Mystery White Flame has drawn us a lovely fan art of the Guardian Weaver for any who want to see it – if you type in "mystery white flame deviant art" in google, you can find their profile and enjoy Blake's reaction to it. xD

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 5

If there was one thing Jaune was good for, other than as standing as a human barrier between her and Timothy – or, as any sane person would have called it, the huge fuck-off spider – was that he liked his coffee and snacks. He really liked them. Every day, regular as clockwork, he would pull on his coat, head out the office and return fifteen minutes later with two styrofoam cups in a little cardboard holder and a packet of four muffins.

The muffins – oh, those muffins. Blake would have killed for those blueberry muffins if half didn't go to her anyway, still warm from the bakery if she was lucky. He'd set the packet down on the desk, hand her a cup and go back to his laptop, looking over online forums for conspiracy theorists. She didn't know how he managed it without wanting to band his head on the desk – she'd tried and could actively feel her braincells dying as she read through post after post about chemtrails.

It was a slow day. No, it had been a slow few days since Timothy's capture and containment, which only went to show how few people called in about anomalies and did their work for them. Blake sighed as she flipped through another page of her newspaper. They were complaining about politicians again. Elections weren't far off and the would-be rulers were acting like the mature adults they were. Yeah, of course they weren't. They were slinging crap at one another like demented howler monkeys. "You did this, you didn't do this, you were caught doing this." None of them were caught actively helping faunus rights of course. Oh no, nothing so hasty. In her mind, they were all as bad as one another.

"I'm bored."

"Bored is good." Jaune replied, as he always did whenever she complained about it. "Bored means the world is in the proper order."

Blake sighed and pushed the newspaper down. Like usual, the unattached pages all bunched up and flapped out of control and order. Why didn't people just make newspapers like books? What was the appeal in folding them together and just leaving them unattached? The economy was bad enough as it was, couldn't they at least bolster the stapler industry and make her life easier? Growling, she tossed the mess of pages down.

"I thought that being literal hunters of wild and crazy anomalies would be more exciting than this."

"It'd be bad if it was. That'd mean ARC Corp was doing a poor job of keeping things secret."

Ugh. She hated it when he was reasonable. About the only good thing that had happened since Timothy's capture and her getting her own apartment was that she'd finally received her first suit. She was in black trousers today – it was cold out – but she still looked fantastic if she did say so herself. She'd even taken a picture on her scroll and was deliberating on sending it to her parents. Sort of a "sorry I ran away to become a terrorist but I'm doing okay now and have a legal job" thing.

All she had to do now was muster up the courage to send it.

Which meant it'd hang on her scroll under the drafts section for at least a week before being deleted.

Sighing, she grabbed a muffin and bit into it, catching the crumbs on her free hand and humming happily. If these muffins were anomalous, never let them be contained. Or rather, let them be contained here forever. She scoffed it down faster than she really needed to, then washed it down with some black coffee. Jaune, the psychopath that he was, had his laden with twelve cubes of sugar. She'd made the mistake of sipping his once by mistake and washing her tongue after. Never again.

"Any news from the crazy patrol?" she asked. "What are they on now?"

"The elections are coming up so it's all nonsense about that. Mayor Coppersmith runs a human sacrifice circle under his house for instance."

"Based on what evidence?"

"Oh, foolish Blake." Jaune said without looking up. "Imagine thinking these people need evidence."

Blake snorted. "Nothing good, then?"

"Nothing that stands out as anything beyond the ordinary. The competing theory is that all the politicians are dead or paid actors working for a shadow government. You know, the usual. Really, it's best to keep a look out for cryptids. At least one in fifty thousand of those turn out to be real."

"One in fifty thousand…?" Blake moaned. "That's-"

"Great odds. Because it means the world is in a good place."

Ugh. Jaune and his Arc family duty. It wasn't like she wanted the world to be overrun with bad stuff, but it would have been nice to have something to do. Being paid to be bored sounded like a sweet deal until you tried it and realised that time moved very slowly indeed with nothing to do.

When a hearty knock came at the door, Blake was already on her feet. "Oh, thank goodness," she said, moving for it. Jaune looked up, eyes zeroing in on the frosted glass window of their office. "I was bored out my mind."

"Let me check the cameras." Jaune said. He clicked on something and his eyes widened. "Oh crap. Don't open the door!"

It was too late. Blake had already begun the process, and while she did flinch at Jaune's panicked warning, she didn't come face to face with a gun, bomb or monster made of teeth and unhappy thoughts waiting to suck out her soul. What she came face to face with was a girl.

"Hi Jau-" The girl's eyes, silver Blake noticed, narrowed. "You're not Jaune. Who are you?"

"Don't tell her!" Jaune yelled.

"I'm Blake."

The girl looked her up and down and her eyes narrowed further. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't answer that question!"

"I work here."

The girl's cheeks puffed out wildly. She straightened, which didn't do much to add to her five feet of height, but what she lacked in verticality, she more than made up for with volume. "Jauuuuneee! You told me you weren't hiring!"

The girl pushed past Blake and knocked her aside, stomped over to the desk her employer was poorly trying to hide behind and slammed her hands down on the table. It wasn't a very intimidating position, but Jaune managed to look so pathetic it didn't matter. Shrugging, and guessing this would at least be more entertaining than her last hour, Blake closed the door and turned to watch.

"You told me you couldn't hire me!" the girl shouted. "And then you go and hire someone else not a week later?"

"Ruby." Jaune at least tried to sound calm. "I can explain."

"Give me one good reason you hired her but not me!"

"You're fifteen and child labour laws are a thing."

The girl, Ruby, pouted. "Give me two good reasons."

"I didn't really hire Blake. She kind of forced herself into the job."

Ruby gasped and whirled to look at her. Blake raised an eyebrow back. "You mean she…" Ruby's voice dropped to a whisper. "She employically assaulted you?"

"That's not a word." Blake said.

"You understood what I meant so it's good enough, you… you cheater!"

"How did I…?" Blake sighed. "You know what, no. Jaune, do you want to explain who this is?"

"I'm Ruby Rose. Future ARC Corp Office Director!"

"That's Ruby Rose." Jaune said. "She's a huntress-in-training at Signal."

"And future-"

"And I take it she knows about what we do." Blake said. It was hard to think otherwise given what she was saying. "How did that come around?"

"You remember when I said that incident with you was my second week on the job?"

Blake was not surprised. Morbidly impressed, but not surprised. "You messed up and involved her the same way you did me."

"Actually, she stalked me."

"He was so cool!" Ruby said enthusiastically. "I was out late because Yang – that's my sister; she's in Beacon – dumped me so she could smash up a nightclub. And I was on my way to get some dust when I saw Jaune painting this crazy symbol on a wall in white chalk. I was all like `you know that's not allowed` and he was all `there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this – I'm an indy artist famous for my wall murals`."

Blake looked to Jaune, who shrugged helplessly, as if he couldn't be blamed for so poor an excuse.

"-then I noticed his sword and asked if he was a huntsman and he said yes-" Again, likely because he was just taking any excuse offered to him. "And I asked him if he was working and he said yes, so I wanted to stick around and watch a huntsman at work. That's when the monster appeared!"

"The rest," Jaune interrupted, "is about as you imagine. The anomaly was neutralised and I had to convince Ruby to stay quiet about it all."

"Which I totally have," the girl boasted. "No one knows – not even Yang. But that doesn't change the point!" she accused. "You said I couldn't work for ARC Corp and then you go and hire someone else." Ruby stomped her foot down cutely. "I was first! I claimed dibbs!"

Blake could have said that it wasn't always a matter of first come first served, or she could have excused Jaune by explaining her own circumstances. That seemed so boring, though. She snatched the last muffin from Jaune's desk while he was distracted, sat back and enjoyed her sweet treat and real-time theatre show. Jaune was doing such a poor job of explaining himself and Ruby was having none of it.

"I'm so angry!" she growled. "I need to cool off – I'm using your bathroom."

"Um. Sure?"

Jaune watched the girl stomp off, then wilted.

"Nice work." Blake said. "You're really good at this `keeping anomalies a secret` thing."

"Don't you start," he said. "Ruby makes it sound like I was doing it out in the middle of the street. What sensible person approaches a guy in a suit in a dark alley at midnight scrawling on a wall? And then follows the guy around for the next hour and a half. I was trying to call the night off and go home when the anomaly attacked. By then, it was a little late to try and convince her it was all a dream."

"Couldn't you claim it was a Grimm?"

"To a huntress-in-training? I'd think she'd be the one to know what is Grimm and what isn't."

"Okay, fair point. Then what do we-"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

The scream came from the direction of the bathroom, but also the direction of Jaune's bedroom – where he, for reasons unknown, had let Timothy the monster-spider spent the day. Jaune was on his feet with a "shit" while Blake chased after him. They found the open door and slammed through just as Ruby finished her scream.

The room was empty.

"He's so cuuuuuuute!" The voice came from above and they looked up – Blake's stomach dropping out – to see the anomaly clinging to the ceiling, and Ruby clinging to its neck, dangling above them, with a huge smile on her face. "Can we keep him?"

"Skreee?"

The Guardian Weaver sounded confused.

You and me both, Blake thought.

"First of all, it's not we," Jaune said. "-as you're not a part of ARC Corp. And secondly, yes, he's staying here. Ruby, meet Guardian Weaver. Or Timothy."

"Or `oh my god it's hideous`" Blake murmured.

"He's adorable!" It really wasn't. "And he's so friendly." No, it wasn't. "Who's a handsome boy? You are, yes you are. You're a good little anomaly, aren't you?"

Ruby rubbed the monster's head, and whether it was the motion or her voice, the beast actually appeared to calm down a little. It dropped from the ceiling, bouncing both itself and the girl on Jaune's bed. It then pinned her down and pushed its face close to hers in what, to any sane person, would have been a terrifying threat. The worst part was that Blake knew he – it – was probably just trying to memorise her face from close up so it could recognise her in the future. It had yet to try the same with Blake, which was why it was still alive and not writhing on the floor with Gambol Shroud lodged between its many eyes.

"Awww!" Ruby crooned. "He likes me!"

"He seems to." Jaune agreed.

"You're insane…" Blake rasped. "You're all insane."

/-/

It turned out that Ruby, like Timothy, was something of a pet in the Containments Office. The only difference was that they couldn't let Timothy go, while they couldn't get Ruby to leave. "Nope," she said when Jaune mentioned Signal. "It's a school holiday." When he tried mentioning her father, she said, "Dad's cool with my spending the day in Vale. Besides, I need to get as much experience here as I can for when I apply."

Was the girl purposefully ignoring the hint, or did she honestly not catch it?

"We're not hiring." Jaune said.

"That's what you said before and look at you now!"

"Blake forced herself into the role. I'm still not hiring."

"Okay." Ruby's eyes sparkled. "If you say so."

Watching her flit from spot to spot was almost dizzying. Unlike Blake, she seemed to recognise or know about many of the anomalous objects in the office. She poked and prodded at things without fear, even when Blake still shied away from anything other than the office kettle after several days of work.

"Don't abandon your pets…"

"Ruby." Jaune looked up at the girl as she loomed with her face close to the globe filled with tiny people. "Will you stop deifying yourself?"

"What? It's for a good cause. Besides, I've already got six commandments down and they're all nice things."

"You instituted eating cookies as a form of religious expression."

"See? Making the world – that world – a better place."

"I'm sure their blood sugar levels feel the same way. And you won't be laughing if you kick off a holy war."

That proved a poor choice of words as Ruby's voice echoed sonorously, "Don't do any holy wars!"

"Ruby!"

"What?" she asked, leaning back. "I'm covering my tracks."

"Ruby, we contain anomalies here. We don't influence them. Those people are probably terrified of the giant, floating head that occasionally pushes into their atmosphere to make bizarre demands of them. Leave them be."

No more terrified then when a giant hand came down, gripped their planet and span it with force great enough to shatter civilisation, Blake didn't – and wouldn't – say. She still had nightmares about that. Ruby only grumbled and pulled back, then shot Jaune an ugly look before coming over to her.

"So," she said, smiling brightly. It seemed all anger for Blake having taken her dream job was gone for now. "Isn't it cool working here? You must be having the time of your life. I can't believe how lucky you are."

"I was nearly digested by a murderous piece of real estate."

"See!?" Ruby enthused. "How awesome is that?"

"…"

"I mean, you get to go on cool adventures, fight monsters-"

"Aren't you a huntress in training? Don't you get to do all those things?"

"It's not the same. Grimm are boooring."

Grimm were monsters most evil, and Blake wasn't sure many people would ever refer to them as boring. Come to think of it, there wasn't that much difference between Grimm and other monsters. The Guardian Weaver could even be mistaken for one at a distance.

"Have you been on any cool jobs yet?"

"I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you."

"That's a yes!" Ruby whispered. Jaune was too busy working to hear the excitement in her voice. "Did you get to fight? Did you get to see Jaune fight? He's cool, isn't he? All calm and collected and badass."

"Jaune?" Blake had to look over at him just to make sure they were talking about the same person. She scoffed. "He's anything but badass."

"No way. He was all wazahh! And kazam! And pow-pow!" Ruby made energetic gestures with her hand that were either to signify martial arts or signal an aircraft in to land. It was hard to tell which. "He's like this badass secret agent single-handedly defending the world against evil. It was so cool!"

Another knock came at the door.

"I've got it!" Ruby announced before anyone could stop her. She darted over faster than was humanly possible – a Semblance? – and yanked the door open. "Ruby Rose, ARC Corp Officer Extraordinaire. How can I help you?"

"You're not-" Jaune called.

"Last I checked," a male voice said, "You were a student at Signal, Miss Rose, and working to become a proud huntress like your father, sister and mother."

The man who stepped into the office wore a green suit, had grey-white hair and a cane which tapped on the floor. Blake recognised him. Who wouldn't? This was one of the most powerful men on Remnant. A Headmaster of one of the four great academies of huntsmen. Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon. Blake's jaw dropped, unable to believe someone like this would come to their office.

"Pfttt." Rather than awe, Ruby waved a hand. "Who'd want to become a huntress when they could work here?"

The man's eyes twitched behind his glasses. Blake was sure she didn't mistake that, nor the sudden sweat that appeared on Jaune's face. He laughed awkwardly. "Ruby," he said in a stiff voice. "Let's not put crazy ideas out there. You're a huntress in training."

"Indeed." Ozpin said. "I am very much looking forward to welcoming you to Beacon with your sister in two years' time. Why, I even offered your father the chance for you to enrol early."

"Eh. That's nice and all but-"

"Ruby!" Jaune interrupted her sharply. He yanked out his wallet and a huge wad of money and pushed it into her hands. "Will you do me a favour? Consider it a little part-time work." Her eyes lit up and she let out a high-pitched gasp. "Go down the corner of Walker Street and grab us two cups of coffee. You know my order. Blake likes her plain. Get something for yourself – cookies, I know – and grab a box of muffins as well or Blake will eat your hand off."

Ruby was only too happy to speed away, thrilled to be given a job that at least tangentially made it sound like she was working there. The door flapped shut behind her. Ozpin reached back with one hand to click the lock shut. It was all so fast that Blake wasn't sure if she should have been offended or not about the (accurate) insult Jaune had levelled at her.

"Ruby isn't working here." Jaune said to Ozpin.

"I am aware. We would be having words if you were poaching, Mr Arc. I am looking forward to her attending Beacon like her mother did. I will be… distressed if that does not happen." The man's eyes slid to Blake, and his vaguely threatening tone changed in an instant. "Though a new recruit? I wasn't aware you were hiring."

"Neither was I." Jaune said.

Blake laughed awkwardly.

"I imagine Nicholas is not pleased."

"As pleased as he would be knowing you and I are talking." Jaune replied. He sat back behind his desk while Ozpin drew up a chair using his cane and settled down. Jaune set his fingers together. "So, how about neither of us mention either of these little things."

"Quite. I've come for a reason, Mr Arc, and it's not to trade barbs."

"Oh? Have you given my offer any thought?"

Ozpin laughed. It was a rich sound. "Ever the joker, Mr Arc. No, that's not why I am here. There has been an incident at Beacon that I believe may be anomalous in nature. I would like to hire ARC Corp to contain the anomaly and remove it from the school."

"Awesome." Jaune smiled. "You can handcuff yourself at any point."

Ozpin's smile was tight. "Another anomaly, Mr Arc."

Blake's eyes bulged. "Wait-"

"Yes, Miss-?"

"B-Belladonna."

"Belladonna. Hm. Any relation to Ghira and Kali? I note the ears." When she tensed, the man – anomaly? – chuckled. "Ah, I see I'm on the money there. A pleasure to meet you. Please, ignore Jaune's combative nature. Despite his best efforts, he still does take after his father in some regards. The apple does not fall all too far from the tree when it comes to his attitude toward the anomalous."

"We're ARC Corp." Jaune said. "You're an anomaly. You should be contained."

"The world is different to what it once was, my boy. The old days are gone – and they were not much to look at despite what stories you may have been fed growing up. The good old days, as Nicholas would call it, were just as rife with human suffering."

"At least they weren't rife with dangerous anomalies."

"They were worse. I experienced them."

"If you hadn't started the containment breach-"

"I was not the only one. It was but one site among hundreds, and more due to ARC Corp's unscrupulous methods than any intervention on my part. It was all bound to fall eventually. I merely gave it a little push."

"You let out more after!"

"Necessary anomalies," Ozpin said. "You know they were."

"Necessary because of the others!" Jaune spat. "Light of the Soul should have never been let loose, and now it's infected every single person on Remnant."

"Aura has been invaluable to humanity's survival."

Blake's head flicked between them with each clipped line. Containment breach-? Light of the Soul-? Aura-? "Aura is anomalous?" Blake croaked out.

"Of course it is." Jaune growled, still glaring at Ozpin. "What, you think people being able to expel their literal soul and use it to tank hits is normal? Or that they inherit completely random lotteries of physics-breaking abilities because of it? Light of the Soul is in every human on Remnant now. There's no stopping it."

"It's harmless." Ozpin said. "Better yet, it's an advantage. Mr Arc, like much of his family, sees things in black and white. Anomalies bad; humanity good. He doesn't accept that middle grounds exist." He had a charming smile, one that Blake found herself unable to completely ignore. "I'm sure you agree, Miss Belladonna. We cannot judge an entire species by the actions of a few."

"Of course not-"

"He's a parasitic worm that takes over a host after death, eating their mind and soul and replacing it with his own."

Jaune's sudden depiction had Blake grimacing and rearing back from the headmaster, who turned to shoot Jaune an unimpressed little glare. Suddenly, that smile wasn't quite so charming.

"You always did have a way with words. Should I share secrets of my own? I have quite a few that you wouldn't like coming out. No? Very well, I will show maturity where you will not. There have been incidents at Beacon. Rooms are being entered late at night; doors bypassed. This would not be such a problem if it wasn't the dorms of students that are being accessed. Someone, or something, is accessing my students against their will."

Jaune still looked angry, but he managed to grit out, "Anyone hurt?"

"Not yet."

"Any correlation between the rooms?"

"Yes." Ozpin slid a file onto the desk. "Here are the details. So far, it looks like most any room or team is targeted, but after delving deeper I was able to notice a worrying trend. Teams that are all-male are never approached."

"Mixed teams are?"

"Mixed teams and all-female teams. This has been going on a week and a half now. I've spent that time installing security, setting the faculty to watching, and even prowling the halls at night myself looking for the one responsible. All to no avail. I fear the perpetrator is undetectable."

"An invisible monster?" Blake guessed.

"No." Jaune and Ozpin spoke in unison. Jaune didn't look happy about that, but Ozpin smiled and waved for him to continue. Jaune did grudgingly. "An anomalous creature shouldn't be picking and choosing like that. Even the Guardian Weaver would have investigated every room it could. Let me guess, the most common are all-female teams?"

Ozpin nodded. "Indeed."

"Great." Jaune sat back. "Then it sounds like we have a tiple-A case."

Blake cleared her throat.

Jaune caught on. "Triple-A stands for Abuse of Anomalous Artefact and is when a human finds and decides to use an anomaly – usually a non-sapient, item-based anomaly - to their advantage," he explained. "Like the camera. Sometimes they keep it quiet, sometimes they try and sell it on the black market to make some quick money, and sometimes they're stupid enough to play around with it, activate video mode and completely kill themselves because they didn't know that camera that ages you a minute every shot might have different properties when recording video – like aging you a minute every frame of a 60fps recording. Either way, it's bad because not only does it threaten to reveal anomalies to the world, but the person using the item almost never understands the consequences of using it. Ozpin, have any of the girls been…" He winced as he said it, "assaulted…?"

Blake's eyes widened as the implication set in.

"No. Though I fear it is a `not yet` if the matter isn't dealt with. Will you take the case?"

"Of course we will. ARC Corp comes down on anomaly abuse hard, and we won't ignore people in danger just because you're there. The question is, if this is what we think and a student is using it, what is to be their fate?"

"Expulsion. If they are doing what I believe they are, nothing less will suffice. Don't worry about what they might say. The official story will be edited that their Semblance gave the same effect, then they will be jailed for their crimes. I've prepared a similar cover for the two of you," he went on. "Officially, you are being hired as Private Investigators. That is what the students and faculty will be told. The Council are ready to corroborate the story if you need them to."

The Council-? The more this went on, the less confident she was that anomalies were a secret at all. ARC Corp had government support – or government interference. One was worse than the other.

"We'll take the job." Jaune said. "We'll be there tomorrow."

"Thank you." Ozpin stood with a sigh and reached for his cane. "I'm pleased you've agreed, Mr Arc. Whatever you may think of me and what I did, I'd rather deal with you than your father." He chuckled. "I'd like that Beacon stay standing after this is all over. Your father would be anything but subtle."

"And the last time he was in Vale, he tried to kill you."

Ozpin laughed. "That too. I'm afraid I have work far too important to complete before I die for good, Mr Arc. The Grimm for one. Good day to you – and yourself as well, Miss Belladonna. I look forward to seeing you in Beacon."

The door clicked shut behind him.

"I have questions." Blake said instantly.

Jaune sighed and sat down. "When do you not? Okay, hit me."

"The Government knows?"

"Inevitable as technology got better and better. Sometime before I was born, a Director of ARC Corp realised it would be impossible to keep things hidden for much longer and started bringing the various kingdoms on board. Ironically, that was made easier by Ozpin. He likes to keep his fingers in all the pies. I'm not sure how it was all handled, but nowadays the Governments of the four kingdoms know and the head of any elected group is also informed along with a select few others."

"And they don't cause problems?"

"Not when they're made aware of the consequences of such." Jaune noticed her panic and rolled his eyes. "No, I don't mean us killing them. I mean the consequences of anomalies going crazy. They're powerful people and they don't like it when other people have power. Politicians always like things to be stable, so they're fine with us rounding up anomalies. We're partially tax-funded now, and we also have… not diplomatic immunity but sort of diplomatic obscurity. They pretend we don't exist, let us get away with things as long as it's out of sight and we can fudge our way through a lot of laws. Not big ones like murder or tax-fraud-"

"Of course that would count as a big law to the government."

"-but freedom of movement, needing a search warrant, etc, those don't apply to us so much. Basically, they'll let us get away with stuff as long as we don't abuse it. And as long as we're useful."

She supposed that was a good enough explanation. "Things really aren't as secret as I thought they'd be. And aura is an anomaly-? What happened there?"

"Light of the Soul is an anomaly that Ozpin intentionally released from containment." Jaune forced out. "He can make any number of excuses about how necessary that was but let me cut off nine-tenths of them by saying that Brother's Grimm are anomalous as well, so every time he says `it was for the greater good` you can ignore him. There were no Grimm to face when he released Light of the Soul."

Blake's head was spinning. Grimm were-? Okay, now that she put two braincells to it she couldn't help but wonder how she hadn't made that connection before. If a big spider was an anomalous creature, then how did she not think huge monsters with bone-plates, who dissolved into dust and didn't need to eat, sleep or reproduce were? In hindsight, kind of obvious.

"I thought the whole point of ARC Corp was to keep things secret."

"It's to try." Jaune said. He looked and sounded tired. "That doesn't always work out. Sometimes an anomaly is too big to hide, or it goes out of control and is exposed before we get a chance to stop it. We try our best but sometimes our best isn't good enough. I should explain the classification system. Have you noticed it?"

"I noticed on some of the reports you used words like Rumour Classanomaly." Mainly when referring to the Guardian Weaver.

"Those are the ones. We assign threat ratings to anomalies."

"Given the name, I imagine this isn't threat to life or human society."

"No. We used to, but that made people not take some anomalies seriously just because they were a low rating. Any anomaly can be dangerous. The threat rating now represents the threat of an anomaly breaking through the curtain and exposing itself. Basically, how worried do we have to be that it'll blow the lid."

"The lowest rating is Rumour Class," he continued. "Anomalies that are pretty much rumour, never heard of or not known. Again, these could be hyper dangerous. Maybe the reason they're unknown is because they have a one hundred per cent fatality rate and no one survives. Or maybe they kill no one and stay hidden that way. The next up is Folklore Class. This is when they're talked about in small circles, online or referenced in old myths. Anomalies that have begun to have stories about them exist, even if most people don't tale them seriously. The next stage up is Urban Legend. This is when we start to worry. Urban legends are the kinds of thing a lot of people the whole world over might have heard about. No one believes them yet, or not seriously, but they're well-known even if it's as a silly story or mythological creature."

"Like the fairy tale of the wizard and the maidens?"

"Yes." Jaune said flatly. His eye twitched. "Like that. It's all bad from there on up. The next stage is Mythic Class anomalies. This is bad. This is when an anomaly is well-known, accepted and maybe even some people are starting to think they're real. Think aliens or ghosts here. Sure, most people don't believe in them, but some do, and even if you don't, there probably isn't a person on Remnant who doesn't recognise the concept of a ghost. They're mythic class because they're so widely known and culturally accepted that we can't even try and conceal them anymore – instead, we try to frame them as myths. We go after Mythic Class anomalies as hard as we possibly can. They are one good video recording away from being proven true."

"Is aura Mythic class?"

"No. Light of the Soul is a Reality Class anomalous entity." Jaune breathed out harshly. "Reality Class is the final level. It's also where we've failed. When an anomaly is discovered, proven or breaks out of the realm of make-believe and into people's lives."

"It wins?"

"Not necessarily. Sometimes a Reality Class anomaly is still a threat and we kill it – or it's a threat to other people and they kill it. We've failed our mission objective at that point, though. The anomaly is real. People know."

"Then how are the existence of other anomalies kept secret? If things like aura and Grimm came out of nowhere, surely people should have started thinking other ones are true as well."

"No. That's why they're called Reality Class. We don't try and hide them when they reach that level. Instead, we try and explain them away. This is where having the governments on side helps. Light of the Soul was portrayed as the manifestation of humanity's fighting spirit. The soul – something we'd always had – finally understood and, with training, able to be manifested outside the body. It sounds stupid but consider that you fully believed it normal up until today. Same for Grimm. You accepted them as a perfectly normal part of Remnant."

"I… I guess…"

She didn't like the way that sounded, like she was so gullible as to believe everything she was told. And yet, well, hadn't she been? Everyone grew up learning about aura and knowing it was something all people had. Everyone grew up learning about Grimm as though they were just any other wild animal. No one question it anymore, and she had to wonder how much of that was ARC Corp's work and how much was human nature to try and normalise things they couldn't understand.

"There are more Reality Class anomalies than you realise." Jaune said. "ARC Corp has been trying to fix things for hundreds of years. Things slip by. Some by accident, some because we couldn't stop them in time and some intentionally by the actions of others. Once they do, instead of trying to hide them, we do our best to make people believe they were always there and are perfectly normal. We let that anomaly go so that we can try and keep thousands more hidden."

Blake was left to sit back and ponder that, to wonder how many anomalies were things she took for granted. "Should I be worried?"

"It's too late to worry about them."

"No, I mean about Light of the Soul. What does it do?"

"No one knows." Jaune said. That didn't calm her down any. "The things you call aura and semblances are side-effects that benefit the wielder – Ozpin isn't wrong about those. I imagine that's just Light of the Soul wanting to keep its hosts alive. Maybe it eats away at your real soul, slowly devouring it, or maybe it uses humans as vessels to breed inside of and spread to others. I don't know. I wouldn't worry too much about it in your case," he said breezily. "There's not much you can do to escape it now. It's Reality Class. We have to accept it's a part of the world we have to deal with now. Well, you do." Jaune added. "I don't have it."

"Your aura isn't unlocked?"

"No. I don't have Light of the Soul. Even if you tried to unlock my aura, there'd be nothing there."

Blake didn't know what to make of that, and Ruby's arrival with fresh drinks and muffins didn't help her any, either. Before she had much of a chance to come to terms with any of it, Jaune told her to take the rest of the day off to pack and prepare for Beacon.

"Can I come?" Ruby asked.

"Do you work here?"

"Not yet…"

"Then not yet is the answer." Jaune said. "Sorry, Ruby, but I meant it when I said ARC Corp isn't hiring. Blake was an odd case and outside my control. You can try again when you're of age, but I couldn't take you on now even if I wanted to."

The young girl opened her mouth to complain, then closed it. Though Jaune missed it, too busy getting ready for Beacon, Blake caught the sly look Ruby sent her way, and the shrewd little smile that appeared on her face. "Okay," she said innocently. "I guess that makes sense. I'm only fifteen, so you couldn't hire me legally anyway."

"That's right. I'm sorry."

"Can I come around and look after Timothy? I could be a pet-sitter."

Jaune made to say no, then paused. "You know what, I wouldn't say no to that. I'm not having as easy a time convincing him to like me. He's only just started trusting me enough to eat from my hand, and that's probably because he was hungry."

"What does he eat?"

"Hopes and dreams." Blake said.

"Crickets and mealworms." Jaune countered. "And other small insects."

"Cool." Ruby didn't seem to mind. "I can come down and look after him. Can you sign this for me, though?" She presented a piece of paper from behind her hood and placed it on the table.

Jaune picked it up carefully. "A Signal permission form?"

"It's a work experience form." Ruby rocked back and forth on her heels as she said it, still smiling innocently. Too innocently. "I was supposed to try and find somewhere in Vale to get work experience with for a week."

"And you came here. Were you going to try and trick me into signing it?"

"No."

"Ruby…"

"Maybe." she admitted. "But if you let me do work experience here for a week, I won't, and I can look after Timothy and the other anomalies, and you can just say I'm working as a receptionist, taking calls and fetching coffee. Please!" she begged. "I'm bad at talking to people and I'm expected to go knock on random shops and ask for work experience. Let me work here, Jaune, pleeeeeeae!"

`I can be useful` the girl seemed to beg. Blake wasn't sure why she was so desperate to work here given how the job fluctuated from mind-numbing boredom to mind-numbing terror. Maybe it was because she hadn't experienced it properly. If she gave it a go and saw how boring it really was, she might not be as interested. Blake could see the same thoughts going through Jaune's head as his hand hovered over the paper holding a pen. He looked to her of all people. Blake shrugged back. It was his call.

"Only a week." Jaune finally said, scratching his signature down. "And it's work experience only. You're not an ARC Corp member."

"Eeeeeeee!" Ruby cheered. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Ruby rushed up, hugged him, snatched the form back and shot out the door at sixty miles an hour.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Probably."

We don't actually get to go to Beacon this chapter – that's next chapter. Here, I wanted to drop a little AU world lore (since this is different to canon Remnant) and also explain the good old rating system that every anomaly-based story inevitably has. Euclid, Keter, etc for SCP or Zayin, Aleph, Waw for Lobotomy Corp/Library of Ruina.

They're slightly different for ARC Corp in that, since the company has given up on being able to actively contain or research them all, the ratings are now solely based on how well known they are or how much at threat of becoming exposed they are.

Rumour, Folklore, Urban Legend, Mythic and Reality.

In real world examples of each, you might have the following. All are "mostly not believed in" but the rating comes from how well-known the myths are, ergo – how recognisable the anomaly would be if it was seen.

Rumour: Very unknown, obscure or forgotten stuff – Selkie, Hippocampus, Amarok

Folklore: Regional, better known but still not commonly so - Pegasus, Yuki-Onna, etc…

Urban Legend: Commonly known but not universally - Slenderman, dragons, mermaids

Mythic: Universally known and even believed by some - Ghosts, aliens, Bigfoot

Reality: No real-world examples obviously – maybe imagine "dinosaurs" the first time they were ever discovered, and when people were shocked and disbelieving.

Next Chapter: 16th May

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