Captive

"Do you ever think that just sitting watching the sunset is an incredibly boring pastime?" Kairi groaned sagging against the tree's trunk.

Sora looked over at her surprised. "No. I've always enjoyed it. I thought you did too."

She dropped off the tree trunk with a dramatic sigh. "Nope. There has to be something more fun we can do."

"Like what?"
"Surely we can think of something."

Sora just stared as his childhood friend slid closer to him.

"Well – uh – actually I think we should go back to the Tower. I told Master Yensid I wouldn't leave and I kind of feel bad that I did now…"

Kairi looked irritated for a moment, but then switched to a smile. "Lets go to the Secret Place. Please?"

Sora debated it. "For a minute… then we really do have to go. Ok?"

"Deal!"

Grabbing his hand she dragged him to the hollow area at the base of the tree. Sora always loved coming in here and looking at all their drawings. It always would astound him how the little light from the opening made it all to the back of the cave. It wasn't a particularly large spot, but it was deep.

"Its amazing… even in the darkest places, a little light always shines through." Sora smiled as he traced the outline of one of the older drawings.

"Right." Kairi was looking at something in one of the darker corners. "Look at this."

There was a swirling mass of shadows. "How – Kairi we got to go. That's a dark portal. And I really can't get in a fight right now."

"Lets just see where it goes, then we can come right back!"

"Kairi no."

"Just a quick peek." She grinned then hopped right through.

"Wait! Kairi!" He didn't hesitate to follow her through.

"Do you think I should tell Riku…?" Kairi fretted.

"Nah. Let the kid have a little freedom. He's been locked in this Tower almost as bad as this princess I once met." Lea yawned covering his face with the book he was supposed to be reading. "Freakish hair."

"A princess? Which one? We met a few once!"

"She's not one of the Seven. Probably."

Kairi wanted to question him further but was still worried about Sora. "So it's normal for him to not listen to a direct order from Master Yensid and to go off without telling anyone where he went?"

"Well when you put it that way… you might want to mention it to the Control Freak."

"That's what I thought." She stood up leaving the library.

Riku was working out in the gym when Kairi ran in. "Hey Riku can I ask you something?"

Grabbing the towel by his feet he wiped the sweat from his neck and forehead before pulling on a t-shirt. "Yeah. What's going on?" He noticed her nervous habit of twisting a strand of hair and staring at his feet instead of looking him in the eye. "Are you ok?"

"I am! But I was just wondering that maybe if it was a guy thing to get super stir-crazy and then maybe even if the guy was normally a really good person who always listened to people and whatever if maybe he would still run off without telling anyone even his best friends and then maybe he-"

"Sora left the tower and you haven't heard from him for how long?"

"It's been at least twelve hours."

"I'm going."

His head hurt so badly. What happened? Kairi and him had been on the island. Then there was that dark portal. Oh right! Kairi had jumped and when he followed her he'd blacked out. Leaping to his feet he looked around.

"Kairi!"

He was in a small room with spotless white walls. No windows, and no apparent doors. As he looked around he realized his wrists had cuffs that were chained to the wall. How stupid. I'll just summon the Keyblade, unlock these, and then go find Kairi. When he tried to summon it though nothing happened.

"What's going on?" He muttered.

"Having issues?" A portal opened in front of him.

Of course it was a person with a black coat. It's always a person in a black coat.

"Seriously. You guys need to shop somewhere else. The 'mysterious black coat' is getting really old." Sora rolled his eyes.

"My apologies. I'll bring that up at the next 'mysterious black coat' convention." The man replied drily.

"Do you guys use some kind of magic to block your faces when you have those hoods up? Or is there some kind of material blocking your face that we haven't noticed?"

"Its just convenient that way."

"Where's Kairi?!"

"Right here." The hooded person pulled Kairi out of the portal behind him.

Sora lurched forward the cuffs rubbing painfully on his wrists. "Kairi! Are you ok?"

"Sure. Yeah." She looked bored.

The Keyblade wielder looked confused. "Who are you? You're not Kairi."

The look-alike rolled her eyes. "Its about time. You are a lot more dense then they said you were."

"Where is my Kairi?"

The girl shrugged. "I don't know. Probably at that stupid Tower."

Sora sat down again. "So she's safe? That's good." He shook his head. "So why am I here?"

"Why do you think genius?"

"That's quite enough from you." The hooded person pressed a spot on her neck and she collapsed to the floor. "Your voice grates on my ears." The person kicked her back through the portal.

"What? She's on your side!" Sora stared in disbelief.

"I am well aware."

"How could you treat a comrade like they were garbage like that?"

"Because she is." They shrugged. "We only came so you knew your situation. Don't bother trying to escape. There is darkness infused in the cuffs blocking out your magic." The person began to leave.

"Wait! You're just going to leave me in here?"

"Of course."

Before Sora could protest further the portal evaporated leaving him all alone once again.

"Where is that idiot?" Riku growled scanning yet another world for signs of a Gummi ship.

The communicator rang.

"Hello?"

"Heya Riku. It's Dale! I had a quick favor to ask of you."

"What's going on?"

"There was a slight blip on one of my scanners. And it's probably nothing. But Chip will kill me if I just let it go and it turned out to be something. So I was hoping that you could check out your island for me? There was a darkness reading there several hours ago. It was so small I nearly missed it. So it's probably nothing. But I saw that you had taken your Gummi out and I was hoping - "

"Yep. I'll check it out."

"Thanks Riku!"

The Keyblade Master sighed as he hung up. Why was everyone so talkative lately? There are simpler ways to put things. He changed his course for toward Destiny Island. Was Sora on the island? Why would he leave? The moron wasn't exactly known for following directions, but he had known the seriousness of his current situation.

When he finally made it to their home he walked around but couldn't find anything. There was definitely a strange lingering coldness in the Secret Place, but once he made sure the Keyhole was still sealed he didn't see the need to stay. Growling he headed debated going back to the ship.

"What is that?" He inspected the walls closer. "Its darkness. I know it. But the Keyhole is fine…"

Walking around he felt along the walls. He'd spent long enough in the darkness to know the smell. It was here. But it was faint. Whatever was here wasn't planning on returning, it had just been passing through. If it didn't leave a trail to follow back then did it really matter? Of course with Sora missing this was really too suspicious and needed to be followed. But he didn't have any control over the darkness anymore. Before he could have taken this residue and magnified the amount of darkness so that he could follow it.

"Is it really worth accepting the darkness again to follow that idiot?" He muttered.

Of course it was worth it. He'd do it a hundred times over if that were what it took to keep his friends safe. But he remembered Mickey's words not too long ago…

"You don't belong in the darkness anymore Riku."

His Majesty was right. He would find Sora and bring him back safely. No matter what. And he would stay true to the light to make sure it got done. His heart didn't belong to the darkness anymore.

"Tell me if this hurts." The man in the coat said as he attached a device around Sora's wrists.

"Why should I?" Sora grumbled. It felt like he had been in here for days…

"Because I do so delight in it."

Sora was used to Riku's sarcasm, but this guy's tone hardly changed. Was he really that sadistic? Or was he just saying that?

"Is it going to hurt…?" Sora looked at the thick cuffs that stretched from his wrists nearly up to his elbows.

"That is not its purpose. However it may occur. Although I am positive my calculations are flawless, it hasn't been tested."

"What is its purpose?" Sora yanked at his restraints again. He had thought being stuck in the Tower was bad. This was clearly so much worse.

"To bring out the darkness within you." The man answered as he stepped back looking at his work.

"Uh – no thanks."

"I don't believe I gave you the option. It's happening. So you may as well enjoy the ride."

"I'm going to-"

"What? Swing your scary Key at me? I'll manage. Now lets see these lovelies in action."

Sora opened his mouth to give what he thought was an appropriately snarky reply, but suddenly he felt a coldness enter his veins. It started in his wrists, but worked its way quickly through his whole body. In no time at all he felt the haziness taking over. The last thing he clearly registered before blacking out was the mysterious man's words.

"Oh what a magnificent transformation."

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