It turned out, to Emerald's complete shock, that Evernight castle did, in fact, have a library.

Why the actual fuck had no one told her about it before?

It was massive, too. Beacon's comprehensive archives were dwarfed in comparison to the multi-tiered structure, several floors dedicated to storing the thousands upon thousands of books in every direction.

The walls were made of the same violet-black crystal and stone as the rest of the castle, but the shelves were of various make and wood from all over Remnant, looking as though new ones were added over time, while leaving the older sections unchanged yet maintained.

Despite her (mostly) homeless upbringing, Emerald actually was quite the avid reader. The free amenities libraries gave out alone were reasons enough for Emerald to frequent them as a child, but the books were what let her escape (even briefly) from her less than ideal life.

The Thief and the Butcher, Violet's Garden, and even Third Crusade were some of her favorites growing up. Of course, she later learned that Third Crusade was thinly veiled propaganda glorifying one of the worst mass genocides of Faunus in Remnant's history, but how was an eleven-year old supposed to have known that without context?

In the couple weeks Emerald had been exploring Evernight's library, she'd already found more stories than she could read in twice her lifetime. If she had more free time, she'd love to start cracking a dent in her wish-list.

But, well, she hadn't exactly come to the library for herself.

"Ruby!" Penny said bubbly, clinging precariously to a worn, rickety ladder on wheels, rolling from one shelf to another with barely constrained glee. "I found another one!"

"Awesome," Emerald replied absently, feet propped up on a study table as she leaned back in her chair. "Another one of what?"

"Using my database for comparison, I have found a total of seventy-seven books thought lost after the Great War! Isn't that exciting?"

"Is it? Books don't seem that hard to lose."

Penny buffered for a moment, then broke into a giggle fit. Something that Emerald learned she did quite often from this morning's outing alone. "Oh, you kidder, you know that's not what I meant."

It wasn't?

"I meant that historians believed all copies to have been destroyed," Penny continued, gently flipping the book's pages like she was handling someone's baby. "It's incredible they're all in such pristine condition, too."

That part Emerald did understand the amazement of; that this massive collection (probably older than anyone alive other than Salem and Oz) was so well put together. She doubted anyone in Salem's circle visited it frequently enough to justify the effort. So what was the point of it? Who was it for?

"Salem, I imagine," Ozpin said wistfully. "Clinging to the past is one of the rare traits she and I both still share."

Ah. So Salem was an elderly hoarder. Got it.

"This entire place is very impressive," Penny said distantly, already several shelves down from where she was perusing a moment ago. "I'm surprised I haven't heard of it before. Where is our base located, exactly? Father didn't give me a clear answer when I asked him."

Great question, Penny. Emerald didn't really know much about the place either, just the general name Cinder offhandedly called where Evernight was located. "You ever heard of the Lost Continent?"

Penny spun around, almost tipping the ladder over. "Is that where we are? I didn't know there were any settlements there. It's supposedly overrun with more Grimm than anywhere else in the world." She returned to the shelves, murmuring to herself, "I'm surprised I don't sense any Grimm nearby, if that's the case."

Emerald winced. There was a pretty simple answer as to why:

Watts had turned Penny's Grimm sensors off. Actually, according to the notes he sent to her scroll, he did something even worse: he scrambled them.

Apparently, Penny's bullshit robot senses allowed her to detect the stuff Grimm were made of (whatever that goopy stuff's name was). Because Evernight was absolutely drenched in the shit, Watts injected some program into her body so that instead of detecting Grimm for her, it hid them from her sensors.

It's how Penny didn't notice the Grimm Seer hovering right above her, dusting off the shelves as it drifted up to another floor.

Emerald was still a bit confused about how that change interacted with Cinder's arm and Salem's… everything, but the notes were annoying enough to keep track of without complicating them even more with follow up questions. So she just accepted it. If it actually mattered to know those specific background details, they'd probably come up later, anyway.

"That's… not a great attitude to have, Emerald," Ozpin scolded. "Unraveling exactly what Watts did to modify Penny could be vital to understanding Salem's interest in her."

Penny was a killer robot with an aura. Emerald though Salem's interest was fairly understandable from that alone.

"While her goal could be the same as James, to weaponize an immortal maiden, rarely have her machinations been so simplistic. There must be more to her schemes."

"Oh!" Penny's voice carried down from a different floor (Emerald had not noticed her climb up there). "Ruby, can I have your opinion on something?"

"Sure, bestie." Emerald threw a 'bestie' every few sentences with Penny, as it seemed like something Ruby would do (the caped crusader was a try-hard like that). "What can I help you with?"

Instead of using the stairs that lead back to the first floor, Penny leaped off from the banister and crashed in front of Emerald. Despite the laws of gravity, both Penny and the poor, defenseless floor were completely unblemished from the impact. "I don't seem to have this language in my database. Do you recognize it?"

Though she almost fell out of her seat from Penny crash landing in front of her, Emerald managed to catch herself and shake it off with stride. "You're really excitable, huh?"

Penny deflated. "Sorry…"

"Hey, I didn't say it was a bad thing." Well… she was certainly a lot to deal with at once. If Emerald were back at Beacon, she'd probably find Penny a lot more annoying, but in Evernight Castle, someone as painfully chipper as Penny was a refreshing change of pace.

"No, I should know better," Penny pressed. "Dad warned me over and over again after I woke up. He informed me that such erratic behavior emphasizes how different I am from everyone else." Her eyes dulled to a static grey. "He said it makes me look fake."

Emerald could not resist breaking character as she replied, "Fuck your dad."

"Ruby!" Penny covered her mouth, absolutely scandalized. She glanced around the room, probably searching for the special task force that enforced the sacred laws of the Swear Jar. "You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because…" she stammered, calculating her response with a frustrated pout. "That's not how a proper girl behaves!"

Emerald raised an eyebrow. "Says who?"

"Says…um…" Emerald could see the struggle on Penny's face, scrunched up and conflicted. Not unlike a puppy tasting something sour for the first time.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

"Am I not a proper girl, Penny?" Emerald challenged.

Penny audibly gasped, affronted by the insinuation. "Of course you are!"

"But I just said an improper word, didn't I?"

"You… well—" Penny's processors were visibly steaming out her ears, stuck on the divide-by-zero paradox in Emerald tossed her way. "I don't know anymore…"

"Relax. A proper girl is whatever you want it to mean. There isn't a rubric for it."

"There is for me." Penny hugged herself, but it didn't seem to help her mood. "I have to try extra hard to pass, Ruby."

"Pass?"

"You know…" Penny shuffled awkwardly. "Like a real girl."

Emerald processed that slowly, tracing the trajectory of Penny's mental gymnastics in her mind. "Penny… do you think women don't swear?" she asked incredulously. "Like… ever?"

"No, but…" She sighed. "Maybe I'm phrasing it wrong. I'm not just trying to prove I'm real, Ruby. That's not enough. I need to prove I'm a model human being."

"Why?"

"Because that's my purpose. To be a model girl, model citizen, and model huntress all in one. To be someone the entire world can look up to."

"Who gave you that purpose? Your dad?"

"No, actually it was—" crashed. "Oh."

"What?"

"It… it was Mister Ironwood." Her voice shook, but the volume was all over the place, struggling to choose the right pitch for her conflicted feelings. "He told me that's who I needed to be. For the sake of Atlas."

There was a long, drawn out pause between them. Penny said absolutely nothing, the book in her hands seemingly forgotten about entirely as an internal conflict broke out over her surprisingly expressive face.

Emerald didn't know what kind of existential crisis was going on inside that titanium skull of hers, but she had enough existential dread in her life. Time to do her new job:

Keep Penny happy AND distracted.

"Well," Emerald began, reaching an arm around Penny's shoulder. "Ironwood isn't here. And I think a girl as real as you should be allowed to say 'fuck' if you want to. You know, as a treat. "

At her touch, Penny jolted, but she didn't pull away. She seemed to think for a moment, coming to a decision slowly.

Tensing her jaw, Penny locked eyes with Emerald resolutely. With all the rebellious spirit she could muster, she powerfully squeaked, "F …frick."

Emerald's laughter did not help the embarrassed blush streaking across Penny's freckled face. "Sorry," Penny blubbered, hiding her face with her book. "I… I don't think I'm ready yet. It's a big change for me."

Emerald snorted a little more, but decided to be nice about it (as required in her job description).

"You don't have to ever be ready, Penny. It's a choice, not a directive. No need to take it so seriously."

Penny nodded slowly. "Right. Of course."

Robo-girl still looked uncertain, but that was fine. Emerald needed to reign it more anyway. She was straying a bit too far from Ruby's puritan personality.

Before she could change the subject, though, Penny changed it first.

"Do you… dislike my father?" she asked evenly.

"No. He's a… a swell dude." That was probably true (for Penny's real dad, anyway).

"You don't have to lie to me, Ruby. I know he's been more… aloof lately. But now that I'm saying it outloud…"

Oh no. Emerald did not like that contemplative look Penny had in her eyes, an idea percolating on her face like the ticking percentage score of a loading screen.

"His recent advice contradicts his older words," Penny mused. "He used to focus more on showing people who I am on the inside, instead of bottling it up. I wonder what changed his mind?"

Shit. Emerald got too carried away with dunking on Watts. She was supposed to distract Penny from Evernight's inconsistencies, not make them more blatantly obvious!

Emerald tried shifting Penny's focus back to the library. "You said there was a book you wanted to show me?"

If Penny found the subject change strange, she didn't voice it. "Oh… right." While she lost a bit of her excited edge, it wasn't snuffed out entirely. "Here."

Emerald took it from her hands quickly, confused at the book's considerable weight despite its small size. Wasn't actually heavy, but still. "This doesn't look like normal paper."

"I think it's a board book," Penny said absently (yet with elaborate detail). "The pages are made from the same material as the hardcover. That style is primarily used for children's books. Very young children, like toddlers."

"Huh." That explained why Emerald hadn't recognized the style; she couldn't even remember that far back into her childhood.

Even if I could, I doubt anyone had ever read to me as a kid.

While there were obviously children's books in the libraries Emerald frequented when she was younger, she didn't really start getting into reading until her preteens (by then, picture books weren't exactly appealing).

Emerald flipped Penny's book open, not surprised that she didn't recognize the language either (if the walking Atlesian encyclopedia couldn't do it, how could she?).

"I recognize it," Ozpin cut in. "It's a dead language. Spoken by a Kingdom that fell to ruin a long time ago." He sighed. "I didn't think any of it survived."

Briefly, flashes of a city flooded Emerald's vision. Only snippets of it, little ripples carrying fragmented reflections of its streets, homes, and people. From what little of it she did see, though…

It didn't look very different from Vale at all. The buildings, the roads, even their clothes—each detail screamed Valean to her. The similarities left her nauseous.

Stop it, Oz. Now!

"Apologies, Emerald. I… I missed it more dearly than I realized." His tone was a soggy mix of both remorse and grief. "I'll handle it."

The dead city disappeared from her vision, ebbing the sickness in her stomach to numbness. Annoyed at Oz, but not wanting to alarm Penny, she lifted her eyes from the book quickly and moved on. "No, I don't recognize it either."

"I see." Penny did not seem surprised, nor did she seem like she was entirely paying attention.

Hoping to reignite the robot's interest, Emerald flipped through the clunky, hardened pages for anything of note.

As Penny suspected, the book looked like it was made for little kids; there were few words written in the book at all, and they were oversized and written in faded yet colorful ink. Little animal doodles sprawled across every page, focusing specifically on a pudgy rabbit (that, for some reason, had little antlers sprouting out behind its ears).

"A Jackalope," Ozpin said.

Emerald hadn't known Ozpin could still sneeze. Neat.

"Smart ass," he murmured. "It was a mythical creature of folk legend. A local favorite, beloved enough to become part of their nation's banner." He chuckled darkly. "It's always the fairy tales that come back to haunt me."

Emerald wasn't in the headspace to dig into more of Oz's melodrama—

"Ouch," Ozpin interjected. "Uncalled for."

—so she continued her search. Mostly, she just found intricate drawings of this "Jackalope" going on some ragtag adventure in the wilderness. She skimmed through it (and, again, she couldn't read ANY of it) so the plot zipped by without context. More animals, some people showed up, and even crude Grimm got involved (somehow).

The only thing that really stuck out to Emerald was that, stuck between the pages, there were little bits of fabric and felt attached to some of the pictures, seemingly a part of the drawings themselves. On one page, an etching of a grassy field had a splotch of rough, carpet-like material glued onto it. On another, there were small, smoothed over pebbles embedded inside, making up the stone path beside a riverbank.

"Penny, why'd they glue all this random crap over the art?" Emerald asked. "Just makes it harder to flip through."

"Hmm?" Penny distractedly peered over the book, but perked up when she noticed what Emerald was pointing at. "Oh! Tactile art!"

Good, this did interest her. "What's that?"

"Well—" And just like that, whatever dark thoughts brewing in Penny's head were blown away by the hurricane of factoids that took their place.

Emerald couldn't keep track of Penny's excited rambling, explaining the purpose of sensory art in a child's development, and the different techniques that went into manufacturing those sorts of books compared to more traditional printing presses. Emerald gave up trying to follow it all, just losing herself in Penny's bubbly voice, stifling her laughter whenever Penny excitedly flapped her arms all over the place as she babbled. Listening to it all was… shockingly fun. It reminded her of—

Long walks with Cinder, listening to her vent about anything and everything.

That realization was a gut punch, hard and cruel, like a glass heel digging into her skin. She felt the impact on her ribs, and on her chin. It hit her again and again, relentless and—

"Ruby?" Penny asked softly, ripping Emerald from her hazy thoughts. "Are you okay? Your breathing and heart rate are increasing significantly."

Emerald blinked, slowly grasping back control of her riled lungs. She tasted something bitter in her mouth. "I'm fine," Emerald lied. "What were you saying?"

"Okay…" Penny stared at her skeptically, but continued anyway. "I was going to ask if you wanted to feel the art for yourself." She pushed the book towards Emerald. "I'm told it is quite soothing."

"Eh, I'm good," Emerald said, pushing the book back towards Penny. "You can knock yourself out, though. You'll appreciate it more, anyway."

"I wish I could, but, well…" Penny looked down at her hands, flexing them with a frown. "You know I can't."

"Why not? It's easy. You just poke it."

Penny cocked her head, studying Emerald curiously. "Ruby… I've explained my proximity sensors to you, correct?"

"Uh…" Emerald was drawing a blank. "Maybe?"

Penny sighed, a thin smile curling softly across her exasperated expression. "You can be so forgetful sometimes. But, to answer your question…" Her smile fell. "I can't touch it because, technically, I can't touch anything. My father hasn't quite cracked the science behind simulating touch. He was working on it before I left for the festival…" She stiffened. "I doubt he even has the time for it anymore, much less the resources here."

Oh. That—

"That sucks," Emerald said without thinking, completely devoid of any tact. "Wait, I mean—"

Penny just giggled. "Yeah, it does. One day, I'll hopefully get to experience it for myself. Until then, I'll just have to make do with what I have."

Well, what she did have was state-of-the-art Atlesian military tech, so Emerald thought she had plenty to have fun with already. Although… wait—

"If you can't feel what you touch…" Emerald said slowly. "Why do you like touching me so much? You were pretty insistent about hand-holding last night, too."

Penny froze. "W-well, um…" Were those… printer noises whirring in Penny's head? "Do you remember at the start of the festival, when your uncle fought Winter?"

No, Emerald did not remember that. She had absolutely no idea what Penny was talking about. "Totally."

"Well, after you ran up and hugged him, I just thought… it's something that makes you happy. It's why I embraced you so many times during the festival. I thought it would make dad happy, too, but…" Once again, the life in her eyes faded. "I guess he doesn't like affection the same way you do."

Seriously, Watts had to get better at this. No wonder Salem tossed Penny her way; Watts could not be trusted with this emotionally fragile (yet military grade) little huntress in a bow.

Fortunately for him, Emerald was around to pick up his slack.

"His loss," Emerald said bluntly, leaning towards Penny with a grin. "Just means I don't have to share, right?"

After hearing those words, all the color returned to Penny's eyes. Too much color. It spilled into the rest of her face, lighting her cheeks up like fireworks. "Y-yeah! That's a positive way to look at it! Well done!"

Emerald arched an eyebrow. Well done?

Note to self; being even slightly flirty with Penny makes her sound really, really stupid.

Before Emerald could pursue what that reaction hinted about Penny and the real Ruby's relationship, she felt her scroll buzz in her pocket.

She pulled it out, reading a short (yet somehow still condescending) message from Watts.

Return to lab. Time for Penny's next operation.

"Was that father?" Penny asked, shrinking in on herself slightly. "I thought we had more time together today…"

"I'm still coming with you, bestie, don't worry," Emerald assured her. "He said something about an operation, though?"

Penny brightened up immediately, almost jumping up from the table in her excitement as she rushed out of the library. "Oh! Really? That is sen-sational news!"

Emerald shook her head at Penny's antics, following her back into the halls of Evernight. "Why? Do you already know what he's talking about?"

"It means I've been cleared to have my weapon back!" Penny struck a goofy, dynamic pose in the middle of the hallway. "Time to be combat ready!"

Sweet. Penny, the robot-girl Cinder was competing with for the Spring Maiden powers, was about to get her flashy laser-swords back.

Cinder was going to be so pissed off.

"Speaking of," interjected Ozpin, the magic, immortal tumor living in her brain. "Weren't we supposed to start drafting a plan together this morning about dealing with Salem and Cinder?"

Emerald groaned internally.

When would her life stop being so fucking complicated?

Penny was having some mixed feelings about her weapon, Floating Array.

She loved it, of course. A huntress' weapon was considered an extension of their very soul, and for Penny it was even more literal: it was embedded into her own body. All twelve blades were a part of her, strings and all.

When she first woke up without them, she understood her father's explanation that they needed to be repaired, and that she needed to be cleared of any technical issues before she could be trusted with her weapon again. But understanding why did not help ease the overwhelming emptiness she felt without her swords. They each were a part of her soul, after all. Without them, she was incomplete. She should be thrilled at the chance to have them back again.

So why didn't she feel thrilled? Why was it, as her father finished implanting Floating Array into the backside of her torso, that she felt anxious?

Floating Array was the cutting edge shape of precision and control. It was the shape of agency, the one aspect of her life both her father and General Ironwood allowed her to decide for herself: her fighting style. In Penny's sheltered upbringing, Floating Array was her very first shape of freedom.

But as her father backed away from his work, nodding to himself at the procedure, she felt anything but free. Her entire body felt heavier than it was supposed to be, despite her internal weighing scale assuring her it was within the expected parameters.

When she stood up from the workbench, her movements were sluggish and crude, all of her servos creaking from the strain.

"Dad?" Penny asked shakily. "I think something is wrong. It… it doesn't feel right."

"Nonsense," her father replied. "I triple checked everything myself. There isn't a screw out of place. You just need some more time to calibrate it."

She triple-checked her own calibrations herself. It didn't stop the unsettling, shifting wrongness stirring inside her. "But—"

"Penny, this is not up for debate," he said sternly. "I have much more work to do today past this weapon test. My whole life does not revolve around you."

Penny flinched. "I… I didn't say it was. I'm sorry—"

"Just get into position. Now."

Despite her reservations, Penny did. She stood in the center of the workshop, a flat space cleared away from the rest of her father's projects and derelict machinery.

While everything still felt off (as though the entire world was shifted a little more to the left), Penny made eye contact with Ruby, watching her from the other side of the room.

Ruby shot her a thumbs up. "You got this, bestie."

Everything felt a little lighter with Ruby around. Still not quite right, but better. "Affirmative."

"Any time now," her father chastised, already in position to monitor Penny's diagnostics for the test. "Well? I'm waiting."

Not wanting to disappoint her father any further, Penny centered herself and flexed her shoulders. Floating Array spun to life, unfolding out of her body in a blossoming whirlwind of wires and swords.

So far so good, Penny thought.

She practiced finesse first, letting her blades dance around her in coordinated patterns. Fluid and swift, swaying as gently as a breeze in one set of moves, or oscillating dangerously at speeds high enough to blur the metal as it billowed faster than a tornado. Whether slow or fast, steady or volatile, the blades never shifted an inch out of place, always following the trajectory Penny planned for them.

That alone lifted some of that uncomfortable weight from her… wherever she was feeling this heavy sensation. It was difficult to place. She wasn't used to her emotions spreading to specific parts of her body like that…

Regardless, she continued with the test, confidence returning with each success. While her father nodded stoically, Ruby's expression was much more fascinating to study.

"Woah," Ruby said softly, staring at Penny with equal parts trepidation and awe (give or take a percent or two margin of error). "You're… fast."

Penny giggled, spinning her blades even faster to catch more of Ruby's attention. "Thank you."

She knew Ruby was quite the "weapon nut" as Yang once phrased it, so showing off the range of Floating Array was a sure fire method of entertaining the plucky young huntress. While even thinking about Ruby's sunny, affectionate, dead sister sent a pang through Penny's core, she tried to focus on what Yang would do if she were still here:

Keep Ruby happy and safe.

At the moment, Ruby seemed properly secured in her father's makeshift facility, so she focused on the former. She signaled her blades to shift into more complicated configurations, and modified the RGB settings of the lights inside to randomize the colors moment to moment. The effect was a messy array of flashing colors that twinkled around Penny like starlight—no! Even better—

Like fireflies.

To her immense satisfaction, Ruby was absolutely paying attention to her display, pupils widening as she tried tracking the wavy motion of the lights with her [silver] RED eyes.

Penny blinked. Something felt… off about Ruby's eyes, but she couldn't place it. They were the same [silver] RED like always, just as they were listed in her personnel file. Staring at them too long, though, still built a strange fuzzy feeling in Penny's core.

"Penny," her father interrupted. "If you are done showboating, can we move on to the laser test?"

Penny slowed her blades down, shifting the LED lights back to their normal shade of green. "Right. Sorry."

He grunted, but said nothing else.

His dismissal made her feel… complicated. She felt bad for disappointing him, but also… annoyed? She was trying her best, after all. She just wanted to have a little fun, and he was being so, so… grouchy about it. She didn't know how to voice those feelings—

"Fuck your dad."

Ruby's words were harsh in the library, much harsher than she had ever heard from the girl previously. She had certainly changed since the Fall of Beacon, just as her father and the rest of the resistance members had.

But despite those changes—despite the grief Ruby was no doubt still working through—she still treated Penny with the same respect she had at Beacon.

Her father, on the other hand, did not seem to share the same courtesy. Even Winter had been so much more affectionate with her (though, she was worried that Winter was using her as a surrogate for her sister).

Perhaps Ruby is right, Penny thought as she primed her lasers and aimed them for a practice dummy propped up on a nearby wall. Maybe I do deserve to say… harsher words to my father.

Not the same words Ruby had chosen, of course—those were a tad too far—but she had to bring up the issue to him eventually. She had left it unaddressed for far too long, hoping to simply win back his affection. But she didn't have to win back Ruby's affection, not even once. What did that say about her father?

Perhaps I am not the problem.

She'd mull this over again later, maybe even confront her father with her personal feelings before the end of the day (so long as the shut down glitch didn't interrupt her again).

For now, she continued with the weapon's test.

As she prepared one of her blades to take aim at the nearby dummy, one of her other blades spun in front of her to make room for the shot. As it did, it passed by one of her outstretched hands, almost nicking the edge of her aura. Factually, she already knew that the blade was going to be there. Factually, she already calculated how close it would be to her hand and knew it had no chance of actually hitting her. Factually, she knew every aspect of Floating Array was under her (and only her) control.

Facts did nothing to stop the rise in panic as the blade crested by the tips of her fingers, and suddenly that awful, uncomfortable weight in her chest spread out to her entire body.

Her arms locked up and she couldn't move anything. Her ocular display marked everything as still functional—that every part of her was still under her control—but that was a lie! Nothing was under her control!

Not the strings constricting around her arms and torso, shredding through her aura like she was nothing—like she was useless!

Not the screams of the crowd around her, the lights of the arena dimming in synchrony with their panicked voices.

["Cricket."]

Whatever the spectators were shouting at Penny, she couldn't make out the words. Even discerning their faces was impossible; looking at the bleachers, all Penny found was an ocean of black silhouettes, flickering vestiges that only hinted at their true appearances.

["Cricket. Cricket, cricket, cricket!"]

At this point, the strings of Floating Array had already cleaved through her aura and into her body. She couldn't feel it—because she couldn't feel anything—but that didn't stop her legs from collapsing under her without her torso attached. That part of her torso, where her head and core were, fell separately behind it.

She couldn't feel pain. But she could feel helpless. Aura shattered, her body vivisected into several pieces strewn about the stadium floor, she wished she could feel pain instead.

["Cricket, gods dammit, cricket! Why isn't this working you worthless scrapheap?"]

Standing ahead of her, emerald eyes filled to the brim with horror, was Pyrrha Nikos.

Somehow, in some way, she did this to her. Pyrrha knew it, too. That was the scariest part, the certainty in the champions's eyes, but also the regret.

Pyrrha did this to her, but clearly she had not meant to.

That didn't stop it from happening. Not one bit.

After such extensive damage, her core should have automated her shutdown procedure to preserve itself for extraction. Her eyes should have flickered off and everything should have returned to the safe numbness of the egoless void.

But it didn't. The horror didn't stop like it did the first time. Instead, her swords hovered around her, aiming each serrated tip straight down—

And towards Penny.

She couldn't stop it, just like she couldn't stop the tournament from being overrun. She wasn't awake to see it happen last time, but now she could see the Atlesian knights in the background shooting at the shadowy people in the bleachers. Each silhouette, upon being struck by a bullet, burst like the flickering shadow of a candle flame, then disappeared. Before Penny's blades constricted around her again, she had already counted at least a hundred shadows flicker and vanish to the sounds of gunfire.

Was that how it happened? Was that how quickly everything began? Was her mutilation the powder keg that sparked off the Atlesian invasion?

She didn't know. All she did know was her proximity alarms were blaring louder than the gunfire as the strings coiled around her torso and began to split her apart even more.

She couldn't take it anymore. She snapped.

"GET OFF ME!" she screamed and begged and cried tearlessly as parts of her own soul betrayed her and tore through her artificial flesh. "GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME, PLEASE!"

But her pleas were only heard by Pyrrha, paralyzed by fear, while Penny just screamed and—

Everything shifted.

The sounds of the crowd and gunfire became muted and distant.

Her blades vanished, the strings coiled around her disappearing with them.

Pyrrha morphed into someone else entirely. Her eyes and hair swapped color, everything red shifting to green and vice versa.

Ruby overtook the champion's place and rushed to Penny's side. "Penny, can you hear me?"

Penny responded slowly, still overwhelmed by the awful lurch in her core and still seeing her body parts scattered all around her. "I… yes, Ruby. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I let this happen all over again—"

Ruby cut her off. "It's okay, you just need to calm down. Breathe in, breathe out."

"Th-that doesn't work for me!"

"Shit, you're so right. Uh…" She floundered for a moment. "Let me try something else."

Ruby reached out with her hand and gripped Penny's. Not the one still attached to her, but the limp one, detached from the rest of her torso, wires spilling from where it should have connected to her shoulder.

"Ruby, what are you—"

But Penny couldn't finish her sentence. A completely new sensation overwhelmed her body. The rumble of the gunfire, the screams of the crowd, the whistling screech of her blades cutting through the air—all of them paled in comparison to the new sensation thrumming through her fingertips. For the first time in Penny's life, she choked. Ruby was holding her hand—

And she could feel it.

The warmth of her fingers interlacing with her own, the softness of her skin, the protrusion of her knuckles brushing against her palm—all at once she understood these sensations (just as her research had described them) and nothing else mattered.

Nothing but the shape of Ruby's hand.

The arena fell away back to the workshop—because that's where she actually was, the workshop—and she was completely intact. Her blades were not constricting all around her, they had been shut down and lodged back into her torso. Her body was not ripped apart and scattered over the floor. She was whole.

Which meant the hand holding Ruby's was actually connected to her body and she could admire the sensation even more closely.

"Ruby, I… I can feel your heartbeat," Penny said reverently, desperately clinging onto Ruby's hand in fear the sensation would disappear if she was foolish enough to let go. "Not just detect it, but feel it—really feel it. How?"

Ruby's expression was too complicated for Penny's interpreter to analyze properly, too many emotions warring across her face. "Well, um—"

["Cricket."]

And right then and there, at arguably the worst time it could happen, the shutdown glitch rocked through Penny's system. All feeling disappeared from her body, her mind returning to the sensory deprived void she had been begging to return to only a few moments ago.

For a brief moment, though, between the instant her body disconnected from the aura in her core and the instant her sense of self flickered off, she could still feel the lingering presence of Ruby's hand caressing her own—

But then everything faded to black and she felt nothing at all.