The White Queen

(Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep OST Critical Drive)

Aqua had no idea what was going on but she knew one thing:

The girl in the red hood was overcome with grief and rage, attempting to kill the other woman for reasons she did not yet know.

All that mattered was stopping it.

She immediately teleported in front of the woman, holding her Keyblade up. "Reflega!"

The fire ball sent by the girl was sent flying back but the girl easily dodged, dashing to the side and charged at Aqua, spinning her scythe in both hands with red flames still surrounding her eyes. "Get out of my way!"

Aqua hastily blocked the strike, grunting slightly from the force of the blow but remained standing. The woman leapt up, placing her hand on Aqua's shoulder and using her as a spring as she lashed out with a kick, knocking the girl back. The girl snarled as she swung her scythe down into the ground as she skid back, using it to halt her slide and immediately picked it up, spinning as it changed back into a rifle and fired not just fire balls but shards of ice and blasts of wind. Aqua used her Reflega to block and deflect the incoming blasts while the woman the girl had called Neo somersaulted as she dodged as best as she could Aqua could tell the young woman was growing fatigue.

The girl spun her weapon as it returned to its scythe form, gathering wind around as she twirled it. "Not so much fun when you're the one being hunted huh?!"

She swung the scythe and released a powerful gust of wind that slammed into Neo, catching her and sending her flying back, even crashing through a few trees. She crashed into the ground on the beach, her body covered in cuts and deep bruises. From the look of her body and face she was obviously in deep pain as the girl came out of the forest, a whirl wind carrying her instead of simply using her feet.

"You did this." She snarled as she slowly approached Neo, tears dripping down her cheeks. "They're all gone because of you…"

Neo opened on eye, the pink one, staring up at the girl who was glaring back with flaming red hate.

"Everyone is gone! EVERYONE!" She screamed as she raised her scythe. "THEY ARE ALL GONE AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

Before she could swing it down and likely end Neo's life, Aqua appeared in between them, blocking the scythe and shoving the girl back. "That is enough!"

The girl staggered back but glared at Aqua. "Stay out of this! She has to die!"

Aqua sternly frowned at the girl before she held her Keyblade up over Neo. "Heal."

In a flash of green light, Neo's wounds began healing rapidly and miraculously. The young woman looked surprised as the pain vanished, staring up at Aqua with wide pink and brown eyes.

The girl was surprised as well. "You have…magic?"

Aqua then pointed her Keyblade at the girl. "I will only say this once…Stand down."

"You…You're defending her?!" The girl pointed at Neo as she slowly got back up. "Don't you know what she's done?! They are all gone! Our homes, our families, all gone!"

It was plain to Aqua that this girl was in deep pain.

She had seen this pain before and knew that something terrible had happened to her. Yet at the same time, Aqua could sense a familiar presence from the girl. A feeling of a powerful light that was being surprised by the negativity the girl was feeling.

And then there was the other power, a form of magic pulsing through her.

Aqua could tell that this power was immense but the girl seemed to have little control or experience with it.

"YOU TOOK THEM ALL FROM US!" Ruby screamed as a whirlwind came to life all around her. "MY FAMILY! MY FRIEND PENNY! EVERYTHING!"

The girl screamed as she shot at the two, her scythe engulfed by flames as she swung it down. Only Aqua conjured a barrier that blocked the strike, knocking the girl back with a blast created the very flames she created. She hit the ground, letting a loud ground from how hard she had landed and to Aqua's surprise; Neo was instantly standing over her. She kicked the girl's scythe away, pulling the girl up by the cloak around her neck and then pulled the cloak down over the girl's head, blinding her.

Neo then jumped and spun, delivering a kick directly to the girl's face, sending her flying back. The girl slammed into the ground again. The girl let out a frustrated scream as another whirlwind blasted Neo back. She got up, glaring at Neo and flew at her, slamming her and both rolled along the ground as Aqua watched in astonishment.

The girl finally managed to pin Neo down and slammed her on the ground several times. "WHY?! DID?! YOU?! DO?! THIS?!"

Neo finally kicked the girl off her, rolling back and jumping to her feet. The girl flew up into the air and released a blast that covered her in ice trailing down from her neck.

"You don't get to fight back like you have the right to defend yourself. Not after what you have done." The girl snarled as she used a gust of wind to bring her weapon to her. "You destroyed my life so now I destroy yours!"

"No!"

Aqua blocked her again, shoving her back and pointing her Keyblade at Neo, slashing it once and breaking the ice holding her. Neo staggered a bit, surprised by how the strange woman with the key shaped weapon had saved her again.

And angered the red cloaked girl even more.

"So you're with her?!" She shouted as stronger wind began to twirl around her. "Just like she was with Cinder!"

Aqua remained silent, not knowing who or what the girl was talking about but she couldn't allow her to murder someone in cold blood.

Not in front of her at least.

While she was forbidden as a Keyblade Master to interfere in the affairs of other worlds Aqua had understood that she was not forbidden from trying to understand what was happening to stay uninvolved as possible. That and her sense of justice prevented her from allowing the girl in the red hood to cut down the woman named Neo, even if she was guilty of horrible things.

"If you're with her then you're my enemy too!" The girl shouted, the red flames around her eyes growing in brightness and intensity.

She shot forward, swinging her scythe down which Aqua blocked with her Keyblade. The girl pushed off her and kicked her back. She then shot at Neo but the woman shattered into pieces like she had before.

Aqua spun around and pointed her Keyblade at the girl. "Stop!"

The girl was then frozen and Aqua took the chance to disarm her, slashing the girl's scythe out of her hands with her Keyblade and she followed with a few more but made sure they were not too damaging. The girl was sent crashing into the shallow water once the spell broke and she was left coughing from the water filling her mouth and lungs.

Aqua lowered her Keyblade and looked around, spotting Neo nearby who was slightly panting. "I don't know but I am done here. If you want to keep fighting, go ahead but if you want to live then come with me."

Neo looked between Aqua and the girl as she slowly got up, growling as the water around her turned to ice and then into steam, and nodded at Aqua.

"You're not going anywhere!" The girl shouted and shot forward.

Aqua grabbed Neo, summoning her glider and took off on it with Neo behind her, holding on her waist.

"NO!"

Neo looked behind, seeing the girl flying after them and tapped Aqua on the shoulder, earning her attention.

Upon seeing the girl flying after them, Aqua sighed and summoned her Keyblade.

The benefit of being able to summon a glider separate from her Keyblade was that she could use both her Keyblade while staying in the air on her glider.

"Hang on." She instructed to Neo who did so by tightening her arms around the Master's waist. "Mega-Flare!"

From her Keyblade came a fire ball that shot straight at the girl who quickly dodged but it didn't matter. The fireball exploded in a bright, blinding explosion that knocked her away, sending her spinning through the air but she managed to steady herself before she crashed back in the ground on the beach.

(Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep OST Critical Drive Ends)

Looking up and rubbing the sand away from her eyes, she saw that Aqua and Neo were gone. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Her screamed produced a whirlwind around her that was so strong several trees were pulled out of their roots.

The wind subsided when her scream ended and she curled up on the beach, her arms covering her face as she began to cry.

Xxx

She didn't remember how it happened.

All she remembered was blacking out at first and then waking up in this strange place.

She had seen this place before.

"You!"

She spun around and saw someone else there.

Someone she hated.

"Cinder." She gritted her teeth, glaring at the person who had caused her so much pain. "What is this place? Why are you here?"

"Why am I here? Why are you here?" The woman snarled. "You're supposed to be dead!"

She smirked. "Guess Salem never bothered to tell you. The Staff of Creation is forbidden to destroy life, even the creations it makes no matter what. So you didn't kill us so much as send us somewhere else."

"What?!" The woman snarled.

"You failed again, Cinder. Even when had me over the edge you still fail." She said tauntingly. "And Penny kept you from getting the Winter Maiden's powers and when we find our way back we're going to stop you and Salem once and for all."

"Stop us…" The woman named Cinder suddenly grinned. "You're too late."

"What?" She asked.

"Something happened…I don't know what. Some sort of darkness swept over the world…" Cinder snarled, clenching her fists. "I remember trying to fight it but Salem…she gave up when she sensed…She said she sensed the world ending and…She smiled. Why would she smile that the world was ending?!"

"Because that's what she wanted." She answered, making Cinder look at her. "You really didn't know? Guess it's not surprising since you don't care about anything other than yourself. Salem wants to die. She wants to gather the relics to summon the Gods back to judge humanity, hoping they would be found irredeemable and the Gods would destroy us and Remnant and her with it."

"No!" Cinder shook her head. "You're lying!"

"That's actually funny coming from you of all people! You think she cared about giving you power? You were just another pawn to get her what she wanted! You thought you could trick her but she was tricking you the whole time and you were stupid enough to fall for it!" She shouted.

"Shut up!" Cinder swiped at her but she dodged. "Why can't you just die like you should?!"

"Why can't you?" She shouted back. "You destroyed my home, killed my friends and chased me from Haven to Atlas just so you could get your hands on powers that you don't deserve!"

"It's mine! I deserve it all!" Cinder shouted. "Only I can be a god-"

"Don't make me laugh!" She cut Cinder off. "You're not a god, you're a parasite! You stole the Fall Maiden's powers and tried to steal Spring and Winter but failed all the time! You used people around like you Emerald and Neo and the worst thing is you never would have got this far without them! They were the only reasons you even stole Amber's power or ambushed us in Atlas!"

Cinder shouted as she tried to strangle her but she jumped back.

"You can't do anything for yourself and you kill anyone who helps you! You're pathetic! You had me and Neo over the edge and knocked us both down into the void and you still failed to kill us!" She continued, letting out all the hate she had for Cinder because of the pain she had caused. "You said I should never have been born but it's really you being allowed to exist was the mistake!"

Cinder screamed as she started to fade. "NO! NOT TO HER! WHY HER?!"

"So someone killed you and the power is going to me?" She questioned. "Why? You thought I was dead?"

Cinder gritted her teeth as she glared hatefully at her. "…Remnant is gone."

Her entire body froze.

"Something came and all I remember is a great storm…darker than anything Salem could have created swallowing everything." Cinder suddenly smiled. "So I guess you don't have to worry about us now…"

"No…" She started to tremble.

"I may have failed to kill you, Ruby Rose but I at least can take solace in the fact you have failed as well. The world is gone so you can't save it." Cinder was laughing even as she started to fade. "You are stuck wherever you are and you can never come back!"

"No!" She shook her head.

"I don't have to win anymore. I can just watch as you and your friends wallow in your own despair that you will never see your home or family again!" Cinder threw her back and laughed.

"NO!" She fell to her knees in complete despair.

"Have fun living out the rest of your life wherever you are!" Cinder finally vanished as her voice echoed all across the strange dimension they had appeared in. "I am sure you will put my powers to good use…Fall Maiden."

Ruby back up in the strange world Cinder exiled her and her friends to, desperately hoping that it had been all a dream.

Then she felt it.

A fire inside her.

She felt a power circling around her eyes as she crawled over to a nearby stream and looked at her reflection.

Twin flames surrounding her eyes.

It wasn't a dream.

She really had the powers of the Fall Maiden.

The power that Cinder had stolen and left her with the message that her home and everyone she and her friends had left behind were gone in one final act of spite.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She felt to the ground and curled up into a ball, crying to herself and wishing desperately to wake up from this horrible nightmare.

'First Pyrrha, then Penny twice, now everyone else!' She cried in her head. 'Dad, Uncle Qrow, Nora, Ren, Oscar…Why? WHY?!'

She could do nothing now.

Nothing.

No more Grimm.

No more Salem.

No more Remnant.

Everyone she knew was gone.

And that wasn't the end.

No, it was just the beginning of the unending pain she was starting to feel.

Xxx

(Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep OST Tears of the Light)

"I think we've gained enough distance now."

Aqua brought her glider down onto the ground, letting her passenger off who watched as Aqua dismissed her Glider which vanished in a flash of light.

"So," She turned and faced the woman named Neo. "What was that all about?"

Neo was silent, simply staring at the blue haired woman while crossing her arms.

"You do know I saved your life twice back there when it looked like she was about to kill you." Aqua immediately said, seeing Neo was not going to be completely cooperative. "You owe me an answer for why I had to do that."

Neo rolled her eyes but relented, taking out a small device and did some tapping before she showed Aqua a message.

It is a long story.

"We seem to have plenty of time." Aqua shrugged.

Neo walked over to a nearby tree and wrote down on her device. That girl back there…

"Yeah?"

I tried to kill her because I thought she killed my best friend.

Aqua's eyes widened. "What?"

Neo just continued typing. And the person who said she would help me betrayed me and stranded me with Red and her friends. At first we all struggled…And then everyone snapped. Red and her friends all got those Maiden powers and started screaming that Remnant was gone now, destroyed by some dark force. Red's really pissed at me now, blaming me for it all and that's why she's trying to kill me.

A dark force?

Aqua wondered if it was the same dark force she was trained to fight against or something Erebus had created.

The Grimm?

Surtr?

She had no idea but she wasn't sure the world was as gone as Neo was assuming but said nothing as Neo sat down, leaning against the tree they were sitting under for shade.

So how did you do all that?

Aqua stared at the latest message Neo wrote. "…How did I do all what?"

Neo rolled her eyes. Don't play dumb with me. I know that magic isn't something anyone can do unless you are either a Maiden or Ozpin or Salem-

Aqua's eyes widened at the mention of Salem.

And you aren't any of them. So how come you can do magic?

"…I'm a special case." She finally said.

Neo didn't look like she believed her but shrugged. Whatever. It's not like knowing would make much of a difference. It's just a matter of time before Little Red finds us and tries to kill us again.

"Don't you mean tries to kill you?" Aqua questioned.

You too, Bluey. Now that you helped me, you're pretty much the enemy. She's lost it now. She thinks that everyone, aside from her bimbo sister and friends, are dead and gone and she has pretty much snapped.

And she can't do a thing about it…Aside from killing me because I was helping the so-called bad guys.

Aqua frowned.

Don't look at me like that. I am not on anyone's side; I was just trying to survive with my friend. He was the only friend I ever had, one thing to help escape the misery that was my life and she along with that bitch Cinder took him from me. All I had left was trying to avenge him by making those who got him killed pay.

Aqua was slowly starting to put the pieces together. "So you tried to kill her and now you're the one being hunted. Does that sound like you are avenging him?"

Neo glared. It's all I had left. How could you understand unless you know what it's like to lose the one good thing in your life?

"I know more than you could ever believe." Aqua stood up, looking down at Neo. "I know what it's like to lose a home, a family and the only friends you ever had."

Neo looked up at Aqua, seeing the look in her eyes and knew she was telling the truth.

"However, believing avenging them will make you feel better or make them happy…I doubt your friend would have wanted for you to kill yourself for his sake." Aqua continued.

Is that so? You say you lost your friends and family. Were they taken from you by someone? Wouldn't that make you naturally hate the person responsible?

Aqua stared at Neo for a moment, considering her question. "I am not sure…I know I could never forgive the one responsible but hate…that is too simple, too easy to feel. Hate might be enough for you, Neo but it weakens me. I find it corrosive and toxic, making me less than who I want to be."

Neo rolled her eyes. You sound as overly righteous as Little Red and her friends and look where it got them. Alone, lost and left wallowing in their own self-pity.

"And you think I should be like you, Neo? The path where I mindlessly hurt everyone around me to get back the ones I think are to blame for my pain? I can admit to making many mistakes in trying to carry out my responsibilities but what good has come from what you have done?" Aqua fired back. "For you or your home?"

Don't act like you know me. Neo typed with a glare. You can't just say you know what I feel and have the nerve to lecture me.

"So because you suffered then everyone must suffer like you? Do you even realize how childish that sounds? Maybe it is sanctimonious on my part but right now you remind me of people I have seen get destroyed by their own vengeful desires." Aqua fired back.

And let me guess, you tried to make them see the error of their ways.

"No. The darkness inside their own hearts overtook them and led them to their destiny." Aqua answered stoically and then sighed. "I have my strengths and my flaws…but they don't matter to me. What matters are the lives of the people we care for and the ones who rely on us."

She turned away, deciding her conversation with Neo was done. "Whatever you decide to do from here on out is up to you. I have done the best I can to help you and I have my own problems."

Neo could only watch as Aqua walked off in a direction she had just picked randomly.

Xxx

Aqua had no idea where she was going after leaving Neo behind.

She had a lot more questions than answers from that one conversation and she wasn't sure what to make of it.

Maidens…

Ozpin, which made her think of Ozma for some reason but Ozma was dead.

And Salem…Aqua walked away from her after that insane rebellion.

What did she have to do with anything?

Aqua suddenly felt cold and noticed snow and ice forming around her. She stopped and looked around; spotting a mansion up ahead that appeared to be made of literal ice. If that wasn't enough she sensed a powerful magic inside it comparable to the girl with the red hood she just escaped from.

"And I thought I had seen it all before…" She muttered as she slowly approached the mansion.

As she grew closer, she noticed icy statues of Grimm surrounding the place along with three large pillars holding up a snowflake symbol. She noticed that all the ice Grimm were being slain by four girls…

One of them just happened to be the same girl with the scythe she had fought.

Aqua walked past the statues up to a grand pair of doors. She raised her hand, wondering if anyone would let her in but to her surprise the doors opened for her. She blinked but slowly entered the icy mansion. Shivering a bit, Aqua used her Firestorm ability to conjure an aura of fire around her to help keep her warm.

She looked down and saw the large snowflake symbol she had seen on the outside leading up to a grand and wide stairway. She wasn't sure where to go from here so she just followed her senses that led her past the stairway and down the icy wall, coming out into what looked like a garden or what would looked like a garden covered in ice and now.

"Welcome."

Aqua looked to her left and saw a young girl sitting on an ice formed sofa. She wore a long white gown that seemed to sparkle and had equally white hair falling down her shoulders with a silver icicle shaped tiara keeping her hair back. She had blue eyes, not like Aqua's own as they were less vibrant and colder.

It didn't help she was sporting a complete look of indifference as she held a single glass of liquid in one hand.

"It's not often I get visitors to show my home around. Like it? I made it myself. Sorry if it's too cold for you." She said in a tone that was devoid of emotion to the point Aqua had to look closely to see if she still had a heart.

Thought from what she could see, this girl's heart had become as cold as the very frozen home she made for herself.

"The cold is the only thing left to remind me of home."