A.N. Hopefully this will be the only authors note I will need to write for this fanfic, as it is more a warning than a breifing of the plot. To those of you who are familiar with my fanfic "The Transition" I should warn you in advance that this is much darker, more graphic and considerably more messed up than the previously mentioned fic, it is not for the faint hearted but should promise to be a rewarding read if you can manage to survive the gory parts. It is my own take on what happened after the Mark of Mastery Exam in KH3D, if everything went horribly wrong. I am calling this fic "Bait" for reasons that should become quite obvious in a short time. I believe I have provided all the necessary warning, so Enjoy!

~Jade

"Bait" Chapter 1

"I think we found the place, the surge in dark energies is staggering, can you feel it?" An unusually pensive Lea asked his companion. Riku could sense it long before Lea noticed, as darkness had a strange affect on his senses, it stunk of every slimy, repulsive thing he could imagine, and the air was so thick with it here that he had to focus all his energy to keep from gagging on it.

They had been sent to try to discern what the source of this strange spike in darkness was, which the wizard Yen Sid could sense from much farther off than Riku even. Their suspicions were that a rift had formed in between worlds and the darkness was escaping from it, but nonetheless, they were warned to be on their guard- the least of their worries was being consumed by it, but there were other dangers as well.

"I feel it, but there's something...unusual about it." Riku replied. "Shouldn't this place be swarming with Heartless?"

"You have a point, it seems quiet here, too quiet." Lea answered. "Don't let your guard down, it could be a trap... we should check things out though, what do you say?"

"We'll split up, don't go too far apart from each other should something go wrong...Give a shout out if you discover anything!"

"Got it..."

The two kept a carefully measured distance from each other as they examined the area for the source of the dark energy. Oddly, there was nothing off about the location save the energy's presence, no broken structures, no heartless. It was as though the rift was trying to hide from them.

Suddenly the pair of them recoiled, Lea seemed to be knocked over by the force, Riku gagged and stumbled in place, he felt like he was going to be ill- there was a sudden strange surge in the energy as the true source of the rift revealed itself.

It was the whole of Organization 13, standing menacingly in a circle around them, all their faces obscured by the black hoods. Lea stared at them in shock, how did he not see the ambush coming.

The leader made a signal with his hand, and suddenly two of them attacked in quick unison. Lea managed to block one of their attacks with his keyblade, but the other proved too quick for Riku, seizing him by the throat and pinning him savagely against a wall before he could react. There was a sharp groan and a soft thud as his head made contact with a protrusion in the wall, Lea could have sworn he saw a spurt of blood where it struck. The force of the blow knocked Riku unconscious, leaving Lea alone to attempt negotiations.

"What are you doing here?" He called out wildly.

"I think you know very well why were here." one of the taller hooded figures responded. "It took all of us to generate enough dark energy to hold your attention. It was a ruse, we lured you here..."

The group summoned another wave of raw dark energy to get their point across, the force of which knocked Lea to the ground again.

"However it did not go exactly as planned. We were actually expecting the wizard to send Riku and Sora out to investigate, We intended to grab Sora while Riku was distracted by the dark energies. but no matter, we can always use this scenario to our advantage..." He nodded to the cloaked figure who still had Riku pinned. He grabbed Riku and vanished with him in response. There was a bloodstain on the wall where the two of them disappeared, confirming Lea's suspicions that Riku had been hurt pretty badly.

"No, wait! What do you want with him?"

"He will do very nicely as bait, you on the other hand, can act as the messenger. Let Sora know if he does not give himself up willingly, his best friend will pay the price. You all should know our location quite well. You have one month." Then he vanished with the rest of the group, leaving a confused and horrified Lea behind.

"Wait, bring Riku back! Where are you taking him? What are you going to do to him!?" Lea screamed to thin air.

It was too late, Lea knew the Organization was already well out of earshot. He just hoped Yen Sid and the others could think of a plan to save Riku.

End of chapter one.