CHAPTER XXI

Distress Call

Penny held on to Hillphire's remaining human arm as he continued with his rehabilitation. It had been a week since he was conscious again, but he was in constant pain, not to mention that his right eye had yet to heal. Even now, he put on a brave face for everyone around him, but Penny's Semblance made it impossible for him to hide what he was really going through. Her pain threshold was quite high given her nature, but even this was testing her limits. On a scale of one to ten, the pain he felt constantly hovered around nine, often spiking to ten in bursts before settling at nine again.

Liam, she thought as he grimaced through his rehabilitation. "I'm here for you no matter what," her thoughts escaped from her mouth.

"Penny," he struggled. "You shouldn't...you shouldn't be here. I know you can feel...all of my pain. And I don't...want you to."

"It doesn't hurt me at all."

"You're lying to me, Penny."

She bit her lower lip.

"Please, just..."

"No. I'm not leaving you."

"Don't be stubborn."

"No, you don't be stubborn. Can't you see there are people who wanna be there for you? Stop pushing us away!"

He turned to her. There were tears in her eyes that she only barely managed to keep from falling.

"She's right, you know," Yang said, walking into the rehab center with her mother and uncle. "There's no need to be a stubborn fool."

"Yang, Raven," Hillphire began.

"If you're going to apologize once more about my team," Raven began, "I swear I will trip you in the middle of your session."

He chuckled. "Sorry."

"Anyway," Qrow began, "we wanted to update you on shit. We don't know what the hell that Gottfried asshole did to you, or where the hell he disappeared off to, but we're still workin' on it."

"Don't bother," Hillphire said. "I still remember the moment he stabbed me. I can distinctly recall something unnatural about his sword. It wasn't exactly toxic or anything like that, but there was something off about it."

"New Atlas technology?"

"Doubt it," Yang said. "We've had plenty of run-ins with those guys and I've never seen any tech like that. It's gotta be magical shit."

"The kids did run into Cinder and someone named Tamiel," Qrow said. "My bet is that Gottfried is working with the Daemons. Whether this is sanctioned officially by Atlas's government is up for debate."

Hillphire grunted as he reached the end of the walkway. He stood in place, breathing heavily for a while and rubbing the patch over his right eye. He turned to Penny, who refused to leave his side.

"You're doing well, Dr. Hillphire," said his physical therapist. "For two weeks of rehab, you're progressing quite smoothly, especially since you're only using one eye for balance."

Hillphire removed the eye patch. "No good," he said, returning it to its place. "Still blurry."

"It may have something to do with everything else that's going on with your body."

"Probably. If the rest of my body won't heal, I don't see why my right eye would be any different."

Xanthus walked into the room. "Dr. Hillphire, the programming is done," he said, walking up to him and Penny.

"Nice work," Hillphire said, panting as he turned around to run the course again.

"Liam, what are you doing?" Penny asked him.

"The rehab plan has me doing this thing four times. I've only done it three times."

She sighed before repositioning herself to continue walking beside him, but he waved her off.

"I can do this," he said, gripping the handrails until his knuckles turned white.

Penny looked at the therapist, who nodded. She stepped back. The whole room was silent as Hillphire took step after agonizing step. He was halfway across the walkway when he lost his balance and collapsed, but Penny was right beside him in a split second, grabbing onto his gait belt to keep him from hitting his head on the guide rails. He turned to her. Her grip on his support belt was like iron. Meanwhile, he could barely stand without unbearable pain hammering him back to the floor.

He turned away from her, knowing full well that her empathy Semblance allowed her to feel all of his agony and self-pity, but she was quick to wrap her arms around him, holding his head to her chest. He began to weep, a combination of frustration at his sorry state along with gratitude for the friendship he shared with all of these people in the room with him.

"There's no time for feeling sorry for yourself right now, Liam," Penny said firmly as she continued to hold him tightly. "We have a world to save."

He nodded, resoluteness filling his new heart, the heart that he had designed for her. It now beat in his chest, keeping him alive. Her strength flowed through him and he stood upright, grasping the guide rails tightly. Penny remained on the outside of the walkway but within arm's reach. She walked alongside him as he reached the end. He panted, turning to her.

"Okay," Penny said. "Let's get you back into your service bay."

"Speaking of that," Xanthus said, "the second one in the vault is ready, Dr. Hillphire, just as you asked for."

"Perfect," Hillphire said. "It's about time Penny had a roommate."

"Huh?" Penny said.

"He wanted me to set up his station in there," Xanthus said. "Having all of his work in the same space is a lot easier than coming out to the hospital every day."

"You still intend on working in your state?"

"You said it yourself, Penny," Hillphire began, "there's no time for feeling sorry for myself, not when we have a world to save."

She smiled at him before giving him a single nod.

"You're getting pretty good with this, son," Ren said as he and Yuan finished hand-to-hand training.

"Thank you," Yuan said. "I try not to be too dependent on my weapon, just as you've taught me."

"Your control over your aura has also improved."

"It's too bad I can't show you what I can do with this Wraith-Knight power."

"And what's that?"

"You know that technique I was working on a long time ago, the one where I project my aura offensively like spears?"

"Yes, the technique you tried to emulate from me."

"That one. In the Labyrinth, with the power of the Wraith-Knight, I can form an entire array of them and use them as projectile weapons."

"That's quite impressive." He paused for a moment. "This power, son."

"I know. I've been consulting with everyone who has some kind of knowledge on the thing and almost unanimously everyone's apprehensive about it. From what Penny has told me, it seems there is definite reason to fear it. There's one thing I don't quite get, though. The Wraith you guys encountered back then seems to have been pretty overtly malevolent, even just being near it, right?"

"Yes. I felt sick just from proximity."

"Sir Elyan doesn't give me that feeling at all. He even tested my character before accepting me."

"Hmm. That certainly doesn't sound like something Bedivere's Wraith would have done. He was pretty open about his contempt for everything."

"I know to be careful, though, dad. And Xanthus is no fool either."

"Honestly, I can't think of better first Wraith-Knights than the two of you. You have the emotional maturity to handle this thing and your friend has the technical knowledge to understand what you two are dealing with."

Chatter came from the doorway to the training hall and they both turned to see Nora and Ingrid chatting as they headed in.

"How are things with you two, by the way?" Ren asked his son.

"Good, actually," Yuan said. "Honestly, I think I'm in love with her. Don't tell her I said that, though, or she might run away from me."

Ren chuckled. "That's something she and her mom have in common. Although, I think Blake's aloofness was more a result of her past than anything else. I think Ingrid is just an introvert."

"What're you boys talkin' about, huh?" Nora said as she and Ingrid joined them.

"Just you two ladies," Ren said. "What were you talking about?"

"Mostly that I'd be okay with Ingrid calling me mom."

"That's not what we were talking about!" Ingrid yelled, stamping her foot on the ground as she turned bright red.

"Hey, you ready for some sparring?" Yuan said, walking up to Ingrid.

"Oh, y-yeah, lemme just warm up."

The three watched as she went over to the lockers.

"You use protection, don't you?" Nora said to Yuan, who flinched at her question.

"Of course," he said. "I make sure to wrap up all my joints so I don't get injured during training."

Ren put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "I don't think your mom was talking about that kind of protection."

Yuan looked at his father for a moment before looking at his mom, who looked exasperated.

"So?" she said.

"W-We haven't exactly done anything," he said.

"Oh, good. I don't think right now's a good time to be having babies anyway."

Ren chuckled as his son turned bright red. "Nora, you're on a roll. Now you just have to make both of them turn red at the same time."

Ingrid rushed over to them.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Yuan said.

"I just got a text message from my brother," she panted. "He just arrived in town and—" Her scroll rang and she answered. "Hey, wait, Han, slow down. What? Okay, I'll meet you there."

"What's going on?" Nora asked.

"My brother sounds like he's in trouble. I've gotta go meet with him."

"I'll come with you," Yuan said.

"We're coming, too," Ren said.

"You guys don't have to," Ingrid said.

"Nope," Nora said. "You can't say no to us. We're coming to help you out even if it's not a big deal."

She looked to the Ren family and gave them a smile before leading the way out of the training hall to the school entrance, where Hanuman was awaiting their arrival.

"Han, what's—" Ingrid said before her brother cut her off.

"Sis, you gotta come back home," he said frantically. "There's...I dunno what the hell is going on back there, but everybody's acting all weird."

"What do you mean?" Yuan said.

"It's not just the council members and higher ups. It's the whole friggin' country. I dunno if it's something in the water, but—"

"Han," Ingrid said, grasping her brother by the shoulders. "What's happening?"

He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. "At first, we thought it was just a bunch of mining accidents, but then people started seeing other people deliberately sabotaging some of the equipment and setting fire to the raw Dust that was just mined out."

"What did mom and dad do about it?"

"Well, first they tried to increase security and stuff, but the council shot down all of their proposals and they both had to go out there by themselves with their own people, but none of them have come back. And this was weeks ago."

Ingrid's eyes opened wide. "Mom and dad?"

Hanuman nodded and then began crying. "Sis! I dunno what to do! The council just abandoned mom and dad like that and all our friends and their friends and—"

"Hey," Ingrid said before holding her brother tightly. "Don't cry. Mom and dad fought in the last war, remember? They're not so weak that they'll go down without a fight. For all we know, they've been giving the bad guys hell for the past few weeks."

"I just," he sobbed, "I wish I was stronger, you know? Like you and mom and dad."

"You're plenty strong. You've been strengthening your Semblance, haven't you?"

"I mean, yeah. I can keep my clone active for a whole hour now, but I can't keep it up for longer than five minutes if I'm doing something as crazy as fighting."

"But you've gotten the clone's abilities down, haven't you?"

He nodded before taking a step back and projecting his clone beside him. Ingrid was astonished at his copy's appearance. It used to be that his double would appear translucent, but right now, she found it impossible to tell which was her brother and which was his copy.

"W-What?" she said.

"Yeah, I can even sync my thoughts between both," he said.

"Which is pretty cool," the one on the left said.

"And I guess it works to confuse the enemy, too."

"Oh, and pass messages to people at a distance."

All the while, Ingrid kept looking between the two, unable to figure out which was the real Hanuman.

"Are your abilities passed over as well?" Yuan asked him.

"Yeah," he said. "My double is just as strong and just as fast as me and he also operates independently with all my knowledge and stuff."

"That's quite the powerful Semblance, actually. Most clone-type Semblances can't even come close to matching the level of detail in the copy and those that do can never grant a total replication of abilities without some level of watering down between themselves and their copies."

"Yeah, but that's why my time limit is five minutes when I'm fighting," Hanuman said as he retired his clone.

"That's plenty of time for it to make a difference. What's the cool down before you can project it again?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"That's really fast for something that powerful. Like Ingrid said, you're plenty strong. You just gotta put your mind to it. And you know what I think will help out? We're all gonna come and help you find your parents."

"Wait, what?" Ingrid said.

"Do you mean it?" Hanuman said.

Yuan nodded. "We're all Huntsmen. What would that do for our reputations if we turned you down?"

"When do we head out?"

"After we confer with both teams. C'mon, let's meet up with everyone."

"My vote's a yes," Athena said. "Xanthus, you're the busy one of our team. Are you gonna stay to make sure Hillphire's recovery goes smoothly?"

"No," he said, pushing up his glasses. "At this point, there's nothing left for me to do here. The staff can take care of the rest of his rehabilitation."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. There wasn't a hint of doubt in his face or voice.

"Okay. Team LILY?"

"This is our teammate we're talking about," Leon said. "And besides, the vote's two on one. Why the hell would I be the dick to vote against them?"

"Team LILY is incomplete, though."

"I don't think so," Yuan said, turning to Hanuman.

"Wait, m-me?" he said.

"Yeah. You've got the training, don't you?"

"I mean, I've trained with my dad and my sisters, but we don't really have a primary combat school back home, so I don't have any formal training."

"I think training with Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong is plenty of formal training," Ren said.

"Yep," Nora said with a nod.

"The rest of us need to stay in Mistral, though," Winter said. "Unfortunately, the city has been severely compromised by Colonel Gottfried's attack and you all know how busy we've been during the past month and a half just trying to keep the Grimm out of the city."

"It's all one big positive feedback loop," Ren said. "The Grimm attack, people get scared, the Grimm attack again because they're attracted to fear and other negative emotions, and then people get scared even more. It never ends."

"We can handle things here, though," Nora said, deploying her hammer. "Those things die when you hit them hard enough."

"Mom, please don't break things that don't need to be broken," Yuan said.

She grinned in response.

"Now I'm worried."

The doors to the room flew open and Penny marched in. "Are you guys seriously leaving on your own?" she said.

"Did you hack into the cameras again?" Ren said.

"Of course I did. I heard everything. I'm coming with you."

"Senpai," Xanthus said, standing in front of her. "Dr. Hillphire needs you. And not just him. The City of Mistral needs Project Persephone now more than ever. You've seen how often the Grimm have been attacking and how large each horde is."

"You haven't even graduated yet. I'm not gonna let you guys go out there and do the most dangerous job you've ever done without at least some supervision!"

"I dunno if you've noticed," Perseus said, standing with his combat partner, "but we've been doing all sorts of dangerous shit already over the past year."

"Yes! And because of that, Ivory was taken!"

"But she's fine," Athena said. "She's literally with Lilly right now kicking all sorts of ass."

"That's what you call luck, and that doesn't last forever!"

Xanthus stepped forward to embrace her, making her gasp and freeze up.

"I know how important we are to you," he said. "That's why I'm gonna look after our team. Me and Yuan. We have the power to protect ourselves now."

"You can't even use those powers in the real world," she sighed.

"Maybe not fully, but ever since I formed a pact with Sir Percival, Yuan's felt a pretty substantial power boost. I have to admit, too, that I've noticed a bit of strength that I didn't have before."

"You're all being so naïve," Penny said, looking at the ground as Xanthus stepped back, standing among the rest of his team, which included Leon, Yuan, and Ingrid as well.

"I prefer the term 'optimistic'," Leon quipped.

She looked at them. Each one stood with total assurance. There was a time when she also possessed this confidence, but perhaps age robbed her of it. She turned her head to Winter as the latter placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Believe me," she began, "it was difficult to let go of Ivory as well. But if there's anything I've learned after all these years, it's that we can't really underestimate these youngsters. It was the same mistake we made all those years ago with your own generation. Or...is this your generation now?"

The doors to the room opened. Penny's eyes widened as Hillphire walked through, clad from head to toe in his stripped down powered armor.

"Dr. Hillphire," Xanthus said, walking to him. "So, it's worked."

"Using the suit as a body-wide prosthetic was your idea, Xan-chan," Hillphire said, shifting his eye patch to relieve some itching. "Penny. Go with them."

"But, wait, Dr. Hillphire—"

"I can take care of things here. This is my company, after all."

"Liam," Penny said, gritting her teeth as she clenched her fists. "You're in pain. You're in so much pain."

He shook his head. "I'm fine. A little bone degeneration isn't gonna stop me."

She ran to him, wrapping her arms all around the cold shell of his powered armor. She couldn't touch him in this state, though she wished she could right now. Despite his words, she could feel the terrible agony he was going through, not just through her Semblance, but also from the way his voice quavered with each word.

"Hillphire," Winter began, "are you sure you're all right?"

"We all saw the state your body was in," Ren said. "Technology is literally the only thing keeping you upright at this very moment."

"You're right," Hillphire said, "but until we can figure out what the hell is wrong with me, this is the best we can do. And besides, what else am I supposed to use my own products for other than my own benefit when I actually need it?"

Penny closed her eyes, allowing the tears to fall on the cold metal of his powered armor. This was wrong. This was so wrong. She was becoming more and more human with each development while Liam was losing his humanity. Even now, they had no idea if his right eye would ever work again.

"Hey," Hillphire said, holding her at arm's length. "Can you trust that I'll be all right?"

She hesitated before nodding.

"Good," he said as he wiped her tears away with his thumbs after retracting the gloves to expose his hands. She reached up to grip his fingers in her own, feeling their warmth, a stark contrast to the lifeless steel coffin he now relied on to support his vital functions.

"Everything seems to be in good working order," Penny said, connecting wirelessly with his suit's onboard computer. "Your new heart is beating strong, too."

He smiled. "That's because it was meant for you."

Leon glanced over at Xanthus as that last line left Hillphire's mouth. His friend didn't show any emotion on the outside, but Leon knew he had been hurting over the last several weeks.

"Like getting kicked in the nuts," Perseus said quietly.

Leon turned to him.

"I'm sure we're not the only ones who've noticed, man."

"Yeah, well, it still sucks," Leon said.

"Okay," Hillphire said, turning to the rest of the group, ignoring the pain burning every nerve ending. "I hacked into the surveillance system, too, so I heard most of what you guys were talking about. I've already got a high-altitude shuttle ready for all nine of you and there's plenty of supplies onboard for the work you'll need to do. It'll take you straight to Kuo Kuana, stopping for nothing."

"Is this one of the automated ones?" Xanthus said.

"Yes. No pilot means no rest means no stops. Penny can override the systems if necessary."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Athena said. "Let's go save Ingrid's home."