The dark power that the Queen of Hearts put on display in Kingdom Hearts Dark Road's Episode 2 left Xehanort and Eraqus both intrigued and concerned. The two can't decide whether it's appropriate to take more violent stands against people like her until they know where her darkness comes from. Does it come from an outside source that's possessing her, or does it really originate from who she is as a person? The two tried to remain alone in Wonderland to investigate secretly, but Vor threw a wrench in that plan by tagging along to find out what the duo was up to.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road's third episode follows Xehanort and Eraqus's attempt to learn more about darkness through the Queen of Hearts. What they learn in Wonderland shapes Xehanort's controversial opinion on the relationship between light and darkness, and the first seeds of his future quarrels with Eraqus over the subject are planted. This writing will act as an explanation and recap of these events, so expect spoilers ahead.
Prologue: The Corridor of Darkness
Ever since Chain of Memories, the Kingdom Hearts series has always mentioned how it's dangerous to travel through Corridors of Darkness without protection. Doing so risks succumbing to the darkness in the corridors. Dark Road is the first time the series ever shows players how this occurs. Xehanort traveled without protection the very first time he used a corridor, and he can recall exactly what happened to him when he did.
Shifting dark clouds littered the path Xehanort walked on, and they buffetted him at every opportunity. Whenever they did, Xehanort would hear the darkness whisper to him — though not in any coherent language. Instead, it would make him feel negative emotions, like hate, jealousy, and doubt, and his mind would then automatically interpret these emotions into words.
Xehanort had never felt things like hate before, so when the darkness forced it on him, he wondered if the emotions weren't actually his and instead belonged to someone else. He wouldn't find out until much later in his life that these emotions belonged to people he hadn't met yet, and that some of them were directed at him, meaning some people envied, doubted, and even hated him. For example, Terra's hate for him is one of the many things Xehanort probably experienced in the corridor.
At the time, Xehanort wondered if he could handle being the object of someone's negativity. He also realized that nobody would be capable of withstanding the corridor's effects for long periods. Despite all of that, though, he took some comfort in what the darkness was making him feel because he's normally an incredibly indifferent person, and it was nice to know that he could still feel anything, even if it was negative. For him, the most terrifying thing isn't darkness. It's feeling empty.
Detective Vor
Back in the present day, the moment Hermond, Urd, and Bragi leave, Vor immediately starts pestering Xehanort and Eraqus into telling her the real reason why they wanted to stay behind. She suspects that they have some sort of plan, and she wants to be in on it. However, every time she gets close to learning something from the two, the moment is interrupted. First by Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who capture Eraqus' curiosity with a story concerning curious people. Then by the Mad Hatter and March Hare, who confuse everyone with their ideas of decorum and unbirthday parties.
Vor comments that the Mad Hatter and March Hare, in particular, are as weird as the queen, but Xehanort disagrees. While most of Wonderland's residents are erratic, the queen's power-hungry nature makes her predictable. He also believes the fear she inspires in her residents is what maintains Wonderland's world order.
This explanation allows Vor to finally piece together Xehanort and Eraqus's plan — to their surprise. She deduces that the residents of Wonderland fear the queen, but unlike her, their negativity hasn't manifested in their hearts as darkness. She figures Xehanort and Eraqus found that strange and so wanted to learn more about the queen. They didn't tell Vor or anyone else what they were doing because they know it deviates from Master Odin's directive. She thinks they would ditch her to do more research on their own, so she playfully declares that she's going to snitch.
Xehanort and Eraqus try to explain themselves by countering that their investigation into the queen's darkness would actually help find the missing wielders faster as darkness has to be the only explanation behind seven highly-trained Keyblade wielders suddenly vanishing. When Vor agrees but doesn't see why they would need to exclude her, Xehanort explains that they don't know where the queen's darkness is coming from. If she's just a vessel for it, then it's possible that they're risking becoming vessels too. As if not hearing Xehanort's warning, Vor invites herself along to speak with the queen anyway.
The Queen of Hearts' Wrath
The group manages to find their way to the queen again through the Cheshire Cat, and as they enter her courtroom, they see one of her Card Soldiers getting dragged away to be beheaded. The queen thinks the group returned to honor their sentencing, but she only kills someone once a day, so they'll have to wait for tomorrow. Xehanort and Eraqus inform her that they're actually here to ask her some questions. The queen only allows Eraqus to speak, though, as Xehanort's demeanor upsets her.
Eraqus poses straight-forward questions, which the queen doesn't take kindly to. When he asks her to confirm if everyone really does everything she says, she takes it as him questioning her authority. When asked if her heart is really her own, she can't see why it wouldn't be as she's the queen of hearts. Xehanort then chimes in, asking if the queen's arrogance is her own too, or if a dark entity is controlling her, but the queen reiterates that she gives the commands and answers to no one. In other words, she confirms that her darkness belongs to her.
Eraqus can't bring himself to believe such a thing, as he thinks that everyone has light in their heart. The queen retorts that the idea of light and darkness are utter nonsense and that regardless of them, she controls everything and everyone. It's at this point the queen's irritation rises to a level where the dark aura she exhibited before flares up again. Xehanort and Eraqus continue pressing, though, with Xehanort wondering if the queen's darkness comes from her greed. But when the queen launches into a tirade about how brats like them and her useless subjects anger her, it becomes clear that the darkness spawns from her wrath.
Her explosion of emotion causes Xehanort to contemplate an old lesson he learned from Master Odin about how Heartless are the embodiment of the darkness in people's hearts, and how their appearance is directly linked to the powerful negative emotions of these people. As the queen's dark aura becomes more pronounced, Xehanort notices something weird: he somehow sees the darkness inside her smile. The queen demands the heads of Xehanort and his friends, and her dark aura finally materializes into a Furious Reaper, a suped-up version of the Ferry Reaper Heartless.
Clash of Beliefs
After defeating the Heartless, the group returns to Scala Ad Caelum to report back to their friends. Hermond, Bragi and, Urd are onboard with investigating the darkness as a way to find the missing classmen, but they don't know where to start looking since Xehanort, Eraqus, and Vor destroyed their lead. Xehanort feels they'll find another dark entity soon enough as every light casts a shadow, including Keyblade wielders. Vor doesn't think it'll be that easy to track, though, since darkness can hide in people. Bragi agrees with this, as they still don't even fully know if the queen's darkness was her own.
Xehanort assures them that doesn't matter because darkness is darkness; although, he's sure the queen's belonged to her. If not, she welcomed it into her heart. Either way, her ire maintains Wonderland's world order, which to him means that the idea that light is always right and darkness is always wrong doesn't necessarily hold up. It's a matter of perspective.
Eraqus vehemently denies this, telling Xehanort that he needs to remember they're guardians of light, and darkness is their enemy. Xehanort reassures his friend that he knows. He's only suggesting that if the upperclassmen visited worlds with orders ruled by darkness, they may have suffered defeat by that very same darkness. This just further angers Eraqus, though, enough to where Hermond has to intervene. Hermond then gets everyone to agree that their priority is to find the missing wielders. Still, they'll do so by investigating the darkness and keeping their mind open to all possibilities.
Epilogue: Bauldr and Cruel Clues
Bauldr is a brand new Kingdom Hearts character that Dark Road mentioned in its first episode, and this epilogue marks his first-ever on-screen appearance. A week before Xehanort's group decided to investigate the darkness, Eraqus happened across Bauldr at the usual spot in Scala's outskirts. Bauldr's worried about his sister, one of the upperclassmen sent to take their Mark of Mastery exam. He would be happy for her, but the exam's stakes have him anxious. They state only those who return from the trip will become masters, which implies that not everyone will survive the ordeal and will either be killed or lost to darkness.
The mention of darkness makes Eraqus anxious himself, and Bauldr backpedals, remembering that Eraqus' grandfather was lost to it. Eraqus corrects him by stating he has no idea what exactly happened to his grandad, but the idea of darkness has always made him anxious. He then jokes that it might be in his blood, and tries to reassure Bauldr that his sister will be okay, bringing the storyline to a close.
This also marks the first instance in Kingdom Hearts to hint at why Eraqus has such an unwavering hatred for the darkness. It's unclear who his grandfather is and what exactly happened to him, but whatever happened worked alongside Eraqus' lineage to shape his beliefs. For those who don't know, Eraqus comes from a long line of Keyblade wielders, which is one reason Xehanort respectfully considers him a goal to be surpassed.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road is on IOS and Android.