Blade reached the front door of Hollow Bastion and pulled it open to find that Beast was carrying Belle across a large puddle that reached several yards. He entered soaking wet with an equally soaked Belle upon his arms. Beast made sure Belle was set down gently. "I'm going to get tea." said Belle, and she scurried off leaving small puddles of water behind. Beast bore into Blade's eyes with a stern look but quickly changed into a soft expression. After a moment, he sighed and said, "I worry for Belle. Each day I think something horrible might happen to her. Lately, things haven't been the same around here. I sense a threat or attack coming quickly." Beast sighed once more and left the room to follow Belle. Blade walked off pondering Beast's words. 'Nothing seemed strange around here.' he thought. He thought the continuous rain was rather weird but passed it off as a long storm. Blade entered his domain (which Beast had gladly offered to him) and sat upon his bed thinking. He would always train to try and clear his thoughts or for reckless fun. He summoned up three Shadow Heartless and stood. He conjured up his two Oblivions and commanded the Heartless to attack him. They began to surround him in a triangle and then lunged forward. Blade immediately took one of his keyblades and jabbed it behind him, taking out one of the three Heartless. He then took both keyblades and formed an "X" with them with one crossing in front of the other. He ran forward and leaped into a very horizontal front flip. In doing so, he slashed both ways taking out the remaining two Heartless. Satisfied he was not slacking, Blade stood and disassembled his keyblades.
Blade breathed in and out slowly, his thoughts slowly becoming wisped away from memory. He heard a low, rumbling noise that sounded from higher up in the tower and took it for thunder. Blade left his room and walked down to the Grand Hall to try and find Beast to talk to him. Blade heard the same rumbling noise again but this time knew it was not thunder. It was more like a crumbling noise within the castle somewhere. He began to worry about Beast and Belle's safety and knew that somewhere, the place was collapsing. He took off toward the Ball Room in a dash. Blade began to get tired as he was running through the corridors. Another crack could be heard from the same room. Desperately wanting to hurry, Blade ran quicker and could see the door to the Ball Room only about 10 yards ahead. Blade arrived at the door leading to the center of destruction and entered.
Inside was the most horrible thing Blade had ever seen. The top of the dome was cracked and quickly falling apart. Large boulders continuously fell from the ceiling, only gaining pace as they hurtled toward the ground. On the floor, Beast was lying on the ground with long cuts and gashes lining his arms. His leg was trapped, broken under several large pieces of ceiling. Belle was nowhere in sight and Blade could only hope she made it somewhere safe. There was a man standing on the balcony on the far side of the room. He didn't notice Blade's entrance into the room because the sound was masked by the continuous rain pouring into the room. The man had a black cloak on. He had flaming red hair that resembled somewhat of a mane. His eyes were deep, dark and had two long triangle markings upon his face. Grasped in his hands were two large pointed disks. The man's guard was lowered but only to talk to Beast. He began to say, "I'm only going to ask you one more time Beast. Where is it?" 'Where's what?' thought Blade. Beast was giving short raspy breaths and slowly said, "I don't know what you're talking about." "So be it." said the man. He raised his arm into the air and a pool of darkness seemed to form on the room's base. Out of this came countless type of creatures that resembled Heartless. There were countless Heartless coming from this pool and each began to surround Beast. Thinking instinctively, Blade assembled his keyblades and charged out into the battle. As he was running for Beast, the man who summoned the Heartless noticed Blade for the first time. A new, different look formed on his face; a confused one. Blade charged in and instantly began to attack the heartless. The Heartless began to become mad and changed their destination to Blade. Blade flipped back wards and spun, taking out 6 Heartless. No progress seemed to have been made so he began slashing more and more down, becoming more tired by the second. Several more were taken down and Blade charged forward for the next group. He jumped in the air and came down slashing with both two Oblivions. The attack never made it through to the Heartless because they had all instantly been dismantled. Blade's keyblades struck the ground with a clang. Blade looked up at the man who invaded the castle. His arms were rested on the podium and he was leaning forward. He began to speak, "Boy. Where did you get those weapons?" Blade was unsure of whether he should answer or not but continued the conversation with, "A man named Ansem gave them to me three years ago. Why?" The man had a disgusted look on his face but then continued. "You're very skilled with those keyblades and no doubt have been practicing. You seem to be the type of person who likes to go around helping others. Well you must also know that when you accepted those keyblades, Ansem also gave you the power to control the Heartless. Am I right?" "Yes." "Ah, I see." The man leaped onto the Ball Room floor and looked into Blade's eyes. "Fight me. Fight me or I shall get rid of that monster Beast over there and his mate Belle." A sense of hatred came over Blade for the fact that this guy would hurt them just for refusing a fight. Instinctively, Blade charged forward with both keyblades at the ready and began to attack the man. He easily dodged these attacks and was taunting him. "You can do better than that can't you?" The man kicked Blade in the chest and he went soaring across the floor. Once he stopped, he looked up and saw that the cloaked man was now aiming one of the disks at him. Almost immediately after looking, a large fire ball came straight at Blade, hitting him on the spot. Blade could feel the flames cutting him, burning his skin. The flames dispersed quickly but left the damage 100. Blade slowly stood and began to summon his Heartless out. The man was not surprised at this but almost looked pleased. Blade commanded them to attack relentlessly. The man simply swiped his disk and flames instantly destroyed them all. Shocked by this, Blade quickly decided it was time to use all the Heartless in his possession. He summoned a much larger quantity of Heartless and these ones were different. They were much taller and stronger than the Shadow Heartless and held great blue swords in their hands. Blade commanded the new Heartless to surround and attack the intruder. When they attacked, the man jumped backwards and extended his arms. Both disks began to glow violently and a giant ring of flames surrounded the Heartless. The man swiped his hands together and the Heartless died among the flames just as the others had done before. Blade could no longer see the man from the thickness of the flames. Looking closely, he could now see a figure coming from the flames. The mysterious man emerged with a small, cocky smile upon his face. He then rushed forward at such an intense speed that Blade was in shock. The man was right next to him in an instant and he slammed a fist straight into Blade's stomach knocking him out. The man picked up Blade and put him upon his shoulders. Beast who had been watching began to shout. "Axel! Put him down!" The man named Axel looked toward Beast and said, "Now, now Beast. You should be glad I'm taking this boy off your hands. It really was a shame we couldn't have stayed old friends." With that, Axel submerged into a pool of darkness and was gone.