"Salutations, Friend Jaune."

Jaune looked to the roof access door. "Hey, Pyr… oh. You're not Pyrrha."

"That is true," said Penny.

"I was just expecting her, is all. This is where we do some of my extra practices."

Penny clapped excitedly. "I knew she would help you if you asked!"

"Yeah," said Jaune. "She says it's going better than she expected. I didn't have to unlearn any old, bad habits, due to me having, you know, no habits at all. But that just means we could start building me up right away!"

"Sensational!" said Penny. "I am sure that training will start paying off soon."

"I hope so. But anyway," he said with a glance at his scroll, "it's another five minutes before we were supposed to start, so I guess I have a moment. What's on your mind?"

"I was checking with you about the summary we gave the other day. We had to cover it very fast, so I was unsure how much you retained."

"I only got some of it," said Jaune. "Something about you being friends with a laser on legs?"

"Particle beam," corrected Penny.

"Oh. Yeah, that makes more sense."

"And also, I am a gynoid," said Penny.

"A what?"

"An artificial person," said Penny. "But don't worry! I may have an electronic mind, but it is my electronic mind, and I can manifest an Aura, so I have a soul as well."

Jaune nodded in apparent serenity. "Okay, cool."

The two of them blinked at each other. Penny determined she needed to recalibrate her optics, because she could've sworn she saw a tumbleweed blow by even as that was flatly impossible.

"That is an underwhelming reaction," said Penny.

"I mean, Pyrrha was pretty sure you were, like, 98% robot already," said Jaune. "At that point, what's another 2%? Besides, you're a way better Huntress than I'll ever be. Where would I get off judging you?"

"Nowhere, I suppose," said Penny, growing excited. "Oh, Jaune, I am happy that you are being so very 'chill' about this!"

"Dad always says it takes all types," said Jaune. "Gynoids too, I guess. Now that I know, I'll be sure to have Pyrrha and Nora be careful around you. Do you think that would help you hang out with us more?"

"I expect it would make a dramatic difference. Thank you, Jaune!"

"Eh, no biggie. Now I get to tell Nora to stop asking to arm wrestle you."

"Or maybe I will allow it under controlled conditions, if that would make her stop," said Penny.

"Penny, you've got to learn this lesson now: don't negotiate with terrorists."

Penny considered this in light of how Blake had been a terrorist for a while. Oh, but Blake left. Now she was an ex-terrorist, which meant the rule didn't apply any longer. "I accept your premise," she said.

"Cool," said Jaune, before he turned away and scratched the back of his head. "Incidentally, since we're doing the whole heart-to-heart thing… or, I don't know, heart-to-whatever you have that works like a heart…"

"I am unbothered by meat people idioms," said Penny. "'Heart-to-heart' is fine by me."

"…I cheated my way into Beacon," said Jaune. "I bought some fake transcripts and lied to get in, and I've been faking my way ever since."

Penny nodded. "That does check with observation."

The tumbleweed blew past again. Visual commenced a diagnostic.

"You're okay with that?" said Jaune.

"I must believe that our instructors determined you were under-prepared for Beacon," said Penny. "They had cameras watching us all through Initiation. They must have seen your lack of preparation during that event, or else they must have seen it in your performance since. I personally had calculated with 72% confidence that you had not attended a combat school of any description even before you told me."

"That obvious, huh?" said Jaune.

"Oh, yes," said Penny. "Which leads me to the following conclusion: Beacon's faculty must have decided it was worth letting you remain a student regardless. If they have not taken disciplinary action against you yet, it seems unlikely they ever will. And if that is the case, why should I be any different?"

"I'd never thought about it like that," said Jaune.

"That is more support for my division-of-labor practices," said Penny.

Jaune smiled and gave Penny a thumbs-up. "Thanks for being so chill about this."

"It is my pleasure, Friend Jaune," said Penny. She turned her head towards the door. "Pyrrha, you can come out now."

Pyrrha opened the door and sheepishly walked through, her head hunched and one shaky hand raised. "Hello again," she said tentatively.

"I'm guessing you heard all of that?" said Jaune.

"Most of it."

"So, now you know," said Jaune. "Still want to train me?"

"More than ever," said Pyrrha. "Now I know how much you need it."

"I feel like that should make me feel bad, but it doesn't," said Jaune. "What about you? Do you have any big secret you need to confess? We're all in the mood for sharing! We've got a 'no judgment zone' up here on the roof!"

Pyrrha chuckled at him, but then poked her fingers together. "I… don't actually like being a celebrity. It's nice not having to worry about money, and I love winning, but the sponsorships, the media scrutiny, all the things that go with fame all feel awful. They separate me from everyone else.

"I was lucky to find you two, to find people who had never heard of me. With you, I found a place where I didn't have to be the Invincible Girl. I could just be me. I treasure that."

Penny took a great big note of these words and marked it for future action.

"All of that said," she said with a gleam in her eye, "we're seven minutes behind schedule now and you haven't even warmed up. So I leave the choice to you, leader. Do we exercise harder so we finish at the same time but get more work in, or do we go seven minutes longer to still do the full hour?"

"Let's stay for the full hour," said Jaune. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Pyrrha blushed and looked down. It was hard to tell from the angle, but she was smiling broadly.

"Do you mind if I stay?" said Penny.

"And do what?" said Jaune.

"Hang out," said Penny. "Spending time with my friends, even if that time is spent merely existing in the same space, is time well-spent."

Jaune shrugged and looked to Pyrrha, who nodded. "It's fine by me," she said—and before she had finished speaking, she'd extended two of her fingers and twitched them in Jaune's direction while a black glow surrounded them.

Jaune swayed backwards as if shoved by an invisible hand, but he was able to keep upright with a few scrambling steps. "Better!" said Pyrrha excitedly as she turned to him. "Your balance and footwork are coming along nicely."

"Plus I was on alert, because I never know when you'll start," said Jaune as he put his weapons in ready position. "You told me to watch out for sneak attacks, and then you started hitting me with 'em. I think I'm getting used to them now."

Pyrrha's smile was sharp enough to cut. "We'll see," she said in a voice equal parts playful and predatory.

And as they moved into their training session, Penny reveled in the simplicity and comfort of being with her people.

Roman Torchwick never bought real estate. It didn't fit the criminal lifestyle. It tied him down, created far too much of a paper trail, and seduced him into the sunk cost fallacy. One of Roman's great gifts was knowing when to cut his losses; owning a house or apartment made it harder and more expensive to do that. He didn't need homeownership muddying his priorities.

Renting an ultra-expensive property was another matter. If he had to skip town on a moment's notice, it wouldn't be Roman who took the financial hit, but the landlord. Making others pay his way? That was part of a thief's job description.

He'd regret not being able to come back here if it came to that. This luxury apartment came fully furnished, and those furnishings were nice. There was a couch that was comfier than ninety percent of the beds he'd slept on and a bed that was like sleeping on a cloud. There was a bathroom larger than standard bedrooms. There was an expansive kitchen stuffed with gadgets he'd never seen before and couldn't imagine using, although he'd seen Neo eying them in ways he found mildly disquieting.

Even the coffee table was perfect. It was just the right height to put his feet on and sturdy enough to take that abuse. He really enjoyed staying here, and further enjoyed how the expense of staying here pushed him to be the best thief he could be so he could afford it.

Still, if it came down to a choice between staying here and running to survive, well, that was no choice at all.

He hoped it wouldn't get that bad. Step one to not having to run: find out who had so wounded Neo's pride she was sulking. Roman hadn't known she was capable of sulking.

He clucked at his favorite partner in crime. "Neo, Neo. Chased off by a bunch of kids. You might be losing your touch."

Neo glared at him.

"Hey, don't be that way," he said, sounding defensive and unapologetic at the same time. "I'm just busting your chops, you know that. The thing is, we need to have our story straight before the scary boss lady shows up. She's more than a little upset by what went down at the warehouse. It's quite the setback. So tell me: who exactly made such a mess of that operation?"

Neo made a motion like taking a picture.

"No security footage for us. The cops are all over that warehouse still. Who knows, if they keep looking, maybe they'll find the footage themselves. I'd give them, what do you think, one chance in three?"

She gave him a look.

"You're right, these are District Nine cops. One in four, then."

She crossed her arms.

"I know," said Roman. "I know you prefer to have more than just your memories before you try to make an illusion of someone. You little perfectionist, you."

Neo fanned at a non-existent blush.

"You'll just have to do your best."

Neo nodded and walked to the center of the room. She appeared lost in thought, then snapped her fingers. Next to her appeared an image of a girl in white with an off-center ponytail and a scar over a pale blue eye.

"Well now," said Roman, his interest piqued, "that's not a color scheme you see often. That wouldn't happen to be a Schnee, would it?"

Neo shrugged, but she also curled her lip to show some teeth.

"Trust the White Fang to know a Schnee when they see one. I'm not sure if I like where this is going or super don't like where this is going. Who's next?"

Neo thought for another few seconds before snapping again. The Schnee shattered like shards of glass, collapsing into nothing, before those same shards rose again and reformed. This time they took the appearance of a girl in a red hoodie with dark leggings, sunglasses, and no identifying marks of any kind.

Roman scoffed at Neo. "C'mon, is that all you've got?"

Neo stomped in frustration.

"I know you're trying." Roman looked over the illusion. "She doesn't look like much, honestly."

Neo pointed at her insistently.

"She's the dangerous one? Really? You'd never tell by looking. What is she, ten years old?"

Neo crossed her arms in frustration, but she did frown and turn her attention to the image. After several seconds of hard thought, she waved a hand across the mystery girl's face. The hood fell back and a helmet took its place with the sunglasses as their centerpiece. Neo gestured again and weapons appeared in the girl's hands, two whips that looked to be made of metal.

"There's no way those are her actual weapons."

Neo pointed at Roman.

"Oh, so they're also guns. Of course they are. Why not?" Roman was less flippant as he looked the image over with a critical eye. "I think I'm starting to get your point. Do we know anything else about her?"

Neo made a helpless motion.

"Figures. Alright, anyone else?"

Neo snapped her fingers one more time. The mystery girl shattered and a new girl took her place. This one had freckles, orange hair in bobs, an innocent smile, and entirely too much familiarity.

All traces of amusement left Roman. "You're joking."

Neo shook her head.

"That goody-two-shoes who busted one of my robberies and scrubbed the streets with Junior's flunkies… is now sticking her nose in the Fang's business," he said with a shake of his head. "Should I guess which team she plays for, or do you know?"

Neo raised a palm. The emblem of Beacon Academy appeared in the air above her open hand.

"Great," Roman groaned. "A bunch of kids who don't know better, who don't have any idea how the real world works, getting ideas about heroism and 'making things right'. Ugh, they make my skin crawl. How can they be so dumb, but do so much damage in the process?"

Neo shrugged.

"No accounting for taste at all," Roman agreed. He looked over the image of the orange-haired girl one more time. "Well, at least we have some idea who we're dealing with. This should be enough for our meeting with the scary boss lady."

Neo raised an eyebrow.

"We were just responsible for stealing the Dust," Roman said. "Handing it over to those animals and counting on them to manage it? That was her call."

Neo crossed her arms.

"No, it's not just semantics. If she doesn't want to invest in professionals, she'll get amateur results." Roman drew his lighter and made it dance across the back of his fingers. "And do you know what would drive home the difference between amateurs and professionals?"

Neo gave him a skeptical look.

"If we knocked over the police station where they're holding that Dust to see how much of it we can steal back."

Neo's expression lit up in eagerness and expectation.

"Yes, you'll get to stab some cops."

Neo's smile was all teeth.

Division of labor, Penny was fond of pointing out, was a very powerful thing. As Team BXPS worked their way through their detention, they adopted this strategy. After all, Yang had said, who could figure out what to do with that much Dust better than the Dust Queen herself and an actual supercomputer?

Penny had carefully assessed Yang for any sign of sarcasm or denigration as she said this. There was none. Possibly Yang meant it with full sincerity; possibly she was still adapting to her new understanding of Penny's nature. Either way, there seemed no ill will, so Penny took Yang's comments charitably.

So, as Yang and Blake painstakingly recreated their mission and walked through their decision-making step by step alongside all of Blake's notes from her leadership classes, Penny and Weiss dove into the minutiae of Dust math.

If they were diving, however, it was into a shallow pool with (a) a posted sign saying "No Diving" with a picture of someone breaking their neck, and (b) the body of someone with a broken neck floating in the water.

"This makes no sense," said Weiss crossly.

"There are too many options," said Penny. "This much Dust can be used in any number of ways."

"In any number of ways with Dust left over," Weiss corrected. "That's the trick of it. They were stealing everything but the Plant Dust. The only thing I can think to do with that much Dust of that many different types is blow it all up."

"They could synthesize complex forms of Dust with the simple types they stole," Penny said. "That would change the ratios."

Weiss flipped over to a spreadsheet that she'd created with estimates for all the stolen Dust by amounts and types. "I considered that, but there are two problems. First, that still doesn't use of all what they stole. The ratios don't work out. Second, that requires a lot more technical sophistication than the White Fang's got.

"Hard Light Dust, for example, is prohibitively expensive to make outside of Atlas. The biggest reason is that the technology and the technicians who run it are all export-controlled. Atlas doesn't let the people or know-how out of the Kingdom. Even within Atlas, only a few of the most sophisticated refineries can synthesize Hard Light Dust at all, never mind at scale. Do we really think a bunch of White Fang fanatics running around in the woods can set up that kind of operation?"

"When you put it like that, it does seem unlikely," said Penny, putting a hand to her face just beneath matching star tattoos on her cheeks. "Perhaps they don't intend to use it all. Perhaps after they're done synthesizing or combining whatever they mean to create, they'll take the remainder and sell it."

"Maybe," said Weiss dubiously, "but if that's the plan, we can't say anything about what they'll use that Dust for. If we accept any size of remainder, then that remainder could be anywhere from all the Dust to none of it. That doesn't help us."

Analysis reluctantly conceded Weiss the point, but Tactical was still hung up on something she'd said earlier. "Did you mean it when you said maybe the White Fang just wants to blow it all up?"

"They could," said Weiss, looking up at the ceiling, "I just don't see how that could be the plan."

Penny looked at the spreadsheet anew. "There's so much Dust other than Burn, though."

"You have to think in combinations," said Weiss. "You don't have to rely exclusively on Burn Dust for explosions, you can use Burn and almost any other type for explosive effects. You can use, for example, Burn to propel and activate Stone Dust to form a penetrator. Burn Dust plus Wind generates intense local pressure, though it dissipates quickly."

Penny gasped. "So Nora was on to something?"

"Don't indulge her. If you combine Burn with Steam or a smaller amount of Water, what you get is extremely powerful for rapid heat transfer. It does unspeakable things to people, too. Burn plus any other Dust or two is a weapon."

"Besides Plant," said Penny.

"Besides Plant," Weiss allowed. "And a lot of those designs can replace Burn with Combustion and do almost as well. Combustion isn't as volatile, but the total energy is higher, and if you're careful, you can use Lightning Dust as an accelerant to make up the difference."

Penny looked at the spreadsheets again, looked at the ratios of Burn Dust to other types. While industrial users of Dust consumed large amounts of varying types depending on their industry, the common consumer used primarily Burn, Combustion, and Lightning, and urban Dust shops catered first to the common consumer. They carried other types, to be sure, but they carried more Burn than Lightning by 2:1 and more Burn than any other type but Combustion by 4:1 or more.

Which meant…

"There actually might be enough to just blow it all up," said Penny.

That got Weiss' attention. "I was being flippant. Do you really think so?"

"Yes," said Penny. "Not all at once. Not in one bomb. Many bombs, each composed of Burn or Combustion plus one to two other types."

Penny had Weiss' attention now. She did a quick survey of the ratios Penny was plugging into the spreadsheet. "Okay," said Weiss, "let's look at explosive designs more closely and check these numbers. We might be on to something."

Before Penny could engage with that thought, her scroll buzzed. She retrieved it and saw a message had come in from a new number with no ID.

its garnet
leaving vale soon
not my decision
sad

Penny was sad, too! Another message followed before she'd processed the first.

wan to see u again
can you come to royal valan airport?
treminal b

Penny's fingers flew.

I will try.

Already she was calling the number Professor Ozpin had given her. To her surprise, it wasn't Professor Ozpin who answered.

"Professor Goodwitch," was the reply.

Penny retagged the number appropriately. "Professor, I have been contacted by Garnet. She wishes to meet me at the Royal Valan Airport before she leaves the Kingdom. May I go say goodbye to her?"

The call went to mute. In that moment of silence, Tactical reported that Weiss was staring at Penny.

"Professor Ozpin instructed me to report if Garnet contacted me," Penny said, "and that he'd give me permission to see her if I asked."

"Why, though? What's so special about Garnet? Aside from her being a walking weapon of mass destruction, I mean." Weiss blinked. "Actually, that's probably it."

Before Penny could reply, Professor Goodwitch's voice came back. "Permission granted," she said.

"Sensational! Oh… and thank you, Professor."

Professor Goodwitch didn't dignify this with a response.

Which was fine with Penny, because she had places to be and not much time to get there. Forget about waiting for regular airship service down to Vale; Penny had a flight module, and what better use of her flight module could there be than using it to go see Garnet?

"I'll be back," she tossed off to Weiss as she abandoned her friend in the library. Already she was punching coordinates into the Locker Call app on her scroll. Her locker would be ready to meet her the moment she stepped outside. As she went, she dashed off a reply to Garnet.

On my way!

Blake and Yang saw Penny race out of the library like she was on fire. They shared a look that clearly said, "What's that about?"

A dazed-looking Weiss approached their table. "She got a message from Garnet and ran off to go meet her."

"She got permission for that?" said Blake.

"From Professor Goodwitch herself," said Weiss, her eyes wide. "What is going on between those two?"

"I don't know," said Yang, "but Penny was smiling really a lot. You don't think… are gynoids even wired to work like that?"

"Work like what?" said a bewildered Weiss, and Blake looked even less certain.

Yang thought for a moment, then shrugged and looked at her paper again. "Nah, probably not."

"That clears up less than nothing," said Weiss.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

Penny touched down outside the airport so as not to interfere with the actual airships coming in and out of the place. Seconds later she was inside and making her way towards Terminal B, one glance at a map enough for her navigation system.

The center of the airport was dominated by two levels of shops and restaurants beneath a high-arching ceiling. On the far side of the shopping area on ground level were the terminals where passengers waited to board their flights. Penny ascended to the second level of shops to give her maximum visibility as she walked towards Terminal B.

She saw Garnet before Garnet saw her. Garnet was seated at the terminal, still in her typical red hoodie and sunglasses, between two businessmen in suits with even larger and darker sunglasses. Thinking it a strange coincidence that identically dressed men would be one seat apart, Penny called down to her friend. "Friend Garnet!"

Garnet's head snapped in her direction, along with the heads of both the men Penny suddenly realized might not have been businessman. Before they could process what was happening, however, Garnet caught sight of Penny waving to her, and bolted from her seat with speed few Huntresses could have matched.

Penny turned towards the stairs just in time for Garnet to rush up and collide with her in an explosion of cheer and giggling.

Such a collision might have leveled a normal human, but instead there was a smack, a shimmer of Aura from both girls, and enough delighted laughter to make Penny feel warm.

There was also a clatter as Garnet's sunglasses hit the floor.

"Whoops," said Garnett as she dove for her sunglasses and stuffed them back on her face before standing. "I promised I'd keep those on, those were the rules."

"Of course," said Penny. "Wait, whose rules?"

"Garnet!" shouted the men from below.

"Whoops again," said Garnet. She grabbed Penny's hand, which caused Penny a wholly unreasonable amount of thrill, and tugged at Penny to encourage her to follow. "Gotta keep moving."

Garnet set off at not quite a run, but certainly a brisk walk as she wove amongst the shops and restaurants and crowds of the upper level. It was an interesting exercise in navigation, reminding Penny of the sport called skiing, but as fun as it was it added to her apprehension. "Are you in trouble?" she whispered seriously.

"Nah," said Garnet. "Well, I mean yes, but not like you think. Er, kinda?"

Penny blinked. "That is all possible responses aside from null."

"Nothing bad is happening," said Garnet. "I was going to go back anyway. I'm just having to go back a little sooner than I'd hoped, is all."

Analysis was trying its very best to force these words to make sense. "Go back?" Penny said unhappily. "Is the director of your project unhappy with your performance?"

"Kind of," said Garnet. "I was supposed to come here and learn about Vale, figure out what was normal and what it's like, so that when I come back later it's not all new to me and I can concentrate better on my real mission."

"Your real mission to help people?" Penny said excitedly.

"I… wasn't actually supposed to say that," said Garnet with a blush. "And I wasn't supposed to fight anyone yet. I'm not sorry," she said, looking at Penny, "I'm so, so happy I was able to help you out, it just made things a little complicated."

Penny smiled. "My life is as complicated as it gets," she said confidently. "I'm happy you're in it, at any cost in complication."

Garnet looked intently at Penny with her mouth open. Penny must have accidentally caused Garnet's Thesaurus and Navigation functions to bug, because Garnet was unable to muster a response before walking directly into a chair and nearly falling.

Penny's grip was strong, though, and when Garnet fell, Penny easily yanked her up and braced her against her own body until Garnet's balance was restored.

This had the unexpected side effect of bringing their faces closer together than they'd ever been. Close enough that Penny could almost see Garnet's eyes through the sunglasses (and could tell that Garnet's eyes could not be wider). For the first time, Penny resented those sunglasses, because she felt sure that being face to face with Garnet like this would be far more interesting without that barrier between them.

Penny's internal chronometer ticked off the seconds, tick, tick, tick, as Penny and Garnet stood there, touching and unmoving, but Penny's internal chronometer had never been less important. Garnet's bracer was beeping again, but that was even less important.

They were nearly hugging, Penny realized (Analysis was late coming to that conclusion, what with being starved for resources), and Penny loved hugs, but this wasn't like any hug Penny had ever felt before.

"There she is!"

Garnet's cheeks were red as her namesake as she stepped away from Penny and started her brisk walk again. Penny's touch receptors felt oddly lacking, empty, in the absence of those inputs. "Are those men with your project?" said Penny.

"Yeah," groaned Garnet as she pressed forward, taking turn after turn. "They're my chat… schacht… ugh, what's the fancy word for escorts?"

"Chaperones?" offered Penny.

"There it is," said Garnet. "Yeah, they're here to make sure that I behave."

"Are we misbehaving now?" said Penny in a voice full of equal parts awe and caution.

"Kind of," said Garnet. "But I don't care. I wasn't going to go back without seeing you again!"

"You broke the rules for me?" said Penny.

"Sure, if you want to think about it like that," said Garnet.

"Wow," whispered Penny. It forced her to consider: what rules would she be willing to break for Garnet? How badly would she break them? That turned out to be a much more difficult question than she'd expected it to be! Analysis and Jiminy both demanded large cuts of resources trying to answer that, and Penny had none to spare.

Instead, she said, "I am glad that you did. I'm delighted to see you again, too! And the fact that you are willing to break the rules for me suggests I am quite important to you!"

"I've never had someone who… uh…" Garnet slowed a bit and the heat coming from her cheeks intensified; in infrared she glowed like the sun. "Wow, when I feel… this, uh... this… I'm even worse at words than, uh, usually!"

"Don't worry," said Penny. "I have no idea what I am feeling, either. It is all novel. That's part of what makes it so exciting!"

"You think so?" said a startled Garnet.

"Ab-so-lutely," said Penny. "I love new things, and I love experiencing new things with friends even more! So I am flattered and pleased that you wanted to see me again even if it meant getting in trouble, and it makes me feel like I would go to great lengths to see you again, too!"

Garnet lost all powers of speech, but her smile was as wide as could be. "Wow," she said. "I'm just… wow. Boom," she said, making a hand motion like an expanding ball next to her head. "I don't even… yeah! Circuits totally fried!"

Circuits?!

Wait—

Did that mean—

Garnet was as inexperienced as Penny, as dangerous as Penny, had described herself as a project rather than use any personal descriptors—

"Garnet," said Penny in hushed tones, "are you a gynoid?"

Garnet cocked her head. "A what?"

Oh. Oh! Stupid, Garnet wouldn't display in infrared like she did if she were, why did you—

"Never mind," said Penny, feeling like she'd never been more embarrassed.

"It's okay," said Garnet in a rush, "I'm bad at words, there are tons I don't know! Maybe I am a gynoid and just don't know it!"

"You'd know." Penny's voice only barely made it through layers of shame.

"Well, what is a gynoid?" said Garnet.

"It's a person," said Penny, firm on this point now, "but a person who was built instead of birthed. A gynoid has a mind and a soul, but she's made of metal and plastic and myomer instead of flesh and blood."

"Oh, yeah," said Garnet, "definitely not me, then."

"But I am," Penny blurted.

Garnet missed a turn she otherwise might have made. "You are?"

"Yes," Penny said, committed to this revelation now, even if she felt like she'd hugged a bomb and could do nothing but hope it didn't explode. She hadn't meant to- well, she'd meant to tell Garnet, she'd learned her lesson on keeping secrets, but not now, not like this, not-

"That… is… amazing!"

Penny blinked. "You think so?"

"That is so cool!" said Garnet. "I knew the science had to be close on this, I know people who loved to talk about it, about how one day it'd be possible… I didn't know it'd already… wow! Penny, you're incredible!"

"I am?" said Penny, feeling like her gyro had tumbled.

"Penny," said Garnet, coming to a stop and holding both Penny's hands in her own, "you are the most amazing person I've ever met."

Every single one of Penny's subroutines came to a screeching halt. Processing emotions ate everything—100% system capacity.

Penny felt.

"Oh," she said limply.

"First boarding call for Flight 103 to Port Solitas," came an announcement over the speakers above.

"Really?" Garnet said, stomping a foot and looking up with frustration.

"You're not upset I didn't tell you earlier?" said Penny.

"Why would I be upset?" said Garnet, cocking her head adorably.

"I… I think there are people who'd think less of me if they knew I was… not human. Very, very not human."

"Well, those people are dumb," said Garnet.

Despite herself, Penny giggled.

"I'm serious!" said Garnet, though she was smiling awfully broadly. "Penny, you don't have to tell me you have a mind and a soul. I knew that right from the start. You're not just a people, you're a good people."

Penny laughed. "You really aren't good at words, are you?"

"You got the idea, didn't you?" said Garnet, laughing in kind. "I guess I'm good enough!"

"You're not good enough, you're the best," Penny said, and Jiminy had no objections. Penny had never felt warmer.

"Garnet! Garnet, come back!" called one of the men from around a corner.

Garnet's smile faded. "I have to go," she said, before her visage firmed up. "Thanks for trusting me with that. I can sorta tell that was a big deal for you."

"The very biggest deal," said Penny.

"So…" said Garnet, leaning in to Penny's personal space as her voice dropped conspiratorially. "I'll trust you with a secret of my own."

All Penny's proximity sensors were alerting again; knowledge of Garnet's closeness overwhelmed other considerations. Penny felt a thrill of excitement, and only later realized it was coming from multiple sources.

"My name isn't Garnet. That's a code name."

If Penny had needed to breathe, she wouldn't have been able to.

The girl formerly known as Garnet leaned forward, dipped her head slightly down, and lowered the top of her sunglasses. Brilliant, beautiful silver eyes peered up at Penny, so deep and amazing Penny thought she might fall into them.

Eyes like none Penny had ever seen before, that she had to write to memory at maximum fidelity because this vision was too precious to ever forget.

Eyes like stars, shining brightly above the dark of the sunglasses.

"My name… is Ruby."

Ruby.

Penny recognized it as a far superior name to Garnet, because it was this girl's actual name, and that made it the most important name Penny had yet learned. Retrieval raced to retag all memories involving "Garnet" with the new designator "Ruby", to make it like that name had never been—it had been Ruby all along, and that was vitally important to get right.

Penny's head was full of Ruby.

"Ruby," Penny whispered.

Ruby smiled mischievously. "Grats," she said. "You're one of three people on the planet who really know me."

Was this what dizziness felt like? Because Penny certainly felt like her gyro had stopped working, like things had shifted beneath her, and things that used to matter now mattered so much less.

"Garnet! There you are! Get back here, Garnet!"

"Spoilsports," Ruby said, and pushed the sunglasses back up her face. She stepped away from Penny; Penny missed her presence already, missed her warmth, missed her—

"I'll be back," said Ruby as she stepped away. "Can't tell you when. Soon-ish. I'll try and let you know."

"I cannot wait!" Penny said.

"Aww, thanks!" said Ruby. And then she'd darted in front of the tall men in suits and sunglasses, and she was holding up her hands in surrender. "I know, I know, back down to the terminal…"

She walked away, leaving a Penny who still hadn't moved. Why would she move? She wouldn't be able to get close to Ruby again, and if she couldn't, where else was worth going?

Back to Beacon, eventually, maybe, but not now. She had far more important things to do now. Things like write that whole interaction to deep memory so it would never be lost, like retag memories so it was Ruby everywhere, like try to figure out what could enable her to meet her friend again…

Oh! That was a reason to move!

Penny charged across the shopping level until she was overlooking Terminal B again. The signs at the terminal would give her something, at least.

She arrived in time to see Ruby disappearing through the ticket gate, sandwiched between the two besuited men. She looked up at the gate information.

FLIGHT 103
PORT SOLITAS

And Penny knew from her studies that Port Solitas wasn't a destination on its own; virtually all of its people and economy were tied up in the transportation sector. Port Solitas was only important for what it serviced.

Atlas and Argus.

Ruby was from either Atlas or Argus.

Every detail was a treasure.

Penny stood there, her internal life raging hot, as the airship rose to spirit Ruby away from her.

What Penny wouldn't give to make it turn around.

Next time: Push the Limit