Editing Ansem the Wise

As the years went on, Ansem the Wise became worried that the darkness of people's hearts would one day swallow his beloved home. In order to understand and counter it, Ansem began conducting simple psychological tests on Xehanort as a start. Ansem also hoped that this would unlock Xehanort's hidden memories, and his apprentice showed interest in the plan. However, the more he probed, the more he became worried about Xehanort's well-being and his possibly superhuman abilities. Even so, Ansem eventually constructed a large laboratory in the basement of his castle, encouraged by Ienzo. <ref>''''[[Secret Ansem Report]]:'''"Spured on by my youngest apprentice Ienzo, I constructed a massive laboratory in the basement of my castle."</ref> One of Ansem's experiment subjects was known as [[Subject X]], an imprisoned amnesiac girl who could only recall three facts of her life. Unknown to him, [[Braig]] secretly released Subject X, <ref>'''''Secret Reports''', '''[[Subject X]]:''' "One day, a man took me away from there. I could not see him in the darkness, except for he wore an eyepatch."</ref> making Ansem order all experiments cease, as he feared that they had caused her disappearance <ref>'''''[[Kingdom Hearts III]]''', '''Ansem the Wise:''' "Her disappearance is ''why'' I stopped the experiments!"</ref> due to the experimentation snowballing out of control. <ref>''''Secret Ansem Reports:'''"What have I done? My experiments in researching the darkness in the heart, which started with simple psychological testing has snowballed out of control."</ref> Unknown to Ansem, Xehanort believed that he had hidden Subject X from him. <ref>''''Secret Reports''', '''[[Terra-Xehanort|Xehanort]]:''' "Had "wise" master Ansem hidden her away?"</ref>Still, Ansem sank into despair over his error in experimenting on Xehanort.

[[Gummi Ship]] travel was now possible, thanks to Xehanort opening the door in Ansem's basement, and a ruler of another world, King [[Mickey Mouse]], soon arrived. The two rulers became great friends, conversing over many subjects, and their companionship began to heal Ansem's heart.{{storylink|Secret Ansem Report 2}} Around this time, Xehanort had continued the experiments in secret, accidentally creating [[Heartless]]{{storylink|Ansem's Report 3}} and presented his work in the hopes of praise. However, Ansem forbade an further experimentation with the Heartless as they threatened the stability of the worlds. <ref>''''' Kingdom Hearts II'', Ansem the Wise:''' "I forbid it! Forget this talk of doors and the hearts of worlds. That place must not be defiled."</ref> Ansem even accepted the boys [[Isa]] and [[Lea]] on as new apprentices.{{storylink|Secret Report 6}} King Mickey eventually advised Ansem the Wise to review the research data; Ansem discovered the [[Ansem Reports]], penned under his name, but written by Xehanort. Ansem began to see that the damage he had done had become irreversible.

Once Riku is reunited with King Mickey, DiZ uses the memory-version of [[Twilight Town]] to briefly separate them. Riku then reveals that he's learned to tell the odor of darkness emanating from its users apart; DiZ does not smell like the real Heartless, which has a foul odor of darkness. His ruse revealed, DiZ introduces himself and instructs Riku to meet Naminé to help decide his fate. Meanwhile, DiZ reunites with Mickey, but keeps his identity concealed, wanting his old friend to dissuade him from revenge.

DiZ soon returns to Naminé to aid her in the task to restore Sora's memories, after they were broken apart in Castle Oblivion. Since the castle is still under control of Organization XIII, DiZ convinces Naminé to move Sora, [[Donald Duck|Donald]], and [[Goofy]] to his lab in Twilight Town, in order to keep them safe. Thankfully, the task is easy to do; [[Axel]] having been busy looking for the hidden [[Chamber of Repose|Chamber]] under orders from [[Saix]].

DiZ convinces Riku to retrieve [[Roxas]]; fusing Roxas back into Sora will fully restore his memory. Riku has no choice but to take on the form of [[Riku-Ansem|Ansem, Seeker of Darkness]] in order to defeat Roxas. Seeing the evidence of Riku's devotion to Sora, DiZ slowly begins to lose his lust for revenge, hiding his shame behind laughter. Still, DiZ continues with the plan, placing Roxas into [[Simulated Twilight Town|a digital copy of Twilight Town]] where he can live out his days under observation, until it is time for him to reunite with Sora.

As DiZ, Ansem dons a much more complex outfit. His face is covered in red bandages, save for his right eye and mouth, and he tied two intersecting belts around his head, one passing over where his left eye should be. He wears a long, red cape with a quadrate cross cut taken out at the chest, the edges of which are yellow. This cut exposes a similarly oblong white symbol on a pitch-black shirt. Over-top this shirt, DiZ wears what seems to be grey, segmented armor over his sides and abdomen. His legs are covered by a long, black cloth lined with yellow, which itself has several brown straps pinned onto the front, seemingly for no purpose other than to create yet another angular pattern. On a yellow sash that hangs around DiZ's waist are three brown pouches, descending downward diagonally on his left hip. These pouches are all identical, all sporting the same design on the top flap, and all closed by a darker brown strap that attaches to a silver button on the right ride, a grey tassel hanging from each button. Like Ansem and his coat, DiZ wears a dark colored scarf around his neck. He also has light colored sleeves.

Ansem the Wise has no combat abilities to speak of, but since gaining the power of darkness during his banishment, he has been shown to be able to do at least three things. In one of his reports, Ansem stated that after he discovered his new-found powers, he gained the ability to use Corridors of Darkness for travel, though he admits that it was difficult to control initially. This was shown after Riku defeats Roxas; Ansem arrives shortly to take Roxas with him. To avoid being recognized, Ansem has also displayed the ability to change his outward appearance to conceal his identity. In ''Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories'' and ''Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories'', he uses this ability to become Xehanort's Heartless to guide Riku.  

Ansem also shows the ability to use darkness to repel would-be attackers; while testing Riku in his disguise as Xehanort's Heartless, he merely had to raise a hand to create a small force to push back Riku. He also demonstrated the ability to craft World Cards from Riku's memory, although altered to only show the [[Villains]] and [[Heartless]] i.e. "dark beings". While disguised as [[Xehanort's Heartless]], Ansem could also use a copy of the [[Dark Figure]] to test Riku's abilities. After his Encoder explosion sent him to the Dark Margin, Ansem lost his dark powers, or at least the memory of how to use them.