AN: Before we get started, I wanted to address Dyna-Man 21 again, so anybody who is not Dyna-Man can ignore this part of the Author's Note. If you're having trouble making an account, I would suggest googling it so we can actually have productive conversations, as there are a lot of things I need to know before I can even consider writing an FF7 X RWBY crossover.

First off, what is the significance of Sephiroth in this world? Who was he before he turned evil? And how did he turn evil? If Ozpin and the Cetra sealed Jenova away, then surely he would make sure she wouldn't be discovered, unless Shinra still found it without Ozpin knowing.

Also, you said Cinder would be a survivor of Nibelheim and have some of Sephiroth's essence in her, but what about Cloud? He would be adopted by Zack in this story, but how did they meet? Was he also a Nibelheim survivor? And was he still experimented on, like in canon? Is there anything weird about Cloud, like his identity confusion from canon?

And what role would Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj play? Basically, if we're adding these characters, we need to give them something to actually do. Same with Corneo, and all the FF7 students that are enrolled at Beacon. And I would want it to be more based on FF7 than RWBY.

In that same vein, we would need to decide the significance of Midgar being a fifth kingdom. What narrative purpose does Midgar being there serve?

That's kind of generally what I would want from this potential story if I'm the one writing it. How can we make it more FF7 and less RWBY, since I don't want to retread RWBY canon again after this story. It would drive me insane and make me lose motivation real fast. Especially with regards to giving Cloud, Yuffie, Tifa, and Reno something to do, since I imagine they would all be on the same team. Most stories I've read that adds a full extra team still has Team RWBY do the same stuff as in canon, only "hey, these people are here this time", and I'd really rather avoid that. I would want the team of FF7 characters, plus Aerith since she's here, to actually be very important to the plot independently of Team RWBY. Or hell, change up the teams altogether and mix RWBY characters with FF7 characters. But this is why I want to be able to message you privately. I've clearly got a lot of questions and there's a lot of work to be done fleshing out the story before anything can happen with it.

That being said, I do have some ideas that I would want to talk about, and I'm interested in writing this, but we have to do it right. Or at least right in my opinion.

With that out of the way, onwards!

Chapter 115

"H-How are you here?" Ruby asked Roman, not expecting to ever see his face again after what happened at Beacon.

"No idea," Roman said. "I actually have no idea where 'here' even is. Last thing I remember, we were on top of Ol' Irondick's flagship with all hell breaking loose around us. Next thing I knew I was here. So where am I? What happened to me? And most importantly, is Neo okay?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Ruby said. "You were kind of… eaten by a Griffon."

"Huh," he said, taking a look around. "So, I guess the afterlife is real after all. Eh, sure looks like a paradise, but it needs more cigars and women. So, Red, how did you die?"

"I'm not dead," Ruby said. "And getting swallowed up by that Griffon didn't kill you."

"Huh?" Roman asked, raising his eyebrow is confusion.

"So, there are these creatures called Heartless," Ruby explained. "They're creatures created from the Darkness in people's Hearts, and they hunt people down and turn them into more Heartless. When you got eaten by that Griffon, all your negative emotions came flooding out and turned you into one. All your desperation, fear, and anger."

"So I turned into a monster?" Roman asked.

"Yup."

"…What did I look like?"

"Like a big metal dragon with rocket launchers."

"…Nice," Roman said.

"So, I killed the Heartless you became, and set your heart free, and somehow it ended up here."

"So, what, I'm just a heart now?"

"Pretty much."

"And where is here, exactly?"

"It's a place called Kingdom Hearts," Ruby said. "It's this…thing… that has these awesome powers, but it's also probably super dangerous. I came in here to seal it off, and I guess the hearts it took haven't been fully absorbed into it yet."

"Is there a chance I can go home?" Roman asked, a hint of hope entering his voice. Ruby shook her head.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Once you become a Heartless, there's no going back. Your heart getting absorbed into Kingdom Hearts doesn't mean I can restore you. It just delayed you from going… wherever it is that Hearts go after their Heartless was defeated."

Roman hung his head in disappointment. "Damn. Okay, Red, one more question: Did Neo make it?"

"Yeah, she's fine," Ruby said, giving him a reassuring smile. "Actually, she helped me defeat the Heartless you turned into. After that, she said she was going to Mistral to look for Cinder, but I also went there and haven't seen her yet. Oh! I think she started modeling."

"Modeling?" Roman asked.

"Yeah, I saw a swimsuit ad in a clothing store that she was in."

"Swimsuit?!" Roman yelled.

"Well, she was using her Semblance to change her appearance, but she looked like she did during the Vytal Festival, so I'm pretty sure it was her."

"Using her Semblance?" Roman asked, putting a hand to his chin. "You know, that's not a bad idea. Make herself look like anyone she wants to, scam the photographers into thinking they're shooting a legit model, and run off with the money?" He pumped his fist triumphantly. "Yeah, that's my girl."

Ruby laughed. "You really were close with her, weren't you?"

"Close? I raised her!" Roman exclaimed. "Saved her when she was a kid…"

As Roman kept talking, Ruby found herself slowly being overtaken by a bright light.

Roman always hated the smell of these musty old basements. Of course, being in the business he was in, shady underground dealings, in this case quite literally, were par for the course, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

All he had to do was go in, buy the weapons, and he could go home. He took a drag of his cigar and exhaled carefully, letting the smell of his smoke mask the basement. He stepped further inside, seeing boxes and crates all over the basement, including a relatively small one with a tarp over it. He paid it no mind, and walked towards his contact near a table in the back of the room.

He was a wiry man named Silva, and he was wearing a black and gold leather jacket. "Roman, always a pleasure."

"Uh huh," Roman said, twirling Melodic Cudgel absentmindedly. "I assume you have the guns I asked for."

"Of course," Silva said. "Provided that you have the money."

"Keep you britches on, I got your money," Roman said, pulling out a stack of Lien cars and placing them on the table. "Now, the guns?"

Silva smirked and placed a large case on the table, opening it up and revealing a shiny new rifle. "State-of-the-art, straight from Atlas," Silva said. "And plenty more where this one came from."

Roman reached toward the rifle to inspect the merchandise, when he suddenly heard a noise. He quickly turned his head, his eyes being drawn to the box with the tarp over it.

"What was that?" Roman asked.

"Must have been some of the merchandise," Silva said.

"Merchandise?" Roman asked, slowly approaching the box, a pit forming in his stomach. There had been rumors that Silva had gotten into human and Faunus trafficking, but Roman never really took much stock in rumors. It seemed like this one might have been true, however. He grabbed the tarp and lifted it up, expecting to see some half-naked woman or an animal.

Instead, he saw a little girl, her hair half brown and half pink with mismatched eyes of the same colors, huddled in a corner of a cage in rags.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"Some girl I sold off a few months ago," Silva answered. "The buyer returned her. Apparently he wasn't happy with her. For whatever reason, she stopped talking after she was returned to me. Makes it harder to sell her to someone else."

"How old is she?" Roman asked, and the girl stared at him with eyes full of terror.

"Four, I think," Silva said. "Why, you interested?"

"No," Roman said, putting the tarp back down. She didn't need to see what was about to happen. Roman stood up, taking another drag of his cigar. "In fact, you can keep the guns, too."

"Huh?" Silva asked.

"I'm going to take my business elsewhere," Roman said, before he took the still-lit cigar out of his mouth and pressed it into Silva's eye. The man screamed as his eye burned. Before Silva could recover from the sudden attack, Roman grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face into the concrete of the floor, burying the cigar further into his head. Silva rolled onto his back, clutching his face in pain. Roman quickly stood over him and raised Melodic Cudgel.

"I'm going to start beating you now," Roman said. "I'm not sure when I'll stop."

He swung his cane hard, cracking Silva across the face.

It was a while before he finally stopped.

Roman pulled the tarp off the cage entirely, and opened the door so her could lean into it and hold a hand out to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She recoiled from him, bracing as far back against the back wall of the cage as she could. "I'm not going to hurt you." He said. "The bad man is gone. No one's going to hurt you." With great reluctance, the girl took his hand, and he pulled her out of the cage and held her in his arms. She was very thin, which didn't surprise him. "Do you have a name?" he asked. She just stared at him with her pink and brown eyes. "Oh, right, he, uh, said you can't talk. I need something to call you." He took another look at the girl, specifically at the very distinctive hair color. It reminded him a lot of ice cream. "Neo," he said. "Neo Politan." The girl's eyes widened a little bit, but she didn't seem to dislike the name. "Neo it is, then. Well, Neo, stick with me, I promise you, you'll never be alone again."

Cinder stepped out onto the front porch, raising her hand to shield her eye from the sun. Aqua had walked outside earlier that day, after Cinder suggested that she help Hunter tend to their fields. She figured as long as they were guests, they might as well make themselves useful. Granted, Cinder was limited in how useful she could be at the moment. She looked over and saw Hunter and Aqua tending the wheat fields, each of them swinging scythes with long wooden handles. The sight of Aqua with a scythe gave Cinder pause, remembering that both Ruby and Qrow used one, and Aqua couldn't even remember either of them.

She wondered if maybe some part of her connection to them endured somewhere in her heart, despite her inability to remember them.

With a sigh, Cinder stepped off the porch and walked towards the two of them. Hunter stopped working at seeing her approach, but Aqua kept going, not paying either of them any mind.

"How's everything going?" Cinder asked.

"It's going well," Hunter said. "You're friend over there is a real life-saver. I already assumed this'll take half the time with two people, but I'm starting to think we'll be done even earlier. She's a real work horse, that one."

"Yeah, Aqua's always been tough," Cinder said. "So… is there anything I can help with?" she asked awkwardly, anticipating the answer.

Hunter thought for a few seconds. "You're a Huntress, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Cinder said. Well, not really, but he didn't need to know that.

"Tanner's been talking about how he wants to start training to become a Huntsman. Think you could give him a few pointers?"

Cinder looked down at her limp left sleeve. "I'm not really sure how much I'll be able to help. I'm more used to having two arms. I won't be able to demonstrate any proper techniques."

"Eh, any pointers you can give him would be plenty help," Hunter said. "He mostly just swings those practice swords around without any guidance, so anything is better than nothing."

"Well, in that case, I'd love to help!" Cinder said, her mood starting to improve at finally being able to do something useful, even if it was something as small as giving sword fighting tips.

"Great, he should be out practicing near the shed," Hunter said, gesturing out towards another building on the property.

"I'm on it," Cinder said, turning around and heading towards the shed.

It didn't take her very long to find Tanner, swinging around a wooden sword wildly.

She could see what Hunter meant. The boy had clearly never been given any instruction in his life, and it was frankly a miracle that he hadn't fallen over with how uncontrolled and forceful his attacks were.

…And there he went. He swung too hard without having the proper leverage with his feet, and when he lost control of his momentum, he spun in a circle and finally tumbled to the ground.

Cinder couldn't help but chuckle. Tanner looked up at her from the ground and blushed in embarrassment, with a pout on his face. "Sorry, sorry," Cinder said. "Your dad asked me to give you some pointers, and it definitely looks like you need some."

"You're going to help me?" Tanner asked skeptically.

Cinder sighed. Leave it to a kid to be as blunt as possible.

"I may be one-armed, but I'm still a Huntress. And it looks like you need all the help you can get. Your dad said you wanted to be a Huntsman?"

"Yeah," Tanner said.

"Well, no true Huntsman would say no to an offer of help," Cinder said. She could see the boy wrack his brain around what she had just said. On the one hand, he was correct that only having one arm made Cinder less-than-ideal as a teacher. On the other hand, maybe she was right about what a true Huntsman would do.

"Fine," Tanner said, and Cinder smirked. The boy stood up, holding the sword in his hand.

"Can I see that?' Cinder asked, and Tanner raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I need to see its weight."

"Okay," Tanner said, handing the wooden sword to her. She gripped it and swung it a few times. It was light, at least in her hand, but she imagined it was fairly heavy for a young boy like Tanner. She handed it back to him.

"First thing's first, we need to work on your footwork," she said.

"Why?" Tanner asked. "You use a sword with your arms. Why do your feet matter?"

"Balance," Cinder said. "Stability. Proper stance will give you better control over the power of your strikes and help you keep your balance. That time you fell, you had no control over your attack. Even if there was something to hit, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to block you. And since your footwork was so loose, the weight of your sword sent you off-balance, which is why you fell. Here, try and attack me." She widened her feet a little, and raised her hand defensively. Tanner yelled and charged at her, swinging just like before. With barely a movement, Cinder brought her hand up and brushed the sword aside. Tanner stumbled, and she lightly shoved him, sending him tumbling to the ground.

She held out her hand and helped him up. "Now, let's take a look at what you did wrong. Take a stance."

Tanner held his sword up.

"Bend your knees and widen your feet."

"Like this?" Tanner asked, doing as she instructed.

"Good. That will help you give your strikes more power, and you won't lose your balance as easily," Cinder said. "It's a strong stance. Roots you to the ground like a tree."

"Okay," Tanner said.

"Now your grip. You need to hold it tightly, but not stiffen up your arm."

"Why?"

"You need to be able to not lose your grip, but you also need to be able to move the sword to block an attack."

"Okay," Tanner said, adjusting his grip.

"Try and hit me again, and keep what I told you in mind." Tanner nodded, and charged her again. This time, she swatted the sword away again, but Tanner stayed standing. "Much better."

"Thanks," Tanner said. "I guess you do know your stuff."

"You're welcome," Cinder said with a chuckle. A noise caught her attention, and she turned around and saw several black figures rising out of the ground.

"Grimm?!" Tanner yelled. But Cinder knew better. They were Heartless.

"Tanner, go get help!" Cinder said, standing defensively in front of him. "I'll hold them off." Cinder held her hand out in front of her, intending to use her Semblance to create one of her scimitars.

Instead, something weird happened.

The weapon that appeared in her hand certainly looked like one of her scimitars. Except, the blade was wreathed in still flame, with the fire swirling into a ball near the end of the blade. The Heartless in the field all snapped their heads in her direction to stare at her.

Cinder's eyes widened with the realization.

"Is this… a Keyblade?"

The Heartless started to approach her, and she shook her head, flipped the weapon into a reverse-grip, and charged.

When the light faded, Ruby found herself back in the beautiful skyline from before, Roman still standing next to her.

"Those memories were supposed to be private, Red," Roman said, glaring at her.

"I didn't do that," Ruby said. "I think Kingdom Hearts decided to show me your memories." They were both silent for several seconds. "That was how you met her, huh?"

"…Yeah."

"You saved her life," Ruby said. "You really cared for her, huh?"

"I did."

"I thought I was stupid, didn't you?" Ruby asked. Roman grunted in confusion. "Back when we were both arrested by General Ironwood. I told you that I knew you were a good person deep down. A bad person wouldn't have rescued a child from a man like that."

"You could be right, Red," Roman said sadly. "I just wanted to do right by her."

"I can tell she cared a lot about you," Ruby said. "I'd say you did right by her."

"…Thank you," Roman said. "One last thing? Call it a request if you want to."

"What is it?"

"If you ever see Neo again, can you tell her I'm sorry? I broke my promise to her. And that I'm proud of her."

"I'll tell her that," Ruby said with a sad smile. "I'm sure she'd love to hear from you."

"Thanks, Red," Roman said, as his form started to fade away. "You're not bad after all."

Roman faded completely, and Ruby wiped the tear that had formed in her eyes before walking around the landscape again, taking a look at the countless hearts.

"Ruby," a voice said. A voice that made Ruby pause.

Ruby frantically looked around, seeing one of the hearts gently floating towards the ground. She ran towards it, seeing it transform into a figure.

She was tall, and had long, blue hair.

Ruby jumped, wrapping her arms around the figure with tears streaming down her face.

"Mom!" she cried.

AN: Sorry that this was a little short. It's been getting harder to find time to write lately, so I've been having to cut chapters shorter than I intended in order to get them out.

Anyway, now Cinder has a Keyblade. You can kind of think of the design as being like the One-Winged Angel Keyblade from the first game, but the blade is one of the scimitars from her Midnight weapon.

So, we've seen how my version of Roman and Neo met, and I know that it's different from what we learned in Roman Holiday, but I had planned this out before that book came out.

And it's now been revealed that Aqua's heart is also trapped in Kingdom Hearts.

I would like to remind everyone that this story has a Tv Tropes page! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone puts on it!

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