Interlude 1 Chapter 2: Slices and Slices

AN: Good news for you guys: apparently word got out among the folks that I've taken up writing as a hobby. While they still haven't read it (and can't say I blame them, fan fiction isn't really their cup of tea), one of my Christmas gifts happened to be a guide to character expression. Perfect timing too, what with getting Molotov Cocktail rolling. If all goes well the quality of character interactions should be going up.

Also, the gun naming competition just got pushed back a few chapters. I realized I timed some of it wrong when I wrote that the name would be revealed by chapter 4. Expect it instead to be revealed around chapter 6 or 7, really depends on how I write those particular chapters. FYI, current favorites are "Yin", "Soulburn", and "SIQEL". Also, the best I've been able to come up with is "Lamentation", and thus is in the running too because I'm a self-important prick like that. Probably not going to win, though.

It's time for final exams! And there's one in particular Kassidy isn't looking forward too. After that, though… well, even superpowered teenaged Huntsmen-in-training need to let off some steam every now and then. And what better way than with pizza?

(Perspective: Kassidy)

Today was the final day of the semester. And, of course, that meant one thing: final exams. The bane of every college student seemed to strike no matter which planet you were on and no matter what you were studying for. Whether it was programming computers or slaying creatures of darkness, it seemed to be an inevitability that you would find yourself seated at a bench, staring at roughly a dozen pages of questions, while a professor with far too much facial hair and far too much eagerness to share boring stories watched on. Eventually, however, even these must come to an end as Kassidy handed in her exam while brushing her rapidly growing bangs out of her face for what felt like the three dozenth time. Ugh, chemistry around these parts is the WORST with all these different names. It's like writing a research paper in Pig Latin. Actually, I'm pretty sure that would be easier than translating all the different names and formulae. And of course, Yang insists on ruining my bun as per usual so I can't keep my hair out of the way.

"Remnant to K. Remnant to K. You there, partner?" A hand waving in her face brought her out of her thoughts and back to the lunch table teams RWKY and JNPR were seated at. "There we are. Was wondering if I'd have to get a search party together or something and go after ya."

"I'd not recommend that. You don't want to know what's bouncing around up in that brain of mine." Stabbing her lasagna, she added, "Just got some concerns over that previous exam. Pretty sure if I forgot to translate the names again, I won't have an easy time convincing Peach to give me the credit."

"S-so the final spars of Professor Goodwitch's exams are coming up after lunch. Do you have an idea as to who you're going to be fighting, Kassidy?" Pyrrha's attempt to inject new life into the conversation would've been admirable if the answer wasn't painfully obvious. Glynda had been doing her best to make sure only students of similar power faced off against each other. And, of course, it was Jaune and Kassidy that were tied for having the worst records in the class. Boy, am I not looking forward to that fight.

"I've got a pretty good idea." Kassidy tucked back into her lunch and decided it better to not stir the pot any more than necessary. Mercifully, the conversation drifted away from her at that point, leaving her alone to her thoughts once more. As the eight teens finished their lunches and went their separate ways to change for Combat Training, Kassidy's thoughts continued to drift towards her upcoming fight, as well as her inevitable opponent. Jaune Arc was, paradoxically, the hardest opponent she's ever had to spar against.

It obviously wasn't that he outclassed her in skill. Surprisingly, however, they were fairly even: Kassidy might have more finesse over her blade, but Jaune was just as competent in his own sword and had been doing this for longer. Kassidy was one of the few people in their class that Jaune could outmuscle, and the boy had a size and reach advantage as well. Of course, in Kassidy's favor, she could run circles around him and had several times his stamina. In theory, she should have the advantage overall in their fight… if it wasn't for goddamn Aura ruining her day yet again. The forcefield that kept all her peers safe from harm changed everything in any fight, and it didn't help matters that Jaune seemed to have more of it than anyone else. Even without his shield, trying to take his Aura into the red was like trying to knock over a brick wall by hitting it repeatedly with her head. With his shield? She might as well try to blow up a tank with a pistol. And unlike Tom Hanks, Kassidy didn't have a Mustang available to drop a bomb on Jaune whenever she needed it.

"For our first exam of the day, may Jaune Arc and Kassidy Smith take the floor?" Well, won't have to wait much longer to figure who's the best worst fighter in the class. Grabbing a training sword, she looked across the stage to watch Jaune deploy his shield, while substituting the sword component of Crocera Mors for another training blade. She rolled her shoulders as her gaze darted between Glynda and Jaune. Alright, how do I want to do this? The longer we go on, the better the chances I have. Need to stay mobile, can't let him pin me down. Gonna be tricky, what with his recent strategy of 'apply face to enemy' he's pulled the last two times we sparred.

"So, uh… you ready, Kass?" Jaune had a nervous grin on as he took his ready position.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

"BEGIN!" After Glynda barked for the match to start, Kassidy waited for Jaune's inevitable charge before rolling out of the way at the last moment and swinging for the backs of his knees as hard as she could. Jaune staggered a bit, but otherwise seemed to completely ignore the blow. Quickly hopping front and center, he shoved his shield in her face while trying to swing his sword around, hoping to hit something important. Barely fifteen seconds in and this is already doomed to end the same way it always does: with him sitting on my face with his shield until he hits me enough times that Glynda calls it. Need to think of something fast if I'm gonna go for a different outcome.

I learned how to fight dirty for a reason. Two rules: what you can do to the other guy, and what you can keep the other guy from doing to you. "Just want to make sure, Jaune… what happens in this ring stays in this ring, right? No hard feelings?"

Jaune paused long enough to allow her to make some space. "Uh, I don't think I should say yes since you're asking that." He hastily added on with a chuckle, "Nah, we're cool."

A few people, Jaune included, let out soft gasps when Kassidy chucked her sword to the side and dropped into a boxer's stance she learned from Yang. Trying to get the initiative back quickly, Jaune rushed in for a shield bash. She crossed her arms in front of her and absorbed the blow head on, losing the contest of strength but absorbing the momentum as she needed to. When he pulled the shield back into a guard, she then spat in his face. Distracted, Jaune swung his sword in her general direction, which was just what she was looking for. Grabbing his wrist, Kassidy yanked it out and brought her other arm down hard on his elbow. Attacking the joints always is the best way to deal with a superior foe. She quickly brought the limb behind his back into a hammerlock and started wrenching at the shoulder joint.

Well, this is going better than previous bouts. Wait, why is his arm glowing white again? Oh, right, Aura. Which means… oh shit. Oh shit, indeed, as Jaune flooded his pinned limb with extra strength and broke out of the hold, smashing her in the chest with his shield for good measure. Collecting her sword back, they both took a moment to regather themselves, and Kassidy took a look at the scoreboard. Still at eighty seven percent?! What the hell? Just how much of this Aura bullshit does Jaune even have?! Bringing her focus back to the fight, Kassidy rolled under another shield charge and started swinging like a madwoman on his exposed back for all of the three seconds it took him to bring his shield back around. Deeming this was the best chance she had, Kassidy continued to backpedal, baiting Jaune into shield charges that she then dodged and countered.

A few minutes of this later, and Jaune didn't charge her this time. A quick glance to the scoreboard revealed his Aura to… still be at seventy percent. Fortunately for her, it appeared that he wasn't doing nearly as well in the stamina department. Planting the tip of his sword on the ground and leaning on it to catch his breath, Jaune looked at her through the mess of blonde hair dripping with sweat. "Y'know, this kind of fight doesn't really seem fair."

Kassidy's reply was clipped and tense. "You're one to talk. You ever tried punching a brick wall to death? I've gotten closer to doing that than I have knocking your Aura down."

Jaune chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I imagine this is a bit annoying for you to deal with. Probably be even more annoying if you weren't fitter than a horse.

Kassidy had decided a little bit ago that Jaune had enough of a break to catch his breath, in fact that was the one thing she didn't want him to do. But that damned shield was just one complication too many. She can beat him in swordfighting – not easily, but she can. Even the Aura, she can wear down over time; a very long time, but it was still doable. She needed to figure out how to get Crocera Mors out of his grip, and she needed to figure that out yesterday.

Her impromptu strategy session was interrupted, however, when Jaune yelled again and charged forward. However, this time he was sloppy, with his shield not covering everything it needed to. Rather than rolling around him, Kassidy instead dropped to the side and smashed her leg into his shins, tripping him up. While he was still falling, she brought her training sword down hard across his forehead before retreating across the arena. Sixty seven percent Aura, that hit did a lot more than all the others. At this rate I might actually have a chance. He charged again, his form was sloppy again, and Kassidy dropped again, fully expecting to trip him up.

Unfortunately for her, she forgot that the eyepatch left her with a rather large blind spot. A blind spot that was take advantage of as the shield came crashing into her temple and sent her tumbling across the floor. A brief flash of light encompassed her vision, her head started ringing, and next thing she knew she was looking up at Yang waving her hand in her face.

"Oh, good, she's back." Yang's voice made her hearing suddenly rush back to her. Yang let out a breath she had been holding, before sticking her hand in Kassidy's face again and asking, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Kassidy rolled her eye, slightly wincing at the minor migraine the action induced. "Seven and a half." Yang gawked and made to argue with her, but Kassidy cut her off. "Vomit Boy there might've gotten a mean swing, but it's still gonna take more than that to give me a concussion. I'm fine." Accepting a hand up, she was soon seated to watch the last two exams of the class, which proved to be greatly entertaining as they pitted Yang against Nora (which ended with Yang punching Nora through a pillar and into the stands), and Weiss against Pyrrha (which surprisingly ended with Weiss catching Pyrrha in a restraining glyph and then pinballing her across the arena).

Pulling the final cheese and meat covered disc out of the oven, Kassidy and Ren piled it on the cart with the other nine. RWKY and JNPR were all too eager to have another pizza party to celebrate the end of the semester. For the next month, no more exams, no more classes, no more enormously embellished stories or highly energetic professors, and definitely no more getting punched or smashed through walls. Kassidy took a moment, as they were walking back to the dorms, to appreciate that her body wasn't obliterated by now. To the contrary, she had felt more flexible than ever once Narud's treatments fixed the whole 'internal organs are more scar tissue than not' problem she had. She had fewer aches and pains moving around. In short, Kassidy was in the best shape she's ever been in.

Her newly grown eye itched under its patch. Well, I'll be in good shape once I peel this thing off. And I know just how to make it memorable, too.

"Is there a particular reason you haven't removed your eye patch yet, Kassidy? Or did I incorrectly assume that it healed properly?"

"No, Ren, you didn't incorrectly assume. I just got a good idea." Kassidy flashed him a toothy grin, which made him pale slightly. "Don't go ruining the joke now, okay?"

The two quieter members of their respective teams were treated once again to Yang and Nora having broken Weiss' desk over an arm wrestling competition. It seems that even with this only being the second occurrence, and with a period of two months between occurrences, it was already an established tradition that Yang and Nora were breaking something before a pizza party.

"What's up, Weiss? You didn't try to stop them from breaking your desk – again, I might add?"

"Oh hush, Kassidy." Weiss huffed and crossed her arms while glaring at the perpetrators. "You do remember what happened the last time I tried to stop those two from doing something, don't you? I never thought I would ever want to fight an Ursa unarmed rather than do anything."

"Quit being such a baby, Weiss!" Nora cackled after winning this particular round against Yang. Apparently the allure of pizza was enough to get the girl to end the match quickly as she raced over and practically vibrated in place in front of Kassidy. "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"Okay, Nora, okay! Here's your bacon, pepperoni, and maple syrup pizza. I still have no idea how you found that appetizing last time, but alright." Kassidy and Ren quickly distributed everyone's meals, then found places to sit at themselves.

"Hey, uh, Kass, weren't you supposed to get your eye checked by Narud this afternoon?"

"Yes, Ruby, I was."

"Oh." Ruby poked her fingers together nervously. "Did it not go well?"

And here we go. Kassidy bit back a smile and shrugged. "Eh, went well enough I guess. Though I'm not convinced… nah, it's probably fine."

"Did something go wrong?"

Kassidy actually laughed at that one. "Pyrrha, dear, it's me we're talking about. Of course something went wrong." A few nervous chuckles sounded through the room before Kassidy waved them off. "Nah, I'm fine. I think. It's just that… actually, Weiss, could I get your opinion on something?"

Weiss flipped her hair over her shoulder, taking care not to get sauce on anything, before meeting Kassidy's eye with a smug grin. "Of course. I would be all too happy to give such a friend as yourself some of my knowledge."

Much of the room stared at her slack-jawed. Someone muttered something about how she was actually being serious, but Kassidy quickly shook her head and brought things back on topic. "It's just, I don't know. I've got something strange, and I can't tell if it's supposed to be normal or if it'll just go away on its own or what. Think you could take a look?"

Weiss instantly stopped halfway through taking a delicate bite and looked at her incredulously. "Let me get this straight. You can't tell if something is wrong with your eye."

"Yup."

"So, instead of asking literally anybody who could stomach a potentially disgusting sight, or heaven forbid Doctor Narud…"

"Uh-huh."

"You decide to ask me. Am I hearing this right?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "Alright, fine, come over here."

This is too perfect. Making her way across the room, Kassidy knelt to get on eye level with Weiss. She tried not making eye contact with Kassidy while her hands inched forwards slowly and jerkily. This is going to be so good. I'll probably get frozen to the floor until next semester, but it'll be worth it. As soon as Weiss lifted the patch up, Kassidy picked the moment to launch her scare, jumping at Weiss and screeching.

Weiss' screech, however, was far more entertaining and several measures higher in decibel level. Kassidy was quickly joined on the floor by Yang and Nora, the three clutching their stomachs and laughing like madwomen. The patch had flipped up, revealing a perfectly healed and intact eyeball shining with mirth. Her fun soon ended, however, when a glyph glued her to the floor with Weiss standing above her, cheeks a rosy red as she sputtered.

"You… you… I don't… ugh… you CHILDREN! How have you survived being on my team all this time? What could have possibly possessed you to think that was a good idea?"

"I thought it'd be a good idea because it'd be hilarious. Duh."

"I am going to bury you alive, Kassidy Smith. Mark my words. They'll never find your body."

Yang snickered at the byplay. "Geez, Weissy, how about telling her how you really feel?"

Ren cleared his throat and the tension. "Now that I know what joke I wasn't supposed to be interrupting-"

"Wait, you were in on this?!"

"I can assure you that I was not, Weiss. Anyways, this still doesn't explain why we made two extra pizzas."

Finally being let up to return to her dinner, Kassidy flashed another toothy grin. "Don't you worry about that. The situation should resolve itself here in a minute or two."

"Yes, it will. By me." The door opened once again to admit Glynda Goodwitch with arms crossed and eyes flashing. "How is it that you eight seem to generate more noise complaints than every other team in your year put together?"

"Probably because they don't know the cheesy glory that is pizza." Kassidy smirked at her, but withered under her glare. "Okay, not in a joking mood, I see. By the way, the two pizzas I owe you are there. Still hot, even."

"So I see." Taking a slice and biting into it, the professor let out an impressed hum. "Very well. Carry on, then." Glynda then turned around and left with both pizzas.

"Wow…" Jaune stared at the door, jaw slack. "So what I got out of that is, we can do whatever we want as long as we bribe Glynda with pizza. Right?"

Ren shrugged and gave a simple, "I don't think we should test that theory," before returning to his pizza.

"I calculate a one hundred percent chance of failure over the long term if you elect to pursue that strategy."

"Of course you do, Bob. Of course you do." The next ten minutes were spent mostly with the teenagers stuffing their faces, and making small talk when their mouths weren't full. In due time, however, all eight of them set their plates aside with bellies full of cheese, meat, and veggies. Kassidy was the first to break the silence. "So, one semester down, seven to go. How're we all feeling so far?"

"Well…" Ruby stuck her tongue out in thought. "I mean, things have been kinda good for the most part. Sure, we've kinda sorta almost died a couple times, but we came through it alright in the end. I'm still kinda young, the classes are a bit hard, and I'm still not that great a leader…"

"Nuh-uh, we've talked about this, sis. You're doing a great job as a leader."

"Yang's right." Jaune threw in his two Lien. "You guys are awesome. Like, really great as a team. I'm pretty sure the only reason I look like half the leader you do is because I've got such an awesome team."

"You do a great job too, Jaune." Pyrrha smiled and laid a hand on his shoulder.

Ruby grinned goofily at him. "Yeah, you do. So, uh, yeah. Oh, I made a bunch of cool friends! You guys rock, I don't know what I'd do without all of you." Leaning over the edge of her bed to look at Weiss, she added, "Yes, even you Ice Queen."

"Hey!" This time, however, Weiss actually recognized the joking nature of the jab, and she let it drop at that. "Well, let's see. I'm at the top of the class when it comes to the lectures, and near the top of the class in combat training. Our team has been performing solidly across all fronts – yes, even you, Kassidy – and we've only had one major scandal so far, which I believe we can trust to not rear its ugly head again. All in all, I would consider my first semester a success."

Yang flopped back on her bed with a goofy grin and summarized her thoughts in three words. "Beacon. Is. Awesome."

"It sure is." Jaune leaned back in his chair as he thought for a bit. "I mean, let's be honest, I really, REALLY didn't belong here when we started. Heck, I didn't even know what Aura was. But Beacon is awesome, and you guys are awesome. Y'know, I think I might actually have a fair chance at this Huntsman business with you guys helping me out."

"And we'll be there for you every step of the way." Wow, okay Pyrrha, even I'm not that dense. Someone's into tall, blonde and scraggly, as Weiss would put it. Stretching her arms, Pyrrha added, "I feel so incredibly blessed to have the friends I do. Truly, you seven have made my time here wonderful, and I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"It's been a long journey, and we have more and longer journeys ahead of us. But we'll be able to deal with it, together." A few people were impressed at the words Ren spoke.

So, of course, Nora had to make up for the monotone and lack of excitement. "Look out Grimm! Rookie and Juniper are coming for your tails!"

After recovering from a bad case of the giggles, Yang's head leaned over the bed, blonde hair nearly scraping the ground as she looked upside down at her partner. "How about you, K? What're your thoughts about things here?"

"Well, you mean other than how routinely you guys break the laws of physics and biology? Or other than the fact that the Grimm shouldn't be biologically possible? Eh, I have a bunch of thoughts." Yang rolled her hand and prompted her to go on, and Kassidy's posture fell as she sighed. "Not sure. We've had a bunch of ups and downs. Some pretty big downs…"

"And some big ups, too!" Ruby added with a big smile.

Kassidy chuckled a little bit, sitting up a little straighter. "Yeah, some of those as well. I somehow haven't died yet, so there's that. I guess I'm just happy that I don't have to spend every day worrying about every little thing, y'know? For so long, I've kinda been fighting everything and everyone. It's nice to have some people I can actually trust."

"I hear ya, partner."

The room descended into anarchy again as three separate conversations began at once. Kassidy just watched it all from her bed, a small smile on her lips. She would've been perfectly content to just watch everything, but then someone made the fatal mistake of hitting Weiss with a pillow. Pillow fight to end the semester? Is that even a thing? Her thoughts were interrupted when another pillow hit her in the face. Looking around, she saw Yang doubled over, snickering and pointing at her face. Yeah, it's definitely a thing now. You shall pay for your treachery, Yang!

And so the semester ended, with eight teenagers with varying degrees of willingness to participate in a pillow fight duking it out. They forgot for a time that they were the next generation of warriors being trained to fight unending hordes of evil, instead clobbering each other with feather-filled sacks like the kids they still were.

"Well, you've come this far Kassidy," Bob muttered to himself. "Glad to be around for the ride. Shame I didn't bring any entertainment for myself. I've come across some references to some decent animated internet shows. Oh well, I was only allowed to take useful stuff after all."

AN 2: So, it turns out this was the last chapter I had in storage while I was busy screwing around with other stuff. Might want to get back to writing. Anyway, unless I can think of anything to talk about between now and Friday, let's move on to Reviewer Responses.

Next chapter: What Kassidy's new gun is gets revealed (not the name, though). Also, heart to heart with Ice Queen.

EWR115: Ah, Mustang and Sally, the third best weapons in COD Zombies (other than the ray gun and thundergun, obviously). Can't really say that Kassidy's played much of any videogame though, never mind COD, so unfortunately no can do.

Captain marvel 36: Color me intrigued with your name submission, but there was just too much in the way of competition. Sorry. And thanks for the favorite and the compliment, I do try my best to fill in the gaps that the show left. Even if there was two or three times I had a three week timeskip, though I try to keep those to a minimum as that's a hell of a lot of time for someone to just leave.

James: "Big Daddy" is definitely interesting (Bioshock reference, or am I confusing video game series that I haven't played again?), but unfortunately it has some stiff competition. Also, while I wholeheartedly approve of "Noisy Cricket", not only would I doubt that Kassidy has seen Men in Black, her gun is absolutely not small. Not only do I agree that Kassidy wouldn't name a weapon on her own, but it was even my plans to have Ruby/Yang talk her into naming it. Are you sure you're not peeking at the Team Rookie Road Map™?

mcd3424: "Soulburn" caught my interest as something she might come up with. "Sunshine", while nice, I don't think Kassidy realizes how much she likes Yang yet that she'll flat out name her gun after her partner. And unfortunately, Rule of Cool isn't enough to make Kassidy name her gun those, the names do need to have a personal touch to it after all.

AgentDraakis: Gotta admit, while I don't think she'd name the gun "Pacifier", I laughed my ass off on that one on how true it is. "Yin" drew my eye as it isn't as much an overt reference to Yang (pretty sure nobody on Remnant knows what Taoism is). The other two were nice, but unfortunately had some stiff competition. Nope, Blake's hiding for a while, sorry. She's off learning how to be more to the show other than 'plot device'. Ruby and Kassidy are kinda cute together, aren't they? Of course Weiss would help a friend in need, what could possibly make you doubt that? And if it helps her out at the same time, all the better, amirite? I'd advise taking some insulin along with those tissues, one of my goals for the interlude is giving everyone diabeetus.

Guest: The name had some stiff competition, but after looking up the gun… hot damn, dude, now that is a gun! That's definitely the kind of size we're talking about here! Not a revolver, but still, wow. Good find/mention.

Baconlord53: "Hard Time" is gonna have a hard time unfortunately. (Cries of 'damnit Barb' in the distance). Some stiff competition in the names department.

AndJrew76: I shall endeavor to keep up the good work my man. Glad to hear you're still enjoying everything.

Psychomidget1: "Calamity" is an awesome name, I'll give you that. It just barely got edged out, though. Final Fantasy, huh? Is the new one good by any chance? Unfortunately, I've only heard nothing but bad things about the series after like number seven or so.

Tykene: This right here just might win. Still got time to go (and a lot more time now), but that was great. Kudos to you.

GuyFromPandora: I can totally see that, but there's a whole lot of competition here. Sorry. Glad to hear you're enjoying it so much, I'll do my best to keep up the quality in the fic.

shamwoohoo52: While I didn't have plans for that initially… that sounds like an excellent idea. Well, bits of it anyway. Won't be exactly how you asked, but let it be known that the girls will be watching more Marvel. As for Blake… this is a different Blake. One that feels that the White Fang, while indeed doing terrible things, are completely justified. And while yeah, I will happily admit that there were probably better ways to swap them, I do have a particular idea in mind with those two come the end of everything.

RagingKey: Interesting names, unfortunately they had some stiff competition. Sorry.