Sorry for last week. It's part of the work situation where I don't know when I'll have days with no time to write. Where I'll be at work not only 9-5, but then at work at the accountants or the owner's home or staying a the business 6-10 as well.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 105

Weiss and her team weren't exactly thrilled to see them. In truth, it was Weiss and Yang. The other two had no history with them and were just closing ranks around their teammates because they could sense the mood. It was Yang who disliked them both for their influence over Ruby and for what she'd seen and experienced of their hidden world. Ignorance was bliss, and Yang knew just enough to leave her terrified but not enough to give all the context. The worse combination. Weiss, on the other hand, had every reason in the world to not want to be left alone with them.

"I'm staying," said Yang, crossing her arms and standing defensively by her teammate. "I'm not leaving either of you alone with her."

"I would rather Yang stay as well," Weiss said.

"Are you sure?" Jaune asked it casually, while Blake smirked from behind. "This might be a little more private of a conversation than you realise. I'm not sure you'll want anyone from your team hearing it."

Weiss raised her nose at them. "I'm quite certain. Yang stays."

Nora and Ren were dismissed, though Blake suspected they'd be hanging around close enough to come running back if either of them shouted out. The team were close-knit, which she supposed ought to be a good thing. They didn't know about the horrors caused by Weiss' family, and they didn't need to know.

Soon, it was just the four of them in the team's dorm. Yang still had her arms crossed, her feet apart and weight leaning toward Weiss, ready to leap in front of any attack. That practically forced Blake to take the same posture by Jaune, ready to intervene if he came under attack. Yang and Blake stared at one another, each measuring the other in case they made a single move. Whatever Yang had thought of matching with her on the anomalous dating app obviously meant nothing with her low opinion of ARC Corp.

Jaune and Weiss, meanwhile, stood loosely facing one another.

"I assume you've heard about the recent blooming disease," he said. Weiss let out an unladylike snort and rolled her eyes.

"Do you imagine I bury my head in the sand? Everyone has heard about it. Suspected it was anomalous since the first moment, though hearing those with aura are immune cinched it. Let me guess, you believe it an anomaly my family held, and that I released in some play for revenge."

"Partially correct. We believe it was an anomaly once held by the Schnee family, but we don't believe you had a part in its release. Not intentionally, anyway." The specification at the end had Weiss raising one eyebrow.

"What does that mean...?"

"Our current suspicion is that someone working for the Schnee released it, someone who once worked for your family and close to you. The individual might have been a maid, butler, or a member of the serving staff in the Schnee manor."

"How? You captured them all when you slaughtered my family."

Yang tensed. It seemed she hadn't known that particular piece of information. The official story had bene White Fang, and it seemed Weiss had kept to it with her team. Good to know, though she'd have to come clean to Yang on what really happened now she'd heard this.

"Everyone was interrogated and incorporated into ARC Corp if they knew anything about the anomalous," said Jaune, "but it's possible some members were absent from the manor on the day of the attack. Or they might have been trusted to operate independently."

"If that were the case, how would I know anything of them?"

"Because they were close to you in terms of proximity." Jaune brought out his scroll. "We found a suspect who we believe released the anomaly into Vale's water supply. He bloomed along with the rest, but in his emails was communications from someone we believe worked for your family. The man was quite the fan of yours from your time as a pop idol."

Weiss shrugged and leaned in to look at the image of the man's bedroom. "I have many fans and that doesn't— oh, sweet lord!" Recoiling, she bumped into Yang and almost knocked her over. "No, no, no!"

"Weiss!" Yang cried, lunging forward to grab the scroll from Jaune's hands. "What is— oh! Oh hell no, that's rank!"

"Don't look!" cried Weiss.

"I... I can't look away..." Yang whispered, eyes locked on the screen. "He's cut a hole where your mouth would be. And another further down. Oh sweet, merciful lord the edges of it are stained and crusty!"

"Be grateful you didn't have to smell it," Jaune said, taking back his scroll from the shellshocked teen. Yang was looking a little green about the gills, while Weiss just shuddered. "Suffice to say, the man had an unhealthy obsession with you. Worse given your musical career started when you were underage."

Weiss reached Beacon at seventeen, like everyone else, and must have had at least a year or two of experience in concerts, making her potentially fifteen to sixteen when this man started lusting over her. Blake wished she could say that was unusual, but the sexualisation of famous people, no matter their age, was commonplace. If it wasn't fans doing it, it was producers putting them on stage in outfits that no one their age should wear, all because sex sold tickets.

"While we were investigating his apartment – and believe me, it was bad – we came upon his emails and one from an unknown sender offering nudes of you in exchange for him delivering something to the water treatment plant."

"Ugh." Weiss grimaced but didn't look surprised at all. "Are those still going around?"

"They're real!?" gasped Yang. "What, did you send them to a boyfriend or—?"

"Computer generated." Weiss interrupted her with a roll of her eyes. "Deepfakes, mostly, though there were some very talented people with too much time on their hands who managed to make them look realistic. They were realistic enough to cause a bit of a storm in Atlas, and I had to go on tv interviews to explain they weren't real. Luckily, most of them had proportions best described as highly unrealistic, usually around the hips or chest area."

Yang looked Weiss' thin frame up and down. "Highly unrealistic or highly unrealistic for you?"

"What are you implying!? These were ridiculous – which breasts twice the size of my face or hips from a grown woman. And my body is perfectly proportioned, thank you." Weiss scowled at her, then at Jaune and Blake. "But it wouldn't surprise me if an idiot like this would believe them to be real when they're—" Jaune offered his scroll again, with the new images on them, "—obviously not rea—ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

Yang swore and rushed for the scroll again.

This time, Weiss beat her to it, snatching the scroll out Jaune's hand and shoulder checking Yang. Weiss clutched it to her chest. "HOW!? NO! This can't be!"

"They're real, then?" Jaune asked. Blake smirked behind him, enjoying the drama.

"I'm deleting this!"

"That's evidence—" Jaune sighed as his scroll beeped, then sighed again when Weiss started rummaging through his images in search of more to get rid of. Hopefully, he didn't have any of his own in there. "You realise this is an active investigation, right? Can you at least confirm my suspicions for us?"

"Yes!" hissed Weiss. "That was real and that was taken without my knowledge inside my room! It was less than five months ago!"

"That's oddly specific," said Blake. "How can you be so sure?"

"I got my scar that long ago."

Ah, that'd explain it. Blake hadn't paid enough attention to note the scar, or maybe she'd just ignored it since Weiss had that from the moment she'd met her. Obviously, it hadn't been that old. Blake wondered if it caused a storm when she got it, given she was a famous singer without a scar beforehand, and then suddenly had a cut down through her eye. There must have been questions about where she got it from.

"Whomever this was had access to the manor and my rooms," said Weiss. "I wouldn't have let anyone in while I was taking a bath, so they must have hidden the camera there."

"You mean you didn't have people stand by to towel you off?" asked Yang.

"You have some very strange ideas on what rich people do, Xiao-Long."

"I mean, I thought Jacques Schnee paid someone to wipe his ass. Is that not a thing?"

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and refused to answer.

"Moving on," said Jaune. "I don't suppose you can narrow down a list of people with access to your room, could you? Those that worked at the manor within the last six months." Weiss was shaking her head. "Why not?"

"We had over a hundred serving staff and any of them could have gotten in. It's not like we kept all the doors locked and employees microchipped so they can't enter certain areas. Even a chef could have gotten into my bathroom." Weiss sighed. "The one I trusted most was my butler, Klein, but I refuse to believe he would do this."

Blake took a mental note of the name. Whether she refused to believe it or not, they'd still investigate it.

"—but if this person also knew about the anomalies and somehow escaped with a few, then I can't help but feel they would have been more than simple serving staff. Most of the maids and such weren't exactly aware of what my family dabbled in. My family operated with a philosophy that the less people knew, the safer we would be."

That made sense. All it would take was one photo of All Becomes Dust and the world would implode at the suggestion everyone had been using human sacrifices as energy, that you cooked your food on a stove powered by people.

"Then it'd be someone from the... uh... research teams?" said Blake.

Weiss snorted. "Research? We're not you. In fact, the auctions were pretty much run by Willow and Winter. Father only ever cared for the SDC side of things and keeping the business running. He was content to turn a blind eye to everything else. Obviously, I was never involved much in that side either. Once I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with it, my access was revoked. All I know is that we kept a lot under the manor but..."

Weiss trailed off. Jaune leaned in. "Yes?"

"Sorry, I'm..." Weiss frowned. "I'm not 100% sure but... well... I have to assume we didn't keep all our anomalies in the manor. There must have been some that were too dangerous or which had a pervasive effect on people in a given area. Father wouldn't have accepted them being kept around where they might harm us. This is a suspicion, mind you," she added, with a fierce glare his way. "I know nothing and having me abducted and interrogated won't change that fact!"

Yang stepped up. "And I won't allow it."

The sentiment was a good one, it was friends defending one another, but Weiss had to know as well as Blake that Yang's interference wouldn't protect her if ARC Corp came knocking. Saphron would simply drag them both out for interrogation, while Nicholas Arc might cut Yang down for getting in his way.

Luckily for them, they were the Containments Office.

"I'll pass your suspicions on but make it clear you weren't trusted by your family," Jaune said. "Sadly, I can't promise you my word will mean anything. I'm less trusted by my family than you were with yours. Still, you're probably right that the SDC had extra storage areas. I suppose we'll have to dig into that. If I get you a list of every member of your staff we captured, would you be willing to take a look and flag any that you know for a fact were working for your family but aren't on that list?"

"Yes. Fine. As long as I'm left alone. I just want to become a huntress and live my life."

Jaune nodded. "I'll do the best I can to make that a reality. Good day." He nodded once to her, and then to Yang, and then the two of them were leaving with less than they'd wished for.

"We're back at square one," said Blake.

"On finding this person, yes, but at least we have the angle of an additional Schnee cache of anomalies to dig into. We've killed the anomaly that caused the blooms across the city. It's better to get rid of this person's ammunition than spend weeks hunting them down while they release more and more anomalies."

/-/

Blake hated the remote conferences with Jaune's family. Standing behind and off to the side of him, arms linked behind her back and with Timothy locked away in Jaune's room, she just focused on keeping her eyes straight and not reacting to anything they said. There was always the temptation to roll her eyes, but that would definitely be noticed.

"The possibility of a second Schnee cache is something we were aware of," said Director Nicholas Arc. "Attempts to locate and destroy it have thus far been stymied. Those recruited from the ruins of the Schnee home have professed ignorance even under interrogation, and it is our belief they are being honest. The Schnee would not trust such sensitive information to such lowly-paid employees."

"We should collect the Schnee in Beacon and put her through enhanced interrogation methods," said Associate-Director Saphron Arc.

Blake closed her eyes so they couldn't see her roll them.

"That would put us in direct confrontation with Beacon and Atlas," Jaune pointed out. "And it's my belief she knows nothing. Her split from her family is well-known to us, and the sole reason we never felt the need to hunt down and kill her like her mother and sister."

"But she's still a Schnee. The risk is still there."

"Such methods will alienate everyone we work with and rely on. The Associate-Director ought to remember that we are as successful as we are because the Director has fostered positive relations with various governments. Undoing all that work will ostracise us."

"You lack the authority to question my—"

"Enough." Nicholas Arc spoke coldly, and both Jaune and Saphron sat still. "This bickering is childish and should be beyond you both. You each set a poor example for your siblings." Saphron trembled and went still. Jaune nodded once, taking the criticism on the chin. "The Schnee will remain where she is, easily accessible, for now. We have been searching for the cache ever since the fall of the Schnee manor, recognising some anomalies witnessed being used by them as absent when we destroyed the ones at the manor."

That was news. Unfortunate news.

"I have combed Atlas for over a month with no success. I am beginning to believe the cache may not be in Atlas itself. It would make sense that, if their support base were to collapse in Atlas, they would have a secondary location elsewhere to fall back to. One in another kingdom. I am hereby instructing each office to make the scouring of your location for this cache a green priority task."

Green priority was, to Blake's recollection, the third-highest tier. Red was an all-hands-on deck scenario like Mountain Glenn, and amber was for something immediately dangerous that the local office should be focusing all its resources on, like when their current outbreak happened. Most cases were amber in the sense that ARC Corp discovered an anomaly and then focused on destroying it, but sometimes there might be two anomalies at once, with one taking priority over the other. That was where green came in. An anomaly that was problematic but could be set aside if needs be.

Something to work on in any moment of peace, but which could be paused if a more serious case came along. This was probably only green in this case because he knew it'd be a wild goose chase for most of them. If the cache was in one single kingdom, then every other office was going to be wasting their time.

But they still had to try.

"The case occurred in Vale," said Amber Arc, the youngest and least experienced. "It would make sense if it were there."

"The Vytal Festival would make for a good target if this is – as Director Jaune suspects – a former member of the Schnee company wanting to take vengeance on us." His tone was corrective, but not stern. Educational, almost. "Though you are correct that the immediate danger is in Vale, it's still possible the cache is in Mistral or Vacuo, and that Vale was solely chosen because of the potential impact of releasing an anomaly during this event."

Amber Arc lowered her head.

Blake cleared her throat. "May I speak?"

Jaune was surprised but didn't interrupt her. Nicholas Arc just nodded. "You may."

"I agree that this is likely a case of a former Schnee employee wanting vengeance, but I think there are two things to keep in mind. The first is that they must have been immune to the seed to not be infected, so they either have aura or are, themselves, anomalous." Blake paused and the various directors nodded. This wasn't a revelation to them. "But the other thing to consider, and the biggest question-mark I can see in all this, is why only one anomaly?" This prompted a few raised eyebrows and people leaning back from their screens. "If the goal is to cause chaos and get vengeance on us, and if they have a cache of anomalies to draw from, why only this one? Why not five at once? Or ten? Good luck our office preventing a Reality-Class break if we had that many to deal with at once."

There was murmured conversation for a while, before Nicholas interrupted. "A good question, Agent Belladonna, and one we shall have to consider. It may be a case of a limitation, that the anomalies kept in this cache are too dangerous, or even that they are not dangerous enough. It's entirely possible that multiple anomalies were released, but that some have lingering effects or are not immediately dangerous. We don't know what is kept at this cache."

"Still, it is a question to consider. This may be a warning, or even a precursor to a set of demands being sent our way, the punishment of disobeying which will be the release of more. On the other hand, it may be a warning that more are planned for release in other kingdoms. Perhaps this was always intended to be a simultaneous attack but Vale triggered early. I want everyone on high alert. Be as paranoid as Agent Belladonna is here. Question everything."

It wasn't a good feeling, to be held up as an example by ARC Corp in front of the Arc siblings. Blake really didn't want to be the poster child for their brand of crazy.

"I've asked Weiss Schnee to look over a list of captured and incorporated employees. Would we be able to get one to her? She's offered to fill in any gaps on that list and send us in the right direction." Jaune paused for effect. "She's been nothing but cooperative."

"Anything to avoid just punishment," mumbled Saphron, barely audible.

Nicholas ignored her. "I'll have a list sent through to you. I expect her answers within 48 hours of you receiving it."

"Yes sir."

"Then we're done here. Investigate the cache in your areas but do not neglect pressing anomalous concerns. Should anyone locate the cache, announce it to us all before making a move on it. This may require a concerted effort. Understood?" He waited for each director to answer before continuing. "Good. Meeting adjourned."

The screen blinked off.

"I despise Saphron," said Blake.

"I know. I know. Still, this is yet more work for us. I'm really hoping the cache ends up being in Atlas or Mistral."

"Me too. How likely is that?"

"We've no idea." Jaune groaned and sat back. "If the tree began as a seed, I'd feel confident it could be taken overseas. If it began as a sapling or – worse – the full tree, then it's almost certainly here in Vale. Otherwise we'd have a cargo ship or airplane with all its passengers missing and a bunch of trees replacing them to act as a smoking gun."

So, there were greater odds of it being in Vale than not. Flipping wonderful. It kind of made sense from the Schnee's point of view as well, since not only was Vale a nation allied with Atlas – and thus safer to travel to – but it was where Jaune resided, the black sheep of the ARC Corp family. They certainly wouldn't want to go to Mistral and be intercepted by Saphron and Terra, and Vacuo just wasn't a very wealthy nation. Not to mention going from a snowy climate to a desert would just be miserable. If they were going to retreat anywhere, it was going to be to Vale.

Which meant it was their business yet again.

"I hated the Schnee before," said Blake. "As a faunus in the White Fang. Now, I hate them even more. Even dead, they keep creating work for us."

"Hmhm." Jaune tapped his fingers on the desk. "Well, I highly doubt the cache is in the city. Too risky. And, if these anomalies were too dangerous to have around them, then they'd be too dangerous to have around people here. One outbreak and the whole cache would be discovered."

"Did the Schnee have any family resorts or retreats out here?"

"Funnily enough, no. They were too rich to care about obscene rental costs and probably knew we'd search those places first anyway. If I were them, I wouldn't have it be anywhere close to anything officially owned by the SDC."

"True. Then it'll be in the wilderness. Good luck us stumbling across it. Can we use Anomalous & Anomalous to find them? Surely the person behind this has broken a legally binding contract by perving on Weiss like that."

Jaune hummed. "I think that'd be possible if we had their name but, without that, we can't even prove the person did break their contract. We'd need to show Anomalous & Anomalous the contract that's been broken, the person's signature on it, and then they'd help us. But even then they might only help to isolate and punish the person, not to reveal the cache or help us get into it."

"I'd take capturing the person."

"Same, obviously, but it's pointless without a name."

"What about the butler Weiss mentioned?"

"Klein. I checked and he was captured by us and his location was accounted for during the whole debacle with the tree. He's still in Atlas, being made to work for my father in some role or other. I don't know the details, but I think it relates to managing All Becomes Dust. He already knew about it due to his proximity to Weiss, and father didn't see the point in telling the secret to more people."

"He's alive, then?"

"Yes. Easier to utilise him then kill him off. The same goes for all the people who used to work for the SDC. ARC Corp isn't wasteful, and a lot of them didn't have any idea of the anomalous stuff going on. Like Weiss said, most of them were just agency workers doing their jobs cleaning bathrooms and preparing food."

"But a few knew the truth? Like this Klein guy?"

"Yes. And it's likely our problem case here was one of them. Maybe Klein can give us some help there, or maybe the ones in the know didn't know one another. We have no idea how deep the Schnee family's secrecy went with regards to their own employees."

Annoying. Blake sighed. "What now, then?"

"We look for this smoking gun. A cache of anomalies, almost certainly hidden underground, is going to leave some mark on the area around it. Reports of strange sounds or sights, warped landscape, missing people. Something. The Schnee kept safe anomalies at their manor, so this has to be dangerous ones. Ones that weren't safe to be left around people. Ones that were at risk of breaking out."

Ones that would be difficult to hide, and which would leave some evidence as to their existence. Blake nodded and picked up her scroll. The newspapers would be no good, all focused on the city, but online forums related to villages and towns outside the city of Vale would offer more, along with good old fashioned social media. The information would be out there, it was just about finding it.

Six hours later, Ruby knocked on their door and let herself in, fending off an excited Timothy.

"Guys—"

Jaune and Blake groaned, spirits in the dumps.

"Okay, wow, you all look busy. Um. I swear I'm here for a good reason this time. Honest. It's... um. Well, you know how my dad is a teacher at Signal?" Blake did not, but she nodded anyway because it was easier to let Ruby do all the talking. "Well, there's been some talk among the teachers there about some of the kids seeing weird Grimm off on the east of Patch, not too far from our house but in the wilderness areas. Like, really weird Grimm. Grimm that don't look or act like Grimm."

Jaune's head perked up. "Anomalies!?"

"I think so. Maybe? Anyway, dad wanted to ask Ozpin but I told him you specialise in this and he's offered to let you bunk at our place if you want to take a look."

"Ruby, yes!" cried Jaune, leaping to his feet. "I could kiss you!"

Thud!

Ruby dropped from hers in a dead faint, her face red, her mouth locked in a wide and dopey smile.

Blake couldn't help but laugh.

Next Chapter: 24th June

Like my work? Please consider supporting me, even if it's only a little a month or even for a whole year, so I can keep writing so many stories as often as I do. Even a little means a lot and helps me dedicate more time and resources to my work.

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur