AN: I would like to address Dyna-Man 21 once again. First off, I would still like the questions I asked last chapter answered. What happened when you tried to make an account? I'm going to post the steps here so you can try again. If it still doesn't work, I would still like those questions answered.

Here are the steps:

1. Go to the Fanfiction . net login and click 'Sign Up' (It's in the top right corner)

2. Enter your username (If you can't think of one at the moment that's fine. You can change your username when you have your account)

3. Enter your email address

what you want your password to be.

'Sign Up'

With that out of the way, onwards!

Chapter 116

Yang sat down on the ground, watching Kingdom Hearts in the air above her head. She had summoned Simba, and was stroking his fur, more for her comfort than his.

She couldn't help but worry about how Ruby was doing, up in that giant heart. She hadn't been gone that long, but the last one had tried to steal Mom's heart and body, so she wasn't very optimistic.

"You need to have faith," Simba said. "I'm sure your sister will be okay. She's strong."

"I know she is," Yang said. "A big sister can't help but worry, though, you know? Especially after…what happened to Mom. I don't know what I would do if something happened to her, too."

"I understand," Simba said. "The only immediate family I have left is my mother. But I do have my wife, Nala, and we're going to have a baby very soon. After I lost my father when I was a child, I'd die before I let anything happen to someone else I care about."

"I just…don't know what to do anymore," Yang said. "I feel so lost. And angry. And sad. I just want everything to get better."

"It will eventually," Simba said. "You just need to give it time. After I lost my father, I was raised by my friends Timon and Pumba. There's a phrase they taught me. Hakuna Matata."

Yang looked down at her chest for a second, before narrowing her eyes at the talking lion. "What did you say about my tatas?"

"No, no. Hakuna Matata," Simba repeated. "It means no worries for the rest of your days. It really helped me get through my father's death, but admittedly I used it to run away from my problems more than actually solve them. But as I got older, I learned to cope with my troubles better."

"How'd you get over it?" Yang asked.

"I don't think you ever really 'get over' something like that. But I got through it because I needed to. I had to step up and become King. I know you'll get through this because Ruby will need you to. And you won't have to do it alone. You'll have Ruby, Qrow, your team, and all your other friends. As long as you let them in."

"…I guess," Yang said, scratching Simba behind the ear, making him purr lightly. "You're pretty smart, you that? I guess you need to be if you want to be King."

"You could start by letting go of some of that anger," Simba said. "Blake and your uncle don't deserve the way you treated them earlier."

Yang sighed deeply. "I know. I just don't know how to feel anymore."

"About you mother?"

"…Not the one you're thinking of…" Yang said, confusing Simba. "Raven left right after I was born. Summer Rose, Ruby's mom, got with my dad after that. Ruby was born, and Summer raised the both of us. It wasn't until after Summer died that I even learned Raven existed, or that Summer wasn't the one that gave birth to me. After we met Mom and she started training Ruby, Raven suddenly came back into our lives. And it was to kidnap Ruby for her Keyblade. After that, I had it in my mind that Raven was just this absolute monster. That she walked away because she never cared about me, and wasn't even capable of love. And then when she died, I learned that it wasn't the case. Apparently, the reason she left was because she loved me, and wanted me to have a better life than she could have given me. She was just so scared of the fight with Salem that she felt she couldn't stay."

"Well, isn't that a good thing?" Simba asked. "Now you know that your birth mother did care for you."

"Except that's just it," Yang said. "I don't feel happy to learn that. I just feel angry. Like, it would have been easier to deal with this if she had let me keep thinking that she really was this uncaring monster. Instead, she even had to make her death complicated." Yang punched the ground with her metal fist. "Bitch."

Simba sat up, and nuzzled his face against the side of her head, surprising Yang. She pat his head a few times, and he laid back down.

"…Thanks," she said.

"We're companions now, and you're my summoner," Simba said. "We're in this together. And I'd like to think that we're friends."

"We're definitely friends, you big old kitty cat," Yang said, rustling Simba's fur again. "…There's just one thing that bothers me about this."

"What's that?"

"Why was Raven so convinced that Salem couldn't be defeated? She was so stuck on the idea that Ozpin can't be trusted, and that this war of his is unwinnable. What gave her that idea?"

"Maybe she was just a coward," Simba said.

"Maybe, but it seemed a little too real to her for it to be something like that."

"Do you think we should keep an eye on Ozpin?" Simba asked.

"Maybe," Yang said. "The only thing I know for sure is that I need to do everything I can for Ruby. She's all that matters now."

"Mom!" Ruby cried, burying her face into her mother's shoulder, tears streaming down her face. Mom wrapped her arms around Ruby, making the girl cling to her even tighter. "I-Is it really you?"

"Sweetie?" Mom asked.

"Is it you?!" Ruby snapped.

"Yes, it's me," Mom said.

"I-I never thought I'd see you again!" Ruby sobbed. She stood there for a few minutes, just hugging her mother, until she finally calmed down.

"Ruby, where are we?" Mom asked.

"…You don't know?' Ruby asked. "Do you remember what happened at Haven?"

"I fought Raven, and the last thing I remember is trying to help Cinder. What happened after that?"

"Yang said that you freed Cinder's mind from Salem, but then… Cinder's Grimm arm impaled you and pumped you full of darkness. You…you turned into a Heartless."

Mom's eyes widened. "I…what?"

"Your Heartless attacked us, and I had to…kill it," Ruby said. "We're in Kingdom Hearts. You're…you're just a heart now."

Mom suddenly reached out and pulled Ruby into another tight hug. "Oh, sweetie. I'm so, so, sorry." Mom squeezed her a little tighter. "I never wanted to do that to you."

"It…It's not your fault," Ruby said, trying to reassure her.

"Ruby, you can't pretend with me," Mom said. "I know you're the one that needs comforting right now. Are you okay?"

"…No," Ruby said. "I'm not. I miss you so much."

"I know you do, honey," Mom said, squeezing her harder. "How's Yang doing?"

"About as well as I am. She's angry at everything. Blake came back, but Yang snapped at her. She was mad at her for leaving."

"…And Qrow?"

"He disappeared after your…funeral. When he came back later that night, he was drunk."

"Oh, no," Mom said. "I guess I'm not very surprised." She let out a sigh. "I know it's tough now, but I know that the three of you will be fine, eventually. As long as you have each—"

"How do you know that?" Ruby asked, interrupted her mother. "How do you know we're going to be okay? We lost you. You were everything to us! To me! I'm not strong like you were!"

"Yes, you are!" Mom said. "You're stronger than you think! You are strong enough to handle anything life throws at you."

"No, I'm not. You might have been, but I'm not as strong as you. You were perfect."

"I wasn't perfect. I was a failure of a master," Aqua said. "I couldn't even keep my friends safe."

"What are you talking about?" Ruby asked.

"Do you remember how I told you that Xehanort had taken over Terra's body and robbed Ven of his heart?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I never told you that I was the reason that Xehanort was able to tear us apart…"

"Terra!" Aqua called out, as she and her fellow students charged at the large Unversed.

"Ven! Now!" the older boy shouted.

"C'mon!" Ven yelled, and the three of them jumped into the air, Aqua slashing at the monster, Terra and Ven following up with a combo attack of their own. The Unversed stopped moving, fell to the ground a few seconds later, and disappeared in a cloud of darkness.

"Got 'im!" Terra celebrated.

"We make a good team," Aqua said.

"Sure do," Ven said. "Oh, yeah! I got you these tickets." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out three colorful cards that read "Disneytown Passport" in big yellow letters.

"For what?" Terra asked.

"Lifetime passes to Disneytown," Ven said, passing two of the tickets to Terra and Aqua, and keeping the third one for himself. "He said to… He said to take two grown-ups."

"You mean us?" Aqua asked. She and Terra looked at each other, and couldn't help but chuckle. She looked back at the younger boy. "Listen to me, Ven… We need to get you home—"

"It's okay, Aqua," Ven said in a reassuring tone before looking to Terra. "Trust me, that guy in the mask is history. He'll never bad-mouth Terra again."

Terra's eyes suddenly widened, and he quickly reached out and grabbed Ven's shoulder. "You saw the boy in the mask?" he asked, an almost desperate tone to his voice.

"Y-Yes?" Ven said, uncertainty entering his tone due to Terra's sudden move.

"Vanitas…" Terra said, his voice practically a growl, prompting Aqua to narrow her eyes in thought. "Ven, you let Aqua take you home."

"No way, I wanna go with you guys," Ven said.

"You can't," Terra argued. "We have a dangerous task ahead of us. I don't want you to get hurt."

"And what is this dangerous task, Terra?" Aqua asked suspiciously. "It doesn't sound like what the Master told you to do."

"It might be a different route, but I'm fighting the darkness."

"I'm not so sure," Aqua said. "I've been to the same worlds as you, and I've seen what you've done. You shouldn't put yourself so close to the darkness."

"Listen to yourself, Aqua!" Ven shouted. "Terra would never—"

"You mean you've been spying on me?" Terra asked, narrowing his eyes at Aqua in anger. "Is that what he said to do? The Master's orders?"

"He was only…" Aqua tried to defend, breaking eye contact from Terra.

"Aqua," Ven said in disappointment.

"I get it," Terra said, turning his back and walking away.

"Terra!" Ven called out, trying to follow him.

"Just stay put!" Terra snapped, making Ven freeze in place. "I'm on my own now, all right?"

Aqua's eyes widened.

Those seven words. When Aqua heard them, she didn't want to believe it, but she knew that she had lost him.

"Terra, please! Listen!" Aqua pleaded. "The Master has no reason to distrust you, really! He was just worried."

Terra ignored her, and continued walking away.

"You're awful, Aqua," Ven said, and Aqua felt her heart shatter. She reached up and tightly gripped her Wayfinder.

"So now you know the truth," she said to Ven, her voice full of shame. "But the Master loves Terra, and you know that, too."

"Were you also 'ordered' to take me home?" Ven asked. Aqua didn't answer, instead simply looking away from him. Her lack of an answer was enough of an answer for Ven. "Aqua… Now that you're a Keyblade Master, you've let it go to you head. I'm gonna go find Terra." He took off running, and Aqua simply watched as he left.

She didn't feel she had the right to stop him.

"Terra…Ven…"

When the light faded, Ruby found herself back with her mother.

"Ven was right," Aqua said. "I let my status as Master go to my head, and let my Master's teachings blind me to what I knew was right. I believed that darkness was evil, and everything I had seen from the other worlds told me that Terra had let darkness into his heart. But I knew him better than that. I should have trusted him. Instead, I drove the two of them away, and allowed Xehanort to manipulate them. The next time I saw them, Terra told me that Xehanort had tricked him into helping him kill our Master, and Ven had learned that he was supposed to be turned into the X-Blade and asked us to kill him before that could happen. And you know the rest of the story."

"Mom…" Ruby said sadly.

"I chose to abandon my gut, and because of that, Terra and Ven lost their trust in me. And that drove them towards Xehanort. Like I said, I'm not perfect. I lived with the guilt for years."

"Well, what helped you?"

"When I first met you, and realized that you had a Keyblade, I decided that training you would be my way of making up for failing Terra and Ven so badly. But do the thing that made me finally accept what had happened, was when you and Yang asked me to be your mom."

"Really?" Ruby asked. Mom nodded.

"I realized at that moment that while what Xehanort did to us was horrible, but if hadn't happened, I never would have met you, or Yang, or Qrow, and our beautiful family never would have been created. That tragedy ultimately led to the happiest days of my life."

"Mom," Ruby said, throwing her arms around her again. "I'm just afraid of disappointing you. I want to live up to your example."

"Sweetie, you'll never disappoint met. The only time I'll ever be disappointed in a decision you make is if you have to compromise who you are to make it. No matter what, never stop doing the right thing."

"…Okay," Ruby said. "I promise."

Ruby's eyes widened as she saw her mother's form begin to fade.

"No, no," Ruby pleaded, holding Mom more tightly. "I don't want you to go."

"I don't either, but I don't think I have a choice," Mom said. "I love you. All of you. I don't where I'll be going from here, but I don't want to see you again for a very long time. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes," Ruby said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Good girl," Mom said. "Oh, and one more thing. Thank you for letting me be your mom."

Her body finished fading, and Ruby collapsed to her knees.

"I love you, too," Ruby said, before wiping her eyes and looking up at the sky. She could see a Keyhole-shaped object appear above her, and she summoned her Keyblade, pointing it skyward. A beam of light fired out of her weapon, and the Keyhole lit up brightly, before she was overtaken by a bright light.

"Ruby!" she heard her sister's voice call her as she fell to her knees in the back yard.

"Are you okay?" Nora asked.

"What happened?" Weiss asked.

"I-I saw Mom," Ruby said.

"What?!" Yang asked.

"Her heart was trapped there," Ruby explained. "She…she told me to always do what was right, and… and…" the tears started flowing again. "She said that… we made her happy. And… thanked us."

She couldn't hold anything back anymore, and slumped to the floor, wailing in anguish.

She felt Yang wrap her arms around her, and the sisters just sat there, expelling their mutual grief.

Ruby wouldn't realize until later that she fell asleep out there, cradled in her sister's arms.

AN: And with that, this little adventure in the second Kingdom Hearts to appear has come to an end. Ruby gets a nice final conversation with Aqua, and Yang gets a little heart-to-heart with Simba.

So, the group will have to figure out their next move, and we'll see some more of Cinder and Aqua's Nobody next chapter.

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

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