Hope you guys enjoy this new chapter!

Chapter 3: Remembrance

Walking down many hallways of her family's mansion, Weiss stared at the ground with her hands together and a sad expression. She was then stopped by a young man with light skin, white hair, blue eyes, and wearing a blue buttoned vest, black tie, white dress shirt, black pants, and black dress shoes. "Good afternoon, sister. A pleasure to see you out of your room for a change."

Both passed by each other before facing each other again. "Hello, Whitley. You're in a cheery mood today." Whitley smiled at her. "Klein made crepes for breakfast."

"What do you want?", she asked him. "I heard Father shouting with someone in his study earlier.", he stated, placing his hands behind his back. "Mother?", Weiss questioned. " No, she's already drinking in the garden. I think it was a man." Weiss looked at him with a surprised look on her face. "I just wanted to warn you. I heard he had asked to speak with you."

"I'll be fine.", she assured him. "I know you will. You are strong, like Winter." Weiss gave Whitley a suspicious glare. "You never liked Winter." Whitley shrugged lightly and pointed his finger up while smiling. "True. But you can't deny her resolve." Weiss looked at him suspiciously. "You seem different."

"And you've been gone.", he countered. "I'll have you know I didn't stop growing while you were away at Beacon. Also, I know about 'him'." Whitley then turned around and started walking. "Anyway, good luck with Father." Weiss simply nodded to him. "Thank you..." She began walking away.

Awaking from what appeared to be a nightmare about Pyrrha's demise, Ruby sat up in her sleeping bag and looked around. Nora was asleep in a pink sleeping bag, Ren in a bright pink one, Jaune in a yellow one, and an empty black one was seen near Ruby. Standing up, Ruby heard shouting just nearby before running to where it was.

Keith was seen without his jacket on and wielding his Bayard, slicing a tree in half in one swing. Ruby quietly watched him slice another one in half before he stopped and wiped his forehead of sweat. "That's enough for now." Soon, Ruby ran over to where he was stood right in front of him. "Is everything alright?" Keith turned to look at her and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just doing some training." Ruby sighed in relief. Her eys then looked down at the weapon in his hand. "So, how does that work again?"

Holding up the Bayard, the blade vanished in a flash of light. "There's a trigger that allows the blade to appear." Ruby was quite amazed at this. "Wow. Where'd you get it again? I never got to ask." Keith smiled. "I got it when I became a Paladin of Voltron on a planet called Altea. The one who gave it to me was a princess named Allura."

"A princess?", she asked, tilting her head to the side. Keith shrugged as he rubbed the back of his head. "It sounds cliche, but that's what happened." Ruby nodded as she looked at the weapon. "Well, I like it. Suits you well."

As they continued talking, Ren could be seen next to a tree far away while watching them. He smiled before walking back to where the others were.

Walking down the road once again, Ruby was holding a large map in her hands while her team was following behind her. "Again, why can't we just fly to Haven in your lion robot thingy?", Nora questioned. "The Red Lion's not functioned to fly after the crash.", Keith told her. "Also, he didn't like how you were messing with the controls."

"But it was fun!", Nora whined, causing the others to chuckle. Nearby, the Red Lion was looking around before running towards the next town ahead of them. Ruby continued looking at the map. "So the next town is...Uh huh! Uh huh...We're lost." She bowed her head in shame. "We're not lost. The next town is Shion. My family used to visit it all the time.", Jaune commented.

"Oh yeah! Don't you have like...four sisters?", Ruby asked him. Jaune had a nervous look on his face before frowning. "Uhh, seven." Ruby ended up giggling from this. Keith was surprised by this. "Seven sisters? That must have been a lot to deal with. No offense.", he said to him. "You know, that actually explains a lot.", Nora added while looking away.

Jaune gave her a confused look. "Wait, what do you mean-" He was then interrupted by Ruby. "SO, what did you guys do there?" Jaune was quick to walk up to Ruby and grabbed one side of the map before pointing at a spot on it. "Oh, all sorts of stuff! Over here is a great hiking trail, and over here is where we went camping all the time. I got my own tent because I was special. Also, so my sisters would stop braiding my hair."

Keith ended up chuckling. "Wow, that's sounds kinda lame." Jaune turned to look at him. "Not funny, man." Ruby looked at Jaune with an amused look. "Didn't like the look?"

"Yeah, they just kept doing pigtails, but personally, I think I'm more of a warrior's wolf tail kind of guy.", Jaune replied with a smile. "That's just a ponytail.", Ruby responded. Jaune only shrugged to her. "I stand by what I said."

Suddenly, Nora stopped walking and had a shocked look on her face, followed by both Ren and Keith. "Uh, guys?"

"Huh?"

"What?"

Jaune and Ruby both looked up from the map and became very shocked. What they saw was Shion Village completely destroyed. Dropping the map, the group was quick to run to the village and began looking around. "We need to search for survivors. They can tell us what happened.", Keith said. As everyone nodded, Ren ran over to a wounded soldier, who was leaning against a piece of debris. "Over here!" The others were quick to run over to him.

"A Huntsman!", Ruby exclaimed when she saw he injured man. "What happened? Who killed all these people?", Jaune asked him. The Huntsman coughed as he looked up at them. "Bandits..." Everyone became shocked. "The whole tribe...then, with all the panic..." He coughed once again.

Ren looked up at the others. "Grimm." As Ren stepped away from the others, Jaune, Ruby, Keith, and Nora turned around and looked at each other. "Alright, we can get him to the next village and try to find a doctor there!", Ruby told them. "Yeah. Ren, Keith, and I can take turns carrying him there.", Jaune offered. "I don't think he'll make it.", Nora said to them. "He will. He has to.", Jaune assured her.

Ren soon walked back to the Huntsman to check on him. "We can save him. I can have the Red Lion carry him to a nearby village. It's the fastest way.", Keith said, pointing to the Red Lion that was nearby. "Guys..." Everyone turned to Ren. He stared at the Huntsman. He was dead.

Everyone stared in shock at the Huntsman's body. "Should we bury him?", Nora asked.

Ren walked past the four. "We should go. It's not safe here." Nora was quick to follow him. "Ren..." Keith kicked the ground with an angry look as he followed the two. Jaune placed a hand on his head with a sad expression. Ruby placed her hand on his arm. "It'll be okay..." Jaune sighed. "I'm just tired of losing everything."

Keith walked to the Red Lion, who was laying on its belly as it looked at its master. "Any luck?" The Red Lion shook his head once, causing Keith to sigh. "Figured. Maybe next time."

Back at the Schnee Family Manor, Weiss was walking down the hallway with her butler Klein. She had finished her meeting with her father and now had at least an hour to spare before she could go and practice her singing for the upcoming fundraiser. She opened a door and walked in, going down the stairs that was there, Klein following behind her.

"Are you certain that you want to talk to him?", he asked, his eyes bright blue. Weiss nodded while walking. "Yes. I need to assure him that I'm alright." Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Weiss unlocked the door with a white key with a snowflake on the end and entered the room. Turning on the light, the room was colored gray and there were no windows anywhere. In the center of the room was Kratos.

Kratos was wearing nothing but black pants and a torn white shirt. His hair was jet black on the right side while the left was stark white from the stress he endured for months and his eyes were a right yellow. His left arm was cut off at the center of his bicep and had a metal plate on the end. His right arm was chained to the ground, making him kneel on the ground while he wore a strange metal mask around his mouth.

Weiss calmly approached him and knelt down in front of him. "Hey Kratos..." Kratos looked up to see her. The two stared at each other for what seemed to be forever.

It was the middle of the night. Ruby was once again awoken by a dream of Pyrrha's demise. She sighed as she tried to fall asleep again, but suddenly heard Pyrrha's voice. Gasping, she sat up from her sleeping bag, Keith waking and sitting up right after. He turned to look at her. "You hear that two?" Ruby nodded before they both stood up.

They looked at the others to see that only Jaune was missing and that Pyrrha's voice was echoing from far away. "Alright, Jaune...Just like we practiced...Follow these instructions..."

Keith and Ruby began to follow the voice through the forest before finally seeing Jaune, who was armed with his sword and shield and practicing. They quietly hid behind a large tree as they watched him. Jaune stared at his sword before staring at a nearby stump that had his scroll on it. The scroll was playing a video of Pyrrha. "Alright, Jaune, just like we practiced. Follow these instructions. Shield up."

Jaune did as she said and held up his shield. "Keep your grip tight." Jaune gripped his sword tightly. "Don't forget to keep your front foot forward." His right foot was in front of his left foot. "Ready? Go!" That was when Jaune jabbed his sword forward while shouting at the same time. "Again." He then swung his sword, his sword creating a small gust of wind. "And again." He turned around and swung his sword forward once again.

Jaune was now exhausted. ""Okay. Now, assuming you aren't cheating...we can take a break." Jaune was now panting as he stared at the video of Pyrrha. "I know this can be frustrating. And it can feel like so much effort to progress such a small amount. But..."

Keith was prepared to walk to him, but Ruby quietly grabbed him by the arm, shaking her head. Knowing what she was telling him, Keith stayed where he was.

"I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I've never met someone so determined to better themselves." Jaune looked sad as he stared at the video. "You've grown so much since we started training. And I know this is just the beginning."

Pyrrha would then turn and frown in the recording. "Jaune...I...I..." She looked back at him. "I want you to know that I am just happy to be a part of your life. I'll always be here for you, Jaune."

The recording then rewind itself to the beginning. "Alright, Jaune, just like we practiced. Follow these instructions. Shield up." Jaune sighed and looked up before holding his shield up again. "Keep your grip tight. Don't forget to keep your front foot forward. Ready? Go!"

As Jaune continued practicing, Keith looked at Ruby to see she had a sad look on her face while watching her teammate. He placed his hand softly on her shoulder. "Let's head back. I think he needs to be alone.", he said quietly. Ruby nodded to him as the two walked back to the campsite, leaving Jaune alone to practice.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

Sorry for the late update. Been busy since December, but luckily I managed to finish this chapter.

I can't wait to finish the next few chapters for you guys.

Kratos finally makes his debut in the story! You guys have no idea how much I wanted to write his scene in this! Hope you guys liked it!

See you guys later~