Another Time, Another Xehanort

Chapter Two- A Gathering

Xehanort knew the boy couldn't stay here. Safe as it was, he knew that if he could enter this room, then his counterpart could as well. It was too big of a risk. So he carefully lifted the sleeping boy and proceeded up the stairs, the path upward seeming shorter somehow as if the castle was moving him along. Upon reaching the surface, he shifted the boy to his back and summoned his keyblade, raising it up to transform into the glider once more. After activating both their armors, Xehanort climbed on, and secured his passenger. Then he took flight again, reaching out for the familiar presence of his master and best friend. Finally, he sensed the former, and sped up, eager to reach his master and find out what happened to Eraqus. His absence was troubling.

As the tunnel faded, Xehanort found himself flying near a tall tower. He knew this place as the private study of Master Yen Sid, simply called the Mysterious Tower by outsiders. Landing, he took a look around and stood, before retracting the armors and lifting the unconscious boy to his back once more. Xehnort began the climb up the tower, and upon reaching the final landing felt the presence of his master up close, and it was, for strange reason, hostile to him. Never the less, he opened the door and entered the study. The master stood, hand raised to cast a spell, but paused upon seeing the boy on Xehanort's back. "Why are you here Xehanort? And why do you have Ventus with you? And why do I sense no darkness in your heart? It's as if you're.... Oh, I see now...."

With a wave of a hand, Yen Sid summoned a fouton, upon which Xehanort laid the unconscious Ventus. He then turned to his master and knelt before him. "I know my presence is a surprise to you, sir. But I am not the Xehanort you know. Since I came to this time stream, I have begun to gather information. And I've found what I learned.... Disheartening.... What happened to me.... To, HIM?" With a heavy sigh, Yen Sid returned to his seat. Closing his eyes, he seemed to contemplate the answer. "That is a story to tell.... And where to begin? Truthfully we do not know what began this Xehanort's fall to darkness.... But we do know the catalyst that led to his dark obsession.... An old legend, one passed down by keyblade masters for generations. The Keyblade War."

Xehanort nods, knowing as much. But that wasn't what he really wanted to know. "And what happened to Eraqus? Where is he?" Yen Sid says nothing, merely giving him a sad look, and Xehanort begins to shake. He turns to a nearby waste basket and heaves over it, his body shaking harder as he releases the contents of his stomach. As his body begins to still, Xehanort feels a hand on his shoulder, and he turns to see Yen Sid there. "Why.... Why did he do that? I can't imagine doing that without being sick...." Yen Sid helps him to a chair. "It was mostly petty, from my understanding. In part, also because Eraqus was one of the few who could stand against him at the time. Not only did Xehanort kill Eraqus, he then possessed the body of his apprentice, Terra, who saw Eraqus as a father."

"Ventus was another apprentice of Eraqus, whom Xehanort planned to use to create the X-Blade. And the last apprentice, a young woman named Aqua, is presently missing. She was the only one to know where Ventus was hidden. So you finding him was fortunate." He turns to the sleeping boy, a look of sadness on his face. "His heart is sleeping, and we do not know when it will waken. But perhaps, with him returned to us we may find a way to bring him from his slumber. You, Xehanort, have given us who fight your darker counterpart, a sense of hope. I feel that your arrival is no coincidence." The room falls silent as Ventus shifts in his sleep, a soft smile on his face as he reaches out with one hand, as if grasping for something, as with a roar of engines, a strange ship appears outside the tower.

Moments later, the door opens to reveal a young man with spiky brown hair, wearing a black outfit with red accents, followed by what seems to be a bipedal dog and duck, who instantly draw their weapons on seeing Xehanort. "It's him, Donald! The guy who tried to take Sora during the exam! It's the younger Xehanort!" The dog charges at Xehanort with a shield raised, as the duck named Donald raises his staff to throw a thunder spell at him. However, before either can connect, they are thrown back and caught in two matching chairs, which sweep them to the side of the room as Yen Sid directs them with a wave of his hand. "That is enough, you two. There is no need for that. While you are correct about this young man being Xehanort. This is not the same you met before."