Note: Another week, another LUDITF. We also finally managed to watch RWBY Volum 9, using completely legal, one hundred percent approved, absolutely-not-pirated means that are legitimate. It's been a fun wacky time, and we enjoy all of the shipping fodder it's provided, people. Especially that last episode. Those who know, know. Anyway, this story has been fun, but how about we get down to what the game is all about, huh? Enjoy.

Ruby didn't understand how it could be colder inside the apartment complex than outside in the open air. Maybe it was just her nervousness causing her to shiver. The only lighting came from dim, fluorescent bulbs that hung from thick wires. The floors were upturned tile, the walls off-colored and splotchy. The building was centered around a stairwell, a single winding passage that ascended into a shadowed ceiling. The center of the building was therefore a hollow pit leading down to the bottom, the inner ring barricaded off by waist-high metal bars and more concrete. At each corner of each floor, the path broke off into narrow hallways, where the actual apartments dwelled. The wooden doors of each had their numbers stripped off, but the faint remains of their imprints were still legible. They were cracked and rough on their hinges. Ruby took a quick count of the rooms. Roughly twenty per floor. Eight floors. One hundred sixty rooms. Too many to check directly.

Penny seemed unbothered. She strode into the center of the first hallway, past the broken elevator and the rows of mailboxes, and she gazed up into the distant ceiling. She placed her hands on her hips and looked around carefully.

"Nobody here. That's convenient."

Ruby rushed to Penny's side, each of her footsteps echoing in the ruins. She spoke in hushed tones. "Penny, there are absolutely people here. We really need to leave."

"Not until we find Emerald," Penny reminded her. "Speaking of which, would you mind telling me what she looks like?"

Ruby mentally smacked herself. Of course. Penny never saw her. She didn't even know who she was chasing. As if this plan couldn't get worse. Ruby shouldn't have helped her. A smart thing to do would have been to use Penny's lack of knowledge as leverage, but she feared Penny would just say something like, "Well, I guess I'll kill everyone in this building." Against her better judgment, Ruby reached into her pocket and pulled out the drawing of Emerald that she had given Neo. Penny examined it for only a moment before turning back to the staircase.

"Perfect. Now, to find her."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Yang asked, keeping her distance. "You going to knock on every door?"

"That won't be necessary," Penny explained. "Please: observe." There was a loud metal his, and a small panel on the back of Penny's uniform opened up. Ruby quickly realized that it wasn't merely her uniform, but an entire section of her lower back that detached and slid apart. Eight folded metal swords floated out from their hidden compartment, and Ruby took a step back so as to not get sliced when they suddenly sprang to attention. The eight swords hovered around Penny in a perfect, flat circle, slowly spinning around like a disk. Penny flicked her wrists, and to Ruby and Yang's amazement, the swords transformed again. Their circular hilts unfolded, and small laser lights emerged. They flicked on, and suddenly the entire room was awash with a hazy, neon light. Ruby winced as the lights passed over her, combing over her in Yang in flashing waves.

The swords spun faster around Peny and slowly began to rise up the middle of the stairwell, their rays of light engulfing everything in their path. Penny pulled her forearm up to her face, and that too unfolded into a small screen. Ruby carefully approached, looking at the monitor. It was black at first, but soon images began to appear. Rough shapes. Figures. Walls. But then, beyond. Detail became clear. Rough silhouettes grew arms and legs, then the details of a face. Her face. In seconds, she saw a copy of herself on the screen, reconstructed out of blue light. More than that, she saw a perfect replica of the entire apartment complex, including details that shouldn't have been visible to her. She saw beyond the apartment doors and over the balconies, people sitting around waiting, guns scattered about on various floors. She was all-seeing, all-knowing, and Penny just flashed her a smirk.

"How did you—"

"Combination x-ray-particle scanner," Penny said casually. "It scans for any organic materials through solid objects and reconstructs the image in real-time. Prototype Atlasian technology. Pretty neat, huh?"

"X-ray?" Yang asked. "Is that dangerous?"

"Probably not at a low dose," Penny noted. "But again… prototype."

A shudder ran down Ruby's spine. "There are a lot of people in here."

"At least forty, by my count," Penny explained, staring carefully at her map. "The hallways themselves are clear. Most of the occupants seem to be on the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors. However…" Penny smiled, and she lowered her arm. The screen vanished. The swords suddenly returned to her, hovering around her briefly like a halo before sliding back into the compartment on her spine. "Third floor. Northeast corridor. First room on the left. Emerald is in there."

"Wait, are you sure?" Ruby asked. "What if—"

Penny did not wait to hear Ruby's concerns. She clicked her heels, and the rockets in her legs roared to life. She blasted off, floating up two floors before vanishing behind the third-floor balcony. Ruby gasped and grabbed onto Yang. They needed to follow her. With a grunt of effort, Ruby transformed into a swirling mass of rose petals, and together she and Yang flew upwards to follow after their over-eager classmate.

Emerald Sustrai had spent her life sleeping on floors, yet somehow that would have given her a greater comfort than where she was currently resting.

She had seen it all, at least she had thought. She had spent seven sleepless nights on a bench in Vale Public Park, crashed in a flooded homeless shelter during a torrential downpour, and crammed herself into a nook with five other people on the steps to a rundown flea market. When she was thirteen, she would rob convenient stores just so she could spend the night in a warm cell. When she was fourteen, she got in bad with a local gang in Westpour and had to eat her meals in the back of a rundown sedan because she couldn't afford rent. She had been exposed to rain, sleet, and snow, been mugged, beaten, spit on, and stepped over. Her body wore scars as a testament to her endurance. Her mind was sharpened like steel, ever alert yet capable of rest when needed. But for some reason, this room terrified her.

Perhaps it was the room's contents. When the owners left, their items were never repossessed. There was a sofa pressed against the north wall of the room covered in dust that felt like sitting on brick, and a collection of cabinets and drawers splayed open and emptied. A computer, twenty years past its worth, sat on a desk off in the center of the room. The kitchen, attached, had a gas stove and an oven that was covered in black grime. Emerald did not dare open the fridge, which she thought at some point must have been white. Being a studio apartment, the only other door was to the bathroom, whose plumbing thankfully still worked. Emerald stayed out of the shower when she discovered something growing on the floor. Emerald herself lay on a spring mattress on the floor in the corner. A thin, raggedy blanket was crumpled in a ball next to her. She would have slept on the floor if trash didn't litter every conceivable inch.

Then again, the contents didn't disturb her as much as the room's aura. There was something about the style of the curtains on the window, the heavy layer of dust, and the exact nature of the decay and ruin that left her with a pit in her stomach. Everything felt diseased, and over the five days since she had stayed in Perfect Gardens, she began to suspect that disease forced the apartments to close in the first place. She suspected asbestos in the walls and mold in every greasy corner. She could handle her own against cops and wannabe thieves, but a lung infection? Nah. Couldn't weasel her way out of that. Every day she stayed here longer than expected, the risk to her health grew, and she passed the time thinking of how she would soon be on the warm, sunny beaches in Southern Mistral, a margarita in her hand and the waves crashing in the background, and all of her struggles would have been worth it. It was supposed to be that simple.

Or maybe that's why she felt uneasy: the broken promises. SPIDER said she would be here for a day at most. They were full of shit. They were supposed to be classy, refined, and yet they kept her stored away in fucking Faunus Town. Full. Of. Shit. They promised her time alone, but there were always three guards in the room with her at all times, cycling in and out of their shifts, and not one of them even stared at her with anything other than lust or contempt. She didn't even get to keep the umbrella, because one of the twins—and no, she didn't know which one—took it from her as some form of "payment". As if the ten grand wasn't enough. With each passing hour, she regretted her decision to not join the Droogs more and more. But hey, it was too late to do anything meaningful about it. The promise of distant beaches would have to sustain her.

In her spare hours, she read books on her scroll. Her current read was about advanced coding techniques for LAL Version 4 software, a favorite of most middle-value banks. She didn't see the harm in picking up new skills, though her constant reading drew the ire of her bodyguards. One paced back and forth by the door, another lay down on the couch, and a third was standing over her. All were dressed in sweats and plain, inconspicuous clothing, and armed with machine guns strapped around their torsos, and the way they rustled drew her anger.

"So, you don't want to talk to me?"

Emerald kept her gaze firmly glued to the screen in front of her. This new guard had been particularly annoying.

"Come on, babe. Just a little chat. We're being so nice to you."

The guard by the door snapped. "Hey, leave her alone, pal."

"I'm trying to have a conversation," the first guard grunted. "We came all this way to pick this girl up. The least she could do is be friendly."

"Hey, the Twins said nothing about being friendly. Just keep your guard up and stop bothering people."

"Nothing's been happening. Calm down. Is our shift change coming soon or what?"

"It's coming. Keep your pants on."

"Fucking boring if this bitch aint talking."

Again, Emerald kept her eyes on her Scroll. A thin sneer crossed her face. The guard kicked one of the crumpled-up pieces of trash across the floor and huffed. Emerald wondered what he thought he could do to her if he could get away with it. Of course, he couldn't. He was smart enough to know what happened to people who pissed her off. Just think of the beaches… nice, sandy beaches…

There was a loud knock on the door, followed by two more in quick succession. The guard closest to the entrance groaned and walked toward it, while the guard closest to Emerald sighed. "About damn time."

"They're supposed to knock in a pattern. Amateurs." The door guard steadied his gun with one arm, and frustrated with the lack of protocol, he casually swung open the door without checking. "Hey, idiots, next time try to—"

He was greeted not by a familiar face, but by a sharp sword plunging into his neck. The man flew backward as if he was on a wire, sailing by violent means into the opposite wall, where he stuck and hung like a crude decoration, a sword pierced out of his neck. His startled gurgles alerted the others, but as the other three in the room looked up in surprise, there was little they could do. Two more swords suddenly entered the room, their targets already clear. One rushed the couch and stabbed itself deep into the leaning guard's heart, and the third raced toward Emerald, spinning like a top. The guard that was previously hitting on her had just a moment to raise his gun and pray to his god before the sword sliced through his neck. A splash of warm blood hit Emerald's face, and the young thief watched in shock as his headless body slumped to the ground. She didn't even move from her position on the mattress as the full shock of the carnage hit her.

What…

What the fuck…

Then, another woman entered the room: a terminator in a school uniform. Emerald recognized her immediately, and all of her hopes and dreams were suddenly turned to ice when Penny smiled at her.

"Salutations. You must be Emerald Sustrai," Penny said calmly. "I've been looking for you."

Emerald looked exactly like the drawings, though Ruby didn't quite capture the shade of green in her hair. She was a talented artist. She would compliment her on her skills afterward. Not now. Now, it was time for duty… and punishment.

It took another few moments for Emerald to fully process what was happening to her. She didn't fully understand that it was over for her. Penny managed to take a few steps forward, closing the distance halfway across the room. She was looking right at her, unblinking and unconcerned, and suddenly, Emerald's shock was burned away with a rush of adrenaline. She couldn't afford to lose everything yet. Her red eyes locked into Penny's, and as Penny looked into them with unassuming innocence, they suddenly bloomed into a hideous swirl of malformed colors.

Penny froze in place, becoming lost in Emerald's eyes. The thief's face became blank, and her head tilted off its axis as she maintained eye contact for as long as possible. Penny just stared at her… and then, after a few seconds, she smiled again.

"Oh, are you trying to use your Semblance? That's cute."

Emerald's eyes returned to normal, and she was left sitting there, stunned. "How did you—"

Her questions went unanswered as Penny launched herself forward, and before Emerald could escape, Penny grabbed her by the face and hoisted her into the air. Her fingers clasped over Emerald's eyes, blocking out her sight and removing the threat of her powers. Emerald let out a muffled scream, punching at Penny's titanium arms, but she was silenced when Penny smacked the back of her head against the wall. Emerald grunted in pain, her body going limp, and Penny held her in that raised position, her fingers wet with the blood stained on Emerald's cheeks.

"You stole classified information from Atlas Academy. You are going to tell me who you gave it to."

Emerald winced in pain, struggling to get her answers out. "I don't know what you're talking about—"

Penny squeezed, and Emerald gasped in pain again, her legs helplessly kicking out beneath her. "Please do not lie to me. It will only make your situation worse."

As Penny tightened her grip, Ruby and Yang finally caught up to her, stumbling into the dim light of the ruined apartment. Ruby barely managed to take a look around before the sight and stench of blood caused her to gag. Yang growled.

"Penny, stop this!"

"I have apprehended the suspect," Penny said simply, smiling at her classmates. "The guards have been disposed of."

Emerald screamed out loudly. "Someone, please help me! This woman is—"

Penny smacked her head against the wall again, and Emerald's breathing became ragged.

"Please do not scream either," she warned coldly. "Now, I am going to release you, and you are going to answer my questions. Please do not try to escape or use your Semblance again, or I will be forced to use less polite means of making you talk."

Yang felt a chill run down her spine. How was she seriously still smiling through all of this? She didn't really think Penny was capable of torture, but the longer she was in the presence of the Atlasian prodigy, the more she realized she knew nothing at all about her. She was a Living Weapon, a prime pupil of General Ironwood, and a born-and-bred soldier to her core. Blake always said that when it came to Atlas, cruelty was often the point. She was scared to learn just how true that was.

Penny dropped Emerald back to the mattress, which did little to cushion her fall. She landed on her knees and grabbed at the back of her head, feeling it start to swell. She felt a rush of desperation. The body of her guard was only a few feet away, blood squirting from its stump neck. That would be her if she didn't get out, because God only knew that Atlas would never let her survive after what she did. Her Semblance wasn't working, but there had to be something she could do to escape. She looked up to see if she could find a path to freedom, but her hopes were dashed when she noticed Ruby staring back at her. Whatever ideas she had to claim her innocence no longer seemed like they would work.

Penny placed her hands on her hips, and the swords that were scattered around the room returned to her side, swarming around her like vultures, pointed at their next victim. Emerald backed herself against the wall to make herself smaller as Yang and Ruby approached. Penny spoke bluntly.

"What did you take from Atlas Academy?"

Emerald remained silent. Penny flicked her wrists and the swords inched closer to her head. Her smile was as bright as the blood stains on the floor.

"I'm not going to repeat myself. What did you take from Atlas Academy?"

Emerald, back literally against the wall, stammered incoherently. "I-I-I don't know. I didn't really look."

"You are lying," Penny said accusingly. "Please, don't lie."

"I'm not! I swear," Emerald yelped as she saw the swords shift. "I didn't have time to look at the files. I was just told to download documents based on certain keywords. I don't know what any of them mean?"

Yang stepped forward. "What keywords?"

"Um…"

Penny stamped her foot. "The keywords, please."

"T-There were a few of them," Emerald stated. "I remember… fuck, she's gonna kill me…"

"She's not the only one," Penny warned. Emerald's heart beat out of her chest. She was told not to tell anyone. If that insane woman ever found out she double-crossed her…

"Seriously. Talk," Yang warned. She didn't want to see Penny take another life. Ruby stood awkwardly behind them, silent, her mind wandering elsewhere. Eventually, Emerald sighed, condemning herself to a fate worse than she could imagine.

"I was asked to download files about… Relics," Emerald admitted. "Relics… Vaults… and the main thing she wanted was…" She paused again, and only when Penny raised her arm as if to strike did she finally stutter out her answer. "Holy Grail. She asked me to get information on something called the Holy Grail."

Yang crossed her arms, the answers coming as elusively as she expected. Relics. Vaults. Holy Grail. What the hell did any of that mean? Ruby didn't even seem like she was paying attention, too distracted by her demons to consider the weight of Emerald's words. Penny, somewhat satisfied, only pressed further.

"Do you still have these files?"

Emerald shook her head. "I already gave them away."

"Who did you give them to?"

"I… I don't know."

"Don't lie—"

"I don't know!" Emerald insisted. "She never told me her name. She just promised me a lot of money, told me she wanted this job done, and I did it."

"The job being hacking into Atlas Academy," Penny clarified.

"She wanted it to be obvious," Emerald explained. "I told her I could do it without being noticed, but she said that she wanted to make it clear that something was taken. It was like she thought it was a game or something. I told her that was so stupid, but the money was too good to pass up, and she said if I didn't, she would cut my eyes out. I have no idea who she was, but I want nothing to do with her ever again."

To Penny, Emerald's description was worthless blabber. However, Yang felt her despair worsen. She asked Emerald to steal from Atlas. A woman, one who had powerful resources, treated her minions like pawns and had a pension for threatening to remove their eyes. She knew of one woman who met that description, and her fear grew as she raised her voice.

"This woman… did she have glass limbs?"

Emerald seemed less afraid of Yang, but thinking of her employer caused her to shudder. "I don't… maybe? She was always dressed from head to toe, and her face was covered in these masks and bandages. I just remember that she had this droning, kind of bored voice, and these piercing golden eyes."

Yang and Ruby exchanged nervous glances. That was more than enough. Yang muttered as their worst suspicions were confirmed. "Mrs. Glass…"

Before the full weight of the revelation could fall upon them, Penny suddenly walked away, leaving her swords hovering in the air.

"Please stay here."

"Huh? Where are you—"

"My research indicated that data thieves often keep a copy of the information so they can sell it to additional customers," Penny said briefly. "I'm going to briefly check the rest of the room. Please keep an eye on Emerald, and don't let her escape. Oh, but don't literally look her in the eyes. That would be bad. Thank you."

Yang shouldn't have been surprised at this point, and yet some small part of her was still offended when Penny just left and started roaming around the room, pulling open drawers and running her fingers behind the furniture. Her swords continued to hover in place, awaiting their master, but Ruby and Yang were left alone with a dangerous fugitive. Yang kept her gauntlets extended. She didn't see any weapons, but she had to be careful. One wrong move and she was done for, and she didn't trust Penny to keep them safe. Unfortunately, when Yang went to ask her sister something, she realized that she could hardly trust her either.

Ruby was surprised to learn about the connection to Mrs. Glass, but her focus had remained unchanged. In all the chaos of the previous hour, she hadn't forgotten her original mission, and now that the woman responsible for her nightmares was right in front of her, she realized that she would never again have this opportunity. Penny was likely going to take her to the Atlasian authorities, and once they had her, she would never see the light of day again. It was a risky proposition to let her guard down, but if she was ever going to get closure, she needed answers. Now. So, Emerald reacted with some surprise when Ruby ducked beneath the floating swords, and though she kept a safe distance, she knelt down to meet Emerald's gaze.

"Do you remember me?" she asked quietly yet full of determination.

Emerald hesitated, looking back and forth between Ruby and the steel. "Y-Yes. From the Academy."

"You did something to me with your Semblance," Ruby explained, and Emerald immediately went into panic mode.

"Look, I'm sorry. It wasn't personal or anything. If you've been having nightmares or something, then I—"

"Stop," Ruby ordered. "What did you do to me?"

Emerald didn't understand the question. "I mean… I'm sorry…"

"You made me see something. Something that I can't explain," Ruby said forcefully, pointing at her own silver eyes. "You gave me a vision. I need to know what your Semblance did so that I can understand it."

Emerald cocked her head, perplexed. "You had a… look, first of all, it's a hallucination, not a vision. But like, what don't you understand about it?"

"I don't understand anything about it," Ruby stated. "I just want you to tell me if it was real or not?"

"What do you mean real?" Emerald asked, even more confused. "You mean, were you actually experiencing it again? No, it just affects your vision. But your memory was obviously real the first time, otherwise, it wouldn't be a—"

"Wait."

Ruby froze. That word jumped out at her, sticking to her tongue. Now, it was her turn to become lost.

"Wait what?" asked Emerald.

"A… memory?" Ruby said, baffled by the statement. Emerald just stared at her like she was a crazy person.

"Y-Yes? That's what my Semblance does. It causes people to relive traumatic memories."

Ruby stood up suddenly, furiously shaking her head. "No. No, that can't be it! I… I didn't see a memory. I saw my mom. I saw her. That can't be right."

"I know what my own Semblance does," Emerald challenged her. "I don't know how it works, but I know that's what happens."

"Well, it can't be what happened!" Ruby resisted the urge to scream even as she raised her voice. That wasn't an answer. That wasn't anything. There were two possible outcomes of her vision: a glimpse into the past or a construct of her imagination. It couldn't be her memory. You can't remember something that never happened to you. How the hell did that make any sense? Emerald just had to be wrong about her powers. She wasn't triggering memories, just bad dreams, made-up boogiemen, or something that would make sense. Because if Emerald really did show her memories, and she didn't see her life, that just raised the question… whose memories was she seeing?

In Ruby's internal panic, Yang's attention was drawn away from Emerald. The young thief noticed. Her eyes quickly darted to Penny, and the many electronic enhancements on her limbs. Her eyes fell on her Scroll, only a few inches away from her. It was still unlocked. Quick enough to grab. Hell, with all of the commotion, she wasn't even sure if the Huntresses heard all the stomps and movement coming from the floors above them. An idea crossed her mind.

"I mean… there is another possible explanation," Emerald suggested. Ruby snapped to attention. There was palpable desperation in her voice.

"What is it?"

"I mean, does it really matter that much?" Emerald asked with a shrug. Ruby knelt down in front of her again, right at eye-level. Right in the palm of her hand.

"Yes, it matters."

Yang sensed something was wrong, but before she could speak, Ruby held out her palm and silenced her. The younger sister was trembling. Her mouth was dry. The sight of the blood was erased from her mind; even the dead body, only a few feet away from her, somehow meant nothing. The only thing that mattered was clinging to every word that came from Emerald's lips.

"There might be a way for you to make sense of this," Emerald explained carefully. "I've never tried it before because I never had the chance. It might be pretty dangerous though. You'd have to be willing to take a pretty big risk."

"I am willing to risk anything," Ruby said, her voice wavering with its honesty. Emerald glanced over Ruby's shoulder. Penny was on the farthest side of the room, her back turned as she rummaged behind some cabinets for hidden files. Ruby, subconsciously, had inched closer to Emerald so that she was only a foot away, looking her directly in the face. Too close. Too perfect. There was another loud banging from up above them, a rush of footsteps, and finally Yang—and only Yang—seemed to notice. The elder sister looked upward, and Emerald realized that she had her moment.

"If you want to learn about these memories so bad," she said simply, "why don't you just see another?"

It happened so fast. Emerald's eyes blossomed, and Ruby could not react before she became lost in the thief's vision. She froze for just a moment—then, with a pained gasp, she fell to the floor, spasming and twitching as she descended into another nightmare. Yang screamed as Ruby fell, but it took only a fraction of a second for Emerald to tilt her head and stare at the dragon. In that hair-splitting second, Yang was forced to make a choice, and against her better judgment, she instinctively shut her eyes.

Bad move.

Penny turned around at the sound of chaos, seeing her two teammates incapacitated and Emerald lunging toward her Scroll. Penny snapped her wrists and the three swords flew forward, but Emerald dove beneath them as they crashed into the wall above the mattress, unable to change their trajectory over such a short distance. Emerald swiped on her Scroll. Once. Twice. Three times. Four. Penny summoned another sword out of her back, launching it forward, but she didn't understand that it was too late. Emerald's work was done, and her Scroll emitted a high-pitched, wailing beeping like a distorted siren. All at once, the light faded from Penny's swords and they clattered against the filthy floor. Penny's arms drooped by her sides. Her knees buckled. Something pierced her skull. Her head fell and her eyes widened and her throat tightened as she screamed.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzgggggggggggggggggggggggggggttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt."

Yang opened her eyes in time to see Emerald barreling past her, sprinting out of the room as fast as her feet could carry. Yang saw the damage in her wake: Ruby, twitching on the trash-covered floor, eyes glazed over, and Penny, sheer panic written across every inch of her face, contorted into the pose of some horrific, seizing statue. She needed to help them. Get them safe. Fuck, how did this go so wrong again?

"In there! The Twins want them alive!"

That voice… it wasn't hers. Wasn't Emerald's. It was someone new. The rumbling of footsteps had reached the ground floor. Yang raced to the open doorway and peered out into the center hall. Every member of SPIDER from the upper floors was rushing toward her, armed with guns, bats, machetes, and any other weapon they could scrounge from the apartment. Earlier, Penny said there were forty of them. She may have undercounted.