In memory of Monty Oum, you wonderful bastard you. Buy hey, people never die until they are forgotten, so let's keep him alive, alright guys?

So, there are a lot of places to start this story from. My first day at Beacon, starting at Alavard Prep, my birth...Okay, maybe not that last one. I guess I'll start from...the first time I met her. It all started when I walked into a convenience store called From Dust Till Dawn. The place sold everything from magazines, sodas, and collectible trading cards to ammunition for deadly weaponry and Dust that can do pretty much anything that defies logic.

Anyways, I went to the back of the store and saw a girl. She looked a few years younger than me, listening to music and reading a magazine on weapons. It wasn't hard to tell she had music on. You could hear it through her headphones, even though they were under her hood. The hood kinda looked like a superhero cape, not gonna lie. I put my suitcase down next to the coffee table and walked to the fridge. As I picked out a bottle of ice tea, I heard a voice from the front by the register. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?" Looking over my shoulder for a second, I saw a guy in a white trench coat and black bowler hat asked, one of his goons holding up a gun. Immediately I turned back around, suddenly interested in a bottle of Dr. Paprika.

The old shopkeeper yelled out, probably out of fear. "Please, just take my lien and leave!" Trench Coat just shushed him. "Calm down, we're not here for you money." I had to hold myself back from snorting. "Grab the Dust." My eyebrow raised from curiosity as I heard containers being filled. I kept facing the fridge until someone tapped my shoulder. He was one of the goons in black suits. I have to admit, he had nice shades though. "That yours?" He motioned to the black case. "Yep. Lemme guess, you want what's inside right?"

Apparently this guy was either new on the job or was brain dead at the time, because he nodded. I shrugged and put the case and my drink down on the table. "You sure you wanna see?" I taunted, and the guy growled. "Yes!" I chuckled. All I need now is a distraction...At this time, one guy went flying back, and I saw the girl in all black and red running towards the other goons. "What the?!" The guy interrogating me stepped back. That'll work. Unlatching the case and throwing the lid open, I took Kaltestille, extended it into its gun mode (because everything is a gun nowadays), jutted the guy in the gut with the stock, and kneed him in the face. Staring down at his unconscious body, I smirked. "You sir, owe me another bottle of ice tea."

Looking outside, one word came to mind. Showoff. The girl was posing like she was in an anime with a giant red and black scythe. "Okay...get her." Trench Coat told the goons, and I intentionally coughed. "What about me? Ladies first, by all means, but I need to warm up too." I said, clearly getting their attention. If there's one thing I can do, according to my friends, it's piss people off. He growled and pointed his chin at me. Three went for me and the rest went after Hood over there. I grabbed my weapon by the stock and pulled the handle back, so it went into the open part in the stock. Immediately the bottom opened up and out came a two and a half foot blade, its golden gleam making the white of my gun look yellow. Being one sided, I flipped it in my hand, blunt side facing forward now.

I swiped at the first one's legs and just kicked him across the face. The second, obviously smarter, tried to shoot me, but somehow he didn't understand ducking and weaving. I got in close, elbowed him in the jaw, and kicked him off to the side into the wall. The last tried to rush me. Did he not see what happened to the other two? I facepalmed, parried his sword, and with my knee, went for his nuts. Hey, all's fair in love, war, and when people try to rob a store.

Running to the window, I saw that the girl had taken most of the others out with ease. Trench Coat chuckled and tried to take a step off to the side while scythe girl mopped the pavement with his goons. Pushing a button on the stock, the handle came back down and the blade was once again hidden. Soon I had a lightweight submachine gun capable of firing off five rounds a second. Firing a few times at his feet, Trench Coat took a step back. "Going somewhere? I'd hate to keep your date waiting, but you have to pay for that." His eye started twitching. Mission accomplished.

Smirking, I walked out next to the girl, who just finished with all the guys she was given to beat the ever living shit out of. He looked down at a suited minion by him. "You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." He dropped his cigar and took a step forward, lifting his cane. "Well Red, and...you" Really? I kept thinking, not paying attention to him This guy has a serious lack of an imagination. "I think this has been an eventful evening," he said, walking so we were both facing him. "But I'm afraid this," A part of his cane flipped up, like crossha- "is where we part ways." A flare like shot came from the cane, and before I could think, I dove to the side. (Also, everything is a gun, remember?) I looked up, and saw Red, as Trenchie called her, in the air. When she landed, she started looking around for the crook. Scanning the area myself, I saw him climbing up a ladder off in the slight distance. "Hey, this way." I said, running towards Trench Coat.

And of course, I was interrupted. One guy, in an all red suit this time, holding two red swords opposed to one like the guys before, stepped out of the alleyway. "You go, I got this." I told Red and gripped my sword tighter. The man snickered, and we started circling each other. I made sure to keep my center from showing, but the other guy was doing the exact opposite. What a fricken idiot. I ran forward, ducking under his wide sweep, and kneed him in the stomach. As I went for his head with the stock/pommel, he swung downwards, forcing me to jump back. I wasn't even able to regain my stance before he rushed after me again, both swords swinging tornadoes of steel. Thankfully, with a combination of parrying and footwork, I was backed into a wall. I dodged his next blow, causing the sword to get stuck. I went for his neck with the blunt side, but he jumped back, his sword still impaled in the wall. Great, now it's one on one. He tried to stab at me, where I just swiftly sidestepped and went for his leg. Sure enough, he went on one knee. Spinning around to his back, I slammed the pommel of my sword into his skull, causing him to fall. I could see what was going on before I even got to the ladder. A helijet was flying up from an alleyway, and only Monty Oum knows how that's possible.

Before I could even get to the ladder, I was pinned by a red sword. "Oh, cut me some slack. This is my only jacket that fits." I glared at the red suited guy, who pulled the sword out. Thankfully, however, I was against another wall. Jumping up, so my feet were against it, I pushed forward, causing us both to go crashing to the ground, losing our weapons. But, I was prepared, and rolled into a kneeling position. Running forward, I picked up Kaltestille and slammed the retracted weapon across his face. "Sweet dreams." I joked, and went for the ladder. As I was climbing, all I heard were explosions and gunfire. By the time I got up to the roof, the ship was flying away, Red with a sniper rifle, and a random woman dressed like a teacher with a cold glare in her eyes. Red looked at the woman. "You're a huntress?" The huntress in question was giving us both the death stare. "Can I have your autograph?" She asked, looking like she'd met her childhood hero. I groaned. "Really? That's your top priority right now?" The huntress grabbed us both by the wrist and dragged us off the roof that I worked so hard to climb up to.

Not long after, I was sitting in an interrogation room, with only one light and two chairs on either side of the table. I was leaning back, reclining with my feet on the desk. Yep, I felt pretty chill about this. I mean, me and Red didn't do anything bad. The huntress from before was pacing back and forth. "Your actions were foolish tonight. You endangered innocent lives." I rolled my eyes, and spoke up for the first time in ten minutes. "Okay. One, they started it. Two, we saved about two pounds of Dust, and that shit ain't cheap." She glared at me, her eyes like fire. "Watch your language young man, and get your feet off the table!" I shrugged, resisted the urge to say "Yes mother", took them off, but still leaned back in the chair. "You would be going home this instant if it were up to me, but there is someone here who wants to meet with you." I raised an eyebrow, not knowing who, and my jaw dropped as I saw who. A man with silver hair, green scarf, and black coat carrying a coffee mug walked into the room.

"Keith Topaziel." He said, sitting down in the opposite chair. "Professor Ozpin?" I asked, wondering what the headmaster of Beacon Academy could want from me. "Where did you learn your style of fighting?" I gulped and squirmed a bit in my seat. "My dad. He's retired now, but was a huntsman back in the day. Now he's a blacksmith at Alavard and a teacher there, or he was." Ozpin smiled ever so slightly. "Alavard? In Atlas, correct? What are you doing here?" Feeling a little more comfortable, I sat up in my chair. "My dad's got a new job at a school in the area." Ozpin folded his hands on the desk in a very 'I'm now inspecting you' kind of way. "So you are applying to that school now?" "Nope. I was gonna apply to your place." "Hmm...Now, what are you doing at schools designed to train warriors?" I chuckled for a second. "With all due respect sir, and then some, that's a stupid question. I want to be a huntsman. I want to make people's lives change for the better. I know how they all live in fear of the unknown, and huntsmen and huntresses help fill in the gaps."

"And that is the only reason?" Good thing this wasn't an armchair, or he would've seen me gripping the arms tightly instead of my pant legs. "Yes. I'm sure." Maybe I put a bit more 'back off of the topic' tone into that than I should have. Thankfully, Prof. Ozpin didn't seem to mind/care. "So, you want to come to my school?" I raised an eyebrow at his last question. "Yes?" He looked up at the huntress, who just rolled her eyes. "Alright then, welcome to Beacon Academy, Mr. Topaziel." My brain took a good five minutes to process what he said, but when it did..."Hell yeah!" I walked outside, acting all poised and calm in the room, but had my outburst as soon as the door closed. "Wait, did you get accepted to Beacon too?" I heard a voice say, and I turned to see Red sitting on a bench next to the room.

"Yep. So, guess this means we'll be seeing each other around." I extended my hand. "I'm Keith." Red hesitated, but eventually shook it. "Ruby." Huh. Apparently either this girl is antisocial or I look threatening. And I know I don't look that threatening. I mean, she just took out five or so mob goons in under a minute. Oh, I guess I should tell you how I look, huh? Well, I'll start with my eyes. They're a brown, like smooth tree bark, my mom use to say. To this day, I still think that analogy is weird. My hair is a very weird dirty blonde, ranging from a wheatish color to light brown, and it's not messy, it's fashionably scruffy, thank you very much. My gold hoodless jacket has my family insignia, two white wings twisting to make a circle, on the back. My usual attire usually is a white v-neck shirt, tan jeans (They're a thing. Look 'em up), and yellow and white sneakers. My white belt hung kinda low from holding up my weapon. Oh, I kinda have a mischievous look in my eyes, the one you get put in the front of the class for, right next to the teachers desk. And I completely deserved it...most of the time (Looking at you, Professor Camelot). Also, I have this juvenile delinquent slouching sort of posture. Helped keep the idiots at Alavard from trying anything funny.

I leaned back on the bench. "So, how many years you skipping?" I asked, genuinely intrigued. "I'm missing two." She said, looking a bit red. Whistling, I turned back around. "What about you?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. "I'm not missing any actually. Finished my last semester at good ol' Ally Prep." Ruby turned to look at me, I could tell she was a bit confused. "Alavard. Where'd you go to?" She mouthed an "oh" and sat up. "I used to go to Signal. My uncle is a teacher there and he taught me how to use Crescent Rose." I looked at the scythe, propped up against a wall. "I'm guessing that's it." She laughed and nodded. We kept talking for a bit until it was close to midnight (not that hard since it was about 11:00)...hey, times flies when you save a shop from being robbed and get into the school of your dreams.

I kinda based Keith's personality after my good buddy, Skyar Triv. He may not be as talkative as Keith, but he's just as sarcastic and joke filled. Don't lie Sky, you're like this. And for those who couldn't tell, Topaziel is a play off of topaz, like the gem.