Jaune and the Real Girl.

Chapter 34

Jaune's heart thumped in his ear.

Penny lay motionless, dead. Her circuits continued to spark with electricity but like the glow of her eyes that quickly faded away becoming fainter until there was nothing.

He looked at Vasily who lowered his smoking rifle with a satisfied smirk on his face. That damn smirk of his, Jaune was going to wipe it off his face. He stood up and made ready to charge but Penelope moved running like towards him and knocking him down with a single strike of her single fist.

It clanged against his shield and sent him tripping to the ground. He growled in frustration, more at his own weakness than at her. She stood above him, Corcea Mors still stuck in her back making her all the more unsettling to look at.

Jaune held his shield up ready for her floating blades to come down on him and slice him to ribbons, or for another quick shot from Vasily to paint the streets with his brains. He was out of aura, weaponless and weak.

Penelope instead reached around her back twisting in an unusual manner, she grabbed the hilt of Crocea Mors and slid the steel blade free from her back. She inspected his ancestral blade with a critical eye before approaching him clutching his sword in her only hand.

Vasily chuckled as he approached slinging his double rifle over his shoulder. "This has turned out even better than I could have planned," he said, amused with himself. He held his hand out to Penelope motioning for her to hand him Crocea Mors.

Killed with his own sword, Jaune certainly hadn't seen that coming.

Penelope took a step forward, instead of handing the blade to her master she instead raised it at Jaune. The fell and Jaune raised his shield, he blocked the blow feedibly. Even with his shield the strike felt like his arm was smashed with a baseball bat.

Jaune stumbled onto his feet and withdrew as best he could stepping away.

"What are you doing!?" Vasily hissed.

"Killing Arc," Penelope answered him with a cold mechanical tone, she raised the sword once more to attack Jaune.

"Arc is mine!" Vasily said dangerously.

"I am your weapon, what does it matter?" She protested, "I will kill him however you wish, quick and efficient or slow and painfully."

"That's not the point!" Vasily said, "Arc is not for you to kill!"

Penelope stopped and looked at him quizzically, "and how will you kill him?" She asked him, "with your rifle? Your revolver? Penny's sword? I am a weapon same as them, but superior."

"A weapon obeys their master!" Vasily snarled, "and I am telling you to stand down and let me finish him however I please."

Penelope lashed out swinging the blade and striking him. Vasily's aura flared as it defended him from the strike but the sheer force of the blow knocked him down the street.

Vasily glared at her dangerously, "why did you do that Penelope?" He said cold and evenly towards her.

"You are not fit to wield me as a weapon!" Penny said accusatorial, "I am a tool that you do not wield effectively," she motioned around her, "look around you at all the destruction I have wrought! I could have killed Arc back in the hotel room alone if you had let me, but now you want me to watch as you kill him at your own leisure? I see now how Arc bested a fool like you!"

Vasily narrowed his eyes at the android and laughed at her fishing in his pocket. "I destroyed your sister Penelope, stand down now or I will destroy you too!"

Penelope threw Crocea Mors right at him in response. The blade sailed through the air right for him but Vasily dodged to the side. The blade struck the side of a building, the tip sinking into the brick and staying stuck vibrating. Penelope charged him, her swords flashing ready to strike Vasily dicing him into pieces.