So, I know I said updates were 1-2 weeks but this chapter's been sitting around for a few days and I just felt like posting it.

Thanks a lot to everyone who followed and favorited the story.

To WhichOneIsWill: Thanks for the advice, I'll do my best to keep TIPTOP in mind while writing.

Original story fill was written by College Fool, who gave me permission to write this. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me.

Enjoy!

"Whew, am I glad that one of us knew where we were going."

Jauque gave Rebecca a small grin, noting the relief in her voice. "Not the greatest with navigation, are we?" A small glare, crossed arms and a pout were the only acknowledgement she gave his teasing. After a minute or so, her posture softened to her normal slump and she kicked the ground with one boot. "This place is a lot bigger than I thought it would be, okay?"

"You have my agreement there, Rose. By the way, we're here." He was immediately dragged forward by the short girl at his side. "Come on then, I want to introduce you to my sister!"

Jauque sighed internally, before allowing himself to be pulled forward by the girl with gradient hair. About a third of the way to the stage, he was suddenly yanked to the right as Rebecca halted next to a taller girl with a mass of blonde hair and lilac eyes. "How's your first day going, little sister? I see you've made a friend already. Good for you!"

Rebecca shot her sister a glare that Jauque had already familiarized himself with. "Aside from the fact that you ditched me and I exploded? It's been fine, speaking of friends: Jamie, this is Jauque, he helped me out after I exploded. Jauque, this is my sister Jamie." The blonde immediately flashed him a grin before holding out her hand. "The name's Jamie Xiao Long, at your service! So what's this about Becca exploding?"

Shaking Jamie's hand, he returned the grin before replying. "Jauque Arc, and I don't know anything about her 'exploding' but I did see her quite down after being on the receiving end of Weiss Schnee's... displeasure." Her eyes narrowed briefly before she shrugged and let go of his hand. "Eh, probably just got off on the wrong foot."

"I'd say." An indignant voice from behind Jauque startled him and he whirled around. Weiss was standing next to Rebecca, fixing her with an icy glare. The smaller girl leapt into her sister's arms with a cry of surprise. "Oh god, it's happening again!"

The white haired girl began to berate Rebecca as Jamie set her on her feet. "You could've blown us off the cliff. Try to be more careful in the future, dolt." Both blondes turned to look at Rebecca, Jamie in mild amusement and Jauque in thinly veiled disbelief. The aforementioned 'dolt' returned the glare and huffed. "I said I was sorry already, what more do you want!?" Her head jerked back as the heiress shoved a pamphlet with the title of 'DUST for Dummies and other Inadequate Individuals' in her face. "You want to make it up to me? Read this and never speak to me again." She turned on her heels and was about to leave when Jauque spoke up in an attempt to mend fences between the two girls.

"Miss Schnee, I don't believe I had the pleasure of making your acquaintance yet." She looked back at him with a look of surprise before it settled into an imperious gaze, "Oh, I'm sorry, and what is your name?"

He bowed briefly and extended his hand before responding, "My name is Jauque Arc, at your service Miss Schnee." She returned the shake in a perfunctory manner. "Weiss Schnee, at least someone around here is able to act in a civilized manner."

Any further additions to the conversation were interrupted as feedback sounded from the microphone at the front of the room. Standing at the mic was an older man with a shock of silvery hair and brown eyes half-hidden by dark spectacles. He was dressed in green and black with a cane by his side and a mug in one hand. He looked out upon the assembled students with a gaze that was equal parts welcoming as it was calculating.

This must be Headmaster Ozpin. For a man that does not look dangerous, those eyes are reveal the truth. I'll have to be careful around him.

"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you all will take different paths in life. Much like how a white light breaks forth into colour when put through a prism, you all will diverge and forge your own paths after Beacon. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to make the first step."

The headmaster took a sip from his mug before strolling off the stage as a stern looking woman with blonde hair in a bun stepped up. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

Jauque's eyes narrowed momentarily as he recalled her from the flight. Glynda Goodwitch, she may not be as powerful as Ozpin but she is also someone to be respected.

Weiss strode by him into the crowd flooding out of the hall with an imperious 'hmmph' as Jamie and Rebecca fell into step beside him, discussing the vague speech of the headmaster. "He seemed kinda... off."

Rebecca nodded to her sister's words, voicing her agreement. "It's almost like he wasn't even there." Jauque decided to keep his opinion private as they headed off to the ballroom for the night.

Dim candlelight was the only source of illumination in the ballroom. The source was an old fashioned candelabra that sat on a low table near Jauque. Seated next to the table was an amber-eyed girl with ebony hair and a pair of cat ears set atop her head, marking her as a faunus to anyone with sight. She read from a leather bound book with ornate lettering on the side. She looked up from her book with a slightly annoyed expression as Jamie pulled Rebecca over to her.

This could give me some facts about this faunus. I can't discount the possibility of her being White Fang.

"Hel-loooo." With a lilt in her voice and a jaunty wave, the blonde stopped in front of the seated girl and motioned to her sister. "I believe you two may... know each other?"

A flash of recognition lit up the faunus girl's eyes as she looked at Rebecca. "Aren't you the girl that exploded?" An embarrassed look crossed Rebecca's face as she kicked at the floor with one foot. "Yeah, that's me. My name's Rebecca but you can call me Cra-" Whatever she was about to say was quickly overruled by her sister's interruption. "Just call her Becca, it's what I call her."

The black-haired girl returned to her book with a brief noise of acknowledgement as the sisters argued among themselves for a second. Rebecca returned to the unnamed girl, most likely realizing that fact. "Anyway, what's your name?" A quick sigh of irritation escaped her lips before she responded. "Blair."

Once she learned her name, Rebecca moved on to the topic of Blair's book. Jauque tuned them out, deciding that no more interesting information could be gleaned from his eavesdropping. He mentally went over the profiles her built of the four girls.

Rebecca Rose: shy, a bit socially awkward, amiable, innocent, quite trusting. She has a childlike ideology that could get her in trouble and may lead to having colour sympathies. It would be an easy task to make her a potential informant for me.

Weiss Schnee: haughty, straight-laced, coldly polite to those who seemingly cross her although she could have a gentler side. Highly unlikely to have colour sympathies and would be hard to make an informant.

Jamie Xiao Long: Rebecca's sister although with different surnames, more outgoing, more social and more 'colourful' personality. Highly likely to be in a graffiti gang, I should work on befriending her as she could be my 'in'.

Blair: no surname learned, quiet, likes reading, not very social. I think her name was on a list of White Fang deserters, do a close eye is necessary.

His train of thought was interrupted as Weiss started yelling at the other three to be quiet and go to sleep. Blair extinguished her candles and plunged the room into darkness.

The morning dawned cold and clear as Jauque meandered to the dining hall, shaking the last tatters of sleep from his mind. Dressed in regulation combat gear of black jeans, fingerless gloves and a white shirt covered in a reinforced vest, he made his way through the breakfast line. Picking up a couple pancakes, some scrambled eggs and an orange, he looked around for a seat and found one across from a boy with with black hair and a solitary magenta streak that mirrored his eyes as well as an energetic orange haired girl devouring an enormous amount of pancakes in front of her.

She gave him a mega-watt grin and began conversing with him at a rapid pace between inhalations of her pancakes. "Hey friend! What's your name?" Slightly taken aback by her extreme friendliness, he responded in a slightly hesitant voice, "My name's Jauque Arc, how are you today?" Her smile somehow widened and she immediately replied at a speed that made her earlier phrases seem absolutely lethargic in comparison. Jauque quickly realized he had no hope of following her conversation and turned to her companion, raising an eyebrow in a wordless plea for assistance.

He let out an amused chuckle, before placing a hand on the girl's shoulder and exerting his semblance as shown by his Aura flickering in his eyes. "My name's Lee Ryan, nice to meet you. The orange haired girl kept the grin but seemed far more calm that she was a second before. "I'm Natalie Valkyrie, hehe, sorry about that. I'm really excitable but thankfully Ryan here can calm me down." Finishing up their breakfasts, they made their way to the locker rooms while conversing politely.

Their paths diverged upon entering the locker room, with Ryan and Natalie turning right to find their lockers while Jauque headed straight on his hunt for locker "636, where is 636?" Muttering aloud to himself, he passed Jamie and Rebecca who waved at him which he returned with a brief nod. He also ended up passing Weiss who was talking with a tall girl with flame colored hair who was busy making sure her weapon was in perfect working condition. He found his locker a short distance past the two girls and pulled his CAS-650 from it, giving it a brief once-over to confirm it wouldn't jam. He turned back to the conversation between Weiss and the mystery redhead. Able to see her face from this angle, his eyes widened slightly as he recognized her easily.

Now this, this is an unexpected boon. I had no idea she would be attending Beacon. Allying with her could make this job all the easier.

He slung his weapon over one shoulder as he strode over to the duo before letting out a brief cough to alert them to his presence. Weiss spun around with an irritated expression which lessened only slightly upon recognizing him while the other girl merely gave him a look of curiosity. "Hello Jauque, what do you want."

He smiled briefly, acting as if he was slightly surprised but still happy that she remembered his name. "Hello Weiss, I was just going to introduce myself to your friend here."

The best course may be to let Weiss rattle off her accomplishments as it is most likely unnerving if a complete stranger was the one to do so.

Weiss appeared to become more annoyed at his response, before gesturing grandly towards the taller girl. "You don't recognize her? This is Penelope Nikos!" Tilting his head in an illusion of deep thought, he continued to bait Weiss. "I've heard the name before but I can't place where."

Annoyance began to give way to frustration as the heiress continued to 'inform' him. "She graduated top of her class at Sanctum, is the four time winner of the Mistral Junior Tournament for both shooting and combat and she was on the cover of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes when she was younger!"

He faked sudden recognition by widening his eyes before snapping his fingers, "So that's where I recognize the name." He extended his hand towards her in greeting. "Pleased to meet you, my name's Jauque Arc." She accepted the proffered handshake with a very firm grip. "Hello Jauque, it's a pleasure."

Any further conversation was halted as the intercom broadcasted the voice of Goodwitch into the locker room. "Would all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, that is all first-year students to Beacon Cliff." Jauque turned towards the door leading outside and nodded a goodbye to Penelope and Weiss before falling in step with Rebecca and Jamie.

The latter gave him a smirk, "Going for the champ, Ladykiller?" He let out an amused snort at her nickname, "Just being friendly Xiao Long, no need to be jealous." She glared at him briefly before playfully and painfully socking him in the shoulder.

After walking in silence for a few minutes, they arrived at the cliffs overlooking the Emerald Forest. Several bullheads were parked on the landing pads near the edge of the cliff and a fairly large crowd of students were gathered nearby under the sharp gaze of Goodwitch and the calculating gaze of Ozpin.

The headmaster waited a few minutes for the last of the first-years to trickle in before addressing them. "The Emerald Forest has been the proving grounds for those seeking admittance into Beacon Academy for years. Today, you will test your mettle under the branches as so many have before you."

He paused to take a sip from his mug and Goodwitch picked up the explanation. "I'm sure most of you have heard rumors of the assignment of 'teams'. To put an end to your confusion, you all will be given teammates now."

Jauque heard Rebecca give a small cry of surprise next to him as Ozpin continued. "A message has been sent to your Scroll, containing a number and either the letter A or B. Three other students have the same number as you, they are your teammates. One other student has received an identical message to yours and is your partner for the next four years."

This could prove to be a problem if I don't know my teammates.

"The number you receive corresponds to one of the bullheads behind me as well as a sector in the forest below. Your task will be sent to your Scroll upon landing in the forest. Failure to complete the task by sundown will result in a failed initiation and you will be forced to leave Beacon. The message determining your teams has been sent... Now!"

Jauque pulled out his Scroll and checked his messages. Pulling open the most recent, two simple characters that determined his fate stared up at him: 9B. He raised his head and made his way to the bullhead with a nine on the tail.

Climbing in, he found that he was the last one to get to the bullhead and he grinned in relief that he knew his teammates. Sitting across from him in the bullhead were none other than Ryan and Natalie, both with 9A on their Scrolls and beside him was Penelope, her Scroll proudly displaying 9B.

Well, things could be a lot worse.

So the next chapter covers Initiation and I'm hoping (but not promising) to get it done by Saturday or Sunday.

Anyway, reviews are always appreciated.

See you next chapter.