Note: Well... that took a lot longer than I hoped for. This whole arc was pretty difficult to write, don't really know why. Remember back at the start of the story when I said I wanted this one to be lighter in tone than LUBYP? Lol. Well, what can you do? I do hope that you've enjoyed this little twisted ride into the Remnant underworld, and while I do have another chapter or two to technically wrap up this Valian vacation, I do consider this to be the official arc's end. Gonna really try to commit to better uploads in the future, mostly for my own mental health. If you've liked this arc, please let me know what you think in the comments. Feedback is always appreciated. And of course, join the GodSaveTheKings Discord if you want to chat with me or other LUBYP fans, as well as get access to chapter sneak peeks and early uploads. Thanks to all for your support over the years. Enjoy.

"So, here's a crazy idea… what if we just told them the truth?"

That was a crazy idea. Weiss stared at Ruby as if she just had an aneurysm. Yang started telling her she was insane. Blake—well, Blake seemed uncharacteristically distracted, but if she was paying attention, she would have told Ruby how dumb that plan was. However, Ruby's logic was firm and she stood her ground, and as she began to explain her reasoning to her teammates, she saw their apprehension soften.

Team RWBY was not in a good place at the moment. Bastion Bridge had been locked down by a squad of police cars, and their battered faces were lit up by the constant flashes of red and blue. Two ambulances had arrived; one had departed with Emerald under police watch, and the second was parked on the side of the shut-down bridge, Team RWBY sitting in its back with blankets thrown over their shoulders. Yang's face had been wiped clean of blood, and the nurses that tended to them were quiet as they tried to play down the celebrities' presence. A Huntsmen had arrived on the scene as well, though he spent his time chatting with a few officers he was friends with on the other end of the crime scene. More officers were busy directing traffic, trying to clear out the countless cars piled up behind them on both ends of the road. No one had come to speak to them yet, save for two officers who instructed them to head to the ambulance to get their injuries checked. It was their words that gave Ruby an out.

"Hope everything is okay, Team RWBY."

What were they supposed to say? Hundreds of witnesses had seen them engage in a high-speed chase through a densely populated area. Countless more witnesses likely saw them cause chaos at Neo's nightclub. There were about forty dead gang members in Perfect Gardens whose bodies were just waiting to be uncovered. They did not have Huntress licenses, nor were they supposed to be on active duty. They were caught red-handed, doing something they absolutely were not supposed to be doing. They had been reckless, violent, and highly suspicious, and a single wrong word would cause all of their public goodwill to come crashing down, destroying their alliance with Jacques Schnee and dooming them to Ironwood's mercy. But that was the thing Ruby realized: they had goodwill. A lot of it. Denial would only spur doubt. An admission of guilt would be a death sentence. So, why not skirt the line, refuse to admit any wrongdoing, and tell them the truth?

Or, at least, a version of it.

"We came here with your older sister, and Valian Huntsmen Code states that operating Huntresses in the area can bring appointed trainees onto assignments with them," Ruby explained. "We were totally justified in operating as Huntresses, which gives us large discretion in how we act."

"Don't you have to submit a form to register any trainees to the city's Huntsmen guild?" Yang pointed out.

"You do," Ruby noted, "but that's Winter's problem, not ours. It's a minor, bureaucratic tick in the broader picture."

"What are you talking about?"

"Here's our story: we knew that Emerald had stolen information from Atlas Academy, and we actively decided to investigate her. A tip led us across the Burrough Line, where we encountered Emerald and a bunch of shady criminals who were up to no good. Things got violent, we stopped them, Emerald tried to escape, and we captured her. The biggest complaint that you can throw at us is that we acted carelessly by pursuing Emerald when we weren't supposed to, but nobody is going to care, because we caught her. Huntsmen and Huntresses get away with acting recklessly all the time, and we have way more public approval than any of them. It's not like we hurt any innocent people. We were doing our jobs. That's it. Once word about Emerald gets out, our actions become justified."

"How exactly?"

"Think about it: Emerald openly confessed to us that she sold Atlasian documents to Mrs. Glass, who, last I checked, is the most wanted woman in the entire kingdom. The attack on the Atlasian Embassy is still fresh in everyone's mind. We just successfully captured an accomplice to the biggest terrorist in Vale. I think our best bet is to ride that angle as far as it will take us."

"Ruby, there's a lot of holes in that story," Weiss pointed out.

"I know, I know," Ruby claimed, "but here's the thing—I don't think anyone will care. Did people care when we stopped the attack on the Grimm without licenses, or that were breaking Atlas traditions by filming inside their Academy, or that we've done anything we weren't supposed to? Those officers literally saw us riding a giant toad through the city, and they had the courtesy to address us by name. People are more scared of another Grimm attack than they are of Huntresses acting out of line, aren't they? This won't dent our support at all. Guys… we're the Heroes of Vale and we just stopped another terrorist. What is there to hide?"

Her teammates were silent as they considered the option in front of them. It couldn't be that easy. Maintaining a hold over public opinion was supposed to be fraught with challenges, but Ruby was actually suggesting that they could just boldly bluster their way into the public's good graces. However, as they considered their options, they slowly realized that Ruby might have had a solid point. Who in their right mind would complain about vigilante justice when it brought such crucial results? Oh, did you not like that we acted out of turn? Next time we'll wait to fill out the paperwork before keeping you safe from terrorists. What if Ozpin tried to turn the public against them by denouncing their actions? Oh, the same guy whose faculty literally attacked a helpless student on a live stream? Who can trust that guy? Would the police denounce their actions—correction: would the police ever complain about getting away with breaking the law? Would the media denounce them, and risk damaging their biggest ratings draw? Would Jacques denounce them, risking his investment? If they had gotten killed, it would have been a tragedy. If they had gotten others killed, it would be their end. But at the end of the day, all Team RWBY had done was stop some terrorists, kill some criminal lowlifes, and maybe deal some property damage. Fuck apologizing for anything. They should be demanding another thank you, but they wouldn't because of how humble they were.

It was Blake who put the final nail in the coffin when she sighed and finally spoke up to the others. "We're playing politics, you know? No one admits to being wrong anymore. Why should we be any different?"

Ten minutes later, Team RWBY relayed their version of events to the police. They were never questioned or talked down to once. When they explained that Emerald confessed to working with Mrs. Glass, one of them shook his head and muttered something about "those people". Ruby held back her smirk.

"And in other news, a high-speed chase through the City of Vale has resulted in the closest lead so far on the terrorists responsible for the attack in Vale. Team RWBY, famed Huntress students from Beacon Academy, successfully apprehended nineteen-year-old Emerald Sustrai, after chasing her over fifty city blocks. Ms. Sustrai is believed to have strong ties to the criminal underworld…"

A buzz interrupted Winter's Scroll. She checked the number briefly, and a sneer crossed her face. "It's Father."

Ruby took a deep breath. Sitting in the back of a police car with her teammates and a very frustrated Winter, they were almost back at their hotel. The police were kind enough to give them an escort after they left the station. Did they have to use an armored van? Ruby wasn't sure, but she appreciated the protection from snooping journalists. It also meant none of the team had to sit next to Winter, which was helpful, given Winter looked like she was going to snap the neck of the next person who so much as looked at her funny. Aside from the evil eye of Weiss's older sister, she thought they were in the clear. Now, came her final test. She opened her mouth to speak, but Weiss answered first.

"Put him on."

Winter nodded. She accepted the call, and Weiss heard her father's voice croak over the Scroll.

"Winter, dear! Are you with Team RWBY?"

"I am."

"Would you mind putting them on?"

Winter said nothing as she flipped the Scroll around, showing off the four young Huntresses seated across from her. Jacques was in his nightgown and cap, heavy bags under his eyes. God, it wasn't that late already, was it? His expression was hidden beneath his mustache, leaving the girls in the dark about his mood. Weiss silently braced for the worst.

"There you are, girls! Glad to see you're all right."

Weiss cleared her throat. "We are, father. What would you like to talk about?"

Jacques grumbled. "Well, I'm curious if you girls understand the concept of a low-risk investment. You all know what that is, right?" They nodded quietly. "See, the purpose of a low-risk investment is that you put a bunch of money into something that doesn't have any risk attached to it. That's why it's called… low-risk. You girls are supposed to be a low-risk investment, correct?"

"Yes, sir," Ruby stated.

"So, imagine my surprise when I turn on the news, and I see that you girls are wildly chasing criminals across the whole Kingdom. Actively fighting the criminal underworld… well, I think that would qualify as risk. Wouldn't you agree?"

"In fairness, sir," Ruby tried to argue, "we are Huntresses. Our job inherently requires risk."

"I didn't give money to Huntresses. I gave my money to celebrity Huntresses," Jacques clarified. "And the role of a celebrity is to smile, look pretty, and attract business. It's very hard for me to profit off your image if you girls are dead. Do you understand that?"

Ruby pursed her lips. "Yes, sir. Our apologies, sir."

"You should be apologizing," Jacques said, his voice taking a condescending air. "You're jeopardizing my money by acting carelessly. That's not what we agreed upon."

"Father, please don't pull out of the Team RWBY Fund," Weiss said hurriedly. "I know we made a mistake, but—"

"Well, that's the thing," Jacques stated, furrowing his brow. "I was considering that when I first saw the news, but then I got a phone call… from Victor Kramp."

Yang stammered. "The… ultra-billionaire Victor Kramp?"

"He knows I'm working with you girls, and you'll never believe this: he said he wants to invest! He said he'd put forward around fifteen million Lien."

The rest of them stammered. "Fifteen million?"

"'Love that those girls are giving Huntsmen a good name,' he said. He thinks you're spectacular. And once people know Victor is investing, they'll start piling on as well. I think we should put his name up on a flashing sign over your Academy. So, I don't know how you did it, but somehow, you girls riding even higher than you were yesterday."

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. "So… that's good, right?"

"Well, you're risk paid off. Doesn't mean I like risk, though," Jacques claimed, scratching his chin. "So, how about this? We take the money from Victor, you girls promise to never, ever do anything like this again, and we forget the whole thing ever happened. Deal?"

They couldn't accept the deal fast enough. Their final hurdle was crossed. Jacques bid them farewell and ended the call just like that. Winter put her Scroll away, barely able to hide her contempt. Ruby threw her head back against the metal wall, relishing the moment. After a night of torture and constant failure, being able to pull a win out at the last moment gave her overwhelming satisfaction. She smiled at her teammates. "Well… good job, Team RWBY. Mission success."

Her celebration was cut short when Winter scoffed at her. "Good job? Mission success? Is this a joke to you?"

Ruby's smile vanished. Weiss rushed to her defense. "Winter, she just meant—"

"You all lied to me," Winter chastised them. "You jeopardized everything you built, threw yourself into the arms of the enemy with no plan, no backup, and you're patting yourselves on the back as if you accomplished something. You gained nothing from this. Do you not understand this?"

"Hey, we captured Emerald," Yang claimed. "That's something, right?"

"And almost got yourself killed in the process. Are you really so naïve to think just because you suffered no consequences, that means your actions were justified? You might be heroes to the public, but to me, you're still children. Do you even have the slightest idea what would happen to you—to me—if any of you got hurt?"

Team RWBY became silent. The truth was that Ruby was very aware of the consequences. She had seen them firsthand, covered in blood and half-dead. An hour ago, she thought she and Yang were going to be sold to SPIDER, and it was all her fault. They did act carelessly, despite their unwillingness to admit it. She fell right into Emerald's hands, couldn't control Penny, and nearly destroyed everything. Maybe her celebration was a way of burying that guilt. She knew she needed to apologize to Yang for failing her, but more importantly, she needed to train. She needed to improve. Nothing like this could ever, ever happen again. If she had any more weaknesses—physical, strategic, and especially emotional—she needed to snuff them out.

Weiss gently took Ruby's hand into hers and squeezed it.

The team was silent for the rest of the trip back to their hotel. The police escorted them past a gaggle of cameras waiting outside the lobby, and the girl could finally take a breath when they were safe inside the tacky, golden interior of the Grand Ballina Hotel. Compared to the hell of Perfect Gardens, the wealthy haven was like stepping into another world. Ruby stretched her sore back on one of the couches in the lobby. It was another way of delaying the inevitable. Upstairs, in their room, another trial awaited.

Weiss had a conversation with Winter in private, a mix of consoling and convincing. The others watched her from a distance, only Blake able to hear what she said, yet unwilling to share. When Weiss returned to them, she placed her hands on her hips and sighed.

"I asked Winter to wait in the lobby. That way we should have some privacy with…" Weiss's lips contorted. "Penny…"

Soon crammed into an elevator and taken up countless stories, the ride was more compressed than the police escort. None of them said a word, but their thoughts raced. The danger was over, yet there was an unmistakable tension. Just what were they expecting to see when they greeted their classmate, a woman whose enigmatic nature was finally peeled back for them to witness? Ruby led the charge to their hotel room, her knees wobbling with every step. She paused momentarily as she unlocked the door with her keycard.

The first thing they noticed was that the grand, windowed wall in the back of the room had been busted open, letting in a strong, snowy breeze. Ruby shuddered as she noticed the shards of glass littering the floor. The television was on, blaring the news at full volume, listing their accomplishments for the night. The linen closet had been raided, and towels were strewn about as well, covered in black fluid. On the couch lay the remnants of a destroyed Atlasian school uniform, boots, skirts—underwear. Down one of the hallways, Ruby heard the rush of a showerhead. Blake crossed her arms.

"So, uh… should we wait for her?" she asked impatiently. "I'm kind of surprised she can shower, you know, given that she's—"

"You don't have to say it, Blake," Weiss scolded. Blake said it anyway.

"A fucking robot."

"Blake."

"Okay, we've been really quiet about it, but she's a fucking robot, right?" Blake asked bluntly. "Like, she didn't have a face. She's made of metal. She acts all weird. She's a robot."

"We don't… we don't know that," Ruby said, hushed. "Maybe she's just… I don't know…"

"Exactly. You don't know. Because there's no other explanation. Robot," Blake nodded. "Let's face it: Atlas built a fucking death robot, disguised her as a teenage girl, and they want to fucking kill us with it. That's what I'm going with."

"How is that even possible though?" asked Yang. "Like, don't you need a really smart AI to act like a human? Atlas doesn't have that technology. No one does."

"Well, apparently they do," Blake said, gesturing down the hall. "Because she's in our shower."

That statement wasn't true for very long. Once their voices carried down the hall, the shower became suddenly quiet, and Team RWBY silenced themselves in anticipation. They heard some clattering, heavy footsteps, then a pause. Then, the door opened, and she appeared. Their eyes went wide.

Penny stepped out of the bathroom bare, soaking wet, uncaring for what they saw. And they did see—everything. Hug sections of skin stripped clean, revealing dark, uncaring metal beneath. Significant portions of her thighs, stomach, shoulders, biceps, and back were all gone, and beneath they saw whirring pistons, sleek metal contorted to be shaped like human muscle tissue. The parts of Penny's skin that remained were featureless and off-color, more like polished marble than proper human flesh. Penny's hair was patted down and stuck to her face, but portions of her wound were still visible; when she smiled at them, her teeth were exposed past her destroyed upper lip.

"Ah. There you are," Penny said, her warm, off-putting smile returning after being gone since her torture. "I see you've successfully manipulated the media into praising you. You never cease to amaze me."

Ruby stammered. "P-Penny. You're… you're…"

"Not wearing clothes? My uniform was damaged and I didn't want to leak over your nice apartment. I figured I'd wash off first," Penny said casually. "After all, we're no longer hiding anything from each other. I don't really see the problem. If you're uncomfortable, I can put on a towel."

"Uh, um, n-no. It's fine," Ruby said quickly, trying to stay calm. "It's not uncomfortable at all."

That was a lie. It was super uncomfortable. Penny might not have had a, well—a thing there—but it was still jarring seeing her walk around without any clothes on. Notably, her teammates didn't say anything either, so either they were actually enjoying the show or they were just as uncomfortable as she was. Penny didn't seem to notice, and if she did, she didn't care. She walked down the wall, each metal foot accompanied by the sound of whirring motors, and she passed by Team RWBY, they all gave her plenty of space. Penny casually walked over to one of the chairs in the living area, and sat down properly, resting her hands on her lap. Her green eyes never left the girls and her smile didn't falter as they surrounded her, careful to keep their distance.

"I know you all have questions, and I'm technically not authorized to provide you the answers," said Penny. "However, I feel like I owe you all a great apology for causing you so much trouble tonight. I acted out of turn, and my overconfidence in my abilities nearly got Ruby and Yang killed. I want to make it up to you. Please, ask me anything you like, and I will try to answer."

The girls remained silent for a long moment. Ask anything. That was easier than they suspected. Almost so easy they thought it could be a trap. But Ruby believed in Penny's sincerity. Something about her being so exposed made her feel like she'd be open to talk. There were a billion questions she had on her mind, but her first one came naturally.

"Are you okay?"

Penny tilted her head, perplexed. "Am I okay?"

"Yeah," Ruby said breathlessly. "Are you… are you in pain? Are you hurt?"

Penny shook her head. "That's a strange first question. Of all the things you want to know, and you decide you want to check up on me. I really don't get you at all."

"I mean, you don't look okay," Yang pointed out.

"I repaired my most significant injuries before I showered," Penny explained. "Obviously, I couldn't get any exposed circuitry wet. I will have to undergo a skin repair when I return to Atlas. Cosmetically, I look quite scary. But I will survive."

"But… how?" Ruby asked desperately. "Penny, I saw you get shot in the head! You were dead."

Penny just smiled. "Death and I are old friends. It doesn't hold me back anymore."

While Ruby stood there in stunned silence, Blake took charge. "So, I'll just ask it then. What the hell are you? Are you a robot? Because if Atlas built a death robot, I'm gonna lose my shit."

Weiss groaned. "Blake, you can't ask someone if they're a robot."

"She said we could ask her anything. So, I did! You a robot or aren't you?"

Penny's smile softened. She looked down at her hands and their glistening black metal. There was some hesitation in her voice.

"To tell you the truth… I'm not really sure what I am," she admitted. "I would tell you that I am Penny Polendina, but that would be a lie. How much of me is Penny, and how much of Penny is me, still eludes me. I know that I am the Living Weapon, but just what that means, I cannot say."

Penny's fingers curled against her thigh. Blake, sensing her doubt, backed off the point. Ruby approached her gently.

"Can you tell us what you know, then?" she asked softly. She knelt down in front of Penny, drawing from her sympathy. "I mean, you said before you were a Huntress student, and you got into a car crash, and then they modified you. Was any of that true, or were you always like… this?"

Penny closed her eyes, the memories rushing back to her. "No. That wasn't all a lie. There was a Penny Polendina once. Human. Like you. She was a Huntress trainee at Atlas Academy. She was bright and strong, beautiful, and brave. She had so much hope for what her future would bring, but she was also filled with all of these doubts. Her father—my father—wanted her to leave the Huntsmen. She was considering following him, too. Her father was all that she had after her mother passed away. He was her life, and he would become her death. There was a car crash, a really horrible, tragic accident. The official story is that Penny Polendina lost her arms and legs, which were replaced. The truth is that the accident was much more severe. Her spine was severed. She suffered multiple organ failure. Her face was smashed so that she was unrecognizable. Penny was dying a slow, agonizing death. My father couldn't bear the sight of it. So, he acted."

"And that's when he built you?" asked Yang.

"My father is one of the top engineers in Atlas. He is a master at cybernetics, but repairing an entire body was too much for him. However, at the last moment, he received a proposal from General Ironwood. He saw great potential in me as a Huntress. He claimed that he had experimental technology that could help repair me, or more specifically, build a better me. A full artificial replica was still too complicated for Atlas to develop. There is too much complexity in human thought to be properly captured by a machine. But by carefully modeling an AI off of a human blueprint, they would be able to shortcut large steps of the developmental process. Effectively, it would be quicker to transform a human into an artificial intelligence than to build one from scratch. It had never been tested before me, of course. There were far too many ethical concerns. But for me, and for my father, there was no other option."

Penny held up her hands, rotating them slowly, examining every inch of their surface. "They made copies of my exact brainwaves and replicated them in software. My memories were extracted, processed, and recreated down to the atomic level. They wanted my new body to be able to act without significant power restrictions, so they used a machine to extract my Aura, my Soul, and force it into the metal. I don't understand how they did it. The science they used was heavily classified. My new form was crafted in Penny's image. That was my father's doing. He built my shell to reflect the way he remembered his daughter, down to the last inch. When the last of her life was extracted from her, the old body died, and my world awakened. The transition was seamless. One Penny died, and another took her place. Indistinguishable, at least in all the ways, in all the ways that mattered most."

Team RWBY tried to wrap their heads around Penny's story as she finished speaking. It was all too much to comprehend. Honestly, if Blake was right and Penny was just a robot, it would have been easier. Yang tried to simplify it for her own sake.

"Okay, so in short… you aren't the real Penny. There was a real Penny once, but she's gone now. You're just a machine that thinks she's Penny."

Penny smiled sadly. "Are you sure about that? Why would I not be the real Penny? Penny was just an experience, a series of thoughts that was nothing more than electrodes in a brain flipping on and off in a particular sequence. That's all Human experience is when you boil it down: machines. Wires. Circuitry. I am Penny's machine. My mind works on the same frequency as hers. I have her memories, taken straight from her corpse. I have her Aura running through my systems, powering me the same way your Souls power you. I took everything from her, her name, her passions, her role, her talent, her strength—even the love her Father had for her. From my point of view, we share the same, continuous existence. If I'm not the real Penny, then where is she? What would she even be? A skeleton rotting in an unmarked grave. A stream of consciousness and scattered electrons, floating somewhere in a void after it was stripped of all identity. If there is anything that makes a Penny a Penny, then surely, I must be her. Right?"

Penny bowed her head, shaking off something deep within her. "You don't buy that either, do you? That's what eludes me. I know my logic is sound, but I don't feel like the real Penny. I feel this emptiness where my identity should be. I hear people call me by her name, give me the praise that should be hers, insist that I am authentic, and I know deep down that they are wrong. There's something I'm missing, some component of Humanness that separates me from the real thing. I have searched for it, in my memory, but I can't find it. I need to know why I'm not Penny, why I can't become her. And I will be honest with you, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang… when I am with you, I feel that same lack of understanding. There's this thing about you I cannot comprehend, but I recognize it. Somehow, despite all of my efforts and the efforts of the greatest minds in Atlas, you four managed to be far more like Penny than I could ever be. That pains me… and I must confess, it fascinates me. You hold the final Human truth that has escaped me. That is why I want to be close to you. I have to become real, Ruby. Weiss. Blake. Yang. I know that is selfish. Please forgive me for lying. But this is all that truly matters to me now."

Penny refused to look at the team in front of her. Strange: here she was, unclothed, wounded, a constant failure, and only now did she feel some sense of shame. The others didn't speak to her, not until they gave her her moment of contemplation. When one of them spoke up, there was hardly the judgment that Penny was expecting. Weiss rested her hand on the chair's armrest. She chose her words carefully.

"I can understand what that feels like. Sort of," Weiss admitted. "I was born with Soul Lapse. My father modified my body by attaching cybernetics to my muscles, but I always felt incomplete somehow. It's scary, knowing that something that's meant to be a part of you is just, well, missing. Sometimes, I felt like I wasn't even human at all. But, I haven't felt that at all recently. I feel like ever since I joined Team RWBY, I found the piece of me that was missing for so long. Finding myself took a while, but if you need help with that… I don't know anyone better you can turn to."

Penny smirked. "Thank you, Weiss. I must admit, I was concerned that once you learned the truth about me, you would detest me. I assumed you would think I was a freak."

Yang shrugged. "Eh, we're all freaks. Being a robot-person isn't that much of a stretch."

"As long as you don't betray us to Ironwood, I don't care," Blake admitted. "I mean, it's still weird as fuck, but I'd rather you be a chill machine than a fascist Human.

"Yes. Of course," Penny agreed. "Obviously, I am trusting you with this information. I know you do not like the General. While I cannot escape his orders completely, I will do what I can to protect you from him. You may still have a difficult time trusting me, but I want to be your ally… if that's all right. I want to learn from you the best I can."

Team RWBY didn't agree to her offer on the spot, but their suspicions had drastically lessened over the course of several minutes. If they had learned anything from their time at Atlas Academy, it was that relationships were built not on trust, but leverage. They knew Penny's deepest secrets, and it would be all too easy to expose her with the power they had. Penny had no means to deceive them, so maybe trusting her was the best option they had. It would be something they had to discuss in more detail, but hadn't they been desperate for a friend in Atlas? Who would have thought their best chance at a friend came not from their own school, but from the heart of the enemy?

"Okay," Ruby stated. "You can be our friend, Penny. For now. But please understand that it might take a while for you to find what you are looking for."

Penny beamed with excitement. "Oh, that is quite all right, Ruby. I have already learned so much from you tonight that is experience is bound to be fruitful."

"What do you mean?"

"Weiss and Yang," Penny explained. "I was able to glimpse both of you in combat today. Yang, your combat sense was unmatched in the apartments, and Weiss, your instincts allowed you to capture Emerald while the rest of your team was incapacitated. I never realized how incredibly talented both of you are as Huntresses. You might even be able to defeat me if we were to fight each other."

Weiss and Yang nervously looked at each other and tried to play it off. "Maybe let's not talk about fighting each other now."

"Yeah, let's put that on the back burner."

"Okay," said Penny with a shrug. "When we get to the Vytal Festival, maybe you two will have a chance to fight me then."

"You don't know what 'put on the back burner' means, do you?"

"No."

"Well, okay then."

"Apologies, Blake and Ruby," Penny said quickly. "I realize complimenting your teammates in your presence might cause issues of envy. Ruby, you showed great mental resilience throughout your struggles tonight, and I find that highly commendable. Blake, I did not see you do anything at all, but I'm sure you are valuable, too."

Blake rolled her eyes. "Wow. Thanks for that."

"You're welcome."

"That's sarcasm."

"You're welcome."

Yang patted Blake on the back. "Hey, you have your panel thing tomorrow. You'll crush that."

Blake huffed. "Love the encouragement."

Yang smirked. "You're welcome."

"Ha ha."

"Hey, wait a second," Yang said suddenly. "That totally reminds me! Ruby, your vision!"

Ruby was taken aback and suddenly became quiet. "Huh? Oh, right."

"That's right. Emerald's vision," Weiss stated. "I almost forgot that was why we came in the first place. You figured out what it was, right?"

"Well…"

"When we confronted Emerald," Yang explained, "she said her Semblance caused people to experience traumatic memories. I guess that makes sense, I'm sure, given that we also got hit with her Semblance. But Ruby actually got hit again during our first encounter."

"You did?" Weiss asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Well, what happened?" Blake asked impatiently. "Don't keep us waiting."

Ruby sighed. "Well, we know how in my first vision, I saw my mom. That didn't make any sense. I shouldn't be seeing someone else's memories. But when I got accidentally hit by Emerald's Semblance again, I saw… well…" Ruby went quiet, and the tension in the room grew thick. Ruby struggled to put her thoughts into words, and eventually, the truth came out in a confused choke. "I don't know who I saw."

"It wasn't your mom?" Weiss asked.

"No. It was some other woman," Ruby confessed. "I didn't recognize her, but I was seeing things through her eyes. She was fighting with this big sword, but she was surrounded. She was losing. Someone stabbed through me and I felt this really bad pain. I felt her dying and then…" Ruby took a deep breath. "I heard that voice again—the same one that was speaking to my mom. It was calling this woman, begging her to be released. I wouldn't mistake it for anything. When she finally said its name, that was when I woke up."

"So… what does that mean?" Yang asked, baffled.

Ruby had already reached a conclusion, but she was hesitant to say it. There was one common thread between the visions, and if Emerald was to be believed, each of them was as real and historical as any other memory. She knew whose eyes she had seen the world through. The only thing she didn't understand was why.

She refused to speak her name out loud, lest the curse fall upon her as well.