Chapter three
"Much of my life has been dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. That knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that. I am blessed with people's smiles and respect. But though I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand. I believe darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart. I have witnessed it many times. Darkness...Darkness of the heart. How is it born? How does it come to affect us so? As ruler of this world, I must find the answers. I must find them before the world is lost to those taken by the darkness." The boy said as he stood in the center of the library in Disney Castle. The boy looked to be about sixteen years old with light sandy brown hair and looked a lot like his father, who was taking some books off their selves, except for a few differences. His father was none other than the King of Light, Sora.
"I can see that you've memorized the Ansem Reports, Soma." Sora said continuing to look at the books.
"Word for word, dad." Soma replied, walking over to the single desk that was in the library. He looked through some of the books that were there, until he found the one that he was looking for: Philosophy of Darkness. He opened the book and started to look through the pages of information within its covers.
Sora walked over to the desk as well and placed the books that he had gotten from the shelves down on the desk. He looked at the book that his son was reading; when he saw the book he started to laugh. Soma looked at his father with a questioning look. "What?"
Sora shook his head and patted his son on the shoulder, before walking around the desk to the opposite side; still laughing.
"What!?"
"Nothing, nothing." Sora said trying to stop laughing. He sat down in the chair that was by his side.
A knock came from the door, and few seconds later the door opened revealing Soma's mother, the Queen of Light, Kairi. She came into the library, a smile on her face as she saw the two boys that were the most important to her.
"What's going on in here?" She asked as she walked over to her son. She looked at the book her son was looking at, but instead of laughing as Sora did; a look of confusion came to her face. "Soma, why are you reading this?" Kairi took the book away from Soma; after she took the book out of Soma's hands she closed it to read the title.
"Studying, why?" Soma replied.
Kairi said nothing in reply and silence came as she stared at the book that was in her hands. Sora looked at his wife with a concerned look.
"Mom?" Soma laid a hand on the book and gave his mother the same look as his father was.
Kairi looked up from the book and looked at the both of them. "Oh, um, Soma, why don't you go look for Riku and ask him to train with you?" She said placing the book down on the desk. "You can study later."
"But-"
"Please, Soma? I need to talk to your father about something." Kairi smiled, giving her son a hug and kiss on the forehead.
"Mom, stop, please." Soma shrugged out of his mother's arms, taking a step back. "I'm not a kid anymore."
"I know." Kairi replied giving her son another smile.
Soma smiled back, then walked towards the door, waving to his father as he opened the door. Kairi watched Soma leave the room thinking that he looked some much like his father. There were some differences between the two. Soma had a slightly lighter hair color from his father's, his sandy light brown nearly blond to his father's dark brown. Soma could have been a memory that was pulled from her head for all she knew, but he wasn't, he was hers and Sora's son.
When the door closed after Soma, Kairi immediately turned around, the smile that was on her face gone as she looked at Sora. Sora was caught slightly off guard at Kairi's quick change in expression.
"What?" He asked.
"You know what?" Kairi replied. "How could you let him study about the darkness like that?"
"Kairi, relax nothing's going to happen to him" Sora sighed leaning against the back of the chair that he was sitting in.
"How can I relax when our son is studying the very thing that we have strived to defeat? Not to mention a Creature of Darkness was in this very castle just the other day."
"I know I fought it."
"You mean you tired. You barely got a chance to hit it." Kairi's voice was shaking with what sounded like a mixture of anger and fear.
Sora got up from where he sat and circled around the desk to stand next to his wife. He grabbed her by the shoulders and held her up, at fear that she would fall to the floor. "I know I barely hit it, but the only thing that it took was the book full of the fake and real Ansem Reports."
Kairi didn't say anything to this because she knew that the book was nothing but trouble and she was happy that it was gone. But her moment of happiness was short lived.
"Anyways, Soma knows the reports word for word."
"He what?" Kairi looked up at Sora with a look that was between the lines of horror and disbelief. "Sora." She groaned.
"What?" he asked again.
"Sora you know what those reports cost. You spent most of your time after we got married, even before we got married, looking for answers on how to defeat the Creatures of Darkness and their kingdom, and you found nothing." Kairi replied groaning again.
"So?"
"So that will mean that Soma might do the same thing and I don't want him to waste his life on something that can't help." Kairi's looked into Sora's eyes and pleaded. "Please tell him not to look for information that could lead to nowhere and for him to focus on what does matter."
Sora sighed. "Ok, I'll talk to him. But he is right."
"Right about what?"
"His not a little kid anymore." Sora smiled down at Kairi, laying a hand on her cheek.
"Oh, this coming from the guy who acted like a kid till he had one."
Sora laughed pulling Kairi in his arms; Kairi wrapped her arms around Sora and gave him a hug, laughing as well.
After being in the infirmary for a few hours, Xehanort was given a room for him to stay in. He was told that he had to stay in the assigned room for about three days. He was also told that when three days past he would be brought back to Radiant Garden to finally get the information that they knew that he wanted to know.
That was two and a half days ago. Now Xehanort was sitting on the bed that was in the room, staring out the window that looked out over The World That Never Was, a pale light shining down from above. As he sat there a swirl of emotions that he should not have were within him; he was glad that he was alive again, confused about what was going on and why he was now feeling emotions even though he had no heart. There was also an emotion within him that he could not recognized and it was nagging at his brain the whole time he was sitting on the bed. The feeling was somehow hard to explain.
Xehanort was so frustrated from the unknown emotion that his hand flew to his head, his fingers tangled in his hair. He stared down at the floor, trying to figure out what the unknown emotion was. After twenty minutes of thinking endless possibilities on what it could be he quickly stood up, walked away from the bed and paced the length of the room. He was tired of waiting; he wanted to leave this room and walked around the castle to clear his head. He needed fresh air. That's when he decided to go to the top of the castle, to The Altar of Naught.
Xehanort turned to face the blank wall that was behind him next to the bed, he raised his hand and summoned a Dark Corridor. He walked through it once it had appeared, stepping on to The Alter of Naught that lay on the other side. He was standing at the top of the two flights of stairs that lead up to The Alter of Naught. Xehanort looked around the familiar sight, the circular platform of white and gray metal, and designs that covered the whole flooring of the area. Looking up towards the endless and, never changing dark sky, finding the place where he was brought back to life, Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts was completely different from the outside; it was none other than a heart shaped moon that gave off a pale light that shine down on The World That Never Was. Underneath the heart shaped moon was a tall pale white door, the door had some small deigns on and around it, along with a painted glass window that lay on the top of the door, under the pointed frame. The door was completely different from the door that was used thirty-five years ago. But the one thing that was similar between the two was the fact that the door floated in the air about fifteen feet away and five feet above the platform. The only thing connecting the door and the platform was a sky blue walkway about ten feet wide.
For some reason Xehanort smiled at the sight of Kingdom Hearts, but the smile soon faded away when the realization that Kingdome Hearts was not his to have. But no matter what nothing would come between him and finishing his goal, which was now very unclear to him. As Xehanort stood there on the platform looking up at Kingdom Hearts he got the strangest thought that he would not find what he was looking for there, his heart.
Xehanort pushed that thought out of his mind then, walked forward towards the door. But he was barely at the center of the platform when terrible stabs of pain struck him in the chest, right were his heart was support to be. He grabbed his chest with a shaking hand, gasping in pain. Xehanort fell to his knees and was just about to fall to the ground face first, but his other hand stopped him from falling. He lowered himself to the cold melt ground carefully, curling up after he did so, still grabbing his chest.
His vision started to become blurry till darkness shrouded his sight but the darkness that he saw did not last long because his vision became clear again. When his vision came back he was not looking at The Altar of Naught anymore, what he saw was in a different world, it was the Castle Gate in Radiant Garden.
He was looking through someone else and not only that, he could feel their mind and body around his, but in a way he could not read their mind. Xehanort had no control over what he was seeing and feeling, the pain was still there though it felt like the body that he was in was suffering the most out of it all. He was forced to look down as the owner of the body looked down at their hands, which were shaping into what looked to be red dragon claws. The claws were digging at the solid blue and green ground that made up the floor of the Castle Gate. A shadow moving over them as someone came running to stand in front of the person.
Xehanort then felt hands on the person's shoulders, shaking them slightly. The gaze was then brought up to look at the owner of the hands. The owner of the hand was so recognizable to Xehanort that at first he thought that he saw King looking at the person whose body he was sharing. But it wasn't, the owner of the hands looked like King but looked to be about ten or so years older than him. In the King-look- a- like's face worry and concern were the only emotions that showed as he stared at the person. He now voiced is concern by asking:
"Fang, are you okay? What's going on?"
Fang?
Surprise rows up within Xehanort but that surprise was soon engulfed in a massive wave of pain. Fang gasped in pain as she felt the same wave come over her. It took awhile to wait for the pain to go down a little before answering:
"I don't know what's going on, but I think I might pass out if this pain doesn't stop soon."
"What should I do, Fang? Should I go get Ansem?" panic was now in the man's face.
"No. Dem, I think-"Another massive wave of pain came over her and Xehanort, but it did not last as long as the first wave. "I think there's someone in my head." Fang continued to say once the pain went down again.
A look of utter surprise came to Dems face. "What? Is that even possible for someone to do that to you?"
"I don't know. But whoever they are, their, the one who is in pain not me."
"How do you know?"
"I don't know." Fang's and Xehanort's vision began to turn red. Soon Xehanort felt a form of power push and also pull him way from Fang. He was losing the feeling of Fang's mind and body, then when it came to the point where he could barely feel her, her voice came echoing into his mind.
GET OUT!
His vision faded to darkness once again and the sight of the Castle Gate was gone.
Waking up back at The Altar of Naught, Xehanort was still laying on the ground, his breathing fast and shaky. He welcomed the cold melt to cool down his now sweaty brow. The pain was now gone from his body, but it did leave him with a massive headache, a shaking body, a bad taste in his mouth, and whole load of new questions. One being the most obvious question; what had just happened to him?
Xehanort closed his eyes to help stop his body from shaking. He stayed where he was for what seemed like minutes. When his breathing and his shaking body were mostly under control he opened his eyes; only to find two feet in his line of vision. He looked up to see Xigbar looking down at him.
"That was some episode you had there." Xigbar said, a smirk coming to his face.
Xehanort slowly sat up, his hand coming up to his head when he felt lightheaded. He thought that he would have to sit there until his head stopped hurting or when he wasn't feeling so lightheaded. But that wasn't required because Xigbar grabbed his arm and helped him up to his feet.
"You alright?" Xigbar asked slowly taking his hand back from Xehanort.
Not even trusting his voice because of his shaking body Xehanort nodded, swaying on his feet slightly until he found his footing.
"Ok, good. Now we need to get you back to your room before you pass out."
"Why, when we can go back to Radiant Garden?" Xehanort asked feeling a little rebellious at the fact that Xigbar, member number two was giving him orders.
"As if. You need to get some rest now, after an episode like that anyone would want to go to bed. So just listen to me and go back to your room." Xigbar felt a bit surprised at the fact that he was acting so father-like; it made him feel a like sick. Xehanort could not believe it either, in all the time that he had known Xigbar, Xehanort had never heard him speak so father-like.
Xehanort shook his head, telling Xigbar that he had won this little argument and also indicating that he was to tired from the episode to continue it. He walked forward to the stairs, not giving any hint that he would use the Dark Corridor, he walked down the stairs and slowly made his way back to his room. Locking the door behind him, he didn't want anyone to wake him up if he fell asleep.
His room was filled with so much silence. Something about the silence calmed him, but it also brought back the unknown feeling that he felt before he left the room. Xehanort sat down on the bed, facing the window once again, the familiar frustration from before returning to him as well. It seemed to him that every human emotion was coming back to him even though he had no heart. But the strange thing was that each emotion that came to him, he could only feel a half of the real emotion. This was very strange and confusing to him.
Not wanting to think of anything anymore Xehanort decided that is was time for his day to end. Sleepiness started to cloud his mind and not wanting to waste what remaining energy he had, he just laid down on top of the bed. Once his head hit the pillow he was out cold, awaiting for morning.
The next day Xehanort, Xigbar, and Xaldin were the only ones who left to go to Radiant Garden. They walked into Ansem Study through the Dark Corridor that they had left through just the other day. As they walked in Ansem didn't even look up from his writing nor did he greet them, he only pointed to the door and with a quick remark he said "They're at the Castle Gate."
Xigbar nodded, even though Ansem was not paying attention and continued to walk on, right through the study fallowed by Xehanort and Xaldin. The walk to the Castle Gates was not long, they were about to walk through the giant gapping whole in the Bailey wall when a great roar rang through the air. The roar startled Xehanort, but did not seem to startle Xigbar and Xaldin.
They continued to walk down to the Castle Gate, they soon turned a corner to walk down a small path that was made up of large broken pieces of stone, there they were greeted by none other than Dem. Dem was leaning against a large pile of old and broken stones that seem to once belonged to a type of structure. He waved to them as they all approached, pushing away from the wall to give Xehanort a hand shake. Once Dem greeted the three of them he walked back to the wall and placed himself exactly where he was before, looking towards the center of the Castle Gate.
Xehanort could not see what was going on in the center of the Castle Gate and slowly made his way to a spot on the top of the small flight of stairs that lead there. His sight was greeted by what seemed like Fang dancing in the center of the Castle Gate, but she was in fact swinging a long sharp pointed spear around her. As she did so it seemed as if she were trying to fight off an enemy that was either to fast or not there.
She threw out the arm that was holding the spear until the spear and her arm went out as far as it could go and stopped, stood still for a few moments, then brought her arm and the spear back. Then she quickly spun the spear between her figure, throw it up in the air, and caught it with her other hand when it fell back down. Once the spear was in her other hand she repeated the same technique that she had done before.
The four of them watched in amazement as Fang continued to dance around the Castle Gate. Xehanort looked over to the three men that stood next to him and tried to read their faces as to see if there was any point in watching her. When his eyes fell on Xigbar and Xaldin he saw no type of emotion on their face, but when he looked at Dem he saw worry within his eyes.
Then as if Xaldin had read his mind he turned to Dem and started to speak, "Why is she doing this now."
Dem gave Xaldin a sideways glance. "She's been like this ever since your friend came here."
Xigbar turned his head to look at Dem. "What do you mean?"
Xehanort was completely caught off guard, which seemed to be happening a lot lately, because Xigbar had just spoken in a different language and not only that but it was the language that Fang had used in his dream. He understood every word that Xigbar had just said, adding yet another question to his long list of questions. But he had no time to ask any of them because the three of them launched into their conversation.
"I don't know. It's just that she been acting weird ever since he came." Dem nodded to Xehanort, the other two give Xehanort a sideways glance after Dem spoke, and then returned their gazes back to Dem.
"Why would she be acting weird after Xehanort came here?"
"Don't you think I would have told you if I knew?"
"Maybe." Xaldin folded his arms behind him, giving Dem a hard look. Dem just stared back.
"I would tell all of you if I knew."
"Both of you don't start arguing." Xigbar stepped between Dem and Xaldin, holding his hands up to hold them back from each other. He looked at Dem and started to speak again. "Did anything happen while we were all at The Castle That Never Was?"
"No, she been down here training, night and day for the last four days….but," Dem stopped speaking, looked down, a look of deep thought come to his face.
"But what?" Xaldin and Xigbar asked.
"But something did happen yesterday." Dem said looking back up at them.
"Spit it out already, Dem. What happened yesterday?" Xigbar had a look of inpatients on his face.
"Yesterday, I was watching Fang train, than all of a sudden she fell to the ground gasping in pain" A worried and confused look came to Xigbar's and Xaldin's face, and Xehanort froze where he stood trying to act as if he had heard nothing.
"What else happened?" Xaldin asked in a small whisper, his hands were now at his sides again.
"Nothing else happened except she said that someone was in her head." Dem replied in the same form of whisper that Xaldin had used.
"Is it even possible for someone or something to enter Fangs mind?" Xaldin asked, still in a whisper.
Dem shook his head in reply, telling them that he did not know.
Xigbar sighed in frustration. "When did she have the episode?"
"About late afternoon, early evening. Why?"
Xigbar looked over to Xehanort before lowering his voice even more. "The reason is because Xehanort had an episode like that at the same exact time."
"Do you think that there's a connection between the two of them having an episode at the same time." Xaldin and Dem asked together.
Xigbar shook his head. " I don't know, but I'm going to go talk to Ansem about it. If he's willing to tell me."
At the mention of Ansem Fang stopped swinging the spear around her. She held the spear over her head standing still for a few moments before bringing her arm down, the spears sharp tip pointing to the ground. The force behind the spear was so great that when the tip of the spear hit the ground a hollow sound of metal hitting rock rang through the air.
All four of them looked at Fang, the sound breaking them out of their little conversation. Fang had let go of the spear as soon as it hit the ground, darkness radiating off of the spear, falling to the ground like a heavy mist. "Yes, maybe you should go talk to Ansem." She said aloud and in the language that they all knew perfectly well. "Xigbar, you and Xaldin go talk to Ansem. Dem and I have a new student." She said all this without looking at them, but when she spoke of Dem and her having a new student she looked over her shoulder, her eyes were a dangerous color of gold.
Xehanort sighed at the mention of being someone's student again. He turned to watch Xigbar and Xaldin leave him to a friendly face and a girl that didn't trust him right off the bat. Neither of the two looked back as they left and as soon as they were gone Xehanort turned back around to face Fang and Dem.
Dem nodded to Xehanort then walked down the broken flight of stairs to talk to his sister. "Are you sure you're okay, Fang?"
Fang faced her brother, looking him straight in the eyes. "I'm fine, but today's going to be a hell of day. You start the lesson, okay?" Dem nodded, turning around, and waved Xehanort down to where to he and his sister were standing.
Fang then pulled the spear out of the ground, walked over to the far left wall of the Castle Gate, and leaned it against the wall, then turned around to face Dem and Xehanort. Her arms crossed over her chest.
"Okay, Xehanort; what have you learned so far about the new Creature of Darkness?" Dem asked as he looked at his sister. Xehanort didn't notice because he was already looking at Fang, for a reason he did not understand, Fang paid no mind to him. "Xehanort!" Dem snapped his figures in front Xehanort's face and that snapped him out of his little world.
"Um… I've learned nothing." For some reason embarrassment started to rise within him as he spoke, but it didn't show on his face.
"Well then, we're just going to have to start from the beginning."
Fang kicked the ground lightly; making a giant block of rock come up from the ground, it was two feet tall and two and a half feet wide, forming a place for Xehanort to sit down.
"Please, sit." Dem said motioning towards the block of rock. "So the first thing you need to know is the name of our kind."
"Our kind? Don't you mean your kind?" Xehanort asked sitting down.
"No, I mean our kind." Dem pointed to all three of them. Xehanort had a confused look of his face, but he nodded that he understood anyway. "Well, we're called the Hollowheart's."
Xehanort took full realization of the name. "Hollowheart's?"
"Yes, a Hollowheart is a Creature of Darkness that is born from the Superior Being's blood. A Hollowheart is a mix of the three other Creatures of Darkness; the Unversed, the Nobodies, and the Heartless. But that is only half of what a Hollowheart is, the other half it demon heritage."
"Blood? Demon heritage?" Xehanort asked. The look of confusion still on his face.
"Yes, the vaccine that was given to you a few days ago was in fact blood from the Superior Being herself." Dem looked at his sister again as he said this and so did Xehanort. But Fang was looking out at the Great Maw. Xehanort had no reaction at the fact that blood was given to him, he was just glad that his question were being answered. "Any questions on what you've just learned?" Dem asked looking back at Xehanort.
Xehanort thought to himself, thinking of the days that had gone by, immediately thinking of King and the little information that he had given him. "The mark."
"The mark?"
"Yes, King said something about the Hollowheart's mark."
"Oh, yes, the symbol. Fang," Dem turned to Fang once again. At this time Fang was looking at the two of them. "Would you mind?" Dem waved a hand at his sister, giving her a look that asked an unvoiced question.
Fang said nothing; instead she started to unzip her coat, taking it off. Underneath Fang was wearing a black halter top, which showed her back. Between her shoulder blades was a symbol that looked so much like a tattoo that and could have been mistaken for one. The symbol was exactly what King had described to Xehanort; on top of the one symbol was the mark of the Nobodies which over lapped and somehow connected to the Heartless symbol and the two symbols over lapping the mark of the Unversed, which somehow connected to the other two as well. The whole symbol was a mixture of blue, red, white, and black.
Xehanort stared at the symbol in amazement. He got up from where he sat, and took a few steps forward. Still staring at the symbol his lifted his hand to touch the mark. Dem also took a few steps forward to try to stop Xehanort from touching his sister's back. "Xehanort, I wouldn't if I…"
But it was too late; Xehanort's gloved hand was just about to touch Fang's back, when all of a sudden with tremendous speed Fang turned around, smacking Xehanort's hand away from her. Replacing her jacket back on her shoulders. Xehanort was caught off guard, surprise plain on his face as he looked at Fang and she looked back with a hard stare. As they stared at each other Xehanort felt the familiar unknown feeling come back to him, and as he stared at Fang; he could tell that Fang was feeling the same thing. Even though she tried to hide it.
An awkward silence fell over the Castle Gate. Dem had stopped moving and was just shifting his gaze between Fang and Xehanort. "Fang? Xehanort?" Dem asked.
Neither of them answered and the silence continued.
A few long moment past before Fang broke the silence. "Dem, it seems that Xehanort has not told us how he feels about the changes that has come over him." Fang didn't look away as she spoke.
Dem straightened and started to run with the subject that his sister had presented him with. "Yes, well, Xehanort what have you felt since you were given the vaccine?" he asked.
"Confusion, frustration, anger, not to mention glad and happy to be alive." Xehanort answered without hesitation.
"Okay good, you can feel some emotions."
"What?"
"A Hollowheart has just that, a hollow heart; therefore a Hollowheart can feel emotions but only half of every emotion."
Xehanort just nodded to this. But Dem continued with his questions anyway.
"Have you noticed any changes in your senses since the vaccine?" Dem continued to ask.
"No." Xehanort replied.
"What about a dream?" Dem asked.
At this Xehanort hesitated, but soon answered Dem's question. "I had a dream before I was given the vaccine, in Kingdom Hearts after King healed me from my final battle."
Dem had no reaction to Xehanort's reply and Fang once again had an emotionless mask on her face. But having no reaction did not stop Dem from questioning Xehanort. "In the dream was there an island?"
"Yes."
"Was there a girl?"
"What is this all about!?" Xehanort asked turning his gaze away from Fang's and looked at Dem.
"This is about you being the first Superior Being, Xehanort." Fang replied in a hushed tone.
"What does the dream have to do with it then?" Xehanort turned back to face Fang, a confused look on his face.
"If you had the dream before you were given the vaccine then you are strong and you have a connection to someone in this time." Fang replied.
Xehanort still didn't understand most of what was going on, but was satisfied with what he had just learned; though he wanted to know more. The silence came back as the three of them stood in the center of the Castle Gate.
"Do you have any more questions, Xehanort?" Dem asked in a quiet voice breaking the silence.
"King told me that you had a team of thirteen members, including the two of you. Will I be able to meet the rest?" his question was directed mostly to Fang, but she did not reply to his question. Instead Dem answered.
"Yes, you will be able to meet the other eleven members of our team. But you will meet them later when you start doing missions."
Xehanort just nodded, looking down at the ground. Through the hair that fell into his face he looked at Fang, wondering why she hated him so much from the start. But that was only one part of him that thought that, the other part was remembering the Hallowheart symbol on her back.
The next stretch of silence did not last a moment because Dem had started to speak again. "Well, if that's all the questions you have for today, then we must be heading off to do what must be done."
At this Fang started to walk over to where she had left the spear, but Dem stopped her. "Fang, no more training. You need some food and some rest."
Fang turned around to look at her brother, brought up her right hand, and snapped her fingers. The spear, from where it was, disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. "Fine." At that moment she looked as if she really hadn't slept for days. She walked from the Castle Gate, looking down at the ground as she did so, walking through a Dark Corridor before she got to the flight of stairs, disappearing.
Xehanort watch her as she left, the unknown feeling again still within him and he knew that Fang still had the same feeling. Dem was looking at him with an expression that told him that he was very protective of his sister.
"Why do you keep looking at my sister like that?" Dem asked the look still on his face.
"Like what?" it was true, Xehanort had no idea how he was looking at Fang.
"Your looking at her like you what to figure out everything about her, but you also look at her as if you already know so much about her."
A questioning look came to Xehanort's face in response.
Dem shook his head as he saw the look that was on Xehanort's face. "You know what, never mind." Dem waved his hand in the air and started to walk away. "Right now all you need to focus on is training and getting back into the rhythm of fighting."
Xehanort didn't watch Dem leave the Castle Gate and head to the Bailey. He wanted to ask Dem about the unknown feeling that he and Fang were sharing, but Dem was gone by the time he could form words. So instead of following Dem, he decided to go to the Great Maw for unknown reasons.
Dem turned the corner to walk down the corridor that led to Ansem's Study; he was accompanied with a black and gray wolf that had joined him as soon as he walked into the maze of corridors. The wolf's name was Bad, after Dem's uncle the Big Bad Wolf.
As soon as Dem and Bad turned the corner Dem came face to face with Xigbar. "Xigbar, what did Ansem say about Fang and Xehanort's episodes?"
Xigbar shook his head. "He wouldn't tell us anything."
Dem sighed and looked down at Bad, who looked back up at him. "Well, thanks for asking about it." Dem said looking back at Xigbar.
"Where are they anyways? Fang and Xehanort?" Xigbar asked.
"Fang went to get some rest and I told Xehanort to get some training time in." Dem replied. "I was just about to go talk to Ansem myself; you can come and listen if you want."
Xigbar shook his head. "As if. I couldn't stand in that room for another moment. So I'm heading back home." Xigbar walked past Dem and Bad, calling back from over his shoulder. "See you later Dem. Oh, when you see your sister, tell her that I'll take up her offer of that rematch fight."
"Will do." Dem replied. He walked up to Ansem's Study, knocked on the door, and waited for an answer to come.
"Come in!" Came Ansem's voice.
Dem opened the study door and walked in. "Hello, Ansem."
"Hello, Demané." Ansem was at his desk doing some kind of paper work that Dem could not make out.
"It's Dem." He muttered to himself. But Ansem took no mind to what Dem said, so Dem continued to speak. "I saw Xigbar on my way in." he said louder.
"Yes, Xigbar was in here, asking questions about Fang and Xehanort." Ansem replied.
"He told me why he was here."
"And, my dear young friend, may I ask why you are here?" Ansem said looking up from his paper work.
"What if I said that I was here for the same thing? Answers about why Fang and Xehanort are acting so strange, why they had an episode at the same time in two different places." Dem said anger rising as he continued to speak.
Ansem didn't reply right away, but when did answer it made Dem's anger grow. "That information is between King and me."
Dem came up to Ansem's desk and slamming his hands down scaring Bad, who was now laying down at his feet, but not Ansem; his voice was low but also threatening as he spoke. "I am her brother; I have a right to now. Not only that but King and I are very close friends."
Ansem didn't reply right away again and looked down at his desk. Dem could tell that Ansem was debating with himself on if he should tell Dem what was going on or not.
"Ansem?" Dem asked his voice was quiet as he spoke. Ansem looked up at Dem waiting for him to continue with what he was going to say. Dem's face had a look of near sadness. "I need to know now because in a few days we're all getting new missions, even Xehanort. If Fang and Xehanort get the same mission I have no idea what will happen because…"
"Because for some reason Fang showed signs of hatred towards Xehanort." Ansem finished Dem's sentence for him.
"Right." Dem said slightly nodding his head, his face still showing a look of near sadness.
Ansem nodded in response to Dem's nod. "All right, what I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room. No one else must know not even Fang and Xehanort, because they must find out for themselves. I may give them a clue once in a while but that's all. You understand?"
Dem nodded again. "I understand."