RWBY: I Need to Cheat on My Girlfriend

[Bullhead – 8:00]

Weiss tosses and turns in bed, her eyelids heavy and her body numb. She doesn't want to get up. She stayed up late going over the blueprints of that giant robot, waiting for Daniel to wake up and give her some explanations… but he never did.

Eventually, she set the blueprints aside, returned to her room, and forced herself to sleep, though her mind kept racing.

Now, as she stares at the clock, she exhales in frustration. It's eight.

"It's late… Daniel should be awake by now," she thinks, still unwilling to move, but the unease won't let her stay still. She needs answers.

With that thought in mind, she gets up abruptly, changes quickly, and fixes herself up just enough before heading out to find Daniel.

As she walks down the hallway, her mind keeps churning out questions.

"Who the hell is he, really? An eccentric genius? A liar? A lunatic who escaped from a psych ward?"

At this point, any option seems possible.

When she reaches Daniel's room, she doesn't even bother knocking. She simply pushes the door open and steps inside without hesitation.

But the moment she does, her body tenses.

Standing in the middle of the room is a young man who is definitely not Daniel.

He looks around nineteen. His posture is stiff, and he's visibly trembling as he grips a gun with both hands. A bruise partially covers his face, and when his eyes meet Weiss's, he freezes like a deer caught in headlights.

Weiss doesn't move either. Her instincts scream at her to be on guard, but something about the scene makes her hesitate. He doesn't look like a criminal. More like… a victim.

She closes her eyes for a second and takes a deep breath, trying to stay calm.

"Please, let this not be Daniel's fault," she mutters to herself.

When she opens them again, her gaze is firm.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Where is Daniel? And why the hell do you have a gun?"

She fires the questions without pause, her tone sharp and demanding. She doesn't feel afraid. If she were wrong and he tried something, she could activate her Aura in an instant.

But he doesn't seem like a real threat.

Not with those trembling hands.

Not with the way he clings to that gun like it's the only thing keeping him standing.

The young man swallows hard, gripping the gun even tighter. His lips part slightly as he struggles to form words.

"M-My name is R-Rovan… I'm a flight attendant."

He stammers a bit, his voice cracking at times, and his shoulders occasionally tremble. He looks terrified. He hesitates, as if still unsure whether to tell the truth, but in the end, he gathers his courage.

"I… I was just passing by to check if the passenger in this room needed anything and… and…"

His breathing becomes ragged as he pauses, struggling to continue.

"He pulled me inside."

Weiss closes her eyes for a moment and exhales, exasperated. She had really hoped this wouldn't be Daniel's fault.

"He ordered me to guard his blueprints," Rovan continues, his voice gaining speed and strength as he speaks. "I told him I couldn't do that, that I had work, and then…"

He brings a hand to his face, carefully brushing over the bruise, as if it still hurts.

"After I told him that… he slapped me."

Weiss studies him more closely. The mark is obvious, confirming what she already suspected. He isn't a criminal—he's a victim.

"Then he forced me to hold this gun and told me to shoot anyone who tried to touch the blueprints," his breathing grows heavier. "I told him I couldn't… that I didn't want to do that, but…"

He swallows, his voice shrinking to a whisper.

"He said he'd shoot me if I didn't… and then he left."

He barely manages to finish the sentence before his voice completely breaks.

Weiss stares at him, weighing the information, and in her mind, everything clicks into place.

Daniel is a fucking psychopath.

Without hesitation, she steps forward and pulls the gun from his hands. There's no resistance—his fingers let go easily.

"Just get out of here and don't tell anyone what happened," Weiss orders firmly.

Rovan stares at her, frozen, unsure if he should really leave.

Weiss narrows her eyes, her tone sharpening. "Did you hear me?"

He nods immediately, almost desperately, and without another word, turns toward the door.

But just as he's about to leave, Weiss stops him.

"Wait!"

Rovan freezes in place, mere inches from the exit, already regretting not leaving the first time she told him to.

"Do you know where Daniel is?" Weiss asks.

Rovan hesitates for a moment, trying to remember, but eventually nods. "He said something about looking for a workshop to work in… I don't know anything else."

Weiss watches him for a moment, processing the information, then finally turns her back to him with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Get lost."

He doesn't need to be told twice. The moment he gets the signal, he bolts out the door without looking back.

He wants nothing more to do with these passengers.

[Bullhead Workshop]

Daniel is in what he has turned into his makeshift workshop inside the Bullhead. It's not a real workshop, just a moderately suitable room that he claimed as his own, reorganizing the space and filling it with tools, electronic parts, and everything necessary to upgrade GLaDOS.

He's sitting at a table covered in wires, circuits, and half-assembled components. His fingers carefully hold a small piece as he solders it with precision, trying not to make any mistakes. Beside him, GLaDOS observes the process closely, no longer confined to her potato body but now connected to a battery and a scroll.

"Three millimeters lower! If you don't attach it properly, you'll ruin the circuits."

Daniel clenches his teeth, irritated. He's been working non-stop for five hours and has barely made 30% progress. His patience is wearing thin, and GLaDOS's comments aren't helping.

"Who taught you to solder? A blind, deaf, and mute idiot?" she remarks mercilessly, scrutinizing his work.

Daniel exhales, holding back his frustration. He really thought this would be easier, that his experience with electronics would actually mean something, but clearly, he was wrong.

"I'm doing the best I can!"

"Then do better." GLaDOS responds without an ounce of sympathy. "I refuse to move into a defective body, so improve."

Daniel groans and gets back to work, muttering under his breath. "Fucking slave-driving machine…"

But unfortunately for him, that wasn't his only problem.

"The white bitch is coming," Aegis warns from the corner, watching a Huntsman video on a scroll. "And she doesn't look happy," he adds with a slight chuckle.

Daniel barely has time to process the warning before the workshop door swings open violently, slamming hard against the wall.

"What the hell, Daniel?!" Weiss's voice erupts into the room as she storms in, visibly pissed.

Daniel doesn't even turn around. His focus remains on the assembly, and he's not about to ruin hours of work over someone else's tantrum.

"Hello, Weiss," he says indifferently, never taking his eyes off his project. "Now tell me, what's bothering you?"

Weiss marches straight to the table, stopping just long enough to slam the pistol down onto the surface. Her glare burns into Daniel as she places her hands on her hips, waiting for an explanation.

"Take a wild guess."

Daniel glances at the gun on the table and sighs, not even pausing his work.

"Yeah… I'm annoyed too. The staff on this ship is a disaster. I gave him one simple job, and he couldn't even do that right. So sad. Now I'll have to shoot him."

Weiss stares at him, stunned.

"What… why the hell would you do that?!" she exclaims, hoping to God he's joking.

Daniel finally looks up at her, completely serious.

"Well, Weiss… if I don't, people will think I'm a liar. Or worse, that I make empty threats." He pauses for a moment before continuing. "And I'm not a liar, Weiss. I may be a lot of things—communist, pig, idiot, liar… but never a porn star."

Weiss shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, trying not to explode, but her patience is already hanging by a thread.

"Enough! Enough with the nonsense! What the hell is going on?!" she shouts, sick of listening to his bullshit. "What's with all those schematics? And what the hell happened to your finger?!"

She points at his hand, and sure enough, he's missing a finger.

Daniel readies himself to spill a carefully crafted lie, but before he can say anything, another voice interrupts, cold and sharp.

"Ignore her and get back to work," GLaDOS commands in her robotic tone. "This is more important."

Weiss scowls at both the voice and the sounds coming from the machine.

"And shut that damn toy off," she snaps, pointing at GLaDOS in frustration.

GLaDOS, despite being confined to her current form, has already learned enough to understand the language of this world. Her knowledge is still limited, but she understands enough to grasp what she was just told.

"Tell her to leave. Her presence is annoying."

Daniel ran two fingers over his temples, massaging them in frustration.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Weiss insisted, raising her voice and yelling directly into his ear.

"Tell her to leave!" GLaDOS repeated, louder this time.

"Get me some mollusks!!" Aegis suddenly shouted from his corner, joining in the screaming, completely oblivious to the tension in the room.

That was enough to push Daniel past his breaking point.

"EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!!!" he exploded, jumping to his feet, his voice booming across the room.

"I DON'T WANT YOU HERE!" he snapped, pointing furiously at Weiss. Then he turned to Aegis, still wedged in his corner. "I DON'T WANT YOU HERE EITHER!" Finally, his gaze landed on GLaDOS.

"AND I'M STUCK WITH YOU." He spoke with sheer resignation.

Weiss barely had time to react before, without warning, Daniel grabbed Aegis and shoved him into her arms. Before she could process what was happening, he pushed her out of the room. She tried to resist, but she hadn't expected Daniel to be so damn strong.

"You can't just throw me out! You haven't answered any of my questions!" Weiss protested, her voice dripping with indignation as she struggled to keep Aegis from slipping from her grip.

"I don't have time to answer anything right now," Daniel replied without a care. "It's hard enough working with all of you talking at the same time… and even harder with only nine fingers."

"Any questions, I'll answer tonight when I'm done with this."

Weiss shot him a murderous glare, but he didn't even bother looking at her.

"For now, I suggest you find something to do," he added with a scoff, but after a moment's thought, he smirked slightly. "You could check out the schematics in my room, for example. Bye!"

Before she could get another word in, Daniel slammed the door shut in her face.

"Wait—!" Weiss tried to open it, but it was already locked from the inside. She clenched her teeth in frustration, letting out a low growl of rage before turning away sharply.

She was still holding Aegis as she made her way back to Daniel's room. "If he thinks this is over, he's dead wrong," she muttered under her breath, quickening her pace with full intention of reviewing the schematics. Not because he told her to, but because she genuinely wanted to finish them.

[Back in the Workshop]

"You should get rid of her. She's useless," GLaDOS states, her robotic tone dripping with contempt.

Daniel keeps welding, his gaze locked onto his work. He doesn't react immediately, just maintains his rhythm, letting the sparks illuminate the workbench.

"She's not useless," he replies calmly, though it takes him a second to find the right words. "She's…" He tries to explain Weiss's privileged position, but GLaDOS cuts him off without hesitation.

"She is Weiss Schnee, potential heir to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers and exporters of Dust. I already know that," she says impatiently. "I'm connected to the scroll and the network; no need to repeat irrelevant information."

Daniel sighs. "Then what's the problem?" he asks, not looking up from his work. "She has money and status—there has to be some use for that."

"She could become a problem in the future," GLaDOS warns, her tone carrying a hint of amusement.

Daniel frowns, finally paying more attention. "Explain."

"The SDC will be our main enemy in the energy market when we start selling to the kingdoms."

Daniel blinks, genuinely confused now. "Since when are we in the energy business?"

"Since the moment you obtained the schematics for the Gipsy Danger assault mech," GLaDOS replies.

Daniel takes a few seconds to process that. Then, slowly, his expression shifts—understanding mixing with curiosity. It's not hard to figure out. If they're talking about energy, there's only one thing in those schematics that could generate power.

"The nuclear fusion reactor," he realizes instantly.

"Exactly," GLaDOS confirms. "This world, despite its advanced technology, is still completely dependent on Dust extraction for nearly everything—ships, ammunition, electricity, heating. If we modify the Gipsy Danger's reactor, we could produce enough energy to power an entire kingdom."

"How much would that hurt the SDC?" Daniel asks, his tone turning more serious.

"In less than three years, I estimate they'd lose 65% of their market. The other 35% is ammunition, which we can't replace… for now."

Daniel frowns. Not because he's against replacing the SDC, but because he doesn't like getting into unnecessary trouble unless the reward is worth it. The last thing he wants is to end up on someone's hit list or saddled with too many responsibilities.

"Do we really need to take over the world's energy production?"

"Only if you want power," GLaDOS replies, her tone dripping with sarcasm. "Control."

Daniel stops working entirely, intrigued by the direction of the conversation. Now she has his full attention. He gestures for her to continue.

"If we supply energy to all the kingdoms and push the SDC out of the game, we'll make them dependent on us. That dependence will give us absolute freedom to impose our conditions. They'll have to meet our demands… or freeze to death."

Though GLaDOS is proud of the plan, it isn't entirely hers. She drew inspiration from Jacques Schnee, who already employs the same method in Mantle—though its citizens remain unaware. The Atlas Council, however, knows perfectly well. It's one of the reasons they allow him to maintain the horrific working conditions in his mines. If they challenge him and he cuts off their Dust supply, the entire city would freeze over. In essence, he holds an entire city hostage—along with the Huntsman Academies and, to a lesser extent, the other kingdoms.

GLaDOS studies Daniel carefully, waiting to see if they're on the same wavelength. Fortunately, they are.

Daniel lets out a quiet chuckle, as if genuinely amused by the idea.

"Sounds incredible," he says, a satisfied grin forming on his face.

But just when GLaDOS starts to believe they are perfectly aligned in their goals, Daniel ruins the moment.

"Still, we're not getting rid of Weiss."

For GLaDOS, that is disappointing. The atmosphere shifts instantly. Her silence makes her displeasure clear, but Daniel expected that. He sighs in resignation before explaining himself.

"I'm a sentimental person," he says, shrugging. "Weiss helped me. So, as thanks, we'll put her in some important position."

"Nepotism," GLaDOS points out.

"Of course it's nepotism." Daniel pauses, picks up a screwdriver, and points it as if stating the most obvious fact in the world. "The world runs on nepotism."

"Besides, she's paying for transportation… and we're broke. We can't afford to get rid of her."

GLaDOS knows this all too well. She hasn't forgotten that Daniel had to dance to afford parts for his machines. If there's one thing she can acknowledge about him, it's his commitment. For now, she resigns herself to tolerating Weiss. There's little reason to argue… at least not until they have enough capital to stop relying on her.

"But don't worry," Daniel adds with a carefree smile, returning to his welding. "As far as I'm concerned, the rest of the world can burn. That's not my problem."

He doesn't consider himself a cruel person, but neither a good one. He's not here to save the world or to fix its problems. It's neither his responsibility nor his obligation, and he doesn't intend to make them his. As long as he and his own are fine, the rest doesn't matter to him.

With those words, the room returns to its relative calm. Of course, GLaDOS's voice can still be heard directing him, but as he works on connecting some cables, he feels that something is wrong. And it's not GLaDOS's new body. It's a strange feeling, as if he's forgetting something important.

[Daniel's Room]

Weiss is astonished. She never thought something like this was possible, not even in her wildest dreams. But there it is, right in front of her, and she can't ignore it.

"How is this even possible…?" she murmurs, still in disbelief. "It's magnificent…"

She watches in fascination as Aegis effortlessly slides across the scroll's windows, navigating menus and activating functions as if it were second nature. Within seconds, he plays a video on the screen with no difficulty.

"Aegis knows how to use the scroll!" she exclaims, unable to hide her amazement as she claps excitedly.

That makes no sense. A mantis shrimp shouldn't be able to do that. And yet, there he is, interacting with technology in a way that defies all logic. Weiss wonders what else he's capable of… but she quickly shakes her head, reminding herself of what she was doing.

"Focus," she mutters under her breath, tearing her eyes away and returning to the blueprints.

For some reason, she has a nagging feeling that there's something important in them, something she hasn't seen yet.

[Back in the Workshop]

Daniel stretches in his chair, letting out a satisfied sigh. He takes a moment to admire his progress. More than half a day has passed, and GLaDOS's new form is finally starting to take shape. That fills him with pride.

However, as he observes her, a thought crosses his mind—a doubt that's been lingering in his head for the past few hours.

"Do you have any future plans I should know about?" he asks curiously, shifting his gaze from his work to look at her.

"Mhmm…" GLaDOS seems to consider the question for a moment.

Daniel has already told her most of his secrets, skills, and possessions, as well as the reason they're heading to Atlas. Obviously, he's omitted the existence of the system, but with all the information she has, GLaDOS has already adjusted a plan for the future—or at least part of one.

"You will proceed with your plan for now," she states in a calculated tone. "You will arrive in Atlas, sell your blueprints, and with the money, we will create a proper laboratory for me."

She pauses briefly, as if organizing her thoughts.

When I have my laboratory, I will start research on weaponry, energy, and, of course, the expansion of the lab.

Daniel nods, taking every word seriously. It doesn't sound like a bad plan, although…

"That sounds like it's going to take a long time," he comments as he settles into his seat.

"Expanding the facilities will take decades," GLaDOS admits bluntly. "For that, we'll need the lab to be outside the realms, as far away as possible, to expand it and hide it from any invaders. But for our immediate purposes, it will suffice to build the main lab and a manufacturing area. Once everything is up and running… Aperture Science will return to the market."

Her voice reveals a hint of satisfaction. To her, this isn't just a plan: it's a rebirth.

Daniel, however, can't help but notice some obvious problems.

"I see a lot of holes in that plan." He narrows his eyes. "What about the workforce for construction, transportation, materials…?"

He doesn't finish the sentence.

"Shhh. You don't need to worry about that now," GLaDOS interrupts him with a surprisingly patient, almost affectionate tone. "First, we'll solve the money problem. I'll adjust the plan as we go. You don't have to worry about anything."

That's suspicious, Daniel thinks as he watches her with distrust.

However, he decides not to push it. In reality, he's not too concerned; he'd rather leave those details in GLaDOS's hands. After all, he trusts that she knows what she's doing.

Yet, GLaDOS's next sentence shatters his sense of ease.

"But you'll probably have to infiltrate and steal technology from Atlas's main military facilities."

Daniel blinks.

"What?"

/-/

Author's Note:

Didn't like it? I think I didn't either. If you feel like it's incomplete, it's because it is. This would be half… or maybe less than half, I'm not sure. But I wanted to upload something today.

I'll upload the rest tomorrow or on Tuesday, depending on how I feel. I already have it written, but not edited yet. A comment might motivate me to speed up.

Fun fact: I don't like +18 anime. I find them silly and unnecessary, like DxD, School Days, KissxKiss, stuff like that. Ironic, isn't it?

Anyway, leave me your ideas; I love reading them.

Kisses and hugs!