In the dead of night, as soon as Ozpin was asleep, the star shard began to vibrate. It shined brightly, and vibrated violently. Then in a flash, it was gone. Somewhere in Vytal, a man in a black cloak sensed this, and smiled. All was going according to plan. Nothing could stop him this time.

Riku crossed his arms and leaned against the tree. Sora was late, again. He looked on against the sunset. It had been a month since they had defeated Xemnas. King Mickey and the others had returned back to their castle and peace was restored among the worlds. Everyone had been taking it easy for a while. Riku was damned sure they had deserved it.

"Riku!" a female voice called out from behind him. Kairi. Riku turned to face her, concern etched on his face. Was something wrong? She leaned on her knees, catching her breath. Riku noticed a paper clutched in her left hand. She eventually recollected herself, and presented him the paper.

"What's this?" he asked as he took it from her. It was a note from Sora. It read:

R, K.

Went out to Twilight Town to visit Hayner and the other guys. Be back soon.

Riku folded the paper and slid it in his pocket. He looked up at Kairi.

"When was this written?"

"I haven't seen him since last night, so," She toyed with her hand. Riku frowned. Something felt... wrong about all this. Sora would have been back by now, he thought.

"Something feels wrong about this. He would've been back by now. I'll go check this out," he said to her, summoning a dark corridor. Kairi looked dismayed. After everything, Riku and Sora were going off again. Riku gave her a smile, sensing her fears.

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon with Sora. Sooner than last time, at least. It's gonna be okay, Kairi. Promise," he ruffled her hair. She rolled her eyes playfully before smiling and nodding. Riku entered the corridor.

"If I'm not back in a couple days, alert the king," he called out as an afterthought. Couldn't hurt to be safe, he thought. He exited the corridor at the train station in Twilight Town. Time to look for Hayner and the rest. Riku headed down to their usual spot. He easily made his way around Twilight Town, familiar with its geography after having spent time in the simlation version of it. This must be it, he mused as he entered an alleyway. He pushed through the tarp acting as a makeshift door. Three teenagers were sitting at various positions in the alley, eating ice-cream. The blonde one noticed him first.

"What do you want? This is our spot, get lost," he gruffly told the silver haired teen. Riku frowned at him. He could stand to learn a thing or two about manners.

"I was looking for Sora. Have you guys seen him around?" he asked the group. The other two members shook their head, whilst the blonde haired teen crossed his arms and glared at Riku. The girl wearing orange stood up from her couch, snapping her fingers.

"You must be Riku!" she said to him. Riku nodded at her. He figured Sora must have mentioned him before.

"So, you haven't seen him, then?"

"No, why do you ask?" asked the last of the three, a boy wearing a baggy red shirt.

"Well, he said he came here to see you..." Riku crossed his arms and shook his head. This was definitely weird. Where could Sora be?

"Oh no. Did something happen?" asked the girl. Riku appreciated her concern.

"No, I don't know. I'm gonna go take a look around," he turned to walk away from the group aprubtly. There had to be some clues in Twilight Town. Riku decided to head to the mansion, hoping that his search wouldn't prove fruitless. He reached the entrance, noticing that the gate was already open. He stepped into the courtyard, noting the silence of the place. Guess there aren't anymore Heartless here, he thought. Riku walked to the front entrance, when a glimmer on the floor caught his eye. He turned to face it. The object reponsible was a small glass star lying on the grass. It must have reflected the sun into my eye, he thought as he walked over to it.

He crouched down to better examine the object. It was a star with a lightning bolt sticking out. Riku grabbed the star and turned it over in his hand. It looked familiar... He had definitely seen it somewhere. He stood up and looked around the courtyard. Had someone left this here? Was this Sora's? As Riku was mulling it over, the star shard was responding to the touch of a user. It detected a keyblade wielder, and started vibrating. Riku almost didn't notice it acting strangely. He help up the thing for a closer inspection, and was immediately whisked away.

It was disorientating, to say the least. The thing moved about randomly, ragdolling Riku, who was clutching on or dear life, all over the the place. Riku clenched his teeth as the thing zipped about. There was no time to do anything, barely enough time to even think about what was going. He just hoped it would stop soon, he was starting to get sick. Just as he thought that, the thing stopped in mid-air, and began diving towards the ground. Riku let out a yell. This was really not how this mission was supposed to go.

"First of all, I feel that we should inform you of what Yang saw in the train," Weiss gestured towards the blonde.

"Perhaps it has something to do with you an your... you know," she continued. Sora gave a slight nod and looked to Yang.

"Well, see. I was exploring the train, 'cause I was bored and all, when I end up in the cargo section. When I went in, I saw someone in there. I couldn't really make him out, it was really dark. But I caught a glimpse of him. He was just some dude in a really large black jacket. As soon as I saw him, he was gone, so I decided to head back but then the train went and blew up. Then... yeah, you know," Yang recounted her experience. She gave a shrug at the end. Sora gaped at her. A black coat? Could it be another member of Organization XIII? That's not... I defeated all of them, he thought. Sora clenched his fist. This did not spell good news.

"Do you know something about this, Sora?" asked Ruby. Sora looked at her, silver eyes questioning.

"I... maybe? Um, it might be one of the members of Organization XIII. They're the only ones I know who A) Would do this, and B) Wear dumb black coats," Sora listed off on his fingers.

"Why they would do this? I don't know. My first guess would be to try yet another time to capture Kingdom Hearts," Sora shook his head. He had had enough of Kingdom Hearts to last a lifetime.

"We gotta get to the bottom of this, and fast," he slammed his fist into an open palm and stood up.

"Anyone got any idea where we should start?" Sora asked, looking around the room. His question was met with blank faces. He didn't know what he expected. Sora sighed explosively and flopped back onto the couch. They had a lot of work to do.

Riku was pretty sure he had broken something. He groaned as he flipped over onto his back and mentally cursed the star shard for being responsible for his current state. Riku got up into a seated position and dragged himself to a nearby tree to lean against it. He made a mental note to never do that again. After resting for a few minutes, he decided to try and get up. He gave another groan as he felt the bruises on his back and face. As he gingerly worried a bruisr on his cheek, he began taking stock of the situation. He was in the woods, alone. He didn't recognize the place.

"I'm wasting time here. I need to get back to Twilight Town," Riku muttered to himself. He held his hand up to summon a dark corridor, when he saw something in the corner of his eyes. Riku snapped around, summoning his keyblade, Way to the Dawn. A Neoshadow was standing there, looking at him. Riku grimaced.

"Heartless?" he asked aloud. As if they heard him, several Neoshadows appeared out of nowhere to aid their comrade. Me and my big mouth, he thought. Riku readied himself to conter the first strike they made. He watched them warily. Then, all of them stopped. They froze for a moment, before disappearing. Riku slowly put down his weapon. What was that? The Heartless had never done that before. Someone was commanding them. The silver haired teen banished his weapon before looking around. He had to get his bearings, find out exactly where it is he was and where he should be going. He couldn't exactly leave to find Sora now that he had discovered there were still Heartless around. It was his duty as a key bearer.

"Sorry, Sora," he said out loud. Maybe Sora could hear him, somehow, wherever he was. Riku scanned for a tree to easily climb. He needed to get up high.

Sora got up and looked outside the window. The sky was downcast, giving the city skyline a depressing feel to it. The rest of team RWBY were lounging around in various positions amongst the room. Sora crossed his arms. With no lead to go on, they pretty much had nothing they could do. Sora walked away from the window and paced the room. He uncrossed his arms when he felt something with his right hand. He held it out, curious at what was causing the strange feeling. Suddenly, Oathkeeper materialized in his hand, seemingly of its own volition. Sora leapt back a bit and yelped. The others in the room looked at him, curious.

"What's wrong, Sora?" Ruby lept down from her bed.

"I don't kno- ulp!" Sora was interrupted as his keyblade tugged on his arm. It was like a magnet, attracting to its opposite. He gave an 'oh' when he realized that it was detecting Heartless. Then he gave another 'oh' as he realized that meant there were Heartless in Beacon. Sora turned to the rest.

"Heartless!" he exclaimed, before running out the door, letting the keyblade guide him. The others were hot on his trail. It looked like things were about to get interesting at Beacon.

From his perch, Riku could see the whole forest. He scouted the place, looking for any signs of civilisation. He looked East and saw what looked like a city, a huge tower acting like a beacon. And at the edge of the forest, there was a huge mass of black headed towards it. Heartless. Riku furrowed his brow before climbing down and sprinting towards it. It was going to be a long day.

"Sora, wait! Where are you going?" Ruby shouted after the chocolate haired boy, who was running like a bat out of hell. He offered no explanation other then 'Heartless!'. Ruby gave a little grunt as she saw that they were nearing the entrance to the Emerald Forest. The one filled with all kinds of Grimm. Sora brushed past a student as he ran, knocking him over. Sora continued on. Ruby leapt over the poor guy, no time for apologies. She heard Yang behind her shout,

"Sorry, Church!"

As they reached the edge of the forest, it became apparent why Spra was in such a rush. There was just a horde of Heartless in there. They looked like slightly bigger versions of the ones they had fought by the cliffside. Sora stopped at the edge of forest and give a tiny 'woah'. Ruby came to a halt beside him and withdrew Crescent Rose.

"We got this, Sora," she said to him. Sora nodded and poised in his battle stance. Everyone took positions flanking the two of them, weapons ready.

"This is gonna be fuuun~" Yang sing-songed, reloading her gauntlets. While she didn't share her sister's excitable attitude about fighting, Ruby had to agree with her a little bit. Sora looked to his companions, searching their expressions. All of them looked determined, ready to fight.

"We're with you hundred percent, Sora," Ruby caught his gaze and nodded at him. Sora smiled at her.

"Alright then. Let's do this!" he took off sprinting towards the giant mob. All four girls followed suite. Sora stabbed the first Heartless he came into contact with. He followed up with a series of vicious strikes to whichever unlucky Neoshadow was next. He slashed and striked at any opponent, looking like a blur of black and white from the outside looking in.

Ruby shot and slashed in all directions. The Heartless were strictly quantity over quality. They were mindless drones, zombies, whose only objective was to consume hearts. She cleaved through the hordes easily, using her momentum to swing the huge scythe around. Rose petals littered the battlefield as she fought.

Riku could hear signs of fighting. Gunshots came from the direction of the Heartless, spurring him on. As Riku came up behind the huge horde of Heartless, took a running leap, before diving into the fray, slashing several Heartless as he did so. He fought the monsters with ease, combining the power of darkness with his strikes to decimate anything his keyblade came into contact. He took little notice of the others in the field, his own fight taking priority in his mind.

Sora wasn't sure what triggered it. Maybe it was the adrenalin of the fight, but somehow he had summoned a second keyblade. Oblivion, Oathkeeper's sister weapon was wielded in Sora's left hand. He wasn't quite sure why, but something about the fight was... familiar. He felt a twinge of sadness in his heart all of a sudden. Sora felt confused at the sudden outburst of emotion inside of him. All of it morphed into rage, which spurred him to fight on even harder. Deep in the reccesses of his mind, he thought, felt, the word Roxas. He didn't pay much attention to it, the fight instead taking precedence. There would be time for explanations later.

Riku felt the herd thinning as less and less Heartless leapt at him. He cut down one in front of him and snapped left to lunge at another. All he found, however, was empty air. He did a full revolution, confirming the absence of Heartless. Riku guessed that whoever was commanding them ordered a retreat. He relaxed himself a bit and banished his keyblade. With no more Heartless left to fight, Riku had time to think. He looked around at the other fighters. There were four girls, all about his age, sheathing their various weapons. Riku paused for a moment when he saw a fifth. It couldn't be...

"Sora!" he yelled out. The teen clad in black perked up at the sound of his name. He looked around, gaze fibally landing on Riku.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, overjoyed to see his friend. He took off running towards the silver haired teen. The others looked at the two.

"What are you doing- How did you even get here, man?!" Sora threw a friendly punch at the older teen's shoulder. Riku grinned at the brown-haired teen.

"I should be asking you the same thing, Sora. I went to Twilight Town looking for you, I found this, and the next thing I know I end up here," Riku shrugged, one hand on his hip, the other brandishing the star shard. He looked over Sora's shoulder and saw the four other girls looking at them both.

"What's going on?" the girl clad in a red cloak asked. Sora turned to face the four.

"Guys, this is Riku," he gestured towards his friend. Ruby looked incredulously at Sora.

"'The' Riku? The same guy you told us about? Consumed by darkness and all that?" she crossed her arms and leaned on one foot.

Riku rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly at her comment. Sora shrugged and nodded. He turned to face Riku.

"Riku, these are my friends. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang. They're team RWBY," Sora gave another shrug a the team name. Riku nodded his head in understanding. An acronym of their names.

"Well well well. If it ain't you guys!" a voice came from nowhere. It sounded strangely familiar to Sora and Riku. They were positive they had heard the voice before. The group looked around, searching for the source of the voice. A figure finally materialized from darkness in front of the group.

"You!" Yang exclaimed at the hooded figure.

"Me. Hey, gang! Playing hero again, are we?" Braig lowered his hood to reveal his face. Sora and Riku gasped. They clearly did not expect this. Sora summoned his keyblade.

"Xigbar? I-I defeated you!" he exclaimed, confused.

"You don't need to be so proud about it... Ven?" Braig tapped the side of his head.

"No, wait. Sora," he snapped his finger and pointed at Sora.

"Could never keep track of you squirts," Braig shrugged.

"You better start talking sense fast, Xigbar," Riku brandished his keyblade alongside Sora.

"First of all, it's Braig now. Secondly... can't an old friend just drop by to say hi? I just wanted to congratulate you on your spectacular performance just now. Seriously, bravo!" Braig gave a humourless chuckle. Sora got visibly annoyed at him.

"We want answers, Braig! Who's controlling the Heartless? What are you planning to do?!" Braig gave another chuckle, now of genuine mirth.

"No wonder I can't keep track of you juniors. All of you have the same facial expression!" he snorted. He recovered from his laughing fit before smiling at the whole group. He looked at an imaginary watch on his wrist and feigned surprise.

"Well, look at the time! Excuse me, will ya, I got places to be," he casually waved a hand behind him and summoned a dark corridor. Yang had had enough of his cryptic talk. The guy pissed her off. She activated her gauntlets and shot a shell at Braig as he turned around. The shot didn't connect, instead deflected off by some type of force field.

"Nice try, Blondie. You kids play nice now!" he dissapeared into the darkness, which promptly dissapeared as well. Sora banished his keyblade and scratched his head.

"What was that all about? Guy's a nutcase," Sora shrugged. Riku turned to look at his friend.

"Something big's going on. We have to get to the bottom of this," he crossed his arms.

"Yeah, well. We got nothin'," Sora gestured towards himself and RWBY. Riku shook his head.

"We gotta alert the King," he replied. Sora nodded in agreement.

"But how're we gonna do that?"

Riku raised his hand to summon a dark corridor. Nothing happened. He looked at his palm, puzzled. He tried again, concentrating. Nothing again.

"I-I can't..." Riku stammered. He had gotten used to being able to do it, free to go anywhere.

"Something's intefering with it..." Riku mused. Yang had enough confusion.

"Okay, I'm not the only one feeling a little confused right?" she turned to her companions. All of them nodded in agreement.

"I admit I am quite curious about this," Blake offered.

"Care to fill us in, guys?" Ruby crossed her arms. Sora sighed and turned to Riku pleadingly. He shook his head.

"But you know the whole story! You still haven't told me everything that happened while I was asleep!" Sora said to his friend, exasperated. Riku pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Alright, fine."

AN: I'm playing through KH2 again, just because. I forgot how much of a drag Port Royale is. God. That's all I have to say.