For those who are just joining this series, turn around and go read "Big Brother Instinct" and "Parental Instinct" first. Otherwise, you'll miss out on some important developments since this is a bit canon divergent from how "Kingdom Hearts 3" went. Starting from when they rescued Aqua from the Realm of Darkness.

For those of you who have already read the previous stories, welcome back. This promises to be a rather large endeavor. A large cast, a lot of moving parts, and more new worlds and enemies. I'm not calling this Kingdom Hearts 4, but it is certainly serving a similar role in the narrative and is going to be on a bit of a grander scale than the first two stories. I'm just hoping that I'm not biting off more than I can chew.

Important information to keep in mind. I posted the first chapter of "Big Brother Instinct" on 2/28/2019. That means that "Re:Mind" wasn't even a rumor yet, "Melody of Memories" hadn't been mentioned yet, and "Kingdom Hearts: Union χ Unchained" and "Dark Road" were incomplete. And we certainly hadn't gotten trailers for "Missing Link" or "Kingdom Hearts 4" yet. This means that I will be picking and choosing which bits from those games that I'll be incorporating since they didn't originally exist when all of this started. So if something contradicts a later-released fact, you won't be surprised. And no, Yozora or Quadratum are not involved whatsoever.

Hopefully, you'll enjoy this story as much as you have the previous ones. I've worked hard and I've planned out how this plot should unfold. It should have some fun elements and some emotional moments. And fight scenes. Can't forget the fight scenes. For now, sit back and enjoy the story.

Protective Instinct

In the time of Fairytales…

"Once upon a time, there was Darkness," he recited solemnly before adopting a more casual tone. "Great way to start a story, huh? Introducing the villain in the first sentence and everything. Anyway, there was Darkness. A powerful and incomprehensible Darkness beyond anything that exists now. For a while, that was how it was. And then," he clapped his hands together, making his audience jump, "there was Light."

He let his remaining eye rake over the cluster of children sitting on the floor in front of his armchair, ranging in age from four to twelve. Not that they could see his gaze from beneath his hood or what he'd sacrificed even before meeting them. But one eyeball and the pain that lingered for a while after carving it out seemed like such a small price to pay. He needed the knowledge to perfect his plan. And the six children would play a large part in the future. He merely needed to prepare them for their roles.

"Oddly enough, the Light and the Darkness didn't immediately clash. They couldn't understand each other, but they mostly let the other do their own thing. The two of them ended up with some kind of truce or state of balance at first. Eventually, however, things changed. From the Light came the people. And people came with nice and shiny hearts. Oodles of hearts filled with light. Which led to the ultimate heart of all."

"Kingdom Hearts?"

He nodded towards the youngest boy. The child was certainly a clever one for a five-year-old. Something to keep in mind when he was guiding the boy in the future towards the right course of actions.

Six children. That's what he'd collected. Six children with strong and bright hearts. All orphaned by recent events. The same events that stole away everyone that he cared about. There would be plenty of other children orphaned due to the encroaching darkness over the next several years. They would eventually be drawn towards Daybreak Town, desperate for safety and connections. Keyblades would offer the illusion of safety while attracting greater danger towards them. Unions would offer the illusion of friendships and connections while fostering competitiveness and discord. He'd already seen it. And anything that he's witnessed in the future was guaranteed to come to pass; once seen, the event was etched in stone and could not be changed.

That was why he would not watch the final moments of his plan coming to fruition. His Gazing Eye would only watch his successes leading up to that final triumph and remain unsummoned for the victory itself. Any further would risk locking in the wrong outcome.

"Now, I can't say that the Darkness was frustrated by Light crowding the World with all its new fancy friends. Mostly because the Darkness is too strange to know if it can get frustrated," he continued. "But I suppose it wanted a way to guarantee that the Light wouldn't use Kingdom Hearts against it since it was brimming with Light's power. They decided to work together to create a way to control it. They poured equal amounts of themselves into crafting a tool, one born of light and darkness and connected to the embodiment of all hearts. They created the χ-blade." Wagging his fingers at them, he clarified, "Which isn't the same thing as a Keyblade, even if they sound the same. Honestly, it is almost like someone wanted it to be confusing."

"But Master," said the oldest girl, "are you not the one who created the Keyblade? And would you not be the one responsible for the name?"

Crossing his arms, he scolded, "You're skipping ahead in the story, Invi."

"I'm sorry," she apologized, bowing her head.

"Eh, I mean, you're not wrong. I could have given them a different name. But it's really descriptive, right? It's a blade that is also a key. Tells you everything that you need to know right off the bat."

Invi wasn't her original name. Ava, Gula, Luxu, Ira, and Aced all bore new names as well. All hints or reminders of their previous identities and lives were tossed away the moment that he collected them. New names, new clothes that matched to provide a uniform look for most of them, and masks to put up a barrier between them and other people. All effective ways to control them and offer the sense of being united with each other, but separate from all others. He'd already seen that Organization XIII would use similar tactics in the future.

At least he wasn't dealing with anyone old enough to compare his methods to a cult. Because it absolutely resembled a cult.

His apprentices were still adapting to all the changes, but they were already eager and obedient. Ava was the youngest, the little four-year-old barely able to walk around in her pink and gold robes and the fox mask far too large for her small head. Gula was a year older than her. His robes came in shades of yellow, brown, cream, and gray that completely hid everything except his hand and his mouth below his leopard mask. In addition to her blue-purple, cream, and gold robes, the eight-year-old Invi wore a pale blue scarf below her snake mask to hide away even more of her face. Ira wore blue, white, and gold robes and the most elaborate mask. The eleven-year-old's unicorn mask had a long blue mane that ran down his back and a strap that went under his chin. And oldest at twelve, Aced wore a bear mask and dressed in tan and brown robes. The colors between them and the animals represented might be different, but there was still a sense of unity in their outfits.

Of course, young Luxu stuck out like a sore thumb. No colorful robes or animal masks for that six-year-old. The kid wore the same black coat that he did. And every time that the apprentices asked why, he gave them a different answer.

"Anyway," he said, leaning back in his armchair, "before I was interrupted, I was telling you about the origins of the χ-blade. But here's the thing. It's all well and good to make the thing. But it didn't do a lot of good without anyone to wield it. Darkness could not wield it. What if it tried to corrupt or destroy Kingdom Hearts with the χ-blade? And giving it to Light negated the entire point of forging it. They needed another to wield the χ-blade. Someone who would protect Kingdom Hearts without using its power. And wouldn't you know it? There were all these people now to choose from. All they needed was to find the strongest of those bright and shiny hearts."

"Was that person you, Master?" asked the curious Luxu.

Hand going to his chest dramatically, he said, "Me? You think that I was the very first wielder, the strongest heart in the entire World, and specifically chosen by the Light as the champion and defender of Kingdom Hearts?"

Cringing slightly, the boy said, "Well, when you put it like that—"

"Yeah, wielding the χ-blade was pretty great," he interrupted. "Of course, the problem is that when one person gets something special that the other people don't, that opens up the possibility for jealousy. And no one knew the dangers of the Darkness yet. It was strange with impossible to comprehend views and motives, but people did not recognize it yet as a threat. When it came whispering to them, sowing itself into those bright and innocent hearts, they welcomed it and listened. Treating it like a potential friend. Letting that jealousy take root and the first hints of shadows began to fester within, subtly shifting their actions."

Ira, Aced, and Invi were listening with rapt attention. Luxu and Gula were tilting their heads, curious and considering the story carefully. Ava was rubbing blearily at her mask. Which wasn't that much of a surprise. The hour was growing late, a soft chiming announcing the time as the gears clicked steadily around them.

"By studying the χ-blade, I learned how to draw out the power of hearts other than Kingdom Hearts and forge that power into lesser copies of the weapon. Keyblades. Powerful in their own right, but still mere imperfect reflections of the true χ-blade. I thought that with more available, that jealousy and resentment would disappear. And what was wrong with more people to defend Kingdom Hearts and the light?" Fingers digging into the arms of the chair, he admitted, "But it was already too late. Darkness had gained too much ground. People fought, those whose hearts were too weak to resist that festering darkness lashing out and trying to drag down the strong to their level."

"Couldn't the Light do something to stop all of it?" asked Ira.

Shrugging, he said, "I don't know if it wanted people to fix the problem themselves or if it had put too much of itself into Kingdom Hearts to do anything. No amount of pleading would make the Light intervene. But what I do know is that during the clash, the χ-blade shattered into twenty pieces."

Specifically, it broke while he was doing the one thing that no one was supposed to do and trying to force Kingdom Hearts to purge Darkness completely. He could admit in hindsight that it was not his best plan. But that was back when he still had both eyes and he'd been desperate since the Light clearly wasn't going to do anything on its own. But shattering the χ-blade was completely unexpected. And it made things far more complicated.

"Twenty pieces," he said, his voice growing quiet as they leaned in closer to listen. "All that power shattered apart. And because they bound so much of themselves into the χ-blade, Light and Darkness were broken by it. Thirteen pieces of Darkness, of True Darkness, that were once a single enigmatic entity. Seven pieces of pure Light. The rest remained in hearts. Both in Kingdom Hearts itself and in the hearts of people. Most people carried a little of both light and darkness with them, but the Seven pieces of Light decided to dwell within hearts as well in the aftermath. Seven hearts filled only with perfect light."

"The Seven Princess of Heart," said Invi solemnly.

"A role that will be passed along until the end of existence. Some are born with that piece of Light in their hearts. Some earn that power later in life. Some carry it until death. Some will only bear it for a short while before passing it along when they no longer need it. The faces, names, and people might change over time, but there will always be the Seven Princess of Heart as long as hearts remain."

Shaking his head, Ira said, "And the Thirteen Darknesses. They will always exist as well, won't they?"

"Are you kidding?" he said, making them jump from his cheerful outburst. "Why do you think I'm teaching all of you? I mean, yeah, it'll be a little tricky. Those thirteen cast off their physical forms in order to try destroying the World and that makes it nearly impossible to harm them as they go out there, attacking hearts in order to grow the darkness and increase their numbers. But," he said, stretching out the word, "they can't stay like that forever. They need physical vessels to inhabit or else they'll fade away into a more general darkness with no real mind anymore. And when they are physical, they can be permanently destroyed."

"So someday we shall fight and defeat the Darkness once and for all, Master?" asked Aced excitedly.

A sharp grin forming that his hood hid from sight, he said, "I fully intend to see the Darkness completely destroyed. And all six of you will play a vital part in achieving that."

Though certainly not in the ways that they expected. Working out all the details and moving parts across the eons when he could only see what the Keyblade witnessed took a lot of effort. But he was very motivated. He knew that it would have a high cost. It wouldn't be heroic. But when he was finished, all that pain, misery, death, suffering, and loss would be over. None of that would matter anymore. It would be gone with nothing left.

The clash between light and dark took away everyone that he loved. That was why he would see his plan through to the end. It was the only way to make the World the way that it should be.

"But all of that will have to wait," he said, standing up and brushing off his coat. "For now, there are six apprentices that should be in bed."

That set off some quiet groans and "yes, Master"s as the children climbed to their feet. Little Ava raised her arms pleadingly and he obliged by picking her up. He could admit to having a small soft spot for her. Before he gave her the mask and robes, he'd seen her face and saw how much she resembled someone dear that he'd lost. Not exactly, but the similarities were there. His efforts to harden his heart weren't enough to prevent that fondness from forming.

All the more reason to keep them hidden beneath their colorful robes and animal masks. He couldn't risk being swayed by their young faces.

"That was a pretty neat bedtime story, right?" he asked.

Sleepily, Ava asked, "Was it true?"

"Who can say? History is written by the victors and this is the version that I'm sharing. It might be true or at least close to it," he said as he carried her towards her room. "That's the thing about stories. They depend on who is telling it and what they want to reveal. And what they choose to hide. My advice is to consider what they might intend with their words. Why are they telling the story? Would the truth serve them better or perhaps a more incomplete truth instead? A man might call himself the master when he is really the apprentice, claiming the identity while disposing of the original. Someone may claim that a monster has no heart in order to control the monster and keep a heart from growing. A hero who says that they are fighting to save the World may actually be the one that doomed it to begin with. It doesn't matter what you hear, but what you see. Actions speak far louder than words and tend to be more honest."

He knew that Ava fell asleep partway through his explanation. But it didn't really matter. He meant it. He cared far more about what he could see than anything else.

And with his Gazing Eye stretched across time, he could see Kingdom Hearts above a world where neither light nor darkness held full claim, his opposition unable to reach him, and their final attempt to get around his power to stop him struck down by his weapon. Nobody could stop him from fulfilling his destiny. He had lived through the beginning of the clash between light and darkness. He would see it ended permanently.


Eleven years ago

Was she even still alive? There were times that she wondered.

She'd originally woke in a cell, alone until the researchers came with their tests and their prodding to uncover her identity.

She had no answer to offer them. Four friends, and a key...that is the sum total of her memory. She could not even recall her own name. A painful realization. They eventually called her "X.". She was Subject X. Their latest project, though the screams and cries in the night told her that she was not the only one. Merely the one that suffered the least.

The white-haired scientist was the one who came the most often with his questions and prying. The others called him Xehanort, a young man who admitted at one point that his own early memories were lost to him. And he'd hoped that unlocking her past would help him free his own. But his efforts did not bring forth her memories and their conversations grew more intense. What fragments that his efforts managed to pry loose from the thick fog of her mind only seemed to confuse him. Xehanort had claimed that her descriptions evoked a bygone world, like one out of fairy tales.

Then he had gradually started talking about time and the possibility of traveling through it. And more invasive tests, reassuring her that she would be strong enough to survive them.

Her only solace in that place was talking with the two boys who would visit from time to time. They weren't supposed to be there. She had realized that from the start. They were only voices on the other side of a cell door. One loud and energetic and the other more thoughtful and calmer. But they brought stories of beautiful gardens, bright stars, and salty-sweet treats that they would someday share with her. Talking about their lives and imagining all the things that they would do together when they helped her escape. Painting a picture of a hopeful future. They had offered her their names even though she had none to return.

Isa. Lea.

They were not the four friends that she lost and could scarcely remember. But the two boys became her friends in those brief and fleeting visits.

One day, a man came to take her from the prison. She could not see him for the darkness, save that he wore an eyepatch. She had not understood what he wanted or why he brought her out of her cell. But since he did not bring her for testing, she had tried to trust him as he led her out into the night. She wanted to trust him because he gave her that first glimpse of the beautiful stars above that world.

She had not realized that she was merely changing one prison for another.

The man had led her away from what appeared to be a castle, past fragrant flowers and buildings that she could barely glimpse on that moonless night. The only question that he answered was where they were going when he brought her somewhere with pipes and machinery, calling it a reactor. He told her that there was a storage room that no one used and he carried the only key. Then he locked her away once more.

It wasn't the same as her old cell. It was a little larger. There was no barred window, even one too high for her to properly see through. No periodic testing or studies. But also no one sneaking in to visit her. Gray concrete walls that felt rough to the touch surrounded her. She could control the light in the room herself with a switch rather than depending on automated systems or the scientists, but there was nothing to tell the day from the night. The hum of the reactor was muffled by thick walls and a metal door, but she could still make it out.

Her bed was larger than the narrow metal shelf built into the wall of her cell and the mattress was thicker. It was a real bed with pillows, blankets, and wooden posts in each corner. The bed was positioned close to the door along with a black-painted metal shelf bolted to the wall. The one-eyed man didn't bring food every day like the scientists did, claiming that he was kept busy and it was a long walk out there, so the extra food would go on the shelf to keep her fed between restocking visits. At the far side of her new prison was a shiny and new showerhead installed above an older drain in the concrete floor. She couldn't control the temperature of the water, but she could clean up with a cold shower and such.

She had a few more belongings than she did in her old cell. The blankets and pillows for her bed. A comb and brush for her long dark hair. A towel that she would drape over a bedpost in order to dry between uses. A bar of soap. A small stuffed animal, like a gray cat, that he'd laughed about giving to her like it was a private joke. And three books that he'd seemed to select at random: astronomy, horticulture, and a romance novel that she could never finished because even her amnesia wasn't enough to protect her.

She didn't have to remember much to realize that she didn't want to picture those types of scenes. They made her squirm uncomfortably. She knew that the one-eyed man wasn't keeping her there to study like the others did. He had a different reason to lock her away in secret. She hoped that his intentions weren't to reenact some of the novel's scenes at some point in the future. The kissing with each other's tongues in their mouths was already weird enough to read. She doubted the novel got any less uncomfortable.

She didn't know how long that she was there. But she knew that she was lonely. Painfully and heartbreakingly lonely. The kind of loneliness that emptied her out and left her starving for any connection. Even the man with the one eye would have helped except his visits were increasingly short and rare.

Subject X learned something about herself that none of the scientists' prying managed to uncover. Despite her precious and faded memories of four friends, loneliness was a familiar emotion for her. Her heart hadn't forgotten the sensation. All she could do was cuddle the small toy and whisper to it when the loneliness grew too hard to bear.

That was what she was doing. A blanket wrapped around her shoulders to combat the chill that her patient gown couldn't block and the stuffed animal in her arms, she sat on the edge of the bed as she recited a funny story that Lea had told her. Letting the sound of her own voice fill the silence. At least until she heard a loud click that made her jump. The door wasn't usually that loud when it unlocked.

But then she saw who opened the door.

It wasn't the one-eyed man in his dark gray uniform or the black coat that he'd recently started wearing. It was someone else. Someone new. Someone dressed very different than anyone else she'd glimpsed since awakening on that world.

She couldn't tell if the person was a girl or a young boy because their clothing concealed everything. They wore a silver fox mask with blue markings, the ears poking through the hood of the cape. A pink cape with gold trim, a darker pink sash coming off the back, and the small blue-green crystals dangling off the edges. Beneath the cape was the robes; long enough to reach their ankles, a soft cream for the lower half and the upper body matched with the pink and gold of the cloak.

But even more striking was the large key in their hand. And she knew it was a key even if it barely resembled one. Shifting gradients of pastel tones, it was colorful and lovely. A long golden handle, long cloud-like shapes moving from yellow to blue serving as the guard and others as the pommel, and the base featured a gold fox with teal eyes surrounded by gold-and-pink etchings. The shaft was metal that looked clouds that were twisted like the start of a storm, shifting from pink to yellow to blue all along the length. The blue burst into separate cloud-like structures to serve as the teeth of the unorthodox key. And in the middle of those teeth was a pink heart-like shape.

It was a beautiful work of art. And mor than that, it was familiar. Not the specific key of her fragile memories, but one that she knew regardless.

"I'm so sorry it took me so long to free you," said the stranger, the voice confirming that she was a girl. "It wasn't easy. I'm not supposed to be here yet, but Luxu remembers me and he kept this," she banished the large key to hold up a blue-green crystal identical to the ones on her clothes, "to serve as the medium. And you can use that to travel if there's not a body waiting for you. I'm here too soon, but it'll give me more time to find a better future than what he plans. Thankfully, I arrived while Luxu was sleeping and he didn't notice me. He had a different face now, but I know better than to trust my eyes. Illusions are easy. And after that, I had to spy on him and everything for a while to figure out what's going on now, but we're out of time. This world is falling to darkness. You need to get dressed and ready to fight our way out of here."

She'd stumbled to her bare feet at some point during the breathless explanation, but all it did was make her head spin. But there was one key fact that she clung to in the midst of it all.

"Do you know me?" she asked.

Smiling below her mask, she said, "Of course, Skuld. I wouldn't forget my Dandelions."

"Is that my name? Skuld?"

"You don't remember?" she asked, taking a small step back.

"No," she said as she shook her head. "They've been calling me 'Subject X.' I barely remember anything from before I came here."

The stranger was silent for a moment, the words sinking in. Then she straightened up and pulled out a bundle of clothing from under her cloak.

"My name is Master Ava," she said firmly. "And you are Skuld. A brave, strong, and loyal Keyblade wielder, Dandelion, and Union leader who would face any challenge, would never turn your back on a friend, and who would never let the darkness control your actions. I will tell you everything. But we need to leave before it is too late. I found where they stored your old clothes. Put them on and we'll leave."

Ava couldn't be more than a year or two older than Skuld, but there was a feeling of authority to her. She wanted to trust the stranger. She didn't think that Ava wanted to lock her away somewhere else.

May my heart be my guiding key.

Skuld accepted the offered clothes and turned her back to change. They did feel vaguely familiar to her. Her black skirt, a studded belt, and a star chain at her hip. Her arm guards. Her black boots with the red belt straps that match the belts on the short sleeves of her short-sleeved jacket that she wore over her white shirt with a zipper. Even her red star earrings. She felt like she'd put them on hundreds of times before. They felt right.

But mostly she was grateful to wear anything other than the white patient gown.

"Are you ready?" asked Ava. "We're out of time. We have to go before it's too late."

Skuld turned around and nodded. She might not know what was happening, but she was going to follow Ava's lead. If there was some type of threat, then of course they would have to hurry. Though part of her if they were supposed to be fighting or fleeing.

The colorful and strange key returned to Ava's hand in a flash of light. She held it like a weapon. With her other hand, she reached out towards Skuld. Silently asking for her trust.

Skuld took the hand and they raced out the door of her prison.


Nine months ago…

The crossroads of the Keyblade Graveyard was silent and still in the aftermath of the second Keyblade War waged on the lifeless world. A smaller war with fewer casualties. The violence had passed, the instigator had finally reached the end of his life, the boy willing to risk himself recklessly had disappeared, and the rest had moved on. No one wanted to linger there. A barren and brutal place, the ancient Keyblades and scarred landscape memorializing how the darkness could sow discord into even the brightest of hearts, that now stood nearly empty. Only the wind stirring up the dust broke that endless silence. It was a place where only ghosts and remnants of the distant past belonged.

Of course, while he wore a different face and name back then, Xigbar was part of that distant past.

A few hi-potions had helped, but his body still ached in places from his fight against Sora before he faked his death. The kid might not be the brightest, but he wasn't a weakling. And dragging the Black Box across the landscape didn't help. But he managed.

Xigbar left the box slightly behind him as he stood there, waiting silently. After so long, he didn't even need to look at it. He'd memorized every detail.

A large, heavy black chest with thirteen silver-and-red locks; three on each of the two sides and seven in the front, the central one the largest. There were silver handles on the sides and on the top of the box was an emblem. A silver outline with thirteen points outward and seven points inwards towards the red central part. And Xigbar knew what was inside the box and why he couldn't open it.

He knew several things. About what the Master of Masters was planning, what he needed to do for the next phase of the plan, and which moving parts that he needed to deal with soon. He knew more than what the Master of Masters shared with anyone else. Though he was certainly no longer naïve enough to believe that everything that he'd been told was true. He knew just enough information to keep him on task. Knowing too much about the future might result in him trying to change or alter details that he didn't like, regardless of how useless such a thing might be. Or perhaps the Master thought that he might use that information to develop his own agenda. He couldn't risk temporal paradoxes. Xigbar only knew enough to keep him playing his role.

Speaking of his role…

He heard it first, metal whipping and tumbling through the air. Then it buried itself blade first into the ground like all the other Keyblades that surrounded the crossroads. Xigbar reached out and pulled it free, holding it sideways to study the familiar weapon.

He knew that the Master of Masters claimed that the Keyblade had no name, but it felt wrong for such a weapon to be completely nameless. It had a spiky, black guard around the handle like a stylized demonic wing and a horned demonic-goat head just above it. The entire blade was razor sharp, truly embracing its status as a blade. Twin barbed shafts ran the length before uniting at the head, where it became more like a battle-axe with three claw-like protrusions that served as the teeth. The beautiful twisting silver patterns couldn't disguise the deadly edges meant to cleave and stab deeply into a target. Nor the bright blue eye embedded into the head near the tip of the weapon.

That was the true Gazing Eye, not the Keyblade itself.

"Finally," said Xigbar, quiet and highly satisfied with the final results of the last several decades, "back where it belongs."

He turned his gaze away from the Keyblade towards where the wind started picking up. A swirling vortex of dust forming a short distance in front of him, though it was not the only one. But none of them were natural dust storms. They were connected to the small leather pouch containing colorful crystals subtly taken from each of their robes eons ago.

A heart traveling through time normally required another version of themselves at the destination and it was only a temporary trip. That's why Master Xehanort needed so many replicas at the end. But a way around those restrictions was to instead have a medium that belonged to the person and someone with memories of them. Then the heart could regrow its own body. A very secret and nearly forgotten trick, though apparently Maleficent used it after her "demise" at Hollow Bastion. And the Master knew it well enough to use it himself in order to give young Xehanort a push in the right direction decades ago while also giving the-not-yet-Xigbar further instructions on the next phase of the plan concerning the second Keyblade War and beyond.

And now that same trick would give him another reunion.

Out of the closest swirling vortex of sand and dust walked a figure, growing more real with each step. A mirage growing more solid and clear. A vague shape became Ira, still wearing his unicorn mask with a blue mane and his white-and-gold cloak over his white and light blue robes. As if no time had passed since Xigbar had last seen him. Though for Ira, no time had passed since the original Keyblade War.

And he was not the only one. Three other swirling vortexes had formed at the same time, allowing other familiar figures to join them. Invi to Xigbar's left, Aced to his right, and Gula arriving behind him. All of them approaching him to meet at the crossroads. He lowered the Keyblade to his side as he waited for them patiently.

Ira glanced towards the Keyblade. Curious, but not immediately on guard. Then he directed his gaze back towards Xigbar's hooded face.

"Did you summon us back?" he asked calmly, briefly touching his chest.

Inclining his head slightly, Xigbar said quietly, "Yep."

His attention returned to the Keybalde, Ira studying it carefully as he clearly tried to recall where he'd seen it before. He seemed to recognize it at least. Xigbar wondered how long it would take to make the connection.

Looking back towards Xigbar and trying to make out the details of his hidden face, Ira gestured towards him and asked, "Is that you, Luxu? You look different."

Apparently Ira figured it out after all. Xigbar pushed back his hood and let them see his new face.

"Haven't heard that name in a long while," he said, glancing towards Aced. "These days they call me 'Xigbar.'" He let his eye sweep over Invi for a moment as he tried to judge their reactions. Then he shrugged and said, "But hey, whatever suits you."

Uncertain, Invi asked, "Is it… really you?"

"Yeah, but some time ago, I had to cast my old form away," said Xigbar casually. "Been through plenty of semblances since, but it's still me underneath it all."

Gesturing widely, Aced asked, "What happened? Why are we here?" Growing mildly agitated, he demanded, "You tell me."

Some things never change. And that included Aced's impulsive nature.

Holding the Keyblade sideways again, Xigbar said reflectively, "I had a role to play."

A long, lonely, and difficult role. One that eroded away any optimism or naivety ages ago. But at least the end was in sight. And his old friends would join him for what came next.

"And after all these years," he said, letting the Keyblade fall to his side again as he looked up towards the sky, "it's done."

Taking a small step closer, Invi asked, "What role?"

That was a question that didn't have an answer that most would easily accept. Rather than immediately respond, Xigbar looked around. Doublechecking that he wasn't wrong. But they were definitely missing one of their numbers.

"Hmm…" Gesturing towards his surroundings, he said, "I guess Ava didn't make it after all."

Stepping closer, Gula asked worriedly, "Meaning what?"

Looking over his shoulder at the younger master, Xigbar said in a completely unconcerned tone, "I told her, clear as day, what I had to do."

"And is that why you decided to exclude her?"

Turning his eye towards the sky, he said, "As if. Ava had her own mission, and she carried it out."

Her role was finished and she'd grown too disillusioned to continue following the Master's instructions anymore. Her attempt to change the future by giving the Book of Prophecy to Brain instead of Ephemer was proof of that. Ava would disrupt things if possible. It was probably best that she didn't come with everyone.

Though Xigbar did wish that he could have seen her again.

Growling in frustration and jerking his right hand out aggressively, Aced snapped, "I've heard enough!" He pointed at Xigbar sharply. "Luxu, what was your role?"

Xigbar closed his eye and chuckled dryly. He fully expected that they wouldn't let that question go. He couldn't avoid it forever. But he'd had plenty of time to figure out what he would say this time and the Master was confident that they would remain loyal for at least a little longer.

Looking back towards the Black Box, he said, "I hope you like long stories."


Two figures observed proceedings from one of the cliffs overlooking the Keyblade Graveyard, one silently restraining the larger one with her staff. Their patience and persistence had paid off. The Black Box was finally within their sights.

But she was not foolish. Past failures had taught her caution and the importance of knowledge. There were more people involved and a deeper game at play. And if she didn't want someone to use her as a pawn, then she would need to understand more about her potential opponents. What were they after and what would they do to achieve their goals? Were they a threat to her power? And how would their plans interact with her own? She needed to study her next move carefully.

If they were a threat to her and what she desired, the Mistress of All Evil would have to arrange their downfall. Directly or indirectly.

Lowering her staff, Maleficent lowered her staff and turned to leave. Pete followed her without a word.

While they never really tell us the ages of the Foretellers in canon so far, they did say that Ava was fairly close to the ages of the Union members. So let's assume that those kids were relatively close to Sora, Riku, and Kairi's ages by KH3. From there, I came up with some rough approximate ages for them during the Keyblade War where they all disappear at the end. The ages for these characters at that point are as follows:

Ira, Aced, and Invi all seemed like actual adults, so I made them in their twenties. Ira was 24 years old. Aced was 25 because having him actually be a little older than Ira adds to the disappointment over not being made leader by the Master of Masters. Invi was 21, having her younger than Ira without there being a huge age gap between them. With Ava supposedly close to the ages of the Union members, her age would be 17. And Gula being the next youngest, he would be 18. Finally, Luxu seems like he's somewhere in the middle of all of them, so his age during the Keyblade War was 19.

These ages are in no way canon, but they are the ones being used for the purpose of this fic. And obviously Luxu/Xigbar is much older by the present day. Centuries older.