And now, the first story ever to be adopted by this writer and his studio, along with another venture into the world of Remnant, crossover style, heeeeeeerrreeeeeee's...the studio of lyokoMARVELanime, with your host, lyokoMARVELanime himself!

[audience applause]

AN: Hello one and all! And thank you for tuning in to today's newest story. As the announcer just stated, this story is in fact adopted from another writer. To be clear, it was adopted from "FandomBard12". Some of you tuning in may already know that, but others, who may or may not be regular readers, reviewers, and/or followers are likely just now learning of the fact. Either way, I'm glad to see you decided to have a look at my first ever, full-on RWBY crossover story.

Ruby: Wait, what about RWBY Meetings? Doesn't that count?

AN: Depends on how you look at it. Technically speaking that one's a regular RWBY story, hence the reason why I posted it with all the other normal RWBY fanfics, and its a series of short-stories/one-shots that has you and your friends going on an adventure with different guest stars with every new story. This is an honest-to-god, full-on story, so I'm calling this the first true crossover story.

Yang: Makes sense to me, and from what I've seen with just this first chapter, I'm getting a pretty good read on this. Eh? Eh?

AN: Urgh. No. There was no way that could've even sounded good in your head.

Yang: Yeah, you're right. It didn't, but I couldn't think of anything better at the time.

Weiss: Then maybe you shouldn't have said anything.

AN: Okay, moving on before Yang decides to beat up Ice Queen...

Weiss: Hey!

AN: ...Let's go over a few details about this story, in comparison to the original version. Yes, there will be more than a few changes in comparison, since the original was posted before Kingdom Hearts 3 had come out. As such, this story will actually take place Post-KH3, though there will be more than a few AU elements in here. I'll go over the full list of differences from KH3 Canon in the ending note, assuming you guys can't pick up on that yourselves by that point, but I'm sure that you're all smart people and can probably figure out a majority of them for yourselves.

Sora: Uh, should I be worried at all about my status in this story?

AN: Not at this moment, no.

Sora: What do you mean, "not at this moment"? I thought you said that this was an AU from KH Canon.

AN: Look, you'll get what I mean as we get further into the story, or at least as we get into this first chapter, okay? With that said, let's rock and roll, everybody!

I do not own anything from either the Kingdom Hearts or RWBY franchises, or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

Chapter 1: The Key's New Journey

Long ago, a young man went on a long journey to different worlds. He made many friends, found many things relating to the past, and saved so many lives as he pressed forward to the future. Many people of that past were lost, but thanks to the boy, they were able to come back, ready to fight for a brighter future once again, and together, they all averted a grave catastrophe. Sadly, their victory did not come without a price, and even now, they were still feeling the hurt that came with their loss, but none more so than the boy himself. Despite the sorrow he felt, the boy would soon find himself being called upon again, as the key to saving so many, as a new destiny would begin to unfold for him, but that would not be for a while. This will be the start of a new journey for the boy and three of his friends. This will be the day that they had waited for, to begin a quest to recover what they had lost.

On the beaches of the small world known as Destiny Islands, a young man clad in a red and black attire with a crown pendant hanging from his neck on a chain necklace was hard at work training with the legendary weapon known as the Keyblade, but from the look on his face, and the ferocity of his swings, it was clear that he was not just performing a few simple practice drills. The boy, named Sora, was running these exercises to help keep his mind off of what had happened during the final battle against Master Xehanort and the thirteen darknesses; the final moments of the Second Keyblade War. They had done everything right. They gathered the Seven Guardians of Light, Sora helped bring back those who were hurting and lost, even if they were originally on the wrong side at first, and they made sure that they were all trained up, rested, and ready for when the battle began. Sora had been sure that would be enough to stop the fallen master from forcing history to repeat itself and bring back the χ-blade, but in the end, it turned out he was wrong, and the person he cared about the most had to pay for it.

Kairi had fought her hardest, and showed that her training with Axel and Merlin was not a waste. She even managed to fight off Xemnas when he tried to kidnap her again, which was definitely impressive given how he had managed to throw all of them off-balance when he suddenly disappeared and then reappeared behind her the way he did, and when it came time to end things for good, she was right there with him, Riku, and Mickey for the final face-off against Master Xehanort, his younger self, his Heartless, and his Nobody. Despite all of this though, Xehanort proved that he had not earned his title as a Keyblade master through trickery or any easy means when he overpowered all four of them, and then struck Kairi down, right before Sora's eyes. Not only did that provide him with the final piece that he needed to complete the χ-blade, but it also served as the thing that broke Sora as he threw everything he had at Xehanort in an attempt to avenge Kairi. It did not do him any good, and Sora was forced to watch as the true Kingdom Hearts was summoned while Xehanort practically flaunted his victory in all of their faces. Still, despite that, they did not give up, and with the help of all the rest of their friends, they found a way for Sora to chase after Xehanort and finally stop him for good, sealing Kingdom Hearts with the χ-blade once all was said and done.

When they all had finished, Sora was ready to try and use the power of waking to bring Kairi back, but it was at that point that all the adrenaline that had been fueling him throughout the fight had finally run its course, and Sora soon collapsed on the ground in front of them. When he next woke up, he found himself lying in a bed in Master Yen Sid's tower, with Aqua tending to him as best as she could via healing spells and regular medicine. Apparently, the blue haired master had come to view Sora as a younger brother, much like she did Ventus, but unfortunately, her being there had the unfortunate side-effect of leaving her as the one to deliver the bad news to Sora. There was now very little chance that anyone would be able to bring Kairi back with the power of waking, assuming it would have ever worked in the first place, and if Sora were to even try it, then not only would he run the risk of never returning, but there was a very real possibility that he and Kairi would both be lost forever.

Sora tried to argue and say that he could bring Kairi back, that they would both be back if he made the attempt, but Yen Sid had already put his foot down on the matter. Never had Sora wanted to argue with the wise, old sorcerer and retired Keyblade master more than he did at that moment, and the only thing that prevented Sora from lashing out at Yen Sid was the fact that he promised he would look into a way to return Kairi home to them all. Xion had insisted that Kairi was still out there somewhere, and the fact that Naminé had been brought back while Sora was unconscious certainly served to back up the claim, so Sora just had to swallow his hurt feelings for now and trust that the old wizard would come through. That did not make the hurt he felt at failing to keep Kairi safe like he had promised he would any easier to bear, so he spent many days after returning home out on the play island, running as many drills as he could with the Keyblade and his magic in order to make sure he would be better for the future. Even when all of his other friends came to the island to visit and have fun that one day, Sora stood apart from them, practicing while silently promising once again that he would not lose anymore friends the same way he had lost Kairi.

It really hurt a lot of those same friends to see Sora so upset, but despite their best efforts, there was really nothing that they could do to help make him feel better. So, they left him to his drills, only stepping into his circle of solitude whenever he stopped to catch his breath or call it a day, assuming he did either one of those things. Riku could not tell you how often he found Sora collapsed on the sands of the beach at night when he went out to check and see if he was still going. It hurt the older boy too, not having Kairi with them, but it still hurt more seeing how much it affected Sora.

Speaking of his best friend, Sora actually found his friend gazing down at him when he finally stopped and just collapsed onto his back, panting heavily, and despite the inner sorrow he felt at having to watch his friend work himself to death like this, Riku still managed to get a playful smirk on his face when he greeted him. "Giving up already," the silver haired boy asked.

"No, just relaxing for a minute," Sora replied casually while putting on his usual smile, or at least the best version of it he could give.

Riku was not fooled. He knew that the smile had lost a lot of its shine and usual charm ever since Xehanort had struck down Kairi, but he was not going to call Sora out on it. That was the last thing that Sora needed right now, so he simply humored his friend. "Well, at least your keeping up with your training," Riku commented with a smile before he came around to Sora's left and sat down next to him. "Have you made sure to practice with your other forms and Keyblade transformations too?"

"Yeah, and I was actually going to do some work with my Flowmotion abilities after this, and maybe even the Attraction Flows and Heart Binders," Sora revealed. "What about you? What brings you here? I thought you would be busy doing something with Naminé."

"We're taking a slight break at the moment. She is still getting used to just having the Keyblade, after all," Riku explained.

Shortly after the Second Keyblade War had ended and she was brought back, Naminé found out that she too could use the Keyblade. It was a little surprising at first, but then again, considering that Roxas was able to use the Keyblade due in part to the fact that he was Sora's Nobody, it did make a little sense that Kairi's Nobody would be able to wield one as well. Riku and Aqua were now hard at work doing their best to help Naminé practice and get a better feel for the power and all that came with it, and the petite blonde certainly showed quite an impressive aptitude for magic, but it was still pretty slow going if you were to ask Naminé herself. Not that she could blame anyone, considering what happened the last time they rushed someone's training with the Keyblade.

Sora just hummed in response to Riku's answer, and was a little tempted to throw in a teasing remark at his friend's expense. After all, it was no secret to anyone that Riku and Naminé had actually started seeing each other shortly after he appeared in Radiant Garden, with a hand out to her so that he could bring her aboard the gummi ship for a flight across the worlds like a knight in shining armor, and just minutes after Naminé was brought back at that. His temptation was quickly squashed though, as the thought of his best friend finding someone special actually started to bring down his mood a little, since it reminded him that the girl he thought was his one and only was not with them right now, but he did not have to think too long before he decided on another topic to pursue.

"What about Aqua, Roxas, and the others? Have you heard much from them lately," Sora questioned.

Riku would have asked why Sora had not talked to them, given that he was well aware that Sora knew everyone in their group now had a Gummiphone, but he managed to stop himself from doing so, since that he also knew why Sora had not been answering most of those calls, and it was not just because he was so focused on his training. "Aqua's been doing all right," Riku shrugged in reply. "She's been patrolling the worlds quite a bit with Ventus and Terra, but mostly Terra. We're all pretty sure that she's just using those patrols so that the two of them can sneak away for some private time or dates. I don't think Ven minds too much about that, given that he always goes to hang out at the bistro in Twilight Town or at Disney Town whenever those two do that. Roxas and Xion are still going out too, and Lea's been doing his best to help Isa get used to being whole again. Hayner and those other guys have been a big help in that, but there's no denying that all of them are glad to be reunited and able to enjoy sunsets on the clock tower with sea-salt ice cream in hand."

It honestly felt a little weird being the one to give Sora these kind of reports, as Riku was a lot more used to hearing about these kind of things from either Sora or Kairi. When he thought about that, he figured that it was just another sign of how much losing their redheaded friend affected them both, and figured that he should try and change the subject before Sora noticed that. Sora beat him to the punch though, as he simply nodded along in reply, honestly happy for all of their friends, and said, "That's good to hear. So what brings you out here? Anything new?"

Riku was not going to lie. He was glad that Sora was able to help him get down to business before things got too intense, but he was still a little worried about how Sora would react to the other reason he was here. After a few minutes of silence though, Riku found he could not put it off, and finally replied, "Yeah, actually. Yen Sid told me to come and get you. Said there was something he needed to talk with you about."

As predicted, Sora's smiling face dropped into a scowl when he heard that. Hearing anything about Yen Sid these days just reminded Sora of how the wizard had forbade him from using the power of waking to try and bring Kairi back, along with the fact that it was Yen Sid who had decided to bring Kairi into the whole mess that was the battle against Xehanort in the first place. Yes, he knew that Kairi had decided to help on her own, mainly out of a desire to not just sit on the sidelines while the rest of friends did all the work anymore, but grief does make people act very irrational at times, even Sora. That did not mean he was completely unreceptive to whatever news Yen Sid would send his way when it did come.

"Did he finally find something," Sora asked, tersely.

"I'm not sure. He just said that he needed to see you right away, and that Roxas, Ven, and Lea were going to be there, too," Riku answered as carefully as he could.

Upon hearing that some of his other friends would be there, Sora let out a slow sigh in an attempt to refrain from any angry outbursts, and said, "All right. Let's get going and see what the old man wants. Hopefully it's something good."

Riku could only nod in response to that as he and his friend stood up, but he could still pick up on the hidden meaning behind his friend's words. Sora was basically saying that this had better have something to do with Kairi, because otherwise it would be a complete waste of his time. Naturally the spiky haired teen did not say it, because even when he was upset, Sora was still a really nice guy, but anyone who knew him could still find the signs of his true feelings. Riku just hoped that Yen Sid did have news about Kairi, and that it would improve Sora's mood from even a fraction of what it was right now.

Upon arriving at and entering the tower, Sora walked into Yen Sid's study to see Roxas, Ventus, and Lea were already there, seated in some chairs before the desk. This was a little peculiar, given that they had always stood before desk before, and Yen Sid was usually sitting on the other side as well, but Sora was not really planning on questioning it. In his mind at the moment, he felt that the less time he spent around Yen Sid, the better, so he just walked over to took the only other vacant seat besides Yen Sid's.

Having noticed his friend's entrance, Roxas looked over with a smile and asked, "Hey Sora. How are you?"

"Good all things considered," Sora casually replied with a shrug. "How about you? Anything going on lately?"

"Not too much since the last time we talked. Xion and I are still going out, and Axel's been a big help getting us reintegrated into society, as he puts it, along with Hayner and the others. Between that, I've just been practicing more with the Keyblade along with Xion," Roxas says with a proud smirk. "Oh, Xion says hi by the way."

Sora smiled at that. It was always nice to hear that his former Nobody was doing good and the same applied to his girlfriend as well. Of course, Sora had not really spent too much time with Xion, not out of any personal dislike of the girl, but mainly because it was hard being around her since she looked so much like Kairi, or at least the way Kairi looked back when he was on his very first journey. It was not something that Sora really enjoyed too much, given that it made him seem really lousy to distance himself from someone just because of how they look, and he did like Xion quite a bit. She was a lot like the little sister he never had in a way, but it was just too hard for him to be around her and not immediately think of the girl he had lost at the moment.

Apparently, his sour thoughts on the matter where becoming clear on his face, as Lea chose that time to speak up, hoping to lighten the mood. "Hey, haven't I told you guys to stop calling me Axel? It's Lea now. Axel was the name of my Nobody, and since I'm not a Nobody anymore, you should really stop calling me by that name."

"Sorry, but I can't help it. I just got the name Axel too well memorized," Roxas shrugged with a smile.

"Same here," Sora admitted. "Besides, a lot of the rest of us still call you that, too, so you can't really blame him."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. No need to point out obvious stuff or throw my catchphrase back at me," Lea waved off with an easy-going smile.

"Hey, at least I still call you Lea, and so do Aqua and Terra. That's gotta count for something," Ventus reassured the tall redhead.

"It does actually. Thanks, Ven," Lea nodded in appreciation.

Seeing and being part of the friendly interaction between his old friends again brought a genuine smile to Sora's face, probably the first one he had been able to form since he woke up after the Second Keyblade War, but it quickly became replaced with a small scowl when their host finally arrived, taking his usual seat before them after he stepped into the room. While the other three gave respectful nods of greeting to the blue-robbed sorcerer, Sora just remained as he was, keeping an even look that still seemed so much like a powerful glare on Yen Sid. Seeing that rather out-of-place look on Sora's face made Yen Sid mentally sigh in sadness, knowing the reason why Sora's opinion of him was so low at the moment, and the fact that he had not managed to find a way to bring back Kairi after almost two months of looking was most certainly not doing any favors, so he decided to skip the small talk for now. Not that he ever really bothered with it too much when there were important matters to attend to, mind you.

"It is good to see you have all come as quickly as you did, for as you may have guessed, the task I have for you all is of the utmost importance," Yen Sid began.

Sora was about to cut in and rudely say that he did not want to do anything for the old wizard if it did not help them bring back Kairi, but Lea stepped in before he could, and asked, "And just what is it, old man?"

Yen Sid was silently thankful that Lea had asked that before Sora could speak, because it would allow him to reveal the reason why he had asked for Sora specifically. "It may serve to bring home our lost Princess of Heart."

"You mean…you finally found Kairi," Sora asked in disbelief, his previous annoyance slowly beginning to evaporate.

Yen Sid raised a hand to signal for Sora to abstain from his rising excitement, at least for a moment, and carried on in his explanation. "When Xehanort struck Kairi down, what we believed to be a finishing blow was actually much different. You see, the Keyblade that Xehanort wielded did not belong to him first, but to a much different individual: one of the first Keyblade masters in history, and I have recently discovered that he placed an enchantment on the blade, should it ever be used to strike someone with a heart of pure light, such as the Princesses of Heart. This spell would not kill the person, but instead, send them to safety, somewhere far from their attacker's reach, and that is what I believe has happened to Kairi."

"So she was just blasted to a different world, huh? Well, it's not like this hasn't happened before," Lea muttered to himself, earning an elbow from Roxas as the blonde attempted to silence his friend's rudeness.

"It had taken some time to make this discovery, but once I did, I put all of my focus into discovering just which world Kairi was sent to. Sadly, I cannot say exactly where she is on the world she had landed; only that her light is coming from that world. I would like for the four of you to travel to that world in order to find her, but more than that, going to this world will have another benefit for you all as well," Yen Sid revealed.

"What kind of benefit," Ventus asked.

"You will all be able to receive special training on this world; training that will not only strengthen your abilities as Keyblade wielders, but may also serve to ensure that you will be ready should we ever face another threat as great as Xehanort and the Second Keyblade War," Yen Sid informed them. "Sora, by taking on this training, you will also become ever closer to truly proving yourself worthy of the Mark of Mastery, for I feel that by the time your work on this world is done, you will have proven yourself a true Keyblade master."

"You mean like you said I would when Riku and I entered the realm of dreams," Sora asked. He may not have been willing to admit it at the time, but part of him was a little upset about not passing that exam, and that Yen Sid did not seem to take Xehanort's interference in it into consideration when he made his decision on who had passed back then. Now though, he had no problem with making his bitterness known.

"This will not be like that time, Sora, but you should still be forewarned that there will be things on this world just as dangerous if not more so than the Heartless," Yen Sid cautioned. "However, when you arrive on this world, an old friend of mine will be there to help you in learning all there is to know about the world, and he may very well be of great assistance in helping you to reunite with Kairi."

Given the fact that he had heard various different promises from Yen Sid that did not quite pan out before, Sora was only going to trust the man's words with a grain of salt. Still, if there was a chance that they could find Kairi and bring her home, then he did not have much choice but to trust the old man. Besides, if there was a chance that he could grow stronger in the process, how could he pass this up? "Fine, I accept," Sora agreed, but not without delivering one little ultimatum of his own. "But unless something really big comes up, don't expect me to leave that world any time soon. Not until I've found Kairi."

Yen Sid nodded in acceptance of that, and then retrieved a slip of paper from his robe to hand over to the boys. "Here are the coordinates to the world you must venture to," he informed the four boys. "There is a special gummi ship just outside will be able to take you there, and which you will be able to hide from the people of that world for the duration of your stay. Good luck." After Sora had accepted the paper and nodded in thanks along with the others, Yen Sid then quietly whispered, "May your heart be your guiding key."

The group of four then took their leave, making their way out of the tower and to the gummi ship that Yen Sid had mentioned once they had, with Sora at the front of the group. When the group had left, the old sorcerer finally let out that sad sigh he had been holding back ever since Sora first stepped in. He did not expect the boy to be completely back to normal, but he had hoped that a short time away from him and all of this would improve Sora's mood a little bit. Clearly thinking that Riku's reports on Sora's recent attitude and tendencies were slightly exaggerated had been a mistake on his part. Still, Sora did accept the mission and was now on his way to another world, so there was some silver lining at least.

Thinking of that mission, Yen Sid rose from his seat and pulled a sheet off of an old mirror, just in time to see a face coming into focus in the reflective glass. When the image came into full focus, it revealed a man with silver hair, brown eyes, and dressed in a black suit with a green scarf. "I take it that they are on their way," the man asked.

"Yes, they should be leaving at any moment now," Yen Sid confirmed. "I do apologize if I'm contacting you at a bad time."

"No apologies necessary, old friend. After all, this form of communication is far from perfect, much like the form the general populous of this world uses," the man reassured with an easy-going smile. He then became a little more serious and questioned, "I must ask again: are you absolutely certain that the missing princess is here on Remnant?"

"There is very little doubt in my mind," Yen Sid confirmed.

"Then I pray that your group of Keyblade wielders find her swiftly, for we may very well be facing a few problems of our own here, soon enough. I'm not sure what she could plan for the girl, but the fact that someone we believe to be associated with her targeted one of the maidens…And there's one other thing as well. Your missing princess may not be the only one here on Remnant."

"Do you mean to say that one of the new seven is also there," Yen Sid questioned, his tone becoming a little more urgent.

"I have a suspicion or two," the man nodded a little cryptically. At least it would seem that way to anyone else, but Yen Sid knew that in this case, he was just erring on the side of caution because he was not one-hundred percent sure just yet.

Knowing this, Yen Sid nodded in return and fell silent, before he added one other request. "I just hope that his time at your school will help Sora regain that which he lost after the Second Keyblade War, and I am not referring to any powers he may or may not have once possessed."

"Don't worry, old friend. There's more than one reason why my school was named Beacon after all. I'm sure that he will soon return to the boy you once knew before that tragedy," the silver haired man promised.

Yen Sid nodded once more, grateful for at least some reassurance, but still skeptical all the same. "It would take a great deal of effort on anyone's part for that."

"Or perhaps, it may be simpler than you believe. Something that simply requires a smaller, more honest soul," the man posed with a knowing smile.

After letting out a small chuckle in response to that suggestion, Yen Sid gave the man a very grateful look as he said, "Thank you for that, Ozma."

"Please old friend, don't refer to me by that name. I haven't been called that in ages. I'd much rather you use the name everyone else does now: Ozpin," the silver haired man requested.

While the other three were fairly impressed and eager to explore the stealth gummi ship, as Ventus insisted on calling it, Sora just focused on getting up to the cockpit so he could punch in the world coordinates and get them under way. It was a little weird to see Sora so focused on a mission like this, but then again, Donald and Goofy did say that Sora had acted a lot similar to this on his very first journey with them, so maybe this was just like that. That was not going to stop them from doing whatever they could to keep Sora smiling throughout the journey, especially since the ship still ran on happy faces, as per usual with all the gummi ships Sora had ever flown on, and that was without taking in the fact that it was going to take some time to reach their destination, given that it was the first time any of them had ever been to this world. It was annoying when their destination could not be reached by simply warping there via warp gummi, but it was necessary to make that happen, so they could not complain too much.

Shortly after lifting off, Sora finally let out a tired sigh before he finally turned to look at his three new traveling companions. While Roxas and Ven still looked the same as always, both in terms of their choice of attire and in the fact that they were near identical twins, it was only just now that Sora had finally taken notice of the fact that the pyro of their foursome had switched things up a bit. "Hey Axel, I couldn't help but notice just now that you're not wearing your old coat anymore," Sora commented.

"Yeah, I mean, I know Xion and I were happy to ditch ours, but after I heard that you went with it instead of those special vestments that Yen Sid and the three good fairies made, you'd stick with the thing forever," Roxas added, still slightly surprised by his best friend's new attire as well.

Lea just rolled his eyes a little, partly from hearing Sora refer to him as Axel again, and replied, "Hey, I wore that thing almost nonstop for like ten-plus years now, and the only reason I stuck with it after leaving the Organization was so I could throw it in the face of the old man and my former boss. Now that the fight's done and Xemnas is gone, I'm more than happy to ditch the damn thing. Besides, it was kinda starting to smell a little."

"You know, I never did ask, didn't you ever get hot in that thing," Ven inquired.

"I have magic powers that let me control fire in any way that I can imagine. I don't get hot," Lea pointed out.

The other three boys would give him that, but it was still surprising to see the new outfit that Lea was going with. Of course, it was still pretty similar to his Organization stylings, mainly because of how his long, sleeveless hooded vest was the same color of black as his old coat, but the rest of it did at least add in a little more color, which they were all grateful for. In addition to the vest, Lea also now wore a sleeveless dark grey and red plaid button-down shirt with a short-sleeve black shirt underneath, along with blackish-red pants, and black mid-calf boots. Sure the dark colors made it seem like he had just modified his old Organization clothes a little, but it was still nice to see him wearing something other than the stupid coat that so many of their enemies had worn.

The conversation about personal clothing choices aside, the trip was relatively peaceful, with Sora at the wheel most of the time, while the others explored the ship. Their explorations helped them to find that the ship had its own training room, and once they told Sora of this, he was more than eager to leave the ship on auto-pilot a little more so that he could join them for a few sparring sessions. It had been a long time since he had a real spar against something other than an imaginary opponent, and Sora was more than eager to put his training to the test against his friends. Still, there were moments in the journey that were more boring than they were exciting, even with the occasional round of having to fight against any of the Heartless that still remained after the Second Keyblade War.

One such moment came when they were in the last leg of their trip, almost four weeks after they had left Yen Sid's tower, but it was mostly in the case of Lea as he was seated up in the cockpit with Sora while Roxas and Ven were catching some shut eye so that they would be a little more well-rested upon their arrival. This would not be so bad for Lea, given that he did enjoy hanging out with Sora on occasion, were it not for the fact that there were no bad guys to blast with the ships weapons, and how Sora was so focused on flying the ship through the last stretch of their trip like he was expecting something to go wrong at any second.

"Are we there yet," Lea eventually asked in a sort of whiny tone, almost sounding like that one kid who would always ask that on every road trip with friends and/or family.

"No, we are not, Lea," Sora casually replied from his spot at the wheel.

The two fell silent once again, but only for a moment or two, when Lea spoke up again. "Well can we stop somewhere at least?"

"I told you before; if we keep going, we'll get there sooner, especially since we're practically right around the corner from this world now. Until then, we just wait," Sora explained as patiently as he had the last few times Lea had asked that question.

Lea merely huffed and crossed his arms in a childish manner, which would probably have gotten a laugh out of Roxas if he saw the redhead right then, and he fell quiet once more. For the next five minutes, anyway. "Are we there yet?"

"No," Sora replied like clockwork.

"…Are we there yet?"

"No."

"…How about now?"

"No." Sora had nearly growled it that time.

That seemed to silence Lea's sudden need to act childish, until he opened his mouth again. "Are we there yet, now?"

"No! I just told you that we'll get there, when we get there!"

"Hey now, don't go getting mad. Happy faces, remember," Lea teased with a grin.

"You're not gonna be getting very many of those from me if you keep asking me that question," Sora cautioned.

"Well then how about you just put it on autopilot and come with me to do some training in order to make the time go by a little faster," Lea requested, nay begged of the Kingdom Key wielder. He was that bored.

"Alright, fine," Sora sighed in defeat, knowing that denying the request would just give Axel more reason to continue his childish act. He probably would have held off on activating the auto-pilot and following after the tall redhead though, had he noticed the warning that was flashing on the control board.

Warning: CPU overheating. Explosion imminent if autopilot is activated for an extended period of time.

About an hour or so later, Sora and Lea had brought their training to an abrupt end when an explosion suddenly rang out through the ship, while sirens began blaring all over the ship. Rushing up to the main deck, they found Roxas and Ven had already woken from their naps and were already trying to figure out what had happened.

"What's going on," Lea and Sora both asked at once.

"The CPU overheated and caused something to explode," Roxas shouted over the alarm in response while checking the other systems. "We've lost a lot of weapons, main steering, a few shields…"

"Didn't you guys see the warning light flashing? It clearly said to not activate the autopilot for a long time," Ventus questioned before Roxas could get any further.

"Uh…whoops," Sora muttered, feeling a little responsible for that.

"Hey, don't get like that, Sora. This one's on me. I'm the one who was pestering you so much before," Lea tried to play off.

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is! We're still going to crash unless someone does something," Roxas shouted in near panic.

"Oh come on. What are the odds we're going to crash into something in the next few minutes," Lea questioned in an attempt to calm his best friend down.

Before any reply could be given, Sora glanced out the window of the ship to see something that was both good news and bad news. "Uh-oh," Sora muttered.

While the two blondes both looked to see what prompted Sora to say that, Lea just slumped his shoulders and said, "Don't tell me. We're coming up on the world we were heading for and are now likely to crash land on it."

"Yep," Sora confirmed.

"World's super huge, too, isn't it?"

"Looks like," Roxas replied to that question.

"Full of danger and possibly hostile natives?"

"Probably," Ventus guessed.

"Going to get sighted by said inhabitants unless we hurry up with activating that fancy cloaking device?"

"Oh yeah," Sora confirmed as he set to work doing just that.

"Landing site going to have a bunch of horrible monsters that we'll have to fight once we land, assuming we're still in one piece?"

"Most likely," everyone other than Lea replied as one.

Lea looked from the three boys to the world ahead of them before he closed his eyes, let out a deep sigh, opened them again, and took a step forward as he made a simple declaration. "Bring it on."

On the streets of Vale, a young woman in a black dress and a red cape with a hood was humming a certain tune to herself as she strolled down the sidewalk. She was trying to figure out where her older sister had gone off to, since she was supposed to be the girl's ride home, and somehow, she was not too surprised she ended up in one of the shadier parts of the city. Upon looking up at the starry sky while praying that her sister had not gotten into any kind of huge trouble again, the girl paused at the sight of something flickering in the sky for a minute, only to suddenly change into what looked a lot like a shooting star. Not thinking to question it for too long, the girl closed her silver eyes and made a silent wish before carrying on her way.

Not that she got too far afterwards before a sudden explosion from a nearby building made her stop short. Looking up, the girl could only watch as a man in a black and white business suit and red tie came flying out from one of many shattered windows, and dropped at her feet like a dead weight, where he let out a pained moan. Shortly after the unknown man who looked like either a small-time crime boss or a well-dressed thug, another individual dropped down, this one much more familiar to the silver eyed girl, even without recognizing the outfit and long blonde hair.

"Yang? Is that you," the girl questioned, just to make sure she was not seeing things.

"Oh," the blonde gasped as she stood up straight, her crimson eyes quickly changing to their natural lilac color as she smiled at the shorter girl. "Hey Sis!"

The silver-eyed girl just gave Yang a small look as she put her hands on her hips and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Yang glanced around at the recently demolished building she was just in, the fool on the ground who had dared to pull out some of her hair, and her little sister before she finally sighed and said, "It's a long story."

'Of course it is,' was the tired thought that one Ruby Rose had upon hearing that.

Around that same time, Professor Ozpin was in his office going over various documents of paperwork that needed to be dealt with before the newest students of Beacon academy arrived, and the new school year started. It was one of the many things that Ozpin disliked about the job as headmaster of the school, but he did understand the necessity of it. At least, that was what he tried to tell himself most of the time. Other times, it just seemed like most of the work was unnecessary garbage. Really, if you had the potential, the drive, and the ability to be a huntsman, and the basic training that either various combat schools or other experiences provided, then that should be enough, should it not? Such thoughts could not be stopped from forming in his mind once again as he flipped through a few more documents on his Scroll any more than the silent sigh of relief he let out when someone entered his office, offering a brief respite from the bothersome task.

"Professor Ozpin, we've picked up on a disturbance in one of the nearby forests," reported his deputy headmistress and one of his most trusted allies, Glynda Goodwitch.

Hearing that, Ozpin quickly brought up the feeds from the many cameras he had in the forests surrounding both Beacon and Vale, until he finally found what he was looking for. Upon seeing the four boys that were slowly climbing out of what he could only assume was an invisible aircraft of some kind, Ozpin could not help the smile that formed on his face, but he did manage to make it look more knowing than excited at least. "Looks like our guests are here," the headmaster commented aloud.

"Sir," Glynda inquired in curiosity. Not for the first time either, mind you.

Ozpin did not give any kind of answer to alleviate her curiosity, but instead simply ordered, "Go to the forest at once. You should find four young boys there who will likely be fighting Grimm upon your arrival. They won't be hard to miss with or without their strange swords. Once you've met with them, bring them back here."

Glynda was not entirely sure why she was being asked to do this, but all the same, it was not like she had ever really argued too much with her boss before. She had felt like she had reason to on more than one occasion of course, but then again, knowing of Ozpin's level of experience, she was able to silence that feeling by reasoning that he likely knew better than her on more than a few matters. So, she walked out of the office without another word of question, while making a note to retrieve her riding crop along the way to the Bullhead that would fly her to the location that Ozpin had sent to her Scroll.

As she departed, Ozpin merely folded his hands in front of him while resting his elbows on his desk, and quietly muttered, "I know that it's selfish to think this, and that they are here for an entirely different reason, but I still can't help but wonder if one of them could be the one that can save her."

AN: Okay, so I'm sure you all picked up on the differences by now, but let me just go over them all to clarify them in a few bullet points. Yes, I did in fact keep a good number of the dialogue and story lines from the original Remnant of the Key in here, but I also felt like it needed to be expanded upon a little, hence the reason why it was written the way that it was here, as opposed to before. Also, since this is Post-KH3, I thought it only fitting that we include the Gummiphones and all other elements that came about after said game, like the fact that Namine, Ventus, Xion, and all the others were brought back, the beach party on Destiny Islands getting mentioned, and everything else in there.

Sora: Ahem. [throwing pointed look at author]

AN: What? [just looks back as Sora doesn't drop his pointed look] Oh would you relax? I'll get to that in a minute. Ahem, anyway, another thing that I'm sure some of you may have noticed is that I also combined the events of several of the first chapters into one. I just felt like the first chapter should be a little longer, and it would be better for the story if I didn't split things up into multiple smaller chapters like that. No offense to "FandomBard12", I'm sure that works great for you, but I just felt like it wouldn't work as well for me. I just can't stop myself from making these chapters a certain length.

Sora: Ahem. [still throwing his look at author]

AN: I said, I'm getting to it! Let me go over the stuff that's involved with this specific crossover first, boy! Ahem. Moving on, let's talk pairings for this story. I'm not going to be changing them around too much, but I do feel like I had to change it up at least a little. Don't worry, we'll still see RoseHeart (aka Sora&Ruby) happening, along with Goldenflame (Yang&Lea), but the pairings between Weiss&Roxas and Blake&Ventus will not be happening. I'm sure you figured that out from the fact that I mentioned Roxas and Xion were going out together now in the main story. I just like that pairing more than IceShell (Weis&Roxas), and honestly, I feel like Blacksun is one of RWBY's OTPs. And can you blame me? Blake and Sun have been tied together since Volume 1 of RWBY, maybe not as an official couple, but the chemistry is there, you can't deny that. Sorry for anyone who's of a different opinion if I've offended you in anyway. So yeah, Roxas&Xion are going to be a thing here, as is Blacksun. As for Ven...well, he's the one who's going to end up melting the Ice Queen's heart a little. I'm thinking of calling that pairing something like Windchill, or something.

Another change from the original version is that Sora and the others won't be completely cut off from their friends on other worlds while at Beacon, unless they choose to do so at any time. I mean, come on, they all have Gummiphones, a communication device that lets you talk to people even if they're on another world. Why would you want to cut yourself off from your friends if you have that? With that in mind, you should probably expect Sora and the gang to travel to another world at least once in the main story, and guess who will stumble upon the secret when they do go to another world?

Lea: I'm guessing that's why you made the gummi ship have a cloaking device on it, right?

AN: Pretty much, yeah. Better than letting the ship get completely destroyed from the start, and leaving you guys all stranded. Okay, that's the end of all the changes I've made from the original version of this story. At least in the case of the major stuff. Expect the first day/night at Beacon to go by in one chapter as well, and probably the Initiation as well. I'm not too sure about that one yet, but either way, I'll have gotten this caught up to the original version pretty quickly with the way I'm writing it.

Now to address the matters that Sora's so insistent on talking about: the changes from KH Canon.

Sora: Finally! We can talk about the fact that you basically killed Kairi!

AN: Did not! Kairi's not dead, she was just sent to somewhere on Remnant. And before anyone asks, NO Kairi's not one of the members of Team RWBY, or any of the other students, so get that idea out of your heads right now! Don't deny it! I know you were all thinking it! And please, remember that when you write your reviews. Anywho, I just want to clear up a few other changes that happened to the KH3 Canon here. 1) Kairi actually did put up a real fight as a competent warrior. Meaning she showed that she actually did get real training and not whatever crap it seems like she and Lea got in the game's story, and as such, she did not get kidnapped yet again. Seriously Square Enix, when you build up a character like you had Kairi for Kingdom Hearts 3, you DO NOT go and then make her seem unimportant before just dropping her back into the role they've had since the first game!

Weiss: Okay. Just calm down.

AN: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just...that's still a sore spot for me. I can't help but rant on it sometimes. [deep breath] Okay, anyways, Kairi proved to be a competent fighter, stopped Xemnas from kidnapping her again, and was right there with Riku, Mickey, and Sora when they faced off with the three sides of Xehanort, aka Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort (may he rot in hell for eternity, the smug little punk). Anyone else still want to tear that smirk off of Young Xehanort's face, even after clearing the entirety of the main story in KH3? Be honest with me, how many people still want to do that besides me? Ahem, sorry. A little off topic. Anyways, Point number 2: Kairi was there with her two best friends and Mickey during that fight, only to end up getting struck down by Master Xehanort when he actually joined the fray afterwards, striking at them when they were all still tired from fighting against three powerful opponents at once. Also a change, Kairi actually tried to fight back before Xehanort struck her down, so there was no recreation of a certain moment from Final Fantasy 7 here. After that, things unfolded like they did in canon for a bit (Xehanort gets the x-blade, the other Guardians of Light open a portal that lets Sora, Donald, and Goofy chase after him into Kingdom Hearts, yadda-yadda-yadda), until after the fight is over and Kingdom Hearts was sealed. This leads into change 3: Instead of using the power of waking to get Kairi back, Sora collapsed from exhaustion and didn't wake up again for a while, I'd say at least a week if you want an exact measurement of time. As a result, using that ability now would have likely resulted in losing both of them forever, Yen Sid bascially forbade Sora from trying, and that created a lot of tension between the two, and made Sora basically close himself off to the rest of the world, even though Yen Sid promised to try and find a way to bring back Kairi without that risk.

Blake: Wouldn't they have needed Kairi to come back in order for Namine to be brought back?

AN: You know, I'm not entirely sure. They weren't really all that clear on whether or not Kairi and Sora had returned before Namine was revived, but for the sake of this story, I'm gonna say that no, they did not need to do that. I mean, it certainly didn't seem like it was necessary from what that epilogue implied.

Anyways, now you know the bullet points on the changes that were made to KH3's story for the sake of this story. I mean, how else am I gonna make Sora available to be paired up with Ruby? And after how things between him and Kairi unfolded in KH3? You don't go and mess with a moment like that without being 100% against Sokai. That's part of what's going to make this a little challenging for me to write, considering I'm a die-hard Sokai fan. That doesn't mean I don't like a story or two where Sora's paired up with other girls, but if you were to look at the list of stories I've favorited on this site, you would find that a lot of the Kingdom Hearts stories do have that pairing, be it as a focus point or as something that's just mentioned. Don't worry though, like I said, Sora and Ruby will still happen in this story, even if Sora does find Kairi again. You'll see what happens later on when that does happen, but that won't be for quite a long time.

Roxas: Speaking Ruby, I couldn't help but notice that you worked in a certain scene that wasn't originally in the previous version of Remnant of the Key.

AN: Oh yeah. I know that may seem like an unnecessary filler thing to some, but I really wanted to at least introduce Ruby as soon as possible in this story. That seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. They never really give an exact time stamp from when that moment happened and when the first episode of RWBY took place, so I'm just gonna operate under the assumption that, in this case, it happened a week before said events. Now then, I think that's everything I wanted to mention. Let's move it along and go Onto the Preview!...

After their first encounter with the creatures of Grimm, Sora and company find themselves being acquainted with both Goodwitch and Ozpin at last. But their first meetings don't end there, as in one week's time, the group are soon on the doorstep of Beacon Academy, and meeting quite the colorful individuals, starting from the moment that Sora ends up witness to a certain explosive encounter. Just what else could be in store for the Keybearers at this prestigious school for the future defenders of Remnant? And what encounters await them in the first day at this new school? The shinning beacon will light the way forward, next time.

Please read and review, and may your heart be your guiding key for your landing strategy.