Darkness surrounded me, as I fell through a black abyss. It continued until I landed in a very strange place. It was blue and there was this strange symbol floating everywhere. I looked down beside me and, sure enough, the dog was standing beside me.

"Hey, what is this place?" I asked, somehow expecting some kind of answer from the animal.

I heard the same whistle that opened up the portal to this place, and before me a bright light shone, and began to envelop me in it. But I wasn't afraid.

I turned around, as I felt someone's eyes on me, and saw a cloaked figure standing behind me.

"Huh?" I was going to speak to the mysterious figure but the light was all around me and I couldn't see anymore.

Just then, I felt a terrible lurching feeling as I hurtled backwards. I felt my head connect with the hard floor and everything went black once again.

"Are you okay?" I heard a soft voice and opened my eyes. I was lying on the floor in the middle of an unfamiliar room. I sat up and saw 3 people staring at me in interest. They looked around my age; 2 boys and a girl.

"W-what?" I whispered.

"You and that dog came flying out of a hole in the wall!" One of the boys told me as he made large gestures with his hands. "You nearly gave us heart attacks!" He continued. I looked over at the dog sitting by my side. Good, he was unhurt.

I spent the next few hours with my new friends. The girl, Olette, was shy at first, but she was really kind. The two boys, Hayner and Pence, seemed really nice too, and it appeared to me that they both had a thing for Olette.

I told them about everything that happened to me, from when the island was destroyed, to when I met them.

"What a romantic story!" Olette said as she put her hands together.

"If you stick around, Sora's bound to show up!" Pence said though a mouthful of blue ice cream. My heart quickened at the thought of seeing Sora again. Maybe he was even with Riku! It would be great to be reunited with my two best friends again, I thought.

"Yeah, he said he's coming back." Hayner told me. I smiled at the three of them. They were all so kind and supportive.

"Okay!" I beamed. Suddenly, a horribly familiar voice echoed through the room.

"What took you so long, Kairi?" The four of us jumped as we heard Axel's voice. The redhead stepped out from a swirl of black mist. "Somehow, I just knew you'd be here." He smirked. "I'll tell you, Kairi. You've got a lot of guts, jumping right into the darkness like that." He took a step forward. Hayner and Pence charged towards him, but they both missed and fell on the floor.

Axel walked up to me and grabbed my arm, pulling me towards the dark portal.

"Let go of me!" I struggled to break free of Axel's grip. "Let go!" But it was inevitable. He pulled me into the darkness, the dog following loyally behind us.

And everything went dark once again.

The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a very purple room, the dog by my side. I petted his head.

"Thank you for being with me this whole time." This dog didn't know me, yet it saved me from Axel on the islands, and followed me here.

I looked up and saw bars, as if I was in a prison. I ran towards them in desperation. When I reached them, I saw a blue haired man, wearing that same black cloak, watching me. I guess he's the one who wanted us imprisoned.

"What are you going to go with us?" I asked. I assumed I wasn't going to get a straight answer.

"You're the fire that feeds Sora's anger." He said calmly, then began to walk off. Were they using me to lure Sora here?

"No..." I whispered. "Sora's in danger, because of me?"

I heard the dog bark, and turned around to see yet another dark portal. Why were these appearing everywhere I went? I took some nervous steps towards it, and saw a blonde girl with her hand outstretched.

"This way!" She whispered. I didn't know what to do. Nothing good had come out of going into those portals so far, but something about the girl was calming; she brought a sense of familiarity, somehow.

"Who are you?" I asked nervously, cautious about trusting strangers with black portals.

"Believe in yourself!" She insisted. "Come on, hurry!" I didn't know what to do. I looked into her eyes. Something about them made me feel safe, so I walked towards her and took her hand.

Almost instantly, a bright light shone from our connected hands, making me feel at ease.

I didn't let go of the girl's hand, as we ran through what seemed to be a large castle. Yet again, the dog followed me. I looked at the blonde girl. She appeared somewhat fuzzy, as if she was fading away, or as if she wasn't even there to begin with. She suddenly stopped as I was about to say something.

I looked forward and saw the blue haired man from earlier, two vicious looking monsters on either side of him.

"Namine, there you are." He addressed the girl.

"Namine..?" I looked at her as she stared determinedly at the blue haired man.

"Kairi." He spoke to me in the same cold voice. "I'm afraid leaving is not an option." He outstretched his hand. Did he honestly think that I would surrender that easily? "I'll take you to see Sora." I was taken aback. What was it with these black coated people and Sora? He lowered his arm, seeing that his trick was not going to work. "You don't want to?" He asked.

"I do." I answered honestly. "More than anything." I put my hand over my heart. "But not with you around." I glared intensely at the man. He just smirked at the both of us.

"If I had a heart, this would be where I'd die of laughter."

Just then, there was a noise, and one of the creatures beside the man fell down and disappeared. And there stood yet another cloaked man, holding some sort of sword. Something about that man was strange. It was like I'd known him my whole life, but I had no idea who he was.

"You." The blue haired man scowled at the newcomer. "Didn't Roxas take care of you?" My eyes widened. Roxas? Wasn't that the voice in my head's name? He's the one who helped me remember Sora.

"You can take it from here, Riku." Namine spoke. I stared at her in disbelief, then I stared at the hooded figure.

"Riku?!" I exclaimed. I watched as the figure pinned the blue haired man up against the wall, but he created a portal on the wall and sunk out of sight. The hooded man went to follow, but I couldn't let him. If it was really Riku, I wasn't going to let him go.

"Wait!" I shouted. He stopped. The dog ran up to him and barked. What was going on here? I walked up to him and pulled down the hood.

"Riku, you're really here?"

But it wasn't Riku's face I saw.

It was Ansem.