Self-introductions are in order, my name is...well of little importance, especially as I am called many things, by many people, through many lives and times and worlds.
In this fabricated world, I am the governor of hearts, I am known as the consciousness of Kingdom Hearts.
It was just a few days ago that quite an interesting situation occurred to me, I received the heart of a keyblade wielder known as Sora. Yet by chances of miracles that even I may never understand, the boy managed to retain his human form and return from the depths of darkness. As much as I am guardian of hearts, reasons such as the love the girl Kairi possessed for Sora as simply not plausible.
As governor, I understand the rules, and Sora has broken them.
I hold no jurisdiction in the department of consequences, however, even I can now feel the tremble of the judge of balance. One Sora of this world has received two hearts, one Sora in another world will have none.
Those are the rules that must be upheld, no matter how much Sora may bend them, such laws will not change.
Yet I am interested in the course that the other Sora shall follow upon, one with a heart lost to oneself. Will he feel betrayed? Angry? Or will there never be enough of a heart to feel anything at all?
I shall peer into his world, and you shall follow, lest you make the same mistake, lest you dare disobey the law.
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Chapter 1:
The Wisest Heartless - Ansem, The Strongest Heartless - Sora
A change of fate is amazingly simple.
As Sora marched in the form of a minion heartless down the corridors of Hollow Bastion in order to answer the call of darkness, he tripped upon a dent placed conveniently on the floor. A small square shaped mark which was able to send even a heartless tumbling down towards the floor.
The heartless Sora peeked his head up from the floor and looked upon the dent, a simple small dent, left conveniently with traces of Donald's magic so that an intangible being such as the heartless would still be affected.
Where was I going towards?
And thus fate changed, due to a sequence of convenient and simple contraptions, this Sora would never see Kairi in time, this Sora would never be freed from his curse of darkness.
The heartless creeped up, something was still calling out to him, yet it was no longer from the same direction. This call came from someone different, the voice wasn't soft, the intention wasn't pleading, it wasn't joy, nor sadness. It was emotionless, heartless, it was the call he was used to answering.
The heartless found himself a dark corner and slowly began melding with the walls, his body turning liquid-like as he immersed himself within the walls and vanished.
Where? Which way? Who calls?
The heartless was new to his abilities and found that he did not know his way around the vast darkness.
Who calls upon me?
"Rise Heartless."
The heartless rose from within the darkness extending its limbs outwards, and along with it hundreds and thousands of others like itself all rose out before a tall and lean mean standing atop a black platform in a white room.
No borders seemed to exist in this vast room which encased thousands of heartless, no doors, no edges, as if the room spanned on forever.
And at the center was the man named Ansem, the wisest of them all, wisest of the heartless, the one who would lead them back to Kingdom Hearts, though the wisest knew not the true intentions of his actions.
Ansem frowned at his gathering, "Not quite what I've expected, all Lvl 1 heartless, I shall require more power at my side should I desire to force open the way to Kingdom Hearts."
Kingdom Hearts? Kingdom Hearts? My wish, my goal, take me to Kingdom Hearts!
One of the heartless among many trembled, a small movement that Ansem took no notice to, he was more preoccupied with how he would open the pathway now that the keyblade wielder had perished.
"Perhaps there are others I can find, the mouse king for one, yet his sly movements have outwitted me thus far. And I've no time to chase after mice."
Take me to Kingdom Hearts! Me!
"If only I too possessed the power to open the doors."
Ansem raised his hand, readying to scatter the heartless once more into the darkness. He would continue his search for greater minions on another world, perhaps one with more hatred where the strong gather.
Power!
One heartless extended his arms forward until his hands grasped upon the head of the heartless in front of him, and then in an instant, his gaping jaws open and bit down upon the head of another heartless.
No blood, no dramatics, the second heartless was devoured as though the mouth of a heartless were a vacuum.
Another, this time to the left, faster this time and the right as well, so much darkness, so much strength, all his simply to take, take, take.
Power! Strength! Take me to Kingdom Hearts!
The heartless began to scurry now, paying attention to the brethren who was devouring his own flesh and blood. They would be next, they must run, escape first, return to the darkness.
Ansem stopped himself, he had begun to take notice to the heartless now, one that devoured the other of his kind, unlike anything he had ever seen before. The heartless began to grow, change, it was now as tall as his own shoulders, thin and quick, it was now eating away at the other heartless by simply inserting its claws into them.
"Most interesting, this heartless, what is it trying to do? I've never seen this behaviour in the heartless, unified in their desire, yet this one, it appears to have a separate agenda."
Ansem watched, amused. He was curious at this sudden change but also very interested at what this new breed of heartless would do, as he already saw the emerging of more powerful heartless, attracted by the deep desire of darkness.
"Wait...desire? This is...a heartless with a heart?"
Close, but better yet it would appear the judge of balance failed to cut the connection between this Sora and his heart which sleeps within the Sora of another world. The attraction was what drove this heartless to insanity, it desired to pass through me, Kingdom Hearts, in order to reach his heart.
The heartless jittered like lightning as the multitude of now emerging heartless appeared.
It acted as though a shadow, flicking towards the back of its enemies, and then quickly in one stroke, decapitate them and devour the darkness they left behind.
Ansem watched intensely now, even cautiously, the battle had enraged to a point where he could no longer control, if he stepped off his black platform at this point, the Lvl 2 heartless of behemoth proportions would be after him all the same.
He was the wisest, but the heartless only acknowledged strength and hearts, he had no hearts, and he was not the strongest.
The heartless now faced an army of his own kind, summoned by his own desire for strength they covered every corner of this white world, so that it was now black.
They would continue to come, answering to his call, until he was powerful enough, until he could subdue them all, until he was the strongest heartless.
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Ansem bowed to his knees from atop his platform, he would never disgrace himself as such, he stood at the top, the pinnacle, why would he ever need to bow down?
Yet his trembling limbs would not allow him to say otherwise.
All others stood still, the massive gathering of heartless dared not breathe, though I never know whether they needed to in the beginning.
A wild assortment of round bellied heartless and other Lvl 3s of various abilities, only a few Lvl 2 behemoths remained, their human form towering above all else. All the Lvl 4 heartless had been absorbed, and the last one has been the final one.
A new Lvl 5 heartless like Ansem had been born, one with thought, with consciousness, and unlike Ansem, this one was the strongest.
"You are Ansem the wise?"
Ansem lifted his face and looked upon the heartless.
This heartless chose a humanoid form like himself, his legs were thin like black bones, where his feet looked mechanical. His arms were much the same, yet his hands were distinct where his right was a giant black blade and his left was a bear-like claw. A black demon wing stretched from the right side of his back and an eagle-like face glowed with eerie yellow eyes.
"At your service, master of heartless." Ansem frowned, he hadn't meant to say that, he would call no one master. Yet he did, the lord of the heartless held stronger to his darkness than he could have imagined.
"Take me, to Kingdom Hearts."