Penny was nothing. Nothing but an abstract shape floating in a familiar and near senseless void. She had been here once before, back when her father—no, Arthur—rebuilt her after her dismemberment at Amity. Unlike back then, Penny did not want to leave. Not ever. She just wanted to sink further into the void, rip out all of the rage and doubt and regret thrashing about her core, and let her unburdened soul dissolve in this egoless space. Maybe then, she would be free—but she needed to truly become nothing first. As her Aura levels dropped exponentially, the literal weight of her soul diminishing by the millisecond, Penny knew it wouldn't be much longer now.

Unfortunately, every now and again, some of reality would flicker through the void and remind Penny that she was feeling pain for the very first time. Absolute, inescapable pain. At least until Emerald's semblance took hold, and ushered her sensors back to safe nothingness. With her assistance, the pain only surfaced in short waves, cresting and crashing and ebbing away before Penny could make sense of it. The trickles that did manage to pour through the gaps, though, were more than enough for Penny to form a first impression:

She didn't like it. Not one bit.

To think, when she first discovered Ruby's—Emerald's—semblance, she had been so excited to tackle sensations for the very first time.

Not anymore.

She wished she could just feel numb again. She should've stayed numb and in her place where she belonged. She had been wrong to want more—wrong to want what real girls had. Wrong to feel warm, or soft, or cradled—she had been wrong to feel anything at all.

The longer the procedure went on, the deeper Penny fell into the void, and the more detached she became from her current vessel. Even Cricket was having trouble staying afloat as power cells faded and fluctuated, burning through system crash after system crash. The line separating Penny from Cricket became fuzzy and, at the worst possible time, Penny was in control of her body again—only when it became impossible to move it in the first place. Not that she wanted to anyway. There was nowhere for her to go.

It wasn't just her software failing. Circuits burst and servos snapped under the weight of the coffin lid closing down on her, fracking her Core for all the Aura it could distill at once. Penny's original hardware hadn't been built to withstand an Aura removal like this. She didn't think this current body had been built for it either. Not properly, at least. That was a good thing. It meant her body would break down faster. Maybe Salem wouldn't be able to rebuild her a third time, if her core broke beyond salvage.

It was a tragically comforting thought, that she might never wake up again.

I'm not okay, Penny thought suddenly. But I'm ready.

With another push from Emerald's semblance, her mind was sent tumbling back to the void… but she wasn't alone this time. A single star, distant and hazy, pierced through the darkness. It warbled and stretched, the sharp edges of celestial light reaching out for Penny like streaks of lightning. Or, no… not lightning, not exactly. Colors and shape solidified more clearly as the not-lightning strayed closer, shades of brown and rough textures twisting together into something more… organic.

Are those… tree roots?

What little Aura remained in her chest yearned to be free, to be as untethered as stardust. Penny didn't know how, but she knew those roots were the key. She reached out for their embrace, drawn towards a faint yet gentle voice calling out to her. Just a little farther, past the event horizon—

"PENNY!" Emerald's scream tore the starlight apart, ripping through the tree roots like a hacksaw. "Don't you dare die on me, robo-girl!"

Penny blinked, and she wasn't floating in space anymore. She wasn't even in her coffin. She was on the ground, the servos in her limbs twitching, as she took in her surroundings.

The workshop was even more of a mess than herself. Smoking machinery, crumpled masonry, a statue of Salem in the corner, the glass shards of broken monitors—

Wait.

Before Penny could analyze that discrepancy further, Emerald shook her by the shoulders. "Penny, we gotta go. Now." Emerald flinched, covering her ears like someone was shouting in them. "I'll grab her next, give me a fucking second!"

Still dazed, Penny could only nod her head lamely and stumble to her feet, even as Emerald dragged her forward. Though she felt more coherent, the pixels in her HUD were fuzzy, and darkening around the edges. Everything seemed dimmer, and moving too fast for Penny to keep up with—

And then she caught sight of Ruby crumpled on the floor, and none of those problems mattered in the slightest.

"RUBY!" If she wasn't already being led in Ruby's direction, she would've torn herself free of Emerald's grip. The distorted image of Ruby lying there, unmoving and pale and thin—why was she so thin? "Is she okay? She has to be okay." Her eyes flickered on and off as her anxiety escalated. Worse, her photoreceptors were too damaged to lock onto Ruby's biometrics. It was like that time she almost killed 'Ruby' all over again. She certainly felt just as powerless.

Emerald lightly tapped Ruby's face a few times, Penny almost shorting out and shutting down as she took longer and longer to respond. But then Ruby whined, and it was the most comforting noise Penny had heard all morning. Perhaps in her entire life.

"Nose goes, please," Ruby said groggily, wiping at her face as she stirred awake. There was some sort of residue crusted over her eyelids, like fine grains of black sand. Otherwise, though, Ruby looked okay.

Ruby was okay.

"I don't know what that means, but get the fuck up, brat!" Emerald yoinked Ruby by her grimy cloak, the faded red fabric tattered and stained with that same strange dust. "We don't have time for this!"

Ruby blinked, awareness peeking through the muck. "Where—Penny?" Silver broke through black and latched onto green. She refused to look away. "Is that really you?" She cocked her head, looking Penny up and down. "You look… blonde."

Penny could barely keep herself upright, but she still flushed. How could Ruby recognize her so easily in this skin? "It is—"

The castle shook, some of the floor erupting as stone and machinery sunk into a massive hole right behind them. Penny's sensors were even more damaged than she thought, to not notice the sinkhole stretching through the workshop. Most of the 'mannequins' had already fallen inside, and Penny winced in sympathy. At least her fellow puppets wouldn't be in pain anymore.

But above the wailing screech of churning stone, something else was groaning louder and louder, pressure building up like the tension before an explosion. Penny followed the sound, and found the Salem statue, its surface trembling with seismic activity. The sinkhole swallowed the screaming statue whole, red light pouring from cracks forming around the eyes—

Revealing the still white and pulsing flesh beneath.

Penny didn't hesitate to run after seeing that. None of them did (aside from Ruby, who briefly doubled back to collect her weapon, Crescent Rose).

Penny tripped as Emerald yanked her forward, but, honestly, she probably would have tripped even without Emerald being rough. Her legs weren't moving as they should, clinking with a bell-like chime as something inside her knee joints bent the wrong way. Even so, despite Penny slowing them down, all three of them were making a steady pace through the halls towards wherever Emerald was leading them—

[System Error corrected; Cricket Online. Reestablishing Asset PENNY override.]

Penny's circuits turned against her. Limbs locked up, reprogrammed with new purpose.

[Repositioning Asset to pre-configured area.]

No, not again!

Penny's heels dug into the floor, throwing Emerald off her stride. Before Cricket took full control, Penny quickly said, "I'm sorry, it's taking over again—" But that was all she could say before her voice cut out.

As Penny was forced back down the hallway, set on a rigid course back towards the ego-death she had just miraculously escaped from, Emerald tried blocking her path. She pushed against Penny's chest, heaving her lungs as she reinforced her arms with Aura. Yet Cricket pressed on anyway, inching forward slower than before, but with just as much finality.

Ruby, who was here and alive and shivering, just gaped at Penny from the sidelines. "Penny? What's happening? Why are your eyes like that?"

Penny had no power to answer her. She had so many things to say to Ruby, so many things she still wanted to confess—

Emerald suddenly stepped out of Cricket's path, and Penny feared she might've given up. Instead, Emerald hit herself on the forehead. "I'm so fucking stupid," she said quietly. "Cricket, deactivate."

Cricket froze, its cancerous code going still at Emerald's command. It replied, "Acknowledged, User Emerald Sustrai. Cricket shutting down."

And so Cricket complied. Instantly and without preamble, Cricket shut down.

Before Penny could fully wrestle back her autonomy, Emerald pushed her forward again. "Let's go, chop chop!"

Penny was still reeling at how easily Cricket was… silenced. "You could do that this whole time?"

"I forgot, okay? Fuck!" Emerald darted down another passageway. "Just a little farther to the landing bay. We should still have an airship or two to get the hell out of here… probably."

"Probably?" Ruby said, struggling to run as she held her hands over her stomach. Was she sick? "You didn't check first?"

"This was very sudden, okay? You have any brighter ideas, Red?"

"Uh—" Silence. Awkward silence.

Unanimously, Emerald's plan remained unchallenged.

As they came around another bend, Penny's vision shrunk even more, barely filling the center of her HUD. But even she could see the Grimm Seers congregating ahead of them. Each one of the wriggling monsters turned at their approach, tentacles writhing uproariously to a shrill scream. Even with Salem petrified, her Grimm were just as responsive to their Queen's will. The Seers closed off their escape, surrounding them on both ends of the hall.

Ruby shifted Crescent Rose to its scythe form. "I've got this!" She hoisted her partner by its hilt—

And promptly fell on her butt, arms wobbling as Crescent Rose clattered to the ground. "Nevermind, I don't got this."

Emerald backed away slowly, reaching at her hips for her revolvers, but swore when her hands clasped around nothing. She barked at Ruby, "Can't you do your silver-eyed bullshit thing again? Just flash them already!"

Ruby blinked at the Seers really, really hard, but nothing happened. "I think I have a cooldown or something! I don't know how this works—"

"How can you not know, they're your eyes!"

"It's not like there's a flipping instruction manual! Why are you even helping us anyway? Aren't you with Salem?"

Penny's vision flickered off again, the flailing electricity in her body reaching a point of criticality. She didn't know how much longer she could walk by her own strength alone. She could barely maintain her voice without static. "I don't think now is the optimal time to—"

One of the Seers struck out first, a barbed tendril raking towards Ruby's face. She rolled under it, just barely dodging the attack, but clenched her arms around her ribs anyway. She bit back a groan of pain. "Something… hurts." Her words came out in a thunderous rasp, some of the Seers trembling at the sound.

But they did not stop their advance as they all struck again as one.

Penny couldn't dodge like Ruby had—her motor control was hobbled and deteriorating by the minute. She couldn't even bend her fingers accurately, much less take evasive maneuvers. As a result, two—no, four—no seven tentacles whipped towards Penny, wrapping around her and hoisting her into the air. Each Seer fumbled momentarily to alter their positions around her body, like they were debating how best to carry her like luggage.

"Fuck it—Oz!"

There was a brief flash of green light, followed quickly by a series of gunshots. One by one, the Seers accosting Penny popped like balloons, bursting into pustules of Grimm ash. Without their aerial support, Penny dropped unceremoniously with a resounding crack. Despite something clearly breaking, her HUD did not alert her with a single diagnostic message.

That is bad.

Glancing up, Penny could make out the hazy image of Emerald wielding Crescent Rose in both hands, blasting off the remaining Seers as they scattered for reinforcements. When the Seers fully retreated, Emerald looked down at Penny… though, Penny was certain it wasn't 'Emerald' who spoke next.

"Miss Polendina. Apologies for the lack of pleasantries," Professor Ozpin said casually, shifting Crescent Rose to its more compact form. "But we really must be going now."

Penny could not agree more. She pressed her palms against the floor, pushing herself up to her feet—

And almost fell over again, as one of her knee joints refused to bend. She looked at both Ruby and (Oz)merald expectantly. "A little help?"

Soon, Penny was smushed between the bumping shoulders of both girls, limping with the one leg she could bend as they all careened around passageway after passageway.

Ruby was still having trouble with her own body, dry heaving like she was about to throw up. That didn't stop her from asking, "Can someone please tell me what just happened?"

Penny tried to answer, but (Oz)merald beat her to it. "All in due time, Miss Rose. First, let us secure our exit strategy."

Ruby's jaw dropped so hard, she almost stopped running. "Pr-professor Ozpin!? What the heck—" But then she really did stop running, falling to her knees as something black and viscous erupted from her mouth. Penny couldn't make out what it was entirely, not with the colors still fading from her HUD, but she detected a trace of movement, like something was squirming inside the vomit.

What… is that?

Wordlessly and pale-faced, Ruby started running again, helping Penny forward. Though Penny was concerned for her health, now wasn't the time. Not until they were free.

Fortunately, they reached outside the castle, where Penny could indeed see the blurry silhouette of a Valean bullhead. Feeling both (Oz)merald and Ruby pick up the pace, Penny frantically hopped her one working leg in solidarity.

They were going to make it!

Just as they were about to reach the airship's doors, (Oz)merald came to a stop and patted their pockets. "Shit!" (Oz)merald said, or perhaps because it sounded more like Emerald, it would be more accurate to call them (Em)pin? "Anyone have something sharp and small—"

But then a Nevermore dropped from the sky—

And crashed straight into the bullhead.

Both Grimm and airship exploded into flames, the mere force of the blast knocking all three of them against an adjacent pillar of violet-black crystal. The impact cracked something else in Penny's body, but that was the farthest thing from Penny's mind as she blearily stared up at the maroon horizon of Evernight, and felt her newly sprouted bud of hope wither.

The sky was blotted black with Grimm. Too distant to make out, and too many to count. The siren howls of Beowolves in the distance didn't help either. This was it. There was no escaping Salem's grasp over her favorite doll.

Penny would never be free from her strings.

Before the Grimm could drag her away, she desperately searched for Emerald and Ruby, hoping she could say her last goodbyes to them while her voice still belonged to her and her alone.

Somehow, Emerald found her first. She had one arm around Ruby's shoulder, and slung the other around Penny's. Both Emerald's and Ozpin's voices reverberated in unison:

"Petal Burst!"

And before Penny could process what they were doing, she was swept into a flurry of rose petals, and vanished.

Emerald had little to say when moving at terminal velocity. She had little to think either, as she felt her fucking atoms splitting at the seams, held together only by the feeble threads of Aura zipping between each molecule like the synapses between brain cells. She couldn't tell which way was up or down, left or right, alive or dead, or her or Ozpin.

So, yeah… Ruby's semblance was a trippy ride.

After either minutes or eons, the Aura holding her together burnt itself out, running on empty. Instead of all of her cells exploding outward with nothing to hold them together, she materialized into a groaning heap on the ground, scraping her forehead against a particularly sharp rock. "Fuck!" The pain shocked her back to reality, where she could see both Penny and Ruby in similar predicaments nearby, flopped onto the ground facefirst.

At least we're all in one piece.

She winced as she brushed her hand against her forehead, fingers slick with blood and dirt.

Well… mostly.

Emerald stood up shakily, stumbling a few dozen times before she got used to having legs again. She looked around, finding herself on a jagged stone outcropping of some kind. Over the crest of one rock, the ground dropped almost at a ninety degree angle. So they were on a cliff or mountain or something. Just how far had they… [Petal Burst]?

"By my estimate, at least fifty, maybe even sixty miles," Ozpin answered.

Emerald sputtered. Holy fuck—miles? Where was that kinda speed in the tournament?

Ozpin was quick to rise to his student's defense. "To be fair, her semblance was running on three Aura users at once—as battered as most of us are. And with the Grimm Ichor dampening her Aura use until that moment… well, we practically broke a dam with how much Aura flooded out at once." Ozpin paused. "Though, admittedly, I don't remember her semblance working quite like… that." That being code for a bad acid trip. "It must have evolved since Beacon."

Yeah, no shit. Though, that was a neat trick they pulled off. What had Oz called it again?

"Forced semblance activation." Ozpin sighed. "I was hoping not to reveal that trick in front of Salem until a more opportune time, but, considering the circumstances… I felt it was necessary."

Forced semblance activation. Huh. Salem did say something about Oz being the original source of humanity's semblances…

But that was a discussion for after they got out of this mess. As much distance as they were from the castle, they were still stranded in the wastes of Evernight for gods' sake. Nothing but Grimm territory for hundreds and hundreds of miles, stretched across the entire lost continent. Emerald didn't even know which direction they had [Petal Burst] from, much less how far it would take to… to…

Reach the coastline. With no ships at their disposal, air-worthy or otherwise. A potential journey of a thousand miles in any random ass direction, all so they could reach towards a dead end.

We're absolutely fucked.

"Not necessarily," Oz mused. "We have other tricks at our disposal."

"Such as?"

"Magic."

Emerald scoffed. "What are you gonna do, turn us into birds?"

Ozpin became suspiciously quiet.

"...Holy shit is that an option?"

"It… is," Oz admitted reluctantly. "But it would use up most of our magic for the next century. Maybe if I had my cane, I could offset that cost a little, but that's not even the worst problem." He mentally nudged a muscle behind her eyes, pushing Emerald's focus towards Penny and Ruby, both still unmoving on the ground. "I don't think we'd be able to transform all of us. Especially not in their unstable conditions."

Great. Even a magic deus ex machina couldn't save them. Emerald would be willing to leave Ruby behind—

"Ahem!"

But she'd feel… conflicted about abandoning Penny in a ditch. So that was a non-starter. She and Oz would need more time to think about this. Unfortunately, time was not on their side. She could already see some flying Grimm in the distance, circling in their direction.

"Whatever. Shelter first, plan later." If Emerald was gonna hide them from the Grimm indefinitely, then she needed to let her Aura build back up. It took a moment of careful (read as rushed) investigation, but she managed to find a crevice in the mountainside that was both wide enough to fit all three of them, AND close enough to drag their bodies inside quickly. It wasn't much, especially since Grimm didn't need to see them to find them, but…

What else could she do?

After a while of standing guard, letting her Aura recharge (and letting Oz lead her through some breathing exercises to calm down and become less obvious of a Grimm snack), one of her fellow escapees sputtered awake.

"Emerald?" Penny's voice was barely audible, lost almost entirely in a wave of flat static. "Where are we?"

"A rock." That was the most accurate answer Emerald had. "Away from the castle, at least."

"That's good." Penny paused. "Is Ruby awake?"

"No." From a glance alone, Emerald could tell Ruby was in rough shape, and with good reason. Honestly, after that silver eye blast earlier, Emerald was surprised she didn't burn herself up with all the Grimm parts she had waving around. Cinder hadn't been half as lucky. "I don't think she's gonna wake up for a while, either."

"Are you sure?" Penny's voice cracked. "Could you try?"

"Try what?"

"Waking her, please."

Emerald didn't think that was a good idea, so she said as much. "I think the kid needs some rest—"

"I don't care," Penny snapped, eyes flickering red and yellow for a moment, before fading to a pale and apologetic green. "It-it's important."

Emerald still didn't think it was a good idea, but she tried anyway (for Penny's sake). "Yo, Red. Up and at 'em." She ruffled the kid's hair without care or patience, annoying Ozpin in the process. She could feel a twinge of his irritation when Ruby groaned, nestled her face against Emerald's outstretched hand—

And barfed all over it.

"Gods damnit." She wiped the sludge onto the crevice wall, breathing in and out to keep herself calm and neutral instead of pissed. Neutral devolved to sympathy when Ruby's whimpers escalated into a full blown coughing fit, hacking up clumps of wriggling Glimm sludge.

How much Grimm is still in there? Emerald couldn't help but wonder as she stroked Ruby's hair again, gently this time. What must that feel like?

She turned back to Penny with a sigh. "Sorry, but no dice. She's… she's not well."

"Oh. I see." Penny tilted her head, visibly cringing as she noticed the tar-like drool still dribbling from Ruby's chin. "I'm sorry," she croaked. "I'm so sorry for being selfish, Ruby." Her entire body trembled, but she did not stand up. "I just wanted to say goodbye."

Emerald froze. "Penny, what are you saying?"

"Arthur took too much out of me," Penny explained faintly, but Emerald heard every word as clearly as a gunshot. "My Aura levels aren't stabilizing. I… I can't even move." Her neck twitched as she tried to sit up, but her joints only creaked like rusty hinges. "I'm scared."

So was Emerald. Terrified, horrified, aghast—whatever word best described the creeping dread pumping through her veins like adrenaline. She converted that fear to power and floundered for solutions. "Don't you have, like, a power save mode?" Penny just needed to turn off for a bit, until they could find someone who could patch her up. Yeah, yeah that could work—

Penny shook her head, the weak gesture striking Emerald's stomach harder than a gavel. "My Aura isn't the same as my power supply. Shutting down won't help if my Core is failing." She stared flatly at the ceiling, dead-eyed and afraid. "I'm going to die again."

The blood in Emerald's ears was pounding so loud, she couldn't hear Ozpin if she tried. She couldn't go through this again. She refused to be the reason Penny died twice in a row. "J-just give me a second, I can think of something—"

"There's no time," Penny pressed. "I can feel a part of myself… slipping away." Some of the color drained from her eyes, the pixels inside going dark and fading fast. Even her voice sounded half-empty. "Don't let me die numb."

It took an agonizingly long time for Emerald to understand what she was asking. When she did, she lashed her Semblance towards Penny's mind with all the speed and desperation of a starving animal. "Tell me what you want to feel—use me, Penny, please!" Emerald had already failed to be useful to Cinder, when she needed her most—

She wouldn't fail Penny at her time of need. She deserved all the attention Emerald could give and then some.

"Hands," Penny asked quickly. "Yours and Ruby's."

Emerald had never yoinked someone's hand faster in her life. Done. Despite Ruby's unconscious protests (and clammy palms), Emerald clasped both their hands together and rested them against Penny's face. [Hallucinations] filled in the rest of the details.

Despite not needing to breathe, Penny sucked in her teeth, almost choking at the sensation. "She's so… cold," Penny said, a contrasting mix of both disappointment and awe. "I thought she'd be warm." She closed her eyes, desperately pressing her face against the skinship she craved so obviously. Rolling her cheeks between both hands, she said in a reverent yet hushed tone, "But it's nice to have choices again."

Emerald had already been pushing it, using her semblance so soon after her crash-landing with Ruby's. She'd barely had minutes to replenish it. Though she held onto the sensory illusion as long as she could, literally just passing along a feeling she was experiencing at that very moment—

Her Aura broke again, and [Hallucinations] broke with it. Penny's eyes flashed open, wide and wanting, but Emerald had nothing left to give. Nothing but the fresh tears in her eyes, and a million, blubbery, worthless apologies. "I-I tried to keep it up, I swear! Just give me another minute, I can do it again—"

Emerald's voice died when Penny opened her mouth to speak, her own words as garbled as radio interference. Emerald leaned closer, ready to fulfill any fucking request Penny had left, even if it hurt—

But Penny had no requests to be followed, no commands to be executed. She only said, with all the heart she had left to spare and share:

"Thank you."

Penny's eyes were already black and pixel-less before Emerald could swallow the sobs clawing up her throat. She hugged herself hard enough to bruise ribs, tight enough to leave herself breathless. The emotions she was feeling were far from positive, but avoiding Grimm was the last thing on her mind. In that tumultuous moment, filled only with her shaky, stifled cries, and Ruby's pained moaning—

She could hear Oz's voice again, as mock-reassuring and late as ever.

"There was nothing you could have done differently," he said, ignoring her ham-fisted insults. "But we will need to move again, and soon. We are likely the only human beings in this whole continent. Our despair is a beacon in this dark place. They will come for us."

Emerald wanted to flip him off, but she just nodded. If there was one thing she and Ozpin could agree on in this moment, it was securing their mutual survival. Yet, as she stood up slowly, feeling a barely perceptible splash of recovered Aura crest over her skin—

She sensed a third mind in the room.

So desperate to wish her first guess into reality, she almost broke her fragile Aura again with how quickly she tugged onto her semblance. She cackled feverishly as hope became fact:

Penny's mind was still kicking.

"It's just the body that shut down," Emerald said, utterly awestruck. "She's still here."

Oz, as always, ruined the moment. "But you heard what she said earlier, Emerald. Her Core is failing. What we are sensing is merely the Penny equivalent of her last breath. There's little else we can do."

Emerald scowled, but she wasn't giving up on her robo-girl just yet. Where there was a mind, there was a way. Her entire gimmick was messing with people's heads. She just had to find a way to trick Penny's into living again. And as Emerald heard the not-so-distant violent caw of a Nevermore… she suddenly had a rather crazy thought about birds.

Oz was already scrambling to push back against her insanity. "Emerald, please—"

"How do I do it?"

"Emerald, that won't work—"

"You don't know that!" Emerald snapped. "Magic. How do I do it?"

He had his reservations, but he lectured on anyway. "Without the proper circles or tools, the only method is focusing your intent towards a target, and hope it works."

Hope and intent, got it. Easy.

"But transmuting something from one state to another is not a parlor trick, Emerald! You need to have a grasp of its inner workings, down to the very chemical compounds at both the beginning and end of the transformation." Past lives flashed behind Emerald's eyes in an instant, centuries of failures and successes of magic works reduced to a petty slideshow. "And neither of us have a solid foundation in robotics—much less one of Penny's complexity."

Emerald nodded, understanding his point completely. "So… it probably won't work even if I try?"

"Precisely."

"Cool." Emerald cracked her knuckles. "Still doing it."

Ozpin sighed, already reaching the final state of grief. "I know."

Emerald crouched down, shakily taking Penny's rigid hands into her own. "You aren't going to stop me?"

"You'd never forgive me if I did," Oz pointed out (correctly). "And with Salem's machinations escalating as they have… I suppose I can't afford to be stingy any longer." He laughed darkly. "If living with you has taught me anything, it's to be a more proactive protagonist, instead of a complacent side character."

Fuck you, too, Oz. But also—

"Thank you," Emerald said softly. "Can you show me what to do?"

With only a thought, Emerald felt her soul brush up against Ozpin's. Like they had done during their fight against the Seers earlier, an understanding deeper than trust passed between them. Something old and predestined interweaving both their Auras and their minds. These strings that could only be called fate fell loose, leaving a fair gap of distance between both their souls. That distance shrunk as both Emerald and Ozpin reached together as one and plucked the cords of their inevitable destiny, pulling the magic free where it was trapped between them. The magic swelled from their chest, passed through their heart and up towards their shoulders, before it settled ravenously into their fingertips.

Even as they split back into she and he, Emerald could still feel the ancient weight of Ozpin's reluctance throbbing through her fingers. Even she hesitated to let the magic go, to let it form a wish that might not even come true. But the fading mind touch crackling behind Penny's chest made such hesitation disappear in an instant, a type of magic in its own right. A miracle waiting to open its eyes again, and be free.

Oz was right about one thing. Emerald had zero idea about what she was doing. She didn't know robotics, or even basic anatomy (beyond just a bunch of brain-related layman's terms). But her semblance was intuitive, even as she mixed it with the magic swelling inside her hands. It didn't matter if she understood what she was doing, or what her intent was supposed to be. She had no intention of deciding anything at all.

It was high time Penny made that choice for herself.

As the magic passed from her hands to Penny's, for the first time that Emerald had ever used her semblance—

She reached out with her power and made something real.