AN: Before we start, I want to address Dyna-Man 21. I actually copy-and-pasted your ideas for an FF7 crossover into a Word document to make sure I kept it. I can definitely see a lot of potential, but there are a lot of things I would need to go over before I consider writing it. The main thing I want to clarify is exactly what the purpose is of combining the worlds of FF7 and RWBY. Like, how does it affect the overall conflict. Would Salem still be the villain of that story, or would it be some form of Sephiroth? Like I said before, it would be much easier for us to go over it if you make an account so we can message privately.

With that said, I also want to take a moment to talk about how I'm starting to get kind of tired of the "Ironwood did nothing wrong" crowd. I'm part of a few RWBY fan groups on Facebook, and they occasionally pop up. I'm getting sick of them to be honest. At the same time, I'm surprised that people are still hating on Ozpin in my reviews. Again, ya'll know he's not the villain, right?

Anyway, on with the chapter!

Chapter 114

Ruby found that she could only stare up at the glowing heart for several minutes, long after the figure with Mom's voice disappeared.

Why did that figure have her mother's voice?

Why did it disappear into Kingdom Hearts?

Wait, that was another Kingdom Hearts!

Ruby shook her head to snap out of her shock, and ran back into the house, barreling past Riku, who had been sleeping on the couch after Yang refused to let him sleep on the same floor as them.

"Huh?" he mumbled, as Ruby's running had woken him up, but Ruby paid him no mind and sprinted up the stairs. "Ruby, what's happening?" After a burst of Semblance to get to the room her team was staying in, throwing the doorway open.

"YANG!" she shouted. Yang's eyes shot open, turning red as she raised her fists.

"What!?" she shouted. "What's going on?!"

"Kingdom Hearts!" Ruby shouted.

"Huh?" Yang asked, the fire dying from her eyes. "Rubes, what are you talking about?"

"Kingdom Hearts is floating over Haven!"

"Wait, what?" Riku asked, stepping into the room. "How do you know it's Kingdom Hearts?"

Ruby ran over to the window and threw the curtains open, revealing the large glowing heart. "What else could that possibly be?"

Riku stared out the window in shock for a few seconds. "How is that possible?"

"Don't know," Yang said, getting out of bed and walking towards the window. "But it's not the first time we saw one of those things."

"Huh?"

"One of them popped up back at Beacon," Blake said, she and Weiss having woken up.

"What happened to it?" Riku asked.

"We sealed it," Ruby answered. "But first, it trapped Mom in a dream and tried to take over her heart. It showed her a perfect world."

Riku put his hand to his chin in thought. "It's a little bit different, but it sounds similar to the Kingdom Hearts Xemnas summoned."

"Who's Xemnas?" Weiss asked.

"He's Xehanort's… uh… subordinate, and the leader of the original Organization XIII. Regardless, if one of them's appeared here, we have to go and seal it off."

"There's something else…" Ruby said.

"What is it?" Yang asked.

"…I heard Mom's voice. It guided me to find Kingdom Hearts."

"Ah, good morning, Cinder," Alice greeted as Cinder stepped into the dining room of the modest cabin, breakfast already on the table. Cinder had been given a new outfit by Alice to replace the battle-worn red dress that Salem had given her, and honestly, for something so small, Cinder couldn't help but feel very grateful. After all, the less of Salem she still had, the better. Her new outfit consisted of a brown robe tied together with a sash. The left sleeve hung limply at her side, since she didn't have an arm there to fit through it. She was at least glad that her eyepatch was intact, as the scarring on her face was honestly pretty horrific, and she didn't want to scare Alice's young son.

Speaking of Alice's son, Tanner was sitting across the table form Aqua, looking curiously at the blue-haired woman, who had already been seated and was drinking from a mug that had steam billowing from it. Alice's husband, Hunter, was seated at the head of the table, and Alice was seated next to her son.

"Good morning," Cinder said as she took a seat next to Aqua.

"How are your injuries?" Hunter asked.

"Better," Cinder answered, picking up her fork to try and eat the bacon and eggs in front of her. She had to use the fork by itself to break up the eggs into smaller pieces, since she no longer had a left hand to hold a knife, but it wasn't that big a deal. "My Aura's handled most of the work by now." She took another look at the limp sleeve. "No helping that, sadly."

"Did it hurt?" Tanner asked, prompting Cinder to chuckle mirthlessly.

"Yes, it did," she answered. "It hurt a lot, actually."

"Isn't it hard to do stuff with one arm?" the boy asked. "Like, how did you get dressed?"

"Tanner, don't be rude," Alice chastised her son.

"What?" Tanner asked, not sure what he had done wrong.

"It's fine," Cinder said. "I got dressed very carefully."

Well, more like she had spent twenty minutes trying to figure out how to get the sash tied, but he didn't need to know that.

"Well, either way, I'm glad I found you when I did," Alice said. "There's no telling what could have happened to you if you two had been left all alone."

"Yes, we're grateful for that," Cinder said, looking to the blue-haired woman sitting next to her. "Right, Aqua?"

"Nn," Aqua grunted, taking another sip of her drink. Cinder's eye widened in a brief panic before she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, seeing that Alice and Hunter had both raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Um, sorry about her," Cinder said. "She's, uh, very shy around people she doesn't know."

"…Right," Hunter said. Out of curiosity, Cinder looked over to see what Aqua was drinking.

"Is that coffee?" she asked.

"Yes," Aqua answered.

"You always liked tea…" Cinder said, a bit downtrodden. "Do you like it?"

Aqua took another sip. "It's bitter."

There was another awkward few seconds of silene before Tanner spoke up. "So, is it hard to see with only one eye?"

"Tanner!"

"So that thing is Kingdom Hearts?" Jaune asked, the group having all stepped out into the courtyard so they could get a look at it.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "Or at least, a mini one."

"Didn't Aqua say something about Kingdom Hearts being, like, this ultra-powerful, world-ending thingamajig?" Nora asked.

"Well, this doesn't seem to be a real one," Riku said. "That being said, I have no idea where it came from, or even if someone is responsible for summoning it. Regardless, we need to seal it off."

"Wait," Ren said, taking a closer look at it. "Didn't we see something like that floating over Beacon right before the Vytal Festival started?"

"Yeah, one showed up there, too," Yang said. "Mom and Ruby sealed it off, though."

"Isn't that where she saw…" Uncle Qrow said, trailing off and then taking a swig from his flask. Ruby looked at him sadly.

"…Yeah."

"Man, it's amazing how much stuff we missed," Nora said.

"Riku, do you have a plan to go about sealing it off?" Ozpin asked. "I remember that the one over Beacon was quite the ordeal."

"Well, we have no way of knowing what's going on inside of it, so I don't really have much of a choice but to go in blind."

"Are you sure I shouldn't go with you?" Ruby asked. "Two Keyblade wielders are probably better than one, especially if it turns out to be as evil as that last one was."

"That's a good point," Riku said. "Normally, I'd rather one of us stayed here in case Heartless showed up, but you all seem like you can handle yourselves more than most people from the other worlds I've been to, so we might not have anything to worry about."

"Right. Let's get this over with, then," Ruby said, summoning both of her Keyblades while Riku summoned his. They pointed their weapons at the sky, and beams of light shot out of their Keyblades and towards Kingdom Hearts.

And then suddenly Riku yelled and was thrown back by an unseen force.

"Are you okay?" Tifa asked, running to check on the boy.

"Ow," he said in response.

"What was that?" Blake asked.

"I don't know," Riku said, sitting up and rubbing his head. "It's almost like it…rejected me."

"Ruby, are you okay?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ruby said with a nod before looking back up at Kingdom Hearts. "…Maybe I'm the only one that's allowed in?"

"You're not going in there alone," Yang said.

"I'm starting to think I have to. Riku can't, and I'm the only other one with a Keyblade."

"What if it's dangerous?"

"It can't be any more dangerous than leaving it to do whatever it was going to do without stopping it. I have to do this, Yang."

"But…" Yang tried to protest, but knew it was pointless, instead just lowering her head in resignation. "Just promise me you'll be careful."

"I will," Ruby said. "I promise." She raised her weapons to the sky again, firing beams of light at Kingdom Hearts. The beam eventually reached it's destination, and in a flash of light, a doorway appeared. "Dumbo!" Ruby shouted, and the elephant appeared in front of her, spraying water out of his snout happily. She hopped on his back and he flapped his massive ears, carrying her up towards Kingdom Hearts.

As she approached the large Heart, she was engulfed by a bright light.

"Well, if it isn't Specialist Schnee," a voice said derisively. Winter turned around and saw a young man with black hair and an equally black wardrobe walking up behind her, a sword hanging from his waist.

"Noctis," she greeted cordially, if not overly-friendly. "What brings you to Atlas Academy? Last I checked you prefer to spend your time down in Mantle with your…friends."

"I'm here to talk to Ironwood," the young Huntsman explained. "I got a petition to deliver to him on Robyn's behalf. Not that he listened to last dozen we sent him."

"And she couldn't deliver it herself why?" Winter asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"You know better than anyone that as much as I hate Atlas, I'm still more welcome up here than she is."

"What is the petition about?" Winter asked.

"Like you care," Noctis said dismissively. "Oh, by the way, I heard about Weiss getting kidnapped. Terrible. You know, I met Aqua once. Hard to believe that she was capable of doing something like that, huh?"

"You can drop the act," Winter said. "I know you helped them escape."

Noctis froze in place, and Winter could see his hand shift towards his sword. "So, you gonna arrest me?"

Winter sighed. "No. I let them go, too."

"So you caught up to them?"

"Yes. They explained the situation, and I decided to not bring them back to Atlas. The General still doesn't know the truth."

"Wow, I'm impressed," Noctis said. "And here I thought you kissed the ground he walked on."

"I'm not sure what you're insinuating, but don't think I won't still tell the general about your involvement."

"Alright, alright," Noctis said, putting his hands up placatingly. "So how was Weiss?"

"Well, the ship you hired for them crashed, and she and Aqua were kidnapped by bandits when they arrived in Mistral."

"Ah, shit."

"They're both fine, though," Winter said. "They were already in the process of escaping from the bandits by the time I caught up to them, and by the time I came back to Atlas, they had relocated to Atlas. After I heard the true story, I decided to let them stay in Mistral."

"Good," Nocits said.

"I just have one question for you," Winter said. "Why did you help her?"

"You act like it's wrong to care about someone."

"You know what I mean. You've never been shy about your hatred for Atlas high society, especially the Schnee Family. So what compelled you to help Weiss?"

"To be honest, I couldn't tell you exactly what it was. There's always been something different about Weiss. I guess you could say she's special."

"'Special'?" Winter asked. "I won't disagree. But I have a feeling you mean it in a different wat than I do."

"Maybe," Noctis said with a small smirk before he continued walking towards the General's office. "Anyway, I'll see you around, Winter."

As the young man walked away, Winter couldn't help but shake her head. If Noctis really felt the way she thought he did, then she'd need to make sure he was up to snuff.

…Wait, did he just use her first name?

"So, Ruby can summon?" Riku asked after seeing Ruby jump on that flying elephant. "Even Mickey and I can't do that. Sora's the only other Keyblade Wielder I've seen that can summon."

"Really?" Yang asked. "I've got one, too."

"So do Blake and I," Weiss said. Each of the girls put a hand to their chests, and a bright light shined before Riku found four new figures before him: a lion with a red mane, a tiny red dragon, and a large floating blue man."

"That's Mushu and Genie," Yang said, gesturing to the dragon and the floating man, respectively. "And this badass kitty cat is Simba."

"Nice to meet you," Simba said.

"Simba's a king, so he's the best," Yang said.

"I see," Riku said. "How did you get these?"

"There's a man in a black coat that keeps harassing us," Weiss said.

"Sounds like the Organization," Riku said, putting his hand to his chin. "They all wear coats like that. Granted, the man who brought me to Remnant wore that coat, and he claimed to not be in the Organization."

"Same with the man that turned me into a Faunus and brought me to Remnant," Tifa said. "Or, at least, he wore that coat. He didn't mention anything about an Organization, though."

"Interesting," Riku said. "I wonder who that man could be, then."

"Whoever he is, we've been running into him on and off for at least a year," Blake said. "We first encountered him during our second semester at Beacon. He pulled us into a dream and made us fight really powerful opponents. He claimed he was testing us. Same with when he gave us our summoning charms."

"That definitely doesn't sound like any Organization members I've ever heard of. They've done some weird things before, but they've never been that willing to give us things."

"Hey, you know, I've seen you somewhere before," Mushu said, climbing onto Riku's shoulder and looking him closely in the face. "Yeah, I've seen you before! Sora fought you!"

"Now that you mention it, I think you're right," Simba said.

"Yeah, he's definitely the guy that wore the bodysuit and the skirt," Genie said.

"What?" Yang asked with a slight chuckle.

"You wore a skirt?" Nora asked.

"And fought Sora?" Jaune continued the questioning.

"Isn't he your best friend?" Ren asked.

"…It's complicated," Riku said, embarrassed at the dark suit that he wore being mentioned. "It was our first run-in with Xehanort. He possessed my body, and made me fight Sora. It was around the time that you all helped me close the door to Kingdom Hearts. So, yes, my body did fight Sora, but I wasn't in control. There, happy?"

"I just can't get around the fact that Xehanort chose to have you wear a skirt," Nora said with a snicker.

"There is nothing wrong with a man wearing a dress," Jaune said defensively.

"It wasn't a skirt exactly," Riku said. "It was more of a waist flap."

"Eh, I wore a skirt once," Qrow said, surprising everyone but Yang. "It was a prank Tai played on me when we started at Beacon. He gave me the girl's uniform and told me it was a kilt."

"I remember that causing quite the stir," Ozpin said with a sly smirk. "If I remember correctly, you received several compliments from the female students. Something about having nice legs."

"Yeah, yeah," Qrow said, reaching for his flask. "Still a dick move." He took opened up the flask and took a swig, but Yang suddenly sniffed audibly.

"Hold on," she said, leaning towards Qrow. "Is that whiskey?"

Qrow sighed. "Yeah."

"I thought you quit drinking," Yang said.

"I did," Qrow said. "I started again."

"What the hell?!" Yang yelled, her eyes turning red. "Why?!"

"You know damn well why!" Qrow yelled back.

"Mom's the one who helped you to quit in the first place, and you're just gonna spit on her memory like that!"

"Yang!" Weiss yelled.

"Well sorry that I'm so weak, Yang!" Qrow snapped back. "But you don't understand a goddamn thing about what I'm going through!"

"Bullshit I don't!" Yang yelled. "Mom's gone! But that doesn't give you the right to just go back on the promise you made to her! I'm still trying to live her example!"

"Yeah, but it isn't your fault that she's dead, is it?!" Qrow finally screamed, stunning everyone into silence.

"What did you say?" Yang asked.

"You know what my Semblance is," Qrow said. "I bring misfortune to everyone around me. Aqua never cared. She always accepted me, and loved me anyway. She promised that we'd work through it, that it wouldn't matter." Riku could see Qrow's body shudder. "And then, at the festival, we talked about the future. We talked about what we'd do after Salem was defeated. And do you know what she told me?" Qrow looked up, and Riku could see the tears rolling down his face. "She said she wanted to have a baby. We made the mistake of talking about the future, and my Semblance made damn sure that wouldn't happen! So I don't really give a damn if you don't approve of me trying to stop myself form feeling anything, but I got my fucking wife killed!"

Yang was silent for a few seconds, her eyes turning back to lilac and tearing up. "I…" she tried to say.

"Fuck this," Qrow said, turning around to head back towards the house. "I need a drink."

"Uncle Qrow…" Yang said softly, reaching her hand out towards him, but she went ignored as he stepped through the back door and into the house. Yang let her arm fall, a crestfallen look on her face. "I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"Let him have some time," Tifa said. Yang looked down at the ground, clenched her fists, and walked in the opposite direction, towards the end of the property.

"Yang…" Blake said, trying to reach out her hand, only for Yang to swat it away. Yang walked alone to the end of the yard, sat down, and looked up at Kingdom Hearts.

Riku wondered if her thoughts were wandering towards her sister.

Ruby had no idea what to expect when she entered Kingdom Hearts, considering what happened the last time, but she wasn't expecting such an incredible view.

Wherever she was, she was standing in a very shallow body of water that stretched all the way to the horizon. Above it, the clear blue sky was reflected in the water, creating the illusion that she was standing in the sky.

Ruby looked around, but found herself alone.

"Hello?" she called out. No response. "Hello?!" She tried again.

Who are you? A voice asked in her mind.

"Who's there?" she asked, when she saw lights appearing all around her. They were glowing bright pink and were shaped like…

…Hearts.

Where am I?

Another voice in Ruby's mind.

What happened to me?

Where are my parents?

More voices appeared, growing louder and louder.

Hey! Can anyone hear me?!

"Stop it," Ruby said, her hands gripping her ears. The voices grew louder, until it all just became one giant cacophony of noise. She fell to her knees. "Stop it!"

"Red?" a familiar voice asked.

An impossibly familiar voice.

Ruby looked up, and saw a man with bright orange hair and green eyes, wearing a long white coat and a black bowler hat.

"Roman?"

AN: It's a lot harder than I thought to write a character that feels no emotion.

So, sorry that this chapter was a little short and took so long. This was particularly difficult for me to write and come up with ideas for.

Anyway, Ruby is about to meet some of the hearts trapped in Kingdom Hearts, starting with the one and only Roman Torchwick.

I want to remind everyone that this fic has a TV Tropes page! I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys put on that page!

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