46

Chapter 46Chapter Text

Chapter Forty-One

Penny was expecting certain responses to her accusation, but the one she received defied every line of her predictive algorithms.

"How dare you! I... I am so marriable!" Weiss said into the silence.

Ruby, Blake, Yang and even Penny all turned to stare at the red-faced young woman. It was Penny who finally broke the silence. She pointed a finger right into the middle of team RWBY, and with a straight back and eyes that sparkled with determination, declared, "Team RWBY, you are consorting with the enemy of mankind."

"And that makes me ineligible for marriage?" Weiss asked.

Penny blinked slowly as her processors churned over that. "I was not ready for that conversation. Can we please discuss the evil Grimm in your midst?"

"I'd marry Weiss," Ruby said.

Now everyone was looking at Ruby.

"I mean, if Weiss was that way. Not that I'm saying she isn't, what with how she wants to marry Penny. But if I wasn't... totally not going after Akelarre, then I'd be okay with Weiss."

Weiss' mouth opened a few times before she settled on a glare. "You mean I'd be second fiddle? And, and I never said I wanted to marry Penny! Or that I was gay!"

"I am not marriage ready," Penny added. "But I am willing to try if it would please my friends. Not that you are in the friend category any longer."

There was a long suffering sigh from the back of the group, and with the aplomb of someone walking into the line of fire, Yang stepped up with hands on hips and head shaking. "Okay, okay, everyone shut up. Big sister Yang's going to fix all of this up in a jiffy. Penny, love, give us just a minute and we'll get back to you. Weiss, I don't think Penny was looking down at your marriageability, she's just a little angry. She'll get over it in no time, and then you two can get back to planning your extravagant Atlesian wedding. Ruby, I love you. Please stop trying to help. You're making things worse. Blake... stop enjoying this so much."

Yang took a deep breath, then turned to face Penny head on. "And now you. Explain. You're tossing accusations in the faces of four huntswomen in training in the middle of a quiet street while wearing a trenchcoat. This is saturday-morning cartoon levels of suspicious."

Penny watched as the girls all shifted, their faces all various shades of red. "I can do that. I am explanation ready." She took a deep breath. "I have recently begun a very gratifying relationship with Akelarre. During our initial intercourse I told her that I was looking for a suspicious individual that might have ties to the Grimm."

She blinked when Ruby's face lit up. But that didn't matter, she was asked to explain, so she would.

"After our initial meet-up and intercourse, we continued spending some time together, culminating in a threesome gathering with Akelarre and Neo Politan some nights ago." She paused to let Ruby finish clearing her throat. "After much discussion, sleeping together, and the ritualistic consumption of frozen treats, I thought I could consider Akelarre a friend, one that brought me many benefits, and one that I could benefit in turn."

"I'm sure that all sounded better in your head," Yang said. "But I have to say that I approve."

"I too, approved. Until I discovered through my uncle that Akelarre was none other than the Grimm Girl. She was the enemy all along!"

"Hey," Ruby shouted. "Akelarre isn't the enemy. She's a good friend."

"If you're the friend of an enemy, then perhaps you are an enemy as well," Penny said.

Ruby growled, eyes narrowed and fists closed by her sides. "I'm not," she muttered.

"I want you to bring me to Akelarre so that I may denounce her as an enemy of mankind and then eradicate her as I was initially ordered to."

"As hot as that sounds, could we not eradicate me just yet?"

Penny whipped around, sensors coming online and fixing on the source of the call.

Akelarre, the Grimm Girl herself, was walking towards them, a new, unfamiliar jacket on and a smile on her face. Neo was half a step behind her, skipping to keep up with Akelarre's longer stride. "You!"

"Me!" Akelarre said. "A little bug told me you guys were close, so we decided to head out. Hello team RWBY, hello, Penny."

"Do not presume to say hello to me, Grimm Girl!" Penny declared. She unlatched her primary offensive systems. Floating Array took to the air around her, Dust-infused string keeping all twelve gun-swords afloat.

"So cool!" Ruby said. "Hey Penny, can I please check out your swords?"

"Stay back, enemy-Ruby. Once I have eliminated the Grimm threat, I will proceed to arrest you and allow you to inspect my weaponry."

Akelarre raised a hand as if to ask a question. "I feel like I'm missing a whole lot of context."

"The context is that you are a duplicitous mean person that has betrayed me and will therefore be arrested and charged to the full extent of Vale law."

Akelarre lowered her hand, her smiled slowly fading away. "I see. You think I betrayed you?" she asked. "Is it because I didn't tell you what I am?"

"You were fully aware that I was on a hunt to find the evil Grimm Girl, and yet you pretended to be someone else," Penny said. She pushed her swords a little farther from her body then shifted them into their more compact gun forms. Ruby 'ooohed' behind her. "Prepare to be detained."

Akelarre met her eyes, then looked around at all the others. "Guys, how about you all head out? Penny and I need to chat a little. I'll meet you at that little cafe two streets down? Neo knows the place."

"I shouldn't allow anyone to leave the premises," Penny said. "It goes against protocol."

"Is it protocol to allow people to potentially get hurt in a crossfire? And if it isn't protocol, could you really live with yourself? You know that the girls are probably innocent. Well, not Neo, she's definitely guilty of something, but the others are all sweet."

Neo winked at Penny, but the others didn't disagree or otherwise voice an opinion. Penny was torn. On the one hand, it went against protocol, on the other, she didn't have any real evidence that Team RWBY were hardened criminals. "Very well," she said.

The girls hesitated some more, but when Neo skipped by them they chose to break off, all except for Ruby who had to be dragged away by her sister while complaining about wanting to see Penny's Floating Array.

"Okay. So did you want to sit down or are we going to talk while standing off?" Akelarre asked. "There are other cafes in the city, we could chat over hot chocolate?"

"I would rather not have to lower my weapons in the face of a threat."

Akelarre tilted her head to one side. "Is that what I am? A threat?"

"You are a Grimm. The Grimm are mankind's enemy."

She frowned at that. "And because I'm different, I'm the enemy? That's rich, coming from a girl that's not even half-human."

Penny didn't flinch. She had enough processing power to prevent the involuntary motion, still, maybe something escaped her iron-clad control because Akelarre seemed to notice.

"I'm sorry, that came out... worse then I intended."

"You knew?" Penny asked.

Akelarre nodded slowly. "I did. Does it matter? You're still my friend. Even now. You're not even my first AI friend at that. Just because you're a little different doesn't mean you can't be my friend. I would have thought you would understand that. Though, I guess you do still feel betrayed that I didn't tell you what I am. I didn't want you to react... well, like this." She gestured at Floating Array.

"My... my feelings on the matter shouldn't contribute to my final decision to arrest you," Penny said. "You are a Grimm, and that's a crime."

"I doubt it's literally illegal to be a Grimm," Akelarre said.

Penny blinked. "It is illegal to be a Grimm," she confirmed. "It's part of Vale's constitution, as written by one of the last Kings of Vale. It is why I must arrest you."

"Oh," Akelarre said. "That's unfortunate. I didn't think you had that kind of restriction on your programming. Are you unable to not follow the law?"

"I have no such restrictions," Penny said. "I am merely doing as I am told because I want to be a dutiful niece."

"So you would arrest me, even if it's the wrong thing, because you want to please Ironwood?"

Penny felt Floating Array waver a little. It shouldn't have done that, the dust-infused wires were controlled by her aura which should have been as strong as ever, but she could detect minor anomalies and fluctuations in it. "I... yes?"

"Penny," Akelarre said with a note of desperation in her voice. "I... I don't have a choice, you know? I'm part Grimm. It's who I am. I'm not going to let you hurt me or my friends because of that. It wouldn't be fair."

"But," Penny began. She paused and wetted her lips. "The same argument could be made about all the other Grimm," she said.

"The other Grimm are following orders. They're as autonomous as those robots your Uncle has with him. Smart, but no more so than any animal. More like programs than you or me."

"I think I see," she said. "So you would be willing to renounce your evil ways?" Penny asked.

"You're assuming that I'm evil to begin with," Akelarre said. "That's kinda rude. Would you want people to assume you're evil just because you're not human?"

"I would not," she admitted.

Akelarre moved a little closer, hands still visible in what she could easily categorize as a sign that she didn't wish to fight. "How about this. You're smart enough to think for yourself, to make up your own mind. Come with me. Spend the day with me and team RWBY. Judge for yourself whether I'm some evil threat to humanity."

"Are you saying that you're not a threat at all?" Penny asked. She tensed the wires controlling Floating Array.

Akelarre laughed. "I'm a huge threat, Penny. I could swarm Vale with more Grimm than there are people living here in under an hour, twice that number in half a day. There are enough elder Grimm around the city that I could have the walls cracked and the sun blotted out with flying Grimm with only a few commands."

"This is the opposite of reassuring."

Akelarre smiled. "Look around you. Are the skies darkened by Grimm? Are there amphibious Grimmsects pouring out of the docks? Are the walls collapsing from termite Grimm eating away at the supports? Yeah, I could be a threat, but I chose not to be. Just as you chose not to hurt people just because they're not the same as you."

"I..." Penny hesitated. She had just recorded Akelarre admitting to being able to carry out capital crimes. In fact, everything Akelarre had just said her uncle would love to hear. It would give him enough just cause to hunt Akelarre down, to call in more reinforcements, to have the council of Vale bend to what he asked.

And it would still all be for nothing if what Akelarre said was true.

"I've been where you are, you know," Akelarre said. There was a strange pitch to her voice, a slower cadence than usual as if what she was saying had more weight. At least, that's what her elocution programs suspected. "You want to do the right thing. Believe it or not, I've been there. Like, right there. This whole turning in your new super-powered besties to the authorities thing? It's spookily spot on."

Penny took a small step back, pulling Floating Array along with her.

"I guess I should cut to the chase, yeah? I know that you probably felt betrayed, but I'm happy that I tricked you. We would never have become friends otherwise. Like how you hide who you are a little. But those were all lies. We can stop that, if you want, go right to the truth. Yeah, I'm the Grimm Girl, I'm a monster, I could destroy Vale. But I don't want to, so I won't." Akelarre fidgeted on the spot. "So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, how about you hang out with me to make sure I'm not gonna wipe out humanity?"

Penny looked down, then back up to Akelarre. She was an android, with more computing power than any human at her disposal. It meant that she could come to a decision faster than most.

She made up her mind.

Floating Array clicked back into its holster at the small of her back.

"I will observe you to ensure that you act in accordance with Vale's laws," she said. "And if we have fun, then I will consider that an unplanned additional victory.

***

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