What Lies Within IV

CLASH-CLASH!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

SLASH!

SHATTER!

In the forests of the Ever After, the battle between Team RWBY in the now magical body of Penny and Neopolitan raged on. With the members of Team RWBY able to swap themselves in and out of the battle, they were able to combine and use their skills and Semblances in surprising combos that would be enough to almost take anyone down.

Key word: Almost.

(I Burn By Jeff Williams Starts)

(Information: Land a hit on Neopolitan)

Neo grunted as she slashed at Keyblade at Yang who blocked with her arms, relying on her Aura and Ember Celica. Yang then followed up with a series of punches that Neo dodged, making it seem like she dancing while avoiding each hit. Yang seemed to be the one who was the most insistent on fighting Neo but she wasn't hesitating to switch with someone else to keep their opponent on her feet.

Neo in the meantime found her Semblance being pushed to the max as she fought, throwing up illusions and copies to distract her opponents. The bright side was that it seemed her Keyblade was naturally recharging her Aura somehow. Aqua believed that since Keyblades were natural conduits for magic, it mean Neo's Aura could recharge much faster than before.

"Ha!" Neo stabbed at Yang who morphed into Ruby at the last second and her Semblance split her into three small spiraling bullets of roses as she shot past Neo and reappeared behind her.

Neo spun around to cast a spell but a black glyph sent her flying back; actually making her hit the ground.

(I Burn By Jeff Williams Ends)

"First question: What happened in the Realm of Darkness?" Weiss asked, taking charge and was proud to be the first one to land a hit.

Neo grunted as she stood up, making a note to wipe that annoying smirk off of the Schnee's face when she had the chance. "…We traveled through there for a while but we got separated."

"Separated?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"I went with Aqua because I knew if I stayed, you four or at least Red would have tried to kill me again. Aqua gave me this coat to protect me since being in the Realm of Darkness is as safe as working in a Dust mine. We traveled through a dark cave, came upon on a few castles that came from worlds Aqua had been to and were destroyed by the Heartless, fought phantom copies of ourselves and then we were separated." Neo explained hastily and rather testily. "…I saw Salem there as well."

Weiss' eyes widened in shock and fear. "Salem was there?"

"Turns out she was able to survive because…you know she can't be killed. I found her at the top of Beacon which ended up there…along with the other academies…including Atlas." Neo was now hesitant. "…It's how I am able to speak now. She used her magic to repair my vocal cords. She wanted to know what I knew too but wasn't up for learning how to talk to a mute girl…So she fixed my none existent voice and had me tell her what happened."

"Does she know about the Keyblade?" Weiss quickly asked.

"Yep." Neo nodded dully. "She wouldn't let me leave a single detail out…If she so much as had a feeling I was lying, she was ready to take a limb off. I thought if I could stall her, Aqua would find me…She did but she lost her Keyblade."

"Lost it?" Weiss quietly asked.

"The one she had before. The black one. The one that looked like an actual giant key." Neo clarified as she looked at her Keyblade. "The new one, the one that blue but then turned white…It was her old one and it turns out Keyblades can actually change and be…upgraded I guess. She used that magical horn to get us away from Salem and we ended up in some creepy basement where she found her armor and Keyblade…and someone was waiting for us."

"Who?" Weiss changed into Ruby, surprising Neo for a second who just scowled but answer.

"I don't know his name but you might want to ask Terra, Aqua's armor friend for that. All I know is he was more powerful and much more scary than Salem. He took us both on and wiped the floor with us and even after Aqua hit him with everything she had he shook it off. I grabbed the horn and took us back to the Realm of Darkness where that Ansem guy was waiting for us…It's also where I got my Keyblade."

"You…found it there?" Ruby slowly asked.

"Someone left it there…I think they were looking for Aqua but they missed her when we got attacked again." Neo shuddered briefly at the memories, even though she tried not to show it in front of those who were her biggest enemies for years now. "That's when Aqua asked me to unlock her Aura…She figured because we were getting our butts kicked all over the place we needed to train for the next one. She offered me the Keyblade she found, this one."

She held up her Keyblade for Ruby to see. "It's called the Way to the Dawn. Not really my color but it grew quickly on me. If I wasn't worthy it would have disappeared back into her hands…I guess it liked me. We trained for a bit, I taught Aqua how to use her Aura and she taught me how to fight with a Keyblade and how to use magic. After someone else, a freak who could summon a monster from his shadow attacked us and after we barely survived, we figured it was too dangerous to be in the Realm of Darkness so we set off."

She dismissed her Keyblade as she glanced away. "Aqua wanted to find her friend, the guy in the armor and she did…and then she wanted to come back here to check on you brats…You know the rest."

Ruby did indeed know the rest.

She and the others attacked Neo, Aqua and their friends when they returned, blaming them for what happened to Jaune when he returned to Remnant.

"And Salem?" Ruby asked.

"Apparently she turned into a Heartless after we escaped from her." Neo shrugged.

She didn't like being this cooperative with Red and her friends but for all of Neo's faults when she made a deal with someone she would follow through with it.

"I don't know about how Aqua restored Remnant. I wasn't with her when it happened. You'd have to ask her for a full account." Neo crossed her arms. "Happy now?"

"One more question." Ruby answered.

"Then you know what you'll have to do." Neo quickly summoned her Keyblade and shot at Ruby who shot away with her Semblance.

(RWBY Volume 6 Soundtrack One Thing Begins)

Neo carefully looked around, her senses on overdrive as she carefully searched for Ruby or whoever else was in control.

"Ha!"

Neo spun around; blocking a punch from Yang and the Keyblade reacted by knocking her back with a magical blast. Neo charged at Yang, aiming to knock her down but Yang switched with Blake in mid-air, somersaulting through the air and landing perfectly on her feet. Blake activated her Semblance and summoned two clones on either side but to Neo's surprise the clones moved with Blake as she attacked and they were just a solid as she was.

Neo found herself fighting three opponents with Blake somehow pushing her Semblance beyond its limit. One swept its leg out to try and kick Neo's legs out from under her while one clashed from behind and the other attacked from the front. Neo jumped over the leg and kicked out both of her feet, one behind and one at front. Blake was the one attacking at the front and when she was hit, her clones vanished as she jumped back, landing on her feet.

Blake grunted, her Aura flaring but it seemed being a part of Penny gave her much more Aura reserves than her body ever had.

Not that it did much against Neo.

As much as she and the others hated to admit, Neo was almost beyond skilled and with a Keyblade in her hands, she was more than a match for all four of them even with Penny giving them unlimited Aura reserves and recreating their weapons. Blake had thought she had come a long way since the Fall of Beacon, having defeated Adam Taurus with Yang's help, taking down the Ace-Ops and even surviving an encounter with the Grimm that had a silver eyed person inside it.

Only when Cinder and Neo attacked them at the Central Location, Blake and the others were defeated no matter how hard they tried.

Neo had been able to fight both her and Ruby and keep them in the defense. In fact, Neo had frustrated her by completely ignoring her and focusing on Ruby in her misguided attempt to avenge Roman Torchwick. Even when she had to go and help the civilians and Weiss stepped in, Neo ignored her and focused only on Ruby, even when Weiss sent her flying.

And then when they all fell here…

Neo had managed to survive all the…months that they had been here, even after they gained the power of the Maidens. Sure, by running, using her Semblance and the skin of her teeth as Ruby hunted her but she still made it through.

And now she was even stronger with a Keyblade in her hand…

"Thunder!" Blake was cut from her inner musing as Neo called out a spell.

As a bolt of lightning shot down, Blake switched with Ruby who used her Semblance, dispersing into countless rose petals as she dodged the blast. As she reformed, Neo was right on top of her but Ruby switched with Weiss who summoned a black glyph that blocked Neo's Keyblade.

They were slowly starting to get a better grasp on how Neo fought.

Having been trained as an assassin and having a rogue Huntress as her mentor, it was no wonder Neo was so skilled even though she had been working as a petty crook. She wasn't as fast as Ruby or as strong as Yang but her skills and style was similar and matched Weiss' own fencing style and her agility was on par with Blake's.

Actually, she was likely even more agile than Blake, much to the feline Faunus' ire.

She was inhumanly agile and combined with her own impressive speed, she was able to weave in between attacks and counter them quickly. That was how she fought; she specialized in counter-attacking and by turning the momentum of her opponent's own attacks against them. Combined with her Semblance and Neopolitan was the definition of the word trickster.

Not to mention her fighting style was actually labelled the Trickster Style.

Still, Ruby and the others were gaining a sixth sense to how Neo fought with Blake using her Faunus senses to try and sense Neo out before she made an attack, with Weiss and Yang ready to immediately counterattack and Ruby would get them out of harm's way if they weren't fast enough. It was enough to keep Neo on her feet but she started mixing her fighting style with magic and that was when she truly became unpredictable.

'It seems one of the benefits of magic is that you can with a seemingly unlimited supply of Dust.' Weiss grumbled.

'Only her Dust would be like super-mega Dust.' Ruby commented.

It was true as the spells Neo cast looks like they would have used up an entire crate of Dust, making it even more unfair.

Not that Neo even believed in the concept of fairness.

"Confusion!" Neo shouted, casting the spell on Blake before she could react.

Okay, that was a new one.

Nevertheless, Blake was left in a daze, suddenly confused about where she was and what she was going.

'Blake, tag out!' Yang shouted, taking over.

On instinct she raised her arms and blocked a kick aimed to her face by Neo but was still knocked back. She managed to remain standing, having managed to tank a full powered hit from Adam Taurus and remain standing.

"How's Blake?" She asked, lowering her arms while keeping a careful watch on Neo.

'Still dazed but it looks like the spell only affected her and not you, Yang. Meaning if one is hit we can tag them out quickly and not be affected.' Weiss answered.

"Good tip." Yang remarked, facing Neo. "Really good one."

In addition to Neo's fighting style, Team RWBY had been keeping track of the kind of spells she could use and so far she could use a lot.

Elemental magic.

Time magic.

And now magic that could distort one's mind and senses.

Yang was starting to believe that the Keyblade had a lot of hax abilities and found herself thinking how unfair it was.

While all of Team RWBY had their grievances with Neo and for good reason too, for Yang it was a little more personal. For her, Neopolitan had been the first opponent to defeat her so utterly and she had made it almost look like child's play. The only reason Yang was alive now was because her birthmother Raven Branwen had stepped in and scared Neo before she could finish her on the train.

That had stung Yang's pride.

Yang remembered her father's lessons to her about keeping her temper in check and not relying on her Semblance as a crutch in battle. Yang probably should have considered these lessons long before the Fall of Beacon, back when Neo had first defeated her but she waved it off, focused on defending Vale and figured Neo had been lucky that time since Yang had spent a whole day fighting in the former settlement of Mount Glenn and only had a few hours of sleep.

However Yang was smart enough now to not make those kinds of excuses.

Neo beat her because she was skilled, smart and strong. She barely put up an effort in their fight because she used Yang's aggression against her and that mistake nearly got her killed. And then, when the Fall happened Yang hadn't learned and charged in against Adam Taurus, losing her arm and this had come with plenty of mental and physical scars.

But this time the lessons stayed etched in her head.

She and Blake defeated Adam Taurus and while Yang wasn't proud of killing him, she was able to put him and what he had done to her and Blake behind her during their time in Atlas.

Neo on the other hands…

"Guys, I'll be handling this on my own now." Yang said aloud, causing Neo to pause.

'What?' Ruby asked from inside Penny's heart.

'Yang, don't do this.' Blake begged. 'This isn't the time for this.'

(RWBY Volume 6 Soundtrack One Thing Ends)

"But it is." Yang's eyes firmly gazed on Neo. "You know, the first time we fought I should have learned my lesson that day on the train."

Neo raised an eyebrow.

"If I had, maybe I wouldn't have lost my arm or been made a pariah during the tournament when you along with Cinder and Mercury set me up." Yang narrowed her eyes.

"That was them. I wasn't there for that." Neo retorted. "I was already on my way to free Roman and I didn't even know or care how they were going to drive everyone into a frenzy. I may have gone along with them but they were never my team, Blondie."

"You still went along with it and why? Because they scared you and Roman into working for them." Yang snapped. "Funny though, you remind me of my mom...The one who birthed me. You remember her? The masked woman who showed up on the train just after you knocked me out."

"I know her. Raven Branwen, the bandit queen." Neo recalled. "I was trained by a Huntress to fight like one but I knew then and there I didn't stand a chance against her. Roman and I were small time crooks looking out for number one; she was a literal warlord, a queen among bandits in Mistral."

"And she was the Spring Maiden." Yang blurted out, making Neo freeze which she noticed. "I guess Cinder didn't tell you that part, did she? For all her strength and power, she never bothered to lift a hand to help me, my dad, my uncle or my sister. She ran away from everything…Because she was scared too. So scared she would rather play bandit, pretend I didn't exist until I was at her doorstep, tried to emotionally manipulate me into abandoning my sister and my uncle in a fight she believed we couldn't win and then lured us into a trap so she could get what she wanted."

Neo noticed Yang's eyes start to flare.

"Guess we're not so different in the department of crappy mothers, huh Trivia?" Yang asked, bring a hand to her hip, watching as Neo glared darkly at her.

"I told tree girl and I'll tell you this now and only once: Trivia Vanille is dead." Neo growled. "Dead and buried. Call me that name again I'll pull you out of that tree girl with my bare hands and make you into the world's most disheveled looking rug!"

"Hey, don't diss the hair!" Yang shot back. "You think taking the name of your imaginary friend suddenly means you stop being the same little girl you were back then? Newsflash, you're the same person as you've always been. You always blamed your 'imaginary friend' for the problems you caused in your home and even if your parents were so bad they made my birthmother and Weiss' father candidates for sainthood-"

'Hey!' She heard Weiss bark in the back of her mind.

"-You still haven't taken responsibility for the things you have done! Like helping Cinder and Salem! You just wrote them off as a mistake, not caring how many people you hurt or killed! You never did learn that simple thing called responsibility did you, Trivia?" Yang continued.

"Oh shut up about responsibility!" Neo retorted, becoming really mad now. "You want me to say I'm sorry? To get on my knees and beg forgiveness from you, Red and your friends? You really are dumber than I thought if you think you will ever see that from me and I told you to stop calling me that name!"

Neo lashed out with her Keyblade but Yang ducked and rolled to the other side.

"Why? Afraid you'll feel remorse for killing your parents?" Yang retorted as she got up. "They might have treated you like crap but they still were your family."

"They were never my family!" Neo spun around with an enraged look on her face. "They treated me like a freak my whole childhood! I was glad they died! Just as I don't feel bad for anything I have done!"

Yang noticed a dark aura slowly surrounding Neo…making her pause for a brief second. As for Neo, her Keyblade suddenly vanished from her hands, surprising her.

"Wha-What?!" Neo tried summoning her Keyblade back but it refused to return to her hand. "What is going?! Why won't you come back?!"

"Maybe your heart's not as strong as you thought." Yang said, causing Neo to look at her. "It might have seen something in you, but you pushed it away."

"You…" Neo clenched her fists. "Is that what you were planning this whole time? Trying to get me to lose my Keyblade?"

"Honestly no." Yang shook her head. "None of us were planning on that. But since we're on the subject…"

Her eyes flared and before Neo could react the ground reached up and grabbed her, covering her arms and legs in a dense form of dirt that kept her from escaping.

"We still have our Maiden powers." Yang said, her eyes flaring as she watched Neo struggle to escape.

She walked up right to Neo, clenching one hand into a fist and reached way back. Neo's eyes widened and she closed her eyes, anticipating a punch that would likely break her nose…or her entire face.

"Boop!"

Neo's eyes shot open when she felt a simple tap, not a punch on her nose.

"Got your nose." Yang said with a cheeky smile. "And that counts as a hit."

Neo stared with a gaping mouth at what just happened.

Did she…

Did they just…

Neo's eyes narrowed and she grit her teeth. "You…"

Yang noticed that dark aura from before surrounding Neo and did her eyes just turn yellow?

"You…" Neo growled as the earth prison holding began to crack. "You…Bi-"

"Stop!"

Both girls turned to see Terra a few feet from them, 'glaring' at them both. "What in the worlds is going on here?"

"That bitch cost me my Keyblade!" Neo shouted as the dark aura around her flared.

Terra froze upon seeing Neo. "Darkness…You need to stop! Your heart can't handle this much Darkness!"

Neo roared as she shattered her earthly prison and lunged at Yang, knocking her down before she could react. Just as she raised a fist and was ready to punch Yang's lights out, Terra grabbed the fist and pulled her off Yang. Before Neo could do anything, Terra's other hand chopped her on the back of her head, knocking her out. The dark aura faded as Neo lost conscious, letting out a groan as her eyes closed.

Terra gently placed her on the ground before 'looking' at Yang who sat up. "What happened?"

"I…I'm not sure." Yang admitted. "We were…We sparring…More or less and then…"

Suddenly Yang transformed into Ruby who took over. "I think we pushed Neo's buttons too far and she ended up like this. She even lost her Keyblade."

Terra looked down at Neo, contemplating what he had heard. "The dark coat she is wearing would protect her heart from being eroded by the Darkness. But if her Keyblade left her, it's because she has experienced an imbalance in her heart."

"An imbalance?" Ruby questioned.

"A Keyblade's power comes from the heart of its wielder. If the heart is clouded by some form of doubt or something that clouds the person's feelings…They lose their Keyblade." Terra explained, bringing a hand over Neo's forehead.

"This fight of yours…" Terra looked at Ruby. "What was it about?"

Xxx

"So that's what happened."

Terra couldn't say he was happy with what he had heard about what had happened. Ruby and her friends challenged Neo to get her to tell them what happened in the Realm of Darkness and the fight had escalated too fast.

Now Neo was unconscious after having unwittingly tapping into Darkness and possibly lost her Keyblade.

"Is she going to be okay?" Ruby asked, looking down at Neo as the former thief continued to sleep.

"I don't know." Terra answered honestly. "This isn't something that can be cured with a simple rest, even if the coat had been protecting her."

This was not good.

As much as Ruby and her friends still had a beef with Neo, being responsible for her nearly being corrupted was not what they had wanted.

"And that's not even the worst news." Terra continued. "Penny managed to find Aqua."

"She did?" Ruby asked with a surprised face. "She didn't say anything to us."

'Forgive me, Ruby. My avatar was focused on your fight with Neopolitan while the core continued searching for Aqua.' Penny spoke from within the avatar's heart and then showed them all where Aqua was.

A strange place between time and space…

Aqua standing with the red haired girl named Poppy who vanished a second later…

Two dragon deities staring her down…

One dragon was serpentine like, seemingly made of golden pure light…

The other was a winged dragon with a skull like face, its entire form made of a dark tainted light…

Both dragons were snarling at her as she summoned her Keyblade, preparing to fight.

Ruby's shot wide open. "She's facing the Gods?!"