Interlude Chapter

Rating: K
Warnings: It's completely safe. Just want to remind everyone that this is AU.

11 23 hours

January 19, 844
Kurasame's Office

The eighteen year old blonde walked into the office. He had no idea why the new Commander called him into his office. The man came the day winter break ended. Apparently, Miss Arecia, their old teacher also known as Mother, had retired. Jack sighed, what did he do? He was innocent so far. He didn't do anything annoying so far.

He looked into his cold green eyes and gulped. Kurasame gestured him to sit down, which he did, only to find a Tonberry on the chair. Jack screamed and drew his sword. Then he felt a blade on his throat.

"Jack," he said in an icy tone, "Don't you dare hurt my pet."

He dismissed his weapon while still frozen in position. The Tonberry glared at him as it waddled to his master's side. No matter what his past may be, Jack's respect for the man had just went up for taming the Tonberry. He heard from Sice, who said in a delightfully evil grin, that only one in every one thousand attempts to tame a Tonberry actually succeeds. The rest weren't so lucky.

Jack sat down and looked at his Commander, "Soo." He started off. He saw a twinge of annoyance and sat straight up his seat, "I mean: Good morning sir! What have you called me here for?"

"Jack, yes, I heard much from Arecia. Strong. Clever. Enthusiastic." The boy lit up with the comments, "Loud. Annoying. Lazy. Nuisance. Slow, both figuratively and literally. And many more things. However, she commented that you are a valuable asset to the team. Very honest, she says, and a close friend to everyone."

'Ouch Mom,' Jack thought bitterly, 'I'm not that lazy or annoying. And what does slow mean?' He then tuned in back to Kurasame and nodded his head, "Yeah. So why'd you call me here?"

"I've notice your grades aren't the best. Since I am new to your class, I'd like you to tell me about your classmates. A simple story would be fine. It doesn't have to involve everyone from Class Zero. In return, I would give you extra credit."

Jack lit up at the idea. "So any story would be fine?" he asked. Kurasame nodded. He thought back. There was that one event he remembered. "Well, it isn't recent, but I guess it stands out to me…"

…I still remember the punk – as Cater would say it – who thought he could do it all. The one who looked before he leaped. He had that evil grin knowing he's the winner. If you guessed Nine, then you're wrong! Back then, Nine was one of the smartest, most adorkable – is that how Cinque uses it? She tells me I'm adorkable – guys in Class Zero. He was sort of like how I am today, except he did homework. I still remember Nine's favorite subject was geography. He could never stop talking about it. Wanna know who the punk was?

Eight.

And then there was the shy emo girl. She was the one who never bothered to brush her hair in the morning nor even brush her teeth. You think she was disgusting? She was. She was a disgusting pig. And guess what? Her name was Cater!

Alright Kurasame, this was around four years ago, and we've all changed. Did you know? I used to get eighties on my tests! Could you believe that? I was so smart back then! But then I got lazy, haha…

Oh wait, you don't want any beating around the bush, right? Yeah, I do want this extra credit…don't glare at me like that!

Okay, okay, I'm going back on topic. So me and Eight were best friends even since then. He was the one who saved me from depression. Here's the thing, half of us lost our families in the war. Eight lost his when he was young, so he had no memories of them. Me and Cater however lost ours when we were eleven, so we were…traumatized by that. I got into some serious depression. Seriously! What, you don't think I can be depressed? Sheesh! You're mean, Kurasame. I mean Commander. Sorry…hey can I call you Mother?

…

Father?

…

Oh Etro! Put the Tonberry down!

…

Eight and I were partnered, because we both used to be sword-users. Before you ask, Queen and Sice were partnered together since they were like the evil girls in the class. Yeah! Queen was as bloodthirsty as Sice back in those days. Back in those days, man I sound old. Back to me and Eight, I got to know him, and he was a pretty up-beat guy. He got me out of depression.

Cater was a different story. King was in a different year than us, so she wasn't partnered with anyone. Eight noticed how lonely she was. We tried to give her company, however she just rejected us. And then we went on that mission to Byakko. I think that was in April of 838. We had to stop them from going a Suzaku village close by. Well, let's say it ended with Cater nearly losing her innocence…

I am not red. Geez, you say so many hurtful words, Kurasame-Commander-Father-Mother….

We had to go rescue her. Eight, he didn't have the best temper at the time. Hard to believe, no? He hacked and slashed his way through the soldiers. There was about two hundred of them, no exaggeration. We – as in Eight – destroyed the entire village. When we saw what they were about to do to Cater – no, I am not red! – Eight kind of snapped that moment. It is unbelievable. Not even Sice or Nine has the capability of getting that mad. Or maybe they do and I just haven't seen it.

Eight was like the Hulk! `Cept that he didn't turn green…or huge…which is a shame. It would have been cool to see that. He had a glowing red aura, as in scarlet, blood red. Even his eyes went red, I mean, he does have them now, but before he had brown eyes. I guess it was a permanent effect. He sure made a gory scene back then. Lots and lots of blood. He cut the body pieces into parts so tiny that you wouldn't even know their human! I don't think he was aiming. It involved more stabbing and slicing. It's just like Queen's "Janus" mode!

Don't sigh at me!

Fine, but you lost your birthday gift.

…

No! I was just kidding! Don't give me an F! Queen would kill me! Wait! How can I even get an F on extra credit! No way…you're going to deduct points of my grade! How cruel!

…

It took a long time for him to settle down, took me, Trey, Cinque, Deuce, and Ace to do it. We got injured badly. The rest of the village, they weren't so lucky…When Eight calmed down, he was traumatized by the damage he had done. Not only had he ruthlessly killed the soldiers, he killed innocent people as well…Cater seemed to realize that we actually cared for her and finally opened up to us. Or him. But me and Eight are a package deal. She told him to calm down, that it wasn't his fault. But he knew better. If it wasn't his fault, who was it then?

I guess that event shaped the three of us into who we are today. Eight became a whole lot mature after he recovered. He became quiet, still fun with a lot of hurtful sarcasm, but quiet. He didn't cuss anymore. He stopped using a sword and asked some of those Class Five guys like Ryid to teach him martial arts, which he is a boss at now. He's also very calm. Calmest guy I know. Cater became more open about her feelings. We became a team after then and she was great at magic, which us two weren't. She balanced us out. I…well…I became well…what did happen to me? I guess I appreciated life more, which I didn't then, and became more carefree as ever…

Kurasame stared at him and shook his head, "Not how I would have ended the story, but good job."

"Thanks!" Jack grinned, "So I'm good to go now, right?"

The Commander nodded and the blonde jumped straight out of his seat and out the door. Under Kurasame's mask was a tiny smile, "This class is turning out to be more interesting than I had hoped for."

A/N: Well, I had Cater's letter ready for some time, but I wanted to explain this part since it was in her letter. And I wanted to make a back story as to why these three are a team. Did it from Jack's POV because…well…he's adorkable.