29

Chapter 29 – Artificial Jauntelligence

"So," Yang's voice oozed innuendo, "you looking forward to the dance?"

"You seem unusually focused on this," Blake sighed, running one hand through her hair – careful to avoid revealing her ears. While everyone here knew the truth (Penny too, apparently), there was no telling when someone from Beacon might walk by. "With so much talk about who I'm going to be bringing, I wonder if you'll even go with anyone at all."

"I won't be," Yang shrugged, "not a man in Beacon who can handle me."

"I'm not sure that's something to boast about." The blonde ignored the pseudo-insult, grabbing a pair of racy black undergarments from a nearby shelf. Blake eyed them with pure hatred, noticing that they cost at least ten times as much as her normal underwear, while consisting of barely enough material to cover the entry and exit points of her body.

She could have achieved a similar effect with black string.

"You should try these out for your date."

"I second that." her undead partner nodded, arms crossed as he hovered beside the two of them. "I think it's a very conservative piece, would definitely suit you."

Blake held it before her, raising one eyebrow at the both of them when she noticed how the brasserie was actually see-through.

"I think I'll pass. It's not like I need a set of lingerie anyway, aren't we supposed to be here for a dress?" Unbidden her amber eyes shifted over the other members of the group. Weiss and Ruby were in some deep discussion about shoes, likely trying to convince Ruby of the necessity of wearing heels for such an event. But it was the orange-haired gir… well, if Jaune was to be believed then she wasn't a girl at all…

She could remember her… vaguely. The first time they'd met had been when they had knocked the girl over – and true to form, Blake had thought here more than a little odd. That impression had only been reinforced when she'd seen how the girl fought at the docks.

But it had seemed too fluid for a droid… Adam and her had fought more than enough Schnee Security Droids for her to be familiar with the technology. It couldn't have changed too much in the six or so months she had been gone – and wasn't that Paladin supposed to be new tech for the Atlas military?

Some kind of secret experiment perhaps… maybe the Paladin isn't their new unit at all, but just a distraction they are using to draw attention away from the real weapon.

That might also explain the fairly tame response from Atlas when it had been stolen. Surely if the White Fang had access to the best equipment, then they would have come down on them a lot harder.

Hell, she didn't think Atlas had even launched a single raid in retaliation for the theft. That should have been telling enough. But if that was the case… then why was this secret weapon allowed to gallivant across town with the four of them?

And how did it effect Blake?

It didn't really… since she had nothing to do with the White Fang anymore. The fact that Atlas was doing something should be a good sign, an indication that she wasn't the only one in the world who considered the Fang a risk.

But there were also opportunities there too…

Because if this perfectly normal-looking girl was actually a robot, then might that solve the issue over mannequin parts not being able to move? If Jaune could possess her… or better yet, get his own artificial body made, then he could… well – not come back to life, but be as close as he could.

"You've got that worrying expression on your face again," the boy in question sighed. "It's the one that tells me you're about to suggest something incredibly ill-advised."

"Hey Yang, why don't you go find me a dress you want me to try out. I'm not very good at this kind of thing."

"Geez, you're hopeless… fine." the blonde sounded aggrieved, but Blake could see the excitement in her lilac eyes. She just hoped it wouldn't come back and bite her in the ass. Despite the teasing though, Yang really did know her stuff – and likely wouldn't make her go to the dance in something that looked stupid.

Once she was gone, Blake turned to Jaune, "You said she's a robot, right? How do you know?"

"When I phased through her," Jaune shrugged, "when I do it to a human there's no light, so I can't actually see inside their body. But with her, there's blinking lights, diodes – I could see quite a bit. And what I saw obviously wasn't human."

See? Did he mean because there was no natural light within the human body? It made sense, she supposed… even if he wasn't alive his eyes still relied on the normal way of operating.

Which actually made no sense, since that would require rays of light to bounce into his eyes – which meant they needed something tangible to bounce off… and it was all hurting her head. I need to stop trying to apply real-life rules to something that is clearly supernatural.

"You want me to try and possess her, don't you? I told you last time it didn't work when I tried with a machine."

"True, but this appears to be an AI – that might mean it works differently. Think about it, the reason you couldn't possess the Paladin was because it was a piloted unit. It didn't know how to act autonomously, so you didn't know how to control it."

"But since this one is controlled by a central brain… which does know how to move it." he paused to rub his spectral chin. "I mean it could work… maybe… I'm not sure."

"Only one way to find out. Will you be able to do anything while she's conscious though?" It wasn't like she could just walk up to the girl and knock her out… apart from the fact she was a robot and probably couldn't be knocked out – there was also the question of what Ruby might think of such a random act of violence.

"I should be okay, I can't possess living things while they're awake – tried enough times on Yang," she chose to ignore that comment, though she'd have to keep a closer eye on him. "But if she's a machine then there shouldn't be any issue with me slipping into her head. In theory anyway, this isn't an exact science." Jaune rolled his shoulders, offering an apologetic shrug for the lack of details. That was fine though, experimenting was fairly risk-free. "You'll need to get me closer, and obviously stick close so I can get out of I need to."

Like he needed to tell her that. This would be much easier than the Paladin anyway, on account of the ginger girl not trying to turn her into a fine faunus paste.

"Hey Blake," Ruby greeted as they walked up to the three girls, "where's Yang?"

"Out picking me an outfit, she's got a better eye for it than I have. Plus, she said I'm not allowed to default to black again." Jaune took the distraction for what it was, flying away from her and slipping into the robot's body. As always there was no immediate reaction. Penny, for all intents and purposes, seemed enthralled by their conversation.

"Oh!" Penny's eyes went wide, her entire frame seeming to pause for a moment.

"Shit!" Jaune slipped from the girl in a second, "It's a no-go, definitely not happening – I'm sure I could if she wasn't there. But she is way more than a robot Blake, she's fully self-aware." He floated to and fro for a second, clearly agitated about something. What the issue was however, she had no idea. No harm, no foul.

"What's wrong Penny?" Ruby looked concerned, though she calmed down when Penny gave her a small smile.

"Oh nothing Ruby, don't mind me."

That… Blake hadn't known the girl for long, but that didn't seem to be how she normally spoke.

"Blake, this is bad – when I said fully self-aware, I meant that. Most of us aren't aware of everything that goes on, you know – things like bacteria in our bodies, how our lungs work, blood pumping and all that. We don't control it."

Yeah, so? She tried to communicate with her eyes.

"Well she is! She knows everything, she's an AI that has literal control and awareness of every single aspect of her body at every time! When I possessed her, I went for the main CPU and tried to take control. But since she notices every little thing about her body…"

Penny turned to look at Blake then, bright green eyes boring deep into amber.

"…she noticed."