Prologue

A gummi ship flew low over End of the World. It flew past Chernabog and the monster roared and grabbed at it. The ship landed outside the large cave that leads to the great silver doors and four men got out. One was in full body plate armor with a shield and sword on his back; he was the first man to walk the path of light. Another was clad in all black and had two bat like wings on his back, four spikes protruded from the knuckles on his hands; he was the first to walk the path of darkness. The third was in a blue Soldier uniform, without the helmet, and had a gunblade on his hip; he was the first to walk the path of twilight. The final was in black fighting clothes and an elegant red cape that had extra cloth to be pulled up over the nose and mouth, he wielded a keyblade and was the first keyblade master.

The four men walked into the cave with no fear of the heartless. This land was their home world, and yet they hadn't encountered a single one the entire trip to the great doors. They reached the doors and they got ready for a fight. The keyblade master pointed the keyblade at the doors and the light shot out the tip and hit the doors, they started to open.

There was no sound, save the doors opening, then they banged as they became fully open. The four men waited, they were told at least one heartless must leave the doors and be killed before they could be fully sealed. Time seemed to crawl as they waited for the first heartless to show. They were ready for anything, the largest heartless they had faced was Behemoth, and they couldn't get much bigger that that.

But the heartless that came forward wasn't a Behemoth; it was a little all black knee-high thing. A Shadow, so named because it was the only heartless, for some reason, without a mark. The knight sighed he was hoping for more of a fight. He waited till the Shadow left the doorway then ran up and killed it in one swing.

"There, now seal the blasted doors before something difficult comes out," said the knight running back to the others.

"He can't, something difficult is in the way," said the dark walker.

The knight turned to see three giant heartless standing in the doorway. None of the four men had ever seen anything like them. They filled the doorway, standing over a hundred feet tall. They were the epitome of the word heartless, having a heart shaped hole in their torsos.

Not a word was spoken between the men, they all ran forward intent upon killing the large heartless know as Darksides. The knight jumped and bashed one Darkside in the face with his shield, sending it to the ground. The knight turned around and stabbed it in the face; the Darkside vanished, having died.

The keyblade master jumped and stabbed the second Darkside in the chest; it stumbled backwards before dieing and the keyblade master dropped to his feet. The dark walker flew up and punched through the third Darksides face killing it. The gunblade wielder didn't get to kill one, but they could see an entire army of heartless coming at them.

Each of the heartless was pure black, not a single one was marked.

"Damn, we've been had. These are true heartless, the marked ones aren't here, they're not real. We've made a big mistake," said the keyblade master.

"Renct, that's the type of thing you're supposed to realize before the army of darkness is charging towards us," said the dark walker.

"We killed our one, our lives are insignificant compared to the countless ones out there. The three of us should hold off the heartless while Renct seals the doors, with us inside, and him outside, to kill any that makes it out," said the knight.

The others were ready to agree, or disagree, when they saw heartless coming from the other side. All the heartless were headed for the four men, they were attracted to their hearts, they could escape later.

"New plan, we surround Renct, killing the heartless that come at us while he seals the doors from the inside," said the gunblade wielder.

The army was getting close; in its ranks were Shadows, Darkballs, NEOshadows, Invisibles, and Darksides. The last four were unknown beyond the door, and therefore unnamed at the time. The heartless attacked and the three men surrounded the keyblade master as he started to seal the doors.

Unlike opening the doors, the keyblade must shine the light the entire time the doors close, if the light stops so do the doors. The floor behind the men burst open and every heartless stopped what it was doing. The force of the ground shaking broke the beam of light from the keyblade and the doors stopped, they were open a slight crack, barely wide enough for a man to slip through.

The four men turned to see the greatest heartless ever rise from the ground. The one of a kind heartless, World of Chaos. One of three true heartless with a mouth, it was the only one with vocal cords, it roared and swung one of its giant hands at the men, all of whom ducked out of the way. But as they stood back up the dark walker was impaled through the chest with one of the heartless' fingers. The man screamed out in pain and was thrown back and hit the doors.

"Keznint!" yelled the knight as he ran to his fallen comrade.

The World of Chaos roared again as it sunk back into the ground, and once it was gone the heartless attacked again. The knight stood over Keznint's dead body, killing the heartless that came for his heart. Renct and the gunblade wielder stood back-to-back fighting the endless forces of the heartless.

Time was against the men as the fight wore on. But gradually they noticed the amount of heartless was decreasing, no new heartless were coming for them. But they were getting weary and their muscles began to ache, they didn't know if they could last.

More heartless were going to the knight and, though he was the most powerful, he was getting worn down the fastest. If he wasn't guarding his friends body he would be in better shape, and he knew it. But he was damned if he would give the heartless Keznint's heart.

When the heartless were becoming more manageable Renct blocked an Invisable's sword and was stabbed in the stomach by a NEOshadow's claw. Renct fell and the gunblade wielder spun swinging his blade and pulled the trigger at the right time to kill both heartless in one swing. He had no time to check on his friend, but he saw the keyblade vanish and he knew Renct was dead. Both surviving men were now defending a fallen ally.

There was now only a handful of heartless left, but they were all Invisibles and Darksides. Four Invisibles charged the knight at once but he killed one right off the bat, he defended against all three but as he blocked two the third got a hit in under his left arm and into his left lung. The knight voiced his pain and killed the one that stabbed him. With one gone, even though he was wounded, the other two fell easily. Two Darksides and an Invisible now came at him, he smiled, he wanted some difficulty, but not impossibility. The knight flung his shield at one of the Darksides, the sharp edges dug deep into its face and it vanished as died.

"Hey, Raz!" yelled the knight as he threw his sword at the Invisible.

The sword went through the Invisible killing it, but the sword kept going, straight at Raz, who caught it is his left hand. He now fought with two blades. He glanced over at the knight and saw him punch through the other Darkside's face and kill it.

When the knight landed he was stabbed in the back by two Invisibles. They pulled their swords out and the knight was dead. The last three Darksides were gone in the swing of three blades.

Shadows were beginning to appear again, they were attracted to Keznint's darkness, but didn't take his heart because they saw him as one of their own. They yearned to take the knights heart but it was pure light, and they couldn't take it, only the false heartless could take light hearts.

Raz was alone now; he was killing off the last of the Invisibles and wasn't even thinking about the Shadows. As Raz swung with his right he pulled back with his left and an Invisible cut his left hand off above the wrist. Raz screamed and cut the Invisable in two. He managed to kill the last two Invisibles before falling to his knees.

He put his gunblade back on his hip and took the once elegant now battle torn red cape off Renct and took the key chain off the floor and pocketed it. Raz stood with the cape under his good arm and walked towards the door. He had enough dark in him to keep the Shadows at bay. He knelt down by the knight and took some armor off him and placed it in the cape, then he took the boots for Keznint and put them with the armor and rapped it all in the cape.

Raz stood and walked to the crack in the door, he wished he could seal it, but all he could do was squeeze through, warn his prince and hopefully return once the next keyblade master comes forth. Raz walked slowly to the gummi ship and told the pilot to take him home. Raz's arm was rapped in a cloth and the pilot didn't need telling twice.

The gummi ship landed outside Ansem's castle on Hollow Bastion and Raz got out, leaving all his equipment and the cape with the boots and armor on the ship. They would remain untouched until his return.

Raz entered the castle and headed for Ansem's throne room but was stopped by guards and was dragged to a medical area where a false left hand was formed for him. Though he was told to rest from his fight, Raz refused to do anything else for his own safety until he spoke to Ansem. Raz entered Ansem's throne room and kneeled before his prince.

"My lord, I have failed. We were not able to fully seal the doors, they remain open just wide enough for me to slip through. My companions have all fallen to the heartless hordes. And sir, we saw true heartless, the ones with the symbol are artifice, true heartless are pure black," said Raz looking at the floor in front of him.

"Renct has died as well," said Ansem.

"Yes," said Raz.

"And the keyblade?" asked Ansem.

"It vanished when he died," said Raz.

"Go get some rest," said Ansem.

Raz looked up at him, "but sir, what do we do about finding a new keyblade master? And what about the false heartless? Our actions at End of the World worsened the heartless situation," he said.

"I know, everything will be dealt with properly, do not worry," said Ansem rising to his feet.

Raz stood as well, "Don't you realize what could happen without a keyblade master?" asked Raz.

"Of course I do, I plan to be sure it happens," said Ansem with a grin.

"You knew, you knew what would happen, you sent us to die," said Raz.

"And you had to go and ruin everything by living, but, no matter, no one will ever know," said Ansem as he waved his hand.

The next thing Raz knew he was in a cell in the basement of the castle. He looked into the other cells and saw hideous sights, things that were once human, and in the corner, a machine with the heartless symbol on it, the one that produces the fake heartless. Raz would spend multiple years in the basement outliving every other being there. He didn't manage to escape until Ansem met up with Maleficent and the machine was moved out of the basement.