Sneaking back into the base was as simple as sneaking out. They took a cab back to their vantage point and with the help of Ruby's semblance, they were back in Weiss's room without a fuss. Now within closed walls without a cab driver to overhear them, they took to discussing what they'd learned.

"'Wrath of Partridge'," Ruby muttered. "Not 'Wrath of the Partridge'. So it's like a name, right? Like a codename or something? Ooh! Or a supervillain name? Nah, that'd be such a lame supervillain name."

Weiss didn't have much input on the matter. That didn't mean she wasn't interested, of course. The formless entity who'd just barely failed in killing three out of five Schnees now felt tangible. It was a man. He spoke eloquently and with an ego. He was patient, resourceful, and potentially tech-savvy. Weiss was starting to paint a mental picture of this unexpected adversary, which was more than could be said before watching that footage. Still, she didn't have much to say. Her main focus was on wondering what her brother had to do with all this.

On the surface, it seemed plausible that he was doing something similar to what Weiss and Ruby had done with Torchwick: using felonious means to go about tracking down a dangerous criminal. If that was the case, it'd mean just about every single thing he'd said to her at the psychiatric hospital had been a lie—did he even not hate olives anymore? It'd mean he did care that their father had almost been killed, which was a strange truth to hide. Perhaps he just didn't trust Weiss and wanted to keep her from suspecting what he was up to. A much darker possibility that Weiss didn't even give the light of day was that he hadn't been lying and really wasn't concerned about their father's life, and he was attempting to hide his own involvement in the incident.

Pushing that absurd thought aside, she deliberated how best to go about uncovering whatever it was he was truly hiding. She'd wait at least a day before calling him again, and then she'd just have to ask him the right questions to weasel information out of him without him realizing what she was up to. That was the tricky part. Lying was a delicate art form that you were required to master to maintain your status as a social elite, which is exactly what their father had groomed Whitley into becoming.

Both women were distracted from their thoughts by a knock on the door. They hadn't even been back for ten minutes yet, which was fortunate timing.

Weiss answered the knock to find Penny waiting in the hall.

"You've returned!" the girl said happily.

"Returned?" Weiss said, alarmed. "We never left."

"Are you positive? Because I knocked multiple times earlier and got no response. I heard you talking just now, so I assumed you'd returned from wherever you went."

"We were taking a nap," Weiss fibbed.

Penny tilted her head. "Together?"

"No!" Ruby blurted, making Weiss jump—she hadn't realized her friend was so close behind her. "No, not together. Separately. In our own rooms."

Penny had a curious look on her face, but she didn't have the mien of someone who knew they were being lied to. She looked like she was innocently trying to make sense of conflicting truths.

"Alright, fine," said Weiss. "We left, and now we're back. But you didn't tell anyone that we were gone, right?"

"I don't recall mentioning your absence to anyone, no," Penny answered.

"Could you please keep it that way?" Ruby asked. "We weren't really supposed to leave the base."

"Oh, you left the base?" said Penny. "I had just assumed you'd gone somewhere else within Amity."

Weiss internally scolded herself. That would have made for a much simpler lie.

"Uhh," was all Ruby had to say.

"What did you need from me, exactly?" said Weiss.

"I went to see your sister earlier to offer my assistance in accelerating her recovery," said Penny. "She accepted and is now back on her feet. While I was there, she happened to mention your semblance, and I was hoping to procure your services."

Weiss was relieved to hear about Winter despite the fact that this would make it more difficult to continue avoiding her. She was still angry with her, though she wasn't fully sure why. It was about more than Winter leaving her behind in the plane to rescue Penny. She wasn't really upset by that at all, if she was being honest with herself—that was just what resurfaced years of emotions she never knew she'd been bottling up. Weiss loved her sister more than anything, which is why it hurt so much that they rarely ever got to see each other and that they couldn't have the relationship she wanted—the kind of relationship that Ruby and Yang had.

Weiss needed time to sort through these feelings before she spoke to Winter again. A long conversation was overdue, and she wasn't going to go into it underprepared.

"I understand you require a fee?" said Penny.

"What?" Weiss said, distracted. "Oh, right. No, of course not. You saved Winter's life. I couldn't even begin to repay you for that."

"Are you certain? It really wouldn't be any inconvenience."

"I'm sure." Weiss stepped aside to clear the way into her room. "We can do this now, if you want."

"Sensational!" Penny practically skipped her way inside.

"I should probably leave," Ruby said.

"You can stay," said Penny.

"Really? Don't you want some privacy?"

"Nope! It'll be like we're a group of friends, 'hanging out'!"

"Uh, this isn't really the type of thing friends usually do together. But if you want me to stay, then I guess I will."

"Excellent!"

Weiss, although finding this extremely unusual, posed no objections. After she closed the door they all sat down, Penny taking the chair, Weiss sitting on her bed, and Ruby hopping up and perching herself on the table.

"So, which disorder did you need my help with?" Weiss asked.

"I believe my case to be entirely unique," said Penny, "and for you to fully understand, I need to reveal an important detail about myself to you. Do you both swear to keep this a secret?"

"Of course," said Weiss. "I adhere strictly to client confidentiality."

"And my lips are sealed," said Ruby, performing the associated gesture with her uninjured hand.

"Great!" said Penny. "I am the world's first and only artificial paragon."

Weiss scrunched her brow. "What does that—?"

Ruby gasped. "You are a robot!"

"Incorrect," said Penny, once again seeming entirely unoffended. "What I mean is that I was not born with my semblance. What I was born with is a very rare and very deadly disease. It is incurable and usually kills its host between nine and thirteen years of age, if not sooner. I was nearing fatality by the time I was ten.

"My father, of course, tried everything he could to save me. He did his own research and testing, hired others to do the same, and even found a paragon woman with the ability to heal her own body and also to mend the injuries and illnesses of other people to a certain extent. It all proved fruitless. In the end, when it looked like I didn't have much time left, he resorted to an untested and potentially deadly process he'd theorized to be possible—copying a paragon's semblance and imbuing it into someone else. If he didn't attempt the process on me, my disease would have killed me anyway, so there was nothing to lose.

"Fortunately, it worked. That same paragon woman who failed to cure my disease herself allowed my father to copy her semblance from her DNA and turn me into a paragon. The semblance works a lot more effectively on its host than on other people, so once it had taken to me, my disease began deteriorating and was eventually eradicated entirely. My body did, however, sustain some damage in the process. Most of it was treatable, but there were two lasting side effects. I lost an eye, which is now replaced with a porcelain prosthetic, and I also suffered a total loss of memory before my newly acquired semblance could mend the damage to my brain.

"I lost the first ten years of my life and the entirety of the person I had been up until that point. I had to learn everything again from scratch, even how to walk and speak. Evidence suggests that those memories are irretrievable, which is why I've made it one of my life's goals to never forget anything again—or at least to remember as much as I possibly can. But I believe if there's any chance at all of recovering my lost childhood, it'd be through you, Weiss Schnee."

She told her story rather quickly, which didn't really give much time to process all the information she'd showered upon them. That was why, when she abruptly finished speaking, there was a long silence while Penny patiently waited for Weiss and Ruby both to wrap their heads around it all.

"So . . ." said Ruby. "You're, uh, technically like nine or ten years old right now, mentally?"

Weiss felt like that was probably an insensitive question to ask, but she wasn't entirely sure. So she left it to Penny's discretion, who, predictably, did not seem affronted and answered in her usual, upbeat demeanor.

"On a technical basis, yes. In actuality, not quite. While I came out of the operation with the brain contents of a newborn, my brain was not the size of a newborn's. I was able to retain more information much faster, which allowed me to mature at an accelerated rate. I am just as much of an adult right now as either of you."

"I still can't believe the first time your father tested such a volatile science was on his own daughter," said Weiss.

"It wasn't," said Penny. "He experimented on himself first, but the semblance didn't take to him like it did me. That failure taught him what he needed to know to improve the odds when it was my turn. The downside is it also gave him a resistance to my semblance that can't be bypassed. I can still help him a little bit, but I am unable to restore him to full health."

Weiss recalled what Pietro had said about performing risky experiments on himself about a decade ago, and him not being able to live with himself had he not achieved a breakthrough.

"Wow," said Ruby. "Your dad must really care about you."

Penny nodded. "Oh, he does. He loves me very much, and I love him. I could not have a better father."

I could, Weiss thought, dreading visiting her own later that day.

"So how did Dr. Polendina actually do it?" Ruby asked, unable to contain her fascination. "How did he manage to copy a semblance from one person and give it to you? That's sci-fi level stuff, like time travel and cybernetic enhancements. Could it work in reverse? Could he remove a semblance from a paragon?"

Weiss nearly shuddered at the thought. She knew there'd be many paragons who'd give anything to have that done to them—like Ruby when she thought her semblance just took away her need to sleep—but there were too many ways to exploit a science like that. And it wouldn't just be criminals seeking to use it against their enemies—there'd be politicians attempting to legalize its use against convicted paragon felons, which would be abhorrent. Maybe some would deserve it, sure, but this wasn't like revoking their gun rights; it'd be like chopping off one of their limbs. A paragon's semblance is a part of them and to take it away without their consent would violate their most basic human rights. That's not to mention the falsely convicted paragons that would suffer unjustly, as well.

"I've already told you as much as I can. This is a very dangerous science that can do terrible things if perfected and put into the wrong hands," said Penny, aligning perfectly with Weiss's train of thought. "This is why my father wishes for it to remain strictly confidential. He has dedicated much of his life to studying semblances, paragon biology, and related fields, so he understands the potential ramifications better than anyone."

Ruby seemed disappointed but she clearly understood.

"Are you certain it was wise for you to tell us, then?" Weiss asked.

Penny frowned. "You promised you would keep what I told you a secret. Are you implying that you cannot be trusted?"

"Of course not! It's just that you barely know us."

"I know that you're a beloved family member to a highly respected Special Operative of the Remnant military, and that you and Ruby share a strong bond. If neither of you can be trusted, then your elder sister cannot be trusted, which would mean that Remnant's military cannot be trusted. Also, you've both been nice to me."

Weiss thought that was a rather naive outlook, but it made sense given everything she'd just learned about this girl.

"Listen, I can attempt to restore your memories," said Weiss, "but I can't promise it'll work. I've cured cases of amnesia before, but if your loss of memory was caused by physical damage to the brain, it's probably beyond my capabilities. I can heal the mind, not the brain itself."

"I understand," said Penny. "An attempt is all I ask for. You see, my mother died only two years before I was expected to. The least I want is to know whether my memories of her still exist somewhere in my head, or if they've truly been erased entirely."

Weiss and Ruby could empathize with that pain more than she knew.

"Are you ready then?" Weiss asked.

Penny nodded.

Penny's mindscape took the form of the Emerald Forest, which gave Weiss a sense of comfort. Every single time she'd found herself in Forever Fall, something new and unheard-of had happened. Unfortunately, there was no other good news to be had throughout this expedition, for it turned out identically to the time she'd failed to cure Ruby's supposed insomnia.

Amnesia takes the form of one or more Ravagers—ugly, bat-like creatures of Grimm—the quantity dependent on the severity of the loss of memory. In Warriors of Grimm, Ravagers could only be found in deserts, but Weiss's semblance didn't strictly adhere to the cartoon's rules. That meant that it wasn't geography stopping her from finding any of the creatures within the Emerald Forest—it was the fact that Penny simply did not have a mental illness in the form of amnesia. There were no Grimm of any kind within Penny's mind, for that matter, which meant the girl was completely sane. Weiss even took the time to view every memory that presented itself to her to ensure they weren't from before the procedure, and none of them appeared to. Seeing firsthand just how good of a father Pietro was only deepened Weiss's jealousy toward Penny. It didn't feel right snooping this much through someone else's personal memories, but Weiss needed to do it to form a definitive answer. And that answer was that there was nothing she could do for her.

Penny took the news pretty well. She didn't seem surprised, but she was clearly disheartened. Since they still had several hours to kill before Weiss went to see her father, Ruby brought up her ice cream idea again and the three of them went out to a parlor that existed within the base near a few fast-food restaurants. Ruby ordered a strawberry cone with sprinkles, Weiss was briefly tempted by Neapolitan before quickly changing her mind to vanilla with chocolate syrup, and Penny had a caramel sundae. It was a pleasant outing where it seemed Weiss and Ruby had made a new friend, at least for as long as Penny remained in Remnant. Penny and Ruby especially seemed to hit it off particularly well, both having just the right amount of dorkiness to complement each other.

"You appear to have some sort of uncontrollable tremor in your left arm," Penny commented at one point when Ruby struggled to wipe her face with a napkin.

"Hm? Oh, right. Yeah, I have nerve damage. It's pretty recent, so we don't know yet whether . . ." Ruby's eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait. Can you heal nerve damage?"

"Absolutely!" said Penny. "I've even succeeded at curing total waist-down paralysis before. I'd be delighted to assist you with your impairment. However, things like this require precision and I'm afraid that without access to scans of what I'm attempting to heal, failure is almost guaranteed."

"I'll call my doctor and get copies of my MRI pictures as soon as we're back in Vale!" Ruby had a newfound hopeful glint in her eye that gave Weiss a warm feeling inside.

After finishing their dessert, Penny returned to the guest housing, alone for as long as her father was still preoccupied with whatever work the general had brought him to Atlas to do. Meanwhile, Weiss and Ruby ventured to the nearest commissary to do some shopping using the money Ironwood had given them in compensation for their lost luggage. They already had toiletries provided for them and didn't have to worry about food since they were getting free meals, but there were other things they needed such as preferred hair products, makeup, clothes that actually matched their usual styles other than what they'd been wearing when the plane went down, cookies (Ruby insisted this was a necessity), scroll chargers, and a few other things—the bare minimum needed to maintain their normal lifestyles while on this disaster of a vacation.

Even when that was done, they still had several hours to kill. Weiss surprised Ruby when she suggested they go outside and do some sparring, but the girl was all for it. Perhaps it might have been sensible to give up on learning hand-to-hand combat considering Weiss was so bad at it and they were no longer planning on invading a criminal's secret hideout, but she still remembered how she'd felt on the day she'd gotten her scar and how Neo had humiliated her at the warehouse. She never wanted to be a damsel in distress again. She'd never be on the same level as Pyrrha Nikos, but she'd be kicking herself in her old age—assuming she lived that long—if she hadn't at least managed to match Jaune. This type of skill wouldn't save her life against whoever had sabotaged that plane, but she'd be glad to have it sooner or later.

By the time dinner came around, Weiss wasn't feeling too bad about her performance despite her recent lack of practice. Perhaps it had something to do with going up against Ruby rather than the training bot. The machine was almost too perfect, but at the same time too inflexible. In the end, it was just repeating the same pre-programmed movements as needed and not actually fighting you. She understood now what Jaune meant when he talked about it not being as good as a real mentor. Even just squaring up against someone like Ruby who was still inexperienced herself made a noticeable difference.

"You need more muscle," Harriet had said when she'd spotted them while walking by. "Hit the gym. Get some meat on those skinny little arms of yours. You can have more speed and agility than your opponent, but it won't matter if you don't have the strength to actually take them down—by the looks of it, you don't have any of the three."

Weiss tried not to let the comment cut too deep, though she knew the detective had a point. She'd always sported a rather petite figure, which was optimal for things like dancing and ice skating. This? Not so much. Maybe she should look into building up a bit more tone when they got back to Vale. Yoga was fine and convenient since she could do it at home, but she didn't push herself too hard with it and other forms of exercise would probably get her there faster. She'd consider asking Ruby how she'd gotten so deceptively strong.

Besides the dig at Weiss's physique, Harriet did have a few tips for the both of them before leaving them be, which proved helpful. She seemed far more experienced in this regard than Jaune, who was competent though not remarkable.

After a shower and some dinner, night had fallen and it was time for Weiss to see her father for the first time in a year. Clover assigned a couple of lower-ranking soldiers to escort her to the prison instead of Marrow. It was a long drive, made longer by her dread for what was coming conflicting with her desire to hurry up and get this over with.

Ruby had asked her why she was going and what she expected to get out of this. Weiss hadn't been able to give her a satisfying answer. All she knew was that she couldn't so readily go the rest of her life not caring whether her father lived or died. He didn't deserve her sympathy, and he'd never earned her love. Weiss should just cut him out of her life and stop letting him hold a permanent space in her mind, but it wasn't that simple. You can't just write off your own flesh and blood as irredeemable that easily. After all he'd done, he was still her father. Maybe his time in a cell had changed him; maybe experiencing his own punishment allowed him to regret that which he inflicted on others. Deciding if she was going to forgive him should wait until she saw for her own eyes whether he was making an effort to deserve it.

Atlas Supermax was a veritable fortress. It stood outside the edge of the city and consisted of a trio of square buildings a few hundred feet wide, each one taller than the last. They were colloquially known as the "Little Sister," the "Middle Child", and the "Big Brother". An outer wall connected two dozen guard towers that were manned day and night, surrounding both the prison as well as a stretch of empty land with a mile-long radius. Anyone who spent even a second looking at the facility knew that it was designed by people who had the wrong definition of the word "correctional".

The Big Brother housed most of the lesser inmates and was also where the offices of the warden and other senior staff were located. The Middle Child was the best of three evils, having the least terrible accommodations and also playing host to most of the recreational programs—if you had to serve time in Atlas Supermax, you'd be praying to get assigned here. The final building was deceiving. Despite being the shortest of the three, it also contained a large underground section where all the semblance-inhibiting chambers were built. The absolute worst of the worst criminals in all of Remnant were sent to live out their sentences in The Little Sister, paragon or not.

The Middle Child was the only one Weiss had ever been inside, and she'd prefer it stay that way. She hadn't felt comfortable for a single second even in the minimum security prisons in Vale, and the majority of those inmates had been minor offenders. Just approaching this facility was enough to start her skin crawling, and she knew it wouldn't stop until they were back outside the perimeter and well on their way back to the city. There was a scene in the series finale of Warriors of Grimm where the warriors rode toward the Grimm Queen's stronghold, all knowing what unspeakable horrors awaited them inside. Seeing the three towers loom over Weiss as the van got nearer instilled a very similar feeling of anxiety that she'd felt when watching that episode as a child, afraid for the lives of all her favorite characters. She knew nothing too traumatizing would happen—it was a kid's show, after all—but that didn't alleviate the tension.

Finally, what Weiss had come to Atlas for could wait no longer. Weiss and her two bodyguards exited the vehicle and entered the Middle Child. The building's head of security awaited them inside and escorted them to the elevator and then to the infirmary. Weiss had never been in this far before as the visitation center was on the ground floor. Now that she had, she could safely say that every floor was practically identical—long hallways, gray walls, white lights, and the occasional window in the shape of a long rectangle, just short enough so that no human could fit through it even if they did manage to break the glass and cut away the security wire. It was all equally depressing no matter where you went within the facility.

The infirmary itself was no different. The beds were all bolted to the floor with cuffs to restrain the patient's hands and feet. Three were obscured by curtains, and behind one of them lay Weiss's father.

The soldiers assigned to Weiss's protection waited back by the entrance while the head of security walked her to the occupied bed at the far end of the room, pulling the curtain aside to reveal a face that immediately triggered many conflicting emotions within Weiss.

"Finally come back to bask in your poor father's misfortune, have you?" said Jacques Schnee. "Or was your previous claim that you wouldn't give a damn about what happens to me in here just another broken promise?"

A/N: Credit to my beta readers: Bardothren and I Write Big. They're great writers who are a huge help with making this story as good as it can be.