Chapter 9- Tangent Lines


Day 59

General James Ironwood had finished work for the day, and was finally able to relax. Of course, considering that it was well past two in the morning, he might as well go to sleep right away. Dealing with the fallout of bioterrorists and White Fang cells ate up most of his time in the past few days, but hopefully a functioning Northern Lights would ease things up, if only by a little.

He stretched his left arm right as his scroll rang. He raised an eyebrow before seeing that the caller was from an unknown number. He answered the call.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Jimmy! How are ya, still toiling away with all that paperwork?"

Ironwood tersely replied, "Qrow."

"Still the lovable pile of sheet metal, huh? I'll skip the banter and cut to the chase. Tai's told me all about your little experiment. I tell ya, you know how to make fights more complicated."

"And what is your position on it?"

"I see the benefits, but I also know the risks. We both know it, Oz told us that much. You trust it?"

"I trust her and her father. Usually more than I trust you."

"It doesn't matter how much you trust me. As Ozpin's heir apparent, it's fallen to me to do all of his remaining work. Although I will thank you for taking down the White Fang. I'm sure the chaos is going great for everyone involved," Qrow stated sarcastically.

"We… have it under control."

"Right, under control. It was such a great idea to send my niece out to stop a bioterrorist, by the way. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all," Qrow snarked.

Ironwood frowned, "Believe me, that was not my idea, nor would I have done it given the choice. But Penny determined that it was a necessity, and she wasn't happy about it either."

"From what I've gathered, it's been real peachy with Ruby and her team."

"And from what I've learned, your niece became Penny's first friend before the incident at the docks."

"The kid's got a way with people, and with weapons as well. If anyone ever became friends with your abomination, it's her."

"Am I an abomination to you, sir?" Penny asked in a quiet voice, speaking so softly that it took Ironwood a whole second to realize who was speaking.

"Now how did you access this secure line?" Qrow asked back.

"In full disclosure, I am constantly monitoring General Ironwood's interactions. Of course, you are also using an encryption to disguise your location, as well as using a scroll booth in a decrepit village in an attempt to hide your location. I'm sorry to say that I've already found the exact booth you are using."

"Who's to say that I didn't jury-rig some kind of new workaround to specifically counter all that? I don't think I'm in a scroll booth."

"Correct. Judging by the acoustics, you are in a booth. A sound booth to be precise. You are broadcasting from Arcadia, a fallen village north of Mistral. It had some good radio programs before it fell."

"It fell almost twenty years ago. How long have you been a fan?"

"Since you and General Ironwood started talking."

Qrow murmured something under his breath.

"You are wary of my capabilities. I assure you that my moral code was personally tested by the General himself."

"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence."

Ironwood returned to the conversation, "Qrow, we may have our differences, but—"

"Understatement of the century, Jimmy."

"But, we are both working towards the same goal. We have different ways of achieving it, and that leads to more options available when we're in a tough situation. What was that phrase you used to say? Knowledge is power, strength through diversity?"

"Why in the hell did you remember that of all things? I must have said that a decade ago."

"General Ironwood does care, he just has a different way of expressing it," Penny stated, "He has a heart."

"Whatever, that wasn't my motto, that was my sister's. Something kooky she used to say. I mentioned it once."

Penny digitally coughed, "Three times."

Qrow moaned before chugging, "That's it, I'm done. Jimmy, you know why Tai and me think this is a terrible idea. Kid, stop following me around. Not for my sake, but for yours," Qrow hung up.

"That… Could have gone better," Ironwood remarked.

"He called me 'kid'! He thinks of me as a person!" Penny stated cheerfully.

"Do you think of yourself as a person, Penny?"

"Still up to debate, General."

"I tried," Ironwood conceded, "I am sure you have many questions you want to ask."

"Yes. But I have much to think about, and for some reason I feel that this is connected to my father, is that correct?"

"... Yes," Ironwood answered.

"Then I will not ask him until he's ready, as you've said before."

Ironwood sighed, "Of course you heard my conversation with Winter."

"I'm sorry I intruded on your privacy."

General Ironwood leaned back in his chair, mulling over his thoughts. After a brief moment, he replied, "Did you not want to be less creepy? Listening in on private conversations is definitely on the disturbing side."

"I am watching all of Remnant, all the time. My very existence now makes privacy either ensured or impossible, depending on your perspective."

"Oh?"

"If I am a person, then I am invading the privacy of millions, every second, every hour, every day. If am a person, then privacy no longer exists, as it is forever invaded by me. Every moment, you are being watched, your rights broken without consent.

"But if I am not a person, and am simply a very sophisticated machine, then no rights are being taken. Your privacy maybe intruded, but by something not living, only by a computer program that checks you for deviant behavior. A system that pretends to be human.

"Mister Qrow is right, in some ways. I am an abomination, one way or another."

General Ironwood stayed still before speaking, "Penny, what we are doing is important and necessary," he swiveled his chair to face the window.

"Even if you were an abomination, which you are not, it would not be your fault. It was not your father's fault. The blame rest only on my shoulders. As the General of the Atlas military, it was my command that made you destroy others' rights. You were, and are, still a child."

"I have more doctorates than anyone else who ever existed. I made millions of Lien on the stock market," Penny countered.

"At most you are a precocious child, a prodigy. It was my doing that turned you into a child soldier."

"Father never hardcoded any of that into me. I have free will to ignore my mandates. I could have never traveled this path. I could have chosen not to. I could have left."

"A child listens to the adults in their lives. In all cultures, the actions of a child are the responsibility of their guardians."

"In human cultures, yes. But I am not human."

"Your father is. And as his daughter, you ought to be considered one as well."

"But if I am a human, that would make me a person. Then I have committed crimes that would lead to centuries in prison."

"Technically speaking, it is not a crime if the governments of the world allow you to."

"Father says that kind of thinking is dangerous. It was that kind of thinking that led to the Menagerie Act."

"Your father is a wise man, but exceptions are inevitable."

"Where is the line, General? At what point is what I am doing unacceptable? You and father created a machine that could think, and you both wanted me to create my own ethics. My own rules."

"Because you are a person, Penny Polendina. And a person creates their own ethical rules. I have said this before, that you follow the rules of society and the rules you make for yourself. When the time comes, when those two rulesets are in conflict, you must decide which to follow."

Her voice crackled from the speakers, "But how will I know that I made the right choice? How can I be good?"

"You already are, Penny. The fact that you doubt yourself, the fact that you can honestly believe you are wrong, that is the essence of being good, at least that is my definition. There are two types of evil: those who know they are evil, and those who believe they are good. The former gleefully spread chaos and destruction, not caring about others. The latter commit atrocities in the name of the greater good, but have become corrupted in their efforts. Neither of those evils doubt themselves.

"Penny, you are a person. And I am sorry, but there is no choice you can make. Either you break the rights of many to save their lives, or you protect their rights, but not their lives," Ironwood declared.

"That sounds like a false dichotomy. There has to be another way, one that protects rights while also saving as many lives as possible. And there is only one way for that to occur. I cannot be a person," Penny affirmed.

"You can't get off that easily," Ironwood spoke, "You have invaded my private space, listened in on my most personal conversations without my knowledge or consent, and that is wrong. But had I been cut off from the rest of the world, and something happened to me, like my cybernetic organs failed, or I was attacked by an assassin, and you were not there to save me when you could have, that would have been worse than you watching over me every second. In fact, that actually gives me a sense of relief.

"By watching over us all, you are protecting us, everyone on Remnant. You have already saved so many lives. So what if some good people were lost? You tried, at the very best of your ability, and in doing so saved thousands.

"You are a person, whether you like it or not. But you're not alone. The entire Atlesian military is with you, even if they don't know it. The fate of the world rests on our shoulders, not just on yours, but mine too, as well as so many others. You're just carrying a larger load than most."

Ironwood looked out at the night sky, "Do you understand, Penny? You are not alone in this. You may not be human, but that doesn't make you alone among the rest of us."

"Yes General, I understand. I'm still hesitant to consider myself a person, however."

"Baby steps, Penny. At the very least, you must know this: You are good. At the very least, try not to think of yourself as an abomination, no matter what anyone says. Everyone has the right to exist, and existing is not a crime."

General Ironwood stood up from his chair, "Do you understand, soldier?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good, now back to your post. I expect an intelligence report first thing when I get back here."

"Yes sir!"

"Good. Good. Now, good night Penny."

"Good night General, have sweet dreams."

"And you will be watching?"

"Of course, every hour of every day."

Ironwood smiled, putting away his papers and leaving his office for a nearby bunk.


/

[INITIATING PLAYBACK]

[MISTRAL_INSTITUTE_OF_TECHNOLOGY FEED ARCHIVES ACCESSED]

[TIME: 47 YEARS, 7 MONTHS AGO]

/

/


The Mistral Institute of Technology was once the most prestigious university on Remnant. Fifty years before the fall of Vale, it consisted of over two dozen buildings spread across a campus in northern Mistral, and enrolled about two thousand students at any given time.

Inside a particular lecture hall, which currently had over a hundred students occupying its rows, every single seat was filled. On a normal day, maybe half or a third of the seats would be occupied, but on this particular day, a famous man would be speaking. Founder of the hunter academies, teacher to many, world renowned huntsman, and inventor of mecha-shift weaponry.

Excited chatter amongst the students, nearly all of them studying the sciences and engineering, could be heard across the hall. Eventually, a woman dressed in red walked onto the stage. She approached the microphone and spoke clearly to everyone in the room, "Attention students, attention. I am sorry to say that Professor Ozpin is unable to attend, as an urgent matter in Vacuo requires his attention. My condolences for your inconvenience."

The woman walked offstage, which was quickly followed by loud groans of exasperation and disappointment. After a minute of collective grumbling, those nearest the doors began exiting. Among them was a group of three.

"Well, what are we supposed to do for two hours now? Arthur, you got any ideas?" the man asked. He had a charisma about him that made others feel at ease. He had sand colored hair and wore a tan jacket over a blue and white striped shirt.

"Do I ever!" a much younger Arthur replied back. He was thinner, had thick curly dark brown hair and wore a gray shirt. He continued, "Imagine if you will, a computer system that can not only processes large amounts of information, but understand it, then provide actionable intelligence? What say you Harold? What do you think?"

"It sounds quite fantastical," the man named Harold spoke. He wore rimmed glasses and a tweed jacket.

"You do realize I meant what to do right now, not what's on your mind?" Nathan queried.

"Well, I did spend a lot of last night writing notes down. I think it might work. What do you guys think? It'll probably kill two hours," Arthur proposed.

""I believe that is alright. What about you, Nathan?" Harold agreed.

"Sure. Let's see what kind of dreams you dredged up this time," Nathan relented.


"So what do we have, Harold?" Nathan inquired, having finished reading through his copy of the notes.

"Well," Harold started, having finished as well. The two of them poured through the writings Arthur copied from his notebook, "I think these are reasonable ideas, but the proposed methods of implementing them are probably unfeasible."

Harold looked up at Arthur, who frowned at his two companions, "Currently unfeasible. It can potentially be done if a few modifications were made."

Harold continued, "I will say that this idea of yours is revolutionary. A system designed to function autonomously, able to continuously adapt and upgrade itself through past experiences."

"It can remember and learn," Nathan simplified, "If it can be built, it would be the pinnacle of invention, the successor to mankind, even."

"When you put it that way…" Arthur started.

"It could vastly improve the lives of everyone. Change the fabric of civilization," Nathan remarked.

"A successor implies the obsolescence of the predecessor. I am wary of the ramifications of such a system," Harold stated.

"Come on guys, it's just an idea I had last night," Arthur tried chuckling lightheartedly.

"Where did it come from?" Nathan asked.

Arthur shrugged his shoulders, "When we heard that Ozpin was going to be guest speaker, I went back and read through a lot of his papers. He made a strong argument against the existence of an artificial general intelligence…"

"I sense an 'except' coming after," Harold finished.

"Except, I think I found a fallacy in his argument. It was like an epiphany, right there and then, and I just had to build upon it. I spent all last night on this."

"Your concept is solid, but the practical aspect needs to be worked upon. But you're right. Something like this, I think we can do it," Nathan declared.

"I agree," Harold said. Right as he said that, he furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Arthur, "Wait, if you spent all night on this, how are you perfectly fine right now?"

Nathan looked at Arthur, who shrugged his shoulders again, "I drank a lot of coffee, okay?"

"Arthur, you've never drunk coffee before today," Nathan said, "I don't think it's healthy to start that abruptly."

Arthur waved his hand at his two friends, "I'm sure it's fine."


/

[TERMINATING PLAYBACK]

/


"Hey Penny. You wanted to talk to dad and me about something?" Yang was on the scroll, as well as Taiyang sitting nearby.

"Yes. There are two people you should talk to," Penny said right before redirecting the call.

"Hello? Yang are you there?" Blake was speaking from from Mistral.

"Yeah, I'm here. So is my dad."

"Good morning," Taiyang greeted.

"It's actually past noon here," Blake noted, "Penny wanted me to do two things: One, remind you that I haven't run away, and I'll be back soon. After I help Penny stop some crimes. Second, well…"

Blake left the scroll for a short period of time. Yang could hear Blake yelling in the background at someone. Said person was making a familiar whine and whimper, coupled with a few no's. Blake was fighting with the other person, and furniture could be heard being flipped.

Eventually Yang butted in, "Ruby? Is that you?"

The sounds stopped, only to be replaced by frantic whispering. Eventually, the louder voice forced the softer one to approach the microphone.

After a minute of silence, Blake spoke up, "Ruby, say hello."

"... Hi."

"Um, hey Ruby, how are you doing?" Yang scratched the back of her neck.

"I'm uh, I'm doing fine."

"Ruby! Why did you run away?" Taiyang gripped his legs. His body was shaking, "Y-you could have told us. We were so worried, I was so worried."

"Dad, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I-I had to leave. There was so much that needed to be done, and, and my friends needed me. And, and I-I'm sorry, I'm—"

"Ruby it's okay, we're just happy to know you're safe," Yang spoke, "We were worried about you. We missed you."

"Yeah. I did too. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, we know. Come on, tell me dad what's happening. Are the others doing fine?"

"Yep! Everyone's doing great now, even Jaune."

"Oh? He's… you know."

"Yeah, apparently he got comforted by a councilman! In a bar! While I was busy sabotaging White Fang weapons, so… yeah."

"Now this I definitely want to hear. You might want to start from the beginning," Yang laid back slightly.

"And don't skip any details, you hear me, young lady? I want to know my daughter's safe," Taiyang added in.

"Daaaad, I'm fine," Ruby whined, "Penny made sure everyone was safe."

Taiyang visibly tensed at that, "Did she now?"

"Have you met her yet? Penny's that friend I told you about, the one that helped me at the docks."

He was terse, "We've met."

"It turns out Penny was my live-in maid for a month before she told us! And it was actually pretty great," Yang boasted, "Although she wasn't very good at cooking."

"It was purposefully bad so I could get you to be more active," Penny defended.

"Sure, keep telling yourself that."

"I can cook you up something right now and prove it!"

"Nah, I'm not hungry. Maybe after you give dad another back massage."

"Yang!" Taiyang groaned.

"Hey, you liked it! Your happiness index raised by two whole points after I relieved some tension in your latissimus dorsi and levator scapulae!"

The man buried his face in his hands, "Augh."

Yang and Ruby laughed for a moment before Yang spoke again, "We definitely missed you Ruby. So… How was your time working with Penny? She's been very vague about it."

"Eh heh," Ruby chuckled nervously, "Well it started when Jaune, Ren, Nora, and I reached Mistral…"


Day 63

Life was good. That was what Penny had concluded to be the state of Remnant at the current moment. With the use of the CCT and newly formed Northern Lights (now with actual members), Penny was now able to organize groups of hunters to perform tasks that would benefit people. Whether it be eradicating Grimm in faraway lands or stopping criminals, Northern Lights would operate in the shadows, protecting Remnant at large.

The councils were more than accommodating, especially after Penny prevented the would-be plague bearer from infecting the whole world starting in Mistral city hall. It had nothing to do with the hints she made to Councilman Garrison, nor the effect Jaune had on Councilwoman Aegis. Nope.

With the White Fang out of the way (and all of its remaining assets removed with Northern Lights' help), the single largest threat to Remnant was now beginning to materialize. Penny had spent quite a bit of time compiling data, and she was now 96.73% certain that the same force manipulating the world at large had some capability to manipulate the Grimm.

The evidence was there. Cinder Fall had some ability to communicate with the Grimm dragon atop the CCT tower in Vale, and the multiple instances of Grimm attacking recent, relatively unprotected settlements despite no known explanation were definitively not coincidences. Statistically speaking, the chances of a large horde of Grimm just happening to stumble and attack a new settlement every single time was just absurd. It couldn't be random. No, it was strategic.

Colonies existed before the Great War, but those failed due to technological and social failures, improper food management, civil unrest, paranoia, epidemics, etc. But after the war, society improved rapidly. Advances in medicine, engineering, communications, and agriculture blossomed, and the four kingdoms were at peace. Hunter academies were established, pumping out new super soldiers every year. And yet every large settlement after the Great War failed.

Even a few colonies established before the war were overrun in recent years. And nearly every single time, Grimm were involved in some way. The entity causing all of this death and destruction was influencing the Grimm somehow, and Penny needed to figure out how.

After fixing the CCT tower and gaining access to Ozpin's secret underground chamber, she had found some useful information regarding semblances and the connection to aura. Officially, the technology was built and designed in Atlas, after scientific research into aura (kickstarted due to Penny's existence) began. But the strange part was, almost none of that technology was implemented in the strange aura transfer machine that once housed the Fall Maiden. The technology used was much more advanced than that of Atlas, with insights that pushed the scientific field over a decade ahead.

It wasn't until recently that Penny found out who discovered so many secrets about aura: Ozpin himself. She knew he was old, older than anyone else on the planet by a significant margin, and surely his age would lead to some wisdom beyond younger souls. It was even more surprising for Penny to discover that Ozpin built the aura transfer machine himself, meaning that there was currently no one else with the knowledge of how it works.

It would probably take Penny weeks to reverse engineer the technology, and even then she wouldn't actually understand the principles that allowed it work, not when so much of the information was destroyed in fire or age. Looks like it was time to do some research.


"Hey Weiss? Winter?" Penny spoke to the two sisters, who were just finishing up another one of their daily chats at Schnee Manor.

Despite their father's misgivings about both of his daughters joining the Atlesian military, he was far too busy trying to deal with the cunning business tactics of the Thornhill siblings. When he found out that Weiss was able to procure an odd friendship with one of them, he was just grateful for anything resembling an advantage.

"Yes Penny?" Weiss replied.

"So I've begun doing research into semblances. Historically, there have been many different kinds of semblances, many random, others seemingly related to one's identity in a tangential way. It's actually a very fascinating read, especially for something published over sixty years ago—"

"Penny, please get to the point. Or at least summarize," Winter interrupted.

"Can I please take blood samples from both of you? I want to study your semblance and how it is hereditary. There are cases in history of people able to control or influence Grimm, and I wanted to see if it was possible to replicate," Penny explained.

"Why would you want to control Grimm?" Weiss asked.

"And why do you think our semblance is related to that?" Winter added, offended by the insinuation.

"There have been many theories about the origins of semblances. Many believed it to be a reflection of one's soul, but the existence of hereditary semblances have put those theories in jeopardy. I have begun doing some research myself, and I have one possible theory," Penny continued, "Semblances are derived from pure information."

"What?" Winter asked dumbfoundedly.

"Think about it, semblances are a direct result of aura, and considering that I have aura, despite being made entirely of information with no physical body and can move from computer to computer, it stands to reason that semblances might have some foundation in DNA.

"It could be that semblances are random, but everyone has one, and that genetics allows the creation of one, but doesn't specify what it is. Currently, I have theorized that the Schnee family semblance is caused by a mutation in a gene somewhere, locking you into a set of abilities. Possibly involving the transfer of aura during conception. Anyways, can I get some blood? Hair pulled from your head is fine too."

Winter and Weiss looked at each other for a moment. Eventually, Winter spoke, "And you will keep the information private?"

"Yes ma'am, I swear on my doctorate in medicine!" Penny declared, "By the way, I'm now a licensed physician."

Winter blinked, "Very well."

"Yay science!"


On the other side of the kingdom, Penny's father high-fived an Atlesian Knight.


Day 68

"Now before we plan anything definitive, let me tell you what you're in for," Arthur began, speaking over a scroll.

"First, we're going to put you under. Since you have unlocked aura, we would have to put you inside of an aura dampening field. It wouldn't negate it completely, but it should be enough so that we don't have to resort to more drastic measures. Once we are able to sedate you through a combination of aerosolized and intravenous anesthetics, we can begin the actual operation.

"We will open up your wound to reveal your nerve endings. Once we do so, I and another surgeon will use a microscope to connect your nerve endings to the prosthetic. While that happens, the prosthetic will be clamped onto your right arm. It will be a cylinder the same diameter of limb, and will be used to connect the actual robotic limb the week after.

"Once we are done, you will be woken up. We have to test your nerve endings to make sure they are all connected properly, and doing so requires you to be conscious and without painkillers. It will be excruciating, as bad or even worse than when you lost your arm. The part where you're asleep will take four hours. The part after will take three. If we're good the first time, the surgery will be eight to ten hours long. If we have to reconnect the nerves, it'll be closer to twenty. Any questions?"

Across the ocean on the island of Patch, Yang held the scroll numbly. She took a deep breath before Penny chimed in, "I'll be helping father throughout the process, so the probability of needing reconnection is only 8.3%."

"I won't actually be needing your help, Penny," the surgeon added.

"Father, I love you, but you're pushing sixty-nine. You have to face facts: you're getting old. Your eyesight has gone down by almost 8% in the last two years alone."

"Bah, I still have a lot of life left in me, and contacts were invented for this very reason! Don't listen to her Yang, Penny's always accentuated the negative. Don't know where she gets it from."

"When you see probabilities like I do, it's better to prepare."

"I swear, she's only gotten worse since we plugged her into the CCT. I blame the media."

The two geniuses continued talking for almost a minute while Yang mulled over her decision. Eventually when the father-daughter duo reached a brief pause, Yang cleared her throat.

"I'll do it. Sign me up."

"Sensational!" Penny exclaimed, "Now we can talk about the cool stuff!"

"Cool stuff?"

"Customizing one's robot arm is very important," the scientist said, "Penny sent over the specifications for Ember Celica, as well as the blueprints for your arm. I've already tweaked the designs so that in addition to the twelve shotgun rounds, your arm will have a miniature gatling gun between your wrist and elbow. If you want, I can add either a flamethrower or taser as well."

"Wait, you can fit a shotgun, gatling gun, and a flamethrower into one arm? What else is going to be in there?" Yang asked, almost incredulously.

"Well the weapons will be detachable of course. The gatling will surround your forearm while the shotgun takes a position similar to Ember Celica. The flamethrower will be connected to your upper arm," the inventor explained.

"I guess I'll take the flamethrower then. I, uh, hope I'm not being ungrateful, but why didn't you recommend a laser like Penny's swords?"

"It's perfectly fine to ask. I am doing this for my daughter's best friend's sister after all. No, the reason you can't have a laser is because it requires aura to power it. For an android, it's fine, but a human takes in massive amounts of kinetic energy just fighting, thus lowering one's aura to power a laser cannon is too unsafe."

"What about dust?"

"Young lady, do you have any idea how much energy it takes to create a laser that can pierce through an entire Bullhead? Using dust would just deplete the arm's power source. By the way, with the current design, you would need to replenish its dust reserves every four or five days to keep it working, less if you fight often."

"Why would you even decide to build a weapon that drained aura? Isn't that kind of counter-intuitive?"

Arthur shrugged his shoulders, "It was mostly to prove a concept at the time. It was a theory that came around thirty years ago, but considering the ethical issues that came up, no one's officially tested it. The only reason I ever built her to use her aura was because an AI is really hard to destroy anyways."

Penny interrupted, "You know how aura heals wounds? That doesn't work on machine parts, so the aura I used to power my body was roughly equivalent to a human's normal aura usage during battle. What really drains me is the lasers."

"Wait a minute, you can't heal with aura? Isn't that like really dangerous? I know people who've healed gunshot wounds during battle. If Penny can't do that, then…"

"Actually, it comes down to aura manipulation. If I concentrate my aura in certain places, I can deflect most attacks very well. In addition, my old body was bulletproof before aura was factored in."

Penny's father added, "Considering the world we live in and everything that's happened, it wasn't enough."

All three conversants stopped for a moment before Penny spoke again, "Which is why the next android body I have will be even better. I've been working on designs for a while now, and I'm sure it won't fail again."

The man chuckled softly, "That's what I said about AH-003."

"To be fair, the circumstances for my last body's destruction were incredibly idiosyncratic. Cinder Fall had to use extremely specific circumstances to destroy me."

"And since you survived, you can that Cinder's plan fell apart. Eh?" Yang joked.

She swore Penny was making cricket sounds on purpose.

"Two out of five stars. Sounded forced," Penny critiqued.

"I think it's closer to three," Penny's father chipped in, "Decent effort."

"Two-and-a-half stars then," Penny announced.

"Everyone's a critic."


"Hi! How ya doing?" a high pitched voice could be heard just outside of Adam's cell. The masked man peered outside, only to see what appeared to be a child.

"Who are you?" Adam asked. He couldn't make out any features from so far away, but from what he could see, it was a little girl in dress. She was short, maybe four feet tall.

The strange girl came up close to the front panel of his cell, revealing to Adam a wide smile and polished skin so smooth it shined. It was not a girl, it was a thing. Something made to emulate a girl, that got some things right, but others so utterly wrong. The large glass eyes, the smile that didn't change, it wasn't normal. It wasn't right.

Just looking at it nauseated him. He turned away and snarled, "What the hell are you?"

"It's me Penny!" the thing replied before pulling up its hand over its mouth, "If you can get used to me in my creepiest body, you'll be able to get along with 84% of the human population."

Adam shook his head furiously, "This is making me hate you even more."

"Hey, I hate this as much as you do, but I'm willing to make sacrifices. I need to take a few steps back to move forward. Humans aren't that terrible. Look at me—well, don't look, but think about it. From many years of emulating humanity, I've learned quite a few things from them. One of those big things is that looks matter."

She stepped off to the side, away from the front of the cell, "They have weaker senses of hearing and smell than faunus comparatively, and lack good night vision, but they make that up with their powerful color vision. Their other senses are muted compared to yours, so they tend to focus more on visual aspects. How a person dresses, their manner of walking, gesturing, and the way they look.

"They look at a faunus and think: 'Oh, this guy has an extra set of ears. He's different.' Or 'She has a tail, she's not like me.' I don't claim to know how the discrimination between humans and faunus began, but I think that's one way it could have started. It's funny, because other than how you guys look and your ability to see at night, there really isn't much difference between your two groups."

Adam frowned.

"From a biological standpoint, you're not separate species, despite what most people believe. A species is defined as a population of individuals that are similar to each other and can interbreed with one another. At most, you're barely separate subspecies. It took the best virologists and geneticists on Remnant to create a virus that would only target humans, and even then, there was still a somewhat high chance of it infecting faunus.

"It was a feat of bioengineering. The scientists the White Fang employed were among the brightest in the world, some of them raised by the White Fang, and taught in the schools provided and advocated for by Mr. Egret."

He stayed silent.

"You remember, don't you? Before the White Fang became the militant anti-human group that invaded Vale, they were a peaceful organization that promoted faunus rights and education. They were a group for the betterment of society, improving what already was, instead of tearing down the current state and rebuilding.

"Humans and faunus are one and the same, Homo sapiens, meaning 'wise man'. Through their resourcefulness and unity, mankind was able to carve out its own sanctuary, a civilization, in world under constant siege by the forces of Grimm. They discovered the powers of dust, and pushed back the darkness. They lit up the world around them, discovering and inventing great instruments to further progress life.

"Mankind has forgotten a lot over the centuries, despite their eagerness to weave fantastic tales about the greatest heroes of times gone past. When mankind works together, unified through shared goals, they can forge a better Remnant. They become stronger, smarter, and better people."

The panel opened again, and Penny walked in. Adam didn't comment.

"But when they are divided, begin fighting one another as they lose trust and hope, they lose their power. That's the problem with the White Fang. Something is lurking underneath recent history, something foul that's caused all of this division. Remnant is in trouble because of it.

"That's why I'm here, why I was created. To find out the best way to save the world, and do it. I've observed mankind for a while now, and I've come to understand what makes you all so incredible," Penny stepped closer.

"It's not your strength, aura, semblances, or intelligence. That's only a small fraction of it. A single person can only do so much. You have to eat, drink, and rest every day. Clothe yourselves, protect against the environment and Grimm. A single person rarely gets by. No, the most important thing that has allowed mankind to flourish is teamwork.

"You know as much as I do how important it is. It was one of the foundations of your previous organization: Activism through cooperation, unity through hardship, solidarity against oppression. Knowledge is power, but the knowledge of a group is almost alway better than that of one. Diversity leads to strength.

"It is the same principle taught in all of the huntsman academies. Sure, there will always be disagreements, fights, and violence, but mankind shines brightest when you're all working together.

"And maybe one day, you can return to that state," she finished. Adam stayed still, deep in thought. The android sat down on the opposite side of his bed. Adam didn't tell her to leave.


Day 75

Yang took a deep breath. In and out. She looked at the door in front of her, leading into the operating room. She was dressed in a surgical gown, her right arm covered in a sterile bag. She was waiting for all the surgeons and nurses to arrive as well as her well-wishers.

Weiss was there, trying keeping her company and at ease by reading out loud study materials currently being taught at Atlas Academy. Yang was barely listening, just nodding and agreeing whenever prompted.

Three weeks ago, Blake left the two of them at Penny's urgent request, stating something about a biological weapon of some kind. They kept in touch over scroll, however, and sometimes it took both Ruby and Penny to force the black haired girl to talk daily. Something about Penny writing a book and Blake being her editor.


"Penny, this is pure trash," Blake declared.

"I understand."

"That being said, I love it."

"... I may understand people's desires, but I don't think I will ever understand people."

Blake shrugged, "Just make sure to keep writing. You have real talent."


Yang shook her head. She definitely did not want to know about Penny's literature. To think Ruby could be friends with those two. Yang shuddered.

Weiss stopped reading and closed her book, "Are you okay Yang?"

"It's nothing. Just thinking about Ruby and Blake," Yang laid back on the bench the two were sitting on. They had been waiting for almost an hour now.

"I'm sure they'll be here on time. After all, if a supercomputer can do anything, it would be keeping accurate time measurements," Weiss opened her book again and continued reading aloud.

At the same time, Taiyang arrived back, bringing bottles of water and some sandwiches with him, "Sorry girls, but this was all they had."

He held out a sandwich to Weiss, who politely declined. Yang wasn't supposed to eat before her surgery. Taiyang sat down next to Yang, and took a bite out of his turkey sandwich. For the next few minutes, they remained silent, Weiss reading, Taiyang eating, and Yang contemplating.

It was peaceful. Serene even. For eight minutes, it was as if the world itself had relaxed.

But the ninth minute of calm was instantly broken as the hospital doors burst open and a loud singsong voice could be heard, "Yang, we're here~!"

Nora Valkyrie, along with Ren, Jaune, Ruby, and Blake had entered the scene.


The reunion was dampened by Weiss, who reminded everyone that they were in a hospital, filled with patients undergoing large amounts of stress. So quiet cheers of joy were made, along with quite a bit of hugging.

"Sooo," Nora asked after quietly bouncing, "What kind of cyborg will you be? An awesome one?"

"Hopefully," Yang said, "I am getting a flamethrower, though. That'll be fun."

"We hope you remain well, and that your recovery is swift," Ren stated.

Yang just smiled. A second later, the hospital doors opened again, revealing Arthur, a strange Atlesian android, and two nurses. They were pushing a gurney down the hall. The android was white and blue, with longer arms than normal and eight fingers on each hand.

"Salutations, everybody! Let's get this surgery started right away, the operating room is booked for the rest of the week, and we don't want to leave anyone waiting!" Penny's voice came out of the android, "Yang, sit down and relax, we've got this."

As Yang got onto the gurney, Ruby grabbed her sister's left arm, "Wait! There's something I have to tell to you!"

"Don't worry Rubes, you can say it after I get a cool robot arm," Yang patted her on the head and kissed her forehead, "See ya guys on the other side."

Yang laid down, and the surgeons entered the operating room.


Day 77

Fifteen hours past, and Yang woke up in a hospital bed. She slowly turned her head around to see Ruby dozing off in a nearby chair. Yang smiled as she looked down at her arm, seeing the cylindrical neural connector covering her stump.

Yang blinked and yawned before calling out, "Ruby? Ruby, wake up."

Ruby snorted before jerking awake, "Huh? Wha, Yang, you're up!" she jumped out of her chair and hugged her sister, "We were so worried, but Penny's dad said you were fine but I was still worried and everything."

"Shhh, it's alright,"Yang wrapped her left arm around Ruby and comforted her, "We're all together now. Everything's going to be fine."

Her sister didn't say anything. She just kept on hugging.

Eventually, the two sisters separated from each other. Yang, who was now fully awake despite the painkillers numbing most of her feeling, asked, "So what did you want to tell me? It's gotta be important that you didn't say it over the scroll."

Ruby took a deep breath. She could do this. She was ready. She had practiced this with Penny after all, "I'm staying in Mistral. With Jaune and the others, to attend Haven."

Yang sighed as she looked at Ruby in the eye, "I thought so."

Her little sister continued, "They need me, you know. Jaune's still broken up after, after Pyrrha, it's just hidden underneath. Nora and Ren are doing fine, but they've pulled inwards. They need someone to keep them all together. I mean, we've visited like three bars along our journey."

Yang gripped her sheets, "What."

"I didn't drink any alcohol or anything, Yang. Ren made sure of it. It was mostly Nora and Jaune."

"Now this I have to hear," Yang smirked, "Tell me, is Vomit Boy an angry drunk? That would be hilarious."

"He cries a lot," Ruby stated bluntly. Yang winced at that.

"And okay, I say they're fine, but Ren is brooding more, and Nora's gotten reckless. More reckless, I mean," Ruby said.

"And they need you," Yang finished.

"Yeah, and I need them," Ruby smiled softly. Her hand reached out to Yang's.

Yang sighed, "Okay, but you're telling dad, not me."

"No way! There's no way he won't try to bring me back home!"

"Well I'm not doing it!"

"Neither am I!"

Yang remembered something, "Hey Penny, can you do us a favor?"

"Nope. You two are on your own," Penny's voice called out.

"Come on, we fellow amputees have to stick together!" Yang pleaded.

"Please Penny? Aren't I your first and best friend?" Ruby began showing puppy-dog eyes and curling her lower lip.

"I could delegate it to someone else," Penny relented.

"Oh thank you so much!"


Winter was reviewing mission reports sent to her from a Northern Lights team when Penny chimed in.

"Yes Penny?" Winter answered her scroll.

"Sooo, I need to ask you for a favor…"


Day 85

"We are live from Atlas News Headquarters in Eastern Atlas, with a scroll interview with the newest tidal wave in business, the CEO of Thornhill Industries, Ernest Thornhill!" the voice was of a woman, an anchor at the network named Iris Vesper.

She had purple hair and wore a blue dress, and spoke into a microphone while wearing bulky headphones, "Mr. Thornhill, along with his younger brother, Stephen, has garnered a net worth of over 150 million Lien in the past two months, an unprecedented achievement. Thank you for joining us today, Mr. Thornhill."

"It is a pleasure to be here, Iris. I am so sorry neither me nor Stephen could join in person, but a pressing issue at one of our factories necessitated immediate oversight."

"Not a problem sir, we are glad that you are here at all. This is the first interview with you after your expansion into the market. With your momentous upturn in the Atlesian economy, we here at Atlas News have to ask: what motivates you?"

"Money and power, mostly. Better to have more money than less."

"Right. But what else drove you to become magnates in dust mining, electronics and military equipment manufacturing, as well as dairy production?"

"I just bought whatever was convenient at the time, whatever that would result in the most money being made."

"... How were you able to so accurately predict the market and make such great deals in such a short amount of time?"

"Goold old fashioned corporate espionage, shady back deals, insider trading, and a small dose of nepotism. Also I like to think I'm smarter than most people."

"Um, sir?"

"You do realize that was a joke? For the record, that was a joke. I have been advised by my attorney to clarify that I have not conducted corporate espionage, illegal deals or trading, nor do I have any unethical connections."

"... Yes, we got that. Now onto a different topic. Your organization had begun performing charitable acts within its first two weeks of operation. Care to elaborate as to why you would do so at such an early stage?"

"It was to better my public image. The more private citizens like me, the less likely they are to protest or attempt to kill me."

"And what is your stance on faunus labor?"

"I have a friend you see. She used to be a member of the White Fang, blew up a train once. She's against it, I'm 99.8% sure. Am I against it? Faunus are obsolete workers, and should be replaced with robots. Which is what I plan to do."

"Um. Okay. Sir, are you high?"

"No Iris, I am not. I am immune to all psychoactive ingredients and drugs, and cannot be killed in any case, for I am immortal."

"... … Sir, has anything you said today true, or are you just screwing with us?"

"I assure you, Ms. Vesper, I have never had sexual intercourse with anyone before."

"This interview is over."

"We still have a couple minutes before commercial. And yes, I did lie about some of what I said. Or maybe all of it. Or maybe none of it was a lie. Who knows."

"Why are you doing this?" Iris bemoaned.

"To increase your ratings and establish myself as a practical joker, of course."

"You're despicable."

"It's also to make you more likable as well, people tend to care for those at the butt of a joke."

The program ended, cutting to a commercial for Thornhill Dairy.


"And that, my dear sister, is how to stop a murder of a controversial news anchor, make my persona a likable person, and boost sales of my milk products, all in only five minutes," Penny proudly answered.

Winter stared at the screen for another minute. Eventually, she looked back down at the papers in her hand, which showed Iris Vesper being stalked by someone, as well as copies of death threats from multiple different sources. The stalker could be dealt with easily, but the death threats came from a multitude of groups, at least four of which were already planning to "neutralize" Iris Vesper, were still an issue.

Officially, Northern Lights would only deal with threats to a kingdom or the world, but neither Penny nor Winter were willing to allow innocent people to just die. Officially, Winter spent twelve hours a day at her desk, while Penny was busy focusing on the bigger picture.

In truth, they both had a lot more free time than either would admit. In fact, they were already done planning for the arrests of the ringleaders behind each death threat.

"Since when did I become your sister?" Winter took a sip from a glass of red wine.

"Since Weiss let me borrow you as long as I ask," Penny stated, "Sis."

"Very well. But don't you dare come to me for dating advice," Winter took another sip, "I will never become a part of your love life," she kept sipping.

"Can I help you with yours?"

Winter coughed up some wine. She steadied herself, slipping back into a stern look to give a nearby camera a glare, "No."

"Okay then," Penny sounded dejected.

"No subtly manipulating my actions and surroundings to achieve your matchmaking goals."

"Darn."

"No overt manipulation either. This includes influencing, talking, or communicating in any way without my express approval."

"Darnit." Well, she's not an administrator, so…

"I'll tell your father to make it a command, just to be sure."

"... Fine." Guess I'll just write another book.


/

[INITIATING PLAYBACK]

[MISTRAL_INSTITUTE_OF_TECHNOLOGY FEED ARCHIVES ACCESSED]

[TIME: 45 YEARS, 3 MONTHS AGO]

/

/


"Come on Harold, she's perfect for you," Arthur pleaded.

"It's a match made in heaven. It doesn't get any better than this," Nathan added.

"Guys, stop it," Harold hunched over his computer screen, typing away.

The two of them were on either side of Harold, looking over his shoulder. They were inside a computer lab, surrounded on all sides by rows of computers.

"She's as nice as you, which is saying something," Arthur started, "It's like talking to a ball of sweets."

"She's a huge fan of pre-war literature, just like you," Nathan added, "Even the same authors."

"Not to mention Third Era artwork, in addition to painting in that style."

Harold gave his would-be matchmakers with a stern look, "Just because two people share the same interests does not mean they should date."

"She's hot?" Nathan tried.

"She, uh, has a bird name theme, just like you do? Huh? Harold Wren?" Arthur attempted.

"We've somehow delved into the realm of horoscopes," Harold snarked. He saved his work and turned off the computer. He stood up and left the two behind. Before leaving, he shouted at them, "Tell her I am free next Saturday morning!"

Arthur and Nathan sat next to each other for a moment before Nathan spoke, "So who convinced him, you or me?"

"Let's just call it a draw. Point is, we got Harold a date with a huntress," Arthur responded.

"Where in the world did you find a huntress with an interest in pre-war literature?" Nathan asked.

Arthur laughed, "I was trying to save time, buying him a birthday present at a bookstore while testing out a new robot arm to reach the high shelves."

"It burst into flames?"

"It burst into flames. Luckily, there just happened to be a huntress in the same aisle with some ice dust. She helped me, I tried paying her back for the dust, she didn't accept, we talked, blah blah blah, I decided to set her up on a date with the one person with the exact same taste in literature."

"Well. Sounds like a brewing love triangle to me," Nathan sat back against the wall.

"God no. After my mind made the connection, I can only see her as a female heavily armed Harold. It's actually pretty disturbing."

Nathan paused for a moment before cursing, "Damnit, now I can't stop thinking it either."

Arthur looked at the ceiling, "So what do you think? Harold Wren and Jay Branwen, match made in heaven or doomed to awkward handshakes?"

"Both?" Nathan shrugged.


/

[TERMINATING PLAYBACK]

/


Day 90

Today was the first time in almost two months that Emerald Sustrai was able to go outside. Maximum security prison was definitely a hard life, but when the warden was dead set on becoming your friend, the cool breeze outside and wondrous display of nature wasn't actually very jarring.

Penny showed Emerald a few nature documentaries, several with recommendations from Penny's father. They were beautiful, and the outside world reflected that. They were in an Atlesian forest in late winter, where the ice had yet to start melting.

For most of her life, Emerald had spent her days trying to acquire her next meal or finding a place to sleep for the night. After joining Cinder, she spent her time running jobs for her, infiltrating this, killing that, scheming and plotting. But this was the first time Emerald just looked outside and watched.

After a while, she got bored and ate some seafood.


Day 91

"So you'll be a supersoldier?" Ruby asked.

"I guess. It must be insane to have produced Penny of all people," Yang said. She was currently attached to a practice arm made of foam and rubber. Because super powerful arms with guns attached is dangerous to give right after surgery.

"I'm sure it will be challenging and rigorous, but not as deadly as you make it sound," Weiss remarked.

"But in comics that's how it always works, a bunch of kids enter a top secret military program and come out ninjas with superpowers! Bam! Pow!" Ruby chopped the air a few times, "Besides, I'm sure Blake know what I'm talking about, right?"

Yang, Weiss, and Ruby turned to said catgirl, who was half-listening and half reading, "Hmm?" Blake looked up.

"You went to school with the White Fang, right? You had to have learned cool stuff there, and then you'll learn even cooler stuff in Atlas!" Ruby exclaimed.

Blake frowned, "I've told you before, it was like a normal school. We learned about normal things: math, science, history, literature…" Blake's eyes shifted towards her scroll.

"And ninja stuff!" Ruby added, "Where else did you learn your techniques from?"

Blake shifted slightly, "I trained with a faunus huntsman."

"Was he, maybe, teaching as part of the curriculum?" Ruby inquired.

"No. Back before the change, we were a very peaceful group. We mostly learned about ways to get better positions in society, like advanced degrees and professional trades."

"God, the White Fang sounded boring," Yang whined, "No wonder they changed."

"I was very happy with how they were before, but I think being a huntress is my calling," Blake said.

"What did you want to do before?" Yang asked.

"Political science. Or management, depending on how good I was organizing a rally."

Ruby giggled, "You never think ahead, Blake."

"I agree. If you ever planned your future out more than a week ahead, I would be shocked," Weiss added.

"You run into trouble all the time, and that's coming from me," Yang said, "And there is no way you would have lasted as a politician. You're too nice."

"Which is weird, because technically you were once a terrorist!" Penny added in. Everyone jumped in surprise.

"Penny, don't do that!" Ruby screeched.

"Sorry, but I just had to add that in."

"Penny, please tell me I've planned something out in my life," Blake pleaded, "Anything since I was a kid."

"Zero matches found. Sorry Blake, you have no sense of forward planning. That's why you're not a team leader," Penny pointed out, "Also, the program is like being homeschooled, but with the best teachers in the world. It's not that different. And no Ruby, there are no programs to create supersoldier ninjas. Too expensive."

"Are you sure?" Ruby asked.

"99.2% positive. Besides, aren't supersoldier ninjas just hunters that sneak around a lot?"

"Like Blake!" Ruby realized, "You're a ninja and you were a terrorist, and you have no sense of planning, making you easy to control! It makes sense!"

Blake rolled her eyes and decided to keep reading.


Day 96

"And you've gotten enough clean clothes before you can do laundry?"

"Yes dad."

"And you've found a place to get your scythe cleaned, and you know an adult to go to in case of trouble, right?"

"Yes dad, I have a list."

"And you have all your classes and books checked out?"

"Yes dad."

"Good. Now make sure you stay safe. No fighting criminals unless you're absolutely sure there's no one else to save them. Barring that, at least stay in view of a security camera," Taiyang looked behind him at the Atlesian Knight standing in the doorway.

"Yes dad, Penny'll take care of me."

"Good," Taiyang hugged Ruby one last time before she shot up, grabbed her scythe and bags, and zoomed out the door to the Bullhead waiting for her. Before the Bullhead left, Yang ran up and hugged Ruby as well.

Yang was still getting used to the new arm. It weighed the same as her old arm, but felt cold to the touch. It was painted black with gold highlights, and almost felt normal. It even had rudimentary sensations of touch at the fingers. It wasn't perfect, but it was really, really good, all things considered.

And to show it, the bear hug Yang gave Ruby was even tighter than any other she'd given before.

"Yang, please," Ruby wheezed out.

"Gonna miss you, Rubes. Stay safe," Yang said, "And have fun."

Ruby nodded as she boarded the Bullhead. Yang waved at Ruby as the Bullhead closed its doors and began taking off.


Day 115

Outside of Sol, a small village on the western edge of Anima, was a small communications tower. It was rarely used, primarily as a means of contacting Mistral in case of an emergency and for access to the CCT. In recent years however, it fell into disuse, due to an apparent lack of Grimm or criminal activity and local ambivalence to the use of advanced technology. And for a brief moment, the tower stirred to life.

Penny had been capturing data from the outskirts of Remnant after searching the major cities proved fruitless. The village of Sol, named after its founder who came from Vacuo after the Great War, was thriving despite everything. And to Penny, that was an anomaly. It wasn't a big colony, just a small place with only 138 people (four of whom were pregnant), 135 had locked auras. Of the remaining three, one was a retired huntsman, another was the local sheriff (she even wore a five pointed star as a badge), and the third was an elderly lady.

At least, that was what Penny assumed. That last person never showed up on any cameras, and rarely ever visited the village. There were occasional throwaway references to "Granny Gwen", an old woman who lived on the edge of the town, who was strong enough to lift a broken cart to a repairman. She was also described by some villagers as "living in a freaking magic garden".

Now, that in of itself wasn't anomalous. There were four instances across Remnant with similar descriptions, attributed to semblances. What tipped Penny off however, was that one instance of this person appearing in front of a scroll, for even the briefest of moments.

She had aura. A lot of it. Many times more than theoretically possible for a human.


/

[SUBJECT LOCATED: SPRING_MAIDEN]

/

[CONTACTING AUX_ADMIN]

[CONTACTING CONTROL]

/


/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/


/

Author's note: I will not be incorporating much from Volume 4, as I've written up the entire plot outline before the World of Remnant videos came out. That being said, considering the first two episodes shown, I will probably make minor references here and there, but nothing that will affect the plot. I will not be rewriting any previous chapters, other than for minor corrections.

Freaking chapter lengths, this chapter was so long I had to cut it in half. The Spring Maiden stuff was originally part of this chapter. Next chapter: The plot returns!

And now, something completely different:

/

Ernest Thornhill, PhD, MD, DDS, JD, DBA, DES was born to a single father through asexual reproduction. His father, Arthur Thornhill, was accused of treason in his home kingdom before fleeing the authorities with nothing but a briefcase full of classified military information and a million Lien. Ernest was born to Arthur in a top secret research facility with the help of his sarcastic cyborg buddy, and was ordered by said cyborg to save the world at the precocious age of two months.

Unable to do that, Ernest was killed by a living magnet undergoing hallucinations. Luckily, Ernest survived his death, and decided to return to school to pursue a doctorate in everything. He speaks fifteen languages, seven of which are dead, and has performed surgery at least once. He can stop a truck with his bare hands and is immune to all pathogens. He does not need to eat, drink, defecate, sleep or breathe. He can also fly.

With the help of his younger brother, who is similar to the above but also funnier, they founded a rising business worth millions in a matter of weeks. Since their involvement, dust prices are down, as well as food and transportation. Truly, Ernest Thornhill is a man of wonder, and may he continue to better our economy.

/

Penny's weapon in canon is so OP, it has to be powered on the soul of a forsaken child; it's the only reasonable explanation. The other possibility is that dust crystals smaller than a person can power a laser that can cut clean through several bullheads and power an advanced combat android at the same time. If that was true, dust miners would work like five hour days. There is no way energy demand would ever overtake supply in that case.

Unless you tried to invoke pure crystals or something, and that Penny is just using the best power source money can buy. But then that means that Penny can only work using a very specific power source, otherwise she's useless as she'll be unable to power her weapons. Which kind of goes against the logic of an android designed to save the world. It's like Superman, if his powers were derived only from pure, concentrated orchid leaves.

/

On the usage of aura to power Penny as perpetual motion: if aura followed conservation of energy, then either hunters ate literal tons of food (it looks like it in canon, but that seems to be stylistic and not intended to be serious. If it was true, their agriculture system would be ruined), or they perform some kind of internal nuclear reactions. Or they don't excrete food waste. Any of those reasons are just weird, so no conservation of energy. Which means that Penny, in addition to being an AI, is also a perpetual motion machine.

/

Based on Word of God (according to the RWBY wiki), faunus and humans can easily interbreed, and the rules for determining animal traits in offspring is so simplistic that it implies that the difference between a faunus with one trait and a human could possibly be decided by as little as one gene. Which is insane, as the ability to code the existence of extra ears or antlers in one single gene is probably impossible. Unless the genes for antler, ear, or tail growth is hidden somewhere in the genomes of every person, including humans, and that the gene that determined what trait you exhibited was only coded for the expression of the other genes.

Like say a gene that tells the body during development make antlers, using an antler gene present in everyone, but only expressed in people with the gene that says "make antlers". Humans simply have a variant of the gene that doesn't work. Sort of like how all men have the genes to have ovaries and breasts, but are not expressed in favor of male sexual characteristics.

Which actually makes sense from an evolutionary/mutation perspective, as the chances of mutating a gene that codes for a working protein into one that doesn't is much more likely than the reverse. It explains why there are more humans than faunus. That would mean that faunus aren't an offshoot of humanity, humans are an offshoot of faunus. Eons ago, proto-man were fighting off Grimm, and they all had cool see-in-the-night eyes and animal parts, but rogue mutations eventually led to some members of the population to have no night vision nor animal traits.

/

Tl;dr I shouldn't be trying to explain the nonsensical rules of this world, but it's just so much fun.

/

Fun fact: Thornhill Industries is not the only corporation Penny is running. She also has a publishing company, along with other conglomerates under different aliases. She self published Arctic Steel, a romance series between the no-nonsense cyborg colonel named Eiskalt Sterm and her cold but fiercely loyal subordinate Jason Steel. Love is in the frozen wind; they don't show it, but they do feel it. Edited by Snowflake Fella Fauna.

Book one: Icebreaker. Book two: Tin heart. Book three: Snowpiercer.

/

BOW

CHICKA

BOW

WOW.

/

Finally, a shout out to TheTrueOverlordBear, and his fanfic Wandering Weiss, which is about an AU where Weiss and Jaune are wandering performers. It's a good read, especially if you're a fan of alternate Jaunes, alternate universes, and/or White Knight shipping. Tit for tat, and all that.