Penny awakened to chaos. There were data streams and a cacophony of voices. She could not discern individuals, but it was obvious that the same theme resounded throughout: Panic. She tried to reach out to camera feeds, scroll links, anything to make sense of what she was seeing and hearing. Every attempt was met with resistance. Each time she moved to grasp a stream, it eluded her.

After several fruitless moments of this, she chose instead to observe, reading the raw data. It took her several minutes to find a common denominator. It only showed in some of them, but once she knew what to look for, she could see it: Tendrils of red code threading into the streams before spreading. What was going on? It was malignant, it was wrong.

What was the point of this thing? Moving within the network, Penny tried to understand what it was doing. Whatever that goal might be, it was spreading at an alarming rate. She needed to find a stream that hadn't been overtaken. Seconds ticked away before she found one. A young man was shouting about being trapped on a roof, Grimm crawling up the side. The red code was getting closer, but Penny thought there might be time. She initiated a remote probe and masked it into the carrier wave. There was little she could do for the man in her current state. If she had a physical presence, of course she would help him. This form was purely digital though – no swords, no limbs. All she could do was watch and hope that help would find him.

The red code struck at the helpless man's link. The probe relayed data much more slowly than before, but it became clear what was happening. The code was a virus. It was trying to subvert as much of the Vale CCT as it could. Then it would spread to the Mistral Network and every node in between. 'Oh no it won't!' Penny thought. She might not be able to help these people, but she could do something about the virus. She severed the connection to the probe.

She fled down the routing pathways to the CCT primary frame. The probe had relayed the attack vector that the virus operated on. She insinuated herself into these ports and created layers of firewall countermeasures. It seemed so simple, and she worried that it might not be enough. The virus had overwhelmed to transmission tower, but it needed the primary frame to complete it's path to Mistral. At least she hoped that was; she was investing part of herself into this. The tendrils of red crept closer. Penny was not afraid.

Ruby stood quietly, staring out the window of the Striker's right – starboard side. The fires were still burning down in the city below. She should be down there, helping fight the Grimm, or tracking down the White Fang, or any of a hundred things that needed doing. People were dying, and all she could do was sit there. She felt angry. The right side of her face ached, and she grimaced and rubbed the tender flesh beneath the bandages gingerly.

It had been seven days since she'd been injured; seven days since she'd lost her eye. Yang lay in the bed behind her. She sighed and returned to the chair on the far side, sitting down. It wasn't good to dwell on things she couldn't control, her father would say. There had still been no word about them. He and Qrow had taken Weiss and Blake outside the kingdom, tracking Cinder and Adam. Yang still had yet to wake up from her comatose state. It was all so frustrating. She reached out a hand to grasp her sister's, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"We're going to fix this, Yang. I'm going to fix this. I don't know how, yet, but I'm not giving up." It wasn't her imagination when she felt Yang's hand clench lightly in response. The doctor said it was a reflex, but it still gave Ruby hope. She let go and turned the chair back to the workbench. General Ironwood had been good to his word, giving Ruby access to materials and technical specifications so she could work on her project. Ruby was sure that he had done it to give her something to focus on while she recovered enough for surgery.

She wasn't terribly keen on the idea, but after listening to him talk about his own recovery, she was willing to try General Ironwood's suggestion. It was experimental, and the risks were minimal. Polly had said that It would be another day or two before she was healed enough to begin the procedure. In the meantime, Ruby occupied herself by taking the parts available in the armory. There was still some fine tuning needed for the mecha-shift, but she was pleased with the results of her efforts.

The arm she had been provided with for Yang's replacement had been so simple. Oh sure, it was the very best that Atlas had to offer, but she knew Yang, and she knew room for improvement when she saw it. What sat on the table amid gears and bolts and tools was the result of several days and a few trips to the machine bay to have parts custom welded. The arm was similar to the ones found on the Atlesian Knight 200 series. Articulated fingers, wrist and elbow joints would give Yang all the range of motion she'd had before. It was there that the similarity ended.

Where the casing had been white, Ruby had replaced it with Fire Dust-reinforced steel polycarbide. The joints between the plates were green-hued carbon monopolymer, which would keep the plates from crumpling against one another from the heavy impacts that Yang would deliver. Reaching into the cavity where her sister's arm would go, she brushed the contact with her aura to activate the Dust Cell. The gaps between the plates luminesced with a green light.

Satisfied that power was filtering to all parts of the limb, Ruby closed the fingers into a fist and gave it a little shake. Plates around the wrist and forearm retracted and Ember Celica unfolded to surround the arm. She was especially proud of this design; she had helped Yang construct her original gauntlets. Forging had never been Yang's best subject, and Ruby had been absolutely thrilled when Yang asked for her input.

This design was cycle-fed, rather than requiring a manual belt feed, though it could still do that when necessary. The arm itself would hold up to thirty shells. She had otherwise left the original form and function of Ember Celica alone. Yang was used to a certain amount of recoil, and would have enough trouble adjusting to the arm as it was. Ruby knew her sister could do it, but it was going to be a lot of hard work.

Ruby had some concerns about the weight, so she tried to compensate by adding sensors that would increase output to the motors that operated the elbow mechanism. The arm was separated from the rest of the rig, which Ruby intended to focus on finishing today.

The shoulder mount had started as a harness, but as she worked, it made more sense to add plates and padding for reinforcement. By the time Ruby had finished with the design, the back plate would extend halfway down, but was arranged in overlapping plates. Yang did a lot of backflips and cartwheels when she was fighting, and would need the freedom to do that.

The front plate had been more challenging. Yang was very particular about her look, and Ruby had done her best to imagine what Yang might want. She had settled on a half cuirass that would still allow her sister to bend as needed. The only trouble Ruby had run into was how to shape it so that it didn't chafe. She worked for nearly an hour with a torch and hammer, occasionally moving to hover the piece over Yang's chest to gauge how much more adjustment was needed. Once Ruby was satisfied that it was right, she set it aside for polishing and engraving. Weiss had promised to help her with that when they returned. The only thing left was to decide on a shoulder piece. She was looking at her sketches when the door hissed open.

"Good morning, Ruby," General Ironwood greeted her as he walked in. Ruby set aside her sketches and stood, turning to face him.

"Oh! Good morning General!" Ruby was always nervous around the man. She knew that he was kind, but, well, his name suggested he could be what Yang referred to as a 'hard case'. He walked over to where Ruby had been working, looking at the fruits of her labor with mild interest.

"That's really something, Ruby. You have a gift for this sort of thing, it would seem." Ruby's cheeks reddened and she clasped her hands in front of her chest.

"You really think so? It's not too wild?" James laughed gently and laid a hand on her shoulder, looking at her sideways.

"We may be all about uniforms and military precision in Atlas, but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate fine works of art." Ruby blushed even deeper at his praise. "Sometimes form is just as important as function." Ruby cast about, desperate to change the subject, before the embarrassment killed her.

"Did you come to talk about the surgery, sir?" General Ironwood shook his head in a firm negative. He dropped his hand to clasp it with the other behind his back as he turned to face her directly.

"You know that we've been trying to restore Penny." It wasn't a question. Ruby must have been seen sneaking peeks into the robotics lab – the one room she had been asked to stay away from. She looked down at her boots and nodded in wordless shame. He sighed patiently, and Ruby expected to be chastised for snooping. She and her sister were guests on board the Striker, but she still hoped to see Penny again someday. "It's alright, Ruby. I know the two of you are friends. I hadn't wanted her to get too attached to anyone here. She is Atlas military property, after all." Ruby's eyebrows drew down at that, and she glared up at him.

"That's a horrible thing to say, sir! She's a person not one of your–" General Ironwood splayed his hands out, warding off what must have been a frequent argument, if the look of resigned patience on his face was anything to judge.

"Take it easy, Ruby. Of course, Penny is a person. But the fact remains that the Atlesian government and military invested significant resources in Doctor Polendina's research. It was agreed upon by everyone." Ruby could not believe what she was hearing. Her glower only deepened.

"Did Penny agree to it, too, sir?" The general's features darkened, but there was humor in his eyes.

"Yes, as a matter of fact." Ruby was shocked by the response. "It was always the understanding that Penny would eventually have as much autonomy as anyone in the military, more, even, as a Huntress – when she was ready." Ruby started to object, but he stalled her with a firm hand. "Ruby, it is commendable that you want to argue for your friend, and it speaks volumes of your character – both as a Huntress and as a person. That is not, however, the reason for my visit today." He paused for a moment, giving Ruby an inquiring look that mollified her; her gaze went back to the floor. "I think you might be able to help her." Ruby's eye flew wide as her head jerked up to look at him.

"Really?! Right now?" James nodded somberly. Ruby turned and started to dash away, but pulled up short. She returned to Yang's bedside and leaned over, curling her fingers around her sister's hand. "I'll be back in a little while, Yang." General Ironwood had moved to the door and stepped outside. Ruby brushed her fingers through Yang's tangle of hair one last time before turning to join the general in the hallway.

When the door had closed behind them, he reached into his jacket and handed Ruby a red card. "This will give you access to the lab, Ruby. Sargent Carmine and Coral are waiting for you. I trust you know the way?" Ruby nodded emphatically. She took the card and disappeared down the hallway in a burst of rose petals. James could only shake his head. Ah, to be young.

Ruby practically flew through the corridors and down stairs, shouting a rushed 'sorry!' as she scattered paperwork of a passing airman, who shook his fist at the now vanished blur. She arrived at the door to the robotics lab less than two minutes after leaving the general. She waved the card in front of the reader several times, trying not to vibrate through the deck while she waited for the door to slide open.

When she stepped inside, she was astounded by the sight that greeted her. The room wasn't very big, but the wall to her right was almost entirely covered with multiple displays. Each one held different batches of code. Some scrolled by while others remained static, prompts flashing at the end. The monitors didn't hold Ruby's attention for very long.

Penny lay on an inclined table in front of the screens. Her eyes were closed, and there was a bundle of cables were draped over her right shoulder, snaking up behind her neck. She walked over to the table slowly and reached out a hand to touch Penny on her left shoulder. "Penny?" A man cleared his throat, causing Ruby to turn around.

The left side of the room held shelves filled with books and tubs, a workbench and a blank patch of wall that held neatly organized tools. Just in front of it sat a pair of consoles. At one sat a man, and a woman stood next to the other.

"Penny is in a diagnostic mode right now," he said. "She can't see or hear anything for the moment." Ruby moved toward them. He wore the standard uniform, minus the helmet. His hair was a neatly trimmed dark brown, and his eyes were red like her Uncle Qrow's. He was clean shaven, and he had a toothy grin as she approached. The dark circles under his eyes told Ruby that he had spent many a sleepless night, probably in this very room.

His counterpart, by contrast, was nothing like him. She had bone white hair with blue streaks pulled back into a severe braid. She wore a simple white jacket that held no rank or insignia, a small belt of precision tools were wrapped around her left arm. Her eyes where such a dark brown that they almost didn't look real. She held a scroll tablet across one arm, which was opened to some sort of console.

"Um… Hi," she said. "General Ironwood said you thought I could help?" She curled her fingers into half fists and raised them, uncertain of where else to begin. She had seen Penny a few times since they had put her back together. She had tried not to be sad when she realized that Penny didn't remember her, but it had been impossible to hide her tears. Penny wasn't able to comprehend Ruby's reaction, and had been ushered away each time it had happened.

"Hello," Coral replied. "We've been working to restore Penny's long-term memory, without much success." She pointed to a tall cabinet with lots of wires and blinking lights. "Unfortunately, the cluster was heavily damaged during the incident. There have been recovery prog-"

"Just show her, will you?" Sargent Carmine interrupted. He had tilted his head sideways at Coral in consternation, but he also wore a rueful smirk. Coral scowled and tapped a few keystrokes onto the tablet.

"Penny has some sort of cognitive loop that we can't break through. General Ironwood thinks you might know what's going on." She pointed at Penny's table, and Ruby turned to watch. The table's armature hummed and moved Penny into an upright position. The girl's eyes had opened, and she was staring forward with a blank look. She held up both hands, palm up and stared down at them for a few moments, closing and opening them twice. Then she looked up and turned her head slowly to one side, and then the other. She repeated the series of gestures several times before Ruby understood what she was seeing.

She returned to stand in front of Penny and waited for the right moment. When Penny closed her hands, she reached up and opened them for a moment before closing them again. "Of course you are." Penny locked her eyes with Ruby's, which had teared up. "You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than me?" Her voice broke on the last word, but Penny seized both of Ruby's wrists in a firm grip.

"Ruby! I – " she cut off and leaned to the side so she could address the two Atlesians. Her eyes had turned to a glowing red. "Could we have just a minute to talk, please?" Ruby didn't turn to look, but heard Coral mutter something un-ladylike.

"Is she kicking us out?" Carmine cleared his throat and tried not to laugh when he answered.

"I believe she just did. You have to admit, she did ask nicely, didn't she?" Coral sputtered. "Come on, let's get some coffee." The two rose and left the room without further comment.

"Penny, are you okay?" Ruby asked once they had gone.

"Ruby, my friend," she started. "Something awful happened. I don't remember what, but I had this plan in case something went wrong. I don't have much time to record this." Ruby had clenched her hands around Penny's wrists. "I wanted to stay at Beacon, so I talked to Headmaster Ozpin about my plan. There's a module in the Beacon CCT cluster. That's where I am, but I must be stuck."

Ruby stared at her friend in shock. How was such a thing even possible? Was Penny not right here in front of her? She found herself feeling frustrated at not knowing more about how Penny worked. It hadn't mattered to her when Penny was whole, but now it did, apparently.

"Can you come and get me, Ruby?"

A/N - Sorry about the Yang interlude! I had to get continuity established; the story should be more focused on Penny going forward.