Interlude One: Aftermath
Ciel Soleil was conflicted. She didn't like being conflicted, and so had resorted to her favorite pastime: mechanical work. She was elbow deep in her Paladin's hydraulics, tightening down a bolt after making sure the oil was topped off. She could be obsessive when it came to preventative maintenance and safety checks, and the aftermath of the assault on Vacuo had put her into overdrive. Omega Squad had a team of dedicated mechanics to refit and repair their Paladins. Ciel had impatiently waited for them to do their job, and then had waded into the work herself. If she was going to be piloting the machine in combat, she wanted to do her own checks. With the hydraulics taken care of, the next thing on her list was the gatling cannon, so she started to undo the panel that would give her access to the inner workings of her primary weapon.
As she worked, she thought about what was bothering her. The fight itself hadn't been too bad. Her new machine had performed superbly, and had held up to the high standards that Atlas maintained for its technology. What was bothering her was the person she had met. When she had launched from her bay on Amity, her initial course was towards the gate. As she dropped lower, she had picked up a squad of embattled Huntsmen on her scanners, and decided to assist them. She landed, eliminated the threat, and then addressed the Huntsmen she was aiding, only to find out it was Jaune Arc and his team. One of the people who had last seen her friend Penny alive.
She had known that Jaune, Ruby, and the others had returned from wherever they had gone when they disappeared during the transfer. She also knew that Penny had not. The best she could ascertain, after needling Winter, was that Penny had died in the portal hub. Truly died, from what she had gathered. When she had tentatively brought the subject up to Dr. Polendina, he had quickly shut her down before withdrawing to mourn.
There was a certain Irony, Ciel thought as her ratchet chk-chk-chk'd, about her and Penny's relationship. Penny had been a robot that wanted to be a real girl, and Ciel was a real girl who dearly wished she could become machine. At least in part. Machines were so straightforward. You built them to do something, and they did it. You didn't have to worry about emotions, or trivial things like sleep, or eating. Sure, machines needed oil, or dust, or electricity, but it wasn't the same as organics.
She had been unsure at first about her original assignment to be Penny's minder. Dr. Polendina had wanted someone Penny's 'age' to be friends with. At first, Ciel had taken the assignment very seriously. She kept Penny to the strict schedule that had been set for her, and taught her about human relationships. The problem was, Ciel herself wasn't so great at those. People frequently confused her. That's why she had preferred the military to service as a Huntress. In the military, you got orders, you followed orders, and that was it. People could be loud, and contradictory, and let their feelings rule their actions. Ruby Rose and her team, for example, were carefree and boisterous, doing what they wanted without thought of the consequences.
And Penny had been very taken with them. They had given her something that Ciel could not, a sense of what it meant to live freely, not bound to a strict schedule. Ciel had been terribly sad when Penny had died in Amity arena. She had collected the pieces and taken one of the first ships back to Atlas. It had been her that had given Dr. Polendina the pieces of his daughter back. Her that had been there when Penny 2.0 had been born. And she had felt true joy when Penny had said, "Sal-u-tations Ciel!" Her friend was back.
The second time around, she had tried to be more carefree for Penny. Doing more things off the cuff, taking her out to do things only humans would do. It had been a wonderful few months. Penny had become the 'Defender of Mantle', and Ciel had joined the pilot program in the Atlesian military. Then Atlas and Mantle had been attacked, and Penny had disappeared with Ruby, Jaune, and her old Valean friends again. She had disobeyed direct orders from General Ironwood. Ciel frowned as she remembered this. But… Penny had been right. General Ironwood had tried to bomb Mantle. That went directly against what the military and Penny stood for.
Things had kept going downhill from there, and they had evacuated through the strange portals that had sprung up everywhere. When she got to Vacuo, one of the first things she did was try to find out what had happened to Penny. Winter had told her that Penny, Team RWBY, and Jaune had all perished during the transfer. Winter had inherited the Maiden Powers from Penny. Ciel hadn't even known that Penny had received them in the first place. And Ciel got …mad. Anger wasn't something she was used to, but her friend had absconded to team up with the carefree Huntresses and their friends, and then she had been killed. It had been so careless a thing to happen. And they had returned, but Penny had not.
Ciel started as she realized that she had been attempting to tighten down the same bolt for the last ten minutes. She had gotten lost in her thoughts, something that wasn't customary for her. The loading mechanism for the cannon was clean and moving smoothly. She gave it a quick spray with some lubricant and put the panel back on. Work done, she leaned back and wiped her brow.
Should I try to find Jaune or Ruby and talk to them about Penny? Is that what people would normally do in this situation? Ciel sighed. Maybe she would talk to Winter first. Winter was easier to talk to than most people. She was a soldier first. Most of the time, anyway. Her course of action decided, Ciel left the bay.
Later, after she had found and talked to Winter, Ciel sat by one of the observation windows that overlooked the city. Winter had been rather blunt with Ciel. She had told her that Jaune and the others felt very badly about Penny dying, and while she understood that Ciel was upset as well, it wouldn't be a good idea to confront them in an accusatory manner. She needed to approach them as a fellow friend grieving the loss of Penny. Ciel was glad she had gone to Winter first, because she had indeed been wanting to accuse the others of getting Penny killed. It seemed pretty clear-cut that they had influenced that outcome, but they surely hadn't wanted Penny to die. Why did people have to be so hard? She frowned to herself as she thought. Approach them as someone mourning the loss of a mutual friend…
Ruby, Yang, and Blake were taking their leisure in the lush courtyard outside of Shade, snacking on some fresh fruit. They had found themselves with some down time, given that they had volunteered for the mission to Atlas, and were trying to figure out what to do with it.
Ruby and Blake were sitting on the edge of a happily bubbling fountain, working out how best to help the people of Vacuo. There was a lot to do, and they thought it would be a good way to pass the time. Yang was sunning herself, laying on the warm flagstones of the courtyard beneath them, dressed in a crop top and shorts.
"What do you think, Yang? Want to help the White Fang distribute food?" Ruby asked, looking down at her older sister. She could still see the outline of the huge bruise Yang had gotten fighting the deathstalker, now a fading brownish yellow that spread out over her abdomen. It had been healing well, one of the bonuses of having an unlocked aura.
Yang finished off the piece of melon she had been eating and sat up. "Sure. My only request is to be able to soak up as much sun as I can before we go back to Atlas. Am I the only one that finds it ironic that we spent so much time shopping for new combat outfits for Vacuo, and we haven't done any fighting in Vacuo yet?"
"Oh yeah, huh? We really haven't seen much of Vacuo, have we?" Ruby said.
"We have not, no," Blake said. She tossed her peach pit to Yang, who caught it in her mouth before realizing what it was, then spit it out with a reproachful look at Blake. Blake started to laugh, and then shriek as Yang tackled her into the fountain she and Ruby had been sitting next to.
"Yang Xiao-Long!" Blake exclaimed, spluttering through the water. "You got me soaking wet! What am I supposed to do now?"
"Oh, I can think of a few things," Yang said salaciously, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
Ruby groaned, face flushing red at her sister's antics. "Yang, please, we're in public."
Blake, who was also blushing, splashed water in Yang's face and climbed out of the water. Yang just laughed and helped her climb out, water running down her face. The pair of them stood on the flagstones, water dripping from their soaked clothes, and shared a quick kiss.
Ruby, still embarrassed, buried herself in her scroll, desperately checking to see if Weiss had responded to her last message yet. Weiss had taken off right after breakfast to spend the day with Jaune, and had been radio silent so far. Ruby was broken out of her concentration by a prim, business-like cough.
Ruby looked up and met the brilliantly blue-eyed gaze of a young woman dressed in a unique Atlesian military uniform. Everything about her was clean and precise, with nothing out of place. The uniform was bright white, with blue and gold trim. There was a patch of some sort on one of her shoulders, and a mechanical style wristwatch on her arm. She stood at attention, arms at her sides, legs together, beret cocked. Ruby stared at her for a long moment, trying to work out what this person wanted, when something in her memory clicked.
"CIEL!" She rushed to the other woman, leaving a trail of petals behind her, and wrapped Ciel in a hug.
Ciel stiffened, and very perfunctorily patted Ruby's back. "Ruby Rose."
"We haven't seen you since the Vytal Festival! What have you been up to?" Ruby asked, beaming.
Ciel looked at Blake and Yang, who were both still dripping fountain water onto the flagstones, and sniffed. "Furthering my education, and training to become a pilot."
"Pilot, huh? What do you fly?" Yang asked while wringing out her hair.
"I'm certified to fly the Manta, and the Bullhead, and to pilot the Paladin. In fact, I'm part of the newest squad of Paladin pilots, Omega Squad." To herself, Ciel thought, This isn't what I came here for. Why am I making small talk? And why are those two wet?
"Hey, Jaune said his team got a lot of help from one of the Omega Paladins! That's so cool! Can I check out your machine sometime?" Ruby gushed, still bouncing around Ciel.
Ciel, still rather flustered since this was not at all going how she thought it would, just nodded. She was still attempting to process Ruby's enthusiasm when the reason for her visit reloaded itself in her mind. She straightened back to attention and said, "I've come to express my condolences for the loss of Penny. I know she was a friend of yours."
Ruby immediately deflated. The sudden change startled Ciel, who had rarely, if ever, experienced an emotional swing that fast.
"She was your friend, too, right?" Ruby asked sadly.
"She was, yes." Ciel was still standing ramrod straight, eyes ahead, not meeting anyone's gaze.
"We're sorry she's gone too. I wish she had had more time…" Ruby trailed off, voice quiet.
Is it normal for your emotions to swing that fast? Ruby was so excited, and now she's so sad, Ciel thought. Out loud, she said, "I, too, wish she had had more time with us. I had wanted to talk with everyone who was there when she died. Do you know where your teammate, Weiss Schnee, is? And Jaune Arc?"
It was Blake who answered. "They're with Team FNKI, we can show you the way."
"We can?" Ruby asked. "Weiss has been ghosting me all morning. Why do you know what they're up to?"
"She entrusted me with the information because she figured I was the least likely to bother her and Jaune without cause," Blake replied.
"And the Ice Queen strikes again. That's cold, leaving me and Ruby out of the loop. Why wouldn't she trust us to give her some privacy?" Yang asked, now tipping water out of her boots.
"Because her and Jaune are both musically inclined, and they're playing with Flynt and the others. She didn't know if that was something you two would be interested in, given that she knows you think they're annoying, Yang, and it's kinda hard to answer your scroll when you're playing music. But I don't think she'll mind if we interrupt for this," Blake said.
"Why wouldn't we want to listen to them play music? That sounds like fun," Ruby said.
"Actually, Blake has a point. Sitting in a room with Katt for that long does sound like light torture," Yang said. "I did kinda think that they were out on a date though, not hanging around here."
Blake just shrugged. "I guess Weiss got the invite from Flynt last night, and her and Jaune thought it sounded like fun. Anyway, Ciel, we'll take you to them."
"Thank you," Ciel said.
"Can we swing by our room quick to get changed?" Yang asked. "Be nice to get into some dry clothes."
"I wonder why they got wet in the first place," Blake said, giving Yang a fondly exasperated look.
"That's a mystery we may never solve," Yang said with a wink.
As Blake, now in dry clothes, led the way to the music room, the group could make out an upbeat, jazzy song playing. A female voice rose over the music, singing with a silky, slightly raspy edge.
Do your muscles ache?
You may need a break
It's a common response for your hands to shake
I know it's not easy, losing a match
Especially when it's a girl kicking your ass.
"Is that Weiss?" Ruby asked, incredulous. "I've only ever heard her sing those high opera-like songs."
"Damn, girl has range," Yang said, impressed. "Ya'll ready to crash this party?"
"Maybe we should let them finish before we interrupt," Blake suggested. "Though it would be fun to see Weiss at the mic."
They all looked at Ciel, who was wincing slightly at the music. Ruby shrugged, then with a grin, opened the door. Weiss was indeed at the mic, eyes closed, lost in her performance. Flynt was on trumpet, Ivori was on piano, Katt was playing the drums, and Jaune and Kobalt were on guitar and bass. Jaune was struggling a bit, considering one of his arms was still in a sling, but he wasn't doing terribly. Yang followed Ruby in, also with a wide grin on her face, and Blake and Ciel came in last.
As Weiss finished singing and the song came to an end, Yang started to wolf-whistle and applaud. Jaune grinned, looking a little embarrassed, and Weiss' eyes snapped towards them.
"Weiss you guys rock!" Ruby exclaimed. "That was awesome!"
Blake looked at Weiss apologetically and tipped her head towards Ciel. Ciel stepped into the room, still with a sour look on her face. "The guitar was slightly off-key, and off-beat," she said.
"And that's what practice is for, Miss Metronome," Flynt said. "Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the music!"
"Do you know how long it's been since I played? And my arm is still busted up. Cut a guy some slack," Jaune said, hurt. Kobalt placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"There a reason you crashed our jam session?" Katt asked, eyeing Ciel with distaste.
Ciel snapped to attention. "I wished to speak with Weiss Schnee and Jaune Arc."
"You're Ciel Soleil." Weiss said, putting the mic back in the stand. "Atlas military, Pilot. Former teammate of Penny."
"Correct. I wanted to express my condolences for the loss of Penny," Ciel said, still standing ramrod straight.
"You don't have to be so stiff, Ciel," Flynt said. "Loosen up a bit. Especially if we're talking about friends no longer with us." He sat down and leaned forward in his chair, pulling out a cloth to shine his trumpet.
Ciel frowned, but did relax a bit. "I understand that Team RWBY and Jaune were the last people to see Penny, before she died. I… wanted to talk about that."
Jaune stiffened, and his eyes dropped to the floor. Weiss moved to him and took his hand. Flynt, reading the room, asked, "Do you want us to step out? Cuz we can, if this is private."
"You were friends of Penny's too, were you not?" Ciel asked him.
"I kinda want to hear this, if that's ok," Katt said from her drumkit. Flynt just shrugged at this, and continued to clean his trumpet.
"Do you mind telling us what happened?" Ciel said.
"Cinder killed her." Weiss said, meeting Ciel's gaze. "She was picking us off one by one, knocking us over the edges of the walkways, and it came down to me, Jaune, and Penny. Cinder finished her. Stabbed her straight through the heart. There was nothing we could do about it."
"Wait, what do you mean, stabbed her through the heart?" Flynt asked. "She didn't have a heart, she was an android."
"I too, would like to know the meaning of this," Ciel asked, still frowning.
"Well, she got infected with a computer virus from Watts. He programmed her to open the vault and then self-destruct. We bypassed that by using the staff in the vault to make her a real body. She was a flesh and blood person when she died," Blake said, trying to spare Ruby the effort of having to explain.
"She, she died as a person person? Not an android?" Ciel asked falteringly.
"You can use the staff on people?" Katt asked.
"Well, we don't know if it works on people who aren't robots, but it worked for Penny," Yang said.
Ruby had moved over to Ciel. "She did, Ciel. It's my fault. I had the idea to make her human, and then she died. I'm so sorry."
"No, Ruby, I'm the one that should take the blame," Jaune said suddenly, from across the room. Weiss looked at him imploringly, but he bulled ahead. "I couldn't protect her from Cinder, I couldn't heal her with my aura, and I- I"-
"Jaune, it's ok, you don't have to"- Weiss started.
"I killed her. Ok? I finished her off to make sure that Cinder couldn't get the Maiden Powers. It was me." Jaune sat down and buried his head in his hands.
The room fell silent. "Jaune?" Ruby asked meekly. "Is that true?"
"She asked him to do it. She knew that she wasn't going to make it and didn't want to risk Cinder getting more power. Jaune didn't have a choice, and it was Penny's last wish." Weiss said in a rush. "Jaune, it isn't your fault."
Jaune didn't respond, just kept his head bowed and his face buried. Ruby herself collapsed to the floor next to Ciel, tears starting to leak from her eyes.
"Well, shit, Arc. That's a choice I wouldn't wish on anyone," Flynt said. "Kill a friend or let their power fall into the wrong hands? That's harsh."
The others were all looking at Jaune, with a variety of expressions on their faces. "So it was your fault. Winter told me that it wasn't, she said that you were all mourning her death, but you really killed her," Ciel said. Color was rising in her cheeks.
"Ciel, you weren't there, you don't know the position we had been put in. Cinder killed her. Cinder. Not Jaune. Jaune just made sure the Maiden Powers went to Winter. And Penny asked him to do it," Weiss said, eyes starting to flash dangerously.
"Things were going so well. Then you all showed up, and Penny picked you all over me. Again. And then she died," Ciel said. Tears were starting to show in her eyes. I'm really going to cry, she thought with wonder. She hadn't cried the first time Penny died, and hadn't cried over her second death. But now the tears were coming.
"Ciel, you know it wasn't like that. Penny was trying to do what was right for the people of Mantle. Ironwood had other ideas. Wrong ideas," Ruby said from the floor.
"General Ironwood," Ciel corrected automatically. "We were trained to follow orders. We were supposed to follow orders, and Penny broke them to follow you."
"She was doing the right thing. If we had followed General Ironwood's orders, Mantle would have died. It almost did die," Blake said.
"Yeah, the General went crazy, Ciel. We all witnessed it. And me and my team were on the front lines, following orders ourselves. I wish we had had the courage to stand up like the others did," Flynt said.
"So has everything I've done so far in service to Atlas been wrong?" Ciel asked. "Have I wasted my life? Trying to be friends to an android girl who preferred other company, and following the orders of a mad General? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"
"No Ciel, that's not what we're trying to say at all," Ruby said, getting back to her feet. "I know Penny cherished her friendship with you."
"Yeah, and you just told us you're one of those new Paladin Pilots, and we know an Omega Paladin saved Jaune's team in that last fight," Yang said.
"OCL-19." Jaune said, finally looking up from his hands. "That was the serial number of the Omega Paladin. We wouldn't have gotten very far without them."
"I'm OCL-19," Ciel said. "It was me, helping your team," she said nervelessly.
"See? You saved a lot of lives the other day. Jaune, Nora, and the others wouldn't have gotten to the worm without you, and you all helped take it down. I wouldn't call that wasted service," Yang said.
Jaune looked at Ciel, but dropped his gaze again when she looked back. "I- yeah. You really helped us out."
"Ciel, we all miss Penny. You don't have to mourn her alone. Don't isolate yourself, ok? We're all here if you need someone," Blake said. "And Jaune, please don't beat yourself up. If you and Weiss say that's what happened, we believe you, and I don't think we're really in a position to judge you."
"You don't know how badly I wish that things had happened differently, Ciel," Jaune said, still addressing the floor. "I swear, the next time we see Cinder, we'll make her pay for what she did."
"I just miss her," Ciel said simply, eyes still wet with tears.
Ruby hugged her, tight. "Us too. If you're free, do you want to spend some time with us?"
Ciel blinked rapidly. "That might be… nice. Ok."
Ruby unwrapped Ciel from her hug, and then walked over to Jaune. She knelt before him, and then hugged him as well. She could feel his shoulders start to heave with suppressed sobs. "Jaune, I'm sorry you went through that. This is Cinder's fault, not yours."
Weiss dropped down with a grateful look at Ruby, and wrapped her arms around Jaune as well. He continued to sob as Blake and Yang joined in as well.
"Thank you," he finally said, quietly. "Thank you."