Chapter 20

Awakened Light

Beneath the Light...comes Judgment

"Ruby look out!"

Ruby almost didn't make the dodge in time as a blast of whistling Dust from Melodic Cudgel shot at her. It's wielder? Roman Torchwick, someone she'd fought with before. The same went for Blake, she had fought him before and held a strong grudge against him. Their shared dislike for the man fueled their energy for this battle, neither girls would let up until Torchwick was defeated.

But Torchwick wasn't one to go down easily.

"You okay?" Blake asked Ruby as she jumped and landed next to her ally.

"Y-yeah it missed me." Ruby nodded her head.

"Excuse me, Roman interrupted. "I hope I'm not interrupting your tampon debate, but I'm trying to kill you over here."

Both girls were irked by the man's comments, he sure knew how to push people's buttons. They dodged several shots of Dust and then dashed at the man. Ruby reared he Crescent Rose back and then swung it in a large arc. Roman ducked under the gigantic blade and attempted to sweep kick Ruby. The young Huntress responded by jumping over his sweep and digging the blade of the scythe in the ground. She swung her body around and double kicked at Roman's face.

However, Roman blocked it with his free hand and then used his can with his other hand to block Blake's Sheath blade. Knocking both girls back the man turned his assault onto Blake, rapidly attacking her with quick swings of his cane. Blake blocked the attacks as she was forced to step back, she was saved by Ruby who swung her scythe at Roman's head.

Roman chuckled and reached his hand up without looking. He grabbed Crescent Rose by the pole and pulled Ruby over his shoulder. The action sent Ruby crashing into Blake, followed by Roman kicking them both back.

They tumbled on the ground before flipping back up and readying themselves.

"T-this guys tough!" Ruby aid to Blake.

"No kidding." Blake responded. "I'll go after him...Ruby stay back until you see an opening, and when you do, take it."

Ruby nodded. "Okay."

Blake dashed toward Roman at great speeds, almost a blur. She and Roman's weapon were soon clashing, the sounds of banging metal filling the air. Blake swung her katana at Roman, the man dodged it an countered with a horizontal swing of his cane. Blake blocked the attack with her katana and swing at Roman's neck with her sheath. Roman chuckled again and smacked the blade away with his weapon, then threw a couple of punches to Blake's stomach.

The wind was knocked out of Blake's lungs as Roman assaulted her with his fists, then with a quick kick he sent her backward. Ruby sprang into action a second later! Roman's leg was still raised from that kick, meaning if she advanced on him now she might be able to knock him off-balance. Ruby began swinging her scythe at rapid speeds, Roman began blocking them. Unfortunately one swing of Ruby's was too hard for him to counter and he got slashed in his side.

Ruby tried to continue her attack but Roman jumped back before she could.

The evil villain looked at the girl. "Well now Red, that wasn't very nice."

Ruby didn't respond as she readied Crescent Rose again, Blake joined her with her Gambol Shroud in kusarigama mode.

Roman sighed. "I swear...kids these days are just weird. No respect for authority at all. I'd prefer not to spank kids but I suppose it's necessary for some."

"You sure like to talk Roman." Blake commented, her focus unwavering.

"I think myself to be very hilarious Kitty. Though I doubt you'd agree."

"Your sense of humor is demented."

"Aw, did I hurt your little animal activist feelings?"

"Shut up!" Blake growled.

The girl charged Roman again and began exchanging blows once again, she managed to nick his leg but that was nothing compared to what Roman did. He disarmed her right hand of the katana and punched her square in the face. Then, using his cane he unleashed a combo of bludgeoning blows to her torso and head. He ended it with a fierce uppercut with his cane that sent her flying.

Fortunately Ruby caught her in the air and they landed safely on the ground. Ruby then dashed at Roman to launch her own attack. Blows were traded back and forth, with neither side letting up for any reason. Ruby reinforced her scythe's force with a couple of gunshots but even with that Roman was blocking all her advances.

And as he blocked, he taunted her."What's the matter Red? You seem a bit uptight."

Ruby growled and slashed at Roman's legs, the man merely stepped over the swing and palmed Ruby's face. Pushing her to the side he kicked her in the back, causing her to drop Crescent Rose. Ruby tried to turn and grab Crescent Rose quickly but Roman slapped her hard enough to send her to the ground before she could.

"Nighty night."Roman smirked as he aimed his Melodic Cudgel at the girl.

He attack was stopped when blasts of ice dust came flying at him, a few struck him but did nothing more than make him lose balance. The turned around and ducked just in time to avoid Weiss's rapier. He grabbed the girl's leg and swung her around until he threw her into Ruby.

"Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed with shock.

"Urghh..." Weiss groaned as she tried to recover from the attack.

The two girl's jumped back just as Blake zipped in and began attacking Roman. Weiss and Ruby joined as well, all three girls were assaulting this monster of a man with everything they had! Roman jumped out from their attack assault and fired a blast of dust from his cane. Unfortunately the three girls had been too close together when he fired and took the full brunt of the blast.

They skidded on the ground until they could get themselves up, shaking off their new injuries and looking back at a calm Roman.

"You made it Weiss." Blake said to her teammate with a small smile.

"Of course. What did you expect?" Weiss responded.

"Perfect!" Ruby exclaimed happily. "Now all we need is..."

"YANG!"

The girls looked up to see Yang descending toward them, she landed on the ground next to Ruby with a bold smile. "Sup guys."

"Yang! You're okay!" Ruby exclaimed happily.

"Well duh little sister, it was just Junior!" The blonde said cheerily. She didn't want to tell Ruby that she actually hadn't finished her battle. Or that she probably would've lost. But she couldn't think about that right now, now their enemy was Roman!

The four girls, no, team RWBY turned to face their opponent. Shining determination was present on their expressions, even Roman seemed a little intimidated by the four assembled girls.

Roman groaned. "Ah great. Now I've got to deal with the dumb blonde and the whiny princess. I wonder if it's too late to retire?"

"Give up Roman!" Ruby shouted. "There's no way you can beat us!"

"Really now?" Roman rolled his eyes. "Then I guess I should get more serious."

Roman's Melodic Cudgel came coated with electricity, sending out sparks now and then. He dashed at team RWBY at amazing speeds and clashed with Yang. Luckily the girl had countered by igniting her gauntlets with fire so the electricity would be negated.

Yang began throwing multiple punches at Roman, followed by Blake who zipped around and attacked him front behind. Weiss began firing dust at Roman, being careful not to his Blake or Yang. The same went for Ruby, only she fired when there was an opening and used her sniper rounds.

It's safe to say that Roman was not faring well against four of Beacon's most talented fighters. Even he could not block everything, he was just glad to have blocked Ruby's bullets. If any of those had gotten though he'd need organ transplants. Unfortunately the man stumbled after being kicked by Yang, lake got a thick slash on his arm and Weiss was able to pummel his face with dust. Finally Ruby launched herself at him and smashed the side of her Crescent Rose into Roman's jaw. The man flew through the air and crashed onto the ground painfully.

But the girl could not stop there, they had to ensure he was defeated. So all four of them jumped after him at the same time, intending to make sure that he wouldn't be able to defend or dodge in any way. Roman was struggling up from his injuries, swaying a little as he tried to regain his senses. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang were closing in on him and he was completely surrounded. He frowned at the sight, he wouldn't be able to block their attacks by conventional means.

Oh well.

A dome of white barrier-like energy burst to life around Roman, it completely stopped all the girl's attacks.

And turned the damage back on them.

With pained screams Team RWBY was blasted backward by the recoiling force of the strange attack. It was like getting hit by their own attacks only four times worse! The fell upon the ground in a assembled heap, unable to comprehend what just happened.

Roman stood up confidently, he cracked his neck to shake loose stiff muscle and looked back at the girls. "I admit, you four aren't bad."

He brushed the dust off his jacket. He had a bruise on his face but strangely the wound disappeared in a matter of seconds. "But I'm afraid that if this is all you have, I'd have a harder time doing my laundry."

"What the..." Blake said with shock as she helped Weiss up. "What was that barrier?"

"It definitely wasn't Aura." Ruby added in.

"His Semblance maybe?" Yang said, rubbing her head to relive her pain.

"I doubt it...it just doesn't feel like it's a Semblance either." Weiss rebutted Yang's suggestion.

"Whatever it was, it packed a punch." Ruby said. "But I've never seen him use it before."

Roman placed his cane on the ground, holding it like a walking stick. "You're out of your league here kiddies, why don't you go home and play with your Barbies?"

The four girls glared at him, readying themselves once again.

"Well, I tried. Guess I'm going to have to show you my true power."

In an instant Roman's cane began to whirl with darkness energy, the darkness compressed together until it formed a large black and purple blade on the end of Roman's cane. Not only that, darkness radiated off the man's shoulders in waves. Ruby and friends could feel the power that Roman was giving off, it was cold and ruthless. Very similar to a heartless no doubt.

"He can use that power too?" Yang gasped.

"Unbelievable. I thought only Heartless used that kind of energy." Blake was surprised as well.

"Clearly heartless aren't the only ones." Weiss spoke, changing Myrtenaster to yellow.

Ruby was quiet. She remembered this kind of power. The same power she and her friends faced when they fought the Dark Thorn...

And the same energy Sora was surrounded with in her dreams.

Ruby's heart sped up suddenly and she began to fear that this battle was going to take a turn for the worst if it didn't end soon. The energy Roman gave off scared her, such evil and malevolent energy to come off a human being didn't seem to be natural! She wished Sora were here...

No! Ruby stopped her thoughts, We'll have to take care of this ourselves. If we take him down he won't be able to hurt Sora...but...can we even beat him?

"Ruby!"

Ruby attention turned back to her allies, who were looking at her expectantly.

"What's the plan?" Yang asked.

"U-uh...I'm not sure." Ruby answered sadly.

Weiss seemed irked by this. "What do you mean you don't know? You're supposed to be the leader! You're supposed to have a plan!"

"I know I know..." Ruby said back weakly. "But I don't know how to counter something like that..."

"It's okay Ruby." Blake tried to comfort the girl. "We don't really have much time for a complex plan now. Just your best choice is fine."

Ruby seemed to become a little calmer after this. She looked back at Roman, the man was now slowly approaching them with his ever impassive look on his face."W-well, we'll just have to be careful. Let's not attack hastily. You guys try to distract him but watch out for his sword, and we'll have to watch out for that barrier attack too."

Ruby didn't like the way that plan sounded, in fact she wasn't even sure it would work. But her teammates seemed to accept it, even Weiss was for some reason compliant. Ruby was grateful that they believed in her, yes, as long as they were careful and fought smart they should be able to beat Roman.

And if they didn't?

Ruby didn't want to think about that.

"Scream for me." Roman said evilly as he swung his sword at the girls after running up to them.

They all jumped out of the way and quickly brought on the assault. Weiss began attacking with her rapier, Roman was blocking with his sword cane and pushed her back with a blast of dark energy. Yang stepped up to the plate with some intense fiery punches, Roman dodged them all but stopped to grab Yang's wrist. He swung Yang's own fist back at her to punch her in the face then tripped her over with one leg.

Blake came to her aid by ferociously swinging at the cane wielding criminal. Roman would evade her slashes and throw a punch or a sword attack. Each time however, Blake was able to substitute her Shadow to escape the sharp edge.

That was until...Roman stabbed her.

It went right through the shoulder and Blake yelled out in pain.

"Blake!" her friends cried out in shock.

The poor Faunus was suspended in the air by Roman's blade, blood trickling down its length. "You're a sight for sore eyes Kitty, I expected more from you. Then again what can you expect from a pet when it isn't even trained?"

Blake gritted her teeth at Roman's abundant racism, but the pain from her shoulder wound was far too painful for her to try to counter attack.

"Let her go!" Ruby yelled at Roman as she attacked. She swung her scythe at him, Roman immediately responded by dropping Blake like a doll and blocking Ruby's Crescent Rose. Ruby pushed against the man to hold him back as Yang quickly ran over to check Blake's injury.

"You seem angry Red. I hope it's not your time of the month." Roman chuckled at the fifteen year old.

"Shut up!" Ruby growled as she kept trying to push Roman back. Unfortunately for her, Roman was too strong. He pushed back and soon he was weighing her down! Ruby's muscles burned with pain as she struggled to hold up her guard. If she let up even for a second, Roman's blade would pierce her throat.

Weiss jumped at Roman, ready to stab him right through the head. Roman quickly pushed Ruby away from him and grabbed Weiss by the neck before she could attack. Ruby tried to intervene by Roman stepped down on her head, holding her down.

Roman grinned sickly as he began to literally choke Weiss to death.

"Stop! Leave her alone!" Ruby roared angrily as she strained to get up from under Roman's shoe.

Yang tried to attack Roman and stop him from hurting Weiss but...

She didn't see the blade of Roman's cane coming.

The blade stabbed her right in the stomach, causing blood to stain the girl's vest. The blonde's eyes widened in shock as she comprehended the pain. Roman smirked wickedly and uttered a single word.

"Thundara."

"AAAAUGHH!"

Yang's scream was blood curdling as waves of ionic lightning coursed through her body. Her teammates could hear the burning of the lightning as it continued to torture her. Roman pulled his blade out of the girl's stomach and kicked her onto the ground.

"Now...where was I?"

Roman turned his attention back to Weiss, who was struggling against his grip. It was futile for the white-haired heiress, she could not break his monster-like hold.

"Dammit...Yang...Weiss..." Blake struggled to help her friends. Unfortunately one of her arms was numb, Roman had stabbed it into a joint that made it near impossible to use.

Ruby kept trying to get up, but Roman was far too strong. She could hear Weiss struggling for breath as Roman tightened his grip.

"Stop it! Let her go!" Ruby shouted with anger and desperation. She hated this! she couldn't protect her teammates! Weiss was going to die because of her! This situation was no different than the Dark Thorn! Tears threatened to escape her eyes...she wished desperately to be stronger. She wanted to be as strong as Sora, he could protect anybody! If she had that strength, she could protect the people she loves...

But she didn't.

"P-please...let her go. Don't hurt my friends...I'll do anything..." Ruby attempted, feeling shameful for having to beg a criminal.

"That's very kind of you Red." Roman said. "But it's so much more fun to watch you squirm."

Weiss was almost out of breath, her eyes were squeezed shut as she tried to keep whatever air was left in her but it was like Roman's grip was sucking it out of her. She could feel her world growing dark...

Her hand stopped struggling against Roman's grip.

And fell down to her side.

Ruby's eyes were wide with the utmost horror. Roman dropped the rapier wielding girl without remorse. Like she was just a piece of trash, something to be played with and thrown away.

"It's too bad, such a pretty little thing to die so young."

All Ruby could do was scream.

What happened after that scream was something even the author of this fanfic didn't expect.

A thick column of light blasted into the air with blinding speed and power. The force had blasted Roman backward, crashing into a wall painfully. As he got back to his fee he saw that the bright column of light...

Was coming from Ruby.

The girl was half standing now, still physically weak. But the rage in her eyes was enough to scare even Roman. The column of light separated into several thinner light pillars that surrounded Ruby. They shined with brilliant holy power, causing the darkness that Roman exhibited to vanish into nothingness. Powerful heat emanated from them as well, as though warding off all the cold and evil in the world and replacing it with warmth and light.

"What...the hell...?" Roman tried to shield his eyes from the brilliant glow.

Before he could react, Ruby screamed at the top of her lungs. This caused the pillars of light to launch at Roman.

The man could not dodge.

The pounded and struck away at him, swirling around his body and closing in for major damage. Roman's skin was covered in burns by the searing lights and was unable to defend himself. But the attack was not over. More pillars formed around him until he was surrounded by t least fifteen of them, he could not escape! And he knew that his Reflega could not protect him.

The pillars converged.

BOOM!

A massive explosion of holy energy erupted! The shining lights were so bright that Ruby and the others could not see anything! The ground was shaking from the intense explosion, Roman could not even been seen in the light as it erupted! Soon enough, the light faded and the destruction it caused was left scarring the ground.

Roman lay on the ground with severe burns, not unconscious, but definitely defeated.

Ruby was huffing and gasping for breath. For some reason she was exhausted, but not in pain! All her injuries were gone! She looked o her side to see Weiss...she was okay! She was stirring and beginning to sit up having been previously lying on the ground. And she had no injuries as well. It was the same for Yang and Blake, they no longer had their stab wounds and wee beginning to get themselves up!

Ruby laughed weakly out of pure joy, she had no idea what happened or how her team was healed. But it didn't matter, they were okay! She had protected them like a good leader should. She couldn't ask for more than that.

"Damn..." Yang exclaimed lowly as she looked at the completely dominated Roman. "Ruby...how did you...?"

"That was...incredible..." Weiss admitted.

Ruby managed to finally breath correctly. "I don't know...I was angry, I just wanted save you all...and then..."

"RUBY!"

Ruby would've smiled instantly when she heard Sora's voice if she wasn't so tired. But she turned her head to see Sora running up to them with a look of shock and relief on his face. Professor Goodwitch was right behind him and even behind her expression of neutrality, Ruby could see her concern.

"You guys..." Sora spoke as he caught up to them. "What happened?"

Ruby smiled at Sora, feeling happiness fill up her heart at seeing his face. "Isn't it obvious? We won."

TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE! I HATE IT I HATE IT!

So yes, Roman has now been defeated. Sora and the cast of Ruby have won! HOORAYY!

I wanted to lampshade a few things in this chapter though, I put in a bit more character development for Ruby because there needs to be a little of that. I sometimes forget that she' a very awkward and sometimes unconfident girl and I wanted to show her moment of weakness...

THAT LEAD TO HER ULTIMATELY KICKING THE CRAP OUT OF ROMAN!

WITH THE FAITH ATTACK NO LESS!

Some of you have already guessed that Ruby and friends will have to learn to use magic and other of Kingdom Hearts universe techniques in order to battle the much stronger Remnant villains and the organization. Well this chapter confirms it.

To be honest, super emotional fight scenes like this are hard to write without making characters seem OOC. We have no idea how characters would react in certain situations and that irks me because I want to portray the characters correctly! Alas we cannot win everything, so I have to use my best guess.

I also don't like writing about the RWBY characters getting their butts handed to them but I have no real choice. This is a KH and RWBY crossover, the level and degree of combat is outstandingly different! I hate saying this but goddammit so far Ruby and friends have only fought humans, giant monsters and machines. While Sora regularly smacks around all those things and planet consuming monsters, witches, gods and demi-gods and demons.

SIGH.

No matter! Soon enough Ruby and friends will be punting skyscrapers just like Sora. Well, at least in this fanfic they will.

Until next time.

IMSOTESTICLES