Disclaimer: The Mad Doctor claims no ownership to the Kingdom Hearts franchise. It belongs to Disney and Square Enix.

Notes from the Mad Doctor: Greetings readers. I can't tell you how difficult this chapter was to write. Action scenes are easy to watch but hard to write. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4: The Darkest Dream

Destiny Islands

On the beach of the Play Island, Kairi sat on the sand. She gazed out to the ocean while occasionally throwing a stick out to the surf. Pluto ran after the stick and once he retrieved it, he brought it back to her to throw again.

As she continued her game of fetch, Kairi soon noticed something. There was a glowing light in the sky that was falling toward the ocean. She stood up and ran to the water's edge as the light splashed down. Pluto watched with her.

A moment of silence passed. Suddenly, a figure broke through the surface of the water. Kairi gasped when she saw that familiar spiky brunette hair.

It was Sora.

'He's back! He made it back!' thought Kairi as tears of joy ran down her cheeks.

"Sora!" she called.

Sora turned around and saw her. "Kairi!" he called as he fought through the water toward the beach.

Pluto barked happily as the Hero of Light approached the Princess of Heart. Once he reached the beach, Sora stopped to take a breath before he looked into Kairi's eyes and gave his trademark grin.

"I-I'm back!"

Kairi threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. "You're home!"

The two of them just stood there on the shore holding each other. They both wanted to savor this moment as much as they could.

Pulling away, Kairi gazed into Sora's eyes. The eyes that she always adored so much. "Sora, I…"

Suddenly, Sora's smile vanished. "Kairi, look out!" he cried.

Without warning, Sora whirled them around and pushed Kairi away. Though it was unintentional, she ended up falling on the beach. She barely had time to recover before she gazed up and saw a horrible sight.

Standing directly behind Sora, was a figure in a black coat like that of an Organization XIII member. It had its right arm raised with a Keyblade in its hand. With a powerful downward thrust, it slashed it against Sora's back.

Sora's body arched forward. His body started to crystallize. Soon, it burst into bits and scattered to the winds.

A horrible recreation of Xehanort's cruelest act only with a reverse of roles.

"Sora! No!" Kairi shrieked as tears of anguish streaked down her face. Once again, something, or rather someone, had torn her and Sora apart.

She gazed toward the figure in the black coat with a look of absolute rage. "Why?!" she screamed.

The figure said nothing. Instead, it pointed its Keyblade toward Kairi. With its free hand, it made a gesture as if to goad her.

"Fine! Have it your way! You'll pay for what you've done!" exclaimed Kairi as she summoned Destiny's Embrace to her hands and charged at her enemy with a cry of fury.

Once she reached the figure, she slashed her Keyblade. The figure simply blocked it with its own.

Kairi made several attempts to land a blow on the figure. But every time, she was blocked. As if to mock her efforts, the figure held its free arm behind its back.

'It's as if it knows my every move. Maybe I can surprise it with some magic,' thought Kairi.

After the figure blocked one more attack, Kairi leapt backward and shouted, "Light!"

A beam of light erupted from the tip of her Keyblade and shot toward the figure. However, the figure suddenly surrounded itself in a dome of dark energy. The light reflected off of it and soared harmlessly into the sky.

Kairi waited for the dome to dissipate. She planned to attack the figure the moment it let it's defenses down.

The dome vanished. But to Kairi's shock, the figure was no longer there. She looked all around for any sign of her adversary.

Suddenly, she screamed in pain as a dark blast struck her in the shoulder. She pitched forward onto the sand.

Kairi quickly turned around to see the figure approaching her with it's Keyblade raised. She quickly lifted up her own to block it just as the figure brought down its own.

An explosion of light burst from the point of contact between the two Keyblades. Kairi shielded her eyes with her free hand.

When the light died down, Kairi unblocked her eyes and gazed in horror at her Keyblade. Or rather, what was left of it.

She was now only holding the handle. The rest of it laid scattered in pieces all around her.

She barely had any time to mourn the loss of her first Keyblade when the figure pointed its own at her. Now that her rage had been replaced by fear, she finally got a good look at her opponent's Keyblade and was shocked by both its familiarity and unfamiliarity.

It almost looked like a dark parody of her Destiny's Embrace. But it was completely black in color and instead of flowers, it was covered in thorny vines. The Paopu fruit keychain was cracked in half.

"Who are you?!" she demanded.

The figure just began to chuckle evilly. The voice sounded eerily feminine and familiar as it raised its free hand to its hood and pulled it down.

Kairi's eyes opened wide in horror. She could not believe what she was seeing.

The hair was pure silver. The eyes were a deep golden. The skin was a shade darker. The mouth wore an evil smile. But the face was her own.

She was facing what appeared to be her if Xehanort had, against all odds, turned her into one of his vessels like what he did to Terra and tried to do to Sora.

Kairi didn't know what to do. What could she do against this Dark Kairi with her Keyblade broken? She still had her magic. But without her Keyblade as a conduit, it would exhaust more of her strength than normal.

All of a sudden, the two Kairis heard wild barking. They both turned to the right and saw Pluto charging at the Dark Kairi with a determined look.

"Pluto, no!"

Pluto leapt into the air with his teeth bared. The Dark Kairi responded by raising one of her legs and launching a kick to the dog's stomach, sending him flying in the opposite direction. Pluto whimpered in pain as he landed hard on the ground.

Kairi rushed to the side of her canine companion. "Pluto, please be okay," she said as she caressed the side of his face.

Pluto opened his eyes and gave a weak smile. In spite of the dire circumstances, she smiled back.

"Don't worry, Pluto. I'll make sure that…creature pays for what she's done. Somehow."

Looking up, she saw that her dark doppelganger was gone. She looked all around for any sign of her. Then she finally caught a glimpse and it was nothing good.

The Dark Kairi was running right toward the entrance of the Secret Place!

"No! Get away from there!" she cried. But her cries fell on deaf ears as the Dark Kairi crawled in.

Leaving Pluto where he laid on the beach, Kairi took off in pursuit of her foe. She didn't know why the Dark Kairi was going into the Secret Place. But there was no way she was going to allow her to desecrate that place with her presence, especially after what she just did to Sora.

Reaching the entrance, Kairi crouched downward and entered. She tried to move in as quickly as possible.

Soon, she came to where she could stand up fully. Looking ahead, she saw the Dark Kairi standing between the paopu drawing and the door to the world's heart.

She had planted her Keyblade on the ground and was leaning on it casually. With an evil smile, she made a 'come here' gesture with her finger.

Enraged, Kairi charged forward with her fists prepped. She was looking forward to beating the tar out of this abomination who had slayed Sora in front of her. But before she could even try, the Dark Kairi pushed her hand forward with an open palm.

Suddenly, Kairi froze in place. She struggled to move but found that she could not. The Dark Kairi had hit her with some sort of paralysis spell.

With her foe immobilized, the Dark Kairi moved over to the paopu drawing. She gave an evil smirk as she pointed her Keyblade at it.

'No! Please don't!' Kairi begged inwardly since the paralysis spell robbed her of the ability to speak. She tried even harder to break out of the spell's grasp to no avail.

Giving another gaze of sadistic glee, the Dark Kairi charged up a dark magic attack with her Keyblade. Once enough energy gathered, she blasted the drawing. Shards of rock burst in all directions and then all that was left of the drawing was a massive gash in the wall.

Tears dripped down Kairi's cheeks. Losing her Keyblade was bad enough. But the destruction of the drawing hurt her even worse. What had started as simple childhood drawing evolved into a testament to how much Sora and her meant to each other. Now it was gone.

But apparently, the Dark Kairi was not finished with her vile vandalism. Her attention now focused on the woodcut on the door to the world's heart.

Seeing her latest project in danger, Kairi once again struggled to break free from the spell. But it was fruitless.

Instead of using a spell this time, the Dark Kairi raised her Keyblade with both hands. With a powerful thrust, she plunged the Keyblade specifically in the spot where Kairi's and Sora's hands were intertwined.

Having seen two important tributes to her and Sora destroyed, Kairi gazed daggers at the Dark Kairi. 'When I get out of this spell, I'm going to tear you apart with my bare hands!' she silently threatened.

Then dark cracks began to spread throughout the door. Dark energy began to pour through before the door shattered into bits.

Before Kairi knew it, a massive Demon Tide shot out of the door and streaked toward her. It pushed her painfully through the tunnel to the outside. Once it emerged from the cave, it deposited Kairi on the beach and soared off.

Kairi, now freed from the paralysis spell, slowly got up. She was in a lot of pain. Summoning all her strength, she managed to cast a Cure spell to banish the pain as she witnessed the Demon Tide soar in and out of the Play Island, destroying everything in its path.

In addition, more dark cracks were spreading throughout the island. The ground began to collapse, revealing an immense dark void below.

'No! Not again!' she thought. Then a feeling of dread came over her as she turned to where she had left Pluto. He was still laying where he was. But as the ground cracked underneath him, he soon fell into the void and vanished from view.

It wasn't long until the Islands had completely broken apart. All that was left was her standing on one of the few pieces of intact land swirling about in a cyclone of Heartless.

Then she heard an evil laugh. She turned around and saw the Dark Kairi standing on her own piece of land. She had her Keyblade pointed at her with which she unleashed a powerful dark blast that destroyed the piece of land Kairi had been standing on from under her.

"No!" screamed Kairi as she fell into the void. The Dark Kairi mockingly waved goodbye to her from her own land piece.

?

Hours seemed to pass as Kairi continued to fall into the void. Craning her neck, she gazed downward. But the darkness kept going on so she probably wouldn't have been able to see any bottom even if there was one.

Suddenly, her descent slowed, and she soon found herself on solid ground. But still, there was nothing but darkness all around.

"Hello?!" called Kairi. All that she heard in response was an echo.

"Can anyone hear me?" she called again.

"She was never meant to have a Keyblade," said a voice from nowhere in particular.

Kairi gasped. She recognized that voice. It was Terra's. But she never would have expected him to say something so cruel unless he was still under Xehanort's control.

Then other voices came out of the darkness: the familiar voices of her friends. And they all said the meanest words possible.

"How right that is. She just inherited it from me by accident. I would have chosen someone more worthy," said Aqua's voice.

"She was hardly worth Sora putting his heart and mine in danger just to set her heart free," said Ven's voice.

"The only good thing that came out of his first sacrifice was Naminè's and my creation. Still, what did Sora ever see in her to make such a decision?" said Roxas' voice.

"The moment someone grabs her, she just freezes up. All that training together for nothing," said Axel's voice.

"I'm ashamed that my appearance is based on the memories of someone so useless," said Xion's voice.

"Sora should have let me replace her in his memories. I wouldn't have let him down like she did," said Naminè's voice.

"She should've passed on her Princess of Heart powers to someone who would have made better use of them," said Mickey's voice.

"After all that time trying to rescue her and this is how she repays us: by getting our friend killed," said Donald's voice.

"She should have just either stayed home or found some other world to hide on and left all the fighting to the professionals," said Goofy's voice.

"We should've never befriended her. I'd still have my best friend if it weren't for her," said Riku's voice.

Then Kairi heard one more voice. It was the one she wanted so badly to hear again. But the words were nothing she ever wanted to hear him say.

"Why did I share that paopu fruit with her? She said to wanted to part of my life forever but she's the reason it ended. I don't know how I could have ever loved her," said Sora's voice.

Hearing the voice of her beloved Sora say such cruel words felt like a knife in her heart. With tears in her eyes, she sat down on the ground and clutched her knees to her chest.

'They're all right. Even if I've done a few useful things in the past, they pale in number to how much trouble I've caused. This darkness is where I belong. No home. No family. No friends. No Sora.'

The void was silent except for Kairi's sobs. No more voices were heard. But their awful words still resonated in Kairi's mind.

She had truly reached the deepest depths of despair.

Notes from the Mad Doctor: What a nightmare, eh? A psychologist would have a field day dissecting it. Anyway, the Dark Kairi isn't meant to be Kairi's counterpart to Vanitas. Rather, it's a manifestation of her guilt seeing how it's a hybrid between her and Xehanort, the two people she holds responsible for what happened to Sora. Also, those insults in her friends' voices are mostly what Kairi's been telling herself because we know they'd never say those kinds of things. Especially Mickey and Goofy who are too good natured to say mean things (Donald may whenever he gets angry enough). So, this is where I've finally brought Kairi to rock bottom. But, as Thaddeus Thatch from Atlantis the Lost Empire would say, "When you hit bottom, the only place left to go is up." I think I've finally tortured Kairi enough. It's time to raise her up and get her quest started. All this in the next chapter so stay tuned!