Equal But Opposite: Penny

Penny had never liked having her mind scanned. Sure, it was ultimately good for her in the long run to check for viruses and maintain her basic processes, but at the same time she could never quite get over the tingly feeling that would be left in the strangest corners of her brain. One such tingle just raced across her the leftmost portion of her frontal lobe equivalent, causing her to fidget in her seat. This clearly had not been missed by the other girl in the room, as an amused giggle filled the space to Penny's immediate right.

"Penny, you have to stay still," Ruby scolded playfully as she glanced over at the cable currently plugged into the base of the android girl's head. "If you move too much you might jostle the data cord. That's super bad for you."

Despite the tingles, a smile crept onto Penny's face. Though Ruby could not know it, she sounded almost exactly like Penny's father. Perhaps a touch less formal in her vocabulary, but just as doting. It was a warming sort of realization which could only be ruined by another tingle racing through her.

"But Ruuuuubyyyyyyy," Penny whined in a manner she had found effective against her father from time to time. "It tickles."

"No buts," came her tormentor's stern reply as Ruby gave another expression identical to that of the elder Polendina. How was she so similar to a man she had never even met? "I was able to subvert Cinder's commands into voluntary directives so you weren't actually under her control, but I don't want this virus in you any longer than it has to be. I don't want Emerald or Mercury or…" Ruby paused to shudder a bit, "Roman Torchwick finding a way to control you. I don't want anyone controlling you, really."

That statement raised a question, now that Penny thought about it. "Why not just program me to be completely obedient to you? It would probably be simpler for your goals if you didn't have to worry about my loyalty when planning your war against the Grimm."

A horrified look crossed Ruby's face for a few seconds, as though such an act was unthinkable. "Because you're a person. You deserve to choose what you fight for. If I took that away from you, I'd be a monster."

"Choose for myself…" That was both a welcoming notion and a frightening concept. But Ruby believed she could do it. That was enough for her. Then another tingle struck. "Can I choose to end the sweep, early?"

"Nice try," Ruby giggled as she checked the progress bar on the screen behind them. "Besides, you've only got two minutes to go. I think you're tough enough to make it that long."

"Two minutes?" Penny balked with exasperated incredulity, as though ten more seconds would be unbearable.

Ruby, for her part, did seem to be taking Penny's growing discomfort into serious consideration. She pondered for a few seconds, taking in all available data in a way Penny only ever saw when they were alone in Beacon. Finally, her thoughtful frown shifted into a reassuring smile.

"Here," she offered as she took Penny's hand in her own. "My dad would do this for me whenever we were at the doctor's."

Penny believed she'd heard something about that from one of the numerous uncles on her father's research and development team. Parents would often provide physical intimacy to their children as a means of reassuring them when they were afraid. Penny could hardly say she was afraid, but she certainly welcomed the opportunity to take Ruby's hand in her own. As she gained new senses during her development in Atlas, Penny had found herself craving a sort of closeness she could rarely get out of anyone who was not her father. Though leagues apart from the incredible diversity of an organic nervous system, the network of small pressure censors littered throughout her latex skin could at least provide her with those barest of essentials to feel somewhat connected to the world around her. Still, an echo of disappointment rang through her as she considered all the things about Ruby's hands she didn't know. Soft or rough, moist or dry, even hot or cold were concepts on the very edge of her understanding. As of her current body, they were nothing but a numbers on a HUD, fed by a myriad of different sensors woven into the brace on her neck.

As Penny recalled, immediately following their departure from Vale airspace Ruby had retired to the nearest stadium restroom and proceeded to scrub her hands for two hours, eight minutes, and thirty seven seconds, well after the blood from Cinder Fall had been washed away. Why she had done this was unclear and Penny had been too occupied with performing various necessary tasks to ensure the short and long term security of their operation. Being unable to detect any chapping or chafing through touch, Penny figured it might be better to simply ask Ruby if she had felt any of those symptoms in case she hadn't noticed.

As Penny opened her mouth to pose the question, an electronic chime sounded off to interrupt her.

"All right, looks like you're done. That wasn't so bad, was it?" Ruby chirped happily as she went about disconnecting the data cable safely.

"I suppose," Penny agreed with reluctance. She stood up, servos humming as she proceeded to stretch out her back to alleviate any stiffness from staying still for so long. "What else do we have to do, today?"

"Let's see," Ruby pondered. The pair exited the makeshift repair hub and began their walk to the command center down the hallway. "A squad of Knights need to be inspected for damage, our Dust intake for the week needs to be cataloged so we can get a better idea for when we'll need to refuel, and we should check the news to see what the climate is like in Vale."

"Of course," Penny agreed readily. The command center stood before them with a lively glow radiating off the holographic map in the middle of the room. "What about our, um, guest that you had me make accommodations for?"

Ruby barely looked up from the map as she began scrolling through the massive landscapes available. "We can't worry about that until we set up a way to communicate without being traced. Just keep an eye out and make sure nothing happens."

That reminded Penny of something she had been meaning to ask for a while. "Ruby, I have a question."

"What's up?" her new partner responded absently as she kept her eyes on the maps.

"Well, I was wondering," she started nervously, twiddling her fingers when she didn't know what to do with her hands, "When we establish a communication method, I was hoping I could make contact with my father. I know I'm disobeying him by joining you, but I still want to let him know I'm doing all right."

The scrolling stopped and Ruby's expression turned dour. Eyes of conflicted silver rose to meet hopeful green as the ex-student struggled to find the right words, "I… I don't know, Penny. The general has his hooks in deep with your dad."

It was hard to say if Penny had ever been a child at any point, but her harsh, biting disappointment at the prospect of not getting too talk to her father certainly gave the impression of a far less developed maturity. "But he worries about me, so much. If I don't tell him I'm okay, who knows how badly he might take my leaving."

Looking up at Ruby with desperate eyes, Penny could notice the significant change in Ruby's expression upon witnessing her devastation. Ruby averted her gaze for a few seconds, mouth curled into a small frown as she again began weighing out all the factors set out before her. There was something amusing about the way her eyes would shift and narrow with greater and greater intensity, to the point Penny had to stifle a giggle before she forgot herself entirely.

"Can we be sure he won't betray us to Ironwood?" Ruby asked reluctantly.

"Ruby, he always said he was my father first and a scientist second," Penny assured her partner with complete sincerity. No hiccup erupted from her lips, which told them both that it was the truth.

"All right then," Ruby relented. "As soon as we get a system going, we'll put in a call to your dad. I just hope he doesn't hate me…"

The disappointment was replaced by excitement and gratitude in an instant and Penny found her arms moving on their own accord to encircle her generous new partner and draw her close. "Ohhhhhh thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"P-Pen-ny… Can't… breathe!" Ruby squeaked from where she had been mashed against Penny's chest in an attempt to trigger as many sensors as possible.

"Oh, sorry!" the android loosened her grip but did not let go. "I'm sure you two will get along wonderfully! You would probably have all sorts of things to talk about since you both enjoy engineering! Oh, this is going to be excellent!"

"Well, glad you're confident, at least," Ruby groaned as she slowly pealed out of the embrace and recomposed herself. "Anyway, let's get back to planning. There was something I wanted to show you."

"Oh?"

Ruby used her newly freed hands to swipe through a few more maps until she came to what she wanted. It was a continent, green near the bottom but a near pitch black traveling upwards. Perhaps the most interesting part of this land mass was its resemblance to a dragon, in shape.

"Is that?" Penny began as her eyes widened. Everyone with a basic knowledge of geography knew that continent, as well as the menace surrounding it.

"This," Ruby began as she put her hand under the image as though cradling it in her palm, "is our primary goal. The Grimm have been winning the long game for millennia, forcing humanity to hide behind walls as they cover the open land. We can't expand, which means we can't develop. This continent is the ultimate example of what the Grimm have managed to take from us," she cracked an excited grin as the great black dragon reflected in her iris, "So, we're gonna take it back. We're gonna take everything back."