This is a triple cross of sorts between FF VII, Kingdom Hearts and RWBY. Enjoy!

No one was entirely certain what Dust was or how it came to be. All humanity knew of it was that it was the lone force with which they were able to push back the Creatures of Grimm and regain some measure of control over their planet. Equally, no one was able to explain where the Creatures of Grimm appeared from.

By all accounts they had appeared one day and never left, and seemed to have an unexplained hatred of humans in general.

It was a mystery that was left to the ages... however not all mysteries are meant to remain buried forever...

A lone figure cloaked in red bearing a golden claw overlooked the city of Vale. His long black haired blew in the wind, revealing pale features and crimson red eyes.

"It is starting. Soon, the Princess shall awaken and the world will move forward once more..." he mused.

Silent as death itself, the figure found a better vantage point with which to watch his adorable little "neice". It was an unspoken fact he had a tendency to stalk Ruby whenever she left "safe" territory, even if all she was doing was going out to buy a magazine. He wouldn't interfere with small fights...she had to learn how to protect herself until help arrived on her own after all... but it gave him some piece of mind knowing she was within range of his protection.

She called him overprotective, but the fact she didn't complain or ask him to stop said volumes. That and she knew it was his way of showing he cared.

Vincent was a man of few words, after all.

He almost left when he noticed the presence of a Huntress he trusted to have his back. Regardless of the trouble Ruby would likely find herself in, he knew Glenda wouldn't allow her to come to harm.

Instead he settled to watch the show, and he was glad he did.

Later the next morning...

"What."

"Headmaster Ozpin said that he was really impressed with how I handled myself yesterday, so I'm allowed to enter Beacon two years early!" repeated Ruby. She was both excited and nervous.

Then again, her Uncle Vincent was one of the teachers at Beacon and he was overprotective to begin with. He was the one to teach her how to snipe properly and how to account for wind resistance!

And no, despite what Yang said she did not have a crush on her uncle, regardless of the fact that she matched his color scheme! Even if she did idolize him a wee bit more than she did uncle Qrow. Uncle Vincent was the epitome of cool though!

Vincent...made a note to spike Ozpin's precious coffee supply and hide the replacements until he explained himself. Talent or not, there was no excuse for pulling a stunt like this. Not so soon after what happened to one of the Maidens.

They still hadn't caught the culprit, though given what he saw when Glynda went after that idiot Torchwick, he suspected they might be in Vale.

Ruby looked at him with wide, bright eyes. He sighed.

"I was going to give this to you once you graduated, but if you're following Yang into Beacon then I suppose I could give it to you now," said Vincent.

Ruby perked up and he would swear he saw puppy ears and a tail appear. She always did have the most devastating puppy dog eyes he had ever encountered, and he had to deal with Yuffie once upon a time!

Vincent left the room for a moment and returned with a box. Inside something made a rather odd sound that had Ruby almost vibrating with eagerness.

Opening it revealed several shards of metal of unknown origin. Then again it had been her Uncle Vincent who had helped her to acquire the material to make Crescent Rose, while Uncle Qrow helped her to assemble it and showed her how to use the scythe properly.

Ruby almost squealed, except she remembered in time that her Uncle Vincent really hated it when she did that...especially at close range.

Instead she tackled him, or tried to anyway. Vincent indulgently patted her on the head.

"You give the best presents, Uncle Vincent!"

He was the one who gave her the special cloak she wore everywhere the day she managed to pass basic huntress training so she could fight Grimm without anyone backing her up.

(Though Yang still hadn't stopped crowing over the fact Vincent had given her a motorcycle once she was old enough to legally drive it. Their father still complained about that, but it was Yang's baby.)

Ruby couldn't wait to incorporate the new metal into Crescent Rose's scythe. It had taken a lot of hard work to use the odd gun metal Vincent have given her for the barrel of her sniper rifle, but it was sooo worth it.

She still had to go through orientation though.

"Who said that was your only present? I did get you something so you wouldn't be too lonely with Yang going to Beacon, though I never anticipated Ozpin would invite you early," said Vincent chuckling.

Ruby thought it couldn't get any better. Then her uncle brought out a belt with some odd marble-like decorations.

"Oh my Oum... are those... are those the super rare unrefined Dust orbs?" she asked, almost drooling.

Vincent smirked and patted her on the head.

"I was going to train you how to use these during my days off. I suppose we'll have to work on it during any shared free periods. Just so we're clear you are not to wear or use these outside of training until I allow it," said Vincent.

Ruby nodded so fast her head felt like it would fly off.

Her uncle Vincent was the absolute best!

(Yang was almost jealous, except she knew Uncle Vincent liked Ruby best anyway so it wasn't too annoying. Besides, he had given her three of those super rare, almost impossible to find Dust orbs as a gift for getting into Beacon without being arrested.)

A day and a half later...

Vincent wasn't the only one on the cliff watching the progress of the new students. Nearby he could see Ozpin and Glenda observing everything. However his focus was entirely on little Ruby... he chuckled a bit at the fact she had somehow managed to rope the Schnee heiress into becoming her partner.

It was going to be an interesting couple of years, that was for certain.

Weiss fumed.

"How exactly did you manage to get into Professor Valentine's almost impossible to get into class regarding Dust?" she demanded.

It had taken her father a very large bribe just to get in for a probationary period to see if she was even worth his time. Vincent Valentine did not mess around with Dust and he knew more about how to combine them creatively than any other hunter alive. He didn't tolerate slackers and he was very selective about his students... except those that did get in and stayed always came out making major waves in the Hunter community.

Yang and Blake were not going to be part of that class. They were taking different courses that they had signed up for. However Weiss was not happy Ruby somehow managed to get into this particular class.

If Weiss was fuming before, it was nothing to her reaction when Ruby took one look at the teacher and said with an enthusiastic wave...

"Hi Uncle Vincent!"

Professor Valentine chuckled.

"Oh good, so he did take my threat seriously," said Vincent with dark amusement.

"Uncle Vincent, did you really threaten the headmaster's coffee supply?" asked Ruby. She heard a rumor that he had, but she wanted to confirm it...for amusement's sake and because Yang had about died laughing when she heard about it.

"That idiot deserved it. He should be lucky I didn't actually tamper with the beans," said Vincent darkly. "That being said, you're going to be doing the demonstrations for today."

"Okay!" said Ruby happily.

"Ruby..." hissed Wiess. "Why did you call Professor Valentine 'uncle'?"

Ruby turned to look at her.

"Because he's my uncle. Uncle Vincent is the one who taught me how to snipe and he showed me how to use Dust when I first started my training as a Huntress. Though I still don't know why he got Yang that motorcycle for getting into Beacon."

Vincent coughed meaningfully, and Ruby came down from her seat to demonstrate.

"Dust, as the incredibly lazy would have you believe, is impossible to fully manipulate after activating. However for those select few who possess the natural predisposition to hear the song held within, it is possible to achieve some truly miraculous effects purely through force of will and imagination."

Ruby was almost bouncing where she was. Vincent put his clawed hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Miss Rose, would you care to demonstrate?" he asked with a fond smile. He handed her a vial of Dust.

Ruby nodded.

In the back of her mind, she concentrated on the 'hum' that her Uncle said was the song of the Remnant.

The Dust in the vial was one of the cheapest available on the market. Weiss scoffed at the sight of it, believing that not even Professor Valentine believed Ruby worth his time, to be giving her that. It was barely considered 'scraps' to her family.

So you could imagine her shock at seeing Ruby cast a fireball that would have taken a Dust crystal to pull off with something she would have dismissed out of hand.

"Wha..."

Weiss paid rapt attention, burying her annoyance at the way Ruby looked to Professor Valentine like an adorable puppy seeking praise.

Professor Valentine chuckled, and patted her on the head with open affection in his gaze.

"You've gotten better. Last time it only took you three tries to use a Fire attack with that vial."

"I've been practicing!" said Ruby proudly.

Vincent could only chuckle when Ruby's partner cornered her after class for an explanation. On an unrelated note at least this year he had a proper teacher's aide to help him in class. Ruby already knew the things he would be teaching the first years anyway.

With Weiss and Ruby

"Explain. How did you do that with scrap Dust?" demanded Weiss.

"Uncle Vincent was the one who taught me how to use it and how to shoot a gun properly. He said that the way Hunters use Dust is really inefficient," said Ruby with a chirp.

Seeing she had Weiss' full attention, Ruby tried to explain.

"Most people, when they use Dust are lucky to hear a 'whisper' of power from it. Uncle Vincent taught me how to hear the full song. He said that certain people have the ability to hear the 'song' trapped in Dust and can use it's full ability if they bother to train it."

Weiss wanted to deny Ruby's comment...except she could remember very clearly her father telling her to 'be silent' about hearing odd singing when she started using Dust. Even her sister Winter heard it...she just kept quiet and pretended it didn't exist.

Weiss looked at Ruby seriously, with an oddly vulnerable expression on her face.

"You hear it too?" she asked quietly.

Ruby had a look of sympathy on her face. There was a reason her Uncle Vincent dropped students every term.

"Come on, I'm sure Uncle Vincent would be happy to supervise us if I asked," said Ruby.

Considering the effect red Dust had, Vincent had made it very clear Ruby needed someone who knew what they were doing every time she practiced with any of it.

The scrap Dust he had given her was one of the few he allowed her to play with on her own time, since it wasn't capable of anything too damaging and the 'song' was very quiet.

"Do you know how to sing?" asked Ruby suddenly.

Weiss gave her such a dry look she almost felt stupid for asking that question.

"Schnees have always been musically inclined and I used to sell out entire concert halls for my singing."

Ruby tilted her head for a moment. That sounded really familiar for some reason and she had no idea why.

It only became clear to her when her uncle brought up another specialty of Weiss' family that was lesser known.

Summoning.

"Oh, that's why you can hear the song already! It's because you're from a summoner bloodline!" said Ruby.

"What."

Ruby was grinning.

"Summoners can bring out some really cool spirits that can deliver some really devastating attacks...the only problem is that it takes a while for their reserves to build up enough to summon anything and they have a really long charge time in between them! Shiva is really pretty and Chocobos are funny!" said Ruby.

"Ruby, perhaps a demonstration would be in order," said Vincent, handing her a special concoction. Weiss had seen them before, but only Dust specialists used them.

Ruby downed the potion without a second thought, before she pulled out some red Dust.

She began to hum a tune only she could hear that Weiss recognized immediately. She heard it all the time whenever she tried to prove her worth to her father by demonstrating the Schnee family special skill of summoning. Except this was the clearest she had ever heard it before.

Seeing a large bird she had only heard rumors about from Winter appear out of nowhere from a glyph shocked her greatly. Because if she didn't know any better she would swear Ruby had used her family specialty!

"Wark!"

The bird looked at Ruby quizzically, only to relax when she hugged it before allowing it to return where it came from.

"HOW?" said Weiss. "How did she do that using Dust when I've never been able to get a single thing to appear?!"

Vincent took out a different colored Dust and muttered something under his breath. She felt something pass over her for a brief moment, before looking at him expectantly.

"Your reserves are too low," he answered. "You have a decent amount of aura within you, but they're still too low to summon anything more than a chocobo and that's if you put everything into it. If you were to train your reserves up with Dust practice, you might be able to perform a proper summoning."

"Are you telling me the entire reason I've been having trouble is that I'm weak?" she almost snarled.

"A summoner should have massive reserves. Your main issue is that your natural reserves from using Dust is simply too low. It's possible whoever taught you simply used the wrong class-type when it came to aura and Dust class. You would be a decent enough Dust specialist, but summoners require a larger reserve to work with if they want to get anything done," said Vincent bluntly.

Weiss was silent. She wanted to deny his claim but when she thought back to her tutors she realized he might have a point. The woman who taught her to use Dust and Aura had been a Dust specialist of some skill, but her reserves were nothing compared to Winter or her father. She had always gotten bored with how easily casting large spells had been and worked more on her sword skill rather than her reserves.

"On an unrelated note, I suspect your sister's partner might be a natural mixed Dust specialist. She seems the type," said Vincent to Ruby.

"Want me to talk to Blake into seeing if she's interested?" asked Ruby.

Vincent nodded.