Blue Moon

Chapter 1-End of time

It was not how it was supposed to be. These same words endlessly repeated themselves within Eraqus's head, his mind reeling from the shock and horror of losing a most cherished friend, and yet his thoughts were also focused upon the bundle he carried within his arms, the last survivor of the devastation he had borne witness to. Thankfully, the baby in question was silent right now, as Eraqus felt his heart would surely cave in when he would begin crying again. And yet, despite the heartbreak, he was also filled with a burning determination: fulfilling a promise he made years ago to the boy's parents, to protect their son if they were unable to for whatever reason. Even though he promised wholeheartedly, he was shaken to his core as the boy's parents would disappear one by one.

The boy's name was Sairu, who at this moment, began crying again, and just as he feared, Eraqus found himself crying as well, the tears refusing to cease cascading down his cheeks, but, just ahead of them, even with eyes blurred by the tears, he found himself where he had decided would be safe: the Mysterious Tower, home to his old friend and former Keyblade Master. The passageway through the Lanes Between had brought him to Yen Sid's study directly where the figure in question sat with a stern look upon his face, having predicted his friend's arrival, but not the circumstances to explain his arrival. The armour that Eraqus was wearing, predominantly bronze and silver over his arms, legs and chest area, with blue and dull green armour with the symbol of the Mark of Mastery upon his abdomen, and a helmet that was mostly silver with three long spikes at the sides and centre atop his head where a gold version of the same symbol rested on the centre of his face, then disappeared in a flash of light, revealing Eraqus in his regular attire, with the bundle safely in his arms and a peculiar-looking white sword mounted on his back.

Even though he was relieved to be in safe territory, Eraqus's tears still cascaded, bearing an expression of utter defeat. Yen Sid, with a face of a statue, took note of his friend's expression and offered him a consoling look as their eyes met. "Eraqus, my old friend, you have experienced a great tragedy concerning this child in your arms, am I wrong?" he stated bluntly yet caringly. Eraqus, however, seemed not to hear him as he stood there, violently shaking with a never-ending flow of tears streaking his face. Beginning to understand the repercussions of the tragedies he had witnessed, Yen Sid quickly conjured a white cot with a wave of his hands, where he, surprisingly considering his old age, swiftly approached Eraqus and gently eased the bundle from his arms and slowly lowered him into the cot as he returned to his crushed friend, who had fallen to his knees, as if to sink even deeper into the ground.

"Why...?" Eraqus then said weakly, still shedding tears as Yen Sid helped him to his feet, and guiding him to a white chair that stood opposite Yen Sid's desk, propping the strange sword against the desk. Once he sat down, he spoke weakly again "Why did this happen? How could it happen? My friend is gone... his father is lost forever" he said, his voice drowned in melancholy as he turned to face the wriggling Sairu in his cot. "Perhaps you should start from the beginning, Eraqus" Yen Sid spoke as he too took his seat. Eraqus then proceeded to wipe his tears away, regaining composure, and faced Yen Sid with a serious expression on his voice. "Betrayal..." he said the word with pure venom. "One of Getsuryu's subordinates, Drahcir, was secretly plotting to overthrow him, and used the opportunity in the death of Siaren to strike when he was most vulnerable. He even resorted to a pathetically underhanded tactic of using Sairu as an insurance policy, which sadly went according to plan in my absence, I regret to say."

"What's more, Drahcir had an accomplice: a man who acquired Getsuryu's secrets to time travel as part of the exchange. What this man can do with such a revered yet reviled art is simply unfathomable. However, having said that, Getsuryu never provided a description of this man before he disappeared to fend off a gargantuan Heartless: for his people... and his son. So, it appears this will be nothing more than a wild goose chase." Eraqus finished recounting the events that transpired, invoking a sense of horror in his friend across the desk, which was rare for Yen Sid as he absorbed the information Eraqus relayed. Eventually, as he assessed the information and then a theory came to mind, one which he hoped was wrong. "I may have an idea who is responsible, yet this greatly unsettles me. The only person I have ever known to demonstrate intrigue in such forces... is Master Xehanort" Yen Sid then spoke but almost regretted it when he saw the shocked expression that Eraqus now wore.

"Xehanort may be unpredictable and difficult to read, but even he could never be capable of such a tragedy" Eraqus countered. "Regardless, it is merely a hypothesis. Do not take it so literally, Eraqus. In the meantime, what are we to do with the boy?" Yen Sid then asked, as he and Eraqus directed their gaze towards the boy resting in the cradle. "That is obvious... I will look after him. I promised Getsuryu to protect him and that is what I will do" he spoke with determination, but he took note of Yen Sid's increasingly serious expression. "My friend, the fates are cruel, but you are aware, as am I, that that is not an option" Yen Sid spoke sternly, which alarmed Eraqus. "What? Yen Sid, you're forbidding me from raising the boy?!" he exclaimed, rising from his seat.

Yen Sid, however, was unfazed as he maintained eye contact with his old friend. "Far from it, Eraqus. But you are aware what being a Keyblade Master entails. You have only recently acquired two apprentices with whom you have to maintain a watchful eye; you need to connect with them and supervise their training, which takes many hours, which in turn takes many days. Raising a child requires an equal amount of time, time that you do not have. Perhaps if your responsibilities were fewer, I would not insist as I am right now" Yen Sid retaliated in a quiet yet serious voice. "I am aware of that! I would not have accepted this responsibility if I had not considered my options carefully. What's more, I promised. What kind of Keyblade Master does not respect the promises of their close friends? Tell me that, Yen Sid" Still, despite the challenge, Yen Sid remained sitting, arms crossed, eyeing Eraqus with his usual expression of severity.

"Then tell me, Eraqus: what kind of Keyblade Master abandons reason for the sake of promises made to those close to them? If the darkness were to appear at your doorstep, could you risk the sacred land in the name of a single child?" Hearing Yen Sid's counter-argument, Eraqus's protests were halted as he realised the full magnitude of his resolve: he realised if something were to happen to him, and his pupils were unable to take his place and fell against the darkness, his home, his pupils, and his friend's son... everything would be lost to darkness, just as Sairu had lost everything. As he fully considered this, a great anger awakened inside him: he wouldn't allow himself to feel the same pain that Sairu may come to experience in future.

"I see... you are right. I cannot allow my promise to interfere with training my pupils, so that they can protect the light, when I retire, and I can still take care of Sairu in time. Until then, he should be sent somewhere safe. Where should we send him?" he then asked, as Yen Sid closed his eyes in contemplation. After some time, he opened his eyes again and responded "The haven for light... Radiant Garden" Hearing this, Eraqus nodded, feeling at ease yet still feeling guilty for not fulfilling the promise himself for time. At this, he reached for the sword propped against the desk and placed it on the table in front of them with a look that said 'Don't forget this', and Yen Sid instantly understood this gesture, but he would become confused as Eraqus reached around his neck and pulled off the pendant around his neck to hold it in his hands to which it glowed a golden light in his hands before placing it on the desk with the blade.

"This pendant now bears a fragment of my heart, fuelled by my desire to protect him. Please ensure that he receives this and this sword when he is of the right age" Eraqus said, to which Yen Sid nodded. At this, the latter waved his hands, and in a flash of light, the blade and the pendant disappeared, whilst he held the baby Sairu in his arms as well. At this, Eraqus approached them, with an almost fatherly gaze in his eyes and a sad smile across his face as he raised his hand and affectionately stroked the boy's head one last time "Farewell, Sairu. I pray you will forgive me if and when you hear of this" With that, Eraqus's fist struck his midriff and in a burst of light, was covered in his armour once again, and with a wave of his hand, called his Keyblade to his hand and conjured another passage, giving one last nod to Yen Sid before he walked through the passage and disappeared. Following this, Yen Sid too took his departure in a pillar of blue light.

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Radiant Garden. A world reputed for its literal title; on nearly every street, flowers of nearly every colour coalesced to paint a window sill all colours of the rainbow, a wonderful combination of nature and modern civilization. Despite the world order that inhabitants were not to be aware of the other worlds, a great number of people across them at one point or another have referred to a distant land that many described of them as paradise. Some actually left their world, via myriad ways, to either visit as a tourist or to establish a business; the most famous being the billionaire Scrooge McDuck, who established a highly popular ice-cream business, aided in part by the wizard Merlin, whose magic aided the townsfolk in desperate need, being able to fix nearly anything with his partner, a blond-haired man who was gruff on the outside but good-hearted on the inside, sporting his trademark goggles and toothpick in his mouth: Cid Highwind, the town's local mechanic, who had once been part of the palace guard as a spear-wielder, but was now retired, leaving the post to be taken by a newcomer, Dilan, so Cid could follow his true passions: mechanics and, surprisingly, caring for children.

As it stood, he currently had three orphaned children in his care, with Merlin serving as a tutor to each of them in turn: one boy and two girls. The boy was the eldest at about fifteen years of age with dark brown hair that reached to the back of his collar, his bangs parted to the right side, sporting a black V-neck T-shirt, wearing a silver pendant of a lion's head, with dark blue jeans, black combat boots, with cold, uncaring blue eyes, called Squall Leonhart. The eldest girl was truly a pretty one; she had long brown hair that she kept plaited, bound by two blue bands, with her bangs framing the sides of her heart-shaped face, dressed in a conservative short-sleeved white dress that reached to the base of her neck, wearing an assortment of silver bangles on each wrist, with silver-coloured sandals, Aerith Gainsborough at fourteen. The last of the girls was much younger, with shorter black hair, dressed in a sleeveless black T-shirt, wearing a silver headband with a plate of metal on her forehead, wearing grey shorts that reached to halfway down her thighs, sporting a white pair of trainers, the self-proclaimed 'Great Ninja' Yuffie Kisaragi, five years old.

It was the end of a peaceful day in Radiant Garden; it was half twelve at night, and while everyone else had retired to bed, Cid remained in his workshop in a back room that held a door to a garage for his larger scale projects, courtesy of Merlin's magic. Here he was tinkering with a damaged metal detector, for his client in the coming daybreak, and just as he had finished installing the last rivet, his hopes to retire to bed with satisfaction were dashed when there was a knock at the door, soft yet unyielding. As he approached and opened the door, his exasperated expression contorted into outrage at being pranked this late at night when he saw that no one was there. Just as he was about to close the door as he turned back, he saw a flash of white out of the corner of his eye and directed his gaze towards the ground. What he saw saddened him yet interested him at the same time.

On the ground by the doorway lay five objects. One was an unusual shaped golden pendant, a heart-like shape atop a cross, attached to black leather rope. Another was an impressive white blade, with a hand guard of a crescent moon shape with an identical shape attached to the black hilt via a small length of chain. The third object was a small white envelope addressed 'To whom it may concern'; another was a small cylinder-like shape, coloured beige-yellow. The last was not an object, but something that he had never expected: a baby wrapped tightly in a bundle of white blankets. Then, to his horror, the baby began to cry, and at this, Cid awkwardly bent down and tried gently yet hurriedly to soothe the baby in its arms, with success. As the baby calmed down, he then calmly laid it down on the sofa to collect the other objects and seeing no else around when he was finished, closed the door softly behind him and approached the envelope. As he opened it, he noted the cursive handwriting and began to read.

To whom it may concern,

I apologise for any inconvenience that this sudden interruption will undoubtedly have caused you. But nonetheless, I pray you will understand when I explain as to why this has happened. As tragic as it may be to comprehend, the boy in question, Sairu he is called, is now sadly orphaned: the death of his mother from their birth, and the noble, heart-warming sacrifice of his father in order to protect him.

The reason however, that we have sent him to the Radiant Garden, is because my colleague, who protected the boy from the darkness to bring him to safety, and myself have a myriad of other responsibilities that require our immediate attention. So I sincerely ask of you, he/she who reads this letter to please give the boy your home for him to share, for he has no home to return to.

Furthermore, the objects that came with young Sairu are to be passed on to him when he reaches an appropriate, though I would strongly recommend to keep the blade away until he is fairly older and wiser. I trust your discretion will ensure this, and again, I wish to express my regret for having to leave the life of such a young child in your hands.

With regards,

Yen Sid