Velvet rubbed her nose as she walked along the beaten path with Kandase along the borders of their encampment. Velvet caught Kandase glance at her and heard her bellow out in laughter.
"Rubbing it won't make it feel any better. It's not one of those situations, Velvet." She directed, causing herself to double over as her laughter multiplied tenfold. Velvet scrunched her nose, concealing her amusement with the clever joke as the duo continued on.
As Kandase turned her head out towards the woods, Velvet couldn't help but steal a glance and take in Velvet's characteristics once more. She studied the inctricacies of Kandase's mask, the grooves that were there to begin with, and the ones that that were the obvious scars of the several trials in Kandase's short life. Velvet noticed once more of how Kandase towered over her, and how her biceps could be compared to triple that of Velvet's. If they were to have met on a battlefield, there was no certainty in her mind that Velvet would be scared beyond any hope of attempting to fight back. No amount of adrenaline would be able to overtake that feeling within her.
"So Velvet...if you don't mind my asking, how did you manage to end up here? I mean, everyone has their stories, most of them starting with 'When I was (insert age here), I had decided that I had had enough of those dirty humans.' Forgive me if I'm being presumptuous here, but I don't think that that's the case with you. I'm not sure, but I feel like there's...more to your story."
Velvet felt the strong urge to tell Kandase exactly what she wanted to hear, not omitting anything. It was not for her, however. Velvet had gotten the notion that baring her soul would lift the immense pressure that was upon her shoulders almost every day. She felt it from the beginnning, and could feel it mounting more and more with each passing day. It drove her near the point of insanity, and she had grown weary of putting on a brave face in the presence of others.
Despite these strong feelings, Velvet bit her tongue. Reason overtook her, and she quickly became aware of how disastrous such an action could prove to be for her. She hardly knew this woman, and, for all she knew, she could merely be a spy trying to fish information out so that she report it all back to Adam for the purpose of picking up potential weaknesses.
As a way out, Velvet feigned ignorance and put a simple smile on her face. "Well, I don't suppose my story is much different from theirs. I was being persecuted and hunted like a dog by the human...scum." Velvet fought to hid the sour feeling that hit the pit of her stomach as soon as those words hit her mouth.
She felt as if she were betraying the trust of all of the humans that had cared and helped to raise her into the woman she was then. That one small phrase served to slice like daggers into the beautiful memories that she had of people like Coco and the wonderful people (well, mostly wonderful. some of them ARE the reason why I'm here today.) It was a true internal struggle to hide her true emotions.
Her efforts seemed to pay off, however, as Kandase laughed to herself, refusing to take her eyes off of the treeline.
"What are you looking for, Kandase?" Velvet asked, trying in silent desperation to change the subject away from her past plight.
Kandase diid not immediatley answer. She kept her eyes peeled on the treeline. If there was a single leaf out of place, there was no doubt in Velvet's mind that she would see it. "I'm not sure. It's probably nothing. It's just...a feeling that I have."
"What feeling?" She inquired sincerely.
"I get these feelings . Normally when I get one of these feelings, things go to shit a little while after. That being said, I am just a tad bit concerned right now."
Vevlet was in no way satisfied by Kandase's answer. If anything, they only served to put her nerves further on edge. Vevlet caught herself watching the trees herself. Her ears began to twitch as she concentrated on finding out what noises she could hear that were out of the ordinary. Several minutes passed like this, with no fruit to show for their labors. Velvet wished later that she would have been able to say that about the entire day.
A screech resonated throughout the near vicinity, splitting Velvet's hearing for a moment. Her hearing was impaired during this time, and she quickly became concerned as she realized that she saw Kandase's mouth moving, but could not hear her. All that filled her head was a ringing. When it subsided, she could hear Kandase frantically shouting.
"Velvet, what is wrong with you? We need to see what happened. Let's go!"
Without wasting time to form a response, Velvet nodded and took to following Kandase when she began running. She stayed alert, trying to locate the source of the shrieking that had pierced the air. Kandase must have caught on to what she was trying to do, because she asked upon the status of the agressor. Velvet responded in the negative, and Kandase only nodded. Several more seconds passed with such inquiries until another screech (a more appropriate word, Velvet thought later, would be 'roar'). They rounded a corner of a tent and caught sight of not one Grimm surrounded by a team of armed White Fang guards, but two. A duo of Beowulf, one an Alpha, had their backs to each other against the sea of Faunus enemies.
Velvet was silently taken aback by the sight, and was unsure how good she would hold up in a fight with professional killers of both man and Grimm. They had rifles poised and blades drawn, not waiting to form a plan before they attacked individually in vain. Velvet did not hesitate to attempt to prove herself to her new comrades, and slowly advanced behind the throes of guards.
"What the hell are you doing? Trying to serve yourselves up on a silver platter? Coordinate your attacks!" Kandace shouted out to her comrades. They looked back at her for a split second and nodded. "Tanks, charge up! Rifleman, give them covering fire! C'mon! We've trained for this!" She commanded. They followed her commands to a T, making the vision that she had come to life. Velvet was detached for a moment, taking in the natural leader that resided in Kandase. Her string of admiration was broken when Kandase turned to Velvet and took to giving her orders as well.
"Velvet! You really wanna prove yourself to this Brotherhood? Then show everyone here what you showed me yesterday."
Registering what it was that Kandase asked of her, Velvet drew from the power of the pack on her back, summoning a set of dual machetes. Unable to resist the urge to show off, Velvet flipped the blades in her hands. She was about to join the ranks of the other guards, when one of the Beowulf's large claws swiped the line of guards away. The Alpha behind it let out a loud roar and charged around in a circle, ceasing its assualt when it clutched a guard between its steely white jaws. Velvet let out a small gasp before charging head-on at the
beast.
As she had anticipated, The Alpha became aware of Velvet's advance and resolved to meet her halfway. Velvet, although fear spiked down the hairs of her spine, did not waver in her advance. She waited until the last possible second, then jumped into the air just as the Alpha dove towards her. It didn't take her opponent long to realize that she had gained a momentary tactical advantage and turned, aiming to even the playing field once more. Velvet landed in a crouching position, her blade tips pointed towards the Alpha. He snarled his teeth and charged once more.
Velvet corrected her stance and stood her ground. Once the Beowulf was within striking distance, she unleashed a flurry of strikes, alternating in even succession between each of her hands. After it was too late to correct it, Velvet realized that she had once again made the novice error of placing almost all of her energy into a single attack.She stepped at the base of the Beowulf's chest and, to her own surprise, kicked it hard enough to send it flying back into the trees behind it. Out of sheer luck, the trajectory of the Beowulf's regression placed it on a collison course with its subordinate, sending them both flying even further.
Before they were even finished with their journey, Kandase commanded the guards to finish the job. She bounded ahead over the path of destruction they had caused. Her small cloth pouch bounced against her wrist as she removed a single throwing knife and performed a front flip in the air. Kandase arched her back and threw the knife, aimed at the top of the downed Alpha's skull. Velvet watched in silent amazement as the small knife created a profound explosion that obliterated any trace of the Alpha, hardly any time given to allow the creature to dissolve. Its comrade mortally wounded, the tank guards wasted no time in slashing away at the remaining Beowulf's neck and head. They continued in this motion until the beast's cries were silenced, and it had begun its dissolution process.
Velvet laughed, just before her adrenaline wore off and she took a knee. She gasped to regain her energy while her comrades-in-arms celebrated their victory. Kandase was the only one who took note of Velvet's plight and rushed through the ranks to her position. Kandase called out Velvet's name, but Velvet couldn't find the energy to respond. Before she knew it, Velvet felt Kandase's arm go underneath her armpits and lift her upwards to her feet.
"That..." Kandase began, breathing to regain her own energy. "was pretty damn cool. It was ballsy, and just a bit stupid...okay, it was really stupid, but it paid off, so that makes your ballsy move just a little less chastise-worthy. So...I realize you have a little tendency of going all gung-ho badass, powering up your attack for one big strike, relying on your Semblance to do it, but it ends up screwing you in the long run. What do you say you and I work on that, huh?" She said, tightening her grip on Kandase in a great embrace. Velvet was too weak to fight, so she simply accepted it.
"Sounds...fine." She breathed.
At that moment, one of the guards walking past chortled while sheathing his blade. "Is that your protege? She looks like hell." He said. cackling as he tilted his head back. Velvet caught sight of Kandase scowl in the direction of this previously unknown guard. "The hell is that supposed to mean, Brunswick?" She shot accusingly.
"What I mean..." He continued with an air of cockiness. "Is that your protege isn't going to amount to crap if she's under your wing."
Kandase primed herself to clobber the guard named Brunswick, but Velvet had a primal feeling that this was her place to intervene. She struggled in vain in order to hold her back. All Velvet really managed to do was kick up dust. "Yeah. Look at that. How is she going to survive on any operation if she can't even stop you?" This only served to fuel Kandase's hate fire, and she continued on.
"Kandase, he's not worth it. Sometimes, it's a better revenge to allow someone to live in ignorance rather than give them a reaction. Be the stronger one." With this, Kandase stopped cold in her tracks. She slowly looked back at Velvet with a distrusting gaze. Brunswick, likely seeing that his place in this fight was over, quipped a 'That's what I thought. Weak, like you taught your protege.'
Without so much as a glance at the reatreating Brunswick, she tightly gripped Velvet's wrist and ran her behind a tree. Once there, she slammed her into it, and pressed her face but inches from Velvet's. "You're going to start talking, and you're going to do it fast. Are you a spy? Are you one of those Atlesian creeps?" A small pause ensued before Velvet was slammed into the tree once more. "Answer me, dammit!" She cried, not bothering to conceal her voice. As a result, one of the other guards walked by, asking for the state of Kandase. In return, she demanded that he go away and threw a knife into a nearby tree. The guard swore and retreated.
"There wasn't any reason. I'm not a spy. It's simply a phrase I picked up some time ago."
"Why? Why would you say it like that? Why would you say it like she did?"
"Who are you talking about, Kandase?"
Rather than answer, Kandase began to cry uncontrollably, and placed her tearstained face into Velvet's shoulder.
"Youhad no right to do that."
Kandase pounded her fist into the tree, leaving a small crater in the bark.
"No Damn Right." She sobbed.