Here we go
Cover Art: Kirire
Chapter 23
If there was anything to feel happy about then it was the fact that despite the anomalous vessel, she could see water lapping against its hull – which meant it wasn't an actual ghost ship. The constant fog pouring off it must have done a good job of hiding it from unsuspecting sailors and convincing them of such, but the ship itself looked normal. It was more likely the anomaly was something on board.
The downside of that fact was that Jaune merrily informed her they'd have to board it, and then had her slowly bring the boat up to the side of the thing. There wasn't really anywhere to moor it, so she put down the anchor by the metal safety ladder built into the side of the thing and left the speedboat bumping against its side. She was about to ask if he wanted her to go up first, but by the time she cut the engine Jaune was already halfway up, his coattails fluttering behind him.
"You don't have aura!" reminded Blake. He waved back and said something lost over the sound of the waves. Blake sighed and jumped up, catching a rung and hauling herself up after him. The deck was barren. The crane and winch system used to pull the industrial nets up were rusted, the large hatch to the hold where the fish would be stored was no better, and the windows on the cabin had been shattered long ago.
There were two harpoon launchers off the bow, one on the left and one on the right, designed for usage against Grimm for the most part. Those were unloaded and hanging down; there were no more harpoons in the metal drums beside them. Blake wondered if they'd been used before whatever befell this ship.
"We haven't come under attack," said Jaune. "That's a good sign. It's worth noting this thing hasn't preyed on any of the fishing ships that saw it, and usually retreated. We might not be looking at an aggressive anomaly."
Blake nodded. She appreciated both the warning and the fact that Jaune had learned from the case with the Guardian Weaver and had chosen to inform her of his conclusions rather than assume she was on the same page. "It's still abducted children," said Blake.
"We don't know that for a fact. This could be completely unrelated."
"True." Blake looked at the entranceway down into the hull of the ship. "I guess we're going down there?"
"We sure are."
It was pitch black down the metal staircase into the bowels of the trawler, which was to say that Blake had no problem whatsoever, but Jaune had to pull out his scroll and use the torch function. The walls were cool to the touch, relatively clean of rust, but coated instead with a thin layer of dust and grime. Nothing suspicious, but confirmation that no one had cleaned the place in a long while.
The mist continued to pool out and up the stairs behind them, casually defying gravity but also washing about their legs like a river. She could feel the cold touch of it brushing around her legs, all the way up to her midriff. Luckily, it was partially see-through, because she'd have been terrified of monsters attacking their legs otherwise. "What do you think about this mist?" asked Blake.
"It seems like normal mist or fog," said Jaune. "Though I can't exactly prove that. I'm not feeling any metal alterations or impulses to suggest it's got any mind controlling aspects to it, but then that might take time. I don't feel any biological changes either."
"Is that a thing to bring up now when we're waist deep in it?"
"Relax." He smiled. "I kept an eye on the ocean as we approached. If this was dangerous to organic life, then there would have been shoals of fish dead and floating on the surface. Something like that would have reached Menagerie, if only for them to wonder what was causing the phenomenon."
It surprised her that he paid that much attention – impressed her, too, and she chastised herself for not having thought of it. There was obviously a lot of things she still needed to learn. "I meant do you think it's an aggressive move or a defence mechanism?"
"Defence? That's an interesting thought actually. Maybe this thing wants to remain hidden."
"It didn't do a good job of that with us."
"I know," said Jaune. "But it did with every other ship. I wonder what makes us different from all the fishing vessels it ran across."
More questions to ponder over. This anomaly was clearly aware of people around it if it was going out its way to stay hidden, so why hadn't it evaded them? Blake couldn't help but feel that it had let itself be noticed, which implied it wanted them on board. She supposed it wasn't impossible that they'd come across a friendly anomaly, or one who knew of ARC Corp and wanted to cooperate, but she sure as hell wasn't going to take that for granted. Their recent experiences suggested that wasn't a common thing.
A faint, girlish sound echoed down the corridors. Blake stiffened immediately, every horror movie in existence training her to instinctively lock up at a sound that was unmistakably a young girl's giggling. Give her a furious roar, a monstrous snarl or the sounds of rattling chains and she was fine, but girlish giggling was right out. The only thing worse was small, human-like dolls.
"Jaune," she hissed. "Tell me you heard that."
There was no response.
"Jaune?" asked Blake, turning.
There was no Jaune.
"Oh hell no!" Her breath came out panicked. "Jaune? Jaune, I swear if you're playing a joke on me, I will strangle you in your sleep!" The seconds ticked by, each one accompanied by girlish giggling and the daunting knowledge that Jaune was too professional to pull something like this on purpose. "Crap, crap, crap. Two missions in a row that you get yourself kidnapped on me. Please tell me this isn't going to become a theme."
Blake waited, hoping against hope that he would pop out and shout surprise. He didn't, obviously, and she drew Gambol Shroud, swallowing and backing against the closest wall. It wasn't just that Jaune had been taken that had her heart racing; he'd been taken before he could make a sound, and so silently that she hadn't noticed. In a narrow metal corridor where every footstep echoed, and where there were next to no nooks in which to hide.
There was no leaving, however. If she left, then this ship might never show itself again. There was also no Timothy to help her this time. Blake took a deep breath and let it go, kept her back to the wall and began to slide down the corridor, eyes darting both ways. If she kept her back to the metal then, assuming the metal itself wasn't anomalous, nothing could get behind her.
It was another hundred metres into the corridor and the fog that Blake realised that the corridor should not be one hundred metres long. The trawler was only about that long, and the whole point of a hallway under the deck was to connect the deck to the rooms, the hold, the engine and all the other things inside the hull. To travel a hundred metres without a single door was just poor design – or, more likely in this case, impossible. The anomaly was stretching the corridor.
Endlessly? thought Blake as a sharp well of fear pooled inside her gut. Am I trapped in an endless tunnel like Pyrrha was? Will I be stuck here for eternity, forever waiting until whatever took Jaune takes me? The girlish giggling had stopped, and all that was left now was a silence that felt all too ominous. This thing is sapient and aware of us. It's proven that. Maybe I should try a different approach.
Blake cleared her throat of phlegm and fear, and then called out. "Hello? My name is Blake Belladonna." It was a long shot, and she wasn't sure if she expected a response, but it hadn't cost her anything to try.
Which was why she was so surprised when a childish voice whispered into her ear: "You can go now. You're free."
A scream nearly tore itself form her lips, and she pushed off the wall, smacking into the opposite one and looking behind her. Nothing, but she'd heard the voice as if over her shoulder, even when she'd been flat against the wall. "H-Hello? I'm sorry, I think there's been a misunderstanding. What do you mean I'm free?"
"You are free," repeated the voice, again in her ear and from behind. Blake shuddered but this time didn't move. "You don't have to be afraid anymore."
"And yet I very much am…"
"I took care of the bad man. I saved you."
Bad man-? Blake's eyes widened. "Jaune! No, no, he's not a bad man. He's my friend."
"He's a bad man."
"He's not!" shouted Blake. "We're both from ARC Corp; we're here investigating a case of missing children in Menagerie."
There was silence for a moment, and then an almost shy, "Like a policeman?"
"Yes! Like a police officer. Jaune and I protect people." Blake chose not to mention what they protected them from, not to the anomaly presently communicating with her. "We're here trying to find the missing children. Please, he's no threat and not a bad man."
"But he's human."
That response, whispered with an almost petulant air, flicked a switch in her mind. It might not have meant anything to most people, but the way it was said, as if Jaune being human explained all the suspicion, was painfully familiar. Too familiar. "You're from Menagerie, aren't you? You're one of the children."
"Mommy and daddy told me never to trust a human."
Of course they would have. Blake cringed. "Jaune is different. He's not like other humans and he's a good person. Trust me. I'm a faunus and I trust him. That means he's okay, doesn't it? You can trust me." Blake waggled her ears. "I'm a faunus like you."
"You're not like me," said the girl, sadly. "Not anymore…"
"You know, it would be easier to talk in person. I can-" Before she could finish, the corridor swept to an end in front of her, revealing a wooden door that was completely at odds with the ship's metal construction. It even had a small, round bronze handle. "Oh. Is this your room? Can I come inside?" The door clicked and opened slightly. "I guess that's answer enough."
The door swung open and the room inside was smaller than she expected. It was obnoxiously pink, with pink walls, a pink bed, pink curtains over a window looking out over the ocean and a stack of fluffy cushions and teddies stacked in one corner. There were two narrow and tall wardrobes of light-coloured wood, with childish drawings stuck to the front of them. In the centre of the room, hanging from the ceiling, was a gilded golden cage, within which knelt her partner.
"Jaune!"
"Hey Blake." He had his arms through bars that looked too thin to contain him. Jaune was slumped against them, his face pressed between the bars. "I swear, this getting kidnapped thing normally never happens."
Blake rushed over, gripped the bars and tugged. They looked thin enough to come apart in her hands, yet they held. Jaune must have tried as well because he didn't bother to help her. "Damn. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just…" He smiled weakly. "Hanging around."
A reluctant giggle came from the pile of stacked teddies and toys. Blake whirled, very pointedly not drawing her weapon or making any threatening moves. "H-Hey there. Are you the girl I was speaking to before? It's nice to meet you. I'm Blake. I'm not here to hurt you."
The mound shifted, rumbled, and out came a small, frail shape. It was not a young girl despite the voice and size – but a teddy bear. It had golden fur, buttons for eyes and a small gash in its left side, from which fluff stuck out. It was less than a foot tall and waddled on its uneven legs. It had no mouth, and yet words came from it all the same. "Hello."
Anomaly. Blake didn't know why she was surprised but she'd expected a girl. "H-Hello." She recovered quickly and knelt, sitting down in what she hoped was a calming gesture. "Can I ask your name?"
"Annabelle."
"That's a very pretty name. I'm Blake."
"Hey. I'm Jaune."
The teddy bear shied away from Jaune's raised hand.
"He's a friend," said Blake, quick to assure her – it? – before things could get bad. However childish it acted, the anomaly had taken Jaune without a fight and could probably do all sorts of things to him. "You remember what I said, right? Jaune is a policeman. His job is to help young boys and girls like you and keep you safe."
"Even faunus boys and girls?"
"Anyone who needs looking after. Not all humans are bad."
"Mommy and daddy said I shouldn't trust humans…"
"They say that because they want you to be safe," said Jaune, keeping his voice low and easy. "They don't mean that every human is bad, but they want you to be careful just in case. They also told you not to talk to strangers, right? That doesn't mean every stranger is bad. I bet all your friends were strangers once."
"I'm a good girl."
"You are." Blake interrupted Jaune and shushed him with her hand. He was trying to help but getting through to a faunus child from Menagerie wasn't going to be easy for him. There was too much prejudice to unpack, and her parents probably had mean that every human was someone to be mistrusted. "Can I ask, just to be sure, but you live on Menagerie, right? You have family and parents there, and you were abducted from the island."
"The nice faunus wasn't nice and took me to the bad men. They put me on a boat and in a cage. They said… They said…" Her voice cracked.
"You don't need to say it," said Blake. She was surprised when the teddy bear lurched forward and flung itself at her. She tensed, but it hit her chest and began to cry – without tears, just the sounds – into her. Blake had never been good with children, but she knew enough to pat its back – not warm, not living – and say, "There, there. It's okay."
"Annabelle," said Jaune. "I'm sorry if this is hard, but we want to help you and the other people these bad men took, so I want to ask you a few questions." He hung his arms out the bars and smiled at her. "Can you be brave and answer them for me?"
The teddy bear sniffled into Blake's chest. "Y-Yes."
"Thank you. First of all, you are a faunus from Menagerie, right?"
"Yes."
"And you were led out of Kuo Kuana by a faunus, who then handed you over to humans?"
"That's right. He told me mommy and daddy had been in an accident and he was going to take me to the hospital. T-Then he took me to the beach. There were people waiting. Nasty people."
Blake tensed at the thought and hugged the child-bear tighter. The girl cried some more, and missed Jaune muttering, "Another person turned into an anomaly. What the hell is going on here?" He cleared his throat. "Were there other faunus like you, Annabelle? Other children or young people?"
"T-There were some. T-They… They're gone now."
"What happened to them?" asked Blake. She dreaded the answer, wondering if they had been sold into slavery. Remnant had no slave trade, not officially, but human trafficking existed for both faunus and humans, and for organs and other horrible things. There were always monsters willing to throw away their humanity for profit.
"It wasn't my fault!" wept the child. "I didn't mean to!"
"What happened, Annabelle?" asked Jaune. "We're not blaming you. Really, those bad people who took you are the ones to blame."
Before the child could answer, a horrible sound echoed from outside the door. It was like manic laughter mixed with the sound of tumbling rocks, and heavy, overly loud stamping of feet. "Oh no!" cried Annabelle. "They're here! They're looking for me!"
Wait, what? The human traffickers were still on the ship? How had they not seen them before? Blake didn't get a chance to answer as the wardrobe door was suddenly flung open and she was hauled toward it by the bear, which was a lot stronger than her all of a sudden.
"We have to hide. We have to hide!"
"But Jaune- He-"
The wardrobe door slammed shut, and then opened just a crack, enough for Blake to see through the thin vertical slit. The doorway in the room burst open, and the people who came in – well, they weren't people. They were caricatures of people – humans – with oversized faces and small, beady eyes. Their teeth were yellow and black, and pointed like sharks, and their bodies were the wrong proportions. They had long arms, longer fingers and shrunken bodies with stubby feet. Their fanged smiles were wider than their waistlines, and their hair was lank and mottled. There were two of them; one had black hair and carried a huge carving knife, while the other was dressed in white and dragged a metal pot behind him.
"Where is she? Where is she?" snarled the first. "I want to chop and chop and toss her in a pot."
"Cook her up," said the second. "Boil her skin and make her scream, then gnash her up and eat her."
Not human, thought Blake, eyes bulging out. More anomalies? Did the entire trafficking operation turn into anomalies? And who do they want to eat her? Don't tell me this was a bunch of cannibals kidnapping and eating children. That's insane.
"What's that?" asked the first, pointing. Blake's stomach dropped as she realised he was indicating the cage. "That's not a young and tasty faunus."
"That's a human," said the second. "Master race!"
"The master race!"
Jaune looked as surprised as Blake by their suddenly childish and, if she were being honest, ridiculous language. They sounded less like people, and more like how a small child might imagine bad people to talk. They waddled over to Jaune's cage and, with far more ease than she, tore open the door to let him out. "Nasty, naughty, bad-girl faunus locked you up," said the thing with the cleaver. "But humans stick together. You should come with us and find the girl, then we can cook and gobble her up!"
"She was here!" said the second. "She must be hiding. Do you know where she's hiding?"
Jaune shook his head immediately. "I'm afraid I don't."
Annabelle gasped softly in Blake's lap.
"He lies!" accused the thing with the cooking pot. "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"
"You're hiding her. Why? You're a human like us. We should cook the faunus up and eat them for breakfast." He patted his stomach. "Yum-yum."
"I can smell her. I can smell her…" The second turned toward the wardrobe they were in and lumbered toward it. "Hiding in-"
Crocea Mors came down between the monstrous thing and the wardrobe. It was still sheathed so as not to harm himself, but Jaune cut off the thing's path and then placed himself between them and the wardrobe. He looked resigned to the idea of combat, planting his feet down and saying, "I don't think I made myself clear. You're not harming the child. Leave now."
Annabelle gasped a second time, and Blake's eyes widened as the air around Jaune seemed to ripple. He noticed it as well, tensing up, but rather than an attack of some kind, his dark blue suit changed into a grey and black uniform that Blake recognised all too well. Jaune's face was even covered by a white and red mask, while the symbol of the White Fang appeared on his back.
Why had the anomaly put him in a White Fang uniform? Why would it-? Blake looked down, suddenly realising that Annabelle was pushed up against the crack in the wardrobe. It's because she came from a White Fang family, she realised. The girl must have seen the White Fang as heroes, possibly even seeing her parents in uniform and unconsciously associating that uniform with bravery and heroism. And since she sees Jaune as a hero for standing up for her, she's imagining him as a proud member of the White Fang.
Which meant Annabelle was the one changing things. Consciously or not.
Jaune roared and attacked the two monsters, swinging his sword – which, despite being sheathed – cut through the head of the first monster with ease. There was no blood or gore, just a wave of white light and a dying scream that Blake was certain she'd heard in movies before. A ridiculous, over-the-top Wilhelm scream. For a girl who didn't know better, that was probably all she could manage. The second fared no better, trying to run and being chased down by Jaune and put to the sword. It didn't even try and fight back, but then Annabelle probably didn't know how to fight either.
They were never real, thought Blake. They were figments of her imagination, her fears, made manifest. The real kidnappers are probably long dead but she's a traumatised girl who is haunted by nightmares of them, and those nightmares keep coming real.
The bedroom as well. It was obvious in hindsight. This must have been what she remembered her own bedroom looking like, and her imagination had conjured it up. Blake sat in the closet as Annabelle pushed the doors open, rushed out and hugged Jaune's legs. She was either over her fear of him being a human or didn't care now that he was in the White Fang uniform. "You saved me! You stopped them!"
Jaune slowly knelt and placed a hand on her head. "That's my job, Annabelle. Blake and I do our best to protect people from what we call anomalies. These are… They're not monsters, but they are different. Abnormal. They can be dangerous as well, which is why we need to investigate them and make sure they don't hurt innocent people."
"Jaune!" rebuked Blake, all too aware of what he was saying and where he was going.
"It's okay, Miss Blake." Annabelle looked back, sadly. "I know I'm not normal anymore." The girl, the bear, raised one of her limbs and looked at it. "I always knew…"
"What happened to your body, Annabelle?" asked Jaune.
"I was naughty. I escaped the bad men and tried to let the others out. They… They caught me. I bit one, bit him hard, and he… he…" Her head fell, a sob breaking out of her. Jaune shushed her and pulled her into him, rubbing her back as she cried.
They killed her. Perhaps not intentionally, not when she was merchandise to them, but the man she'd bitten had lashed out and harmed her. The girl must have become an anomaly from that, though they still didn't know how or why. It didn't look like they were going to get any answers either, not from a young, traumatised girl who didn't know any better what happened to her than they did.
Blake could only assume what happened after. The humans had probably suffered direly for their actions, either being killed by Annabelle while she didn't know her new powers, or maybe they had jumped overboard and drowned. It was far more worrying that the fate of the other kidnapped children was unknown, and her words earlier – it wasn't my fault – implied that they were not well.
"You control things around you, don't you?" asked Jaune. "When you have nightmares, those nightmares come to life. You dreamed up the mist to hide away, and the long corridor to trick us. Then you dreamed of me in the cage and there I was."
In the moment where she died, where her life was snuffed out and she found herself trapped in a teddy bear, Blake couldn't help but think that the girl would have been lost to madness. It was quite possible she'd experienced a nightmare and set monsters about the ship, and that those monsters killed everyone they found – kidnapper, humans and faunus prisoners alike. Blake cursed and closed her eyes, unsure if their fate was worse or better than the one that would have otherwise awaited them.
"They always come," cried Annabelle. "Every night. I can't stop it. I can't stop what happens even if I try."
"That's why you haven't gone home," said Blake.
"I can't go home! What if I go to sleep, have a nightmare and then mommy and daddy are hunted by them? W-What if I hurt more people?" More people, not some. Confirmation of the deaths of the other captives. Blake wished she hadn't received it. "P-People keep seeing me, but I have to hide. I have to hide so I don't hurt them."
"You could come with us," said Blake.
Jaune looked up. "Blake!" he hissed.
"What? Jaune, she needs help – the kind of help no one other than us knows how to provide. We're the Containments Office. We can look after her there, teach her to control her power and-"
"And what if she has a nightmare in the middle of Vale, Blake? What then?"
"Then we deal with it!"
"Don't fight!" shouted Annabelle. "I don't like it when people fight."
"We're not fighting," said Blake, quickly. "We're just in disagreement. That's a normal thing that happens between people working together." Doing that in front of her was a bad idea however, so Blake said, "Jaune and I are just going to have a quick chat over here." She pulled him away from Annabelle and to the corner of the room. "I know you can listen in, but please don't. It's a private discussion."
Annabelle looked sad, even resigned. "Okay…"
Blake wished she could do more, but she shook her head and motioned for Jaune to follow her. Once they were in the far corner, she spoke in a low voice, barely above a whisper. "Jaune, we can't just leave her out here on the open ocean. What if your family gets wind of her?"
"They're more likely to learn of her if she's with us. That puts her in even more danger. Not to mention us and everyone else in Vale. Her nightmares could interact with other anomalies as well. It would be a disaster. To say nothing of Ozpin learning of her."
"We can teach her to control her power."
"How? Blake, we don't even know if it can be controlled. Dreams are unconscious. Not to mention anomalous. It's said that a person has thousands of dreams every night in REM sleep. What do you think is going to happen if she manifests all of them in the middle of my office? It'll be a massacre."
"Then what?" she hissed back. "Kill her?"
"I didn't say that. I'd never say that."
He'd almost certainly thought it though. Blake had as well and didn't need the harsh ARC Corp upbringing to make it happen. Annabelle's power was subconscious, incredibly powerful and could change the world around her at whim. That was the sort of thing that would be too dangerous to exist in anyone, let alone with a child's active imagination. If she had been an older woman trying to use it to her own advantage, Blake didn't think she'd hesitate calling for her death. And she'll be a woman eventually, won't she? A woman who has been ingrained to hate humans by her parents, and who has even more trauma against them thanks to the actions of these kidnappers.
It wasn't hard to imagine what Annabelle might do if she had this kind of power and a burning resentment for humanity. She might not even intend to kill them, but her dreamlike projections could do it anyway. The thought took the wind out of Blake's sails and left her empty and uncertain. Jaune looked no better.
"I won't know what to do either," he said. "I've never seen something like this. This marks the third confirmed case of a person turning into an anomaly. I don't know what is changing people into anomalies or what we can do about it, and I have no idea if there's any way to reverse the process."
"That's it, then," said Blake. "We're useless?"
"Just because we can't think of a solution now doesn't mean we won't later. One thing's for sure; we can't take her back to her parents. They wouldn't recognise or accept her, and anomalies would be out in the open."
"We could call it a Semblance."
"Too close to the truth, Blake, and even she knows it's not safe for her to be around people. One bad dream could have her killing them. Even a good dream could lead to problems. What do you think will happen when puberty and hormones kick in and she has a wet dream? We'll be lucky if she accidentally hits everyone on the island with an aphrodisiac and causes a mating frenzy. She might just cause people to lose their inhibitions and sexually assault one another."
Blake let out a long hiss. "Fuck."
"Exactly. Annabelle is… well, she isn't a faunus anymore. The one we faced could transform at will, but it sounds like her body is gone. Dead. It's probably decomposed by now. We're honestly lucky she had the smarts to stay out here and stay hidden rather than sail back home and unleash madness on Kuo Kuana."
Lucky indeed. Blake could just imagine the island falling into anarchy, lost to waves of nightmarish creatures. Her parents wouldn't stand a chance, and the life and death of everyone would depend on whether Sienna and the White Fang realised the cause and killed Annabelle before things got any worse. Blake slumped, defeated and hopeless. Jaune looked no better.
"What do we do?"
"I don't know," admitted Jaune. "I just don't know. For now, I guess we ask her to stay out here and stay hidden. We might be able to find a cure one day."
"A cure for what? Her body is dead."
"I don't know," he repeated, annoyed this time. "I'm as mortal as you, Blake. I don't have all the answers. This isn't normal, even for ARC Corp. People turning into anomalies is new. Or if it's not, then it's a phenomenon we've never noticed or dealt with before. We'll have to get to the bottom of that before we can do anything for her."
They parted and walked back to Annabelle, who was sat silently on her bed. Blake forced a smile for her sake, coming close and saying, "Hey. Sorry about that. We just had to have a talk about what we should do. We're sorry we made you wait."
"We're done now," said Jaune, smiling as well. "And we think we've come up with a temporary idea on how to help you."
Annabelle looked down between her fluffy legs. "No you don't."
Jaune stilled.
Blake grimaced. "You listened in?"
"I was curious." Annabelle sounded guilty, but not sorry. "I'm a menace, aren't I? I was right. I can't go home to mommy and daddy because I'll hurt them. They won't even accept that I'm me. They'll say I died in the sea and that I'm some monster."
"You're not a monster," said Jaune. "You're a faunus who has… Who has had something happen to them to change them into an anomaly. We're hoping there will be a way to reverse it."
"And turn me back into a dead body. I heard you. It's still in the hold," said Annabelle. "My body. Theirs. The other boys and girls in their cages. It's all still there. I wish… I wish I'd died when that man pushed my face under the water." Her voice rose. "I wish I'd died right there!
The ship creaked and began to groan, the walls flexing inward as water spilled from cracks stretching out across metal. Blake's heart hammered.
"Annabelle!" shouted Jaune. "Calm down. You're causing damage to the ship. You're going to sink it!"
"Maybe that's better. If I'm trapped at the bottom of the ocean, then I won't be able to hurt anyone. Maybe I can die down there for real. Maybe I can dream and never wake up."
The groaning intensified and the window shattered, spilling in water despite that it had been above the waterline of the ocean before. The room began to fill with unnatural speed, filling faster than it should have. Blake was knee deep before she could react, and Jaune was already sloshing for the door.
"Annabelle!" said Blake. "Don't do this. Please. We want to help you."
"You should go," said the bear, jerking out of Blake's grasp. When she reached for her, a distance that seemed like miles stretched out between them. Annabelle wasn't letting herself be caught. "Tell mommy and daddy that I died. Tell them I loved them. Tell them the bad men won't hurt anyone again. A-And tell them to find the man who did this. Find Uncle Grass and stop him."
"Annabelle!"
"Blake!" Jaune gripped her arm and hauled her away. He was in his suit again, the White Fang mask gone, and he dragged Blake away from the bed and toward the door. The water was at their waists. "We have to go."
"But Annabelle-"
"We literally cannot reach her if she doesn't want us to – and we're going to drown in this ship if we don't go right now!"
Blake looked back, aghast. She tried one last time. "Annabelle, please, we want to save you!"
"I know. You're good people. Thank you. And I'm sorry for calling you a bad man, Jaune." She giggled. It was somehow a tragic sound. "You're the best human I ever met. Mommy and daddy were wrong about you."
Jaune ducked and hit Blake in her waist with his shoulder, hauling her up and over him as he waded out the door and away. Blake screamed, reaching for the doorway that closed behind them. It vanished a moment later, whisked away as if it had never existed. The corridor beyond now had doors on either side of it, but it was tilting precariously as the ship began to sink nose first. Jaune gripped the metal railing with one hand and used it to pull them up the staircase. At the top, he set her down, and Blake dragged him out with tears in her eyes. The ship's prow had gone beneath the waves, and the rest was quickly following.
The two of them dove off the back and into the cold water, bursting under the waves in a horde of bubbles. Blake could see the ship going down with her night vision, she could see the trawler quickly disappearing into what seemed to be a bottomless hole from which Annabelle would never again emerge. A hand caught hers and pulled her to the surface, Blake breaking it with a gasp as Jaune began to swim for their speedboat, which was bobbing on the waves nearby. He dragged himself up, then pulled her after. The water clung to her suit, leaving it heavy. Blake fell to all fours and pounded her fist against the floor.
"Let it be known," said Jaune. "That the anomaly known as the Dreaming Girl chose to neutralise herself for the safety of the people of Menagerie. The anomaly made the choice that protected the most people, and ARC Corp will record and remember that fact. By my power as Director of the Containments Office, I decree it so."
Blake screamed angrily into the chill night air.
Not every job can end well, and certainly not this one. I guess it's not a Ruina crossover if there isn't at least some healthy dose of tragedy and trauma.
Next Chapter: 3rd October
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