A Second Chance

Wayfinder

[♥]

A boy is standing alone in the middle of a broken canyon, surrounded by monsters cloaked in black – better known as Heartless. The boy is clutching a Keyblade, watching the creatures with a look of pure fear.

"Please, don't do this, Master!" the boy named Ventus cries out, staring in horror at his mentor, who's watching with an expression as blank as a bare sheet of paper from his vantage point above. "I'm not strong enough..."

"No," his Master agrees in a gravely voice, "it is because you are trying to hold it in. Let the dark impulses awaken in the pit of your heart. Release them, here and now!" he exclaims, holding out a clenched and gloved fist in front of his chest as the boy named Ventus starts to pant in terror. "Sharpen your fear into rage!"

More and more Heartless appear, surrounding the boy as they watch him like their next meal.

"You must! If you do not let the storm within you run its course, it will wipe you from the face of the world! Make no mistake."

The Heartless start to close in, and the boy named Ventus tightens his grasp on his Keyblade.

"Do it."

The Heartless march in tandem.

"Embrace the darkness. Produce for your Master, the χ-blade!"

A Heartless leaps into the air, straight for the boy. He cries out, holding up an arm in a feeble attempt to lessen the impact. Darkness overtakes him, and he collapses to the ground without so much as putting up even the simplest of fights.

His Master walks towards the unconscious boy, staring down at him with a look of disgust.

"Really? You would rather die than use the power?" he asks the boy. "Feckless neophyte," he adds, reaching out a foot to kick the boy onto his back.

A swirl of darkness forms around the Master's hand as a black Keyblade appears in his clutches, continuing to watch the boy.

"If I must, I will extract the darkness from within you myself."

He holds the Keyblade up in the air, closing his amber eyes as he holds the blade directly above the boy named Ventus' heart. A bright light shoots forth from the tip of the blade, piercing the boy's heart, who awakes with a gasp at the sudden sensation. Bright light, moving like a wave of water, laps at the boy's chest for a few seconds before an object escapes his body.

Half of his heart, sacrificed to a higher power.

It soars into the sky just as tendrils of darkness form just beyond Ven's discarded body. A ball of darkness forms, and then expands, as a boy appears from the depths. His face is covered, as well as the entirety of his body, as his limbs stretch out into the air while he floats in the air.

The boy named Ventus, meanwhile, gives up his fight as his head slumps to the side, all but dead to the world as his unblinking blue eyes stare out into nothingness. The new arrival lands beside his counterpart, staring down at the boy named Ventus.

"Empty creature from Ventus, riven," Master Xehanort recites with a pleased grin, "to you, the name Vanitas shall be given."

A second of silence follows as the boy's gaze rises to the man standing before him.

"Yes, Master."

[♥]

It had been about a week since the strange boy named Ventus came to the Land of Departure. You didn't want to be, but you were curious as to who exactly this boy is. The manner of his arrival, the person who dropped him off, and the air he conveyed made you unnecessarily curious as to his purpose here, with your training partners and Master.