This chapter is dedicated to Tom Wilson.

I found the girl where I expected her to.
She sat all the way in the back of the classroom, on her own. Not even her teammates got near her, it seemed. What scum of the earth.

Hesitantly, I set down the notes she dropped back in the hallway, on her desk.

"Uh, here. You forgot these," I said.
She ignored me, or maybe she didn't even notice me. Either way, she sat hunched over, trembling as she tightly interlocked her fingers on her lap.
There were about a thousand things I wanted to tell her, at that moment. An infinite amount of words did I want to say to make her feel better... yet the melancholy of the situation was that I didn't.

This wasn't the time, nor the place. Pressured by the stares of half the class, and without reason to awkwardly stand beside her, I went over to my own seat, keeping about a thousand words safe in the pocket of my heart. I'll keep them with me, for now. As much as I anticipate saying them, I'll keep them hidden away until the time is right.
Just for her, the brown haired girl, haha. It's silly when I think about it, but it means something to me.

"What the hell was that about?" my team leader asked when I sat down beside him, more out of habit than out of a desire to.
"Nothing, nothing," I brushed him off. He'd made it clear he wasn't going to sympathize with my feelings earlier, so I sure as hell wasn't going to bother explaining the situation now.
With raised eyebrows he said,
"Ok, whatever," and that was that.
Even if either of us wanted to, there was no time to say anything more, as the teacher started his lecture right away.

That period, my thoughts were mostly about the girl who sat not so far behind me.
Despite that, I managed to pick up on an interesting exchange, as I was more alert in Oobleck's classes than anyone else's. History of Remnant was something I was extremely interested in.
Oobleck was telling us about the battle for Fort Castle- an important turning point in the faunus war for liberation (which is something I only learned about recently. The more I learn at Beacon, the more annoyed I get at how little my previous school actually taught us.)
Now, I wouldn't relay this to you, if it wasn't for the previously mentioned, very, very interesting factoid that the professor told brought to my attention.
I remembered it very well, and ever since he talked about it, I started paying even more attention to his classes.

"Jaune," Oobleck said, "can you tell me what gave general Lagune and the faunus he commanded the upper hand in the battle for Fort Castle?"
The boy in question, who I think had been sleeping up till now, gave the puzzling answer that the faunus possessed binoculars, and that's why they won.
"No," Oobleck chattered, "that's not it at all, no. Say, can anyone else tell me?"
"They had night vision," a girl said, "faunus have night vision. The humans tried to ambush the faunus at night, but it backfired on them."
"Very good, very good! Indeed, faunus can see in the night. Say, what was your name again?"

"Blake."
"Tell me Blake, how did you learn about the night vision of faunus?"
"I... just read it somewhere."
"Very well. Reading is never a waste of time. Now, moving on. After the battle of Fort Castle turned the war in favor of the faunus, it quickly became clear that-..."
The girl who had correctly answered Oobleck's question, was part of team RWBY, if I recall correctly. I had never paid her any mind, as she was very reluctant to even speak to her own team mates, let alone me. However, her knowledge of faunus intrigued me, almost as much as the faunus' ability of night vision intrigued me.
She seemed to be interested in the faunus at the very least. Maybe I can ask her for help, if my attempts to get closer to the brown haired girl turn out to be futile.
Some assistance wouldn't be bad at all, especially not from someone who knew more about the faunus.

For in the end, my plan of approaching her was not thought out in the least.
The words of the faunus girl still swirled around inside my head, even after a day, and I didn't know what to do with them.
My complete lack of a battle plan was mainly to blame on the time constraint- I didn't have the time to think about it. A measly period of 24 hours was not enough to tackle a problem as big as this one.
I could spend days and nights on end, thinking about how to handle a situation like this, a situation I never had to deal with in my entire life.
It's very exciting to entertain the thought that you, as a person, would go and do something good, but it really begs the question: what exactly is it that you'll do?

Turns out though, that to my fortune, or rather, misfortune, it didn't need to know the answer.
I didn't need a plan ready to approach her. From the moment I left Oobleck's classroom, and decided to change my gear in the, as far as I knew, empty locker room, my fate was solidified in stone. The pieces of a puzzle I hardly knew existed all fell into place perfectly.
So perfectly in fact, that it was almost uncanny.
Now that I think about it, I must've sensed something was off the moment my fellow students and I passed by the locker rooms. I must've heard shouting coming from beyond the wall and I must've used my gear as an excuse to slip away from my friends. Yes, that must be it, right?

I'm saying this as if I'm happy about what happened, but trust me, I fucking hated every second of it.

He pushed her against the locker, her soft body against the cold, hard steel.
His hand firmly planted on her chest, his friends circling the both of them like hyenas. Her breath was slow, his weight on her lungs making it hard for her to breathe.
They were alone, team CRDL had trapped her in the locker room. This rectangular, dreary place with locker lined walls was the stage that had been set.

"Come on, give it up," he said.

"No..."
"What was that?"
"No...," she said, and squeezed her eyes tight shut, "I'm not giving you my money anymore. I- I need it too... so- so please... I-"
Her words cut short when he slammed his fist against the locker, missing her face by an inch.

It was Cardin who threatened her, of course. Why not? Who else could it be, who else would gang up on a girl to steal her lunch money.

"Bullshit. What the hell do you need it for? You're an animal for fuck's sake, what the fuck would you ever want to buy?"
"Uh-uhm... food, and, uhm-"
Cardin slammed his fist into the locker again, and she went completely silent.
He inhaled, exhaled, and with a sigh, he started to talk very matter-of-factly.
"Look, I don't think you get it. That's not your money. It's mine," he said, while rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I'm a retard? That's what you're thinking, isn't it?"
"No! I don't think that at all, I-"
"Because I think," he continued, "I think you're lying to me. You don't need to buy food at all. You're trying to keep my money to yourself. You think I'm stupid, don't you? You think, that I don't know, that you fucking faunus can just go outside and munch on the fucking grass? Go outside, there's your fucking food!"

Cardin accentuated each syllable of his last sentence with a punch to the locker, punctuating the final one with a punch directly to her face.

His fist hit hard. Blood spurt from her nose, and she cried out, in pain.
Her knees shook, then buckled, and if Cardin hadn't held her pinned to the locker, she would've sank to the ground.
He grabbed her by the chin, her blood flowing over his hand.
"Now, I'll tell you again. Give me my money."
Against all odds, she shook her head. No, she would not give it up. She would not give in.
Cardin sighed, like he did before, and shook his head.
"You leave me no choice, you know that? I try to be reasonable, and you just fuck it up for yourself. I don't even want to do this, but you know how it is. A disobedient pet needs to be punished."

From his pocket, he slowly drew a weapon. A small switchblade, flashing as he flipped it open.

That's the point where I come in, just in time to see Cardin take out a knife.
He intended to stab her, that much was clear. And I wouldn't let him. Whatever gears spun in my brain, they worked overtime. As soon as I saw the horrific tableau before me, I knew what to do.

I dropped my schoolbag the same way I shed off my fear, and charged forwards.
In some adrenaline fueled state of hyper awareness, I could see every little detail of the scene as I closed in on it.
I saw Cardin's face, contorted in a sneer, a mix of anger and excitement. I saw the girl, gasping for air, her fingers spread out with her hands pressed to the locker, the approaching knife reflected in her eyes.

If I had entered the locker room only a second too late, I couldn't have stopped him. I couldn't have jumped towards him, and grabbed him by his wrist. I couldn't have, amongst the yelling of his friends, hoisted him over my back, and slammed him into the ground. Most of all, I couldn't have prevented the knife from scarring the girl's innocent face. Thank god I was on time.

I didn't get a second's rest, though. Something hard hit me in the side of the head, at about the same time as Cardin hit the tiled floor, and instantly my eyesight was gone, as was my balance. Seeing only a bright white, not knowing which way was up, the force of the blow almost launched me away.
It must've been one of Cardin's friends, who hit me in the head.

Now, I've been mauled by many grimm, all throughout my life. Claws, fangs, spikes, scales, and more, all have injured me. It's funny how my past experiences with them could never even come close to giving me the pain that I experienced, after my head smacked on the ground.
The only bright side of this is that, like whacking an old TV, it gave me my vision back, albeit dotted with stars.

I won't indulge in the beating that I received from Cardin's underlings (which they were at this point- underlings to a cruel dictator).
Instead I'll just tell you that the amount of times I felt their fists and feet impact my body started to reach an uncountable number.
I felt it- the pain- all too clearly, but what really interested me during my time spent as a human punching bag, was that the girl made no attempts to escape. Cardin was out of commission for now, and his team members were busy with me. She had ample time to make a run for it, yet she didn't.
As if some intrinsic force held her back, she stayed still, pressed against the locker.

"Alright, alright, that's enough, you can stop now," Cardin said, once he got back up, prompting the CRDL members to leave me alone, bleeding and with a few broken fingers.
"You guys," Cardin referred to his team members, "go outside and keep an eye out. Make sure nobody gets in."
The three young men obliged, but not without giving me a few kicks before leaving.
The room's door closed with an ominous slam, and with that, the three of us were alone.

"Well, well, well. Do you think you're cool? Do you think you're a hero? If you do, you're wrong. You're an idiot. You would've done better to stay away from us. To stay away from her," Cardin said to me.
He stood over me, looking down.
If I could've, I would've socked him. But, and this is something that came with a wave of uneasiness, I noticed that I was unable to move my body. I was numb all over, I couldn't even feel my face.
Complete immobility was the only thing stopping me, frankly, as my fighting spirit certainly was there. My soul was on fire, frustrated that I could do nothing but watch as Cardin carried out his desires.

"I guess you're an idiot. Or you're brainwashed. Do you really think it's worth to protect a faunus?" he shrugged, "What are you, retarded? Get a grip, you waste of space."
He spat on me, and turned to the girl.

"And you, look at what you've done. Look at the trouble you've put this kid in," he pointed at me, "this fine human had to get hurt to protect you. You realize how great of a crime that is, right? You realize how many fucking rules you have broken, how insanely guilty you are, in my book, in the book of humanity? Your filthy race causes nothing but trouble. It'd be best if you all just fucking died... but who would we put to work in the mines, then? You're only still alive because we let you live. Don't think you faunus won the war. You didn't. We simply let you win, because unlike faunus, we humans are actually capable of sympathy, of altruism. If it wasn't for us, you'd still be digging in the dirt for food, and killing each other in petty tribal disputes. We humans pulled you into the modern age.
We've done so much, and this is how you repay us?"
Cardin inhaled through his nose, closed his eyes, and exhaled through his teeth.

"Well... I'm willing to let it slide. We're altruistic, after all, aren't we? Us humans. I'm a nice guy, so instead of giving you a punishment, I'll reward you! How's that? What do you think of that, huh? Nice of me, isn't it? Are you glad?"

Cardin asked, and tugged her ear to get her attention.

She only shrank away from him, much to his annoyance.
"Hey," he said, "I'm being nice here, so you be nice too, and answer me. Now, tell me, aren't you glad?"
"Y-yes, I-I'm glad..."
"Yeah, see? There we go! Of course you're glad, because I'm going to be helping you," Cardin cheered, with a mad glint in his eyes, "I'm giving you a chance to be more like us. Sound good, or what? You'll almost be a human. I mean, obviously you won't actually be human like me, but at least you can pretend you are. All that is needed, is a small surgical procedure, but of course you don't mind that."

He brought the knife to her ear, which he was still holding on to.

"All we have to do, is get rid of your ears. What a simple solution! I can't believe nobody has ever thought about that. That way, nobody will have to look at them and feel disgusted, and you won't have to feel as ashamed about appearing in public. It's a win-win situation for all of us, isn't it? And it's all completely free! You won't have to pay me for it. In fact, I won't even expect any thanks. You know why? I'm doing this from the good of my heart, that's why."

He grinned, as if he told an extremely funny joke, and turned to me.
"You might wanna close your eyes," he said, "this could get a little messy."

That was all he had to say, it seemed, as he pushed the girl to her knees, and crouched down next to her.
"Now, hold still, okay? This requires a bit of effort. Don't be scared. The more you cooperate, the quicker this will be over," he said.
Quietly chuckling to himself, he got to work.

His knife got closer and closer to her, but she didn't scream. The only sign of emotion she showed, were the tears streaming down her face. While she had resisted Cardin earlier, she now simply looked away. She had been completely overtaken by some sort of twisted complacency, by which all the fight had left her, getting replaced by an acceptance of fate without trying to change it.

Well, I wasn't going to let it happen. Fate will change, I'll force it to. This was no time for conversation. This was no time for thought. The time had run out, for both me and the girl.

This was time for action.

Mustering all the power I had left in my body, collected by sheer willpower, I strained to make myself move. It didn't matter that my face was bleeding. It didn't matter that I couldn't feel my legs.

It didn't matter my head was spinning to the point where I couldn't see anymore.

None of that mattered in the face of this otherworldly cruelty.

As every limb was screaming at me to stop moving, I did anyway. I shot up, as quick as I could, and ran towards Cardin.

He didn't even notice me. That dumb fuck didn't even notice me, when I kicked him in the fucking head. He was so obsessed with harming the girl that his surroundings were completely drowned out.

With a dull thud, the nose of my boot impacted his temple, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Then, in one fluid motion, without hesitating for a second, I grabbed the girl by her wrist, and pulled her up to her feet.
"Wha-"

"Come on! Let's get out of here before his friends come after us!" I said, and ran for it, the girl stumbling after me.

We ran, as fast as we could, in no discernible direction. Through the hallways of Beacon, bumping into students without a care. All we wanted was to get the hell away from Cardin, that fucking psychopath. God knows what he'd do if he caught up with us. It's clear his mind had departed from all rational thought, and that absolute malice was his sole driving force.

While we were running, I can't point out the exact moment, I released her wrist. Holding it while we ran was awkward, and only hindered us.

That's why, when after I let her go, I was surprised that she slid her hand in mine.
"We're going the wrong way!" she yelled at me, and I felt her tug on my hand, "if we go back a little, there's a place we can hide! Follow me!"
I gladly accepted her offer.
Our roles were reversed, as she led me back through a corridor, through a set of doors I never noticed, and up a ridiculously long spiral staircase.

Scarlet fever.
An infectious disease, that among other things, causes paranoia and hallucinations.
A disease so dangerous, it requires everything around the patient to be burned, so it can't spread.
If untreated, it can lead to death.

That's what this was, this hatred. It was like a disease, spreading over the world. Just as infectious, and just as dangerous.

And in Cardin's case, well, the illness had gone terminal.

We reached the summit of the staircase sooner than I thought, as we were still running as fast as we could.
Before I knew it, we both stumbled into a small, round room. I think it was situated at the top of one of Beacons many towers. Its walls were lined with benches, and the arched windows set into the walls gave an almost 360 degree look over Beacon and its grounds, while also letting in ample amount of sunlight.

She sat down, facing the sun, letting the light play on her face, and I sat down across from her. Both of us were panting, after having ran so much.

"Wow..." I said after a while, after my heart had settled down a bit, "I can't believe that happened. How do you feel?"

She looked at me, but didn't respond.

"Uh, you know what... never mind," There was a small, but very present, awkward silence between us.
"Uh, what's your name?" I tried.

"Velvet."

Velvet. One of the softest materials. What a great name, and how oddly appropriate too.

"How long has Cardin been doing shit like this to you, Velvet?" I asked.
She used her sleeve to wipe off the blood from her face, before she answered.
"He always has. Ever since I came here, he's been doing this..."

Goddamn.

It took a moment for me to think about that. It took a moment for me to process that there were people like Cardin in the world, who would do what he did without showing an ounce of remorse.

This is the moment, the time and the place. I'll say what I want to say.

"Listen to me. From now on, it will be over. I'm going to help you, okay? You don't deserve this... you don't deserve any of this. I- I'll make sure he'll never even look at you again. I'm- I'm going to make sure you're happy."

She furrowed her brow, when hearing that.
"Why... why would you do that for me?" she asked.

Come on, why do you have to ask me such a simple question.
The answer is obvious, isn't it?
"Because if you're happy, I'm happy."

Ha. I can't believe I said it. I don't know where I got the courage from.
Maybe I could say it so easily because the truth is the easiest to speak. And that's exactly what it was- the truth.

Though I might have been too up front. Now she's just blushing furiously.

"And besides," I said, not afraid to double down on the saccharine words now that I had nothing to lose anyway, "you deserve to be happy, most of all. I can't stand to watch what happens to you. I can choose to do nothing, but that choice will end up killing me inside. I can't- I can't look at you, and not see someone who deserves happiness, and, and I want to give it to you."

Just as I thought her face could not get any more red, it did. Suffice to say, my complexion wasn't exactly pale anymore either- as saying those things, and having her hear them, were both far beyond my comfort zone, so I too was sitting there rubicund and nervous.

"I... Appreciate that you say that but... I- I don't get it... I don't-" she said. It seemed as if she wanted to say more, but couldn't.

This was a problem.
I had sent my feelings out into the great unknown, where they would spin out of control until someone picked them up.
Velvet did so, as far as I can tell, though reluctantly, as she fidgeted with the edge of her dress, reluctant to look at me.
Ah, yes, my carefully aimed feelings hit their target, and found themselves in possession of the girl I tried to reach.
But, and this is one of the greatest tragedies in life, just because a message is received, doesn't mean it is understood.

She stood, I imagine, in the middle of an empty wasteland, surrounded by nothingness, clutching in one hand a tear soaked letter with my half baked words on it. Unsure what it meant, clueless as to what to do with it.

"You're being nice to me... but... I don't understand. I don't understand- what makes you say these things? What made you want to get hurt, just for me? I don't understand."

Oh man. In these past few weeks, she must've been grinded down to such an extent, even the concept of sympathy was a foreign one to her. Her spirit turned malleable, molded from a happy person into an empty shell, with glazed eyes as if the life was sucked out of them.
She had lost the ability to love herself, and with that, the ability to understand why people might like her- which to me, is the most horrific thing that can happen to a person.

It only served to fuel my anger for Cardin, and anyone who was heartless enough to change people in such a way.

I had to make her accept me. If she didn't, it would be over. She'd continue down a spiral of despair, and I fear what would happen if she reached the bottom of it.
With all my efforts, I tried to reach out to her.

"There's a lot of things I don't understand, you know," I said, "And out of all those things, I don't understand why anyone would do this to you the least."

She remained quiet.

"But you know what? Fuck understanding them. Cardin's, or anyone else's reasoning doesn't matter. We don't have to busy ourselves with delving into their fucked minds to understand whatever they're thinking. We can only accept them, or do something about them, even if they don't make a lick of sense. So, please, just accept that I want to help you without asking why, even though it's obvious to me why I would."

Whew. Some more things I never expected to say.
For the first time, she gave a genuine response.
"Accept you... Well... It's not like I don't want to but I just... It's so strange that someone would be nice to me, after all this time. I really do want to... accept you and everything... but I'm afraid. I'm afraid you too will hurt me if I open up. I don't know if I can trust you."

So she's scared. Well, I understand that. She's locked herself away, and I don't have the key.
She told me what I wanted her to tell me anyway. In between words, she sniffed as she spoke.

"What you say scares me... The thought of being happy, too. I'm used to feeling terrible... You know, I thought- I thought coming to Beacon was going to be fun... I thought I'd make friends and- and just be happy... But that never happened. When I came here I was excited, I was glad, and I was looking forward to studying here so much and, now, it's just..."
She stopped for a second, to swallow something- tears presumably, and continued.
"I'm stupid for thinking that I could be happy. I just feel sad all of the time, I feel sad when I wake up, and I feel sad when I go to sleep. I'm scared of going to class, I'm scared of going to lunch, I'm scared to talk to people, and I'm scared when someone even looks at me... I'm scared... but I don't want to be scared! I never wanted any of this! I didn't ask to be born this way! I wish I was normal... I wish... I wish I could just curl up and- and cry, and never stop crying..."

She buried her face in her hands, and to be honest, I wanted to do the same. The way she thought about herself, the way her self esteem was crushed to nothing- it tore apart my heartstrings. I had to help her. I had to make her feel good again. It would be a long process and maybe it will never be okay, after this, and maybe I can't make her go back to the way she was before. But I'll be damned if I don't try.
I stood up, even though my legs hurt. I grabbed her firmly by her shoulders, and looked her straight into her brown eyes as I spoke.

"Velvet," I said, "don't you dare think those things. I can't imagine what it's like for you, you were right when you said that. But you have to listen to me when I say this: don't you dare let Cardin affect you like that. You're worth more than him. You're worth more than the whole lot. Look at me. I'm bleeding all over, and I can't feel my face. All for you. Isn't that enough to prove you can trust me?"

She grinned, just a little, and wiped some tears from her eyes.
"Yeah... Maybe."

"Right," I said, and sat down next to her.
"From now on, this will be all over."
"Is that a promise?" she asked.
"It's a promise. Forget about Cardin. Forget about everything else. Today, it's all going to change. By now, I've had some time to think, and I think I have a pretty good plan. We're going to pay him back. You're going to pay him back. So don't worry."

"I- I guess I'll try not to," she said, and sighed.

She wiped more, maybe all, tears from her face, then looked out the windows, over the the fields surrounding Beacon.

We sat like that for a while. Just the two of us, in a place nobody could reach. It was peaceful, in a way, and I felt content.

We could've been like that forever, if it wasn't for the school bell that rang, interrupting the serenity.

"Oh," Velvet perked up, "lunch is already over. Shouldn't we, uh, go now?"

"Nah," I said, "let's play hooky for a while."

"What- what does that mean?" Velvet blurted out, instantly getting red in the face again.
"It means skipping class," I said, "why, what did you think it meant?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing," she said, looking relieved, for some reason.
"So, do you want to? I honestly don't feel like going to a lecture now."
"Yeah, me neither. This is actually a good opportunity... You see, there's a book I want to buy, it's not in the library, so I've been looking for an excuse to visit Vale to buy it. This seems like the perfect time. Shall we go there?."

"To Vale? Sure. I was thinking of hanging out in an empty dorm room, but your idea's better. I've never had the chance to see the city properly anyway, so I'm up for it."

We could leave the tower in peace. The tower where we also left all our negative emotions behind. We didn't say it, but I think neither of us will return to that place again. Because going there would mean hiding, and Velvet would not hide anymore.

There were classes going on as we sneaked out, which meant the halls were vacant, with not a single student or teacher in sight to bother us.

The warm outside air greeted us, when we stepped through Beacon's large front gate.
I had a good feeling, and I think Velvet did too.
For the time being, we'd get away from the world for a while. For the time being, we had the chance to meet each other without the backdrop of a school, without having to worry about anyone but ourselves.

Surrounded by lush meadows, under a cloudless sky, we walked over the path to Vale.
The city beckoned us from distance. Stretching beyond it, the infinite world. A more kind one, I feel.

In many ways, this seemed like an ordinary summer day, and in many ways, it was.
We were still, despite everything, just two teenagers trying for the first time to have a fun time together.

Velvet hummed as we walked, and I enjoyed it. I loved it, in fact, as it signaled a certain change in her.
The wind played in her hair, she walked with her head straight, and her eyes sparkled.

Velvet, if you promise to keep being perfect like that, then I promise I will never leave your side.
Those were the words I that played in my head, yet remained unspoken.
Maybe one day, I'll say them.

For now, I'll keep quiet, and enjoy the short walk to Vale.

A big thanks to everyone who read this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it.

Addendum:
Please return to this chapter at a later date, as I will rewrite a small portion of it.