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S6E16- Reconstruction Chapter 16
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...
"What are you waiting for?" Nora asked looking to Jaune.
"W- oh well I'm waiting for someone to start talking." Jaune shrugged. "Usually before I start the episode someone brings something up."
"He's not wrong." Pyrrha pointed out.
"Does anyone have anything?" Weiss asked.
"... I don't think so." Ren said after some silence.
Jaune looked around, "Guess not, after each episode I always say I'm ready or I hit play but then I realize someones going to start talking."
"Well we can start the episode, no ones going to interrupt." Blake explained.
Jaune nodded.
" Reconstruction Chapter 16" appeared on the screen.
"Oh! Guys!" Yang shouted with a manic grin on her face.
Jaune threw his hands in the air and angrily paused the show. "Yes Yang?" He gritted out.
Yang shook her head and burst out laughing. "N- nothing! That was too easy."
Ruby sighed, "Jaune just ignore her and her stupid, stupid joke."
Yang continued to laugh as Jaune unpaused the show.
Director: "Dear Chairman."
Fade in to Church and Washington standing over Epsilon.
Director: "I imagine this investigation of our program is providing you with the kind of attention that politicians crave so much. How very predictable. What has surprised me most about mankind during the great war, is not our ability to adapt to the new arenas of conflict, but instead, our willingness in victory to so quickly return to the old."
Blake frowned.
Weiss huffed, "I still don't understand these tangents he goes off on."
"I understand that one." Blake sighed, her voice took a sort of bored and melancholy tone. "After the Human Faunus war not much changed. Things returned to the old very fast."
Weiss sighed as well, "Oh, I see what you mean."
Blake nodded, "I don't feel like talking about the White Fang right now."
Yang mock gasped, "Woah what! Blakey doesn't want to talk about the White Fang? What's happened to the real Blake, who are you, you imposter!" Yang tried to joke.
Blake glared at Yang.
"Ok not the time sorry." Yang backed off apologetically.
Church: "You mean to tell me we've come all this way for this? Your fucking crazy A.I. Epsilon?"
"I wonder why he lied about the Alpha." Jaune commented.
Ren and Blake nodded.
"He probably has a good reason, or at least what he thinks is a good reason." Blake added.
Washington: "Yes. I thought it was gone. But Delta told you memory was the key. At first I thought he meant to remember our first encounter. And when I met Delta the first time what I told him was-"
The scene flashes toward Church as Church grunts in pain and we see a flashback of Wash talking with Delt
Washington: "You were encrypted until you could be recovered."
"Why is Church getting these flashes?" Ruby asked.
Ren shrugged, "I think it has something to do with the holographic storage. Maybe Washington is getting them too."
"Ohh, I'm still confused but ok? I think?Ruby shrugged.
Ren chuckled and looked back to the screen.
Delta: "Recovery carries risk. Destruction ensures that an A.I.-"
Washington: "You cost a lot of money, okay? It's cheaper to recover you than it is to delete you."
Ren hummed, "So that's why it wasn't destroyed."
Back to present day
Washington: "When they removed Epsilon from me, he was unravelling, casting off all his thoughts. I was sure they deleted him but it's-"
"Unravelling is putting it lightly." Pyrrha shook her head.
Blake nodded.
Church: "It's cheaper to store it than it is to delete it. Right?"
Washington: "Right."
Church: "But why are we looking for this thing? What's the point?"
Washington: "The message specifically said that memory is the key. Delta was telling me that Epsilon was still alive."
"I still don't understand why Delta didn't just outright tell him." Jaune grumbled.
Blake nodded, "It's still one of my huge pet peeves in story telling."
Yang tilted her head towards Blake and smirked mischievously "You're my pet peeve Blake."
Blake turned and narrowed her eyes at Yang.
Church: "And Epsilon is the key?"
"No, memory is the key... right?" Nora asked.
Ren nodded.
Washington: "In a way. At the end of the war, things didn't look good for humans. And there were dozens of projects all trying to come up with the magic bullet to win."
"I don't like how little we know of this great war. All we know is that it is a war against aliens." Ren complained.
"I actually like that we don't know." Blake commented.
"Why is that?" Ren asked.
Blake shrugged, "So many stories are always about the biggest event happening. The biggest crisis, the most popular crime, the greatest war ." Blake emphasized. "But so little stories talk about what else is going on in the world. Sometimes I would like a story to deal with not the main story, but the side story to the main story. Does that make any sense?"
Ren nodded, "It does, and that is interesting."
"In many stories the people on the sidelines are forgotten for the main event. I would like to see more stories dealing with technical side characters than the main ones." Pyrrha added.
"I still don't get it." Ruby frowned.
"I think I understand it, think about it this way Ruby. Instead of a Spruce Willis movie where you follow Spruce Willis as he's chasing down bad guys, blowing stuff up and everything. The movie instead looks at people in the city trying to survive all the craziness." Jaune explained.
"Ohhhh." Ruby nodded. "That's cool."
"It doesn't really apply to this show much though." Ren commented.
Church: "Right."
Washington: "Project Freelancer was one of them. They had their research with aggressive A.I. But they could only get the one, and they needed more to conduct their experiments. So, they got desperate."
Ren nodded, "That makes a lot of things clearer."
"Like what?" Ruby asked.
"Well the Reds and Blues make a lot more sense. Omega being as crazy as he was makes sense. It was an experimental AI. And now we know why they copied AI from the Alpha." Ren explained.
Church: "Right. They tried to... they tried to copy it but they couldn't, so they-"
"What? They couldn't copy them?" Jaune frowned.
"Simmons did say you can't copy an AI." Ren frowned.
Washington: "All A.I. are based on a human mind. And the Director had a theory. He thought, if we can't copy it, we'll just have to do the next best thing."
"Based on the human mind?" Ruby frowned. Is Penny based on anyone? No she's her own person... unless? Who made her? Not General Ironwood but... I should ask her. Unless is personal. It's probably personal.
A scene flashes for Church showing a machine.
Church: "Ah! They, they split it?"
Blake gasped.
Washington: "Just like a human mind when it's broken; it fragments. It fractures itself to protect itself."
"Multiple Personality Disorder." Ren commented.
Blake nodded, "Delta said he was analogous to a Fragment."
"That's... I don't." Weiss frowned.
Church: "They tortured it."
Pyrrha and Ruby shook their heads.
Washington: "Like reverse engineering a multiple personality disorder. They presented Alpha with scenario after scenario of stress and danger. When it started to fragment, they harvested those fragments."
"Because its based on a human mind they knew how to torture it." Blake commented.
Church: "The Freelancer A.I.s."
Washington: "Exhorted little fragments of purified compartmentalized emotion. None of them were a full personality. Some were good-"
Church: "Like Delta?"
"Alpha, Delta, Gamma, it makes sense." Ren mumbled. "Like Grimm the hierarchy of Grimm or in a social environment. The Alpha is the first, then Beta, Gamma and so on."
Washington: "Delta was Alpha's logic. It needed to protect itself from analyzing what was happening to it. So it segregated that part of its mind. The part that would be able to understand the horror of what they were doing to it. And when the anger came and threatened to take over, it split that off too. That was Omega; its rage. Gamma was its deceit. Sigma was its creativity. And Epsilon..."
"Memory is the key." Ren mumbled.
"This episode is so dark." Nora frowned. "I don't like it." She shook her head.
Ren put a hand on her shoulder.
"It destroyed itself to protect itself. That doesn't make any sense." Ruby frowned.
"The mind is complicated." Ren explained. "It's like a repressed memory except instead of repressing a memory its repressing an emotion."
"But eventually it also repressed all its memories." Jaune added.
Ren nodded.
Ruby sagged.
Church: "Epsilon was its memories."
Washington: "And memory is the key."
Cut to the Reds and Caboose
"What! No! Stay on Washington and Church aww it was getting so good." Blake complained.
"So interesting, and serious. So much new information." Weiss added.
"A lore dump." Blake explained. "So much lore, I hope they cut back to them."
Grif: "Uhh, okay. Now I'm bored. Simmons, promise to do me a favor. If the madness sets in, just shoot me."
Nora grinned weakly, "It's getting happier, not as depressing."
Sarge: "Do everyone a favor and shoot him now."
Nora and Ruby laughed.
Simmons: "Is that an order?"
Sarge: "Nah, save your bullets for somethin' worthwhile."
Nora laughed along with Weiss.
"I admire Sarges ability to insult." Weiss chuckled.
While nobody's looking out the window, a transparent shape moves across from right to left
"And the Meta makes his inevitable appearance." Jaune commented.
"The Alpha and all the AI in that place. Probably too much of a temptation to pass up." Blake added.
Sarge: "Hey Simmons, get over here! Hustle up!"
Simmons: "What's up Sir?"
Sarge: "You're good with uh, computers, right?"
Simmons: "Well I'd like to think so, I mean there's really all different kinds of skill sets. Like you have your binary computation, you have uh bus transport-"
"What?" Ruby asked confused.
She received no answers.
Sarge: "Yes or no?"
Simmons: "Yes."
Sarge: "Okay here's what I'm thinin'. If this is Command, and these computers have some of those internets installed on 'em"
Simmons: "There's just one internet, Sir, and I don't think it's located inside this building."
"Where is the CCTnet at?" Nora asked.
"That is an extremely complicated answer." Ren explained.
"Can you make it eas-"
"Dumb it down." Yang asked.
"Yang! B- but uh yeah dumb it down." Ruby blushed.
Ren shrugged, "I can't it's too complicated and far outside my realm of knowledge."
Sarge: "They probably have all the information about everything, right? Like in a, spreadabase or, one of them ROM things? Datasheet?"
Simmons: "I'm sorry, was that something I was supposed to understand? Was that even English?"
Sarge: "Come on, man, you know, like all the mainframes, on the Reds and the Blues. Series of Tubes and whatnot."
"I'm so confused." Ruby sighed.
"Me too." Nora added.
"My sister understands all that stuff, or at least her wife does." Jaune shrugged.
Simmons: "Ookayy, you're using a lot of terms that don't really make sense. I think you're asking me if these computers store all the data on Red and Blue Armies?"
Sarge: "Control-Alt-Bingo."
"Control F-U." Yang chuckled.
Pyrrha chuckled.
Simmons: "Probably."
Sarge: "Could you get in to it?"
Simmons: "Yeah, if I had some time. What're you thinking Sir?"
Sarge: "Simmons, I want you to erase the Blues."
"Erase them from the data banks?" Jaune asked. "Of course Sarge would still fight even after learning his war was fake."
"Sarge is great." Nora grinned.
Simmons: "What, you mean like the Blues from our canyon?"
Sarge: "No Simmons, all of them. Gone. Erased. As in wiped off the map. Kablooie. Terminate process."
Simmons: "Sir, you just blew my mind."
Cut back to Wash and Church
"I think they needed that." Pyrrha smiled. "A lighter scene in between the sad and horrifying."
Ruby and Nora nodded in agreement.
"I hope the show doesn't go full depressing mode." Nora commented.
Washington: "As they continued to torture it Alpha couldn't keep its sanity and its memories at the same time. So it had to purge them. That fragment became Epsilon. And I was just unlucky enough to have it assigned to me."
"Back to the horrifying sadness." Nora groaned.
Church: "So you knew. You knew from the beginning what was going on."
Washington: "Mostly. They never told anyone what they did here. I got flashes when they put Epsilon in my head. Memories of what the Director did to it."
"Ohh so the AI is giving them the memory flashes." Jaune commented.
Flashback to Wash and the Counsellor
Counsellor: "So you would say that you have overwhelming feelings of anger, and a need for revenge?"
Washington: "More than you know."
Back to present
"Hmm, that line seemed so unimportant before." Ren commented.
Washington: "Just like you're getting now. That's why Epsilon went insane; it was meant to. It was all the horrible experiences the Alpha needed to shed to survive. And that's why it had to be removed from me."
"Because it tried to kill itself in his head." Pyrrha grimaced.
Church: "Did they know that you had the memories?"
Washington: "I never said a word. But they had their suspicions."
Flashback to Wash and South
Washington: "Do you still have yours?"
South: "No Wash, I never had one. I was in the implant group behind you, remember? And after what happened to you, nobody got any more."
Back to present
"They stopped all their experiments just because of that?" Yang asked.
"It's probably illegal." Ren explained.
Weiss huffed, "People like the director don't care about ethics, only whether its legal and if they can get away with breaking the law."
Washington: "I would never let them put another A.I. in my head. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hide what I knew from another program. Which ironically is what led them to think I could be trusted."
"Weird." Nora mumbled.
Church: "Well what do we do with it?"
Washington: "We take it, and we get it in the hands of someone who can use all its information. Then they can bring down the person responsible for what was done to Alpha. And to me. And to my friends. They can take down the Director."
"So that's why he kept helping them." Blake grinned.
"What about the Meta? Agent Maine?" Jaune asked.
Church: "But what about the Meta? How do we stop him? Isn't that the point? I thought only the Alpha could do that. Are we gonna find it or not?"
Jaune nodded.
Washington: "No."
Jaune and everyone else frowned.
Church: "No?"
"I'm confused too." Jaune chuckled.
Washington: "After the first attack on Command, they moved it. They knew the A.I. would just convince their Freelancers to come looking for it again. So they put it in a place where they didn't think anyone could find it."
"So the Fragments sort of knew about the Alpha. Where they used to be." Weiss commented.
"This is so confusing. But I'm starting to get it." Ruby commented.
"I don't want to get it, it sounds depressing."
"It is." Everyone answered.
Church: "But, where? Shouldn't we be there, instead of here?"
Washington: "Church, I need you to listen to me. Delta was the logic. He was able to figure out things before anyone else. It's why he left a message for you in a way that he knew only you could find, and in a way that let me see you getting it."
"I feel a big reveal coming on." Blake commented.
"Like what that just now wasn't a big reveal?" Yang asked.
"Good point." Blake chuckled.
Church: "What are you saying?"
Washington: "I'm saying I know what you are. Even if you don't. Why you can seemingly live without a body."
Everyone perked up.
"No." Ren mumbled.
"B- huh?" Weiss mumbled.
Church: "What?"
Washington: "It's why they stuck you in some useless backwater canyon where no-one ever goes. Then why they transferred every person in your outpost to a different base than you."
"Big reveal? Blake what could they possibly reveal?" Yang asked.
"I don't know but shut up and watch." Blake snapped.
Flash back to Church meeting Wash and Caboose
Church: "I've been here fourteen months."
Washington: "What? Over a year, by yourself?"
Back to present... anyone else getting dizzy?
Washington: "It's why you always agreed with everything Delta said."
Church is an AI! I knew it. Recovery one teased it with Church in the snow. But it conflicts with so much, it's still incredible Either way. I shouldn't tell them though, I don't want to spoil it for them. Ren thought.
Flash back to Church talking with Delta
Delta: "I think we should simply be happy it is gone."
Church: "That makes sense to me."
Back to the present
Washington: "Why you didn't feel anything when Omega got inside your head."
"He knew about that?" Ruby asked.
"Sh!" Everyone shushed.
"Eep!"
Back to Church in Bloodgulch
Church: "Feels pretty much the same, that's, that's kinda weird."
Back to the Present
Washington: "Why you can jump from person to person the way it can."
Back to Washington talking to Church
Washington: "It all adds up then. Omega was the one who inherited that trait."
Back to the Present
Washington: "Church, there's no such thing as ghosts. You're one of them. You're an A.I. You, are the Alpha."
The screen fades to black
"WHAT!" Yang yelled.
"W- How?" Weiss asked.
"This doesn-" Ruby started
"Church is an AI!" Blake gasped.
"-t make any sense?" Ruby finished.
"Church isn't a Ghost!" Weiss cheered.
"He's not dead!" Nora laughed.
"I'm so confused!" Ruby groaned.
"Holy shit!" Yang exclaimed.
"This is certainly a big revelation." Pyrrha added.
"No sh- I- how does this make any sense?" Yang asked. "Ren explain."
"What do you want me to explain? There's so much. Not to mention how this conflicts with the past episodes." Ren commented.
"Church isn't a ghost." Weiss cheered again. "That was so annoying I hated that and- and just wow."
Blake laughed, "Yeah, he's an AI, wow."
"Wait does that mean Tex is an AI too?" Yang asked. What about Sarge?
"Oh my- Yes! Yang you're right. Tex is an AI. Washington said he knew all about Tex. So he's known Church is an AI for a while." Ren added.
"Experimental AI." Jaune commented. "Most of them were in soldiers. It makes sense that one would be in a robot."
"Wait but Church and Tex had bodies?" Ruby said confused.
"I think I have an explanation for that." Ren commented. "They could have inhabited the bodies. And Church or Alpha lost his memories so he didn't know he was in someone else's body."
"Or it was retconned." Blake mumbled.
"I still can't believe this." Ruby shook her head. "Oh no. Church was tortured."
The mood in the room skyrocketed downward.
"No! I like Church." Nora frowned.
"Tex is a fragment. She was tortured too basically." Yang sighed.
"What emotion do you think Tex is?" Jaune asked.
"She's a full character." Ren sighed. "I don't know. We would have to keep watching to know."
"Not yet. Did anyone see this coming?" Blake asked.
Ren shook his head, "Somewhat with what happened in Recovery One, but it didn't make sense. Still doesn't make sense."
Blake nodded, "I didn't see it coming at all and I love that. Most stories I read are so obvious with their foreshadowing. In this show I had no idea at all yet it makes sense."
"This show has come so far." Weiss grinned. "I- I'm I- I feel like Ruby when a new weapons magazine comes in I want to jump with excitement!"
"Do it Weiss I believe in you!" Ruby cheered.
"No." Weiss deadpanned, her face lit up soon however. "I was so happy when Washington said 'There's no such thing as ghosts' it was like a jolt of happiness and relief."
"You hated him and Tex being dead that much?" Yang asked.
"Yes." Weiss laughed.
"I hated it too." Blake laughed.
"That was the biggest reveal in a show I have ever seen." Yang commented. "I'm so happy we don't have to wait for episodes to come out. We have them all right here."
"I'm tired of waiting already." Nora added.
Jaune nodded. "Well if anyone has anything to talk about before I start the next episode. Speak now or forever hold your piece."
- Professor's SS-Not Canon
"That was... truly the most horrifying episode yet." Ozpin frowned.
"It's a good episode compared only to other episodes from the show." Glynda frowned.
"Glynda I think-" Peter started.
Ozpin sighed, They so easily ignore the themes. The hidden message.
Ozpin watched them argue with mild interest.
As much as I hate to say it even to myself or selves. I can sympathize with the Director. He did what he did for the greater good. To defeat an enemy he thought was great. While many always wrongly say their war is great in their minds it is.
Oh what people will do to ensure victory. Even at the cost of their own morality.
- Criminals SS-Maybe Canon
Mercury groaned. "This show is getting too serious."
"You mean better." Emerald grinned.
"Oh yeah, now you like it. Just because I don't." Mercury grinned. "You're too obvious with your flirting."
Cinder signed, "Sometimes I wish you two were more like Neo."
Neo looked up in curiosity.
"What psychotic?" Mercury asked.
In a flash Neo had Mercury on the floor with a heel in his chest.
Cinder chuckled. "Silent is what I had in mind."
Neo glared at Cinder with malice.
"Get off me!" Mercury shouted.
Neo frowned and with a kick she got off Mercury and back into her spot.
"Are we going to keep watching the show?" Emerald asked?"
"Yes, you could say I'm finally intrigued." Cinder grinned.
- Atlas SS-Not Canon
"I didn't like this episode." Penny frowned with her bottom lip quivering.
"Because it dealt with AI? Miss Polendina while I know little of your... situation I will say you are more than an AI. You are a person."
Penny nodded, "I- I know. But no matter how many people say it I still..never mind. These thoughts are not productive, and I would very much like to continue the story."
Winter smiled, "Quite, but first I will summon General Ironwood. He is a busy man and could do with relaxing. Also I would love to have someone else in the room with me. Your scroll doesn't count." Winter could hear penny chuckling from the scroll. This isn't so bad after all.
- Birds SS-Maybe Canon
"You realize this Director is exactly like Ozpin." Raven asked.
"Damnit Raven we are not having this argument again." Qrow shouted.
"You're right we aren't. Because while you think you convinced me to watch this show-"
"By catching you peeping."
Raven glared at him but said nothing. "As I was saying. You didn't convince me. I chose to watch this show."
"Heh heh, sure."
Raven growled "I hate you."
Fucking milestone of a chapter right there I tell you h'what. I would say "sorry for the wait" but I mean I made you guys wait a month between chapters once. The episodes are getting more and more important and now I have to think more in the "serious reactions" than the "comedic reactions" it's a little daunting but I mean hey, this is a react fic. Much easier to write than a real fic. And yes there is a difference.
Please let me know what you think of the chapter and let me know where I can improve! Especially with the side stories I need suggestions. Thanks!