Damnit, Aradia!" Terezi yelled, a welt forming on her forearm from where the whip had hit her.

"Then learn how to dodge," Aradia replied with a grin. She looked over to Sid, who was standing a few feet away. He was their witness for this duel. It wasn't exactly dueling though, more just practicing, since this was something they did several times a week. Tavros was always hesitant to accept the Scourge Sisters' challenges, but Aradia always accepted right away. She thought their little battles were a lot of fun, and they never hurt each other all that bad. The worst injury was when Terezi and Vriska used their soul resonance to make Vriska a large enough dagger to be called a sword. Said sword had ended up stuck in Aradia's shoulder. Since then, they decided to use stop using their soul resonance very strongly in these fights. Aradia and Tavros only used it when on missions. It would make Tavros a very long, very spikey whip, and Terezi refused to fight with that lashing out at her.

"Come on, Pyrope, we can NOT lose twice in a row. Get moving!" The dagger in Terezi's hand spoke. Terezi flipped her around in her grip, so the tip of the blade pointed to the ground in her fist. She lunged, swiping the blade up, as Aradia stepped out of reach easily. Terezi turned over her shoulder, sliding her feet and crouching, jabbing the dagger at Aradia's leg, tearing her leggings and drawing a small bit of blood. Aradia threw her arms over her head and onto the ground, kicking over. Her foot smacked Terezi square in the jaw, sending her backwards. Clutching her jaw, she dropped Vriska and yelled out in pain.

"Terezi!" Vriska called out, as Aradia's whip came sailing toward her. Terezi shut her eyes, waiting for the imminent sting. And waiting. And still waiting. Okay, why isn't it coming? She opened an eye and looked up. Vriska had changed back and caught the whip on her arm, protecting her meister almost on instinct.

Changing form was against the Scourge VS Charge Battle rules. Terezi smiled, even though they'd just lost again. She knew that no matter what, even if it was just something minor like this, Vriska would always have her back, even if it meant throwing herself headlong into danger.

"Why the hell are you smiling? We just lost." Vriska grumbled, unwrapping the whip from her arm.

"We'll get em next time Vriska," Terezi assured her.

Tavros changed back to human form and reached for Vriska's arm. "Uh, are you,, okay? Did I hurt you too bad?"

Vriska yanked her arm back. "I'm FINE, Tavros. Something like that's not gonna put me in a hospital, seriously."

"Team Charge wins this time," Sid announced, walking away. "Get another teacher to witness next time, why do you always ask me?"

Terezi stood by Vriska and faced their opponents. They all bowed slightly, and left the room, walking back to the dorms while each pair insisted they'd win the next match.

••••••

Rose looked up from her book when Kanaya walked up to her. "Oh, hey, Kanaya!" she greeted, standing to give her a kiss.

"Hello, Rose. Hello, Maka."

Maka was too engulfed in her book to notice. Her eyes were scanning over the words, shining with fascination.

"What is she reading?" Kanaya wondered.

"Oh, it's about the different levels of soul resonance, and how to control it better. She was reading it out loud for a while until she realized Soul was being way too quiet," Rose answered grinning, "he and Eridan had run away as soon as they figured out she was planning on reading them the entire book."

Everyone found it surprising how well Eridan and Soul got along. The two were pretty close these days, in a sort of trio with Black*Star. Even Kid liked Eridan. Usually back home, pretty much everyone hated Eridan, even his friends. But here, people would fall over themselves just to watch him walk past. One girl fainted when his cape brushed her.

Kanaya sat down beside Maka on the ledge of the bridge and read over her shoulder. Her eyes fell to a sentence about halfway down the page. It gave ideas for strengthening the relationship between meister and weapon, stating resonance would be easier and stronger the closer the two are. She sighed absent-mindedly, thinking of her partner. She doubted they'd ever resonate as strongly as the others. She and Gamzee fought very well together, sure. But when they weren't engaging an enemy, they didn't get along.

Rose jumped up next to Kanaya and rested her head on the troll's shoulder. "Something on your mind?" She already knew what it was. It was always on her mind. How could they work together so well, but not be able to stand each other? Everything about him made her want to grind his face into the pavement. And he ignored every word that came out of her mouth.

"I'd…rather not talk about it now. Maybe later." Like when they were alone. It's not that she didn't trust Maka, but knowing she was the very best in the academy made her a bit intimidating.

"If it's Gamzee," Maka spoke, not looking up from the book, "they have a few chapters on how to get along with your partner outside of combat. You can borrow it if you want."

Well, it was worth a try at least. Kanaya accepted her offer. At this point, she'd be willing to try just about anything. Seeing everyone else get along so well with their partners, whatever form they were in, made her feel inferior. She could only stand hers when he was a chainsaw. She had to remedy that somehow. She wanted to be a great meister, like Maka and Aradia. But as long as this was an issue, she wouldn't come close.

••••••

Jane and Roxy were sitting against a tree, sharing a bag of cotton candy. Jane liked the pink best, so Roxy took the blue. This is how they liked to spend their time after class, sitting on a blanket while John and Feferi looked up at the clouds. Jane hated fighting all the time, so her down time with her best friend was what she look forward to every day.

"That one looks like a cuttlefish!" Feferi pointed up, and John sighed.

"You say that about all of… Oh, wow it does," He said.

Roxy chuckled, and nudged Feferi with her foot. "Fef, remember we have training in half an hour."

Feferi sat up and stretched her arms. "Who with this time? Is it Stein again? Please say no…"

Training with Professor Stein was always intense, to say the least. Feferi had a kind of immunity to his Soul Force attacks, and he was fascinated by that. He liked to put as much power into it as he could to see if it would have an effect. It never did, but he never stopped trying. She also had to ability to extend that immunity to Roxy, without even trying.

"It's Stein…" she replied with a grimace. They appreciated the training, but sometimes, he could get a bit. Carried away. The whole screw-in-the-head thing creeped them both out.

Jane sighed and leaned back against the tree. "Why do you guys train so much? How do you enjoy all the fighting?"

"Jane, it's what we have to do. You know that." John said, getting up. He squatted in front of her and looked her in the eye. "If we don't practice fighting, we won't be able to kill the Kishin souls. If we don't kill the Kishin souls, a Kishin could come back. Then, we'd all be thoroughly fucked."

She grunted and stood, brushing her skirt. "I KNOW that, okay? But I don't see why everyone has to enjoy it so much. It's a horrible thing, it's not some kind of game!"

John winced as Jane got in his face. Their dads were brothers, and had both gone missing when the two were younger. There was evidence that they'd been killed, but their bodies were never found, and when they joined the academy they were let in on the information that it was likely a Kishin egg soul that had done it. John had taken that as motivation to kill as many as he could, but it made Jane hate death and fighting.

Seeing the look in her cousin's eyes, Jane backed off. "I'm sorry, John… I just. I hate it."

Roxy tugged on Jane's skirt, beckoning her down. Jane crouched beside her, and Roxy reached her arms out to hug her. They hugged for a moment, Jane blinking hard and breathing slowly. Once she felt calm enough, she released her grip.

Everyone sat in silence. Finally, Feferi cleared her throat. "Roxy, we should probably get going now. We don't want to be late."

Roxy began gathering her things. She planted a kiss on Jane's forehead and looked at her. "You gonna be okay Janey?"

Jane nodded, smiling slightly. Roxy nodded back and headed off back to campus with her partner. John started gathering his things as well. "Wanna get back to finish up the Homework from first period. Coming?"

She shrugged and got her things in her bag, and they walked back to school, discussing the work they had to do, mostly because John knew if he didn't distract Jane, she might break down again. He had to take care of her.