13

Chapter 13 – From Dusk til Jaune

"Is there-"

"Still nothing," Blake slowly clicked on the next news report, eyes focused on the old article. No witnesses, case remained inconclusive, eventually assumed just to be another typical dust robbery, a spate of crime just beginning in the city of Vale. That had been five months ago. Had Torchwick been working with the Fang that far back though, that was the real question.

"You didn't even look!" He punctuated his frustration by placing his hand through the screen, blocking her sight even if he was half see-through. With a frustrated sigh she dragged her scroll out and placed it on the table beside her. Jaune floated down through the table, so that only his nose and eyes remained above – staring at the device.

"See? Nothing," he sagged, "I have it set to vibrate, I'll know if he returns our message. So can you maybe not keep asking me every ten minutes?"

She'd kept her promise and contacted Jaune's father, apparently some man known as Nicholas Arc. The name sounded somewhat familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Either way, she'd sent a message explaining that she had to meet with him in regards to his son – and although it had been six hours since they'd been to the Emerald Forest, there hadn't yet been a response.

But if he was a Hunter like Jaune said, then that wasn't unusual. Perhaps he was on a mission, or just didn't have his scroll to hand – or maybe it had run out of dust. There could be plenty of reasons.

"I don't even know what I'm supposed to say…" the ghost flew back up into the air as he started running his hands through his hair, disturbing his shaggy golden locks. For her part, Blake simply rolled her eyes and got back to work, unsure what she was supposed to suggest. Family had never been a strong point for her; she couldn't even remember having any – other than the White Fang. And even then, she'd never had to deliver news of fallen comrades to family before.

Adam had always taken that responsibility, saying he owed it to those who fell.

He'd always been moody at those times, and she'd known better than to try and talk to him afterwards. Blake had a feeling her own experience wouldn't be much better… really; if anyone had the right to be worried about what they were supposed to say it should be her.

A single yellow eye flicked over to watch him as he continued ranting about what he was meant to do. He didn't seem to have suffered any strange side effects of their jaunt in the forest, or from what had happened by his… final resting place. For all intents and purposes he looked to be back to normal, though whether that was a good thing or not she wasn't sure.

He was easier to deal with like this though, even if his occasional perversion drove her up the wall.

"You look tired, maybe we should give this a break."

"I'm tired because it took an hour to run out of the forest," Blake sighed as she leaned her head on one hand, "and we can't take a break because this is important." How many times did she have to explain that to them all?

"I know, but seriously Blake… you're so tired that you aren't even doing a good job, like this here." One of his fingers poked through the screen, the digit making as though to tap on a particular link.

"Insurance premium scandal leads to fall of major dust manufacturer, I've read through that one – just a company trying to cash in on all the robberies by pretending their dust was stolen by the White Fang."

"Yeah, but you've missed something," the rest of his body followed his hand through the screen, and then through her body as he materialised behind her – even then she couldn't stop the shiver that came over when he passed straight through her. "Look here, upon closure of the facility and subsequent buy-out by the SDC for premises and all machinery valued at twenty-two million lien, et cetera – here," his finger paused near the end, "SDC opens investigation into dust missing during the buy-out but declines to comment."

Her eyes snapped open, exhaustion evaporating as she leaned closer to the screen. He was right, the initial claim was made for millions in lien of stolen dust, and that was proven false – which means the manufacturer must still have had that dust. For it then to be missing when the SDC bought it out… sure, the original owners could have sold it, but the SDC could have easily traced that if they wanted to… unless it was sold illegally, or stolen.

"If the company was worth twenty-two million… how much was the insurance claim? It must have been big, that much dust…" it was worse than she'd feared – so much worse! Stealing from small dust shops across Vale was one thing, and it had looked worse when they targeted a shipping freighter – but attacking manufacturers directly, the very source of where all refined dust came from!?

The White Fang had far more dust than she'd ever considered.

That was bad, very bad!

"Blake, calm down!" How could she? This was a disaster, this wasn't just for war or something – that much dust was enough to set off a chain reaction that could erase Vale from the map, everyone gone in one great explosion. The White Fang didn't have enough people to need that much dust! "You're hyperventilating, carry on like this and you'll be joining me – literally."

The disguised faunus scowled but sought to bring her breathing back under control, knowing the truth in his words. It really didn't make a difference now anyway, they had the dust, that much was obvious. She just needed to decide how she'd continue from here. Clearly they had to be stopped.

"This is insane," she whispered, suddenly hyper-aware of all the other people in the library. They were all studying, chatting or laughing away, but was it possible that some among them might be White Fang spies or sympathisers? "Jaune, this is madness – that much dust. You need to understand, this is enough to wipe the Kingdom away."

"I know, you've said it enough times," the blonde spectre growled, "I'm all for stopping them Blake, trust me. I signed up to be a Hunter because I wanted to be a hero, but you need to slow down a little."

"Slow down? How ca-"

"Just hear me out," his finger pressed against her lips – and it was instinct that kept her quiet, even when she realised his finger wouldn't actually do anything. "I'm not disagreeing with you Blake, we're partners – in a sense – and I'll help with this. But you didn't even notice that story because of how tired you are, you're exhausted and not resting."

"We need more information," she defended, it wasn't that she didn't see the logic in his words – of course she did, of course she realised she was exhausted and making mistakes. But the Headmaster wasn't doing anything about this, and neither were the police. So she had to do it herself, in a way the White Fang were her responsibility. "This research needs to be done so we can find a lead."

"And it will be, trust me. Look, we're partners, okay?" A sigh burst from her lips but she nodded regardless. He wasn't who she'd have chosen as her partner, and honestly she had Yang – but he was right, in some strange way they were stuck with one another. "The thing about partners is that they can make a job easier by splitting up the work – so here's my deal. If you go back to your dorm, go to bed and get some sleep. Then I'll help out with the research, even while you're asleep."

"I can't help but think a bear getting up and working on a library computer is going to raise eyebrows," seriously didn't he think things through? His offer was good, but there was no way he could get away with something like that, and then people would find out about him – and her, and things would never be the same.

"No one's complained yet."

…

"Pardon?"

"What?" He raised one ghostly brow at her twitching eye, "did you expect me to just sit there in the dark all night? I can't exactly sleep you know."

"What..." one hand pressed up against her face as images of horror flashed through her mind. Dare she even ask!? "What have you been doing!?"

"Blake…" the blonde grinned as he vanished back into the bar, one golden arm waving to her, "I think the real question is; what haven't I been doing?"