Jaune and Ruby entered the hall together, thankfully not much later than he remembered being; it helped that he'd known where he was going this time. Jaune looked around, feeling the rough edges of his psyche smoothing under the reassuring environment of Beacon in its prime. The familiar faces in the crowd caught his eye for moments at a time, but he dared not initiate contact yet; Jaune Arc was a socially inept bumbler at the moment, so he had to keep himself distant from everyone else to try and keep his relationships with them the same.

Ruby was scanning the crowd as well, and upon finding her sister, she promised to catch up later as she ran off to stand with the beckoning Yang. Jaune himself noted that Ozpin and Goodwitch hadn't yet taken the stage, as he moved to a spot roughly level with Ruby and Yang on the other side of the hall. Turning to face the stage, he caught a glimpse of flaming red in the corner of his left eye.

He froze instantly; the colour remained, just out of his line of sight, and he knew exactly who it belonged to. That shade was burned into his mind and heart. He forced himself to stay looking forward; as one of the last to arrive, he'd attracted attention with his entrance, and if he met her eyes, he'd do something silly.

So, Jaune clenched his fists to restrain his emotions as he kept his eyes fixed on the stage, waiting for the headmaster to appear. Raised voices to his right caught his attention, and he turned to see Weiss, Ruby and Yang, the Schnee heiress lecturing her future leader with the aid of a Schnee Dust brochure, and the younger girl trying to mend the situation. At one point, Weiss gestured over her shoulder at him, and he sighed as he caught her "tall, blonde and scraggly" comment. He waved over to the trio as their attention moved to him for a moment, then returned to facing the stage.

The headmaster made his appearance moments later, climbing onto the stage with Goodwitch. The sight of the headmaster was another soothing one, as Jaune recalled the despair he'd felt when the dust user in red had flown up the tower, knowing Ozpin had fallen. Jaune internally rejoiced at the man's presence, as he delivered the exact same speech he remembered.

With his dismissal, it popped into his mind that he had started hitting on Weiss about now. He couldn't really bring himself to do that this time around; in hindsight, it had never done anything positive for either of them. In fact, all it had really done was give Pyrrha a hard time, watching him chase another girl.

Jaune thought about considering the consequences of this action, then shook his head and made the call. He did wander over to the trio though; this was when he had first met Yang and Weiss after all. "Hey again Ruby!" he called as he approached, catching their attention. Ruby didn't seem to know whether she should be confused over the headmaster's speech, irritated with Weiss, or happy to see Jaune, and the effect was a rather awkward smile that seemed almost as spacey as Ozpin.

He almost called the other two girls by name, but caught himself just in time. He hadn't been introduced yet. "Nice to meet you two; I'm tall, blonde and scraggly. Or Jaune, if you prefer." He offered his hand to Yang first, who shook it with a grin, though Weiss chose to simply ignore the proffered appendage, apparently unrepentant as far as her description of him went.

Ruby shook herself as she registered that her first friend at Beacon and her sister were interacting, and she should probably say something. "Oh, Jaune, this is my sister, Yang." She appeared to consider something for a moment, then looked over at the girl in white on her other side. "And this is Weiss." Jaune nodded to both of them in turn; he was fairly sure that if he could have seen Weiss' soul, it would have been turning its nose up at him.

"Nice to meet you, Yang." replied Jaune, giving the blonde the friendliest smile he could muster.

"Likewise, Jaune. You already know Ruby?" Jaune nodded, glancing at Ruby for any indications on how he should proceed. From her face, there wasn't any issue with continuing, so he answered truthfully. "Yeah. We met shortly after she exploded. Your...I'm going to say younger..." here he looked for confirmation, and he continued at Yang's nod, "sister has some really impressive weapon knowledge. I might have to borrow her for help improving my own kit sometime."

Yang sighed as she turned to her sister. "A tall blonde in armour with a sword decides to spend some time with you, and you talk about weapons." Ruby responded with a nervous giggle, rubbing the back of her head as she did.

The blonde brawler shook her head, turning back to Jaune. "Well, at least she actually managed to speak to someone without exploding. I'm glad she's found a friend...just don't be getting too friendly there, mister knight in shining armour." Jaune raised his hands in acquiescence and took a step back.

"On my honour m'lady." he replied, repeating his overblown bow from when he met Ruby, trying to stuff as much pomp into his voice as he could. Both sisters smiled at the display, but the Schnee heiress, still in close proximity, seemed unimpressed.

"Well, since you three seem positively made for one another, I'll be going. I would greatly appreciate it if you would try and display even a little of the dignity and grace that you mock so openly, 'mister knight'." said Weiss, sarcasm dripping from her words like venom. She spun on her heel and walked away in the direction of the locker room, which was still fairly full of students storing their weapons. A teaching aide was standing by the door, handing out sheets of paper to each student who passed her.

Jaune watched the heiress move away with a low sigh, and was about to turn back to the sisters when he froze.

There she was.

Only partway across the courtyard separating the communal locker room from the hall, Pyrrha Nikos had her back turned to Jaune...but he would have known her even if she stood miles away. He realised he'd actually taken a step toward her, and he forced his emotions down as hard as he could. He couldn't speak to her; not yet. That came tomorrow. But it was hard; Jaune had never been one for deceit or lies, instead wearing his heart openly. It was difficult, perhaps just as difficult as watching her go to her death, for her to be so close and him to be so restrained by circumstance.

Jaune gritted his teeth, and looked for anything to distract him. The sisters seemed to have taken his step forward as a cue to go and store their weapons, so he ran the few steps to catch up with them. Yang showed off Ember Celica, though she stopped short of actually firing them, and Jaune praised her choice in fighting style as he demonstrated Crocea Mors once again. That took long enough to have them reach the teaching aide just as Jaune had re-sheathed his weapon.

He took the paper he was offered with a smile, and moved inside. Flicking the document open, he found a locker number and combination. He smiled to himself; locker 636. He almost questioned just how he'd received the same locker number as he had before, despite the fact that he was almost certain more time had passed in his conversation with the sisters than in his...hmm. That was a point. Did the time line he came from count as a past life? He'd only gone back about a year after all. Maybe he'd just consider them previous experiences and leave it at that.

It was a failing even of great minds that any train of thought, no matter how important, can be derailed by the most mundane of things – and Jaune was no exception, as he completely forgot about how impossible it would seem to be that he ended up with locker 636 again.

It probably wasn't that important, anyway.

Jaune found himself wandering around the Beacon grounds with Yang and Ruby as they explored, taking comfort in seeing Beacon restored to its former glory. Even though he was remembering the spots they came across rather than discovering them, he felt just as happy as they wandered, until a tolling bell signalled dinner. He led the two girls to the dinner hall, explaining away his ability to find the building as having asked for directions to it earlier.

The sisters seemed to accept his excuse, and the three sat together at dinner, watching the academy students as they moved between tables, all of them noticeably more graceful than the new arrivals. The new students' varied outfits were a splash of colour clustered together at the end of the table furthest from the room's centre, in direct contrast to the dark and ordered colours of the seniors' uniforms. The food was just as great a contrast; trays could be filled from a long serving area which served as a front of the kitchen, dishes ranging from fruits and salads to sandwich components and heavy meats.

The three ate their way through hearty meals, discussing possibilities for what the following day could bring and what their fellow classmates' skills and weapons could be. Jaune let himself go with the flow, offering ideas of his own, growing more outlandish as time went by. They all admitted they might be taking it a bit far when Yang suggested that they were going to be blasted into space in order to fight space-Grimm, and since they were done eating anyway, they unanimously decided to head to bed.

Jaune found that he had immensely enjoyed this evening; it felt good to return to the beginning again, to when things were simpler and more lighthearted. He knew it couldn't last, but his relatively fragile emotional state needed the rest and reassurance that it was getting at the moment. So he smiled to himself as he walked alongside Yang and Ruby, guiding them to the large room in the dorm building which housed the first years on their first night.

He found his bag waiting with his name on it in the entrance, Ruby and Yang locating theirs shortly afterwards. They walked into the large room as a group, but quickly went their separate ways as they headed to the gender-specific bathrooms.

Jaune was looking forward to a chance to get some rest and clear his head before the next day's events, and having showered and brushed his teeth, he delved into the main compartment of his bag in search of...pyjamas. Oh no. Oh, please Monty, no. Jaune groaned as he pulled out a pale blue Onesie with rabbit ears on the feet.

He'd somehow managed to erase this from his mind after buying new sleepwear in his first week of school... Jaune considered his options. He couldn't have long before someone wandered into this part of the bathroom, so he had to choose quickly. He weighed sleeping in the clothes he'd worn today against walking into a room of people who, to him at least, weren't really strangers, wearing this.

It wasn't a difficult choice; he stuffed the embarrassing clothing back into his bag, zipping it closed once it was concealed under various other garments. Returning to the sleeping room, he found spotted an unoccupied area on the side of the room which had been designated for male students, and he made his way toward it. He noticed Yang and Ruby lying beside each other across the room, Yang eyeing up the admittedly burly students to Jaune's right.

He grinned and waved back, flexing a depressingly small bicep with his other arm, his bag sliding a bit on his shoulder. He got a chuckle from the blonde, visible if not audible, and continued on to his chosen spot. His hoodie was already in the bag, and he placed his socks in his shoes as he unrolled the sleeping bag he remembered being required on the Beacon equipment list. He climbed into the sleeping bag, placing his bag at his head, and closed his eyes with a sigh.

He opened them again to raised voices, and he watched Ruby, Yang and Weiss arguing to each other in the light of Blake's candle until the flame vanished. As the girls returned to their own sleeping bags, Jaune stared at the ceiling, painted with moonlight and the silhouettes cast by the windows. He felt almost like he had when he first arrived at Beacon: ecstatic at getting in, nervous about the future, terrified of his faked credentials being discovered, excited about training. The reasons were different this time, of course; this time, a lot would be different.

Jaune had sworn himself to that, and no Arc ever went back on their word.

Author's Note

Hello, dear reader. 'Tis I, once again, with another chapter. This thing is just writing itself; my school closed due to a power failure, and it was a damn good thing, because I can't focus on my classes with all the different branching ideas that this story is constantly growing in my mind. I swear I'm getting enough material for my next two stories at the same time .

Well, thank you for reading this far in; I'm still new to this, and any attention I receive is highly appreciated. Also thanks to Dragoon, who left me a review with some advice for the future of this story that I think will prove useful.

I hope you enjoyed and continue to enjoy, even just a fraction as much as I enjoy writing this. Please leave any criticism, advice or even any comments you want to make as a review, and I'll make sure to read it. Enjoy your day!