"Pull her tail! That's what makes them explode! That's what my brother said! C'mon Rashi!" yelled out a kid to one of his friends at a playground.
"No! Please don't!" said a girl who was cowering on the ground trying to cover her behind.
The girl crying was a faunus with dark purple hair and even darker orange eyes. Her tail was her most prominent feature when she wasn't trying to cover it up, and it embarrassed her. She loved to sing whenever and wherever she could. Her name was Varin Treble. She was constantly bullied because of the tail; just because she looked different. This time it was at a playground. She was alone wearing her favorite yellow summer dress on a swing when two boys found her.
She always hated when people picked on her, not just because of the obvious reasons, but because there was a chance that it might bring out dangerous and unstable consequences. She could never explain it, but things happen when she lost control of herself, there would be blank periods where she couldn't remember anything that happened, the only clue would be someone who was unconscious or something destroyed.
Her tail was being pulled to the point where Varin was afraid that it might pop off. Harder and harder the kid pulled, Varin started screaming as it started to hurt.
"Dude! She's gonna blow up! Yeah!" the kid chanted as Varin's yellow dress was starting to tear.
All of a sudden, something happened. Varin felt like the world was darkening, like someone was putting on really dark sunglasses. The kid immediately stopped pulling Varin's tail and stumbled back with a terrified look in his eye.
"Run! Let's go!" yelled the kid. However, to Varin, it sounded like someone had put water in her ears; hollow and muffled.
Varin felt a strange vibration in her throat as she was lifted off of her feet and suspended in air. Her eyes became wide and she started screaming as multicolored dust started surrounding her body. The boy and his friend's were frozen with fear as they watched the dust flow behind her and for the wings of a bird. Her hair started to turn in to a dark shade of blue with orange streaks. Her eye color went from dark orange to yellow with slits for pupils, her teeth were becoming pointed with two prominent fangs forming in place of her canines. A burst of wind emanated from her body
She slowly descended back to the ground with her eyes on the boys; a cold and fierce look in her eyes. Her hand was held outstretched and contorted into a claw, weird aura was surrounding it.
"What are you, you freak?" said one of the boys in a terrified tone as he started moving backward.
"You hurt her. Intentionally you hurt Varin. Why" said Veta, the alter ego of Varin, a sinister counterpart to the usual nice and loving nature of Varin. Her voice was deeper and more silky than her counterpart.
This alter ego protects Varin only if she senses danger that could hurt her. Veta had several abilities that the soft spoken Varin didn't know she had. One was the ability of mind control. Her singing voice would come out in soft tendril-like waves that caress your ears and put your soul at ease. At that point, Veta could control your every movement, thought and action, but she hated using it. Another ability was using the dust from her wings that formed when she came out. The dust would coalesce into needle-like projectiles that can be shot at high speeds. She had many other abilities, but Veta chose not to use them in case she would lose control and unintentionally cause more harm than intended. She would only let Varin tap into a very limited amount of power as to protect her in any situation.
"We didn't do anything! We promise! Please!" pleaded the boy who started to cry.
"Liar." said Veta quietly.
"Please let us go! We won't do anything to you ever again!" said the other boy as they both stood up and started running in the other direction.
Quicker than the eye can see, Veta cut off the boys' only exit out of the playground.
"All fire that can hurt Varin must be extinguished." said Veta, her head tilting to the side and a manic smile on her face.
She raised her hand again and the dust started to form giant knife-like projectiles that took aim at the boys again. They started screaming as the projectiles started glowing brighter and brighter. All of a sudden, Veta's eyes became wide as she started falling backwards, the projectiles dissipating in the wind. Her eyes started to close as she fell onto her back with a hard thud.
The boys ran for their lives as they left the park to go home. Her wings blowing away in the wind, her hair turning back to its original color, her teeth reverting back to a more human appearance, Veta was disappearing to the inner chambers of Varin's mind.
Walking up to the unconscious Varin was none other than Hisa, this time accompanied by her supervisor Luka. Luka was a tall official that oversaw the collection of dangerous individuals in Remnant. His silver hair shining in the sunlight, his crisp military uniform neat and kept and his green eyes were full of authority.
"Good job, Hisa. This could've been messy." said Luka in his deep and calming voice.
"Thank you, sir! It couldn't be done without your expertise." said Hisa in her bubbly tone. She held a rifle that shoots out very powerful and fast acting tranquilizers.
"Let's collect her and bring her back to H.Q." ordered Luka.
"Yes, I would like to study her a bit more. Maybe she could be a good fit with the team Darius was looking to form." said Hisa.
Darius was the leader of the faction that Hisa worked at. He was the authority and final voice that everyone was expected to follow.
"A good idea, Hisa," said Luka, "But don't you think she's a bit unhinged? She could prove very dangerous in the long run."
"I'm sure I can figure out a way to suppress that alter ego of her's." said a smiling Hisa.
"Of course you would. You're the only person who needs warning notices and signs outside her door just in case some unfortunate soul wanders into your dorm." said Luka to a giggling Hisa as a team of troops gathered Varin onto a stretcher and carried her back to the ship they came from.
Back at the headquarters, Varin was placed in a holding cell surrounded by unbreakable plexiglass and a single bed and sink. She was sleeping in the bed when Hisa walked in with Luka, Hisa was carrying a box with her.
"Are you sure this can work?" asked Luka with uncertainty.
"It should. I made this visor so that it locks to her temples and suppresses that other ego she has through small radioactive wavelengths that won't hurt her or us." explained Hisa.
"Are you sure? It wouldn't be the first time you said that something won't hurt us and we ended up having to find replacement troops after one of your little tech experiments." said Luka.
"No, uh…Don't worry about that. I…uh…tested it on m-myself." lied Hisa hastily.
"Did you? Any bad side effects?" asked Luka.
"No I did not. Some drooling was the minimum." Hisa lied again, hiding the fact that she received a nasty shock when her skin turned a sickly green color when she put it on.
Luka opened the door and let Hisa walk into the cell. She stood in front of Varin, who was still asleep, and slipped the visor over her eyes and pressed a button to power it on. Hisa checked over her to see if the same side effects were happening to Varin. Luka walked in next to Hisa and examined the visor.
"Is it working?" he asked.
"Seems so. She's not turning green." said Hisa.
"Green? What?" asked Luka in a surprised tone.
"Nothing! Nothing at all" said Hisa hastily, "Look she's stirring."
Varin's eyes flickered and she moved her head a little. She opened her eyes and looked around at her new surroundings in confusion. Her eyes found Hisa and Luka staring at her from across the room.
"Where am I? What's this on my head? Who're you?" rapidly asked Varin.
"You're in a holding cell for your safety and ours in Atlas." started Luka.
All of a sudden, a burst of energy emanated from Varin and all the plexiglass in the cell fractured.
"What's going on, Hisa?" asked Luka urgently.
"I think her other half is trying to come out. I hope that visor holds." suggested Hisa.
"Ok. It seems like you have a hold on this here, Shirayuki. Continue the interview and offer as well." hastily said Luka as he backed out of the cell.
"Wait, what!? Where do you think you're going?" Hisa shot at Luka.
"Uh…Important meeting just popped up on my Scroll. Something about surviving and not dying young. Carry on." said Luka as he rapidly walked away.
"Damn him…" Hisa cursed under her breath, she turned back to Varin, "I'm Hisa Shirayuki. I work here at Atlas as the Head of Technology and Experimental Weapon Testing. I'm- We're sorry for bringing you in here like this."
"No, you didn't hurt me like those kids were." said Varin as she stood from her bed.
"Not everyone is like that, you have to understand." said Hisa, cautious of her words.
"True, but when they do…" Varin replied as her tail swung around into her hand and she smoothed it out.
"I'm going to truthful, Varin, but I need to talk to your other half." said Hisa.
"No!" blurted out Varin as her eyes became wide, "Please don't! I don't want to hurt anyone!"
"You won't." simply said Hisa.
"You don't know what you're talking about." said Varin nervously.
"Don't worry. The visor will suppress any power that tries to escape. I'm confident that it will be fine. Just close your eyes." said Hisa calmly.
"I'm worried." said Varin.
"Don't be everything will be fine." said Hisa quietly as she moved forward and placed her hands on both sides of the visor that Varin was wearing.
Hisa's eyes started glowing green as well as her hands as binary code started running across the visor's screen. Varin became rigid as the visor started humming. In an instant, Varin's hair started changing color, her eyes became wide as the pupils turned to slits and changed to yellow. Her expression calmed as Veta came out.
"Hello! Who're you?" asked Hisa as she let out a slight sigh.
"Who wants to know." asked Veta in her deep silky voice.
"She hasn't told you? My name is Hisa. It's a pleasure to meet you." said Hisa smiling.
"My name is Veta. What do you want with me?" said Veta as she looked around at the fractured plexiglass around the room.
"We need your help, Veta. There's trouble rising in Remnant and I've been put in charge of building a team for the incoming threat." explained Hisa.
"What could a thirteen year old girl do to tip the scales in your favor? How weak is this enemy that you're dependent on a young girl?" teased Veta.
"You're more powerful than you give yourself credit. We saw what you were going to do to those boys." said Hisa.
"Anyone who even breaks just a fingernail on Varin will meet their end. I will make sure of it." threatened Veta.
"You would hurt two innocent little boys?" asked Hisa referring to the scene at the playground.
"All flesh is equal when burnt." said Veta menacingly.
"Regardless, we need your help. Can you do it?" asked Hisa.
"I will consider your offer. For now, let us sleep." said Veta quietly after a moments pause.
"Thanks, Veta. We'll talk again. I'm sure." said Hisa as she got up from the chair and turned to leave.
"Hisa, one more thing." said Veta as Hisa was exiting the cell.
"Yes?" said Hisa as she turned around.
"Let it be known that I came here on my own free will. I needed somewhere to keep her safe." said Veta as she opened her mouth and sang a single beautiful note for a second.
The visor around her eyes shattered and fell to the floor and the plexiglass disintegrated into powder. Hisa fell backwards disoriented and weak as she stared at Veta, who was reverting to her kinder alter ego Varin.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BZZT BZZT BZZT! Hisa pulled her visor out of her pocket that was slightly damaged by Veta and put them on.
"Shirayuki." she answered shakily.
"Hisa!" came the urgent and concerned voice of Luka, "Are you okay?"
"Yes, sir. Everything is fine. The talk went over smoothly. She'll join…I think. Why?" said Hisa.
"Almost everyone in the building blacked out! Only a few, including myself, stayed alert." explained Luka.
"It means that we have to treat her with a grain of salt, sir. All will be fine in due time." said Hisa as she walked away from a now sleeping Varin.
