Chapter 35: Second Interlude - Penny Polendina

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Second Interlude - Penny Polendina

She closed her eyes and listened, the sense going far beyond the limits of a human being as she shifted her internal workings. She knew she shouldn't, but…she had to.

"How could you let this happen!?" She heard her father rage, even far away as he was. "I told you she wasn't ready! She could have died—"

"Enough, Polendina," The General interrupted, voice tight. "I am well aware of the error on my part but it was an emergency. She was the only person available for the job that we thought might actually be successful and it was not something that could be left alone. I sent the best person I could with all the resources I had available and hoped it would be enough—it wasn't but you know full well I had no possible way of knowing that. What would you have had me done?"

"Go yourself!" Her father said. "Rearrange your forces, send someone more experienced! Anything but send my daughter into harm's way!"

"She is my daughter, too!" She heard a hand slam against a desk, perhaps the general rising. "Don't you dare speak to me like I wanted this, like this was easy! But I know her! And I told her everything I knew! I told her about the situation, the dangers, the risks, and gave her the choice to make for herself! It would have taken too long any other way!"

"She's just a child," Dr. Polendina returned.

"She is a Huntress," Ironwood stated. "The only Huntress we had available!"

"She is not a Huntress," Polendina snarled back. "Not yet. And she was only available because she wasn't ready to fight! If this clusterfuck is proof of anything it's that!"

It occurred to her that this may have been the first time she'd ever heard her father swear. And considering why he was swearing…

She curled slightly into herself, touching the damage on her arms, her legs. The signs that proved what her father had said—that she had been defeated.

That she wasn't good enough.

"If that's what you think after seeing Penny's fight, you are a fool!" Ironwood returned sounding just as angry, startling her. "She fought with everything she had, with the strength and will of any Huntress—that she was defeated speaks only of the strength of her opponent, not of her weakness. She has the character, will, and heart I'd want in any Hunter."

"Heart? There's more to victory than heart! We've always known that Penny had a heart worth of anyone—but heart didn't keep her limbs attached, Ironwood! I told you it would be years before all her combat systems were complete!"

"Then complete them," Ironwood said, calming suddenly. "She came home safely, Polendina, and she tested her strength, will, and mind. She learnt more from this one fight then the last three hundred simulations and improved herself with tremendous speed. That she was defeated speaks only of the inadequacy of the tools with which she was provided."

"You son of a bitch. You have the gall to blame me for this?"

"No," The General answered, remaining calm. "The fault is just as much my own—we've all failed to make a body that can keep pace with the life we've created. But remember, that is the only reason she lost. Don't shift the blame onto her for not being able to win."

She could all but hear her father seething.

"I don't," He said after a minute, sounding a little bit more controlled. "I know that this was not Penny's fault. She is…has always been perfect. I would never blame her for not winning. But I blame you for sending her into a fight she couldn't win."

"As do I," Ironwood said quietly. "It won't happen again. Because of the recording of her battle—what parts of it I shared, at least—we've already received significantly more funding for the project, especially from the Schnee Dust Company. You should have all you need to finish your work and ensure that next time, she'll return safely."

"Schnee," Her father must have sneered, focusing on a part of the statement. "He's the cause of all this. I've told you before—"

"And I've told you before," Ironwood cut off. "That things are more complicated than that. The economics of the situation—"

"I know the economics of the situation!" Her father interrupted in turn. "And all knowing has done is make me more cynical!"

"Yes, well. Economics will do that from time to time," The General tried to jest before sighing at something. "But you should know full well why I can't just snap my fingers and make all the socioeconomic problems in the world go away! As horrible as it is, it's not something that can just be done away with—and the SDC is not even close to the only group involved in this matter. Even if I could make it so that every Faunus miner was paid as befits their labor, that wouldn't make things better. The company's profits will plummet and a basic cost/benefit analysis will result in most of them being laid off and they'll be shoved into the streets again, where they'll either be forced to work for a competing company or into an even more reprehensible situation. I do what I can."

"And I'm sure that comes as a great comfort to the children who live in bondage and watch their parents die in mining accidents."

"It must be at least as comforting as it is for the children who watch their parents forced into whorehouses and servitude to try to get by, knowing they'd grow up to do the same. Both options are horrible but I'm sorry, I just can't wave my magic wand and make hundreds of years of problems go away! They're in a horrible situation that breeds from a horrible environment and that's not something quickly changed, especially amidst other problems, and the only quick cures would be worse than the disease! Tell me, Polendina, what would you have me do to fix it? Would you like me to overthrow the Council and reign as a Tyrant, making everyone obey my demands? Do you think it will make things better if I plunge Atlas into war and slay thousands to retain my power even as threats surround us? Or do you have a quick solution you've neglected to inform me of? Because I'd love to hear it."

"I know that the problem is not simple," Dr. Polendina said. "They never are. But you sent Penny to defend it?"

"I sent Penny to apprehend a wanted criminal who's proven to know far too much and who's been the cause of some of the biggest problems we've faced in decades. The awakening of Ziz alone…he is a problem that can't be ignored, made even worse by the fact that we knew nothing about him until he threw the whole world into chaos!"

She heard a beep and briefly wished she had video as well as audio.

"You weren't there for the initial meeting after Penny returned, so I doubt you've seen all of this," Ironwood said. "Even if you have, I cut out a fair amount of it for Penny's safety."

"That's him?" Her father asked. "Are we sure it's the same man as in Vale? It's…"

"That's the distortion effect that surrounds him," Ironwood explained. "And it makes identification rather difficult, yes—but we've been cleaning the image as best we can, both from Penny's footage and my own, and I'm as sure as I can be. Body type is the same, height appears to be about the same, comparable physical features seem identical, with some room for error due to the cleaning process. He identified himself as 'Jian Bing,' to Penny."

"So? He's far from the first to take the White Tiger's name," Dr. Polendina replied, though there was a musing quality to his voice. "No?"

She was confused by the word for a moment before realizing it must have been a reply to something she couldn't see.

"It's definitely possible he's just another person taking the name, but I went over the footage several times and I'm not so certain. Watch this."

It was quiet for a minute and she assumed the video was silenced, leaving her to wonder what they were looking at.

Apparently she wasn't the only one.

"Am I looking for something specific?" He father asked, but he did sound like he was focused. "If you want an opinion on his fighting style, there are better people to ask than me."

"As a matter of fact, yes, there are—which is why I asked them," Ironwood answered. "Something about his style seemed familiar, so I sent the footage to a friend in Vacuo, who passed it onto Dr. Mfalme, the head researcher of Bai Hu's relics. Apparently, he was both amazed and excited by it, confirming that it possessed many similarities to how they expected Bai Hu's style would have looked, even going so far as to say it may have been a more accurate depiction then their current theory and that he'd like more data to further clarify things."

"You suspect him of being a student of the style, then, taking the name of the master? Or perhaps a descendant assuming an ancestor's family name?" Dr. Polendina asked, sounding intrigued. "Strange but…it's not unheard of for such a thing to occur; Humanity's lost so much, it's only natural that we'd occasional find things. Granted, it's a bit unusual for it to do so in this manner, but some families keep their secrets well. They could have been outside the Kingdoms or lain low through the wars, perhaps? I'm not sure what this has to do with me."

"Those are all possibilities—perhaps even the most likely possibilities—but a more worrying idea came up," The General said. "Look at these pictures? Notice any differences?"

"…It's not unusually for a Faunus to have retractable claws or fangs. Relatively uncommon, perhaps, but—"

"And this? Watch closely."

"…Did he…did he grow a tail?" Her father asked, sounding more uncertain.

"Yes," Ironwood said. "Note these images. This one was from when Penny removed his cloak. This one was from when he took it back. And this one was from just before he ended the fight. Even with the difficulty resulting from the distortion effect, he definitely had four limbs in the first two pictures and five in the last. Taking his other physical changes into account…"

"A Semblance?" Her father mused. "Physical alterations are relatively rare, as are effects that grow stronger over time or because of some variable, but neither is unheard of. If we assume he's a student or descendent dedicated to living up to the name…if that drive was defining enough, it could result in a Semblance that changes his body accordingly. It's…it's mostly guesswork, but I wouldn't say it's impossible for a Semblance to manifest in such a way. Though really, you can never truly say what is and isn't possible for them because they're so variable."

"I considered something similar," Ironwood agreed. "But at this point, we've attributed so many things to his Semblance we might as well admit we have no idea how he's doing what he does and the features didn't some any obvious signs of fading. Another theory came up during review and…it's out there, but I sadly can't say that it's impossible so I want you to be informed of it. Listen."

This time, there was audio and she recognized it instantly.

"Something like that," He had said. "Means nothing to me."

The lifeless steel of her writhed strangely, moving without her input. She'd felt it shift and flow and…and grow. Impossible, she'd thought as she'd felt it.

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Her body had started to heal.

As if she were alive.

She almost missed the next words, lost in the vivid memory.

"So he really…" She heard her father sitting down. "You checked?"

"I did. The wounds healed. Not entirely—the effect eventually wore off—but most of the damage was gone by the time she was reached. And it was new material, things that hadn't been in place before; not just steel but new wiring that hadn't been in her body before and more. She healed."

"How…?"

Instead of replying, Ironwood continued the video.

"It's the nature of the soul to try and return an altered body to normal," The man said. "As the nature of your body kept your Aura from doing so, I gave it a little help."

"I called in several of the experts we'd consulted in the past to discuss the matter. They were dumbfounded and said they'd need to modify their theories accordingly, because they had no idea how he'd done it—but when I had them watch several parts of the video, they came up with several different hypothesis. Initial testing hasn't yielded many results, but…well, you know them. They're excited. What interested me, however, was a related possibility they raised about Jian Bing."

"They…" Her father began slowly, apparently guessing what he was getting at. "You can't be serious. They think he might actually be Jian Bing?"

"It's nothing but a guess," Ironwood dismissed. "Unfortunately, it may be the worst case scenario as well and I can't immediately shoot it down."

"The hell you can't. Bai Hu lived and died a long, long time ago. Do you really think he's some immortal warrior? And if he was, do you really think he'd only appear now?"

"Of course not; it doesn't make sense for him to have been alive all this time and only just get involved, instead of during, say, the War. But his words were true, possibly to a greater extent than we'd ever realized—the nature of Aura works to restore a body to the state it finds natural. If this is something that is true even of something inorganic…do you remember? Everybody who awakens their Aura hears it at least once, so you must have."

Her father was abruptly silent so after a minute, the General continued.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality," He said. "Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee…It's strange; we've been saying those words as long as anyone remembers and we don't even know why. Where did they come from? What do they mean? Immortal, infinite in distance and unbound by death…I'd never really thought about it before today and now I can't stop thinking about it."

"…Even so, it's a ridiculous theory," Her father said.

"It is," Ironwood agreed. "At least as ridiculous as the idea that a soul could be created within a machine, I'd say. I wouldn't have thought you a skeptic, my friend."

"That was…" He father paused before admitting. "Yeah, okay, granted. Still…"

"It's only a theory—one of many and probably untrue. But…he knows too much and we too little. He was a complete unknown until recently, someone we'd never even caught hint of, and after appearing, look what he did. He flew straight towards Ziz as soon as he escaped Vale and somehow escaped after it seized him. He played with Penny until his business was done and then tore her limb from limb. He trivially did something with Aura that experts I pay hundreds of thousands of Lien a year did not even know was possible until after he'd done it. The list of things he's done in the short time we've known he's existed might as well be titled 'Wait, how?' It's possible, even probably, that any theories we come up with will be wrong because we have no idea how he's managed any of this. But we still need to be ready and prepared."

"…What do we know? For sure?"

"He goes by the name Jian Bing. He uses a style an expert agrees is probably the real thing. He's strong enough to fight Penny easily for a prolonged period of time without injury and then crush her quickly when he's done. Over the course of that fight, he began to develop more obvious Faunus traits which, if not permanent, did not fade in the recorded aftermath of the battle, and seemed visually reminiscent of a feline. Immediately afterwards, he displayed a tremendous ability with Aura, accomplishing what was believed impossible with the explanation that Aura attempted to restore a person's to their proper form. He is a powerful member of the White Fang." Ironwood recited. "Beyond that…little. But whether he's a student or a copycat or a reincarnation or God knows what else…I don't really care. I just want you aware of the possibilities and prepare for them. Because if they fight again…make sure he doesn't win."

"…Okay." He said. "Then…we should…"

"We need to speak with Penny," The General said. "She deserves explanations from both of us."

She opened her eyes.

It took a minute to recognize what she was feeling, it was so new her. Nervousness, uncertainty…she wasn't accustomed to such things. Yet as she waited and the seconds passed so slowly by, she felt certain that had she possessed a heart, it would have pounded in her chest. Her fingers, still moving a bit clumsily, twitched slightly without her consciously asking them to, clicking slightly against the chair. She was more aware then ever of the world around her and the slow approach of her creators—and, at the same time, more unsure of what to do than she had ever been.

When the door opened, the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"It's true, then? What he said?" She asked, her voice sounding strange, colored by emotion she hadn't heard in it before. Sadness, fear, confusion, anger…she wasn't sure. All of them? None of them?

Dr. Polendina looked at her and sighed, not seeming surprised or upset but merely tired.

"Penny," He chided gently. "We've talked about this. You shouldn't eavesdrop on the conversations of others—"

"Yes," General Ironwood interrupted with blunt honesty, barreling passed his friend's attempts at a lesson, as he was wont to do. "And no—though more of the former then the latter, perhaps, so…yes."

As Polendina put his head in his hands and sighed, the General sat down in the chair next to her.

"Penny…" He said, shaking his head. "Your father and I didn't want it to come to this. We had hoped to shield you from this for at least a while longer. We'd tell you when you were older, we said, though we never could decide when you'd be old enough—in truth, I think we didn't want to tell you at all. That if we could, we'd hide this fact and keep it secret for as long as possible. But Penny…you deserve to know, and it would be hypocritical of me to treat you as both a Huntress to be sent into danger and a child to be protected and deceived. The truth is…this world we live in…it's as terrible as it is beautiful."

"What do you mean?" She asked though she was starting to think she knew. Her creators glanced at one another and Dr. Polendina sighed again, nodding slightly before the General continued.

"There are reasons," He said. "And excuses. And often times, one is hard to distinguish from the other. The predations of the Grimm, the unforgiving nature of this world…Humanity has done a lot of things to survive. The awful truth behind the world we live in now is that it was all built upon someone else's pain. Our nations were built upon suffering and a history of atrocities going back far before the Kingdoms. Where the dangers of the Grimm met the terror and desperation of Mankind…"

He closed his eyes for a moment.

"Horrible things have happened throughout our history. Sometimes there were reasons, other times people looking for those to blame or to use, but a lot of the time…I'd say we've come a long way and it'd be true, but it doesn't change how far we've yet to go. It's hard to truly explain the tragedies in our history simply looking back; perhaps it is because we've lost so much of our history that we now cling to the few remnants we have left, however awful. The prejudice against the Faunus is an old hatred, so deeply rooted that it's hard to even begin to extract."

"What about the Council?" She asked. "Couldn't they change things? They're…"

"Yes, perhaps," He answered, shaking his head tiredly. "Yet the Council is nothing but a representation of the wills of the people. Some of them hate the Faunus or fear them—while others merely hate and fear change. Some know the numbers and worry because of them and others know only what they are told. Some are intent to preserve their power, their way of life, their…world. But others are different. They try and fight, to change things. As is, Mankind as a whole still does not accept the Faunus but…slowly, I think we are taking steps towards being able to."

"Is it enough?" She asked, images rising to her mind, of the building she'd explored after the White Whale departed. "Does taking small steps matter when things are so bad?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" He wondered, as much to himself as to her. "I wish I could say I knew. I hope so, not just for the Faunus but for everything—I work as both General and Headmaster to try and protect and improve our way of life, to keep things safe even as I hope things change. However much work it is, it's my hope that with the power those positions offer, my friends and I might be able to make things better. That's what I've worked for, hoped for, since I was a young man, even if the goals have shifted over the years. But do we do enough? Can we protect enough? I don't know. I honestly don't know if I do enough to matter…but I do my best and hope it's enough. Penny…I've always wanted to be able to give you the answers, but here…I just don't know."

"Are they right then?" She asked, laying her hands flat on her lap to stop them from trembling, long since unsure how she felt. "The White Fang? I researched them when I returned and they…aren't they the bad guys? I read about what they've done and it's…but if they're really…then aren't they…? I thought we were…"

She tripped and stumbled over the words, uncertainty leaving her tongue clumsy, her mind uncertain—but the meaning behind them still seemed to go through. The General and her father looked at her sadly, as if watching something beautiful fade, and her father moved to take the seat on her other side, each placing a hand over one of her own.

"I'm sorry, Penny, but that question doesn't have a good answer, either," Ironwood said, raising the side of a fist to his mouth. "They do horrible things. They kill, destroy, and terrorize…but they're angry and hurt and scared. For so long, the Faunus have been subjugated and abused and no matter how hard they fought things scarcely seemed to improve; can they be blamed then, for fighting for their people? Before, the White Fang was a peaceful organization and yet accomplished so little—can I honestly blame them, then, for using the tactics that proved to work when so much is on the line? Can I decry them for refusing to protest ineffectually? How can I blame people for fighting against their oppression the only way they can? And yet…how can I stand aside, when their actions hurt others? I can't do either."

He moved a hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer and she let him, resting her head against him.

"Penny…I'm sorry," The General said. "More than anything, I want to do the right thing, to be an example for you to look up to…but knowing what the right thing to do is can often be the hardest thing in life. And I…I can't tell you how to find the answers. Sometimes, it's not even there to begin with. I don't have any easy solutions, Penny; I just try to help as many people as possible…even though helping people often means hurting others. Some days…Penny, some days I hope I'm the hero. And other days…I just hope I'm not the villain. And that…the worst part is, that's probably the legacy I'm going to leave to you. I don't want you to have to face decisions that have no answer, or do things while knowing it'll hurt people; I wish I could make things easy for you and give you a happy life and simple decisions, but…"

"What about me?" She asked and had she been able, she might have needed to blink away tears. "Is what he said about me true, too? Isn't that why you keep me hidden? If people know that I'm a machine, will they—"

"You are not a machine," The General said, drawing her fully into a hug. "If anything he said was true, it was that. You are a person, Penny, and as good a one as anyone I've ever met. A better person, even, then me. Don't forget that's true, even if people get scared or angry at you; you're real and you're a hero, Penny. I've worried since the day you were born what people would think of you, what world I was preparing you for, but I believe in you from the bottom of my heart. I can't lie and say your life will be easy or that there won't be people who hate you, but I believe that you are someone beautiful and special, that you're something new and unique, and you'll change things. I hope that others will see that, too; that with you as an example, we might avert the tragedies of the past, that those come after you might find a better world awaiting them."

"But I," She blinked rapidly, meaninglessly. "I don't, I can't, I…"

"Shhh," He said quiet, resting his chin on her head. "I know. And I'm here."

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