The title is a cheesy invocation of the old song "Make new friends / But keep the old / One is silver and the other's gold." I was a Girl Scout as a kid and it's stuck with me the whole time. But I think it fits.

Summer took in a breath and prepared herself, a bead of sweat rolling down her temple. The past several weeks of preparation would come full circle and hopefully reap the rewards she'd worked so hard to obtain. She still wasn't fond of fighting, but it had gotten her off the streets; she wasn't about to betray Ozpin's support. She didn't trust the man but…

Her cloak flared out around her like wings and tears stung her eyes from the wind. Taking the angle and velocity she'd been launched at, it wasn't difficult for her to shift and grabe a passing branch with Battaglia's blade. It slow her momentum just enough that she gained footing on the thin strip of wood.

She found her way down to the ground with practiced ease and pulled her hood down. She heard the cadence of nature, but her silver eyes eyes remained alert. At the moment, it would be her only saving graces sine her skills were paltry at best. And so she moved through the forest silently, holding Battaglia in its lyre form. It didn't take long for several Grimm to find her, but the song she played suppressed her emotions and confused the creatures, making it impossible for them to find her.

She tensed when she sensed a shift in the atmosphere, then rolled to the side, a crack of thunder sounding. The Grimm howled and the the three Beowulves dissipated into black smoke. Summer lifted her hood up as she peered out from the bush she'd landed in. A girl clad in green and black with a bizarre sword sheath stood there. A red ribbon held her black, complimenting her striking crimson eyes. She returned the weapon to its sheath and a red blade replaced the formerly yellow one. Dust blades in a revolving chamber…? How interesting…

Summer tensed when the girl turned her way with a wise smile, though she rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry about that. I heard your music, but it was so faint that I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from." Summer just snorted. This girl was beyond reckless. Ozpin had chided her for being too careful, but being reckless was far more foolhardy in her opinion. Caution meant survival; recklessness meant death.

But she let out a sigh as she stood up, pulling her hood back down. So this was her partner for the next four years. She could already tell she was going to be in for one hell of a ride if the girl's recklessness was anything to go off of. Regardless, the black-haired girl smiled and extended a hand, red eyes shining brightly. "What's your name? I'm Raven Branwen. I hope we get along well."

Summer just stared at her with wide silver eyes and backed up a step, lips quivering. She didn't want to inflict her emotions on her. Being silent for four years with a partner was going to be hard enough, but with a team? There was no way she could get out of this, was there? Raven blinked and withdrew her hand, offering Summer a soft smile. "Oh, some sort of unfortunate SEmblance you don't want to inflict on others? My brother has one like that, so it's no big deal to me." Summer just stared. Figuring that out just from her silence alone? Raven was more than a little unnerving.

But summer gave a small, slow nod before she finally spoke, but she flinched when she did. "Summer Rose." Raven blinked as Summer felt her fear, distrust, anxiety, and trepidation flood toward her new partner. She just smiled and grabbed SUmmer's hand, starting to drag her along.

"Oh,that's a really interesting Semblance. I'm sure I'll get used to it in time." Raven just continued to smile as Summer let herself be dragged along. How could she accept her so easily? There was nothing normal about her curse of a Semblance. Even if her brother had something unfortunate, it couldn't be as bad as this. Nothing was as bad as this.

Given Raven's full contact with her, Summer wasn't surprised when she replied to the general, overwhelming anxiety. "Like I said, my brother has an unfortunate Semblance like yours. It's literally bad luck. When you've narrowly escaped falling limbs, trees, and landslides, you get used to a lot of shit. Feeling someone's emotions isn't too bad compared." Summer just winced. Landslides? Yeah, that would give Raven more than enough reason to overlook it. "So what else can your Semblance do?"

"Uh… I can force emotions on people with a lot of concentration. I tend to leave it for pure emergencies and it has limits. If someone has thick mental defenses, it's usually more trouble than it's worth." SHe couldn't count the number of times she'd used it as a defense mechanism against the mobsters that had been so keen to try to capture her. Her Semblance made her beyond dangerous which was very alluring to illicit groups.

Raven looked over her shoulder and nodded. "Interesting, interesting. Mine's to make portals to people I've bonded with regardless of distance. I could go to my brother but he's not—" She cut off when a nearby bush rustled and dropped Summer's and, pulling her katana out. An Ursa charged them and Summer tensed, but Raven didn't even flinch. SHe didn't even move until Summer was certain she'd be attacked. With practiced ease, Raven simply turned on her heel, driving the blade through the Grimm without so much as a blink. All Summer could do was stare. In her training session, not even Persia, the teacher she'd stayed with, hadn't been that bold. Just who was this girl…?

Raven returned her weapon to its sheath and smiled. "Now, how about we get back to our conversation?"

Summer was the first to open the dorm door and picked one of the beds closer to it in the event they needed to escape. She heard a grunt and looked at Qrow who rested his head in his hand while Raven wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "As if you weren't insufferable enough already, Raven. What the hell was Ozpin thinking, making you team leader?" Summer had to concur with his thoughts. Raven seemed far too reckless to make an effective team leader if their various mishaps in the forest were anything to go off. She didn't know anything about Taiyang, but he seemed a lot calm than Raven thus far. So why her…? She wasn't a bad person, just far too reckless and impulsive.

Raven just shrugged, flopping down on a bed and stretching out. "Dunno, but I'll do my best to make sure we're at the top of our game." She beamed at everyone and Summer just pulled her knees to her chest, flipping her hood up. She vaguely heard the twins continue sniping at each other in the way only twins could, but she drowned it out.

This was going to be absolutely miserable. She would only be able to talk to Raven; there was absolutely no way Qrow or Taiyang would accept her Semblance. Even if Qrow's was similar in ways, she knew better. People feared what was unknown and different, always turning it away. It was why humans hated Faunus so much. She personally had nothing against them since she knew both races were equally capable of hatred and violence. She'd been turned away by both so—

Someone sitting on her bed made her head snap up and she saw Taiyang sitting there. The Branwen twins continued squabbling and he nodded toward the door. She hesitated but nodded, not wanting to listen to it. She really didn't like hearing people fight. She'd had more than enough pain to last multiple lifetimes.

The stepped out the door and Taiyang led her down to a courtyard, seeming a bit too at ease with Beacon's layout. He stretched and smiled at her as they walked. "So what brings you to Beacon? My dad's a teacher here, so it makes sense I'd become a Huntsman." He chuckled and Summer flipped her hood up. She was glad the overlarge cloak could act as a barrier between her and others, hinting that she didn't want to talk. Regardless, the silence hung heavy in the air and she folded her arms.

"So, uh, unique weapon you have. What's the music do…?" She heard the note of awkwardness in his tone but remained silent once again. He didn't deserve to have her emotions inflicted on him. She knew he was just trying to be friendly but—

A hand on her shoulder made her freeze, then pull back several steps. Taiyang looked at his hand and blinked, but he smiled a moment later. "So that's your Semblance, huh? I've been through a fair bit myself, so it's no trouble." After another moment of hesitation, she looked up at him fully.

"A-Are you sure…?" Despite the rush of emotions tossed at him, he smiled and nodded.

"We're teammates, Summer. Can't let one of our own suffer in silence, can we?" With trembling fingers, she pulled her hood down and gave a small nod. She wasn't sure how, but she seemed to have found a team that didn't care about her Semblance.

Maybe this wouldn't be as terrible as she thought it'd be.

So re: green in Raven's outfit.

Color is pretty important in the Branwen tribal tradition. Raven sticks pretty close to a lot of traditions since she finds it comforting with the unpredictability that comes with a bandit tribe. Basically, picture her canon outfit but where the red is, put green. It's a weird change, but colors and meanings are kinda strict.

Green's the color of newness and new beginnings. She chose it specifically because she was going out into the outside world to a large extent for the first time.

Red is probably the most important color in the Branwen tradition as it can only be worn under two circumstances: mourning or as the mark of an excellent warrior. (For information on the former point, check out the A/Ns for Rose Petals.) She's earned the right to wear it somewhat due to her skills, but not enough that she wear it as flagrantly as canon, hence why it's only in her ribbon. By the end of Beacon, she has earned that right.