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Description
Penelope stared at the computer monitor, digging through files she'd never seen before. MAY was basically structured the same way it had been in the other world, although it was a bit dated in comparison. Nevertheless, she had no trouble discovering old logs and files written by her father, and they shocked her. They were written by a stable man who appeared to be working to help people. Nowhere was the any mention of the “enemies” he had always written about, or plans to increase his power or influence. Penelope couldn't access any personal information: it was all locked away with a password she couldn't guess. That was strange, since she thought she knew every keychain and password of her father's. They could be easily hacked, but something inside of Penelope stopped her. She felt that these secrets should be kept.
Penelope shut down the computer and was left in the familiar, cool darkness of the lab. She smiled as she relaxed in her chair and reached for her locket. She turned it over in her hands, watching as the various flickering lights flashed off of it. Although it was completely abandoned except for her, Manfred, and Weiss, she felt that there was more life in this lab than the one she'd come from. Everything was functioning and clean, at least the parts she had seen so far. It was also missing the sinister symbols and graffiti that painted the walls of her home. Sitting there all alone, farther from her friends than she could ever imagine, playing with her locket, she felt more comfortable than she ever had at home.
She'd had the locket for a few years, but it was still full of mystery to her. After she'd executed her mother, she retrieved it from the body, without telling anyone about it. She couldn't open it, but she was sure it was a locket: there was a strange looking latch on it and it certainly didn't feel solid. The fact that she couldn't open it frustrated her to no end, because she felt that there was something important inside of it, something that she badly wanted to see.
“Not worth worrying about now,” she said softly as she let the locket fall to her chest.
After a moment of silence, she decided to check up on Weiss. He had slept through the entire hour-long tram ride, hardly stirring at all. She was even concerned that he'd stopped breathing once or twice. They couldn't wake him when they arrived at the labs, so Penelope and Manfred had to carry him to the medical wing. Penelope had put a cast on him, and then went to find some information on the computer. Now she contemplated why Weiss wouldn't wake up. Her first thought was that exhaustion was the most likely cause, as they'd gone through a lot of stress recently, but that didn't seem quite right to her. She tended to tire easily, and she found it hard to believe that Weiss would be affected by such severe exhaustion before she did.
It didn't seem to matter, though. As Penelope walked into the medical wing, Weiss rolled over in his bed and opened his eyes. He was clearly in a lot of pain, but he smiled weakly.
“Hey,” he muttered. “What's going on?”
“You!” Penelope replied, a bit harshly. “You've been out for two days now!”
“What? Well, I'm sorry, but there's no reason to get mad at me.”
She sighed. “I'm not angry. I'm just... worried about you. Sorry.”
“Where are we?”
“We made it to the labs. How are you feeling?”
“Terrible. I've got a splitting headache, and my leg...” Weiss noticed his heavy plaster cast. “Hey... where'd this come from?”
“Oh, that? I made it,” Penelope said nonchalantly. She reached up to a cabinet and got a vial of pills. “These should help your pain...”
“You made this?” Weiss asked, impressed.
“Yeah, of course. It was easy.”
“Thanks.” He swallowed the pills with a glass of water Penelope had given to him. “Y'know,” he said,  “I'm glad you're here, Penny.”
“Oh... yeah?” She was a bit disarmed at his use of her nickname.
“Yeah. I mean, I doubt Manfred would be able to fit me with a cast like this.”
Penelope laughed. “You're probably right about that.” She sat beside him and sighed again. “I still can't believe he's my dad... but there's no way he could be anyone else...”
“Hey... are you alright?”
“What? No, I'm fine, what do you mean?”
“You don't sound fine.”
“No? Well... I haven't been able to sleep, not since we got here.”
Weiss sat up. “You haven't? Jeez, Penelope, why not?”
“I told you already... You wouldn't wake up, and I was scared...”
“Oh, I see. Hey, but you should be able to sleep now, right?”
“I hope so... but I don't know what's wrong with you yet, and that's going to bother me. You shouldn't have been asleep for so long, you see, so I should...” She yawned. “I should keep an eye on you, you know? You might have... a severe concussion or something...”
Penelope trailed off, lying down and closing her eyes. She muttered something unintelligible, then fell silent.

Weiss looked at Penelope and smiled. She was a good person, and was turning out to be a valuable friend. She was asleep now.
How tired, he thought, must she have been to fall asleep that fast?
He took another look at his cast. He noticed it wasn't a slapdash job. It was meticulously wrapped, the fabric and plaster coming together in a neat spiral around his leg.
Penelope must have spent a lot of time on that… no wonder she's so tired.
As Weiss watched her back slowly rise and fall with her breath, a wave of sorrow washed over him. How long had it been since he had watched May peacefully sleeping beside him? Had it been months, or was it just a few days? He couldn't tell how long it had been. In that moment, he resolved to find her as soon as he possibly could.
But… my leg…
There was no way he would be able to walk any time soon. He thought of sending Manfred and Penelope out to find her, but he couldn't think of where they would look. He thought for a few minutes, but quickly became tired and drifted to sleep himself.

.   .   .

The next day, Weiss was able to move around the labs with the aid of a pair of crutches that Penelope made for him out of parts she found lying around. The three of them met late in the afternoon when Weiss called a meeting.
"What's this all about, Wakefield?" Manfred sat with a cereal bowl in his lap and his feet on the table, looking rather irritated. "I was looking forward to a nap today."
"You've been doing nothing but sleeping for the past three days!" Penelope snapped. "Still… I am curious. What's up, Weiss?"
Weiss ignored the almost audible eye-roll Manfred gave the two of them, and started to speak. "As much as we'd like to, we need to stop sitting around here. There's something we need to take care of."
"Oh, come on," Manfred whined. "Now that Anemonae's gone, we don't need to do anything."
Weiss was taken aback by his indifference. "Have a little respect, would you?" His voice fell. "Besides… it's not that."
Manfred looked at Weiss, confused. After a moment, he groaned as he realized what Weiss was talking about. "Oh no. We're not going to try to find-"
"Yes we are! We have to!"
"I told you: We don't have to do anything, especially if that means sticking our necks out for your silly broad-"
Weiss stood up, as quickly as he could with a broken leg. "Take that back!"
Penelope put a hand on Weiss's shoulder and pulled him back into his chair. "Please, let's not start arguing again. It's not helpful." Manfred looked away, and Weiss gave a resigned sigh. "Alright," she went on, "That's better, I guess. Now, why don't you tell me what you're talking about?"
"May Emerson," said Weiss. "She was… She is my friend, and she was traveling with us. We were separated from her shortly before we entered your world."
"Manfred!" Penelope said sternly.
"What?"
"What are you thinking? Of course we'll find your friend, Weiss!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, absolutely. We'll do whatever it takes, won't we, Manfred?"
He grunted.
"Thanks, Penelope," said Weiss with a small smile on his face.
"So where should we start?"
Weiss's smile disappeared.  "I… don't know," he said. "She could be anywhere by now, all alone and starving…"
"Well," Manfred said, "Here's the thing. We were separated from May in the Dark Realm. Anemonae brought us home to the Neutral Realm, and now she's gone too! We can't get to the Dark Realm without her!"
"Then we'll look somewhere else!"
"Where?!"
"Stop it!" Penelope stood up and slammed her heavy metal fist down on the table, causing a huge crash which silenced the others.
"Fighting won't help find your friend," she said in a quiet but firm tone. "Now, I might have an idea of how to find her, but if you two are going to be at it all of the time, we aren't going to get anywhere."
"Sorry," Weiss said sheepishly. Manfred just crossed his arms and pouted. "What's your idea?"
"Do you still have anything of May's?"
Weiss thought for a moment. "Yeah… I think I still have some of her clothes."
"Perfect. Bring some to the analysis lab later. I'll have MAY…" She paused, nearly laughing. "That's funny. May and MAY… Anyway, MAY can scan her clothes for traces of DNA, and use the scanners that should be posted around here to find her. We'll know right away if she gets within a few miles of the labs. Then it's as simple as having me and Manfred go out and get her."
"What then?" Manfred scoffed. "We find May, and it's a happy ending?"
"That would be nice," said Weiss, "but there are too many loose ends. The Evil Eye, Soul Collectors, not to mention Samaiel running around…"
"And what does all of that have to do with us? Anemonae cared about that stuff, but in the end, does it bother us at all?"
Weiss sighed. "Maybe you're right…"
"Of course I am. Now, if you'll excuse me…" Manfred stood up with a flourish. "I'm going to go prepare supper." He left the room, whistling.
"Right," muttered Penelope, "I'm looking forward to that… You get May's things, Weiss. I'll meet you in the analysis lab."

Weiss found one of May's shirts in the bag they'd taken with them. It was bright pink, one of her favorites. He brought it down to the analysis lab, where he found Penelope tinkering with the machines.
"Hey," she said as the door opened.
"Hi, Penny. I brought her favorite shirt… I hope that'll work."
"It should do fine," she said as she took it from him. She examined it for a moment, smiling.
"This girl… May… She's special to you, isn't she?"
Weiss was shocked. "Well… yeah. How did you know?"
Penelope laughed. "It's kind of obvious. The way you defended her back there was a big tip off. Now this shirt… you were holding it like some kind of sacred artifact."
"Oh. Well… I've known her since we were little kids, and…"
She nodded. "I see. " She put the shirt in a box that looked not unlike a microwave, which began to hum not unlike one.
"It must be nice," she said a bit tensely, "to even have a friend for that long. I never had that luxury. Most of my friends were fellow Children, and they tended to… disappear."
"That's… terrible.."
"Yeah, well, it's just how life was. Nothing ever stayed the same, things just kept… changing." She sighed. "I guess now that I'm here, things will start to settle down, won't they?"
"Hopefully."
There was a very long silence as the two of them stared at the shirt spinning on the turntable inside the box. An endless stream of A's, C's, T's, and G's flowed down the monitor above their heads. Finally, Penelope spoke.
"Hey, Weiss?"
"What's up?"
"You… you'll still be my friend once we find her and we all settle down into our lives, right?"
"Yeah, of course."
Penelope beamed. "Great! Thank you! You know, that means a lot to me. If it weren't for you…"
Weiss smiled wryly. "You know, Penelope, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you-"
The scanner chirped much like a microwave, indicating that the scan was complete. Penelope dashed to the computer, grateful for the interruption. She gave MAY the information, but the scanners didn't pick anything up.
"Hey, cheer up," Penelope said, seeing the dismay on Weiss's face. "Give it some time, she'll show up eventually."
"Yeah… you're right."
She snapped her fingers, her face lighting up with an idea. "Tell you what-I can probably rig our satellites to find her."
"Satellites?"
"Yeah!" Penelope excitedly typed away at the keyboard. "Back home, they were all out of order, but here they're all working! That'll be fun to play with…"
"Sure, whatever." Weiss didn't share Penelope's optimism. "Hey, Penny… I'll see you later. I'm going to go read a book or something."
"Oh, I see. Okay, later then."
Weiss took the shirt and went to his room, where he fell asleep, feeling hopeful for the first time in what felt like ages.

Description
Penelope stared at the computer monitor, digging through files she'd never seen before. MAY was basically structured the same way it had been in the other world, although it was a bit dated in comparison. Nevertheless, she had no trouble discovering old logs and files written by her father, and they shocked her. They were written by a stable man who appeared to be working to help people. Nowhere was the any mention of the “enemies” he had always written about, or plans to increase his power or influence. Penelope couldn't access any personal information: it was all locked away with a password she couldn't guess. That was strange, since she thought she knew every keychain and password of her father's. They could be easily hacked, but something inside of Penelope stopped her. She felt that these secrets should be kept.
Penelope shut down the computer and was left in the familiar, cool darkness of the lab. She smiled as she relaxed in her chair and reached for her locket. She turned it over in her hands, watching as the various flickering lights flashed off of it. Although it was completely abandoned except for her, Manfred, and Weiss, she felt that there was more life in this lab than the one she'd come from. Everything was functioning and clean, at least the parts she had seen so far. It was also missing the sinister symbols and graffiti that painted the walls of her home. Sitting there all alone, farther from her friends than she could ever imagine, playing with her locket, she felt more comfortable than she ever had at home.
She'd had the locket for a few years, but it was still full of mystery to her. After she'd executed her mother, she retrieved it from the body, without telling anyone about it. She couldn't open it, but she was sure it was a locket: there was a strange looking latch on it and it certainly didn't feel solid. The fact that she couldn't open it frustrated her to no end, because she felt that there was something important inside of it, something that she badly wanted to see.
“Not worth worrying about now,” she said softly as she let the locket fall to her chest.
After a moment of silence, she decided to check up on Weiss. He had slept through the entire hour-long tram ride, hardly stirring at all. She was even concerned that he'd stopped breathing once or twice. They couldn't wake him when they arrived at the labs, so Penelope and Manfred had to carry him to the medical wing. Penelope had put a cast on him, and then went to find some information on the computer. Now she contemplated why Weiss wouldn't wake up. Her first thought was that exhaustion was the most likely cause, as they'd gone through a lot of stress recently, but that didn't seem quite right to her. She tended to tire easily, and she found it hard to believe that Weiss would be affected by such severe exhaustion before she did.
It didn't seem to matter, though. As Penelope walked into the medical wing, Weiss rolled over in his bed and opened his eyes. He was clearly in a lot of pain, but he smiled weakly.
“Hey,” he muttered. “What's going on?”
“You!” Penelope replied, a bit harshly. “You've been out for two days now!”
“What? Well, I'm sorry, but there's no reason to get mad at me.”
She sighed. “I'm not angry. I'm just... worried about you. Sorry.”
“Where are we?”
“We made it to the labs. How are you feeling?”
“Terrible. I've got a splitting headache, and my leg...” Weiss noticed his heavy plaster cast. “Hey... where'd this come from?”
“Oh, that? I made it,” Penelope said nonchalantly. She reached up to a cabinet and got a vial of pills. “These should help your pain...”
“You made this?” Weiss asked, impressed.
“Yeah, of course. It was easy.”
“Thanks.” He swallowed the pills with a glass of water Penelope had given to him. “Y'know,” he said,  “I'm glad you're here, Penny.”
“Oh... yeah?” She was a bit disarmed at his use of her nickname.
“Yeah. I mean, I doubt Manfred would be able to fit me with a cast like this.”
Penelope laughed. “You're probably right about that.” She sat beside him and sighed again. “I still can't believe he's my dad... but there's no way he could be anyone else...”
“Hey... are you alright?”
“What? No, I'm fine, what do you mean?”
“You don't sound fine.”
“No? Well... I haven't been able to sleep, not since we got here.”
Weiss sat up. “You haven't? Jeez, Penelope, why not?”
“I told you already... You wouldn't wake up, and I was scared...”
“Oh, I see. Hey, but you should be able to sleep now, right?”
“I hope so... but I don't know what's wrong with you yet, and that's going to bother me. You shouldn't have been asleep for so long, you see, so I should...” She yawned. “I should keep an eye on you, you know? You might have... a severe concussion or something...”
Penelope trailed off, lying down and closing her eyes. She muttered something unintelligible, then fell silent.

Weiss looked at Penelope and smiled. She was a good person, and was turning out to be a valuable friend. She was asleep now.
How tired, he thought, must she have been to fall asleep that fast?
He took another look at his cast. He noticed it wasn't a slapdash job. It was meticulously wrapped, the fabric and plaster coming together in a neat spiral around his leg.
Penelope must have spent a lot of time on that… no wonder she's so tired.
As Weiss watched her back slowly rise and fall with her breath, a wave of sorrow washed over him. How long had it been since he had watched May peacefully sleeping beside him? Had it been months, or was it just a few days? He couldn't tell how long it had been. In that moment, he resolved to find her as soon as he possibly could.
But… my leg…
There was no way he would be able to walk any time soon. He thought of sending Manfred and Penelope out to find her, but he couldn't think of where they would look. He thought for a few minutes, but quickly became tired and drifted to sleep himself.

.   .   .

The next day, Weiss was able to move around the labs with the aid of a pair of crutches that Penelope made for him out of parts she found lying around. The three of them met late in the afternoon when Weiss called a meeting.
"What's this all about, Wakefield?" Manfred sat with a cereal bowl in his lap and his feet on the table, looking rather irritated. "I was looking forward to a nap today."
"You've been doing nothing but sleeping for the past three days!" Penelope snapped. "Still… I am curious. What's up, Weiss?"
Weiss ignored the almost audible eye-roll Manfred gave the two of them, and started to speak. "As much as we'd like to, we need to stop sitting around here. There's something we need to take care of."
"Oh, come on," Manfred whined. "Now that Anemonae's gone, we don't need to do anything."
Weiss was taken aback by his indifference. "Have a little respect, would you?" His voice fell. "Besides… it's not that."
Manfred looked at Weiss, confused. After a moment, he groaned as he realized what Weiss was talking about. "Oh no. We're not going to try to find-"
"Yes we are! We have to!"
"I told you: We don't have to do anything, especially if that means sticking our necks out for your silly broad-"
Weiss stood up, as quickly as he could with a broken leg. "Take that back!"
Penelope put a hand on Weiss's shoulder and pulled him back into his chair. "Please, let's not start arguing again. It's not helpful." Manfred looked away, and Weiss gave a resigned sigh. "Alright," she went on, "That's better, I guess. Now, why don't you tell me what you're talking about?"
"May Emerson," said Weiss. "She was… She is my friend, and she was traveling with us. We were separated from her shortly before we entered your world."
"Manfred!" Penelope said sternly.
"What?"
"What are you thinking? Of course we'll find your friend, Weiss!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, absolutely. We'll do whatever it takes, won't we, Manfred?"
He grunted.
"Thanks, Penelope," said Weiss with a small smile on his face.
"So where should we start?"
Weiss's smile disappeared.  "I… don't know," he said. "She could be anywhere by now, all alone and starving…"
"Well," Manfred said, "Here's the thing. We were separated from May in the Dark Realm. Anemonae brought us home to the Neutral Realm, and now she's gone too! We can't get to the Dark Realm without her!"
"Then we'll look somewhere else!"
"Where?!"
"Stop it!" Penelope stood up and slammed her heavy metal fist down on the table, causing a huge crash which silenced the others.
"Fighting won't help find your friend," she said in a quiet but firm tone. "Now, I might have an idea of how to find her, but if you two are going to be at it all of the time, we aren't going to get anywhere."
"Sorry," Weiss said sheepishly. Manfred just crossed his arms and pouted. "What's your idea?"
"Do you still have anything of May's?"
Weiss thought for a moment. "Yeah… I think I still have some of her clothes."
"Perfect. Bring some to the analysis lab later. I'll have MAY…" She paused, nearly laughing. "That's funny. May and MAY… Anyway, MAY can scan her clothes for traces of DNA, and use the scanners that should be posted around here to find her. We'll know right away if she gets within a few miles of the labs. Then it's as simple as having me and Manfred go out and get her."
"What then?" Manfred scoffed. "We find May, and it's a happy ending?"
"That would be nice," said Weiss, "but there are too many loose ends. The Evil Eye, Soul Collectors, not to mention Samaiel running around…"
"And what does all of that have to do with us? Anemonae cared about that stuff, but in the end, does it bother us at all?"
Weiss sighed. "Maybe you're right…"
"Of course I am. Now, if you'll excuse me…" Manfred stood up with a flourish. "I'm going to go prepare supper." He left the room, whistling.
"Right," muttered Penelope, "I'm looking forward to that… You get May's things, Weiss. I'll meet you in the analysis lab."

Weiss found one of May's shirts in the bag they'd taken with them. It was bright pink, one of her favorites. He brought it down to the analysis lab, where he found Penelope tinkering with the machines.
"Hey," she said as the door opened.
"Hi, Penny. I brought her favorite shirt… I hope that'll work."
"It should do fine," she said as she took it from him. She examined it for a moment, smiling.
"This girl… May… She's special to you, isn't she?"
Weiss was shocked. "Well… yeah. How did you know?"
Penelope laughed. "It's kind of obvious. The way you defended her back there was a big tip off. Now this shirt… you were holding it like some kind of sacred artifact."
"Oh. Well… I've known her since we were little kids, and…"
She nodded. "I see. " She put the shirt in a box that looked not unlike a microwave, which began to hum not unlike one.
"It must be nice," she said a bit tensely, "to even have a friend for that long. I never had that luxury. Most of my friends were fellow Children, and they tended to… disappear."
"That's… terrible.."
"Yeah, well, it's just how life was. Nothing ever stayed the same, things just kept… changing." She sighed. "I guess now that I'm here, things will start to settle down, won't they?"
"Hopefully."
There was a very long silence as the two of them stared at the shirt spinning on the turntable inside the box. An endless stream of A's, C's, T's, and G's flowed down the monitor above their heads. Finally, Penelope spoke.
"Hey, Weiss?"
"What's up?"
"You… you'll still be my friend once we find her and we all settle down into our lives, right?"
"Yeah, of course."
Penelope beamed. "Great! Thank you! You know, that means a lot to me. If it weren't for you…"
Weiss smiled wryly. "You know, Penelope, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you-"
The scanner chirped much like a microwave, indicating that the scan was complete. Penelope dashed to the computer, grateful for the interruption. She gave MAY the information, but the scanners didn't pick anything up.
"Hey, cheer up," Penelope said, seeing the dismay on Weiss's face. "Give it some time, she'll show up eventually."
"Yeah… you're right."
She snapped her fingers, her face lighting up with an idea. "Tell you what-I can probably rig our satellites to find her."
"Satellites?"
"Yeah!" Penelope excitedly typed away at the keyboard. "Back home, they were all out of order, but here they're all working! That'll be fun to play with…"
"Sure, whatever." Weiss didn't share Penelope's optimism. "Hey, Penny… I'll see you later. I'm going to go read a book or something."
"Oh, I see. Okay, later then."
Weiss took the shirt and went to his room, where he fell asleep, feeling hopeful for the first time in what felt like ages.