Entry 01
The name "Heartless" is a very misleading title. It denotes creatures without feeling, passion, or the vibrancy of life, when in fact nothing is farther from the truth. It was Ansem the Wise who gave them their name, "Those without hearts: the Heartless." He saw creatures that continually hunted the hearts of others because they lacked hearts of their own.
Despite their title, Heartless do have hearts, in fact, that is all we have. In the beginning, after all the worlds were separated, the true essence of darkness and light were sealed away forever. For untold centuries, light was all that darkness had, until it couldn't exist without it. True Heartless are born when darkness engulfs a heart full of light, allowing it to take solid form and truly live once again. By freeing the heart, you kill the darkness, and condemn the "freed" heart to an eternity of wandering.
King Mickey stared at the document that had been placed with such care at the base of the monument know as the Cornerstone of Light.
It was late, and by all rights he should have been cuddled up in bed with his beloved wife, yet he had been kept up by a growing sense of dread that he could not explain, a feeling that something was horribly wrong. He had had feelings like this before, and it made him fear what it could mean for the balance of the worlds.
Inevitably, that was what led him to the Cornerstone. In addition to being the heart of his world's defenses, the massive globe also acted as an early warning system, one he had devised after the first Heartless crisis. When the Heartless forces were growing stronger, the Cornerstone would pulsate softly. When he had arrived in the secret room beneath the throne where the Cornerstone was located, he was relieved to see the stone's constant glow, but perplexed at the small slip of paper propped against its base.
Picking up the sheet to examine it closer, he sensed nothing amiss other than its odd location. There was no magic to it, so secret incantation or scent of darkness to indicate how it was moved here. Someone had to have carried inside the castle, but who?
"Pleasant reading, your Majesty?"
Mickey jumped at the sudden voice. With a thought his keyblade appeared in his hand, which he pointed towards where he believed the intruder to be, though his eyes saw nothing but shadows.
"Who's there?" Mickey demanded. "Come out now!"
To his surprise the voice chuckled, and the tone was familiar, although he couldn't immediately place it. Out the shadows a young man walked out wearing a familiar black jumpsuit, overly large shoes, and a short-sleeved, hooded jacket. The hood was up, concealing the boy's hair and eyes, but Mickey could see enough of his face to know it was one he recognized.
"Sora," Mickey said, allowing some of the tension to leave his shoulders. "You scared me."
Sora gave a small, silly grin. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to startle you." He nodded his head toward the paper in Mickey's hands. "What was it you were looking at? You seemed kind of intense while you were looked at it."
Mickey allowed himself a small chuckle as he turned his attention back to the strange note on the table. "It's probably nothing. There days I feel like I've been constantly caught up in my own…little…world…" World…how was Sora on his world?
Mickey's eyes widened and in a single movement he swung his body to the side with the keyblade still tight in his grip, but before he could connect, "Sora" was already in front of him, hand extended. A blast of energy swept the mouse king off his feet and flung him to the other side of the room. The keyblade clattered onto the ground a foot from the boy's feet.
Still dazed from the attack, Mickey watched as "Sora" picked up his Kingdom Key.
"You're not Sora," the mouse said.
The boy who was not Sora pushed back his hood, revealing an unruly mop of off-white hair, similar in style to the boy he imitated. His face was also Sora's, though his skin was a bit tanner and he had sinister golden eyes instead of blue. "I'm glad you noticed," he said. "This wouldn't have been nearly as fun if Island Boy got all the credit."
Mickey tried to get up, but the Sora doppelganger noticed, and with a casual wave of his hand several black tendrils sprouted from the floor and latched onto him.
"Nu-uh-uh," the boy said. "No moving."
Mickey briefly struggled against the bonds, but the more he struggled, the tighter they became. Whatever the tendrils were made of, they were cold, yet alive. "Who are you?" Mickey demanded. "How did you get in here?"
The doppelganger, who had been examining the King's weapon with keen interest, smiled again. "My name is Erebos. As for how I got here, the answer to that question is resting in my hands."
Mickey's eyes once again darted to the weapon he had known for so many years. "The keyblade."
"Yes, namely the keyblade to the darkness, though you already knew that." Erebos walked over to Mickey and crouched down so the two of them were at eye level. "Tell me, your Majesty, have you been having trouble sleeping?"
Mickey didn't say anything, but his eyes answered for him. The grin on the boy's face widened. "I thought so. You see, your keyblade has been calling for a new wielder for some time now, and I finally decided to come pick it up. That sense of foreboding? That was the keyblade unbinding itself from your heart."
Mickey felt a spike of fear drive its way through his heart, but he shoved it out. "You're lying," Mickey growled.
"I can see why you'd think that," the boy said as he rose back to his full height, "but I think I have something that might change your mind."
The double put his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out an odd trinket. Mickey instantly recognized the black and red Heartless insignia and he felt his stomach plummet when he realized what was coming next. Sora's double clicked the keychain onto the keyblade and a second later the weapon was engulfed in a black flame that started at the handle and spread until it reached the tip of the blade. Then, just as abruptly as it started, the fire was out, revealing something very different that the peaceful silver and gold key from before. It had been replaced by a cruel half red, half black blade covered in sharp edges and jagged spikes. The guard around the handle circled the double's hand like two monstrous wings, and the tip of the blade was vaguely heart-shaped, only shattered at the bottom.
Erebos gazed down at the barely conscious mouse king and smiled cruelly as he was struck with inspiration. Mickey felt a hand on his collar became aware he was being dragged across the marble floor.
"What…what are you doing?" he managed to say.
"I'm giving you a little time to reflect," Erebos said. "You see, I know you're going to tell Sora all about this encounter. In fact I'm counting on it. It's just that I need a little more time to put the final players into place."
The next thing Mickey knew, Erebos was lifting him from the ground and so that he was face to face with the Cornerstone of Light. Erebos lifted the dark keyblade and tapped it once, causing the surface of the massive globe to ripple like the surface of a pond.
"Remember, your majesty," Erebos whispered. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." He then thrust Mickey forward towards, and with a massive flash of light the mouse king finally lost consciousness.
Erebos stood there for a moment longer, basking in the pulsating light of the Cornerstone, now with a mouse-shaped silhouette at its core. Then, with another small grin, he turned to the oddly shaped set of doors in the middle of the room, and with another tap of his keyblade, entered.
"Enjoy your little nap in there White King," Erebos said as his body melted into the light of the gateway. "Now I just need to do the same to the Black Queen, and then this game can really start."