AN: Hey everybody! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter of the story. I'm happy that everyone thinks I'm not over-maturing Sora. I mean, half of his charm as a character is how he stays as open hearted as a child, but at the same time he's probably still growing up.

For this chapter, there's not really an official height for Sora. Given how he looks only a few inches shorter than Goofy in some of the promo stuff for KH3 and given this takes place another few months after that 'ends,' I'd say he's probably around 5' 10'', a conservative estimate, to 6' even, if we're being generous. Goofy's usually around 6' 3'' in the casting calls for Disney Parks, so Sora looking around half a foot shorter would put him around that height with another small growth spurt.

To gamelover41592: Qrow didn't pick up the call. I pictured in my head that he saw the call was from Taiyang and just kind of... put the Scroll down as quickly and quietly as possible. He knew what it was about, and he didn't feel like getting screamed at and threatened by his former team mate who probably knows some of his deepest fears.

To Keyslinger Roxas: Yes, the Keyblade's glow is a harbinger of things to come, and not just for how Sora will understand and decide upon his own feelings for Ruby and Kairi.

On a 'tangent,' does anyone else think it's weird that a Keyblade does things only someone with a Heart can do? It can form connections with the Hearts of people and Worlds, choose those it deems worthy as wielders, and even seems to have a mind of its own during a fight. Huh, weird.

Chapter 12: Dual Duels

Sora yawned deeply as he sat up, rubbing his face absently with his empty hand. He groaned as the basket of the Keyblade clanked against his forehead, and he quickly dismissed the weapon. He scratched cheek and yawned again, only half remembering everything he'd thought about the night before. He remembered, mainly, that it was important. Other than that? Well, even since becoming a Keyblade wielder Sora had a reputation for being more than a little absent minded. He shrugged. If it was important, he'd remember it eventually. "Sora! Sora! Where are you!?" a familiar voice called.

The Keyblade wielder yawned again and forced himself to his feet. "Up here!" he shouted, walking to the edge of the roof and grabbing the edge. He moved to dangle over the ledge, then let go and dropped, falling until he grabbed hold of the window ledge for the dorm he shared with Ruby and Jaune the night before. Nora had refused to leave Ren's side at all, electing to stay with him until he finally woke up. Ren had healed well so far, but it wasn't finished yet; there was still no telling when he'd wake up. His Aura had yet to even recover to a normal level. "What's up, Ruby?" Sora asked as he vaulted through the window, a smile plastered to his face.

Ruby was dressed in pajamas still, her pants white and adorned in her trademark flowers. Her black tank top had a heart with sharp, wolf like teeth and red eyes. On top of her head was a night mask with glowing red eyes. "Did you sleep outside?" Ruby asked, wishing she'd done the same. She blushed and admonished herself – Not like that. Then she placed one hand on her hip and shook her head to clear it. "Did you sleep in your clothes?"

Sora looked down and gripped his vest between his thumb and forefinger. "Um... I guess so," he responded, grinning sheepishly at the girl. He looked over at the source of a sudden snore. "Is Jaune still asleep?"

"Well, yeah. It's still pretty early," Ruby explained. She gestured in the general direction of up. "Today's matches don't even begin for another couple hours."

"Oh. Well, um... Wanna get some breakfast?" Sora asked, gesturing out the window.

Ruby smiled. "Sounds great! Just let me take a shower," she replied excitedly. She hoped that some time alone would give her an opportunity to maybe ask the Keyblade wielder to go to the dance together.

Sora shot her a thumbs up. "Awesome," he replied, grinning widely and shutting his eyes. "I'll wake up Jaune and call Qrow!"

"Oh. Right. Yeah," Ruby muttered, smiling half heartedly. "Great – you do that. Then you should probably take a shower. You reek."

Sora frowned and sniffed the inside of his sweatshirt. He cringed as Ruby walked away, his face twitching at the stench. He hadn't cleaned up since before his battle in the Collosseum the day before. "Good thing I have an extra thing of clothes," he muttered to himself as he walked over to Jaune's bed.

About an hour later, they were all sitting together eating. The four warriors knew it didn't feel the same without Ren and Nora, but they'd already boxed up some food for both of them. They hoped Nora's perhaps unhealthy fixation on pancakes would do her some good in getting a smile back on her face. But they weren't only there to enjoy themselves. The group had some business to talk about, too. "Fine. So, they sent over the teams that they put you three in. Aride's been a friend ever since I saved her kid's ass a couple years back; she CC'd me on all your info," Qrow explained, pulling out his Scroll after Ruby admonished him for shamelessly flirting with the waitress right then and there. He swiped the screen a few times, entering a message from the school's Headmaster. "Jaune and Ruby'll be team one. Should be smooth sailing, given how you two did in your fights yesterday." Then he looked over at Sora. "And you're going to be alone."

"Are you worried?" Sora asked. He cocked his head to the side and smiled at the Huntsman. "Oh, you care!"

"Shut up," Qrow growled at the young man, who had gotten laughs from his friends. "But, given how you fought yesterday, I have a right to be. You fight like that again, I doubt you'll win a two on one fight."

"I was being cautious," Sora explained as he raised his hands defensively. "Usually I'd be all for just laying in to him, but we need to find out what Xehanort and his lackeys have planned here, right? Better if he doesn't know we're on to him."

Qrow blinked once. "That's... a good reason, actually," he muttered. He stared more intently at Sora. "Have... have you gotten smarter since our fight?"

Sora grinned at the compliment. "Oh. Never mind," Qrow muttered, shaking his both his head and his hand side to side. "Must have been a one time thing."

Sora nodded, then stopped. "Hey!" he shouted as his smile disappeared. Qrow laughed at the Keyblade wielder for a short while, even earning some chuckles from the kids. Finally, he stopped and shrugged an apology at Sora. Sora just sighed. "Is there anything else we need to know?"

"Well, just a vague worry, really," Qrow said, frowning as he did. He slouched in his chair and stared at his whiskey infused coffee. "They didn't release any of the Grimm they have stored here yesterday. Not a single one. Which, okay, sure. It wouldn't have been too fun to see two kids take out a bunch of weak Grimm. I may just be worrying about nothing. Maybe they'll let some of the Grimm loose today. But if they don't... it means I think I know what they're going to do."

"What?" Ruby asked her uncle, slightly scared by the fear on his face.

He shook his head, as if waking himself up, and his smirk returned. "Ah, nothing you need to worry about, Kiddo," he said, reaching out and ruffling the young Huntress's hair. "At least not yet. If it comes down to it, I'll tell you guys tonight. 'Sides, the food's here. Let's talk about something a little less dark, huh?"

"How about this voicemail from Dad?" Ruby asked, pointing down at the Scroll as the waitress left, shooting Qrow a flirty smile as she went. He waved goodbye and grinned at her as she did. Ruby sighed and just pressed the notification; the screen flashed for a moment.

"Oh, this can't be good," Qrow muttered, already covering his face as he saw what Ruby had done. He slid slowly down in his chair and pulled his cape over his head. "Ruby, why did you do this in publ-"

"First unheard message:"

"DAMMIT, QROW! You said you didn't know where she was you Dust blasted, drunk... bastard!" screamed an incredibly angry, fiery voice. The entire restaurant turned slowly to look right at the Huntsman, who was busy trying to find a way to disappear. "And don't you dare try to pass it off as 'When I said that, I meant I didn't know right then!' Qrow, I am going to personally murder you! I will flay you! I will... I will buy all of the things I need to go bird hunting, and then me and Zwei? We will hunt together. Now, I know Ruby's probably listening to this, so you better take this off speaker phone before I get really graphic with my threats!"

Qrow's hand shot out and pulled the Scroll to his ear, obliging his old team mate by turning off the speakerphone function. He flinched every few moments, the grimace on his face growing. At one point, he threw his hand over his mouth and looked like he was about to throw up. Sora grimaced sympathetically. "I guess I know why he told me not to piss off your dad," he muttered to Ruby before tearing into his food.

"Well, I think I know which parent Yang takes after," Jaune whispered to her from the other side of the table. He moved to eat, but stopped and shook his head as he watched Sora eat. "And just like that, I'm going to wait a few minutes to eat. Dust, I thought Nora was bad."

Qrow, meanwhile, was growing steadily more terrified. Finally, he removed the Scroll from his ear and activated the speaker phone function again. "Okay, now that I've made my threats that... ugh, Qrow will inevitably ignore because he doesn't want to face up to responsibility... well, he better have turned the speaker phone back on so I can say hello to my little girl! Ruby, sweetie, I hope you're doing okay. Brushing your teeth every night and morning, right? Dental hygiene is really important to anyone's physical health, and a nice smile makes you more confident. And you're staying away from any boys, right? Remember, we agreed no dating unless he's afraid of you. That's why Yang was allowed to date at Signal."

Ruby blushed and buried her face in her hands. "Dad!" she squeaked angrily.

"And, since I know that you are going to make it to the end of this tournament, there's no reason to tell you to come home. You're too much like your mother to leave something like that unfinished," Tai said with a heavy sigh. Sora could practically hear the man shaking his head in defeat. "So I guess that the only thing I can say is good luck. You show them what a Beacon graduate can do!"

"Second unheard message:"

"Qrow, why the hell did I hear Yang humming to herself about Ruby having a boyfriend!?"

At that, Ruby flailed for a moment, smacking the Scroll from the table. It clattered against the floor and died. "Really?" Qrow dryly asked his niece as he picked up the broken piece of tech.

"Wha appenped?" Sora asked. The oblivious Keyblade wielder looked up from his plate with a mouth completely full of food.

Jaune sighed sadly and pushed his plate away from him. "I'm going to need a to go box," he told the waitress who had walked over to their table to ask them to turn off the Scroll. He shot a glare at Sora. "I've completely lost my appetite." Sora ignored him, somehow stuffing more food into his mouth.

"Don't worry. I understand," the waitress told the knight, staring in both awe and disgust at Sora's style of eating. "Dust, do I ever understand."

R W B Y

Sora shouldered the Kingdom Key as he stood at the center of the arena, directly across from a pair of warriors from Ruby's school. One was a young woman in a cocoa colored sweater-shirt that ruffled around her throat and black pants embroidered with gold. She had a brown-black cinch around her waist and a matching scarf tied around her neck above a collection of beaded necklaces. Her belt was the same color as her shirt, with a large, gun-sight shaped buckle hanging low on her fight hip. The belt itself was adorned with a collection of golden brown bullets. From the belt hung a black skirtlet. Matching her belt was the strap of a purse hanging from her shoulder. On her face was a pair of pure black sunglasses and a beret overr her brown hair, one long collection of strands slowly turning to an orange-like caramel brown. She looked to be just a bit taller than Sora in her black heels.

The other girl was a Faunus, with a pair of long, brown and pink rabbit ears growing from the top of her similarly colored hair, which reached down to below her waist. She was wearing a crop length brown jacket with stone-like golden armor on her upper arms and forearms. Beneath that was a black shirt. Her belt that hung off kilter on her waist was similar to the golden armor on her arms. Beneath that was a pair of what looked to be brown jeans covered by black and gold combat leggings topped with the same armor as above. On the small of her back was a large, black and gold tool box. She was a lot shorter than her partner.

The taller girl pushed the top of her glasses down and stared over the rims at Sora with a huge smirk. "Well, hello there," she said, grinning flirtatiously at the Keyblade wielder. "You busy after this?"

"Coco, maybe later would be better?" the Faunus girl suggested, crossing her arms nervously. "Besides, look at Ruby." The girl gestured at the red clad huntress in the stands, causing all three in the arena to look over at her. She was glaring directly at Coco.

The taller girl laughed once and flicked her glasses back into place. "Well, that's too bad," she told Sora. She shot him another grin and Sora chuckled uncomfortably. "But, I'm not suicidal. Yang would... well, Yang if I tried that."

Sora glanced between the two. They didn't make for the most conventional friends, but he knew from personal experience that was a good thing sometimes. "Hi, I'm Sora," he said, deciding to put off wondering what the girls had been talking about for the moment. He waved and grinned at them.

"Coco Adel," the taller girl replied. She smiled while examining the young man. "Your style is pretty interesting, Sora."

Sora blinked as a camera flash half blinded him. "Sorry!" the Faunus girl exclaimed, causing Sora to look over at her sheepish, nervous smile. She was holding up a camera that she hurriedly placed back into her toolbox. "Just getting ready for the fight. What type of weapon is that – oh, and I'm Velvet."

"Ruby's told me about you guys," Sora assured the two Huntresses. "Team CFVY, right?"

"The one and only," Coco stated simply, raising her hands to either side. "And, unfortunately for Ruby, the end of the road for you."

"You're that good?" Sora asked, smiling at the two. "Well, still: good luck. I'll try not to hurt you guys, but I sometimes don't know my own strength."

"Funny," Coco said, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at Sora above the rims of her glasses again, unamused. "I was actually about to say the same thing, Kid. Because, unless I'm not paying attention, there's two third year Beacon students on this side of the arena, and one second year apprentice on your side."

Sora shrugged, the Keyblade bobbing up and down with the move as the arena's terrain machines decided on the battle's surroundings. The barrier containing the center of the arena flashed and disappeared, another one appearing to surround the innermost half of the arena. There was a slight whir and the land surrounding Sora, Coco, and Velvet shook to reveal a desert covered in large boulders on one side and a city scape on the other with a group of shorter buildings surrounding a single, ten story building. "Wow," Sora exclaimed as he looked around at the sudden change. "I mean, I heard about this stuff from Ruby, but that doesn't make it any less crazy! They built a city just for us to destroy in a fight? Awesome!"

"Well, you're certainly enthusiastic," Coco said as she gripped the top of her purse. "I bet we'll give you an A for effort." She flicked her wrist and Sora laughed as a large minigun erupted from the body of the purse. "Did he just... laugh? You know, usually that's not the response I get. Let me try again." Coco deactivated her weapon. "I'll give you an A for effort!" she shouted, whipping out the weapon again. Sora just grinned at her and shot her a thumbs up. Coco's head fell slightly. "Great. He's crazier than Ruby and Nora."

"I guess I can see where you'd think that," Sora said, scratching the back of his head. He looked up at the clear sky and smiled before returning his gaze to Coco and Velvet. "Like I said: good luck!"

In the stands, Qrow sighed. "They don't stand a chance, do they?"

"Nope. Ren told us Sora took missiles to the face last week and just smiled," Ruby said, shaking her head, sympathetic to the loss her school mates and friends were about to receive.

"Fighters... Begin!"

Sora raised his Keyblade defensively as a barrage of golden brown bullets suddenly flew right at him, the attack tearing apart the faces of some of the boulders that stood behind him. He, meanwhile, was keeping a close eye on the bullets, making sure to only deflect the ones that were coming too close. "He's damn fast," Coco muttered as Sora blocked another bullet and began to step towards her. The Huntress growled to herself. "Velvet, now!"

"Right!" Velvet responded, reaching into her pack.

Sora looked over, eyebrow raised, as Velvet ran to a stop a short distance from him. She widened her stance and Sora's eyes bulged as a series of white-blue lines erupted into being around her hands, forming a minigun identical to the one in Coco's hands. Sora groaned as another huge flurry of bullets flew towards him, intersecting with the first at a right angle in the exact place where he stood. He flipped backwards through the air, landing and deflecting the bullets to try and escape. Velvet ran the length of his jump before he landed, however, and he was stuck trying to block two streams of bullets. "I guess they don't need luck," Sora said happily as he dodge rolled at an angle, out of both stream's paths.

He rolled to his feet and sprinted towards Coco before her fire could turn to him. He raised the Keyblade and slashed at her, only for his attack to be blocked by her bag, reformed from its gun mode. She rolled around his blow and Sora grunted as her leg snapped into his midsection then she spun around him again and delivered a drop kick to his chest, sending him flying into one of the boulders.

Sora sighed and dusted his shoulders off. "Fun! I guess I should start trying, too," he said, readying his Keyblade at his side and grinning at the two girls again. Coco growled and readied her gun again, unleashing a huge stream of shots that dragged across the ground and sent dust billowing up around Sora before the stream hit him. She roared as she continued to fire the gun, until she heard the sound of stone cracking.

"Nice try," Sora said from the other side of the desert. Coco turned and gasped as a flash of light traveled through the stone. A moment later, the stone was flying towards her, spinning and splitting so that its two halves flew towards both the girls. Coco leveled her gun at the stone and, with another few seconds of shots, demolished the stone that flew towards her. Velvet, meanwhile, just agilely jumped over the one rushing towards her. However, Sora appeared next to her while she was midair and brought his Keyblade around. The weapon crashed into the surprised Faunus' side and she was sent flying directly into Coco.

Sora ran past the two girls and towards the buildings. "Oh, no you don't!" Coco snapped as she pushed herself to her feet. "Again, Velvet!" She fired her gun again, the bullets landing just behind Sora's heels as he ran. Velvet did the same a moment later after reforming her copy.

Sora continued sprinting towards the buildings, eventually jumping up and running straight up the tallest one's side. "How is he doing that!?" Coco shouted as she continued firing. She growled and shook her head a moment later. "Aim above him, we'll catch him in the middle."

"Right," Velvet noted, swinging the gun up, then down.

"Wow, you guys are getting close!" Sora shouted as the streams converged. He raised his Keyblade. "Reflect!" A white sphere erupted into being around him, sending the bullets flying back at the two young women standing side by side.

Coco's eyes widened and she raised her weapon defensively. None of the bullets hit, however. She lowered her weapon to see her team mate standing before her with a copy of Jaune's shield and a copy of Pyrrha's shield above that one, the two having formed a wall to block all the projectiles. "Where is he?" Velvet asked as she lowered the outlines and looked up at the building. The shields disappeared from her wrists.

There was another flash like the one that had cut through the boulder, except this time it went diagonally through the very center of the tallest building. It began to slide sideways a moment later, only to be launched towards the two young women. "AGH!" Coco shouted, her usual confidence gone. Velvet stood before her, shaking her hands manically. "Make his weapon! MAKE HIS WEAPON!"

"I'm trying!" the Faunus girl shouted back. "It won't -" She was cut off as the building slammed into the two. There was a huge clamor, the sounds of shattering glass and breaking steel blending together in a cacophony of destruction as the wreckage dragged across the ground.

Sora followed the building a moment later, Keyblade raised before him. "Gather!" he shouted. The rubble began to shudder on the ground and slowly rise, eliciting a huge gasp from the crowd. Sora sprinted under it, disappearing in the cloud of dust that had risen from the crash site. A moment later, from the other side of the impact sight, he came out with both girls over his shoulders. As he cleared the wreckage, the buildings slowly stopped rising, then slammed into the ground. The dust shockwave caught Sora, obscuring him from view once again. There was a pair of buzzes as the dust cleared to reveal Sora grinning next to the dazed, defeated members of Team CFVY. "That was a pretty good fight. You almost had me there for a second," Sora told them as they recovered. He raised his Keyblade above him, causing the crowd to gasp, worried he'd attack them like Nora had attacked Agni. "Heal." There was a soft chiming and the wounds disappeared from the two girls bodies and their Aura levels on the jumbotron suddenly rocketed up to full. The crowd let loose a collective grunt of confusion at Sora's actions, their fear gone. They began to laugh, a few of them even cheering at his actions. "We should do it again!"

R W B Y

"Okay. Well, for any future plans, I'm never trying to fight that guy," Mercury told Cinder, pointing directly at Sora as he did. The young Keyblade wielder was busy helping the cleanup crew move the remains of the building out of the way with his magic so the next fight could begin. He didn't even look like he'd just been in a fight with two of the top third years in Beacon Academy. More like he'd taken a brisk, ten minute walk, actually.

"For once, I agree with Merc," Emerald muttered as she stared down at the unassuming grin that hid Sora's terrifying level of strength. "I don't think anything we've learned would stand up to that... no offense to your teaching."

"None taken," Xehanort said with a shrug. "In all honesty, I am of a mind with you. Sora is far too strong for any of you to fight in a two on one battle, let alone one on one."

"You sound worried, old man," Cinder said, a mocking smile on her face as she glanced at Xehanort out of the corner of her eyes. He turned his angry gaze on the young woman, but she merely shot a small, defiant smile back at him and returned her eyes back on Sora. Her face was having trouble conforming to its usual feigned disinterest as she stared at the boy. She hadn't been lying – Xehanort did sound scared right then. And that intrigued Cinder more than anything else she had seen in the past two days, which meant Sora could be quite the useful tool in the near future.

Cinder was no fool. Xehanort was the kind of person who would just as easily betray her as he would teach her. As soon as he decided that Cinder's usefulness was at an end, regardless of whether Salem protested, he would place Cinder in the position of either defeating an enemy much stronger than he believed her to be or dying at that enemy's hands. She understood. It was exactly what she would do after all, and likely would have if Roman hadn't died like a fool at the hands of a Grimm. Well, one less loose end to tie up, she supposed. She shivered inwardly – she hoped those words were never uttered about her.

Cinder looked up as there was a massive crash; Sora had finished cleaning the arena. She turned her gaze up even further, watching as the screen began to flash as the next fight was chosen. Emerald and Mercury in their disguises came up on the left side of the screen first. That was followed a moment later by a pair of students from Haven Academy – one Sage Ayana and another Scarlet David.

"Amethyst," Cinder said, turning to the Emerald and using her false name. "After you and Agni win your fight, please check in on our guest. I don't believe he has been fed since we... hosted him yesterday morning."

"Of course," Emerald said, bowing her head deferentially to her leader.

"Could you please at least try to be more of a kiss ass when you talk?" Mercury whispered to Emerald with a smirk. "I don't think your nose is quite brown enough."

"I'll give you a black eye if you don't shut up," Emerald hissed at her partner. Mercury just snapped his teeth together and growled flirtatiously. That earned him the black eye he'd been promised when Emerald's fist slammed into his face.

"Ow..." he groaned, rubbing his face. "You better make that disappear!"

"Maybe. Maybe not," she said as she stood up and walked to go and get her weapons.

He grinned as she passed him, his eyes following her. He glanced over at Xehanort who scoffed and shook his head. "Wow," Mercury muttered, jumping to his feet to follow Emerald.

R W B Y

"So you think those guys work for Cinder Fall?" Sun asked as Scarlet and Sage limped out of the arena. He grimaced as his eyes followed them – their loss had been brutal. "Well... it does my bruised pride some good, I guess." He looked over at Sora, Ruby, and Jaune, who were sitting with him and Neptune in the crowd during Sage and Scarlet's fight. "I knew Scarlet and Sage were better than that! And Ren. How is he?"

"Uncle Qrow's checking on him," Ruby explained, frowning down at Agni, who was taking in the applause of the crowd like a champion. Nora attacking him had made him a hero of the people, and he appeared to love the applause that accompanied his every attack. "Nora hasn't left his side, even when the Huntsmen tried to cart her off for detention."

"She punched through the cell's wall and went on the run for a few hours," Jaune explained to the Haven students.

"Wait. Those crashes were her?" Neptune asked, eyes and mouth wide. "Ren's a brave man. Or stupid. Or in love. I'm not quite sure which."

"The last," Jaune, Sora, and Ruby chorused. They glanced between each other and laughed again, high fiving one another gleefully.

They eventually stopped laughing. "Well, if there's one good thing to come of this, it really looks like Nora is going to have to confront her feelings for him," Ruby explained, smiling at the sky, shaking her head, and chuckling.

Jaune looked over at her, where she was sitting next to Sora. Their hands weren't even inches apart on the bench and they were grinning and laughing with one another. "So! What's everyone thinking of doing for the dance!?" Jaune inquired loudly, causing both Ruby and Sora to fall backwards and slam into the ground, hands to the sky.

"Nice," Neptune told the knight, patting his shoulder while laughing at the two younger warriors.

"Th-the dance?" Sora asked, suddenly remembering his conversation with Qrow the day before and his wondering to the Keyblade and his own Heart the night before. He gulped nervously as he pushed himself back up to a sitting position. "I-er..."

"Cutting off his toes."

"Great, now I'm hearing Qrow in my head," Sora muttered. He worriedly put a hand against his forehead.

"No, I was just saying what I'm going to do when I get my hands on that Agni kid," Qrow explained from behind Sora. The Keyblade wielder held in a shriek as he turned around to see Qrow's evil grin locked on him. He pulled out his scroll as he continued snickering at Sora's expense. His face palled after a moment as he opened his scroll – he apparently carried a second one for 'work emergencies.' "Your, uh, your hunch was pretty close. Hell, wait till you hear this recording. I nearly -"

"It looks like the next fight has been chosen! Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc of Vale versus Fade and Lalanje Hallows of Atlas!"

Qrow sighed at that and pocketed his scroll with an exaggerated groan. "Well, nothing's going to happen today, and I'd rather we do this together and when we have the time," he stated, gesturing at the arena. He looked over at Sun and Neptune who began to glance between one another and Qrow as the older man sized them up. "And you two are already in too deep. Drop by the medical station tonight at six-ish. No, make that five. A meeting will help me cut back on the alcohol."

"You really are trying to quit!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Not right now, Kiddo," he told Ruby, ruffling her hair. He pulled out a flask and took a deep drink from it. He brought it down and tightened the top. "For now, you've got a fight to win."

Ruby groaned. "Ugh, fine," she muttered standing up. She cast a look at Sora. "Um... let's talk later."

"Sure," Sora said with an unassuming smile. He laced his fingers behind his head and grinned as wide as he could. "Good luck, Ruby! Jaune!"

The two Huntsmen smiled back at the Keyblade wielder and went to go collect their weapons from the lockers in which they had stored them. "What do you think your uncle meant about Sora's hunch being 'close?'" Jaune asked Ruby as they entered the locker room and began to punch in their codes. Ruby's locker slid open first and she pulled out Crescent Rose, buckling it to her belt. Jaune grabbed Crocea Mors a moment later.

"Who knows?" Ruby asked with a shrug. "At this point, I'm not sure if anything about those guys would surprise me."

"Yeah," Jaune agreed, leading to the arena entrance. He frowned as they neared the wide open road of stone and dust. "Ruby... these people hurt Ren a lot. When we see them tomorrow, I don't know if I'm going to be... I don't want to lose anyone else."

"I know the feeling," Ruby said, placing her hand on the knight's shoulder. "Believe me. Losing people doesn't get easier, and it doesn't hurt less over time. You just get stronger. And Jaune, you're a strong guy, so I know you'll be okay. Worry about this fight today, and we'll save the world tomorrow. We're Huntsmen, after all! We'll live up to the task." She slapped his back and walked into the arena.

Jaune smiled after her. "Thanks," he said before following her.

When Jaune and Ruby entered the arena, their opponents were already waiting for them. Both were young women, who definitely looked like sisters. One was dressed in an outfit that – much as her name would suggest – faded to black. The top of her leather jacket was white, turning to grey at the bottom, a color that continued at the top of her jeans that slowly darkened until they matched the black boots into which they were tucked. Her hair was a glistening white and her eyes a dark brown; her face was serious. The other was about the same height as her sister, dressed in different shades of orange. She wore a buttoned up vest as her shirt that was a brown like orange with a pair of caramel colored leatherized jeans. She wore open toed, orange sandals. Her hair was a fiery orange and her face was covered with a bright smile. On her right wrist and hand was a dull orange vambrace and glove that glowed with Dust. Her eyes matched those of her sister, though they seemed brighter. "You're the one who defeated Asmini," Fade said, narrowing her eyes on Ruby.

"That would be me," Ruby admitted, grinning and scratching the back of her head. "Why? Are you guys friends?"

Fade and Laranje glanced at each other and grimaced, the expression making them look like mirror images. "Hardly," Fade said, an annoyed look on her face. Her gaze fell and she sighed. Her voice came out exasperatedly. "He's our team mate."

"Oh... um... too bad," Ruby responded as she drew Crescent Rose and placed it over her shoulder. Jaune followed suit and drew his sword and shield.

"Wow! A scythe!" Laranje shouted excitedly. "I love rare weapons like that. They're so cool!"

"Calm down, Sister," Fade said, reaching to the small of her back and pulling out two small disks. She swung them out to her sides, causing three blades to spring out from both in a circular shape.

"Oooh! Glaives!" Ruby said, dropping her weapon to her side. "I don't think I've ever seen someone use one in real life before! That's so cool! Good weapon!"

"Right, they're pretty cool!" Laranje said. She threw her arms about. "They're all like 'whoosh., slash!'"

"I didn't know there was someone out there who loved weapons as much as me!" Ruby shouted, excitedly jumping from side to side.

"Me neither!" Laranje responded, squealing happily.

"There's two?" Fade asked Jaune as she readied her weapons before her.

"Apparently," the knight responded as he raised his shield in front of him and his sword above it.

"Wait till you see my weapon," Laranje said, raising her bracer in front of her. Ruby noticed that the bottom had four containers of Dust on it – fire, electricity, ice, and stone. Laranje smiled. "It's not really a 'show and tell' type thing, but it's fun in a fight!" Then she reached onto her left hip and pulled out a single, bright orange pistol. "And it pays to be prepared, too."

The terrain randomizer finished its selections – behind Jaune and Ruby popped up a wheat field. Behind the Atlesians was a field of steam geysers and lava. "Into the field?" Jaune whispered.

"M-hm," Ruby agreed as she narrowed her eyes on their opponents. She had no clue which one was the more dangerous one, but she was sure she and Jaune could take them. But, still, better to start from somewhere they could launch a quick surprise attack to get things started.

"Fighters... Begin!"

R W B Y

In the seediest corner of Vale's poorest district, there was a bar that looked a little seedy even for where it was. Situated between a pawn shop that was really a fence and a boxing gym that was really the site of an underground gambling ring for street fights, this bar was smack in the middle of an area of the Kingdom where almost everyone was a Faunus or a criminal. A lot of the time, both. The patrons of that bar were no exception, and even Blake Belladonna alone in her booth was willing to admit that. The young cat Faunus sighed to herself as one of Weiss' favorite terms ran through her mind – "Ruffians," Blake muttered to herself, shaking her head in disappointment.

Blake looked over the top edge of her book – yellow eyes catching sight of two angry looking Faunus boys whispering to each other about the White Fang being their heroes. Usually, Blake would be worming her way into the conversation; since the Beacon Incident she had been trying to figure out Adam's motivations for helping Cinder or his next target. She'd even gone so far as to dye her hair brown, stop wearing her bow, and and begin wearing yellow so she wouldn't be recognized. So far, she'd had little luck, aside from learning that whatever Adam was looking to attack wasn't in Vale. Apparently, only his top lieutenants knew what was about to happen, and Blake knew she wouldn't be able to get face time with them without being recognized, so she just waited for something to fall through the cracks.

That day, however, was not dedicated to her search. Well, not entirely. She was still searching for information, but she could enjoy herself at the same time, no? That day was dedicated, like the next day would be, to watching the Beacon Relief tournament going on in Haven. She had heard about it coming up for a couple months and had decided to ignore it at first. Until she heard about a girl in a red hood with a scythe and how her team was at the center of the biggest battles and controversy in the entire game. After that, Blake knew she had to watch Ruby fight. Which of course also meant watching Sun's fights as they also came on.

During the review of the previous day earlier in the broadcast, Blake had seen that Ruby was partnered with Jaune, Ren, Nora, and some very odd boy she'd never seen before. During the third singles battle, Ren had been knocked unconscious and Nora had decided to assault the boy who had defeated him. That had, of course, resulted in her immediate disqualification from the tournament and being placed under intensive guard by Huntsmen at all times. Blake's heart went out to her, knowing from personal experience the pain that came with the people you care about being hurt. She clenched her jaw. She ran away from it every time.

Blake shook her head and returned her attention to the screen. Ruby, Jaune, and this Sora boy were all still in the tournament. From what Blake had seen during Sora's battle against Coco and Velvet, he was incredibly powerful; given the stories and rumors that Blake had since heard from White Fang agents about Ruby's uncle Qrow, she was willing to accept that Sora was his student. And that most of those fantastical rumors about the shadowy Huntsman were true.

Jaune and Ruby were doing excellently, too. Blake had known that for her team mate that was a given. She'd never expected Ruby to fall in battle against any normal student. The real surprise was Jaune. During the Vytal festival he'd been... dependable. But now he seemed to have become just as strong as Pyrrha had been. Even with only three people, Blake was sure that Ruby's team would be the ones who claimed victory in the tournament.

Speaking of, Ruby and Jaune's fight was about to start. Blake saved her place in her book and placed it on the table before staring intently at the screen. Ruby and Jaune jumped backwards into a field of wheat as soon as the fight started, disappearing from view. The Atlesians didn't seem to mind, however, as the one in black threw her strange weapons in the air. They spun upward, then stopped to form two platforms that the orange girl jumped up, one then the next before leveling her vambrace at the field. She slammed the bottom of the bracer, then clenched her fist. A jet of flames flew from her knuckles towards the wheat as she jumped off of the top glaive and the weapons fell.

Just before the fire was launched, there was a circular disturbance in the wheat. A half second later, a young man was shot into the sky, shield first. The white shield collided with and dispersed the flames, and Jaune shot through towards the orange girl. She grinned and lowered her other weapon, pulling the trigger. A huge explosion collided with Jaune's shield and he was sent flying to the ground.

At the same time, the girl in black and white had caught her glaives and tossed them at the wheat. The discs slashed through the top half of the wheat, destroying Ruby's cover. As they passed over her, however, Ruby stood up and grinned. She shot Crescent Rose over her shoulder and flew towards the Atlesian, bringing her attack around to slash. Blake's eyes widened slightly in interest as Ruby slowed down as she approached the outstretched hands of Fade. Her attack whipped around, missing the Atlesian's face by a few inches. "And that's the second time that young Fade Hallows has demonstrated her semblance during this fight – Gravity. Anything that weighs less than her she can control its source of gravity."

Blake grimaced as Ruby shot backwards towards the glaives, which Fade was also controlling. Ruby's eyes widened and she brought her scythe about, the attack slamming into the bladed weapons and throwing them off course. Ruby fell to the ground and rolled to her feet in the wheat. She turned around and rocketed away towards where Jaune had landed. As she got near, she pointed towards the lava grounds and the two ran towards the geysers. Blake smirked as she put together what the two were going to do.

Jaune jumped forward and slammed his shield into the closest geyser, Ruby jumping onto his shoulders. A moment later, the two were shot towards Fade, whose eyes widened in surprise. Ruby jumped off of Jaune's shoulders, turning into a torpedo of red as she activated her semblance and began firing off Crescent Rose behind her. Fade raised her hands in front of her to try and stop the young Huntress from attacking her. Ruby's tremendous speed began to slow, but Ruby was going way too fast. When she brought Crescent Rose around over her left shoulder, she was still going fast enough for the impact of her weapon to send her opponent flying into the geyser field and fall face first into another one that was about to explode. There was a loud buzz. "Aura out!"

That only seemed to make the orange girl – Laranje, Blake remembered – excited. She raised her gun towards where Ruby was about to land and fired it off. The projectile crashed against the ground at Ruby's feet, sending her tumbling across the ground, Aura dropped to seventy percent from the force of the impact. Laranje fired off again, the projectile approaching Ruby as she pushed herself up. She readied herself to jump out of the way, only for Jaune to jump in the projectile's path and block the attack with his shield. Laranje laughed and rushed at Jaune, slamming the bottom of her bracer again; it began to crackle with blue energy.

Jaune swiped at her head, and she ducked beneath the attack before delivering a quick blow to his side. Jaune flinched as the electric shock was administered and he stumbled to the side. He brought his shield down to block her next punch and jumped back as the electricity traveled through it as well. Jaune growled and grit his teeth, bringing his sword around in a flurry that Laranje managed to dodge each and every time. She grinned confidently and jumped back later and later. Jaune grinned a moment later as the back of her legs were hit by Ruby's scythe and she flipped in the air. Jaune's sword came down on her midsection, sending her crashing into the ground with a thud that shattered the stone. There was a loud buzz on the television – "Aura out! And the winners are Jaune Arc and Ruby Rose of Vale!"

Blake raised her hands to clap, but stopped herself when she realized where she was – in a bar surrounded by people who despise Huntsmen. Her hands clasped together instead and she forced a scowl onto her face before reaching to grab her book. She lifted it and examined it closely, though she was really just focusing on the fight she'd just seen. Ruby had done well, all things considered. She'd just been unlucky to get attacked as soon as she hit the ground. Blake knew she would have dodged the second attack, even if Jaune hadn't interfered. But he had, demonstrating how much faster, stronger, and braver he had become since Blake had last seen him.

"The Key of Destiny?" a voice asked as its owner stopped by her booth. She looked up at the waiter as he placed her grilled salmon in front of her. He raised a clawed hand to his face and scratched his grizzled cheek. "What's it about?"

"A war," Blake explained as she shut it and reached excitedly out towards her food.

"Between?"

Blake sighed and stopped raising a bite of her food. Why did the entire world insist on interrupting her as she read or ate? Still, she had an image to maintain; for the sake of Remnant, she would act... perky. "Heroes of the Light and Darkness," she explained with a smile. "And how all their worlds ended." She looked down at the cover, on which a simple gold and silver key was placed vertically. There was no author's name; no one could remember who had started the legend or who had written it down first. She raised an intrigued eyebrow – the key looked a lot like the one that Sora boy used. Maybe he was a fan of the book, too?

R W B Y

Qrow sat on the back rest of one of the chairs in the medical station, where Ruby, Sora, Jaune, Neptune, and Sun had come to hear whatever it was that the surveillance equipment had discovered about Yoru and his team, as well as check in on Nora and Ren. The Huntsman had yet to wake up, and Nora was passed out in the chair beside him, her head on top of her arm on the bed. Her hand was placed on top of Ren's, clenched around his fingers. "Let her sleep," Qrow said as Ruby moved to wake Nora up. "We can always tell her later. And... to be blunt, she likely wouldn't be any help all worried like she is."

Ruby sighed, but did as her uncle suggested. She moved back to her chair and sat down. "What is it you want to tell us, Uncle Qrow? What did you find out?"

Qrow merely reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll. He pressed a prompt on the screen, then tossed it onto the table between everyone. It clattered for a moment before laying still and playing its recording. It was a woman's voice. "So, how is our little guest doing? Is he still suitable leverage?"

"He's still alive, Cinder," another woman responded.

"Cinder! I knew they were connected to Xehanort," Sora growled, slamming his fist into his open palm. He began to stand up, raising one fist in front of him and getting a 'hero scowl' on his face. "Let's go get 'em!"

"No. There's more," Qrow said, motioning for Sora to sit back down. He, begrudgingly, did as the Huntsman suggested.

"...the big deal is, Mercury? It's that our guest is how we're going to be getting our little White Fang pawns into the city," the first woman snapped. Cinder – Azure Tremaine as her alias currently was.

"I know, I know," a young man replied. Agni – or Mercury, as it were. He scoffed. "I just meant that we don't need those idiots. Look at all the power we have now: if we want to take down every loser in this place, we'll be fine. The Old Guy over here can handle Keyboy no sweat, and everyone else here won't be a problem to the rest of us."

"I appreciate your confidence, boy," a fourth voice stated. Sora's eyes widened – Yoru! Yoru was Xehanort!? "But what's the saying? 'Pride cometh before the fall?' Do not believe victory is ever assured by your own strength when you can use another to distract any who could threaten you."

"And how's that going for you?" Sora muttered angrily. "Leaving your lackeys around to be stepping stones until someone's strong enough to punch your face in?"

"Okay, sure. Sure, Xehanort," Mercury continued, the recording ignorant of Sora's burn. "But shouldn't we be looking into a replacement for Roman instead of helping the White Fang get all beefy? We can't really conduct the criminal side of things without him."

"Neopolitan is doing fine for now," Cinder responded. There was a short pause. "Which reminds me: Emerald, could you contact her men as soon as possible? We'll need a resupply when we cross the ocean into Vacuo after all this is over. Salem still awaits."

Sora frowned as the recording ended. "So, Sora," Qrow said, drawing the Keyblade wielder's attention. Qrow was frowning just as deep. "What do you think? Have you heard of anyone named 'Salem' before?"

The Keyblade's chosen shook his head. "It sounds... I don't know, vaguely familiar. But I don't know why," Sora said. He placed his hand on his chin and looked up at the ceiling, going through all of his adventures in his head again. "As far as I know, I've never met anyone by that name. But it must be Xehanort's biggest lackey on this w- here. Whoever it is, they have to be bad news if it's Xehanort and Cinder's final objective to go meet this person."

"That was my thought, too," the Huntsman aid, shaking his head and sighing. He crossed his arms and looked over at the unconscious Ren. "And this explains a lot, too. You and Nora said that you saw Ren as horribly burned for some reason? Well, the same kind of thing happened to Yang last year at the Vytal Festival. She attacked someone who everyone else saw as defenseless because 'he attacked her.' Everyone thought she was crazy."

"And then Coco saw one of her team mates right before he'd gotten knocked out of their battle on the other side of the arena..." Ruby muttered. She looked up at her uncle. "And then Pyrrha overdid her Semblance when fighting Penny! Emerald was there... maybe she has a Semblance that lets her generate illusions, then!"

Qrow looked up, remembering something. His eyes flashed in recognition. "I think you're spot on, Kiddo," he said. He slammed a palm into his forehead. "Stupid, should have seen that earlier! Ugh, can't fix the past now. Okay, so those guys are Cinder, Emerald, Xehanort, and Mercury. That still doesn't explain Quicksilver's sudden change of abilities. Dark fire?"

Sora gasped. "Not fire! Firaga – Darkness. He was using Darkness on Ren!" he hissed. He slammed his hand to his forehead and sounded just like Qrow: "Stupid! I've seen stuff like that a thousand times before, I should have recognized it!"

"Darkness?" Jaune asked, worried. His hands clenched the arms of his chair, knuckles white. "Like... like the stuff that Xehanort can use?"

"Yeah," Sora muttered, voice low.

"I've already brought this up to the Headmaster here. She's got Huntsmen looking for the hostage and patrolling for White Fang operatives even now," Qrow cut in when it became obvious Sora wasn't going to say anything else yet. "She's asked we be quiet about it so that nobody panics. The Kingdoms really don't want a repeat of what happened at Beacon, and it would be a lot easier to whip up a frenzy like that with everyone already on edge."

"So what do we do?" Sun asked, looking with fear up at Qrow.

"I'll tell you what we do," Sora said, surging to his feet and placing one foot on the table. He pointed ahead, grinning like a madman. "We're heroes! We are going to fight them as hard as we can, for as long as we can until we win." He looked around, smiling at all the faces present. "Tomorrow during the battle royale, the five of us are going to find Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury on the battlefield and take them down right then and there so we won't have to worry about them later. And then we'll win the tournament for both of our teams."

"I think that might be against the rules," Neptune noted.

"Dude, shut up!" Sun hissed, grinning like an excited child. "Just get swept up in it, Neptune!"

"And once all that's over..." Sora grinned and jammed his thumb into his chest. "You can leave Xehanort to me while everyone else helps take out these White Fang guys. You with me?"

"Yeah!" the entire group roared, surging to their feet with Sora.

Sora summoned the Keyblade and held it above his head. He remembered something he'd heard a memory of Mickey say during his Mark of Mastery exam. "One for all, and all for one! Let's show all of Remnant what just a few people with good Hearts can do!"

"Yeah!"

Throughout all of this, Qrow had just remained where he was sitting, a well hidden smile creeping onto his face. Ruby had a good Heart, just like her mom. And good friends... unlike her mom. The sight before the cynical drunk warmed his heart – maybe if this was the future of Remnant, then things really would turn out okay.