Penny's eyes opened. Streams of data went through her mind as she booted up. She immediately recognized that she was in the infirmary of Atlas Academy in one of the many identical patient rooms.
"Hello Penny," a kind and familiar voice greeted, "how are you feeling baby girl?"
She turned to see her father sitting next to her bed, with Winter and Ruby standing close behind. Streams of data flashed in her vision giving her a detailed diagnostic report. Circuit damage, multiple lacerations on her synthetic tissue, her backup battery was damaged and replaced. The list went on and on in front of her and she blinked it away.
"Where is Jaune!" She asked him.
"Mr. Arc is resting." Winter answered her stepping close. Her usually stern tone was softer than usual. "The doctors say his condition has stabilized."
"You saved him Penny." Ruby chimed in giving a little reassuring smile. "We saw your signal, you refused to power down until he was safely aboard the bullhead getting medical attention."
"I want to see him." Penny told them moving to stand. She remembered everything, it was there in her positronic brain clear as day. She still heard his screams echoing in the night.
"Easy now sweetheart," Pietro said putting his hand on her shoulder. "He's safe now and he's not going anywhere. Just answer me first. How are you feeling?"
"I feel… good… I am still damaged but my power levels are back to normal levels, my diagnostic reports claim I am mostly repaired." She explained to her father trying to fight the urge to leave this room and find a Jaune. She knew logically of course they were telling the truth, but part of her needed to see him for herself.
"That's good." Pietro said nodding. "You had quite a bit of damage to your circuitry and I had to do some manual repairs, but your internal repair systems should be able to handle the rest of the damage. But I'll be checking in with you often to see how you're holding up."
Penny nodded trying to calm herself. "Thank you father," She said, giving him a little smile. "I hope you were not worried about me."
Pietro gave her a warm smile leaning back in his mechanical chair. "I wouldn't be much of a father if I didn't worry about my little girl," he told her, removing his spectacles and cleaning them off with a cloth. "I'm just glad you're safe darling, now go on, I know you're eager to see your friend."
Penny smiled at him and stood up, her bare feet touched the linoleum floor and she leaned forward to hug her father. "Thank you father." She said, earning a gentle pat on the back.
She pulled away from the hug and stepped forward finding that her motor functions were operating well. She moved immediately for the door but Winter stepped into her path blocking her. "Slow down Penny." She instructed her grabbing a robe off a hook and holding it out for her.
Penny looked at the robe then back up at Winter with a little confusion. "That hospital gown is exposing a lot Penny, I can see your butt." Ruby explained to her with a little red coloring on her cheeks. Penny looked down realizing that indeed she was wearing a white hospital gown that tied in the back leaving her back and rear clear to see as Ruby said.
She accepted the robe from winter and tied the little belt closed making her decent. "Thank you." She said looking down. Human modesty was something that occasionally slipped her mind. She understood clothing in a practical and aesthetic sense but she used to have trouble understanding why humans were so embarrassed about their natural anatomy.
She opened the door and walked out with Winter and Ruby close behind. "He's this way." Winter said, steering her to the right and down a hallway. "I should warn you Penny, as you already know he was hurt very badly. He's stable but it'll be a little bit before he's ready to move."
"I know." Penny said following the eldest Schnee sister her heels clicking on the hard floor. "I just… I want to see him." She explained to her.
Winter gave her a sidelong glance but didn't say anything else. Penny spotted his room. The rest of team RWBY was already gathered outside and they greeted her with some smiles.
"Penny!" Blake greeted standing up from her chair and stepping close.
"Hello Blake." Penny greeted, surprised that the Faunus girl was the one to step close.
"I am so sorry!" Blake said unable to meet her eyes. "I never thought anything like this would happen when I asked you to trade escort duty."
"I know you did not." Penny assured her. Did Blake think she'd be angry at her for this? "I am alright."
A yellow hand rested on Blake's shoulder as Yang moved up behind her teammate. "Don't mind Blake, she could help but feel bad and imagine what it'd be like if she'd been your shoes."
Penny nodded in understanding. "Please do not feel bad Blake, I know you had no malicious intention trading shifts with me."
Blake nodded to her. "If there's anything I can do for you or Jaune please ask."
Penny nodded feeling that her assurances did little to ease any misplaced guilt she was feeling. But she looked at the door behind them.
"Ren and Nora are in there with him." Yang explained seeing where she was looking. "We all want to see him but we figured it'd be better to wait out here and let him rest."
Penny nodded to the blonde. "Do you think I could come in?" Penny asked, suddenly feeling a little apprehensive. She hadn't thought about team RWBY or the rest of Jaune's teammates who were clearly worried about him as well. She felt selfish wanting to barge in when everyone else was trying to be courteous and respectful.
"Go ahead." Weiss offered her from her chair motioning to the door. "He's been in and out of consciousness so he might be waking up soon."
Penny nodded to the heiress and stepped forward opening the door. Nora sat in the corner next to Ren who surprisingly was asleep in his chair leaning against Nora.
"Penny!" She said standing up and moving across the room to her pulling her into a hug. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She said somehow still quiet as she squeezed Penny against her. Despite her evident gratitude and enthusiasm she kept the volume of her voice low in consideration for Jaune. "Thank you so so much for taking care of him and bringing him back alive!" She said releasing her.
"We took care of each other," Penny told her glancing away from the girl towards the bed. The blonde knight lay there sleeping peacefully. He was flat on his back and wrapped in blankets. An IV drip was in his arm, a nose cast was on his face and both arms were bandaged. His chest rose and feel as he breathed and the electronic beep of a machine told her his heart was beating a calm steady beat.
His face was still black with bruises. Penny could remember the wet slap of Vasily's fist falling upon his face again and again and again. She'd thought all had been lost at that moment. Before Jaune had managed to find victory.
"Would you like to wait with us?" Nora offered her looking down at her leader as well. "The doctor said he could wake up any time now," she explained.
Penny nodded. "I would like that very much."
Consciousness came slow. It felt like slowly being pulled up from deep warm water that enveloped him. Jaune could hear voices, but their words were blurred and distant and he could hardly muster the energy to care. Sometimes he felt himself rise to near full consciousness before sinking down to a warm comfortable darkness.
Eventually he managed to open his eyes to a world of harsh steril white. His eyelids were heavy and the temptation to let them fall and welcome the warm dreamless sleep claim him once more was great. But as he let his eyes adjust to the light he made out a figure of with a mane of copper red hair.
"Penny?" It took him a minute to realize that the weak rasp of a voice was his. His throat felt like sandpaper and his lips were dry and cracked.
"Jaune?" She asked, turning to him meeting his eyes smiling as she saw that indeed he was awake.
Jaune tried speaking again but he only managed to rasp weakly.
"Here," Penny said, reaching for a stand where a cup of water was waiting with a bendy straw. She held it up for him and he drank, the cool water felt heavenly on his parched throat. He emptied the cup and Penny set it down staring at him.
"Thank you," he said, his voice still weak.
"Hey Jaune!" Nora butted in. He hadn't noticed her in his sleepy and drugged state. "How are you feeling fearless leader?" She asked him uneasily.
"Like… I was hit by a train," he answered her as the fuzzy details trickled back into his mind. He remembered the biting wind and snow, huddling in front of the fire with Penny and the fight, the drones, the roar of that rifle, and Vasily. It was coming back to him slowly.
"You look like you could have." He turned to see Ren sitting in a chair at the corner of the room. His head was heavy and just the act of turning it felt like a chore.
"You should see the other guy." Jaune said, cracking a grin and giving a weak chuckle. The rest of them didn't share his humor only giving him a mournful look. Gods he probably looked pathetic.
He tried sitting up. No matter how comfortable he was the idea of slipping back into sleep wasn't very appealing.
"Take it slow," Ren instructed him calmly, "you have been through a lot, you should continue resting."
"I can rest more later." Jaune said seeing a remote for the bed and picking it up in his right hand. The back of the bed whined as electronic gears elevated it for him giving them a better look. "Is team RWBY here?" he asked, seeing that only Ren, Nora and Penny were in this small room with him. He felt the pull of weariness trying to bring him back to the warm darkness of sleep but he didn't want his friends worrying over him sleeping.
"There outside," Nora said glancing to his left awkwardly.
"Let them in," Jaune said, wanting to at least greet them before he was submerged in sleep once more.
"Uh Jaune… before we do, there's something you should know." Nora said tentatively, staring at his left again. This time Jaune followed her gaze to his left hand laying on the bed in front of him.
He felt a coldness stab him. He gasped looking at his left hand, his three fingered left hand.
"The doctor said both your pinky and ring finger were badly cut and frost bitten," Ren explained to him, he was able to keep his voice even and cool as he told him why he was missing two fingers. "The doctor said they had to amputate them."
Jaune took a shaky breath curling his numb fingers into a fist. He felt his missing digits better than his real fingers.
"I am so sorry Jaune," Penny said averting her eyes as he looked up to her. "I tried keeping you warm and calling out for help but I couldn't do much." She crossed her arms and stared at the floor.
"You did the best you could," he assured, setting his maimed hand down. "It's my fault for getting cut." He sighed trying not to look at his hand, the sight of it made him feel nauseous.
"I can talk to my father about designing prosthetic replacements." Penny offered still unable to meet his eye.
"Thank you," Jaune said, giving her a nod, "I'll probably take you up on the offer." He took a few breaths wanting to forget about his missing fingers for a moment.
The door opened and team RWBY stepped in everyone of them giving him a warm smile in greeting.
"Jaune!" Yang said, stepping close giving him a rather intense look.
"Hey Yang," he greeted the blonde weekly a little taken aback by her intensity.
"Jaune I need to ask you a very important question." She said talking very clear and slowly enunciating every word.
Jaune swallowed, he was transfixed by the blonde gazing into her lilac eyes. "What is it Yang?"
"Are you hungry for tuna?"
Blake punched her teammates shoulder and she laughed. "Yang!" The Faunus hissed scoldingly.
"I need to know Blake, for science!" The brawler defended looking quite amused with herself.
"What's going on?" Jaune asked rather dumbfounded.
"You needed a blood transfusion," Weiss answered, "and Blake volunteered."
"I didn't know we were the same blood type," Jaune said, looking at the Faunus girl as she dealt with her insufferable teammates.
"I'm a universal donor," Blake answered him.
"And I need to know how Blake's blood will affect me should I ever have need of it." Yang explained.
"Blood doesn't work like that," Weiss groaned rolling her eyes in Jaune's direction. It felt strange having the heiress roll her eyes to him instead of at him.
"You're not a doctor!" Yang responded turning back to Jaune. "Tell me if anything is different, if you smell changes, your appetite or if you have a sudden aversion to dogs."
Jaune just nodded in agreement feeling like appeasing the blonde's request would be easier than denying it. Weiss just shook her head at the ridiculousness of her friends.
"We were all really worried about you Jaune," Ruby told him standing beside him, "we found Penny and you both huddled together in the snow, we managed to find both of you just in time."
"Well thank you for finding us," Jaune said not wanting to think very hard about how close he came to freezing to death.
"You should thank Penny," Weiss told him, "we wouldn't have found you in time if she hadn't signaled us with her laser."
Jaune looked at Penny and smiled at her. "I was lucky to have you Penny," he told her, "thank you."
The ginger haired android smiled bashfully, "I was fortunate to have you too Jaune."
"I couldn't agree more." Jaune turned his head to see General Ironwood standing at the door with Winter standing behind him.
Penny snapped a salute at him and the General returned it. "At ease Penny," he said stepping inside looking Jaune over. "Mr. Arc if you were one of my soldiers I'd give you a metal."
"Uh… thank you," Jaune said, processing his words. A metal? For what, getting his ass kicked. "I don't exactly feel like I did anything worthy of a medal though sir."
Ironwood smirked, "people rarely do Mr. Arc," he said seriously. "I've watched Penny's records though and I want you to know your actions were commendable to say the least."
"Thank you, sir," he said wishing he actually could feel worthy of his praise.
He turned to the rest of the room. "I do not mean to cut your reunion short," he said, "but I'd like a private word with Mr. Arc."
Everyone nodded and shuffled out the door awkwardly. Penny lingered the longest giving him a long stare before ultimately leaving Jaune alone with the General. "I trust you have questions," he began.
Jaune nodded trying to think back to everything that had happened. "Do you know who hired that Vasily guy to kill Penny?" He asked.
"Sadly no," Ironwood answered them. "We're conducting an investigation into that, Vasily has done professional wet work for a number of criminal and terrorist organizations in the past, including the White Fang."
"So he had a reputation?" Jaune asked, surprised that the general seemed to know so much about their would be assassin.
"Yes," Ironwood confirmed, "he used to a huntsman before turning to assassionation, he was quite adept at hunting grimm, particularly large and dangerously unique species of grimm."
Jaune frowned at that. A huntsman? The thought that someone like him used to be a huntsman. A student like he'd been. "So we don't know anything."
"Not quite," Ironwood explained, "the rescue teams that found your truck was attacked by old Atlesian Knights, we recovered them and found that they were old surplus models that'd been sold to the Schnee Dust Company and reportedly stolen by members of the White Fang, and the weapons the truck was transporting where missing, and there was no sign of them within the ruins of the explosion, he was clearly working with someone."
"I see," Jaune said, not really sure how much that helped him. But it seemed enough to make the General confident that they were on the right path.
"You put a good fight Jaune," he said, "you stood your ground and survived against an infamous assassin, your determination and vigilance prevailed but I need to ask you a very important question."
"What would that be?" Jaune asked wondering just what he could tell the General that the recorded footage he's gotten from Penny couldn't.
"Are you that Vasily is truly dead?"
Jaune pauses considering the question. "I put a sword through him," he explained, "don't you have a body?"
Ironwood shook his head. "I'm afraid not. We found his weapons and dozens of traps littering the ruins of the old mining town but we haven't found a corpse. You delivered the blow Mr. Arc I want your opinion. Could he still be alive?"
"I don't know," Jaune answered. "My memory is a bit fuzzy at the moment but I don't see how he could have possibly survived, I put one of Penny's swords through him, even if he survived that surely the storm killed him."
"That's rather distressing," Ironwood sighed. "It for this and other reasons I have decided that you and Penny will be confined to the infirmary for a little while."
"Confined?!" Jaune protested.
"For just a couple days, then you'll be free to roam the academy for the rest of your stay." Ironwood clarified. "Penny isn't combat ready in the meantime and is still a potential target for whoever hired Vasily."
Jaune nodded understanding his reasoning. "I see," he sighed.
Ironwood turned to leave him his business, "think of it as a vacation Mr. Arc, you've certainly earned one."
Bonnie swiped the keycard and watched the magnetic lock flash green. She turned the knob and stepped inside. The smell of woodsmoke hung in the hair as she walked through the dimly lit halls unburdened thanks to her Faunus eyes.
She set the bag of groceries down on the counter reaching into the paper bag and grabbed the pill bottle moving towards the living room. She could see the faint orange glow from the hallway. She stopped and listened, she pulled her tail up petting the black and white bristles marking her as a silver fox.
"You only managed to kill a few soldiers at best." The electronically altered voice of their employer echoed off the walls accusingly.
"I got you the guns, it's a little difficult to fight your enemy without weapons in case you forgot." Her beloved told him.
"Did I hire an arms dealer?" Their employer asked with clear condescension in his voice. "Or a thief? I hired you to take care of Ironwood's operatives and so far no one of particular importance is dead."
"There were complications, the android was difficult. I couldn't dispatch it immediately so I pursued it." He explained to their employer.
"If you stayed to ambush the rescue team at the crashed truck as planned you could have dispatched several huntresses!" The voice informed him. "Instead you chased two targets into a blizzard and have nothing to show for it."
"That Android is worth a dozen of common huntsmen and huntresses!" He growled. "It would have been foolish to waste the opportunity!"
"Indeed, and you let the opportunity slip through your fingers Vasily!" Their employer growled.
"A mistake, one that I assure you I shall not repeat!" Vasily assured him.
"You better not, I do not take lost investments very well assassin." Silence followed and Bonnie concluded that the business call had ended.
"Vasily dear, I'm home." Bonnie greeted her beloved stepping into the living room. He sat in front of the fire, his laptop open in front of him.
"Did you bring me my medication?" He asked her gazing into the fire. His robe hid his wound but the line of stitches on his head remained uncovered. She frowned seeing the horrid wound marr his handsome features. A blade sat across his lap, the android's blade. The one she found impaled in him when she rescued him.
"I have them right here." She said putting the small little bottle of painkillers on the little table beside his chair.
"Good." He said grabbing a crystal decanter and filling a glass with amber colored brandy. He unscrewed the cap and put several of the pills in his hand before washing it down with a swig of brandy. Bonnie noticed that the crystal decanter was almost empty, she'd have to buy more Minstreli Brandy for him, the price it had almost doubled thanks to the embargos.
"I've begun rebuilding the drones." She explained hoping that a little good news would lighten his mood.
He scratched at the stitches. "Good, but I need you to hack back into the Atlas Academy database, I need to view a few files. Since I'm indisposed I need to plan my next hunt."
Bonnie nodded. "You wish to re-examine Penny Polendina's file again? See if there's anything that may have been missed?"
"No," Vasily told her, holding the Android's blade up inspecting it in the fire light. "I want you to find the file of an Arc, a Mr. Jaune Arc."
Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. Vasily is as you can see alive, he's the main antagonist of this story so don't expect him to go anywhere anytime soon. Quite a lot with him has been planned and I think you'll find him to be a compelling villain. Again please share your thoughts and leave a review. I hope everyone is excited for the next arc, I know many of you have wanted Jaune and Penny to interact in a more relaxed environment and I promise you will get it. I hope to see everyone next week. I unfortunately might be sick so if I don't update next Sunday please know why.
As always thank you MidKnightMoonglow99 for helping me develop this story.