System initiation in progress. Please, hold.
Dark. That was all she could see for now, as the gears in her mind started to move slowly and steady. A faint sound that resembled a heartbeat became more and more clear as the system uploaded inside her robotic brain, and a soft sensation of warmth started to spread, first in her chest and then flowing throughout the rest of her limbs. It hurt a little as well, though she had no idea why. After the process was complete, she was able to open her eyes for the first time.
"Penny?"
A girly voice was talking to her, which meant she had to respond.
"Salutations!" Was the first thing that came to mind; an automatic response, embedded in her code.
"She's awake…" The girl sounded emotional, as tears flooded her eyes.
Emotion – the sentiment that occurs when a special event happens to someone.
Penny smiled, wanting to sound as cheerful as possible for the occasion, whatever it was. "Indeed I am! You sound emotional. Has something important happened?"
The girl blinked and wiped away the tears with a white sleeve. "I'm just happy to see you again."
Again? That implied they've met before, and Penny dug her memory for any files on the white-haired person sitting in front of her. Even after a few seconds of complete search, she found nothing. "I am sorry. I cannot seem to recall you…"
The girl stopped smiling, and her expression shifted to sadness. Penny heard a low sigh.
Frustration – the sentiment that occurs when someone does not reach the desired results.
"If you could tell me your name, maybe it could help me remember you better?" Penny tried, not wanting to disappoint the first person she ever talked to in her life. She felt the girl approaching slightly and placing one hand on her knee.
"I'm Weiss." She said. "We've met a while back."
"Weiss…" Penny's brain was almost about to fry trying to remember this person, but to no avail. She was starting to feel frustrated herself. Holding Weiss's hand tightly, she reproduced empathy on her expression. "This name is not on my database. I'm sorry…"
"Don't be." Weiss's smile was broken, Penny could tell. That was not how people were supposed to demonstrate happiness.
Sorrow – a feeling of great sadness or grief.
"I wasn't really expecting you to reminisce anything." Weiss added, then pressed a button on the table next to them. "Please, contact General Ironwood and tell him that he was right."
A voice on the other side of the communicator immediately responded. "Right away, Miss Schnee."
"Also, can I have a moment alone with her? I just need to get some things off my chest."
"Absolutely." And then the voice was gone.
Weiss waited until she could hear the metal doors on the other side of the opaque glass shut down for good, and then broke her posture. She jumped off her seat, embracing Penny's figure tightly. "Penny… I am so, so sorry…" She tried to hold back a few sobs, but failed miserably.
Penny could only return the hug, confused, but willing to help her in any way possible. "It's alright, Weiss! Everything is okay."
She heard Weiss breathe out a shaky laugh as she returned to her seat. "It's… It's really not."
Penny stood in silence for a while and then stretched a hand for Weiss to hold. "Is there any way I can help?"
The white-haired girl hesitated, but eventually accepted the offer. She shook her head. "I just wanted to… I mean, if there was a chance, then… I had to take it. For Ruby."
Ruby.
Something about that name made the circuits in Penny's heart leap a beat, but her brain also had no records of it. All that she knew was what had been programmed beforehand, like the name "James Ironwood", her current location being "Atlas" and her designation being "Penny". She also acknowledged the fact that she was the world's first robot capable of generating an aura, making her not a human, but something similar. Still, her synthetic soul was screaming for something, and Penny knew that that name could lead her to it somehow. "Ruby… Is there something else you can tell me about this person?"
"There are so many things I want to tell you, Penny. We don't have much time to talk, but I need you to know what you've been through. What we've been through." Weiss reclined back on her chair. "Maybe talking about Ruby can help."
"I…" Penny frowned, anxious. "I think so too."
Weiss's eyes gleamed, a new emotion taking over.
Anticipation – the feeling of expecting some good event to happen.
"You have to listen to what I have to say, and believe that all of it is true, okay?" Weiss said, her legs shifting in a hurry. Penny only nodded, allowing her to continue. "Well… We've met at Vale, a place far away from here. The first time I saw you was when I bumped into you on the street, actually. I was chasing someone for a stupid reason and didn't even see you. We both fell down." Weiss smiled at that memory, as if reminiscing of events long gone.
"I am sorry for standing on your way." Penny apologized, even though she didn't remember living it.
"It's alright. I'm glad you did," Weiss smiled, then looked down. "I thought you were a bit creepy at first, so did Yang and Blake. They were—" She stopped, shaking her head in frustration. "Are two of my other friends."
"Friends…" Another word that made her feel weird.
"You liked that word a lot," Weiss continued. "Ruby was the first one to call you that, and the moment she did, your face lit up."
Penny's shoulders dropped and a sudden sadness took over her. It was like a string was tugging in front of her with the answers dangling at its tip, but she didn't have the strength to pull, not yet. She needed to hear more about this story.
"That night I also argued with Blake, and she ran away. I said ridiculous things to her, and she was upset at me." Weiss kept talking.
"Is Blake still upset at you?"
Weiss remained quiet for a bit, as if the android had touched on a very recent wound.
Hurt – to cause somebody physical or emotional pain.
"…No," She said finally, with a conviction that didn't match her demeanor. "I think she's upset at other things right now. But that's for another time."
Penny nodded, encouraging her to keep going.
"After that, our team went after her and you somehow met us on the way. Ruby decided to go with you while I accompanied Yang." Weiss's mouth twitched into a quick grin, which soon vanished. "Well, we kind of abandoned you two together."
"Do you not like Ruby?"
"I do!" Weiss was quick to jump into defensive mode. "She's my friend as well! We were just… in a hurry."
"I see." Penny placed her hands on her lap, that tugging sensation now almost physical in her stomach. "Is Ruby… friends with me?"
Weiss swallowed hard, he throat closing to hold back emotions she didn't want to show the girl in front of her. "She used to say you were best friends."
"Best friends!" Penny's circuits started moving fast through her entire body, and she felt adrenaline for the first time. She decided she enjoyed this feeling, and wanted it to last a lot if she could manage. "This sounds wonderful!"
"It does," Weiss looked sideways, avoiding direct eye contact with Penny for the next part. "Lots of things happened that night. You and Ruby found Blake and fought some bad people. You won, but someone took you away without us noticing. The next time we saw you was days later, when Ruby and I went out for a special mission. The moment she saw you she left me behind just to talk to you again."
The adrenaline vanished as soon as she analyzed Weiss's next emotion.
Insecurity – a feeling of unease as someone perceives themselves as worthless, unloved, or not good enough.
"I am sure Ruby still loves you!" Penny said, bending forward to take a hold of Weiss's hands again. "She sounds like the kind of person who is able to love many people at the same time!"
Weiss was surprised at the outburst. Raising her eyebrows, it took her a while to realize that Penny was studying her behavioral pattern as they spoke. General Ironwood said that this was how she started learning about the world and people around her, and as soon as enough data had been collected, she shut down this function for good. It was clear that she wanted to know everything about Weiss's story, so her analysis was at full speed at that moment.
Weiss smiled. "She is. And you became very close. Ruby knew things about you that no one else did. Like the fact that you were…" She chose her words carefully. "Made of metal."
"My database tells me that no one besides General Ironwood and my father was supposed to know…" Penny frowned. "That must mean Ruby was also an important person in my life."
"Ruby loved you, Penny." Weiss tightened her hold around the girl's hand. "That's why she was so desolated when you…"
Weiss tried to get the next words out, but she simply couldn't. Tears threatened to appear again in her eyes, and she let go of Penny's hands to wipe them away, as hard as she could.
Anguish – the feeling of extreme distress and pain, bordering a state of desperation.
"Weiss…"
"I'm sorry…" Weiss took a moment to sob into her hands, apparently letting out all of the hard emotions she'd been harboring alone for a long period of time. "I'm sorry you don't remember any of this…"
Penny decided that the best course of action was to allow her to cry with no judgments or words of comfort for now. A couple of minutes passed, and Weiss's breathing started to become regular again. She looked up, breathing deeply and closing her tired red eyes. When she opened them again, she stared right into Penny's gaze. "There was an accident. Your body was destroyed, and your system shut down."
They stood frozen in the room and Penny didn't know how to react. She tried to look for answers in her brain, but her heart was disrupting any logical thought that she tried to form. "I was destroyed?"
"We all saw it happening. And Ruby…" Weiss sighed. "Ruby was right in front of you. She was devastated."
There was a second of clarity with those words, and Penny finally understood the point of that story. "My memory chip was destroyed."
Weiss nodded. "When my father brought me back to Atlas, I begged him to let me supervise your reconstruction. General Ironwood allowed me, and we had a tiny bit of hope that with me present, you could recall some of your old experiences."
"But it didn't work…" Penny averted her gaze and looked around for the first time. They were in a tiny room, and her entire backs were opened, where wires were connecting her torso to a machine. She couldn't move very well from that position, only going as far as bending back and forth on her seat. There was a glass wall on her left, opaque and distorted, which allowed them to have some privacy, even though the people on the other side might've been able to listen. That was why Weiss had asked them to leave. She wondered if those people were going to come back soon, and decided to ask one last question, the one that was trying to escape her mouth ever since the name 'Ruby' appeared in the conversation.
"Where is Ruby now?"
Weiss shook her head. "Missing. We haven't been able to contact the other kingdoms for a while."
Grief – the feeling of sadness associated with a bad experience, like the loss of a loved one.
"I…" Penny's analysis of Weiss's emotional state started to reflect on her own robotic mind, and she felt her heart tightening. She brought both hands to her chest, as she felt physical pain at the thought of never seeing Ruby again, even if her brain told her they've never met. "I would like to see Ruby one more time."
"Me too, Penny." Weiss went for a tired smile.
"Do you love Ruby?"
The question was unexpected, and made the white-haired girl blink for a moment. Of all the things going through her mind after the mess at Beacon, her feelings for Ruby Rose wasn't one of them. But when it came down to it, Weiss knew the answer at the tip of her tongue. "Yes. I was her best team mate, after all."
Penny grinned. "I love Ruby, too. Let's go find her!"
"It's not that simple—"
"But it is!" Penny shifted her hand backwards so she could touch the wires on her backs. She inspected them with some sort of laser, and after a few calculations, she smiled brightly. "We can find Ruby. And Blake. And Yang. The two of us."
Weiss wanted to rationalize with the girl in front of her, but couldn't bring herself to deny that request. Ever since she arrived at Atlas her wish was to leave and be together with her friends again. "…How?"
Penny got up, and automatically detached herself from the machine. The heiress almost had a heart attack, as she was sure the alarms would start to ring, but nothing happened. Penny offered a hand to Weiss. "I've got a plan!"
Weiss looked at her, every fiber of her body screaming that this was a bad idea. But as the rebellious Schnee, her instincts spoke louder, and she grabbed the hand in front of her. "Alright. It's going to be dangerous, though."
Penny closed the metal of her backs. "Don't worry, Weiss," Her smile was determined, but innocent, very Penny-like. "I'm combat ready!"
I had this idea that Penny was going to be rebuilt, but have no memories of her past experiences. Weiss, being in Atlas, would be there to talk to her, and try to make her remember at least the person who loved her the most. Then the two of them would run away and try to find everyone again. I JUST NEED A HAPPY REUNION OKAY
Hope you enjoyed it!
- niigoki