The second Scarlatina

Chapter 6.

"Hello there old friend, I hope you're having a nice life." The chameleon faunus says with deviousness in her voice. Although Red cannot see it he knows she is smirking on the other end of his scroll, her usual wicked smirk.

"Shut it, you stupid slu-" He begins to say, rage filling his voice before both Kali and Velvet clear their throats to gain his attention and stop him from cussing and yelling as more and more people start filling the cafeteria.

"Oh my, such a foul mouth on a cute little bunny, maybe I should come to Beacon and cut it from your mouth!" The wicked chameleon faunus' tone gets more enraged as she speaks to Red but she quickly calms down and says. "And I can't believe we used to date, my how different you were."

Kali lets out a shocked gasp before quickly leaving the call, leaving just Red and Ilia alone to speak privately. "And then there were two... Hello again, Red~" Ilia's cold yet oddly sultry voice rings through his ears sending shivers up his spine.

"What do you want? How did you get my number?" He whispers into the receiver of his scroll, trying to not draw any unwanted attention to himself. "You wouldn't phone me without a reason, so what is it?" He spits his venomous words towards his ex lover.

Instead of responding Ilia giggles mischievously before hanging up her scroll, Red puts his away after double checking he was no longer in a call with anybody else. He lets out a loud sigh. "God damn it.. don't do this to me?"

"Don't do what to you Red?" Coco announces her presence as she sits down in front of him, a plate of eggs and ham in front of her, looking at her best friends younger brother she asks concerned. "Hey, what's up with you? You look off." She tries her best not to be rude as she eats a slice of ham, her grey eyes locked onto Red's sour expression and his drooped down ears. "Hey, come on buddy, cheer up." She reaches forward and strokes the closest rabbit ear to her causing Red's attention to shoot to Coco and her gentle smile.

"Oh, nothing too important." He lies to her, a sliver of guilt building inside of his stomach. "I just need time to think if you don't mind." Standing up Red forces a fake smile to his sister and the brunette in front of him before exiting the cafeteria, his smile instantly dropping once his back is turned to the friendly duo.

"Vel." Coco gains Velvet's attention by calling her name. "Your brother is a horrible liar, what's his problem?"

"Oh, that." Velvet lets out a loud, sad sigh unable to hide her sadness for long. "It's a long story so get comfortable."

As Coco adjusts her seating, leaning forward to listen intensely. "Well, it all began with one thing... her."

Flashback.

Ilia Amitola, a faunus with a tanned complexion, brown haired pony tail that curls at the end like a chameleons tail and grey eyes with a light blue tint to them stands in a crowd full of human school girls, trying to avoid casual conversations and emotions so she does not reveal she is a faunus in front of the racist group. "Hey, look! Freak!" One of the girls yells, throwing a stone through the schools gate at a faunus that Ilia cannot see.

"Yeah, freak! Go back to the Schnee dust mines where you belong!" Ilia loudly says, a feeling of pain gathering in her chest from her fake hateful words towards the unknown receiver. Her grey eyes finally finding the target; a boy roughly around her age, brown hair, hazel rabbit ears and a neat looking black uniform with the initials "SDC" written on the back above a brown splatter from the mud covered rock that hit his back, her eyes widen once she realises that he actually worked in the dust mines. Looking closer she realises that the faunus is out of breath, bleeding and covered in dust particles yet smiling faintly. "Hey! What are you dong out of the mines!?" Ilia yells to him hiding her actual concern with fake hatred.

"I-I managed to save someone." The bleeding boy admits, his smiling widening slightly as tears threaten to fall from his eyes. "I-I did it! I managed to save someone!" He loudly cheers, confusing the group of girls making them glance to each other. "Suck it Schnee!"

"Saved someone from what?" Ilia asks, pushing past the group and ignoring their pleas to stay away from the filthy animal, her kindness pushing through. "What happened to cause you to look like that?" Her struggle to not change from her tan complexion to any other colour becomes an internal war of her emotions.

Wiping the tears from his eyes he admits to Ilia everything. "T-The mines, they collapsed killing millions in the process. I only managed to save just one person, once we were free from the guards chasing us we split up. So many people died." His words cause Ilia's eyes to widen and begin to wonder about her parents until hearing their names in the list of people who died causing her skin to turn blue with purple spots on her body, tears slowly running down her cheeks as the other girls start mocking her for being a faunus, hurling racial slurs at her without realising that the newly revealed chameleon faunus is reaching for her weapon. As she spin around pointing her rapier/whip combo to be pointed at the group of girls in front of her.

"H-Hey now! It was just a joke!" One of the girls says stepping back, her arms in the air surrendering. "We didn't mean it! We swear we didn't mean it!" The girl begins to scream as Ilia get closer pushing the tip of her rapier into the girls neck slowly, the girls blood coating the platinum coloured blade with a crimson liquid that gushes out of the wound and onto the ground in front of Ilia scaring the other girls causing them to run as fast as their legs will carry them. Unfortunately for one of the girls Ilia flicks her wrist causing her rapier to turn into a whip and hits the unlucky girl in the spine paralysing her instantly, electricity crackles across her whip at high speeds before jumping onto the girl and shocking her until she stops spasming, smoke trailing off of her dead body as Ilia looks at her final target.

The final girl extends her weapon from a pole, a trident, the girl readies herself for combat as she spreads her legs apart slightly, crouching down a little as her eyes lock onto the enraged, red skinned faunus in front of her. Ilia swings her rapier downwards from her shoulder striking the girls cheek but the girls aura protects her. "I'm not like those useless piles of trash. I've already got my aura, do you?" The girl thrusts her trident forward only for Ilia to block with the blade of her rapier. Ilia swings her arm upwards to knock the girl off balance, lunging forward to cover enough distance to begin a flurry of precise stabs and jabs to the girls body and vital points, damaging her aura enough to start damaging her body with cuts and scratches

"I never needed it to defeat any of you." Ilia scowls at the weakened girl before plunging her rapier into the girls eye and through the back of her head bloodying the guard of her weapon. "Now sit down and die." Ilia's venomous words ring out to everyone on the school yard before the blade of her weapon retreats into its guard. Ilia's skin turns back from red to her usual tanned skin before she sprints towards the gate, picking something up before she leaps over the tall barricade and landing flawlessly beside the beaten and bloodied rabbit faunus. "My name is-" She begins before the rabbit interrupts.

"Ilia Amitola, I know." He chuckles a little as he coughs up blood. "Your parents never stopped talking about you during their breaks." His words cause Ilia's eyes to light up with happiness before saddening again.

"I guess they can't do that any more now can they?" Her words are filled with pain and sadness as the reality hits her hard, pulling the rabbits arm over her shoulder to support him when he needs to walk.

The rabbit pauses for a minute before leaning on Ilia to rest, his other hand now trying to cover an many wounds on his abdomen as he possibly can. "I guess they can't. But why don't you prove them right, be greater then they were, rise up and show humans that we can live in harmony?"

She thinks for a moment until finally getting an idea. "Hey, there's this movement that was started by the Belladonna's trying to get the idea across that humans and faunus can live together in peace." She pauses then asks the rabbit. "Would you like to join it with me.. Uh, what's your name?"

"Oh, right." The two of them start walking away from the school gate, Ilia supporting the rabbit as he limps along beside her. "Red, Red Scarlatina." 

(A/N: Hey there, Hellfire here. I just wanted to say writing this chapter took a while to do, I'll admit it is probably the best chapter I've written so far. I really enjoyed writing this and would like your opinions on it. Thanks, Hellfire out!)