In this week's chapter of In Passing we look at the activation of one Penny Polendina and how General Ironwood hoped to remove men from the battlefield against the Grimm.

As always this is pretty AU. I make no apologies. Well. Except the one at the bottom.

A heart of steel.

An artificial body.

Is she a puppet or a person?

What does it mean to bear the light of your Soul?

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James Ironwood sighed and rubbed his temples as he finished yet another condolence letter. He reached into his desk and took out a bottle of pills before shaking his head and putting them back. He was spent for the night. The clock read well past 3 in the morning and he had to be up soon for yet another day of work.

He rubbed his right shoulder and felt where the metal of his augmented arm meet scarred flesh. Ten years he'd been dealing with the augments. Yet they still stung like a bitch.

Images of the day flashed into his mind unbidden. Just a lowly Lieutenant on a patrol struck down by a Beowolf. Half of his right side a torn and bloody mess. He didn't have Aura until the lone hunter on the team unlocked it to keep him alive. He remembered struggling on the floor drifting in and out of consciousness as his first patrol team was ripped apart.

It took him a year to get back on duty and another year to get onto a mission that wasn't a dead end for his career. Only him and the Hunter had come back from that patrol and he would not dishonor their sacrifice by wasting his life.

He stood up purposefully and strode from the room. Catching the eyes of Winter Schnee she rose swiftly to follow him. It was time to check up on Doctor Polendina and his project.

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Ironwood walked in on a very clearly frustrated Dr Polendina. He was stood next to what by all appearances was a young Huntress sat on a lab worktable. But James knew she was a highly sophisticated android. Commissioned by him some years ago to help realize his dream of taking soldiers off of the battlefield. Atlas's AI drones where good and competent. But they had a central point of failure and as a military man James had that old axiom stuck in his head. If it can go wrong. It will.

Ironwood cleared his throat and the Doctor turned around. He was a squat balding man with large black rimmed glasses and a salt and pepper beard. His white lab coat had numerous coffee stains down the front and he had dark bags under his eyes.

"General. What an unexpected surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure at this late hour?" Said the Doctor, fatigue and a little hesitance evident in his voice.

"Enough of that Henry I think we've known each other long enough to not stand on formality."

The Doctor seemed to visibly brighten like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "Well than James old buddy what can I do for ya? Im afraid im still not having much luck with Penny's programming. She has all of the information we can give her and her Aura generators should be working. Everything on every bloody instrument says they should be working but look." Before Ironwood could stop him Henry had hit the android with a spanner and left a small dent on the metal. "That. Shouldn't be possible. I don't know what else to do James. I'm stuck and the committee and council is so far up my ass to get results I can't focus on my work."

James but his hand on his shoulder in comfort. "I won't let them pull funding for this Henry. You've worked too hard for too long for this project not to bare fruit. You just need to keep working at it."

Henry smiled up at him and nodded in thanks.

"Why don't you try unlocking her Aura." Said Winter from behind them.

In honesty James had completely forgotten she was there. He had only asked her along because she seemed at a loss for something to do at the late hour. He was more than familiar with fighting your own demons late at night and had thought to offer her a comfort in the form of tagging along. From the way the Doctors mouth was hanging open it had been a good idea for her to tag along.

He turned to the Doctor. "Could that work?" he asked. The Doctor was still staring at Winter. Mind clearly whirring. "Doctor." He said slightly more forcefully.

He snapped out of his musings and seemed to become as excited as a kid on Christmas day. Running about attaching wires to the vacant looking android. He swore like a sailor as he berated himself for not thinking of it.

"James. I have no idea if this will work but will you do the honors? I hear you've done it a few times." he was still frantically attaching wires. Readouts flickered to life around the room.

He nodded and stepped forward. Removing the glove on his right hand. Metal gleamed in the fluorescent light of the lab. "Excellent work Specialist Schnee. If this works you'll have done Atlas a great service."

The Specialist in question seemed to light up from the praise. From what he understood it was hard to find growing up for her.

"Ready." Henry said.

James put his hand on the androids shoulder. Metal on metal. He spoke the words as they came to him. Just like how they had done so many times before.

"For it is in our spirits we hold our true selves. Here we are infinite and unbound by the limits of the flesh. Though you may pass you will live on in the hearts and minds of others. I create your Soul, and by my hand, awaken you."

Green light lit up the room and James felt his Aura strain. He felt the core of his being flex in a feeling he could only describe as like getting a Greek fire blood transfusion and after a brief bang he knew no more.

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Light. Sound. Awareness.

These feelings were unfamiliar to her. Feelings were unfamiliar to her. She opened her eyes and looked around the room. Passively she stretched her awareness out into Cyberspace. Comprehending her being with every passing second she devoured information around her. Linking herself to machines all around the room she could see her Aura was working at 100% efficiency. That pleased her immensely. She recalled sitting and listening to her father complaining that she didn't work. She liked working very much so far. She was enjoying herself so much by simply being.

She heard a low moan from the floor and directed her eyes towards it. General Ironwood was lying on the floor. Slowly rising he regarded her with some wonder. Her father was gaping at her and sputtering random syllables.

"Hello World." She said. Her voice was a little too high for her liking so she modulated it. She tried speaking again. Better. She would have to adjust it as time went on.

"Holy fuck she's tearing through firewalls like they aren't even there." Said her father from the console he was staring at.

Ironwood was on his feet. His face for once not an emotionless mask. He was smiling at her. She smiled back at him before standing off of the table she had spent her whole existence on.

"Nice to meet you Penny." General Ironwood said before sticking his hand out. Penny recognized the gesture from her data-banks and stuck out her hand to grasp it. The generals augmented hand groaned under the force of her grip.

The Doctor and Winter were giving the General strange side-wards glances. Penny's smile faded and she processed that they didn't quite consider her real yet. But Ironwood had awakened her. He had felt her become real. He had given her a soul.

She decided perhaps a platitude to reassure them would not go amiss.

"I am combat ready!" she said with all the enthusiasm she could muster. Which was a lot. Fighting was her purpose after all.

She would make everyone proud.

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A lot had happened since Penny had been created. The world was a wondrous place she had learned. Full of good people and marvels of humanity's will to survive.

One such marvel was Amity Colosseum. Where she was currently engaged in combat with one Pyrrha Nikos.

Her swords thrummed with power and deadly promise as she channeled her Aura into the blades. The Light of her Soul bared out in front of her ready to deflect any and all strikes.

Her father was watching. She would win.

But something was wrong. Her opponent was acting strangely. Looking above her in fear. Penny mused this to be strange somewhere in her secondary processes.

Capitalizing on her opponent's weakness she directed her weapons forward. Hoping to deal the match winning blow. Wires flexed and snapped as they dove forward. Carefully directed by her Aura.

Disarmed Pyrrha crossed her arms before her. Perhaps hoping to concentrate her Aura and weather the on coming blow. Penny grinned inwardly. She had this round in the bag.

Pyrrha's arms flew wide and a wave of darkness stopped her blades in their tracks. Before Penny could even tense her synthetic muscle the wave hit her and froze her in place. Her systems where scrambled. Her body wouldn't move. No amount of EM shielding could withstand aura enhanced magnetism. She felt the string of her own weapons wrap themselves around her. Shearing into the metal and her key systems. She could feel it as if it was in slow motion. As she was ripped apart the crowd didn't know how to react. Pyrrha was stood stock still.

She was shutting down fast. Her Aura flickering and fading. The things that kept it sustained being torn to shreds. She felt the panic keenly. She didn't want to cease to exist. She clung to that desire with a fervor. Gathering herself she spread herself further than she had dared. Into every system on the coliseum. Through signal links into Vale. She didn't have any guides on what to do. They hadn't even planned for this because no one assumed she would die. There was no plan in place. Just her and the desperate need to survive. To continue. To exist.

She felt it when her body died. It was like being on a ship and suddenly feeling the anchor being cut away. Her Aura had nothing to anchor too. She was just code. A Ghost in the Machine.

Yet she endured. She was still aware. Looking through cameras and feeling through sensors all around Vale. Nothing was off limits to her. If there was a firewall she tore it down. She looked for something occupy but nothing she found could hold her. She looked to the CCT. Gathering herself as much as she could she pushed herself through an uplink to Atlas. In a blind panic she scrambled for somewhere familiar. She found her awareness in her father's workshop. He was sat in a chair staring disbelievingly at a monitor. Penny could see her former body on it. People were still reacting.

Penny felt more panic. She could feel more and more of herself coming apart. Parts of her just drifting into cyberspace. She searched frantically for something to contain her.

There! In the workshop. A half built body. She devoured it's schematics and all the data about it. It was intended as an upgrade for her. Her father had been working on it for awhile.

It wasn't ready. She could see that as soon as she scanned it.

But she had learned a valuable skill from her friends back in Vale. One that would serve her well here. Hopefully.

Recklessly she shoved her awareness into the half built body.

Searing pain ran through her and she struggled to contain her being inside this new shell. Sparks flew as circuits shorted and came to grips with the powerful entity that was coming to control them. Speakers shot random bursts of machine code. Lights all over the facility flickered.

She couldn't move or speak. She feared to reach out into cyberspace lest she float away.

So she sat and waited to be discovered. It took several days for her father to find her. His grief evaporating as he realised she was alive.

After a battery of tests she could stretch out again. Expand her senses into the CCT network and get news from Vale.

Inside her core she gave the machine version of a gasp when she discovered the events that had transpired since her "death."

Pyrrha Nikos had fallen atop the CCT tower which now contained a frozen dragon. Beacon had undergone tremendous damage and many students were dead or injured.

Retreating deep within her core Penny replayed happier memories of her time at Beacon. She didn't even notice she hadn't turned her speaker output off and the whole lab could hear the echoes of her weeping.

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Another chapter done. Not the longest one I've ever done but I couldn't think of anything past what's already here.

Sorry for no updates. Weekly uploads is right out but i'll try and post what I've got when I've got it. I would explain more but it can be summed up in the words "Personal crap"

Thanks for reading! Leave a review. It's free and feeds my desire to write more.