Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

While RWBY and Co Are Watching Nemona Fight the Twins

Penny sat in a fetal position in her room, having a melancholic look in her eyes.

"SAPR! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Deactivating my failsafes!"

"SAPR, PLEASE! There's no telling if you'll survive this!"

"If we don't get that Emerald, none of us will survive this! This is my choice…"

It had been a week since that fateful day, and while progress had been going smoothly… it had also been slow, even if Eggman was busy fixing her.

She pulled out her scroll to look at her text messages.

"I'm heading to Paldea. Be back soon!" - Nagisa

She knew full well that her bro needed this to get his mind off things. SAPR's death had devastated him too to the point where he's spent more time with his fellow Warriors of Hope instead of sticking around with the eggheads. Not that she blamed him. He was hurting just as much as she was.

She also felt a bit hurt that he didn't invite her to go to Paldea with him. She more than likely would have loved a distraction to get her robotic mind off things. Hanging out with Ruby would've been a nice and fun distraction too.

Either way, she knew he had his reasons and fully supported that he needed a vacation to get his mind off things… but it still would've been nice if he asked her to come along. On the other hand, she didn't blame him for that slip of the mind… the Warriors of Hope had gotten a bit wild lately, especially with the new recruits being Silver and Flandre.

She reached over to a portrait on her desk, seeing a picture of Penny and SAPR posing and goofing off with dorky smiles on their faces. It was enough to make… everything go static?

"Warning: Energy critically low. Recharge now."

"Oh… right…"

Penny walked over to the recharge station next to her bed and plugged herself in. She hadn't recharged herself ever since they got back from Mobius. She had put herself in low power mode ever since, but even low power could only last for so long…

As the recharging station hummed as a green aura wrapped around Penny, she sat down, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"I know she can be saved… I know she can be rebuilt. But why… why does this still hurt…?" Penny's voice echoed.

"That's just how grief works. Everyone experiences it differently." Ruby responded in an echo. "You have a soul just as much as SAPR. She can be fixed… we just need to be patient. SAPR really did a number on herself when fighting her old self."

"I know… it's just… will she ever be the same again?"

"Will she ever be the same…" Penny whispered, slowly closing her eyes as she opened up a portal to Cyberspace after going into her Tech form, looking for the core's whereabouts. She soon found it aimlessly wandering about without a care in the world.

She saw it try to interact with some robots that Penny had made for the core, just to give her some company. Sure, she goes in there sometimes and interacts with the core to have a small play date. It would be enough to warm Penny's machinery for a few moments before she has to head back out.

Penny forced a smile, seeing the core as carefree as it could be. Definitely had SAPR's curiosity and playfulness. She closed the portal and turned back to normal, as she had learned that going into her Tech form tends to mess with her recharging for unknown reasons.

Recharging complete.

Penny stood up and moved back to her bed, remaining in low power mode. She let out a sigh and decided to walk out of her room, though she moved rather sluggishly and not within the usual spring in her step.

She slowly opened up the door to SAPR's room, seeing it being completely untouched… and a little dusty. She walked around, slowly looking over the various collectables that SAPR collected in her spare time.

Biddybud and Wiggler plushies, Butterfree plushies, Vivillion plushes, drawings of Vikavolt and Orbeetle, cute portraits of flowers she made…

The childlike simple innocence while having a fascination for bugs and Bug Type Pokemon in general… it was enough to make Penny smile. Sure, SAPR also knew that the real world was cruel and heartless, but as long as there were simple pleasures, the world wasn't so bad.

Penny spotted SAPR's journal on her desk where it was already opened. She looked in and saw sketches of herself doing various tasks such as painting, dancing, hugging her sister, fusing with her to become one awesome combined robot for a limited time…

Penny raised an eyebrow, her lips forming a half smile in amusement. That last one didn't seem possible, but SAPR's imagination was definitely a creative one, even if the last one just seemed impossible.

She gently put the journal down and looked around the room once more. She turned around and walked back outside and into the workshop, where the eggheads were busy repairing SAPR.

"Mmmm…" Nitori looked at a whiteboard. "That didn't go according to plan…" She mumbled as she crossed something off of it.

"I have to say, this is truly a stumper." Dr. Light said, his arms folded. "In all my years of work, I didn't think making a Mk II version of SAPR would be tricky."

"Indeed." Eggman agreed. "I would think this would take no time at all, yet something seems to be interfering. I've run the diagnostics and it seems as it The End had its grubby mitts all over her."

Penny's core sank. She slowly closed the door and hurried along as her sluggish robot body could carry her.

"Of course, I, for one, welcome such a challenge." Eggman said. "The End will not stop us from rebuilding SAPR."

"Do you think maybe there's an internal struggle going on in there?" Miu wondered.

"That's what Dr. Crygor was thinking." Pietro said. "His granddaughter is currently looking-"

Ring ring!

"Ah!" Pietro pressed a button on his laptop. "Dr. Crygor, you got something for us?"

"Yes. From what Penny and I could find, it would seem that there's some kind of internal conflict going on inside of SAPR that's making progress slow as molasses. If I had to guess, this The End managed to put some sort of programming into SAPR's body that no one had even noticed. Penny is heading straight to Sojiro's as we speak so she and Futaba could work on something together. That way, they can figure something out to get rid of this… issue. Once they're done, we can hopefully recompile SAPR."

"I see. Let's hope they find something out." Pietro said as he turned back to SAPR's body. "Hang in there, honey… it's just going to be a little bit longer."

Back with Penny, she sluggishly made it outside. She looked at all the mushrooms growing around them as she activated her thrusters and slowly flew up to the top of a mushroom, looking at the clouds above her.

She sat down, softly sighing to herself.

"Hey, you okay?"

Penny turned her head to see K1-B0 gently landing on the head of the mushroom. "I saw you moving about, so I was just checking to see how you were doing."

"Oh, hey Keebo… I'm just… hanging in there."

K1-B0 sat down next to her. "You wanna talk about it?"

"What is there to talk about?"

"Ah…" K1-B0 rubbed his head. "What is there to talk about…"

"There's nothing to talk about… it's just SAPR this and SAPR that…" Penny mumbled. "It's… been a very long week."

K1-B0 tried to open his mouth to speak.

"And the crazy thing is… I should've stopped SAPR the moment she flew off. I knew I couldn't have stopped her, but we could have fought R3-B7 together. We could have stopped her, and I could have stopped SAPR from overriding her failsafe and…"

Penny shook before she stood up, clenching her fists.

"AAAAAAUUUUUGH! WHY COULDN'T I HAVE BEEN THERE FOR HER?!"

BGM: Missing You (Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix)

K1-B0 flinched from Penny's scream.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to shout…" Penny said. "It's just… why wasn't I there for her? Because of me, SAPR got herself killed out there!"

"Hey hey… easy! We'll get SAPR back… I know-"

"And what if we don't?! What if they repair SAPR and she's not the same anymore? What if she's someone completely new? What if she doesn't recognize me or Nagisa as her siblings? What if she sees us as complete strangers and attacks us?"

"Pen-"

"It's just… why…?! Why did that have to happen?! SAPR didn't need to do that… she knew better! She just… just… WHY?! If she hadn't done that, she would still be here! But she's gone… she's gone… and where does Nagisa go? He goes straight for Paldea and it just hurts me that he didn't ask me to go with him! I know that's completely irrelevant but I could use a distraction too!"

"Penny… SAPR-"

"Don't SAPR me, Keebo! Don't you get it? SAPR… IS GONE!"

Tears swelled in her eyes as she fell on her knees.

"Was I a good enough sister…? Was it something I did that made her go off on her own like that? I know we kept that secret from her that she was originally R3-B7, but she got over it after Eggman's invasion… we talked it out… was it… something I said that made her think life isn't worth it…?"

She fell on her hands. "My directive… was to keep her happy. Be a good sister to her… she was my family…"

Tears fell on the mushroom as she looked directly at K1-B0.

"I… failed to do that… I… I failed her… I let her die…"

She immediately started to sob uncontrollably, reaching over to K1-B0 and continued to cry into his chest. K1-B0 frowned and gently held her as she cried into his chest.

"Penny… SAPR's not gone forever. Her core is still within cyberspace. She's still alive through that. And even though repairing her is taking a bit longer than usual, she can still be saved. I have a feeling her personality won't change much either. How long have you been holding this in?"

"For about a week… it's what happens when I'm in low power mode… I didn't… know robots could bottle up emotions too…"

"Well, when we have a soul within us, it's just a matter of time…" K1-B0 said, softly caressing her back and hair to calm Penny down. "You're still a wonderful sister… any other robot would be jealous that you're a sister to a wonderful robot that is SAPR while they're just single."

Penny sniffled. "You're right… I… I am a great sister."

"There you go. We all have our hiccups in relationships, but I know that SAPR still loves you."

"I… needed that." Penny said, giving him a smile as she sat up as they both looked off toward the horizon.

End BGM

Both had their hands close together as both of them slowly reached toward each other, their fingers pressed together. They both blushed and pulled away.

"Hey… um… Keebo?"

"Yeah?"

"There's… something I need to tell you. I… started to feel this around Ares Island and couldn't shake it off. Even when I was despairing over my sister, I just… can't get this feeling away."

"What is it?"

Penny looked him in the eyes. "I… am hot and bothered for you."

K1-B0's eyes widened, blushing before smiling. "To… tell you the truth, I… am also hot and bothered for you." He said. "I have no idea how I am, but… I think I have feelings for you."

Penny smiled. "Awww, we're both hot and bothered for each other!"

A few Paratroopas flew by, overhearing the confession.

"Dude, have they ever heard of phrasing?" The first one whispered as the other two shrugged.

"So uh… how do we seal this hot and bothering exactly…?" K1-B0 wondered.

"We kiss but… I think it goes like this…?" Penny kissed her hand and placed it on his cheek. "...I could be entirely wrong. I don't pay attention to romances… even if my best friend is dating Pit."

"Hmm… ah, I know!" K1-B0 smiled. "We can ask my mother how to kiss. She might know a thing or two!"

Penny's eyes sparkled, clasping her hands together. "Splendid idea~!"

"And hey, when SAPR comes back, I have a feeling she will be happy that we're a hot and bothered couple."

"You're right. She'd be happy for us~!" Penny smiled as they hopped off of the mushroom together and started to walk back inside. Penny clutched her head and exhaled deeply.

"SAPR… I'm going to give you the biggest hug when you come back."

This Gaiden idea was suggested by Jacob!

Ibuki and Deadpool: Caaaaaaaan you feeeeel the hot and bothering toooniiiiiight~!

Pffft! Anyway, Penny confessing to K1-B0 was originally going to happen on Ouranos Island in Frontiers, but as things got more dire and desperate on the final island that I had originally anticipated, I realized that Penny confessing to him wouldn't make sense in that regard, so I held off until the time was right.

Oh, and before I forget! RWBY's been picked up by VIZMedia! Woo! It lives!