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?

18. Woodlands and Holidays

AN: Yeah, not gonna lie, I was really hoping I'd have had this done a week ago at the latest; before Christmas at the earliest. But hey, better late than never, and we're finally back with the next chapter for Remnant of the Key!

[audience applause]

Yeah, sorry again for the long wait, but I had a lot of things come up that I ended up wanting to do between the last update and this one, including the mass posting I did last Halloween for many a RWBY story.

Ruby: Yeah, we know. We heard all about that over in SLVR Chibi, and every other RWBY-based story you've got. Including Transformers Remnant Vol 0, RWBY Meetings, and even your newest crossover, Friendly Neighborhood Huntsmen.

Sora: Dude, don't you ever think maybe you should at least hold back on posting these stories so you can better focus on the one's you've already got going?

AN: I would, but if I don't post anything, I feel like everyone will think I'm dead or something, so if that means I've got to post a new thing every now and then, I may as well do it.

Weiss: Personally, I'm actually glad you didn't post this before the holiday season ended. It allowed our followers to avoid the horrors we were subjected to.

AN: What're you talking about?

Yang: I think she means the awesome holiday puns you and I were throwing around for most of December while we were working on this.

AN: Oh right! You mean like these here? Roll it!

Roxas: Oh no. Weiss, why did you have to open your big mouth?

[starts video playback]

AN: Hey Yang, I've got a question for you.

Yang: Yeah, what's up?

AN: Do you know what Rudolph said to his girlfriend when he wanted to know about the weather?

Yang: No I don't. What?

AN: Is it going to rain deer?

Yang&AN: [both laugh at the pun]

Yang: That reminds me, what did Frosty say when he lost his hair?

AN: I don't know. What?

Yang: That I'm snow-bald.

Yang&AN: [both laugh at the pun]

AN: Speaking of, I thought it was going to snow out here in my hometown, but it ended up...flaking on us.

Yang&AN: [both laugh at the pun]

AN: Oh, wait, wait! I've got another one. Why does Santa never carry his keys on his belt?

Yang: I don't know. Why?

AN: Because they jingle all the way.

Yang&AN: [both laugh at the pun]

[video playback is suddenly stopped]

Blake: Okay! That's about as much as I can take! It was already bad enough the first time around, and don't anyone make any cat jokes in response to this! [glares pointedly at Yang, AN, and anyone else likely to make such jokes]

Yang&AN: [shares a look with one another] Everybody's a critic.

Ventus: Can we please just move on to today's chapter, please? Before anymore bad jokes get passed around?

AN: Alright, alright. Fine. Let's get this going. Right after these quick announcements.

If you haven't already, please check out our YouTube channel "Studio Fandom". It's the best place to get updates as to what I'm doing with my writing stuff at the time along with various other content. And if you want to look at some pretty cool artwork, we've also got a DeviantArt page now "studiofandom", so check that out too, when you get the chance.

Speaking of the YouTube channel, one of the most recent episodes of Studio News also already announced this, but I'll say it here as well. We're looking for voice actors for the Remnant of the Key Reading Series video. For more details on what to do to sign on and/or qualify, go check out episode 8 of Studio News for full details. Now, on with the show!

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

---

Chapter 18: Woodlands and Holidays

You would think things would become a little tense on the ship after Ruby and Yang's conversation, if not for the whole team, then certainly for the sisters in question. Then again, it was not long before the others found out the reason behind Yang wanting to talk with Ruby, given how uncharacteristically serious the blonde looked after they all got back from Toy Box, so everyone felt like they were walking on eggshells for a time after the two sisters finally rejoined them in the cockpit. Surprisingly, it did not seem like the two had any problems at all. Ruby was all smiles as usual, and it did not take long before she and Yang were back to their usual antics. Sure, Yang seemed a little stunned when she walked into the room, or at least like she was getting over a sudden surprise, and she did seem like she was taking a minute or so to adjust, but that was the full extent of things.

It honestly made no sense why Yang would be the one who was most surprised out of the two sisters, since everyone was sure Ruby would have been a little more shell-shocked, and yet the exact opposite was happening right before everyone's eyes. Most of the group did not really see much reason to question it. As long as the two were still getting along and the mission was unaffected by any drama, visible or otherwise, then they saw no reason to worry as they set out for their next destination. There were still some outliers of this mindset, and Lea was firmly at the lead of them all, as evidenced when he finally confronted Yang on what exactly had happened.

"So just to be clear, you did tell her, right?" Lea questioned after he finally managed to corner Yang in the ship's mess hall.

"Yep, I did," Yang confirmed as she gulped down her choice of drink for today's lunch.

"About the whole half-sister thing, and how you have different moms?" Lea felt the need to clarify.

"Was there something else I should have told her about?" Yang questioned in return, even if only as a joke.

This only left Lea even more confused. "Well then…what happened? How did she react? Why does it look like you two just had a conversation about the weather?!"

His questions seemed to finally draw Yang away from her lunch, but with the way she slowly set down her glass, Lea could not help but think he might have accidentally upset her. A situation he was trying to avoid as of late for an entirely different reason, so imagine his surprise when Yang actually gave him a small smile and started to chuckle. The obvious question of what she found so funny must have been written all over his face, because Yang answered both that and his previous questions all in one go.

"Because she already knew," Yang revealed.

"I'm…I'm sorry what?"

"I know, right? She said that she already knew. For years, even," Yang explained, still smiling that same relieved smile.

Lea could hardly believe what he had just heard, and he felt like he was still missing quite a bit here. "I think I'm gonna need a few more details to understand this."

"Can't say I blame you," Yang admitted as she began to recap what exactly happened. "Okay, so after we split off from the rest of you, I gave Ruby the usual build-up for a bombshell like that. You know, the typical stuff like 'You know I love you,' and 'I would never hide something from you without a good reason;' all that jazz. But when I finally got to the part about us being half-sisters and how we have different moms, she just looked at me and asked…"

---

"Is…Is that all?" Ruby asked, her face holding a dubious expression that perfectly matched her voice.

"Um…Yeah," Yang slowly confirmed. She had expected a lot of different reactions, ranging from anger over not being told for so many years, to confused crying as Ruby questioned everything she knew about their relationship. This confused, neutral response was not anywhere on the list. Neither was the sigh of relief that followed after.

"Oh thank the Brothers! I was worried you were going to tell me something serious, like a suspicion that Sora might be doing something that would upset me, you had broken some of my favorite tools for maintaining Crescent Rose, or worse, that this was you leading up to giving me the talk," Ruby remarked. Her face then grew a little pensive as she quickly added, "Not that I need you to do that. Dad and Uncle Qrow already had that conversation with me, and I'd really rather not have it with my sister."

Yang barely even registered Ruby's assurances on the topic she would prefer to avoid. She was still stuck on the other thing her sister mentioned. "Ruby," she interrupted before her sister could go further down that rabbit hole. "I just told you we have different birth moms."

"Yeah, I know," Ruby nodded, confirming she heard Yang but still acting like it was no big deal.

"And that we're half-sisters," Yang carried on.

"Uh-huh. And?" Ruby prompted, clearly not getting the point Yang was trying to make.

Yang could not take it anymore. "Why are you not…I don't know, upset, or freaking out, or, or, I don't know, anything but…this?!"

"Am I not supposed to be…whatever you would call this?" Ruby questioned.

"No! I just dropped a huge bombshell on you!"

"I mean, it's not really that much of a bombshell since I already knew about it," Ruby shrugged.

"The only way you couldn't be shocked is if you already…" Yang stopped short in her rant when Ruby's last comment registered in her mind. "Wait, did you just say you already knew?"

"Yeah. I've known for a couple years now," Ruby admitted.

Hearing her sister say that caused Yang to feel like her brain just suffered a total meltdown. Right to the point where all she could ask was, "What and how?"

"Remember when Uncle Qrow visited that one time when you all threw me a surprise birthday party? I found an old group picture of him and our parents' team, and saw their fourth member was a woman who looked a lot like you except with different colored hair and eyes. When I asked Dad and Uncle Qrow about it, they kinda got all fidgety and nervous, and well…I kinda put two and two together after that," Ruby revealed.

Yang did remember that day, along with how their dad seem to shoot her and Ruby really worried looks every time they were in the same room together for several days afterwards. She could not really figure out why he had been doing so back then, but after hearing what Ruby said, it all made sense now. Even so, she could still just barely manage to say anything more than what she did after. "Huh."

---

"Seriously? That's all you said?" Lea inquired.

"Well, what else could I say? I was expecting to drop a bombshell on Ruby, and instead, she turned it around and dropped one on me!" Yang pointed out. She then took a breath and allowed her smile to return before continuing with the story. "Once I got over the shock, Ruby told me that regardless of our parentage, it didn't change anything. We were still sisters, and as far as she was concerned, Summer Rose was still our mother. At the end of the day, we're still family. I guess I really was worried over nothing."

Lea was happy to hear Yang's relationship with her sister had not changed after telling Ruby the truth about their parentage, but as soon as she mentioned worrying over things he was reminded of another matter he was currently worried about. Despite what he told Ren when they talked on Corona, Lea still had not figured out how he was going to tell Yang about his encounter with Raven. At this point, it was pretty much a given Yang would be mad at him for not telling her sooner, but he still believed it to be a very real concern about how much angrier she would be over her mother not wanting to visit her in addition to that. Not to mention she probably would not be too thrilled to learn Lea was the one Raven did want to see that night, but either way, Yang getting upset was unavoidable. Still, he did feel like he should test the waters a little bit just in case.

"Speaking of family, can I ask you something about your mother?" Lea asked.

"Dude, I'm pretty sure I've already told you everything there is to know about Mom," Yang replied, thinking he had been referring to Summer Rose.

"No, not your mom; I meant your mother, Raven," Lea clarified, having easily picked up on the confusion.

Yang's face fell a little upon hearing the correction, but not to the point of anger. At worst, her mouth only became a thin line that looked like it could turn into a frown with the slightest push. "What about her?"

"Well…Let's just say that in theory, she had been close by. Like close enough to have come and seen you at any time at all, but she didn't. And not for some noble reason, but because she just didn't want to visit. Again, hypothetically speaking. How would you react?" Lea questioned.

Aside from a furrowed brow, Yang did not seem to think too much of Lea's question. After everything she already told the redhead, it only made sense Lea would wonder about various scenarios like this and how she would take it. Besides, it was not like she had not thought about these things before. "I mean, I'd be mad, sure, but it's not like I'd be able to do anything about it," she shrugged in response. "Unless I happened to come across her on the street, I'd just end up stewing over the fact she apparently thinks I'm not important enough for her to stop in and say hi every once and a while, and I stopped doing that well before I even enrolled at Beacon."

"Right, right. That's…that's good to hear," Lea nodded along, a little relieved but still worried. "But what if the reason she had been so close was because she wanted to see someone else? Like say someone you know or even may be really close to? And despite that person's best efforts, they were unable to convince her to go see you. What then?"

Now Yang was getting a little suspicious, and could not help but note aloud, "This sounds very specific for just a random hypothetical situation."

"Hey, no one said hypotheticals couldn't be specific, and I think it's a very valid question. I mean, what if she came back and was only interested in talking to…Ruby, for example. Because she believed your sister had some kind of secret, untapped power inside her," Lea quickly defended.

One should probably tell Lea to count his lucky stars, because the last part of his attempt to keep them on track did make Yang smile a little. "Lea, I know Ruby's really talented and skilled, but I doubt she has some kind of secret super power," the blonde waved off with a chuckle. She then got serious again as she replied, "I guess, it'd hurt a lot, and I would be pretty upset, but not with whoever it was she went to see. If anything, I'd be more upset with her, and maybe even myself."

Now Lea was surprised. Why would Yang be upset with herself just because her mom wanted to see one of the people close to the blonde instead of her? It seemed a pretty strange in his mind, but before he could ask, Yang turned the questions around on him again. "Why so curious about this all of a sudden? Is something going on?"

If ever there was a time to come clean, or a perfect set-up for doing so, this definitely seemed to be it if you were to ask Lea. So, despite knowing he was probably going to get punched in a moment at best, he plucked up his courage and prepared to tell Yang the truth. Right when he had opened his mouth though, the intercom came to life so they could hear an announcement from Sora. "Attention all hands, this is your captain speaking," the leader of Team SLVR declared. "We're on our final approach to the next world, so grab whatever you need and meet up down in the teleporter room in five."

Yang sighed with a quick shrug and quickly stood to dispose of her lunch tray and other assorted dining items. "Guess it's time to get back to the grind," she decreed after throwing out her trash and placing her tray aside for cleaning later. "Let's get going."

Considering he seemed to have avoided death by angry Yang just now, Lea probably should have felt a little more relieved, but instead he was just frustrated. He had finally gotten ready to tell Yang about his encounter with Raven, and the universe decided to turn against him. A brief second's thought then made Lea think it was just his luck they would arrive at their next stop right when he was about to tell her, but Yang did not quite seem ready to drop it just yet.

"So what were you going to say?" she asked.

"Uh…I'll tell you later. We should focus on the mission for now," Lea assured her. Yeah, maybe it was a little cowardly to back out in the end, but Lea would rather they go into the mission on favorable terms. It lowered the chances of him suffering from any friendly fire or "accidental" punches quite a bit.

This was not the end of the drama aboard ship though, as the pair found out upon arriving at the teleporter room. The only difference was this bit of drama was much more humorous, as one could easily see from how Sora was trying to pull Ventus up to the teleporter, while the blonde held fast to the door frame as he attempted to pull himself out of the room. The fiery duo stared at the two boys for a few seconds before turning to the others, only to find they were just standing there watching the scene play out with uncertain or bewildered looks of their own. Luckily, they did not need to ask for clarification on what was happening right now; Ventus and Sora's current dialogue provided it very quickly.

"No! I'm not going down there!" Ventus shouted.

"Oh yes, you are," Sora snapped back while pulling harder on Ven's jacket, in spite of his partner's attempts to pull himself away. "We all agreed to go to all the worlds of the Old and New Seven, and this is one of them. So you're going to let go of the doorframe, get on the teleporter pad, and come with us to see Snow White!"

"No I'm not! I'm not going to go down there just to be accused of being a bad guy again, and you can't make me!" Ventus protested, managing to pull himself a little further out, only to slide back in when his legs suddenly came out from under him. Apparently Sora had elected to grab his legs in favor of his jacket. "Let me go!"

"Not until you let go of the door frame!" Sora countered.

"No, you let me go!"

"No, you let go of the doorframe!"

"No, YOU let ME go!"

"Ventus Kunsanagi, you will let go of that doorframe and go down to this world, or I swear to Kingdom Hearts I will tell Aqua…"

"Go ahead! You can tell her whatever you want! I'm still not going down there!" Ventus interrupted before Sora could finish his threat.

While Sora released a frustrated growl and continued trying to drag Ven onto the teleporter, Lea and Yang decided to get a little more details from the others on the scene currently playing out. "So…" Lea started off, eyes darting between the battling duo and the rest of his friends. "How long has this…?"

"Ever since Sora announced we were arriving," Pyrrha answered, clearly trying to keep any indication of a tired sigh out of her voice and failing.

"What I don't get is why Ven's so insistent on not going down there. I mean, didn't he mention Aqua said these dwarf guys would be cool now?" Nora questioned aloud.

"I also said that I don't want to take the chance! I'm not going down there, and nothing any of you say or do can make me!" Ventus insisted.

Out of everyone to take Ven's challenge, no one would have expected it to be Blake, nor would they have expected her counter to be what it was, and yet it happened all the same. She gave him a mischievous smirk (one that Ruby would swear looked both cat-like and Yang-like at the same time), turned to her white-haired teammate, and said, "Weiss, go kiss your boyfriend so he'll stop being a baby."

Most of the others stared at Blake with jaws dropped and eyes wide, and who could blame them? Her comment was something they normally expect from either Yang or Lea, both of whom were currently grinning like madmen at the cat Faunus. Out of everyone though, the most notable reactions came from Ventus and Weiss themselves, mainly because of how noticeable Weiss's pale complexion made her blush and how Ventus had stopped trying to fight Sora off so he could escape.

"He's NOT my boyfriend!" Weiss immediately snapped once she found her voice again, even if she was still trying to fight down her blush.

"I'm NOT her boyfriend!" Ventus shouted at the exact same moment, fighting the same losing battle against his own blush, but unlike Weiss, he was about to lose another battle. As a result of Blake's comment, Ventus ended up loosening his grip on the doorframe and dropped to the floor in a heap with Sora.

Both boys realized what had happened pretty quickly, but Sora was just a tad bit faster to recover than Ven had been, even if the latter had gotten to his feet first. Lucky for Sora, he did not need to get to his feet. He just summoned his Keyblade, aimed it at Ven and quickly cast a time spell to freeze the blonde in place right when he gotten two steps towards the exit. Satisfied with the results of his quick-casting, Sora dismissed his Keyblade, stood up, and proceeded to push Ventus up towards the teleporter pad while the others just watched with dubious expressions. At this point though, it was only partially due to Blake's earlier comment, as Sora soon realized when he felt how many eyes were on him.

Looking around the group, Sora could only shrug his shoulders and ask, "What? Did any of you have a better idea on how to make sure he didn't make a break for it and got on the pad?"

"It's not that, Sora. It's just…How did you…?" Ruby stuttered out, ultimately leaving it to one of the others to ask.

"Since when could you use time magic again?" Roxas blurted out.

No one was entirely surprised when Sora started rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly or when he answered, "Since just now. I mean, I've been working on it for a little while because I figured it might be useful."

"I mean, he's not wrong," Lea granted, already thinking about what happened during Sora's Mark of Mastery exam.

"Besides, it's not like I did something really big. That was just the most basic of basic time spells. You guys look like I pulled off something really huge. I'm not on the same level as King Mickey, you know," Sora finished.

"Sora, nobody is on the same level as Mickey in anything. Period," Roxas corrected. He may not have met Mickey Mouse in person all that often, but the few meetings he did have with him were enough for him to realize that.

"Alright, enough already. Can we please just go down to the world?" Weiss asked, not realizing her face was still a little red from Blake's earlier comment.

"Sure. Somebody just help me get Ven on the pad," Sora agreed as he started to pull the frozen blonde into position. Weiss, Nora, and Yang were all more than happy to assist him in this and all Ventus could do was grunt and groan in protest, even as the spell slowly started to wear off. With a final satisfied nod, Sora tapped his watch to send the group down as he declared, "Next stop, the Dwarf Woodlands!"

---

"They certainly weren't kidding when they called it the Dwarf Woodlands. We've seen nothing but the woods for the last two hours," Nora grumbled as the team continued trekking along the path they had found after arriving.

"Were you expecting something else?" Ren asked of his oldest friend.

"Yeah. Mountains, or even just a lot of rocks and boulders, since there's supposed to be a mine somewhere out here. Heck, I'd even take the Evil Queen's castle. Why are we seeing nothing but trees, trees, and more trees?!"

"Obviously because, like you said, it's called the Dwarf Woodlands," Weiss reminded the hyperactive ginger.

"Aka, the last place Axel and Yang should probably be in," Roxas could not help joking.

"Hey!" Lea snapped.

"Okay, I understand why you would say that about Lea," Yang started.

"Double hey!"

"But why are you including me in the jab?" the blonde finished, acting like Lea had never spoken, much to her boyfriend's chagrin.

"Your semblance would be one reason, and you do tend to carry a lot of Fire Dust," Blake smugly pointed out to her partner.

Yang could only gasp at her partner with a look of feigned betrayal, but she did not take the barb lying down. "Like you're one to talk. Don't think I hadn't noticed how much of that very same Dust you've been carrying lately, Blakey."

Blake had to pause at the new nickname her partner had just slapped her with, but ultimately let it slide in favor of her next counter. "I carry it around on the off-chance you wouldn't be able to thaw us out on your own if Weiss ever ends up freezing us all solid. It does seem like a nice counterbalance to all of her ice."

"I'm not sure how to take that," Weiss confessed. On the hand, she felt like she had just been called an ice princess again, but on the other hand, Blake did offer up a…somewhat reasonable explanation to showcase her preparedness, especially since she had been forced to encase the group in ice at least once before already. It made it hard to decide if she should praise her teammate for thinking ahead or if she should feel insulted.

"Besides, I could also use it to snuff out any fires Lea starts with a second one," Blake added on.

"And triple hey! Why are you guys all picking on me?! More to the point, why are you all automatically assuming I'm gonna set the forest on fire?" Lea finally demanded. The superstitious part of him assumed that this was some form of universal karma for backing out on telling Yang about his meeting with Raven, but it ended up snuffed out by the more practical side.

"Do you really want us to answer that?" Roxas questioned his friend.

Jaune on the other hand, had no problem with providing at least one answer. "Or do we just need to remind you about the question you asked Professor Ozpin back at the start of initiation?"

Lea immediately crossed his arms in a huff before muttering, "At least my question got answered before people started getting launched into the forest."

Luckily for the redheaded pyro, someone did have something to say in his defense. "You know, we really should cut Lea some slack," Ruby told the group, much to their surprise. "If anything we should probably be more worried about Weiss setting the forest on fire."

"What?! I would never…!" Weiss started to protest, but Ruby quickly cut her off with two words.

"Remember initiation?"

"That was just as much your fault as it was mine," Weiss reminded her partner.

Just when Ruby was about to concede her point, or offer up another argument in response, Ventus suddenly hissed, "Will you guys be quiet! I'm trying to listen out for the dwarfs so I know which direction to run away from."

At this point, everyone was starting to get a little annoyed with Ventus. Sure, they could understand his caution in regards to the seven dwarves, but frankly it was getting ridiculous. Aqua had reassured him the dwarfs had changed from what they were like when he first met them, and even then, it had been at least eleven years since he last saw the seven little men. While some members of their group may be something of an exception, no one else lived that long without going through a few changes, so everyone felt Ventus' attitude about the dwarfs was ridiculous. Besides, they were mainly here to meet up with Snow White, not the seven dwarfs. What were the chances they would even run into them?

Apparently much higher than most of them realized, considering the clearing they just walked into was the same one where the dwarfs' house was nestled. When he saw the cottage in question, Ventus quickly glanced around for another path out of the clearing, and immediately started moving towards it as fast as he could without looking like he was running. He ended up having to stop short though when the group all heard the faint sound of someone singing. Someone who most certainly did not have a male voice, one might add, and Ven recognized the voice very quickly.

"Couldn't be. Could it?" Ventus questioned before changing directions and hurrying to the cottage with the others. Upon reaching the door, Ventus quickly knocked a few times, prompting the singer inside to pause both their song and whatever they were doing.

"Just a minute," the woman inside called, and within a few moments, a lovely young woman with hair black as soot, lips red as a rose, and skin white as snow opened the door. When she first laid eyes on the group, she seemed to grow a little nervous, but then she noticed two particular individuals among them and instantly brightened up. "Ven! Sora! It's so good to see you again."

Sora simply smiled and offered a brief wave to the girl, but Ventus had to chuckle as she wrapped him in an excited hug. "Good to see you too, Snow White," the blonde admitted after returning her hug. "But what are you doing here? Aqua told me you had gone to live with a prince you had fallen in love with."

"Oh, I did, but I do sometimes like to stop by and see my old friends from time to time. After all, they let me stay here and hide when my stepmother was after me, so the least I could do is visit them now and then," Snow White explained. She then seemed to grimace a little as she glanced back into the house and added, "Besides, considering the mess we had found this place in when you first brought me here, I'm certain the dwarves would let their home fall to pieces if I didn't stop by to help them tidy up a little."

Ventus grimaced a little too after Snow White mentioned that, knowing just how dusty, dirty, and disorganized the cottage had been after he escorted her safely through the woods, so he could not fault Snow White for wanting to look after her friends. The dwarves might technically be adults, but judging by how their house had been at the time he could only assume some of their mannerisms were more befitting of children at times. It honestly made him wonder how Snow White was managing to keep the place looking as nice as it did from here all by herself, especially since she was doing all this work by herself. After all, there were days when he and his friends had trouble keeping their dorm rooms straight, and recently the stealth gummi, the latter of which currently housed far more people than the dwarves' house.

Thinking of his friends reminded Ventus that there were several people here who had only just met the former Princess of Heart just now, and he quickly waved a hand towards them as he said, "Well, seeing as we've already interrupted your hard work, allow us to introduce you to a few friends of ours."

Sora knew this was his cue to start introducing everyone Snow White had yet to meet, but before he could say anything, Jaune suddenly asked, "Hey, does anyone else hear that?"

"Hear what?" Ren inquired, already straining his ears for any unusual sounds.

"It sounds like…singing. With some whistling mixed in," Jaune elaborated.

Now everyone was going quiet in an attempt to hear what Jaune had picked up on, and it did not take long before the sound started reaching their ears. "Heigh-ho~…Heigh-ho~…Heigh-ho~, heigh-ho~, HEIGH-HO~!"

"Oh no," Ventus groaned. He knew that particular tune anywhere, and who was most likely to be singing it. Seeing the others were still trying to listen, he quietly started to creep away on tip-toe. Too bad for him someone ended up noticing and caught him with a certain black glyph. "Really?"

"You are going to bury the hatchet with these people even if we have to tie you down, Mister," Weiss informed the blonde, making sure to keep her focus on holding him while still listening to the tune being sung by the approaching men.

"Heigh-ho, heigh-ho~. It's home from work we go~. (whistle pause) Heigh-ho. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho. Heigh-ho~. It's home from work we go~. (whistle pause). Heigh-ho~. Heigh-ho~."

Right as the next round of whistling began, the group finally saw the seven dwarfs themselves coming around the bend, and at this point, some of them had even begun humming along with their little traveling song. "Catchy," Pyrrha commented.

"I know what I'm gonna be singing after class ends for the day now," Nora admitted.

"Heigh-ho, heigh-ho~, heigh-ho, heigh-ho~. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho~, heigh-ho hum~. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho~. It's home from work we go~. (whistle pause) Heigh-ho. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho. Heigh-ho~. It's home from work we go~…"

Right when the dwarfs were about to start whistling again, the leader of the line caught sight of who was standing before their house and stopped short. "Look!" he exclaimed right when his men all started bumping into him, having not expected the sudden stop. "At the house! We've got fests, er guests."

Upon hearing that, the seven dwarfs all quickened their pace, each of them eager to see who had come by for a visit. They all soon started smiling a little more when they saw Snow White was among them, but after noticing the other twelve they grew a little more weary. One of them ended up glowering a little when he took notice of a certain spiky-haired blonde, but not the one you would expect. "You again, eh," Grumpy noted as he stared up at Roxas. "You just can't ever leave us alone, can ya?"

"I think you have me confused with someone else. Namely him," Roxas quickly corrected before pointing to Ventus, who was still trying to get out of Weiss's glyph to no avail.

"No, no, no! Don't tell them I'm here," Ventus hissed at Roxas, but it was already too late, as the dwarfs now all had eyes on him.

"Oh. My mistake. Sorry," Grumpy apologized to Roxas.

"Now Grumpy. You should be apologizing to Ven too. He already told you all many times that he isn't a thief, and I'm sure you remember Aqua telling you he's her friend," Snow White chided.

"Yeah, yeah, alright," Grumpy huffed. He then cleared his throat and offered a hand out to Ventus as he said, "I'm…sorry for the mix-up, kid."

"We all are, Ben, er Ven," Doc assured him. "We shouldn't have just assumed you were a bad person as quickly as we had."

Ventus glanced around to see the other dwarfs all nodding in agreement, and then smiled as he shook hands with both Grumpy and Doc before replying, "No worries. I probably didn't help my case by chasing after you guys in your mine when I did, anyway, so let's just call it even."

The dwarfs all nodded in agreement to this, each of them taking the time to shake hands with Ventus to show it before they finally returned their attention to the rest of the group. "So uh, um w-who are all of you?" Bashful shyly inquired.

Sora smiled in reply, glad he would not have to repeat the lengthy introduction for anyone, and said, "We're all friends of Aqua and Ven's, and we were just stopping by to make sure everything was okay."

"That's very kind of you, sir," Happy commented. "But what're your names?"

"I was just getting to that, actually," Sora revealed. "Anyways, you already know Ven, these are our friends Roxas, Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake, Lea, Nora, Ren, Weiss, Ruby and her sister, Yang, and I'm Sora."

"Sora!" Doc exclaimed.

"The Keyblade hero!" the other dwarfs chorused right after.

No one expected a reaction like that, or for some of the dwarfs to rush up and start eagerly shaking hands with Sora commenting on how happy they were to finally meet him and the boy in question was no different. Given how Mushu, and Belle's friends did not seem to be familiar with him when he introduced himself, he figured that only people like the three good fairies would know who he was in advance. Clearly that was not the case here.

"You've heard of me?" Sora asked.

"Of…Of course," Sleepy yawned. "Snow White and Aqua told us about you after you saved her and our world."

All the dwarfs suddenly hushed him afterwards. "Quiet you fool," Grumpy scolded. "You're not supposed to be saying stuff like that around just anyone."

"Relax, its fine. We're all friends here, and it's not like any of us don't know about other worlds," Yang shrugged.

"All the same, you never know who could be watching-er, listening," Doc pointed out.

The others had to nod in agreement, and soon got back on track with the introductions. "Either way, it's nice to meet you all," Ruby smiled with a wave.

"Likewise, ma'am," Doc nodded. "My name's Doc, and this is Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy…"

"Ah-ah-ah…" one of the dwarfs started gasping, only for two of the others to quickly raise a finger to his nose, stopping the impending sneeze.

"That's Sneezy," Happy continued on with an amused smile everyone shared in.

"Achoo!" Sneezy finally…well, sneezed, confirming his identity for everyone, much to their amusement.

"I'm Happy, folks," Happy continued on after his chuckles had died down. "And this is Dopey."

"Are you sure he isn't Bashful, because he's been pretty quiet," Jaune asked.

"Oh no, he just don't talk none," Happy explained.

"You mean he can't talk?" Pyrrha asked, worried her boyfriend may have said something offensive to the last dwarf.

"He don't know. He never tried," Happy grinned, and when Dopey shook his head to affirm this with a smile everyone had to laugh a little bit more.

While most of the group did seem to be enjoying themselves, Ventus did notice Weiss had been eerily quiet for some time now, and turned to see her studying both the princess and the little men very intently. He was not the only one either, as Snow White soon realized this as well, and ended up beating him to the punch in asking what was bothering her. "Is something the matter, Weiss?"

Hearing the princess's question seemed to bring Weiss back into the world around, and prompted her to bow her head apologetically as she explained, "Sorry, it's nothing. Just a silly thought, really."

"Oh? How do you mean?" Snow White inquired, more curious than before.

Weiss fidgeted in place a little before she finally came clean. "I'm…not entirely sure, to be honest. It's just for a moment it felt like something about you should be familiar to me. Part of me wants to compare it to the feeling you get from a family member, but at the same time it feels like it runs a little deeper than that. It sounds ridiculous, I know."

"Maybe, but who knows? Perhaps we're long lost sisters or something," Snow White teased with a smile.

That brought a smile to Weiss's face as she joined in on the laughter at last. Before long, everyone was just chatting happily, right to the point where the dwarfs invited everyone to stay for dinner. Seeing as there did not seem to be any trouble to speak of and most of their group had not eaten yet, the world travelers could not think of any reason to refuse. Well, not that many reasons at least. First and foremost was whether or not they had the time to stay for such a dinner party, but luckily Roxas put everyone's concerns over that to rest after a quick glance at his Gummiwatch. That left only one problem over joining the dwarfs for dinner.

"Do you have room in your home to host so many people?" Pyrrha inquired of the dwarfs.

"Yeah no offense, fellas, but it does seem like your place might be a little too small to host a party for twenty people," Lea pointed out.

The dwarfs could see the redheads' point, but luckily, Snow White had a solution for this. "Then why don't we all just have a picnic? It is very lovely out right now, and it would be a waste to spend the day indoors on a day like this."

"That sounds perfect!" Ruby cheered, clearly more excited by the idea of sharing a meal with everyone here if they were to make it into a big picnic.

No one disagreed with the princess or the reaper, and so they all set to work preparing everything they would need for the upcoming meal. Of course, Snow White made it a point to make sure everyone had washed their hands before anyone started eating, and the world travelers could only look on in confusion as Grumpy hurried over to the nearby tub before anyone else for some reason. The other dwarfs said nothing on the matter, but did exchange knowing grins.

---

The lunch picnic ended up turning into a party picnic shortly after Snow White, Ren, and Sora had served the first few courses of the meal. Considering all three were really good cooks, it should have been no surprise that a veritable feast had ended up gracing everyone's taste buds, but what really turned things into a party was when some of the dwarfs suddenly ran inside to grab a few instruments, and before anyone knew it, another catchy tune had filled the air. This time around it was much more festive and party-like, right to the point where several people had gotten up to dance.

Unsurprisingly, Sora and Ruby had paired up without a second thought, and the entirety of Team JNPR had joined in on the fun soon after. What really came as surprising was when the dwarfs ended up joining in as well, each of them taking a turn to dance with Snow White or one of the other girls, until Dopey ended up hopping up on Sneezy's shoulders so the princess could dance with someone her size. It came to a pretty quick end though when Sneezy ended up blowing Dopey right off of him in one powerful sneeze. The poor dwarf ended up getting stuck in a tree as a result, but given how he was still smiling like silly afterwards even when everyone else just laughed at the silliness of it all, no one believed he really minded too much. He did give Ruby a big hug and a quick kiss on the cheek after she used her Semblance to get him down though, and the only reason Sora had not noticed the latter of the two was because his attention had been diverted by an alert sounding on his Gummiwatch.

"Looks like we're going to have to end the party here. We've gotta get going," Sora informed his friends.

"Awwww," just about everyone whined in response.

"Can't we just stay a little longer?" Nora asked.

"Yeah, you and your friends haven't gotten the chance to do something yet," Doc insisted, eager to see what the off-worlders would have up their sleeves in the way of entertaining.

"Ooh! I could tell a few jokes," Yang happily offered.

Her friends' response came even more quickly than her suggestion, in one big, loud, "NO!"

Hearing such a passionate refusal for a taste of her brilliant wit and humor, Yang could only huff and grumble about how everyone is a critic while Lea tried to console her. "Look, we'd love to stay and play a little more, but we've really do have to go," Sora explained. "There's trouble on another world, and it's our job to stop it wherever and whenever we can."

"Maybe next time, if we ever get the chance to visit again," Weiss offered, a little more eagerly than most would have expected her to.

"Of course. Just please be careful," Snow White agreed.

Sora nodded in response on his and his friends' behalf, and after one last farewell to everybody, the team hurried back onto the stealth gummi. Not a second was wasted between arriving on the ship and their rush to the bridge, save for how Sora explained to everyone that the ship had sent an alert to his Gummiwatch of a strong Heartless presence on a nearby world. Upon arriving on the bridge, everyone buckled into their seats while the boys of Team SLVR ran some checks to see where the signal was coming from and what the status of the ship was.

Right when Sora had determined the warp gummi was charged enough to get them wherever they needed to go as long as their destination was relatively close, Roxas got a fix on the world the signal was coming from, and he was a little hesitant about going to this one. "Great," he sighed. "Looks like I'm gonna have to worry about Axel setting off any traps you could place in a graveyard again."

"Why is that?" Ren asked, while silently wondering who or why someone would put traps in a graveyard along with several of the others.

"Because it looks like the signal's coming from the world of Sora's old buddy Jack," Roxas revealed.

Oddly enough, even Sora ended up shooting Roxas a confused look, though his confusion was a bit more simple than the others. "Uh Sparrow or Skellington?"

"Skellington."

"Oh, okay then," Sora nodded in understanding, and he proceeded to punch in the coordinates. "Hang on guys; we're heading to Halloween Town."

"You do know that isn't the name of the entire world itself, right?" Lea asked as they saw the stars outside the viewport become streaks of light, signaling the ship had jumped to warp.

"I know, but that's always what the computer identified it as every time I've visited in the past, and it's not like I've been to more than one of the other towns," Sora shrugged in response. His curiosity did get to him eventually and he turned to ask, "So what is the world's actual name?"

Roxas did a quick check on the computer and replied, "Holiday Hub…Hm, not all that creative, but it does seem to fit."

Pyrrha took this moment to join the conversation and ask what she and the other Remnant natives were wondering. "Have you all been to this world before?"

"Not all of us. Just me, Roxas, and Sora," Lea clarified.

"Well what can you tell us about the place?" Jaune asked.

"Basically, Holiday Hub is a world full of towns in which every day is a certain holiday. Usually holidays that are celebrated on most if not every world," Roxas detailed for the group at large.

"I once read somewhere that the people living in the towns of Holiday Hub are actually responsible for keeping their respective holiday's spirit alive for everyone," Ventus added on. He may not have been entirely conscious of when Sora visited all the worlds he had, but he did see a few things. After getting his body back, he even went to the library in the Land of Departure and did some reading up on those worlds too.

"We haven't ever been to more than one or two of those towns though, and the one we normally go to is Halloween Town. And if you can't figure it out from the name, that town is the one where every day is Halloween."

As soon as she heard that, Ruby's eyes lit up like stars as she let out an excited gasp. "A place where it's always Halloween?!" she exclaimed. "Do you guys know what that means?"

Since she had been the one Ruby was looking most directly at, Weiss assumed she was the one expected to answer first. Not that she had any clue what she was supposed to answer with, because she did not really see any significance to the holiday other than what had already been stated. It did not stop her from attempting to answer though. "It's a town where it's always October Thirty-?"

"IT'S A TOWN WHERE IT'S ALWAYS MY BIRTHDAY!" Ruby cheered before her partner could finish.

"Your birthday?!" everyone other than Yang repeated in surprise, having not known about this before now.

"Yep," Yang dryly confirmed with a tired eye-roll. She could still remember how her sister used to get at that time of year when she and Ruby were younger. As soon as Ruby was old enough to truly grasp how big a deal it was for her birthday to be the same day as a holiday, she had gone around to abuse the fact at every opportunity. It wasn't anything too harmful of course; she usually just mentioned the detail to get some extra candy, but eventually she started going so far as to get other kids to give her their candy too, and swipe the especially spooky Halloween decorations from others even after they had already been bought.

Ruby had caught her sister's eye-roll, and immediately took offense to it. Sure, she knew why, but she did feel her sister was a little unjustified in her reaction to this. "Hey come on, Yang. I'm not that bad…Anymore."

"Yeah, because some of your old friends got so fed up with you lording that over them that when you tried to get them to buy your costume for you one year, they just stuffed you into a trash can and made you go to your Halloween dance in that," Yang reminded her.

"A trash can?" Lea repeated.

"A literal trash can," Yang affirmed for him.

"That seems like a bit of an overreaction," Blake commented.

"Trust me, if they hadn't, there's a good chance I would have," Yang admitted without any shame whatsoever. "She had been a veritable monster back then."

Ruby made no attempt to deny it. She could admit she had gotten pretty bad back then, but in her defense, she was a kid who was getting extra candy nearly every time she mentioned Halloween was also her birthday. What would you expect to happen? Regardless of what may have happened in the past, Sora was more focused on the present, and right now, he had to focus on making sure everyone was ready for their arrival in Halloween Town.

"Well, Jack's certainly going to get a kick out of this," Sora noted aloud. "Oh, and one other thing guys, be ready for another form change, because this is another world where we'll need it."

"We will?" Roxas asked while looking to Sora in surprise along with his best friend.

"But Roxas, Xion, and I never needed one when we went there back in the day. Come to think of it, no one in the Organization ever needed to change forms on any of the worlds we went to on missions," Lea recalled.

"Axel, this is Organization XIII you're talking about. Do you really think they care that much about the world order?" Sora questioned.

Roxas could see where Sora was coming from on that front, and after thinking about it for an extra minute or two, Lea had to concede to the matter as well. "Good point," he admitted. "So what do you think we'll turn into?"

"Well, depending on where we land, it'll end up being something related to the holiday in question. In the case of Halloween Town, it'll most likely be anything spooky," Sora guessed.

"So like witches, goblins, ghosts, and anything else like that," Nora guessed.

"Yeah, basically," Sora nodded.

"That sounds absolutely ridiculous," Weiss commented.

"Aw, what's the matter, Weiss? Worried you might get scared at everyone else's monster forms while yours isn't any more frightening than a kid in a sheet?" Jaune surprisingly teased.

"Please. As if I would ever be concerned over something so silly as a Halloween costume," Weiss scoffed.

Lea just barely kept his amused snort quiet, but he still leaned over to Roxas and whispered, "Three guesses as to who didn't get to dress up as their favorite superhero for Halloween as a kid."

Yang had a little tease of her own in mind for someone else in the cockpit, and just barely kept her snickering at bay as she turned to the person in question. "Hey Blake, I'll bet you five lien you end up looking like a werecat."

Blake merely glared at her partner while growling under her breath, but she could not deny the possibility Yang's suggestion might come true. Knowing this, she turned to Sora and asked, "Can we please pick what forms we get this time?"

"Sorry Blake, but in the words of one of the most powerful magicians I've ever met, the magic doesn't work that way," Sora informed her. "Oh, and by the way, we're here."

"That was fast," Ren noted aloud as the ship came into visual range and then orbit of Holiday Hub.

"It was really close by and we were traveling with the warp gummi," Sora reminded him.

The group then hurried to the teleporter, but Blake lingered behind the group as she muttered a simple prayer to whoever might be listening. "Please don't let me turn into a cat monster. Please don't let me turn into a cat monster. Please, please, please don't let me turn into a cat monster…"

---

"Oh, come on! I said please!" Blake cried out as soon as the teleport had completed and everyone got a chance to study their Halloween Town forms. Much to her chagrin, Yang's prediction had come true, and she was now a full-fledged cat monster. She still wore her usual outfit, but there were some notable tears where the change would have been most noticeable, her bow was missing, and she was covered from head to toe in fur that was as black as her hair. The only thing she found even more unsettling was the fact she had a long cat tail.

Yang on the other hand, who had been changed to look like a goblin, found Blake's change to be very amusing, judging by her wide, mad grin. "I believe you owe me five lien."

"I never agreed to that bet, and even if I had, we never shook on it," Blake instantly protested, not willing to give Yang anymore satisfaction than she already had.

"Grrr…Be glad you don't seem…to have…any fleas," Ventus growled at the cat Faunus, prompting both Blake and Yang to turn and watch as Ven scratched at the new mane of fur he had acquired. A mane of fur that was supplemented by claws and a small snout, culminating in the werewolf form Ventus had been granted.

Looking around to the others, Blake was not sure who was making her shiver more between Ventus and Lea, because the latter looked like he had been turned into a fire demon with horns and everything. Lea must have noticed this because he soon gave Blake a curious look to silently ask what was wrong, but she waved it off by saying it was nothing more than some bad memories. Other than that though, he mostly wore a tattered version of his old Organization coat, only with various parts of it looking like they had been burned off. Moving over to the rest of her team, Blake honestly thought Weiss and Ruby got off a little easier. The heiress of the two had truly become pale as a ghost and now wore a flowing dress that seemed to billow in a nonexistent wind, effectively making her look like a banshee, while their team leader remained largely unchanged, save for how her cloak seemed to cover her entirely at all times and was a bit more tattered than usual. The only other change Ruby seemed to go through was having her face covered by a very realistic skull mask that would have sent shivers up Blake's spine due to thinking an actual reaper of souls stood before her, if she had not been able to see Ruby's silver eyes shining out from beneath it.

Team JNPR seemed to have gone through the least amount of changes for the most part, as Ren had been dressed up like a mad scientist, right down to the crazy hair and white outfit, while Pyrrha just looked like her skin had become ashen, with various cracks appearing in random parts of her countenance. Jaune was probably the simplest of the bunch, since the only real change was in how his armor had been changed from white to black, but he also gained a little more armor as well, making look like a full-fledged black knight from the stories. Nora rounded out the bunch with a get-up that made her look very similar to Yang's goblin form, but at the same time, there were also enough differences to realize that she was in fact a gremlin.

If Blake did not know these were her friends, she probably would have felt a little nervous at least. Or she would be like Weiss right now, who seemed like she was trying to hide how nervous she was getting from all the creepy sights and sounds around them. Thinking about their friends though, she noticed two of them appeared to be missing: Sora and Roxas. A second glance helped her to notice Sora had actually been standing a short ways ahead of them, clad in his usual vampire-like get-up with pumpkin mask and bat wings, but there did not seem to be any sign of Roxas at all.

Blake had not been the only to notice Roxas's absence, because after having a few laughs and acting as much like a gremlin as she could, Nora did too and asked, "Hey, has anyone seen Roxas?"

Everyone started looking after being alerted to their friend's absence, until Weiss suddenly screamed. "AHHHH! ZOMBIE! Ven! Kill it! Or eat it! I don't know what, just get it!"

If it were not for what Weiss had just asked him to do, Ventus would probably be blushing from how she had chosen to jump up into his arms in her panic. "First off, ew no. I'm not going to eat a zombie. Second, you do remember this form change is only a cosmetic one, right? I didn't actually turn into a real werewolf."

"And I've got your third thing," Ruby declared as she drew her scythe. "You want to kill a zombie, then you go for the head."

"What? How do you know?" Pyrrha asked. She was still drawing her weapon in rifle mode, but it did not dwindle her curiosity on how Ruby could possibly know a zombie's weakness.

"Because that's how they always kill the zombies in horror movies," Ruby explained.

"This isn't a movie, you dolt!" Weiss shouted, refusing to part from Ventus, and instead buried her face in his shoulder.

"What horror movies, Ruby?" Yang asked rather pointedly almost at the same moment.

"The ones that you and Dad approved of," Ruby reminded her sister.

"Just shoot it already!" Jaune screamed while drawing his sword as if to remind the others he was one of the few members of their team that did not have a long-range weapon.

All at once, everyone with a long-range weapon or attack was firing on the zombie Weiss had spotted, but to their surprise, the zombie not only dodged a lot of the shot, but ended up summoning out a pair of swords to deflect several of them as well. Right after they ceased their attacks, a familiar voice shouted, "Will you guys calm down? It's just me!"

"What the…?" Nora gasped.

At that point, they all took a moment to better study the zombie, and while he did have the typical rotting flesh of one, the most notable thing about him was the two-colored pants, white jacket with black checker pattern over a high-collared, black one that it wore, and the spiky blonde hair that was a few shades darker than Ven's. Having the best eyes in the group due to her Faunus heritage, Blake had noticed all these details first, along with how grimy and dirty his clothes were compared to their usual state, and instantly identified just who the zombie before them really was.

"Roxas? Is that you?" Blake called out.

"Who were you expecting? Mickey Mouse?" Roxas questioned, his voice heavy with annoyance over being blasted by everyone. "Geez you guys. I know we're all scary looking right now, but did you have to try and vaporize me?"

"Hey, you're the one who was creeping around in the shadows and freaking me out," Weiss accused.

"I was not creeping around! I was just hiding," Roxas defended.

"From what?" Weiss demanded.

In response, Roxas merely raised three fingers, and silently lowered one at a time in an obvious countdown. Upon reaching the end, everyone heard Lea burst out into loud, obnoxious laughter, and the other Keyblade wielders started at least chuckling soon after. "That's why," Roxas informed everyone.

"Zombie-boy's a zombie," Lea sang in between chuckles.

"Shut up," Roxas ordered his best friend. "And don't even think about taking any pictures."

"Don't worry, I won't," Lea grinned, making it seem like he was not being honest. The sound of a camera going off from somewhere close to Roxas would lead one to think Lea had lied, until they realized Lea was not holding a camera or his Gummiphone. "Sora's already doing it for me."

"What?! Sora!" Roxas cried out in betrayal.

"Say brains," Sora teased as he snapped another picture. He quickly turned tail and ran afterwards, with Roxas hot on his trail.

"Hey Sora! If you can save any of those, send me some copies. It'll be perfect for helping me get back a lot of the munny I've lost to him in bets," Lea called after the two.

Everyone got a few more good laughs out of this interaction, save for Weiss, who was busy trying to recompose herself after her rather embarrassing episode. The fact she had chosen to jump into Ven's arms had nothing to do with it, but she was very much aware of how noticeable her blush probably was now that she had a much paler complexion than usual. Once they had finally gotten it out of their systems and Roxas had stopped chasing Sora, they got back to business as usual by heading into town to look for any signs of Heartless. Sora was certain if there was any part of Halloween Town they were likely to find Heartless, it would be either in the town square or the graveyard just past it. Most of them were a little nervous about the idea of exploring a graveyard in a place as spooky and creepy as this, but given how insistent the Keyblade wielders were about the locals being friendly, they had to believe everything would be okay if they went in.

Finding the Heartless ended up being a lot easier than expected, but some of the group wished that they had not, because on this world, the Heartless were even more terrifying to look at than usual. Weiss had been the first to spot one, and given its monstrous appearance, you could not blame her for freaking out a little and screaming, "MONSTER!"

"No, worse. Heartless!" Sora corrected as he and his team all summoned their Keyblades. "Be careful. The White Knights may have spindly arms, but they can cause some serious damage if they hit you. Not to mention they're pretty hard to hit themselves, especially when they start jumping around."

"Good to know. What about the ones with the wings?" Pyrrha inquired, already firing her rifle at the airborne enemies in question.

"Gargoyles," Roxas growled angrily before blasting several out of the sky with a powerful lightning spell. "They hit hard, hit fast, and will shoot out ghost fires if given the chance."

"Speaking of ghosts, make sure to watch out for those Trick Ghosts. They like to attack at a distance by shooting fire from the candles they're holding," Lea warned as he deflected a blast from one such Trick Ghost.

"What about this big ugly one over here?" Nora inquired as she smacked her hammer into a Heartless that looked like a hodge-podge of various different parts, from the odd, metal body, cylindrical feet filled with green liquid, short right arm that ended in a pincer, a larger left hand made of the same metal as its body, and for a head, it had a cylinder filled with green liquid and three spherical heads.

"A Chimera? Haven't seen one of those in a long time," Sora noted aloud. "They're really tough, and can deal a lot of damage in a wide area, so try to keep your distance and hit it as hard and fast as you can. Try to stay in the air so you can avoid its shockwave attacks."

"Nora, Yang, Blake, Pyrrha! You guys better handle that one for us," Jaune quickly ordered, getting nods of agreement from the four girls.

"I've got your backs," Roxas called out as he rushed over.

Weiss was about to offer her own bit of support when another Heartless appeared right in front of her. This one seemed pretty harmless at first, since it looked like little more than a big box, but then she heard the sounds of a jack-in-the-box about to go off, and the top sprung open to release a springy body with a menacing pumpkin head and spindly arms that were carrying a hatchet and carving knife. Seeing such a monstrosity literally pop out at her prompted another frightened scream from Weiss as she jumped back. Luckily for her, Ventus and Ruby were close by and quickly came to the rescue.

"Hey get a grip, Weiss! You're supposed to be a huntress," Ruby scolded her partner.

"Excuse me, but how am I suppose to react when something like that suddenly pops out at me?" Weiss defended.

"I mean, she's not wrong. If I hadn't at least seen some pictures before, I probably would've screamed too," Ventus commented in her defense.

Ruby took another look at that jack-in-the-box Heartless and after blasting it a few times with her scythe, she admitted, "Okay, yeah, it is a little freaky."

"Well that's the Heartless for you, especially the ones around here," Sora informed them right after finishing off their opponent. He quickly spun around to deflect some ghost fire back at the Gargoyle who shot it, and then added, "Don't worry. You don't normally see more than one or two Graveyards in a single encounter."

"Good to know," Weiss sighed in relief. She then redrew her sword and joined the fight proper once more, feeling she had gotten all the jump scare screams out of her system at last.

The rest of the fight went pretty easily, with everyone either blasting or slashing their way through the various White Knights and Gargoyles around them, while the heavy hitters put most of their focus on the Chimera or the second Graveyard. Luckily, both went down pretty quickly, since they were up against some of toughest members of the team, but to their surprise, it did not stop with the second Graveyard. A third one actually showed up soon after followed by a fourth and a fifth! This was definitely a sign of something being wrong on this world, which made it all the better that the team was here right now, but even they could only hold them back for so long.

It started right after Ren had landed from his most recent and very impressive aerial take down. He had just been getting ready to open fire on some White Knights that were backing Jaune into a corner when multiple Gargoyles suddenly fired on him. Seeing her best friend getting brutally attacked ended up distracting Nora just long enough for some more White Knights to come swooping in to slash her to near ribbons, and if it had not been for Blake catching it with her ribbon, Nora probably would have been a lot worse off. It did not take long afterwards for each of the two Heartless to find ways to corner the group, and eventually, some Shadows and Armored Knights appeared to join in on the attack as well, and with how they just kept coming, the group began to wonder how long they could last without some extra help.

Thankfully, help arrived with a rather boisterous, terrifying chuckle, and out from the well in the center of town, stepped forth a living skeleton in a pin-striped suit. The skeleton man then shot the most terrifying face he could manage at the closest and largest group of Heartless, and if anyone ever thought the Heartless could not feel fear before, they would not believe so now, because they all immediately vanished into little more than smoke and dust out of fright afterwards. The skeleton man then proceeded to throw several fireballs this way and that, until the last few Heartless remaining were little more than easy pickings for the heroes.

"Ha-ha! You fiendish Heartless may have once been considered for a part in our celebrations, but I refuse to ever make the same mistake twice. So long as I'm the master of scares, you'll never have a place in our Halloween!" the skeleton declared to what little remains of the Heartless were still scattered about. At least up until they disappeared. He then turned to the group of heroes and got exactly the kind of reactions you would expect from them.

"Stay back! We're warning you," Jaune shouted as he brandished his sword at the skeleton.

"Forget warning him! Let's just blast him," Weiss insisted.

Nearly every huntsman-in-training agreed with the sentiment, and would have unloaded every last bit of ammo they still had left had Sora not jumped in between them and their target, arms spread wide, and shouted, "No, no, no! Wait! WAIT! It's okay! He's a friend!"

"I'm sorry. What?" Ren ended up being the first to ask, while the others just stared at Sora with wide eyes.

Just when the huntsmen were about to question Sora further, the skeleton man let out a hearty laugh that was not even the least bit scary. In fact, it sounded rather merry, and from the look on his boney face, it was indeed that. "Sora!" the skeleton man cheered. "Oh, it is so good to see you again! It feels like it's been ages since you last stopped by."

"Good to see you too, Jack," Sora smiled back while exchanging a friendly handshake with his old friend. "And it looks like you're over your Christmas phase, huh?"

"Well like you and Mister Claws taught me, if Halloween gets to be too routine, then I just need to think of something that will really make them scream," Jack proudly decreed.

"How exactly is that a good thing?" Weiss whispered.

"Geez Weiss. I didn't know you were such a scaredy-cat, but with the way you've been jumping over everything we've seen since we got here…" Blake had started to tease, only to pause when she felt a brush of air from behind her. Turning around, she came face-to-face with a red-nosed ghost that could only be described as one kind of thing, and she quickly scampered up the nearest, tall pole she could find in fright. "GHOST-DOG!"

Turning to see what had scared Blake so badly led the others to have difficulty in figuring out why Blake could possibly be scared of this particular ghost, even if it was a dog. The little guy seemed far too cute to be scary in anyway, but then again, the same could be said of Zwei and Blake kept her distance from him as much as possible. Weiss on the other hand was not going to let this chance at payback slide. "Ha! Who's the scaredy-cat now?"

Blake merely glared back at the heiress, all while Jack chuckled in amusement over the antics taking place before him. "You seem to have made quite the interesting new friends, Sora," he commented.

"Oh you don't know the half of it," Sora smiled in reply. He then coughed to get everyone's attention and said, "Guys, allow me to introduce, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, the Knight of Nightmares, and the face of Halloween himself."

"A pleasure to meet you all," Jack bowed in greeting. "And may I just say, those scared faces of yours were all absolutely beautiful. Best keep those at the ready for when next Halloween rolls around."

"For us or him?" Nora jokingly whispered to Yang and Ruby.

The two sisters could not help but giggle a little even as Sora went on with the introductions, but it seemed that their amusement had caught Jack's attention, and his eyes became directly focused on the younger of the two from the second he caught sight of her. Right when Sora was about to say her name, Jack grinned brightly and exclaimed, "Do my eyes deceive me or is that little Ruby Rose herself?"

"Huh?" Ruby just managed to get out before Jack had suddenly rushed over to shake hands with her.

"I knew it! It is you, Ruby. How are you, my dear? I hope you're excited for next Halloween, because I personally can guarantee it will be nothing short of a bone-chilling extravaganza," Jack asked.

"U-um…glad to hear it," Ruby replied, uncertain of what was going on right now. "How do you know who I am?"

"Oh, I know everyone who's ever been born on Halloween. In fact, every holiday master like myself makes it a point to know about anyone who's been born on their holiday, so they can make it extra special for those kids. At least, as long as they behave themselves and don't get carried away with the fact their birthday is the same day as a holiday," Jack explained, ending with a pointed look at the young reaper.

"Ehehehehe," Ruby sheepishly chuckled while rubbing the back of her neck in a very Sora-like manner.

Speaking of Sora, he decided they needed to get straight to the main matter at hand, and asked, "So Jack, have the Heartless been causing a lot of problems around here for a while?"

"Not until just recently," Jack shrugged. He soon started to look a little more worried as he continued, "But unfortunately, they've recently started getting a lot more bold and actually began popping up almost as often as they did during your last couple of visits. It got so bad that Sally and I were worried the other holidays were having similar troubles, so being the only local expert on the Heartless, and the only one capable of fighting them off, I took it upon myself to go around and make sure everything was okay."

"Well that's awfully nice of you, Jack," Pyrrha praised him, but Sora suspected there was a little more to it than that.

"And you haven't been using it as an excuse to try and take over any other holidays, like before, right?" Sora questioned.

"Come now, Sora. Like you said before, I'm over that little phase of my life," Jack reminded him, but Sora kept up his skeptical look all the same. In the end, Jack could not keep up the façade while under such scrutiny. "Okay, I may have tried my hand at one other holiday after my Christmas phase had run its course, but that was it, I promise."

"Jack," Sora sighed tiredly with a shake of his head.

"No, really! I'm over it all now. The Easter Bunny saw to it that I would never try to take the reins of another holiday again after I tried to help him out," Jack insisted. "Don't let his cute appearance fool you; he is a lot more sensitive about other folks trying to step in on his holiday than Sandy was when I tried to help him out with Christmas." He then slumped his shoulders all of a sudden as a haunted look filled his eyes when he muttered, "I never knew carrots could be used as such deadly weapons like that."

Judging by Jack's current countenance, the others decided they did not want to know what had happened and just left it there. Still, it did leave one other question. "Were those all the Heartless around here?"

"For the moment, it seems so, but I haven't had a chance to check in on Christmas Town, and who knows what kind of trouble the Heartless could bring there?" Jack replied.

Seeing how worried Jack was about the holiday town he once held such a huge fascination for helped the team figure out where they were going next quite easily. "Don't worry, Jack," Sora assured him. "We can handle things over in Christmas Town for you. After all, who better to handle the Heartless than an entire team of heroes who've fought them countless times before?"

"Really?" Jack inquired.

"Yeah, the three of us pretty much helped Sora here to wipe out a few thousand Heartless once," Lea casually boasted in a faux-modest manner.

"And we've seen our fair share of battles with them and a few other dangerous monsters too," Jaune added on. "We can handle it, no problem."

Jack tapped his chin to ponder the idea for a little bit before he finally nodded in agreement, but only after making sure Sora still remembered the way to get to Christmas Town. When Sora said yes, the matter was all but settled in the Pumpkin King's mind, and he waved the heroes off with a promise to keep things safe until they returned. Right when they were about to leave though, Jack stopped Ruby short, reached into one of his pockets, and procured a rather spooky yet still very pretty pumpkin charm that he gifted to her.

"Just a little something I'll sometimes leave for some of the kids born on Halloween," Jack told Ruby. "This little good luck charm is filled with all kinds of spooktacular wonders and magic of my own design. So whenever you need a little extra luck, or even at a time when you're feeling especially scared, just hold this in your palm, and it'll remind you of the more enjoyable frights and all the good friends who stay by your side to see you through any night."

"Wow," Ruby whispered in awe. After staring at the charm and admiring how it seemed to glitter and shine in the moon light, she made sure to carefully place it in one of her pockets, making sure it was safely secured there, and gave Jack a big smile. "Thanks Jack."

"You don't need to thank me at all, Ruby. Just consider it an early birthday present from the master of Halloween to you. And I do hope you'll use this as your costume for when Halloween finally rolls around for you," Jack replied with an eager smile.

Ruby could not help but giggle a little at Jack's somewhat childish request, but still nodded in agreement all the same. Part of her actually wanted to see if she could make a copy of this outfit back on Remnant if for no other reason than to see if she could finally manage to give Uncle Qrow a good Halloween scare. It was a long-running mission that she and Yang had yet to succeed in, but gosh darn it they would get him one year, or Ruby's not the daughter of Summer Rose, the greatest huntress who ever lived. Or at least the greatest huntress of her generation and the best mother Ruby ever knew.

---

Getting to Christmas Town proved to be more difficult than it should have been, but only because of the Heartless constantly getting in the team's way. At one point, they finally decided to have someone stand up front and just blast anything that got in their path, as long as it was an enemy, prompting Ruby and Pyrrha to take point, being the only ones who had a long-range targeting scope on their weapons. Team SLVR did what they could to pick up on any signs of Heartless approaching from the directions the two were not looking in at any given time, but even with all of this, there were still a few who slipped past. Lucky for them, Ren, Blake, and Nora were more than happy to dissuade the Heartless from getting any closer.

When they finally reached the Hinterlands, Sora breathed a sigh of relief while leading the group over to the Christmas tree-shaped door. There did not seem to be any Heartless here, but then again, Jack did say he had been checking in on all the other holiday towns so it would make sense if this area was especially clear of Heartless. Of course, he did not fail to notice the numerous Keep Out Signs and warning tape covering the Easter Egg door, proving Jack had been telling the truth with what he had said earlier, but this was hardly the time to fact check the words of his old friend. They had another important holiday to save, so he quickly opened up the door and jumped through, prompting his friends to quickly follow after him.

The only downside to going to Christmas Town was the fact you would always land face first in a snow bank, and after his experiences in Arendelle, Sora could not say he was too fond of snow anymore. At least not as much as he used to be, but he was still very appreciative of the soft landings. The fact he ended up serving as a cushion for the next person to fall through, not so much.

"Owwie. I thought Sora said it would be a soft landing," Sora heard Ruby groaning, indicating his girlfriend was the one who landed on him and erasing most of his anger.

"It probably would've been if you had landed in the snow instead of on me," Sora clarified for Ruby, alerting her to his presence beneath her.

"Oh! Sorry Sora," Ruby hastily apologized as she scrambled off him, allowing Sora to sit up straight again. Then she saw how Sora's outfit had changed to his dark colored Santa-like outfit, and upon realizing he had mentioned snow and seeing so much of it was around them, Ruby could not help but ask, "Uh Sora? How come your outfit's changed again?"

"Who said it was just Sora's outfit that changed? Check us out," Roxas informed her as he waved to both Ruby and the rest of their friends.

Ruby did and soon lit up like the nearby Christmas trees. Nearly everyone had been changed from their spooky Halloween outfits into various holiday themed wardrobes. For the most part, there seemed to be a universal dress code amongst the teams, as nearly all of Team SLVR wore a variation of Sora's outfit except in different colors. Lea's being fiery red (to no one's surprise) while his hat hung off on the side and an emblem resembling his chakrams took the place of the buttons on his coat, Roxas's an off-color white while his pointed cross emblem for his coat buttons, and Ven's was the same shade of green as his Wayfinder with his badge acting as the buttons on his coat. Team JNPR had a pretty universal set-up in their outfits as well, as they were all dressed up like Christmas elves, from the pointed ears to the colorful hats. The only thing that set them apart from one another is how their outfits were colored in the same colors they normally wore: pink for Nora, green for Ren, a mix of brown and gold for Pyrrha, and finally, a white and black ensemble for Jaune.

Looking to her own team, Ruby could not help but grin a little more, as her sister had gone from a goblin to wearing a ridiculous Christmas sweater decorated with trees and reindeer much like Yang normally would at that time of year. The only difference being Yang's usual sweater tended to have some ridiculous holiday pun on it somewhere, but she was a little more focused on Blake, who was decked out in a rather dapper Christmas suit one would normally be seen wearing at Christmas parties, with a top hat taking the place of her bow. Next in the lineup was Weiss who had gone from banshee to Christmas angel, right down to the fluffy looking wings on her back, and from the way she was studying herself, Weiss very much approved of this outfit over her Halloween Town one. Finally, Ruby took the time to study her own change, and saw that her red cloak had replaced its previous tears with a fluffy white trim like the one on Sora's Santa hat, and her black dress had been turned into a green one with red trim and white snowflake patterns.

"Hey, we actually look pretty good. Like the perfect Holiday Team," Nora commented as she spun about in an attempt to both study and show off her elf costume.

"Uh, y-yeah," Ren stuttered, much to everyone's surprise.

When Nora looked to her best friend, she started to get a little bit of an idea as to why, because he was staring right at her, almost unblinkingly. Even more interestingly was how there seemed to be a slight, pink dusting on his cheeks; a sure sign of a break in his usual composure. Still, as nice as it felt for Ren to be admiring her, she very much liked it better when he was at least fully conscious when doing so, and right now, he did not really seem that way.

"Hey, Ren," Nora waved to him, finally getting him to blink.

Realizing what he had been doing, Ren's blush grew a little darker even while he apologetically muttered, "Excuse me."

Nora just giggled at the response she had garnered out of him, and as a result, Ren's grew a little more flustered, but not to the point where he could not at least smile along with her. It did not stop him from thinking to himself, 'Why does she have to look so cute as an elf?'

"I don't really know, Nora," Pyrrha suddenly commented, referring to her friend's earlier statement about how fitting their outfits were. "I think some of us are a little too far past the point of being too tall to be elves."

"Hey, nothing wrong with that. If anything, I still think you make a pretty cute elf," Jaune complimented his girlfriend.

Pyrrha smiled in appreciation for his words, but still had to confess, "While I appreciate the sentiment, Jaune, I was actually referring to you." At his confused look, Pyrrha further explained, "You do know you're probably the tallest out of everyone in our group, right?"

"Oh, right," Jaune realized. "Well, maybe not the tallest. I mean, Lea's still got at least a few inches on me."

"True. Very true," Lea nodded in agreement, albeit with a smug smile.

Weiss had to roll her eyes a little over Lea's recent desire to boast about his height, only to stop short when it allowed her to notice Ven's gaze glued onto her. Worried about what reason behind his staring might be, Weiss could not help but ask, "Ven? Is something wrong?"

Ventus jumped a little from being caught staring, and quickly said, "No, no. Sorry, it's just that…well, I…I-I mean you…"

"Just spit it out already," Weiss demanded.

Ven could feel his face heating up even before he finally got the words out. "Well…You look like an angel, Weiss."

Glancing down at her attire did nothing to help Weiss's confusion over the statement, and she made it all the more clear when she waved at herself and said, "I mean, I think that's pretty obvious, or were the wings not enough of a give-away."

"N-no, I mean, yes, I know you literally look like an angel, but I didn't just mean like that," Ventus stumbled, having realized his error now that it had been pointed out. "I meant as in you look really beautiful, because you do. Look beautiful, I mean. Very, very beautiful."

And just like that, the blush-fest continued, this time with Weiss gaining a red hue in her cheeks, but she had to smile a little from hearing Ventus say what he did. Coming from him, she could very easily believe how genuine his words were. "Thank you, Ven," she eventually managed to say once she was sure her voice would not crack from the emotion of the moment. "That's very sweet of you to say."

Everyone had to smirk a little at seeing how red Ven's face turned after hearing that, and how Weiss went from fridged to timidly flattered upon hearing his compliment, but they still had a job to do, so they needed to get back on track right away. At least, they would have had Yang not posed a question most of them were wondering about after noticing their latest outfit changes. "So not that I don't like the new looks, but how come we've changed forms again?" Yang inquired. "I thought we would only have the one form change for each world."

The others all nodded in agreement to this, prompting all attention to be drawn to the Keyblade wielders. Or more accurately, to Sora, since he was the one who normally dealt with these kind of transformations. "To make a long story short, some worlds require you to change forms when you move to certain areas. For example, the first time I visited Disney Castle, I was able to get away with my normal form, but when I went through a special door to another area, I got changed to look a little like a character from an old black-and-white cartoon," Sora explained to the group. "It's basically the same thing here, because I don't think a Halloween style look would be all that appropriate in a place called Christmas Town, do you?"

No one had any way of disagreeing or arguing with him, so they just nodded and waved for Sora to continue leading the way to their ultimate destination. Of course, some of them were still pretty curious about this town, and Pyrrha was the first to ask for more details. "Is there anything else we should know about this town, besides the obvious part about what holiday it focuses on?"

"Well, there is one thing," Sora admitted with an excited grin befitting of a kid in a toy store. "While it is technically called Christmas Town, most people know it better by a couple other names. One of them being the North Pole."

Now they were a little confused. Why this place be called the North Pole when every world had its own north and south poles? It was not until she took another look around the town that Ruby figured out what her boyfriend was implying. "Wait, do you mean this is…?"

"Yep," Sora confirmed.

"As in…?"

"Oh yeah."

Ruby face slowly started splitting into a wide grin and her eyes sparkled like stars as she finally asked one last question just to make sure Sora was not playing a joke on her. "Santa?"

Most of the group could not help but shoot confused looks at Ruby, while others merely rolled their eyes. Out of everyone, only Nora seemed to be just as excited as Ruby, while Yang nervously glanced between her sister and Weiss, knowing the heiress was most likely about to break this particular bit of childhood wonder at any second now. When Sora just nodded in proud confirmation, Weiss did exactly what Yang was worried about, and started to speak up. "Ruby, don't be ridiculous. There's no…"

"SANTA!" Ruby cheered before Weiss could finish, taking off at full speed towards the main building of Christmas Town and leaving a trail of rose petals to fall into the snow behind her and amongst all of her friends.

After waving away a few stray petals, Blake looked to her partner and commented, "You and your dad never told her the Santa secret, did you?"

"Have you met Ruby? It was painful for us just to tell her about the birds and the bees, and even then, dad only got through it because we knew it'd be worse if Uncle Qrow gave it to her alone. I'm not proud of it, but I don't want to destroy any of Ruby's view of the world if I can avoid it," Yang confessed.

"What about…?" Lea started to ask, only to trail off and silently flap his hands like a pair of wings.

It was not too hard to figure out her boyfriend was talking about how she recently told Ruby about her birth mother, and Yang immediately retorted, "That's different."

"Hey guys? How about you finish these discussions later and we go catch up with Ruby? We've still got Heartless to deal with, and I'd like to deal with them before they get Santa, otherwise a lot of people are going to have a really lousy Christmas this year," Sora interrupted.

The others all looked amongst one another, until Jaune hesitantly started to ask, "Uh Sora? Do you know about the Santa Secret?"

"What's this Santa Secret you guys keep talking about?" Roxas asked, having never heard anything about this Santa person before today. Hey, he and Xion were still getting caught up on a few different subjects, and things like famous holiday icons were never very high on the list of need-to-know things for the Organization.

Before anyone could answer, Sora butt in by shouting, "NO! I will not let any of you get anyone else into trouble with that lie! Riku already did it to me, and I'm lucky that I was able to get things cleared up when I did."

"Yeah! Down with the nay-sayers!" Nora agreed before joining Sora in taking off in the same direction Ruby had.

The others could only stare after the two before they all turned to Ren, silently asking for an explanation. Ren merely shrugged and replied, "After everything that had happened to us when we were kids, we both needed something to believe in while growing up. For Nora, that was Santa Claus, and given our circumstances, I didn't have the heart to ever admit I didn't share her belief."

Being the only ones who actually knew a little of what Ren was talking about, Jaune and Pyrrha could only offer solemn nods and looks of understanding after hearing that. The others could only offer small nods, showing that while they did not entirely get it, they could still see enough to know it was a sensitive matter and were willing to accept what they got out of him. With nothing else to say, the group charged after other three so they could help deal with any Heartless most likely in the area.

---

Since Ruby, Sora, and Nora had all rushed ahead, the others found next to no enemies whatsoever until they finally reached the center of the holiday town. In fact, by the time they did get there, there was only one Heartless remaining for them to deal with. The only problem was it seemed this was the very same Heartless that had set off their warning sensors. Just from a glance it was clear this was a boss-level Heartless, but the overall appearance of it left several of members of the team feeling a little disturbed. Much like many of the Halloween Town Heartless, this one was clearly centered on a theme fitting for the area they had found it in, namely a Christmas theme, but what made it especially disturbing was how it looked like a twisted, monstrous version of the jolly old toymaker associated with the most wonderful time of the year. This was mostly due to how it wore a large, red cloak and red elf hat just like the ones Santa Claus would wear, but still, seeing the lanky body and twisted, monstrous face paired with a Santa suit certainly seemed like the perfect fuel for nightmares, and Sora, Ruby, and Nora were currently locked in fierce combat with it at this very moment.

Ventus was the first to take action upon arrival, namely by throwing his Keyblade after imbuing it with wind magic, unleashing the power of an Aero Raid right into the Heartless emblem located on the center of creature's red cloak. Ren and Blake then jumped in to blast it with everything they had so the first three could fall back and recover and the others could jump in to attack in their place, starting with Lea and Weiss unleashing a rapid fire barrage in their own respective manners. Roxas and Jaune were quick to slash at it with several swings of their blades, while Yang and Pyrrha took a mid-range approach by blasting it with the former's gauntlets and the latter's rifle, but the second pair soon switched to close-combat the second they were close enough, with Pyrrha opting for her weapon's sword form when she did.

Even when Sora switched over to Shooting Star so he could use their Double Arrowguns form, Blake and Ren continued to their barrage of long-range blasting, but Blake did still take a moment to ask Sora for a little bit of info about their enemy. "What've you learned about it so far?" she asked.

"Aside from being a holiday abomination, it really likes to go for ground-pound attacks, namely by jumping up in the air, and anything it pulls out of the sack it's carrying is most likely an explosive weapon," Sora filled in over the noise of his Arrowguns rapidly firing. "Not exactly a lot of diversity in attack for a boss Heartless, but I don't think we've worn it down enough to know everything it's capable of."

"Either that or we've just been hitting too fast and hard for it to get a chance to do anything else," Ruby added as she came zooming up over to them, her scythe already converted into sniper mode so she could blast the Heartless as well.

Right when Blake was about to ask what made Ruby think that, someone yelped in fright and drew their attention back to the action. It was just in time too, as they saw Jaune, Ven, and Pyrrha all dive away from being chopped in half by the large, lumberjack's ax the Heartless had started swinging around. Yang was not so lucky, as she took the hit head on, but thankfully, her aura seemed to prevent any damage from getting through. The only reason why she did not collide into the building behind her was due to Lea rushing over to catch her and soften the blow when she landed.

The next ax swing got blocked by one of Weiss's glyphs, allowing Ventus to leap up and try for a swing at the Heartless's head. His hit did connect, but unfortunately, he ended up unable to protect himself when the Heartless suddenly unleashed a torrent of ice magic with its free hand, and was sent careening through the air into Weiss and the nearby snow bank behind her. The Heartless then proceeded to slowly stomp towards its most recent victims, but ended up pausing when several grenades exploded in its face, making it turn towards the person who fired at it. To no one's surprise, the person in question was Nora, who currently had a vicious, angry glare fixed on it as she fired another round from her grenade launcher.

"No way am I letting you turn the most wonderful time of the year into a cursed one," Nora promised as she continued firing.

"Cursed one, huh?" Lea commented as he helped Yang to her feet. "You know, I think that helps settle what we're going to name this thing. Curse Kringle."

"Fitting," Weiss complimented once she and Ven had dug themselves out of the snow. "Now how about we focus on more important things like stopping the Heartless?"

"What do you think we're doing? Having milk and cookies?" Roxas demanded as he cast a few quick bolts of lightning magic with one Keyblade before moving in to quickly slash at Curse Kringle with the other.

Ren and Blake finally chose this moment to get in close as well, both of them slashing at Curse Kringle with their respective blades, but they did just as much good as Roxas's attack had. Luckily they were able to get away in time, mainly thanks to Blake's semblance, which she infused with some Fire Dust for an extra blast. When the fiery clone exploded in Curse Kringle's face, it roared in fierce agony, providing a clue as to one way they could beast it.

"Lea! I think it hates fire. Hit with everything you've got," Ren shouted to the tall redhead.

"Don't even have to ask," Lea eagerly grinned in response as he transformed his Keyblade into blazing chakrams. He then tossed both of the flaming, spiked wheels at the Heartless, and upon striking their target, Curse Kringle let out the same agonized roar as it had before. Lea was far from finished, because the second his chakrams had returned to his hands, he rushed in with both of them still ablaze and slashed it several times over until he finally fell back, changed the chakrams back into his Keyblade, and unleashed a powerful blast of Firaga Burst on Curse Kringle.

Lea was not the only one raining down fire on the Heartless, as everyone else who were able to switched to similar abilities as well, namely with Sora unleashing every bit of fire magic he knew, the huntsmen-in-training loading up as much Fire Dust as they could before blasting it again with said ammunition, and Ventus even going so far as to enhance all this fire with a little bit of wind magic. Under so much figurative and literal fire power, Curse Kringle could hardly do anything more than moan, groan, and scream before it finally fell, bursting into the typical smoke, dust, and crystal heart that followed a Heartless's defeat once Lea had landed the final blow with a powerful Fire Surge attack.

After taking a moment to catch their breathes and stow their weapons away, the group looked around to assess the damage, and there was no way to put it any simpler than how Jaune had. "Oh man. What a mess."

"Do you think the townspeople are okay?" Yang asked, worried they might have been too late to save anyone. After all, with a Heartless that big and bad, every second counted in saving lives.

The Keybearers were already reaching out with their senses as best they could to try and answer that question, until Ventus finally reported, "I think so. I can sense a few people inside the main building over there."

"You mean Santa's workshop," Nora clarified with total certainty. She may not have been here before, but there were few other things that building could have been.

"Yeah, sure, Nora," Lea humored, discreetly rolling his eyes a little when he did.

"We should still make sure everyone's okay," Sora determined, and he hurried the team inside. Of course, he did have another reason for doing this, and he had to hide a sneaky grin while guiding the group into the workshop. Upon entering the living room, Sora glanced around before he finally called out, "Hello? Is anyone here? It's okay to come out. You're all safe now."

The others were about to try and call out as well, when a jolly old voice replied to Sora's calls and made most of the group pause. "Ho, ho, ho! Is that Sora I hear?"

Ruby and Nora's eyes immediately lit up with excitement, while most of the others jumped and froze upon hearing that voice, and their respective feelings only grew when the man himself came out from his hiding place along with several of his elves. "Hey, Santa. Long time, no see," Sora waved in greeting. "Hope the Heartless didn't cause you too much trouble before we got here."

"Oh nonsense. After all the trouble that Jack Skellington had caused me, every other troublemaker seems far easier in comparison," Santa chuckled with a wave. He then glanced around to see the large group with Sora. "And I see you've brought a few new friends along with you this time."

"Well, you know what they say: you can't fight the darkness alone," Sora shrugged.

"Ho, ho, very true, my boy," Santa agreed before turning to Sora's other friends again. "So, I don't suppose any of you are curious as to whether or not you're on my 'nice' list?"

Ruby and Nora both nodded eagerly, with Roxas and Ventus joining in soon after, while everyone else just kept staring in shock. "He's…He's real," Weiss whispered. "He's actually real."

"That's Santa Claus. The Santa Claus," Yang muttered in equal disbelief.

"Well, there goes that disbelief," Lea commented.

"I think I'm still working on believing it," Blake admitted.

"Some of my sisters would be so jealous if they knew about this," Jaune added on, knowing his little sisters most likely would go nuts if they found out their big brother met the real Santa Claus.

If Santa or any of the other four heard their friends' comments, they had paid it no mind, as they were too focused on finding out their position on Santa's list. "You're name, young lady?" Santa asked of the one closest to him.

"Um, Ruby, sir. Ruby Rose. Oh, and maybe you could see if my sister, Yang is on there too?" Ruby requested.

"Certainly," Santa agreed as he retrieved the list he had just been checking over before all the madness went down. "Let's see…Ruby…And Yang…Ah, here you are, and it looks like your place on the list is firmly secured, Ruby. As for your sister…Oh, well that's unfortunate."

"What? What's wrong?" Ruby asked, worried that her sister had done something to land on the wrong list.

"Oh, nothing too serious to worry about, my dear," Santa reassured her. "It's just that, according to my list, your sister told everyone but you she did not believe in Santa Claus."

"WHAT?! Yang! You always said you did believe in Santa. You lied to me?" Ruby demanded, clearly hurt by this revelation.

Yang raised her hands in an attempt to placate her sister. "No, no! I didn't lie, I just…didn't know how to tell you the truth?"

"I straight up asked you, full-stop if you believed in Santa, and you always said yes," Ruby angrily countered.

Now Yang could only chuckle sheepishly, knowing she could not deny what her sister said, but did have to mutter, "How is this the conversation where she reacts like I expected her to when I told her about Raven?"

"I guess it's a safe bet that I'm not on that list either for the same reason, right?" Weiss questioned.

"That depends, dear. What's your name?" Santa asked.

"Weiss Schnee, sir," Weiss supplied for him.

Santa looked over the list, and upon finding Weiss's name, nodded to confirm her suspicion, leading Blake, Ren, Pyrrha, Jaune, and Lea to all suspect they were in the same boat as well. At least, until Nora asked, "How about us? Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren?"

Ren was about to tell her he probably was not on the list too, until Santa replied, "Ah yes, there you are, Nora, and it seems your friend is right here next to you."

"Wait, what?" Ren gasped in surprise. "But how?"

"Well from what I can recall, you've never outright said you didn't believe, now did you, Ren? And according to this, you're willing to believe simply because Nora believes. Am I wrong?" Santa posed to the young man.

Looking over to Nora and seeing her smiling at him happily from both pieces of good news she just heard, Ren had to smile a little and admitted, "Yes, I suppose so."

"Um, how about Roxas, Ventus, and Xion?" Roxas shyly inquired.

Santa checked the list once again, and nodded in confirmation, earning happy grins from both blonde boys, much to everyone's surprise. Only Blake was able to ask the question they were all wondering though. "Ven, you still believe in Santa Claus?"

"Of course," Ventus shrugged. "I mean, I've known about magic, other worlds, and Keyblades longer than any of our friends, save for Terra, Aqua, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. It would've been stranger if I didn't still believe in Santa Claus."

The others could only nod in understanding of that, since they could see his point, until Ruby realized there was still one person they had not checked for on Santa's list. "Hey Santa," she called out to get the jolly old elf's attention. "What about Sora? Isn't he on your list?"

"I doubt it, Ruby," Sora admitted, even as Santa started checking over the list. "Last time I was here, I found out I wasn't on the list for the same reason as Yang and the others."

"What? But Sora, I thought you did believe in Santa," Ruby said, feeling very confused. After all, Sora was the one who had happily confirmed the holiday figure was real for them, and he did so with such pride. Why would he not believe in Santa Claus?

"I do, but about eight years ago, I had told everyone I didn't believe in Santa anymore, and that kind of sticks with you," Sora confessed, much to everyone's surprise. "Hey, blame Riku. He's the one who told me there's no such thing as Santa Claus to begin with."

"Yeah, that does sound like Riku," Roxas nodded in agreement, with Lea and Ventus both doing the same right after.

"Well Sora, I think you'll be happy to hear this, because from what I'm seeing, you're most definitely back on my list in full, once again, and you have been ever since your first visit here," Santa then revealed.

"Wait, really?" Sora gasped in shock.

"Of course. After all that you've done for the people of so many worlds, and all that you've been through, it shouldn't be that surprising that you would find your way onto my list again after having your faith in me restored," Santa chuckled wisely.

"So does that mean, we're going to end up on your list again, too?" Lea asked.

"Given time, perhaps," Santa admitted. "But I would prefer none of you go to any great extremes to get back there."

The former nonbelievers could only nod in reply, still in the midst of processing the reality before them, but once they got unfrozen, they offered to help Santa and his elves repair the damage caused by the Heartless and their battle with Cursed Kringle. Santa appreciated the offer but politely turned them down, saying they had things perfectly under control for the time being. Besides, they still had other work to do, including telling Jack that everything was under control in Christmas Town. Realizing they would have to go back to the spooky town, some of the group had to groan miserably, while Nora just whined over having to leave Christmas Town so soon. She had really wanted to play around with some of the elves or even help Santa with anything he needed to do to prepare for Christmas, but they all sucked it up and proceeded to carry out their task. After all, the work of world travelers/heroes was never done.

---

A few hours later, the team had informed Jack of what had happened in Christmas Town, and after a few last goodbyes to the Pumpkin King they boarded the stealth gummi once again, all eager to make their way to another world. Sure, these last two had been relatively uneventful for the most part, but everyone agreed it was nice to get a break from all the heavier action and adventures now and then. Still, there were a few of them with some concerns on their minds, and Lea was chief among them. He made it a point to alleviate those worries as soon as they were back on the ship, and confronted the source of them in no time at all.

"Hey Yang, you got a minute," Lea asked shortly after they had all arrived back on the ship and left the teleporter.

"Sure. Is this about what we were discussing before?" Yang inquired.

"Kind of," Lea admitted. "Something you said before the call to action has been bothering me a little." He paused, a little hesitant to bring up this subject, but still pushed forward all the same. "You said that if you found out your mother had come looking for someone else instead of you, even if there was a chance she could have at least stopped by to say hi, you would be more upset with her and maybe even yourself. Why would you be upset with yourself for Raven not coming to visit you?"

Yang's bright expression dimmed a little, having not expected this topic to come up, and she could barely even keep her gaze on Lea's as she revealed one of her deepest fears. "I've told you how I've spent all this time looking for my mother ever since I found out about her, right? What I didn't tell you is that she had actually left almost right after I was born. Uncle Qrow once told me that she and my dad had me almost right after they all graduated from Beacon, so I guess it makes sense if she'd be a little freaked out. I mean, you spend all this time training to be a huntress, and suddenly you've got to look after a kid? It's got to be pretty scary."

"Yeah, I can only imagine, especially when you've just barely become a full adult," Lea nodded in agreement. He was not saying he was against the idea of having a family one day, but having such a huge responsibility when you were still that young would be pretty worrisome.

"Well most people would probably just grin and bear with it, or even just go away for a few days, right? So why did Raven leave my life completely?" Yang posed, but Lea could not tell if she was asking him or herself. "All this time I've spent looking for her, and I don't even have a clue if she's even tried to come back for me. Sometimes, I can't help thinking maybe…"

"Maybe what?" Lea prompted, fearing the answer as a pit formed in his stomach.

"…Maybe I'm the reason she left in the first place," Yang finished, tears slowly building up in her eyes. "What if she left because she didn't want me, or because the idea of just having a kid at all was too much for her to handle? What if I'm the reason why my dad lost his first love?"

The gasp of surprise that escaped him could not be contained even if he had tried. Lea was just too shocked by what he was hearing. Did Yang really have thoughts like these running through her head when it came to Raven? Judging by how she had started crying a little, she must have, and he needed little other reason than that to spring into action as the caring boyfriend he hoped to be for her. Instantly, he had wrapped Yang in a gentle hug and let her cry into his shoulder, all while rubbing her back in as soothing a manner as he could in hopes of calming her down.

"Hey, don't you ever think like that," Lea whispered to her. "Any sensible parent would never leave their kid without good reason, and I'm telling you right now, leaving because of the kid themselves is never a good one. If Raven did leave because of you then that's on her, not you, because you, Yang Xiao Long, are incredible. Anyone who can't see that needs to get their head examined, or just deal with me."

A small, watery chuckle helped Lea to know his words were cheering Yang up a little, and the two stayed like that until Yang had finally calmed down. After drying her eyes, Yang asked once again, "Why so curious about all of this stuff, anyway?"

Lea froze. How could he possibly tell her about his encounter with Raven now? After hearing Yang pour out her heart about one of her deepest fears, the last thing he wanted to do was basically confirm they had already come true. Sure, it was scummy to keep the encounter a secret for even longer than he already had, but telling her now would have made him no better than any of the villains he and his friends had encountered over the years. In short, any courage he had gathered to tell her about his meeting with Raven had left him, and in its place came another lame excuse.

"No reason. Just, hearing you talk about how you finally told Ruby got me thinking, and I wanted to make sure you would be okay if such a thing ever happened," Lea told her.

On the surface, Yang accepted his excuse, but in truth, she found herself a little skeptical. Something about the pause between her question and his answer, even if it was very brief, made her a little concerned about her boyfriend, and when you added in the strangeness of the little hypothetical he had proposed before they had arrived at Dwarf Woodlands, you could understand why Yang had a hard time believing it really was a subject he had brought up for no reason.

She would have to leave it for later though, as Sora suddenly called for everyone to report to the bridge. Apparently, another call was coming in and he wanted everyone present when he answered, so they hurried to join the others on the bridge as quick as they could. Little did they know, this call would be one that would put a different kind of diversion into their primary mission than the ones they had taken so far.

---

AN: Oof! Poor Lea. He just can't seem to catch a break. Right when you think he's finally going to open up and tell Yang about his talk with her mother, she goes and unloads the abandonment issues on him. Yeah, I know. I'm a little mean for making him hold off on this for a little longer, but as you can see, it's not like it's entirely his fault...this time.

Now with that said, I'll admit, this chapter was a lot more filler than anything else. Not a lot of real plot progression this time around. Sure, there were some fluffy moments, a couple of nice interactions and meetings, but when you get right down to it, the only thing of real significance would probably be the talks between Lea and Yang. I mean, you could probably count the flashback to Yang and Ruby's conversation about Raven, but can it really be called a progression when it's recounting details that had happened previously?

Yang: Speaking of, why have Ruby know about Raven before I said anything?

AN: Because Ruby's a smarter kid than many people give her credit for. There's no way she couldn't have figured it out on her own, either by the time the series started or even some point before Volume 4 and/or 5 when they crossed paths with Raven at Haven. So yeah, Ruby already knew.

Not really much else for me to talk about here, I think. I mean, it should be pretty obvious why some things happened the way they did. I found a way to work in a classic Disney song, got Ven and the seven dwarfs to bury the hatchet, and then let everyone have an adventure on Halloween Town, or as I've dubbed it in this story, Holiday Hub. Yeah, that name kinda just came to me while I was writing this, mainly because I didn't really think it would be all that appropriate to keep calling the whole world Halloween Town when there were in fact several holiday-themed towns on said world.

Roxas: [looking a little grumpy] How about explaining your choices for the form changes we had in Halloween Town and Christmas Town?

AN: Oh, right. I suppose I could get into detail on that. First off, the main reason I included Halloween Town in this trip is because, as someone pointed out to me a while back before the arc had even started, it would have been interesting to have them visit a world where it was always Ruby's birthday. That's also what inspired her little exchange with Jack Skellington. By the way, before anyone asks, the little gift Jack gave Ruby really is just a special little trinket. Nothing magical about it, so stop that train of thought before it goes any farther out of the station, please.

Now, on the actual topic that Roxas brought up, I'll admit, for the most part, I got a bit more creative with the Halloween Town outfits than the Christmas Town ones, but only because it was harder to come up with that many different looks for the latter. Blake and Ruby's were probably the easiest to come up with, for obvious reasons (Blake more so than Ruby)…

Blake: Humph. [still a little cross over the choice of form for her, believing it was a little insulting and very cliche]

AN: And Pyrrha was also fairly simple to come up with as well. Blame the various fanarts I've seen of the many iterations of undead Pyrrha. Ventus was another easy one too, since I had already given him a Halloween Town form in the Keyblades Unleashed Series. Was it lazy to just reuse Werewolf Ven for this? Maybe a little, but I didn't have many other ideas. The only other easy ones would definitely be Lea and Roxas. Lea, because anything fire-related would definitely fit him, so fire demon. And Roxas…well, what did you expect? The dude gets called a total zombie so much the opportunity for that little laugh was just too good to pass up.

Roxas: I'm not laughing.

AN: We know. Anyways, that's where things got a little more difficult. Weiss ended up being easier than expected, but only because someone had made a suggestion or two on what she could be in Halloween Town. I don't remember exactly who it was, but something about Weiss turning into a banshee just stuck out to me, so I went with that. The rest, I had to try and think some things up on my own. Jaune and Ren were particularly difficult, because of how hard it is to picture either of them being anything other than what we've all come to know them as. In fact, if Sora didn't already have his own Halloween Town form, I'd probably never have been able to come up with something for him either. In the end, I went with a black knight for Jaune due to how often black knights are said to be cursed or less noble than the typical knights, while Ren became a mad scientist because...well, there isn't really much of a reason behind that. I just couldn't think of anything better suited for him.

Nora and Yang proved to be the hardest since, while I could have tried many things for them, I also wanted to keep their changes a little appropriate. One thought that crossed my mind for Yang had been either a siren or a succubus. The latter was out for, what I feel are very obvious reasons. In the end, I just settled on a goblin for Yang because I really couldn't think of anything better. Nora, I just had a hard time thinking of anything until I remembered how gremlins are typically described, and it just matched with her typical personality so well.

When I got around to the Christmas Town attire...yeah, I just got lazy and threw a bunch of things together, in case you couldn't already tell. Basically, the Keyblade wielders all wore their own versions of Sora's outfit, and everyone else just got whatever I could think of in the moment. Who'd have thought it'd be so hard to come up with 12 different Christmas/winter-themed outfits? Hopefully, I'll have an easier time with that when we get to that world over in Keyblade Legion.

Weiss: What about the Heartless we fought? The boss one from before our meeting with Santa?

AN: Yes, I almost forgot about that. Thank you for the reminder, Weiss. Cursed Kringle is actually an original Heartless that I came up with for this story, and is mainly inspired by that one boss we saw over in the anime Sword Art Online. I'm talking about the one Kirito fought in episode 3 of the anime in order to get a supposed revival item. Not really much else to say there, and at this point, I think I'm grasping at straws on things to talk about with this chapter, so let's just do some review answers, shall we?

First off, "TheRedeemer1995", appreciate the praise and the presents for everyone. Doubt they'll really able to make much use of those parachutes when we get to that point in this series, though. Assuming I do go that route. Can't wait to see what happens in Volume 9 or the next season of Loki myself.

"SpeedMaster642", you're not wrong about that, and that actually reminds me of a point I meant to bring up last chapter for everyone. If anyone thinks Weiss is or should be able to summon the Heartless she's beaten, please let me know in your reviews or via PM. I'd like to know one way or the other before there comes a time when I could make that happen.

"keybladelight", the chances of Yozora showing up, or of Sora abusing the power of waking in this story are incredibly low, so I wouldn't expect anything like Melody of Memory happening here any time soon. Especially given what I already have in mind for the direction this story will be heading in, eventually.

"SuperSayainFever", even though you'll be finding this out after all these reviews, I'll just go ahead and say, you shouldn't have to wait too much longer on that.

"fernandamichelleraya", I never said that Blake's parents didn't have the money to afford Blake any toys, but as has been stated in canon, she spent all her time in the White Fang, even to the point where she was almost literally born into it. I doubt you have much time for simple things like playing and toys when you're trying to fight for equal rights like they had to. I'll admit, some of the other little backstory moments for Team RWBY and their respective Team SLVR buddies may have stretched on a little longer than I would have liked, but something about Toy Box seemed like the perfect place for the girls to get that kind of thing out there and receive great advice from both the Keyblade heroes and some other incredible characters. Glad you enjoyed the little moment between Lea and Weiss so much though, because I honestly had a little fun writing that, myself.

As far as your grievances about Volume 8 go, let me just point out a small flaw with your logic on how things were resolved between Yang and Ruby: you seem to forget that just before they were reunited, a giant, Grimm whale had literally blown up! And for all Ruby knew, her sister was probably close by or inside of it. On the opposite end of things, Yang had no idea of Ruby and the others were close enough to have been caught in the blast, so I wouldn't say all tension was resolved. More like, it was eased up a little due to being relieved that they were all still alive. I'm not going to argue any of the other points you made about Yang though, because you're definitely right. And again, on the matter of Weiss pointing her weapon at Whitley, she was stressed, her friend was seriously hurt and probably in danger of dying, and her long-believed, arrogant snob of a brother was not helping matters by continuing to talk down on her like an insect beneath his feet. That doesn't seem like a winning combination for making rational decisions to me. I'm not saying its excusable, but it is somewhat understandable when you stop and think about the headspace everyone's in at the time.

I do understand where you and many others are coming from on these grievances, but I can't help but try and get everyone else to see some sense of reasoning behind it, especially when, from where I'm sitting, it seems like everyone else has forgotten that their opinions of Whitley were not too different a short time ago, to the point where they too would've pointed a sword at him, at best. It's all about thinking from the position of the characters, and keeping in mind where they are at emotionally and mentally in many aspects.

"Monkey D. Conan", glad you were satisfied with how the previous chapter turned out. As for your question about the development with Ven and Vanitas, you'll just have to wait and see how that develops, but you shouldn't have to wait too long, because we'll start to see a bit of finalization on what's going on there by the time this arc is over.

As for Ruby's feelings about the dark corridor, who's to say that perhaps it wasn't a little bit of both? I'll leave up to all of you to decide one way or the other for the time being. As far as her silver eye powers mixing with princess of heart abilities though, well, that's one of those things that's currently off-limits for discussion, I'm afraid. A little too far into spoiler territory right now.

"Spiderfan626", now you know where they were headed this time, but as for some of your guesses on where they would head next on this journey, all I can say for certain right now is that I'm not planning for them to stop at Hollow Bastion. The others you mentioned will definitely happen, and will each be an entire chapter of their own. The only thing I can say about Final Fantasy characters right now though, is that the earliest you'll see them in this story will be when they finally visit Olympus.

"Dragon Rider 66", happy very belated birthday, man. And glad to hear you have such good opinions on everything that happened while also getting your imagination working on what some of those things could be leading to. As for ideas and/or predictions I might have in regards to Volume 9, the most I've got for that is one that I believe is a universal prediction for every RWBY fan: that Ruby's going to have some kind of breakdown at some point in the volume. Beyond that though, I really couldn't say for certain. I try not to think on it too much for that type of thing. Makes it easier to come up with some fanfiction ideas that could potentially spawn from how things had ended in the previous volume, as you've probably already figured out from Chapter 12 of RWBY Meetings.

To the guest reviewer "Captain Imaginat", in case you haven't noticed, I have in fact been having Sora use his various Keychains and Formchanges in this story. And a couple of Shotlocks too. Or at least all the ones he's obtained by the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, save for the ones he gets from Oathkeeper and Oblivion. You'll find out why he hasn't used the ones for those two yet later on in this arc.

"Guest" of 6/17/2021, who asked about Vanitas still existing inside of Ven, like I said before, you'll just have to wait and see. And who knows? It may not be as bad as you think. Or will it?

Ventus: Please don't tease them like that.

AN: Sorry. Anyways...

"Guest" of 6/17/2021, who asked about Lea's reaction to Yang possibly losing her arm, and if there would be a three-way battle between Aqua, Winter, and Qrow. The former question, I can't say at this time, since that would entail major spoilers, but I will say Lea won't be the only one ends up getting a serious bone to pick with Adam. As for your second question, there will be a three-way battle between Winter, Qrow, and a Keyblade wielder, but the wielder in question won't be Aqua. I won't say anymore than that for now. You guys will just have to try and guess on your own for the time being.

"CT7567Rules", yes indeed, I am an older sibling, but I like to think I've outgrown the days where I get upset with my siblings over things like that. Oh, and I have seen The Bad Batch, really liked it too. Great way to showcase how the galaxy transitioned from the Republic to the Empire. And thanks for the various recommendations. I'll have to try and remember some of them for later.

"Lily-Quaun", I wouldn't put too many hopes on Chirithy showing up any time soon just yet, if I were you. But as for Kairi and Oscar, we will see them again before we reach the point of Volume 4/5. In fact, I plan for them to show up at a couple points in this arc, so keep your eyes open for that. As far as Ozpin being either Ephemer or the Master of Masters...yeah, no, that's not going to be a thing.

"Guest" of 8/8/2021, Zwei's been on the crew since their little world-hopping mission started. Didn't you see how I mentioned they had brought him along when they met Sora at the Stealth Gummi, or when Ruby and Rapunzel were talking back in Corona?

Finally, "Noxmad", I am honored to know your first review on this site was for one of my stories. Thank you so very much. And thank you for your gracious praise for my work. I'm always glad to hear that my work has an impact on someone, and hearing such comments from you certainly helps me to keep writing all of my stories. And don't worry, my passion for writing, be it for fanfiction or general, won't be burning out any time soon. My own imagination will finally gain an off-switch before that happens, and I highly doubt that will ever happen. I sincerely hope my work continues to inspire and impress you in the future.

Now, I believe that should do it for now, and let me just say we'll be getting back to a more plot-driven chapter next time, as you're all about to see from our regular sneak preview. Onto the Preview!...

Sun has had enough. Neptune's fear of water has finally tested the last of his limits, and he needs a quick solution to help his buddy get over his phobia. Sadly, they've already tried everything they could think of, at least on Remnant. Lucky for them they've got some friends who can provide a solution from other worlds, and Sora thinks he has just the thing. One quick stop at Remnant later, and the two boys join the team on a little adventure over the seven seas. And they aren't the only ones joining in, because an old friend of Sora's is ready to set sail along with them in a race to find a very valuable treasure before one of three other parties do. Here's hoping things don't get too Jacked up, and they just sail through with ease. Wait, what the…? Oh for the love of-Not again. Yang! Anyways, it's going to be a pirate's life for everyone, next time.

Ugh, I can't believe this! How did you get back into the writing room again, Yang?

Yang: I have my ways.

Blake: I thought you were starting to like the puns.

AN: Not when they're being used against me like this. Anyways...

Once again, be sure to check out my YouTube channel "Studio Fandom" and the DeviantArt page "studiofandom" if you haven't already. Always looking for more followers and subscribers on both.

And don't forget, we are looking for voice actors for the Remnant of the Key Reading Series video. For more details on what to do to sign on and/or qualify, go check out episode 8 of Studio News for full details. And as always...

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