The First Trial

'He is really starting to creep me out.' Roxas thought as he noticed Xehanort was fixing his piercing gaze onto the Nobody and Ven and it was seriously unnerving for the both of them. When Terra and Aqua reached the bottom of the steps, he turned to face them and leaned back into his throne. Both of the blonds let out their breath with the elderly Keyblade Master's attention was off them.

"That was a little creepy." Ven breathed out, getting a nod from Ven.

Eraqus got up from his throne and took a few steps in front of the center throne. Once he made sure that his apprentices's and Roxas's attention was on him, he turned his eldest two and began to speak.

"Aqua. Terra. Today you will be examined for the Mark of Mastery. Not just one, but two of the Keyblade's chosen stands here as candidates- but this is neither a competition, nor a battle for supremacy. It is not a test of wills, but rather a test of heart."

'I wonder that if a Nobody like me qualifies for the Mark of Mastery then?' Roxas thought humorously As Eraqus continued his speech.

"Both of you may prevail, or neither." Eraqus said, before he turned his head to Xehanort and continued. "But I am sure our guest, Master Xehanort, did not travel all this way to see our youngest prospects in years fall short of the mark." He turned his attention to his students.

"I trust that you are ready." He finished.

This was Aqua's and Terra's last chance to back out of the exam. Doing so would result in immediately failure and they would have to try again next year.

But he already knew their answer.

"Yes." Both replied with a curt nod.

With that Eraqus smiled and summoned his Keyblade.

"Then let the examinations begin!" The Keyblade Master shouted as he got into a stance. His Keyblade lit up and behind the examinees multiple spheres of light appeared.

From his throne Xehanort let out a small smirk, signaling for his unseen accomplice to begin.

"Showtime." The figure said as he channeled the darkness that has built around his hands into the orbs.

Roxas frowned as he sensed a large amount of darkness coming from somewhere. But before he could pin point what it's source was, he heard Terra and Aqua gasp.

He turned to see that the orbs were now corrupted by darkness and were moving erratically. It looked like that they were encircling the eldest apprentices.

Turning to the Keyblade Masters, his suspicions proved correct. While Eraqus was shocked by the turn of events, Xehanort was smirking from his throne. While it seemed the sudden turn of events were of his design, the darkness didn't originate from him.

Meaning that there was someone else in the room.

"Ven! Roxas!" Aqua shouted, getting his attention.

Both Terra and Aqua were surrounded by orbs and were fending them off, but three of them were coming after both of the blonds.

Ven summoned his Keyblade and knocked it into the wall, dissipating the orb.

Roxas summoned Oathkeeper and silently cast Fire, destroying the other two orbs with a well placed fireball. After that he couldn't help but look at Ven's Keyblade.

It was perhaps the most unusual Keyblade that he has ever seen, for it was designed for a reverse grip with a black handle. The guard was misaligned and was a dull gold color except for the part connected to the shaft. The shaft itself was a dull grey with three gold lines in the middle and an outward curve around the teeth. The teeth was connected to the shaft by two bars and was wing shaped with 5 gray bars at the end. It had a long keychain with a green gem surround by two small silver wisps of wind at the end.

It seemed unwieldy to the Nobody, but it looked like Ven could wield it easily.

While he was looking at Ven's Keyblade another two orbs approached them.

Roxas snapped back into attention just in time to block an attack from the closest orb.

'These things are just a little bit stronger then Shadows.' He thought as he felt the impact through his Keyblade. Alone these orbs wouldn't be much of a problem, but with a few more spawning the threat they posed was escalating little by little.

The Nobody switched to Oblivion and bashed it into nonexistence.

Ven landed a few swipes at the other orb before it was destroyed.

"Don't worry about us. You two focus on the exam!" The older blond said to them.

"But Ven, it's not safe for you or Roxas out here. You two of you need to get out of here!" Aqua said worriedly.

While Roxas appreciated her concern, he knew that both he and Ven should be enough to handle the orbs.

"Not happening!" Ven said while shaking his head. "I've been looking forward to see you two become Masters! I'm not going to miss this!" He continued as he got into a stance.

"Don't worry about us Aqua." Roxas said as he moved next to Ven, ready for action. "We got it covered over here, isn't that right Ven?"

"Right!" He answered back.

Terra frowned a bit before letting out a sigh and braced himself to attack.

"The both of them can take care of themselves." The eldest apprentice said, soothing Aqua's worries for the blonds. "Ven's be training just as hard as us and Roxas is strong enough to take care of himself. I still have a few bruises from our spare yesterday."

Aqua thought it over for a bit before letting out a sigh.

"Alright then stay sharp Ven, Roxas." She said.

The orbs surrounding the elder apprentices moved in for the kill, but Terra and Aqua immediately began to hack away at them. Some more orbs appeared and began to move towards the blonds.

"You ready Ven?" Roxas asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" Ven replied.

When the orbs were a few feet from them, Roxas and Ven began their attack.

'Eraqus certainly has trained them well.' Xehanort complimented in his head.

He had to make a slight change of plans when he noticed that his old friend had suspected something. He did account for this to happen and had his apprentice take center stage in case this happened, but it was of no consequence.

The result was the same either way.

All that he planed to do was hijack the first trial in order to gauge Eraqus's apprentices.

And he was not disappointed so far.

Eraqus's eldest apprentice, Terra was cutting through the contaminated orbs like it was nothing. The young man's stance left no noticeable openings and although his speed was lacking, he more than made up for it with power and skill.

But he was honestly surprised with the amount darkness in his heart. There was more in their then what he had originally predicted. Of course it was only a minute difference, but it would make things a little easier for his plans.

Still Terra was worthy of being a Keyblade Master and it almost made him feel sorry for him for what was going to happen next.

Almost.

The second apprentice and Eraqus's only female pupil, Aqua was gracefully dodging the orbs while casting spells and striking whenever she saw an opening. Her reflexes and agility were the best of any of the Keyblade wielder here bar the Masters and she was an excellent spell caster.

Aqua had a strong heart and would make a fine Keyblade Master, sadly that would not matter much in the grand scheme of things. Once she has run out of uses, then she would be disposed of.

Finally there was Eraqus's youngest apprentice and his first apprentice, Ventus, who was fighting alongside the younger lookalike Roxas. He had certainly improved ever since he forgot everything four years ago, especially his speed and technique. It was the right decision to have given him to Eraqus.

But Xehanort couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that the boy was not on the same level as his second apprentice.

In order for his plans to work, he would have to rectify that. It would easy to get the boy back on track for his plans.

In fact everything was falling into place with only a few minor impediments along the way. Those were easy to get around. Yet there was one thing that he had not accounted for nor can he plan around at the moment.

Roxas.

Fixing his attention on him, he saw that he had changed Keyblades again and had frozen an orb that would have struck Ventus in the back. It promptly fell onto the floor and shattered into a million pieces.

The boy was a total enigma to him.

From the story he had gotten from Eraqus, the boy had lost his memory about a year ago, was about a year younger then Ventus, and was a natural born Keyblade wielder like himself. He had also been told that the details about his master and everything about the boy's escape to the moment he ended up here.

Xehanort was curious about the Keyblade wielder the boy encountered before he arrived to the Land of Departure. It has been years since he had seen another Keyblade wielder minus Eraqus and his apprentices. He would like nothing more then to catch her as not only as she a possible risk, but might have some information of the ancient scriptures as her name, true or alias was one of the ancient Foretellers.

He loved obtaining new bits of information from before the Keyblade War. Not only did it broaden his skill set and knowledge, but it also gave him a better idea of what it was like before the War and when the worlds were united.

Sadly according to Eraqus, Roxas had said that she had departed to parts unknown. While the chances are slim, he would have to plan something incase she tried to interfere with his grand design.

As for the boy's master, he didn't know either to have some respect or disdain for him.

On one hand this man whose identity that Eraqus had left his name out for some reason, possibly out of suspicion that he was in league with him, the man only had some knowledge of the Keyblade and had the ability to move through the worlds by the Corridor of Darkness. He also had some grand scheme for the young Keyblade wielder, who left him and in pursuit of him was killed.

On the other hand he had to respect the man for a few reasons. They both had the same work ethic when it came to training their apprentices which was respectful and seemed to embrace the darkness in the same way possibly. He also had the plan to kill Roxas's only friend and source of emotional support once the boy escaped and had a trusted accomplice to pick things up incase of his death.

Not the best fallback plan, but it was still a good one.

Either way, that man was dead now and so was his associate. Which was a shame, he could tell from the story that the man had potential and might have offered him a proposition that he would have accepted.

Still that man left one good thing behind and that was his apprentice, Roxas.

Considering that he had only one year of training, Xehanort will admit that the boy had a massive amount of potential to become a Keyblade Master in about a years training at minimum.

The boy was perhaps the most balanced Keyblade wielder he had ever seen. He seemed to have a good amount of strength behind his strikes, a good reservoir of magic, some good reflexes, and he was faster then Ventus. He was clearly skilled and if it wasn't for his limited knowledge of the Keyblade and his inexperience, then he could have joined Terra and Aqua in the exam today. The chances of him passing would be extremely slim, but it was still there.

Still his very presence could either be a boon or a hindrance for his success. For he was an unknown and an extremely dangerous one.

One who looked like and felt similar to Ventus. In fact if it was not for the fact that there was a three year time difference between the incident and his memory loss, then he would have assumed that Roxas was an unseen byproduct. In fact the only main differences he noticed so far was that the boy was slightly younger and that his eyes had a lighter hue to them.

The only thing that he hadn't got a read on yet was the boy's heart.

After one second Xehanort widened his eyes in surprise, before he composed himself and allowed himself to grin.

'Now this is an unexpected surprise, but none the less something that might prove useful.' Xehanort thought with glee.

The boy's heart was a mystery to him, but it held quite a few possibilities that could help him in the future. Not only did it seem to feel extremely similar Ventus's heart though a lot weaker, but besides some light it was perfectly empty! It was so much like a void that it was like he didn't even have a heart!

Xehanort began to set up some plans before gesturing to his apprentice.

Not a second later a majority of the orbs began to converge on Roxas.

'This should be an excellent test for the boy.' The elderly Keyblade Master thought with a smirk.

Just by getting a sense of the boy's heart, he had become just as important to his plan as Eraqus's apprentices. Still if everything went according to plan he may or may not be of use to him in the future.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Roxas said as a majority of the robes began to converge on him.

He knew that something bad was going to happen once he saw Xehanort staring at him with a grin on his face, his suspicions were once again proven correct once this happened.

Whoever was controlling the orbs was determined to cut him off from the apprentices. The minute he was surrounded the orbs suddenly began to gain speed and create a maelstrom around him. They also began to emit a loud buzzing sound that blocked him from hearing the others and was seriously throwing his concentration off.

While he was disoriented the orbs began to pelt him repeatedly before getting back into formation. He managed to block and destroy some of them with Oblivion, but they just kept coming.

'I can barley see what I'm doing due to the light the orbs are emitting and I can hardly concentrate due to sound they're producing.' Roxas though as he got into a blocking stance. He successfully blocked the attack of two orbs, but a third one had got him square in the back. He managed to recover quickly and destroyed two of them.

Feeling that he was starting to lose a lot of health, Roxas quickly switched to Oathkeeper.

"Reflect!" He casted.

The energy barrier blocked another barrage from the orbs and allowed Roxas a few seconds to recuperate.

"Cure!" Roxas casted onto himself. He felt that most of his health was restored.

He checked the barrier to see that the barrage had intensified with nearly every orb ramming into it before getting back into formation and trying again. At this rate the it would only last a little while longer.

He had to try something soon or he was going to be swarmed.

As he tried to think about a way out, the advice that The Master said to him last night rung through his head. With the barrier starting to crack, the Nobody calculated that he had a few seconds left before it gave way.

"This better work." Roxas said as he began to channel the respectful energies that The Master suggested at the tip of Oathkeeper.

As he kept pouring the respective energies at the tip, he noticed that as ice began to form, it was melted by the heat of the fire magic.

He was wondering what was going on, but he felt something stir from within his mind. The presence seemed to be giving him the suggestion to keep going with what he was doing. Seeing that he didn't have much time, he continued the process.

It began to form a sphere of water at the end of his Keyblade, which kept getting bigger the longer the process lasted. Seeing that the barrier wouldn't hold out for much longer, he began to pour as much magic as he could into the spell.

A few seconds later, the barrier shattered and the orbs began to close in around him.

But he was ready for them.

He channeled wind magic into the sphere. The presence then gave him the one thing capable of unleashing the spell at full power.

It's name.

"Water!" Roxas casted.

The sphere of water was shaped by the wind magic into a small torrent that blasted against all of the orbs in front of him. As he had poured most of his magic into that spell it had taken out a vast majority of the orbs around him. But it had drained him of enough magic that he only had some left.

But it was enough to preform the perfect spell to get rid of the rest of the orbs.

He quickly rushed through the gap that he created, while gather his remaining magic for his next spell. After a few more steps, he turned to see that the remainder of the orbs had split up and were coming at him all at once from multiple angles.

The perfect conditions to finish this.

"Thundara!"

Multiple arcs of lightning rained down from his Keyblade and began to spread forth from there. Within seconds it had reached the walls and dispelled, obliterating the remainder of the orbs and ending the trial.

'Thank Kingdom Hearts that's over.' Roxas thought tiredly.

He was out of magic, had multiple bruises all over his body, and the constant light and sound the the orbs had produced had left him a little disoriented. Other then that he was alright.

As he felt the presence start to fade back into his unconscious, the Nobody let out a small smile as he figured out who the presence was.

'Thank you for the assistance Ava, but please go back to sleep. I don't want you to waste anymore energy as it might take longer for you to wake up.' Roxas thought with concern.

If he was correct then she spent possibly centuries of not millennia in the Realm of Nothingness and was on the verge of non existence when she found him. She had just left there and was only starting to recover. So for now she should be resting until she had recovered enough strength.

All he got in response was a small wave of drowsiness before the presence of Ava faded from his mind.

Before the Nobody could breath out in relief, he found himself being squeezed to death.

(Chapter 18 end)