The divergence, and blackmail, begin.

Understanding Leverage

When the planet wasn't trying to kill them with eels and dust storms, it was actually pretty cool. Or, in the case of sound activated flowers, pretty *and* cool.

"Not that I'm complaining about finally being outside-"

"That usually means you're about to complain," Will called back, smirking as he teased her.

Robot was tilting his head, the sparkling lights in his face attempting to convey confusion if she was guessing. Which she was, cause, Robot.

"Only about being out of the loop!" Penny gestured out, shrugging dramatically as she dropped from their log bridge.

Judy stepped down after her, "The only thing Angela remembers from whatever cause the Resolute to malfunction is a glowing red face. And she has laser burns on her body."

"She thinks Robot is dangerous," Will crossed his arms, frowning at them both.

The machine-alien in question was currently holding out his finger for some sort of butterfly type creature to land on.

"Very terrifying," Penny narrowed her eyes on him and then looked back at Judy, "Did Angela say it was a robot? Or describe it?"

"No." Judy huffed, crossing her own arms as Will raised his chin. She spoke directly to him, gaze pointed, "Which is why I agreed to help you hide him till we know more."

Penny rolled her eyes as her siblings began a patented Robinson family stare down. Her money would normally be on Judy, but Will's backbone had grown about as tall as his new robot friend.

"Well, I feel very included in the family adventure now," Penny watched them both wilt under her words, eyes dropping to the forest floor. They both attempted an excuse.

Then they heard a voice.

"Someone's coming!" Penny's eyes widened and she ran for an out cropping just off the path that would give them cover. They all ducked behind it, peaking over the top to watch a group of humans (yay! more colonists!) walking single file down the path.

Robot made a whirring noise as he attempted to watch too. Will quieted him down. No idea how. She was a bit distracted.

"That's him," Penny whispered to Judy, tugging on her arm as she watched the alpha with the pretty hair pause at the back of the line.

Judy followed her gaze, eyes narrowing, "Who's he?"

"The colony representative?" Will asked, brow furrowed as he pointed at one of the adult men.

Penny waved them both quiet as said colony representative called back to the teen, "Vijay! What did I just say?"

There was annoyance in his tone that could only be paternal. Penny quickly filtered through her memory of the boring representative speeches her mother had watched before departure.

"Coming dad!"

Paternity confirmed.

"Victor Dhar!" Penny squeezed Judy's forearm again, grinning widely as she remembered the representative's name. "Our rep is Victor Dhar, which makes him Vijay Dhar."

"Why do we care who his son is?" Will's nose scrunched up, eyes still on the back of the group as they all stood up.

Judy snapped her fingers, lips pursing as she pointed emphatically at Penny's face, "The alpha you wanted me to look up! With the pretty hair."

"Pretty hair?" Will shook his head. He made a face at Robot, "Do you know what they're talking about?"

Robot whirred quietly. Confused.

"Shush," Penny told Will, pushing him lightly as they started to leave their hiding spot. She frowned back at Robot, "I'm surprised at you. Absolutely betrayed."

Robot whirred quietly again. Admonished. Or that's what Penny was going with anyway.

"Hey, look," Will crouched to pick something up from the ground. "Someone dropped this."

"Looks like an envelope," Penny tilted her head to examine it as Will flipped it over in his hand.

Will looked up at her, "Should we open it?"

"No, it's not ours," Penny shook her head.

Though she did admit, to herself, that it was very tempting. This was roughly where Vijay had been-

"Hey!"

Oh dear. Oh shit.

It was probably safe to assume that she was not the only Robinson sibling with her eyes wide like a deer in headlights as Vijay came running back towards them.

"Hi!" Penny smiled at him, cursing internally at her voice.

Because having your voice go super high is not at all suspicious right?

Whatever Judy was doing behind her, Penny sincerely hoped it included hiding Robot. Or signaling him to hide. Something!

Vijay was frowning at them, his brows low. "Where did you guys come from? Are you with Jupiter we passed back..." he trailed off as his eyes landed on the envelope.

Oh, it was definitely his. Her curiosity was sky-rocketing!

"Hey, that's mine." He was already reaching towards Will. "Sorry, I'm gonna need that back."

No. No. Definitely not.

Penny jumped forward, "Oh? What? This thing?" Penny snatched it from Vijay's hand.

If her brother was going to try to keep his robot pal a secret, he really needed to work on his understanding of 'leverage.'

Judy was right behind her. Unnervingly quiet and definitely not keeping Robot behind some tree trunk.

So apparently this was now a job for her.

Vijay was staring at the envelope very intently as she raised it up.

"Seriously, give it back."

Penny was not ashamed to say she appreciated the way his throat bobbed as he tried to snatch it back. He was trying very hard not to get within a foot of her.

Very polite.

She held it behind her back and his arms fell to his side.

Extremely polite.

Even with her antagonizing him, he wouldn't violate what was considered respectful distance for an unmated omega.

A bit outdated, but it was definitely working in her favor so Penny was not complaining.

Will was looking at her with a very confused expression. Also not thinking to go hide Robot.

Seriously? Were all alphas this dense about keeping secrets or just her siblings?

"Whoa." Vijay's eyes were rising behind her then and a familiar whirring told her why. "Get down!" He shouted before he ducked down to grab a rock.

Judy finally moved!

To grab Penny. Which... fair, but not as helpful.

"Wait!" Will stepped between Robot and Vijay.

Robot was staring at the rock he'd just caught in his hand, whirring happily as he probably analyzed its chemical makeup or whatever he did when he looked at things.

Vijay was staring a Robot. Eyes wide.

He didn't pick up another rock and Penny was giving him points for that.

"What is that?" Vijay looked to her, not Will. The hand he raised to point at Robot was shaking.

Okay, now her throat was bobbing. For... reasons.

"Robot. He's friendly," Penny told him, forcing a smile as she pushed past Judy's arm that had pulled her down defensively.

Negotiating time.

"We think," Judy tacked on.

Oh, *now* she talked.

"Not. Helpful." Penny told Judy through gritted teeth as she turned to look at her sister.

"What are you doing with-"

"We're taking him somewhere safe. Away from the colonists," Will told him, stepping closer to the older alpha. He looked up at Vijay with trembling eyes, "You can't tell anyone."

Okay. Nice. She rescinded her judgement about Will not understanding leverage. He obviously was a bit too confident in his ability to guilt people with his innocence, but she could respect the attempt.

That stuff only worked on adults. Vijay was wholly unconvinced. He just quirked a brow and looked back at Penny.

"Consider it a trade," Penny cleared her throat. She held up the envelope. "You keep our secret and I keep this from prying eyes."

Vijay's eyes narrowed. Even Will was looking at her skeptically.

"You'll get it back, unopened, later."

"Define later."

More points. Penny officially liked this alpha. He was not an idiot.

"Once everyone knows about the robot," Will told him, catching on quick.

At least one of her siblings was being helpful. Penny pinched Judy, who didn't even bother to flinch.

"It'll be perfectly safe with me til then," Penny promised, slipping the envelope into her jacket pocket.

His eyes tracked the movement. Vijay looked back at her, gaze focused intently on her's, "Fine."

He glanced backwards, towards the makeshift trail his father was leading the other colonists on.

"Just..." Vijay shifted his feet as he looked back at them, "...don't make it too long."

And then he left. Rushing off before his father noticed his absent.

"What was that?" Penny spun on Judy, who startled out of whatever selective mutism had descended upon her.

"What was *that?"* Judy shot back, pointed in Vijay's direction. "Blackmailing a colonist representative's son? Are you crazy?!"

Now she could sidestep a question. Judy officially had the worst timing.

"We had to do something!" Penny threw her hands out, eyes wide, "And you saw him. He won't touch me. This is all we've got to hold over him." She tapped on the envelope in her pocket.

Robot whirred. Head tilting.

"Are you sure this will work?" Will asked, lips trembling slightly as he looked from Robot to the now empty forest foliage that Vijay had disappeared through.

"He has kind eyes," Penny shrugged. And he was kind, to her, before.

Yeah. This could end very badly. Especially for her.

Judy scoffed, "Now is not the time for you to have a crush." She rubbed at her forehead and Penny frowned. Judy rolled her eyes, "Crushing on the guy you're blackmailing isn't exactly a great way to develop ... literally any kind of relationship!"

Well, that was just inaccurate. Plenty of totally horrible relationship types could develop. Like, uh, an arch nemesis type thing.

Penny was kinda hoping for more of a possible dating sort of relationship, but the point still stands.

Hey, she knew his name now. And given he hadn't asked for any of theirs, she bet he knew them too. So.

That was a start.

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