"Xion?"
With a shaken hand, Lea touched the lifeless body's soft cheeks. They were physical and real
"Why did she change like this?" Yang tried getting any answer from anyone as she too started touching and feeling her skin
Lea got back up, with his breath becoming increasingly heavy. He was having a hard time keeping it all together and needed something to snap him out of whatever this thing was
"I need someone to pinch me!" Lea rapidly held his arm out to Kairi "Kairi, you do it!"
"What? No!" Kairi pushed his arm away "What's the matter? You're acting a lot more paranoid than I thought you'd be"
"Maybe because someone I thought was long gone suddenly turned up again?! This doesn't make any sense!"
Lea disbanded from the huddled group to pace himself and try to comprehend what just happened before his eyes
"So no one knows why this happened? Why any of this happened?!" Yang started getting angrier with the lack of response
"Look, all I know is that she became a nobody and that this is what her nobody looks like, apparently" Kairi let her own frustration out
"Would someone please tell me what the hell that even means?!" Weiss shouted at her, Sora and Lea "Why would Xemnas call her a nobody?! Why would you call her a nobody, Kairi?"
"Not like she can't do anything! Like the actual person, nobody!"
"Ah yes, Nobody" Oobleck joined in with his fast lecturing voice "When the heart becomes one with the darkness, the body is left behind with the soul being the only thing able to guild it. They are being without emotions, and can often find a boost in their power if they are lucky enough to retain their human form, but more often than not they turn out to be empty husks waiting for a superior to command them"
"I don't... what?!" Yang could hardly stand a word from her teacher
"The body starts moving on its own if the heart sinks into darkness" Sora explained it best he could as he rubbed his tears "Whatever the reason she changed her appearance like that, Ruby will eventually start to move again. She just won't be as... happy as she usually is"
"That sounds ridiculous and unbelievable" Weiss argued
"No" Lea walked back to the group "Unbelievable is how hard we just lost. Ruby being Xion is downright impossible!"
"Maybe she just looks like this Xion girl?" Kairi offered
"No, you don't get it, none of you do! She looks the exact same as Xion did. Same hair, same face, same... everything. But they can't be one and the same, because that would mean at some point, Ruby had already become a heartless and nobody!"
Yang felt a heartbeat and rose back up "What does that-"
"But even if she did, it would still be impossible because Xion wasn't a real nobody! She was a replica, created to..." Lea couldn't even make out any more words with how infuriated and confused he was "WHY DOES SHE LOOK LIKE XION!"
"Lea!" Oobleck rushed up to the fire head "Calm yourself! We'll figure this out, but only if we keep a calm and open mind!"
As the teacher comforted his student more, Sora continued to analyse the new Ruby, or Xion, or whatever, hard. As he kept looking at her, more tears started running down his cheeks, as something strange started to tick in his brain
"Does she look familiar to anyone else?" Sora asked the gang
"Of course she does! She might have changed her appearance, but it's still Ruby" Weiss told Sora
"No, I mean, like really familiar. Like you met Ruby and grew to know her when she looked like this. Nothing else is ticking to anyone else?"
Kairi also started to get a closer look at the nobody "Actually, I think she looks kinda like... me"
Weiss, Yang and Sora all looked at Kairi and the lifeless body back and forth with another realization hitting them
"I think you're right, Kairi" Weiss admitted
"Yeah, she does. But that's not what I mean. I feel like..."
More tears started flowing down Sora, which he furiously rubbed away
"Why can't I stop crying?!" Sora asked out loud
"You saw my sister get stabbed in the heart, why wouldn't you?!" Yang asked, a bit insulted
"No, I know her body will start moving pretty soon, I know we can fix this, and I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. I'm still sad, but not enough to cry. So why am I still crying?!"
Sora felt a presence leanger above him. He looked up to see Lea, with Oobleck right next to him. Lea seemed to have some kind of understanding in his eye, like he knew what exactly was going on with Sora
"Xion was good friends with me and Roxas" That was all he said
But that was all it took for Sora to understand
"Oh" Sora simply let some more tears flow down
"Honestly, I'm not surprised, considering how exactly our friendship ended"
"What do you-"
"Ruby!"
Before any more questions could be answered at the moment, the group heard some footsteps rushing towards them. They saw that Riku and Blake were running as fast as they could to join them, ignoring how their breath got heavier as they kept running. Blake ran up to Yang to see the damage
"What happened? Did Ruby..." The faunus stopped herself when she noticed the girl in her partner's arms "Who's that girl?"
"This... is Ruby" The only explanation Yang could fathom out
Blake and Riku took a moment to look at this girl to see if it was right. At first, neither believed Yang, but as they kept looking, they soon realized that she was right. At least, it seemed that way. She still didn't look completely like Ruby, but she was wearing the same cloths which made gears start spinning just enough
"What happened?" Blake asked, confused why she looked like that
"Honestly, we're still figuring it out ourselves" Kairi gave the honest answer
"How come she looks a bit like Kairi?" Riku asked to see if anyone at least knew that
"You see it too?" Weiss asked
"Yeah? Did they do something to her nobody?"
"This shouldn't be her nobody" Lea gave his answer "Like Kairi said, we're still figuring things out"
Riku tried coming up with his own ideas, but his attention was soon pulled to the train right next to them. Some White Fang members were climbing on board, leaving the keyblade wielders, doctor, dog and huntresses-in-training alone. But what really caught Riku's attention was an odd smell coming from inside some of the train cars
"What's with the train?" Riku helped gain everyone's attention towards said train
"We were kind too busy with Ruby and Ansem to notice" Sora answered "Looks like they're getting ready to move though"
"That's ridiculous" Oobleck shot down the idea "These tunnels are sealed. The tracks lead to a dead end"
Suddenly an intercom started to ring loudly as the White Fang members all got done jumping onto the train
"Get to your places, we are leaving now!" Torchick's voice could be be heard giving the command
The train started to move down into the tunnels. At first it started to move slowly, but it very shortly started to pick up speed. Sora, Riku and Lea tried running up to the caboose, but by the time they started running, it already went to fast, and soon the whole thing disappeared into the sealed tunnels
"Well it sounds like their going somewhere" Kairi pointed out the obvious
"What do we do?" Weiss asked
Yang let Ruby-Xion-whoever rest her head on the ground, knowing that there was something at least a little more important at the moment. She stood up and stared down at the tunnel the train left in with determination flowing through her
"If Ruby was here, or at least awake, she'd say that we need to stop that train. So that's what I'm going to do"
"What we'll do" Sora corrected his blonde friend "We're doing this together"
"Glad we're all in agreement" Oobleck complemented the focus his students had "One problem: The train has already began treading faster than any of us. We must figure out how to get on board ASAP"
"Ruby could have used her semblance, even to carry us all on board, but..." Weiss sadly looked down at the red caped girl
Kairi bent down and felt the nobody's cheek and tried shaking her awake. It worked about the same as Weiss and Yang's earlier attempts
"She's still out cold, and we don't have time to wait for her to start moving again" Kairi gave her diagnosis
"Sora, how recharged are your limit forms?" Riku asked his leader
"Not enough" Sora shook his head "Can't wait for them either"
"Than we'll do plan c" Lea blurted out as he started concentrating internally
"What's plan c?" Blake asked
"This"
With a snap of his fingers, Lea summoned a dark portal. The remnants of RWBY were taken aback, but Sora, Riku and Kairi understood his plan c
"What's that thing?" Weiss asked, very confused to what the plan was
"A corridor of darkness" Lea quickly gave his answer while keeping focus on the portal
"It looks like that thing the organization enters from" Blake commented
"Practically everyone had to learn this move to do missions" Lea gave another quick answer, reminding the girls he was apparently a part of the organization before
"And you're positive it'll take us to the right place?" Kairi asked for some certainty
Suddenly, a knife popped out of the portal in a poking manor. Suddenly a White Fang member walked through, just as surprised to see the huntresses as WBY was to see him
"What the- how did-"
Before he could finish his question, Oobleck smacked the criminal on the head with his thermos, knocking him just as out cold as his unconscious student
"I believe that answers your question" Oobleck said to Kairi
"Hurry it up!" Lea commanded his friends, physically looking tired from holding the corridor open "It's not exactly easy keeping track of something that fast
"Roger that" Oobleck quickly rushed into the portal
Yang looked back at the little girl in the red hood "But what about-"
"I'll look after her and join you guys later. Just GO!"
Riku grabbed Yang's arm and pulled her with him "No time to argue with him! Come on"
Before Yang could oppose, Riku rushed into the portal with her. Sora and Kairi also pushed Weiss and Blake to help them get a move on as well. Kairi, Blake and Weiss all quickly walked into the corridor, but Sora gave a quick final look at his friend
"See you soon, Lea" Sora waved and headed in
"Good luck!" Lea shouted out before letting his hand dangle
The corridor of darkness closed, and Lea simply stood there taking in deep breaths from the strains he pulled. He rubbed his forehead as he turned to look after the new Ruby. As soon as he turned, though, he saw a little Corgi sitting on his butt right in front of Lea
"Couldn't bare leaving her behind?" Lea asked the canine
"Ruff!" Zwei almost nodded his head at Lea
Lea bent down and started petting the Corgi "Good boy. I'm sure she'll love seeing you when she wakes up
After he was done petting the dog, Lea crossed his legs and sat down with Zwei. He just sat there and looked at Ruby, Xion, whoever, still questioning how it was possible. Lea was almost certain that Xion was just a replica. It said so on Vexen's notes, even Xemnas said so. So why did Xemnas contradict himself, and how could Xion turn out to be Ruby? Zwei started to whimper and bark, like he was trying to figure it out himself
"I don't get it either, Zwei" Lea continued talking to the dog "But hopefully we'll figure it out"
And like that, Lea started brainstorming all the possibilities he could come up with. One of them had to explain this impossibility. It had to
Through a corridor of darkness, Emerald, Mercury, Cinder and the organization member joining them walked though and showed up on top of a building in The City of Vale. The green and silver haired teens weren't expecting an airship to fly directly above them, nor the strong breeze followed afterwards, though Cinder and her fellow member weren't really affected by it. But when Emerald and Mercury saw that wasn't the only airship around, it became even more startling. Throughout the city, several airships and bullheads were landing in any free spaces and leaving faster than normal when they were done. Atlesian soldiers were guiding citizens or making them go in single file line, telling each and everyone of them "don't panic" or "it's just an evacuation test." Both of the teens could tell this was only a preview of what was to happen at the vytal festival. Cinder walked up next to them without much concern for any of it
"I still don't get why we're pushing this early" Emerald admitted
"We already told you" The other organization member assured her "With those huntresses and keyblade wielders up at Mount Glenn, and trying to see if Xigbar is right, we didn't want everything we had up there go to waste"
"Yeah, but you guys, like, send them far away after you killed Red or whatever?" Mercury asked
"Shows what you know about our plans if you think it's that easy"
"Actually, I think I know a lot more about our plan than you do" Mercury started walking up to her "You guys only joined us recently, while we've been getting things ready for moths without your help!"
The organization member also walked up to Mercury, not letting the brat scare her "No, you've been planning for months. Fall Maiden has been planning all this far longer than any of you. And I think at the very least the master knows more than both of you combined"
"That's enough, all of you" Cinder told off her fellow organization member and servants
"Cinder?" Emerald became concerned at how mad her leader sounded at that back talk
Cinder took a deep breath and looked down on the city below "Believe me, I more than anyone am pissed off that we have to move this phase much earlier. However, I think we can still make this work in all of our favors. If they manage to somehow stop the train, than Ozpin and the general will seem like paranoid fools, causing everyone to worry for an oncoming threat. If they don't stop the train, than Ozpin's bad reputation will start at how he wasn't willing to face the danger head on"
"I'm still not sure any of this will work out" Emerald admitted with her head down "It just feels like we're losing a big part to our attack for no reason"
Cinder walked up to her pupil and lifted her chin up "No need to worry. I've got it all under control. Just follow our lead"
Emerald lost and doubt for the plan and nodded at Cinder's command "As you wish"
"Glad that's all cleared up" The black coat female admitted "Hope you all enjoy the show"
The organization member re opened a corridor of darkness and was just about to go through it
"And where do you think you're going?" Mercury asked
"Don't you worry about me. I'm simply giving my contribution to the new an improved plan. And maybe check out which lucky soul Terra chose. The rest of you, just stand and watch. Maybe fool a few saps by helping out, I don't care"
In between her fingers, the organization member suddenly called out some throwing knifes, clenching all 8 tightly in each space. Small sparks of electricity transmitted through each knife to the other until they made their way back into the knife's wielder, not really affecting her much physically
"But I, for once on this dirt ball, would like to have some fun. See you all later" The black coated woman left the trio
"Well what should we do, mam?" Emerald asked her superior
Cinder only took a second to look at the city before looking back at Emerald and Mercury "The White Fang is their problem. Not ours or anyone else's"
Cinder continued to look down on the city, watching Ironwood's forces continue to pointlessly evacuate. Foolish Ozpin. This would only stir more fear into everyone who survives today, making their plans all the more easy
"This is the beginning of the end"
Thanks to Lea, SKR, WBY and Doctor Oobleck had successfully gotten onto the train. The wind in their face surprised them, as they weren't fully expecting to actually get on the train, but asking how wasn't in their priority at the moment. They needed to stop Torchwick and the White Fang first. They climbed up to the top and held their ground, despite the roaring winds blowing in front of them
"Hurry, children!" Oobleck commanded "We must get to the front and stop this train!"
Sora tried pushing Riku to move forward, but for some reason he wouldn't move. He just stood there, smelling something
"Riku, what's the matter?" Sora asked, making sure they were ok
"There's something dark nearby. I can smell it" Riku explained
"Hey, it's not like there was any working plumbing" Weiss tried defending herself
"Not you. On this train"
Riku could feel the smell coming from inside the caboose they climbed up onto. There was a hatch on top that could easily be opened. Riku did just that to see what that smell was. He was taken back quite a bit, as well as Weiss, Blake, oobleck, and especially Sora, Kairi and Yang. The space was holding a glass box in the caboose. And inside the cage seemed to be an aura of pure darkness. The aura squirmed ferociously, and yellow dots would often pop out of said aura, as well as antenna and claws. This indicated that this aura wasn't just aura. It was a bunch of creatures, crowded in the same crate. Out of everyone in the group, Yang had received the most whiplash. She was so taken aback from the sight that she hadn't even noticed she was almost about to fall of the train, with no room behind her by a foot or to. Before she could trip and fall though, Blake and Oobleck caught her in time, and Blake tried calming her slowly panicking partner
"Yang, what's wrong?" Blake asked
"Why are those things here?!" Yang asked, expecting no answer
"Profesor, what are those things?" Weiss asked her teacher
"Doctor" Oobleck corrected the Schnee "And if i'm correct in assuming..."
"The heartless!" Sora finished the green haired man's answer "They're the heartless!"
"You're kidding. You're goddamn kidding me!" Yang fought off Oobleck and Blake "These, of all things, are the heartless!?"
"They don't look as threatening as I thought" Weiss admitted
"They only look like that, but in actuality they're just as terrifying as the grimm!" Yang shouted out at her sister's partner
"Wait, Yang, have you seen the heartless before?" Kairi asked, starting to connect the dots
"Questions to be answered later!" Oobleck brought their attention back where it should be "We have to take care of them now!"
"On it"
Sora bent down as he, Kairi and Riku and readied their keyblades. With all 3 of them and how confined these specific heartless were, they could just open the cage and just shoot as much magic as they could and be done with it. Sora tried finding the lid to the box so they could do just that. But when he placed his hand onto the glass, a strange aura surrounded it, which took Sora by surprised. The keyblade wielder extended his blade and tapped the box to see if that energy would return. It did. Sora dug into the hatch to try and find the lid. When he did, though, he couldn't get a good grip on in and his hands kept sliding off the energy
"Barrier magic" Sora flicked his hand as he got up "I can't get rid of it! None of us can!"
"Why not?!" Yang asked
"Well this specific type of magic is not meant to discarded so easily" Oobleck explained "It's suppose to keep someone, or something, inside, unable to escape and run or call for backup. At the very least, they'll be kept in this box until we're done here"
"Might not get done as fast as we'd hope, though" Riku pointed to the front of the train cars in front of them
Just 9 carts away from them, White Fang grunts started climbing on top of the train as well. Looks like they found out they were there. Each member, as they climbed up, didn't move as fast due to being careful not to fall of the train, but that didn't stop them from carrying their guns or knives, ready to push them all of this train
"Well I didn't expect them to go easy on us" Oobleck admitted "Let's make quick work of them, shall we?"
The huntresses and keyblade wielders all skipped onto the next cart, and then the next one. But as Riku made his way to their 3rd cart, he smelled a familiar smell, that came from a familiar place. There's no way, was there? To make sure it wasn't true, Riku opened the hatch on the cart, only to be met with a familiar site. A glass box, filled with a swarm of heartless
"There's more?!" Yang, along with Sora and Weiss, checked up with Riku
"Looks like it. But I didn't smell anything like it on that cart" Riku pointed back to the previous train cart
Curious as to why that was, Sora and Yang headed back to their 2nd cart. They both opened the hatch and saw a somewhat familiar, but still different sight. There was another glass box, protected by barrier magic, keeping in more creatures. However, these creatures were quite different from the heartless. Rather than being all black and purple, these ones were mostly white and grey. Most of them had this cross symbol on their faces rather than eyes and sometimes even a mouth. They all still squirmed in their confidence, but you could tell all the different characteristics and attributes. Some of them were big, some were small, were bulky wielding weapons, others were skinny and looked like they were wearing skin suits. Whatever their design, Sora still recognized them
"This one's filled with nobodies!" Sora shouted out
"This one too!" Kairi, accompanied with Blake and Oobleck on the 4th train car, also shouted
They had also opened up the hatch on the 4th car, and inside, Sora, Yang, Riku and Weiss could see glimpses of the same sight as the 2nd cart. The train began to hold heartless, than it held nobodies. Heartless, than nobodies again
"I'm beginning to detect a pattern here" Riku shouted out as he, Sora, Weiss and Yang joined Kairi, Blake and Oobleck
"This doesn't make sense!" Sora let out his frustrations
Before any hypothesis could be made, guns started firing at the group. The White Fang was advancing on them fast
(Insert Unforgettable from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep)
Soon more and more started to pop up from below the train cars, all of them shouting things like "Get the humans" or "Stop them" among other things. So long as the heartless and nobodies were trapped inside the barrier magic, it seemed safe to focus on the white fang for the moment. The heroes ran up to the next cart as one White Fang member, who seemed like a close quarters combat kind of fighter, went up to Yang to try and kick her. Yang counter kicked and while he was stunned, Yang tripped him from his other leg. He flipped through the air as Yang punched him through the hatchet, falling onto another box of heartless and rolling off of said box. Blake rushed through a line of grunts, pushing 5 away with her weapon. She started to get surrounded by 4 more, but she sliced them all away. From afar. 3 members wielding guns and pistols started aiming at the traitor. But before any of them could fire, Riku threw his keyblade at them with the strike raid technique, destroying their firearms. With his keyblade back in hand, Riku used a thunder spell on those white fang members, along with 3 more next to them
Using her glyphs and ice dust, Weiss rushed through a line of White Fang, just like Blake, freezing them as she went along. When she stopped her speed through, she disarmed some gunners and slashed others surrounding her. 2 white fang with knifes tried stabbing Kairi, but she blocked both of their attacks at the same time with her keyblade. She pushed them back and instantly used a stop spell on both of them. As this happened, 5 more tried going to the princess from behind, but Kairi avoided their attempted attacks and blew 3 of them away with a blast of wind. Knowing the small stop spell as about to end, she rushed behind the frozen members as the remaining 2 tried to rush her. The spell ended and all 4 members collided with each other. Sora ran past and slashed one white fang on his left, another on his right and jumped up in the air, using blitz, and knocked back more grunts with his overhead swing. Another right in front of him after the attack tried rushing at him, but Sora used the sliding dash to trip the member and horizontally sliced 3 more
As his students continued to fight off the White Fang, Oobleck continued to examine the cages keeping the heartless and nobodies in. There must have had a reason to keep creatures like these in boxes rather than have them fight alongside the White Fang. Speaking of White Fang, one deer faunus was flung right next to the doctor's feet, groaning as she did. Perhaps some interrogation will be a better way to find out why. He grabbed the grunt by her suit and lifted her up to his face
"Why are you keeping heartless and nobodies in these train carts?" Oobleck spat in her face
"I'd rather die than answer to you, human scum!" The fanus tried to free herself from the grip of the huntsman, but couldn't
"Very well"
Oobleck turned to the side of the train and lifted the white fang member above the tracks they sped by at high speeds. Seeing this, the deer faunus started panicking even more as Oobleck extended his arms further from the train
"WE'RE UNLEASHING THEM INTO THE CITY!" The faunus blurted out
Oobleck brought the faunus back to his face "What did you say!?"
"This train is going to crash right in the middle of the city! After that, the magic those guys from organization 13 put on will disappear and let them out into the city! We were planning on using the grimm as well, but because of you we couldn't attach the bombs in time! Now please don't drop me!"
Oobleck obliged to her request and set her down on the train cart. Before she could take a sigh of relief in, Oobleck punched her in the face, knocking her out
"We have to cut the cars!" Oobleck yelled at his students
"What?!" Most of them yelled out
Oobleck rushed to the 6th cart, where they all were "The dead end leads to the city! They're letting them out to the public after we crash!"
"That's crazy!" Kairi shouted out in disbelief
"Sora, do it quickly! Just in case we don't stop the train, we have to stop the creatures from being unleashed!"
"No need to tell me twice!"
Sparing no time, Sora jumped down to the train couplings and got ready to separate the first 5 carts from them. But as his keyblade hit the couplings, it was deflected back by familiar looking energy. Sora smacked the connected car again, but the same shield like energy showed up
"More barrier magic!" He shouted up before rejoining them
"So we can't delay it?!" Yang, stressed and worried asked
"Than we have no choice! We have to stop the train from the front!" Oobleck deduced
Just after the decision was made, the train started to shake. Ahead of them, a giant mech suit that the students recognized Torchwick used on that night started rushing towards them
"You 3!" Oobleck pointed at Yang, Weiss and Blake "Go down below and make it to the front from there! As for you-"
"Already on it" Riku assured the professor with a very good hunch what he was going to tell them
Riku, Sora and Kairi all ran towards the mech suit and white fang grunts. Oobleck took a quick sip from his thermos and joined them. Yang, Weiss and Blake opened up the 6th hatch, with a cage full of nobodies, and dove in. They were going to stop this train
(End Unforgettable)
With some time away from fighting the organization, White Fang and such, Lea had some time to pace himself, trying to at least guess what was going on with Ruby. He still refused to believe that Xion was her nobody. It was impossible! There had to be another reason why they looked so similar. But every scenario Lea had come up with had its share of loopholes that still didn't fully answer his questions. Often times more questions popped up with each scenario he thought of
"I got it!" Lea came up with, like, the 12th idea he had "Maybe I'm in the dream world, and this is all a part of either Xehanort's plan, or the Mark of Mastery! What do you think?" He asked his only current companion, Zwei
The canine started to growl at the idea, followed by "Arf! Arf!"
Lea shook his head side to side "No, you're right. Sora and Riku would have probably told me, and they both said that the sleeping worlds acted normal whenever Xehanort didn't pop his head up"
Lea continued to pace himself, running through the rest of the possibilities in his head, and did come up with at least one more
"You know what? Maybe Kairi's right. Maybe she just so happens to look a lot like Xion. She just has similar looking hair. And face. And skin color. And if you gave her a black coat she's look practically identical"
Lea let that one slide. Even just a simple answer like that still made it seem too coincidental. Lea let his butt fall on to the ground, starting to get frustrated at how nothing he came up with seemed to be the right answer. His determination to refuse to believe Xion and Ruby were the same was even starting to lose it's steam. Zwei came up to the hothead, allowing Lea to pet him. Lea did just that, about ready to give up trying to figure it out himself
"What do you think, Zwei?" the Ex-organization member asked the dog
Zwei's tail started to wag and he started to get excited "Ruff Ruff!" Zwei seemed to figure something out, but almost instantly he started to whimper, like he also doubted whatever answers he had
Lea continued petting the dog "Yeah, that sounds as probable as that birthday idea"
Lea's train of thought was broken when he heard someone groan. A girl groaning. Lea looked back at Ru-on to see her face was squinting and she slowly started to move. She was waking up. As fast as he could, Lea jumped out of his seat on the ground and rushed towards the nobody, lifting her lead with his arm. Zwei joined them, as Lea's heart started beating fast
"He're hoping for your idea" Lea glanced down at the corgi before giving Xi-by all his attention
(Insert Musique pour la Tristesse de Xion (Xion's Theme) from Kingdom Hearts 1.5)
Soon the black haired girl's eyes started to flutter open. Lea could only barely see through the tiny blinks that his friend's silver eyes had changed to a blue color. She tried pulling herself up, but could only hoist herself up so much with the current strength of her elbows. Her eyelids had changed from fluttering to squinting, as her eyes landed on the red haired man in front of her
"A-Axel?" The black haired girl asked, in a voice that sounded different from Ruby's
That one word had deconfirmed any speculations Lea had come up with. Some mixed feelings had started popping up inside his head. On one hand, this meant there were at least a thousand questions that he needed to find out after today. On the other, it looked like he'd be reunited with one of his best friends. And that at least put a smile on his face
"It's Lea now, Xion" The fire head pointed to his brain with his free hand "Get it memorized"
Xion's eyes had moved up to being barely awake, as she tried her best to notice her friends cheeks weren't the same "Oh. Ok"
Without any warning for either of them, Zwei jumped up onto Xion's chest, pushing her back down. Giving her no time to take in the shock, the dog started licking Xion's face rapidly, making the black haired girl laugh uncontrollably. After a quick moment, she pulled herself back up, and held the dog under his front paws
"Hey there. Zwei, right?" Xion asked the dog to make sure she was right
Once again, Zwei began to lick Xion's face, but this time only reaching her nose. The red hooded girl allowed it for a moment, but eventually needed push the dog out of the way and get up. Before she could try doing it herself, she saw an offered hand wearing a black glove. The hand was Lea, who offered to help with a smile. Xion smiled back and took his hand. In just a second, Lea had brought the girl up to her feel with no problems. Xion wasn't expecting it to be so fast, and on top of still having a dizzy spell, she began to wobble a bit
"Easy. Easy"
Lea firmly grasped Xion's arms and moved them up to her shoulders to keep her safe and still. Pretty soon, Xion was able to stay in place and examine her surroundings
"What is this place?" Xion asked
"Essentially, the secret base of the White Fang" Lea answered
"White... Fang?" Xion seemed a little confused "They're the... bad... faunus, right?"
"Having a hard time remembering?"
"Yeah, there's a lot I'm still figuring out, even without having 2 lives to try and re-"
Before she could finish her defence for herself, realization struck Xion and struck her hard. She quickly noticed the clothes she wore, especially the red hood behind her. She started touching around her whole body to feel the fabric of her combat skirt. This was real, and what that truly meant didn't sit too well with Xion
"Does this mean that Ruby failed?" Xion asked Lea "To protect our light, I mean"
Lea was a little reluctant to try and answer that question "I'd say it was more we failed her. Ansem and the others were just to strong"
Xion didn't respond with anything like asking who Ansem was or how they failed. She just seemed to sulk down and let it all sink in. Even though Lea had some questions for her, he realized that she seemed just as confused as him and any of their teammates were. After a short minute, Xion started looking around again, seemingly looking for something or someone
"Where are the rest of our teammates? And Sora, Riku and Kairi?" Xion started to feel more into the moment again
Lea pointed down the train tunnel "The White Fang started driving a train down there. The others went to stop them from whatever their plans are"
"And you didn't go with them?"
"Needed to make sure you were the real Xion. Kinda mixed that you are"
Xion gave another smile for her friend's concerns "That's very nice of you, Ax-Lea"
Xion looked down the train tunnel as well. The thoughts of the White Fang and Sora, Yang, Riku and everyone else getting hurt started running through her mind. She started to feel stronger the more she felt she needed to do something
"We should probably give out our share of help now, though" Xion looked back at her friend
Lea was taken aback a little "A-are you sure right now? Don't you think you should wait and recover a little more energy?"
"It doesn't sound like we can afford to wait. Besides..."
Xion extended out her had as light started forming around it. Xion grabbed the particles of light and soon, a bit to Lea's surprise, she summoned a keyblade. Not only that, but an exact look a like of Sora's kingdom key. Xion brought the weapon close up to her and felt another new found yet old power come to her
"If I remember correctly, a huntress is supposed to protect the innocent, as well as her friends. So that's exactly what I'll do"
Lea was quite amazed at how selfless Xion was at the moment. He supposed that was one thing her and Ruby shared greatly. His astonishment was interrupted when he felt something tap his leg. He looked down to see Zwei going into a pouncing position, implying he was ready to help out too. With 2 brave souls ready to fight, Lea was starting to get ready as well
"Alright then. Let me just try and find the train again" Lea began to concentrate to find the train
Xion was glad her friend was on board for this. Though the thought of what had to happen afterwards did sulk her spirit a touch. Whatever happens with this White Fang nonsense, she knew she had to make the best of her time with Lea and everyone else
"And Lea" Xion interrupted Lea's concentration for a moment "It was nice seeing you again. I'm almost glad this happened"
Lea took a second to realize what that meant, and simply gave a smirk to the red hooded girl "Don't get that emotional. We'll figure out how to make it work for both of you" The former organization member continued to concentrate
Facing away from the fire head, Xion gave a small smile "I wish that were the case. But it can't"
"Found them"
Xion's attention was brought back to the moment at hand. With a snap of his fingers, the corridor to darkness opened up. Wasting no time, gripping her keyblade as hard as she could, Xion charged into the dark portal. Zwei and Lea joined her in almost no time. They were ready to stop the organization and White Fang
Author's note: Happy New Year, everybody! KH3 is a little less than a month away, the same with the RWBY V6 finale, and I couldn't be more excited. As for right now, HOLY CRAP this was a long one. I mean, there was more dialog than actual fighting so it wasn't the most difficult chapter for me or anything, but man was there a lot. And, spoilers, there will be a lot more next chapter. I mean, i have to juggle at least 4 fight scenes with little actual scenes in between each. It's gonna be a long one boys, so I better prepare myself mentally!
So starting with the group of villains, has anyone guessed who that organization member is yet? You all probably know by now, i'm just curious if anyone guessed before this chapter. The train car fight also had some fun moments from the SKRL cast which was cool, but let's dive right into the meat of this chapter: Xion
It was honestly pretty cool writing everyone's reaction to her just existing. From Lea unable to comprehend it, to Yang's frustration over Ruby, to Roxas crying through Sora, the list goes on. And speaking of Yang, she kinda dropped a bomb during the train fight didn't she? It's almost like she knows something nobody else does. But I mean, maybe I'm reading too deep into it. And Xion herself, it was honestly really sweet writing Lea helping her out and her moments with Zwei (a fun callback to the manga, if you ask me) but I do honestly feel after that I starting writing her doing stuff for plot's sake. I don't know, I just feel I could have written her better there. I do have some deeper moments with her to write in the future that i'm looking forward to, but here, I guess because they're on a strict time limit i just couldn't let Xion be Xion. Though I am still glad I got that out of the way, as it finally gives the V2 finale some kind of stakes. Just let me know in reviews and PMs if you feel I wrote her more plot than character based. Speaking of reviews...
myfunvideos: Not next chapter, but the chapter after that. Honestly, them turning into heartless could be an interesting idea, but not for right now. I mean, if i turned a RWBY member into a heartless during every big battle through the story, it'd feel a bit formulaic. Like people would probably be like "ok, this battle sounds big, who's going to die tonight?" and I wouldn't want this story to feel formulaic. I'll keep the idea in mind, but know that it will most likely remain as an idea
Kh fan: It isn't Sora Pyrrha saw. Also, did you read the description? Yes, Riku and Blake will be a thing. I still don't know if Riku's gonna die or not, but if he does, she'll be a sad sad kitty cat
wolfwings21: Why would Ven need a redemption arc? Aside from unwillingly becoming one with Vanitas, he never really did anything wrong. And he was still able to save Aqua. Terra's the one who needs a redemption arc for being the dumbest character in kingdom hearts history (and that's saying a lot)
Well, I think that does it for now. Wish my luck on the next chapter with at least 4 fight scenes to be written in it (uuhhhhhh!) If you liked this chapter, leave follow, a favorite, a review, and I'll see you all next time