Yang stared listlessly through her bedroom window. Ruby had left a week ago, and Taiyang could not stay in the house forever with the Kingdom in such dire straits. He had promised to get her an Atlesian prosthetic as soon as possible, but she didn't hold out much hope. Unless you were the good General or rich as sin, then the wait was guaranteed to be months at the very least. She decided it was time to make some lunch, maybe she would work out after. She had to keep her strength at the very least. The quiet of the halls was only broken by her soft steps. She missed her dad, but she missed Ruby even more. Ruby was filled with this stupid belief that she could still fix everything. The world simply wasn't that neat and tidy. She continued to ruminate as she rummaged in the cupboard for some bread, but her search was cut short by a sharp knock at the door. Yang briefly considered ignoring it, but any company was better than nothing. She walked over to the door as the stranger continued to knock. When she opened it, she was greeted by a somewhat portly gentleman in Atlesian clothing.
"Hi," said Yang, nonplussed. "Do I know you?"
"Uhm, no young lady, I highly doubt it. I am actually looking for a Miss Ruby Rose."
"My sister isn't here," Yang said, her voice turning bitter. "Who exactly are you?"
"I am, well Ii guess to put it simply I am Penny Poledina's father," said the old man, tears welling in his eyes. Yang's anger quickly abated and she invited the man in. "So I assume you must be Miss Xiao Long then?" the man asked after composing himself. "I've heard almost as much about you as I have about Ruby."
"Yeah, about that," Yang started. "I was wonder-" Yang stopped when she saw the man staring at her, more specifically her stump. "Could you not stare at it?" Yang barked, anger returning to her voice.
"Oh! My apologies, I didn't mean… " The old man stuttered, "did that happen at Beacon?"
"Yeah, and I really don't want to talk about it."
"I understand, and what were you asking?"
"Why are you looking for my sister?"
"Oh, well I guess that does seem a bit odd…" The man paused as if to collect himself. "Penny constantly sent me messages about your sister; Ruby was the only friend my daughter ever had. With communications down I thought it fit to talk to her personally. I wanted…" The old man began to well up again,".. I wanted to see if she would say goodbye." Yang looked down at the table to let the man have his moment. She hadn't really known Penny that well, but Ruby liked her and she had always been a happy person when Yang did see her.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Yang began, " I'll try to contact my sister, but to be honest I'm not sure when or even if she will get it. Once she does though I'm sure she'll come." Yang paused for a moment. "Not to be rude or anything, but what's stopping you from rebuilding her?" The man puffed up in indignation.
"Penny wasn't some throwaway atlantian droid! She was the pinnacle of nearly thirty years worth of research!" He began to get quieter. "She was one of a kind. A confluence of technology and aura that can't simply be replicated. Theoretically the technology could be salvaged, but without an aura bound to her she would be nothing more than a husk."
"Well how did you bind one to her the first time?"
" That was a whole different miracle of engineering in and of itself, and the only one was destroyed in the assault on beacon."
"Then make another!" Yang exclaimed. "Aren't you some kind of genius?!" The old man uttered a bitter laugh.
"Ha! You really think Atlas would fund it? After the fiasco at Beacon, the whole program was defunded and all research purged. That machine cost millions of line and decades of research, there is no recreating it," the man slumped in defeat. "As it stands, I am the only person left with the know how who cares enough to recreate it. Even if I could get the money, I would be dead long before I recreated the research."
"That's awful!" Yang put her hand on the pitiful man's shoulder. " I'm sorry for your loss. I'll try to contact Ruby." Yang desperately wanted to change the subject, she didn't really know how to help the grieving old man. "Uhh, you know I never got your name." The old man looked up and sniffed.
"It's Dr. Marcin," He muttered.
"Well Dr. Marcin, it was good to meet you but I have to get back to training. I'll be sure to contact you when I get a hold of Ruby."Yang prayed that he would get the not so subtle hint. Instead the good doctor perked up at the mention of training.
"Training? Could I watch by any chance?"
"Excuse me?" Yang stuttered, aghast.
"Well you see, I've spent my life studying aura. Watching a Hunter or Huntress apply their abilities, even in training, is a very rare opportunity. Simply observing your semblance would be valuable research."
"Well…" Yang paused for a moment. If she were honest with herself, she wouldn't mind having someone around to keep her company for a little while. She missed her dad, but more than anything she missed her teammates. But if none of them could be around, then this guy would have to do. As long he wasn't getting all teary eyed, he was okay enough. "Yeah, sure why not."
Yang readied herself, breathing deeply and focusing on the task at hand. Before her was a custom made dueling platform. Separated into three free spinning sections, each part was Studded with several metal cudgels and even a few blades. The device was specifically constructed to withstand her natural strength. Every time she hit one of the protrusions, the entire section would swing into her other side. She would either block it or have to absorb it with her semblance. It had been designed to increase her speed, which had always significantly lagged behind her strength. She remembered the last time she had used this thing, it had been irritating even then with both arms. She tentatively struck at the upper section and even then still tried to block with her non-existent arm. She managed to duck out of the way, but just barely. She went for a low kick, and found it slightly easier than one handed boxing. The sections began to move in a rhythm, her strikes hitting with more purpose and strength. She took a truly strong swing at the upper rung, but momentum and her unfamiliar balance carried her through the strike and onto her knees. She looked up just in time to get batted full force in the nose. If her aura hadn't been up it would have felt like getting hit by a train, as it stood it only felt like a mid sized sedan. Wincing, Yang got up and resumed her strikes. WHACK WHACK THUD. WHACK WHACK THUD. Yang continued to restart the process, her frustration mounting. She simply wasn't fast enough. She had never been fast enough, even with both arms. She never saved anyone, she was always too late or too weak. SHE. WHACK WASN'T. WHACK.GOOD. WHACK. ENOUGH! CRACK. Yang was shaken out of her musing to see the platform bent and torn to the point of uselessness. She had knocked the top completely off with that last hit. She had managed to activate her semblance without even realising. She glanced off to the side at the doctor, whose jaw had practically hit the floor.
"Uhm, sorry about that. I guess I got carried away, " Yang muttered sheepishly. The doctor just stared at her. His eyes roamed rapidly around the scene, before staring off into the distance. The doctor muttered something about calculations, then took off running to his car.
" Ms. Xiao Long, " He yelled over his shoulder, "stay near your scroll! This could be monumental!" With that he was gone. Yang didn't really know how to respond, so she decided to check if there were anyway to fix the dueling platform.
Nearly two days later, Yang heard frantic knocking at the front door. When she opened it to a disheveled but ecstatic looking Doctor Marcin.
" Ms. Xiao Long, what would you say if I could get you a new arm?"