I have my planned dates for the Christmas period finalised now, so there'll be no updates for them. My last update of the year will be Thursday 19th, and I shall return Saturday 4th January. I will be sure to mark dates accurately on the bottom of the last chapters.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 126

Acting like there was absolutely nothing unusual worked for the first five minutes or so. Jaune kept glancing over, but Blake did her best to miss all his raised eyebrows and meaningful looks, burying her face in newspapers and brewing coffee whenever he cleared his throat. Eventually, he gave up.

"Blake. Why is she here?"

"She has a name, you know." Yang had her feet up on their coffee table and a cupcake in hand. "You could use it."

"Fine. Why is Yang here?"

"Because Timothy is in my apartment," said Blake.

Jaune massaged his forehead. "Let me rephrase. Why is Yang here, in this building, whether that be in our office or in your apartment…?"

Blake sighed. "Good question."

"It's because we're roommates," Yang said.

"We're not roommates." Blake decided to cut that off before it got out of hand. "Yang is crashing at my place because she got into trouble at Beacon and is too much of a coward to face her father about it."

"Trouble?"

"Suspension." Yang waved a hand as if it were a small thing, barely worth mentioning. "Punched a teacher in the face."

"Ozpin?"

"Yeah."

Jaune pondered that for a moment. "Acceptable."

Yang fist-pumped, while Blake sighed.

"However," he continued. "You might want to reconsider hanging around here given that your sister should be arriving in… oh…" The sound of footsteps could be heard outside. Given the destruction of the Interdimensional Chatroom there was currently no reason for Ruby to be on Patch. "—a matter of seconds."

Yang had the time to whisper "shit" before the door slammed open.

"Jaune! Blake! I'm— Yang…?"

"Nah, you're not." Yang smiled awkwardly. "I'm Yang. You're Ruby."

Ruby didn't dignify her sister's awful pun with so much as a grimace. In fact, she ignored it outright. "Yang, no. This is my job. You can't start working here because I did. I got here first. Go away."

"Wow. Thanks. And I'm not here because I'm looking for a change in career."

Ruby's silver eyes flicked to Jaune and widened in panic. "Yang, no!" she repeated. "You can't! I got there first as well!"

"There—?" Yang followed her sister's gaze. Jaune. Blake rolled her eyes, and Yang snorted. "Ha. No. Not the slightest interest in that either. No worries about that."

Blake suspected Jaune knew what Ruby had been referring to as well, and that his clueless expression was faked. Ruby's crush wasn't a secret to anyone at this point. Ruby blinked and looked for the only other option – at least in her mind – meeting Blake's eyes head on.

"Huh. I mean, okay. I guess that's fine."

"Yang isn't dating me either," Blake said, rolling her eyes.

"Though we did share a bed—"

"Because she's terrified of a little spider."

"That thing is not little!"

"Timothy?" Ruby cocked her head. "But he's so cute."

"You're all bloody mad," Yang groaned, head in her hands. "Sis, I'm here because I cropped a suspension from Beacon. Two weeks."

"Did you get pregnant?"

A cushion narrowly missed Ruby's head.

"No, I did not bloody get pregnant. I punched an eldritch monstrosity in the face and apparently that's a bad thing. I crashed here because I don't know how to explain it to dad without coming across like I decked an old man." Yang sighed and looked back to her and Jaune. "Got any ideas on that front? I'd like to be able to defend myself, but I know shit happens if I go and tell dad the truth."

"Shit does, indeed, happen," Jaune quipped. "Very bad shit indeed. Don't do it."

"Then how am I meant to defend myself?"

"Don't," Blake said. Yang flipped her the bird. "I'm serious. What can you even say? Your uncle will have told your father by now, and probably given him a very Ozpin-favourable side of the story. And it's not like you can make something up since he has witnesses. Saying he harassed or startled you isn't going to fly."

"Tell him I cried."

All eyes turned to Ruby.

"Tell dad I was upset about all the pressure from Ozpin coming through uncle Qrow and I cried to you, begging you to make it stop because it was upsetting me, and that you lost your temper because of my tears." Ruby shrugged in an utterly shameless manner. "Dad will see red and clothesline uncle Qrow if he takes Ozpin's side after that."

Blake blinked, surprised at the ruthlessness of it all. Weaponised puppy-dog eyes. This was a girl who had grown up with a single parent and learned every way to manipulate him into letting her get out of trouble.

"Damn, sis." Yang whistled. "That's stone cold. You sure?"

"I wouldn't normally lie like that but the truth isn't something we can tell dad, and it's not fair to let uncle Qrow make it out like you didn't have a reason to do it. Besides, punching an eldritch abomination in the face shouldn't earn you a suspension. If dad asks, I'll back you up and act all guilty saying it's my fault and you were just defending me." Zero shame, still. Taiyang didn't stand a chance. Ozpin certainly didn't. "I can even bring on some tears if I need to."

Proving it, Ruby sniffed and looked down.

"Don't!" Yang cried, one hand outstretched. "We believe you! Stop!"

Ruby grinned. "Heh."

"Man, how many times have I fallen for that?" Yang mused. "And aren't you, like, a millionaire now?"

"Yeah…"

"Sis, that's a million lien! Have a bigger reaction!"

"It hasn't sunken in yet," she admitted, rocking on her heels. "I'm scared to check my bank balance."

"Bumblebee could use some new mods…"

"Have some shame," Blake said, swatting the back of Yang's head with a rolled-up newspaper. "That's your sister's money you're looking to spend."

"Yeah, well, being a student doesn't pay and it's not like I have a part-time job. Unless…"

"No," said Jaune.

"Ruby?"

The short girl walked up to Jaune's desk. Her bottom lip wobbled.

"Ruby, you just got done telling me you can fake that at will. Hiring you was miracle enough. My father isn't going to let me hire your sister. Hell, if he finds out yet another person knows about the anomalous here, he'll start wondering just how flimsy our secrecy is."

Very flimsy. She and Jaune went out drinking with anomalies once a week.

"I guess I could pay her…" Ruby mused.

"No." Blake swatted Yang's head again, even though she hadn't said anything. "Make her get a job. It's only two weeks. She can wait tables or work in a bar. Hell, we could see if Alistair needs some help."

"That the place with the monsters?" asked Yang, not realising how offensive that was. Jaune didn't react. He already saw himself as a monster. "I'd rather not. I know they're the good ones and all but I think I'd stare too much. No one is going to like that. I guess I could check around some places local. See if there's any temp work going. Or Ruby could lend me—" The newspaper struck again. "Why!? She's minted!"

"Ruby is my cute little junior. I will defend her interests. Also, she has her own apartment here and you can stay at hers now."

"Did I snore that bad?"

"No. But I have bruises across my stomach from how hard you spooned me. Also, you drooled on my neck."

"I did not!"

"She does that," Ruby confirmed.

"I do not!"

Jaune set his newspaper down and groaned. "This is going to be a long day."

/-/

It was a long day.

Even if Yang didn't like what they did or that her sister was involved – though at this point she disliked the idea of Ruby being in Beacon even more – it was obvious she found their primary method of finding jobs to be dull.

That was fair.

Blake felt everyone would look at their organisation and expect something a little more…

Exciting.

The soft flip of newspaper pages turning sounded among clicks of Jaune browsing forums online and the occasional sound from the headphones Ruby was wearing, plugged into her scroll as she watched videos online.

Eventually, Yang's patience couldn't handle it.

"Arghhhh! You lot don't do anything!"

Blake glared over her newspaper. "We're working."

"You're reading, he's shitposting and Ruby is watching videos!" Yang pointed to them each in turn. "And the worst thing is you're being paid to do it!"

"I'm keeping an eye on recent news stories for anything unusual," Blake said.

"I'm browsing conspiracy theorist forums to make sure no one is getting too close to any secrets they shouldn't be."

"And I'm watching idiots risk their lives with a camera in far reaches of the wilderness for clicks and views," Ruby said, holding her headphones off her ears. "If anyone is going to find something they shouldn't, it'll be these people."

Yang floundered. It all sounded like nonsense but it was all good work for them. Ruby, especially, had become adept at browsing through paranormal videos and piecing out the nonsense form the near sightings. And she was right. The people out in the less explored areas with cameras often did find anomalies first. Many died out there, with ARC Corp securing their cameras, but sometimes they came back with anomalous items. Not every anomaly was found in the back of a cupboard. Some manifested in the middle of nowhere and relied on people to find them.

"This is crazy. My sister is paid over a hundred-kay to watch brain rot videos."

"Don't be silly," Blake said, unable to resist. "Ruby is paid more than that."

Yang let out a keening sound.

"Shouldn't you be reaching out to your father instead?" Jaune asked. "The longer you leave it, the worse it'll be."

"Yeah, but I figure I can stick my head in the sand for a few more days—"

"It is time."

Blake flinched. The sound had come from within her mind, startling her to knock over her coffee on the table. All eyes turned to her, and upon seeing the sweat running down her face, Jaune climbed slowly to his feet. "Blake? What's wrong?"

"I don't kno—"

"Thou hath no obligations. As such, I call in thy contract."

The book. It was on her hip. Blake stared down at it and then back up to Jaune. He knew instantly what was happening.

"Now…?" he whispered. "Of all times?"

"She – it – said it would be at a time where it wouldn't interfere with our business," Blake replied. "We signed that contract with Anomalous & Sons. We can't go back on it."

Yang was confused. "Uh. Mind filling in the gaps?"

"Oh." Ruby poked her head up. "Is Blake being possessed by the malevolent spirit of her haunted book?"

"Don't say that like it's a totally normal thing!" Yang shouted.

"Do I have thine permission? Or will thou renege on our contract?"

"You said no laws broken," Blake whispered. "No murder. Nothing to expose our secrets."

"Of course. The laws that bind thee bind minself as well."

"Then… Then I have no choice but to accept."

"Indeed."

/-/

Yang had told herself she didn't want to get involved or know more, but watching someone get possessed in front of her eyes kind of put a stop to that. She couldn't help but stare as Blake changed for lack of a better term. It was a strange thing; nothing about her physically changed, but there was an undeniable shift in her mannerisms.

Even if she hadn't known about this being a possession, she would have known these were two different people. Blake was surly, quiet, cynical, and her natural resting face was a frown. This… This thing carried a curiously amused expression, tilting Blake's lips up into a haunting smile while her golden eyes shone with barely hidden malice.

She raised a hand and peeled off the black gloves she, Jaune and Ruby wore, and then touched her bare fingers to her own face, running them down her cheeks and neck.

And the running them down over her chest.

Groping.

"Um." Yang reached out to cover Ruby's eyes but her sister had already blushed and turned away. Blake wasn't just exploring her new body – she was spelunking. "Can you not do that in front of us? Seriously?"

"This body has such responsiveness…" The voice was Blake's, unchanged, but the accent was not. It was lilting and slow, with a twang that was unrecognisable. "Oh," she gasped, Blake's face heating up as her hand found a way between her legs. "This feels good."

"That's not your body to toy with!" Jaune hissed. He gripped his desk tight but didn't dare move on her, either for fear of Blake or just fear in general. "She isn't your toy!"

"Oh, but she is," not-Blake replied with a sultry smile. "Such was the agreement we all made, that I shall enjoy and entertain mineself with this body. So long as the laws of this land and your erstwhile endeavour are not impinged upon, this body is mine to play with as I see fit."

Jaune gnashed his teeth. Wisps of smoke began to come from the desk as his fingers sunk into it, burning the wood. Urgently, Yang reached over to tug on Ruby's arm. "Hey, shouldn't you do something about this?"

"I can't…"

"Why not!?"

"It's a legally binding contract between ARC Corp and the anomaly to allow her control for a bit. And I'm part of ARC Corp now." Yang was about to ask why that was an issue when Ruby explained. "An anomalous contract that has magical properties that will kill anyone who breaks it."

Yang's protest died. "Oh. Damn..."

"Yeah…"

Yang wanted to ask why they agreed to that and thought it was a good idea, but it was probably in a "need to know" category, and she'd already decided she didn't want to be too involved. On the other hand, this was the girl who put her up for the night and now she was being possessed by some monster. With Jaune and Ruby too paralysed to say or do anything, Yang gulped and stepped up.

"Hey, so…." Yang winced when the golden eyed turned to her. They were unnaturally deep and vaguely terrifying. "What are you planning to do with her body? If you're just going to… you know…" She nodded at the hands cupping Blake's chest through her shirt. "Then you might as well retire to her apartment for it. You'll have more privacy."

Man, but that felt wrong. Yang wasn't sure how she'd feel if someone possessed her and then started pleasuring herself in her body. Violated, obviously, but probably a lot less violated than if her possessed body went off and actually had sex with someone. Self-pleasure was a lot better than other things and monstrous intelligence might do with its freedom. Yang would rather it feel itself up in her body than kill her family, harm Zwei, or streak naked through the city.

Blake would probably be grateful if she could convince the thing just to dwell in her apartment and not slaughter what reputation she had.

"I intend to enjoy mine limited freedom and experience this world's most exciting moments, of course." Uh-oh. That was bad. "Why? Does thou wish to entertain thyself by accompanying me?"

"Yes."

Jaune, Ruby, the possessed Blake, and Yang all froze in surprise. But Yang shouldn't have since the words came from her mouth. That didn't mean her brain had caught up with them, though. Sometimes her mouth moved faster.

"Yeah, I think I'll hang with you.

Possessed-Blake blinked. "Pardon?"

"You don't know anything about this world, right? Other than what you've seen through Blake. You want to party? I can show you around some clubs. Want to get drunk? I can make that happen. Want to go watch movies or eat amazing food? I know the places. You've got limited time, right? Be a shame to waste any of it getting lost and having to ask for directions, wouldn't it? I can help out as your guide."

What happened to not getting involved, her brain wailed.

But she couldn't ditch Blake like this. Blake had helped Ruby out, and let her crash for the night, and even if they weren't exactly the best of friends that didn't mean Yang wanted her to wake up in the middle of a fifty-man gangbang because some book had decided the consequences wouldn't matter for her. Yang didn't have to count Blake as a friend to not want that kind of shit happening to her.

"Thine offer is intriguing…"

"Reckless, more like." Jaune said, but he'd stopped burning the desk and pulled his fingers away. He'd literally burned finger-marks into the wood. "But it's not a bad idea. You don't want to waste time and Yang knows the city. We'll bankroll this." He took out a card and tossed it to her. "Buy whatever she wants as long as it isn't illegal."

Keep her safe, his eyes seemed to say.

Yang nodded back. He and Ruby couldn't do anything because of this contract thing, but she wasn't ARC Corp. In theory, she could restrain Blake and pin her down – though that'd probably be a bad idea. This thing probably had more powers than just taking her over.

I can control where she goes, though. Distract her with new things if she starts getting weird and push her toward less-problematic vices.

The body was still human even if the mind was not. Maybe she could just get Blake wasted and let the monster inside experience human drunkenness. Awkward and nasty, but better than leaving her at the whims of some eldritch monstrosity.

"Sounds good. We could go shopping, eat at a fine restaurant, then do random things for fun before hitting some clubs."

Possessed-Blake appeared interested. "What are these clubs?"

"Party halls with drinking, dancing and lots of people," Jaune said. "Think of them as a carnival or celebration, except people are younger and there's loud music and alcohol."

"Hmm. And you know these places?"

"Know 'em, been barred from a lot of them for causing trouble too. Trust me, I know how to show someone a good time. And I have a motorbike too. I bet you've never been on one."

"I have not. Mmm. Very well. I shall accept thy proposal for a time but fail to entertain and I shall strike out alone." Possessed-Blake eyed Jaune, smiling wryly. "Fill her with thy warnings, dear employer, but remember our contract. Interfere and I shall call it breached. I shall await her outside."

Possessed-Blake stood and left the room.

"Don't try and stop her from anything legal," Jaune said, palming at his face. "Divert her attention if you can, but don't threaten her. She's dangerous. Just… Blake will appreciate anything you can do to protect her body, but she won't blame you if you can't. This deal was one she made on her own. Our hands are tied and we have to honour it."

"Right…"

"And I appreciate this as well. Don't think otherwise. I was planning to keep an eye over her myself but I've a feeling the anomaly would try and provoke me into ending the contract. Either to mock Blake or just to cause trouble."

"Yeah. Say, is there any reason I can't just knock her out? I'm not part of your group."

"The biggest reason not to is because you might not be able to handle her." He interrupted before she could get offended. "You could probably best her normally, but she isn't human right now, and that thing is capable of more than we know. Don't see it as a normal person."

"What kinds of things?"

"I've seen fire and ice and lightning."

"It's a sorceress?"

"It's also been able to give Blake powers before. Or…" He frowned. "Not give her powers since she as aura, but it's been able to pretend to give her powers. I don't know if it's been masquerading as those powers or what, but the point is it can do a lot. Even if it couldn't kill you for fear of breaking the contract, escaping you would be easy – and if you attack first, it might be able to claim self-defence as legal justification to fight back."

"And kill me?"

"Probably not kill unless you went for the kill first, but it could badly hurt you, maybe even cripple you and claim it didn't understand the limits of its power versus your human fragility. Don't take the risk. Also, don't make any binding agreements. I've no idea if it can only do that to Blake or not but do your best not to make any promises. Not unless they're easily fulfilled like buying it a drink or showing it a movie."

"Vampire rules, then."

He blinked. "What?"

"Like crappy supernatural romance. You know, don't invite the vampire in, don't make blood contracts, don't trust anything that has hypnotic eyes."

Ruby looked over. "You read that garbage, Yang…?"

"No!" Not since Beacon. "But I've friends who do, and it's not like I haven't seen movies. Um. But speaking of this thing, what it did earlier was a little… uh… sexual…"

Jaune sighed. "Yes. I noticed."

"Do you think…?"

"Will it try and bed someone in Blake's body? Quite likely. Intercourse is one of the biggest pleasures a human can experience, and it won't have given it's an anomaly living alone in a book."

"Then… what do I do…?"

"Get it drunk. Distract it."

"And if it forces the issue?"

"Remind it of what consensual sex is and hand it a condom."

Yang winced.

Jaune didn't look all that happy about it either.

"Blake's an adult and I know she's been with people before," he continued. "And she was always aware of the risk of this – she mentioned it had pushed her to… engage with me before. And even with Sun Wukong."

Engage. Goodness, that was a cold way of putting it. But Yang could kind of see why an entity that had only ever lived alone in a book would be curious. She, herself, hadn't gone all the way with anyone yet, but she'd fooled around petting and touching once before. Back at a graduation party with a boy she'd kind of found okay but hadn't returned the feelings of, but who had been a good friend and leaving to another kingdom. It had been a sweet and soft little farewell.

I wonder how old Blake was when she first did it.

Given Blake was apparently a terrorist before, the whole "legal age" thing might not have felt so important. And it wasn't like she hadn't had friends in Signal as young as sixteen who had tumbled with one another.

"What I'm saying is that Blake won't freak out or hate you if you can't stop the anomaly sleeping with someone in her body, but she'll thank you if you can make sure it's safe. Of course, she'll thank you even more if you can get her body so wasted it can't perform, then drag her back to faint in her bed. We all will. But I don't want you risking your life to stop the anomaly when it hasn't technically broken any rules."

"Noted. I'll do my best. You want me to fill you in on anything that happens?"

"No. It's probably best I not know. Call Ruby if anything really bad happens." He saw her confusion, adding, "Something like other people attacking you and her being allowed to use self-defence and badly hurt them. We can cover that up."

Disasters, then. Complete disasters.

"I'll do my best…"

Outside, possessed Blake had unbuttoned the top few buttons of her blouse, ditched her coat and jacket and was fiddling around with her hair, winding it around the finger of one hand while her other toyed with her left ear. Yang would admit she'd wondered what it'd feel like to have faunus ears too, so she couldn't blame the anomaly being fascinated.

"Ah. Thou art done."

"Yep. Your manner of speech is kinda weird by the way."

"Is weird not appealing to some?"

"Probably. Right. So, fun." Yang took a deep breath. "How about a motorbike ride around the city followed by copious amounts of ice-cream and sugared treats?"

"Are those treats pleasurable?"

"Girl…" Yang threw an arm around her shoulder. "I have it on good information that ice-cream and cake is better than sex. And take it from me that riding a bike is an adrenaline rush all of its own. I bet you've never even felt adrenaline before."

Golden eyes sparkled curiously. "I have not!"

"Then let's fill your eldritch little head – uh, pages? – with new experiences."

To make it clear, no, there won't be any lemons here. Of course there won't be. This is the very real fears of them from Jaune and Yang, and what the anomaly would do unchecked, but obviously things are going to happen to interrupt that, so don't worry about me suddenly going skeevy and moving toward some creepy non-consent stuff.

Next Chapter: 16th December

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