"With happiness in the palm of my hand…

…Is this the end of everything?

The end of the nightmares?

The end of the fighting?

The end of those beings of darkness?

…Or maybe, maybe my battle has just begun…"

The hooded man stood, overlooking the ocean from his cliff-top view. His face hidden from view, he whispers a few things before being approached from behind.

"Master…"

He turned to find himself face to face with a teenage boy, short red hair covering his head. His dark blue eyes staring right at him.

"Ah good, you've come."

"I've brought the stones, as you asked."

The young man opened his fist, revealing two shimmering blue stones, almost perfectly round like a child's marbles. The hooded man grasped the stones and rolled them through his hands, toying with them.

"You've done well this day my apprentice. It won't be much longer until we can do what we needed such a very long time ago, before all this Ansem madness."

"Master, may I ask a question of you?"

"Certainly, proceed."

"Have you ever…well, really looked out on these waters? These islands, these beaches, aren't they beautiful?"

"How very inappropriate. You'd do best to not let your mind wander Xander," the hooded man scoffed, while he turned back to the ocean. "We can't be letting such feeble distractions step between us, we must press onward."

"My apologies…my master."

Then, without warning, the heartless emerged. One by one the squirming creatures emerged from the ground, the weak shadows attacking in numbers as they always did. Four, then five, then many more emerged. Soon, the whole cliff-top was engulfed in the darkness. The hooded man barely flinched, but instead, turned to Xander.

"Do what you must do boy."

Without needing another word, Xander's arm flashed, and a keyblade formed around his hand. He lunged at one shadow after another, vanquishing them as though they were pieces of paper. His finesse was unmatched as he destroyed every one of them as quickly as could be, barely breaking a sweat as he finished the last one. He stopped, the keyblade vanished. Xander turned back to the one he calls Master and spoke lightly.

"They've arrived Sir. We must work quickly."

"In time my boy, in time. Now, we must leave, the sun is set to rise any second now and the last thing we want is that Keyblader and his little friends on our trail.

And suddenly in a flash of smoke, the man and Xander were gone. The sun rose and all was well in the Destiny Islands, as Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy awoke…