Interlude 1 Chapter 1: Perspectives

AN: Sorry for late upload. Monopoly happened.

Well, we're officially out of Volume 1. Still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to call this bit Volume 1.5 or Interlude 1. Either way, I'm going to be handling it differently from previous chapters. This won't be as long as Volume 1, but there will be significantly less action, hell I only have 3 or maybe 4 action chapters lined up. The main point of this part of the story? Yup, I dare say it's high time we got a ship out of port.

Speaking of slice of life stuff, a lot's been dropped on the team recently. Final exams are on their way. How are our favorite Huntresses handling everything?

(Perspective: Ruby)

Ruby was having trouble sleeping tonight. And with being subjected to her own 'face your fears' test that afternoon, it was little wonder why. All she could think about was how Weiss yelled at her, berated her, tore her down for being the worst team leader possible, how she was such a horribly naïve immature dolt that had no place at Beacon. She could only think about how Kassidy was terrified of her, hiding and running away even as she fell deeper into her own problems, her own demons before finally pulling the trigger and ending it all, the gun smoking in complete mockery of Ruby's failed efforts to save her. She could only think about how Yang just turned her back and walked away, calling her a miserable failure and going on about how ashamed she was of her little sister.

Sniffling back a few tears and rolling over, she saw a faint glow coming from Kassidy's bed. The girl must've been working on Bob. Again. Doesn't she ever get tired looking at that screen? She hasn't had the opportunity to do anything but work on her computer, even when she got released from the infirmary yesterday. Suddenly, Kassidy looked up and glanced at Ruby, before quickly ducking her head back down and snapping off the light. Oh, I hope she's not having trouble sleeping again. I really don't want to have to deal with that again. I know she doesn't either.

After seeing the girl make no attempt to lay down and get some rest, however, Ruby took a chance and slipped out from her own bed before walking over and crouching down. Keeping her voice low, Ruby asked, "You're not having the insomnia problem again, are you?"

"Not this time. This is just a side effect of not being allowed to move for seven days straight. How about you? You doing alright?"

"Yeah."

"No you're not."

"No I'm not," Ruby admitted. "I just… I dunno. I keep thinking about everything I saw."

Kassidy hissed in sympathy. "Yeah, Yang told me. Want to go talk about it? I'm not sleeping any time soon, I can tell you won't be, and I hear the roof is lovely this time of night."

"Uh, sure. If you want. Don't want to keep you from sleeping." Kassidy shook her head in the negative, and the two girls silently got up and left the room. Padding up to the roof, they sat on a ledge and looked at the night sky for a few minutes, neither saying a word.

"Anything you want to talk about first?"

Ruby frowned and looked down at her feet swinging over the edge. What do I want to talk about first? Do I even want to talk? Wait, of course I do. If Kassidy not talking never helps, why would me not talking help? "Um, yeah. When I saw you, you were so afraid of me, I-"

"So I heard." Kassidy cut her off from rambling when she had barely begun. "Look, if you're worried I'm gonna try and put a bullet in my brain, don't worry. Doing that is the single fastest way to piss me off, remember?" She pointed to her eyepatch for emphasis, and Ruby smacked her forehead. Of course! How did I possibly forget THAT one? "Alright, who next? Yang?"

"Yeah. I mean, I know Yang doesn't feel like that, but what if she does?"

"She doesn't. Your sister isn't that subtle when she's not happy about something. If she didn't think you were doing a good job, don't you think she'd make it pretty darn obvious?"

"Uh-huh."

"And Yang is absolutely not the person to go leaving people. Heck, from what you told me it sounds like she tore up half the city looking for me last weekend. Honestly, your sister up and hitting the road should be close to the last thing you need to be worried about."

"I guess. So, that leaves us with Weiss, huh?"

"Yup, Ice Queen. And to be perfectly blunt, I don't know enough about her to say with absolute certainty what she does or doesn't think. You're gonna want to talk to her on your own." Of course. Weiss would be so much better at this whole leader thing than I am. Or Yang. Or Kass, for that matter. Kassidy put a hand on her shoulder at seeing her face fall. "What I can say with absolute certainty is that you're not a failure at being a team leader. You do a good job, girl, and I'm glad you're the one out of the four of us leading this sorry bunch of misfits."

"You don't think… you don't think one of you guys would do a better job?"

Kassidy barked out a soft laugh. "I'm not really good at the whole leadership thing. If Weiss were leading, I'd probably mutiny, and Yang definitely would. Speaking of Yang… yeah, not much to say about her leading the team other than 'lost cause'."

"Hey, that's my big sis you're talking about there!" Ruby smacked her shoulder playfully and giggled a bit. "Give her some credit!"

"I did." Ruby stuck her tongue out at Kassidy, who chuckled and looked out at the sky again. She's not wrong, though. It really is pretty out here. Kassidy brought the silence to an end, though. "Gotta admit, really glad I got to know you. It's nice being friends with the second deadliest fifteen year old on Remnant."

Looking over, Ruby cocked her head and arched an eyebrow. "Second deadliest?"

Kassidy had a glint in her eye as she smirked. "Don't get me wrong, you're good and all. But I'm, well, I'm me."

Ruby shoved at her shoulder hard enough to make her fall back onto the flat part of the roof they were on, all while sporting a wide grin of her own. "Care to back that up?"

Kassidy chuckled as she sat up. "Not really. Yang would beat the crap out of me. It's pretty obvious I'd win, after all." Suddenly, she gasped as she remembered something. "Oh, crap. You don't have your Scroll on you, do you?"

Why would I… oh. "We're locked out of the dorm, aren't we?"

Sighing, Kassidy fell back onto the roof. "Well, I guess it could be worse. It could be raining. Wouldn't be the first time I've spent a night on a roof."

(Perspective: Weiss)

Weiss sighed as she tore through the halls, looking for Kassidy. Two weeks since her little escapade into Vale, two weeks until finals… and she was missing… again. At least she hasn't dropped off the face of Remnant this time around. No, over the course of the weekend she's been in contact with the team; she just hasn't been seen anywhere. When this was Friday afternoon and she first took off with the excuse of having work to do, Weiss had been accepting, even glad that the team's resident dork was willing to get out of her hair and actually take her studies seriously. Well, alright, she usually does take her studies seriously when she does study. I just wish she'd do it more often, then she wouldn't have to worry so much about juggling her grades, her training and her computer.

As the weekend drug on, however, Kassidy's complete absence became more and more concerning to Weiss. Sure, she answered any calls or messages the team sent her way, but beyond that Kassidy was nowhere to be found, always saying she was working on something. While Ruby and Yang were seemingly content with that answer, Weiss wasn't so sure she liked it. For starters, Kassidy still hadn't begun working on a replacement weapon to the best of her knowledge; as a marksman, going from two ranged weapons to zero was a huge hit in her fighting style.

And then there was the matter that Weiss was pretty sure Kassidy was avoiding her. It didn't matter how much she told herself that it wasn't logical, that Kassidy didn't actually feel that way, what Weiss saw in her test was something she definitely wasn't prepared to face. It was simple, really. Choose between her father, a man who refused to take no for an answer and had the power to almost literally turn Remnant on its head to get what he wanted, and her friends, probably the closest, best, and only friends she'd ever had. As her father demanded she abandon Ruby and Yang, how they were beneath her, and then cart Kassidy off to Atlas for 'biological experiments of unprecedented importance'. Even with only the barest minimum of information on this Project Colossus she's kept hearing about recently, Weiss knew it was nothing but bad news.

Despite Kassidy's assurances that she didn't harbor any ill will towards her, Weiss still wasn't convinced. And she wasn't sure what to do. Simply buying her a gift and hoping that would solve the issue was out of the question. Money wasn't the problem – as the Schnee heiress, Weiss had access to more than enough funds to get the job done. But Kassidy was independent and proud of it, and something told the heiress that Kassidy would be less thrilled than most at a lavish gift. Weiss had already apologized repeatedly, and Kassidy had repeatedly said there was nothing to apologize for. So then why did she feel like Kassidy was avoiding her? That demented computer of hers wasn't giving any meaningful hints either. Ugh, I'm a Schnee! Why am I having such a hard time keeping friends?

So Weiss continued to stalk down the various hallways and buildings on campus, determined to find the dork that had vanished for the past two days. She'd been at this for nearly an hour and was about to give up when she suddenly remembered that Bob was sounding aggravated whenever he last talked to the team. Kassidy might not want to be found, but her little pet project might want her found! A quick message confirmed that theory, though she was surprised that Kassidy was in one of the science labs. Had she always been there? Making her way over to the room, she took a deep breath before opening the door and stomping in.

"Huh? Oh, hey Weiss, little busy right now, can't talk. Man, this stuff is incredible!" With frazzled hair, bloodshot eyes, manic look, and an odor of not having showered recently, Kassidy looked like a complete wreck. Oh dear Oum, what is her problem this time? I'm getting real tired of her problems messing up the team.

Sighing heavily, Weiss stood across from the bench she was at and got her attention. "Kassidy, what are you doing? What even happened this time? How many times does stuff like this need to happen before you begin coming to us with your problems?" With a quieter tone and a bit of fear making itself known despite her best efforts, Weiss added, "You know you can trust me, right?"

Looking up, Kassidy blinked a few times as she muttered to herself, obviously trying to reason through a particular thought process. "What? You think I'm… oh, no, Weiss. I'm fine, seriously! It's just this bit of research I'm working on, absolutely amazing!"

Weiss' lips thinned to a line as she leaned back and crossed her arms. "And what exactly is this bit of research you're working on?"

"Well, you know those final projects we have for applied chemistry? I figured that since I was starting to get a bit batty from wondering what this Dust substance is exactly, and that I didn't have any better ideas for a project, AND the fact that I found a mass spectrometer here, I'd kill two birds with one stone and figure out Dust's chemical composition."

Weiss blinked rapidly as she gazed into the distance, trying to fully comprehend what was just said. Quickly recovering, she shook her head and met Kassidy's eye. "Alright, first off, mass spectrometer? Don't you mean compositional identifier?"

"No, I mean… you know what? Forget it, I'm tired of arguing names with you guys."

Thank you! Our home, our names. Get used to it already! "And second off, we've already tried to determine Dust's chemical structure. Not only does it change based on what kind of Dust one would look at, we have no idea what it is. None of the readings make sense."

"That's because you don't know what you're looking at. Err, no offense. But the only two noble gasses you guys have found are helium and neon, so it stands to reason that argon's readings would throw you for a loop. Hey, you finished processing the data on that fire Dust crystal, Bob?"

"Not yet, still need a few minutes."

"Wait… are you trying to say that you've found out what Dust is made of?"

"Yup! Throw in a fair amount of simulating and number crunching on Bob's end, and I think I have it all figured out. Fascinating, really. I'm no chemist, but I'm pretty sure this stuff isn't supposed to occur naturally. No matter what type it is, at its core every Dust molecule is built around a tetrahedral crystal structure of argon. Do you have any idea how much energy you need to keep a noble gas locked in this solid a structure? Again, this stuff shouldn't be occurring naturally. No wonder we didn't have this stuff at home, and to be honest I'm not sure how you guys have this stuff either."

"It grows naturally."

Kassidy's jaw did its best impression of a fish as she ran a hand through her hair. "I'm… having a hard time believing that. Still, no wonder Dust is such a potent fuel source. We're talking energy densities that compare to uranium and plutonium, with zero radioactive waste, which is a good thing. And then look at this! Molecular impurities based on what type of crystal we're looking at! This earth crystal, for example, has simple lithium oxides and silicates in it, while ice crystals have a plethora of water molecules trapped in the tetrahedron."

"Fascinating…" Weiss was honestly at a loss for words. However, a quick sniff of the air reminded her why she was here in the first place. "Kassidy, when was the last time you showered? Or ate, for that matter?"

"Um… what time is it, Bob?"

"Five thirty."

"There, I ate six hours ago. Not a problem."

"It's five thirty on Sunday evening."

"Oh." Kassidy looked blankly ahead. "Alright, so maybe slightly longer than six hours."

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. Ugh, of course the dork would lose all track of time on something like this. Alright, Kassidy needs to go take care of herself and make herself presentable. But something needs to be done with this research… eh, can't be TOO hard to figure out, can it? "Give Bob to me. I'll make sure that your project's finished at this point. This is fascinating."

"Look, I appreciate it-"

"No, you're not talking your way out of this. You. Dinner. Shower. Bed. Now." Pointing sternly at the door leading out, Weiss made it clear that Kassidy's work here was done. The blonde looked down at her computer and closed her eyes, before shaking her head and walking out of the room. Sighing heavily, Weiss got to the task of picking up where her teammate left off. A Remnant-shaking discovery, a guaranteed perfect grade for our project, AND something to appease Father when I get shipped back to Atlas for the summer? Yes please!

(Perspective: Yang)

Yang leapt up on her bed before flopping back and starting up her fighting game. Finals were tomorrow, she had spent all weekend staring at books, and Dust-damnit if she wasn't going to get a break from the endless studying Weiss put her through. For the past week, it's been nothing but 'study this' and 'read that' and 'put that video game away'. Seriously, Ice Queen has been putting us through the paces like a slave driver or something. It's not my fault studying is SO BORING! I'm not even in a real big danger of flunking my classes, so long as I don't horribly bomb the tests.

The door opened and closed, but Yang didn't get up to look. Judging from the lack of noise, Weiss was probably stopping in the room to drop her things off before heading for dinner. Ruby was practically incapable of being quiet, and Kassidy was usually chatting up Bob or doing something else that gave her away in the solitude of their dorm. Speaking of K, she's been looking pretty ragged these past couple days. Maybe I should-

Yang's thought process screeched to a halt as the distinctive sound of clothes hitting the floor was heard. A sound that was particularly odd, since she was pretty sure Weiss never changed in the middle of the room even when alone. Which means it had to be either Ruby or K in the room with her. Almost instinctually, Yang got up to see who it was, and regretted it instantly. She wasn't regretting the view, for obvious reasons. Scars aside, Kassidy had been putting in plenty of time at the gym during their time at Beacon, and it was starting to show; that chick had some good tone to her by now. But that doesn't change the fact that this was her partner, in her underwear, changing in the middle of the room, oblivious to Yang's presence. In addition to regretting a couple certain thoughts that were forcefully dismissed as quickly as they came, however, Yang also regretted the fact that she shot up so quickly she cracked her head on the ceiling. Muttering a soft curse and rubbing her scalp, she suddenly noticed the air became palpably tense.

"I'm not alone in here… am I?" Dust, you can practically hear her blush. Should I…? Nah, she gives me enough teasing material as it is. Eh, one can't hurt.

"Nope. By the way, good work in the gym. It's really showing." Yang looked away, bit her lip and pondered if it was really wise to tease her partner in THAT way, before deciding the answer was no as a pillow flew up and clobbered her in the side of the head. A quick scurrying and a slamming door told the story of Kassidy dashing into the bathroom to finish changing. Yeah, I shouldn't have done that. Great, now I gotta figure out how to make it up to her.

The bathroom door cracked open and admitted into the room a beet-faced Kassidy Smith. Almost numbly, she crossed the dorm and dumped her uniform into the hamper before sitting at her desk. Cracking open a book, Kassidy suddenly turned around and glared at Yang. "Not a word."

"Uh, right. Not mentioning it to anyone. That never happened." Yeah, she definitely looks real tired. Maybe if… a-ha! I got it! "Hey, I know what'll cheer ya back up."

"What's that?"

"By getting something better to eat than that pathetic excuse of chicken noodle soup they're serving for dinner." Leaping down from her perch, Yang leaned on the bunks they had set up. "You look like you could use a break. Why don't we go find out what we have in our little kitchenette to cook up, and watch a movie or something?"

"Ugh, I dunno, Yang." Kassidy grabbed at her hair and tugged gently, a telltale sign she was reaching the end of her rope. Even her patience had its limits, after all. "We've got those exams tomorrow and I've practically gone cross-eyed staring at my notes but what if I don't do good enough and if I don't do good enough I'll flunk the exams and then I'll get kicked out and wow wouldn't that be embarrassing after having almost died so many times, I get kicked out of Beacon because of bad grades, especially so embarrassing considering how-"

"Hush." Yang leapt up and pressed a finger to her lips before wagging it gently. "Wow, I think I've only ever seen you this stressed out once before. Yeah, you definitely need a break. C'mon, put the books down and let's see what looks good to eat around here."

Kassidy sighed, before silently agreeing and shutting the textbook her nose had been glued to earlier. "Let's keep it simple if we can. I don't really feel like doing a whole lot of fancy stuff tonight."

"You and me both." The two quickly found themselves down the hall. Flinging open a cupboard in the kitchenette they shared with JNPR, Yang spied and claimed a bag of tortilla chips. "Hey, we wouldn't happen to have cheese, would we?"

"As a matter of fact, we do." Kassidy ducked out of the fridge to see what was up. "Oh, nachos? I approve. I think I saw some ground beef I can brown up in here too. Hmm… okay, Yang. Half used jar of sliced jalapenos: yea or nay on Nora pancake experiment?"

Yang chuckled to herself. She and Kassidy had a running game going as to whether random ingredients they found were a result of Nora's experiments to find out just what tasted good in pancakes, and what didn't. "I'm gonna have to say yea on that one."

"Damn, I was going to say that. Oh well, they're ours now. No chance in hell jalapeno pancakes are good anyway. Doing the poor girl a favor."

Twenty minutes later saw the two blondes back in their dorm, changed into sleepwear (with no accidental peeping this time), climbing onto Yang's bed as Kassidy started swiping through Bob to find something worth watching, and a big bowl of cheesy goodness in the middle. Yang reached to grab a chip, but Kassidy slapped it away. Looking at her partner in shock, Yang was surprised to see Kassidy wearing a smirk. "Careful, Yang. That's na-cho dinner."

Yang blinked before splitting into a grin of her own. "That was a real cheesy one, K."

"Well, look who finally decided to chip in." They started snickering, but were interrupted by a strange sound as Bob's display turned off.

Yang looked at it curiously. "Did he just-"

"Yup, he shut himself off. Guess he couldn't Yang in there with the puns." Pushing his on button, Kassidy waited for Bob to power back up… only for the computer to turn himself back off as soon as he turned on. "Well, fine, be a spoilsport. Looks like movies aren't happening, partner."

"Pfft, of course they are. That's why we have Scrolls." Deciding on some mindless action flick, the two blondes got to watching. Looking over, Yang was pleased to see that Kassidy had already visibly and measurably relaxed. Glad to see you enjoying yourself so much, K. That's a cute smile you have there.

AN 2: So, while RWKY has been getting updated, RWBY Volume 4 has been getting updated at a rate of one actual episode to every three Worlds of Remnant. Yeah, it should be pretty obvious which camp I fall into on that particular issue. But, I'm digressing. Am I the only person to feel like RNJR completely forgot how to fight when Tyrian showed up? Dash in one at a time, swing lazily, don't bother dodging. For fuck's sake, I could've done a better job than that. Hell, Kassidy probably would've made a scorpion kabob. At least Qrow remains the show's resident badass. And goddamnit Ruby, are you TRYING to get someone killed? You're getting dangerously close to Blake as least favorite of Team RWBY with that stunt.

/rant

Super fast question for the lot of you: Kassidy's building a new gun. Consider this a contest as to who can come up with the best name for a high-caliber handgun. Winning name will be selected by me (not popular vote. What, did you think this was a democracy?) and revealed in Interlude 1 Chapter 4. Start submitting now; you have a week to convince me. Explanations as to why Kassidy would name it that get bonus points.

Anyway, eight Reviewer Responses, coming right up.

joltflier: Glad to hear you're enjoying it so much. Theme song? Not really, for a couple reasons. First and foremost being that I don't listen to all that much music, so the library I can pull from is rather limited. Secondly, it wouldn't have a lot of impact on the fic itself. I mean, other than maybe a reference, when would it even be mentioned? Don't take that to mean I don't think it's a fun idea. More partial to "Not Gonna Die" over "Awake and Alive" myself from your two choices.

Baconlord53: Well, looks like you're going to be giving me a hard time in the future. Not anytime soon though, thankfully.

AndJrew76: So glad everyone's liking the ending so much. Sorry, no Season 2 for a while now, but hopefully Interlude 1 will provide enough quality content to keep you entertained.

AgentDraakis: Oh no, not the cradle! Yeah, Yang and Kassidy are just two peas in a pod, aren't they? Now I just need to get them in the same pod, err, I mean… moving on. Sorry I almost ruined your coffee (not really, as I can't stand the stuff myself). Considering you're the only vote to have come through, Interlude 1 it is! Velvet and Kassidy getting together? I can see that happening, though not for a while.

James: Glad to hear it. Where we're going from here? Well, we're hopping on a boat for starters. I can personally guarantee that the Interludes will not have a major impact on plot for the story. As far as pacing is concerned, keep in mind the pacing may start picking up a bit. Before you crucify me, I have a good excuse: as far as the timeline is concerned, as far as I can tell Volume 1 takes place over the course of an entire semester. Volume 2 and 3, meanwhile, both take place over the same semester (and Volume 3 even ends before that semester does!). Given that I'm allotting four months for Volume 1, one month for Interlude 1, two months for Volume 2, three weeks for Interlude 2, and a whopping two weeks for Volume 3, I'm having Team Rookie follow as close to the canon timeframe as I can estimate. I.E. Volume One will last as long as RWBY V1, Volume Two will last as long as RWBY V2, etc.

mcd3424: If you think that was sweet, prepare for diabeetus. Interludes are focused almost none on plot and almost all on fluff/etc. Garand's not getting fixed, but don't count it out just yet! I've still got big plans for that old rifle of hers.

Guest: Awesome that you like it so much.

Tykene: Sucks about the flu, man. Glad to hear you got better so quickly. Ehhhhhhh, I actually have to disagree with government staying out of science, as long as it's done right (i.e. leave science to sciency people), case in point NASA. Team Rookie is staying here for a good while now. Into the Jungle is on the back burner for now, despite the fact that it's basically half written, so I wouldn't count on it anytime soon.