"What's that?" Sora asked in bewilderment. He'd paddled as fast as he could to reach the island, but the trip had still felt way too long. As he hastily tied his boat to the pier and looked up, he caught sight of the clouds clearing away to reveal what looked like a giant, swirling, dark ball of doom. Arcs of lightning surged around the orb of darkness. He'd seen plenty of stormy skies, but this thing was totally new. Not to mention, he hadn't felt so much as a drop of rain so far. He then looked down at the docks and recognized what else was latched onto the pier.

"Riku's boat. And Kairi's!" he exclaimed. Did they come here to protect the raft too? His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a familiar wriggling sound. Sora turned to the land just past the pier and gasped in shock. Shadowy, bug-like creatures rose from the ground and looked at him with their glowing, yellow eyes. The same monsters from his dream!

On instinct, Sora drew the wooden sword that he'd brought (just in case). There was another wriggling sound coming from behind him. He whipped around in time to swing his sword and block an attack from one of the living shadows. It fell back, and Sora turned his attention to another as it got too close.

"Back off!" Sora shouted in a panic. He swung right at its head, sending the creature staggering. As it recovered, Sora followed up with a three-hit combo that ended with a hard, wide swing that knocked two Shadows back at once, but only a little bit. More and more Shadows were showing up, and Sora hadn't been able to take out even one of them so far. At this rate, he may as well have missed every strike.

'I need a better weapon,' thought Sora. Since fighting wasn't working, he switched to his flight instincts and made a run for it. Sora leaped off the pier and ran through the beach, dodging Shadows left and right as he went. "If this is another dream, I would really like some advice, Voice!" There was no response, not that he really expected there to be one. Somehow, Sora just knew in his heart that this was no dream. This storm and these monsters were real.

As Sora made it to the ramp that led to the waterfall, he wondered if the Shadows would be able to follow him into the water. Sadly, he got his answer when some of them spawned in the water. With nowhere else to go, Sora ran towards the seaside shack, jumped, grabbed onto the edge of its roof, and flipped up to the top.

"Riku?" Sora gasped between breaths. He was able to spot his friend on the paopu tree islet. But he was just standing there, as if there weren't monsters everywhere and a giant doomball in the sky. This was getting more and more like the dream he'd had. Sora's thoughts were interrupted when more Shadows spawned around him. "Aah!" he yelled, making a run for it across the bridge to the islet, where Riku was waiting.

"Where's Kairi?" Sora shouted as he arrived. "I thought she was with you!"

"The door has opened…" said a surprisingly calm Riku.

"What?" asked a confused Sora.

"The door has opened, Sora." Riku went on, turning to him with a look that seemed part determined and part desperate. "Now we can go to the outside world!"

"What are you talking about?" shouted Sora, not having any of it. "We've gotta find Kairi!"

"Kairi's coming with us!" snapped Riku, shocking Sora as he turned his gaze to the giant orb in the sky. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

'Did Riku hit his head or something?' Sora thought in confusion. 'He's talking like a total wacko! Or like…' Sora didn't get to finish that thought as Riku suddenly turned his gaze back at him. He then held out his hand, gesturing for the younger boy to take it.

"Riku..." said Sora in concern. Suddenly, a swirling circle of darkness appeared underneath Riku's feet. Out of it came a bunch of weird, black tendrils that wrapped around the older boy's legs and torso. Sora rushed to try and save his friend when the same thing suddenly happened to him.

The spiky-haired boy struggled in vain to break his legs free as fear started gripping him. None of this made any sense! It felt like the world was coming to an end, and Riku wasn't acknowledging the danger they were in. He just stood there, as if he were frozen, holding his hand out.

Sora continued to struggle against the darkness that was enveloping him. He reached for Riku's hand as hard as he could, but it was just out of reach. He then fell back as the darkness suddenly spread everywhere, covering everything. It was just like his dream. He couldn't breathe, move, or see. But Sora wasn't giving up. He had to save his friends somehow!

Suddenly, a sharp light pierced the darkness. Sora felt his breath return to him as the light grew brighter and brighter, until everything became a blinding white! Then, as suddenly as it happened, it all cleared away, and he stumbled to regain his footing. Sora was standing on the islet again, but Riku was nowhere to be found. The 14-year-old also felt different: powerful. A faint glow emanated from near his right hand, and he looked down to see what appeared to be a giant silver key. The grip felt like the hilt of a sword as a yellow guard surrounded it, leading to a dangling keychain at the bottom. Its name came to him as if he had always known it: Keyblade…

At that moment, a whole bunch of Shadows spawned all around him, their movements more frantic than before. Whatever fear Sora had felt before was gone as he twirled the Keyblade once and got into his battle stance. A Shadow rushed him from the left, but Sora side-stepped its attack and swung the Keyblade through its body, killing it instantly. More Shadows ran at him, but he hacked and slashed at each and every one of them. His attention was then brought above as some of them spawned from atop the coconut trees.

As they leapt from above, Sora jumped to the paopu tree, kicking off of it for more altitude. He then sliced one Shadow after the other in mid-air before delivering an overhead slash to a monster below. The Keyblade wielder had no idea how his weapon was acting like a sword when it had such a blunt end, but he wasn't complaining.

Sora fought off more shadows as he made his way to the bridge. As he got past the ramp, a whole line of Shadows spawned before him. In that moment, Sora decided to test out the move that he'd been practicing against his other friends the other day. Focusing on the Shadow at the end of the bridge, Sora rushed forward, twisted his body, and slid across the bridge with the Keyblade thrust out, destroying any Shadows in the path of his Sliding Dash! Once he'd lost his momentum, Sora sprang back up and broke into a run, bashing away any Shadows that came at him!

As Yang, Ruby, and Weiss ran through the courtyard, more of those living shadows began popping up all around them. The three girls easily took out anything that stood in their way as they went, but the creatures just kept coming wherever they went. The warning that Raven had given kept coming back to the blonde. Especially once they spotted the giant, death-ball in the sky, floating near the tower.

"First the Grimm and White Fang attack, and now the world is ending?" Ruby yelled as she slashed three Shadows into dark mists. "Can't we just stick to one crisis at a time!?" Yang was about to respond when Weiss's scroll started ringing.

"It's Jaune!" Weiss declared as she came to a stop. Ruby and Yang took positions on either side of her, ready for any surprises as the heiress answered. "Where are you?"

"Weiss!" shouted Jaune's voice on speaker. "Please, you have to stop her!"

"What?" Weiss responded in confusion.

"Pyrrha! She's going after that woman, at the top of the tower! She doesn't stand a chance!" All three girls turned their gazes to the CCT Tower in confusion.

"Jaune?" Weiss yelled into the scroll, having to speak up as her teammates took out a couple of lingering Shadows. "What are you talking about? Where are you?"

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!" his voice screamed through the scroll, taking the three of them aback. The next time he spoke, Jaune sounded like he was choking up. "Please, you have to save Pyrrha."

"We will," Weiss reassured him. "Are you okay?" All they got in response was an anguished scream and a Crack! "Jaune? JAUNE!" Her attempts to reach their missing friend were interrupted as a Whooshing sound came over the stormy winds.

The girls looked up in time as the gigantic dragon-type Grimm flew overhead. Yang still couldn't believe how massive it was, easily dwarfing the Nevermore they'd fought during initiation. As it flew by on its massive, red bat wings. They could see dark globs fall from its chest. As soon as they went splat on the ground, new Grimm arose from the pools. The dragon-type Grimm perched itself on the tower and was about to climb it when it hesitated. The monster's head whipped towards the swirling orb in the sky before letting out a loud ROAAAAR!

Then, to everyone's shock, something came flying out of the orb and headed right for the dragon. Yang couldn't quite make out the details from her position, but it looked like a swirling, chaotic stream of Shadows. It was quickly followed by two more that circled in the air before taking off for their target. The dragon roared in defiance and took to the skies as the dark tides gave chase. More Shadows were forming on the ground as well. Fortunately, they seemed to be interested in attacking any Grimm that were nearby. As the two types of monsters clashed, the three huntresses got ready for a fight.

"Looks like there's some monsters in our way," said Yang with a smirk as she popped out all of her empty shells, tossed new clips in the air, and caught them in each gauntlet, reloading Ember Cilica.

"I have a plan," Ruby declared as she held Crescent Rose ready in its scythe-form.

"You always do," Weiss responded as she put her scroll away and drew Myrtenaster. "So let's hear it."

"Weiss, remember how we beat the Nevermore during initiation?" Ruby asked, pointing at the tower and then lifting her arm towards the top. Weiss nodded, and Yang immediately understood, already guessing her role. "Yang, watch Weiss's back."

"You got it, Sis."

With that said, the three girls charged into battle. An Ursa rose to its hind legs and roared as they approached, but Yang dropped into a slide, propelling herself forward with a single shotgun blast. As soon as she was under the beast, she leaped into the air with an uppercut to its chin. She then kicked off its shoulders and launched into a backflip as Ruby shot in with her speed semblance, slashing the Grimm's upturned head clean off with Crescent Rose in its war-scythe form.

Some Shadows rose around the sisters as they stood back-to-back, only for Weiss to skate into the little monsters on a series of white glyphs, slashing away at them as she danced like a figure skater. The girls continued on their way until they were close enough for Weiss to get into position.

"Get ready!" the heiress shouted as she activated her semblance.

"Be careful, Ruby," yelled Yang as she blocked a rolling Boarbatusk with one gauntlet. She then grabbed the Grimm by its tusks, spun around, and threw it at an incoming Griffon. Her little sister nodded before she slashed away a charging Beowolf and finished it off with a full-power shot to the head. Weiss shot a single glyph towards the tower wall. As soon as it hit, a line of more glyphs appeared, leading straight to the top of the huge tower.

"Go!" shouted Weiss, turning to Ruby.

Ruby wasted no time and activated her semblance, zooming towards the tower and then launching herself high. She landed on the first glyph and proceeded to run up the side of the building. As Yang saw her go, she silently hoped they'd be in time and that she'd be wrong about what was happening. Those thoughts were pushed aside as more Shadows and Grimm approached the two girls remaining. Weiss held her rapier ready, but Yang knew she was splitting her focus between the monsters and keeping that path of glyphs up for Ruby. Yang cocked her gauntlets as another monster rushed towards them.

"Alright!" Yang roared, "TAKE—"

"TAKE THIS!" Sora shouted as he swung wide, taking out three Shadows at once. He needed to hurry and find Kairi before these things or anything else got to her. Thankfully, he had already found a clue.

Over by the waterfall, Sora spotted a double door sitting in front of the entrance to the secret cave. It was yet another thing from his weird dream that had become real. But he figured it was worth a shot. So he sliced and diced his way through the Shadows until finally reaching the door.

At first, Sora thought that he'd have to keep the monsters at bay while grabbing a handle, but the doors seemed to open as soon as he got near. With no time to question it, he ducked into the cave entrance, the door sealing behind him. Once inside, Sora braced for another barrage of Shadows, but it didn't seem like they were coming anymore.

"Phew," Sora sighed in relief. "Huh?" As soon as he felt safe, the Keyblade disappeared from his hand in a flash of light. "Where'd it—?" Before he could even finish his question, the Keyblade returned in another flash. He paused and tried to dismiss it again, immediately succeeding. "Cool…"

Sora ran down the winding tunnel as fast as he could. It was surprising how well he was able to see down here at night. Was it because of the newfound power he felt? Before he could dwell on that, Sora reached the secret cave and found the person he'd been looking for.

"Kairi!" he shouted in relief. Thank goodness she was okay. The redheaded girl had been standing in front of the mysterious door when he arrived. Sora briefly wondered why it was still closed after what Riku had said. But those thoughts disappeared as soon as Kairi turned around.

"Sora…" Kairi moaned. The boy's relief instantly turned into concern when he saw her expression. She looked like she was sick or something. Whatever the case, she was barely keeping her eyes open as she weakly lifted an arm towards him in distress.

The door suddenly popped open behind her, with a huge blast of wind and darkness pouring out of it. Sora instinctively blocked with his arms. When he lowered them, his eyes widened at the sight of Kairi being blown right at him.

Acting quickly, Sora spread his arms out and tried to catch her. For a millisecond, it felt like he'd succeeded, but she instantly disappeared. Before he could even process what had just happened, the winds coming from the now-open door blew him out of the cave. After that, he was sent tumbling through the air, unable to tell which way was up or down. He finally landed on sand. But as he pushed himself back up, Sora got the shock of his life.

"Whoa!" Sora cried out. He was on top of a giant, floating piece of the island! Bits of debris were swirling around the mass of land that he'd hit. The edge lay just ahead of him, and he couldn't see anything below! The dark orb was now closer than ever, looming right above him.

Sora quickly picked himself up and turned around, only to see yet another being from his dream. It was a familiar, gigantic monster with a heart-shaped hole in its gut.

"You're real too!?" Sora exclaimed. He looked around desperately for a way to escape. But just like in his dream, there was none. With no other option, Sora summoned the Keyblade and got into his battle stance. This could be the fight of his life!

Pyrrha Nikos knew this would be the fight of her life. Her whole world had been turned upside down when Professor Ozpin told her the truth about the Four Maidens, all wielding powerful magic. Real magic! He had then regretfully asked Pyrrha for permission to transfer the current Fall Maiden's soul into herself in order to prevent what was left of her power from falling into the wrong hands. She was terrified of the implications that came with it.

When she'd finally agreed, it had only been out of necessity, as Beacon was under attack. But that had gone horribly wrong when Cinder Fall arrived and finished the job that she'd started. The treacherous spy/assassin had claimed the full Maiden's power and seemingly eliminated Ozpin.

Pyrrha knew that what she was doing was practically suicide. But after what had happened to Penny and her recent failure to secure Amber's power, she had to do something! Of course, she had no chance of defeating that woman on her own. The best that she could do was stall long enough for any backup that Jaune called in to arrive.

As she used her polarity semblance to force the broken elevator to ascend to the top of Beacon Tower, the redheaded huntress braced herself for the fight of her life. Once the elevator had reached Ozpin's office, she immediately drew her sword, Milo, and her shield, Akouo.

As the doors finally slid open, she got a glimpse of her red-garbed opponent waiting for her. She was hovering in the air on jets of flames under her glass heels. Pyrrha instantly threw Milo at her opponent's head before the doors could even finish opening.

Cinder smirked as she effortlessly dodged the attack, but Pyrrha wasn't done yet. With no reason to hold back, she activated her semblance, concentrating on Akouo. A black aura surrounded her shield as she held on and sent herself flying at the enemy. Cinder blocked the attack with both hands, repelling it. But Pyrrha had shifted herself so that both feet would be on the shield when she made impact, kicking off and flipping into the air. After landing on her feet, Pyrrha used her semblance to recall both her weapon and shield to herself, standing ready. Cinder hovered in the air, clearly amused by Pyrrha's hopeless endeavor.

The new Fall Maiden threw a couple fire-blasts at the Mistral champion. But Pyrrha dodge rolled out of the first two shots' way, then twisted to the side in order to dodge a third. Seeming eager to end this battle quickly, Cinder threw a continuous stream of fire at the desperate warrior.

Pyrrha raised her shield and blocked the attack. She could feel the intense heat of the flames as they blasted all around her body. The redhead then jumped into the air and performed the same feat with her Polarity semblance from when she entered this office. Pyrrha used her power to send her shield against the flames, pulling her own body along with it.

At the last second, Pyrrha touched down on the glass floor and instantly leaped again, twisting her body in the air and attempting to stab the amber-eyed woman. However, Cinder smirked as she cut the flames and caught Milo by its blade. Pyrrha had little time to even process what had happened before Cinder pulled her in and hit her in the gut with a point-blank fire blast.

"AAAAH-NNGH!" Pyrrha cried out as she was sent crashing into the far wall. Her aura had managed to protect her from any actual injury, but she had still felt the intensity of those flames and knew she wouldn't be able to take much more. As she stood back up, Pyrrha saw Cinder flying at her for the killing blow.

Remembering her training, Pyrrha managed to jump at the last second and wrap her arm around Cinder's. The ebon-haired terrorist attempted to slam the redhead into the wall again, but Pyrrha maneuvered herself to hit it with her feet and spring back off. She then judo-flipped Cinder.

The new Maiden fell on her face but quickly recovered, backflipping away. Pyrrha recovered her weapons with her polarity again and charged in. She attempted to strike Cinder a few more times with her blade, but the killer managed to block each attack with her aura-protected hands.

Before the battle could go any further, both fighters fell off their feet as everything shook and the windows all around them cracked. Before either fighter could process what was happening, the roof and walls around them were violently ripped apart. But instead of collapsing on top of them, all the debris was being blown towards the swirling, dark sphere in the sky.

Pyrrha had been so focused on Cinder that she hadn't noticed the ominous orb until this moment. What was worse was that she could see more debris flying into it from around the whole city. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized that Jaune might've been all alone in the middle of this devastation. Even Cinder seemed shocked by what was happening.

"What is this!?" demanded Pyrrha, shifting Milo into its rifle form as she held her shield in defense. "What's happening!?"

"Honestly," Cinder turned towards her with contempt. "I have no idea." Flames erupted from her palm as she pointed it at the student. "But you won't live long enough to find out."

Pyrrha fired off shots from behind her shield and moved while Cinder threw streams of fire at her. Even as the tower continued to shake and the winds raged, neither fighter was willing to back down. For a second, Pyrrha thought that she'd heard another gun go off as she fired her own. But she had no time to dwell on it as Cinder kept attacking. She would keep fighting, even if this battle cost her her life.