Yang gave out a big yawn while taking watch. She was so tired of watching for nothing to happen. She felt that her time was up, though, so she went over to Lea to wake him up. As she passed by her team's bags to Lea's sleeping bag, she noticed someone else besides her was out of their beds. Except this missing girl wasn't anywhere in the room
"Hey, where's Ruby?" Yang said in a voice that woke up Blake, Sora, Weiss and Riku, but Kairi and Lea needed some extra help from their teammates
"What?" Oobleck popped out of his sleeping corner in response
As the students got up, a certain Corgi ran past the Prof-Doctor to Yang, barking loud enough to get everyone wide awake
"Zwei?" Yang bent down to calm down the whining canine
"Morning already?" Lea asked, hoping he didn't have to stay up for a long time alone
"Grab your weapons" Oobleck commanded in a more serious voice than usual "One of your leaders may be in trouble"
Ruby woke up and rubbed her acing head. She had a hard time remembering the past few minutes. As she pulled herself together, she noticed she was back in the darkness. Not a dark place where she was standing on a glass pillar, just complete darkness. She could stand and walk, so there may have been an invisible floor, but outside of that there was nothing else. That is except for a certain black coat, which frustrated Ruby
"If I see another black coat after today, it will be too soon" Ruby started complaining
"Don't give in" The black coat spoke in a female voice
Ruby had started getting to know that voice enough to know who it is. She refused to believe it was this Xion girl Xigbar kept talking about, but she still wanted answers
"Alright, I want some answers from you right now!" Ruby commanded the girl, ready to attack if provoked
"They're going to try to sink your heart into your own darkness" The girl ignored Ruby's threats "Hold onto your light for as long as you can"
Ruby started to let her guard down as she continued hearing the girl speak "W-what do you mean?"
"If you fail, than that will be another soul that shouldn't have become a heartless, whether it'll be temporary or not. And..."
The girl clenched her arm, seemingly from some kind of pain. Ruby could tell from her shivers that something was hurting her, but not if it was internal of external
"I'm still not ready to see Axel again. And I don't want to remind Roxas of what he did"
Roxas, Axel. She heard those names for so long ever since Sora and his friends got here. There was a familiar taste to those names, but as always she didn't know why
"Who are-"
"Just hold onto your light!" The girl interrupted Ruby once more
Before Ruby could ask any more questions or be commanded by this girl again, the darkness faded away into a combined light of white and silver
Ruby gave a soft groan from waking up again. She was also starting to get tired of doing that all the time today too. She was laying on her stomach and saw some familiar evil faces talking to each other. Ruby guessed that they hadn't noticed she woke up yet, so she kept low and examined everything around her. The people talking in question were Roman Torchwick, Xigbar and some other man she didn't recognize. She knew he was obviously from the organization with his black hood, but it wasn't anyone she had met yet. He was a very tall man with some bulk put into him. He had a widows peak hair style with the rest of his silver hair reached down past his shoulders. He also had the same eye color and skin as Young did, but he had a different feel to him than other members, including Young. Ruby also took notice of her surroundings. She saw that the White Fang were everywhere and they seemed to be getting some kind of train next to them ready for something. Some of them were operating the robots that Torchwick fought with against her team and SKRL, and she also noticed some of the members were on top of the train carts, trying to keep something it. It seemed to be alive and dangerous, but it was hard to tell what exactly it was
"This is very risky. You know that, right" Ruby turned back to see Torchwick was seemingly arguing with Xigbar and this other organization member
"Hey, relax will ya?" Xigbar tried calming the criminal down "I have a really good feeling about this. I'm right, just watch"
"It's not about what we're going to do, it's what will happen afterwards. Those kids have had their eyes on me since Red and her friends stopped that dust heist. That was a failure, this is going ahead of schedule. I don't want to know what happens when I disobey orders and go early!"
"If it's death you fear, you shall not experience it yet" The other man spoke in a dark voice "We still have plans for you and you still have potential. So long as you don't loose that potential, you and any other lackeys of the queen and her pawns shall have our protection"
"Except my boss is one of you. So if she says something, isn't that final?"
"There will be discussion, but your end won't be final"
Torchwick wiped some sweat off his forehead "Oh thank god. For as scary as you guys can be, you can also be super reasonable"
Ruby thought she had heard enough. She needed to find her way out and guild Yang, Sora and the others to this place. Plus she started to grow a little worried about all that stuff that girl was telling her about sinking into darkness and didn't want to know what it all meant. She prepared to get up on her feet, and-
"AH!"
For some reason, standing on her feet really hurt. Enough that she just couldn't and landed back on her front. She looked back to see what the problem was. Her legs seemed to have taken a lot of injuries. It looked like she couldn't walk with these recent injuries until she received proper healing. But when she looked back at the 3 villains reacting to her scream, she knew she wouldn't get it any time soon
"Good morning, little red" Torchwick spoke out in a mocking tone "Did your legs fall asleep, or did you hit something and bruised them?"
"Wait, Torchwick..." Xigbar joined in the mockery "Didn't you request that we keep her still for this thing by stopping her from running away?"
"Oh, you're right, so I guess it falls more into the latter. I'm sorry not sorry"
"What do you want!?" Ruby commanded an answer
"Oh please don't tell me you've already forgotten" Xigbar asked in a non serious way "I'd explain, but i think I'll let Ansem here do that for me"
Xigbar and Torchwick stepped back and let the bigger man, Ansem, walk towards the helpless girl. If Ruby remembered correctly, than this was the guy that took Riku's body. If that was true, than she was dealing with a very strong organization member to be sure. Even if she didn't know who he was, he still has an intimidating figure that would plant some seeds of fear into Ruby regardless. Ansem knelled down to Ruby's level and took hold of her chin, raising it up high enough to force Ruby to sit on her legs. After that, he loosened his grip so that their eyes were on an equal playing field
"Ruby Rose" The man spoke in the same deep voice "You're heart is full of much light. It's quite similar to Sora's heart, as it has the ability to bring others together for a common cause no matter their backgrounds. I speculate that goes with others of your kind" Ansem's gaze became stricter, which intimidated Ruby to be sure "However, also like Sora, for as powerful and pure your heart may be, there are still shadows cast upon it. It is in fact not truly pure, with darkness looming around the corner"
He threw Ruby's chin back to her control. The huntress rubbed the tight grip away while the organization member stood up and towered over her
"I'll be courteous and simply ask once. Open your heart to the darkness!"
Ruby blinked from confusion "What?"
"Allow the darkness in your heart to grow and envelop you. Let it consume you, as it's nature does, and return you from the darkness you have come from!"
Ruby was still left baffled until she started putting Xigbar's rant into perspective "If this is about that Xion girl, you can forget it!"
"Oh but my dear, can't you imagine it? If you truly are this Xion girl, that you will serve a greater purpose! You won't just be left fighting the grimm on a tiny world, you'll be able to fight more tremendous forces of either light or darkness and explore the stars and your wildest wishes! You'l be... useful"
"And what makes you think I'm not useful as it is? I found you guys and have helped Sora and the others ever since they got here. How isn't that helpful to them?"
Ansem started to chuckle at the girl and deepened his leer once more. The combination didn't sit well with Ruby at all. Without any warning, the seeker of darkness grabbed Ruby the hair and pulled her up more to him, not caring how much it hurt the child
"You think you have some big role as you are? Perhaps for this world there's a chance, but not in the grand scheme of us! Even with those oh-so special eyes of yours, you still have as much importance as any random huntsman or huntress across any of these kingdoms. In fact, if it weren't for Xehanort's ties with the Queen and our newest member, this entire world would be meaningless to us, while you could only pray to be lucky enough to be useful to her, us, Ozpin, The King, Yen Sid, or even Sora!"
Ansem let go and let Ruby only barely catch herself from falling on her face. Ruby rubbed the grabbed spot on her head and tried to control her breathing and looked back up to the ruthless man
"You are irrelevant. The only chance you have to be relevant is to see if you and Xion are the same. And the only way to find that out is to allow the darkness in your heart to take hold!"
"I won't do it" Ruby shouted back at Ansem powerful enough to startle Torchwick and Xigbar, but not the man right in front of her "You can try to persuade me all you want, but you can't force me to do what you want!"
Ansem simply stared at the young huntress, almost being impressed by her backbone. However, almost is not completely
"You have me mistaken, Miss Rose" Ansem tried talking more 'peacefully' "That wasn't me Forcing your darkness to come forth" He extended his hand out to the direction of her heart, almost like he was grabbing something "As I said, that was me asking you to do so. This is me forcing you to"
The millisecond Ansem put pressure into his arm, Ruby felt a great pain come from inside her. It was almost like heartburn or a heart attack. She clenched onto it as best she could, but that didn't do anything to lessen the pain. It started to hurt so much, that screams were forced out of her as the rest of her body started to grow more limp
"Unfortunately for you..." Ansem talked calmly above her screams "There's still a great amount of light you hold onto. Even if you let go, it would still take some time to command the darkness in your heart. So I hope you get use to this child, because this will take much time"
"I hope it doesn't" Torchwick spoke out "Please take all the time you want. I really wish i had some popcorn right now. Oh, Perry!" The criminal gained the attention of one white fang member who had glasses in front of his mask "Do we have any popcorn we brought here?"
"...I... can go check?" Perry shrugged a guess and went off, probably to some building they kept their belonging in
"Now that's a good employee, always checking things our for his boss"
Xigbar knelled down to Ruby's level "You know, this would probably hurt less if you just embraced it all"
Even with the pain, Ruby pulled off a glare towards Xigbar "N-never!"
"Tch. Didn't you mom ever teach you not be be selfish?" Xigbar got back up "She's all yours, Ansem. Do as you please"
Ansem started to grow a wide grin "Gladly"
The seeker of darkness put more pressure into his arm, causing even more pain to Ruby
"AAAHHHHH!" Her screams were so loud, it could be heard from everyone in the underground
Team SKRL, Doctor Oobleck, and what remained of Team RWBY searched the city for any sightings of their missing member. There were no signs of anywhere she could be, until they found a hole of some kind and something in front of it
"Ruby's scythe!" Yang instantly recognized the object
"Oh no" Blake started to fear the worst
Lea walked closer to the hole with Weiss and examined it "Did she fall down?"
"Fell?" Oobleck zoomed up to both of them
"Down there" Weiss pointed the hole to her teacher
"Oh my..." Gears started turning in Oobleck's mind until something clicked "Of course, of course of course of course!" His voice started getting more excited
"What is it?" Blake asked
"How could I be so stupid?!" Oobleck asked himself as he paced himself in front of his students
"Dr. Oobleck, what are you going on about?" Riku asked
"Mountain Gleen!" Said doctor got into Riku's face "Yes! An expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of grimm!" He got up into Blake's Face next as he continued his usual fast talking "Previously home to thousands of people!" Than to Yang "Working people, commuting to the city, the main city" Than to Lea "Developed by a subway system to the inner city" Than to Weiss "Grimm attacks increase! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter!" Than to Kairi "City evacuates into metro tunnels" Lastly to Sora "And what do they find?!"
"Uh..." Sora was still in the process of taking in all that their teacher was telling them
Oobleck bent down to Zwei "The South-East quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!"
"I still don't follow, what are you saying?" Sora, kinda shamefully asked
Oobleck went back into Sora's face "My boy, we're not just looking for an underground crime network! We're looking for AN UNDERGROUND CRIME NETWORK!"
"So the organization went from castles to caves?" Kairi asked to make sure she was following correctly
"No, no" The doctor corrected the princess "Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an aggressive perimeter defense and unique transportation. The city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main kingdom. Sadly, without any natural barriers Vale had to protect it's borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start"
Oobleck started slowing down his speedy delivery and turned back to the hole "As the end grew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival. They took up shelter beneath the city, in massive caves they had cleared out for the subway. And they had cut themselves off from the surface"
"An underground village?" Yang also checked to see if she understood
"In a matter of speaking, yes. A...a safe haven. Until... an explosion opened the mouth of another cavern... filled with subterranean grimm. After that, the kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels... creating the world's largest tomb"
The air grew thicker as the story concluded. The students simply let the weight of the tragedy sink in as they looked down the entrance to this unofficial cemetery. Terrible as it was, Sora was the first the know what had to be done
"If Ruby's anywhere down there, than we have to go find her" Sora told them all and prepared to jump down
"Just as selfless as ever, I see"
Before anyone could go down to rescue their friend, they all heard a voice come from the air. Zwei barked at this voice while the others got ready to pull out their weapons if they needed to do so. They heared a strange sound come from behind them and they all turned to see some dark portal. Only seconds after discovering it, a foot step came out of the portal
(Insert Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts 2.5)
A man had emerged from the portal, wearing a black coat that they'd all know at this point. The man had his hood down and allowed his long and rather messy silver hair to be shown freely. His figure showed off some bulk and his dark skin resembled Xehanort and Young's skin greatly. He even had the same gold eyes that gazed at the group with little care, but still able to show off some intimidation
"Xemnas!" Sora angrily addressed the man as he, as well as his team, pulled out their keyblades and pointed them at the man
Yang, Weiss and Blake all followed suit. Even Oobleck pulled out his thermos to reveal it had a weaponized function
"Seriously?!" How many organization creeps are we going to run into?!" Yang, pissed off, asked out loud
"This guy isn't just another creep" Kairi warned the other team "Before Xehanort came back, he was the leader of the organization"
The scale of this man's power suddenly hit the rest of Team Ruby. He must have some truly raw power if he was in charge before Xehanort. The realization on their faces made Xemnas give a barely noticeable smirk. He barely acknowledged the huntresses and eyes back at the keyblade wielders. Specifically Sora, Riku and Kairi
"My,..." Xemnas spoke in a deep and almost emotionless tone "It's been quite some time since you've thwarted my plans Sora... Riku... Kairi" He glared at each keyblade wielder as he said their names "I can tell you've gotten stronger since that day" The man eyed the final member of SKRL, more specifically his weapon of choice "And Axel, I see you too wield the keyblade"
"It's Lea now, Xemnas" Lea scolded the man "Get it memorized"
"I'm not sure if I can "get it memorized." I've known you by that name for many years now, ever since you became a part of Organization 13, after all"
Weiss, Blake and Yang were taken aback at the claim they just heard. Lea use to be in the organization? No, it couldn't be. They all waited for Lea to inevitably retort against it, expecting him to say "Is that your idea of a joke" or "what are you talking about?" But he never tried defending himself. He simply looked at Xemnas with distaste, but nothing more
"He's just trying to pull our legs, right Lea?" Yang tried getting him to talk
Lea looked back at his new friends. He paused to think before slowly nodding his head up and down
"Yeah, he's right. I use to be one of them. But trust me when I say that I'm far from being their ally anymore"
None of the girls could believe what he had just said. One of their new friends who had done his best to go up against organization members in the past use to be one of them? It was unbelievable. Though, there were some things that were explained, like why his regularly wore the same coat they did or how he seemed to know some of them better more than Sora, Riku or Kairi
"But why change your name to Axel?" Weiss tried getting more needed answers "And why would you join a group like them? And why-"
"Schnee" Xemnas interrupted Weiss's ramblings "If you would, I'd like to proceed with conversing with those that matter"
Weiss took a few steps further and readied her rapier "What do you mean by that?"
"Miss Schnee" Oobleck tried calming down his student "Steady now. You shouldn't-"
"I'm saying that you're useless to us, and are hardly worth our time" Xemnas ignored the doctor and continued to pester the white haired girl "Much like several other huntsmen and huntresses, in fact, Schnee"
"It's Weiss" The huntress started getting even more annoyed
"Weiss, calm down, seriously" Lea tried to stop her from doing something stupid
"How are we not worth your time?" Weiss ignored the warnings of her friends
Xemnas turned around to think out loud "A verity of reasons, actually. Unawareness of the true conflict, mediocre at best skills, poor weaponry craftsmanship, disappointing semblances..."
Weiss was starting to get more peeved the more this man kept mocking not just her, but her world's warriors and cultures. Using her back arm, she summoned one of her glyphs below her feet, which would propel her right towards the organization member. Riku saw her do this, but he didn't instantly realize what that glyph was for
"But the reasoning for you, as well as most other huntsmen and huntresses on this world..."
Not even wanting to hear him say what he had to say anymore, Weiss launched herself faster than any of them could have acted. Even Riku couldn't stop her by the time she used the gylph. She pointed her rapier right towards Xemnas. She'd show him they were worth his time and that they mattered. Even faster than she launched herself, Xemnas turned back to face the group and Weiss...
Instantly stopped. All momentum, all speed, all everything just stopped like nothing happened. Greatly confused, Weiss looked at the tip of her weapon and noticed something was blocking it. 2 fingers, belonging to the organization member's right hand, caught the weapon right in between them. He didn't seem stunned or like it hurt to pull off, even the sharpness of the blade didn't scratch his fingers, despite having a tight grip on it. He just started at her emotionless while she struggled and failed to pull the weapon back
"You are weak" Xemnas finished his list
Faster than anything Weiss could process, Xemnas grabbed Weiss by the arm she used to hold Myrtenaster with. Even faster, he pulled her forward with said arm and slammed his knee right into gut. The force made her cough out all of the air in her body, stunning her from the amount of force he used. Before she could even put it all together, Xemnas let go of her arm and pointed his palm at the huntress. She didn't even have time to react before he shot a red laser point blank, causing an explosion that shook the street, causing rubble to scatter everywhere
"WEISS!" Both Blake and Yang called out to their friend
Out of the smoke, Weiss was launched back to her team. As she hit the floor, she bounced once and rolled all the way back to the feet of her friends. Weiss, weakly, tried pulling herself up, but only got to suspending herself with her arms before getting into a violent coughing fit. Blake and Yang both pulled her back up before her arms collapsed from the weight. She tried gasping for air, but all that came to her was more coughing that she aimed right into her sleeve. As she started recovering from the counter attack, for a short time, she looked at the sleeve she was coughing in, and saw it wasn't only covered in her spit, but that there were also traces of blood. She was taken aback but that factor. She could still feel that she had plenty of aura, yet just one attack caused her to draw blood. It was shocking. It was unbelievable.
It was terrifying. The smoke from the explosion cleared completely, as Xemnas didn't seem phased at all. He simply looked at the Schnee heiress, knowing well that her struck her with a terrifying realization. She looked at him with fear for a good few seconds before coughing out more into her sleeve. The surprisingly powerful man grew a slightly bigger grin, though it was still barely noticeable
"Now don't be like that" Xemnas patronized the girl, though still having little to no emotion in his voice "That was barely even a fraction of what I'm capable of"
Enraged by the man's actions, Sora stepped up in front of everyone, ready to defend them if need be
"Get out of here, Xemnas!" Sora ordered him around "I've beaten you twice already, what makes you think I can't do it a third?"
Weiss's eyes widened at the claim Sora just made "T-twice?" She mustered out before coughing even more, though she could feel it started to slow down
"You're mistaken, I'm afraid" Xemnas tried to get Sora to at least lower his keyblade "I didn't come her to fight. The Schnee confronted me, not the other way around"
"Than why are you here?!" Riku also stood up to the man
"I simply wanted to congratulate you on successfully finding The White Fang's hideout"
Oobleck peeked back at the hole before looking back at the organization's previous leader "So we're right to assume they lay in those ruins?"
"Indeed you are, professor"
"Doctor" the teacher corrected the man
"This place indeed has been in use for quite a few plans they had in the works. Some we lended a hand in, others they did on their own"
"You don't seem much like an ally if you just call them out like that" Blake pointed out, a little mad that he seemed so careless towards them
"You would have found them eventually on your little mission, Belladona. Though you aren't the first to find out, as I'm sure you know"
Her rage starting to build, Yang let Blake help Weiss on her own and joined up with Sora and Riku "Where's my sister"
An actually noticeable, though unnerving, grin finally formed on Xemnas's face "Down there in custody with Torchwick and The White Fang. I'm sure she's having a talk with Ansem by now"
Riku's heart skipped a beat at the mention of the name "As in Xehanort's Heartless?!"
"It's not Ansem the Wise, I can tell you that much. With how hard it was lure her here, we didn't hesitate in 'pulling out the big guns' if you will"
"Wait, you lured her here?" Kairi's attention was directed to those words "Why?"
"A recent hypothesis has been forged surrounding that girl, one that the true master finds to be worth exploring into. However, there is only one way to see if this theory is true...
and that is by turning The Rose into a heartless and nobody"
Everyone's hear skipped a beat. WBY didn't know what he meant by a nobody, but they all knew about the heartless. How they were born from the darkness of one's heart. They transforming Ruby into one of those creatures? It sounded mad, crazy, and terrible. Why? Seeing their faces alone demanded answers, Xemnas obliged
"If this speculation is correct, than this will provide a great step further into the next keyblade war. If not, the The Rose will simply be added to the list of those from this world that serve us no purpose"
"And what exactly is thus hypothesis, Xemnas" Lea broke out of his shock and readied his keyblade
"One that you might find interesting, actually, Axel. Perhaps I shouldn't spoil the surprise"
"You won't be spoiling anything! Because I'll stop you guys from doing it!" Sora threatened the man and his group "I've stopped you and Ansem before, It'll be even easier with more of my friends by my side"
Xemnas looked at the boy with more disdain than he'd shown yet "Our defeats were mere luck on your part. Whether it was from underestimation, or we were already winded before hand. Neither of which will happen again.
Know this Sora, so long as you stay on this world, you will experience failure over and over again. You will constantly let the citizens of this world down till the very end until it eventually falls into darkness like others before it. If you do not want to experience that much loss, I'd recommend you leave this world now"
Sora hesitated enough to lower his keyblade, but only for a second before an explosion of light surrounded him, that blinded everyone else, including Xemnas
(End Organization XIII)
The light faded to reveal that Sora's clothes changed to a yellow color, similar to how his wisdom changed his cloths blue. This must have been another one of his forms. Where his wisdom form had a blue flame pattern around his sleeves and pants, this form had a strange X pattern, and he gained 2 keyblades. The first one had a silver color to it, with the handle having 2 angel wings and the tip of the shaft having black and yellow heart combined together, with the teeth having a sort of snowflake pattern with green, blue and yellow on it. His second keyblade was more black and resembled closer to the kingdom key, though it was still very different as it's handle had bat wings, rather than angle wings, a purple diamond on it, a strange cross at the tip of the shaft, and a more flat and sharper looking pattern for the teeth. Sora's feet were also more grounded than wisdom, but there was still some sort of floatiness to them
"You don't know that" Sora talked back to the man "You're just saying things to try and get us to leave. Well I have news for you Xemnas, I'm not running and I'm not going to let any of my friends down. Just you wait" Sora pointed the black keyblade at the past leader
Xemnas still remained as emotionless as ever, though there was a strange uneasy feel as her leered at the boy. Slowly he started to nod his head up and down in acceptance and simply re opened a dark portal behind him
"Very well than" He started walking backwards into the corridor of darkness "It's your choice to do so, if you wish. Personally, I'm interested in seeing how much failure will effect your psyche"
"Says the nobody who seems to be running" Lea boasted "It'll be a piece of cake without anyone else trying to get in our way"
"Oh, you mistake us, Axel" Xemnas stopped backing up mere inches away from leaving "I'm not going to try and stop you, but that doesn't mean we'll let you win that easily"
(Insert Shaded Truths from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep)
Faster than most of them expected, Xemnas side stepped away from the portal to let a long, pink slice of energy charge at the group. Riku was fast enough to block the energy, but wasn't expecting an organization hood to appear right before him, Sora and Yang, wielding a giant pink scythe, less technological than Ruby's, ready to slice all 3 of them at once. Before this new foe could launch his attack, Lea hurled himself to block the tip of the weapon. He than sliced his keyblade across the hooded man's face once right, than left, and finally pointed the tip of his keyblade in front of him and blasted a powerful fire spell, causing the man to stumble back and let his hood down. The new member waved the smoke away before shaking his long pink hair from the attack. Afterwards he simply opened up his gold eyes and grinned at the shock Lea's face held
"Marluxia?!" Lea adressed the man "You're also in on this"
"It's good to see you again as well, Axel" Marluxia talked to him as if they were on good terms
"Didn't think they'd give a traitor like you a second chance"
"I suppose it takes one to know one"
"Do not forget your purpose, Marluxia" Xemnas seemed to scold his fellow member
"Do not worry, Xemnas. With our combined strength, they won't get to her in time" Marluxia readied his scythe in a battle position
"Good" Xemnas went back into the portal as it closed
"Wait 'our?'" Sora noticed his choice words
If Xemnas wasn't going to stop them, than another organization member must be around. He quickly looked high and low before spotting their other opponent coming from above. This other organization member also had his hood down and was about to strike them all down with a familiar looking blade, starting with Sora. The dual wielding keyblade warrior was able to black this strike with both blades, creating a collision so strong that the wind blew away the hood, to reveal that this member was wearing a helmet with a weird black glass substance surrounding his face. Using all his force, Sora pushed both his keyblades and forced this newcomer back to join his fellow member, Marluxia. As he straightened up, he noticed that his familiar blade was indeed a keyblade. Either this one was already a keyblade wielder like Xehanort, or his influence spreaded fast on this one. His blade had a black and red scheme with chains crossing around the stem of the blade. His weapon also had 2 crystal eyes, one near the handle, the other at the tip of the shaft. Thought, Sora quickly looked back at his mask, and started getting angry for some reason
"Nice reflexes" The new member spoke in a younger voice, hinting that he might be around the student's ages "I could feel from that why the master is so keen towards you"
"Vanitas!" Sora lashed out at the boy
This surprised they keyblade wierlders, even Sora. It just came up so suddenly. Sora just felt some kind of fire the more he looked at the boy and it just came out so unsuspectingly. He didn't have time to find out why that was the case, though, as even with his face covered, Sora could feel he struck some kind of cord with this one
"Ventus" The boy started to chuckle, setting off they dual wielding warrior "What a strange place to slither off to" With his free hand, this Vanitas fellow reached out to Sora's chest "How I wish I could rip you out from your sleep right this very second"
The threat made Sora protect his chest with his white blade and pointed his black blade at the boy. Riku and Kairi also pointed theirs at this boy, refusing to let him hurt Sora like that
"...But that would mean we'd have to throw away Terra's little strategy" Vanitas lowered his hand "And he put so much thought and planning into it, that would just be plain rude. Besides, I can feel you're not done just yet"
"You guys just love to shout out whatever random things come out of your mouths, don't you!" Sora talked back
"Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, you're not going to save that brat with me around" The boy clenched onto his robe and threw it off like it was nothing
He wore a full on body suit with black and red colors covering almost every inch of his attire, from his boots, to his belt to his chest, not much else outside of some dark blues and grays could be seen. Vanitas held his keyblade with his right hand above himself with his other hand relaxed in front, possible ready to block any head on attacks. It was an odd battle stance, but a battle stance non the less. Sora and everyone else also got ready, as Vanitas and Marluxia charged at them
"Magnega!"
Just as fast as the organization members lunged themselves, they were suddenly pulled back by an odd source of red, white and blue light. Both of them tried to fight it off, but it was no use. Riku calmly took the lead of the group and got in his battle stance
"Go, save Ruby!" Riku told his friends "I'll hold them off"
"Are you crazy?! You might be a keyblade master, but you-"
"Sora, your master form won't last forever" Riku argued "We can't waste time while Ansem's doing who knows what to her"
"But-"
"Sora, Riku's right!" Oobleck gained his student's attention "We must act and save Miss Rose ASAP! Everyone underground!"
Yang was the first to jump down, followed by Oobleck. Weiss had finally pulled herself together and jumped down with Kairi and Lea. Sora took one last look at Rku. He hoped... no, he knew Riku could handle these hasbeens. With that mindset, Sora also jumped down. Blake was about to do the same, but looked back at Riku. While the others had a good feeling for him, she wasn't so confident. Unlike the other organization member so far, that Vanitas boy was an actual keyblade wielder, and that Marluxia man seemed very strong as well. Frustrated by the magic, Vanitas pointed his keyblade at the magnega spell and blew it up in a burst of light. They were both free now. Unable to think rationally, Blake pulled her weapon out and joined Riku to prepare for a battle
"Blake?! I told you to-"
"I'm not running!" Blake argued with her friend "We're doing this together, end of discussion"
"How sweet" Vanitas spoke in a mocking voice "The faunus thinks she can be a threat to us"
"An unwise choice, but we can oblige to you if you're looking for a swift death" Marluxia spun his scythe and readied for battle once more
There was clearly no time to argue about this, so Riku allowed Blake to do as he pleased. Hopefully both Ruby and her would be fine by the end of this
Author's Notes: Just in time for Volume 4, a new chapter is out. And man, a lot happened this chapter! First, I feel like I wrote Ansem and Xemnas very well and menacingly. That moment between Weiss and Xemnas was very anticipated for the longest time and I hope it didn't disappoint. Also really loved Marluxia and Vanitas working together, which was planned since the Monsters Inc trailer (2 members stopping them was planned from the begining, but it was originally going to be Demyx and Vanitas, but I felt Marluxia was cooler, plus i'm still not 100% sure if Demyx or Vexen are vessels) That scene was Ruby and Ansem was surprisingly hard to really write, as I had a good idea of what I wanted Ansem's dialogue to be, but I couldn't really come up with how to type it. Also Terra was name dropped, we got some similar dialogue for Vanitas from the Monsters Inc trailer, we got some tastes of more Riku and Blake together, and we've set up a lot for some future chapters, like SKL, WY and Oobleck saving Ruby and Riku and Blake vs Vanitas and Marluxia. I was hoping to get the former into this chapter, but this chapter turned out to be longer than expected (It's the 2nd longest yet!), so I'll save that for next time and just go on to some reviews
Kh fan: all in due time will answers be given, my friend. I can't reveal everything yet, but I will say that Ruby/Xion will not become seekers of darkness. Unless something happens to Xion in KH3, which as I said last time wouldn't make sense if she was so she has that going for her, she ain't turning evil
YamiChaoz27: I've also seen some theories that there's some vanitas shenanigans going on, and also that Aqua let Eriquas's keyblade drift to the destiny islands in hopes that someone like Sora would save her. The latter I will believe, as that would explain why Sora and Aqua are fighting in the realm of darkness, but that former theory is more questionable than how the hell Ruby is Xion. Either way, I just want to save her
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