Project ORION (a RWBY fanfic)

Chapter 29

The cell was dark and quiet except for whenever he moved a fraction, causing the chains attached to him to rattle and shake in a sound that was similar to a wave of pure metal coins. Stalker was attached to at least six chains, on his neck, two for his hands, two for his legs, and another for his chest. His armor had been removed and he was bare for his weapons and his claws couldn't reach the locks for the chains, which had been smartly placed on the walls instead of on him.

But Stalker was being very patient, conserving his energy from thrashing in order to wait for a moment where he could break out and rejoin with Beacon. He knew that there was very little time left between now and until the Wyvern appeared and the fact that no one knew when it would appear meant that for all he knew it could appear tomorrow or right now.

And so, though he patiently waited for opportunity to come calling, he was also was anxious to get out of the cell.

He heard footsteps and he looked up as he watched a red orange-haired girl in a green dress with green eyes appear and he was quiet as Penny opened the door and walked in before closing behind it. She looked back at him as she said in a friendly voice, "Hello, I'm Penny."

He was dimly aware of a hint of robotic nature in her voice but she seemed so life-like that if he didn't already know she was a robot, she would have appeared to be human.

"You must be Stalker, from Beacon... What exactly do you have this on for?" asked Penny as she tugged at the Grimm mask of Stalker's.

But before Stalker could stop her, she ripped the thing complete off and as she tossed it away into a corner, she looked back at him as she said, "Better?"

But then she watched in surprise as the mask regrew over his face again and he was straining to not scream in pain or thrash around as the energy he had been storing was slowly sapped from him. Stalker slumped in the chains as they held him up and as Penny looked at Stalker, she reached again for his mask.

"Please...." rasped Stalker, "... Don't..."

Penny withdrew her hand as she got on her knees and sat down as she held up the face of Stalker to look at his eyes and face and as she looked at his eyes, what surprised her the most was that the Grimm eyes still held emotions.

Mainly the emotion of pain and anger.

"So.. your from Project Orion, correct?" asked Penny.

Stalker looked at her eyes before he said, "Yes..."

"And you were the only survivor?"

Stalker managed to nod.

Penny thought about this as she looked at him and then asked him, "Are you and Ruby friends?"

Stalker nodded again.

Penny didn't know what really to ask him but she did have one last question for him.

"Are you going to try and hurt me?" asked Penny.

"Depends..." Stalker said.

"On what?" she asked.

"Depends on whether you'll try to kill me..."

The morning dawn sun rose above Vale as Ruby shrugged on the skin suit as the rest of Team RWBY did the same and as Ruby put on her armor, there was a fire in her stomach that hadn't been there before. She finished her armor as she put on her helmet and as she put Crescent Rose on her back, she looked over to see everyone else finished up with their armor.

"You all ready?" asked Ruby.

They nodded and she opened the door as they marched out as they would meet up at the sparring arena with all of the other teams in preparation for the operation at hand. They marched almost like soldiers as they were soon joined by Team JNPR in their Outlander armor and as Ruby looked over at Jaune, he almost looked like Stalker with his own helmet but without the goggles.