AN: Oh look, I'm updating this. This one is about Ansem the Wise, a fairly contentious character in the fandom I know, but there's a line of his that inspired this. He tells Mickey that his apprentices took everything from him, and I always wanted to add "including themselves." So, here's my interpretation of Ansem the Wise, called Son.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.
I believe in the value of hard work. Everything I had at the height of my career – my lab, my position of power, my title, and my apprentices – were awarded to me because of a long life of working hard. My life was proof that with hard work, one could achieve anything. If I rested a little, sitting complacently in my office while others hurried and scurried about, was it not my right after years without a moment to breathe?
For so long, my career was my only concern. When I finally achieved all that I'd wanted to achieve, I found that I had grown old in the process. Old, and alone, for my obsession with the pursuit of knowledge had driven away everyone that I had ever cared about. Because of my dream of being a noteworthy, respected scientist, the dream of being a husband and father was now out of reach.
Until Ienzo came. A small, silent boy, orphaned by the strange creatures that freely roamed the worlds. Though he spoke infrequently at first, his intelligence and thirst for knowledge was evident. He quickly immersed himself in books that were almost as large as he, barricading himself in the library for days at a time. Despite this, I had only to look at him to remember that he was a child, and a child who had lost his parents. It wasn't healthy for him to live this way.
I gave him boundaries and rules, like any other child would have. Meals are at precisely these times. Bedtime is no later than 8 pm. No eating or sleeping in the library, unless that sleeping is a daytime nap. Though perhaps he needed these rules, I was using Ienzo to act out my dream of being a father, and I suspect he knew. He fought me at first, resistant of being treated like the child he was, but he gave in after his first bar of sea salt ice cream. Perhaps, as a parentless child, he subconsciously sought a guardian, and I was the only one eager to fill that role. He began taking my hand when we would walk together, his face never changing expression.
With every accomplishment Ienzo achieved, I felt a strong sense of pride. I allowed myself, most arrogantly, to think of him as my son. I wanted to give him everything, and this rubbed off on my other apprentices as well. They were all dear to me, in the most arrogant, self-serving way that someone can be dear to you. Perhaps I should not have been surprised that they did not listen to me when I ordered the new lab destroyed. They must have resented being ordered about by a lonely old man.
I should never have built that lab. It destroyed our peace. Ienzo wanted it so much, and I wanted to give it to him. It was my foolish desire to be an indulgent father that ruined us all, and yet I spent so much time obsessed with thoughts of revenge. Surely Xehanort set out to replace me in this world, but what of the others? Ienzo, seeking the approval of his peers, may have been as much of a victim as I. It took me so long to even admit to that possibility. I hated all of them, for taking from me what I worked so hard for, and gave up everything else for. I hated them, for taking themselves from me, for making themselves into detestable creatures, the kind of abomination we would have examined in the lab. I could have forgiven them, had they still possessed the heart to accept that forgiveness.
I thought revenge would be a fairly simple matter. I hated them from the bottom of my heart, so why should I hesitate to destroy them? That was what I thought until I saw their faces in Castle Oblivion. The differences were so slight that I scarcely believed they were no longer human. I couldn't do it myself, I realized. I lacked the emptiness of heart required to put the creature that was once Ienzo to death. Ienzo was my son, and whatever he had become, I loved him.
I could not abandon revenge. When Ienzo's Nobody faded away, the target of my revenge merely became clearer: I had to destroy the one who robbed my son of his heart, and the organization he created. Once that was done, there would be nothing left except to join my son.
For every task, there is the perfect tool. For every lock, the perfect key. The keyblade opens all locks, without exception.