The young hunter came upon a forest clearing at dawns first light. "I spend the whole night track some animal and all I find is you," he said to the exhausted girl. She looked up at him with her bright blue eyes that carried with them a touch of the wild.
"You don't have to do this," she pleaded. "I never hurt anyone". She was on her knees, propping herself up with her keyblade. It was ancient. Starlight-pattern, but has served her faithfully. "I'll... I'll leave. You'll never see me again. You still get to say you slew the loup-garou. That's half the reason you hunt, right? Bragging rights?"
"Oh, no. It's not that simple," said the hunter. "I have a reputation to maintain. I came here to kill the Loup-Garou and that is exactly what I intend to do". The hunter aimed his weapon at the girl and she closed her eyes, waiting for the end. Instead, she heard the sound of metal on metal, and opened her eyes to see a silver-haired stranger standing between her and the hunter having knocked his gun out of his hands.
"You shall do no such thing," the stranger said, his voice deep and commanding. "This girl is no beast for you to slay. She is clearly human". The stranger pointed his own weapon, a keyblade of black blue and silver with gears at the hilt and a clock making up the teeth, at the hunter's chest. "And that reputation would take a severe blow should it come out that you killed an innocent girl. I will handle this, and you will darken this clearing no more". The hunter backed off, running to grab his weapon before fleeing. The stranger turned to look at the girl and noticed her keyblade. She couldn't have been older than 13. His silver eyes were mesmerizing and his dark skin betrayed his islander heritage. He offered a hand to help the girl up, but she refused it, struggling to her feet and clutching at her side. "You're hurt," he said concerned.
"It's just a few scrapes and scratches," the girl said. "It'll heal soon enough".
"Why was this man after you?" the stranger sked.
"He... thought I was some animal he claimed was terrorizing the locals... Who are you? And why would you risk your life to save me?" the girl asked, dismissing her keyblade.
"I am Xehanort. Can I ask for your name? And why you are here?"
"I'm... I'm Hauru. I was here dealing with a local infestation of Heartless. But..."
"The people assumed you were some monster? You seem very young to be doing this on your own. Where is your master?"
"I... don't have one. I've been traveling alone for months. Ever since I acquired this weapon. What little I know I have taught myself. I didn't even know that..." Xehanort offered Hauru his hand.
"I can't very well let you keep doing this alone. Please, come with me. I have a place you can stay, at least until you are ready to start venturing out on your own". Hauru hesitated, but decided it might be better to have a place to live. At only fourteen years old, she needed guidance with this whole keyblade thing.
"How do I know I can trust you?"
"I saved you. And you can't keep fumbling around in the dark. You could get yourself hurt, or worse". Hauru took Xehanort's hand, still uncertain of everything. "Do you have anything you need to gather before we leave this world?" Hauru shook her head. She made it a point of pride that she never went anywhere with more than she could carry on her.
"No. I never owned much on the island, so I travel light." Xehanort nodded in approval and opened a portal with his keyblade to the realm he came from.
"Follow me," Xehanort said and Hauru did as she was asked.
Hauru awoke with a start, eyes darting around as she hauled herself out of her bed. The harsh desert sun peaking in through her curtains. She no longer seemed to have dreams, at least not in the traditional sense. Her self-imposed ten-year exile in the Unchained Realm may have been to blame. Memories visited her by night instead. It didn't take long for the air to come alive with the sounds and scents of daily life in Aggrabah and for Hauru to finally haul herself off of the pile of rugs she'd been sleeping on. Memories of her time with Xehanort had been haunting her ever since she returned from the Unchained Realm. But there wasn't time to dwell on it too much. There was work to be done, and the heartless that had taken to menacing the local bazaar weren't going to vanquish themselves. Hauru checked her stock of potions tucked into a cuff on her arm. 2 vials of green, one of purple, and 2 open slots. "Almost on my last Monkshood. Gonna have to make more. Might have to return to Beast's Castle when I am done here," she said to herself. "But first I need some breakfast". She clipped her Munny pouch onto her belt and left through the main storehouse door. Ever since she was thirteen, Hauru made sure she never owned more than she could carry. And having to live out of storage units and other such structures reinforced this habit.
As she walked through the Bazaar, she was delighted by the sights and sounds of people going about their day, and enticed by the smells of food. Aggrabah always had the best smelling food of any world she had been to, something about the spices they used allowed such wonderful scents to waft all around. It made Hauru's mouth water as the morning desert breeze made her skirt billow behind her with every step. She always wore the same outfit, kept clean with careful application of water magic. A mantle of white fur addorned her short-sleeved leather jacket. So wore the mark of a Keyblade Apprentice on the right lapel and a golden circle on the left one. Her red shirt always had the sleeves rolled up, even in the cold nights of Aggrabah or the harsh snowy mountains of the Land of Dragons, which she didn't visit terribly often. She had a flowing red skirt, fully open at the front and tattered a bit below from her rough travels. Taking a page from other world-travelers, she wore black cargo pants and leather trekking boots. She made sure her stomach was armored with a leather corset she was sent by her father, and wore a specialized belt to hold her munny pouch. From her neck hung the only family heirloom she had. An aged brass pendant with a small emerald in the center.
According to Haurus mother, the pendant belonged to her father's first wife before she tragically died. And now it was Hers. She never had the luxury of knowing who her father was, but she longed to one day return his pendant, maybe it would help give him closure. It only took her a few minutes to happen upon her favorite stand. A man waited there with a smile as he spun the rotisserie over an open flame. "Hauru," he shouted, "Come on. Don't be shy. I made your favorite today". Hauru rushed at the merchants call and stood before his stand.
"Omar! Good to see you're still doing well. You got that Olympian lamb?" Hauru asked. Omar nodded and carved some off the spit onto a waiting piece of naan bread. Then he garnished it with Hauru's usual choices before setting it on a plate in front of the dark-haired keybearer. Hauru reached for her munny pouch, but Omar quickly stopped her.
"No need for that. It's on the house today".
"You sure?"
"I am. You saved my life a week back. And in Agrabah, we make sure to honor our friends." Hauru nodded and thanked Omar for his generosity. She wasted no time tearing into the meal and when she was finished she looked back up at Omar.
"Have the Heartless been back since?" Hauru asked.
"Not Heartless. Something… else has been causing trouble here. Nobody got a good enough look to say for certain what we've got on our hands, but they are certainly not Heartlesss". Hauru stared out, lost in thought. Only two possibilities presented themselves to her. Either the Unversed had returned, which Hauru dismissed out of hand given that nobody had seen them since she returned from the Unchained Realm, or there were Nobodies abound. The latter made sense. In the months since returning from the Unchained Realm, she had never faced Nobodies and Heartless together on the same battlefield. "I heard fighting in the Palace Gardens, perhaps you can examine the area and figure out just what we're dealing with". Hauru nodded and ran off toward the Palace gates. She ducked and weaved through the crowds, eager to reach the palace and see just what she was up against. Nobodies of any sort usually meant Organization XIII. And whatever Organization XIII wanted in Agrabah couldn't possibly be good. Hauru soon came upon the palace gates.
"Halt!" shouted one of the guards. He drew his scimitar to black the Keybearers path. "The palace grounds are off limits to street rats. Especially after the attack last night."
"Really?" said Hauru, arms crossed over her chest. "You let Aladin live there and you spent your whole career trying to lock him up".
"He has special permission from Princess Jasmine".
"And I am the best chance you have at finding out what attacked the palace". Before the guard could respond, the gates opened and there stood Princess Jasmine, looking elegant as she always did. She smiled at the sight of Hauru and ordered her guards to stand down and let her through. "Princess, you're looking radiant, as ever".
"Thanks, Hauru. I'm glad your travels have been kind to you. Ever since the Keyhole was sealed, the Heartless have been mostly a nuisance, but what attacked the palace last night was…"
"Say no more, Princess. I'm here to get to the bottom of this. It's the least I could do for a Princess of Heart". Jasmine lead Hauru to the Gardens, her massive tiger prowling about. Rhaja rushed to the Princess's side at the sight of her, but started growling at Hauru. Jasmine swiftly dismissed the tiger and Hauru took in the full scope of the carnage. Massive circular inpressions dotted the grounds, and rectangular ones were also present, but these were deeper. Hauru turned to examine the imprint of a weapon left on a wall, of a massive hammer, almost sword-shaped. Hauru put the pieces together immediately. "Berserkers," she said.
"What?" asked the Princess. Before Hauru could even explain, four Berserker nobodies appeared, massive hammers in hand. Hauru summoned her keyblade, an ancient pattern from the Age of Fairytales called Starlight, and prepared herself for combat. She'd had months of experience dealing with the High-Ranking nobodies. Berserkers were brute force personified, tough to bring down and unrivaled by the other types in terms of raw physical power, but at the cost of speed.
"Princess, stay back. I'll take care of this". Hauru stood her ground, and waited for the Berserkers to come to her. Three or more berserkers in synch made up for their individual slowness, so Hauru resolved to separate them. Once they were clustered before her, she cut a wide arc at the air just in front of them and shouted, "Wind!" blasting them back and apart as with a swift and powerful gust. Hauru wasted no time charging toward the closest. It swung at her, but she slid just beneath its hammer on her knees before rising up behind it, blasting it with ice magic, rendering it too stiff to move. Another berserker noticed and came charging, but Hauru ducked out of the way, and the lumbering giant struck its frozen comrade, sending it flying. The keybearer exploited the opening she'd been given and threw her keyblade at the airborne nobody, delivering a critical strike that caused it to fade. Her keyblade returned to her not a moment too soon as the other berserker brought its hammer down. Hauru had gotten Starlight back just in time to block the hammer blow, sending the Berserker staggering back. Hauru unleashed a flurry of blows and finished the nobody off with a fireball straight to its chest.
A swift blow to Hauru's back sent her tumbling toward the fountain. She managed to recover, but the other berserker knocked her right up into the air. After regaining her bearings, she fell, casting and started to descend. She cast Aerora to slow her descent and put some distance between the remaining berserkers away from each other. And give her some breathing room. She ran towards one with her keyblade pointed at the other. "Ragnarok!" she shouted. A devastating salvo of light beams surged toward the berserker and it faded instantly. She charged at the last one, covering herself with a Reflect field as it shrunk and the hammer grew. She weathered the storm of downward blows. The berserker seemed exhausted and Hauru smiled. "My turn," she said. Suddenly, she was enveloped in an aura of white light and it spread to her keyblade, the light making up a blade that made her weapon appear even longer than it was supposed to be. Hauru knew that Nobodies, by virtue of being emotionless, couldn't feel or experience fear. But she was all too happy to give them the opportunity.
The last berserker brought its hammer down on Hauru only to miss as she leapt up, both hands on her keyblade's handle. In one powerful downward slash delivered as she landed behind the last nobody, Hauru dispatched her final foe. "Had to be berserkers," said Hauru. The keybearer's aura faded and she struggled to her feet. Jasmine rushed to her side.
"What were those things? They didn't look like Heartless".
"Nobodies," said Hauru. "Berserkers, specifically. To give you the short version, a Nobody is what is left behind if someone becomes a heartless. They are led by a group called Organization XIII. If these Berserkers were here, that means so is one of their members. And he just so happens to be number one on my hit list".
"And who's that?" Jasmine asked.
"Organization XIIIs Number seven. The Luna Diviner. Saïx". Hauru said the name with such contempt and disgust that even Jasmine was taken aback. "Have any of the guards seen a man in a black coat nearby recently? Wait, never mind". Hauru found, snagged on the thorns of Jasmine's prized roses, fibers torn from a black cloak. She reached over and took them in her hand. "I can track him. Jasmine, stay safe. Saïx won't bother you once I'm through with him". Hauru departed for the bazaar, clutching the coat fibers tight. In a landscape like Agrabah's, that was changing constantly with the winds, tracking by footprints and the like was impossible. It may be doable within the city itself, but outside the gates, the story was different. The sands were always shifting, and nothing was permanent. For once, Hauru was grateful to bear the burden she did. It made her life as an apprentice difficult, and became far worse when she left the Land of Departure, but there were certain gifts it granted that almost made them worth it. Almost.
Hauru sniffed at the fibers and suddenly she was able to catch the scent of Saïx. The false wolf was here, she thought. But the scent trail was far from fresh. Wherever he was, it wasn't in the city. He could have already left the world for another, but perhaps Saïx was after something. Hauru ran, following the faint trace of Saïx's scent until she was outside the city. There was a massive sandstorm engulfing thr ruins to the east. But the faint trail was strongest in the direction of the Cave of Wonders. But she had lost track of time. Dusk would come soon. Hauru summoned her keyblade and swapped out the chain for the one hanging from her belt. And in a flash of light, Starlight and transformed into Fenrir. Fenrir was longer, and its blade resembled the keys for pin tumbler locks. And almost half of it was wrapped in cloth. Hauru tossed it, forcing it to spin, but then what returned was her keyblade glider, with a wolfs head up front, the lights housed in the eyes, it bore the most similarity to a hover bike, common to a region of interspace Hauru never much cared for. Hauru, for protection against the harsh desert winds, slapped her apprentice's mark and was engulfed in light as her keyblade armor formed around her. Her red and black armor made her stand out a fair bit but matched the color scheme of her keyblade glider. It was sleek and made it clear she was female, but jagged and harh where it needed to be, the signature accent piece was located where the ears would be, and almost resembled metal wolf ears. In fact, her armor seemed to give the helm a fierce, almost wolf-like, countenance. Her necklace hung from her neck outside the armor, and it even bore a fur mantle. Hauru mounted her glider and sped toward the cave of wonders. However, the distance was vast, and by the time she arrived, the sun had begun to set.
Hauru dismounted and the glider reformed into a keyblade once more. Hauru dismissed her armor, knowing in her heart that she wouldn't need it. As the sun had disappeared from the sky, Hauru reached for her potion cuff as the moon began to rise, downing the last purple vial in an instant. She's stayed on top of the wolf ever since her last night at the Land of Departure, and she was not about to let it win now that she was here. The full moon rose into the night sky and Hauru closed her eyes and when they opened, her irises had widened out and turned a dazzling combination of blue shades,. She doubled over as her change began. Her boots disappeared as her feet lengthened, forcing her into a digitigrade stance. Her face crunched and pushed forward into something like a muzzle as black fur covered her body. The thickest fur was on her legs, chest, neck, and forearms, and her nails lengthened into wicked claws. Once her ears had shifted, her change was finished. Hauru let loose a blood curdling howl, as if to announce her presence. The lycan stood before the cave entrance, and ran inside, gripping Fenrir tight. I'm coming for you, false wolf, she thought. And you'll see just how strong the moon makes me. After all, you can't fight fire with spaks.