Summary: Volume 3 Spoilers. After her death, Pyrrha Nikos is cloned using Atlas technology. 'Little Pyrrha' has the original's manners, personality, and smile. She looks like her, acts like her… but doesn't feel truly her. For the March 2016 r/RWBY Mon Con.
The Little Pyrrha
Chapter Two
And let me play among the stars
Written from the perspective of "Pyrrha Nikos"
I'm wearing my clothes - a dead woman's clothes.
The shirt and jacket and skirt all smelled so familiar. Yet that was my scent. How strange it is to be able to smell oneself. I straightened the bow around my neck, tightening it like a collar. I patted down my socks for wrinkles. One final check in the mirror and I adjusted myself. The brassieres fit snugly, not too big and not too tight.
I left the room and made my way to the cafeteria where I was to meet everyone. I knew the way. I knew every staircase and every room and every floor yet I had never been in Beacon Academy before. Pardon. I, the current Pyrrha Nikos, have never been in Beacon Academic before.
There were looks at me wherever I go. The side glance in my direction. The look of disgust. The look of shock. The look of horror. Perhaps they saw me as something I wasn't or perhaps they saw me for what I was. Or perhaps the original Pyrrha Nikos harbored the resentment of the student body. Or perhaps she harbored their affections so deeply that I could not fill her shoes.
"Pyrrha Nikos?"
I turned to face the Heiress of the Atlas, Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company. For a moment, a thought of rage flashed through my mind. I called her a 'Thief!' in my mind. There in the empty hallway, I felt compelled to reach out and crush her thin neck with my bare hands.
"Weiss Schnee." I greeted. I covered my mouth with my hands. I had misspoken. "I mean, sorry. That was too formal. I meant to say. Hello Weiss."
Like instinct imprinted into my very genes, I bowed in apology. Weiss simply folded her arms, an eyebrow raised curiously. She wore the same uniform I was and insisted I raise my head. Afterall, Weiss explained, we were friends.
Were we?
I had never met her before this moment.
"How are you enjoying Beacon?" Weiss' question was direct. She did not pretend that I was the original Pyrrha. She did not ask 'How are you?' or 'How was your day?' There were no games with her. Her eyes looked at me, icy and calculating, with the intensity of the shattered moon's darkest side. To her, I was but a fake, an imitation…
A counterfeit.
"It is all very new yet very familiar."
"Unsurprising. Atlas technology allows us to imprint basic memory protocols into synthetic clones." Weiss said it nonchalantly, like the most obvious thing in the world. "It might take some getting used to, but you'll have all the knowledge the old…" Weiss bit her tongue as if catching herself in breaking taboo. "I mean- you'll know everything you'll ever need to know."
"It has been a pleasant experience."
"Really?" Weiss appeared unconvinced. "With everyone looking at you like some abomination?"
"I don't believe people see that in me-"
Weiss snorted.
"You're acting like her already."
"Pardon?"
"She used to act like everything was okay when nothing was." With a sigh, she walked past me, her arms still crossed tightly. "Come on. The doofus is probably waiting for you."
It took a moment for me to realize who she was referring to. "You mean Jaune?"
"Who else could I be- oh right, you don't remember… yeah. Him. He's waiting for you."
As I followed along in the wake of Weiss' footsteps, I couldn't help but believe she was correct in her assessment. Maybe this experience was not so pleasant after all.
The cafeteria was large.
"Pyrrha!" A girl with a red cape waved at me furiously from across the rows of tables. Her voice echoed throughout the cafeteria halls. "Here! Here! We saved you a seat!"
Weiss continued walking towards her. I followed along.
There were many people seated at the table. Jaune was not present. There was a man with black hair and a single pink highlight. Lie Ren. A girl with orange hair and vicious energy. Nora Valkyrie. A girl of black - Blake Belladonna - and a girl of yellow - Yang Xiao Long. And there was, of course, the girl with the red cape - Ruby Rose. The girls wore the same uniforms as I.
"Hello. I am Pyrrha Nikos."
Ruby snorted a laugh. "We know that!" She waved off. "Come on - sit! Sit! Jaune went to get you some food."
"How was the stay at the hospital?" Blake asked curiously.
"It was good. They were very nice."
"Got any good grub?" Nora licked her lips as she continued with a midday helping of pancakes. "I hearf hoffipal fooft tastes baph. Zith truth?" She sputtered out a spray of pancake bits over Lie Ren who sat opposite of her.
"No. They were very accommodating. They served me all my of my favorites."
"Is that so?" Weiss said. "Well, you're welcome - I footed the bill for that after all."
I looked to Weiss before bowing my head. "Thank you."
The table sat in silence for a moment before a thick arm wrapped around my neck in a headlock.
"Come on Weiss, don't be like that! She was just joking Pyrrha. You'll need to get used to her humor. She's not exactly the easiest person to warm up to!" Yang paused expectantly. "Get it? Warm up to?"
"Pardon?"
"It's a pun. She does those things." Blake explained.
A pun. It is a type of wordplay that suggests two or more meaning by exploiting similar sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect. My mind began processing this. 'Warm up' means to get to know someone better. It also means to literally raise one's temperature. Weiss Schnee's name means 'White Snow'. Snow is cold. Oh. I get it.
I laughed several seconds after the fact.
"Haha… we'll work on that," Yang said patting my back. "That actually reminds me of that mission in the Southern Meadows. You know, that joint mission?"
Ruby's eyes sparkled at the memory. "Yeah! I remember that too! Wasn't that the time Nora wandered off and…"
"Oh yeah! I remember that lecture Pyrrha gave me. 'Nora, it's very inappropriate to…" Nora went off in an impersonation of myself before everyone began laughing at the rendition of the events that had played out in the past.
I did not laugh.
How strange it was to see all your 'friends' talk about you as if you were not really there. Then again, I was not the Pyrrha Nikos they were speaking of. I am the current Pyrrha Nikos.
Even still, I was the stranger at the table.
Jaune returned bearing a tray of food, ladened with Pyrrha Nikos' favorites.
"Here you go Pyrrha! You must be starving."
"Thank you, Jaune." I did not have the heart to tell him I did not like the food but I ate it with a smile anyway.
Chapter Two Fin
'Language is the source of misunderstandings.'
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
