Atop a roof, a few Heartless skittered about, searching for a prey.

Little did they know they were already someone else's'.

Suddenly, one of the Heartless exploded.

The rest of the troupe glanced about, seemingly curious as to where there compatriot went. And also what this strange long stick that was in its place was.

The arrow promptly exploded, engulfing the remaining Heartless in a fireball.

A couple rooftops over, a figure in red, yellow and blue watched for any survivors, a second arrow already notched in his bow.

When the smoke cleared, no Heartless remained. Lowering his bow, the archer pushed an unruly lock of hair out of his face with a white-gloved hand, pushing it back into a head of dark, messy hair that was, despite his best efforts, still fairly boyish looking.

Surveying the other rooftops, the archer noted with satisfaction that all the Heartless up here had been cleared.

Of course, that still left the bunch down belo-

"THUNDARA!"

And with that clarion call, the night sky was lit up by the flash of lightning arcing from the street below. The following BOOM was so loud, a few nearby windows would likely need replacing tomorrow.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Max Goof made his way over to the ledge to drop down. It seemed his partner had things under control.

"BLIZZARA! FIRARA BLADE!"

Very enthusiastically under control.

As he dropped to the street below, Max was met with the simultaneous sensations of residual static making some of his hair stand on end, a cold chill across his patches of exposed skin and the smell of freshly charred brimstone.

In the center of the street, amongst a multitude of scorch marks, patches of ice and small craters, holding a purple bejeweled staff in one hand and a sword made of fire in the other stood a young duckling in a pink and blue longcoat.

"You signed your death warrants the moment you challenged me," the girl growled out in a dark, gravelly tone.

"Uh, Webby?" Max ventured with a mildly concerned raised eyebrow.

"Oh, wait wait!" the girl suddenly perked up in an excited tone, "Call me the Reaper, 'cause I'm here to collect your souls," she then dropped right back into her gravelly growl.

"Webby."

"Oh! OH! And when you get to hell, tell 'em to make some room."

"Webby," Max groaned, "they're already dead."

"What?" the girl glanced around, suddenly realized they were alone. "Ah, phooey! I had like, five more one-liners!"

"Yeah, Max. Why ya gotta harsh on my girl's buzz like that?" a teasing feminine voice came from Webby's shadow. A shadow that rather pointedly did not match the girl's silhouette, and also sported a pair of glowing eyes.

Max repressed a mild shiver. Yeah, that was never gonna stop being at least a little creepy.

"Ah well, I'll just save 'em for next time," Webby shrugged before pumping her fist in the air, "Now come on! We got more slaughter to monsters nad hits!"

Max stared in confusion before he remembered that his compatriot just cast three decently leveled spells basically all at once…

"Uh, Webby? How much mana did you just burn through?"

"Umm… Applesauce!" Webby replied, addressing the street lamp to Max's left. Then her face began to twitch and her eyes started blinking independently. Then she crumpled to the ground.

"Ahh crap."

As Webby fell backwards, Max started to move to catch her. But Webby's shadow was way ahead of him. The purple talisman hanging from Webby's neck flashed as a pair of arms caught her and the shadow solidified into another duckling.

"Hey Pinks, I got ya." The girl cradled Webby gently in her arms.

Shaking his head in a combination of exasperation and bemusement, Max tapped the communicator on his ear.

"CONTROL, this is Goof Troop. We're going to need an extraction."

"Leeeenaaa… your hands are so strong… are you part bear?"

"Love you too, Webs."

Max tapped his communicator again.

"And a few boxes of energy bars."

For Ruby, there was a familiar comfort to dashing down a narrow city street, her petal-enveloped form bouncing between buildings and skimming along the pavement as she rocketed towards some monsters that needed slaying.

Before, things were new, strange, unfamiliar.

But this? This was just another day at the office for Ruby.

Dashing down the street, Ruby darted past other people. All of them running in the opposite direction. A few seemed to notice the red blur rushing past them, but most seemed far more focused on putting as much distance between themselves and wherever they'd just been as possible.

In the distance, Ruby's ear could pick up what had to be weapons-fire, though the sound was less the 'crack-boom' of ballistic firearms and more the 'pew-pew' of energy weapons. None of those sounds were coming from the direction she was headed though, so Ruby just filed that bit of info away for later.

As Ruby homed in on the location of the first scream, the buildings along either side of the street suddenly opened up. Ruby came to a stop to assess the area.

She just entered a large town square, almost a hundred meters on a side and ringed with what looked to be storefronts of various kinds. On three sides, including the one Ruby entered on, the square rose up on raised brick terraces, descending two levels with stairs into the center where there was a white-stone square a good fifty meters across. The fourth side was taken up by a large wall and gate, currently closed.

Probably for very good reason, given that there were over a dozen of those shadow-monsters, Heartless, skulking about the square. And in the midst of them was…

Ruby's blood ran cold as she recognized the form of a man on his back, his body very still as the Heartless swarmed around him. One in particular was standing on top of the man with its clawed hand driving into his chest.

And before Ruby could do anything other than stare, the Heartless tore its hand out, holding a… Heart. Not a heart like the organ, but a Heart-shaped mass of translucent Pink-Red light. The Heartless clenched its claw around the Heart and seemed to absorb it. The man's body suddenly twitched violently. Then he just… disappeared, fading away into a mass of flickering lights.

Ruby stared in shock for just a moment.

Then her eyes narrowed.

Ruby was no stranger to death. She was no stranger to seeing a life just… snuffed out. She was no stranger to arriving just a moment too late to save someone.

So it wasn't too long ago that Ruby learned how to focus all the ugly things she felt from seeing a life taken. All the fear, sadness, anger, guilt and self-loathing… Ruby had learned how to focus all that into one thing:

Making sure whatever took that life would never take another.

Yet even as Ruby felt her mind and spirit harden, she suddenly felt a… ping somewhere in her soul. Something responding to her drive and determination.

And in a flash of light, the Keyblade was suddenly in Ruby's hand.

Glancing down, Ruby cocked her head in curiosity at the unexpected appearance of the weapon, as well as the feeling she was now getting from it. It felt like the Keyblade was resonating, not just with her aura, but the very determination Ruby was feeling right now. To stand against this darkness and to cut these monsters down.

Right now, Ruby could feel, understand with absolute certainty…

This was a weapon meant to kill Heartless.

Ruby felt her lips curl into a smirk.

Well wasn't that interesting.

Ruby nodded to herself.

Considering that she also really wanted to conserve Crescent Rose's ammunition at the moment, Ruby supposed it was worth… experimenting a bit.

Gripping the Keyblade with both hands in a stance she remembered from Uncle Qrow, Ruby sighted down the Heartless who took the man's life. It was bigger than the others, standing upright while the others were hunched over. Its claws were also bigger, more pronounced with what looked like metal armor over them. Its head was encased in a pair of clam-like pieces of metal in some twisted parody of a helmet. And on its chest was an emblem of some kind; a large black heart, framed in red with what appeared to be stitches crisscrossing it. There was some twisted irony in such a thing.

Of course to Ruby, such an emblem only made for a more convenient target.

The Heartless began to turn in Ruby's direction, seemingly noticing her presence.

But even as they were turning, Ruby was channeling her aura, readying her semblance, feeling her power resonate with the Keyblade. Ruby focused on her target, took a step forward into the ether…

…and buried the Keyblade into the monster's chest.

Ruby was fairly certain she'd never crossed that kind of distance with a single petal burst before. But then, righteous fury was a hell of a motivator.

The Heartless's yellow beady eyes seemed to glance downward at the blade in its chest. Ruby wondered if it was stunned at the human girl who just crossed fifty meters in the blink of an eye to right beside to bury a sword in its chest.

Ruby then decided she didn't rightly care, and spun back on her heal, ripping the Keyblade from the Heartless's chest.

For a split second, Ruby could see what looked like a heart made of light or energy rising out of the disintegrating creature. And a split second later, the light was gone and the Heartless was dust.

Still holding the Keyblade firm in a ready stance, Ruby surveyed the dozen Heartless still around her.

They were still for a moment.

Then the monsters charged.

And the Huntress went to work.

Ruby had to admit, this Keyblade wasn't half bad.

As the first two Heartless were cut down with a wide swing, Ruby was easily able to transfer the momentum into a role that got her out of the center of the melee.

Ten

As the remaining Heartless leapt into the space she'd just occupied, Ruby completed her role. Bouncing off of one foot, Ruby made a dash along the side of the group. Keyblade held out, Ruby cut down four more Heartless.

Six

The Keyblade might not have Crescent Rose's phenomenal reach, but its smaller size meant that Ruby was able to get a corresponding bump in in mobility. At least over short distances.

Even as the Heartless seemed to be realized what was going on, Ruby made another dash along the group's other side, catching three more Heartless with the Keyblade.

Three

The remaining Heartless charged Ruby, apparently unable to realize just how outmatched they were.

Too bad for them, Ruby supposed.

Jumping back to avoid the initial lunge, Ruby countered with a lunge of her own and a one-handed diagonal swing with her right hand. The Heartless in the center and the one on her right were cut down.

One

Perhaps the remaining Heartless could recognize that Ruby's long swing created an opening on her left, because it quickly leapt at her seemingly undefended side.

Of course, that opening was intentional on Ruby's part. She wanted to try something.

With a flash of light, the Keyblade jumped from a forward-grip in Ruby's right hand, to a reverse-grip in her left. And right through the Heartless's chest.

Zero.

Ruby flipped the Keyblade back around and raised it up, almost seeing her reflection in the blade.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Then Ruby suddenly felt herself letting out a long breath and nearly doubled as the adrenaline rush began to fade and a wave of exhaustion hit her like a truck.

Taking a number of deep breaths, Ruby managed to steady herself. At least long enough to plant her butt on the nearby stairs.

Dang, this fight was harder than it should have been, and not just because the Keyblade wasn't her main weapon of choice. No… Ruby was starting to feel worn out, tired…

…That last fight, that battle on the Destiny Islands had taken a lot more out of Ruby than she'd expected. She could still feel the aches and sores from when she'd woken up. Ruby could tell her aura still wasn't all the way back up to full, plus she hadn't eaten more than an energy bar in… who knows how long. Ruby was fairly confident she could take at least one more fight with these things without much trouble, but after that…

Ruby let out a groan of frustration, leaning back on the stairs as she gazed up into the night sky. Was it too much to ask for a freakin' BREAK?!

"They'll keep coming after you." Ruby immediately glanced to her side at the unfamiliar voice.

Stepping out of the shadows and descending the steps into the square was a man. He looked to be in his mid, maybe late twenties. He was tall and lanky in a way that reminded Ruby a little of Uncle Qrow. Cold, blue eyes with a long diagonal scar between them seemed to focus on Ruby behind long, brown locks of hair, with the rest of his hair similarly spilling down his neck.

"Huh?" Ruby tilted her head quizzically as she got to her feet and processed what the man just said, even as she tried to get a better look at him. The man's outfit reminded Ruby of something she'd seen Dad wearing in an old photo; a black leather jacket with a high collar and unzipped in the front, a simple white shirt worn underneath. Below that was a pair of similar leather pants held up by multiple belts, including a pair of brown belts that crossed in an X-pattern. Perhaps the thing that stood out most to Ruby was the silver necklace around the man's neck which held a large emblem, a cross with a lion's head at the top. Ruby could make out the same emblem in red emblazoned on the man's sleeves. Also, the man was carrying what was almost definitely a sword on the back of his waist, though Ruby couldn't get a good look at it from this angle.

"I said they'll come after you out of nowhere," the man continued in a low, gravelly voice as he descended the steps into the center square, "And they'll keep coming after you, the Heartless. So long as you wield the Keyblade," the man pointed to the weapon in Ruby's hand.

That immediately go Ruby's attention. This guy apparently knew what the Keyblade was!

But then the man kept talking.

"Though I can't fathom why it would choose some kid to be its master…"

It might have just been the bout of frustration she was just feeling and the stress of the last few hours, but the way the man called her a kid really struck a nerve in Ruby.

"Excuse me?" Ruby raised an eyebrow even as her voice dropped almost to a growl, "What is that supposed to mean?" Normally Ruby didn't mind being called a 'kid', but then again people normally didn't call her one with that level of condescension.

The man actually had the audacity to chuckle at that.

"It means I can't believe such a legendary weapon would bond itself to some little girl who can barely handle herself against a few heartless," the man drawled while shaking his head.

Ruby left hand was now gripping the Keyblade quite a bit tighter, and her right was unconsciously reaching for Crescent Rose. Oh, this guy was asking for it!

"Trust me," this time Ruby did growl, "I can handle myself just fine."

The man chuckled again, gesturing to the square where the Heartless were just standing. "If a scuffle like that was enough to wear you out, then you don't stand a chance against what else is out there, or the people who might come after you. Trust me, I know."

Even through the ever-growing frustration at what a grade-A jerk this guy was being, something about the man's tone put Ruby on edge. Was that a Threat?

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Ruby spoke in a careful, guarded voice. Maybe it was the bad vibes Ruby was getting from this man, or maybe all the recent stress had just left her in a bad mood, but Ruby did not trust this guy one bit.

"That's not important," the man continued as he began approaching towards Ruby, his hand reaching out towards her, "now let's see that Keyblade…"

Ruby's eyes narrowed. Yeah, this guy was definitely bad news.

"Sorry. Not gonna happen," Ruby growled out as she backed very clear of the man's reach and assumed a defensive stance. One foot in front of the other with the Keyblade raised in a guard, while her right hand was reaching behind, ready to draw Crescent Rose.

The Man stopped, then seemed to almost smile.

"All right," the Man reached to the handle sticking out from behind his waist, pulling out what almost looked like an old, early-style gun-sword. The man assumed a clearly aggressive stance, the gun-sword held out to his side with both hands, looking like he was about to charge.

"Then have it your way."

So having it 'my' way is you mugging me for that thing I don't want to give you? If she wasn't so focused on the ensuing battle, Ruby might have shaken her head and groaned. Real courteous of you there, Mr. Jerk-face.

Instead, as the square fell into the momentary silence of a stand-off, Ruby remained focused on the enemy in front of her, doing her best to get a read on her opponent.

As she'd noticed earlier, Mr. Jerk-face's weapon bore a striking resemblance to early gun-swords that began to see wide-spread use among the Huntresses and Huntsman of Remnant after the Great War 80 years ago. Essentially it looked to be a large revolver with the barrel replaced with a long, wide blade almost a meter long. Looking closely, Ruby could make out what looked like the gun-barrel running through the blade to poke out just behind the tip.

Curious, but it was hardly anything Ruby's hadn't dealt with before.

The thing that was really giving Ruby pause was her own weapon. Specifically her new weapon. There was no way Ruby was going into a fight with an unknown and dangerous opponent without Crescent Rose, so that left the question of what to do with the Keyblade? Could it even hurt a non-Heartless? It might be best to just dismiss the thing and start moving before Mr. Jerk-face took the initiative…

Unbidden, an idea flashed into Ruby's head, an image of the Keyblade, spinning through the air…

…Yeah, that could work.

Ruby focused on that resonance between her spirit and the weapon in her hand, feeling a bit of her aura flow into the Keyblade. The Man tensed as Ruby suddenly moved, bringing her left hand up across her chest and over her right shoulder. Not a moment later, as she felt the energy begin to crackle along the blade, Ruby whipped her arm out and sent the Keyblade flying towards her opponent.

Strike Raid

The Keyblade flew true, spinning faster and faster as it was enveloped in crackling energy, hurtling towards Ruby's foe like a flying buzzsaw.

Though it seemed that said foe was quick on the uptake. Gripping his gun-sword with both hands, the Man brought his weapon across in a mighty swing, catching the Keyblade mid-spin. Following through, the Man continued his swing and successfully batted the attack aside, sending the Keyblade flying off into the air before it flashed away.

Exactly how Ruby was hoping.

The Man was clearly under the impression that the Keyblade was Ruby's only weapon.

An impression that he was about to sorely regret as he realized that this kid had not only seemingly teleported right in front of him in a burst of rose petals, but that weird red boxy thing on her back was now unfolding into a monstrously huge scythe. A scythe that was now going right for his legs.

With the Man's guard completely open after deflecting the Keyblade throw, Ruby was able to get right up close to him with a burst of semblance, her speed transferring into a swing from Crescent Rose that knocked the Man's legs clean out from under him. Even as the Man was starting to tumble through the air, Ruby was following through, bringing Crescent Rose around in a full spin to catch the Man in the stomach with a followup strike that sent him flying.

Ordinarily, Ruby would have worked at least one recoil-boosting shot into that combo, but right now she was conserving as many shots as she could. Meaning that she wasn't able to send the Man flying clean across the square with that last hit. She did managed to throw him a good ten meters though, plus five more from the tumbling he took, so Ruby was satisfied with that.

Ruby was even more satisfied with the utterly flabbergasted look on the Man's face as he pulled himself to his feet and still seemed to be processing what just happened, nearly gawking at the sight of Crescent Rose's massive form now resting on Ruby's shoulder.

"How's that for a kid?" Ruby flashed a savage grin.

The Man seemed to quickly wipe the gawking look off his face as he got to his feet. "What the hell is some kid doing with a freak weapon like that?" he muttered.

Ohhhh, this guy was asking for it! NOBODY called her Crescent Rose a freak!

But Ruby's indignant rage would have to wait as the Man suddenly pointed his gun-sword at her. Ruby was suddenly struck by the memory of a different kind of jerk wearing a silly looking bowler hat as the Man pulled the trigger and shot a giant fireball at her.

Acting on pure instinct, Ruby flipped Crescent Rose pointing down and fired a shot, launching herself just high enough to pass over the fireball and only feel the blistering heat.

Six shots left.

Combining the last of the recoil force with a burst of semblance, Ruby sent herself flying down towards the man in an overhead spin.

The Man only just managed to side-step an impact that sent cobblestones flying.

Flipping Crescent Rose to the side, Ruby almost squeezed her trigger to fire off a shot that would have sent them whirling around to clothesline the Man.

Six shots.

Instead Ruby lashed out with a swing to the Man's side, aiming to knock him off his feet. A swing the Man was able to batter aside with his gun-sword.

Even as the Man knocked her blow aside and made a strike of his own, Ruby was able to transfer that momentum into a twirl that brought Crescent Rose's back-end swinging back around to batter aside his incoming swing.

This pattern continued through several exchanges; a long, unbroken chain of Attack and Counter-Attack. One side would attack, the other would block and counterattack, only to find themself countered in return. The length and reach of Crescent Rose allowed Ruby to attack with one end and then defend with the other end in quick succession. On the reverse, the Man's shorter blade allowed him to be more nimble and faster over short distances, attacking and countering just as quickly as Ruby could. Yet even though Ruby knew she was faster than this guy was moving…

…Ruby could feel it. It was only a little bit, but she'd gotten slower.

The fight was becoming a stalemate, and the longer it dragged on, the slower she would get. Ruby needed an edge, now.

Ordinarily, Ruby would just fire off a round to give Crescent Rose a recoil boost, but did she really want to burn her sixth-to-last shot like that…?

Suddenly, Ruby realized that her counter was coming up just a bit too slow to catch an incoming strike.

She'd gotten distracted!

Just as the blade made contact with her shoulder, Ruby's form exploded into a cloud of rose petals, dashing backwards and upwards until Ruby deposited herself on next terrace up. Even so, she could feel her aura flickering where the blade clipped her.

Acting on pure instinct, Ruby brought Crescent Rose up to her shoulder, sighted down her opponent and pulled her trigger.

Five

But the Man was just a bit quicker, bringing his blade up just in time to block the incoming round.

Ruby groaned. For a complete and utter jerkface, this guy was pretty good. And more importantly, he was clearly fresh. He'd probably gotten a half-decent night of sleep and a meal today. He probably wasn't operating with less than one clip of ammo. He probably hadn't just come off of a small war against a Heartless that ate worlds!

Right now, Ruby was all of those things and more. The exhaustion, the lack of ammo, the compounding stress over a whole bunch of things… all of it was adding up fast.

Ruby needed to end this fight. She needed to end it soon.

But how? Ruby's resources were dwindling, and with them, so were her options.

That was when the Man shot another fireball at her.

And thanks to her Ruby's ever-more frazzled mental state, she was just a hair's-breadth too slow on her evasion dash.

Sent flying half by her semblance, half by the force of the explosion, Ruby could feel the searing heat of the flames as they charred her cloak and took a sizable chunk out of her remaining aura. The hard landing she took into the center of the square didn't help either.

Scrambling to her feet, Ruby desperately tried to clear her head and focus! She finally looked up to find the Man right on top of her, his weapon raised for an over-head strike.

Ruby tensed up in preparation for what was almost certainly to be a very painful hit.

The Man's gun-sword fell…

…and bounced right off a glowing, double-snowflake glyph. A very familiar double-snowflake glyph!

The man looked momentarily confused, then leapt backwards a few meters just in time to dodge a trio of incoming fireballs.

For her part, Ruby's heart was in her throat. She didn't want to hope, even as Ruby felt herself hoping against hope…

Then a pair familiar high heel-ed feet touched down next to her.

"Hands off my partner!" Deep, glimmering, beautiful blue eyes leveled an icy glare. Long, soft, snow-white hair done up in a long pony-tail waved majestically behind her. A small, pale, yet strong hand held a long, elegant, white-silver rapier in an immaculately practiced grip.

Weiss Schnee growled out her warning, her long rapier Myrtenaster drawn and leveled.

And Ruby's heart just about burst in sheer, unadulterated joy.

"Weiss…!" Ruby nearly choked as the edges of her eyes were already beginning to water.

"Hey Ruby," as she looked over to her partner, Weiss's face turned from an intense glare to a smile so soft it made Ruby's heart melt.

If they weren't in the middle of a fight right now, Ruby would have pulled Weiss into the biggest, tightest hug she could.

Suddenly, all of the exhaustion, the stress, the doubt, the uncertainty, all the things clouding Ruby's mind… all of it was GONE! Swept away like dust in a cool winter breeze.

Because Weiss was here.

Standing up, Ruby noticed Weiss changed her outfit from last they saw each other. A simple, yet still elegant blue-grey gown and skirt tied together with a white sash, completed with a bright red scarf around her neck. It was different, yet unmistakably, one-hundred percent Weiss.

"Weiss, I…" Ruby began to speak up, a thousand different things she wanted to say all piling up, even as she felt a smile splitting her face. The biggest, brightest smile she could remember making in a long time.

"Thank me later." Weiss answered with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, and that achingly soft smile still on her lips.

"So who's this reprobate?" Weiss asked as she turned back towards the Man, her face twisting back into an icy glare. For his part, the Man still seemed to be processing what just happened.

"No idea," Ruby replied as she leveled her own glare at the man, "He wanted me to hand over this weird sword I found and when I said No, this jerk attacked me!"

"Did he now?" Weiss answered back, her glare seeming to drop even colder.

"Wait," the Man suddenly spoke up, raising a hand towards Weiss, "this fight doesn't concern you. I'm only trying to test the Key-"

"EXCUSE ME? This doesn't concern me?!" Weiss's glare had gone from 'icy' to downright murderous. "You are attacking my partner! That concerns me quite a bit!"

"And he called Crescent Rose a FREAK!" Ruby threw in with a glare of her own, still feeling pretty miffed about that comment.

The Man actually took a step back, now looking fairly uneasy at the whole situation.

Weiss took a breath to compose herself after her outburst.

"Well then, I'd say such behavior warrants a thorough ass-kicking, wouldn't you agree?" Weiss flashed Ruby a savage grin.

"Hell yeah." a grin which Ruby eagerly returned, dropping into a familiar ready-stance with Crescent Rose.

The Man was now looking very uneasy at the savage grins being leveled his way. He seemed to steel himself pretty quickly though and brought his gun-sword up in a ready-stance.

"It'll take more than a couple of kids to get me to back down," he spoke in a gravelly tone that was probably meant to be intimidating, but came off as more condescending, and by extension, made Ruby all the more eager to give him a beatdown.

"What's the call, Ruby?" Weiss's voice dropped to just above a whisper, speaking at a level only Ruby could hear.

"Lily Flakes," Ruby replied in the same tone.

And just like that, they were back in the groove. They were a team again.

In a single, perfectly synchronized motion, Ruby drove Crescent Rose onto the ground, using her as a pole-vault to push her body up and parallel to the ground, while Weiss made simultaneous twirl of her fingers to summon a white glyph for Ruby to plant her feet into.

And with a clinch of her fingers and a wave of her rapier, Weiss's glyph turned red and shot Ruby at their opponent like she was a cannonball.

With a comical widening of the eyes that conveyed just how much he did not see that coming, the Man brought up his sword in a block even as he tried to move out of the way.

To his credit, he was able to dodge the incoming Ruby.

The outstretched Crescent Rose? Not so much.

It was only thanks to the Man's block with his sword that he didn't take the full brunt of Crescent Rose's blunt end to the face. It just sent the Man reeling like he'd just gotten clubbed with a baseball bat and nearly wrenched his weapon clean out of his grip.

Reeling from the hit, the Man whirled around to face where Ruby just touched down, redoubled his grip on his sword as he moved to attack Ruby while she had her back to him…

…and immediately took a fireball to the back, courtesy of Weiss.

Sent flying forward by the explosion, the Man had only just enough time to register that he was flying towards the red-hooded girl before Ruby brought Crescent Rose around and slammed her blunt end into the Man's stomach.

And with a squeeze of her trigger, Ruby sent the Man flying back the way he came with a recoil-boosted swing.

Flying clean across the square, the man landed in a tumbling heap, only coming to a stop when he hit the brick wall.

Dizzily, the Man scrambled to his feet, trying to regain his bearings.

"So… you had enough yet?" with Crescent Rose resting casually on her shoulder and her head cocked to the side, Ruby's cheery smile had a smugness matched only by the dark grin Weiss was wearing next to her.

"Or should we keep having this my way?"

The Man looked shocked for a moment.

Then he glowered harder than ever.

"I'm not backing down."

Now quite little backed up against a wall, the Man raised his sword high, spinning the revolver section quickly in clear desperation. He then squeezed the trigger and a gout of flame roared forth from the blade.

"Ice Flower!"

A flame that was promptly extinguished as the crack of a gunshot split the air, and the blade, as well as the Man's hand and forearm was suddenly encased in ice.

With a look of true shock, the Man turned to see Ruby down on a knee, Crescent Rose held up to her shoulder as she sighted down the scope. Weiss stood tall at her partner's side, Myrtenaster likewise held at Crescent Rose's side as several snowflake-glyphs wrapped around the sniper-scythe's barrel.

In perfect tandem, the two huntresses squeezed their triggers again. Crescent Rose fired a bullet that was almost instantly enveloped in a shroud of ice and cold that left a halo of white, duty flakes that trailed behind the shot.

When the bullet impacted the Man's left arm it did not penetrate, but rather exploded into a cloud of white dust that instantly froze sold, encasing his arm in a block of ice. The recoil also knocked him back a few steps to the wall.

Ruby and Weiss squeezed off another ice-round. This one hit the Man square in the chest, the resulting burst of ice-dust leaving his entire torso frozen, and also stuck firmly the wall behind him.

Ruby sighted Crescent Rose a little lower as Weiss's glyphs re-cycled, preparing to fire a round that would leave mister Jerk-face in a fairly solid block of ice.

Ruby's finger squee-

"WAIT!"

Ruby and Weiss simultaneously went on alert as an oversized throwing star embedded itself into the ground between them and their target. This was immediately followed by a figure, a girl about their age with short black hair touching down from above in front of it.

Ruby's trigger finger twitched. Was she a friend of Mr. Jerkface?

The girl then immediately brought her hands together like someone begging forgiveness.

"We are so so SO SORRY for all this!"

Ruby and Weiss both raised an eyebrow.

That… wasn't quite what either was expecting.

"Uh…" Weiss raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"…What?" Ruby cocked her head to one side as she lowered Crescent Rose.

The girl let out a sigh of relief at seeing Ruby lowering her weapon.

"So, uh… Hi? My name's Yuffie," the girl waved with a supremely awkward smile, "Are you two okay? We're with AVALANCHE, and again, we are so, so, so, so, SO SORRY about what just happened!"

AVALANCHE… that was the name M mentioned.

"Wait… you're the ones who're supposed help new people around here?" Ruby asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow.

"Yeah…" the girl, Yuffie, replied, scratching her head awkwardly, clearly aware how very NOT helpful they might seem at the moment.

"So do you people normally attack new arrivals in the streets?" Weiss asked, even more incredulous.

"I promise you, we do not, and on that note," Yuffie turned towards the still-frozen jerkface, "Leon, what the hell were you thinking?!"

Mr. Jerkface, Leon apparently, turned his head away, seemingly trying to look aloof while frozen to a wall and clearly in quite a bit of pain, "The red one has the Keyblade."

Yuffie immediately whirled back around to look at Ruby, her eyes wide in clear shock.

"Seriously?! She's got the…" Yuffie trailed off before her face went from 'shocked' to 'shocked and enraged' as she whirled back around again to face Leon.

"Then why the FUCK did you attack her?!"

"I needed to test her ability."

"What kind of answer is that?!"

As Yuffie continued to yell and gesticulate wildly, Ruby was still trying to process what exactly was going on when she and Weiss were suddenly bathed in a flash of green light.

Both Ruby and Weiss were instantly on alert for an attack, but no explosion or pain accompanied the light. Quite the opposite actually, Ruby somehow felt better as the all the aches and bruises she'd accumulated recently were suddenly replaced by a soothing warmth.

"There you go. Feeling better now?" came a new voice.

Ruby and Weiss whirled around to a woman with green eyes and long brown hair wearing a red and pink dress, along with a bright, cheerful smile with just a hint of mischief to it.

"Uh… yeah, actually…" Ruby patted herself down as the green light and warmth faded, but the aches and pains didn't return.

"…What was that…?" Weiss muttered aloud as she patted herself down even more. Being the resident Dust expert of the pair, Weiss was probably even more confused with what just happened.

The woman seemed to take their confusion in stride as she extended a hand.

"Name's Aerith. And sorry about my friend over there. He can be a bit of a handful."

"…Ruby," Ruby tentatively shook the offered hand, still not entirely sure what was going on, "is he always that much of a total jerkface?"

The woman, Aerith, actually giggled.

"Oh, I like that one. But no, he's usually fine. He's just been pretty grumpy these past couple days," Aerith's voice then dropped a bit, "And he'll never admit it, but I can tell you he's super jealous that you have the Keyblade," Aerith continued in a conspiratorial whisper with a mischievous grin.

Oh, another person who seemingly knew what the hell this 'Keyblade' was supposed to be. Ruby made a note to start asking questions when she had a minute.

"Is he going to be a problem?" Weiss spoke up, arms crossed as she cast a suspicious glance over to where the other girl, Yuffie, seemed to have just pulled Leon free of the ice. Yuffie was still chewing Leon out, while Leon seemed to be doing his best to look aloof and disinterested while clearly banged up quite a bit from the beating he'd just received.

Clearly, Weiss was not taking any potential threat to Ruby lightly.

"Oh, don't you worry," Aerith flashed a reassuring smile, "he won't be troubling you again," Aerith continued as she walked over to her two friends.

"After all, Squall here is very sorry for attacking you two, aren't you Squall?" Aerith, turned to the now-freed Leon, giving the man a pat on the shoulder with that same bright, cheerful smile.

Leon, or Squall, simply turned away with a very aloof grumble, "I told you not to call me that."

However, he wasn't aloof for very long, as Aerith proceeded to bury her elbow in his stomach, causing Leon/Squall to double over in pain.

"I said, You're very sorry for attacking these two, aren't you Squall?" Aerith repeated, the same bright, cheery smile still on her face even as Leon/Squall was practically coughing up a lung.

Ruby decided that she liked Aerith.

"Y-Yea-h!" the man sputtered out between breaths, "Real… real sorry… won't happen again…"

"I thought so," Aerith gave Leon a pat on the back before turning to the other girl, Yuffie, who looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh, "Yuffie, why don't you call us a ride? I think our new friends here could use some rest and a hot meal."

"Right! On it," Yuffie immediately perked up at that before turning to Ruby and Weiss, "Hey, just sit tight you two, we'll have a dropship over here in just a minute!" the girl flashed Ruby and Weiss a big smile and a thumbs-up before tapping a communicator in her ear and speaking to a 'Control' about a 'pickup'. At the same time, Aerith looked to be tending to Leon, though notably not using whatever green glowey power she used on Ruby and Weiss.

And with any sense of danger well and truly passed, Ruby finally had a chance to take an exhausted breath. At almost the same time, she heard Weiss doing the exact same next to her.

Weiss…

Now that they were no longer in the middle of a fight, there was one thing Ruby wanted, needed to do.

Though the funny thing was, it seemed Weiss was thinking the exact same thing.

Just as Ruby was turning to Weiss and dropping Crescent Rose, Weiss was turning to Ruby and dropping Myrtenaster.

The two pulled each other into a hug so fast and so tight they nearly knocked the wind out of each other. Not that either of them cared one bit.

"I missed you so much!" Weiss blurted out, clinging tight to Ruby, burying her face in her partner's hair.

"I missed you so much!" Ruby blurted out at the same time, holding on to Weiss just as tightly.

Ruby paused for a moment, then started giggling as she realized they both said the same thing. She could also Weiss giggling too, a sound that Ruby couldn't believe how much she missed hearing…

As their giggling passed, both girls pulled back just a bit to get a better look at each other.

Still holding tight onto each other, faces held so close they were almost touching, Ruby could only stare into those beautiful icy-blue eyes, and at that achingly soft smile.

In fact, this might be the happiest Ruby had ever seen Weiss. And that made Ruby even happier too…

But now that the rush of battle was over and they were so close, Ruby could also see the bags under Weiss's eyes, bruising and grime on her face, all the signs that she'd been fighting for a while even before this one.

"Weiss, are you okay? Are you hurt?!" Ruby blurted out.

"No, no, I'm fine," Weiss answered with a shake of the head, "What about you?"

"Who cares?!" Ruby replied. What did it matter if she was hurt? What mattered was that Weiss-

"I do, you dolt!" Weiss shot back, in a mix of incredulous and bemusement and something else Ruby couldn't quite place…

Just hearing Weiss call her that, the first time Ruby heard that word in that voice in so long…

It was too much.

Ruby began to laugh, even as her vision became blurry from water in her eyes. She could hear Weiss letting out choked laughter of her own.

Over last better part of a year, each girl had put up countless walls around her heart. To keep herself safe. To keep herself sane. To just hold herself together.

And now those walls were finally crumbling down.

Laughing and crying in equal measure, Ruby and Weiss held each other close, so close their foreheads pressed together.

For so long, Ruby could remember fighting to just hold herself together, because there were people who needed her. Even as she kept moving, each new place more alien and unfamiliar than the last, doubt and uncertainty weighing heavier and heavier all the time…

But now, for the first time in what felt like forever, Ruby felt… safe. Felt like she was right where she wanted to be.

It felt like…

Home.

She was Home.

AN: Well. Would you look at that? Seems I… accidentally turned the heat on this White Rose slow-burn from a simmer to a super-broil. Oh well :D

For something that was originally supposed to just be the second half of the last chapter, this was surprisingly tricky to write. Leon in particular was… interesting. Sure, in later games he's super nice and helpful, but after replaying KH1 has anyone else noticed that Leon is kind of a d*ck when you first meet him? I mean Sora has just lost his home and everyone he knows and loves, has woken up in this totally new world, and then Leon just walks up and attacks this 14-year-old kid basically out of nowhere. Plus I've always wanted to see one of those 'I must test the chosen one by randomly beating the crap out of them' situations backfire horribly, so I think it all worked out pretty well.

On the other hand, after playing FF7 Remake, 'Savage' Aerith is SUPER fun to write :D Sadly I was unable to come up with a reason she'd be holding a chair in this scene. Oh well. There's always later.

Plus, we get finally get to meet our story's Disney Companions, AKA Ducktales 2017 is amazing and I need it in all future KH games.

Then of course, there's that White Rose reunion that I have been waiting to write literally ever since I started this story. Both Ruby and Weiss have been through a lot of shit both in this story and before, so its about time they got an unabashed win. I think the hardest part about writing that scene is that I'm pretty sure the She-Ra finale may have left the shipping part of my brain with a few crossed wires. I feel like I kept having to remind myself that Catradora is analogous to BUMBLEBY, not White Rose.

And for those wondering what the 'H' happened to Sora, what happened to Kairi and what happened to Riku, I can promise next chapter will answer… one of those questions. Also I MIGHT be going a little nuts on some world-building.