Kingdom Hearts XIV-Z Chapter 1

    Xehanort stood at a computer looking through data. He was planning a new project to help him achieve victory. As he scrolled through the piles of data, a young boy stepped into the room.           

    “If I may ask, Sir, do you have any idea how to turn a Remnant back into its original self?” The boy was Vanitas, of all people. He was slightly different from his last appearance in the realm of light. He now wore casual clothing and a scarf around his neck.

                “I am not sure. It may be possible, but I have other projects to tend to at the moment.” Xehanort replied in a neutral tone.

                “I'll do anything! My twin has been turned into a Remnant recently!” Vanitas said in outburst. He then frowned after realizing what he just said.

                Xehanort caught on to Vanitas’ desperation and made an offer. “Help me with this smaller project I am doing and I will think about looking into a restoration process” Xehanort said with a slight grin. He knew he could make Vanitas do what he wanted.

                Vanitas took a second to think about Xehanort’s offer. He then nodded and said “Deal.”

                “Excellent. Await further instructions” Xehanort replied as he turned back to the computer screen.

                “Yes master” Vanitas responded as he left the room.

    William walked up to the castle that never was with a determined look on his face. Will Neko had told him about Organization XIII and this got him interested in learning about the organization. Considering that Xehanort wants to reset the universe, it was in William’s best interest to infiltrate the organization. William’s plans were to infiltrate the organization secretly, learn all he can, and then see if he could mess with the organization itself.

                William waited at the doors of the castle. As he waited, a swarm of heartless gathered around him and watched him. They seemed to be somewhat afraid of him. William noticed the heartless and openly remarked at them.

                “Hmmmm, these must be those heartless creatures I was told about.”

                A dark skinned man with several heartless following him appeared out of a darkness corridor. He glared at William with yellow eyes.

                “You are William I presume” the man announced to William.

                “I may be. What is it to you?” William replied with a little attitude.

                “Hmpf. Follow me if you are.” The man said as he turned and walked through the castle doors as they opened. William followed, confirming what the man said.

                “Who are you sir?” William asked as he followed the man.

                “I am Ansem, Xehanort’s Heartless” Ansem replied.

                “Indeed” William replied in a dull tone.

                As they approach an elevator, it opened up and Vanitas walked out of it. As he walked by William and Ansem, his eyes met with William’s and time seemed to slow down as they inspected each other. William tried to telekinetically jack into Vanitas’ mind, but it didn’t work. But William did sense internal chaos inside Vanitas and this caused Vanitas to shudder a little after he passed them.

                As William and Ansem stepped into the elevator, a heartless shadow slipped in with them and stood by William. Ansem took notice to this.

                “Interesting” said Ansem.

                “Hmmm?” William took notice to Ansem’s comment.

                “You seem to have some darkness inside of you” Ansem remarked.

              William cracked his neck and said “I have had things happen in the past, but that is none of your concern right now.” The Heartless than crawled up to William’s soldier and sat there.

                “Right” Ansem said with a hint of irritation.

                They soon got to the floor they needed to be on and Ansem lead William to Xehanort’s office.

                “Xehanort is in there” Ansem said in a neutral tone. William stepped through the doors, but Ansem picked up the heartless and told it to wait outside. The doors then closed behind William. William felt Xehanort’s dark presence in the room. It was very thick compared to what he had witnessed before in past adventures. This caused William to shudder which caused Xehanort to shift away from his studies and notice him.

                “So you are interested in joining the Organization, Eh?” Xehanort asked as he turned to William.

                “Yes sir” William replied.

                “Why do you want to join the Organization?”

                William cleared his throat and said “I believe in balance in the universe. One the things I am striving to achieve in my life is balance itself. I also have a craving for knowledge. ”

                “You share my motive, which is good. Now what can you contribute to the organization?” Xehanort inquired.

                “Where I come from, I do a lot of research on many subjects. I can provide unique research that could further your motives. I also dabble in engineering from time to time. And on a finishing note, I do have psychokinetic abilities” William replied with a dash of pride.

                Xehanort thought for a second and then said “Prove yourself useful and I will let you join.”

                “How about I create something that could be useful to the organization?” William asked.

                “Very well then, begin working on a new type of keyblade.”

                “Yes sir. Where shall I work on this Keyblade?” William inquired.

                “Ansem will show you to a laboratory in the world of darkness. Keep in mind that you will be monitored.”

                “Yes sir” William responded.

                William stepped out of the room and the shadow that had followed ran back to up him and sat on his shoulder. Ansem then opened up a darkness corridor and William stepped through to find himself in a laboratory. The room was circular and had many computers lining its wall with doorways connecting to hallways on two sides of the room opposite of each other. In the center was a floating table that looked like it could be modified to have multiple uses. The shadow on William’s shoulder got off and sat on the table.

                “So, do you want to hang out with me?” William asked the heartless. The shadow looked up at William and nodded.

                “Alright then” William said as he walked over to computer and began typing away.

                About 4 days later, Xehanort took Vanitas to an outside balcony of the castle that overlooked the wasteland of the world that never was. It was particularly cold that day. It was so cold that there was a sign of a light frost everywhere which was rather strange for the world that never was. It was almost like something or someone was causing the cold weather. Xehanort was indeed curious, but he decided he would look into this on a later date.

                Vanitas tightened his scarf and huffed as he said “Xehanort! When can we start? How long will this take?”

                “We will start this today Vanitas. I am going to build the perfect Replica, XIV-Z. It shall be built in my image and will have access to each basic nobody’s power” Xehanort answered with gusto.

                “Your best idea yet... as most will say” Vanitas responded with a little doubt. Xehanort disregarded this comment.

                “You will train this replica when it is completed Vanitas” Xehanort said as he stroked his beard.

                Vanitas nodded and said “Yes Master... I know what I must do.”

                “But in the mean-time, I need you go out and collect the essence of each type of basic nobody.”

                “The essence of Nobody’s'? How shall I do it, Master?” Vanitas asked Xehanort.

                Xehanort held out a black box and said “Attach this module to your key blade. It will capture an essence when you defeat a nobody.”

                “Defeat a Nobody” Vanitas said as he took the black box. A dark grin then grew on his face.

                “And be sure to defeat twilight thorn in addition to the others” Xehanort added in at the last minute

                “Yes master” Vanitas replied as he teleported away.

                Xehanort remained at the balcony for a couple of minutes staring at the wasteland as if trying to discern what was causing the cold weather. He knew it was in the wasteland, but the cause was still a mystery. Xehanort then turned around and walked back into the castle. Xemnas then walked up to Xehanort.

                “What do you want Xemnas?” Xehanort asked.

                “Are you sure we can trust Vanitas? He seems very different now.”

                “I noticed this Xemnas. If the boy betrays us, I will take care of it” Xehanort assured Xemnas

                “Very well” Xemnas said as he walked away.

    William was tinkering away in his new lab. Ever since he had received his orders, he had been very busy with researching keyblades. He mostly studied dead keyblades as active ones were not easy to come by and Vanitas was out hunting nobodies. William had requested to study Xehanort’s keyblade, but was denied. 

    William had begun work on a type of keyblade he would call Tier System Keyblades. He planned to have the keyblade temporarily level up while it was used. By the time Vanitas had received his mission, the blueprints for the first prototype was done.

                Keyblades were a bit tricky for William to build with. The material of the blades was foreign to him, despite him knowing a metallurgist on his home world who had dealt with materials with abnormal properties. Hour’s passed as William tried to get the dead keyblades to melt down properly. His main problem was that the material would rapidly cool after being removed from the heat source. William was getting frustrated and throwing useless things around. The shadow that had accompanied him then went to special room that was down one of the halls of to which William followed.

                The room had a special furnace that was big enough to let someone operate inside it. There was an anvil in the center of the room with a hammer attached to it. Off to the side of an anvil was a cauldron for smelting metals. William noticed that the furnace was lined with a special material that he figured created favorable conditions for working with the materials that the keyblades were made out of. The shadow then walked outside to show him a special suit that would allow him to work inside in the furnace. There was also an instruction manual on a table next to where the suit was hanging. After reviewing the manual, William would instantly get to work on the keyblade he was ordered to make.

                2 days passed as William worked on melting down the dead keyblades. He worked all night as the melting process took longer inside the furnace. But either way, it provided the conditions William suspected for the Keyblade metal. William melted down the dead keyblades to turn them into ingots so he could use he could figure out what he needed later on. After he got them turned into ingots, William went to work on the molds for the Keyblades. The first Tier system Keyblade required 3 separate molds. He planned to fuse each blade together using the research he had gathered from Xehanort’s first X-blade experiment. William would not be using light and darkness, but he would be using the concept of fusion to combine the blades into one. His plans were to have the keyblade change form as it upgraded, creating a longer blade as it went along.

                A day later, Ansem stepped into the lab. William instantly picked up on this and confronted him.

                “You’re lucky that I haven’t gone to cast the keyblades yet” William said irritated.

                “What is your progress on the new keyblade” Ansem asked ignoring William’s irritation.

                “It’s almost done. I just need to cast it, fuse it, and power it up. After that, I will begin testing it.”

                “Very good, Xehanort will be pleased with your progress.” Ansem said as he left the lab

                After that, William began casting the blades. He melted down the necessary ingots and then poured each one into the molds one at a time. Once a blade had cooled enough, he pounded out the imperfections. The laboratory resonated with the noises of the hammer and anvil. William would begin welding a blade’s parts together once he had finished hammering it and cooling it. Soon enough, each blade part was done. The first one was a small, bulky blade. The next one was medium sized compared to the first. The last was a long and slender blade which would make the last form of the blade when it would transform. The shadow pointed out another room to William a bit farther down the hall that would allow him to fuse the blades together. William was curious as to why the little heartless knew so much about the lab, but that was for a later date.

                Inside the room, William had been shown was a device that looked like a laser canon. The operations panel had a hand scanner and as soon as William noticed it, the shadow handed him another operations manual. William learned from the manual that he had to put his hand on the scanner and focus his energy into the device. The device would then shoot out a laser at the blades and fuse them. William decided he should recharge his energy with the psionic technique he had been using to rest himself. After he was done, he mounted the blades in the stasis holder in front of the machine and fired it up. The machine hummed and whirred and fired out of a beam light towards the blades that lighted them up. William felt an odd sensation as he powered the machine. It felt as if his power was leaving him, but it was not going away. When the process was done, the smaller and bulkier keyblade was left and it fell to the ground with a thud. William went to pick it up and when he picked up, it disappeared. He panicked for a moment, only for it to reappear in his hand. William concluded that the keyblade became his and his alone.

                Testing went very smoothly. The blade performed perfectly and transformed when it needed to. After the testing was done, William and his shadow went to Xehanort to show him his progress.

                “Xehanort, the keyblade is done” William said as he held up the Tier system keyblade.

                “But what makes it special from the others?” Xehanort inquired.

                “Take a look” William said as he held up a disk and tossed it to Xehanort. Xehanort caught it with ease and put it into the computer and reviewed the footage. It told him the basic specs of the Tier system keyblade.

                “Excellent. Begin working on a Tier system keyblade for Vanitas, Number 0” Xehanort said to William.

                “Will do Master Xehanort” William replied with a bow. He then walked out and headed back to the lab. William celebrated in his mind. Phase one of his plan was now complete.