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“Xehanort? What are you doing?”
Xehanort flinched and almost dropped the Keyblade. “Don’t startle me, Ienzo.”
“Sorry.” Ienzo’s voice didn’t sound even the slightest bit apologetic. “What are you doing?”
“It’s a secret. Can you keep a secret?”
“Of course! Is it an important secret?”
“Very important.” Xehanort finally turned to look at the boy. Good, no one else was with him. “At least, it’s very important to me. I need to move my friend to a safer place.”
Ienzo tilted his head. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to lose her again.” Again? Had he lost his friend before? He must have… Did he lose her, then find her again? Or… Did he lose her when she left her armour with him? He stared at the Keyblade in his hands, wondering what had happened that had caused her to leave it with him.
“She isn’t safe here” he continued, realizing that Ienzo was looking at him strangely. “She could be damaged, or destroyed, or taken away. I need to take her somewhere where no one will find her. No one except for us.”
“Oh, a very important secret!” Ienzo sounded excited. “Do you know where you’ll be hiding her?”
“Yes, I know the place already. Did you see the white hallway in the basement already?”
“I did.” Ienzo pulled a face. “It scares me.”
“It is a little scary, but that’s the point. No one will look there. At the end of that hallway is a secret door that leads to a hidden room. That is where I will hide her.” So she’s kept safely locked away, where no one else can see… That sounded familiar, where had he heard that?
“Will you help me carry her?”
“Of course!” Ienzo looked at the heavy-looking suit of armour. “Can I carry the sword?”
“I doubt it will let you.” Xehanort shook his head. “It is a Keyblade, and Keyblades choose their owners. Anyone who isn’t worthy of one will be unable to carry one.”
Ienzo thought about that for a second, then picked up the helmet instead. “Do you have a Keyblade?” he asked.
“I had one.” Xehanort put the Keyblade aside briefly to pick up the armour, then picked the Keyblade back up. “I lost it along with my memories. I think it won’t let me wield it because I don’t remember it.”
He’d had at least two Keyblades, two very different weapons, but in some memories he had one and in some memories he had the other and he didn’t know which memories were real. They couldn’t both be real, right? One person could only have one Keyblade, as far as he knew.
He carried the armour down the stairs, all the way down to the basement laboratory and to the hallway with the cells, where he had to stop and put it down to open the door to the hidden room. The wall slid open, and he heard an audible “Whoa…” from Ienzo. Amused, he glanced back at the child. “Impressive, isn’t it?”
He left the armour in the room, and while he was tempted to take the Keyblade, he decided to leave it beside the armour. He had no use for it now.
“This is our secret, right?” Ienzo asked as he placed the helmet with the rest of the armour.
Xehanort smiled and nodded. “Our secret” he confirmed. “Promise me you’ll never tell anyone.”
“Promise, on all the Light!”
Many years later, Zexion remembered his promise and kept quiet, even as Xigbar pestered him for information. The Superior trusted him to keep his secret, and so the secret he would keep.