RWBY: SWAP

Swap AU: In this AU certain characters will fill in the role of others. Certain character traits will be swapped, while others will be the same.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, Rooster Teeth does.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Yang Xiao Long

"Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind is fond of recounting it's stories of triumph against the forces of Grimm, to which there are admittedly many. However, they forget that we are all byproducts of a past long forgotten. Humanity grew strong through the manipulation of Dust; crystals built of pure weather. With this, they repelled the ever present forces of Grimm, monsters born from fear. The Grimm were infinite, and yet the smallest spark of hope was enough to ignite humanity into action, and their combined strength was enough to repel the Grimm, and found the pillars of civilization." The man's voice pauses his teachings, but just for a moment.

"But even the strength of humanity isn't limitless. So long as people have power... they will be corrupted."

The scene focuses upon a small gang of ruffians prowling the streets, five in all. Four of which were dressed in white suits, and the last was dressed in sharp black with a red tie. He had an over-sized metal bat slung over his shoulder, a smug look on his face. The four goons carried steel machetes and pistols.

"So prepare your Huntsmen. Build your walls. Create the strongest weapons Remnant has ever seen. You will only hasten your own demise. For when such a power spawns, humanity will always use it...

The scene switches to a Dust shop, where the gang of thieves enters, weapons drawn. A girl with long, nearly shining blonde hair wearing a yellow and black gothic-lolita dress reads a weapon magazine, listening to music through her headphones.

A woman's voice replaces the previous. "Which is why humanity must learn. This is when humanity is in need of a smaller, more honest soul. One that will teach that the greatest strength humanity has is peace."

The leader of the group walks up to the cashier, and presumably owner of the shop, and cracks a cocky grin.

"You'd be surprised how few Dust shops are open this late. Guess we were lucky to find this place." He says as one of his thugs pulls a gun on the old cashier.

"P-Please don't hurt me! Just take the money..!" he says, terrified.

"We ain't here for the money, gramps. We're here for the Dust. Keep your trap shut and we won't hurt a hair on your head." He turns to his crew. "Pack it up, boys!"

They all get to work, filling suitable containers with powder Dust. One goes to fill a container, and notices a girl reading a magazine in the corner. He could faintly hear the song playing, it was on so loud.

I burn!

Swing all you want...

Like a fever I'll take you down!

"Alright, lady. Put your hands where I can see 'em." He gets no reaction. "I said hands in the air!" He repeats. On closer inspection, she was wearing headphones. There's no way she couldn't have noticed the robbery going on, right?

"Ugh!" He walks over to the girl and taps her shoulder. She turns around and shows her lilac eyes. "Hm?"

The thug wears a scowl, and points to his ears. She takes off her headphones. "What?"

"Put your hands in the air, now!" He demands.

"Wait... are you... mugging me?" She asks, genuinely curious.

"Yes!" He yells, starting to get seriously exasperated.

"Ohhhh..." Se says, realization showing on her face. It quickly changes to excitement.

The Boss was still standing next to the cashier, picking a selection of Dust crystals, when one of the goons is sent flying past him and into a wall. With nary a glance in the goons direction, he looked at another thug and motions in the direction of the offender. The man draws his machete and looks down the row at the blonde warrior.

"Freeze!"

Two seconds later both the man and the warrior were sent flying out the window, though the goon suffered all the pain.

I burn!

Swing all you want...

Like a fever I'll take you down!

It doesn't have to be this way...

Let's kiss and make up, then you'll learn...

You can fight your life away...

I get what I want so don't bother and just watch me burn!

Click! The song stopped. The warrior rose and drew a yellow and black katana. The remaining goons poked their heads into the window frame, trying to get a good look at the vigilante. The boss also looks at the warrior, and starts stroking his beard.

"Huh. Well? What are you idiots waiting for? Get her!" He yells, and the three remaining goons launch their attack. Two jump through the broken window, while the third opts to just go out the door. The vigilante sheaths her sword, and unbuckles the sheath from her hip and launches her attack with that. The first goes for a vertical slice, but she parries the blade and whacks him in the head with the sheathed blade. She then follows by whacking him in the shins, causing him to buckle, then knocking him out with a punch to the face.

The second does a jumping slash, only to be sidestepped and whacked in the back for his troubles. He attempts to turn around to face his opponent and slash at the same time, but the warrior unsheathes her sword and uses the blade to block, while knocking out the assailant with a bash to the side of the head.

The last henchman, equipped with a pistol, begins taking potshots at her. Two miss, while one breaks against her aura. She takes one leap forward and knocks the pistol out of his hand, before throwing him aside like paper. The goon lands at the boss's feet.

"Useless, every single one of you..." He turns his gaze to the blonde warrior. "Well, I've got to admit, Blondie, you're not too bad! I'd hire you instead of these morons any day. Too bad I've got... other business to attend to." He says, turning his metal bat into a rocket launcher and taking aim at her. "Goodbye, sweetheart!" He fires several missiles in one blast.

She dodges them one after the other, and eventually the barrage ends. She looks around and notices he's disappeared. She looks up and sees him climbing a nearby ladder.

The shop owner appears in the doorway. "You alright?" She asks him quickly. He gives a quick nod. Without another word, she chases after him. While the criminal had to climb the stairs, the warrior runs up them two at a time. By the time he reached the top and started running again, she was right behind him.

"Hold it!" She yells, drawing her weapon and points it at him. He stops, his back still turned. "You're starting to get annoying." He says simply. She takes a step forward, but steps back when an airship rises from behind the building they were standing on. It's side opens, and the criminal hops in.

The side of the ship still open, he takes aim with his rocket launcher once more. "Sorry it's got to end this way, Blondie!" He fires another volley. The warrior had nowhere to dodge.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

Each rocket exploded before reaching it's target. "Ha!" He cheered preemptively, before squinting his eyes.

When the smoke cleared, the blonde mistress was still standing. She opened her eyes, and noticed a figure to her left. She had green hair and reddish bronze eyes. She held two green guns in her hands and began shooting at the airship, her eyes also beginning to shimmer. The man fired another rocket... towards the space behind and in front of them. He never aimed at where they were. He continued to do this until he took one too many shots for his liking.

He ran into the cockpit to see the pilot. "We've got a Huntress!" The pilot leaves her seat and makes her way out to fight the people shooting at their ship. The man taking the pilot's seat. When she reached the deck, the two crime-stoppers noticed she had platinum blonde hair, and wielded what looked to be a riding crop. With a wave of it she gathered all of the broken pieces of roof left behind by the previous fighter's wake, changing it into the shape of a spear and shooting it at the opposition. The fighter with green hair separated one of her guns into two parts attached with a chain. She swung it at the blond vigilante, knocking her out of the way. The spear changed direction mid-flight and chased after the emerald warrior. With one movement she dodged the strike.

When she looked up again, the ship was already flying away.

A moment of silence past, and the two warriors put away their weapons.

"You... You're Emerald Sustai, right?" The blonde warrior asks. Emerald looks at her sternly. The blonde let's out a squeal and runs towards the lady.

'Ohmygosh! It's THE Emerald Sustrai! The youngest teacher to ever teach at Beacon!' "Can you sign my sword?!"

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The answer was no. She sat in a dark room as the teacher from Beacon Academy lectured her.

"What were you thinking?! Sure, if you're getting held up, then fighting them off is reasonable, but you chased after an enemy with high grade artillery! Even if you could win you risked people in nearby houses! Do you have anything to say for yourself?!" She demanded.

"I'm sorry..." She said, looking at the ground.

"Well 'sorry' doesn't cut it! I should send you home ri-"

"Emerald, please." A soft, yet powerful voice cuts her off. The owner of the voice steps inside the room, revealing herself to be a middle aged woman. She wore white hair in a bun, and had pale skin. Her eyes were a deep purple. Her hands were folded behind her back.

"Yang Xiao Long." She states, looking at the girl whom she named.

She leans forward to look at the girl. "Your eyes... they are not crimson..." She notes.

"Uhh, what?"

She motions towards Emerald's scroll, which was showing security footage of her fight with the goons. "Tell me, where did you learn to fight like that?"

"S-Signal Academy." The girl answered.

"And Signal taught you how to use one of the most skill-intensive fighting techniques known to man?" She asks.

"Well... one teacher, to be more specific."

"I see." She responds, unfolding her hands to reveal plastic box of cupcakes. She lays it on the table and motioned for her to have some. After a moment of hesitation, Yang quickly snatched one of the cupcakes and started digging in. The woman couldn't help but chuckle.

"It's just that I've only seen one such warrior in my lifetime. A world-weary raven..." She muses.

"Mmm! Thas my mothru!" She says with her mouth full.

The woman raises an eyebrow.

"(swallow) Sorry! That's my mother, Raven Branwen. She taught me at Signal, and now I'm like 'Hwah yah!' Slash, slash!" She says while pretending to swing a sword around.

"So it seems." She answered, thoroughly amused. "But why would a beautiful young lady like yourself wish to train in an academy meant to fight monsters?" She asked.

"Well, I want to be a Huntress. I've always heard that there's so many incredible places out in the world, and I thought that being a Huntress would let me help people and do this at the same time." She answered excitedly.

"Very well. Then answer me this, Yang Xiao Long. Do you know my name?"

"You're Salem, the headmistress at Beacon Academy." She answers.

"Greetings." Salem answered, giving a small smile.

"Hi!" Yang said back.

"So, what are your plans for after Signal?" Salem asks the child.

"Well, after I finished this year I was going to apply to Beacon, see if I can get in." She said, still excited.

"So you wish to come to my school?"

"Hell yeah I do!" Yang answers.

Salem looks at Emerald, who merely rolls her eyes.

"I wish to correct your use of vulgar language, young lady, but I suppose that's something we can teach on campus." She says.

"Wait... Does that mean..?"

"Welcome to Beacon Academy, Yang Xiao Long." Salem confirms.

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Yang should have been excited that she got admitted into Beacon. She should be jumping place, squealing in excitement, and ready to fight the whole world! She was on the airship to Beacon right now!

But right now, she just wanted to throw up. Her sister wasn't helping.

"This is going to be awesome! I'm going to the same school as my big sis! We're going to kick so much butt together! Oh, come here, sis!" Her sister Ruby Rose said, jumping into Yang and hugging her. This caused her to hang a few inches off the ground, but she didn't mind. Ruby was wearing a red tank top with a black jacket, and black shorts.

"Ruby, please let go..." Yang groaned.

"But why?! We're going to BEACON! This is what we've always dreamed! We're going to learn how to be Huntresses! I thought you'd be more excited about this!" Ruby yells, too hyperactive for her own good.

"I am, but... I'm not sure how I'll fit in. You know I'm no good with crowds, Rubes." Yang explained. "And you were placed two years ahead of everyone else. Aren't you scared of sticking out?"

"So what if we stand out? That just means people will know what we're made of! This is going to be so much fun, sis! Everyone's going to think you're the 'Bees knees'." She said proudly, poking at Yang's yellow and black dress.

"Ugh, no puns, please!" Yang moans, already done with this conversation.

As Yang was done saying this, there was a news headline that caught both of their attention.

"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Hei Xiong, also known as Junior. He continues to evade authorities. If you have any further information, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Cyril." The announcer says. The camera switches to a male announcer. "Thank you, Lisa. In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted-" The announcer was interrupted as an image of Emerald replaced the news broadcast.

"Everyone, welcome to Beacon Academy."

"Who's she?" Ruby asked quickly.

"My name is Emerald Sustrai."

"Oh, alright."

"You are some of the few people who have been selected to attend Beacon Academy. With such an honor comes great responsibility. Every single one of you have been chosen for your skills and future potential. Right now we are in a time of peace, but peace doesn't last forever. Whether it be from Grimm, bandits or any other form of threat, it is your job to do whatever it takes to keep the peace. You've all shown that you have the courage needed to pull this off, so we'll give you the knowledge you need to make use of your courage. Good luck." The image fades.

"Whoa..." With the hologram gone, Yang could see the entirety of the city through the window. She walks towards the window, dumbfounded.

Ruby runs to her side. "You see?! This is gonna be awesome! You can even see Signal from here!" She exclaims.

"I... guess we aren't far from home, after all." Yang realizes.

"Yes! Now stop worrying about everything and have fun!" Ruby says, playfully punching Yang in the arm.

"Watch out. You wouldn't want to hurt your dear older sister would you?" She asked playfully. She was referring to Ruby's weapon, Burning Rose. They were gauntlets that doubled as shotguns.

"Your right! I need to be SO careful! If I don't, I might just blow off a limb!" Ruby said with mock horror.

"Alright, alright, I get it. I need to lighten up."

"She FINALLY gets it! I'm such a good younger sister." Ruby boasts.

Their playful banter was cut off by the anguished moans of another passenger. They looked to see the sick form of a thin man with short, black hair that had a pink stripe. He was dressed in a green hoodie and blue jeans. He was stumbling around the ship, obviously sick.

"P-Pardon me..." He said politely to the sisters as he walked past, most likely looking for a bathroom or trash can.

"Eh, guess the view isn't for everybody." Ruby says with a shrug.

Author's Notes: Woof! Two chapters in one day! One for RWBY: Team ERTH and one for this! I have a ton of interesting character swaps already planned out. Some may be obvious, some may be completely nonsensical. Either way, I hope you all enjoy!