A/N -
This is a short one but hey, it works
Heads up that this is quite literally rushed so- Yeah
There wasn't much I could go off with this so- It works
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Waking up wasn't pleasant. Penny groaned as she blinked her eyes open, her body ached and her chest stung. Sitting up she realized she was on a cot of sorts, no longer wearing her normal attire but instead a hospital gown. She also realized the bandages covering her chest.
Her mind couldn't even remember what had happened. Turning to the side she realized that she wasn't alone.
"Winter..?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper as the white-haired woman opened her eyes and stared at her. Winter stood up and hugged Penny, who let out a grunt in response.
"Oh, sorry," Winter apologized, "I'm glad you're awake, Penny. How are you feeling?"
"Tired, everything hurts, especially my chest," She lifted her hand to place it across where her heart was, "What happened..?"
"You… Don't remember?" She said, a hand raising to her mouth, "Penny… I'm so sorry…"
"Winter… what happened? Where's Ruby?" Penny noted the absence of her best friend. Winter sat back down in her seat, hesitating to even speak.
Penny didn't even need an answer as she began to feel the memories come back.
"I'm… I'm sorry…" Winter said, placing a hand on Penny's shoulder.
Penny remembered it all. Fighting Cinder. Yang falling… Then Blake and Ruby. She tried to save them! But she couldn't. Then she remembered what had made her fall unconscious. She remembered the hand that grabbed her chest. It was cold, she knew as much as that before she blacked out.
Tears filled Penny's eyes as she fully realized what had happened.
"She's… None of them are coming back, are they?" Penny choked out. Winter shook her head.
Penny had never cried before, really. She definitely didn't like it. It felt heavy, yet relieving at the same time. It was hard to explain in all honesty. Winter stood up again to hug Penny, this time in not such a tough manner.
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It'd been a while since then. Around a month. Penny had been made more aware of what had happened. Winter had rushed and picked Penny up before running through the portal just before it closed. They were in Vacuo now, away from the likely now fallen Atlas. Penny felt lonely. It wasn't like she had no one of course, she had people like Winter and Nora, along with others.
She'd made a steady recovery since then, the bandages on her chest having been removed. Though the scars remained where she'd been stabbed by the grimm hand. She was worried about any potential side effects, but there were none. At least to her knowledge.
In the time they were gone a few people had joined them, including the remaining Ace Ops, Robyn, Qrow, and even Tai-Yang Xiao-Long and the now revealed Spring Maiden, Raven Branwen herself. Maria and her dad ended up arriving later on too, somehow they had survived when Amity touched down.
It was odd. Quiet. Too quiet. Penny often helped where she could, hung out with Nora or Winter, and just kind of was on her own schedule of the time. It felt empty.
What hurt the most was seeing the reaction. The blatant shock on Ruby and Yang's dad's face when he found out they were gone. Penny felt that pain. She didn't want to accept that Ruby and her friends were gone.
But they were. They at least probably were. They'd never come back.
At least until the morning she was out helping Nora and Oscar with some of the local people. Now putting an entire kingdom into another kingdom was already a bad idea, but Atlas and Vacuo did not have a good relationship with each other. It was a miracle they were even allotted the land they were for camps.
Often she and Nora would hand out water bottles or help with disputes around the camps. That's exactly what they were doing that morning. Nora was carrying a basket full of water bottles while Penny and Oscar handed them out to people. It was just the normal routine. Every once in a while a grimm would stray too close and Penny would have to use her maiden powers to quickly be rid of the creature but otherwise, it was pretty smooth sailing.
Until Ren had ran up to the trio with a shocked expression, something rare for the calm collected huntsman.
"You have to come quick, it's good news I swear," He said. The three exchanged a glance before finding a few people who could take their place while they went to see what Ren was going off about. They followed him to Shade Academy and when they stepped inside Penny felt her jaw drop.
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Ruby had thought coming back would be easy, but the thought of Penny most likely not being there… She wanted to scream. She didn't want to go back. She felt like she'd lost it all.
When Weiss had found her in the mystical forest, she'd told her that… Penny likely was gone. She wasn't sure one hundred percent, but with how Weiss had described Penny's state to be before she'd fallen, Ruby knew. She knew she'd likely never see her redheaded friend again. Never see the smile on her freckled face. Never see the sparkle in her green eyes.
Even when all of Team RWBY reunited she felt alone. Empty. She thought that things would've been different with Penny being human now. Part of her dreaded their return. If they even could return.
Then they returned.
She stood with her teammates and Jaune, even their new ally Neo stood with them. They'd been speaking with Headmaster Theodore when the doors to the academy opened. Ruby turned around and gasped. She was delighted to see the familiar faces of Ren, Nora, Oscar, and…
"Penny..?" Ruby said in disbelief. Penny nodded, Ruby felt her eyes well up in tears as she and Penny ran to each other and embraced, "I thought you died!"
"I thought you died!" Penny said right back. Ruby enjoyed the warmth of the hug. She didn't want to leave it. She just wanted to stay in her arms. Not moving. Resting. Forget everything that was happening.
Penny had been lost once. Twice even. But she reappeared. And Ruby was just fine with that.
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i cant please send help brainrot is consuming me