Jaune buried his sword nearly to the hilt in the Ursa's neck. Salem had really gone all in with these new Grimm she was sending against them, and it took nearly all his strength to yank the blade out and bring the damn thing down. But he didn't have time to celebrate, not now, as he spun and brought the blade crashing through a Beringel's head. As it crumpled and disintegrated, Weiss looked up, giving him a quick nod of appreciation for the assistance, before she had to take on another monster.

He took a moment to assess the battlefield. Tyrian seemed happy to just giggle and taunt them as they held the Grimm back from attacking the refugee caravan they were protecting, and Jaune didn't like that. He wasn't the sort to refrain from a battle, and so that could only mean he had something planned.

"Ren!" he whispered as loudly as he could. Fortunately, his teammate was attentive enough, even in the thick of a battle, to pick up on his cues. "Get to Tyrian and tie him up, whatever he's planning needs to get intercepted."

Ren merely nodded and, activating his Semblance to slip through the Grimm, moved to circle around to ambush Tyrian.

It was a good effort, Ren expertly slicing into the surprised Tyrian's mechanical tail and sending the murderer into a quick panic, but it seemed it was all for naught, as he quickly regained his composure as he dueled Ren. "An excellent move, really, quite excellent!" he mock applauded, "But I'm afraid all the effort in the world can't help you against what my Goddess has done now!"

"You're running out of Grimm, Tyrian!" Ruby called out as she fired a quick volley of shots his way, "Better hope whatever else you've got lives up to they hype."

"Oh, but it will!" he giggled, "And I know I was supposed to wait, but I just can't anymore. Well, ta-ta for now, children, but please don't think I don't have anything to leave as a parting favor!"

Jaune snarled in a fury, "You're not getting away!" But as he suddenly kicked Ren backwards and leapt into a tree laughing like a maniac, Jaune realized that something was coming at them that-

No.

No, it wasn't-

Wasn't... possible...

But it was. The poise, that unmatched confidence of a champion. The shield and spear. The hair as red as he remembered. It was...

But it wasn't her. Her skin was a nightmarish, chalky white streaked with lines of black corruption. Her eyes, once emerald green, now a hellish red. Her armor wasn't armor at all, but the bony plates of a Grimm. And worst of all… there was no Pyrrha in her face. None of that joy, that soft compassion that made her willing to try and help him out when he was a truly desperate incompetent struggling not to be expelled. None of that loneliness that made him want to be the best partner he could be for her. None of the love, the love he never realized was love until it was too late, in her eyes.

Her form, but not her heart. And, he learned, her moves, too. With a wave of her arm, her Semblance activated on Crescent Rose and sent a stunned Ruby flying. Yang was about to act, but Pyrrha was fast, always so fast, her shield crashing into Yang's jaw. Nora came in to help, but she hesitated—how could any of them strike Pyrrha? How could she be brought back into their lives only for them to have to take her out?

Hesitation, though, was only on one side. She drove Nora backwards with her spear, and then slammed Magnhild into the ground with her Semblance—he'd never realized how much she must have held back in her matches when nearly all her opponents used metal armor and weapons. Blake and Ren tried to drive her back with a coordinated burst of fire, but Pyrrha was just too quick, too skilled for either of them to really catch her up.

No. Not quite. Pyrrha was an incredibly skilled fighter, but they weren't teenagers anymore. They'd grown in their abilities. The problem was, none of them could bring themselves really to fight her, to be the one to- to kill her. And this heartless copy had no such compunctions. He couldn't allow this. He couldn't allow anyone else to have to bear this burden. Jaune charged in, shield raised, bellowing his best war cry. He saw her arm go up, and the shield suddenly feel lighter than it ought to, but that was just the bait.

He let the unstrapped shield slip from his hand as he quickly rolled around it as it went flying behind him, the thing that looked like Pyrrha's eyes narrowed slightly, as much a look of surprise as he could expect. He closed the gap, a wild, crazy plan forming in his head, a plan that let him know that this would be the part that hurt.

Yep, it hurt. He knew couldn't beat Pyrrha in close quarters, not now, likely not ever. But he wasn't trying to. Her spear pierced him down the side as her shield knocked Crocea Mors out of his hand, but he wasn't coming at her with his sword.

Even if this thing had all of Pyrrha's memories, it wouldn't know that Jaune had a new trick up his sleeve.

He grasped her with both hands, trying like hell to ignore the pain, and then he did the craziest, riskiest, probably stupidest thing he'd done since he got flung into the Emerald Forest. Since the day he first met her.

Aura surged around him as he activated his Semblance, pushing his soul outward and feeling… it wasn't like anything he'd ever felt before, with anyone else he'd boosted. He might be the only man alive who knew what a soul felt like, had cradled and inflamed that tender warmth in his hands, but this wasn't anything like that. It was cold. Clammy. Like the feel of an oily sludge on his skin, not the warmth of a human soul. But he knew, if this was Pyrrha, if there was anything of her in here, he could- he could-

And then he felt a spark. An ember. And just like starting a campfire when he was a kid, he felt his aura, his soul, blow on that spark. Giving it the warmth, the air it needed to glow more brightly and then-

A sudden burst of warmth engulfed him, that indescribable light, that sense of hope and fear and joy and love and sorrow that he knew was a soul. He felt the loneliness of the pedestal, the aspirations of excellence, her pride in the ring, and that small, quiet crush she had on him. She was Pyrrha. She was Pyrrha!

He looked into her eyes. Red, still, but not… but not a Grimm's eyes. Her eyes. She looked at him. "J-Jaune?"

Blinking back tears, his voice was little more than a hoarse whisper. "Yeah, Pyr, it's… it's me."

And then she sobbed, flung her arms around him and kissed him, with a-

Just like-

Just like that night.

Only now-

Only-

He looked at her as she broke the kiss. "Jaune?" she asked, a note of panic in her voice, "What's- what's wrong?"

Staring back at her, wide-eyed, he had no idea what to say. "I- I thought you were dead."

"I thought I was dead too," she confessed, then suddenly realized, "Oh! Oh, gods, Jaune, I hurt you, we need to get you to-"

"Pyrrha, I-" he stammered, "I never thought I'd- I never thought I'd see you again."

"I know," she said softly, tears running down her face, "I know. But it's all right now. I'm back and you're here and we can finally be together, we can finally, finally-"

"We... can't."

She could only stare, wordlessly, in response, her face slowly reflecting this moment of horror, to have her life, her beloved brought back to her only to see it so cruelly snatched away.

He swallowed. She needed the truth, even if now was hardly the time. "I- I have a girlfriend."

Her face, already unnaturally pale, seemed to lose what little color it had. "Who."

"Penny."

Pyrrha blinked and they silently stared at each other, letting the truth sink in. He suddenly realized that he was in extraordinary pain as Nora and Ren carefully approached the both of them, almost unwilling to believe that their teammate could be back. He needed medical attention, and Ren and Weiss were quick to start readying him to be moved, as his Semblance guttered and struggled to heal his injured side. He must be completely out of aura.

But he could see Pyrrha still, even as Nora cried and hugged her, trying to process that the man she loved was now in a relationship with the woman she killed.

Ruby supposed that top-secret Atlas military facilities were generally only for super-important soldier people like Weiss's sister, who didn't care for comfort or decoration, but they could still try to make their waiting rooms a little less stark and unsettling. The bare, off-white walls and fluorescent lighting, with the awkwardly shaped chairs, made it feel like a hospital waiting room, only those would at least have some magazines she could look at. And for security purposes, their scrolls had been confiscated. So she couldn't do that.

So in an already stressful situation, she felt even more on edge, and the only way to pass the time was by conversation. Something none of them felt mentally up to at the moment.

Even Nora seemed too shocked to really say anything, but, seeing the state of the room, she made an effort. "Alright, so..." she started, only to realize she was at a loss for words. "Pyrrha's back? I think?"

"It's… good, isn't it?" Weiss answered, after a pause.

They were silent again. It was good, right? It was amazing! They should be jumping for joy, laughing, hugging, crying, completely over the moon that their friend was back, that she wasn't dead. But… was that their friend? Was that really Pyrrha in there? She'd been killed, killed utterly, with nothing more than ashes left—Ruby had seen it, could still see it when she closed her eyes sometimes. And this was… something Salem could do? Raise the dead? And she came back to herself because… she loved Jaune? Ruby hated herself for even thinking this, but it seemed like a trap.

Ren was next to break the silence. "I figured Jaune's Semblance could have some other effects, considering the connection between the aura and the soul, and if he says her soul felt like Pyrrha's, then… well, it has to be her, right? Even if she looks…" he trailed off. Nobody wanted to particularly think about her now-monstrous form, with those bony plates and unnaturally blackened skin. "Is this something we want to ask Jinn about?"

"We can trust her, I think," Blake cut in, but sounding more like she was convincing herself than the room, "Pyrrha, I mean. I don't think we want to lose Jinn over this. And General Ironwood and the Atlas techs should be able to get a good sense if this is a trap, even if it could fool Jaune. So, um, let's try to think positive."

This wasn't leading anywhere good. Ruby figured it was time to take charge. "So, we're all agreed: it's her. Our friends back. Yay!" But her voice betrayed no enthusiasm as the room went back to its awkward silence.

Yang sighed. "Okay, I'm gonna be the one to say it, then: she is not going to handle the Penny thing well at all."

"Yang!" Weiss scolded, "I think she has much more important things to think about-"

"Yeah, like how the boy she loved is now with the girl she killed. Love's not some frivolous bullshit, guys! She's going through something a hundred times worse than anything we've gone through," she held up her mechanical arm, a harsh reminder of Yang's own experiences with trauma, "and we've always relied on each other to get through those things! Like my arm, or when you were..." she gestured towards Weiss. They all silently acknowledged that moment, when she'd almost been killed by Cinder, would have been killed if not for Jaune's intervention, and all the other traumas they'd been through. "And right now the person Pyrrha's been really, truly, 100% close to, he's in a relationship with a woman she already feels an insane amount of guilt towards!"

Ruby wanted to stop her, to tell her sister to shut up before they were all on a negative spiral, but Nora had a different idea. "Yang's right," she said, softly, "I… Jaune's the only one of us who doesn't have any doubts. Even Ren and I, we..." she looked down in horror at a fact she could not deny, "And I know she saw that. And Pyrrha wasn't- isn't the best at dealing with her emotions. Especially guilt. Without someone stepping in, she's going to lock herself away from Jaune, and… everything. She's going to need help with Penny. She's going to need a lot of help."

Yang looked up with a bitter, exhausted smile. "I mean, seriously, worst case scenario, she's already killed Penny once before."

"Brothers, Yang," Blake scowled, "way, way, too soon!"

Suddenly the door burst open as the last person who should be there came in. "Sal-u-tations, friends!" Penny cheered, "I am pleased to report that both Friend Pyrrha and Boyfriend Jaune have been given a clean bill of health! It's really quite extraordinary what happened with Pyrrha, and I am excited to learn what this means about the Grimm and-"

"Er, yeah, about that..." Yang interrupted the robot girl, "Penny, can I ask why you're calling her 'Friend Pyrrha,' since, uh, you know..." she killed you, Ruby silently added.

She blinked, confused. "As I understood it, Pyrrha was Jaune's best friend before her unfortunate passing. As I am now Jaune's girlfriend, I would assume the people close to him would also, then, be close to me."

They were all silent about that. Ruby had been happy for Penny and Jaune, so happy for the both of them. Jaune needed to move on from his grief and Penny was so happy to experience a relationship and was clearly enamored with her knight. And with all the hardship in Mantle, Jaune and Penny proved to be a surprisingly good couple, the two of them supporting each other and growing into a relationship stronger than anyone expected. But there were things that Penny clearly did not understand with normal human behavior, and dating triple-underscored a lot of them.

Weiss spoke up, nervously wringing her hands. "You do know that Pyrrha… like-liked Jaune, right?"

Penny looked at her quizzically, before smiling in realization. "Oh yes, I do recall that Pyrrha was in love with Boyfriend Jaune! Yes, he informed me that she kissed him at the Vytal Festival, shortly before her own, tragic battle with Cinder Fall."

The worst day of our lives, Ruby thought. The worst for so many reasons, one of which she had to address right now. "That was the day she, ummmm, you know... killed you."

But Penny only smiled at that. "It was the effect of an illusion caused by one of Cinder Fall's agents. I can assure you all: I bear her no ill will for it, and I am certain she has no hostile feelings towards me."

Well.

That was it then, wasn't it?

Ruby wished she could be like Penny. That she could be so open, so accepting of this reality that everything was alright and nobody felt a sense of inevitable doom—inevitable doom made inevitable by the fact they couldn't shake that horrible sense!—but she couldn't. She should just trust Pyrrha the way Jaune and Penny could, so she could be Pyrrha's friend as she helped her back into the world of the living, to help her with her inevitable struggles with being both human and Grimm, to help her move on from the man she loved. A good person, the kind of hero she wanted to be wouldn't even struggle with it. But as she looked around the room, they all shared a moment of silent, helpless recognition.

They were all way, way out of their depth.

All she could do was silently hope that they'd all make it through this okay.

She was alive.

It felt like… like only yesterday, she was fighting Cinder Fall in the Headmaster's office, resolved to die if it stopped her plans, feeling that excruciating pain in her heel, the realization that her last gambit had failed, and then—nothing. Like she went to a restless sleep, with strange nightmares of being cold and alone and angry and afraid and driven like something unnatural was within her. But those were only nightmares as she awoke… to this.

Now she was in a medical room, made up to look comfortable and friendly, a tacky "Get Well Soon!" balloon in the corner and a cork board full of photos of her and her friends, all to cover up that she was in the steel-and-concrete reality of a top-secret medical facility. She noted how few photos they had before her time at Beacon. Maybe they couldn't find any, maybe they just didn't want anything that old, or, more likely, the simple truth was that Pyrrha had really only been alive for less than a year. An awkward childhood, a legacy of tournament successes—without friends to show for it, of course—and then, a few short months where she was truly happy. Where she truly had friends. And then... she'd died. And now she was here. As... this.

There were no mirrors in her room, and she knew it was to keep her from looking, but she couldn't help herself. She glanced down and immediately regretted it, the wave of n nausea and revulsion coming over her as she saw what she had become. Those plates, a cruel mockery of her old armor, armor that could never come off, that would always mark her as Pyrrha Nikos, the Grimm Monstrosity, the reborn, the-

The Invincible Girl. Of course she couldn't die.

She lived. She lived through death and fire and pain and Cinder Fall. Magic was real, and even the magic she'd been told about was a fraction of what was actually out there. Some kind of witch she'd never heard of, that was apparently a matter of state secrets, had somehow pulled her soul out of… whatever, and now she lived. She lived to become a monster and the one thing, the one thing! that would make it all worth it...

It was stupid. Stupid and childish but she was scared and alone and she needed Jaune so badly. He was the only one who didn't even hesitate to touch her, even when she was a mindless beast. Nora and Ren and the rest were happy for her, but she could see the fear in their eyes, the uncertainty. Was this really her? Was it a trap? And she couldn't answer those questions!

But Jaune didn't have any questions. He trusted her more than she trusted herself, and he had embraced her, he had freed her, and he made life worth living.

For a moment. And then they were pulled away. It was like Beacon all over again, that one moment of hope and happiness and joy and it's all snatched away. First by duty, and now... He had somebody else. He had the girl she... killed. Seemed nobody died anymore, she thought with a grim laugh.

Then she clasped her hand to her mouth. An accidental pun, not even said, but thought, something Yang would surely say to her when this was… normal. But she felt a million years from normal and even the thought of the word tore her mind open with a new pain.

Grim.

Grimm.

Grimm. Grimm. Grimm. Grimm!

The words just echoed in her head, their meaning as well trained into her as anyone else who had spent a lifetime on Remnant. Destruction. Evil. Beast. Monster.

And now: her.

It wasn't just her body that was changed. Even with her soul awakened, she could feel, on the edge of her mind, that pulsing drive. It wasn't anger or hunger or anything human, but there was something insistent and evil within her. That was now, fundamentally, a part of her, and she wanted to just cling to Jaune, the boy she loved, the man who pulled her from darkness, the only one who looked at her like she was her, to fold herself into those arms and feel, in the way only he could make her feel, as though she was a normal girl.

But if she did that, she'd have to face Penny.

That look of shocked dismay as her own swords sliced through her flashed across Pyrrha's mind. She was told there was no hard feelings between them. As though "hard feelings" was a term for murder, like she'd just bested her at the Vytal and not ended her life. But they told her that Penny thought of her own death as a senseless tragedy and had no blame for Pyrrha, but now that she was back... Back, a living icon of her guilt and the wall of her alienation.

And that darkness at the edge of her mind crept a little closer every time she thought of Penny Polendina.

Jaune had never felt more wretched in his life.

He should be happy. Should be overjoyed. Should be eagerly filling his partner in on all that she'd missed, the way he would, when feeling truly lost and lonely, imagine he would do so. Like she only missed out because she was out of town, or doing a modelling gig, or anything other than the fact that she was gone forever. In a way, those hopeless, manic fantasies had proven to be true, and yet... Even sitting next to her right now, he couldn't truly look her in the eyes.

It was guilt. Guilt and the memories of what they once had and the memory of how she'd come back. He had felt her feelings in his own soul, but worse, it was the way she looked at him, looked at him in that exact same way she looked at him when she kissed him, and he couldn't…

Oh, but he could. It was the real reason he was afraid to look her in the eye. He could reciprocate that look, that kiss, anything she wanted, he would have given her. If he even allowed himself a momentary lapse, he feared that he'd do something to make him even more wretched than he was right now. He was weak, and he hated himself for thinking of it as weakness as much as anything else.

Worse, he couldn't bring himself to tell Penny what he was feeling. He told her everything; there were no secrets between them. He knew she didn't judge, but he couldn't- he just didn't know how to explain it. The tangle of feelings, the guilt, the sudden sense that everything he did, everything he was, was somehow a betrayal. Either of Pyrrha, for forgetting her, or Penny, like he was treating her as though she was just a placeholder for his real love.

Like she wasn't as real as Pyrrha was.

That thought, of what he would be putting Penny through, broke his heart. But he couldn't deny what he was feeling. It had taken him so long to finally get past his grief and guilt and remorse for Pyrrha. His friends, his family, Penny... it had taken all of them for him to finally move on. But right as he was starting to mend, his heart shattered all over again as Pyrrha came back into his life. He loved Penny, truly loved her, for her kindness, her openness, the way they were both there for each other, but he also loved Pyrrha! She was his first true love, the woman he lost before he had the chance to realize just how much he had lost, and now she was back! And he hated that, in his inability to just love one woman, he would only cause pain to the both of them.

But what wrenched the knife of guilt in this whole wretched situation is that, right now, he was with Pyrrha, seated right next to her, and amongst their friends, he wasn't the one who was being there for her when she needed him most.

It was Nora who was there for his partner. They'd always been close at Beacon, and, Jaune had to admit, normalcy was already subjective when it came to Nora. Sitting around a picnic table outdoors in the brisk spring breeze, the air crisp and clean from a recent rain, the eight of them chatted, but it was Nora, with her effervescent good cheer, that was making it feel like it was no different from breakfast at Beacon. Right now, she was filling Pyrrha in on their adventures, well, when she wasn't being interrupted by their other friends when they had to correct the record.

"And THEN there was this super-mega Grimm that came out of the ocean and it was like, 'Mwa-ha-ha, Tremble, puny Huntresses, for I am King of-'"

"It did not speak," Weiss interjected.

Nora kept on rolling. "Well, it basically did! And then Ruby was like, 'Oh no you don't!' and then did her magical girl transformation and blasted the Grimm with her silver eyes and it went blaaargh I am dead."

Pyrrha laughed, a laugh he hadn't realized how dearly he missed, as she looked around the table. "Alright, what really happened?"

There was a silence. Then Ren spoke up with a laugh. "Well, I wouldn't call it so much a 'magical girl transformation,' but, no, Ruby's silver eyes are actually a sign of her heritage as a Silver-Eyed Warrior, and she can freeze, and even destroy Grimm with a glance. It was actually how she defeated the Wyvern after..."

He trailed off, suddenly realizing what he was about to say. That Ruby discovered the power of her eyes after she'd witnessed Pyrrha's death at Cinder's hands. It was what they were all thinking, he could even feel as Pyrrha started to piece together Ren's meaning. But then they were interrupted from these dark thoughts and memories by a sudden voice.

"Salutations, Friends and Boyfriend Jaune!"

Oh, this could not possibly come at a worse time, could it?

Penny bounded over to the table, throwing her arms around Jaune's neck, wholly oblivious to the way Pyrrha twitched at that. "I apologize for my absence. Specialist Schnee had mistakenly told me she was unaware of where you were. However, checking the security logs confirmed you were here, and so I came to join you!"

"Wait," Blake tensed, "do you mean that Atlas is regularly monitoring our location here?"

Penny responded, as always, politely and positively. "Not at all! You are, as always, free to come and go as you please as respected Hunstmen and Huntresses, without suspicion. However, this has been dubbed a matter of unknown security concern, and so it was deemed best to maintain some degree of surveillance for possible unexpected outcomes."

"I- I don't think you should have told us that," Jaune added uneasily, "Or at least not here."

Penny gasped. "Oh, thank you, Boyfriend Jaune! I appreciate that you catch my operational security errors! Really," she laughed, "sometimes I do not know what I would do without you!"

The tension was unbearable. If it was anyone other than her, Jaune would suspect this was a deliberate move to assert her relationship status against Pyrrha. But even if she meant it as innocently as she surely did mean it, it was definitely raising tensions here.

"Penny." It was Pyrrha's voice, high and strained, and Jaune tensed. "I see you're doing… better."

He could feel Penny beam from behind him. "Yes! I was successfully repaired by my father following our battle. For which, as I told you before, I hold no hard feelings for what was done in error."

Again, Jaune could see and hear Pyrrha's breathing change as she saw the accidental meaning. "No hard feelings for what was done in error" was a technically correct, Penny-ish way of saying things—but it could also sound like she was warning her on anticipated things done not in error. This was a conversational minefield, fraught with pitfalls, and Penny was the absolute last person who could handle this.

He needed to intervene. "Hey, Penny," he suggested, weakly, "how about you and I go grab some drinks for the group," and get you away from the table so I can warn you what a mistake you're making here.

She squeezed him tighter. "Sensational suggestion! I have calculated all of our friends drink preferences; however, Pyrrha, I would require more input from you on what you want."

"What I want?" Pyrrha's voice had turned hollow, "I- I want-"

Her hand suddenly leapt to his arm; she grabbed it and squeezed, her voice choking with emotion. He saw how her hands were not gloved, but unnaturally black, and yet, he loved that delicate hand so dearly. Her eyes were shut, her body trembling, and it took all of Jaune's composure not to pull her into a hug.

Ruby interrupted, "Okay, hey, Penny, how about you and I just-"

"Friend Pyrrha," Penny asked, placing her hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, "I merely wanted to ask if-"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed, her other hand, with unnatural strength, suddenly shattering the wooden table beneath her in a single blow. And then, as she realized what she'd done, she released his arm and stumbled back over the bench, horrified.

But he had seen it.

Everyone's hands had gone to their weapons. In that moment, in that little burst of anger, every one of them, every single one of what should have been her closest friends, who should have been the most overjoyed to have her back, reached for their weapons for the possibility they may have had to strike her down. Even Nora and Ren, everyone had anticipated they were seeing a monster about to break through.

And she had seen it as well.

The tears seemed even more pronounced with her fiery red eyes. She looked around, in silent horror, as everyone recognized what they'd done. What they had been prepared to do.

"Pyrrha..." Nora started, her voice more pained than Jaune had ever heard it, "I'm so, so sorry, I didn't-"

"No!" she whirled on her, her once closest friend in the world, "It doesn't matter! You were right to do it! I'm-" she choked, "I'm a monster and I won't ever stop being a monster and I should have stayed dead!"

He reached for her, desperate to give her some comfort, but her reflexes were much faster as she struck his hand away, "Don't touch me!" she screamed, "S-stay away from me! Just let me die!"

And then she leapt away, tearing into the woods, her Grimm-empowered strength making her much faster than she ever was before.

"W-we should go after her," Ruby nervously suggested, but her feet remained rooted to the floor. "I mean, w-we can't..."

Jaune blinked away tears, struggling to find words. They'd have to send the whole group to search the woods, but what were they supposed to do when they found her? What words would Blake or Ren or Ruby have for her? What words would he have?

But it was Penny who broke the silence. "I will go after her. The rest of you will report back to Specialist Schnee with an update on the situation and the knowledge that I can be reached if necessary."

Blake looked at her with alarm, "Penny, of all people-"

"Of all people," Penny responded cooly, "I alone know the most of what she's been through. Jaune, please I want you to be ready for a conversation with her and I once I bring her home. I would explain more, but there is little time: I anticipate I will have to move quickly to intercept her before she the probabilities of her location become more difficult to track."

She didn't clarify what she meant by that first line, but Jaune had a dark sense he already knew.

Thicket and wood and branch tore apart before her. Her strength was amplified into something greater, something bestial, and it felt good to rip and tear everything before her. This was her true nature, now, this was what she was created for. That thought drove her into a wild fury, and she leapt at a tree, digging her fingers into the wood, tearing and tearing-

And she slipped. Her footing on a wet tree root failed her and she slipped and tumbled and now she was in the mud and now she was crying and she couldn't stop. She sobbed and wailed, her voice sounding nothing like her own, sounding all the world like another monstrosity of the Grimm.

This was her life now. Or, at least, her life for the short time before the Atlas Specialists would surely be upon her. She could possibly defeat them, or, at least, deny them the chance to take her in alive. Or maybe they'd send her own after her. She'd have to see that look-

In a flash, her mind was flooded with memories of the looks on everyone's faces as her anger had broken loose. Yang and Weiss and Blake and Ruby and Nora and Ren! She wanted to be angry at them, to be furious that her friends would be so quick to turn on her, but she knew they were right to. They weren't her friends. They were Pyrrha's friends, and whatever memories she had in common with Pyrrha, that girl had died. Maybe she had Pyrrha's soul and maybe it didn't matter. They were afraid of me because she I am terrifying, she thought with a sob, because I am a monster wearing their friend's face like a mask.

She curled up in the mud, the wretchedness of her existence comforting her and the feel of the mud covering her awful, hideous deformity, those awful, awful plates! It gave her some comfort. Maybe, she could bury herself in the mud and never have to come out. To go back to wherever her soul was supposed to go before some monstrous witch she never even knew about stole it.

"Pyrrha."

No. Not her, not that voice. Pyrrha attempted to stifle a sniffle as she turned over the mud, trying to look away from the girl.

"Pyrrha, I'm sorry."

Sorry. She was sorry? The girl she murdered was sorry? Who'd done nothing wrong who had helped Jaune through his worst who Pyrrha couldn't bear the thought of causing more pain to, she was sorry? "Please," she begged, "please, don't be sorry. I can't bear any more guilt, I can't bear knowing that you feel-"

"Pyrrha." Her voice was firm, commanding, "Please. I would like to talk to you."

Pyrrha whimpered, knowing that she didn't want to be seen in this childish, disgusting state. But she couldn't hide from this, couldn't close her eyes and hope Penny would disappear like she thought the monsters she imagined might do when she was a child.

Penny sat herself down next to the mud puddle, on a log. "I know what you're going through right now," she said, softly.

Pyrrha whirled around in anger, now looking upon the girl and feeling the darkness in her soul call for violence, call for pain. "Because you've died too? Because I killed-"

"Because I am not a human," she forcefully interrupted, "And because I know that people think I am a monster because I am different from them."

Pyrrha looked at her silently. Penny's calm had stunned her out of her rage, but she could still feel the darkness seething inside her. Penny's face was grave, but measured, like she was doing what she could to keep her emotions in check.

But Penny continued, "When I make mistakes… people assume it is because I am a robot. Because I do not feel, or because I am mismade or because I am lesser than them. When I love who I love," Pyrrha cringed at that line, "people assume that I am merely imitating 'real' love. That I have no true feelings inside me. Pyrrha..." her voice thickened, and then she sobbed, "d-do you think I've never run off into these woods before?"

"Penny," she croaked, guilt and sympathy suddenly flooding her heart, "I am so, so sorry."

"And that's why I'm sorry for you!" she laughed, but the tears were streaming down her face, "Because it's so unfair and I- and I-" and her laughter was overtaken by her sobs, "I hate it! I hate it so much! Sometimes they're all so small minded and mean and they don't mean to be but it hurts so much!"

And then she leaned forward, dropping herself into the mud and placing her arms around Pyrrha as she shook with sobs. "And that's why I want to help you Pyrrha! B-because you know what I'm going through, too!"

"How do I get through this?" she begged, "Please just tell me, what did you do, how do you keep on trying? Because I'm so scared and so tired, and I- I just-"

Penny wiped some of the mud off Pyrrha's face with a comforting hand as she blinked away her tears. "Because there are people who would go into the woods after me. People who would tell me everything would be okay and that they didn't think I was any less, and that nobody else's opinion mattered. People who brought me home." Her eyes, her eyes so very, very green, shone with the light of compassion. "You are not a monster, Pyrrha. Whatever people say, whatever you tell yourself, you are as loved and wanted as anyone else."

Pyrrha wanted to believe it. Wanted so dearly to accept that, but she couldn't. She tried to look away, but Penny's hands guided her eyes back to her. "You can fight me all you wish, Pyrrha Nikos," Penny stated bluntly, "But it is the truth. I will not give up on you."

Sitting in a mud puddle, tears streaking her face, and yet, Pyrrha felt better than she had since she'd first been reawakened. "Penny," the girl she scarcely knew before their battle in the Vytal Tournament and now her dearest lifeline, "I- Thank you. For everything."

"And Jaune still loves you," she added, quietly. "He never stopped."

It was as sharp a cut to her heart as the one that ended her life the first time. "P-Penny," she gasped, "I- I don't! I would never try to take him from-"

She cocked her head sideways, in confusion. "I am not worried you could take the feelings he has for me. I was merely letting you know that he would reciprocate your feelings, so long as you asked. If it would help you feel less lonely."

"He- he's your boyfriend."

She gave her a teasing smile. "I am a robot. You are partially Grimm. Why should some ancient human custom tell us we cannot both love the same man? If anything," she smiled, "I would say it is convenient. He has a lot of experience making those like us feel like we are normal girls."

"I-" Pyrrha started, but she had no words. There were tears in her eyes again, hot, stinging tears but she didn't even mind them. It was gratitude and loss and hope and fear and all the emotions that churned through her, but now, now she knew, she wasn't alone. Whatever she faced out there, with the Grimm, the rest of the world, opening her heart to Jaune—there was someone else she could face it with.

"Let us get back to the base," Penny gently cut in, "And we can get this mud off of us. And then..." she smiled. A warm smile. A hopeful smile. One more human than she'd ever see from most humans. "I think we should both have a talk with Jaune."

Penny pulled her into a hug, and the two girls, as alien to one another as they were to the rest of the world, found in each other a place of warmth and hope. They sat, for a little while longer, letting the moment pass as Pyrrha and Penny regained their composure.

And then, finally, they went home.