Xemnas

"Our plans have been dashed by you... far more times than I care to count. Now it ends. I will purge that light in you... with darkness!"

- Xemnas to Lea

Xemnas, the Superior of the In-Between (狭間の指導者), is Xehanort's Nobody via Terra-Xehanort. He is Rank I within Organization XIII, and the ruler of The World That Never Was. He is the main antagonist of Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and later a member of the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness, the main antagonistic force of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts III.

As the oldest of the Nobodies, Xemnas wields the power of nothingness, and channels this into his weapons, red blades of energy called Ethereal Blades, which extend from the palms of his hands. He commands the Sorcerer Nobodies. As the superior, Xemnas is the first member and founder of Organization XIII, with all other Nobodies under his control. He is able to manipulate Sora, Roxas, and Xion to use the Keyblade's power for himself. He also appears to be the most powerful, so much that even Marluxia would not dare to face him in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.

Despite his original name being Xehanort, he uses an anagram of his mentor Ansem the Wise's name due to Xehanort stealing the name prior to discarding his heart and body. Xemnas is a playable character in the Mission Mode of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

Being the founder of Organization XIII and apparently the oldest of Nobodies, Xemnas is truly emotionless&mdash;in every sense of the word&mdash;and does not even remember what it was like to have any feelings. He claimed that this allowed him to have a clear understanding of the heart, but, in reality, this had warped his mind into believing that only anger, hatred, and other negative emotions were what make up most of a heart.

His lack of emotion deprives him of remorse for his actions, as well as the loss of the other members of the Organization. The only thing he truly cared about was Kingdom Hearts and his desire for power, and even lamented it when it was damaged. However, on some occasions, he had appeared to value friendship, as he was shown to converse with the armor of Aqua in the Chamber of Repose, although, this is likely due to the influence of Terra, as he is, in a sense, Terra's Nobody.

Unlike the other members of the Organization, Xemnas did not seem to want Kingdom Hearts for a true existence. Rather, much like his Heartless counterpart, he wanted it to use it to obtain power and remake the universe in his image. This concept was furthered as Xemnas thought that nothingness was the source of much power, and does not seem to despise it in the slightest. This goal stemmed from that of one of his two original personas, Master Xehanort, whom also desired to unlock Kingdom Hearts for the same purpose in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.

In other matters Xemnas spoke with calmness and deep authority, strangely similar to Master Eraqus. He had a tendency to be overly melodramatic, making long-winded speeches, exaggerating his false rage and sorrow with wide sweeping arm movements and hand gestures, like many villains. While ridiculous in nature, his exaggerations were representations of his lack of emotion. He was very intelligent, overall, and knew how to manipulate others, particularly Sora and his friends for his own needs.

Xemnas's personality seemed to share traits from both beings who composed his original persona, Master Xehanort and Terra. From the former he inherited his manipulative nature and the ideas for the black coat and adding the letter "χ" to rename himself and his fellow Organization members. It is very hard to say how much he inherited from Terra, but there is at least the familiarity with Aqua's armor, to which he refers to as "friend", and his strong desire to find his other "friend" in Castle Oblivion, as he has had Saïx search for the Chamber he sleeps in. Another example was when Roxas fell into a comatose state, saying: "So, sleep has taken you again".

After being defeated one last time, Xemnas, while lamenting he was bested again, finally regains his emotions and realizes that he misses his companions and that he took them for granted. Due to his newfound feelings of loneliness, Xemnas states that a heart is just about pain but when Sora says that pain is part of being human, Xemnas gives the boy a praising smile for being strong enough to live on.

Like all the Organization members, Xemnas wears the standard black coat, gloves, and knee-length boots with silver trimming and high concave indentations in the top. He has orange eyes and tanned skin, much like his Heartless counterpart and his complete being, Xehanort. Xemnas's hair is long, reaching to about mid-back, silver in color, and some of it falls over his shoulders. His hairstyle is reminiscent of Xehanort's hair, including his bangs, the color, and the length. It also shares traits with Terra's hair, including its layered, messy look and the spike on the top of his head.

Because Xemnas was born from the body of Terra, his overall appearance is identical to Terra's, save for the silver hair, orange eyes, and older appearance resultant from having Xehanort's soul.

While commanding the World of Nothingness, Xemnas dons armor adorned with dozens of Nobody symbols. The shoulder pad on his left shoulder, helmet, crown, boots, knees, and breastplate all sport these designs. His crown and shoulder pad are gold, while the rest of the armor is colored in light shades of blue and silver. He has two silver belts on his waist and what seem to be white feathers on his right shoulder in place of armor. Several cords crisscross in front of his torso, connecting to massive, oblong pieces of armor worn on each arm. Xemnas's faceplate is beak-like in structure and he wears clawed, metal gloves.

He also wears black pants underneath the armor. Perhaps the most striking features of this armor are the odd, pulsating growths sprouting from Xemnas's right shoulder and both arms. These growths appear organic and are a mixture of red, orange, yellow, and white. While the larger one on his shoulder seems to connect Xemnas to his dragon-like Nobody battleship, the other two on his arms just lie on the ground, seemingly serving no purpose. This armored form, referred to as the Armored Controller, bears a striking resemblance to No Heart.

In his final section of his battle with Sora and Riku, Xemnas's appearance is unchanged, save for his cloak. His black coat is now white and is covered with intricate black designs that resemble the Nobody sigil.

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Kingdom Hearts Union χ
A data recreation of Xemnas can be fought during the New Organization XIII Event in the month of January.

A fragmentary passage
Xemnas is shown as the second transformation and the third incarnation after a young Master Xehanort and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.

Prior to Kingdom Hearts
In the pursuit of knowledge, Xehanort, at the time calling himself "Ansem", willingly gave his heart to the darkness, his resulting Heartless able to retain its selfhood for uncertain reasons, though it was believed by the true Ansem the Wise that this was due to Xehanort's willing abandonment of his heart. His Nobody took the name "Xemnas", as it was the anagram of Xehanort's stolen name "Ansem" with the Recusant's Sigil added in, which marked him as a potential vessel for Master Xehanort's Heart, and did the same for the other Nobodies. He convinced them that their only way to regain their Hearts was to ask for them back from Kingdom Hearts itself. And so they began to gather the Hearts from the Heartlesses to build their own Kingdom Hearts, as a back up in case Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, Xehanort's Heartless, failed his role.

At some point Xemnas discovered that even though they had cast their Hearts aside the Nobodies started to grow Hearts of their own out of their memories and interests, thus making their roles as vessels problematic. Xemnas and Xigbar decided to lie to their fellow members who thought they were having feelings again, believing that when their Kingdom Hearts is completed it would not matter if they had Hearts as they would be replaced with a version of Xehanort's Heart anyway.

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix/Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
"He looks a lot like you."

- Xemnas to Roxas, about Sora

When Roxas first came into being, Xemnas found him at the manor at Twilight Town. Giving the Nobody his name, Xemnas inducted Roxas into Organization XIII so he could use the Keyblade to release captured hearts from Emblem Heartless and form his own personal Kingdom Hearts. However, Xemnas's true reason for Kingdom Hearts is not to regain his heart, but rather to become a god, and remake the universe in his image. With only a few members, such as Xigbar, aware of Xemnas's true goal, it possibly stems from his previous existence as Master Xehanort.

A few days later, for reasons unknown, Xemnas arrived at Hollow Bastion. Being told by the Princesses of Heart of the power that they sensed while on his way to seal the world's Keyhole, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Beast go to the abandoned area where they fought Maleficent to investigate, and soon encounter Xemnas. Intangible at first, Xemnas passes through Sora, causing him to experience many of his memories in rapid succession, before fully manifesting. Sora asks who the man is, and Goofy wonders if it is Ansem, and though Xemnas says he is familiar with the name, he refuses to clarify his identity. He then launches an energy attack at Sora, who manages to deflect it (with some difficulty). Xemnas remarks how Sora looks like "him" and thus an incomplete being, his words only confusing Sora. Xemnas then attacks the Keyblade wielder, intending to test his power.

Afterwards, he backs off, appearing to be defeated, but quickly abandons the facade. He finds Sora fascinating, and says that they will one day meet again and disappears, but not before making an ambiguous comment on how he is but "a mere shell". Xemnas later had Roxas meet him at the Dark Margin in the Realm of Darkness, telling him of his time with Sora. Roxas asks just who he is, but Xemnas only explains just what he is. When Roxas repeats the question, Xemnas states that his name is of no importance and asks Roxas if he remembers his own true name. Roxas attempts to answer, but then realizes that he doesn't know his identity as Sora's Nobody.

As a back up plan in case neither Roxas or Sora could be of use, Xemnas uses his Replica Program to create a memory-based clone of Sora. The result is Xion. Though he makes her the fourteenth member of the group, Xemnas does not make her an official member of the Organization. He sends all the members on their missions to further their plans while placing Xion in the care of Roxas.

Xemnas eventually extends his plans and operations to Castle Oblivion. With this fortress in his control, he sends five Organization members (Marluxia, Larxene, Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion) to conduct experiments on memory with the use of Naminé who was abducted and being held prisoner by the Organization. Xemnas places Marluxia in charge of Castle Oblivion and also charges Vexen with the task of continuing experimenting on the Replica Project which would later use a numberless replica using data gathered from Riku.

Xemnas was also the one who handed down the order to Marluxia to lure Sora to Castle Oblivion and experiment with the hero. However, once the Dusks brought back rumors of traitorous activities occurring in the castle, Xemnas has Saïx send in Axel to dispatch the traitors, somehow knowing Marluxia and Larxene are the traitors. However, while successful in eliminating the traitors, Xemnas's plans falters as even the loyal members stationed at Castle Oblivion were all eliminated and Naminé escapes. With Vexen's death, Xemnas is unable to advance the Replica Project in order to do Xion's development and his plans are forced to depend on Xion's well-being. He places Axel in charge of capturing her whenever she tries to escape to find out who she really is, and would later continuously send Axel back to Castle Oblivion to search for the Chamber of Waking, but would never find the room he so desperately desired to secure.

Over the next year, Xemnas orders the remaining members to do all they can to create powerful Heartless for Roxas to defeat such as what Xaldin was doing to Beast. Roxas gradually feels remorse for what he is doing on the behest of this group and questions their motives and loses trust in them when he sees how people with hearts live and what Xemnas is ordering the Organization to do to them. At one point, Xemnas and Roxas had a conversation, where Xemnas reveals to Roxas about Sora's existence and Xion's value before having him return back to his duties. When Xion learns of her true nature as a Replica and runs away, Roxas ultimately leaves the group to find Sora and answers to all the questions that the Organization refused to answer. However, Xemnas manages to capture Xion and alter her to obey him, having her go after Roxas and absorb him to become a perfect replica of Sora.

However, Xion is defeated as she dissolves back into the memories she originally was while pleading with Roxas to stop Xemnas with her dying breath. Roxas, emotionally shattered and having seen enough of the Organization's treachery, goes to The World that Never Was to destroy Xemnas as he begins to lose memory of Xion while inheriting her Keyblade. While this would actually benefit Xemnas, as even with Roxas's full power, Xemnas is still stronger and would defeat and once again use Roxas for his goals, although it remains unclear why did he not choose to just directly confront Roxas directly when he arrived in The World That Never Was despite knowing fully well he is the only one in the Organization capable of capturing Roxas, unfortunately Xemnas is unable to face Roxas as Riku defeats Roxas by using the powers of Ansem, stopping his suicidal plan to take on Xemnas, and takes him to DiZ to be sealed in a digital replica of Twilight Town. Deeming Xion a failure as mostly all memory of her existence is negated, although strangely despite his lack of care for her he managed to retain his memories about as long as Riku and Roxas did, Xemnas discontinues the Replica Project and orders Axel to bring back Roxas or kill him, setting the stage for Kingdom Hearts II.

Kingdom Hearts II
"The Keyblade... a truly marvelous weapon. Were it only in more... capable hands."

- Xemnas on Sora's progress

True to Xemnas's words from their previous encounter, he and Sora meet again at Hollow Bastion, the same world he was first encountered, albeit restored, accompanied by Demyx, Xaldin, Xigbar, Luxord, and Saïx (although all of their faces are hidden by their hoods, and do not directly face Sora), although Sora doesn't recognize him from their first encounter. They taunt and mock him, only furthering Sora's desire to defeat them. Xemnas makes an empty joke about how he thought they could've been friends, and then leaves. From there on in, Xemnas remained at his castle while his group's members traveled to other worlds to make sure Sora stayed on track, while increasing the number of Heartless for him to fight.

Xemnas is not seen again until the Heartless invasion of Hollow Bastion, arriving to the Computer room to access the Chamber of Repose before appearing to look down upon the Heartless army that had temporarily halted in the Great Maw. King Mickey, upon seeing his face, identifies him as Xehanort's Nobody. Xemnas then runs off, but King Mickey gives chase and engages Xemnas in combat, though Sora, Donald, and Goofy are impeded from following by the Heartless. After an exhausting battle, the three make their way to the cliff overlooking Villain's Vale; finally catching up with the King. King Mickey addresses him by his original name, and Xemnas merely remarks that it has been ages since he had abandoned that name. Sora demands to know where Riku and Kairi are. Xemnas claims to know nothing of any "Kairi", and as for Riku, Xemnas tells Sora to ask his King. Then, he vanishes into a corridor of darkness, but not before King Mickey follows him in. However, as King Mickey later appears in Twilight Town, it is obvious that either Xemnas managed to escape him or that King Mickey simply lost track of him.

As Sora and company infiltrate The World That Never Was, Xemnas stands upon the highest tower of his stronghold, basking in the completed Kingdom Hearts's light before giving Saïx permission to finish off Sora and his companions. After his remaining followers are defeated, Xemnas makes himself known when he learns of Ansem the Wise attempting to digitally seal Kingdom Hearts away to hinder him. The former pupil mocks his teacher, stating that he is the source of all Heartless and the one who inspired Xehanort to go where Ansem himself did not dare to venture. Though Ansem admits that fact though his intentions were pure, but asks what Xemnas seeks from all the suffering he caused. Xemnas reveals his intentions while mocking Ansem for being jealous for being outdone by his own student. However, Ansem scoffs at this while stating neither of them truly understand the heart and that Xemnas's plan is destined to fail miserably before the Kingdom Hearts Encoder explodes.

Retreating as the bright light envelops the area, Xemnas is mortified to find his Kingdom Heart damaged by Ansem's actions with the dislodged Hearts falling into the city and becoming Heartless. Once Sora and the others travel up to the very top of the tower, Xemnas asks the three Keyblade wielders to fetch him more hearts to repair the damage. But when they refuse, Xemnas goes into a philosophical debate with them over light and darkness and then the rights of those who are nothing. But as Riku and Sora refuse to believe the false sincerity he expresses, Xemnas admits that feels no remorse for his actions and proceeds to face Sora one on one in an arena of nothingness, with Memory's Skyscraper towering above them. Xemnas appears defeated, returning Sora to the Castle That Never Was.

Xemnas' heart is collected by Young Xehanort at this time or at some point before and brought forward in time so he can be made one of the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness. After his time is up in the future, his heart returns to the time he was collected from.

However, Xemnas is still alive and well, basking in the hole on Kingdom Hearts while urging it to become one with him so they both gain the power needed to destroy their common enemies. Sora and the others try to stop him, but Xemnas is absorbed into Kingdom Hearts. Fortunately, the worlds created a door for Sora and the others to enter, for they wanted them to be the guardians of their destiny. They then follow Xemnas into Kingdom Hearts, but they see that Xemnas has taken its power and transformed the realm into a place resembling the World That Never Was with a giant fortress in the middle. Separated from Kairi and Mickey, Sora, Riku, Donald and Goofy fight their way to Xemnas and defeat him. After they defeat him, they are somehow transported back to the tower with King Mickey and Kairi. Seeing Xemnas fading as he thinks that he needs more hearts and more rage, Sora tells him that hearts are more than just anger or hate and asks if he remembers. Xemnas admits that he doesn't before seemingly fading back into the darkness.

With the help of Naminé, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and the King get safely to Destiny Islands, but before Sora and Riku can follow, Xemnas attacks once more with a gigantic mechanical dragon. After another difficult battle, Xemnas takes Sora and Riku to a realm of nothingness, with Xemnas wearing a robe representing both light and darkness. He says that if both light and darkness are eternal, then so too must be nothingness. Riku and Sora say this is true, but refuse to accept Xemnas to be eternal himself. After a very intense battle, Xemnas manages to badly injure Riku before Sora batters him submission with both his and Riku's Keyblades before the two finish him off as Xemnas is defeated for good.

Kingdom Hearts coded
In Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, Mickey recalls Xemnas as Xehanort's incarnation that commanded the Nobodies and then Yen Sid explains to Mickey that the destruction of both Ansem and Xemnas will lead to the reconstruction of Master Xehanort.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
"Sora... The bits and bites that have made up your life, are you certain they are not copies of someone else's?"

- Xemnas to Sora

Xehanort is revived along with Xigbar and Saïx, and the other Organization members. However, Young Xehanort manages to recruit Xemnas alongside the other Xehanorts, and takes them to the dream worlds, where their leader is scheming the ultimate plan.

Xemnas first appears in Prankster's Paradise before Sora as he questions how a "heartless puppet" can have a heart. Sora counters this by asking "Don't you guys have hearts too?" Xemnas also appeared along with Young Xehanort in The Grid to further harass Sora and have him question whether he is living his life or that of another.

Later, Xemnas appears along with Xigbar while revealing the true reason behind Organization XIII's formation, which was to assemble 13 vessels for Master Xehanort's heart to enact his scheme of recreating the χ-Blade and begin a new Keyblade war while in conjunction with "Ansem" targeting the seven Princesses of Heart through the manipulation of Maleficent to leave the worlds defenseless against the Realm of Darkness once Kingdom Hearts is unlocked. Though Xemnas's scheme failed, with only Xigbar and Saïx undergoing the process and the other either being killed or grew Hearts and desires of their own, he took precautions to recreate the Organization through the the temporal abilities of Young Xehanort to gather various incarnations of Xehanort and fill the vacant ranks. Upon this revelation, Sora becomes disgusted at how Xemnas and Xigbar have commissioned the heart as an experiment and a tool to commit heinous atrocities to countless worlds and millions of innocents, and he engages Xemnas in battle, managing to drive the Nobody off before the boy's darkness takes its toll on him.

He then appears at Where Nothing Gathers along with Ansem, Xigbar, Saïx, and the alternate-Xehanort to be led by Master Xehanort, who reveals his plans of the 13 vessels for his heart in order to form 13 Keyblade wielders of darkness to fight with 7 Keyblade wielders of light so as to recreate the original X-blade without fail like his previous scheme with Ventus and Vanitas. Xemnas proceeds to subdue Mickey so Xehanort can proceed to make Sora into the 13th vessel for the final spot. However, Lea rescues Sora from Xehanort, the event distracting Xemnas long enough for Mickey to summon his Kingdom Key D, with the Nobody teleporting away before Mickey could hit him. Xemnas then vanishes along with Xehanort's new army.

Kingdom Hearts III
After Vexen is brought into the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness by Master Xehanort, he allows Xehanort to use his prototype replicas to allow the hearts of his time-displaced selves to have a physical presence in the present. Xemnas was among his past selves due to him generating a Heart of his own.

Xemnas appears with Ansem outside the gates of the Old Mansion in Twilight Town, questioning Sora on his plan to bring back Roxas. After taunting Sora for wanting to bring back Roxas, as Roxas shouldn't have existed in the first place, Xemans states that the only way for Sora to bring him back would be to separate himself into a Heartless and Nobody again, which would suit their plans. Ansem summons a swarm of Neoshadows, accompanied by Xemnas summoning a few Dusks. Ansem soon teleports away with Xemnas, both telling Sora to set his heart free and to surrender it to darkness. Soon after, Ansem and Xemnas observe Sora and his friends from atop a rooftop as he prepares to leave Twilight Town. Xigbar soon appears, questioning the duo if they were making things too obvious for Sora; Xemnas tells him that they were instructed to guide him, and Ansem explains that the heroes would be lost if they didn't spell it out for them. When Xigbar reminds the two of Sora's previous victories over them, Ansem responds that they would simply destroy him should he waver off of the Organization's set path.

Xemnas later appears before Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx and Luxord in the Keyblade Graveyard. Telling them to allow the Seven Guardians of Light to believe the lie that Larxene told Sora, that they had all their members together, as it would cause their foes to make a mistake in their favor. He then also reveals that he chose them as members of Oragnization XIII because they have an "ancient Keyblade legacy" that they are keeping secret. This is still unknown for the time being.

Xemnas later appears in the Keyblade Graveyard, appearing next to Master Xehanort as the latter explains his goals of re-enacting the Keyblade War to the Seven Guardians of Light. After Ansem, Young Xehanort and Vanitas soon appear, the five Darknesses unleash a massive swarm of Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed to attack the Guardians. Xemnas later walks with the rest of the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness as they confront the Guardians at the crossroads of the Keyblade Graveyard. After Master Xehanort creates the Skein of Severance, the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness begin their clash with the Seven Guardians of Light. Xemnas fights alongside Marluxia, Larxene and Luxord. He briefly gives Luxord a power boost before teleporting away. Later, when Saïx and Xion overwhelm Lea, Sora and Kairi, Xemnas appears and destroys Lea's Keyblade and prepares to kill Lea for betraying the Organization. But Xion interferes with Xemnas' attempt to kill Lea, stating that Xemnas knows that they need Lea alive. Xemnas retorts that they only need his heart, they do not need his soul to forge the χ-blade, but then suggests that as she was once Axel's friend, she should be the one to kill Lea. She appears reluctant to murder her former friend. Sora immediately recognizes the hooded figure as Xion, and stops her from killing Lea. Xion attacks Sora in a frenzy, though Sora doesn't retaliate. Sora then speaks in Roxas' voice, revealing he still remembers her name. This causes Xion to break down emotionally, in which Xemnas knocks her and Sora down with the intention of killing them both. As Xemnas prepares the finishing blow, Roxas' heart emerges from Sora's body and fuses with a replica body, allowing him to return for real. While Xion and Lea express relief at their friend's triumphant comeback, Xemnas expresses a mixture of rage and confusion. Xemnas then proceeds to abduct Kairi, leaving Saïx to fight Sora, Xion and Roxas.

Xemnas appears alongside Ansem and Young Xehanort atop the Tower of Endings, where he fights against Sora, Riku and King Mickey. After being defeated he stated that, having sacrificed he comrades to help Xehanort's goal, he felt a surge of loneliness from his growing Heart. He stated that this only means that "a Heart is just pain", but Sora stated that's what being human is. Xemnas says that being human "must take incredible strength" before his replica body faded away, sending his Heart back to the past to live out his fate. }}

As the leader of Organization XIII, Xemnas is the most powerful Nobody in existence, far more powerful than even the other members of the Organization, as even the arrogant Marluxia, who is himself a powerful member of the Organization in his own right, would not dare to fight him even alongside Larxene and Axel. It has also been confirmed that he is even stronger than Roxas at his full power, which was why Xion was so desperate for Riku to stop Roxas as she knows Roxas isn't strong enough to fight Xemnas and Riku himself stated that going after the Kingdom Hearts is suicide as it means fighting Xemnas and Xemnas would destroy Roxas. He is particularly feared by Vexen, the weakest member of the Organization, to the point of not daring to interrupt his time in the Chamber of Waking and the mere mention of Xemnas being enough to cause the high-ranked scientist to back down. Even Saïx, who is Xemnas's second in command and one of the most powerful members of the Organization, does not seem to be willing to fight him alone despite knowing of Xemnas's true plans and even with Axel, who is also a powerful member of the Organization in his own right, he still chose to operate in secrecy and recruit Xion and Roxas before challenging him. Xemnas is also the only one, apart from perhaps Saïx, who even Axel fears, who has been shown to be unafraid of facing other high-level members of the Organization such as Marluxia, Saïx, and Xaldin, therefore reluctantly going after Xion and Roxas when Xemnas ordered it.

As the most powerful and oldest of the Nobodies, Xemnas, in addition to having his subordinates's ability to fly and teleport, wields the power of Nothingness. He uses this to form his personal weapon by solidifying beams of Nothingness into blades of energy called Ethereal Blades that act to his will, allowing him to manifest and de-manifest them at whim and change their length, which he can either wield in close combat like real swords, not needing a hilt or handle to hold them, or fire them as laser-like projectiles, either from his hands directly or suspending them in mid-air first. He can make as many as he wants, even creating thousands as his desperation attack. Xemnas is also capable of using Nothingness to cast energy balls capable of exploding into orb-like force-fields as well as firing powerful lasers, which he can do from all directions. He can manifest a barrier capable of damaging Sora and use the barrier offensively by having it rush towards Sora or using it to trap him. In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Xemnas's limit break named All-Vanity consists of Xemnas summoning a barrier around himself that is impenetrable and can damage any enemy that touches it. Xemnas's Final Limit retains his barrier but Xemnas also creates two large powerful lasers from his hands that he fires around himself at a long range that can heavily damage any enemy. His control over Nothingness also allows him to turn even other Organization members into Dusks or destroy them if he wants to and he has absolute control over all other Nobodies, specifically the Sorcerers. In Kingdom Hearts III, Xemnas replaces his previous darkness and light-empowered hand-to-hand attacks with a Nothingness empowered swift spinning kick and he could release fissures of blue energy with his Ethereal Blades. He even proved able to effortlessly destroy Lea's Keyblade with a single surge of Nothingness.

In addition to Nothingness, Xemnas naturally has power over Darkness and in addition to the basic ability to open Corridor of Darkness, he is one of the few Organization members capable of employing Darkness in combat, able to encase Sora in a sphere of dark energy to slowly drain his health, surround himself in a ball of dark energy and move around at incredible speeds, and even generate enough darkness to cover the entire arena, doing so in his secret boss and final form. With the powers of Kingdom Hearts at his disposal, Xemnas not only gains stronger powers over darkness but also gains the powers of light, allowing him to generate thorns of black and white energy, summon crests of light able to fire beams of white energy and empower his kicks and punches with darkness and light, causing them to emit either shadowy or white energy.

Xemnas appears to have the ability to create pocket dimensions at will that he can control to his whim, as shown by how he warps himself and Sora while leaving the rest of his enemies in his castle to a realm of nothingness where only the Memory Skycraper stands and later on when he summons a small alternate dimension to ensnare and torture Axel by firing lasers all around him. While merged with Kingdom Hearts, it seems his "creation" ability becomes much more potent, as he is capable of creating an actual realm within Kingdom Hearts named the World of Nothingness and also manifesting a large dragon ship equipped with powerful laser-firing barrels as well as creating Bomb Bells and Spiked Rollers to guard the inner function of his ship and also to attack. He conjures and launches buildings and snowflake projections capable of firing lasers and even at one point generates a black hole to swallow Sora and Riku's ship. He also was capable of shapeshifting into a form for his final battle that gives him a robe that represents both light and darkness and greatly increases his power and allows him to create clones of himself. Even without having the powers of Kingdom Hearts, Xemnas still retains the ability to summon and launch buildings at Sora.

While facing Sora and the rest in his armor, Xemnas wields a large sword capable of dealing great damage with a single swing and by slamming it to the ground, he can generate a shockwave capable of pushing Sora and Riku away a great distance. He also has access to the powers and weapons of his fallen organization comrades, therefore capable of summoning Demyx's Water Forms to deal great damage, accessing Luxord's Fair Game, telekinetically suspending and having Xigbar's Sharpshooters fire lasers and Xaldin's lances blast wind, unleashing powerful shockwave from Saïx's Lunatic, and manifesting a ring of fire and Axel's Eternal Flames.

In all his boss battles, he displays outstanding agility and athletic prowess as well as excellent swordsmanship and martial arts skill, capable of unleashing relentless barrages of attacks from both his Ethereal Blades and even unarmed that are hard to block, preferring swift spinning kicks and. In terms of speed and agility, he is shown to be easily equal to, if not, superior to Larxene. Not only is he shown to be able to trade blows with Sora in his regular form, but in his final form, he is even able to overtake and disarm Sora as well as fight off both Sora and Riku when Sora had regained his weapons along with fatally injuring Riku before finally being defeated. His greatest feat was easily catching Lea's Keyblade strike by it's handle to prevent it from slashing him one-handed.

Weapon
Xemnas uses weapons called Ethereal Blades (エアリアルブレード). They are beams of red energy and extend directly from the palms of his hands, without any hilt or handle. He can summon or disperse them at will, and is able to change their length as well. They are solid despite their appearance, and, despite seemingly lacking a cutting edge, are wielded like swords. The Ethereal Blades can also be used as projectiles and can suspend themselves in midair around a target before firing at them. As a desperation move, Xemnas can surround his enemy in darkness and fire an amazing amount of Ethereal Blades at them. Xemnas displayed superb prowess in swordsmanship using them, performing many swift and acrobatic combos with them.

The names of Xemnas's various Ethereal Blades seem to be references to iron-fisted leadership. Perhaps due to his preeminent power among the Organization, only one of his Ethereal Blades, Infinity, actually grants him a support ability.

Having been the Nobody of Terra Xehanort, who can use a Keyblade, it is safe to assume that like Roxas, who can wield a Keyblade due to being Sora's Nobody, he does have the ability wield a Keyblade if he wanted to but just couldn't due to having to conceal his connection to Xehanort as best as he could. His ability to use of Master Xehanort's Keyblade Armor during his battles with Sora and Riku further supports this.


 * As pointed out in Director's Secret Report XIII, Xemnas is a "special nobody" like Roxas and Naminé. This may be from the fact that his original form had the hearts of both Terra and Master Xehanort.

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