Remnant of the Key

by lyokoMARVELanime

Adopted from FandomBard12. Four Keybladers meet four huntresses while on a quest to recover a lost friend. Now, their destinies shall become intertwined as they fight against darkness of both Remnant and beyond. The question is, just what else will come from this meeting between the two?

20. Rough Waters of Fear Part 2

AN: Whew! Sorry it's been so long, but things have been pretty busy over here in my neck of the woods. At least, they have been for me. And I know, I said this chapter was going to be out quickly, but all that stuff that kept me busy, it just piled up and up and up without end, so it got hard finding time to write.

Yang: And yet you were able to make that one new video for your YouTube channel for Star Wars Day.

AN: In fairness, that was mostly thrown together at the last minute, mainly because the idea had come to me just a few days before the actual day itself.

Sora: Oh, don't worry about her too much. She's just jealous 'cause she and the rest of the Remnant crew weren't in it.

Blake: For the last time, we are not jealous because of that. Besides, I wouldn't be acting so smug if I were you, or did you forget just how much had been implied by that video alone?

Ventus: She has a point you know. Don't forget, those scenes did serve as his inspiration for a certain aspect over in Keyblade Legion, and who's to say it wasn't also alluding to something in the future? Or even that it might not end up being something that happens in one of the other Kingdom Hearts stories like the Kingdom Marvels Series?

Sora: [just stares for a minute or two] You know that I'm only really bothered by the idea of that in Keyblades Unleashed canon, right? I wouldn't have a problem with being Xion's teacher otherwise.

Weiss: Aw, isn't that sweet? Sora wants to make sure his daughter has the best education possible.

Sora: Of course I want-wait, what?! No, no, no, no! We are past this! I thought for sure we were well past this!

Lea: If folks are still making and posting stuff about it online, then we're definitely not past this. Got it memorized?

AN: Well, while you guys work this out, and possibly tease Sora relentlessly about his relationship with Xion (Please don't forget to remind him of who Xion's mother technically is)

Sora: I heard that!

AN: I've got to get to our regular announcements and start today's chapter. We've been leaving our followers on a cliffhanger for far too long as it is.

If you haven't already, please check out our YouTube channel "Studio Fandom". It's the best place to get updates as to what I'm doing with my writing stuff at the time along with various other content. And if you want to look at some pretty cool artwork, we've also got a DeviantArt page now "studiofandom", so check that out too, when you get the chance.

Speaking of the YouTube channel, one of the most recent episodes of Studio News also already announced this, but I'll say it here as well. We're looking for voice actors for the Remnant of the Key Reading Series videos. For more details on what to do to sign on and/or qualify, go check out episode 8 of Studio News for full details. Now, on with the show!

I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or RWBY franchises, or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

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Chapter 20: Rough Waters of Fear Part 2

It ended up not taking too long at all for Sora's group to swim through to the other side, and with both groups working to clear the blockage, the cave passage opened up to allow the whole team to proceed forward again in even less time. When the others asked Ruby, Ren, Weiss, Ventus, and Roxas what it was like being able to breathe underwater, the five merely replied that they would have to experience it for themselves to really understand it. None of them had tried seeing how well their weapons or Semblances would work while they were down there, but considering the passage had been so narrow, they doubted they would have been able to do too much experimenting even if it were possible to have gotten into an underwater battle during their swim. Even Sora seemed a little unsure of how well his friends' weapons and abilities would have worked, given that he had never been in an underwater battle with someone who did not have magic-based abilities or equipment, but he doubted they would need to worry about that anytime soon now that their goal was closer at hand.

Feeling the need to make up for lost time, the group all broke out into a run through the remainder of the cave passage, and did not slow down even after coming out into the forest on the other side. The only time they did slow their pace was when they came upon the beach again, and that was mainly because, you guessed it, Neptune. Luckily the beach was big enough so that they did not need to get too close to the water as they traversed the sands and they were soon running onwards again. Before long, they came upon a large cliff a fair distance from the water, and up on top of the cliff, they saw an old, somewhat weathered ship, sitting precariously close to the edge.

"Is that…?" Lea started to ask.

"The Santiago. Famously captained by Ponce de León," Jack confirmed for the group.

"And where we'll find the silver chalices we need, correct?" Pyrrha recalled.

"Indeed it is, luv," Jack confirmed.

As amazing as it was to see an old, famous ship like this, Jaune had some more pressing concerns about venturing into the marooned ship. "Am I the only who thinks that thing will tip over and come crashing down into the beach the second we go inside?"

"No, you most certainly are not," Weiss confirmed.

"Oh good. Didn't want to be," Jaune sighed in relief.

"No one said we all had to go aboard, mate. But you do make a good point. Best most of us stay here while a small number goes in just to be on the safe side," Jack suggested.

Sora had to agree, but he did not like splitting up the team so much. Still, he doubted some of his friends would be okay with letting Jack go into the Santiago alone. He was just about to ask Ruby and Jaune for their thoughts on who should go and who should stay when a sudden flash of darkness caught his eye, and upon turning towards it he had to release a tired sigh at the long-familiar sight of Heartless closing in on them. All of them Heartless he had long since become used to dealing with when visiting this world, be it on his second journey or his third, from Air Pirates and Neoshadows, to Spear Lizards, Anchor Raiders, and Powerwilds.

"And here I was starting to think we were going to have one stop without having to deal with the Heartless," Roxas grumbled, just as annoyed by the dark creatures' arrival as Sora was.

Apparently Jack was just as unhappy as the rest of them at seeing the Heartless, because he gave Sora an annoyed look and asked, "Sora, why is it we can never seem to meet without those fiends popping up at some point?"

"Believe me, Jack, if I knew how to avoid the Heartless for as long as I'd like, I'd tell you," Sora informed the pirate. He then summoned out Wheel of Fate and made a snap decision on how to handle both their previous problem and this one. "Just leave these guys to us. You go and get the chalices."

"Are you sure about that, Sora? I mean, I know you can handle these blights on the free seas, but what about the rest of your mates?" Jack inquired. He got part of his answer when Lea, Roxas, and Ventus all summoned their own Keyblades out and proceeded to slash or blast the nearest Heartless. "Oh, those boys all have their own versions of that fancy blade of yours," Jack noted, and he then turned to the folks from Remnant. "I don't suppose you lot have those blades too, do you?"

"Nope, but we've got some stuff that's just about as good," Sun proudly grinned, spinning out his gunchucks as he did.

The others took that as their cue to draw and unfold their own weapons, leaving Jack to jump back a little and stare in shock with each new weapon being showcased before him. Sure, some of them did not seem like much to him at first, namely the weapons of Jaune, Pyrrha, Weiss, and Yang, but when it came to the ones like Ruby's scythe and Nora's hammer, such a reaction was understandable when you were in Jack's position. After regaining his composure again, Jack took in the sight of each weapon the kids were wielding, even as they all rushed forward to engage the Heartless, and soon offered up his thoughts.

"Alright, so you've got swords, a spear, pistols with very sharp knives attached, I think, a big hammer, and…is that rather monstrous-sized contraption a scythe?" Jack inquired as of the nearest of the group, who just so happened to be the girl wielding the previously mentioned scythe.

"Oh, it's not just a scythe. It's also a gun," Ruby proudly declared. She punctuated this by loading Crescent Rose, and then opening fire on some Powerwilds at the back on the enemy group. Ruby's blasts easily destroyed the far-away monkey monsters, and she soon spun her scythe around so she could fire a blast behind her to propel herself forward and slice through several Anchor Raiders in one dash.

Jack continued watching the young girl battling it out with the Heartless, even as she spun her scythe around in ways she should not have been able to from his understanding, but when he heard more gunshots being fired, he turned towards the blasts and soon discovered how aptly Ruby's last comment could be used to describe all the others' weapons as well. Most notably when Blake and Nora transformed their weapons into their respective gun modes and opened fire, with Pyrrha and Neptune soon doing the same not long after. Seeing all these transforming weapons before him, along with how expertly their wielders were using them, Jack could only gape in silent awe for several moments. It was not until Ruby came to a stop near him again with a proud grin on her face that he finally found his voice again.

"I want one of those," Jack just barely managed to mutter as he stared at the Remnant kids' weapons in slight envy.

Ruby could not help but chuckle a little. "Sorry Jack, but for the most part, these babies are all one of a kind."

Just then, Sora came in with a sweeping swing of Wheel of Fate, which he had already transformed into its halberd form known as Highwind, destroying several Neoshadows with said strike before they could hit Ruby or Jack. "Hurry to the Santiago, Jack," Sora ordered. "Like I said, we can handle these guys."

"Right then. Carry on. I'll be back in a moment," Jack finally agreed, and he raced off away from the fighting and off to the derelict ship.

As Jack hurried off, Sun was well into a fight with several Powerwilds, gunchucks spinning about lazily as he stared down his foes. "Not gonna lie, but I was expecting you guys to look a lot creepier when Sora and the others first told me about the Heartless," he commented. "But on the other hand, I've also heard you fellas in particular have been giving monkeys a bad name, and that just can't stand."

Whether the Powerwilds understood the monkey Faunus or not mattered little since they were on the attack again after he had finished talking. Sun was prepared though, as he spun his gunchucks around several times, firing off a blast with nearly every spin and destroying a Heartless with every hit or shot that he landed without even moving from where he currently stood. When he did finally move, it was only to jump up and over a trio of Powerwilds, which he obliterated with a powerful slam of his weapon after combining them into their staff mode. He probably would have landed a similar hit on the Heartless that tried to jump him from behind if Roxas had not beaten him to the punch by taking them all out with a fast cross-slash, followed with a blast of lightning magic, and the two blondes quickly turned their attention to another group soon after.

Neptune was not doing too bad against the Heartless either, but then again, he was mainly keeping them at a distance and blasting them with his weapon's rifle mode. When they finally did get close to him though, he immediately switched over to the trident mode and began to swing and sweep at every Heartless who dared to come near him. At some points, he did need one of the others to lend him a hand, but Neptune was handling pretty well for the most part. That is, until he noticed how one group of Heartless had started trying to drive him towards the water, and he started to panic a little when he lost his footing and nearly fell backwards. He still managed to avoid touching the water, but only by stabbing his trident into the sand as he fell. Once he was sure he would not be getting so much as one drop of water on him, he glared at the Heartless and used his trident to pole-vault forward, kicking a couple of Neoshadows in the face he went before landing on the sand behind his previous foes. A quick spin around allowed Neptune to take out the remaining Heartless, and he would have returned to blasting more of them with his weapon's rifle mode had he not heard Sora shouting for everyone to stand clear.

Sora's reason for warning the others came as a direct result of how he had transformed his weapon into Storm Flag. From that point forward, Sora had begun slashing several Heartless apart with every telekinetic swing of the pole weapon, the flag on the end flashing brightly at every turn. Most of the Heartless were unable to defend themselves or even get away before Sora had hit them with his weapon, to no one's surprise. After all, Wheel of Fate was one of Sora's strongest Keyblades due in no small part to this particular Formchange, and Sora gladly proved it every time he used the Keyblade and its transformations. Eventually, Sora decided to put an end to the fight, and that was when he called out for everyone to stand clear. The second he determined the others were a safe distance from him, he spun Storm Flag around, and then slammed it into the ground, creating a watery portal beneath his feet that sprouted multiple, large tentacles similar to the fallen Kraken's. The tentacles then proceeded to slam into the ground and any nearby Heartless several times over, so even if the Heartless were not directly hit, they were still shaken up to the point where the shockwave would destroy them with little outside interference. Of course, the others were happy to provide said interference, given that Ruby, Blake, Yang, Ren, and Pyrrha all fired some easy shots that destroyed the few stragglers once Sora's attack had ended.

As it turned out, Sora's attack was the one that put an end to the fight, so Sun saw no reason to hold back his thoughts on the Keyblade wielder's latest move. "Dude, that was so awesome!" Sun cheered while slapping Sora on the back in a show of praise. "I don't know why you haven't used that Keyblade before now."

"No kidding. I mean, I'm not a big fan of the finisher, but it's definitely got some tough moves and powers behind it," Neptune agreed.

"Yeah, Wheel of Fate is tough, but it's also one of the Keyblades with Formchanges and powers that would be a lot more difficult to give a believable excuse for back on Remnant without blowing our cover," Sora reminded the two boys.

"Funny isn't it how we seem to be a lot more cautious about hiding our abilities on that one world when none of us have ever been so shy with showing off on other worlds before," Lea commented.

"Well, we haven't normally been on any other world for such an extended period of time, or with so many people around to watch and eventually question our abilities and moves," Ventus pointed out.

As fascinating as they all found this topic of conversation, Jaune figured they needed to address a more important matter. "Do you think Jack's gotten the chalices yet, or should some of us go after him?"

"Nah, I'm sure he's gonna get back any second now," Sora waved off, much to the Remnant kids' surprise. He simply shrugged in response and said, "Hey, I know it's kinda weird, but normally when I get into a fight with the Heartless at times like this, things just seem to move forward right after like that."

"Are you sure? That particular fight didn't really seem very long," Weiss skeptically questioned.

"Yeah, pretty sure. I've felt the same way more than a few times when it happened in the past, so I wouldn't worry too much. I think it's something about the adrenaline rush of fighting monsters and bad guys or something," Sora answered, and before anyone could pose any further questions, Jack came swaggering over to them. The only problem was that he had come back empty handed.

"Right then, so rather unfortunate news, mates," Jack announced once he had reached the group. "It would seem the Spanish are ahead of us, because when I found the box the chalices should have been in, the only thing inside were rocks."

"What makes you so sure the Spanish are the ones who took them?" asked Ruby.

"For starters, I know for a fact that Blackbeard's going straight to the Fountain. And he knows that I know he will require the chalices, which in effect means he knows that I know that he knows I will be acquiring the chalices in order to have some leverage over on him, so knowing that which we are both aware of, he will in turn continue to the fountain fully expecting me to be there as well with the chalices he knows I will have retrieved by said time."

"Uh…what?" Yang ended up asking aloud on everyone's behalf.

"Basically, Blackbeard's going for the Fountain and expects to see us there with the chalices since Jack knows he needs them to complete the ritual," Sora simplified.

"Exactly," Jack confirmed.

"So? That still leaves one other group who could've taken the chalices," Weiss reminded them all.

"Ah, but they didn't, and I know for a fact they haven't, because a certain someone had been lying in wait on the Santiago," Jack revealed, waving behind him at the person in question.

Looking to who Jack had indicated, Sora could not help but gasp in surprise, because it was the last person he would have expected to run into right now, especially in the state he now appeared to be in. Hobbling along the sand with a walking cane, one leg gone and replaced by a peg-leg, hair shorter yet somehow looking better kept despite its still scraggly appearance, and decked out in a royal navy uniform that never would have fit the black-hearted scoundrel wearing it. Despite his disbelief, Sora could not deny who it was now standing before them and grinning like mad at the sight of the group.

"Barbossa," Sora growled, already falling into a battle stance, but not summoning out his Keyblade just yet.

"Now isn't this an unexpected surprise. Fancy seein' you here, Sora," Barbossa drawled.

"That's Barbossa?" Sun quietly questioned the others. "He doesn't look so tough."

"Don't be fooled, Sun. This is the same pirate who captained a crew of undead pirates the first time Sora was here, and apparently came back from the dead later on," Blake reminded her fellow Faunus.

"Aye that be true, young lass," Barbossa confirmed, apparently having overheard the two. He then spared a glance to the others, before turning back to the young leader and saying, "I must admit, when Jack told me you'd gathered a bigger, more motley crew, I wasn't expecting something quite like this. Part of me is actually a little impressed, Sora."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm so glad you approve. Now what're you even doing here, Barbossa?" Sora demanded, not all too keen on playing the old pirate's games.

"I'm here to secure both the silver chalices and the Fountain of Youth for my royal liege, of course," Barbossa declared, but no one failed to notice how even he did not seem to believe this tale.

"Yeah, right. I bet you just want the Fountain for yourself," Jaune scoffed.

"Think whatever ye'd like, lad, but I'll be havin' my prize one way or another," Barbossa waved off.

"And at the moment, our goals align with Barbossa's," Jack informed the group. "The Spanish may know where to go now, but thanks in part to him, we know where they'll likely make camp. So here's the plan: you lot go on ahead, and see if you can either head off or slow down Blackbeard. Hector and I will head for the Spanish's camp, retrieve the chalices, and meet you all there."

"Are you sure, Jack? Barbossa's not exactly all that trustworthy," Sora pointed out.

"Neither am I, if you'll recall," Jack reminded him. "After all, we're both pirates. Even if one of us is trying to hide it behind a snazzy uniform and a ridiculous wig."

Barbossa gave Jack an annoyed look for that while the others just exchanged bewildered stares, but they put it aside since now was not the time for such things. Like Jack said, they needed to hurry if they wanted to secure the Fountain from Blackbeard and the Spanish. There was just one other matter they needed to address. "How are we going to cut off Blackbeard?" Roxas asked. "We don't even know where he is or which way he's going."

"An excellent question. Luckily, I have the answer," Jack revealed. "As it turns out, there's another cave passage not too far from here. Through it, you can get to a point that's just a short distance from the Fountain's entrance. I mean, there are a few traps along the way here and there, so I've never actually been down that way before, but I'm sure if anyone can make it through its you lot."

Everyone on the crew could see what Jack was doing in trying to butter them up. He would not have told them about this secret passage unless he knew no normal pirate would ever be able to pass through it alive, but since he at least knew about Sora's unique abilities, he saw no harm in sending them down what was likely going to be an incredibly dangerous path in order to beat Blackbeard to his prize. Then again, it was not like they could argue with his plan; they did need to make sure Blackbeard could not get to the Fountain with or without the chalices, and while Barbossa may be an evil pirate, he was still the lesser of two evils. Like they say, better the devil you know and all that.

With little other options, the group agreed to Jack's plan, and after getting directions on how to reach the cave along with Jack loaning his compass to Sora just in case, with the pirate captain insisting it would lead them there in spite of everyone else's doubts, the group set off, hoping against hope that Jack would be able to hold his own against Barbossa and the Spanish until they met up again.

---

Apparently Jack leaving them was a silent signal for the Heartless to come out, because the team ended up dealing with a lot more of the little monsters at every turn after parting ways with Sparrow and Barbossa. Not that they were too bothered by it; at this point, many of them were convinced they would not be having a full adventure like this on another world without the Heartless showing up. Still, the Keyblade boys had to note that once again, the Heartless here appeared to be stronger than normal, just like back on Corona. They did not hesitate to share this info with the others, and that did put some of them on higher alert, but all-in-all, they did not get too worried about it. They just had to remember to contact Ienzo about it later on and see what he could find on the scanner. For the time being, they needed to focus on getting ahead of Blackbeard and keeping him busy until Jack and Barbossa met up with them again.

Just thinking of working alongside Barbossa again left an uncomfortable feeling in Sora's stomach, but Jack seemed willing to do so right now for whatever reason, so Sora had to trust his friend knew what he was doing. Then again, this was Jack Sparrow he was talking about and it was hard to really tell when he had a plan or when he was just making it up as he went. Naturally Sora was not the only one hesitant to work with Barbossa, but for whatever reason, the treacherous pirate captain preoccupied Jaune's thoughts more than anyone else.

"Why was he waiting around on the Santiago?" Jaune eventually wondered aloud.

"Hm? You say something Jaune?" asked Ruby.

Jaune must not have meant to voice his question out loud, given how he jumped after hearing Ruby, but now everyone's attention was on him so he may as well share his suspicions. "I was just trying to figure out why Barbossa had been waiting around on the Santiago. I mean, if he's really after the Fountain then why just sit around waiting instead of leaving after seeing the chalices were gone?"

"Maybe he got stuck there after realizing how hard it was to get anything off that ship by himself. It did seem like it would tip over if there was too much weight on any point," Pyrrha suggested.

"No, I don't think so. If that were the case he would have realized it before getting too far in, and he probably would have gone back to get one of his men for backup," Ren reasoned.

Jaune nodded to show he had the same thought, prompting Blake to offer up the next theory. "So he was probably waiting for someone. Maybe Jack?"

Sora crossed his arms in thought before he ultimately dismissed this idea too. "I don't think so. Jack and Barbossa may not be best friends…or friends in general, but he wouldn't go out of his way to cross Jack like that without a reason. Usually because Jack has something he wants, and right now, Jack doesn't have much of anything Barbossa would want."

"Nothing we know of, at least," Weiss grumbled.

"But Blake's theory does make sense, and given that he was waiting on the Santiago, it has to be someone who's looking for the Fountain of Youth," Neptune reasoned out.

"We already know the Spanish have taken the chalices and got ahead of us," Ventus continued on from there. "And since we've already ruled out Jack, the only other person it could possibly be is…"

"Blackbeard," Jaune, Neptune, and Ventus all finished at once.

"If that is the case, then you gotta give Barbossa this much: he's one brave pirate," Nora could not help but compliment.

"Brave or stupid. I mean, Jack told us Blackbeard's the most dangerous and fearsome pirate to have sailed the Spanish Maine, and Barbossa has to know that too, so why would he want to go after someone so dangerous," Yang questioned.

"He is a pirate, Babe. They're not typically known for doing sensible things," Lea pointed out.

"But that doesn't mean they're completely fearless," Sora argued. "After all, the oldest and noblest of pirate traditions is to run away, especially when against a more powerful and dangerous foe. I mean, not every pirate follows that tradition, obviously, but when faced with someone like Blackbeard…"

"So Blackbeard must have something Barbossa wants, or…" Jaune started to reason out.

"Or what?" Roxas asked.

"…Or he's a lot more determined to get back at Blackbeard for sinking the Black Pearl than we thought," Jaune figured.

The second they heard Jaune say that was the moment everyone knew he was right. The only question left now was exactly how far Barbossa was willing to go in his quest for revenge against Blackbeard? Naturally, everyone looked to Sora for an answer, seeing as he knew both this world and the people who lived here best, but before he could offer up any insights, Sun diverted their attention to a cave ahead of them as he shouted, "Looks like we'll have to solve that mystery later. I think I just spotted our cave passage." Without much more thinking, Sun hurried forward, ready to just plunge right into the cave, until Sora snapped his arm out and stopped the monkey Faunus short. "Hey dude, what gives?"

Sora did not answer. He just studied the cave in front of them before turning to Weiss and asking, "Can you create a small, icy mist and aim it at the ground in front of us?"

"Of course," Weiss confidently replied, thought still unsure why Sora would be asking such things right now.

"Do it," Sora ordered.

Not willing to question Sora all of a sudden with how serious he had suddenly become, Weiss simply drew her sword and spun the revolver around to the appropriate Dust chamber. A simple wave later, and an icy mist had seeped out from Weiss's blade, crawling along the ground like a steadily crawling fog until it suddenly hit and froze a very thin wire that the group would have missed otherwise. Sora did not seem at all surprised though, as he summoned his Keyblade and gave the frozen wire a light tap, breaking it apart.

"Tripwire for one of the traps Jack mentioned, and I don't think this is even the main trap," Sora informed them. He then slowly moved his Keyblade forward a short distance until it snagged another wire, prompting him to dismiss it right when two large blades came swinging down until they impacted the opposite walls they swung in from.

"WHOA!" nearly everyone screamed. Sun had even turned as pale as a ghost, or at least as pale as Weiss upon realizing Sora just saved him from being chopped in half.

"How'd you know that was there?" Sun asked Sora, the awe in his voice unmistakable.

"Experience. I've been on three of these world-hopping adventures after all, and I've stumbled into more than enough traps to be able to spot a few early signs by now. That and Jack had warned us how this cave would be littered with traps," Sora replied.

Even with Sora's reassurance, the others were still feeling a little nervous about going in. "Do you think you'll be able to spot all the traps in there?" Yang eventually asked.

"Hey, even if he can't it's not like he's the only one who can spot some signs of traps," Lea reminded Yang. "After all, I've set up and beaten plenty of traps back in the old Organization days, and I'm pretty sure Blake would be able to spot some things too, am I right?"

"Well you're certainly not wrong," Blake declared with a modest smile.

"See? We've got this," Lea promised, confidently marching forward as he stepped around the trip wire and summoned out his Keyblade. "Besides, odds are we should be able to burn through most of them anyway."

"Axel no! Don't use a…!" Sora tried to warn, but he was too late. Axel had already cast a fire spell, and it soon set a nearby bundle ablaze. A bundle that started sizzling with the telltale signs of an explosive about to go off. Luckily, Sora managed to pull him back and place a barrier spell around the bundle, containing the explosion before it go off and start a chain reaction. Once he was sure it was safe to dispel the barrier, Sora gave Lea a look and pointedly ordered, "Don't. Do. That. Again. Just follow my lead, step where I step, and above all, don't touch anything unless I say it's okay."

"Alright, alright. I got it. Geez," Lea tried to placate, but he still got several more looks shot his way for that near miss just now.

Everyone made certain to follow Sora's lead as closely as possible from that point forward, even after he got Blake, Ren, and Sun to join him up front. He had the two Faunus of the group join him for their ability to see in the dark, and Ren was there because of his own sensory skills, so even if Sora did miss something, one of the other three would be able to catch it just in time. At least, that was the plan Sora was banking on, and it seemed to be working so far. They just narrowly avoided falling into a pit of spikes thanks to Blake, Sun helped them notice another trip-wire triggered trap buried in the dirt floor of the cave, and Ren managed to pull them back before anyone accidentally set off another explosive trap. These were just the major highlights of course, because it would be silly to say Sora spotted all of the remaining traps in the cave, but he did manage to pinpoint a good number of them.

Regardless of who found how many traps or how good any of them might have been, there was still a lingering sense of dread in the air from knowing any small misstep could land them into trouble. It was a feeling which grew more and more the longer they were down in the cave, but with every trap they avoided, or at least every time Sora or one of the others mentioned it aloud, the more at ease they began to feel. At least, that had been the case until they started to hear the faint sounds of water dripping down from somewhere, and as expected, Neptune instantly went on guard at the sound of the first drop.

No one could help rolling their eyes at Neptune letting his fear get the better of him at just the sound of water drops, and the exasperation only grew stronger when Jaune felt a drop of water on his head, causing Neptune to jump as far away from where the blonde was standing after he had mentioned it to everyone. "Oh would you relax," Weiss scolded the blue haired boy. "It's not like a little drop is going to kill you."

"You don't know what a single drop of water could do to someone," Neptune argued, warily watching the ceiling for anymore little drops as Sora caught a few on his tongue.

"Hmm…salt water," Sora noted aloud. "This cave must be like some kind of underwater tunnel between where we were and where the Fountain is hidden. And judging by all the traps, it probably isn't natural either."

"How do you figure that?" Sun asked.

"Most underwater caves don't form like this naturally, and a lot of the traps we found were designed to be a little too well hidden within the cave's surroundings to have just been simply covered up after the cave was formed," Sora explained.

"So whoever found the Fountain first must have made this cave as a way to keep away anyone outside of a certain group. Maybe anyone associated with Ponce de León, like his crew or other allies," Ventus figured.

"Maybe. It does seem a little too coincidental that the cave's entrance is so close to where his ship ran aground," Jaune figured. "But the better question is how far does this tunnel even go?"

"Probably not too far. It takes a lot of work to make a cave like this with the tools available to the people of this world, but then again, Jack did say it was a shortcut from the Santiago to the Fountain's hiding place," Sora reminded them.

"You mean an area close to the Fountain's hiding place," Blake corrected.

"Right, but even then, they'd have to be really careful making it run underneath any body of water, or else they probably would have drowned the second the ceiling caved in," Weiss added, not really thinking about how the last part of her sentence would worry Neptune even more until after she had already spoken.

"Uh, you know what, guys? I think I'm just gonna go back to the ship and wait for you there," Neptune decided, already backing further away from the rest of the group.

"But we're almost halfway there," Ruby pointed out. She was not entirely sure of that, but she did know they were already so far into the cave that Neptune would have a long trek back out.

"And you have no idea exactly how many traps we've avoided since coming through or how to properly avoid them on your own," Lea pointed out.

"Then I'll just wait here for you guys. Or in some other safe part of the cave. One that's nice and dry," Neptune argued.

Now even Sora was getting annoyed, "Dude, it's just a little bit of water, and it's not going to do anything to you down here other than get you a little wet. So suck it up and come on! We're burning daylight for every second we're down here, and in case you forgot we can't afford to be wasting any—"

The sound of a click echoing through the chamber stopped Sora's rant short, and before they knew it, two large doors had sealed shut either end of the chamber the group currently stood inside, with only Neptune being locked out of it. Looking down at his foot, Sora realized he had accidentally tripped this trap without meaning to, but all he could do now was give the group a sheepish smile and chuckle, "My bad."

"Great. Now we're locked in a cave underground. How could this possibly get any worse?" Weiss questioned aloud.

"Why did you have to go and say that?" Roxas moaned right after Weiss had finished speaking. "Axel's the one who's supposed to jinx us."

"I'll say it again: you guys are going to give me a complex if you keep this up," Lea grumbled.

"Leave it for later," Sora growled. "Blake, Ren, Ven, Ruby, help me look around and try to find another switch. There might be another mechanism for opening the doors somewhere in here. Yang and Nora, you two take a position by the walls just in case something happens to make them start closing in on us."

"What makes you think the walls will close in on us?" Jaune asked him as he started looking for the mechanism Sora mentioned too.

"Traps like these always have the walls or ceiling close in on you at some point or another," Sora tiredly replied. What he did not say was that he was basing this bit of information off of things he had seen in movies and television, but there was a reason why things like that happened so frequently in fiction after all. "Pyrrha, do you think you might be able to use your Semblance to open either or both doors?"

"Maybe, but I've never tried using it like that before. Usually I need to be able to see what it is I'm using my Semblance on or be aware of its most likely location, and I doubt there is all that much metal in these rocks," Pyrrha replied.

"I'll take a maybe over no, so be ready to try it just in case," Sora told her, gaining a hesitant but still sure nod from the Invincible Girl afterward. "Roxas, I want you to stand ready with a lightning spell to charge up Nora. If we do end up needing to blast our way out, you two and Yang will most likely be our best bet at doing so."

"Got it," Roxas nodded, summoning out Oathkeeper and Oblivion as he took up a position in the center of the room.

"I think I might be of a little more help with bracing the walls if needed," Sun offered.

"Good, then be ready to do that," Sora nodded.

"What about me? What should I do?" Lea questioned.

"Nothing. Last thing we need is you setting off any other parts of this trap, even if only by accident," Sora insisted.

"But I'm not—"

"No! Don't do anything. Just…Just stand against the wall and do nothing," Sora ordered.

Seeing as he was not going to be able to stick up for himself no matter what, Lea elected to just huff and cross his arms while he did as he had been told. There was some noticeable grumbling of course, but he still stood against the wall. He just picked a bad part of the wall to stand against, because when his back hit the wall, he ended up pushing in a loose brick that opened up several points above them and releasing a large mass of water into the room, slowly flooding it with every second.

It was hard not to take notice of how the room was filling with water or where it had started pouring in from, but when they had noticed, the others had quickly turned accusatory glares on the fiery redhead and simultaneously groaned, "Axel/Lea!"

"Hey! Whoa! Nuh-uh!" Lea immediately snapped back. "You said stand against the wall! You said it! This is not my fault! You hear me? This is NOT! MY! FAULT!"

The technicalities of who was to blame got shoved aside very quickly when Sora started to rethink his previous plans. "Forget what I said before about charging up Nora! In fact, no one use any kind of lightning or electricity in general! Last thing we need is to end up all fried by the shock."

"Lightning Dust I can see causing that, but Sora, you've used lightning magic underwater. Why would it be bad for me to use it here?" Roxas questioned.

"I can use it underwater because I figured out how to adapt my magic for underwater environments. Last I checked, the rest of you haven't and we don't have time for me to teach you," Sora clarified for Roxas before returning to his hasty orders. "Everyone who's not a heavy-hitter of some kind, start looking for anything that could open up these doors!"

"Hey! Are you guys okay? What's going on in there?!" Neptune shouted from the other side of the door, reminding everyone he was still outside the chamber.

"Neptune! The chamber's starting to flood! You've gotta check around the wall on your side and find something to open it up before we drown," Sora called out.

"Yeah, I kinda figured out the flooding part," Neptune nervously admitted as he eyed the ground where water was seeping out from beneath the door, keeping his back firmly against the wall as he did his best to stay away.

"Wait, Neptune, is the water in here getting out to your side?" Sun questioned.

"Yeah," Neptune replied, suddenly growing worried about where Sun was going with this line of questioning.

"Dude, that means you got another easy way to help us," Sun encouraged him, proving Neptune's suspicions with that one sentence while leaving the others a little bewildered.

"No! No way! Absolutely not! I can't!" Neptune argued without a second thought.

"Look man, I know you don't like it, but we're not exactly big on time, and you can give us the extra edge we may need to get out of here," Sun tried to insist.

"I can't! You know what happens when I try and do that, Sun. I just can't take that risk," Neptune despaired, unable to even face the direction his friend currently stood now he was so ashamed by what he was saying.

Sun just growled as he glanced around and saw Sora, Blake, Ruby, and all the others sloshing through the water and along the walls in a desperate attempt to find something that would open the cavern up again, the water already up to their knees. Hearing Neptune continuing to refuse such a pivotal part of himself when it could be the key to their survival ended up finally making Sun snap, "Neptune, if you don't at least try we are all going to drown in here!"

Something in Neptune snapped after he heard his best friend's words. In that moment, his mind had flashed back to a time when he was much younger, reminding him of the reason behind his fears, but at the same time he also thought about what Jack had told him just a short time earlier. About what treasures were truly priceless to him and of a moment when he would need to make a very important decision regarding whether he could face his fears when it mattered most or not. This was most certainly that moment, and Neptune found he did not need to think too much.

"What a man can do and what a man can't do," Neptune muttered to himself before stepping off the wall and marching towards the door. Or more accurately, he marched over to where the water was seeping out from beneath the door. Slowly, but he was still going to it.

Meanwhile, back in the chamber, the water had risen to the point where Zwei was doggy-paddling around as he barked in a panic while the others had started treading water just to keep above the water. How it filled up so quickly even Sora did not know, but right now, he needed to keep looking around for anything that could stop this flood and open up their exit. With only a few of the others capable of breathing underwater, Sora felt a little pressed for time and maybe slightly more stressed than he normally was on these adventures. Or at least as stressed as he had been at some points during his first one. Just when he was beginning to wonder if this would be what did him and the other in, the water level seemed to stop rising.

Glancing to the others, Sora could tell he had not been imagining things, because they seemed just as bewildered by this sudden occurrence too. Stranger still, some of the water seemed to be spilling out towards where Neptune was a lot faster while the rest had started to form what looked like fists and began pounding on either one of the doors. Even for the Keyblade wielders, this was a little odd. Not entirely odd, but still pretty decently high up there on the list of oddities they had seen.

"Umm… You guys all see this too, right?" Lea eventually managed to ask.

"Worry about it later. This might be our best chance," Sun told him as he waded to the center of the room and clapped his hands together.

In an instant, three glowing clones materialized around Sun and began rushing to the two doors, exploding on impact when they hit, and it was not long before anyone who could were helping Sun in his efforts. After all, finding a more subtle way out had not been working, so why waste time continuing to try when they could just blast their way out. A few blasts from Nora's grenade launcher, some blows from Yang, a number of Firaga spells, and another round of Sun's exploding clones later and the exits were opened up once again, releasing all the water at once, and allowing Neptune to dash across the chamber as fast as he could. No one made any move to stop him, but only because they all wanted out of this room and possibly even the cave just as quickly as him.

If there were any traps left in the cave, then they did not take any notice. They had all been scrambling like mad to get out of this crazy place, and they did not stop running until they saw daylight and were pushing through tree branches beneath a very visible, clear blue sky. As soon as they realized they were out, they all stopped to catch their breaths, while taking a moment to ponder over the strangeness that helped them escape that last trap.

"Okay, before we start considering anything else I have to ask. Sora, is it normal for water to suddenly gain sentience on this world?" Weiss inquired.

"Nay, it ain't, Weiss," Sora panted, somehow still having energy to use his pirate voice, much to the heiress's irritation. "That be a first for me as well, outside of water spells at least."

"So then what did happen?" Ren asked, and the answer surprised everyone.

"I happened. I used my Semblance on the water," Neptune admitted.

"Your Semblance?" most of the group repeated in wonder. The biggest exception was Sun, who could only beam at his friend proudly.

"See Neptune? I told ya you could do it," Sun praised his best friend.

Neptune was not so willing to accept the praise. "It was a tense situation and I just reacted without really thinking. I'm pretty sure it was just a random fluke at best."

"Hang on a second," Roxas interrupted before the two best friends could get too far into any arguments. "What're you guys talking about? How exactly does Neptune's Semblance have anything to do with…the…water…" The slow trail off at the end of Roxas's sentence was accompanied by a deadpan stare as the pieces fell into place in his mind. "You have got to be kidding me."

"What is it?" Jaune questioned, firmly among those of the group who had not quite put it all together just yet. Granted, not that many of them had figured it out just yet either, but at this point, they all just wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth.

"My Semblance lets me control water, but only while I'm able to make physical contact with it," Neptune revealed, knowing what he was going to unleash when he did.

Unsurprisingly, Lea's the one who erupted first. "Okay, that's it! I've been understanding of the whole thing despite the strangeness involved, but now even I can't take it anymore! Your freaking name is Neptune, your weapon has a trident mode, and your freaking Semblance let's you control water!"

"Well, only if I can make physical…"

"Doesn't matter! You've got all of that going for you, so why the hell are you afraid of water?! Especially with a Semblance like that!"

"It's because of my Semblance that I'm afraid of water, okay?!" Neptune snapped back, surprising the others. Neptune did not even need any of them to say anything before going into further detail. "My Semblance first manifested when I was really young, but I could never control it back. Even now, I can just barely get it to do what I want most of the time. One day, when I was a kid, my brother tried teaching me how to swim by throwing me off a pier back in Argus."

"You're from Argus too?" Pyrrha and Jaune both exclaimed, much to the others' surprise.

"Hey guys? Leave that stuff for later please," Ventus told the couple, who simply nodded in reply. "Still, throwing someone off a pier doesn't seem like the best way to teach someone how to swim."

"It's not," Sora confirmed, well remembering when Riku had tried to do the same thing to him back when they were kids. Sure, it had been a silly joke, and the water wasn't even that deep, but it was still pretty scary at the time.

"Well it was a really bad idea in my case, because when I finally managed to get back up, I ended up bringing a bubble of ocean water with me, making it hard for me to breathe or see," Neptune continued.

"Yeah, your Semblance nearly drowning you would be a good reason to be afraid of water," Pyrrha admitted.

"Oh, it wasn't just that," Neptune informed her. "In my panic, I tried using my Semblance to get the bubble off me, but I ended up just sending over my brother. It was a lucky thing that my brother's Semblance lets him turn water into vapor, because otherwise, he would likely have drowned too. Don't you get it? My Semblance nearly got both me and my own brother killed, so why wouldn't I do everything I possibly can to avoid water at all costs? Next time I may not be as lucky and end up actually hurting someone."

No one knew what to say. Neptune's story was certainly traumatizing and cleared up a lot of confusion at last, but more importantly, how could they really hope to comfort him after hearing all of this? Sure, they had come here to help the guy get over his fear of water, and they all knew going in it would likely be a daunting task, but still, who would have thought it would be something rooted in a childhood trauma. Lucky for him, no one was going to give up on him yet, and Pyrrha knew just how to start.

"You know, everyone has some trouble with their Semblance, and you're not the only one with an experience like that," Pyrrha started off, getting everyone's attention. "Take me for example. After my Semblance first manifested it took forever for me to get such fine control over it. Before that, every time someone startled me I would send every metal object near me flying in several directions, if not right at the person who surprised me. One time, my father snuck up on me in the kitchen and I literally threw everything but the kitchen sink at him."

"You think that's bad? There was a time when I couldn't get my clones to vanish even after taking a hit for me. They kinda just sat there with a weapon or some other injury. Do you have any idea how freaky it is seeing a perfect copy of yourself full of bullet holes or with a sword going through their chest?" Blake offered up. It was a rather morbid example, but it did seem to be doing what Pyrrha was hoping for.

"Oh! Oh! How about this one?" Yang excitedly added on. "When Ruby first got her Semblance, she couldn't walk five steps some days without accidentally blasting off and crashing into or even through the nearest wall."

"Yang! You promised you wouldn't ever tell anyone," Ruby whined, all but confirming her sister's story. She them smirked a little and added, "Still wasn't as bad as what happened when you got your first haircut."

"Wait a minute. Yang got a haircut once?" Roxas questioned, hardly believing it.

Both sisters gained dark expressions as they simultaneously stated, "We don't talk about that dark day."

Most of the others were willing to let the matter die there, but Lea was a different story. "Yang? Our Yang? The same girl who freaks out if someone so much as touches her hair the wrong way, if at all…got a haircut?"

"Again…We don't talk about it," Yang repeated.

Neptune appreciated what his friends were trying to do, but he still managed to see a small flaw in their attempts. "Well what about those guys?" he asked upon waving to the four Keybearers. "I kinda doubt they ever struggled with anything like this."

"You kidding? Just because all things Keyblades and magic is simple doesn't mean it all comes easy," Lea instantly denied him. "You know why I prefer using fire spells over most other magic? It's because I completely suck with everything else. Like, the first time I tried using ice magic, I nearly froze my own face off. Literally. Not comfortable. Not only that, but it took me forever to figure out how to just get my Keyblade to pop into my hand."

"Don't even get me started on how painful it was learning how to summon and fly on a Keyblade Glider," Ventus piped up. "I swear, between Master Eraqus, Aqua, and me, I don't know who was more freaked out after my first attempt."

"Why? What happened?" Roxas asked.

"Let's just say there may still be a few mountains back at the Land of Departure with very impressive and accurate depictions of my face on them," was all Ventus said in reply.

Sora then took up the reins of the conversation as he addressed Neptune directly. "Everyone has some trouble getting a handle on their powers, and we've all had a moment or two that's left us at least a little scared to keep trying to use our powers in one way or another, but the good thing about fear is that no matter how strong it might be, you're always going to be bigger than it."

"What do you mean, Sora?" Neptune asked.

"Fear's something that comes from inside of you, right? And you're bigger than anything that's inside of you. So once you decide that you're the boss, the fear can start to go away, or at the very least become easier to manage," Sora explained.

"I don't know about that, Sora," Neptune denied.

"Hey, I never said it would just vanish over night. Sometimes it takes a little bit of effort, but in case you haven't noticed, you already managed to push it out," Sora reminded him. "I mean, who was it that just helped save us from drowning back in the cave?"

"Um…I-I guess I did," Neptune admitted.

"You guess? No, you know what you did, now come on. Who kept the water from filling up the cavern back in the cave?" Sora prompted again, this time with an eager smile on his face.

Neptune had to smile this time, seeing what Sora was doing, so this time he replied with a little more confidence. "I did."

"And who managed to face up to going out on the water when he could have just as easily stayed back on the island we first landed on?"

"I did," Neptune confirmed once again.

"And who just rushed through a room full of water with us to get out of the cave, so we can keep going and stop Blackbeard from getting his hands on the Fountain of Youth?"

"I did!" Neptune proudly cheered.

"And who's going to keep pushing forward until he's one day conquered his fears so that he can keep helping both his friends and everyone else?" Sora finished with one last question.

"I am!" Neptune confidently declared, but he shrunk in a little bit after as he hesitantly added, "Maybe."

Sora could not help but look at the blue haired boy for a second until he shrugged and decided, "Eh, I'll take that. For now anyway. Right now, we've still got a treasure to get to before Blackbeard and the Spanish."

Neptune nodded in agreement and drew his weapon as he asked, "Well what're we waiting for? Let's go stop a few evil pirates. For life and light, together we fight!"

"Hey! Uh-uh," Sora snapped, much to everyone's surprise. He soon glared at Neptune and said, "Get your own battle cry. That one is mine."

"Sorry. Guess I got a little caught up in the moment," Neptune sheepishly chuckled, drawing smiles and chuckles from the others as they proceeded onward down the path.

---

It was a couple hours after the group's little therapy session, and they were still trekking through the forest in an effort to find either the Fountain, Blackbeard and his crew, or the Spanish. Some of them were pretty glad they had not encountered the latter two, but they were all pretty frustrated at not finding any sign of the Fountain either. Then again, if Sparrow had not found it before, it would be hard for them to find it, even with his compass. Not that it stopped Sora from checking the thing every so often just to make sure they were on the right path. The only problem he had at the moment was how it would jump between pointing in the direction they needed to go and pointing to Ruby, but no one found that to be surprising. If anything, it served as a good source of teasing material.

Eventually, Jaune could not help but get fed up with slashing his way through low hanging branches, overgrown grass, and of course the occasional Heartless attacks. "Seriously, how much further do we have to go before we find this stupid Fountain?"

"We'll know when we get there," Sora assured him. After a small pause, he could not help but mutter "Assuming Jack gets there before we do."

If the irritated look on Jaune's face was not enough indication on how little he liked that answer, then his groaning certainly drove the point home. "Jeez, at this rate, I'd settle for just running into Blackbeard in favor of just cutting through more annoying trees and Heartless."

Pyrrha was about to laugh her boyfriend's comments off, knowing he did not really mean that…most likely, when a sword suddenly swished out in front of her, followed by the sound of several guns clocking. Turning to the person holding the sword to her throat, Pyrrha saw a young woman about the same age as Sparrow glaring at her, and then glanced about to see several pirates holding her and her friends at gunpoint. Not that anyone else seemed to have noticed until she spoke up of course.

"Um…Jaune," Pyrrha called out with a nervous timber.

Thankfully, Jaune was not the only one to have heard Pyrrha's call, but he did wish he was the only one who had gotten visibly nervous upon seeing who was surrounding them. Stepping out to stand at the forefront of the pirates was none other than an older man with a scraggly beard, the tips of which almost looking like they had been lit on fire at one point or another, dressed all in black, from his captain's hat down to his boots, and leveling each of them with a cold, deadly look from his soulless eyes.

"Be careful what you ask for, boy," the pirate coolly informed Jaune, his voice sending shivers up everyone's spine as it carried a promise of death with every word even if unintentionally. "You may receive your wish sooner than you think."

Looking over the new arrivals, Sora looked this fearsome pirate straight in the eye and declared, "You must be Captain Blackbeard."

"I am. Though I don't think I know of you," Blackbeard commented.

Sora merely smirked in response as he replied, "And you're a lot scragglier than I expected. And shorter."

Blackbeard scowled at Sora for his comments, prompting nervous laughter from some of the others, even as Weiss slowly approached him and whispered, "Sora, can we please not do anything to anger the very dangerous pirate who's likely to kill us at any second?"

"Yeah, we're supposed to be professionals," Ruby joked right after her partner.

Lea then took the opportunity to add, "Can we also just take a moment to go on the record and point out this was not my fault? Vomit-Boy's the one who jinxed us this time, not me."

"Not the time, Axel," Roxas scolded.

Sora had to agree, especially with so many weapons still pointed at him and his friends, so he decided it was time to delve into the pirate playbook for his next move. Just as Blackbeard was reaching for his sword, Sora leveled him a hard look and loudly declared, "Parley!"

Hearing that one word gave Blackbeard and everyone else pause, even as the dreaded pirate captain asked, "What?"

"You heard me. I said parley," Sora repeated.

Blackbeard just silently stared at Sora for a few minutes until he ultimately smirked and said, "Clearly you don't know my reputation as well as I thought, or else you'd already know I don't care to indulge in those rather childish rules."

Now Sora was a little worried. Most of the pirates he had met on this world always kept to the Pirate's Code like their lives depended on it. At least so long as it played to their favor in some way, but then again, Jack did say Blackbeard was the one pirate that all the others feared the most, so he probably should not have expected him to show any willingness to negotiate to begin with. The others seemed to realize how nervous he was getting, as they all slowly started reaching for their weapons, even while they continued to wonder what Sora had just attempted.

"What the heck even is parley?" Sun quietly whispered.

"Don't ask me. Sora's the one who would know about this type of thing best," Ren reminded the monkey-boy, and his point was soon proven too.

"It's a bit of the Pirate's Code. Anyone who invokes parley must not be harmed until negotiations are complete," Sora explained for the group.

"And you thought that would work on a pirate like him?" Yang questioned, incredulously.

Sora could not help but shrug sheepishly and admit, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, most of all the other pirates I've met here tend to hold the Code in pretty high regard."

"Aye they do, mate, but then again, you're used to dealing with honorable pirates like myself, aren't you?" Jack's voice suddenly called out, and the next thing anyone knew, the pirate captain himself was holding a sword to the neck of the woman holding Pyrrha at sword point. The only thing more surprising than Jack's sudden appearance was how unperturbed the woman seemed to be from Jack's appearance. If anything, she looked amused if not somewhat happy at seeing him.

"How is it we can never meet without you pointing something at me, Jack?" the mystery woman asked.

Jack smirked back at her and replied, "'Tis quite a mystery, isn't it, Angelica?"

"Angelica?" Neptune, Blake, Ruby, Nora, Ren, Ventus, and Lea all repeated in wonder. All of them having noted how familiar Jack was being when he spoke to this woman. Blackbeard did not give any of them time to ponder anything for long though.

"You're very brave to appear before me again like this, Sparrow. Or very foolish," Blackbeard growled at the other captain.

"It's remarkable how often those two traits coincide," Jack brushed off with a wave of his free hand. "Though I do believe I have a few things you may be interested in."

"And what could you possibly have that I would want now, Sparrow?" Blackbeard questioned, to which Jack merely grinned. "You have the chalices, don't you?"

"Aye, I do," Jack confirmed before turning to someone hidden nearby. "Oi, Gibbs, if you would be so kind?"

Much to everyone's surprise, Joshamee Gibbs stepped out from the brush, holding fast a rope tied around a pig, which had the silver chalices strapped onto the harness secured around it. It seemed like he was struggling a little to keep the pig in one place though, but he did manage to keep enough of a hold on the rope even when he spotted a friendly face amongst the crowd before him. "Ah, Sora! Long time no see, lad," Gibbs called happily.

"Hey Mister Gibbs," Sora waved cheerily. He would have proceeded to introduce the others, but they were right in the middle of more important matters.

Angelica easily took note of the familiarity between the two men, and soon put a few pieces together. "So not only did you bring a friend, but I'm assuming you know these…children, Jack?"

"I did, and I do. Most of them are more recent acquaintances, but the young lad in the captain's hat there, Sora, has seen far more of the world than any of us could possibly imagine, and come out all the stronger for it. I really wouldn't fancy trying to fight him if I were you," Sparrow informed Blackbeard's group at large. His warning seemed to have little effect, but Jack still had a few more cards to play. "If that's not incentive enough for you then perhaps I should mention a certain someone who worries you is close behind us at this very moment."

This got Blackbeard's attention. "The one-legged man? He is near?"

"Aye, so if you really want me to just go handing over the chalices, or even leading you the rest of the way to the Fountain, I'd suggest you adhere to my good mate's request for a parley. I myself have one or two conditions for you in exchange for these little goblets," Jack revealed.

Blackbeard growled angrily at Jack, but it was pretty clear to everyone Sparrow had him right where he wanted the evil pirate. Sure, Teams SLVR, RWBY, JNPR, and the two boys of Team SSSN all had to wonder why Blackbeard would be so worried about Barbossa (because who else could the one-legged man be?), but they kept their attention on the negotiations taking place between the two pirates right now.

"Name your terms, and be quick about it, Sparrow," Blackbeard ordered.

"Firstly…No, no, that one would be secondly," Jack started off before starting again. "Firstly, on your word, you will bring no harm to Angelica."

"What?" more than half of the other-worldly crew questioned in surprise. Even Sora was a little stupefied by this term.

"Jack, you do remember she's one of the bad guys, right?" Roxas questioned.

"Now, now, she's not all that bad," Jack brushed off. "Granted, she is pure evil; more to be feared than a wild beast. A hungry, wild beast with gnashing teeth. A vengeful, hungry, from hell, beast that—"

"Sparrow," Angelica interrupted with a scowl.

"Yes Sweetness?" Jack quickly redirected, making the others raise more questions as to the nature of his relationship with this woman.

Blackbeard did not give anyone time to ask those questions. "I'll make no such vows to the likes of you, Sparrow," Blackbeard growled, only to soften his tone as he placed a protective hand on Angelica's shoulder shortly after as he finished. "But it costs me nothing to admit my daughter was never in harm's way."

That seemed to satisfy Jack enough to bring about another reordering of his terms. "Secondly then, priorly firstly, I must also insist that you leave Sora and his mates unharmed. After all, if you want to safely navigate this jungle and make it to the Fountain without any horrendous creatures or other obstacles getting in your way, they are in fact your best bet."

Blackbeard and Angelica both looked over at Sora's group with heavy skepticism. Skepticism that only grew when Ruby, Jaune, and Sun all offered nervous waves in return, but Jack did not want to give them much chance to question his honesty on this matter. "I'd decide quickly if I were you. You have any idea how hard it was catching that filthy pig, let alone keeping a hold on it? Not the big one; the four-legged one."

Blackbeard let out a reluctant sigh and nodded in agreement to this term, but no one seemed ready to relax just yet. Just as well, considering this man was such a dangerous pirate, but like Jack, they would take what little respite they could attain for the time being. Not that Jack was finished with his terms just yet. "And thirdly, Mister Beard…" Even though Blackbeard stomped forward with threatening gaze and dangerous stride, some of the others could not help snorting in amusement over hearing Jack call him this, and still press on with his third term. "There are times, not very often, when I do reflect upon my heinous misdeeds."

"Sure you do," Weiss muttered, completely unconvinced.

"Oh, I do, lass, I assure you, and chief among, I note how poorly I have treated Mister Gibbs, my loyal first mate," Jack insisted with a wave in Gibbs's direction.

"Aye, now you bring it up—" Gibbs started to complain for perhaps the first time in his life. At least on this matter.

"Left him to rot in jail, I did. Didn't care. Still don't," Jack interrupted before his first mate could get another word in. "But point being, you must let him go free."

Blackbeard remained silent, likely waiting to see if there was anything else Jack would add to his list, or even some other detail to expand on his last term, but Sparrow remained silent. It seemed his final term really was that simple, assuming it was his last. Wanting to be sure Sparrow was finished, Blackbeard asked, "Is that it?"

Jack barely even took more than a few seconds to think over his answer. "I think so. Quick or the pig runs, and good luck getting those chalices back then."

Apparently, Gibbs had a few other ideas of his own that he wanted to offer up, no doubt born from a desire to not be left in the woods by himself with who-knew-what out there waiting to kill him. "Jack, if it's all the same to you, I'd be just as—"

"Done!" Blackbeard declared, wanting to put an end to this whole thing before anyone else could utter another word.

Jack nodded happily at hearing this, and then gave Gibbs the order to release the pig. As soon as he had pulled the chalices off the harness and let the pig run off, Gibbs quickly handed the two items over to Blackbeard, still hoping that he could stay with them a little longer, but Blackbeard had started moving on again as soon as he had the chalices in hand. Or at least he was until he stopped to give Sparrow another look. "Well? What are you waiting for? Lead on, Sparrow."

"Alright, alright. We're coming," Jack assured him before turning to the few friends he had among this gathering of black-hearted scoundrels. "Sora, I'll be having me compass back now, if you please?"

Sora had no problem with handing over the compass, but Gibbs did seem wary of letting the boy and his friends continue on with this journey. "Sora, I know you're a brave lad and all, but you do understand what exactly it is you're getting into, yes?"

"Hmm…Yep, basically," Sora confirmed. "Don't worry, Gibbs. We can handle anything Blackbeard throws at us."

Gibbs wanted to protest some more, but Jack had other plans for him. "Why don't you just let me worry about Sora and his mates, and focus on claiming that freedom of yours, savvy?" he suggested as he placed to his compass to Gibbs. "This will lead right to it with little fuss, mate."

The group then proceeded to march on ahead, thinking that was the end of the matter. Gibbs did still have a few concerns that he felt necessary to address, and he did not let his captain take another step without doing so. "Jack, just tell me this much: This is all part of whatever plan you've cooked up, yes?"

Jack smirked to Gibbs knowingly when he answered. "Aye, you can bet all the rum it is. Speaking of, see if you can scrounge some up before we meet again, eh? The red cloaked girl and her icy friend there threw out all the rum I had stored on Sora's ship, so I haven't had any until very recently."

"Again, we're all underage. None of us are letting you—wait," Weiss started to reiterate, only to stop short when she registered the very last thing Jack said. "When did you…?"

"Oh look at that. Party's moving on ahead, so we'd best be off now. See you later, Gibbs," Jack quickly alerted everyone, hurrying on after Blackbeard's crew before anyone could stop him.

Gibbs and Sora just shared a look and a shrug, knowing this was pretty much typical of Jack Sparrow, and the group soon parted ways from Gibbs afterward. Even though he knew Sora could handle himself as well as Jack claimed though, Gibbs still worried for the young boy and his friends a great deal.

---

For the longest time after splitting off from Gibbs, Sora and his friends were unable to question Jack on a few different matters. The main reason being Blackbeard urging everyone onward to the Fountain, and they needed Jack to stay focused if they were to reach it in as little time as possible. Of course, there was also the matter of figuring out how they were going to keep Blackbeard from seizing or worse using the Fountain for himself, but so far they had failed to come up with any ideas, so they could not help but think back to the main matter of concern they had learned about after their reunion with Jack.

Sora in particular felt worried for Jack, given how often he shot glances over his shoulder towards Angelica, and he could have sworn there were some moments when the lady pirate had spared some looks in Jack's direction too. Granted, most of the looks were of the suspicious or even angry variety, but there were a few peculiar ones in there as well, and those set off Sora's nerves a bit more than the other two types of looks. Combine this with the exchange of words they had shared during the negotiation with Blackbeard, as well as what Jack had designated his first term of agreement before making it his secondary one, and Sora had a sneaking suspicion he never would have expected to gain in regards to Jack Sparrow. It was not until they reached the entrance of yet another cave that Sora finally got the chance to confront Jack, and he did not hesitate in doing so once he was certain Blackbeard and Angelica were not in good hearing distance.

"Jack, can I ask what the deal is with you and…" Sora questioned, trailing off at the end with a simple nod in Angelica's direction.

Sparrow did not need much more prompting from Sora to know what the boy was referring to, but he did feel the need to ask, "And what business in particular is that of yours, mate?"

"I don't know, but if it's going to be a problem later on…"

"Now, now, lad. Don't worry your spiky little head. My history with Angelica is exactly that. History," Jack assured him. If he had been hoping to reassure Sora, his efforts failed when a pensive look worked its way onto his face. "For the most part."

"For the most part?" Sora repeated.

"Look, it's a long story that we don't have time to get into all the details of right now," Jack insisted, but he could tell from the look on Sora's face the boy was not going to let this drop just like that. "I'll just say this much: even I have had, briefly mind you…stirrings every now and again. This one particular instance possibly being stronger than the others."

Thinking back to when he had been discussing his relationship with Ruby with Jack, Sora quickly picked up on what he meant when he said stirrings. "You mean…you dated Blackbeard's daughter?!"

"No! No, of course not. Don't be ridiculous, Sora," Jack scoffed, making Sora even more worried about the exact nature of his history with Angelica. What Jack said next to clarify did not help. "I unknowingly almost married Blackbeard's daughter."

"You almost—How do you unknowingly almost marry someone?!" Sora demanded, doing his best to keep his voice down, if for no other reason than for fear of Blackbeard overhearing and wanting retaliation against Sparrow.

"I knew who she was, just not her relation to Blackbeard. Not entirely sure if she even knew of it at the time," Jack explained. "And we were young. This was the first time I'd ever felt such…feelings, as you would put it for someone else, and in such a genuine manner. Much as I am loathe to admit it, the idea frightened me a little, so I chose to embrace that oldest and most noble of pirate traditions."

"You ran away from your own wedding, because you were scared of falling in love with her?!" Sora exclaimed, only this time, some of his friends overheard, and they were all shooting Sparrow some judging glares in response. "Jack, that is despicable."

"…Thank you," Jack nodded in return, though it was hard to tell if he was actually being serious and taking Sora's remark as a compliment or if he was being sarcastic and only saying thanks as a way of telling Sora he did not need the reminder. Any further discussion of the matter ended when Jack saw where they had gotten to in the cave, and he smiled as he announced, "Ah ha! Here we are. Dead end."

Once again, Jack Sparrow was subject to several disbelieving looks from the Keybearers and huntsmen. This time though, the looks were joined by Blackbeard, Angelica, and the rest of the evil pirate crew. "Did he just say…" Ren started to ask.

"Dead end?" Blackbeard finished for the boy.

"Dead end," Jack proudly repeated as he waved to the group, apparently not sensing the mostly dangerous vibes being directed towards him.

"Jack, I'm starting to think you have no idea where you're going," Angelica accused him.

"It is not the destination so much as the journey, they say," Jack happily replied.

"Considering reaching this destination is highly detrimental to whether or not we continue living, I would have to disagree," Weiss pointed out.

Jack merely glanced at Weiss in silence before he asked, "In all the time we've known each other, when have you ever agreed with me?"

Weiss hated to admit it, but Jack did have a point there. A point that was only driven home when Ruby added, "That doesn't really mean all that much. Weiss tends to disagree with everyone."

"That is not true," Weiss protested.

"I mean…It's kinda true. Out of everyone on our team, you do tend to argue with the rest of us more than anyone else," Ventus of all people reminded her.

"Ven!" Weiss snapped, this time in both protest and complaint. She could hardly believe the blonde boy would call her out like this.

"What? You do! Do you want me to lie and say otherwise?" Ventus insisted.

"Ahem. If you're all quite done?" Jack interrupted before the small lover's quarrel could continue on for too much longer. He looked to Blackbeard and said, "Chalices if you please."

Blackbeard looked hesitant to entrust Sparrow with the chalices again, but he still handed them over, likely thinking Jack knew what he was doing. Sparrow took a chalice in either hand and held them high above his head before glancing about and telling the group, "Stand back."

Everyone took a couple big steps back, continuing to watch and see what Sparrow planned to do. One dramatic pause later, Jack clinked the chalices against one another, causing a loud ring to echo throughout the cave, and…absolutely nothing else. The others all glanced about to see if anything had changed, or if just anything had happened period. But no, there was nothing. Little had changed other than the sound of the chalices clinking against one another again, making everyone turn to see Sparrow repeating his previous action once more as he continued to hold the chalices above him.

He was about to clink the chalices against one another one more time when Angelica stepped forward and asked, "Jack, have you ever in fact seen with your own eyes the Fountain of Youth?"

"…I'm sorry. Could you repeat the question?" was Jack's first response after not even five seconds of silence.

In that moment, the others all realized Blackbeard had only left them alive and allowed Sparrow to lead them here because he must have believed Jack had been to the Fountain once before, and now Jack had completely abolished that idea and with it any reason the evil pirate had for keeping them alive. The only thing surprising about all of this was how Pyrrha ended up being the one who first commented, "This man is going to get us all killed."

"Wow. Did not expect to hear something like that from her," Roxas commented.

"And yet, she's not wrong," Weiss muttered.

While the others were justifiably panicking, Neptune caught sight of something on the brims of the chalices, and quickly shouted, "Hey guys, was there always something written on those cups?"

"Eh?" Jack questioned in response while the others all froze in place. They then watched as Jack examined the chalices again before grinning widely at Neptune. "Good eye there, mate," Jack praised, and he then read the writing aloud for all to hear. "Aqua de Vida."

The cavern seemed to tremble a little when Jack spoke those words, and before long, they all heard the sound of flowing water coming from all around. Looking behind them, Neptune saw several trails of water moving towards them and immediately jumped up on top of Lea, much to the redhead's scowling surprise. To the group's continued shock, the water did seem to be flowing from downhill, but from multiple different directions, and eventually even started climbing up the walls until it pooled into one spot on the ceiling above them. Stranger still, the pool that formed as a result did not even let a single drop fall down onto their heads, but instead just swirled the water around in a small whirlpool. When a random bird flew into the cave, the others were shocked to see it fly up into the pool and then vanish with a small splash.

Seeing the water finally stop flowing into the whirlpool, Lea looked to the friend still using him like a tree and said, "Please get down, Neptune. I don't think you have anything to worry about from magic water."

"You don't know that," Neptune protested.

"Dude. Trust me, magic water is an entirely different matter from regular water," Lea assured him. "Besides, something tells me we're going to have to go into that little ceiling pool if we want to go any further."

"You've got good instincts on you, lad," Jack praised as he started to climb up both boys, much to their shock. "Pardon me."

"Oh sure. Now he says something," Lea grumbled as he started struggling under the weight of the other two. He then shot looks at everyone else and warned them all, "Don't you even think about it. At least not until these other two have gotten off."

No one seemed tempted to test him save for Blackbeard, but even he backed off when his boots suddenly seemed to catch fire just from Lea looking at them. Afterwards, Jaune stepped up to help Lea with lifting everyone up into the whirlpool, and shortly after, they all found themselves in an incredible cavern that seemed to be flowing with mysterious yet incredible power. And there, right in the center surrounded by massive strong trees just brimming with life, was an archway with water steadily trickling out of it, leaving little doubt of its identity as the Fountain of Youth itself.

"Incredible," Weiss breathed.

"Yes, it is so beautiful," Angelica agreed.

It did not take too long for everyone to start moving towards the Fountain, though Ren, Roxas, and Blake all took notice of the various skeletons that lay near it, no doubt the remains of those who had been used as sacrifices for the Fountain's life-giving waters, but they were the only ones. Everyone else had their eyes on either Blackbeard, ready for the moment when he finally decided to kill them, or Jack, who was already reaching out to at least touch the Fountain's magical waters. The only exception was Neptune, who kept a careful eye on the various puddles of water around them.

It did not take long for Blackbeard to realize what Jack was doing, and immediately made the crafty pirate stop short by shouting, "Sparrow, I'll be the first to taste those waters."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Pyrrha informed him, Miló and Akoúo̱ already in her hands, and it was barely that much later when the others had at least started to draw their weapons.

Blackbeard just looked over the various children before him, and while he did find most of their choices in weaponry either odd or impressive, one would be hard pressed to say he was intimidated. "You don't want to be doing that, whelps," Blackbeard advised.

"Considering it's a choice between letting you have the Fountain to endlessly terrorize the world or ensuring the sea remains free of your darkness for everyone, I think we really do," Sun disputed without a second thought.

"If anything, you're the one who doesn't want to fight us. Not unless you want to end up like every other villain I've beaten before," Sora added on.

"Somehow I doubt that, boy," Blackbeard waved off, drawing his sword and aiming it directly at Sora in challenge.

"Why do you even need the Fountain so badly? You're already a feared, dangerous pirate with all the riches you could ever ask for and then some. Not to mention a devoted daughter who you probably don't even deserve. Probably. You could just walk away, leave this thing alone, and not hurt anyone else," Ruby tried to appeal, hoping that Blackbeard might have some small piece of a better nature. It was all for naught though.

"The reason why I must do this is really much simpler than you think, child. I'm a bad man," Blackbeard stated.

"So we've heard," Yang deadpanned, cocking her gauntlets so that they would fire the second she threw the first punch.

Just when the fight seemed likely to get underway, Angelica heard something coming up from behind them and looked back to see a startling sight. "Father!"

Blackbeard could hear the distress in his daughter's voice, and could only come to one conclusion. "The one-legged man?"

No one needed to voice any confirmation at all before Angelica spun an accusing glare towards Jack. "You brought him here."

"Would I do that?" Jack asked in return.

"I don't think you want any of us to answer that," Blake informed Sparrow. "But maybe someone could explain why Blackbeard's so worried about—"

"Edward Teach!" Barbossa's voice rang out before Blake could finish her question.

"Guess we're just moving right along with this," Nora shrugged while Barbossa continued with his declaration.

"For crimes committed on the high seas, by the authority granted me by his majesty, the King, with a goodly amount of personal satisfaction, I hereby place you in the custody of the court and declare you to be my prisoner," Barbossa finished as he stepped into full view with an army of King's Navy men at his back.

Blackbeard did not look worried. If anything, he seemed amused. "My trick's out," he observed. "Is that it?"

Barbossa was not intimidated, but instead drew his sword and listed out, "Such crimes do include, but are not limited to piracy, treason, murder, torture of the most heinous sort, including the theft of one used, twisted hairy right leg."

"And I believed the whelps were foolish in daring to face my sword," Blackbeard almost chuckled, even as his eyes narrowed in anger.

"Well it sounds to me as though the whelps are just as clever as I, Teach," Barbossa smirked. "Because this far away from your ship, you're no more a threat than the average man."

Now Blackbeard had no reservations of letting out a dark chuckle. "Aye, that be the cold breath of fate I feel down my nape, but I'll have one last fight, by god," Blackbeard determined. He then shouted to his men, "KILL 'EM ALL!"

The ringing of multiple swords being drawn echoed throughout the cavern, and even the heroes from other worlds were bracing to rush in and attack, until Jack shouted, "HEY! WHOA! Hang on a minute!" Surprisingly, everyone did stop short at Sparrow's call, and simply watched as he moved to stand in the middle of the two groups. "I just…I just need to understand something."

"Only one thing?" Ren questioned.

Jack ignored him for the most part, and pressed on with his point, waving between the two groups and their respective pirate leaders to better illustrate his point. "Right, so you will fight against them, they will fight against you, all on account of him wanting to kill him?"

"That does seem to just about sum it up from where I'm standing," Neptune remarked.

"Then answer me this: where is the sense?" Jack asked.

Silence was Jack's answer for a brief spell, until Jaune finally shrugged and said, "There…isn't any?"

"Exactly," Jack confirmed before proceeding to propose an alternative. "I say, let them fight each other while we lay back, watch, have a drink, place some wagers! Eh?"

Again, silence met Jack's idea, until Pyrrha commented, "It's actually a little scary how reasonable that appears to be."

"Only a little scary?" Weiss questioned, mainly because she was having a hard time finding anything wrong with Jack's idea, save for the part where Barbossa and Blackbeard would be fighting to the death.

"Hey as long as no one bets against Roxas, or somehow convinces me to bet against him, I don't got a problem with it," Lea shrugged and he dismissed his Keyblade to better show his agreement with Jack's plan. Sadly, our heroes were the only ones to agree with Jack.

"Kill 'em all!" Barbossa shouted right after.

"No quarter!" Blackbeard commanded.

And so, Blackbeard's wicked crew did engage with Barbossa's men, while the two captains began battling it out with one another. To everyone's surprise, Barbossa was actually holding his own quite well for a man with only one good leg and a walking cane. In fact, the old pirate used both of those things to his advantage, often times batting aside Blackbeard's attacks with his cane and even using the cane as a bludgeoning weapon, but even then, there was something to be said of Blackbeard's battle prowess that made them evenly matched. Not that anyone was sitting back and just watching this one fight.

At some point after the fighting had started, Jack had managed to secure the mermaid's tear for himself, only to end up crossing swords with Angelica for both it and the chalices. Sure, there were a few times when one of them got the prize that they sought from their opponent, but it was always at the expense of the other item they needed or even their weapon, much to their frustrations and the amusement of others. All the while, Sora and his group were really just keeping their distance from all sides of the conflict. Not because they did not want to get involved, but because it was hard to say for certain which side they should be backing the most. Obviously they wanted Jack to win, but without knowing exactly which side he supported over the other, it made things difficult for them to really determine which side they should stand with. So for the time being, the huntsmen and huntresses of Remnant and their Keybearer allies were stuck fighting more of a defensive/reactive battle.

"Okay, so this has all turned into a huge mess," Sun noted after blasting away another random pirate with his gunchucks. He quickly spun around and over another two before knocking them out as well and added, "But look on the bright side: at least there aren't any—"

"NO!" all four Keyblade wielders shouted at once.

"Do NOT even finish that sentence! Please, for the love of all that's good in any world, don't finish it," Ventus begged the monkey boy.

"Why? It won't change the fact we're not dealing with—"

"Sun, no! I don't care what you think, the second you say what we all know you were about to say, we will be up to our necks in…" Roxas snapped. He ended up stopping short when Weiss gave him a small tap on the shoulder and then pointed towards a small corner off to the side of the battlefield, just in time to see their old, dark buddies appearing to join the brawl. "The Heartless," Roxas finished with a groan.

"Once again, for the record, not my fault. This one is on Monkey-Boy," Lea pointed out.

"And I think you've already gotten that complex you were so worried about," Yang joked right when she had bashed in the head of an Anchor Raider.

"Hey, here's a crazy thought. Why don't we worry about the Heartless and pirates trying to kill us now, and everything else later?" Weiss suggested as she started to skate around the battlefield slashing at any and all Heartless she passed.

"An excellent suggestion. I agree with your icy mate one hundred percent, Sora," Jack nodded.

"Hey!"

"You worry about the Heartless. Leave the rest of us pirates to ourselves," Jack continued on without pause.

It goes without saying that any and all arguments died in the group's throats after that, but then again it was not like the Heartless or any other combatant gave them a chance to argue. Pure chaos erupted afterwards, to the point where anyone and everyone was amazed they were able to keep track of anything other than their own opponents at a given time. Even Sora had a hard time keeping track of everything as he found himself unleashing multiple Keyblade transformations on an near endless number of Heartless. Lea and Neptune ended up back to back at one point, so caught up in the fight that they barely even registered their proximity to the water surrounding the fountain even after Lea's foot had slipped in just long enough for his boots to get wet. Sun did take notice though, and had to admit it was impressive how Neptune did not freak out or even flinch away from the water assuming he had noticed it at all, but he would have to save the praise for after they were finished. Right now there were several Heartless he needed to smash and bash into next week, and he had no problems in doing so with every swing of his weapon, be it as the gunchucks or when they were linked up as a staff.

Things even got so chaotic that even Team RWBY had a hard time coordinating their moves as well as they usually would in battle. Then again, that would imply they were even lucky enough to hear Ruby when she called out the names of their combo moves. Between all the yelling, splashing, sword clashing, and other noises echoing in the cave, Ruby could hardly hear herself think, let alone what her own teammates were saying. It was just a lucky thing that Yang and Blake were such a strong tag-team that they hardly needed any kind of signal to know what the other needed them to do, and Weiss seemed to be able to keep up with Ruby fairly easily, so for the most part, the girls were stuck with those respective pairings. Even when Ventus and Roxas jumped into the middle of things, they still managed to hold together by some small miracle. The only problem was that for every Heartless any of them took down, a pirate was waiting to strike soon after assuming another two Heartless did not and vice versa.

Team JNPR was not removed from the chaos either, but Nora and Ren did not seem to be too bothered. If anything, they were probably handling things better than anyone else, but given how slim the margin currently appeared to be, that did say very much. Even Pyrrha could hardly keep up with how many enemies were jumping at them, right to the point where she even had to break from her habit of subtly using her Semblance to deflect attacks and just straight up blasted things away from either her or her friends when the opportunity arose. Not that it came up too often with how many enemies were coming after her, but she was happy to have Jaune watching her back as much as he could and he put in quite the effort to do so too. Sadly, Jaune's efforts also made it hard for him to really look out for himself that well, and eventually, he ended up tripping over his own two feet, right into the middle of the face-off between Blackbeard and Barbossa. It was a lucky thing for Jaune that he managed to avoid being hit by either pirate's sword, having managed to deflect Blackbeard's with his shield and Barbossa's with his own blade, but his awkward footing when doing so caused him to stumble back from the force of Blackbeard's attack, right into the old, one-legged pirate.

"Get off me," Barbossa growled as he shoved Jaune aside and then resumed his attack on Blackbeard.

Jaune fell face-first into the water and had to spit out some of it before he accidentally swallowed some, but he still shot Barbossa a cross look for his lack of gratitude over saving his life. Sure, Jaune had not intentionally done so, but a simple thank you never hurt anyone. He did not have time to dwell on it, seeing as another Anchor Raider was already taking a swing at him, so he quickly rolled out of the way, leaving an opening for Pyrrha to attack the Heartless who dared to target her boyfriend.

Jaune ended up not being the only one to land in the middle of Barbossa's battle with Blackbeard, but he was the only one to do so unintentionally. When Sora came into the fight, it was right after Blackbeard had swiped at Barbossa's peg-leg, sending him crashing down onto the ground. Blackbeard would have run him through had Sora not jumped in to intercept Blackbeard's sword with his Keyblade already transformed into Highwind, and he then proceeded to beat Blackbeard back with the halberd before turning back and pulling Barbossa up again. To the surprise of everyone who could see, Sora actually managed to put on a little spin when helping Barbossa up, allowing him to be catapulted right into striking range of Blackbeard and drive the dreaded pirate even further back.

This time around, Barbossa did give some show of thanks as he quickly turned back to Sora and called out, "Thank ye, Sora!"

"Save it for after the fight's over, Barbossa. Or at least for after we've taken down Blackbeard," Sora advised while transforming Highwind into Storm Flag.

Barbossa grinned in agreement, and his grin only grew wider when he took notice of something behind their current foe, prompting him to say, "I believe that may be sooner than you realize, lad." When Sora and Blackbeard both shot confused looks at him for the remark, he nodded towards the cavern's entrance and said, "Take a gander."

Even if Barbossa had not said anything, the loud gunshot that rang out afterwards certainly served as incentive for Blackbeard and Sora to turn towards the cavern's entrance. In fact, all the fighting had stopped once the gunshot had been fired, despite how many guns were already being fired off just from the young Huntsmen's weapons, but considering the man who fired it stood at the head of a large force of soldiers, all decked out in black uniforms, the intimidation factor probably had a little something to do with it. No one was even sure if somebody had been hit by the man's shot, but they did not really seem to care too much since he was now commanding the attention of the entire room.

"I'm guessing these guys are the Spanish," Sora figured.

"Aye," Blackbeard answered.

The leader of the Spanish then marched towards Jack and Angelica with purpose, prompting Jack to shove the chalices into Angelica's hands and beat a hasty retreat. Angelica barely had time to shoot her ex a disgruntled glare before the Spaniard was in front of her with a hand held out as he demanded, "Señorita, the chalices por favor."

When Angelica did not hand over her prizes, a pair of Spaniards quickly wrestled them from her grasp and handed them over to their leader, and the group all watched in silence as the man moved to stand in a position where all could see and hear him. Surprisingly, his path did not take him towards the Fountain. This alone rang a few warning bells for the heroes from other worlds until the Spaniard spoke out in a loud, clear voice.

"Only God can grant eternal life, not this pagan water," the Spaniard declared, and with that he dropped the chalices on the ground, proceeded to try and crush them beneath his boots, and toss them into the surrounding water where they would sink out of sight. "Men! Destroy this profane temple!"

The Spanish then scrambled to carry out their orders, even as Lea shouted, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute! You mean you guys were trying to find the Fountain so you could destroy it this whole time?!"

"Si señior," the Spaniard confirmed.

"Well why didn't you say so in the first place? We could've helped," Nora happily informed him, much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

"NORA!" pretty much all of the girl's friends exclaimed. Except for Ren. He just tiredly face-palmed.

"What? I like smashing stuff and blowing things up," Nora innocently shrugged.

Now Jaune was resting his head against the flat of his sword in exasperation, much like Ren, and Pyrrha probably would have too if she was not so nice to her dearest friends, but the blonde leader of Team JNPR still had to admit, "I don't even know why we would feel surprised at this point."

The rest of the team had to agree with Jaune, given how they were now all having similar reactions to Ren's initial one, so they just about missed the entirety of the exchange the Spanish captain proceeded to have with Blackbeard as he drew his sword in readiness for a fight. "You are a fool," the Spaniard declared. "You seek in this place what only faith can provide."

"Faith?" Blackbeard scoffed. "In faith there is light enough to see, but darkness enough to blind."

He had just raised his sword when he felt something cut the flesh on his hand. The wound itself would not normally be of much concern beyond how its suddenness had caused him to drop his sword, but given the feeling of weakness that was beginning to strike him, Blackbeard could not help but wonder what he had been struck with. He just barely managed to turn to his wound and question what had injured him, when Barbossa lunged forward and drove his sword straight through him much to everyone's surprise.

Barbossa did not let Blackbeard drop right away though, but instead made sure the evil captain was close enough to hear one final thing from him. "For the Pearl."

"What have you done?!" Angelica screamed in horror. She quickly pried herself free from her captors and rushed to her father, hoping to remove the blade before it was too late, but she should have at least stopped to hear the warning Sparrow tried to give her.

"Angelica don't! The blade's poisoned!" Jack called out, but it was too late. Angelica had already cut herself on the blade as she was pulling it out. Not that Jack was willing to give up so easily. "Sora! You can heal her right? You have that kind of power."

Sora was already working on doing just as Jack requested, calling up every ounce of healing magic he could. The other Keyblade wielders were quick to try and lend some assistance, but nothing they tried worked. "I'm sorry, Jack, but there some things even we can't stop," Sora apologized.

"Mate, I've seen you heal yourself and your mates when they were near death. Surely there's some way you can save her," Jack inquired.

"It's not that easy," Ventus admitted, gaining everyone's attention as he explained the problem. "We can heal simple battle injuries and fatigue, but without knowing everything about the poison's exact nature, or even how an antidote to such poison should work, there's no way we could heal her. Heck if we try much harder, there's even a chance we could make things worse."

No one wanted to even imagine how Angelica's current condition could become worse, and Jack did not waste time thinking of it either. Instead, he quickly raced away and began splashing around in the water surrounding the Fountain, much to everyone's confusion. "Uh Jack? What're you doing?" Yang eventually asked.

"Never mind me, luv. You just try to stall the Spanish for the time being. It's the only way left to save her now," Jack explained.

Hearing what his old friend said, Sora immediately caught on, and grinned in response. "Ye heard the man, you black-hearted scoundrels! Hold these bloomin' cockroaches at bay!"

"And he's back to the pirate voice," Weiss grumbled.

"Just keep these guys busy, Weiss," Ruby ordered as she blasted forward, her scythe easily cutting through some of the ropes the Spaniards had already hooked onto the nearest pillar.

No one really bothered to notice Barbossa claiming Blackbeard's sword, ship, and crew afterwards, nor how Blackbeard's crew all followed after Barbossa as he took his leave, but only because they were busy either fighting off the Spanish or cutting the ropes they were using to try and destroy the Fountain. Eventually, anyone who did not have a blade was just focusing on keeping the Spaniards from latching new grappling lines onto the structure, while the ones who did have one kept cutting the few lines that did get reattached. Though some of them had to wonder where the Spanish were getting all the ropes from, but that was a question they did not have time to ponder. They just needed to keep the Fountain intact long enough for Jack to find and fill the chalices.

At one point, Roxas felt it necessary to pause and switch out the Keychains on his blades for something that would work better with this environment, and in short order, he was calling upon subtle water magic with every strike using the power of his Leviathan and Abyssal Tide Keyblades. Ventus and Lea were following similar tactics, as the former unleashed the powers of both Diamond Dust and his Fever Pitch Command Styles back-to-back as best he could, while the latter just burned his way through any opponent with all of his best fire powers. Just these displays alone would have been enough to garner attention and awe from the others, but seeing Neptune put his fear aside and use his Semblance to keep some Spaniards away helped the others to keep their heads in the game.

Roxas soon found that a little more difficult when he felt something begin building up inside of him. Something he never experienced before, that he could not hold it in even if he wanted to, and he did not even try doing so. With a spin of his Keyblades, Roxas unleashed the power all at once, and it caused his Keyblades to transform into a large guitar that he soon started strumming powerful chords on. Every chord he played, a powerful water attack followed to wash over whatever enemy was around him, be they Spaniards or the few Heartless that stuck around to try their luck on the heroes. At times he would even swing the instrument like a club, bashing in the heads of anyone that got close, and usually when he did, it almost seemed as though he were breaking out into dance. With one final strum, Roxas summoned out a massive wave of magic water that blasted several enemies out of the fight, all while he shouted, "Dance water, dance!"

When the attack finally ceased, the battlefield was completely clear of Heartless, and anyone who was not on Roxas's side was drenched from head to toe, while his large guitar changed back into his two Keyblades. Roxas on the other hand just looked between his surroundings and his blades as he wondered aloud, "Why did I just say Demyx's usual battle cry? And what did I even just do?"

"From where I was standing, it looked like you just stole my thing," Sora joked as he came to stand next to his former Nobody, his own Keyblade having long since returned to normal after he had unleashed Storm Flag's finishing move. "But we can worry about the details later. We've still got work to do."

"Somehow I don't think they're going to cooperate with us," Blake panted. She was getting tired of having to cut so many thick ropes, and the fact that the Spanish had now switched to using even stronger ropes did not help. The same could be said for Weiss, Ruby, Pyrrha, Jaune, Ren, and Neptune, who were all just barely standing up straight as they tried to catch their breath.

Sora was just in the midst of coming up with a new plan when Jack shouted, "Got it! You can do whatever to the Fountain now!"

Turning to Jack, Sora saw his friend holding the crushed chalices delicately in his hands, and that both chalices were filled, so he decided it was time to turn the Spanish back into allies. Placing his free hand over his heart to better call on the power of the Heartbinder he needed, Sora let the magic build up as he decided in his pirate voice, "Since it be a mermaid's tear what gives the Fountain water its power, it only seems fitting that a mermaid help bring an end to this cursed place. Together, as one!"

As soon as Sora spoke his usual chant, a whirlpool erupted around him, from which came a familiar hand that Sora immediately grabbed as he spun around, before launching the person it belonged to above him. As she passed over his head, Ariel happily smiled down at her friend before diving back down again, this time submerging beneath the ground and with Sora following her soon after. The next time the little mermaid leapt out of the ground, a sprout of water followed her, raining down on the various enemies and structures they needed to damage in order to destroy the Fountain and stop the Heartless. Sora did the same soon after, with the same results following him, and this pattern continued on with Ariel and Sora taking turns to literally rain damage onto their opponents as they swam across the battlefield much to most of the others' shock and awe.

"Is…Is Sora actually swimming through solid ground, and creating water spouts that can actually hurt or damage bad guys with a mermaid made out of water?" Blake eventually asked.

Ventus could not help but sigh as he said, "Blake, we really need to talk about this habit you seem to have of asking questions you already know the answer to."

"I just like to make sure everyone's seeing the same thing I am in order to ensure that I haven't gone crazy," Blake defended.

"Said the literal cat-girl who hangs out with guys that can command various elements and fight creatures of darkness with magic swords shaped like keys," Lea pointed out.

Blake merely rolled her eyes, not willing to verbally acknowledge Lea's point, so instead, she just watched as Sora and Ariel put on a ground finale by leaping out and spinning around in a watery dance that only proved more spectacular thanks to the various water spouts their earlier attacks had created. As they spun and spread magic water everywhere, the others all took notice of how the structures surrounding the Fountain continued to crumble until they finally collapsed down on the Fountain of Youth, destroying it completely, while the remaining enemy pirates and Heartless all fell to the two friends' attack. The Spanish captain saw all of this happen, but still did not show any outward reaction aside from a simple nod to the Keybearers and their friends before leading his company away from the place in full retreat.

"Well, that happened," Jack sighed, only to turn his attention back to Angelica and Blackbeard. "Now, with that out of the way, there's just the matter of saving your life, Angelica."

"What?" Angelica gasped, struggling to breathe as Barbossa's poison continued running rampant through her body.

"Drink this. It has the tear and water from the Fountain," Jack explained while holding out the other chalice to Blackbeard. "You must drink the other."

"No," Angelica gasped, trying to reach for the other chalice.

Thankfully, Jack pulled both chalices away before either of the other two could grab one, just to make sure Blackbeard did not do anything to prevent him from saving Angelica. "Look, we can't save you both. One of you must sacrifice yourself for the other," Jack explained.

"Does he seriously think Blackbeard is willing to give his life for someone else?" Weiss questioned.

"Normally, I'd say he would if it was his own family, but in this case…I'm not so sure," Yang admitted, her mind already drawing up ideas of what her birth mother would do if she were put in a similar situation.

Lea must have been thinking along similar lines, because he was just a little bit faster in trying to convince Blackbeard into doing the right thing than Sora was for once. "Captain Teach, your daughter is dying," the redheaded pyro pointed out. "If you truly care for her then you have to save her like any good and true parent should."

Blackbeard just looked between Lea, Sparrow, and the chalices before indicating each chalice one at a time as he double-checked, "This one takes life, and this one has the tear and gives life?"

"Aye, now hurry," Jack insisted.

And hurry Blackbeard did; he hurriedly grabbed the chalice with the tear and drank its contents himself, much to everyone's horror. As soon as he finished, the pirate had the audacity to look at his daughter and beg, "Angelica, save me my child."

A slight moment of hesitance made the team think Angelica would refuse, but in the end she surprised them all by grabbing the other chalice and drinking from it without pause. Once she had finished, she grasped Blackbeard's hand and declared, "I love you, Father."

The others were amazed. To think that Blackbeard would put his own life ahead of his own daughter's was terrible enough, but seeing said daughter willingly follow through with letting him? It was too much for all of them. Still, none of them could find it in themselves to act on it for many reasons. First and foremost being that both of these people seemed equally terrible, but above all, it was Jack's crestfallen look that really tore them up. Clearly Jack still had feelings for Angelica, and he just watched the woman he loved sign her life away for a man that did not deserve to live.

"And I thought my family was horrible," Weiss could not help but whisper, her thoughts automatically going to her father and brother. Though after another second, she had to wonder if her brother could turn out like Angelica because he had no one there to help him like how Winter had been for her.

Yang could only nod in agreement with Weiss's words, all while silently promising to never let herself or anyone in her family end up in a similar situation to this if she could help it, while the others merely hung their heads. Not out of respect for either of the pirates who had drank from the chalices, but out of remorse for Jack and how he had been forced to play a part in killing Angelica. As the great pirate stood and proceeded to walk away, Neptune came over and patted his shoulder as he said, "I'm sorry, Jack. This has…this has got to be pretty rough for you."

"Aye, it is," Jack confirmed, but just a second later, he stopped short and a puzzled expression worked its way onto his face, much to his friends' confusion. "Wait a minute…In fact, it might've been the other way around."

"What?" Neptune asked.

"What?" Sun and Team JNPR repeated a second later, more out of confusion for why Neptune had asked first.

"This cup had the tear, and that one had the…other bit," Jack explained, first indicating the chalice Angelica had drank from, before pointing to Blackbeard's and finishing.

"What?!" Teams SLVR and RWBY all exclaimed, suddenly feeling a little more excited, while Angelica shot Jack a horrified look. Ultimately though, Blackbeard's was probably the loudest of them all.

"Trickster! Devil!" Blackbeard screamed at Sparrow, but he only succeeded in making Jack glance back to him with a small hum and Sora grin knowingly.

"No…pirate," Sora proudly declared, feeling a little silly for not thinking Jack might have had one more trick up his sleeve.

Angelica could only watch as the water beneath Blackbeard began to pool and swirl up around him, while the cut on her hand healed instantly and the poison vanished from her system. None of this quelled her rage though, and it showed when she turned to Jack and snarled, "You bastard! How could you?!"

"Sheesh. You know, most people would probably be saying thank you to someone who just saved their life," Sun pointed out.

"Oh, I did no such thing, Sun," Jack corrected, much to everyone's confusion. "I merely ensured Blackbeard acted as a father should and put the wellbeing of his child ahead of his own. Surely saving his daughter will be enough to redeem his soul, eh?"

No one could really think about it one way or the other, as a small flood suddenly burst out from the remains of the Fountain, and proceeded to enclose Blackbeard in a small typhoon. No one could really see what was happening past the wall of water, but from the pained grunts and gurgles, and the faint shadows of a man struggling against an unseen foe, they had to imagine Blackbeard was enduring a rather painful experience. The idea drew more foundation when a skeletal hand suddenly reached out towards them, but ended up falling short as the waters dropped, leaving behind a skeleton wearing the tattered remains of Captain Edward "Blackbeard" Teach's clothes.

For a brief time, everyone remained silent, until Sun finally turned to his best friend and declared, "Neptune, I don't think I'm gonna complain about your fear of water for a while after this."

"Why's that?" Neptune asked.

"Because after seeing all that, I think I might be a little scared of it too," Sun admitted.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much. There's a difference between regular water and magic water after all, and even if there isn't, I think I might be able to keep it away from you," Neptune assured his friend with a confident smile and a pat on the shoulder.

Something told the others Sun had been hoping to hear that, mainly because Sun smiled in response and returned Neptune's pat with one of his own, but they did not let the bromance moment distract them from Angelica's attempt to either run or kill one of them in retaliation for her father's demise. In fact, before she could make any move, all four of the Keybearers had their blades out and aimed right at her, prompting Weiss, Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Jack to draw their own blades as well, while the others merely aimed their respective guns at her.

"Ye don't want to be doin' that, lass," Sora drawled in his pirate voice, only this time it seemed a lot more threatening than playful. "I can easily stop ye from movin' with naught but a single word, and even then, ye wouldn't be goin' anywhere fast considering yer outnumbered and outmatched. So take my advice, and don't be getting any ideas."

Angelica took a moment to survey her situation, and as much as she hated to admit it, she knew the boy was right; they had her cornered in every sense of the word. So, she threw down her sword and raised her hands up in a show of surrender. Seeing she had no intention of fighting back, Jack holstered his sword, scooped up some rope and marched over to her while requesting, "Right, so any of you care to help me make sure she's well and properly secured? I'd rather not take any chances of her getting free before I've shipped her out some place where she can't do us any harm, savvy?"

---

After securing Angelica, Jack took his leave from the group with a promise to meet them back at Sora's ship once he was done. None of them were sure what Jack was going to do with Angelica, but most of them decided they did not want to know and just let him carry on while they headed back to the Leviathan. Thankfully, the journey back to the ship was much more peaceful and Heartless-free than before, and contained no surprises whatsoever. At least, not until they had reached the ship.

Upon arriving at where Sora had moored his ship, they found none other than Mister Gibbs lounging about with a proud smirk on his face with a large sack at one side and a few bottles of rum on the other. When they asked how he found his way here, Gibbs merely held up Jack's compass and said, "The compass led me straight and true to where I needed to be, mates."

They accepted that explanation, and then settled into place for the time being, waiting for Jack's return. In the meantime, Gibbs entertained them with many different sea-faring legends and tales of his exploits alongside of Sparrow. Some of the stories were very fascinating while others seemed outright impossible. After all, who in their right mind would ever believe Sparrow could escape being marooned on a deserted island by roping together a bunch of sea turtles in order to make a raft? Still, no one could deny the stories were really good if not great, and they were on the edge of their seats with every new twist and turn of the tales Gibbs wove for them. Gibbs was just in the midst of telling the Remnant kids the tales of when Sora had visited this world, or at least what the experience had been like from his point of view and with a little more dramatic flair, when a row boat suddenly came up to the beach, and they turned to see Jack climbing out with a proud smirk on his face.

"So what did you do with Blackbeard's brat?" Ventus asked on behalf of the group.

"Ven!" Weiss scolded, hardly believing he would describe someone like that.

"What? We've all been thinking it ever since her little show of thanks for saving her life," Ventus defended.

"I merely kept to the code, mates. Let's leave it at that for now," Jack waved off, and he turned to Gibbs before anyone could ask any further questions. "Now then, Mister Gibbs, you filthy, besotted Shellback, glad to see you made it."

"Aye," Gibbs proudly confirmed.

"And I trust we managed to profit from our joint enterprise," Jack asked.

"Feast your eyes," Gibbs declared as he waved down to a bottle the others had not noticed until now. Jack greedily hurried over and scooped up the bottle, albeit with a very gentle and steady hand as he examined its contents. "The compass led me straight and true."

"What of Blackbeard's men guarding the ship?" Jack asked.

"I employed the self-same maneuver we perfected in New Guinea," Gibbs explained before grabbing the sack and easily lifting it up for his captain to see. "Seemed a shame to leave an entire fleet behind."

Jack looked to the sack before smiling to Gibbs and agreeing, "A shame indeed."

Now feeling especially curious, and suspecting this to be the prize Jack had been after this whole time, Neptune led the others in crowding around Jack and Gibbs for a better look at the bottle. Upon closer examination though, they were all a little let down by what they found. "A ship in a bottle?" Neptune questioned. "You did all this for a ship in a bottle?"

"Nay mate; this is no ordinary ship in a bottle," Jack corrected before holding it out for the others to get a better look. "Take a closer gander."

No one was sure what they would see by looking any closer until Sora noted how the ship seemed to be moving as though it were sailing on actual water. In fact, as he further studied it, Sora could see that the ship was indeed sailing in place on a small bit of water, and it was not just any ship either. "Is…Is this…Is this the Black Pearl?"

"Aye, it is," Jack confirmed for his old friend, much to the others' surprise.

"The Black Pearl…is in a bottle," Roxas exclaimed, earning a nod from Jack.

"Okay, I'll bite. Why is the Black Pearl in a bottle?" Ruby finally asked.

"Blackbeard's doing," Jack stated as simple as that.

"How?" Sora questioned.

"Don't ask me. Hector's the one who allowed her to end up like this," Jack stated, and at that point they all knew they would not be getting any more information out of him.

Just before he could move back with the others, Sun noticed something else moving inside the bottle, and got a little closer to try and see it, only to flinch back with a start. "Geez, that is one freaky little monkey," he muttered.

"You have no idea, mate," Jack grumbled in agreement, letting slip the source of his monkey-troubles with just that sentence.

Gibbs then moved them on to a more important matter as he asked, "So Jack, any idea how to get the Pearl out of there?"

"Well, I would suggest having Sora or one of his mates using their fancy blades to assist us, but I don't think that will work too well," Jack started.

"Not unless there's some kind of lock on it I'm afraid," Sora and the other Keybearers shrugged.

"Luckily, I do know of at least one other method," Jack revealed to them. "We shall need a crossbow, an hourglass, three goats, and one of us must learn to play the trumpet whilst the other one goes like this."

Even while watching Jack wiggle his fingers, the others were a little amazed at the odd assortment of items Jack believed they would need for freeing the Pearl. At least until Gibbs's face lit up with excitement. "I know a man with a goat!"

"Good! I can go like this," Jack cheered while wiggling his fingers again.

"Um…They do know that still leaves…" Weiss started to say, until Sora stopped her short.

"They'll figure it out," Sora informed her.

"But how's any of that even going to get the Pearl out when they do get all that stuff?" Ruby questioned.

Sora spared a quick look to Jack and Gibbs before leaning closer and whispering, "Ruby, there are some things you're better off just not questioning. In which case I find it best to simply nod and set sail."

Most of the others were willing to let it go at that point, but Sun still had a question or two left to ask. "Jack, there's still one thing I don't get. You had the chalices, the water, and the tear, so you could've lived forever, maybe, but you still gave it up for Angelica's sake, and so you could get your ship back."

"Aye, that's all very true, Sun," Jack confirmed. "The Fountain does test you, but better to not know which moment may be your last. Every morsel of your entire being alive to the infinite mystery of it all. And who's to say I won't live forever, eh? As the discoverer of the Fountain of Youth. Or even, who's to say you and your mates won't live forever? For example: Captain Sora, Pirate of the Keyblade!"

"Or maybe Team RWBY, the Pirate Huntresses," Sora suggested, gaining grins from Ruby and Yang, and small, albeit still notable smiles from Weiss and Blake.

"Very true, Sora. Very true," Jack agreed. "I have no say in it, mates. It's a pirate's life for me. Savvy?"

"Aye, savvy indeed," Sora ginned in response. He then held out his hand to Jack and said, "Well, best of luck then, Captain Sparrow."

"Until next time, Captain Sora," Jack grinned back as he shook hands with Sora, acknowledging that this would be where they parted ways for the time being. "But perhaps when we do next meet, we could leave out those Heartless Buggers?"

"No promises," Sora joked.

Jack laughed in response and proceeded off with Gibbs. Just not before turning back and shouting one last thing to the team. "Farewell my friends! You shall always remember this as the day Blackbeard almost bested Captain Jack Sparrow!"

Teams SLVR, RWBY, and JNPR could not help but laugh along with Sun and Neptune upon hearing that last decree, even if they knew Jack was right. Once their chuckles had died down, Sora looked to his crew and asked, "So, I'd say our work here is done. Shall we ship out for Remnant and the next world after?"

"Already? I wouldn't sailing for another island, maybe find a few treasures of our own," Neptune suggested. When several grins were shot his way in response, he shrugged and asked, "What? What're you all looking at me like that for?"

"Dude, you just suggested we go sailing on the water without any prompting from anyone else," Sun pointed out, still grinning like mad.

"Oh yeah. I guess I did," Neptune realized, now smiling along with the others.

"And that just proves my point. I don't think you'll have too much to worry about regarding your fear of water again anytime soon," Sora explained, with everyone else nodding along. He did still feel the need to add one more joke in. "Plus, I think it'd be better for everyone if we get Weiss out of her pirate outfit before she has a total meltdown."

"Hey!"

"So, shall we head back," Sora stated while dismissing the Leviathan and tapping his Gummiwatch, teleporting the team back onto the ship for the return trip to Remnant.

As much as they all enjoyed being dressed up like pirates, the others did admit it felt nice to be back in their usual wardrobe, but they still felt a bit of a pirate-like pep in their step as they settled into their seats in the cockpit. Lucky for them, Sora had the perfect cure for such a thing. "Hey, you guys want to hear a little pirate song while we're flying back?"

"Sure," Ruby nodded.

"Sounds good to me," Jaune agreed.

"I may not like pirates, but I do like music," Weiss shrugged in response, and several other voices of agreement soon followed after.

"Great, and feel free to join in at any time," Sora insisted. He then cleared his throat and proceeded to sing the very pirate song he had learned after visiting this world the first time. "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me~. We pillage, we plunder, we riffle and loot~. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho. We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot~. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho~. Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me…~"

---

Xion knew the time difference between Remnant and the Caribbean had to be significant, but she did not expect to be back in Team SLVR's room less than a couple of hours later. Not only that, but from the look of the others when they called, she figured they must have been there for days at most, Caribbean time. Regardless, she was now back in the dorm room waiting for when Sun and Neptune would be teleported down from the Stealth Gummi. She wanted to make sure the two dorks understood what their cover story should be for where they had gone and why Neptune was possibly over his fear of water so suddenly. Not that she did not trust them to keep the story straight, but…okay, yeah she did not trust them to keep the story straight. In her defense, there was the whole Paladin incident, so Xion felt justified in being worried.

Thankfully, she did not need to wait too long. Barely more than a few minutes later, Sun and Neptune appeared in the typical flash of light that accompanied someone being teleported down from a gummi ship, both with wide grins on their faces. Taking this as a good sign, Xion happily asked, "So, how'd it go fellas?"

Sun and Neptune just shared a look before they both harmonized as one, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me~!"

An expression of horror crossed Xion's face as she muttered, "Oh my stars. They've been converted! Curse you and your love of pirates, Sora." The boys instantly broke out into laughter after that, and before she knew it, Xion was joining in too, having only been joking around when she said that. Eventually, when they managed to get it down to simple giggles and finished discussing exactly what Sun and Neptune would say to everyone later, Xion decided to ask the big question. "So, did the trip help any?"

"Yep. Neptune's completely cured of his fear," Sun proudly declared.

"I wouldn't say that," Neptune hedged, much to Sun's confusion. "More like, it's better to handle now, but still something of a work in progress."

"Hey, it's better than no progress at all," Xion reasoned, earning her a grateful smile from both boys.

"Thanks for getting them to help us out with this, Xion," Neptune nodded.

"Don't mention it. You guys might be dorks, but we're still friends," Xion waved off. "So, what do you guys say we get outta here before someone accuses one of us of messing with another student's—whoops!"

The reason why Xion had said that last bit turned out to be due to how she accidentally bumped into a pitcher of water the boys kept in their room for some reason. It did not spill too much, but it was still enough to make a small mess, and make Neptune duck behind Sun, much to the latter's annoyance.

"Dude, seriously?" Sun questioned.

"What? I did say it was still a work in progress. And hey, at least I'm not climbing on top of you like a tree," Neptune defended.

Sadly, Sun could not argue this point, but part of him did think that next time the Keybearers sent them to another world, he should make sure it was one completely covered in water. He was pretty sure Sora mentioned a place like that once or twice called Atlantica, so maybe making Neptune go for a swim there would get rid of this stupid fear for good.

---

AN: Yeah, I wouldn't count on that working out too well if I were you, Sun. Pretty sure King Triton may not be too fond of Neptune flirting with all the mermaids around there. At any rate, that concludes the adventure in the Caribbean, and Sun and Neptune's brief foray to another world. Now, before anyone asks, this will not be the last time the gang brings some of their other friends to another world, but you will have to wait a little bit before the next special guests get their turn on the Stealth Gummi. After all, this trip is meant mainly for Teams SLVR, RWBY, and JNPR.

Now, one thing I will admit is there I may have overdone it on the caves with this world, but in equal fairness, there was a lot more stuff happening on land than you would normally expect for a Pirates movie, so I think it all balances out. That, and there were several things I wanted to work into this story which would have been perfect for this world, and you saw them all in this chapter.

Lea: The main thing being how I've now officially got a complex with people saying I jinx everyone, right?

AN: Uh...Sure, why not? But no, seriously, I was referring to the whole scene with the booby-trapped cave. I'm sure if you guys know you're movies and video games, you might be able to figure out where at least two of those ideas came from.

Now, on the matter of the backstory to Neptune's fear, that is legit, canon-confirmed. You can check his wiki page if you don't believe it. One thing I can't help but notice is that while Neptune's fear does come up a lot in various fanfictions, most folks don't really bother getting down into the nitty-gritty details about why he has this fear of water, or even how he might go about resolving it. That was the whole point of that little moment they all had with him after escaping that last booby-trap. Sure, some of them may have been things that we saw in RWBY Chibi, others I may have made up for the sake of the story, but whatever the case, it did the job it was meant to do: helping Neptune realize that he's got friends who know what he's going through and who will be there to help him out if and when he needs it.

That said, let's talk about the various details and Easter Eggs from the Pirates side of things: first and foremost, stuff relating to Barbossa. Most of it isn't really all that noteworthy, at least not if you've seen the movie, but the one thing I do like being able to add in, was the moment when Barbossa says "Thank ye, Sora!" Yes, that is mainly a reference to all the times he thanks his monkey, and this was me finding a way to work that in despite the monkey's absence. And even then, the monkey still showed up, at least long enough to freak out Sun a bit. Ironic, right?

Also, regarding Gibbs, I know in KH canon, it seems like Sora doesn't actually meet him until KH3, but considering that Gibbs has been around since the start for all of Jack's adventures, I feel like it'd make more sense to assume that Sora and Gibbs met each other the first time that Sora came to this world, hence the greater amount of familiarity between the two. Also, yeah, Sora basically took Gibbs's place in reacting to the details about Jack's history with Angelica. It needed to be talked about. Don't try and tell me otherwise.

Speaking of things to talk about, there's also the matter of Weiss and Yang's reactions to the last moments between Blackbeard and Angelica. I know we didn't really go over it that much, but I'd like to think seeing this did stir up some ideas and/or feelings for them about certain family members of their own, but who's to say for certain at this point, eh?

On the matter of Angelica and Blackbeard's last moment together, I feel like I need to mention that it was necessary to make it so Sora and the others couldn't save her with their healing magic. This is for many reasons. Firstly, to help explain why they don't use it in some of the more serious scenes and such when their friends on other worlds may need it. We're basically calling it a quick fix and not a heal-all remedy to everything. Secondly, because we needed Jack to pull his little trick on Blackbeard with the Fountain, otherwise it would just lead to Blackbeard becoming a Heartless and who wants to deal with a powerful Heartless like that at the point they had gotten to, right? Thirdly...Well, actually, that one enters spoiler territory so we won't be going over that at this time.

Blake: Why am I suddenly getting a troubling sense of foreboding?

Yang: Oh, you too, huh?

Pyrrha: I'm honestly a little scared now myself.

AN: Oi! Shush! All of ya! You're gonna give them ideas! Ahem, anyway, yeah, I had to have them sing "A Pirate's Life For Me". How and why would I not? They went to visit the Caribbean. That song deserves some time here. Savvy?

Roxas: Uh, can we also talk about how I just used a Formchange? One that seemed to draw some inspiration from Demyx of all people?

AN: Yes, thank you for that reminder, Roxas. To make it plain and simple, yes, this is the beginning of Roxas getting his own Formchanges. I mean, Ven's got his Command Styles, Lea's learned how to summon a Keyblade Glider, and Sora...well, he's Sora. What more do I need to say? Of course I was going to give Roxas some new ability besides regaining command of the Samurais. Now, regarding his Formchanges, they are drawn from the powers of Keyblades Roxas had in 358/2 Days, and the idea is for them to be based on the members of the original Organization XIII. Honestly, the main reason I went with Demyx is because his was the easiest to do at this time. Plus, for all the crap he gets, I do kinda like the guy. I mean, he fights with a magic musical instrument. That makes him pretty cool to me, but he would be a little cooler if he wasn't so lazy. Anyways, for now, I'm planning on giving Roxas a Formchange based on the various members that he spent the most time with, aka the Nobodies we fought in KH2, so I wouldn't expect any based on Marluxia, Larxene, Zexion, Vexen, or Lexaeus just yet. At least, that's not the plan right now. As for why his Keyblades turned into a guitar instead of a sitar...well, what do you think better suits Roxas if he were to take up an instrument?

Well, I think that covers all the details I wanted to discuss this time, so what's say we answer some reviews, shall we?

First off, in a general response to everyone who commented on Jack's compass hinting at some drama between Yang, Blake, and Lea...good for you, I was hoping someone would catch wind of that. Yeah, that was basically me saying such drama may happen down the road since Bmblebe is now canon. I mean, did you not see the interactions Blake and Yang have had with each other in the last couple of Volumes? I know I once said I preferred BlackSun, but now...I've been won over. But just to be clear, that's the only canon ship I may try to make happen in this story. RoseHeart and Windchill are going to be a thing for good, no question. Same with most if not all other ships I've set up or mentioned in the story up until now.

Moving on to specific reviewer answers: "Dragon Rider 66", I don't know for certain about all of those characters you mentioned and what Jack's compass would point to for them, but I get the feeling for Qrow, at least at this point in the story, it would most likely point to either his flask or the nearest bottle of whatever drink can get him drunk. Also, no, I'm afraid none of the Gundam worlds will be making a debut in my KH stories. Or at least, I don't plan for them too right now. It'd be a little hard for the Keybearers to really do all that much in those worlds, considering how most if not all the battles in each Gundam series requires you to be capable of piloting a mobile suit, so unless the Keyblade can suddenly turn into a Gundam, and they can explain how they summon mobile suits out of thin air like that, I wouldn't count on a KH visit to a Gundam world. Sorry.

Guest reviewer "Uzumaki Clan", yes, thank you for catching that small mistake on my part. I have since corrected it, so there shouldn't be any problems now.

"keybladelight", to answer your question, I have no intention of connecting this story to Kingdom Hearts 4. This story's going to follow it's own path with the Lost Masters Arc, one which will not require anyone overdoing it with the Power of Waking, but I do hope that what I have in mind will be shocking to say the least. In other words, we're basically going to enter huge AU territory when it comes to the official start of the Lost Masters Arc, or at least, how it pans out in this series.

Weiss: If I may, "Spiderfan626", you're right, I am very glad we won't have to deal with Mister Sparrow after all of this.

AN: Captain Sparrow.

Weiss: I refuse to ever dignify him with such a title.

AN: [sighs tiredly] Anyways, Spiderfan, glad you enjoyed the first half of the Pirates adventure, and I hope you enjoyed this second half just as much.

"Guest" of 4/24/2022, who commented on Xehanort possibly having a connection to silver-eyed warriors. That would only be possible if he were originally from Remnant, but as we've all seen by now, Xehanort is from Destiny Islands. Even if that weren't the case, I refuse to ever make him someone who could have potentially been an ally of Sora, Ruby, and the others.

"Monkey D. Conan", first off, glad you loved all the Pirates references and such, and I hope you enjoyed the ones in this chapter as well. Secondly, yeah, the Star Trek lines/references were totally intentional. I can't help but think of Gummi Ship battles being similar to the ship-to-ship battles we see in a few different Star Trek Series, so of course I'm going to go out of my way to make drop a few of those in such situations now and then. Making Windchill official will be a thing that happens before the end of the Worlds Tour Arc. I'd give you a hint as to which world it will become official on, but any hint I'd give you right now would be dead giveaway as to what world it will be. And yes, it will only be worlds Sora's traveled to in the past. There will be no new worlds, be it accidentally discovered or otherwise.

Guest reviewer "RWBYfan22", somehow I don't think the Lost Master would be too bothered by it. At least not based off what I've seen of him in canon, never mind this story's iteration of him. I'm pretty sure he'd be all for Luxu forming an alliance with Salem. And no, there will be no ultimately showdown between Kairi and Salem. Nor will the two become archenemies to one another. Kairi's not currently at the level she had once been before, so asking her to go into that kind of battle with someone like Salem would be akin to asking a candle to fight a tidal wave.

Kairi: Hey! I heard that!

AN: Sorry, Kairi. That may have been an over exaggeration on my part, but the point still stands.

Ruby: Wait a minute. Kairi, what're you doing here? I thought we weren't going to see again for a long time after your last appearance in this story.

Kairi: Oh, you're going to be seeing again much sooner than you think. As you'll soon learn after moving Onto...

AN: HEY! That's my line! Onto the Preview!...

It's time for a brief break from the other worldly stuff as we return to Remnant for a brief look at how life's been treating our missing Princess of Heart and her new farm-boy friend. Though she's been happy staying with Oscar and his aunt, Kairi does feel as though something out there is calling to her, almost begging for her to find the answers to the questions of her past. So what's a young lady to do? The answer seems pretty simple, and Oscar's not letting her go it alone. Find out the kind of adventures and troubles these two friends are getting themselves into, along with a few other surprises along the way, next time.

Humph. Some princesses thinking they can just waltz in and steal my line...I mean, yeah, okay, she's cool and all, and I'm a hardcore Sokai shipper, even if this story/series isn't running with it, but still! Anyways, yeah, it's time to check in with Kairi and Oscar next time, but until then...

Once again, be sure to check out my YouTube channel "Studio Fandom" and the DeviantArt page "studiofandom" if you haven't already. Always looking for more followers and subscribers on both.

And don't forget, we are looking for voice actors for the Remnant of the Key Reading Series video. For more details on what to do to sign on and/or qualify, go check out episode 8 of Studio News for full details. And as always...

Please read and review, and may your heart be your guiding key for your landing strategy.