5 Chapter 5: Aftermath

Well, this is it. My first kill. Snapping some huntsman's neck after using a fake death. You know, I thought that I would be more squeamish about this, going all "What have I done?" and whatnot. Maybe ROB did something to me so I would be more accepting. Well, no time to worry about that. I've got a job to do.

I turned around to see the whole crowd of people that watched the fight. From freedom fighters to auction goers and some of the staff. Each of them were looking at me with some form of fear, shock or a combination of the 2. Then again, if I saw someone I thought was dead snap someone's neck, I'd probably be staring too.

Finally, one of the freedom fighters, who'd been at the auction room strategy meeting alongside Sylvia, the elder freedom fighter and I finally spoke up. "Boss, you…" *sigh* "Ok, I'm gonna be honest. I don't even know what to say here. The fact that you just murdered that guy or that you chose that moment to reveal that you could talk this entire time."

"Wait what?"

"Yeah, like that." The freedom fighter gestured to me, waving his hand.

Seriously? How the heck was I suddenly able to talk now? Didn't ROB make me mute? I scanned my HUD for answers, and noticed an icon. A circle with a vertical line below it, surrounded by a box. Notably, the space between the icon and its box was coloured, which wasn't the case originally. I willed it to be switched off and spoke. Noticing the lack of reaction, I turned the icon back on and spoke again.

"Uhhh, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah." More murmurs of agreement for the freedom fighters rose out.

Are you kidding me? I could talk this entire time? That would have cut out so many communication problems I had with the freedom fighters just by speaking.

A Growl emitted from my audio speakers, and I began to vent my frustration.

"Oh what the hel-"

*Line break cuz they don't have the function here*

After a short few minutes of raging at my apparent inability to understand my own bodily functions, I finally calmed down enough to assess the current situation. Thankfully, the elder freedom fighter (I should really learn his name) had already begun taking charge. Having people take stock of the places inventory, locking up the prisoners in secure areas, i.e. the slave cages, and securing the transports that the auction goers used. Right now, I'm getting my arm repaired by the younger freedom fighter (whose name I also don't know). He looked rather apprehensive, wanting to start a conversation, yet hesitating. I decided to speak up, since he doesn't look like he'll do it anytime soon.

"Hey, what's your name?"

The young freedom fighter jumped and fully faced me. "Huh?"

"You heard me. Everything was a bit of a blur, so I had no time to learn people's names, except for Sylvia."

"Sylvia?"

"The Beacon student."

"Oh…" The young freedom fighter trailed off, not a single sound more coming out of his mouth. Dammit, am I gonna have to call him Mechani-man or something now? This ain't Goblin Slayer you know. Before I could repeat my original question, the freedom fighter beat me to the punch.

"Azure, Azure waves. But my friends call me Azzie."

"Nice knowing you. I'm…" The words suddenly dried up in my throat as I was suddenly struck with a grand realisation.

I don't know what my name is.

How the heck could I have missed such an important detail? I mean, I know I can be really derpy, but come on. My own identity? Shit, now's not the time to worry about that, gotta give Azure here something to work with. Uh, uh… Oh ok, I got it.

"Isskandyr."

"Ok. Well, nice meeting you. And thank you, on behalf of all of us." Azure smiled. "When I got locked up in those cages, I thought that was the end. That my life as a free person was over. It probably would have been, if it weren't for you."

"Don't mention it. I was concerned for my own freedom too. I thought it was too hard to escape solo, so I got some help. Few hours later, and here we are."

Azure looked up at me confused. "Wait. What do you mean you were also concerned for your own freedom? You're not remotely controlling the Knight?"

"No. I… kind of just woke up like this. No idea how or why."

"How the heck does one 'wake up' as a robot spontaneously?"

And just like that, I have dug my own grave. In all seriousness, I need to choose how I talk about my *cough cough* circumstances. I don't think revealing that I'm basically an alien is gonna net me a lot of credibility. Even if people do believe me somehow, there's no telling what people are gonna do in response. I have a list of people I'm willing to reveal more to, but they're the exception, not the rule. On the flip side, a partial truth may be beneficial here. Knowing how these kinds of 'ROB shenanigans' work, I'll probably get access to aura and a semblance, just gotta unlock them. Big assumption, I know. But when (if?) I do, people are gonna question how a non-living thing has access to something only living things with souls have. Besides, if that doesn't turn out well, I think I can play it off as "robot gains sentience/sapience. (I'm not sure what the correct term is.)

Alright, enough internal rambling, time to talk.

"Well, things started off when I was in this black space…"

*Line break cuz they don't have the function here*

"So let me get this straight, you woke up in the body of an Ak-130, without any memory of what happened before?"

"Yep. I don't know how this happened. Just gotta roll with being a bot, I guess."

That was a partial lie. I know for a fact that an entity, can't remember its name, managed to give Penny a biological body. The question is, will his powers work on me? Or more accurately, is ROB gonna let that happen.

Before I could continue my musings, Azure spoke up. "Well, that's something." A click sound emerged as he attached my new left arm back. "Alright, arm's fixed. Ray wanted to meet you at the building entrance after you were done."

"Ray? Who's that?"

"The other guy, the one who started calling you boss."

Oh so that was his name. Finally I can call him something else other than Mr elder freedom fighter. I got up and started walking, but paused after a few steps. Turning back to face Azure, I remarked to him, "You know, you're taking the news about my 'condition' surprisingly well."

"Well, it has been quite a few weeks after all. Guess I'm just numb to more surprises right now."

Really? Well how convenient. Thanks ROB. You made this new life of mine really easy right now. Without another word, I gave Azure a nod of thanks and left to find Ray at the entrance.

*Line break cuz they don't have the function here*

Far from the world with a broken moon and demonic monsters, a higher dimension lay. It was a domain, where an omnipotent being could create, rest and plot from the comfort of its own home. And right now, it was raging. Elsewhere in the omniverse, worlds cracked like eggs, stars went supernova and the heat deaths of several universes were accelerated as the being's anger subconsciously projected its current desire for destruction.

"Failures. All of them!" The being telepathically howled, sending a shockwave that levelled a continent in another far away planet.

"Why is making a vessel so difficult?" The being lamented, "Every time I try to make a vessel, they always turn out wrong. Maybe I should just-"

'Thanks ROB. You made this new life of mine really easy right now.'

'What? Where did that come from?' The being questioned itself. It scanned for the source of the prayer, and found the world of Remnant. There, the being realised who had unknowingly communicated with it. Its avatar.

Avatars, also known as pure vessels, had the reputation of being hard to create, even more so to develop. This particular avatar had been created one alongside other attempts at vessels mostly as a "might as well" case. The being hadn't expected it to succeed at all. In just a single local day, the avatar had secured its freedom from its previous circumstances, defeated one of the local world's prized warriors, albeit extremely weak for his kind, and held the adoration of the people it had worked with.

'It has even taken up my own name.' The being realised.

It did not like people stealing its identity, but this time, it would allow the occasion. The pure vessel was too interesting to bring down the hammer on. The being decided to wait and see how its avatar would develop, hoping it would turn out to be satisfactory. Some nudging along would be in order too.

'I will be watching your career with great interest, my avatar.'

*Line break cuz they don't have the function here*

Finally reaching the entrance, I found Ray talking to a bunch of freedom fighters. It seems that they're discussing something medicine related? Ray looked up and saw me. He dismissed the others.

"Boss, you're finally done screaming?"

"Yeah, sorry. I had a lot of frustration. Also, call me Isskandyr, and your name's Ray if I'm not wrong."

"Yup, Ray Lionheart. Moving on from that, here's our situation. We've managed to seize a lot of weapons, enough to equip every one of us with at least a gun. Food and water can last us about 2 weeks. Those vehicles from the prisoners are really helpful too. One of them even brought a bullhead with them."

"Got it, what about casualties?"

"23 injured,5 critically injured, most seriously being the huntress, and 15 dead. Mostly from that huntsman bodyguard."

I fell into contemplation as I wondered if those 15 could have had their deaths avoided. It would have been difficult because huntsman and all, but the number was still quite the amount to stomach for someone who only lived a civilian life up until recently. I shook my head. What's done is done, all I can do is move on.

"Regarding the injured, we've got a big problem. We don't have the equipment required to treat the most heavily injured, and the infirmary these slavers have is already packed to the brim. They're conditions are stable, according to what medically savvy people we have. But if they don't get treated soon, they'll die from their injuries. As if that wasn't enough problems for us, the nearest hospital is in Vale. That's a 15 hour car ride, too risky for the injured. They can make it if we use the bullhead, but the only ones who know how to pilot one are from the prisoners, who are out cold due to an escape attempt. Any ideas?"

Big problem indeed. The only ones who can save the critically injured are unable to do so. So it's down to just a long car ride, that's likely to be too late. Hmm, what to do?

A metaphorical lightbulb lit up over my head. During downtime for the Botboys, we were connected to the slaver's scrolls via so-called "UCP" cables. Thus giving me inspiration for my idea.

I asked Ray "Do bullheads have UCP ports?"

"Of course they do, that's why they're called UCPs. It stands for Universal Connector Po-oh." Looks like he caught on to my idea.

"Get me a cable. I'll see if I can connect to the bullhead's systems and pilot it to Vale. It's a gamble, but it might just work."

"Understood." Ray replied.

I walked into the bullhead's cockpit. It looks reminiscent of helicopter cockpits I've seen from videos. Lots of instruments I can't make heads or tails off. Lets hope my idea works as intended. After some inspection, I found the UCP just in time for Ray to return with a cable. I plugged myself into the bullhead. I felt something overcome me, and everything went dark.

I once again found myself in a black space. This time, there was something else there.

A person sized bullhead moved towards me and spoke. "Requesting input."

Huh, this must be the bullhead's computer systems.

I gave a command. "Bring up a list of saved locations." I figured that whoever owned this bullhead should be someone with a lot of clout, seeing how well decorated it is. So Vale might be a location they have stored.

"Understood." A list of places came up. Looking through, I managed to hit the jackpot.

"Set course for Vallis landing port, Vale."

"Understood. Begin startup sequence?"

"Denied. Wait for my command."

"Understood."

With that done, I willed myself to return to the real world.

Waking up in the bullhead cockpit, I turned to Ray.

"We're in luck. Load up the critically injured onto the bullhead. Bring some freedom fighters and medics just in case. I'm leaving you in charge while I'm gone."

"You got it, boss." Ray replied and left the bullhead, shouting orders.

You know, I've been incredibly lucky with everything so far. Maybe that's my semblance?

*Line break cuz they don't have the function here*

*3 hours later*

"Alright, according to the navigation, we're almost at Vale. Get ready to unload the injured."

Various affirmative replies sounded as I finally caught sight of Vale. The city was surrounded by walls, with what I presume are anti air guns on top.

"Incoming transmission." The Bullhead's computer notified me. I opened the channel immediately, not wanting to cause problems.

"Incoming Bullhead. This is Vale Air Traffic Control. State your intentions. Over."

"Vale Air Traffic Control. This is Isskandyr. We are carrying injured civilians and a huntress in training. They are in critical condition but require immediate medical attention. Over."

"Say again. You are carrying critically injured people? Over."

"Affirmative. Requesting permission to land and get these people to a hospital. Over"

After a short while, the traffic controller came up. "Copy that. We've sent you clearance for landing pad 1573. Head there and do not deviate from it. We'll have a medical team ready to collect your people over."

"Understood and thank you traffic control. Over and out."

The bullhead's computer chimed. "New waypoint received. Change destination?"

"Do it."

"Understood."

I managed to figure out how to command the Bullhead's computer without falling into that black space, which I was now dubbing digispace. Now I don't have to keep popping in and out.

Finally, the bullhead began to reach the landing pad. Its engines rotated vertically and its landing gear extended out. Below, a group of people in medical uniforms were seen rushing to the landing pad.

Alright, time to tango.

The bullhead landed, and the doors slammed open as the freedom fighters and medics onboard began helping the medical personnel from the Vale Authorities with offloading the injured. I left the cockpit and confronted the approaching people.

"You guys from Vale Air Traffic Control?"

"Yeah, we'll take things from here. Don't worry."

I gave a nod and left them to do their thing. After a while, the injured were loaded up into ambulances and rushed to Vale National Hospital. One of the paramedics approached us. "We're gonna need some of you to come with us. Answer some questions."

The freedom fighters turned to me, waiting for a response. I gestured to a freedom fighter and a medic. "You two, with me. Everyone else, stay with the bullhead."

The paramedic quirked her eyebrow, but otherwise didn't dwell on it. "Alright, let go."

*Line break cuz they don't have the function here*

Ozpin sat in his office, a solemn look on his face. That was the seemingly default mood for everyone in Beacon recently, owing to the disappearance, and now official death, of one Sylvia Evergreen.

Her team, team SAPH, had been most affected by this, granted losing someone close to you was never easy. But other students shared their grief as well. Sylvia was quite the popular figure among Beacon's student population, and they were sad to see her go.

Well, at least Qrow has finally gotten the location of the Fall Maiden, and should be establishing contact soon.

A ringtone chimed, and Ozpin picked up his scroll.

"Headmaster Ozpin speaking."

"Hello? This is Vale National Hospital..."