The Grimm Prince Ch. 74 (RWBY) (Patreon)

A/N: A decision is made.

-x-X-x-

“I think he might, sir. Especially if it came from someone he trusted.”

Jaune frowns at Winter’s blunt appraisal. It was sort of what he didn’t want to hear, if he was being honest. If only she’d said no, he could have just gone with his first inclination… that being to bring the Grimm out of hibernation, send them washing over the Kingdoms of Remnant like a swarm to remove all of the irritating leaders from power without hurting a fly, and then deal with what came after that.

… But no. He probably shouldn’t go that far. In this case, his first impulse was probably incorrect. Rather, he needed to rein in that inclination and focus on the other options at his disposal. Though…

“Someone he trusts, you say.”

Jaune’s eyes flick to the enemy in their midst. By all rights, Jaune should probably just kill Specialist Harriet Bree and silence her permanently. But he was loath to do that, so instead she would live as their prisoner for a while longer until everything could be sorted out. Only, while the others might have thought she would fold like a stack of cards for some reason, Jaune knew better. She wasn’t nearly as beaten and broken down by the world as so many of the others he’d found himself accidentally seducing. She was still strong and sure of herself and her side of things.

If Winter was going to suggest that they send her fellow Specialist back to Ironwood with the evidence, Jaune was going to have to shut her down. It just wasn’t a good idea.

“Yes sir. But not her, sir. Or rather… not the real her.”

Everyone looks at Winter then, including Harriet. But Winter only has eyes for Jaune… and also Salem. Standing nice and tall, the white-haired Atlesian Specialist spells out her plan.

“I’m the only one besides Specialist Bree here who knows Atlesian Protocols front and back. I’m also the one in this room that knows General Ironwood the best. That’s why my idea is to have the Queen disguise me as Specialist Bree and give me manufactured evidence that reveals what Headmaster Ozpin’s plans for the White Fang were. From there I can return to General Ironwood as Specialist Bree and hand it over. What he does after that… we’ll have to wait and see.”

“What?! You can’t do that!”

Jaune has to admit, Harriet’s words echo his own initial thoughts for a moment, though not for the same reason. Where Harriet is outraged by the thought that Winter might use her likeness to get close to General Ironwood and turn him against Ozpin, Jaune is afraid for Winter’s safety. What if it doesn’t work? What if Ironwood doesn’t buy her excuses for why Bree was reporting in so late? What if… there were a million ways things could go wrong.

And yet, that was always the case, wasn’t it? There would always be points of failure, in the end. Ultimately, Jaune had to decide whether he wanted to risk Winter or not. But more than that… he could tell SHE wanted this. She wanted to do it, wanted to be part of taking down Ironwood and Ozpin alike. If she could turn them against each other for Jaune, then she would leap at the opportunity.

Ignoring Specialist Bree’s protests, Jaune sweeps his gaze across the rest of the people at the table. Some of them look intrigued by Winter’s offer. Some of them are frowning, clearly seeing the danger as well. Willow in particular is biting her lower lip like she wants to speak up and tell Winter she won’t allow it. But when Jaune meets Willow Schnee’s eyes… the Schnee Matriarch ducks her head and doesn’t say a word.

That, more than anything, cinches it for him. Winter Schnee is a grown woman and a trained military operative at that. He can’t exactly baby her and keep her safe, not when she’s offering to put it all on the line for this. With a sigh, Jaune nods his head and looks to Salem.

“Can you prepare her, Salem?”

“Of course, my love.”

As Salem rises from her throne and moves to join Winter, Specialist Bree sputters and tries to get between them.

“N-No! Keep your magic away from her! I won’t let you two trick General Iron-!”

“Sleep.”

Showing just how far she’s come from the genocidal madwoman she once was, Salem, Queen of the Grimm, reaches out and taps a single finger upon Harriet’s brow. The dark-skinned Atlesian Specialist collapses like a puppet with her strings cut, going unconscious right then and there. Salem hums for a moment consideringly before looking back.

“I think it would be best if she remained asleep for the foreseeable future. My magic will sustain her. We can consider it a test run for how we intend to neutralize Ozma.”

Right. They were going to put Ozma in a coma, when the time came. Going to make sure he didn’t just continue to reincarnate randomly into other people’s heads forever and ever. Jaune supposed Salem was right. It would be good to have a test subject to make sure the plan was viable before they pulled the trigger.

Still, he at least gives Harriet the courtesy of carrying her to an empty guest room himself as they all move off to do their own things. Tucking her in, making sure she’s comfortable… one day, when all of this was over and Ozma and Ironwood were both removed from the board, Jaune would try to see about releasing Harriet and giving her back her freedom. But for now, she was a loose end that needed to be taped down… lest it have to be tied off entirely.

-x-X-x-

Once she’s sent young Winter on her way in her new body, after spending a few hours helping the Schnee Woman get used to her new height and form, Salem finds herself considering the state of her beloved King. He was… not distraught, that wasn’t quite the word for it. However, he was clearly not doing better. The whole point of traveling to Menagerie had been to get away from it all, but instead they’d found themselves embroiled in another of Ozma’s plots within a day.

And then, they’d found themselves leaving the Faunus Kingdom within two days. It was fundamentally ridiculous how even something like that could become something dire. Salem wanted to say it was just coincidence, but she knew better than to believe in coincidences. The reality was actually far simpler… Ozma had simply spread himself out through the last remnants of humanity, faunus included, like a fungus.

It didn’t matter if he died every fifty to a hundred years or so and had to ‘start over’, because he’d set things up so he didn’t really ever have to start over. His agents were everywhere, his reach like that of an octopus. He could command the respect of rulers in pretty much every Kingdom, making suggestions and pushing on this or that topic when he needed to get something done.

To be fair, it had probably started out practical more than insidious. Ozma had no doubt believed it was something that needed to be done if he was ever going to combat her effectively… and frankly, he was right. If he could not pave the way for his next incarnation to step into his previous set of shoes and continue on, then he would always be taking three steps back for every two steps he took forward.

That said, it was obvious at this point that Ozma was as insane as she’d once been before she’d gotten her hands on Jaune. Before she’d made herself a King who could take the reins and put her in her place… who could make her his Queen and command her. Who could well and truly conquer and RULE her.

Ozma didn’t have that… and it wasn’t like Salem was about to share. In her absence, in the absence of a Grimm threat, Ozma hadn’t breathed a sigh of relief and retired like she’d assumed he might do. Instead, he’d kept on doing what he was already doing. Spreading his control, growing his influence, and preparing the current generation for the next version of him to lead them.

Except he no longer had an excuse. He no longer had the moral high ground. Salem wondered if he even realized that. She wondered if he even cared…

But frankly, more than anything, she wanted to make her King happy again. To soothe his worries, to help him relax. Fortunately, she had a couple of ideas in that regard. Ways to bring a smile to Jaune’s face once more. Also fortunately, they both required the same man, making it all the easier for her to head in his direction.

-x-X-x-

To say recent times had been strange for one Ruby Rose would be an understatement. Things had gotten weird, full stop. But it wasn’t necessarily a bad kind of weird. Sure, Headmaster Ozpin had turned out to be a creep who pretty much sent her to her death according to her mother… but that was just it! Her mother! She had her mom back!

To say Ruby was ecstatic about that fact would be an understatement. Summer was alive and even if she was blind, Ruby was just happy her mama was still alive. Even still, the evil Headmaster Ozpin was still out there, and so was his toady, General Ironwood. So they had to stay with the good Queen Salem and her good King Jaune, who also happened to both be Grimm… oh, and they were King and Queen of the Grimm as well.

Yeah, like she’d said, weird. But not really in a bad way. The Palace was fun, even if the area around it had clearly seen better days. And she had Yang and Pyrrha as friends close to her own age. Still…

Ruby blinks as a knock comes at the door. Walking over, she pulls it open only to find herself staring at a familiar orange-haired girl. Ruby’s silver eyes widen as Penny Polendina smiles brightly.

“Salutations Friend Ruby! I-oof!”

Launching forward with all the speed that her semblance grants her, Ruby tackles Penny. Of course, Penny is a robot, so rather than go down on her back, she manages to root herself in place and stand her ground, leaving Ruby hanging off of her like a limpet. But Ruby doesn’t care.

“Penny! You’re alive!”

“Haha yes! I am fully operational once more! Father was able to get me online again with some help from the one who took me offline in the first place! Once the situation was explained to me, I understood that I had been used… by General Ironwood of all people! I could hardly believe it, but father would not lie to me. And so I came here, to apologize and reunite with you, Friend Ruby!”

As Penny speaks a mile a minute, the door to another room opens in the suite and Summer steps out, tilting her head to the side and smiling as she steps closer.

“I thought I heard voices. You must be Penny.”

Turning towards Summer with Ruby still latched onto her front and refusing to let go, the robot girl nods happily.

“Yes! You must be Summer Rose, Ruby’s mother! I am very happy to meet you, especially because you are my secondary objective!”

Summer raises a sightless eyebrow at that.

“Oh?”

“Indeed! Now that I have ascertained the continued health and happiness of Friend Ruby Rose, I can let you know that my father is looking for you to discuss the possibility of prosthetic eyes to replace the ones you lost so long ago!”

Both Ruby and Summer freeze up at that. Ruby’s eyes widen as Summer looks like she doesn’t know how to respond.

“Mom… you have to! This would be amazing! You could see again!”

“I… I don’t know. I mean… I can already ‘see’ somewhat already. And besides… there’s someone in this Palace who might object to me getting any sort of sight back, even if they aren’t my original silver eyes.”

Penny pipes up while Ruby is trying to figure out who her mother is talking about.

“Ah! If you speak of Queen Salem, know that this was her idea, Miss Summer! She was the one who set my father on the path to making you prosthetics. And when I left him, he had already begun designing them. At this point, I believe you should probably go to him if you wish to have any say in how your new eyes look whatsoever!”

Summer pauses at that… before huffing and shaking her head with a smirk.

“Of course. Then I suppose I’d best be on my way. You girls play nice now, you hear? Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do~”

Ruby blinks and then blushes profusely, finally unlatching herself from Penny’s torso to give her mother a big pout.

“Mooooom! You would do an awful lot, you know!”

Summer grins and chuckles as she leaves the room. Ruby, despite getting the last word, doesn’t necessarily feel like she won in the end, causing her to cross her arms and pout some more. Until…

“Friend Ruby?”

Penny’s voice suddenly sounds more uncertain. Ruby looks over at her robot friend… only to go wide-eyed at the sight before her. While Penny is still a robot through and through… those tits on her chest and that slit between her legs look fully functional to Ruby’s gaze.

“When she helped my father bring me back online quicker, Queen Salem said I should learn what it feels like to be a real woman and gave me new additions to my chassis. What do you think?”

Mouth paradoxically dry and watering at the same time, Ruby valiantly resists the urge to say something dumb like ‘hubba hubba hubba’. Instead, she wipes the drool threatening to escape her lips with the back of her hand and swallows thickly.

“I think… Queen Salem did good work.”

Beaming at her happily, Penny jumps and claps her hands together joyfully. This does… interesting things to her new tits.

“Oh goodie! Then you will not mind helping me learn, right?”

Ruby, a little slow for once, blinks owlishly.

“Huh? Learn what?”

Then, almost as fast as Ruby herself can move, Penny appears in front of her, eyes bright and excited.

“Help me learn what it feels like to be a real woman, of course!”