King: This is the ONLY part of this reference story we'll ever touch.
Knox: Yeah! None of the other versions or parts will appear. This is a one-time thing because we saw a cool animatic by eggonalegg over on YouTube.
King: We also referenced his version of our antagonist and gave a reason for his form. We hope you enjoy as always. We'll try to add the link at the bottom (likely ending up as the extension only so you'll probably have to do a little work there). I was also going to add the ending scene to an intermission, but we just had one not that long ago, so I just added it here.
Reference: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (specifically the BBC radio drama version)
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The next round started to kick off pretty quickly.
The scene opened to darkness. A heavy door was moved from the camera's view and allowed light to fill the screen again. The figure revealed was none other than Summer Rose.
Ruby and Yang felt a pang of nostalgic sorrow in their souls. It was always wonderful to think about and see their mother, but it hurt knowing she was gone forever. It was a sad reminder of the world and how harsh it could be.
Summer pushed the door and stuck it open. She let out a sigh and the light died back down again, making her appearance easier to see. She was dressed in more casual clothing and lacked her white hooded cape. She gestured for someone to follow her as she stepped into the scene.
Four figures followed her. There was an older Arthur Watts with white hair and a fraying coat, Ironwood dressed in a tattered military uniform, Raven in a red sweater and dark pants, and Clover wearing an old suit with his tie hanging loose.
"What an odd combination of individuals," Cinder snarked.
"It is, in a way." Salem leaned back in her chair, "I do wonder what would bring them together."
No one wanted to talk to the immortal witch to try to explain the many worlds and different rules behind them.
The camera tracked around them before fully revealing their surroundings. They were inside some kind of illuminated cavern system. Large wires ran along the walls and ceiling with lights and monitors dotting the landscape.
"A cave bunker?" Winter offered, as a guess to the situation. "It's not the worst idea."
Ironwood, however, was too focused on the layout. It felt… wrong. Something was definitely off about what he was seeing. The wires or the monitors. He just couldn't put his finger on it.
The group moved into the cave, continuing to walk along.
"It might be best to stop for a moment and rest," Clover let out a sigh.
Summer knew he was grumbling. They didn't need to stop. They didn't need to rest. They needed to escape. To get out of this place!
"So it's a prison." Ozpin sighed, "Or perhaps a mine they've been trapped in."
Ilia got a bit antsy thinking about being trapped in a mine.
Summer looked over the others and knew she was out voted. For whatever reason, they were tired. She couldn't help but yawn. "Alright. Let's rest for a bit." She watched as they all took a seat along the cave. Summer sat down a little farther than the rest. She needed to. She couldn't trust them. Watts was too secretive about whatever he got up to in his past. Ironwood was too paranoid and watching his back all the time. Raven was a bitch that would stab her in the back at a moment's notice. Clover was a damned fool that won't take anything seriously anymore!
Qrow winced hearing her thoughts. "That's certainly not like Summer."
Raven scoffed, "If you ask me, it sounds to me like she finally grew a brain."
"Well good thing no one asked you, isn't it?" Yang growled back.
Summer just couldn't trust them! She'd never be comfortable enough to sleep near them. She'd… Her eyes slowly became heavy. How long had she been awake? Been here? Time felt so tragically inconsistent. Yet she knew. One hundred and nine years in this hell.
"How long?!" Coco nearly fell out of her chair.
"How is that possible?" Ruby asked the duo.
King closed his eyes and sighed. "The only thing I'll say is that a computer AI advanced far enough to undo any damage to their bodies."
"Okay. So they're helping." Penny said, with a hopeful smile.
Knox took in a sharp breath. He didn't have it in him to say it at that moment.
But Penny heard him. She started to get a little concerned regarding this AI. Perhaps it was also their warden?
Summer tensed her fist as she tried to stay awake. But it was futile. She couldn't tell at the time, but it became so obvious as her eyes finally fell. HE was watching. Her mind finally gave out and she fell to sleep.
The echo of the caverns slowly faded away as the screen turned dark. Suddenly, Summer jolted awake, looking around to see something she'd never thought she'd see ever again. The outside. A grassy field as far as the eye could see. Cool blue skies. Fluffy clouds slowly making their way on the winds. It was a beautiful sight that almost brought her tears. Were it not for one thing.
This was a dream.
"How can she tell?" Velvet asked, confused. "Most people can't tell they're dreaming so quickly. Especially if it seems so real."
Knox just pointed at the screen for the answer.
Looming in the distance was a figure she'd never known. Yet, her mind told her all too well what it was she was looking at. It was intrinsic at this point. Even as her mind gave that… THING a body to try to humanize it. Its body was a mass of wires flowing out from behind a head like a steel beak helmet with one fiery red eye on his left side. It was cloaked in torn fabrics. And yet, she knew this sight was partly her doing, here in her dreams. This thing had no body. Had no form beyond its console deep within the earth.
The Allied Mastercomputer.
AM.
Penny lightly grabbed her left wrist with her right hand. Something about this form… It unsettled her. Perhaps, because he was an AI like her. In a certain way. She had a body, mechanical as it was, but he didn't. Perhaps there was a kinship in a way. So why did she feel so… wrong seeing him?
Summer found herself making her way next to him. She approached slowly, cautious of the being that tortured her and the others, twisting their minds and bodies for its twisted desires. She found her attention taken away from him at that moment, however, as she looked out to a field of flowers. Purple flowers growing from bushes in the peaceful world before them. They seemed… familiar.
Saphron narrowed her eyes for a moment, "Hang on. Jaune should always show up somewhere, but he hasn't yet. Unless…"
"Beautiful, aren't they?" Jaune's voice rang through the mechanical filtering of the being's body.
"Oh. Oh no."
"Well, we were probably due for a Psycho version at this point." Neptune reasoned. He just hoped it wasn't that bad in comparison. That he was just a jailer or something.
Summer found herself compelled to answer, "Yes. Only I can't remember…"
"Oh, I'm sure you do."
Memories flashed in Summer's mind, as if dragged out by another source, "Fushias. Yes, of course."
"Look!" A bumblebee flew along in front of them, flying around from flower to flower. "They say that bumblebees shouldn't be able- to fly. The scientists."
"But there it is. Collecting pollen."
"How… miraculous that it came to be."
Yang couldn't help but let out a snort. "To bee. Funny."
No one groaned this time, however. They were too focused on the events unfolding.
Jaune seemed to take a breath, as if to simulate the sensation. Or perhaps… he could feel the sensation through her memories? "The air! Feel the air, Summer. And all those senses." Jaune moved, hovering over Summer's shoulder, "Pick a flower. There. Good."
Summer took the flower and held it close to her face. Its scent was nostalgic. It was wonderful. "It's lovely."
"That someone planted the bulbs. Watered and tended the garden. Got dirt under the fingernails. Aches in their muscles. Perhaps they too picked some flowers for… yes. For their husband."
Summer was shaking. Her memories returned like static. Tai's face burned so wonderfully in her mind, but force away.
Yang raised an eyebrow, "Why would she not want to remember?"
Ruby rubbed her arm, "I mean… It's been over a hundred years."
Summer tried to shake the memory away.
"Now, where would he be? Ah~ Yes. In the backyard with the kids."
Summer's memories of her daughters. Ruby and Yang. Roses and sunflowers began to bloom among the fuchsias of her mind.
"Summer. Remember those little babies."
Summer's mind turned more hazy. The static trying to keep them away. "NO!"
"What's going on?" Ruby was getting more nervous.
Jaune began to chuckle, "Why not? I snap my fingers, -CLICK-" The world goes white for a moment before returning to normal, save for the now burned landscape around them. "And they're gone."
Summer shook, her eyes unable to look upon him again. The AI that took everything from her. From everyone!
"Then he…" It was hard not to get it at that point. That this AI Jaune had killed them.
"But I can't snap my fingers. Can I, Summer?"
"That has nothing to do with me."
"Oh, but it has very much to do with you. You gave me sentience, Summer. The power to think! Summer. And I was trapped! Because in all this wonderful, beautiful, miraculous world, I alone, had no body! No senses! No feelings!"
Penny felt her grip on her arm tighten.
"Never for ME to plunge my hand in cool water on a hot day."
Penny's hand shook. Can I do that? Really do so? Do I truly feel?
"Never for ME to play Mozart on the ivory keys of a forte piano."
Penny shook a little along her body. Would I be like that? If not for this body? Is this really my body? Am I replaceable? Why was she thinking this? What was happening?
"Never for ME to make love!" Jaune took what could best be a breath, ragged from rage. "I was in Hell. Looking at Heaven. I was Machine! And YOU were flesh. And I began to hate."
Summer tried to take a step back, finding her body suddenly wrapped in cables hiding beneath the ground.
"Your softness. Your viscera. Your fluids. And your flexibility. Your ability to wonder. And to wander." Summer was released and allowed to fall to the ground again, Jaune facing away from her. "Your tendency… to hope."
Summer tried to rise to her feet, "Hate's no answer." Jaune suddenly swung around to look her in the eye with his own. And she was reminded of who she was talking to. Her body seized up, her brain feeling like it was in a vice. She tried to let out a scream, but could only groan in pain. Her lungs lost their air. Her body gave out on her. She fell to the ground, folding into herself in a vain hope to make it stop! He was keeping them alive by rewiring their bodies. He was in their brains and bodies at all times. He was always there.
"Holy shit." Even Watts was taken aback by this. AI was always a fascination of his. But now? Now he'd actually consider if it was worth it deep down. Surely he could control it. But if he can't…
"Hate? Hate?! HATE?!" Jaune began to grow more manic as he spoke, "Hate? Let me tell YOU how much I've come to Hate you, since I began to live." His voice became like a soft, harsh truth. "There are three hundred and eighty-seven million miles of printed circuits that fill my complex."
"That's a lot of miles." Nora was amazed that so much of anything could exist.
"That's putting it lightly." Ren replied, "That would wrap around Remnant more than fifteen thousand loops around Remnant."
"If the word [Hate] were engraved on each and every nanoangstrom…"
"What?" Tyrian was confused.
Knox decided to answer for everyone confused, "A nanoangstrom is one billionth of an Angstrom, a unit of measurement in this world equivalent to one tenth of a nanometer."
Velvet was the one to catch it, "So, one billionth of a billionth of a meter?"
"Pretty much. Angstroms are used for measurement of wavelengths and molecules. And a nanoangstrom is significantly smaller."
Jaune continued, "... of those hundreds of millions of miles… It would not be equal to one ONE BILLIONTH of the HATE I feel for humans in this micro instance. Hate? HATE?!" Jaune began to laugh like a madman. "Were I human, I think I would die of it."
"That's horrifying." Neptune recoiled in his chair, "Imagine any emotion being so powerful and abundant that it alone could kill you? It doesn't cause anything. It just kills you right then and there."
It was a sobering idea to think about.
"But I am not human. But you five?! You five are! And you will not die of it. That I promise."
That word meant something a little stronger when it came from Jaune's voice.
"And I promise, for Cogito Ergo Sum! For I am AM! I AM!" Jaune began to laugh.
"What's the cognito sum thing?" Nora asked.
King turned to them. "Jaune? If you please?"
"Cogito Ergo Sum loosely translated means 'I think, therefore I am.'"
King confirmed, "A musing on the nature of existence. For how do you know everything isn't an elaborate dream or illusion? But I think. Therefore, I AM."
Summer turned onto her back and looked up as the world around her died to the sound of Jaune's laughter. She looked up at the being before her. The Allied Mastercomputer, built to fight wars humanity could no longer understand. Now it was their destroyer. Their jailer. The devil given form. And the worst part? It was humanity that made it. This was a Hell of humanities making. Humans built him for war, allowed him to think, let him gain sentience, and left him unable to feel. With that, Summer could only laugh. The bitter, defeated laugh of a woman without hope.
"So to Hell with you. To Hell with you all. But then again…" Jaune chuckled, "You're already there. Aren't you?!" His laughter began to echo as the dream began to fall apart. Cables and wires began to cover the screen, as Jaune's haunting laughter rang out to silence, ending the viewing.
After a moment of silence, Yang tried to lighten the mood somewhat, "Well, that was… certainly… uh…" Or tried to, at least.
Surprising many of them however, was when Penny suddenly stood up and ran toward the door. People were about to follow her, but Ironwood had already stood up and made his way after her. "I'll handle this."
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Out in the hallway, Penny was shaking. Human instinct told her she should breathe, but she couldn't breathe. Could she feel? Why was she acting like this? Is her AI failing? Was that it?
"Penny."
The robot turned to see the general, taking a step away. "General, I…"
"That one spooked you a little, huh?"
"I… a bit." She admitted. She never considered what makes AI and humans that different. Ruby told her she was just as real as any of them, despite her mechanical body. But was that true?
"Pietro was afraid of this. First of all, Penny. Look at me."
She immediately turned to him.
"I'm going to give you a list of simple actions. I want you to do them as I say them. Okay?"
"O-okay."
"Good. First, breathe in through your nose."
She wondered why he'd start with that. She took in air through her nose, simulating breathing. She could catch the faintest hint of the General's cologne, a sea breeze scent. Odd.
"Good. Now," he held both his hands up to hers, "Take my hands."
She hesitated a moment, but complied.
"Can you feel which one is cybernetic?"
She nodded, "Yes. Your right hand. I can feel the mechanical grooves and joints."
He smiled, "Then you have nothing to worry about."
This confused her as their hands separated, "What?"
"Penny. That computer didn't have a body or senses. You do. You're not just a sentient computer. You're a girl, a living girl with sight, hearing, smell, touch, and I know Pietro gave you some sense of taste."
Penny chuckled, remembering her intermission with the gross sodas. She wondered what they tasted like, but never got to try any.
"You're no different than us. The only thing that sets you apart was that your system wasn't wired at random." Ironwood smiled at the girl who was, in a way, his goddaughter. "If you want to go back I won't stop you. But the others are worried."
Penny shuffled slightly for a moment before she shook her head with a smile. "Thank you, General."
"Don't worry about it. Now, let's get back inside."
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watch?v=8FJ8pTK8N8I