A/N: Okay, so I didn't actually expect the redux of the RWBY/JOJO crossover to be as well received as it was, but I'm kinda feeling it now. I might have to be a liar, because I'm super on-board with going all-in on this now. This chapter's gonna have a lot less action in it, because I felt like the chapter would go on a bit too long if I was to write this one ending with the start of initiation. Initiation is going to be fun, though. I have something planned for that.

Being a liar aside, I wanted to address a review from a guest. Guest says "In the Stand bio, it says that Smooth Criminal's 'chance of dodging increases exponentially as a fight goes on… The thing that contradicts this statement is the Stand's Developmental Potential, ranked as E." Guest wants some elaboration, and I am happy to provide.

I'm using the ability ranking system found on the JoJo wiki. Specifically, on the general page for "Stands," under the section "Abilities," there is a subsection called "Stand Parameters." In that section, it details the six main attributes of a Stand's power, and how it is ranked. The scale is from A to E, with A being "Excellent," B being "Good," C being "Comparable to a human," D being "Weak," and E being "Very Weak."

In the description of Smooth Criminal, I used E for its developmental potential, not necessarily because it doesn't improve its main function quickly, (which is by definition of its power, a form of development) but because that is all the abilities the Stand has. The only way Smooth Criminal will gain any new or stronger ability is by achieving Requiem. Roman has already tapped all the potential he can out of his Stand.

So yeah, sorry for the long-winded explanation, but for those who were wondering, that's why Smooth Criminal got an E-ranked Developmental Potential. Going forward, I'll include my reasoning for Stand Ability grades in the ability explanation.

TL;DR, Roman already had his turn on the Xbox, and no, Cinder is not giving it back any time soon.

Ruby was worried, if she was to say the very least. She had been moved two years up, and had 'graduated' Signal. She was on the airship to Beacon, and she had never been more embarrassed than she had been at that moment. Her sister, Yang, had been swooning over her scuffle with a known criminal, singing her praises like she was already a famous huntress.

"I can't believe you're going to Beacon with me! This is gonna be awesome! Everyone's gonna think you're so cool!" Yang cooed, giving her younger sister a bear-hug.

"Need… to breathe… let… go… please," Ruby choked, half-hoping her sister choked her to death, and that this was simply Hell.

Noticing this, Yang loosened her grip and swung an arm around Ruby's shoulder.

"Sorry about that, but you understand where I'm coming from, right? You fought a big-time criminal, and sure he managed to get away, but you didn't give away the fact that you even had a Stand! That's gotta at least count for something, right?" Yang insisted.

"Well, it isn't really all that hard to act like it. I don't usually use my Stand for physical stuff. It's usually just where I get my guns from," Ruby said, trying desperately to be modest.

"See? You hid your Stand from a seasoned bad guy, and you call it child's play! You're not giving yourself enough credit."

The sound of a familiar name caught their attention, both of their heads swivelling to the screens by the windows.

"Known criminal, Roman Torchwick has now evaded the authorities so many times he has broken a record, but his streak was almost cut short a few nights ago in the only dust shop open later than 10pm in Vale. Witness reports say he was armed and had men assisting him, but a brave patron of the shop stepped in and scared him off, leaving his men to be arrested. The shop's owner has identified the mysterious young hero as one 'Ru-"

The broadcast was cut short by a pre-recorded message from the angry blonde woman Ruby met on the night of her acceptance into Beacon. Ruby was incredibly thankful for her timing.

"Welcome, all Beacon-hopefuls. I am Glynda Goodwitch. You are all most likely wondering why you are here. Remnant is currently celebrating a long and prosperous time of peace around the globe. As huntsmen-and-huntresses-in-training, it will soon be your duty to uphold that peace. We, at Beacon, will be the ones to provide you with the knowledge you need to be able to do your duty effectively."

The screens shut off, revealing the stunning landscape of the Emerald Forest. The soon-to-be students gathered at the windows for better looks at the sprawling, green canopy. The sisters both marveled at the view from the airships, but their amazement was short-lived. A young blonde boy rushed past them, looking desperate and doing his best to hold his lunch down.

Unfortunately for all parties involved, his best just wasn't quite good enough.

Lost meals and ruined boots aside, it was a fair-weathered day, which displayed the splendor of Beacon Academy's monolithic build well. The main tower stood out against the clear, blue sky, and many other students stopped as they arrived to take pictures and gawk.

Yang, however, had plans to meet friends, and was not sticking around any longer. As soon as Ruby was looking the other way, Yang was gone.

Ruby was immediately hopelessly lost. With no guide, no map, and no 'dear sister' to help her, she decided the clear best course of action was to fall to the ground as if she were a robot that had shut down.

Which proved to be, unsurprisingly, a poor decision.

What Ruby had failed to notice prior to her lapse in judgement was that luggage was being wheeled in on carts behind her, and she had fallen directly on top of some.

"HEY! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING?" shouted a particularly prickly voice.

From where she had been sitting, Ruby had absolutely no clue what she was doing, so the answer to the annoying voice was a resounding 'no,' but after seeing who it was she was angering, she thought better of it. A girl of average height with silver hair and angry blue eyes looked down her nose at Ruby, who saw from her vantage point that she was about to go from the frying pan and straight into the inferno.

Why does it have to be me? And why today? Ruby thought to herself.

The silver-haired girl did, to her credit, pick Ruby up off the floor before she laid into her, so she wasn't entirely terrible, surely.

But of course, lay into her she did.

"What were you thinking? What you just landed in could have very easily blown both of us off the cliff and into the forest! Weren't you taught that Dust is a material not to be taken lightly? Didn't you learn anything from classes on Dust? Do you even know what Dust IS?" the girl spat in quick succession, violently shaking a stray vial of Burn Dust powder she picked up, kicking up a bit of a red mist.

"Well, um, I mean, I've heard about it but I never really got around to usi-"

"AHPAPAPAPAP!" the girl stopped her with a raised hand, "Evidently, you know very little about Dust, otherwise, you'd be just as angry at yourself as I am at you. Now, what have you got to say about that?" she prompted, swishing the vial around for effect, adding to the mist.

"I know as much about Dust as the next few people, but is it really all that importa-"

"IT IS BEYOND IMPORTANT!" the girl said, flailing furiously at the sheer mountainous size of Ruby's ignorance, "DUST IS USED EVERYWHERE! IN OUR HOMES, IN OUR CARS, IN OUR PHONES AND SCROLLS, EVEN IN OUR CLOTHES! DUST IS ONE OF, IF NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT RESOURCE ON THIS GODS-FORSAKEN ROCK!"

By now, the mist was noticeable, and was starting to reach Ruby's nose. Ruby had taken an inopportune time to take a deep breath to calm down, and had accidentally inhaled some Burn Dust.

Sneezing is an interesting function of the human body. Sneezing typically occurs when some errant particle or something-or-other enters the nose and passes through the nose hairs, irritating a membrane. There are some notable outliers as to why sneezes happen, which are particularly fun. For example, there is the possibility of a sneeze when suddenly exposed to bright light, a drop in temperature, or even a full stomach in some rare cases.

This case was none of those fun ones. Ruby had snorted some Burn Dust, and her body said 'no, I don't want this, get it out.'

So Ruby sneezed. And the mist around them exploded.

When people talk about the 'shining' Beacon Academy, this part doesn't come up very often. I wonder why, Ruby thought to herself, floored again, this time resigned to keep lying there.

"NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" she heard the girl yell.

Yeah, I could see how this could be something people tend to leave out. I wouldn't wanna tell some hopeful hunters that they'd be accosted by snobs and allergies as soon as they took a step on campus, Ruby monologued internally, although, if I didn't have context for it, I'd have probably taken that warning as a challenge.

Something about what happened in the explosion had caught Ruby's interest, however. The snob's voice sounded somewhat muffled since the explosion, so either one of two things happened. Thing One: Ruby was now deaf from being the epicenter of an explosion, or Thing Two: The girl was now wearing something that was partially blocking the sound.

Ruby dared to look up and confirm, and sure enough, where once stood a crabby girl in a jacket and a dress, there was a glowing white suit of knight's armor. It continued yelling. Ruby honestly felt kind of annoyed at this point, getting to the point where she'd rather be rude and angry and continue the rest of her day than get stuck there trying to make amends.

"Alright, I'm really sorry about all this, Princess, but I really need to-"

"It's Heiress, actually, Weiss Schnee. Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company," said a new, notably calmer voice, "and while I'd enjoyed seeing your performance on TV, I'd much rather hear your singing voice than your talking voice. And take that armor off. Like a wise man once said, 'Your Stand is like your asshole. Don't parade it around for all to see.'"

With that, a new figure came into view. It was a shadowy figure, vaguely the shape of a girl, who pointed to the yelling suit of armor. The cacophony stopped. There was no yelling. Just the sound of the birds chirping and soft boot-clicks on the paved stone walkways. It was peaceful once again.

Of course, that never stopped Heiress Schnee's unending wild gesticulating. In fact, she swung her hands harder and faster because of it.

At this, Ruby immediately sprung up to thank her savior, only to catch the shadow fading off out of her peripheral vision. Ruby slowly sank back down.

All things considered, the patch of pavement Ruby had decided to camp out on was at least warm. At the very least, she had that going for her.

"Hey," called a soft, boyish voice, "You doing all right down there?"

Ruby looked up from her position on the ground, seeing a young man with blonde hair and blue eyes, his hand outstretched to help her up. A flash of recognition crossed her face as she looked up at him.

Giggling to herself, Ruby asked, "Aren't you the guy that threw up on my sister's shoes?"

His expression changed from warm to incredulous within the second.

As it turned out, he was the guy who threw up on Ruby's sister's shoes. And he wasn't happy about being 'the guy who threw up on Ruby's sister's shoes,' almost as much as Ruby desperately wanted not to be the prodigy Yang made her out to be, or the girl who sneezed a crater in the courtyard.

"All I'm saying is, that with all this Dust, technology, and Stand power, you'd figure we'd be able to find a cure for or at least a way around motion-sickness," he explained.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Ruby laughed, "Vomit Boy was just the first thing that came to mind!"

"Oh yeah? Well, just to set the record straight, the name's Jaune Arc, and I'm something of a big deal!" he said with conviction in his voice.

…

"Okay, yeah, that one sounded way better in my head," he said out loud, much less confident.

…

"So if you don't mind my asking, why'd you help me back there?" Ruby asked, looking to Jaune.

"My dad always said that his dad told him that a true huntsman needs to be brave enough to go into a fight he knows he'll lose," Jaune said matter-of-factly.

…

"What could you possibly have lost back there, though?" Ruby asked, confused.

"That was probably not the situation to bring that lesson up, but still, it's a pretty good lesson, right?"

Had the awkwardness of the conversation been a physical object, it would have been able to be cut by something as dull as a fingernail. It. Was. PALPABLE.

"Soooo… I got this thing," Ruby said, revealing her Stand to Jaune.

The Stand appeared from behind Ruby in a trail of rose petals, where Ruby's cape once rested on her shoulders. It was humanoid in appearance, a rosey-pink-tinted gold body covered from neck to ankles in belts and holsters dressed in bright red army fatigues, a bright-red bowl-shaped army helmet rounding off the top of the head. Its eyes were bright, headlights of solid white. The rest of the body was obscured by loads and loads of holstered weapons, ranging from shotguns, to handguns, to assault rifles, to simpler things like crossbows and swords. This Stand was clearly not a combat Stand. Combat for this Stand was delegated to the User. The Stand was just the supplier.

"Whoa! What is THAT?" Jaune marveled.

"This, Mr. Jaune Arc, is [GUNS & ROSES]. She's where I get my tools," Ruby explained.

Jaune exclaimed his wonder again, and then realized what she was prompting when she stayed silent.

"Oh! Uh, I don't really have much I can do, really," Jaune said, looking sheepish.

"Come on, I'm sure you're just trying to be modest."

"Well, I don't actually have a Stand yet. I'm… I'm still using Hamon," Jaune said, a faint sunny glow about his form.

"I think that's pretty cool, actually. In a world full of people with all these crazy abilities, here you are representing the basics. Remember, we wouldn't have gotten to Stands in the first place without developing and mastering Hamon. I'd say you're probably more skilled in Hamon than most people here. Most people are pretty content to forget about Hamon and just use their Stands."

"That's one way to put it, I guess. Say, where are we going?" Jaune asked, taking a look around.

"I dunno. I was following you."

"D'you think we might be able to find, like, a landmark of some sort around? Maybe a little display with a map that has a big, hard to miss arrow that says 'you are here'?"

GUNS & ROSES

Destructive Power: Varied by weapon/ammunition used

Speed: B - The speed at which G&R retrieves guns for Ruby is about as fast as the fastest human gunslinger in the world, Robert Munden (holder of 18 world records in the sport of Fast Draw, capable of drawing, firing, and holstering in .02 seconds)

Range: Varied by weapon drawn

Persistence: C - Dependent on the User's own persistence

Precision: A - User orders a weapon, Stand gets exactly what is needed

Developmental Potential: A - 1: Silver Eyes, 2: the weapons she can use are only limited by her skill and her imagination. The weapons can be fictional, just as long as Ruby can use the weapons correctly, and that they don't break fundamental laws of reality. (this means, if she knew about Stand Arrows, she could have G&R get one and she could use it on herself)

[GUNS & ROSES] is best suited to being likened to a Golf Caddy. It carries around whatever tools Ruby needs to deal with her situation, as unique problems require unique solutions.

(Bonus fun fact, I actually had a Stand planned out for Jaune to use called King of Contradiction [based on the metallica song], which could detect lies and then hit the liar with the physical equivalent of the pain that lie would cause. I decided while writing this chapter out that having Jaune use Hamon would actually fit better with his character. He's probably not gonna get a Stand until the point in the show where he unlocks his semblance, and even then, it's probably gonna be something different.)