Chapter 21: Restless

AN: Some of you may have noticed the change of the categories from Adventure/Friendship to Hurt/Comfort/Friendship that came with this chapter. As the story progresses, I'll be updating the tags to reflect where the story currently is. Without going into spoiler territory, Kassidy is pretty messed up, which starts getting revealed in this chapter. What, you thought this'd be all pranks, innuendos, and almost getting eaten by Grimm?

Back to the summary, in this chapter we finally catch back up to the Rooster Teeth timeline (or at least where my mind's eye puts the timeline). Kassidy almost goes off on Cardin (again). Then the nightmares come back. Be warned, things are going to be fairly dark compared to what I've been writing so far for the next couple chapters. As per usual, don't hesitate to let me know how to improve my writing, particularly in this style.

To end this gigantic edition of the author's note, the Introduction replacement is guaranteed to be up with the next installment, at this point too much of the story is out of context for me to keep on going. Also, Meet the Brawler will get revised within the next 2-3 chapters (pretty sure I can get away with a revision rather than a full replacement), that interaction being shifted to this current arc. Now, on to the fic!

(Perspective: K)

This week, Glynda decided that combat training class would begin with two duels rather than one. Kassidy was back with her team, thankful for being able to sit after her most recent fight. Her fights were unarmed as per the professor's instructions, but after the shock that was Pyrrha's pity surrender nobody was taking it easy on her anymore, aura or no aura. And Lie Ren didn't need his machine pistols to royally beat the crap out of her in seventeen seconds. Pretty sure I'm keeping this limp for a little while. And there I went thinking the power in that duo was all on Nora's side. Everybody in the class let out an 'ooh', and she turned her attention back to the second duel of this Wednesday. At least I drew a better straw than Jaune did.

The blonde leader of JNPR had his hands on his knees, panting heavily after absorbing that latest hit. His opponent, none other than Cardin Winchester, hadn't so much as eaten a stray sword swipe during their duel. Hauling his mace onto his shoulders, the resident bully laughed. Defying all logic, the battered swordsman charged at his opponent in a horribly telegraphed attack. Getting sidestepped, he tripped over thin air and proceeded to somehow lose his shield. Letting out a yell, he attacked with another easily predictable swing, which the mace-wielder decided to block. They traded a few words she couldn't make out before Jaune lost. At least he managed to last longer than I did.

Professor Goodwitch briefly lectured on the importance of, firstly, managing your aura (which applied so much to the gunslinger), and secondly, on pressing an advantage (an obvious jab at the hilarious raw power difference that not having an aura made). The class proceeded as it always had, with Glynda splitting the teens into pairs to practice some such skill or another. The difference these past couple days however, was that Kassidy was very specifically put up against whoever would give her the most trouble in the exercises. Considering today's exercises consisted of more hand-to-hand combat practice, of course she spent the afternoon getting her butt handed to her by Yang. Chemistry turned out to only be a brief reprieve before RWKY held their own, extra, practices as they usually did. When dinner time had come, it was only natural that the gunslinger had had quite enough of today, having spent most of the past five hours earning bruises and inadvertently learning how to fight with a limp. Fortunately, dinner was always easy, as everyone else was usually keen to keep themselves occupied and leave her to her meal. At least Nora's stories proved entertaining whenever she shared them.

"So, there we were, in the middle of the night."

"It was day," Ren corrected her as Yang listened intently.

"We were surrounded by Ursai."

"They were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!"

"Two of them."

"But in the end, they were no match, and Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa-skin rugs."

The stoic member of JNPR sighed. "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now."

"Jaune, are you okay?" Kassidy looked up from Bob's screen to investigate what could have caused Pyrrha to ask such a question. Well, he's definitely distracted. Disappointed. Not exactly hard to tell what by. Ruby and Pyrrha continued to interrogate him for a short while.

"Guys, I'm fine! Seriously, look!"

Kass couldn't help but chortle. "I don't suppose you could possibly make that look any more fake, by chance?"

The other girls around the table continued to tear into Jaune's complete passivity regarding Cardin, but a yelp from the other side of the cafeteria diverted her attention. Oh look, it's the man of the hour himself. And… that's Velvet, isn't it? One of those Faunus people? Suddenly, he grabbed the oversized rabbit ears sprouting from her head and started yanking on it. She couldn't tell if it was the cry Velvet had let out, or the snarl the gunslinger had made, but the topic of conversation suddenly found itself shifted.

Pyrrha wasn't too happy about the display either. "Atrocious. I can't stand people like him." The Mistralian champion obviously caught Kass glaring at Team CRDL. "Uh, Kassidy, are you alright? You have this strange glint in your eye."

The question snapped her back to reality. "So much for racism being out of fashion." She abruptly stood up from the table, and was about to leave before a hand grabbed her arm.

"Hang on, K. You seriously thinking about tussling with those guys? Again?" Yang's concern was obvious.

"Of course not."

"Oh thank Oum –"

"Too many witnesses."

Kassidy suddenly found herself looking at six blank stares. The odd woman out bounced up as well. "See! I told you we should break his legs!"

"Relax guys, I'm not actually going to do anything. Glynda's been busting my butt every evening this week. I'm supposed to meet her in the arena in ten minutes, and I still need to get my gear."

"Ooh, right." Ruby sighed slightly. "She hasn't been very nice to you lately, has she?"

I can certainly see how one would get that opinion from the outside looking in. "It's not that big a deal. I was spending the evenings putting more work in anyway. Now I just come back with more aches and bruises than usual."

"Well, since you'll be getting back to the dorms so late, I should be finished with my studies by the time you get back. I'll leave everything out for you; it's pretty obvious you haven't been putting as much time as you need to in your schoolwork."

"And just like that, the ice queen begins to thaw. Maybe I should start pissing off the teachers more often." A chorus of snickers accompanied Weiss' pointed glare. "Seriously though, thanks. I'll be sure it gets back to you."

As she made her way to the lockers, the forced small smile she had put on for everyone out there gave way to a grimace. I'm tired, everything hurts, and my grades are slipping. And now Glynda gets to beat the snot out of me. It wasn't that she wasn't looking forward to the additional training – as the sole huntress in the school without aura, she had a lot of catching up to do – but after two separate, unusually brutal training sessions, in addition to her morning workout, she wasn't sure there was a whole lot she could learn in the state she was in.

"Ah, Miss Smith. You're late." As the gunslinger entered the combat training classroom, a quick look revealed that she was indeed late. By a whole thirteen seconds.

"So I am."

For anyone else, that was a good way to earn the strict professor's disdain, and possibly a detention. However, Glynda instead recognized it as a simple admission of fact. "Given the nature of this transgression, I suppose I can let it slip this one time," she said, the barest hints of a smirk briefly manifesting itself on her visage. "Now, are we ready to pick up where we left off?"

"Considering we left off with me having to snap my wrist back into its joint, I'd prefer we start from the top." Glynda tossed over a training sword, which the gunslinger caught. Really more like a stick on a handle, it was still metal and accordingly hurt when you got hit by it.

"Alright, just remember. Don't lock your joints, don't plant your feet. Keep fluid. Eyes on your opponent's wrist." Beacon's second in command lunged forward. The two hour sparring match had begun.

The lock clicked open, and the infernal door separating her from her precious bed opened. With a bloody lip, black eye, and bruises everywhere, Kassidy almost looked like as much of a wreck as she felt. Ruby was listening to music in her bunk, and it sounded like Yang was in the bathroom.

Weiss was the first one to react to her entering the room, looking up from her books. "Well, you're certainly back earlier than…" The words died in her throat as she saw her teammate's state. Recomposing herself, the heiress tried again. "I take it your extra training with Professor Goodwitch was productive?"

Apparently recognizing her partner's voice, the team leader looked up from her Scroll, whose eyes then proceeded to try and bulge out of their sockets at the sight. "Holy crap, Kass! Are you okay? Are you hurt too badly? Do we need to go to the infirmary?"

Suddenly, the door to the bathroom slammed open, revealing that her partner had changed into sleepwear. "What about – what the dust!? What happened to you, K? It wasn't Cardin, was it? If he did this…" Lilac eyes flashed red for a moment.

The gunslinger merely muttered, "Glynda happened," before dumping her bag at the foot of her bed and collapsing face down into the mattress. She was perfectly content to go to sleep then and there, but something pulled on her shoulder. Kass briefly fought the attempt to keep her from rest before giving up and rising to a seated position.

Yang scrutinized her face, before softening slightly. "Alright, none of this looks too bad. That eye's the big problem, don't want it swelling shut. Hey Weiss, can you get me an ice pack real quick?" A quick flick of the Schnee's wrist, and her Semblance had created perfectly shaped ice cubes to fold into a cloth. Kassidy took the proffered bundle while her partner continued her interrogation. "You said Professor Goodwitch did this?"

"Yup." Flopping back down on the bed, she was ready to try for sleep again when something landed on her face. Picking up the offending garments, she saw that Ruby had tossed her sleepwear over.

"You look like you could do with a nice, hot shower. And getting more comfortable."

"I was trying to get more comfortable when you chucked these at me." Having realized a while ago that arguing with both sisters at the same time was hopeless, Kass begrudgingly got up from the bed and trudged over to the bathroom. After a shower and slipping into the admittedly quite comfortable sweatpants and nightshirt, she trudged back out and beelined for her bed. Her three teammates were gathered by Weiss' bed, who decided to restart the conversation.

"You never did tell us what your extra training with Professor Goodwitch entailed."

"She's trying to teach me how to swordfight." Sitting back down and replacing the ice pack, she added, "Emphasis on trying. Really, all we've managed to do so far is convince me that I'm right to focus on my marksmanship."

Ruby let out a hum in thought. "There's more than one way to swordfight. Or maybe a sword isn't what you'd be best with?"

"That's what we spent most of Monday on. We went down to the storage armory and she got to hit me with a bunch of different things. We eventually settled on this cavalry saber looking deal." Finally collapsing back in her bed, she finished the conversation. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to try and sleep this off."

"Don't you still need to do the reading for Oobleck's class?" Weiss was referring to the attack on Fort Castle that they'd be going over in history tomorrow.

"I'll get it with my workout tomorrow. Bob, set a reminder."

"Reminder set."

Kassidy woke up with some aches and pains, but not nearly as many as she had gone to sleep with. That was when she realized that she wasn't in her bed. Opening her eyes and looking around, she saw she wasn't even at Beacon anymore, but rather inside a cave of some sort. She was glad to see that her rifle and backpack were both right next to her… but was it just her, or did they get significantly bigger? She was about to ask Bob what was up, but faltered when she failed to tap the earpiece that almost never left its perch. Digging around in her bag, she panicked when she saw that her companion was completely missing. Looking around in case she had left him outside her bag, the gunslinger couldn't help but feel this was all incredibly familiar.

"Looking for something, Kass?" The voice to her left made her jump and bring her rifle up. Her aim lowered, however, at the face looking back at her, a face that should have been long dead. "What's the matter? You look like you just saw a ghost."

Shaking to clear her head of whatever the hell was muddling her thought process, she answered, "Just a bad dream." She had a sneaking suspicion she was in one right now, but the full realization eluded her.

"Thinking about the old man again?" She nodded, if only to get the boy standing a ways away to elaborate on his own thought process. "I can't stop thinking about him myself."

"Those bastards didn't even leave us anything to bury." Kassidy hadn't even realized she said it before the words were already out.

"Yeah, well you know how he was. Never wanted to be buried, just wanted to be free to drift the world. Guess he's doing that right now."

"Yeah." Absentmindedly throwing her gear together, her senses were screaming at her that not only was this incredibly familiar, but something was very wrong. "Think we should probably get moving? Don't think we're gonna be safe here much longer."

"You sure?" After realizing what he said, the boy facepalmed. "Why am I asking you? You're the smart one."

"You're no slouch in that department either." Walking over to a pool of water nearby, she added, "Besides, I need to compensate somehow for being the runt." She wasn't sure what made her say those things. Standing over the reflective surface, she gasped at what she saw. It turns out her backpack and rifle hadn't grown, she shrank. She eliminated the possibility of the water playing tricks on her eyes. She had definitely lost a foot from her height, and with it about thirty pounds. Most of the scars she'd become familiar with were missing, and in general she looked like she couldn't have been older than ten or eleven years old.

"What, see something you don't like?" The boy wandered next to her. "Look, I know things have been rough. But we're almost to the state border. Once we're out of Louisiana, things should get easier."

The boy and girl started to leave the safety of the cave. It was pretty perilous up here, a narrow ledge the only thing connecting them to the cliff face, and a several hundred foot fall if there was a misstep. The driving rain didn't help matters. However, a slip wasn't the complication that was waiting for those two. Just as they stepped onto less perilous ground, a chunk of the cliff right next to the boy's head exploded.

"Sniper!" he yelled, and she hit the deck with him. Kassidy started scanning the treeline for signs of the assassin, while her companion crept forward to get behind a boulder that would block line of sight. Looking back to the boy to make sure it was safe to move, she saw a bush rustle a distance further. She was shooting at it before she realized it probably meant that a man was coming out of it, but sure enough the man in question pitched forward and faceplanted into the dirt. If only she could clear her head of whatever was making it hard to think. For now, more men were coming, and the two kids had to run. The run was cut short when the boy slipped on loose gravel made even more hazardous by the rain. Kassidy diving to the edge and grabbing his arm was the only reason he hadn't fallen to his death.

Suddenly, the fog cleared from her mind. Kassidy knew exactly where she was. More importantly, she knew exactly when she was. She tried desperately to pull the heavier child up to her, but her weaker body wasn't up to the task. Pulling and pulling, the gunslinger watched in horror at the inevitable. How many times had she seen this scene play out in her mind? She lost count years ago. She hadn't had the nightmares in months, though; she thought that she was finally rid of them. Why was she watching this now?

The boy's chest exploded, a sniper round plowing through his torso. His eyes glazed over, and his grip weakened. Kassidy could do nothing but scream as he fell to his death.

"Kassidy, wake up!"

The shouting in her face made her shoot her eyes open. Yang was hanging onto her for dear life, pinning her arms to her sides. A restraining glyph was around her hand, which seemed odd at first. Then she noticed that she had drawn her pistol, knuckles bone white from gripping it so hard, and was unknowingly about to shoot whatever was in front of her. That thing in front of her was Ruby, silver eyes wide with terror.

Taking giant gulps of air, her tear streaked face stung as she tried to get herself to calm down. After being convinced that she wasn't going to shoot anyone on accident, Weiss dropped the glyph. Yang reluctantly let go, and Kass threw her head back onto her pillow and buried her face in her hands.

"Shit… I thought I was done with those."

"Done with what?" Ruby stammered. All three of her teammates were too scared to even be angry that they had been woken up in the middle of the night by the blonde screaming bloody murder.

The gunslinger decided she was done with sleep. "What time is it?"

Weiss answered curtly, "Three thirty."

Kass took a few seconds to breathe. "Alright. I can work with that. Another hour on my workout won't kill me." Grabbing her backpack, she was about to head out the door when Yang's question stopped her in her tracks.

"Who's Matthew?"

Kassidy very slowly turned around and glared at her partner, as though simply saying the name was the deepest and most offensive sin possible. "Don't ask."