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?

8. Black, White, and Strays

Today's chapter is brought to you in part by Anonymaton's Anti-Deadpool Mech (Christmas Edition)!

[camera pans to show a multi-leveled stage with flashing lights and a faceless announcer that one can assume is Anonymaton (will be idenifitied as Ad Host for simplicity sake), similar to a car commercial stage]

Ad Host: Are you tired of unwanted anti-heroes in red spandex invading your studio? Do you want to dispense justice upon those breakers of both brick and fourth walls with style?

Sora: We're all listening.

Ad Host: If so, look no further, because the anti-Deadpool battle mech is for you; now in Christmas edition! [mech in question appears on the stage with Nora at the controls, much to everyone's concern] Not to worry, we're not going to any extremes here today. She's just piloting for demonstration purposes, just like our volunteer target dummy!

Xehanort: [tied to a large bullseye] I DID NOT VOLUNTEER FOR THIS!

Ad Host: Hush! Ahem, Standing at 15 feet tall and sporting numerous gadgets, gizmos, and hurty things, this wonder of engineering is sure to make the merc with a mouth think twice before getting up to any shenanigans in your house! Featuring a heavy caliber, rapid fire candy cane cannon [Nora fires said canon at Xehanort, who squeals like a girl as the candy canes hit his arms legs and barely hit his weak point] freeze ray [Nora fires freeze ray, turning Xehanort into a popsicle] titanium streamer restraints [Like you need to ask what happens now? Nora fires, Xehanort gets tied up by colorful streamers] and state of the art sound system, so you can put the hurt on the regenerating degenerate while listening to your favorite holiday tunes!

Nora: [hits the control for the sound system while a random X-mas song begins playing that she hums along to while continuing to fire various weapons at Xehanort, drowning out his screams of pain]

Ad Host: It's the anti-Deadpool battle mech, and it could be all yours today, with a quick message. (Warning: the anti-Deadpool mech suit is not an actual thing, but something of fiction that should only be used in humorous author's notes of fanfictions, and while its uses are applicable on other characters, it's main focus is Deadpool, and it should only be used on Deadpool lest you wish to cause very grievous harm to other characters. Only use anti-Deadpool battle mech on other characters when inside a studio that makes everything like a Looney Tunes cartoon like the Studio of lyokoMARVELanime) Send those messages in today, for your own anti-Deadpool battle mech suit.

[audience applause, and camera pans over to author who's already seated as his desk and clapping for the advertisement]

AN: Nicely done, very nicely done. I know what I'm putting on my X-mas wish list. [chuckles deviously] Ahem, anyways, "Anonymaton" had asked me via private message if I would do an ad for that in today's beginning or ending author's note, and well, I just couldn't refuse. I mean, who wouldn't want something to secure their studio against Dumbfool? But with that said, I think it's time we dispense with the funny stuff and get down to business, because it's time for another chapter in Remnant of the Key!

[audience applause]

Alright, alright, I know you're all excited, but just hold onto that for a few more seconds while I run a few quick review answers.

First off, as a general response answer, a lot of people seem to be really interested in finding out what will happen if Aqua and Winter ever meet. I must admit, I had not really thought that particular meeting would be all that funny or really significant, but given all the interest, I'm thinking that I might need to try and find some way to make it a little more exciting. Either that or start up my own little RWBY Chibi story that would do that and so many other things for this series. I mean, it does seem like everyone that's written a RWBY crossover has done a Chibi version to go with it, so why not at least consider it?

Sora: Maybe because you said that you weren't going to start any more new stories for a while?

AN: This would be completely different. I mean, come on! Is it really that much of a new story if it's technically a comedy spin-off?

Moving along, "CT7567Rules", can you really see Weiss doing something that would prompt me to lock her in a closet like I did with Cagalli, Shinn, and Yang? Get real. If anything, I'm pretty sure Blake would be the one that would force me to take such an extreme measure.

Ruby: Speaking of which, where's Yang?

AN: Oh, she may be locked in an underground bomb shelter I had installed in the basement of the studio, and I may have implied that if she tries to blast her way out of it, she could bring down the whole building on top of her and everyone else inside.

Weiss: Like that will hold her.

AN: Wanna bet? [hits control and a security camera feed is then brought up to show Yang inside said bomb shelter, still looking really mad] Oh, oh, oh! Here's come the good part. [Yang is then seen activating her Semblance, triggering an alarm before several hoses fire a large amount of fire suppressant at her until the flames on her hair dies out] AH-HAHAHAHAHAHA! AND SHE JUST KEEPS DOING IT TOO!

Lea: Should we be worried about how long she'll be down there?

AN: Nah, that suppressant is the same kind that Edna Mode used for Jack-Jack's new suit in The Incredibles 2, meaning its completely edible. I'm sure she'll be fine.

Moving on, "Dragon Rider 66", from what I've seen, Roxas and Namine's relationship is pretty interchangeable between romantic and sibling, as I've seen writers doing both with those two. I've mentioned before that I really don't have too much of a preference when it comes to who Roxas is paired with between Namine and Xion, so it's only natural that I would change who between those two he's paired with depending on the story/series that they are in. This would be an instance where he's paired with Xion as opposed to Namine, and trust me, no one's going to mention the whole Namine could be his sister thing in the Keyblades Unleashed Series. That would make things way too awkward on so many levels.

"Anonymaton", we're not at the point of psycho-Sora just yet, but there will be no need for any mallets to be used, especially not by Nora. That would not be playing it safe; that would be overkill.

Ruby: The use of the mallet, or having Nora be the one to use it?

AN: Is that a rhetorical question? Any ways, "Monkey D. Conan", to answer your question about Cinder's power level, considering that Maidens seem to be like Remnant's own personal version of the Princess of Heart in a way (at least that's the impression I've gotten from time to time), I'd say that Cinder would probably be considered at Maleficent's power level at least. Speaking of Maleficent, there's actually no plans for her at this time. I mean, she's not exactly taking much of an active role in the greater Kingdom Hearts universe at the moment, and it does not seem like she will be again any time soon.

Aside from that, everything else is stuff that will be answered in today's chapter, or would just be giving away huge spoilers, so sorry if you don't see your name on today's review answers. Besides, we've already wasted plenty of time here as it is. We gotta get this chapter rolling, so let's get it on, everybody!

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

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Chapter 8: Black, White, and Strays

Despite their best efforts, the boys and their friends from Beacon had not flown straight back to Remnant. Even after everything that they had said, Team RWBY still wanted some additional proof on the existence of other worlds, or more accurately, Weiss and Blake wanted some more proof, Ruby just wanted to see another world, and Yang was willing to go along with the ride no matter what route they chose. Then again, it was not like the Keybearers could blame them; aside from the fact that it was in a near-constant state of twilight and how there were no Faunus, Twilight Town was really not that much different from Remnant. Even meeting both Scrooge McDuck and Little Chef did little to reinforce the idea, so it made sense that the girls would want to see some place that would really prove they were on another world from Remnant, and despite their hesitance, Sora and the others just could not find it in themselves to say no when Ruby gave them a sad-puppy-face to convince them into showing them another world. Luckily, they knew just the place to prove that fact while simultaneously satisfying Ruby's curiosity, and so, their straight flight back to Remnant took a small detour to the home of Sora's most constant traveling companions: Disney Town.

Upon arriving at the castle that King Mickey called home and ruled his world from, the group was quickly greeted by Chip and Dale, leaving Weiss and Blake startled at the sight of actual, talking chipmunks while Ruby and Yang just cooed over how cute they were. If it were not for a quick intervention on Sora and Lea's part, the sisters probably would have even suffocated the poor gummi engineers in tight hugs, but there was no denying that Chip and Dale were both very flattered by their praise all the same. The rest of their visit was almost just as interesting, as the boys gave Team RWBY an easy tour around Disney Castle before moving into the town so that they could see it's cartoon-like nature, and the fact that everyone on this world was actually a cartoonish, anthropomorphic animal, including the rulers of said world.

Meeting Queen Minnie had the added bonus of giving Sora a sense of déjà vu when Weiss had scolded both him and Ruby for not being more respectful towards royalty, even though the rest of Team SLVR and Yang were being just as casual when they greeted her as they were. Luckily, Minnie was able to reassure Weiss that there was no need to worry about formalities with her or anyone else in the palace, since they were all friends of Sora's and/or King Mickey's, but it still did very little to keep Weiss from maintaining her cordial approach when addressing the queen. Another interesting thing that Roxas noticed after they had introduced the girls to Minnie was that Blake seemed to be struggling with herself for some reason, like she was trying to suppress some kind of natural instinct or something, but it seemed to pass pretty quickly when a few more of the Keybearers' friends finally came home to see that they had company.

The minute he saw Sora and realized that he had brought outsiders to their world with him, Donald instantly went postal on the spiky haired teen, even going so far as to bash him in the head with his staff almost as much as he had when Sora had turned into a Heartless while ranting and raving about the world order. It was an entertaining sight for most of the group, namely the members that knew about the friendship between Sora and the royal magician, but it did not keep Ruby from worrying that Donald might end up really hurting Sora after a while. Luckily, Goofy was able to help calm down his friend, and after a brief explanation, it seemed like Donald was willing to accept the fact that Team RWBY now knew all about these things. Of course, they did refrain from mentioning to everyone that they were likely going to tell Team JNPR about it as well, thinking that would set Donald off again, this time on all four boys, but they did at least tell Mickey, and he seemed to be fine with it, given that he practically encouraged them to do so.

Speaking of the king, Ruby and her friends all had to agree that meeting Mickey was probably one of the best things about traveling to Disney Town. When Sora and the others first told them about the mouse king, they all figured that he was probably this super huge, overly serious warrior that did not take any nonsense, but that image was quickly shattered when he entered the room. At least in the case of the super huge part. Afterwards, they quickly realized that while Mickey was very serious about his duties as a king, as a Keyblade wielder, and in keeping the worlds safe, he was also very friendly and playful in his own way. He was certainly not anything like what any of the girls would normally expect a king to be, and they found that to be both a relief and very refreshing. In fact, by the time they left, they honestly came to think that Mickey was a lot like Sora in many ways. When they expressed this fact to Mickey and Sora, the latter modestly protested the idea, while the former just gave them his signature laugh and agreed, citing that as a big reason why he and his pals all got along with Sora so well.

As great as their visit to Disney Town was, they did still have to get back to Remnant soon, especially since they had class the very next day. Seeing how sad Ruby was to have the fun cut short though, prompted Sora to promise that he would take them to see some other worlds sometime in the near future, and that easily raised her spirits quite a bit, especially after he made that same promise to the rest of her team on the flight back to Remnant. It may not be entirely okay for him to do that, but then again, this is Sora we are talking about. He was never really one for keeping up the world order when among friends that knew about the secrets that it tried to hide.

It turned out to be very late when they finally returned to Remnant, right to the point where everyone insisted on using the stealth gummi ship's teleporter to get back to the dorms instead of walking all the way back like they had that morning, and Sora found he could not disagree with them. Despite the fact that the girls all found the idea of teleporting from the ship and into the room to be really cool, they could not help but change that tune after they had done so, and came out on the other side feeling rather nauseous. Sora reassured them that it does get better with time, but the girls merely said that they would take his word for it before slowly trudging from Team SLVR's room and into theirs.

The very next morning, the boys were called up to Professor Ozpin's office to report on the events that had taken place yesterday, and naturally they were all worried about how the headmaster would react to hearing that some of his students had not only found them out, but were actually pulled into a vicious battle against the Heartless as a result. Still, it was not like they could come up with any other excuse, given that there had been absolutely no sign of Team RWBY since they had left for Twilight Town, so they ended up telling him the whole truth. When they finally finished the tale, they were sure that Ozpin would be furious, but instead, he merely smiled and admitted that he had a hunch that Team RWBY would be among the few, if not the first to discover their secret, and merely asked that they do their best to not let any more mishaps like this happen again.

The rest of the following week consisted of the two teams telling Team JNPR about Team SLVR's secret, which then led to Nora joining Ruby and Yang in asking various different, often bizarre questions about them and their world travels. Questions that often ranged from what kind of things they could do that no one else on Remnant should be able to do, with or without a Semblance, to whether or not they could shape-shift, and even to the question of whether or not they were using their real appearances at that moment. It was actually entertaining in its own way, but after nearly a full week of getting those questions nonstop, sometimes even when they were trying to pay attention in class, you could understand why the boys were starting to get a little annoyed. Mostly with Nora though; Ruby and Yang had gotten all of their questions answered before they had even reached the halfway point of the week.

So, no one was surprised that when classes ended on Friday, Team SLVR had disappeared almost completely, most likely in a collective attempt to hide from Nora before she could ask anymore crazy questions. Team RWBY probably would have gone to look for the boys and help them in this attempt, but they had all taken off so fast that you would think that they had all gained a speed Semblance that made them faster than Ruby. Either that or they had used the stealth gummi ship's teleporter to make a quick escape. Besides that, the girls actually did have some other plans in mind for their afternoon, and those plans brought them right into Vale as the city began to take on a much more festive appearance and atmosphere, all for one very special reason that was getting everyone excited.

"The Vytal Festival! Oh this is absolutely wonderful," Weiss of all people cheered with a smile that was almost comparable to that of a child's on Christmas.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss," Ruby noted for everyone. She was not wrong, either. Ever since she heard that Vale was starting to set up all of its decorations and preparations for the Vytal Festival, Weiss had been smiling almost nonstop for the entire day, and that smile had only become more constant after they had arrived in the city proper a few minutes ago. Even though she was happy to see her partner so happy and excited, Ruby still had to admit, "It's kinda weirding me out…"

"How could you not smile," Weiss happily asked in return. "A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances, parades, a tournament!" The more Weiss spoke, the more the girls came to understand why she was so excited, mainly because they were all just as excited for the same things. Or so it seemed, until Weiss added one last thing to her list of reasons to be excited. "Oh the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breath taking."

That last one pulled a sigh out from Yang, along with the only comment that came to her mind in that moment. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."

"Quiet you," Weiss snapped in annoyance. It was not her fault that the things she found fun and interesting was different from most other people's. Well…not entirely any way.

Blake merely smirked at Yang's successful burn on the white-themed girl, until an odd sound suddenly reached her ears and made her stop in her tracks. "Do you guys hear that," she asked.

Ruby was about to say no until she too picked up on the sound, and raised a hand to her ear so that she could better listen. Seeing their leader straining to hear whatever it was Blake had picked up on made Yang and Weiss do the same, right up to the moment when the sound started to become clearer to all of them and probably everyone else around them too. The sound in question definitely sounded like someone talking, but the speaker was saying everything at such a fast pace, that it was amazing that anyone could pick up on the actual words at all. In fact, the girls were all sure that the only reason that they had managed was because they had once seen how Nora was when she was on a sugar high, a dark memory that still made them shudder at the mere thought of it.

"Gotta-hurry-gotta-find-one-gotta-find-one-gotta-find-one! She's-gonna-be-here-any-minute-and-I-still-haven't-found-one! Hi-girls! Sorry-can't-talk-now! Really-busy! Catch-up-later! Bye," the person rapidly declared as he came and past them as a near blur, nearly blowing them all over with the strength of the wind that followed in his wake as he ran past them.

All four girls just looked between where the guy had come from and where he disappeared to in confusion over the bizarre thing that had just happened, until Blake finally asked, "Was that…?"

"Roxas! Seriously! Wait up," someone called out, answering Blake's question before she could finish asking it. When the girls turned to this new speaker, they were left a little startled by the sight of Ventus, Lea, and Sora all panting heavily as they ran to catch up with the fourth member of their group. "Geez! I had…no idea…he could move…this fast," Ventus panted, making the girls wonder how he had managed to shout after Roxas like he had just now if he was so tired.

"Sora, did you…happen to teach Roxas…how to use Flowmotion…when we weren't paying attention," Lea questioned as he ended up coming to a stop by a guard rail that separated the main street from the stairs down to the docks and waterfront, and used said rail to support his weight as he caught his breath.

"No, I didn't," Sora replied as he too struggled to breathe. "This is all…all Roxas. I'm not even sure if…he's using any…special powers…or if he's really just…just that excited."

"Yeah, I'm not sure which is the scarier answer to that," Lea groaned in misery. At that point, he finally noticed who else was with them, and immediately straightened up so that he could shoot a sly smile in the direction of Team RWBY's blonde powerhouse. "Hey hot-stuff," Lea greeted before turning to some of her teammates and dropping his smirk into just a friendly smile. "Ladies." When his gaze landed on Weiss, his smile vanished completely in favor of a very blank expression. "Ice Princess."

"Hey handsome," Yang greeted just as flirtingly in return.

"Hi guys," Ruby waved while Blake just nodded, though the latter did let out her cat-like smirk when she noticed how much of Ruby's attention was on Sora when she greeted them.

"Flame-Brain," Weiss returned just as flatly as Lea had. Since Lea had not stopped calling her that, practically refusing to use her real name most of the time, Weiss could not help but start using her own insulting nickname when speaking with him. Just because the two were now on better terms than before, does not mean they had suddenly become the best of friends.

"What are you guys doing here," Blake asked on their behalf.

"You mean besides hiding from Nora and her crazy questions," Ventus clarified.

"Seriously, you tell the girl that you had to change your appearance to the point of being something else entirely on a couple of worlds, and all of a sudden, the crazy train doesn't just leave the station; it attaches a rocket engine and blasts-off from it," Sora grumbled crossly.

"It can't be that bad," Yang tried to dispute.

"The last time we saw her, she asked if any of us ever had to change into girls because a world was only populated by warrior women that would kill any man they see on sight without a second thought," Lea informed Yang with a flat tone, only to drop it as he and the other two Keyblade wielders shivered at the memory.

"Okay, yeah, that's pretty weird," Yang agreed like clockwork, with Ruby, Weiss, and Blake all nodding in agreement.

"Still doesn't answer the question of what you're all doing here besides that though," Ruby pointed out.

"Mainly, trying to keep up with Roxas as he doubles his efforts to find one place in the kingdom that sells sea-salt ice cream," Sora finally revealed.

"I'm pretty sure that they don't make that anywhere on Remnant," Ruby guessed. She certainly had not ever heard of the flavor until going to Twilight Town last week.

"That's what we've been saying! But he keeps insisting that there's got to be at least one shop that does, and he's determined to find one today more than ever," Ventus replied.

"Really? How come," Yang asked.

Just before any of the three could answer, Roxas suddenly reappeared alongside their groups and answered for them so loudly you would think he had turned into an overly excited Ruby. "XION'S COMING TO VISIT," the blonde cheered while running around them in a manner that was almost like a ball in a pinball machine. He did not even stop until Lea finally reached out with one arm and grabbed onto him, and not by his arm or jacket. "Ow, ow, ow! My hair! My hair! That is my hair! That's my hair you're pulling on!"

"Calm down, bro! I get that you're excited to see your girlfriend, but at least try to remember how to breathe, or at least how to maintain normal human levels of movement," Lea joked as he pulled Roxas to a firm stop and then released his hold on the dual Keybearer's blonde locks.

"Wait, did he say Xion," Ruby asked. "As in his girlfriend that we keep hearing about in a lot of your stories?"

"Yep, the one and only," Lea proudly declared. "We just got a call from her this morning on his Gummiphone so she could tell us the good news. Mostly Roxas, but the fact that she is coming to visit is still a big deal. I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up sticking around for a while too."

"Oh my gosh, that's so cool! I can't wait to meet her," Yang cheered, now feeling really excited at the chance to meet another one of the boys' fellow Keyblade wielders.

"Me neither," Ruby agreed, and it seemed like Weiss and Blake felt the same way, given that they were smiling almost as much as the other two, with a hint of excitement dancing in their eyes. "Say, what's Xion like, anyway? I mean, you've told us a few different stories about her, but never anything about what she's like as a person."

"She's absolutely wonderful," Roxas sighed fondly.

"Yeah, I don't think you're going to get much more from lover-boy over here, at least not without it sounding all poetic and like something that could be used as song lyrics," Lea informed the group. He then decided he should take up the reins for that conversation and said, "I guess the easiest way to put it is…well, you know how Ventus, Aqua, and their buddy Terra are like a trifecta of friends or something like that?" Upon getting nods from Team RWBY in response, Lea went on to say, "Well, Xion's basically the third member of mine and Roxas's trio of friends. She's like the Aqua of our group, if Aqua was a lot younger, both physically and technically, really shy, and more into Ventus instead of Terra."

That last comment got Roxas to snap out of his love-struck daze and into a bit of a glare that was directed at his best friend, while Ventus just stared at Lea for a minute before turning to his physical twin. "Roxas, I'm not entirely sure, but I think we've just been insulted," Ventus commented.

"I'm pretty sure, although I feel like it was us, Aqua, and Xion that were insulted," Roxas replied.

Everyone got a bit of a laugh out of that last exchange, before Sora finally calmed down enough to give a better description of Xion to the girls. "In all honesty, Xion is the third pea to their pod, but as a person, she's a lot like…" Sora started to say while thinking of ways that he could most easily describe the girl that looked so much like a black haired Kairi, until his eyes finally rested on one particular member of Team RWBY. "Like Blake, only not as quiet, and smiles a bit more. Okay, a lot more."

"Hey! I smile plenty of times," Blake protested, earning a bit more laughter from the others that even she had to join in on eventually.

Once their laughter died down again, Roxas was prepared to take off and find a place that sold sea-salt ice cream, when another thought occurred to him. "Say, what're you four doing down here," he asked.

"Weiss brought us, but she hasn't explained why we're spending our Friday afternoon at the stupid docks," Yang answered.

"Ugh, they smell like fish," Ruby groaned while pinching her nose.

"Yeah. Kinda reminds me a little of home and the Caribbean," Sora sighed fondly as he took in his own whiff of the air. When the others looked at him a little weirdly, he only shrugged and said, "Hey, islander. I've spent most of my life by the sea. What can I say?"

"That aside, there is a very important reason as to why we should all be here right now," Weiss announced, getting everyone's attention. "I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today, and as a representative of Beacon I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom."

"Wow. That's so big of you, and yet, it all sounds so…fake," Lea sarcastically praised, only dropping the sarcasm at the end. "What's the real reason?"

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament," Blake suggested, though from the tone of her voice, it sounded more like she was stating a fact than she was making a suggestion.

"Yeah, that makes way more sense," Lea agreed with a nod.

"Ah! You can't prove that," Weiss instantly protested, but she only made the two smirk a little more since they felt that her reaction was proof enough.

Sensing that a fight might break out if this kept up, be it playful or otherwise, Sora was about to intervene when a startled gasp from Ruby caught everyone's attention. Turning to see what had caught Ruby's notice like that, everyone immediately saw a store that had been roped off with crime-scene tape and had been left very damaged. Upon moving closer, they started to get a better scope of how messed up the shop had become. There was glass from broken windows on the sidewalk and street in front of the store and inside, they could see several overturned shelves and the broken down front door lying across one of the counters. From the look of things, it seemed pretty recent, and that was only further supported by the fact that there was a pair of officers taking notes of everything on the scene.

"What happened here," Ruby asked once they had all gotten as close as they could without going past the crime-scene tape.

"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week," the bearded detective replied while pocketing his notepad. He then turned to walk over to his partner while grumbling, "This place is turning into a jungle."

"That's terrible," Yang sighed sadly.

"Was anyone hurt," Ventus asked.

"Thankfully, no," the other detective, a younger fellow by the sound of his voice answered. "The owners were out when it happened, and didn't learn about it until they arrived this morning to open up."

"Well, that's good to hear, at least," Sora muttered.

While she did agree with Sora's sentiments, Ruby still could not help but take notice of what the detectives were saying to each other about what they had found. Especially after she heard the younger one say to his partner, because it sounded a little familiar to her. "They left all the money again."

"Yeah, it just doesn't make a lick o' sense. Who needs that much dust," the bearded detective wondered.

"I dunno, an army," the younger one suggested.

"You thinking the uh, White Fang?"

"Ya I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

That last bit prompted an eye-roll from all four Keyblade wielders, while Lea just commented, "Ladies and gentlemen, Vale's tax dollars at work. What shining examples of security against crime."

Another eye-roll followed the overabundance of sarcasm, but the others soon became a little more interested in what Weiss had to say following the exchange between the two detectives. "Hmph. The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates," the heiress huffed crossly.

"What's your problem," Blake questioned, surprising some of the others with how annoyed she suddenly sounded.

Weiss did not seem to take notice, and simply answered the question. "My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus," Blake immediately defended.

"Misguided? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet," Weiss retorted.

"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale," Blake shot back.

"Not to sound like I disagree with you or anything, Blake, but what if they needed to load up on ammunition for some type of big operation or something, and didn't want to do it the legal way," Lea questioned. When the girl shot him a cross look in return, Lea raised his hands in defense as he said, "Hey, I'm just saying! From what I've heard, those guys went from peaceful protest group to basically a Faunus version of the old Organization XIII, minus most of the sneaking around. You can't blame me for trying to see things from multiple angles."

"Oh please. The White Fang has never been peaceful," Weiss scoffed.

"Really? Because from what I've heard, they were at one point, before they had a change in leadership. I'm not saying I blame them for taking a more heavy-handed approach in response to how most people treat Faunus in general, but if you ask me, I think they were better off before that had happened," Roxas countered, surprising Blake a little when he admitted that.

"Hmm. I think Blake might have a point, actually," Ruby thought aloud. "Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago. Maybe it was him."

"Torchwick? You mean that mobster on the news with the ridiculous haircut and the stupid hat," Sora asked for clarification. Upon getting a nod of confirmation, he went on to ask Ruby, "You actually met him once?"

"She didn't just meet him; she fought him, and the goons he had hired to rob the Dust store she was visiting at the time, singlehanded," Yang boasted on Ruby's behalf.

"You're kidding," all four boys exclaimed in awe.

"How do you think she got Ozpin's attention, and to the point where he was willing to let her come to Beacon two years early," Yang questioned.

Ruby could only blush at the praise her sister was giving her, and the redness of her face only increased when Sora said, "Wow! That's so awesome, Ruby!"

"Maybe, but that still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum," Weiss huffed rather haughtily, prompting Blake to start glaring at her, and that glare only grew stronger as the heiress continued speaking. "Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

"Okay, Ice Princess, we get it," Lea said rather harshly, and his lack of any playful tones made it clear that Weiss should watch herself if she knew what was good for her.

"Besides, that's not necessarily true," Yang started to say in her own attempt at playing peacemaker.

Yang's attempt at calming everyone down was quickly cut short when someone from the docks suddenly shouted, "Hey! Stop that Faunus!"

Hearing that prompted the two teams to rush back over to the guard rail by the docks, ready to spring into action, only to pause when they saw a blonde haired boy leap up onto the rail of a ship's deck, and wave to the sailors on board with a chuckle. A minute later, the boy had jumped off the ship, and onto the dock, before he leapt up to hang down from a lamppost by his monkey tail, proving that he was the Faunus that someone had been shouting about a minute ago even before the sailors on the ship had shouted after him. "You no-good stowaway!"

"Hey! A 'no-good' stowaway would have been caught. I'm a great stowaway," the monkey-boy corrected as he peeled open a banana that he pulled from somewhere, before he leaned to one side in order to dodge a rock that had been thrown at him by one of the detectives from earlier.

"Hey. Get down from there this instant," the bearded detective ordered, only to end up getting a banana peel dropped in his face.

The monkey-boy then swung himself up on top of the lamppost he was hanging from, laughing all the while before he leapt over the cops in an impressive show of acrobatics and raced up the dock stairs leading to the street. Naturally the officers chased after him, but he did not seem to be paying them any mind, or at least not anymore mind than needed in order to know he had to keep running, and his escape attempt ended up leading him right past where Teams SLVR and RWBY were all standing. When he came up to the two teams, he actually did slow his pace a little bit, but only just enough to the point where he could throw a quick wink at Blake, much to her astonishment, and afterwards, he was off at full speed once again.

After watching the police continue to chase after the stowaway, Lea eventually had to ask, "Did we just see an actual, honest-to-god monkey-boy?"

"Yep," Roxas confirmed while popping the "p" at the end. He then gained a small smirk as he joked, "Think that might've been Sora's long-lost cousin?"

"Hey!" Sora snapped in retort, not appreciating the joke at all.

"Well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes," Yang said to her friend, amusedly.

Weiss on the other hand was not willing to let the guy out of their sights just yet. "Quick! We have to observe him!"

"Right, because I'm sure having even more people chase after him will be a great way to convince him to stop running away," Lea remarked as everyone other than Blake took off after the monkey Faunus and his pursuers.

When he noticed Blake just standing there staring at where the monkey-boy had been just now, Roxas immediately shouted, "Blake, come on! If Weiss is going to end up landing everyone in trouble, we should at least be there to see her crash and burn…And help get them out of it, of course."

Blake did not say anything in response, but did snap out of her stupor to follow after the others. The two teams quickly rounded the corner that they saw the officers and their quarry disappear behind, and easily spotted both racing down the adjacent street without any trouble. At once, the eight friends all bolted after the three, doing their best to catch up, until they rounded a corner leading to a side street. Not even slowing down for a second, Weiss made the turn as well, but ended up running into something and falling to the ground with whatever it was she ran into, prompting the rest to skid to a halt right behind her.

Propping herself up on her arms, Weiss's eyes instantly widen when the Faunus boy suddenly disappears up onto a rooftop and out of the police's reach, and cried out, "No, he got away!"

"Ahem! Do you mind," a new voice then asked, sounding very irritated, while the rest of Team RWBY started to look at Weiss a little nervously, and Team SLVR all froze upon hearing the newcomer speak.

Looking down at the person who had spoken, Weiss saw that the thing she had ran into was actually a pair of girls, one with orange hair that had a pink bow tied into it, and the other black, and while the former was smiling widely despite her sudden fall, the latter was most definitely upset, given the glare she was throwing at Weiss. Seeing both girls and the glare that the black haired one was giving her, Weiss immediately leapt back up with a yelp, but that only seemed to irritate the black haired girl a little more. "Oh don't worry, I'm fine. Thanks for the concern," the girl grumbled.

"Uh…Sorry, I didn't see you," Weiss apologized.

"Yeah, well you probably would have if you had thought to slow down before making that turn," the girl retorted as she picked herself up while dusting off her skirt.

Feeling rather cowed by that retort, Weiss could not help but find this situation familiar, and could not help but lean over to her partner and whisper, "Is this what it was like when you first met me?"

"Uh…More or less," Ruby admitted with a shrug, not wanting to admit that this girl did not seem as mean as Weiss did back then, considering she had not raised her voice to yelling levels just yet.

What none of the members of Team RWBY had realized yet was that the boys were all sporting wide grins upon seeing this particular girl, one of them more so than the rest. "Xion, you're here," Roxas cheered as he pushed past Weiss to approach his girlfriend.

The black haired girl's cross look immediately transformed into an ear-splitting grin as Roxas scooped her up in a tight hug and spun her around, much to her laughing amusement. "It's great to see you too, Roxas," Xion laughed as her boyfriend set her down on her feet again, giving her a chance to give him a quick peck on the cheek before she set her sights on the rest of the guys. "Axel, Ven, Sora! Long time no see!"

"I'll say, Short-Stuff," Lea grinned in return as he pulled both of his best friends into a big group hug.

"Hey Xion," Ventus waved in greeting.

"Hi-ya," Sora smiled as well.

While the boys continued their reunion with Xion, Team RWBY took the time to take in the girl's appearance. While she was cross at first, seeing her smile again definitely gave her the appearance of someone who was really friendly amongst people she knew. Add that in with the way her blue eyes seemed to shine after she first saw Roxas and it was clear to the huntresses-in-training that she really did care a great deal for the blonde boy. Not to mention that her short, somewhat messy yet still straight black hair that parted to the right with some tucked behind her right ear gave her a certain level of cuteness that was hard to really resist. In terms of her outfit, Xion's attire consisted of a sleeveless double buttoned, collared shirt and a black belt, along with a short white skirt underneath said shirt, and black boots that reached halfway up to her knees with a beige color on the upper fifth, reminding the girls a little of Naminé's outfit. The only thing about Xion's outfit that did not seem too similar to Naminé's was the fact that she wore a silver and grey Gummiwatch on her wrist like the rest of the guys. All-in-all, Xion was not quite what the girls were expecting, but still pretty close to it at the same time.

The reunion between the five Keybearers was cut short, when Sora noticed the other girl still lying on the ground, not appearing the least bit bothered by the fact that she had been nearly forgotten in their excitement. Coming to a quick conclusion, Sora looked back to Xion and asked, "Say, who's your friend, Xion?"

"Friend," Xion asked, confused by what Sora was referring to, until she turned back to look at the girl that was still on the ground. "Oh my gosh!"

"Sal-u-tations," the girl happily waved to everyone before Xion could apologize for forgetting about her.

"Um…hello," Ruby hesitantly greeted, just as put-off by the girl as the Keybearers.

"Are you…okay," Yang asked.

"I'm wonderful. Thank you for asking," the girl replied, still just laying on the ground, much to everyone's confusion.

After a quick exchange of unsure looks between one another, Ventus asked, "Do you…need some help getting up?"

"Oh, no, that won't be necessary," the girl replied, and she finally jumped back to her feet, startling everyone into taking a quick step back when she did. "My name is Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hi Penny, and hi Xion," Ruby greeted, making sure to add the latter in since she had not done so yet. "I'm Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head," Yang asked Penny before Blake elbowed her in the side. "Oh! I'm Yang."

"And who are you four," Penny then asked the boys, apparently having deduced who Xion was by now.

"My name's Sora."

"I'm Ventus, but you can just call me Ven."

"Roxas."

"The name's Lea. Got it memorized?"

"Yes I do," Penny confirmed enthusiastically. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Um…You already said that," Roxas frowned in reminder.

Penny just blinked for a moment before her smile was back again and she said, "So I did!"

"Well, sorry for running into you," Weiss apologized as she and the others turned to leave.

"Take care, friend," Ruby added as she waved goodbye for now.

"We'll see you around, buddy," Sora said as he copied Ruby, neither of them noticing how Penny's eyes widened upon hearing their words.

Once they were a fair enough distance away, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief before Yang said, "She was…weird."

"I'd say quirky would be a bit more accurate," Xion corrected as she turned her attention to the huntresses-in-training. "So, judging by the names, I'm guessing you're the infamous Team RWBY that I've heard about."

"Yeah, that's us," Ruby proudly confirmed. Her smile faded a little though when she asked, "Wait, you've heard about us?"

"Mostly from Roxas whenever he called to update me on how things are going for him and the rest of these knuckleheads," Xion explained, getting in a bit of teasing while she was at it. "Of course, I also heard a few things from Naminé and Aqua, too after you all hitched a ride on their gummi ship about a week ago. Sounds like you really left quite an impression on them."

"Well, what can we say? We're just so awesome that we're pretty much out of this world," Yang joked.

While Lea grinned a little at the pun, the others all either groaned in disapproval or rolled their eyes at Yang's attempt at a joke before Xion got back on track again. "Well, it's nice to finally meet you all, you know, aside from when I got knocked over."

"I'm really sorry about that," Weiss apologized once again.

"Just don't make a habit of it, and it'll be fine," Xion reassured her with a smile. "Unlike my boyfriend, I'm not really one to hold grudges for nearly an eternity."

"Hey! I do not hold grudges for that long," Roxas protested.

"Roxas, need I remind you that you're still carrying a grudge against Riku from how he beat you almost a year ago," Xion questioned.

Roxas had no argument for that, at least not aside from anything other than crossing his arms and huffing in annoyance while grumbling, "He's the one who cheated by using those darkness powers like some kind of stupid, overpowered steroids."

Xion just giggled at her boyfriend's attitude, apparently finding it silly, before giving him another kiss on the cheek and cooing, "Don't worry. I still think you're tough." Seeing Roxas blush with a happy smile showed that he had now recovered from whatever bruising his ego had taken just now, and Xion took that as her cue to move onto another matter. "So, what were you guys in such a big hurry for, anyway?"

"We were chasing after this Faunus riffraff that may be a student visiting from Vacuo for the Vytal Festival," Weiss explained, not noticing how Blake had shot her another glare for the way she described the monkey Faunus from earlier. "You didn't happen to see him, did you?"

Xion just stared at Weiss for a minute before she finally said, "Yeah…Most of what you just said went way over my head. What's a Faunus, what's Vacuo, and what the heck even is this Vytal Festival?"

"Oh…right, you wouldn't know about any of that, because of…well, you-know-what," Weiss remembered.

"We'll fill you in on all of those details later, Xion," Lea promised. "But more importantly, did you happen to see a blonde guy with a monkey tail and an open shirt run past you before we met up?"

Xion crossed her arms in thought for a minute before answering, "I think I might have seen someone like that before I was teleported down from the gummi ship that Terra brought me over on, but the only person I really noticed was Weiss. I hadn't even realized Penny was standing next to me until one of you guys mentioned her to me."

"Well it was worth a shot," Ventus sighed. "Guess we'll just have to find him the old fashioned way."

The others all would have nodded in agreement, had they not had to come to a sudden stop at seeing Penny somehow standing right in front of them with an odd look on her face, much to their surprise. "What did you call me," the odd girl asked.

"Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me," Yang quickly apologized, thinking that Penny was referring to when she had called her weird, while Weiss and Ven darted their heads back and forth in bewilderment, trying to figure out how the girl had gotten in front of them from where she was without any of them noticing.

"No, not you," Penny corrected, stepping past Yang and the others until she was standing right in front of both team leaders, and getting a little too close for their comfort. "You two!"

"Us," Sora and Ruby both exclaimed in question.

"I-I don't know, I—what I—um, uh…" Ruby stuttered, while Sora just rapidly glanced about in an attempt to figure out what he could have said that may have been offensive to this girl in some way.

"You called me 'friend,'" Penny clarified for Ruby before turning to Sora, all the while sounding really excited. "And you called me 'buddy'! Am I really your friend?"

"Uummm…" Ruby did not know what to say at this point, and ended up just looking over Penny's shoulder to see what her teammates and friends' thoughts were. It should not be surprising that the rest of Team RWBY were motioning for her to say no, but what Ruby did find interesting was that while all of Sora's friends were doing the same, they were mostly directing their signals to Sora, and in a way that seemed a little more panicked than those of her teammates, to her confusion.

Ruby would soon figure out why they were so insistent on Sora saying no, because Sora had already had his answer loaded even before the others started to discreetly signal him. Too bad for them it was not the one they were telling him to give. "Sure, of course we are," Sora smiled happily.

"Yeah, why not," Ruby shrugged soon after, mainly just going with the flow that Sora had set at this point, even if it did make her ignore the others' silent signals.

The rest of Sora and Ruby's friends could only give the two disbelieving stares before comically falling to the ground. Not that Penny ever seemed to notice, since she was practically glowing at their answers, and happily pulled the both of them into a bone-breaking hug as she happily cheered. "Ahaha! Sen-santional! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" She had to pause at that last one, apparently only just now realizing that Sora was a boy, but just as quickly added on to her statement afterwards. "Along with all kinds of other fun subjects that friends talk about!"

"Ooh, is this what it was like when you met me," Ruby quietly groaned to Weiss, now finding herself as the one in the familiar situation that Weiss had been in earlier.

"No, she seems far more coordinated," Weiss instantly replied after dusting herself off.

"Geez, just how bad of a first impression did those two leave on each other," Xion asked.

"Now that is a long story that involves a lot of yelling, arguing, and a few explosions," Lea replied, only confusing Xion a little more. "We'll tell you more later."

"So…what are you doing in Vale," Yang decided to ask Penny, seeing as they were not likely to get rid of her anytime soon.

"I'm here to fight in the tournament," Penny happily replied, surprising everyone.

"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament," Weiss questioned in surprise. She was definitely not expecting one of the competitors to be so…well, someone like Penny.

"I'm combat ready," Penny saluted with pride, apparently thinking that was the best answer she could give. It did little to change the impression that everyone had of her.

"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part," Weiss said, voicing what nearly everyone was thinking.

"Says the girl in a dress," Blake disputed.

"It's a combat skirt," Weiss immediately shot back.

In an instant, Ruby was right by her partner's side with a proud smirk as she said, "Yeah!"

If that was not a reminder that at least half of Blake's team wore such attire, then the low-five that Ruby and Weiss shared right after that sure did. What surprised everyone was when Lea suddenly said, "Honestly though, I kinda have to agree with Ice Princess." He then smacked his lips a little before adding, "Wow, that felt really strange to say. But anyway, even Xion looks more threatening than you, Penny."

"I'm right here," Xion reminded the redhead a little irritably.

"Wait a minute," Weiss realized before any further arguments could break out. Walking over to Penny, Weiss immediately began to question, "If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed…rapscallion?"

"The who," Penny confusedly questioned.

"The filthy Faunus from the boat," Weiss clarified while showing Penny a very badly drawn picture of the monkey-boy in question.

Looking at the picture in Weiss's hand, Roxas found that he could only say, "I'm not sure if the quality is due to it being a rushed job or not, but judging by that picture, I'd say that Weiss doesn't really have much of a future as an artist."

"Nope. Naminé, the Ice Princess is not," Lea agreed, with Xion nodding in equal consensus, none of them ever noticing how Blake had seemed to grow a little more irritated with Weiss until she finally spoke up.

"Why do you keep saying that," Blake interrupted, surprising everyone with how upset she sounded and looked. Of course, it was a lot less surprising that she was focusing most of her attention on Weiss. "Stop calling him a rapscallion. Stop calling him a degenerate. He's a person!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like me to stop referring to this trashcan as a 'trashcan,' or this lamppost as a 'lamppost,'" Weiss then sarcastically questioned, her attention now fully off of Penny and onto Blake.

"Stop it!"

"Stop what? He clearly broke the law! Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang."

"Weiss, the guy hitched a ride on a boat. That's not any reason to think he's likely to go and become a terrorist. Besides, he seemed a bit more like the loveable mischief maker type to me than the type to hurt someone without a care," Lea disputed, hoping that he could help diffuse this situation before it got too out of hand. He failed, to say the least, because after hearing all that Weiss said, Blake finally snapped.

"You ignorant little brat," Blake growled heatedly before spinning on her heel and angrily marching away, trying to put some distance between her and the Schnee heiress.

Needless to say, everyone was shocked that Blake had actually said that. Sure, they knew that she hated people that treated Faunus poorly for some reason, but aside from when the girls had confronted Team SLVR a week ago about their secrets, none of them had ever seen Blake get so upset. From what most of them could see, this was probably even worse than that, and as usual, it did not seem like Lea was going to help the situation.

"Oh no she didn't," was the first thing that Lea muttered after watching Blake storm off for a minute.

"Not helping, Axel," Roxas admonished, having already seen Weiss was preparing to shoot back. He probably should have said something to Weiss first though, because she was already moving by the time he had turned to her.

"How dare you! I am your teammate," Weiss snapped before anyone could stop her, marching right up to Blake soon after.

"You are a judgmental little girl," Blake retorted like clockwork, no longer feeling like she needed to distance herself.

"What in the world makes you say that?!"

"The mere fact that you would sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group solely based on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be."

"So you admit it; the White Fang is just a radical group of terrorists."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

As the two continued to bicker back and forth with no signs of stopping, Ruby, Yang, Xion, and the boys felt their worries increase more and more. They all knew that Weiss was not likely to back down when her views were challenged, but this was the first time that Blake had ever spoken out so passionately and angrily on a subject, and she did not seem anymore likely to concede defeat than Weiss. Things were only likely to escalate from here, and the Keybearers all knew that it was only a matter of time before someone said or did something that they could not take back afterwards. They wanted to try and step in to help, but for the life of them, not a single one of the other worldly adventurers knew what to do. It honestly seemed like no matter what they said or did right now, they would likely end up ostracizing one of the two girls, and that was the last thing they wanted. Plus, the fact that Blake was being so vocal and emotional on the whole matter was kind of scaring them a little. This was a whole new side of her that they had certainly never seen before.

After staring back and forth between the two for a few more minutes, the boys eventually came around to asking why they were even worrying about this so much. Sure, Blake and Weiss were their friends, but this was not necessarily their mess to help clean up. If anything, it was more of a job for Blake and Weiss's teammates, but it did not seem like the sisters were too sure on what to do either, given how they were just standing there watching their partners go at it. That did make them feel bad for even considering to leave Ruby and Yang to deal with this, but what else could they really do at this point? Besides, there was another matter that they had to attend to right now that was not only being put off a bit, but was also getting a little soured by this whole argument.

"Sorry Xion. This is not really what I had in mind for when you finally came to visit us here at R…Vale," Roxas said to his girlfriend, just barely stopping himself from saying Remnant as opposed to Vale since Penny was still with them.

"I know it isn't," Xion reassured him before turning back to the arguing girls. Seeing that Weiss and Blake were still going and showing no signs of slowing down, she could not help but ask, "Is this normal for them though?"

"Kind of, but kind of not," Lea hesitantly shrugged. "I mean, Weiss does tend to act all high and mighty a lot of the time, but Blake's usually not this…this…"

"Involved? Emotional? Loud," Ventus supplied.

"Yeah, all of that," Lea confirmed while nodding to the blonde in thanks.

Hearing the Keybearers conversing with each other, Yang turned to them and said, "Maybe you guys should go. No reason for you all to have to see any of this inner-team drama."

"You sure, Yang," Sora asked, not wanting to leave her and Ruby to have to deal with this on their own.

"Positive. Your friend did come all this way to have a fun visit with you guys. There's no reason for you to ruin that by having to help with something like this," Ruby reassured him.

Sora was still a little worried about leaving the sisters with this mess, but considering how certain Ruby seemed to be about how well they could handle it, he found it hard to argue. Besides, she did have a point when she mentioned the reasons for Xion's visit. It would not do for them to give her a sour impression of their friends or Remnant by making her stick around to watch all of this, but that did not mean Sora was willing to let things slide completely.

"Okay, I guess we'll just get going, but we'll check in with you guys back at school later to see how things have turned out," Sora promised.

"Thanks," Yang and Ruby both nodded in appreciation, as Sora led all of the Keybearers away from the verbal battle ground.

Just barely a few minutes after they had left, they realized that Penny had chosen to follow them, or more specifically, Sora, and when she realized her presence had been noticed, Penny happily asked, "Where are we going?"

"Uh…We're giving Xion a tour of Vale, since this is the first time she's been here," Sora explained to her. "Afterwards, most of us are probably going to do our own thing so that we can leave Roxas and Xion alone for a bit."

"Oh that sounds fun! Can I join you all? It's my first time in another kingdom, too," Penny requested.

Once again, the others were all shooting Sora pleading looks while silently signaling him to deny her, but Sora paid no heed to them, and replied, "Sure. Just stick with us and you'll see tons of fun stuff."

While Penny grinned happily at her acceptance into the tour, the others could only groan miserably, even if they did somehow manage to keep it quiet enough to avoid being heard by the oddly happy child. That did not stop Lea from moving closer to Sora, and asking, "Sora, did they not have the concept of 'stranger-danger' on Destiny Islands, or do you just have some kind of obsession that prompts you to try and make friends with every weird person you meet?"

"Okay, one, we do in fact have that concept on the islands. It just doesn't get practiced very often since literally everyone on Destiny Islands knows each other," Sora replied, sounding rather annoyed by that particular part of the question. "And two, you don't really have much room to talk when it comes to being weird."

As entertaining as they found the conversation of the departing group to be, Ruby and Yang found their amusement vanishing once more when they turned back to Weiss and Blake, seeing them still arguing, and prompting them to both wonder if it really was smart to let their friends from other worlds leave like that, because it seemed like this was going to take a while to resolve.

---

Just as Sora said, after giving both of the girls a tour around Vale, or at least the best one that they could give, seeing as they were not actually from this world, the other three boys and Penny departed from Roxas and Xion so that the two lovebirds could have some time alone in an unofficial date. If you were to ask Roxas though, he would tell you that it counted as an official date, much to Xion's amusement and full-hearted agreement, prompting an eye-roll from the rest of the guys. Really, the two were cute, but sometimes, it was to the point of being overly cheesy and cliché. Whatever the case, the pair still appreciated their friends letting them have some alone time in order to properly catch up. Now the only thing that the guys had to do was figure out some way to ditch Penny without the girl realizing that they were ditching her or getting her feelings hurt.

Oddly enough, they did not need to do that much, because Penny actually ended up excusing herself shortly after she realized that the sun was beginning to set, and the boys then spent the rest of the day just hanging out in Vale so that they could take in the sights of how festive the city was becoming now that so many decorations were up for the Vytal Festival. Of course, they were mostly just hanging around in order to avoid Nora and her questions, but they knew that they could not stay in the city forever. There would eventually come a time when they had to get back to Beacon, whether it was the weekend or not. Thankfully, Sora had figured out how to use his Gummiwatch to control the stealth gummi ship's teleporter and allow them to use a site-to-site teleportation to get in and out of the school without anyone noticing, so now all they had to do was hope that Nora was not waiting for them outside their dorm room in an attempt to ambush them if they wanted to leave the room for anything. After all, just because they could use the teleporter to get from the school to Vale and vice versa, did not mean that they could do that to get all over the school without someone noticing.

When they did return to their dorm room, they found that Roxas and Xion were already there, munching on what looked to be sea-salt ice cream. When Lea asked if they were seeing things, the two confirmed that it was real, and that they finally found a shop in Vale that sold the treat. Oddly enough, Roxas said that it looked like it might have even been owned by Scrooge McDuck, reinforcing once again just how well-traveled the richest duck in the worlds was. The two had even brought back some for the other three as well, and would have immediately started passing them out, had they not suddenly heard angry yelling coming from just down the hall.

Peeking his head out the door just to make sure Nora was nowhere to be found, Sora verified that the coast was clear, and the Keybearers quickly made their way to the source of all the yelling, the two voices growing clearer until they were right outside Team RWBY's door. None of them knew whether they should be gaping in surprise or sighing tiredly at what they already figured was going on inside, so for now, they just settled for Sora knocking on the door to see if it would be alright for them to come in. When Ruby opened the door, she did smile a little bit upon seeing them, but it was clearly half-baked and very strained, and they all had a good idea why.

"They're still going at it," Sora asked.

"I'm not even sure if they've even stopped while we were eating dinner," Ruby replied, stepping aside so that Sora and the others could come inside, allowing them to better hear Weiss and Blake continue their…conversation from earlier.

"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem," Weiss snapped at Blake from where she was sitting on her bed.

"That is the problem," Blake shot back from her seat directly opposite of Weiss.

"You realize you're defending an organization that hates humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil."

"There's no such thing as pure evil!"

"Ahem," Lea coughed as loudly as he could, interrupting the two ladies and letting them know that their audience had grown back to the size it had been when they first started this battle of words. Once he had the girls' attention, he immediately began listing a certain bunch of names while counting them off on his fingers. "The Heartless, Xehanort, Vanitas, Xemnas, Ansem the Seeker of Darkness…"

"Not to mention Maleficent, someone who proudly boasts her title as the mistress of all evil," Sora added in, getting a nod of agreement from Lea.

"Well, yeah, Maleficent, Xehanort, and his Nobody and Heartless could count, but I'm not so sure about Vanitas and the Heartless," Ventus disputed. "Those two are more pure darkness than pure evil."

"Sure, if you ignore the fact that their actions definitely fall into that category," Roxas reminded him.

"Good point," Ventus nodded.

"Okay, I'll give you that, but this is completely different," Blake protested before turning back to Weiss. "Why do you think the White Fang hates humanity so much? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"

"People like me," Weiss demanded.

"To be fair, your family's company isn't exactly well known for being really good to its Faunus workers," Roxas reminded Weiss, earning him a discreet elbow from Xion as her way of telling him that was not helping. "Sorry. I'm just saying…"

"And that's without the fact that you're discriminatory," Blake accused Weiss.

"I'm a victim," Weiss retaliated, surprising everyone into silence with that remark. Even Lea did not have anything to say to that, and seeing that she had the full attention of the room on her, Weiss figured she might as well explain why she said that. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? It's because they've been at war with my family for years."

"Please tell me you mean as in various protests and employee strikes that made getting work done harder for everyone else," Sora could not help but ask.

"No, I mean war as in actual bloodshed," Weiss sadly replied as she turned to lean on the bookshelf by the window, unable to really handle the weight that always came when she had to talk about this heavy subject. "My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember, and ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear, board members executed, an entire train car full of Dust…stolen. And every day, my father would come home furious, and that made for a very difficult childhood."

Hearing all of that did seem to gain Weiss a little bit of sympathy from Blake, along with everyone else, but only Ventus and Ruby dared to move closer so that they could offer the young heiress a supportive shoulder. It was only natural for Ruby to do so, being Weiss's partner and all, but when they saw Ventus do the same, most of the others could not help but smirk a little bit, or at least they would have if it were not for the tension that was currently in the air right now after hearing about that little bit of Weiss's history. And unfortunately, things were about to get a little worse.

Weiss did not want to accept any form of pity, as she proved after angrily shrugging off Ruby and Ventus both and then going right back to glaring at Blake. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang," Weiss demanded of Blake. "It's because they're a bunch of liars! Thieves! And murderers!"

If any of them were expecting Blake to be cowed by Weiss's words, they had little time to be disappointed, because what she said in retort had ended up being far more shocking. "WELL MAYBE WE WERE JUST TIRED OF BEING PUSHED AROUND!"

No one could say a word after hearing that. They were all too busy trying to process the fact that Blake had said "we" instead of "they", which could only have meant one thing that none of them had been expecting. Even Ruby and Sora were staring at Blake in shock after hearing that, but none of them seemed to have been taking that declaration harder than Blake herself. Judging by the look on her face, Blake had not meant for that to slip out, but now that she had, any and all righteous anger that had been in her eyes before was now gone and replaced with great shame, sorrow, and above all fear. That last one was most obvious to Roxas, Xion, and Lea, considering it was one that they were all familiar with, but in her current state, Blake was not able to recognize any of that. All she knew was that she had just let out a majorly huge secret, and none of her teammates or friends seemed to be taking it very well.

"…I…I…" Blake stuttered, but she was ultimately unable to say anything, and just ran out of the room as fast as she could.

"Blake! Wait! Come back," Ruby called out, being the first to realize how big of a mistake it was to have reacted like they had to hearing Blake's secret, but unfortunately, Blake was already gone, and Ruby was not sure that she could even catch her if she tried using her Semblance right now.

Luckily for Ruby, Sora was the second person to react, and he had an idea of his own on what to do. "Roxas, Xion," Sora started to say.

"We're way ahead of you," Roxas confirmed before Sora had even gotten to the actual order, and like that, he and his girlfriend were off and chasing after Blake.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to send those two after her right now," Yang asked Sora after the couple had left. She wanted to go after Blake and help too, but right now, she had to wonder if it might have been better to just let her be alone for a little while, especially given how Weiss was glaring in the direction that the blonde's partner had taken off in.

"Positive," Sora nodded. "Besides, if anyone can help Blake right now, it would definitely be those two."

"Why should we even bother? I think it's pretty clear what's happening here," Weiss questioned with a huff.

"Weiss, do us all a favor, and shut your damn mouth," Lea snarled angrily, startling everyone with just how upset he sounded right now, and when she saw how he was glaring at her, Weiss felt it would be much better for her health if she did as he said.

Seeing the white haired girl had been silenced, Lea spun around on his heel and marched back to his room, not particularly caring whether or not Nora might jump him on the way back to Team SLVR's room, leaving Sora and Ventus with the rest of the girls. "Sorry about him," Ventus said.

"Don't be. I mean, everyone's kind of running on some pretty high emotions right now," Yang tried to play off.

"She's right. Maybe we should all just call it a night and let cooler heads prevail later on," Sora suggested. When Ruby looked like she was about to protest, he immediately added, "Roxas and Xion will call to let us know if and when they find Blake, or just to update us on whatever they end up doing afterwards. The second they do, we'll be sure to let you guys know first, okay?"

"Promise," Ruby asked.

"Promise," Sora nodded in return.

Hearing that from Sora made Ruby feel a little more reassured, but she still could not help but worry as she turned in for the night. It was a feeling that Sora shared with her as he tried to convince himself to try and go to sleep, despite any worries he had for their friends.

---

Blake was not sure why she even bothered running. It was not like she had anywhere she could go, especially now that her teammates knew her secret, or at least part of it. Not that any of that was enough to make her stop running, and nothing did save for when she finally could not run anymore, too out of breath and too tired to really go much further than she had already gone. Upon looking up, Blake saw that she had stopped just before the statue that served as the center piece of Beacon's courtyard, and while others would probably consider it as comforting, right now, all it did was remind her of how most people were likely to view people like her, and how her teammates now more than likely thought of her now that they knew. In that moment, standing out in the courtyard all alone, Blake felt like she could not keep it in anymore, and did nothing to stop the tears from falling once she knew they were starting to form. The only thing she did do was reach up and undo the bow in her hair, letting her locks fall lose, while the pair of little, black cat ears underneath were revealed for all to see.

In her moment of sorrow, Blake failed to realize that she was not as alone as she thought. "Huh, I always kind of wondered how you would look without the bow, but I don't think I ever guessed that it would reveal you would have cat ears," a familiar voice admitted, making Blake slowly turn to see a very sympathetic-looking Roxas and Xion a short distance behind her. "How you holding up, Blake," Roxas asked, being the one who had spoken. When Blake did not say anything in response, Roxas just nodded and muttered, "Right, stupid question."

"What are you two doing here," Blake quietly asked, worrying Roxas and Xion both with how scared she sounded. "Are you here to take me down or arrest me? I mean, it's your job to protect the worlds from dangerous people, right?"

"Technically, our job is to protect the worlds from things like the Heartless and anyone who gives into the darkness in their hearts. Besides, why would we want to arrest a friend," Xion questioned, surprising Blake a little when she said that.

"Hey, if you were a bad guy, then I'm sure you would've taken any one of us out long before now, and I doubt that you would be this shaken up over what had happened back there," Roxas added. Seeing that Blake still seemed really uncertain of a lot of things, Roxas just shrugged and said, "You know what, how about we just get away from here for a little bit? Give everyone some time to clear their heads and think things over for a little while."

"You're not going to make me go back," Blake asked.

"Well, not right now, at least, but you are going to have to face the others eventually. Just know that none of us Keyblade wielders are ever going to judge you based on whatever happened in your past, White Fang or not, least of all Sora. Seriously, you'd be surprised how many of Sora's friends had been enemies of his at one point," Roxas reassured her. He then smiled as he added, "I'll bet that your teammates are the same way. I mean, Yang's your partner, and she's had your back almost nonstop since day one and Ruby…well, if what they say about everyone having a double on another world is true, then I'd say she's definitely Sora's."

"Oh good, I thought it was just me who noticed that," Xion jokingly sighed in relief.

Hearing Xion's joke did seem to make Blake smile at least a little bit, and she knew that the two were right about all that they said, but she did still have one concern. "And Weiss?"

That question made Roxas hesitate for a little bit, but he did still have an answer for her. "Like I said, everyone just needs a little bit of time, some more so than others. I wouldn't worry about her too much, though, if I were you. If Sora doesn't get Weiss to see reason, then I get the feeling that Axel might." He left it at that, and then gestured for Blake to follow them, and said, "Now come on. Let's see if we can find some place to spend the night for a while. I'd offer the stealth gummi ship, but I don't think you'd want to go somewhere that may end up being one of the first places that everyone would look."

Blake nodded in thanks to Roxas for his consideration, and then moved to replace her bow, until Xion suddenly came over and stopped her by placing a hand over the one that Blake was holding her bow in. "Why don't you leave that off for a while? I think you look a lot better without the bow, anyway," Xion smiled honestly. "And I'm not just saying that because I think your kitty ears are really cute."

Hearing that from Xion made Blake blush a little bit, but she did appreciate the compliment if her smile was anything to go by. Her smile quickly vanished though when another new voice suddenly called out, "I'm with her on that. You definitely look a lot better without the bow."

Spinning around once again, the three all instantly laid eyes on the monkey-tailed Faunus from earlier that same day, perched up on one of the lampposts that lined he courtyard. "Hey, you're that stowaway from the docks," Roxas accused.

The boy just grinned in confirmation, apparently not the slightest bit ashamed of the fact that he was recognized because he had broken the law, and then leapt down to stand before them with a repeat of the acrobatics he had showcased when they first saw him today. "'Sup? Name's Sun Wukong," the boy greeted, finally giving them a name to go with his face. When he saw no one looking like they were going to be taking a friendly approach with him, he immediately raised his hands and said, "Hey relax! I'm not here to cause trouble or anything."

"Said the guy who was running from the cops a few hours ago," Roxas reminded him.

Sun just shrugged in reply before admitting, "Like I said before, a no-good stowaway would've gotten caught, and I never did. Besides, is that really any way to treat a fellow huntsman-in-training that's visiting from another school?"

Hearing that surprised Roxas, Blake, and Xion a little, but only the boy of the three could say anything in response to this revelation. "Huh. I guess Weiss was right when she said that students from Vacuo were going to be arriving today."

"Actually, I came here from Mistral," Sun admitted. "I mean, I did grow up in Vacuo, but I moved to Mistral a little while back."

"So, what about the rest of your team? Aren't they with you," Xion asked, having been filled in on the matter of how all students that were enrolled in the huntsmen academies were put onto teams while Roxas and the others were showing her around Vale earlier today.

"Nah, they're going to start arriving a little closer to the start of the next semester," Sun waved off. "Besides, there was no way I was going to be able to get one of them on a boat. He's got a really serious fear of water."

"You too, huh," Roxas asked, surprising Sun a little. "My best friend has the same phobia."

"You don't say," Sun grinned. "Was he one of those other guys I saw with you at the docks?"

"Yeah, the tall redhead."

"Cool," Sun nodded. He then grinned a little bit more and asked, "So what're your names?"

"Oh, I'm Roxas, and this is my girlfriend, Xion," the blonde Keybearer introduced.

"Nice to meet you both." Sun then turned to the cat Faunus of the three, and asked, "And what about you? Do I get to know the name that belongs to the pretty face?"

That earned him another blush from Blake, despite her attempt to hide it, but she did still answer all the same. "Blake. Blake Belladonna."

"Wow. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl," Sun complimented, making Blake's blush darken a little more. "So, what're you guys doing out here, anyway?"

Hearing that question reminded the three of the situation that they currently found themselves in, and Blake's mood darkened a bit right after that, much to Sun's concern. Since he knew that Blake probably was not up to repeating the story of what had transpired earlier, Roxas just motioned for Sun to follow them and said, "Come on; we'll tell you on the way."

Sun did not really get just what was going on, but he was curious enough to not question the request, so he happily followed the three as they all departed from Beacon for a hotel or some other place that they could spend the night at in Vale. Of course, his happiness in the matter did drop a little as he heard what it was that had prompted the three to leave Beacon Academy for the night, but that did not drive him away, and Roxas, Xion, and Blake were all very grateful to him for that.

---

Trusting that Sora would be true to his word helped Ruby make it through the night after Blake, Roxas, and Xion had disappeared, and that also helped her a little bit when there was no sign of them after she woke up the following morning. She was still worried of course, especially after Sora told her that they had yet to hear anything from the couple, but Ventus had reassured her that everything would be fine. They all reasoned out that Blake probably did not want to be around Beacon right now, and that Roxas and Xion had probably helped her find somewhere safe to be until she felt better, so Ruby was able to get through the day a little easier with that in mind. Then again, the fact that she ended up spending the day with Sora again also helped with that, even if they did spend half of it looking for information on the friend he and the other Keybearers had come to Remnant in order to find once more, but they did just spend some time hanging out like a couple of good friends normally would too.

Yang on the other hand was much more worried about Blake than her sister. Not surprising, considering that Blake was the blonde's partner, but it did make it a little harder to reassure Yang that there was no reason to panic or get too worried just yet. Thankfully, Lea was able to better help Yang keep a cool head in that regard, and while it did mean that they ended up spending some of their date out on the streets looking for any sign of Blake, Lea could not find it in himself to care. As long as he was able to help Yang stay calm and not freak out, he was more than happy to do whatever it took. Plus, the fact that it kept him well away from Weiss was a huge benefit, considering that she was acting like she did not even care about whether or not Blake was okay at the moment, and that made Lea more upset with her than usual.

Eventually, Saturday had come and gone, and they were all sure that everything would start working itself out by the following morning. Boy were they wrong, because when the girls woke up the next day, Blake's bed was still as neat as ever, and looking like it had not even been touched. On one hand, they probably could have told the boys about this and seen if Roxas and Xion had called in with anything, but on the other hand, Blake was their teammate, so it was their responsibility to try and find her first and foremost. Besides, there was another reason to be worried, which Ruby was quick to point out shortly after she, Yang, and Weiss had arrived in Vale to look for Blake.

"She's been gone all weekend," Ruby sadly moaned as she led her team down the sidewalk in their search.

"Blake's a big girl. I'm sure she can handle herself," Weiss remarked, still acting like they were being silly worrying about their missing teammate like this.

"Weiss, come on. She's one of our teammates," Yang pleaded, hoping to appeal to the Schnee heiress's better side with that reminder.

"Is she," Weiss scoffed questioningly. "We all heard what she said."

"Weiss," Ruby immediately reprimanded.

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Either way, she's missing and we need to find her," Yang cut in before the two could start in their usual round of back and forth, knowing that this was not the time for it.

"You do remember that Roxas is already looking for her, right? And alongside of his girlfriend, at that," Weiss reminded them. "I'm sure that they would have found some sign of her by now, seeing as they're experienced world travelers. Why not just ask Sora and the others if they've heard anything?"

Before either sister could answer, they all spotted Sora, Ventus, and Lea a couple blocks ahead of them, and figured that they might as well go over and ask. When they got closer to the boys though, they all started to notice that they also seemed to be looking for something, and Ruby was getting a bad feeling in her gut about what it could be that they were trying to find. "Sora, have you guys seen Blake, or heard anything from Roxas and Xion about her," the hooded huntress inquired once they had all caught up to the Keybearers.

"Sorry Ruby, but we haven't heard anything," Sora apologized. "Roxas and Xion haven't checked in to even tell us where they are, and every time we try calling them on our Scrolls, Gummiphones, or Gummiwatches they don't answer."

"Is there really a difference if you use the Gummiphone or Gummiwatch to call them," Yang asked.

"I'm not sure, but I figured that it wouldn't have hurt to at least try and see," Sora admitted with a shrug.

"Besides, the fact that they're not answering either of those has definitely got us worried now," Ventus added on. "We all agreed on the way here that if we got any calls on the Gummiphone, be it from each other or one of our other friends, we'd consider it as high-priority and necessary to answer as soon as possible."

"So the fact that Roxas isn't answering is probably not a good sign, right," Weiss guessed.

"To say the least," Lea replied in a short, clipped tone. Clearly, he was still not likely to be in a great mood around Weiss after what happened Friday night.

"Don't you guys have some kind of tracking device in those gummi devices of yours that would help you find them," Yang asked. She remembered Chip and Dale telling them about that feature on said devices quite clearly on their visit to Disney Town.

"Tried them, and had just as much luck as calling the two," Sora admitted. "From what we can tell, it looks like Roxas and Xion have turned off their trackers."

"Well that's just great," Weiss grumbled. "As if this whole weekend wasn't filled with enough problems."

"What's that supposed to mean," Lea questioningly growled.

If Weiss did register any danger from the redhead, then she had clearly ignored it, because she pressed on like there was no problem. "Hello? We had a member of the White Fang right underneath our noses the entire time, and never once realized it!"

"I'm not so sure about that," Sora disputed, surprising Weiss a little. "Blake never actually said that she was a member of the White Fang. I mean, sure, what she did say does seem to paint that picture, but for all we know, she could just be a secret Faunus or an ex-member that's on the run. We won't know anything for sure unless we find her."

Ruby was glad to see that Sora was still keeping an optimistic attitude about Blake's status, at least when it concerned the White Fang, but it did little to alleviate her biggest worries. "I just hope she's okay," she moaned.

"If she's with Roxas and Xion, then I'm sure she's fine," Lea reassured the leader of Team RWBY, his voice now much softer and soothing than it was when he was talking to Weiss just a moment ago. Of course, that did not stop the hint of sadness from creeping into his eyes as he quietly recalled, "Those two have a pretty good deal of experience in looking out for themselves after having to leave someplace where someone didn't feel welcomed."

Yang was not sure why, but somehow, she got the feeling that Lea had meant something else when he made that last remark. It was just too odd that he would be looking like he had been recalling a rather upsetting time when he said that. Maybe it had something to do with his history as a member of the first Organization XIII, or maybe it was a memory about a less pleasant time in his friendship with the two, but Yang could not really say for sure one way or the other. She decided to get the answers on that later, because right now, they had some missing friends and teammates to find, and they all immediately went right back to their search afterwards.

---

"I really don't like this," Xion repeated for probably the fourth time since she and Roxas had turned off the trackers on their gummi devices. Not even the calm atmosphere of the outdoor balcony seating area of the café they were currently at eased her worries about this.

"I know, Xi, but keep in mind, Blake insisted that she didn't want the others to find us before she was ready to go back," Roxas reminded her. He did not like the decision anymore than Xion, but he did understand where the cat Faunus was coming from. In a way, they had been where Blake currently was once, so it would have been weirder if they did not get it.

Hearing the two talking about that matter made Blake feel a little guilty for making them promise her to not tell their friends where they were, but she did not want to risk the others finding them before she was ready to face them again. Roxas had insisted that turning off the trackers was their way of proving that they were willing to go at her pace, so she was at least comforted a little by that. Of course, having the two Keyblade wielders and Sun stick with her since they had left Beacon that night helped too, so after taking a quick sip of the tea she had ordered, and letting out a sigh, Blake finally made her decision.

"So, you guys want to know more about me," Blake asked after setting the tea cup down, startling the other three a little when she did.

At first, the others could not think of any way to reply, but Sun did manage to recover quickly enough. "Finally, she speaks! Nearly two days and you've given us nothing but small talk and weird looks," Sun practically cheered as he held his own cup with his tail. While his comment only made Xion and Roxas furrow their brows at him, Blake's first reaction was to glare at him a bit. Not that it seemed to faze Sun all that much, if at all. "Yeah! Like that."

Blake only rolled her eyes at the boy in response to that, while Roxas and Xion both had to wonder the exact same thing. 'Does anything phase this guy? He seems like he's almost as optimistic as Sora, if not more so, if that's possible!'

No matter what their thoughts about the strange boy were, Blake was still determined to press on with what she was going to do now. "Sun…are you familiar with the White Fang," she started off.

"Of course! I don't think there's a Faunus on the planet who hasn't heard of them. Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks if you ask me," Sun confirmed while voicing his own opinion of the Faunus rights group.

"That's pretty similar to the impression I got after hearing about them from Roxas and the others, at least, before…well, you know," Xion informed Blake, not wanting to bring up the Faunus girl's argument with Weiss right now.

Blake appreciated what the other girl was trying to do, and that did make it at least a little easier for her to continue with what she had to tell them. "I was…once a member of the White Fang."

The question that Roxas and Xion were wondering earlier got something of an answer when Sun choked on his tea in shock after hearing that confession, and the latter was quick to try and help clear Sun's airways with a few quick pats on the back. The former on the other hand, decided to address the issue that was brought up. "Was this before or after they switched to their more violent approach?"

"It was during both points. I was a member for most of my life actually. You could almost say I was born into it," Blake confessed, and she then decided to dive into a little history lesson on the group for all three of them. "Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between humans and the Faunus. Of course, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings, and so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people. And I was there. I was at the front of every rally, I took part in every boycott, and I actually thought we were making a difference…but I was just a youthful optimist."

"Is it weird that when I picture a little version of you doing all those things like that in my mind, I can't help but think it looks cute," Xion suddenly asked, interrupting the story. Everyone just gave her a weird look for that comment. "What? She's a girl with kitty ears, and cats are cute, when they aren't the kind that are evil and try to kill you. Don't judge me."

Xion's interruption did at least make Blake smile a little for a minute or two, but her frown was soon back again as she continued on with the story. "Anyways, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking. Suddenly our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor, and the worst part was? It was working. We were being treated like equals, but not out of respect…out of fear." Blake needed to take another quick sip of her tea in order to calm her nerves after letting all that out, and once she had, she pressed on to the end of her story. "So, I left. I decided no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a huntress. So here I am. A criminal hiding in plain view all with the help of a little, black bow."

It took a moment for the other three to digest what they had just heard. It was hard for them to really imagine exactly what it must have been like for Blake to go through all of that before ending up where she was now, but they did find it admirable that she decided to turn her life around for the better and use her abilities to find a way to really make things better for other Faunus like her. Even so, it made Sun wonder one thing. "So…have you told your friends any of this?"

Blake just lowered her head in sad silence, giving him all the answer he needed, but that did not stop Roxas from saying something in her place. "It's a little hard to tell your friends about this type of thing when one of them has made it very clear that she has a…low opinion of people that are associated with the White Fang, and not without good reason, either." He then turned to Blake as he finished, "But I'm sure if you did tell them what you told us, they would all more than likely understand."

"Somehow, I'm not so sure," Blake disputed. She did want to believe Roxas, but after all that Weiss had said the other night, and the way she had run off, it was hard to keep any doubts on the whole thing at bay.

Upon hearing that answer, Roxas slowly turned to Xion, silently asking for permission to say the only thing he could think of that would likely help Blake with all of this. She was a little hesitant at first, but in the end, Xion still nodded in consent, but also gave him a look that said she would be the one to go first here. "Blake, do you think that Roxas and I are good people," Xion asked.

"Huh? Um…Of course of you are," Blake answered, a little bewildered by the question.

"What about Axel? I mean, you know he was a member of Organization XIII, and he's done some things that he isn't proud of, so do you think he's a good person?"

"He may have made some mistakes, but he's doing his best to make up for them now," Blake said. That was something that she had realized after hearing about the Keyblade wielders' history. "Besides, a lot of it was because he was afraid of what Organization XIII would do to him if he hadn't, and they are definitely the worst kind of people I've ever heard of."

"It's funny you should mention that, because…Axel's not the only one on our team that used to be part of the Organization. I was a member of the first Organization XIII as well, and so was Xion," Roxas revealed.

That was not something Blake had expected to hear, and while he did not understand most of what they were talking about at this point, Sun was able to get the basic gist of things. "Wait, you guys used to be…" he started to ask, only to stop short when he failed to come up with a word to describe this new group he was just now learning about.

"Some of the bad guys? In a way, yeah," Roxas finished for Sun. He then pointed at himself and Xion as he said, "Number XIII, Roxas, the Key of Destiny, and Number XIV, Xion."

Blake and Sun both waited in silence to hear what title Xion had been given, only for Roxas to remain completely silent. "The…" Blake prompted.

"That's it. I was never given a fancy title like the other members. They never even gave me a chair in the big meeting room, all because there was only ever meant to be thirteen of them. I was just something that they…happened upon," Xion revealed while still keeping a few details to herself. Since it was clear that Sun did not know the full story, it was better to not say too much. Besides, there were still days that she was not sure she really understood the full circumstances behind her existence, so why bother trying to explain things only to leave the other two really confused.

"But…why," Blake asked. "Weren't all the members of the first Organization Nobodies?"

Having already anticipated what Sun was likely thinking after hearing that question, Roxas quickly looked to him and said, "Not the kind of nobodies you're thinking. Nobodies, with a capital 'N', and yes, they were, and so were we, at least at the time. Xion and I are both a very unique case among Nobodies. We had a human form along with incredible powers that regular Nobodies don't have, but we didn't remember anything from before we became Nobodies. Of course, we were also some of the few Nobodies that had a chance to gain hearts of our own, even if we didn't realize it at the time, but that's a whole different story."

"When we first joined, we had no memories of our pasts," Xion picked up from there. "All we knew was how to carry out basic human functions. To be honest, Roxas was even better off than I was in that department, since he was actually able to talk. It took me a few weeks before I could even make myself say more than a few words, and that had made me too scared to even lower my hood so that people could see my face for a while."

"I still remember the first time you spoke and showed your face. I thought I had been hearing things at first when I heard you slowly say my name, but when I looked back and asked you to repeat yourself, you answered, and I thought your voice was really beautiful. I'm lucky I was still able to talk myself afterwards, and I'm even more surprised that I didn't completely shut down after seeing your face for the first time the very next day," Roxas recalled with a fond smile, making Xion blush with a bashful smile as she played with her bangs a little.

While she did find the little moment that the two were sharing to be cute, Blake was more interested in the rest of this story they were telling. "Did you stay with them for as long as Lea did?"

"No, but it was pretty close," Xion admitted. "I actually tried to run away from the Organization more than once. The first time didn't end so well, but the second time…Well, I prefer not to think about it too much, considering what happened after."

Knowing what Xion was referring to, Roxas placed a comforting hand on hers before continuing on with the explanation. "For the longest time, we didn't really have a problem staying with the Organization. I mean, they took us in, put a roof over our heads and three meals a day, and all we had to do in return was help them collect hearts for their Kingdom Hearts by destroying Heartless with our Keyblades. It was not like we really had any way of knowing whether or not what we were doing was right or wrong, at least, not until we started asking questions that some of the members didn't want us to have answered, least of all the leaders of the Organization."

"I was the first to leave, because I had found out what they were hiding from me and Roxas, and I wanted to try and help make things right again, no matter what it took. I think that's actually what gave Roxas the push he needed to leave as well, even if it was mainly so he could find some more answers of his own, but either way, by that point, we were both convinced that no one would miss us. Well, no one other than Axel anyway," Xion added.

"It took a while, and we hit some bumps in the road, to put it mildly, but eventually, we did find our way onto the right path, and ended up giving Sora the strength he needed to stop the first Organization, before playing a huge part in stopping the True Organization XIII. So you see, Blake, you're technically not the only criminal hiding in plain sight here. Just the only one that had to add to your appearance in order to hide. Xion and I, the only thing we've ever had to do was stop wearing those stupid, black coats," Roxas concluded.

Now it was Blake's turn to take a moment and digest the information that had just been shared, and she could understand at least part of the reason why Roxas and the others had not mentioned any of this. After all, some of the things that Lea had done during his time as Axel were rather horrible, so they had probably assumed she and the others would believe that Roxas and Xion had done things just as bad if they had learned these two were part of the Organization at one point, too. Still, it did not quite clear up everything for her.

"Why would you tell me all of this now," Blake asked.

"First, tell me this: does any of it change how you think of us? Do you still think we're good people," Roxas asked.

"Of course I do," Blake automatically answered. "You've been nothing but good friends to me and the others ever since we met, and I can't help but have a hard time picturing Xion as anything but good, even if I haven't known her as long."

"There you go, then," Roxas said with a smile, confusing Blake a little. "If you and all the rest of our friends can still think of us in a good light, despite knowing what we've done, then I'm sure that the others will feel the same way about you, even with your history as a member of the White Fang."

Hearing Roxas say that made Blake smile a little more, and she had to admit, that did make it a little easier to believe that the others would be accepting of her if she told them all that she had told these three. Even so, she was still not quite ready to go back and talk to everyone just yet. There was one thing that she had to be absolutely sure of first.

---

While Blake was having her little confession time with Sun, Roxas, and Xion, and learning about the dark side of the latter two's past, the others were still searching as much of Vale as they could in an effort to find their missing teammates. Sora had tried reaching his fellow Keybearers on their gummi devices several times since he, Lea, and Ventus had met up with Ruby, Yang, and Weiss, but unfortunately, he had no more success than he did the last few times that he had tried calling Roxas and Xion. Even asking around had proven to be of little help, both at Blake's favorite hang-outs and at most of the ice cream shops that Roxas had frequented since coming to Remnant. Just because not all of them served sea-salt ice cream, did not mean that Roxas wrote off every shop that he had looked into. Regardless of this, no one was willing to give up in trying to find their friends, but considering that they had now started resorting to just calling out for the three while wandering the street, it did seem like they were running out of ideas.

"Blaaaake," Ruby called as loud as she could.

"Roxaaaaas," Sora shouted.

"Blaaake," Yang called almost as loudly as her sister.

"Xion," Ventus hollered.

"Blaaake?! Where are yooouuu," Ruby shouted once again.

"Roxas! Xion! Seriously I thought we were done doing this kind of thing," Lea called out, sounding slightly annoyed as he did, although, it could have something to do with the one person of the group who was not putting in any effort at the moment.

Ruby had noticed this as well, because while Yang called out for their missing teammate, she had immediately spun around to her partner and said, "Weiss, you're not helping!"

"Oh! You know who might be able to help? The police," Weiss replied, much to the displeasure of Ruby and Lea.

"Ugh, Weiss…"

"It was just an idea," Weiss insisted.

"Yeah, and if you suggest any other bad ones like it, I'll burn your hair off as a warning," Lea growled, earning him a reproachful look from his teammates. "What?! She's asking for it!"

"Lea," Sora snapped in return, apparently thinking that using his real name would add extra emphasis to his disapproval.

"…Fine," Lea grumbled before crossing his arms and marching ahead of the group, intent on putting as much distance between him and Weiss as possible.

Seeing this, the others all made sure to put themselves in between Lea and Weiss, forming a shield that could hopefully discourage or at least stop the redhead if Weiss managed to push him over the edge. They already had enough problems as it was without these two coming to blows. Once they were satisfied with their defensive line, Yang looked back to the heiress and reasoned, "Weiss, I think we should hear Blake's side of the story before we jump to any conclusions."

"Yeah, besides, maybe Roxas and Xion have heard it and are just making it hard to find them so she has a chance to get herself together before confronting us again," Sora added on.

"I think when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right," Weiss disputed. "Besides, for all we know, she's taken Roxas and Xion prisoner for the White Fang."

"Pft! Yeah, like that could happen. Those two are old pros at getting away from people that try to imprison them," Lea muttered when he heard that, barely keeping his anger in check at hearing Weiss's latest comment.

No one else seemed to hear the redhead, but Ventus did still make it a point to move closer to Weiss and whisper, "Yeah, I think that you should probably try to tone it down on that attitude a little bit before Lea really does make good on that threat of his. In case you haven't noticed, he's not exactly in the best of moods whenever you say stuff like that right now."

As much as she hated to admit it, Weiss actually did shiver a little in fright at how true Ven's warning seemed to be. After all, the man had seemed very likely to explode on her the other night, so she was well aware of how likely it was that she was on thin ice with Lea. Not that she would ever admit to being afraid of him. Before she could reply, Penny said, "And I think Weiss's hair looks wonderful today!" …Wait, what?

"DA-AAGH! Penny! Where did you come from," Ruby yelped as the group all spun around as one to see the strange girl right behind them.

"Seriously," Lea muttered. "Maybe Roxas was right when he mentioned that I might be losing my touch a while back. Even I didn't notice her until just now."

"Hey guys. What are you up to," Penny asked, dodging the question completely.

Seeing as neither Ruby or Sora were sure how to answer after having the former's question avoided, Yang took it upon herself to answer Penny. "We're looking for our friends Roxas, Xion, and Blake."

"Oooh! You mean the cute couple and the Faunus girl," Penny recalled.

Despite how casual she had said it, her description ended up causing the others to blink at her in silent surprise, until Ruby asked, "Wait, how did you know all that?"

"It's a little obvious that Roxas and Xion are in love with each other," Penny said.

"She's got a point. Even before they were a couple, it was pretty obvious that those two had a thing for each other," Lea admitted to everyone. He then looked back at Penny and asked, "But that doesn't explain how you knew Blake's a Faunus."

"Uh, the cat ears," Penny reasoned while pointing to the top of her head as if to indicate where said feature would be on Blake.

"What cat ears," Yang asked with a hint of a chuckle. "She wears a…bow…"

Everyone was silent due to having the same, delayed realization as Yang, leaving only the sound of the wind blowing to fill the void, along with a random tumbleweed rolling past them. "Anyone else feel a special kind of stupid right now," Ventus eventually asked, receiving only more silence in reply. "Okay, good. Didn't want to be the only one."

"Trust me; you're not," Lea muttered.

The girls were unable to really comment at all, until Ruby finally whispered, "She does like tuna a lot."

"So, where are they," Penny asked.

"We don't know. Blake's been missing since Friday," Ruby informed her.

"Roxas and Xion had gone after her, but we haven't heard anything from them either," Sora added on.

The next thing both team leaders knew, Penny was rushing up to them with worry all over her face, and saying, "That's terrible!" Her smile was back almost as quickly as she then promised, "Well don't you worry Ruby and Sora, my friends! I won't rest until we find your teammates."

"Uh, that's really nice of you Penny, uh, but we're-we're okay," Ruby stuttered, a little unsettled by the other girl's enthusiasm and exuberance.

"Yeah! We've got it covered. Really," Sora insisted in the same manner. Normally, he would not be this bothered by another person's little quirks, but Penny was a little more odd than he was used too. "Right guys," Sora then asked, hoping he could get some backup on the matter from his friends. Strangely enough, his only answer was silence. "Guys," Sora repeated while turning to the group, only to gape at what he saw. "Not again!"

Wondering what Sora was grumbling about, Ruby turned to where the others should have been, and saw that Yang, Weiss, Lea, and Ventus were no longer there, making it clear that they had ditched her and Sora with Penny. At that point, Ruby shared Sora's reaction, but she kept it to herself since she did not want Penny to be upset. That did not mean she was not already making plans to get back at her sister and partner later for this betrayal though.

Sora on the other hand, already had a fool-proof plan on how to get back at the guys, and he made sure that Ruby could hear him so that she could pass along a warning to the two boys if she saw them before he did. "I am so telling Aqua."

---

Admittedly, the four friends did feel bad about leaving Ruby and Sora with Penny the way that they did, but it was not like splitting up so that they could cover more ground was a bad idea. They just neglected to tell Ruby and Sora they were going to do that before running off. Sure, Lea and Ven had a hunch that Sora would be mad enough to tell Aqua about this the next chance he had, but right now, they were more concerned with finding their missing friends than anything else. Well, Ven was worried about that, and also what would happen when Weiss finally pushed Lea too far, because he knew it was only a matter of time at the current rate they were going.

That time actually came just after they had left another shop, asking the owner if they had seen Blake, Roxas, or Xion. The results had come back negative, but at least they had marked another spot off the list. That was the impression Yang tried to give off when she thanked the owner of the shop while they left, but her optimistic appearance fell just after the door had closed behind her. "This is hopeless," Yang worriedly sighed.

"Hey, don't give up just yet. We'll find them before you know it," Ventus promised, while Lea just gave her a nod to show his agreement.

Yang appreciated that vote of confidence, but she would have liked it better if it had come from her teammate. "You really don't care if we find her, do you," Yang instantly accused Weiss.

"Don't be stupid. Of course I do. I'm just worried what she'll say when we find her," Weiss admitted at last. That made the others start to think that there was hope for her yet, until she added one last thing to her statement. "The innocent never run, Yang."

He did not even need to turn and face Lea to know the guy was glaring at Weiss now, and that was all the reason Ventus needed to gently back Yang away for when his friend exploded. To his surprise, the explosion was much different than he was expecting. "And what about the people who are scared?! You think they just sit on their asses and do nothing," Lea hotly demanded, pulling Weiss out of her cold exterior and into the fear she had been trying to hide ever since Friday night. "Maybe if you took off your stupid, self-centered blinders for two minutes, you would've seen how terrified Blake was after saying what she did, and how little your reaction to it had helped! What's it take to get it in your head that the world doesn't revolve around you to the point where everything you say and think must always be right?!"

"I have never once thought that," Weiss snapped back, now a little more angry than scared.

"Shut it! I'm talking here," Lea shouted back, silencing the heiress's retort as quickly as it had came. He then took a deep breath to better calm himself, and said, "Look, I get that bad stuff happened to you because of the White Fang, but you're letting your hatred of the current version dictate everything you know about it and the people associated with it. So Blake may or may not have been a member. Big deal. Do you really think she would have stayed with us for as long as she did if she still was? 'Cause I sure don't. If she really was a member of the White Fang, then why didn't she try and take us out before? I mean, it's not like she didn't have a boatload of chances in the past."

Weiss had to admit, Lea did have a point in all of that, but she still seemed unconvinced, and he must have realized this, even before she said anything. "I'm well aware that Blake may not be a member now, but that doesn't change that she had been before."

"So what? The fact that someone was part of a bad group and made some mistakes in the past automatically means they're always going to be a bad person? Well, then someone find me a long black coat so I can start doing all of the icky jobs again," Lea countered in an instant, immediately reminding Weiss of his own past. He was not quite done though. "Look, I know we didn't mention this before, but I'm not the only one on Team SLVR, or among any of our fellow Keybearers that used to work for the Organization. Roxas and Xion used to be part of the group, too, until they started thinking for themselves and asking questions that our boss didn't want them to know the answers too. When I found out the truth, you know what my first reaction was? To keep it from them, lie to their faces, and basically make sure that they never got out of line. I thought that by doing all of that, I was keeping them from being destroyed, but in the end, it didn't stop them from running away. I had wanted to go with them, but the truth is I was too scared of what would happen if we turned on the Organization. My fears and the fears that they had after learning even a little of the truth nearly tore our friendship apart."

"But…But you seem like you're such good friends," Weiss protested, unable to believe that the two people that were behaving like the cutest couple ever just a couple days ago were really part of a group like Organization XIII. Then again, it made a certain bit of sense. The Keybearers never did go into specifics about what kind of role Roxas and Xion had played in helping to take down the first Organization, and she was starting to see why.

"Doesn't mean we always were. My decision to lie and keep things from them messed things up really bad, and even though they were brave enough to leave, they were still too scared to really do anything other than just run wherever without any plan at all," Lea admitted. His glare finally dropped at that point in favor of a smile as he then added, "Even so, I never stopped thinking of those two as my best friends. I promised them both that no matter what happened or how long they kept on running, I would always be there to bring them back because of that, and I'll bet Blake's the same way. She's still running from so much, but more than anything, she needs her real friends to bring her back to where she really belongs: with all of you guys."

That seemed to surprise Weiss a little, but Lea could still see that he had left quite the impact on her, so he had no problem moving on to the next location in their search with that. Watching him go, Yang and Ventus could not help but stare after the man, surprised that he could be so deep, and that he had not tried to light Weiss on fire. Neither of them were sure which was more surprising, but they were not going to question it. After all, it was clear that he had convinced Weiss to think things over a little better for the next time she saw Blake.

---

Even though the others had abandoned them with Penny, Ruby and Sora were surprised to find that the odd girl was a big help in their own search efforts. She was making it a point to question everyone that they stopped to talk to, and without making things too weird or giving away that Blake was a Faunus, but even with Penny's help their results showed no signs of improvement. They were not too upset by this, though. If anything, some of the questions that Penny was asking them served as a perfect distraction from their annoyance at their lack of success.

"So, Blake is your friend," Penny asked Ruby shortly after Sora had gone on ahead to ask at the next shop.

Ruby could not help but sigh at first, feeling like she had already explained this a few times over to the girl, but she still answered all the same. "Yes Penny."

"And Roxas and Xion are your friends too?"

"Yes, well, they're more Sora's friends than mine, but I like to think that they're my friends too."

"But you're mad at them?"

"Yes! W-well, I'm not, Weiss is, and it's only Blake that she's upset with," Ruby clarified.

"Are Roxas and Xion friends with Blake," Penny inquired.

"Well, considering that they seem to be hiding her from us, I'd say so, but really, I'm pretty sure Sora and all of his friends are friends with all of us," Ruby admitted.

Penny was quiet for a few seconds after that, but she still had another question to ask after that. "Is Weiss friends with Blake?"

"Well that's kind of up in the air right now," Ruby shrugged.

"But, why?"

Another sigh was drawn out of Ruby, showing how tired she was of having to address this little bit of drama, but she could not really blame Penny for that, so she gave the girl the best answer she could right now. "Well you see, Blake might not be who we thought she was."

That drew a gasp from Penny before she whispered, "Is she a man?"

'How in the name of Oum did she come to that conclusion first,' Ruby wondered in astonishment. She kept it to herself though, not wanting to offend Penny, and instead said, "No, no, Penny, she's…I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."

Despite how quick her next sentence came, Penny did in fact think quite a bit about how to respond to Ruby's problem. "I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things."

"…Me too," Ruby agreed, finding it a little surprising that such a wise statement would come from Penny. It seemed that this odd girl was just full of surprises.

The girls continued on in silence for a little bit after that, until they saw Sora coming out of the next store they were going to investigate. Seeing Sora brought a curious expression to Penny's face, prompting her to look at Ruby and ask another question. "Is Sora your friend?"

"Yeah, of course. I mean, we met on my first day at Beacon, and we've been friends ever since," Ruby replied like it was obvious.

"Do you like him," Penny inquired.

"Um, yeah. It'd be a little weird if he was my friend and I didn't," Ruby pointed out.

"I meant do you like him as more than a friend," Penny innocently clarified.

Much like when her teammates were asking her about this topic, Ruby quickly became flustered and hoped that Sora had not noticed how red her face was. "What…Wh-where did that come from?!"

"One of the things I've always wanted to talk with friends about is cute boys, and whether or not we like them," Penny said, still sounding as innocent as ever while reminding Ruby of what she had said after she and Sora had confirmed they were her friends. "So…do you like him that way?"

Ruby glanced nervously between Penny and Sora, seeing that the Keyblade wielder was getting closer to them, and quickly whispered, "Okay, yes! I may have a crush on him…or I may just like him a little more than that, but please, don't tell him!"

"Why not? If you like him, shouldn't you tell him," Penny asked, leaving Ruby amazed at the level of this girl's innocence.

"Tell who about what," Sora asked, startling Ruby since she had not noticed how close he had gotten in that short amount of time.

"I was just saying to Ruby that she should tell you…" Penny started to explain, only for a scarlet-faced Ruby to slap a hand over her mouth.

"A-about some ideas I had for…for…names that I came up with for the various combo moves that my team could do," Ruby quickly stuttered in a frantic cover-up. "Yeah! Like for example, I was thinking that for me and Weiss, we could have a move called Ice Flower, or White Rose! Hehe."

Sora was a little bewildered by Ruby's behavior, but did not seem to think anything of it, and just smiled in reply. "Sounds cool, but I like that first one better. Sounds a lot more like a name for an attack than the second one."

"Yeah, I was just saying the same thing," Ruby chuckled as she slowly removed her hand from Penny, but still keeping it close by wrapping one arm around the girl's shoulder, in case she got any ideas about spilling the beans to Sora. "So…Any luck?"

"Nope. They weren't seen there, either," Sora sighed sadly, but he perked up again quickly enough. "But we're getting closer to finding them. I can feel it."

"Great! Well, let's get going then," Ruby insisted, pulling Penny ahead with her, while leaving Sora a bit stupefied by the way she seemed to be acting. Once she was sure that Sora was out of earshot again, Ruby quickly whispered to Penny, "Please, don't tell Sora that I like him!"

"But why not? Shouldn't you always tell someone how you feel if you care about them," Penny inquired.

"Well, yes, you should, but…I've only just realized that I might have a crush on him, and I'm not quite ready to let him know about that, so please, just keep it a secret between us, as friends," Ruby asked.

Any doubt that Penny had about hiding something from Sora was washed away upon hearing Ruby ask that, and she exclaimed, "Oh! I've always wanted to keep a secret between good friends! Okay Ruby, I promise as your friend, I will not tell Sora that you like him until you're ready to do it yourself."

Ruby was quickly hushing Penny again, out of fear that Sora might overhear them, and after looking back to check and see if he had, she breathed a sigh of relief to see he was still just watching them go, and whispered, "Thank you, Penny, now let's please get back to finding Blake, Roxas, and Xion."

After watching the girls for a minute, wondering what it was that had them so animated, Sora eventually just shrugged and sighed, "I'm friends with over a dozen different princesses and powerful women, and I still just don't understand girls."

---

Night had finally came to the city, and with it, the time that Blake felt she would finally get some answers to another burning question that had been on her mind. Ever since she heard about the recent rash of Dust robberies and the leading suspects behind them, Blake was determined to prove that the White Fang was innocent. Sure, she would admit that the White Fang would sometimes make such robberies, but she did not think that they would make as many as there had been reported to be. As far as she knew, the White Fang had never needed that much Dust in the past, but all the same, she had to know for sure that Weiss and everyone else were wrong to suspect the Faunus activist-turned-terrorist group. Thankfully, Sun was able to give her an idea on where they would be most likely to strike next: an area of the docks that was unloading a huge shipment of Dust from a Schnee company freighter. So, without a moment to spare, Blake had loaded up on everything that she would need, and came out to the docks in order to stakeout the place.

Blake had not come alone, mind you, as Roxas and Xion both made it very clear to her that they were going to stick by her side until this whole mess was over. Sure, it was obvious the couple was not quite as willing to believe that the White Fang was not responsible for the robberies, but Blake was happy to see that they were at least keeping an open mind, unlike many others. Regardless of this, Roxas had still made her promise that no matter what happened here, they would go back to Beacon and talk with their friends, and even though she was a little worried about how that would go, Blake was willing to admit that she did miss the rest of her team. In fact, a small part of her actually wished that they were here right now to help, but this was something she had to do without getting her other friends involved. Or at least, anymore of them than she already had.

"Feels a lot like old times, huh," Blake heard Xion ask from where she was crouching on the rooftop. "Hiding in the shadows, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious or interesting…"

"Yeah, only this time, we don't have to wear those stupid coats and worry about them getting caught on something every few seconds," Roxas agreed. "Like those first few times when we went to Beast's Castle, remember? I swear, every single sharp and pointy object had it out for me with how often my sleeve got stuck on them."

"Hey, at least you didn't have to worry about any cobwebs getting in your hair," Xion reminded him with a giggle. "Although, I do remember one particular mission there better than all the others. Namely that time from back when I was having trouble using the Keyblade, and you lent me yours so I could get a better feel for it?"

Roxas grinned despite himself, but still let out a small groan when he said, "You just love to bring that up, don't you? Seriously, it's bad enough that Axel still calls me Zombie-boy. You could at least have mercy on me and let that go."

"Not in this lifetime, sweetie," Xion just smiled teasingly.

"What're you talking about," Blake asked, feeling a little curious.

"Okay, so this was way back before Roxas and I both gained our own Keyblades, and the ones we were using were basically just copies of Sora's. Roxas lent me his to use for the duration of our mission that day, and when I asked him what he was going to use in its place, he looks around for a few minutes, until he finally finds something that he could proudly declare would be his weapon," Xion eagerly regales.

"And it worked, didn't it? I was able to fight the Heartless without any problems with my improvised weapon," Roxas insisted.

"Roxas, that was a stick. Don't try and pretend like it was the greatest thing ever," Xion corrected.

If it were not for her sense of self-control, Blake probably would have burst out laughing upon hearing Xion's retort. She almost missed Roxas's rebuttal about how someone named Demyx had a much dumber weapon than that, but she did manage to get her head back in the game when Sun suddenly appeared on her other side. "Did I miss anything," Sun asked.

"Aside from an embarrassing story about Roxas, not really," Blake replied, getting in some of her own teasing at the blonde Keybearer, much to his protest. She then got fully serious as she reported on what had happened during their watch. "They've offloaded all the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there."

"Cool," Sun shrugged.

"Anyone else think it's a little weird that security seems so lax," Xion suddenly asked.

Looking over the area, Roxas immediately realized what his girlfriend meant. "She's right. With all the recent Dust robberies, you would think that there would be a few more guards or even some of those Atlesian Knight robots I've heard about."

"Well, maybe someone at SDC didn't hear about it, or they just don't think that it's as serious as other people have implied," Blake suggested. "I'm sure you noticed from hanging out with Weiss that people who work for that company aren't exactly the type to worry about anything other than the amount of money they would lose or gain from their work, and their reputation."

"Hey, Weiss may have been like that at the start, but she's not that bad now…Kind of," Roxas defended, only adding the last bit as a joke.

"Still, with us on the job, I'm sure that they won't have anything to worry about, lack of security or not," Sun said with a reassuring grin. The other three had to admire the guy for his optimism, and would have said as much had he not held out an apple to Blake while saying, "I stole you guys some food."

"Are you serious, man? We're trying to stop a robbery and you're stealing from someone else," Roxas questioned.

"Lighten up, dude. It's just a couple of apples," Sun brushed off.

That earned him a disapproving eye-roll from the former Nobodies, while Blake just had to ask, "Do you always break the law without a second thought?"

"Hey, weren't you guys all in a cult or something," Sun questioned, but he instantly flinched back a little when his answer ended up being not one, not two, but three silent, angry glares. "Okay, too soon."

"Ya think," Xion asked, rhetorically. "And for the record, the Organization was not a cult."

"I don't know; when you consider the fact that we all wore long, black coats with hoods, and that said coats were a lot like robes in a way," Roxas started to reason.

"Not helping, Roxas."

Blake was about to shush the two into silence when the wind suddenly picked up around them, making them all duck down a little while the girls raised a hand to keep their hair from being too messed up by the wind. Though in Blake's case, it was more so that she could keep her bow from getting blown away. Looking up, they all realized that it was not the wind blowing down on them, but the turbines of an airship flying towards the middle of the docks they were watching. The airship eventually landed right in said location, and opened up a boarding ramp so that its passengers could disembark. When she caught a glimpse of the first person to come off the airship though, Blake felt her heart sink at the sight of the white and black uniform, with a too-familiar red logo shaped like a wolf's head in front of three, long scratches on the back.

"Oh no," Blake whispered miserably.

"Is that them," Sun asked, now turning fully serious.

"…Yes. It's them," Blake confirmed.

As they continued to watch the White Fang soldiers piling out of the airship, Roxas and Xion felt a small, familiar prick at the edge of their senses. They ignored it for now, because at the moment, they were more concerned about Blake. There was no way she was taking the sight of the organization she had been part of for so long doing something like this very well, especially after the way she had been defending them since Friday. Reaching out to put a reassuring hand on her new friend's shoulder, Xion could not help but ask, "Are you okay?"

"No," Blake sighed, not feeling like she could say much more than that on the subject, and she could feel her mood getting worse as she heard the soldiers shouting orders that would be necessary for stealing all the Dust.

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you," Roxas asked.

"No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right," Blake admitted.

Sun, Roxas, and Xion all wanted to say something to try and raise Blake's spirits a little, but before any of them could, they all heard another voice coming from the docks where the White Fang was working. "Hey! What's the hold up? We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, sooo why don't you animals try to pick up the pace."

"That does not sound like someone that would be a member of the White Fang," Xion noted aloud.

"And he's not. Look," Roxas said while pointing to the person who had spoken. There, coming down the boarding ramp of the recently arrived airship, was the familiar face of a wanted criminal that he had seen a mug shot of on his way to Beacon. "That's Roman Torchwick!"

"The mobster guy that you and Axel mentioned," Xion questioned.

Before Roxas could answer, Torchwick looked back and then shouted, "And you guys, less standing around, or whatever it is you're doing back there, and more helping! Seriously, I thought having you guys here was going to make this go faster."

The four were a little confused as to who Torchwick could have been talking to, until suddenly, out from the airship, came several, silver creatures that Roxas and Xion easily recognized. "What the hell," Roxas gasped. "How did a punk like him manage to get control over some Nobodies, Dusks or otherwise?"

While she was a little stunned at the sight of seeing the empty, living shells for the first time, Blake was a little more focused on the other factors playing out before their eyes. "This isn't right," she said as she stood up and reached for her weapon. "The White Fang would never work with a human. Especially not one like that, and I doubt they would work with creatures like those without some questions."

Before any of the others knew what was happening, Blake had dropped down from the roof they were all sitting on, and disappeared into the shadows, likely attempting to get closer so that she could launch an attack on Torchwick, or any of the White Fang soldiers. Seeing that matters were well out of their hands now, Roxas could not help but sigh and summoned his Keyblades as he said, "Well, when in Vale…"

Just like that, Roxas had also vanished into the shadows surrounding the docks, leaving Xion and Sun to just shrug as they moved to a better position that they could provide better help from when the other two landed into trouble. Blake never seemed to notice any of them moving, as she was too focused on reaching her current target at the moment. The only things she ever seemed to take note of was the movements of the White Fang soldiers and the various Dusks that were now flittering about the area like some kind of watchdogs. While the Dusks made things a little more difficult for her, Blake had little trouble getting closer to Torchwick, because it was very clear to her that the White Fang's tactics had not changed greatly since she had left. Then again, from what she could remember, most of the White Fang did not usually consider that their tactics could be used against them, let alone by somebody that had once been one of their own, and right now, Blake was very grateful for that.

Dashing between the various cargo containers and the various shadows of the docks, Blake soon came as close as she could get to Torchwick without being spotted, and she had to narrow her eyes a little more when she heard the mobster talking down to one of the White Fang soldiers like he was a common animal. Sure, it was not the first time she had heard someone talking like that to a Faunus, but it still made Blake's blood boil when she did. Torchwick was about to learn this the hard way, because a minute after he had finished talking to the soldier, Blake burst out from her hiding place, and locked Torchwick in a hold while holding her blade to his neck.

"What the…" Torchwick exclaimed when he felt himself being grabbed and the cold steel of the blade on his neck. Glancing over his shoulder to see who was responsible, Torchwick could not help but roll his eyes in annoyance as he muttered, "Oh for f…"

"Nobody move," Blake shouted before the criminal could finish his curse. In direct opposite of her demand, nearly every White Fang member that was close to their location moved to train their weapons on her as a sign of caution, surrounding both Blake and her captive. In addition to the Faunus terrorists, the Dusks also started converging on her location, but they did not seem likely to stop like their compatriots. At least, not until an orb of light suddenly struck the ground between them and Blake.

When the small flash of light had settled, Roxas dropped down next to Blake, and pointed one of his Keyblades at the largest group of Dusks and quipped, "When the lady said 'Nobody move', she didn't mean it in the sense that only you guys were allowed to move."

"Alright, alright, take it easy, kiddies," Torchwick mocked with a knowing smirk.

Blake did not seem to think anything of it, but instead, released her hold on Torchwick just long enough to remove her bow, allowing everyone to see her cat ears underneath, and began to address the Faunus surrounding her and Roxas once she had secured her prisoner again. "Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum," Blake loudly demanded.

Seeing that one of the people they were targeting was a Faunus, and hearing her address them as if she were one of their own seemed to get the White Fang members around them to hesitate a little, but it did not do anything to slow down the Dusks, as they still began moving forward again, albeit a little more slowly than before. Seeing this, Roxas readied both of his blades to attack and said, "I thought I made it clear that you guys weren't allowed to move." The Dusks did not seem to pay him any mind this time, prompting Roxas to shout, "I said stay where you are!" If the Dusks had even stopped a little, it was only for a brief, unnoticeable moment, because they still seemed ready to jump at any moment, and that gave Roxas all the incentive he needed to play his trump card. "I am Number XIII of the original Organization XIII! You will obey my orders and stand down if you do not wish to be destroyed!"

That last one did manage to get the Dusks to freeze in their tracks, and even start sparing looks with each other as though they were questioning the validity of Roxas's orders, but Blake had to wonder how long that would hold up. Before she could ask, Torchwick suddenly let out a chuckle and remarked, "Heh, oh kids. Didn't either of you get the memo?"

"What're you talking about," Blake questioned.

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together," Torchwick shamelessly admitted. He then turned to Roxas and said, "And as for you, Blondie, I'm pretty sure that your authority over the Nobodies is no longer valid. They've got a new boss that's also part of this venture."

Hearing that made Roxas freeze a little, having not expected that at all. Sure, the Nobodies had been very docile since the end of the Second Keyblade War, but neither he nor any of his other friends had ever suspected that it may have been because someone else had taken up the reins of their control. You could not blame him though; the idea made absolutely no sense. Dusks were not like the Heartless, answering to whoever was the strongest; they only ever took commands from other Nobodies, be it a stronger variety of Dusk or the members of the Organization, be they the original or the second version. Hearing that there was now someone out there who managed to seize control of the living empty shells was definitely a cause for concern, and Roxas did not intend to wait around for the answers to reveal themselves.

"Who is this new boss," Roxas demanded with a glare in Torchwick's direction, while making sure to keep one of his Keyblades pointed at the Dusks so that they would not realize he was bluffing when he made that earlier threat.

Torchwick just kept silent, his smirk never faltering, and Blake took that as incentive to press her blade against the crook's throat a little harder. "Answer him, and tell me what this joint venture is or I'll put an end to your little operation," she threatened.

The only answer either swordsman received was the sound of turbines humming overhead, while the wind picked up around them once again, prompting them to glance up as Torchwick shouted, "I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation."

What greeted Roxas and Blake's eyes when they looked up was an additional pair of airships moving into the area, most likely ready to drop off some backup or to aid in the theft that the White Fang was helping Torchwick with. If that was not enough, atop both of the aircrafts were several more Nobodies, all of which Roxas identified as the long-range variant of Dusks, known as Snipers, all of them poised and ready to shoot at Roxas and Blake at any given moment. The visual evidence of a crook like Torchwick having access to such resources was just too much for Blake and Roxas to take in, right to the point where they did not realize they had let their attention wander from the crook himself until it was too late.

Taking advantage of their distraction, Torchwick pointed his cane just inches away from Blake's feet, and fired the gun that was hidden inside of it, causing Blake to lose her hold on him and be sent flying away. Hearing the explosion, Roxas spun around and quickly spotted where Blake had landed. He was just about to run over and help when the Dusks all snapped out of their stupor and rushed him, prompting him to start swinging his Keyblades in an effort to either drive them back, or parry their attacks. His efforts did not become any easier when the Snipers started firing energy bolts at him, putting him even further on the defensive as he ducked, dodged, and rolled in order to avoid the attacks, until ultimately, it became clear that he was not going to be getting anywhere near Blake so long as these guys had any say in the matter.

Blake probably would have tried to move closer to Roxas once she had gotten up again, but she had her own problems to deal with when Torchwick spun around and started firing on her. Luckily her reaction time was just as good as Roxas's was in this situation, and she managed to avoid every blast that the crook fired at her. Sure, it required the use of her Semblance at one point, but Blake honestly did not care that much. As long as she was not blown up, she was not going to complain. Although, considering how far apart she and Roxas were being pushed from one another, she probably should be complaining a little, but she had a few ideas on how to fix that, and it started by ducking into the shadows once again.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty," Torchwick mocked as he started to slowly pursue the cat girl, but his advancement was halted when a banana peel suddenly dropped on his head. Brushing it off and fixing his hat, Roman only had time to look up at the culprit behind the embarrassing attack before he was given an eyeful of foot, courtesy of Sun as he dropped into the fight.

Rolling along the ground after he had landed behind Torchwick, Sun easily popped back up again and glared at the crook as he said, "Leave her alone."

"Um, dude! I'm still here you know," Roxas shouted from his position, still taking fire from the Snipers as the airships opened up to allow more White Fang and Dusks to drop down and join the fight.

Thankfully, Roxas's backup came just as quickly as Blake's when a sudden blast of light rained down on the long-range Nobodies, signaling the arrival of Xion even before the girl had appeared at Roxas's side from where she had been hiding. "Give him a break, Roxas," Xion jokingly chastised as she came to stand alongside her boyfriend. "You can't blame a guy for prioritizing the girl he's clearly got a crush on over everything else, can you?"

"In this case, I'm pretty sure I can," Roxas retorted, but he still smiled in thanks to the girl all the same. Glancing around, Roxas saw that it seemed like the White Fang were focusing more on Sun for the moment, while the Nobodies were all directing their attention to him and Xion, prompting him to ask, "You sure you're up for this?"

"If I wasn't, I probably wouldn't have left Twilight Town," Xion confirmed, throwing her hand out to the side and summoning forth her Keyblade.

Looking to his girlfriend's Keyblade, Roxas could not help but smile in remembrance of how excited Xion was when she finally got it to transform into a Keyblade of her own without changing the Keychains on the end. He knew that Xion did not have too much of a problem using the copy of Sora's, but that did not stop her from wanting a Keyblade that was all her own, and this one definitely fit the bill, along with the two Keychains she normally used with it. Her main Keyblade in question was certainly more sword-like in its design as opposed to most Keyblades, which was made even more clear with how the teeth were comprised of two silver, triangular blades that overlapped each other and slanted downwards, while the rest of the blade contained various shades of silver and black in it, save for the handle, which was sea green. The only thing that made this blade even more perfect for Xion in his eyes was the name of blade in question as it reflected how she defied what others had deemed as her purpose in life and how her story would end: Rejection of Fate.

All thinking on Xion's Keyblade was put out of Roxas's mind when the Dusks began charging again, spinning and flying through the air in order to attack like they always did, but this time, he was ready for them. After all, bluff or not, he had told these Dusks that they would be destroyed if they did not obey his order, and now, he was going to have to follow through on that order. Not that it was hard for him to do so, considering how quickly he cut down three to four Dusks right before they could even touch him. The fight was only made easier with Xion's inclusion, as she managed to take out the Dusks that had somehow slipped past Roxas's notice, while at the same time blasting the Snipers that were still keeping their distance with a variety of light spells. Against the combined powers of Roxas and Xion, the various Nobodies stood little chance, and the same could be said for any White Fang soldiers that broke off from the attack on Sun to try their luck against the couple.

Speaking of Sun, he was having just about as easy of a time dealing with the White Fang as Roxas and Xion were dealing with the Nobodies. This was proven when he managed to knock down several with just some simple hand-to-hand combat skills, which he did with a quick laugh, but he did eventually draw his own weapon so that he could even the odds a little bit. Said weapon turned out to be a collapsible, red staff with gold inlay, and after striking down a few White Fang with some impressive spins of the staff, Sun eventually spun it around and struck the ground, creating a shockwave that disoriented several nearby White Fang soldiers long enough for him to kick them down and out.

Seeing his help go down so quickly and easily must have riled Torchwick up a little bit, because he was soon joining in on the fight again as he tried to blast Sun with his cane. Sun managed to block the blast with a spin of his staff, but before he could move to engage Torchwick, Blake finally reappeared before him and rushed towards the crook while shouting, "He's mine!"

This time, Blake was using the full range of her weapon, having drawn the sheath of her sword so that she would be fighting with two blades as opposed to one. While it was a little more problematic for him, Torchwick did show that he could keep up with Blake fairly well by blocking and parrying several her attacks while trying to hit back with his cane. Not that he really seemed to have much luck with the latter, considering that Blake was too fast and often used her Semblance to get away when he did manage to land a hit on her. Eventually though, Blake did end up slipping, and that granted Torchwick his chance to finally land a hit on the cat girl, along with several follow-ups that brought her to the ground. He probably would have finished Blake off right then and there had Roxas not jumped in just in time to match him.

Now, Roxas would normally have been able to handle a low-level crook like Torchwick easily, but since he was not sure whether or not it was okay for him to stop holding back, Roxas did find himself pulling more than a few punches as he engaged him. After all, aside from maintaining his cover as someone from another world, Roxas was not sure if Torchwick had any kind of special powers that would allow him to stand up to some of his more powerful attacks, or even knew how to manipulate Aura to the same extent as most huntsmen, so he had to stick with basic level stuff, while mixing in lower level special abilities and attacks as he went. That made things a little more evenly matched between him and Torchwick, right to the point where it all came down to who made the first error in the fight.

That ended up being Roxas, due to overextending himself on one strike, and Torchwick quickly capitalized on the opportunity to hit him back with everything he had until the blonde was forced back, right into Blake as she was starting to get up and attack again. Thankfully, Sun came to the rescue and began his own assault on Torchwick, splitting his staff into a pair of nunchaku. As he spun the weapons around, he soon revealed that they were not just nunchakus, because at several points, he aimed the tips of the blunt weapons at Torchwick, and fired off several blasts that sounded like shotgun rounds, and he eventually did so in rapid succession, making it hard for Torchwick to keep up.

A loud battle cry from the side was all the warning Torchwick had been he was suddenly knocked back by an attack from Xion, and the black haired girl quickly followed it up with a quick blast of ice that she hoped would freeze him in place. It did not work since Roman rolled away before the ice could hit him, but it did allow Xion to move in close and land a few more sword strikes of her own, followed up by Sun landing some more hits with his gunchucks, and then finally, giving Roxas and Blake a chance to land the finishing blows with a double dose of dual blade strikes.

Seeing Torchwick go flying from their combined assault, Xion could not help but think that they had all but won the fight, and she immediately turned to Sun and remarked, "Now those are cool weapons. A bo-staff, nunchakus, and a shotgun all rolled into one! I think I might be a little jealous if I didn't have the Keyblade."

"Hey, what can I say? I've got good tastes, as Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang can attest," Sun casually shrugged while shouldering his weapon in staff mode.

Roxas was about to admonish both of them for getting distracted before they were sure that the fight was over, but Torchwick ended up firing at a crane holding up a cargo crate before he could, severing the chain and dropping the heavy metal container when he did. "MOVE," Roxas shouted, prompting everyone to dive in any direction that they could so that they would not get flattened under the heavy, falling cargo.

The container hit the ground with a loud bang, but thankfully, none of them were hurt. That was likely about to change though when Roxas, Blake, and Xion all looked up to see Torchwick standing over Sun, holding the monkey Faunus at gunpoint. Just before they could start to rush to Sun's rescue, a familiar voice shouted, "HEY!"

Turning to where they heard the voice come from, Roxas and Xion could not help but grin while Blake stared in astonishment at the sight of Ruby Rose stepping into view while twirling Crescent Rose in her hands to show she was ready for a fight, with Sora right beside her, Keyblade in hand. "Who said you guys could throw a party without us," Sora continued on from what Ruby had said earlier.

While the four heroes were all glad to see that reinforcements had arrived for them at last, Torchwick was more annoyed at the sight of more kids coming in to ruin his business dealings. The only thing that he found more irritating was the fact that he recognized one of the most recent arrivals from a previous heist that had been foiled, but he managed to play it off with a bit of dry humor. "Oh, hello Red! Isn't it past your bedtime," Roman mocked as he waved to Ruby.

"Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing, Grandpa," Sora shot back, making Ruby snicker a little when Torchwick merely growled back.

All humor disappeared when Penny came up behind the two and asked, "Ruby, Sora, are these people your friends?"

"Penny, get back," Ruby ordered. She did not mind the strange girl following them around the city and helping them look for Roxas, Xion, and Blake, but this was definitely not the time and place for Penny's oddly overabundant curiosity.

Seeing Ruby distracted gave Torchwick an opening to do something he had been hoping to do ever since his last encounter with the little red reaper, and he did not hesitate to do it. Taking quick aim with his cane, Roman instantly fired a blast at the girl, one that likely would have hit and depleted Ruby of what little Aura she had left after using her Semblance to get here as quickly as possible for so long had it not been for a last minute intervention that he had not been expecting.

"RUBY, LOOK OUT," Sora shouted as he pushed Ruby out of the way, taking the blast in her place with a cry of pain much to everyone's shock.

When Ruby managed to right herself again, she immediately turned to where her friend was just now, and let out a gasp of horror at the sight of him on the ground in pain. "SORA," Ruby cried before she rushed over to him, leaving her scythe where she had landed so that she could reach him sooner. "Are you okay?"

Penny on the other hand could only stare at the two, mostly focusing on Sora, astonished that one of her friends had just been hurt so badly, but even more so over the fact that he had been due to taking an attack that was meant for Ruby. Looking at the two, Penny found herself wondering why he would do that until she ultimately concluded, 'He must care for Ruby just as much as she does for him. I know that Ruby implied that Sora cares for others a great deal, but I doubt someone would take a hit like that if they did not hold very significant feelings for the person.'

Penny's innocent thoughts were interrupted when she heard Roman laughing over his accomplishment and then shout, "Why Red, I didn't know you had a boyfriend. And one that was gullible or stupid enough to take a hit for you at that!"

Ruby paid little mind to the criminal and how Penny's eyes had narrowed dangerously in response to his taunt, her attention more focused on Sora, as he struggled to sit up and retrieve a Hi-Potion from one of his pockets. She did breathe a sigh of relief though when the magical drink fixed his injury right up, and then asked once again, "Are you okay, Sora?"

"Yeah. That was nothing," Sora panted with a little faux boasting. "I've taken way worse hits than that before." He was about to summon Kingdom Key out again when he noticed Penny marching closer to where the main fight was. "Uh…Ruby?"

Turning to see what had Sora so worried, Ruby quickly stood up straight again in an effort to stop her friend, while shouting, "Penny, wait! Stop!"

"You're going to get hurt," Sora called out right after.

Penny did come to a stop, but only long enough so that she could spare Ruby and Sora a glance and say, "Don't worry Ruby and Sora." She then focused her gaze on the criminals and remaining Nobodies as she declared, "I'm combat ready!"

Sora was about to protest against that claim, until the pack on Penny's back suddenly opened up, and released several, foldable swords that then spread out behind the girl like a set of deadly wings. Leaping down from their current position, Penny sent several of the swords flying in the direction of the White Fang soldiers and several of the remaining Nobodies, taking them all out with little trouble even before she landed. A few quick waves of her hands, and Penny was able to send the swords flying in several different directions like a stream of water, knocking out White Fang left and right, while cutting apart a few Snipers and Dusks here and there as they went. She even spun the swords around in front of her in a circular formation so that she had a strong defense against the ones that tried to charge her before sending the ring of blades flying into a straight line of soldiers and knocked them down like bowling pins.

"Whoa," Sun gasped in awe.

"You can say that again," Xion agreed.

"Penny got game," Roxas praised as they continued to watch the girl tear apart the various enemies around them, and all with the same, pleasant smile on her face. That last detail made him cringe back a little as he added, "It's kind of creepy though."

"Considering that it's helping her to not only take out but pretty much dominate a small army all by herself, I'm not complaining too much," Xion admitted. At that point, she caught a bit of movement from the corner of her eye and turned to see the rest of the Nobodies were now moving to join in on the slugfest. "Doesn't mean we should leave her to do all the work, right," she then smirked.

Turning to see what Xion had, Roxas had to share that smirk with her as he said, "Like you even need to ask." He then turned to where Penny was fighting and shouted, "Penny, we'll handle the Nobodies…er, the silver creatures. Think you can handle the rest?"

"Like I said before, I'm combat ready," Penny confirmed while flinging one of her swords at a charging White Fang soldier.

Taking that as a yes, Roxas and Xion summoned their Keyblades again and charged the approaching Dusks and Snipers, ready to attack the minute they were in range. Seeing his friends going after the Nobodies while the odd girl continued to own the rest of the battlefield, Sun decided that now was the time for him and Blake to withdraw from the fight, and quickly pulled the cat Faunus out of the line of fire. Sure, Blake was not too happy about that, but considering that she did take a bit of damage and her Aura was likely really low by now, she was not going to protest, especially since three more airships suddenly flew in and began firing on everything below them.

Penny formed her defensive ring of blades again to deflect and block the shots from the airships, while sending another pair of swords out from her back and flying into the wall of the warehouse behind her. A minute later, something seemed to pull Penny back from where she was and over to the warehouse in question, confirming for Ruby and Sora that the swords were attached to very thin, nearly invisible wires, and then reformed her defensive ring into a number of guns that all began building up a charge of energy in the center of their ring. Once she felt that the charge was strong enough, Penny pulled back and thrust her fists forward, releasing the energy in two, powerful yet thin blasts that cut two of the approaching airships clean in half, making them drop into the water behind Ruby and Sora's current position.

Turning away from where the airships crashed down, Ruby and Sora were greeted to the sight of Penny snagging a last airship with her swords and then actually using the wires attached to them to pull them ship down. What was really astonishing was that it seemed like Penny was not even struggling to pull the aircraft down and Ruby could not help but wonder, "How is she doing that?"

"I don't know, but there's no way I'm going to let her and the others have all the fun," Sora replied with a grin. He then turned to Ruby and asked, "You with me?"

"Are you sure? You were just hurt a minute ago," Ruby cautioned.

"Positive," Sora reassured her. He then held his hand out to her and, channeling an old friend of his, he asked, "Do you trust me?"

Ruby looked between the battlefield and Sora's hand for all but a few seconds, before finally settling her gaze on his eyes. Seeing nothing but that same fire of confidence and determination that gave her a tingling sensation in her stomach while making her feel safe and reassured of everything working out for the best, Ruby could not help but smile as she gently grasped his offered hand and said, "Yes."

When he felt Ruby place her hand into his own, Sora had to ignore the odd feeling of warmth that seemed to spread from the joined hands and into the rest of his body. Right now, he needed to focus, and with the odd feelings from the action pushed aside, he let his grin widen a little more as he raised his Keyblade high and shouted, "Then hop on!"

"Hop on? Hop on whaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHAHAHA," Ruby managed to shout as suddenly, in a brilliant flash of colors and lights, a steam train that was covered in all kinds of lights suddenly appeared from behind them on a set of energy tracks, and Sora pulled them both aboard it and some of the cars that were coupled to it in one, mighty leap. What Ruby found even more amazing than this was that Sora seemed like he was able to actually direct the train on where to go, even though the energy tracks had not appeared in that direction yet. It was so amazing that Ruby could not help but laugh in excitement.

Apparently, Sora was not entirely expecting this particular ride, as he commented, "Mountain Coaster?! I wasn't even sure if I could still use this one."

His surprise was quickly shaken off though as he directed the glimmering train all over the docks, focusing most of its path on the area around the airship that Penny was holding in place. At the sound of the train's whistle, some of the other combatants could not help but turn and stare in awe at the sight of this strange railway train that looked like a roller coaster ride flying around the area, save for Roxas and Xion, who only made sure to avoid the blasts of fireworks that Sora was shooting from the train's smokestack while luring some of the remaining Nobodies into its line of fire. The only other person who had managed to shake off their shock was Roman, and he mainly did so in order to beat a hasty retreat to one of the remaining, intact airships, but that was of minor importance in everyone else's eyes.

Before he could turn the train around again for another run at the restrained airship, Sora looked back to Ruby and asked, "You want to give it a try?"

"Would I," Ruby shouted excitedly as she climbed into the front car with Sora.

A minute later, even more fireworks were flying in the air as Ruby fired off the Mountain Coaster's Chimney Flare, with a little guidance on how to do so from Sora, of course, and the airship was soon down to its last legs. Seeing that, Sora turned the train so that it was on a collision course for the airship, while grasping Ruby's hand and jumping off, all while leaving the Chimney Flare to bombard Penny's captive with more fireworks than ever before. When the train finally hit, a brilliant show of colors and explosions followed, and the airship had soon dropped faster than a brick.

Thankfully, Penny was able to extract her swords before she was pulled into the blast or the weapons themselves were destroyed as a side-effect, and she was soon sharing a victorious grin with Sora and Ruby as they cheered over the spectacle that they had just been a part of. Mostly in the case of Ruby, since that was the first time she had ever so much as seen Sora's Attraction Flow in action, and you could tell that she was still running high on the excitement from the way that she was hugging Sora like he had just given her the best present or news ever. They only stopped their mini-celebration when they heard some turbines powering up and turned to see the last airships taking off in full retreat, but by that point, they were all already out of range. Not that it mattered too much, because in their eyes, they had pulled out a win all the same.

As he flew away from the scene, Roman could only look back and mutter, "These kids just keep getting weirder."

---

A short time later, the police finally arrived in response to several calls that were regarding the whole incident that had just happened, and after giving a quick statement, while leaving out anything regarding other worldly powers, Blake's being a Faunus, and the Nobodies, the group of friends were all just sitting around off to the side, waiting for the okay to go on home. A rather tense silence had fallen over them though, mainly because Ruby had made a certain call just before the police had arrived, and now, they were just waiting for the moment when the people she had contacted showed up. They did not have to wait for very long, as Weiss and Yang soon appeared along with Ventus and Lea, and while it was a little amusing to see the tall redhead scolding his best friends like children for "running off on their own again", even if it was only in the form of playful teasing, everyone was much more focused on the white and black members of Team RWBY.

Seeing the hard, even stare that Weiss had on her face made Ruby instantly worried, and she quickly jumped up so that she could say something to calm the heiress down. "Look Weiss it's not what you think. She explained the whole thing. You see she doesn't actually wear a bow; she has kitty ears and their actually kinda cute," Ruby rapidly tried to explain all at once.

Weiss did not pay any mind to her partner, but instead, just marched right up to Blake and then quietly stared at the other girl for a few minutes. Not liking the silence for once, Blake decided she should take the initiative here and said, "Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with…"

"Stop," Weiss interrupted, sounding just as harsh as ever, and making everyone worry a little more. At least until she next spoke up. "Do you have any idea how long we've been searching for you," she asked, only to answer before Blake could respond. "Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this, with a little extra encouragement from…" She paused to spare a fleeting glance in Lea's direction before finishing, "Certain people. And in that twelve hours, coupled with the advice of those people, I've decided…I don't care!"

That surprised everyone a little, but none more than Blake. "You don't care?"

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right," Weiss asked.

"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger…"

"Upupupupup! I don't want to hear it," Weiss interrupted once again. "All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up, you'll come to your teammates and your friends, and not some…" Judging by the way that Weiss glanced at Sun, it was easy to guess what she was about to say, but she quickly corrected herself. "Someone else."

Turning to look at the two sisters and the Keybearers that were all smiling happily at her, Blake finally realized that Roxas and Xion were right in what they said before. Everyone here really were true friends to her, and seeing that made clear before her eyes left Blake feeling so touched, she could not help but start to shed a few tears of joy. Not that she let them fall long enough for many people to register, as she quickly wiped them away, smiled back to Weiss, and promised, "Of course."

"Good," Weiss smiled in return. "But just know, even if you do try to run away, we'll always be there to bring you back."

Hearing that particular line made Roxas and Xion stare at Weiss for a minute. It was a little too familiar to something that someone else they knew had said, and when they turned to Lea for confirmation, the redhead only gave a silent smile and a shrug in return, confirming their suspicion was right. While the couple just smiled at their friend knowingly, Ruby could not help but let out a loud cheer at seeing all of her teammates gathered up and acting like real friends again. Not that anyone could fault her for feeling like this was worth celebrating. "Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!"

"Like there was ever any doubt about this reunion," Sora grinned happily.

Despite the happy atmosphere though, Weiss could not help but throw a cautionary look in Sun's direction and saying, "I'm still not quite sure how I feel about you."

The only thing Sun could do in reply was let out a nervous laugh while Blake gave him a curious eye, at least until Xion gave her own two cents on the matter. "Can't say I blame you. After all, you gotta make sure that Monkey-boy over there is going to do right by your little kitty cat," she teased.

"Xion!" Blake hissed as her face turned red along with Sun's.

"No, I think she's got a point. I mean, who knows what you two would get into if we didn't keep a careful eye on him at the very least," Roxas added in with his own teasing grin.

"You guys! That's not funny," Blake snapped as she turned on Roxas.

"And why am I the one being treated as the bad guy in these scenarios," Sun demanded.

"Relax, you guys. They're just messing with you," Sora reassured them both. "Hakuna Matata."

"Wait…what," nearly everyone other than Sora's fellow Keybearers asked.

"Hakuna Matata. It's something that some good friends taught me a while back that means no worries," Sora explained.

"You're not going to start singing the song that goes along with it, are you," Lea asked, sounding a little annoyed, but his smirk proved otherwise.

"No, of course not," Sora refused. "It's not like we have the music to go with the song, and besides, I have no intention of embarrassing myself so you guys can get a laugh."

Ruby was about to ask why Sora thought he would be embarrassing himself by singing a song for them, until she noticed that one person in their group was missing. "Hey, wait a minute," Ruby cut in before anyone could get further into this topic. "Where's Penny?"

Looking around, everyone saw that the odd girl had vanished from sight, but when one of the officers came by to say that someone from Beacon would be coming to get them from the station, they figured that it would be alright to leave the matter alone for now. From that officer's statement, it did seem pretty reasonable to assume that Penny's escort home had already picked her up, so unless they did not see or hear from her for a while, there was no reason to be concerned just yet. Besides, they all had a very exciting night, and they were ready to just go home and sleep.

---

As he was on his way to the station to pick up the students that were involved in the incident at the docks, Ozpin could not help but smile a little at the surveillance footage that was broadcasting an image of Ruby and Sora to his Scroll. The two certainly seemed like they were going to be magnets for trouble, but at the same time, they were proving to be quite the team time and again. That was obvious to Ozpin ever since initiation, but it only became more clear as time went on, and this most recent event truly showed that they were a combination that very few could match or stand up against. Not only that, but it also served as an indicator that his theories regarding the young Miss Rose may prove true yet, both those regarding the girl herself, and those regarding the help that she could provide for Sora in the coming near future. Ozpin's happy musings were cut short when he received a notification of an incoming message, and he immediately opened it up, already suspecting who the sender was most likely to be. He was not disappointed, as the screen immediately displayed the name of Ruby and Yang's uncle, Qrow in the sender portion of the message, but the message itself was certainly one that had him concerned.

'Queen has pawns' Ozpin read to himself with an intrigued hum. 'This could be more worrisome than we originally thought. I just hope that Mister Hikari and his friends can finish their mission before she gets closer to making her move.'

---

Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location that none of the heroes knew about, Roman Torchwick had finally managed to make it back to his hideout with what little Dust he had been able to get from tonight's heist, and needless to say, he was far from happy. He had a feeling the whole thing was going to go bad just from the fact that he had to work with the White Fang, never mind those weird creatures that he had just been introduced to, but he had not expected the insanity that he had just seen and dealt with. Before he could start griping about it out loud, a loud bang sounded from behind him, signaling the arrival of someone else even before his guest had spoken up.

"How very disappointing, Roman," a deceptively, silky smooth woman's voice sighed.

"WHOA," Roman gasped at the voice, but when he turned to face the speaker, he could not help but let out a slightly nervous chuckle upon seeing who it was. "Wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon."

"We were expecting more from you," commented the woman that had just spoken, stepping forward from the shadows just enough for him to be able to see her amber eyes, long dark hair, and the edges of her fashionable dark-red dress.

"Hey, you were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang, and who insisted on letting your new pal send out those silver things as extra help," Roman nervously reminded her.

That drew a quick snicker from the woman before she raised a hand and summoned forth a small fire from her palm as she answered, "And you will continue to work with the White Fang at the very least, along with whatever creatures our new friend decides to lend us. We have big plans for you, Roman. All we ask is a little cooperation."

"Shouldn't be too hard for you, now should it, Spaghetti-Bowl," another voice question, and a minute later, another figure stepped out from the shadows, revealing himself to be wearing a long, black coat with his hood up.

"Ah Luxu, glad to see you could make it," the woman welcomed with a smile.

Luxu could not help but chuckle a bit as he lowered his hood, allowing his face to be seen by everyone in all of its scarred, eye-patch wearing glory. "You have no idea how good it feels for people to be calling me that again, Cinder," Luxu informed the woman. "I mean, I don't mind 'Xigbar' too much, but there's a certain sense of nostalgia to my old name that just makes it so much better." He then looked over at Roman and said, "That said, from what I heard, a certain bunch of old buddies of mine were there tonight, and if some of those Guardians of Light are here, then there must be a reason."

"Do you think they suspect what we're doing, or what you might be doing," Cinder questioned.

"Anything's possible, but considering that Sora's here…it could be something else," Luxu reasoned. "Only time can tell…and I'm looking forward to watching as that little miracle kid falls short of the mark, regardless of whatever their reason for being here is."

---

Miles away from all of the drama and impending sense of doom that were slowly shadowing over Vale, on a farm in Mistral, a young boy was attending to someone lying in a bed, until a faint groan could be heard from the person in question, making him turn to face them. "Oh my god! You're awake," the boy exclaimed as he rushed over, seeing his patient struggling to sit up. "Easy Miss! You've been unconscious for a long time now. I was worried that we were going to end up having to call someone or try and get you to a hospital."

"What…Where am I," the girl in the bed asked as she slowly looked around her, until her gaze settled on the boy next to her bed. "Who're you?"

"My name's Oscar. Oscar Pine," the boy replied with a gentle smile. "You're in my aunt's farmhouse."

The girl nodded in response before she asked, "How did I get here?"

"If you mean into the bed, my aunt and I carried you in here after we found you unconscious in the barn," Oscar explained. "But if you mean here in general…well, I was hoping you could tell me."

"I…I don't know," the girl admitted before raising a hand to her forehead in an attempt to soothe the pain that suddenly shot through her skull as she tried to think back. "I can't…I can't remember anything."

"Nothing at all? About your home? Your family? Or maybe any friends," Oscar prompted, thinking that might help to stir up something so that he at least got a clue on who they could call about this strange girl.

"…No, nothing," the girl admitted. "I mean…I think it was…somewhere sunny or really bright…Maybe by a beach, or near a castle…Urgh! It doesn't make any sense!"

"Calm down, calm down! Maybe you just need a little time for it come back," Oscar stated as he attempted to soothe the girl again. He then smiled a bit and said, "Hey, if you're feeling up to it, I think my aunt has breakfast ready. You're more than welcome to join us, and I'm sure she'll be happy to see that you're finally up."

The offer of food drew out a loud growl from the girl's stomach, making her blush in embarrassment, but she could not help but laugh shyly along with Oscar afterwards. "I guess that's your answer," the girl joked.

"Okay then," Oscar nodded. He then helped the girl up out of the bed, but had to catch her when she almost fell over, since her legs had grown weak from the lack of use. "Just take it one step at a time, Miss…" Now it was Oscar's turn to be embarrassed, as he realized he had forgotten a very important detail. "Sorry. I haven't even asked you for your name yet. Do you remember that?"

The girl scrunched her face up in thought for a minute, trying to reach for that particular memory, until finally, she turned to face Oscar again, her bright violet-blue eyes peeking out from beneath her dark red hair as she answered. "It's…Kairi. My name is Kairi."

---

AN: Oh! Oh! Look at that! Didn't see that coming, did we? No really, did any of you see that bit at the end there coming? Namely the thing with Cinder and Luxu working with Roman or how Kairi is with our favorite farmboy turned host for an immortal wizard/warrior's soul. And just to be clear, yeah, Kairi has amnesia, and has forgotten about her past again, and yes, that is the reason why Yen Sid is so unsure as to whether or not Kairi is on Remnant for sure. Kinda hard to bring out your full power when you don't even remember that you have that power.

Moving right along, let's talk about Xion's Keyblade. Yes, I know its not the same one I had her using in the Keyblades Unleashed Series, but I've taken a long time to look over all the Keyblades that she and Roxas had in 358/2 Days, and I would like to think that Rejection of Fate might be a good final evolution of Xion's Keyblade. As far as her other Keychains go, I will now confirm that she also has Two Become One and True Light's Flight as well. Any others are undecided at this time, much like in the case of most of Roxas and Ven's other Keyblades. Also, Xion is in fact rocking her Post-KH3 attire, because seriously, that is a sweet look. I really hope we see her sporting that outfit for a long time to come, because frankly, she's been having to wear that stupid Organization coat for way too long now. The only addition I gave her look was that she now has a Gummiwatch like the rest of the guys, which if you'll all recall, was introduced last chapter, and now, we've got a little more info about them.

Speaking of things that build off from last chapter, hope you guys don't mind that little bit at the beginning, but I just had to at least mention that Sora and the others took the girls to Disney Town. I was originally planning on going into full detail about that visit, either at the end of the last chapter or the start of this one, but it just seemed like unnecessary filler that made both chapters longer than they already were.

Hey, and while we're talking new developments, looks like Ruby wasn't the only one given a sense of deja vu when they all met Penny. Weiss was given her own helping of it when she met Xion. Yeah, I just had to include that in there, because I felt that it could have a bit of a benefit for Weiss in the long run if she got a sense of how it was like for Ruby when they first met.

That being said, we've now gotten Roxas and Xion's history with the Organization out there...more or less, and it looks like everyone who now knows about it is still cool with the two, and can you blame them? Who wouldn't be cool with Xion?

Roxas: Ahem. You mean Xion and Roxas, right?

AN: I know what I said. Now then, aside from additional dialogue that was introduced by Team SLVR and Xion's inclusion on the events of today's chapter, I guess the only things worth mentioning would have to be the fact that we finally got Torchwick into the story, along with the White Fang, and of course, Sun's out with his guns out! And yeah, I totally got that line from that one episode of RWBY Chibi.

And oh yeah, Penny's here too, she's now friends with both Ruby and Sora (like that's a surprise), and she's combat ready! Nuff said. If any of you guys feel like crying because it reminds you of what happened to her in the canon story of RWBY now, go ahead. I won't judge.

Sora: Neither will any of the rest of us.

AN: And finally, we got to see Attraction Flow in action again! And not only that, but it's also one that we only ever saw once in Kingdom Hearts 3. It always kinda bugged me that we were only able to use the Mountain Coaster Attraction Flow for that one boss fight, so I just had to bring it back for this little face-off. Besides, it also opened up the door for a bit more RoseHeart goodness, one that kind of mirrors a certain moment from Aladdin, as you probably noticed, if I might add, so there was that too.

Now then, I'm thinking that next chapter might end up being a bit shorter than this one, but then again, what do you expect when you combine two big episodes of RWBY like I did with the last two from Volume 1 here. Then again, there is a chance I may yet combine the first episode of Volume 2 with at least the first half of the second episode, but we'll just have to wait and see on all of that, now won't we? And that's without mentioning that there is a chance we could see some other more original content in the next chapter as well, but let's not let our imaginations get away from us just yet. We've got something else that can fuel it for us. A little something called moving Onto the Preview!...

While things pass by calmly for our heroes, dark forces are beginning to come into play from the shadows. Not that it's going to stop RWBY, JNPR, or SLVR from making the most of their last free day before the second semester classes start up. After all the excitement of traveling to other worlds, fighting Heartless, Grimm, and Nobodies, and not to mention all the other crazy things that have happened to them lately, these kids do deserve a chance to be kids, and it all starts with one of the oldest, longest standing events that is common in any school, no matter what they may be teaching: a food fight! That's right; the food will fly as a starting point for the best day ever, next time.

Ruby: So...are we going to let Yang out of that bunker now?

AN: Is she cool yet?

Blake: [looking at the security feed to see Yang getting sprayed again after activating her Semblance, making her activate it even more while increasing the amount of suppressant being shot at her] Yeah...No, no she's not.

AN: Then no way! I'm not letting her out of there just so she can pulverize me! It was bad enough after the hair thing and the closet. And as for you my dear audience...

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