Riders Reborn

Chapter 1

-Ruby-

"Yang!" the excitable scythe wielder exclaimed as she rushed over to her sister, dragging her two new friends with her, "You left me!"

"Sorry Rubes." The blond boxer apologized while clearly not being sorry, "But hey! You made some friends right?"

"I guess." She sulked at her sister not being properly apologetic before smiling and tugging her new friends forward, "This is Ren and Nora, they helped me up after I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage and she started screaming at me. And guess what? Ren uses scythes too!" she squealed, pointing to the twin scythes on her new friend's waist.

"My Renny is the best scythe user ever!" her other new friend, Nora, exclaimed, the orangette showing just as much energy as Ruby herself did.

"I think you mean Rubes is." Yang got in Nora's face, a competitive gleam in her eyes.

"Ren!"

"Ruby!"

"Ren!"

"Ruby!"

"Enough!" she snapped, pushing the two apart, "Calm down you two aaand where is Ren going?" looking to her other new friend she saw him walking with a serious face towards the door they had passed through moments before, a hulking blond standing there with a greatsword on his back decorated with screaming faces.

"Well, well," the blond snorted as Ren got close, others beginning to notice the potential alteration "looks like you managed to get here after all toothpick. I'm surprised a stiff breeze didn't snap you in half like a twig."

"And I'm surprised you could even fit inside the bullhead. What's bigger, your head or your muscles?" Ren retorted as she gaped at how her previously calm friend was trash talking.

"Still using a farm tool to fight?" the blond snorted, gesturing to the scythes at Ren's hip as Ruby felt her own hackles rise at someone daring to insult scythes.

"Coming from your blade of compensation?" Ren didn't even bat an eye at the insult.

"This is getting good." Yang whispered to her as more and more people watched the back and forth although other guys in the room didn't seem to care nearly as much for some reason.

"Don't be jealous I actually have something to work with girlie boy." The blond chuckled, jabbing a finger into Ren's chest.

"We should do something." Nora hissed, glaring at the large blond.

"Like wha, holy!" Yang's question became a sound of shock as she saw what looked like Ren and Jaune both going to punch each other only to clasp fists and start laughing like the oldest of friends.

"Good to see you Jaune." Ren laughed, slapping the big blond guy on the arm.

"You too Ren." Jaune smiled, clapping a hand onto Ren's shoulder as her scythe buddy's knees buckled.

"Heh?!" Ruby, Yang, and Nora exclaimed in tandem, their confusion shared by several other girls in the room but none of the guys "You guys know each other?" Yang demanded.

"Wait, is this Jaune Jaune?" Nora blinks confused.

"It's good to finally meet you face to face Nora Nora." Jaune laughed as he and Ren walked back over.

"I thought you two were going to kill each other." Ruby gaped, still trying to process this.

"Of course not, Ren's my best friend." Jaune looked aghast at the idea of killing Ren even as Nora was over by the two boys and chattering away excitedly about how good it was to finally meet Jaune in person.

"But…those insults." She said softly, several other girls nodding in agreement.

"We're guys." Jaune and Ren shrugged as if that explained everything and, given the nods the other guys in the room were giving, it might have.

"That doesn't even make sense!" a familiar irate white clad girl snapped beside Ruby, causing said scythe wielder to yelp and leap into her sister's arms.

"Aaaagh! It's happening again!" she whimpered, holding onto Yang who looked between the two in confusion.

"We're guys." Jaune began as Ren picked up the sentence.

"And a lot of guys show their friendship by being assholes to each other." Ren said seriously.

"Not to their female friends though." Jaune continued as Ren gave a serious nod.

"That would just be messed up." Ren concluded as all the male students nodded in complete agreement.

"…Yang, boys are weird." Ruby sighed, this time the girls in the room nodding in agreement while the boys looked offended.

"Attention," in irritated voice called out from the front of the room as all eyes turned to see the teachers had been standing on the stage for some time and, given the mixed looks of amusement and irritation, had seen the entire altercation "if you children are quite done." The blonde woman who had saved her before, Professor Goodwitch, growled sternly "Now, you all have trained for years to become warriors, defenders of Remnant." The professor said as the students all straightened, looks of seriousness and pride across all faces "And here we will push you to the limit. Over the next several days all of you will be staying on campus and going through a series of tests for your abilities from combat, to academics, tactics, and every other field deemed important for a huntsman. These scores, along with other factors, will be used to determine team formations and leadership positions. After the teams are formed they will be put through the initiation to determine if you can remain to study here at Beacon. You all will be sleeping in the ballroom over the next few days. Take the rest of the day to explore the campus and meet your fellow initiates, your testing begins tomorrow." With that the teachers all nodded and dispersed as the students began to drift away.

"Um…Yang?" Ruby asked as she realized something.

"Yeah Rubes?"

"…Can you put me down please?"

-Jaune-

"So, it's good to see you again." He smiled at Ren, Nora flitting about the hall ahead of them as the trio explored the campus "But you know you and Nora could have come to my family's home, we would have welcomed you."

"I know my friend." Ren, the inheritor of the mantle of Death, gave a small smile at Nora, "But after we fled Kuroyuri we had no idea where we were. My scrolls could barely send the odd message when we managed to get a signal so getting a map through it wasn't possible. By the time we finally found a village that could take us in it had been a couple years and we wanted to help the people at the orphanage who had taken us in."

"Does Nora know about what we are?" he asked seriously, glancing down at Ren's scythes and feeling the weight of Chaoseater upon his back.

"No," Ren shook his head "I wanted to have you nearby to explain it with me to help make it more believable. I hope you've been training with your abilities War."

"Of course Death." He nodded, thinking back to when he and Ren were children. Their fathers were old friends and teammates back during their huntsman days. Roughly a year before the fall of Kuroyuri, Ren and his parents had come to visit Jaune and his family for a few days. He and Ren had explored the woods together and found an old Serpent Hole.

"What's taking so long?" Nora whined, snapping him out of his reminiscing as Nora pouted at them, "You two are soooo slow." Nora whined, "I wanna explore!"

"Alright, alright." Ren chuckled "How about we go find the arena. I think a spar sounds nice."

"Woooooo!" Nora cheered, grabbing their hands and dragging them behind her as she bolted to go find the arena.

AN: Don't worry, the story of how Jaune and Ren got the mantels of Death and War will be explained but not immediately. It will be explained/shown later. Also, pairing is undecided so let me know who you want with who and why.