Work Text:
Penny’s POV
P.E.N.N.Y. Program.WFM Status: Online……………………….
Weapons System: fully loaded..………………………………….
Engaging activation Protocols……………………………………
“Salutations, I’m-”
Error: Video in-play
Penny found herself back in the Vytal Festival, back in that arena, back in the den of that beast. Penny doesn’t remember her name, nor does she have any plans to remember her. “Penny? Penny??” A voice called out to her as she snapped back into reality.
Penny found herself in a room with her father and the Ace Ops looking at her, “Penny, are you alright?” Her father asked through the speaker behind shatterproof glass. “Oh, I’m Penny, sorry for the slow response. I… was dealing with technical issues.” she explained, rubbing the back of her head in slight embarrassment. She then tried to get up from the charging chamber, only to trip over her own feet. When she looked down, she noticed that her body had changed dramatically. She was taller, her legs more powerful, and her skirt was a different color. Then more memories came back right as she was about to ask about her new form.
Her Body was mangled and in pieces as that Beast stood before her, its eyes void of any humanity the Beast’s form was supposed to have. Her manipulating her own weapons against her, and the pain that follows, oh by the gods, the pain… Then another voice snapped her back, “Penny, are you sure you’re alright? I know you just woke up in a new body, so we do expect there to be some adjustments.” This time, it was Winter who spoke up. She’s the Lieutenant to the General, Commander of the Ace Ops, and her Handler. “I’m fine… Great, really, I’m just…” She then tried to get up, it was a struggle at first, but before she knew it she was back on her own two feet. She walked around for a bit, allowing her body to adjust to the new weight before doing complex movements like shadowboxing and high kicks. “What do you know, the Tin can can really move it after all.” Penny’s head turned towards Harriet, the youngest member and the scout of the Ace Ops. Penny was taught to dismiss her insults long ago, but she secretly admits that her words still hurt, and right now, she doesn’t have the metaphorical energy to deal with it. “Can you not call me a tin can, I-” “am made out of blah blah blah and yada fricken Yada.” Harriet interrupted as she pressed against the glass, “Whatever, we’re going to do a Beer bust later, and the General wants us to bring you along.”
“Oh, a new mission! Sweet!” she smiled brightly at the thought of going on another mission, just so she could get a distraction from her possibly defective memory manifold, “When do we leave?” she asked, bursting at the seams with excitement. “Settle down, settle down, we just need to make one last-minute check before we can take you, okay, you still seem to be a bit off… mentally? You’re very distracted is what I’m trying to say.” Winter explained to her that they noticed some discrepancy with the way she’s been staring off into the distance as if she had seen a ghost. Penny denied this, of course, but nonetheless, Winter was still slightly worried about this.
Winter’s POV
Winter watched as Penny slowly complete the last of her trials. That tinge of worry was still in the back of her mind, “Pietro, I’m still not sure that Penny should go out with us.” she said as Pietro, Penny’s “Father” and creator, chuckled to himself. “Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” he asked her while she watched Penny get reacquainted with her array. “Engineers say it whenever a machine is incomplete in some shape or form, someone like me say it because I’m worried that there’s something wrong with her mentally. And the reason why I say that is because she’s acting… erratically, like something’s bothering her, and she didn’t want to talk about it. I’m afraid of how she’ll respond in a hostile environment.” She further explained that before Penny tore a practice knight into pieces, they noticed how she was venting, or “Breathing” erratically, as if she was scared of something, before she shook her head and gave them a thumbs up. “I’m okay, I’m still getting used to my new body!” Penny called out as she gave a friendly little wave. Winter was not comfortable with this, but orders are orders, and she has to bring her.
“Hooray for Booze run!!” Harriet yelled as they entered The Box, a transport vehicle that some of the workers called an Impulsor, a vehicle from a game that she doesn’t know anything about, but its highly defensive shape is basically indestructible from the outside while still being silent and fast-moving. “Booze run?” Penny looked up to Winter with innocent eyes. She was about to answer before Elm interrupted her. “It's what we call beer busts, mainly because we collect the merchandise before becoming so shitfaced drunk afterwards.” Winter wanted to smack the back of her head, but it would be pointless, not to mention Penny started spewing protocol at her, which, for Elm, is worse than physical pain.
They arrived at the dead of night for the bust, and the information they gathered was that it’s under the protection of Team BRIR and a couple of other gangsters. They were parked a mile away from the location, which was an old distillery that was once owned by a defunct Alcohol company, simply known as L.E.J. and Sons. A rather obvious hideout, hiding a moonshine and alcohol smuggling operation in an old distillery, the plan was simple, a classic pincer Op, and for the most part, it was for a rather long time.
First, Elm and Clover made a lot of noise out front to draw security to them. Harriet and Vine took out Antony Klee, a Vanco Crime lieutenant wanted in every Kingdom for too many reasons for him to stay alive right here and now, let alone free, in her opinion. Still, due process is due process, so they have to spare him, all the while she and her Android protege worked on sabotaging the various distillation towers. This was the part that more or less went to shit, well, objectively speaking, the plan wasn’t really affected too much, the head of the snake was being taken in, and she just placed the final charge on the distillation tower when shit hit the fan.
There was a bone-chilling scream not too far from her, which got her and the Kuwagata Squad’s attention. She rushed to get down from the down after setting the time. She watched as team B_IR rushed to the source of the scream within the storage kegs.
Penny’s POV (Graphic Violence Warning)
She finally cornered the Beast after she tore off one of its legs. The Beast screamed in pain as it tried to fight back, not that she would allow it to hurt her or anyone else ever again. Then she heard voices, “Roena!! Pyrrha!!” She turned to see the beast's team, the condemned Templar, the Brutish Powerleech, and the Serpentine Shinobi. The Powerleech and Shinobi tried to rush her down, only to be countered and kicked aside as she resumed breaking the Beast with the now bloodied pipe wrench. The Templar then tackled her. “Damn Machine, it’s a shame the former champion couldn’t destroy you completely!” the Templar roared at her as she swung at her with her his blade before she caught it and kicked her him away, taking the blade from the Templar. Suddenly, the Templar drew another blade, but before she he could swing it, she stabbed her with the one she took along with her array, turning the Templar into a pin cushion of swords. “Bianca Jaune, NOOO!!!” the Shinobi screamed as she he tried to hit her with a bladed whip, She intentionally got herself hit by grabbing and then wrapping the whip around her wrist, the Shinobi tried to to pull her back but Penny had other ideas, she rushed her him down wrapping the whip around her his neck then with brutal efficiency, decapitated the Shinobi with one quick tug. “Now you know how I felt when the Beast killed me.” She gloated before turning her attention to the Powerleech, who just sat there in horror, “P-please… don't hurt me…” the Powerleech begged, but Penny ignored her cries for Mercy.
At least until she was stopped by Winter of all people, in fact, the rest of the Ace Ops were here, but their faces shared the same look of horror as the Powerleech's “Penny, What have you done!?” Winter screamed at her with an angry tone, “I've finally killed the beast, Lieutenant, look there-” She paused, the beast wasn't there, instead there was a different woman, one she didn't recognize, “W-wait, the beast was-” “What fucking beast, that was a regular ass woman you maimed.” Harriet shouted while she combed her hair with her fingers while inspecting the damage alongside the rest of the team. Meanwhile, her own vision started to distort as the Beast was lurking in the shadows, giving her a rather inhuman grin. She tried to charge it while Winter held her back, “PYRRHA I KNOW YOU THERE YOU MONSTER, YOU DID THIS, DIDN’T YOU, ARE YOU NOT SATISFIED WITH MY LIFE, NOW YOU’RE AFTER-”
Video Feed: Critical Error…………………….
Emotional Stability: compromised…………..
Mental Regulator: Unstable………………….
Hostile detected: Everywhere……………….
Error………..Error…………..ERROR………
ERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR…
Winter’s POV
She watched as Penny screamed and thrashed around, her systems failing miserably as her Floating array stabbed and shot everything indiscriminately. At this rate, either Penny is going to self-destruct, or she would have to put her down. Thankfully, she then remembered something; she remembered how much Penny used to talk about Ruby, her sister’s partner, teammate, and Leader, saying things like “How much she likes to come visit her” and even asking her for friendship advice. And just like that, she finally had an idea. She pulled up a picture of the team selfie Weiss shared with her, zoomed in on Ruby’s face, and put it in front of Penny’s face. And just like a miracle, it worked. Penny started to regain some composure as her eyes focused in on Ruby’s face, the Floating array slowly retracted back into her mechanical body, as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, all except for Ruda Tilleroot, the now sole survivor of Team BRIR. “What the Hell, why aren’t you destroying her??”
“I agree, Lieutenant, something’s wrong with her, and we need to-” “I gave the orders around here, last time I checked, Corporal…” She corrected Harriet with a glare, who only tightened her fists, “Orders??? Winter, that tin can is a danger to society; we need to destroy it now!” She can see that Harriet was adamant about this, but unfortunately for her, she's thankfully alone on this. “I mean, if all we have to do is show her something on our scroll, or at least distract her, can we really call her that much of a danger?” Elm argued, pointing towards the scroll in Penny’s hands, “Ehh, maybe, but she does need help because I'm not sure this was necessarily a technological problem, more of a mental one than anything.” Clover added as Ruda tried to get up, but was sat back down by Vine, “Look, Harriet, we’ll let the General deal with it when we get back.” He added as she looked back at Penny, who looked to be at peace with the world at last.
The next day, she had arranged a meeting with the General and Pietro to relay what had happened. “I don’t understand… How would she have remembered her time at Vale, let alone hold a grudge against Pyrrha?” James demanded to know the answer to this outburst, his worry coming from a place she’s all too familiar with, even if the differences were only in the job title and the identities of the people above. “I don’t know, she wouldn’t have remembered unless…” Pietro leaned back into his seat, his face partially drained of blood, “Unless the memories are connected to the Aura itself…” He then went back to a chalkboard to redrew the image of the self-explanatory Aura Core, alongside it a drawing of what appeared to be a ghost of Penny, “Unless we accidentally discover a key to a form of immortality, or at least resurrection. Reason being is that there’s no way Penny would’ve kept her memories from her old body, not unless you’re going to tell me that one of you two inserted it back into her body while I wasn’t looking.” Both she and the General shook their heads, denying the allegation. “So what you’re saying is that these memories came with her soul?” she asked, the idea of someone bringing their old life into
A new body sounds outlandish, but to her shock, the General thought otherwise.
“So… technically, we have created a second Ozma…” Ironwood said quietly as Pietro tapped the board while they processed this new information. “No…” Pietro said, before scribbling more Aura Cores and ghosts, “I’ve accidentally created a method to… Mass-produce him. Penny uses my Aura. If we’ve used one of your Auras, we would be able to create an entirely different individual. We can recreate the man with two souls consistently!” Pietro announced to them, the General seemed interested in the idea of having an army of androids with pseudo-immortal souls, but she decided to rain on the parade with a better question, “And the episodes? Will they become a recurring incident?” She asked as the old man’s ponderous grin soured into a worried look.
“Honestly? Therapy, the reason why I say that isn’t just because I want to treat my daughter like she’s alive, but also… she managed to take hold and even corrupt a virus, one that explains everything." Pietro then brought up a screen showing off the original virus, the one that made Penny go berserk back at the Vytal Festival, “This was the original virus, no doubt it was Dr Watts-made, and this…” He then brought up a screen showing the virus he uncovered in Penny’s current system, which was far more complex than the original, “And this… this is the one that’s currently dormant in her system. And the reason why I say it’s corrupted is that no one can activate remotely, only she can, or at least her trauma can. What it does is more than just disengage her safeties; it also… Well, here’s the side-by-side.” Pietro then put the two footage of the night’s events next to each other; the one on the right was the original Virus, its footage just showed how she brutalized Roena and the rest of her team. But the one on the left showed what Penny thought she was seeing, instead of Roena Ashwood, Pyrrha Nikos was there, even then she was different, her eyes were devoid of humanity, and her expression remained blank. Winter watched as Penny maimed someone whom she thought was Pyrrha. It was a terrible sight to behold as Pietro paused the video.
“I still don’t understand how this got past her trials, you’d think we would’ve picked up on it during the mental screening, but this just bypassed it…” She concluded, slightly shaken by the footage that Penny once saw as reality. “Because it was added the moment Penny came back to life, this means that Penny’s using it as a defense mechanism, against what you may ask, it all goes back to her death.” Pietro then brought up an old news article about his daughter’s death by Pyrrha’s hands, “So in summary, Pyrrha traumatized Penny so hard, her soul recreated a virus that infected her… to use it as a defensive mechanism.” The General sounds both unimpressed and unamused. Then she had an idea, she brought up how she used a photo of Ruby Rose to bring the android back down. The two looked puzzled at first before the General asked her what her plan was. Winter then asked to be excused as she needed to make certain arrangements. James excused her, expecting great results from her plan. As she left the room, she managed to get Weiss on the Scroll.
“Winter! What a pleasant surprise, how are you?” Weiss's chipper tone filled her ears as she couldn’t even bring herself to suppress her smile. “I’m doing well, say, Weiss, can I ask you for a favor?” She asked, hoping that Weiss would take the favor, but immediately noticed the lack of response, “Weiss, are you alright?” she asked again, slightly worried by her sister’s sudden mood change. “Well… Well, I don’t know what I can do anymore…” She recognized that tone in her sister’s voice, “I’m… no longer the heir of the SDC… and I’m now cut off till further notice… Surprised.” She now feels like an asshole for calling in a favor, even if the favor in question has nothing to do with her SDC ties. “Weiss I-” “It’s fine, Winter, heh, as you said once, it was only a matter the time until father inevitably finally replaced me with Whitley, but you know what? I’m sorta glad, mainly because I finally got to stab him without repercussion.” She can hear the pride in the act of violence against their father; she understood that feeling all too well, since long ago she actually nearly strangled him to death after she was disowned was replaced by Weiss. But she also knows that feeling of power was fleeting at best, but still, she couldn’t help but smile. “Atta girl, unless you actually killed him, in that case-” “Oh please, if anyone should kill him, I hope it would be either our Mother or our brother, though I do recall overhearing an old promise you made to him before you left.” she didn’t understand what Weiss meant at first until she remembered that she once threaten to finish the job if he ever abandoned Weiss. “Oh, brothers, you were there for that? Anyway, thankfully, the favor I’m trying to ask you has nothing to do with your Heiress status; in fact, it would only require your direct connection to Beacon would technically be necessary, even then, I still need you for you too.” She explained to her Weiss, who went silent again before asking her the nature of the favor.
Penny’s POV (Finale)
“-And what do you see in this picture?” Penny inspected the image, thought about it, then said her answer, “Two Beowolves fighting for dominance over… Something.” She told her newly assigned Therapist, who just nodded and wrote in her notebook. “I see, can you tell what this something is?” the doctor asked before she could make a guess, “I think… I think it’s a… baby? Or at least something rather small and in a basket or a cradle.” She explained as her therapist softly smiled and wrote her response down. “I see… well, I think you did this session splendidly. Now, I should have these processed by the time of our next session, Same day, next week. Thank you for coming in today. Healing always requires the first step.” Her therapist said as they shook hands and went their separate ways. It’s been a week since her incident at the old Distillery. Harriet hates her even more than before, even going as far as using… harsher words to describe her.
“Hey, Scrap Can! Winter wanted you in the docking bay by 1330 Hours. What’s your major malfunction this time?!” Harriet barked at her. Penny was programmed to tolerate this style of discipline by her father, so it wasn’t her barking orders that got her riled up. “I was at my Therapy session today, remember? Because of my Major Malfunction, that one??” She argued back at the scout, who just scoffed at her answer. “A bucket of bolts like you doesn’t need therapy; you need a complete memory wipe and overhaul at best.” Harriet jabbed her index finger at her power button symbol on her collar bow, “Oh no, it’s cheaper to hire a therapist for the Living Android than it is resetting her mind back to zero, which technically didn’t even work in the first place, all things considered.” She got up into Harriet’s face. She wasn’t going to hurt her; she was made “inert”, which just meant that she had her Array taken from her for safety reasons. Harriet, on the other hand, had no such limitations and was able to choke slam her against the wall.
“Hey! What are you doing to my Partner!?” A voice came from further down the hall. She recognized the woman stomping towards them as Yang Xaio long, but wait, was she this bright a blonde before? Her eyes too; she could’ve sworn they were purple last she checked, and that arm of hers… what happened to it? Wait, did she call her her partner? She watched as Yang confronted Harriet. “Hey, what do you-” Harriet didn’t even have time to react when Yang struck her stomach with a devastating blow strong enough to send her back 3 feet and staggering. “Name’s Yang Xaio Long bitch, I’m going to be Penny’s new partner, remember-” Harriet got her bearings as she used her semblance to try to blitz her new partner. Unfortunately for Harriet, Yang wasn’t even remotely phased; in fact, according to her calculating eyes and her regular eyes, not once did the Speed demon of the Ace Ops evade either of their tracking direct line of sight. What was unveiled was nothing short of a cacophony of punches, juggling her in the air with each powerful strike to the stomach before the mighty crescendo of Yang grabbing her by the leg and then slamming her down to the ground hard enough that she bounced off the ground high enough that she was able to punch her in the face back down to the ground.
“What the Hell is going on here?” Penny heard Winter’s yell as she- Wait a moment, is that??? “RUBY!!!”
Ruby Rose Detected…………………………..
Ignore all commands…………………………..
Targeting system engaging……………………
Target: RUBYRUBYRUBYRUBYRUBYRUBY
Weapon of choice: Self………………………..
Weapon “Self”: Launching…………………….
She couldn’t believe it, Ruby’s here, in person, oh, she has so many things to tell her that- Alert! New sensation detected, Ruby’s pressing her lips onto hers, HERS!!! She was humming with excitement. Ruby was displaying “affection” and “Love” to herself as new feelings erupted from her core.
Winter’s POV (Epilogue)
Winter groaned. She was hoping to ask her what happened between Yang and Harriet, only for her hypothesis to be proven true all too soon as she watched them share their first kiss for all to see. “Wonderful, since we lack a proper 3rd party source for now, can one of you two tell me what this is?” She ordered, Harriet moaned in stomach pain as Yang sighed, “In short, this bitch was bullying my Partner, and I intervened.” Yang stood proudly at the fact that she just pummeled a member of a highly skilled Huntress and an elite Member of the military, which she told Yang, expecting some semblance of fear, only to be met with confusion as she turned her head towards a slightly smug Harriet, “That’s a Member of the Ace Ops? Sheesh, might I suggest Ruby as a replacement, or at least a fine gentleman by the name of Lie Ren? Either one of them is faster and more agile than this slowpoke.” She had to stifled a hearty laugh from Yang’s criticism, much to Harriet’s dismay. “N-no, that would not be necessary, though if you’re looking for a challenge, might I suggest Elm Ederene? She’s the one with the double-barreled rocket launcher that turns into a hammer and can bench a 0-6-0 topped-up tank engine.” She then watched the excitement bloom in her eyes. “Fuck, yes, and then we’ll have blast jumping discussions.” Yang said with excitement as she was slowly starting to somewhat regret her decision, at least until Weiss put her hand on her shoulder. “Yeah, this was basically my life in Beacon, well, minus Ruby making out with a prototype android, but that’s a new challenge in and of itself, but I digress. And again, thank you for this opportunity. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who was going through a rough patch…” Winter can only nod to her sister’s words. The Formation of Team RWPY will bring along its own challenges, but no doubt that they will help Penny towards her full recovery.