"You've been different lately, 12-15-22-5," Ozpin says to you, looking at you with mild concern. "Are your receptors connected?" He asks, turning you around and opening up your back. You flinch at his touch.
As he inspected your wires and buttons, you tried to explain. "I have been feeling warmer recently." You knew he probably wouldn't understand what you meant. You hardly understood it yourself.
He closes the panel on your back. "What do you mean by warmer? Are there system overloads in your actuator?" The scientist asks, adjusting his glasses. He steps in front of you, and bends down a little bit to reach your eye level. You shake your head, you don't know. There was a lot you didn't know.
You didn't really understand why you were alive, you felt like a normal girl, but colder and you had no memory of being a baby or a young child. He had told you a thousand times that you were a robot, or an android, and that you were a revolutionary new piece of technology and software. Not a person... Technology.
Your only memories were recent, occurring less than a year or two ago. The first memory you ever had was opening your eyes for the first time and seeing Ozpin's face, and from there it was memories of him reading to you, telling you facts and stories, teaching you about the world. He really liked to paint and draw, he was a kind man.
But other memories of him were strange, sometimes you would wake up after going into sleep mode, and find him looking at a map of the kingdoms while looking upset, and often, he wouldn't sleep.
He snapped you out of your thoughts. "12-15-22-5, you have to tell me what's troubling your system or else I can't fix you," he explains, itching the back of his head.
Still, you had no idea what you were feeling. Maybe your contact sensor was acting up and detecting more than usual. It felt different than that, but you couldn't think of what it was. "I don't want to be fixed. It kind of hurts, but I like it," you say quietly, crossing your cold arms over your chest.
Ozpin sighs, and backs down, allowing your wish of not being fixed to come true. "Alright. Tell me if something goes wrong," he mumbles, sounding unsure of what to do.
"No, nothing is wrong. You have made me perfectly, nothing could ever be wrong with your work. It's just me that isn't feeling right," you hurriedly explain, not wanting him to feel as if your weird feeling was his fault.
Ozpin's eyes widen. "You think my work is perfect?" He asked.
You feel your central reactors heat up, bringing a light tint to your biochemically engineered face. "Yes, you brought me to life, and I love being here with you," you say, a smile on your face.
He takes a step closer to you. "You really feel that way? I was worried you wouldn't like only having to live with me and no one else," he explains quietly.
"How could I go off and live somewhere else when I know that you're here?" You ask him. His face flushes red for just a moment, you watch as he readjusts his glasses.
He coughs, and then says, "I can't say I know. But I will always be here for you."
Your face lights up and you let out a happy laugh. "Thank you, Professor!" You exclaim, throwing your arms around him and holding onto him. He lightly hugs onto you back and pats your head.
"Of course."
-
You awoke to the sound of Ozpin's footsteps. Quickly, you unplug yourself from your charging harness and hurried to the sound of them. Turning the corner, you quickly slow down. Someone else was in the lab, a tall man with dark hair and a strong build.
"General, she's a prototype, she can't fight. She's based on her, but she lacks many things so far."
"That may be true, but I would like to use her as a base for other robots. We need to borrow her," the apparent general says sternly. "It's for the best of the kingdoms. She'll be back in a few months. I'll be picking her up tomorrow, that's final."
Ozpin let out a sigh. "Fine, but keep her safe."
"I will, I know you've come far in her creation. Thank you, Ozpin."
You hear a door slam, and hear Ozpin mutter something else. You sink down to the shadows of the wall, they must have been talking about you. You didn't want to leave.
"Come out, I know you're there," Ozpin says out loud. You peer around the corner, you see him looking at you with sad eyes.
Slowly, you creep out from your hiding spot. "I don't... Want to leave you," you whimper, walking up to him.
"I don't either. But you have to," he says. "When you're back, I'll show you what I've been working on. You'll love it."
"I don't want to leave, I don't care what I'll love when I'm back. I love you right now." You say, averting your eyes. You could feel yourself heating up.
Ozpin's eyes widen. He took a step back, and seemed to be thinking. "You have to go. I'll be here when you come back," he says, a sad smile on his face. Before you can stop yourself, as if someone is using the control device, you walk up to the scientist and wrap your arms tightly around him. He gently wraps his arm around you and pats the top of your head.
You've seen humans cry in movies and on TV. You wonder if you would be crying right now. "I... I don't want to go..." you whimper. He feels warm against your cool touch sensors. His heart beats rapidly, he seems to be anxious. You wonder if your artificial heart could ever beat that quickly.
He pulls away, and takes your hand. "We can talk about it later. Come now, let's continue charging you."
You let him pull you along toward your bed. You move to sit at the edge of the bed, waiting for him to engage sleeping mode for you. He unzips the back of your dress and opens the panel on your back. The feeling of wires rustling around makes you nervous. He's doing something different to your system. "You're not doing it regularly. You're changing something about me, I can feel it. Why?"
He flinches as you say this and lets out a breath. "I'm sorry my dear 12-15-22-5. I hope you forgive me when I see you again."
You turn around, just as he sparks something new in your system. "Professor, no... I want to stay here... With y-" you begin to object, but suddenly feel drowsy. You feel your vision fade, it isn't sleep mode. He's turned you off. You look into his eyes one more time before everything goes black.
-
End of part 1
