Remnant of the Key

by lyokoMARVELanime

Adopted from FandomBard12. Four Keybladers meet four huntresses while on a quest to recover a lost friend. Now, their destinies shall become intertwined as they fight against darkness of both Remnant and beyond. The question is, just what else will come from this meeting between the two?

5. Bully Battles

AN: Hey, what's going on everybody! lyokoMARVELanime, aka lyoko Prime, here saying welcome to another chapter for Remnant of the Key!

[audience applause]

Blake: Lyoko Prime?

AN: What? It's less of a mouthful, and I figured that it would work as a nice nickname. Anyways, as you all have likely guessed from last chapter's preview, today we will be diving into the first JNPR arc of the RWBY series, more or less, with a few Kingdom Hearts change-ups to give it a little extra flare. But before we do any of that, let's have a look at the reviews to see who and what we can answer, shall we?

Weiss: I don't really see why you would answer these reviews. Most of the time it seems like their questions are things that you can't answer without giving away crucial details for later on in the story.

AN: It's all good form to answer, Weiss. Besides, it's not like I ever come right out and say all of the exact details in most of my answers, ergo, no spoilers are given.

Yang: Well, I think it'd be nice to tell everyone how you later plan on doing a kind of post-credits-like scene at the end of a chapter to introduce...

AN: Dah! SPOILER! [hits the control!]

Yang: [suddnely has to duck, dodge, bob, and weave to avoid several spinning blades coming at her, all of which seem to miss] Okay, that seemed a little too extreme, even for a place like...[pauses when she sees a few locks of blonde hair floating to the ground, and then turns an angry glare at lyoko] You...You...[Lets out an angry glare as her Semblance flares up]

AN: [flinches back from Yang before looking to all of you in the audience] Uh-oh. I did not think that one through...YIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKES! [runs away screaming his head off]

Yang: I WILL MURDER YOU! [blasts off after lyoko]

Ruby: Um...Well, I guess we'll just have to answer the reviews in his place.

Blake: Can we even do that?

Ruby: Sure, if we knew where his notes were.

Jaune: [suddenly comes into the room] Hey guys! Sorry I'm late, but lyoko wanted me to grab his notes on things he wanted to say in response to the last chapter's reviews just in case something happened to prevent him from answering.

RWB: [look to where lyoko is still being chased by Yang, who is now firing Ember Celica at him in an attempt to hurt him] At least he thought that part through.

Ruby: Thanks Jaune. [takes the notes from Jaune and passes them out to her teammates before she begins leafing through for a good starting point] Okay, let's start...here. "Dragon Rider 66", lyoko can confirm that yes, the members of Ozpin's inner circle, or at least the ones we've seen so far, do have at least some basic knowledge about the Keyblade and other worlds, though more so in the case of Qrow and Raven. Also, if your guess about Kairi's current location is what lyoko is thinking that it is, then you've most likely got it right, but please don't say anything about it in your next review, and don't worry. It won't be as long as you think before we see her and the individual(s) she's with at the moment.

Next up is "Grimlock987", to which lyoko says...What makes you think Aqua's going to need to come to Remnant to deliver her punishment on the boys?...Yeah, I don't really know what more I can say beyond that without giving away serious spoilers.

Weiss: If I may be allowed to answer the "Guest" of 9/1/2019, what makes you think Aqua would be upset about Ven getting together with me "behind her back", as you put it? As entertaining as that might be, I'm sure she would not react that badly...At least, I hope she does not. [glances around in an attempt to see if Aqua is secretly spying on them from somewhere]

Blake: Moving on to "Monkey D. Conan", lyoko hasn't really put all that much thought into what Team SLVR's Semblances would be, assuming he does have their Aura unlocked, mainly because they'd be likely to use whatever abilities that they had up until now more than anything else. He is open to suggestions though on what everyone thinks would be good ones for each member, so everyone is welcome to comment on that. In terms of your question about how Sora and Lea stack up next to Qrow and Taiyang, he could not really say much about the latter, since he's sure that we have not seen the full extent of what Ruby and Yang's father is capable of yet, but if he were to try and compare Sora to Qrow...it looks like he would say that Sora is definitely quite a bit stronger than Qrow, if he were to stop holding back, so you would be right about how it would help with the humor when Ruby's family finds about Sora and Ruby. As for who figures out they're falling for Lea and Ventus first between Yang and Weiss, at the moment, Yang does seem likely to be the one who gets to go out on a date with her Keyblade partner, but as far as actually recognizing romantic feelings, he would say that it seems more likely that Weiss is going to figure it out first...Does anyone else think that's confusing?

Ruby: A little bit, but hey, people don't have to fully recognize their feelings for someone before they go on a date with them. Some people have to go on a date or two with the person before they really get an idea of just how deep their feelings for the person goes.

Weiss: Says the socially awkward weapons nerd.

Ruby: Hey, just because I don't know how to deal with people that well, doesn't mean I'm completely clueless about stuff like that.

Anyways, "theIrishWriter", lyoko wants you to know that he actually has several of those inflatable Xehanort dummies, and to remind you that this studio is like Looney Tunes world in that no one can get seriously hurt or killed while they're in here (unless they're someone like Deadpool), so Xehanort's still got a ways to go before he's actually hospitalized. As for your question regarding Sora and Ven's age at this time, he actually views this story taking place a few months or so after Kingdom Hearts 3, at least to the point where Sora's birthday has come and gone at least. As far as Kairi being alive is concerned though, at the moment, they really have more of a hunch that she's okay, but until they get confirmation, they're still considering her as MIA, which means that there's a chance that Sora should be ready to move on.

As for your questions, lyoko has not considered doing a one-shot like the one you suggested, and he's not entirely sure how he would be able to explain it away or make it work.

Lea: Ahem, I've got the next part, Ruby. First off, Kairi's actually busy rehearsing for her next appearance in Keyblade Legion and beyond, along with her first appearance in this series, and yes, this is, apparently, going to end up being a series, with this being the first story. Secondly, I'm pretty sure that Kairi and I would both be pretty stunned if we found out we were related, and I'd likely hate myself even more for what I did to her as Axel if that were the case. I mean, as we've learned from KH3, I already feel bad enough to the point where I was constantly apologizing to her for what I did, so just imagine how much of a mess I'd be if you added a revelation like that into the mix.

Ventus: As for me, assuming that you're right to think that Sora's parents were around during the age of Fairy tales, or just people I knew from my very distant past, I probably wouldn't be that surprised. If anything, I think they would be more shocked to learn that I apparently hadn't really aged all that much since the last time they saw me.

Blake: Moving on to the review by "Anonymaton", lyoko wants you to know that Aqua will be appearing in the story again soon, so you shouldn't have to wait for that for too much longer. As for your experiment, well...even though we did run with it, we've actually got a few ideas of our own on how fast Ruby is.

Weiss: Considering that she once used the slipstream of her running at super speed to lift a large mess of food and Team JNPR during our food fight with them, and made it all go flying into the opposite wall, while simultaneously creating a massive crack in said wall upon reaching it, it's safe to say that she's at least as fast as an F3 tornado, or even the speed of sound if she were to go at full speed. At least, that's our guess.

Blake: Either way, we tried the suggested experiment, and...well, you were not too far off about the sound it makes on approach from a long way off. Just switch out "mine, mine, mine" for "gimme, gimme, gimme".

Ruby: [crosses her arms with a huff as she starts to cutely pout, much to everyone's amusement] I was really hungry, and you guys tied me to a chair just to make sure I didn't start too soon.

Weiss: Well, you are rather impulsive most of the time.

Ruby: Moving on...To the last couple of "Guest"s who commented on the matters involving MCU Spider-Man, while lyoko does agree with your opinions in saying that Sony's entirely to blame for the MCU apparently losing Spidey for the moment, and would like to add that he's at least a little optimistic that it won't last forever, seeing as he's sure that the fans will have a major reaction that will prove very bad for Sony in the future, he would prefer that you keep those comments to the stories that the web-head has actually appeared in at least once for the moment. This story does not count right now, apparently. Though he does like that idea that the guest who suggested something involving the Spider-Verse had mentioned, and so do I. Why didn't Sony just run with that while negotiating for a better deal with Disney, as opposed to being greedy little kids and just storming out in a huff.

Blake: As you can see, Ruby really likes Spider-Man, and was just as upset about what happened to MCU Spidey as any other fan, but with all the reviews covered, we don't really have any reason to keep you all here. At least, aside from seeing if lyoko will come out of his attempts at escaping Yang's wrath in one piece. [looks to see Yang still chasing lyoko, throwing blasts of dust, punches, and even several, massive, heavy objects as she goes] Yeah...I think they're going to be going at it for a while.

Ruby: Well, we'll just have to start on the chapter while we wait. Cue up that disclaimer, and get the show rolling! Banzai!

lyokoMARVELanime does not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or RWBY franchises, or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

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Chapter 5: Bully Battles

You could not imagine the relief that all four boys felt when they realized that there was at least one class in which they would actually be doing things that they expected to do at a school designed to train warriors. After dealing with all of the usual variety of classes but one that involved actually using their combat abilities, the members of Team SLVR were more than ready for something that they knew they would all excel at, and from the look of things, the same could be said for the rest of their fellow first-year students, too. Ruby and Yang looked especially eager for their session of combat class, as did Nora and, to an extent, Pyrrha, but what surprised some of them was how nervous Jaune seemed to be about said class. He had proven that he was a pretty decent fighter back in the Emerald Forest, but then again, the others could also remember how worried he was when Ozpin was giving out instructions for the initiation, so they figured that it was probably just a matter of him not having a great deal of confidence in himself. When it came time for Jaune to take to the arena, they all found that they were not entirely wrong, but they were not exactly right either.

When Jaune's first match in combat class came around, everyone was able to get a full display of his combat abilities, and if they were to describe it in as few words as possible, the word "basic" would definitely be the first one to come to mind. Jaune did not fight like a total beginner, or like someone who was just improvising based off of things that he had seen others do, but it was clear to everyone that his fighting skills had not been developed beyond the basic stuff, especially to anyone else who fought with a sword. Sora especially noticed quite a few areas where Jaune could improve, being a self-taught swordsman, and having seen swordsmen that had a little more training beyond that, but the blonde boy could have certainly been worse. Jaune's swings were much more centered and focused than any beginner, and he always managed to direct them to the target he intended, and more often than not, actually hit their mark in the way he was aiming for. The only problems he seemed to have were the fact that he was more focused on offense than he was defense, despite the fact that he also used a shield, and the matter of who Jaune's opponent was.

The opponent in question was none other than Cardin Winchester, leader of Team CRDL (Cardinal), and from the moment that the Keyblade wielders laid eyes on the group, they could tell that the team members were all your stereotypical muscle heads that thought that they were on top of the world just because they had big muscles, fancy armor, and big weapons. More than that, Sora and Roxas had seen how Cardin and his teammates treated a few of the other students quite a few times in between classes, and to say that they were not pleased with what they had witnessed would be like saying that the sun was a little warm; a very severe understatement. The guy was a big bully, and his teammates were not much better, following him around and doing everything he told them to do like it was no big deal. It reminded Roxas a lot of Seifer and his gang back in Twilight Town, and since Sora had never been a fan of bullies in general, no one was surprised to see that they were both glaring at Cardin just as heatedly every time he fell into their line of sight. His bad attitude aside, Cardin must have possessed some level of skill as a huntsman-in-training to be allowed into Beacon, and unfortunately, Jaune was currently getting a first-hand display of those very skills.

Cardin's fighting style was clearly similar to Jaune's in the sense that he focused more on offense than defense, but since he did not have a shield like the blonde, Cardin did not really have the option of considering defense too often. It did not seem like he had to though with how Jaune fought, because the leader of Team JNPR just kept getting back up and charging in again no matter how many times Cardin knocked him down, even when he really should have tried a different approach. Proof of this held true when Jaune rose to his feet again, not knowing that his Aura levels were very low at the moment and rose to lock his sword with Cardin's mace. Jaune pushed with all his might in an attempt to make Cardin fall, but the other boy was just too big and strong for Jaune's efforts to really do all that much.

"This is the part where you lose," Cardin mocked with a smug grin.

"Over my dead body," Jaune retorted, and next thing Cardin knew, the blonde had swung his shield around to hit him in the side.

Jaune's shield managed to hit its mark, making Cardin stumble a little, and giving Jaune a chance to push a slight advantage, but Cardin was able to recover quickly enough and managed to deflect Jaune's follow-up attacks until they locked weapons again. Jaune was about to try a similar to tactic to the one he used earlier, but he never got the chance as Cardin suddenly kneed him in the crotch, taking all wind out of Jaune's sails, and making him drop to the floor in pain, while every other male watching this all winced in sympathy for the blonde.

"Ouch! That's gonna hurt tomorrow morning," Lea muttered to his teammates, who could only nod in equal agreement and sympathy.

"Cheap shot," Roxas grumbled, not liking the use of such underhanded, below-the-belt tactics, even if he could admit that they were sometimes beneficial. The only thing he liked even less was how Cardin was now raising his mace above his head like he was getting ready to crush Jaune's skull, and he likely would have rushed in to help had it not been for the fact that for one thing, he would have gotten into trouble for interfering, and for another thing, someone else managed to stop him before he could swing.

"Cardin, that's enough," Glynda admonished over the buzzer that had just sounded while the lights around the arena all came back to their normal level of brightness. When Cardin did not stand down right away, Goodwitch shot him a glare that just dared him to try and challenge her further, prompting the boy to finally back down and step back. Seeing that the combatants were now calmed, Glynda looked to the rest of the class and began her quick lecture. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match."

"You have to admit, that is a pretty sound way of deciding a winner," Ventus whispered to his teammates. "Instead of just waiting for the usual ring-out or knockout, they can use Aura like a life gauge, so there's less chance of someone receiving really serious injuries at the end of a fight."

"Yeah, but at the same time, it's also a pretty nonrealistic way of training these kids for fights against something outside of tournament style duels," Roxas pointed out. "I doubt the Grimm or any other bad guy they go up against would care how much Aura a person has at any given time, and if they did, it would only be because their lack of any Aura would make them easier to finish off for good."

"Come on, Roxas, lighten up. These kids aren't that stupid to think that everything will always be that easy," Lea said in the defense of their fellow students. "That's why the Profs are all making sure that they remember they can check their Aura levels with their Scrolls."

"Some more so than others," Ventus pointed out, as he listened to Professor Goodwitch lecturing Jaune on that very matter, while reminding him of how one should react once gauging their Aura properly. He just wished that Glynda had not ended it the way that she did, seeing as it opened up another chance for Cardin to throw another barb at Jaune's expense, earning the bully another pair of fierce glares from Sora and Roxas right after.

Roxas continued glaring at Cardin, even after he had walked off and out of sight, before muttering, "Just give me five minutes in the ring with him…If I'm feeling merciful…"

"I'll only need you to give me one," Sora informed the blonde.

Thankfully, all thoughts of ways that the two could make Cardin pay for his bullying was put out of their minds when Goodwitch called for everyone's attention again. "Remember everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale."

Team SLVR may not have known all that much about the Vytal Festival, but from the way that Ruby, Yang, and even Weiss were fidgeting excitedly in their seats, it was clear that there was plenty of reason to be excited for it. Add in the fact that there was going to be a combat tournament, and the boys could all admit that they could see at least one reason why they should be excited for the event. Still, Roxas, Ventus, and Lea were all wondering if they should even ask about whether or not they would participate. Part of it was because they were unsure if they would be allowed to take part, given that this would not be like the Games at Olympus Coliseum, but the main reason was because they did not know if Sora would feel up for it. Sure, he had let his competitive streak get him into various competitions in the past while on a big mission, but considering the nature of this mission that they were on, it was hard to really say if he would want to sign up for a tournament this time.

Despite this, there was not really all that much harm in asking, and since it would not be the first time that most of them had gotten into a tournament on another world, Lea felt all the more justified in voicing the question for the group. "So, we are going to be signing up for this thing, right," Lea questioned.

"We'll see," Sora quietly replied a little more evenly than the rest would have liked. "The Vytal Festival alone would provide us a great chance for finding clues that may help in our mission, but if the tournament hinders our search in anyway, then it would probably be better to just be spectators."

"Come on, Sora. You love getting into big fight tournaments, especially against strong opponents," Roxas encouraged, hoping to bring out a little bit of that competitive side in his former other.

"Even I know when to put games on hold for something important," Sora argued, and he did not say all that much more on the matter.

The other three boys all exchanged worried looks after hearing his answer, but all further thought on the matter was dropped when Goodwitch spoke up again, saying, "Now then, I believe we still have time for one more match. Would anyone like to volunteer?"

"I would, ma'am," Weiss instantly answered with a hand up.

"Very well, Miss Schnee," Goodwitch agreed as she began tapping at her Scroll. "Let's see about finding you an opponent."

"Actually, if you don't mind, I already had someone in mind," Weiss confessed, earning her a curious look from the professor that prompted her to name the person in question. Hearing no protests from their teacher, Weiss declared, "I would like to have a match with Sora of Team SLVR."

That got the attention of everyone in class. A lot of rumors had been going around about the team of Keyblade wielders since Initiation, especially after one or two students had somehow caught Sora outside at night when he was doing some of his basic drills, so hearing that one of the members of that team, and the leader at that, was likely going to provide them all with a real demonstration of his talents, naturally got everyone pretty excited. Despite her otherwise neutral expression, even Goodwitch would admit that she was intrigued by what these strange boys that Ozpin had claimed to be from another world were capable of, but all the same, she was not going to force Sora into the match, and that was why she looked to him and asked, "Mister Hikari, do you have any opposition to this request?"

"Nope, none at all," Sora said with a smile as he stood up. "Besides, I had promised Weiss that I would have a match with her sometime, so what better time than now?"

"Well, so glad that we can allow you to be a man of your word, Mister Hikari," Goodwitch sarcastically replied, though on the inside, she would admit that she was glad to see that the leader of Team SLVR was such a person.

Having that settled, the two combatants moved to prepare for their match, and soon enough, Sora and Weiss were standing center stage in the ring, with weapons ready and eager smirks on their faces. Everyone was on the edge of their seats for this match-up, not just because it would promise to be a very exciting fight, but also because they would get to see a member of Team SLVR in action at last. Ruby certainly proved that with how she was flipping her gaze back and forth between Weiss, Sora, and Sora's Keyblade, clearly unable to decide which part of the fight she was more excited about. That, and she was unable to decide which of her two friends she should be cheering for right now, and from the look of things, Yang was not much better off, at least by a small margin. The other members of Team SLVR were pretty excited too, but they were more curious about something else besides what the fight was promising.

"Do either of you guys know which Keychains Sora's going with for this," Lea quietly asked. He did not want to risk saying anything that might give away Sora's strategy, in case Weiss could somehow hear them, or even saying anything that might cause their secrets to be blown if anyone else overheard, and thankfully, his two friends were doing their best to stay just as quiet.

"Well, we can clearly see that he's got Kingdom Key's, considering that's the form his Keyblade is in right now, and I think he might have Shooting Star equipped as well, but as far as his third one, I don't know. I hadn't actually thought to try and look as he was heading up," Ventus confessed.

"I know I saw him switch out his third Keychain for something else, but I couldn't get a good look at what the new one was when he did," Roxas informed the other two.

"What Keychain was he even using before," Lea asked.

"I'm pretty sure that he hadn't switched out the three he had at the end of Initiation up until now, so if nothing else, we know that it probably isn't Nano Gear," Ventus recalled while crossing his arms. At that point, a rather worrying thought crossed his mind, and he could not help but ask, "You don't think he's going to use something like Ultima Weapon, do you?"

"Come on, Ven. Sora's not that dumb; he knows that would be overkill in a match like this, and he definitely wouldn't go into a fight with that much power against a friend, even if they asked him. Besides, he told me on the way here that he was going to try to avoid using Ultima Weapon as much as possible since the transformations associated with that one are the most obvious give-away to you-know-what," Lea whispered, referring to the whole fact that they were from other worlds at the end just in case someone could hear them.

"Maybe he's using Starlight? I mean, that has been one of his defaults ever since he got it, even if its Form Change isn't that different from the one that he gets from Kingdom Key, aside from the extra amount of power increase," Roxas reasoned.

"I don't think so. Sora told me the other day that he was considering only using Starlight in case he needed something that was similar to Kingdom Key but with extra power. So, I guess all of this means we're just going to have to wait and see what he's got in store for Weiss," Ventus finally concluded as he and the other two turned their attention onto the stage.

Right when the three boys had faced the stage, the battle had begun, prompting Weiss and Sora to charge each other. When they met in the middle of the ring, their blades soon clashed with one another in a series of faint rings, clings, and clangs of metal striking metal, while the strikes themselves were so fast that one would think that the two were almost moving at super speed. At one point, Sora rolled under one of Weiss's strikes in an attempt to strike her from behind, but Weiss was quick to jump away from Sora before his attack could connect, and the second after she had spun around to face Sora again, Weiss rushed forward in a high-speed thrust that was aimed right at the boy's chest. Thankfully, Sora managed to parry the blow and land at least one hit on Weiss in return, earning him the privilege of first blood, figuratively speaking that is. Not that it deterred Weiss for too long, as she was able to spin away from Sora with a move that almost seemed like something out of a graceful dance, and after taking a moment to pause and catch her breath while staring down her opponent, Weiss was on the attack again, only this time, she had spun the revolver in her rapier around beforehand so that it would release a blast of fire dust whether she struck her target or not.

Whether Sora saw that coming or not, no one was sure, but they had to assume he had not since he was left very surprised when his next attempt at dodging almost set one of his pants legs on fire. Weiss did not let up in her elemental assault though, as another swing of her blade sent a series of ice spikes directly at Sora, and likely would have impaled him, or at least left him really scratched up and frozen stiff had he not jumped over the icy attack with an extra assist of Flowmotion and wind magic. Using the extra energy his Flowmotion powers provided, Sora swung his Keyblade down as hard as he could upon his descent, creating a powerful shockwave that knocked Weiss off-balance for a moment, giving him the chance to charge the girl and attempt another series of powerful sword strikes. Somehow though, Weiss managed to avoid and even counter a lot of Sora's attacks. When Weiss began to counterattack in full, it started to become a little more clear that Sora was actually having some trouble blocking a few of the girl's strikes.

"Uh Sora? Are you holding back or something, or are you just having an off day," Lea finally questioned from where he was sitting.

"Axel, you know Sora never holds back in a fight, even if it's against his friends," Roxas admonished. He then thought back to a few moments in the past that contradicted his statement, including this one, and quietly corrected himself. "Well…not to a great extent, at least, and not when he knows that he need to in order to keep a few things on the down-low."

While the other two started to debate and recall times that Sora may or may not have held back in a fight, no matter the opponent, Ventus was taking the time to better analyze the fight so that he could try to figure out why Sora seemed to be having so much trouble. Weiss did not seem any different from anyone that Sora had fought before, as far as the blonde could recall both from what he had seen Sora do in the past and from what he had read about in his copy of Jiminy's journal, but after a moment or two, he started to see one thing that did stand out more than anything else. It was also a factor that would actually prove to make Weiss a tough opponent to handle for many people in general, really, but it was still a little surprising for Ventus all the same.

"She's left-handed," Ventus finally announced, getting looks from his teammates, Ruby, and Yang. "Have any of you guys ever noticed that about Weiss? Whenever she fights, she always wields her sword in her left hand, and never her right. Since Sora is used to fighting against people who are also right-handed like him, Weiss has put him at a disadvantage simply because of her dexterity. That holds true for a lot of people, really, and that's why people who are left-handed also excel in various different sports."

"Wow, really? Hm," Ruby hummed in thought. She was left-handed as well, but over the course of training with her uncle, she had become ambidextrous to the point where she used her right hand like it was her dominant hand just as much as her left. It was definitely something that she would be keeping in mind for the future just in case.

Back in the arena, Sora had caught onto the fact that Weiss was left-handed as well, and while he was a little more concerned over how this was the first time he had ever faced such an opponent, he was also a little excited. This would be a big help for improving his fighting style, as it would help him to start thinking a little more creatively on how to best defeat Weiss, despite their different dexterities. Thankfully, Sora was not without options, as he proved as he once again fired off a blast of magic, this time in the form of ice magic. Weiss was able to deflect Sora's attack with a blast of fire from her rapier, but Sora had not been aiming for his attack to hit Weiss. He just needed the spell to form the icy path that had been created along the ground, which he had now hopped onto and used to slide in closer at high-speeds through the use of Flowmotion. Since Weiss was not expecting such an attack, she just barely managed to summon a glyph in order to defend herself, but she did manage it in the end, and like the Boarbatusk that she fought in Port's class the other day, Sora ended up bouncing off the glyph and sent flying across the arena. Unlike the Boarbatusk though, Sora managed to recover in midair just enough so that he landed on his feet, ready to defend against Weiss's next round of attacks, which seemed to come much more quickly now that Weiss was using her glyphs to boost her speed and attacks. Under the heiress's high-speed assault, Sora could barely keep his guard up to the point where he was able to successfully block all of her attacks, but he did still manage to deflect the last thrust Weiss had launched at him after bouncing off one last glyph.

Having been thrown off balance once again by the boy, Weiss struggled a little in order to get back on her feet once she had landed on the ground again. Not that it bothered her too much, as she was actually pretty glad that Sora still had some fight left in him, even if he was panting a little bit now. True, Weiss was also a little short of breath at the moment, but that just made this all the more exciting for her, and the smirk on her face proved it to Sora and everyone else watching. It was almost scary how much Weiss had been smiling in this fight for some of them, but some people would argue that it was actually nice to see this side of her.

Sora may have been one of those people, but he was not about to let Weiss win just because he was happy to see she was enjoying herself. In fact, he still had one trick up his sleeve that he was sure would help him pull out a win in this fight, and glancing at the readout of his Aura level on his Scroll, and the level of Weiss's Aura level that was being displayed on the screen above the arena, Sora could tell that if he was going to make a winning move, it would have to be now or never. Now don't misunderstand, Team SLVR had not had their Auras fully unlocked like the rest of the students, but they had discovered that for the sake of blending in on this world, their unique magic powers had allowed their Auras to be unlocked to the extent that was necessary for duels such as the one Sora was currently in, and for the sake of giving them extra protection whether they needed it or not.

Once he had finished his brief check on their respective Auras, Sora smirked at Weiss and said, "I have to admit, you're really giving me a good fight, Weiss, but I think it's high time I finished this."

"You're more than welcome to try," Weiss challenged. She too had seen what the score currently was between them, and she was confident that she would be able to best anything Sora could throw at her and secure her victory at this point. Too bad for Weiss, she had made a serious mistake that many other people had made in the past: she underestimated just what Sora was capable of.

Hearing Weiss's challenged, Sora was more than ready to rise up to it, and with a quick flourish, he left everyone in awe as his Keyblade transformed from his basic Kingdom Key into the light-blue and white, winter themed designs of one of his newest Keychains: Crystal Snow, a series of snowflake-like sparkles falling from around the blade as it appeared. Even Weiss was left in awe of this new Keyblade's appearance, from its coloring, to the fact that its design seemed to be based off of what looked to be an ice palace of some kind, with snowflakes all across the blade, while an especially large one made up the teeth. Of course, the transformations did not end there, as Sora soon proved with a wide grin.

"Let's go Blizzard Claws," Sora shouted while aiming his Keyblade high over his head, and a second later, Weiss had to shield her face with her free arm, as a flurry of snow and ice seemed to materialize around Sora as his Keyblade changed. When the flurry finally dispersed, Weiss was surprised to see that Sora's Keyblade had changed into a pair of large claws that appeared to be made of the same icy structure that Crystal Snow was, and not only that, but he was now rushing towards her with a speed that he did not possess before.

Seeing this oncoming attack, Weiss attempted to form an ice wall with her rapier, but Sora easily smashed through it with a simple swing of one of his new icicle claws, and was soon dealing even more swings of those claws at a very rapid pace. In point of fact, Sora's rapid swipes were coming so fast, that Weiss barely had time to try and form any glyphs now, be it for defense or as a way of helping her to avoid Sora's attacks in one manner or another. Before long, Sora's claws had grown quite a bit in size, and began rotating really fast as he launched them at her. Luckily Weiss was able to use a glyph that would help her to avoid the worst of that attack, but she was not quite fast enough to strike back before Sora had transformed his weapon for a second time.

"Here we go, Blizzard Blades," Sora cried out as he spun around, his claws splitting apart slightly before they ultimately reformed into a set of blades that extended out from his wrists, while another pair formed onto his feet like extra sharp ice skates. The description of the latter may not have been too far off, as Sora was soon skating around the arena at a speed that was too fast for Weiss to follow, and his attacks were just as fast as they were sharp, and from what she could tell, every attack that Sora unleashed now came with an extra chill, as they seemed to summon ice with every swing of those four blades he now had. When Sora finally let up in her assault, Weiss thought she might have finally gained a chance to turn things back in her favor, but that was another mistake on her part, as Sora was just gearing up for his final attack.

Stomping one of his ice-blade-encased feet on the ground, Sora created a large, snowflake-shaped patch of ice that began building up a tall ice structure. As the structure began to form, leaving everyone cooing in awe of its beauty, Sora started dancing his way up the forming ice crystals, until he was at the top of the fully formed structure, which many thought looked a lot like a large, ice chandelier. When he reached his destination, Sora swiped one of his blades at the top of the chandelier, and everyone could only watch as it dropped down and collapsed on the ground, though Weiss did so with a very worried look on her face. When the icy structure finally hit, a massive torrent of ice and snow was released as it collapsed against the ground, encompassing everything in the arena until nothing could be seen but a cloud of cold air. When the fog finally lifted, Weiss could be seen barely holding herself up, while Sora stood tall, his Keyblade back to normal once again, serving as more proof of the victor of the fight than the buzzer did.

"A very impressive display, Mister Hikari," Goodwitch admitted. That did not stop her from dolling out some form of instruction for both him and Weiss though. "Though perhaps you should improve for any future fights you have against an opponent like Miss Schnee. Speaking of which, while your resolve against a more powerful opponent was admirable, Miss Schnee, it would do you a great deal of benefit to avoid antagonizing such an opponent before you have finished the fight."

"Yes Professor," Weiss nodded in understanding, able to acknowledge that she had in fact messed up at the end there.

The bell to signal the end of class rang almost right after that, and the students were all soon making their way out, each talking animatedly about the match they had just witnessed. Sure, there was a good deal about how Weiss did, but most of it seemed to focus on Sora's end of the fight. Not that Weiss could blame them, since Team SLVR was a much bigger mystery at the school, but it did still sting a little that she had lost so soundly. That sting lessened a little after Sora approached her and said, "Hey, sorry about what happened at the end there. I guess I got a little too carried away and overdid it."

"You shouldn't apologize. I'm the one who asked you to not hold back in the match, and you agreed. I would say that this made for quite the learning experience for both of us," Weiss reassured him with a smile. That smile grew into a smirk soon after as she added, "Just know that I will not allow you to win so easily the next time we have a match."

Sora just smirked in return before holding his hand out to Weiss in offering for a handshake, and said, "Looking forward to that, Weiss."

Weiss gladly accepted the handshake with a smile of her own, and she was left a little surprised at how she was now even more excited for any possible rematch the two of them could have in the future than she had been about the spar that they just finished. She was not sure if it was something about Sora's eagerness for the same thing rubbing off on her or not, but in all honesty, she really did not care. Facing off against a challenging opponent like that had been really fun for her, and after looking over to the rest of Sora's teammates, Weiss had to wonder if they were just as good as their leader. Of course, one could point out that her gaze had lingered on Sora's blonde partner more than the others, but Weiss would be quick to insist that they had merely been seeing things.

---

"So, there we were, in the middle of the night…," Nora creepily said to the gathered group of twelve.

"It was day," Ren corrected like clockwork, despite the fact that he knew Nora would continue like he had not spoken. This was a pattern that they held for every story that Nora told for the longest time, and it was going to remain the same with this one.

"We were surrounded by Ursai…"

"They were Beowolves."

"DOZENS OF THEM!"

"Two of 'em."

"But they were no match, and in the end, Ren and I took them down, and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs."

"Wait, how would that even be possible? Don't all Grimm just disintegrate into ash or something after they're killed," Ventus questioned, being the first out of the rest of the gang to get a word in since Nora was asked to tell this story.

The blonde's question went unanswered, as Ren just simply sighed and explained, "She's been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now."

Everyone who had actually been paying attention could only nod in sympathy with Ren's plight, while most of the rest only did so to show that they had been paying at least a little bit of attention to the conversation. It did make for quite the interesting lunch gathering after all, but then again, it was like that for every other lunch period that Teams RWBY, JNPR, and SLVR had shared, which was nearly all of them. While Nora told over exaggerated stories that Ren corrected, the others either listened in on the ginger haired girl's extravagant tale as they ate, or found other things to do while paying the smallest amount of attention to the story, if any at all. Take today for instance; Blake was deeply engrossed in one of her almost omnipresent books while another with her notes rested beneath her hand, Ventus was reviewing his own notes for a couple of classes with Roxas, Lea and Yang were both listening to Nora's story, and Weiss was currently filing her nails a little while studying a video of her match with Sora, which Ventus had provided for her after she learned he had recorded the whole thing.

The only things that were out of the ordinary for them at the moment, were the three team leaders and Pyrrha, as Jaune merely picked at his food with a fork, while Ruby, Sora, and Pyrrha all looked at him with varying degrees of worry on their faces. You could not really blame any of the three for worrying about Jaune, as despite the excitement of Sora's match with Weiss, Jaune was still looking really down about how his own match that day had gone. The fact that his match was against Cardin was not really helping matters either, as everyone on all three teams had taken notice of how the bigger, more armored boy had been bullying Jaune ever since the school year had started. Having your one chance to fight back against someone pushing you around like that basically thrown in your face would leave anyone in a pretty sad mood, and needless to say, Jaune's partner and friends were really starting to worry about him.

"Jaune, are you okay," Pyrrha finally asked.

"Huh," Jaune asked, having been too caught up in his dismay to realize that someone had spoken to him right away. When he looked to see the concerned faces that three of his friends were giving him, he quickly dropped his fork so that he could try to put up a more positive front and replied, "Oh, yeah! Why?"

"It's just that you seem a little…not okay," Ruby worriedly answered. She had been so put-off by Jaune's current demeanor that she had hardly even touched the plate of cookies she had gotten earlier, and anyone who knew Ruby would be able to tell you just how big of an indicator that was to her concerns regarding anything in a given moment.

"Not to mention that you haven't really eaten all that much yet, or said anything since Combat Class," Sora pointed out, feeling that it would not hurt to be a little blunt on the matter.

Hearing the two speak up got the attention of everyone sitting at the table, but the concerned looks of his friends only seemed to make Jaune a bit more defensive. "Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look," the young knight insisted before giving them a small smile and a nervous laugh.

It did not need to be said how believable Jaune's attempt at reassurance was, but Lea still said it anyway. "Yeah, dude, Roxas could've made a better fake smile than that in his major zombie days, and that's really saying something."

"Ugh, seriously? Are you ever going to just let the Zombie-boy thing die," Roxas grumbled to his friend.

"Not in this lifetime, buddy," Lea chuckled in return.

"Why do you call him that, anyway," Yang asked, having been curious about the matter for a while. When the others all turned to hear the redhead's answer, Jaune quietly breathed a sigh of relief for the fact that the attention was off of him for the moment, but Pyrrha still managed to take notice of the fact as she listened to this new tale.

"Haha! Oh boy, now that is a story," Lea chuckled, while Roxas merely groaned. "See, when me and Roxas first met way back, he couldn't remember anything about his past. Hell, he could barely remember much more than the necessities for basic human living and functioning. Hardly ever talked too, and spent most of his days either roaming around the place without any real direction or staring off into space with this blank look on his face. The few times he did talk back then, he only ever said like one or two words, and nothing else. Save for the fact that he didn't have a craving for brains or a need to start groaning and moaning as he walked, and you can see why everyone thought he was a total zombie. I mean, he's still kind of a zombie now, but…"

"Oh shut up," Roxas snapped as he swatted Lea's arm, even if it was with a grin.

"Hey, I have plenty of right to make fun of you after all that you put me through when our old boss first assigned me to be your mentor or whatever you want to call it," Lea teased in return as he slapped Roxas on the back, earning smiles from the rest of the group as they watched the display of closeness between the two best friends.

"Just what kind of job did you two do back then, anyway," Blake inquired, her curiosity about the four Keybearers' past showing itself a little.

All playfulness evaporated from both Lea and Roxas, right to a point that was almost concerning for the others, and the redhead simply replied, "I'd…really rather not talk about it. Neither of us would. It's not a time that…well, we're not exactly all that eager to relieve most parts about those glory days."

Roxas could only nod in silent agreement, and while the others all looked like they wanted to press a little more out of concern for the two, a quick look from either Ventus or Sora silenced those notions very easily. It made sense, given that Sora and Ven were the only two at the table who knew the full extent of the former Nobodies' past, or at least something close to it, but at the same time, it also made both teams of huntsmen-in-training grow a bit more curious about Team SLVR's past as well. This was especially true for Yang when she noticed how Lea's eyes seemed to water a bit like he was struggling to hold back some tears, a first for the fiery redhead in the time that Yang had known him, and looking at him, Yang could swear that there was something in his eyes that she had seen quite a bit in her mirror after a certain incident in her childhood that had nearly gotten her and Ruby killed.

Having noticed all of that, Yang was ready to ignore the warning looks from Lea's teammates and try to talk to him about the matter, when the sound of obnoxious laughter grabbed everyone's attention. Upon turning to the source, everyone at the table either frowned or glared at the sight of Cardin and his team picking on a Faunus student with long rabbit ears, while constantly cutting off her attempts to get away from the four bullies. Blake and Jaune's glares were easily two of the harshest, but even theirs compared little to the intensity behind the looks that Sora and Roxas were both throwing in Cardin's direction, specifically, and everyone could easily guess why. Sora had not made it a secret as to how little he liked bullies, and Roxas had made even less of an effort on hiding his own opinion about such individuals. The only difference between the two was that more often than not, Roxas ended up being the one that everyone felt the need to hold back, especially since Sora always somehow managed to step between the blonde and his target whenever they spotted Cardin making trouble for other students. Even so, they could tell that it was a bit of a struggle for Sora to do so from time to time.

Seeing the way Cardin and his friends were acting to their most recent target, along with the way that Jaune was glaring at the leader of Team CRDL (Cardinal), was what helped Pyrrha get back to the matter that they had been discussing before the brief interruption for Lea's story. "Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school," the redhead bluntly stated, hoping that would get Jaune to open up about his problems a little. She was wrong.

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah…He just likes to mess around, you know? Practical jokes," Jaune tried to play off, even if he knew that none of his friends would buy it.

"He's a bully," Ruby, Sora, and Roxas all corrected as one, the girl of the three scowling at the fact, while the two boys had the added edge of a growl to their voices with their scowls.

"Oh please. Name one time he's 'bullied' me," Jaune challenged.

"We'll do you four times better," Roxas accepted, raising a finger up as he and his friends listed off the aforementioned times. "The morning of initiation, he tripped you and made you spill your food all over yourself…"

"Which I'm guessing was how that smudge got onto the paper you wrote your locker number down on," Lea reasoned out.

"He knocked your books out of your hands when you passed by him in the hall once," Sora continued on.

"He activated your shield as you were going into the classroom so that you would get stuck in the door," Roxas listed off, now having three fingers raised, and ready to bring up the fourth one with the last thing, provided by his blonde look-a-like.

"And I doubt anyone is going to forget how he not only shoved you into your rocket-propelled weapon locker, but also launched said locker while you were still in it," Ventus finished.

Everyone was silent upon hearing the completion of said list, though the ones who were somehow only just now hearing about the last one looked at Jaune with a great deal of worry. Even Weiss was frowning in concern for him, and she had not really been too eager to give Jaune the time of day after her first impression of the boy, but despite all of this concern being directed at him, Jaune did not seem to really register how worried he was really making his friends by continuing to act like it was nothing. "I didn't land far from the school," Jaune tried to insist.

"No, just far enough for you to be half an hour late for Professor Oobleck's class," Ventus recalled.

"That explains so much," Weiss muttered, recalling how out of breath and disheveled Jaune looked when he finally made it, and how he smelled like the fumes that came from the rockets on their lockers.

"Jaune, you know if you ever need help you can just ask," Pyrrha tried to reassure her partner.

"OOH! We'll break his legs," Nora eagerly suggested, her smile a disturbing mix of sinister and excited when she did.

It was a look that the Keybearers had all seen before on one of their own, and they were about to see it again when Lea offered up his own suggestion. "And while we're at it, how about we also burn 'em off?!"

"YEAH!"

"No," Sora shot down not even a second after Nora had agreed, though the reproachful look he threw out at the two was mostly directed to his own teammate. "Lea, we've told you already, you can't burn Cardin or any other student just because you don't like 'em."

"Oh come on! I get Ice Princess…"

"Wait, what," Weiss asked, suddenly feeling a little nervous. She was only able to remain that calm because of Ventus putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"…But you can at least let me burn Cardin! I mean, he deserves it way more," Lea complained to his leader.

"Doesn't matter if he deserves it or not. If we sink to his level, then we'd be no better than him," Sora insisted.

"Please?! Just a little bit," Lea pleaded.

"No."

"Not even the lightest of burns?"

"No."

"What if I make it look like an accident?"

"Yeah, right. Like you could actually control yourself to that extent," Roxas scoffed in disbelief. That soon wavered though when he asked, "Can you?"

"Yeah."

"The answer is no," Sora snapped at the redhead. "He's not worth it."

"Sora's right, you guys. It's fine, really," Jaune added in, hoping that his two cents would keep this from getting too out of hand, even as Lea pouted over the denial of his offered revenge tactic. "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone."

"That doesn't make it better," Roxas argued.

"Ooww, that hurts," someone suddenly shouted, prompting everyone to turn to where Cardin's team was at once again. Almost as though the universe was proving both Roxas and Jaune's points, the team saw that Cardin was now pulling on the ears of the rabbit Faunus he and his friends were cornering, while she attempted to get away to no avail, much to his teammates' amusement. "Please, stop," the girl pleaded.

Cardin just ignored her, and looked to his friends as he said, "I told you it was real!"

"What a freak," his teammate, Russel mocked as he and the others continued to laugh.

As he watched the bullies continue picking on the girl, Sora could feel his scowl growing with every second, and was soon repeating a mantra in his head just to keep calm. 'They're not worth it. They're not worth it.'

The three teams continued watching as the girl finally managed to pull away, only to end up having Cardin's other teammate, Dove pull her back by her lunch tray. "Hey, how big a family do you have anyway," Dove inquired.

"It's probably massive enough to the point where the neighbors are always calling someone about a rodent infestation" Sky, the last member of Team CRDL remarked with a mocking grin.

'Be the better man. Be the better man,' Roxas thought to himself in his own attempt to keep calm.

When the girl finally pulled away again, she failed to realize that Cardin had made his way around her and stuck his leg out, until after she had tripped over said leg and fell to the floor, her tray of food splattering everywhere and making her landing much messier. When she sat up again, it looked like she was on the verge of tears, and all Team CRDL could do was continue laughing. That proved to be a mistake, as they had unknowingly just set off a pair of beasts within Team SLVR.

"Screw it! I can't just sit here anymore," Roxas finally snapped as he jumped up and started making his way over.

"Who's making you," Sora rhetorically asked, having now decided that Cardin and his gang were most definitely worth it.

The rest of Team SLVR and Teams JNPR and RWBY could only watch after the two boys as they moved in to retaliate against the bullies, with only Ventus being able to comment on the matter. "Suddenly, I don't know whether to finally sorry for those guys or to be worried about them."

"I'd go with neither. Like I said, they've got this coming," Lea replied, his grin now back on his face again.

Back with Cardin, he was about to move in and torture the poor girl some more, when he was suddenly pushed back towards his friends. Looking to who had gotten in his way, he was met with the sight of Roxas standing between him and the girl, glaring at him the whole time, while Sora attended to the girl in question as he threw his own hateful look at the bullies. "I'm only going to say this once: leave her alone," Roxas growled.

"Oh yeah? And what're you gonna do if we don't," Dove challenged.

Roxas would have answered, had Sky not realized who they were talking to first. "Hold on, isn't he one of those weirdoes with the key-shaped swords?"

"Yeah, Team SLVR," Russel recalled with a mocking grin. "Although, they should've called you Team Stupid, since you all got the stupidest weapons ever."

"They may not look like much, but we'd still take the Keyblades over the pieces of junk I've seen you guys use any day of the week," Roxas shot back.

"You want to run that by me again, punk," Russel challenged.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, for my friend. That was mean of him," Sora apologized with a smile, sounding surprisingly sincere as he stood up to better address the four, once he assured the girl he would just be a moment. His reason for doing so was revealed when he added, "He should have used smaller words or at least put it in a way that you guys could understand. Let me try and translate." He then cleared his throat and started talking in a manner similar to his old friend, Tarzan. "Keyblades good, very good. Stupid sticks you use bad. You dumb."

While Sora and Roxas's friends all either grinned, made some feeble attempt to suppress their laughter, or just outright laughed without a care along with all the other students that were observing the confrontation, Cardin and his team just got angrier, until Cardin got almost right up in Sora's face. "Are you making fun of us," he demanded.

Sora did not answer, but instead looked at Cardin in amazement as he gasped, "Oh wow! A bully who's so stupid he doesn't even realize when someone's giving him a taste of his own medicine! Roxas, have you ever seen something like that?"

"Hmm, no, I don't think so. I was actually about to ask you if you have," Roxas commented with a mocking grin of his own.

"Nope, this is a first for me, too," Sora replied, as he continued on with their joke, riling up Cardin even more. Seeing that, Sora switched back to his glare as he asked, "Doesn't feel so good to be on the other end, does it?"

"You know what else isn't going to feel good? Your faces after I've planted a fist into each of them," Cardin growled.

"Please. You'd be more likely to hurt yourself doing that. Honestly though, I'm surprised that you don't already hurt yourself on those subpar pieces of metal that you call armor," Roxas retorted. "Guess that would explain why you need your buddies to help you gang up on someone. You're too scared to try and pick on someone your own size by yourself."

"His own size? He seems like he's scared to fight someone that matches the size of his brain," Sora shot out. "Then again, I'm pretty sure everyone here is bigger than that. Actually makes you wonder how he ever got into this school in the first place."

Now Cardin was pissed. "You want to start something with me? Fine! I'll take you both on right here, right now!"

"I've got a better idea. Combat arena, after class. You and all of your teammates against the two of us," Roxas offered. When Team CRDL started to look like they were thinking he was trying to run away, Roxas informed them, "Unlike you losers, my friends and I aren't stupid enough to try and do something that would be likely to get us detention at best. Besides, we might as well make it at least a little closer to a fair fight for you."

"…You're on," Cardin growled, and with that, he shoved past both Roxas and Sora. Doing so proved to be a bad move, since both boys held their ground fast, and made Cardin stumble a little as a result, leading him to look even more stupid than he already did after the little show just now.

When the four bullies were finally gone, Sora returned his attention to Cardin's most recent victim, and began helping her to better clean up the recent mess. "Sorry you had to put up with that from those guys," Sora said to the rabbit Faunus. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yes. Thank you," the girl nervously replied as she finally gathered the last of her things. "You didn't have to do that."

"Someone had to, and we wanted to help," Roxas insisted with a friendly smile. "Besides, how many sensible people do you know of that actually like seeing someone getting bullied?"

The girl remained silent, but she did smile a little more after she heard that, prompting the two boys to grin a little more. "Anyways, I don't think we've really had the chance to introduce ourselves to you, yet. I'm Sora, and this is Roxas," the Islander of the two said.

"Of Team SLVR, right? You're kind of legends among a lot of the students along with Teams RWBY and JNPR," the rabbit-eared girl informed them, her small smile not wavering in the slightest. When she saw the surprised looks the boys gained upon hearing that, she started to get the sense that she made them feel a little awkward, and quickly said, "I'm Velvet, of Team CFVY (Coffee)."

"Nice to meet you, Velvet," Roxas greeted in return as Sora helped her up. He then thought for a minute and asked, "Would you mind if we walked with you to your dorm, just in case those guys try to make any more trouble for you?"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to be any trouble, and besides, we do have another class after lunch…" Velvet tried to protest, but Sora was quick to wave that aside.

"Don't worry. It's no trouble at all. Besides, I doubt you'd really want to go to class covered in food like that," Sora reassured her.

With that said, Velvet could only nod in acceptance of the twos offer, and the three then departed the cafeteria for Team CFVY's dorm room. Watching the three go were some very astonished friends of the two boys, and all for varying different reasons. While Blake and Ren both had impressed smirks on their faces, and Weiss a curious, yet also approving look, the others were all just running the entire scenario through their minds, be it in an attempt to make sense of what had just happened, or because they just liked certain points of the confrontation more than others. Of course, in the case of Ventus and Lea, there was something else that had caught their attention.

"Who knew Sora could actually smack talk someone like that," Lea muttered to his friend.

"I know, right? Guess anything's possible once you've gotten someone pissed off enough," Ventus reasoned.

"Do you think they're going to be okay," Ruby asked, worried about her friends that were planning to take on a full team on their own.

"Who, Sora and Roxas, or those tools," Lea asked with a grin, knowing full well who Ruby was referring to.

"Still, getting all worked up like that over one Faunus girl," Weiss asked, sounding unusually cold, even for her.

"Would it be any different if she weren't a Faunus," Blake asked, her tone baring a few traces of anger when she spoke.

"Not to those two," Ventus stated. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but Sora and Roxas don't care about societal norms and standards. If they see someone in trouble, that's all they need to know to decide they should do something to help. I mean, all four of us are like that, but that's especially true in their case."

"How come," Yang asked.

"Have you met Sora? The guy values his friends and people close to him more than life itself, so it's only natural that he wouldn't like people that push others around," Lea pointed out. His face then grew a bit more serious and somber as he added, "Roxas on the other hand…let's just say that he's seen others deal with that type of thing and has even been on the receiving end of it himself, in a way, and he hates to see others going through it."

That made everyone curious as to what Roxas could have gone through, but from what they could tell, Lea was not going to say anymore on the matter. From the way he glared at them in a silent bid to not ask, they got the feeling that it was really more of a story that he felt Roxas had more of a right to tell than him, and it was not one that either one of them were all that fond of. Sensing just how heavy the air had become, Pyrrha attempted to avert it from Lea a little bit, by commenting, "I feel that Sora and Roxas may very well be justified, myself. Cardin's behavior just now was atrocious." She then glared down at her plate as she added, "I can't stand people like him."

"He's not the only one," Blake pointed out, her glare showing that she completely agreed with Pyrrha's opinion.

"It must be hard to be a Faunus," Yang sighed in sympathy, truly feeling sorry that there was not something else that they could do to try and help with that situation, not noticing how Blake secretly smiled a little bit upon hearing her.

Lea frowned a little upon hearing that as his mind went back to some of the first thoughts he had about the Faunus when he first learned of them once more. It was one thing to read and hear about how the Faunus were treated, but after seeing it displayed like it had been just now, Lea could not help but wonder if his earlier comparison between them and the Nobodies was really all that accurate. It certainly seemed that way at times, given the parallels he had seen thus far, but he did not recall anyone ever harassing Nobodies in the way that Velvet was being treated by Cardin and his gang just now. Not that it mattered either way, because in his eyes, there were enough similarities for him to really feel sorry for the Faunus. Of course, he did his best to hide his ill feelings by showcasing his usual smirk and asking, "So, how long do you think those guys will last against Sora and Roxas? I'm betting ten Lien that they don't even go for ten minutes, max."

"That's pretty generous. I was thinking more like seven," Ventus admitted.

"I'll take a piece of that action," Yang said with a grin. "I'd say they don't go for five minutes."

As the bets continued on around the table, Ruby could only look off to where Sora, Roxas, and Velvet had disappeared to in worry. After his earlier match with Weiss and all the stuff that happened in the Emerald Forest, Ruby knew she probably should not have too much to worry about when it came to Sora's fighting strength, but still, the guy was about to fight Cardin's entire team with only Roxas as his backup. It did not matter how strong Sora was, he was still the first friend Ruby had made at Beacon, so it was only natural that she would worry about him in her mind, despite having plenty of reasons not to worry. That concern for Sora ended up being replaced by another curious thought that formed in her head soon enough. 'Shouldn't I be concerned about Roxas, too? Why am I only this worried about Sora?'

---

"I can't believe Professor Goodwitch actually approved of this," Weiss said a few hours later after classes were over. She and the others had now all gathered together in school's combat arena to watch Sora and Roxas's match against Team CRDL, and from the look of things, nearly the entire school had as well. Not that this was too different from usual, as more often than not, if the students all heard about a match taking place in the arena outside of combat class, they would likely try to find a way to come and watch, but when word got out as to the circumstances behind the face-off, a whole new buzz had quickly picked up. Of course, no matches could take place without prior approval from Glynda or Ozpin, but Weiss was sure that the deputy headmistress would have said no when she found out the reason why this was happening.

"Guess she's just as upset about the way Cardin's been treating other students as everyone else," Yang offered in reasoning.

"I don't know. I could've sworn that when Sora was making the request, I heard her grumbling something about being glad that they weren't, and I quote, 'going at it in the courtyard like a bunch of Neanderthals in a back alley brawl,'" Lea disputed.

"You know, that does make a lot more sense," Nora nodded with her usual smile.

Before the others could comment on Nora's words, the whole room suddenly became alive with even more energy than before, and they all quickly turned to see the reason why was because Sora and Roxas were making their entrance into the arena. The two did not seem to have been paying any attention to the surrounding crowd, despite all the cheers that were going up for them, especially among the Faunus students and anyone else that Cardin had been picking on, but instead, just kept their gazes straight ahead at both the arena, and the entrance that their opponents would be stepping through. Said opponents did not take long to enter, as the various amounts of jeering and booing proved when Cardin strode in, his mace hefted over one shoulder, with the rest of his team falling in behind him, each armed with their own weapons as well. To be honest though, the way that they were coming in made Cardin look like a back alley gang leader with a posse of mindless idiots that would do everything their leader said just because they could not think for themselves, but Sora and Roxas did not seem to care. They were too busy glaring at all four of the other boys as they waltzed in.

"Alright, settle down everyone," Goodwitch called out, hoping to retain some form of civilized manner in this whole affair. "Now, for those who are not already aware, this will be an exhibition match between Sora Hikari and Roxas Sheru of Team SLVR, and the entirety of Team CRDL. As with all of our matches, tournament style rules will be applied here, so the winner will be decided when the Aura level of all members on one team falls into the red." She then cast an uncertain glance at Roxas and Sora and asked, "Mister Hikari, are you and Mister Sheru certain that you do not wish to have the entirety of your team join you, or that you would rather only face two members of Team CRDL as opposed to all of them?"

"Positive, Professor," Sora answered. He then smirked a little as he added, "It's already a little unfair for Cardin and his friends as it is just to be facing the two of us. Adding in Axel and Ventus would just make it overkill."

"Actually, I think that would be if we just added Axel into this. Having Ventus and Axel both would be…what's worse than overkill? Super-overkill," Roxas asked.

When Sora just shrugged and began trying to come up with such a term as well, Cardin and his boys just grew a little angrier until the leader of the four snapped, "Just start this thing already so we can ground them into dust!"

Glynda shot a very irritated look at Cardin for his outburst, cowing the bully a little after she had, and then allowed a brief silence to rein over the arena before she stepped outside of the arena's boundaries and declared, "Very well then…BEGIN!"

At that signal, Sora and Roxas both summoned out their Keyblades, and while Roxas's were his usual pair of Oathkeeper and Oblivion, Sora's turned out to be one that neither Teams RWBY or JNPR had seen until now. Lea and Ventus on the other hand knew exactly what it was, and could not help but smirk a little more excitement. "Oh, this is gonna be a lot better than we thought," Lea chuckled eagerly. "Hey Nora, I think you're really gonna like this Keyblade."

"Really? Why," Nora asked.

"I think the better question is how he plans on doing anything with that Keyblade? It looks like a toy," Blake admitted.

"That would be the Favorite Deputy Keyblade," Ventus explained for everyone. "It's one of Sora's favorite Keychains aside from Kingdom Key, and despite how it looks, it does have a lot of power behind it. Especially when he uses its other forms."

"You mean this one has some unique transformations as well? Just how many different weapons can Sora turn his Keyblade into," Ren questioned, honestly surprised by how versatile Sora's Keyblade was turning out to be. It was certainly capable of far more different transformations than any weapon he had ever heard of, and the same went for everyone else as well.

"Uh…I'm not really sure, to be honest," Ventus shrugged.

"Never really thought to keep count, myself," Lea admitted. He then leaned back with his grin still present, resting his arms behind his head as he said, "Either way, this is gonna be really good…Anyone got popcorn?"

Back in the arena, Team CRDL was just as confused by the appearance of Sora's Keyblade, but instead of being worried, they were just amused. "What are you gonna do with that thing? Put us in time-out," Russel mocked.

"Oh, I'm gonna do a lot worse than that, and even then, I'll still be holding back as we beat you all into next week," Sora promised, making their laughter come to a brief halt. Seeing that he had the bullies' attention, he took that time to add, "You can still back out though and walk away, if you're willing to go and apologize to Velvet."

"As if, freak-lover. The only ones here that are going to be sorry are you," Cardin smirked, and with that, he led his team in an all-out charge.

While Team CRDL was charging, Roxas could not help but take his eyes off of them for a moment so he could give Sora a small look, to which Sora could only shrug and say, "Yeah, I know; I'm too nice for my good sometimes, but at least you can't say I didn't try."

"Fair enough," Roxas conceded as he prepared for action. A second later, Sora was rolling under a swing from Cardin's mace, before deflecting Dove's sword, while Roxas merely parried the blows that Russel and Sky were trying to land on him with their weapons. After locking Sky's halberd down with Oathkeeper and then locking Oblivion with one of Russel's daggers, Roxas looked over to Sora and asked, "So, do you want to just keep going with this set-up, or would you rather we mix-and-match here and there?"

"Eh, that depends. How many shots do you want to take at all of these guys, or at least Cardin," Sora asked, acting like he was not currently parrying away a deadly blade while avoiding a wildly swinging mace at the same time.

"I couldn't care less about the small fry so long as I get at least a few hits on their ring leader," Roxas admitted after he had pushed Russel away, and used the momentum to swing himself around for a kick into Sky, followed by a fast slash of Oathkeeper.

"Fair enough," Sora agreed, and with that, the boys quickly commenced with their beat down of the bullies.

Since it seemed to Team CRDL that the two were either ignoring them or treating them like they were not a threat, it came as no surprise that the bigger boys all got even more riled up and began to rush at the two Keybearers without any real plans in mind. That proved to be exactly what Sora and Roxas wanted: for Cardin and his boys to get mad and act rashly. Doing so caused Cardin's team to leave themselves open for more attacks, and unable to really form any kind of defense against the two when Sora and Roxas did strike back, because for the most part, the two were parrying, blocking, or avoiding Team CRDL's attacks, letting them expend their energy with as little movement as possible. Even then, it was clear to everyone that Sora and Roxas were still toying with their opponents.

Eventually, Roxas and Sora managed to whittle Team CRDL down quite a bit, to the point where only Cardin was really able to properly stand on his feet, but to be honest, they did not have to do too much, as Cardin's own attacks ended up helping Roxas and Sora. More than once, Cardin had swung his mace into a teammate as he was drawing it back for a strike, or in preparation for a charge, and caused his own teammates' Auras to drop even faster than anything that the two Keybearers were doing. Sora and Roxas were not complaining though, as that just meant they would be able to make their final move all the sooner, and make a move they did, starting when Roxas suddenly became encased in an aura of light. Afterwards, Roxas leapt up into the air and began slashing wildly at the four boys several times over, until he suddenly became nothing more than a beam of light that rocketed through all Team Cardinal.

When Roxas emerged from the light beam again, his stance indicated that he had just completed a powerful cross-slash, and it seemed to show when Cardin and his friends all stumbled a great deal in a manner that was common following the aftereffects of such an attack. Not that they were any safer, because now it was Sora's turn, and he quickly raised Favorite Deputy into the air so that he could allow it to transform. When the blade had completed its transformation, Cardin and his pals all paled at the sight of what it had become, while Nora was grinning like mad with stars in her eyes.

"He can turn his Keyblade into a ROCKET HAMMER," Nora screeched excitedly, forcing Ren to plug his ears in an attempt to retain his hearing. "WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THAT SOONER?!"

Sora just grinned after he heard that, having suspected that Nora would like the Hyper Hammer form of Favorite Deputy, but he did not let that distract him from what he was doing right now. A second later, Sora had blasted forward, and, using the rocket engine on the end of his hammer, managed to dial up a powerful swing that would have sent all of Team CRDL had they not moved at the last minute. It did little good, as the momentum of Sora's swing merely allowed him to commence with a powerful spin attack that managed to hit all four of the bullies with little trouble. Somehow, they still had some Aura left, but that was soon remedied when Sora raised the Hyper Hammer high, leapt up a little, and let its rockets make his next downward swing even stronger, right to the point where it created a bit of an earthquake while shattering part of the arena floor a little. The shockwave from Sora's attack ended up being the thing that finished Team CRDL, and once his Keyblade had returned to normal, Sora shouldered his weapon with a confident smirk, while Roxas came to stand next to him as he rested Oathkeeper on one shoulder while he let Oblivion hang by his side.

"And that is just a sample of our full strength," Sora boasted with pride, before narrowing his gaze a little on Cardin and his team. "As well as a warning for you to not mess with our friends, or anyone who's so much as met us again. Got it?"

If Cardin and his teammates were not scared before by what Sora had just done with his Keyblade, they certainly were now after hearing that, because all they could do was quietly nod in reply with frightened expressions on their faces. While she did not show any outward reaction to Sora's not-so-subtle warning, Goodwitch would admit that she was a little pleased to see him putting Team CRDL in their place, even if she did not approve of the methods used for doing so. "And that's the match," the professor decreed. "Now move it along, everyone. There's nothing more to see here."

Despite Goodwitch's words, the students still remained behind for a decent while so that they could at least offer up a brief applause for Sora and Roxas, but only Teams RWBY, JNPR, and the rest of Team SLVR made any motion to offer personal congratulations to the two. "Aw yeah! Hail the conquering Keyblade Heroes," Yang cheered as she playfully punched the two in the arm, while Lea was patting them on the back.

"Hey, whoa! Sora's the one everyone calls the Hero of the Keyblade. I'm the Key of Destiny," Roxas corrected with a playful smirk.

"Do all four of you have some fancy title," Blake asked, remembering when Roxas referred to Lea's old one back when they first met.

"No, just those three," Ventus grumbled as he crossed his arms in a huff. "They keep saying they'll come up with something for me, but I haven't heard so much as one suggestion."

"If it makes you feel any better, we're still brainstorming on ideas for Xion, too," Lea informed his old friend.

"Wait, hold on a minute. Roxas, what was that move you used at the end there," Jaune asked, wanting to know if it was something he could learn in time.

"Uh…It was…part of my Semblance," Roxas stuttered, having nearly forgotten about the excuse for his light powers in all the excitement. "I can basically manipulate light energy for a variety of purposes, kinda like how Axel does with fire, or Ven with wind."

"So what's Sora's Semblance? Does it have anything to do with how he can make his weapon so versatile," Ruby asked.

"No, that's all in his Keyblade. As for his Semblance, it's basically just energy manipulation. So, it's like mine, but he's not limited to just light-based stuff," Roxas explained. "I'd let Sora tell you guys more, but…I think he's going to be busy for a while."

Looking over to Sora, everyone could only cringe at the sight of him getting hounded by Nora as she bombarded him with questions about his Favorite Deputy Keyblade, if he had any other Keyblades that could turn into hammers like it, and if he could let her try it out just to compare it to hers. That last one was the one that Sora was getting more than any other, despite the fact that he kept telling Nora that it was impossible since she did not have a Keyblade, and his Keyblade only worked for him, but in all her excitement, it did not seem like Nora was really paying attention. It was a sight that left them feeling sorry for Sora, but also amused at the whole thing, right to the point that none of them noticed how Cardin was glaring at the twelve of them, but especially in the case of Sora and Roxas. "Those little freaks are gonna pay for this," Cardin promised under his breath before he left in a huff.

---

The next few days that followed after the beat down of Team CRDL, everyone would have liked to have said that Cardin had stopped messing with other students, but sadly, that was not entirely true. In reality, Cardin only made sure to be on his best behavior whenever he knew that Sora, Roxas, or both were around, and if they showed up while he was about to start something, he quickly tried to find a way to play it off as just some simple joke or "act of kindness." It was pretty safe to say that Cardin and his boys were all very much afraid of the two Keyblade wielders that had beaten them so soundly, especially once they realized that they had done so in less than four minutes (A fact that Yang found especially enjoyable since it won her the bet with Lea and Ventus). Unfortunately, the two could not be everywhere, and wherever they were not ended up being some place that Team CRDL would be starting up again.

Luckily for many people, the other two members of Team SLVR were keeping just as close of an eye on the bullies as their teammates, and they made it a point to make sure that Cardin knew that. Ventus was able to take a little bit of advantage from the fact that many people were still confusing him and Roxas for each other by scaring the daylights out of Cardin whenever he and his team were starting something while he was around, and even after CRDL realized that he was not Roxas, Ventus still made it clear to them that it was just as bad of an idea to mess with him as it was the other blonde. Lea on the other hand was not so subtle. Sure, he could not actually burn the bullies, but that did not mean he could not still use his fire powers to freak them out, as evidenced when a few freak fires seemed to suddenly start up whenever Cardin or his teammates were doing something while he was in the area. The really amazing thing was that Lea never seemed to get caught by any of the staff, but even so, Cardin knew that Lea was behind the acts, partially because Lea would always being glaring at him afterwards while throwing him the "I'm watching you" gesture. Sadly, like Sora and Roxas, the other half of Team SLVR could not be everywhere either, but they still somehow managed to make up for it in some small way.

Not all of Lea's tactics involved the use of his fire powers though, as he eventually managed to prove in the class he shared with both Jaune and Cardin: Remnant History with Doctor Oobleck. Normally, Lea would not really care all that much about a history lesson, and he probably would have just used this class as a chance to catch up on his sleep, but he was staying wide awake for three reasons. The first, and one of the most obvious reasons was the fact that he seemed to be the only member of Team SLVR who had this class, so he needed to stay awake if he wanted to get any notes at all. The second reason was because Cardin and Jaune were both in this class, so he needed to keep an eye on the bully to make sure he did not try anything on the young Arc. Finally, the way that Oobleck taught, spoke, and even moved was so hyperactive and fast, that he would have had difficulty falling asleep even if he wanted to.

"Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie," Oobleck rapidly stated as he darted about the room at high speed, only pausing to take a sip from his coffee cup, while the students all darted their gazes back and forth in an attempt to keep up with both him and their notes. "Now, while this must seem like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!"

'Jeez, how much coffee has the guy been drinking? Not just today, but over the course of his life, because I'm thinking it's a little too much," Lea thought to himself while writing down the information as fast as he could. His efforts were already starting to give him a few cramps in his wrist, much to his irritation.

"Now, have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage," Oobleck then asked. Quite a few students raised their hands in response, among which one could easily spot Velvet, making Lea's eyes narrow in response as he drew up a few conclusions as to who could be responsible for the rabbit girl's problems, while Oobleck just shook his head in disappointment. "Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence. I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang."

"Hear, hear, Professor," Lea cheered, unable to contain himself.

"That's Doctor, Mister Firebrand, and while I appreciate your enthusiasm, please try to control yourself while in class," Oobleck admonished. Lea just shrugged in response, his smile unapologetic, and allowed the doctor to continue with the lecture. "Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" A hand shot up almost as fast as Oobleck's speech and movement speeds, and the doctor was just as quick to call on the heiress it belonged to.

"The battle at Fort Castle," Weiss answered in confidence.

"Precisely," Oobleck confirmed. "And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Before anyone could raise a hand, Jaune was suddenly startled awake from his own nap, due to something hitting him in the back of his head. Since he was sitting right next to Jaune, Lea was able to realize all of that, and would have spun around to glare at the person he knew was most likely responsible, had Oobleck not mistaken Jaune's outburst as a sign that he wanted to answer. "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent," Oobleck cheered. "What is the answer?"

Jaune was now stuck, since his nap had prevented him from hearing the question, let alone any other part of this lecture, and was already stumbling to try and answer. Thankfully, he was provided with a quick save from the redhead next to him. "Sorry about that, Doc, but Jaune was actually talking to me," Lea apologized, directing Oobleck's gaze onto him, and not in a friendly way. "He's been having some trouble keeping up with his notes since class started, and had asked me if I could help him out so that he would be able to better study up. He was trying to double check to make sure that I had managed to keep up so far, but I wasn't really paying too much attention to him."

"Ah, I see. Very kind of you to aid a fellow student, Mr. Firebrand. My apologies, Mr. Arc," Oobleck nodded in understanding, drawing a quiet sigh of relief from Jaune. "That said, since you seem so apt at taking notes today, Mr. Firebrand, perhaps you would like to answer in your friend's place."

"Yeah, I probably could, but I'm afraid that your question's a little vague," Lea shrugged.

"How so?"

"Well, from what I've gathered, there could be any number of advantages that the Faunus would have had over General Lagune's forces. It could've been that they simply outnumbered him, the fact that the Faunus were in a fort, the fact that the Faunus were better rested than the general's forces, or even simply the fact that many Faunus have better senses than humans, be it under certain conditions or in general," Lea reasoned out, almost sounding like an actual scholar, as opposed to his usual self.

"Hm, a very astute observation, Mr. Firebrand," Oobleck applauded before taking another sip from his coffee cup. "However, many would argue that there is one particular factor that provided the Faunus their victory. Cardin, perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject."

While Cardin was upset that his attempts at embarrassing Jaune had backfired, he was not about to pass up this opportunity, since he was not likely to land into trouble with the Keyblade wielder right now. "Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."

His response drew a disappointed, and rather upset shake of the head from Oobleck, while Pyrrha gave a more verbal response to Cardin's mocking. Lea was not the only one who had figured out why Jaune had nearly been embarrassed in front of the class. "You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin," the invincible girl noted with a glare.

"I think it'd be easier to say he's not the brightest, considering that even animals know better than to antagonize their predators," Lea pointed out while turning back to throw a warning glare at Cardin.

"What? You and your brother got a problem," Cardin demanded of Pyrrha, while avoiding Lea's gaze as much as he could. After all the fires that had happened around him, he was sure that the redhead of Team SLVR could cause them to happen with just a glance.

"First off, he's not my brother, and second, no, I have the answer, and in a way, Lea did as well with his answer," Pyrrha replied, turning to face the front again so that she could prove her point. "It's night vision. As Lea, pointed out, many Faunus are known to have better senses than humans, and just as many are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."

Cardin just growled in response to that, prompting Blake to add on to Pyrrha's answer with her own input. "General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured," Blake recounted in better detail. She then threw a taunting smile of her own at Cardin as she finished, "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Nearly the entire class let out a long "oo" in response to Blake's burn, while Cardin merely growled again and stood to try and retaliate. Thankfully, he never got too far thanks to the teacher. "Mr. Winchester! Please, take your seat. You can see me after class for additional readings," Oobleck tiredly demanded. "Now, moving on!"

As Oobleck continued with his lecture, Jaune took a chance to lean closer to Lea and whisper, "Hey, thanks for a minute ago."

"No worries. And just so you know, I really will let you copy my notes, if you want. I know you've been struggling in this class since we started in it," Lea offered in return.

"Yeah, I'd appreciate that," Jaune agreed, a little surprised by Lea's willingness to continue helping him. He made a note to ask about his reasons later on, because he did not want to risk getting caught sleeping again for the rest of the period.

The young knight never got the chance to talk to Lea after class, because the redhead seemed to just disappear as soon as Oobleck dismissed everyone for the day, so instead, Jaune ended up wandering around the school, trying to piece together just what he was really doing here. He wanted to be here, to be a huntsman like everyone else, but there was still a huge shadow looming over him in regards to how he had gotten into Beacon in the first place. Add in how much Cardin's bullying really had been bothering him, along with all the cool, incredible things he had seen the other students do, be they his friends, or even just some random person who happened to be in the same class, and Jaune had to wonder if he really did belong at Beacon like the rest of these guys. Several of the teachers had mentioned time and again that everyone had gotten into Beacon because they proved that they were among the best, but every time that he heard that, Jaune was only reminded of the circumstances surrounding his entrance to the school, and how he only realized just how little he actually knew about being a huntsman after he had arrived.

Jaune was so lost in his musings and self-doubt that he barely managed to take that much notice of where he was going until the cool, night air suddenly hit his face, and upon looking up, he soon realized that he was up on an area of the dorm rooftop, with a very impressive view of the school's main building, the shattered moon, and the starlit sky. It was an impressive sight to behold, and made him think of the kind of place that you would often hear about couples or lovers spending time at in stories, but what really caught his attention was the blonde who was already there, sitting down with his legs dangling over the ledge as he gazed up at the night sky. He knew from the spiky hair that it was one of the blondes of Team SLVR, but it was not until he got a little closer that he realized which one it was. He was still trying to pick up on all the differences between the two boys like everyone else, after all.

"Roxas," Jaune called out, getting the dual Keyblade wielder's attention. "What're you doing up here?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing really. I was just hanging out and enjoying the view. Axel was here a little while ago too, but decided to head back to our room so he could do something. I only stuck around because I wanted to watch the rest of the sunset, but I guess seeing the night sky convinced me to stay for a little longer than I meant," Roxas explained with a shrug. The two just remained where they were in silence after that, until Roxas finally asked, "What about you? What brings you up here?"

"Oh, you know. Just…got a lot on my mind," Jaune hesitantly replied before he came to sit down next to Roxas, not really feeling like standing after all his mindless wandering.

"Things like Cardin," Roxas guessed. When Jaune said nothing in reply, the former Number XIII had to smirk as he said, "You know, if you just asked, I'm pretty sure that Nora really will break his legs, and that Pyrrha might help. Plus, there's always what me and Sora could do to him, so…"

"I appreciate that, Roxas, but I really don't want my friends fighting my battles for me all the time," Jaune cut him off, surprising Roxas a bit with how harsh he sounded. Apparently, Jaune had not realized it either until after he spoke, because he quickly calmed down again, and apologized for his tone. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap, but…Well, there's a lot more going on than just how hard a time I'm having with Cardin. Besides, if I just ignore him, he's gotta leave me alone eventually, right? That's the mature thing to do, after all."

"Sure, that could work, but sometimes, bullies never learn until you stand up to them, and despite how your last match against Cardin went, you're still just as much of a huntsman-in-training as he is," Roxas disputed, not knowing that his encouraging words were having the opposite effect on Jaune at the moment. He continued on with his encouragement, still not realizing how the other blonde's mood was steadily dropping, by adding, "Sure, you may not be as good as everyone else, but the fact that you're here does prove that you've got what it takes."

"You're wrong…I-I don't belong here," Jaune finally sighed in defeat.

"Come on, man. You've just had a few bad days. That doesn't mean that you don't deserve your place at this school," Roxas disputed, thinking that Jaune was just letting his recent bad luck affect his judgment.

"I'm serious. I really don't belong here," Jaune heatedly insisted, surprising Roxas yet again. When he saw the questioning look on Roxas's face, Jaune knew he was going to have to explain himself, and after all the time he had spent around the members of Team SLVR, Jaune figured that there were not many better people to come clean with about this aside from Pyrrha. "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon."

"Um…I don't think I follow, because…if you weren't accepted into the school, then wouldn't it be a little hard for us to be sitting here right now having this conversation, or even strange that you're wearing the school uniform," Roxas tried to joke, but it came off as weak despite his best efforts.

Jaune still appreciated the attempt, but it did not change his situation. "What I mean is that I didn't go to Combat School. I didn't pass any tests. I didn't earn my place at this academy! I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied."

"What? But how…why," Roxas stuttered, hardly able to believe that Jaune had done something like that. Sure, his skills in a fight and basic knowledge of anything in regards to being a huntsman were pretty mediocre, but he did not ever think that it was to the point where Jaune had to fake his way into Beacon, nor did he see any reason why he would do so in the first place. Thankfully, Jaune was willing to give the answers to at least one of those questions.

"'Cause this is what I've always wanted to be," Jaune revealed. "My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors. They were all heroes. I wanted to be one too, but I was just never good enough."

"Why keep all that to yourself though? I mean, I'm pretty sure we've all made it clear that we're willing to help if you'd just ask," Roxas pointed out.

"Because I don't want help," Jaune finally snapped. "I'm tired of being the lovable idiot stuck in the tree or who needs all of his friends to come and rescue him from danger while everyone else is fighting for their lives! If I can't do this on my own…then what good am I?"

The two both fell quiet after that, neither of them having expected such an outburst like that from Jaune. It had been very clear for a while now that the stress had been really getting to Jaune more than he was willing to let, but now that he had finally let it all out, Roxas could see that Jaune had a lot more on his plate than just problems with classes and bullies. After letting Jaune catch his breath, Roxas finally took the chance to ask, "Feeling better now?"

"…Yeah, a little bit," Jaune admitted, though his expression said otherwise.

Roxas was willing to take whatever he could get though, and decided to just press on with what he was now planning. "Jaune, the thing about being a hero, is that it's not something that most people can do alone. Every hero that has ever existed had people to help them get where they are, be it someone they could train with, someone they could learn from, or really just someone that acted as a shoulder to lean on when they needed it. That's probably part of the reason why schools like Beacon exist; so that students can learn that they've got people who are willing to help them out when they need it."

"That's easy for you to say. You're already a hero in your own right, and the same goes for the rest of your team, Ruby's team, and even all the other members of my team," Jaune weakly argued.

"And we didn't get there on our own," Roxas instantly countered. "Ruby had to learn from her uncle how to use that scythe of hers, Yang was taught how to fight by her dad, Ven learned from both his best friends and their master, and even Sora, despite all that he's capable of doing, needed help from friends to get where he is now. Hell, when I first got the Keyblade, I was probably the farthest thing from being a hero as you can get. I needed friends like Axel, Sora, my sister, Naminé, and even my girlfriend, Xion to help me realize that I could do more than just go around killing Heartless like it was just another job. I mean, it is technically a job for all Keyblade wielders, but there was still more to it than that, and I wasn't able to realize that alone. If you've got people who are willing to help you, then you shouldn't just shut them down, especially if you're going through some tough times."

Jaune seemed to consider Roxas's words for a little bit, honestly wondering if the other boy had a point in what he was saying. It certainly sounded like something that he could hear one of his professors saying, or maybe even Pyrrha and the rest of his teammates, but he was not sure that he could quite believe it just yet. Still, hearing Roxas bring up his best friend like that, Jaune's mind was brought back to a matter he had been wondering about for a while. "Say, do you have any idea why Lea would go out of his way to help me in Oobleck's class earlier today? I mean, assuming he told you about it."

"Dude, are you kidding? There's very little that Axel and I don't talk about these days, if ever," Roxas lightly chuckled in return. He grew serious again, and replied, "Well, I guess it could be because, you probably remind him of me way back when. A bit lost on your road of life, but still with the potential to go far if given a push in the right direction, and just the right amount of help. Sure, it wasn't really like that for him at the time, but looking back, I can't help but think that in a way, Axel was looking out for me, even when we weren't really on the best of terms with each other." A smile then grew on his face a little as he added, "A friend of ours also would say that Axel just loves picking up 'strays,' but then again, he may not be entirely wrong, considering…"

Jaune had to laugh a little at that part, before he grew serious one more time, and asked, "Do you really think I have what it takes to get better?"

"If there's one thing I've learned, be it in life or in the time that I've been a Keyblade wielder, it's that everyone has the chance and the ability to become better than they are at any given time. I've seen bitter enemies become good friends, former friends turn to the wrong side only to be pulled back by the people who care about them, and even someone who committed serious wrongs out of a desire for revenge make huge sacrifices for the sake of others in an attempt to repent for what he had done, and I'm sure that I'll see all of that and more again in the future," Roxas replied with a certain smile. "Jaune, you may not be the best of us, but you can improve. The thing is, it can't just be for yourself, because not everything is about you, especially now."

"What do you mean," Jaune asked, now a little lost.

"Dude, you've got a team now, and more than that, you're the leader of that team. That doesn't just mean you can lean on them when you need support, but also that you've got to put your teammates first, and yourself second," Roxas explained, standing up to leave as he did. As one final afterthought, Roxas also decided to add, "Besides, if you really did get in on a lie, then it must've been a really good one, or Ozpin saw some bit of truth in the lie to take a chance and let you in despite all of that."

Jaune nodded in response to this before he too stood up and followed after Roxas, now feeling a lot more exhausted than he had a moment ago, but at the same time, feeling a little better about himself. That did not mean he was ready to come clean with everyone about his secret just yet, but he did feel like he had a little bit more to think about now.

---

The amount of time Jaune spent thinking over Roxas's words ended up extending on for quite some time, and it did not seem like he had come clean with his teammates about how he had faked his way into Beacon, either. Still, he did seem to be doing a bit better than he had been before his talk with Roxas, so the blonde Keybearer in question figured it was only a matter of time before Jaune finally made a decision on what to do. The only problem anyone had now was Cardin and his team, but only because they had suddenly put a hard stop to all of their antics and various torments. Some would say that was a good thing, as it probably meant that Team CRDL had finally gotten a clue, but if you were to ask many of his victims, or even just Sora and his friends, they would all say otherwise on the belief that CRDL was just biding their time for something especially big.

Now was not the time to be worrying about the bullies though, because at this moment, the first-year students of Beacon were all currently following after Professor Goodwitch through a forest that seemed to have been painted in every shade of red imaginable on a field trip, from the leaves to even the grass on the ground, and each of the students were all left gazing about in awe at their magnificent surroundings. Sure, it was not to the same extent as Sora, who was practically jumping for joy at the sight of such a forest, but then again, it was a little hard to match Sora's enthusiasm for adventuring in new places at a normal time for him.

"Yes students, the Forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sight-see," Goodwitch reminded everyone, though not without at least a little bit of lightness to her otherwise commanding voice, showing that she was also enjoying the sights of their current location too. "Professor Peaches asked all of you to collect samples from the tress deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure that none of you die while doing so."

"Oh goody. I feel safer already," Lea muttered to Roxas.

Roxas just rolled his eyes at the redhead in response, but ultimately had to smile after doing so. Not because of Lea's remark, but from the sight of how animated and excited Ruby and Sora both seemed to be. From where he was, if felt so much like he was watching two of Sora that it was cute. Looking to his immediate left, he saw that Yang was smirking in the twos direction as well, and one shared glance later, he knew that she was having the same thought as him. More than that, he had a hunch that Yang was likely to try something sneaky to get Sora and Ruby alone together in the hopes that something might happen, and while he was tempted to help with that, he had no intention of causing a repeat of what happened on their first day at Beacon.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates," Goodwitch continued to instruct, apparently missing both Lea's comment and everything that Yang and Roxas had picked up on in regards to their respective team leaders.

"Professor Goodwitch, if you don't mind my asking, what exactly does any of this have to do with being a huntsman? I mean, I understand the need for some to be around because of the Grimm, but the rest of this seems a little…mundane," Ventus questioned.

"Not every job that a huntsman undertakes will be filled with adventure and excitement, Mr. Kunsanagi. Sometimes, you must take on the more mundane of tasks as well, because no one else can," Goodwitch explained calmly. "Now, if there are no further questions, we will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun!"

Everyone quickly dispersed after that, separating into their own groups, but still keeping in their respective teams as Goodwitch had instructed. Of course, some teams stayed closer to one another than others, one such case being Teams RWBY and SLVR, who were not that far away from Team JNPR. No one really thought too much of this, considering that those three groups were practically attached at the hip ever since initiation, but many would have found it very interesting to see that Sora and Ruby especially seemed to stray close to one another quite a few times. It was hard to really say for sure if it was intentional, but even if it was not, Yang still found enough reasoning behind it to take the obvious action of many other older siblings when they realized that their younger sibling possibly had a crush on someone. The fact that it seemed like Sora shared the feelings she suspected Ruby of having just made it all the sweeter in her mind, so Yang saw no problem at all in going for it. At least she did not until Roxas suddenly got in her way.

"Yeah, if you're going to do what I think you're planning on doing, take my advice, and don't," Roxas told the blonde brawler, his voice strict and showing he was not going to any arguments.

"Hey, I'm just going to have a little harmless fun. No big deal," Yang shrugged off, not fully reading the warning that Roxas was trying to give her.

"In this case, it is a big deal," Roxas disputed as he came around to stand in Yang's path before she could move towards the two. He glanced over to where Sora and Ruby were at the moment to see if there was a risk of Sora noticing or overhearing, and upon confirming that there was none, he looked back to Yang and whispered, "At least if you do it while Sora's so much as in hearing range, or any range at all."

"What're you talking about," Yang asked, now really confused.

"Just…Look, just trust me on this, okay? If you want to tease your sister about having a crush on Sora, I won't stop you, but promise me that you won't do it when you know that Sora's around," Roxas quietly pleaded.

"But why is it such a…"

"Promise me!"

"Okay, okay! I promise! Jeez! You don't need to act like it would be the end of the world if he heard me," Yang finally conceded, hoping that would get Roxas to calm down a little.

Roxas did not say anything in reply and soon went off to fill up his jar with some Forever Fall tree sap, leaving a very confused Yang behind. Yet another incident where Team SLVR was acting odd had now made her list, and this one definitely seemed worrisome in her eyes. She had always figured that Sora's teammates thought very highly of him, and would do anything to help him, but the way Roxas was acting just now suggested that he was trying to shield Sora from something, almost to the point where it seemed like he was worried that thing would break Sora if they were not careful. Yang was well aware of what doing something like that could do to a person, but for the life of her, she could not piece together just what could be the thing that Roxas and the others were shielding Sora, of all people from, or what it would have to do with her possibly teasing him about a relationship with her sister. He seemed to handle it pretty well the first time, save for the embarrassment and stuttering.

Yang was about to seek out Roxas so she could pry some answers from him, when a hand suddenly clapped down on her shoulder, making her turn to see the redhead of SLVR standing next to her with a grin. "Don't worry about it too much," Lea reassured her. "Roxas is a little more protective of Sora than the rest of us since he and Sora are so close to each other. You could say that they're practically brothers, really. I mean, you should be careful when discussing certain topics around Sora, but you shouldn't worry about it too much."

"…If you say so," Yang eventually shrugged in response, figuring it was better to just play it off and focus on their assignment for now. She could try and work out the answer to the puzzle behind Team SLVR and their leader later on. If anything, she just hoped that whatever that problem was, it would not end up hurting Ruby at any point down the line. If there was one thing that upset Yang Xiao Long more than someone messing with her hair, it was anything that would make her little sister upset in even the smallest of ways.

---

While the others were just minding their own business and carrying on with their assignment, Team CRDL had somehow already managed to finish filling all of their jars and a few extras as well. Sadly, they had not collected extra jars in the hopes of getting extra credit. No, their intentions in filling those spare jars had a far more sinister nature to it. Their plans could be easily figured out by how they were secretly watching Teams RWBY, SLVR, and JNPR from their current hiding spot, but most notably, how Cardin was glaring at a select group among the three teams in particular. "Couple of freaks and red-haired know-it-alls think they're so tough and smart. Well now, it's time for a little payback," Cardin growled as he eyed Sora, Roxas, Lea, and Pyrrha. He then pulled out a shaking box that had a faint buzzing sound coming from inside, and smiled darkly as he explained his plan to his team. "Alright, boys. Last night, I managed to round up an entire box of rapier wasps, and now, we're gonna put 'em to work."

"Meaning what," Dove asked, sounding a little worried about what his team's leader had in mind.

"I'm getting there," Cardin reassured him. "See, when I was doing one of those stupid essays last week, I learned that these nasty things looove sweets, like say a whole jar of Forever Fall tree sap, and that's what gave me an idea on how we finally teach those two Keyblade boys and their friends a thing or two. We simply take these spar jars, hit 'em with the sap inside, and then, we set these babies loose. That oughta teach them not to mess with us."

"You mean you," Sky corrected, making his whole team turn to him with either worried or angry looks. "Sure, we all got taken down by Hikari and Sheru, but that was only because of how you went and decided to pick a fight with them, and they've only ever done something to us because of something that you did, like when you were messing with that Faunus girl, or all those times when you tried to mess with Jaune."

"I didn't see you stopping me. You guys have been going along with all of it," Cardin pointed out with a dangerous tone.

"Yeah, until we got our butts handed to us by Sora and Roxas, and aside from that, you're also the one that got Pyrrha Nikos on us because of how you were messing with Jaune. Face it, Cardin, they've only been acting out of defense, while you've been doing nothing but antagonizing them," Sky kept arguing.

"Hey, you wimping out on us," Russel questioned. "Come on, Cardin's right. Everyone thinks those guys are some big hot-shots; they could do with a little humiliation to bring them back down to Remnant. This is the perfect way to do it."

"Or get them killed," Dove pointed out.

"Fine, then don't help. I guess I'll just have a little chat with Goodwitch about how you two really passed some of those most recent exams. I'm sure she'd love to know about the little cheat sheets that you got your hands on," Cardin threatened with a knowing smirk.

"What? You're blackmailing us now? Your own teammates? Great way to prove their point, man," Sky shot back, sounding more than a little angry. "Besides, you're the one who gave us those cheat sheets."

"And yet you have no way to prove it. After all, I'm not the one who actually snuck into Professor Port's office to snap pictures of his test answers, now am I," Cardin rhetorically questioned, knowing full well that Dove and Sky were the ones to have committed said act. Having felt that he had everything properly secured in his favor, Cardin held out two jars of sap to his teammates and asked, "So boys, what'll it be? Help out, or do you feel like taking a chance with Goodwitch?"

Now properly backed into a corner, Dove and Sky just glared at their "leader" before they ultimately snatched the sap jars that Cardin was offering for them to take. Seeing that, Cardin's evil smirk returned as he and Russel readied their own jars to throw, targeting Sora and Roxas respectively, and leaving Lea and Pyrrha for the more hesitant pair. If they had been paying a little more attention though, they probably would have noticed the big, looming creature that was slowly approaching them from behind well before they had heard the deep, vicious growl that made them all freeze up in fear.

As they slowly turned around to face the beast, Team CRDL was all faced with the sight of a huge, Ursa Major, glaring down at all four of them. Unable to really think of anything else, Cardin whipped out his mace, jumped back so that his teammates were between him and the Grimm, and shouted, "It's just some stupid bear! You guys can take him, easy!"

Seeing this as more proof of their leader's cowardice, Dove and Sky both tossed their jars at Cardin, making the sap inside spill all over his armor, and blinding him long enough for them to make a break for it. As he ran away, Sky shouted back, "Fight your own battles, Cardin! No stupid grudge is worth this!"

Not really knowing what else to do now that the other two had fled, Russel just went off instinct and ran for it, leaving Cardin to fight the Ursa on his own, and from the way it was sniffing the air, clearly picking up on the sap that now coated his armor, he could not help but gulp upon realizing just how bad his odds of surviving really were.

---

"…Aaaaaand, done," Sora reported as he finished filling his jar of Forever Fall sap. He quickly made sure to screw the lid onto the jar very tight, after seeing how Nora appeared to have inhaled a few jars of Team JNPR's, and even one or two of Team RWBY's, and stood up so that he could place it with the rest of his team's. "You know, this kinda reminds me of all the times Donald, Goofy, and I stopped to look for ingredients that Little Chef could use for his recipes."

"Oh yeah, I remember hearing about how you guys stopped somewhere in just about every…where that you went just to look for that stuff," Ventus recalled, having to pause part way through when he almost slipped and said "world" instead of "where."

"Who's Little Chef," Ruby suddenly asked, startling both boys when she spoke up. Neither of them had realized the girl was behind them until just now.

Regaining his composure, Sora happily explained, "He's a good friend of mine and an awesome cook. With my help, he was able to make this bistro in Roxas's hometown a huge, five-star success."

"Wow! Sounds like he makes some really good stuff," Ruby cooed in awe.

"You have no idea. The food he makes is so good, that even the first bite can make you feel like all of your taste buds are throwing the biggest party imaginable," Sora said. He then gained a smug smile, and said, "He even taught me a lot of his cooking skills, so now, I'm a pretty great cook too."

"He's not just saying that! We've all tried some of Sora's cooking recently, and it's really good," Lea confirmed, backing up Sora's story.

"Hey, maybe Sora and Ren should have a cook-off some time, so that we can see which of them is a better chef," Nora suggested, wiping away the latest traces of the Forever Fall she had just recently drank from the jar she was holding, much to Pyrrha's annoyance.

Sora and Ren looked to one another for a minute, both having been a little surprised by Nora's suggestion and the fact that they were both capable cooks for their age, before the green-clad boy smiled and said, "I would certainly welcome the chance to test my skills against those of one who had been taught by a master chef."

"Alright then, you're on, Ren," Sora agreed with a smile of his own.

Before anyone could let out a cheer of excitement at this prospect, a loud groan suddenly met their ears, and they all turned to see Jaune fall face first into the grass. "Jaune! Are you okay," Pyrrha asked as she rushed over to check on him.

"I think I'm allergic to this stuff," Jaune admitted, his voice supporting his suspicion with how queasy he sounded.

"Don't worry, bud. You just sit back for a minute and try to rest. We'll make sure that Nora doesn't try to inhale your jar of sap for a while," Lea soothingly reassured him while helping Pyrrha prop him up against a tree.

As the two redheads were moving Jaune, Nora finally took notice of something that others had in the past. "You know, if I didn't already know better, I'd have been right with Cardin in thinking that Pyrrha and Lea were related to each other."

"They do share a few similarities, appearance-wise," Ren agreed.

"Really? Like what," Ventus asked, not seeing what the other two were.

"Like they're both redheads and they both have green eyes, just to name a couple of examples," Yang pointed out.

"I'm pretty sure those are the only similarities that they have with one another," Blake informed her partner.

Upon looking at the two again, Ventus could certainly see what the others were referring to now, since Pyrrha and Lea did in fact share those similarities, but before anyone could comment further on the matter, a loud roar reached all their ears, followed by the sounds of someone screaming. "Did you guys hear that," Ruby asked in worry.

No one got the chance to answer Ruby's question, as most of Team CRDL suddenly came running towards and past them, all while Russel was shouting, "Ursa! Ursa!"

"What? Where," Yang demanded after the boy had bumped into her. Not that seemed to have moved her all that much, if at all, but it did put her in arm's reach of the boy, allowing her to lift him up by his shirt collar so that she could get answers before he ran off.

Russel could only shiver in fear upon realizing that the blonde had caught him, mainly because everyone was now well aware of just how bad an idea it was to make Yang upset, but he still managed to work through his fear long enough to point back the way he came from and answer her question. "Back there! It's got Cardin!"

Yang let Russel go so he could run off immediately after, and after processing this news, Lea ended up shrugging and turning to walk off in another direction as he said, "Oh well. Too bad. I'd say it had been nice knowing him, but…"

Lea's departure was stopped short when Sora suddenly grabbed him by the hood of his vest without even looking, and stated, "We've gotta go and help him."

"Are you kidding me," Lea asked in disbelief. "Sora, I know you're like the ultimate nice guy and everything, but come on! Let the guy get what's coming to him!"

"Hey, no one's saying that Cardin doesn't deserve to pay for all the trouble he's caused, but that doesn't mean we should leave him to die," Sora argued in favor of helping the bully.

"Oh please. He's training to be a huntsman like everyone else at this school. I'm sure he can take care of himself. So what if he gets a little roughed up," Lea dismissed with a scoff.

"Considering that it looks like his teammates all abandoned him to fight it alone, I don't think he's just going to get roughed up," Ventus pointed out.

"I may not like bullies like Cardin all that much, but even I don't think they deserve to be left to die like that," Roxas agreed with his fellow blonde.

Before any of the others could offer their two cents in this argument, the sound of Jaune's shield being activated suddenly reached their ears, and they all turned just in time to see the blonde knight rushing off in the direction that Team CRDL had come from, with weapons ready. "Jaune," Pyrrha called out in worry.

"Well, I guess that settles whether we're going after Cardin or not," Roxas commented as he took off after Jaune.

"Roxas!" Lea yelled after his friend. After another minute or so, he let out an irritated sigh and took off after his best friend as he muttered, "Damn it! Why and how does he always end up dragging me into this kind of crap?!"

Seeing so many of her friends take off like that had helped bring Ruby into full leader-mode, and she was soon giving out orders to her teammates. "Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch."

"You two, go with them! There could be more," Pyrrha told Ren and Nora as the blonde and raven haired girls of RWBY took off for the professor's last known location.

"Ven and I will go with them as well just in case any of the Heartless show up. You never know when those guys may be crawling around, waiting to pounce," Sora informed the two girls, his Keyblade already in hand as he turned to follow the four that had just left. He spared one last look to the three remaining girls, and said, "Be careful."

Even though he had said it to all three of them, Weiss and Pyrrha could somehow tell that he was mostly directing it towards Ruby with how his gaze seemed to be especially focused on her. Not that they were complaining, mind you; they thought it was a little sweet of him, really, but they did not have time to make any kind of remark on the matter. They had a bully to save from a very nasty sounding Grimm, along with a few friends who were probably already in the midst of doing the very same thing. So, with one final nod to Sora, they all raced away to their respective objectives, hoping that they did not arrive too late.

---

If there was ever time that Cardin was willing to believe that karma did exist, he had a feeling that it would be now, all because this one Ursa was now attacking him since he was covered in the Forever Fall tree sap that he had been planning on dousing a few of his classmates with. It was either that or irony, but when you are running for your life in an attempt to get away from the beast that had just disarmed you of your only weapon not even a few seconds after your teammates left you to fend for yourself, you do not really have time to think about stuff like that too much or too hard. His attempts at fleeing from the Ursa Major eventually ended up all for not, when the beast suddenly leapt over and in front of him, and then bashed him down onto the ground with one furious swipe of its claws.

Cardin struggled to rise up and at least crawl away after that, praying against all odds that he had at least landed somewhere near where his mace had fallen, but the Grimm was just too fast for him, and he ended up just cowering in fear for the inevitable when he noticed it moving to attack again. Barely even seconds after he had shut his eyes, a loud thud reached his ears, but oddly enough, it did not sound the Ursa's claws so much as scratching his armor. To his surprise, there was no pain on any part of him either; not even a small sting from a cut, and that made Cardin feel that it was safe enough to chance a look to see what had happened. Opening his eyes, Cardin was left very surprised by the sight before him, not from seeing that someone had stepped in between him and the Ursa, and blocked the Grimm's claws with their shield, but because of just who that person was.

"Jaune," Cardin somehow managed to gasp in question when he regained enough of his breath to speak.

Indeed, there, standing over Cardin with his shield holding back the Grimm and his sword ready to strike, was none other than Jaune Arc, one of the very people that he had been tormenting ever since the first week of school, and from what Cardin could tell, the leader of Team JNPR did not even seem the slightest bit afraid of the beast that was bearing down on him. It did not make any sense to Cardin as to why Jaune would be risking his neck for him like this, and he was honestly not sure that he believed it, but when Jaune suddenly slashed at the beast after letting himself be pushed down to just the right point, Cardin ended up finding that he had to believe it.

To be fair, Jaune could hardly believe what he was doing, too. Sure, he hated Cardin, and the fact that his teammates had suddenly appeared near where he and his friends were after being out of sight since Goodwitch had left everyone to their assignments, coupled with seeing all the sap that was on Cardin's armor told quite the story to the young Arc, but right now, Jaune did not really care about any of that. Right now, Cardin was just someone that was in trouble, and he had the ability to try and help him, so that was exactly what Jaune had decided to do. That did not mean he was willing to do everything on his own, of course.

"Cardin, you still able to fight," Jaune asked, barely letting his gaze wander from the Ursa for too long as it tried to recover from his attack.

"If I can find my mace, yeah," Cardin admitted, but he sounded a little unsure to Jaune.

Sadly, Jaune could not really call his bully out on how truthful he was or was not being right then, because a sudden bit of movement in the shadows caught Jaune's attention, and before either of them knew it, a few familiar faces had suddenly popped out. Sure, they were not the same as the ones that Jaune had seen back in the Emerald Forest, but he was still able to piece together what these things were just from seeing the beady, yellow eyes and heart-shaped emblem that they all seemed to have. "And now the Heartless are here," Jaune groaned in misery. "Just perfect. Why couldn't Sora and the others have told us a little more about these things after what happened in the Emerald Forest?"

"What…What kind of Grimm are those things," Cardin stuttered as he slowly started edging closer to Jaune.

"Not Grimm; Heartless, and according to Sora and his friends, they're a lot worse," Jaune warned in correction.

As Jaune looked about, he noticed that several of these Heartless looked like some variety of plants, most of those being like some form of dandelion or dandelion seed, while the majority of the Heartless looked a lot like blue monkeys with savage looking claws. Since Team SLVR had not gone too far into detail on the different types of Heartless, at least as far as Jaune could remember, he had no clue what these ones were capable of, so it only made sense that he would quickly ram through several of them after he spotted where Cardin's mace had landed. As soon as he had reached the dropped weapon, Jaune scooped it up and tossed it over to Cardin, shouting, "Head's up!"

Cardin easily caught the thrown weapon, even while he was rushing to get back over to Jaune, feeling that it was better to stay close to someone that knew at least a little bit about these strange creatures. "Tell me you've got some kind of plan," Cardin begged as he held his mace up and at the ready.

"Don't try to blitz them blindly, for starters," Jaune stated as though it were obvious. "Neither of us knows what these things can do, and I'm guessing you don't have that much Aura at the moment, do you?" Cardin's soft growl of frustration was all the confirmation that Jaune needed to know his guess was right, but that mattered little in the long run at the moment. "Make sure that you keep clear of the Ursa, and since you love picking on 'animals' so much, how about you try to just worry about the monkeys while keeping clear of them."

Cardin was not so stupid as to miss the fact that Jaune was throwing a not-so-subtle barb at his treatment of the Faunus students, and at the remark he had made in Oobleck's class in the other day, but he would admit that Jaune had a good plan for the moment, and the two quickly set to work in trying to take down their current opponents. They did not really have too much success. Sure, being around the Keyblade wielders had helped Jaune gain a little extra power that would help him to better deal with Heartless than most average folks, but Cardin was not as lucky, so most of his attacks did very little to affect the dwellers of darkness, if anything at all. Plus, with how all the plant-like Heartless seemed to hop around while slashing through them with their leaf-like appendages, and the way that the monkey ones were able to swing through the trees and basically attack them in a manner similar to the animals that they looked like, the fight was not much easier for the boys. Not to mention there was still the Ursa to worry about, and from the way it seemed to always go after Cardin, it almost seemed like it knew which one of them was the easier prey at the moment. Either that or it was still being drawn in by the sap that was covering Cardin's armor.

Eventually, Cardin was down on the ground again, his mace falling out of reach when he got hit by an attack from one of the monkey Heartless and his Aura now dangerously low, and Jaune was forced to just play a feeble defense by attempting to cover them both behind his shield. At times, he would also swing his sword at some of them, not really caring if he so much as nicked them or just scared them off with the feeble attacks, but it made little difference, and Jaune had to wonder aloud, "Where's Team SLVR when you need them?"

Surprisingly, Jaune's question actually got answered by a very familiar voice. "I don't know about the rest of my team, but me, I was just waiting for you to ask for our help before I stepped in." Not even a second later, Roxas burst onto the scene with a powerful cross slash, taking out several Heartless in one go, and a few more swings of his blades sent several more of them packing back into the shadows that they had come from. "I'll handle these guys and covering Cardin, Jaune. You just worry about that oversized bear over there," Roxas told his friend once he found a moment to pause in his efforts to cut down the Heartless.

"Are you sure," Jaune asked, not wanting to leave Roxas to fight the Heartless alone without double-checking he would be okay, first.

"Please. They may not be as low on the totem pole as Shadows, but Powerwilds are still easy enough for me to handle," Roxas smirked in confidence. When the two boys just looked at him in confusion, he quickly clarified, "That's what the monkeys are called. And just for future reference, the plant-looking ones are Chief Puffs and Puffballs."

"And what about the ones up the trees with bows and arrows," Cardin asked, indicating the branches of nearby trees, pointing out several Heartless that they had all missed up until now.

Looking to the Heartless in question, Roxas was soon spinning his blades around to deflect several incoming arrows as he replied, "Those would be Bizarre Archers."

Jaune was about to protest against leaving Roxas alone, when all of a sudden, a pair of flaming, spinning wheels suddenly came flying through the air, cutting through several of the Bizarre Archers before they circled back around to not only cut down some Chief Puffs and Puffballs, but also incinerate any of the ones that were close by as well. When the wheels returned to where they came from, the three boys were all greeted to the sight of Lea leaping into the area with his chakrams in hand, which he soon changed back into his Keyblade once he had landed next to Roxas.

"Jeez, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Why do I always seem to get the icky jobs," Lea complained, though none of them could tell how serious he was being right then. The redhead then cleared up that question when he came to stand alongside Roxas, and told Jaune, "No worries Mighty Knight, Roxas and I can burn through all of these creeps easily enough. After all, they were stupid enough to bring plants to fire fight."

"Axel, please, I'm begging you, stop with the fire puns," Roxas pleaded.

"Not happening, buddy," Lea grinned in return. "Besides, we've got to deal with these losers, and I've got more than a little bit of aggression to burn off just from the fact we're having to save the idiot jerk who doesn't seem smart enough to learn from his past mistakes."

"Hey, I'm right here," Cardin grumbled.

"I know, that's why I said it," Lea proudly informed him.

"Thanks guys," Jaune nodded to the Keybearers before they could get much further into an argument, and he quickly moved to engage the Ursa once more.

What none of the boys realized was that Roxas and Lea's arrival was shortly followed by the arrival of Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha, all of whom had just seen and heard everything that had followed Roxas's quick rescue. After hearing the Keybearers' plan and seeing Jaune actually going through with it by charging at the Ursa on his own, Weiss immediately drew her rapier and spun its revolver around so that she would be ready to fire off a dust-infused attack, thinking Jaune would need the help. Before she could charge though, Pyrrha suddenly held an arm out to block her path and said, "Wait. I think we should let them handle this."

While they understood why she would rather leave Roxas and Lea to fight the Heartless, neither Weiss or Ruby could possibly imagine why Pyrrha was so willing to let her partner face such a Grimm like that Ursa on his own. Truth be told, Pyrrha did not want to leave Jaune to fight this battle alone either, and she would have been the first to rush to his aid had she not known just how serious a dilemma he had been facing lately was. It had been clear to Pyrrha for quite a while now that Jaune had been having doubts in his abilities as both a future huntsman and a leader, with or without Cardin's torment, but she had a strong hunch that winning a fight like this under his own power would be just the thing that Jaune needed right now.

It certainly seemed to be doing something for Jaune, as he was slashing away at the Ursa the minute he was close enough. Not in a wild, uncontrolled manner, but with a little bit of precision in that he was trying his best to aim for areas that where there was little to no armor, and when the Ursa did find an opening to attack, Jaune immediately ducked and rolled out of the way. Seeing the Ursa readying another swing, Jaune quickly jumped up to avoid the attack, but ended up receiving a hard jab into his gut while he was still in the air afterwards. That did not stop Jaune for long, because he used the momentum of his fall to roll back to his feet and then charge again in order to go for a leaping strike. That proved as successful as his last dodging attempt, as the Ursa managed to bat him away while he was in midair. Once again, Jaune managed to roll back onto his feet after hitting the ground, but this time, he took a quick look at his Scroll to gauge his Aura level. Seeing that it had fallen into the red zone, Jaune mentally cursed his luck, because he doubted that a Grimm like this was going to let him fall into a more defensive strategy at this point. So, without really thinking it over too much, Jaune just charged in with a battle cry, intending to end it in one go.

Jaune's attack probably would have been good if he had not left himself so open, a fact that Pyrrha quickly noticed as he and the Ursa drew closer to one another. Seeing that he was not likely to be able to correct this in time, assuming he planned to at all, Pyrrha quickly raised a hand forward as said appendage started to glow with a faint, black color, prompting a similar glow to suddenly encase Jaune's shield without him noticing. The next thing anyone knew, Jaune's shield had suddenly been lifted upwards just enough to block the Ursa's attack, providing him with just the opening he needed to slice the bear Grimm's head off in one swing.

Seeing the beast fall to the ground with a loud thud, Pyrrha could not help but smile a little as she lowered her hand again, the glow disappearing from it as she did. Ruby and Weiss's surprised looks of confusion were a different story though. "Uh…What," Ruby asked while looking between Pyrrha's hand and the girl in question.

"How did you…" Weiss started to question, showing that she was just as amazed and confused as her partner.

"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs, Roxas has his light, Lea has his fire. My Semblance is polarity," Pyrrha easily explained.

"Ah, you can control poles," Ruby whispered gasped in awe, not understanding what Pyrrha meant when she said that.

"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism," Weiss corrected.

"Magnets are cool, too," Ruby continued to whisper, still impressed all the same.

"Ahem. We're fine too, thanks for asking," Lea's voice suddenly stated, startling the three a little when they turned to see him and Roxas standing next to them. The redhead then looked to his blonde companion and asked, "So are we done here, or can I finally burn Cardin?"

"No, you cannot burn Cardin, but yes, I do believe we're done here," Roxas confirmed for his friend, looking over to where Jaune was with a smile.

Pyrrha seemed to feel the same way as she turned to go back to the others along with the other two, confusing Weiss and Ruby a little. "Wait, where you all going," Weiss questioned.

"Yeah, we gotta tell them what happened," Ruby added.

"I'm pretty sure they've noticed by now that all the Heartless are toast, and Roxas and I already gave Cardin another warning to watch himself, so there's not much reason for us to stick around," Lea informed the girls. When they looked at him in confusion about that second thing, Lea pointed to Cardin and asked, "What do you think he was planning to do with the sap that's currently covering his armor? I'd bet you anything that it wasn't for a better grade."

"That aside…We could tell them everything else," Pyrrha started to say before her gaze rested on Jaune and brought a smile to her face. "Or, perhaps, we could just keep it our little secret."

Looking back at Jaune, Ruby and Weiss both smiled in understanding of the meaning behind Pyrrha's words. At that moment, he looked nothing like the clumsy, sad sap of a dork that they had known since arriving at Beacon. Right now, even as he sheathed his sword on his belt, Jaune had an air of confidence and pride in him that they had only seen during their last fight in the Emerald Forest during initiation. Even as he marched over to help Cardin up again, Jaune walked without even a trace of doubt in his being, and the two girls had to nod in agreement with Pyrrha's suggestion as they followed after the rest of their friends.

As for Cardin, he was still in the midst of processing that everything he had just seen and experienced had really happened. Sure, he was a little frightened by the threat that Lea and Roxas had given him, but that was barely even a footnote compared to what he was seeing from Jaune at the moment. The guy was standing over him with a kind of bravery and sureness that he had not seen in the guy before, even as he pulled him up. Sure, the way that Jaune was looking at him did leave him a little nervous, but beyond that, Cardin had to admit that what he saw Jaune do just now was way too impressive for him to ignore. "Holy crap, Jaune," Cardin praised, feeling that the guy deserved it.

Jaune was not too willing to completely accept it though, as he still had a few words of his own to give Cardin. "Don't think I didn't figure out what you were planning over here," the blonde knight growled at his bully. What came off as more impressive though, was how Jaune stared Cardin straight in the eye, and threateningly stated, "You're getting off lucky this time, but I'm warning you right now…Don't ever mess with my team, my friends, ever again. Got it?"

Cardin definitely felt a lot more intimidated now, but from what Jaune could see, it almost seemed like he had an apologetic look in his eyes as well. Not that he was too willing to really believe it entirely, if at all, but Jaune did not care. He had said his piece, and so, he turned and marched away, leaving Cardin alone to think about a few things.

---

That night, Jaune was up on the roof of the dorm building again, gazing up at the moon and stars, only this time, he had not come up here by accident. In point of fact, he was actually waiting for someone, and that very girl just stepped through the door. "This is a very nice spot. Great view, quiet, and out of the way of everyone else. How'd you find it," Pyrrha asked as she approached her partner, taking in the sights of more than just the view that their rooftop rendezvous offered.

"By accident, believe it or not," Jaune half-joked in reply, drawing a smile from the redhead. He just hoped that smile would not disappear completely after tonight, but Jaune needed to own up to a few things. "Pyrrha…I'm sorry. I've been a jerk. I know that technically not asking you guys for help when I needed it isn't really grounds for being a jerk, but my reasons for it definitely count. I-I had all this stupid macho stuff in my head making me think that I had to do everything alone, and…"

"Jaune. It's okay," Pyrrha interrupted, still smiling, much to his surprise. "I know that things have been hard for you, but we all handle tough times in different ways. What really matters is how we move forward after getting through those tough times. Just know that, in the future, I'll always have your back, and so will the rest of us."

That made Jaune share in Pyrrha's smile, showing he was happy that Pyrrha was still willing to stand with him. Sure, it did not seem like she was even all that upset with him to begin with, but Jaune still felt like he had to apologize for not coming to her and the others with his problems a little sooner. Looking at her now, and seeing just how beautiful her smile was right then, Jaune could not help but wonder what he did to deserve a good friend like Pyrrha, because he certainly had no clue. "Hey, speaking of your team, we're all really glad to see you're doing better now," Pyrrha informed him as she turned to head back inside. "It's practically to the point where it seems like we're ready to throw a big party to celebrate. You should come down and see for yourself. Ren made pancakes~. No syrup, though; you can thank Nora for that."

Jaune had to let a small chuckle slip past his lips hearing that, but he still was not quite ready to leave just yet. "Wait, Pyrrha, there's still some things I need to talk with you about," he revealed, making the redhead turn to face him again. "I was wondering if…If you would be willing to help me? To help me become a better fighter."

"You want me to train you," Pyrrha asked, just for clarification.

"It's all right if you don't want to," Jaune quickly assured her. "I mean, I know we've already got a lot on our plates as it is with school work and stuff, but we could just meet up here after class or something. Like you said, no one would bother us since it's out of the way, and…"

"Jaune," Pyrrha interrupted again, prompting the boy to look up and see that she was giving him a very satisfied smile. "I'd be happy to help you become a better fighter. To be honest, I was going to offer to help you anyways, but it looks like you beat me to the punch."

Hearing that made Jaune grin almost as widely as his partner, and he was more than willing to start right away, but he knew that it would have to wait for a little bit. There were still a couple more matters that he needed to talk with Pyrrha and the rest of his team about, and he did not intend to keep any of it from them any longer. Just when Pyrrha was about to suggest that they get started now, Jaune looked to her again and said, "There's one more thing that you should know…and that Ren and Nora should know about, too."

"What's that," Pyrrha asked, suddenly feeling a little nervous by how serious Jaune had suddenly become.

Jaune began heading for the door back inside, while saying, "Like I said, Ren and Nora should know about this too, and I think it would be better if we talked about it in our dorm. I'd rather not risk the wrong people finding out about this little detail."

Pyrrha said nothing in response, but instead, just nodded her head in understanding and followed after him. In her heart though, she knew that no matter what Jaune was going to tell them, she would stand with him to the end, and Nora and Ren would certainly do the same. A few minutes later, when Jaune had confessed the secret as to how he really got into Beacon, Pyrrha was happy to say that she was right, because it did not change a thing in her mind, or those of the two childhood friends, and when she told him as much, Jaune just beamed in thanks to all of them, glad to see that his team would have his back.

---

AN: [still running from a pissed off Yang] SOMEBODY HELP ME!

Ruby: I'm actually surprised that they're still going for this long. Normally Yang would have gotten to her target by now, or she would've just given up and let it rest.

Weiss: How long has she gone after someone for touching her hair before?

Ruby: [thinks back] Let's just say there's a reason I don't like thinking about the day she got her first haircut. [shivers] Well, on the bright side, at least lyoko had some notes on stuff to go over at the end of the chapter for us too, so we can do that while we wait for them to finally stop.

Blake: Not like there's many other options. First off, lyoko wanted to admit that he did change up the first fight between Jaune and Cardin. His reason for doing this is that the original writer of Remnant of the Key wanted to make Jaune a little more competent than he was displayed as in the show, and lyoko does agree that Jaune certainly had the ability to be much more capable the most people would give him credit for. After all, even if Ozpin did admit Jaune into Beacon while knowing that his transcripts were faked, Jaune would have to have some level of capability to have never hurt himself with his weapons, and take as much punishment as he did when he first showed up. He's not changing Jaune too much from what we know, but he does like the idea of a Jaune Arc that is at least a reasonably-leveled rookie. His closest comparison is actually to say that Jaune was like Sora at the very beginning of the first Kingdom Hearts game, or something like that.

Weiss: Then there's the matter of my match with Sora. You didn't really think that he would have me ask for a match and then not show us actually fighting did you? It was apparently not to easy for him to write out, as he had to keep in mind just what skills I was known to possess in the first volume of RWBY, but I'd personally like to believe that the results were quite fantastic, even if I did end up losing in the end.

Ruby: Aw, don't worry, Weiss. You're always going to be a winner in our book.

Weiss: Ruby, please! This story is not supposed to be a WhiteRose story, it's RoseHeart.

Ruby: So, I can't show my appreciation for my BFF?

Blake: Girls, can we not start that now? Moving on, was anyone surprised to see Sora and Roxas stand up to Cardin for Velvet? [looks about to see if anyone says yes, only to find none] Didn't think so. It's only natural that those two would be the ones who ultimately stand up to the bully.

Weiss: Come to think of it, Lea and Roxas seemed to get the spotlight quite a bit in this chapter. I suppose it's only natural though after seeing how Sora and Ven have been able to show off quite a bit in some of the past chapters in this story so far. I'm a little surprised that he did not make Sora and Roxas's match with Team CRDL go for a little longer though.

Ruby: That was actually intentional, because he wanted to show just how much of an easier fight those bullies were for Sora and Roxas in comparison to the one Sora had with you, Weiss. It's really not that big of a surprise though, considering that Pyrrha was able to beat all four of them by herself in Volume 2, and I'm pretty sure Pyrrha wasn't even trying that hard in that fight, either.

Pyrrha: If I can be honest, I actually enjoyed that quite a bit. It gave me a perfect chance to get back at Cardin and his team for what they did to Jaune.

Sora: And the moral of that story is don't mess with Pyrrha's knight in shinning armor unless you want to get hurt. Speaking of Cardin, lyoko also had his little revenge scheme continue on similarly to the way it was in canon both because it was a defining moment for Jaune that he felt that the story could not do without, even if he was not there the entire time, and because he believed that not everyone on Team CRDL is really as bad as their leader was at the time, assuming he actually has changed since then. After all, how often do you hear of a gang like that being completely united on the stuff that their leader does? Sure, it may make Cardin seem a little less redeemable, but lyoko honestly just doesn't like the guy because of the fact that Cardin is a bully, and he has yet to see any indication that he's changed his ways since then.

Roxas: Not to mention we've now seen a few more Heartless in this chapter, this time being our old friends the Powerwilds, and some of the newer Heartless that were introduced in Kingdom Hearts 3. You didn't think that lyoko was going to have them only show up every now and then, or only in seriously major battles like the Initiation, did you? Besides, what better excuse could me and Axel have for staying away from Jaune's big moment than keeping the Heartless from getting in the way of it?

Lea: Well, now that we've covered all of that, has Yang finally stopped chasing lyoko?

Everyone: [look to see lyoko still running for his life from Yang, only now, he's started tapping at his watch for something]

Ruby: Now what's he doing?

AN: [grins as he sees a notification on his watch, and then skids to a halt as he spins around to face Yang] Why don't you take a chill pill? [a number of giant freeze canons suddenly extend from the ceiling and floor and fire at Yang]

Yang: [just keeps growling until the beams freeze her solid in a block of ice. Said ice likely to either burst apart or melt at any time given that her Semblance is still activated]

AN: Okay...[panting] Alright...I'm...Whoa! I did a lot of running, but I'm glad to see that everyone seems to have enjoyed today's chapter. Is there anything else that we need to go over before calling it a day?

Everyone other than Yang and AN: Nope.

AN: Alright then, let's wrap this up so that I can get a head start in getting away from Yang before that ice melts. Onto the preview!...

After all the excitement that had recently occurred, Sora and his pals are more than ready to take a day for themselves and just relax. What they did not count on was that the members of Team RWBY would be right there with each of them in that relaxing, some of them even getting the boys to change their plans for something that could be more fun, at least in the mind of the respective girl. Just what will take place on this relative day-off for the Keyblade wielders and huntresses-in-training? And will it last forever? Take a moment to just chill out and smell the roses, next time.

Yang: [suddenly starts cracking the ice]

AN: Oh, that looks like my cue! Gotta-go-now! BYE! [takes off as fast as possible before suddenly running back] Oh, and before I forget...

Please read and review, and may your heart be your guiding key for your landing strategy.

Okay, I'm out now! [runs off again]

Yang: [finally breaks out of the ice] GET BACK HERE!

Ruby: YANG, NO! WE NEED HIM TO CONTINUE THE STORY! DON'T HURT HIM! [chases after her sister]