Author's Note:

Here's chapter two. It's a bit shorter than the last one... but I feel its long enough.

So uh again I don't own RWBY and please follow and review.

Chapter Two: Mini Goddard

It had been close to 3 weeks since I had arrived in this world and been found by Ozpin and adopted by Miss Senior Goodwitch. During that time I had been working with controlling my aura through the use of special fulgurite containers filled with a mix of spent Dust and sand. I would focus my aura into it to activate the Dust in a display of light. Gilda would vary the purity of the mix so I could learn better control over my aura. Especially since I was apparently gifted with a prodigious amount of aura. I hadn't had much time to work on what Ozpin called a part of my "semblance." I was studying my basic alchemy book extensively, and whenever Ozpin showed up practiced it, away from prying eyes. But I had figured out what my actual semblance was. It seemed to work similarly to Fate style Structural Grasp magecraft.

I can essentially learn the structural composition and design of object by prolonged touch or concentration. I could also analyze that composition and learn how to increase its effectiveness which is badass as hell really. And in fact is the largest boon I've gotten so far, my Semblance was literally made for using Alchemy. I've also tested it out on a number of different objects including a water hose, which apparently works the same way as on earth. It's got a pintle injector and everything…well sprayer. I can also use the whole Reinforcement part of it, though in most cases it's just the usual aura enhancing of materials, with the exception of enhancing my senses.

Seeing from 4 km is pretty far out… and the way the semblance functions is fascinating. It works like a more magical ultrasonic flaw detector, a pulse of aura passing through whatever I'm analyzing. The entire blueprint seemingly downloaded into my mind, every little part that makes up the greater whole. Every flaw, every tiny imperfection became known to me. If someone had made it, I could even sense the history and memory of the creater or wielder. It would only work for most objects, but it wouldn't be anything more than sensing the residue of emotions, the love, and hard work put in a device or item.

A semblance that could help someone understand everything…I wonder what that says about me…

Anyway…

I've also figured out what all those drives are, surprisingly Remnant electronics are pretty similar to our own. Just about a decade ahead of what we have now, electronically at least. But still on the very cutting edge of technology, storing like 300 Terabytes per each 160 gram drive.

Which is just a…ridiculous amount of storage, and there are a lot of them. I'm 90% sure they used the same magic(alchemy…heh) Taiyang used to ship a dog in the mail along with the dog food…

Stop going on a tangent, I haven't opened any of them yet but I feel like I should. I just need a screen to use them, since these are actual hard drive and not just USBS. I also need a supply of Dust to power the drives…and I think Oz is working on it? I also found out my carbyne wall was more a mix of different allotropes that made it into armor. Otherwise the Grimm probably would have slashed through and mauled me.

I opened my eyes, no longer able to relax in my new room. Turns out Goodwitch grew up in Patch. The house we were in was pretty big, it could easily fit twice the number of people it does, though my room was pretty bland, having a white wall and a soft carpeted floor. I was currently wearing a black sweatshirt with gym shorts, since they were quite comfy.

I was being home schooled mostly because we were nearing the end of the semester and it was a little late. But I was eventually going to go once the year starts in November. That was going to go…just great.

Much of my time that wasn't spent getting my fitness and aura control up, or my free time which was usually spent scrolling through a scroll, was used to cram in some History lessons. For obvious reasons my knowledge of Remnant history was minimal. Though most of my difficulties in adapting didn't have to do with education or fitness but with more…social issues.

It was hard for me to mingle with the few kids I had met with the gulf in maturity, as well as their differing beliefs and norms. The only one I could really relate to was Glynda since we were far closer in mental age. She was…interesting to talk to. Glynda was almost certainly trying way too hard, the awkwardness practically rolled off of her. She kept trying to be the cool…fun older sister but it didn't click with her actual personality.

She was still doing it too….I was a little too shy to tell her to stop it. Her grins were so stiff and unnatural that I honestly thought she was going to shiv me in her sleep.

And here she comes now…

"Heeyy little sis…" I winced at the fake tone she was using, and prayed for the both of us. She was wearing a white blouse with black shorts, and I had enough. I couldn't god damn take it anymore! Weeks of getting interrupted and feeling awkward! I fucking hate that icky feeling, it makes my hands clammy, I bite my lips more! It just makes everything f-feel worse, makes me think about…a-about…

"S-Summer…?" I sagged as Glynda's expression changed, just feeling exhausted, and alone. She placed her hands on my shoulders as I felt tears well up again. I-I missed…

"H-Hey do you want to just talk?" I turned away from her but her hands held me in place. She gave me a grave look, and my lips quivered as my emotions…HEY!

I rubbed the spot on my forehead where she had flicked me with her right index finger. I glared at her, feeling a flicker of something at her worried look. She tapped her feet as she waited for me to speak.

"Okay sure why not?" I decided to just go with the flow. There was nothing I could do now to fix what had happened to me. I started to follow Glynda's gaze as she looked at a book I had been using for drawing, just something to distract. I was grateful that my skills had been transferred with my soul. She glanced at as if asking for permission and I nodded my permission. Her face softened as she paged through dozens of drawings and scribbles. Some of which had been arrays I was practicing with. She stopped at one drawing, and I drew closer since she wanted to ask me something. She pointed to a single simplified drawing of a gas-generator rocket and a staged combustion rocket that I remembered next to an Earth control array.

"They're just some diagrams…that's all." I felt like this was a bad idea, but I just needed someone to talk to about this kind of stuff. I wasn't really aiming for being an engineer, more something in the biological field. But that didn't mean I didn't find aerospace engineering…no engineering in general fascinating. I pretty much read whatever I could on any subject, though my expertise would only really be surface level. I knew some of the basics of how batteries work, a few of the components here and there of rockets and electric motors.

Like switched reluctance motors, aluminum or copper rotor induction motors…DC brushed motors etc. I had started memorizing some of the rough formulations of nitroglycerin and guncotton. How the properties of nanomaterials are nearly impossible to maintain at macromolecular levels. In fact my knowledge in all of that expanded massively…having read through the entirety of a Chemistry 101 textbook as well a Biology textbook, and an Engineering textbook. Every single one of them written in Russian. A nice refresher…and it made the headaches go away too…

"Hello…" I snapped out of my internal rant and decided to explain a bit about the drawings.

"Sorry…um those are designs for rockets." Glynda's eyes twinkled with curiosity and possibly even excitement. I could also see a wince though for reasons I already knew. Dust ceased to work outside of atmosphere for whatever god awful reason, maybe even literally if those god-brothers are still around.

"They're really cool…but Dust doesn't—.

"Work outside of atmosphere I know. Do these rockets look like they use Dust!" Oh crap Glynda is giving me a weird look…I messed up! But she only looks like she had more questions? She pointed to the drawings again.

"Um…you could use a different fuel for the engines…" She nodded along, a spark shining in her eyes. "It could use liquid oxygen with some form of hydrocarbon like methane or kerosene that you then combust and throw behind your rocket. But to throw your fuel and oxidizer at a high enough speed you need a Turbopump, like the pump on a centrifugal water pump." Her attention was now completely on me, and I felt sweat fall down. Thank god they still had water pumps…

"The turbine sucks in fuel and throws it to the side using centrifugal force."

"Centripetal…" I rolled my eyes at her nitpicky nature, not that she was wrong remembering that Centrifugal force isn't an actual real force.

"Right…so after that it's pushed through multiple slits and then collected by an outside tube that sends it the reaction chamber." I circled the chamber with red crayon for emphasis. "To power that turbine another smaller rocket engine…which can be powered a number of different ways. Though one way would be to use some of the fuel from the normal rocket."

I flushed as Glynda grabbed my cheeks with stars practically in her eyes. I grinned awkwardly as her face split into a wide smile of affection and awe.

"You're so…smart! I didn't expect it, but that's my fault for being so strange." I shrugged and she continued to babble an apology. Young Glynda was a surprisingly nervous little fella at this age. I knew looks were deceiving though, I had seen glimpses of her training and it was pretty frightening. Seeing a 14 year old lift a small truck with her goddamn mind is just amazing. I froze as the door creaked open, and I was forced to face a flabbergasted Gilda.

"Hello miss…" She schooled her expression and took a deep breath to calm her nerves I'm guessing. She lifted up her hand and I passed my notebook with some hesitance. She page through the book much like her daughter previously did. There was an unreadable expression on her face, while she looked through it. I wondered if I had done something wrong.

"This is…it's amazing." I rolled my eyes, I might know the very basics of this but I'm no rocket scientist. People from NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin have forgotten more than I've ever learned in my entire life. It did make me wonder how those experiments with Dust rockets worked out. Did they use Fire Dust in some kind of single staged solid-fuel rocket? I wonder if they ever tried just injecting aura in to them? I need to pay attention…stop getting stuck in your own head.

"Meh…" I shrugged, and my guardian started eyeing the carefully stored set of drives with a hint of ambition.

"Still…this is surprisingly simple."

I wouldn't say that, it takes a massive amount of infrastructure and money available only to the largest and richest Kingdoms like Atlas and Vale. And in our case it's only been in the last ten(20?) years back back home that more advanced and less expensive rockets have started being developed. You have the LOX-RP-1 burning gas-generator Merlin with one of the highest thrust to weight ratio rocket engines ever. It's successor in the full flow staged combustion LCH4/LOX engines. You have Blue Origins BE-3 and BE-4 going on, and you have the…SLS.

"What's with that sour look on your face?" Glynda sounded confused and I didn't answer. 20 billion dollars of taxpayer money for a rocket that may or not ever launch more than a few times. SpaceX and Blue Origin have a better chance of having their rocket be used more than twice a year, and that's sad. All that money and time on a rocket that could be used on either designing a new rocket, or on greater amounts of rover and probe missions throughout the solar system.

"Well at least you're being more open…but perhaps we should find out what is in those drives? A little girl couldn't have learned all of they information on their own." She looked worried and retrieved a Scroll, though it didn't looked as advanced as RWBY's models, which made sense this was nearly 30 years before then. Gilda looked a little sheepish and my eyebrows rose up, waiting for her to reply. She sighed with exasperation, and pointed to a certain wizards number:

"We have to call Ozpin."

In only a week Ozpin had managed to set up an entire server rack using the mysterious drives, plus an untold number of others from the old house He also added a Lightning Dust based power source to turn them on, and acquired a single screen to view whatever was on it. Gilda was currently teaching a class back at Signal and I was left alone with the old man. I even got to eat a good meal with some scrambled eggs and ham I had cooked. My basic cooking skills were something I had kept thank god, since Gilda was shit at cooking. But anything I couldn't cook Glynda did, and it was actually pretty good too. I mean really how the hell do you set a stove on fire when's it underwater?

I hesitantly grabbed the computer like screen and felt a little tingle as I activated my semblance. The screen was actually a fairly conventional LCD screen of all things, though I could sense the various Dust types interlaid through its metal.

"Young lady…you should know it's fine to act like yourself." I felt a twitch coming on at the knowing look on his smug face. I shook my head, getting sick of his all knowing act.

"Could you stop that you stupid w—wize guy!" He raised an eyebrows and I pitched the bridge of my nose, counting under my breath. There's no need to get angry at the annoying wizard. I awkwardly turned over to the computer and it made me wonder something…

"Where the hell did they get these computers in the middle of nowhere?"

"Perhaps they made them? They were alchemists, and very skilled ones at that." I frowned at the idea. I'm not sure that kind of stuff was actually possible, but then again this Alchemy doesn't really follow the exact same rules as FMA. This brand of alchemy is likely unique to this world, as well as whatever interconnected multiverse may exist. Heck in another more advanced book I swore I saw something about nuclear fusion and fission. It's also a little more flexible in the kind of symbols you can use. The only reason everything is so esoteric is to hide what the circles and arrays do.

The general purpose arrays are more interesting however, and my very comfortable gloves are a variant of such, but only much, much more advanced. Named the Universal Zero…something array, I swore I had seen it somewhere at least twice before. Somehow I could understand it's meaning well enough to use for almost anything…theoretically I mean. I've been limited to deconstruction and reconstruction for now. Though I did manage to make an explosion by creating various nitrogen compounds(nitroglycerin) from the air and then increasing the oxygen content. Also that time with the backyard pool…

It's pretty cool to see the equivalent of several tons of TNT explode in a fiery blast of death. Gilda was pissed though and I stored the gloves away of my own accord. I shouldn't have done something so incredibly stupid. Disassembling water into its basic components is not the best plan. I still wondered about how the hell Dust works, though I have some theories I want to check up on. I just need to do some experiments, have to figure out a procedure of some sort.

"Excuse me?" I flushed and turned to turn on the computer screen. I wasn't sure how well it would work but whatever. The screen slowly turned on, and I tilted my head at the resemblance to macOS. It was something intimately…familiar, and for a moment I could pretend that I was home. Instead of being killed, my soul dragged into another universe, and having certain…parts instead.

The server easily contained millions, maybe even tens of millions of files, most of them were also in Russian. A lot of them were basically just entire Encyclopedias about…Earth. Whatever they did to bring me here, they must have brought knowledge from my home too. It's almost entirely text and what looked like code? I think they downloaded the entire of GitHub, as well as a few other things too. It's unlikely I'll ever get or understand the entirety of this database. Ozpin looked fascinated, and it was honestly quite impressive. If it wasn't obtained through hurting or killing people, it would be a true marvel.

"Just realized you won't be able to read this…" Ozpin sounded disappointed, and I clicked through a number of files, until I stopped at one…an archived site about a 250 pound thrust kerosene LOX rocket, and someone who had designed a pintle injector. I tilted my head as I got a crazy idea, I wonder if I could build those rockets…myself. I could hold my aura up a lot more easily and a lot longer than before. If normal squishy humans could build rockets without blowing themselves up, then an aura user can surely do better. Ozpin gave me a dubious look…and I decided to use my ultimate weapon.

I gave him the saddest most pathetic look I could ever give him…I could see the sweat slowly pour down his face, as I made my lips wobble. Hey if you've been gifted with cuteness, you better well use it. He glanced away, and I knew I had achieved victory.

"I don't believe Gilda will have an issue with some experimenting…but she's going to be away on a mission, and I have my school to take care of."

I grinned as I already had a solution for that. Someone who I had been ignoring for a very long amount of time.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I nodded my head as an anxious Glynda followed my careful reading of what would be my new hobby. I had carefully and lovingly converted a book about how to design, build, and test small liquid fuel rockets into paper text. That's basically the little of the book, and I think dates back to the 60s. I was going with the 250 lb thrust engine from that website , but learning the various equations used for rocketry was important. And as to how we were building a potential cloud cutting rocket.

Gilda might be a terrible cook, buts she's a bit of an engineering freak. I hadn't bothered going in before, but there's a huge machine shop behind the house…full of dozens of machines.

Seriously Glynda's mom must be really bringing in the dough to have all of this stuff. I could see that they did have things like electric motors, and maybe hydraulics. I had over the next one to two days, spent as much time as possible to get the parts needed, as well as figure out how to use the machinery here. For the first rocket it was Glynda who was machining them out, since she had experience with them. This rocket needs a pretty wide range of tools to built it, things like arc welders, torches, various other kinds of machinery such as a lathe.

Which this place is full of, to my great enjoyment. But their torches use fire Dust instead of oxygen mixed with a gas, and they power the arc welders with Dust too. All the machines are dust enhanced as well…making them much stronger and longer lasting than normal materials, rather than the cheaper and weaker Dust smelted materials.

As to what that means…well for much of Remnant's history humanity used Burn dust to smelt ore down into various metals. While it was as if not more effective than coal or natural gas, the materials were weak in comparison to what they had now. Only aura would keep weapons forged with them, from shattering apart. However doing so cost extra aura to reinforce them, and made their homes too fragile to protect them from the Grimm or Huntsmen.

Until a brilliant faunus who's name has been nearly forgotten discovered Dust Alloying. The name isn't entirely accurate of course, but it's close enough in layman's terms. First they would melt the metal in the usual method and add tiny amounts of active Earth dust. The metal would become massively enhanced in several ways. One the metal's shape would become nearly atomically perfect, similar to monocrystalline whiskers, and that would include all the materials within the metal. So for example carbon steel would become a mix of various carbon allotropes and pure iron, similar to Covetic materials back on Earth. Early versions weren't much stronger than carbon fiber, but aura took care of that anyway.

The second addition was that they had the same effect as Aura has on materials, though not quite as strong. From what I can tell Aura isn't really a force field, otherwise we wouldn't be able to feel pain. And trust me I would know…

Aura functions more like a structural integrity field, our light reacting to an attack, and in the first split second holding onto our molecules. It would keep the intense forces we were exposed to, from ripping us into tiny splashes of red on the ground. That feature would be more than useful for building a liquid fueled rocket.

"So uh…how it's going?" I asked Glynda curiously as she input the the program into the somewhat crude CNC lathe. We could have made them with the manual ones, and at some point we will but…I wanted to make a couple.

We had also previously worked on the test stand using various leftovers from Gilda's own stuff. It had some Ice Dust based fire extinguishers and everything! I turned back to Glynda as she hummed contemplatively.

"Pretty well actually." She was now inputting what was needed for the injector and we waited. I gave her a pleading look…and she sighed.

Over the next few hours we worked on getting all the parts in. All the while Glynda was teaching me how to use the various machines, which was…nice. In the end we ended up making several combustion chambers and injector plates. Everything else wouldn't come in for a couple more days. I touched every chamber to check the structural integrity and nodded in satisfaction.

"Everything seems…undamaged here." The future witch opened her mouth to reply until a loud growl interrupted us. I grabbed my needy stomach, flushing as my embarrassment skyrocketed. Glynda grinned with a dab of amusement, and we left the shop, washing our hands and various other implements.

Within about 30 minutes Glynda had set up a nice soup, a mix of carrots, boiled potatoes, rice, and chicken. I sat on the large wooden chair, my legs nervously moving back and forth. I had watched curiously as she cooked it up, and slowly started to memorize the recipe in my head. I had the idea of trying to cook using an alchemical circle. It actually did seem to be possible but I would have to write some instructions to keep it right. Glynda frowned and swatted me with a spoon, I heard and felt the painful click of metal on my forehead.

OWW.

"Don't do that!" I snarled as my temper got the better of me. Glynda had a smug expression on her face, and I blew the hair out of my face.

I was still having a hard time with the long hair, I was used to my hair never ever reaching past my eyebrows. Glynda chuckled and gestured for me to come closer, I tentatively obliged, and she pulled out a hair clip. I decided to be polite and remained still as she grabbed my hair forming it into a ponytail.

"Better?" I nodded and grabbed a spoon, quirking a brow. She giggled and grabbed her own spoon, digging in to her food.

Her cooking is great as always, it's too bad she'll only be around for another two years. I thought she was 14, but she's actually 15 years old now meaning the time we have will be a little limited. I'm 11 year old, and we had found that out through finding an journal with my birth date.

October 17th, same as my birthday from Before. Both had tried to set up a birthdate once they found out, but I denied their efforts not feeling in the mood. They were…okay with it but I could tell they still wanted to help.

"Hmm…" I ate comfortablely, the soup warming my belly. I couldn't help but love Glynda's cooking and I was thinking of asking her how. I could already make a few things here and there but…well I think it would be nice.

"Umm…" I frowned at the serious expression on her face, and steepled my hands waiting for her to respond. She mulled it over in her head, until her look became determined. "You know…school is going to be starting pretty soon for you."

Oh right…that's going to be a thing. I sweat a bit at her guilt filled expression and I reassured her with some jazz hands. I have no idea why I think that would help but…well it doesn't matter too much.

"Um it's fine I'm okay." She looked relieved and I gave her a small smile as reassurance. I had been thinking about that for a while…school should be starting back up in November 6th I think? It's a pretty odd date to start school, but that's just how it is. That was about a week away, more than enough time to finish what we were doing here. The rocket engine should be done once we set everything up in three days. We'll do some tests since they've already gotten all my school supplies.

Wonder if this will become the basis of rocket lockers…using Dust of course, cryogenic liquids isn't the most reliable propellant for a flying locker. I huffed and turned back to face my…sister(?), caretaker?

Friend…I'll go with friend.

"So you're going to be alright going to a public school? I mean you really don't need it, with how advanced you are in your education but…" I nodded my head, I still need to get my History up, and eventually get my math beyond high school algebra. I remember taking English 114, and Algebra 60, as well as Political Science I believe?

I feel like I should look for some electives on Aerodynamics once I'm in middle school, but some further research has told me they're actually a little bit behind us on that curve. Not by much really, and it's only in the narrow field of supersonic and hypersonic craft. I wonder if I can take a more advanced course especially with how boring class will be, since I had to sit down to take an aptitude test yesterday and ended up getting excused from most of the classes I no longer need.

"If you're sure." I would have nodded again, but I was eating my food and nothing would get in my way. It too me another three minutes to finish off my soup, sipping the broth with it. I placed it down on the table once I was done.

Before I could say anything she grabbed my plate, diligently washing it in the sink. I curled my hands feeling like maybe I needed to help, but didn't say anything. Glynda was humming and I sensed that she was happy in some way. She turned her neck the slightest so she could catch my furious eye. Her neutral expression had shifted into a kind grin, and I fidgeted. I smiled anyway though, no reason not to.

"Thanks…" She tilted her head in confusion and my lips pulled up into a full on grin. "For…indulging me and just well…acting normal."

"You're welcome…"

I guess we should get back to teaching me then Miss Goodwitch. But first I want you to teach me…how to wash plates. Even if it's not necessary well…

Never mind…now let's get to it!

I giggled in excitement as we dug a small hole and flattened it, placing the concrete shield deflector in the right spot. Glynda also placed the test stand in the correct spot, practicing her Telekinesis. The test stand was quite large, and I placed my hands on my hips in pride at our achievement. Now the outside test stand was actually for later vertical testing, we were currently in the horizontal test phase. This would be for later use…moving on. We walked away, but not before placing a tent to protect them from the elements.

We turned our attention to a shed that contained the other test stand. There the engine was sitting attached to the load cell, with a blast shield there to protect us from shrapnel. It had taken us all day two days ago to set up the piping, test the electronics, yada yada yada…then we did a cold flow test, and then checked to see if there was any damage.

Now it was the next day…and it was ready for the hot fire test. Hopefully we won't get a hard start, don't want any unplanned disassembly going on here. I hid behind a computer, and my blonde friend pressed the button to begin. A loud rumbling roar began as the fuel and oxidizer mixed and were then lit by the igniter. A spark torch igniter in fact…

The air continued to vibrate, and I waited for something to go wrong…but after 15 seconds of noise and light, the test was successfully stopped. I grinned as I realized I had just built a rocket in a week. Glynda was grinning too, and I felt oddly happy.

I ended up pulling her into a hug… she stiffened but wrapped her arms around me after a few moments. My grin weakened since I knew we weren't done yet. While the engines weren't powered by Dust, everything else was. I needed an alternate power source, maybe a lithium ion battery for the electronics? I mean they've got capacitors, even if not quiet as good as batteries. Well they still get 100wh/kg so it's not half bad. But really the best…and probably quickest way would be to figure out a way to make Dust function outside of the atmosphere. But never mind all that, let's talk to Goodwitch.

"Heh thanks big sis!" Her eyes sparkled with happiness and even if I didn't quite consider herself that yet. I'm sure it wouldn't take long for me to really feel that way. She was really a good person…even without knowing what she would one day become, I could just feel it. I'm not some complete optimist, but I do like to think that humanity can do a little better.

"You're welcome…I was glad to help." She murmured gently and I felt a yawn come on. I didn't have the same endurance to stay awake like I used to as a child. I let out a yelp, as she picked me up dragging me to my room. I went limp, knowing there was nothing I could do to save myself.

I was doomed…

I was left alone in my room, and given a plain pair of pajamas. Luckily both my adoptive relatives understood that I wasn't into girly cute wear. So I got a simple blue pajama sweater with black pants. My socks were plain black too…

Now how was I going to do this? I lifted up my dirty shirt leaving it in a laundry pile for later cleaning. I didn't wear any undertop, but with how much the universe hates me I doubt it will last for long. I put it on, and then put on my pants after again changing.

"Stupid…reincarnation…dumb death…" I grumbled as I climbed into my cozy bed, snuggling into the warm furry wolf pelt style blanket. I was still a little shell shocked after all, and it was difficult to adjust to a body that so different from what I used to have.

Hopefully…everything would get better from here on out.