"This is what lights the darkness. A chance to make everyone happy."-Sora
The incident with Xehanort had caused quite a stir within the school. As much as everyone worried about Xehanort himself, people were more concerned with the large creature that had injured him in the first place. Xehanort had spent the next few days coming in and out of consciousness. It wasn't that his physical injuries were severe rather that his body was inexperienced with such sudden exposure to darkness. However, everyone was impressed that Xehanort was showing signs of a quick recovery considering it was his first time dealing with darkness.
During his time recovering Eraqus and Nadia visited every day. Nadia spent most of the time fretting over Xehanort, making sure he was being cared for properly. Eraqus, on the other hand, had complete confidence that Xehanort would be fine.
"He'll be fine Nadia. Xehanort's not soft like half the people here," he would constantly say to his sister.
Instead of fretting, he would tell funny jokes and recap his favorite Tokusatsu shows. Apart Nadia and Eraqus; Xehanort was also visited by Master Ansem, who checked Xehanort several times for any residual darkness damage.
Finally, after five days, Xehanort woke up fully recovered. To his surprise, he was greeted by Mentor Jensen who was sitting at his bedside.
"Welcome back Xehanort.." he said in a soft voice.
Xehanort looked over to Jensen. He couldn't help but feel a little resentment towards him for the entire incident.
"Mentor Jensen.. how long have I been out?" he asked.
"A mere five days. A rather impressive feat if I do say so myself," Jensen responded.
Xehanort snorted.
"What's so impressive about getting your ass kicked?" he asked sarcastically.
Jensen sighed. "The fact that you survived at all is alone impressive, let alone that you've made such a fast recovery," he said wearily.
He had a strained look on face and instinctively Xehanort could tell that Jensen had been genuinely worried about him. This threw Xehanort for a loop as he had thought Jensen hated him.
After an awkward period silence, Jensen finally spoke." I want to apologize for placing you in such danger. I would have never knowingly risked the life of a student, in a task that he or she wasn't capable of. I knew full well you would be capable of dealing with Shadow Heartless. I had no idea a Darkside would breach the Barrier."
Xehanort gave Jensen a questioning look.
"Heartless?" he asked.
Jensen nodded understanding his confusion. "The Heartless are physical manifestations of the darkness in people's hearts. When a person falls to darkness their heart is consumed by it. The captured heart takes on the form of a Heartless. Unlike their former selves, who are capable of conscious thought and action, the Heartless are capable of neither. They feel nothing and have no notion or sense of self. They operate purely on the instinct to capture more heart."
Xehanort nodded intrigued by Jensen's explanation.
" Are Shadows and Darkesides a type of Heartless?" he asked.
Jensen nodded. "Heartless take on various shapes and forms. Their form depends on the amount of darkness the individual had at the time of their becoming a Heartless. The more darkness a person has the stronger and more powerful their Heartless would be. The average person with the average amount of darkness would likely take on the form of a Shadow. However, those with larger amounts of darkness would take on more powerful forms, such as a Darkside."
Xehanort's mind quickly absorbed the information, committing it to memory so he could further research it later.
"What did you mean when you said a Darkside breached the barrier?" Xehanort asked.
"The Land of Departure is a unique world. It has the ability to exist in both the Realm of Light and the Realm of Darkness. Naturally, Master Ansem and all of his predecessors protect this would by maintaining a barrier that prevents Heartless from overrunning this world. There are however breach points in which too much of this world intersects into the Realm of Darkness. These points are given extra protection. The Pit is one of these breach points, and it's unique because despite being heavily protected Shadow Heartless are still able to manifest there whenever the presence of a human heart is present. Since only Shadows were capable of breaching that point we kept it as a training exercise for students to learn to combat the Heartless."
Jensen out a long weary sigh as a faraway look spread onto his face. "This school has used the Pit for centuries, never before has anything more then a Shadow appeared. Until you came...I shudder to think what this could possibly mean."
Xehanort analyzed everything Jensen told him. He found it all to be of considerable interest. Was it his presence that had spurred the Darkside to appear or was there more to it? It was all very intriguing.
"I know my students think of me as..."- His face scrunched into a bitter look.-"I believe 'a stiff' is Eraqus' favorite adjective. But despite my appearances, I care very deeply for my students. Particularly Nadia and Eraqus, after all, I helped raise them after their mother died. I have watched them proudly grow into fine warriors and have trained them to the best of my ability, as I have with all my students. However as much as I care for them, it is my job to teach them that this way of life is not a game. In real combat, there are life gambling ramifications for fooling around. It is my job to impress upon everyone the serious nature of combat. That is why I must maintain my strict composure...I hope you can forgive me for being so hard on you." Jensen looked down at his hands and began twiddling them nervously.
Xehanort, however, no longer held any ill feelings for the man.
"Jensen it's fine, I understand now. To be honest, I never really thought about how hard it might be, to train the ones you love to enter an occupation that might be harmful to them. You don't have to apologize, you were just doing your job," Xehanort said.
Jensen looked up and broke character, as a large smile slipped across his face. He stood up and shook Xehanort's hand. "You know the real reason I moved you into Tier One was because Master Ansem himself recommended it. He told me that your skill level was too high for the other tiers. After seeing you in action, I have to agree with the appointment."
Xehanort blushed slightly at the compliment.
"I think you're a good matchup with Eraqus and Nadia. You kind of balance out their...brash natures. It's good they have someone around that thinks things through. They seem very fond of you..particularly Nadia," Jensen said with a wink.
He prepared to leave the room pausing to say one more thing. "Xehanort, I would appreciate if you kept this conversation private...and come next lesson I will be back to my strict self."
Xehanort let out a laugh and nodded. "Sure thing Jensen."
As Mentor Jensen left the room, Xehanort could have sworn that he laughed as well.
...
It didn't take long after Jensen's departure for Nadia and Eraqus to come bounding into Xehanort's room. Xehanort suspected that Jensen wasted little time telling the pair that he was fully recovered. Nadia strangled Xehanort with a hug, and Eraqus enthusiastically clapped him on the back.
"See Nadia, I told you he would be fine," Eraqus said with his trademark grin. "I wasn't worried at all Xehanort."
Nadia shot him a dirty look.
"Yeah that's why you were saying if he didn't wake up by tomorrow, you were going to come in here and shake him awake," she said sarcastically.
Eraqus put his hands behind his head. "Well you know..." he said sheepishly.
"So, I see Mentor Jensen visited you a little while ago. What did he want?" Nadia asked in an almost bitter tone.
"He just came to apologize for placing me in danger," Xehanort responded quickly.
Nadia's expression softened. "Well at least he apologized... though I'm not too happy he placed you into that situation, to begin with."
Eraqus too wore a look of disapproval "I agree. Even for Jensen, that was rather reckless of him to throw you into the Pit during your first lesson. I don't know what the hell he was thinking."
Xehanort didn't want to bash Jensen after everything the two had discussed.
"Come on guys, Jensen was just doing his job. I was going to have to do it eventually, so why not get it out of the way at the starting gate. Besides, I was doing perfectly fine until the Darkside showed up. It's not like Jensen knew that was going to happen," he said.
Both Nadia and Eraqus considered what Xehanort said and realized he had a valid point.
"I suppose that is true," said Eraqus rather reluctantly.
"Besides, if Nadia watches my back the way she did that day, what's the worst that could have happened?" Xehanort asked with a grin.
Nadia blushed at Xehanort's comment.
"It wasn't that big a deal," she said quietly.
"It was pretty cool Nadia," Eraqus chimed in.
"So can you guys go into more detail about that Keyblade thing?" Xehanort asked.
Eraqus slapped himself on the forehead.
"Oh man, I'm so sorry Xehanort, I've been meaning to tell you about that for days," he said.
Eraqus held forth his right hand and materialized his own Keyblade. It was completely different from the one Nadia had used when she saved him.
"You mean to tell me you've had one all this time and you didn't tell me?" Xehanort asked rather grumpily.
"I told you I was sorry. But even you have to admit we've had a lot going on since you got here," Eraqus said sheepishly.
Xehanort nodded, acknowledging that the past few weeks had indeed been pretty eventful. He took a moment to analyze Eraqus' Keyblade. Like Nadia's it was in the shape of a giant key, and held a rather simple design, albeit a slightly more elegant one. The blade was dark gray and the teeth formed the shape of an elegant 'E'. The guard of the weapon had a blocked design that even the grip followed. It bore a silver and purple color scheme. The Keyblade held a Keychain that bore the same symbol that was attached to both Nadia and Eraqus' belt buckles.
Xehanort took the Keyblade from Eraqus' hand and went to examine it more closely. No sooner then it touched his hands it disappeared in a flash of light before reappearing in Eraqus' hand.
Eraqus scratched the back of his head "Sorry, Keyblades are rather picky..." he said trailing off.
Xehanort nodded a little disappointed. "How come your Keyblade is different from Nadia's?" he asked.
"All Keyblades are different, each form is unique to the wielder," Nadia chimed in.
She lifted her hands and summoned her own Keyblade. "Keyblades are mysterious weapons that chosen, few use to protect the Realm of Light. Each Keyblade is different and chooses who it's master is. Potential wielders are given the ability to wield the Keyblade through what we call the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. From there on a potential candidate has the ability to call forth a Keyblade of their own. Should the Keyblade choose to accept them that is."
"What kind of abilities do they have? asked Xehanort.
This time, Eraqus responded. "They have a range of abilities. As the name would suggest, the most common one is the ability to open any lock. So if you're planning on robbing the Moogle Bank, a Keyblade would be a really useful thing to have," he joked.
Nadia slapped Eraqus lightly on the arm.
"Can you be serious for more than a minute," she said, laughing in spite of herself.
"Anyway, Keyblades also amplify the strength and agility of their wielders. They also give their wielder's the ability to see the world's Keyhole. In the event that those Keyholes are threatened, a Keyblade possess the power to lock them," Eraqus continued.
"What is a world's Keyhole?" asked Xehanort.
"Everything has a heart Xehanort. The worlds we live in are no different, each has its own heart. A world's Keyhole acts as a door to its heart. While that door is open, one can access the world's heart," Eraqus explained.
At his best friend's words, Xehanort had a flash of memory swept forward in his mind. Scattered image of broken worlds and massive balls of energy gathering toward each other. Xehanort knew that the images were from his dream, but so much time had passed, it was hard to recall every detail with anything other than vague clarity. Still, it was enough for Xehanort to understand why the Keyholes posed a danger.
"I personally find that the most impressive thing about a Keyblade, is their ability to allow us to access the Lanes Between, and travel to other worlds," Nadia said looking at Xehanort knowingly.
Xehanort's face lit up as he looked up at Nadia. A questioning look crossed his face.
"A Keyblade wielder's primary duty is to defend the worlds, wherever dangers presents itself. It is our sacred duty to protect the light. That means a time will come when myself and Eraqus will have to set off to other worlds to protect them."- A smirk slid across her face.-"So unless you want to get left behind, you better get started."
Eraqus smirked at Nadia's implication, liking the direction she was leading Xehanort.
Nadia's desired effect apparently worked because Xehanort immediately jumped out of bed. A determined look crossed his face as he energetically pumped his fist.
"So where do I sign up?" asked Xehanort.
Nadia returned his determined look with one of her own
"Come on let's go see my father."
A/N: Hey guy quick update my laptop has unfortunately decided it's going to be difficult. I managed to get my charger port fixed. The only problem with that is now my network adapter doesn't seem to want to work. Ordinarily, this would be too problematic as I could just type out the chapters then transfer them via flash drive. Unfortunately last night my flash drive port decided to break. Needless to say, my laptop is being difficult. So I have to shell out for a new one. I thank god that I saved my chapter outline and planning sheet before all this happened so all is not lost. On a good news note, my boss at my job is kind enough to allow me to come to the office and use the computer. As such I will be spending the day retyping the three chapters I have written for you. So on the plus side, three chapters will likely be posted today.
