98

Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_Jolyne

Chapter 98

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Ruby, I have to ask… is this… wise?" Penny asked, watching as Ruby cobbled together a laser emitter from the parts scattered around her workshop, a whole rack of pending weapons sitting by the wall as she worked on Crescent Rose instead- the entire weapon stripped down to bare parts as Ruby flitted from workstation to workstation, hovering 3d models meshing with a flurry of parts and rose petals. "We will be infiltrating a White Fang rally in two days, is that enough time to truly get used to having a high powered Dust laser?"

"I dunno, firefly! It's gonna be so cool, though! Once I get enough of these babies lined up you and I'll be unstoppable together!" Ruby grinned, stopping in front of Penny just long enough to plant a happy, giggly kiss on Penny's lips with a loud smooch. "Mwah! Love you, firefly!"

"I love you too, wishing star! If you think you can handle it, then I can't refuse," Penny smiled, giggling a bit as she watched Ruby continue to work, the sounds of the machine shop humming around her. Truly, watching Ruby work was a miracle of engineering and weaponsmithing prowess- the Rosebuds peeling off from Ruby's cloud in order to start maintaining the weapons in her stead, the way she flitted about and assembled test pieces at rapid speed, assembling and disassembling her weapon eagerly as she played with its internals- really, it was a masterpiece of engineering that made Gianduja look simple (which, honestly, it kind of was? Beyond the complex engineering that went into making a man-portable minigun that could condense into a purse, the weapon itself was quite simple and unfortunately clunky). 

Honestly, in Penny's opinion, the amount of love and care that went into Crescent Rose and Augury made them feel even more complex than Tri-Hard, which was a triple changing weapon even more complex than Miló given its nature as an electrified plasma caster and not just a hunting rifle. Crescent Rose was more than just a rifle or a scythe- it was woven with grimm threads, it was built to grow and shrink to match the caliber of bullet it fired, it had a self sharpening blade and hidden internal reinforcements that prevented it from ripping itself apart with every shot, it had the ability to use its integrated muzzle brake as a flaming counter attack if she so chose, it had Dust imbuement on every blade that allowed her to set her strikes ablaze… plus it also had a hidden storage compartment that allowed it to just barely fit a pair of swords oh-so-similar to Floating Array just in case. 

Penny could even control them if she wanted, and if she really so chose… well. Ruby had, in a show of faith that would have made Penny's eyes water if she had tear ducts, added a hidden spool and a cable attachment point to Crescent Rose that would let Penny puppet the entire weapon as she pleased via a sequence of aura switches that Ruby had seeded into the main body of the weapon- how she'd managed to link all of those while keeping roughly the same form factor was… kind of beyond Penny's limited engineering knowledge, but then again, Ruby had been working on weapons for years now, and studied more weapon crafting textbooks than Penny was previously aware existed in her spare time.

As it was, though, adding laser emitters on top of everything else… could the Dust batteries Ruby had access to even handle that? Penny didn't know, but surely her wishing star could handle it!

"Hmm… the energy density on these is gonna be a problem… I can totally get around it by using rechargeable batteries and swapping them out, but that means I have limited shots instead of Penny's near infinite amount of shots, but at the same time the amount of emitters I'm mounting around the barrel means it'll be as strong as one of Penny's max power lasers…" Ruby muttered to herself, chewing on her finger as she spread paper after paper of blueprints and engineering specs, licking her lips as she mounted together a test array and wired everything up through a temporary breadboard kit. Thank goodness Professor Mulberry wasn't around, otherwise he'd probably call her an idiot for trying to upgrade the standard laser emitters that Beacon carried into Atlesian Military grade emitters- it wasn't too hard to do so, given the availability of components, but still. The batteries were the real problem, given the fact that, while Atlesian metallurgy was kinda shit compared to custom made ingots casted in the literal blue flames of Dust fueled annihilation that was Ruby's so called demon forge, their battery tech was second to none and Ruby… didn't have Atlesian batteries. She had consumer level batteries, sure, but… even the Huntsman grade ones weren't great for trying to replicate Penny's full power laser. Unless… she made custom, rechargeable battery packs … and kept them in spatially distorted containers so they wouldn't interfere too much with Crescent Rose's form factor… Maybe. "Hey Penny, do you know anything about how to make military grade batteries? I know yours are really small but the batteries we have at Beacon are like way bigger and the energy density is weird and- y'know. It's probably a materials thing but as much as I like being able to make things out of grimm stuff it kinda feels like cheating and… well. Y'know. I didn't spend this long reading college level textbooks to just cheat my way into weapon crafting."

"Of course, wishing star!" Penny nodded, walking forward and enveloping Ruby in a gentle hug and nuzzling into her girlfriend's neck with a happy sigh. "I cannot provide full specs as they are, unfortunately, proprietary, but I can at least give you a general idea of the composition and makeup- should I send the data to your scroll?"

"That'd be great, firefly!" Ruby giggled, returning the nuzzles with a happy little yip of delight, leaning back and relaxing into Penny's hold as Penny started to place soft, gentle smooches against the bare skin of her neck. "Oh! H-hey! Penny I'm ticklish there!"

"I know! You are so cute when I tickle you! Your laughter is infectious!" Penny grinned wider, planting more kisses against Ruby's neck as she started to brush her fingers along Ruby's sides, drawing another series of giggles as Ruby wiggled in her grasp and started to laugh for real- a fact that started to make Penny laugh as well. The two of them tugged at each other in a back and forth, Ruby spinning around and bumping her forehead against Penny's as she smooched her girlfriend all over, their Auras melding as Penny tickled her sides relentlessly and nibbled at her neck. "You're sooooo cute! I love you, Ruby Rose!"

"I love you too, Penny!" Ruby laughed eagerly, squealing and hugging herself against Penny as she moved slightly so she could kiss Penny's lips and cheeks- peppering her with kissies and receiving just as many in return as they swayed back and forth and all but danced around the room until they fell into the cot that the two shared whenever they decided to take a midday nap- given that both of them were completely excused from Professor Mulberry's classes on weapon maintenance and crafting, they had quite a bit of free time to do so. "You're the best!"

"No you are! You're the bestest most amazing girl in the world and you're my wish come true!" Penny answered in kind, clutching Ruby close and hugging her as she rocked back and forth, Ruby laying there and giggling as she kicked her legs a little bit in protest.

"Nooo! You're the best! You're the bestest most amazingest girl in the world! You're so perfect, firefly! You light up my life!" 

"Oh Ruby, you are a bioluminescent beetle to me as well!" Penny chuckled, pressing a kiss to the crown of Ruby's head and sighing gently as the two of them started to calm down, energy levels slowly falling as they just enjoyed each other's presence and relaxed into each other- Ruby's ears twitching gently as she listened to the gentle hum of the servos and electronics beneath Penny's artificial skin, Penny feeling the soft, gentle coolness of Ruby's body as though she was a person sized pillow but even better. "I love you so, so much."

"And I love you too! I mean it when I say you light up my life, Penny- you're the brightest thing in the world to me and your smile makes me so, so, so happy… I wanna be with you forever and ever, hear everything you have to say, I wanna be your protector and make sure you always have the best I can give," Ruby murmured, feeling a swell of emotion rising in her chest as she snuggled deeper against Penny's chest, bumping her mask against Penny's own artificial one that kept her cloak clasped together. 

"I… want to protect you too- we'll protect each other!" Penny hummed, servos whining quietly beneath her skin as she gently stroked her wishing star's hair, running her fingers through the fluffy strands and smiling softly as their Auras pulsed in time with each other, the scent of spring and roses mingling as they settled and molded to each other's forms. "You… make me feel alive. More than I ever did before. You… Every time we go together… every time we fight side by side… I think to myself… so long as we still live, I won't let you face the world alone because I'll be right there with you."

"Aww… I'll be right there with you too," Ruby giggled, nuzzling up against Penny for a long moment as they simply embraced each other for a long moment. They stayed silent for a minute or so, Ruby planting gentle kisses against Penny's collar area before blinking slowly and pulling back. 

"Wait shoot I still need to finish that laser array! Penny, you distracted me!!!"

"Hehe, oops~!"

"Aww… I can't stay mad at you."