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Footsteps fell heavy, with gravel crunching beneath shoes as a young boy of about 8-or-9-years-old ran through the streets of a dilapidated village. Several flying black shadows hovered above him howling in challenge.

“Run, Sora!” his companion yelled, a 20-year-old male with blond hair as he ran as well, sending blasts of wind at the creatures trying to catch up with them. Ventus, which was the older male’s name, wiped sweat from his brow as he swung Wayward Wind at a shadow, a black Heartless with glowing yellow eyes that was leaping at him.

Sora ran, panting, as he dodged another heartless, a knight this time. The creature has small with blue armor as it swung at him. “Ven, what are we going to do?” he asked as he fired a spat of fire at a leaping shadow. The shadow disappeared into the shadows as several more took its place. “There’s more heartless coming.”

Ventus, or Ven, grabbed Sora and took to the roofs, jumping over gaps in the buildings. “We keep moving. If they can’t get us then the worlds won’t fall forever.” He was breathing hard, as he had cuts and scrapes on his face that were staring to sting from the sweat that was falling into them.

“You can’t run forever, Ventus! We’ll form the X-blade like Xehanort wanted!” a voice yelled from several feet behind them Glancing behind them, Ventus saw a figure in black armor running to catch up with him as he swung a black blade, Void Gear to unleash a blast of dark fire at them. This was Vanitas, Darkness taking form that had been forcefully pulled from Ventus when he had been training under Xehanort before he was abandoned.

Sora flinched, when he heard the yell. He knew, as well as Ven, that the worlds had been falling into darkness as Xehanort took Kingdom Hearts, though no one knew how he did it. With it, several Keyblade wielders, including two of Ventus’ friends, Terra and Aqua, had fallen trying to stop him. For them though, Terra had received a fate worse than death for some as he was forced to become a vessel for the mad man.

Ventus saw a clearing up near the base of a cliff and skidded to a stop. He hadn’t been paying attention to where they were and now they were trapped. Putting Sora down, he stood in front of him as Vanitas, several other figures in dark hoods, and countless heartless surrounded them.

“Give it up, Ventus; the two of you are the only Keyblade wielders left,” Vanitas smirked. He knew that there was nowhere else for the duo to go and savored the look on their faces as they realized that.

Ventus summoned his Keyblade as he prepared to fight. He wasn’t afraid to die but he refused to do nothing to save his young friend. 'I’m sorry, Sora,' he thought as he prepared a spell to send the child to a dimension where he wouldn’t have to fight for his life every day.

“Ven?” Sora asked, worried. He saw the look on Ventus’ face and was scared.

Ventus pushed Sora behind him, releasing the spell to send him away. “I’m sorry, Sora. I hope you can find a place to where you can be free,” he said as Sora was lifted into the air and began to fade.

“No!” Vanitas yelled as he shot a ball of dark energy at the fading boy as he leapt forward to try to stop him. Sora screamed as the ball of energy struck him in the head as he faded from view. Ven breathed a sigh of relief before attacking the others. He may die here, but at least Sora would be safe. As Vanitas struck him, he smiled a sad smile, as the blow had been fatal. “You lost,” he said. “Sora will be safe from you from now on.” With those last words, darkness took over his sight and Ventus collapsed.

Radiant Garden, New Dimension

Aeleus looked up as a cloud of smoke filled the air. Looking over at Dilan, the two of them along with one of the trainees for castle security ran towards the spot. Coming up beside the crater, Dilan hissed, as the three saw a young child in the crater, smoke billowing off his clothes.

“Get a healer from the castle,” Aeleus told the trainee as he and Dilan began to set a perimeter to check to make sure nothing else was around. As the trainee ran off, Dilan looked at his fellow guard. The two of them were apprentices to the old man in the castle, Ansem, as well as another guard and two others.

“What do you think happened?” he asked, walking towards the boy where he was beginning to awake, groaning.

“Who knows, but I’m guessing we’ll soon find out.” With that, the two waited with baited breath as the brunette opened dark blue eyes.

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Two years later

Sora ran towards the castle, blowing strands of brown hair out of his eyes. It had been two years since he had been found lying in a crater by some of the guards with no memory of how he got there. Ansem, the person that owned the castle, asked Sora to stay there while they tried to figure out where he came from. Accepting the invitation, Sora watched the people around him as they went to work. In that first year, he’d had nightmares that he couldn’t remember, calling out the name of someone he had never met.

It was a year later, when Sora had gone to where some of the locals had said that a few Heartless had been appearing, that the group realized that he was a Keyblade wielder. Braig, one of the castle guards and an apprentice to Ansem had found him fighting them off with dual Keyblades, which was rare from what he understood. Jumping in to help, the two made quick work of the Heartless. Once they got back to the castle, Braig told Ansem what had happened. Getting in touch with one of the few Keyblade masters he knew, Ansem asked Master Eraqus to come as there had been a new wielder found.

Sora shook his head, banishing those thoughts. Eraqus hadn’t taken him in to train, as Sora had become fond of Radiant Garden, but his own apprentices, Ventus, Aqua, and Terra, were often sent to help teach him what he needed to know. He was returning from one such training session, where only Ventus and Aqua had attended. Questioning them about where Terra was, Sora was told that Terra had gone missing on a mission and they were trying to find him.

‘I wonder where he is,’ Sora thought, shaking his head. He hoped that the two would find their missing friend soon.

Sora was broken from his thoughts as he saw a small crater in the road in front of him. It was similar to how Aeleus and Dilan had found him, so he went forward to see who it was. Seeing tall male, with shocking silver-gray hair lying in the crater, he took off, looking for one of the guards. Spotting Aeleus, he ran up to him. “Aeleus,” he yelled.

Aeleus turned, wondering why Sora was yelling his name. “What is it?” he asked, turning towards the young boy.

“I found someone in a crater, hurt,” Sora said, breathing hard from the running he had been doing. “I can’t tell how bad, but it looks like he was knocked out pretty hard.”

Aeleus’ eyes widened and he signaled to Braig to come over. “Show us where you found him then head up to the castle to let Ansem know,” he ordered as Braig came over.
Sora nodded and led them to the spot. As soon as the two men were heading down towards the body, Sora took off back to the castle. Ansem got to work, telling the healers in the infirmary to prepare for the injured person as the two men approached with their burden.

One week later

Sora looked into the infirmary, spotting the person sitting up slowly, a hand to head. “You’re awake,” Sora said, grinning. “You were pretty injured when you came in, but the healers got you fixed up pretty quickly. My name’s Sora, what’s yours?”

“I-I don’t remember,” he said, looking up through a curtain of silver-gray hair to look at Sora, gold eyes seeming to look into Sora’s soul. “I can’t remember much of anything.”

Sora winced as he knew that feeling. “I know what you mean. The same thing happened to me two years ago. I still don’t remember anything, but I found a new life here, so that’s what I take comfort in, well that and training.”

“Hm,” the man said. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought. “I do remember something, though I’m not sure if it’s my name.”

Sora tilted his head in question. “Oh? What is it?” he asked, curious.

“Sora, I hope you’re not bothering our guest,” a voice said sharply, interrupting the two. Flinching, Sora turned to see Ansem standing behind him with a frown on his face. “I see you awake, young man. You had the healers worried, considering that bruise you had on your temple. I am Ansem, and this is my home.”

The man nodded. “Yes sir. Moreover, Sora here wasn’t bothering me. We were just talking when you came in.”

Ansem nodded. “Is there a name you go by, or can you remember anything?” he asked, moving further into the room. Sora stood near the door, ready to go on an errand in case Ansem needed to send for someone.

“The only name I remember, is Xehanort,” the man said. “I don’t know if it’s my name, but it is the only thing I can remember.”

“Then we shall call you Xehanort, at least until you can remember your actual name. Sora,” Ansem said turning to the boy, “go get the head healer and then head to the library. I believe you have some lessons that need attending.”

Sora nodded, heading for the door. “Yes sir. It was nice meeting you mister Xehanort.” With that, he left, shutting the door behind him.

The newly named Xehanort turned to Ansem. “Why did you send the boy away?” he asked.

Ansem sighed, shaking his head. “Sora is one of the few people that reside in this castle that is neither a worker, a guard nor one of my apprentices. He was actually found similar to how you were; only he was found two years ago. I have made him my ward, until he decides what he wants to do, as he did not wish to leave this world.”

“Oh,” Xehanort said. As he was about to say something, the head healer opened the door, stepping into the room, cutting off their conversation for now.

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Hey everyone, I’m working on the next chapter but it is slowly coming along. I just had a quick thought and was wondering what you all think. In the story when we get to where Sora and Riku are taking the Mark of Mastery exam, should Riku be the one that falls into Xehanort’s trap or should it still be Sora? I have a couple of scenarios going and was wanting some feedback before I got to that part. I will you all that despite the series starting before the games begin, Sora will appear as the same age as in the game.

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Three years later

Sora sat at a desk in the experiment room, writing in a journal. He was working on a crystal relay to help them get a better idea for when the heartless attacked. Sora was putting the notes in a journal that Ansem had given him to write his thoughts in. In the journal was a language he had never heard before that he could remember, but Sora somehow knew it.

“What are you working on, Sora?” Even asked, looking over from his station. Lately, Even and the other apprentices had been working on a project in secret, moving to other projects as soon as Sora or
Ansem walked in.

“Just trying to figure out how to get this crystal array to work together so that we can have an alarm system as well as an image of where the problem is,” Sora said, jotting down some notes. He had been working on this for a couple of years now. Aqua and Ventus had found Terra, both as he had some missing memories from when he was gone, Sora was left to train by himself.

“I can look at the equation if you like? See if I can figure out the problem,” Even offered.

Sora nodded, motioning him over as he made a note in his journal. Coming over, Even and Sora worked on the equation that was giving Sora fits, finding the problem and changing some of the numbers to work better.

“There you go, Sora. Try this and see if it works,” Even said stretching as he stood up from his crouch.

Sora nodded, working the new series into the computer by him. “Thanks Even,” he said as he looked at the new data.

Even nodded, going back to his own station and continued to work on his own experiment.

Two weeks later

Sora was back down in the lab, laying under his desk as he worked on getting the main crystal hooked up to where it would would connect to any computer and share what the smaller crystals were sending it. The two did not want to work so, he had skipped breakfast to try and figure out the problem.

As Sora worked, he heard the other apprentices, led by Xehanort come in as they talked. Sora didn’t know why but, he had a bad feeling something was going to happen. Suddenly a flash of bright light appeared, causing Sora to curl in a ball and close his eyes as pain racked his body, mainly around his chest. I don’t want to die, he thought as the light disappeared.

Opening his eyes, Sora saw seven hearts leave through the ceiling, watching with detached emotion. He moved slowly, as he was still hurting from the explosion. Looking up, Sora saw Ansem running into the room, expression dark.

“What did you do?” He demanded of the other apprentices. Sora realized that none of them knew he was there.

“We were experimenting on hearts and the heartless when the machine exploded. We are now neither somebody or heartless,” Xehanort said. His voice had no tone, but it held a dangerous edge to it. “You are no longer needed old man.” With that, Sora saw him open a dark portal and shoved Ansem threw it.

“What will we do know?” Braig asked, moving beside him.

“We are Nobodies, so we pick new names. I’ll take our former master’s name and become Xemnas,” the newly named Xemnas said.

Each of the others said their name as well, changing the names around and adding an x to them. Sora didn’t know the whole truth, so he waited for the last one, Xaldin, to say his name before saying anything.

“Roxas,” he said clearly as he came out from behind the desk where he had been leaning against the wall hand to his chest.

Even, no Vexen, made a sound of discontent. “What will do know?” He demanded of Xemnas.

“We leave for a place meant for us. Gather what you need quickly, as we travel light.” With those words, the apprentices, including Sora, gathered several items they needed before coming over to the biggest area in the room.

Roxas was hesitant as he grabbed his journal, before grabbing a bag to put the crystal array and his notes in it. He joined the others as Xemnas created a portal and they headed through into the unknown.

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Hey guys, sorry to have to do this but I’m putting my stories on a temporary hiatus. I’ll get back to them by the middle of December, but I can’t promise an exact date. I was hoping to be able to upload the next chapter by now, but my life has been crazy with work and family problems.

I’ll erase this chapter when I put up the next chapter.