Here we are at Chapter 47. Things may start to get dark from here on in like in Volume 3, so I'm warning you in advance. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 47. Enjoy.

Chapter 47: Destiny

Velvet sits on the ledge of her dorm building, looking out as the sun begins to set out in the horizon, with a few things on her mind.

"There is no doubt that that was an illusion. Nowhere near as powerful as the one I had faced back in my world, but still enough for me to tell that it was fake. But still, that begs the question of how it happened. I doubt it was Mercury. Even if he is an idiot and I don't like him, I highly doubt he would have a semblance like that. There is also the fact that I reduced his aura to zero at the end of the match. A semblance comes from a person's aura, and without the latter, the former cannot be used. Then there is the question of why someone would cause me to see an illusion of Mercury attacking me. Were they trying to get some reaction out of me? Something is going on here, and I need to find out what it is," Velvet thinks before standing up.

However, a black and red portal suddenly appears behind her, and she tenses up as a woman walks through it. The same woman she saw on the train from Mountain Glenn. Yang's mother.

"What the Hell are YOU doing here?!" Velvet demands, knowing not to trust her one damn bit.

"What, I can't congratulate my daughter's friend on her victory in the first match of the finals?" The woman playfully asks and then she takes off her mask.

Velvet gets a chance to see her face, and the resemblance is uncanny. She looks just like an older version of Yang, except with red eyes and black hair.

"Enough games, why are you here? I highly doubt it's to see your daughter. After all, you haven't once talked to her in seventeen years, her whole life! Who do you think you are to just show up like this without seeing her at all" Velvet growls.

Raven loses her playful demeanor and gets more serious, "First of all, my name is Raven and I am Yang's mother. Second of all, I saved her back on the train-," Raven begins.

"Once, and that was it. That was the only time you were anywhere near her. It means little in this case," Velvet interrupts her.

"Yang is my daughter, and she's a big girl. She can take care of herself…most of the time," Raven notes.

"Get to the point. Why are you here?" Velvet's patience is quickly wearing thin with raven.

"I told you, you interest me, which is why I came to knock some sense into you. You have no idea what's really going on around here. The true dangers that wait outside the kingdom's walls. This school will not last forever, and that fool Ozpin will soon fail in his impossible mission to protect the world," Raven explains.

Velvet narrows her eyes, "Are you talking about the Maidens?" Velvet asks.

Raven actually smirks a little at this, "Ah, so he told you too. I figured he would. Guess I'm not the only one who has taken an interest in you," Raven notes.

"I am well aware. The Fall Maiden was attacked and part of her power was stolen, and now he wants to try and transfer the other half of that power to a friend of mine. Believe me, I'm not exactly a fan of his idea right now," Velvet retorts.

"That's why I want you to come with me…" Raven begins, stunning Velvet. "This school will soon fall. Ozpin will soon fail. But, you don't have to be a part of that. If you come with me, you can be free from all of this nonsense and do the smart thing by surviving. There is no shame in that. I can protect you, and you can protect my people. Unlike everyone else here, you are strong. Your powers would be put to actual good use there, and not have to be someone's pawn here. You should do what is best for yourself," Raven offers.

Velvet glances down, her bangs covering her eyes and her body eases its tension. Just as Raven is about to think that she got through to the girl, a shot suddenly rings out. She glances back to see a bullet lodged into the wall behind her, and then looks back forward to see Velvet, eyes full of steel and her gauntlet aimed right at her, the bullet a couple inches off her skull.

"If you think I would ever abandon the people I care about, then you are DEAD wrong. I won't leave them behind like you left Yang behind. More importantly, I won't abandon Ruby. I will protect her with my life," Velvet declares.

Raven grunts, "If that's the case, what would you say if I said that you can bring your little girlfriend with you. She'll be safer with my people and I then she ever could be here," Raven offers.

"I'd say screw you. I know Ruby, and she will never turn her back on her friends, her family. Unlike you. So you can take your offer and shove it," Velvet spitefully declines.

Raven sighs, hands on her hips, "Then I guess you're just as foolish as my brother, Qrow, and everyone else here. Don't come crying to me when things don't turn out the way you hope they will," Raven says and swings her sword to create a portal behind her.

"What about Yang? She still deserves answers from you," Velvet asks before she can leave.

"If she wants answer, then she'll have to come find them herself," Raven says before entering the portal and then it closes.

Velvet lowers her gauntlet and sighs, "Things never get easy for me, do they?" she mutters.

…

Meanwhile, Pyrrha sits up against a wall outside the cafeteria, with a lot on her mind.

"What should I do? I want to help Ozpin, but…is it worth losing who I am? Worth losing everything I strived for? Everything I care about? Oh, I just don't know what to do," Pyrrha thinks as cool breeze flows by, making a leaf fall at her feet. Pyrrha looks at the leaf with a worried expression, thinking about the Fall Maiden, Amber.

"Hey," she hears and looks up to see Jaune with some cotton candy in his right hand. "It's no green goo, but I think it still might do some good," he says, offering the cotton candy to her.

Pyrrha grabs it, "Um, right. Thank you Jaune," she says, faking some joy from his gesture.

Jaune notices and becomes concerned, but then looks left when he sees Nora and Ren, with the latter carrying several snacks in his hands. Nora notices Jaune and Pyrrha before him, and quickly decides to give them some space.

"Uh, come on Ren. Let's go back to the fairgrounds. I'll need another stuffed animal," Nora says as she pulls Ren away by the arm.

Seeing them leave, Jaune sit next to Pyrrha, "You were the first person to ever believe in me, you know that? Even when I told my parents I was going to Beacon, they told me not to worry if I ended up having to move back home. How depressing is that?" he says.

"I'm sure they didn't mean-," Pyrrha then gasps, dropping her cotton candy when Jaune puts his left hand on top of Pyrrha's right hand, stunning her.

"I guess, I'm just trying to say that…You've always been there for me. Even when I was a total jerk to you and I didn't deserve your support. And I can tell there's something on your mind so…I don't know…How can I help?" he asks, trying to be helpful.

Pyrrha smiles genuinely from his kindness and lays her head on his shoulder, making Jaune bolt up a little bit, surprised.

"You're already doing it," she says, closing her eyes, as Jaune smiles back. They remain like this for a moment until another breeze blows by, and Pyrrha slowly loses her smile. "Jaune…" she begins as she opens her eyes and lifts her head.

"Hm?" he hums as he looks at her.

Pyrrha moves her hand away from his, "I don't know what to do," she confesses sadly.

"W-what do you mean?" he asks, confused.

Pyrrha looks up, "Do you believe in destiny?" she asks as she looks at him.

"Um…I-I don't know. I guess it depends on how you view it," he replies, not understanding what she's really asking.

"When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather, some sort of final goal. Something you work towards in your entire life," Pyrrha explains.

"Okay, uh, yeah. I can see that, sure," Jaune says.

"Well, what would you do if something came along that you never expected? Something that had the potential to stand between you and your destiny," Pyrrha asks.

"Like what?" Jaune asks.

"Or what if you could suddenly fulfill your destiny in an instant, but at the cost of who you were?" Pyrrha says, starting to lose her cool.

"Pyrrha, you're not making any sense," Jaune says as he tries to comfort her, but she stands up.

"None of it makes sense! This isn't how things were supposed to happen!" Pyrrha cries as she crosses her arms and walks a few feet away from him.

Jaune stands up, "I'm sorry. Please, I-I'm just trying to understand what's wrong," Jaune says.

"I've always felt as though I was destined to become a huntress. To protect the world…And it's become increasingly clear to me that my feelings were right. But…" Pyrrha begins, turning back to look at Jaune. "I don't know if I can do it," Pyrrha admits.

"Of course you can. The Pyrrha Nikos I know would never back down from a challenge. And if you really believe it's your destiny to save the world, you can't let anything stand in your way," Jaune tries to support her. However, this only makes her turmoil worse as tears form in her eyes. "Pyrrha?" Jaune asks, worried.

"Stop," she quietly pleads.

"Did I say something wrong?" Jaune asks as he walks up and reaches for her.

"STOP!" Pyrrha shouts, moving her right hand and accidently using her semblance of polarity on Jaune's armor, sending him smashing into the wall behind him. Pyrrha looks up and freaks out, "Jaune!" she cries, deactivating her semblance, making Jaune fall down onto the ground. Jaune gets back to his hands and knees and looks up at her. "I'm…I'm sorry," she cries.

"Pyrrha wait!" Jaune shouts, but she runs away from him. "…What did I say?" he asks himself.

As Pyrrha is running, she bumps into Velvet.

"Pyrrha, what's wrong?" Velvet asks as she runs by her. She then looks back to find Jaune on the ground. "Jaune, what happened?" she asks.

"I don't know. Pyrrha was talking about destiny and losing who she is, and I was trying to be supportive, but…I think I just made things worse," Jaune says as he sits back down, sad.

"What did you says?" Velvet asks.

"I said that if she believes that it's her destiny to save the world, then she shouldn't let anything stand in her way and go for it. After I said it though, she just started crying. What did I do wrong?!" Jaune yells.

Velvet thinks and quickly figures out what's wrong, "No, you didn't do anything wrong, Jaune. Not you anyway," Velvet says, muttering the last part to herself. "I'll go find Pyrrha. I'll see what I can do," Velvet says and before Jaune can make a reply, she is already running to catch up to Pyrrha. "It's obvious what the problem is. Pyrrha has been thinking about Ozpin's proposal and now it's ripping it up inside her. She wants to help, but she's afraid of losing who she is and losing the people she cares about. Damn you Ozpin…" she thinks to herself as she runs towards the school courtyard to find Pyrrha.

Velvet looks around, but can't seem to find the red-head. However, when she notices one airship taking off from the landing platform, she gets a quick glance of Pyrrha from one of the windows.

"Damn it, looks like she's heading to the arena. I swear when I get my hands on Ozpin for this…" she mutters.

"Hey, Velvet!" she hears from the side and looks over to see Ruby walking over to her.

"Ruby, what's up?" Velvet asks.

"I've been looking for you. Weiss and Blake went off to the fairgrounds for coffee and tea, and Yang wanted to rest up with Zwei in the dorm. I wanted to go watch some more fights, but I didn't really feel like going alone, so…would you be willing to go with me?" Ruby asks, hands clasped behind her back.

"If I go with her, I can hopefully find Pyrrha and spend a little time with Ruby as well," Velvet thinks. "Sure, why not," Velvet says and offers her arm to Ruby, who happily takes it.

They walk towards the next airship set to head to the coliseum, but then they notice a flash nearby and look to see Velvet (not this craziness again), taking pictures of Sun with his gun-chucks. Curious, they walk over to see what's going on. Once they get close enough, Velvet notices them and turns around after a few more pictures.

"Velvet, Ruby, how are you two doing?" she happily greets them.

"Hey, Velvet," Ruby replies while Velvet just nods to her.

"Congratulations on your victory Velvet. I knew you could do it," Velvet says.

"Thanks. So, what are you doing?" Velvet asks.

"Oh, just working on my photography. Wanna take a look?" Velvet asks as she shows them a picture of Sun's weapon, without his face in the frame.

"Huh, looks…better," Ruby says, trying to be polite.

"Well, she did tell me that she likes to take pictures of people with their weapons, but I didn't think it was like this," Velvet thinks, keeping her thoughts to herself. "So, how's Coco? I bet it must be hard that your team didn't make it to the finals," Velvet asks.

"Yeah, she's okay. She is still a little freaked out about what happened during her match with Yatsuhashi in the doubles round," Velvet says.

"What happened?" Ruby asks.

"Most people don't know what it's like on the battlefield. I mean, even experienced fighters can get scared and start seeing things. If it can happen to Coco, it can happen to anyone," Velvet says.

"Wait, Coco? What happened to her?" Velvet asks.

"Yeah, she swore she saw Yatsu with her, in the forest during the fight with Emerald and Mercury, but HE never even made it out of the geyser fields. Stress-induced hallucinations, apparently," Velvet explains, while Velvet starts thinking.

"Seeing things that weren't really there. Just like in my match with Mercury…And Emerald is his partner…That can't be a coincidence," Velvet thinks. However, a sudden flash gets their attention and the couple looks to see Velvet with her camera up. "What was that for?" she asks.

"Oh sorry, I just thought that you two look like a really cute couple, so I couldn't resist taking a picture of you two together," Velvet says.

After dealing with Velvet, Velvet and Ruby board the next airship to the coliseum. Once they get there, they find their seats, but Velvet gets second thoughts.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to go find Pyrrha," Velvet says.

"What for?" Ruby asks.

"Just to offer some words of advice. I did win my match after all," Velvet plays it off.

"Oh, okay. Well, don't take too long, okay," Ruby replies.

"Got it," Velvet says and walks off. She walks around to the inside and the back of the arena where the contestants are usually staying at as they await to be called for their match. Eventually, she finds Pyrrha all alone, and not looking any better. "Pyrrha!" she calls out.

Pyrrha turns to her, a little surprised, "Velvet, what are you doing here?" she asks.

"Trying to figure out what happened between you and Jaune earlier," Velvet asks.

"It's…fine…Everything's fine," Pyrrha lies unconvincingly.

"That's a load of crap and you know it. This is about what Ozpin told you, isn't it. About his proposal. Don't lie to me, Pyrrha. You suck at it," Velvet says.

Pyrrha sighs, "I don't know what to do. I want to help, but I don't know if it's worth losing who I am. Losing the people I care about…Velvet, what should I do?" Pyrrha pleads with her.

Velvet looks down and thinks for a moment before looking back at her, "That's something only you can answer. However, just know that no matter what happens, you can't let fear and hesitation hold you back. I've got your back, and so does Jaune. Never forget that. For now, just focus on your next fight. You can worry about all this Maiden stuff afterward, okay?" Velvet says.

"…Okay…" Pyrrha says, though she doesn't sound too convinced.

"Go on and kick some butt. Ruby and I will be cheering you on from the stands along with the rest of your team. You're not alone in this Pyrrha…I'll see you later," Velvet says and waves to Pyrrha as the latter leaves.

Velvet then starts to head back to the stands, until…

"Aw, isn't that sweet," she hears a female voice say, only for Cinder to suddenly walk up in front of her, blocking her way. "It's almost a shame it will end so soon," she says.

"Cinder…what are you talking about?" Velvet asks, already on edge.

But then, she hears the announcements come on, "Ladies and gentlemen, our next match will be…Penny Polendina from Atlas, vs…Pyrrha Nikos from Beacon," she hears.

Velvet thinks for a moment, and then her eyes widen, "No…" she mutters in realization.

"Oh, a polarity semblance against a body metal. That doesn't sound so good to me," Cinder says, all with a sick smirk on her face before she conjures up her swords in her hands.

"…Pyrrha, Penny…Ruby…" are all Velvet can think about right now.

And that's the chapter. Since the others were busy, I had to use someone to hold off Velvet. Some people may hate me for this, but it's something I got to do. I have some plans for the future of my story, including a possible CHIBI version of it. Will Velvet get passed Cinder and save her friends? Until then, please and Review.