Chapter 34
As it turned out, androids don't stay knocked out for long, so needless to say, Qrow was learning the hard way that even if he wasn't fighting the real Summer Rose, this machine sure as hell fought just like her. The android struck at Qrow with the same ferocity as her template, and was just as skilled to boot. And she was cunning as well, as she managed to reach for a grenade as she did a kick flip and throw it at him. Unfortunately, she underestimated the structural integrity of the ice they had been fighting on, and soon she, Qrow, and Cinder found themselves running for their lives to escape the crumbling ice. Summer and Cinder managed to get to safety just in time to resume their fight, but Qrow was less fortunate. His slab of ice had just fallen when he spotted a familiar purple-haired medic waving a tow cable at him.
"Hey, Brawnwin, heads up!" Jean shouted.
Qrow perked up as Jean, having chanced upon them, threw the tow cable from the Warthog over the side of the cliff...only to groan as it just barely made it over the side. "You have got to be kidding me." Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, however, he sighed and jumped for the cable regardless, just barely managing to grab onto it as he did. "That was the second worst throw, ever… of all time." Qrow grumbled as he got back onto solid ground.
"Gimme a break. I ran track in middle school, traitor." Jean muttered back.
Qrow could only wince, having a good idea where the aggression is coming from. "Look, I know that I have a lot of things to apologize for, but if we could just focus, we can…"
"Oh, would you just SHUT UP ALREADY!?" Summer yelled out even as she knocked Cinder to the ground, seemingly knocking her out. "I gave you a chance to walk away from this, and what did you do?! You took a page out of your Jacques' playbook by treating your friends, your family as pawns! ...and don't give me some spiel of how "this is for the greater good" or whatever other lies you're telling yourself: you just don't want to admit that you're more afraid of spending the rest of your life in a cell then you are seeing your own family getting hurt! For crying out loud: Yang and Ruby themselves have stated that you deserve to be in a cell after everything you've done!" She then pointed to the downed Meta. "Heck, you sided with her of all people, and you know better than anyone her tendency to…" ...and that was as far as she got before Cinder, having been playing possum until now, got up and stabbed Summer in the back with a knife.
"What are you doing?!" Qrow yelled out with wide eyes. "We don't need to hurt her: we only need…" ...but unfortunately, his cries fell on deaf ears as Cinder stabbed Summer in the face with the Memory Unit they had brought along with them, only able to watch in horror as her body went limp.
"NO!" And that was all the warning Agent Crimson got before Penelope, having arrived on the scene, punched Cinder away from her mother's body, temporarily stunning the Meta, before turning to glare at Qrow. "Help me revive her, and I might consider leaving you unharmed. Yang, Ruby, and Raven can decide your punishment afterwards."
Qrow just shook his head in horror/frustration. " I...I can't: the unit is failing." He then gave a hollow sigh. "I'm sorry, Penelope, but it's over. Just come along with us quietly and nobody else has to get hurt."
Needless to say, Penelope was not happy to hear this. "I'm not going anywhere with you, traitor!"
"Sorry to hear that," Qrow said with a sigh before turning towards the Meta. "Give me the memory unit."
Cinder paused before giving a wicked grin. "I could do that, or maybe I could…" ...and that was all the warning Agent Grey got before Agent Crimson strapped the memory unit to her back and activated her cloaking unit."
Needless to say, Qrow was not happy with this new development. "How could you do this?! I trusted you!"
"You…" Pyrrha teared up as she stared at the bloody bodies of her friends. "How could you? Ruby always said you were a man of honor, but I haven't seen any proof of it so far!"
"You're Ruby's Uncle, alright: you have the same analytical mind and pragmatic fighting style," Weiss remarked, even as she got back up with a snarl. "Such a shame I can't say the same of her noble heart and undying loyalty, traitor."
"At least I know where my loyalties lie," was Taiyang's immediate reply, gesturing to his haggard companions. "After all, I'm not the one responsible for all this carnage."
"Reflect." Another Doppelganger groaned. "Stop making friends with the bad guys."
"Oh, don't act so high and mighty, Agent Grey," Agent Crimson said with a roll of her eyes. "You knew I worked for your enemy when you signed up to work with me: why should it matter now that you know exactly who that enemy was?"
"Take care, Uncle of the Great Destroyer," Jasmine declared before the man got too far. "If you continue to follow this path for too long, you stand to lose a lot more than just your freedom."
"Yeah, I've made my fair share of mistakes." the Branwen Chieftess said with a nod. "But better a thief and a bandit than a coward and a traitor."
"You know we'd do everything we could to prevent you being locked up," Summer declared with a shake of her head. "But with everything you've done, can you honestly look me in the eye and say that you wouldn't deserve to go back to prison?" She approached Qrow as he looked away in shame, lowering his weapon as he did. "There's still time for you to do the right thing."
Qrow could only shake his head, a humourless chuckle escaping his lips as that onslaught of flashbacks came to a halt. "...but you never trusted me, did you? Who would trust a traitor, after all? Summer was right. Heck, Raven was right: I've been the biggest hypocrite ever, of all time."
It went without saying that Cinder hadn't been prepared for when Qrow blocked what would've been a sword strike through Penelope's body. "...but that doesn't mean that it's not too late to make things right." Agent Grey declared before turning to Penelope and Jean. "What are you waiting for? Get out of here: NOW!"
Qrow couldn't help but grunt as he was thrown to the ground even as Penelope and Jean made a hasty retreat. "You know the worst part about all this, Cinder? I think on some level, I already knew you would eventually try and stab me in the back. I just can't believe…" He paused as he spotted something in the distance. "...can't believe…" His eyes quickly widened when he realized exactly what he was looking at. "...I can't believe it."
Meanwhile, Raven, currently inside a Manta alongside Yang, Ruby, and a few others, nodded to herself as she spotted Jean and Penelope running away from the Meta as well as the fallen Summer Rose. "There they are: let's try and land next to them."
"Right...land…"
Yang couldn't help but blink at the nervous tone in her wife's voice. "Blake, you did say that you learned how to fly a plane during your time in the White Fang, right?"
Blake merely gave a sheepish grin in reply. "Yes, but unfortunately, I left before I could learn how to land the thing."
Jaune, meanwhile, gave a nervous chuckle. "No need to panic: I'm sure someone else took that class. Would that person please raise their hand ...please?"
Weiss merely sighed when nobody did. "This is going to suck…"
"I know! Ruby and I never got our in-flight peanuts!"
Raven could only shake her head at Nora's commentary. "Ignoring that. BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
The ship smashed into the ice and Blake immediately shut off the thrusters. Everyone screamed in a mixture of pain and terror as the Manta slowly slid towards the medic, who was paralyzed with fear. At last, the ship came to a halt just a few inches in front of Jean.
Jean couldn't help but give a relieved sigh. "That was a close one."
"I would say the cavalry's arrived, but I've never seen a line of horses crash into the battlefield from the sky." Qrow couldn't help but remark.
Penelope, meanwhile, could only give a nervous laugh. "Uh, is it possible for a memory fragment of a Magical Ghost enclosed inside a robotic body to pee her pants? Because I'm pretty sure I just did that."
Qrow merely shook his head in amusement. "Come on, let's see if any of your friends survived."
But as they made their way to the Manta, Qrow managed to spot the footprints forming in the snow. Acting quickly, he took out one of his knives and threw it. Cinder's camouflage faded away as the impact of being hit knocked the containment unit off of her back. Penelope caught the unit just as Ruby freed herself from the Manta and engaged the Meta.
The red-headed android studied the unit before making her decision. "I can get her out…"
Qrow quickly paled at Penelope's declaration. "What? No!"
"It's my only option!"
Qrow shook his head in frustration. "You can't just...I need you: you're my only ticket out of this mess! If you get stuck in there, the authorities will never believe me. I'm not going back to prison!"
"I can do it…" Penelope confidently declared.
"I won't let you!"
Penelope couldn't help but glare at Ruby's Uncle. "You can't stop me! Even ignoring any family connections she may or may not have with you, Yang, Ruby, and me, I have to help her: she's here because of us!"
Needless to say, Qrow had not expected to hear that. "Because of me?"
Penelope merely groaned in reply. "Not you, us! Me, and the Summer Maiden, and Jacques!"
Instantly, Qrow knew what was going on. "You've started to remember…"
Penelope nodded in reply. "I found some old journals that belonged to Weiss' old man: she's someone he knew. Someone that, from what I gathered, he thought he loved, but really, it was straight up obsession. See, Summer Rose...she did volunteer a copy of her mental patterns for the P.E.N.N.Y. Project, and they were used to try and recreate the Summer Maiden, but then Jacques happened. When he took the Summer Maiden, she came back: she was a byproduct of 'President Schnee's' tampering…"
Qrow shook his head. "Whatever she is, she's not Summer, not really: she's just a shadow…"
"DON'T! Call her that!" Penelope growled out. "Like I said, Jacques was obsessed with her: she nearly died in real life due to Jacques' tampering, having failed to be swayed into his 'good' graces, and that's all he ever remembered of her and those memories were carried over when his mental patterns were added to the mix! So now, no matter how tough she is, no matter how hard she fights, she's always going to FAIL! Because that's what she's based on: the Maiden's FAILURE. No matter what she's doing, or what she's trying to accomplish, just when her goal is within her reach, it gets yanked away. Every. Single. Time. Can you imagine what that's like?!"
Qrow could only gulp as Cinder chose that exact time to get back up, her eyes focused on the Memory Unit as she did. "I think I'm starting to get the idea…"
"Hey, ugly!" Ruby cried as she rushed in front of the Meta, slashing at her with Crimson Rose. "Penny, do it!"
"I'm going in there." Penelope declared for a final time, prepared to enter the containment unit. "And there is nothing you can do to stop me!"
"... alright. We'll cover you for as long as we can." Qrow promised, activating his own scythe. "Good luck."
"Thanks… I'm gonna need it." Penelope sighed, suddenly realizing the gravity of her situation. Weiss, Blake, and Yang led the others outside just in time to see Penelope's soul exit her robot body and enter the containment unit.
"She's got this, right?" Yang asked.
"I...I think so." Blake replied, more than a little nervous at the prospect.
Meanwhile, Ruby and Qrow worked together against the Meta. Unfortunately, it was not an easy task considering that, thanks to the Memory Unit, she once again had the powers of a Maiden at her fingertips. Case in point, Cinder managed to catch Harbinger's blade in the palm of her Grimm arm midswing, yanking Qrow's weapon away from him, and sliced his leg with it as she did. In response, Ruby pushed her uncle out of the way and tried to strike Cinder with her own weapon. As it turned out, however, the Meta had been ready for said assault and used the stolen Harbinger to knock Ruby away from her before grabbing Crescent Rose as the hooded huntress fell to the ground, gaining a malicious grin as she did. Needless to say, the hooded huntress could only watch in horror as the Meta shattered her beloved weapon to pieces before her eyes. Thinking quickly, Ruby rolled over to one of Penelope's swords and decided to use it for the time being.
Luckily, Cinder soon came under fire courtesy of Team JNPR while Raven and Team CFVY ran to help Qrow.
"Alright, let's do this!" Jaune shouted.
"Charge!" Pyrrha agreed.
"We're gonna fucking die!" Ren reasoned, even though he faithfully stood beside his teammates.
"Come on!" Raven ordered her brother. "Ruby needs our help!"
"No, I'm done. But you guys aren't." Qrow gasped as he nursed his wound. He then grabbed the chain hitch from the damaged Warthog and handed the hook to Coco. Then, he gave the fashionista a coy wink. "You know what to do."
Ruby had finally figured out how to reconfigure Penelope's sword into its laser rifle setting and aimed at her opponent. Unfortunately, the recoil was a bit more than she could handle, and flew backwards even as the laser made contact with Cinder. The Meta recovered from the blast and angrily charged at the young woman, only to be cut off by a wave of fire dust.
"Come here, you ugly little bitch!" Raven taunted, using her sword to rapidly fire wave after wave of fire dust at the Meta. But Cinder just brushed the blasts off as if she couldn't even feel them.
"Whoa! What's Yang's mom doing?" Nora asked.
"Looks like she's killing herself." Ren retorted.
Speaking of which, Raven soon had to place her sword back in it's scabbard to reload, but Cinder managed to catch up and knock it away. The chieftess did her best to fight her hand-to-hand, but quickly found herself overpowered.
Yang meanwhile could only gasp in horror as Cinder grabbed her mother by the throat. "MOM!"
"Stay back!" Raven grunted. "Hey, Arc: I lost my katana! What am I going to do without my katana? Katana, damn it!"
"Katana?" Jaune gasped as he noticed the sword in question had landed by a winch attached to a warthog near a cliff, nodding as he gestures the others to it. "Let's go."
"You know something, Cinder?" Raven managed to choke out upon realizing that Jaune had caught onto her plan. "Earlier you said that I wasn't as good of a leader, as good of a person, as I pretended to be. That I was a fool, and as much as it pains me to admit it, you were right." The Branwen Chieftess just barely held back a grin as those words caused The Meta to loosen her grip a bit. "A good leader is, among other things, strong, brave, and clever, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I've failed at all three of those things. What strong person would even consider abandoning a child? What brave person would run away from her loving family? What clever person would believe that she'd be easily forgiven upon returning to said family nearly two decades after leaving them? I am a fool: a fool for pretending that I could walk away from the fight with Salem, and even more of one for not believing that I wouldn't be pulled into it later...but though I may be a fool, I can take comfort in knowing that you are a bigger one." Despite Cinder's grip tightening around her throat again, Raven couldn't help but chuckle. "A brave person wouldn't need to resort to dirty tricks to take her opponent down, and as for the other two features...well, honestly, if you were stronger or more clever, then maybe...you'd remember to watch your back!"
Cinder arched an eyebrow in confusion just before someone wrapped a chain around her neck and fastened it with a hook. "Hey, Meta! Settle a bet, will ya?" Coco smirked as she tightened the chain around the false Maiden's torso. "Does that thing over there look like a big cat to you?"
Cinder watched in horror as Team JNPR struggled to push the Warthog over the edge of the cliff. The former Agent Crimson screamed in terror as the weight of the military vehicle pulled her along the ice and over the cliff. But before she went over, she managed to grab Jaune. The yellow-clad huntsman to be desperately clung to the edge of the cliff, trying not to fall. Pyrrha jumped and caught his hands just as he was about to lose his grip.
"Ah! Pyrrha, help!" Jaune cried.
"Hang on, Jaune!" Pyrrha fearfully felt her hold on Jaune's hands loosening. "Just hang on! Hang on!"
"PYRRRRRRHAAAAAA!" Jaune's scream echoed around the canyon as she fell, leaving his teammate heartbroken.
"He's… gone." Pyrrha wept.
"Indeed. Jaune is dead." Raven lamented. "But he died as he lived: embarrassing himself for the benefit of others. He will be missed."
"Y'know, sometimes in movies, when someone falls off a cliff, they manage to grab onto something before falling all the way." Yang suggested.
"Yang, now's not the time." Blake sighed.
"Well, she does have a point." Ren agreed. "Maybe we could at least look over."
"OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Jaune called from over the edge. "WILL YOU JUST PULL ME UP, ALREADY?!"
Sure enough, Team JNPR found their leader had dug his sword into the ice just in time, and was now dangling above the icy oblivion that awaited him below.
Meanwhile, Ruby was kneeling down beside the containment unit, waiting for Penelope to come out. "Come on, Penny! Come on, don't do this to me, again!" She cried. But it was no use. The unit shut down and grew as cold as the ice surrounding it. "... Penny?" Ruby sniffed.
A few hours later, the Atlas military arrived in response to a distress signal one of the SDC workers sent out. Two soldiers found the young teams and were about to arrest them when a familiar looking man in an SDC uniform stepped in front of them. "Uh, it's okay, they're with me." Qrow lied. "I was sent to take them directly to Jacques Schnee, himself, for questioning."
"Oh, Mr. Schnee sent you?" One soldier asked. "Must be serious. Okay, you can take one of our Mantas and head on out."
"Much obliged." Raven tipped her hat in gratitude, now also in a disguise. She led the kids to the Manta and Blake took the controls for take-off. Once they were a safe distance away, Qrow finally took off his hat and sat beside his niece. Ruby sat with her chin propped up by her fist, looking out the window as the SDC compound - and by extension, Penelope - faded in the distance.
"Why did you guys help me?" Qrow couldn't help but ask. "After everything I've done, I thought you'd be mad."
"I am mad." Ruby declared as she studied Penelope's sword, fondly. "I'm furious. But if Yang and Raven have taught me anything; it's that family deserves a second chance."
Qrow nodded, patting her head as he did. "Well, for whatever it's worth... thanks."
Meanwhile, two members of SDC are examining the memory unit.
"Hey, chief? What should we do with this thing?"
"Ah, I can't get it to do anything. We'll hold it in storage until further notice."
What the two soldiers didn't know was that the memory unit wasn't as idle/empty as they might have thought. Case in point, inside the Unit, a city which looked much like Vale but slightly different was slowly being formed, a familiar redhead in a green dress walking down the street, not quite registering the Monkey Faunus that ran past her as it was.
"I wish I could say that I found her right away." Penelope declared, having decided to try her hand at making those journal entries Gloria/Lori had mentioned later that day. "That I just... walked inside and Summer Rose was waiting for me. As you can guess, it didn't happen that way, but I know she's in here somewhere. And I'll find her. I don't know why Jacques did what he did; I don't know if he was trying to revive a memory from his past, or if he was just trying to get it out of his head. But I learned something he didn't; it took Penny, and Pearl, and all the others to help piece it together for me, but... I learned that a true kind of love is like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of reach, it can be all you think about. You can focus on it and try to force it, but the more you do... the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient and you hold still... maybe... just maybe... it will come to you. I just need to make sure I'm somewhere she can find me. But... I think everything is a little different than I remember. You see, in the beginning, everything was based on the Summer Maiden. Her past lives and the attempt to recreate her. But, in here... I suppose I'm the Summer Maiden. And maybe this time through, things will be a little different for me as well. I guess I'll find out."
She did, however, notice when a girl clad in white ran into her, a trio of girls, one attempting to hide her cat ears under a bow, one with blonde hair and some rather impressive muscles, and one in a red hood that she couldn't help but think was rather cute, close behind her. "No! He got away!" the girl in white cried out, apparently having not noticed her yet.
The blonde-haired brawler (something about the way she held herself told her that she preferred to solve problems with her fists), however, wasn't as blind to the situation in front of her. "Uh, Weiss?"
Needless to say, the girl in white (apparently named Weiss), was quick to get up in a panic. This however, didn't take away from the redhead's good mood, as evidenced by the way she cheerfully called out. "SALUTATIONS!"
"Um... hello." the cute girl in the red hood declared, apparently feeling a little nervous.
"Are you okay?"
The redhead couldn't help but smile at the blonde's words: something about the mixture of concern and confusion made her think of how she envisioned an older sister would act. "I'm wonderful: thank you for asking."
"Do you...want to get up?"
Here, the redhead looked like she might have blushed under normal circumstances, but was somehow unable to, apparently having just realized that she was still on the ground. "Yes." she declared before hoping to her feet. It was here that the redhead decided to introduce herself. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"And besides…" Penelope smiled. "If you have to live the rest of your life in a memory… you might as well make it a good one."
To Be Continued
