AN: Chapter 3. First new chapter of the remake.

Beta:DragonManMax

Chapter 3: Crimson Eyes

Jaune followed the white cloaked girl off the airship. Everything felt strange…

Not even a full day ago, he had watched the school and kingdom he loved nearly destroyed before his very eyes and now everything was perfect again. No fires. No rampaging droids or Grimm. Not even the White Fang. It filled him with a sense of calm and hope, seeing students get off their ships, peacefully talking to one another.

He reached down to find his scroll. To his surprise, he still had it, but then again, whatever brought him here also brought his set of clothes and armor along with his sword and shield. Of course, the same couldn't be said about his bank account. He had nothing to his name in that area.

"Well fuck…"

"Something wrong?"

He flinched slightly. He had almost forgotten Summer was still there with him taking in the scenery. It was probably pretty new to her. Looking at her directly like this, another difference popped out to him. Summer was about his height compared to Ruby, who was a few inches smaller. Perhaps it was the two-year gap? Summer hadn't gotten in early like Ruby had, as far as he knew.

"It's nothing." He smiled. "I just forgot something, but I'll be fine without it for now."

"Oh, okay." Summer replied, turning from him. "We should go fine the auditorium before we are late. If you need help with something though, just let me know okay?"

"Sure thing." He nodded, following after her. It seemed unlike last time both he and Summer knew where they were going. He half expected her to be just as lost as Ruby was their first day.

"Hey Summer? How do you know where you're going?"

She turned around and gave him a strange look. "Well, I've been here once before. At Signal the seniors who plan on enrolling get to take a field trip here at the end of the year. Didn't they do that for you?"

"Um no. I never went to Signal." He admitted. His mind racing for a possible cover story for the question he knew was going to follow.

"Well that explains why I never saw you there. What school did you go to?"

"Well, I was home taught." He lied.

"Oh really? That's impressive. Who taught you?" Her gaze became a bit more excited as she stepped onto the side to allow other students to pass them.

"Well a close friend of mine did. I definitely wouldn't be where I am today without her." He smiled not allowing the grief of never seeing Pyrrha again to enter his mind at the moment.

"Oh, that's pretty cool!" Pulling aside her cloak she pulled out a large almost icy purple blade. "This is my weapon. Frostmourne is her name." The white reaper grinned. "Judging by the sword on your side, we are both blade users!"

Jaune pulled out his sword and shield. "Yep! This is my weapon Crocea Mors." He smiled. His blade was fine, but her blade was far more impressive, and slightly scary looking. Leave it Ruby's mom to upstage him. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if her sword could turn into a gun or something.

She looked it over. "It's a fine blade. Did you make it yourself?"

"No, it's something I inherited from my ancestor who fought in the great war."

Her silver hued eyes widened. "That's really cool! I'm already glad that I got to meet another sword user, let alone a sword used in Remnant's greatest conflict!" Her expression soon turned serious. "Well, we can compare more later, but we should head to the opening ceremony."

He nodded and followed after her as they put their blades away. It felt really good having his weapon being admired for a change and despite how shitty the past day had been for him things seemed to be looking up again.

Disregarding how weird talking to your best friend's dead mother as if she were a classmate was.

Oh, wait she is now…This just feels so weird.

Raven had never laughed so hard before. At least she had never expected to laugh this hard at some boring school, but she did. She wasn't sure how that blonde student had tricked her brother into wearing a skirt at the opening ceremony, but he did.

Perhaps going to an Academy filled with weaklings wasn't so bad after all. Still, it would give her and her brother an edge later on after they graduated, and their tribe did need a counter force after all.

She grinned as she pulled out her blade from the combat locker and equipped it to her side. The next few hours would have a big impact for her.

Initiation would commence for the first years just after the opening ceremony, which would now be just a few minutes away and the headmaster had warned them to think of a landing strategy, so her guess was they were being flung into Emerald Forest somehow.

Then they would get their rooms and classes would start tomorrow morning.

Raven gave a soft huff at the thought of sitting through boring lectures, but recognized the importance of it. Still at least now all she had to do was kill Grimm and that was going to be the fun part.

Stepping onto one of the podiums she noticed her brother walk onto the one beside her.

"Nice legs."

"Shut up Raven."

She couldn't help but let out another snort. "You really surprise me sometimes with how gullible you can be. Damn."

"It's not like we've been to a school before. I'm surprised you even knew what to wear for this."

"That's because I asked the headmaster. Not another smartass student." She crossed her arms. "Honestly Qrow it's my job as the older twin to be the smart one anyway."

Qrow rolled his eyes. "How do you even know you're the oldest?"

"Because I'm the smart one. Duh!"

"More like a bitch."

She grinned, but didn't respond to his jab. The headmaster was making his way to the front of them now and it seemed the rest of the students had gathered as well.

"Welcome first years. Today your teams will be formed starting with the first person you make eye contact with." The headmaster started as he took a sip from his coffee mug.

This caused a ripple of mummers among the students.

'Eye contact!? That's a bit extreme for determining your partner!'

Raven wasn't too fond of this idea at all. Especially since she wanted to be partnered with her brother and not some weakling. It would be bad enough having two on their team, but a whole team of them? She shuddered at the thought.

"Your mission is to reach the old temple to the north and obtain a relic before returning to the school. Once everyone returns the teams will be put together. Any questions?" The headmaster paused.

Once he saw there weren't any he nodded and pressed a button on his scroll. "Good luck students."

A loud scream caught her attention as she saw a student get hurled into the air followed by another and another. One by one the students were sent flying off the platforms into the air.

'So, this is how they were sending us into the forest. I should have figured.'

Raven braced herself as her turn soon came and she felt the rush of flying for the first time.

Thinking quickly, she pulled her katana and slashed it into a tree to help break her fall. The tree helped offered resistance but not enough as she fell downward, and pieces of bark flew off with some into her face. She closed her eyes as she descended downward not wanting a flying piece of bark to hit her in the eye until she came to an abrupt stop.

Landing swiftly on her feet, she opened her eyes to get a better grasp on her surroundings. Naturally, she was in the middle of an Emerald forest so there were trees everywhere. No doubt Grimm could jump out at any given moment. The sky was getting cloudy and rain seemed on the horizon.

"First day of school, huh?"

She made her way further into the forest. She was pretty sure she was going the right way. Her tribe had taught her many useful skills with navigation and tracking.

A low growling noise was heard from her right and she knew right away to draw her blade. A large beowolf lunged at her inside the trees, however she easily swatted the larger creature back with her sword before pressing the attack and lunging forward. Her blade piercing through its chest and killing it moments later.

Pressing on it wasn't long before more beowolf's attempted to ambush her and soon met a swift death. "This is almost too easy. Anyone who gets caught up by a beowolf doesn't deserve to be a huntsman." She muttered as she separated another beowolf from its head.

Here he was again. Jaune had been sent through the air once more, but this time he didn't have his redhead partner to save him but he did have aura. Aura that took a nasty hit when he hit the ground with a hard thud. Thankfully the trees were kind enough to slow his fall even if painfully and he had more branches on his armor and twigs in his hair than he would have liked. He was still alive… Sort of.

He still felt sore all around. Still, he got up and started his journey into the woods. He just wondered who his partner would be this time, not that they could ever replace Pyrrha of course. It still felt so weird being here without her.

He took out his scroll and was glad it didn't seem too damaged from the fall. His contacts were still there and out of morbid curiosity he decided to call her scroll. He didn't expect her to answer of course. Being in a literal different branch of time might have something to do with that, but if something as crazy as going back in time could happen then why not give this a try.

He hit the call button. His heart skipped a beat when he heard it ring once.

However, that soon vanished when the infamous automated recording started. "We are sorry, but the number you have dialed is not in service or is disconnected. Please hang up and try your call again."

"Damn." He sighed and put the scroll away. He wondered why it even rang the first time then? Was it just teasing him? "Sadistic bastard." Of course, it wasn't really the scrolls fault.

Deciding not to waste anymore time and just get the stupid relic he pressed on.

"I wonder if it will be chess pieces again this year?"

He stopped in his tracks when he heard some rustling come from the nearby bushes. He instinctively drew his sword and raised his shield in a protective manner. It came with a sudden rush and nearly knocked him off his feet. A large beowolf alpha jumped at him swinging it's claws wildly. It was pure adrenalin and survival instinct that allowed the blond to doge and block its attacks.

He gripped his sword desperately as he tried to find some sort of opening in the creatures frenzy.

'If I stay on the defense like this I'll die!'

He couldn't rely on his friends anymore to save him. He was alone and if he didn't want to die then it was time for him to start fighting for himself. Ignoring how well that worked for him against Cinder.

Dodging to the right, he winced as the dark wolf's claw grazed his cheek. How deep he didn't know, but he could feel a wet substance trickle down the affected area. He finally saw an opening. That last attack had over extended the creature's reach and gave him the chance to drive his sword into its shoulder. He did.

The beast howled loudly, but the young warrior didn't relent. He continued to drive his sword deeper until he cleaved the beast in half. Its broken pieces fell to the ground before slowly disappearing into a dark mist.

He huffed slowly and closed his eyes for a second. A sharp pain ran through his left shoulder. It seemed the beast nicked him there too, but he didn't feel any blood from it.

"Not the most efficient way but at least you managed to kill it."

Jaune's eyes shot open as he flinched in surprise. He turned around to find a tall young woman with long black hair. The style reminded him of Yang's hair. Her crimson eyes stared at him indifferently.

"Um, thanks?" The blond mumbled. "Who are you?"

"I'm Raven." Slight irritation formed on her face before it was quickly pushed back. "And it seems we are now partners."

Realization dawned on him as he remembered Ozpin's rules for team forming. Even in the past, they held true. His pure blue eyes had locked with her intimidating yet beautiful crimson red.

"I'm Jaune. It's nice to meet you." He offered her his hand.

Raven looked down at it before looking around. "Save the friendship stuff until after initiation. We need to get moving unless you want to fight more Grimm."

He nodded and returned his hand to his weapon. "I think the relics should be this way." He offered and started to head deeper into the forest. He just hoped his memories of his first initiation would help save him time here.

Emerald Forrest seemed to have a lot more Grimm in it now then he remembered back in his time. Perhaps generations of young huntsmen had actually made a difference in the forest's dense Grimm population.

"Alright, I'll let you lead the way." She walked closer to him but kept a small distance behind.

The silence was about as awkward as he figured it would be. This dark Yang clone clearly had little interest in small talk with him. A few topics came to mind, but he decided not to risk agitating his new partner.

'Pyrrha was so much friendlier…'

He ignored the small wave of emotion that hit him from the memory of her or any of his friends for that matter. He needed to focus on not getting killed so quickly after his rebirth.

Finally, after what felt like forever the ruins came into view. This time there was no death stalker chasing him ether. "Looks like we found the place." He muttered.

Raven nodded. "You're fighting skills seem average at best, but at least you seem to have a good sense of direction."

'Well, that explains how much of my fight she saw… Would it have killed her to help?'

As he expected the old ruins had chess pieces lined up on various slabs of stone.

"So, which one are we taking?" He asked.

Raven walked over to the black queen. "I think this one works just fine." She smiled as she picked it up. "Let's hurry and get back to the school. I've already killed enough Grimm today to satisfy my urge for battle and any more would be a waste of time."

"Um, right." He nodded and followed along. He looked up to thankfully see an empty sky. 'At least there was no nevermore.'

"So how long have you been training for?"

Jaune looked over to her as they walked. Not really expecting her to be the one to start conversation at this point. He hadn't even been at Beacon a full year before the fall. "About a year or so."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really? So that explains it… It seems you didn't go to one of those starting school's ether. But unlike me, you might have needed it."

"Well, I mostly self-practiced until about a year ago and then I met someone who helped tutor me." He explained.

"I see. Well, you made it in somehow, so I don't really care. I just hope you'll keep seeing whoever is training you for your sake. If we run into higher level Grimm you're going to be in some serious trouble." She warned.

He sighed. "I can't."

"Why?"

"She…Isn't here anymore."

The black-haired girl studied him for a moment before nodding. "I see. What did it?"

He thought for a moment and fought the small lump in his throat. "There was an attack and she died."

"I'm sorry for the loss. But perhaps it's for the best she stopped teaching you one way or another. I mean, if she died, she must not have been that great."

He stopped.

She did too and placed a hand on her hip. "Problem?"

"You should watch your mouth on things you know nothing about." He warned.

She cocked her head to the side but seemed unphased. Amused if anything. "Oh? Big words coming from someone like you."

"Big or small doesn't really matter as long as it's the truth."

"Whatever kid. I'm not going to fight you in the middle of a Grimm filled forest." She shrugged and started to walk once more.

He followed after her. The silence was as thick as his thoughts of anger. He was wrong to even compare this girl to Yang. But it was stupid to try and fight her on it. She obviously knew so little. How could she? It wouldn't be fair to judge her on this even if she was being a bitch about it. He felt one of his hands clench on their own. His body shaking slightly.

Still, he couldn't help but feel his anger brooding at her rude comments about his former partner. It only swelled with the reminder he would never see them again.

Slash

Jaune's eyes widened as he noticed his surroundings once more. The fading mist of a decapitated ursa littered the ground near him.

"You should probably save your brooding until we get back to the school." Raven advised as she lowered her katana. "Remember negative emotions attract the Grimm. Or did your tutor not tell you that?"

"She did…"

"Good. If what I said bothered, you that much then do something about it. Once we are free then come spar with me and show if how strong you are." Raven smirked.

They both knew he couldn't beat her. Well, he was fairly certain anyway and she was positive. Still, he wanted to. He wanted to wipe that stupid grin off her face. It wasn't like he had anything to lose… Well, besides more of his pride, but he could live with that. Tarnishing Pyrrha's name, especially since he shouldn't be the one alive, not Pyrrha infuriated him.

Well, technically as far he knew Pyrrha was alive… But still. Time travel was so confusing.

"I'll take up that offer of yours."

The walk back to the Academy was pretty uneventful in comparison to his first time during initiation. No deathstalkers or nevermore chasing them, instead it was simple Grimm like beowolves or an ursa, and Raven usually finished them in seconds. Jaune figured even he could handle those now if he needed, but as luck would have it his new partner was quick to steal the kill.

"Sorry, but this is the most action we will probably be getting for a while. I'm not going to waste this opportunity." Raven explained.

"It's fine. I get it." The blond mumbled. It wasn't like he was crazy excited to fight another Grimm anyway.

The journey resumed its silence as the duo continued through the forest. Looking to the sky Jaune noticed it would be night soon. The broken moon was already becoming visible as the sun dipped below the horizon.

"Look out!"

Jaune felt the ground underneath them start to tremble.

Qrow and his new partner Summer were running as fast as they could towards his sister and the blond he hadn't seen before.

The ground shook violently beneath them. Qrow didn't even have to turn around to know that the goliath was still chasing after them. Thankfully, it wasn't a full herd that had discovered them, but a stray.

"What the hell!? I didn't know goliaths occupied the Emerald Forrest" The blond cried.

"Nether did we." Qrow sighed as he and Summer caught up to his sister and the blond. "Looks like we are already learning something new. I knew this was a good school." He smirked.

The goliath was massive. Its two massive tusks looked like they could impale three to four people at once and hold their bodies over a fire and cook them if it wanted to. Its impending figure was only scarcely rivaled by a deathstalker or a nevermore in the Vale region. Its armor was some of the hardest in know Grimm history, but the trick was to find the right spot and it could be taken down easier than one might expect.

The problems was getting to that spot before it crushed you. They were also one of most intelligent types of Grimm and many times didn't attack blindly unless it thought it would win for sure.

"Qrow stop fooling around. We need to take that thing down. It could attract more." Raven frowned. Her blade already at the ready.

"We were just luring it to a more open area first." Summer explained.

"Speaking of that we should probably keep running until we get to one then." The blond stated.

No one argued with him as they sprinted into a clearing back near the ruins. The large beast roared as it crushed everything in sight. It broke through the trees like a bulldozer through a building. The large crunching noises it made as it tore through the forest were a constant reminder to run. Run like hell.

Thankfully the clearing wasn't far away, and the small group was able to spread out to make the creature single someone out.

"I'll take the left side." Rave called out as she dashed at the creatures left eye. Qrow instinctively took the right eye. It was natural to try and blind the creature first before going for its weak spots.

The problems were that a goliath had incredibly tough armor and discovering the creature's weak point could far too long before it trampled you to death or impaled you with one of its tusks.

Thankfully the tusks wouldn't be too much of a problem. Summer was already on them as the beast lashed out violently. Her sword seemed to cut through one with unnatural ease.

Qrow shot off a few dust rounds into the creature's eye. Using his agility and momentum he was able to leap high enough to get in a good slash at its eye as well. The creature howled out in pain. It was starting to become unbalanced as it lashed out in a now literal blind frenzy.

"I got its other tusk!" Summer called out.

"Good job white cloak." Raven praised. "Now we just need t-"

Qrow followed her line of site. It seemed the blond was making a mad dash for the creature's belly.

"Jaune! Wait!" Summer called out.

However, the blond was already in the thrall of the beast. The creature lashed about widely and had it still be in possession of it's tusks it would have impaled him easy. Instead the blond thrusted his sword into the creatures' belly. The Grimm howled loudly before falling over.

Qrow didn't waist time and started to shoot more dust rounds into it. Raven added her sword to the beasts under armor. With a loud roar the beast finally died, and its body started to fade into black dust.

"Whew…" Jaune let out a tired sigh. He was sweating and breathing heavily.

"Wow dude. That was ballsy."

"I know. But you guys were all busy disarming it, so I saw an opportunity. My old mentor taught me a lot of about the weak points of certain Grimm."

"Was this someone outside of a combat school?" Qrow inquired.

"Yep."

"I see." He grinned. "Nice. Me and Raven here never went to a school before ether. I'm Qrow by the way and it seems you and Summer already know one another?"

"Yep, we met just before imitation." The knight conformed.

"As fun as this is we should get back to the school. I'd rather not risk running into another goliath." Raven advised.

"No complaints here." Qrow shrugged.

The hall from the opening ceremony was packed, but it had only taken a half hour or so to get through most of the new teams. Summer was glad they hadn't run into any more Grimm on the way back. Being thrown into combat like that wasn't something she expected on a first day.

Still, her partner Qrow seemed nice. His sister? Much less so. At least she got to see Jaune again though. Raven seemed to have some sort of superiority complex or something. She would merely roll her eyes or ignore her outright whenever she attempted to get to know the other girl on the way back.

'Perhaps I shouldn't have nearly tackled her when I saw that epic looking sword of hers…'

Mistakes may have been made, but she would rectify it in time. Qrow's weapon was a bit cooler anyway.

'A gun/scythe/sword!? How cool is that!?'

She couldn't help but feel her own sword was insignificant. Still good old Frostmourne had always done the job she needed done. She wouldn't give it up for the world.

Still, even Jaune had a shield to go along with his sword. She on the other hand had her trusty white cloak. She felt more like some hooded assassin than a warrior when she thought about it.

Normally assassins used daggers… Maybe her dagger was just a lot bigger than normal? Yeah, that's it!

It was finally her turn. Along with the other duo she and Qrow went on stage in front of the headmaster. Of course, standing in front of the entire freshman student body wasn't the best for her nerves ether.

"Summer Rose, Qrow Branwen, Raven Branwen, and um…" The headmaster paused and shifted through his scroll. "Strange…I didn't notice this one in the freshmen database before…"

Summer stole a glance at Jaune. He looked so nervous. She could hardly blame him with him being the sole center attention. But surely, he shouldn't feel bad for the headmaster's mistake, right?

"Um, Jaune Arc?" The headmaster cleared his throat. "My deepest apologize. I seem to be surprisingly unorganized today. Allow me to try that again. Summer Rose, Qrow Branwen, Raven Branwen, and Jaune Arc. You both collected the queen pieces. Your team name is…SJRQ."

There was a silence followed by some murmurs among the crowd. Even the headmaster seemed a bit puzzled.

"Hmm. I can't think of a color for this. This isn't good at all." He returned his attention back to her team. "Well, for now team SJRQ is your name. Led by… Summer Rose."

There was an awkward silence, but that was quickly replaced by polite clapping from the students. Qrow nudged her with a thumb up. Summer was pretty sure her face was on fire, but she didn't dare pull up her hood to hide behind it.

She was just glad this whole thing was over with.

Jaune sighed as he walked through the halls. They had gotten their room, and each picked out a bed for themselves followed by a nice dinner. After dinner, his teammates had dispersed. Qrow went out into Vale. Summer went to check out the library and Raven? She didn't say.

"We didn't even get a proper name…I suppose that's another thing I messed up since coming here." He sighed. "I should just be happy the headmaster somehow found my file." He should be thankful to whatever God had sent him here.

He smiled looking at Beacons combat arena. It hadn't changed much.

He remembered watching Pyrrha take on Cardin and his team single handedly. She didn't even break a sweat. She also had a short fight with that exchange student Mercury.

"Pyrrha…"

Loud footsteps caused him to turn away from the arena and look towards the entrance.

"So, you came? Good. I was hoping to get some live practice in before bed."

"Oh, hey Raven. What's up?"

"What's up? We are still having a match, right? Don't tell me you forgot and came here by chance…." She frowned and crossed her arms. If looks could kill, then her eyes would have already set him on fire.

He stood speechless. It was true, he had completely forgotten. His mind was far too occupied with the fact that he had managed to hit a goliath's weak spot without getting trampled to death. He didn't remember having goliaths in the Emerald Forrest during his time. Perhaps they had been wiped out by then? Or at least they were far less common.

Also, he fucked up the color thing and their team name. Sure, they couldn't really blame him…Completely but he knew it was all him. Surely this wasn't the first time Ozpin didn't know how to come up with a proper name right? With students having all kinds of names surely you won't get lucky and have them match into teams that make colors every time, right?

"No. I didn't forget." He lied. He still wasn't happy with the way Raven disregarded Pyrrha's supposed death. But he also was pretty sure who was going to win this match, but since they were both sword users he might be able to learn something.

The intensity of her crimson eyes died down.

"Good. It would be good to know what my partner is capable of so don't hold back."

She didn't look any less intimidating then the moment he met her back in the Grimm infested forest.

"One question before we start."

"What is it?"

"Are you angry?"

She looked at it him as he was dumb. "No, I'm not angry. Why would I be?"

My friend, Yang's eyes are lilac, but whenever she got angry her eyes would turn red like yours, so I was just wondering."

She sighed. "No. It's just my eye color. What? Did you think because my eyes have always been red that I was angry this whole time?"

"I mean…You could have fooled me."

When it came to talking to girls Jaune did learn something important from his father. There was a right thing to say, a wrong thing to say, and a "God help you" thing to say. He was pretty sure he scored some ware between the second and third options right about now.

"You're a fucking idiot!" She pulled out her katana. "Let's get this started so I can cut you already."

Never mind. He definitely fell under the third option.

He really hoped Raven wouldn't be the one to kill him a second. He hadn't even changed anything yet…For the better anyway.

AN: Thanks for reading. I hope to have more soon. Key word...Hope.