As soon as Xehanort and his lackeys left through the corridor of darkness, Kairi was thrown to the floor again. She wasn't sure who it was, either Arlene or Lumaria, tied the blindfold back around her eyes and tied her hands together tightly. By the feeling of the tightness, Kairi could tell it was Arlene.

"You know, Xehanort isn't here to see what we can do to you, maybe we can carry on with the torture after all." Arlene said out loud.

"Shall we do so then, Arlene?" Lumaria's voice asked.

"Yeah, but not here, let's go to the torture room, it will be a lot more fun there." Arlene said before Kairi heard the sound of a corridor of darkness open. "Can you walk her there tough? I am going to get a head start to get everything ready."

"Of course my lady." Lumaria's voice said again as Arlene laughed and seemed to leave. Lumaria then shoved Kairi forward, holding on to the back of her hair. It was when they began to walk out of the room when Kairi noticed the fatal flaw in Lumaria's plan: he was holding her by the hair, giving her much more movement then she would if he was holding her by the wrists.

(Enter the Darkness – Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep) So as soon as Kairi knew she could, she slammed into Lumaria hard and began to run. Doing so was difficult, since she could not see where she was going, but she figured Riku could do it, so she could too. "Halt!" Lumaria yelled, but Kairi kept running. She figured they must have been going down a long hallway, since she hadn't run into anything—

But then she hit something hard, making her fall to the ground. This however, seemed to work in Kairi's favor since the impact made her blindfold slip off her eyes and go around her neck. She was only hoping that no one would grab her by the lose blindfold, or she would be done for.

The princess glanced back, seeing Lumaria was coming towards her. Quickly, Kairi shot back up and began running down the hall to her left. After making a few sharp turns, the princess managed to lose the will. It was funny, she figured that he would have known the whole castle hallway by hallway, but apparently he didn't.

Kairi didn't stop running when she could no longer see Lumaria though. She had to admit, in her condition, with her hands tied behind her back, and the heavy Organization coat holding her down, it was difficult, but she managed. "Everyone in the castle on high alert! The princess has escaped!" Was the only thing Kairi heard, apparently from over an intercom.

After running for a shorter period of time, Kairi glanced back, seeing that Arlene and Isa were chasing her from behind. Kairi didn't worry too much, that was until she heard the sound of air being pushed away right by her ear. Kairi looked back again, seeing that Arlene was throwing her knives at her. Kairi refused to let her knife dig into her again though, and began to quickly avoid them.

Kairi thought she was doing pretty good at avoiding them until she looked ahead, seeing that Lumaria was standing in the hallway ahead, with his scythe in hand. At this time, the princess looked up, knowing that the ceilings were high enough for what she was about to do. Right before she was about to collide with the will, she jumped over him, doing a flip in the air. Kairi then looked down briefly, seeing the will bring up his weapon, but instead of cutting her, cut the ropes tying her hands together.

It was funny, the scene was like something from a ninja movie, and Kairi was not sure how it was working, but it was.

Once she landed, hands now free, Kairi began to run again but looked back to see Arlene's knives had instead went into Lumaria. Isa and Arlene did not seem to care at the moment however, and jumped right over him, continuing for Kairi. When the princess looked back in front of her, she saw a huge glass window, and before she even had time to react, went through it. Kairi let out a grunt of pain as the shattered glass went into her body and she fell to the ground below.

When Kairi got the chance to look back up, she was shocked to see just how high she fell. It had to be at least five stories high, and Arlene and Isa didn't even jump out of it, appearing to leave and try to get out here some other way. Kairi quickly got back up, which was easier now that her hands were untied, and continued to run. She was still in the castle, which was not good enough for her.

Quickly traveling back inside the castle, Kairi continued to run, trying to look for a way out of here. After what seemed like forever, she finally found what appeared to be and exit and ran for it. However, right when she thought she was home free, she was stopped by what appeared to be an invisible force field.

Damn it, Kairi thought, the bracelet!

Looking down at her wrist, Kairi saw the horrific bracelet; now beeping rapidly that was most likely since she was attempting escape. It was then when the princess remembered that only a keyblade could unlock it, which she couldn't summon because of the bracelet.

"Going somewhere, princess?"

The voice made a chill travel down Kairi's spine. When she turned around, she saw Vanitas's lingering will resting on the wall behind her, calmly holding his arm out to his side where his keyblade was positioned. "You should have known better, you can't escape as long as you have that thing on, you can't even summon your keyblade."

"I'm not afraid of you," Kairi said, holding her fists up in a fighting position. "I will fight you, with or without a keyblade."

"Must this all end in violence? I wouldn't want to hurt such a pretty face, as if they haven't screwed it up enough." Vanitas continued. "The burns, the cuts, the scars, those will take time to heal, in fact, I almost find myself feeling bad for you."

Vanitas then pointed his keyblade right at Kairi and began to walk towards her. "You are going to need to heal even more once I am done with you."

Kairi didn't even know she was shaking until she looked away, afraid of what he was going to do to her. Kairi admitted to herself that she would have some anxiety as long as these wills are around; she would remember what they did to her forever. And it seemed like more was going to be added to that pile right now.

When the princess looked back at the will, his keyblade was shining of darkness at the very tip, and without warning a laser of darkness was fired at Kairi. The red head closed her eyes, waiting for it to hit her, but when it never came, she reopened her eyes. Kairi then looked down at her wrist, seeing that the bracelet was off and had fallen to the floor.

Vanitas had just unlocked the bracelet that prevented her from escaping.

Still in a state of awe, Kairi looked back up at Vanitas, who was now walking away. "Why did you do that?" She asked.

"I don't know, maybe I just felt like it." Vanitas replied, not stopping in his tracks.

"Vanitas, please, can you give me an answer?" Kairi began to think before saying, "Is it because of Xion?"

Vanitas then stopped in his tracks, looking back at Kairi briefly. "If you must know, I won't say she didn't have something to do with it, why would you want to know?"

"Well it's just; I thought you only pretended to love her to get her to join the Organization."

Vanitas sighed. "I know it probably looked like that, but that isn't true, not completely anyway. I did love her, I still do."

Kairi looked at the will shocked. "But why did you free me? Is it to somehow make it up to her?"

"Look, the reason I did this is not just because of her alright?"

"Then what are your other reasons?"

Vanitas turned to look at Kairi. "I saw what they did to you in there, they tortured you Kairi. I have never seen that much suffering before in my life: they beat you, they boiled you, stabbed you and almost killed you because of it, not even to mention the branding."

Kairi took her hand and rubbed it against the scar that rested on the back of her neck. "I wouldn't wish that upon anyone." He said.

"But there is more, there is another reason why you did this." Kairi continued.

"Let's just say Xehanort hasn't exactly been kind to us either," Vanitas admitted, "The only one that he really gets along with is Arlene, but that is just because she's psycho." This comment made Kairi laugh. "He is really just a cruel man, and because of that is cruel to everyone, even his own coworkers."

"So what are you trying to say?" Kairi knew there was more to this, but didn't bother to pressure him more. "Are you shifting sides?"

"No," Vanitas replied coldly before he began to walk away, "However, you could say I might be shifting over to neutral."

It was then when Kairi remembered when Arlene stabbed her after she was boiled, when Vanitas picked her up and carried her to her ceil, much to Xehanort's dismay. As Vanitas summoned a corridor of darkness he spoke, "Now get out of here before they catch you."

Right before he could vanish, Kairi said a single phrase that she never thought she would say to Vanitas. "Thank you."

And he was gone.

Now free, Kairi ran out of the castle and summoned her keyblade, which felt amazing, and her armor. She then made her keyblade into a rider right before Arlene and the others ran outside to realize she was gone.

(Shaded Truths – Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance) "NO!" Was all Kairi could cry as she looked into the Disney Castle garden, where Sora was being forced to kneel in front of Xehanort. The will only snickered at this however before he drove the keyblade into her boyfriend's chest, making him scream out in pain. After several agonizing minutes, Xehanort finally removed the keyblade as Sora's body dropped limp.

Xehanort then began to walk over to his body when Kairi knew that he was trying to take it. She was not going to let that happen. Riding at full speed, Kairi slammed into Xehanort, making the will go flying and for Kairi to fly off her keyblade rider and her armor to unsummon. She roled on the ground when she heard a voice she hadn't heard in a long time,

"Xehanort!" It was Riku's voice. Kairi moved her head up slightly, seeing Riku, Mickey, and another man holding a suit case jump over the railing of the garden and come towards the wills. Riku immediately ran towards Sora and fought off Ansem and his replica, Mickey began to fight off Braig, while the other man appeared to fit into his suitcase, which covered him head to toe in a silver and red armor, strikingly similar to Xion's, and began to fight off Xemnas by shooting lasers at him that came out of his hands.

At this moment, Kairi tried to stand to help them, but as soon as she was on her feet felt her weight began to weigh her down. The agonizing hours of torture and pain that she went through to get here were finally sinking in.

Riku didn't know how he managed to do it, but he, Mickey and Tony had made the wills retreat minus Xehanort, who had summoned a corridor of darkness. "I might have not taken that boy's body yet, but I have removed the will from his body, I will take his body as my own, I swear it!" He yelled before he left through the corridor. (End Shaded Truths)

As soon as he left, Riku and Kairi locked eyes, Riku's widening until they couldn't widen anymore. That was not Kairi, could it? The princess's hair was now just above her shoulders compared to the hair that used to be halfway down her back, her skin was red as if she had been boiled alive, and she had multiple cuts, burns, and bruises. Riku knew that she needed medical attention immediately, it looked like some of the cuts might need stitches they were so deep. What the hell had Xehanort done to her?

As Tony and Mickey hovered over Sora's lifeless body, Riku ran over to his friend. "Kairi… what happened?"

Kairi only let out a painful sigh before she muttered a single word. "Riku…" The voice didn't even sound her own anymore was one of the observations Riku had made up close. Without any warning, the princess fell forward, Riku thankfully being there to catch her.

At that moment, Tony walked over to the two, still in his Iron Man suit. "What the bloody hell happened to her? She is in worse condition then he is!" He asked.

"I don't know, but she needs help, like now!" Riku yelled. Jarvis was right, she is in a critical condition, she could be dying right now.

"Riku, we need to take her to Yen Sid's tower, Dr. Banner should still be there on his visit, he could help!" Mickey interrupted. Dr. Bruce Banner was the doctor that came to help Sora when he was paralyzed, but since he hasn't seen his older friend, Yen Sid, in a while, once he left, he went to go visit him as well. Riku was only praying that he was still at the Tower.

"I can take her there; my suit will get us there faster." Tony volunteered as Riku quickly handed her over to him. As soon as he made sure the princess was safe in his arms, Tony shot up into the sky, taking Kairi to the castle as quick as he could.

Riku then took the time to go over to Sora, and was shocked by what he saw. It looked like he was in a coma, just like on their first Mark of Mastery exam: eyes open slightly and breathing but other than that no sign of life. "We need to get him to Yen Sid too; Banner will know what to do." Riku said.

"Hurry, it will be safer in the Gummi Ship!" Mickey exclaimed as he began running towards the garage. Riku quickly at that moment threw Sora over his shoulder and ran as well, hoping they were not too late to help him.

However, no one had noticed that Sora's armor guard that he used to summon his armor was no longer there.


Updating twice in one day (does a happy dance) it is good to be back!

Anyone surprised by Dr. Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, appearance? I mean, I am pretty sure I made it pretty sure he was set to appear awhile ago, but whatever!

But to all of you that are not so pleased with Marvel characters in this story, don't worry! Only two more are set to appear but that is more of a bonus type of thing (hint hint) and will not really play a role in the story at all.

So lot of important things happened in this chapter that did not get completely explained, but they will be later. I am sure many of you were shocked that Vanitas helped out Kairi so much...

Anywho, please R&R and look out for the next chapter!