Summary: Penny Polendina was different from other girls. When she met Ruby Rose, she began to think of her often. What sort of things they had in common, what interests they shared. Their friendship consumes Penny's last thoughts. For the r/RWBY February MonCon.

The Devil has No Strings on Me

Written from the perspective of Penny Polendina

The string tightens all around me. My destruction is assured.

Forgive me father, I have been defeated. I shall be destroyed. My calculations were off. Penny is a bad girl. Penny is a bad, bad girl.

Pyrrha Nikos is a worthy opponent. Her agility and technique were far above what I had simulated. The discovery of her semblance, the control over metallic substances, was also unforeseen. The strings that you have given me, father, will be my undoing. I believe you would call this ironic. The strings are made of purified alloys that you've developed. I cannot cut them in my present state.

Truly, she is the Goddess of Victory.

A person's life flashes before their eyes prior to moment of death. But I can replay every single record in my databanks dozens of times over in the seconds before my destruction. Every image and every sound is presented in absolute clarity.

The feelings are so real. Every possibility is registered. It is simple planning. I have a plan to kill everyone I meet.

I even had a plan to kill her, my friend, Ruby Rose.

Friend.

She was my friend.

What good are friends when one is on the brink of death? Are you watching me, Ruby Rose? Do you see me in the last of my moments? A living organism lacks the ability to maintain pristine and perfect memory unlike myself. If you watching, I hope you etch this moment deep into your heart.

My first friend - my only friend - I apologize for not saying goodbye.

I wish I had made more friends, but for my circumstances, it was not possible.

Not long after my creation that I identified an abnormality.

Everyone that has come into contact with me has been too courteous. It's fallen outside of the expected range. Behaviors such as opening doors and pulling out chairs happens too frequently, and my attempts to diagnose the issue is met with resistance. "It is gentlemanly conduct," is an example of such resistance.

No one frowns in my presence. The human resting face is a frown, it should be a more natural for them to frown. But when I've been noticed, everyone smiles. Even when I have identified their emotion as one that should not induce a smile, they smile anyway.

Their smiles must be fake, that's the immediate explanation. But why does my presence induce such a reaction?

The passage of time allows certain loss of memories. Precious moments vanish in an instant. I do not suffer such trivial effects. Every debt and every favor is catalogued and registered within the finest memory banks produced by Atlesian technology. They could store lifetimes of memories within me without any decay or loss of quality.

The wires tightened against me. My time is short.

Funny how long death can take.

Father, are you watching? Father, did I make you proud?

The crowd is silent. Was my defeat so unexpected? Was my defeat that shocking? Did they expect more from me, father?

I'm sorry I did not live up to expectations.

Ruby's neck. My fingers. No I will not let you go. Let me go! I will not let you go. Let me go! I will not let you go - let me go... Will you not let her go? Never let her go. Never let her go… No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh Penny - my friend, Penny my friend, Penny my, Penny friend, Penny my friend let me go! Tightening. Tightening. Snap! What a ruuuush.

I want to dream. Slight malfunctions that temporarily interfere with my processing. They reach acceptable levels. Research suggest these visions reflect a person's deepest desires. But I am not a person, so perhaps it is an error in image and desire processing.

Yet, the soft skin of Ruby's neck felt so real. So simple.

Curse you, Ruby Rose. Curse you Pyrrha Nikos. Curse you all to hell.

I don't want to die. I wish I was never made at all. My body cannot tolerate the stress. My existence ends.

One last malfunction… whatever, I will tolerate the thought:

Ruby Rose's soft lips.

CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE

I wonder what they feel like?

EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN INITIATED

Oh well, a girl can dream-

ALL SYSTEMS OFFLINE...