Intermission:

The World of Remnant:

The Keyblade

(The screen is pitch black as the introduction fades into the background)

Hi, first time I'm doing this, but I really want to do it right. Okay, so today we're covering something super important. So important that literally the only people who know this are literally a handful of people. I mean, just a handful. I can literally count the number of people who know this secret with just one hand.

Let's see, it's me,

(The emerald, green outline of a boy is shown, waving a hand)

Aqua,

(A blue outline resembling a young woman appears next)

Xion,

(Next is the white outline of a girl appearing next to the blue woman)

Ruby,

(A red girl, resembling the white one appears on the other side of the blue woman)

Their sister Yang,

(A yellow teenage girl with wavy blond hair was next, appearing next to the girl)

Their friends, Blake and Weiss

(A dark purple female figure with cat ears on her head appeared, followed by a whit-ish blue female one with long white hair in a ponytail)

Their dad,

(A muscular yellow man appears next to the white girl)

And I think Professor Ozpin.

(A dark green man appears last)

Whoa, I count seven, so I literally used more than one hand. My bad but I think that's all who knows. At least, that's what I think. I'll have to ask Professor Ozpin who else might know later. Anyways, we're covering a super-secret topic here:

The Keyblade.

(A key with a handle and grip is shown, looking basic but it had a keychain hanging from the bottom of the hilt.)

What is the Keyblade, you ask?

Well, to put it simply it's the mightiest weapon to ever exist and our only defense against the darkness.

(The Keyblade is then replaced by a dark cloud with yellow eyes appearing)

Specifically, the Heartless.

It's what lights the darkness and can bring happiness to everyone.

(There a flash of light and the cloud is dispersed.)

Keyblades can only be wielded by chosen individuals who are strong of heart.

(A lock is shown next, followed by a beam of light and the lock is seemingly broken)

Since it's shaped like a key, it can open or close any lock in existence and are imbued with magic and other unique capabilities.

(The emerald, green warrior with a Keyblade is shown spinning and a literal tornado appears around his Keyblade. This is then followed by a bronze warrior as the earth cracks and shatters around him before blasting up, becoming literal meteors. The scene then shows the blue woman from before as a spiral of water explodes behind her and she shoots up into it, pointing her Keyblade in front of her as she rises.)

A skilled wielder would be strong enough just about to take on anyone.

(There is an explosion of red and white petals as the girls with the red and white cloaks are shown again, each of them holding uniquely shaped weapons with the red girl's weapon resembling a scythe and the white girl's weapon being a bow.)

And best of all, Keyblade wielders may bequeath their powers to the next generation upon meeting worthy individuals.

(The blue woman is shown kneeling in front of a little yellow colored girl, offering her Keyblade and the little girl holds the hilt. They are both immediately changed with the blue woman becoming a bronze armored man and the yellow girl becomes a dark purple girl with cat ears appearing on her head.)

It's a little tricky because even if the wielder does bequeath their powers to someone who has the potential, it's not a guarantee that they will get a Keyblade. It all depends on the strength of their Heart.

(The red girl is shown again with a glowing heart appearing in her chest.)

But if they work for it…

(The girl's friends and family appears around her, including the blue woman, the bronze armored man and the emerald boy, all of them having shining hearts.)

It will be worth it.


"Unbelievable…She made it look so easy…Little Red and her friends…"

While Aqua's journey through Remnant's history continued, the other Keyblade Wielders were still in the Ever After. They couldn't do much at the moment, but it was easy to forget time flowed differently in this world.

Or that the Ever After almost had no concept of time.

Thus, by the time Aqua had reappeared in Remnant and having faced Gilgamesh before being reuniated with Ozma in his new incarnation, Terra had taken an irate Neopolitan far enough from the Great Tree and sat her down once she was calm.

Or as calm as she could be given her constant muttering and scowl on her face.

Terra knew that Neo would be far from the first choice as a Keyblade Wielder, given her somewhat unique personality and history with Oscar, Penny and their friends but she still had proven to be a valuable ally to Aqua and her heart was strong enough to wield one. It was clear Aqua had been a good influence on her given their time together before finding him and the others but it was also clear that Neo still had a long way to go.

"Are you calm enough now to listen?" Terra finally asked, watching as Neo conjured a chair for her to sit on, followed by a table.

"Hey, don't get all 'Bronze Papa' on me. If you had been through what I had been, you'd be as annoyed with those brats as me." Neo retorted, conjuring a cup of tea for herself.

Would that even taste like real tea?

"They could have done so much to actually stop Salem and Cinder, but they got it in their heads that just because she was immortal, they could only run and keep those relics from her. Then, Aqua uses one to actually trap Salem and pretty much defeats the whole argument of her being unstoppable in five seconds." Neo held up her hand and showed Terra all five fingers. "Five seconds!"

"It's not as easy as you make it sound and you know that." Terra remarked.

Neo scoffed and looked away. "…"

Terra took a moment before he finally spoke. "What is it you are looking for?"

Neo looked back at Terra. "What?"

"You have a Keyblade, even if it wasn't born from your heart, it means your heart is strong enough to have one. So far, I can tell you had been with Aqua long enough for her to think you were good enough for the one she gave you. What I am not clear on is what you want to do with it or what you want in general." Terra clarified.

Neo stared at Terra for a moment, sipping her tea. "…I don't have any goals."

If Terra could have raised an eyebrow, he would have. "What do you mean? Everyone has a goal, a dream or some kind of desire."

"It's easy for you to say that. Aqua told me about how you and she grew up in your nice temple in your little world off to the corner of the universe. Very nice from the way she described it." Neo took another sip of her tea. "Me? All I ever wanted in life was the freedom to be who I wanted to be and be accepted for that and only one person ever did."

Terra noted the somber mood Neo was now in.

"He was a criminal, a liar, a thief, and a murderer but at the end of the day he was the only person who ever accepted me, praised me, treated me as if I was something more than just a freak girl who couldn't talk. My only purpose then, was to protect the one good thing I had in life…And then he was gone." Neo placed her teacup on the table. "And all I had left was trying to avenge that loss."

"Those girls whose hearts reside in Penny. You blamed them." Terra stated.

"And I blamed the person I should have taken revenge on, but I was too scared, too frightened of her power…And I let her string me around like a dog on a collar." Neo stared at the table. "Even after I was betrayed and dropped here, all I could think about was having my revenge. And then…"

Terra waited carefully for Neo to continue.

"I nearly died trying to get it."

(Flashback)

Neo had waited patiently for this.

With her new powers here in the Ever After, she would be able to finally take her revenge on Little Red for Roman's death. Little Red broke away from her friends and that was when Neo prepared her trap, using her upgraded Semblance to conjure a literal replica of her childhood home but changed it to fit her idea of home.

And then Red came.

At first it looked like she had stumbled here but the moment she saw the house, she kicked down the doors, her eyes literally blazing red.

"COME OUT, NEO! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE!"

She strolled down the hallway, glancing at the portraits.

One showed Neo as an unhappy child with her parents…

The other portrait depicts Neopolitan with Cinder standing besides Salem's throne. Ruby slowly walked towards the largest portrait, depicting Roman Torchwick and Neo with her parents lying on the ground, apparently dead.…

And then he glanced at her and spoke. "Hello, Red."

Ruby jumped back, brandishing her weapon and pointed it at the portrait.

"Been a while. How's the hero biz treating ya?" The Roman in the portrait asked, casually strolling towards her from inside the painting. "I gotta say, you're not looking too good."

"Where's Neo?" Ruby simply asked, keeping her weapon aimed at the moving picture.

"Yeesh, no manners. And after everyone came out to see you!" Roman's voice echoed through the room as lights began to turn on. Ruby turned around and was astonished to see certain people at the table: Penny Polendina, Pyrrha Nikos, Leonardo Lionheart, Clover Ebi, Ozpin and General James Ironwood. Each of them has a cup of tea in front of them.

"Salutations, Ruby!" Penny saluted.

"Hello again!" Pyrhha waved.

Lionheart was fiddling with his lion tail before he looked at Ruby and sat up straight. Clover adjusted his clover badge.

Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "Miss Rose."

"Why don't you take a seat?" Ironwood gestured to an empty seat at the table.

Ruby looked on at the sight of the people she knew with horror. "How is she doing this?"

Everyone at the table only laughed at Ruby's bewilderment.

"Stop it! This isn't real!" Ruby shouted.

"Is it real?" Ruby was startled by Roman's presence beside her and fell to the floor. "You're the one following a talking cat around a fairy tale. Reality's gettin' fuzzier by the minute, kid."

Roman walked away from Ruby, twirling Melodic Cudgel. He jumped onto the table as everyone stopped laughing and stared at Ruby who twirled Crescent Rose scythe and changed to sniper gun at Roman and the others.

"Y'know once Neo realized where she was, everything changed. Always loved the idea of a place to run away from it all. Do whatever you want." He sat down cross-legged on the table between Lionheart and Clover. "I offered that to her back on Remnant." He frowned which everyone at the table shared. "But we all remember how that ended."

Ruby just stood there, staring at the illusionary copy of people she knew as friends and enemies, seemingly frozen. "…That's it?"

Roman glared at her.

"That's what this is about…" Ruby's voice was soft before it started to grow louder until she shouted loud enough her voice echoed throughout the mansion. "You knocked my sister down here, got us knocked down here, got my friend killed again and brought me here…BECAUSE YOU STILL BLAMED ME FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO TORCHWICK?!"

A gust blasted from around Ruby as her eyes blazed. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

Roman and the other copies spread out, looking surprised.

"EVERYTHING YOU PUT ME THROUGH WAS BECAUSE OF HIM?! YOU BOTH TRIED TO KILL ME THAT NIGHT AFTER YOU HELPED DESTROY MY HOME! I AM NOT EVEN THE ONE WHO KILLED HIM! WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO MAKE THAT CLEAR?!" The gust around Ruby intensified, causing even the house to shake. "AND IT WASN'T ENOUGH WHEN CINDER BETRAYED YOU! YOU STILL CAME AFTER ME! AND IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER ANYMORE BECAUSE REMNANT IS GONE!"

She heard footsteps behind and her and spun around, aiming Crescent Rose and fired…A giant fireball!

Neo opened her parasol to block but the force of the blast knocked her back, sending her crashing into the wall.

"Guess you're a little late with the memo. Remnant is gone and I have the powers of the Fall Maiden!" Ruby snarled as the wind intensified, even blocking a shot from the Roman illusion. "Me, my sister and my friends are all Maidens now! It's all that's left of Remnant because of you and Cinder!"

Neo got up, looking at her with a surprised face which caused Ruby to actually smile. "That's right. You've gotten stronger with your Semblance…But I'm a Maiden now. Let's see who lasts longer! You want a fight, Neo than you'll get one and this time ONLY ONE OF US IS LEAVING ALIVE!"

What happened next was a bit of frenzy.

Neo's copies all attacked, her knowledge of their skills allowing her to gain an edge, but Ruby's Maiden powers combined with her own skills easily took down the illusionary copes.

She overpowered a blast from Lionheart, taking him out first.

She fired bolts of lightning that hit Clover and Ironwood, shattering their forms next.

Neo tried to use Penny and Pyrhha to emotionally break Ruby, but that only made the Fall Maiden angrier, and she let loose a stream of fire that incinerated both copies.

"You actually attacked your own friends?" Roman asked, looking shocked and actually terrified.

Ruby walked through the fire, her blazing eyes matching the flames as she glared at him. "My friends are dead…My family is dead…And so are you."

Neo moved to assist, not wanting to let her destroy Roman again.

BOOM!

Only Ruby was faster as with just a snap of her fingers, Roman was gone again in a fiery blast that sent Neo crashing into the wall again. Cracks started to form along the walls and the mansion started to shake, pieces falling and scattering into pixels. Neo got back up just in time to see Ruby blasting towards her, looking beyond terrifying as the wind and fire circled around her.

She was even more terrifying than Cinder.

Neo ducked and rolled out of the way as Ruby crashed and burned through the wall and with that the entire mansion shattered into pink pixelated light.

Neo didn't stop to look back.

She just ran.

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

She could feel the heat of the fire exploding from where the mansion had once stood, almost exactly of that night when the real mansion back on Remnant had been destroyed.

Only it didn't have the enraged scream that came with it.

(End Flashback)

"After that, I was on the run with Little Red chasing me up and down the Ever After. My little game had pushed her over the edge, and she was now out for blood. My plan had been to break her to the point she would give up, drink the tea and let the tree take her so she would be gone, as in no longer the Little Red who had been there at the beginning, making life hard for my friend right up until the very end. And in way, I guess my plan worked, just not the way I had intended." Neo recounted the story with a solemn look on her face. "Instead of breaking to the point of giving up, I turned her into…Me."

Neo placed the teacup on the table, staring down at her reflection, a somewhat remorseful look on her face. "I spent for what felt like weeks, maybe even months running from her. My Semblance helped me stay alive, using images of people I knew who were strong enough to help me but even then, every time we fought Little Red got better with her skills and powers. It felt like it was only a matter of time before she finally killed me…And then Aqua came. If not for her, I would more than likely be dead by now."

Terra had remained silent as Neo told him her story of what happened between her and Ruby. He had not been surprised to hear of Neo's plan against Ruby, given the bad blood he had seen between them.

But did Neo truly feel remorse?

"And what you learned from it?" Terra finally asked.

Neo looked up at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"Do you feel regret for anything you've done? Your parents, the people who lost their lives because of you?" Terra clarified.

Neo just stared at him with an unreadable expression for a moment. "…Before I would have said 'no'."

"And now?"

"…To a point."

"Just to a point?" Terra would have frowned.

"I'm not like you or Aqua, Bronzey. You know what my life was like before I met Roman and all I ever wanted was…freedom. I wanted someone to just accept me for who I am, even when I couldn't speak. Roman was that one person, he showed me more love than my parents ever did." Neo slowly said. "How could I have ever been better than I was when I was surrounded by people who only cared about themselves? I regret teaming up with Cinder, I regret not trying to find a way out of her schemes and I regret…"

Terra noticed Neo pausing for some reason but didn't try to pry. He knew enough to know that trying to push her would only make Neo close herself off.

"I regret…" Neo brought a hand to her chest, a surprised look on her face. "I regret that I caused the explosion that killed them…My parents. It's…It's always been there but I buried it deep down because I couldn't forgive them for what they had done to me. I can still hear their voices along with the people I killed…That I killed while smiling because it made Roman happy, and his happiness was mine. I killed and did horrible things because they made him happy, made him smile at me and he praised me, complimented me, supported me in everything.

"No one else had ever done that for me. Not my parents, not my own godfather, and sure as hell not Cinder. I don't know where this all came from, why am I regretting it all now? Why do I feel this way only now?"

Terra carefully studied her and could see Neo was not faking any of the emotions she displayed or what she had told him. "…Perhaps the fight with your darkness inside your heart, awakened these feelings."

Neo looked up at Terra, a curious look on her face. "I can't explain it…I just wanted to make Little Red hurt so badly…She had her friends and family to love her. My family…Roman was all I had…and the only thing keeping my alive was what he taught me. That I should put surviving over everything else."

"And did you learn anything from Aqua?" Terra asked.

"I…When I first met her, I thought she was just another person who unluckily ended up here. Another Huntress fighting a losing battle…but I stuck with her because I realized she was the only one who could help me stay alive. Then I learned about her, the Keyblade, the Heartless destroying Remnant because they were brought here by the staff…I just followed her like I did Roman and Cinder but…It became different." Neo glanced away. "She helped me, she protected me, she offered me a choice to follow her. It was almost like I was with Roman again. Only things got different, especially when I finally got a voice."

"Except Aqua is nothing like Roman. If she had met the two of you before, she would have done everything in her power to stop you." Terra pointed out. "Survival is one thing, but-"

"Living is another." Neo finished for him, looking back at the bronze knight. "Aqua told me that too. Is this a phrase among Keyblade Wielders?"

"Maybe." Terra simply said.

"Well, it's an annoying one." Neo sighed. "So, what I had all this regret and I only felt it until after you took a trip into my heart? That it somehow made me feel this way?"

"More like you buried your heart to the point you might as well have been an extension of Roman's own heart." Terra answered. "Those feelings were always there, Neo. You may not have realized it until now, but they were there all this time. You only now are able to realize this because you had nothing else to turn. Not even Aqua could have convince you to feel this way no matter what she said or did to help you."

Neo glanced back down at the table as she considered this. "…So, what does that make me now? Because I actually regret killing my abusive parents does that mean I'm back to being Trivia Vanille, the lonely girl who wanted to be free? I am not even sure I can still be Neopolitan, the partner of Remnant's number one criminal. Not when I am sure you guys will let me go back to being that."

"What do you truly want, Neo? If you want someone to accept you, I think someone already has." Terra said, making Neo look at him. "Do you truly think Aqua would give you a Keyblade if she didn't accept you for who you are? Despite your past actions?"

Neo considered this as she held out a hand and summoned her Keyblade, looking it over. "Road to the Dawn…That's the name of this Keyblade. We found it in the Realm of Darkness and Aqua gave it to me. She wasn't even sure I could use it but offered to let me try. Then she actually taught me how to use it and through it all, I…enjoyed it. I enjoyed being with her because…She made me feel a bit like before."

Though things were still different.

Aqua gave her a choice, Roman ordered her around and expected her to follow him even she had concerns about certain plans or schemes.

Like following Cinder for one.

'The world's a big, scary place, Neo and we need to look out only for ourselves. And once this is all over, we'll go back to the old life. Okay?'

Only they didn't.

Because Roman helped bomb Vale but she hadn't cared about that. She only cared about being with him again, the horror they were committing settled in the far corner of her mind. She believed in him that they would survive anything, no matter what lines they would cross.

And then he died.

And she had been so intent on avenging him, she actually teamed up with Cinder of all people, the one who dragged them into the mess to begin with. Cinder had no appreciation for the people who worked for her, getting rid of them when they were no longer useful. As much as Neo hoped she was dead for good, she now saw it was pointless when she saw what her own quest for revenge had done to Ruby.

The red cloaked girl with the oversized scythe, blazing red eyes and the enraged look on her face…

She had turned Little Red into herself that night and had nearly paid for it. Only Aqua's miraculous arrival had saved her, gave her an opportunity to not only survive but to have something more. A chance to escape, a chance to leave it all behind again, a chance to have a purpose again. Only Aqua was the exact opposite of Roman and Cinder in every way with the only similarity between Aqua and Roman being that Aqua risked her life to come back and save Neo in the Realm of Darkness when she was cornered by Salem.

Before she could think anything else, a sound made her and Terra look up, seeing what looked like a meteorite falling from the sky. Back at the tree, Penny looked up from the custom-made shack Oscar was resting, seeing the same meteorite.

"What is that?" Terra asked.

"This place doesn't get meteorites." Neo stood up. "I saw this before…The day Aqua landed here."

Terra glanced at her. "You mean-"

Penny took a deep breath and sighed. "Someone else has arrived here."