I woke up early, the talk me and God had worried me, concerned me, and yet somehow confused me. Worried cause he had to go into hiding from Core, concern because he told me to murder him, but confusion because...it didn’t feel like God for some reason. I got up and got out of bed without waking any of my girlfriends up thankfully and took a warm shower and be clouded by my thoughts. ”God knows Core is going after him, that’s true...but somehow I don’t buy that ‘I need to hide’...shouldn’t he be in a world of pure light? If I were to kill God he said that I would basically be handing Core everything he wants, which sounds like complete bullshit to be perfectly honest…” I think to myself, starting to think about our entire conversation and pointing out the things that are right but the parts that were so complete bullshit it’s weird. ”Maybe I’ll ask Luxu...hopefully he’s alright…” I think to myself, sighing out and continuing to shower.

After exiting the shower fully clothed and having my cloak and crown on I headed down to the kitchen to make myself a little breakfast, not entirely wanting to have a big one after what ‘God’ told me. ”Something doesn’t add up. If God dies then an imaginary multiverse is gone...not all of Creation….and if God dies than Core won’t be able to gain God’s knowledge. God would probably tell me that but Core could just as easily tell me that.” I think to myself, my hood up and covering my face as I continued to think things through.

“Hey Ben.” Aqua says with a smile, seeing me sit down and eat a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. “How are you doing?” She asks, not seeing my face and not knowing how much thinking I was in.

”Wait! He said ‘our reality’ not ‘our True Reality’...why did he make that little mistake?” I think curiously, eating my cereal and thinking more and more about the situation. ”Technically my ‘first’ reality is back on Earth, this may be my new reality but still...but when he said ‘our reality’...something’s not right here and I don’t like it one bit. I think to myself, finding another part of our conversation that’s wrong. ”And what about ‘Essence Eater’? Why would God want me to do that on him? Why not go to Core and use that on him? Why couldn’t he just tell me ‘if I’m captured, kill Core with this obviously super overpowered ability’...God of Destruction and God of Creation...wait Core wouldn’t be so fucking stupid as to basically say ‘oh hey I captured God, catch me if you can fuckers!’...” I mentally trail off, eating my cereal before I stopped for a moment. ”Oh that SON OF A BITCH!” I mentally scream, clenching my spoon hard in anger.

“Ben? Are you okay?” Aqua asks worriedly, sensing my growing anger.

“Yes I’m fine.” I say simply, taking a deep breath to calm myself. “I’m just going through a conversation I had with someone important and calling out his bullshit.”

“Who’s the ‘someone important’?” Aqua asks curiously.

“Someone who thinks that they can play a bookworm.” I frown. “But little does he know that a bookworm always calls bullshit on things they look over. Now sure did the person have a good point or two? Yes. But was the overall conversation fact and I should believe it? On a second look fuck no.” I frown, starting to get pissed here.

“What did this person say?” Aqua asks curiously.

“Let’s wait for Luxu, he might help me point out this shit.” I say simply. ”I hope.” I mentally add, not sure if Luxu is fine with his conversation with ‘God’. ”As far as I know most Gods can shapeshift...should have immediately thought that…” I mentally groan, hating myself for not seeing such easy shit. ”Am I reading too much into this? No, no, Core is a crafty little bastard so I need to think things through...too bad I was tired as hell at the time.” I think to myself bitterly, not believing I fell for Core’s crap.

As Aqua and I sat around I heard Luxu whistling, as I looked up I saw him walk in… holding a tiny ukulele? “Sup guys?” He asked.

“Two things, one Stitch want’s his Ukelele back, and two did you talk to ‘him’ last night?” I ask with a frown, putting an emphasis on ‘him’ to make him see who I was talking about.

“Wait, how’d you know I stole this from that blue fuzz ball?”

“Not important and you should give it back, it’s not nice to steal things from good people.” I deadpan.

“Well, more borrowed anyway. I did take it from his bed… but I left a note saying I’d give it back later, and he has my Wayfinder as collateral.”

“Alright then. So let’s go on about the conversation you and ‘God’ had last night.” I say, wanting to bring that up.

“Gramps stopped by last night?”

“That lying bastard.” I growl. “Listen...I’m not a hundred percent sure and I think my brain wasn’t that well off since I wasn’t sleeping well...but I think Core pretended to be God and meet me.” I explain. “So technically yes, ‘Gramps’ did stop by last night Luxu.”

“Shapeshifting… Neither Core or gramps can do that…”

“Well somehow the fucker did and now thinks he’s played me like a fool. But thankfully the bastard was inconsistent as fuck that I can say that he is full of shit just as much as the Percy Jackson's first book 'The Lightning Thief'.” I state.

“Well, whatever you referenced aside, the only reason I think he would have done that was an attempt at getting your other Keyblade.”

“He said that it can revoke someone’s existence. Do I believe it? Kind of. But am I curious on why he told me about it’s power when I could easily use it on him? Hell if I know.” I shrug.

“Memory Stealer?”

“Essence Eater.” I say, not knowing if he meant the Keyblades 'memory stealing' ability or it's actual name.

“That’s the special ability, the name of the Keyblade is Memory Stealer. Let me see it.”

“The Keyblade has two abilities apparently.” I say while summoning Xion’s Keyblade, it somehow shapeshifting to look like Gazing Eye. “Or...three because it can take the form of whatever Keyblade is around...and decided to look like this…” I frown.

Luxu took it. “I know all about this damn thing…”

“What other special things surround this mystery of a weapon? Cause stealing away memories and giving them to be, not to mention being able to revoke existence is broken as fuck.”

“It only works against someone with a whole heart. A Nobody, or even you with a partly dead heart, would be immune to it’s effects.”

“I suppose that’s why I can wield it.” I say honestly. “Maybe I don’t know the half of it.”

“I really wish gramps didn’t give this away…”

“I asked for the weapons of thirteen special Nobodies, and I got a fourteenth, which is that, because he wanted me to.”

“Xion…” Luxu muttered.

“Clones are...very special.” I say. “I don’t know the full story behind that but...I believe she was an experiment that could wield a Keyblade incase a certain Nobody didn’t work out.” I explain, not knowing if he knows about Organization XIII.

“I know all about that bullshit!” Luxu shouted, startling me suddenly. “Her… damn that old geezer…”

“I’m sorry...but to be perfectly honest...I didn’t know you existed until Discord told me about you. I don’t know anything about your past, or who your friends were…” I sigh out. “I’m just guessing with what you do and don’t know…”

“Xion… in your reality, the one you were born in… she was supposed to replace Roxas, but as you might remember from how… the story went… she originally had no face til certain memories and determination to forge her own identity took hold, right?”

“As far as I know. She looked more like Kairi because of Sora’s memories seeping out of Roxas. But to others it either had her hood up all the time or, for some reason, looked like Sora.” I say honestly.

“Yeah… I knew her… Took some risks meeting her using darkness to semi time travel. Mixed the land of dreams and science with darkness, I got some rather interesting results.”

“That sounds...both dangerous and interesting at the same time.” I say with a raised eyebrow.

“It was. When I was given Gazing Eye, I could see the future, and I saw her. I was alone at the time, so I decided to take the risk and visit her in her dreams. I made it so she would only remember my visits in her sleep, so nothing in terms of destiny would change for her. We became quick friends.”

“That sounds nice.” I say with a nod. “So how was she? Besides…” I trail off, not wanting to explain what she was designed for.

“... honestly, I would call her innocent with how she acted at times. When I saw her… death… I reacted, and the week before it was to happen, I copied all her memories and made this out of them.” He pulled out a Castle Oblivion card… With Xion as the image. “Everything she is, will be, would be, and was, is stored in this card. I keep it with me as a reminder.”

“I understand.” I nod. “Oh, actually talking about things that have some hidden meaning that’s being explained.” I start before pulling out my silver Wayfinder. “Time told me that there’s something hidden in this thing, which is weird cause...normally it was supposed to be just a little charm between friends to remember each other by…” I say, not entirely sure about why Time said something about it having something hidden in it.

He handed Memory Stealer back and took the Wayfinder. “Huh.” He said as he looked it over. “Thought only mine was like this.”

“Say what now?” I ask while taking the keyblade and dismissing it.

“Well, typically the magic within Wayfinders link the hearts of those who you care about, or have made an impact on you. Increasing your strength with theirs, but this one seems to be part of a set.”

“Well...what set is it from? Cause I was just given it with the keychain to my Duskblade.” I say, not entirely sure how that’s supposed to work.

“Oh… oh… Was it Core who gave you this?”

“You know if the keychain and wayfinder he gave me are somehow homing beacons I’m gonna throw them in a pit.” I frown.

“No, they aren't… This Wayfinder used to be… Core’s… grandpa told me that him and his wife used to have Wayfinders. His was Silver, this one, and his wife's was purple.”

“Ya know I was about to say gold...but apparently not.” I frown. “Oh well. But this was Core’s Wayfinder huh? Why did he give me it? Seems a little weird…”

“It means one thing… No more holding back… He held onto this for countless years, the fact he gave it away means he no longer wants to just ‘toy’ with us.”

“Well then…” I frown. “Or he gave that away cause he probably looked at it and remembered his...dead wife…” I say worriedly.

“She’s beyond dead Ben… back then, when a Heartless killed someone, they didn’t become an Emblem Heartless, the heart was consumed with darkness till it rotted and faded into void.”

“Well...that’s one way to make sure someone’s dead.” I say with a frown.

“She was the first wielder of the X-blade, and the only one ever to beat Core in combat, and she didn’t even use the X-blade to do it.”

“Now there’s either two reasons why she died...either she was cheap shotted after a long grueling fight...or something even worse than Core is alive…”

“Trust me when I say… there are much worse things than Core, but they had nothing to do with her death. She was killed by a… an Embodiment.”

“Um…” I frown. “Are we talking about an Embodiment of Darkness or is it a specific kind of enemy that I should worry about?”

“They’re the original Purebloods. Old as Light and Darkness, stronger than anything you’d think possible… even Core can’t hold his own against one.”

“I wonder if there are Embodiment's of Light and Embodiment's of Nothing…” I hum in curiosity.

“Well, for light, Keyblade’s are about it, as for Nothing? Only Nobodies made by a Keyblade wielder taking someone’s heart out come close to that.”

“Okay then…” I nod. “But sheesh...even right now in this huge expanse of a multiverse there’s still so much that makes you feel even smaller.”

“Grandpa once told me something from back when everything was one world, dimension, etc. He said ‘the reason we seem so small on a world so big is because if we matched it, the world wouldn’t be fun to explore.’ That kinda holds up with Multiverse as well.”

“That old man.” I chuckle with a little smile on my face. “Well thank you for explaining everything. Now I know for a fact that Core is trying to trick me into killing God.” I sigh out. “Hell, he even said ‘if I’m captured, Core will make it known.’ which is a giant fucking lie, but the more important thing is ‘Trust in Xion to find where I am’.” I say while shaking my head. “Christ...but we better get to training if Core isn’t wearing the kiddy gloves on anymore.”

“Exactly. From now on, you and the others will be training more… brutally. When Aqua and I feel you’re ready, we’ll give you your Mark of Mastery exam. After that… training will take an unorthodox route.”

“I have thirteen weapons to master, and then I have to take my Mark of Mastery test…” I sigh out. “Then I have to learn how to master summoning Nobodies...then I need to learn to master a bunch more shit...holy hell I have a long to do list…” I groan. “Well I’ll go wake everyone up so they can get their breakfast and coffee or tea, then they’ll start their back breaking work, and I’ll start my everything breaking work.” I say, comical tears falling out of my eyes as I sadly imagine how much crap I’m going to be put through.

After breakfast, Luxu, Time, Sweetie, Luna and I all met up at the usual training area. We all stood in a line as Luxu and Aqua stood across from us. “Now then.” Luxu started. “We all know for a fact that none of us properly stand a chance against Core or even one of his lackeys. To understand where they draw power from, you must learn the sins that drove them to such… darkness.”

“Well if memory serves the Ventral family was the crime family. They literally did everything from murder, sending drugs, thieving, hell if they wanted to I have a feeling they would have actually wanted to commit a full blown genocide. The only one I know that isn’t a dick monger is Zeke, as he is quite a nice man if the X-blade leads to anything about his character.” I explain, knowing at least where Core could get a bunch of hardworking and skilled killers from.

“Yes. But you must all now learn just how far your own sins can drag you. How deep the darkness in your minds and hearts sinks you... “

I summoned my Duskblade and Vexen’s shield. “I have a feeling I’m going to need these.” I say, feeling like I’m going to get attacked by a lot of things soon.

Luxu walked up to us, raised his hand, and shadow versions of ourselves appeared and jumped us. Everything went dark for a second until I shook the thing off me.

“A little warning next time before I scream ‘rape’...” I frown, readying myself for whatever is to come after that weird event. I looked around, and quickly noticed that only me and the shadow me were in the field. “Well...okay then.” I say before gently shuffling towards my shadow, my sword and shield ready to fight this thing.

“Hehe, pathetic.” My shadow spoke, standing up as the darkness around it faded, revealing a copy of me, but it’s eyes… looked like Yellow’s. “Too dead to care, yet still you have fears.”

“I’d call it ‘caution’.” I state. “No need to rush in on an opponent blindly.” I say, continuing to shuffle forward carefully, trying to find the proper distance between us. “So, you're my sins huh? Point something out that I did wrong besides ‘I don’t give a crap about things’?”

“You did nothing.” The shadow said simply.

“Understatement of the year.” I roll my eyes.

“And nothing is what you’ll continue to do.” It says, raising its arms as if taunting me to strike.

“Oh really? Well let’s test that!” I shout before leaping forward and striking with my sword. Now here’s the thing about fighting your ‘sins’, they are tricky as hell depending on what sins you’ve done. Mine didn’t do anything and yet nothing happened, my Duskblade just went right through it like it didn’t exist. “Wh-what the?” I ask before a force suddenly rammed itself into my chest, pushing me to the ground and away by ten feet.

“You have done nothing for most of your life. When times are hard you don’t bother to solve anything, you do nothing but read.” It says, a force ramming into my right leg. “Bullies picking on you everyday, you do nothing but take it.” It says before another force it’s my left arm. “Nothing is all you know, and Nothing is what you’ll do.”

“Shut up!” I shout before dashing forward towards the shadow, my entire body burning in pain from the force hitting me and trying to attack again, thrusting my shield at it first only for it to stop like it hit something...but sadly it was a good few inches short of actually hitting the damned thing. “Oh come on.” I groan.

“Nothing.” It says before I started coughing, kneeling down and coughing up blood. “How does it feel, losing to an enemy that has done nothing to you?”

“Lying bastard, you’re doing something and I’ll figure out your gimmick.” I growl, getting back up and wiping away the blood from my mouth.

“If you think that.” It says as another swing from my Duskblade fazed through it. I jumped away from the shadow and dismissed my weapons before summoning Siax’s claymore, dashing forward and trying to hit it in the chest, only for it to stop mere inches from its black form. “How can something stop nothing?” It asks before I was blasted with another wave of painful force.

“It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.” I state, dismissing the claymore and summoning Xaldin’s lances, vanishing into the wind and thrusting to lance's forward, and yet again it stopped. “Okay this is starting to become bullshit!” I shout, being pushed back again.

My sins chuckled. “My, such ferocity… must come from those bags of blood and flesh you claim to care for.”

“THEY ARE NOT BAGS OF FLESH!” I roar, disbanding my lances and summoning twin laser swords, dashing forward and slashing in an ‘x’ pattern, hoping this time it’ll actually hit.

Another force pushed me back, and I landed in water. I swam back up and saw my Sins standing on the water. “I believe this is where you say a witty remark?”

“Go to hell.” I frown, summoning Demyx’s Sitar and plucking one of the strings, a jet of water shooting towards my Sins.

It moved ever slightly to dodge. “Sad really, so many tears you cried in the past, now they are all just about gone. Vast and endless is this ocean of your past tears. To fill up eternity, we truly had a bad life.”

“You don’t say?” I ask bluntly. “But right now we have a new life, and that life is full of joy and love...and this?” I ask while showing the water around. “Even if I may not have many left...they will be shed in joy instead of sorrow.” I state with a frown, dismissing the sitar and summoning a deck of cards that vanished in my hand before I brought up five and threw them all at him.

“You need a living heart to cry in joy.” He taunted as he dodged all the attacks without effort. “That’s the part you have yet to bring back. You are a human Nobody. Only the few memories of your few joys let you mimic it now. You… we have no joy.”

“And yet I have laughed, smiled, and loved so genuinely. I was told I had half a dead heart, but I only have part of a dead heart now. But I still have a heart that’s filled with love and happiness, that dead part will probably linger a bit more but it won’t for long.” I state.

“It will for as long as you leave your joy to keep drowning in your tears.”

I looked at the thing in confusion. “Um...I’m not really drowning right now...so that doesn’t work.” I say, feeling like I’m going to regret that.

“You aren't.” He looked down. “They are.” I looked down at the water… my friends, girlfriends… my family was just floating under there! “Tick. Tock.”

“FUCK!” I shout before taking a deep breath and diving into the water, swimming towards everyone in hopes I can catch them. ”Please...I don’t want to lose everyone...I don’t want to lose everything I have….I don’t want to lose my joy…” I think to myself, swimming quicker and hoping to get them before they actually drown.

“Truth is… you suffered something similar back when.” My sins said, somehow walking next to me and talking under the water. “I believe that’s when all the pain began… the arguing they did, the divorce… the suicides. All because you didn’t listen to one simple order, you ruined your own life.”

I tried to ignore my sins words, trying to swim faster towards the ones I cared about. ”Yes I screwed up....yes I ruined my life...but God...God gave me this new life, and this new life has given me so much...and I won’t let all that slip away...not again.” I think, wanting to save everyone. ”I won’t sit there and do nothing...I will protect those I care about...and all those I love…

“Air’s getting little low there? You could swim back up, leave them… or are you actually willing to die trying to save them?”

“You know I am!” I screamed. The water and everything vanished as only my sins and I stood in a white void with cracks all around.

“Welcome to what’s still dead in your heart.” My sins said.

“Um...it just needs a little paint and redecorating and it’ll be as good as new.” I say while looking around, feeling a little bad that I’m joking about the dead part of my heart but not really knowing what to say.

After I said that, a new crack formed. “Keep joking, that slick mouth just breaks it more.”

“Well that sucks.” I frown. “So...this is what a dead heart looks like...never…” I say trail off, having literally never seen what it would be and still a little taken back at how white and cracked it is. “How...how do I fix it?” I ask, reaching my hand out like I could touch it and try to mend it but my hand shaky and unsure about how to even go about this situation.

“The emotions are there, but your tears aren’t. You fear what unknown joy can bring you. You’d rather look into despair because it’s familiar. You don’t have joy, because you antagonize it still.”

“But…” I start. “Luna, Twilight, Pinkie Zecora and Pinkie...Celestia and soon Spike cause I really need to have my ‘bro time’ with him...that has brought me so much joy to my life…”

“And yet here I am. Your antagonized joy…”

“Okay honestly, how is making jokes or being sassy ‘antagonizing’? There are plenty of people with good hearts that make jokes or are sassy and they’re still happy with life…” I explain. “I mean sure...I’ve lost one of my parents...but still.”

“It’s because you never moved on. You never tried to accept what happened and move on. You rejected others, kept yourself in solitude, and left me to rot… I became a part of your darkness… and your greatest sin… Rejection.”

“Oh…” I mutter. “So...if I move on from my past...and accept what happened...I’ll be better?”

“You still talk as if it’s easy. You don’t get it.” My sin raised it’s hand, and my Duskblade appeared. “You lost me long… long ago Ben.”

“Well…” I start, summoning Xaldin’s weapons. “If you're me...then you know I’m stubborn. And I’ll get back what I’ve lost...it won’t be easy...never said it wasn’t...but this is my story, and my story is just beginning.” I state.

“Alright then.” My sins pointed my Duskblade at me. “Let’s just see how hollow that promise it.” He charged at me, knocking the lances I threw at him to the side as he got closer to me.

I raised my arms up, not in a taunting gesture but in the way one would ask for a hug. “Welp...let’s see how hollow it really is.” I say with a kind smile, ready for the attack.

He stopped mid swing from my face. “... you… you aren’t serious?!”

“Afraid of Acceptance?” I ask with a smile. “Come on, you know you want a hug.”

He was hesitant, moving slowly. When he finally wrapped his arms around me, I heard the Keyblade drop and he started crying as the room turned a blinding white. When it faded, we were standing in a playground, and when my sins let me go… he looked like I did when I was five. “You kept your promise.” The five year old me said with a teary smile.

“Of course little guy, I would never break a promise.” I smile, getting down on a knee and putting a gentle hand on his head.

He hugged me again. “Thank you!” He yelled as he jumped off. “Oh, and now that we’re whole again, your Duskblade is no longer… the Duskblade.”

“Oh, well let’s see what it looks like now.” I say before raising my hand and summoning my former Duskblade. It was completely different, the handle was like two crescent moons, a sun at the hilt, the blade was the body of a person, or the outline of one? They held their hands over their heart, and were looking up as two large wings were sticking out of it’s back to make the ‘key tip’.

“I call it Reunion.” My Joy said.

“Wow...it’s...amazing.” I say with a giant smile on my face. “Thanks. It...it means way too much for words.”

“Well then, I best go play and find the ones who keep you feeling… well, my emotion. They should be rushing in here soon. Now, go wake up… Master Ben.” The child says with a smile, waving a hand gently before rushing off to find his friends.

Everything went white. When I woke up, I was in the bedroom of my home with Twi and the others. “What...what happened?”

“Ben!” Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie, and Zecora yelled as they tackle hugged me down onto the bed. “Thank goodness.” Twilight said.

“The hell happened?” I say, my voice muffled by the women on top of me

“You’ve been out cold for three days.” Rarity explains. “You’re the first to wake up.”

“Wait what?” I ask with a frown, trying to get the women off of me. “Come on, you can smother me with kisses and boobs later, what the hell happened to the others?”

“Mark of Mastery exam.” Luxu said, looking at us from the doorway. “Time takes a different toll, and for you, and the others, I had it placed in your realm of sleep. You were all to fight your past sins, and fears. So, how’s it feel to be a Keyblade Master now?”

“Well besides the fact you lied about how we were supposed to train before the Mark of Mastery exam…I’d say…” I say before raising my hand and Reunion was summoned. “I feel whole...for the first time in so long.” I say, tears threatening to fall.

“That’s what I was hoping for,” Luxu commented. “I lied about the training because the training I had in mind only Masters can…. Learn from and… survive… So, I conducted it then, rather than later. Trust me when I say, the powers you’ll have as a Master will allow you to have a chance against the training, and later on, Core.”

“Okay then...but what about the others? If I’m the first one to wake up, after three days...I fear what the others might be going through…” I say worriedly.

“Each takes their own time. My exam I was out for close to a year.”

“How come my exam was so different?” Aqua asked as she entered the room.

“Because your master was a big teddy bear who didn’t want you to be put through the hell that is a TRUE Mark of Mastery exam. You are a master, but you got the title the easy way Aqua.”

“Well…” I start before my stomach growls loudly. “How about food? I’ve been out for three days and I’m starving!”

“Sure. We eat, wait for the others, then train.” Luxu says before heading off to the kitchen.