Whoops is as I can really say for not realizing how long it's been since the last update. My apologies for that little mix up. Regardless, here it is now, with a little change in perspective partway through as well. Hope you're all looking forward to what's to come, things are really gonna start picking up pretty soon, after all.


"…Weiss?" Frost asked slowly while not taking his eyes away from Penny, who was currently sitting with a smile on her face in her harnessed seat. "Please tell me you know a kill code or deactivation command for Penny to put her back to sleep. I know you have a silent mode for private conversations, but we really aren't in a good spot to deal with a kill-bot under your father's command right now."

"...Unfortunately that's all I was given access to in her systems when she was brought to me. Any other codes are beyond my control, and it would take too long to contact Winter for her to either grant access or shutdown Penny herself."

"…Great."

During Frost and Weiss' discussion, Neo and Emerald both had their weapons carefully drawn as they sat poised to leap into action at a moment's notice while Penny continued to sit while looking directly at them, her eyes occasionally shifting to look at another person for a few moments before returning to another figure. Everyone was tense as they wondered what she would do next as per her programming, afraid of their odds for survival as they were currently still over the sea between Atlas and Vale. However, that silence didn't last long before Penny opened her mouth once more to speak.

"Weiss?" The red-haired android began as she directed her focus to the girl flying the airship. "Where is Ruby? Is she okay?"

Everyone stared in shock at the innocent question, free of violent intent or programmed obedience like they had heard previously. After a moment, all eyes turned to face Weiss at the helm as she stared wide-eyed at Penny, her face frozen in a state of shock.

"…I-I'm sorry" The white-haired girl stuttered out after a brief hesitation. "…what did you say Penny?"

The other girl responded immediately, her face now set in a determined expression. "Where is Ruby? Is she okay?"

Weiss turned to the others with a pleading look as she tried to wrap her mind around the current situation. The group then proceeded to glance back and forth between each other trying to figure out some way to respond as they had no idea what to expect given their new situation. It was Neo that ended up speaking first after a few moments of silent looks.

"Penny." She started as a way to gain the girl's attention that turned her head at the sound of her name spoken. "Ruby is fine as far as we know, and as for where she is, all we know is that she and a few others are currently somewhere in Mistral. We can't say more for certain as we've been out of contact for a while now since they were barely in range when we contacted them over a month ago. They'll be too far in land for us to reach them now with the CCT in Vale destroyed."

"That is excellent news that Ruby is still okay!" The red-haired girl spoke happily before continuing. "I was very worried after hearing about what happened to Vale that she had been hurt in some way. We should go and help her immediately!" She then turned to face Weiss once more. "Weiss, you must fly us to Mistral right away so that we can assist Ruby and these "others" in their mission!"

"Woah, Penny, slow down." Frost spoke up as he raised his arm on his good side in protest. "We need to recover and rest in Patch before we can go anywhere else, especially into unknown territory. We also need to figure out why you aren't immediately trying to kill us like back in Atlas before we can go anywhere with you as well. No offense." The last past he spoke apologetically with a weak grimace at the blunt way he had stated it to her.

"If you are concerned about me returning to my defensive mode around you, then you do not need to fear anymore." She replied confidently. "Thanks to the electrical surge you administered to my body, my system was set into a reboot state, where I was able to reprogram the commands placed by Jacques Schnee to prevent his daughter from leaving Atlas. I do apologize for causing you all so much trouble in Atlas, but rest assured, I am 100% committed to helping you all now. Even the criminal thief that aided Cinder Fall's plot to destroy Beacon!" At that statement, all eyes widened and turned to face Emerald for a moment, who only shrugged without any idea before they all turned back to face Penny.

This time, it was Weiss who spoke.

"Penny…how did you know who Emerald worked for?" She asked carefully to probe for information.

"Our systems recognized her the moment she arrived in the city with the other two, who we also have on file as individuals that had aided Roman Torchwick and Cinder Fall in stealing dust containers delivered by the Schnee Dust Company before the Vytal Festival and the emergence of Grimm from Mountain Glenn. However, General Schnee commanded us to simply keep an eye on them rather than immediately arrest them to "see what they would do"."

"Well…" Weiss began from her seat in the cockpit as she turned back to face out the view screen and wait for their approaching arrival in Patch. "Winter forgot to mention THAT part when we setup our plan for me to leave. We could have had things figured out much better if she had."

"Your sister wished for you to not know when they had already arrived prior to the social gathering in your home as she was concerned you might get too eager to leave and ruin the plan while your father still had his control over Atlas. She must have planted this information in the closed off portion of my memory banks so that I wouldn't know of the plan while I was still under the control of Jacques Schnee." Penny admitted, to which Weiss turned her head slightly to acknowledge she had heard it before silently turning back to face outside.

"Okay…well…that's great and all…I think," Frost began as he trying to piece together everything that had gone on behind the scenes since they had arrived in the capital. "But like we said, we still need to rest a bit in Patch and get Ruby's sister before we can go anywhere to help Ruby. Plus we still don't know who all was involved with the attack on Beacon or where they might strike next, so we need to plan for that as well."

"Why do we not simply call her on her Scroll then?" Penny asked plainly.

"Penny…we just explained this." Neo gently reprimanded the android before continuing. "The CCT in Vale was destroyed, and there isn't enough power even from the other towers for any long-range communications to reach them out here. I'm sorry."

"But you are wrong!" Penny insisted as she replied to Neo's comment. "There is a way for us to reach Ruby! My internal system has a long-range communicator built into it so that the General may contact me wherever I am should the need arise. Simply plug one of your Scrolls into the socket on the back of my neck and we can patch a direct line through to Mistral and to Ruby's Scroll! I can use that to speak with her and let her know where we are!" The others once again looked to each other with surprise as they turned to grab their Scroll's.

"Wait…I don't have Ruby on my Scroll for…obvious reasons. One of you needs to give her your Scroll to reach her." Emerald realized as she was in the process of grabbing her Scroll from her back pocket.

"I'm busy watching for our approach up here, so one of you needs to do it in the meantime." Weiss stated bluntly from the cockpit as she continued watching the area around them as they passed through some clouds.

Frost carefully began reach with his good hand towards his pocket at an awkward angle to grab his Scroll, only for Neo to place one hand on his to stop him as she held out her own Scroll casually. He smirked and nodded his head as she got up from her seat to walk over to Penny while she searched through her small list of contacts to find Ruby's Scroll number. Penny turned her head around to reveal an access plate exposed on her neck that Neo then clipped her Scroll before stepping back as Penny's head turned back and her eyes began to flash lines of code as she accessed the network built into her system. After a few minutes wait, her eyes returned to normal and she stared ahead with a neutral expression before her eyes flashed and a view screen appeared on the wall of the airship opposite her.

"Hello?" A familiar voice sounded through an audio system also built in Penny's system. "Who is this? The picture isn't coming through right."

"Friend Ruby! It is good to hear your voice again! How are you?" Penny immediately stated with a smile on her face as the most of the others all watched the screen to see if Ruby's face would appear. Emerald, meanwhile, had shifted to sit on the same side the screen had been placed on to remain out of eyesight in case the picture did come through so as to not be discovered just yet.

"…Penny...is that you?" A slight quiver could be heard in her voice as the others eyes widened in shock, forgetting that Ruby had been one of the only ones amongst them to be truly affected by Penny's demise in the Vytal Coliseum. Suddenly, they were all reconsidering this idea to contact Ruby so soon.

"It is, Ruby! And some of your other friends and teammates are here, too!"


Team RNJR carefully treaded through some overgrown brush on their trek towards Mistral. They had been traveling for a while now, given how large across the continent was and the large body of water directly in the center of the kingdom, but were finally finishing their long journey to Haven Academy in their search for answers. However, they stopped short when Ruby's Scroll suddenly started to buzz from within her back pocket.

"How could someone be trying to contact us out here?" Ren spoke aloud, voicing all of their thoughts at once. "No one in the capital of Mistral should have your number, Ruby, and no one in the other kingdoms is able to reach us since Vale's tower went down."

"I don't know. Should we answer it?" Ruby asked for the others opinion.

"It could be a trap. I'm not sure, though." Jaune voiced his own concerns. "We haven't really been in contact with anyone since you spoke to Frost over Scroll's just as we were arriving in Anima, though. It would be nice to hear someone else's voice for once."

"I say we do it. Give them a few moments to say something, and if we don't like it, we hang up." Nora stated plainly as they all turned back to Ruby as she nodded and retrieved her Scroll before flicking it open. The device showed that it was in a call; however the picture was very fuzzy and consisted of mostly static and black spots.

"Hello?" Ruby asked with a concerned voice before continuing. "Who is this? The picture isn't coming through right." After a brief wait, a voice responded from the other side of the call. One that shook Ruby to her very core.

"Friend Ruby! It is good to hear your voice again! How are you?" Penny's voice echoed over the speaker of the device, the other eyes of Team RNJR widening in shock as they all looked at the Scroll, then up to Ruby's face where a hand rested over her agape mouth and a few tears descended from her wide eyes.

Ruby removed the hand from her mouth as she started to reply to the familiar voice, albeit with a hitch in her voice that anyone listening in would be able to hear. "Penny…is that you?"

Another few moments passed. "It is, Ruby! And some of your other friends and teammates are here, too!" With that, the rest of them bundled closer to Ruby, both as a sign of support for the now-distressed girl and to make sure they didn't miss anything important from the call.

"Others?" Ruby asked with confusion as she wiped tears from her eyes with a sniffle. "Who else is with you?"

"Your teammate Weiss is here, as are your friends Neo and Frost and-" There was a loud banging sound that came from the other side, blocking her voice for a moment "-we are going to rest at your home in Patch and retrieve your sister before we come to assist you in Mistral with your mission. We will be in touch once we have Yang and are on our way! Goodbye, Ruby!" There was a brief pause before Penny's voice spoke up once more, only more subdued this time. "It is good to hear your voice again and know you are safe. Be careful."

"We will, Penny." She smiled a sad smile as the call shut off and she put away her Scroll with a quiet expression.

"Are…you going to be okay, Ruby? Do you need a moment?" Nora asked carefully as she stepped towards the younger girl with her arms slightly open. Ruby was silent for a moment before she leapt forwards and wrapped her arms around Nora before weeping openly. "Ruby?"

"She's alive!" Ruby practically yelled as she smiled amidst the tears. "I thought Penny was dead and I-" Ruby's eyes widened as she turned to face Jaune, whose expression was currently unreadable as Ren looked on in silent concern. "Jaune, I'm so sorry, I-"

"Don't be, Ruby. I'm happy for you, really." His expression was somber as he gave her a weak smile. "I just wish I could be happier for you, but I'm too selfish."

"No, you're not!" Ruby snapped back before detaching herself from Nora and running over to wrap her arms around Jaune instead. "I'm the one being selfish when Pyrrha is still…gone. I should be the one apologizing! I'm the one being insensitive! You should be angry with me, it's only fair!"

"No Ruby, it's not." Jaune shook his head slowly even as he patted her head slowly, though he didn't step away from the hug. "You got your friend back. Not many people can say the same after what happened. I really am happy for you. Just not as happy as I should be. But it'll pass. Don't worry about it." The group simply stood in place for the time being as they let the moment of peace wash over them for a time.

However, that moment was short lived as a small group of airships rushed overhead. All of their eyes turned to face watch them go, Ren's eyes widening at the last moment as they passed over the trees and out of sight.

"We need to follow those airships, now!"

"Why? What did you see, Ren?" Nora asked with newfound concern.

"Those ships had the logo of the White Fag on them, and I know what direction they're going in! We need to figure out what they're up to!"

"Why? Where are they going?" Ruby asked as they all unsheathed their weapons before pressing on with Ren at the lead as he leapt over rubble and trees.

"I'll explain on the way. We need to move, now!"


Everyone was silent aboard the airship as they all looked silently about.

"I…don't think that was actually the best idea…" Frost stated with disappointment in his voice as he stared at the floor with his head hung low.

Penny looked confused at everyone else as they silently carried on. "Is something the matter? Was it something I said?"

Emerald was the first to speak. "Yeah. It was."

"Emerald, that's enough. She couldn't have realized what would have come out of that had it been heard." Neo reprimanded the green-haired girl before turning to look at Frost's slumped form. "We're just lucky Frost reacted like he did to muffle the sound of it. It doesn't seem like they heard that part where Penny mentioned your name."

"But why would we not want Ruby knowing that she is with us?" Penny asking with genuine curiosity. "Is that a bad thing?"

"At this moment, yes." Weiss stated plainly from the cockpit as they all felt the ship begin to slow tip downwards. "Ruby shouldn't find out about Emerald until we meet face-to-face. There's no knowing what could happen otherwise. At least then we can manage the reaction a bit. Besides, right now we should be more concerned with how her sister is going to react to Emerald as we're about to arrive."

"…Great. Out of the frying pan, into the fire." Frost grumbled from his position as he sat up straight and looked out to the sky out the view screen at the front of the ship.