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"Get away from her!"
The deep, heavy booms of Magnhild's grenades joined the fray at last, each one reducing a grimm to ash. Weiss spared a glance towards the stairs of the Schnee manor. There was Nora—bandaged, gassed, but eyes alight with rage.
The valkyrie had no aura to spare, Weiss realized—she was still showing injuries, which meant her aura was too depleted to heal her, which meant it couldn't protect her—but she wasn't letting that stop her. Not now, as their defense grew ever more desperate. This was no time for half-measures.
Nora appeared to believe that, too, because she flipped a switch on Magnhild, exposing all its grenades at once. "We're gonna see our friends again!" she cried. "So you can all burn!"
She fired. Despite the chaos all around, Weiss couldn't help but track the progress of the grenades—in their absurd, heart-shaped glory—as they sailed into the ranks of the grimm and blasted a huge gap. Blake leapt into the opening, Gambol dancing at the end of its ribbon, catching off-guard grimm from unseen angles. Committing herself, Weiss sent her Arma Gigas summon into the same breach, sweeping away grimm with enormous swipes.
"Now or never!" Weiss called. As if to emphasize the point, a blaze of fire—as focused as a laser—lanced out and through Arma Gigas. Weiss recoiled as her connection to her summon snapped. The armor dissolved like a dream, and a nightmare chased it. Weiss stumbled backwards, then leapt back to avoid Cinder's follow-up fire blast and her own rising terror.
"You still think you can keep the Winter Maiden from me?!" Cinder sneered, hefting a newly-forged spear. "I impaled you once. I bet I can hit the same spot!"
There was a loud cry.
A blaze of silver.
A screech of surprise and pain.
It took only a moment for Weiss' vision to clear. When it did, she saw smoke drifting across the battlefield… but only smoke, and an exhausted-looking Blake dropping to her knees. Continued screeches drew Weiss' eyes. A rapidly-receding ball of orange showed what had to be a retreating, injured—but not slain—Cinder.
Weiss exhaled, for what felt like the first time in hours. Ruby had done it. Somehow, they'd survived.
"Penny!"
Weiss sucked in again. "No," she breathed, and ran for the crater.
Ruby—her team leader, her best friend—was sobbing uncontrollably. Penny's broken form lay draped across Ruby's lap.
"No, Penny, please," Ruby was pleading. "I did it… I did the eyes to protect you… that's how it works, right? The d-d-desire to protect life… and I did, when you needed it… when you…"
Penny didn't have blood, but that green fluid looked like it was supposed to stay inside, and Weiss could see a lot of it outside of Penny. It dripped down the sides of the crater formed by Penny's impact, stained Ruby's winter clothes. The android—the girl—was clearly trying to move, and failing.
"You were… sensational," she managed. Ruby sobbed even harder.
Weiss felt, more than saw, her fellow Huntresses join her. It felt wrong, obscene, to watch Penny and Ruby at this time. As much as she felt she was violating Ruby's privacy, Weiss couldn't leave. She couldn't have looked away if she'd tried.
"It'll be okay," Ruby blubbered. "We'll get you to Pietro and he'll… he'll make it better! You don't look… I mean, you'll be…"
Weiss' heart lurched. Even Ruby's endless optimism was coming up short. She knew better. The sad look on Penny's face told the same story.
"You are the best friend a girl could have," Penny said, and Ruby wailed.
With her emotions running wild on her, with tears in full flood and her face screaming at the sky, Ruby missed the telltale green flare around Penny's eyes. Weiss did not. She gasped, and heard echoes of her reaction to her right and left.
Magic was flickering, still.
The maiden powers, Weiss thought. Oh no…
"I am... confused, though," Penny murmured. "I was supposed to save the world. It is what I was built to do. Did I... fail?"
"No!" denied Ruby hotly. Tears flew from her face as she whipped her head about. "No, never. You did as much… as much as anyone could ask, Penny. You gave everything you had. No one could ask for more."
Penny seemed to relax, even as the magic crackled around her eyes. "Thank you," she said, and now Weiss could barely see because her own eyes were filled with tears and this was all so stupid! How could people this good die like this?!
And now…
"I have a job to do," Penny whispered.
…and now…
"What?" said Ruby blearily.
…now something even worse would happen.
Weiss saw when understanding clicked in Ruby's grief-stricken mind. "You… have to pass the power?"
Penny's face screwed up in distress, a development that caused Blake to wince and turn away and Ruby to fall to gibbering tears again. "No, no, why are you doing that? Why do you look like that?!"
"I do not want it to be you," Penny said, with shocking bitterness.
Ruby tried blinking the tears from her eyes. It was a losing battle. "Huh?"
"I do not desire for you to be the next Winter Maiden," Penny explained even as her voice dwindled. "It is… a burden. A terrible thing. I would not wish that on anyone." She sniffed. "Let alone… you."
Ruby began babbling how she didn't understand, but Weiss did. It had taken Winter time to come to terms with being a Maiden—with being a repository for ancient power, being permanently a target, being a pillar supporting the world, being someone whose life and death were subject to endless scrutiny and attention…
A Maiden wasn't a person anymore. It didn't matter who she was so much as what.
Penny hadn't had any time to accept that. She'd been thrust into that role, and Weiss had seen the pain it caused her, seen the flashes of grief and regret.
No one deserved that.
Ruby, Weiss agreed, absolutely didn't deserve that.
It took Weiss several seconds to process this, to begin searching for a solution… but Nora interrupted her. The orphan hobbled her way past Weiss and Blake and knelt down on Penny's other side.
"Hey," she said, gently, soothingly. "Hey, Penny."
"Yes, Nora?" said Penny, her voice fading and flickering.
"Look at me," said Nora. "Can you do that?"
Penny's eyes were still wide, her face still distraught. "Are you… sure?"
"Sure of what?" asked Ruby, confusion breaking through her grief. "What are you doing, Nora?"
"I'm sure," said Nora, ignoring Ruby. "Let me help you."
She placed Magnhild gently to her side, then reached out to cup Penny's limp head.
And Weiss saw—saw how subtly and perfectly the gesture blocked Penny's view of Ruby.
"Thank you," whispered Penny in a voice just above a breath.
Dull colors swam up Nora's arm from Penny's face. Ruby, Weiss thought, probably couldn't see it through the tears—but she saw when Penny sagged, when her form became lifeless, and…
And then Weiss couldn't see or hear anything, because it just wasn't fair, it wasn't right! She wasn't crying, Ruby was crying! …okay, she was crying too, but damn it all, if Ruby felt like crying, anyone should feel like crying! How could the world be so cruel as to reduce Ruby Rose to tears?
Weiss couldn't move. She wanted to comfort her leader, say something, but what could she say or do that would make any difference? What could possibly reach her?
"She's not gone."
It took Weiss several seconds to place the voice, never mind comprehend the words. She wasn't the only one. "What does that mean?" Blake said, voice cracking in the attempt. More than Weiss knew she could do.
"She's resting now. But she hasn't gone."
Finally Weiss placed the voice. It was Nora. Knowing that… didn't help. Weiss shook the tears out of her eyes and tried to look more closely. The orphan was standing. Trembling. Like whatever emotions were inside of her were boiling over, trying to get out, trying to erupt…
Nora gave a quarter-turn so she was facing Ruby, so that Weiss saw her in profile.
All around her eyes seemed to turn pink.
They glowed.
They flared.
No one who had seen that effect could mistake it for anything else.
"Penny," Nora said, voice strained, like she was trying to keep something bottled up, "is part of me, now."
The Maiden powers burned pink and bright.
"Y-you?" gasped Ruby, silver eyes streaming tears. "She thought of you?"
"I threw myself on that grenade," said Nora through gritted teeth. "We agreed, she and I. We didn't want it to be you."
Ruby sniffed. "I g-guess I didn't earn it," she said. "I c-can't even save one friend, let alone…"
"Shut up!"
The youngest girl jerked back like Nora had slapped her.
"This was love," Nora said, her control straining. "We wanted to save you from having to be the Maiden. You already have more on your plate than anyone deserves."
"She's right," said Weiss before she could help herself, because it was so obvious now that Nora had said it. "You're our leader, and a silver-eyed warrior, and the one person on this planet who can talk back to Salem. So many people are depending on you… and it's not fair! No one should have to carry that much weight!"
Ruby managed to swallow. "I guess it is a lot, when you actually spell it out like that."
Finally Weiss' legs shook free. She rushed to Ruby's side, placing her hands on her as a show of support. "It is," she said. "No one would want you to have to be a Maiden on top of all of that." She looked up. "Nora figured it out first."
Weiss met Nora's eyes, seeing through the blaze of power, and understanding passed between them. But then Nora spoke, and her voice was trembling worse than ever. "Besides, these powers would screw with your eyes."
"What?" said Ruby, unsure.
"You said silver eyes are all about protecting people, right?"
"Y-yeah."
"Well, I don't wanna protect right now."
The pink energy blossomed anew, so bright it hurt to look at.
"These powers," Nora said, turning around as her self-control slipped and her voice swelled, "the other Maidens, and me… we all want to hurt things. Really, really badly."
She looked into the distance, where the battle for Atlas was raging on. The arcs of energy coming from her eyes grew larger and sharper and wilder. Overhead, storm clouds gathered from nothing. The Winter Maiden raised a hand. Clenched it into a fist. The sky cracked in answer.
"Be strong," Nora Valkyrie roared as lightning crackled above her, "and hit stuff."