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Master's Report: Final entry Y'know, I'm really going to miss doing this. I'll be sure to continue this in the future, when I'm not a heart in a box and I actually have hands again. Destiny, its a funny thing. No I mean really, thinking that you're in control of where you are going when its already been pre decided is hilariously delusional. Destiny, its a funny thing. So its done then, I have done my best to make sure everything happens as the book described. I've heard their snickers and snarly remarks, “Oh the Master, he's so wacky, he is so chilled out, he doesn't seem to care.” I've wanted to let them know that this is all happening according to my design and that its actually already happened, but I've been silently laughing to myself about it, so there's a minor victory. Destiny, its a funny thing Oh and speaking of victory, I have given the key to the kid and told him about his “role”. You should have seen the look on his face when I gave him the keyblade and only told him it had an eye in it after he was already holding it. As I thought though, he quickly grasped what its purpose is, he knows what he needs to do and he also understands that its already been written, he's already fulfilled his role and the war hasn't even started yet. Destiny, its a funny thing. And with all that my homework is done, its time for me to make myself scarce and set these wheels turning. Shame I won't get to see the madness of the keyblade war, but hey, there's always next time. Oh and don't worry, I told him about the whole meteor shower thing. Once his apprentice unlocks the door to other Worlds, the boundaries between them will break and crash down. I've told him to make sure they are somewhere there won't be so much collateral damage, an island perhaps? Destiny, its a funny thing. ~ The Master ~~~~~ “Destiny. It's a funny thing.” The man in the black hooded robes thought to himself. His name was Luxu and this was his role. Take the keyblade with him, make sure it is passed down, a journey which led him here, where there were no shortage of skilled wielders. Either way he had to be here. It was his destiny. “Luxu!” A young girl's voice he recognised shouted and a bright coloured keyblade swooped past his hood as he sidestepped from harm's way. Turning to face her “Ava! Do you see? This! This is the Master's will!” He shouted back and raised his own keyblade in preparation to battle. Ava recognised the distinct keyblade. The stark contrast of the darkness inside it to hers which materialised from the light within her own heart and illuminated with warm colours to reflect that. “Y-you're the traitor! Where is the master?!” She was angrier at him now than she had ever been. Her tone didn't match her soft pink robes. She didn't give him time to answer before she struck at him again. The two exchanged clashes, fitting in with the countless armoured soldiers all around them who were all doing the same. The sound of metal blades striking each other filled the air. Ava and Luxu continued their battle among the screams and flashes of colour as magic shots of fire and ice dashed around, scorching some soldiers, freezing others in spot until their enemies shattered them with a follow up hit. Blocking Luxu's retaliating strike, the two were locked in place. “I have to do this! If you believe in our master you would let me!” Luxu shouted, the two of them grunting as they tried to force the other to lose balance. “But you're risking everything in the process!” Ava shouted. There was a plea in her voice now. Maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe she could change the future. But destiny cannot be changed. The blast from the X-blade shattering was like an earthquake, with the destructive blast radius of a large bomb. The light expanded like an orb, it tore through everyone in its path, shutting off their hearts instantly. And as the blades and their owners fell, as the light encompassed them, so too did Ava. The last of the foretellers was dead. Luxu stood before the chaos. The last few armoured keyblade wielders were still clashing away with their massive key shaped weapons. The sound as the metal clanged, the swishing with every swing, it was a familiar sight and sound to Luxu. The warriors were locked in their duels despite the carnage as the shock-wave took out each and every one of them, tearing through their armour, leaving them and their blades littered across the barren brown grounds. Then the last remaining keyblade wielders were extinguished like the rest mid combat. Knowing his own destiny was at times a tool Luxu used for his own benefit, knowing fate already determined he would survive this while at others he despised it. This wasn't a game, this was his life and yet here he was, at the fated lands, observing the war just as it was written in the book. After the last keyblade fell with a thud and the clanging of its armour clad owner, there was an eerie quietness and Luxu was now stood under a dark but starry night sky, the bright blue hue radiating from Kingdom Hearts lit up less of the sky as the giant heart shaped moon deconstructed, clouds covering where it once was. He stabbed a dark kayblade into the ground, the blue orb with the strange marking toward the key shaped blade at the end facing forwards at the scene in front of him. His master had told him the importance of this keyblade, the orb was called The Eye, it recorded events it witnessed and wrote them into a mysterious book called the book of prophecies. The grounds were littered with discarded armour, broken and battered keyblades and the mountains. The eye had a good view of the events, the X-blade that materialised and shattered, the summoning of Kingdom Hearts itself and the devastation the keyblade war had left behind. He stood with his hood up, that mysterious box he had been given and told never to open, which he now understood why. And two small children who had also survived. After the war had ended, he had found them asleep just near where he was. Their hearts had been damaged by the blast that erupted from the X-blade but they were alive. “But which one do I choose?” He thought to himself. But he knew the book of prophecies existed already. He hated that book. He hated being a prisoner to his destiny, he could have control over it if he had the book which foretold events yet to transpire. Whatever choices he thought he was making were just illusionary to him. He sensed the light and the dark within people, that's why the master had picked him for this role. And he sensed an equal balance of light and darkness in these two boys respectively. Whether the keyblade would be passed down to the light or the darkness was his choice to make as long as he kept the blade away from them for now. He let go of the hilt and in a flash of dark energy the keyblade vanished. “Come on you two. Let's get you home.” He reached a black glove covered hand out and summoned a portal of darkness, the black and purples coursed through it. He picked up the two young children who were still asleep with one arm and the box he dragged by the handle with his spare hand. “May my heart be my guiding key.” He said to himself as he stepped through into the darkness. And with that the only living things in the area were gone. That land would become the fated place for a war that was still yet to come as per the book of prophecies foretelling. But for now it would be aptly written into history as the keyblade graveyard. ~~~~~~ It was mid morning, although the sun light suggested afternoon as it shone into the room via the massive window, open to allow a small breeze in that made the curtains that laid over them drift but not enough to disrupt the game of light chess being played between the two young boys. A variation of chess where the goal is to get your king in the raised platform in the centre of the board, who has the most strong pieces on the board when they do so wins the game. The light white pieces being moved by a young pre teen boy in a white robe, fair skinned with dark blue shaggy looking hair that matched the colour of his eyes. This gave the other boy the opportune time to bring up the subject. “Have you heard of the ancient keyblade war?” The other boy asked. As he moved one of the black pieces. His skin was more tanned, his grey hair struck out against it as did his distinct golden yellow eye colour. His hair spiked toward the back and the rest neatly hanging around his face. Xehanort was very interested in talking about forbidden subjects, despite Eraqus''s dismissive attitude every time he did. “Yeah. The master's favourite story.” Eraqus sounded like he was starting to get a bit fed up of hearing Zehanort talk about these things. Although he believed them to be true. “So, you know the lost masters then? They are the ones who started the keyblade war.” Xehanort continued to probe, hoping Eraqus would slip up one time. “Never heard of them.” Eraqus replied, but the moment of silence before he did was telling. Besides Xehanort already knew the truth anyway. It frustrated Xehanort that Eraqus always acted ignorant, he was the only person he could talk to about these things he studied so intensely. “...You can drop the facade.” Xehanort said. The two of them moved chess pieces around as they talked, strategically sliding them even during mid sentence. They knew each other's playing style well. Xehanort always was a little more aggressive, trying to take pieces without worrying too much about what comes next, this often would allow Eraqus to make a crucial move at the right moment to beat his opponent. “Well keyblade war or not, the world exists today in a balance of light and dark because of them.” Eraqus said. The boys were almost tied in their game, an equal number of pieces and powers on the board. “But what if it happened again? And this time more darkness is left over?” Xehanort picked up a king piece and moved it forward into a position that would force Eraqus to either lose the game or to call a stalemate. “On that land, shall darkness prevail and light expire. The future... Its already been written.” Xehanort looked over at the door in front of him and then up past the golden frame and up to the plaque above it. The plaque matched the frame of the door in golden colour, seven large keys protruded from the middle at the bottom half, 13 small, sharp looking symbols he didn't quite recognise but knew represented the darkness on the top. In the centre of it all, the master's keyblade which he had heard the master refer to as No Name. The keyblade was still in great condition, its sharp edges and menacing dark glossy finish as menacing looking as ever. Eraqus noticed Xehanort look over at the blade but he remained focused on the game in front of him. Seeing a flaw in Xehanort's move. “Who's to say I can't change it. And maybe light will prevail.” He spoke calm and surely as he moved his king piece to the square Xehanort's had just moved to. Picking it up and moving it off the board as he did so. “There's more to light than meets the eye.” Victorious again in their game, he looked up at Xehanort as intensely as he had at the game board. “You might be surprised.” Xehanort returned the look but with a smirk and cockiness to his voice “Oh I hope so.” The two kings, one of dark and one of light were now in the raised platform facing each other. There were equal numbers of light and dark pieces remaining on the board. ~~~~~~ Ten Years Later ~~~~~~ There were slow and calm crashes as the water folded in on itself, echoed by ripples as it calmly flowed back out to sea. The only other sounds were the slight wind breeze and the squawking of the seagulls that sat atop of the trees that adorned the shining golden sands of the shore of Destiny Islands. The look on the young teenager's face was a vacant one as he watched the waves drifting to and fro from the shoreline, his black boots as close to the water as he could stand without getting them wet. He bit the inside of his bottom lip and his expression changed to one of deep thought, as if he was oblivious to the lush tropical island environment that was around him. For his mind was not on this World, as it often was it was somewhere else that day. The young man looked up from the waves and into the sunset horizon, the clouds furthest away shone more red the closer to the setting sun they were and through the breaks in them a light blue, fading almost to purple as the evening sky began to fade to night. He brought his hand up, brushed some loose strands of his long sliver hair away from his tanned skin, joining the rest of his slick and brushed back hair. "This World is just too small." He said to nobody. He hadn't been aware that his own thoughts had become audible. The sounds he was used to hearing every evening were joined by an unfamiliar one that evening. Shuffling. It sounded like a blanket being dragged slowly across the sands, inching closer to the young man who remained motionless, eyes and mind still focused on the forever fluorescent horizon before him. It was so far away and yet today it felt closer than ever. Although the sound became more apparent to the young man as it grew closer, something was peculiar about it, it wasn't his acquaintances with whom he shared this Island paradise, even entertaining them with the notion they were his friends. For there were no footsteps to be heard. The shuffling stopped as the sound gets next to him next to him. And to his left he could now hear the sound of a robe flapping lightly with the sea breeze. Slowly, looking irritated that his concentration into the endless space was broken, he turns toward the brown robes that stand to his left. The hooded robed figure didn't say anything at first. And more eerie than that, Xehanort could not make out any facial features at all. He looked harder, almost as much concentration as he had shown to the ocean and the sky. Still nothing. Almost as if inside the robes awaited pure darkness, ready to swallow the World whole should it leak out. A deep sounding voice boomed from within the space where a face should be "This World has been connected." No sign of any expressions, its arms, if it even had any remained inside its pockets, and it was hunched over as if the it carried a tremendous weight on its shoulders. "What did you just-" Xehanort wasn't able to finish his question and his usual calm and collected composure was broken for the first time in as far back as he could remember. "Tied to the darkness. Soon to be completely eclipsed." The robed figure continued on. Xehanort had spent years researching the light and the dark the made up this World and the many others that he was certain must of existed beyond his own. Perhaps this being had come from one of them. He had felt the shift as his tranquil home had slowly been infested with darkness. It seemed to pour from that mysterious cave on the raised ledge just behind where he stood now, next to the crashing waterfall with its crisp and clean water. The cave that the Islanders sometimes dared each other to go into. Even Lightning, the bravest of the children on the island had not explored deep enough in there to find what was at the end. But Xehanort had. His expression returned to a more calm one, if this being was to attack him, it surely would have done so already. And the times he had spent training for battle with the other young people on the island made him a competent fighter anyway. "The door in that cave." He said, half asking, but half making a statement that he knew what the mysterious figure was talking about. He could feel the gaze of his eyes meeting another's even though no eyes looked back at him. "Perceptive. You have realised that door is no ordinary door." The figure's tone was calm but cunning. And he was right, that door was far from ordinary. It didn't belong in an otherwise empty cave that otherwise only contained growing fungi and mushrooms and rocks. It didn't belong in this World. The yellow markings that swirled on the perimeter, just before the edges of the frame. The door was wooden but no matter what Xehanort had tried he couldn't break or open it. "It can lead you to other Worlds." The figure continued. They both turned toward the horizon together. Xehanort took a breathe and steadied himself before he replied "Why are you telling me this?" he asked, "Your destiny." the figure spoke back. "It lies far beyond this World, it lies far beyond even many others." It knew that Xehanort's curiosity would easily earn his trust. Xehanort smiled, a small laugh to himself which he kept inside. "Hm. My destiny is my own to create." He dismissed the figure now. Who was he to tell Xehanort what his destiny was? No one has control over that. "But destiny is never left to chance." The voice was starting to become familiar to Xehanort now. "Did you come from another World? Who are you anyway?" Xehanort turned towards the figure again. The brown robes shuffled around to meet his look. Slowly it pulled one arm out and held a limbless figure of an arm out toward Xehanort. The darkness swallowed Xehanort as it rushed out of the robes, it filled him and rushed through his body. Through his feet, all the way to his head, he struggled to breathe, it was like poison that filled him until he couldn't see as it made its way through his head and eyes. And then he could see. Images of what was to come raced through his mind. Faces he didn't recognise, was yet to meet. And fantastical landscapes and Worlds. Figures in black robes that at once were familiar and yet strangers to him. Three armoured warriors, one noticeably shorter with those ancient weapons that the Master had told him about the key shaped blades, just like the one that was back at his home one the wall in the Islands minus the insignia of the eye the blade without a name had. And then the darkness took over his mind and that was all he saw. When Xehanort next awoke it was another tropical and sunny day on the Destiny Islands. The same beautiful sounds filled the air, the same horizon that teased a World beyond this one to Xehanort. It took a moment for his even his golden yellow eyes to adjust to the light. But he knew what he had to do today as soon as he was himself again. "Thirteen seekers of darkness...." He turned toward to cave, the sand crunched beneath his boots as he walked toward it, up the shore, leaving behind the beaut of the island as he stepped further toward it. The sound of the waves were quiet now, louder was the breeze rushing in to the cave, Xehanort pushed aside some vines that he had placed over the top of the entrance to obscure it from the others. And then he ducked down and entered the cave. As he walked down the winding path, small insects curried away from where his next step would be. The scratching of them as they scattered up the walls was the only sound. "All World begin in darkness." He said to himself in thought as he walked further down the creepy path. "And all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it. It grows, consumes it. Such is its nature." Xehanort was now stood in front of the mysterious wooden door. Himself and the other small lizards were the only beings. No sign of the robed figure. Xehanort held his arm out, made a half fist and in a flash of darkness, he summoned the No Name keyblade. Now rightfully his, no longer belonging to his master. "In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came!" He swung the tip of the blade toward the door and a light beamed out from it, it connected with the door. And both Xehanort and the door and the blade glowed a bright gold hue. Then he was gone. And the door remained exactly as it was before. Back at home, Luxu looked up at the wall and at the blank white where the No Name keyblade had once been. Finally his role was over, now it was up to Xehanort to take the keyblade of darkness, it belonged to whoever was the strongest ally of the darkness, it sensed it within them and was drawn to it, like a moth to a bright light. The gathering of the thirteen had begun and with that, the master's return and the second keyblade war was set to happen. That night, there was a meteor shower. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~