Back within the bowels of the ship, the eleven comrades had no idea that the person they suspected to be the reason for the Grimm's presence was closer than expected. In fact, she and her two cohorts had been watching their progress from the sidelines most intently since they met Sora within Traverse Town.
"Well he's certainly persistent. Either that or too stupid to recognize a lost cause when he sees one." Mercury remarked snidely.
A snide sentiment that Emerald agreed with as she said "I have to admit, Riku's little trick was impressive. It got under Sora's skin almost as much as my semblance." Something she wouldn't typically admit.
"I dunno, Emerald. Lookin' at him, that doesn't seem like a hard thing to do." Mercury teased, earning an unamused scowl from the dark skinned woman.
Even Cinder found herself agreeing as a sinister smirk touched her lips. "He's such a softhearted fool. As playable as a fiddle...So, if he's this determined, what say we help him get what he wants." And now that the group had split up to search for another exit on the ship, another opportunity to test the supposed Keyblade Master presented itself.
The group's search brought Sora, Ruby, and Pyrrha to the bottom-most part of the ship. Sora's thoughts still lingered firmly on Riku and Kairi, and the fear he felt for both friends' fates. Ruby and Pyrrha noticed immediately, trying to think of a way to cheer him up as they continued on. "Hey, Sora? You notice ever since you defeated that Shadow version of yourself, your own shadow came back?" Ruby pointed out.
Sora half-heartedly looked down to see that, sure enough, he had a shadow again. Not that it was that visible in this barely lit part of teh ship. "Hm...Yeah..." Sora said, barely paying it much mind at all.
Now more worried than before, Ruby and Pyrrha glanced to each other before the latter spoke up. "Sora...We know you're still upset. But you-"
A monstrous snarl cut the prodigious huntress off, causing everyone to snap to attention. Including Sora who looked up just in time to see a beowolf lunging at him. He barely managed to roll out of the way along followed by the others leaping in two different directions. The grimm turned right around, its claws and jaws fixed toward him.
"More Grimm!" Pyrrha announced as suddenly two more Beowolves emerged from the darkened corners of the room.
"Wind!" On instinct Sora cast an aero spell on himself. As he did, he realized that the wind swirling around him seemed to move faster and had a stronger outward push. It must have been another case of his magic growing stronger with so much fighting. It certainly seemed as such as , he was grateful since the beowolf struck at him in his moment of being off guard but didn't cause nearly as much pain as it likely would have. And with the wind slowing down its momentum, that left it open for Sora to deliver a three strike combination, staggering it.
Ruby and Pyrrha slew two more beowolves And Sora, with a final, leaping vertical slice, brought down the Keyblade upon the lupine Grimm's bony face, cracking it on the final impact and slaying it. The two huntresses smiled at Sora, seeing that even though he wasn't nearly as experienced as they were, he was starting to get the hang of fighting Grimm just as much as the Heartless. Or at least the most basic Grimm.
Before anyone of them could relax however, a familiar voice filled the silence in the dark room. "Good. You're getting stronger," Everyone's blood ran cold as they recognized the somewhat impressed voice of Cinder Fall. A chilling presence that was made all the more so as they turned to see her, lighting up the darkness with a flame produced from her left palm. "Though you still need to learn how to keep your guard up."
The instant Sora turned on his heels to face her, the source of the familiar voice suddenly struck his Keyblade away with her bare hand before launching him with a strike from her other hand. "Sora!" Ruby and Pyrrha cried out, running toward him.
As Sora pushed himself up, Ruby and her Pyrrha glared at the familiar face of Beacon's destroyer. "You..." Pyrrha hissed out, brandishing her sword and shield. Cinder smirked at the three youths, her left hand sparking with embers.
Sora glared at Cinder, if only to try masking his own anxiety. His previous encounter with her was still fresh in his mind...and the memory of just how powerful she proved herself to be while barely even trying. "What do you want, Cinder?"
Sora's newfound knowledge of her name made the woman's brow raise. "Oh? Sounds like someone has been talking about me." she said with a smirk as she shifted her gaze toward "I suppose this means we're on a first name basis at last, Sora." Her disinterested tone made all three of them glare harder.
Just as Pyrrha about to rush forward and attack, her sword was suddenly intercepted by a green blade from none other than Emerald. Her red eyes locked firmly upon the prodigy huntress. Ruby too was intercepted by a double kick from two familiar metallic feet which nearly knocked Crescent Rose out of her hands. "Whoa there, ladies. Discussions are being had here." Mercury said flippantly. The rest of the huntsmen and huntresses grimaced, trying to find some opening while four of them were occupied with the two underlings. While they kept them busy, however, Cinder could focus on what she wanted to say to Sora.
Lowering her blazing hand, Cinder's gaze fixed upon Sora as she spoke again. "Do you see what I meant now, Sora? Your friends are beyond your reach. Riku wants nothing to do with you, and Kairi is nothing but a lifeless shell. It's time you opened your eyes and gave up on that foolish dream of getting them back."
Sora's fists clenched and trembled with rage as her words callous poured into his ears. Of all the names he wanted to hear from her voice, the names of his friends were the last ones. "What do you know, Cinder? Where are they!?" he demanded furiously.
Cinder smirked, knowing she was getting to him. "You still won't give up? You saw what Riku truly thought of you with that Heartless he conjured from your shadow. Who knows? Maybe he was right about you simply showing off that Keyblade. You certainly never deserved it."
Sora grit his teeth, momentarily focusing on Ruby and Pyrrha. They were occupied with their own opponents but managed to hold their own. He was sure they could handle themselves and decided to face Cinder, himself. He rushed at her and Cinder smirked, letting him come to her as she stood there without moving. With his Keyblade held behind him and still running, Sora was ready to strike. Cinder held her free hand in front to block but to her surprise, Sora rolled under her field of vision. By the time she saw him again, he was right in front and let out a battle shout before the 'Stun Impact' ability of his went off. Cinder grunted, eyes clamped and teeth gritting from the stinging sensation from the small barrier coming from Sora paralyzing her. In the moment she was stunned, Sora gave her the strongest whack he could across her side, making her stagger as she stumbled meters away. 'He made a feint?' she thought to herself when looking where Sora was.
"Take this!" With his Keyblade aimed at her, Sora released a wave of second level ice mage to Cinder but it was intercepted when she released a large sphere of flame at it, making steam fill a portion of the area between them. Sora took the moment neither could see each other and used his 'Sonic Blade' ability to lunge in the direction he last saw Cinder. She was gone by the time he whisked through the steam, having jumped above and within Sora's blind spot before releasing a volley of more fire at him. Sora turned and held his Keyblade out sideways then pushed the fireballs back, surprising Cinder again as she crossed her arms in front of herself. The force of the fire knocked her down but her aura kept her safe from any real damage.
"Clever." Cinder said, genuinely impressed. While she wasn't truly harmed, she had to give credit where it was due. "You knew I'd see through your attempted sneak attack when I tried countering it with my own. Maybe you're getting stronger at a faster rate then I thought?" she finished, a less-than benevolent smile touching her face. More and more she found herself intrigued by the boy...or perhaps by the power of the Keyblade?
By then, Pyrrha and Ruby managed to break their deadlocks with Emerald and Mercury. Ruby and Pyrrha dashed toward Sora and Cinder, flanking Cinder on both sides. Neither Mercury nor Emerald rushed to stop them. After all, they didn't need to.
As the two huntresses rushed toward her, Cinder stopped them in their tracks by unleashing a burst of flames, launching them back with little trouble. "Still not capable of facing me on your own, Little Red?" Cinder taunted, using the nickname Torchwick oh so loved to use referring to Ruby. The young huntress grit her teeth angrily as she righted herself. Cinder turned to Pyrrha, smirking ever wickedly at the Mistral prodigy. "And you. I'll deal with you personally another time. But unfortunately, we're out of that right now. Mercury! Emerald!"
As she called their names, her underlings leapt over the group of youths, and landed at Cinder's side. It was time for them to go. "I look forward to seeing you restore our world, Sora. If you can." she said with faux encouragement.
"Wait! Where's Riku!? Where did he take Kairi!" Sora yelled out angrily. He wasn't going to just let them leave without getting any answers.
Cinder simply scoffed as she looked over her shoulder at him. "You're more foolish than I thought...Ask Captain Hook if you must know. I'll look forward to seeing you when you arrive." And with that, she, Mercury, and Emerald turned and walked away.
"Stop!" Ruby shouted, dashing forward, ignoring Pyrrha's cry of warning. This time, Cinder turned around and kicked her right in the stomach, sending Ruby reeling along the floor.
"Ruby!" Sora and Pyrrha cried out, running over to her. With another scoff, Cinder turned away and left the room with Emerald and Mercury giving Ruby and Sora a final derisive look.
"Ruby, are you alright!?" Pyrrha asked, immediately kneeling at her friend's side with Sora.
Fortunately, the blow didn't do any lasting damage to Ruby. "Hnggh. Yeah, I'm alright." Ruby grunted out as she pushed herself back up to stand.
The sound of footsteps from nearby resounded in their ears. At first they thought it was more Heartless or Grimm, but when the door burst open, they saw it was their friends pouring in. "Ruby!" Yang exclaimed as she and the rest of Team RWBY ran to her sister's side.
"Are you guys alright?" Blake asked, kneeling beside Yang as she checked on her sister.
"We heard a lot of commotion down here. Is anyone hurt?" Jaune asked worriedly.
"We're alright," Ruby called back before feeling her side where Cinder kicked her and groaned with discomfort. Weiss, Blake, and Yang helped her her steady herself as she stood up. "I think my aura is in the red though. I'm not speeding around any time soon." she added in a strained tone.
"Of course you're not, you dolt!" Weiss said in annoyance veiled worry. Both Blake and Yang knew how she really felt of course, but this wasn't the time to tease her about it.
As Sora, Ruby and Pyrrha climbed the latter up out of the bottom of the ship, Goofy said apologetically, "We didn't find nothin'. We've checked everywhere on the ship."
"Not the main deck," Sora said, thinking back to Cinder's words. If they could get onto the deck, maybe they'd find some way to leave this ship.
"Well I don't have any ideas, so let's go with Sora's." Nora said with a shrug. A sentiment that Ren agreed with as he nodded in response.
"Anything to get us out of this place and never come back..." Neptune bemoaned as he slumped forward. Finding the display quite pathetic, Weiss sneered and shook her head at him.
"Then let's go! We can't waste any more time!" Sora said, as he suddenly ran ahead of the group.
"Sora! Don't run ahead!" Donald yelled out angrily as he and Goofy ran after him. Ruby and her friends immediately rushed to follow the running boy. While they knew full well that recent events had left him on edge, he was going straight to the realm of recklessness.
Recklessness that would bite him as Sora's headstart had left him nearly isolated from the rest of the group. Perfect for a hidden beowolf to lunge at him from around a corner. Had Goofy not given a desperate, almost comedic leap with his shield raised, Sora might have been pounced on. As his shield struck the Grimm in the face, Donald quickly followed up with a blast of Fire to further stagger it. "Stop being so reckless, Sora! We've been over this!" Donald lectured with annoyance.
Before Sora could argue, more lupine snarling caught his attention as suddenly, a whole pack of Beowolves emerged, converging upon them.
But before the Grimm could attack, several gunshots rang out, striking the beasts. The huntsmen and huntresses all had their weapons at the ready, fending off the creatures with Ruby and Pyrrha delivering precise rifle shots to the Grimm in front of Donald and Goofy while the rest of the group dealt with another batch of beowolves that attempted to flank them all from behind.
"Sora! Hurry to the deck! We'll catch up with you!" Ruby called out over the chaos as the Grimm stopped focusing on Sora and instead rushed for the hunters.
"Are you sure?" Sora asked, hesitant to just leave his friends behind.
"Sora, go. You need to find Riku and Kairi, right?" Pyrrha said as she shot one enemy back before switching Miló and Akoúo̱ to spear and shield mode to fend off a Beowolf that closed the distance, only to get impaled. "Don't lose them now that you're so close!" she finished as Ruby switched Crescent Rose to scythe mode in order to help fend off the converging grimm.
"Don't worry, Sora. We'll be right with you." Goofy said, earning a firm nod of agreement from Donald.
Looking back at Ruby and her friends, Sora saw they were handing it well enough and decided to trust them. They had far more experience with these creatures than he did, after all. "Okay. See you guys, soon." With a final exchanged smile from Ruby to him, Sora, alongside Donald and Goofy, continued on,
The trio eventually found themselves in the the Captains Quarters again. The ever ongoing sounds of combat were faint, but they could tell that the others were still dealing with the Grimm. It would make sense since they were on a whole ship run by somebody who was in command of the Heartless. Though that begged the question...where were all the Heartless now?
Questions for later perhaps. They needed to get off this ship and continue their search for Riku, Kairi, and the King.