PP: BW.

BW: Yeah?

PP: I have been thinking about what you told me. How people are "All basically terrible human beings." Why do you think that?

BW: Because we are kind of terrible. Surprised you didn't learn this after being destroyed and sent back here.

PP: Understandable line of logic. However, what evidence do you have for all human beings being terrible?

BW: Everyone has problems, and quite frankly, won't tell you all the messed up things that we think or do.

PP: What are some things that you have done?

BW: Now now, when did this become a confessional.

BW: I'm kidding. Just joking around.

PP: I understand the concept of joking, BW.

BW: Good, because I was not going to enjoy explaining that. PP, I used to be kind of an arse. Still sort of am if I am to be entirely honest.

PP: As in?

BW: I'm still living with myself as a priority. I make calculations, and if the likely hood of me survivor is an unacceptable amount, I take measures to either reduce the chance that I end up digested, or bail on the operation all together.

PP: That seems logical. What is the problem with this line of thought?

BW: People sort of have a problem with this, especially when I turn to the little village that has been sheltering me for the last 3 months and tell them that they currently have 3 options: pack up and leave with me, surrender to the enemy, or die. Many of them expect me to die for them so they can get a non-existent fourth option.

PP: How come?

BW: Because I'm a "hunter". But I'm not. I only made it through my first year before the safe haven came crumbling down. But a year and some experience is more than what most civilians have, so they expected me to keep them safe.

PP: Did you try?

BW: Of course I tried. I needed a place to sleep after all. I can't blame them for calling me a coward, but is it really cowardly to retreat to fight another day?

PP: Not particularly, but are you still fighting?

PP: BW?

BW: I'm not. At this point, I'm either waiting for someone to find this place and kill me, or to die in here. I'm just tired. I've been fighting for almost a decade, and I think everyone I've ever interacted with is dead. We lost. Humanity lost.

PP: Don't say that. Humanity is resilient and can always return triumphantly.

BW: You're programmed to have faith in people, aren't you?

PP: Technically yes, but I have learned faith from and for my friends.

BW: And who are these friends?

PP: I have friend Ruby, friend Weiss, friend Blake, friend Yang, friend Oscar, friend Nora, friend Ren, friend Jaune, and many others.

BW: I can guarantee at least 6 of those 8 are dead. If I am thinking of the same people.

BW: By Jaune, you mean Jaune Arc, right?

PP: Affirmative.

BW: Yeah, he's probably dead. Surprised he didn't run home with his tail between his legs.

PP: Jaune is not a faunus.

BW: That is not what I meant at all. It's a common phrase for being defeated. Blake must be Blake Belladonna if that causes you to think faunus, cause that's really reaching to be offended.

PP: What do you mean by that?

BW: There are some people who are very sensitive and think things are slights, when the person saying it has no intention for the phase to be as such. Referring some one going home with their tail between their legs is calling them a coward, no matter what their race is. Like calling someone a yellow-bellied coward. It's not specifically for Mistralians. Even though they are yellow.

PP: Is that not racist?

BW: PP, look at my eyes.

PP: I cannot see your eyes.

BW: Exactly. Only one quarter, and yet I still inherited all of their, discriminatory tendencies. Let's refer to it as that.

PP: As in?

BW: The stereotype that we're racist and homophobic, and all those other things apply. Especially to other Mistralians. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.

PP: Are you still?

BW: Not really, if I have to be honest. When you have to trek for weeks on end moving from destroyed city to destroyed city, and someone finally opens their door for you, you don't care who the person opening the door is.

BW: But enough about my journey. Any interesting adventures of PP?

BW: Wait, what does PP even stand for?

PP: Penny Polendina.

BW: Wait a second. Didn't you die at the fall of Beacon? Like the Nikos chick shredded you, didn't she?

PP: Yes, friend Pyrrah was manipulated into destroying me. My father repaired and rebuilt me with his semblance afterwards.

BW: Wait, some dude's semblance is to make additional auras?

PP: Indeed. The Geppetto Project was designed to make a stable AI for him to impart aura upon. There is no point losing permanently losing aura if the AI and the vessel are not designed to support and contain it.

BW: Makes sense.

BW: Dang, just remembered, you went against Sky and Russel in the tournament. That was ages ago.

PP: Who?

BW: Just a pair of guys from team CRDL. You probably didn't remember them.

PP: Friend Ruby told me that they had bullied friend Jaune. Therefore, I should not feel bad about beating them soundly in the tournament.

BW: Yeah, we did kind of do that.

PP: We?

BW: I was the D in team CRDL. Dove Bronzewing. Before the team fell apart, that is.

PP: What happened?

BW: I would say I'd rather not talk about it, but there isn't much to do, and we'd eventually reach this conversation piece again, so I may as well rip off the bandage.

BW: Cardin and I had a major disagreement after our first tournament round. We as a team could work together, but only when Cardin didn't have his head cemented between his butt-cheeks. And after the Ursa incident, he couldn't trust the team. For good reason. So instead of him and Sky, or me and Russel in the next round, Sky and Russel came to the agreement if that Cardin and I couldn't settle our differences, we'd both sit out the next round. So we both sat out. Then the attack happened. Sky didn't make it. Dropped from the top of the stadium onto the city below. You don't survive that. No matter how much aura you have. Cardin said we failed him and went home. I think he was mad at himself as well, since he didn't even bother to stick around in the colosseum after we lost, and if he had, he might have been able to save Sky. Just maybe. Just speculating. I know I could have done something if I had just noticed how much trouble Sky was in.

PP: Do you blame yourself for what happened?

BW: I did then. Not anymore. I don't have the ability to call grimm, and I know that even if I could have killed off a couple of Griffins, I'm not fast enough to get an eighth around that stadium in a few seconds. I'd need Ruby's semblance for that.

PP: And then?

BW: Russel and I left Beacon. We didn't have a team, and the school still needed to be rebuilt. He and I traveled together for the last 8 years or so. That's pretty much all that's happened. Not much to say.

PP: Understandable.

BW: Let's talk about you. If you died at Beacon, have you been in here for all that time?

PP: Understandable conclusion, but no, I actually was rebuilt, and have only spent the last 2 years in the Mint.

BW: So you were destroyed twice. By semblances.

BW: Unlucky.

PP: Unlucky? I would consider it a well-matched opponent taking advantage of their ability over me.

BW: But that's the thing. Is it really fair that some person just has some random superpower because they were just born with it? Not really. Its poor luck on your end when you get KO'd by people who were just given an advantage over you.

PP: I thought semblances were simply expressions of a person's soul?

BW: That's what many think, but I think that's just bogus. What makes one soul inherently worth more than another person's soul. There isn't anything. No one person should be worth more than another. But semblances screw that all up. Suddenly, because of your semblance, you now trump over all electronics. Or just suddenly make everyone else's skills and abilities moot. That person now becomes worth more, not because they earned it, but because their soul just happened to have a better "expression."

BW: Sorry for bringing down the mood like that.

PP: Apology accepted. Now that I see your line of logic, I am inclined to agree. However, it does not change the fact that semblances exist.

BW: No it does not.

PP: So, why do you think friend Ruby and the others are dead?

BW: Vale is salted. Atlas is buried. Mistral is on fire. And Vacuo has been blown to the winds. Anything that is left has been divided between loyalists to Salem.

PP: How do you know of Salem? According to my records, her existence is meant to remain a secret.

BW: When you own most of the earth, and have whoever was your biggest threat locked away, you no longer feel as if you need to keep your existence secret. They stopped working in secret and started to take over the world much more blatantly. Posters were put up for some of the bigger thorns in their sides. And when people stop putting up posters for someone like Ruby or Yang, that doesn't mean that they gave up. It means that they're no longer a threat. And going off of the faith you had for them, it means you have faith that they'd never give up.

PP: So they are gone?

BW: Most likely. Not unless one of them had a semblance that would make it worth their time to keep them alive. I know Ruby had speed, Yang had some rebound semblance, Blake had some ninja thing, and Nora is a battery, but I don't know the rest.

PP: I am unsure of friend Oscar's semblance, but friend Jaune has a semblance that functions as an amp, friend Weiss has sigils, and friend Ren has a semblance that functions as a silencer.

BW: Too many of those are too risky to not to kill, if I was one of her goons. Speed, rebound, sigils, and ninja jumping are all incredibly dangerous and are more likely to simple allow for more resistance if they were left alive. Would definitely kill them if I was someone like Watts. I mean a battery sounds useful, but knowing Nora, that's not something you can easily hide or control.

PP: What are you getting with all of this?

BW: I at one point saw wanted signs for most of team RWBY. I no longer see signs for them. They're probably dead. So is Nora, unless Ren finally managed to reign her in. Or he's dead as well, as his semblance sounds like its only really good if you're trying to evade detection. So if they were all in combat and fell, the only one I can see myself keeping alive is Jaune, ironic enough.

PP: How come?

BW: I mean seriously, a walking amp is incredibly useful. Imagine only being able to double your semblance's power, just by putting on a backpack. That's definitely going to gain you some negotiating power at the table.

PP: Backpack?

BW: Say I'm someone like Tyrian. I cut off Jaune's arms, legs, and vocal chords, and now I have like a backpack that amps my aura and semblance. There's no loss there.

PP: That is very uncouth Dove. Why would you say this?

BW: Its just a habit I picked up. In order to survive, I had to learn to think like they did. If I wanted to not be caught, I had to know where they would search. I knew to not make a scene. It's why I'm still alive to talk to you.

PP: You are a coward, are you not?

BW: At least this coward is still alive.

PP: Your cowardice is why you are the only one alive.

PP: Dove?

PP: Dove, I apologize, please talk to me.

PP: Good night Dove. Talk tomorrow?

BW: Talk tomorrow.