Yo, so here be the next installment of this story. I have also decided to create an omnibus of CinderxJaune oneshots and drabble later that I will post soon.

All Characters shown here are property of Monty Oum and Roosterteeth.

Initiation: Part 1

Jaune expected many things going into the Beacon Initiation; He had heard some rumors of the headmaster's... eccentric behavior.

So Jaune had thought up a whole bunch of scenarios of how the initiation could possible go down; ranging from knockout duels between the initiatives to monitors and judged fights between the participants and captured Grimm, or, personality tests to judge their mental state, to even no initiation at all.

Heck, Jaune even expected a written exam just to throw people off.

He had thought he had an idea at the level of risk allowed upon them...

Apparently, he was wrong, as he was currently flying through the air over the Emerald Forest, with only his imagination as a landing strategy.

Jaune didn't mind the fact that the wind was currently whipping passed his face, or the fact that he was flying through the air ungracefully - he had lost his footing when his launch pad had gone off- because this was where Jaune excelled at; thinking on the fly...

Both figuratively and literally.

So it was while he was awkwardly flung into the air that he wrapped himself in white aura, now resembling a flying comet, though somewhat misshapen and lumpy.

Although he tried, Jaune could not refrain from closing his eyes as his glowing form impacted into the trees.

Jaune's figure disappeared in the rising dust and destruction he wrought as he ripped up a visible tear into the forest treetops, toppling dozens of trees on his descent into the Emerald Forest.

Jaune coughed as he stood up from the crater he had created.

Looking around to his mild surprise, he found himself amidst the dissipating pieces of what was once a beowolf, if the skull was anything to go on.

"You don't see that everyday" Jaune muttered as he scratched his head, looking at his surroundings. "Now which way is the relics?"

Jaune looked up at the treetops, trying to find the sun as a marker.

It was in this period of concentration that Jaune nearly died from a rookie mistake;

he forgot that beowolves generally travelled in packs.

The first swipe nearly took his head from his shoulders.

The second attacked resulted in the offending limb being sliced off as Jaune drew his sword, and when the beowolf opened its maw and gave a howl of pain, Jaune stabbed Crocea Mors down its throat.

Pulling his sword free with a wet SQUELCH, the body falling flat as Jaune back stepped.

He ducked underneath a swinging arm that ended in claws before leaping clear as another beowolf charged though where he had been standing momentarily before.

Jaune held his sword in a two-handed grip as he used the momentum from his jump to add more momentum to his swing as he came back to Remnant.

the attack caught the third beowolf square at the back of the neck, and Jaune's descent did the rest of the work as the blade easily decapitated the monster.

Jaune immediately rolled to the side as a beowolf struck the ground beside him.

Releasing his left hand from the hilt of the sword, Jaune casually brushed it over the flank of beowolf beside him. The creature of Grimm was instantly consumed in a blaze of white flames, the monster not even having the time to cry in pain before turning to ashes.

Jaune stood up from his crouch as the last beowolf paused before him, its red eyes narrowed and it gave a short roar. Jaune ignored it before calmly twisted his head to the left until an audible CRACK was heard, before repeating the process to the right.

Jaune replaced his left hand back onto the hilt of Crocea Mors before raising the blade parallel to his body and entering a wordless charge.

The beowolf gave once last challenging roar before it reverted to all fours and met Jaune's attack head on.

Jaune and the beowolf met in a clash of steel and claws as the collision blew the beowolf right off its feet and Jaune went down with it.

In two hands, Jaune thrust his sword down into the beowolf's chest, pinning it to the ground.

But that didn't kill the creature.

The beowolf gave a roar of pain and attempted to bring one of its claws up to rend the human on top of itself.

But it couldn't even succeed in that as its arm disappeared from forearm down. The beowolf gave one final roar of defiance that turned into a strangled whimper as Jaune grasped it by its bony skull mask, and squeezed with aura infused strength.

The beowolf's head now looked like when someone had taken an empty carton of milk, and attempted to crush it in one hand; the middle of the head scrunched inwards with the skull, and chin parts flaring out.

Jaune gracefully stood up from the remains as he wiped his face clean of blood and viscera, stepping over the body before pulling his sword clear, before turning to his sudden little helper.

Emphasis on little.

There were many words one could describe Cinder Fall, words like; 'beautiful', 'cunning', 'alluring', 'prideful', even 'condescending'.

Sadly, 'patient' was not one of those words, neither was 'understanding'.

"Ooh ooh!" her partner cried out in excitement. "Look look! I'm a sloth!"

And indeed, Cinder's partner was doing her best imitation of a sloth, by hanging from a tree with one arm as she mimed eating leaves.

Cinder tapped her heeled foot upon the dirt ground in impatience, her already short temperance wearing thin as he partner continued to mess around instead of following her lead.

"Let's go, Nora" Cinder said as she stalked off, trying with all her might to ignore the antics of the bubbly girl.

"Okie-Dokie Cindy!" Nora declared, suddenly in front of Cinder and giving her a straight-faced salute.

Cindy gave the chirpy girl a glare. "Don't... Call me 'Cindy'" she said as she brushed past Nora and continued searching for her wayward Knight.

"Okay!" Nora said as she easily kept pace with Cinder.

The two of them made it to thirty seconds of silent walking before Nora began speaking once more.

"So I have a best friend named Ren, he's here too, but I haven't been able to find him" her shoulders drooped slightly. "We've been together since we were kids, but we're not together-together" Nora gained a thoughtful look on her face, a hand coming up to cup her chin. "We're just together" she concluded, nodding to herself.

Cinder cocked an eyebrow at Nora's sudden admission, some of the hostility leaving her body as she continued walking.

"Do you have a friend here as well?" Nora asked.

"Hmm?" Cinder made a sound at the back of her throat. "...I have my knight in shining armor here"

Nora gave a squeal of glee at her answer, her fists coming up to cup her own face as she posed with her left leg off the ground, imaginary hearts bursting into creation behind her.

All of Cinder's diminished hostility was regained in a second as she gave Nora a disapproving glare.

Cinder gave a roll of her eyes. "Stop that. We need to find a relic"

"Yup!" Nora declared, fist thrust into the air. "Let's go find treasure!"

With that, Nora grabbed a surprised Cinder by the hand, and began to run, tugging Cinder along.

Even more surprising was the fact that Cinder was able to keep up with Nora's pace, somehow crossing great distances in leaps and bounds in two inch heels.

Nora suddenly stopped catching Cinder off guard, causing her to ram into Nora's back, sending the hammer-wielder sprawled on the ground, while Cinder rolled once and landed in a crouch with one slender leg extended to the side.

Looking up from her crouched position, Cinder swiftly turned to what had stopped her partner in her tracks;

There was a duo of Ursas standing before the two of them.

The two Grimm simultaneously roared, spittle flying through the air, only to sizzle as it made contact with the fire dust coating of Cinder's dress.

Cinder gave a sigh as with a flick of her wrists and a burst of flame dust, she summoned her twin scimitars. The black blades gleamed in the sunlight as she rolled her wrists, eyeing the two Ursas with disinterest.

But before she even got close enough to stab either one, there was a great cry behind her, and then there was a chain of explosions.

The position of the two Ursas was suddenly bombarded by a literal barrage of explosions. Cinder looked over her shoulder to see Nora back on her feet and her large hammer had transformed into a grenade launcher spewing death.

All the while, Nora was laughing maniacally.

Cinder suddenly twisted backwards through the air in a jump as an enraged Ursa charged through the dust clouds created by Nora's explosions.

While in the air, Cinder corkscrewed and transformed her weapon at the same time; bring the two hilts together to form a longbow with three arrows already notched.

As she landed, she fired the three black fire dust arrows from her bow; the first arrow skimmed past the Ursa's head, leaving a long gash upon the bone skull, the second arrow embedded itself into the knee, and the final shot entered to the right of its meaty midsection.

The Ursa gave a roar of pain as it staggered its charge as the arrow in its knee checked its forward momentum, causing it to trip over its own feet and fall forward.

It is as it was falling forward that Cinder changed her bow back to her swords and brought them up, crisscrossing them.

With a sidestep and a flick of her wrists, Cinder easily beheaded the flailing Ursa, before dissipating her weapons in a flash of fire.

"Yeehaw!"

Cinder turned around to see Nora riding on top of the second Ursa of all things. One hand held onto one of the spikes protruding from the back, while the other hand held her grenade launcher, firing grenades into the air to explode up on high like fireworks.

Cinder watched as the Ursa gave a roar of anger and began attempting to shake Nora off.

That only seemed to excite Nora more as she gave another cheer, still riding on the shoulders of the Ursa.

Cinder continued watching as the Ursa roared again, and then charged off, with Nora still on top of it, uprooting trees as it crashed its way through the forest with the exuberant girl on top of it.

Once the girl and the Grimm were out of view, Cinder turned around, and began walking the opposite direction, finally able to search for Jaune without interruptions.

"It appears the last pair has been formed, headmaster"

Professor Glynda Goodwitch did not look up from her scroll as she spoke, instead, with several quick taps, switched view to another pair in the forest.

"It appears there may be some internal tensions between the two.." Glynda switched view one last time to a girl in bronze armor. "Though they are not the only pair with issues"

"Mmmm..." Went Ozpin's acknowledgment of her observations.

He too was watching the initiates upon his own tablet, though he was more focused up on two different pairs; a boy with a black and grey style motif and his partner, a tall redhead with a bronze shield strapped to her back.

The second screen showed a girl with mint-green hair tapping her foot as a girl in white with an off-set pony-tail walked in circles.

"These two came from Vacuo?" Ozpin mumbled to himself, more a question than a statement.

"What was that, sir?"

"Hmm?" Ozpin faked confusion. "I was just thinking up team names"

Ozpin didn't have to turn around to see the frown upon Glynda's face.

"I understand the need to test the students, but don't you think sending them into the Emerald Forest on the first day is a little excessive?"

"I think this year's batch of students will be more... interesting, to say the least"

"What do you think the odds of the relic being inside here?"

"..."

"Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?"

"..."

"Well, this was somewhat north... plus there are some weird drawings at the entrance"

"..."

You're not going to make this easy, are you?" Jaune asked with a sigh as he turned to his partner.

"..." She only smiled magnanimously in reply, though her heterochromia eyes flickered for a moment, shifting from pink to brown and then back to pink so fast Jaune almost didn't catch it.

"Okay..." Jaune breathed out with a sigh.

So far, talking to his partner was like talking to dirt, that is, if said dirt was five feet nothing and looked slightly eccentric.

Oh she also wielded a somewhat frilly parasol.

Though it did give her a look of elegance when she sat down upon the log, unfurling her 'weapon' to block the sun. One leg crossed primly over the other as she regarded Jaune with a half-smile that reminded him far too much of Cinder... or his sisters.

His partner gave a flip of her head to get a lock of pink hair out of the way, still watching Jaune, the smile still on her face.

It was being to unnerve Jaune slightly; with the lack of communication between the two of them, the one-sided conversations, and the way her eyes watched him like a hawk.

"So you uh, still haven't told me your name" Jaune spoke to fill the silence between them, so he was unprepared when he received an answer.

[Neo]

"Who! Whoa!" Jaune jumped slightly, wildly looking around as he nearly drew out his sword at the sudden words.

Jaune's eyes lit up a he realized who had answered his question.

Neo remained sitting before him, but now her free hand held her scroll, and with a tap of the screen, the female voice synthesizer repeated the one word; [Neo].

"Neo, huh? Well I said it earlier, but I'm Jaune Arc" Jaune stuck out his hand to shake.

Neo glanced at it momentarily before she answered in kind, her dainty little hand almost disappeared in Jaune's firm grip.

They're sudden moment was ruined as Jaune nearly lost his footing as the ground rumbled and shook.

"What the-?" Jaune breathed out, widening his stance as he scanned the area.

Neo too had gotten up from her spot on the fallen tree, parasol held to the side, eyes flickering between pink and brown.

"Did you hear that?" Jaune asked, head cocked, trying to pick up sound over the noise of crashing rocks, even as he continued watching his surroundings. "Is that... screaming?"

It was indeed the sound of a girl screaming.

"..!" Neo suddenly spun around to face the cave they had ended up not entering.

Jaune turned around as well, just in time to see the source of the screaming race out of the cave.

The girl apparently didn't even notice them as she ran straight into Neo, sending the shorter girl sprawled upon the floor with her on top.

Jaune turned back to the cave as the rumbling got louder, and then something burst out from the cave, like a newborn chick coming out of its shell.

It was a massive Grimm.

A giant Deathstalker to be precise, with a black exoskeleton and bone white plating all over it, large vicious pincers, tufts of grass caught in between the plating, and a glowing stinger.

That had a recognizable girl in white hanging from it for dear life.

Before said girl disappeared over the treetops as the deathstalker swung its tail back and forth and she lost her grip.

"Oh..." Jaune eyed the Grimm before them.

"Well Dust..."

There wasn't much in life so far that could scare Jaune, of course, from time to time when he was younger and was messing with his sisters, he would take it a tad too far and they would exact punishment upon him, there was that time he went to the Signal Academy Dance with Yang Xiao Long -as friends - instead of with Cinder (because apparently when she said she "Didn't want to go", it actually meant she did indeed want to go). There was also that one time where he had almost drown because dad threw him into the deep end when he was four.

But none of those times compared to being chased by an extremely old and extremely dangerous Deathstalker.

Well, maybe that mess-up with Cinder about Yang, but the rest of the night had gone extremely well with Cinder after he had gotten himself out of the tree he had hidden in for several hours and she had somewhat cooled off.

But back to the Deathstalker.

Jaune was currently running for his life, weaving in between trees as he ran through the forest, on either side of him was Neo and an unnamed girl with light-green hair.

And behind them was the Deathstalker, thundering and crushing trees as it skittered after its prey.

Namely them.

Jaune didn't have the time to look behind him, but from how the ground thundered, he could hazard a guess that the deathstalker was pretty close.

Then suddenly, there were no more trees, and Jaune found himself in a wide open clearing.

Passing through the middle of said clearing, and once on the other side amongst the trees once more, Jaune realized there was no longer the sound of the Deathstalker behind them; the ground shaking was receding, and so was the sound of trees being uprooted.

Turning around, Jaune looked back the way he and the two others had come from.

From in between the trees, he could make out the Deathstalker fighting something in the clearing they had passed through.

Jaune's eyes widened as he realized just what the Deathstalker was in the midst of combat with...

It was the three of them.

But that didn't make sense, since the three of them were currently hiding behind three separate trees watching the fight.

He shared a look of confusion with the mint green haired girl before the two of them turned to Jaune's partner, Neo.

Said girl had the biggest smile upon her face, her eyes shifting so that both eyes were pink now. She gave a twirl of her parasol before having it rest upon her shoulder.

She then turned around and began to walk away from Jaune, the other girl, and the distracted Deathstalker.

GREEERRR!

Jaune quickly turned back to the clearing, thinking the worst, that the Deathstalker was not fooled and was now more than just angry at the three of them.

But luckily for Jaune, the deathstalker was still in fact fooled. The deceit was so well done that the creature had given a cry of anger before chasing Not-Jaune, Not-Neo, and Not-other girl back the other way. The sound of its carnage through the forest receding as the seconds passed.

TWEEET!

There was the sharp sound of whistle, and Jaune once more turned around to see his partner still smirking at him, but now with her parasol extended and pointing behind her.

She gave a flip of her arm before having it point in the same direction of her parasol, palm up. Signalling to him; 'after you'.

Jaune took a second to look at his new partner, then back to where the deathstalker had disappeared, then at the other girl who still remained unnamed, and then finally back to Neo.

Jaune could only give a smile to Neo. "Thanks for the save, Neo" he said as he moved passed her.

"Yeah, thanks" the other girl said as she made to follow past Neo.

But unnoticed by Jaune, Neo stopped the other girl before she made it past her by retracting her parasol to block the other girl.

"Huh?" the mint-haired girl asked, giving Neo a confused look.

Neo said nothing, but shifted position to be standing in front of her now.

The two delved into an impromptu staring contest for several seconds before Neo raised the hand not holding the parasol up to chest height with its palm up.

The other girl, understanding the gesture; "I have no idea of what you're talking about..."

Neo said nothing, but remained blocking her way before she gave an exasperated sigh, but remained blocking her way.

"We're going to get behind" mint-hair noted as she looked over Neo's shoulder. "Your partner is going to start asking..."

She trailed off as she took in exactly what her eyes were telling her; up ahead was Jaune, and walking calmly beside him was Neo... and beside Neo was... herself... but her eyes shifted back, Neo was currently blocking her way! And she was sure as Monty that she wasn't walking anywhere and that Neo and her were currently facing off each other, and most definitely not continuing through the forest!

She turned back to the Neo walking beside Jaune to see that one turn to look over her should at her, a victorious smirk upon her face before she brought her hand up and showed her what was currently in it; to her shock, it was a plain black wallet.

The same wallet she had lifted from Jaune's pockets not a minute earlier in fact.

Suddenly, the version of herself currently walking beside Neo shattered into a million pieces of glass before dissipating into the air.

She turned back to the Neo blocking her way.

This one gave her a cheeky little wave before it too shattered and disappeared from existence, and she was left standing on her own in shock as Jaune and Neo got further and further away.

With a start, she sprinted forward to catch up with the other two before ending up on Jaune's other side.

Jaune shot her a glance from the corner of his eye before he gave her a look of confusion.

"Weren't you on Neo's other side?"

"What? No" she answered.

"I could have sworn you were..." Jaune said as he cast a glance to Neo's other side to check indeed that she was not there, but currently beside him.

Jaune shook his head before turning back forwards and continuing on his way in search of a relic.

Behind Jaune's back, she shot a glare at Neo, who responded by sticking her tongue out at her.

"That reminds me, I never introduced myself" Jaune said as he gave her a welcoming smile. "The name's Jaune Arc, short and sweet"

"Emerald Sustrai" the mint-haired girl answered in turn.

"Nice to meet you"

"Likewise"

"Oh, and that's Neo" Jaune said with a jerk of his head at the parasol wielding girl. "She doesn't say much"

"Hi..." Emerald said coolly, begrudgingly offering her hand to shake.

Neo took the proffered hand and shook it with the regality of a visiting queen.

Emerald gave a strained smile, well, it was more like a showing of bared teeth at Neo than an actual smile, and by 'strained' that means her mouth twitched upwards in a parody of a smile as she attempted to crush the bones in Neo's little hand.

Neo appeared to understand Emerald's efforts and locked glares with her as she too attempted to cause as much physical pain with her handshake.

Jaune was completely oblivious to all of this as he was too busy studying the trees and the sky.

"I think it was this way your partner flew..." He said as he pointed to the right from which they had been running. "Yeah... We better hurry, we should make sure she's okay, plus, I think that's where we should head to find the relics"

"I'm sure the princess is fine" Emerald said offhandedly, apparently done trying to break Neo's hand anymore and now just ignoring her. "She said she could take on anything the forest threw at her, who am I to disagree?"

Said princess was not fine.

In fact, she was far from it indeed!

She was currently flying through the air a second time after being unceremoniously flung from the tail end of one Deathstalker.

All because she placed an ounce of trust in that mint-haired girl!

She knew she should have been the one taking charge. As a Schnee, she had already taken courses in management and leadership from private tutors, and she was pretty sure she could run the family company for Monty sake, so taking command of three hunters/huntresses in training would be a piece of cake.

It was just as she was about to call up some glyphs to slow redirect herself did she feel something suddenly grab her around the waist.

And then, Weiss was being lifted away and now she found herself clutching feathers on the back of a Nevermore of all things.

"Nice job, Blake!"

Weiss looked up from her position to see her would-be saviors; two people she distinctly remember from yesterday; the girl with the red cape who blew up several thousand lien of dust, and the girl with the bow who had insinuated that her father's company did not pay its workers properly.

Well the workers were only paid what they were due, if they wanted more, they should work harder!

Weiss was getting sidetracked, the two girls were called Ruby and Blake if she recalled correctly from last night.

Although she was somewhat grateful for the assist, it did not explain why in all of Remnant were the two of them currently riding on a Nevermore.

"Why are we on a Nevermore!?"

"Well, it was Ruby's idea, and it's much faster than running" Blake had to shout to be heard.

"Well it's a terrible idea!" Weiss shouted as she closed her eyes from a large jolt of the Nevermore. "Terrible, terrible idea!"

"Hey!" Ruby cried indignantly. "If it we weren't on the Nevermore, who would have saved you?!"

"I would much rather be free-falling, thank you very much!" Weiss snapped.

"You can just jump then" Blake noted.

"You guys want to jump now!?" Ruby asked, completely mishearing. "Okay, let's jump!"

"Are you insane!" Weiss asked, looking up from her spot, but only to find herself alone on the Nevermore. "...You have got to be kidding me!"

But alas, it was all too real as Ruby and her partner Blake plummeted to the ground, leaving her alone on board Nevermore Airways.

"Oh, I am going to so regret this" Weiss said as she looking down while gnawing at her bottom lip.

With that, she released her hold on the Nevermore's back and fell gracefully off.

"Do you see that?" a female voice asked.

"See what?" a bored male voice answered.

"Someone's in trouble!" the female said, pointing into the far distance.

So far actually that the male couldn't even tell what she was pointing at.

"I don't see-" he began, but before he even finished his sentence, his partner was already moving.

She took several steps forward before unclasping her weapon, it extended into a short spear, a javelin.

She fully extended her left arm out front before raising her thumb, using it as a rough aim assessment, her tongue poked out of her mouth as she concentrated for several seconds before with a great heave, she threw her spear from her other hand into the far distance at a target only she saw.

And that's a wrap for this part, Part 2 will be out... eventually.

Anyway, as you can see, the teams have been switched up tremendously, and we got an entire ensemble of characters here. Also, you can see how I switched/ wandered away from just Jaune's POV, well, I felt like flushing everyone out character wise.

Sadly, it would appear that my rewrite of The Gamer will not be until next year, with exams still going on, work, and family.

Anyway, who can guess what are the teams, and who is on which team? I'll give a hint by showing the team names:

Team Jaune

Team Pumpkin

Team Raspberry

Everyone, have a nice day, and I hope you enjoyed reading!

Desodus