Kingdom Hearts III: The Streamlined Edition

Chapter 1: A Game of Chess

300 years later

At the age of 17, Xehanort left his home of Destiny Islands to escape the troubles of his homelife. His parents, whom he found out adopted him when he was a baby, were very-narrow minded, in fact, so complacent with their peaceful lives, that they never wanted him to go anywhere, insisting that he should work and be productive and useful around the house. Sometimes, they even had to resort to domestic abuse just to make him understand. For this, he wanted to run away. At school, he proved to be a good student...somewhat. But every time he talked about leaving the islands to see what lied out there, his classmates would avoid him like the plague.

"Such a weird and delusional boy," they would say. "I think he's been out in the sun too long."

The kids encouraged their parents not to talk to him and vice versa. Younger kids were discouraged by their parents and siblings (if they had any) from going near Xehanort and they would just glare at him before he finally got the message that no one was interested in him. So he spent his days alone on the play island away from everybody.

Then a thought crossed his mind, one that would turn him into the sadistic bastard he would become today...he decided to run away. But first, he would need to gather some supplies in the event of a long journey. He spent many days looking for all the fruits and vegetables he could find without buying anything, a built a huge raft made out of wood, all of which was done in secret. Of course, he could have used one of the boats, but they technically belonged to the island and he wasn't about to let anyone go after him. Finally, on a day too damp and dreary for anyone to travel to the play island, Xehanort made his escape. He launched the raft onto the water, climbed aboard, and with nothing but a paddle in both hands, rowed off, all the way to the open ocean.

After a full 24 hours of being out at sea, Xehanort soon realized that his raft was no smaller than the island he was stuck on and wished that he would get to the new world sooner. His wish came in the form of a falling star that landed right in front of him in a comet of blue and green. It came down creating a huge splash that soaked only the tip of the raft. Xehanort rowed closer to the comet's point of impact and to his surprise, a white skinned right hand belonging to a white coat climbed aboard, gasping for air.

The guy who owned the hand seemed to be about a year younger than him. And he was skinny, with raven hair and his eyes were as silver as his. Could they be brothers? A guardian angel, or somebody sent down from the heavens to guide him?

The boy took off his coat and squeezed the water out of it, giving Xehanort a good view of his exposed muscles, which ran from a black lace bracelet on each wrist and travelled all the way to the mid-point of his upper arms where the sleeves of his shirt were.

"Oh! Hi there! I should thank the stars that your raft was here, otherwise I would have drowned."

"Stars?" asked Xehanort curiously.

"Yeah. Each world is one..." the raven-hair's face fell. "But I shouldn't have said that."

"Why not?"

"World order. You can't tell anyone who you're from otherwise they might get too curious. My master says it's because two truths cannot exist. Only one."

"I think it's a stupid rule," said Xehanort. "We should be free to let our curiosity guide us."

The raven-hair's lips winced, then grew into a little smile.

"You know what? I think you might be right."

He offered his right hand.

"I'm Eraqus."

"I am Xehanort."

Shaking hands, their relationship was sealed.

"So you come from another world?"