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?

16. Festivities in Corona

AN: Whoo-wee! That took a little longer than I originally expected, but at long last, we've got another one up. That's right folks, I'm back again, with another chapter of Remnant of the Key, and the first of the RWBY World Travels Arc! Don't you dare do any cricket chirps!

Ruby: Seriously? Are you still calling it that? Why not the Worlds Tour Arc?

Yang: Yeah. I mean, not that I'm complaining about it too much, but does it really have to have our team's name in it?

AN: That's not the point! And it's not important right now, considering how long it's been since this was last updated.

Blake: And who's fault is that?

AN: Hey! I've got stuff going on outside of all this, and other stories to update too. Why are you even complaining? It's not like I haven't done work on anything that you're all featured in.

Ruby: Well yeah, you've done an update or two for RWBY Meetings, but considering that tends to jump back and forth across various points of our series's timeline with each chapter, it kinda gets a little disorienting after a while.

AN: Well, here's something that's a little more consistent, and I can promise that the next RWBY Meetings Chapter won't be taking place too far off from where this story currently is in your series's timeline too.

Sora: Hey, I'm pretty excited for this one too. I know it hasn't been that long, but it still feels like it's been ages since we were all last working together.

Lea: I know, right? Say by the way, how much longer are we going to have to wait until SLVR Chibi gets started?

AN: Give it some time, please. I'm focusing on all the major stories right now, and unloading various ideas into RWBY Meetings at the same time. Not to mention that I've also been working on a certain special project since the start of the year. It will happen eventually, but for now, I just ask that you all be patient.

Roxas: Wait, a special project? What kind of special project? Is it another new story that acts as like a huge crossover between all the stories and series you've written so far?

AN: [seen writing something on a notepad as he talks] No, but that is an interesting idea, I may think a few things over on that later. I mean, I've technically done crossovers between a couple of stories/series in the past already, so...But as for what this project is, give it at least another week, maybe two at the most, keep an eye on all my stories as they each get their next updates in the near future, along with my profile page, and you'll find out soon enough. Right now though, it's time we got things...under...What-what is she doing?

Everyone other than AN: [turns to look over at Weiss]

Weiss: [doing an impressive happy dance routine with a large smile on her face]

Ruby: Oh yeah. Almost forgot that she's been doing that a lot lately whenever she had a chance to.

AN: How long has this been going on?

Yang: Oh you know. Ever since a certain episode of Volume 7. Namely episode 9?

AN: Ah, right. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense now. If you haven't seen that episode yet, watch it when you next get the chance, along with the rest of Volume 7 if you haven't seen any of it yet, otherwise, you all have probably figured out why Weiss is so happy about the events of that episode right now.

Blake: Well, you can't blame her for celebrating that particular event. It certainly counts as one of the really good things that happened in Volume 7, despite how things have taken a turn for us by the end of it.

AN: Okay, we should probably stop talking about all of this now for the sake of everyone who hasn't caught up yet, or who just haven't seen Volume 7 for whatever reason. Let's move on to today's chapter before anything else happens. [glances at Weiss again to see she's still dancing] And maybe think about calling someone in case she doesn't stop. I'm not sure how long she's doing that today alone, but if its really been as much as you guys have implied, I can't help but wonder how healthy that really is for her.

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

---

Chapter 16: Festivities of Corona

Even after going to other worlds at least once with their Keyblade wielding classmates before, Teams RWBY and JNPR were still left buzzing with excitement as they saw their surroundings outside the stealth gummi change from what they knew to be Remnant's sky to the stars and colors of interspace. The fact that they were now joining Team SLVR on a real adventure through other worlds, even if it was technically just a patrol for any Heartless or other similar dangers/threats, only added to the excitement they all shared. Just hearing about all the adventures that Sora and the others had each gone on was enough to make them wonder what such journeys would be like, so having a chance to get something close to that now, and going through with taking the chance was making them even more excited than ever before. Some of them more than others.

"We're going on a world adventure. We're going on a world adventure. Today's, the day; hip-hip hooray! We're going on a world adventure! Wee!" Nora could not help but sing ever since they had flown out of the world barrier and into the space between worlds.

As amusing as Nora's excitement was, it did not stop everyone from trying to correct her on her description of this journey. "It's not an adventure, Nora. We're just patrolling worlds we've visited in the past," Ventus reminded her.

"With the worlds of the Previous and New Seven Lights taking the top priority spots," Lea added on.

"Hey, you can't blame her for being excited. This is probably the closest any of us are going to get to experiencing a journey like the ones you guys went on before we all met," Jaune reminded him. Surprisingly, even to him, he had still not gotten sick, so Jaune took that to be a good sign of how well he would hold up on this world-hopping trip.

"He's got a point. We're all pretty much thinking that way about this trip," Yang agreed.

"Now it's just a matter of deciding where we're going to go first," Roxas stated as he looked over the world map in an attempt to figure out what world the group would decide on as their first stop.

Hearing that prompted Lea to perk up from his contemplative silence once more. He been really quiet ever since they took off, still racking his brain over whether or not he should tell Yang about his encounter with Raven, but the minute he heard Roxas mentioned deciding on a destination, he just had to voice a thought or two. "Can we please, for the love of all that is good in any world not go to Wonderland first," he begged.

"Oh trust me, I was already planning on putting that stop off for as long as possible," Sora assured him, adding to the already growing confusion of their Remnant friends.

"Wonderland? You mean the first world you visited after Traverse Town, Sora," Ruby recalled from her memories about the stories their friends had told them.

"Yeah, that'd be the one, and I'd honestly rather avoid going back there again if we can help it," Sora confirmed.

"Why? What's so bad about a place with a name like Wonderland," Ren asked.

"You ever hear the phrase 'down the rabbit hole and into madness,'" Roxas asked, getting nods from Ren and the others shortly after. "Well, Wonderland is the literal, living definition of that, because there's never any telling what could happen when you so much as touch something there."

"Oh please. I'm sure you must be exaggerating," Weiss waved off, clearly not believing his claims.

"Weiss, you do remember what I told you about my first visit to Wonderland, right? Namely the parts about how their were soldiers that were basically living playing cards, a crazy magic cat that spoke in riddles, a talking doorknob, and a room in which you could walk on the ceiling or the walls depending on which entrance you came through," Sora reminded her.

"And that's without the crazy treats that make you turn into a giant or a tiny little bug," Roxas added.

"Not to mention that Queen of Hearts chick who thought everything she believed and said was right, and so much as suggesting otherwise was punishable by death," Lea finished.

Hearing all of that, Weiss could not help but concede defeat as she said, "Okay, yeah, that does sound pretty crazy."

"Do we even need to go there though," Pyrrha asked, not entirely comfortable with the idea of going to a place that was ruled by someone like this Queen of Hearts.

"Unfortunately," Sora sighed. "It is technically a world where one of the Previous Seven lives, or at least a world that we need to go to in order to reach her, but right now, I'm thinking we should try to stick with a world that's close to our location, and Wonderland is nowhere near to us right now."

"So what worlds are close to us," Blake then asked, curious about what their current options were at the moment.

"Have a look for yourselves," Roxas offered, and with a few taps at the controls of his station, the world map he was studying was transferred over to the cockpit's main view screen, granting everyone a look at the map. "Here's our current location," Roxas stated as he indicated the point on the map where a small, digital model of their ship was positioned to signify their location, a spot that they could all see was right next to the map's image of Remnant. Roxas then went on to indicate a few other points on the larger map while explaining, "At the moment, we're close to three different worlds that are home to a Princess of Heart. Two of those worlds being the homes of one of the Previous Seven, and the third one being the home for one of the New Seven."

"And the Previous Seven are all worlds that Sora's been to in the past, right," Yang recalled.

"Not exactly. I may have met all of the Previous Seven Princesses, but I've only ever been to the worlds of three of them," Sora admitted.

"Four if you count Radiant Garden, considering that it was the original home of…lucky number seven," Lea piped in, hesitating only because he was still not sure if it was okay to mention that princess by name around Sora yet.

"Axel, relax. I'm not going to freak out if you mention Kairi's name or something. Old Sora's back, remember? It's totally fine now," Sora assured him.

While Weiss and Team JNPR were a little confused about what the two were talking about, the rest of the crew were feeling relieved to hear that Sora was doing better when it came to talking about Kairi now. Seeing the confusion some of their friends had about the topic, the team who was in the know about that resolved to fill in the blanks at a later date. It was a wonder that they would have been able to bring it up before, even in passing, given all that had happened over the last few days, but right now, they had other things to worry about, the first of those being the decision on their first destination.

Deciding to be the one that steered them back on topic, Ruby promptly asked, "So, you have no idea what those other three worlds might be like?"

"He doesn't, but I do. Aqua, Terra, and I visited those worlds during that whole mess with the Unversed," Ventus told her.

"Good thing, because it looks like the two worlds of the former princesses are two of the ones you three had visited: Enchanted Dominion and the Dwarf Woodlands," Roxas named.

"And the third one," Sora asked.

"The Kingdom of Corona; aka the world you visited when you first learned about the New Seven Lights," Roxas informed him.

"So which one do you guys think we should go to," Blake prompted, prompting everyone to defer to the Keyblade wielders' judgment on which world they should choose.

The four members of Team SLVR all adopted thinking poses as they quietly considered the three options, until Lea finally said, "Well, I know that the New Seven are kind of the more important group to check in on, given that they're the ones with the all-important seven pure lights now, but the other two worlds are a bit closer to us than Corona, so why not stop at one of those worlds?"

"Yeah, I mean, I have wondered for a while what the rest of the Previous Seven's worlds were like, and right now, those are the only two that I haven't been to," Sora agreed, even if his reason was a little more personal than anything.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Ventus denied.

"Why not," Roxas asked.

"Let's just say that I'm not too eager to have another run-in with the seven dwarves anytime soon after the last time I saw them," Ventus admitted while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I mean, I know Aqua said that they had changed and weren't likely to treat me the same way that they had before, but I'm not in too big of a hurry for them to chase us away while accusing me of being a bad guy again."

"'Again,'" Weiss repeated in question.

"Long story," Ventus told her. "Short version is that I visited their mine to see if they knew anything about Terra, since I was looking for him at the time, and the first thing they assumed upon seeing me was that I was a diamond thief. The fact that I ended up chasing them through the mine in an effort to get them to talk with me probably didn't help my case."

"Okay, we'll hold off on going to the Dwarf Woodlands for a little bit longer then, but that still doesn't explain what the problem with Enchanted Dominion is," Sora pointed out.

"Yeah, I mean its home to both Princess Aurora and the three good fairies that made all of our magic outfits, isn't it," Lea remembered.

"It is, but it's also where Maleficent is from," Ventus finally revealed.

"Oh! Yeah, that is kinda bad," Sora nodded in understanding, with Lea and Roxas doing the same soon after.

"You mean that evil witch that was behind everything that happened on your first journey, Sora," Weiss remembered.

"Ha! I'm sure we could take some old crone like her easy," Nora declared while flexing her arm muscles.

"Nora, you do remember that this is the same witch that is known as the mistress of all evil, right," Ren asked his childhood friend.

"So what? I'm not scared of her," Nora huffed.

"You probably should be, considering that she's the one who nearly drowned all the worlds in darkness just a couple years ago," Blake pointed out.

"Technically she was more of the second-in-command on that whole plot. Xehanort's Heartless was the one who was really pulling the strings at that time," Sora clarified.

"And for the record, she's actually a fairy not a witch," Ventus added in correction.

"Does it really matter either way? You're still saying that if we go to Enchanted Dominion, there's a chance that we'll run into her there, right," Lea asked.

"That sounds about accurate, yeah," Ventus confirmed.

"Maybe, but then again, it could be worth the risk," Sora reasoned, getting everyone's attention. "We haven't heard all that much from Maleficent or Pete lately; at least not since I ran into them on my last visit to Olympus and found out they were after some mysterious black box, so maybe there's a clue on where they are now in whatever place Maleficent used as a hideout on her world."

"Sora's got a point. If she really is as dangerous as you guys say she is, it might be a good idea to look for clues that could lead to wherever she's hiding right now, especially if it means it'll stop her from getting that box," Ruby agreed.

"Why do you think it would be necessary to keep her from getting the box," Weiss asked.

"Well, normally if the bad guys want something, it usually isn't for a good reason, or there's also a chance that the thing they're after shouldn't be in the wrong hands," Ruby reasoned.

"Yeah, that is pretty much the case with just about anything that involves Maleficent," Sora confirmed.

"Still, Master Yen Sid and Mickey are actively trying to locate Maleficent and Pete right now, so they might've already thought to check there. If they couldn't find anything, I kinda doubt we'd have much better luck," Ventus revealed with a shrug.

"It might still be worth at least having a look," Lea argued.

"He's right, so I say we at least consider going there for that at a later time," Sora decided. "We're going to have to visit each world that's home to the old and new Princesses of Heart eventually, so we might as well plan on doing that for when we go to Enchanted Dominion. For right now though, the New Seven Hearts are the bigger priority, like Lea said, so I say we head for the Kingdom of Corona first. Sound good to everyone?"

Everyone nodded in agreement on that, with Ren even going so far as to say, "It does seem to be the only one that no one has a problem with, so we might as well."

"Alright then, everyone buckle up. I'm setting our course and activating the warp gummi," Sora announced as the map disappeared from the view screen and he turned about in his seat so that he was facing forward again.

Seeing as they were already buckled up, everyone really just turned their attention forwards as Sora worked the controls and jettisoned them into warp speed, sending the ship rocketing to the Kingdom of Corona. Barely more than three minutes after the fact, Weiss decided to ask a rather important question.

"Just how long will it take us to get there? I don't think any of us want to be late getting back," the heiress questioned.

"Traveling at warp speed, it shouldn't take us long to get there at all. Probably just a few minutes at best," Sora assured her. "That's the great thing about warp gummis; they make travel between worlds take very little time at all, and allow you to basically skip right past any trouble that could pop up along the way."

"Yeah, until they need to recharge," Lea cut in.

"I'm sorry; what?"

"Yeah, the stealth gummi ship's warp gummi is an experimental new model that would allow us to have both the cloaking tech and the warp capabilities, so it needs to recharge after a set number of uses or distances traveled. It was in the manual for the ship, remember," Lea reminded Sora. When his team leader remained silent without turning to look at him, the redhead quickly came to a single conclusion. "You didn't read the ship's manual, did you?"

"I thought the only change in how the ship worked was the stealth system! Nobody ever said that there was more than that," Sora protested.

"How long would it take to get to other worlds without the warp gummi then," Jaune inquired.

"It depends on how far apart the two worlds in question are, and the route you want to take," Roxas informed him. "Considering Sora's doing most of the driving though, I don't think we have to worry about accidentally taking any scenic routes."

"No matter what the case is, it's not like it really matters that much. We've already got the gummi ship tracking how much time passes on Remnant so that we'll know when to head back," Ventus assured everyone.

That statement confused a few people a little bit, prompting another explanation from the Keyblade wielders, this time from their team leader. "Time often flows differently on two different worlds. Sometimes it could be as simple as it being dinner time on one world while it's time to get up and get breakfast on another, and other times, it could be so extreme to the point where an hour could have gone by on one world while several years have passed on another. That's why every time we've left Remnant for another world since we first arrived and enrolled at Beacon, we made it a point to make sure that most of the clocks on the ship were synched up to the ones on Remnant, if for no other reason than to make sure that we did not miss too much while we were gone."

"So what's the time difference between each of your worlds and ours," Yang inquired, now curious about that detail.

The four boys had to stop and think about that for a minute, until they finally realized that they had no clue, prompting Lea to actually look up that information on the ship's computer. After a few seconds, he finally got his answer, and said, "Well look at that. It turns out that Destiny Islands, Radiant Garden, the Land of Departure, and Twilight Town all share the same time scale and flow as Remnant."

"Wow, really," Ruby gasped in awe.

"That means that we could visit any of your worlds too while we're on this trip," Nora cheered, clearly just as excited as Ruby was.

"Only if we have time. Remember, we are technically on a mission, and we have to get everything done before the Vytal Festival and the tournament has started, so don't be too disappointed if we end up only getting to visit one or two other worlds in addition to the ones we actually need to go to," Sora cautioned the two.

Aside from the two moans of disappointment that Ruby and Nora let out upon hearing that, the rest of the flight to the Kingdom of Corona was spent in relative silence. Yes, there was a bit of small talk here and there, but for the most part, they just relaxed and spent their time mentally preparing for whatever they would encounter while they were on this world. In the case of the Remnant-born adventurers, they were doing their best to not jump out of their seats in excitement at the idea of visiting another one of the worlds that Sora and the others had told them about, especially since this was a world that was home to one of the Princesses of Heart. After hearing all about the maidens with hearts of pure light and what they represent, they had all drawn up various ideas of just what kind of people these princesses would be like. Sure, Team JNPR had kind of met Cinderella already, but they had not really had much of a chance to really talk with her before carrying out their mission with Team SLVR. This time, there was a chance they were going to properly interact and speak with these unique and powerful individuals, and not a single one of them could wait for when it happened.

---

"Wow," was the first word that Ruby had slowly breathed out after they had teleported down from the stealth gummi, and everyone from Remnant had to agree with her. Sure, they had all seen many forested areas before, but this one was a lot different, mainly because of the large, lone tower that rose up from the center of the clearing they were standing in. Even with all kinds of long vines growing up the sides, and most of the bricks looking rather worn out from old age, it was still an amazing sight to see. Add in how the top of the tower had a window that looked out over the surrounding clearing, giving an easy view of the small pond and river below, and you could understand why the group of huntsmen-in-training were all so mystified by the place.

The four Keyblade wielders on the other hand, who had all at least seen pictures of this location before, simply smirked in amusement over how awestruck the majority of their group was by this simple sight. Sure, the tower was in a very beautiful location, and it stuck out in a way that made it something you do not see every day, but if they were getting this impressed by just that, then they could not wait to see the looks on their faces when they something that was truly an impressive sight to behold. All amusement aside though, there was one thing that actually bugged most of the boys a little, and it did not take long for one of them to question their team's leader about it.

"Hey Sora, isn't this the tower that you said Rapunzel spent most of her life growing up in," Roxas recalled.

"If by 'most of her life' you mean 'all of her life growing up until Flynn stumbled onto this place,' then yes," Sora clarified.

"So…why would you have us land all the way out here," asked Lea. "It's in the middle of the forest and nowhere close to the actual kingdom. Gonna be a little hard to check in on things with one of our New Seven Lights when we're not even close to where she hangs her hat these days."

"And if you say that it's because you think we could use the exercise, I will break your arm," Ventus cautioned.

"Okay, I won't say that's one of the reasons," Sora shrugged with a smile, indicating that it probably was, even if he did not say it. He turned a little more serious again as he revealed, "The big reason though is because of what I heard about this world from Aqua and Riku whenever they told me about the times that they or one of our other friends visited. According to them, the Heartless and any lingering Nobodies usually leave the kingdom alone for the most part, but out here in the forest and any other area that's not heavily populated they tend to pop up like weeds. And no, I'm not making a pun because of the fact that a lot of Heartless on this world are plant-based in some way. I figured that we could start from here and take out any monsters we run into along the way so that we can better guarantee the safety of any travelers that pass through."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Jaune agreed, having tuned into the conversation the moment he heard Lea ask why Sora chose this as their landing site. "I mean, if there's no immediate danger to the princess, then it wouldn't hurt for us to take our time getting to her, especially if it means that we'd be keeping people safe by taking out any monsters that could threaten them on their travels."

Everyone else shared similar agreements with that assessment, and were more than ready to head out from there, save for Yang, who had a very sneaky grin on her face as she looked at Sora. "And it serves as a good excuse for you to share a romantic walk through the forest with a certain someone, doesn't it," teased the blonde, slyly eyeing her sister as she did.

Despite the fact that the idea had not crossed his mind, Sora still blushed brightly at the implication to the point where he was sure that anything he said to the contrary would not be believed whether it was true or not. Thankfully, his girlfriend was more than happy to come to his defense. "Yang, this is serious! Sora knows that we don't have time for that kind of thing when we're on an important mission," Ruby snapped at her older sister, much to Sora's smiling relief. "Besides, if he was going to do something like that, I doubt he'd really have teleported the whole group to this spot. Maybe just one or two extra people, like Jaune and Pyrrha, or you and Lea so that it could be more of a double-date, but not everyone." And just like that, his smile was wiped away as Ruby threw him back under the bus.

"Yeah, you have a point. He does come off as one of the more romantic types who would rather not have a huge crowd watching you two if it can be avoided," Yang nodded in agreement, still half-teasingly since she was sure that Sora was just like that based off what Lea and the others on Team SLVR had said about him.

"Okay! Time to get going, everyone," Sora loudly announced, putting an abrupt end on the teasing session while spinning about and leading them through the cave that would put them back in the main forest. Still, despite the teasing, he had noticed that Ruby had gained a faint tinge of pink on her cheeks along with an eager smile when Yang brought up the idea of a romantic stroll through the woods, and thought, 'Note to self, remember that forest stroll idea for a future date with Ruby. Might even work well with the picnic idea I already had in mind.'

Upon exiting the hidden cave entrance to Rapnuzel's former home/prison, the team of twelve began their journey to the actual kingdom on the Kingdom of Corona, and as they went, the eight from Remnant were quickly able to take in the sights and wonders of the forest around them. Sure, it probably was not too special from any other forest most of them had seen before, but considering that it was a forest of another world, the appeal was easily increased. Add in how the trees were not as packed together as those of places like the Emerald Forest, the clear sky, and the shinning sun, and it would be more of a wonder that any of them did not look around with eager smiles like kids at a playground. Of course, the sights and beauty of the forest was not the only thing that they were able to stop and stare in awe at.

Since they were no longer on Remnant and in the company of people who knew their full story, or the basics of said story at the very least, the guys of Team SLVR could not help but grin happily the moment that they finally faced a real battle, because it meant that they had no reason to hold back their full powers. Everyone amongst their group knew this already, but it was not until a group of Heartless finally appeared that the other eight finally realized just how much they were holding back. Sure, Team RWBY had gotten a glimpse of the fact once before in Twilight Town, but now, they were getting a full display of just how much power each of the four Keyblade wielders were keeping under wraps while they were out in public on Remnant. It was barely even a few minutes after they had left the cove where Rapunzel's tower stood when the Heartless appeared, and the Keyblade wielders instantly set to work in dealing with the little monsters.

In cases like Sora's, there was not really much of a change from what they had already seen him normally do on Remnant. Part of that was because out of everyone on his team, Sora was the most well-rounded of the four, but he did show that he was still holding back something when he started throwing out all the different types of spells that he would not normally use on Remnant and even his Shotlocks. The first of which was one of the Shotlocks that went with the Keyblade he had acquired after his first visit to this very world: Ever After, and the sight was rather blinding, given that Spectral Rays consisted of various, rapid light beams being shot off in multiple directions at once, all on whatever he had targeted before firing, but thankfully, it was not as bad as it could have been had Sora used that power in a darker location or at night. The next surprising thing that Sora showcased was his Formchange that went with that same Keyblade: Mirage Staff, and once again, they could see the reason why he did not use it that much on Remnant if at all. Sure, the change in coloring that his clothes took on could easily be passed off, but the way he moved and fought with that form was definitely not something you could explain away easily by saying it was either due to a weapon power or a Semblance. Sure, he could say the energy beams and basically sliding along the ground were part of his Energy Manipulation Semblance, and maybe the ethereal copies that he created every time he dodged too, but there was no way he could say that suddenly creating a stone tower out of nowhere to fire multiple rays of light around him was part of such a Semblance. It was just too much of a stretch for anyone to believe.

Ventus was one of the ones who were really able to cut loose, as he showcased all of his talents with both his Shotlocks and Command Styles. Since he had to sell the idea that his Semblance was Wind Control, Ventus had always stuck with his powers that were based in said element, so he hardly ever used any of the other powers that he had up his sleeves. Not that he had a problem with that; wind magic was his best element, but he did still feel really limited by not being able to use anything more than the basic spells when it came to the other elements of magic in his arsenal. As such, when he unleashed the full power of his Firestorm Command Style, everyone was more than a little surprised by how much he seemed to enjoy himself. It was almost like someone had swapped his and Lea's minds to some of them. Add in the fact that he also made it a point to power up with his Wingblade and Rhythm Mixer Command Styles and you could definitely tell that Ven was having a lot more fun now.

Roxas and Lea were probably the only ones that did not need to do too much different with going all out in their attacks, since most of their best moves could be played off as part of what they claimed was their Semblances. If anything, the only change was that they could use their powers to the full extent, as opposed to how they had tried to limit themselves on Remnant, meaning Roxas slashed through several enemies at a speed that was almost faster than light, while Lea unleashed several more explosives fires than he normally did. Aside from that, Roxas did take the time to test out his abilities to summon the Samurais to his aid, and he was not disappointed. When he learned that Roxas had regained control of his old Nobody followers, Sora had not hesitated in helping Roxas to create a Heartbinder that would better help him to summon the Samurais no matter what world they were on. It seemed a little odd to Roxas that they were able to create such a thing, given that most Nobodies did not have hearts, especially in the case of the high-ranking Dusks, but he was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, and when he saw how quickly the Samurai appeared around him to aid in the attack upon activating the Heartbinder in question, Roxas could only grin excitedly that it had worked.

What really drove home the fact that the Keyblade wielders were holding back or at least that Sora was, was the moment when Sora used another of his Heartbinders to call on his old friend Simba for help. The Remnant kids were all left gaping in awe from the second that the massive lion stepped forward from the brilliant blaze that erupted around Sora when he activated the Heartbinder, and seeing the fact that so much as moving around a battlefield allowed Simba to damage enemies, while his every pounce and loud, echoing roar set out a brilliant blaze did not help with getting their jaws up off the ground, either. Blake especially seemed to like this summon, and in her mind, she could not help but think that her father might like this summon if he ever saw it for himself.

It did not stop with just their fighting abilities either, as they soon saw when they finally came to the cliffs that stood between them and the kingdom. While everyone was trying to puzzle out how they could get over or around the small mountains, Sora had simply just backed up so he could take a running start, and leap up towards the side of the cliff in front of them. Ruby was the first to notice this, but it was not until she let out a gasp of shock that the others saw what she had, and their jaws all dropped once more, this time at the sight of Sora actually running straight up the rocky wall in front of them like it was nothing, until he had reached the top and spun himself up onto the ledge. Sure, they had all seen Ruby do something similar back in the Emerald Forest, but she had the help of her Semblance, her scythe, and Weiss's glyphs. Sora did not have any of those things, and he ran up the rock wall like he was just taking a simple jog down the sidewalk, so the shock and awe was more than understandable, at least for everyone that had never seen it before.

"Hey, are you guys coming or what," Sora called to them when he realized that no one else was following him.

"Sora, how did you…Did you just…What the heck was that," shouted Ruby, too shocked to properly speak right away.

"What was what," Sora asked.

"Are you kidding me?! You just ran up the side of a cliff like it was the ground," was the remark of an incredulous Jaune after he heard that. "How can you act like that's just normal?"

"Seriously? We've seen you guys do a lot weirder things than that," Lea reminded everyone from Remnant. "Like flying or swinging through the air, or even dropping from huge heights and not breaking any bones in your bodies when you land. Not to mention the kinds of hits that you've tanked when fighting bad guys and monsters."

"Yeah, because of things like Aura, our Semblances, or our weapons," Yang pointed out. "Even Ruby needed some extra help from Weiss to do that when she ran up the cliff and beheaded a Nevermore during Initiation, and she's already plenty fast with or without her Semblance."

Seeing that his latest feat had left his friends bewildered to the point where they were not likely to move from their current spot any time soon, Sora jumped down from his spot at the top of the cliff he had just run up, landing with an easy roll once he hit the ground, and stood up straight so he could speak with the group without having to shout. "Hey, it's not that big of a deal. Anybody can do it," Sora revealed.

"Then why haven't we ever seen any huntsmen or huntresses doing it, or at least been given some lessons on how to do it while at Beacon," asked Ren.

Ventus was the one who answered that question. "Its kinda part of the whole world order thing. See the truth of the matter is that everyone, no matter what world they're from, has some type of latent magic power deep inside them that can allow them to do all kinds of things. Walking up or along walls, dropping from huge heights without worry about injury, or even breathing underwater are just some the simplest things that anyone could learn how to do once they've figured out how to tap into their pool of inner magic, and special powers like Flowmotion, Glide, or even Doubleflight are just an extra powerful extension of all that."

"So are you saying that even we could do stuff like that, despite the fact that magic doesn't exist on Remnant," Blake asked.

"To a certain extent, yeah, probably," Lea shrugged.

Ruby grinned eagerly after hearing that, and quickly asked, "You guys have got to teach us everything! Like how to shoot fireballs, freeze bad guys, summon lightning storms, and every other cool magic power you've got!"

"Whoa, whoa! Slow down, Ruby, it's not that easy," Sora placated. "Tapping into that inner pool of magic for anything big isn't something you can just do at any time. You'd have to at least be a little aware of its existence from a really young age, or been exposed to an outside source of magic that responds to you in some manner. Otherwise, the only way you guys could use some of our more fantastic powers would be if you suddenly got a Keyblade or some other type of magic weapon or artifact to act as a kind of focusing tool."

"That or one of you turns out to be someone like a Princess of Heart or something," Roxas added on.

"Aww! I wanted to be able to throw lightning at bad guys," whined Nora.

"Hey, just because you can't do the big fancy stuff, doesn't mean we can't at least show you some of the more basic, easy things like wall running," Sora pointed out.

"Yeah…'Easy,' he says," muttered Jaune, with his teammates in JNPR nodding in agreement. Still, he was right with the rest of his friends that were lining up for Sora's impromptu class on how to use the "simple" magic power, as the Keybearer had described it.

When he saw that everyone was standing at attention for him, Sora had to pause for a second, hardly believing that he had gotten into this situation, but he managed to collect himself and roll with it all the same. Just not without giving them some kind of warning at first. "Just so you guys know, I've never really done any kind of teaching like this before, so forgive me if I do a bad job with it," Sora told them, earning amused smiles from everyone that helped him relax a bit better. "Okay, so when it comes to running up a wall, it might help if you think of it as more like running up a steep slope. It also helps to take a running start, like you guys saw me do, but you don't necessarily have to jump up towards the wall. I just did it just now because I've gotten so used to doing that kind of thing when I was just exploring worlds."

"So basically, we just need to run at the wall while telling ourselves that it's not a wall but a steep hill or something," Blake questioned, clearly not thinking it was that simple.

"Actually, yeah, pretty much. It also helps if you picture yourself doing it in your head. Another way to look at it is to view the wall as not a wall to climb up, but another direction that you can go on a path that you're walking along," Sora replied, apparently having missed the questioning part of Blake's statement. Or it could have been that he just ignored it and pressed on like Blake's words were her attempt at finding a good comparison.

Still, Blake was not the only skeptic in the group, as Ren quickly proved. "Sora, while I do recognize and respect that you have experience with magic, I can't help but think that you're oversimplifying the whole thing a little."

"Hey, I don't blame you for feeling that way, Ren; I was the same way when I first started learning magic," Sora admitted with an easy-going smile that was distinctly his. "When Donald and Merlin were first explaining how my magic powers worked to me, I thought they were just trying to mess with me or they were just treating me like a little kid who didn't get that most things in the world were more complicated than they were in fairy tales, but the truth is, when it comes to this kind of magic, it really is that simple. That's the one thing I've learned best during my time as a Keyblade wielder: when it comes to magic, it's usually as simple as wishing for something to happen. Like when I cast any variety of ice magic, I have to want my opponent to freeze in order to make it work."

"So in order to walk on this wall like you did just now, we just have to want it to happen," Pyrrha asked.

"Basically," Sora shrugged. "Although, this may be simple, it would help if you guys start to work on getting a mindset that would allow you to quickly access that power without prep time, but since we're not expecting you guys to need to use this in a fight just yet, I don't think we need to rush. Besides, it's not like it's something you'll be likely to use when we get back to Remnant without raising a few suspicions, so no pressure if you can't get it down as well as the others and I have."

Everyone could see Sora's point in his words, and they all started to focus on their own varieties of the scenarios that Sora had listed when he was describing the mindset necessary for running up walls. While they did that, they also started mentally chanting to themselves 'I want to go up the wall' over and over again as a way to better strengthen their chances of successfully pulling it off. When Sora saw that they were all completely focused on this, he started to speak again as he walked around the group.

"Now, since it's your first time doing something like this, you may notice pretty easily when the magic is becoming active in your body," Sora instructed. "It'll most likely feel like some inner spark has been ignited in your hearts, and then sends a kind of energy flowing through the rest of your body, most of it going right to your feet. Once you've felt that energy run its course and settle in position, run to the wall like you're getting ready to climb it like I had, and don't stop moving until you either reach the top, or accidentally fall down."

"Wait, what," Jaune explained, his concentration broken as he stared at Sora in surprise.

"Hey, I never said I was expecting you guys to get right on the first try. Even I fell a few times on my first attempt at this," Sora told his blonde, knightly friend.

Jaune grew a little more nervous after hearing that, but still closed his eyes again in order to regain his lost focus and mindset, while at the same starting to pray that if he did fall, he would not end up to badly hurt afterwards. Just seconds after Jaune had shut his eyes to better build his focus, Blake had shot forward so fast that her take off had actually been followed by a small bit of wind, making the others open their eyes and stare in awe at the Faunus as she made her attempt. When she had approached the cliff, she raised one foot up, placed it on the side of the cliff, pushed forward and upward, and before she knew it, she was racing up the rocky wall just like Sora had done a moment ago, and just like Sora, she did not stop until she made it to the top, much to her relief and everyone else's amazement and excitement.

"Yeah! Way to go, Blake," Ruby cheered.

"Very impressive," Weiss praised.

"Aw yeah! That's our kitty cat," Yang grinned happily.

Blake rolled her eyes a little at her partner's remark, but from the smile on her face, it was clearly with a little more humor than it usually would have been. She then took a moment to bask in the praise that the others shouted up to her, before she simply shrugged and said, "Well, it's not like it's too different from some of the things I used to do before I came to Beacon. The only difference was what direction I was going in."

"Nice way of looking at it," Sora appraised.

"I'll say! I think we may have a regular natural when it comes to this," Lea added on. He then felt a brief stirring in the air that indicated someone rushing past him, and looked to see their second volunteer making an attempt at the wall run. More than that, said volunteer even succeeded, and reached the top much faster than Blake had, and he could not help but smirk a little as he added on to his own statement. "Or two."

Blake was a bit confused by what Lea meant by that, until she turned to see Ruby standing next to her, much to her surprise. "What? I ran up the side of a cliff once while dragging a giant Nevermore along with my scythe," Ruby reminded her Faunus teammate. "Compared to that, this was a piece of cake."

After that, everyone else made their own attempts at the wall run, feeling a little more confident after seeing the success of the first two. Not everyone got it right away like Ruby and Blake had, because most of them ended up falling flat on their butts by the time they were halfway up at most. The only one who actually did get all the way to the top on his first try was Ren, which most of them had expected, given how serious and focused he tended to be most of the time, and not long after, Pyrrha had joined them at the top as well on her second attempt. Jaune was the next one to succeed, having made it on his third attempt, but the other three did need a lot more tries than the rest of their teammates. More than once, Sora and the other Keybearers had to remind Weiss, Yang, or Nora that they could not cheat by using their Semblances or weapons to give them a boost, and surprisingly, Weiss was the one who had to be reminded the most. Not that it was too hard to catch Weiss cheating, given that her glyphs were a little hard to miss when she formed them, but they did at least allow her to use them as a safety net when she did fall after a while.

Despite the difficulties that the last three had, they all still eventually made it up with the rest of them. It was a little hard to really say for sure which attempt it was that the three girls had finally made it up the cliff, but only because everyone else had stopped counting, most of them by the fifth or sixth try. Sora was the only one who came close to the actual number of attempts that the three had all made, and even then, he was pretty sure it was not accurate. Even if it was, he was pretty sure that he should keep quiet about it, given how irritated the three seemed to be over how long it took them to get it, so he just settled on praising them and ushering them all onwards in their journey to the kingdom. Sure, there were still a few more cliffs that they needed to climb in order to get there, but Sora knew that they would provide good practice for the others in the way of their new wall running abilities, assuming none of them let their patience wear out too quickly.

---

Call it blessing or a miracle, but either way, the team had made it through the rest of the cliffs and wall climbs without anyone losing their temper over how hard it was for them to get used to wall running. It came as no surprise that the ones who got it on their first try were able to master the ability quickest, and even started on running along the walls like Sora could, but in cases of the three who had the hardest time with it, they figured that they would just stick with running straight up a wall when they needed it and using their usual methods of enhanced movement for everything else. Not that you could blame anyone, given that the folks from Remnant were already accustomed to being able to move around and fly through the air by using their weapons and Semblances, but regardless of how the training in subtle magic went, their journey became much easier after making it through the many cliffs.

Afterwards, it was all just calm, green forest between them and the kingdom. It was so calm in fact that Sora decided to take a moment to show off for his girlfriend by repeating an old trick he had learned the last time he was on this world. Upon finding a small group of birds, Sora quietly approached them, and allowed them to settle onto his arms, shoulders, and head, before making his way back over to an unsuspecting Ruby. When she turned to face him, Ruby nearly squealed in delight at how silly and cute Sora looked with a bunch of singing birds settled on his arms like branches. Thankfully, Sora was able to quiet her reaction before she scared the birds away, and even helped her to get them to come over to her for a little while. It was a rather cute moment that Sora could not help but take a quick picture of using his Gummiphone, not knowing that some of their friends had done the same thing with their own cameras, and it was only made sweeter when the birds eventually flew off, singing like they were giving a small performance to the young couple that they had just been hanging around on.

That one sweet moment aside, there were really no interruptions in the remainder of their trip, so before they knew it, they had come to the bridge leading into the kingdom. Even though Sora had been here before, he still came to a stop right at the gates, knowing that most of the rest of his friends were going to need a minute to take in the sights of this magnificent city. Not Ventus of course, since he had come here once or twice while patrolling the worlds with Aqua and Terra, but Roxas and Lea were definitely right there with Teams RWBY and JNPR when it came to pausing in excited admiration upon seeing their destination.

"Now that's what I call a kingdom," Roxas breathed in wonder.

"It's almost like the World That Never Was but with light and a lot more color," Lea complimented. "Why couldn't we have lived here before moving to Twilight Town?"

Everyone knew the answer to Lea's question, just like they knew he was not being serious when he asked, so it went unanswered, but it did help them to get moving again, as they all proceeded into the kingdom. Not that it stopped the rest of the group from offering up their own comments on the kingdom. Assuming they could find their voices. "Seriously, if we keep seeing such amazing views and places like this, I think I'm going to be unable to appreciate it as well as you guys when we do see something amazing," commented Yang.

"It is a very grand sight," Pyrrha agreed.

"No kidding," Jaune nodded to his girlfriend.

Weiss was about to offer her own thoughts on the subject as well, when she noticed something a little odd about the place. "Say, Sora," she called out, getting the leader of their combined group's attention not even a second after she said his name. "Is it normally this quiet here?"

Hearing Weiss's question made Sora stop again and start listening a little closer, only to discover the same thing that Weiss had by the time they had gotten through the main gate. Just as Weiss had implied, there was barely any noise or sound to be heard in the area, and even without coming here before, Sora knew that a place as big as this normally had some level of noise to it unless there was something serious going on. Looking around, Sora also saw that a lot of the stands and shops appeared to be closed down, and if he were a betting boy, Sora figured that the docks were not much different. When the others realized that Sora had not immediately answered and started to tense up a little, they quickly grew a little tense as well, knowing that it was not a good sign when Sora was getting worried about something. Part of them was still glad to hear Sora finally give an answer to Weiss's question, but that did nothing to relieve them of the worry they felt about their current situation.

"No, it's not," Sora informed the group at large. Barely even a moment later, they all heard someone screaming, and he then added, "And just in case anyone was wondering, panicked screaming does in fact mean something bad is happening on this world too."

"Since when does panicked screaming not mean that something bad is going on," Blake inquired.

"You'd be surprised, actually," Sora shrugged, and he left it at that as he summoned Ever After into his hand and led the charge over to the source of the screams.

Their destination ended up being the docks, and by the time they had arrived, they had all drawn weapons in preparation for combat. No one was surprised to see the Heartless buzzing around and causing damage, but most of them were surprised by something else entirely. The surprising part of the current battle was the people who were fighting the Heartless at the moment, as one appeared to be a man in a blue vest, white shirt, brown boots, and tan pants, swinging around a frying pan of all things, while the other was a woman in a pink dress with really, really long blonde hair. As in long enough for her to swing it around and use it as a weapon for tying up bad guys, or swinging herself or the man away from danger like she was doing right at that very moment.

For Sora, the sight was familiar, so he was able to charge over and join the fight without any pause, while for Lea, Roxas, and Ventus, it was not too far out there from the things that they had each seen before in their lives, so they did not pause for very long before joining their leader. As for everyone else, they could not help but stop and stare for a solid, good few minutes before they even found the strength to unfreeze and speak again. Even then, it took a little bit of effort for most of them.

"Wow…And I thought I had some wild hair," Yang somehow managed to state.

"Hey you said it, not us," said Jaune, only because he could not think of anything else to say, be it in regards to the sight before them or in terms of how much he agreed with Yang's statement. Not that he was going to actually say it out loud without Yang saying something like that first. He may not be that great of a huntsman right now, but Jaune was never that stupid.

Hearing her sister and Jaune's exchange helped Ruby to finally shake off her frozen state, and with a quick spin of Crescent Rose, she was ready to enter the fight, and said, "Less talking, more Heartless bashing!"

The others had all gotten their heads in the game at that point, and immediately joined Ruby in chasing after the Keyblade wielders so they could get into the fight as well. Speaking of said fight, Sora had made his entrance into the fight quite noticeable when he slashed through a number of Shadows all at once, followed by blasting a bunch of Flutterings and a Chief Puff with Firaga, and then wrapping it all up by cutting down a few Puffballs with three swings of his Keyblade. The end of his combo attack had placed him right next to the two people who were already fighting the Heartless, and their faces both lit up in recognition once they realized he was standing there with them.

"Hope you two don't mind if we cut in," Sora quipped with a grin.

"Sora! You have no idea how glad I am to see you right now," the man happily declared in relief. "Please tell me that you brought the rest of your team with you."

"Well, I did bring a team with me, but it's not the one you're thinking of Flynn," Sora shrugged, and just as though it were planned to help prove his point, the rest of the team appeared right at his side barely more than a second later, with the rest of Team SLVR cutting down most of the Heartless in their way, while Ruby, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Weiss dealt with a few stragglers that were not blasted by the rest of their teammates.

"Whoa! There are a lot of you here now," noted Flynn, eyeing the weapons that most of them were carrying a little nervously when he did.

His moment of pause ended up nearly costing him, as several Heartless took that as their cue to pounce, but luckily Jaune came to the rescue by blocking the initial attack with his shield. The blonde leader then pushed the monsters back with a mighty shove and proceeded to cut down any that were still close by with his sword, making each Heartless disappear with a few easy swings. Any that Jaune was not close enough to deal with or missed were easily taken out by Pyrrha once she had converted Miló into its shotgun mode, but there was still one Heartless that they both missed, and it was ready to pay Jaune back for taking down its comrades. Luckily, Flynn took that as his chance to return the favor for Jaune's earlier rescue, and intercepted the Heartless with a swing of his frying pan, making the Heartless in question turn to smoke once it was struck.

Jaune just looked between where the Heartless was and the man who had just destroyed it for a few minutes before he finally asked, "Did you just…Are you seriously fighting monsters with a frying pan?"

"Hey, you'd be surprised just how effective this thing is," Flynn shrugged like it was no big deal before he turned and held the kitchen utensil towards some of the remaining enemies like a sword.

Jaune could only stare for a few more minutes, even as the rest of his teammates, Flynn and the girl with long, blonde hair had proceeded to reengage the Heartless, until he finally glanced down at Crocea Mors and said, "Well, I suddenly feel a lot better about my choice of weaponry."

"Yo, Vomit-Boy! How about lending a hand here, would ya," Lea shouted as he swung his Keyblade through more of the surrounding plant-like Heartless, making sure to add in a good number of fire spells with many of his swings.

That helped get Jaune back into the fight, and while he was not able to do as impressive a job in the battle as the rest of his friends, his contributions were still noteworthy, given that he managed to cut down quite a few Neoshadows that recently appeared part way through, and some Earth Cores as well. Of course, even with some last minute reinforcements, the Heartless were still no match for this massive group, because they were both outnumbered and outmatched, as was evident when Team RWBY busted out some of their combo moves to destroy several at once, while Team SLVR easily dispatched another large fraction with their magic. In fact, those two alone were able to take down so many Heartless that Team JNPR really only had to worry about clearing out the ones that somehow escaped or survived the onslaughts, a job that they actually shared with both Flynn and the blonde girl. That was not to say that those two did not do something to contribute, and their contribution somehow saw Ruby, Jaune, and Sora all lending a hand.

When Sora suddenly shared a quick look and nod with the blonde and Flynn, Ruby and Jaune should probably have suspected that their fellow team leader was up to something, even more so when he said that he was going to need their help with it, but what they did not expect was to suddenly be wrapped up in the blonde's really long locks after they had leapt into the air with Sora. The next thing they knew, the blonde and Flynn were using the former's hair to spin the three around really fast, bashing several of the Heartless around them, until on the last spin ended with them being unraveled from the blonde locks so that they were catapulted high into the air, placing them in the perfect position for Sora to shoot off several rounds of magic blasts, Ruby to fire plenty of Dust rounds from her scythe, and Jaune to better get his weapons ready for the devastating dive attack that they all landed to wipe out the Heartless that were not destroyed by the initial spins. Jaune looked a little green when he landed on the ground again, and Ruby a bit dizzy, but neither of them would say that it was not fun doing that. They just did not want to do it again anytime soon, at least not without some prior warning.

Sora on the other hand seemed to get a kick out of the whole thing, judging by his laughter, but that could also have had something to do with how that last attack had pretty much ended the fight, allowing him to finally relax and properly greet his old, Coronan friends. "Hey, Rapunzel! Flynn! Good to see you guys," he cheered as he exchanged a high-five with Flynn and a quick hug with the blonde.

"It's great to see you too, Sora," Rapunzel replied happily.

"Yeah, I'll say. Just like one of my best sidekicks to show up just when we need him most," Flynn added, confusing Sora's friends with his word choice.

"Did he just call Sora a 'sidekick,'" Blake quietly asked.

"Man has he got that backwards," Yang chuckled.

"Somehow, I don't think he would care even if he did know to what extent," Weiss said, feeling she already got a pretty good read on this Flynn person.

On the other side of the group, Lea and Roxas could be seen quietly observing Sora's interaction with his Coronan friends, almost as if they were making an in-depth study of something they had never seen. They were doing it so quietly in fact, that it barely took anyone long to realize what they were doing. Right when one of them was about to ask if they were doing okay, Lea finally broke his silence and said, "So that's one of the New Seven Hearts. I can feel the light even from here and there's definitely a few similarities between her and Kairi from what I can tell, at least based on how she's acting right now."

"You say that like you've never seen one of the Princesses of Heart before," noted Pyrrha.

"Because I haven't," confessed Lea. "As far as any of these princesses go, I've never actually met any of the old or new seven aside from Kairi. That time when we went to the Castle of Dreams and met Cinderella was the first time I ever met any of the others among the old seven, and this would be the first time I've met one of the new."

"Yeah, same here," Roxas admitted. "I mean, I've technically seen a couple of the old seven, and in a way, I saw some of the new seven while I was still inside of Sora's heart, but I've never actually met them in person before."

"Well, looks like we're going to be changing that today," Nora said with a grin.

Normally, most of the group would have brushed that off as another Nora Moment, but in this case, it ended up being her early warning of Sora approaching them with Rapunzel and Flynn, clearly eager to introduce everyone to each other as soon as possible. "Guys, this is Flynn Rider, master thief and Princess Rapunzel of Corona. Flynn, Rapunzel, meet Teams RWBY, JNPR, and the rest of my team, Team SLVR," Sora introduced.

"Just for the record, that's former thief. I'm just a handsome rogue these days," Flynn proudly corrected with a smooth tone of voice.

"Either way, it's nice to meet you both," Ruby waved in greeting with her usual cheer and mannerisms, until Weiss suddenly elbowed her in the back. It did not take long for Ruby to realize why her partner did that, and she quickly attempted to correct her approach in greeting the two. "Attempted" being the keyword, given how awkward she came across. "Uh I mean…We are pleased to…make your acquaintance…ship…your majesty…uh, highness…Princess?"

Despite Ruby's poor attempt at speaking properly, Rapunzel was not offended in the slightest. Instead, she found it amusing and could not stop herself from giggling into her hand before she finally said something to ease Ruby's nerves. "The pleasure's all ours. Any friend of Sora's is a friend of ours, so you don't need to worry about standing on ceremony with me. Just act like you normally would."

"Are you sure? We wouldn't want to be rude or offend anyone," Ren asked.

"Really, its fine," Rapunzel assured him and the others. "It's a little weird for me to have others talk to me like that, or even to have to speak like that to other people too, considering I didn't even know I was a princess until just recently."

"Phew! Well that's a relief. I was worried that Ice Princess over there would blow a gasket at us just because we couldn't talk all fancy-like," Lea sighed, taking a chance to fire another shot at Weiss.

"Hey! Watch it, Flame-Brain," snapped Weiss.

When Lea just chuckled in response, not looking the least bit worried about Weiss's threat, Flynn leaned closer to Sora and asked, "Is this normal for them?"

"Yep, pretty much. You have no idea how much those two are like fire and ice," Sora informed him.

The two then turned back to the conversation between Rapunzel and the others, just when they were nearing the end of properly introducing themselves to the princess. In fact, the very last of those proper introductions was happening right now, as the blonde member of RWBY said, "And I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister and our team's strongest fighter."

"Um, excuse me? I would beg to differ on that," Weiss disputed.

"Weiss, you may be good with Dust and fencing, but Yang's Semblance does let her stronger with every hit that she takes," Blake reminded her color opposite.

"Okay, I suppose that is a reasonable argument."

"By the way, Rapunzel, can I just say I loved watching how you fought those Heartless off with your hair, because that was awesome," Yang complimented, earning a small blush from the princess at her praise.

"Yeah, Sora told us all about how you could do stuff like that, but seeing it in action was a whole other experience," Jaune agreed.

"No kidding, but I thought he said that your hair was a lot shorter now," Ventus remembered.

"I did, and it was the last time I checked," Sora insisted as he joined the conversation again. "When or even how did your hair…you know…"

"Get back to the way it was when we first met," Rapunzel filled in for him. When Sora nodded to confirm that was what he was going for, she simply sighed and said, "It's kind of a long story."

"Hey, we've got time," Sora assured her.

"We do," Ren asked in befuddlement. A sentiment and feeling that everyone agreed with and shared. "I thought we were on an important mission at the moment."

"One that would be done way too quickly if we just popped in to check on things in each place we're going to and then left right away. We can afford to spend some time catching up with old friends and making some new ones," Sora insisted.

"Maybe you can, but we can't," Flynn told him, suddenly sounding a lot more serious than Sora was used to or expecting him to sound. "We've got some important work of our own to do, and a deadline to do it before."

"Oh, right," Rapunzel suddenly realized before she quickly started trying to braid her hair into a neater state. "Eugene, could you let the guards know everything's under control and the monsters are all gone now?"

"Sure thing, Blondie," Flynn nodded before rushing off.

"Is everything okay," Pyrrha asked out of concern.

"Not entirely," Rapunzel admitted, still struggling to fix her hair. Seeing how much trouble she was having, Weiss and Yang came over to lend a hand, and were soon hard at work braiding the princess's hair up for her. "Thank you both so much. You have no idea how hard that is doing it on my own," Rapunzel sighed in relief.

"Trust me, it's no problem," Weiss reassured her. "It's actually quite an honor getting to help a princess with something like this."

"Yeah, besides, me and Weiss may not agree on a lot of things, but when it comes to things like hair care, we're pretty much best pals," Yang added on.

"I wouldn't go that far," Weiss warned, albeit with a playful smirk on her lips.

Rapunzel could not help but giggle at the two's exchange for a brief spell, but her smile soon fell again as she began to enlighten the team on what was troubling her. "You see, the kingdom's harvest festival is coming up very soon, and it's one of the biggest ones of the year at that. The one where every farmer, fisherman, and all other folks that see to the kingdom's food needs come to sell their goods and basically gather to celebrate bountiful harvests."

"And if the last time I was here is anything to go by, I'm guessing that this festival isn't just for getting food, right," Sora figured out.

"That's right! There are all kinds of fun games, dances, and events at this festival that everyone loves so much! I could hardly wait for the moment it was here when I first found out about it," Rapunzel revealed excitedly, her mood brightening just a bit at the thought of the upcoming event. "But there's just one small problem."

"Let me guess: it typically comes in dark, shadowy colors, has some variety of claws or other deadly appendages, and has a tendency to attack anything that has a heart," Lea figured out.

"Unfortunately, yes," Rapunzel sighed. "I know that some of your friends have been trying to keep things under control when it comes to the Heartless, but lately, it seems like they've gotten a little bolder. That wasn't even the first time that they had slipped into the kingdom; just the first time that it was such a big and dangerous group. The worst part is that if it's as bad out on the trails or in the forests as it is here, then it may cause people to think it's too dangerous to travel here. More importantly, if the attacks here on the kingdom get worse, we may end up having to cancel the festival completely, and that would put the kingdom at risk of not having enough food for the coming winter season."

That was not good news to anyone's ears, and seeing how upset Rapunzel was really drove home just how serious this matter was. What's more, it really left the four Keybearers a little concerned about a lot more than the others. Sure, they knew that Ansem the Wise had set up a scanning device that would help keep their group apprised of worlds that needed their help, but they could have sworn that their friends were still going patrols just to be on the safe side. After all, while larger concentrations of Heartless were a major priority, the small fries were still just as dangerous, especially if they were left alone for too long, as was proving to be the case here. Were their friends not being as vigilant in their patrols as they claimed, or had something slipped past their notice while they were on the worlds they were checking for trouble? It just did not make sense to Sora and the guys.

Whatever the case was, they could worry about it later, because right now, their priority was helping out Rapunzel with her kingdom's current Heartless problem, and they all knew what the easiest way of doing that was without even needing to think for very long. "No worries, Rapunzel," Sora assured her. "You just stay focused on making sure everything's ready for the festival and leave the Heartless to us."

"Oh, Sora, I couldn't ask you to do that," Rapunzel tried to refuse. Too bad for her she was talking to two people with hearts of gold and selflessness to spare.

"You don't have to ask. We want to do it," Ruby assured her. "Besides, fighting monsters and keeping people safe is kinda part of our jobs. Helping out friends just makes it even better."

Rapunzel looked amongst the group, seeing the same resolve and confidence in their eyes that was brimming in Sora and Ruby's and since there did not seem to be any stopping them, she figured it could not hurt to take them up on their offer. That did not mean that no one was going to voice some additional concerns about helping out right now. "Are you guys sure we have the time to spare for something like this," Blake asked. "I mean, I want to help just as much as you guys, but we are on a bit of a schedule."

"She's right, and we don't even know how long this festival is going to last, or how long we would need to be here afterwards," Weiss pointed out.

"The festival itself only lasts for a couple of days at most, and by the time it's over, a lot of people who are just visiting the kingdom have already started heading back home," Rapunzel filled in.

"Well how long do we have before the first day of the festival," Ren inquired, thinking that it would be important to know that as well.

Rapunzel could not help but grin a little sheepishly as she confessed, "It's the day after tomorrow."

If she was worried about them having such little time before the event, it turned out to be a silly thing to worry over, as Sora smiled again and said, "Then that means we only need to stick around for a few days at least, and by that point, if the Heartless do decide to show up and cause problems, we'll have already made sure that everything's okay for a little while longer."

Blake still seemed a bit concerned though as she discreetly moved over to Ventus and whispered, "But can we afford that kind of time? I mean, what's the time difference between this world and Remnant?"

Ventus discreetly checked his Gummiwatch to find out, and soon smiled as he said, "Well, while the time of year is a little off in comparison, the time difference between here and Remnant isn't that different at all. One day here is just as long as a single day on Remnant, so no worries there."

When Blake and the others heard that, all concerns vanished from their minds, and they lost any remaining hesitance they held about sticking around for a few days to help out. Seeing how certain they were that they could help, Rapunzel happily thanked the group and then led them all back to the castle, eager to lend them a hand in forming a plan on how they would ensure that Corona's upcoming harvest festival would be a success, Heartless or no Heartless.

---

With Rapunzel's help, the three Beacon teams were able to map out their plan of action pretty quickly. As it turned out, there were only two villages left to send people out, and since the festival itself was taking place in the main kingdom that meant that they just needed to divide their group up into three teams: one to defend the kingdom until the day of the festival, and two to protect the trails from those villages to the kingdom. You would think that meant that they would split up into their usual groups, but since the Heartless could only be destroyed for good by a Keyblade, they went with a much different option. Team SLVR was divided up so that there was one Keyblade wielder on the two teams patrolling the paths and two with the team protecting the kingdom. Everything else was determined by the skill sets of the individual huntsman or huntress. With that in mind, it was pretty easy to determine who was on what team.

A few hours later, Sora, Ruby, Ventus, Weiss, Jaune, and Pyrrha were off patrolling the kingdom for any signs of more Heartless, while Lea, Ren, and Nora took to one of the paths leading to the two remaining villages, and Roxas, Blake, and Yang took the other. It was not hard to decide to put Lea and Nora on one of the teams protecting the paths, as their fighting styles were a lot more destructive than preferred for a team that was keeping an eye on things in the kingdom for the most part, and it was arguable that the same could be said for Yang, but beyond that, the deciding factors were really just the fact that Sora knew the layout of the main kingdom best, and Ventus was able to get around it just as quickly and easily as Sora could even if he did not know the terrain. Add in Ruby's speed and Weiss's skill with her glyphs, and it was a no-brainer as to who was best to be on the team that was protecting the kingdom from the Heartless. That, and there was no way that anyone was going to split up Nora and Ren, or Blake and Yang. Those two pairs tended to be the best tag-teams of their respective groups, so why break them up?

For the rest of both that day and the next, the three teams were hard at work making sure everyone was safe, be it from the Heartless or really just any wildlife that could threaten people's safety. Not that there was really too much of the latter, mind you, but the Heartless certainly kept everyone buys. Just as Sora said though, most of the Heartless did appear outside of the kingdom, so the groups patrolling the trails were kept a lot busier than the third and largest party guarding was. It was a little trying for Ruby, given her energetic nature and how she always loved being able to be on the move and do something, but thankfully, Weiss and Sora were there to help keep her calm and grounded. Still, there was an odd group of Heartless that slipped into the Kingdom from time to time, but they were quickly dealt with thanks to their team.

Despite the fact that they were all doing such a good job at keeping everyone safe from the Heartless, the members of Team SLVR were still a little concerned about how the dwellers of darkness were acting. It was already strange enough that they were actually going into the kingdom to attack people, but what was even stranger was that the more time that they spent on this bit of guard duty, the more that the two teams guarding the trails came to realize that the Heartless they fought were stronger than normal. It was not to the point where it would have registered on Ansem's scanner as a major infusion of darkness, but it was still significant enough for them to be concerned. With this in mind, it reminded them again how concerned they were about whether or not their other friends were maintaining their vigilant patrols since the scanner was set up, but as they thought about it more and more, there was one other possibility that could explain why it was so bad out here. The problem was that it was not an idea any of them wanted to think about, and when they did, it made them worry even more.

Eventually, some of them started to show that concern a little more than others, so it was only a matter of time before one of their friends took notice and decided to ask. "Hey Roxas, are you okay," Blake finally inquired when their team caught a break in between guiding another caravan of travelers and protecting the path. "You've been really quiet for a while now."

"Yeah, and you know that something's up, when Blake says someone's being quiet," Yang joked shortly after.

Roxas appreciated both their concern and attempts at lightening the mood, but it did little to ease his concerns. "I was just thinking about the situation with the Heartless on this world," he admitted. "I talked with the rest of the guys, and we all agreed that there's something really weird going on here."

"Weird how," asked Yang.

"Well aside from how they seem to have gotten a little braver by attacking in the kingdom, there's also the fact that the ones out here seem a bit stronger than normal," Roxas informed them. "From what we understood, Ansem the Wise's scanner should have picked up on such a surge in darkness and alerted either him or us to the situation here, and if he hadn't, one of our other friends should have noticed something when they stopped on this world for one of their patrols, but it isn't until we arrived that this finally came to anyone's attention."

"Maybe they just missed something, or the scanner needs some work done on it," Blake offered, taking one of her rare moments of looking at things from a more optimistic viewpoint.

"Blake's right. It's not like your friends knew about this already and just left it alone for you guys to deal with," agreed Yang.

"Yeah, we thought of that too, but there's one other possibility as well," Roxas revealed.

"And what's that," Blake inquired.

Roxas was a little hesitant to broach this topic, but since he brought it up, he knew he was going to have to now, and said, "What if…what if someone told the Heartless to start acting this way because they knew we were coming?"

That startled the Bumblebee duo a little bit, right to the point where they were exchanging worried glances after they heard that, until Yang finally asked, "Do you really think that's possible?"

"I don't know, but think about it for a minute. We don't have any really big problems with the Heartless aside from one or two small skirmishes on random worlds for close to a year, and then the Breach happens on Remnant. As a result, Vale City is nearly overrun with both Grimm and Heartless alike, right to the point where it takes nearly all the active Keyblade wielders that are around right now to help stop them. Afterwards, we all take off on a patrol to some of the more important worlds out there, plus one or two others, and literally the very first one we go to just happens to have a big problem like this? It all seems like a little too much of a coincidence," Roxas reasoned out.

At first, Blake and Yang felt like Roxas might have been reaching a little with his theory, but after thinking it over for a minute, they could see his point. It did seem pretty convenient that they ran into a problem like this on their very first stop, and especially after what had happened back on Remnant barely more than a few days ago. Still, there was a flaw or two in his theory that they had to point out.

"Roxas, I may not be an expert on these kinds of things like you guys, but from what Sora's told us in the stories of his past adventures, doesn't he always tend to run into big problems whenever he visits a world on these adventures, regardless of whether it's the first one or not," Blake pointed out.

"Yeah, besides, Torchwick's the only one any of us have seen that comes close to being a person who could control those things, and he's locked up in prison all the way back home. Who else could possibly be calling the shots," added Yang.

Roxas let that sit for a minute before he finally shrugged and said, "Yeah, maybe you two have a point. I guess I've just gotten a little paranoid after everything that happened with the Organization."

"Can't say I blame you for that," Blake nodded, knowing exactly how that kind of thing felt.

The three then proceeded to carry on with their job, but even as they did, they could no longer shake the feeling that Roxas may have been on to something. Now that the seed had been planted, there was just no way of ignoring the idea that there was something sinister going on. Still, it was a matter that could wait for another time. Right now, they had travelers to protect.

---

Meanwhile, Lea was having a few mental conundrums of his own, but not all of it was regarding the matter of the Heartless activity on this world. Oh it was certainly up there, but there was still something else on his mind that he had deemed a bit more important than that at the moment, and he was still unsure of what to do in regards to it. The topic on his mind, as you have probably guessed, was the matter of his meeting with Raven and whether or not he should tell Yang about it. He knew putting it off was only going to make things worse in the long run, but he was still not sure if he should tell Yang. Sure, she had a right to know that her mom was at Beacon that night, but he did not want to upset her by telling the blonde Raven did not want to see her. It would doubtlessly break Yang's heart a little more, knowing that her mother was so close and had no intention of at least saying hello, but at the same time, Lea was pretty sure that Yang would probably hate him for being the one that Raven did want to see. Sure, his not telling her right away would make her mad, but he sure he could handle that; it was the idea of her hating him for seeming more important to Raven than her that he was not sure if he could take.

Lea had not really had time to talk with anyone about this, and even if he had, he was not sure if he really could talk with any of his friends about the matter. Roxas was probably going to be a little biased, given that this whole thing was so similar to their past when he found out the truth about Xion and hid it from them, and Ventus was not all that likely to really be of much help either, since he had never really had problems like that with his friends, at least as far as Lea knew. Sora was definitely not an option, mainly because of the fact that he was dating Ruby, and there was a good chance that Sora would tell her even if Lea asked him not to, and from there, it was only a matter of time until Ruby told Yang, which would not lead to a very pleasant scenario at all. Come to think of it, in Lea's mind, there were not very many good options for him in terms of people to talk to about this at all, but he was going to go crazy if he did not at least try and talk to someone about this. So, he figured that he might as well settle for one of his current partners, and he already knew which one he would prefer to talk to on the matter.

"Hey Ren, can I talk to you for a second? Guy-to-guy," the redhead Keybearer eventually asked while they were taking a break.

"Uh…I suppose," Ren nervously shrugged in reply. The last time he had a talk like that was that time with Jaune, and while it was not too bad, he was still pretty nervous for a majority of the conversation.

Lea could tell the quiet ninja was a bit uncomfortable, so he tried his best to ease into it. "You and Nora are pretty close, right? Like, you've been friends for a long time, and know a lot about each other?"

"Ever since we were kids, yeah," Ren confirmed with a somewhat fond smile that was mixed with a bit of sadness for some reason beyond Lea's understanding.

That would have to wait for later, as Lea had much more important things to discuss right now. "So, have you ever found out something…anything really, not one specific thing that Nora should know about, but at the same time would upset her if you told her?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like…something really, really huge that she wanted to know about more than anything else, but at the same time, when you learned about it, you knew that telling her would make her upset. Not necessarily mad, even if she would be since you didn't tell her right away, but upset all the same," Lea tried to explain, but he had a feeling that he was not making much sense.

"Lea, this is Nora you're talking about. She doesn't really have a lot of things she wants to know that badly, and even if she does, it tends to change a lot at a moment's notice," Ren pointed out with a good-natured smile to show he was getting in some teasing at his old friend. He grew a little more serious and asked, "Does this have something to do with you and Yang?"

"Try everything," Lea sighed in defeat. "But…I can't really tell you what it is exactly, and I know that doesn't help much, but I promised Yang I wouldn't go around telling everyone…"

"About how she's trying to find her birth mother," Ren finished for him.

Lea was not sure what was more surprising. The fact that Ren had guessed that so quickly, or how it did not even sound like he was really guessing. Knowing that could only mean that he had somehow found out about that detail, which left Lea with just one response. "Okay, when and how?"

"I just figured it out from a few small clues here and there. That and I accidentally overheard Yang talking about it with Sora and Blake the night before the dance," Ren admitted.

"Huh…That explains a lot," Lea muttered to himself after hearing that.

"So what is it that you learned," Ren inquired. When Lea kept silent, Ren did not hesitate to add, "I promise that I won't tell Yang, and I'll make sure that Nora doesn't either, because I'm pretty sure that she's eavesdropping on this whole conversation right now, despite the fact that she's supposed to be on look-out at the moment."

A faint, sheepish chuckle from nearby confirmed Ren's suspicions very nicely for the two boys, but all the same, Lea felt reassured that Ren was going to help him keep this secret. It certainly helped Lea feel a bit more relaxed in knowing that Ren had learned about Raven at all and not said anything to anyone else as far as Lea knew, so he figured he might as well spill the beans. "I met Raven the night before we left Remnant. She actually approached me for some bizarre reason that I still don't entirely understand. Hell, I'm not even sure if I really believe most of what she had been implying, but the whole time I was talking with her, I never once got the impression that she was even curious about how Yang was doing, or even interested in visiting her. All she was interested in was talking with me about some nonsense of getting me and the guys to join her for some reason or other."

"Okay…" Ren nodded to show he was listening, while on the inside, he was feeling pretty angry with Yang's mom. Having lost his own parents at a very young age, Ren could tell you that any child would want nothing more than to have just a few moments with a parent that they had lost again, so it was only natural for Ren to be upset over hearing that Yang's mother would not grant that wish for Yang.

"So here's my problem. I want to tell Yang that her mother was here, but at the same time, I don't want her to get upset over the fact that Mama Raven didn't seem the least bit interested in seeing her daughter. At this point, I'm sure she's going to be mad that I didn't tell her right away, but…I just don't want to make it worse by letting her know that her mom wanted to so much as talk to someone else more than her," Lea finally finished. "Please tell me you've got something for me on this, because I'd rather not let history repeat itself."

Ren hummed in response, knowing from what their friends had told them what Lea was referring to when he mentioned history repeating, before he finally said, "There's really only one thing you can do: just tell her."

"Uh Ren, did you not hear a word I just…"

"Lea, no matter what you do in this scenario, Yang's going to be upset, but she'll be even more upset if she hears about all of this from someone else instead of you directly, so it would be better to go with the option that would at least let you two remain close. Otherwise, you're more likely to lose her."

When he heard that, Lea could not help but sigh in defeat as he said, "I was afraid you were going to say that. I just…I don't want to upset Yang. Not because it would be bad for health if I did upset her, which it technically is." He had to pause so that he could join Ren in shivering at the thought of Yang when she was mad, but still carried on regardless of that. "But it's also because she's someone I don't want to see sad. I mean, she's always so bright, cheerful, and fun that the mere idea of making her unhappy makes me feel like it would be the same thing as kicking a puppy or something."

"Isn't that more like something you would say about Ruby," Ren questioned.

"Hey, never say that there isn't any proof that those two are sisters," Lea shrugged in response.

"True." Ren then took a moment to think a few things over before he finally decided, "Maybe you could try to think of a way to soften the blow a little. Like I said, you can't expect her to not be upset at all, but you might be able to find some way to make it hurt a little less."

"Yeah…Yeah, I think I can do that," Lea nodded, a smile starting to form on his face again. "Thanks Ren."

"Sure. Just remember not to take too long in thinking it over, otherwise it won't matter how you try to soften the blow. She will be angrier with you for not telling her sooner than she will be anything else," Ren cautioned.

"Hey, you don't have to remind me. I'm the one who's dating her," Lea half-joked in response. Even with that humorous cover up though, Lea was pretty sure that some of his fears regarding that scenario were still pretty clear. Though, that was to be expected; only a fool would not be scared of a pissed off Yang Xiao Long.

---

The rest of the day went by as uneventfully as you could imagine, with the team only ever fighting small groups of Heartless as they carried out their respective assignments. Out of all of them, Sora's team saw the least action, and while they were not complaining about it too much, it did leave the largest of the three teams pretty bored, at least in the case of some of its members. Still, the kingdom was well-protected and the festival was able to go off without a hitch, so they figured that they could chalk this one up as a job well done. With that in mind, it was no wonder that Sora decided that they should celebrate this fact by joining in on the festivities after Rapunzel extended an invitation to them.

When the festival got underway, they were all overwhelmed by the sights around them, as the whole city seemed to have turned into a massive party house. People were manning stands to sell goods with bright, cheery smiles, friends were exchanging stories over snacks, drinks, and meals, kids were running about laughing happily as they played various different games, and even the royal guards were taking some time to just kick back and relax. The one thing that seemed to be the most dominant though, was how everyone was gathering at the square for a number of different events, be it dances, competitions, or any other sort of affair that you would find at events like this. In short, it seemed less like a festival to some of the team, and more like a huge carnival, but there was one other thing that the huntsmen and huntresses of Remnant could compare this to, and they did not hesitate to mention it.

"It's almost just like the Vytal Festival only without any modern technology or the tournament," cheered Ruby, being one of the ones who were most excited about being able to attend this whole thing.

"I know. I'm honestly having trouble not turning around expecting to see some other Faunus or Atlesian Knights every so often because of how similar this feels to the Vytal Festival," Blake admitted.

"Oh good! I thought I was the only one," sighed Weiss, earning a round of chuckles from everyone.

"Regardless, this is certainly a lovely event. I'm glad we were able to help make sure it took place," Pyrrha commented with a smile.

"Agreed. It would've been a real shame for this to have been canceled, and not just because the practical reasons either," Ren nodded.

"Tell me about it. All this food would've gone to waste pretty quickly, and things wouldn't be nearly as sunny if there wasn't anyone here to have so much fun," Nora commented as she scarfed down a few treats she had purchased from a couple of stands. She had to borrow some munny from Team SLVR since her lien wasn't any good on this world, but she was sure that the munny she had picked up from the Heartless she took down would be able to make up the difference quickly enough.

"That's one of the things I like best about going to other worlds," Sora voiced aloud, drawing all attention onto him. "Every world is different, from its customs and rules to its people, and getting to see all of that makes it show just how great of an adventure I'm part of now that I can reach other worlds. It's always so great to see what people do for fun on each world, and it's even better when I get to participate in those events too. So whenever I arrive somewhere that I've never visited before, I can't ever help but think about what kinds of cool and fun stuff people there do, and when it comes to worlds that I have been to before, I always start to imagine about all the things I can do there this time around. You can never really know for sure what's going to happen until you finally get your feet on the ground, and that makes the adventure all the more exciting."

No one could refrain from pausing in silence after hearing something so deep from Sora of all people. Not that you could really blame them. Even with his recent bad phase, Sora never really came off as the deep contemplation type of person, so seeing and hearing him have a moment like that was a little disorienting. It was impressive, and a very interesting look at how he viewed his travels through the worlds, but it was just so out there that one could not help but stop and stare at him for a brief spell. Thankfully, they did not stay that way for long and slowly but surely, smiles began to form on everyone's faces to show how impressed they were with this viewpoint he had just shared with them.

The time of admiring deep, contemplative Sora was short-lived though, when the team all suddenly heard Zwei barking at something. Wondering what had gotten her dog so worked up all of a sudden, Ruby quickly made her way over to the corgi just in time to see him barking up at one of the food stalls. Her first thought was that Zwei must have been hungry or something, so like the good pet owner she was, Ruby quickly approached to see how much it would cost to get him a little treat, but once she was close enough, she saw that Zwei was actually barking at something else entirely.

There, sitting up on one of the stand's fruit bowls, was a cute little chameleon that looked as though he were trying to hide from the big dog that was barking at him. Seeing that Zwei's attempts at trying to make a new friend were being misinterpreted, Ruby quickly rushed over and patted the corgi as his head as she said, "Zwei, no! Down boy! You're scaring the poor little guy." Once the corgi had gone quiet or at least quiet enough to the point where the only sound he made was a shameful whimper to show he did not mean any harm, Ruby looked back to the chameleon and soothingly called out, "Hey, its okay. Come on out. We're not gonna hurt ya."

Seeing how genuine Ruby was in what she said, the chameleon slowly crawled out of its hiding spot and over to her hand, until he was standing right in the middle of her palm. When Ruby's smile widened a little more at seeing how it had climbed into her palm so quickly, the little guy seemed to smile a bit too. "Yeah, see? We're all friends here," Ruby soothed as she knelt down a little to let Zwei get closer, while also giving her dog a look in a silent order to keep calm this time.

Zwei seemed to understand, as he slowly approached the chameleon, and this time offered only small noises of greeting to it. When it saw that Zwei was not barking at it anymore, the chameleon scuttled closer and up onto Zwei's head, earning a happy smile from the corgi when he realized his attempts to get a new friend were successful, and the chameleon could not help but smile back. "There we go," Ruby cheered upon seeing the two animals getting along. She then plucked up a couple grapes from the stand, making sure to leave a bit of munny for the owner once she had, and held them out to the two as she said, "Now, who wants a little treat?"

Zwei barked happily at that, while the chameleon licked its lips and eyes a bit to show its excitement, and after tossing the grape to Zwei, the Ruby let the chameleon snatch the grape from her hand into its mouth with its tongue, much to her amusement. As if things could not get better, after the chameleon had swallowed its snack, it turned the same shade of purple as the fruit it just ate, and Ruby could not help but laugh in amusement, right up until she heard Rapunzel calling out someone's name from close by.

"Pascal! Where are you, little guy," the princess called as she got closer. Her calls ceased the minute she noticed the chameleon with Ruby and Zwei, and she quickly brightened up a little more. "Oh, there you are, and making a couple new friends too," Rapunzel commented as she let the chameleon climb up from Zwei's head onto her arm. She then turned to Ruby and Zwei as she said, "Good to see that you're both on Pascal's good side."

"Well, I've been told I'm pretty hard to hate, or something like that," Ruby shrugged modestly. "So, I'm guessing Pascal's your pet or something?"

"One of my oldest friends, really. It's hard to get him to open to strangers so quickly, but I think that mostly depends on the person," Rapunzel replied. She then looked to Zwei and commented, "You know I don't think I mentioned this before, but your dog is so cute. What's his name?"

"His name's Zwei, best little doggie a girl could have," Ruby introduced, earning some happy barks and licks from the corgi once she had finished. "Oh, hahaha! And sometimes a little too friendly for his own good."

"So it would seem," Rapunzel laughed in agreement. She then let Pascal slide down her arm to Zwei again, and the two animal friends then rushed back over to their main group as Rapunzel announced, "Say, the big festival dance is about to start. Do you guys want to join in?"

"Oh, um…I don't really know. I'm not really much of a dancy girl," Ruby sheepishly confessed.

"Come on, Ruby. If it's anything like the dances that they had here the last time I visited, this will be a lot more fun than the dance at Beacon, and you don't have to worry about being all proper and fancy either," Sora encouraged. When he looked to Rapunzel for confirmation and got a nod in return, Sora smiled a little more and held his hand out to Ruby as a way of additional encouragement.

"Well…If you say so," Ruby shrugged. "But I'm still going to count on you to make sure I don't step on any toes or end up with a twisted ankle."

"I know," Sora playfully smiled as he and Ruby chased after Rapunzel, and disappeared into the sea of people that had already started dancing merrily.

Seeing her sister and Sora join in on such fun, reminded Yang of something from a little while back, and she could not help turning a smirk to the redhead she was now going out with after she had remembered. "Never had time to stop and party during your adventures, huh," the blonde repeated to the redhead.

"Hey, when I said that, I was mainly referring to me, Roxas, and Xion, not Sora. He always seems to find time to stop and have some fun on his adventures," Lea defended.

"It's true. The one most common thing being how he almost always ends up paying a visit to a certain world inside of a book while he's adventuring," said Roxas.

"Wait. What did you just say," Blake asked.

"That Sora tends to visit a world that's inside of a book a lot when he's adventuring," Roxas repeated. "It's probably one of the most peaceful worlds he's visited, and he always ends up just playing around with the friends he has in said book."

Blake's face was blank for a few minutes, and it was pretty easy to figure out why. Just the idea that an entire world could literally be inside of a book must have been pretty astounding to her, so it was not hard to guess what she was going to say when she next spoke up. "Please tell me that's one of the worlds we're going to visit."

"Sorry Blake, but unless we need to stop at Radiant Garden at any point during this tour of ours, I wouldn't count on it," Lea denied, making Blake pout like a sad little kitty.

"Aw cheer up, Blakey. You never know. Maybe that will happen, or you'll find a world that you'll like visiting even more," Yang assured her partner.

The cat Faunus did seem to cheer up a little bit, but her spirits still seemed pretty low, prompting Roxas to try a different approach. So, he went over to one of the food stands, made a quick purchase, and then held the item out to Blake as he offered, "Maybe this might make you feel better?"

Blake glanced down at what Roxas was offering, and upon seeing that it was a fish snack, she scowled at him a little and said, "Roxas Sheru, are seriously doing this right now?"

"What," Roxas shrugged, not getting what she was mad about.

"Are you seriously offering me a fish snack just because I'm part cat," Blake demanded, showing why she was upset. "Gimme that." She then snatched the snack away, almost seeming like she was going to toss it away, until she caught a small whiff of the treat and let out a pleased hum. She then glanced around at the others who were watching with interest, before she finally said, "Now I'm going to eat this, but I'm still highly offended by the implications."

It took a lot of effort on some of their parts, but everyone managed to hold in their chuckles as Blake pretty much inhaled the snack that Roxas had gotten to help cheer her up. Thankfully, there was something else that they could smile about, and that was watching as Sora, Ruby, Flynn, and Rapunzel all lead the crowd in a large dance group, and the joyous smiles on each of their friends' faces. They probably would have joined in too had Blake's cat ears not suddenly picked up on a small, distant sound that the others just missed.

"Hey, did you guys hear that," Blake asked upon turning to the source of said sound.

"Uh, no," Nora instantly replied like it was obvious, only to backtrack a second later. "Wait, is this a Faunus hearing thing?"

"Even if it was before, it isn't now. Look," Ventus said as he pointed to one of the side entrances into the square, where they all caught sight of a Shadow Heartless making its way in.

Most the group were just about to grab their weapons and attack when they remembered where they currently were at the moment. Even with such a big crowd, it would take a miracle for no one to notice so many members of their team drawing weapons like they were getting ready for battle, and the last thing they needed at the moment was to cause a panic. Still, they could not take the risk of measuring their steps to reach to the Heartless, because by the time they got over there, it would likely have slipped into the crowd and attacked someone, and that too would cause a huge panic. There just did not seem to be any way for them to get through this until suddenly, something slashed the Heartless from behind, turning it into the usual dust and smoke that always followed when one of the dark creatures was slain.

When they all looked closer, they realized that the attacker was none other than a Samurai Nobody, and everyone looked to see Roxas nodding towards his Nobody ally with a smile to show it had done a good job. With his master's silent signal given, the Samurai disappeared from view as it normally would, and left the team with a new problem to contend with. There was no way that it was just the one Shadow that was in the city right now, because as they all knew, where there was one Heartless, there was always more, and if anyone realized that, there was no doubt that the festival would end badly. Still, the earlier problem of dealing with the Heartless without anyone noticing remained, because there was no way all of them could fight the dark creatures away from any prying eyes, at least not one that most of them could think of. Fortunately, one of them had already started thinking up a solution from the moment he realized the problem at hand.

"Okay, we know that there are Heartless coming from that alley, and if I remember the layout of the city right, it leads directly to the docks," Jaune recalled as he began laying out the plan he had thought of. "We need to start there and cut them off before any more can so much as work their way up from that direction."

"Well we can't all go. Someone's bound to notice," Weiss pointed out.

"We won't have to," Jaune revealed. "Blake, Roxas, and Ren, you guys are the best we have at taking out bad guys quickly and quietly, so you'll head down the alley to the docks, and take out the Heartless for us. Just make sure no one sees you guys or notices anything happening, and we should be good on that front."

"Got it," Roxas confirmed while Ren and Blake just nodded. "I'll send some more Samurais out to lend us a hand and check the rest of the city from the shadows."

"Just what I was thinking, but we'll still need to be absolutely sure that's the only place that the Heartless are coming from," Jaune reasoned. "Ven, you and Weiss get up high and do a sweep of the rest of the kingdom. If you see any more Heartless, try to take them out as quickly as possible from above, and as discreetly as you can. The rest of us will stay here and act as a last line of defense, meaning we'll need to stay on the outside of the edge of the crowd, and keep a close watch on all the points of entry into the square."

"…That's…actually not a bad plan," Weiss finally complimented, while most of the others nodded in agreement with what Jaune had outlined. "Maybe you really are a natural born leader."

"And you doubted him," Pyrrha smirked proudly while throwing a wink at Jaune.

"But why am I not one of the guys going after the Heartless at the docks? I can be just as subtle as Roxas, you know," Lea pointed out.

"Maybe, but considering most of your best magic is fire-based…" Jaune began, only trailing off at the end in the hopes that Lea would get the hint on why he was keeping Lea back.

"Yeah, okay. Point taken," Lea nodded, figuring it out from there. If he used his fire powers too much and someone noticed, there was a good chance a small panic would start because they thought there was a fire somewhere, and that would lead people to panic even before they laid eyes on the Heartless. Mix that in with the panic that would follow once they realized what the real crisis was, and that would serve to paint a very nasty picture.

New tasks assigned and in hand, the group dispersed so they could take action, leaving the last line of defense to enjoy the show of the dancers performing in the middle of the square. As they did, they all started to wonder just how little of a "dancy-girl" Ruby really was, because she and Sora were both doing really great at the moment. That and this was also the second time that the Hero of the Keyblade had convinced Ruby to join him on the dance floor, but the point still stands.

---

Since Roxas had sent some Samurais ahead of them, the Shadow Team, as Jaune had insisted on naming them, did not really encounter too many Heartless as they made their way down the path to the docks. There was an odd one here and there, but they were quickly dealt with thanks to a quick slash of one of the three's respective blades. Blake and Ren probably would have fired a few shots from their weapons' guns, but they did not want to risk the sounds of gunfire being heard by anyone back at the square, so they held off on that for now. Roxas was the same way when it came to using his magic, even if he could probably try to only use spells that could have been passed off as something that came from the festival, but then again, he did tend to fight with his blades more than his magic, so he figured it was better safe than sorry.

When they finally reached the docks, they were all relieved to see that the area was completely clear of civilians, so they did not need to worry about being too discrete in their attacks. The downside was the number of Heartless that were crawling around the place, and the fact that there were a few Reapers with them too. Ren's only concern was how there were so many of the two types of monsters at the docks, but when Blake saw the Nobodies that were floating around the area, she could not help but wonder what they were doing here, especially since she was so certain that stopping Torchwick and the Breach would have gotten rid of them for a while at least. She did not hesitate to express this concern to Roxas, but she was surprised that he came up with an explanation for her so quickly.

"Okay, to be fair, Sora did say that Marluxia was the one who was scoping out whether or not Rapunzel was one of the New Seven Lights, so it only makes sense that some of his leftover lackeys are still around on this world," Roxas had shrugged in response. He then readied both Oathkeeper and Oblivion as he added, "We can worry about why they're acting up like this again later. For now, let's just take them down."

The ninjas of Teams RWBY and JNPR both nodded in agreement, and with that, the three set to work. Even though they were now a fair distance away from the square and main fair grounds, the three still approached this battle with a degree of caution that saw them taking out the various monsters swiftly and quietly. Oh, Blake and Ren were peppering the Nobodies and Heartless with gunfire now, sure, but at the same time, they were doing so sparingly, and usually as a way to cover their own approaches as they got in close to slash at any targets they set their sights on. What really surprised Roxas was how at some points, Ren actually holstered his weapons to engage the monsters in hand-to-hand combat, and won! The guy was spinning and flipping through the air with ease, and landing all kinds of kicks, punches, and palm thrusts on the monsters that seemed to cause a few Heartless and Nobodies to implode on impact. Sure, he had seen Ren executing some moves like that before during the Beacon Initiation, but that was mainly against the Grimm. Seeing him do it again on monsters that he and his friends had struggled to take down with Keyblades was another matter entirely, and it was really damn impressive.

Not to say that Blake was slacking off any, as she was showing that her own acrobatic abilities were helping her to make mincemeat out of the Heartless just as much as Ren was. For the most part, she mainly prioritized using her katanna and the cleaver blade that her weapon holster doubled as to slash through the Heartless and Nobodies in an amazing show of grace and speed, but she did mix it up quite a bit when she changed her sword into pistol form and used it like a kusarigama type of weapon, flinging it around with the black ribbon that was attached to the end of the hilt. As she fought, one could also note how similar her fighting style became to Ruby's, at least in the sense that she used the recoil of her weapon to speed up the attack, but beyond that, she was really just swinging the weapon around a lot so that it cleaved through enemies that surrounded her or that were further away. When the blade of her weapon became ledged in a wall as opposed to an opponent she was aiming for, she did not let that get deter her, as she simply pulled on the ribbon so that she was using it like a grappling hook, allowing her to rush over to her original target and cleave it in two with her cleaver.

Roxas was not letting either of his Beacon classmates outshine him though, as he too was slashing apart Heartless and Nobodies left and right using both of his Keyblades. Of course, that was no surprise, given that this was not the first time that Roxas had fought against a massive horde of enemies nearly all by himself, and he barely needed to use that much magic to help him do it back then or now. Sure, it probably would not have hurt to cast a spell or two more than the occasional lightning or light spell he fired off, but Roxas knew what he was best at, so he stuck with that. He did make a mental note to try and work on incorporating magic into more of his fights later on though, but it did not seem all that necessary right at this moment. Further proof of this was the fact that he had the Samurais to back him up, as most of them were now blockading all the exits from the harbor. Any Samurai that were not blocking off the paths into the town were right at Roxas's side for the most part, helping him to destroy any Reapers or Heartless that dared to cross their master's path.

Eventually, they finally managed to whittle the numbers down to a barely more than a handful, but right in the heat of a moment, Blake found herself startled by a flash of silver, and instinctively fired her gun at the source, not realizing that it was one of the Samurai. Thankfully, Roxas jumped in to deflect her blast towards an actual enemy, but since he had to break off an attack he was already pressing, they ended up leaving an opening that the enemy could use to slip through and counter. One Neoshadow in particular nearly managed to do so, had it not been suddenly hit by a sudden sneak attack. Given the loud clang that had sounded when the Neoshadow was hit, the three could only assume that it was hit with a frying pan, which could only mean one thing that they hoped was not true.

Unfortunately, upon turning to the fight's new arrival, they found out it was, because Flynn was standing over where the recently destroyed Heartless had previously been, frying pan in hand and smirking proudly at them. When he saw the looks they were shooting him, he simply shrugged and said, "What? Did you really think none of us were going to notice when you guys slipped away like that? I was once the most daring, handsome rogue and thief of the kingdom, you know."

The three had to shrug it off for now, mainly because there was still a fight going on that needed to be finished, and if they were being honest, Flynn's arrival did make things a little easier for them. It was ironic really, given that earlier that same day, they would never have expected a man armed with only a frying pan to be effective in a fight with monsters, but Flynn was doing a very impressive job in destroying the Heartless. He was using the terrain to his advantage, bashing the dark monsters in the heads with his frying pan, and even improvising where he could to lure them into traps that ultimately ended the Heartless before their very eyes. Sure, he was having a bit more trouble with the Nobodies, but thankfully, there were very few Reapers left, and they were mainly being dealt with by Roxas and the Samurais.

Eventually, the last monster was dusted, and they all managed to breathe a sigh of relief, but Blake had a feeling that Roxas was going to be upset with her for her earlier mistake. He may not have shown it, but she was sure that the former Number XIII was at least annoyed that it had happened, so she was prepared herself for whatever scolding he was going to unload on her. When she finished stowing her weapons away and turned to face him though, Blake was surprised to see that he was not looking at her with any degree of annoyance or frustration. If anything, he looked more worried than anything else.

"Hey, what happened back there, Blake? I thought you were cool with the Samurais helping us," asked Roxas, showing nothing but worry for his friend, even as the Samurai that she had fired on came up to stand next to him.

Blake figured that Roxas had it with him so that it could hear her explanation too, so she decided to be totally honest with them. "Sorry, but I guess I'm still getting used to having them on our side, or really just any Nobodies like him in general. No offense."

"None taken, in both our cases," Roxas stated with a reassuring smile, indicating both himself and the Samurai when he did. He then looked to the Samurai, who let out some strange, quiet sounds before he added, "He also says that he understands and accepts your apology. And that he and the others will try to keep that in mind in the future."

"Wait, how did you…" Ren started to ask.

"Uh, I'm a former Nobody, and I was the chief commander of the Samurais, Ren. It's not really that hard to figure out their language for me, even if it did take a little bit of learning on my part at first," Roxas reminded him. He then looked to the Samurai and said, "You and the others better check the rest of the kingdom for anymore Heartless. You know what to do if you find so much as a hint of them, but make sure to stick to the shadows and out of sight."

The Samurai gave an affirmative sound to his orders, bowed in respect to Roxas, and then joined the rest of the Samurai that Roxas had called in dispersing from the area. The group then turned to Flynn as Ren said, "Thanks for the help back there, but you really should have stayed back at the festival with Rapunzel and the others."

"Maybe, but even when I was a thief, I still wasn't too fond of seeing others get hurt," Flynn shrugged. "Besides, you guys are pals of one of my favorite sidekicks, so I wasn't about to let you get into trouble without me to bail you out. Like I said before, formerly the most daring, handsome rouge and thief that ever lived, remember?"

"I mean, I guess that's pretty impressive, but I'm pretty sure some of us have got you beat," Blake dismissed with a small smile, though part of it was over how funny she thought it was to hear Flynn continuing to call Sora his sidekick.

"Oh yeah? Prove it," Flynn challenged with a smirk, thinking that there was no way they could top him.

"Did Sora ever tell you about a group called Organization XIII," asked Roxas as a starting point. When Flynn said no, the blonde dual wielder stated, "Long story short, both versions of the group were really dangerous to the point where they were a threat to the entire world…and I was part of the first iteration until someone helped me realize something about them was really wrong."

Flynn's smirk dropped a little upon hearing that, because he knew Roxas had him beat, but he was not willing to concede defeat just yet, so he just turned to the next person in the line of warriors before him. Too bad for him that person was Blake. "Former member of a peaceful activist group that started turning into more of a terrorist group after a change of leadership basically encouraged the more radical members to act out on their feelings. I even took part in a few of the more violent operations as well before I finally walked away."

The former thief's smirk was nearly gone now, but he still kept up some trace of his confidence as he turned to Ren. Thankfully, he was saved some bit of humiliation when the most level-headed member of Team JNPR simply said, "I think I'm probably the most normal one here. Anything more than that, I'd rather not talk about."

Flynn was not sure why Ren would say that last part, but he was willing to respect the kid's wishes and let the matter drop before he finally conceded defeat. "Okay, yeah. You guys win. Man, Sora really knows how to make friends from all kinds of circles."

"Trust me; you have no idea," Roxas sighed with a knowing smile. "Come on. We should head back and let the others know everything's okay down here now."

The other three all nodded in agreement with that, and began the trek back to the town square. As they were going, Blake had to ask, "So Flynn, if you're not a thief anymore, what do you do now?"

"Aside from helping Blondie out with getting ready for the day she takes the throne, I also work with the royal guards. Most of its mainly teaching them how to think like a thief, since I'm able to catch a lot more crooks than they can because of that," Flynn semi-boasted.

"How'd you get a job like that," asked Ren.

"Oh boy, now that is a story," Flynn recalled, and with that he began regaling the group with the tale of how he had landed that particular job, and the three were soon hanging on his every word with rapt attention.

---

While Roxas's group was dealing with the situation at the docks, Ven and Weiss were making their way across the skyline of the kingdom on Ven's Keyblade Glider, searching for any signs of additional Heartless attacks. So far, they had not spotted much more than a single Shadow creeping around in a dark corner, but even so, they made it a point to destroy said Shadows as quickly as possible, usually with a blast of wind magic from Ventus, or an easy blast of Dust from Weiss's rapier. Other than that, they might as well have been just taking a tour of Corona that no one else on this world could be able to take.

This little fact was going to become a little more apparent to Ventus when he eventually noted aloud, "Looks like we're pretty clear aside from what was going on down at the docks, but we should probably make one last sweep before meeting back up with the others. What do you think, Weiss?" When the heiress riding on his Glider with him said nothing in response, Ventus looked back to see Weiss gazing out at the kingdom with a look on her face that could almost be compared to the one Sora would often have when he saw something really amazing on a world for the first time. "Weiss? You okay?"

"Huh," asked Weiss with a start. Once she realized the reasoning behind Ventus's question, her face turned a little pink with embarrassment as she said, "Sorry about that, Ven. I was just…I can't help but admire how beautiful this kingdom is, especially with the festival going on right now."

Ventus was not going to disagree with her on the matter, but he was still pretty confused as to how Weiss could think that. "Aren't you from Atlas though? I mean, I've heard it's supposed to be one of the biggest and most amazing places in all of Remnant. Wouldn't that make places like this seem a little less impressive?"

"Well, yes, Atlas is a great place, and the view of it from the outside is always a wonder to behold, but like you said, I'm from the city. I grew up there, so that same wonder isn't really there for me anymore," Weiss informed him with a tone of somber. "Don't get me wrong, I do think that the city is beautiful, but when you spend a great deal of your life in that place, the appeal eventually loses its luster. That's why I find places like Vale, Beacon, or this world to be so incredible. They all have a different kind of magnificence to them that Atlas can't compare or in some cases compete with."

It took a minute or two for him to really absorb that, but really, Ventus could understand where Weiss was coming from when she said that, and he let her know that pretty quickly too. "I know what you mean," Ventus admitted. "Sora and the others have always told me that the Land of Departure is an amazing place, and while I was pretty excited and awed by the world during my first few days there, or at least the ones that I was awake and fully aware during, it started to become just another place for me because it was simply home. That's the whole reason why I like all the other worlds I've visited so much, even if they're small ones like Sora's world. They're all so different and have so many amazing and beautiful things that I can't help but get taken in by it all."

Weiss smiled a bit more upon hearing that Ventus understood where she was coming from, but then furrowed her brow a little as she asked, "Say Ven, what did you say Sora's world was called again?"

"Destiny Islands. It's a small world, but one that's tied to so many great moments in our history; almost like the universe is doing its best to showcase how it's part of a world that's so much bigger," Ventus replied with a fond, reminiscent look dancing in his eyes. "Even now, I still say that its one of the most beautiful places my friends and I have ever been to, and since they all agree with the sentiment, it's a little easier to understand why Sora and Kairi would always want to go back there, even when Kairi learned about where her birth home was."

That was now the second time that Weiss had heard Kairi being brought up, and to be frank, she was now getting a little fed up with not knowing who this person was. It was starting to seem that aside from Team JNPR, she was the only one who did not know about this mystery girl, and Weiss was not going to have that. "Ven, would you care to explain who this Kairi person you all have been talking about lately is," Weiss half-asked, half-demanded after a brief spell of silence.

"D'oh! Right. I can't believe that none of us have told you yet," Ventus scolded himself. He then stopped short for a second or two before amending his previous statement. "Then again, Ruby, Blake, and Yang only found out the night of the dance, or the night before it, and given everything that had happened afterwards between Mt. Glenn, the fight with the White Fang, the Breach, and all that, it probably shouldn't be that surprising."

Weiss was a little upset that her teammates had found out about this information and neglected to tell her, but she could see Ven's point when he brought up the latter facts, so she let it slide for now. Besides, getting angry was not going to help her get answers on who this Kairi person was, so she simply nodded in understanding and gestured for Ven to continue. One brief explanation later, and Ventus could feel the hand Weiss had on his shoulder to better help keep her steady on his Glider tighten a little, and he was sure that it meant Weiss was mad that they had not told her and the others about this sooner. At least, that was what he was thinking until he heard a soft sniffling coming from behind him, prompting him to turn around and see that Weiss's eyes had began to water with tears that she was having extreme difficulty holding back.

"Weiss…Are you…" Ventus started to ask, only for the snow-haired girl to interrupt.

"Ven, can you do me a favor," Weiss asked in a watery voice. When the blonde nodded in response, Weiss said, "Remind me to give Sora the biggest hug I can manage without seeming like I'm trying to steal him away from Ruby the next chance I have?"

Even though he was normally the one to advocate for Weiss having more of a softer side than most people gave her credit for, Ventus was still surprised to hear Weiss say that. It was very rare for Weiss to freely say things like that, even in the private company of their friends, or just the two of them, but even so, Ventus still gave Weiss a soft smile and patted the hand she had on his shoulder with his as he replied, "Sure thing, Weiss."

"Thank you," Weiss whispered as best she could over the wind whipping around them, not trusting her voice enough to come out steady at the moment. "He truly doesn't deserve all the horrible things that have happened to him, especially that."

Ventus was silent once again, and even though he did not need to say it, he felt that he had to say it anyway. "Believe me, I know better than anyone just how little Sora deserves to suffer any sadness or hardship."

The rest of their flight across the kingdom was completed in companionable silence, but nothing more needed to be said between the two at that point. They both knew how the other was thinking about their honest, kind friend who had wrongly suffered so much, and what they could do to help him know that they would be there for him if he ever needed help carrying that burden of sorrow.

---

The rest of the festival carried on without any further incident, and the team even found they were enjoying it more than before the small Heartless sighting. Rapunzel, Ruby, and Sora seemed to remain blissfully unaware of the whole thing ever happening as they kept up with the rest of festival goers in their fun, at least until they all got a minute to get away from the parties and crowds. At that point, the three admitted that they too had caught onto what had happened, but did not say or do anything so that they could keep everyone calm and because they knew that their friends could handle the situation well enough on their own. Hearing how confident the three were in their abilities served as a confidence bolster that some of them had been unaware that they needed until just then, and they all spent the rest of the night with brilliant smiles. One could also note that each of the couples in this little gathering of friends made it a point to find some way to get away from it all and enjoy the night time spectacle that the festival included, but at this point, that seemed to go without saying for everyone.

The next day, the team was hard at work guarding the main paths and trails as the visitors began leaving the kingdom for their home villages. Since this was the day when a majority of those people would be traveling, Rapunzel insisted that they did not need to stick around for very long afterwards, if at all. Some of them, like Ruby and Sora were a little hesitant to leave without being absolutely sure that everyone got home safely, but they found it pretty hard to argue with Rapunzel when she was being so insistent. Hearing Flynn say that it was better to not bother trying seemed to cement things for them, so when the day finally came to a close, they all prepared to head out and board the ship so that they could get to their next destination.

For a majority of the time that they were making their final preparations everyone noticed how Ruby and Rapunzel seemed to spend a great deal of time together, usually with Pascal and Zwei accompanying them both. Somehow, the two had bonded almost overnight, if for no other reason than the love they shared for their respective animal friends. Thankfully, only Ruby really seemed to gain something out of this friendship, that being a new appreciation for painting similar to Rapunzel's, because none of them wanted to even think about what it would be like Rapunzel suddenly started to share Ruby's interest in weapons.

It was not just Ruby and the princess who had become fast friends; Flynn seemed to have made himself very likable to many members of the group too. His many stories about adventures and escapades he claimed to have gone on had a good number of their group hanging on his every word, some more than others (Nora, Lea, and Yang), and from what they could tell, he seemed to enjoy a the recaps some of them gave of their own adventures. Naturally they left out any other-worldly details, but that did little to detract from the stories, especially given who was normally telling them. That did not stop Ren from correcting the details of Nora's stories as she told them like he always did though.

When they finally set out, a good number of them were not sure if they really wanted to leave, and some of the future huntsmen and huntresses looked like they intended to stay a little longer until Sora reminded them that they still had a lot of work to do, which included making sure they got back in time for the Vytal Festival Tournament. So, after one last exchange of farewells and good wishes to Rapunzel and Flynn, the crew set out for a distant, out of the way part of the forest that they could safely teleport back to the stealth gummi ship from. Not that it stopped anyone from expressing their feelings on both their time here and about their sudden need to leave.

"Aw, I really wanted to hang out and hear more of Flynn's stories," Nora whined for what was probably the fifth time since they left.

"We know, Nora, but like Sora said, we still have other worlds to check in on, and training to do for the tournament," Ren reminded his friend like clockwork.

"Besides, keep in mind that this is only the first world we've visited, and there's still plenty more out there. Not too smart to be picking favorites this soon," Lea advised the ginger powerhouse.

"I suppose that is reasonable, and seeing how impressive this world is, I can only imagine that the others we'll be visiting should be just as exciting," reasoned Weiss.

Ruby was the first to nod in agreement with her partner, and then turned to Sora as she asked, "So, where are we going to go next, Sora?"

"Don't know yet, but we'll decide once we get back on the ship," Sora replied.

"Well, wherever we go next, I'm sure it'll be an interesting adventure, if our time here is anything to go by," Pyrrha said, and as they all teleported back up to the ship, they found no disagreements from anyone. After all, she was very right about that.

---

AN: Okay, I'll admit it. Not a particularly exciting chapter, but then again, this is only the first stop, so I figured I'd have them take things a little easy at first. Sure, they didn't really do much Heartless fighting, at least not in great detail, but the main point of this arc is for the RWBY characters to visit the worlds that Sora and his friends have gone to, meet the people there, and get something a little close to the experiences that Sora and the other Keyblade wielders have gotten. Sorry if this isn't what you guys were expecting it to be, but this is really the best I could offer with this first stop.

Now, regarding a few details about this world, I did have Rapunzel's hair grow out, and this is partly because I didn't want Flynn to be the only one that fought alongside of the team. The other part of the reason is basically that I wanted to show that a few events of Tangled The Series happened here as well. Obviously they didn't go through any of the adventures from the actual episodes of that series, but the whole point was to introduce the eight first-time world adventurers to what it was like visiting worlds in the manner that they will be for this arc. As for the whole harvest festival thing...Well the chapter's title is Festivities of Corona, so of course there was going to be some kind of party going on. The whole thing was really just my own original idea. I have no idea whether or not that would actually be a thing for that world, but I knew that I wanted something like the lantern festival to happen here, or really just anything that the Remnant folks could compare to the Vytal Festival, so...there ya go.

Also, hope you guys liked the interactions and reactions that the RWBY characters had this time around. Yeah, Ruby got a bit more time to hang out with Rapunzel than the others, mainly because of their pets, but someone offered a suggestion that the two kind of bond after Rapunzel sees Ruby getting along with Pascal well, and what better way to kick start that then with Zwei. Plus, to be honest, I feel like I wasn't really going to be able to bring the pup in that much otherwise, if I didn't make that moment happen.

And what's this? Something fishy seems to be going on here. Or at least, that's the idea that Team SLVR has at the moment, given that they already hit a pretty big problem right on their first stop. Sure, they've had to deal with Heartless and bad guys at the start of their journeys before, but the level of difficulty that they faced this time is just high enough to make them feel like there's something going on that they need to be worried about. What do you guys think? Is there something going on?

Sora: What are you asking them for? You should already know if there is.

AN: Sora, I'm being dramatic/clever. Getting the brain juices flowing so that they can start imagining what may or may not be going on behind the scenes during this arc. Please try not to kill the mood.

Sora: Sorry.

AN: Ahem, anyways...looks like Lea's at least talking to others about the big problem he currently has, but the question still remains of whether or not he's going to be able to follow through on the solution Ren offered.

Yang: He'd better follow through on it, if he knows what's good for him!

AN: Okay, easy there dragon girl. Dial it back. No need to be activating your Semblance just yet. No monsters here, no Raven, no Ace Ops; we're all friends here.

Yang: [takes a deep breath as her slowly burning hair returns to normal along with her eye color] Okay...I'm better now.

AN: You sure? You good?

Yang: Yeah, I'm good. I'm calm.

AN: Okay. Good, just...stay that way a little longer. Now then, aside from mentioning how Jaune got to show off how his abilities as a leader have grown, Weiss's reaction to hearing about Kairi, and everything else like Sora's big moment of getting really deep when expressing his views on the adventures he's had on other worlds, I don't think we've got much else to talk about. Aside from review answers that is...

"twilightnite13", ask and you shall receive, as you saw in today's chapter, they've got a very good way of keeping track of how much time passes on Remnant while they're gone, so no worries there.

"the mysterious Mr.E", now that's something I'm keeping under tight lock and key until we get to that point of the story, which won't be until the sequel, actually. Sorry, but you're just going to have to use your imagination for now.

"SuperSayainFever", thank you for that clarification, but unfortunately, I know nothing about that Joker you described. The only ones I know of are the playing card and Batman villain variety, and all the ones that everyone knows about.

"keybladelight", sorry, but I'm not currently planning on doing any Organization XIII battles here in the main story. The idea of them visiting the Keyblade Graveyard though...well, that's another story that can be filed under remains to be seen, but does seem pretty likely at this time.

"SpeedMaster642", to answer your Keyblade Legion question, yes, the meetings with the Gullwings will out very differently than they did in the game. That's all I can really say about them at this time, so I hope that at least helps your peace of mind, as you called it.

"Spiderfan626", boy I hope that isn't the case.

Yang: Why not? I brought a new kind of life to your previews.

AN: Like I was saying, boy I hope that isn't the case. Like the suggestion for the return of Tai as the Fixer when I get around to SLVR Chibi, but I wouldn't be too worried about how he'll react to his girls going off-world. I mean, if he really was that big of a worrier, he probably wouldn't even let them go to Beacon, am I right?

Ruby: Uh...have you met our dad?

AN: Well...uh...moving on. Let's get real here, if you've seen Descendants, you know that Maleficent would be right there with Raven and Mother Gothal's standing in the competition for Mother of the Year.

"Dragon Rider 66", let me help clear up your concerns about Raven's comment regarding Kairi; she doesn't actually know for sure about Kairi's status. She was just saying that to get under Lea's skin, or really just to get any kind of reaction or as a way of pushing him and the others to join her tribe. So, no worries there. As for how long this arc will take...I'm actually not sure, to be honest, but I can say that it will be a rather interesting length of time, not to the point where the chapter numbers go up to triple digits, but a good number all the same. And no, they will not be visiting any the sleeping worlds. Sorry.

"Monkey D. Conan", I can go ahead and confirm that when it comes to the moments when I do have the full introductions written out, Sora will be introducing Ruby as his girlfriend to all his old friends. As for the judges' rankings on how sickeningly sweet those two will be...Ladies, if you would?

Yang, Blake, Weiss, Pyrrha, & Nora: [all hold up score cards that read ten. Well, Nora's is upside down at first until she realizes it and flips it right side up]

AN: There ya go. Right now, we will be visiting the worlds of the Previous and New Seven Hearts, but there will at least be one or two other ones to show up as well. Not saying that we'll see the full details of what happens on each world, *cough* Wonderland *cough*, but we will at least reference what happens on the worlds that we don't go into full detail on. And yes, there will be at least one world that requires a form change. In fact, such a world will be the next stop, as I'm sure you'll realize after reading next chapter's preview. There may be one or two moments that could possibly serve as a clue as to who the New Seven Heart on Remnant could be, but as far as steps towards awakening the power, not a chance. That's going to be something that will only really happen when we return to the events of RWBY for Volume 3.

"CT7567Rules", I will go ahead and confirm for you that we will see visits to the Caribbean and Olympus, and since we're visiting the worlds of both the new and previous seven hearts, Agrabah will likely appear as well, even if only briefly. But I suppose that the comparison you made between this arc and the ones you mentioned for my other stories is a very good one, so nice thinking there.

"SeereSakura", glad to see you're liking the story so far, and believe me, I know how the dialogue tends to seem at those points too, but I really do the best I can to make sure that it works, and that it helps to better showcase how involved the KH crew is in these events now. Otherwise, I feel like it would make it seem like one side makes the other seem a little less special or important than the other...or really something like that. I don't want to say weaker or anything like that, but I'm sure you get my meaning. As for your questions regarding Chirithy, Lauriam and Elrena...ehhhhh, it's a little up in the air at the moment I'm afraid, mostly in regards to Chirithy. Lauriam and Elrena, I wouldn't expect to appear any time soon right now, at least not in this story. The sequel...well that's more of a maybe for the moment. Hope you continue liking this story as much as you have thus far, because I'll be doing my best to make sure that it doesn't disappoint anyone as it continues on.

"CervantesOsis", yes, Roxas's Oathkeeper and Oblivion are his own, so while the scene suggestion you mentioned would be pretty cool, I wouldn't expect it to be a likely thing to happen if I were you. Also, I love using Double Form. It's pretty much helped make my go-to choice of default Keyblades aside from Kingdom Key in KH3 very easy to make.

"TheRedeemer1995", no, we will not be including anything from RWBY: Grimm Eclipse in this story, I'm sorry to say. Personally, I feel like that bit of story is really just unnecessary excess in this case, and would be a little out of place with everything else that goes on here.

"Twisted Pxl", there will be a few things included from Re:Mind in the story, some of which will be revealed in this arc, but you'll have to wait and see before finding out what those will be.

And finally, in a general response review to everyone who asked, no, I will not be adding any new worlds that have not appeared in the KH Series before now. As I said in the previous chapter's author's note, we are only sticking with places that Sora and his pals have visited before in this arc, especially since the main point of this arc, for the most part, is for them to check on the worlds that are home to Previous and New Princesses of Heart (at least in terms of the ones that have been identified and confirmed so far in the case of the latter), with one or two other ones popping in every now and then. Sorry if that kills the hype of the arc for anyone, but that's just the way it is this time.

Well, I'd say that covers everything. So it is that time once again. Time to move Onto the Preivew!...

After returning to the ship, the team is just about to select their next stop when they suddenly receive a call from an old friend of Sora and the gang's. Apparently, Ansem the Wise's scanner has picked up on a huge spike in darkness, and while it may not be on a world with one of the Previous or New Seven Hearts, it is still vital that they investigate and deal with whatever the source of the disturbance is. Recognizing the world as one of the ones he had most recently visited, Sora is especially excited to bring his friends there for many reasons. The biggest of those reasons: it'll be the first time that his friends from Remnant will get to experience how some worlds require you to change forms to better protect the world order. Just what is this next stop in their tour going to be? Well, let's just say that this one time when it may be okay to play around with some toys, as you will all see next time!

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