I do not own RWBY or Tales Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 7. Enjoy.
Chapter 7: Two Velvets
A few weeks have passed since Velvet's duel with Yang and things have been slow, though progress has been made between the team. The rest of Team RVWBY no longer seem to be on edge with Velvet and her abilities. Though they have gotten a little closer, Velvet still has not revealed much about her past. Ruby decided to let her go at her own pace, and told the rest of the team to do the same. Currently, Velvet is in the training room, practicing her martial arts techniques. She throws a few slashes at some training dummies before ending her assault with three right side kicks at different angles. She stops shortly after that, and just stands looking at the training dummy in front of her. It's hard to focus on training when one's mind is somewhere else, specifically to a few past battles.
"No way would I have had that much trouble against Yang, nor that Deathstalker during my initiation. I defeated Artorius and he was much more powerful than them. I know I haven't gotten rusty, so that can only mean one thing…Somehow, I've lost much of my power when I got sent to this world, and I'll bet that woman had something to do with it," Velvet thinks.
Deciding that she had been training enough for today, since she started two hours ago, she leaves the training room to return to her dorm. On her way though, she noticed a distinct pair of rabbit ears poking out from the doorway of the room that quickly retreat from her view. Rolling her eyes, Velvet walks out of the training room to see no one in the hall, but is keenly aware of a presence hiding behind one corner to her right. Velvet turns left and starts walking towards her dorm, and a moment later, the mysterious onlooker follows her. Velvet continues walking, feigning ignorance at her apparent stalker and turns left at one corner. The stalker waits a moment before going around the corner as well, only to run into Velvet staring right at her with an unamused glare. Velvet gets a good look at her shadow, seeing a teenage girl wearing the school uniform, with long brown hair, brown eyes, and rabbit ears, making her a Faunus. The girl quickly jumps in shock and tries to flee, only for Velvet to grab her by the back of her collar, preventing her from escaping. Seeing as she wasn't going to get away, the girl relents and faces Velvet.
"Alright, why are you following me?" Velvet asks stoically.
"Oh, so you noticed me, huh?" the girl says, not meeting Velvet's gaze.
"Yes, and yesterday, and three days ago, and a week before that," Velvet lists off, remaining unamused.
The girl's eyes widen at seeing that Velvet had known she was watching her this whole time.
The girl laughs nervously, "Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't exactly know how to approach you since you don't exactly seem to be the most social kind of person. So I decided to watch you from a distance. I apologize for watching without asking. My name is Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina," Velvet introduces herself.
Velvet raises an eyebrow slightly at seeing that they had the same name.
"Velvet Crowe. Again, why are you following me?" she questions her.
At this point, the other Velvet pulls out a brown camera from behind her.
"Um, well, I was hoping I could get a picture of you. It's kind of my hobby. Would that be alright?" she asks. Velvet thinks about it, but seeing no problem with it, nods her head. This makes the camera lover smile. "Thank you. This'll only take a minute. Oh, I'll need you to activate your arm blade and your foot blades, please," she says as she readies her camera. Velvet wonders why but dismisses the thought and activates her weapons, holding her arm blade over her chest. When the other Velvet takes the pictures, Velvet notices how she focused the lens on her arm blade and then her feet, which confuses her. "Done. Thanks again. See you around," she says and leaves.
Velvet deactivates her weapons and continues her trek back to her dorm room. As she nears the dorm room, a sudden "crash" sound is heard from inside her room. She opens the door and finds a desk chair on the ground along with a white suitcase of dust crystals, Weiss holding Ruby's scythe in its non-combat form, Blake reading a book on her bunk, and Yang holding Ruby, who's kicking and screaming to break free. Soon, everyone notice Velvet and stop the chaos. Velvet just looks on with half-lidded eyes.
"What?" she asks as she closes the door.
Weiss straightens up and coughs in her hand. "Ahem. Our fearless leader here decided it would be a good idea to try out all the different kinds of dust crystals I got delivered to me with her weapon. I told her no, but she kept on insisting it wasn't a bad idea. Things started to get a little out of hand, and then Yang stepped in to hold Ruby back until everything calmed down," Weiss explains.
"Aw, come on, nothing bad is going to happen. Besides, I'd have you there to help me out. Crescent Rose is already super awesome, just imagine how much more awesome it would be if I could use different kinds of Dust with it," Ruby counters.
"Yeah, I'm not sure that would be a good idea right now. And this is me we're talking about here," Yang adds, still holding Ruby. "So, will you stop now?" she asks, but when Ruby doesn't answer, Yang starts shaking her around wildly.
"AH! Alright, I'll stop! I'll stop!" Ruby screams, and Yang stops shaking her around and lets her go.
"About time you settled this," Blake says, continuing her reading.
"Now with that done, help me clean up this mess," Weiss says.
The four of them start cleaning up the mess, but as they clean, Velvet notices one light blue Dust crystal behind a desk, and picks it up to inspect it, holding it close to her eyes.
"I wonder…" she muses as she glances at her left arm for a moment.
"Thank you," Weiss says as she takes the Dust crystal from Velvet to place back into her suitcase.
Shortly after they fix up their room, the team decides to go eat and heads to the cafeteria. After getting their meals, they meet up with Team JNPR at their usual table.
"So is everything alright with you guys? We heard some loud noises from your room. What happened?" Jaune asks.
Weiss, Yang, and Blake all glance at Ruby, who rubs her head and tries to laugh it off, while Velvet just focuses on her food. The rest of the meal goes off with just some small talk. Eventually, the two teams return to their dorms. Soon, the girls get changed and do different activities for the rest of the night, with Blake reading (of course), Weiss helping Ruby study (more like forcing in Ruby's mind), Yang listening to music, and Velvet combing her hair. Ruby notices this and, to Weiss' irritation, walks over to her.
"You know Velvet, I could help you with that if you like. You do have really long hair," Ruby offers.
"I'm good," Velvet replies as she combs her hair.
"Are you sure?" Ruby asks.
"Yeah," Velvet answers.
The conversation quickly gets Yang's attention, "You can help with my hair if you like, Ruby," Yang says.
"Yeah…No," Ruby declines.
"What? Why not?" Yang asks.
"Because the last time I tried to help you with your hair, I almost got punched through a wall," Ruby deadpans.
"I didn't mean for my semblance to activate like that. I'm just really protective with my hair," Yang retorts.
"Yeah, we've noticed. Anyone who so much as touches one strand on your head without your permission ends up going through a wall," Blake exaggerates with a small smirk.
Yang groans, "Ugh, Weiss, Velvet, back me up here," Yang pleads.
"Don't look at me. I actually agree with your sister," Weiss replies.
"You're on your own," Velvet says as she continues combing her hair.
Yang hangs her head in defeat and plops down back on her bed.
"Actually, I just remembered. You said that comb was your younger brother's, right?" Ruby asks Velvet.
This makes Velvet stop what she's doing and look away from them.
"Yeah…" she mutters.
"Well, could you maybe tell us a little about him?" Ruby inquires as everyone looks at Velvet.
Velvet thinks for a moment, but sighs as she sees no way out of this, "His name…was Laphicet. He was some years younger than me, and was born sickly, but he had a big heart. All he wanted…was for me to be happy…And then he was killed," Velvet says as she remembers her little brother, eyes focused on her comb.
The other girls look down in sadness, now feeling uncomfortable at making Velvet bring up bad memories.
"Was…was he killed by Grimm?" Ruby asks.
"No…not by Grimm," Velvet mutters back before turning her back on them. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight," Velvet says and begins to fall asleep.
Seeing as how she was done talking, the others gave Velvet her space and retreat to their own beds. However, Ruby takes one last look at Velvet with a sad expression.
"Goodnight Velvet," she whispers and goes to sleep herself.
…
Velvet opens her eyes and once again finds herself in a white void.
"Alright, what do you want now?" Velvet asks as she looks behind her to see the woman in the white cloak again.
"I believe you have questions for me, yes?" the woman asks.
"Yeah, like why have I become weaker than back in my world?" Velvet questions her.
"Well, I told you that I tweaked a few things when I sent you here. This is another one of those things," the woman explained as if it was nothing bad.
"You decided to make me weaker. Why?" Velvet asks, starting to get angry.
"We all have to start somewhere, Velvet. For you, this second chance at life would have to be obtained at the beginning, just like everything else. Besides, I did it to help you," the woman calmly explains.
"Help me! How does that help me?" Velvet growls.
"Grimm are attracted to negativity. All the power you gained had been mainly from the demons you ate, and those demons contained a lot of negativity in them, which then ended up in you. Had you come to this world with all that, the Grimm would've been greatly attracted to you, and may even attack the school to get to you. I'm sorry, but I couldn't risk that. You may have been able to deal with them, but my daughter, her friends, and the rest of the students here would not be as lucky," the woman says. This makes Velvet ease up a little bit. "You have lived in darkness for a long time, Velvet, but now is your chance to try living in the light. Don't you think you've earned some sense of happiness after all you've been through?" she asks.
Velvet contemplates this for a moment, "After all I've done, I don't think I deserve any kind of happiness," Velvet admits.
The woman shakes her head, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. While I admit, there are those kind of people out there that don't deserve to live happy, you are not one of them. Don't be so quick to give that opportunity up," The woman encourages her.
"Hmph. That makes one of us," Velvet retorts.
The woman looks up for a moment, "It looks like it's time for me to go. We'll meet again in the future," The woman says.
"Whatever," Velvet says as things start to fade away.
"And if you still don't think you deserve happiness, I know my daughter will think otherwise," the woman says as she disappears.
…
Velvet wakes up again in her bed and sighs, "That woman is starting to really annoy me," she thinks before going back to sleep.
…
A few days later, Team RVWBY are in combat class, watching Jaune losing against Cardin Winchester. The other teammates watch with worry while Velvet rests her chin one on hand as she watches with indifference. Jaune goes for a swing with his sword, but Cardin casually ducks under it and deals a heavy swing with his mace that knocks Jaune onto the ground, losing his shield. Jaune gets up while catching his breath, and goes on the attack again, making a downward slash at Cardin. Cardin blocks the strike with his mace, and pushes Jaune back.
"This is the part where you lose," Cardin taunts him.
"Over my dead-ugh!" Jaune groans as Cardin knees him in the stomach, making him fall to the ground.
Jaune looks up as Cardin raise his mace to deal the finishing blow, but is stopped as the lights come on and a buzzer sounds off.
"That's enough," Goodwitch stops the match as she walks up. Two screens above her show Cardin with his aura level in the green, and Jaune's aura level in the red. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has now dropped into the red," She says, working on her scroll to show the results. "In a tournament styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match. Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will help you to decide when it is appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more…defensive strategy," Goodwitch explains while Jaune looks at his scroll, showing that all his teammates' aura levels are green while his is in the red. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now would we?"
"Speak for yourself," Cardin mutters as he places his mace back onto his right shoulder and leaves the stage, but not before he winks at Velvet, who rolls her eyes in response.
"Remember everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing," Glynda informs them.
Most of Team RVWBY all show various versions of excited reactions at hearing this, but Velvet continues to remain indifferent. Meanwhile, Pyrrha looks on at Jaune with concern, while Jaune can only look down in shame.
…
Sometime later, the two teams are in the cafeteria having lunch.
"So, there we were, in the middle of the night," Nora starts telling a story, trying to sound ominous.
"It was day," Ren calmly corrects her.
"We were surrounded by Ursai," Nora continues as Yang, entranced by the tale, listens in on the story while Blake, sitting on her right, is reading her own story.
"They were Beowolves," Ren corrects her again while holding a coffee mug.
"Dozens of them!" Nora shouts, causing Yang to jerk back and nod her head.
"Two of them," Ren corrects her again.
"But they were no match, and in the end, Ren and I took them down, and made a boat-load of lien selling Ursa-skin rugs," Nora finishes her story with a smile while Ruby and Pyrrha look at Jaune with worried expressions.
Ren sighs, "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now," Ren informs them.
"And you haven't lost your sanity from her because…?" Velvet asks.
"You get used to it…Eventually," Ren replies while taking a sip of his drink.
Velvet then looks at Jaune, "So, what's got you all down in the dumps?" she asks.
"Huh? Oh, nothing. I'm fine?" Jaune replies, not paying attention.
"Jaune, are you sure you're alright?" Pyrrha asks, concerned.
"What? Yeah, I'm just fine. Look," Jaune tries to show a confident smile, but it backfires.
"Very convincing," Velvet sarcastically replies, not buying it.
They then hear some noise behind them and look to see Team CRDL surrounding a girl with rabbit ears.
"Isn't that…?" Velvet wonders to herself.
"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school," Pyrrha says.
"What, Cardin Winchester? No, he just likes practical jokes," Jaune waves it off.
"He's a bully," Ruby corrects him.
"He's an idiot," Velvet adds.
"Oh come on. Name one time he's 'bullied' me," Jaune says.
"Knocking books out of your hands. Getting your shield stuck in a doorway. Pushing you into a rocket-propelled locker and sending you flying to who-knows-where…Shall I continue?" Velvet lists off, looking unamused.
"Not helping, Velvet. Besides, it's not like I landed far from the school," Jaune tries to defend himself.
"Jaune, if you ever need help, you can just ask us," Pyrrha says.
Nora then jumps up, "Ooh, we'll break his legs!" Nora suggests, showing a crazy smile.
"That's tempting," Velvet notes.
"Guys, I'm fine. Besides, he's not just a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone," Jaune retorts as he stands up.
Hearing more noise behind them, they all look back again to see Cardin pulling on one of Velvet Scarlatina's ears and the whole team laughing at her.
"I've had about enough of this," Velvet mutters and stands up to walk over to their table. When she gets close, she ends up behind Cardin. "Hey, what's going on here?" she asks.
Cardin turns around and after seeing Velvet, releases the other Velvet's ear to focus on the newcomer.
"Well, hey there, hot stuff. Finally decided that you couldn't resist my charm anymore, huh," Cardin flirts with her, but that only has the opposite effect.
Velvet groans and rolls her eyes, "I don't waste my time on apes like you. I'll only say this once: leave the girl alone," Velvet tells them.
This immediately makes Cardin lose his smug demeanor, "What? Don't tell me you actually care about this animal? They're all freaks that don't deserve to be here. Why should anyone care about what happens to them?" Cardin retorts.
A second later, Cardin finds his head in the vice-like grip of Velvet's demon arm and struggles to get free. His teammates try to come to his aid, but Velvet points her gauntlet blade at them, making them halt their advance.
Velvet looks back at Cardin, "Maybe, you didn't hear me. I said you're done bullying this girl, so leave her alone and get out of here. NOW," Velvet demands as she tightens her grip.
Cardin squirms in her grip, but she quickly hears what sounds like an "okay" from him and throws him at his teammates while the other Velvet runs behind Velvet. The four boys slowly get up and look like they're about to attack, but Velvet summons some fire in her demon arm, making them reconsider and so they run out of the cafeteria. Seeing that they're gone, Velvet releases her demon arm and her arm blade.
"Um, thank you for helping me," she hears behind her and looks back at the Faunus girl. "Not many people would help those like me, so thanks. Why did you anyway?" she ask.
"I didn't like it. That's all," Velvet answers.
"But, I'm a Faunus. Not many people like us," the other Velvet says.
"Makes no difference to me," Velvet nonchalantly replies. "Besides, if anything, you're more human than I can ever be."
This makes the other Velvet smile, "Well, thanks again," she thanks her.
Velvet just walks off back to her seat, and as she sits down, she notices everyone looking at her.
"What?" she asks.
"Oh, nothing. We just thought that was very cool what you did. Not many people stand up for Faunus, so seeing you do just that was pretty awesome. You really are a nice person, Velvet," Ruby praises her with the rest nodding in agreement.
"I doubt that," Velvet replies, but then looks at Jaune. "Someone here has to have some guts," she says, directing it at him.
Jaune looks away and leaves the table while the rest, except for Velvet, watch with worry.
Now Velvet has started to reveal her past to her team, and got to meet Velvet Scarlatina (wow that was a little complicated for me to write). The woman has apparently done q few things to Velvet before she came here. What else has she done? And what else awaits Velvet in the future? Please Read and Review.