Flying back to Beacon was easy. How hard could it be when Penny felt like she weighed nothing? She might as well have floated there.

Had Beacon's campus ever looked so pretty? Penny wasn't sure it had. Comparing what she saw of it in her earlier memories, she decided the campus was objectively much the same as it'd been. Subjectively, though, the greens were greener, the grounds were cleaner, the trees more lovely. Everything seemed brighter and better today.

This was new. This was a change, not in Beacon, but in Penny, something new and unexpected and that she didn't understand.

But, as much as the idea was unnatural to Analysis, was this something she needed to understand if it was making her life this much better?

Had Penny's wish come true? Had her nightly wishing on her name-star brought Ruby to her? It just might have! Penny would need to add words of gratitude to her wish from here on out, modify the wish to bring Ruby back to her... oh, how sensational this all was!

She couldn't wait to share all of this with her team. She would share as much as she could to try and help them understand how good she was feeling. She had such wonderful friends, after all! Even Weiss was coming around, and Yang was as steadfast as ever.

She couldn't tell them everything, of course. She'd thought she was done keeping secrets from her team, but here she was again. In her defense, these weren't her secrets. These were Ruby's secrets. To her team, Penny would continue to call her Super Friend Garnet to honor the trust Ruby had placed in her. Why, she wouldn't even tell Friend Yang Ruby's real name.

Penny stumbled, almost falling, even though the ground was even. Something had just connected that hadn't before.

Yang. Ruby. Yang's dead sister had been named Ruby Rose.

No, Super Friend Ruby couldn't be that Ruby. Yang said Ruby Rose had been killed by the grimm.

But Yang had also said they'd never found any trace of Ruby Rose besides a small amount of blood. Super Friend Ruby looked to be in the right age range, and her outfit was all red, the same color Yang associated with her sister.

Was it possible?

Of course it was possible. Penny could do that math, and even a tiny probability was much larger than zero, which meant Penny had to honor it.

It was possible, then, though not probable, that Yang's long-lost sister was now a weapons projects out of Atlas, and Penny had promised not to tell anyone about that project.

When Penny had told Ruby that knowing her was worth any amount of complication, she hadn't meant it as a dare.


"…in local news, VPD authorities have once again raised the bounty on notorious criminal Roman Torchwick. Torchwick is now accused of being the ringleader in the systematic ransacking of Vale's Dust retailers. Even more brazenly, Torchwick allegedly led an attack on a VPD evidence repository, making off with Dust that had been confiscated in a VPD sting last week. This latest heist has prompted VPD to make the bounty the third largest in Vale's history. Unfortunately for anyone looking to claim that bounty, the last three attempts have been met with lethal force. Better luck next time! Back to you, Reg."


Ruby stood stiffly at attention. Her handlers and many of the people who trained her were military, and this sort of formality always seemed to come easy to them. Ruby tried, she really did, she'd been trying for years, but the stiffness and precision of the military never quite clicked for her. It always felt like she was badly imitating other people rather than naturally doing something on her own.

It'd been recommended that she think of the motions like a kata from her combat training. She'd tried that, too, because she was super good at katas and had tons of those down, but it hadn't helped enough with the military drill stuff. Her salutes never seemed to be quite where they were supposed to be, which was annoying and embarrassing and…

Even in her head she rambled. She'd mostly tamed herself from rambling to her instructors—they didn't tolerate her doing it for long—but her inner monologue was much more of a blabbermouth.

She got occasional compliments on her drill, so she must be doing something right, she just wished she felt like she was, too.

Being on familiar ground helped. Vale had been new and wild and different. She was so glad she'd found Penny—had found someone to help her make sense of how alien a city was. Now she was back in the complex she knew as Home Base: the interconnected set of rooms where she lived while not on mission, where she trained and weaponsmithed and honed herself.

She honestly didn't know where on Remnant Home Base was. She knew it was somewhere in Solitas, she was the Great Hope of Atlas after all, but she didn't know if Home Base was in Atlas itself or Mantle or somewhere else on the continent.

It didn't matter in the end. When the General gave her a mission, he also gave her airship transport. She never needed to worry about how to get to and from Home Base. For that matter, she didn't want to. Security was a watchword in this place, and phrases like You can't spill what you don't know were repeated like mantras.

Ruby had never had someone to spill to, so maintaining security had always come easy to her.

Her insides twisted at the thought. Until she went to Vale, she corrected herself. Until she told Penny way, way too much.

That's what the General would say, she was sure of it. She heard his voice almost as clearly as her own.

The door to the briefing room opened and the General entered. Ruby tightened her posture, furious about how her heels weren't meeting quite right, but unable to move to correct it. "Sir, Agent Garnet reporting as ordered."

"Carry on, Ruby," said the General—one of only two people in the complex who knew that name. He took his seat at the head of the table. Ruby waited until he was seated, then sat down to his right, a respectful two chairs down the table. "Your chaperones submitted the debrief from your trip to Vale yesterday. I reviewed the digest this morning. What do you think are the highlights?"

This part was the worst.

Ruby knew why the General did this. Frank critique was necessary for self-improvement. You never got anywhere by pretending you were perfect. You had to optimize, refine, bring every parameter into line. That process started with brutal, critical self-awareness.

Intellectually, Ruby knew that; it'd been drummed into her over the years she'd spent at Home Base. But when the General sat there and didn't say what she'd done wrong, expecting her to know and tell on herself… that was the worst.

Still… he'd asked for highlights, which wasn't the same thing as asking for what she'd messed up. Maybe she could finesse this.

"The White Fang's more active in Vale than I expected," she said. "I thought I might see signs they were around, or hear reports that they were in action. I didn't expect them to be doing nightly robberies of Dust shops. I sure didn't expect to run into them in a warehouse."

The General nodded. "It is brazen. Something that wouldn't happen in my Atlas."

Ruby believed him. She'd come to think of Atlas as something in the General's image: something orderly, tidy, purposeful. The Atlas-in-her-mind was nothing like the reality of Vale.

"But you weren't supposed to 'run into them'," the General said. "This was a reconnaissance mission, not a combat mission."

Ruby had known this was coming; her counter was ready. "You've always told me we have to strike down evil when we find it," she quoted back at him. "'When you find a threat, take action to eliminate it.' That's what I did."

"You did," the General acknowledged. Ruby dared to hope—was this approval? "I think you did the right thing once you were involved, and once you realized other people were in danger. Where you went wrong was earlier, when you got involved."

"But… there were robberies happening," Ruby protested weakly. "People were getting hurt. I'm supposed to help people, aren't I?"

"You are, and you do," said the General; even that mild affirmation raised Ruby's spirits. "But you're too precious a resource to waste on petty crime. We have to save you for only the highest-value targets. A secret weapon is no good if everyone knows about her."

There it was. There was the judgment she'd expected. Expecting it didn't make it easier to bear. And about maintaining secrecy, of all things! Secrecy was so important for her survival, she'd been told time and again, that she couldn't even tell people her name.

Failing at the basics was the worst. Ruby shrank down in her chair and mumbled, "Yes, sir."

"You know, I nearly cancelled the authorization for that trip," the General said, almost conversationally.

Ruby's eyes whipped up to him. "No, sir, I was so happy to be out, to have a chance to… to…"

"Be outside, I know," said the General. "To mingle with the general population, to explore outside of our structure. I'm not blind to this. You haven't had much of a childhood. I've always had to honor two priorities with you: keeping you safe from our enemies, and building you up so you wouldn't have to fear those enemies. It didn't leave much room for anything else.

"But I agonized over it. I've wished I could do better, give you a world you could live in normally. I knew what I was keeping from you, and I regretted it. So when… people… begged me to give you permission for this Vale trip, I listened. I made a promise to allow it. And I kept that promise, even when I was shown how those people had different priorities."

The General's eyes were bright and harsh. He'd been like that before. Ruby never liked it. The General could be approachable, he could be companionable, he could be almost affectionate. And then there were the times when his eyes looked like that.

She didn't like those times.

"That was my mistake," the General said. "I kept my promise, and let you run around Vale with loose escort instead of tight escort. If I'd kept someone by your side, you wouldn't have gotten involved with those Dust robberies."

"But I liked getting involved!" said Ruby, unable to help herself.

"Which resulted in you revealing your weaponry far too early," the General said remorselessly. "The Headmaster of Beacon knows about you, now. He doesn't know all the details of Project Lamplight, but he knows you're at the center of it."

"But the Headmaster of Beacon is our ally, isn't he, sir?"

"He is, but Beacon isn't the secure monolith that Atlas is. Word will trickle out sooner or later. The only question is if it'll trickle out too soon, before the critical moment. Plus, from your report, at least one enemy escaped capture, an enemy who saw you at high power. Who is she telling about you now, I wonder?"

Ruby had messed up, then. Badly. Shame overcame her.

She wasn't supposed to have met Penny.

Her shame slammed against something new and unusual. But… she wanted to have met Penny. Not get involved with Penny? Ruby didn't like that idea.

Great, now she felt guilt, because she was supposed to be self-correcting, but she didn't want to correct this, and that was a problem.

This was one of the reasons they'd kept her secluded, she realized. Getting involved with people added complications. Added compromise. How could she be the Great Hope of Atlas when she was compromised?

"Other than the warehouse battle," the General continued, snapping Ruby's attention back, "were you able to maintain your cover?"

"Yes, sir," said Ruby.

"The sunglasses never came off?" he said pointedly.

Ruby winced. "They fell off one time, at the airport, but I got 'em back on without anyone seeing."

The General examined her, as if he naturally had the extra vision modes Ruby needed her sunglasses to match. She felt naked beneath his eyes.

"Good," he said at last. "You followed that rule, at least."

Ruby breathed in her relief.

"That's a key point," the General went on. "If the enemy knows about your eyes, she'll stop at nothing to hunt you down. We can't have that happening before you're ready."

"Because it's my responsibility to win this war," Ruby said seriously, reciting words she'd heard time and again. "So… you think the big battle will be in Vale?"

"It looks like it," said the General. "Things are coming to a head. I wouldn't have risked exposing you otherwise."

"But there are so many people in Vale!" said Ruby. "So many people who'll be in danger if there's a fight there! I didn't even know there could be that many people in one place!"

"Which was one reason I let you go," said the General. "It's one thing to defend humanity. It's another thing to know what humanity is, and understand why it's worth defending. There was some value from letting you see Vale for yourself, at least."

Ruby weighed that idea in her mind. Vale was where Penny was. Penny was worth defending—gods above, yes, she was worth defending.

"Yes, sir," she said.

The General nodded. "Alright. I'll be traveling to Vale before the Vytal Festival. When I do, you're coming with me."

"Yes, sir." Ruby swallowed. "And when I'm in Vale again, could I contact my friends?"

"No," said the General. "They've led you astray once. I have every confidence they'd do it again. We need to keep you away from them, help you forget them. To that end, your equipment is having its memory wiped as we speak."

The equipment she'd used to call Penny on her scroll. Ruby curled her toes up inside her boots, but she didn't speak. "Yes, sir," she managed instead.

The General sighed. "I'll be honest with you, Ruby. I've been so scared for you. Scared that, at any time, your secret might get out, might get back to the… the monsters who took you. Who saw you as their plaything, their test bed. I swore I'd do everything in my power to protect you."

Ruby nodded. This complex, her weaponry and equipment, Project Lamplight itself—if this wasn't all of the General's resources, she couldn't imagine what else there could be.

"We're almost there," said the General. "Keep yourself secret a little while longer. There'll be a day soon where we'll reveal you to the world, and to our enemy. Then, everyone will know you the way I do—as the Great Hope of Atlas. Just a little longer, Ruby."

"Yes, sir," Ruby said, hoping the interview would end before her thoughts escaped her.

The General stood; she stood with him and snapped to attention. "Your training schedule for the next two weeks is set," he said. "After that, things will be different."

"Yes, sir. Um… sir?" He paused for her halfway to the door. "When can I see Dr. Polendina again?"

A beat passed. The General neither spoke nor turned.

"I know I don't usually ask after my instructors," Ruby said to fill the void, "security and all that, but… he's been around for as long as I can remember. He knows my name. It's been a while now that I haven't seen him, and I really want to. I miss him."

"Dr. Polendina won't be coming by anymore," said the General at last.

"He's not dead, is he?" said Ruby with a burst of fear.

"He might as well be," said the General. "Dr. Polendina made a choice. That choice means I can't trust him to be part of this effort any longer. You're too important for that."

That left Ruby completely baffled. What kind of 'choice' could the General have meant? She thought she was supposed to feel good about being called 'important', but if she was so important why did she never get to see who she wanted to see?

Just like with Penny, now that she thought about it.

"Carry on," the General said, and left—with even fewer answers than he normally gave her.

So she did. She went back to work in his absence. She trained. She exercised. She studied. She had a session with her mentor. Those were all the activities Home Base was built for, after all—the only activities it could support.

But that night, when she returned to her bunk, she retrieved a small piece of paper and a pen. There, far from the cameras that monitored her performance in the name of continuous improvement, she wrote.

She wrote ten digits.

She wrote them again.

Again.

Again.

Ruby was rubbish with words, but she was great with numbers.

Five times. Ten times. Fifteen. Twenty.

When she'd written them twenty-five times, she stopped and looked over the paper. Yes, she'd gotten them right. She remembered.

Penny's scroll number.

The General could erase the memories in Ruby's equipment, but he couldn't scrub her memory, and she would remember something this precious.

Ruby would return to Vale soon. And when she did, she'd see for herself what was worth protecting.

She'd see Penny Pallas again, come what may.

Ruby slept. Her dreams were nice, and full of giggles.


Penny spent the next few days wrapped up in uncertainty. The possibility of Super Friend Ruby being Yang's Ruby was tantalizing. At the same time, Penny wasn't even supposed to know the name "Ruby". It was a secret. Jiminy, of all her subroutines, was insistent on the importance of maintaining Ruby's trust by keeping her secrets.

At the same time, her heart went out to Yang. Penny found herself looking at that red sash more and more as time went by. As she tried to grapple with what it meant, she tried to simulate what it would be like to cope with those memories and that purpose for years.

Eleven years! It was a length of time beyond Penny's comprehension. From the point of view of civilization, it was the blink of an eye; from the point of view of a gynoid, it was an eternity.

She must have been obvious in her worries, because soon her teammates were giving her concerned looks right back, and after a week Blake held her back before classes one morning.

"I know I'm not the emotionally mature one," said Blake when she and Penny were all alone in the dorm. "I know I'm not Team Mom like Yang. But I am still your team leader, and your friend. I want to help. What's wrong?"

Thesaurus tried its best to formulate an answer, but before it succeeded, Penny's eyes flicked up involuntarily to Blake's bow. She remembered the promise she'd made on their first day of classes: to not talk about people without their consent. To let people talk about themselves and reveal things… or not.

She'd made that mistake once and almost destroyed her team. She couldn't make that mistake again.

"Nothing," said Penny with a hiccup.

"I think I'm starting to understand what that means," Blake said.

Penny caved. "I have been asked to keep a secret, and it's proving harder than I expected."

Blake's expression turned sympathetic. "And after you just told us your big secret, too."

Penny nodded somberly. "I am capable of holding onto the secret, but I do not relish the idea."

Blake looked down, though why she was now the uncomfortable one was impenetrable to Penny. "I'm discovering as I go along that what we don't say to each other defines us just as much as what we do."

"That is frightening to think about," said Penny. "What are we supposed to do about that?"

Blake gave her a wry smile. "If I knew that, I'd be a lot happier than I am. Now let's go, or we'll be late to class."


There was a new student in Professor Goodwitch's class. He was a tall blond in combat gear, which included a white shirt incapable of closing. Penny wasn't sure if that much musculature was supposed to be showing. She thought more of her classmates would dress like that if it were normal.

On an unrelated note, quite a few students were exhibiting elevated pulse and respiration rates.

"Good morning, class," said the Professor. "Everyone please welcome Sun Wukong. He is a student from Haven Academy who will be competing in the Vytal Tournament. Although the tournament participants are not scheduled to arrive until the semester break and Mr. Wukong is several weeks early…" Professor Goodwitch's face twitched before going placid again, "…the Headmaster has seen fit to permit him to attend classes with us for the time being. We will all show him the courtesy our friends from the other Academies deserve."

"Hey," said Sun brightly, waving at the other students—not with a hand, but with a yellow monkey tail that appeared around his side. "Happy to be here."

Penny knew that she was not the only person to notice this, because she heard from nearby in the classroom a mutter matching Cardin's voice profile: "I'll show him exactly the courtesy he deserves." This declaration, which Penny could not see as boding well, was followed by snickers from Cardin's teammates. Oh dear.

Penny must not have been the only person to hear it, because Professor Goodwitch's head slewed in Cardin's direction. "Mr. Winchester, I believe it's your turn to take the stage. You will be dueling Mr. Wukong."

"Sure thing, Professor," said Cardin. As this was a dueling class, Cardin, like all the other students, was already in full combat gear. Slinging his heavy flanged mace, Executioner, over his shoulder, Cardin sauntered down to the stage to face his opponent.

"Throwing me into the fire on my first day, huh?" said Sun casually to Professor Goodwitch while he waited for Cardin. "I like your style. You wouldn't be from Vacuo, would you?"

It was unclear which part of the interaction bothered Professor Goodwitch more: the tone, the latent accusation, or the suggestion that the extremely Valan Goodwitch might be from Vacuo.

When she didn't answer with words, Sun whistled. "Okay, you know what? Forget I said anything."

"I'll help you forget," said Cardin menacingly. He had taken position on the other side of the stage as was normal.

Professor Goodwitch pressed a button on her tablet-sized scroll. Aura meters for Sun and Cardin appeared on the screen overhanging the stage. To Penny's surprise, Jaune, who had become very quiet, was staring up at the meters as if he expected them to do something. It was curious because, as the fight hadn't started, both fighters were at full. What did Jaune hope to see?

Before Penny could ask any questions along those lines, Professor Goodwitch called out, "Begin."

Penny had seen Cardin fight several times and had his measure. As she'd come to expect, he approached steadily, closing the distance without rushing. The armor he wore helped to preserve his Aura to compensate for his lack of range; he was easier to kite than Penny was, even. But he could not be shaken; he was too solid and strong for that. If his opponent didn't preserve range perfectly, they'd be in his zone before they knew it, and Executioner was a weapon made for quick knockouts.

Sun, Penny reflected, had a point about being "thrown into the fire". Cardin had seized the number eight spot in their class combat rankings within the first two weeks, and he'd handily held off all attempts to take that slot.

So Cardin kept up his advance, upping the pressure on Sun without compromising his own defense. Cardin was confident, but he was no fool. He didn't know this foreigner's capabilities any more than Penny did.

Sun had both hands behind his head as if he was lounging and couldn't be bothered by whatever Cardin was trying to do.

Emboldened, Cardin closed into range. With his oversized weapon and long arms, Cardin could hold his foes at risk from further than many of them expected. Penny wondered if Sun realized this.

When Sun still didn't react much, Cardin seemed to shrug indifferently and wound up to apply mace to face.

As the swing was on its way, Sun twirled, revealing the weapon he'd somehow drawn without anyone, Penny included, seeing it coming. An ornate, gilded war staff whistled through the air, not trying to block Cardin's swing but redirecting it, guiding its weight down, down, until it smacked against the floor.

With Cardin off balance and out of position, Sun slammed him in the face with the staff.

Cardin, Penny noted dutifully, had no armor on his face.

He did not, however, let the advantage get away from him. He swung back at Sun, and this time did force his opponent to block; Sun was knocked backwards a few steps by the transmitted force of the heavy blow. Cardin greedily followed up and swung laterally at the broad haft of the staff, perhaps hoping to knock it out of Sun's hands.

For an instant, it seemed like he'd done something more dramatic, that he'd actually broken Sun's staff outright. It was only when Sun started swinging the pieces that Penny saw the truth: the staff had shifted into nunchaku.

One of which, once again, was smacking Cardin in the face.

Sun had incredible muscle definition, Penny realized, but he was hardly muscle-bound; his style was closer to Ren's than to Cardin's, with his power serving to complement his agility. Cardin had mistyped his opponent and was only now realizing it.

Grinning all the while, Sun pressed his advantage, taking swings at whatever unarmored parts of Cardin were in reach. Cardin didn't make this easy, deflecting blow after blow with the haft of his weapon, but being on the defensive didn't suit him, especially not at what was supposed to be his ideal range.

After a sixth blow got through, Cardin finally created an opening for himself. He jerked the head of his mace as if winding up another swing, drawing Sun's eyes to the heavy end; with him distracted, Cardin jabbed at him with the butt. It wasn't much of a hit in terms of damage, but it was enough to create an advantage to let a real swing land, and Cardin reared up to take a full-blooded shot.

Sun met it early, catching the haft of the mace with the reformed staff and stalling Cardin out completely mid-swing. The two men strained at each other, seeming for all the world to be closely matched in strength.

Jaune's gaze lifted to the Aura meters again, and Penny still didn't know why.

Abruptly Cardin stopped frowning and grinned—and bent into a sudden headbutt. Almost before Sun had registered the hit, Cardin had gained his back and reached around to pin the Faunus between the haft of Cardin's mace and his breastplate. Sun managed to get his staff in the way just in time, but he was still stuck in place.

"This is the part where you lose," said Cardin. He applied leverage and squeezed.

"You must be watching a different fight from me," said Sun, and instead of trying to push back at Cardin, he angled the top end of his staff at Cardin's face instead.

With a voice full of delight, Penny whispered at her friends, "It's also a gun!"

Cardin took the point-blank bullet right in the forehead, deflected by his Aura but still potent enough to knock his head backwards and ruin his grip. In a flash, Sun was out of the trap and swinging at Cardin's joints with incredible speed.

Even protecting himself with Aura, tanking hit after hit was exhausting Cardin, especially as Sun started weaving gunshots into his attacks. At last Cardin read one of Sun's swings, blocked it cold, and swung back viciously enough that Sun leapt backwards rather than be anywhere near it.

Roaring furiously, Cardin charged Sun—not stopping to swing his weapon this time, but bull-rushing all the way in to land a shoulder-check. He followed with a point-blank swing so close and fast even Blake would have struggled to dodge it.

So Sun blocked it.

The two strained and grunted for a few seconds, before Sun gathered himself, pushed upward, and overpowered Cardin, forcing Executioner out of position—

"So that's how it works," muttered Jaune.

Wham. Wham. Wham.

Knee, armpit, face.

The horn sounded.

"The winner, by Aura depletion: Sun Wukong," announced Professor Goodwitch. She looked up at the gallery. "I hope you all were taking careful notes."

"Of course," Weiss said quietly. "That's the real reason she had Sun spar."

"The real reason?" said Penny. "I thought it was simply his turn."

"He's going to be competing with us at Vytal," said Weiss. "She wanted all of us to see him fight so we can prepare in case we face him!"

"Oh." Penny considered this. "Is that fair?"

"As fair as him attending this class and watching us," said Yang. "She could've chosen a better opponent than Cardin, though."

"Well, obviously she doesn't want her favorites facing him," said Weiss. "Even if Team CRDL makes the tournament, you've seen their sparring record against us and JNPR—in the business world, we'd call them a loss leader."

"Yeah, but by choosing a doof like Cardin, she made it so Sun didn't have to go all-out," countered Yang. "We didn't even see his semblance."

"True," said Weiss slowly. "For that matter, we didn't see Cardin use his."

"That's the part that confuses me," said Blake. "Cardin didn't lose suddenly. He had plenty of time to realize he was losing and throw his semblance into the mix to try and save himself. Why didn't he ever use it?"

"I think he did," murmured Jaune, who was looking up at the Aura meter again.

"Uh-oh," said Nora, looking wicked. "Fearless leader is having a brainstorm. Better watch out!"

"It's nothing that dramatic," said Jaune, flustered. "Just… thoughts, is all. Hey, don't they say a Semblance is a reflection of the soul?"

"Some people say that," said Pyrrha. "I've never put much stock in it. After all, what would my semblance say about me?"

"That you have a magnetic personality and people are drawn to you," said Weiss without missing a beat.

There was a silence-clap amongst the two teams. (Thesaurus had generated that word on the logic that, if "thunderclap" was the word for a sudden clamor, there must be an equivalent for a sudden quiet. Penny couldn't wait to use it in conversation.)

"Is what I'm guessing," Weiss added hurriedly. Penny noticed that blushes looked rather more severe on someone with skin as pale as Weiss'.

The emotions on Pyrrha's face were too complex for Penny to parse, but Pyrrha didn't look displeased, for sure. That was something.

"Hey, guys!"

Penny had detected Sun approaching, but would never have expected him to simply enter into conversation with eight strangers. Penny admired his fearlessness. "Hello, Mr. Wukong," she said to him.

"Please, I can barely stand being called that by my teachers," said Sun, waving them off. "Just Sun is fine."

(Identity updated: Just Sun.) "I understand," said Penny, "and let me say, I am very impressed by how easily you have entered this conversation, given that we are strangers."

"I don't believe in strangers," said Just Sun. "Like, wouldn't you rather know if someone likes you or doesn't like you? And how are you gonna figure that out unless you try to get to know 'em?"

"Those are excellent points!" said Penny.

"I think we're gonna get along fine," said Yang. "What do you think, Blake?"

Blake was quiet so long that Penny was compelled to look at her to ensure she was okay. A quick check of Blake's vitals revealed elevated body temperature, pulse, and respiration rate. Penny worried that Blake might be getting sick.

Blake blinked and seemed to refocus with a shake of her head. "Yeah," she stammered. "Just fine."

Yang smirked, though it wasn't obvious to Penny why.

Professor Goodwitch called the next sparring pair at that point, which broke up the conversation, but Penny thought she saw Blake's eyes drifting over to Just Sun more often than simple curiosity could explain.


Next time: It's Vytal We Do Well