A/N - This was a short fic but hey I like it and it's interesting to think about Reina finding out about *that* sort of stuff - Nothing too angsty just a genuine conversation about the past that has hurt layered underneath it

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Pitter-patter, pitter-patter

The sound of the rain against the roof of the house echoed inside as Penny sat in a chair by the window. It'd been a quiet day. Ruby had left that morning for a quick mission in the outer blizzard in Solatusk. It'd left Penny a bit nervous, but she knew Ruby was more than capable of staying safe in a blizzard.

So the entire day it had just been Penny and her and Ruby's 5-year-old daughter, Reina. Reina had been oddly quiet for most of the day, but with the weather and all Penny wasn't questioning it. Penny had been reading a book since it was a Saturday, meaning she had a day off.

Lucky for her this book was a lot more thrilling than the rain outside. It was about a girl whose lover had their body stolen by a soul who was madly in love with her. It was thrilling, unsettling, but thrilling. Penny was only about halfway through the book.

"Mommy?" Penny heard the sound of Reina's voice from across the room.

"Yes, dear?" Penny said, looking up from her book. She noticed the little girl holding a newspaper in her hand, likely older due to its faded pages. Reina didn't speak though, but she walked over to Penny and sat down in her lap, and handed her the newspaper.

Penny's heart dropped when she read the headline.

'Protector of Mantle, or Threat of Mantle?'

As she read the words she let out a gasp and looked at the picture below, it was a screenshot of the doctored video of herself killing the people in the warehouse at Robyn Hill's victory party… Nearly 20 years ago.

"Where did you find this?" She asked, concern rising.

"It was in an old box… In you and mama's room…" Reina said.

"I didn't even… We still have this?" Penny was surprised that Ruby hadn't thrown it out.

But. Now there was a bigger problem.

"It talks about you… Saying you hurt people…" Reina's eyes were wide, glittering in what little light came in from the outside.

"Sweetie…" Penny didn't know how to exactly explain the article, "It's… That's not what happened… The footage that was taken was edited to look like your mommy hurt those people…"

"But they said that you were a 'machine gone haywire' and 'should be immediately shut down and destroyed', what are they talking about? You're a person, aren't you?" Reina's eyes had begun to water. Penny rubbed her daughter's head a little before sighing.

"Yes, of course I am, and I never would hurt anyone," Penny said. The shame she felt, even after years of knowing it wasn't her, had returned. She took a deep breath before continuing, "But at the time not everyone believed that…"

"But why? You're a person! Just like me and mama!" She exclaimed, sniffling a bit.

"I am now… But at that time I… I wasn't exactly… I wasn't like you and mama…" Penny shook her head, "I was a synthetic girl. Do you ever wonder why I never have an exact age stated anywhere when it's my birthday?"

"Because you don't know how old you are?" Reina tilted her head, wiping her eyes a little with her arm.

"Well, I guess that's true, but… I wasn't born, I was made. My father built me, and I had a robotic body with a soul," She explained, "I didn't know at the time how I was synthetic with an aura, but years later I found out Papa had given me part of his aura so I could exist."

"But… why did people think that if you were a person? Like in the way you're putting it?" She asked.

"Well… Unfortunately, there was a huge disadvantage to the nuts and bolts I had," Penny began. She wasn't sure how to explain this without scaring Reina. She figured a warning first would do, "I want you to know that this won't ever be possible again and that I'm safe from it now, because this was really scary… But I was hackable… Not that it was incredibly easy, but the reason why I even am these squishy guts now…"

"When Atlas first fell… To Salem 20 years ago… During that time I had just become the Winter Maiden, and because the Staff of Creation was holding up Atlas, I had a huge target on my back to open the vault so the mean people could take the staff…" Penny said, "I had these swords when I was a robot, Floating Array. I loved those swords, but they were the connection to my biggest weakness. An evil man, the same one who edited the photo here, he made a… A virus. He put it in one of my swords he had stolen from me and it… It caused me to have to open the vault…" She left out the 'and self-destruct' part as to not potentially give Reina nightmares.

"Well we opened the vault, but since the virus wouldn't go away after that, your mom and aunts came up with a plan. They cleverly worded a request to Mr. Ambrosius, he's the person inside the staff, and he made me this body," She finished. Reina stared at her, amazement sparkling in her silver eyes.

"Wow… But how were you able to become the Winter Maiden?" Reina asked.

"The powers are attached to my soul, just because I may have had a robotic body didn't mean that I couldn't receive them," She stated. If there was one thing she'd learned over the years, it's that it's really the Maiden's soul that matters in the end.

"That's cool!" Reina said, she was surprisingly unphased by the story.

"It really is," Penny took the newspaper and looked at it one more time before placing it on the floor beside them, "You want to help mommy make dinner so that when mama's gets home she'll have a nice warm meal?"

"Yeah! I can help mix the salad! Or help you in setting the table!" The girl threw her arms out in excitement, just barely missing Penny's face as the two headed to the kitchen to make dinner.

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I wanna write more with Reina h but yeah that's it, hope you enjoyed :]