A/N: This Radiant Garden Era is gonna turn out a little longer then I originally planned.

Mystery

KAI: A lot of strange things have been going on lately.

"And so the two of you shall serve me now. You will ensure that what goes on in this lab does not reach the public ears. You shall assist us in our research occasionally. And when the time comes you will make sure this castle is put on lock down. Is that understood?"

Xehanort had called Dilan and Aeleus to have a discussion. But as soon as they entered his lab, the apprentice worked his dark magic, putting them in a hypnotic trance. And just like he did to Even and Ienzo, he brainwashed them into doing his bidding.

After a moment in a trance, both castle guards' faces morphed into cold expressions.

"Of course, sir." Dilan's voice came out much gruffer than usual.

"As you command." As did Aeleus's.

"Good." Xehanort said with a smirk. "You may return to your posts now."

Both soldiers nodded before leaving the room.

Soon, Even and Ienzo entered from the testing chamber, and Xehanort raised an eyebrow. "That was quick. Was Insetto too fragile to handle Reptile?"

"Actually," said Ienzo, "Insetto was the one who ended the fight."

"Really?"

"Indeed," said Even as he went over to the computer and began typing. "Right when Reptile leapt over to attack her, Insetto pulled out something interesting in her fright and knocked him out cold. Take a look at this footage of test."

Xehanort look at the footage as it played with intrigue. "Hmm... Quite an unexpected ability."

"And yet surprisingly fitting for her and the state she's in, wouldn't you agree?"

"Indeed. This seems definitely worth testing out even further."

It had been two days after Kai's werewolf rampage. Many of the Recruits have been a little weary of him after the beast he displayed. Laguna had been released from the hospital and Ansem instructed him to keep a close eye on the boy in case he lost control again.

However, today wasn't a day for training.

"Alright kids," Laguna announced, "we got a bit of a situation here, so pay attention. We got a missing persons report yesterday and the guard is a bit shorthanded right now thanks to Sephiroth's attack. So the Recruits have been asked to take today off of training and join the search." He then pull out a missing poster with a picture. "You might recognize the person in question. Lucky Holt, a school reporter who has interviewed the guard and recruits a few times. Two days ago, she went out for a stroll, but never came home. Her parents tried calling her friends' houses but none of them had seen her. They are unsure where she could've gone and are worried sick about her. We'll be splitting up into groups of three and cover as much ground as possible. Hopefully we'll be able to find her by the end of the day. Is that understood?"

Everyone nodded. However, Kai couldn't help but stare at the picture. He recognized her as the pink-haired girl, not that much younger than himself, who had once interviewed him for being the youngest recruit ever accepted. The boy who rarely spoke to others was nervous at first, but soon found her surprisingly easy to talk to. He had chalked it up to her stuttering giving him the impression that she was just as nervous as he was, if not more. He had not really seen her much since.

However, as he stared at the picture some strange happened to him. He felt a slight migraine and suddenly saw a flash vision of Lucky inside some kind of cavern. It passed as quickly as it came, it was really weird to him.

He was snapped out of his stupor when Lea called out to him. "Hey, Kai. You alright?"

"Y-yeah."

"Well, look alive. You're with me and Lightning today."

Kai, Lightning, and Lea walk around town, finding themselves near a rock formation below the castle.

Bored, Lea spoke up. "So, have you noticed that a lot of strange things have been happening lately?"

"Kinda hard not to," answered Lightning. "It's been bugging me for a while."

"I mean, first we get invaded by weird monsters. Then Ryu loses his marbles. Then Sephiroth wrecks half the city. And finally Kai disappears for a while and comes back with some kind of werewolf power. What's next?"

Lightning sighed. "I don't know. To be honest, I can't help but think that there's something else going on in this town. Something that might be related to all these strange happenings. I just don't know what."

Lea scratches his head. "No kidding. It's quite the mystery. You don't think this Lucky girl's disappearance could be related, do you?"

"Please don't put more thoughts into my head. I'd rather not think about the possibility that she could be caught up in something?"

As the two conversed, Kai was looking around the rocky walls. Then he stopped in his tracks as he stared at what looked like an entrance to some cave. It was hidden behind a large rock in a way that most wouldn't notice it at a mere glance. After a few seconds, he suddenly had another migraine, worse than the last. He clutched his had as he grunted in pain. All the while he saw flashes of himself walking through a cavern, more like staggering actually. But what caught his attention was he saw his hands in those visions, except they were claws. Was he walking through the cave in his beast form. His visions finished with that same flash of Lucky. His migraine ceased.

"Yo, Kai! Snap out of it, man!" Lea said as he shook the younger recruit. Kai's grunts of pain had caught the attention of the other two.

"Are you alright?" asked Lightning.

Kai didn't answer. He just shook the storm out of his head before looking back at the cave entrance. Then without warning, he just dashed into it.

"Kai! Where are you going!?" shouted Lea.

"I don't think we should be going in there!" added Lightning. Unfortunately their shouts fell on deaf ears.

"Well, he sure has courage, doesn't he?"

"What good does it do him if he gets himself killed? Come on!" And with that the two followed.

Tifa and Aerith entered the hospital, checking in for their daily visit. It had been four days since Sephiroth's attack and Cloud was still in a coma. The two of them were really worried for their dear friend. They walked toward Cloud's room.

Tifa sighed. "I wish he would just wake up already."

Aerith put her hand on Tifa's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll wake up soon enough."

Suddenly, they both heard a loud cry of pain. It was coming from Cloud's room. The girls hurried inside.

When they got in they saw Cloud was wide awake, breathing heavily, and one hand clutching his chest and the other clutching his left shoulder. However, the girls gasped in shock at what else they saw: A black bat-like wing protruding from his back, over his left shoulder.(1)

"Cl-Cloud?!" Tifa addressed.

After a few seconds, the boy look behind him and saw the cause of his pain. He was stunned at the sight of his wing. "Wh-what is this!? What's happened to me?!"

It was then a nurse walked in. "What's going on-OH HEAVENS!"

What followed was Cloud freaking out about his dark wing and Tifa, Aerith, and the nurse trying to calm him down. Soon another person walked in.

"Is there a problem in here?" Even said.

"Cloud finally woke up," said Tifa. "But something weird seems to have happened."

Even walked to the patient, staring at the wing. "Hmm... Very interesting. When I heard Sephiroth had a wing on his back I didn't believe it. But now seeing you with one. How fascinating." He said. But in his mind he was thinking, It would appear that Project Diablo was a success. Good to see Braig didn't foul this up.

"Sephiroth..." Cloud said with venom. "Did... did he do this to me?!"

Even rubbed his chin. "That is a reasonable assumption. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Now then, let me take a closer look."

Kai rushed through the crystal-filled tunnel. He wasn't sure where he was going, just following his instincts at this point. Soon he came to a stop, looking a round as he saw more of those flashes in his head.

He snapped out of his stupor when he heard familiar voices calling out. "KAI!" He looked behind to see Lea and Lightning catch up to him.

"Dude!" exclaimed Lea. "Would it kill you to warn us before you go running off?"

Kai scratched the back of his head. "Sorry."

"Why did you charge in here anyway?" asked Lightning. "There's no telling what could be down here."

Kai looked back through the tunnel. "This place... I think I've been through here before."

"You 'think'?"

The younger boy clutched his head. "I keep seeing... images of this place..." He then looked at his hand. "And the claws on my hand."

Lightning's eyes widened. "You mean you've been here as that beast?"

"Yeah... and I think... I was exiting the cave."

Lea walked ahead a few paces, looking around. "So you think whatever turned you into that werewolf happened down here, or what? Man, that just makes this place give me the creeps."

"There's something else. I think... I think I saw Lucky in this cave."

That caught both the other's attention. They hadn't thought about until now, but Lucky had apparently gone missing the same day Kai reappeared in that monstrous state.

"You sure about that?" asked Lightning. "I mean, she didn't seem like the kind of person who'd come down here."

Lea then spotted something. "I think Kai might be onto something. Check this out."

The three gathered around an object on the ground. It appeared to be a notebook, it had the name Lucky Holt on the cover.

Braig warped into the cavern, carrying a heavy device that had a needle at the end. He sighed. "That was too close."

He had just finished using the machine on Cloud. The pain killers he was instructed to give him beforehand to prevent him from waking up due to the pain didn't work for long, he managed to see the black wing that sprouted on his back, but the boy woke up soon after screaming in agony. He almost got caught had it not been for his warping ability.

"Man, Xehanort and Even better be grateful at how much I risked back there for their experiments."

Braig then looked and saw three recruits, Lightning, Lea, and Kai, poking around in a place they shouldn't be. They were hanging around the same area, Kai broke out. It was a good thing they covered up the hole in the wall with a large boulder. However when he saw them find the notebook, Braig mentally kicked himself for not picking up evidence of that Lucky girl. Those three were sure to start snooping around if they weren't given a good reason to leave. He quickly warped to the lab to inform Xehanort.

Lea grabbed the book and opened it up, read Lucky's notes. "Looks like she came down here for a potential story. Too bad this doesn't give us a clue to what happened to her."

Lightning grabbed her chin in thought. "A good reporter would not leave their notes behind without good reason."

"So then where'd she go?"

"I don't know. But I have a bad feeling."

Kai looked over at a large boulder at a wall. He didn't know why, but something about it felt odd to him. Looking at it closely, it looked as though it was lodged into the wall.

However, he didn't get to inspect it further when some strange senses suddenly plagued him. He wasn't sure where this feeling was coming from, but somehow he knew that danger was approaching fast. He turned around and drew his sword.

The others noticed this. "Something wrong, Kai?" asked Lightning.

"There's... something coming," the younger recruit answered.

"You sure?" asked Lea.

Kai said nothing as he stared out at seemingly nothing. The other too followed his gazed, and after a few seconds, something emerged from the ground. It was a small pitch-black creature almost ant-like in appearance with soul-piercing yellow eyes. If that wasn't enough, several more creatures soon followed, including blue bodied ones with helmets and a strange heart shaped symbol on their torsos.

"What the heck are those thing?!" exclaimed Lea as he pull out his Chakrams.

"I don't know," replied Lightning as she pulled out her gunblade. "But they don't look friendly."

The three of them fought the creatures off. The shadowy ones would often flatten themselves into the ground to sneak by them, and the soldier looking ones would attack with scratches and flying kicks. These creature were push overs though so they were easy to beat, vanishing into darkness upon defeat.

"Hah!" exclaimed Lea. "Give us a challenge, why don't you?"

Just then, three larger creatures with big round bodies appeared.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?" said Lightning.

Lea then threw a chakram at one of the creatures, only for it to bounce off its belly like it was nothing. "What the...?"

Each creature went after a different recruit, trying to whack them with their fists, or ramming them with their bellies. It took a bit for each of them to figure out how to attack them. Lightning was able to able to pelt it upside the head with thunder magic, and Lea with fire magic.

Kai had a tougher time, due to still needing to work on long range magic. He was able use Icebrand to freeze its feet to the ground and strike it from behind. However it then seemed to go into a berserk rage, breaking out of its ice binds and ramming its belly hard into Kai. He hit his head on the wall, causing a massive headache that soon went from painful to enraging. The boy's blue eyes turned red with anger as dark mist surrounded him. He cried out as he charged at the creature as it charged back for another ramming. Surprisingly, Kai was the one who manage to knock it on its rear, and he didn't give it a chance to get up has he beheaded it with his sword.

All three monsters vanished into darkness. And everyone was panting in exhaustion.

Unfortunately, their troubles weren't over as they felt the ground beneath them shake.

"Oh come on!" exclaimed Lightning. "Enough already!"

They turned to see a much larger creature clad in armor and seemed to have blades for hands.

"Oh great!" exclaimed Lea. "A big one!"

The Dual Blade leapt up and crashed down in front of them, the tremor from the impact knocking them on the ground. Lightning recovered quickly, converted her gunblade into gun mode and started shooting. Lea ignited his chakrams and threw them at the monster. It was barely fazed. Kai then activated Thunderblade and attacked, only for the monster to block with its blade, though the electricity did cause it to stagger back a bit.

The three recruits attacked the Dual Blade left and right, but it seemed to be able to keep up with them fairly well. Soon all three attacked at the same time, only for the monster to knock them all away with a spin attack. Kai recovered quickly and attacked again, but the monster knocked him back down. Before Kai could get up again, however, the monster stepped on him, and started slowly crushing him.

"Kai!" Lightning shouted and she charged at the creature, followed by Lea.

The Dual Blade then swing one of it's blades, launching a small twister, catching the two recruit and sending them hurling into a wall.

Kai struggled under the monster's foot. He tried desperately to get out, but he couldn't move. He couldn't afford to die, but could barely breath. He was in so much pain, his anger rose greatly.

And just when it seemed like he was going to be utterly squashed, the scar on this chest glowed red and darkness began spewing out of it, covering the boy. Soon, in a burst that knocked the Dual Blade off its feet, the darkness took the form of a wolf beast. The beast stood tall as it let out a loud roar.

The Dual Blade stood up only for Wolf Kai to ram into it, taking it further into the cave. Lightning and Lea watched them go, but decided not to follow lest they risk getting caught in the crossfire.

Wolf Kai and the Dual Blade duked it out, swiping at each other with their claws and blades. Soon, the beast grabbed hold of one of the armored monster's arms before proceeding to tear the limb off. He then continued to wear and tear at its armor. He then leapt onto it, knocking it on the ground, before seeking his teeth into its neck and slowly tore its head off. The Dual Blade's body then disintegrated into darkness.

Wolf Kai roared again. The enemy had perished, but the beast was still raging. He clutched his head in pain as he roared loudly. He started pounding on nearby crystals in an effort to relieve his pain. It didn't work.

Soon the beast spotted something. Or was it someone? It looked like a teenaged girl with pinkish hair, but this was no ordinary girl. She had green skin that look slightly harder then regular skin, and even seemed to have seams around her joints. Her eyes were entirely dark with a glowing purplish dot for a pupil. She also had what appeared to be clear butterfly-like wings sprouting from her back. The wolf also sense a strange dark aura around her, making him growl at her.

As the beast approached the girl, she noticeably trembled before him. But then she held out her palm and a strange cloud of red dust began spewing out of her arm and blew around Kai. Wolf Kai stopped in his track as the dust seemed to be having an effect on him. He felt his pain slowly wash away, and his primal rage soften. But more than anything, he was feeling lightheaded and sleepy. He began to stagger, finding it difficult to stand.

Soon Kai fell to his knees as he looked at the girl. No longer blinded by rage, he was able to get a better look at her. He couldn't help but think that he had seen her before. His drowsiness grew more and more, as he tried to put his finger on who this could be. Then he saw another flash of Lucky Holt before losing consciousness, his beast form bursting into a dark mist and receding back into his scar.

The girl sighed in relief. But soon she just looked down in sorrow. She then felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Excellent work, Insetto." Xehanort told her. "That special pheromone of yours is quite strong to be able to sedate a raging beast like Lycan." He chuckled. "It seems Braig was right about you being our 'lucky charm'. Yes, I believe you will be quite useful to me. Now let's return to the lab before those other two miscreants see us. After all, we wouldn't want your parents to find out that you've turned into a monster, would we?"

Insetto said nothing, only nodded as tears flooded from her eyes at the reminder of her situation. Thanks to Xehanort's experiment, Lucky could no longer allow anyone to see her. How would anyone accept her now that she's become some insect girl freak show? She had nowhere to go. All she could do now was comply with the man who did this to her.

The two of them entered a dark corridor, which closed behind them.

"Kai...Kai!"

Kai stirred as he awoke to find himself outside the entrance to the cavern with Lightning and Lea kneeling beside him.

"Are you alright?" asked Lightning.

"I...think so." answered Kai.

"What happened?" asked Lea. "You turned into that werewolf thing and chased after that monster into the tunnel, but we didn't in follow after you until after the all the roaring stopped."

Kai shook his head as he took a moment to recall what happened. "I... I think I killed that monster. And I think I saw... something else, but then I passed out."

Lightning and Lea looked at each other and back at the younger guard. "We didn't see anything else where we found you," said Lightning.

Lea scratched the back of his head. "We didn't know if there were any more of those creatures, but we decided not to stick around to find out."

Kai stared at the cave entrance. "I see."

Lightning stood up. "We better go and report this to Laguna."

Lea stood and looked at Lucky's notebook. "Yeah. If that Lucky chick really did go in there, and with all those monsters running around, she's a goner for sure. What are we supposed to tell her parents?"

Lightning looked down. "The only think we can: the truth."

Kai stood up, still staring at the cavern. It was true, the likelihood of Lucky being no more was indeed almost certain. And yet he couldn't help but think about the girl he was sure he saw before passing out. The girl with a most unusual appearance. Could that girl have possibly been Lucky? Just what happened to her?

KAI: If only that was the only mystery going on in this kingdom. But this would turn out to be only a small portion of the bigger mystery.

Meanwhile:

Xehanort, Braig, Even, and Ienzo were gathered in the lab.

"You really need to be more careful not to leave evidence behind, Braig," said Ienzo.

"Yeah, yeah! Don't remind me!" replied Braig.

"At least we've ensued no one will be looking for Insetto now," said Xehanort. "In any case, we have discovered that Lycan isn't totally unstoppable. Though I still would like to truly test the limits of his power at some point. And Insetto's sedative pheromone will definitely help us keep future subjects in check."

"Not to mention, Project Diablo was a success as well," said Even. "Sephiroth's darkness has now been permanently infused into Clouds heart, and a black wing has sprouted from his back. Curiously, he sprouted a bat-like wing rather than an avian wing, and it was on the opposite side of Sephiroth's. Perhaps a side effect of mixing the darkness of two different beings. And more good news is they are all fully convinced that Sephiroth himself is somehow responsible for the transformation."

"Good. Then let's keep it that way for the time being."

Braig then sighed. "You know, three experiments in a row sprouted some kind of wings. Seraph, Insetto, Diablo. I think we need little more variety in our results."

"Agreed." Xehanort then pulled how a sheet of paper. "Here's a list of experiments that I have in mind, Braig. I want you to go around the town, look for suitable candidates, and lure them to our lab.

The one-eyed ruffian takes the list a reads the list, mumbling to himself, "...Gigas...Cyclops..." After a little more mumbling. "What kind of candidates are we looking for exactly?"

"Try looking for those who would...'benefit' from them most."

A/N: You know, I was originally planning for the Radiant Garden Era to end within the next chapter or two. But with these new ideas with the Chaos Program, I find myself having to make several more chapters for the sake of set up first. So, I hope you'll all be patient with me in that regard.

Footnotes:

(1) The same dark wing Cloud is often seen with in his KH1 attire, usually appearing when he activates his Omnislash.