Remnant Hearts
By: Kuroyami Fukaikuro
A/N: Finally got around to updating! Also, a message for all the anonymous commenters:
Get a fucking account. Like really, some of you comment expecting (or even requesting) a reply, but I can't reply without either taking up space in the chapters or PM'ing people. So get a fucking account. It's not that much of a commitment, and it makes following stories much easier. So get one. You assholes. (you're not really assholes I'm just mad that there are people who comment, expecting a reply, when they don't even offer some form of contact) Rant over let's do this.
Chapter One: Arrival
"She's gonna fall," Blake said matter-of-factly.
"She'll be fine!" Ruby said.
"She's falling," Lie replied with a monotone voice.
Moments later, Weiss Schnee fell from the claw of a Nevermore. Jaune utilized some rather miraculous jumping strength and caught her, only to fall. They landed painfully, and Pyrrha landed in front of Ruby, Yang, Lie, Nora, and Blake moments later.
"Great!" Yang exclaimed. "The gang's all here! Now we can die together!"
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby shouted before turning to face the Grimm, ready to charge. However, before she even began to move, the sight before her made her freeze.
Dark creatures began to appear from the shadows of the forest, as well as what appeared to be pools of liquid darkness. Their numbers increased rapidly, until there were more of the creatures in sight than there was grass.
The dark creatures surrounded the Death Stalker and swarmed it, piling on top of it and fusing with it. Moments later the new being emerged, a god amongst Grimm and Heartless. It was much larger, standing taller than the trees of the Emerald Forest, with legs as thick as the tree trunks, claws bigger than an Ursa and a stinger twice as large as before.
Its coloration had changed as well: it was now completely black, save for a glowing red insignia on its exoskeleton.
"What- What the heck happened to it?" Yang stammered.
"I don't know," Blake responded evenly, "but we should try to stay calm-"
"Look out below!" A voice called out.
The people who would become Teams RWBY and JNPR all looked up to see a boy in black falling from the sky headfirst. A moment later he flipped in the air, righting himself before summoning a strange looking weapon.
"Wait," Yang muttered, "where'd he pull that from?"
After summoning his Keyblade, Sora began to spin in the air, turning over and over before finally slamming into the Death Stalker. The impact created a shockwave that knocked all the other Grimm and Heartless down.
"You guys should get to safety!" Sora yelled as he leaped off the Heartless Death Stalker and into battle, easily defeating Heartless and Grimm alike.
After several moments of shocked silence, Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose. "Whoever he is," she said, "he can't take on all of these monsters alone!" She then rushed into battle.
The group glanced at each other, then nodded. They then drew their weapons in unison and joined the fray, attacking with all their might.
However, they soon realized the true nature of their plight. While the Grimm among the monster's ranks were easily thinned out, the dark creatures, similar to those that fused with the Death Stalker, were seemingly endless in number. With every one slain by them, ten more seemed to take their place.
"There's too many!" Jaune shouted.
"Yeah!" Pyrrha responded. "We've got to get out of here!"
Together, Teams RWBY and JNPR began carving a path through the Heartless. However, Ruby turned back and called out to the boy who fell from the sky when she noticed that he was not following them.
"Hurry up! We're leaving!"
"Good! Get to safety! I'll handle things here!" he replied.
Ruby opened her mouth to respond, but recoiled in shock when she noticed that the Death Stalker was rising up behind Sora.
"Behind you!" She shouted desperately, in hope that the boy would understand and move.
Sora casually turned to the Death Stalker, which began to raise one of its claws in attack. Before it could strike, a group of people fell out of the sky and landed on the Death Stalker again, completely disintegrating it.
One of the people, a boy with silver hair, walked forward and fist-bumped Sora.
"What took you all so long?" Sora asked.
"Had to convince Donald and Goofy to not jump out after you. Then we had to convince them to find a place to land the ship and stay out of sight."
"It really took you three minutes to do all that?"
"Well, they also had to fly back to drop us off."
Sora raised an eyebrow in question. "How high were you flying? I didn't hear the ship."
"About as high as when you jumped out without explanation."
"I gave plenty of explanation!"
"No, you just said 'Land the ship guy's, I gotta get in there' and jumped out."
"None of you thought that the huge mass of Heartless was a sign of some-"
"Guys!" Lea yelled as he sliced through a Zip Slasher. "Would you shut up and help us out?"
Sora and Riku nodded to each other before resuming the fight against the Heartless, cutting them down left and right with ease.
The soon-to-be members of Teams RWBY and JNPR ran through the forest, escaping the battlefield. Ahead of them, the ruins of an ancient civilization rose from a seemingly bottomless mist, connecting the cliff to the forest.
"We're almost there!" Ruby shouted excitedly.
However, before they reached the bridge, a rustling sound came from the forest around them.
Weiss turned towards the sound, and saw nothing but darkness and two red dots. Her eyes widened in a primal fear, and she began to run faster, wordlessly urging the others to do the same.
"What is it, Weiss?" Jaune shouted as he ran.
"I don't know! Just keep run-"
A loud crashing and noise was heard from behind them, and they all turned in time to see a mass of shadows chasing them, with nothing but two red eyes to distinguish it.
"It's getting closer!" Lie shouted fearfully.
"In that case, let's just turn and fight!" Nora yelled exuberantly as she drew Magnhild and fired at the creature. Her shot exploded, but the shadow simply leaped over the shot as well as Team JNPR, separating them and RWBY.
Ruby turned back upon realizing what had happened. She began to run back towards them, only to be stopped by Jaune.
"We'll be fine, Ruby!" he shouted. "Just go get the professors!"
Ruby nodded, and then ran without giving a response.
"Are you sure we'll be fine?" Lie asked Jaune as he pulled out his Storm Flowers.
"No," Jaune replied, "but unless we get immediate help, Ruby coming back with a teacher is probably the best chance we've got at survival."
"Aw, come on Jaune!" Nora replied, a grin on her face. "We'll kill this thing before they even reach the professors!"
"I sure hope so," Jaune replied.
Together they readied themselves as the monster in front of them charged.
Sora and company tore through the Heartless and Grimm with ease, dispelling them one after another.
"Man, this is taking too long," Sora muttered as he cut through a Large Body. He turned to Kairi. "Kairi!" He called out.
She turned. "Yes?"
"Can you use Holy?"
"Is this really the best time to use that? I can only use it-"
"Once, then there's a thirty day waiting period, I know. But when are we ever going to fight another huge group of Heartless like this in the next thirty days?"
"Well, alright. Just cover for me while I prepare!"
"Got it!" Sora raced over to Kairi and defended her as she clasped her hands together and prepared the spell.
Across the field, Aqua and Terra fought side by side when Aqua noticed a familiar presence. Her eyes darted across the battlefield as she searched for the source, and they widened in shock when she recognized the form of the Hunter of the Dark crashing through the trees in the direction of the people who had fled. Immediately she began to chase after it, ignoring the Heartless around her and cartwheeling through any attacks sent her way.
Upon noticing her disappearance, Terra glanced around and called out, "Aqua?" before he saw her chasing after a fleeing darkness. Immediately he followed her, but unlike she did, he took the time to cut down any Heartless in his way.
"Terra!" Ventus called out as the man passed him. "Where are you going?"
"Aqua spotted something chasing after those kids! I'm gonna help her out!"
"Got it!"
"Aaaargh!" Roxas slammed into the ground next to Ventus, obliterating a couple of Crimson Jazz Heartless with the force of his impact. Along with him came a storm of black feathers the size of trees.
"Roxas?" Ventus asked. "What happened?"
"You see that bird thing up there?" Roxas said, pointing with Oblivion. "I jumped up to get it, and then it somehow shot its feathers at me. I got knocked down, and here we are."
"Cool. Need help with it?"
"No, I've got it-" No sooner were the words out of Roxas' mouth that the Nevermore flew away from the battlefield, apparently finding more appropriate targets.
Roxas jumped to his feet and gave chase, shouting "Oh no you don't!" as he ran.
Ventus thought to himself for a moment before reaching a decision and running after his double.
Team JNPR fought hard against the creature in front of them, delivering strike after strike and shot after shot. However, they seemed to have no effect, as though they could not penetrate the darkness that covered the creature.
"Crap," Jaune moaned as he was struck and fell back. "Why aren't they back yet? Is there something else over there?"
"I don't know," Pyrrha shouted as she moved in front of Jaune, firing her gun to keep the monster at bay, "but I hope they're doing better than we are!"
In front of them, the monster roared before charging at them at full speed, intent on finishing them. The group flinched, closing their eyes as they expected the end.
"Freeze!"
With that, ice burst from the ground directly under the monster, knocking it upwards with the force of their growth.
"Meteor Crash!"
Jaune looked up in time to see a man hit the creature with his weapon, an impact that was followed by a small group of boulders slamming into the creature and knocking it to the ground.
The man jumped back from the creature and landed in front of JNPR. A moment later a woman with blue hair joined him before she turned back towards the group. "Are you okay?" Aqua asked them.
"I think we'll be better now that you're here to help us," Jaune replied.
Aqua raised her Keyblade and a green light enveloped the group, closing their wounds and restoring their energy. They got to their feet, curious as to what the woman had done.
"What was that?" Nora asked. "Was it magic? I bet it was magic!"
"Nora, let's be rational here," Lie said. "It wasn't magic, magic doesn't exist. It was probably some form of Dust we don't know about."
"Actually, she's right, it was magic. But we don't have time to talk," Aqua said as she turned back towards the Heartless. "We have to finish this thing off right now-"
"Out of my way!"
The group turned to see a boy with blonde hair and a black cloak running at full speed towards them.
"Roxas?" Aqua said. "What are you-?"
He simply ignored her and jumped past, heading straight for the Heartless. It got up and noticed him, and attacked, swiping with its claws. Roxas jumped, dodging the attack. In the same moment, he summoned Oathkeeper and Oblivion and slammed them into the Heartless' head, knocking it down and using the momentum to flip over it before continuing his chase.
"What-?"
"Hey! Aqua! Terra!"
Both turned back to see Ventus running towards them.
As he approached, Ventus asked "Did Roxas run by here?"
"Yes," Aqua replied. "Ven, what's going on?"
"Roxas was fighting the big bird thing, he lost, and now he's chasing after it. And I figured he'd need my help."
"Well, alright, just be careful-"
"Aqua, I'm about 27 years old now. I can handle myself!" And with that, the boy continued the chase for his double, easily evading the Heartless' attack as he ran past it.
The group stared after his running form.
"He's 27?" Jaune asked tactlessly.
"There are some… Extenuating circumstances concerning our age. Terra and I are about 29."
"Oh. You both look young for your age."
"Thanks, kid," Terra replied, "but we should talk later. The Heartless is coming!"
The group assumed their stances as the Heartless readied itself. Aqua, however, could not help but interject a comment about Terra's choice of words.
"'Kid'?" she said, giggling slightly. "You're not that old, you know."
Terra rolled his eyes and jumped before slamming his Keyblade into the ground, causing sharp rocks to jut out from the ground towards the Heartless. It sidestepped the rocks before lunging at its prey.
"…and that's why you have to help us!" Ruby said to Headmaster Ozpin.
Ozpin blinked casually at Ruby. "Miss Rose, please calm down. Being exasperated never helped anyone. First of all, if our help was absolutely needed, don't you think we would have acted by now?"
"What do you mean, if your help was needed?" Yang asked. "Jaune and the others got ambushed on our way here, and those other guys-"
"Are completely fine. Our cameras have shown us that Mister Arc and his allies were aided by two others, and that the boy and his friends in the clearing are fighting extremely well. In fact, based on our last viewing of their activity, it seems that they decided to finish the fight with a single blow, but I don't know how they intend to-"
"Hmp," Roxas said as he appeared over the edge of the cliff. He glanced at the group in front of him for a moment, and then turned his attention to the approaching Nevermore. "Now, how am I gonna deal with you?" he muttered to himself.
"Who are you?" Weiss asked.
"I'm the guy who's gonna solve your bird problem," he replied.
"What-?" she began, but before she could finish she was interrupted by the boy's double appearing over the cliff.
"Jeez, Roxas," Ventus said, panting for breath, "since when could you run up vertical surfaces?"
"Since I was a one year old."
The group was stunned into silence for several moments before Blake finally spoke up.
"But… That's impossible."
Roxas merely shrugged, ignoring her comment as he thought of how to kill the creature circling in front of him. His face brightened as he came up with a plan that would work. Turning to his double, he said "Ven. I need you to hit me as hard as you can."
"What?"
"I've got an idea that will probably work against the bird thing-"
"You mean the Nevermore?" Professor Goodwitch interjected.
"That's what you call it? Well, okay then, against the Nevermore."
Ventus paused for a moment as he tried to reach the same conclusion that Roxas had. Upon achieving his realization, he smiled. Then, in one swift movement, he summoned his Keyblade and smacked Roxas with such force that Roxas was knocked into the air.
Roxas landed gracefully, and then said "Thanks," before summoning his dual Keyblades.
"Wait-wait-wait," Yang said, "where are you guys getting your weapons from? That first guy also drew his weapon from out of no-"
"Thundaga!" Roxas cried as he thrust his Keyblades into the air. A bolt of lightning responded to his call and struck the Nevermore, shocking it and stalling its flight for a few moments. Upon recovery, it began searching for the source of its pain, its eyes flickering left and right in their sockets.
Roxas pointed his Keyblades directly at the Nevermore before crying "Over here! Firaga!" The blast of fire passed harmlessly in front of the creature's head, but it served its purpose; the Nevermore began flying towards the cliff.
"Why are you bringing it over here?" Weiss asked fearfully.
Ignoring her, Roxas backed up a few steps before running full tilt towards the cliff's edge. Upon reaching the edge, he leaped, soaring into the air. The Nevermore opened its beak and cried out; delivering a screech that forced the group on the cliff edge to cover their ears.
Roxas used this opportunity and dove into the Nevermore's mouth.
Ruby gasped. "Will he be okay?" she said.
She received two simultaneous responses. "Of course not!" "He'll be fine," Weiss and Ventus said respectively.
Weiss turned to Ventus. "What do you mean he'll be fine? Your friend – Twin? – Just dove into a Nevermore's mouth! He's as good as dead!"
"Look, just wait for it."
"Wait for it?"
"Stare at the Nevermore, because when Roxas does what he's going to do, it's gonna look really cool."
Unconvinced, the group nonetheless looked in the Nevermore's direction.
A moment later, the creature exploded in a burst of light. Roxas floated at the epicenter of the explosion, holding his Keyblades close to his body and roaring as beams of light rose from him and slammed into the area around him. A moment later his attack ended, and he glided over to the cliffs. Upon landing, he healed himself.
The Beacon group was, understandably, impressed. Variations of "What was that?" and "That was so cool!" were said, until Professor Goodwitch managed to silence the four girls with a glare.
"Young man," Ozpin began, "what was that technique? I've never seen anything like it."
"A Limit Break," Roxas said. "'It is the most powerful move at your disposal-one that only works when you are on your last legs.' That's what I was told when I was taught it."
"Is that why you asked your twin to hit you?"
"Firstly, yes. Secondly, Ventus is not my twin. At least, not in the conventional sense."
"What does that mean?"
"Honestly," Ventus interjected, smiling with his clasped hands behind his head, "neither of us knows for sure how we're connected, or why we look like each other. We just kinda accepted the fact that we share an identical physical appearance and moved on."
"That sounds… Complicated."
"It is," Roxas said. "You can tell us apart based on what we're wearing."
"WELL!" Ruby said, cutting into the conversation. "Now that that's done, can we please go help-?" Before she could finish, she noticed large sigils in the sky, and pointed to draw attention to it. "What is that?" she shouted.
"Oh, yeah!" Ventus said. "Kairi did say she was gonna use Holy."
"Holy?" Weiss asked.
"Yep. The most powerful Light spell in existence. All the power of a 200 megaton bomb, but it only destroys creatures of Darkness. Just watch." The group went silent in an unspoken reverence for what they were about to see.
The sigils began to rearrange themselves, mixing in and out of each other until they reached a form in which they stayed. They remained still for several seconds before they began to glow. For a single moment, a beam of light erupted from their place in the sky.
Then, just as soon as the spell began, it ended, and for several seconds afterward the planet went still. Silence reigned throughout Remnant, such that it became the topic of several news reports, and Remnant's history would forever remember that day as the day the world went still.
After regaining her composure enough to speak, Ruby managed to spit some words out of her mouth. "Tha- that- That was Holy?" she said, stuttering a bit.
Ventus merely nodded, for his mental faculties had yet to recover enough for him to speak without embarrassing himself.
"That… That was…" Weiss began, but she could not find the words to finish.
Roxas, however, could. "Glorious, splendid, awesome, intense… Holy." The group nodded quietly in response.
"Aqua! Cover me!"
Aqua reciprocated the request, shooting blasts of fire at the Heartless to keep it distracted as Terra prepared his ultimate move.
"We'll help!" JNPR shouted. Pyrrha and Lie began shooting at it, while Jaune and Nora ran forward to attack it directly. After several moments of fighting, Jaune was knocked back by one of the creature's tangible afterimages. Nora, seeing her chance, slammed Magnhild into the creature's underside, knocking it into the air.
"Blade Charge!" Terra roared. A bright blue aura covered his Keyblade, taking the form of a large sword. A moment later, he calmly held his Keyblade with both his hands and assumed a stance in which his right leg was in front and he held his weapon by his left leg. Then, instantaneously, he rushed forward and cut through the creature, appearing above it in the air. A large diagonal cut appeared on the creature's body, and it disappeared moments later.
Landing softly as he dispelled his Command Style, Terra was met with cheers from JNPR and Aqua.
"How did you make your sword longer?" Jaune asked.
"I'll explain later. You guys have to get to safety and-"
Before Terra could finish, Holy was used.
Several moments passed before anyone regained their senses, and when they did, they all remained stunned nonetheless.
Finally, Nora spoke, though she abandoned her usual attitude. "What was that?" she asked cautiously.
"One of the ultimate forms of magic," Aqua replied. Turning to Terra, she said "I guess that means that they're done with the fight in the clearing."
Terra nodded, and then turned to JNPR. "Well then, you should all get going. We've gotta get back to our friends."
JNPR nodded and started running towards the cliffs. As they did, Jaune turned back and called out, "Thanks for the help!"
Terra and Aqua waved at them before turning and heading back towards the clearing. As they turned, Aqua noted fireworks being set off on top of the cliffs.
Ozpin turned to Roxas and Ventus before speaking. "Do you need to return to your allies?"
Roxas pondered the question for a moment before answering. "Are you in any way an important person to this world?"
Ozpin was taken aback by his response, and it was several moments before he responded. "Well, I am the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, one of the region's most influential Hunter and Huntress academies-"
"And that means that if we hadn't met now, we'd probably have met later on anyways."
Roxas thought for a moment about what to do, but Ventus came up with an idea first. "I've got it!" he said excitedly, producing his Keyblade. He thrust it in the air, and fireworks shot out of it, bursting in the air and producing a vast array of colors and shapes.
"What is that supposed to accomplish?" Goodwitch asked skeptically.
"That's the school there, right?" Ventus asked, pointing to a large castle-like building in the distance.
"Yes."
"Terra and Aqua will see the fireworks. They'll decide to go back to the clearing to make sure Sora and everyone else knows where to go. And once they come here, they'll get lost, and Sora will probably point at the school and say something like, 'Let's just go to the castle'. And when they get there, we'll be there."
Roxas opened his mouth to object, but shut it, conceding that "Yeah, that's probably what would happen."
Ozpin raised an eyebrow in curiosity as to who exactly this 'Sora' was, and what he was really like in person.
Kairi heaved, gasping for breath as she recovered from casting the spell. The rest of the group relaxed, resting from the battle.
Terra and Aqua joined the group moments later, and were greeted warmly. After they finished their rest, the group stood to decide what to do.
"Well, I saw Ven's fireworks spell up the cliff face a while back," Aqua said. "That's probably where he and Roxas are."
"Alright then!" Sora said cheerfully. "We're heading to Ven's fireworks!"
The group set out, moving casually and without any sense of urgency. They passed through the forest and ruins, exterminating any Heartless that crossed their path.
After figuring out how to get up the cliff face, they arrived at the spot where Ventus had cast his fireworks spell. However, they noted with confusion that neither Ventus nor Roxas were anywhere to be seen.
"Where'd they go?" Kairi asked.
Sora shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe they saw something and decided to head towards it."
"Like what?" Lea asked.
"Like…" Sora paused as he took in his surroundings, and noticed a large building in the distance. Pointing at it, he said "Like that. That castle… thing. It's the only place I can think of."
"Well, alright then." Riku said. "Let's go find Roxas and Ven."
On they went, heading towards the structure of the distance, unaware of the trouble in their future.
End of Chapter One.
A/N: Holy shit. Twelve fucking pages worth of Microsoft Word document. Jesus fucking Christ, this was a long chapter. Maybe expect more of this length, maybe don't. It depends on my mood and how inspired I am.