Static over takes your vision before it fades to white. With the sound of a click the author appears and pockets a remote.
*Hello Hakuorofan7 here and welcome back to Kingdom Hearts: From No One to Someone. Now before we can move on to the chapter there is something I would like to point out.*
*It is about A Small Miscalculation, the side story to this. It is a divergence from the erased timeline and both stories are intertwined in some aspects. It would make sense as they both are diverging timelines from the bad end timeline except this one has no time travel. But the only thing I ask is that if you haven't checked it out already then go ahead and tell me what you think so far. If you don't want to then I can understand.*
*Now onto the story. This chapter originally was going to take place during Mark of Mastery, but due to some issues I'm dealing with right now I'm splitting it in half. The first half is the dream sequence I had planned out and the second half which will be out within the week will consist of the Mark of Mastery. But still I hope you all enjoy it anyways.*
A doorbell goes off in the distance and the author looks excited.
*Looks like my pizza's here. But for now it is time to start the story.*
*I do not own Kingdom Hearts in any way, shape, or form.*
*So just sit back, relax, maybe put on some music, and enjoy. I will see you later.*
The doorbell rings again.
*I'll be there in a second!*
The author creates a Corridor of Darkness near a wall and flips a light switch. He then enters the corridor and it closes. Leaving the room in complete darkness.
The Masters and A Possible Traitor.
"This is new?" Roxas said as he examined his surroundings.
He was in some kind of spacious workshop with the walls aligned with stain glass windows and candle lit lamps. On the left side of him was a ton of bookshelves blocking him from seeing the rest of the room and to his right side were two massive blue gears turning in motion. To the back of him was a wall with the largest stain glass window in the room. In front of him was a large desk with a shelve above it. All across it were books, ink holders, papers, quilts, and various other writing equipment and other items strewn about.
Roxas could tell that it was another dream like the last time. If he had a guess about his current location it would be inside the castle in his last dream due to the gears.
He was pondering how this was related to Ava when he suddenly collapsed onto his knees due to a massive amount of pressure being emitted in his general direction.
"Wh-what is this?!" Roxas groaned out. He could barley stand it for a few moments before he slowly got used to the pressure as he began to compose himself.
"Well that is impressive. It took a bit longer for most of my apprentices to get used to that." A voice said behind Roxas. "The only ones who have beaten your record are Ira and Ava. Well you have also tied in with Luxu, but congratulations are in order anyway!"
The sound of clapping erupted behind Roxas and he nearly summoned his Keyblades when he saw the figure behind him. But he didn't summon his Keyblades as he had sensed the man's power.
It was absolutely massive. In fact the closest thing that he could compare it to was the Kingdom Hearts that he had a part in creating before Sora woke up. Of course it was incomplete before Riku captured him, but it was still radiated power like crazy. Even then the man was not that far behind it in terms of power.
The figure in question was a man of unknown age wearing the Organization coat with his hood up. Roxas could not make out any details about the man as the coat hid pretty much everything. He was clapping his hand onto his forearm as in his left hand was an orange flask. Inside it was a small cat plush like creature that was currently curled up and asleep.
Roxas would have asked what that creature was, but he had another question in mind.
"You can see me?!" He said surprised. In his last dream no one could interact with or hear him at all. So to see a man wearing the Organization's cloak and having that much power behind him did not bode well for the Nobody.
"You are correct, in fact I'm the only one who can interact with you in your current state Roxas. But it won't be for long as you'll see later." The man said as he stopped clapping. "But for now it is time for your prize! It won't change anything about the exam when you wake up, but I suggest you start practicing mixing magic energies. I suggest for a start to mix fire and ice plus a little wind for effect as it is one of the easiest combinations to learn. After that improve your repertoire a quite a bit then continue to experiment. But hey it is your choice to accept my advice or not. Still I suggest you to at least give it a try when you wake up okay?"
The tone of the last sentence was serious and the young Keyblade wielder could only gulp at the sudden change in demeanor at the man's posture.
"Alright." Roxas said a little nervously. It wouldn't hurt to take this man's advice or to stay on his good side.
But there was one thing that he picked up on.
The man knew who he was, the fact that he was currently dreaming, and the fact that he was from the future from when he mentioned the exam. The fact that the man also mentioned Ava's name didn't bode well for him.
The man as if noticing his thoughts relaxed and put a comforting hand on the Nobody's shoulder.
"If you wanted to know how I know who you are or what the future is, well I can't say that for now as we are on a limited time frame before my apprentices appear. But you should know that I found out what Ava did only yesterday. Can't say what she did was irresponsible beyond belief, but I'm honestly glad she changed the timeline. As for how I know Ava, well she is the youngest of my apprentices. Now for who I'm it is not so simple. I'm known by many names, but the one I prefer to be called is the Master of Masters! But please just address me as simply The Master or Master from this point forward." The Master said calmly, but his tone was filled with merriment. If it wasn't for the hood Roxas would assume the man was smiling underneath it.
"Alright." Was all Roxas said as he began to process what he heard from The Master. He not only knew what would happen in the future, but also how he and Ava traveled back over 12 years into the past. The fact that he could tell what would happen centuries or possibly millennia into the future was startling. It was probably best not to think about it as The Master didn't seem willing to share the method he could do it for right now. But for now he decided to ask the first thing on his mind.
"So your Ava's Keyblade Master, then why do you have a title like Master of Masters?" Roxas asked bluntly.
The Master was silent for a moment before he let out a chortle. Soon it grew into a giggle, then into chuckling, and finally into laughter. He let it hang into the air for a minute before he composed himself.
"Thank you Roxas, I really needed that with all the things I've been seeing lately." The Master said before he put the orange flask onto a nearby bookshelf. "As to answer your question my title is rightfully earned. I may not be the first Keyblade Master as like everyone else I had to learn from somewhere, but I'm one of the first known and possibly the strongest Keyblade Master to have ever lived. Plus all of the Keyblade Masters of your era can trace their teachings all the way back to myself and my six apprentices Luxu, Ira, Aced, Invi, Gula, and Ava. Each and everyone of them are some of the strongest Keyblade Masters to ever live with only a handful that I know of to have existed between my time and yours to have been on par with or surpass them." He continued, puffing his chest out in pride at the thought of his apprentices.
Roxas once again shifted through the new information that he had just learned from the man. Not only was Ava a Keyblade Master like Eraqus, but was also one of the earliest to ever exist. But not only that, but in a way this man in front of was the very origin of Keyblade wielding itself. Passed down through the ages from master to apprentice. Well except for ones like himself, Sora, and Riku as he knew that they were mainly self taught. The only other person of his time that knew how to use a Keyblade was King Mickey and Roxas was guessing that he was a Keyblade Master.
However that brought another question to his mind. What happened to Eraqus, Terra, Aqua, and Ven?
However before he could say anything, The Master covered his mouth with a gloved hand.
"I know that you have a lot of questions on your mind, but we don't have enough time for all of them so just pick two questions and stick with them." The Master said. He then removed his hand and pointed at his wrist. As if he was showing the Nobody that he was running out of time.
Roxas immediately knew one question that he wanted to ask.
"How are interacting with me? Last time I tried no one else could see, touch, or hear me?" He asked. It might be one of his least important questions to ask. But his had an inkling that the man in front of him wouldn't give him any information about what would in his time soon.
The Master hummed in thought for a seconds before he had an idea.
"I truly have no idea how I can interact with you. I can guess why, but I won't tell you now as that would be spoiling." He said simply. "Now as for your next question it can be anything except for anything important in your future. It can be anything else though. Like which of the two rocks that you should avoid to trip on in Tatara."
"What do you mean by that?" The Nobody asked. He was curious about any details about his future.
The Master just chuckled at that.
"Sorry, but that would be telling." He said in a singsong voice, causing Roxas to sigh.
'I should have expected that response' He thought in deadpan. The Master seemed to be a wise, yet highly eccentric individual.
Still there was one question that he wanted to know and it concerned his new friend.
"Do you know how Ava ended up in the Realm of Nothingness?"
At that The Master seemed to lose all his energy and slumped onto the nearest bookshelf.
"I really wished that you didn't ask that question." The Master said in a hollow tone. "But I guess that couldn't be helped. You're curious on how she ended up in that horrid place. I'm sorry but that is one question that I can not answer." He said.
"Why?" Roxas asked carefully. He had learned from his various lessons in the Organization that's when a Somebody could get into a state of emotional turmoil like The Master that if pushed to far, they could snap.
It would be a wise choice not to tick off someone with power comparable to an incomplete Kingdom Hearts.
The Master just froze for a second before he let out a sorrow filled sigh.
"It is personal, but I will give you the gist of it." He said separating himself away from the bookshelf and turning to face Roxas.
Through the hood of his coat Roxas could only get a single detail of The Master's face. A single blue eye with a catlike pupil that was emitting a faint glow. With a single tear forming at it's corner.
"I have failed my students Roxas. Believe me I have tried to find ways of averting their fates, but at every turn it only lead to something worse or it their fates didn't change. So I could do nothing but set them on the path that led them with the least amount of hardship possible. But in the end I still failed." The Master said as his head hung low.
Roxas didn't know how to respond to that. So both Keyblade wielders just sat in silence for a few minutes until the sound of a bell began to fill the room.
The Master seemed to perk up at the sound and picked himself off the bookcase.
"Looks like our time is almost up Roxas. So when the door opens please just keep your voice down, I don't want my apprentices to think I'm starting to go crazy by talking to empty air." He said jokingly, his somber mood seemingly gone.
"Alright then, so it'll pretty much be like last night anyway." Roxas replied back.
"Pretty much." The Master said as he grabbed the flask off the bookshelf and began to walk towards the door.
However before he disappeared behind the bookshelves he spun around to face Roxas.
"Roxas, you do not know how lucky you truly are. You are going to do the one thing that I could never do." The Master said somberly to the Nobody and began to walk away to the door, not bothering to continue conversing with him. But he did say something as he vanished behind one of the shelves.
"For unlike me, you actually have the chance to save everyone you care about."
With that he left Roxas dreading what would happen next. By the way that The Master sounded it, the dreams were probably going to show a good portion of what happened all those years ago. If he had to guess correctly then the dreams were going to end in tragedy.
The end of the age of fairy tales.
"What have I gotten myself into." He mumbled to himself. It seemed that the Nobody had no choice but to watch the events unfold before his eyes that would lead to the end of an era.
"No backing out now." Roxas said sighing.
These dreams were probably a side effect of him and Ava traveling back in time and merging with him. How he was able to interact with The Master was beyond him. But he had agreed to the decision o travel back in time. Like with what happened to his timeline these dreams were beyond his control. So he would just have to get used to them and fill in any gaps that he had when Ava woke up.
The second later The Master returned and sent a glance towards the Nobody before walking towards his desk. A second later the dream version of Ava ran past him. After that he saw four figures right behind her.
All four of them were wearing outfits similar to Ava and each of them had an animal mask like her. So they must have been 5 of The Master's other apprentices
The one closest to him was a young male who looked a little older then Ava. He was wearing a white leopard mask and a yellow hooded cloak with light blue tassels. His shirt and sash were a yellowish-tan color with light grey embroidering. His robe was purely light grey.
Behind him were two more males, both looking at least a decade older then Ava.
The man on the left had a white unicorn mask with gold trimming around it and framing his face. He had a white hooded cloak with gold embroidering which also had purple tassels hanging off it. It did nothing to hide the mane of blue hair at the top of his head that ran along his head and ended in a ponytail. His shirt and sash were white with some gold and his robe was light blue.
The man on the right looked a little younger, but he was a head and shoulders taller then the other man along with having a much more muscular frame. He had a dark grey bear mask while wearing a tan colored cloak with black embroidering and golden tassels. His shirt and sash were a lightish brown with black embroidering and tan robe.
Behind them was a young woman who looked about a year or two younger then two men. He couldn't make out any details of her face as it was obscured by a white scarf and a blue mask with a white snake on it. She had a light blue cloak on with gold embroidering and turquoise tassels. Her shirt, sash, and robe were a darker shade of blue with the former two also having gold embroidering on it.
Roxas concluded that these were four of The Master's other apprentices due to each of them having similar attire to Ava.
But there was only five apprentices present at the moment. So where was the sixth apprentice?
He didn't get a chance to think about it, because as soon as The Master put the flask down onto the desk the creature inside began to wake up. Ava immediately bent down to get a better look at it and began to gush over the creature in the flask.
"Master, did you make this? It is so cute!" Ava said as she was immersed the creature's cuteness. Roxas couldn't help but chuckle at their reaction along with the leopard masked apprentice and The Master.
"Well, things are going to get pretty hectic around here soon." The Master explained as he turns to face his apprentices and Roxas. "But this Spirit Chirithy is going to make your lives easier!" He continued before shrugging. "Hopefully."
The apprentices nodded at this before the leopard masked one walked over to get a closer look.
"Spirit?" He questioned.
The Master picked up the Chirithy's flask and began to elaborate.
"You can say they're like cats or dogs. And they'll be your loyal pets." The Master said as he tapped against the glass, waking the Chirithy up. "Every wielder will have one of these adorable little guys at their side."
The Spirit then proceeded to pounce onto The Master's finger in retaliation for disturbing it's nap.
However it hit the glass and slide down back to the bottom of the flask. This caused Roxas to let our a silent chuckle at the Chirithy's antics as it proceeded to sit up and began to sniff around in it's flask. The Master also let out a snicker before he composed himself.
"They're here to help, so play nice." He said..
"Okay" Ava said simply.
"Oh right, before I forget…" The Master said as he put the Chirithy's flask back onto his desk.
Roxas then noticed that his posture turned serious and that his apprentices were giving him their full attention.
"If a wielder is overcome by malice or rather, if their heart is tainted by darkness their adorable little Spirit will turn dark and become a Nightmare." The Master said.
Roxas didn't like the tone The Master had when he had described who the Chirithy would become a Nightmare. It reminded him a bit too much like how someone becomes a Heartless.
"So you're telling us that if we see a Nightmare…" The unicorn masked apprentice started to say.
"Someone has fallen into darkness." The snake masked apprentice finished for him.
"You are correct Ira, Invi. And if you don't stop this renegade Spirit it'll plant darkness into the hearts of others and you'll have an army of Nightmares on your hands. So beware." The Master explained with his tone solemn.
"So basically these Nightmares are like about as dangerous as Heartless except you could get killed instead of turning into one of them." Roxas muttered to himself. It sounded like that a Nightmare Chirithy was just as bad as a Heartless, but were probably intelligent like Ansem, Scar, and Sora when he was one. He was hoping that he wouldn't be facing anything like them anytime soon.
But with his track record it was bond to happen sooner or later.
"So if we seeing of these Nightmares anywhere, we have to get rid of it on the spot." The bear masked apprentice said breaking Roxas out of his thoughts.
"No!" Ava shouted from across the room, getting everyone's attention. She looked rather cross at the bear masked apprentice. "I won't let you do that!"
The leopard masked apprentice placed a hand on Ava shoulder to calm her down a bit. After a few seconds it worked, but she still looked upset at the much larger apprentice. He let go of her shoulder and the corner of his lips began to twitch upwards.
"No wonder you were given the bear mask Aced. You're scary." The leopard masked apprentice said mockingly. Ira and Invi looked like they were going to laugh by how their were holding themselves and how their bodies began to quake.
"Your point Gula?" Aced said, clearly unaware of the other two apprentices holding in their laughs
"Maybe you could grow at them?" Ava suggested.
Roxas proceeded to join Ira and Invi in holding in his laughter when Aced was actually beginning to consider doing exactly as Ava said.
Eventually he figured it out and the three trying to hold in in their laughter nearly burst at Aced's expression.
"Don't insult me!" He said glaring at Ava behind his mask. He began to approach her, but The Master held out his hand and stopped the large apprentice in his tracks.
"Come on, Aced." He said with his voice cracking with humor. "You won't know unless you try." After that he burst out into laughter. He was soon joined by everyone else in the room except for Aced.
It was a refreshing experience for the Nobody as he hadn't laughed like that in far too long.
"Please tell me your joking." Aced said exasperated. It caused everyone to burst into another round of laughter at his expense.
But like pretty much everything in Roxas's life so far, the good times would come to an end.
Roxas stopped laughing when he noticed that his surroundings were getting brighter and brighter by the second. Eventually all he could see was a white light and his surroundings vanish.
The Master noticed that Roxas had vanished while his apprentices were still laughing with Aced joining in half heartedly.
He really loved these moments with his apprentices, in fact they were apart of the reason why he still around in the first place. As he considered them his family, his adopted sons and daughters. Especially Luxu and Ava.
The Master let out a sigh at the thought of Luxu. He had sent his first apprentice out on his task a few weeks ago and he hasn't said anything of the details of his disappearance to any of the others. It was for the best of any of them don't know his current whereabouts.
It was the only way Luxu would survive the Keyblade War at all. As for the other apprentices, their fate in that war was far nicer then anything else he had seen what was fated for them.
Except for his little pup, Ava.
No matter what he could change, the end result was always the same. She would always in some way, shape, or form end up in the Realm of Nothingness.
All because of his life long enemy, fate.
He could travel to other The worlds beyond his own, have total control over reality to a certain degree, have fought god level beings one on one and won, and at the age of 13 helped topple his world's tyrant who had almost succeeded in absorbing all of time and space into herself and becoming the goddess of everything.
But The Master couldn't fully go against fate. Somethings were fixed and somethings weren't. What was going to happen soon was one of the things that he couldn't change. Especially with what was going to happen soon to the young Nobody.
However Roxas was an unique case. He had not only traveled back in time which was near impossible to do, but had also did so without getting Chronos on his tail. That was a miracle in itself as he tended to go after anyone who time traveled beyond the normal conditions.
But then again the way Roxas and Ava traveled destroyed the previous timeline and put an end to that upstart Xehanort, so the spirit was most likely letting it slide. That was unusual given his temperament for humans, but The Master had an inkling on what happened to change his mind besides also getting rid of Xehanort.
The inner workings of the pantheon that governed his and the rest of the worlds always confused and amused him.
But anyway Roxas had actually defied his fate to fade away albeit it took some convincing from his apprentice and Sora plus nearly getting killed by Young Xehanort for him to fully comply. In the end he has succeeded and reversed all the damage that Xehanort had ever inflicted once he acquired the X-Blade.
He had also involuntary created an entirely new timeline that went back to the first major tragedy orchestrated by Xehanort. Sure it was a fixed point, but that didn't mean that the outcome could be altered.
Still there was one major concern The Master had for Roxas.
The current timeline has not settled in yet.
Of course he saw Xehanort's demise and the destruction of the timeline through Riku's Keyblade, but as things were now The Master wasn't sure that Roxas had completely settled the Seeker's fate.
He was seeing multiple ways this could end including everything that Roxas and Ava had changed easily being undone at this point.
Even worse is that while the Nobody couldn't interact with anything besides him, he was also affecting the time stream by crossing over through the Corridor of Ages.
He knew the dangers of using that method and had even made sure that he had erased every last trace of creating one, except for some notes that he made sure that only he could access.
It was probably for the best that he destroys them later.
Evidently Ava had snuck into his study again and must have read a part of those notes. He would have been proud of her for marketing one almost entirely from scratch if it hadn't been for a few things including how irresponsible it was!
First she couldn't enter in alone as it was incomplete. She would lose her physical body and endanger herself to nonexistent simply through entering it. Only Nobodies or Heartless could cross through. And finally it had the same restrictions of regular time travel the allowed form of time travel.
Personally he had created and tried the completed method once. It was as a trial run a trip 10 minutes into the past.
He only got 6 minutes in when he was yanked out of it and forced into a fight. After it was interrupted, both parties agreed to destroy the method, because of the side effects.
Just by crossing it put a considerable strain and the timeline. Causing it to be damaged and like a few minutes ago allowed Roxas to crossover involuntary to this era temporary. Small inconsistencies like that will happen throughout time and space as the concepts began to fix the damage caused by the Corridor.
However whatever way the time stream fixed itself could spell disaster if it hasn't set yet.
He just hoped Roxas could make it stick by the time that he next spoke with each other.
Or else The Master would do what he has wanted to do since he first saw what Xehanort planned, consequences be damned.
He would personally crossover to the Mark of Mastery exam and shove the X-Blade up his wrinkly old ass! Even if he destroyed the time stream it would be worth it.
No matter the cost, he will never allow another tragedy like the Keyblade War to occur for as long as he could.
"There is a traitor among us."
Those were the words Roxas heard as he suddenly appeared into this room. The architecture was similar to The Master's workshop except the chamber didn't have any gears on the walls and in the center of it had a round table with seven seats. There were five people in the room. Ava, Gula, and Invi were all sitting around the table with the former two next to each other. Ira and Aced were standing not that far away.
The Nobody immediately knew that he was in some sort of meeting. But there was two things that were off putting to him.
The first was that Ira had apparently started it by calling out a traitor among them. Why would he even do that. During the last part of his dream he had seen that the five of them were very close to each other. So in what way were one of them a traitor.
Plus openly declaring a traitor was not a logical strategy at all. It could give the traitor the chance to turn blame onto someone else in the panic and succeed in staying hidden.
The second was that he couldn't sense The Master anywhere. With the amount of energy that man was admitting it would be difficult to conceal unless he didn't want to be found.
But from talking to him Roxas could understand that he was very close to his students and wouldn't part from them unless he had no choice.
He didn't know how long had past lunch the last part of his dreams, but he did know that it was probably a good idea to listen to them to get a better idea of what was going on.
"Are you certain? What proof do you have?" Invi inquired from her seat.
With a sigh Ira held out one of his hands. He began to gather energy into his palm before it formed into bright sphere of light. Suddenly it dimmed to reveal a projection of a familiar shape.
It was a Chirithy like the one in the flask, except for some major differences alongside this one being much larger and mature. Instead of the grey fur he saw, it had taken a dark purple hue with it's ears being pink and it's snout and stomach being yellow. It's eye went from being narrow and blue, to spherical and glowing crimson. It had a black purse around it's neck with some kind of sigil on it with a pink cape.
"I found this sniffing around the castle last night. Unfortunately as soon as it noticed me, it disappeared." Ira said.
As soon as he said that the Foretellers grew worried.
"Is that..a dark Chirithy?" Ava inquired. The implication seemed to sink in around the room until a gasp rose out from the side of the table, getting everyone's attention.
"No…it's a Nightmare!" Invi said in shock, breaking her usual calm façade. This caused everyone gasp in shock as they looked over the projection.
"So that's a Nightmare." Roxas said studying the projection up close. The Chirithy seemed to be studying it's surroundings.
It didn't seem malicious or anything like that. In fact it just seemed curious about were it was. Possibly indicating that it had either recently formed or that it was simply surveying the castle. Then as if the projection noticed someone gave its best glare and vanished in plume of darkness, cutting the projection off.
But one thing stumped Roxas was if one of the apprentices were traitors, then how come he didn't sense any change of the balance in their hearts. It was practically the same for each of them. So unless any of them could cloak their darkness then he had no clue that anyone of them is a traitor.
"It's not me." Aced said in an effort to prove that he wasn't the traitor.
"There is an easy way to solve this. If we all summon our Spirits, then we'll know." Gula said. Invi shook her head at that.
"Unfortunately, there are countless wielders in our Unions." She explained. "It would be easy for any of us to summon a Chirithy that isn't a Nightmare. I'm afraid that your suggestion wouldn't help us get to the bottom of this."
'That makes sense' Roxas thought. As each of them had a large amount of Keyblade wielders following them, anyone of them could switch out their Chirithy.
Unless of course…
Ava slammed her hands down on the table getting their attention.
"Yeah, in that case, who's to say that the Nightmare you saw last night belongs to any of us." She said defiantly, trying to crush the doubts that were spreading among the Foretellers. "It could belong to anyone in our Unions."
That was also a likely possibility. They weren't the only Keyblade wielders around there. But there was still something missing from all of this.
"That is highly unlikely." Ira said with a sigh."Do you recall the tool the wielders were given in order to make them stronger? We generally don't concern ourselves with what they have at their disposal. However-" He continued on as he went to take his seat at the table. "I believe those tools were the Nightmare's doing."
"The bangles?" Ava questioned. "I know when they're equipped they have the power to collect dark energy, but I thought we all agreed that was okay."
"Collecting is fine. But using that power is the equivalent of using the power of darkness." Ira said sternly, causing both Gula and Roxas to sigh.
The Nobody knew about the constant persecution of those who use darkness. While it's power is usually destructive and has a nasty habit of consuming those who channel it or turning them into Heartless, the power of light could be just as destructive and almost as dangerous as the darkness. Still as someone who was rejected from both sides since his birth, he thought the whole prejudice on both sides was idiotic. The worlds were made of both the light and the darkness. Both existed in a balance that had been in existence since way before the worlds were split. Of course it was constantly being disrupted, but the balance was always restored in some way in the end.
"It's a brilliant plan." Gula said, snapping the Nobody out of his thoughts. "Everyone knows that Spirits look the same, and that there are wielders in spades. There is no way to tell." He finished while shaking his head.
Roxas suddenly felt a small pulse of energy from Ava. It vanished a second later.
"Oh no." She said worriedly. "Everyone has already equipped their bangles."
Aced had enough and slammed his hand down onto the table to get the other Foretellers's attention.
"So what now? How do we find out who is behind this?" He asked with an irritated tone.
"Seeing as how those bangles couldn't have been acquired just by anyone. I believe it was one of us in this room." Ire said, causing the Nobody to facepalm.
"That wasn't a smart move." He groaned out.
If there truly was a traitor amongst the Foretellers, then he or she would be more careful not to leave anymore clues behind.
"No, Ira. I respectfully disagree." Invi said. "What proof do we have that the bangles are tied to the power of darkness, or if a Nightmare is to blame. We shouldn't jump to conclusions."
It seemed like she was the most sensible one here at the moment.
"Some leader you are Ira." Aced said, shocking the others as they turned to face him. "You managed to plant seeds of doubt in all of us with that speech." With that Ira turned to face him, his expression stoic. "What? Did you expect the traitor to give themselves up with that accusation of yours?"
Throughout Aced inquiring Ira's mouth slowly turned into a frown which only grew and grimaced at the end, showing that the bear masked Foreteller was correct.
"That was foolish." He finished.
Roxas couldn't help but agree with Aced's reasoning for the traitor, but frowned when he sensed something in his heart.
Aced's heart was starting to grow dark. It was faint, but it was there. It was an especially foul kind of darkness that he has never sensed before, but he knew what it was.
Envy. Aced was envious of Ira for something and Roxas had to guess it was because that he wanted to be the leader of the Foretellers.
"Aced, that's quite enough." Invi said.
Aced just huffed at that and turned to face the door way.
"It looks to me like the Master has made the wrong choice." He said as he began to walk away.
"Wait." Invi said as she got up from her chair. "Where do you think you're going?"
Her question fell on deaf ears as he silently stormed out of the room, closing the door behind him.
As the room went silent, Roxas managed to piece together an idea of what has happened between the dreams.
The Master disappeared for some reason and had left Ira in charge of the Foretellers with Aced as his second in command. It might have also been some time after the dream he had yesterday as Ava looked to be the same age as when she was with Hikari.
But there were some parts that were still missing to get a full idea of what was going on. Like why did The Master disappear? Was there truly a traitor among the Foretellers? Whatever happened to The Master's final apprentice?
Roxas would've tried to figured out more about what was going on, but he felt like it was probably best to either wait to see if there was anymore to the dream, what any future dream might hold, or talk to Ava or The Master when he got the chance.
Gula got up from the table and dusted himself off.
"I think we are done here." He said before he faced Ira and Invi. "I'll trust that you'll keep all of us informed."
With that he waved them goodbye and proceeded to exit the room. Halfway to the door Ava got up from her seat."
"I hope…" She trailed off sadly. "I hope that we can all resolve this soon…"
With that she followed Gula out of the room and closed the door behind her, the room then faded to black.
Roxas could only groan as he woke up from his dream. After a few minutes he got out of his bed and began to stretch to loosen himself up.
"I really hope these dreams are a common occurrence." He said to himself. While he would like to know more about what happened, after this last dream and his brief talk with The Master he had a lot to think about.
Now that he has meet them, he wanted to know what happened all those years ago and what happened to he Foretellers, especially Ava. Especially how the era of fairy tales ended.
Roxas felt that asking Eraqus about the past would be a bad idea. Even though the Keyblade Master had offered him a chance to become his apprentice last night, but the man still didn't fully trust him yet. Which was a smart move. Asking information like that would only bring more suspicion down on himself and it could possibly bring about not only his end, but also Ava's as well.
So for now he would just focus on the Mark of Mastery exam that was going to happen today.
'Hopefully I didn't sleep through it.' Roxas thought.
He wanted to see one of his new friends become a Master and learn more about Keyblade wielders. A decade from now the culture of them was all but dead, with the only people who seemed to know about it were King Mickey, Xemnas, Yen Sid, possibly Marluxia, and possibly Riku. The latter two had hinted some knowledge from when he had talked to the pink haired Nobody a few times and Riku seemed to know about how Keyblades were inherited as Sora's Kingdom Key was originally meant for him.
Still it would be embarrassing if he slept through the entire thing. Plus he didn't want to know what kind of retribution that he would get from the apprentices and Eraqus.
So about halfway through changing his clothes, the door slammed open.
"Roxas are you awake!" Ven shouted as he barged into the room. It was then he noticed that the boy in question was putting a clean shirt on.
"Sorry about that." He quickly apologized before exiting the room.
Roxas could only sigh at that. After another minute he finally got dressed
He began to head to the door, but then he felt something behind him.
In the span of a second he summoned Oathkeeper and blasted a silent Aero right behind him. All it did was travel across the room and gently open the window.
'It's just like last night. The presence is gone again.' Roxas thought. It was the exact same one he felt was watching them on the summit. Whatever was watching them was elusive as he could sense a small amount of darkness from it.
He could deal with it later. As for now he had to see if he hadn't slept through the exam.
The Nobody opened the door to find Ventus impatiently tapping his foot.
"You were so close to being late you know!" He said as he handed Roxas a plate of toast.
"Mourning Ven." He said simply as he began to eat the burnt piece of bread, causing the lookalike to only sigh.
"You missed the time to talk with Terra and Aqua before the exam Roxas while you were the only time you would be able to talk with them is during the interim between the trials. Not only that, but you also missed breakfast and Master Xehanort arriving." Ven explained to the Nobody who was happily munching on the toast.
He truly never had it before and the only time he ever had it before was fake, because it was when he was trapped in that accursed virtual prison. All the food in there was mainly bland except for the sea salt ice cream.
Ansem must have did that just to spit him.
Roxas was a little ashamed that he missed the opportunity to talk to the two eldest apprentices, but he had brought it onto himself for sleeping in.
But there was one thing that caught his attention as he regrettably finished the delicious toast.
"Master Xehanort? I take it that he is another Keyblade Master?" Roxas questioned, causing Ven to nod.
"He is the only other Keyblade Master around as far as I know. He is a few years older then Master Eraqus and they both trained under the same Master. In fact they both passed their exam and afterword Master Xehanort left to explore the worlds rarely coming back to the Land of Departure. He last visited about 2 years ago for only one night before leaving in the mourning. But he has returned today to be a judge of exam." He explained getting the other blonde to nod.
Before their conversation could continue on a ball of light passed by the window and exploded.
"What was that about?" Roxas questioned as he felt something tugging on his sleeve. He turned to see Ven trying his best to run while gripping the Nobody's arm. "Okay, what are you doing Ven?"
The boy in question stopped running and faced Roxas.
"Master said he would put that out once there was 10 minutes to the exams start! So come on or we'll miss it!" Ven said as he tried to rush off with the other blonde.
Roxas widened his eyes at that and proceeded to shake Ventus of him. Both of them began to race into the throne room before it was sealed off for the Mark of Mastery.
"He seriously has some good reflexes." A voice broke out in Roxas's now empty room.
A small Corridor of Darkness opened up from the floor and the figure from last night climbed out of it.
"If I had reacted a second slower, then he would have discovered me and probably have pushed me out of the window." The figure said shivering. He would have survived, but it would have hurt like hell. It has happened multiple times while training under that old coot.
The figure began to rummage around Roxas's room to find until he found his Organization coat. He began to channel dark energy into the cloak, but it was immediately canceled out.
"Damn it!" He hissed out. "It's exactly like the geezer's clothing, protected against the darkness!" He angrily threw the coat onto the bed before letting out a sigh.
"I suppose that the weakling's Wayfinder should do." He said before jumping into the corridor, closing it behind him.
The light switch is flipped back on to reveal the author eating a slice of pepperoni pizza. After another minute he finally finishes it and turns to you.
*Welcome back. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Before we get to business I should let you know that there will be no omake this chapter.*
With that he proceeded to summon a Cherry Coke and took a swig from it before putting it onto the desk.
*Now onto business.*
*This is a simple dream chapter with some hints about what would happen in the future. With a hint about a world in which the quarter of Keyblade wielders will cross later during the BBS Arc pointed out by The Master. I will write a quick one shot to whoever can figure it out before the end of Radiant Garden. Only qualifys if you don't have a guest account.*
*I'll even give out a simple hint. It is the name of one of the bosses, but is not the final name. Nightwalker.*
*Now onto the main thing I want discuss. The Master of Masters.*
*For how he can interact with Roxas from millennium into past…well I leave it up to your imagination. But you should know that is past will not only lie in this story, but it will have ties into two others. One of which is A Small Miscalculation. His full past will be explained at a later date, but this won't be the last that we see of him until then.*
Suddenly you hear what sounds like to be a cat clawing on a door.
*Shit I forget to feed him. So quickly let's move onto the harem.*
He pulls out the white board as the sound of meowing is heard in the background.
*Limit and rules are still the same. I'm still accepting suggestions. The only new option that I'll be releasing is Ava. She is officially added to the harem and romance will begin later as Roxas views more of her memories.*
He puts down the board and grabs the remote.
*I'm sorry to say this but we are out of time.*
*Remember If you have a suggestion or anything else leave a review or PM me. I'll answer back as soon as I can. Flamers will be frozen in sea salt ice cream.*
*So farewell and I'll see you next time!*
With the click of the remote the screen fades to black.
Harem(WIP): Naminé, Xion, Aqua, Yuffie, Ava, a surprise.