AN: I hope everyone had a great holiday, and Happy 2022! I got distracted during the break with the games I got for Christmas, which was Resident Evil Village, Last of Us Part 2, Shim Megami Tensei V, and Pokemon Shining Pearl. I really loved Village, and my god TLOU2 was disappointing.

Anyways, with that out of the way, onwards!

Chapter 113

The unknown silver-eyed girl wildly swung her hand at Riku, who caught it before clamping his hand over her mouth, realizing that she was apparently sharing this room with three other girls.

Clearly, he wasn't fast enough.

"Ruby?!" another voice called out, a light quickly being switched on. Riku looked over and saw a girl with long, wild blonde hair and a mechanical arm sitting up in her bed, her lilac eyes wide with surprise, before they narrowed and turned blood red. Riku watched as the other two occupants of the shared room, a girl with white hair and a scar, and a girl with black hair and a pair of cat ears atop her head, woke up as well, glaring daggers at him.

"Okay, I know this looks bad…" Riku said, before he grasped his hand in pain as the silver-haired girl, "Ruby" apparently, bit him.

"Get away from my sister!" The blonde one yelled, her eyes erupting into yellow flames. Riku felt Ruby kick him backwards, and a black glyph appeared on the floor underneath him, keeping him suspended in the air. He looked up in time to see the blonde one flying towards him, her fist engulfed in flames. He quickly summoned Braveheart, and raised it up to block the punch. However, the impact still sent him flying backwards, knocking him through the door and into the hallway. He slammed into the wall hard, before landing on the ground. He looked up and saw the four girls pouring out of their room and into the hallway, the white-haired one carrying a rapier, the black-haired one carrying some kind of weird katana and cleaver, the blonde one with flaming fists and eyes, and the silver-eyed one had…

…Were those Keyblades?!

"Who…" he tried to say, before he suddenly had an arsenal of weapons shoved in his face. A door down the hall was kicked open, and four more people poured out: a ginger girl carrying a giant hammer, a blond boy with a sword and shield, a black-haired boy with two pistols, and a brown haired boy with a…cane?

"What's going on out here?!" the ginger girl yelled. "People are trying to sleep!"

"We woke up and saw this little creep laying on Ruby's bed!" the blonde one said, confirming that the silver-eyed girl's name was in fact "Ruby".

"What?!" the blond boy exclaimed, before the newcomers joined the four girls in pointing their weapons at him.

"Alright, buddy, who are you?" the ginger girl asked.

"Did Salem send you?" the blonde one asked. "It sure didn't take sure didn't take her very long to send someone else after Ruby."

"Huh?" Riku asked, before Ruby stepped forward, her two Keyblades held up defensively in front of her.

"Is that a Keyblade?" she asked, looking down at Braveheart.

"It is," Riku said. "I see you have two of them."

That might make this more complicated. He knew first-hand from his battle with Roxas that someone who's powerful enough to wield two Keyblades at once wasn't someone he wanted to take lightly. He still hated what he had to resort to doing to defeat the boy, and Roxas had only just acquired that ability. He knew nothing about this girl, and how long she had been dual-wielding. If she was experienced in that style, then fighting her wasn't going to be easy.

"Salem has a Keyblade Wielder now?" the blond boy asked.

"No, she would have just sent him instead of going to Raven," the white-haired girl reasoned.

"What are you talking about?" Riku asked.

"I don't really care who sent him," the blonde girl said, stepping forward and cracking her knuckles. "He was perving on my sister, so he's going to die."

Oh, great. She was Ruby's sister. No wonder why she wanted to kill him.

"Can you just give me—" he tried to say, before the blonde girl charged at him. He quickly launched himself forward, moving so quickly that he appeared to turn into a small ball of light, before reforming down the hallway. "Just let me explain!" he yelled, before he dove out of the way of a green beam of energy, which had been launched from the sword belonging to a blond man. A woman with long black hair and a cat tail ran towards him and threw a punch, which he blocked with Braveheart, but the impact still sent him skidding backwards further down the hall. "Stop!" he yelled. "My name is Riku! I'm a Keyblade Master! I don't know how I got here, and I didn't land on you on purpose! I'm sorry! Just stop attacking me!"

"Riku?" Ruby asked.

"Haven't we heard that name before?" The white-haired girl asked.

"Wait a second," the blond man said. "I recognize that name. You're Sora's friend. The one he kept going on about needing to find."

"You know Sora?" Riku asked.

"WAIT!" Ruby exclaimed. "We do know that name! He was the one that we helped close the door to Kingdom Hearts back during our first year!"

"Wait, how do you know about that?" Riku asked.

"We were there," Ruby said. "We went into the Realm of Darkness with…Mom."

The mood suddenly turned very somber, confusing Riku.

"Anyway, how the hell did you get here, anyway?" the blond man asked.

"Oh, that's right!" Riku said. "I was with Mickey searching the Realm of Darkness for a way into a world called Remnant."

"Well, I'd say you made it," the girl with the cat ears said. "Welcome to Remnant."

"That's great!" Riku said. "I'm looking for a woman named Aqua. Do any of you know where I can find her? It's an emergency. The entire Realm of Light is at stake!"

No one answered him. They all just looked down at the floor. Two of them, Ruby and her sister, even started to tear up at the mention of her name.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Aqua died," the blond man said. "So if you need her, you're too late."

"…What?" Riku asked.

"I can't believe he turned his back on us," Adam heard one of the White Fang's soldiers say from inside the throne room. "He just—"

Adam interrupted the voice by opening the door and walking into the throne room, seeing a large group of soldiers crowded around the throne. His throne.

"Step away from my throne," he said, approaching the steps. "We have work to do…"

"We?" one of the soldiers asked. "Everyone knows what you did. You abandoned your brothers at Haven!"

"Step. Away. From my—"

"We're not taking orders from you anymore! We heard you folded the moment you got sass from the Belladonna girl. I guess she's got more control over you than you—"

The man's head was on the ground before his body realized it was gone.

A few minutes later, Adam sat down in his throne, the room filled with the bodies of the traitors. He felt nothing for them. If they refused to see his vision, he had no need of them. He rubbed his chin in thought, thinking about what that one soldier had said.

"The Belladonna girl… Blake."

This was all her fault. Once again, she had ruined everything. Maybe that solider had been right. Maybe he was letting her control him. He had a righteous mission to make humanity bow before him, but as long as Blake was around to continue ruining things, he would never be able to accomplish anything.

He knew what he must do. He was done offering her chances to return to him. Either he would bring her back by force, or she would die. Either way, she would no longer be able to interfere.

His thoughts were interrupted by a low, impressed whistle. He stood up quickly, his hand reaching for his sword.

"Impressive," a laid-back voice said, belonging to a man in a long black coat with the hood pulled up over his face. "Man, those goons really were no match for you, huh?"

"Who are you?" Adam asked.

"A friend," the man said. "Well, maybe not a friend, exactly, but someone who can definitely lend you a hand."

"Every time I've accepted the 'aid' of a human, it's only made things worse. If you work with Hazel, you can tell him… Actually, better yet, I'll simply kill you and send your head back to him. I'm sure he'll get the point."

"As if," the man said. "I don't really know or care who this Hazel person is, but I'm just here to teach you a helpful new technique. You can use it to get that girl of yours, and teach all these stupid humans a lesson, all on your own."

"And what technique is that?" Adam asked. "What could possibly be that powerful?"

The man just chuckled.

Cinder was soaking wet by the time she finally woke up, not sure what that weird dream was. She recognized the creatures she fought as Heartless, but she had no idea what that voice was trying to tell her.

She was the one who would bring the darkness to heel? What did that mean?

Cinder groaned and sat up, clutching the stump on her shoulder where her left arm was before Raven sliced it off. She looked down at the stump in despair, remembering what the arm that used to be attached to it did.

"Aqua…" she said, before noticing that the cavern she was sitting it seemed oddly warm. She looked over and saw that a fire had been started. "Where did that come from?" she asked herself, shuffling over to sit next to the fire. Then she came to another realization.

The water that she had most likely fallen into was several feet away from her. Too far for her to have simply washed up, which means someone must have dragged her out to safety. Likely the same person that had started the fire. She looked around to see if the person was still around, but saw no one. She saw a part of the cave had opened up, allowing sunlight to enter the cavern. She tried to stand, but her legs still felt weak from her battle with Aqua and Raven, and she sat back down, deciding to wait until the person came back.

She didn't have to wait long, as only a few minutes later, she heard the footsteps of someone approaching.

"I see you're awake," a monotone voice said. One that sounded oddly familiar. But it couldn't be.

Cinder quickly looked around, and saw what she thought was impossible.

"Aqua?" she asked.

The woman certainly looked like Aqua, but she didn't remember Aqua looking quite so… goth.

While the last time Cinder had seen Aqua, her hair cascaded down her back, now it was shorter, only reaching her shoulders. She was wearing a cropped purple tee-shirt under a black leather jacket with a hood. She had a black pleated skirt, black thigh-high stockings, and black combat boots. Curiously, she had what appeared to be a tattoo of a rose on her neck. The most notably different thing about this woman and Aqua was the fact that that the woman standing before her had a completely blank expression on her face, much like the one Cinder had when she was under Salem's control.

No, this was different. This woman was clearly alert and fully aware of her surroundings, but there wasn't a shred of emotion on her face.

"Aqua, is that… is that you?" Cinder asked, starting to hope that somehow, what she had done hadn't been real. That it was all some kind of dream, or illusion.

"I don't know that name," the woman said, disappointing Cinder. "Is it mine?"

"Huh?"

"I don't remember anything," the woman specified. "I just woke up here, and saw you floating in the water. I pulled you out, and started that fire. Before that, nothing."

Cinder wasn't sure what to say. Was this her fault? Whatever it was that she did to Aqua up at Haven, did it somehow rob her of her memories?

"Do the names Ruby and Yang mean anything to you?" Cinder asked. Aqua shook her head. "What about Qrow?"

"No, they don't," Aqua said. "Should they?"

Cinder's eye widened. She didn't even remember her family?

"Ruby and Yang are your daughters," Cinder explained, and there wasn't any kind of change in Aqua's blank expression. "Qrow is your husband. Do you really not remember them?"

"It doesn't feel like I don't remember them as much as I don't know them," Aqua said. "Speaking of which, what's your name?"

"It's Cinder."

"I see."

The two of them were silent for a few seconds as Cinder thought about what to do next.

For the first time in years, she was free. She was in control of her own thoughts again, and she didn't know what to do. She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to find Ruby. And Yang and Qrow. She wanted to let them know that she was okay, that she was free. But after what happened, would they accept her? Would they hate her? Especially now that she can see the aftermath of what she had done.

But she knew one thing. Regardless of how they'd feel about her, they needed to know what had happened to Aqua. They needed to see her again. She needed to find them.

She tried to stand up again, but stumbled. Aqua caught her.

"What are you doing?" Aqua asked.

"We need to leave," Cinder said. "We have to find your family."

"But you're injured."

"I don't care!" Cinder snapped. "Just help me walk."

"…Okay." Aqua hooked Cinder's remaining arm around her shoulder, and grasped her waist to keep her upright.

Only a few minutes down the road, they came across a young woman with a basket of apples tucked under her arm. She had brown hair pulled into a loose bun, and was wearing light green robes tied together with a brown belt.

"Oh my goodness!" the woman gasped, running up to the two of them. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Um, we were attacked," Cinder said, making something up.

"Oh, that's terrible!" the woman said. "Here, let me help you. Do you have anywhere to stay?"

"No, we don't," Aqua said.

"Well, I have a little farm right down the road," the woman said happily. "You can stay with us until you're all better." Cinder and Aqua took a brief look at each other before nodding.

"Oh! I forgot to ask your names!"

"I'm Cinder. This is Aqua," Cinder said.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Alice."

"So, Aqua's… really gone?" Riku asked, sitting down on a couch in the living room of the house he landed in, the others in the group surrounding him, introductions having already been made. "How did you know her?"

"She was our teacher," Weiss said.

"And she was our mom," Yang, said, gesturing to herself and Ruby.

"I'm sorry," Riku said, lowering his head. "If you don't mind me asking, how did it happen?"

"It's a bit of a long story," Jaune said. "Can we tell him everything, professor?"

He looked over to the youngest among them, a boy named Oscar, who apparently also was the host of their old headmaster? "I suppose it can't hurt. After all, we'll need all the help we can get."

"…So, I ran down into the vault after them," Yang said. "By the time I got there, Cinder had been freed, but then she turned Mom into a Heartless. That Heartless then killed Raven, and I got her powers."

"And then… I killed the Heartless," Ruby said, tears starting to well up in her eyes again. Riku was silent for several seconds before he looked at the Lamp hooked onto Oscar's belt.

"…All that for one little object," he said. "I'm sorry you had to go through with that. If only we were a little bit faster, we might have gotten here fast enough to prevent this."

"Who's we?" Blake asked.

"Mickey and I," Riku answered. "We went into the Realm of Darkness to look for her, but we got separated, and I ended up here." He blushed at remembering exactly how he had landed on this world. "Sorry about that, by the way," he said, not wanting to make eye contact with Ruby.

"U-um, it's fine," the girl said. "It was an accident, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Then apology accepted."

"Earlier you said something about the Realm of Light being at stake," Ren said. "What did you mean by that?"

"…Did Aqua ever tell you anything about a man named Xehanort?" Riku asked. There was a silence for a few seconds, but recognition dawned on everyone's faces.

"Yeah, we know that name," Yang said. "He made Mom's life a living hell."

"Well, he's back," Riku said, and Yang's eyes lit up.

"Son of a bitch!" she yelled. Riku looked at her in confusion before shaking his head.

"Anyway, he's created a group called Organization XIII and is trying to recreate the Keyblade War."

"Again?" Ruby asked. "Didn't he try that like 12 years ago?"

"Yes, but this time, he decided to not take any shortcuts," Riku explained. "When the X-Blade was shattered, it broke into 7 pieces of light, and 13 pieces of darkness. He created his organization to serve as the 13 darknesses using people to serve as vessels for his heart. We need to gather up our seven lights to fight him, but we're two short. Counting myself and Mickey, we have Sora of course, and our friends Axel and Kairi started training with theirs, but that leaves us two short. We were hoping to find Aqua to add her to the roster, and she knows where to find Ven. But with her gone, we can't find him, so we're sunk."

"Why is it so important that you actually play along?" Weiss asked. "If you don't fight him, then the X-Blade can't be forged, and you win."

"If we do that, then the Organization will just kidnap the Princesses, and they can't defend themselves against something like that like we can."

"Princesses?" Jaune asked.

"The Seven Princesses of Heart," Riku explained. "They're the only seven people whose hearts don't have any darkness in them. The Organization already warned us that if we can't gather our seven lights, they'll just kill the Princesses and create the X-Blade that way. And we haven't figured out who three of them are. But I don't know what we're going to do without Aqua and Ven."

"…Actually, Mom told me where Uncle Ven is," Ruby said. "Back at Beacon."

"Really?!" Riku asked. "Where?!"

"U-Um, she said that she hid his body in the Land of Departure, and then used her Master's Keyblade to transform the world." She held out her right hand, and summoned the Master Keeper. "She made me promise that if anything happened to her, I'd use it to bring him back. I…I never thought it was a promise I'd have to keep." Tears started to well up again at the memory of what had happened to her mother. Riku backed off on the excitement, knowing that she needed space right now. She shook her head to try to compose herself. "She…She said that she transformed the Land of Departure into a castle that wipes people's memory as they climb up it."

"Castle Oblivion," Riku said.

"You know the place?" Blake asked.

"I've been there before," he explained. "It was where I had my first run-in with the original Organization XIII. That explains what they were doing there."

"Original Organization XIII?" Blake asked.

"It's a long story," Riku said. "Xehanort made an Organization before, Sora and I defeated them, and he replaced them. Now, I hate to ask this, but would you be willing to take Aqua's place?"

Yang suddenly punched the coffee table, her eyes bright red. "No one can take her place!" she shouted. Riku put his hands up in a placating gesture.

"I didn't mean it that way," he said. "But without her, even if we find Ven, we're still short one light. I know no one can replace her, and I wasn't trying to imply that she was. It was a poor choice of words, and I'm sorry."

After a few seconds, Yang took a deep breath, and her eyes turned back to lilac.

"So, Ruby?" Riku asked. "I know that this isn't the best time, but would you be willing to join us?"

"…I…I can't," Ruby said. "I don't know if I could do something like that right now. And even if I wanted to, we don't know how to leave Remnant. Mom and I were trying to figure out how to seal the Keyhole. We hoped that it would bring Remnant to the Realm of Light, and we could leave then."

"I see," Riku said. He put his hand to his chin for a few seconds before reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a small digital device. Except, it was smashed. "Ah, man." He said in disappointment.

"What is that?" Nora asked, leaning forward to take a good look at the device.

"Well, it was my gummiphone," he said.

"Your what?' Weiss asked, her eyebrow raised.

"It's a communication device that works across worlds," Riku explained. "I was hoping I could use it to call Mickey, but it looks like it's broken."

"Uh, whoops," Yang said sheepishly. "That might have been me."

"When you threw me at the wall? Probably," Riku said before sighing. "Guess I'm on my own here… Well, I might as well help you."

"Wait, really?" Ruby asked.

"Of course. It's my job. Besides, the faster we find Remnant's Keyhole and seal it, the faster I can get back to the Realm of Light and stop Xehanort before he finds and sacrifices the Princesses."

"Just don't get on top of my sister again," Yang said, pointing her finger at him threateningly.

"Uh, definitely," Riku said. "So, what was the plan? You got the Relic away from Salem's people, so what now?"

"We didn't really come up with one," Ruby said.

"Actually…" Nora said.

"Huh?" Yang asked.

"Ozpin came up with an idea, but it's one you won't like," Oscar said.

"What is it?

Oscar's eyes glowed briefly. "I told the others earlier that I think the safest place for the Relic would be Atlas."

"What?" Yang asked, her voice practically a growl.

"James would be able to keep it safe."

"No!" Yang yelled. "Forget it! I'm not going anywhere near that jackass after what he did to Mom!"

"Regardless of how you feel, James is already guarding one of the other Relics. He'll know what to do with this one. We have nowhere else to put it."

"I'm confused," Riku said. "Who's James?"

"General James Ironwood is the leader of the Kingdom of Atlas's military," Weiss said. "After Beacon fell, Aqua was confined to a wheelchair, and Ironwood offered to let her come to Atlas to undergo surgery to fix it. It worked, but then he conspired with my father to keep the both of us locked up there, her for her Keyblade and me because I refused to obey him, and we had to escape."

"And you think it's a good idea to bring this Relic to him?" Riku asked, looking at Ozpin skeptically.

"James may be extreme, but his heart has always been in the right place. Like I said before, I'm certain I can convince him to not go after Miss Rose if I can just talk to him."

"Fat fucking chance," Yang said. "You won't get the opportunity to. When I see him, I'm going to rip him apart with my bare hands. I don't care how close you are with him, or how helpful you think he'll be. That asshole is going to pay for what he did to Mom and Weiss."

"Well, we still need a plan," Blake said. Yang suddenly whirled around and glared at her.

"Why did you say 'we'?" Yang asked. "You aren't part of this."

"What are you talking about?" Weiss asked. "Blake's our teammate. Of course she's part of this."

"Really?" Yang asked. "In case you forgot, she hasn't been here." She kept her eyes on Blake. "After Beacon, you ran! You had every opportunity to stay and be a part of this team, but you left!"

"Yang, I—" Blake tried to say, but Yang interrupted her.

"Let's do a quick rundown of everything that happened. The school fell, some of our classmates died, I lost an arm, Mom was crippled, Ruby was in a coma, and Weiss, your own damn partner, was dragged back to Atlas kicking and screaming so he could lock her up. And instead of even bothering to come and check if any of us were okay, you just fucked off to the beach with your boy toy!"

"Yang, stop it!" Ruby tried to plead.

"It's fine," Blake said. "She's right. I left. But I promise you, I'm done running."

"Your promises mean nothing to me," Yang said, getting up in Blake's face. "As far as I'm concerned, you're not—"

"That's enough!" Tifa said, getting in between the two of them.

"Stay out of this!" Yang yelled.

"I won't," Tifa said. "You need to calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Yang yelled. "Who the fuck even are you, anyway?!"

"I'm Blake's friend," Tifa said. "And according to her, so are you."

"Am I?" Yang asked, directing her attention back to Blake. "You sure don't fucking act like it."

"Yang, I'm sorry," Blake said.

"Shove it."

"Yang, please," Ruby suddenly said, grasping her sister's hand tightly. "Just stop." Yang could see the tears in Ruby's eyes, so she breathed a heavy sigh and stormed off upstairs. Ruby quickly wiped her tears away.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," she said to Riku. "I think Mom's death is affecting her more than she wants to admit. She doesn't usually act like that."

"It's fine," he said, before looking back to Ozpin. "And you still think it's a good idea to go and see the man who imprisoned the woman she just lost?"

"I…"

Ozpin didn't get to say anything else before the door opened and a man in a red cape staggered through the door.

"I'm back," he said, his words noticeably slurring. He stopped and stared at Riku for several seconds. "Do I know you?"

"No?"

"Oh good," the man said. "I'm not that drunk."

"Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked. "Were you… drinking?"

"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "I'm sorry."

What kind of group had Riku stumbled his way into?

"Ruby."

"Huh?" Ruby mumbled, her eyes slowly opening.

"Ruby."

Ruby could swear that she could hear a voice calling out to her. It felt familiar. Almost like…

"Mom?" she asked, sitting up in her bed. She looked around, and saw nothing. But no, that was impossible. She went to lay down again.

"Ruby."

What was that? She quickly got up and walked out of the bedroom door, trying to determine the source of the voice. She looked down the hall, and saw what looked like a ghostly figure turn the corner out of sight.

"Mom?" Ruby asked again, moving to follow the figure. She quietly ran down the hallway after it, and saw it fly downstairs. She followed it towards the back door, where it flew through. She opened the door to go outside, and saw the figure float up into the sky.

That was when she saw it.

A large, glowing object floating above Haven Academy.

An object shaped like a heart.

AN: I realize now that naming that woman Alice might cause some confusion, but that's supposed to be the woman Cinder killed in canon Volume 6. She doesn't die here.

So, a lot happened. We met Aqua's Nobody, Riku is officially joining the group so he can go home, and another Kingdom Hearts has appeared over Haven Academy.

Now, you may have noticed that Riku didn't tell them about the fact that Aqua definitely has a Nobody. It's not that simple. He knows that she'd have one, but the problem is that they'd have to kill it for her to come back, and especially after Yang's outburst, he's not sure telling them that is a good idea. Now, if Sora was the one that stumbled into Remnant, he would absolutely tell them. But Riku isn't as tactless as Sora is. He sees why telling them about Aqua's Nobody could be a problem, so he's holding off for now.

I want to remind everyone that this story now has a Tv Tropes page! I look forward to seeing it filled out!

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!