Interlude 1 Chapter 3: Ice Queen

AN: Want to say quickly that fanfiction's website has messed up again, and I haven't gotten any updates in regards to the story ever since yesterday. So if I missed any reviews, sorry about that, I'll be sure to hit you guys I missed next chapter.

Summer break's here, and the vast majority of Beacon faculty and students have already left for the month-long vacation. With Team Rookie being at half strength, how does Kassidy get along with a certain heiress? Also, more pseudoscience! If you missed it, hopefully you get your dose here. However, this time I put a decent amount of research into sounding at least somewhat intelligent. Still, don't use this chapter as a guide for how to design your own handgun, because that's a terrible idea. Seriously, who would use a fanfiction story for weapons advice?

(Perspective: Kassidy)

Noon found Kassidy in a formerly neglected friend of hers, the school's workshop. Other than restocking her ammunition, she never really had time to work on any new gear after the first month of school, and it was showing. Her grappling bracer needed recalibrated, Bob needed to be thoroughly cleaned and maintained, and then there was a new project she was working on. With her new 'friends' in the town of Vale proper, as well as a decent amount of funds, she was actually able to use more than scrapped electronics in her work, and as such putting the finishing touches on infrared-vision goggles was relatively simple. There, I don't need to be jealous of the Faunus anymore. You're not the only ones with night vision now!

That was several hours ago, however, and even as happy as she was about it, it still only served as a distraction from her main project, something she had been working on for the past two weeks with little success. Heck, she hadn't even gotten past the planning stages for her new firearm. After all, it wasn't exactly a small matter to design a pistol with the stopping power of her Garand, at least at close range. However, after a couple weeks of minor tinkering, heavy simulation running on Bob's part, and more reading than she gave her finals studying, Kassidy was pretty sure she almost had the plans solid.

Why the decision to carry a handgun with the power of a rifle at close range? Kassidy noticed that throughout the semester her engagements with the Grimm were, despite her desires, at close range, rarely requiring shots out past fifty yards. At such close ranges, the extra size of her rifle was a bigger detriment than its long range capabilities were an asset. But her pistol hadn't had killing power on even the smallest Grimm until they were right on top of her – Kassidy wanted some reach to her firearm. But there were numerous problems with designing such a pistol: the issues of weight and recoil. A lot goes into propelling a .45 caliber bullet to a thousand feet per second without destroying the bullet, the gun or the person shooting it. Most of that 'a lot' involved alien Dust magic and a bunch of other crap that she didn't even pretend to understand.

Despite it all, she had mostly gotten it designed, albeit with quite a bit of what would probably be described as cheating by an actual firearms designer. Much of it involved designing custom bullets that had improve aerodynamics (only possible thanks to a slew of simulations on the part of Bob) and a stronger casing that could handle the force of a fire Dust propellant, with a healthy helping of making the gun itself out of a Dust-infused steel alloy that can deal with the forces the high-powered ammunition brought to the table without weighing twenty five pounds. The plans were almost finished. Almost.

Snarling, Kassidy slammed the door to the workshop she was in and all but ran to the library, her latest recoil dampening mechanism test a failure. Her gun can handle the forces at play, but her wrist can't. Given her desire to not have a broken arm every time she fired her gun, it was obviously necessary to conduct more research. She was so distracted that, rounding a corner of shelving, she didn't notice that she almost barreled Weiss over.

"You dork, watch where you're going!" Weiss' admonishment fell on deaf ears, however, as Kassidy ripped a rolling ladder from its current place and brought it over to where she needed it to reach the topmost shelf that contained recoil mechanics. If she were of a clearer mind, Kassidy would've been curious as to just how many topics of study the library had books on. As it was, she found herself clenching her jaw when she found Weiss blocking her path back to the tables.

Despite her best efforts, annoyance found its way into her voice. "You need something, Weiss? Sorry, I'm kind of busy right now, so if you could excuse – hey, give that back!" Kassidy lunged for the book that Weiss had taken from her stack, only to drop the other three she was carrying.

"Recoil mechanics, huh? Finally started working on a replacement weapon? Here, let me help with those."

Kassidy hissed, "What do you mean, finally? Been working on it for the past couple weeks, pretty much ever since you took over my applied chem project for me." Suddenly remembering something, her voice cooled down instantly. "By the way, thanks for that."

"Not a problem." Weiss' brow furrowed in thought for a moment as she followed Kassidy to one of the library tables. "I take it you're not having much luck?"

"Who do you think I am, Ruby?" Kassidy snorted, and Weiss chuckled a couple times. "I can't get this stupid recoil dampener to work. My gun's got so much kick behind it that it'll snap my wrist if I try to shoot it as is. But I can't come up with a recoil delay that can save both my wrist and my weapon's power, while also fitting in the damn thing."

"May I see what you've come up with so far?" Sighing, Kassidy handed Bob over while digging into one of the books she picked up and leafing through the pages to find where she left off an hour ago. Meanwhile, Weiss scrutinized the schematics in front of her, making a few hums along the way. After about a few minutes of mostly silence on their part, Weiss spoke up. "Not bad at all. Though, if you're going for this much power, how come you're not using a revolver design?"

Kassidy raised an eyebrow at her. "Because it'd be even more of a nightmare to fit the recoil delay in a revolver, not to mention that I absolutely do not want to deal with having to reload one of those things in the middle of a fight."

"You could use a speedloader."

"Which is limited by how many speedloaders I have."

"Ah." Weiss seemed to make a few calculations in her head, then looked back at the design and nodded. "How come you don't just use a rotating bolt? I mean, sure, you'd need to infuse it with Dust to handle this kind of pressure, but it's easily doable."

"Weiss, how am I going to fit a gas-operated mechanism into a pistol? Rotating bolts are only found on rifles for a reason."

Bob stepped in to correct her. "Actually, the Desert Eagle also uses – err, used – a gas-operated mechanism with a rotating bolt. Many of the design elements between the two weapons are actually similar, even if your proposed design does incorporate Remnant technologies and design elements to allow a higher kinetic energy from its projectiles. Would you like me to start pulling up design specifications to compare?"

Kassidy leaned back in her chair for a moment, closing her eyes as she thought. From all the reading she's done the past couple days on recoil dampeners, a rotating bolt could fit the bill, if it would only fit in the damn thing. If it could fit in a similar gun, then why not here? She was more impressed, however, that Bob actually had the design specifications of a particular handgun. Sure, she told him to download everything that could be useful from the internet, but he'd proven more than once that he pulled not just from the internet, but every computer system his electronic hands could get a hold of. It still surprised her just how much knowledge she had access to at a whim.

"Are you alright, Kassidy?" Opening her eyes, she saw Weiss looking at her with a searching gaze.

"Just fine. Yeah, Bob, that sounds like a good idea. Go ahead."

"Accessing… oh, right. Could you be a dear and grab hard drive thirteen for me, please?"

Sighing, Kassidy scooted her chair back and made to stand up. She muttered, "Still not sure how I'm going to pay for all of this."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm sure it can't be that much for me to fund."

At Weiss' statement, she tripped over the chair and faceplanted into the carpet even as her eyes tried to fly out of her head. Looking up without even bothering to stand up, Kassidy managed to choke out, "What?"

"I said don't worry about it." Finally looking up from Bob, Weiss arched an eyebrow at Kassidy's situation. "What?"

Kassidy's jaw hung slack for a moment. "What do you mean, 'what'? You just offered to bankroll my new weapon."

"Yes, and?" Weiss frowned and creased her eyebrows as the girl across from her started sputtering. Counting on her fingers as if there wasn't a care in the world, she started, "One, you're acting like I can't do nice things for my friends from time to time. Consider this your early birthday gift from me. Two, you're acting like this isn't pocket change for the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Three, I… must admit to being used to having you around, and at this point I'd rather not go through the hassle of replacing a teammate. And four, some of the researchers in the SDC are working on a higher-powered pistol design. If you let them use this, well, forget me paying for it. They just might pay you."

For her part, Kassidy's mind was reeling at the fact that not only was Weiss willing to drop several thousand Lien on a whim, but that the SDC just might pay her to build it for her. Now, she wasn't naïve – Kassidy knew damn well that the company would likely make millions selling it to the Atlas military if it passed trials; if it were to go as promised, the Schnees wouldn't be doing this out of the goodness in their hearts. Still, it's not like she had her own plans to get into the firearms manufacturing business. Really, there was only one con she could think of.

"If I get shot at by one of these, I'm blaming you."

Weiss pulled into a knowing smirk. "Naturally. Now, quit sitting and go get that hard drive. I have some phone calls to make."

Kassidy wasn't sure if it was Yang's impact on her personality over the past few months, or if it was her usual sense of humor that she'd completely forgotten about, but she felt an impulse and decided to act on it. Jumping to her feet and dipping into a deep bow, she mocked, "Yes, Madame Schnee. Whatever you say, Madame Schnee." Weiss' face fell for the briefest of moments, but she schooled it back to her normal expression that most people would have missed it. Kassidy, however, was not most people. "Hey, Weiss, is something wrong?"

Sighing and giving up on perfect posture as she leaned back, Weiss clapped a hand across her forehead. "Just… in a couple days' time I'm going to be shipped back to Atlas, where I get to look forward to three weeks of nothing but 'Madame Schnee'. Can we please just stick with Weiss for the time being?"

"Sure thing, Ice Queen." Kassidy grinned at her, but faltered as Weiss fixed a glare on her. She took a few steps back, remarked, "And that's my cue to go get that hard drive," and walked out the library.

"Thank you for making these, Kassidy. I must say, you've been spending quite a bit of time cooking for us ever since the school's kitchen closed for the summer."

Kassidy gave a small smile as she set down a pair of chicken alfredo dishes. "Yeah, I guess I kinda forgot how much I like cooking. Thanks for getting the ingredients."

As she sat down to her own dinner, Kassidy took a tentative bite. Too much salt. Chicken's a tad over, pasta a tad under. Weiss echoed after her first bite, "A bit too much salt, and the chicken's slightly dry. But not bad at all. I can't really expect you to compete with the cooking staff back at Atlas or the ingredients they have access to, but this is still good regardless."

"Glad I could please your sophisticated palate." The conversation paused as the two girls began to put away their food. Naturally, Kassidy looked like she would be the first to finish, though this would've seen surprising to most considering that the blonde had literally three times as much food as her teammate.

Weiss took a break to comment on the matter. "Do you really have to eat so quickly? You're going to choke yourself one of these days. It's not as if anyone is going to take your food out from in front of you." Kassidy looked up from her food, which made Weiss scoff lightly. "And look at all that sauce on your face! Are you completely incapable of being civilized?"

"Pretty much."

Weiss sighed and shook her head as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Please, don't talk with your mouth full in my presence again. And, while you're at it, wipe your face off. I swear, this is why we can't take you places."

"Well, since you asked so nicely," Kassidy chuckled. However, she indeed wipe off and put a little effort into making herself presentable.

"So…" Weiss shifted in her seat as she frowned at her meal. "Where did you learn to cook?"

"Back home." Kassidy's voice and face fell at the words. Always good times back home. So why do I always get so messed up whenever it comes up? She started at the sensation of a hand on hers. Looking up, she found Weiss leaning across the table and biting her lip. She could already guess what her teammate was about to say. "I'm fine, Weiss. I just don't really understand why I get so sad and mopey and crap whenever I start talking about home. I mean, those are supposed to be happy memories, right?"

"Yes, I suppose they are…" Weiss' own voice trailed off as her eyes clouded over and she stared a hole into the wall behind Kassidy.

"Alright, Weissicle, what's up?"

Weiss snapped back to the present and focused a glare on Kassidy. "I swear, you and your nicknames…"

"Hey!" Kassidy exclaimed. "That one was Yang's and you know it."

"That doesn't excuse you from using such childish references to other people! Especially me!"

"Especially you?" Kassidy felt her chest tighten even as her lips thinned into a line. Every single time those words were said on Weiss' part, there was guaranteed to only be two possible outcomes. Either it would turn into a joke, Weiss would recognize it, and after a couple jabs everything would boil back down. Or, the more common option, things would escalate into a shouting match that tended to involve daddy's money and dead relatives. When she and Weiss truly argued, it was a frightful affair that not even Yang was bold enough to step in the middle of. And the last thing Kassidy wanted after a good meal was a shouting match with her teammate.

"You know what? Forget it. We're not having that argument again." Fortunately, it seems that Weiss was equally disinterested in a yelling competition.

Kassidy leaned back and gazed into the distance while she thought for a bit. Eventually, a peculiar thought crossed her mind. "Hey, change of topic. Not that I don't mind the company, but I'm honestly a bit surprised you aren't in Atlas for the summer."

Weiss took a sip from a small cup of coffee that, at least from Kassidy's viewpoint, seemed to materialize out of thin air whenever she wanted it. "Yes, I'm actually a bit surprised as well that it's taken as long as it has to get one of our private airships out to Beacon. Although, I was significantly less surprised about it when I found out that Winter will be the one taking me back over the course of one of her leaves from the Atlesian military. Regardless, I leave in a couple days."

"Your big sister?" Weiss nodded, and Kassidy chuckled. "Oh boy, good thing she waited to get here. God knows what Yang would get up to with her."

"Alright, another change of topic." Suddenly putting her cup down, Weiss sat up straighter (despite being as straight as a new pencil already) and looked into Kassidy's face as though she were looking for something. "What's up with you and Yang?"

Kassidy had poorly chosen this moment to be taking a drink of water, as she choked on it after hearing the words that Weiss said. Recovering quickly, she parroted, "'What's up with me and Yang'?" When Weiss looked back down at the table, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Weiss…"

"Now, now. Hear me out." Raising a hand in a placating manner, Weiss went over her thoughts for another moment before explaining herself. "I don't want to bring up that stupid rumor again. It was a poorly thought out idea by Jaune and Nora that was never supposed to be more than an inside joke. But even ignoring that, you two are rather close."

"Uh, yeah? We were assigned to be partners, after all."

"You're far closer than almost every other set of partners among the first year students, at least as far as I can see."

"That tends to happen when you repeatedly put your lives in each other's hands."

"I think we literally had to pull you two apart from each other at one point during the week before finals."

"She wanted help with studying."

"You're the only one out of our little circle of friends that consistently finds her terrible jokes and puns funny."

"In case you haven't noticed, Yang and I pretty much have the same sense of humor."

"Whenever she needs a sparring partner, you're the first one she asks, and I believe you've yet to say no."

"So what, I'm just supposed to tell my partner, 'Hey, sorry, I can't help, good luck on your own!'? Besides, you know I can always use the extra training."

Weiss scowled, before her face lit back up slightly. Leaning in, she all but whispered, "Ruby and I found you two curled up together on her bunk the night before finals."

Kassidy coughed into her hand even as she developed a slight blush. Quickly mentally going over possible reasons as to why, she settled on a probable cause. Probably a temperature spike that's making my cheeks feel so hot. I don't do well with high heat, after all. "First off, she curled up onto me."

Weiss smirked and shook her head. "We saw it. That was definitely a cooperative effort."

"She was definitely the one that did the curling up." Kassidy let out a breath, and continued. "Second off, we fell asleep watching a movie."

Weiss hummed as her fingers drummed against the table. "It hasn't even been forty eight hours since Ruby and Yang left for Patch, yet you won't stop talking about them. Ever since yesterday, if you weren't talking about training or your projects at the workshop, you've been talking about Yang."

Kassidy crossed her arms as her eyes narrowed again. "What are you trying to get at, Weiss? It's not like you to beat around the bush."

Looking down at her twiddling thumbs, Weiss seemed to be considering what she wanted to say. "How do you feel about Yang?"

Kassidy arched an eyebrow at the question, even as she started wringing her hands. "What do you mean, 'how do I feel about Yang'?"

"Like… when you think about Yang, how do you think about her? What does she mean to you? I mean…" Weiss trailed off as she continued looking at her twiddling thumbs. "I don't know! I've never asked anyone anything like this before. Just, what are your thoughts about Yang, I guess."

"My thoughts about Yang…" Kassidy leaned back into the chair with her arms crossed. Alright, she wants to know under what light I hold my partner. I can give her that, I think. With a small smile creeping along her face, she said, "Well, there's a couple things I feel about Yang. The first is how she's almost like the big sister I never had."

It was Weiss' turn to arch an eyebrow. "How do you mean?"

"I mean, the gigantic head of blonde hair, the terrible sense of humor, the enormous appetite. The fact that she doesn't give much of a shit unless you mess with something important, then she's liable to rip your face off." Chuckling at a memory that came to mind, Kassidy shook her head to dismiss it. "It all would fit perfectly in the house I grew up in, right there with Dad and Matt. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she was my long lost big sister or something. You could've pulled her straight out of my home growing up for as much similarity and… comfort, I guess, she brings."

Weiss hummed and nodded. "You said that wasn't the only way you feel about her?"

Kassidy shook her head. "She's also… she's also the person I wish I could be. She's strong, she's smart," Kassidy got cut off when Weiss snickered lightly. "Alright, fine, she's smart when she wants to be, but my point still stands. She's talented, kind, compassionate, hell she's just an awesome person in general. Great big sister to Ruby, fantastic Huntress-in-training, and if you don't piss her off she's the nicest person you've ever met. Yes, even to the point of being too friendly." They both chuckled at shared memories of getting tackled into hugs by their blonde teammate, especially when they were neither needed nor wanted. "She just motivates me to be a better person, y'know? She's an awesome person, an awesome Huntress, and she's one hell of an example to live up to. If I can come back to the dorms at the end of the day, and she of all people thinks I'm doing a good job… it means a lot."

Weiss arched an eyebrow. "Oh, and I suppose the opinion of the woman who trains you in how to use a sword isn't worth much?" She laughed heartily when Kassidy's eyes bugged out and she sputtered while backtracking. Waving off the reassurances, she hastily added, "I know, I know. Low hanging fruit and all that." Pursing her lips, Weiss leaned forward and rested her chin on steepled fingers. "So, not that I want to bring up the rumor issue again, but-"

"No!" Kassidy's fist slammed down on the table, and Weiss yelped and started back. Taking harsh, ragged breaths, Kassidy explained, "Sorry, that rumor's still a sore spot for me. But no, we're not dating. She's just a real good friend is all." Leaning back with her arms crossed, Kassidy settled into a frown. "I'm not even sure why people would think me and Yang would be dating. Isn't dating supposed to be something a girl does with a guy?"

Weiss shook her head, "Not necessarily. A girl can be romantically interested in another girl, just as a guy can be romantically interested in another guy. It's called being gay, or lesbian in the case of a girl."

Kassidy rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Huh, how come I've never heard about it before? Oh well, it's not like I go out looking for this sort of stuff." Inside, however, her stomach felt like it was trying to fly away even as her palms started sweating and her breathing quickened. Yeah, definite overheating symptoms. Need to find whoever's messing with the thermostat once we're done talking.

Weiss' next question interrupted her thoughts. "Now, how do you really feel about Yang? Nothing romantic?"

"No," was the clipped reply.

"You're sure? After all, I can tell you have sweaty palms, quickened pulse and breathing, and dilated pupils. One can easily draw certain conclusions from those reactions…"

"Those are also the common symptoms of overheating," Kassidy explained. "I've never dealt with heat well. Someone's probably just screwing around with the thermostat."

"Even the dilated pupils?"

Kassidy had to think for a moment. "Yeah, overheating too. I think. I dunno, I'm not the physiology expert here."

Weiss' eyes narrowed for but a moment, but quickly hummed and shrugged. "Fair enough. Let's go fix the thermostat and get ready for bed. We had a late dinner and I'm feeling tired."

AN 2: Well, congratulations, Ruby Rose. You just replaced Blake as my least favorite member of Team RWBY. At least Blake was content to just remain a plot device. You, on the other hand, decided you weren't happy with just being a plot device, but also such an arrogant douchebag that you went and got your uncle put on his deathbed because "look at me I'm such a big strong scary huntress now".

So, anyone want to start placing bets as to when Kass will be admitting her feelings for Yang? Obviously, I'm not about to go giving you guys hints. (Hint: It's some time during the Interlude).

Anyway, time for some Reviewer Responses.

Coming up next: Winter is coming.

AndJrew76: Thank you my man, so glad that you've been enjoying the ride. That actually reminds me that I should probably go back and rewrite most of the early chapters (which I'm defining to be anytime before V1C25) so that they're easier to read.

successfulmisfire: Err… Parker? Sorry, I'm missing the reference here.

mcd3424: Well, Kassidy's current plans are to stay on campus all summer. Of course, we all know the saying about plans and first contact with the enemy…

James: Well, crap. Oh well, at least as long as you haven't seen who all I'm killing off yet, we should be good. Nobody is safe.

Calahan Suggestion Guy (aka Guest): Unfortunately, rifles are not in the Road Map™. But, it does look like Kassidy is getting the mother of all semi-automatic hand cannons, so there's that. Excellent ideas, though, thanks.

Nemasis Demarini: Feel free to call me Will. Rouge is definitely an awesome idea, and I can easily see where it would come from. Unfortunately, red is more Ruby's thing.

Psychomidget1: I suppose that's true. Death Penalty is nice, and if you're getting shot at by it, well… you might as well have one.

Baconlord53: IMO, Jaune's pretty clearly been slated for the "OP Knight of Vengeance" route.

AgentDraakis: Well, it is the end of the semester. It does go well with her partner, that's for sure. FYI, sardonic means "characterized by bitter or scornful derision; mocking; cynical; sneering. Diet soda would be recommended for this voyage, though if you ever get thirsty there's plenty of water right off the side of the ship.

Tykene: That name was awesome, man, good job once again. Yeah, overall she's about with Jaune, if not slightly ahead, in terms of skill with a sword, but of course between Aura and shield and armor it was just too much for her to deal with. And that's a big If. None can resist the awesome power of pizza. IMO, Volume 3 is currently consisting of giving pizza to Cinder, her deciding it's not worth being evil if she blows up the one source of pizza on the planet, and Beacon doesn't get attacked. I like that ending.