Chapter Text

Weiss had opened her eyes immediately as she heard the sound of the alarm on her scroll, instantaneously waking up from her short night sleep. She woke up early, finished packing some clothes and some other objects and made sure that Myrtenaster was well oiled and was filled with dust. Even if she was only going to Vacuo for some economic problems and to do some negotiations with a possible dust competitor to the SDC, she had some things she also wanted to take care. She sighed, packed the last of her stuff and left the mansion with Penny and her five men escort in tow, heading to the airfield.

"Captain Crimson, we will take my jet, not the company's. I want to fly undetected, in case of any White Fang attack."

The captain, wearing the regular Atlas uniform with dark markings nodded and took out his scroll, sending a message to someone, probably to make sure that the changes will be known at H.Q. Weiss entered first, went to one of the back seat and sat down, closed her eyes and quickly went back to sleep. She wasn't fond of flying, especially the take off part, so if she was able to skip that entire part of the flight, she would take the opportunity anytime. She however made sure to keep a folded piece of paper, a picture, in her hands, not wanting to let it go, no matter the cost. She quickly dozed off, rapidly heading in the world of dreams. When she finally woke up, an hour and a half later, she took a moment to observe what was happening around her.

Three soldiers, Carmen, the only women in her escort, Fawn, a large man that was as tall as Yatsuhashi on heels and Cerul, a man that was almost as small as Weiss, were playing a card game, another one, Coral, a tanned and laid back man, was cleaning their weapons and finally Crimson, the commanding officer, was talking on his scroll with someone, probably someone from Vacuo, maybe a police officer or even one of the investor that they were going to meet. In either case, it didn't really matter to Weiss. What mattered however, was the woman that was sitting at the front, near the pilot cabin. So Weiss stretched her arms slowly, yawned away the last bit of sleep and stood up. She made sure that she still had her picture in her hand, straightened her dress and walked slowly to the robotic girl at the font of the plane and sat down in front of her, still surprised, but at the same time happy to see her. They looked at each other, before Penny began to laugh softly, a smile creeping on her face.

"You must have a lot of question, haven't you Weiss my friend?" She said, giggling at the little nod Weiss gave her, unsure on how to answer. "When my body sustained fatal damage, my core went in survival mode, storing my aura in a secured container in my body, as well as uploading my memories and personality in the atlesian network, thus ensuring, technically, my survival if someone managed to get back my core. Which they did."

Weiss looked at Penny a long moment, lost in thought, unsure of the way that she should answer. She thought for a moment, thinking of more questions that she could come up with.

"Who... who found you? It must not have been an easy thing to do. The school and a lot of the areas surrounding the coliseum and the fair grounds was filled with grimms when I left." The heiress asked, impressed that someone actually managed to get in Vale, extract valuable equipment like Penny's... remain... and managed to get back to Atlas.

"It was Mister Onyx's squad. They are a group of specialists that are experts in quick and efficient long range missions in enemy territory. They are interesting persons, even if they don't talk much." The android answered, an innocent smile stuck in her face all the while she answered.

Weiss slowly nodded. So, she was retrieved by team OCHR (ochre), they were renowned hunters, or rather, specialists that were frequently send around the world, where Grimm activity was at its highest and most dangerous. In fact, it almost reminded the fame that team CFVY had at Beacon, except almost at an international level. She smiled and sighed, letting go of the breath she had kept during Penny's explanations. She smiled softly, but soon her smile disappear when the most important question that she had in mind was the next in her list of things she wanted to ask. She took a deep breath and looked at the ground, uncertain if she really wanted an answer.

"Penny" the heiress asked, low enough that any normal human would not have been able to hear it "What do you... remember before the moment of your... reactivation"

For a moment Penny looked surprised, but quickly sadness took over and, in an instant, Weiss felt guilty and almost asked Penny to forget what she said, but the android sighed as she looked out the window, not wanting to meet Weiss's eyes.

"I don't remember much. I know that I was friend with you, that I stopped a dust robbery that targeted the SDC at the Vale docks, and other details like those, but any memory that is not directly connected to Atlas or the military is a blur."

Tears were flowing on Weiss's face when Penny finally looked back at her and, in a fraction of a second, at a speed that would have made Ruby jealous, Weiss was besides Penny and hugging her, barely holding back her sobs, softly repeating "it's not fair". They stayed like this for a few moments, before Weiss went back to her seat. She smiled slightly and giggled as she realized just how out of character what she jut did was. She was never one to indulge in hugs or other demonstration of affection in public. It had slowly changed with her team, hugs here and there, telling each other secrets and things that worried each other from time to time, without making plans to use it against you later to gain political power over you, compliments far more frequently than she was used, but only in the confine of their dorm room. Maybe, just like her freedom, when you taste a little bit of friendship and human contact in your life, you just want more and more, even if you don't realize it at first.

A glimmer of mischief glowed in Weiss's eyes and she slowly crossed her arms, while Penny simply looked at her, unable to understand how she felt.

The heiress smiled and kept her eyes fixated on the robotic girl, as she began to speak. "Penny, could you please get in the SDC database and get me the report of the attack on the Vacuo outpost number 114 two weeks ago?"

Penny nodded, smiling, before frowning. She seemed to concentrate an instant, deep in thoughts. She closed her eyes as she began to fidget on her seat, terror spreading on her face. "Weiss, there's something wrong! I can't connect to the SDC network! I must have been -" she stopped when she saw the joy and excitement in Weiss's expression, a huge smile on her face.

"Can you turn off individual components of your system?"

"Weiss, I don't unders-"

"Can you or can you not manually disable your GPS chip?"

"I... I can, but Weiss, you have to tell me why!" Penny said, sounding more and mor alarmed, but also frightened by what was happening

Weiss laughed and clapped as tears began to flow freely once more from her eyes, happiness radiating from her as she revealed an heavily modified pistol hidden in the long sleeves of her traveling coat. Weiss was so happy that the contraption actually worked on Penny. After the fall of Beacon, she had asked SDC and Atlas scientists to develop something to disconnect the knights and paladins from the Atlas network, thus nullifying any hacking. However she needed Penny to disconnect her GPS chip to let her come in the next part of her plan.

"I promise, I'll explain everything, to you in an instant, but I need you to disable your GPS and grab something to hold you down in exactly... now"

Weiss quickly took five bags and threw one at each soldier, who, surprised grabbed them. Crimson however just sighed and put the bag on his back, waiting for what he knew was coming. And, as he guessed, Weiss nodded to him and he nodded back. It really was happening now

"I'm sorry Fawn, Carmen, Cerul, Coral and you, Captain Crimson, but... I have things I have to do and I can't have anybody prevent me from doing so." Said the heiress, looking both sad and happy, as she pressed a button on her scroll. And at the instant they saw her take out her scroll and say her little speech, they all knew what was going to happen. They put on the parachutes and braced for the moment that the doors would -

They didn't have the time to realize it had happen, they were almost instantly pulled our of the jet by the depressurization, with various other objects, while Weiss and Penny held tight to their own seats, not wanting to be flung out of the jet.

Okay, maybe it wasn't the best plan ever.