Ruby was supervising her uncooperatively teammate shop. Weiss glances back at Ruby, with disbelief. "Don't dwaddle! Buy a plant then we go home!" Weiss stares at the rows of plants, a mission that seemed minor just turned irrelevant and no one will let her go now. "this is pointless," she gritted. Ruby stayed over her, knowing what Weiss was thinking.
"Teammate! How can you expect to operate on the field if one event sends you off focus? There will be hundreds of things that might defeat you!" Ruby was speaking at a casual volume, but Weiss obviously thought Ruby was too loud, and spoke in a hushed tones. "Dammit Ruby, this mission of yours was a farce from the beginning and now, with what Penny told me, is completely irrelevant since I have to confirm that it's actually possible!" "Finish first, than talk to family," quipped Ruby proudly. Weiss growls and grabbed a potted plant, uncaringly walking up to the register. "Noooooo! You're not thinking about it at all!" Ruby cried out. Weiss stops and mutters to the ceiling, "This insufferable and oblivious child I am stuck with forever and out is going to die, soon, or give me patience."
Penny walks through the door, causing a commotion with a struggling Onyx trying to break away. Everyone stares at her as she glances around the room, looking for "Salutations!" Penny waves at Weiss and Ruby. Weiss returns to staring at the ceiling, gripping the pot harder. "Grim, take me away."
Ruby, holding Weiss from behind, responds mystified, "Penny? I thought you were going home." "I was," answered Penny, "But I found a boy!" Penny presents the boy, dangling limply from his cloak, absolute embarrasement plastered on his face.
Ruby stares at the boy. "Em," she recognizes him, "… Lillium?" Onyx moans "Wuby? Can she put me down now?" Ruby lets go Weiss. "Uh, Penny you can let go of him." Penny lets go of Onyx, who crumples to the floor and crawls to Ruby, "She's scary! Why do you know her?!" Onyx was blubbering, so Ruby barely understood what he was saying. Patting his head, Ruby attempted to comfort him while turning to Penny, "Uh, Penny, why were you carrying him?"
"He was sneaking around, eavesdropping on us." Ruby looks disappointed, "'Lium, are you still stalking people?" Weiss turns quickly, "Stalking?!" Onyx regains some composure, "Of course! How else am I supposed to hone my tracking abilities? I actually just stumbled across you guys while following some green haired chick. I think she was picking pockets but I couldn't tell, she just kept bumping into people." Onyx sputtered out. Weiss glares at Onyx, who was still sitting on the floor and looking small.
"Oh, um, right! Introductions!" cried out Ruby. "Weiss, this is Lillium B. Moon. He normally goes by Lium though. Lium, this is Weiss Schnee-" "Princess of the Schnee dust company, pleased to make your acquaintance. Although my classmates have taken to calling my Onyx now," Weiss takes his curtsying hand, weary, whispers to Ruby, "Did you tell everyone about me?" "I told my friends about my teammates," Ruby replies, "And why Onyx? I doubt it's your cape, you've always had that."
Onyx smiles and pulls out an empty sheath. He stares at it, dumbfounded. "Wait… I had it locked and secure, it couldn't of fallen out." Sweat bullets quickly pushed their way down his face. "I JUST FINISHED IT! WHY?!"
"I have it!" Everyone turns to Penny, who held a black edged dagger gingerly, holding it close so it was nonthreatening to civilians that watched the kids exchange their volley of words. "An Ash-Stone dagger, made from the remnants of stone the ore Dust is mined from. Not the strongest metal, nor the lightest, but most reactive metal when infused with dust," stated Penny. Onyx stood agape, trying to find words to speak, "Once again. Who are you?"
Weiss pinches her brow, "Onyx, this is Penny. She's here for the tournament, I think," Weiss looks up, "Are you?" Penny smiles, "Yes I am!" Weiss nods, understanding something. Penny wonders what. "Wow, Lium, how'd you get a hold of that?" Ruby examines the dagger, "What is it," interjects Weiss, curious, "I see it's an Ash Dagger, but there's no cartridge here for anything." "That's when my fashion and my semblance kicks in," Onyx stated. He pulled up his sleeves and showed off a series of bracelets of varying colors. "These are infused with dust. My semblance lets me direct their energy from the cuffs to the dagger, the dagger reacts and I can make flashy blasts. Or deeper cuts. Depends on what I'm trying to do, really."Lium can channel the environment to work for him, and focusing on objects lets him degrade said object." Penny spoke up, "Or hold onto things better!" Ruby and Weiss look at Onyx. Onyx blushes, "She caught me climbing walls." "Huh," complimented Weiss.
"So what are you doing, Ruby," asked Onyx, looking around. Everyone realized they were in a plant shop still. People were staring. A kid was holding onto a woman's leg as they shuffled away. Someone was approaching them, the store owner. "Excuse me, I'm going to have to ask you to leave, you're disturbing the customers and…" he eyed the dagger and Penny's holstered gun, "well you're scaring people."
Everyone apologizes and leaves, except Ruby who ran back inside saying she wanted to grab something. Everyone stood around awkwardly. Weiss broke the silence, "So, Penny," she eyes Onyx, "how many people know about your… um, heritage?" Penny realizes Weiss is being discreet, "Only informed authorities within the military. I don't think anyone outside of that knows." "What heritage? Who are you related to," perked up Onyx, curious. Penny contemplates the question, unable to find an answer, "I'd rather not say," she replied, neutrally. Onyx smiles at her, "Oh, being coy, aren't you?"
Penny was bewildered and Weiss watched with wide eyes as Ruby came back to them with a pot in her hands. "I'm back!.. what'd I miss?" she noticed the awkwardness in the air between them all. Ignoring it, Ruby struts up to Penny, pot in hand. "Here you go!" Ruby hands off the pot to Penny. Inside the soil is a small stem with a white bud. Numberous other stems were coming out around the edges as well, almost reaching out. "It's called a heart vine, because the flowers bloom with little red heart petals inside." "Ruby?" "Yes?" "Why did you give me a plant?" Weiss poses, "That's what I wanted to know." Ruby, scratches her head, shy, "well, for progress."
Penny stares at the single bud, trying to understand whether it's her progress or the plants, or maybe even time. "Okay, thank you, Ruby." Ruby chuckles softly, "Wait," Weiss intervenes, "That made sense to you?" "Ruby often doesn't make sense," answered Penny. Onyx nods and Weiss sighs, "I guess so." Ruby whines, "Hey! What do you mean I don't make sense?!"
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry about the duplicate chapters. My habit of mass downloading caused errors in chapters 16 and 18/19. They're fixed now, so you might want to jump back a bit. Also AN ORIGINAL CHARACTER! So yeah, I'll be making the original story from this point on, and new characters that have nothing to do with the RWBY squad will appear, since this story is Penny-centric. Don't worry, I'll still be involving everyone, we'll just have some personal connections that Penny makes too.