Here we go.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 74

"—and his sister is such a brat! I just want to wring her little neck."

Blake's team of masseurs listened and giggled and worked on her shoulders, feet, hands and just about every part of her body, working out all the tension and rubbing scented oil into her. No one could really afford to use this exclusive spa quite as often as she did, but then no one deserved to use it this much either, damn it.

No one put up with the crap she did.

"You know, it's telling that you've complained more about you boss' little sister than you have talked about your date with the other guy," teased one.

Blake groaned. "Not this again. I am not in love with my boss."

"I didn't say anything!"

"But you implied everything."

"I'm just saying you haven't talked much about Mr Muscles."

"There isn't much to say. He's a nice guy with an allergic reaction to buttoning up his shirt."

"You don't sound excited about him."

"I guess I'm not." Blake sighed. "Work is stressful, my last relationship was a mess, and it doesn't help that he only asked me out because that matchmaker app told him to – and I don't like the idea that it was the main reason, or that it invaded my privacy to give a stranger pictures of me."

There were agreeing murmurs among the girls, along with a few stories of them having used the app. There wasn't a person over twelve who hadn't in all honesty, but at least the world remained convinced it was just a random piece of software that had hacked database systems. Its closure had caused some controversy, but mostly in the "government overreach" camp rather than the "magical anomaly" circles.

And once the furore had died down, people started to point out all the creepy little issues with it, from breach of privacy to giving strangers your name to the data leak that saw the offices of an entire company exposed to anyone. Not to mention the murders and suicides and broken relationships it caused. In a matter of a week, public opinion had changed so much that even the remnants of the app had been deleted off most devices.

"I get what you mean," said one of the girls. "I remember my boyfriend used it and didn't get me and it was nearly the end of us being together. Especially when I got him."

Blake managed to keep herself from wincing. She liked these women, even if she probably couldn't call them real friends, and knowing the truth about matchmaker, she knew the man didn't love her as much as she loved him.

Love was tricky like that, and messy. Blake knew that better than anyone given her experience with it, which was a big reason why she really didn't want to rush into anything with Jaune. That and the fact that Jaune came with a freight load of baggage. She did too obviously, but her baggage was just of the violent ex-boyfriend and terrorist lifestyle, whereas his was literally world-ending monsters and an all-consuming flame-based anomaly that could turn him into a monster at any moment.

"What are you going to do about your dates?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Sun is nice and he hasn't done anything wrong so I figure I should give him a few more chances and see if he grows on me. Maybe I'm just convinced it won't work and that's causing issues..."

"Maybe, but vibes are pretty important with a new guy. If your gut instinct says you're not working out, maybe let him know before it gets anymore serious. Guys have feelings too."

"Some guys," joked another.

"The good ones, anyway, and he sounds like a good one. Better to let him know it isn't working early so he can back out without getting hurt. You lead him on..."

"I know. I know." Blake groaned, then groaned again as the woman behind her dug her hands down into a tense knot of muscle. "A—And I'm not trying to lead him on. I didn't even want to say yes, but it was a messy situation. Now it's even messier."

"And then there's your boss."

"Jaune doesn't mind. He even let me have time off to go on the date."

"Time off for dates? How do I apply?"

Blake tensed up, only to realise she was joking. The masseurs all felt it, though. It was hard not to when their hands were all over her.

"Damn girl, calm down. I'm not stealing your man."

"That's not—" Blake sighed. "It's the job. You don't want it. The money may seem good, but I've almost died fifty times this year alone, and I have aura. You don't want this kind of work, and Jaune is... Jaune is a great guy, but you don't want him either. It's messy."

"Have you kissed him yet?"

Blake's entire body turned red despite her best efforts, resulting in excited squeals from the unrepentant gossips. Damn it. It wasn't even me that kissed him, but my stupid anomaly taking over and just about biting his lip open. Although, come to think of it, she might have kissed him once before when he'd almost lost himself to the flames.

"I'm paying you all to massage me," growled Blake. "Not to delve into my love life."

"We can multitask."

"Well stop it."

"Free speech, Blake. Free speech. Oh, and I had an idea, why don't you bring your boss here one day?"

"What? So you lot can gossip to him as well and reveal all my secrets? Never."

They giggled their heads off.

/-/

Blake was immeasurably relaxed when she returned to the office, lounged on the sofa and accepted Timothy up onto her stomach and chest, the spider stretching out across her like a fluffy, eight-legged rug. His body was warm and he didn't slobber or drool like a stupid dog, nor knead her like a cat would. Blake feared dogs, to her shame, but that didn't mean she particularly liked cats either. Her mom had called it deeply ironic, but a cat faunus and a cat were not the same thing.

Though her father had joked that cats could be territorial so maybe that was why she didn't like other cats strutting around and acting like they owned the place.

"I can't believe I'm allowing that thing to exist," said Amber.

"That thing has a name, brat."

"So do I!"

"Then stop acting like such a brat."

"Children," chided Jaune from behind his desk. He was working as usual, though ever since his sister had come down his focus on work had become more of a desperate attempt to avoid their spats than because his job demanded it. "It hasn't been thirty seconds since you got back, Blake. You can at least manage thirty minutes without insulting her. And Amber, stop rising to it. A Director needs to control their temper and not be baited into arguments."

It was probably childishness on her part that while Amber sulked, chastised, Blake just smirked and shot her the middle finger. Amber growled back but kept quiet. In all fairness, Blake wasn't interested in becoming a director of ARC Corp (over her dead body) and so didn't need to be mature or measured.

"Any anomalous activity?" she asked instead.

"There have been some crop circles outside the city for the past two weeks but a farmer saw and shot at the alien doing them last night and found a young man dead in the field this morning. It's turning into a bit of a tragedy, though he did intrude on the man's land late at night in an area where Grimm can appear. You can't fully blame the farmer for being afraid."

"Hmm. Shame."

"Mmm." Jaune agreed. "There's also been a few disappearances over on the border between Vacuo and Vale – young children, mostly – but all signs point to human trafficking at the moment. Vacuo has a serious problem with that."

"Ugh. Can we do anything about it?"

"No. They've been trafficked into Vacuo. The Burns Office is still low on manpower since Mountain Glenn, so they're calling on the Blades Office for support. They'll check it out and see if it's anomalous."

"If it's not but they find the missing children..."

"They'll alert the authorities and intervene anyway. Enforcing the law isn't our primary focus, but if we're literally there then we usually get involved if only so law enforcement feels a little more favourable toward us."

"And because it's good cover if we ever need it," Amber chimed in. "If people see us enforcing the law, then they're more likely to think ARC Corp is a secret black-ops government agency dealing with dangerous criminals, which is still better than them discovering the truth. Speaking of, what are we doing about those people who tried to steal anomalies from us?"

Jaune looked up. "Who?"

Amber's expression was flat. "The ones who held a gun to your little sister's head..."

"Oh, them!" Jaune, to his credit, looked a little embarrassed to need that spelling out. "Honestly, I kinda figured it was dealt with. They came, they got embarrassed, they left. It's Salem's lot, and you know our situation with her is live and let live. Blake helped me secure and lock up all the loose anomalies, so even if they break in the only one they're going to be able to steal is Timothy."

Blake snorted. "Good luck on that."

"They could steal your Slaved Anomalies," Amber pointed out. "You have Crocea Mors, and she has that book of hers."

"I won't let them take it," said Jaune.

"They won't be able to take mine," bemoaned Blake. Oh, how she'd like to let them, but the book wouldn't even let itself be thrown out a window. It kept teleporting back onto her hip. Even now, it hung there, and she could imagine the rich chuckling of the monster within. "But I do agree with Amber that they won't give up. That woman seemed really arrogant."

Jaune glanced between them, shocked. "You're... agreeing with one another...?"

Both Amber Arc and Blake Belladonna raised their middle fingers toward him.

He laughed. "Alright. Alright. I'll take the threat seriously, though I'm not sure what to do. We've locked the anomalies up and we can't stay in the office forever. We'll be called out on a job sooner or later, and we'll have to leave the office unguarded."

That was a fair point. They couldn't protect the office forever. Their last few anomalies other than the dimensional home had taken them out the city.

"Maybe you should hire some security," said Amber.

Loathe as Blake was to admit it, the idea wasn't a bad one. They had the budget by several million, and it wasn't like security would need to be here all the time, only whenever they weren't here. Ruby came to mind and was then dismissed. While she'd want the job, Blake didn't really feel safe leaving her alone here. Ruby was huntress-trained, and so more than capable of fending off the odd thief, but she was still only fifteen and these people had clearly also been trained to a similar level.

"I wouldn't know where to start to be honest. The situation in Vale isn't exactly stable. Ozpin continues to run Beacon and had his own agenda and even father can't intervene there. I'd worry too much about him sneaking a hand into any security we hired. I guess we can just be more cautious for a few weeks and make sure someone stays here at all times. On that not, there was one call in that we had while you were out."

Blake's ears twitched. "I thought you said there was nothing up."

"That's because the call specifically mentioned that they had found an anomaly that we needed to destroy. There are a few people who would know that and ask: Ozpin, Qrow, Ruby, the Council and local law enforcement. This wasn't from any of them, but someone who claims to be a concerned citizen."

"A concerned citizen who knows about anomalies," said Blake, crossing her arms. "Sounds like a trap."

"I agree. Which is why I didn't walk into it, but you and Amber could go and see what it's about. You both have aura and Amber is well trained despite her age. She can more than look after herself if someone tries to attack her. And if it is an anomaly then you can just call me and let me know and I'll come down. It's within the city."

There were also all the patrons of Alistair's bar who knew, and the many hundreds of peaceful anomalies in Vale, but she assumed he'd have hinted toward them if it was. Obviously, those kinds of anomalies wouldn't need to make an anonymous call to Jaune when they could just pass information onto Alistair and have him send it through. This was something else and coming less than two days after an embarrassing robbery attempt, Blake could take a guess at who was behind it.

"Maybe I should go alone," she offered. "Leave Amber and you here."

"No. Amber needs to gain experience and holding down the fort won't accomplish that. You two can put aside your differences if you really try. I have faith in you." His grimace suggested he didn't. "Timothy and I will guard the office and keep it occupied. Let me know if it really is an anomaly. Don't try and deal with it alone even if it looks or acts harmless. You never know."

The day she was arrogant enough to assume an anomaly could be easily handled was the day she died, and Blake was determined to keep living a whole lot longer than this.

/-/

The anomaly was apparently in the old tunnels leading to Mountain Glenn, which was both a painful reminder of what had happened there but also a very real possibility. It couldn't be a remnant of the Twilight City because they'd all died when the anomaly did, but if human-to-anomaly transformations happened due to extreme stress then it was possible an innocent had been caught up in the mess and transformed. And if they were deep underground in unused tunnels then it was also believable that they'd have stayed hidden all this time, as there wouldn't have been anyone for them to influence.

An anomaly dumped in some place far away from human interaction could go unfound for centuries. No anomalous happenings meant no evidence for them to look into, and little chance of finding it. But that just raised the question of who would be down here.

Druggies was Blake's first thought. Idiots wanting somewhere away from the law and their parents to smoke and do drugs, but it could also be adventurous types who liked to explore dangerous and abandoned places.

Blake's eyes adapted well to the dark but Amber's didn't and the girl had a torch out, quickly blinding Blake until her eyes returned to a human level. It was annoying, but the girl would only trip and break her neck without it.

"So, this is where you went for the Twilight City?" asked Amber.

"No. We drove to the blockade around it and entered that way, but there were armed officers stationed in every tunnel with orders to gun down anything that came close. This isn't even the tunnel that was opened up."

"Which was that?"

"Main line. We never did find exactly how that happened, but the first sightings of the anomalies were a bunch of children appearing on the tracks and accessing the Vale underground. They killed a bunch of people."

It would have been a lot worse if a larger group had found the tunnel, but the kids had seemingly kept it to themselves for several resets, likely enjoying the freedom to travel to Vale and kill people and not wanting to share it with anyone else.

"Keep your aura up," she told Amber. "Even if this isn't a trap, these tunnels can be dangerous."

"Do you think it is? A trap, I mean."

"I think Jaune was right to be suspicious of a concerned citizen calling us about an anomaly. It's the kind of thing someone who didn't really believe or understand what we do would say. All our clients who call in don't understand what is happening and usually are recommended to us by the council or law enforcement. They're confused, sceptical and frustrated. And they never call it anomalous or anomalies. They just say that something is happening or they blame it on thieves."

They gave mundane reasons and justifications, which was a good sign their methods in suppressing the information were working.

"But just because it's odd doesn't mean it's dangerous. This could be a stupid prank. And I'm not seeing anyone down here."

"I can't see anything at all," groused Amber.

"That's because your useless human eyes can't see in the dark."

"Wow. Way to be racially superior about it."

"I'm not—" Blake sighed. "I'm not rising to that. And there's nothing here. I'm calling Jaune." Turning away from the bright torch in Amber's hand, she pulled out her scroll and flipped to her contacts. They were still within the city's limits so the signal was good. Her scroll called. And called, and called, and called, until—

"Thank you for calling Jaune Arc, Director of ARC Corp. I am not available to take your call at the moment. Please leave a message after the tone."

It beeped.

Blake hung up and dialled the office instead, and the device there rang and rang until a similar answer message responded, this time giving Jaune's scroll number and suggesting it try that in the case of an emergency.

"Jaune isn't answering," Blake spat, already turning to jog back. "Something's happened!"

They scurried out the tunnels and took a taxi back to the office, then burst into the elevator and rode it up. Immediately, she could see the door had been smashed outward with glass shattered everywhere. Cursing, she raced inside and found the office wrecked. Jaune's desk was overturned and his chair was broken, and the wood was badly scorched and burned to suggest a fight. There were holes in the far wall from bullets and blood on the floor. Almost everything had been ransacked, though the heavy-duty safes that she and Jaune had locked various anomalies inside of remained locked and in place. The doors leading to them had been ripped open though, suggesting someone had tried to get in.

"S—Sk—Skree...?"

"Timothy, no!"

Blake dashed down the narrow corridor to the bathroom and cupped her hands to her mouth. Their poor, beloved spider was curled up in the corner of the bathroom with one of its legs fully missing and another cut shorter, torn halfway. He had cuts across his abdomen that was bleeding an odd, dark-blue ichor. He looked weak and exhausted, and his molars ground and rotated nervously as she entered.

"Oh, Timothy..." Blake hesitated and then came closer, touching him on the unharmed pieces of skin. The Guardian Weaver stirred and leaned into her touch, hissing sorrowfully. "Shh. Shhh. It's okay. You'll be okay. Don't worry, I've got you."

"Blake!" shouted Amber. "They left a scroll on Jaune's desk and a code carved into the wood."

"Busy!" she shot back, fumbling her scroll out again. Blake picked a name out and waited for the answer, but she cut in first. "Ruby! Listen! The office has been attacked and Jaune has been taken. Timothy has been hurt bad. Real bad."

"Oh no!" cried Ruby. "Timothy, baby! No!"

"Skreeee..." warbled the spider.

"He's alive, but I need to find Jaune and I need someone to patch Timothy up and look after him—"

"I'm there! I'll be there in five minutes, I promise!"

Ruby ended the call before she could say anything, so Blake crooned and stroked the poor anomaly until it calmed down and dabbed at its wounds with some damp cloth. He was alive and wasn't bleeding, so she could only hope he would pull through. How they'd get him to a vet and explain him away, she had no idea, but that could come later.

Someone had hurt her six-foot pet spider.

Someone had to die.

Oh, and Jaune too. They'd taken Jaune.

Important, obviously.

"I'm sliding the scroll over to you," said Amber, not wanting to step into the bathroom. "The code is 1111. There's a single number in the scroll that has your name on it, and a text from the number saying you're to call it."

Blake caught the thing and stared down at the text. It just said: Blake Belladonna shall call this number, or he will die. Blake snarled and opened the damn thing up, then thumbed the contact and waited for it to connect.

It didn't take long.

"Finally—"

"You hurt him, you walking corpse!" roared Blake. "When I find you, I'm going to cut off one of your legs and see how you like that! I'm going to watch you fumble and drag your sorry carcass around, and I'm going to make sure you bleed out like the worthless piece of shit you are! Do you hear me? No one harms my Timmy-poo and lives to tell the tale. I will murder you! I will make you rue the day you were born! I will make sure you die screaming for what you did to him!"

There was silence down the line, and then, "He's still alive, and he'll remain alive so long as you do as we tell you to. But I can't promise he won't come to harm if you don't."

"Try it and I'll slit your throat wide open!"

"No sooner than I'll slit his, Blake."

"Timothy doesn't have a throat."

"Wait, what? I'm talking about the human we took prisoner."

Blake blinked. "Oh. You mean Jaune?"

"Yes—But, wait? Who the hell is Timmy-poo?"

"He's my spider, you monster!"

"That THING has a name!? It's bigger than me and tried to EAT one of us. What the fuck, Blake. That was self-defence and that monster—"

"—is an adorable and loving creature that I will make you suffer for harming," Blake finished for him. "Now who the hell is this, what the hell do you want, what have you done to Jaune, and would you prefer your desecrated corpse be buried or cremated? Because whatever you pick, I'm doing the other. Actually, I might just leave it for the animals to feast on."

Her temper may have gotten the best of her, but Timothy was still whimpering against her and she desperately needed something to strangle right now. He'd just been defending his home and Jaune, and some bastards had hurt him for it. Blake was seeing red.

"Do you really not recognise me, Blake? Would it help if I called you my love?"

"You—" Blake groaned, realisation hitting. Before, she would have felt naked terror, but she'd seen a lot of terrifying things lately and her definition of the word had taken a beating. Terrifying was walking into the living womb of a monstrous creature that had turned a city into a raving madhouse.

Her asshole of an ex-boyfriend was really didn't scare her compared to that.

"Adam, for crying out loud," she groaned. "Can you take a breakup for what it is? I jumped off a speeding train to get away from you. Most men would get the hint!"

Blake heard the sniggers from people on the other side, hastily disguised as sudden coughing fits, and she heard Adam's sharp hiss. It occurred to her that enraging him when he had Jaune might not be the wisest decision, but it was a little too late for that.

"You are fortunate I'm a forgiving man, Blake, or I might just take your new lover's arm as—"

"He's not my lover," she droned. "Bloody hell, will everyone stop just assuming that? He's my boss, my friend, and we have blueberry muffins together. We're work colleagues. Surprise-surprise, Adam, but I didn't go running into a new relationship after ours blew up."

But it didn't surprise her he'd assume that because Adam had always been a bit of a jealous prick. It had been something she kind of liked at first because it made her feel special, and made him look cool, but when he'd started to glare at any man who talked at her, it got old quick. It was annoying that he'd just go and assume she'd hop into the bed of another man, but there was a lot about him that was annoying.

"Whatever the case, you're going to come and see me, Blake. We are going to discuss your sudden absence and how you never said a word to me, and you're going to answer for betraying the White Fang as well. I'm going to text you some coordinates. Come alone or I'll kill him. Bring anyone else and he will die cursing your name."

"Wait, Adam! One question..."

"..." Adam's breathing was even. "Yes?"

"Was it you who cut my spider's leg off or someone else? Because I need to know who I'm saving for last so I can savour it."

"Your time in Vale has made you violent, Blake. And arrogant too. It was me, and if I'd had my way then I would have cut the monster in half." His words had her trembling with rage. "If it wasn't for your not-lover surrendering the moment the beast was harmed, I'd have finished it. I expect to see you within the hour, Blake. Take any longer and I'll cut pieces off this human one by one."

The call ended with a click.

Blake stood.

Timothy tried to stand and follow, but he eased him down and gently wrapped him in towels so he'd be warm, then stalked out the bathroom. Amber was waiting, having heard everything but waiting for her to say something.

"I'm going alone."

"I heard." Amber sighed. "I guess I can keep an eye on the office and make sure those idiots from before don't return to try and get the anomalies. Who is this Ruby coming, so I know not to shoot her."

"Girl in red. Young, like you. Silver eyes. Leave Timothy to her."

"Are you sure you can handle these people alone?" asked Amber. "Jaune is important as an ARC Corp Director, despite my feelings, but he's not so important that he can't be replaced. If he died here, you'd be given the option to take over and run the office in his place."

"All the more reason to save him. I'll die before I let myself be adopted by your fucked-up family. Or promoted. That sounds just as bad."

Blake reached under her black jacket and pulled the book off her waist, then opened it up and flipped through the pages. This time, she heard the dark laughter in her head. The book, or the lady within the lake, knew what was happening and knew that a deal was upon the horizon. Blake wasn't sure what she would demand this time, but if she wanted to strike a deal surrounding a cold-blooded murder...

Well, Blake couldn't promise it would be cold-blooded, but she could provide the victim.

Her relationship status was about to change from "single" to "it's complicated", and Adam was going to regret the messy, bloody breakup he wanted to subject himself to. Not for long, though.

There would be no ambiguity as to them being through this time.

Next Chapter: 23rd October

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