No mental instability on my end this chapter – that's nice. I've been very relaxed last few days as no work due to easter holidays, so I've been finding it very easy and even relaxing to rite. Getting more sleep, more exercise, feeling in a better mood. It's making me consider moving toward quitting my job at the end of this year. We'll see, but I've just been in a much better place from a wellbeing pov when I'm not chained to a desk 9-5 stressing out managing a company as well as having to do my writing on the side.

Anyway, reminder, no update next week due to my week's rest.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 49

Argus' status as an in-between town from Atlas to Mistral gave it a bit of leeway from the politics of either kingdom, which made it a popular and bustling town, practically a city in its own right. It had the technology of Atlas with a dash of Mistral's culture and a hodgepodge of people from every kingdom at once. Given its size, it made sense an office would be there, but Blake was found herself wondering why the Fist Office – one of the best – was stationed there rather than the Containments Office. Leaving Jaune to look over all of Vale was a bit silly.

Either way, Argus was quiet, at least where strange events came into it. Blake doubted there were any anomalies here that weren't slaved to the Fist Office, and any sapient anomalies had either been hunted down or had the good sense to flee.

Pyrrha Nikos was waiting for them at the airport in her long red overcoat and black suit; there was a little more gold detailing on her coat-cloak combo compared to the last time, which showed an odd turtle-like creature fighting a gold figure with a spear. "Interested?" asked Pyrrha, catching her gaze as they walked together out the airport. "It was one of my recent jobs. Homes across the coastline were mysteriously collapsing when there was no indication of unstable foundations. Whole families were going missing. It turned out to be an anomaly that would burrow under homes and wriggle about to destabilise them, then trap the inhabitants in the sand and slowly devour them."

Blake grimaced. "Lovely."

"It certainly was a struggle getting it to come out the ground where it was safe. Once it was, I was able to engage and dispatch it when its shell opened up to reveal its mouth." The redhead laughed delightedly. "It almost ate me!"

That didn't feel like something to be so enthusiastic about in Blake's mind, but she chuckled for politeness' sake. Jaune didn't talk much and Pyrrha didn't make to address him, which she at first thought might be dislike for his being an anomaly, but which she soon realised was more of an employee-employer thing.

"Is it a custom in the Fist Office to detail your cloak with trophies like this, then?"

"Yes. Our coats tell the story of our exploits – and we're buried with them over our caskets when we die. Or a spare is made up over an empty casket in most cases." Obviously, their bodies weren't usually recovered. "Don't you have anything similar?"

"Not really…"

"Then what do you do to commemorate your successful hunts?"

"I have a massage at this spa I've grown to like, mostly so I can climb down from the stress and try to forget whatever hunt we've just been on." Blake eyed the redhead. "Is this fun to you?"

"Is it not for you?"

No. Blake couldn't say it was. The other woman appeared to love her job, so she didn't say it, and instead walked on and wondered if the difference was in their mentality or in their jobs. Maybe an advantage of being so steadfastly and uncompromisingly anti-anomaly was that you never doubted the rightness of your actions, in the same way a racist didn't feel bad for abusing a faunus because they fully believed the twisted drivel they spouted.

It would have been easy to become like that, she realised, after the Welcoming House and the Twilight City. The only reason she hadn't was because Jaune actively sought out less-dangerous anomalies and their office therefore had more sympathetic cases. If it was kill after kill after kill then maybe she'd be more like Pyrrha – or like Nicholas. Blake was glad she wasn't.

Pyrrha hailed them a cab and then took them to a fancy building made of white stone edged with wood and metal and a whole heap of glass. The Fist Office logo was frosted on the windows and they even had a carpark, a far cry from the small apartment Jaune both lived and ran his office out of. It made sense property in Argus would be cheaper than an established city like Vale, but not this much cheaper. The difference in their budgets was immense.

Or Jaune was just that frugal. He had millions and didn't really spend it.

Inside, they were greeted by a receptionist and Blake even saw a few people go about. "I thought it was just you three," said Blake. Pyrrha hummed, followed her gaze, and then laughed.

"There are only three active agents in the Fist Office at the moment but we do have support staff. They do a lot of the investigating so we can focus on active missions; some are survivors of anomaly attacks that wanted to make a difference and one is even an ex-active agent who lost a leg. Saphron always says that sometimes the best way to silence a witness is to give them a job. I'm not sure if that's a joke at our mortality rates, though."

"You're still alive."

Pyrrha smiled. "For now. I didn't expect to survive the Twilight City. I'm surprised any of us did."

Finally, she brought them to a meeting room where Saphron stood talking to Nicholas Arc. He looked even more haggard than before if that were possible, and his face was even more scarred. Some were so fresh that she could still see stitching. There was Coral too, much to Blake's dismay, but that was it. She knew a few had fallen in Mountain Glenn but not this many. Jaune must have thought the same as well because he spoke up. "Are we waiting on the others?"

"It's just us," said Saphron, turning to face them. "The Burns Office is still recovering from their losses and the others are either too inexperienced or too wounded to contribute."

"Did you bring this so-called cure?" asked Coral, getting right to the point. Jaune brought out a briefcase and set it on the table. The woman in the white lab coat lunged for it, clicked it open and marvelled at the vials inside. "Mmmm. Very nice. Very suggestive."

"Are they real?" asked Nicholas.

"I don't have a Semblance capable of breaking down chemical compounds with eyesight, dear father. I'll need to study these in a lab before I can say anything. Unless Jaune wants to drink one and see for us?"

Jaune crossed his arms. "I'll pass."

"Wise," said Nicholas. "I wouldn't trust a loaf of bread if a Schnee was offering it." He nodded to the table "Everyone sit."

There were only chairs enough for direct Arc family members, and even Terra had to take a point leaning against the far wall with other employees in their suits. Blake walked over to stand among them, next to Pyrrha, and crossed her arms. Would it have killed them to provide a chair? Assholes.

"By now, I trust you're all acquainted with the Containment Office's report as to the latest Schnee auction held in Vale. Not just the auction itself, but the Containment Office's ultimately unsuccessful attempt to permanently remove Winter Schnee."

He didn't sound unhappy about that, and Saphron even went out her way to pat Jaune's shoulder – a rare moment of solidarity for such a messed-up family, but then hatred of the Schnee apparently went deeper than their hatred for one another.

"During the battle, Winter Schnee made claims that have left us troubled. Claims of wishing to study, understand, and commercialise human-to-anomaly transformations. This coincides with a spate of such incidents that the Containments Office has dealt with recently."

"We had one as well," said Saphron. "Not one month ago. Coral?"

"I have not," admitted Coral, still poking over the vials, "but then I doubt the SDC would run their experiments in their own back yard. That is what we're implying, no? That the recent increase in transformations is in some way their doing. Hmm."

Nicholas shook his head and reached out to close the case. Coral looked affronted, utterly insulted, but he tugged the case away so she would focus. "That is indeed what we're implying. The fact that so many have happened in Vale specifically, and then this attack on the Containments Office, shows that they're focusing their research on a control group. Jaune is, after all, one of the only known cases of the human managing to maintain control."

"My partner is concerned that Winter's willingness to tell us that might be a trap," said Jaune. Blake was pleased to hear her worries brought up and nodded his way. She'd half-expected she might have to go behind his back to tell them.

"It's pointed of them," said Coral. "Typically, an experiment is invalidated if you inform the participant which control group they're in. The SDC might not care, however. If there are investors willing to fund research into this then they'd want to be assured they will never be at risk of losing their minds. That means pushing Jaune to the breaking point and seeing if he maintains his sanity is their goal, but Winter's goal might be to see the investors satisfied. In that case her telling us explicitly about this doesn't harm her any. If anything, it'll make us do more to keep Jaune sane, which is exactly what she wants at the end of the day."

"Then would our best bet not be to invalidate the research entirely?" asked Saphron. "If Jaune went mad and had to be put down then that would end the SDC's chances here." That she could say that while she still had her hand on his shoulder horrified Blake, and the way Jaune stayed quiet, even if his head dipped, had her pushing off the wall. Pyrrha caught her arm, but Blake snarled back.

Nicholas heard, looking up to meet her eyes. Blake didn't care and yanked out of Pyrrha's grip, walking up to pointedly stand behind Jaune and, just as pointedly, to take Saphron's gloved hand and remove it from his shoulder. Blake took her place behind him and to one side, a silent bodyguard.

Coral looked deeply amused.

"Jaune," chided Saphron. "Control your employee."

"Associate Director Saphron," said Blake. "Control your murderous impulses."

Saphron stood.

"Enough!" barked Nicholas, slamming a fist on the table. "Saphron, sit. Girl-" His eyes locked onto Blake's. "Stand there if you wish. There will be no talk of ARC Corp turning on itself to counter a Schnee plot. That might well be the plot. Our numbers are down since the Twilight City. We cannot afford to lose any more."

"Agreed," said Coral. "And besides, a researcher doesn't give up just because one experiment fails. They'll keep looking. They'll simply be more careful the second time. The only way to stop this research is to close down the lab completely."

"The Schnee family," said Nicholas. "Yes, that would be the ideal way of dealing with this. The Containments Office may have had the right idea in attempting to kill Winter Schnee. A shame it didn't work. Though even if she died, I expect this would continue. Our best path may be to remove the Schnee family once and for all. These investors are just cowardly old men and women at the end of the day; they won't stick around once things go bad."

"The world relies on the SDC for stability," said Saphron. "We can't destroy that. Their Reality-Class anomaly will have to be preserved despite all reason. Will the Secrets Office be trusted with that responsibility?"

The way she asked it made it clear she didn't like the idea, and Blake couldn't blame her much. Coral was a nutcase who loved to experiment on anomalies, especially the dangerous ones, and she had a feeling the fate of the world's economic markets wouldn't stop her from doing the same with the Schnee anomaly, the origin of dust.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," said Nicholas. "We don't know much about All Becomes Dust aside from the name. If it is small enough to transport, then we will consider where to take it. If not, then the Secrets Office will have to take over it. Though, given its importance, we might have to create a sister-company to automate the process anyway. They should have their own teams of personnel to protect themselves and the anomaly." He gritted his teeth as he said that. "But, again, that bridge can be crossed later. Our primary goal should be to remove the Schnee family once and for all."

"Willow Schnee. Winter Schnee. Jacques Schnee. Whitley Schnee. Weiss Schnee." Saphron listed them out. "And likely any associated staff involved in the dealing of anomalies. That will be quite the number to work our way through. Are they all to die? Some are children." Saphron sounded more curious than upset about that.

"Willow, Jacques and Winter must die," said Nicholas. "We can consider the rest as they come. If they are pliable enough to understand our aims then we can spare them, but it will be a risk. We shouldn't risk the stability of Remnant for the sake of a pair of teenagers. One of them is in Vale, is she not?" he asked the question to Jaune.

"Weiss Schnee is in Beacon, yes," said Jaune, "but she's under Ozpin's gaze and I don't think we need target her. She's actually leaked information to me against her sister and doesn't appear to have any love for the family business."

"She might have love for her family though," Coral pointed out. "Enough to feel a little upset when we kill everyone she has known and loved."

Jaune scowled. "Then that is a bridge I shall cross when I get to it."

"Hehehe. Throwing our old man's words back at me? Fine. Fine. Take all my fun away. That means she'll be your responsibility to deal with if she does start acting out of hand."

"The Containments Office can deal with one girl if they need to," said Nicholas. "Let's focus on the Schnee manor. We'll leave their refinement plants. I'm certain they're a front anyway, as dust has no manufacturing process. The anomaly is likely in their manor somewhere. We'll strike there, work our way through and subdue or kill anyone who gets in our path. There will be armed personnel. That's a given. They will have to die."

"Why not strike the whole place with Terra's anomaly and kill them all?" asked Blake. She knew she wasn't meant to involve herself but really didn't care, despite the shocked gasps from the peanut gallery.

"It's a fair question," said Nicholas. "And the answer is that we cannot risk killing their anomaly, and we also cannot risk leaving any of them alive. Destruction from a distance will leave us struggling to identify bodies and we'll simply not know if we've gotten them all or not. We have to be sure. Also, we don't know what other anomalies they are keeping there for auctions that might be released if we destroyed the whole manor."

"The Schnee manor is bound to be like an old containment lab from the original company in many ways," said Coral. "They have to keep all their merchandise locked up after all, and we know some of them can be both aggressive and dangerous. Keeping those doors locked up tight is in our best interests. Though-" she added, eyes shining with excitement, "-I would like to petition that those labs be handed over to me with the anomalies kept in good condition for further study-"

"Denied." Nicholas didn't even hear her out. "The anomalies will be catalogues, rated, and then disposed of where at all possible. Those that cannot be – assuming any such exist – will be sealed and buried deep underground where they will hopefully never see the light of day again." He fixed his daughter, who squirmed unhappily, with a stern gaze. "Am I understood?"

"Mrbbl. Mmmbl. Yes, Director…" grumbled Coral.

"Good. Directors Saphron, Coral and Jaune will come with me to discuss battle plans and contingencies. The details of which can be passed on to all employees after. You should all rest and ready yourselves," he told the various employees along the walls, and Blake behind Jaune's seat. "Those of you with combat training will be entering the manor but those without shouldn't fear. You will be set up as a perimeter to capture or kill any fleeing the manor. We won't be moving out tonight whatever we decide as the Schnee are likely on high alert. Spend time with your families." He stood. "Directors, with me."

Jaune stood but Blake grasped his wrist before he could go. The action wasn't missed by Coral, who tilted her head amusedly, but she didn't care. Blake leaned in and whispered, "Will you be okay?" in his ear.

Jaune nodded. He didn't smile. He looked tired. "I should be fine."

Her hand squeezed tighter but she did let him go, even if she was unhappy with "should" being included there. Hopefully, Nicholas had put down any squabbling among the siblings with his remark. Blake wasn't convinced. It was only after they left that Pyrrha approached in a hurry, and Terra with her.

"I can't believe you did that!" said Pyrrha.

"Stood up for my boss in the face of yours suggesting she kill him?" snapped Blake. "I can't imagine why you think I wouldn't be prepared to fight for him." Her eyes locked onto Terra's, by far the bigger threat. The woman raised her hands in a gesture of peace.

"We're hardly your enemy," said Terra. "And not all of us are so blasé to casual murder. I'll have a word with Saphron. You have my apologies on my wife's behalf for her ill-spoken words."

Her apologies, but not her support. None of them would have stepped in to help if they had decided to kill Jaune, and they'd have pulled the trigger if Saphron told them to. Blake wasn't content to accept Terra's promise of making her wife sleep on the couch after, not when it meant she and Jaune would be dead.

"If your boss ever does turn on mine then I'll fight to protect him," said Blake. "And that includes if all of ARC Corp turns on him. I don't care how right you think it is, or how deserved you think his death would be. Jaune has done everything he can for ARC Corp and doesn't deserve your shit just because he suffered a transformation."

"Even if he stops being human?" asked Pyrrha.

Blake squared up to the taller, and likely stronger, woman. "Even then."

"I can respect that," said the redhead, eyes closing and lips pulling into a wide smile. "You must care for him in the same way Assistant-Director Terra does for Associate-Director Saphron." Well-meaning or not, the implication had Blake's cheeks heating up. She refused to back down, though. "Very well," said Pyrrha. "I will remember that."

"Thank you."

"And should it come to it, I will do my best to make your end quick and painless."

"…" Blake scowled, turning away. "I'll keep that in mind."

/-/

Jaune returned to her safe and sound and tired some three hours later. They left together and booked a shared room in a hotel nearby with two beds. Jaune had tried to book two rooms, but she intervened, not trusting to leave him alone with so many of his family around. He didn't fight it, nor did he make a fuss, and he changed in the shower while she got changed in the main hotel room.

"So," said Blake, kneeling on one bed with the sheets over her legs. Sharing a room like this didn't feel too strange when she'd been in much less private situations with the White Fang. "Are you allowed to tell me what was decided, or is it to be confidential?"

"There were no orders against that," he said, sighing. "We'll be masquerading as White Fang."

Blake sighed. "Of course we will be."

"It's the low-hanging fruit. I'm sorry if it's upsetting but I don't think my family would care for your feelings even if I brought it up."

"It's fine. I guess we'd have to disguise as something, and this means we can spare people, doesn't it? Masked mysterious agents would have kill everyone, but we can leave survivors and claim they got away from a White Fang attack that finally killed the Schnee family. It's a good thing, I suppose. Hell, the White Fang will be thrilled. They'll accept responsibility even if they don't know who did it."

It didn't feel right to blame them, but it also didn't feel right to do their work for them. Blake knew Adam wouldn't care. He'd be jumping for joy whoever did it. Given how disorganised many cells were, they might genuinely believe they were responsible. Sienna, Adam and the Albain brothers would try to find the ones who did it – mostly to lavish them with praise – but when no such people came up, they'd assume it was a cell in Atlas who had taken the risk and done it without support, and who had succeeded against all odds.

"Yeah, that's why we're going with that. We also need to justify this to the various governments too, though that'll be after the fact. Too much risk that some of them are the investors Winter spoke of."

"I thought the councils were on our side?"

"They are, in so far as they agree dangerous anomalies should be dealt with and that we're the best suited for them. That doesn't mean they're without guilt, however, or that they wouldn't jump at the chance to become beyond-human if they had the chance and if there were no risks. If this succeeds then we'll admit we were behind it, and at that point they'll realise how serious we are about this and end any funding into such things. Such is the idea anyway."

"You think some will continue?"

"There will always be idiots, Blake. And powerful people will always desire more power."

"I guess so. So, the plan?"

"We'll touch down a distance away and traverse on foot. Less-capable members of ARC Corp will hold the perimeter and capture anyone who tries to escape. They'll be advised to try and do so alive because the more witnesses of a White Fang attack, the more we can sell the story. That was my addition," he said, proudly. "Saphron wanted everyone dead."

"Of course she did," groaned Blake. "Good job – I'm proud of you."

He laughed, not sure if he should feel awkward about that or not, and continued, "Those of us going in, which includes the both of us, will clear the manot from bottom to top, while anti-air will be brought along to prevent any escapes. You, me and Coral have a different mission, though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. We're to delve deeper and try to find two things: first, the main anomaly – All Becomes Dust – and secondly, the holding cells for their other anomalies that are going to be sold. We're to contain them and basically prevent the Schnee unleashing them all as a final fuck you to kill us. It's pretty much a given they would do that just to spite us."

"Definitely. And if any of them are as dangerous as the Rusted Queen then we'd be in serious trouble. Why us, though? Is there a reason?"

"Coral will be going because it's Coral and she'd literally ignore orders and sneak off from the fighting if she thought there were some interesting specimens. Dad decided it'd just be easier to give her the job. I'm going because no aura plus armed guards with guns plus the chance of me freaking out and unleashing all over the battlefield is too high."

"And me?"

"You're going because Saphron deemed you an unacceptable risk to the operation."

Blake scoffed. "Oh, I bet."

"Don't worry, I think dad was impressed with you for speaking up. Only mildly, but still, he didn't even show up to Saphron and Terra's wedding so that's a big deal. The Blades Office doesn't have staff because he burned through them so quickly it was taking longer to train them then they'd survive on the job." That didn't surprise her any. "He said I should keep you around because you'll be more motivated than anyone to make sure I don't lose control and have to be put down."

Fucker. Bastard. Scum. Blake forced herself not to swear out loud because Jaune looked so happy with her being in his father's good books, even if he himself wasn't. It was infuriating. Blake wanted to gather his whole family, force them into therapy or fire them into the sun. Whichever was most likely to yield any results. Probably the sun.

"I'll keep you safe," she promised.

Jaune looked away, coughing embarrassedly. "I'm your boss, Blake. I'm the professional here."

"Not at storming SDC encampments and dealing with their armed guards. That's my forte." So, too, was calming Jaune down before he could lose control, though she wasn't quite brave enough to say that and bring up memories in both their heads of their kiss. "Y-You let me focus on the normal people with guns, and I'll let you handle the containment of all those dangerous anomalies. Deal?"

He smiled at her. "Deal. I'm glad you joined, Blake. I don't think I ever said it, and I know I tried to keep you out the company, but I'm glad you didn't let me."

"H-Hey, where is all this coming from all of a sudden?" she asked, blushing a little.

"I just wanted you to know how much you being here means to me, and how much having you stand up for me back there meant. No one else in that room would have. No one else there would have complained if the decision was made to kill me. Not even me."

"Well you should!" she snapped. "Your life is more valuable than that."

"Is it?"

"It is to me! Your life is valuable to me! You're important to me!"

Blake fixed her eyes on his, despite her embarrassment, and made sure he took that in. His own family didn't care for him, and his own mother had pretty much forgotten him as well as she went mad in Mountain Glenn. Well, that was fine. If no one else wanted to care for him then she would. Already did. Heaven knows, there was no other reason for why she put up with such an awful job – the pay be damned.

Jaune broke eye contact first, embarrassed, afraid, but happy. She could see it in the tiny smile he did his best to hide. It was impossible to know just how much he longed to hear words like that, or if he'd ever heard them at all form his twisted family.

"Thank you, Blake. I…" He licked his lips. "Thank you. Goodnight."

Sometimes it's nice to just have someone tell you they care, and how much you mean to them.

Next Chapter: 24th April(Two Weeks)

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