Specialist Rose

34) Penny

I came around with blurry vision and alone in the hallway. Mercury was gone but from the sound of it the match hadn't yet ceased. The throbbing pain in the back of my head was quickly forgotten as desperation flooded through me- I still had to stop the match! I fell out the door but paid no mind as I got up and ran towards the arena only to stop frozen in my tracks as gasps rang out through the coliseum. Time slowed down and it felt like all the air had been sucked into the sky. Penny stood for a brief moment before she fell apart. Piece by piece of her clattered to the ground and once she was settled on the ground it was so quiet a pin could drop. Then the silence was broken, though it took me a moment to realize that it was me who had broken it. My own earth shattering scream echoed in my ears,
"PENNY!" my voice felt raw from that scream alone. 
I raced forward and uselessly banged my fists against the hard light shield as warm salty tears began streaming down my face. I ripped out some wires next to me and the shield fell. The moment it did I ran across the floor to get to her, as if there was something I could do to help her. But there wasn't. The best mechanic of Atlas and I could do nothing to save my deceased android friend. I simply fell to my knees next to her broken body and sobbed. I was faintly aware of Pyrrha falling to her knees behind me but I could do nothing but kneel by Penny and shake and cry. My cries were the only things that could be heard until the speakers beeped into life but instead of the announcers a voice I faintly recognized could be heard from it. A smooth voice that didn't sound friendly spoke of war and how much we were all kept in the dark, she spoke of how Beacon had both dismembered and killed other students. But then she called Penny a soldier. Talked as though she were a toy for the military. Words finally broke through my sobs and I couldn't help but scream at the woman. 
"SHE ISN'T A MILITARY TOY! SHE HAD AN AURA- SHE HAD A SOUL, SHE WAS A PERSON! She was my friend!" I broke down again at the last part and was again reduced to crying over her body. 

Pyrrha POV

I froze. There was nothing else I could do. CPR? No, she is a robot. Ambulance? No, she is an android. But she was still a person. My friend, who I just killed. Ruby's friend too. Why was I thinking of Ruby? Oh, that was her scream I just heard- I would have convulsed at how broken it sounded if I could move. But I couldn't, my blood had run so cold I think it froze in me depriving me of the ability to move. I could see Ruby now. She was partly obscuring my view of Penny and she was on her knees crying. I think it would have been respectful to look away but my eyes just couldn't. I caused this pain. I'm not even sure if a robot could feel pain but I imagine dying isn't pleasant. And all the pain people who loved her would feel is my fault too. I thought that I was a huntress, I only ever wanted to be a huntress but here I was only a month before graduation as a cold- blooded killer who murdered her friend. My shaking legs gave out and I sank to my knees. A woman came over the speakers but I couldn't even hear her. All I could hear was the gasp of the crowd and Ruby's scream and sobs echoing in my head. Ruby apparently got upset at something the speaker woman had said and rushed to defend the honour of her dead friend. Not that a dead girl would care, she was dead and because of me. An alarm began blaring, I think it was a grimm threat? Yeah a grimm threat. It didn't concern me- huntresses dealt with grimm. I think Jaune was yelling at me but it couldn't be heard over the screams of fleeing civilians, I couldn't hear it over the echoes of Ruby's screams. I was absent until I was quite literally knocked back into reality. 

3rd POV

Just as Jaune jumped onto the arena floor a giant Nevermore broke the ceiling barrier and landed on the floor. The force knocked Pyrrha halfway across the floor and Ruby into a wall. Pyrrha still couldn't move and nobody else had their weapons. The only people who remained in the arena was their friends. Neon was screaming at Ruby, 
"Ruby! You have to move!" But she didn't respond. Not until the nevermore shrieked, then her instinct to protect kicked in. Grabbing her fallen friends weapon Ruby sprinted forward to drive the creature away from her redheaded spartan friend. 
"You leave her alone!" Ruby stood in front of the beast  200x her size with only a sword. But before she could strike at it something else did. And than again. And yet again. It was raining blows on the nevermore until it was grounded and immobile. Ruby glanced up to see everyone standing beside their lockers with their weapons in hand. All her friends come to help her. Then the Nevermore began to move. It flapped its great wings and everyone was thrown off it. Just as the students were about to attack Ruby began to float about a foot or two above the floor and fire erupted from her hands and shard of rock pierced the creature from below. As all grimm do it disintegrated and everyone turned to her. Arslan spoke first, 
"Ruby? W-What was that?!"
"I promise you all that if we make it out of this alive I will explain everything. But right now we have to get to the docks and do our job. Vale will need evacuating, the school will need defending and we have to protect the tower." Ruby naturally slipped into the role of leader and told them what had to happen. Ruby hooked the sword onto a loop on her belt whilst Jaune spoke up approaching Pyrrha who was still kneeling on the ground.
"She is right. And we will need all the help we can get, we can't afford to be short even 1 huntress. Come on Pyrrha, we need you."
Pyrrha finally looked up. Tears filled her eyes and she looked at Ruby. 
"R-Ruby. I- I'm so sorry!" Ruby looked to her fallen friend and laid her red cloak over her broken body. Then she knelt in front of Pyrrha.
"Pyrrha, It is ok. You didn't do this and the blood in on the hands of the woman on the speaker. Now come on. We have to keep moving forward. You know Penny would fight to the death to defend Beacon and that is what we must do to make sure nobody else dies."
Pyrrha looked up and in a moment more a look of determination came across her face. Ren and Nora helped her up and she accepted her weapons from Jaune. 
"We can get a ship down into the city. We have to evacuate the civilians first." Ruby smiled and said that they could use her personal ship so that they wouldn't be talking up a spot on any evacuation ships. With one final longing look back at the cloak covered body of her friend Ruby felt a hand on her shoulder where Flynt had crescent rose in hand and led her out of the arena and into the carnage of the fall of Beacon.

Well I'm not really sure what to say other than it gets worse. 
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See you later, love Lizzi