Vision of the Caretaker is a 'what if' quest set with permission in a possible far future of the wonderful Devourer of Worlds quest by the inimitable @x50413 . If you have not read it, you owe it to yourself to go give it a read now. I am not afraid to confess that it has brought me to tears of joy and sorrow on numerous occasions. It's that good.
Commentary and corrections on posts in Vision of the Caretaker are always welcome and greatly appreciated. Knowing how our work affected you is food for the writer's soul.
Around Anna, the heart of the great city bustled. People walked the streets in dense crowds going about their business while the overhead flying cabs unerringly took passengers to their destinations. Skyscrapers towered above it all, and to a person standing on the streets it could feel like they never ended.
But there were exceptions in the dense city, and one of them was Anna's destination.
Familiar turns took her to the old quarter, the old low buildings long since mostly replaced with more towering office and apartment buildings with shops below. Anna worked her way through the streets and past the buildings and people, towards a circular park with distinctive pillars and arches.
As always the green armored Sentinels stood in their ceremonial cordon around the park, one every twenty feet facing outward with their rifles held diagonally across their chests. Port arms, Anna remembered. They maintained their vigil night and day. Just in case. There had been assaults before.
The Order of Sentinels were very private about their methods and rituals, but Anna did know every one of them had sworn a solemn oath to die before they allowed any threat near their charge. And the rifles they held were kept very much loaded. In the Order's long history no threat had ever gotten through while they lived.
When they failed, what they protected had finished the threats off.
The nearest Sentinel simply nodded to her, the signal that she was one of the few permitted to pass. They knew her here.
Anna's steps took her deeper into the park, footbridges leading over concentric circular waterways. Pretty, while simultaneously functioning as moats should the need arise to hamper an assault. Anna had been coming here for many years before she realized the bulges on the footbridge support beams were explosive charges.
Sometimes Anna wondered about the person who originally designed this place. What sort of a man builds a fortress and makes it look like a park?
She passed only the occasional Sentinel on patrol on her way to the park's central point.
The tower.
Through the doors and into the lobby a line of Sentinels behind prepared cover flanked either side of the elevator. She walked through and the doors opened for her, closing behind.
The elevator had buttons for the many floors of the tower, all the way to the top.
Traps. And at the top, a very convincing decoy.
Anna placed her hand on a square panel to the side of the buttons.
"Friends against the dark," she said, and the elevator chirped in acceptance and proceeded down.
When the doors opened they revealed a large room that had once been a vault, but was now something like an armored operations center combined with the touches you might find in a person's home. Anna and the others who visited here called it the temple. Stepping off the elevator felt like stepping onto sacred ground. Even coming here often it was hard for a part of Anna not to be awed by it.
Holographic displays hovered over a table in the center, while the walls were covered in framed photographs of smiling people, some of them carrying huntsmen's weapons. Among them Anna knew there were several of her mother and her grandmother. Screens on the walls made to look like windows displayed a forest scene at the moment, and hidden speakers played the daily calls of wild songbirds as if the whole room was but a cabin in a peaceful forest.
Resting in a sconce on the far wall was a stone that gently glowed.
Standing at the center table was the girl Anna was here to see. Green Aura clung to her, so thick it was visible even when it wasn't in use. A wide cable connected from the wall into her lower spine, feeding vast amounts of power from dedicated reactors hidden elsewhere.
The girl looked up as Anna entered and with a wave dismissed the holographic display and smiled. "Hello, friend Anna!"
Anna smiled back. "Hello, Penny. How have you been?"
"I am combat re-" Penny blinked. "I am well. I am happy to see you. There have only been three incursions today, and my support has prevented any combat losses. I have had little to do besides speak with Mother."
Anna smiled. "What is that like? She hasn't spoken with anyone else in a very long time."
"Mother has...had difficulty recovering from her loss."
Anna felt a pang of guilt. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."
Penny shook her head. "It is alright, friend Anna. It was long ago. It is just that for Mother even a long time is not very much time at all."
Anna nodded. "Do you...want to talk about it?"
Penny smiled sadly and looked down. "My friends and I were young. We thought we could end the endless and save the world from the Grimm. We were wrong. Even Blake couldn't...her friend..." Penny blinked and looked up again. "Now I suppress the endless instead. And I will be here as long as humanity needs me. I promise, friend Anna."
"I hope you won't have to forever. I hear they're making good progress on the ark project."
Penny nodded. "The project leader's latest estimate is for a completed engine design in nine point four years. Ark construction time estimate stands at sixty seven point one years for full population evacuation, with best projections for population growth."
Anna was unable to suppress her wince in time.
"It is not so long, for how long I have been active, friend Anna. And please do not worry for me here. It is not suffering, for me to protect my friends. I do it for you gladly. And I have had many friends to keep me company." Penny gestured with a hand at the many photographs around the room. Penny's original team, and the many others like Anna. The ones who visited until they could no more, and the mantle passed to the next caretaker. "Thank you, friend Anna."
Anna discretely wiped away a tear with her sleeve. She had never been good at pushing away empathy, and Penny was just so human that it was hard not to feel for her even though she wasn't human and didn't suffer from being confined to her endless self-imposed vigil.
Penny opened her mouth to say something before she suddenly stopped. "One moment," she said. The holographic display sprang to life, screens showing a scout drone's view of a platoon of six Pennies in the Atlas snow disassembling a beowolf pack with precise green Aura lasers and flawless coordination.
The miracle of Penny's awakened Aura had proven to be either one of a kind or not something Obsidian wanted to replicate. So Penny had found ways to spread herself to everywhere she was needed.
When Penny finished watching her direction of her combat remotes she shifted the display so it briefly showed views from the factories of busy Penny remotes assembling more Penny remotes. Satisfied, Penny nodded and dismissed the screen again with a wave before she turned back to Anna. "Friend Anna, I was just saying how I value your friendship. And that of all my other friends over the years. It has helped me. I have given it a great deal of thought, and there is something I wish to ask of you."
Anna tilted her head. "Penny, for you? I would give you anything. Everyone would. You have saved more lives than anyone who has ever lived, and the only thing you have ever asked for is visitors."
Penny smiled. "Thank you, friend Anna. But it is not for me."
Penny turned and walked to the sconce, the heavy power cable scraping dully over the floor as she went. Gently she picked up the glowing stone, cradling it in both hands, and carried it past the table to where Anna stood.
"Mother needs to heal. I have learned that new friends help fill the holes left by those we have lost. I have also come to believe she needs a new Arbiter so she can experience life again as she once did. I do not want Mother to hide in the Dream forever."
Cupped in her hands, Penny held out to Anna the Frozen Flame.
"And I have also come to believe that you would be perfect for the job, friend Anna."
You are guiding Anna Sage Larkspur. She is nineteen years old, a freshman student nearing the end of her second semester at Vale City University. She has the following traits.
Empathetic – Anna has always been good at reading people and feeling what they feel. Sometimes it's a bit overwhelming for her.
Awakened Aura – On her twelfth birthday her parents awakened her Aura. "Like our love, it will always be with you, and protect you when we cannot," she remembers her father saying.
While she never learned to fight and her aura is not very strong, it's a nice cerulean blue that she likes. It offers her a degree of protection from harm.
Semblance – When Anna was fifteen she accidentally knocked her term project for technology class off her desk, scattering the painstakingly arranged components of the crude four function calculator into a chaotic mess on the floor.
In despair she just wanted it to go back together and something happened in her head. The complete design as it should be came into her mind's eye and her normally quiescent Aura pulsed once inside her. Gentle blue light reached out from her skin and picked up the pieces as she thought about how they should be, assembling them in the air before setting the whole assembly back on her desk exactly as it had been before she knocked it over.
As far as she's been able to puzzle out with experimentation, her semblance makes things whole, as long as the needed parts remain. If a some pieces are missing it tries to guide Anna in repurposing what material is present to find a solution, if one is physically possible.
The Caretaker – Since Anna was little she has been the friend of Penny Polentina, humanity's first and best line of defense against the Enemy, as was her mother and her mother's mother before her. Anna treasures her memories of playing childhood games in the Temple with Penny on their visits as her mother watched. As Anna got older she started visiting Penny by herself, and between Anna and her mother the two of them ensured Penny never went a day without a friend.
After Anna's mother died two years ago, Penny held her as she wept.
Bitterly, Anna reflected on how she can put a wrecked machine back together, but she can't bring back the dead. No matter how hard she tried while she waited for the ambulance, her mother just laid there on the ground where she'd fallen off the ladder, her neck bent at that awful angle.
The next day a Sentinel brought Anna the letter from the Prime Minister's office appointing her the Caretaker at Penny's request.
Anna's eyes were drawn from Penny to the Flame as if by gravity. It had a palpable weight to it. The weight of an object out of legends, from bedtime stories Anna heard as did every other child of Remnant. Whole chapters of the Flame's critical role in history filled school textbooks. And it was right in front of her. Solid. Reality felt unreal.
Did it want her to reach out to it? No, she must be imagining.
The Flame was Obsidian. Taught and empowered by her, Penny and the other heroes had changed the world. They diverted the world's course from an inevitable end at the hands of the Enemy. Offered her true opposition for the first time.
And the Arbiter...
Blake Belladonna had been the bridge and the tip of the spear. Her gentle compassion brought humanity and faunus their greatest ally. Her ultimate act of wrath had cracked a continent. Someone larger than life. Someone too big to imagine.
How could she presume to be that?
No. No, that wasn't her. She wasn't a figure of myth. She wasn't that strong. If Obsidian gave her the sort of power Blake had, how would she even know the right thing to do with it?
Anna found her voice choking up. "Penny, I want to help, but I don't know if it should be me."
"That is exactly why it should be you, friend Anna. Why it must be you."
"I don't understand?"
"If you can help Mother, working together the two of you will have great power. That power must be held in hands that both care and question whether they should have it. Whether they can use it for the right things. Hands like friend Blake's. Hands like yours will be."
Anna stared at the Flame, and no words came.
"I believe you are right for Mother, friend Anna. Please, help her."
Mind spinning, in that moment Anna pushed it all aside and knew only that at the end she couldn't say no to someone who needed her help. Even if she failed, she had to at least try.
Mechanically, Anna's right arm raised and she reached out and laid her hand to the Flame. It was pleasantly warm to the touch, but nothing happened. Anna drew her eyes up to Penny, who spoke before Anna could ask.
"Normally it takes time for Mother's energy to bond with someone. I will speed things along." Penny closed her eyes, and her Aura surged. Already tangible about her, it grew to fill the room. In a second the armored walls of the vault creaked with the pressure, and Anna felt in a moment of irrational panic like she was going to be crushed, her own Aura a mere wisp of smoke in comparison pushed deep inside her.
"Wherever the Dream takes you, you must remember who you are, friend Anna. Mother...."
The Flame under Anna's hand reacted. The faint red light became a flare, and something impossibly heavier than Penny's Aura filled the room. Anna was paralyzed, and felt her spark of blue Aura deep inside touching the presence and briefly, tentatively attempting to fix before everything went red.
* * *
Anna had the disorienting feeling of waking up while already standing, and caught herself just in time before she fell over. She still felt the overwhelming presence all around her but it was far lessened. Thinner.
She was standing in a train car. Pieces of early model security androids littered the floor. Crates lined the walls. Towards the far side of the car a tall man in a mask was taking small objects out of a bag and placing them against crates. Much closer to Anna a young woman with black ears, also in a mask, was looking at a glass case.
Inside was the Flame, and it held her gaze.
"Blake, are you finished yet?"
Wait, Blake?
"...yeah, I'm done." Blake reached in and took the Flame, shaking off whatever had distracted her. The mask made it hard to tell, but she looked so young, younger than Anna remembered from the old vids. The voice though...the voice Anna recognized. It was like the vids, but without the quiet confidence of the Arbiter in all her appearances.
Blake's gaze lingered on the Flame, and she didn't notice the large droid that entered from the next car and leveled its energy weapon at her.
"Blake!"
You are guiding Anna Sage Larkspur. She is nineteen years old, a freshman student nearing the end of her second semester at Vale City University. She has the following traits.
Empathetic – Anna has always been good at reading people and feeling what they feel. Sometimes it's a bit overwhelming for her.
Awakened Aura – On her twelfth birthday your parents awakened your Aura. "Like our love, it will always be with you, and protect you when we cannot," she remembers her father saying.
While she never learned to fight and her aura is not very strong, it's a nice cerulean blue that she likes. It offers her a degree of protection from harm.
Semblance – When Anna was fifteen she accidentally knocked her term project for technology class off her desk, scattering the painstakingly arranged components of the crude four function calculator into a chaotic mess on the floor.
In despair she just wanted it to go back together and something happened in her head. The complete design as it should be came into her mind's eye and her normally quiescent Aura pulsed once inside her. Gentle blue light reached out from her skin and picked up the pieces as she thought about how they should be, assembling them in the air before setting the whole assembly back on her desk exactly as it had been before she knocked it over.
As far as she's been able to puzzle out with experimentation, her semblance makes things whole, as long as the needed parts remain. If a some pieces are missing it tries to guide Anna in repurposing what material is present to find a solution, if one is physically possible.
The Caretaker – Since Anna was little she has been the friend of Penny Polentina, humanity's first and best line of defense against the Enemy, as was her mother and her mother's mother before her. Anna treasures her memories of playing childhood games in the Temple with Penny on their visits as her mother watched. As Anna got older she started visiting Penny by herself, and between Anna and her mother the two of them ensured Penny never went a day without a friend.
After Anna's mother died two years ago, Penny held her as she wept.
Bitterly, Anna reflected on how she can put a wrecked machine back together, but she can't bring back the dead. No matter how hard she tried while while she waited for the ambulance, her mother just laid there on the ground where she'd fallen off the ladder, her neck bent at that awful angle.
The next day a Sentinel brought Anna the letter from the Prime Minister's office appointing her the Caretaker at Penny's request.
What should Anna do?
[] Provide Help – Her first thought is that she's closer to Blake than the tall man. She could lunge forward and knock Blake out of the line of fire in time, she thinks.
[X] Make Help – The remains of primitive security robots litter the floor. Calling on her semblance she could fix one pretty quickly, and with the understanding her semblance grants it would be possible to tweak the right bits in its memory as she puts it back together to make it obey her.
[] Grab Help – The robots' guns also litter the floor, and there are even a few that haven't been cut in half. Anna's never shot a gun, but she's thinks she can figure it out.
[] Observe – If Anna's in Obsidian's Dream, isn't this not real? Maybe she can learn something by watching. Neither Blake nor her tall companion seem to have noticed her, which is odd.
[] Leave – There's a door leading outside the train next to where Anna appeared. Maybe it leads to another part of the Dream?
Anna pushed, and her semblance answered. The android's correct shape filled her mind's eye as she looked at the pieces. A whirlwind of big chunks and smaller parts supported by cerulean strands reassembled themselves between Blake and the heavy security bot. Parts clicked into place and broken edges melted and flowed back together into wholeness.
Making changes is much more complicated than fixing, especially in a rush. Anna mentally dipped into its code - part of just like its physical pieces - and swapped the the variables for friend and foe in its target acquisition logic. She hoped that would be enough to get it shooting at the other bot and not the targets that would normally be recognized as intruders.
The flurry of moving pieces in front of it delayed the big bot's shot just long enough for Blake to get behind the cover of a crate. Turning, she seemed to see Anna for the first time.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?"
Anna finished the android's assembly and she felt a twinge of triumph when it promptly opened fire on the security bot, even though its gun had minimal effect against the heavy armor. The bot's software reacted to the unexpected attack by opening fire on Anna's android, blowing its left arm off at the shoulder. Anna began directing the pieces back together and the android kept firing one-handed while its arm was reassembled. While Anna worked the thought passed through her head that she should come up with some sort of answer for Blake, but putting her android back together while it was being shot at was difficult to say the least.
The tall man spoke up over the sounds of combat. "She's human, Blake. She doesn't belong here. Let's go."
Blake looked confused at the Frozen Flame still in her hand. "Adam, something's not right..."
Adam took the opportunity to shift his sword and open fire on the heavy security bot. A pair of shots caught it in the thin armor over two leg joints and it went down. Anna's android advanced and commences putting point-blank shots into it to keep it down.
"What's not right is that we need to get out of here," said Adam as he approached Blake and Anna now that the line of fire was clear, his stance one of prowling aggression.
Blake slowly shook her head. "No, something's different. It doesn't happen this way..."
She look up from the Flame at Anna. Her eyes and the Flame flashed red at the same time. When she spoke, her voice was a chorus that resonated. "You are something new."
"She doesn't belong here!" Adam, face twisted in anger, rushed Anna so, so fast. All she could get out was "Wait-" and then she was falling, shoved through the doorway behind her that she thought was closed, and she blinked.
When her eyes opened again, Anna was falling backwards hard onto the ground somewhere new with a yelp. No train or Adam was in sight. Just a closed door in front of her, and around her a large room filled with machines and workbenches. The walls were the same color as the walls of Penny's tower.
Anna stood, absentmindedly rubbing where she hit the ground. It was a good thing her Aura took most of the sting out of it or she might be bruised all over. Or concussed. What would it even mean for her to get injured in Obsidian's Dream?
On reflection, it was probably safest not to find out.
Anna walked around the room, giving things a closer look. Several of the large workbenches had a lot of parts on them, mostly laid out neatly in lines. Like someone was getting ready to make something, and had the assembly all planned out.
One of the parts Anna immediately recognized from the times Penny asked Anna to do maintenance and upgrades for her so she didn't need to shut down for them. It was a compact computing core, the kind that Penny used as a brain, although an older model than anything Penny had used in a long time. A very long time. Anna wasn't sure, and the usual engraved part label was missing, but it might have been like one Penny used in her first few versions.
Noticing the computing core, the other parts fell into place in Anna's mind's eye. Someone was getting ready to assemble a gynoid here. The kind that look human, or do once the artificial skin and hair that aren't here are applied, at least. This one is not a Penny, the shapes of a number of parts aren't quite right, but the height and frame are close.
Propped up against one of the benches and the wall was also what looks like the distinctive outline of a sniper-scythe, although it was masked by the red cloth draped over it.
What should Anna do?
[X] Look Around – Maybe she should try to understand what's going on here before she does anything or leaves. There might be clues about to where she is or what the unassembled gynoid is all about. She could have a closer look at the sniper-scythe, the production machines, and the non-gynoid parts on the workbenches.
[] Assemble the Gynoid – It'll take a lot of concentration, helping Penny with repairs was always really complicated, but Anna can probably get this one assembled and booted up. Maybe it could tell her something useful? Then again, humanoid-rated compact computing cores, even old ones, are far too complex for Anna to easily tell if it would be friendly or hostile when turned on.
[] Go Exploring – There's a door right there. What's outside?
A/N - I'll probably usually wait considerably longer between posts for votes to take place and try to make an announcement about when the vote will be closed, but this one was such a landslide I figured I might as well go ahead.
If people want to color their votes with observations or suggestions, they might be taken into account in Anna's actions. Especially if they are particularly observant or clever. I may be a god an author but I can't think of everything.
Special thanks to @Qwertystop for betareading help.
Anna walked through the workshop, her eyes drifting over the completed pieces laid in neat lines on the workbenches. The gynoid pieces had been fabricated out of some alloy that was impossible to identify by sight or feel. The pieces had all been polished, shining nearly like mirrors.
She approached the workbench with the covered scythe leaning against it. Above it a blue-steel scythe blade was mounted to the wall on pegs, shimmering as the overhead lights illuminated it. It looked deadly sharp.
Anna gently removed the red cloth over the sniper-scythe. It was soft and worn. She set it aside on the bench.
The sniper-scythe itself was red and black and looked impossibly huge to wield. The blade was missing; the blade mounted on the wall was the right size to fit, but an odd strip of honeycombed material lined the socket instead. Something dark that Anna didn't recognize.
On lifting the weapon Anna found it much lighter than she would have imagined. The structure had to be a Gravity Dust alloy, then. The material was expensive because it was hard to make, although Anna didn't recall ever hearing why. Taking the weapon properly into both hands she could see a number of control switches within easy reach. Her right index finger fell comfortably into a groove and with faint pressure a scythe blade of light projected into being. It was the color of the moon at night, and sounded like wind blowing as it moved and flowed despite keeping its shape.
Anna dropped the sniper-scythe in sheer surprise as though it'd bitten her. The projected blade winked out as quickly as it had appeared before the weapon struck the floor with an awful clatter.
Anna had no idea what that had been. The closest thing she could think of was Hardlight Dust, but it produced a light blue field the same color as the Dust itself, not...that.
Gingerly, watching where she put her fingers, Anna picked the weapon up and propped it up against the wall and bench where it had been before she touched it.
Anna turned from the sniper-scythe and its workbench to begin a tour of the machines. An autoassembler still had a pair of artificial eyes suspended within by delicate armatures, waiting to be removed now that the job was finished. Anna opened the transparent plastic door and took them out. The irises were patterned like they were human, but the color was the same brightly polished gray as the rest of the pieces.
Anna gently set them down with the other gynoid parts, and resumed her survey. Most were empty, but a big adaptive casting machine the size of a table had a patiently blinking 'job complete' light. Anna found the eject button and pressed it. The machine opened like a clam shell and revealed a gynoid chest plate. The metal having apparently cooled long since, Anna picked it up and was setting it on a bench with the others when she heard a rustling noise.
She turned and saw that the far wall now held a window covered with blinds between two of the machines. It was not there when she'd looked at them just a moment ago.
If the Dream kept doing this sort of thing it was going to be one rubber monster short of a bad horror movie. Anna froze. Did thinking about that sort of thing make it likely to happen, here?
Anna hoped not.
With a sigh she shook it off, and made her way over to the window and tentatively peeked through the blinds.
Outside was a bright day on the campus around Penny's tower, but instead of green-armored Sentinels there were young people walking about and talking to one another. Many had highly personalized armor like that of huntsmen and huntresses in very old styles.
More shocking was when Anna realized what wasn't there. Penny's tower and the grounds around it were an oasis in a sea of skyscrapers. In the distance Anna could see a city, but it was...nothing like that. Low buildings. Little more than a large town, really.
She had to be looking at the grounds when Penny's tower was still Beacon Academy, before it'd been relocated to the newer campus. That was a long time go, some time after the broadcast towers had been made obsolete by satellites that the Grimm couldn't reach.
Anna pulled the string to lift the blinds so she could get a better look, and that's when she realized there was no parallax when she moved her head side to side. Peeking through the thin slits in the blinds meant she hadn't seen it at first.
This wasn't a window, it was a screen made to look like one. Like the kind Penny used in the Temple.
Anna backed away and surveyed the room once more. This was better than the first scary situation she'd landed in, but it came with its own conflict. Should she leave, or take a risk on assembling the gynoid?
[X] Assemble the Gynoid – Maybe this part of the Dream is a memory, maybe it's an allegory. Maybe it's some sort of a test, even. Whatever it is, any information would be really helpful right about now. If it's hostile she can always run. Penny is the only gynoid with an Aura, so that will probably give Anna enough of an edge to get away.
[] Leave and Explore – Assembling an unknown gynoid is an unnecessary risk, and to make real progress towards helping Obsidian Anna probably needs to talk to Obsidian directly. Obsidian doesn't seem to be here, or if she's everywhere (and Anna can faintly feel that presence when she concentrates, although it was nothing remotely near the intensity of when Penny did...whatever she did in the Temple) then this isn't a place she's interacting with Anna, so Anna seeing what else she can find makes sense. There's got to be clues out there, or at least a direction where Obsidian's presence feels stronger.
- [] Take the sniper-scythe – It's better to have something to protect herself with than not. Just in case.
- [] Leave the sniper-scythe – Anna has no experience in using it, and she doesn't have a guess at what the blade even is. She also didn't see any ammunition for the rifle mode, or even an obvious place to put in a magazine. Better to leave it behind rather than somehow cut herself in half or something or slow herself down when she needed to run.
A/N: Special thanks to @Qwertystop for betareading help.
To clarify the terminology I'm using (and I have no idea where I picked this up) if it doesn't look like a person, it's a robot. If it looks like a person, it's an android or gynoid, depending on gender. Also, all three can additionally be referred to as platforms or remotes if they're operated by a true AI like Penny, locally or remotely respectively.
Having grown up around Penny, Anna would be particular about the differences.
Anna looked at the door, then eyed the neatly laid out pieces, and teetered. She needed to find Obsidian and talk to her, but...
If she walked through that door there was no guarantee the Dream would give her a way back, and it was obvious that something was going on here. Or something had been going on. Perhaps long ago, but...it might have useful information, if she got it working. Maybe it could tell her where to go, or what exactly was going on. Besides, if it was another AI like Penny it didn't deserve to be sitting around disassembled, whatever that meant inside the Dream.
And if she was honest with herself, she didn't want to spend the rest of her life wondering if she left this mystery unsolved, either.
Decision made, she reached inside and then pushed out with her Aura, her steps taking her amidst the workbenches with all the parts.
Anna closed her eyes as the beautiful complexity of the design filled her mind's eye. It was almost overwhelming; she had done maintenance and small upgrades for Penny before, but thankfully Penny had never needed a full rebuild like this. There were so many pieces, and she could feel them all. It only took the concentration to really look, and how they were supposed to fit became obvious.
So Anna ushered them together with little brushes of intention, bringing the perfection of the design's intention to wholeness with speed, elegance and precision. Parts gently clicked together and spun tight in a symphony of movement all around her, arms and legs and all the complex systems in the torso coming together simultaneously and independently, screws spinning to lock the assemblies into place. The compact computing core was lifted up into the air and the head gently constructed around it before being brought to the torso and connected with care.
When Anna was done she wasn't even sure how much time had passed. Long enough that she suddenly realized her legs felt tired, and she leaned against a workbench to rest for a bit.
Standing before her was the completed gynoid. Like Penny it appeared as a girl in her teens, short and thin, and its polished chassis gleamed in the light in lieu of skin.
Last step, Anna thought, before taking a few deep breaths and gathering her Aura once again. She extended a thread and fed it into the fuel cell inside the gynoid's torso, charging it manually for the first time. It would store the Aura and turn it into electrical force to run everything else.
Feeling drained, Anna stood to press the spot on the lower back of the skull that served as the activation switch before stepping back to lean on the workbench and watch.
After a moment's pause the gynoid's eyes blinked, its gaze far off, and it spoke with a voice that Anna remembered from historical video.
"Guardian platform loading Lucca Dream OS, iteration two point oh. First time startup, debug mode active. Seventy two warnings, five errors. Alert, two critical errors. Personality engrams incomplete. Memory synchronization incomplete. Full guardian functionality not available."
Without doubt Anna knew that was Ruby Rose's voice, even though it was eerily lacking any emotion to it. In interviews Ruby Rose had always been so...vibrant. This sounded like Ruby Rose, but it was not Ruby Rose.
The gynoid raised its arms and watched as it touched each thumb to each of the four opposite fingers in sequence before lowering them. It raised and lowered each leg once, and then looked back up.
"Self-check complete. Dream pattern integrity okay." The gynoid turned its head, surveying the room. Its eyes briefly settled on Anna before moving on. "Creator not present. Attempting to reach Obsidian."
There was a brief pause, and the gynoid's eyes settled on Anna. "Obsidian energy detected, Obsidian not responding. Dream-state suspected. Presence of unknown non-parasite entity detected on system start. Scenario seven, gather information."
There was a loud clunk from the door that sounded suspiciously like a lock cycling shut.
"Dream warfare suite is online. Where is Creator Ruby Rose?"
Anna gulped. How could she...?
"Where is Creator Ruby Rose?"
"She...I'm so sorry. She died. She went with the Arbiter to confront Salem, and..."
Anna was saved from having to explain by the gynoid nodding once. "Waking world enemy victorious. Creator is dead. This platform created to safeguard Creator's memories after Creator's death, but minimal memory synchronization has occurred. Hypothesis, platform incomplete at time of confrontation."
"Are you okay?" Anna wasn't even sure why she asked. It just sort of slipped out.
The gynoid paused. "Lacking Creator's full memory to protect, purpose unclear." She turned to look at the wall behind her for a long moment, as if at something Anna couldn't see, before turning back to face Anna. "Who are you, and how have you entered the Dream without Obsidian?"
"My name is Anna. Penny sent me here to help Obsidian, but I'm not really sure what I'm doing."
The gynoid seemed to pause to consider. "Creator knew of Penny Polendina entering Dream on her own using her connection to Obsidian. With the Frozen Flame as a substitute channel she could have forced a third party's entrance. Penny Polendina was classified by Creator as an ally. Ally of Penny Polendina named Anna reclassified as ally."
Another clunk from the door as it unlocked. Anna relaxed, realizing that she'd been tensed to run.
"Why does Anna seek to render assistance to Obsidian?"
"I'm not totally sure, but after Salem killed the Arbiter, she hasn't spoken to anyone except Penny. It's been a very long time. Penny thinks she needs to meet someone new, to help her cope with her grief, I think."
The gynoid looked Anna up and down. "Arbiter absent. Penny Polendina exposed Anna to Frozen Flame. Likely believes Anna should become new Arbiter."
Anna had to admit, the AI was scarily insightful. Just not very...human. Nothing like the warmth Penny had. It made her wonder, was that a difference of design, or did Penny develop her human side over time?
Anna nodded. "That's what she said, although I don't know if I really can. I don't know anything about fighting or leading people or anything else."
"Obsidian, Dreams, and experience taught the Creator and allies these things. The Creator believed other factors to be more important as a result. Kindness. Willpower. Self-awareness. These grant resistance to known drawbacks of Dream learning. Later, the wisdom and ability to pursue the right ends."
Had Blake and the others been normal before they met Obsidian? It was hard for Anna to imagine they'd ever been anything like her.
Then again, just how much could the attention of a being as big as Obsidian tilt the scales?
The gynoid moved for the first time, walking past Anna toward the far side of the room. "Proposal. Obsidian secondary source of Creator memories. Anna will ask Obsidian for sharing with Guardian platform for safekeeping. Guardian platform cannot easily leave present location, but dream warfare suite could find a path to location of Obsidian's present attention. Guardian will open the way for Anna to find Obsidian in the Dream."
Reaching the workbench with the sniper-scythe, it pulled the red cloth over its shoulders as a familiar cloak before lifting the weapon, giving it a rapid twirl before letting the butt impact the floor with a ringing thud.
"Guardian platform prepared. Does ally Anna accept?"
What should Anna do?
[] Accept – If the Guardian's confidence is warranted this is probably the surest and fastest way to get to Obsidian, and if Ruby was building the Guardian to protect her memories after her death then having that happen is probably what she would have wanted.
[] Decline – There's no telling what else is out there in the Dream. It might be worth Anna working her own way to Obsidian.
A/N - Special thanks to @Qwertystop for beta reading.
Anna took but a moment before she nodded. "Yes, I do."
The Guardian offered a precise nod in return and then strode across the room, shifting a workbench out of the way with one hand to expose a stretch of wall.
"What are you doing?" Anna asked, glancing at the door.
"The doorway leads to adjacent parts of the Dream, places with similar associations. To get to Obsidian through there you would have to seek her out by association and the intensity of her presence. To travel directly from this part of the Dream to Obsidian's focus, there must be a stretch of Dream with the right associations. Something representing the idea of moving from one place to another and skipping those places between. I shall find such a Dream and rearrange connections for a moment so you may step from here to there."
Space clear, the Guardian spun Crescent Rose once more and activated the flowing blade of light just long enough to strike a glowing slash through the wall. An outstretched hand prompted the gap to widen. Yellow light filled the space too densely to see if there was anything beyond it.
"Proceed. There should be a path evident," the Guardian said, voice tight with effort.
With a final glance at the Guardian, hand still raised, Anna took a breath and stepped up to it and in.
For a moment there was light everywhere, and a sound like the ringing of metal on metal but drawn out.
Then the light cleared and Anna was standing on a platform that looked technomagical. Looking out further, Anna's eyes were drawn up to the most incredible view.
Islands. Floating islands.
Enormous, suspended in the sky. The platform Anna stood on was on a cliff overlooking the ground and clouds far below, slowly drifting past. Other islands floating in the distance like titanic blue and green jewels, dotted with white buildings that were all spires and curves. Water flowed off the sides of some of them, seemingly never running out.
This couldn't be real. What was it?
Anna spent a long moment taking it all in before she turned back to survey the island she was on. It was quite small, perhaps a mile long. A worn furrow in the otherwise verdant expanse of grass led away from the platform she was on, and she could see another platform in the distance.
A path.
Anna set to following it. Wind brushed through the grass and her hair as she walked, and the other islands gently bobbed up and down relative to the one she was standing on, suspended by whatever force kept them aloft.
It did not take long before Anna was at the steps to the next platform. She was about to begin climbing when a voice behind her made her nearly jump out of her skin.
"That way is the black wind."
She whirled around. "What?"
A blue haired boy held close a cat with pale purple fur, and looked at Anna. He was certainly not there before. "The black wind from that way comes. You should choose another path."
Anna looked at the platform before looking back, only to have to turn to find the boy somewhere new. "What's the black wind?"
"The black wind heralds change. And death. You should not go."
Anna closed her eyes and focused on feeling. The power she'd felt so strongly when the Frozen Flame activated had been around her all this time, a slight pressure and taste to the air. It was stronger here, and it seemed to be gently nudging against her Aura from the direction of the top of the platform, as if she dipped her hand in a stream.
She opened her eyes once more, and this time the boy was in her way on the steps. "I'm sorry, but I need to go. That's where Obsidian is. She needs my help."
"Then I will stop you," the boy said, raising his hand. In that moment the cat reacted, clawed feet pushing off the boy's chest with a yowl followed by teeth sinking viciously into his arm.
Anna wasn't sure what was going on, but she needed to get past and she knew an opportunity when she saw one. "Thank you!" She shouted to the cat as she raced past, the boy struggling with it as it clawed and bit.
When she reached the top of the platform solid yellow light enveloped her once again, with that strange sound like ringing metal going on and on until the light cleared and she was elsewhere.
It was twilight, nearly dark. Around her was a twisted forest of dead trees and barren soil, only the slightest hint of a worn path underfoot leading onwards. Off to her left she heard the faint sound of waves crashing against a shore. Anna found herself ducking instinctively as the great red wings of an enormous wyvern beat once overhead, gliding in the same direction as the path into the distance. From somewhere off in that direction flashes of colored light from the ground illuminated the clouds above.
Off in the trees around her she thought she could see the occasional red glimmers of Grimm eyes moving.
"Oh hell."
What should Anna do?
[] Choose Speed - Tapping Aura can make a person very fast and nearly tireless, for a time, even compared to the Grimm. Outrun the Grimm of the dead forest and follow the path as quickly as possible. Anna will arrive quickly, but leaning on her Aura so heavily will likely leave it quite low when she reaches her destination.
[] Choose Stealth - Forests are good for keeping out of sight. Anna has a good chance of getting to her destination without drawing attention thanks to the ample cover and the distraction of whatever is going on there. If all else fails she can always abandon stealth and run the rest of the way. Moving unseen will take much longer however, and she'll arrive later to whatever's going on.
A/N - Special thanks to @Qwertystop for betareading this chapter.
