Kingdom Hearts: Fragmented Bonds
Chapter 1: Prologue – Blank Points
A far-off dream that's like a scattered memory. A far-off memory that's like a scattered dream. I want to line the pieces up. Yours and mine.
Hidden Truths
The two of them stood in a black abyss, the only lights emanating from the faint golden aura silhouetting their bodies. Both stared eachother down. The corrupter and the corrupted. Master Xehanort, mastermind that he was, smiled to himself. All too obvious that he was terribly pleased with his efforts to get where he was now. True, most of his ultimate plan had failed. Kingdom Hearts was lost, the X-Blade destroyed, and Vanitas lost to his own darkness. But, he still had options. He had already achieved one.
He stared down the man opposite him. Terra. His body now ruled by darkness, and thus was Master Xehanort's pawn to use.
"Darkness rules your heart, and the body that was once yours now obeys my will," gloated Master Xehanort, eyeing Terra with his disturbing moonlit eyes. "How you can still be here confounds the mind."
"It's still my heart," replied Terra calmly. "You think you can just walk in and takeover? I'm not gonna let that happen."
"Don't even think about entertaining any notions of escaping me, boy," said Master Xehanort, chuckling to himself. He through out his arms boldly. "In the end, you heart will be engulfed by mine forever."
Terra responded with his own amused chuckle. Master Xehanort dropped his arms, taken aback by the young man's calmness.
"Wrong, you're going to get shown the door old man," said Terra. "This is my body and my heart. The only thing that is going to be engulfed is your own heart. By mine."
"As I recall you could not even control your own darkness. Your rage. Your desire for more power," said Master Xehanort, placing his arms behind his back. "How can you even think to overcome my heart?"
Terra smiled confidently, closing his eyes briefly in thought.
"You'll find out soon enough," said Terra, gesturing to his chest. "You didn't think you were the first person to touch my heart?"
Master Xehanort eyed Terra, figuring out his words. He nodded in realisation and smiled to himself.
"Oh, so that's how it is. Someone else has stepped into your heart…Eraqus, my old friend," said Master Xehanort. "You sly fox. Curious. If his heart now resides with yours, where has his body run off to?"
"I'm not afraid of whatever the darkness holds now," said Terra, placing a hand on his heart. He looked up and glared at the old man before him, challenging him. "Even if you take control of my heart and cast me into the deepest abyss, I'll never be swayed from the one cause that pushes me to keep on fighting. I will defeat you and see my friends again. No matter what cost is necessary!"
Master Xehanort looked on as Terra finished, another smile creeping onto his face. A look of admiration but self-confidence on his wrinkled face.
"Brave words to be sure, Terra," he said. "But I'm a patient man, and we can take as much time as we need to settle this little property dispute."
Terra's smile faded as Master Xehanort stepped towards him. Right up into his face, as brown eyes met yellow.
"Know this: You are one of many roads I may choose to take," stated Master Xehanort. "Trust me. I've made sure of that most definitely."
…
Image of their backs, preserved in memory
While the true Master Xehanort and Terra drifted through the darkness of their combined hearts, their united self, Xehanort, marched quickly down a hall in the castle of Radiant Garden. Little memories clouded his head, allowing him to concentrating on his master's research of the heart and its connection to light and darkness.
The sound of approaching footsteps caught his attention. Xehanort barely had time to turn around as a man's arm swung over his shoulder, pulling him into a buddy-buddy embrace. Xehanort eyed the arm and turned to see the grinning face of Braig looking at him. Braig's hair had grown long in the short time Xehanort had known him, and it was now in a lengthy ponytail. Braig also sported an eyepatch over his right eye, and a deep facial scar on his left cheek. His remaining eye was coloured a familiar moonlight yellow.
"Hey, Mr. Master!" greeted Braig cheerfully. Xehanort stared at this greeting blankly. Braig blinked back and laughed it off. "Oh, come on. Tell that amnesia was just a dumb joke, right?"
Braig nudged Xehanort playfully. To his surprised, his old acquaintance did not seem particularly comfortable with this encounter. Braig's smile faded in slight concern. He moved close to Xehanort's face, studying it closely.
"Hey…you're not Terra?" asked Braig.
Xehanort again stared blankly, lowering his brow. Braig smiled to himself and removed his arm from around Xehanort, giving him a slap on the back as he walked beside him.
"As if! Don't you worry, Xehanort. I've got your back," Braig said. He laughed again as Xehanort brushed off his labcoat sleeve, as if he was going to catch something off him.
The two men continued walking. The seeds for which would spawn a many great disasters upon the worlds.
As Xehanort and Braig strode away down the corridor, from another came Ansem the Wise, walking hand and hand with the young Ienzo, a quiet boy of little words. Later to be known under the more familiar title of Zexion the Cloaked Schemer. The pair both ate salty-sweet ice cream bars, a delicacy concocted by a wealthy duck with a Scottish accent who had appeared in the Radiant Garden not too long ago. All sorts of odd people had come and gone from the kingdom within the past few weeks.
Ansem chuckled as Ienzo moved quickly to catch a bit of the ice lolly slipping off the stick it was attached to. Little did he know that their father and son bond would dissolve within the next year as young Ienzo, along with all of his beloved apprentices would turn against him and consumed by darkness.
Ienzo stopped suddenly and turned away, looking back down the corridor from whence they came. Ansem stopped too, following the young boy's gaze to see Xehanort and Braig walking away down the corridor in the opposite direction. Their backs to him.
A sight in the future that would haunt Ansem the Wise for the next few years.
…
Two who were never meant to meet
He sat on a rock watching the tide come and go in endless continuation. He had forgotten how long he had sat here once again on the shores of the Dark Margin, in the Realm of Darkness.
Ansem the Wise had survived his suicidal sacrifice at The World That Never Was, thrown with enormous strength right into darkness. Surviving, Ansem wandered aimlessly, wearing a black coat to protect himself from completely falling into darkness. Ironic, considering how these coats had been warn by Organization XIII; whom Ansem the Wise had spent a decade trying to get revenge on. How fitting he now wore their trademark coat to protect himself.
He stared out into the ocean before him, the full moon hanging in the sky being the only form of light in this dark place.
Then, he heard the sound of footsteps being made in the sand behind him. Was it a friend or foe? Not that it really mattered to the old man. He had forgotten most of memories and people he was familiar with. The idea of company was something Ansem had considered in his long time on the shore, and it looked like he was about to get it.
He heard the approaching person come right up to him and stop. And then they spoke.
"Who are you?" asked the voice of a young woman.
Ansem peered up from under his hood to examine the woman who had appeared. The woman was in her late twenties or early thirties, being quite youthful and pretty in Ansem's eyes. She had striking blue hair that grew to just below her shoulders, with beautiful blue eyes to match. She wore a black halter top and short, with two pink ribbons wrapped around the top, intersecting in the middle and going over her shoulders down her back. She wore white-coloured bell sleeves and fingerless gloves, long black stockings and some silver uniquely styled shoes.
"Why hello, it's not often that I get visitors," greeted Ansem the Wise softly.
"Please, call me Aqua," said the woman with a faint smile. "But why are you sitting here all alone in this Realm of Darkness? How did you end up here?"
Ansem looked back out to the ocean in silence.
"Well, I can tell you that this is my second time on these shores. But, like the first time, I cannot remember who I really am nor whence I came. All I know really is my name: Ansem the Wise. Not a very appropriate name considering my past actions. But I do know that I deserve to be here after having harmed so many people in my quest for revenge against those who wronged me," explained Ansem. "Everything was washed away in whatever currents that carried me here."
Aqua bowed her head in sadness. She had hoped this person she had come across would be able to show her the way out. She slowly sat down on the sand beside Ansem's perch, wrapping her arms around her legs.
"That's too bad. I know I've been here a long time, wandering through the endless hours. Trying some way to escape," said Aqua sadly.
"You wish to return to my own world?" asked Ansem.
"It's my friends. I promised I'd be there for them, but I don't know how long it's been since I last saw them," said Aqua.
Ansem eyed Aqua and frowned as he tried to recall some vague memories. Of that boy with the good heart.
"Hmm…somewhere in the scraps of memories that I have left, you remind me of a boy I once knew," said Ansem. "He was true to his friends and kind. Like you. He followed his heart and kept the light safe."
"Did something happen to the worlds?" asked Aqua in concern.
"Sad to say they nearly fell to darkness on more than one occasion, mainly due to my arrogance and misjudged deeds," said Ansem, shaking his head ashamedly. "But at every turn that boy was there with Keyblade in hand to save the day."
Aqua suddenly sprang up. Ansem looked up at her face where hope blossomed. She was beaming like there was no tomorrow.
"A boy with a Keyblade! Was his name Terra or Ven?" asked Aqua.
Ansem really did not want to shatter this woman's hopes but he had no option. He shook his head lightly.
"He went by neither of those names I'm afraid," he spoke.
Aqua's smile immediately faded and she flopped back down onto the sand.
"I should've known," said Aqua, sighing in disappointment.
The atmosphere grew into a depressing silence. Ansem glanced at Aqua from under his hood. He could not see her face completely, but she looked like she was tired. As if wandering for an incredibly long time.
"How long has it been since I met him and friends; about a year now," said Ansem. "Back then my heart was clouded with vengeance. I did terrible things. Both to him and his friends, along with more innocent people who did not deserve to be destroyed by my wrath. So I felt something had to be done, to make amends. Perhaps to clear my conscious, or perhaps out of a scholarly instinct."
"What did you do?" asked Aqua, taking an interest in Ansem's tale.
"The boy was in a deep sleep for a year, and I transplanted the results of my research inside him. Transplanting the data to where it may best serve a purpose. I believe he can settle things out, and once again save the worlds from what possible darkness may still linger," continued Ansem. "A boy like him who touches so many hearts, perhaps he could save those I've harmed."
Ansem looked up to the sky, where no stars shone. A faint smile appeared on his face which further intrigued Aqua.
"So many people are still waiting for their new beginnings. Their birth by sleep. Including me, and you," said Ansem.
"What's this boy's name?" asked Aqua.
"His name is Sora," replied Ansem. He turned sharply as a gasp came from Aqua.
Aqua mouth hung open, but she broke into a joyful smile. And then a single tear ran down her cheek. Ansem was not entirely sure how to react to this. Did she know Sora? Aqua composed herself and looked out to the moon, a smile on her face.
"Sora…" she said.
Aqua nodded to herself and got to her feet. She turned to Ansem and offered a hand to him.
"Come on, Ansem the Wise," she said. "Let's get moving."
Ansem took Aqua's hand and hoisted himself off the rock he sat on.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"To find my friend Ventus. If he's still where I left him, than we can wait there until Sora finds us," said Aqua cheerfully.
Ansem silently agreed. The two set off from the coast, a place unbeknownst to them, that the boy they were waiting for had been not too long ago.
…
All the pieces lie where they fell
A soft breeze blew into the White Room of the forgotten old mansion on the outskirts of Twilight Town. The "witch" as some called her sat in a chair, sketching on her drawing pad. Finishing her work, Namine examined the drawing before her and smiled to herself. It was a familiar spiky-haired boy, sitting on a tree branch overlooking the setting sun of his island home. She looked out of the window into the similar sunset over the town.
Nearby, perhaps a memory or an afterimage, three very close friends sat atop the town's clock tower. The three figures dressed in black, cursed to feel nothing and yet they had hearts. Together forever. They sat eating salty sweet ice cream bars. But all three stopped in unison and shared a gaze out onto the beautiful city before them. Roxas, Axel and Xion all shared smiles.
And in a once beautiful garden sat a boy. A boy so very similar to Roxas, but also different. He slept soundlessly in a chair, but stirred in his sleep as another older man approached: Terra. Ventus opened his eyes and smiled to Terra. They were both joined by a middle-aged man sporting a moustache and goatee. All three looked up into the starry night sky.
And there was one person on each of these different people's minds. The person they were all connected to in their own ways. All waiting for him to come and save them. And together they spoke his name.
"Sora."
…
The sign of things to come
King Mickey stood before his old master's desk, thinking things over in his mind. Looking up to address Master Yen Sid, he noticed his master was staring at him in concern.
"There are so very few Keyblade wielders left, Mickey, and even less Keyblade Masters," said Master Yen Sid, stroking his long, grey beard. "With Master Eraqus' death, and the disappearance of Aqua, Terra and Ventus, you were the only Keyblade wielder still active."
"Don't worry, Master Yen Sid," said King Mickey. "I think we are close to finding out where Ven's heart is."
"Excellent, Mickey. Now all that leaves is Terra, as we know Aqua is somewhere within the Realm of Darkness," said Master Yen Sid. "It's a pity that all those who have been lost can be found."
King Mickey got the jist, bowing his head, unable to hide lingering guilt for an event long ago.
"I never should of let him go, Master," said King Mickey sadly, clenching his fists. "If only I had held onto him longer, he would not have fallen into darkness."
"There was nothing that you could have done," said Master Yen Sid. "Besides, right now there are more important things to be concerned about. Xehanort for example."
King Mickey was taken aback in surprise. What in the world was his master talking about?
"Xehanort? But he's gone. Both his Heartless and Nobody were destroyed by Sora and Riku," said King Mickey.
"True, Ansem and Xemnas met their ends and returned to darkness. However, there lies the problem," said Master Yen Sid gravely. "For if a Heartless and Nobody of the same person are defeated, they can reunite in the darkness and become one once again."
"Wha…why didn't you tell me this!" shouted King Mickey in shock.
"Calm yourself my friend. I had to be sure about this before I told you, but it's true. Which means Master Xehanort will return," said Master Yen Sid.
"And you think he's gonna try something?" asked King Mickey, dropping his anger.
"Perhaps. Knowing Master Xehanort, he will once again try to obtain power over Kingdom Hearts," said Master Yen Sid. "Perhaps using the Heartless, or the Nobodies, or maybe even attempt to re-create the X-Blade. A man like Xehanort will have left many roads open to use."
"Well, whatever he tries to do, me, Sora and Riku will be able to stop him," said King Mickey confidently.
"True, they are strong Keyblade wielders. But neither of them are true Keyblade Masters," said Master Yen Sid. "Only me, you and Aqua wherever she is have obtained the title."
"What are you suggesting?" asked King Mickey. Master Yen Sid slowly rose to his feet.
"Tell me, would a single one of you suffice, if there was a single Xehanort," said Master Yen Sid.
"What!" cried King Mickey, once again bewildered by his master's cryptic words.
"Mickey, how many Keyblade wielders are there currently?" asked Master Yen Sid.
"Well there's me, you, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Terra, Ventus, Aqua, Master Eraqus if he was still around along with Master Xehanort and that Vanitas guy…and Sora said Roxas could use two Keyblades," said King Mickey. "But I've never met Roxas, so I could never confirm it."
"I see. Mickey, bring Sora to me immediately. And Riku," ordered Master Yen Sid. "Sora will bring Roxas with him as a result."
"And Kairi?" asked King Mickey. "I think I know where you are going with this."
"Indeed. I want Sora and Riku to take up the Mark of Mastery, and we shall see if they are worthy to become true Keyblade Masters," explained Master Yen Sid. "As for Kairi, with so little experience with the Keyblade, I believe she is not yet ready. Now go, my friend. The fate of the worlds depends on our fast actions!"
King Mickey nodded and hurried out of the room in an instant. Master Yen Sid sat back down in his chair and put a hand to his mouth in thought.
…
This prologue is mostly based on the Birth By Sleep secret ending. For anyone curious about the ambiguous character Mickey and Yen Sid are talking about, well you'll find out, but you can always guess who it is.