Chapter one

The sound of waves crashing on to shore and the sound of the wind passing by filled Xemnas's ears. The sand that he stood upon felt as soft as fur under his bare feet. All was dark in his eyes, he could see nothing, and all he could do was listen and feel.

The sound of the waves and the sound of the light breeze filled the air, giving off a tranquil aura. As Xemnas listened to the waves and the wind he thought about all that had happened. From now to the moment that he was brought back to life.

Then as the wind past his ear again a whisper came to him. It was carried to his ear and it gave the impression that the wind itself spoke. At first the whisper started out as nothing but quiet mummers, then words started to form in a matter of seconds. The whispering voice that spoke was female and was spoken softly.

Xehanort. Open your eyes, Xehanort.

Not wanting to break the tranquility with his voice by protesting on using his human name he did what he was told and slowly opened his eyes. When his eyes were fully opened and they had adjusted to the lighting he found himself staring straight ahead at the ocean that now lay before him.

The ocean reflected the color of the setting sun that hung low on the horizon. The colors where a combination of pick, orange, purple, and yellow with a mix of a little red and blue within it. The sight was so beautiful that it was hard to describe it with words.

Xemnas continued to stare at the scene, strands of his long white slivery hair flowing in the wind in front of his face and golden eyes. As he watched the colors of dusk slowly fade something tried to pull him away from the tranquil scene. He tried to resist the pull but it only became more powerful and in the end he gave in.

The pull turned him around to face a magnificent island with healthy green palm trees, tropical plants, along with tree houses that hung from a small mountain that dominated most of the island and a third of what looked like a pirate ship.

It was Destiny Island.

When Xemnas turned around another sound came to his ears. He looked to his right and saw a waterfall that fell from the top of the mountain, and not far from the waterfall was a small shack that was also connected to the mountain.

Xemnas wanted to walk to the shack to see what was inside, but when he wanted to move he couldn't. He looked down at his feet and at that moment he noticed what he was wearing, he was wearing a tight black undershirt and black pants. He tried to move again and he still couldn't move. Then the whisper came to him again.

Xehanort, move and follow the singing.

When the whispering voice faded away, Xemnas tried again to move his feet, and they moved. Right after his first footstep, singing began to ring through the air. It sounded exactly like an angel singing for God and for hope; it was so beautiful that it would make a grown, stone hearted man cry. As Xemnas continued to walk toward the shack the singing grew louder.

He got to the shack, opened the door, and walked inside. When inside the shack he found a flight of stairs that led up to somewhere and without question he walked up the stairs. The flight of stairs was short and they lead to another door. Which he also opened without question, light from dusk shinned through the door way as the door was being opened. The singing pouring in through the open doorway, same as the light.

When the door was opened it revealed a bridge that lead to a smaller island. The bridge hung over the sandy shore that Xemnas had once stood on not five minutes ago. Not knowing what to do, he just continued forward, walking toward the bridge. He past a few palm trees on his way to the bridge and as he walked over it, the wood under his feet groaned in protest.

Once he walked over the bridge and planted his feet on the solid ground of the small island he looked around again. There were a few thin palm trees and one big palm tree that curved over the edge of the small island. He looked ahead and sitting there singing was a long black haired figure staring out at the ocean.

Xemnas walked to the center of the small island and stood there looking at the figure. The singing continued, but ended shortly after Xemnas stopped walking. All that was heard were the waves, the waterfall, and the wind. Then when a few moments past the figure started to turn around and as it did Xemnas held his breath for reasons unknown to him.

Once the figure turned completely around Xemnas's eyes widened in surprise. The face of the figure was the face of a goddess and its beauty could not be explained. The girls golden eyes seemed to glow in the fading light, her skin was a light tan, the slim frame of her body was outlined by the light of the sun, and her hair was long and the color was the darkest shade of black. Her hair flowed in the wind as she looked at Xemnas, her gaze seemed like it could scare a whole army into the next life.

She continued to stare at Xemnas as he stood there, and as he looked into her eyes something within him started to change. But it didn't last long because the girl started to speak, her lips moved and words flowed out, but the language that she was speaking was one that was unheard by Xemnas. Once a sentence was said it was somehow translated into a language that Xemnas could understand.

Xehanort. You are known through-out history as the one who found out about most of the darkness and their past, even without knowing your own. So now that you have learned of one part of the darkness, it is now time for you to learn of another. But for now, all you have to do is wake up from this dream. Wake up Xehanort, wake up.

Xemnas understood the first part of what she was saying but somehow did not understand what she meant when she said, "wake up." He continued to stare at her not knowing what to do, confusion building up within him. Then when he met her eyes with his, he was blown away because her eyes seemed to be filled with flames of anger and he wandered why.

He did not have to wait long for an answer to his question, because the girl started to speak again.

Xehanort, wake up. Wake up, now, Xehanort.

She repeated it again and again, non-stop.

Xehanort, wake up. Wake up, now, Xehanort.

She continued to repeat it, still non-stop. But she was now saying it louder than before. Fear in her voice and eyes as if she thought he would never wake up.

Xehanort, wake up! Wake up, now, Xehanort!

She continued to speak until Xemnas fell to his knees, still staring at her. His breathing was heavy and unstable. The girl stared back, her face now showing a calm expression. Then with a gentle voice she said.

Xehanort, please wake up. Please wake up now, Xehanort.

Xemnas nodded his head then closed his eyes, only to reopen them to see Kings face staring down at him.

Worry was written all over Kings face. That had to be probably the first of the few emotions King had shown the whole time Xemnas had seen him. But that emotion was soon replaced with a calm empty mask and King moved out of Xemnas's view.

Xemnas sat up slowly, thinking that if he sat up to quickly that his body would be engulfed in pain again. But nothing happened when he sat up. The only feeling he had within him was the sense that he had a lot of energy flowing through his body. When he looked around him he found himself in a white infirmary bed wearing only his black pants. He looked at his hands as he took full notice to the energy that he felt within him. From his hands he looked at his stomach which had a giant scar in the shape of a circle that had other web-like scars coming out of the larger scar. He would have to learn to live with it.

As Xemnas continued to look at his stomach and hands, King pulled up a chair up and sat down next to the infirmary bed. He waited for Xemnas to take notice of him sitting there, which didn't take long. Xemnas looked at King with a questioning look and without him saying a word; King began to explain what was going on.

"I can see that you have already noticed some of the changes to your body." He said. "For example the scar on your stomach from where you were injured." King continued to say.

Xemnas only nodded.

"Do you have any question on what changes I made to your physical form?"

"Yes." Xemnas replied looking back down at his hands. "I'm wondering what this energy that I'm sensing throughout my body is?"

King smiled at this and answered his question. "The energy that you feel is the energy of youth." King put a lot of meaning into the word "feel", but Xemnas just ignored it and went to his next question.

"What?"

"Yes, one of the changes that I made was your age."King looked at Xemnas as he gave King a look of disbelief. King smiled and continued with his explanation. "Since I had no idea how old you were exactly thirty-five years ago I decided to give you an age that was close to my friends. So for now on you are twenty-five."

Giving out Xemnas's new age gave a hint to the identity of King's mystery friend, who was apparently so powerful. Xemnas smiled to himself because this somehow worked with the plan that he was forming in his mind as he sat there listening to King's explanation. King ignored the smile that was on Xemnas's face and waited.

"Is there anything else that was changed while I was asleep or shall I say knocked out?" Xemnas asked, his smile fading away and a serious glare replacing it.

"Nope, nothing else, but you shouldn't go by your Nobody name from now on." King said. "Even though you still have the appearance of your Nobody form, you should go by your human name."

"Why, should I go by my human name? I've abandoned that name."

"The reason is because through-out history you are known mostly by your Nobody name. Which means that if word got out that Xemnas the leader of Organization Thirteen has returned from the grave, and the Kingdom of Light hears; then that would put the King of Light on high alert? So therefore, meaning you and everyone else who has some connection to me will be put into danger."

Xemnas knew that this was some-what true and if he was put in danger because of an abandoned name his forming plan would be useless. He thought about the situation a little longer then finally agreed to the terms.

King nodded to his agreement and stood up. Stretched and pointed behind Xemnas, saying; "Your other clothes are over there on the table. Once you are fully dressed come find me and I'll give you the information that you will need to find my friend."

King left, as soon as he had finished speaking, through a door that had come to Xemnas's view and the door in fact was not the only thing that came into view. The whole room came into view in that very instant. The walls, the furnisher, and a mirror appeared and were the color of white.

At this point Xemnas had no intentions of looking around to see what else was in the room. He just wanted to get out of this place and start his still forming plan. Which was nowhere past the first step; getting out and looking for this all powerful friend of King's. Xemnas swung his leg over the side of the bed, his feet landing on cold marble flooring that sent chills up his spine and got up once the chills were gone. His first few steps were a little wobbly but it didn't last long and he made his way over to the table. When standing next to the table Xemnas found a low cut undershirt, his jacket, gloves, socks, and combat boots all in a neat pile and without hesitation he put on every piece of clothing.

Walking through the door King had just walked through had lead Xemnas right back to where he was before he was knocked out and the room where he had died. King was sitting on his throne again waiting for Xemnas to come in. King smiled and gestured toward the chair that was in front of him, when he saw Xemnas.

Xemnas sat down in the chair, looked up at King, and waited. He kept a calm face on to hide the fact that was very anxious for the information that King was going to give him. King could sense the anxiousness that was within Xemnas and soon enough relived him of that feeling by telling Xemnas the information that he was waiting for.

"The most convenient place to find my friend is to go to Radiant Garden." King said.

Rage and dislike quickly filled Xemnas, but he bit his tough and said nothing, letting King continue to talk.

"When she is there, a child of the age of six is always by her side. The child's name is Aterra and she usually calls my friend aunty or by her name. Another way of finding her is at the Castle Gate, she sometimes trains there and in order to identify her is when her jacket is off and you can see her back. The reason being is that she has a birth mark that has the three symbols of each creature of darkness over lapping each other. The Unversed symbol being on the bottom, the Heartless symbol over that and the Nobody symbol over that. This birth mark all together is a symbol of its own, but you'll have to find out what it means for yourself."

Xemnas quickly took all of this information into consideration. His attention came to the question of who exactly this Aterra girl was. But he decided to stay silent.

King got up and walked over to Xemnas, stopping by his side and looking forward. He gave Xemnas a sideways glace. Xemnas was staring forward trying to ignore King as he stood there. King looked forward again and stared at something in the distance.

"Xehanort, don't even try to hurt my friend or Aterra with your forming plans."

A cold chill ran up Xemnas's spin as he heard King speak, but he did not move an inch from where he was. He just stared at the empty throne that was in front of him.

When King confirmed that Xemnas would not say a word he continued to speak. "Aterra and my friend are like sisters to me and if you especially hurt Aterra, my friend has the power to rip you into shreds. If you also hurt my friend I will put you back in your grave."

"Do you think you can scare me, King?" Xemnas asked turning his head slowly to look at King.

"Yes."

"Well it won't work!" Xemnas's voice was now raised and he quickly stood up to stand against King. He was tired of King's games of secrets.

"Xehanort, I know want you seek and I can easily take your chance of getting it away from you! You and the others seek the same thing! But right now they have the highest chance of getting it!" Anger was now on King's face and his eyes had a very dangerous glow within them.

"Others..?" All traces of anger that was once on Xemnas's face had now gone.

"No more questions! Leave!" King snapped. Lashing his arm out in mid-air behind him a Dark Corridor opened up. King looked at the Dark Corridor then to Xemnas and in a low dangerous voice he repeated. "Leave."

Without a word and an expressionless face Xemnas pulled his hood over his head; then walked through the Dark Corridor. King never looked at him as he left. The other side of the Dark Corridor appeared in the now destroyed Bailey in the world Radiant Garden. That was what Xemnas saw just before he walked through.

The one named Xemnas stepped through the Dark corridor, but once he was through and in Radiant Garden the one named Xehanort was the only one standing there in the silence.

Fang quickly walked through the labyrinth of purple corridors that lead to Ansem's Study. Her pace slowed when she came to a short white hallway with a door at the end of it that had gold leaf carved in. Fang wasn't even through the hallway yet when she heard an explosion of yelling voices. She knocked on the door and waited for an answer to tell her to come in.

"Enter." Came an elderly voice and Fang opened the door.

When she opened the door her sight was greeted with six familiar faces one out of all she saw almost every day. That person was none other than Ansem the Wise, who was dressed in crimson red cloth. The others were in fact Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion; five out of six founding members of Organization Thirteen. The five members were surrounding Ansem's desk. There was a sense of argument that came from the bunch, but that had all changed.

When Fang had opened the door all eyes were on her. All of the faces save for one was blank in expression; Xigbar had a kind of surprise look on his face. Fang looked at him and their eyes met and as fast as lightning they pointed to each other and shouted.

"YOU!"

"You come for a rematch old man?" Fang said with a wicked smile on her face.

Xigbar smirked, "As if. We came here to talk to Ansem about something." He turned around. Lowering his raised arm and slamming both hands on the desk in front of Ansem.

Fang lowered her own arm and walked up behind Xigbar "Not so fast I need to give Ansem something that's very important." Fang said grabbing his ponytail and pulled him out of her way. Xigbar stumbled back a few steps after Fang had let go of his hair; then grabbed Fang in a chock hold.

"Hey!" Fang shouted.

Everyone in the room shook their heads at the little show that was going on in the middle of the room.

"Would you two stop playing around, you're acting like a new married couple." Zexion said in a very bored voice, opening his book and reading what was inside. Fang and Xigbar stopped fighting and stared at Zexion with what could be considered death stares.

"Why would I want to be married to this guy? He only has one good eye." Fang said after Xigbar let her go.

"Marry her, as if." Xigbar said as he laid a hand on the eye that was covered with an eye patch, as if hurt by Fangs words.

"Fang, Braig, Ienzo is right, stop this none sense." Ansem said.

Xigbar and Zexion gave Ansem an angry scowl for using their human names.

"It's Xigbar."

"Zexion."

"Whatever, Fang you came here for a reason, am I right." Ansem asked.

Fang nodded and reached into her left pocket. She took out the book of Ansem reports. "All of them are in there. The fake and real ones." She hand the book to Ansem and he kindly took it from her.

Fang bowed her head slightly and started to turn around when Ansem spoke again. "If you're going to go look for Aterra, she's with your brother down stairs, somewhere in the Heartless Manufactory, training."

Fang nodded again and turned to Xaldin and Lexaeus. "Would you two like to join me down there?"

Lexaeus stayed silent, but nodded his 'yes'.

"Yes, we would." Xaldin replied nodding as well, his black corn rolled hair moving all by its self as though the wind where moving it.

Fang turned to leave but did not leave the way she came. She in fact walk over to the simple barren wall and placed her hand on it. The wall began to glow and slowly started to fade away small piece by small piece, like glass shards falling apart.

"I think that I'll join you. I'll like to see how the child has improved in her training." Vexen said stepping forward, his hands falling to his side as he walked out of his thinking position and pushing some of his long blonde hair out of his face.

"So Dilan, Even, and Aeleus are going to go with you?" Ansem said as the wall finished fading. "Well less in this small room is a good thing." He leaned back and happily received another glare, but from Xaldin, Vexen, and Lexaeus instead.

Before they could start an uproar about names Fang held up her hand to keep them silent. Then pointed to each one of them as she said the names that they preferred.

"Xaldin."

"Vexen."

"Lexeaus."

Ansem shook his head and sighed. "Well how about this, why don't all of you go down there. I need to make an important phone call, any ways."

No one replied, just followed Fang farther into Ansem's study to the computer room. Zexion though stayed even after everyone left until Fangs voice called out to him saying. "Come on Zexion, you can read your book later." Xigbar's laughter rang out after Fang spoke and Zexion closed his book with a loud thud; then followed.

The six of them walked past the main computer in the computer room and out through the door that was on the other side, and stopped at the elevator. The doors opened Xaldin and Lexeaus walked in first, then Vexen and Zexion, followed by Xigbar and Fang. The doors closed and soon the elevator started to move down.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk to Ansem about?" Fang asked right before the doors opened.

"We were wondering why you and your team keep getting the missions and the five of us are stuck here." Xaldin replied.

They were now stepping off the elevator and walking down the two short flights of stairs to the open area that was down below, where two figures stood. One figure was short and the other tall, their faces coming into view as the six of them made their way down.

The first of the two figures to turn around was the short figure. The short figure was a small girl of the age of six. She was about three and an half feet tall, blue eyes, and had shoulder length that was the color of deep brown with some natural black streaks in it. She was wearing an orange short sleeved shirt, tan pants, and a pair of sneaker.

When the girl saw Fang she smiled and ran to her, shouting. "Aunty!" Fang kneeled done on one knee, opened her arms, and let the girl run into them, giving her a big hug.

"Hey, Aterra, how are you?" Fang asked smiling into the girl's hair.

"I'm fine. How are you?" Aterra replied, looking up a Fang.

"I'm good. So I heard you were down here training. Am I right?"

"Well we were training. But only till she came to a distraction." The tall figure that had been standing with Aterra earlier was now standing in front of Fang, looking down at her.

The figure who stood in front of Fang was none other than her own brother, Demané or Dem for short. He was taller than Fang, nearly six feet tall. In some ways he looked a lot like King; he had white spiky hair with black streaks in it as well, silver eyes that had a hint of gold within them and somehow looked older then he really was. Dem was in fact twenty years old, just a year younger than his sister.

"Well sorry for the so call distraction." Fang had a cunning smile on her lips as she got up to talk to her brother.

"No, problem. As long as Aterra can go back to training, now." Dem said folding his arms and looking down at Aterra giving her a mocking but stern smile. Aterra looked up at Dem and gave him a smile along with a giggle.

"Well, I guess we'll stay and watch her training." She looked behind her to see how the other five of them would fair in watching and found all of them leaning against the wall waiting for the training session to start.

"Sure, but there's only about fifteen minutes left in her training session today." Dem laid a hand on his sisters shoulder then turned around to continue the session. Fang walked up the few steps that were in front of her and over to the wall were she stood between Xaldin and Lexeaus.

"Doesn't it remind you of your human days of being a royal guard?" Fang asked them.

"No, not really." Lexeaus said.

Xaldin smiled; same as Fang. No one spoke another work, just watched the training session; all except Zexion who had his nose buried in his book.

Ansem sat in his chair looking around his clean and organized study, remembering how it had looked six years ago when the fifteen year old Fang dragged him to his study after being brought back to life. His study was a complete mess, books and papers everywhere on the floor and on his desk, along with the books was broken glass which was from the glass containers that held hearts during his years of his experiments on the darkness within hearts, were also on the floor. Nothing had been taken from the room, not even the portrait of his apprentice, Xehanort, who Ansem thought to be loyal and somewhat like a son to him.

But that was all in the past and Ansem needed to make an important phone call to a very important person. He grabbed the communicator that lay on his desk, pushed the button that dominated the bottom of the communicator and placed it back down on the desk. Static was the first thing that appeared on the holographic screen. When a few long moments past and Ansem thought that no one was going to pick up, he was than greeted by a familiar face, King's face.

"Hello, King." Ansem said, stroking his beard.

"Hello, Ansem. You haven't changed a bit." King commented, and his comment was true. Ansem was old but his long gold hair and his gold beard were still the same color, no sign of gray at all.

"Thank you for the compliment."

"You're welcome. Now may I ask why you have called me?"

"I just called to ask if anything has happened since the last time I talked to you."

King folded his arms and looked up. "Something did happen just today."

"What happened?" Ansem leaned forward, placing his arms on the desk.

Silence.

"Well? What happened?" he asked again.

King sighed and looked back at Ansem. "I brought the sixth saint back from the dead."

"Xehanort?"

"Yes."

Ansem leaned back in his chair. He had known that this day would come and for some reason felt happy but also slightly angry about the whole situation. Ansem smiled and laughed.

King unfolded his arms and shook his head. "Ansem."

Still laughing Ansem replied," What is it my young friend?"

"He's there, in Radiant Garden."

Ansem stopped laughing. "What do you mean he's here?"

"I sent him there to meet Fang. I think I had sent him to the Bailey, near the town. Ansem, he is her heart and she is his. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand. I can send Fang to town, to get some more sea-salt ice cream."Ansem placed his hand on his beard again and just smiled.

"That could work; just make sure that Aterra goes with her, ok?"

"Agreed, my young friend. I will speak with you if there are any problems here."

"As will I." King nodded his head. Ansem nodded his head in reply. The hologram image of King slowly faded into static. Ansem turned off the communicator and got out of his chair.

He walked through the same doorway that the others had walked through an came to a balcony that was just outside the entrance to the computer room. Ansem placed his hands on the railing and leaned forward to look down on the Heartless Manufactory. It looked like the training session was just about over. So he shouted out to the figures down below.

"Fang! Could you come here and bring Aterra with you!"

All the figures down below looked up when Ansem called out. Fang stepped away from the wall, walked over to Dem and Aterra, exchanged a few words with Dem and lifted Aterra up into her arms. Once save and securer in Fang's arms, the both of them became a blur and disappeared. When the two of them disappeared Ansem turned around to face Fang and Aterra who now stood in front of him. Fang set Aterra down on the ground, than looked up at Ansem.

"Ok, we're here. What is it that you want?"

"I need you two to go into town and get me some more sea-salt ice cream." Ansem replied reaching into his pocket and taking out a small brown pouch full of munny.

A look of surprise came to Fang's face. "What? Didn't I get you ice cream just the other day, before I left for my mission?"

"Yes, but I'm almost out. So I need you to get me some more. Please." Ansem said handing Fang the brown pouch of munny.

Fang sighed, took the pouch and muttering a few things to herself as she took Aterra's hand and walked out. "Fine, fine." Were the last words she spoke before she and Aterra left Ansem's study, to go get the ice cream.