eiahmon | Burning Heart Chapter 3

Title: Burning Heart
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer; Disney and Square own it all; I only wish I did. Why in the hell cant I come up with these wickedly cool characters and twisted plots? Why?
Summary: Nomura has stated that now that his Heartless and Nobody have been destroyed, Master Xehanort will be reborn. What if he is reborn, but not in the way everyone thinks?
A/N: These are probably the shortest chapters I've ever written. It's a side effect I guess of an idea that was bitchign to be let out before I had a chance to really put any serious thought into the story

Xehanort!

Xavier sat up in bed, gasping and drenched in a cold sweat. As he tried to catch his breath in the dark room, he dimly registered a blue white flash outside the window, followed by the distant rumble of thunder. A few seconds later, the first drops of rain began to pat against the glass.

A strong sense of foreboding and dread had awoken him, and he tried to convince himself that it was the lingering remnant of an unremembered nightmare, but it wasn't working. He spent the next several minutes trying to relax and go back to sleep with no success, before giving it up as impossible. Maybe he could sneak down to the kitchen and get a glass of milk and a couple of cookies. Maybe that would calm him down. But he had barely a chance to throw the blankets back when the entire household was roused.

Alexander screamed, and the sheer terror contained in the sound sent chills racing up and down Xavier's spine, and he leapt out of bed and ran to the boy's room, the rest of the family right behind him. What was waiting for them inside the door made them all stop and stare in horrified shock.

Alexander was huddled in the corner of the bed, curled up with his knees to his chest, his eyes squeezed shut, and screaming in terror. Around him on the floor were small black creatures that were just barely visible in the darkness of the room. The only parts of them that were easily seen were their glowing yellow eyes. Xavier and the other stared in horrified fascination for a long moment, before one of the creatures clambered up into Alexander's bed, which prompted the boy to scream again as he tried to squeeze himself even further into the corner.

An angry bellow from behind him startled Xavier out of his shock, as Jascha charged into the room in defense of his youngest. He used his bare hands to swat the creatures away, but they didn't stay back long. There was a pause as he scooped Alexander up into his arms, and then the creatures began to swarm him. They clambered up his legs, and he tried to kick them away, but they tangled his ankles. Just before he lost his balance and fell, he tossed Alexander to Xavier.

“Run!” he screamed as his hit the floor “Get out of the house!” And then Jascha disappeared under the writhing mass of black. A second later, a sparkling red light in the shape of a heart rose from where he was, and the creatures scattered to reveal that he had disappeared. Elissa screamed in horror and ran forward, to do what no one knew, but Akim and Heras held their mother back and began to pull her down the hall in the general direction of the stairs to the lower floor. Xavier stared at the spot where the man that had practically adopted him as a son had been for a moment before Masa's hand came down on his shoulder and began to tug him away from the room. With one last look at the creatures filling the room, Xavier ran down the hallway, down the stairs, and towards the front door, Alexander's hysterical cries ringing in his ears as he went. Masa was right behind him at first, but by the time Xavier ran out of the front door into a raging storm, he noticed that Masa had not followed.

“Masa? Masa!” Elissa had evidently also noticed, and it was only Akim and Hersas' firm grip on her arms as well as Yuta clinging to her that kept her from running back into the house. Through the windows and the door that they had left open behind them, all of them could see the shadowy things crawling over the walls and furniture, their glowing eyes staring at them through the windows. As they stared in horrified fascination, the structure groaned in protest, and the roof began tearing off, followed quickly by the walls. If Masa was inside, he was most certainly gone. Elissa screamed in horror, and Akim took charge and began herding them all away from where the house had once stood towards the center of town.

On the way they met encountered other residents of the small world, and Xavier couldn't help but notice the amount of people that were missing. During his rounds with Dr. Taylor, he had met nearly everyone in town, and he was aware more than anyone else just how many people were absent, including Dr. Taylor himself. Everyone told similar stories; their homes invaded by dark creatures with glowing yellow eyes, people that were attacked by them disappearing without a trace, and buildings floating off their foundations and coming apart. Even the ground around them was cracking, breaking away, and rising into the darkened sky, towards an enormous ball of dark light that hovered in the sky. It was dark red in the center, which darkened to purple and then black at it's outer edges, with lightning flickering around it.

Xavier stared at it with wide eyes, unable to breathe at the mere sight of it, and around him the crowd fell silent as the others noticed it too. No one moved or said a word; they only stared. Even Alexander, still held tightly in Xavier's arms, was silent. The dark wind roared around them, carrying dust, dirt, and debris from the destroyed structures, but no one moved.

Xavier didn't know how or why, but, watching the orb above him, he was struck by a feeling of familiarity, like he had seen such a thing before. He shook his head to try and clear the sudden feeling of dizziness that hit him, but that only seemed to make it worse. The ground tilted below him – was he falling? No wait, that was just the ground beneath him heaving up, how silly of him to think otherwise. Alexander was snatched out of his arms, and he felt someone grab a hold of him and pull him to the side onto ground that wasn't moving. He turned his head to thank whoever, just in time to see, Akim, with Alexander in his arms, vanish under a large number of Heartless -

Heartless?

- that seemingly appeared from and jumped on them. Xavier was able to catch a glimpse of Akim's wide, horrified eyes, and then they were gone. Alexander screamed from somewhere beneath them, and Xavier felt something inside of him break. He held his right arm in front of him, while having no idea why, and there was a flash of light that was similar to the orb in the sky, and the strangest weapon he had ever seen appeared in his hand.

Keyblade....

Keyblade...

The whispers filled his mind as the dark creatures stared at him, and he turned to where Alexander was still screaming under the mass of Heartless as rage filled his heart. Snarling, he charged at the Heartless, swinging the strange weapon, striking at them, and they disappeared into black puff of dust, leaving Alexander, still screaming but otherwise unhurt, on the ground. There was no sign of Akim.

Alexander was snatched up by his mother, and Xavier was suddenly aware of the sounds of other people screaming and running around in the rapidly disappearing town center, desperately trying to escape the Heartless that were swarming around. Some were trying to hide in the disintegrating buildings, others were sucked up into the whirling vortex above them, still others were attacked by the Heartless, whereupon they vanished, leaving nothing to show that they had been there.

Xavier didn't think; he just charged, not even knowing how he knew to wield the strange weapon in his hand, but knowing that he had to save as many as he could. In the chaos, he quickly lost sight of his mother and brothers, but he paid no attention. The crowd around him thinned, but he did not notice; he was all consumed with destroying as many Heartless as he could.

It wasn't until that he spun around and abruptly stopped in mid swing when he saw Alexander behind him that his rage abruptly abated. The boy was dirty, covered in scratches and bruises, and tears were making tracks through the dirt and blood on his face. Without letting go of his sword.. thing, Xavier scooped the toddler up with his left arm, and the boy wrapped his arms around his neck. He was completely silent, and Xavier had time to wonder how odd that was as he looked around to find that they were alone.

The Heartless were gone, the other people were gone, their family was gone, the town was gone. They were standing on a small chunk of ground devoid of any structures or plant life, which was suspended in the middle of a swirling black vortex. There was nothing below them, and above them was the dark orb hovering where the sky used to be. When he felt his feet leave the ground, he let go of the Keyblade, noting in a corner of his mind how it vanished into the light which it had come from, and wrapped both of his arms around Alexander. Alexander nestled close and hid his face in Xavier's long hair as they both waited for the end. As they rose up towards the dark light, Xavier saw the ground that they had been standing on break apart, leaving nothing below them. There was no sound as they went, only the feel of the wind, and the power of the darkness that was tearing the remains of the world asunder.

And then nothing.

Chapter 2 – Chapter 4
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