Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains. However, sometimes, as stories pass from one mouth to another, the stories change, forming new, different legends. This is one such tale. A familiar story, but the details sewn anew. Something as simple as the heroes within the story changing creates a new story; and everything changes.

A quite night. A peaceful night. Not a single sound of nature, and even the noises of civilization had died down. It was on nights like these that the young man walking down a quiet, peaceful street chose to act. The police weren't on edge, the pedestrians were at a minimum, everyone had their guards down.

The ideal time to strike.

The young man was flanked on each side by his hired goons, bought from some nobody in some nothing nightclub. Four mobsters; on their own they were nothing, but at the very least they were cheap and they looked intimidating. That was the most that the young man could ask for from this nothing city.

As the five men approached their target, a Dust store at the end of a street, the young man brushed his black hair out of his eyes. Eye contact was ideal for intimidation. Everything about his appearance was designed to force others to look into his eyes. A simple eastern outfit: black shoes, white pants, and a green tailcoat. So simple, and yet the outfit served its purpose: to make any who beheld it look at the face of the young man wearing it. They would see his black hair, but more than that they would see a simple pink highlight. This would distract them for a few moments before they finally looked into the young eastern man's eyes. Any who gazed into the windows of this young man's soul would find themselves captured: magenta eyes were an oddity in any culture, but more importantly any who looked into the young man's eyes saw one thing: hatred. A deep-seated loathing of everything around him.

And why would he feel anything but hatred for this nothing world? What had it done for him? All it had ever brought him was sadness. A never ending sadness that warped him and his only friend in life. And yet, despite this hatred of his, the crushing sensations around him, the young man felt renewed. He had a purpose now. A new purpose, one that would lead to a better world for him and his friend. He would do anything to create such a world; in which he could see his friend's smiling face, always. Even if it meant he had to work alongside the people he had long envied, and still felt nothing but loathing for.

The young man looked up at the sign of the Store. From Dust Til Dawn. A pun: a play on words: switching the word Dust with Dusk would create an ordinary expression. The young man couldn't help but be annoyed as he pushed open the door and walked inside. Most Dust shops were closed at this time of night, or at the very least knew to have hired goons such as his own to help keep the merchandise safe. Stores that knew these things were much less likely to be robbed; a fact that the owner of this store would soon learn the full consequences of: for he stayed open until the dead of night, with not a single man to protect him.

The young man came to a stop in front of the old shopkeeper behind the counter of the desk. As his goons came into positions, the young man looked around. Tubes filled with Dust, crystals within the desk, bags, boxes, and jars of it all scattered thoughout the store, all within plain sight. A treasure trove for shoplifters. It's as though the owner was asking for it all to be stolen.

"Please, just take my lien and leave," an old, raspy voice begged. The young man turned his eyes upon the old shopkeeper, holding his shivering hands in the air. A pale green shirt and a red apron; balding, grey hair, and eyes squinted so much that they appeared to be closed. Out of the corner of his eye the young man saw a gun pointed at the shopkeeper's head. He hadn't asked for that, but it made then next part much easier. Perhaps at least one of the men he had hired would be useful. The squinted eyes of his made it hard to tell where the shopkeeper was looking, but there was one simple way to guarantee that the shopkeeper would look at him. The young man set the container he was carrying onto the counter in front of him. Normally carrying such a thing would be the work of the hired help, but such was part of the young man's plan. The shopkeeper looked down to the container below him, before looking back up and instantly flinching.

There it was. The same response all had to gazing into Lie Ren's eyes. The same response he had seen his entire life, the same horrified face that any would make upon seeing the endless hatred that Ren felt for the world. The only person who could resist such a reaction was his one friend; and it was for that one friend that Ren went through the actions he did. As the shopkeeper stared in horrified awe, Ren opened his mouth to speak:

"We aren't here for lien." A simple sentence, yet spoken with such malice that even Ren's own goons found themselves chilled. Ren had never been much of a talker, but the sheer emotion- the cold hatred- behind his voice was more than enough to speak for him. "Grab the Dust."

Upon hearing his order, the goons stepped into motion: one man would remain at the counter and make the shopkeeper place the Dust crystals within the container, another would drain the Dust-filled tubes on the right side of the store, while the last two took care of the tubes on the left side. It was a simple plan, but Ren couldn't help but feel as though the hired help would find some way to screw it all up. Such was the confidence he had in the nobodies that he had hired.

As the shopkeeper moved to place a Dust crystal within the container, Ren grabbed it out of his hand before walking a few steps away, making the motion to carry on with his empty hand. The crystal felt so light in his hand, but the sheer power that it contained made it more valuable than any-

"Alright, kid, put your hands where I can see them." Ren looked to the right side of the store as the goon assigned to that side drew his sword and pointed it towards the back. There weren't supposed to be any customers at this time of night. Who would come to a Dust shop in the dead of night except to rob the place? A kid...? Ren smirked. Likely a shoplifter, as I thought. It's interesting how thoughts like that come to reality. Surely even this trash can manage a single shoplifting child. He turned his attention back to the dust crystal.

These small crystals were all part of a bigger scheme. It would take tens of thousands of them to progress even the slightest towards Ren's new goal, but he would find a way forward. He had no choice but to keep-

Thud! Ren looked down where the incompetent idiot had fallen; no, he had crashed just below the front window of the store: he had been launched. A kid... Ren looked up at the goon standing beside him at the counter, who looked back at Ren with a confused expression on his face. This was the same goon who had initially held the gun at the shopkeeper. To think that Ren had almost considered hiring him worthwhile. What a waste of time and money. Ren tilted his head toward the back of the store, where the child in question was supposed to be, and the mobster ran into position. "Freeze!"

As the man went soaring thought the front window, Ren decided that it was time to make his escape. Even if Ren was able to deal with the child, the civilians outside surely would call the police, and the police would surely arrive too soon to allow Ren the chance to escape if he did not take the initiative now. As the remaining mobsters rushed outside, Ren came to the conclusion that the "child" had gone through the window as well. He placed the Dust crystal into its intended container before closing the container back up. The shopkeeper glared at Ren, perhaps hoping to deter him from leaving, perhaps even thinking of taking action to stop him. Ren's eyes turned that defiance away.

As Ren stepped outside, one of the men he had hired came crashing to the sidewalk in front of him. Ren looked around. One of the three remaining men had been smashed face first into the asphalt that made up the street, but the other two were missing. Where had they gone? Surely they had not run away. Two unconscious bodies landing on either side of him answered that thought.

Ren looked back up at the child who had foiled his plans for tonight. A small teenage girl. A small teenage girl holding a gigantic, mechanical, red scythe larger than any of the hired help. Ren was starting to see where trouble had arose. The young girl before him wore a black mini-dress with red accents, and a red hood, which spread out into a giant, and surely impractical, cape. She also wore black boots with red accents, which struck Ren as strange, for boots didn't quite fit in with the rest of the- I have more important things to worry about now.

Ren pulled out his weapon, Stormflower, an green SMG with a sickle sticking out of the bottom of its barrel, and opened fire on the young girl. He would have pulled out the other Stormflower, which stayed within his sleeve, if he had been trying to kill the girl, or if he were not carrying a container of Dust in his right hand. Besides, the bullets he fired were not meant to kill her; that would leave an unnecessary mess behind; no, the bullets were meant to scare the girl into looking away from him so that he could evade her.

The moment the girl moved to dodge the bullets, Ren made a break for a nearby ladder, which would lead him to the rooftop he had chosen for his pickup. Ren was a very fast young man. With his childhood, he had to be. Ren was also dexterous: while most people wouldn't be able to ascend such a ladder in just a few short seconds, he was able to do so using only one hand. As he reached the top, he found himself face-to-face with the young girl.

What? How? Despite the fact that he should have felt shocked by this change, Ren was merely annoyed, and he let it be shown on his face. His pink eyes met her silver eyes, and she gave a smug smirk. The girl backed up before pointing her scythe towards Ren, shouting out, "So, are you just not going to talk or...?"

Ren paused before deciding to just let the next events play out in silence. There was a sudden mechanical roaring, the kind of sound that only an engine could make. The girl looked away, just for one moment, and Ren moved to strike.

One chop to the back of the neck should have been enough to knock her out, but when his hand made contact, it merely bounced off. Of course she has her Aura unlocked. Why wouldn't she? Ren thought before instead grabbing the girl by her short crimson hair and slamming her face into the ground. The girl's Aura wouldn't allow the blow to hurt her, but that wasn't the purpose of the action. Ren kicked the scythe away as it dropped out of her hands and made a break for the sound of the engine. Ren smirked as he hear the girl cry out "Hey!" in protest.

A Bullhead came roaring into view: his getaway vehicle of choice. Its nature as a VTOL aircraft made it ideal for a quick getaway. He leaped from the rooftop into its side doors, before giving the pilot the order to fly away. Ren looked back toward the girl scrambling to get her weapon back. Were he to open fire with his Stormflowers, the small area of the rooftop would make it nearly impossible to evade. Besides that, the girl wasn't even looking at him. She'd be dead before she even realized what was going on, Ren reasoned before silently deciding against it. While the girl was certainly an annoyance, the odds of the two of them crossing paths again was unlikely. Ren had nothing to gain from killing her. He closed the Bullhead's doors before setting down the container full of Dust and moving up to the cockpit and sitting in the passenger seat.

"A Huntress?" The female pilot, the woman who had given Ren's life a new meaning, asked.

Ren thought about it. Although the girl was carrying around a weapon more suited to fighting off the Creatures of Grimm than robbers, and while she did have her Aura unlocked, she definitely lacked the experience that came with being a fully trained Huntress. "No, just some girl." It wasn't necessarily a lie, just as saying the opposite wouldn't necessarily be true.

"I think you don't understand the situation you've put us in."

What?

Something slammed into the side of the Bullhead, knocking it off course and almost knocking Ren out of his seat. He looked over at the pilot, who looked back with a glare that put his own to shame.

What was that? Surely the girl didn't jump onto the Bullhead, that would be-

Another impact, this time an explosion could be heard. They were being fired upon. "What are we waiting for, GO!" Ren shouted at the pilot, who only smiled back at him before accelerating, leaving the girl behind.

Ren sighed. Why had things turned out this way?

"'An easy job'?"

Ren's eye twitched as his words from earlier that night were parroted back to him.

"'A simple plan'?"

Literally everything had gone wrong. What happened?

"'I'll only need four of them, at most'?"

... Those fools. The moment that Ren next saw any of them again, they were all dead.

Ruby Rose wasn't quite sure what she had done wrong. She let her eyes off of the black haired thief for only a moment, and then everything spiraled out of control. Something hit her neck, her face got close to the ground, and then she got slammed into the rooftop and Crescent Rose, her scythe, was gone. Next thing she knew, there was a Bullhead, and a Huntress had shown up to stop it, and then Ruby was shooting at the Bullhead to stop it and then the Bullhead was gone. And now Ruby was sitting in a dark room with a single light while the Huntress who had shown up was lecturing her on her "irresponsible" and "dangerous" behavior.

What happened?

"... but... there is someone here who would like to meet you," the huntress stated before moving out of the way of the only door out of the dark room. A man walked in, holding a plate of cookies and a mug. He had a stern look on his face, fitting with the glare upon the Huntress' face.

"Ruby Rose." The man leaned in to get a better look at Ruby's face. "You..." Ruby didn't know what to expect from the man. Probably more lecturing. "... have silver eyes."

What. Ruby wasn't sure how to respond to that. It wasn't lecturing. It wasn't praise, either. "Um..."

"How would you like to come to Beacon Academy?" the man asked.

"W-what?!" Ruby thought before realizing she had also said it out loud. Going to Beacon was her dream, it was one of the many things that she was looking forward to in life, but- "Um... I'm planning on going there in one year, but-"

"Nonsense. Your older sister is the infamous second year Yang Xiao-Long, correct?"

Wha- how does he know all of this?! "Y-yeah, but I'm not sure how-"

"Then it's decided!" The man set down the plate of cookies and took a sip of his mug. "You'll be attending Beacon Academy starting this month. Congratulations."

The Huntress standing in the corner finally spoke up, "Ozpin, I think you're-"

"Ozpin?!" For the first time tonight, Ruby looked more carefully at the two people in the room. The man's face had seemed familiar, but- no, there it was! Those glasses! Those eyes! That mug! How had she not realized that the black-and-green-suited man before her was actually the headmaster of Beacon Academy, the legendary Ozpin?! And if that man really was Ozpin, then that meant that the blonde woman wearing ridiculous clothes could be none other than Glynda Goodwitch, one of the teachers at Beacon!

Glynda glared at Ruby, as though she had heard the insult within Ruby's thoughts, but more likely because Glynda had been interrupted. "... You're acting rashly again," she continued. "You keep accepting strange students into the school. First a stowaway from Vacuo, then some overly enthusiastic girl off the street, that strange man with the bowler hat, and now some girl who's not even out of Signal Academy?" She crossed her arms and gave both Ruby and Ozpin a stern look. "When will it end? How far will you go, Ozpin?"

Ozpin paused for a moment before looking to Ruby and smirking. "It's my school, Glynda. I know what I'm doing."

... I guess I'm going to Beacon now.

As the airship approached Beacon Academy, Ruby sighed. She would be starting over completely this year. No friends, her sister was one year above her, and she didn't even know the layout of the school. This felt wrong. She should have been excited to be going into Beacon, but the change was so sudden that it was hard to feel excited.

How hard was it going to be for her to make new friends here? Ruby had always had trouble making new friends; conversations weren't really her forte. It would be nice if life just let new friends into your life without any of the fuss that came with-

"Salutations!"

Ruby nearly jumped out of her skin before looking at the girl who had walked up to her. Green eyes, orange hair, a white, grey, and green dress, a pink bow atop her head, a great big smile, and she was standing far too close for Ruby's liking. "Um... Hey..." Ruby responded before backing away slowly, only for the girl to close the distance in a single step. "Really friendly, huh?" Ruby awkwardly joked, desperately trying to avoid eye contact.

"'Friendly'?" The girl's face turned inquisitive as she leaned in even closer to Ruby's face, which in turn caused Ruby to back away further.

"Um..." Socially awkward didn't begin to cover this.

"Are we friends?"

... I guess I asked for this. "I, uh, I guess?" Ruby said, immediately regretting it, because she knew what the response would be. She didn't have to become friends with just any weirdo, and yet here she was.

The girl's face lit up, forming a big smile, as she raised her arms and shouted, "Ahaha! Sensational!," attracting the attention of everyone in earshot as the girl pulled Ruby in for a hug.

Oh no. Ruby looked around and saw all eyes on them. This is how Ruby was going to be remembered, wasn't it?

"We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" Ruby cringed. If anyone else had said it, it may have been a tempting thought, but here she was, getting hugged by a strange redhead and regretting all of her life choices. Why did she go to Dust til Dawn that fateful night?

Well. This is my life now, Ruby thought to herself, with a huff. ... Maybe she shouldn't be turning this into a bad thing. Maybe it could be a good thing. A new friend, just like that, why was she upset? "Yeah, sure..." She put her arms up and pushed her new friend away. "I'm Ruby. It's nice to meet you?"

"My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny leaned forward, arms outstretched for another hug. "... friend!"

... Man, I hope I get more friends than just this.

A faunus girl stared at the two weird girls hugging. What a bunch of freaks. That's how they make friends? Obviously, the two of them had no real experience with it. But that was okay. No one could possibly hope to be as perfect as her. She looked around at the students heading to Beacon. None of them looked as good as her, obviously, and yet everyone's eyes were fixated not on her, but the very loud friends standing across from her.

It was an injustice. All eyes naturally belong to her. Everyone needed to know the greatest woman who ever lived, Neon Katt, was standing just within-

"Ugh..." A blonde haired boy stumbled into Neon, knocking her onto her butt. WHAT?! "Oh... sorry... UGH!" The boy's cheeks puffed out, and he started running away.

"Some people..." Neon growled as she stood up. Or rather, tried to stand up. The fact that she was wearing roller blades made standing from a sitting position a little difficult. Neon glared at her roller blades, considering taking them off-

What is that...? A yellow substance on her roller blades. No... It wasn't vomit. No... It couldn't be vomit. NO... There was no way it was vomit. "No..." It was probably vomit. "No...!" It was vomit. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

And that's about where I felt like cutting off this chapter. Sorry if the pacing seems a little weird, it's been a while since I last wrote fiction and I got it all written in one night.

So, basically, I got the idea for this while I was bored at work. Just if you switched a couple of characters around, and changed a few people's ages, how different the story could be. Meaning that some people who weren't important (read: Neon Katt) were suddenly main characters. When I thought of the changes while at work, some of them were so funny to me that I actually started laughing out loud. In other words, in order to make my embarrassment at work justified, I HAD to write this story.

I'm actually curious what genres I should tag this under, because I am planning on making it comedy-based, but I can't help but feel that this is more of a parody. And at the same time, I'm planning on writing this all the way to Season 3, so perhaps Fantasy? I don't know.

If you could, I would appreciate a review, you know, let me know what I can do to improve, what you feel I'm lacking in this, even what you thought of the chapter. ... Maybe help me pick the genres, I don't know.