Last Call


["Lot to explain, be there soon! Stay with Penny."]

Weiss rolled her eyes at Ruby's message and pocketed her Scroll. Of course Ruby would pick up that cryptic nature from Adam, she thought. Wind whipped through the terraces of Amity as she and Penny explored the coliseum, set on at least visiting all it had to offer. All of the interruptions left it here for quite a while longer: was there anything wrong with taking advantage of that? Still, Weiss couldn't help but notice a few conspicuous absences: no sign of Blake, no sign of Team JNPR, not even a glimpse of their trio—well, duo now, thanks to Yang—of enemies. Something about that made the crowds feel a little lonely.

"Weiss, what do you plan on doing after Beacon?" Penny knocked her out of her thoughts.

Her pre-prepared answer was ready to go, but remembering Oobleck's words left it caught in her throat. Seeing how Penny walked with her arms crossed and her gaze unable to meet her own killed it. Weiss sighed. That was a great question, considering her father was taking such a sudden and involved interest in her career here.

"When I was young, my mother spoke to me a lot of my grandfather's feats. He was a Huntsman, yes, but he still expanded the Schnee Dust Company by leading dangerous expeditions by himself. I suppose..." Weiss shrugged. "I suppose I wish to follow in his footsteps: he was a businessman, but that didn't stop him from being a hero. Why should leading the SDC one day stop me from being one too?"

"How?" In an instant, Penny's face was only a few inches away from her, eyes wide, desperate, boring straight into her own. Her fingers were gripping her arms tightly enough for the fabric of her sleeves to strain.

The edge in Penny's voice left Weiss stumbling for some kind of response. "W-what do you mean?"

"How are you going to become a hero? What does it mean?" Though Weiss guided the two from the crowds, Penny didn't let the distance between them grow. "How was he a hero?"

Weiss tried to speak, but Penny was already moving on.

"Was it the danger? Being ready to do anything for his people? Sacrifice? That's what Ciel's told me, but I—"

"Is everything alright?"

Penny shrunk back and turned away like she'd just now noticed what she was saying. She looked into the crowd, and in that moment Weiss knew exactly what she was about to do. Before she could race off, Weiss grabbed her hand.

"Did something happen? You looked happy just a few minutes ago."

She grit her teeth then, all at once, the resistance left her. Penny hung her head. "Yes. No... I don't know. General Ironwood, my father, my teammates... they all say that I'm going to be a great hero one day. I thought that if I could get into Beacon, I would figure out why, but..."

"You aren't getting nervous about getting in, are you?" Weiss squeezed her hand. "Pyrrha might be tough, but I know you are a surefire win."

It might've taken a moment, but soon, Penny was smiling too. Much better, Weiss thought.

"It's not that, friend. I don't think I know what it is."

"I might." Weiss looked her over with a knowing smile. Inside, however, she couldn't believe it'd taken her this long to figure it out. "Let me guess: you wanted to come to Beacon so you'd have more time to think about if your 'destiny' was what you wanted, didn't you?"

Penny turned to her in shock. Weiss tilted her head up in pride: she knew it. Living up to the family name, living up to the expectations of being a 'hero': the two of them were awfully similar.

Music blared through speakers all throughout the coliseum before Penny could respond. Weiss cursed in her head: it must've been two o'clock already.

"Go~od afternoon Remnant, and welcome to the final afternoon of the Vytal Tournament!" Professor Port's voice boomed. "We've got a long day ahead of us, so let's get right to the first selection of the final round! These two lucky fighters will be the only ones to have time to prepare for the upcoming battle later this evening."

Already, Penny was staring off in thought. She wasn't paying attention to any of it, and Weiss had the right mind to do the same. As Port went through the explanations, Weiss squeezed Penny's shoulder, drawing her attention back to her. Trying to be heard over Port was hard enough in-person, let alone with a city block's worth of speakers on his side, but she tried her best to get her message across anyway: whatever happened, Penny would have her friends by her side.

Considering the crushing hug she found herself in, Weiss had a feeling Penny got the gist of it.

"And the first fighter will be Penny Polendina from Atlas!"

"Looks like luck's on your side after all," Weiss said.

"And the second fighter will be..."


"Pyrrha, is something wrong?" Call him a fool all you want, Jaune thought, but he wasn't dumb enough to think that it wasn't weird to bring someone outside an abandoned school cafeteria a few hours before an important match. The first few fallen leaves of autumn blowing past the pillars lining the path by were nice to look at, but it wasn't the same vibe as when they were on the cliff either. He probably just read her wrong anyway.

Jaune didn't know if he was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't hear her, but as they walked beside the building, Pyrrha didn't respond.

"Pyrrha?"

"I took Ozpin's offer."

"Wait, really?" With wide eyes, Jaune looked around to make sure no one could hear. "That's great, Pyrrha! I know you'll..." When he looked back, he noticed Pyrrha's gaze firmly locked on the stone path ahead and her fists balled up at her sides. Jaune slowed to a stop in the shadows cast by the many pillars. He became acutely aware of his heart's new home somewhere deep in his stomach.

"Still worried about the side effects?" he heard himself ask even though the answer grew more obvious in the back of his mind. The skitter of leaves dragging across stone grew unbearable. Pyrrha turned to look at him with heavy eyes.

His back crashed into the stone pillar. Pyrrha's lips crashed into his own.


Was it selfish, Pyrrha thought? Was it so wrong to put her destiny off for just a little bit longer?

Even if it had already arrived?


Amity Coliseum and Beacon shrank behind Penny as she flew towards the AAS Atlas Telemon for a final check-up. The gargantuan airship filled her vision. Even the sun's light was obscured by the airship. Flying was still difficult for her, requiring countless minute calculations to make up for a body not suited for the sky. Despite the focus it required for long-term flight, despite her proximity to the AAS Atlas Telemon, despite her interrupted conversation with Weiss playing in her head time and time again, Penny thought about nothing at all. It was easier that way. Better nothing than to find her thoughts dragged to the future. And so, trying and failing to let the sound of the thrusters her blades formed drown out her thoughts, Penny continued on her way.

Her internal connections to the airship ahead of her turned off. An external one opened. The identification said Mr. Soleil, yet—

"You're more clever than you let on, Cog." Roman Torchwick.

Penny halted mid-flight fast enough for her systems to blare. An unfamiliar anger bubbled up from within her.

"My name is Penny," she growled. "What do you want, Roman Torchwick? How did you contact me?" Her eyes scanned her surroundings in an instant. Every aura in a mile radius was hers to examine. Yet she saw no sign of Roman Torchwick. The largest warrant she found on those identified was for trespassing on a man 3,894 feet away.

"For shame, treating your former host like that. I only called to catch up." Attempts to trace the connection failed: unless a most wanted criminal was wandering through the aerial dreadnought ahead, he'd spoofed the location. Roman Torchwick continued speaking, but the criminal's words fell on deaf ears as Penny instead focused on trying to manually break the connection. It was a futile effort.

"Say, why'd you hide the memories of your time in my humble abode?" But that comment broke through. How? How did he know that?

"I... I don't know what you're talking about." She hiccupped and immediately cursed herself.

"I'm sure, I'm sure. You know, the old cyborg was pretty upset when you pulled that. I guess Merlot wanted you to get hooked into the full Atlas system for a deeper check-up. Don't tell me you were listening to the mean criminals. Or did something I say finally get through to you?"

Her thrusters flared and rattled. Penny squeezed her eyes shut and, unable to force Torchwick to shut up, tried her hardest to ignore him. She forced the Dust pushed into her blades its highest allotted capacity, and put all her focus on getting to the dreadnought as soon as possible.

"I wonder if it was just you wanting to be a little more independent from General Compensation. Oh well." But Torchwick didn't take a hint.

The truth was that she didn't know why she masked the altered memories from detection. She didn't even know that she could do that. It was just a whim. A sudden urge to keep them. But Penny refused to believe for a minute that she was doubting herself because of a criminal.

"You know you can't run forever, right? Are you sure you're ready to be a hero, Cog?" Why was he so insistent on mocking her? What had she done to him?

"Ready to do everything you're told, like a loyal puppet?" Warnings flickered to life on how hard she was pushing herself, yet were closed just as quickly.

"Are you ready to die for these—"

"Shut up!" Penny screamed. Her head hurt. She'd have to answer a lot of questions on why her blades were scorched and pushed to their limit. But all Penny wanted right now was her own mind back. The shriek of an alarm got her to halt just before she would've rammed into the Atlas Telemon. Yet her thoughts kept tumbling. It was times like this she hated being a machine. She hated not even being able to think without someone else watching her!

She drifted towards one of the doors normally used for docking. In those few seconds, she received a taste of the blissful silence she wanted.

"Then keep running." But only a taste. Her only solace was that perpetually mocking tone was no longer there. Instead came a tone tired and cold. "But you'll need to find an answer soon, Penny."

The connection terminated. She opened the door, stepped inside, and felt her links to the surrounding systems return. For a split-second, she thought about shutting them down. Penny knew she wasn't supposed to, but if only for a few seconds...

"Private Polendina, what happened?" A voice came to her ears. An officer whose face she remembered yet name she couldn't be bothered to look up in her records. "You cannot afford to strain your systems so severely before your next battle."

Penny wished she could cry. Shout. Do something. But she was in the Atlas Telemon now. There were too many cameras. Her connections were active now. Every word and motion she made was monitored. So she dragged herself through the cramped corridors.

"Just a test run." She hiccupped. "I wanted to ensure I knew the precise parameters of my mobility systems prior to the next engagement." Again.

Despite the burning fire in her chest, Penny never felt colder than she did when marching into the core of the steel dreadnought.


4:15PM. Adam stared at the last call from Ruby on Chiffon's Scroll, then watched the Atlesian airships drift above Beacon for a few moments longer. Beyond the cliff he stood under, his final hours at Beacon would begin. He took a last look back at the ferry he stepped off from: it was an unfamiliar angle, watching the river leading to Vale proper. Usually, he would've taken an airship, but he didn't feel like taking any chances of a 'mysterious mishap' killing him where he had little hope of survival.

Well, this was it. Ruby had told her uncle, who no doubt was close with Ozpin. It was done. At least, it would be soon. Ruby hadn't mentioned anything about seeing Cinder or Blake since, but Adam imagined that if Cinder were to have escaped Ozpin's clutches, it would've been enough of an event to attract attention. That just left Blake, and she was unlikely to answer anyone texting from an unknown number. Not to mention that they had much to speak of. He could only hope that she was away from Cinder. Hope that Ilia would keep her safe. Hope that even Ozpin could have reached Blake or Cinder first.

There was no point in delaying it, he thought. They would just have to figure out the rest as they went along. Adam stepped onto one of the many elevators up to Beacon's aerial docks. He sighed, then pressed the button for it to rise.


Less than an hour left now. Ruby closed her Scroll for the fifth time in the past five minutes. Sure, time wasn't suddenly going to slow down or speed up, but you never know, she thought. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she walked through Beacon's fairgrounds, but she wasn't sure what it was: excitement? Worry? Satisfaction? Ruby patted her cheeks.

"Come on, get it together, Ruby!" she muttered to herself. Then, without even thinking, she checked her Scroll again. With her eyes focused on the time, she didn't notice there was someone in front of her until she ran face-first into them and tumbled to the ground.

Weiss leaned over her, thoroughly unamused. "Where have you been?"

Trying to find and spy on Cinder then relaying the news to Adam probably wasn't the best thing to say. So she told a half-truth! "Um... talking to my uncle?" And put on her best innocent grin.

Weiss' stare was unchanged. "Is that why you ran off like the sky was falling?"

"Oh, y'know how that goes..." Ruby tried to find something else to look at while she came up with a clever escape. "Where'd Penny go?"

"Get up, dolt."

Ruby sighed in relief and hopped up to her feet. Weiss giving up still counted as getting out of answering, Ruby thought... at least until she saw Weiss still staring at her, waiting with her arms crossed. She nervously glanced around. She guessed that she'd already told Adam, so what was the harm in telling her best buddy? She scooted closer to Weiss and leaned in.

Adam also leaned in. "What are you two doing?"

Both girls nearly jumped out of their skin and whirled around.

"Don't scare people like that!" Weiss huffed while Ruby jumped over to hug him. Surprising himself almost as much as the two girls, he didn't try to get out of it. At least until it was clear Ruby was going to stay latched onto his arm.

"Not to say that I'm not glad you survived whatever mystery mission you happened to disappear to, but is there a reason you couldn't have called when you got here?" Weiss asked.

Adam shrugged and waved it off. "I had a rough night and morning. I wasn't going to come here looking like I crawled out of a warzone: we don't need those questions."

"Please tell me that isn't literal." Weiss already knew the answer. Adam's response only being to stare at her only confirmed it. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "What happened?"

"You didn't tell her already?" Adam raised an eyebrow and looked to Ruby. "That's a pleasant surprise."

Ruby leaned over. "Actually, I was just about to."

"I retract that."

"Aw come on, I waited long enough!"

"Sure you did," Adam said with a faint smile, then nodded for the two to follow. "Let's not leave you in the dark any longer then, Weiss."


Weiss watched the final setup leading into the last round of the Vytal Tournament, predictions and replays flying by on a screen at a ramen stall the three decided to stop at, but Weiss found that she couldn't focus on it. Just thirty minutes left. But they'd won, right? Ruby talked away on the other side of Adam, somehow having gone over two more subjects since she last tuned in. If Cinder was going to beat some fighting retreat or try to get a spiteful last strike, she would've done so already, right? Wouldn't Yang have been released by now if they knew that she was likely framed?

Then again, she thought, that might've been for her safety. Just in case. Speaking of which, Weiss thought as she looked over to Adam chipping in his own opinion on if Pyrrha could beat Penny, if Adam was calm, then that meant Blake surely had to be safe. She furrowed her brow. But he wasn't. He was as tense as a pressed spring—both of them were. His hand nearest to her on the counter was gripped tight into a fist. His smile was pasted on.

She couldn't blame him, though: the last time they'd seen each other today was when her father dragged him off. The cold that shot through her wasn't from the evening chill. After all, she hadn't heard a word from her father since then either. Had Adam said something to him? Worse: had her father said something to him? Weiss propped her head up onto her fist and sighed. Just fantastic. Now she was probably looking tense too. Her gaze flicked back to Adam's hand. Maybe they just needed to get their mind off of it...

Gently, she reached her hand out for his.

"Jacques knows."

Weiss jumped and, only then, realized just how little she'd been really paying attention. But Adam wasn't looking at her. His attention was squarely on the screen. Ruby idly picked at her ramen beside him. Her cheeks burned: how long had they been quiet?

"He'd done some digging around and recognized me. According to him, I have about twenty-four hours left to escape Vale before he tries to bring the hammer down." Despite the news that left her heart cold, Adam sounded casual about it all. No, resigned to it.

"And even if Mercury gets caught," Ruby added, "I doubt Ozpin's gonna be able to keep Yang in Beacon after what everybody saw," she said with a sad smile and leaned against the counter. "This victory kinda blows."

A retort to take this more seriously was on the tip of Weiss' tongue, but Adam smiled and finally turned to her. A resigned smile, yet a genuine one. And suddenly, her thoughts were shoved away.

"That depends," Adam said. "Yang's out, I'm out, and Ruby's coming with whether I like it or not. What say you stick it to Jacques and join your worst enemy in Ildaite?" He offered his hand.

"Free mask~" Ruby said from where she leaned over him with a wide, cheeky grin.

Adam rolled his eyes. "They still need work." He winked. "Fair warning."

An offer to join a group of White Fang. The sheer absurdity of the request left Weiss with her mouth agape. A White Fang officer offering the Schnee heiress to join his branch of faunus revolutionaries. At a ramen stall. It was almost as absurd as the fact that she was considering it at all. So she did the only thing she could ever be expected to do.

She laughed. Laughed and laughed until it'd spread to Ruby and even Adam. And for at least a precious few seconds, all that tension melted away like snow beneath a summer sun. In that moment, Weiss thought, maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.


The three were still getting a kick out of their unlikely future when someone whistled to them.

"Geez, I wish I could've heard whatever got you three in such a good mood," Qrow said with a lopsided grin and swung himself into a chair beside Ruby. He tousled her hair—much to her vocal dismay—but he looked past her to Adam.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but Ozpin's been lookin' for you, kid."

Pouting, Ruby managed to wave Qrow's hand away. "Huh? I thought I told you everything already."

Qrow raised an eyebrow. His grin didn't fade, but now there was a confused edge to it. He didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Ruby hoped the knot in her chest was a coincidence.

"Guess my memory must be going out: remind me again?"

The three looked between each other. His higher spirits already a distant memory, Adam sat up a little more straight and peered around.

Ruby bit her lip. "Y-you know, the admin office, remember? About you-know-who?"

Qrow squinted at her for a second, searching for whatever reason or joke this could be. Finally, he sighed. "Alright, you've got me. I must not've been listening. Sorry, kid." He tried to laugh it off, but it faded as Ruby got off of her seat and stepped back. Now she was searching her surroundings too.

A breeze went by and left a chill creeping through her. How? She'd sat there talking to Qrow for ten minutes! She couldn't have imagined that. She couldn't have imagined Qrow talking to her. Right? Ruby felt like she was going crazy: none of this made any sense at all. Was this how Yang was feeling?

Ruby's breath caught in her throat. This wasn't the first time she'd felt this way. She remembered this, fleeting and quickly buried beneath more important issues. Flickers of the twisted sights of her sister buried beneath Grimm during the Breach. Something that had never happened. A trick of the mind lasting just long enough for her to be attacked—no, for her to be saved. 'Saved' by Cinder and Emerald. The same pair she passed on the way to the office. But Cinder wasn't the one sitting smug and confident beside her in the stands...


One o'clock. Rose petals drifted to the ground in the gaudy administration office, bright to the point of almost glowing in the now-afternoon sun. The echo of doors flung open and slamming shut faded. Qrow sighed.

Then, he vanished.

"Damnit!" Emerald collapsed into the chair of whatever arrogant idiot used this office. Aura as green as her namesake flickered and crackled around her, then crumbled altogether, leaving her alone with nothing but her own thoughts and heavy breathing as company. Even keeping up a static image for ten minutes was a real headache to keep going, let alone having to rely on her target's own memories for the voice of her hallucinations.

Her head feeling like a lead weight and her legs refusing to cooperate, Emerald dragged her Scroll free from her pocket. Time was running out. She managed a single text to Cinder.

["ON BORROWED TIME"]


"Emerald," Ruby hissed under her breath.

Qrow hadn't even the time to ask before Ruby was on her feet, determined yet, inside, cursing herself for how obvious it all felt in hindsight.

"It's Blake's team, Uncle! Cinder, Emerald, Mercury—they're trying to bring down Vale!"