Here we go.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 45

The theatre hall was an absolute madhouse. Blake drove a foot into one creature's stomach, rolled over its back when it bent forward, looped the ribbon of Gambol Shroud around its neck, and lashed out with the blade on a chitinous human shape with a blank mannequin face and a gaping, fanged maw in the centre of its chest. Her blade cut across its throat and sent arterial blood spraying while the ribbon pulled taut and choked the anomaly behind her. Twisting, she stabbed around and through its back, ending it just as quickly.

I left the White Fang to stop killing, she thought, as she danced away from several sharp and thorny vines a seven-foot tall rose stem with legs sent her way. It didn't see Jaune coming behind, and the plant-based anomaly burst into flames when his anomalous sword swung at it. Blake turned away, spied a human in a suit taking aim with a gun, and took him out with her own. He fell with a groan, no aura, clutching his stomach. His body was crushing under the treads of a tank-like robot figure with a toy-like head. It aimed its arms, both cannons, at her and fired off a volley of screaming human meat. It caked the floor and immediately began to scream with hundreds of human mouths that gnashed and nipped at her heels.

It was probably quite horrifying, and yet Blake found her foot among the fleshy mass and leapt up onto the robotic creature's tracks, treating it like just another Atlas robot. A sweep around to its back, a blade stabbed into its electronics, and a wrenching pull separated the neck from the body. It fizzled, sparked, and lay silent. The fleshy mouths across the floor wailed one last time and then went slack as well.

The child with the crown had finally made his way out the corridor and was shouting for his armed men to recover the cure. Luckily, she had that and not Jaune, so the gun-toting men prioritised the only one of them with aura. Blake dashed in among them lashing out left and right, putting all her huntress training to the test. Blood flashed and muzzle fire filled the theatre, and shots that missed her found anomalies behind her. The slime-based creature wobbled and morphed as a dust round impacted something inside it, some weak point. It splashed down into water that spread uselessly across the floor. Blake clicked her tongue, caught a human arm and slid Gambol Shroud under their armpit.

Adam would have approved.

That was the difference, she supposed. Jaune did not approve of this, nor did he enjoy it, and she didn't either. This was just something they had to do because these anomalies had pushed the issue. If they let any escape then they'd start to think they could do so again, and so would the other anomalies who had so far kept to the rules. If even more powerful anomalies like Neo got it into their heads that they could get away with doing what they wanted then it would create a snowball effect. Vale would erupt into violence the likes of which would make this seem tame.

Pushing through the goons, Blake ran down the young boy. He tensed and made to run, and she hesitated to stab a child in the back. But then she hesitated to touch the crown, either. What if it could take her as it had the child? Instead, she planted her foot in the boy's chest – painful, perhaps injuring him, but not lethal. His body flew to the ground and the crown rolled away. Immediately, the boy choked and lay still, open eyes staring up at the ceiling and collecting dust. He was already dead. Or he'd always been.

At least she didn't have to worry about that.

Jaune had sheathed Crocea Mors even though the fight wasn't over. His skin was baked red and peeling, his eyes bloodshot, and he couldn't keep the sword out any longer. Instead, he ripped off his coat and flung it aside, then yanked off his gloves with his teeth. Racing forward in a white shirt, he slammed his right hand onto the bust of a marble statue with four arms, each wielding weapons with inhuman grace. The thing burst into flame and reared back, its marble mouth open in a scream but its marble lungs giving off no sound. It cracked and crumbled to pieces on the theatre floor right as six identical children – no, tiny adults – dogpiled him.

They were a foot tall at best, but proportioned like a grown man, and all with the same face, hair and features. Two latched onto his back, two his legs, one his left elbow and the last his face. Their tiny hands clutched tiny knives, little more than pins, that they stabbed viciously into Jaune's body. Blood spurted out of him thanks to his lack of aura.

"Jaune!"

Jaune's shirt burned off him in a flash of heat and steam, peeling and curling away. The tiny humanoid on his arm ignited and wailed, and the one on his face did no better as Jaune clamped his bare hand on its back and pulled. He then kicked one off one leg, launched himself back and crushed two against the theatre wall, before ripping the last one off his leg and holding it between his hands until it was little more than ash.

The flames wreathed around his limbs and caused many of the remaining anomalies to shout and point. "Traitor," they called him "one of us", they said, "selfish" others argued. The accusations came thick and fast and Jaune's head fell, the fires increasing until steam was rising off him. Until the flames from his arms had begun to trickly across his bare back, burning a trail down between his shoulder blades until the skin all the way to his spine had blackened.

"It's never enough." His voice had changed, becoming hot and heavy like rolling magma. "You always want more."

His back blistered and bubbled, and Blake gasped as a pair of flaming wings burst from it. Not from within – they didn't break his skin – but whipping tongues of fire almost the shape of butterfly wings formed, and the air around them sizzled and trembled. To her shock, they flapped once, and Jaune's feet left the floor by a few inches.

Was he losing it? Was this what Coral had warned her about? The same transformation that took humans without aura and turned them into anomalies, the same that lay within him, claiming more of his body and mind. "W-What am I supposed to do?"

"I'll give you more."Jaune rose up even higher, wrapped his hands around himself, and began to shake. "I'll give you everything I have – everything I am. Take it. Take it all from me!" Fire wrapped around him like a cocoon, until he was a ball of flame like a small sun.

And then he screamed.

"Arghhh!"

The "sun" burst. The resulting and miniature supernova splashed force, fire, and hot air across the entire theatre. It whipped Blake up off her feet and slammed her into the far wall. It tore asunder statues and seats, wooden wall panels, and doors. It launched vending machines into the air, scorched the marble tiles black, and shattered the glass windows outwards.

To those inside, without aura, it charred flesh, burnt eyeballs in their sockets, stole the air from people's lungs, and hurled them like ragdolls into uncompromising walls. It cleared the main hall in an instant, creating a wide scorched ring on the tiles where everyone, bodies included, had been launched away. Blake lay buried under several by the wall, which likely saved a chunk of her aura because the flames rolled over them instead, eating away at flesh, muscle and bone.

Silence reigned.

Silence but for the crackling of fire and flame, and the distant sound of a murmuring voice.

Blake groaned and pushed the charred bodies off her, climbed out of the mess and looked about. Everyone was dead. Jaune's attack, intentional or otherwise, had killed the last of the anomalies and humans working with them. By nature of aura itself being an anomaly, none of them had it, so the burning fire had been lethal for everyone but her. It still hurt. Blake's suit was charred and her hair felt painfully dry, not to mention her face was tingling as every bit of moisture had evaporated.

The cocoon of fire continued to crackle and burn in the air, hovering three quarters of the way between the floor and the ceiling, with small bits of fire and ash falling slowly like leaves from a tree. Blake stared at it, unable to even make out Jaune's body inside.

"Jaune! Jaune, can you hear me?"

The fire burned. The cocoon remained. Blake cursed and started moving, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do. Asking what ARC Corp would do was pointless because that would be to kill him immediately before he became a bigger risk. And if that didn't work then they would bomb this entire city block using Terra's Slaved Anomaly and call it job done.

Blake's eyes roamed to Jaune's own anomaly, slaved or no, and she moved toward it. Crocea Mors had been cast aside when he could no longer hold it, and the blade's leather grip was lightly charred. It hummed as she picked it up, reacting even to her faunus heritage or maybe her aura, and treating either as an anomaly. White hot light was already shining out from where the cross guard and scabbard met.

"Can you not kill me for one second, please? I need you to work." She pulled the scabbard off and cringed as the light burned her skin. Looking at it was blinding, like looking directly at the sun, so she held it behind her in one hand and judged distance and angle ahead of her. "I must be mad to try and burn off a burning cocoon, but whatever. This is already a madhouse." Blake wrenched her arm forward and released the weapon. "Hyah!"

The sword flipped and flew through the air. Sword-throwing wasn't an exact science for most, but it was a legitimate part of Gambol Shroud, and though his weapon was a lot longer and heavier than hers, it wasn't dissimilar enough that she couldn't account for the differences. The sword went up and toward the cocoon, and struck into the side of it in a flash of blinding white light. The cocoon cracked, splintered, and popped open like an egg.

The sword fell first and the body second. Blake raced forward to catch the latter, hissing as her hands and arms burned on contact with molten skin. She took just enough time to arrest his momentum and then spilled him onto the ground to pat out her clothes. How come her clothes burned but his didn't? Were his suits made of fireproof material? Ugh. Blake ripped her jacket off and cast it aside, then patted her shirt sleeves down. Her arms stung and were red in places, but they weren't critically burned.

"Ugh." Jaune groaned and pushed himself up. "What-? Oh. Damn it." He looked around blearily at all the dead and burning bodies. "I-I guess that's dealt with. Ugh. My head. My back. I feel like my spine has been displaced."

"Those would be the burns," said Blake. "They've spread."

His blackened flesh had once taken both arms and his shoulders, but it had ended in a jagged vertical line up from his armpit to the tip of his shoulder blades. Now, it had spread further along them to the base of his neck, and down over his back and between his blades to his spine, where the blackened and molten flesh crossed over one another almost like an X. There was a little more on the front as well, as fire had come down over his pecs to almost touch his nipples.

"Oh fuck. Shit, shit, shit." He groaned and made to clutch his hair, then thought better of it without gloves. "My family is going to kill me."

"They're not going to find out. We're not telling them."

"How can we not-?"

"Because if you tell them this then you have to tell them you let anomalies live peacefully in Vale." Blake nodded to the numerous bodies. "I think the story is going to be that we showed up, bought the anomaly off Winter, but that she left a nasty surprise for us to deal with while she escaped."

"You're a bad employee, Blake."

That was a good thing in her books. They really would kill Jaune for this, not only for the letting anomalies live, but for the fact his own had spread. What would happen if it took his whole body? What would happen when the fires reached his head and deadened his brain? Even if they didn't kill him, they'd numbed his nerves. His brain would take damage and he would be different. Potentially very dangerous.

And if he'd stayed in that cocoon for longer, what would have happened?

A cocoon typically heralded a metamorphosis. The lovely way of saying it was that a caterpillar became a butterfly, but the scientific side of it was much more gruesome. Fleshy enzymes would melt the caterpillar down and then that slush would form into a new creature. No one quite knew if that mean the caterpillar died, but seeing as how a new head and brain were formed Blake was fairly sure it counted. Would that have happened to Jaune if she'd left it any longer? Blake shuddered at the thought.

"I don't think we can get rid of all these bodies easily," said Blake. "And a lot of them are… um… inhuman. We might need to make this accident look a little bigger."

"I still have fire in me. Controlled, this time."

"Why did it go out of control? Was what they said really so upsetting?"

"No." He shook his head. "I was just so disappointed in them. I felt like… like I gave them every chance, like I gave them the opportunity, and they threw it back in my face. I was angry but also upset. It was like they were proving to me that anomalies can't co-exist alongside humans. I despaired. I just…" He took a deep breath through his nose and released it out his mouth. "I guess I let it get to me, and the anomaly took over. Stupid. Most the anomalies in the city understood to stay away from this. They can live peacefully alongside humans and they do."

"You lost sight of that in the moment."

"Yes." Jaune nodded. "A mistake I won't make again. You should wait outside. I'll have this place burning in a moment. Can you rescue my jacket and my gloves on the way out? They're made of a special material and they should have survived the blast. I can't very well walk back to the office looking like this."

"Sure. I'll see you outside."

/-/

Red and blue sirens flashed and horns wailed as fire trucks raced down the road toward the theatre. They came in their dozens, reacting to the horrific blaze that would soon bring the whole place down. Jaune had been careful to make sure it wouldn't spread however, and luckily the place was in the middle of its own car park anyway, so there wasn't much room for it to do so. The two of them were treading back to their office on foot, unwilling to risk a taxi with Jaune's arms only protected by his jacket and gloves. One slip of either would reveal him.

They made it after an hour and Jaune went to have a shower, inspect his new burns, and put on a fresh set of clothes while Blake stayed and stroked the six-foot spider curled up over and across her lap. It chittered and ground its human molars affectionately as she rubbed between its many glowing blue eyes. Jaune came out moments later, stretching one arm over his head and cracking his neck. He looked a lot better, or at least less on the verge of a mental breakdown. That was the best she could hope for.

"Do you want to test the cure?" asked Blake.

"No. I wouldn't trust anything the Schnee gave me on, or in, my body. We'll be sending it to Coral for proper testing. If it is a cure then I'm sure they'll give me a dose." If only to purify him. "But I'm not holding out hope. I'm sure all of this was just to cause the kind of chaos they did. Winter must want me at odds with the anomalies living in Vale."

"It worked."

"That's the problem. There are many more where they came from. We're going to need to head to Alistair's and address the situation." He grimaced, as did she, but Blake gently pushed Timothy off her knees and stood.

"Now?"

"Better now than later. People have died. Some they may have known, or even called friends, and if I don't at least show a little compassion it'll be a breeding ground for resentment. Maybe even action taken against us. That'll be disastrous if it ends up bringing my family down on their heads." He winced, "Our heads."

"Me too, huh? I guess I'm guilty by association."

"I'm sorry."

Blake shrugged it off. If they turned on Jaune and tried to kill him then she would have defended him, at which point she'd become an enemy of ARC Corp anyway. It didn't much matter if they hated her now or later.

They were thankfully able to take a taxi to a place near where the hidden alleyway was, and Jaune found it again for them while she continued to struggle. Inside, things were quiet and tense. Bottles and glasses clinked, but there was no conversation, and even those small movements halted when Jaune marched into the bar. Eyes, or other eye-like organs, tracked his every step warily. Behind the bar, Alister's proboscis quivered and his wings beat nervously, creating a low hum. Jaune wasted no time.

"I'm here to tell you all the incident with the Schnee company has been dealt with. Unfortunately, a small minority of anomalies decided to challenge us violently over our successful bidding for the item they had on offer. Those who chose to leave when I gave the option will have already returned to their homes, friends, or family. I would like to express condolences to those related to anomalous individuals who did not elect to leave when given the chance. Unfortunately, we were left no other choice but to defend ourselves, and most of them have died as a result."

Chairs creaked and glasses flexed under strong hands, claws, pincers, tentacles, strips of fabric and other appendages. A few downed drinks out of some sign of respect for the fallen, but more glared helplessly down at their tables. They must have wanted the cure as well, but they had known they weren't strong enough to take it.

"I would also like to say that the so-called cure will be researched and, should it prove true to its purpose, we will synthesis and offer more for any anomaly who wants it. However, given that the Schnee's whole business model relies on anomalies, we don't hold much hope of it actually doing that. Please understand that this was a sham designed to drive a wedge between our relations. You know me." He touched a gloved hand to his chest. "You know I have done my best to let you leave in peace where any other member of my family would have hunted you down. Please understand that I am doing my best to help you. I am on your side."

It was hard to say how many, if any, believed his words, but they could at least believe the threat of the other members of ARC Corp coming to eradicate them. Blake expected the cure would come back false, and that no one here would accept that. They'd know intellectually it wasn't real, but a desperate part of them deep inside that longed to be human would whisper that maybe it had been real, and that ARC Corp had taken it away from them because they needed anomalies to exist and be dangerous for them to stay powerful and funded. It was the kind of nonsense conspiracy theories people liked to throw out nowadays.

It was easy to hate the establishment when things weren't going your way, and ARC Corp had been established for a long time. It had all the hallmarks of an uncaring government body, even when it was neither. ARC Corp cared very much, to the point that their "caring" was fanatical.

If a cure did exist then she was sure they would airdrop it across the whole world. They would end anomalies in an instant if they could, even if that meant they lost whatever power they had. They hated anomalies that much.

Blake didn't appreciate the way Jaune took a stool at the bar. She didn't feel safe here and wanted to be gone, but he had to make a statement that he wasn't afraid. That ARC Corp would stand up for itself and do what it had to. Taking a seat herself was one of the hardest things she'd done, especially when she had to turn her back on them all. Blake could feel eyes on her and it made the fine hairs on her neck stand on end.

"You're a ballsy pair," said Alister, pouring them some drinks. "Can't say I appreciate it when you're going to kill custom for the night. No one is going to approach the bar with you here." Jaune slid a thick wad of lien onto the counter. Alister's proboscis twitched. "On the other hand, you always have been an obnoxiously good tipper."

"Money talks, huh," said Blake. "Even to anomalies."

"We need to eat and drink just like you, sister. Though to be honest it's the advent of the internet and online shopping that gives most of us a chance. Staying hidden nowadays isn't so hard, and I can even make friends online if I want."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything."

"It's fine, sister. I'm a man with a mosquito's head instead of a human one. You think questions like that are new to me?" He shrugged and put the money in the till. "It's not a bad life all things considered. I can walk, talk, and even go out in public if I wear a biker's helmet and a heavy jacket over my wings. There are many who can't, and some who can never risk going out in public. Mine isn't a bad existence. Just a tricky one." He turned to Jaune. "Anyone I should know among the fallen?"

"Heavy is the Head was the most notable."

"Really? What did an anomalous item care for a cure for?"

"He was afraid we'd use it to revert all anomalous items to an inert state."

"Ah. That'd do it. Any others?"

"There was a slime girl," said Blake.

Alistair gasped. "Not Sally!"

"I'm sorry," said Jaune. "It wasn't us that did it. Human goons opened fire and struck her core. I'd have had to kill her for staying, but I wasn't the one to do it if that helps."

Sally the Slime girl. Really? Blake might have commented on that if Alistair didn't look like he'd been punched in the gut. He must have known her, maybe even called her friend, and to be fair there was no reason to think half the anomalies there hadn't been good people in their own right. They were just desperate fools, not unlike the White Fang, and they'd been led astray by a charismatic figure promising them a solution to all their ails. Blake sighed and took a long drink.

A pair of anomalies entered the bar and made a ruckus, breaking the awkward silence. They were big, one of them a feminine figure bristling with muscles wearing a grey tracksuit. Her head was human, but her left arm, covered in a baggy jumper, concealed a long squid-like tentacle with teeth.

The other was statuesque. Literally. It groaned and crunched like rock on rock as it slid forward, seemingly dragged across the ground. It didn't move any of its limbs, but there was a necklace around its neck and a gem on that glowed faintly. When it spoke, the words came from the necklace, and the gemstone flashed with every word.

"Quiet as the grave in here tonight."

The other brought the tentacle up. To Blake's shock, there was a face on it, though it lacked eyes. Just a nose and a mouth. It spoke rather than the human face, though the human eyes on the face continued to look around and see things. "With good reason. I see you over there, Arc. Busy night?"

"Busy night," said Jaune. He knew the pair. "Blake, these are Cobalt and Gem. They're… contractors. Of a sort."

"Of a sort, he says," chirped the sentient necklace. "We do odds and ends, here and there, when the need arises. Though tonight we have something of a freebie for you. We weren't reckless enough to attend an auction from the Schnee but we hung around just in case."

Jaune set his drink down. "Did you see Winter?"

"Surrounded by identical men," said Cobalt, the mouth on the tentacle speaking for her. "They moved in unison, perfectly synchronised. One mind with many bodies. Approaching them would have been foolish."

"But we did follow them," said Gem. "Tracked them down to a fancy hotel. Thought a certain someone might want to know. We couldn't go inside, of course. We're not the kind of clientele a place like that likes to accept."

"I can't believe she'd stay the night in Vale after this," said Jaune. "How stupid is she?"

"Arrogant," said Cobalt. "Assured. Or confident."

"Suicidal," chuckled Gem. "I was tempted to try and sneak in, but if anyone would recognise what I am it'd be her. I don't much fancy being sold off as an accessory. I suggested you'd want to know, though. Do our civic duty and all that."

"Where is it?"

Cobalt extended her tentacle and choked out a sticky business card. Blake grimaced, but Jaune picked it off the bar with his gloves and looked it over. It was a card for a very expensive hotel, the kind of which only the obnoxiously wealthy could afford to spend even a single night at.

"They won't stay long," said Jaune, staring at the card. "Winter will be long gone come morning, but she must have wanted to see what her little game wrought with her own eyes. Not good enough to read about it in a newspaper. You're right – this is arrogance. Winter thinks herself untouchable, either because of the anomaly she has with her or because she's a famous figure and I wouldn't dare strike at her in public."

"Do we dare…?" asked Blake. "Those are a set of very good reasons for her to feel confident."

"Winter wanted to start a war tonight. This was a direct attack on us and every anomaly in Vale, and it was all for her own amusement. Cobalt. Gem. Would you be willing to take on a contract? One hundred thousand lien."

"Each," haggled the statue.

"Fine. But I want you to get me in contact with Coda."

"Ah, boss," said Cobalt. "You know Coda is afraid of you – and for good reason."

"I only need them putting in contact with me and given instructions on what to do. You can be the one to talk with her. I'll give you the payment to give to her. If she's afraid of me, she doesn't have to come anywhere near me."

"Fair enough, boss. Fair enough. I'll make the call. Forward me what you want her to do and I'll see if she's down for it. Don't expect her to stick around, though. One push of a button and you can do a lot of harm to her."

"That's fine. I just want her help getting into the hotel's systems and tweaking a few things."

Blake leaned in as the two anomalies moved away and the only one with the capacity for moving limbs pulled out a scroll. "Jaune, are we really doing this?" she asked. "You're tired – and you just came off a fight where you almost lost yourself. Now you want to go after Winter Schnee in public? Is this really a good idea?"

"Good idea? No. Best opportunity to put one of them down forever? Yes. The Schnee have been running rampant and playing games their whole lives, and Winter came here and caused the deaths of so many for her own twisted sense of fun. I'm not letting this go, Blake. I'm not letting her get away. Just imagine what would have happened if the Rusted Queen reached shore. Imagine that. Winter tried to unleash a self-replicating and hostile anomaly on the city. Think of that, and then think of whether it's safe to let her roam free."

"I'm not arguing that. I'm arguing whether you are in any good position to be involved in this."

"I'm…" He broke under her glare. "Okay, I'm not fine. I admit it. I'll be careful, though. Or as careful as can be. I won't be reckless and I'll back out if things get too bad. We can't really afford to burn an entire hotel down either. Once is a tragic accident but no one will believe that two places went up in the same night in totally unrelated circumstances."

"Fine. But I want you to listen to me if I tell you to back out. I'm the one with aura. I'm the one who can actually fight her head on without being killed." Blake sighed. "What's our goal here, then? Arrest her? Hand her over to ARC Corp for trial?"

"Trial on what? Anything we might accuse her of is something we need to keep hidden. No. There won't be a trial. We don't need a trial. Tonight, Winter Schnee will find herself attacked by terrorists in Vale, and will tragically lose her life." He stared at her. "That's what the headlines will say tomorrow. I'll make sure of it."

Oh Winter. I guess you just had to watch the fireworks with your own eyes.

Next Chapter: 20th March

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