"You're running out of time."

"I don't care."

"You won't be able to go back if you keep wasting time."

"I don't fucking care."

"Then start fucking caring!"

Two days after the funeral of Winter Schnee on the 17th of February, Penny found herself sitting alone during her lunch period quietly eating her a frankly mediocre burger and fries... The empty seat Jaune would normally sit for lunch had been hard for her to look at and she frankly hated listening to the crowded cafeteria talk about Jaune as the rumor mill speculated fresh rumors about him every day.

"Why did Adam target him, was he banging his ex?"

"Dude shouldn't have tried to fight that guy"

"I heard he tried to off himself a couple years back, he was probably trying to suicide via crazy asshole"

Penny sighed, slipped her headphones on, and put on a CD she had borrowed from Jaune before he was put in the hospital. It was weird, she didn't particularly care much for the Offspring as a band but listening to that particular CD helped her feel connected to her comatose boyfriend even if she couldn't physically be there with him.

Relationships were kinda messy and weird for her, but she liked it for the most part.

As she intentionally drowned out the world and let her mind wander she daydreamed about all the things she wanted to do with Jaune. He was her first kiss, her first boyfriend, but she found herself wanting much, much more from him now that he was not there.

"Distance makes the heart yonder or something" Penny mumbled to herself trying to remember the quote.

As she was staring off into space her attention was drawn to the sight of her next-door neighbor walking alone towards the blue hall and not making eye contact with anyone.

"Huh…" Penny mused "I should go check on him…" As she got up and walked off after him abandoning her half-finished lunch in a hurry to catch up to him.


It took a few moments, but Penny had managed to catch up to Sun and grabbed onto his coat sleeve. "Hey wait up, I haven't seen you lately," Penny said to her estranged friend and almost murderer.

"Uh, hey penny it might not be a good idea for you to be around me right now," Sun said as he was keeping an eye out for something

"What's going on?" Penny asked as she tilted her head.

"Half the football team looks like they're aiming to finish what Jaune arc's crew started when they buried Adam," Sun said as he frantically looked around. "Jesus I know the answer to this and, but how did it get this so fucked?"

"Half the football team… Are you being bullied Sun?" Penny said with a growing look of concern on her face.

"No Penny, I'm being hunted for fucking sport around campus…" Sun said, "That's not sarcasm either, I'm a dead man."

Penny flinched when she heard a voice call out "There he is!" As Cardin Winchester and a few of his fellow football players started walking towards them.

"Penny get out of here! Let me take my lumps" Sun said.

Penny didn't budge as a look of pure determination painted itself on her face.

"Move aside little girl, we have a business while this rat shit," Cardin stated as he stopped barely a foot away from him.

"No, I don't think I will," Penny said with a slightly wavering voice.

Cardin turned and faced Penny "Excuse me, kid? Cardin made a big gesture of closing the gap with her "I don't think I heard you."

"You lay one finger on him and I'll scream loud enough that no one on the campus can ignore it," Penny said. "It won't be pretty"

Cardin joined the others in chuckling "Oh really, you think anyone is going to lift a finger in this coward's defense?"

Penny stepped up and stared directly up at him "I am yes."

"You know who this shit was friends with?" Cardin said, "This guy's best friend Killed Weiss Schnee's sister and put Jaune Arc in the hospital!"

"I know all about that, I also know that's a mighty high horse you're standing on considering you were trying to sexually exploit Jaune's previous girlfriend," Penny said loud enough to make sure his cronies were able to hear it.

"Who do you fucking think you are you, little sophomore bitch!" Cardin growled.

"Jaune Arc's current girlfriend." Penny declared. "As well as Close friends with Ruby long."

Penny paused smirked and said, "Who do you think you are, you brain dead jock?"

Cardin gritted his teeth but he knew he couldn't do anything if Jaune's girlfriend was protecting this guy he couldn't touch him under the excuse of avenging anyone. "Alright stand down, let this Cowardly little shit hide behind a girl he's that much of a bitch."

With that Cardin turned and led his gang off.

"Jesus Penny that guy would have taken your head off if he thought he could get away with it," Sun said. "And I told you to not try to protect me…"

"I don't get it though, why did everyone turn on you?" Penny asked

"Because I was part of Adam's gang!" Sun said. "In fact, I'm the last one! Everyone else is dead or in jail now!"

"That's not your fault," Penny said putting a hand on his arm "You did what you thought was right"

"Yeah, and it killed all of my friends." Sun said, "The worst part of it is we all deserved it."

Penny lowered her arm and rested it on her hip "I think you're being too hard on-" she had started to say

"Penny, Scarlet, Sage, and I jumped your boyfriend… Sure it was Sage's idea… but…" Sun said, "I didn't stop them, I joined in."

Penny was pretty silent for a moment. Allowing Sun to keep going "Yeah, we are why Jaune was in the hospital, and I didn't stop it… I didn't stop Adam and now He's on death's door…"

Penny sighed "I'll admit I know I can't overlook that."

Sun said, "Then you should go before you get lumped in with me."

"I said I can't overlook it, but that doesn't mean I can't eventually forgive it." Penny thought "Maybe we just need some help."

"Who the fuck would help me?" Sun asked out loud just before the bell rang.

"Meet me here after school, we'll figure something out," Penny said with a smile.

Sun walked off saying something that stuck with Penny for the rest of the day "It's not like I have anywhere else I can go…"


Near the end of the day Penny was in Gym class talking with Neptune, she considered Neptune a friend and often did her stretches near him. Neptune often tried his best to keep an eye on her in class since the cut of her gym shorts and the baggy shirt she wore often attracted attention from certain boys in the class.

"Bless her heart, but she's far too naive sometimes" Neptune would often think.

Today however Neptune found himself keeping an eye on her for another reason, she was acting frankly un-Penny like as she was acting rather bothered by something.

As the pair jogged around the gymnasium Neptune spoke first "Hey Penny, something bothering you?"

Penny hummed for a second before asking "How would you react if you felt like it was your fault that all your friends died?"

Neptune stumbled for a second at the sheer bluntness of the question "I mean, I kinda hope I never have to go through that, I guess if I was being honest though, I wouldn't be handling it well, what brought this on?"

Penny thought about her words for a few moments as she spoke: "I talked to Sun earlier today, I mean he lost more or less every friend he had the night Adam went on his rampage."

"Trust me, he's better off, those assholes were not friends," Neptune said in reply. "I would know, I was one of them a couple years ago."

"Well, you're a much better person now," Penny commented.

Neptune winced, he knew damn well what he tried a few years back, Adam had dared him to try and hook up with her and the only thing that stopped him was her father and a baseball bat. "Well… I don't know about all that."

"I get it, you still feel guilty about that one time at my place." Penny chuckled "You put the moves on me, yeah, but you didn't assault me or anything."

"It was still a real shit thing to do…" Neptune said. "I'm surprised you never brought it up to the others though."

"Why? You're not that person anymore." Penny replied with a smile.

"I guess I'm not, but we went off-topic. What's this about Sun?" Neptune asked

Penny jogged along as she spoke, "He has no friends now, and when I saw him today he was being chased down by some Jocks that looked like they wanted to murder him."

"Winchester…." Neptune muttered, "That guy never knows when to quit."

"I don't understand?" Penny said.

"Adam's gang and Winchesters Jock clique used to brawl quite a bit, I remember putting the boots to Cardin myself a few times back in the day before I quit that group for the swimming team," Neptune said. "I guess now that all of the heavy hitters are gone, Sun is on his own and is being targeted for revenge."

Shortly after saying that Neptune stopped mid-run causing Penny to stop as well "You okay?"

"Yeah, shit this gash on my chest is starting to burn a bit." He said before he began walking again

Penny nodded it off "So what do you think sun meant when he said he didn't have anywhere to go?"

Neptune looked up partially out of pain and partially out the simple fact he was wondering "We can ask him."

"I asked him to meet me after school," Penny said.

"I'll tag along, might be a good way to get some of the heat off of him if a couple of Adam's victims tried to befriend him more publicly," Neptune said.

Penny smiled and nodded "I like that idea!"


After school let out Sun Wukong waited for Penny to show up, he tried to stay as out of sight as he could but he felt his paranoia kicking in.

"Jesus, I can't live like this anymore," Sun said to himself.

"Live like what?" Sun heard from behind and spun on his heels to see Neptune and Penny behind him.

Sun's entire posture tensed "Nothing, it's not your problem."

"One of my former friends is getting bullied, that's my problem." Neptune declared.

"Don't you have a girlfriend to make out with?" Sun grumbled at Neptune.

"I plan on seeing her later, but I want to know what's going on with you first," Neptune said. "Penny is worried about you, and that got me worried as well."

"Stop trying to fuck her Neptune's she taken." Sun practically spat out

Neptune for his part pinched his nose and mentally counted back to keep from slugging Sun "Sun I'm trying to help you out, I'm sorry I couldn't drag you off that Gang when I left, but you didn't let me."

"Because we were brothers, we didn't betray our own!" Sun said with a simmer in his voice.

"Do you really think Adam had your best interests in mind when he tried to get you to murder Penny in cold blood?" Neptune said "One of your oldest childhood friends?"

Sun visibly deflated as he looked down "No… I hate how close he got me to do that"

"But you didn't, you didn't betray Adam, he sold your lives for his… fucking obsessions." Neptune said. "Now, do you need help?"

Sun looked off to the side "I've been sleeping in the old hideout, the one on west street."

"Jesus christ why?" Neptune said. "That place is a dump!"

"Because my parents threw me out of the house because they didn't want to be associated with any part of the Adam situation." Sun sobbed out "I did the right thing? I should have turned the gun on myself, it would have been easier."

Penny quietly held a hand to her chest stopping herself from saying something. Neptune looked at him "Hey man, if you need a place to stay I'll explain the situation to my folks."

"I can't ask that you spent years rebuilding your rep after leaving the gang…" Sun said.

"Yeah, well fuck my rep, you saved penny's life, and calling the police might have saved Jaune, Ruby, and Blake," Neptune said. "I know how hard it was to stop listening to Adam"

"Yeah, I know you do... " Sun said.

"I'd ask dad about letting you crash with us, but… well, a few things came up recently…" Penny stammered out. "It wouldn't work long term."

"Hey it's alright penny, you don't owe me an explanation," Sun said before he turned to Neptune. "Alright, you win, I only had time to get a couple sets of clothes but I'll try to be there tonight…"

"You won't regret this, and Penny, Yang, and I will make damn sure people stop fucking around with you," Neptune said.

"I… I don't think I really deserve it," Sun said.

"Neither did I when I first left the gang… I'll help you through it okay?" Neptune said. "Us old bangers need to stick together."

Sun chuckled uncomfortably before he said, "I mean you say so."

Neptune threw an arm around Sun as he walked him off "Trust me Sun, I'll have your back for as long as you need it."

Penny lingered behind as Neptune's words hung in the air around her "Penny Yang and I…"

As Penny walked silently she muttered "I wish that was true Nep…" to herself.


We really needed to see more of the side cast, Neptune, in particular, has really evolved throughout the fic from his occasionally seen calming voice to Yang's over the top tempter to his own character with his own past and struggles.

He kinda became one of my favorites, and I didn't expect that from me pulling a name from the wiki to pair Yang with dozens of chapters ago. Sun's case was an interesting one, I needed to spend some time to maybe try to reconcile some of his earlier "Unrepentant jackass" traits with his more current "Regretting friend of Penny" Traits, and this was the first chapter I could use to focus on it.

This chapter was another one of those "Shifting players around" Kind of chapters and setting up their own recovery arcs. as well as setting up something that's going to happen in a handful of chapters.

Dragonlord, yeah I wanted to kinda imply that Rena and Nora have had a sort of an "Us versus the world" Mindset when it came to life, I figured outside of Yang and Ruby, those two even in AQMW was the closest pair of characters.

Beowulf: Yeah that's going somewhere. I can promise that.

Retorque: I hope you're still holding up, I know the Chicago area has been slammed with cases. Stay safe out there.

Same with the rest of you, keep washing your hands, wear masks when you go out, and socially distance yourselves. make Retorque's job a little bit easier please! and I'll see you all next time.