Hi guys. I posted this chapter at the same time as the previous one because I didn't think that the previous chapter gave a good... feel, I guess you can say, to how the story will be. So I posted this so people will understand where the story is going to go.

I'm sure some of you noticed that last chapter there were a few points that were written as a joke. There is a reason for this. Throughout the course of my books, the story is going to get very dark. Those small comedy strips are there for balancing how dark it feels. An extremely dark story without any way to balance it is, in my opinion, not something everyone wants to read entirely. That is why they are there. Of course, that is my opinion on the matter, as I'm sure many of you love extremely dark stories.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is owned by Tetsuya Nomura.


Chapter 1: Time of Introductions

The young man awoke and slowly sat up. He noticed that he was dressed in a gray robe. He started to observe his surroundings. He was in a circular room with a lot of blanket-covered mirrors and a small table in the middle. He got up and walked over to a window before thinking, 'Where am I?"

He walked over to one of the mirrors and observed himself. He was a late-teen with black hair that had spikes on the right, and gray eyes. As mentioned earlier, he was in a gray robe. Hearing that the door opened, he turned around to see two figures entering the room.

"Oh! You're awake!" Mickey exclaimed. The young man hesitantly nodded at the statement. "Where am I?" he asked.

"You are at my tower. My name is Yen Sid and this here is Mickey," Mickey waved 'hello' at his name. "Young man, can you tell us your name and how you got here?"

The young man thought for a minute, which raised confused and worried looks before answering, "I-I think my name is Tempus, Gray Tempus. As to how I got here, I-I don't know."

"Do ya know what you were doin' before ya got here?" Mickey asked. Tempus shook his head 'no' in reply. "Do ya remember anything about yourself or somethin'?" Tempus thought for a moment before raising his hand out in front of him and saying, "Just this," and summoned a key-shaped weapon. It had a round black guard with a small black triangle on top, which had a clock in the center, a handle that was black in the center and faded to white on the ends, a light gray neck, at the end of the weapon the neck curved into a backwards "D" and crossing over the neck to a clock that had gray and black spikes on the top and bottom, two gray clock hands and two black clock hands on the outermost side, black clock hands on the clock, and on the guard there was a black clock with gray clock hands attached to a gray keychain.

Both Mickey and Yen Sid had a shocked expression, with Mickey shouting. "A Keyblade!" before Yen Sid said, "Tempus, I do believe we should explain a few things for you. Follow me."

Tempus followed Yen Sid and Mickey into the room that Mickey and Yen Sid were in earlier. Yen Sid sat down in his chair and summoned two more chairs for Mickey and Tempus, both of which sat down in the chairs. Yen Sid then spoke up.

"Tempus, what do you know of that weapon you summoned?" he asked.

"Uh... Its name is Time of Dusk," he said sheepishly. Both Mickey and Yen Sid sweatdropped at this. Sighing, Yen Sid began to speak again, "Tempus. Could you please summon it and place it on the table?" Tempus held out his hand, and three outlines of clocks appeared, before some type of gray colored energy imploded in each clock, taking the form of Time of Dusk.

Tempus examined it for a moment, before placing it on the table. Yen Sid took this as a chance to speak again. "This weapon is known as a Keyblade, a semi-sentient weapon that chooses people with strong hearts, be they good or bad, to be their wielder. The Keyblade is a mysterious thing, and we know not from whence it came, but one thing we do know is that it can lock or unlock many things. Mickey, could you perhaps demonstrate on the door over there?" "You have one as well, Mickey?" Tempus asked, surprised. "Yup," Mickey happily said.

Mickey jumped out of his seat before summoning Star Seeker, and pointed it at the door. A beam of light shot out from the Keyblade and hit the door, and a 'click' reverberated throughout the room. He then desummoned his Keyblade and sat back down.

"Could you teach me how to do that?" an awestruck Tempus asked. Yen Sid and Mickey only chuckled in reply.


The next day

After teaching Tempus how to lock and unlock things with the Keyblade, they got him some new clothes. He was now wearing a t-shirt that was white on the bottom before fading to black on the top and sleeves. Over the shirt he had a black jacket with only one sleeve on the left, which faded into white the further down it went. On his legs he had a special type of pants. On the right leg it was white on the bottom and faded into black at the top, with a light gray pocket near the knee, and on the left leg the pants was black, and only went to the knee. The pants also had "normal" pockets at the top.

After he got his new clothes Tempus was sitting at the table with Mickey and Yen Sid. They had said that they needed to talk after he got his clothes, and Tempus had an inkling of what about.

"This is about what I'm gonna do from here on, right?" Tempus asked. This drew nods from both Mickey and Yen Sid. "Well, I don't know. Do either of you have any suggestions?" he asked. Mickey and Yen Sid looked at each other and nodded before looking back at Tempus. Yen Sid spoke, "I believe you should go to the Land of Departure and learn to use the Keyblade under Master Eraqus. There, you will be with three other Keyblade wielders that are around your age. I believe that this would be the best course of action for you. With time, you could possibly become a Keyblade Master."

Nodding, he said, "That sounds like a good idea. Just ooone question: What's a Keyblade Master?" Tempus asked.

"Mickey. Would you like to explain?" Yen Sid asked. Mickey nodded with a happy expression before he began to speak, "A Keyblade Master is a person with full control of his or her heart. Most Keyblade Masters these days are also experts of utilizing the Keyblade to its fullest. Once one becomes a Master, they have the choice of the Seeker, a Master who travels the worlds, or succeeds his or her previous Master to guard over that land. But all Keyblade Masters, no, all Keyblade wielders are tasked with stopping anything that would disrupt the balance of the worlds." "What Mickey said is mostly true. Anything else would be taught by Eraqus himself. Now, Tempus, do you have any other questions?" Yen Sid asked. After receiving a 'no' in reply, he said, "Then I will contact Master Eraqus after we are done here. He should be here within two days. Please make yourself comfortable until then." With that, everyone left to do their own things.

Two days later

After waiting for two days, we see Tempus and Yen Sid standing outside the tower. Mickey was nowhere to be found for some reason.


Mickey was currently in bed, with Z's coming from him. "Wait..." Snore. "... My cheese..." Snore.


Tempus turned to the tower and thought, 'Where is he? He better not be sleeping.'

"Is this him?" an unknown voice said. Tempus turned around to see a middle-aged man with black hair, that had a bang on the side of his head and the rest in a ponytail. He was wearing a black shirt with a silver "X" on it under a red-outlined, white haori, some type of gray waist armor, tan pants and golden, metal boots.

"Oh come on! I had my back turned for five seconds and that's when you decide to come! That's just nice. Real nice," Tempus said sarcastically. This caused the older men to laugh.

After calming down, the new person said, "You are Tempus, correct?" He received a nod in reply. "My name is Eraqus. As you were probably told, I am a Keyblade Master. You are a Keyblade Master, correct?" Another nod. "Yen Sid has told me of your,... 'predicament,' and I will gladly take you on as an apprentice. Are you ready to leave?" Eraqus asked.

"Yep. I'm ready to go. Take care Yen Sid. Tell Mickey to stop oversleeping," Tempus said. This made Yen Sid chuckle slightly. He then followed Eraqus into a strange purple and gold train.

The tower doors opened to a panting Mickey. Yen Sid, hearing this, said, "You just missed him." "Darn." This made Yen Sid chuckle again, with Mickey glaring at him.


Eraqus and Tempus arrived at the Land of Departure a few hours later, which made Tempus slightly suspicious.

"Master Eraqus? If it only took a few hours to get here, then why did I have to wait at the tower for two days?" Right as Eraqus was about to answer, a new voice shouted to them.

"Oh. Master, you're back. Where did you go, and who's this?" a brown haired man asked.

"Terra, could you go get Aqua and Ventus, and have them meet in the main hall in five minutes?" Eraqus asked. Terra nodded and replied, "Alright," before running off. "Come with me, Tempus," Eraqus said.

Five minutes later, in the main hall

Eraqus was standing in front of the three tall chairs, with Tempus next to him. In front of them were Terra, a tall man with brown hair, a blue haired woman, and a blonde boy who was younger than the two. (AN: I'm done describing non-OC clothing. Everyone wears canon clothing. I will still describe original things, though.) Eraqus began to speak, "As the three of you know, I was contacted by Master Yen Sid two days ago. He requested that I go there as soon as possible. The reason for this was because of the young man next to me. For reasons unknown, he appeared at Yen Sid's tower. He has no memories from before arriving at the tower, except for two things, his name and the fact that he can wield a Keyblade. That is why he is here. He is to become your fellow pupil in training to become a Keyblade Master. I will let you introduce yourselves now. I will be in my study if anyone needs me. That is all." And with that, he left.

Terra went up to Tempus first, and stuck his hand out, "Hi there. I'm Altrae Terra(Dark Earth), Terra for short." "Tempus, Gray Tempus(Gray Time)," he said as he shook Terra's hand. The blue haired woman went next. "Hello. My name is Mystica Aqua(Mystic/Mystical Water), but please, call me Aqua." "Nice to meet you, Aqua," Tempus said with an eye smile. The younger boy went last. "...Ventus... Lucis(Wind of Light)... Ven," Ventus said before going off to who-knows-where. "Sorry about him. He only came a month ago, and since then he doesn't talk very much. But I'm sure he will open up soon," Terra said. "It's ok. Hey, do you think you could show me around?" Tempus asked. "Sure," both Terra and Aqua said.

A month later

Over the past month a few things had happened. Ven was finally talking in full sentences now, although he still didn't talk very often. He also hadn't smiled once in the past month, though Aqua told Tempus that he's been like that ever since he came two months ago. Ven and Tempus were also told what to expect as a Keyblade wielder, which included the responsibilities and such. After that, they began combat training with the Keyblade, and Tempus surprised everyone with how fast he learned. He was already past Aqua and Ven, and was at Terra's level, who had been training for two years now. When asked how he was able to advance so fast, Tempus replied, "It feels natural to me, almost like I've already done this multiple times." Lastly, Tempus now wore a necklace that had the symbol for the Mark of Mastery, as well as gray, metal boots, with lines of black and white.

Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Tempus all stood before Eraqus in the main hall. He had said yesterday that they all were going to learn something new today. Seeing that everyone was present, Eraqus spoke, "Everyone. Today you shall learn the basics of Magic. Magic utilizes your inner energy. You give that energy a form and it becomes just that. That is the very basic explanation of Magic. However, in actuality, in order to cast Magic, you must first understand how the spell you cast works. Not only know the end result, but understand how to make the spell form. Take a simple Fire spell. You know that it shoots a ball of fire, but you understand that you are increasing the movement speed of surrounding particles by exerting your inner energy. Now, the reason I used the Fire spell as an example is because that is the spell you will attempt to learn. I have set up four targets behind you. You four will try to hit your target with three Fire spells in a row. Now, begin!" And with that, the four of them started to practice making a Fire spell.

A couple of hours later, an they were still at it. Aqua was very close to making a stable spell, and was now taking a small break with Ven and Terra, the latter of which was having extreme trouble controlling the ball of flames, and the former having slight problems with both contol and power. Tempus, on the other hand...

"Dammit! Still too little power. Hey! What are you guys sitting around for?"

... was being stubborn. He had said that he wasn't resting until he either passed out or could make a stable Fire spell. Tempus, while usually calm, became quickly agitated and stubborn if he couldn't do something, and event that has occurred a few times in the past month already.

Ven, either out of renewed determination from watching Tempus, or something else, got up and began concentrating for the Fire spell. As he was doing that, something strange happened to Tempus. He saw black for half a second before seeing Aqua and Terra hit by an out of control Fire spell that Ven had cast. His vision then went black for half a second again before seeing Ven just about to cast a Fire spell. Quickly figuring out what happened, he ran towards Aqua and Terra while shouting, "Get out of the way!" Ven's Fire spell was cast, but it suddenly went out of control and went towards Terra and Aqua. Right before it hit them, Tempus was able to push them out of the way, though the fireball grazed his leg as a result. Instinctively, Tempus brought a hand to the burn and cast some type of green spell to heal it.

Eraqus, who had seen all of this, called them over. He had gotten a suspicion about something. "Everyone! Stop what you are doing and come over here." Terra, Aqua, and Tempus got up and went in front of their master along with Ven. The former three had confusion written on their faces, as well as worry on Tempus's face. Ven only looked to the ground with slight guilt. Eraqus, seeing this, could only sigh. "Ventus, what happened was only an accident. Do not blame yourself over this slight mishap." Ven perked up slightly at the Master's words.

"Now, I have called all of you over for two reasons. The first pertaining to Tempus." This drew confused looks from all of them. Eraqus looked directly at Tempus before speaking, "Tempus. Two things you did were rather strange during this occurrence. The first was that you seemed to already know that Ventus's Fire spell would go off course to where Terra and Aqua were sitting, and took action before Ventus even cast the spell. Now, I believe I know how you knew that would happen, but could you please explain to us what exactly happened?" Eraqus asked.

Terra, Aqua, and Ven threw a confused look at Tempus, who was pondering how to best explain it. Aqua decided to ask the question on the threes' minds. "What do you mean, Master? Didn't he react after the Fire spell swerved out of control?" It was Tempus who responded. "No Aqua, he's correct. I don't know how best to explain it, but I'll try anyways. It was as if I remembered you and Terra getting hit before it actually happened. Was that what you suspected, Master?" he asked. Eraqus nodded at the question. "It was. We will get back to that in a moment. Tempus, the second thing that stuck out was that you cast a focused Cure spell on your leg after you were burned by the Fire spell. Were you consciously aware that you did so?" Tempus shook his head. "No. I knew I had done something only after it happened. It was more instinctual that anything. But, I think I can do it again. Not an actual Cure spell, but that focused version," he said. Eraqus nodded. "I believe that you will be a great healer one day, Tempus. Now. could everyone please go through the door to my left? This has to do with my second reason. Tempus, please stay a moment."

As Eraqus and Tempus watched them go to the next room, Eraqus dropped to his knees. "Please teach me how to focus the Cure spell, Healing Master!" he pretty much pleaded. Multiple sweatdrops were needed that hour.


"Hey, Tempus. What did the Master need you for?" Terra asked. "You really don't wanna know, trust me," Tempus responded, facepalming.

"Tempus. Do you think you could teach me that focused Cure spell you and Master were talking about?" Aqua asked.

BANG

BANG

BANG

"Was it something I said?" Aqua asked worriedly, seeing Tempus banging his head on the wall.

"... Was that wall already there when we came in?" Ven asked Terra. "You know, that's a good question, Ven," Terra responded while they both watched Aqua attempt to stop Tempus.

It was this scene that Eraqus saw when he entered the room. Sighing, he walked over to a crystal in the wall before getting the four's attention. "Ahem. Could everyone come over here, please?"

Once they were in front of him, he thought for a moment before speaking, "I honestly wasn't going to do this for another six months, but I need a question answered about Tempus. This brings us to the second reason I mentioned earlier. This crystal behind me shows a person their magical affinities. An affinity is something a person has that determines which spells are easier for them to cast than those without that specific affinity. It also increases how powerful a spell with that affinity is. For example, a person with a Thunder affinity has the potential to use more powerful variants of Thunder spells, easier. Furthermore, an affinity gets stronger the more you use spells of the same affinity. It is also possible to develop what I call side affinities, but they can only be the affinities Fire, Water, Ice, Thunder, Wind, Light, Dark, or Cure. Any others have to be a primary affinity. It is possible, however, to have more than one primary affinity. One last thing you should know about affinities is that some people can use spells only because they have that affinity. So people without a certain affinity most likely can't use spells that share that affinity. However, this is extremely rare, as only a few affinities are like that.

He waited for them to let the huge amount of information sink in before continuing, "Now, the reason I am doing this earlier than anticipated is because it would not be fair for only Tempus to learn his affinities. The reason he needs to learn his affinities is because of what happened earlier. It is said that those with a Time affinity can occasionally see the future, but someone untrained cause accidents which affect Time itself. And I believe that Tempus here has the Time affinity, though I am not certain. That is why we are going to see which affinities each of you has, starting with Aqua. Aqua, will you please place your hand on the crystal."

Aqua placed her hand on the crystal, and suddenly a picture of a red flame and a light blue snowflake glowed brightly on the crystal. She then took her hand off and the pictures disappeared. "That would be the Fire and Ice affinities, right Master?" Aqua asked. Eraqus nodded. "Yes, Aqua. That is correct. They are also very high affinities, something you don't see very often these days. Moving on, Terra. You're next."

Mimicking Aqua, Terra put his hand on the crystal. The crystal showed a dimly lit brown boulder and a flickering black circle with a purple crescent in it. "Terra, you have a low Earth affinity and slight Dark affinity. Be extremely careful with the Dark affinity, Terra. It could nurture the Darkness in your heart if you are careless with it. Ventus, it is your turn," Eraqus said.

Placing his hand on the crystal, Ven watched as a green tornado and a white nativity star glowed moderately. "Wind and, Light?" he asked. Eraqus nodded. "Correct, Ventus. Finally, it is your turn Tempus."

Repeating what all three before him did, Tempus placed his hand on the crystal. What happened next shocked everyone. A gray clock shone in front of the crystal with gray energy swirling around the clock. Tempus quickly retracted his hand from the crystal making the projection disappear. "Tempus, your affinities for Time and Gray are higher than anything I have seen or heard of before," Eraqus said after a moment, still visibly shocked.

As everyone got over there shock, Aqua asked the question on the apprentices' minds. "Master, what is Gray? I've never heard of it." The other three nodded at the much needed question.

"Gray is a synchronization of Light and Dark. However, they are not mixing. A perfect balance of Light and Dark are working together so perfectly that they create a new element, the element of Gray. There is a cost, though. Those who have a Gray affinity can never use Light and Dark separately," Eraqus explained.

"Now then, if any of you want to learn a spell for you affinity, there are books in the library. Tempus, you will have to create your own spells for Gray, as I have nothing on it. I do, however, have a few spells for Time. Well then, training resumes in a couple days. I will be in the library if you need me. Dismissed," Eraqus said.


Now that you know what affinities are, I can request something from you guys. I would like ideas for moves and abilities for Tempus. In the reviews, or PM if you want, tell me a name and a small description of an ability. It can be unique. Actually, I encourage you guys to make unique moves. Just know that not everyone's will be used, but those that do will be given credit and mentioned in AN's. Also, nothing too overpowering for him.

Please R and R. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but please, no flames.