Ask and you shall recieve!
This is the middle point of the story (current, and hopefully final, count is 5 planned chapters), so I decided to make something more light-hearted. Don't worry the plot is still advancing, but I think it's the first time no one cries in this fic. Except maybe me.
It was supposed to be a shorter chapter, but haha as if I had any self-control. That and there may have been a plot point I forgot to add in the previous episode, so I had to figure out a strategy to fix it without Retconning. I like how it turned out, it's even better than the original script. I guess not everything needs to go just according to keikaku.
I actually finished writing yesterday, but I was so sleep deprived that I decided to wait until today so I could make sure it wasn't just incoherent babbling. Enjoy.
3. Synthetic Green Eyes
The cafeteria was strangely quiet that morning. Most other students were already gone, leaving teams WBY and JNPR all to themselves, dragging their breakfasts for as long as they could. Blake, due to her enhanced senses, was the first to hear the footsteps nearing. She looked up and smiled towards the silhouette who approached them, but made no effort to mention it to the others. The petite girl seemed to appreciate that small gesture, the calm before the storm that immediately followed.
"Is that…" Pyrrha started, but was promptly cut off by a joyous scream from beside her.
"RUBY!" They barely had time to register the direction from which the shout came, before a Nora-sized projectile hit the red-hooded girl, forcing her to make a fast acquaintance with the pavement. Blake chuckled at the absurd scene below her, before running over with the rest of the team members to unglue the lightning ginger from her prey.
"You okay?" Yang asked, looking amusedly at her sister.
"Help… meeee" the speedster replied, reaching a hand upwards in an overdramatic gesture, causing a round of general laughter from her audience. That's Ruby alright, the faunus thought to herself. Good to have you back.
As they moved over to the table, allowing RWBY's leader to fill her plate with food, tension lifted noticeably from everyone's shoulders. Ren shot an accusing look at his childhood friend, who shrugged embarrassedly. The black haired girl observed the newcomer closely. She still had slight bags under her eyes, a badge of the days spent at the workshop, and the tiredness had not yet left her completely, despite her evident recovery. It was comforting to see their friend had finally snapped out of her consuming grief.
"So, how's Penny?" As always, Blake was the one to speak. She was comfortable with silence, but beating around the bush wouldn't go anywhere, and that question was on everybody's minds.
"Oh she's great, she's just rusnifng-" Ruby struggled to answer, her mouth filled with so much food it looked about to burst. It was as if she hadn't seen food for a week, which, in all fairness, was mostly true. The huntress swallowed down fast, and continued her excited speech. "She's just running a couple of diagnostics. But she's awake and working again!" Her eyes gleamed with joy, it was almost too adorable.
"Well, we'll let you guys catch up." Jaune announced as he stood up, preparing to leave the room, backed by a quiet nod from Pyrrha. "It's great to have you back, Ruby."
Nora prepared to argue, clearly unhappy with the leader's decision, but Ren grabbed her arm and whispered something in her ear. Blake suppressed a laugh at the boy's words, that apparently no one else had caught on, as she watched Nora giggling excitedly, and rushing to follow the rest of team JNPR outside.
Ruby continued to demolish the entire stock of food Beacon had to offer, and the girls stayed by her side, silently, just glad to see her return to her cheery self.
As she finished, burping after the last cup of milk, which earned her a scowl from Weiss, the red-hood jumped up from her seat. Blake glanced up towards the sudden movement, and found a set of impatient silver eyes staring back.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go see her!"
Penny was sitting on the floor of the storage room, eyelids closed to feign sleep, while she ran her system diagnostics to make sure everything was in order. Ruby had certainly done a number on her, the results came back with flying colors. She wasn't just restored, there were things that felt new, different. First of all, her skin was much smoother now, coated in a protective layer to shield her against electricity. It was also slightly warmer than usual, it appeared her friend had redirected her cooling system, spreading it around to allow heat to dissipate through the entire body, and making her feel a tad bit more human.
She smiled at the thought. Human. That word sounded strange, foreign, she knew she was synthetic, but leave it to Ruby to make her forget about it, make her feel… normal. Not normal in a bad way, she added, flustered at the thought of hurting her friend in her mind.
Her physique was, nevertheless, not the only thing that had gone through transformation. Upon linking her to the dustweb, to allow her to update herself, the pair of repairwomen had inadvertently opened the floodgates to a stream of information barging inside her, and she felt overwhelmed by how much was going through her head, barely able to process the amount of knowledge now available to her.
Although, there was something bothering her. One concrete memory that did not seem to leave her alone, shouting above the loud ruckus of her consciousness. The prior night, as she finally regained the spark of life, she had woken up to a familiar body pressed against her. It was certainly welcome, as she realized it was her friend, the one who inhabited the last recollection of the day of the fateful storm, before agonizing pain had shut her down. In a way, if felt soothing, but that feeling was short lived, as a squirm from the other girl raised concern in her metallic heart.
Ruby was having a nightmare, and a very bad one, if her actions were a reliable source of information. Penny herself had never had a nightmare, incapable of regular sleep, but she was familiar with the concept, and her savior donned an expression of sorrow that was seriously worrying. And then, to make matters worse, she started to talk in her sleep.
"Don't leave me… please." The little girl begged, chocking up in her own words, eyes still firmly shut. "Promise me you won't leave. I need you."
At that point, the android cradled the sleeping hooded girl in her arms, enveloping her in a quiet embrace, and whispered "I won't. I promise."
It was while she reflected on those past events, that the door to the room flung open, slamming wildly into the wall, and abruptly forcing her to forsake such gloom. She quickly restored her typical innocent smile, just in time to see Blake, Weiss and Yang walking in, pushed by a positively electric Ruby. They looked shaken, as if they had just been teleported at light speed to her doorway by someone with a speed-related semblance. She giggled to herself. Ruby is always the same.
"Salutations, team RWBY!" She stood up, offering a welcoming grin, all while uttering her usual catchphrase. She had been made aware that it was not the most conventional way to greet people, but why would she care. They were her friends, after all.
"Well she certainly hasn't changed a bit." Yang said, containing her chuckle at the awkward robot.
"After all that work Ruby put in, she'd better." Weiss added, just before receiving an elbow to the ribs from her partner. "Okay, I may have helped a little."
"Thank you, Weiss." Penny voiced, slightly surprised the heiress would do such a thing. Having friends was still a new sensation, but one she wanted to experience for as long as she could.
"And how do you feel?" Ruby inquired, leaning forward to drink all she could from the forthcoming response.
"Sensational!" They all laughed. "Just like new, and these upgrades, I'm really impressed, you did an amazing job!"
Ruby pouted and the ginger quickly corrected herself, waving her arms defensively. "Not that I doubted you could, I just wasn't expecting it, is all!"
The younger human started laughing uncontrollably, giving the Atlesian Droid time to realize she had just been tricked, making her blush furiously.
"It's certainly nice to know all this… drama wasn't wasted effort." Blake spoke, with a clear struggle not to sound too cynical.
She hadn't been present, at least not consciously, during the aforementioned drama, so she had no way to answer that, but with a smile. She took note to try and get as much intel as she could about what had transpired in her absence at a later time, and without prying too much of course.
Considering the data in front of her, she assumed it had been a difficult experience on her friends, and she took pity on their tired, but happy, faces. Yet when she decided to dismiss them, so they could rest before the classes they no doubt had ahead of them, something changed inside her.
Her eyes went blank, and she heard her own voice utter words that were not hers.
"Special offer today! Want to enlarge your p-"
"AW HELL NO!" was the last thing she heard before an emergency shut down.
When her systems went back online, something felt slightly lighter. Nothing big, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why. Checking her internal clock, she realized it was night time already. The white and red duo must've spent the entire day trying to fix her latest malfunction. Who would've know the secret weapon of the Atlas Military was susceptible to spam…
As she considered this, the door opened, and Ruby came inside, in her pajamas, carrying two pillows and her bright red sleeping bag. A single sleeping bag, the robotic girl took mental note. Not that she needed one, but it was interesting nonetheless.
"Oh hey, you're awake again. Sorry about that, it seemed we forgot to block external access when we connected you to the dustweb… Boy, that would've awkward, if someone had tried gain control of you and ordered you to kill us all…" The scythe-wielder began rambling, but no effort to stop her was made. It was dangerously cute, and Penny was going to enjoy the show while it lasted.
The other girl suddenly looked at the items she carried in her hands, and stopped immediately. "Oh, I thought I'd sleep here tonight, so, y'know, you wouldn't be alone…" She looked at the synthetic green eyes, asking silently if Penny wouldn't oppose. She hiccupped, trying to contain her laughter at the absurd notion that she wouldn't let her friend spend the night next to her. Strangely enough, that was all the information her newly-found roommate needed. A pillow was throw towards her, as the awkward babble started again.
"Hum, I only had one sleeping bag though, and the rest of the girls were already asleep, so I figured we could just open it wide and use it as a blanket…" This time she was interrupted.
"That sounds great, Ruby." The petite girl lit up like a christmas tree, and promptly prepared their shared quarters.
They lied down next to each other, and went silent. After a while, Ruby spoke up.
"Do you actually sleep, Penny?"
"Not like you do, but yes, in a way."
The red-hooded girl shut her eyes, satisfied with the answer, and let herself drift to sleep. She started to snore lightly, and slowly but surely crept closer to her friend, seeking her heat and comfort, and eventually nestling onto her lap. Penny did not move. She was where she wanted to be.
Did I say light-hearted? Sorry, I meant cheesy as hell. I promise the next chapter is angsty again.
To the people who mentioned Penny coming back with no memories, I had considered that idea, and I like it (I kinda hope the show pulls it off), but it would've made for a much longer fic than I intended. Instead have some Terminator Penny jokes. I love those.
Hope it wasn't too bad. Thanks again for the reviews, and meet me again next time, for some fun, fun stuff.