Again, a huge thanks for everyone that takes the time out to review the story it really is appreciated and help motivate me to get these out.

Heart to Heart

Chapter 30: Messy Reunion

Winter's team had followed the trail and it seemed to end at an abandoned plant or some kind of industrial building that had been shut down. Wōdan's eye had shown a trailed leading to it as Robyn carefully had found a cut in the fence. The four of them were hiding by a building out of sight around the corner.

"Anything?" Winter asked.

Wōdan's eye changed to a red one as his vision changed to a thermal view of things. He could now see several people inside of the building. "I got ten people at least, one of them is moving around I think that one is checking the perimeter. A few of them are on the small side, they seem to be resting."

Winter frowned, ten people was a lot for just the four of them. Pulling out her scroll she opened up the communications line.

"Backup?" Greenwood asked her not taking her eyes off the building.

"Yes," Winter took a look at the local forces. There were the usual military members plus some Knights that they could call but they were more for patrols. She typed in some commands to request a few units to the surrounding area to at least encircle the block to cut off any escapes.

The Ace-Ops unit was close by but it would take time for them to show up and she was eager to get this over with and get back to work, as there was a lot of work to be done these days plus she also had a lot of questions for whoever was in there.

"We have the element of surprise," Grau stated. "We get in fast and hard with them resting we can take most of them down."

Winter decided on a requesting backup and going in, if the fight lasted longer the backup would refresh them and surprise their enemies with the unexpected attack. There was also the fact that the three of them were Specialist part of the elite units of Atlas. They also had Penny and the girl Winter read the reports on her upgrades but hadn't seen her personally in a combat situation yet.

"We move in." Winter told them closing her scroll.

Everyone inside of the building was feeling the aches and pains and how tired they all were. It wasn't the most comfortable place but at least it made them able to take a break from it all. That was until Blake's ears perked up as she sat up straighter.

Weiss noticed this. "Are you okay?"

"I thought I heard something," Blake commented before an arrow was shot through one of the dark windows and landed in the middle of them. As it struck the ground there was a large flash and loud sound as the flash bang attached to it went off. There was nothing but confusion and panic as mostly everyone was deafened and blinded from the device.

Blake's eyes and ears took more punishment from her Faunus heritage had been forced to her knees in blinding pain. Weiss was with her as was Oscar. The ones not taken down from it were Jaune and Yang who from their position took some of the blast but not all of it. They staggered to their feat ready for a fight as a figure burst through the door.

Nora and Ren were stunned but slowly getting up as like with Jaune and Yang had moved to a more secluded spot to get comfortable with each other.

Ruby and Maria had gone off to a corner as Ruby was asking Maria more questions about silver eyes and what she had done in Argus, Maria's eyes were unaffected by the flash, too bad her ears weren't.

Qrow had been making a last round of the place when he heard the commotion. He tried to rush back but years of instinct kicked in when he suddenly dodged to feel a blade swipe by him. He turned and pulled out his weapon at the same time feeling it clang against another blade. It was dark and hard to see but he could make out the shadow of whoever was attacking them.

The figure was quick and agile but also aggressive in their movements he could hear heels and the grunting from the person all added up to a woman. Not that it mattered to him after all he was an equal opportunity ass kicker anyway. He could hear by now a fight going on behind them but he had to deal with this woman first.

Problem was, she was good…and familiar. The way she moved, the quick and smooth motions he felt like he knew her. When you fight someone, you get to learn a lot about a person as how someone fights is unique, like how a fingerprint is unique to a person or how someone paints.

Then it happened, a large familiar glyph appeared glowing in its own light and he knew who he was fighting.

"Oh crap," Qrow muttered was she had to dodged and rolled out of the way before she used her glyph to sent herself at him at super speed. "Winter it's me!"

Qrow changed his weapon to lower the blade and quickly shot out a few windows letting in a lot more light. Winter had paused when a familiar voice yelled out at her when the person shot out the windows she was ready to fight again but when the light hit him, the sight of Qrow shocked her. Then her shock turned to anger as all the trouble that they were dealing with, of course, Qrow of all people was in the center of it.

"Qrow!" She yelled out angrily. "You better have a good explanation for all of this."

The sounds of fighting behind them was still heard as Qrow realized that they needed to stop that now. "Sure but first we need to call them off each other before someone gets hurt!"

Winter agreed as the two went into the room with the fighting.

While that had been going on the others were in a desperate fight already. Yang and Jaune were trying to fight the one eyed man that had come at them with a spear. Yang and Jaune tried for up close with him but something wasn't right. Yang went for a left punch but the man moved like he saw it coming as he dodged it by leaning back and then kicked out one of her legs causing her to lose balance.

Jaune tried to step in with a swipe of his sword while he dealt with Yang but the man twirled his spear to parry the sword. He moved in a fluid motion and spun as he did so his weapon turned into a rifle as he fired a few shots as Jaune raised his shield up. Yang again tried to attack while he was focused on Jaune, since no one shot at her boyfriend without getting some pain.

Again the man moved as if he saw it coming a mile away, she had gone for a kick but he twisted and ducked low as he swung the butt of his now riffle to her knee. Yang cursed as she got back up and managed to stand next to Jaune.

"You getting something weird going on with this guy?" Yang asked him.

"Yeah," Jaune nodded as he realized that his movements were too perfect as his mind quickly was taking note of it and trying to come up with a strategy to deal with whatever he was doing.

What they didn't know about Grau was that his semblance was called Foresight. Now while it sounded like he could see the future, in actuality it was just a bluff when he told people it. In reality, it boosted his reflexes and his perception slowing down everything around him. It allowed him to react in a way that seemed like he knew what was going to happen. With his artificial eye helping to enhance his perception, it was a deadly combination.

Nora swung her weapon at the woman with the bow and arrows while Ren was firing the woman but she was quick and nibble and his shots were not as accurate as he would have liked. The woman smirked as she pulled an arrow out and fired it at Nora as she dodged it.

"Ha! You missed!" Nora grinned.

"Sorry kid but I never miss," Greenwood stated as the arrow ricocheted off behind her a few times before it hit Ren in the back. The arrow head had a special device on it that when in contact with aura it opened up as Ren quickly found his arms bound in cables.

"Ren!" Nora shouted as the woman's bow collapse into a fighting staff a she came at Nora.

Nora swung her hammer, as the space was too small for her grenades, not that she had much in the way of ammo left. The woman was however too fast using the now fighting staff to deflect Nora's blows and counter attack slamming it a few times into the shorter girl.

Ruby saw the trouble Nora was in and aimed her weapon while it was still in 'gun' mode.

She fired a few times at the woman who took one hit as a bit of green aura showed up as she woman took some distance. Ruby took aim tracking her but before she could fire, something else happened. There was a loud crashing sound as something actually smashed through ceiling, dust, rust and other elements were scattered around the area, as Ruby had to shut her eyes tight to avoid getting stuff in them. When she opened her eyes, whatever had crashed into the room was already heading for Weiss. Ruby took aim ready to fire when two voices were screaming at them one of them was her uncle.

"Stop, everyone hold your fire!" Qrow shouted.

"Specialists, stand down!" Winter commanded.

There was a pause in the fighting as everyone stopped. Weiss' eyes widened hearing a very familiar voice as she called out to her sister. "Winter?"

"Weiss!?" Winter called out looking to a darkened figure.

"Let me help," Qrow stated doing the same trick and firing a few times to shoot out a few of the darkened windows letting in more light. Now that everyone could see better they could all see the various people in the room. The two Specialists were surprised they were fighting young men and women who were dressed up more like Hunters. There was even a young teenage boy and an old lady with them.

There was a large clank sound as Ruby dropped her weapon as she looked on in shock and disbelief. Standing there was someone she had seen killed in the Fall of Beacon, one of two friends she had lost that day but now standing not far from her. She couldn't process it, it was Penny, she looked different now but it was still her. Penny looked at her in surprise, which quickly turned to delight as she smiled broadly at Ruby.

"Ruby! It's so good to see you again," Penny greeted her cheerfully.

"What the hell, is that Penny!?" Yang's jaw dropped at seeing the robot girl there.

"I…yeah…yeah it is," Jaune said next to her equally shocked.

Ruby only stood frozen seeing that familiar smile, that warm smile that seemed to welcome the whole world. Ruby felt the tears falling by this point her eyes quickly being blinded by them turning Penny into a blurry image. She felt the lump in her throat as her emotions were rushing through her uncontrollable.

"Oh no, Ruby are you okay are you injured," Penny quickly came up to her first friend looking her over hoping she wasn't injured as crying she knew was a sign of injury.

Ruby couldn't say anything as she quickly threw her arms around her and pulled her close.

"P-P-Pennyyyyy!" She cried out as she quickly started to sob into the girl's shoulder.

Penny wasn't sure what to do, she liked hugs but her friend was also crying and so she had mixed feelings on what to do.

Qrow who could see the dilemma in the robot girl's face only gave her a small smile. "Just hug her back and let her get it all out."

Penny nodded thankful for the help as she did just that hugging Ruby.

"Urgh!" Ruby managed to get out between her crying feeling the crushing hug. She didn't care even if her ribs did feel like they might crack under the strain. This too was a familiar sensation she hadn't felt in over a year. She just buried her face into Penny and cried her heart out. All that pain from seeing her torn apart on the tournament ground came flooding back to her

That feeling of utter helplessness as she just sat there unable to move or do anything seeing Penny broken on the ground not moving after Pyrrha had accidentally used too much force and had Penny's own wires cut the robot girl to ribbons.

"Not that hard Penny," Winter told her as she knew the girl still had trouble adjusting her super human strength at times.

Penny loosened up a bit as Ruby held on to dear life, a part of her was worried that if she let go Penny would go away again. Too many people had gone away, her mother, Pyrrha and Penny had been one of them too. In this moment, she didn't care how it was possible she had one of the people she cared for back.

"So…I take it Ruby knows this girl?" Maria asked looking around.

"Penny," Blake told her unable to look away from the scene. "We thought that she was…well dead."

"Well she looks healthy enough for me," Maria shrugged.

While this was going on there was another reunion this time between sisters as Weiss walked over to her older sister.

"Weiss what are you doing here?" Winter demanded. "The last I heard you fled the manor and now you're here with everyone?"

She was about to say more before Weiss pulled her big sister into a hug surprising the older woman. Weiss had never really taken action like this since physical displays of emotion weren't encouraged in their household. For Weiss she just wanted to hug her sister, after everything she needed this. She left Atlas hoping to find her only to find out she had gone back to Atlas. Even though she had wished never to return to Atlas anytime soon in this moment she was glad to be back in Atlas for the moment.

Weiss pulled back giving her sister a small but warm smile. "It's good to see you too sister."

Winter wasn't sure what had happened with Weiss, she was different, that much was obvious to the woman but looking at her little sister she also seemed to have grown. She could see the independence and freedom in her eyes and it made Winter wonder just what had happened between now and the last time she saw her sister.

Despite all that, it was good to see her again.

"Weiss what is going on? We thought we were after a group of criminals that stole an Atlas airship." Winter demanded.

"Oh yeah that," Weiss avoided her sister's look since they had in fact did steal the ship.

"Yeah…funny story?" Yang scratched the back of her head looking awkward as everyone else was.

"I think we should tell James in person the whole story," offered Qrow. "That way we don't have to repeat everything."

Winter knew something was going on but the General would want to hear about this. While she pulled out her scroll to call up a transport for them, the others gathered around Penny and a recovering Ruby.

"Sorry, sorry," Ruby sniffed as she rubbed her eyes and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "I think I got some snot on you."

"That's alright," Penny said in the same chipper attitude she usually had. "What's snot between friends?"

The robot girl then looked around seeing everyone else. There were a few faces she didn't know but she knew all of Ruby's team and the others she had seen but never got the chance to interact much with them while she had been in Vale.

"Salutations," She waved at them all. "It's good to see you all again."

"Penny how, well…" Blake tried to find a way to put it nicely before Yang jumped in.

"How the hell are you still alive?" Yang blurted out.

"Yeah that," Blake nodded.

"Oh, well I was damaged very severely," Penny recalled. "I remember falling onto the ground as my internal systems all went into the red. I had to perform an emergency shutdown in order to preserve my power supply to my core."

"Your core?" Nora asked.

Penny nodded, "Yes it's where all my memories are kept along with what gives me aura."

"So you do have aura after all," Jaune stated as Penny looked at him as she only ever told Ruby that part. Seeing the look he started to explain. "On our trip to Haven we had a lot of talks and we got Ruby to talk about you. She explained how she knew you were a robot and how you said you had aura."

"Wait what!?" Yang said as she, Blake and now a returned Weiss looked to Ruby.

"Oops," Ruby shuffled a bit. "I think I forgot that when we were all catching up when we were all in Haven. Honestly I didn't think much of it since…well I thought Penny was still dead."

She looked to Penny, "Sorry if I told some of them after."

Penny shook her head with a smile. "It's alright the secret was out by that point anyway."

"So how did you get fixed up?" Jaune asked curious.

"Atlas agents took her body as soon as the cameras were cut," Winter supplied as she had known about the operation her handlers were tasked with if Penny was ever too damaged to return on her own. It was one of the reasons she had two guards on her most of the time while she had been in Vale after all.

"Come to think on it when the Nevermore broke into the arena I don't remember seeing Penny's body," Ren stated as he thought back to that day. It had been so hectic that he missed it since there had been more important things going on.

Winter nodded. "They took her to a ship and put her on emergency power to keep her stable on the flight back."

"I woke up in my father's lab a few days later." Penny told them. "He showed me what happened."

Penny then looked to Jaune. "I am so sorry for what happened with Pyrrha."

Jaune was surprised by this, "Thanks…I mean I know she was devastated with what happened with you."

Penny nodded. "I know, from what I knew of her and from her files she wasn't the sort to maliciously do anything like that. Still I wish I could have talked to her to let her know that I hold no hard feelings about the incident."

Penny then made a pose as she flex her arms. "Besides my father was able to upgrade me and now I'm fifty percent more efficient than ever before."

"Wait," Ruby thought about something. "You said you woke up only a few days after that, why didn't you let me know you were okay?"

Penny turned to her friend with a saddened face. "I was only awake for a moment as my father wanted to make sure I was okay. I did ask for you but he didn't know anything at that moment as he was still repairing me. He shut me down again as he did so telling me he would look into your status while I was 'asleep' and would tell me when I woke up again."

"It was a full month before my repairs were fully complete and I was awake again. He told me you were fine but that some of you were injured." She turned to look at Yang's arm. "He actually made that arm for you."

Yang lifted her damaged artificial arm this had been made for her by Penny's father? She hadn't known that, she remembered her dad saying something about it being a gift from Ironwood but she hadn't really thought much about that.

"He made this for me?" Yang asked her.

Penny nodded. "Yes, when I heard how hurt you were I asked him if he could do anything for you. My father is a genius in cybernetics and he even has a clinic here in Mantel to help people in his free time."

"Hold on a second," Maria stated hearing that. She had been trying to follow along but she was still missing a few key points she felt. At any rate she would asked for more clarity when she could but this point sounded like something she would know about. "What's your father's name?"

"Oh how rude of me," Penny forgot she never said her father's name. "His name is Dr. Pietro Polendina."

"Oh I know him," Maria said and looked to Yang. "Looks like we share the same doctor kid."

Yang blinked, "What do you mean?"

"He's the one that gave me these," She pointed to her eyes. "He's the one that I see every ten years for a checkup."

"He gave me mine as well," Grau stated as he and his partner had stayed silent this entire time taking mental notes on everything. They knew when to say something and when to sit back and listen, sometimes you got more information that way after all.

Maria looked at him, "Well looks like you got a better one than these." She pointed to her large 'eyes' while his looked more like an eye patch.

The man shrugged. "It was only a year ago I got it, those look pretty old. I'm surprised you didn't try for an upgrade."

Maria waved it off, "I asked about that, they're wired to my optic nerves and that would take a long surgery to replace. At any rate I never knew he had a child, he didn't have one last time I visited him ten years ago."

"Oh that's because I'm only four years old," Penny stated.

Everyone was silent for a moment as Maria tried to process that. "What?"

"Oh right because you're a robot," Nora got it. "Man does it say that on your identification because that's got to be rough going to the movies."

Penny thought about it she never actually checked her own ID before, she never needed to and she never got to see a movie either. Well outside of her room back home that was. She returned to Ruby to explain. "When I was finally on my feet again I did send you a letter with Yang's arm explaining everything. I couldn't contact you any other way with the CCT network down."

"Oh..." Ruby now got it. "I wasn't home I had already left for Haven at that time. Yang?"

Yang shook her head. "If you got a letter dad most likely kept it for you when I got my arm. It's most likely waiting for you back home this entire time as I doubt dad would have opened up a letter for you while you weren't around."

"Yeah that's something dad would do," Ruby nodded hoping to visit home again at some point to get that letter as she would like to read it when she could one day.

"As much as this catching up is all nice and all," Winter said in a neutral tone. "we have a ride landing not far from here."

Everyone started to pack up and get their stuff as Robyn and Wōdan stood next to each other as she leaned in to whisper to him. "So…does this mean we're not arresting anyone?"

He only shrugged in response.

Mantel, East Side

A van drove through the streets of the East Side of the city to where more factories were located. This was where a lot of the dust refinement was done in Mantel. Because it that there weren't many living areas in this part of the city. The van was something that Jack had brought since they needed help in transporting Adam. Cinder was up front with him as Neo was waiting with and unconscious Adam in the back.

Cinder looked around and the whole city felt like an iron grip was on it. Apparently, Ironwood was more shaken up from Beacon that she had thought. She grinned at seeing how just one event could push someone to extremes. As they continued, she noticed more and more of the robot units marching along the streets.

"What happens if we're stopped?" Cinder asked as having someone see a heavily wounded and dying person in a van wasn't something she wanted to deal with.

Jack just shrugged, "The Old Man has people everywhere and if someone can't be bribed then they can be blackmailed with stuff they don't want everyone else to know about. So our vehicle plates were eventually put into the system and tagged. As long as we don't do anything, overtly illegal the bots leave us alone and mostly every human working this part of the city knows the markings on the vans to also stay away.

Cinder had noticed a small black mark on the side of the van. It was small but noticeable as it was a hexagon with a bent figure on it. She knew it was the sign of the Crooked Man and most likely, everyone else in the know also knew about it. Like how Lil' Miss Malachite had that spider symbol for her gang of informants. The rest of the trip was in silence until they pulled into a small alleyway. He stopped as he got out of the van as Cinder and Neo followed.

Jack went to what looked like a side loading dock with a doorway with a camera on the outside. He pressed a buzzer by the security door.

"Yes?"

"Got a patient for you Doc."

There was a moment of silence until the loading doors opened up. Jack got back into the van as he backed up towards it and into the large garage. Cinder and Neo followed as they looked around, the place lowly lit a bit, there were boxes to the side of the place but it looked to be very well cleaned however. There was a mechanical growl as they quickly turned to the other side of the room as from a darkened doorway a mechanical beast slowly came out into the more lit room.

Cinder looked it over and was curious it looked like a bunch of different machines put together into the form of a Beowulf.

"God I hate that thing," Jack muttered as he just ignored the doctor's 'watch dog' that he had built for the building. It was one of the reasons no one really bothered the doctor given that once word got out about the mechanical mutt, people stayed away. There were also rumors on what he did with the 'leftovers' from what the mutt left behind those stupid enough to try something.

From a set of double doors facing the back of the van suddenly came out two robots, these were more human like in appearance but like the other one, were a patch work of various models, most likely cobbled together from thrown out pieces or whatever else he could have found or maybe bought.

They also had a gurney with them as they made their way to the van, Jack just opened the back door like he had down this before, in fact he had done this before.

The robots without a word took Adam's body and placed it on the gurney and they started to roll him to the set of double doors. The three humans followed them, they didn't have to go much further as they found after a short L shaped hallway they entered what looked like a surgical room. At least, the closest you could get outside of an actual hospital.

The room smelt of cleaners and there was a large plastic tarp around a surgery table. There were bits of dried blood here and there the equipment looked to have seen better days but all still seemed to work. There standing there was an older man, his hair was graying by the sides of his chestnut hair. Despite everything, he was immaculately dressed. He seemed to take very good care of his physical appearance with a very trim beard looking at them all.

"Ah Jack it's been awhile since you've darken my doorstep. So what have you brought me this time?" The doctor said seeing the man on the gurney.

"Patch job for the ladies here," Jack jerked his thumb at Cinder and Neo.

The doctor looked them over but stopped at Cinder. "You know my dear I could help with the missing eye if you want."

"I'll see what you do with Adam here before I make any kind of decisions." Cinder told him. Although it might be nice to have depth perception, again she didn't exactly trust him for anything like that.

"Well then let's look at the patient here." He muttered looking over Adam's body.

While this was going on, Neo went to looking around the room and saw some medical licenses well she doubted they were still valid if he was working here after all. She checked out the name on them, Franklin Nathanial Stein. Apparently, he was a doctor in more than just medicine. Franklin huh? She wondered if anyone ever called him Franky or Frank? Looking at the man she guessed not, he had a stuffed shirt look about him.

"Young man, I'd say twenty-ish," Dr. Stein said to himself looking over Adam. "Faunus, most likely a bull variety from the horns." He started to take a close examination of his body. "That eye is useless it will have to be replaced…possible fracture of the skull from an impact and also possible shattered spine."

"He did fall from a high place," Cinder offered given that Adam had been washed up downstream from a waterfall it was easy enough to piece together he must have fallen from it.

"Well that explains why his shoulder and arm are also crushed," He looked at the right side of the body and he could tell from the feel of it alone that the bones were broken in several areas. "Subject was burned, no…stabbed and then burned? Did someone cauterize the wounds? You know you're not supposed to do that as it only makes burn injuries to deal with on top of the usual trauma."

"He was bleeding out and we didn't have access to anything that could have helped," Cinder coldly defended her actions. She wasn't a medic of any sort and she doubted Neo had any medical training either.

Dr. Stein sighed. "Well maybe it was the only call then, still please remember in the future that burning wounds isn't like they do in all those films. I can only guess at the internal damage but it would be extensive…"

"Can he be saved?" Cinder asked him getting a bit impatient.

"If I start right away…possibly," Dr. Stein smiled as he stood up. "I do so love a challenge after all. In fact, he might be the perfect subject for a series of experimental items I was working on. It would be very valuable to see them put into action."

"Well then it sounds like you have everything in hand," Cinder turned around. "I believe we are done here and we should let the doctor get on with this work."

"Fine with me," Jack muttered this place always gave him the creeps the patchwork robots didn't help matters.

"What is the boy's name?" The doctor asked as he had the robots start to get the place ready for surgery.

"Adam." Cinder told him as they were leaving.

Dr. Stein looked down at his patient. "Hello Adam, don't worry you'll be better than ever when I'm done with you."

TBC…

Well that's two things now that Rooster Teeth have done that I planned on with the idea of a person like Robyn. Anyways I'm interested to see who can name all the references so far so let's see who can guess them all and you'll get a shout out as the winner next chapter.

Wōdan Grau

Robyn Greenwood

Dr. Franklin Nathanial Stein

Crocked Man (this is more easier but I was also inspired by a certain game)

Jack (hint was the name of the club)