AN: Alright, let's go next chapter.

I actually don't have much to say this time. Thanks as always to those stopping in to review, fave, and follow. Gotta say, I really kind of missed being actively writing. So I guess some good did come from self-quarantining and going slightly crazy. It's been a miracle for my more creative side which I was afraid might have died. Hopefully even after this all ends and I can find some time to keep doing this.

Beta: wildstraydog

Twin's Game

The Second Day (Part IV)

Velvet Scarlatina

I've harped on this before, but holy shit is Beacon Academy not the most impressive place you've ever heard of?

Since arriving here, I had been to the Cross Terminal Transit Tower, only one of four freaking buildings capable of giving our scrolls long range connectivity. Then a stadium that could fit hundreds of spectators, and broadcast the talents of the latest combatants to put the public at ease and assure them they were in safe hands. A bathhouse that looked like it had been torn straight out of Anima and plopped down in a foreign continent. The largest library in the known world, housing all knowledge ever collected.

And now this.

A hospital more grand than any you had ever been in. The outside made it seem like just any other building here at Beacon (which to be fair, all the buildings by themselves were impressive already), but the absolute state of the art interior was in a league of its own, made only more impressive by the absolute sterile environment required of a place of healing.

Of course, none of this should have been surprising. Beacon Academy needed a hospital at least this impressive. It wasn't just the place where it trained any and all Huntsmen to come out of the kingdom, but it was where all other Huntsmen came to acquire their assignments and rest before heading out again. If the hospital wasn't at least this good, there would be serious doubts cast on the capabilities of those training Remnant's last and only hope.

It wasn't just the equipment to be sure. The staff also had to be top notch as well. I could only imagine it was every doctor's dream to work at this hospital. It wasn't just the top surgeons and physical health physicians, but therapists and psychologists too. If you needed something done, this hospital had it.

"This is bullshit!" So it created quite the contrast, having this chalice of perfection tainted by the angry screams and curses right in the front lobby.

Jaune, Blake, Pyrrha, and I were subjected to this tirade the moment the automatic doors slid open to let us in. The cat ears at the top of Blake's head bent forward and I got the feeling she recognized the voice, breaking away from the rest of us to jog up to the front desk. Pyrrha and my brother also shared a quick glance before chasing after her. I preferred to meander forward at the same pace we had been going since we entered. It wasn't like I was going to miss anything, what with all the shouting being audible as it was.

"Coco, what happened!?" Blake called out to the girl having the fit. Someone dressed far too flashily to be losing her cool in the middle of a hospital. The dark sunglasses made it impossible to see her eyes, but her anger was well expressed in other ways, such as when she nearly lost the beret on her head spinning around to see who called out to her. I almost thought she was going to swing that designer handbag at anyone that got too close, but the sight of a familiar face must have soothed her rage somewhat.

"Blake, listen to this crap." The girl called Coco placed one hand on her hip and cocked her chin towards the desk, making a tsk before continuing. "These assholes tell me we're still not allowed to see Velvet. Say she's not feeling well enough up to it yet."

"That can't be…" Blake immediately sympathised, stepping past Coco and up to the desk. "I'll have you explain that to me." She stated, voice full of self-righteous indignation. "This is far too strange for someone who simply passed out due to exhaustion." She had been suspicious before, and had voiced as much last night while in the bath. The others had convinced her she was paranoid at the time, but all those doubts came crashing back to the surface when confronted with yet another refusal.

The thing was, she wasn't wrong. Velvet was the victim of a Poltergeist, a vengeful spirit straight out of a fairy tale. Of course this kind of knowledge was a secret from just about absolutely everyone here at Beacon. Not that it was going to remain that way if these strange cases started piling up and more and more people became unable to see their teammates after what initially appeared to be merely benign episodes.

This also wasn't favorable for Jaune or myself. No matter what, I had to meet this Velvet girl to get an idea for exactly what it was we were in for. So while the poor, bewildered lady at the front desk sprouted off whatever lazy bullshit it was she had been scripted for, I grabbed my brother by the elbow and yanked him away from the spectacle that was now unfolding. Not even Pyrrha noticed, our companions too busy trying to make sense of whatever excuse it was they were being force-fed.

"W-what the heck is going on here?" My brother leaned close to me to whisper, not that he needed bother. No one was paying attention to us now that we were away from that shit-show. Unlike me, he had no idea who this Velvet girl was or why I had insisted to him to get us invited to come and see her.

"She's one of the ones Ozpin told us about." I whispered back, but not for the same reason as him. I just didn't like it when others heard my voice was all. Although this was certainly a conversation better left unheard.

"You don't mean..." My brother's bright blue eyes widened and he glanced back to where all the commotion was happening before returning his gaze to me. "So the reason we're here-?" At least it helped to have him be somewhat quick on the uptake. I actually wasn't sure he would be considering I thought he forgot about Ozpin's mission altogether.

"Yes." I nodded. "And for that," I continued, pulling out my scroll and pushing it into his hand. "I need you to call Ozpin. Get us access into that room."

"What about them…" Jaune once more glanced at the others. He had a point, it would probably be better not to get them involved. However, and just call it a gut feeling, but I wanted to see this Velvet with people she knew in the room. It would be better to get a full scope of what was going on with her that way. Otherwise I had nothing to compare her present state to.

"Just do it." I urged, promising with my eyes I would fill him in on all the details later. There was another couple moments of hesitation before he did the inevitable and gave into my demands.

"Hello? Ozpin… right?" He was already holding the scroll up against his ear, holding one hand over his mouth and talking while hunched over, just making him all the more suspicious. "Yes, this is Jaune. No, we're fine." The pleasantries continued for several sentences more before he finally got to the main topic. "Can you get us permission to see that Velvet girl? Along with the three people with us."

There were several moments of silence where I wondered what it was Ozpin said.

Then- "Just give it to them?" Jaune asked for clarification, clearly baffled by some sudden request. "...Okay, if you say so." Without saying anything to me he started walking over to where the girls were still arguing with the lady at the front desk.

"And I'm telling you, that doesn't make sense." Blake was practically falling over the desk now, hands placed on the top of it as she leaned towards the increasingly frustrated woman.

"Umm…" My brother cleared his throat, earning absolutely hateful gazes from everyone involved. "Sorry," He apologized on what I bet was just instinct. "But umm… there's a call for you." He handed my scroll to the lady behind the desk, instantly transforming all that pent up tension into bizzare confusion.

"O-ohh…" The desk-lady was so startled she reached for the scroll without question. That and it was probably preferable to being yelled at by the rest of our current entourage. "...Yes?" Her posture went ramrod straight not even a moment later, no doubt recognizing her boss's voice. From there she simply kept repeating increasingly high-pitched affirmatives before finally ending the call with an "I understand."

She handed the scroll back to my brother who then handed it back to me. "Follow me this way." She then said, standing up from her chair and walking around the desk to the hallway. Stunned, silent eyes from the other three girls followed her form. They then all whirled on me and my brother.

"Who the Hell are you guys!?" Coco shouted.

"What was that just now!?" Blake's voice overlapped hers.

"Mafia? Yakuza? Just what kind of connections do you have?!" Pyrrha meanwhile was having some kind of strange delusions.

I merely ignored them, linking my arm through Jaune's and pulling him along with me. The look I gave them as I passed said everything I needed. 'If you want to see Velvet, you better follow us.' They seemed to get the message, three sets of footfalls not far behind us. Not that they were silent for long, once again assaulting us with questions as we were led down the halls of the hospital.

"No seriously, who are you guys?" Coco hadn't yet properly been introduced to us, so of course that was going to be her most pressing question. Nevermind how we got her wish granted. Fortunately, that was something Blake and Pyrrha were able to answer for us. In fact, it was actually kind of impressive this girl wasn't aware of who we were, considering it was our handiwork that put the Vytal Tournament Champion in the arm-cast she was currently walking around with.

We managed to avoid having to answer anything such as who it was on the scroll or why we were able to get such special permission, but fortunately such things seemed to disappear from their minds entirely as we arrived at Velvet's private room and were ushered inside.

I had no admit, she had quite the swazy place all to herself, a single bed inside a rather spacious room, numerous monitors on the wall displaying all kinds of information. She even had an open window with the curtain drawn, letting in a comfortable breeze. As I took this all in, our guide left with a promise to call the doctor.

Which brought us to the lady of the hour: Velvet herself.

First and foremost, it was immediately apparent why Blake of everyone on team RWBY was the one so concerned about her. Two long brown bunny ears marked her distinctly a person of the faunus variety. Combined those ears with an outstandingly docile-looking face and you had about the most homely looking girl I had ever seen. Her spaced-out gaze as she looked out the window, seemingly oblivious to our presence only contributed to the almost separate plane of reality it felt like she existed on.

"Velvet, you're okay!" This didn't stop Coco from strutting right up to her, the relief in her voice evident to find her teammate awake. Regardless, it at least got the ball rolling as the rabbit faunus finally took notice of the rest of us.

"Ah…" She greeted weakly, brown eyes darting between all of us as if not sure who to focus on. Not really all that surprising. If she was still being kept here it went without saying she was still recovering. Just because her eyes were awake, didn't mean she was 'okay' as this Coco chick so ineloquently put it. We risked making her worse, barging in with a group of five all at once.

Not that it could be helped. Heartless as this was, I needed to see how this played out. While it was far from off to a good start, Velvet also wasn't displaying anything I could call mentally debilitating either. She just looked normally frightened, body shrinking back further and further into the backboard of the bed with every step closer Coco took.

"Girl, you really gave us a scare, you know that?" Either this was how she usually was, or her teammate was just plain that oblivious, plopping her butt down at the foot of the bed hard enough to get the whole mattress to bounce. She placed the designer bag on her lap and began shuffling through the bottomless pit, attempting to find something inside as she continued. "Where do you get off just collapsing like that in the middle of the night?" Despite the harshness of her words, it was easy to tell she wasn't actually angry.

"I'm sorry." The rabbit girl flinched, her apology seemingly just reactionary rather than out of any actual feelings of remorse. Still, she was at least capable of understanding and reacting to human speech. Ozpin had specifically used the words 'psychotic breaks' and 'rambling incoherently about unseen horrors' but this girl wasn't doing any of that. In fact, aside from appearing a little frightened and understandably overwhelmed it was like there was no reason to keep her here at all.

"We heard they found you in the middle of the hallway. What were you doing out there so late?" Blake followed Coco up without a second to spare, causing the poor girl's eyes to start bouncing back and forth between the two. "It wasn't Cardin again? Did he call you out to do something?" Another name I didn't recognize, but the implication was easy enough to grasp. Likely a bully of some sort and this wouldn't be the first incident it would seem.

That at least explained why her team didn't make a bigger fuss earlier when this Velvet girl had simply disappeared, going out to collapse in some random passageway up in the middle of the night. All those things ordinarily would be suspicious when put together in such a way, but they still found a way to rationalize it. I almost felt bad for this Cardin character, no doubt already having been the target of these girls' rage for something he was absolutely clueless about. Then again, if he really was a bully he probably deserved it anyways.

"Seriously, I'll murder him." Coco stopped rummaging through her bag long enough to smash a fist into her open palm. "Oh, found it." It was amazing how fast her tone switched from murderous psychopath to chipper. "I know how anxious you get without it." She pulled a rather bulky camera from the bag, how it got lost in there in the first place I had no idea. "Here," She then handed it over.

For several hesitant seconds, it didn't look like Velvet wasn't going to take it, staring at the supposedly precious item as if it was some kind of ticking time bomb. Then, "Thank you." She finally willingly closed the distance and took the camera with both hands, pulling it up to her chest and once again leaning into the backboard. At least somewhat more relaxed this time.

"We couldn't have done it without these two." Coco gestured over to my brother and I, Velvet's brown eyes settling on us for a good look for the first time since we came into the room. I was still clinging to my brother's arm and upon being the center of attention ended up shifting so I was partially behind him, eyes trailing to the floor so I didn't have to maintain prolonged eye-contact. "Still don't know how they did it, but man am I relieved. Thought there might seriously be something wrong with you. It was downright weird the way they were insistent we couldn't see you."

Velvet looked back to her teammate as she talked and it was at that moment I made the mistake of looking back up. Just as my eyes were about to study her expression she glanced back at me and our eyes locked. I wanted to turn away, as it was only natural for someone like me to hate crossing gazes, but something deep in her irises stopped me. I couldn't say what it was, but that something in her eyes caused a pit to form in the bottom of my stomach and an overwhelming sense of dread to send shivers up my spine.

I had been wrong. She wasn't fine. Not at all.

The same way I saw something in her, she must have sensed something in me, because she leaned forward, a terrifying mixture of curiosity and hope brimming. "Who… are you?" She asked me directly.

I couldn't help it, lifting a hand to my mouth as the sudden urge to vomit permeated my being.

"Ah, my bad. I'll introduce them now." Coco started to say, but stopped as her teammate once again shook her head, finally turning her attention away from me.

"No, I'm sorry. What I meant was-" Then dropped the bombshell that confirmed my worst fears. "Who are all of you?" This was more than just some kind of psychotic break.

No, this was far beyond my expectations. Whatever the Poltergeist had shown her, whatever it was Velvet had experienced had been so terrifying, her brain had in a panicked attempt to save itself wiped those memories… along with all her memories of Beacon as well.

I had to calm down. I needed to calm down right this moment. My brain repeated this like a mantra, attempting to control my increasingly ragged breathing as the panic attack set in. There was no proof that what I thought just now was right. There were any number of explanations for what had happened.

But what if I was right?

The pessimist kept poking me in the back of my mind. It wasn't a possibility I wanted to consider, but if I was right… then the Poltergeist had grown unbelievably strong if it could cause damage like this. Which meant if we truly were in a worst case scenario, this was no longer something I could just take at my own pace. This had to be dealt with immediately. In other words…

It looked like I was going out tonight.