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"Doctor Polendina?" Ruby knocked hesitatingly on his study door.
"Miss Rose! Come in, come in, thank you so much for joining me, please, have a seat." He gestures to a sitting area with an arm chair and a long coffee table with boxes stored underneath it, "would you like a cup of coffee? I just made a pot." He begins setting a tray with a pot and various coffee accoutrements.
"Oh, no thank you, I'm fine, I-"
Pietro interrupted her, "I have chocolate flavored creamer, plenty of sugar, and whipped cream."
"…I could go for a cup of coffee."
He smiled, and carried the fully loaded tray to the long coffee table.
"Penny mentioned your sweet tooth, I wasn't certain how much may have been exaggerated, not eating herself she often overstated others' eating habits."
"Oh, no, she probably didn't exaggerate that at all." Ruby fixed herself a cup of coffee with just enough coffee to be warm in her hands, and enough sugar to make Weiss roll her eyes. "It's kinda weird to think about her telling you about me, I'm still not used to my reputation preceding me, I must have sounded like such a dork."
Pietro snorted, taking a sip of his significantly less sweet cup, "maybe a little, but then, I don't know that the two of you would have gotten along as well as you did if you weren't," Ruby smiled ruefully and took a sip of her coffee. "But overall the impression she gave me of you was…" Pietro trailed off for a moment before continuing, "well, if you think that 'dork' was the extent of her opinion of you, then you don't give yourself enough credit."
"Ha."Ruby said with a forced smile, "I've been told."
"My daughter spoke very highly of all of team RWBY, but she held you in especially high regard, Penny-"
"Doctor Polendina." Ruby cut him off harshly, as she leaned forward to set her cup down harshly.
Pietro hesitated, "yes, Miss Rose?"
Ruby curled her hands into fists in her lap, hair covering her face as she stared into her cup, whipped cream melting unevenly.
"I am so sorry for your loss. I know I can't understand what you've gone through as a father, but I'm sorry. I don't know exactly why you asked for me to meet you, but I don't think I can do this, I can't give you whatever closure you're looking for." Ruby looked up, tears filling her eyes. "Penny was the best of us. I would give anything, for her to still be here with you today."
"I'm sorry too, Miss Rose. But I think there's been a misunderstanding here. I do not blame you for Penny's death. There…" Pietro trailed off for a breath, "there was a lot there, near the end, that I wasn't around for. And that, knowing I wasn't there for her, again, does weigh on me. But you, Ruby, are not one of the people I blame for her death. You have nothing to apologize to me for."
Ruby fidgeted with her cup, but doesn't respond past a noncommittal hum.
After a few moments of silence Pietro cleared his throat and said, "I actually have something I wanted to share with you." Pietro leaned forward, pulling an Atlesian white box out from under the coffee table. "I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing which of my former coworkers sat and watched Ironwood and Watts' plan for overriding Penny's free will. But one of the scientists on the team grabbed this from the lab before fleeing to Vacuo."
Pietro undid the clasp, opening the box and displaying its contents with a sad smile.
A gray blade with a green stripe, and a hinge in the middle where it could fold for storage or to transform into its gun form. Bronze hilt with a dull power symbol. Silver handle.
A sword from Floating Array.
The power symbol should be illuminated, not dull.
But it will never light again.
Ruby gasped, and reached for the sword, but flinched away before touching it.
"It's one of Penny's-" confusion flooded her voice, colored by a touch of hope, "but Floating Array was destroyed with her robot body when Ambrosius-"
"Ah ah!" Pietro held a finger in the air, "most of Floating Array was destroyed with her robot body. But not all of Floating Array was with her when-" Pietro's voice cracked, "when she died."
Ruby's eyes widened in understanding, "the sword the Ace Ops stole…"
"The sword that was used to-" what composure Pietro had abandoned him, and his cracking voice devolved into a bit back sob.
Ruby stood, and placed a hand on his shoulder
She doesn't say anything.
She doesn't know what to say.
And she doesn't need to say anything
Pietro placed a hand over hers. "I'm sorry Ruby, I didn't mean to put this on you."
She squeezed his shoulder, and he continued.
"There was a computer chip in it. In Floating Array. Watts design, even if he didn't sign his work I would recognize it anywhere. I- we know how now. How they got the virus in her."
Ruby swallowed back the memory of Penny in a crater outside of Schnee Manor, whimpering out an "I'm sorry". Refused to think about Penny asking her to kill her so that she would have a choice in who the Maiden powers went to.
So that she could choose Ruby.
She had been quiet too long, and Pietro continued. "I wanted you to have it."
Ruby's gaze snapped to him, her grip on his shoulder tightening further, "what?"
"That is, assuming you would want it." Want is too light of a word for the emotions rising in Ruby's chest, "I know from when you first got to Atlas and I was upgrading your weapons that Mr. Arc has incorporated aspects of Pyrrha Nikos' armor into his shield. I don't know that Penny's would be useful in the same manner, or even be compatible with your fighting style, but I'd feel better knowing it was in the hands of someone who would appreciate it, even if you just keep it as a memento."
Penny had never wielded Floating Array the way the average Huntress would wield a sword. She had never needed to. But Ruby knew what the sword would feel like in her hand. She knew the weight and balance, if not instinctively like she knew Crescent Rose, then intimately from when she had used it against a Nevermore in Pyrrha's defense during the fall of Beacon.
"I couldn't." Ruby's voice was weak. "I'm not the only one mourning her, I couldn't take this from you."
"If anything I think that's more of a reason for you to take it."
"I don't understand," Ruby stammered out.
"No, I imagine you wouldn't." Pietro paused a moment as he thought about how to explain, "Penny told me you designed Crescent Rose?"
"Uh, yes? All students at Signal did."
He nodded. "Penny did not design Floating Array. I did." Ruby's jaw dropped, mouth forming a soft 'o' of surprise as Pietro explained. "A Huntress' weapon isn't just a weapon. It's a part of them. With Penny that was a little more literal. I designed Floating Array for her knowing that she would have certain expectations placed on her-" Pietro sighed. "I knew she would have limited options in her life. She was only made using Atlas military funding and backing, there would have been… Complications if she refused to be a Huntress. So I wanted her to be combat ready-" Ruby flinched at the phrase, Pietro can guess why and he changes his phrase, "I wanted her to be prepared to defend herself."
Pietro sipped his coffee, and the two lapsed into a moment of silence until Ruby prompted him to continue, "she didn't refuse to be a Huntress."
"No, she didn't. She was so excited to attend the Vytal festival, and so proud of her role as the Protector of Mantle and I- I look at that sword, and I see all the ways I failed her. I should have done more to prepare her, I should have seen the path Ironwood was headed down and prepared more, I-"
Ruby interrupted him and pointed out, "I shouldn't have let the Ace Ops separate us when we snuck into Atlas. If we hadn't played into the Ace Ops trap then they never would have been able to steal one of her swords in the first place."
"That's not a fair assessment of-" Pietro began, but cut himself off at her unimpressed expression, a single raised eyebrow enough to convey her thoughts.
"Point taken." Pietro acquiesced, but looked no less guilty as he lamented, "what kind of a father am I? I look at all the good she has done, and I just see my loss and the sacrifices she made. I find myself wondering, if she had been just a little more selfish, would she still be here?"
Ruby stepped around the coffee table, sitting back down in her arm chair and taking a sip of her lukewarm and overly sweet coffee. "If she had been more selfish, would she have been the Penny we knew and loved?"
"Yes." Pietro answered confidently. Ruby's eyes snapped to his questioningly, "Ironwood may have viewed the Penny Project differently. But she wasn't just a weapon to me, from the moment my idea was chosen I knew I would love Penny unconditionally. It was my duty as a Father."
"Good." Ruby set her half finished mug down again, less agitatedly. "I wasn't sure what to think of you when Penny talked about you in Vale. I didn't get details like you got about me. But then I didn't know her that long before-" Ruby picked her mug up again, fidgeting with it more than drinking from it as memories of the fall of Beacon flashed through her mind, "before I lost her for the first time. It was always vague 'my father wants me to be safe', or 'he wants the best for me', or 'he's a little protective'. All the vague but generally positive phrases you should hope for, but which tell you nothing." Her grip tightened as she spoke, and by the end she was holding her mug tightly in her lap. If she held it much tighter then the mug, which was never designed to be used as a stress ball, might shatter. "What I knew without her saying it was that you were at best complicit in her isolation. Don't." She snapped, cutting him off. "I know that's not a fair accusation. And I'm not holding you to it. But I think of how kind hearted she was, how earnest and bright. And I wonder how on Remnant was I her first friend?"
Pietro didn't have an argument for that. So instead he thanked her. "I'm glad you were there for her. She deserved for someone kind to be the first person to know about her. First who wasn't involved in her creation at least."
"She and I were friends before I knew."
Pietro smiled sadly and sipped his coffee. He knew that. He also knew exactly what Ruby had said to Penny when she found out. Penny had told him, and her memory was eidetic in the details, even if Penny's retelling included some embellishments. Ruby glowed in Penny's stories, especially when she said 'You've got a heart! And a soul! I can feel it!' It was one of Penny's favorite memories.
Her first friend reaffirming her person-hood, of course it was.
"She loved you." Ruby assured him.
Pietro knew that.
Penny's last words to him had ensured he knew that.
"Doctor Polendina. She never doubted that you viewed her as a daughter before as a weapon."
Tears welled in Pietro's eyes, and he suspected he might have failed in not burdening Ruby with this discussion.
"And she never regretted putting her faith in you." Pietro countered, hoping the words would carry any touch of comfort.
Ruby sighed, and finished her coffee. "She was the best of us." She repeated.
"She thought that about you as well. And I don't think she was wrong yet." He lifted Penny's sword with shaking hands, and held it out to Ruby. "Miss Rose, you inspired her to see the world in a better light, and I think it would mean a lot to her to know she was still with you, in some small way." Ruby hesitated, but she stared at the sword with longing, "please, it would help put me at ease, to know that her sword was in the hands of someone who will honor her memory. To know I'm not alone in loving her as Penny first, and the Protector of Mantle second."
Ruby took the sword like it was sacred. Tears welled in her eyes as she held it close to her chest.
"I have some sketches for some sheath options if you'd like? I don't want it to get in the way of Crescent Rose or any fights you get into, if you want to keep it on you that is. I-" A sob broke from Ruby's chest, the tears that had been welling in her eyes spilling forth like a damn breaking.
Pietro swallowed back his own tears and moved to her side. He placed a hand on her shoulder and opened his arms, and she collapsed into his embrace, holding Penny's sword carefully.
"I loved her." Ruby choked out.
"I know. I did too."
"I'm so so-"
"Do not apologize again." He tried to sound commanding, but it felt like pleading. "You were not responsible for her death."
Ruby nodded. "I'm going to get the people who were."
"Good. You'll have my support as you do."
When she had regained her composure, Ruby pulled away and began to ask, "Doctor Polendina-"
"Miss Rose." He cut her off firmly. "Just Pietro, please. I don't need or want that formality from you."
Ruby smiled through her wet eyes. "Then it's just Ruby for me. You can drop the 'miss' already. But, Pietro?"
"Yes?"
"Did you…" Ruby's tone took on a mischievous note, "have anything in mind for Watts control chip?"
"Ready?" Pietro asked, his excitement palpable.
"Ready." Ruby answered, her hands steady on Crescent Rose.
Pietro loaded the skeet firing machine.
"Three! Two! One!" He counted down for her.
"Pull." They said in sync.
Ruby's gaze is sharp, her tone flat.
The clay skeet disk holding Watts chip flew into the bright Vacuo air.
Ruby fired.
And she doesn't miss.
The clay disc and computer chip explode in the air like confetti and scatter amongst the desert sand.
Pietro whistled, and Ruby smiled instinctively at the cheer.
She lowered Crescent Rose and allowed the smile to widen as she looked to Pietro.
The last sword of Floating Array hung from her hip.
And Penny Polendina was held in her heart.