AN: Okay. This story apparently exists again. I'm kind of surprised, but between a message I got months ago about the story and just... rereading the old stories, I got interested again. I think it'll continue, since I had fun writing it again. Maybe I was just burned out on it, before.

If anyone is still reading this... hey. If you've read the other stories, you know chapter 10/11/12 is is where I have the first major reveal. Small twist, in the grand scheme. Especially compared to the halfway point, but big enough.

No responses, it's been... 2 years almost, so it's not really a response at this point.

Regardless... enjoy. Good to see you all again.

Chapter 10: Family Dialogue

Dawn was unusually quiet as she waited with Oscar and their new friend, Deku. Master Sora had gone off to speak with Toshi about... something, Oscar wasn't sure what, but given the anxious whispering the two had been doing beforehand... Well, it probably couldn't be good.

Deku was quiet, but Oscar could tell that the questions were killing him. Dawn's Uncle Toshi was apparently as famous here as Master Sora was back home. That she called him Uncle Toshi was enough to make the guy go completely gaga. He had the good sense to step back and give them space, but Oscar didn't know how much longer that would last. He clenched his arms on his biceps as he watched Deku unconsciously get closer and closer to Dawn. He was a good kid, but he wasn't perfect.

"...Go..."

Oscar listened to his inner voice, and stepped between Dawn and Deku. "So... uh.. I... w-what do you want to know?"

Deku suddenly realized where he was, eyes wide. He jumped back, waving his hands around wildly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get so close, I mean I didn't -" Deku took a deep breath when he saw Oscar's slightly annoyed glare. "Okay. First question... who... who is Sora? If he was a hero, I'd know about him."

Oscar glanced at Dawn, who was still quietly staring at the ground with half lidded eyes. So Oscar took a breath and turned back. Who is Sora? How did he explain that without mentioning the wider World? "So things like that monster we all fought. Master Sora is one of the best there is at hunting them. He's teaching us – well, me – how to do it. I helped Dawn sneak out and come with me."

"Wow! So it kind of sounds like he's some kind of secret hero!" Deku exclaimed. "But why did you sneak out if you're in training?"

"I think that's enough questions, Young Midoriya." The three turned at the sound of the tired voice, catching sight of Toshi – skinny once more – walking in beside Sora. "They have their own personal problems." He grabbed Deku's arm. "Now go back to your bed. You still have injuries."

"But -"

"Midoriya..." Toshi said, leaving no room for argument. Deku tried to respond, but sighed and trudged away in silence.

The Keyblade Master did not look any happier after his conversation, and he was clearly focusing that anger on both his daughter and her best friend. Oscar couldn't help but feel a spike in anxiety under the weight of that glare, flinching back to stand behind Dawn. He stopped after a moment, noticing that Dawn didn't flinch away under the weight of her father's anger, but she did seem to shrink down, growing sadder with every moment.

"What were you thinking!?" Sora snapped suddenly, causing her to flinch back again. "Can you even imagine how worried I've been?!"

"... Dad -"

"I was worried you were dead, Dawn. Or worse, that Salem had you both!" Sora interjected. He threw his hands up. "And when I finally find you, after you convinced your cousin to let you go – and no one knows where she is now – you are unconscious for days. You did almost die!"

Dawn reached for her hood but held off on pulling it up. "But I didn't -"

"Did you even think about any of this when you stole that ship? How much you made me worry? How much you've made Donny worry?" He shook his head. "What do you think he would have thought if you never came back? And now Qrow's daughter isn't. We're losing everyone, and you aren't ready for -"

"Y-you never let her tr-tr-try."

Sora and Dawn both flinched and slowly turned to Oscar, standing beside her Uncle Toshi. Sora blinked once, as if trying to comprehend what he'd just heard. Oscar took a shaky breath and forced one foot in front of the other, each move taking a lot longer than he wanted. But it was surprising Sora so much that he just... let it happen, right up until Oscar planted his shaking feet between Sora and Dawn. "B-Besides," he finally managed, glaring back at his Master. "It was an accident."

Oscar flinched when he felt a hand wrap around his wrist. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing Dawn with a bright red blush as she looked away and held his arm tight. Oscar smiled and felt a glow of courage in his Heart that continued to grow as he turned back to Master Sora. "And we- we're doing good. I think, maybe, you'd be surprised how much."

Sora seemed to finally realize what was happening. "Oscar..? You can make your case back at the academy." He grabbed Oscar's other arm and began to pull.

"You'll never let her leave again!" Oscar protested hotly. He shook off Sora. "I'm... I'm not letting that happen to my best friend."

Toshi let out a chuckle, which drew an angry glare from Sora. "What? He sounds like you just five years ago, Sora."

Sora turned away at that, fists clenching for a second before loosening. "That's... not wrong," he admitted quietly. He let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes with his organic hand before turning around. Without his anger, he looked tired and Oscar wondered how long it had been since the man had slept. "But changing isn't bad. The World is too dangerous right now with Salem. Dove is gone, one of our best Keyblade Masters. She's strong, she's family - the only person who would possibly have taken her is Salem, and it was to hurt Qrow and hurt me. She will do the same to you."

"She already would've," Dawn suddenly pointed out. She crept out from behind Oscar, still holding his wrist tight. "If you're right, she took Dove the moment she wasn't on Remnant anymore. It would've been easy to take us."

"Hm..." Sora frowned. "That's almost worse. She wants you out there for some reason..."

The Princesses...

At that thought, Oscar blanched. "Urgh..."

Toshi was the one who heard his groan, and proceeded to draw Sora out of his thoughts by saying, "Kid has an idea."

Oscar glared at him, wishing the grinning skeleton man hadn't heard. Now Master Sora would get all angry again! He looked back at Sora then back down at the ground. "Well... on – on your first journey, Master, you – you, uh, you met all s-seven Princesses."

"Oh! You think she was using us to find the other ones we've met!" Dawn exclaimed. She threw his hand up by the wrist. "You're a genius, Oscar!"

"D-D-Dawn! It's b-bad!" he protested, stuttering as she jumped along excitedly.

"How many have you met?"

Dawn stopped jumping and glanced over at her best friend. "Well, I don't really know. Oscar said his Semblance acts up around them?"

Oscar stared up at the suddenly very serious glare of Sora. Any trace of wanting to make up was gone. He was fighting a war, and now he knew how to find the enemy's targets. "Th-th..." Oscar held up three fingers.

Sora's eyes widened. "Three!? In a month?" He shook his head and began to pace along the atrium floor, muttering about how unlikely that was. "... Where?"

"Redgrave, Fuyuki Bridge..." Oscar shut his eyes and nodded at the building. "And here."

"Here..? One of the students? Who -"

"No. The more who know, the more likely it is that it will get out somehow. At least that's what Ozpin or Qrow would say." Sora let out a long sigh. "Besides, now it just means all of your students will get more security, right?"

Dawn smiled as her uncle let out a boisterous laugh. "Damn. Clever way to keep it hidden and force us to do security for you!" He winked at the trio. "You're definitely smarter than the Sora I met when I was a kid."

"I wasn't stupid," Sora pouted. He took a deep breath and turned back to Dawn and Oscar. "But this just means that you two are grounded. She's using you to find Princesses? She has Ruby, and if you find all six others, you won't be able to keep them safe. I'll have Jaune and Yange find them and worry about this. I'll figure the rest out when we get back."

"No." Sora sighed and turned to Oscar again. "We're not going back... not unless – er, that is... not unless we can keep traveling. Together."

Dawn watched her best friend with wide, shimmering silver eyes. "Oscar..."

"Well, if there's one thing I know from your parents, Young Nomura," Toshi said, walking up to get between Oscar and Sora, "Keyblade Wielders refuse to give in. So, I say we settle this the same way as back then, okay?"

Sora glared at him, gears turning. "Wha – NO!"

"Huh?" Both the kids asked, heads cocking to the right.

"He's just angry because last time I suggested this... he lost," Toshi said. He chuckled, shook his head, and threw his hands up. "A fight, plain and simple."

The kids grimaced and stepped back, screaming internally. "A FIGHT!? WITH HIM!?" They both screamed, horrified at the idea. Sora was one of the strongest people in any world, and the idea was to fight him!?

"I'm not fighting my daughter!"

Dawn didn't mean for the next words to come out of her mouth. But... well... they did. "Afraid you'll lose?"

"DAWN!" Oscar hissed, hair standing on end. "What are you doing?"

She twitched. "I... I don't know!"

"Why did you say that!?"

"It just came out!"

"Fine." Sora stood up, jaw set. He clenched his fist"We'll fight for it."

S M H S

"Thanks for the arena, Toshi," Sora said as he stood at one end of the small-scale cement and industrial arena lined and dotted with pipes. "You sure they won't mind if we damage it?"

"Ah, we've got someone who can fix it up no problem," he replied from the stands, waving it off. "Just... try to stay inside the arena. I can't just shrug them off anymore, you know."

"Don't worry, they're kids," Sora supplied, grinning at his friend. He stopped grinning and turned back to Dawn and Oscar at the other end. Energy began shaking in both of his hands, a gunmetal silver in his right tinged with red, and black and white sparks in his left. After a moment, the Master Keeper exploded into being in his right hand while the No Name carved into reality in his left. He swung them around and crashed them above his head, dragging them along to let sparks of light rain down around him."They don't have a chance."

"Well that's just not fair," Dawn grumbled at Oscar's right. "All out against us? That's like when Aunt Yang used Semblance to kill a fly..."

"The poor butterfly pavilion..." Oscar whispered as the memories came back to him. He shook his head. He took a breath and steeled his will. "If Master Sora is going to go all out... our only chance is to take him down hard and fast. Full strength."

Dawn cracked a grin. "This is what I was waiting for, you puppy!" she exclaimed, punching his shoulder soft and let her smile become soft. "I like it."

Oscar stared back and slowly turned away, face blooming beet red. "I- I uh, w-well – Uh... D-Dawn, I -"

"Let's go!" She ran forward before he could realize what was happening to him, pulling out a pellet of red Dust. She ran her Aura through it and it exploded, sending smoke and dirt out in a cloud that hid her from Sora's view. She burst out a moment later, swinging the Keyblade in her right hand at his head.

"Getting stronger? Won't help much here!" Sora snapped, swinging the Master Keeper out to deflect the attack up while he prepared to swing No Name at her. "It's over!"

And then Bladebleed's jagged teeth wrapped around No Name's edge. "T-two!?"

"TWO!?" Dawn grinned at Sora's and Uncle Toshi's exclamations of surprise.

"Two!" She yanked up with Bladebleed and tore No Name out of Sora's hands, using it to flip over him. "OSCAR!"

He exploded out of the cloud, a glistening ball of energy on the tip of his – Sora flinched again. His Keyblade? He was terrified of his Keyblade, though! "Blizzaga!"

Sora's body reacted before his mind could, rolling to the side and taking the blast of ice to his right side. The pain that shot through his mind cleared his thoughts, snapping him into battle focus. The kids had clearly grown, and him? It had been years since he'd had a chance to cut loose and fight, and it was clear he'd gotten rusty because of it. He made a mental note to duel with his oldest students and Jaune as soon as possible. Struggling with two kids meant a fight with Salem wouldn't turn out as well as he wanted.

Sora's right arm was dangling, frosted over, as he came back up to his feet to a quiet, slightly stunned arena. He stood stock still for a few moments, shadows from his hair covering his eyes. He let out a breath...

And was suddenly crouched beside Oscar, his one good arm swinging across him at the kid's side. The boy's eyes turned, confusion flashing as his mind tried to process the speed with which he had appeared. "Ref-"

No Name crashed into the boy's side before he could finish the spell, and he was sent flying. Pipes and cement exploded as he skipped across the arena, careening out of control until he finally realized where he was. "Reflect!" he finally managed, Chronal channeling the spell and creating a sphere of hexagons that stopped his momentum immediately. The spell vanished a second later and he hit the ground, clutching at the spot where the Keyblade had caused half of his Aura to evaporate on contact. And Master Sora had been holding back.

Dawn had jumped at Sora's back the moment the attack had hit Oscar. "You'll pay for that!" she snapped, lashing out with Bladebleed in an attempt to grab his Keyblade and hit him with her offensive weapon.

Sora ducked beneath Bladebleed instead of blocking, then brought No Name's basket up to deflect the Kingdom Key D. As the red energy of her Semblance shot past his head, he jumped forward and slammed his forehead into her nose. Dawn yelped in surprise before Sora dropped No Name and grabbed her cloak, spinning and then slamming her into the ground. "Gravity."

The world around her suddenly pressed down on her a dozen times harder and the ground beneath her cracked. "Ach!"

"Stay down," Sora said simply before a blast of electricity crashed into his left arm, breaking his concentration and stunning him for a moment. His spell ended, and he realized he was wide open to an attack from Dawn.

But for as much as she had grown, she was still a novice. She stood up and moved to attack, but flicnhed and hesitated. Why? Sora wasn't sure. Maybe she thought he was tricking her. The reason didn't matter, but his Keyblade swinging down at her did. She brought both weapons up at once to catch the attack at the last second, and the force that cracked the cement underfoot was worse than the gravity spell he'd cast. Sora tried to pull up to attack again, but she pulled down after hooking No Name with her defensive Keyblade. "What the -?"

"OSCAR, NOW!"

She rolled back, taking Sora with her, and planted her feet at his chest. With all the force she could muster, she kicked up and sent him flying into the air. The red energy charging her body blasted him further up but drained her Semblance, leaving her with one Keyblade and out of breath on the dusty floor.

Sora flew up and turned towards the place the electricity had come from. His eyes widened. "Well, quite the wonderful wizard, Oscar," he muttered at the gleaming mystical energies glowing around the boy.

"THUNDAZA!"

The energy shot together above the boy, creating a swirling vortex of wind and energy that tossed the boy's hair up and about before shooting forward in a stream of pure yellow energy that could vaporize a building. So Sora just reached into his pocket and let it hit him.

There was a thunderous explosion, and energy blasted off of the Keyblade Master in every direction. Lightning bolts trailed through the ground, melting the metal pipes to which it was naturally drawn. The energy traveled through the pipes and shattered cement from sudden heat, sending bits of cement and metal in every direction.

When the magic died down, the entire arena was filled with a cloud of debris. "Did we... get him?" Dawn asked, standing up and stumbling towards her friend. She groaned and fell to one knee, leaning against her Keyblade like a crutch. "That's a dumb question."

"Yeah," Oscar agreed. He clutched Chronal tight and held it out in front of him. "He'll be expecting another spell."

Dawn groaned, annoyed at what he really meant, and reached into her pocket. "You're not getting another chance!" A blur of red shot out from the cloud of dust, Sora dressed in glowing red with a shining, circular shield floating above him. Moving red flames rose from the bottoms of his black hakama pants, and his jacket had become a glistening bloody red. His fists were bathed in the same energy as he shot forward. No Name in his left hand swung around at Dawn to stop her from using her Semblance.

Only for Oscar to leap into his path, Keyblade generating a Reflect hexagon that shattered on contact... but gave them just enough time. Magic coated with Darkness flowed up behind him, and a blast of flames was summoned from the sky.

Sora glanced up at the spell and the shield floating above him moved into its path, deflecting the Fira away. "Interesting," he muttered before spinning and slamming the Master Keeper into Oscar's shoulder. The boy slammed into the ground as Sora charged towards his daughter, who was standing still and summoning a barrage of weaker spells that flew towards him. The shield moved on its own, catching one spell while he used the two Keyblades in his hands to extinguish the others.

"Not so fast!" Sora didn't turn at Oscar's exclamation, simply letting his shield fly around to deflect the attack. He grimaced at the pang that echoed in his Heart – the shield's damage was slowly accruing now. Oscar and Dawn... he hadn't expected them to trade jobs. His daughter had no magical experience, and Oscar – well, maybe he should have expected that one after he stood up to him before.

The shield deflected increasingly strong attacks as Oscar generated a blade of Light from his Keyblade, its sharp edge carving more and more of it away. He'd let it get too damaged by Oscar's Thundaza spell. He should have just used a spell to dodge it before transforming! Dumb mistakes from being rusty, dammit.

But that didn't matter now. Sora shot forward and Dawn snarled. "GRAVITY!" She raised her staff shaped Keyblade and slammed its base into the ground.

Sora grunted as the world became so much heavier, forcing him to slow down. It was a pretty impressive effort.

But it was meaningless.

Sora just threw one Keyblade at Dawn, the blade crashing into her staff and tearing it from her hands. It continued on its path, crashing into her gut and sending her flying away. At the same time, he turned and threw No Name right at Oscar in the middle of his strike. The glowing weapon shattered the blade of light on his Keyblade, then rebounded by its master's control and slammed into his head to knock him out cold. To them, it probably looked like they'd been taken down in a flash.

As he stood up straight, summoning the weapons back to his hands, Sora realized he didn't have a choice anymore. Not as a father, nor as a teacher. He let his Semblance vanish, the shield returning to his Heart with a burst of red light. "Dammit," Sora grumbled, reaching up to his face and covering his eyes. "I owe Qrow an apology."

He let his hand drop and walked over to pick up his daughter, carrying her carefully like she was a toddler who'd fallen asleep in the car again. He carefully laid her down near Oscar, then cast a Cure to heal them.

"Well, that was an impressive effort," Toshi said as they began to wake up. He leaned up agaisnt the edge of the arena. "But we always knew you'd lose."

"Don't rub it in, Uncle Toshi," Dawn grumbled as she stretched to get rid of a pain in her back.

"He's not talking to you," Sora groaned. He crouched down to look the two kids in the eyes as they sat up. He tried to say something, then groaned again and let his chin hit his chest. "I lost."

"You cr-crushed us!" Oscar protested. He winced and rubbed the spot where No Name had knocked him clean out. "...My head still hurts."

"Yeah, I did. And that was always going to happen, even if I am really rusty," he admitted. He looked back up at the kids. "Toshi did this entire thing just to trick me."

"Sora's predictable when you've known him long enough," Toshi admitted. He gestured at the kids. "You win, not the fight, but you've convinced him."

"... huh?" the kids asked, dumbfounded.

"I tried for a decade to get you to summon your Keyblade, Oscar. Missions, meditation, bribery, Dove... But Dawn got you to do it in a month. You've grown in ways I don't think you could have without her." He smiled and looked at Dawn. "And you are... every bit your mother's daughter. Sneaking out to fight the biggest evil out there is how I met her, after all."

Dawn looked at the ground, eyes tearing up.

"I'm proud of you both," Sora said after a moment. "And all the friends you've made... I can't believe I wanted to keep that from you, Dawn. I was hurting you by hiding you away..." He stood up straight. "You're still in massive trouble for sneaking out, of course... but we'll come up with a punishment when you give your report at the Academy. We'll figure out where you go from there."

"Wait... so by we win, you mean..? Me and Oscar can keep exploring?" Dawn asked. She grinned wide. "We did it! We won!" She surged to her feet, dragging Oscar with her. "We did it, we did it, we did it, we – Whoa, head rush!"

S M H S

After finally saying their goodbyes to their new friends and promising to come back, Oscar and Dawn had been allowed by Master Sora to fly back on their own, as he had something to do on the way back. Dawn knew he would be heading to Fuyuki Bridge to find anything he could on Dove. She didn't think he'd find much; he hadn't been in the field for years. But trying was good for him. She wanted him to be happy again.

Dawn glanced over at Oscar, who was staring up at the stars outside the Gummi Ship's cockpit, an oddly serious look on his face. "Oscar." Nothing. "Oscar!" Kept zoning out. She let out an angry growl. "Oz!"

His head flicked down to her. "You know I hate calling you that," she grumbled, turning away from him.

"I – uh... s-sorry," he muttered.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Jeez, and I was gonna say thank you before you got all doofy," she muttered. She looked over at him, still very annoyed at having to use that nickname. "Now I'm all annoyed, even after I was going to thank you for standing up to my dad! Way to ruin the moment!" She huffed and turned away to glare out the ship, piloting it in silence.

After a few moments, she said, "But, you know, you uh... uhmm... you looked really cool, Oscar."

Oscar felt his chest get tight, heat rising up to his cheeks. His heart was thumping in his ears as her eyes locked onto his and the ship began to drift to the right with her attention. "Uh... Uh..." She giggled at his stammering. "Uh... D-D..."

His eyes drifted past her. "DAWN! LOOK OUT!"

"What -? she turned and gasped, yanking hard on the controls to the right to narrowly avoid the sudden blast of energy that had shot at them from a massive Heartless Gummi. Alarms began to scream in the ship, the energy of the attack still burning the shields. The huge pirate ship shaped Heartless began to charge up another blast from the huge, steel jaws on its front. "Crap! Deploying Tiny Ships. Guns are yours, Oscar!" She grabbed the throttle and shoved it forward, the ship blasting off impossibly fast as she rolled up and out of the cannon's path.

Oscar turned his attention to the targeting system and focused the ship's artillery on the smaller cannons now firing up at them. He took a deep breath as the heart emblem on the ship's side dredged up memories, then stamped them down. "Where did it even c-come from!?" he shouted as the ship stopped spiraling and he let the first volley loose. Energy missiles peppered the deck, causing small explosions that vaporized cannons and the emerging smaller fighter ships. But the cloud of smaller ships kept growing, and Oscar had to turn his attention to them.

"If they can use Corridors of Darkness, why do they even bother!?" Dawn snapped instead of answering. "Is it just to attack or distract us?!"

Oscar frowned at that. Distraction? It made sense, especially now that they had met with Master Sora. He aimed the Tiny Ships at the incoming fighters and began to pick them off with continuous fire as he waited for target lock on the larger one. It wasn't enough; with all the ships attacking them, their shields inevitably were taking fire, and they wouldn't last forever.

"... Hard turn to port!" Dawn suddenly shouted, hitting the reverse thrusters. The ship veered hard to the left and she punched the main engines again, sending them rocketing off again. The ships that had been flying up to meet them suddenly had to turn, their fire carving through each other as they tried to get back on the Keyblade Wielders' tail. "Let's see, let's see... Where is it...?"

"Where is wh-what!?"

Dawn glanced at him. "Oscar, where's the weak spot on something like this?!"

"What? I – Engines on the back! We'll have to deal with more f-fighters, but no more cannons!" Oscar explained in a hurry. He blasted at the fighters coming their way, hoping to thin their numbers before Dawn decided to just do this. "If we can blow them up, it m-might take the rest with it!"

"AHA! Got it!" Dawn pitched the ship down into a dive right at the Heartless, blasting straight through a cloud of the smaller ships. She barrel rolled around an incoming cannon burst and ran along the side of the ship, leaving cannon fire to fly over them uselessly while the Heartless' blasts peppered the main ship's hull behind them or depleted their shields. "Don't worry!" The ship shook with impacts. "We'll make it!"

Oscar didn't like having to just trust they would survive, but it wasn't like he could change what was happening now. He aimed the tiny ships and blasted away, knowing he didn't have to focus much to hit the wall of enemies. "OSCAR, OTHER SIDE!"

He switched the direction he was aiming immediately and pulled the trigger, sending all of the artillery he could all at once. Explosions peppered the massive engines as more of the fighter ships began to attack them from the other side. "Come on, come on!" Dawn growled as she checked the status screen over and over. "Come on...!"

The engines exploded, a shockwave of Darkness blasting out from one to the others. The shockwave traveled through the Heartless ship, shattering its wood like body and cleaving it cleanly in two. Unfortunately for the kids' Gummi Ship... they were definitely in the blast radius.

"I didn't mean -!" Dawn exclaimed, and she jumped towards Oscar.

The explosion hit the ship, and Oscar saw Dawn get thrown away from him into the wall, at which point the ship shook hard and his head slammed into his terminal, and he knew no more.

S M H S

Oscar knew where he was immediately. It was an instinct in him, a core knowledge in his soul that he was in his Heart. His Semblance was clearly active, giving him a clear indication that something was going on.

Well, that and the fact he was on a stain glass pillar surrounded by an ocean of trees. The representation of Darkness and Fear in his Heart, stretching as far as he could see. Beneath his feet – "It took Sora nearly dying to reach this far into his Heart." Oscar turned around, instinctively summoning his Keyblade to his hand.

A man in an emerald green suit held up one hand in an attempt to placate the boy. He returned it to a cane he had resting on the ground in front of him, then leaned his face forward to glance at Oscar over his sunglasses. "Surely you know, Mr. Pine, that I have no intention to harm you."

Oscar's eyes widened. He'd seen this man before, in photos all over the Academy and even in Beacon. There was a statue of him outside of Haven... "Ozpin! You're Ozpin!"

"In... a manner of speaking," Ozpin agreed. He glanced around. "A forest filled with smoke... I wonder what makes such a landscape clutch at your Heart like this."

"Is this real? How are you here?" Oscar asked, ignoring what Ozpin had just said. He rushed forward and grabbed Ozpin's arm. "What's going on? Last I remember... Dawn!" She'd jumped in front of him just as that wave of darkness had collided with the ship. "She has to be -"

"She should be fine," Ozpin responded. He gestured at Oscar. "How am I here?"

"How are... How do you know she's fine?" Oscar asked instead.

The man sighed. "I have been seeing through your eyes, as of late. The Kingdom Key D will keep her safe from Darkness. Now, again, how am I here? My limited interactions and advice for you notwithstanding, I have no effect on the world."

"Advice..." Oscar placed a hand on his chin. So, Ozpin was the source of the odd intuitions and thoughts he had been having recently. He'd helped Oscar find Dawn, and pushed him to be more confident. But how? With his Semblance, he should have noticed a Heart -

Oscar's hand fell to his side, clenching into a fist. "My Semblance." He glared at Ozpin for a moment. "It's your fault that they attacked! You -" Oscar threw his hand to the side and turned away. "No. You're the reason I have the Keyblade, but – you didn't send the Heartless after me."

"Mature of you," Ozpin noted. "So, I am your... predecessor, I suppose. You want to protect those you love; I can see the resemblance."

Oscar frowned. "So you remember all of your life still?" he asked after a moment. "You can remember Salem?"

Ozpin flinched and stood tall and straight. The name sent a chill down his spine. "From your conversations, it seems she returned. She took Ruby..."

"Where? Tell me where she took her, you owe Master Sora that much," Oscar said, voice low and even. "You have to help us."

Ozpin shut his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "... No. I wish I could, I truly do, but I have not been part of this world for over a decade. I have no idea where she may be, Mr. Pine." He looked back up and set his jaw. "But I do know that you are asking the wrong question."

"Wrong..? Then what's the right question!?" Oscar exclaimed, growing frustrated with another dead end in front of him. A path to Headmistress Ruby gone again!

"In every attempt she made to conquer reality, what did she do first?" Ozpin asked simply, letting Oscar's anger wash over him.

Oscar glared back at the man, but did as requested. He placed his hand back on his chin. "... It's..." The stories... what did the stories say? His eyes widened. "You can't be serious... No, you can't!"

Ozpin sighed, the sound echoing with a pain that he himself had felt and wished on no one. "Who did Salem convince to betray Sora, who among his closest friends, family, and allies has been convinced to abandon that bond?" He took a few steps towards the edge of the pillar. "And what could she have promised to this person that would convince them to betray the man who saved the universe? Answer those two questions, and finding Salem becomes trivial."

S M H S

Salem was standing silently in her hideout, staring up at the princesses she had already captured. She placed a hand on the oldest tube and cocked her head to the side. "I doubt this is what you expected when your mother saved you," she said up to Ruby Rose. "Nor what you wanted, Shadow."

She turned as the Corridor of Darkness slid shut on the other side of the table. "How did you know?" Salem's shadow asked her master.

Salem ignored the question and moved towards the table, waving her hand slightly and summoning up a map of the universe around it, Darkness and Light twinkling in the air. "There is a ship traveling here," Salem said, letting a golden energy light a path from a crescent, moon shaped world and arc across the emptiness. "It has something very useful. A map, with which one could find a path through space in a hunt for any treasure. And perhaps more, if I am correct in my estimations. I will know as soon as I visit -"

Her shadow fidgeted. "Are you sure that is wise? I can go in your stead. Find -"

Salem let out a dry laugh. "No one will be hurt, certainly not by my hand, my shadow." She raised her finger to the small, white dot of the Gummi Ship's transponder that the shadow had been fixated on. "Do not worry. Compared to what has been faced so far, or will be ovecome in the future, I would venture a guess that this journey will be quite tame. Besides, the ship is nearly at its destination. The ship will be on its way home soon. Certainly before Sora returns from his jaunt across space."

Salem turned from the table and stared up at Ruby again. "Yes. Quite safe." She let the air rest for a moment, then said without turning around. "Check on the girl in Redgrave. Between his own impending death, the other's brother issues, and the third... well, taking the Princess while the Devil Hunters are distracted would likely be the smartest course of action."

"..."

"Well?"

"... As you wish."

Salem mentally let out a relieved breath. She had wondered if her shadow would turn on her in that moment. She should have realized that would never happen. She needed Salem far too much. Still... Salem turned around and frowned. The other woman's body language was clearly still disturbed at the idea of Salem heading to the ship. Her gaze had yet to even leave the Gummi Ship, so it was clear she had yet to get over her worries despite Salem's assurances.

"Calm yourself." She walked over and placed a hand on her shadow's shoulder. The woman stiffened at the contact, so Salem slowly released her and raised her hand in slight apology. "You do not have to worry; I will not allow anyone you care for to be hurt. No one you would cry over will die on that ship. You have my word. You know that, Dove."