Secret Report

Opening File: Yggdrasil Experiment

The Yggdrasil Experiment refers to a collection of worlds located just outside our reality. All the realms exist as part of a system created by a pair of deities.

Izanagi, a God of Light.

Erebus, a God of Darkness.

Despite the names, neither have any association with the Chinese and Greco-Roman pantheon that exist across various worlds. What is known is that this these worlds are only accessible via a rift in time that was accidently opened in what was meant to lead to the Realm of Darkness. This leads to the conclusion that these worlds exist in or between the Realm of Darkness and what is outside our universe or even outside our universe all together. The darkness takes on a different form than the Heartless, referred to as Grimm.

Further study is required.

.

.

.

.

.

Opening File: Remnant

Remnant, or the First World as the inhabitants call it, is the first world created by Izanagi and Erebus.

Recent events have revealed Remnant is home to a Princess of Heart known as Ruby Rose. Plans are currently being made to capture her if the Guardians of Light fail to gather their seven warriors. It has been noted that several Keyblade Wielders have been spotted and identified. Any one of them could be suitable for becoming the final member of the Organization or the Seven Guardians.

It has also been reported that two of missing Guardians have been reported on this World.

Caution must be taken when arriving in this world.

"Wait, wait, wait! Back it up!"

Neo rushed up and looked over Penny's shoulder. "What just happened?!"

"Where's Aqua?" Terra asked immediately after.

"Aqua appeared in this time period following Ozma's heart as it reincarnated. Once he died, she lost her connection to that time." Penny explained as everyone watched Aqua vanish into thin air.

"Where did she go?" Terra asked.

"Ozma's heart…it goes to a place between life and the afterlife, waiting to be reincarnated in a like minded heart." Penny answered. "I cannot see where Aqua is but I know enough that she'll appear in a similar place…A place called the Final World."

Oscar's eyes widened when Penny spoke of the place Aqua was likely in. "The Final World?"

"You know that place?" Neo glanced at Oscar.

"I know it from Oz's time as Odin. The Final World… The Final World is the edge of reality just before a heart ceases to exist." Oscar answered and explained. "The Final World can only be inhabited by faded remnants of hearts, usually of people with attachments so strong that they cannot pass on. Aqua being there of all places…Her body would have faded."

"Correct." Penny simply said.

"What?!" Oscar, Terra and Neo exclaimed with Neo even falling off of Penny's shoulder.

"But, given that her heart will follow Ozma into its next incarnation I have seen her body will be restored…Just back to the age it was when she first started." Penny clarified.

"Her body will be reset." Oscar's eyes widened. "She won't need to reincarnate inside anyone's heart like Oz and she won't be immortal like Salem."

That was…

Oscar wasn't sure if it was better than Oz's curse but at least she wasn't suffering the same burdens as Oz and Salem.

"How long will this go on?" Terra asked Penny.

"Until she reaches the time where all the hearts, she's linked with are alive." Penny answered.

"And how long will that be?"

Penny shifted a bit. "It will take some time. Ozma's reincarnations vary in time. Sometimes it takes him weeks to months to find a vessel, other times years and there will even be a century before he bonds with his next host."

Neo jumped back up, leaning over Penny's shoulder again. "Okay, so she'll be back but not be a ghost. On a rather more shocking topic: what did Aqua just do right now to Salem?"

"I believed she used the Staff of Creation to seal Salem." Penny remarked with a smile.

Behind her, Terra had watched in silence while Oscar was just…stunned.

Salem and Ozma's children had survived…

They survived.

And Salem…

"Hey wizard!" Neo barked over her shoulder at Oscar. "How come no one had the idea of using this on Salem in the first place?"

"I…I…" Oscar stuttered, dumfounded by what he had seen Aqua do.

Why hadn't Oz used the Staff to seal Salem?

Aqua did it right before his eyes and he was wondering why Oz had never tried himself.

Sure, Salem was still alive but she had been sealed away, unable to commit all the terrible crimes that she did after that horrible night. Remnant could last for centuries without Salem there, sending wave after wave of Grimm after humanity.

Because long ago, Ozma had determined that defeating Salem was impossible.

How could he?

She was immortal.

You could reduce her to ashes but the longest she would be gone would only be a few hours before she put herself back together.

Oz had considered locking Salem away but that would have required fighting Salem face to face, fight from a position of strength that she couldn't counter against. By hiding away in the Land of Darkness, she was far too entrenched, having countless hordes of Grimm to protect her and she was a master of manipulation.

Oz wasn't willing to throw countless lives away, not when he wasn't sure they wouldn't have been able to succeed.

And even if they had managed to contain her, where would they put her?

Throw her in the ocean?

Lock her up in Atlas?

She had her immortality, magic and could call on the Grimm to keep attacking until she broke free.

And trapping her in another dimension like one of the Vaults?

Oz had considered that, but the trick would be actually getting her to come willingly into one of the Vaults and Salem had always avoided getting her hands dirty, always sending one of minions to retrieve what she wanted, even the Relics.

They couldn't even create a vessel to carry her into space because they relied on Dust that would lose its power upon leaving Remnant's atmosphere.

But Aqua…

She had used the Staff of Creation for one simple objective: Creating an unbreakable crystal around Salem.

With that, she couldn't break free even if she retained her control of the Grimm and the Grimm wouldn't be able to retrieve the Relics if they were hidden away. Oz had managed to keep the Relics out of her reach for thousands of years before the Academies had been built and the Relics had been placed inside the Vaults. Even better, with Salem sealed away she couldn't influence anyone into working for her and thus with only the Grimm possibly under her control she was unable to retrieve the Staff to break free.

Grimm couldn't even use the Relics.

All those years of fighting…

All the hardships…

They could have been avoided if Oz had thought to use the Staff like that, preferably before Atlas had been raised into the sky.

And Aqua didn't even use her Keyblade outside of fighting Salem to do it, showing that the power to at least seal Salem away had always existed on Remnant.

Oh boy, he and by extension Oz felt like such a fool now.

He could only wonder how Ruby and the others felt inside Penny's heart.

How things might have been different if Oz had tried something else or if they had thought of something before Atlas fell.

How different things might have been…

"Oh man! You guys never thought of using the Staff to seal Salem like that?!" Neo fell off Penny's shoulder and onto the ground.

She rolled over and looked up at Oscar with a crazy smile on her face, but her eyes were narrowed. "You could have even sealed her in Atlas!"

"Atlas would have fallen with the people still trapped there." Penny pointed out.

"Still though…" Neo glanced away for a second before she jumped back and then onto Penny's shoulders.

"Neo!" Oscar exclaimed, thrown off by how erratic the female Keyblade Wielder of the group was acting.

Well, more erratic than usual.

Once Neo was sitting on Penny's shoulder she leaned down until she was staring Penny in the face while upside down. "Hey Red! Did you even have the thought of using the Staff like this?! Aqua did and she made it look so simple, it was like watching your usual twenty minute anime episode! Do you have any how idea much pain could have been avoided if someone had just one crazy idea like that?!"

"Neo!" Oscar called out again, rushing over to Penny's side.

Neo even grabbed Penny by the collar of her dress and started shaking her. "All this trouble because she couldn't be killed and everyone just got so afraid of her that you couldn't stop for two minutes and think 'Hey, why not just magically make something to trap her in if we can't kill her'?! It's not like we didn't have jails for criminals back home! I should know! Police don't usually try to kill criminals; they catch them and lock them up and no one thought doing the same to an immortal Grimm witch?!"

Penny was all the while silent but was smiling, even as she was staggering now by how Neo was shaking her.

"You overdramatic hero wannabees!" Neo was shaking Penny even harder now, wanting to make sure everyone in Penny's heart heard her loud and clear. "You got everyone wound up and made it look hopeless when there was a simple solution! Put the bad guy literally on ice and that's coming from me of all people!"

"Okay enough!" Terra picked Neo up off of Penny, holding her upside down. "Calm down!"

"No, I will not calm down!" Neo shouted while squirming in Terra's arms. "Those hero wannabees better be hearing every word I say because I want them to know that so much could have been avoided if they used their brains!"

It was almost comical the way Neo was acting, especially since she was still upside down.

"All of that, everyone either giving up or joining Salem because they thought she couldn't be beat when Aqua just used the Staff and trapped her in two seconds! Two seconds!" Neo shouted, holding up(technically it was down because of her position) two fingers and pointed at Penny. "You're the robot girl! Or at least used to be the robot girl! Why didn't you think this up?! You had a literal computer in your head, you could have thought of something!"

"I admit, such a solution never occurred to me as the Winter Maiden in Atlas." Penny answered, still smiling.

It was almost as if she was amused by Neo's actions.

What was there to be amused about?!

Neo was asking some valid questions here!

"And to be fair, Neo you didn't think of it either." Oscar pointed out, rather weakly.

Neo stopped and glared before pointing at Oscar. "I wasn't even on your side, Freckles!"

"Freckles?" Oscar touched his face. "What's wrong with my freckles?"

"Get Little Red and her friends out here right now, Tree Girl! I'll kick their smarmy hero wannabee behinds all over this place and I'll shave Banana-Head's hair off, so he not only looks better and might remember he has a head under it! Maybe they'll learn how to think then!" Neo shouted, pointing at the still smiling Penny.

Terra sighed and hoisted Neo over his shoulders. "I'll bring her back when she calms down."

As they walked away, Neo pointed at Penny and continued to shout. "Oh, you are all so in for it when I see you next! So. In. For IT!"

Terra and Neo vanished into the forest, leaving Oscar to sigh and sit down next to Penny who had remained standing and smiling the whole.

"She actually took it better than I thought." Penny simply said once they were gone.

"That was better?" Oscar looked up at Penny with a confused look. "I thought she was going to go psycho killer on you again."

"I saw a few timelines where that might happen. Evidently, she was not happy we overlooked a possible and yet simple solution to our Salem dilemma." Penny sat down next to Oscar.

"Tell me about it…I can't exactly blame her for that, given what we just saw." Oscar sighed. "It never occurred to Oz to use the Staff to simply trap Salem and it didn't occur to us either. The way she did it just like that…Now I feel like we're all a bunch of idiots for not coming up with that idea…No offence, Penny or to everyone in your heart."

"None taken and I know our friends feel the same way." Penny replied. "All though, given that the Staff was still holding Atlas above Mantle at the time we wouldn't have been able to use it to evacuate the people. General Ironwood would have fought with everything he had to get the Staff back and stop Atlas' fall and everyone would have been killed when Atlas crashed back into Mantle."

"I…suppose…we could have tried waiting after everyone was evacuated before doing that." Oscar slowly said, looking away. "Still, after seeing Aqua seal Salem away like that…I feel kind of…embarrassed."

"The simplest solutions are often overlooked." Penny simply said.

"And that's the problem. Oz, me, all of us. We all thought of how best to fight Salem and it hasn't had its best…outcomes. Oz tried uniting the world as best as he could but made his mistakes. He got rid of the armies so we couldn't make war on each other, he hid the Relics away under the Huntsmen Academies and trusted so many people to protect them." Oscar looked up at the branches of Yggdrasil. "Ironwood wanted to unite the world against Salem but only on his terms and he wanted to be in control. We tried doing what was right to and look at what happened."

"You are not to blame for the outcome, Oscar." Penny patted Oscar on the shoulder. "You and the others did your best."

"But look what it did, Penny!" Oscar exclaimed. "We didn't account for Cinder when we were evacuating, Ironwood went insane and we brought the Heartless to Remnant! And now, a solution, even a temporary one was found, and it was found by the very person we accidently brought here to save us."

So many people tried and just gave up…

Ozpin.

Ironwood.

Lionheart.

Qrow.

Almost everyone but Ruby gave up and she almost buckled at the end when she learned what happened to Remnant.

All of them tried and failed and in one mere instance, a warrior who traveled the stars and battled against a darkness even more powerful than Salem had shown them there was a way to stop her, even if she couldn't be killed.

With just a mere request to the Spirit of Creation, Salem was trapped and she couldn't escape until someone used the Staff to create something else.

Aqua had done what no one else before her had done.

She found a way.

No matter how temporary it was, Remnant would have a chance to grow and thrive without Salem causing chaos and destruction for a time.

"Salem has been imprisoned but only for a time. Eventually she will break free again and will be more determined than ever to have her revenge on Ozma and Aqua." Penny stated, staring off into the distance as the suns began to set. "While the Staff provided a temporary solution, Ambrosius is not all-knowing like Jinn is. It worked so well because Salem was in front of Aqua who had the Staff where Ambrosius could see her. She will take great steps to ensure it does not happen to her again."

"So even then, our temporary solution is only effective once." Oscar drawled before starring into the distance like Penny. "…I guess I should be worried but for some reason I'm not."

"And why is that?" Penny questioned.

"Because we now know that Salem can be defeated. Before, we tried temporary solutions like blowing her up and then evacuating the kingdoms to keep the Relics away from her. Even if we can't imprison her in a crystal like Aqua did, maybe we can find another solution. Maybe we all gave up too fast." Oscar mused. "If Ironwood could have been reasoned with after Salem was stopped in Atlas, we could have united, and the remaining forces could have driven her out of the kingdom."

"That outcome would have still been costly, Oscar." Penny pointed out.

"Maybe but we couldn't count on Ironwood to do the right thing anymore. I'm not sure we'll be able to count on him again in this new timeline that Aqua is creating. Altering the past in such a manner to make sure Remnant is not destroyed by the Heartless in the future by what we did." Oscar looked down at the ground. "Where we so focused on saving you and everyone we overlooked a way that would have saved Atlas? Maybe Winter could have taken over for Ironwood and rallied what was left of the military to help us."

"It still would have been difficult. Ironwood had conditioned the entire military, Winter included to follow him and the military had been crippled following Salem's attack on Atlas. The civilians were the priority, not the kingdom." Penny placed a hand on Oscar's shoulder. "This was the best possible outcome…"

"But you still died and we couldn't help because the portal Ambrosius made wouldn't let us back in." Oscar sighed. "I guess when Ruby and the others were instructing Ambrosius on how to make the portals, they gave him the impression that they didn't want anyone coming back to Atlas on the other side."

Penny's eyes widened and her hand slid down from Oscar's back which he noticed. "Uh…Penny? Are you okay?"

"One-way trip." Penny suddenly said, her voice becoming sad and melancholy. "That's what she said."

"What?"

"Weiss." Penny looked at Oscar with a sad face. "She just remembered she literally told Ambrosius to make the portal one way to Vacuo."

"What?" Oscar turned to Penny to look her in the eyes. "Why would she do that?"

"It was a mistake…A play on words. She carelessly said it in a moment of confidence that their plan would work." Penny explained but was still sad. "And she is sad because she now knows why you couldn't come back to help her when Cinder and Neo attacked."

Penny could feel and hear Weiss crying inside her, now feeling the most responsible for what happened to them and what happened to the rest of the world.

"Penny…" Oscar barely knew what to say.

"Now she wants to come out when Neo comes back so she can punch her in the face for her words." Penny said, not telling Oscar that Weiss had said 'stupidity' not words.

"Weiss, it wasn't your fault. None of us could have predicted a few miss-spoken words would do that." Oscar quickly said. "Oz and I only figured it out when we couldn't get back in."

"But you weren't there!"

Oscar jumped back to see Penny transform into Weiss who was openly crying now. "You didn't make that stupid off-hand comment that pretty much cut you off from us and left you out in the desert while we were wondering why no help was coming! We risked the homes of all those people and we couldn't do it right! Why couldn't I keep my mouth shut?!"

"Weiss…" Oscar just said as he reached and hugged Weiss who latched onto him and hugged him back.

"Oscar, I'm so sorry!" Weiss sobbed into his shoulder. "You were all out there, you needed us and we screwed up! Why can't we just stop ruining people's lives?! I can't believe I'm saying this but Neo's right, we are a bunch of idiots!"

Oscar just held Weiss, rubbing her back and tried to comfort her as best as he could.

"Weiss, it's okay. It's not your fault." Oscar whispered soothingly. "We tried…and we fell hard but you and the others…You all survived and I'm okay now…Maybe when things reset and when we go home, we can make up for our mistakes."

Weiss sniffed before becoming still and changed back into Penny who lifted her head up, smiling at Oscar through tear-stained eyes. "Weiss thanks you for you comforting her, Oscar."

Oscar just looked surprised at that before sighing. "I don't think she should thank me…I didn't know I would upset her like that."

"You told the truth, and you didn't know what happened." Penny wrapped an arm over Oscar's shoulder.

"I guess…" Oscar said nothing else as he and Penny watched the suns go down.

There was silence for over several minutes before Oscar decided to speak. "There's just one thing I don't get."

"What's that?"

"Who was Neo calling Banana-Head?" Oscar wondered aloud.

"I believe it was friend Jaune because of his hair style during his time in Atlas." Penny answered with a smile.

"Oh, right!" Oscar snapped his fingers and chuckled a bit. "We didn't have the heart to tell him…But he looked better with the long hair."

Penny smiled, hearing some laughter in her along with Jaune crying 'Hey!'. "I believe the others are in agreement."

"So, Neo calls Jaune Banana-Head, me Freckles, you Tree-Girl and Ruby is Red. What does she call the others?" Oscar wondered.

"I believe she called Weiss Ice-Queen, Blake Kitty Kat, Terra Bronze-Balls, Aqua Blue and Yang…I don't understand why she would call Yang that because Yang's hair is beautiful." Penny said and wondered aloud.

"Why? What does she call her?" Oscar asked, getting a bad feeling all of a sudden.

"Split-Ends." Penny answered and actually flinched, alarming Oscar.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I am fine. Yang did not take to Neo's nickname for her very well." Penny rubbed her head with one hand.

"I'll bet." Oscar winced, knowing Yang was likely enraged by that nickname. "I wonder if Neo is actually in her right mind even after what we just went through…I won't ask for an answer though."

"I believe this was more or less an attempt to provoke a deep emotional response from Yang." Penny pondered. "It worked."

Oscar sighed and lied down on the ground. "I can't believe how long we stayed up watching Aqua's adventures and it was only the beginning. We could end up watching her for years at this pace."

"Don't worry, Oscar. It will be over sooner than you might think." Penny smiled, waving a hand over Oscar and suddenly a wooden shack appeared over them, created from the roots of the tree. "You must be tired. Get some rest, we'll continue in the morning."

"Okay." Oscar just lied down and closed his eyes. "Goodnight, Penny and everyone…"

"Goodnight, Oscar." Penny said as she walked out and looked up at the night sky. "And goodnight to you, Aqua."