And here is my second chapter of this first fanfic. Sorry for the delay, for those who nicely followed it, finding the ideas and the courage to continue a story are more difficult that I imagined it would be. But I have finally found both to continue this story. Have a nice read and please give me your feedback, it's really precious to me so I can learn how to better my writing.
In Shade Academy Nora released a loud groan, as she finally reached the top of the stairs leading to the roof of Shade. She had searched for Penny for at least one hour now, but the other ginger girl had been nowhere to be seen since the moment they had arrived at Shade. Nora hated stairs, especially with an empty stomach she preferred elevators as they were faster, but above all she prefers to jump or fly over buildings with Magnhild, it was far more exciting, but she had limited Dust reserves and it looked like it would be difficult to find new Dust in Shade at the moment, thanks to Ironwood's embargo on Dust. Though at the end of the stairs and upon opening she finally found the other ginger she was looking for.
"There you are. I searched for you everywhere in the academy, butin the end I guessed that you wouldn't want to miss the sundawn and that you would be at the best spot to watch it."
Penny abruptly turned to face her, visibly surprised and taken out of her bubble.
"Nora ?! Why are you here ?" The other ginger asked.
"It's diner time, the staff of Shade is serving couscous and chicken soup for the refugees. Ren, Oscar and Emerald are already at the tent. You must starving. after spending just one day in your new body. I promise you that your life will never be the same after you first experience eating and the taste of food. It's the best part of life, to taste so many wonderful tastes and to eat until you're full gives you the best satisfication that can exist. " Nora said with an enthusiast as strong as if Ren had asked her out.
"I… I am not hungry. " Penny said weakly, before hiccuping a loud "HIC !".
As if to prove further her lie, a loud growling noise started, no doubt coming from Penny's empty stomach.
Penny looked at her belly, shocked by the noise her body was making, surely she had never imagined for this to happen to her. She then looked at Nora with a blushing red look of pure embarassement on her face.
Nora gave her a look that was both amused and sympathetic at the same time.
"Oh, come on. After so long without food, you must be starving. Come on, let's go digging, after everything you have been through and all you have did in Atlas and here, you largely deserve a good meal."
At this, Penny started to look down, her eyes staring at the ground, looking ashamed of herself for lying and Nora couldn't allow herself to smile at that.
"It's true Nora. I am not hungry, I… I, Hic. I am not," she said as if desperately trying to convince herself that she really wasn't starving.
Tears started to come out of Penny's eyes, and Nora's heart sank upon seeing this, for some reason she couldn't bear to see it.
"I am not",Penny muttered as she was trying to fight the tears but she couldn't hold it back and her face grimaced as the émotions overcame her. " I am not. I cannot, I cannot." she cried as she fell on her knees and buried her face.
Nora couldn't take it anymore, she immediatly charged and took Penny in her arms, her face touching Nora's chest just before she could let her head fall on the roof.
"Penny, what's wrong ?"
"I cannot, I cannot. I don't deserve it, I don't deserve this." Penny cried in her chest, tears streaming from her eyes and her voice sounding broken.
"I don't deserve to eat. I don't deserve this body. I am a failure."
"You're not a failure Penny"
" How am I not ? I couldn't save them. I am supposed to be the protector of Mantle I should have been able to save them and I couldn't." " I was made for this, to be able of protecting the people of Atlas and Mantle, to be able of making a difference for the people of Remant. I was made with the most advanced technology and most powerful weapons so I could take on any kind of Grimm or enemy of Remnant, to be able of destroying legions of Grimm, yet I got destroyed. I was recreated with even more advanced and powerful equipement and weapons, and even received the Winter Maiden powers from lady Fria, yet I couldn't beat Cinder, and I couldn't save the cities of Atlas and Mantle."
"I couldn't even save our friends." She stammered. " I couldn't even save my dad." Penny's voice broke down as she muttered that last sentence, before only the sound of her sobbing could be heard.
Nora stared at her, at loss for words, she could feel her own eyes starting to get teary too. How could she have expected Penny to be okay ? After everything Penny had gone through, it was obvious that Penny wouldn't have stayed alone, away from others if she had been okay.
Memories of Pyrrha came back to her, Nora had witnessed it but Pyrrha had been so unusually distressed and shy the last days before the fall of Beacon, several times she had looked she was afraid of even harming others with her presence. Nora had noticed this, and felt that something wrong was happening to her, but she had assumed that it was the result of her being afraid of being in a relationship with Jaune, and to the stress of representing Beacon at the tournament and had not dared to try to talk to Pyrrha about it, and to try to make her open herself to her and Ren.
To this day Nora still regretted to not have been here to help her with her distress and fears about the Fall Maiden powers, and to not having been here to talk her out of going against Cinder at Beacon's cross-continental communication tower.
Also Nora couldn't help but sees a bit of herself in Penny. She too has suffered a similar state of despair and self-loathing, right after her mother had abandoned her. For several weeks Nora had cried and despaired for her mother to return, hoping against all hope that she would return to her daughter, but in vain.
After that Nora has spend months in self-loathing, believing herself to be a burden, that she was the one who caused her mother's departure by being too slow for her mother to take her, that she wasn't worth taking with, even though she had escaped the Ursas and direwolves that attacked them this day.
Things had came to a head several weeks after meeting Ren, following the Nuckelavee's attack on Kuroyuki, after she had accidently woken up a Geist which had nearly killed them and injured Ren, who had only managed to barely save them by focusing extra hard on his semblance despite his injury, Nora had believed herself to be a burden and had ran away, believing that she was saving Ren by doing so, until Ren caught up with her and reassured her, convincing her that she was not a burden and in fact that he needed her.
Penny's words shook her back to reality : « I shouldn't have been brought back to life. If I hadn't, my dad wouldn't have sacrificed another piece of his aura for me, I wouldn't have burdened you with trying to save me when I was hacked, and Winter would have become the Winter Maiden as it should have been. She was worthy of being a maiden, not me, it was her destiny and I robbed it from her. » she said with another sob.
Suddently, upon remembering these memories and how desperate and self-loathing she had been a long time ago, Nora had found back the words she needed to say to her friend.
"You are not a failure Penny, and you are certainely not a robber. You got the Winter Maiden powers because you deserved it, more than anyone else."
" How can I deserve it ? It was Winter who had been groomed to become the new Winter Maiden, who had the fighting skills to be able of using it best, but it took it from her."
"Plus it was only thanks to my robotic body that I was able to reach Fria in the snow storm she made and to inherit her power, and itw as again only thanks to it and to my super weapons that I was able to fight and win against Cinder at Amity. Penny said. « Without my robotic body and weapons I am nothing."
" It's not true Penny. Just listen to your heart and hear what you have accomplished in so little time, what you have done and for what purposes you have done them. You have learned how to control weather powers, electric and ice powers, to create solid swords and weapons, to fly with your powers in only one day. You have protected Amity Tower, allowing Ruby to warn all of Remnant against Salem. And you have helped save the people of Atlas and Mantle from annihilation, again just one day after gaining your power, that's something surely very few if any maiden in history has achieved even in decades."
"But it was Winter who should have inherited them, I was not prepared for that rôle, it was her who had the qualities and training to become the Winter Maiden."
"Penny, you are the Winter Maiden because Fria chose you, and she wouldn't have done it if she hadn't seen something in you. Ironwood, Cinder and even Winter only looked at her for her powers and viewed her as a mean to gain these powers for their use, but you you saw her for who she was, for the old dying but gentle and wise woman she was, and to give her the company and comfort she needed right before her death. You became the Winter Maiden because you comforted and showed compassion for an old woman that was lonely and dying. And that's what a true maiden is, to be someone who helps others whenever she can, and not just a person with great powers is Penny."
Nora took Penny's face between her hands and kissed her on the forehead. Penny fell silent for a moment, obviously not knowing how to didn't respond to what Nora had just said, but her tears had stopped. After some time, she finally found the strength to talk again, her voice still trembling and hurt but she was already stronger than she was one minute before.
" But I couldn't do anything on my own, not in this body. I always felt that it would be wonderful to be human, to be able of feeling things that I couldn't feel in my android body but I couldn't do anything to stop Cinder and save Ruby and the others, even after beating Cinder at Amity."
She stopped to look at her right hand, which was shaking, and then at her left which was shaking too. "My hands are shaking, my belly is growling and in pain, and my feet are hurt. When I was fighting Cinder, I wasn't able of moving after being injured due to the pain I felt, until Jaune healed me, even though I surely would have been able to continue the fight in my android it normal for a human to feel this ? Or am I broken ?"
"You're not broken Penny. It's perfectly normal to feel pain, both physically and emotionally. Living as a human means feeling pain, both from physical hurt and from emotions. Nothing could have prepared you for that when you got this human body, and it's very unfair that you had to experience pain, and to be forced into battle so shortly after becoming human and before you were used to fight and use your powers with it."
"But it's what makes us human, what makes you human Penny, just as me and as all others. In fact you are perhaps the most human person I know Penny. You were born as an android, designed to be a machine and weapon for Atlas military, yet you are so kind-hearted and selfless, so intelligent and yet you are so curious and enthusiastic about the world and for simple things and small wonders of the world. You could have just stayed obedient to Atlas military, yet you wanted to be more than just a machine and to do other things than that and to help others out of kindness rather than because you were told to. You have always been a real little girl Penny, you just didn't have the body matching it yet."
Both girls were now looking each other face-to-face, both still had tears in their eyes but the worst had passed. Penny looked both uncertain and awed by everything Nora had said to her. Nora knew that she was still far from having fully recovered, but at least it looked like Nora's words had gotten through to her and seemed to have regained some strength back.
"I still don't think that I can do anything on my own."
"You will learn. You have already come so far, and as time passes and as you truly experiences human life in this amazing body, you will not only experiences and learn about sensations, pain and other things that other humans and faunus know but you will become stronger than you can ever imagine, learning how to use your human body to its full potential, to experience and overcome pain and become stronger from it."
"But nothing says that you will have to do it alone. I have found myself in the same situation than you Penny, but each time Ren was here for me, to comfort and reassure me and help me grow into a better and stronger person. I will be here for you too Penny. But not just me, also Ren and Oscar. When you will be hurt, we will be here to protect and heal you ? When you will be afraid, we will reassure and strengthen you. When you will be sad we will be here to comfort you and fill your heart with joy and laugh. I love you, we love you Penny, and we'll never stop doing so, that I can promise to you. "
At these words Penny closed her eyes and hugged Nora more tightly than ever, quietly sobbing, but these times tears of joy were mixed with the sadness and pain that remained. Nora fully returned the hug, gently whispering in her friend's ear.
"It's okay. Everything will be alright, I am here for you."
After a long time, the two finally pulled from their hug and Nora saw that Penny was finally smiling back.
"Come on. Let's get you your first diner. You'll see, life is already totally worth living just for the taste and feeling of satiety of a good meal."
Penny smiled and followed Nora to the stairs, but to Nora's surprise she suddently stopped and then took Nora in her arms, flying off as Nora let out a cry of surprise before heading to the refugee camp via the air. Nora looked anxious for twenty seconds but then she and Penny looked at each other, and the two laughed together in the air.
Yes, Penny's first diner and night, and her future life truly are going to be very interesting ones.