Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or any of its characters. All characters/ideas/concepts besides my own original ones belong to their respective owners.

Atlesian Military Research and Development Lab

The following morning the professor was working furiously to restore Unit 02 to full function. There wasn't a second where he wasn't doing something. If he wasn't repairing the Core he was restoring the android boy's skin or doing maintenance on his limbs. However, what was really making him tear his hair out was the fact that despite the fact that the Core had been restored to 90% of it's normal capacity, the boy still hadn't awoken. Regardless, he continued working, thanking whatever divine beings above for sparing his creation from almost certain death as he tried to figure out the issue.

"Father, I brought the parts you requested." said an orange haired girl with bright green eyes. This was Unit 01, also known as Penny Polendina, the first synthetic being with the ability to emit an Aura. To her the good professor was her father and he thought of her as his biological daughter.

"Thank you, Penny." The professor's eyes did not avert from his work, but the warmth was evident in his voice.

"Who is this?" she asked as she wondered what her father was working on. She had been away learning about the norms of society, such as trends and gestures in order to blend in.

"Ah yes, this is the first time you've seen him isn't it? Penny, this is your younger brother, Unit 02. He also has the ability to emit an Aura, and an incredibly powerful one at that. I haven't come up with a name for him yet, but he was injured during his first field test last night."

"A brother! I always wanted a brother! What does he wear? What does he like? What is he like? Does he like girls?" the robot girl rattled off in quick succession.

Geppetto gave a small frown at the thought, "To be honest, I haven't really programmed much a personality into him yet."

"Why not?"

"Well, Mr. Ironwood wanted a weapon, so I gave him one. Now I regret it as his inability to make his own choices almost got him killed."

"So why not give him one now?"

"It's not that simple my dear. I'd have to rewrite most of his thought processes and begin educating him on right and wrong once he restarts himself."

The professor sighed as he reviewed his notes, "What could be wrong with him?" He had checked him over several dozen times. For the most part 02 should have been perfectly functional with almost every part in pristine condition. It was beyond him as to why he wasn't starting up again.

"Um, maybe it's not a mechanical issue. Could it be an issue with his code after the repairs?"

The old engineer eyes sparkled with renewed vigor at his daughter's words, "Of course! I knew I designed your thought processes well! Surely if I run a diagnostic through his thought processes something should-"

His hopes were cut short as the diagnostics found nothing unusual in 02's code nor was there any damage to his processors.

"Blast! I was sure that was the issue! If only there were some kind of patch I could just apply to instantly fix whatever is wrong with him!"

This time it was Penny's turn to have a revelation, "Father, I think I know where there might be one!"

"What? Where?" he asked. The professor was incredibly skilled in his field, but as an aging man his memory isn't always sharp.

"I was organizing your files this morning when I saw an old looking data disk! It was marked, "should Unit 02 stop working for an unknown reason apply this patch." in really pretty handwriting!"

"Pretty handwriting? Must have been that rule-bending pinhead from Beacon. But... when was that disk delivered?"

"I don't know. I found it on your desk this morning."

"Could he have foreseen this?" wondered the professor as he pondered over this new information. He shook the thought out of his mind. It didn't matter right now. What mattered was saving his creation, his child, from being sent to the scrap heap.

"Penny, I'm going to have to ask you to bring that data disk to me as soon as possible."

"Right away, Father!" she then scurried off to retrieve what could be her younger brother's salvation.

"I certainly hope this works. If it does, I'll then hope be able to come up with a good name for you." the old roboticist joked to himself as he returned to his work.

Core Systems: 100%

Rebooting internal systems...

Motor Systems: Online

Logic Processes: Online

Environmental Sensors: Online

Internal systems: All Green.

Initiating start up...

Unit 02's eyes fluttered open for the first time since that fateful night as his systems finally restarted. He sat up and surveyed his surroundings, noticing that he was not on the outskirts of Atlas anymore but instead inside the familiar confines of the research laboratory.

He was greeted by the smiling face of his predecessor unit, "You're awake! Father, he's awake!"

"That's a relief." the scientist walked over to check on his creation, "How are you feeling?"

"My diagnostic systems found no abnormalities Professor."

"Good. This is your first time meeting your sister isn't it?"

"Sister, sir?"

"Yes, I'm your sister! It's so nice to meet you, little brother!" Penny immediately ran up to Unit 02 and embraced him lovingly.

For most infants, their first real emotion is confusion as they are unaccustomed to the world around them. For the relatively new robot on the table, this was the exact feeling that was working through his logic processes.

He began blinking frequently the way a human would when startled, "Professor, why is Unit 01 in such close proximity to me?"

"She's only showing you her affection and excitement for meeting you."

"Affection? Excitement? Professor, I don't understand." The words were alien to the robot boy, whose puzzled expression only served to highlight how perplexed he was.

"Let's slow it down for a bit. Penny, give him some space."

She did as she was instructed, stepping away from her brother unit, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

"Now, have you noticed that you've been doing something you've never done before 02?"

This only served to confuse him even more, "Something I've been doing? I've only been functional for the past four minutes and thirty two seconds Professor. What could I have been-" The realization hit him with all the subtlety of a truck crashing into a brick wall at eighty miles an hour.

He was asking questions.

Weapons and soldiers like him are not supposed to ask questions.

It was against his directives, his code, the fiber of his being to ask questions.

There was something horribly wrong with him.

His look of confusion quickly morphed into panic as he tried to comprehend his situation, running dozens of diagnostic scans in an attempt to figure out what was happening to him. His frustration only grew as each scan returned with negative results, flooding his thought processes with feelings of terror and anger completely unknown to him.

Seeing his creation ready to tear his own hair out from the frightful epiphany the scientist decided to bring an end to the boy's suffering. "02, I order you to calm down!"

The boy's mind cleared immediately, but the pain he felt in his brief ordeal was still excruciatingly evident on his face.

"W-what is wrong with me?" he stammered, flinching as he realized that he had asked yet another question.

"This is going to be a lot to take in, so I want you to listen carefully. Your tactic yesterday was effective, but damn near suicidal. I was able to restore you to full physical condition, but some reason you wouldn't reboot yourself. I ended up using an old backup file that Penny found to overwrite portions of your thought processes. It worked, but among those files was a great deal of emotional data. So like Penny you will now be able to express and feel emotions much like any human."

"Will this not impair my combat performance?" The boy asked through gritted teeth. The act of asking for more information remained an unbearable feeling to the boy who was not supposed to question anything ordered of him as he struggled to understand what was going on.

"Now 02, you don't need to be so hesitant to ask questions. It is how we as people learn. I do recall an old proverb, those who asks questions remain a fool for a moment, but those who do not remain fools forever."

The proverb's meaning flew over the boy's head as he continue to ponder about the events transpiring before him, "Is it really alright for me to be doing this? Weapons are not supposed to question-"

"Ah, that's where you are wrong. Listen to yourself. You are not simply asking questions. You are thinking for yourself, forming your own ideas from the few things you already know. You are no longer just a weapon. You are a sentient being now fully capable of feeling with the soul you were born with. A person."

"I-If that is what you say Professor..." Even with these encouraging words a feeling of insecurity and doubt washed over the boy, only irking him and creating even more discomfort.

"Now onto your combat performance, your new ability to think may be a positive or negative influence. On the downside, you now have the ability to second guess orders, a liability on the battlefields Ironwood wants you stationed at. Yet you are also able to make your own decisions and adapt to new situations, which may enhance your overall performance exponentially. It's a double-edged sword, but a weapon I hope you'll be able to harness effectively."

The Professor walked to another one of his work tables before turning back to his practically infantile creation, "Though on the topic of combat, I suppose I have a present for you." He threw off the fabric draped over the object underneath, revealing the armament underneath.

"I call it the Tactical Arms: Durandal!" The weapon was an actual double-edged sword, and a certainly large one at that. It was exactly one hundred and fifty centimeters long from the bottom of hilt to the tip of the blade, about five feet long. Thus it was almost as long as 02 was tall. The core of the blade was colored a deep sea blue while its edges were as white as freshly fallen snow. The shape of blade resembled a kite shield, nearly two feet wide close to the hilt but it narrowed somewhat as one's gaze approached the end, but it remained nevertheless quite thick looking for a sword.

The hilt was also exceptionally long. Both sides of it were adorned with what appeared to be the triggers for a heavy machine gun akin to the ones 02 used last night. These triggers were parallel to the blade, giving the weapon a peculiar but solid grip. The guard consisted of a pair if of attachments resembling vertically divided trapezoids on either side of the hilt along with a conjoining unit in the middle, separating the blade from the hilt in a crude but efficient way.

"This is to be your new weapon to make up for the fact that I engaged your limiters once more. I've limited your access to about five percent of your maximum power in order to prevent you from sacrificing yourself needlessly. It'd be a waste to repair you only for you to be back on the table the next day. Go on, try it out."

02 rose from his seat and made his way over to where his colossal blade rested. He picked up the weapon with machine-like care, analyzing its properties as he did so. The weapon had a weight to match its incredible size, but lighter than one would expect at about a hundred pounds. This still rendered the weapon impossible for any normal human to wield, but to 02 its heft was noticeable, a good deal than his previous sword, but more than manageable. He took several practice swings, wide arcs that made the air sing around him with each attack he made against a phantom opponent.

Despite its almost lopsided appearance in terms of weight distribution the weapon remained comfortable and balanced in the boy's hands. It was made for him, lovingly crafted for his own personal use and his alone.

"What do you think of it?"

"It's..." The boy found himself unable to articulate his thoughts in words. He had never been asked to express his opinion before. He could only stare in silence as he tried to come up with what to say, only for his logic processes to fail him with every attempt.

"Are you having trouble forming an opinion on your own?"

02 nodded in the affirmative, feeling almost ashamed of his inability to even speak about something as simple as forming his opinions, much less vocalizing them.

"I guess it was a bit much to ask you to do something you were originally programmed not to do, so I suppose we'll let it slide. I've called it the weapon in your hands the Tactical Arms because it is designed to have multiple forms to adapt to a variety of situations. If you flick twist the grip you'll be able to try the Durandal's second form.

Quickly locating it, the robot twisted the grip within the palm of his hand until the trigger like holds were perpendicular to the blade with an audible click. Suddenly the weapon whirred to life, a variety of moving parts could be heard as it folded in half down the length of the blade before separating in a matter of moments, leaving him with two identical one-handed single-edged swords.

"This form is designed for taking on opponents attacking from multiple sides. While the large zweihander form is just fine for dispatching tightly knit groups of Grimm and armored targets, this form is designed to grant you a little more finesse to take out more scattered and mobile opponents. There are still two more forms we should go over though. Try bending the grips downward now."

He followed his orders, pulling down the grips in such a manner that they now resembled the triggers on an actual rifle. More whirring could be heard from the inside of the weapon as the front end of the blade shifted downward similar to a pair of bayonets, revealing the barrels of two high caliber automatic rifles where the blades once were.

"This form is meant to give you the ability to engage in both ranged and melee combat at once. I remembered your preference for firearms with high stopping power with a rapid rate of fire to match. Thus this will provide both a means of defeating foes from a distance without compromising your ability to fight in close quarters. Then there is the last form of the Tactical Arms. Put the two rifles together side by side and watch what happens."

Following this last set of instructions, the weapon made even more noise, parts linking together and pieces of the weapon folding until he held a minigun with two smaller barrels lined up next to each other. The blades were now pointed downward almost as if they were a bipod for the pair of cannons.

"This is a form specialized for suppressive fire from a secured position. I designed this to allow you to provide covering fire for your allies as well as mow down any Grimm foolish enough to stand in your way. It is rather inaccurate when firing from the hip, so I set the blades to act as cooling fins and stabilizers to reduce these issues to their bare minimum. Perhaps you should try out a-"

02 squeezed the trigger once, letting out a burst of gunfire which ended with a number of gaping bullet holes in the wall next to the door.

The Professor gave a disapproving sigh as he shook his head at the sight.

"I meant at the firing range, 02. You should never open fire in here unless it's absolutely necessary."

Another uncomfortable pain shot through 02's chest at these words, the epicenter of focused where his heart should be. His thoughts immediately filled with the words he never thought he would but instinctively knew he should say.

"I apologize Professor. I didn't..."

"That's alright. Part of the blame belongs to me. I wasn't clear in my instructions. But the silver lining in this unfortunate occurrence is that you are developing a feeling of regret, and thus a conscience."

"A conscience, sir?"

"A sense of right and wrong. It is knowing what you should do versus what you should not. It is a vital skill for any part of today's society and one you should develop immediately."

"Would my actions be considered reprehensible then, sir?"

"If you were a normal soldier, then the answer would most certainly be a yes. However, because of the fact that you are still becoming accustomed to feelings such as these I will be lenient this time."

"Thank you Professor." For the first time today he felt some relief from all of these starting and strange things he was developing, particularly those of emotions and the ability to think for himself.

"No thanks is necessary here. Using this monstrosity of a weapon will take effort and practice, so I expect to see you at the Training Room starting tomorrow."

"Understood. As for now?" The question came more easily to him than before, but the unnatural feeling remained.

"For now, I want you to begin learning about the social norms by interacting with other people. We can't have you acting like this forever now can we?"

This statement only exacerbated the robot's confusion, "Is there an issue with my behavior Professor?"

"Well, outside of combat you are honestly as naive and inexperienced in the way the world works as a newborn baby. You're going to be exploited by the people around you if you don't wise up a little."

"Wising up, sir?"

The professor sighed in frustration, "It seems you'll also have to learn how to learn the colloquial. Very well. I've also ordered some clothes for you. It'll be impossible for you to act similarly to a human if you wear nothing but military uniforms."

He handed the boy a box. "Take off your current clothes and put these on."

As 02 began removing the remains of the uniform he was wearing the professor quickly amended his order, "At the locker room please."

The boy blinked at the statement, "Is there an issue, professor?"

"In today's society it is indecent to change clothes in front of others, so please go to the locker room first."

He didn't quite understand but he followed his orders anyway, leaving the room quietly. When he returned he was wearing a set of modern looking clothes which contrasted with his sister's more old fashioned style.

Covering his torso was a white skintight short sleeved shirt with a large neon blue gear-like pattern on the center. On top of it was an unzipped black jacket with cuffs at the end of the sleeves and a high collar. Neon markings similar to the t-shirt's could be seen running down both the collar and the sleeves.

He was also wearing dark blue jeans with the same patterns on the knee area and close to the end of each leg. A belt with a number of pouches and compartments circled his waist, presumably to hold supplies such as ammunition. The outfit was finished with a pair of black boots and fingerless gloves.

"What do you think of your new outfit?" the professor asked his creation as the latter continued to look over his new clothes.

"They're... light. They don't feel the same as a military uniform and they're not made of the same material."

"I was hoping for less of a scientific response and more of your own personal thoughts on the matter, but it will have to do for now. Basically I want you to remain with Penny for now and interact with her to begin your education on how to act normally."

The professor then turned to Penny who was gazing intently the whole time in silence, but with a veritable tidal wave of excitement being barely held back by the fact that she wasn't given an order.

"Yes Penny, you'll be allowed to interact with him first."

"Yay!" She quickly ran over to her brother and lifted him in a bear hug. "There is so much I want to talk to you about-" She stopped and put him down as she too realized something.

"Father, you haven't given him a name yet."

By this point, calling 02 perplexed would be an understatement, but this was the icing on the cake. "A name? Was I not issued a serial number?"

"Yes you were, but no sane person outside of the military is going to find a serial number for a name perfectly ordinary. So I've decided to give you a new name to celebrate your new self-awareness."

"I'll receive any designation you see fit, sir."

"I hope you will. I've decided to name you Chrome. That will be your new standard designation. Register it immediately. Do the same for your sister. You'll refer to her as Penny from now on and not Unit 01."

The eyes of the newly christened Chrome flashed blue yet again as he received the order, but mysteriously enough did not return to their previous chestnut color.

"With that out of the way, here is the sling for the Durandal. It's yours, so feel free to use it as you see fit." Chrome took into his hands his weapon's sheath, throwing it across his left shoulder before returning the Durandal to its default form and putting it away.

"That is all for now. Have fun interacting with your sister Chrome, she is certainly energetic." With that he waved for the two of them to leave, an opportunity that the female android did not hesitate to take as she began tugging at her brother's arm and leading him out of the lab.

Chrome remained as baffled as ever with this turn of events, yet did not feel uncomfortable with it, a fact that surprised even himself. In fact, with the smiling faces of his creator and "sister" he observed that the turn of events could potentially be favorable and that it would be a suitable course of action to simply follow it.

Sorry for the wait guys. This chapter is mostly expository in the end, but I hope you found it entertaining. What do you guys think of Chrome? I sort of modeled his personality off similarly socially awkward/robotic characters such as Shiba Tatsuya from Irregular at a Magic High School and Xenon from Maplestory. As for the Tactical Arms I was inspired by the weapon of the same name from Gundam fame. To be honest I'm still tied up with work right now (I've got a lab report, a historical essay paper and a Latin project to work though) so I spent last night and an additional four hours from when I woke up today writing this so I can say that I wrote something.

As always please tell me what you think. I'm not looking for pats on the back (as much as I enjoy them) as they don't tell me what I'm doing right or wrong. Saying at least one thing you did like and one thing you didn't is always helpful in getting me to write better, and I certainly hope you do in a review should you have the time.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading everyone and I hope to find you there in the next chapter.