The silence that followed Watts' taunt did not last long.
Jaune turned away from the empty tube, jaw tight, hands curling and uncurling as if he were trying to crush the room itself. "We are not splitting up," he said, voice low but iron hard. "That is exactly what he wants."
Blake folded her arms, tail flicking once before she stilled it. Weiss exhaled through her nose, already pacing, eyes tracing the exits, the ceiling, the corners where turrets liked to bloom from the walls like metal tumors.
"We don't have a choice," Weiss said. "Watts didn't leave us a single path. He left three, and whichever one we don't take, will burn."
Jaune rounded on her. "And you think I'm just going to allow you walk into that?"
That was when Weiss stopped in front of him and poked him square in the chest, hard enough that it hurt slightly.
"Allow us to go?" she snapped. "Who do you think you are?"
The words hit harder than the poke. They cut past his defenses and lodged somewhere uncomfortably close to the truth.
"This is the final stretch," Weiss continued, her voice sharp but steady. "Whether Watts is lying, or whether Penny's body is even still in this facility, it hinges on us covering ground. All of it.... right now."
Blake nodded. "Every minute we argue is another minute he uses."
Jaune shook his head. "You're going to be swarmed. You saw how many Centurions were already deployed."
"And we are the resistance," Blake said simply.
Jaune's mouth opened, then closed. His pulse thundered in his ears. He could feel his blood rushing.
That was the problem.
Without him, the odds tilted. Without his rune, Centurions dangerous. Lethal.
"You don't understand," Jaune said, voice cracking despite himself. "If something happens, I won't get there in time and I won't be able to fix it."
Weiss crossed her arms again, shoulders squared. "We're not glass, Jaune."
"That's not what I meant."
"But that is what you are acting like," she replied.
Blake stepped closer then, her gaze level, unwavering. Jaune met her eyes and felt the rest of his argument crumble.
There was no fear there. There was tension, yes, and fatigue, and a weight that sat heavy on her shoulders. But beneath it all was resolve, hard forged and unyielding.
He remembered the command room and how Blake was at that time. That might have been the first time she had ever seen people die, right in front of her eyes... she stood helpless, because she couldn't do anything to help.
And now she was choosing to walk forward anyway.
The realization tasted bitter.
'I am scared,' Jaune admitted to himself.
'Scared enough to try to cage the people I trust. I'm scared that they might die.'
His hands fell to his sides.
"The two of you... better do your best to stay alive." he said quietly.
Weiss' expression softened, just a fraction. "We'll live. I promise."
Silence settled again, heavier this time, weighted with everything unsaid.
Finally, Jaune nodded once. It felt like swallowing glass.
"Fine," he said. "But we need a better plan if we're going to split up."
Penny's holographic form brightened slightly. "I can assist."
She extended thin lines of orange light, linking herself to Weiss' and Blake's phones. For a brief moment, their screens filled with orange static, warm and electric, like a heartbeat stuttering across a wire. Then it vanished.
"This connection will not allow me to transfer into my prototype body," Penny explained. "However, if either of you locate it, you will be able to notify me immediately. It will also give you a map to where my body is most likely located."
Jaune watched the glow fade, the last tangible thread tying them together thinning to almost nothing.
"The range is within a three kilometer radius," Penny continued. "Unfortunately, external signals remain inaccessible. Watts' interference has isolated the base completely."
Blake flexed her fingers. "So if things go wrong, we run toward you."
Jaune forced a smile that did not reach his eyes. "If things go wrong, try to get out."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "We'll see."
They split at the next junction.
Blake ran towards the left corridor, movements smooth and silent, her presence thinning until it felt like the hallway itself had swallowed her. Weiss took the right, already re-summoning her chibi spirit which let off a pale blue light that reflected off the scarred metal walls.
Jaune went straight.
The corridors ahead were narrower, lower, built less for people and more for machines. The air hummed with power, cables running along the walls like veins. His footsteps echoed too loudly for his liking.
He breathed in. Breathed out.
Pray, he told himself. To whatever is listening.
The first Centurions came fast.
Turrets unfolded from the ceiling, barrels glowing, and Jaune dove forward as rounds tore through the space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier. His rune flared, subtle and cruel, sinking into the metal like rot. Joints metal and servos screamed.
He moved through them with grim efficiency, both blades rising and falling. With Penny having access to his phone, Jaune didn't need to check it. She would notify him if anything went wrong with Blake or Weiss.
Watts' laughter echoed faintly through the walls, not from speakers this time, but from memory.
He is watching, Jaune thought. Measuring and waiting for one of them to slip.
The corridor opened into a larger chamber, machinery lining the walls, half dismantled, half repurposed.
Then Penny's voice came through, tight but controlled. "Jaune. Blake has encountered resistance. Multiple Centurions but no juggernaut."
Jaune turned on his heel, already moving. "I'm coming."
"Negative," Penny said. "She has not requested assistance. She is advancing towards the lab that might house my body. You should continue forwards to the Eastern Sector to see if my body is there."
The words hit like a punch.
"What about Weiss?" Jaune asked
.
.
Weiss advanced alone down the right corridor, shoes striking metal with a steady running rhythm that matched her breathing.
It was quiet.
The base had a great way of screaming its hostility. Turrets snapping open, and Centurions walking around like armored nightmares. Weiss had prepared herself for all of it. She had steeled her nerves for the attrition and the endless grind of metal against runic energy.
Instead, she got corridors that felt abandoned.
Panels slid aside at junctions, but only to reveal turrets. No Centurions followed them. Just guns, which were methodical and predictable.
Weiss didn't slow.
She flicked her wrist and her chibi spirits materialized beside her, a miniature elemental of ice. It was surprisingly ferocious, launching spears of frost that shattered barrels and iced up circuitry. Weiss barely spared the wreckage a glance.
Watts was clearly letting her pass.
That realization made her skin crawl.
She moved faster.
The map Penny had embedded into her phone showed an overlay of corridors and sectors stitched together with probability lines. The marker for the possible prototype storage lab glowed brighter the closer she came.
It was just ahead, now.
Weiss tightened her grip on her weapon. She cataloged exits, angles, places where the walls felt too smooth or the ceiling a little too high.
Still nothing. No Centurions.
The corridor widened abruptly, opening into a laboratory.
Weiss slowed, then stopped.
The room was smaller than the previous lab they had entered earlier, but denser. Racks of equipment lined the walls, cables strewn across the floor like discarded veins. One of the containment tubes lay shattered against the far wall, its glass fractured outward as if something had been removed in haste.
And in the center of the room, on the cold metal floor, lay a mechanical body.
Weiss's breath caught.
It was a girl.
Or rather, half of one.
The upper torso was unmistakably the same as Penny's holographic form. Pale synthetic skin, familiar lines, auburn hair splayed messily across the floor. Her arms lay at her sides, fingers slightly curled, expression neutral and empty in the way only an inactive construct could manage.
But from the waist down, there was nothing.
The lower half had been cleanly detached. There was no exposed wiring or damage which marred the remaining half beyond the absence itself. It seemed as if her body was built to detach like this, indeed.
Weiss stared for a second before moving.
She knelt beside the body, eyes scanning for traps in the room. Nothing reacted nor was there any delayed alarms.
"This is Weiss," she said sharply into her phone. "I've found Penny's body. Or part of it."
She swallowed. "Upper half only. The lower half seems to be missing."
Blake's voice came through first, bursts of gunfire accompanied her. Her voice was tense but controlled. "Missing how?"
"Detached, apparently" Weiss replied.
Penny's voice followed almost immediately, faster than Weiss had ever heard it. "I require both halves. My core systems are distributed. This section alone is insufficient for reintegration."
Weiss clenched her jaw. "Of course it is."
Jaune's voice cut in next, rough with exertion. "Weiss, hold position. I'm clearing the Eastern Sector now. Once I confirm it's empty, I'll head to you."
"Understood," Weiss said. She rose to her feet, back straight, eyes never leaving the doorway. "I'll secure the—"
She took a step toward the entrance, when something flickered at the edge of her vision. A distortion.
Like the air itself hesitating.
Weiss immediately snapped her weapon up into a guard position.
Something was there, and then it wasn't?
Her heart hammered.
One moment the space in front of her was empty.
The next, something stood there.
It was humanoid, roughly Penny's height, but odd in a way that made Weiss's instincts scream. Its surface was smooth and matte, featureless like a mannequin sculpted by someone who had never seen a face. No eyes, mouth or seams. Just a silhouette carved out of dull gray metal that seemed to drink in the light around it.
"Weiss?" Jaune's voice crackled faintly through the phone.
She opened her mouth. "There's something else here! It doesn't look like a standard Centurion. I think it's some kind of new uni—"
The world folded.
There was no warning, sound or visible motion. Its arm was already moving.
Weiss didn't have time to register the impact.
A fist drove into her stomach with impossible force, bypassing her guard as if it wasn't there.
Pain exploded through her midsection.
The air left her lungs in a silent gasp as she was lifted off her feet and slammed backward. Her phone clattered from her hand, skidding across the floor.
She hit the ground hard.
Her vision blurred instantly, white sparks bursting across her sight. She tried to draw breath and failed. Her muscles refused to respond, locked in shock.
The android stood over her.
For a brief, horrifying second, Weiss realized she could not see it clearly anymore. Its edges blurred, warping like heat haze.
It was phasing—no—camouflaging.
Her mind raced, desperate and fragmented.
This was something beyond normal Centurions. And from its strength, it clearly had a combat power of a Rank 2 awakened.
She tried to move her arm and summon her runes.
Nothing answered.
The room tilted.
The last thing Weiss saw before darkness claimed her was the half of Penny's body lying helplessly on the floor, and the smooth, faceless thing turning its head slightly, as if listening to something only it could hear.
Then her consciousness slipped away, falling into silence.
.
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AN: Uh oh. Weiss dead?
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