Here we go.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 99

Amity was bustling despite the fact it wouldn't open until next week. Teams of contractors and construction crews were modernising and fixing up the various stands while teams of cleaners moved between sweeping off two years' worth of accumulated dust and grime. It was in the latter stages of that when she and Jaune arrived via Bullhead and stepped off to be approached by Ironwood's security crews. A quick flash of their ID had the soldiers backing off, some more worriedly than others. It looked like their "disposal" of Atlas' Ace Ops team hadn't gone unnoticed.

That was what Ironwood got for sending them to interfere in ARC Corp business.

"Have you noticed anything unusual?" Jaune asked the leader of the team, a sergeant by the looks of the insignia on his shoulder. The man was tense, hands gripping his weapon tight like he wanted to smash the butt of it down on Jaune's skull.

Even without aura, Blake knew Jaune was more than capable of disarming him if he tried.

"Nothing, sir. There have been no unusual movements, sounds or experiences reported among the work crews."

"We'll take a look around anyways if that's alright with you."

"As you will, sir."

Blake and Jaune moved on, and once they were out of ear shot, Blake said, "So much for secrecy. They knew exactly who we were and what we're here for."

"That's Atlas for you. They think they're the lone bastion the world has against the Grimm – main character syndrome, my father calls it. I expect that's how they justified trying to take Tomorrow's News from under our noses. Some `for the greater good` or `Atlas can best use this to protect the world` nonsense."

"They were like that toward the White Fang as well. None of us expected them to respect us, but it was galling how they always acted like they didn't understand why we'd turned to violence."

"Plausible deniability, Blake. That's how the best governments do it. You play dumb, and then act like you would have done differently had you known the truth. That attitude can spread to the people as well, especially when it's parroted by news stations carrying the same message."

She remembered those. Back in the day when they would listen with fury to Atlas broadcasts where so-called "experts" would pick apart the White Fang's motives and always portray them as unrepentant, violent psychopaths. And of course the Atlesian public lapped it up. Anything to avoid having to admit they were responsible for birthing the White Fang in the first place.

Anything to avoid having to change.

"Do you think Ironwood and Atlas are still trying to gather anomalies?"

"Almost certainly, but that's my father's business now, not ours. That's probably a bigger part of why he chose to stay in Atlas. Making sure the SDC is properly managed was just an excuse to keep an eye on the higher-ups in Atlas. I imagine a few of them were backing Winter."

"They can have each other, then. And your father has Tomorrow's News now, so things shouldn't catch him off-guard."

"Hmmm."

"What does that mean?" she asked, eyes narrowing at his less-than-certain answer. "Did something happen?"

"I'm not privy to the details but there are mentions of Tomorrow's News not working as it's meant to. Again, not our business, and it's probably a facet of them isolating her. It is still Lisa Lavender in there, after all. Keeping her locked on some offshore dust rig with only a small team of scientists to tell her stories to likely has her upset. But, of course, my father won't entertain the idea of letting her present to more people."

"So, the anomaly is useless to us now."

"Again, I don't know. I only… it's not even rumours. Little slip-ups here and there in documented cases. Little notes saying `if only we could use Tomorrow's News` in the margins that my sisters forgot to delete. I'm reading between the lines. That's how it is for me in the files. I'm kept out of most of everything, only able to access my own case files, general ARC Corp ones and any Reality-Class or World Ending Threat anomalies that it's too important I know about to keep me out of."

"While I assume everyone else has full access?"

"Mostly. Father and Saphron – as Associate Director – are the only ones with full access, but my sisters can access all non-classified files, whereas I can't access many that aren't directly related to me. For instance, I can only access your employee file while the other directors can access the employee files of anyone."

Blake scowled. "They can look up my details whenever they want?" He nodded. "How much is in there?"

"Not as much as you'd think but more than you'd be comfortable with."

"Great."

"They know about the White Fang."

Blake grimaced. "Double great."

"It's not a big deal. We take people on from all walks of life. I've deflected attention away from your parents. Given a lot of unnecessary detail about them so no one feels the need to contact them to fill in the blanks, but otherwise have left a lot out."

"Thanks." Blake wanted away from the conversation before she developed even more of a dislike for Saphron Arc. "So, what are we even supposed to do up here? If no one else has noticed anything unusual then I doubt we're going to just stumble across an anomaly."

"You're not wrong. At any other time I'd think this a ruse to get us out the way, but with it being the Vytal Festival and all it makes more sense they'd be on edge. Tens of thousands of people will be up here and if an anomaly struck Amity, it'd become Reality Class in an instant. It's so important that when I made father aware of today's mission, he said I could call on task forces if needed."

"Damn. What does he expect us to find up here?"

"Nothing, ideally, but better safe than sorry. The real problem, like you say, is that we can only hope to find an anomaly when someone is influenced by it, and that's not very likely when Amity has a skeleton crew of workers on it right now. Any anomaly here is more likely to be found when the tens of thousands of people arrive."

Which would be too late in their books. It was a pain not having any way to actively detect anomalies, but then ARC Corp would have cleared the world of them by now if such a thing existed. They needed signs first, evidence in the form of dead bodies, unusual events, sightings, or even just single mothers complaining of strange sounds in the attic.

With so few people on Amity, there were too many places an anomaly could hide.

"Don't get too paranoid," said Jaune. "Amity remains disused between festivals. It was clear of anomalies two years ago, and so it should be clear now unless one of the workers intentionally or unintentionally brought one on. Or unless it was slipped into the packaging of some supplies sent up here."

Blake relaxed. That cleared things up a bit. "Then we just need to check the supplies and personnel and not every nook and cranny?"

"Exactly."

/-/

It was tiresome but manageable work splitting up to interview the various people working on Amity, of which – Blake couldn't help but note – none were faunus. Naturally, Atlas was in charge of vetting personnel safe to work here and had done so in their usual ham-fisted way.

Again, there wasn't anything specific to look for, so it came down to personal opinion and subjective analysis for her and Jaune to decide if the people were acting odd in any way. Luckily, the two of them had the unique experience of dealing with sapient anomalies thanks to Alistair's bar.

For her, that meant talking with the workers and asking them simple questions about their past, schooling, families, and friends and seeing how they answered. Anomalies couldn't go to school and didn't have a past beyond the day they were "born" into the world, so hearing dull and sometimes amusing stories about people's childhoods and what they'd studied was enough for her to write people off the list.

More suspicious were the ones who got cagey about it, but a few threats soon had them confessing to just having minor criminal records and not wanting to mention it for fear of losing their jobs. Blake sighed, assured them she didn't care, and let them go as well. An anomaly wouldn't make it through the legal system without ARC Corp picking up on it and killing them.

It took hours but the work eventually got done and she met with Jaune as he finished checking stock and storage rooms where packages had been shifted to when they were brought up to Amity. "All clear," she said. "You?"

"As clear as I can tell. There really is no guarantee with these things. For all I know there was an anomaly in there trying to influence me, but it couldn't because I'm anomalous already. It should be safe, though. Most of the supplies are dust and that obviously can't play host to another anomaly being one itself."

"Being former people, you mean."

He grimaced. "Yes. And believe me, I'd rather we were able to remove dust from the world entirely, but this is the risk of a Reality Class Anomaly. Dust is such a core part of the world's culture and infrastructure that we can't make it disappear."

The worst part was wondering how ARC Corp were keeping up production. Blake knew Jaune wouldn't know – it being just another one of those important secrets he wasn't allowed to peer into. That was probably for the best. Her instincts said prisoners on long-term or life sentences. Whether the supply would keep up with the demand was unknown, but then she didn't even know how much volume one human body created.

But the Schnee family had managed to keep production up and the anomaly fed on faunus miners, and while mortality rates in the mines were high, they weren't that high. Even Atlas would have taken notice if thousands of faunus were vanishing each year. Hopefully, All Becomes Dust didn't require as much "food" as she dreaded.

"I'm calling this mission done," said Jaune. "Though I'll make it clear to Ozpin and Ironwood that they should call us if any of the workers or guests experience unusual symptoms."

/-/

The first day or two, Blake expected the call, but it quickly became clear that nothing bad was happening up on Amity – which felt like so much of a red flag that Blake asked Jaune about it.

"I know what you mean," he said, with a laugh. "If this were the White Fang or an active terrorist threat then Amity would be the perfect target, but you need to remember that most anomalies don't want to be found. They know what'll happen if they are. Not just in terms of reprisal from ARC Corp, but also how the general public will act around them. Imagine if Alistair was out in public."

It was a harsh image. Faunus got enough abuse with a pair of ears, but he had a mosquito's head for his own and tiny wings on his back. People would call him unclean, force him out of public places, maybe even spray pesticides on him to try and force him away lest he carry germs or parasites.

Blake had been accused of having fleas before her due to ears – never mind that her "fur" was just hair, the same as everywhere else on her head, or that humans could get fleas just as easily as animals could.

It'd be even worse for less human anomalies.

If Remnant couldn't even settle on whether faunus deserved to be given the same rights as humans, then they certainly weren't ready for anomalies to come onto the scene. Some foolish ones like Mikael might have felt that was worth the risk, but the majority knew better.

And the extremists had all been shipped to Menagerie.

"I guess you're right," she said. "The only anomalies left in Vale are either unknown to us or are moderates who wanted to stay here hidden under your protection. I guess I got it in my head something would go wrong."

"That's the ARC Corp pessimism for you," Jaune joked. "Honestly, we should go to Alistair's. They actually gather to watch the festival live and cheer on their favourites."

"Ah. I'm going to cheer on Sun, remember?"

Jaune blinked, then smiled. "Right. I forgot. Well, I'll be at Alistair's. Show some face, repair our reputation with the locals and make it clear there aren't any hard feelings. You know how it is."

Blake smiled back, feeling a little awkward for having to turn the offer down. "We could go now?" she offered, instead. "We've got nothing else to do for the afternoon and any calls to the office will be redirected to your scroll. Honestly, it might do us good to show face there."

"Sure." Jaune stood and reached for his jacket. He wasn't quite so wary about her seeing his arms anymore, because even with a white shirt on she could see the rippling flames under. "It's been a while since I had a meal out, and Alistair's patrons must be worrying we'll crack down on them. Being seen eating there should calm them down."

/-/

Blake wasn't sure how "calm" the local anomalies were to see them again. Quiet, felt more like it. Reserved. There did happen to be a newly awakened one that Alistair introduced to Jaune. The odd humanoid shape had its head on back to front and spoke out its neck – which looked like an insect's maw. Despite that, it was friendly, if confused, and new enough to the scene to talk to Jaune without fear.

He'd learn the rest soon and be nervous around them but, for now, Jaune took advantage of the chance to teach the anomaly the rules in a gentler manner. Before the others could pull him aside and whisper in his ear just who Jaune was and how dangerous he could be.

"Your meal," said Alistair, setting down a tuna melt in front of her. It looked delicious, which just went to show that the insectoid head was no impediment to being a good chef or a cleanly one.

"Thank you, it looks great. Are you seeing an upturn in work with the festival on?"

"A little, yeah. Not many of our kind have the freedom to go out in public, and there's a whole lot more public if you get what I mean. Huge crowds of people here for the festival, even at night when we'd usually be able to move freely. I turn the place into a little hostel for those that need it – we make our own little festival of it. Good food, drink, company and some games of our own."

It sounded like a sleepover. As childish as that comparison may have been, she reminded herself most of these anomalies hadn't had a childhood. This might well be the first companionship they'd ever experienced.

"Us being here won't dent your custom, will it?"

"Don't you worry about that. Most of my money comes from Jaune anyway to keep this place open, and it's not like we pay taxes – we literally can't pay them." Alistair shrugged. "And we don't need much, either. The money we make mostly goes to Coda who buys things on our behalf and has them shipped to empty homes. She at least has a couple of fake identities."

"Is that something you should be telling me?"

"It's been okayed by your boss. Mostly, she poses as a number of shut-in gamers and one online writer. Gives us a way to buy things without putting ourselves or the secret at risk. Helps us supply newcomers, too. Anything more industrial, we have a few other covers for. Again, approved and even set up by Jaune. We – or I – work with ARC Corp. Not that the real ARC Corp knows it."

"Better that way," she said, and Alistair hummed his agreement. "Your patrons don't get rowdy during the festival, then? Do any of them attend it?"

"I know one or two blessed with more human shapes have been up on Amity before – some of us are lucky enough to have human bodies, or to be a sapient item that can create the image of one. Take Neo for example. That girl can up and do whatever she likes, even fly first class to other kingdoms if she wants. Me, on the other hand?" He tapped his proboscis. "Good fucking luck, eh? Best I could hope for would be to wrap up and walk and hope the Grimm don't eat me. Nah, I'm fine staying here. Vale isn't so bad compared to how life could be."

"I'd been meaning to ask," she said. "Were you a human transformation or…?"

"Born anomaly," he said. "Just popped into existence one day. I wasn't a human stung by a mosquito given superpowers if that's what you mean – nor the bastard offspring of the world's smallest man and the world's biggest mosquito." He laughed at his off-colour joke. "I didn't even know what a mosquito was until the others found me."

"Others?"

"Jaune was running his little rescue operation before I appeared," he explained. "If you go back through old news, you'll actually find a conspiracy theory about the `mothman` in Vale. That was me. I had no idea where I was, what I was, or even who I was – and a few people saw me scavenging for food in bins at night. Luckily, most assumed I was a homeless bum, and then the anomalies under Jaune found me and explained what I was and the way the world worked. I met Jaune, he set me up with something resembling a life, and I decided I wanted to give back and make sure new anomalies didn't go through the crap I did." Alistair shrugged. "The rest is history."

"It's very admirable of you."

"Thanks." It was impossible to tell if Alistair was smiling or not given his proboscis, but he sounded happy. "Things aren't so bad, everything told. I wish I could be an anomaly with a little more freedom to move around but we can't all win the lottery like Neo has."

"Yeah, I think Neo is less of an anomaly in that body and more of an anomaly making everyone believe she has a body." Blake could still remember the screams of the Ace Ops as their minds were broken by Neo's true presence. It had almost crushed her and Jaune as well. "And I really don't want to get on her bad side."

"Ah, don't worry. That girl is too enamoured and curious to go on a killing spree. I feel sorrier for the human she hangs around with, since there's no way he knows just how dangerous or inhuman she really is."

Ignorance was bliss in that regard.

Roman really didn't want to know the truth.

"Either way," Alistair continued, "We make it clear to everyone in the community that they shouldn't make any attempt to attend the festival. The problem is those not yet a part of it – new arrivals, so to say. Well, that and anomalous items that don't have a mind of their own. Not much you can do if someone brings one up there."

"That's a risk we can't manage," said Jaune, returning to the table. "But, on the bright side, most people who know they have an anomalous item keep it to themselves anyway."

"Hey," she said, welcoming him back. "How did the newcomer go?"

"They're panicked and desperate to fit in somewhere and have a place." He eyed Alistair. "Don't suppose you're willing to take on another member of staff?"

"Don't need one but I'll take him if you're paying his wages." Jaune rolled his eyes but nodded. "Nice. Saves me some work on inventory."

"What do you mean about the items?" Blake asked him.

"Huh? Oh. Most people don't know they have anomalies. They just think they have a lucky coin or some special little item passed down through their family. Either way, if it helps them out in life then they'll usually get selfish about it and not want to share, so they keep it hidden. Up on Amity, for instance, I guess it'd be if you had an item that accurately told you who to bet on to make the most money. You wouldn't tell anyone about that because people would try and take it off you."

"I see. So we're relying on human greed to keep anomalous items secret?"

"That's not just my policy but company's as well. Or not policy really, but the accepted reality. People will act like the Schnee did, or like Ironwood tried to. Anomalous items are often safer to keep a hold of because they don't have a motive or agenda, so they're less likely to turn your insides to mush."

"Less likely but it still happens," said Alistair.

"Yes. But that's when we get called in. Also, we can't stop and search every single attendee of the tournament and it's not like we can scan them on the way in. We don't have any way of detecting anomalies. If something happens or someone cheats, we'll just say it was a Semblance."

"And that tracks…?"

"Qrow Branwen literally has a Semblance revolving around manipulating luck. It's not too hard to believe someone could have one that tells them who to gamble on or improves their life in little ways. Obviously, we'll take the anomalies off them in that case. Our goal is to locate and destroy – or contain in our case. Leaving them with owners who will use them isn't ideal, but it's better than them being exposed. You do remember the absolute shitshow that came about from the Schnee auctions. Criminal gangs, law enforcement, military, terrorists – they'll all fight to obtain these kinds of items. Even Ozpin wouldn't say no to having some under his control."

"And if there's a human-to-anomaly transformation on Amity?"

"It's not like we could predict that so the company will understand. Cleaning it up would be harder, but we'd go with Semblances again – or maybe claim that it's some newly discovered Grimm that could disguise itself as human."

"That'd cause mass panic!"

"Better panic than exposure. And we can always ask Salem to support the story. Ozpin would, too. More fear of Grimm means more funding for the academies, so it'd play into his hands nicely." Jaune smiled. "But you're going up there anyway on your date, right? You can keep an eye out."

"I don't think it counts as a date when I'll be in the stands and my date will be down there fighting." Blake let out a quiet sigh. "But fine, I'll keep my eyes and ears open. Though I'm hoping you're right and nothing happens."

"The Vytal Festival hasn't had any obvious anomalous action for the last twenty years or so."

"Obvious…?"

"Well, I know for a fact Neo has attended, and I'm sure some anomalies have been up there, but it's not a problem if they weren't discovered. Also, literally every huntsman has Light of the Soul so…"

"I get it. Obvious anomalies are the problem. I should keep an eye out, but I shouldn't get too paranoid because there really isn't a good reason for an anomaly to want to expose themselves up there."

"Exactly. Most will be down here watching it being streamed live. I'll even buy them all pizza and snacks and booze. That ought to lighten the mood around the two of us. Remind them we're not enemies."

"Cut into my profits too," grumbled Alistair.

"Alistair, I am your profits."

"Yeah, but still. A mosquito has to run a business, you know?"

Blake chuckled as they bantered around, and the atmosphere in the hidden bar really did feel a lot better than it had been the last time they were there.

A few anomalies were shying away from them, but not many, and most had relaxed and gotten back to talking and drinking, while a few were playing on the electronic quiz game in the corner. Drinks were flowing, an odd collection of entities were having fun, and the TV in the corner above the bar was playing the pre-tournament warm-ups where it showed off little snippets of action from the competitors.

Blake's scroll buzzed and she excused herself to a quiet corner of the bar to answer it.

"Hello Sun. Is something wrong?"

"No, no. I just wanted to make sure we're still on for Monday. I know you said your work can get hectic…"

He was giving her a way out if she wanted it. That was kind of cute.

"No, I'm looking forward to seeing you fight. My boss has told me we should be fine on a work front, so I'll have time to go to the festival with you."

"Great! Awesome! Uh, I've managed to get us some seats. I know I'll be down there in the ring, but as soon as my fight is over, I can come back up. Kinda hoping it'll be one of the first or it's going to be embarrassing."

Leaving her alone on their date, he meant.

"It's fine, Sun. I know you can't control it. And we can spend some time together before and after."

"Absolutely!"

He sounded so giddy, so over the moon to be able to spend time with her. It made her feel beautiful. Also a little awkward, but only because she could see exactly what he was trying. She had to remind herself that Sun wasn't the problem; it was her past relationships and bad experiences dating that were making her pick his words apart. He'd been nothing but a gentleman.

"I happen to know someone else there if you can't make it anyway," she told him. "One of the competitors from Beacon has a little sister who did work-experience with us. Do you know Yang?"

"We've met. She seems cool – if a little terrifying. I think my buddy, Neptune, asked her teammate out and got rejected hard. Turns out her family had died, like, not long before and he picked the worst time imaginable. He's been super guilty ever since."

Blake flinched. "Yeah, that was bad luck on his part. Anyway, I know Ruby – Yang's sister – so she'll keep me company if your fight ends up being the last of the day. But even if it is, we can go out in Vale later that night."

Because she sure as hell wasn't interested in just cheering him on.

"I'd love to! I mean, yeah, of course. We'll hang out." He was flustered but managed to recover well. "I'm really looking forward to this. Now I just need to make sure I don't go out in round one and make a fool of myself."

It was almost novel to have the very concept that you could fail and not die a horrible death. A reminder that not everyone had to live with the high stakes she and Jaune did, where a single mistake could mean the death of themselves and everyone around them. Maybe this was what she needed, someone outside the company to remind her that life didn't have to be so black, white and blood red.

"I'll meet you up on Amity on the day," she said. "Good luck, Sun."

Putting her scroll away, she looked back to Jaune and Alistair laughing over some old story and let a hesitant smile slip over her face. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe she was overreacting.

Next Chapter: 6th May

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