"Man I can't believe the boss has us mining this deep in, didn't we lose a team a couple of months back from overextending?" A younger looking mouse Faunus turned to look toward his partner, resting his body on the large pickaxe under him.

"Ha, think the boss cares so long as we get the good stuff?" an older looking Bull Faunus sighed and tested the supports. "Hitting the detonation, it's shaped so the explosion should go all forward, all the same blast shields up!" He walked behind a blue energy barrier and hit the detonation switch and the cave rumbled for a few moments before returning to normal.

"Okay everyone back to work!" the mouse Faunus walked forward toward the blast zone to examine it, finding that there was a small hole in the floor. "Hey boss, is there supposed to be a cave system under this?"

The bull Faunus walked over and blinked in confusion. "No there weren't supposed to be any caves, this mountain was solid when we scanned it," He looked down the hole into the darkness. "Huh, get some rope and lets check it out, boss ain't gonna be happy if we just go and report this without checking it out."

After gathering together the materials the mouse and bull Faunus descended into the darkness, using Dust powered flashlights to scan through the darkness. "Fan out, keep a watch on your air." He put a small mask over his face and began to scan the area.

The mouse Faunus walked around a bit, scanning the area with his flashlight. It seemed like just another tunnel, rock as far as they eye could see, however it didn't seem natural. The rocks were too polished, the walls flat. His foot hit something hard and he cursed, shining his flashlight down on a small box. "What's this?" he asked himself, kneeling down. "Hey boss think I found something!"

The bull Faunus walked back over and looked down at the box. "Huh, how did that get here?"

"Don't know, it looks really old," the mouse Faunus reached forward and put his hand on the lid. "Wood, it's made of wood." He slowly pushed the lid on it up and the cave lit up as hundreds of small balls of fire appeared around the cave.

A loud feminine laugh rang out as the cave began to shake, causing the two Faunus to lose their footing. Within a few moments the bottom of the new cave cracked and revealed a stone staircase leading down to a massive castle. "Aw, after all these years I am freed," From the box a stream of smoke came out, floating around the cave before taking the form of a beautiful woman in an ash colored dress with streams of fire running along it. "What year is it?" she asked the two Faunus.

"Uh…um… 1403 ma'am," the mouse Faunus answered, clearly scared out of his wits.

"Forty years trapped inside that box," She sighed and shook her head. "The world must have become so dull without its Queen around," she pointed toward the Faunus and grey smoke flowed around them. "Thank you for your service in freeing me, as reward you will become my first additions to my new army of Grimm soldiers."

The smoke covered their bodies, suppressing screams of terror, and when it disappeared both of the Faunus had bright red eyes and wide smiles filled with sharp teeth.

"And this time no one will stop me, not the armies, not the machines, and not even the Power Rangers will stand in my way. The Ash Queen Cinder will reign supreme!" the woman laughed manically as hundreds of red eyes opened, revealing an entire army of beings surrounding the castle, letting out howls and cries.

Ruby walked down the streets of Vale, enjoying the feel of the sun against her skin as she walked down the streets, giving the occasional wave to the people she knew. It was nice to just have a day to walk around, especially since tomorrow she would be trying to take an advancement test that would put her one step closer to her goal, to become a student of Beacon Academy, the place where Rangers were made. It had been her dream since she was a kid to join the ranks of the Power Rangers, defenders of the world against the malice forces of evil. Of course she knew it would be awhile before she could rise that far, even with the advancement test it would be another two years before she would be able to enter, and her sister had already been there for a full two months.

Ruby pushed open the door to a small shop and waved toward the owner. "Hey there!" she walked over to the counter and put her hands on it. "Did you get the new shipment today?"

The owner laughed a bit and reached under the table, pulling out a small box of gems and showing them to her. "Quite a big order for you, big event happening soon?" he began to ring up the order.

Ruby nodded and a wide smile took hold of her face. "Yep! Tomorrow I am taking an advancement test, if I do well enough I might be able to skip a year or two of instruction, which means one step closer to Beacon!"

"My, how the time flies," he paused and canceled the order. "You know most of these gems only have a purity level of forty, they are good but not what I would want my favorite customer taking into a test like that," he turned his back and walked toward his safe, opening it with his finger and pulling out a beautiful red gem and putting it in front of Ruby. "Here, I want you to have this."

Ruby's eyes widened as she looked down at the gem. "Bu…but that…" she picked it up and gulped. "This must be at least eighty percent pure."

"Ninety actually." He chuckled a bit.

"But you can't just give this to me!" she reached into her pockets, but she only had enough Lien for her previous order.

The old man waved his hand. "You are using it for a good purpose, just promise when you become a famous Ranger that you won't forget about From Dust Till Dawn, maybe drop our name to your friends."

"You bet!" Ruby held out her arm and raised her training morpher, sliding open the top and pressing the gem into it. The device gave a powerful hum as the energy from the Dust went into it. "Wow, I don't think my morpher has ever had this much juice," she took a stance and put her hand with the morpher in front of her. "Hunter Form, Ranger Force!" she brought her hand back to her and pressed the button that would activate her Power Ranger suit on a full morpher.

The owner chuckled a bit and pointed to the back. "We have some new issues of Hunter monthly in the back; I hear there is even an interview with Ozpin himself in the back."

Ruby's eyes lit up and she nodded. "I have got to see that." She walked toward the back, sliding on her headphones as she did.

The old man shook his head a bit and let out a small sigh. That girl had been coming to his shop even since she had first joined in basic training to become a Ranger, always talking about how one day she would help save the world and defeat all of the evil that was out behind the barriers. Few young people had that kind of passion anymore, and it did his heart good to see her working toward a goal like that.

The bell to the shop rang and the owner turned to it with a smile, one that quickly faded as he saw the people who were entering.

"You know boys you just don't see this kind of thing anymore," A man with orange hair hidden under a hat walked into the shop, covering on all sides by rather tall men wearing black suits, hats, and glasses that covered their eyes. "A genuine ma and pa type of shop, I mean today with all of the corporate chains and stuff it is just so nice too…" the man paused and squinted at the owner. "Well now I feel a bit ripped off, I see a pa but no ma, well that just won't do." He snapped and one of his men pulled out a small gun and aimed it at the owner.

"Take my Lien, I won't try and resist." The old man gulped and worried about the girl in back. He didn't know if she was ready to fight these kinds of people.

"Oh hush, I swear it's always 'take my money' or 'let me live' and even 'I have children oh please no' always the same thing over and over." The man smirked and put a hand against the counter. "You are lucky through, I am just here for every speck of Dust in your shop." He snapped. "Boys, hop to it!"

The men growled out a response and began to go toward the tubes of Dust at the sides of the shop, draining them with strange rubes in their own hands.

"You wouldn't believe the trouble I had teaching them that trick, animals the lot of them" the man waved his hand.

One of the thugs paused his draining attempts and noticed a young girl in the back, one that could become trouble. He was under a no kill order right now, but that didn't mean the boss would want him to let her run around. "Girl," the man growled, walking over to her. "Put your hands up and turn around."

Ruby didn't hear him over the sound of her music, putting down one magazine and picking up another, tapping a foot to the beat of her music. "This will be the day we waited for~"

"Girl, hands up!" he put a hand on her shoulder and forcefully turned her around, causing her to give him quite the glare.

"What?" she asked slightly annoyed at having been interrupted. He pointed to his ears and she blinked, taking off her headphones. "What do you want?" she asked again.

"Put your hands in the air and walk to the front of the shop." The man growled, his hands turning into fists.

"Are you robbing me?" she asked, looking around and noticing other men dressed identically to him.

"Yes!" the man roared, annoyed beyond his wits.

"Oh, well why didn't you say so?" Ruby put her hand over her morpher and grinned. "Crescent Rose!" she drew away her hand and a massive gun materialized from a red energy coming off of the morpher. "Bye!" she pulled the trigger and shot the man back with a burst of energy.

The head robber heard the loud impact of one of his men slamming into the wall and turned around to give a rather annoyed look at him. "And now this is happening. Fantastic." He pointed toward another one of the robbers. "Get to it."

The man nodded and went down the aisle, only to be launched back through the glass window by the full force of a young girl being propelled by an energy blast knocking into him. Ruby smirked and unlocked her weapon into its full scythe form, looking at the remaining robbers.

"Oh, well that wasn't something I expected to see today," the orange haired robber walked through the door as the robbers walked out the broken window. "So let me guess, Ranger in training?" he sighed and shook his head. "Do you even know who I am? Roman Torchwick, former general of the Ash army, one of the most feared criminals in the world, what do you think you are going to do?"

Ruby aimed the end of her scythe at him. "Stop you from robbing this place."

Roman blinked and laughed loudly. "Well you don't see guts like that now a days, bet they look better on the outside through." He grinned wickedly. "Boys, go wild!"

The men growled in unison, their bodies shifting and bones cracking as they took on their true shades. The men were gone, replaced by wolf like bipedal beasts with sharp claws and deadly teeth. They let out howls and crouched low, glaring toward Ruby with blazing red eyes.

"Hm, no problem," Ruby's body glowed with an aura of red energy as her morpher fed power to her body. She launched herself forward with her scythe, striking one of the beasts hard and wounding it, sending it sprawling back with a howl of pain. "That should have cut through."

Roman blinked. "You shouldn't have been able to hurt it at all; those are some of my more powerful foot soldiers, enough playing around ice the brat!"

The other monsters charged Ruby at once, but she avoided them with ease, moving at speeds that would put even the most skilled runner to shame. She struck and dodged fast enough for it to almost look like a dance, but she could see the damage she was doing was only on the surface. Her strikes seemed to hurt them, but she couldn't get back their thick skin.

Ruby blocked a claw and jumped back, avoiding one of the beasts from pouncing on her. She couldn't win this fight, she knew that. A glance told her that there were still people trying to leave through, and if she left the beasts might decide to attack them. "Come on that all you got!" she called out, mocking them.

One of the beasts roared and charged forward, getting within attack range before a small explosion threw it back against another one of its companions. "Back off freaks!"

Ruby turned and a bright smile came over her face as in the distance four figures made their way down the streets and toward the battlefield. All four were covered by the protective armor of their ranger suits, full body outfits with a letter as an insignia on the center, a different color on the armors. Yellow, White, and Black, three rangers each wielding a different weapon marched forth.

"Oh come on what is this, Power Rangers want to be day?!" Roman sighed dramatically and pointed toward them. "Eat them or something!"

The monsters charged forth toward the Rangers, bloodlust in their eyes and howls of fury on their throats.

The Yellow Ranger leapt forward and stuck one of the monsters in its face, a pair of gauntlets on her arms sending a bullet directly into its brain and destroying it, turning it back into shadows.

The Black Ranger leapt off the Yellow's shoulder, wielding a short but fat blade and striking another monster with it multiple times, pulling a second blade from the first and dual wielding them, slicing the beast apart until it fell into nothing but a pool of darkness.

The White Ranger lifted a rapier in front of her and waited for the beasts to come to her. "Please, how pathetic can you get." She stepped out of the way of one of their claws and stabbed the beast quickly, holding the blade in it for a moment as it turned to ice, shattering after a moment.

The rest of the beasts were made quick work of by the three, leaving only Roman to look at them. "You just can't get good service anymore I tell you," he sighed and tipped his hat to them. "Don't suppose you would consider letting me walk free would yah?"

The three Rangers took up a fighting stance, and Ruby got ready to help if she was needed. "Yeah didn't think so," Roman sighed and tossed his hat to the side. "Oh well, let's do this" he put his hands over his chest and drew in a deep breath as a black haze of energy surrounded him. "Monster Form, now!" he drew his hands away and suddenly the tall orange haired man was gone, replaced by a monstrous beast that stood at least eight feet tall, a massive body with skin as pitch black as the night and carrying a massive club. "Who wants a taste of real power first?" the monstrous form of Roman growled out.

The three Rangers looked to each other and nodded, charging forth and attack at the same time. Their strikes hit true, but none of them seemed to affect the monstrous creature. Roman swung his club and knocked away the Yellow Ranger, sending her into a building with a laugh. With a stomp of his foot he created a shockwave that tossed the other two Rangers away. "Pathetic!"

Ruby gulped and aimed her scythe behind her, firing it and launching herself forward with a battle cry, pulling her weapon back and striking forward with it against Roman's form, creating a gash in his skin. "Ha, take that!"

Roman howled and knocked her back with his fist. "You little brat!" he put a hand in front of his monstrous mouth and moved it, spitting forth a blast of dark energy.

Ruby froze and got ready to defend from the blast, but before it could hit another figure moved in front of her and deflected it. A purple Ranger, taller than the other three with a small cape coming off her back. In her hand was a small staff made of silver metal. "Enough, surrender or be destroyed." A feminine voice called out from behind the helmet of the suit.

Roman thought for a moment before a grin came over his monstrous face. "Fine," Roman took a breath and his monstrous form disappeared, leaving him in his human skin once more. "I surrender myself to the mercy of the law." He held up his hands and smirked.

The Purple Ranger paused and shifted out of her suit, revealing a rather tall woman with blonde hair and a stern frown. "What gave are you playing Roman?"

"No game, I can't beat one of the Legendary Rangers, so I am giving up before I am destroyed," Roman smirked a bit and put his hands forward. "Please be gentle with me Glynda, I am a delicate flower."

The woman shook her head and waved the staff, creating a pair of handcuffs around his arms. Within minutes the area was flooded with police to survey the area. Roman was dragged into a reinforced van, letting out cries of 'police brutality' or 'unlawful imprisonment'.

The three rangers walked over toward Ruby and paused in front of her. "You guys were totally awesome, you were all like 'bam' and 'pow' and..." Ruby made an exploding noise. "Who are you?"

The three rangers demorphed, revealing three young woman, one of whom Ruby recognized right away. "Yang!" Ruby hugged her sister and smiled wide.

"Ruby!" Yang hugged her sister and smiled. "You were pretty great yourself, oh right." Yang stood up and pointed toward the other girls. "Meet Blake and Weiss, Black and White Ranger first year."

"You did well against the beasts, congratulations" Blake gave a nod to the smaller girl and offered a smile.

"Hm, you could have been killed, you got awful lucky." Weiss said, shaking her head and walked away from the group.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about her; she is just like that sometimes."

Before the two sisters could catch up Glynda walked over to Ruby. "Pardon me, but there is someone who wishes to speak with you." She looked to Yang and Blake. "You two should be aiding in the cleanup process, hop to it."

Blake nodded and Yang grumbled, giving a small wave to Ruby before moving to the cleanup crews.

"Am I in some sort of trouble?" Ruby asked with a small frown, following after Glynda.

"No, despite doing something quite foolish and trying to engage monsters you couldn't fight evenly you are not being reprimanded." She glanced toward Ruby. "Despite my own objections, what were you thinking?"

Ruby looked down and frowned. "People might have gotten hurt if I didn't try and help. It was worth the risk."

"That is quite a good answer." An older looking man walked over to her. He was tall and had grey hair, but still retained a sense of strength about him, like an aged lion that could still happily defeat an enemy. "Ruby Rose, is that correct?"

Ruby froze in place and nodded. "Y...you…you are…"

The man laughed and nodded. "Ozpin the Silver, a pleasure to meet you Ms. Rose."

Ruby simply gave another nod, jaw open. "I uh…I read your interview."

"Oh?" Ozpin asked with an amused smile. "What did you think of it?"

"It uh…sorry but my brain isn't really working right now." Ruby tapped her head.

"I tend to have that effect on people," Ozpin said with a small laugh. "But let's not focus on me right now; tell me Ms. Rose, you are training in hopes to become a Ranger someday yes?"

Ruby blinked and gave a quick shake of her head. "Yes sir, I mean I still need to take the tests and everything but I hope to attend your school someday."

"I see, do you mind if I ask why you want to become a Ranger?" Ozpin asked his voice serious.

"Well to help people," Ruby said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I mean, that's what Rangers do."

Ozpin tilted his head. "What about fame, the money, the adventure of it?"

Ruby shrugged a bit. "Well that's all nice, but you could do anything and get that, being a Ranger means devoting your life to helping others, protecting people from evil and saving the day. Being a hero."

Ozpin took a moment to think about her words before a smile came to his face. "Quite right. Tell me Ruby, would you do me a favor?"

Ruby blinked and nodded. "Sure, whatever you need."

"Hold out your wrist." Ozpin waited for a moment until she did. He waved his hand over her morpher and it shifted and changed, become a full-fledged version of her old morpher. "I want you to join my school, become a Ranger."

Ruby's mouth fell open and a small gasping sound came out. For a full minute she was silent before her head finally nodded. "Of course!"

"Glynda, if you could call over the others." Ozpin smiled toward her, and was greeting with a look of disapproval before she did as he asked, calling over the three. "Girls I would like you to meet your new leader, Ruby Rose, Red Ranger of team RWBY."

The three girls looked toward Ruby with different looks, each with a bit of confusion before Yang let out a happy cry and hugged her sister. "I get to be a Ranger with my sister, that's so cool!"

Weiss seemed like she was about to say something but decided not to, simply walking away. Blake looked to Ozpin for a moment, and simply shrugged, putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Welcome to the team."

Ozpin turned and walked away, followed closely by Glynda. "Is there something wrong?"

"No sir, I trust your judgment." Glynda said, a frown coming to her face. "Why would Roman give up like that?"

"I couldn't guess, we will just need to keep a close eye on things for now." Ozpin looked up toward the sky, which was quickly becoming cloudy despite having been bright only moments ago.

A few hours passed and Roman was being lead down a long hallway by a pair of robotic guards. "Hey if you have to hold me at least buy me a meal first."

"Still joking huh?" a voice filled with dark humor called out, giving Roman pause. "What don't remember me Roman, Mercury Black, the guy you ditched for the Rangers to snag and toss in this cell." Mercury put his hands against the bars and glared out at him.

"Of course he remembers us Mercury, the traitor remembers all his debts." Another voice rang out from the opposite site, and a young woman with dark skin looked out from behind the bars.

"Aw Emerald, real sorry about having to ditch you two like that, business." Roman shrugged.

"Yes, business, I am sure you will understand when I take the debt out of your hide." Emerald glared toward him, eyes filled with hatred.

"Might as well burn me to cinders while you are at it" Roman said with a smirk. Both of the younger people went silent at his words. "Anyway got to go, need to make my cell all cozy for my stay." The robotic guards dragged him away to a cell, tossing him inside and closing it on him.

Roman lay back on the bed and smiled, summoning a mirror from a cloud of black smoke and looking into it. "All things are set up as needed; your soldiers are all gathered in one place for your return."