Notice:
There will be no updates from 13th – 19th June inclusive of both days. I'm away at an expo and stuck going out with clients pretty much every night. Going to be exhausted, overworked and drunk or hungover whenever I'm not. I'll be back 20th June to write as normal.
There is anomaly here that is a homage to Library of Ruina. Players will know it, and they will dread it, but for everyone else… let's just say I toned it down. A lot. It was so much worse in the game. I'm only using it here as it's a reference and not one they'll face. I'm obviously doing my best to make the ones Jaune and Blake face as original and interesting as I can.
Cover Art: Kirire
Chapter 8
Ruby had not, in fact, aged herself two years via the usage of an anomalous camera. Blake found herself somewhat impressed when Ruby was appalled at the mere idea she might have, saying that she couldn't very well join ARC Corp if she went and abused anomalies herself. It was a mature and important statement that Ruby immediately ruined by saying, "Besides, I'd still be fifteen legally. It wouldn't change anything. I'd just look older."
"Is it that which stopped you abusing the camera or the first one?" Jaune asked.
Ruby grinned. "Whichever sounds better."
Blake had snorted at the ballsy answer, listening with half an ear as Ruby did her best to impress Jaune with all the things she'd done in his absence. She'd taken calls, promised to have someone call two people back, collected the mail, fed Timothy and even played with the evil thing, which went to explaining why it was currently looming over the back of Ruby like a horrific demon out of hell. Rubbing its icky, icky face on Ruby's cheek and touching her with its creepy appendages. Blake shuddered and not for the first time asked herself if Ruby wasn't anomalous by sheer virtue of finding it cute.
That the thing had been visibly sad to see her go didn't do much to evoke sympathy in Blake's withered anti-six-foot-spider heart. It could act as cute as it wanted; it was still a walking abomination taller than she was. To her immense relief, Jaune had offered to write down the report on the Blank Slate so that she could have the evening off. After spending a whole day in Beacon interviewing students, staying up late, being ambushed in a shower and then cutting the hand of a pervert, she took the generosity and ran with it.
Two hours later found her lounging on her sofa flicking through TV channels dressed in her sleeping yukata after a hot bath and with the remnants of a pizza takeout cooling in the fridge, the rest of it in her stomach. Maybe she should have invited Jaune to share. Maybe she would next time. For tonight though, she just wanted to laze around and relax. The TV didn't help, even though it was currently covering the event at Beacon. Sanitised, of course. Their reference to it was simply mentioned as a throwaway "thanks to private investigators hired by the headmaster" and their names weren't even brought up. She might have felt offended if she wasn't sure she was supposed to be pleased about it. Secrecy and all that. Plus, the last thing they needed was people hiring them as personal investigators. It'd be weird if their cover started intruding on the job like that.
Most of it was about the horror of a Semblance-abusing pervert in Beacon, questions on what and how Ozpin would prevent that in the future, and then letting idiots on social media chip in with their bad takes and thinly veiled racism. Of course the perpetrator was a faunus. Had to be. Never mind that no one could even tell what they were. Blake turned the TV off and slumped back with a sigh. Despite her best efforts, she'd never been and never would be a lazy person. It sounded great in theory – sit around; do nothing – but her mind was always too active. That was why she was so into reading, because it was one of the few ways she could distract herself from all the crud in the world.
Instead, she wondered. Wondered what Adam and the White Fang were doing; wondered whether she should be involved in that emotionally or physically; wondered how her parents were and whether things were awkward between them and Sienna, or if Sienna even knew or cared that she'd run away. More than any of that, Blake wondered if she should call them. Her family, that was. Not Adam or Sienna. Their last moments together hadn't been great. Mostly because they'd warned her Adam wasn't good for her and the White Fang didn't need to be violent, and she'd called them all kinds of names she wished she could take back.
Mom's just going to go on about how she told me he was bad news, and dad will do his brooding statue routine nodding in the background.
Then they'd want to know about her job and Jaune – ugh, Jaune. For once, her despair over him wasn't his fault. It was more that they'd look at her leaving Adam and shacking up with another guy and make assumptions, and then things would be doubly awkward. It probably wouldn't help that both Jaune and Adam wore suits, were cagey about their jobs and carried swords around. They'd start thinking she had a `type` or something, even if comparing Adam and Jaune was like comparing a Beowolf to a Labrador.
She knew it was all just excuses. Excuses not to call, excuses not to put herself out, excuses not to admit she was wrong, deal with the emotions or struggle with questions like what she was going to do next or whether she was going to visit.
"I'll think about it tomorrow…"
The same conclusion she always came to, and just another excuse. She knew she wouldn't and secretly hoped a fresh anomaly would show up just to distract her from having to. Just knowing that annoyed her, both annoyed at herself and annoyed for feeling bad when it was her life to live. The last crust of pizza hit the far wall, dropped to the carpet and sat there tauntingly until she got up, plodded over and put it in the trash. A couple of flies buzzed around it, a reminder that she hadn't emptied it since Monday. The dumpster was ground floor and she was in her yukata however, so she snagged some fly spray and sprayed that over the trash can instead and stumbled off to bed, wondering when she'd become such a slob.
Maybe things would look brighter in the morning.
/-/
Things did look brighter come morning. Too bright. Blake glared at an overly happy dogwalker who went by as she carted her trash bag out in the morning and hurled it into the dumpster. He waved and made to say something, only to catch her morning pre-coffee eyes and wisely decide he had somewhere else to be.
The world made a little more sense after she stopped by a local café called Leery's for some breakfast and a cup of coffee. It was a nice place, quaint and quiet and run by a faunus, who, by some cruel twist of genetic fate, had inherited sharp eagle's eyes which were slanted into a perpetual leer, hence the name. It might have been why the place was so empty. Some humans had notions that faunus weren't hygienic in the hospitality industry because they could get fur in drinks. As if humans couldn't do the same with hair. It was just so much nonsense and so typical that no one batted an eye at it anymore, and the café owner didn't look surprised at all to see her ears. She'd wager most his patrons were faunus at this point.
"The usual, Blake?"
"Hmm. Please. Can I get the coffee quick?"
The man chuckled and poured some out, sliding it across to her. Blake took it with a happy sound. His odd eyes weren't a problem once you realised he wasn't staring at you. The man had a wife and three children who had inherited feathers instead – avoiding their father's creepy eyes. "You look like you need it, girl. Busy at work?"
"Tough week."
"That boss of yours isn't giving you trouble, is he?"
"Jaune?" Blake was sure her amusement at the mere idea was answer enough. The thought of Jaune trying to abuse her was hilarious, if only because she wasn't sure he'd know where to begin or be able to without wringing his hands nervously. That wasn't exactly a bad thing, amusing or no. "No, he's a pretty good boss – don't tell him I said that. Doesn't care what I am. It's just been one of those weeks where anything that can go wrong will."
"I know what those are like. I just want to close the café and sleep through them myself. Your boss seems alright for a rich human if he's hiring you and not causing issues. Those with `old money` are usually worse."
The faunus talked as he flipped bacon on a grill, the smell wafting to Blake's nostrils and making her sigh happily. The soft clink of forks on plates from other customers echoed behind them. It didn't surprise her that they thought Jaune came from rich stock. For one, he did, and two, Jaune would probably go with it if only to have a convenient excuse. He dressed so fancily and spent money so freely that he was either a billionaire entrepreneur – unlikely in a small office in a cheap part of the city – or he was the son of a rich couple who was trying to slum it on his own to prove something to his family and wasn't doing a very good job of it. Blake knew which she'd have believed in Leery's shoes.
"What is it you guys do again?" he asked.
"This and that." Blake said. "We're specialist consultants. Or he is. I'm the hired help. We get called out to try and help other big business deal with problems, then we fade away into obscurity after."
"Long as he's paying you fair and treating you right, girl." Leery – if that was his name; Blake hadn't asked, he hadn't said, and now she felt too embarrassed to say it and get it wrong – turned and laid the bacon out on a clean plate alongside two slices of thick toast and a runny egg, then spooned out some mushrooms and baked beans. It wasn't healthy by any means, but she was active enough to burn the calories, and given the shit she'd seen of late, heart disease didn't seem like a likely way to go out. "Enjoy."
Finding a seat by the window to sit down at, Blake let the sunlight through the thin glass warm her face as she ate. Mom used to say she sought out those spots to bask like the lazy kitten she was, but the reality was that she'd rather have found a dark and shady corner to read. The point of sitting here was to force her body to accept it was time to get up and move, and not slink back into bed to sleep until noon. Blake yawned again, closing her eyes as the powerful urge took over and even caused a poor faunus in a nurse's uniform a few seats down to yawn with her. Huh. Maybe yawns were anomalous – or at least the phenomenon that made them so contagious. The thought was amusing even as she wondered if she wasn't right. There could be so many Reality Class anomalies out there that she and everyone else took for granted.
Aura and Semblances were one – Light of the Soul – but she found herself wondering about the others. It was hard to think of anything because the descriptor of `strange or unusual` didn't work when you'd grown up your whole life accepting something as normal. Aura might have sounded crazy in a vacuum, but everyone knew what it was. Everyone had it. You grew up in schools learning about it as if it were as normal as gravity, death and taxes. The others would be on the same level, wouldn't they? Totally explained away and culturally accepted, only to be bizarre when you dug deeper. Trying to identify them was like doing a spot the difference puzzle while not having the original image to hand and having to figure out what was different by contextual clues. Simply put, it was close to impossible.
Dust was her first and major suspicion, and not because it, itself, was unusual. Dust was fuel and all of Remnant used it – it was as understood and accepted as burning firewood. No, the reason she suspected was because of what she'd learned about the Schnee family and how they sought to profit off anomalies. They sold them at auctions from what little she'd been able to get – Jaune hadn't been forthcoming on details – but she could gather that much. Thing was, would they really sell an anomaly that was a renewable source of money? Why not use it themselves? The SDC were famous for their near monopoly on dust mining and their total monopoly on dust refining, which meant that it was either dust itself that was anomalous, or dust was normal and the process by which it was refined into a useable fuel was the anomaly.
It raised the question of why ARC Corp let them get away with that, and why they were still around. There was bad blood there obviously, and she couldn't say she disagreed with it after finding out the Blank Slate was sold at one of their auctions. All those people who suffered, including the victim, all for a little lien. It was pathetic. The Schnee family were already fabulously rich, so she had to wonder if they weren't just selling anomalies for fun at this point. That thought only annoyed her further and she dug into her breakfast angrily. The Schnee family had long since been a sore point for faunus and the White Fang, and just because she disagreed with Adam's turn to absolute murder didn't mean she'd lost all her sympathies for her brothers and sisters in arms.
The door in front of her table opened with a ring of the bell. Two women entered. Their bright red coats edged with gold caught her eyes as easily as they would have anyone's with such vibrant colours. One of them had blonde hair tied into a singular braid, while the other was a dark-skinned woman with red-framed glasses and shoulder-length black hair. Blake only saw the backs of them as they walked up to the main counter. Their red coats had gold stitching at the bottom, metallic and reflective, with swirling patterns like clouds or hoops working up the bottom three or four inches. The coats were long enough to reach to the backs of their knees. The blonde's coat had white fur lining the bottom and her high collar, while the other was without. Blake's eyes locked onto the large rifle case slung over the shoulder of the dark-haired one. It was wrapped up, sealed, but there was no mistaking the weapon for anything else. Luckily, the woman kept it slung over one shoulder, one of her hands gripping the strap as it came around the front.
Leery looked worried as he talked to them and Blake sipped her coffee quietly. Were they local mafia come to extort money? She hadn't been in Vale long enough to get a feel for what was going on under the lid. She'd heard of Roman Torchwick – who hadn't with that loud guy? – but the more dangerous, organised crime was still a mystery. Blake gently pushed her aura to the fore, tensing her legs in case they caused trouble.
The moment she did, the one with the rifle turned, almost as if Blake had sounded an air horn in the quiet café. The woman's eyes scanned the room, located her and narrowed. Blake's did so as well. The woman wore a black suit under her red coat, her hands sticking out the ends, one holding the strap and the other free. They locked eyes for a moment, Blake keeping her nerve while the other woman's head tilted just a few degrees.
That's right. I'm a huntress. You don't want to start trouble with the faunus with me watching.
It was broken as the blonde turned and touched a hand to the woman's elbow. Unlike her friend, she wore her coat over her shoulders but not with her arms through the sleeves. A quick whisper was exchanged and then the two were marching away. The dark-haired one kept an eye on Blake as they did, shielding the blonde from any potential harm as they left the establishment. Leery came to collect her plates a moment later.
"Who were they?" Blake asked.
"Beats me," he replied, his voice quiet. "Near scared me to death they did walking in like that."
"What did they want?"
"Directions, apparently. They were lost. That was it. Left me a little tip as well. Odd pair," he said. "Their accents were off, too. Foreigners. Most likely Mistral given that get-up. They like their bright colours and gold stitching over there. Pretentious lot, those Mistralians can be."
Blake finished up and left a generous tip for her fellow faunus before heading out. It was twenty to nine already, and while Jaune wasn't finicky about whether she showed up early, on time or late, she didn't want to push matters by making it a habit. There wasn't much excuse when she lived in the same apartment block either. A quick jog back had her back to the block with fifteen minutes to spare.
Time enough for her use her own bathroom, check her hair and make sure she looked presentable. Her wardrobe was looking a little fuller of late, though most of the purchases were still in their wrappers. There hadn't been much time, reason or desire to go out and mingle, but it made her feel more normal to have the option. The spare suits Jaune ordered hadn't arrived yet either but given their cost and the fact they were tailor-made, she expected that was normal. With a final glass of water, Blake let herself out her apartment, locked the door and made the short journey along the same floor to the Containments Office. Really, she'd have loved a floor between her and Jaune. Well, between her and Timothy. Jaune wasn't the issue and wasn't as prone to crawling along the ceiling at her mistaking her for Ruby and thinking she was up for cuddles. The thing was lucky to still be alive.
She reached the Containments Office with two minutes to spare, pushed the handle down and stepped inside with a loud, "Jaune. I'm here. Any news…" Four people turned to look at her and Blake's words trailed off helplessly.
Those two from Leery's, she thought immediately. It was the same blonde and brunette, though the blonde was now stood in front of Jaune's desk with her hands on the wood, and the brunette had balanced her weapon against the nearest wall. There was another too, a girl closer to her age in a black suit and the same red and gold coat reaching down to their knees. The other girl had pale skin, green eyes and hair an even brighter shade of red tied into a singular ponytail. Her face was familiar. Familiar enough to jog that horrible `I know this person; how do I know this person` thought in her mind.
Jaune, her boss, looked downright beleaguered, and frankly thrilled to see her. "Blake!" he cheered, cheering up like a man who'd finally found the distraction he'd been looking for – or the perfect human shield. "Have you met my sisters? Come on, I'll introduce you!"
Sisters. Siblings. ARC Corp. Blake swallowed, even as she thought that it explained their black suits and bright coats. Honestly, she ought to have suspected it when she saw them, but it wasn't like ARC Corp had the monopoly on formal wear.
"Jaune." The blonde girl's voice was rich, soft, but also firm. Jaune flinched. "I was not finished talking."
"Ahah. But isn't it rude not to introduce her?"
"Ruder still to interrupt."
Jaune was wringing his gloved hands together, which didn't bode well for her safety. She'd been dreading a visit from his father for his so-called test. Had they come early? If so, she wasn't ready. Stay calm. Make eye contact. Offer hand. Treat it like a job interview. Blake took a step forward and stuck out her hand. "Blake Belladonna."
The blonde looked at her hand like it was a snake.
"Terra Cotta-Arc." The brunette stepped up quickly to take and shake her hand, either taking pity on her or just hating the awkward atmosphere. "Officer of the Fist Office. This is Director Saphron Arc of the Fist Office, and Associate Director of ARC Corp itself. This is our protégé and junior officer, Pyrrha Nikos."
The girl – Pyrrha Nikos; how had she not realised? The girl was practically world famous – smiled and nodded politely. "A pleasure to meet you."
"Father warned me you'd taken in a stray." Saphron said to Jaune while looking Blake up and down. The clear dismissal in her tone was unmissable and Blake scowled. Jaune did, too, to his credit. "I assume you know she will be tested. You're too inexperienced to be taking people on and there are proper channels for this."
"It's my office, Saph."
"I can tell." Her eyes finally left Blake to sneer at the surroundings. It took Blake a second to realise it wasn't the décor but the anomalies. "You always were too soft, Jaune. Keeping anomalies out on display? Don't tell me Coral got to you as well. It's hard enough dealing with the Secrets Office and their proclivity for embracing the anomalous. We don't need a second."
"We're Containments. I'm containing them. I'm not using them."
"The best way to contain anomalies is to destroy them."
"This is my office!" Jaune repeated. "Which means it's my rules."
"We're well aware, Jaune." The other woman, Terra, spoke in a kinder voice. "Saphron isn't challenging your authority; she's just making her feelings clear. You know she worries about you. Why, on the way here, she wouldn't stop talking about-"
"Terra." Saphron sounded… not annoyed, but tense.
"Oops." Terra smiled. "Have I embarrassed you?" The glare said she had. "Well then, maybe you're embarrassing me by being so combative to another Director. Did that ever cross your mind? How you act reflects on the Fist Office and on me, Saphron. I have feelings too."
There was more than just an employee and their employer there. Blake wasn't afraid to call Jaune out, but that was because she knew it didn't bother him. It clearly did Saphron, especially in front of Jaune, which meant there was more to Terra's confidence than simple job security. Being embarrassed by someone wasn't usually such a big deal either, except when it fell onto you because they were your… Oh. Blake scanned the women's hands and found the rings. Oh, that explained it.
"It is your office." Saphron eventually said, looking away from her wife as silent apology. "Even if I disagree on the fundamentals, it's up to father to ultimately decide whether you can keep running it. I… apologise for criticising you. But I'll tell you now, Jaune, he wasn't pleased to hear you'd hired someone like this."
"Tell me something I don't know…" Jaune grumbled.
"The Twilight City is moving."
Jaune's jaw dropped. He obviously hadn't expected her to say anything, let alone that, and whatever it was had him shaking his head. "No. It's contained. It's-" He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and physically steadied himself. "What's happening?"
"As of yet, nothing we know. Father is checking it out."
"Alone!?"
"Yes." The woman frowned. "I'm not any happier about that, but he wouldn't accept anyone going with him. Amber is staying with Lavender while he does. He called me to explain and to set policy in case he doesn't make it back. I'm to be ARC Corp's next Director."
She didn't look pleased with the possible promotion.
"I'm sorry." Jaune said.
"He isn't dead yet and that's not why I'm here."
"Why are you?" Jaune asked. "No offence; you're always welcome. I just, are things so okay in Argus that you can afford to leave it? Did you come all the way here just to tell me off for hiring Blake? You could have done that over a scroll."
"No to both. I read your report about the Blank Slate and its connection to the Schnee family. I'm here about that." She crossed her arms. "I don't discount your theories on it, but I want to see for myself the Schnee emblem. Better safe than sorry. You understand."
"Of course. I'd appreciate a second opinion anyway. Blake, can you grab it for us?"
"Sure."
She was only too happy to be busy honestly. Blake moved to a far cabinet, unlocked it and then entered in the four-digit code to the safe inside. Pulling that open revealed the metallic briefcase, which she picked out while everyone else watched and carried over to them. She set it on Jaune's desk and stepped back so he could enter the code. Terra and Pyrrha came closer, the latter standing right next to Blake. Their eyes met briefly, and the famous athlete smiled briefly before looking to the anomaly.
What is someone like her doing in ARC Corp? She was world famous last I checked.
The case opened and Jaune turned it around to show them the Blank Slate inside. "Don't touch it," he warned. "Here, you can use this to get a closer look. The mark is under the handle, printed into the leather."
Saphron nodded. "Terra?"
"Of course." Terra took the magnifying glass and looked where Jaune pointed. "I see it. He's right, Saph, it's the Schnee snowflake clear as day. This is an auctioned anomaly."
"Then we have matters to discuss." Saphron's eyes slid back to Blake. "Privately. Pyrrha, keep your peer entertained, won't you? Jaune, with us. This matter is delicate. Do you have somewhere private we can talk?"
"My bedroom-"
Blake coughed meaningfully.
Jaune paled, recalling Timothy. "-is not a suitable place for a meeting."
"I'd say not, Jaune. I don't need to see your dirty underwear." Saphron sighed heavily. "Pyrrha, wait outside please."
"Yes, Associate Director."
Jaune glanced at Blake apologetically. "Blake? Do you mind?"
While she did want to know whatever it was they were talking about, she knew the other two wouldn't say it in front of her. She nodded and stood, following the redhead out the door and letting it close behind them. Blake would have liked to lean against it and try to listen in, but Pyrrha pointedly walked away from the door, forcing her to follow or look suspicious otherwise. Maybe she'd just have to ply this girl for information.
"So, any idea what this is about?"
"Likely the SDC and their auctions." Pyrrha said.
"Do you know much about that?"
The girl smiled lopsidedly. "I was hoping you did. This is the first I've ever had to interact with them and they wouldn't tell me anything."
They were both in the dark then. Great. "The most I've been able to figure out is that they sell anomalies on the black market, and without any care for who they end up with or what they're used for."
"I gathered that myself." Pyrrha said. "I can see why we need to stop them. Unfortunately, I can also see why we can't just go there and force them to stop. The SDC are too powerful and too public. People would ask who we are and why we're doing it."
And why they had Governmental support, and what they were taking down the Schnee family for, and then there was the risk that the Schnee had anomalies on hand to fight back, or that they'd expose the secret or just destroy the evidence. That might include whatever it was that created dust, throwing all of Remnant into a technological dark age. Like it or not, not the SDC and the Schnee family were as good as integral for the world's survival now. Or the SDC is. There's no reason the Schnee family can't be gotten rid of. Blake shook her head. Sometimes the old habits came back and she ended up sounding more and more like Adam.
"How did someone like the Invincible Girl end up working for a shady organisation like this, anyway?" Blake asked. "You say the SDC is public but you're not much better."
"Ahah." The other girl's laugh was embarrassed or nervous. "You're not wrong. I've had plenty of shocked fans and pundits asking me what I'm doing and even trying to look into the company I work for. There were even rumours I'd been blackmailed, and then other people trying to apply just to work alongside me."
"I can't imagine Saphron is happy about either of those things."
"The Associate Director isn't pleased about it, no, but she must have expected it when they recruited me."
Blake's ears twitched. "ARC Corp came to you?"
"Oh yes. They did. To hear from Terra, I was proposed by Associate Director Saphron and then vetted by three independent Directors – Nicholas Arc, Sable Arc and Hazel Arc. Only once they'd done thorough background checks and agreed on my character and capability was the Associate Director allowed to approach me and tell me the truth. And show me," she added. "I didn't believe it at first."
"Who would? I don't think anyone would call you dumb for that."
"I suppose you're right." Her smile returned, eyes crinkling as she talked. "It was quite – no, it was an absolute shock. All these things existing, so much craziness, and no one knows. I couldn't believe some of the things that were anomalous. They invited me to attend a single mission with them to get a feel for what they do. It was… eye-opening."
"Are you allowed to tell me what it is?"
"Of course. You're ARC Corp, too, so you must have been vetted as I was."
"Y-Yeah." Blake cringed in the opposite direction, disguising it as a cough. "Obviously."
That went to explaining why Jaune was getting so much shaft from his old man for hiring her, and why he'd been so hesitant about the hiring process in the first place. I was meant to be vetted and checked over by his super-paranoid family. Which made sense, really, since you wouldn't want to be revealing all this to someone you didn't know you could trust, or who might have loyalties elsewhere. She'd just thought it was a case of Jaune being too inexperienced or her being undesirable for them, but they'd apparently broken some long-standing tradition and HR practice. No wonder his father wanted to come test her as soon as possible. She was lucky he'd been distracted by this Twilight City anomaly. Well, it was too late to worry about that now.
"I was brought out to witness the hunt of an anomaly called The Tunnel of Love."
"That name is so cutesy that I'm instantly convinced it was the worst hell imaginable." Blake said.
"You… wouldn't be wrong…" Pyrrha's shoulders sagged. "It was a tunnel on a water ride that boasted an unusual feature. People believed that new couples who rode it together would instantly find out if their love was true or not. You would come out loving one another deeply, and never wanting to leave one another, or you'd come out arguing and hateful, breaking up almost immediately."
"Mind control?"
"I wish it was just that. The ride would take five minutes. At least on the outside. Inside, it was a temporal anomaly that stretched time out for five years. That's where the test of love came in. If you can live with someone for five years on a tiny boat in the middle of an endless tunnel without losing your mind or coming to hate them, then I guess you know you can handle the rest of your life with them."
"Wouldn't everyone know they lost five years in there? Doesn't seem like it'd stay a secret."
"Oh, that's part two of the anomaly," Pyrrha said with the breezy tone one might use when you desperately wanted to get something over with. "It turns out that rather than just stretch time, the anomaly creates another timeline specifically inside the tunnel. There are two of you. One Pyrrha Nikos going through five minutes in slow motion and the other going through five years. They run parallel. Why, you ask?"
"I didn't ask."
"Neither did I at the time!" Pyrrha said brightly. "But I still got to experience it in all its glory. The anomaly does that because it's marinating you. Preparing you. You see, the anomaly fed off people's heightened emotional states – love, anger, fear, it didn't really matter which – and trapping people in an endless ride for five years obviously causes a lot of tension in the average person. When they reach the end, the end of the tunnel of love, the anomaly appears as a huge creature of flesh, blood and bone and rushes down the end of the tunnel with its mouth open to devour the you that exists in that specific, alternate, timeline. The reason no one remembers coming out is because it collapses the timeline after eating it, devouring your body, soul and memories with it, but there was still a lingering sense of unease left in the people who came out."
"And this lingering sense of unease resulted in people falling in love? What?"
"Terra thinks it's because of how the people reacted to the pressure. Couples that relied on one another, comforted one another or that tried to protect each other came out… well, they didn't survive either, but their lingering memories and feelings for one another were positive, while others were probably people who abandoned each other or even tried to throw the other person in the way of the monster to escape. Even if they didn't remember that, they felt such distrust and betrayal toward one another that the emotions lingered beyond the memories, and their relationships soon fell apart."
Lovely. So, in typical fashion, people had somehow mistaken a tunnel that created and then ate an alternate version of you for some ride that determined whether you were compatible or not. The worst part was that she could see the logic, especially when no one remembered going in and coming out again. It was just horrifying to imagine a lovey-dovey couple going through all that. Also, kind of amazing to see how much the human mind could write off or explain away. Did people really believe all that? They must have to willingly go in. Another question was whether the anomaly knew and put itself out as that to draw victims, or if it wasn't just a coincidence on its part. A monster devouring human emotion probably didn't understand the culture and nuance behind it any more than they did the culture of cows that became beef.
"Wait, if it devours the riders and their memories then how do you remember this all happened?"
Pyrrha blushed. "I… killed it. Well, we killed it. The three of us rode it, me feeling very awkward between the two of them, but when the ride took two hours and we weren't any closer to the end, I realised they were telling the truth. When it appeared, we were all so done with the tunnel and the ride that we just opened up and slaughtered it. Turns out it wasn't that strong, but then most people don't enter a tunnel of love armed to the teeth."
"Fancy that. I assume you went in late at night when there were no witnesses."
"Yes. My first job was breaking into a theme park. And I tell you now, I will never look at them the same way again. I spent five years in there."
"You don't look any older."
"When the creature died, the timelines snapped back together. I – the older me? – ceased to exist, but the memories I'd gained weren't eaten like normal, so I was back at seventeen but I remembered everything in excruciating detail. Five years on a tiny swan boat on two-foot high water."
"That must have been uncomfortable."
Pyrrha glared at her. "Five years on a swan boat with a married couple."
"Okay, now that sounds worse." Being the third wheel for that long might as well be torture. "At least they came out of it still married. That means they trusted and relied on one another."
"They did. And I relied on them. There was no hunger in there, so we didn't have to eat, but there was time aplenty. Time for me to hear and learn a lot about ARC Corp. By the time I came out, after we'd killed the thing, to find only five minutes had passed…" She shook her head. "I couldn't turn the job offer down. Knowing those things existed, and what they do to people, after seeing it with my own eyes. What is being famous compared to that? What is being a Huntress compared to that? If I didn't do this, no one else would."
"And it didn't bother you leaving it all behind?"
"The fame wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I was hoping for something new when I applied to Beacon, but this…? This is everything I could have asked for." She smiled. "I do good work, I help people, Saphron and Terra don't care about who I was before, and all my adoring fans and the sponsors and stalkers are just confused and can't bother me. It's great here."
"Aside from the nightmarish horrors and nearly being eaten alive."
Pyrrha sighed. "Aside from that, yes. What was your first?"
"Sentient fleshy house that lured people inside to eat them. Tried to eat me and Jaune."
"Oh my. Did you kill it?"
"Yes. Judiciously. With fire."
"Good." She nodded. "I was a little unsure what to think of you at first."
"Me?" Blake asked. Pyrrha sounded so polite that she didn't want to believe it was because she was a faunus. "What about me?"
"I'm sorry, I meant the Containments Office," she explained. "Your Director. Jaune. I'd heard a little about him from Associate Director Saphron of course, but… keeping them alive? Letting anomalies exist. That seems so reckless."
"They're not all devouring monsters." Blake pointed out. "Some aren't even alive at all."
"I know. I'm just… Isn't it best to get rid of them so that people can't abuse them either? Like the SDC does. It would be better in my mind if every anomaly on Remnant was rounded up and destroyed."
Given what she'd seen of the Blank Slate, Blake would have agreed, but then she'd also seen less dangerous ones like Timothy, the camera and the globe. And yes, Timothy was a monster of horrific proportions, but he wasn't evil. There were more out there too. Ozpin. Did Pyrrha know that he was anomalous, and would she want to kill him if she did? Probably. Her first interaction had obviously been traumatic and jarring, so Blake couldn't fault her having a kill them all personality. The Welcoming House hadn't been a nice walk in the park either, but at least that hadn't trapped her in near isolation for five years. That'd be enough to drive anyone a little mad.
The door to the Containments Office opened and Terra stuck her head out. Unlike her wife, she had a charming smile and a friendly expression, even for Blake. "We're finished. I hope you two got on."
"I'd like to think we did." Pyrrha said politely.
"No complaints here." Blake said, shrugging. "It was nice to meet someone who isn't as `used to all this` as Jaune."
Terra's lips curled upward. "That's great. Not every office gets on with one another. Some have differences that are a little hard to reconcile." The way Terra laughed implied she'd been stuck mediating between those once or twice, and likely trying to push two parties away from a fight. "Luckily, it's not so bad in this case. Even if Saph and Jaune disagree, they're brother and sister. Come on in. Saphron has something to announce."
/-/
Jaune had the look of a man who'd given up on having any control in the situation. He sat behind his desk, but he sat hunched with his elbows on the wood and his chin propped up on his hands. She wondered if he'd been run over on something, if the Fist Office had claimed superiority in a way he didn't appreciate. She'd have to ask him after, but for now she focused on Saphron – or Associate Director as Pyrrha called her – who was stood in front of Jaune's desk with her arms crossed and her red and gold coat trailed down over her shoulders and sides to just below her knee.
"It has been decided by the Directors of both the Fist and Containments Office that our two branches will be working together on a joint operation. This operation will be to investigate the goings-on of the Schnee family and their auctions within the city of Vale, and to intercept their deliveries of anomalies should the opportunity arise. These will then be destroyed-"
"Ahem."
"Or contained." Saphron said in a suffering manner. "As is appropriate and by the joint decision of both office Directors. This is not something specific to Vale, either. The Fist Office will be acting as support to the Containments Office in Vale, the Secrets Office in Atlas and the Flame Office in Mistral. Our position based in Argus, roughly equidistant between all three Kingdoms, will allow us to react and move to support any Office against the SDC."
"What about Vacuo?" Blake asked.
"Vacuo will be looked over by its native offices."
"And Menagerie?"
"I doubt the faunus have to worry overmuch about the SDC selling potentially powerful artefacts to them."
Blake wasn't sure if the scorn in the woman's voice was toward faunus, Menagerie or a dig at the SDC's poor records when it came to faunus. Maybe it was all three. Either way, if they thought Menagerie would be safe then that was good news. She didn't want to imagine her mom and dad having to deal with stuff like this. On the other hand, didn't that mean they were entirely vulnerable to anomalies not related to them? Oh hell. Maybe she'd need to swallow her nerves and contact them sooner rather than later, and hopefully ask Jaune about setting up a branch of ARC Corp on the island. It wasn't fair to leave everyone there to the whims and fancies of any and every anomaly to come by.
"The SDC are sending shipments of dust to Vale as part of their usual trade agreements." Terra interrupted before anyone could start an argument. "We believe that they will smuggle any anomalous items in among these, then have their teams in Vale separate and send them on to the client directly. Our plan is to intercept the shipments before they arrive and search them container by container. Dust shipments will be ignored, but anything else will be taken."
"We're stealing from the SDC?" Blake asked.
"No." Saphron said. "Because the SDC are legally transporting dust to Vale, and the dust shall reach Vale. Anything that so happened to be smuggled along with that dust is surely not their intention, and as such we're not stealing what does not legally exist. If anything, we are clearing up their shipment for them. Does that suit your morals better?"
"I think you misunderstand Blake's motives," Jaune drawled. "I don't think robbing the SDC will bother her nearly as much as you expect."
"As you say." Saphron eyed Blake judgingly. "You ought to know that I will be using this opportunity to judge your suitability for the company. Perform well and I shall retroactively offer my approval. Disappoint me and I shall retract it."
So, this was how they were going to be doing it. She didn't have approval from the vetting of three directors aside from Jaune, but Saphron was going to offer hers contingent on a field exercise. That wasn't so bad. I wonder if I can get three to agree to me, whether I can dodge the need to deal with Jaune's father in the first place. Everyone is acting like he'd be the worst to have to handle.
"That's fine with me."
"Good." Saphron turned from her to Jaune again. "We're going to rent a set of hotel rooms nearby. I expect you to have the timetable for the SDC's deliveries by the time we return. And Jaune," she said, sighing heavily. "Please do something about that thing I can hear scuttling in your bedroom." He flinched. "You've never been any good at hiding things from me, and I don't want to have to clean up any more of your mistakes."
"Yes, sis-"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, Saphron."
"Good. Terra. Pyrrha. Let us away and leave the Containments Office to their work."
Blake stepped aside to let them walk past her. Saphron paid her no attention, though Terra nodded politely and Pyrrha offered her a warm smile and a wave goodbye. Blake returned it, watching them go and the door close. The second it had, the instant, Jaune slumped on his seat and groaned loudly.
"Is this going to be a problem?" she asked.
"Running roughshod over me as usual. I'm only ever the bumbling idiot I was when I was ten with her." He ran a hand through his hair and then gave up, slamming his forehead down on his desk. "I thought I'd have more time before her or dad came to look at you. I figured I could bribe Coral to give her approval, then maybe offer Jade and Hazel something to get them to okay you. Now Saph is here and she's joining us. And worse, dad isn't that far away."
"It's fine though, right? We just need to do our best, work as usual and things will be fine."
"They won't be. Whatever we do, however we do it, it won't be good enough. It never is. We're doomed."
Blake rolled her eyes and sighed. Patience had never been her strongest suit. "Whining about it won't fix anything. This is your chance to prove her wrong and show her you have what it takes. Me too. How about we spent less time complaining and more time making sure we pull it off."
"Doomed!" Jaune cried. "Doomed!"
"Jaune! Focus!"
"You just want to steal from the SDC."
"I am offended and appalled that you would say that just because I'm a faunus." Blake held his gaze. His eyebrow rose. "And an activist." It rose further. "Who may or may not also have been a terrorist. But aside from all that, you have no reason to think I would go out my way to make their lives miserable."
"Riiiight." Jaune dragged the word out. "Well, if we're going to try and do our best then I guess we must. I'm more worried about what they're going to pull. Saphron's office isn't exactly known for its subtlety. They're pretty direct."
"They're called the Fist Office, Jaune. I assumed that already."
"Yeah, well, assume it's at least twice as bad as you think it is. There's a reason they're based out of Argus and not any of the major cities. It's the dark and quiet parts of Remnant where the worst and most dangerous anomalies thrive, and it's there that the Fist Office hunts. They're brought into cities to deal with serious problems when the local office can't handle things on its own."
"And they solve them?"
"Like a fist to the face. And usually with more than a little collateral damage along the way."
"I mean, we burnt a house down."
"You ever heard of Kuroyuri?"
Blake raised an eyebrow. "No."
"Exactly."
For those who want a visual idea of how Pyrrha, Saphron and Terra look – the uniforms are very cool – search "Liu Association Ruina" on google images. And yes, Pyrrha is a part of ARC Corp and was not killed off "sans identity" by me last chapter. I didn't even realise people would think that but I should have known given my reputation with Arkos fans. Ha. No, Pyrrha is doing fine and is actually super happy to have found a cause she considers bigger than her fame.
And unlike Blake, she was scouted, vetted and recruited for the position. Just in case anyone does wonder however, ARC Corp did not intentionally lock her in a temporal anomaly for five years to manipulate her into joining them. They just intended to show her an anomaly, how dangerous they can be, and to prove to her why they need stopping. Saph and Terra didn't know what it would do and obviously would have destroyed it ages ago if they had. It was just bad luck and an everyday price of dealing with these things that left her stuck in that situation.
Next Chapter: 6th June
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