AN: So I realized that in Chapter 1, I completely forgot that Ruby is left-handed. So I made sure to emphasize it here. In regards to what Aqua's Semblance is, I got quite a few responses and there was one answer that I got more than others, so I've decided on Aqua's Semblance. I'm thinking the reveal will be next chapter.

Anyway, here's Chapter 4! Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Ruby Rose could hardly contain her excitement. Ever since she woke up that morning, she was practically bouncing all over the place in jubilation. Could you blame her? After all, today was the day that she started her training with Aqua.

She still had absolutely no idea what the Keyblade was, but hey, it looked awesome, and Aqua could do some really amazing stuff with it. And she was going to learn MAGIC! How cool was that?!

And so they were outside Ruby's house, about to start their training. It was very early in the morning, which would normally be a problem for the young girl, but she was just so excited that she practically flew out of bed.

The same couldn't be said for her older sister, however, whom Ruby had dragged out of bed to watch her train. The blonde girl was sitting off to the side, her hair disheveled, clearly trying her best to stay awake.

Aqua was standing across from her, and Ruby just couldn't hold it in anymore.

"What are we doing?" Ruby asked, jumping up and down excitedly. "Are we going to learn magic? I want to learn magic! Can we, can we, can we?"

"Ruby, shut up," Yang moaned from the side. "It's too early for this." Ruby just stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"Well, I can see someone's excited," Aqua said with a laugh. "No, Ruby, we're not going to start with magic." Ruby visibly deflated at that. "We have to work up to magic. You have to start with the basics first."

"Like what?" Ruby asked, her cheeks puffed out in indignation.

"Like how to fight," Aqua deadpanned. "How to summon the Keyblade, how to swing it, that kind of thing."

"Oh," Ruby said. "Well, I guess that sounds cool, too."

"Alright, are you ready?" The woman asked. Ruby nodded in response. "We're going to start with the basic of basics: Summoning the Keyblade at will. I'm assuming that the other times you summoned it was purely out of instinct, and not anything you did deliberately?" Again, Ruby nodded. "That was the weapon reacting to the presence of the Heartless."

"The weapon reacted?" Ruby asked, tilting her head slightly. "What does that mean?"

"It means that the Keyblade summoned itself to help you."

"How does a weapon summon itself?" Yang asked from the sidelines. "Isn't it just a hunk of metal?"

"The Keyblade is special," Aqua answered. "It basically has a mind of its own. It chooses who gets to use it, will call itself out when its wielder is in trouble, and will disappear if someone holds it that isn't supposed to."

"How does that work?" Ruby asked.

"To be honest, I have no idea how it does it," Aqua said rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. The sisters gave her deadpan looks at that. "What? I may be a Master, but that doesn't mean I know absolutely everything."

"Mm-hm," the sisters mumbled, unimpressed.

"A-anyway," Aqua said with an embarrassed cough. "Let's get started. Hold out your hand like this," Aqua held out her right outstretched in front of her. Ruby copied the action, but with her left hand. "A Keyblade wielder's power comes from their Heart."

"The Heart?" Ruby asked.

"Right. Our Hearts are the core of our being. It's where our emotions come from, it's a source of power, and it's what we draw on when we use the Keyblade. It's simple, all you have to do is call out to your Heart, and…" With a bright flash of light, her Keyblade appeared in her hand. "There we go."

Ruby just couldn't get over how cool that weapon was. The sleek black metal, the lightweight frame, it just screamed "Awesome".

"Alright," Aqua said. "Give it a try."

"How do I do that?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"You have to draw power from within. The easiest way that I found to do this at first is to close your eyes and focus your attention on your chest." Ruby closed her eyes like Aqua instructed, and focused.

"Now what?" She asked.

"Keep focusing, keep pulling your attention towards your chest until you feel a warmth." Ruby clenched her eyelids in concentration, but she couldn't feel anything. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to…

Oh, there it was. Just like Aqua said, she felt warmth radiating out from her chest.

"I feel it!" She said. "You're right, that was easy."

"Now," her teacher said, "I want you to imagine yourself grabbing hold of that warmth and pulling it up to the surface."

In Ruby's mind, she pictured a great fire, giving off a warm, bright glow. To Ruby, her inner strength roared as a mighty bonfire. She imagined herself approaching the bonfire, and reaching out a hand towards it. Reaching her hand towards a raging fire like that would normally be a horrible idea, but she was Ruby Rose, and it was her bonfire. She was a Keyblade Wielder, and no puny fire was going to beat her! She imagined herself grabbing hold of the flames themselves, and with a mighty yank, she began pulling the fire out of its pit. She felt the warmth pour through her body and towards her outstretched left hand. And finally…

Nothing.

Nothing happened. She felt the warmth, pulled it out like Aqua told her to, but no weapon appeared.

Why not? What had she done wrong?

She opened her eyes and looked at her left hand with a pout on her face.

Stupid hand. Not holding a Keyblade in it.

"Why didn't it work?" She whined to Aqua. For her part, the older woman looked just as confused as the girl.

"I don't know," her teacher answered. "The Keyblade should have answered your call."

"I did everything you said to," the girl kept whining, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Where's my Keyblade?"

"Give it another try," Aqua said, trying to calm the girl down.

And so Ruby tried again. She pictured the warmth, grabbed hold it, and pulled, and again, no Keyblade. Ruby was starting to get seriously frustrated.

"What am I doing wrong?" She asked.

"I'm not sure," Aqua responded, holding her chin in thought. "Once you've awakened your Keyblade, it should answer—" Her eyes widened as she came to a realization. "Awakened. That's it! Ruby, have you had any weird dreams lately?"

"No," the girl said. "Why?"

"Normally, a Keyblade Wielder is supposed to go through an Awakening. It usually happens in their dreams. If you haven't had that yet, then I think the Keyblade hasn't fully accepted you yet. You can't call it yourself until you go through it."

"Aw," Ruby whined, thoroughly disappointed. "How long will that take?"

"Since most people go through it before their Keyblade ever gets summoned," Aqua started, "it should happen pretty soon."

"OK," Ruby said, looking a little more cheerful than she was a moment ago. The two of them heard a loud yawn coming from Ruby's older sister.

"Well," Yang said, "That was a waste of time. I'm going back to bed." And with that, the blonde girl stood up and started walking back to the house.

"Yang!" Ruby called after her. "Wait up!"

Sinking.

That's all she could use to describe how she felt. Sinking onto a seemingly endless abyss.

Ruby had no idea how it happened, but she found herself surrounded by pure blackness. She looked around in a panic, hoping to find Yang, or her daddy, or Uncle Qrow, or Aqua. Anybody that might be able to help her. But she was alone.

She continued falling until she suddenly landed on her butt on something invisible. She slowly got up, rubbing the pain out of her backside. She looked around, but only saw the same black void that she fell down. She took a cautious step forward, when she was suddenly met by a blinding light. She had to momentarily shield her eyes, but then she saw that the light was coming from a flock of doves that seemed to appear straight from the floor, revealing the light underneath it. It was a truly beautiful sight. When all of the doves had flown away, it revealed that she was standing on what appeared to be a round stained-glass window. It was primarily red, and prominently featured an image of herself sleeping. There were three small circles containing portraits around her head. One of them had her big sister's smiling face, but the other two were unfamiliar to her. One was a girl with white hair and icy blue eyes. The other one seemed to be a black-haired cat Faunus girl with yellow eyes. She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, or how she got here.

"So much to do, so little time," a voice said in her head.

"Ah!" She shouted, looking around for the source of the voice. "Who said that?! Who's there?!"

"Take your time," the voice said. "Don't be afraid." It seemed the voice was planning to ignore her. Stupid voice. "The light hasn't come back yet."

"What light?" She asked the voice.

"Now, step forward," the voice continued, still not answering her. A ray of light appeared in the middle of the stained glass. "Can you do it?"

"Of course I can walk forward," she said, puffing up her cheeks indignantly. "Stupid voice, thinking I can't walk," she mumbled. She stepped into the ray of light with purpose, when she heard a rumbling sound. She looked around her, and saw three pedestals appear from out of the glass. A light shone above each one, and a sword, a shield, and some kind of rod appeared above them.

"Power sleeps within you," the voice said. "If you give it form, it will give you strength. Choose well."

"I'm not sure what most of that meant, but I'll give it a try," she said. She approached the pedestal with the shield on it and picked it up. On closer examination, it was primarily black, with a red outline and three red interconnected circles in the center. One of the circles was larger than the other two, which were positioned to the upper-right and upper-left.

"The power of the guardian," the voice said. "Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?" Ruby thought about it for a second.

"Nah," she said, putting the shield back. She then approached the pedestal with the rod on it. Picking it up, she gave it a once-over. It was a short green rod with a golden end, and on top was the same three circles from the shield, only in blue.

"The power of the mystic," the voice explained. "Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. Is this the power you seek?"

"I don't get it," she said, and with that, the power of the mystic was out. Finally, she walked over to the last remaining pedestal, the one with the sword. She had her eye on it since it appeared, and after picking it up, she could see why. It was a short, double-edged sword with a golden cross-guard emblazoned with the same three circles. It was a gorgeous weapon.

"The power of the warrior," the voice said. "Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?"

"Cool," Ruby drawled. "Yup, I want this one!" She said excitedly. The weapon suddenly disappeared from her hands, causing her to frown in disappointment. "Hey! Where'd it go?!"

"Your path is set," the voice said. "Now, what will you give up in exchange?" Ruby thought back to what the voice said about the other two weapons.

"You said something about 'kindness' when I had the shield," she said out loud to the voice. "Mommy and Daddy always told me to be kind, so I don't want to get rid of that. I guess I'll get rid of the stick thingy. I couldn't understand you anyway."

"You've chosen the power of the warrior," the voice said again. "You've given up the power of the mystic. Is this the form you choose?"

"Yup!" Ruby said cheerfully. As she said that, the pedestals lurched forward and sank back inside the glass. She looked at where they had been, and then her eyes widened as she saw the glass she was standing on rapidly beginning to deteriorate, beginning from the outside and working its way in. She could do nothing but wait in a panic as she finally lost her footing and fell. She fell for what felt like several minutes until she saw another stained-glass platform underneath her.

This one was primarily colored yellow, and featured her daddy, a sad expression on his face, and one of his bottles in his hand. He had two circles around his head, and they had other people's faces in them. One of them was an angry-looking lady that Ruby had never met. She had jet-black hair and blood-red eyes. The other picture…

Was her Mommy. Summer Rose. Ruby would recognize that black-red hair and those silver eyes anywhere. She got them from her, after all. However, her portrait was practically covered up with cracks. Just looking at it made Ruby sad. She didn't have time to dwell on it, though, as the sword suddenly reappeared in her left hand.

"You have gained the power to fight," the voice said. Ruby saw a slight movement out of the corner of her eye. She squinted at it to get a closer look. There was some kind of weird shadowy thing on the floor. "There will be times you have to fight," the voice continued, and Ruby could see that the shadow was starting to rise up out of the ground. It was one of those creatures from before. What did Aqua call them? Heartless? As she backed away nervously, two more appeared next to it. "Keep your light burning strong," the voice spurred her on. She took another nervous step back.

"What's going on?" She asked. "What are those things doing here? I can't fight them!" She took another step back, only to realize when her heel touched thin air that she had backed up against the edge of the platform. "No, no, no, what do I do?" she began to panic. "I have to fight them? But, I—" she remembered the voice's words.

"You have gained the power to fight. There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."

"Yeah," she said. "I don't have a choice. I have to fight these things." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, gripping the sword with both hands. With a yell, she charged at the nearest Shadow, clumsily swinging her sword at it. She connected, but lost her balance and tumbled to the ground. She saw one of the creatures jumping up to swipe at her, so she rolled to avoid it. She got up, faced the Heartless that just attacked her, and stabbed with her sword, impaling it right in the center of its chest and making it dissipate into black smoke. The other two creatures melted back into the floor and disappeared. Ruby jumped up and down in victory.

"Aw, Yeah!" she yelled. "I'm awesome!"

"Behind you!" the voice yelled suddenly. Alarmed, she turned around and saw that the Heartless had merely gotten behind her, and were standing there menacingly. She immediately charged at one of them and swung with all her might, managing to kill it in a single blow. The final one, however, melted into the floor again, but this time, a pool of darkness began to spread from where it disappeared. Multiple pools then began to pop up all along the platform until Ruby felt herself get sucked into it. She struggled to try to pull herself out, but it was ultimately pointless, as her whole body was submerged by the blackness.

She continued writhing around, until she realized that the darkness had gone. She opened her eyes and saw that she was on yet another new stained-glass platform. This one was colored gray and depicted her Uncle Qrow, scythe in his hand. Ruby noticed that he had no other portraits surrounding him. It was just Uncle Qrow by himself. She slowly stood up and saw that in the center of the platform, a light shone on a lone, ornate door. She approached the door and pulled it open. A blinding light came from the other side of it, and she walked into it with apprehension.

She was not expecting the sight in front of her when she stepped through the door. Granted, she had no clue what to expect, but it certainly wasn't her front porch. Looking around, she saw her big sister, daddy, and uncle all standing around on her porch, seemingly doing absolutely nothing at all. They weren't even talking to each other, just staring off into space. It was a little unsettling for the young girl.

"Hold on," she heard the voice say. "The door won't open just yet."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked. "What's going on? What's wrong with my family?"

"First, tell me more about yourself," the voice said, continuing to ignore her and greatly confusing her in the process.

"Will you listen to me?!" she yelled, but there was no response. "Whatever," she grumbled. She walked up to Yang, who had her back turned to her, and she grabbed her shoulder, turning the older girl around to face her. "Yang?" she asked hopefully.

"What are you so afraid of?" her sister asked. Ruby just furrowed her brow in frustration.

"What kind of a question is that?!" She screamed. "Please, Yang, talk to me," she pleaded. "You're really scaring me."

"What are you so afraid of?" Yang repeated. Ruby groaned in frustration.

"Ugh, fine." She put her hand to her chin to give the question some thought. "I guess I'm afraid of losing you and Daddy like I lost Mommy," she said finally.

"Losing people?" Yang asked. "Is that really so scary?"

"It's scary to me," Ruby said with a pout. Yang turned back around to look out into the woods and no matter how much Ruby prodded her, the blonde girl wouldn't say anything else. Giving up, she walked over to her Uncle Qrow, who was leaning up against the house with his arms crossed.

"What do you want outta life?" he asked her.

"Oh, that's easy!" she exclaimed. "I want to be a Huntress!"

"You want to be a Huntress, huh?" he asked, and then went back to staring off into space. Finally, she approached her daddy, who was sitting on the porch steps.

"What's most important to you?" the older blond man asked.

"My family," Ruby said without a second thought.

"Is family such a big deal?" her daddy asked. Ruby honestly felt hurt hearing her own father say that.

"You're afraid of losing people," and just like that, whatever emotions she had just been feeling turned to annoyance at the sound of that stupid voice. "You want to be a Huntress. You love your family. Your journey begins at dawn. As long as the sun is shining, your journey should be a pleasant one."

"That sounds nice," Ruby said.

"The day you restore the light is both far off and very near," the voice said cryptically. Ruby suddenly found herself engulfed by a bright light. When the light faded, she found herself on yet another stained-glass platform. This one was mainly colored white, and had four people depicted on it that she didn't know. One of them was a blond boy with a sad look in his blue eyes. The next picture was a girl with bright red hair and green eyes, a bright smile on her face. The next picture depicted a ginger girl with teal eyes, and if Ruby was being honest, she looked scared. Finally, there was a black-haired boy with a magenta streak in it to match his eyes. He had a warm smile on his face. Ruby had no idea why these people were on this platform. Every other platform at least had people on them that she knew. But she had no idea who these four kids were.

She walked to the center of the platform, waiting for the voice to say something, when a light shone down onto the center of the platform, leaving a bright spot on the glass. She stepped into it, and she saw a small circle of light travel along the floor until it left the platform. Then, to her astonishment, a pathway made of pure stained glass began to form, and continued up into the darkness. She walked towards it, trying to see where it might lead, but the end was too far away. She took a step onto the glass, then another, and then another, and noticed that the pieces of the pathway behind her were vanishing as she stepped off them.

"No going back," she said out loud. She kept walking warily, constantly reminding herself to not look down into the black abyss all around her. She finally reached the end, and lo and behold, it was another stained-glass platform with a picture on it. This one was colored blue and depicted Aqua, who was looking at her Wayfinder sadly. There were two other full body pictures on either side of her. One of them was a teenage boy with spiky blond hair, and the other was a young man with swept-back brown hair. Both of the boys had their eyes closed, which was a first for all of the people depicted on these platforms. She could see a column of light shining down on the center of this pillar, and she slowly walked toward it.

"The closer you get to light," the voice finally said, "the greater your shadow becomes." Ruby was now standing fully in the column of light, and looked around. She briefly noted that her shadow was so long that it extended all the way to the end of the platform. However, what surprised her was when her own shadow began to rise out of the floor, growing even larger and taking on a new shape. "But don't be afraid," the voice continued. "And don't forget." She could only back up in sheer terror at the sight of her shadow transforming. She turned around and tried to run, only to quickly come up against the other end of the platform, forcing her to stop. She turned around to face the creature, terrified at what it had turned into.

The giant figure in front of her was clearly a woman, with pure white skin and hair. Her eyes had black sclera and red irises, and she had black veins running all over her body. Completing the look was a long, pitch black gown. The demonic woman opened her mouth and roared, black ooze seeping out of her mouth and onto the stained-glass platform below her feet. With the edge of the platform right behind her, Ruby had nowhere to escape to as the darkness began to spread all over the platform and inch towards her.

"But don't be afraid," she could hear the voice say. Tendrils of darkness had completely covered up her legs at this point, and she was swinging the sword, desperately trying to cut them off, but to no avail. "You hold the mightiest weapon of all." She fell over, and tried to crawl away from the monster, only to watch as the darkness overtook her arms as well. "So don't forget…" The voice said as Ruby's vision was fully obscured by darkness.

"You are the one who will bring back the light."

Ruby finally let out a blood-curdling scream.

"AHHHHHH!" Ruby screamed, sitting upright in bed with a jolt, startling her sister awake in the process.

"Ruby?!" Her sister said, jumping out of bed to run to the younger girl's side. "What's wrong?! Why are you screaming?" She put her arm around Ruby's shoulder and started rocking her, trying to calm down the girl who was now crying from her terror. "Did you have a bad dream?"

"Uh-huh," Ruby nodded her head through her tears. Yang quickly pulled her into a tight hug, rubbing her back soothingly to calm her sister down.

"Shhhh, it's okay," Yang whispered to the sobbing girl. "It was just a dream. It can't hurt you." They sat there like that for several minutes, the blonde girl just letting her sister cry her fears into her chest. Eventually, Ruby's tears began to subside. "Are you okay?" she asked her sister softly.

"I think so," Ruby replied a little shakily.

"Are you okay to go back to bed, or do you need me to sleep with you tonight?"

"I think I'm fine."

"Okay," Yang said, releasing the hug. "But I'll be right across the room if you need anything."

"I'm fine," Ruby said with a hint of annoyance. "I know where you sleep."

"Alright then," Yang said. "I'm gonna go back to bed. I'll see you in the morning." She got up and began walking back towards her own bed. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Yang," Ruby said, lying back down and pulling the covers over herself. "Hey, Yang?"

"Yeah, Ruby?"

"I love you." She heard her sister chuckle a little bit.

"Love you too, sis."

Ruby lied there for a few minutes, thinking about the dream.

Such a weird dream, she thought. Then it dawned on her. Didn't Aqua say something about weird dreams? She sat up again, closed her eyes, and held out her left hand in front of her. She imagined herself in front of a large bonfire, and in her mind, she reached out and grabbed the tendrils of flame and pulled. She opened her eyes.

An explosion of rose petals burst forth out of her palm. When the petals subsided, in her left hand…

Was her Keyblade.

AN: Not gonna lie, I honestly wasn't expecting when I started writing this chapter that it would be told entirely from Ruby's perspective. I do like bouncing perspectives around but it felt more natural to just follow Ruby.

The reason I wrote this chapter was mainly because I realized that Ruby hadn't done her Dive to the Heart yet, and I feel like it's a great opportunity for some symbolism with who was appearing on her glass platforms, and the giant at the end, who I'm assuming you could guess the identity of. It also let me hint at Ruby's greater destiny. I also had her ditch the rod because I thought it would be kind of funny that she was so excited to learn magic, but since she's so young and has a limited vocabulary she ends up weakening her own magic power by accident just because she couldn't understand what the voice was telling her.

As always, thanks you guys so much for reading my story, and I'll see you all next chapter!