was long since cleaned out and now had a makeshift bedroom inside, complete with a bed. Ruby briefly wondered what the sleeping arrangements even were here. She doubted Team BRIR all crammed themselves onto one bed, and doubted even more that the Happy Huntresses would do that either.
“So… how are you feeling?” Ruby asked.
Penny dropped down, sitting on the bed—it sank a little more than would be expected of a girl her size and build. “I died.” Her hand reached beside her on the bed, picking something up—the pink ribbon Ruby had carried with her since the Vytal Tournament, the one she had tied around the Venatrix drone, Venny’s, arm. It had been reprogrammed for their heist and was now the new body Penny Polendina occupied after Venny’s core had been fatally damaged during their escape.
Ruby sat down next to Penny. “But now you’re back.”
Penny gave a nod. “Yes, I am. I… do not know how to feel about it.”
Ruby touched her shoulder, looking at her face with concern. “Penny…?”
Penny turned her head away, the hand holding the ribbon dropping into her lap. “I hope you understand, I… I am glad to see everyone again. And glad to not be dead. I just… I can still remember dying.” She touched her arm… one of the places her own wire had cut her original body to pieces. “And I really, really wish I did not.”
“I… I’m sorry, Penny,” Ruby muttered. This was her fault… if she had protected Penny in the first place, been fast enough to save her… she wouldn’t have to feel like this.
Penny looked at Ruby. She must’ve recognized the look of sadness on her friend, as Ruby noticed her make an effort to smile brightly. “I am sorry for being such a downer—thank you for bringing me back, Ruby.”
Ruby managed a tired smile back at her friend. “I would’ve done whatever it took.”
There was another knock at the door, both Ruby and Penny’s heads snapping toward it. “Penny? Penny, are you in there?”
Pietro.
Penny shot up to her feet. “Dad!”
She shot over to the door in a flash, ripping it open so fast Ruby thought it might come off its hinges… and realized that it actually did break off from the top hinges.
Pietro looked like he could scarcely see what he saw before him—and before he could say anything else, Penny leaned down, wrapping her arms tight around him in a hug. “Dad…”
Pietro put his arms around his daughter, smiling as tears started to run down his cheeks. “Penny… oh, Penny, I’m so happy to see you again.” He opened his eyes to look over her shoulder at Ruby, still sitting on the bed. “Thank you for bringing her back to me, Ruby. I can never repay you for this.”
Ruby let a soft smile stretch across her lips. “Good thing I didn’t ask for payment—and I couldn’t have done this without your help.”
After nearly a minute, Penny finally let go of her father and stepped back, letting his chair walk him into the room. She tried to shut the door, noticing that she’d broken it and wincing with a grimace.
Pietro looked up at his daughter. “Hmm… well, I think there’s one thing we need to take care of quick here. You deserve better than some messed up Venatrix body. How would you feel about some upgrades, Penny?”
Penny beamed. “I would love them!”
Ruby watched her friend carefully. She was acting more like her old self now that Pietro was there… but Ruby couldn’t help but feel there was something fake to it. Like she was forcing it.
“And of course, Ruby, you’re welcome to help if you want to,” Pietro said, turning his chair to face her.
Ruby stood up, giving a casual salute. “Always happy to assist a master—I’ll be there.”
Pietro nodded. “Sounds great. I’ll have Team BRIR help out bringing what I need over from the pharmacy.” He blew out a breath. “Things are getting crazy out there—glad I made it here safe today, but I don’t want to keep playing those odds.”
Ruby nodded. “Well, I’m sure you two have a lot to catch up on. I’ll give you some privacy.”
She walked toward the door, waving goodbye to father and daughter. However, when she reached the door, she felt someone grab her arm.
Ruby looked back over her shoulder—Penny was right behind her, still holding onto her wrist. She was looking at Ruby with a more serious, solemn expression than she’d ever seen on her before.
Ruby raised an eyebrow. “Penny? Is… something wrong?”
Penny looked down for a moment, eyes flicking around at different spots on the floor. Finally, she looked into Ruby’s eyes again. “Ruby… I am sorry for whatever happened that makes you look so sad now.”
Ruby’s lips parted just slightly with surprise, eyes widening. She blinked a few times, unsure what to say. Finally, she managed a weary smile. “Thanks, Penny,” she said in a hoarse whisper, before turning and walking out the door.