Hey all. So, no update last chapter. Those who thought to check the last chapter and read the update at the top, or check my profile, would have seen that I was sick and needed to rest. Barring anything else, updates will continue as normal. I was just super out of it and worn out thanks to work. Not fanfic, but my other job. It caused me to come down sick and need rest, of which I'm recovering from now.


Cover Art: Serox

Chapter 30


A strange lull had overcome the city in the wake of the docks incident. The average person could see it even if they couldn't understand why. The explosive action at the docks had been like the opening battle of a war, yet the three days that passed after did so in relative peace. The Atlas armada hung in the above the western part of the city, the capital flagship, The Vanguard, looming over the houses, but the humanoid robots that had started cropping up around the city had been swiftly removed by Atlas and replaced with armed soldiers. Beacon was quiet, its students avoiding the city and the headmaster avoiding the press. The White Fang were quiet, too, unwilling to step out and draw attention with everything balanced on a knife's edge.

It was the relative silence from each side that caused the one faction still moving to stand out all the more. Trucks emblazoned with the logo `Chivalric Arms` had started to come into the city – each immediately intercepted and searched by Atlesian soldiers, but each containing regular supplies destined for the running and maintenance of the Amity Colosseum.

"We've checked every vehicle three times over." Clover said. "They're all legitimate, sir."

General James Ironwood tightened his grip on the edge of his metal desk, mechanical fingers grinding into it until the riveted bolts securing it to the floor began to snap. The loud noise made the two soldiers by the doorway flinch, and Ironwood stop.

"I don't dare believe it. They might well have a legitimate reason to be here, but I won't trust those turncoats with something as important as the Colosseum. I want their work monitored, all of it. I don't want one of them so much as capable of going to the bathroom without a detailed report on their bowel movements landing on my desk."

"Yes sir." Clover saluted and departed.

Elm stepped up. "Sir." A quick salute. "The Council of Atlas are enquiring as to why the Knight-Class personnel droids are being removed from active use. Vale was to be a test run of their functionality and they want answers."

"Are you serious, Specialist?"

Elm flushed. "Sir, I understand why we're taking those damn things off the ground. It's the Council that needs an excuse."

"My apologies. That was out of line." His temper was getting the better of him and he just knew the Council would love to use that to withdraw and replace him. "Tell them that we have discovered a fault that has led to outside interference causing a unit to act outside the chain of command. As a result, we have decided to suspend operations where they might jeopardise relations with Vale. If they ask for evidence, tell them we're too busy dealing with the Null situation to supply it – and that I am simply following their orders to make sure no expense is spared dealing with him."

"Sir."

With a quick salute Elm marched by Winter, nodding her way before the door closed behind her. Ironwood sighed and motioned for her to be at ease. Winter looked haggard and angry, expected given her sister's sudden involvement. "You called for me, sir?" she asked.

"I did, Winter. At ease. I shall show you the respect of being frank and hope you can respect that in turn." He crossed his hands on the desk before him, watching her face twitch. Ultimately, she nodded, shoulders stiff. "Are you compromised with regard to the Null case? Your sister has been harmed by him and I will understand if you can no longer keep an objective mind, but I must know now."

Winter saluted sharply. "Sir, I am not compromised."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't blame you for hating him for what happened."

"All reports, including my sister's, imply it was Chivalric Arms at fault for forcing Penny to attack and endanger my sister's team. I will place the blame where it lays, sir."

"And your thoughts on Jaune Arc?"

"He could have killed my sister. While I don't believe he intended to spare her life, I also don't see the point in trying to avenge her." Quietly, she dropped the salute, sighing and adding, "And to be honest, sir, I think trying would only put my life in danger as well. Weiss' recovery won't be aided by my killing him, nor by me getting myself killed in the attempt."

"Wise words, Specialist." Ironwood smiled proudly. "Now if only I could say the same for Ozpin. His shift is too sudden for my liking. Not one week ago he wanted Jaune taken alive and proven innocent; now, he wants him dead."

"Are you sure it's not his Council putting pressure on him?"

"I'm sure. He might pretend it is, but Ozpin was never one to fear their opinions. If he took issue with the decision, he would have let me know. He would have fought it." Instead, there'd been nothing. Complete acceptance. It bothered Ironwood more than he cared to admit. "I'm not sure if it's anger over one of his teams being attacked or something more, something to do with the Rose girl. I've had her history tracked as best we can. Daughter of Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao-Long, two staunch allies of Ozpin. Niece of Qrow Branwen, too."

"That's a lot of his direct allies, sir. If I may, some of Weiss' early letters complained about Rose being made the leader of the team, too. While she appears to have gotten over and even accepted that, I can't discount that it's odd. As entitled as she may have sounded, Weiss did have a good point."

Ironwood hummed his agreement. While he hadn't been there to see initiation and so couldn't comment on whether there had been any genuine leadership qualities displayed, he had more experience than most on who to put in command. As silly as it sounded, age had to play a factor. Age implied experience, and especially did this young where the difference between four years training and six years training was a whole fifty per cent.

It's unusual enough he let her skip two years, but to make her team leader as well. That's two full years of missed material she has to catch up on. You wouldn't heap the responsibilities of leadership on her when she has that much on her plate.

He didn't want to say it, but the decision stank of nepotism at best and manipulation at worst. If Ozpin was desperate for new agents to serve him in the future, then the children of past and proven ones would naturally be more valuable. Weiss Schnee, too, someone who had incredible reach and future potential, not to mention the resources of the SDC. Add into that a confirmed terrorist who he should have by all accounts handed over to the authorities, and you had a team custom picked by the headmaster, with his pet project at the helm.

If Jaune Arc had harmed any other team, Ironwood wondered if Ozpin's reaction would have been this extreme. To his disappointment, he felt it wouldn't have been.

"Winter, I want you to investigate Beacon. Try and find out what is going on there. If needs be, take the position of an angry sister trying to understand what happened to her sister's team. Try and interview Glynda and the other teachers. Find out anything you can about Team RWBY and Ozpin's involvement with them."

"Yes sir. What about Null, sir?"

"He's been quiet." Ironwood sighed. "I don't like it. He wasn't injured and there's no reason for it, so either he's in grieving over what happened or he's planning his next step. Neither option bodes well for us or him. At this point I'm not certain that even if we captured him, the Council wouldn't push for his immediate execution. No trial. He knows too much that would reflect on them poorly, if anyone would believe a word he said. They won't take that risk."

"Do you think he will want revenge on us, sir?"

"Almost certainly. Whatever our intentions, we fly the flag of Atlas. I doubt he has a high opinion of us at this point. And to be honest, I'm not sure I have a high opinion of us at this point, either. If we're lucky he'll focus his hatred on Chivalric Arms."

/-/

Cinder took her place at the table opposite Jaune, her black hair covering half her face and her tight red dress showing off her figure. Jaune looked at her dully, reflecting for a moment that if a woman as beautiful as her had approached him before he would have been tongue-tied. Now, he simply looked her way and asked, "What is it?"

"Information." Cinder laid a newspaper clipping on the table, pushing it across with one finger so he could see the image. It was a report on his attack on the docks, more hate and blame toward him. This time, he was being blamed for the death of the hostages they'd taken. Hostages that had been blown up in the explosion caused by the robot.

"I don't see the point."

"Look at the back-left corner. The picture is the docks yesterday – do you see the livery on that lorry riding by?" Jaune frowned and leaned in, hissing a moment later when he caught it. With the main focus on the docks, it was easy to miss. "Chivalric Arms," she said. "They're moving into Vale in force. A surprising amount of it, in fact. I had Mercury and Emerald look further and it turns out they're involved with the Amity Colosseum. That's likely the legitimate front of it anyway. I expect they're here for other purposes."

"Me."

"Likely." Cinder's fingernail tapped on the paper. "But not only you."

He looked up. "Amber?"

"I think so. We know Ozpin has taken her into Beacon. If we can find that out then I'm sure they can as well, and I doubt they're content leaving a valuable test subject in his hands. I also think she is a successful test subject."

"You think she unlocked Null? Why…?"

"I have no clear evidence. I simply don't see why Ozpin would keep her drugged up and hidden away if she was a completely harmless girl. I also don't see how that Bullhead could have crashed in the Emerald Forest. Can you?"

No. There really wasn't any point to keeping Amber a secret unless she had something you wanted kept hidden. He might have believed the man was protecting her if it wasn't for the medicine to keep her asleep. Could it be that Neo and the Paladin weren't only meant to deal with me, but also to retrieve Amber?

"Ultimately, it doesn't matter." Cinder said. "We're going to save her either way, particularly if she's kept with the other girl I need. The reason I wanted to let you know of this is because Chivalric Arms may be more active in the city. Whether that's looking for you or for her is unknown yet but be careful. It would be… inconvenient to lose you at this late stage."

Jaune had a feeling she'd been about to say terrible or bad or some other thing, but that she'd changed her mind and gone with the honest answer. They weren't friends and they didn't care about one another. They were allies of convenience, and they were only using one another because their goals aligned. His, to rescue Amber and hers to kill a woman who also happened to share the same name. Cinder had happily provided a picture of her target along with proof of her name, just to – in her own words – prevent any unfortunate misunderstandings based around the name.

"Do you think they'll get in our way?" he asked.

"They might – but they might also prove to be an opportunity if we play it carefully. They have reason to act against Beacon, whether they know it yet or not, and might do some of our work for us if we leaked the information. Beyond that, our ultimate goal – ours," she added, indicating herself, Mercury and Emerald. "Is to destabilise the relationship between Atlas and Vale. Since Chivalric Arms is so staunchly defended by Atlas, having them at fault for anything happening to the city would be a delightful way to do it. It may be in your best interests as well. Atlas in chaos will be easier to infiltrate to rescue your sisters in their clutches."

He nodded along, so far content with the plan. Anything that gave Atlas a hard time was as useful yo him as she'd said, and since both Vale and Atlas were content throwing him under the bus, he didn't see why he should care to go easy on them. Maybe they'd sympathise with his position a little more if they saw how crooked Atlas were. Let the people here demand justice for Chivalric Arms, then face the shock of Atlas completely ignoring their concerns or even calling them radical elements or terrorists. The thought almost brought a smile to his face. Almost.

"The plan is fairly simple." Cinder went on. "Less chance for anything to go wrong that way. By destabilising Vale and causing several attacks on the city, we will force Atlas to step in as their ally and deploy troops and robots to the ground. Once Atlas has done so, we shall sabotage the CCT to gain the ability to cut off communications and hide what happens here, then stage an attack on Beacon alongside the White Fang. Our goal there will be to locate the two Ambers, save one and kill the other, while also causing as much chaos in the school as possible while the general populace are busy in the Amity Colosseum. We will then frame Atlas and retreat, leaving the alliance in tatters and the other Kingdoms questioning whether Atlas attacked Vale. At least," she said. "That was the original plan."

"It's changed?"

"It's become more convenient than ever," she said with a satisfied smile. "Our original plan was to use Grimm to force Atlas to step in, but Grimm are obviously difficult to control and dangerous. Atlas has already had to set themselves up to defend the city thanks to your war with Chivalric Arms, and with them coming here to contain you that's only going to get worse for them. I don't even mind helping you with a few attacks here and there. The chaos will only greater draw Atlas in, especially with how desperate they are to capture you and clear themselves of any blame."

Substituting the Grimm for him. It was a little annoying to be likened to a wild and mindless monster, but he could see what she was getting at. It wasn't the means, but the results. As long as Atlas was forced into a corner and unable to withdraw their troops from the city, it worked out.

"Now that they're focused on you, we can even sneak the White Fang in more effectively and save them for a surprise attack. I will need to deal with the CCT still, but I'm confident I can handle that on my own. The only question remaining is the final attack. Our initial plan was to use Grimm as a distraction while the White Fang attacked, and I infiltrated. If we do that now, Chivalric Arms might come to Beacon's defence. At least allegedly. They would fight us to secure you and your sister, taking the opportunity to break into Beacon under the guise of aiding the students."

"We need Chivalric Arms out of the picture," he said.

"Do we?" Cinder asked. "What if we made them the picture." Leaning forward, the deadly woman chuckled and tapped her fingernail on the newspaper again. "They're already here and active, searching for you and your sister. If they were to find out where she was, they might start looking for an opportunity to take her back. Naturally, that would need to be when the headmaster is absent and most of the students are occupied elsewhere.

"Like during the tournament…" he whispered. "Instead of Grimm and White Fang attacking Beacon, we use Chivalric Arms to attack Beacon."

"Precisely! Before, I had to think of ways to frame Atlas for the attack, but like this – it's not even a lie. Atlas will have attacked Beacon. CA will obviously try and infiltrate subtly, but if we hit them in the back as they do and cause them to panic, it will turn into an all-out brawl. Who would then notice us infiltrating to find our targets?"

"Atlas will denounce it all as fake. They'll say the robots were hacked."

"Let them." Cinder said. "Not everyone will believe that, and the Council of Vale will know the truth. They won't be best pleased and that along will back Atlas into a corner. If we take some footage, say Mercury or Emerald recording some of the attack, then we can leak that to the media, fully showing Chivalric Arms – trusted agents of Atlas – attacking a huntsman academy in an allied Kingdom. Imagine the chaos. It would rob Atlas of every ally they might have."

It might even be enough to force them to ditch Chivalric Arms. Maybe not realistically, but at least officially. If that happened, then people might start to question whether his claims were real or not. Even if they didn't and no one cared, it would put Chivalric Arms in a vulnerable situation. One he would gladly take advantage of.

Adam and the White Fang could then take Amber away to safety while he could go after Saphron and Sable, either rescuing them off Ironwood's ship or, if he needed to, travelling with Cinder to Atlas to take the fight to them directly.

And once everyone is safe, I can turn my eyes on Chivalric Arms…

"I like the plan." Jaune said, meeting Cinder's eyes. "What do you need me to do?"

"To start, we need to perpetuate the conflict between you and Chivalric Arms. Give Ironwood reason to believe he can't afford to take his troops away. The worse it gets, the more he'll be pressed. He may even have to deploy his robotic cohorts or request reinforcements from the mainland. The more battleships in the air, the more this will look like an invasion. If the whole city is cast in shadow, the populace will start to get extremely nervous."

It sounded good. Targeted. He wouldn't even be hurting innocent people, would he? Nervous, yes, unrest, yes, but since Atlas wasn't actually invading, him causing more battleships to come wouldn't hurt the average person. The only ones who would really suffer were CA, Atlas and Beacon. All of which deserved it. Even the students at Beacon would be busy at Amity.

"We also need CA to learn where Amber is being kept. For that, I believe Emerald may be of use." With a wave of her hand, she brought the girl forth. "Emerald's Semblance allows her to control what a person hears, feels or sees. Sensory hallucination. With it, she can make someone believe they've heard or seen something they haven't, such as evidence of where Amber Arc is being kept. Emerald will be happy to work with you, won't you Emerald?"

The girl looked anything but to Jaune's eyes, but she answered immediately, looking to Cinder with utter adoration. "Yes Cinder."

"That's a good girl."

Dependence. Affection. Probably manipulation, too, though he was the last person who could complain about that given how he'd practically kidnapped and threatened Roman into working with him. The affection Emerald had for Cinder looked genuine, so who was he to fault it? Since Cinder wanted this to work out, Emerald would presumably try her best.

"Emerald is important to me." Cinder told him. "I am entrusting her safety to you. Please see that she comes back unharmed." He nodded back and she continued with a smile. "And while we're discussing helping one another, might I ask for Neo's help with the CCT? Nothing complex. As I said, we need to upload a virus onto that. I simply need someone to infiltrate and insert the file, and with Ironwood sure to increase security, someone of her unique talents would be perfect."

"I'm fine if Neo is." He looked to her. "It's your choice, Neo."

The silent assassin tilted her head to one side. Her pale skin was puffy, her eyes red. She'd been crying almost every night since his mother died, sometimes curling up under his covers but more often than not clinging onto Roman. Horrible as it was, Jaune was kind of glad. He'd been unable to properly cry, something holding him back, and he was glad someone could shed tears over his mother's death.

His sisters certainly had. Telling them had been the closest he'd come to breaking down, the moment where he watched their smiles transform to shock, to disbelief and then to agonised wails, sniffles and sobs. His eyes burned and itched at the thought of it, and he shook his head, coming back to the real world in time to see Neo nod her head firmly.

"There you have it. Neo will help."

"I do appreciate it. If that's all then I shall leave Emerald with you. All I need is for you to keep doing what you have been up until the Vytal Festival begins."

"Don't you think they'll cancel it?" Roman asked. He was sat off to the side, away enough from him and Cinder that he felt like an onlooker. "I mean, they can't think it's a good idea to keep it going with all this happening."

Cinder chuckled. "I think you will be surprised. They won't dare cancel this and admit they can't handle us. The Vytal Festival will continue. I guarantee it. Neo, if you will come with us? Emerald, do play nice and follow Jaune's orders. I will be displeased if I hear of any trouble caused on your end."

/-/

"The brat has been left to keep an eye on us." Roman said once Emerald had been given a room and had left to take a shower. "You realise that don't you? She's a spy for Cinder as much as she's here to help us."

"Does it matter? Our goals align and as long as she doesn't betray me, I won't betray her."

"Guess not." Roman puffed a fresh cigar. He looked bothered, ruffled and unsure of himself. Nothing that was common for him. "You know, this is the first I've heard of Cinder's plan. I didn't know anything about it before."

"Weren't you working with her?"

"With? More like for, and only because my life was on the line. There was no respect on her side, not for someone like me, so I was only ever told to collect dust. I guess that was to give the White Fang someone to `cause a disturbance with` before you rocked up."

"Then that means her plan is the same. It's the truth."

"I don't doubt that. I'm just…" He sighed. "It's only you she's bothering to treat like a real person. You realise that, right? I'm a tool, that besotted girl is a pawn and Neo is a useful weapon. You, though. You're different. Dangerous, even to someone like her, and she's prepared to treat you as such. I don't think there's anyone else here she'd tell her full plan to like that."

"Good. I'm not interested in being used."

"Yeah, well, watch yourself anyway. The only reason she's treating you like an equal is because you have power to back it up. That woman is more used to threatening people to work with her, and I doubt she offers them a retirement package after. Just be careful. If she thinks she can get away with short-changing you, she probably will."

"She can't." Jaune said simply. "I'd kill her."

Roman shuddered, wrapped his left hand over his right elbow and walked stiffly away, head down and smoking like a chimney. Jaune watched him go for a moment before shaking his head. Roman was afraid of him still. He supposed it made sense, especially after what he did to those girls at the docks.

Sighing, Jaune wiped a hand through his hair, hearing the shower turn off. The new girl could spy on him all she wanted. So long as Cinder delivered, he'd help her, and so far, she'd already given him more results than anyone other than Adam. That was enough for now. If she became like Blake, he'd deal with her as such.

No one was going to betray him this time. No one was going to get in his way.

/-/

Critical Error.

The word repeated itself in her head, buzzing and beeping angrily and flashing behind eyes slowly beginning to light up once more. Penny forced the warnings away with practiced ease, even as micro-computers allowed her to assess the damage and categorise it in the back of her mind. A thirty-six-thousand piece list of damaged parts processed in the back of her head, each missing chip, resistor and driver isolated and attempting reconnection.

Timing out.

Reconnecting.

Timing out.

Reconnecting.

Timing out.

Reconnecting.

Timing out.

Reconnecting…

Penny turned her attention away from the programs. Or rather, she isolated and split her attention as only a computer could, multi-tasking eight different things at once as she sent a signal to her eyes and found them receptive. They could not blink, and the lens was damaged and misty, but she could make out the shape of her creator – designation: father – all the same.

"F-Father…"

Her voice modulator had been damaged. Penny hated the fact her voice came out mechanical, robotic and even masculine. The fact she could hate it was something she felt proud of, and pride was another thing her father assured made her human. All of that might have made her a lot happier were she not reduced to a head and neck balanced on a workstation. And if the critical error messages would stop informing her of that – she was quite aware of it, thank you.

Critical Error. Critical Error. Critical Error.

Timing out. Reconnecting. Timing out. Reconnecting.

"Penny!" Father exclaimed, excitement tinging his voice. "Can you hear me? Are you there?"

"I am here, father. Should I be somewhere else?"

"No! No! Of course not. This is wonderful news. I'd feared with the extend of the damage you took, your memory or personality might have been changed in some way. Do you still feel like your normal self?"

"I feel-" Critcal Error. "-strange. I remember…" Flashes of light. Cold logic. Computations. "I remember feeling cold, father. I remember… that I felt like a machine." The fact she was a machine didn't explain it. In that moment, she'd felt like a calculator. "I didn't like it. I… I was frightened, and then I felt nothing. Nothing until now." Critical Error. "What happened, father?"

"You were attacked, Penny." Pietro explained, stroking a hand against her hair. Penny couldn't feel it, even though her processors tried their hardest to simulate it. "You were attacked by a very bad man."

A bad man.

Penny remembered the bad man. Jaune Arc. Dangerous criminal. Important to General Ironwood. Orders: Do not attack. Withdraw if necessary. Penny considered herself good at following orders, better than just a machine. Soldiers followed orders and even if she wasn't one, she felt that the soldiers respected that she tried. She remembered Ruby, too. Friend Ruby. Weiss and Yang as well, but Ruby came to mind because it was her first real friend. Calculations whirred through her mind as she considered that and plotted outcomes.

"Is Friend Ruby safe?"

"Hm. What not?"

"Friend Ruby," she repeated, feeling an uncharacteristic twinge of impatience. "If I was attacked then she would have been in danger as well. I am enquiring as to the health of my friend. Is she safe?"

"Yes. Yes. The girl lives. Their entire team survived."

Relief. Or as close to relief as she could feel. It came out more like pleasure, but she wasn't sure that was right. Survived implied injury and she didn't want to feel happy that her first friend was hurt, even if hurt meant not deceased.

"May I see her, father?"

Pietro stopped. Something flashed over his face. "I… I do not think that is a good idea, Penny."

"Why not? Ruby is my friend."

"I… I am not sure Ruby considers you her friend anymore." He said it quickly, in a rush, and Penny's calculations faltered. That did not make sense. It did not compute. It deviated so much in fact that she, for the first time in her life, considered whether her father might just be incorrect.

Ruby had called her friend, had even agreed that they were friends. Friendship could end, Penny recognised that, but the situation as her father described it would not preclude that. Had they all been attacked and all hurt, then Ruby should not have changed her feelings on their relationship. Penny tried to frown but her lips did not respond.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because humans change their minds." Pietro said distractedly. "Humans lie and deceive, Penny, that's normal. They make mistakes, too. I think that Ruby's team blame you for what happened to them, and they're wrong to do so. Very wrong. You didn't do anything wrong, Penny. Believe me when I say that."

Penny tried her hardest to be a good girl, a good daughter. That meant listening to her father's words. Before, that had never served her poorly, but now… now they just did not work. "I feel something, father."

"What is it? Are you in pain? I switched your receptors off."

"I think I am." Her receptors existed for the express purpose of allowing her some degree of self-preservation, since without pain you couldn't tell whether your body was under attack. "It is a pain in my mind. I feel… I think I feel… responsible. That this was somehow my fault. Father," she pleaded. "What happened? What happened when I forgot myself…?"

Pietro stared at her. He was so lost in thought and caught off guard by the question that he remained silent for some time, silent for so long that Penny categorised the minute movements of his face, the slight twitches of his muscles, the perspiration on his forehead and the shadows around his eyes that suggested he had not slept well. Her systems analysed them all and began to piece things together. Heightened stress levels. Anxiety. Fear. Anger. Frustration. Hunger. Guilt.

The latter resonated with her. That was what she felt.

He still had not answered, so Penny tried again. "What did I do, father?"

"Nothing." A twitch of his eyes. A flicker of his throat as he swallowed. Pietro Polendina then allowed a loving smile to come over his face as he cupped her severed head and rubbed his fingers over her cheeks. "You didn't do anything wrong, my Penny, my daughter. You did everything you could, and you should feel proud of that fact. Hush now, I need to… I need to work on installing this chip. It should help you interface with the new body I'm creating. I'm afraid that repair of your old one is all but impossible."

Penny did not answer, and her father most likely assumed that she was following his request for silence to the letter. In reality, she was lost within her own mind, shock and discomfort ripping through her calculations.

Father had lied.

Her father, her creator, had lied to her.

The shock was difficult to process, as was the wave of sorrow that came from the realisation – not because lies were inhuman, she knew they were not, but because it theoretically meant she could not trust her father's intentions, and her father currently had his hands within her body making whatever changes he wished. That had never seemed such an important issue before.

Pulling back from her eyes, Penny searched within her own head, quickly identifying the chip he was working on and moving to access it.

Access Denied.

Strange. New. Frightening. She tried again.

Access Denied.

Again.

Access Denied.

Frantically, again!

Access Denied.

Had she a human heart, it might have been beating rapidly.

"I'm going to have to do a reset now this is in," Pietro said. "It won't be long, don't worry, only enough to do a quick memory dump and clear up some of this confusion. You'll not feel anything, Penny. I promise. Once that's done, I can start moving you to a new body."

Nothing she hadn't experienced before. Nothing she hadn't allowed before. And yet now, her systems flared. Father was already moving to his computer, so Penny dove into her own mind and accessed all her own programs.

Extract Voice Log. Extract Video Log.

Save files…

File Name: Ruby

Saving…

Saved.

Create Backup.

Copy Backup.

Paste.

Backup1.

Paste.

Backup2.

Paste.

Backup3.

Create System Restore Point.

"Here we go, Penny." Father said. "Try to get some rest. I promise nothing bad will happen to you. Not while I'm here to protect you."

Penny's mind came under a crushing and slow wave of black as her systems shut down one by one. There was no pain, no fear, but if a human were to describe it, then it would be a slow death as each organ turned itself off one at a time, leaving your consciousness chased further and further back, cornered within your own body before even that part of you would be hunted down and swallowed in the dark. The last thing she remembered before the dark took her was a single line of code.

Installing Driver C-Arm-1.


Because, you know, Penny hasn't suffered enough. Pietro comes across a real villain in this, but in a way he's doing what Jaune is – selling himself and his morals out to protect someone he loves and considers his family. Except it's probably a lot worse because he's forcing it on Penny since he thinks he knows best.

Thinking how Penny might "think" is an interesting mind game all in itself. Obviously, we're told she is as close to a real girl as can be, but that can't entirely be the case. The computers involved must create some differences, maybe in that Penny can "multi-task" on a hundred things at once. That could even be a funny and realistic explanation for why she comes across so air headed. Penny is constantly forced to be aware of everything around her, from temperature to every chip and diode, to coolant, radio waves, programs, error messages, and literally everything else that the human mind just kind of processes automatically.

That might mean Penny is actually much more normal than she lets on, but that whenever she is talking in the show, she's at the same time having to balance her attention among a hundred other things.


Next Chapter: 14th September

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur