The blonde boy skidded across the dry ground of the wasteland. He collided with a rock formation, causing him to hiss in pain. He glared at the boy standing in front of him holding a keyblade. The boy with the key had spiky raven black hair and yellow gold eyes. He wore a skintight black and red suit with an extra bit of fabric around the waist.
"Looks like I win again." The ravenette boy said cockily. The blonde glared and pushed himself to his feet. He spat off to the side, trying to get the dirt out of his mouth. He wasn't surprised to see there was also blood mixed in.
"Only because you were hiding behind those stupid Unversed like always." The blonde said. The ravenette glared at him, taking a threatening step towards him. The blonde didn't back away, meeting the ravenette's menacing look with one of his own.
"What was that?" The ravenette asked. The blonde smirked.
"You heard me." He said, crossing his arms. "If you weren't constantly summoning the Unversed in the middle of our little match, I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back." The blonde continued.
"It's called using your resources. Maybe if you actually tried using the Heartless you wouldn't get your ass kicked so bad." The ravenette countered. The blonde boy narrowed his purple eyes.
"It's called you're a coward who can't fight one on one." He said, venom filling his voice. The ravenette glared at him once again.
"Fine, let's go again. And to make you stop throwing your little hissy fit I won't use the Unversed." He said, raising his chin making it appear he was looking down at the blonde. The blonde copied his movement.
"Fine. Let's get started." The blonde challenged. He flicked his wrist summoning two daggers in his hands. The daggers were as long as his forearms in total, the blade making up about eight inches of that. The handles were black inlaid with purple designs. The ravenette snickered.
"You can't hope to beat me with those toothpicks." He said. He stepped back from the blonde and raised his keyblade.
"Like hell I'll use anything else." The blonde replied. He was just about to attack the other boy when a commanding voice rang out through the air.
"That is enough!" The voice said. The blonde looked over his shoulders, glaring at the owner of the voice. The ravenette lowered his keyblade. Behind the blonde standing upon a rock formation was an old man. He was leaned forward with his hands behind his back. He wore a long black coat over top a simple white shirt and black pants. He was bald, with only a grey goatee. His eyes were yellow and held a menacing look. "The time for training is over, we must begin our mission." The man said.
"Come on, I'm sure there's time for one more round." The blonde said calmly, doing his best to wave away the old man's orders. The old man narrowed his eyes at the blonde, clearly unimpressed.
"The time for the Mark of Mastery exam is nearly upon us. If we are to lure those three from the Land of Departure it must be then." The old man said. The blonde only rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I expect you to be prepared to leave soon."
"Yes, Master Xehanort." The blonde said. He flicked his wrist, banishing his daggers. He turned to the ravenette boy and pointed. "This isn't over by a long shot." He said before walking away. The ravenette snickered.
"Oh yeah, you're just lucky the Master stepped in, or I would have had to kick your ass twice." He taunted. The blonde rolled his eyes once again.
"Yeah right, Vani." He snickered, waving the ravenette off over his shoulder. "You should be thankful that round didn't get a chance to start. I would have wiped the floor with you." The ravenette caught up with the blonde and began walking beside him.
"In your dreams." The ravenette said, shoving the blonde's arm in a playful manner. The blonde smirked at him and returned the shove.
"You're just jealous." The blonde said.
"What? Over a newbie like you?" The ravenette asked. "You're just lucky the old coot had room for you in his plans." He continued. He smirked at the blonde beside him, expecting him to give up at that point.
"Had room?" The blonde asked, rolling his eyes yet again. "I'm the reason this plan will actually work." He said. The ravenette only frowned at him, a glare forming in his yellow eyes. The blonde shrugged it off. "But who cares? You know anything about this Land of Departure place?"
"No, not the place really. Know a few things about the people." The ravenette replied. The blonde nodded.
"Let's see what it's like then." He said smirking.
*<3*
Y stood in her room, staring at the small plush in her hands. Her room was messy and disorganized. Her desk had several different stacks of paper on it as well as a few books from the library that she should probably put back. The bookshelves above her bed had hardly any books. What books were there weren't straight at all, some were even laying on their side. There were various knick-knacks on the shelves as well, taking up most of the room meant for books.
The plush in her hand resembled a cat. It was grey with black stripes and had white paws, muzzle, and belly. Its ears were black and its eyes were blue. It wore a cape and had a pouch on its front. On its back was a strange pink heart like symbol.
"Hey Y, Aqua said the guest just showed up." Y jumped a little and turned towards the door. Ven was looking at her with clear concern. "You ok?" He asked.
"Fine, just thinking about something." Y replied. Ven looked at her quizzically.
"Oh, you've been thinking a lot recently." He said. Y nodded looking back down to the plush in her hand. Ven watched her for a minute before speaking again. "Where did you get that?" He asked. Y smiled a little.
"My brother gave it to me when we turned ten. He said it would keep away nightmares." She said fondly. Ven blinked in surprise.
"I didn't know you had a brother," Ven said. Y looked at him in thought. She thought she had mentioned it before, but it was possible she hadn't. It was always a difficult topic for her. Leaving him behind had been the hardest part of coming to the Land of Departure. But of course, he had been the one to insist she go with Master Eraqus.
"I guess I never mentioned it." Y said with a shrug. "I'll be down in a minute." She said, addressing the reason Ven had stopped by in the first place. Ven nodded and left. Y sighed setting the plush down and turning to her desk. She had a report she was supposed to do for Master Eraqus half finished. She was supposed to turn it in the next day, but she doubted she'd have it finished by then.
"Tick tock, you're running out of time." A voice said. Y jumped turning to see who had said that. It didn't sound like anyone from the Land of Departure.
Behind her was a boy wearing a red and black suit. There was an extra bit of fabric around his waist that looked almost like a skirt. His face was covered by a mask, so Y couldn't see anything about his looks.
"Who are you? How did you get here?" Y asked. The boy chuckled, ignoring her questions.
"That light of yours will only shine for so long. Better get out of here before it fades away." He said. Y frowned, her eyes narrowing at the boy. What he said made no sense. Why would her light fade away? It's not like she was dying or anything. "But maybe it's better you stay here. Then you won't have to watch your friends die."
"What?" Y asked. Her hands clenched into a fist as she took a step towards the boy. "You'd better tell me what you mean before I have to clobber you." She ordered. It didn't surprise her when the boy ignored her threat. He only laughed.
"Better make up your mind." He said. Out of nowhere a portal of black, purple, and dark blue smoke appeared. Y jumped back from it, afraid of what it might do. The masked boy who had been taunting her calmly walked through the portal. It vanished as soon as he was gone. Y blinked a few times then shook her head. She couldn't worry about it now. She was already late.
*<3*
The blonde boy frowned from his place to the side of the room. He was already regretting agreeing to this entire plan. It was boring just standing here, waiting for things to fall into place. It would be over a hell of a lot sooner if they just forced everyone to the keyblade graveyard. So what they'd have to deal with the Master too. With enough Heartless and Unversed they could overpower them all.
The blonde glanced up, searching the room. Up front by the thrones, Master Xehanort was discussing things with Master Eraqus. Probably planting the seeds of doubt he needed to so whichever one was Terra wouldn't pass the test. In front of the thrones, the two hopefuls were standing. They were occasionally exchanging words but not often. Even more rare one of them would look over at him. Then across the room was the late arrival. The spiky-haired blonde boy was looking all around. Glancing at the door, the thrones, the two about to take the test, and of course the other blonde across the hall.
Only one was missing.
The blonde gave a heavy sigh looking down at the ground. He was supposed to be socializing. Earning their trust. But he was too lazy, it wasn't worth the bother. If they were interested enough they would talk to him first.
"So you're Master Xehanort's apprentice?" The blonde looked up to see the brown-haired boy standing in front of him. This one was Terra if he remembered correctly.
"Yeah. And you're the soon to be Master?" He replied calmly. Terra nodded with a proud smirk. The blonde noted he wasn't making any attempts at being bashful.
"My name's Terra." He said. The blonde nodded.
"I'm X." He said. He glanced up for a moment. His eyes landed on the two Masters who were still talking. Master Xehanort looked pleased that X was finally talking to the others.
"X, huh," Terra repeated. X prepared himself to make a smart comeback but was spared the effort. "So why were you brought along?" Terra asked.
"Supposed to observe," X said with a heavy sigh. "But if it takes any longer to start I might just take a nap." He added. Terra laughed in reply. X watched him carefully out of the corner of his eye. He didn't really sense any darkness in Terra. Not anything unusual. Maybe Master Xehanort was wrong.
"Yeah, I suppose they have a lot to catch up on. I've only ever seen Master Xehanort once." Terra said. He glanced towards the two Masters. Their conversation showed no signs of letting up.
"They should save it for later. I'm sure you just want to get this over with, I don't imagine the nerves are pleasant." X said, looking in the same direction Terra was. Terra laughed nervously.
"You're right there. But I think Master Eraqus might be stalling. We're missing one of us still." Terra explained. X tried to look surprised by this. From Terra's reaction, it seemed he managed to pull it off.
"There's another apprentice?" X asked, shock filling his voice. Terra nodded.
"Yeah, she's supposed to be observing. But I haven't seen her all morning." He explained. This time he looked over his shoulder, looking to see if all other apprentices were there. One was still missing. Terra looked back to X with a sheepish smile. "You're not Master Xehanort's only apprentice, are you?" He asked.
"Uh," X said. "Yeah. I am." He decided. Terra looked at him in question, obviously unconvinced by his lie. Which was, of course, the goal. "I, mean, I hear he used to have another one. But he gave up or something and he's not around anymore." X continued, trying to make it seem like he was putting effort into the lie. If he wanted to he could lie and Terra would never know. There would be a lot of that before long.
Terra looked at X suspiciously but didn't say anything on the matter. He again glanced over his shoulder at the other apprentices.
"That was Ven," Terra said. "The boy across the room. Master Xehanort just brought him here one day. Never explained why, from what I could tell." He continued looking back to X. X shrugged.
"I don't know. Never was told myself." He said.
The blue haired girl from the center of the room glanced over at them. She looked back to the Masters before walking over to join the two.
"Oh. Hey." Terra greeted her as she joined them. She smiled at him, before turning her attention to X.
"Hello, I'm Aqua." She said. X smiled at her calmly. She wasn't looking like much of a threat.
"X, pleasure to meet you." He said. Aqua looked at him with interest. X mentally prepared himself for whatever comment he was about to get. He knew one was coming.
"That's an interesting name." She said simply. X sighed heavily.
"Guess my parents were aiming for that unique angle," X replied. Aqua laughed a little. Terra gave a chuckle too.
"Are you training to be a keyblade master too?" Aqua asked curiously. Terra gave her a look like that was a stupid question. Under any other circumstances, it probably would be.
"No, I don't have a keyblade. I think this is his way of trying to convince me." X replied. Terra looked at him in shock. Aqua also seemed surprised but she kept it hidden better than Terra had. Before either one could comment on it, Master Eraqus cleared his throat. "About time this thing started," X complained.
Aqua and Terra left where they had been standing to return to the center of the floor. They waved to X as they left but didn't say anything. X glanced over to where the third apprentice stood. He was still alone. X glanced up at Master Xehanort, who was now sitting on the throne closest to X. He was focused on the two standing in front of him.
"God Vani, you better not have killed her," X muttered under his breath.