EWW AU thoughts post V7-8:
Penny gets rebuilt, but because RWBY is basically still reeling from the battle of Haven, they don't go to Atlas, so Penny doesn't get the joy of hanging out with Ruby, and just gets lonelier and lonelier. So she throws herself into being the Protector of Mantle and eventually discovers evidence that Ironwood is taking resources he shouldn't, which leads her to have a crisis of faith and talk to Winter about it... and her conciense leads her to decide she can't support the Atlesian military while it's exploiting innocents, so she files her resignation from the military. Which of course Ironwood denies, prompting her to defect to Robyn Hill and tell her everything about Salem...
Plans and hides with Robyn and stays maintained and hacker proof with Pietro. It's a great Idea, and I do plan on them getting to Atlas but a little too late, probably around the time that the heating was hacked into and Jacques attempting to have Ironwood locked up. Though many things have changed by then, perhaps the Arena was already launched or perhaps the marshall law was enacted early due to stress and enemy taunting. Regardless the main reason for taking off to Atlas is Ozpin's insistence and a lie about a doctor that could possibly help with Weiss's aura poisoning located in Atlas. Dunno yet. But I like this idea
