RWBY V8 C3

## Plot

The episode starts with Ruby coming out of the pneumatic tube. May, Penny, Nora, and Weiss are already there. Weiss pulls on Nora's ear for sending her up in the previous episode. Blake comes out of the tube and says she never wants to do that ever again. I don't know what the animators did to improve her and Weiss's hair this volume, but I love it. You can tell that the ride messed up Blake's hair, and we see her fix it onscreen. Even if she mostly just shakes it and it's back to normal. May asks Penny which way they have to go, calling her Robo-Girl. After telling everyone detailed directions very quickly, she tells May that her name is Penny. May scoffs and rolls her eyes, and uses her Semblance to make them all invisible. The humor in the first half of this episode reminds me of the earlier volumes for some reason, and I'm not sure why. The later ones still have humor, but they seem fewer and farther in between lately, and they don't always land. While they're in an elevator, two soldiers get on. Apparently no one can get close to the Grimm horde, and subsequently, the freaky storm, without getting shot out of the sky. The female soldier says that all the Grimm just waiting is creepy. It's worse than if they'd just attack. Psychological warfare. The girls sneak around them and get out of the elevator. Nora, being Nora, presses all the buttons on the elevator as she leaves. It turns out that Penny has R2-D2 like functions, and uses Pietro's security clearance to open a locked door that normally requires a handprint to open. Unfortunately, they have to go through central command next, which is crawling with military personnel. May can't maneuver them through all those people. Penny explains that Ruby's Semblance can make her move extremely fast from one point to another; by breaking down her molecules, which negates her mass, and reassembling them at her destination. This makes it possible for her to transport the rest of them the same way, because mass no longer matters. Ruby… has no idea what she just said. Penny says she can use her Semblance on all of them. Blake is amused that she figured that out before Ruby, the one with the Semblance in question, did. Ruby points out that Penny also knew that Blake was a Faunus before she did. Meanwhile, Ironwood enters a room… which is where Watts currently is. Their "methods" have convinced him to help them by trying to hack Penny to bring her back, but it's difficult. We also see security footage of her fighting Cinder. Watts gets an alert that someone is using Pietro's security clearance to go through the Atlesian military compound, and tells Ironwood, who informs everyone in the base and sets the status alert to level three, red, which initiates a lockdown. He grants the authorization to use lethal force on any threat if need be. The pneumatic tubes have all been closed off, trapping the girls there. Well, that's good news for Blake at least. They passed by a hangar earlier. May can go back there and steal a ship to make their escape. Penny says they can still succeed in their mission. Nora gets an idea. The girls hide in the hallway while May uses her Semblance to enter central command by a man with a coffee mug. She trips him, his mug goes flying, and hot coffee spills on a technician, who screams, and the coffee also covers the terminal he was working at. Apparently, the man's name is Bill, and a sign points out that food and drink isn't allowed in central command. He's berated by another technician as everyone else stares at them. When the one drenched in coffee runs out, Ruby uses her Semblance to get herself, Blake, Weiss, Nora, and Penny past everyone. It seems a bit taxing though, since she's breathing heavily afterwards. Blake is shaking and says that's another thing she never wants to do ever again. The other girls aren't freaked out since Ruby has used her Semblance on them before, in volumes 2, 4, and 6. Penny opens an electrified door to finally get them to the terminal they need. No one is inside the room. Ruby wonders where everyone is, and Penny just says that this is a highly classified area. They go up to the terminal while Nora, Weiss, and Blake go off to the side. The door closes behind them and is re-electrified. Pietro remotely takes control of Penny to handle the complicated process himself, which Ruby learns when her eyes turn yellow, and she starts speaking with his voice and moving oddly. Blake hopes that the others are okay. She's never seen Yang and Ruby fight like that before. Weiss tells her that they're sisters, and sometimes sisters just have very different ideas about what's right, clearly thinking about herself and Winter. Nora says they'll be fine, mentioning Jaune, Oscar, and Yang's strengths. Blake and Weiss notice that she left out Ren. She admits that she doesn't know what Ren is. They've been together their whole lives, but she feels like she understands him less now than ever, and she doesn't know if that's his fault or hers. Blake tells her that when you've been at someone's side for so long, they become a part of you, but that's exactly what they are: Just one part of you. You can't forget about the rest of yourself. Nora realizes that she doesn't even know who she is without Ren. Weiss says she can use this time apart from him to find out who she is. She has to do something that only she can do. However, she thinks she can just be strong and hit stuff. Wow. Nora actually has shockingly low self-esteem. I swear, I didn't mean to make that pun! I guess it makes some sense, given what we know about her origins, but… wow. As someone with low self-esteem, this scene hit surprisingly hard. And I love that Nora had this conversation with Blake and Weiss, two characters that had to forge their own identities and find out who they were after getting out of abusive situations. No, this doesn't mean Ren is abusive. There's clearly *something* going on with him, we just don't fully know what it is yet. I love my sister. She's been with me my whole life. However, while I know I'm my own person, just sleeping in a different room than her is hard. Separation from the people you love, whether physical or emotional, especially for an extended period of time, is always hard. Anyways, before they can continue talking, they hear the terminal beep. Pietro downloads the clone imprint. When Penny gets to Amity, they'll run the launch sequence. The computer will try to connect to the terminal, but get Penny instead. After that, she plans to help them with the evacuation. However, Pietro tells her that he wants her to stay on Amity with him and Maria. She says the others need her here, but Ruby tells her that she should stay far out of Salem's reach so she can't open the vault and get the relic. As they're leaving, Penny says they all have to do some things they would rather not. When the door opens again, they see the Ace Ops on the other side. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Nora take out their weapons. Harriet tells Penny that it's time to come home. Marrow claims that they were holding back the last time they fought. Vine steps forward to try and resolve this peacefully. He knows that Penny thought she was doing the right thing when she left with the maiden power, but Salem is here now. Things have changed. Penny tells him that if the general still plans to leave Mantle behind, then nothing has changed. Vine says she was supposed to protect the people, not hurt them. She says she'd never hurt anyone, but Elm tells her that Winter is in critical condition because of her. While Winter is in rough shape, I wouldn't call her condition critical. Harriet claims that Penny stole the power that should've been hers. I don't know whether they actually believe that or if they're trying to gaslight Penny. She tries to tell them what actually happened with Cinder, but Harriet tells her that if she keeps refusing to do the right thing, then people in Atlas *and* Mantle are going to die. Marrow tells her to save Atlas by opening the vault and handing over the relic. Ruby tells them that Salem will find her way to the relic no matter where they go. Harriet threatens to throw her in jail next to her uncle. Penny tells her to leave Ruby alone, and when Harriet asks her what she's going to do about it, she steps forward. Which allows Harriet to use a remote control device to shut the door and re-electrify it *again*, cutting Penny off from the rest of the girls. She activates her maiden powers and creates a strong wind. However, Vine, Elm, and Harriet are able to counteract it with their Semblances, and Elm saves Marrow from falling over the edge of the narrow walkway they're on. Penny tells Vine that they won't hurt her friends, and she takes out her swords. Despite being four against one, she puts up a great fight, and summons a storm that creates hail, but it's so small that it doesn't do anything, aside from briefly distracting Marrow. Which allows her to rocket kick him over the platform. Vine saves him, but puts him down rather roughly in my opinion. Meanwhile, Weiss tries to use her knight summon to break down the door, but it doesn't work. I would've just cut around the door with the sword. She calls the Ace Ops cowards for making the fight 4 v. 1. Ruby says that Penny is the Winter Maiden, so she should be able to hold her own for a little while. And then they hear her yell after she's hit with Elm's hammer. Vine finally takes out his weapon, Thorn, but Penny dodges his attack. Elm is able to pin her behind her back. Her swords fall to the ground and the wind stops. And then she unleashes a massive burst of power that blasts Elm and Harriet back. Marrow hits her with his boomerang, and she breaks the railing as she falls over the edge of the walkway. She can fly, obviously, but before she can use her lasers, Marrow uses his Semblance on her, and Vine pulls her to the ground. Nora says that they have to get out there. She takes out her hammer as she tells herself to be strong and hit stuff. She absorbs the electricity from the door, and possibly the entire room if the flickering lights are any indication. Her hair stands up and her veins glow and turn bright pink. She breaks down the door, which causes an unbelievably massive explosion, blasting the Ace Ops back and freeing Penny right before they manage to cuff her. Nora says that was pretty awesome… and then her Aura promptly breaks as she falls unconscious. Her pink veins turn a reddish color, implying that she's scarred now. Or she has a Lichtenberg figure all over her body, and realistically, I think those fade after an hour or so. RWBY has never been about realism though. Penny runs over to her as Ruby, Blake, and Weiss step forward with their weapons out. Ironwood is mad that they missed their chance to capture Penny, which would probably negate their need for Watts. Speaking of which, before he can order all squads to converge on their position, the snake himself tells him that he has a message for his operatives. They have new orders, which they agree to follow, despite Harriet's displeasure with it. Penny and the other girls rush towards them. Vine uses his Semblance to sweep Ruby, Blake, and Weiss off the platform. He almost hit Marrow with it too. Ruby holds onto the end with her scythe, while she holds onto Blake and Weiss with her other hand. When they fall a second later, she goes after them with her Semblance to get them. Sorry Blake, looks like you will have to do that again. You can't win them all. Harriet takes one of Penny's swords from her, and she retreats with the others. Marrow looks at them sadly before he leaves though. Weiss and Blake note how suspicious their sudden departure was, but they have to leave and take care of Nora now. When Penny tries to pick up her hammer, it shocks her. They get to the hangar. No one is there except May, who is still using her Semblance on herself and a ship. She notices Nora, and Blake tells her that she's in bad shape. They need to get her somewhere safe. Penny uses her maiden powers to bust a giant hole through the hangar. Right, the place is probably still on lockdown. It seems like she blames herself for Nora getting hurt. She realizes that it's time for her to leave them and go to Amity. Ruby hugs her and promises that they'll see each other again soon. This time, Penny hugs her back and looks at Weiss and Blake, who are smiling at them. May opens the weird looking door/window. Penny salutes them and flies off. Um, given how high up they are, shouldn't the air be too thin for them to breathe? Then again, that's literally never been a problem for any of them before. Meanwhile, the Ace Ops present her missing sword to Ironwood, who gives it to Watts. It's clear that he plans on using it to hack her, and that's where the episode ends.