This is my first fanfic, I hope you guys enjoy it.

Prologue/Chapter 1: End of an Era

Ancient Times, Unknown Location on the Dragon Continent

The winds swept across the field as a figure shrouded by a tattered cloak stepped towards the group of forty men and women in front of him, staff in hand, stopping twenty feet away from the cloaked woman leading the group. While the cloaks obscured their features, there were clear differences between the two. The newcomer, wearing a cloak the same deep blue as the midnight sky and held in place by a clasp in the shape of his family's crest, showed sorrow and exhaustion with each step, while the woman stood proud and regal in a jet-black cloak, sword at her side. The two stopped to remove their hoods, revealing that the man had black hair while the woman had white, before he pierced her red and black eyes with his own silver.

A sigh escaped him before he looked away, memorizing the faces of each member of the group in front of him and looking them in the eyes. While to many they were traitors and lunatics that needed to be stopped, they were still his family. He let out a sigh before looking back at the woman leading the group. "Salem," he said with a tired but wise voice.

"Aurelius," she sneered, mocking the man before her. "Have you come to surrender? To admit that you were wrong? That your solution is nothing more than a lie?"

Aurelius tightened his grip on the staff, eye glancing at the gem sitting atop it before he spoke, subtle anger in his voice. "You suggest we go against our nature, the very way we were made, when another way had already been found long ago! We're so close to finding the source of the Grimm and the Dust that powers our civilization has always served to defeat them!"

Salem let out a mocking laugh. "You mean the Dust that has done nothing for the last five hundred years except hold the so-called threat at bay? Admit it, old man, you and your ideas have been obsolete for a long time."

The wind picked up as the gem turned a dark blue. "And this is your solution?" Aurelius waved a hand at Salem, "you don't even have an Aura any more, let alone the ability to use your Semblance! You don't even care about the humans and Faunus under you, all you want is the authority you were denied!" He glanced at the group behind her before continuing. "It's not too late for the rest of you, you know. You can still walk away from this and be welcomed back in Sanctuary with open arms."

A few of the group looked at each other, uncertainty clear on their faces before Salem spoke up. "He's lying. Both his precious city and the triumvirate that rules it are weak, just like him. He hasn't even brought his precious daughters along with him!" The men and women behind her took a glance at him before returning to the group, drawing their weapons as they did so. "you see, Lord Aurelius," Salem sneered, "you hold no power here. You will either kneel or you will die."

Aurelius cast a pleading glance at the group before his shoulders sagged in defeat. "I see… I will take no joy in this, but you leave me no choice," he muttered before looking up at each of them again. "Salem, you and those who follow you have been declared traitors to the Kingdom of Sanctuary by the triumvirate! As the senior member of the Triarchy, it is my solemn duty to enforce judgement on you. If you don't return now, I will be forced to execute you."

Salem smirked before gesturing to a young, rabbit-eared woman next to her in a white cloak and wielding a scimitar. "Kill him, let the world know how weak the council is," she growled before the girl nodded meekly and charged forward, blade raised overhead.

Aurelius let out a resigned sigh and opened his eyes, the calm silver replaced with a tempest as they shone brightly. "So be it, I'll try to make it as quick as possible," he said grimly before bringing his staff up block the slash, pushing her away in a blast of lightning. The rest of the group hesitated as a pulse of energy was released from the gem, turning the staff into a sword they all knew well.

"Hmph, so you brought along the Primus Lapis then, did you? A pity it won't mean anything, isn't it?" Salem muttered before the rest of the group charged at him, some of them pausing to awaken their own power as well before joining in, eyes shining. He swung the blade, cleaving through three at once before one of the more skilled warriors tried to impale him with a spear, forcing him to call on his family's Semblance as he exploded into a cloud of blue petals. A few others were quick enough to catch this and activated it as well, filling the sky with petals, while a few others were cut to bits by the unexpected move. Salem watched on as the battle continued, Aurelius deflecting sword strikes and using the wind created to make it impossible for the two archers in the group to shoot him as well as using Dust to force his foes back. As the numbers wore down, however, he managed to find himself cornered by three swordsmen, forcing him to split is focus between the fully awakened warriors.

He had just managed to end the third with a stab to the chest when Salem made her move, slashing him across the back. He let out a cry before he fell to the ground, barely keeping a grip on his sword as he glared up at her. "Perhaps I underestimated you, but then again, you've had far more practice than anyone here, Aurelius. In the end, it makes no difference. You still couldn't win, now you'll die, and I'll finally take that sword from you. Any last words?"

He looked around to see if there was anything he could do, but knew there were too many left for him to fight his way out. With a sigh, he looked Salem in the eye. "W-we both know that Sanctuary and my family will live on no matter what happens. But you're still mad and won't stop until you've truly won, no matter how many people die. I might not be able to return, but I can't let you threaten them, either with your presence or your ideas." He closed his eyes for a moment before looking at Salem, sounding content for the first time in the entire battle as they shone brightly. "Thus… Kindly, I scatter."

A sudden explosion shook the entire field as a burst of energy consumed everyone, dead or alive. On that day, Aurelius Rose, the most powerful of Sanctuary's "Dust Sages" went into battle and sacrificed himself to stop a lunatic. With his death, Remnant's first kingdom crumbled.

Modern day, the City of Vale

A young girl let out a frustrated sigh as she walked down the street to From Dust Till Dawn. Her black boots stomping quietly as her red cloak flowed behind her, resting on her shoulders with the hood up, obscuring her face. She wore a black, long sleeved blouse under a corset and a black skirt with red trim, along with dark red leggings. A belt with a Rose crest wrapped around her waist, holding her precious scythe securely behind her. Her tail swayed behind her sadly as she walked, her wolf ears pressed flat against her head. Ruby Rose, normally an energetic and cheerful girl, was not happy today.

"I know I have to wait two more years, but it's still not fair that I don't get to spend any more time with Yang once she goes to Beacon…" She stopped and took a deep breath, trying to think more rationally."I guess there's nothing I can do except keep training and practicing with Crescent Rose for now, it's not like I won't see her at all and the better I am when I get into Beacon, the better I'll be when I become a Huntress!" She smiled to herself before looking up at the store in front of her. "First, I need more ammo if I'm going to practice, maybe they have a copy of this month's Tales from the Hunt too!"

The old man at the counter looked up at the sound of the door and smiled. "Ruby! I haven't seen you in a while, how have you been?"

Ruby smiled at the man as her tail wagged a bit. "Hey Mr. Campbell, I've been good. I thought I'd drop in to say hello and pick up some more burn and lightning rounds. Do you have any?"

"I think I do, it'll take a moment to check, do you mind waiting?"

"Sure, I was going to look at the magazines anyways," Ruby responded before she went toward the back, putting on her specially-designed headphones and picking a song, sighing happily as "This Will be the Day" started playing. "I know everyone says the Schnees are horrible people, but Weiss has a great singing voice." Ruby quickly glanced over the magazines before grabbing a copy of Tales from the Hunt and skimming through it, looking for the section on weapons and upgrades, humming along with the song as she looked through it. "Hmm, I don't think a flamethrower would work, and a grenade launcher would throw off the weight too much… Maybe I should look into increasing the caliber of the rounds more? Or maybe armor-piercing would-"

Her thoughts were interrupted as someone grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, bringing her face to face with a man with a red sword. She let out a quiet sigh before taking off her headphones. "Yes?"

The man sighed before holding his sword up. "I said, hands in the air, now!"

Ruby blinked in confusion, tilting her head to the side. "Are you… Robbing me?" She asked incredulously. The man nodded before pointing the sword at her again. "Ohhh…" Ruby smirked as time seemed to slow down, and her mind went into overdrive examining everything about his stance, thankful her dual semblances of speed and improved analysis worked so well together as she moved forward, knocking the sword out of his hand and kicking his legs out from under him. Before he could hit the ground, she used all her strength to fling him toward the front of the store, certain that he was out for the count.

A moment later another thug walked down the aisle and pulled out a gun, causing her to grin as she grabbed him and ran toward the front of the store, flinging him through the window before following behind, grabbing Crescent Rose off her back before unfolding it with a twirl. "Uhh, did I forget to turn off my music?" She made sure to subtly switch it off as she was swinging the blade of Crescent Rose into the ground, not wanting to ruin her moment before loading a cartridge of blanks. "At least this will get my mind off things," she thought happily as she looked back into the shop.

A man in a white suit with orange hair looked at her in annoyance. "Okaaay..." He glanced at the thugs surrounding him before letting out an annoyed sigh. "Get her," he commanded before they took off, leaving him to mutter to himself. "I'm not paid enough to deal with this…"

Ruby watched as the first thug charged at her, jumping as he made a slash at her legs and spinning herself around Crescent Rose to kick him in the face, pulling her scythe out of the ground and using the blanks to increase her speed, knocking one of the remaining ones onto the shop's roof before bringing the back of it down on another. Her Faunus ears picked up the sound of a gun cocking. "Seven o'clock, maybe 5-7 feet?" She used her semblance to dodge to the side as he opened fire before coming around and sending him into the air with a strike to the legs, spinning around, and knocking him into the ground.

The man in white let out a sigh as he looked at the gang he brought with him. "You lot were worth every cent. Truly, you were," he said sarcastically as he stepped over the downed man in front of him and dropped his cigar. "Well Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd like to stick around…" As he pointed his cane at Ruby she quickly noticed that it hid a gun. "…I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

Ruby was out of the line of fire before he could fire, watching as the bright flare-like blast flew out of the cane and wincing as it hurt her ears. "Alright, so he uses Burn Dust for ammo, I'll have to make sure he doesn't hit anything important with it." As soon as she landed she looked around, seeing him climbing the building as Mr. Campbell came out of the store. "Are you ok if I go after him?" When she got a nod in response, Ruby quickly used her scythe's recoil to get up onto the roof behind the white-clad man. "Hey!"

The man let out a sigh and turned around. "Oh, for the love of- isn't it past your bedtime or something, kid?" Ruby couldn't respond as a Bullhead lifts out of the nearby alley and a searchlight momentarily blinds her. When she recovers she sees the man inside the Bullhead holding a Dust Crystal. "End of the line, Red!"

As he tosses the crystal, Ruby manages to get a look at the color and pales. "Burn, if he shoots that…" She watches it hit the roof and looks back up at the man quickly, watching him lift the cane in slow motion. "Most likely, he'll wait until it stops so he doesn't have to shoot twice, so if I grab it or jump out of the way…" Ruby jumps forward and snatches the crystal mid bounce as the man fires in her direction, jumping out of the way as a woman with a riding crop lands on the roof to stop the shot as he lets out an annoyed shout.

"Can't I catch a break even once tonight?!" The man yells out as Ruby looks the woman over.

Ruby, on the other hand, was star struck. "Oh wow, it's a real Huntress! N-no, calm down Ruby, don't look like an idiot, this guy's still a threat!" She shook her head and noticed the woman using bursts of energy to try and bring the Bullhead down before the man vanished into the cockpit. The Huntress made a gesture and a storm cloud formed over the Bullhead before ice shards rained down on it. A woman in red stepped out and made gestures, strange symbols appearing on her arms before she started flinging fire at the Huntress.

While the Huntress was more interested in blocking the blasts from the mystery woman, Ruby took the moment to look her over. "What's with the symbols or glyphs? I'll have to keep an eye on that." A loud screech drew her out of her thoughts as the ground under the Huntress exploded. "M-maybe I should be helping instead of watching…" The Huntress started to use the shards of debris to take down the Bullhead, only for the mystery woman to let out a blast of energy and destroy most of the debris as Ruby started opening fire on her, watching the woman casually stop the shots with her hand before creating more marks on the ground, causing her to roll out of the way before the roof exploded.

Ruby let out a sigh before looking at the woman next to her, tail wagging excitedly as her ears perked up. "You're a Huntress! Could I have your autograph please?" Her cheerful demeanor was shattered by the cold glare the woman gave her, ears and tail dropping. "I-I'm in trouble now aren't I?"

There's obviously going to be a few major differences with this, starting with the inclusion of (the now long dead) Aurelius and ruined kingdom of Sanctuary, both of which will have a major impact on the story moving forward. As shown by Ruby, people can have two semblances in certain situations, mostly in the case of a hereditary family semblance (as Ruby's Rose semblance will be for this and the Schnee Glyphs are for cannon) and a personal semblance unique to each person (in the case of Ruby, her semblance will give her increased situational awareness and make it easier for her to process, memorize, and learn things) but now many semblances will have aftereffects on the people using them if not properly mastered. This will be explained more later.

I also decided to make Ruby a Faunus for this simply because it seemed to fit with her personal semblance and because I thought it'd give a few entertaining possibilities later. Let me know what you think of this.