Kingdom Hearts III: Prolouge

Kingdom Hearts III: Dimensional Crisis
Prolouge


In a world known as The World That Never Was, located between light and darkness, but not fully in either realm, there was a castle, floating in the sky. This particular castle was once the headquarters of a powerful group of beings, known as Organization XIII, the leaders of a race of non-existing creatures called Nobodies.
Back then, the castle was hold in an irie grey-white colour and its halls were crawling with Nobodies. However, after the defeat of the Organization, the castle was quickly inhabited by another group of evil-doers. This group moved in shortly after Sora and his friends returned to the Destiny Islands and in the process, the once gray-white castle was turned into a creepy pitch-black fortress filled with equally dark creatures known as Heartless. Of course, the Nobodies were still there; the Heartless were just the most numerous creatures there now.
Anyway, the foremost ''people'' amongst the new inhabitants of the castle, were currently in what was once known as The White Room, only it wasn't so white anymore, more like shadow-black.
One of them was a tall, creepy lady with pale green skin, a black cape and two horns on the top of her head. She was holding a long staff, with an acid-green sphere on the top. The lady's name was Maleficent, an evil sorceress of frightning power.
She was looking out the window, staring into the eternal night of that world, while in deep thoughts. But her thinking was soon disturbed, when a dark, cold voice spoke to her.
''You seem troubled, my dear. Tell me, what is it that's got you worried?''
Maleficent turned around to look at the person whom had spoken to her. It was a man, a tall, dark and scary man with a skin colour so black, that he was almost invisible, if it hadn't been for his eyes, that shone with a bright red glow. But that wasn't the scariest thing about this man. It was the fact that he was completely surrounded by a swirling black mist, that seemed to pour out of his skin, that made him so scary. He was sitting on a tall throne, the colour of midnight, with spikes coming out on top of it.
Maleficent answered the man, with a chill in her voice: ''You know very well what I'm thinking of, Harbringer. That pesky Keyblade wielder Sora has foiled our plans again. We should destroy him now, before...'' But Harbringer interrupted: ''As I recall, it was your own idea to try and take over that data world, not mine. Besides, you should not forget that it was I who brought you back after your first defeat and that I used my powers to influence the Data-Riku, to save both you and your lacky from being erased.'' Harbringer shot a glance towards the third individual in the room, a rather bulky looking black cat, by the name of Pete.
Pete looked rather terrified, when Harbringer glared at him, but he did manage to say, in a frightened tone: '' And we are very grateful for that, sir.''
Satisfied with Petes reaction, Harbringer addressed Maleficent once again. ''You know as well as I do Maleficent, that you would not be standing here right now, if it hadn't been for me! Besides, MY plans haven't been foiled yet, quite the opposite, actually.''
Maleficent looked as though she wanted to give a court reply, but she restrained herself. She knew fully well that Harbringer was right. After all, it was he that gave her the power to control the Heartless in the first place and it was also him, who corrupted former Keyblade Master Xehanort and tried to aquire Kingdom Hearts through him.
Pete nervously asked Harbringer: ''And what exactly ARE your plans, if I may ask?''
Harbringer sent another evil glare towards Pete, who quickly backed a few steps away from him.
When Harbringer spoke again, there was a slightly annoyed tone in his voice: ''You really are an idiot, you know that? My plans are the same as they always have been; to obtain the infinite power of Kingdom Hearts! Both you and Maleficent have been after that too, under MY instructions I might add! I would have preferred to do it myself, but thanks to that blasted Yen Sid, I am forced to remain in this Dark Throne until I'm back to full power.''
He made a slight gesture towards the throne he was sitting on. Of course, it wasn't an ordinary throne. Harbringer had created it for himself and it allowed him to rejuvenate himself if he was greavously injured, whitch he was at the moment. A long time ago, when Harbringer tried to obtain Kingdom Hearts for the first time, the mighty sorceror Yen Sid had stopped Harbringer and although Harbringer wasn't destroyed, he lost almost all his power. But thanks to the Dark Throne, he was close to a full recovery.
In the meantime, he tried to use the corrupted Xehanort to get Kingdom Hearts, by using the Unversed. This not only served as a way to distract Yen Sid from finding out who was behind it all, but it was also the stepping stone to a much bigger web of schemes, that was put in motion at the same time. You see, after his defeat, Harbringer had learned to carefully create absolutely perfect plans; emphasis on perfect. His plan had been motion for a long time and it was still moving. Harbringer was very pleased with himself, because no matter how many defeats Xehanort and his other henchmen had suffered, no matter how many times the Keyblade Wielders had stopped what had seemed (to them) to be other attempts to aquire Kingdom Hearts, no matter how much his underlings had failed him, his plan was still in motion.
Both Maleficent and Pete knew this and they were well aware of the fact, that even though Harbringer was not yet at full power, he was still powerful enough to destroy them both, if he wanted to.
Harbringer saw that both Maleficent and Pete shivered in fear as soon as they reminded themselves of that fact. He was pleased that he could instill such fear in them, but he also needed to make sure that their fear wouldn't overtake them. He said: ''You don't have to panic, I won't destroy you, since I still have use for you.'' Maleficent and Pete relaxed a bit, before Harbringer spoke again. ''After all, you two have proven yourselves in more ways than one. Pete, you have a knack of finding the most neferious villains on any world and get them to join our cause. And you, Maleficent, are my foremost ally, not only because you can muster more magical power than even that old loon Merlin can, but you're also the only person that can oversee the plan, while I'm regaining my strengh.''
Maleficent and Pete looked very pleased to know that they were still useful.
But then, Maleficents facial expression went angry again and she said: ''We already know all of this, you don't have to tell it to us, like you were giving a resúme of a story! Besides, how are we supposed to find the Shards? There's no one who knows on whitch worlds they are!''
Harbringer just smiled as a response. Then he said: ''I am fully aware of that fact, my dear. However, I have a general idea of where they might be, thanks to my good friend Xagem. As you know, Xagem possess the powers of Divination and he has located the Shards thanks to that. However, the exact location of the Shards cannot be found. Thats why I sent Pete out to recruit all villains on the worlds in the areas and instructed them to look everywhere they can. We will find the Shards, you can be certain of that.''
Maleficent didn't look quite as reassured and Harbringer knew why.
''You're wondering how we're supposed to get the last Shard, right?'' he asked Maleficent. She merely gave him a nod, but it was enough. ''Don't worry, I have everything under control. Even though the last Shard has ended up in another dimension, I know how to get it. I instructed some good friends of mine, to build a device that will allow us to travel to that other dimension. And it just so happens, that they finished it three days ago.''
Harbringer paused, so that Maleficent and Pete could digest this new information. He continued: ''Although I cannot leave the Dark Throne, I can still travel to other worlds with it. As a matter of fact, I have already been to that dimension myself and recruited two more villains to our side. Their names are Malefor and Vilgax. The Shard is in one of their worlds somewhere, I don't know whitch one. However, they willingly agreed to join our cause, when I told them that they would gain the power to dispose of their enemies, once and for all. You can rest assured, the power of Kingdom Hearts will soon be ours to command!'' Harbringer then let out an evil laughter alongside Maleficent and Pete and their laughter echoed throughout the whole castle.