Author's Note: This story is a side project that I admittedly started before I started writing Thick Headed Fools but was shelved after encountering writer's block early on. Since this is a side project, I'll be working on it when I have time or when I hit a roadblock with T.H.F and need inspiration. So don't expect semi-regular updates like Thick Headed Fools.

MAJOR WARNING: Everyone is out of character!

Chapter 1: The end of a story.

The Dark Queen Salem, who is the Mother of all Grimm, could feel it in her bones that the end was coming as she sits on her throne. Outside her throne room, the sounds of battle grows closer and closer as the Silver Eyed Hero, her friends, and the armies of the Kingdoms of Remnant assault her castle in the final battle of a long, tiring war the two sides has waged for the past 6 years. The dark queen lets out an exhausted sigh as she feels the effect of the constant use of her semblance spawning a constant stream of her Grimm to hold the assaulting armies at bay.

So, she patiently waits for the Silver-Eyed hero to arrive so that they can finally bring an end to this long war of theirs. And soon enough, the door leading into the Dark Queen's throne room flies open and the battle weary Silver-Eyed hero, Ruby Rose, marches in with her high impact sniper scythe, Crescent Rose, ready for the final confrontation between the two of them. Ruby's arrival brings a faint smile to Salem's face as her plan finally comes to fruition.

"Salem!" Ruby calls out. "Your reign of terror ends here!"

"Oh my, what a bold statement coming from someone who came here alone." Salem purrs. "Let's keep it that way shall we?"

Concentrating her semblance into her right hand and with a wave of said hand, Salem expands her shadow and small group of Ursa Majors climb out of her enlarged shadow. The group immediately rush past Ruby and go through the throne room doors leading into the hallway just beyond before Ruby has a chance to do anything to slow them down. Then, Salem uses her semblance to slam shut the throne room doors, capturing Ruby's attention as Salem gets off her throne readying her staff.

Ruby and Salem get into their battle stances in anticipation for their final confrontation as Ruby's eyes begin to glow dimly. They begin to slowly circle each other like wary predators, looking for an opening in each other's defenses. Like a starting pistol, a large explosion somewhere outside shakes the castle violently, signaling Ruby and Salem to charge at each other.

Ruby swings her scythe diagonally upwards as Salem swings her staff downwards, igniting a flurry of trading blows and dodging said blows by a hairsbreadth. Minutes crawl by with both sides refusing to relent in their assault upon each other. When suddenly Salem delivers a powerful kick that sends Ruby flying backwards into the throne room door just as one of Ruby's horizontal slashes harmlessly cuts open Salem's robe in the stomach area, leaving behind a thin cut that quickly heals.

Salem takes a step forward to press her current advantage over Ruby but a wave of noticeable exhaustion washes over her as large batch of various Grimm suddenly spawns somewhere outside in one of the remaining spawning pools. Ruby, noticing Salem's pause, takes a moment to catch her breath before readying herself once more for another clash between the two of them.

Salem takes the initiative and dashes towards Ruby, swinging her weapon horizontally which Ruby easily parries. Ruby counterattacks by rotating her scythe so that the rifle barrel is pressed against Salem's abdomen and fires off a dust round. Salem staggers backwards with a hiss just moments after the bullet passes through her cleanly.

Ruby's silver eyes begin to glow brighter and brighter as she closes the distance between her and the distracted Salem with her scythe ready for another strike. Ruby unleashes a semblance fueled tornado of rose petals and various slashes that Salem can barely defend against in her exhausted state. The tornado dissipates moments later with Ruby cutting off Salem's left arm at the elbow, causing Salem's staff to fly from her remaining hand.

As Salem staggers backwards even more while Ruby takes another moment to catch her before charging towards the defenseless Salem, unleashing the full power of the maiden's Silver Eyes. Seeing Ruby charge forward, filling the room with blinding silvery white light, Salem smirks weakly at the sight knowing what's coming next. So instead of raising her guard up in a feeble attempt to defend herself, Salem drops it completely to accept her fate.

When the throne room completely fills with the silvery white light, Crescent Rose's blade quickly buries itself into the left side of Salem's torso and the world around her goes black. She feels like she is floating inside of the black void when a white light appears ahead of her.

"My wonderful husband, my beautiful children, I'm finally coming home." She softly says to herself, as she lets herself float towards the light.

She floats towards the light when the sounds of beeping, a woman screaming in pain, and garbled voices can be heard as she gets closer and closer. She is forced to close her eyes as she is blinded by the light when she reaches the light source. Opening her eyes, Salem feels incredibly smaller and sees a doctor in operating room garb, lifting her up to inspect her thoroughly.

"Mr. and Mrs. Pine, you now have a baby daughter who is a… hermaphrodite." The doctor hesitantly announces, unsure of the reaction he is going to get but the news causes a pair of audible excited gasps somewhere behind Salem. The doctor wraps the Salem in a blanket and carefully walks her over to the side of a bed where she sees an exhausted, sweating Glynda Goodwitch lying there with a big smile on her face.

"Oscar, she's beautiful." Glynda gasps as she takes Salem and gently cradles her in her arms.

"That she is, Glynda." An all too familiar voice replies.

"What shall we name her, Oscar?" Glynda asks softly a she shifts slightly to give the source of the voice a better view of Salem and Salem is shocked to see Ozpin looking down at with a proud, loving smile on his face.

"Dorothy." Ozpin softly says. "Dorothy Pine."

Just as the baby Salem opens her mouth to scream in shock and terror, a much older pajama clad Salem to suddenly sit up disoriented, gasping for breath with the memory fresh in her mind. She lets out a deep sigh when she sees that she's in her bedroom of her parent's apartment in Vale. Salem scowls in annoyance when she discovers that it is currently a little after 12 AM in the morning according to her alarm clock.

Salem waits a couple of minutes to allow her eyes to adjust to the moonlit room. She scans her room to find out that it's an ordinary teenage girl's bedroom of a life she thought she would never have again complete with her high school diploma from Morse Combat Academy, a picture frame of a happy 9 year old Salem standing in between her proud parents, another picture frame of a proud 14 year old Salem standing over a torn up mecha-beowolf with its metal skeleton, various electrical wires, and various mechanical inner workings exposed.

And sitting on her desk is her weapon of choice, The Witch's Boom-stick, a 6 foot staff that allows her to channel her semblance with ease that has a fangtian ji spearhead (a spear with two crescent shaped blades on the sides of the spear tip) on one end and a built-in shotgun on the other end. Also the staff has the ability to shorten itself to be used as a one handed axe/wand and to make storage/travelling easier.

In the corner of her eye, the glint of a mirror catches her attention as headlights from a car passing by her bedroom window briefly illuminate the room.

Looking at the mirror, memories of her old appearance in her previous life as the Dark Queen flash through head when she sees that she was once again an 18 years old. Her appearance was mostly the same except for: her skin was a natural shade of creamy white color instead an unnatural shade of ashen white, her irises were a beautiful mix of sapphire blue with slivers of emerald green accentuated by white sclera instead of the crimson red irises accentuated by black sclera, her straight silver hair that flowed down past her waist is now platinum blonde, and gone were the black veins that had once covered her skin.

Salem turns her gaze away from reflection in the mirror towards her window and looks out it forlornly. Outside in the distance she sees tower of Beacon academy lit up like the namesake of the school and high above it in the sky, is a full un-shattered moon watching over Vale. She lays back down onto her bed with a sigh and closes her eyes, hoping for a better night's sleep while the memories of her old life fades into the back of her mind.

"This wasn't supposed to happen."

Introducing Salem as Dorothy 'Salem' Pine the reincarnated main character.