I.
Velvet had always had a thing for dangerous women. Dealing with an apocalypse had been extraordinary in the fact that she herself had become one.
Her ears twitched as she stared into the mirror. The group had decided to camp out for the night an hour ago; one last night before they were to break the goddamn barrier. It was easy to think towards the future, though just as painful as thinking towards the past. The future held more deaths, possibly her own. Hate crimes against fauna weren't uncommon; a broken, mourning faunus would be even more of a target. Velvet's ears fell as she collapsed onto the floor. "It's never going to be over," she whispered. Not even if she settled down with Pyrrha. If they never hunted again.
Velvet had read studies on trauma for her Medic classes. How long was it before one of her friends committed suicide? Ren had already tried once.
"Velvet."
The brunette's head snapped up, her ears flicking as she did. Rapidly, her mind analyzed the voice. It was barely a whisper, but that didn't matter; her friends would know she'd hear anyway. This voice, though, didn't belong to any of her friends.
"Vel-vet." The voice drew out her name into two distinct syllables and laughed.
"Who's there?" Velvet asked. She noted that her voice did not falter. She would stand bravely against the entit... wait. There weren't supposed to be more of those.
"Vel!" said the voice again, and finally Velvet recognized it. For a split second, there was joy, then her blood ran cold.
The person it belonged to was dead.
II.
Velvet shook Ruby. Fast asleep. It wasn't really surprising, this must have been the first time anyone could truly sleep soundly in ages. The idea seemed true. As she shook everyone, none woke. Not even Weiss.
"Velvet," the voice singsonged.
Velvet followed it.
III.
The courtyard was a mess of trampled flowers and dead bodies, with blood spilling like water across the walkways. Velvet was surprised, but only slightly, that Coco stood in the middle of it.
Not that it was Coco. Coco would have revealed herself long, long ago. It was an entity that had simply taken up her space. How it had done that when her body was supposed to be dead, Velvet didn't know, but the thought made her heart beat faster and she bit her lip.
"Velvet," said Not-Coco. It sounded relieved.
Velvet's hands balled into fists. How dare it act like Coco. How dare its voice take on the exact cadence of her friend's. Almost instinctively, she kicked upwards, the knives on her feet stopping an inch from the entity's throat before she remembered. It isn't Coco. But if I kill it, Coco is gone too.
"And why's that so bad?" asked the entity. "You thought she was dead. Everyone did. Who does it hurt if I just stay?"
Velvet's first reaction was surprise. She didn't know the entity could say anything besides "Velvet." Her second reaction was an urge to stab the entity through the throat for saying such a thing.
"You won't really do that though. And I have a name."
Is it reading my mind?
"Yes. And I'm a 'they.' For someone so defensive of your faunus friend, you really don't remember how to ask about pronouns." The entity's voice was annoyed. It – they – tapped their feet as if they were restless.
"Sorry," Velvet said instinctively.
"Also, I'm Sealed Move Seesaw, so can you stop just calling me "the entity?" Thanks."
Sealed Move Seesaw reminded Velvet of 3D, and almost immediately, Velvet wondered if this entity also had a nickname that was a little less of a mouthful.
"CeCe."
"What?"
Sealed Move Seesaw smiled in a way that was not at all like Coco. Their tongue, forked like a snake's, flicked out. "You know, the first "sea" sound for "Sealed," then the second for "Seesaw." CeCe. It's only one letter changed from "Coco" to boot."
Hearing CeCe speak the name of Velvet's teammate brought the faunus back down to Remnant. The easiest way to change an entity back was to remind it of who it used to be. "Coco!" Velvet shouted. "Coco Coco Coco Coco! Come back! Now! I was worried about you!"
IV.
She'd been screaming for an hour before her voice died. CeCe had just stood there, enduring, their face amused.
When the faunus' voice had died down, the entity drew out a single word, much like she'd said Velvet's name before. "Com-plex," said Sealed Move Seesaw. "You aren't going to get rid of me so easily, Stabbun."
Hearing that nickname she hated was worse coming from the being she hated. Velvet glared at CeCe, though the action was not merely innocent hatred. Tuned eyes, some of the best in her class (faunus eyes were good. Huntress eyes were good. Having both was best) scanned the enemy for clues, for weakness.
CeCe had a forked tongue and skin several shades darker than the person who used to occupy her space. Their arms and legs had long ribbons of skin swirling around them, like a snake tattoo that had come to a gruesome life. The skin ribbons seemed to bend up and down, like soft, fake spikes on the entity's arms. Their nails did not exist – dirty, gruesome claws, bent like a fictional witch's, had taken their place. Velvet noticed dirt and blood under them.
They looked like Coco and every entity Velvet had ever met.
"Of course I do. Do you find that pleasing? Don't you want to keep me around?" CeCe tilted their head. "Velvet, I want you to love me. I am who I am because I love you."
"I did it because I love you," 3D had said.
"I did it because I love you," WQ had said.
But that arc had long ended, and besides, those two had loved Ruby.
"Ruby is so complicated," CeCe groaned. "All the voices in her head, clamoring away. It hurts! And they don't always understand. Some of them are smart, I guess... hell, you got this far... but some, the quiet ones that are corrected and shoved down, keep asking about your precious Coco. 'She's dead,' say the sensible voices. I guess that's accurate enough."
Velvet wanted to say something, anything. Maybe tell CeCe that they were crazy. But the entity ("Hey, what'd I say about calling me that?") would probably not object.
"True. And besides, I like you best. Ruby's voices do too. They want you to be badass, and badass you are. But never the hero. Ruby is the hero."
"Ruby is the priority," said Prophylaxis Sacrifice Queen.
More arc words long past for a story long completed.
Velvet couldn't help but worry that CeCe had points, even if they did seem to be kind of manufactured.
"Manufactured?"
Intentionally building themselves from entities and people Velvet once loved. Entities and people she will never see again. Coco's body Nora's eccentricity 3D's persuasion King's love.
"I should have added some of Pyrrha."
"Don't you dare." Velvet's words were out before she could think them.
CeCe blinked, and their eyes flashed red. "I struck a nerve."
It was a statement, with no surprise. That made sense. There was no way that CeCe didn't know what they were saying.
Then, CeCe uttered words that didn't sound consistent... or really, one word that changed the tone of the conversation, and their tone as well.
"Like I care anymore," said Coco, voice hurt for a split second before CeCe gave a nasty grin.
Null.
"Go!" ordered Coco when she saw Velvet staring.
The monster looked human. The monster looked so human, so familiar, like it could have been a classmate or a friend.
It was trying to kill them. It had already killed Yatsuhashi and Fox. They were dead on the damp, dark ground, in twin pools of blood and saliva.
"I can't leave you!" Velvet announced. "We're a team!"
"And I'm your leader," Coco replied. She held her left arm, bitten and scratched. Dead woman, Velvet fought automatically. "And I'll fight for the death for my team. You hold no such responsibility. Go."
"No," Velvet protested. It was a weak protest.
"Leave me or I'll kill you myself."
The words were harsh, and in any other situation, senseless. Velvet quickly understood what Coco meant, though. There was a real chance those monsters weren't just familiar... they were friends.
If Velvet became one, Coco would kill her. If Velvet stayed, Velvet would become one.
Velvet ran.
Coco couldn't fight something like that and live. She was dead.
Velvet wished she could have done something, but in no universe would she ever have stayed.
V.
Is it betrayal if the betrayed asks for it?
Velvet thought she knew all the answers to the dome and the travesty within it. She knew how entities were made, and how to unmake them (provided they wanted to be unmade). She knew the secrets of how they came to be, and the dangers that the world outside seemed to be somewhat aware of. She knew lingering thoughts from a turning person could carry on.
Did Coco hate her that much?
Velvet was surprised that CeCe did not answer.
CeCe was, Velvet surmised, built for betrayal. Their body and mind took the qualities of those Velvet loved. Was it only to break her? Was that the purpose this entity served?
"That is this one's purpose," said Zugzwang Blunder Queen.
More dead arc words, but this whole damn night was a big dead horse to beat, wasn't it?
VI.
They stood in silence until what should have been sunrise, when Velvet's tuned ears picked up on her friends stirring in the nearby building. "I have a choice," she said, her mouth working before her brain once again.
"You do," said CeCe.
"I can kill you and let everything be normal, but know my best friend isn't coming back. Or I could tell my friends we can't leave after all... we have to get you to leave first."
"Or you could do the right thing and get rid of yourself," said CeCe.
For a moment, Velvet thought that maybe that really was the right thing to do.
No, they're built for betrayal. They want to sabotage me.
"I want you to come with me," said CeCe, in a voice that was calm and corrective. "Nobody ever found me. If you disappear and become an entity, they won't find us. We can make them believe you died, like you believed Coco died. You'll be gone enough to feel no pain, but you'll live on in the thing you become. And you get what you deserved, right? What you were fated for to begin with."
Built for betrayal, to get back at me, right? Who knows what would happen if I agreed. Too risky. It has to die.
Coco didn't die, though.
That was my mistake.
Something was my mistake, and I wouldn't take it back... would I?
Agreeing with CeCe would only end in pain.
"Who knows?" said CeCe.
From the building, Velvet could pick up on Ruby and Pyrrha waking. "Velvet?" Ruby said, just barely loud enough for rabbit ears to pick up on.
Do or die, either way.
Velvet picked up one shoe and yanked the blade off of it. She walked up to CeCe.
There was a sound of the rip of skin, of blood flowing, of a decision being made. It was the best sound Velvet could remember ever hearing.