Interlude 1 Chapter 7: Fish 'n Ships

AN: Well, that ice storm sucked. Was more or less frozen in the apartment all weekend long. At least it was a four day weekend, though I didn't realize it at first as I showed up to classes that weren't going on wondering why campus was a ghost town. Anyway, back to the part of the story you guys actually care about, and there's plenty of that. By complete accident, this is the longest chapter to date, by quite a bit actually.

So, Kassidy got tricked/guilt-tripped into staying with Ruby and Yang for summer break at Patch. No Grimm to fight, nobody trying to kill you, no homework or studying to do… what's a girl to do when her life isn't in mortal peril? Apparently, get drug around the island for a day by her partner.

(Perspective: Kassidy)

On her first full day in Patch, Kassidy learned that the only two things that were allowed to be small in the Xiao Long household were Ruby and Zwei. The house was big, the weapons were big – if Yang of all people has the smallest weapon in the family, you know there's some big guns around these parts – the cabinets seemed to be twelve feet off the ground, and the meals were absolutely gigantic. And if Ruby and Yang tucking into half a dozen eggs each like it wasn't a big issue was any indication, using two and a half dozen eggs, half a loaf of bread, and nearly two pounds of bacon was par for the course around here. Not that I'm complaining, Taiyang can cook!

"Is anyone going to want any more before I put stuff away? And Kassidy, please for the love of Oum stop making comments about taking advantage of my hospitality. You're a guest here, we have no problem housing you. Besides, no Huntress-in-training should be that skinny."

"I know, right, Dad? That's what we keep telling her!" Yang complained. "Still have no idea how she manages to eat more than me and still weigh… what was it, a hundred thirty?"

Kassidy swallowed her current mouthful before replying, "Something like that."

"Well, at least you've finally started growing in, ahem, certain areas." Kassidy whipped her head up, uncertain as to Yang's meaning, but her partner simply poked her in the chest.

Her cheeks flushed as several people started snickering. "Still smaller than Weiss is," she muttered.

Apparently she didn't mutter quietly enough, as Qrow started guffawing loudly, which in turn made Ruby and Yang start laughing harder. It took a minute for him to calm down, before he finally managed to choke out, "Man, that right there's embarrassing. The Schnees don't even have breasts to speak of."

Kassidy's head impacted the table, and she tried to burrow into her folded arms. "Yang, why did you have to make my chest the center of conversation? I swear, this is why we can't take you places."

"Aw, you know you love me." Yang's teasing tone made Kassidy groan, but then she leaned over and started reaching with her fork. "If you're done eating, I call dibs on your eggs."

Kassidy's own fork shot out and intercepted the offending cutlery, catching Yang's hand hard enough to make a small spurt of yellow shoot out. "My food," she growled. This only made Ruby start giggling at her two teammates.

She wasn't the only one, however, as Taiyang sat down to his own breakfast with a silly grin of his own. "Are all of your team meals like this, Ru?"

Ruby shook her head. "We usually have Weiss yelling at us to act more dignified. Juniper's also eating with us most of the time, and Nora's always got some crazy story or other to tell."

"Well, it doesn't sound like your time at Beacon's been boring," Qrow drawled. "Hell, I remember Tai hitting on this one girl-"

Taiyang was quick to blurt out, "C'mon man, how many times have we been over this? Not in front of the girls."

"Tch, their loss."

The three girls traded glances before Taiyang cleared his throat. "Right, well. Now that we have that out of the way, what's everyone's plans for the day?"

Yang perked up after downing another strip of bacon. "Well, I was hoping I'd take K around the island. Maybe show her some of my old stomping grounds."

"Well, that's better than the current no plan I have," Kassidy admitted. Even if I'm still not entirely convinced it's a good idea. Yang's grin only served to reinforce her thought.

Ruby, meanwhile, was all but bouncing in her seat. "Ooh, ooh! Kass, can I borrow Bob for the day?"

Kassidy stopped mid-bite and raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

"Well, I've done a bit of talking with Bob over the course of the semester. Towards the end we kinda sorta started talking about guns, and we got to thinking and I got to planning. Between him and Uncle Qrow, I think I can fit a gas-operated mechanism in Crescent Rose!"

The bit of egg on Kassidy's fork slid off as her jaw hung open and she paled. Eventually, her faculties returned to her. "Let me get this straight: you're wanting to turn a bolt-action forty millimeter sniper scythe into a semiautomatic forty millimeter sniper scythe."

"Well… yeah!"

Kassidy took long, hard looks at Yang, Taiyang, and Qrow, and didn't find what she was looking for in their faces. Pressing her hands into her face and letting out a long breath, she sighed. "Okay. Alright. I'll trade you Bob for a ticket to Atlas. Or wherever's as far away from Crescent Rose as possible."

Ruby snickered even as Yang had an amused grin. "What happened to the partner that said the bigger the gun, the better?"

Losing her cool, Kassidy threw her hands up with wide eyes. "People aren't meant for guns that big! A gas-operated Crescent Rose is the equivalent of an early World War Two anti-tank gun! How the hell does that even work?! If I tried shooting it, you'd need to go looking for all my pieces!"

Taiyang joined his youngest daughter in snickering, while Qrow set his fork down and eyeballed their guest. "In case you haven't noticed, something like a Deathstalker basically is a tank."

"Hence why I don't go out of my way to pick fights with scorpions the size of a house!"

"Don't I get a say in this?" Bob's question ended all debates and drew the room's attention to himself. After Kassidy gave her assent, he quickly made his move. "Ruby, please, please, please, for the love of all that is holy, take me with you. Yang and Kassidy together all day is going to be nothing but puns and a whole bunch of stuff I want nothing to do with."

A wave of chuckling crashed over the table, and Kassidy shook her head. "Well, it looks like we've got our answer for that. Alright, alright, looks like you get your break."

"Someone's rather indulgent of their computer, even if it does have a mouth on it." Kassidy shook her head at Qrow's comment.

"Hey, as much power as Bob has, I gotta keep him happy if I don't want the robot apocalypse to happen." A fresh wave of laughter swept everyone up, and amicable small talk was the name of the game for the rest of breakfast.

An hour later saw Kassidy up in the room she had been given, packing and repacking her backpack. She was so engrossed she didn't notice Yang creep up behind her. She was in the middle of repacking her magazines with ammunition when…

"So!" Yang's outburst made Kassidy yelp and drop the magazine, scattering its rounds across the floor. Turning around, Kassidy glared at Yang, who barely stifled her laughter before splitting into a grin. "Watcha doooooo-in'?"

"I was getting gear together for our little outing today," was the terse reply. She relaxed, however, when Yang flashed a dopey smile. Shaking her head and sighing, Kassidy got to gathering her ammunition back up. Why, oh why, can I not stay mad at that blonde trainwreck when she pulls crap like that?

"You're seriously packing up the Back-Breaking Backpack of Intrigue and Mystery for a day trip around the island?" Kassidy raised an eyebrow at her partner's name for her backpack, and Yang snorted. "Don't tell me the name doesn't fit. Your pack's almost as big as Ruby is, and you seem to have literally anything you could possibly want in it."

"It's called being prepared, dearest Yang. I haven't managed to not die yet by relying on dumb luck."

"Finally, someone who can teach my daughter a thing or two about responsibility." Taiyang materialized in the doorframe, and Yang squawked her protest. "Fixed you two some sandwiches to throw in your bag, if that's okay. Don't know what you have planned for lunch."

"Aw, you shouldn't have!" Yang over-dramatized taking the lunches from her dad, before handing them to her partner.

Kassidy, however, was far more interested in going through a final check as she muttered to herself. "Vest, check. Gun, check. Four mags ammo, check. Three day's dry rations, check. Gallon water and means to get more, check. Medical supplies, check. Spare parts for Bob… not necessary. Sword, check. Firestarter, chemical handwarmers, flashlight, check."

"Oh my Oum, this is why it takes forever when we go places!" Yang wailed. "You do this every single time, even when we're just going to downtown Vale! We already cleared the Grimm from the island; you don't even need your weapons. I'm not taking Ember Celica."

"Like I said, being prepared. Besides, just because we finished the fighting yesterday doesn't mean there isn't a straggler or two we'd need to watch out for."

"Okay… I think I get what you mean now, Yang." Taiyang stepped into the room and helped Kassidy back to her feet. "Maybe you don't need to be that prepared. I got ya some food, just take a couple water bottles and you should be good. You're never more than a few hour's walk from town anyway, no matter where you are on the island."

Kassidy mulled it over for a minute, weighing her options and what Taiyang said. She wasn't sure what it was, but something made her decide to relent. Dropping her bag with a huff, she said, "I'm still taking my gun. Never go anywhere unarmed."

"Catch," Yang declared. Kassidy looked up just in time for her jacket and half-skirt to hit her face. Muttering to herself about how she was so going to get back at Yang at the earliest opportunity, she got to pulling the outermost layers of her outfit on.

"Y'know, I didn't really pay attention to it earlier, but you really have a similar taste in fashion to Yang," Taiyang remarked. Kassidy looked up to see him leaning against the walls with crossed arms and a furrowed brow.

"My choices in fashion begin and end with covering what I need to cover and not freezing to death."

Yang spoke back up. "Which, for obvious reasons, means she has an absolutely horrendous taste in fashion, so Rubes and I took it upon ourselves to make sure she looks good."

Taiyang looked between the two of them, then gave a small smile. "Well, alright then. I won't keep you two any longer." Suddenly grabbing Yang, he held on to her shoulders and bored right into her visage. "I want you two home by dark, and no funny business, okay?"

Yang rolled her eyes. "Ugh, okay! Does every dad have to be a killjoy?"

Ignoring Kassidy's input of 'pretty much', Taiyang softened his hold and his face. "I just worry for my kids. My precious little rose and my sunny little dragon. It's a dad's job. Now, go have some fun."

"Wow…" Kassidy looked out with wide eyes at the sight before her. A full day of hiking had revealed a multitude of breathtaking sights, from a waterfall to a vantage point further along the cliff where you could see the entire island, and Yang was apparently more than happy to show them off to Kassidy. The river beside her tumbled over the small drop-off before morphing into rapids. The way the sun's rays filtered into the flower-filled clearing next to and above the drop made it clear that they had chosen the optimal time of day to reach this spot.

"I know, right?" Yang huffed and stepped up next to her. "Rubes found this place about five years ago, I think. Ever since, it's been my favorite place to hide out whenever I just needed to get away from things. It's real peaceful here."

"I can buy that for a buck," Kassidy replied. Yang started walking forward, prompting Kassidy to follow while also getting a good view of her partner. Yang had shrugged off her jacket about an hour ago, revealing a tube top, shoulders, and lower back that were glistening with sweat. Following a particular bead, Kassidy saw that Yang's hips were ever so slightly more exaggerated in their motions. Seeing these sights when the jacket first came off caused more than one unpleasant reaction that made Kassidy more convinced she was coming down with an illness, though oddly enough she hadn't had the sensations again since taking the front. At any rate, the obvious conclusion was that Yang was fatigued and getting more sloppy in her movements; this conclusion was, at least in Kassidy's opinion, all but confirmed when Yang simply plopped down in the grass and sprawled out. "Well, if you wanted a break, you could have just said something."

Yang panted for a little bit, then seemed to have gotten enough breath to ask, "Just wanted to know if you liked what you saw." Her partner's cheeky grin told Kassidy exactly what she was referring to.

Ignoring a small flush that came at being accused that she was watching her partner in that manner, Kassidy sat down next to her and quickly summed up her thoughts on the matter. "Not really. Your endurance isn't as good as it needs to be; we haven't done anything but walk all day, and you're still all sweaty and out of breath."

"Hey, we can't all be super awesome like you are. I swear the Grimm are jealous of your conditioning." The two laughed lightly, then Yang poked her. "Besides, don't act like you're in your prime right now, either. You've been sweating your fair share."

"I don't like heat, so I tend to sweat easier," Kassidy rebutted. "Which is why I'm going to do this." Ignoring Yang's look, she shed her jacket and undid her bun, letting her hair fall down to her shoulder blades. "Hmm, going to need to cut my hair soon. Getting on the long side."

Now, normally that was all it would take for Yang to launch into yet another lecture on the importance of proper hair maintenance. So the complete absence of one definitely got Kassidy's attention. Whipping her head around and fearing what she'd find, Kassidy let a breath out to see Yang was mostly alright. What caught her attention, however, was how Yang was staring at her – or more specifically, her torso. Did I hurt myself or something? I don't remember anything like that. A cursory examination revealed an injury to not be the source of Yang's attention. The only thing out of the ordinary was the sweat soaking her sleeveless shirt, the already tight garment hugging her chest and abdomen.

"Is something wrong, Yang?"

The question made Yang start. Looking up at her partner, she blushed heavily and looked away. Alright, not sure what caused that reaction. She might be coming down with something, too? Mentioned something about a flu earlier.

"Uh…nope. All good."

The two sat for a few minutes, Yang catching her breath and Kassidy admiring the clearing they were in. Soon, however, Kassidy was tired of having to brush her hair out of her face as the light breeze whipped it around. She grabbed a handful and was about to start remaking her bun when she decided against it. Well, the big reason I keep my hair in the bun is so nobody can grab it in a fight. But if there truly is no danger of a fight… keeping my hair somewhat down to help wick heat away won't hurt. Dropping her current handful, she instead decided to make an attempt at a ponytail. Attempt being the operative word.

Yang watched for a minute, then got fed up with her partner's frustrated grunts. "Need a hand, K?"

"How can something as simple as hair be such a pain to deal with?" was the terse reply. Kassidy heard chuckling behind her, but ignored it in favor of making another attempt. She stopped, however, when something tugged at her hair even as her hand got slapped away.

As Yang got her partner to settle down and started to work on the smaller mass of blonde in front of her, she externalized her internal monologue. "Still not sure why I'm always carrying hairbands… can't even blame big sister instincts anymore, Ruby hasn't worn her hair up for years."

"Wait, people actually use hairbands? I always thought those were some cheap gimmick – just use more hair. It's free and it works, after all."

"Yeah, but it also hurts a bit when everything bounces around and tugs on itself. Still don't know how you put up with your hair in that bun you always have it in. Why I keep knocking it down every chance I get, no chance in Dust that's comfortable."

Kassidy shrugged. "Comfort isn't an issue that I care about. I've developed a pretty high pain tolerance over the years, and a few years of wearing my hair like that didn't hurt things either."

"Well, all done. You happy?" Kassidy stood up and helped her partner on her feet. The weight bouncing around behind her head was unfamiliar, but it would do. Kassidy nodded, then helped Yang to her feet, who then queried, "Think it's about time we started heading back? Probably gonna be dinner time soon."

Kassidy and Yang made their way back along the river towards the Xiao Long house, but Kassidy stopped when she saw something move in the water. Looking closer, she split into a grin at the sight of the small crustaceans.

"Hey, you okay partner?"

Yang's question brought Kassidy back to the present, but with a renewed hunger. "You like shrimp, Yang?" She nodded, and Kassidy smiled. "How about I teach you some wilderness survival stuff? I'm kinda hungry now, and I can't remember the last time I had a decent shrimp. How does catching and cooking our dinner right here sound?"

The next hour was spent with Kassidy showing Yang one of the many tricks of the trade when it came to feeding one's self in the wild: how to use the lawyer cane like plants to weave, how to made a funnel-like cage out of said plants, good bait for a fish trap, and good places to deposit said fish traps to optimize one's food gathering. After a decent time of making traps and dumping them in the river, along with a helping hand from lady luck, the two blondes were rewarded for their efforts with nearly a dozen shrimp for their consumption pleasure. Building a fire was a simple matter, but how to light a fire without matches would've been a useful lesson… if Yang hadn't reminded her about what her Semblance did.

"So, um, how come we're putting these rocks into the fire instead of putting your little mud pot you built on top of the fire?"

"Because, Yang, heating the rocks and dumping them straight into the water makes it boil faster than forcing the thermal energy to pass through the walls of our little pot here. Not to mention it simplifies building the pot if we don't have to lift it off the ground to place it on a fire."

Kassidy dropped the beheaded and deveined shrimp, and the heated rocks, into the water. However, something caught her attention. Cold breeze. Raising humidity. Dropping temperatures. Pretty good indication of rain. Looking up, she cursed herself internally when she saw black storm clouds rolling in. It was a wonder they hadn't heard any thunder yet. She sat and watched for a minute, trying to get any indication on how quickly and in which direction it was moving.

"What's up, K? You know when these things will be done? Hello?" Yang waving her hand in her face made Kassidy blink and come back. "Man, you tend to zone out a lot. Something wrong?"

"How far away are we from your house?"

Yang shrugged, then cocked her head. "About an hour. How come?"

Kassidy pointed to the gathering clouds. "We don't have an hour."

"Oh." Yang's face fell, then she dropped back down to their pot. "At least we won't need to get through the rain on an empty stomach. Come and get it."

Kassidy and Yang downed their shrimp in a hurry; even as good as freshly caught shellfish was, they didn't have long. Gathering their stuff back up, they quickly started making their way back to the house. It wasn't to be, however, and in a matter of mere minutes they were faced with the prospect of driving rain and howling wind.

Kassidy grabbed her partner's shoulder and shouted into her ear. "We gotta find somewhere to wait this out! I can't see shit in this, and hypothermia's gonna be real easy in this kind of weather!" Yang nodded, and they abandoned the search for the route back to the house in favor of the search for shelter of any kind. It only took a few minutes to find a shallow cave opening, but that was a few minutes that saw them soaked to the bone.

"So what're we supposed to do now, wait it out? My Scroll can't get a signal in this weather, and Dad's gonna be freaking out about us."

Kassidy sighed and started wringing out her hair. "Waiting's the only option. It's going on dusk and we're absolutely soaked. Temperature's only going to drop from here on out, and we're not as sheltered from the wind as we are from the rain. Hopefully it'll pass quickly enough that we can make it back to your house before we get too cold."

Yang looked like she wanted to argue, but yawned loudly. "Wow, didn't think I was this tired."

"Before you nod off, get your extra clothing off." Kassidy was herself in the middle of taking off her boots, but stopped when Yang started choking on thin air. Her partner had gotten her breathing back under control quickly, however, and silently begged for an explanation. "The more dripping wet clothes you have on, the colder you're going to get and the longer it'll take to get dry. Not gonna ask you to just strip, but anything you don't need should come off. So boots, socks, jacket, that half-skirt, and scarf need to go." Following through with her own advice, Kassidy finished peeling off her footwear and got to work wrestling her half-skirt off. It wasn't long before all their extra articles were spread out along the back of the cave floor to dry.

Yang was about to ask, "So what now," but got cut off by another yawn. She stretched, which did no small amount of showing off when all she had on at this point was her top and her shorts.

Kassidy did her best to ignore the tightening in her chest. "Now, it sounds like you need sleep. It's not gonna be comfortable, but caves never are. I'll take watch."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'taking watch'? There's nothing to watch for."

"Not taking chances, and this isn't up for debate. Get some rest. I'll wake you when this passes."

Those words were an hour ago. The time did nothing to dull the storm or the chill in Kassidy's bones. Curled up into as tight a ball as possible while still being able to move and look around as she needed to, she snuck a look at the conversely stretched out and slumbering form of her partner. Yang had her Semblance to warm her up and dry her off, but Kassidy had no such luxury to save her from the bite. She crawled over to see if either of the jackets had dried off yet, but of course there was no such luck.

She was about to curl back up into her shivering ball when some movement caught her eye. Fighting the chill and sluggishness that came from her condition, Kassidy dropped into a crouch and raised her pistol at the form. She was beyond surprised when a crow came flying into the cave, ruffled its feathers to dry off, then seemed to look right at her.

"Well aren't you an interesting one. You've been flying out there all this time? My condolences… oh, who am I kidding? I'm talking to a fucking bird now. Good going, Smith." Kassidy ignored the bird hopping to the back of the cave, instead favoring to climb back on her rock and resume her vigil.

"You two been here all this time?" The sudden voice made Kassidy jump, only to crack her head against the cave wall. Cradling her skull and cursing under her breath, she wheeled around to see Qrow Branwen of all people standing behind her.

"Wha-? How?"

"Well, when you're as good as I am, you learn a few tricks." He took a few steps forward and looked at her head. Grunting and nodding when he saw the lack of blood, he quickly fixed a mighty glare that she couldn't help but shrink back from. "Now, is there a reason that you're in a cave with my niece with a majority of both of your wardrobes on the ground?"

"Because hypothermia is a stone bitch. Firsthand experience talking."

He opened his mouth, but stopped when she started shivering again. "Okay, fair enough. You two stay here, I'll get Taiyang and we'll get you back to the house."

"The storm clearing up enough we can head out?"

Qrow shook his head. "It's not going anywhere anytime soon, but you two staying here and catching cold isn't an attractive option either. Hang tight, I'll be right back. In the meantime, here." Kassidy was about to ask what he meant, but he shrugged his cloak off his back and chucked it at her face. When she got it out from in front of her eyes, Qrow was gone. The peculiar crow cawed as it left the cave.

"Well, great. Now I need to assume every crow I come across is a goddamn spy. Probably every bird period, for that matter. Hopefully ravens are still cool." She wrapped herself up in the cloak and curled back into her prior posture.

It took another numbingly long hour, but the sound of footsteps was eventually heard and made Kassidy perk up. By this point her nose was a runny mess, her skin had been drained of all color, and she could hear her own teeth chatter. A shock of blonde hair poked out from under a hood, and Taiyang was quick to show himself. His lit up face from the discovery of the girls dropped quickly at the sight of Kassidy's condition. "Hey the… oh boy, that's not good. Qrow, give me a hand here!"

"You still doing okay?" The uncle was close behind, with Kassidy's own backpack over his shoulder. He took one look and pressed his lips into a line. "That looks an awful lot like no. Here, give me a sec."

"Okay, Yang's doing okay, good." Taiyang's comment made Kassidy snap her head around to the father-daughter duo. Well thank Oum that I didn't make the wrong assumption she'd be okay. I didn't ever see any shivering, but…

"Hey, I got some thermal outerwear for ya here, should help with the cold a little bit." Qrow handed the bundle of clothes to Kassidy. It took a few minutes to make her shaking limbs cooperate with her, but she managed to get the warmer clothes and a heavy coat on.

"Ugh… wassup with all the noise?" Yang sat up and blinked a few times before looking around. Seeing her family standing at the mouth of the cave and looking expectantly at her, however, made her pale. "Dad? Uncle Qrow? Uh… I can explain."

Qrow snorted. "Hypothermia's a stone bitch. Your partner already explained, using those words I might add. Here, get these on, should make the trek back more manageable."

While Yang was getting into waterproof gear, Taiyang opted to make his way over to the third blonde. Kassidy, for her effort, braced her arm against the wall of the cave and stood on shaky legs. Taiyang wasn't impressed, however. "You sure you're good to go?"

"Always," Kassidy growled. "Couldn't have gotten where I am if I couldn't push myself when I needed to." Her body had other ideas, however, and as soon as her hand left the wall her legs all but buckled and she had to catch herself again. Snarling, she smacked the cave floor before sighing. "Though I might need a hand if you don't want me slowing you down."

"I got ya, K." Yang reached out and offered her shoulder. Throwing on a heavy raincoat and leaning on her partner, Kassidy was about ready to make the excursion back to the house. Before they left, however, she sneezed.

AN 2: Oh look, we got another World of Remnant. What joy. Well, at least it kept to the "3 regular episodes for every WoR episode" rule we usually get.

In case you couldn't tell by how heavy handed the first part of the author's note was, things are heating up. Last call for all with tickets to the USS Molotov Cocktail!

Coming up next: Someone finally 'fesses up. Finally. Only took fifty two chapters.

Right after these Reviewer Responses (and about four days).

Baconlord53: Dear lord indeed. Though when you think about it… Ruby had to learn it from somewhere, didn't she?

AndJrew76: Slightly less relaxing here, but still less dangerous than Grimm attacks. Yeah, knowing you have feelings for someone is kinda hard when you don't even know what it means to have feelings for someone, or what those feelings even are. Hopefully she'll get the hint soon.

Firearm Legume: No, you're not crazy, those are some neat firearms there. Nice finds as per usual.

Captain marvel 36: It's amazing how relatable a girl becomes when she isn't paranoid out her skull. Thanks for the compliments on the name choices, once I made that connection I couldn't pass it up. Which university? I'm currently attending Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, though I'm not staying on campus. I'm sure you'd understand when I'd rather not reveal more than that.

AgentDraakis: I mean, technically it was more a runtime error than a compiler error. Either way, the result is the same: your computer (or brain, in Kassidy's case) isn't very happy with you. I'm pretty sure half the reason Tai threatened Kass is overprotective father, more than seeing the ship power up (even if the signs are so obvious even my antisocial self can pick up on them). If Yang's pout is legal… it shouldn't be. Qrow having to do with getting Kassidy's Aura back would be interesting, if it weren't also wrong. Think about it: the Colossus guys did everything in their power to kill of her soul. This isn't a case of "Kassidy just needs to try harder/have better motivation", at the moment she physically can't use her Aura. Time will tell if she ever will, I guess. I'm sure that once she's convinced she can relax, Kassidy will be all too willing to take that opportunity.

Matt Cyr: Well, using the local vernacular does help with blending in. And… how the hell did I not think of that before you mentioned it?! Damnit, I could've made so many jokes with that! Where were you when I started this fic back in August?

Nemasis Demarini: As far as memory serves, you were the only one to bring up "Rouge", though I must admit that your misspelling of "Rogue" was what gave me the idea to begin with. Glad to hear you're still enjoying it, I'll do my best to keepeth it upeth.

James: You shall wait no longer! Here's to hoping I can write fluff as decently as I can most of the other stuff I've done so far.