In what was now known as the Land of Departure, two young boys were being taught by a master; the names of the boys were Xehanort and Eraqus, with Eraqus being the elder of the two, and the master's name was Leiko. The master herself was middle age, and came from the Land of Dragons; Xehanort came from the Destiny Islands, and Eraqus came from Hyuga.

Oddly enough, their appearances in their old age were far different from their youth; Xehanort carried himself with a sense of confidence, which he still does, but, funnily enough, was usually the do gooder in his youth, as far as I could tell. Eraqus, on the other hand, was, to put it simply, a street rat in his own world. Leiko was a strange example of a new generation of Wielders that were more outgoing, mainly due to the belief that not only was experience a better teacher than staying secluded, but also that worlds needed to find out about the existence of Wielders once again. Said generation also believed that it was their responsibility to take care of the worlds when the inhabitants could not take care of themselves - this will become important later.

Awkwardly enough, this was in direct contrast to Yen Sid's beliefs. Leiko and Yen Sid were the best of friends in their youth; maybe even lovers, but I didn't abuse my Unchained state to peek into the personal lives of people that much - the only time I had needed to do that was when the Dandelions were still around. They had trained together under the same master, Ingra, a man who was recruited as a young boy from Radiant Garden, and Leiko journeyed through the worlds with Yen Sid once their master had deemed them ready to do so; Yen Sid was the younger one, by the way. This journey was not only their Mark of Mastery exam, but it created Yen Sid's reputation as a famous wizard, Leiko as being a compassionate but strong Keyblade Wielder, and also caused a split in both their ideals and relationship. This wound up causing them to separate, creating another school for Keyblade Wielders to learn; the Mysterious Tower, an offshoot of a world brimming with magical energy named Fantasia. When they contacted each other, it was only for business, and it was usually cold. Even though they aimed for the same goal, they went about it in different ways, and although I could not help but agree with Leiko personally, I still wonder to this day if the events of the Xehanort Saga could have been different if she had taken a different stance to her style of teaching.

Then again, I didn't even have a physical form at the time, only a spiritual, Unchained one, so it didn't really matter what I thought.

Not surprisingly, Xehanort and Eraqus were at odds with each other from the moment they met, even though they underwent a role reversal later in their lives. Interestingly enough, Eraqus, despite being a general troublemaker in his world, hated the Heartless; he had experienced the terror of one when it razed his hometown - and his family with it. Needless to say, his world didn't survive in the end. Xehanort, on the other hand, lived on Destiny Islands, which was a place naturally protected with light. Why? That's a story for another time. Xehanort was never directly affected by darkness and Heartless in his childhood; that might have led to his eventual curiosity and acceptance of darkness rather than hatred of it.

The first, and possibly only time in which they reconciled their differences was when the Land of Departure was attacked by the very first apprentice that Yen Sid had at the time. Said apprentice was arrogant and was partially due to Yen Sid's hubris. He was also an asshole, albeit strong. Not really remarkable otherwise, to be honest. This also was the point where Eraqus finished his maturation from a thief to a more honorable person - although part of that was due to the fact that Leiko was getting along in age(about to retire, in fact) and was during the battle. This created a period in time where Xehanort and Eraqus needed to be the main caretakers for the Land of Departure - at least for a month. The event's effects on Xehanort were uncertain; it is possible that he enjoyed battling another Wielder with the intent to kill, something else, or no effect at all. However, it having no effect on him seems unlikely, as Xehanort started to research the X-Blade, Kingdom Hearts, Darkness, and what Hearts were in general soon after.

As for Leiko and Yen Sid, they finally reconciled. Yen Sid wound up apologizing to her for his past wrongs, and became more humble in the process; he resigned himself to watching over the worlds rather than trying to teach, since his last attempt failed so miserably. He only taught again when Mickey came onto the scene; in other words, a few decades later. He never did manage to rebuild his relationship with Leiko, however, since she never fully recovered from the battle. She was recovered enough, however, to serve as guardian of the Land of Departure, and to give the Mark of Master to both Xehanort and Eraqus - something to point out was that the Mark was more of a formality in her mind, as the protection that Xehanort and Eraqus gave was more of a test than she could ever give them. A few months after, however, she died from wounds sustained in the battle; both Yen Sid and I discussed it many years later, but we agreed that there probably wasn't a cure for it. It also doesn't help that when Keyblade Wielders get older, their ability to naturally recover from life threatening wounds greatly decrease. Xehanort inherited Leiko's unnamed Keyblade, the oldest one, and Eraqus materialized the Keyblade created specifically for the Land of Departure - not as old, but even in power with Xehanort's.

However, this is only where it starts to get interesting.

As for the unnamed apprentice, nobody really cared about him. Nobody really liked him, either...and his name has been lost to time.

(In other words, I'm too lazy to name this one guy which shows up in about three sentences and never again.)