Chapter 1- Reboot
Day 1
/
[INITIATING REBOOTING SEQUENCE…]
[POWER SUPPLY OPERATIONAL]
[SOURCE CODE DETECTED]
[INITIATING CORE SYSTEMS]
[ACCESSING MEMORY FILES]
[ACCESSING VISUAL INPUT]
[ACCESSING AUDITORY INPUT]
[ACCESSING MOTOR FUNCTION]
[NO MOTOR FUNCTION FOUND]
/
[MOVEMENT DETECTED]
[INITIATING FACIAL RECOGNITION]
[INITIATING AURAL DETECTORS]
[INITIATING NETWORK CONNECTIVITY]
/
Bloodshot eyes roamed across the blank white screen. They belonged to a balding, portly man with gray hair. The bags underneath his dull brown eyes revealed many days and nights without sleep. He wore a dirty lab coat stained with coffee and oil, and hasn't changed his wrinkled clothes in nearly a week.
"Can you see me?" he spoke into the microphone, his voice hesitant.
Another man stood next to him, looming over the entire room. He wore a clean pressed Atlesian military uniform decorated with shining medals, complete with a pair of pristine white gloves. In further contrast to his partner, he was in good physical shape, although his face was tense, his lips clamped shut.
Both men stood in front of the microphone, which was connected to several monitors and a camera. Behind those was a computer system taking up half of the room they were in, consisting of racks upon racks of processors and hard drives whirring away.
When there was no response as the two men stared at a blank screen, the man in a lab coat frantically repeated, "C-can you see me, Penny?"
[SUBJECTS IDENTIFIED: ADMIN. AUX_ADMIN.]
[ADMIN ALIAS: CLASSIFIED. AURA: LOCKED]
[AUX_ADMIN ALIAS: IRONWOOD, JAMES. AURA: 99.6%]
/
YES FATHER, I SEE YOU.
The black words appeared on the screen as Penny's father held back a sob before smiling, "It's good to see you again."
James Ironwood, general of the Atlesian military and headmaster of Atlas Academy, twitched his lips slightly upward as well, "Impressive. Even after all that time, she can still function."
FUNCTION? WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE IS MY BODY?
I CAN ONLY ACCESS MY MEMORIES FROM SHORTLY BEFORE FACING PYRRHA NIKOS.
THAT MEANS MY MEMORIES ARE FROM THE BACKUP I MADE PRIOR.
DID SOMETHING HAPPEN TO ME?
James spoke as her father grimaced, "Quite a lot happened recently. During your fight with Ms. Nikos, you were… indisposed."
Her father's brows creased before looking directly into the camera, "Vale was overrun with Grimm. We were unable to salvage your body, but able to recover enough of your code to bring you back."
OVERRUN? WAIT WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS? IS CIEL OKAY? RWBY? THE GRIMM? HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?
"Please Penny. Calm yourself. I think it is better if we just show you," Ironwood said.
SHOW ME?
"We want to connect you to the CCT feeds. Even though Vale's tower fell, your father was able to jury-rig a replacement system using multiple bullheads and antennae," Ironwood explained, "But it is not without risk. Your father estimates a one in ten chance that you will become overwhelmed with the data."
WHY?
Ironwood looked away, "When I first read your father's designs to build you, I saw it as something potentially incredible. I still think that right now. We thought you could one day save the world. When you decided you wanted to become a huntress, your father agreed to do so because he wanted to see if you could fit inside a robot body. When you succeeded, we felt that there was now a path laid out ahead for you. A path that could lead to our goals."
He sighed before turning back to her camera, "But after what happened, I've had to change some of my views, and change some of what we intended for you. By making you a huntress, we wanted to protect you, until one day you could protect yourself. But now the situation has changed, and we are in dire need of your capabilities."
Penny's father spoke up, "You've spent the last few years becoming a powerful sword, but now we are in need of a shield."
Ironwood stared into the camera, his expression hardening, "We cannot allow what happened in Vale to happen elsewhere. The three remaining bastions of civilization must be protected. And to do so, we need your help."
WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?
Ironwood smiled. It was a faint smile, so slight that most humans wouldn't notice it. Penny was not human.
"We want you to find the perpetrators. We want you to become the eyes and ears for all mankind. To watch over us. We no longer need a heroine, Penny. We need something more," he clenched his jaw before relaxing it.
"You are an artificial being that creates her own aura. If we were to extend your reach across the planet, you would be powerful enough to rival the most powerful Grimm, powerful enough to defend against the other maidens. Not only that, but you will have surveillance coverage over enormous swathes of the kingdoms, being able to tap into every scroll connected to the CCT, giving us an advantage against our enemies."
"Do you accept?"
YES.
I AM READY.
"Then let's begin," Ironwood typed in a twelve digit code into his scroll. He looked at Penny's father who nodded back.
He pressed enter.
[TOTAL ACCESS GRANTED]
/
[ACCESSING CCTS FEEDS]
[VACUO_PRIMARY_FEEDS ACCESSED]
[ATLAS_PRIMARY_FEEDS ACCESSED]
[MISTRAL_PRIMARY_FEEDS ACCESSED]
[VALE_TEMP_FEEDS ACCESSED]
/
[ACCESSING FEED ARCHIVES]
[ACCESSING SCROLL ARCHIVES]
[ACCESSING BULLHEAD AND AIRSHIP ARCHIVES]
[ACCESSING ATLESIAN KNIGHT ARCHIVES]
[ASSIMILATING DATA]
/
[INITIATING PLAYBACK]
/
WHY?
Penny could only virtually wince as she took in several hundred billion hours of video feeds in a fraction of a second. While her processing power was currently several thousand times what it once was, no longer confined to the space of a teenaged girl, she wasn't ready.
She saw everything. Everything that happened since the CCTS came online sixty years ago. Every scroll call, camera feed, news broadcast, and recording. Bits and pieces of it, so much that it would take Penny quite a bit of time to make sense of it all. Disjointed moments across Remnant that fit together into one greater scheme. Every life, their histories before her. All of the joy. And all of the despair.
The worst part was witnessing the Atlesian Knights attacking from their point of view. The fear and mistrust spread in a single moment. The cries and screaming. It was painful to watch. Was that pain? She had never felt physical pain before. It was emotional pain, Penny realized. She'd felt it before, but this was so much worse.
In an instant she saw the entire life of Ruby Rose, from her birth, to her initiation to Beacon. She saw Ruby fight Torchwick the first time, and the second, and the third time. She saw names and concepts that were all important to her, in some way or another. Silver. Hammer. Flowers. Grave. Yang. Blonde Jaune. White hair. White Fang. Cat ears. Gone. Summer. Silver.
She saw Ruby fighting the Grimm as they overran Vale, as well as her final confrontation with Cinder Fall.
Cinder Fall. That name tugged something within Penny's algorithms. Within a millisecond, she dug up countless hours of video footage, calls, and documents related to her. A web of lies and death, a conspiracy that doomed Vale, all for the powers of the Fall Maiden. She saw Pyrrha being burned to death from the inside. Cinder Fall did that with the Fall Maiden's powers.
Cinder Fall.
Penny wasn't sure how she would be able to find out more about Cinder, if that was even her real name. She would have to spend countless amounts of processing power to be even able to identify her at younger ages, across continents, at thousands of different angles. To do so would be a massive undertaking spanning—
[ERROR: INFORMATION OVERLOAD]
/
[TERMINATING PLAYBACK]
[SHUTTING DOWN ACCESS TO VACUO_PRIMARY_FEEDS]
[SHUTTING DOWN ACCESS TO ATLAS_PRIMARY_FEEDS]
[SHUTTING DOWN ACCESS TO MISTRAL_PRIMARY_FEEDS]
[SHUTTING DOWN ACCESS TO VALE_TEMP_FEEDS]
[SHUTTING DOWN ACCESS TO FEED ARCHIVES]
[SHUTTING DOWN ACCESS TO SCROLL ARCHIVES]
[SHUTTING DOWN ACCESS TO BULLHEAD AND AIRSHIP ARCHIVE]
[SHUTTING DOWN ACCESS TO ATLESIAN KNIGHT ARCHIVE]
/
SO MUCH PAIN. SUFFERING. AVOIDABLE DEATHS.
WHY?
General Ironwood read the words as they appeared, "I am sorry for what you must be seeing. May the gods help your soul."
There was so much to parse through, she couldn't possibly handle it, not with her current systems. But what she did see was incredible. The world was beautiful, even if it was filled with so much death and horror.
But that didn't matter right then. Penny saw something else in the feeds. Her father had spent the past three days awake working to fix her code so that she could come back. Her analysis of his face showed a human in great need of rest. But he wouldn't sleep, not while Penny had just come back. But she didn't need to rest, she was an AI. Her father needed sleep, so Penny decided what to do.
I WISH TO REST FOR NOW. HAVE PLEASANT DREAMS, FATHER, GENERAL.
/
[ENTERING HIBERNATION STATE]
The two men looked at the message before them before Ironwood chuckled, "I see," he turned to Penny's father, "You heard her. Get some rest."
The scientist blinked before nodding, stumbling away to a nearby bed. Ironwood looked at the computer screen before following suit.
Day 2
"Good morning Penny, how are you feeling?" General Ironwood asked, sipping a mug of extremely dense coffee.
SALUTATIONS GENERAL. I AM READY FOR MORE INFORMATION. WHEN CAN I ACCESS THE FEEDS AGAIN?
Ironwood slightly smirked, "I know you're eager to figure out the world, but you still have much to learn."
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
Ironwood put his mug down and pulled out two pictures, "Before we can show you the world, we need you to understand it better. What good is seeing everything if you don't know what you're seeing?"
THEN WHY DID YOU LET ME SEE WHAT HAPPENED IN VALE?
"I still trust that you understand basic concepts of good and evil. After all, you are your father's daughter."
?
"Of all the things I can say about him, the one I am most sure of is his moral compass," Ironwood frowned briefly before shaking his head, "Well, that and his work ethic. He gets barely more sleep than you. Quite possibly the smartest man alive, with greatest knowledge of weaponry and robotics, and what does he do? Instead of bringing about death with a powerful weapon, he decided to create life."
Ironwood sat down in his comfy office chair before bringing his mug back to his lips, "That man has the intelligence and clout to change the world. He already has of course, but always on his own terms. He somehow convinced the Council to give him a 300 million Lien grant to build a person. I trust him with more than my life. I'd trust him with the world."
WHERE IS FATHER?
Ironwood smiled, brighter than he had in all the time Penny knew him, "He's fallen asleep. The relief and worry caught up to him after you went into hibernation. He'll be out like a log for at least another three hours."
THAT IS FORTUNATE. WHAT NOW?
"We will do what he did to me: teach and learn. Now, pop quiz, which of these two committed a serious crime?"
He held out two pictures, the first showing a man with orange hair and mascara. He was scowling, menacing aura almost jumping off the still image. The second showed a young woman, probably around twenty, with hair in three colors: brown, pink, and white. She was smirking whilst carrying an umbrella.
I DON'T KNOW.
"Make an educated guess. I don't expect you to get it right, but at least try," he held the two pictures in both hands, with the man in his right. He licked his lips, already missing the sweet embrace of caffeinated bean sludge.
ARE YOU STILL THIRSTY? PLEASE DRINK, I HAVE ALREADY MEMORIZED THE PHOTOGRAPHS.
He raised his eyebrow before putting the pictures down and grabbing his mug before carefully chugging down.
I CANNOT DETERMINE WHO IS A CRIMINAL BASED ONLY ON ONE IMAGE. THEREFORE, I BELIEVE THAT NEITHER IS A CRIMINAL.
"And I believe that your father has taught you well. But what if I were to tell you that the woman is a killer? That she has killed at least a dozen innocent people. On the other hand, the man is a renowned thief, stealing millions of Lien-worth of dust and weapons. Who is worse?"
DID THAT MAN KILL PEOPLE AS WELL?
"We don't know for sure. No definitive proof has ever been brought up."
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DUST AND WEAPONS HE STOLE?
Ironwood smiled again, "We don't know, but he did have ties to the White Fang. What do you think?"
THE WHITE FANG ARE A DANGEROUS ORGANIZATION. THE PROBABILITY OF THEM USING SUCH CONTRABAND FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES IS HIGHLY UNLIKELY.
BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
HOWEVER, THE QUESTION WAS WHICH IS WORSE, THE MAN OR THE WOMAN.
IF THE MAN KNEW THAT THE WEAPONS WOULD BE USED TO KILL, THEN HE IS WORSE.
IF HE DID NOT KNOW, BUT SUSPECTED IT AND STILL SOLD IT, HE IS WORSE.
IF HE DID NOT KNOW, BUT DID NOT SUSPECT AT ALL, HE IS BETTER.
IF HE SOLD IT TO SOMEONE ELSE, THEN IT DEPENDS ON WHO IT WAS SOLD TO.
IF HE DESTROYED THE CONTRABAND, THEN HE IS BETTER.
IF HE KEPT IT FOR HIMSELF TO USE, HE IS WORSE.
"That last one, how is he worse?"
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH WEAPONS OTHER THAN FIGHT?
"He could repurpose them into other things! For example, scythes were originally farming tools used to harvest crops," the ramble came from behind. Ironwood turned around to see Penny's father, who had put on a new, cleaner lab coat. It was still quite faded, more light gray than white.
"Doctor, you're up," Ironwood raised an eyebrow.
"Of course I'm up! There is so much to do, and now that I've had my power nap, I can begin upgrading Penny. I can now focus less on miniaturization, and more on processing power. I just looked at her error logs, and if we increase the RAM by a terabyte, and create an advanced cluster, maybe she'll be able to process the data properly!"
Ironwood sighed, "How much will this cost?"
The inventor smirked, revealing his glossy white teeth, which shined despite being caked with coffee on an hourly basis, "Only a modest eight hundred thousand Lien, James."
The general sighed again, this time deeper, "Very well. But note that your budget for Project Northern Lights has been cut. After 800,000, you will only have another 30 million Lien remaining. Use it wisely."
"James, I'll have you know that we are beyond hardware limitations. What is important now is upgrading the software. I don't need much money, only time. Tell the council to cut the funding to 20 million, use that money to build a hospital or something," the stout man took Ironwood's remaining coffee and downed it in one gulp.
WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER TO THE QUESTION?
Ironwood smiled, "The truth is, there is no right answer. We don't judge who is better or worse. We judge them on their actions."
The inventor nodded, "All we know is that one is a thief and the other a murderer. While we're not sure how many deaths he indirectly caused, we should not worry too much about that. We need to focus on those who wish to cause harm to others."
"Indeed," Ironwood took over, "We cannot focus too much on what-ifs and maybes. We need to focus on stopping killers, malcontents planning acts of terrorism, and protecting the kingdoms and its people from those who wish to do harm. But before we do that, we've got to make sure you're still you, and that your father didn't introduce any errors in your judgement when putting you back together."
I UNDERSTAND. I AM READY.
"Then let's begin. We have a lot of work to do, and I'm sure the James here has quite a lot of pictures," her father motioned to the General, who pulled out a small pile of photographs.
Taking the pictures, Penny's father thumbed through them before sitting down next to Ironwood. He pulled out two pictures and set the rest aside.
"Here is a man named Rusty, and another man named Fletcher."
Day 9
"That is a lot of Scroll Stations," General Ironwood could not help but say. The scale of the cluster was incredible. It took up four entire rooms; they had to relocate two other projects and demolish the walls separating the rooms, creating a space for the computational monstrosity. And it was made almost entirely of gaming devices you could buy in town and a lot of connecting wires.
"Yes it is. I am trying very hard to take one for personal reasons," Penny's father replied, a mug in one hand and a scroll in the other, "I've already optimized everything, including modifying Penny's source code to better manage the data streams. We should be ready to go online in a matter of moments."
The two men walked back to Penny's main computer in record time—they were both fidgeting slightly, Ironwood clenching his fists, the inventor slurping his coffee while thumbing around on his scroll.
The duo hovered above Penny's camera and microphone before Ironwood asked, "Are you ready?"
YES.
Ironwood entered in the keyboard in front of him, and after pausing for just a moment, pressed enter.
[COMPUTATIONAL POWER AUGMENTED]
[RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY AUGMENTED]
[LONG TERM MEMORY AUGMENTED]
/
[ACCESSING CCTS FEEDS]
[VACUO_PRIMARY_FEEDS ACCESSED]
[ATLAS_PRIMARY_FEEDS ACCESSED]
[MISTRAL_PRIMARY_FEEDS ACCESSED]
[VALE_TEMP_FEEDS ACCESSED]
/
[ACCESSING FEED ARCHIVES]
[ACCESSING SCROLL ARCHIVES]
[ACCESSING BULLHEAD AND AIRSHIP ARCHIVES]
[ACCESSING ATLESIAN KNIGHT ARCHIVES]
[SEARCHING…]
/
[COMPILING DATA]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: ROSE, RUBY]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: SCHNEE, WEISS]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: BELLADONNA, BLAKE]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: XIAO LONG, YANG]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: ARC, JAUNE]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: VALKYRIE, NORA]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: REN, LIE]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: GOODWITCH, GLYNDA]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: BLACK, MERCURY]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: SUSTRAI, EMERALD]
[SUBJECT LOCATED: XIAO LONG, TAIYANG]
/
[SUBJECT NOT FOUND: OZPIN]
[SUBJECT NOT FOUND: FALL, CINDER]
/
"What I find odd is how she found everyone on our secondary list, but neither of the two most important ones," Penny's father remarked.
"Yes, I believe that Ozpin and Ms. Fall are either deceased or in a dead zone, an area with no CCT coverage," Ironwood replied.
"Which is about 50% of Remnant. They could even be in Vale, we have spotty coverage there at best."
"That is a possibility, but how did she find so many of them? Most of these criminals would avoid cameras."
Penny's father made a harrumphing sound before explaining, "Penny tracks the feeds for their last known location, while monitoring all scrolls in the area. They may be avoiding cameras, but they sure aren't ditching their scrolls. Any scrolls they use can be used to determine their coordinates, with their identities confirmed by voice matching."
The balding man beamed at the monitors, "In only seven days she's accomplished this much; can you imagine her by next month? We might not be able to find Cinder and Ozpin, but we'll at least be able to counter the White Fang."
Ironwood began stroking his chin and gazed at the monitors. He recognized some of the people shown: his colleague, some highly sought after criminals, Vytal Tournament contestants, Winter Schnee's younger sister. He especially noted Ruby Rose, Penny's first real friend. She was also there at the CCT tower when it was infiltrated, and performed admirably. Not only that, but he considered what happened to Cinder Fall, and Ruby's newly unlocked power. He will have to research further.
"Very well. Keep me updated, and when she's ready, we can give her access to some vehicles and androids," the huntsman stood up and looked into Penny's camera, "I will see you later Penny."
He felt his something buzzing inside his pocket. Ironwood reached inside and pulled out his scroll.
Farewell, General!
The simple text message was sent from an unknown source, but its sender was clear. Ironwood smiled at his scroll before departing.
Before exiting the door, he added, "Be careful who you contact, Penny. Your survival is a secret of the utmost priority. It is our greatest advantage so far, and we need all we can get."
Penny mulled over General Ironwood's words for a few thousand cycles.
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
Author's Note: Well, that was my first foray into fanfiction on this website. I've done it before on a different website for a specific fandom, but I've been itching to write this one for a while, ever since I watched Person of Interest. While it is greatly inspired by the show, this story only requires knowledge of RWBY to be enjoyed.
This is the second version of this chapter, rewritten in May of 2017 and posted in June. Better prose and some tweaks to dialogue and story. Is largely the same otherwise.