A/N: Sorry about the wait.

I had recently got done writing three chapters of my newest KH Story in a row. Interesting fact, the new story is actually a complete rewrite of a very old story I wrote years ago, long before I ever had a FanFiction account. It's called Keyblade Princess: Cosmos's Crusaders. Be sure to check it out if your interested.

I must be out of my mind though, having four different ongoing KH stories at the same time now.

But anyway, onto the chapter!

Lab Rats I

KAI: Life as a lab rat was unspeakably cruel.

"There! Now that didn't hurt one bit, did it?" Ienzo said as he put a bandaid on little Kairi's arm.

The girl rubbed her arm. "It still felt weird."

"Just be thankful I numbed it first." The young scientist then took the syringe with a little bit of the girl's blood. "Now then, I'm gonna go process this. Stay right there, and don't even think about running off. Xehanort will be with you shortly." With that he left the room.

Kairi looked down, before looking to the other occupant in the room, Lucky. "Why is Ienzo acting like them? He used to be so kind. He was our friend."

"I-I don't know," answered Lucky. "I've only kn-known him to be like th-this since I've b-been here."

"He's been different since after Kai came back with that giant guard dog of his. What happened to him?"

"M-Maybe the other men d-did something to him?"

"Maybe..." Kairi just sat there trembling. She wanted nothing more than to just runaway from all of them, but she was too scared to do anything. Scared not just for herself, but for her brother as well.

Lucky approached the girl, and brush her hair with her hardened fingers. "I-It's gonna be okay, K-Kairi."

Kairi could only nod.

"So, this is the little girl everyone's talking about?" The girls jumped before looking to see the vampire of the Chaos Program.

"E-Ejder?" stammered Lucky. "Wh-what are you d-d-doing here? Wh-why aren't you in y-your c-cell?"

"You will address me as Dhampir, Insetto," the pale boy said. "And Xehanort decided to give me the freedom to roam the castle, provided I don't leave the premise without his permission. I just wanted to check out the little specimen that Xehanort's been so interested in." He then approached the two.

"Wh-what are you?" asked Kairi. "Some kind of vampire?"

Dhampir chuckled. "I guess you could say that, though not really the kind that sucks blood." He then suddenly grabbed Lucky's arm and his hand glowed as she started crying in pain. "I'm a vampire that sucks energy just by touching them, any kind of energy really, from life energy to dark energy." He then threw the bug girl onto the ground behind him.

"Lucky!" shouted Kairi.

Dhampir then towered over the little girl. "And you know, I really want to know the life force of such a youngster is like."

Lucky sat up. "W-w-wait! X-Xehanort p-promised no harm would c-come to her!"

"Oh, this won't leave a mark. I just want a little taste." He grabbed Kairi's arm and proceeded to drain her energy. "Hehehe-ah-ah-augh!" He then let go of the girl and stumbled back, as he held his now seared hand in pain. "What the-augh!"

"What's going on here?!" Xehanort demanded as he entered the room.

Dhampir grunted. "Xehanort! What's with this girl? She burned my hand!"

The man's eyes narrowed. "Did you use your absorption powers on her?"

"Yes! And the next thing I know, my hand is seared!"

"Did I not specifically tell you that this girl is off limits?"

Dhampir shuddered at the scientists gaze. "Y-yes..."

"We are trying to get her brother to cooperate, and bringing harm to her before he even does anything to defy us is not helping. Disobey me again, and I will put you back in your cage, and consider yourself lucky if I don't deliberately deprive you of your sustenance. Is that clear, Dhampir?"

The boy growled. "Crystal clear, sir..."

"Good! Now let me see your hand." Xehanort inspected Dhampir's hand, noticing the normally pale white skin of his whole wrist had reddened and his palm was emitting steam. "This happened when you used your power on her?" He received a nod. "Interesting! Her peculiarly strong light must have done this. It appears we may have discovered a weakness your experiment has given you. You body has gain a strong aversion to light."

"Light? I've been out in the sun before, its never affected me like this! I'm not some folktale vampire!"

"The power of light specifically, it appears. I suspect that if you were to go up against a wielder of light, you'd be at a disadvantage." Xehanort then glanced at Lucky. "Of course this calls into question of whether or not the other subjects of the Chaos Program have this aversion as well. May be worth exploring later." The bug girl shuddered at his gaze. "It doesn't look too bad. With your healing factor it should recover in an hour. Once you've recovered, I want you to report to the testing chamber. Understood?"

"Yes sir." With that Dhampir left.

Hopefully letting Lycan deal with Dhampir's punishment will keep the boy pacified about his sister, Xehanort thought. He then turned to little Kairi, who trembled nervously. "Now where were we?"

"This is just nuts!" Lea was pacing back and forth disgruntled.

"Calm down, Lea," said Isa.

"How can I stay calm when the castle just suddenly went into lockdown? It's been a week now and no one has heard from Lord Ansem, or even Kai or Kairi. Just what's going on here?"

The blue head sighed as he crossed his arms. "It is indeed strange. As if the disappearances, including Cloud's, haven't been unsettling enough. None of the guards left outside the castle have a clue, not even Laguna. It just happened without warning. Something funny is definitely going on, and I don't like it.

The fire head groaned. "What a drag! Who knows what's happening in there? Those siblings could be in something deep."

"Maybe... If only we had some kind of clue. All we can do is just wait for whatever it is to finally blow over."

"Oh sure! And what if it never does? What if the castle never gets out of lockdown? I'm especially worried about that girl we found locked up in the labs. It's been far too long since we last snuck in and checked on her. For all we know something could've happen to her thanks to whatever mess this is."

"You could be right. But what can we do?"

"Well, I'm not gonna just sit around doing nothing? I say we sneak in there and get to the bottom of this ourselves."

Isa flinched at that. "Are you sure that's a good idea? We could get in worse trouble this time if we got caught."

"I don't care! This whole thing really stinks!" Lea then sighed. "Look you don't have to come with if you don't what to. But I refuse to wait around hoping this will blow over. I'll go in alone if I have."

Isa sighed again. "You'd be more likely to get lost and caught without me, so I'm with you. But are you sure we get in with the lockdown?"

Lea smirked. "Oh I'm pretty sure our secret entrance still hasn't been found by them."

Kai stood inside the testing chamber. In front of him was the vampire freak, Dhampir. He didn't let it show, but the boy was nervous. He saw what he did to Ryu, and he still hasn't figured out how to control his beast. He wasn't sure how he was going to fight him, especially without his sword.

"Alright you two," Even's voice sounded over the intercom. "Let's get this started. Lycan this will be your first combat test, so please try to activate your power on your own this time."

Kai just scoffed. In his controlled testing, he had not been able to get his transformation to work at will. It usually only happens when they put him under excruciating pain. "And just how do you expect to get it to work anyway?"

"We hypothesize that it's tied to your emotions. Why don't you try tapping into your anger?"

The boy shook his head. "Oh come on! It can't be that simple!"

"By the way, Lycan, Dhampir over there disobeyed some very specific orders earlier today."

"And I should care because?"

"Because he tried to use his absorption powers on your sister."

Blue eyes turned red as Kai glared at the vampire. "What?"

Dhampir rolled his eyes. "Oh please, if nothing else she did more harm to me than I did to-"

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Darkness bursted out of the younger boy. Dhampir couldn't help but sweat nervously. "You dare bring harm to my sister!?" His darkness covered him as he transformed into his werewolf form.

"Oh, and Dhampir, you are not allowed to use your absorbing powers for this."

"What!?"

And with that, Lycan lunged at the vampire, swiping him with his claws and sending him crashing into a wall. Dhampir dislodged himself from the wall, as the scratches he received healed quickly. The beast then lunged again, only for the vampire to unleash a strong burst of dark lightning, stopping him in his tracks. He then followed up by throwing a hard kick in the head, causing the wolf to stagger backward. But Lycan then swung his claws, releasing a wave of razor wind three times.

Dhampir dodged each attack, backflipping away after the third one. He then summoned a dark scythe and swung it, releasing his own energy wave. The beast braced himself as the wave hit him, pushing him back a little, but then Lycan spat out a blast of darkness. The vampire defended by twirling his scythe in front of him, followed by throwing a blast of ice that froze much of the beast to the ground. He then leapt up and brought his scythe down on him.

Lycan roared in pain from the attack, leading to his fury breaking him out of the ice and grabbing Dhampir by the head and throwing him into another wall. He lunged again swiping his claws, only to find himself grabbing hold of the scythe. The two struggled to push the other back before the vampire kneed the werewolf in the gut, pushed him back, and blasted him with fire. Another roar later, the werewolf slammed its paw onto the ground and sent a linear shockwave. The vampire dodged the attack before dashing and swiping his scythe at the beast, who retaliated with another claw swipe.

The fight dragged on for a while. Lycan was relentless in trying to crush his foe. Meanwhile Dhampir is struggling to keep up, and his healing factor was really draining him of his life energy. If he didn't get his sustenance soon, he was finished. The vampire growled in frustration. This wouldn't be so difficult if Even had allowed him to use his absorption power on his foe. Soon Lycan had him pin to the wall, growling in his face.

"Okay, I think he's had enough," Even said. "Insetto! You're up!"

The chamber entrance opened, and Lucky rushed in. She sprayed her pheromone just when the beast noticed her presence. Fortunately for her, the dust did its work, and Lycan was unable to resist its effect. He slowly collapsed on the ground before reverting back to his human form. Kai laid unconscious on the ground as Lucky looked with concern.

Ejder coughed before looking up. "What was that, Even?!"

"Your punishment for your disobedience! Rest assured, next time you won't have to hold back."

"I better not!"

"Alright now, you two bring Lycan back to his cell. And Insetto, you can return to Kairi afterwards."

Lea and Isa managed to sneak in through their secret entrance. They manage to get around undetected and they made it to one of the labs, the one they remembered the amnesiac girl was kept in. However, they didn't find her. Suspecting that she was moved to another lab, the two decided to search.

Unfortunately for them, they would stumble upon the wrong lab.

"Yikes!" exclaimed Lea seeing all the Heartless and dead mutated bodies. "What the heck have they been doing in here?"

The two walked through the cell block as Isa. "Some kind of... experiments from the looks of it," replied Isa, equally disturbed.

"These look like the same kind of creatures Lightning, Kai, and I encountered in the caverns."

Soon, they spotted a familiar face in one of the cells.

"Cloud?" said Lea.

The winged boy looked up. "Lea... Isa... What are you two doing here?"

"We came here to figure out what was going on here," said Isa. "What are you doing in this cell?"

Cloud was silent for second before looking back down. "Apparently they wanted one of their pet projects back," he said bitterly.

"Pet projects?"

Before they could question further, another voice made itself known. "Well, well, what do we have here? The two losers of the Recruits?"

They turned to see a face they never thought they'd see again. "R-Ryu?!" exclaimed Lea.

"In the flesh," Ryu said as he chuckled. "Nice face, Isa."

Isa grunted as his place a hand on his scar. "Yeah...no thanks to you!" He then looked at the renegade's mutation. "Nice arm."

"Thank you!" the ex recruit said as if taking that as a compliment. "The doctors of this castle were so kind to give be a suitable replacement for the one Hikaru chopped off."

"But seriously," said Lea, "What they heck did they do to you?"

"I could tell you. But it looks to me like your about to find one way or another."

The sound of someone clearing their throat got their attention. The boys look to see one of the scientists, Even, staring at them intently. They jumped when they saw a vampire looking young man and a bug girl behind him. "Well, if isn't the two nuisances who had a habit of sneaking in here."

The two boys started backing away in fear. But then Lea gritted his teeth. "What is all this?"

"As if we have to tell you," Dhampir said as he tossed the unconscious boy he was carrying into a cell.

"Kai?" Isa said before looking over to the bug girl. After a few seconds, he suddenly recognized her. "Wait a minute, aren't you Lucky Holt?"

"Lucky?" asked Lea. "The school reporter who went missing?"

The girl only looked down sadly in response.

"Is there a problem?" Everyone looked to see Xehanort.

"It seems a couple of rats decided to stick their noses where they didn't belong," answered Even.

Lea chuckled nervously. "H-Hey...um...we don't wanna cause any trouble...s-so...if you let us go...we'll leave and never return."

"A fine offer," replied Xehanort. "But seeing how you've seen the fruits of our work, I'm afraid we can't let you leave this time." This made both boys sweat. "What should we do with you? Should we just throw you into the dungeons? Or should we make you into one of our experiments? So many possibilities."

The boys shook nervously. They didn't know what to do. They reached for their weapons, only for Dhampir to rush to them, grab each of their wrists, and drain them of their life force causing them to fall on their knees in pain. "Many the could make good food for me," he suggested.

"W-wait!" exclaimed Isa."We can make you a deal!"

Xehanort thought for a second. "Dhampir." The vampire let go of the boys. "And what could you too have to offer us?"

Isa panted from the energy drainage. "If you...agree not...to lock us up...or make experiments out of us...then..." Isa actually had to think for a moment before finishing. "We'll be your assistants."(1)

"Assistance?!" the red head exclaimed. "Isa, are you nuts?"

"You got a better idea, Lea?" the blue head whispered. "Or do you want them to turn you into Ryu?"

Lea couldn't answer that as he grunted in frustration.

"Well, this is interesting proposition, isn't it?" asked Even.

"Indeed it is," replied Xehanort. He then thought for a moment before answering. "Very well. We'll give you a chance to make yourselves useful to us. But if you don't hold up to our standards, you'll be our next experiments is that understood?"

The boys looked down in frustration before answering. "Yes sir."

"Good. Now first things first, why don't you two show Even, Dilan, and Aeleus the entrance you two came in from so we can seal it up...permanently."

Skadi had been fighting off the Heartless for the past week. She earned a lot of praise from the people, who came to calling her 'Bruta' after her brutal strength. She personally wasn't sure about that name, but it sounded better than that Gigas name the scientists kept calling her. (2)

Right now she was in a fight with a blue armored monster with a shield that had a three-eyed dog face that was alive. With a cry, Skadi attempted to punch the new Heartless. However, the shield managed to deflect the blow she threw at it, making her cringe as the face in the shield seemed to grin. Okay, so even her strength had its limits. No matter. She wasn't going to let herself be defeated by a Heartless. Running around it, she grabbed a piece of lumber that someone had brought in and used it to hit the Heartless hard. It ended up flying over the walls of the city into the wilderness.

Taking a breath, she put the beam down while the people gathered applauded her. She was growing used to the attention, but more and more of these things were coming and they were getting stronger. When she had been offered an opportunity to become more attractive she didn't know it would entail so much work. Skadi made a note to complain to one of the people who worked on her when she got the chance.

As she took a swig of water someone offered her, she was then approached by someone. "You're Bruta, right?"

With a nod, the self-proclaimed hero asked, "Why?"

"I need your help. I haven't seen my daughter, Lucky, for weeks." The woman said. "I've tried to ask the palace guards for help, but they keep sending me away and telling me she's most likely dead. I'd complain to the king, but the entire castle is on lockdown. No one goes in or out. Please, Bruta. My baby is my world. Please find her and bring her home."

As the woman took out a picture Skadi took it and looked it over. It was a girl with pink hair and purple eyes. Something about her seemed familiar, but Skadi couldn't place her finger on it. Still, she had an idea on where she could start. "I'll do what I can to find your daughter."

"Oh, thank you."

As the woman walked away, Skadi looked at a nearby clock, and realized it was almost time for her first progress report with the scientists. Perhaps she could asked them about it.

Lightning and Serah rushed onto the scene.

"Aww, did we miss the action?" asked Serah.

"Seems like it," replied Lightning.

The younger sister sighed but then perked up at the sight of the town hero. "Come on! Let's get an autograph!"

The older sister sighed. "Is this really necessary?"

"Of course! Bruta has become quite the hero around here. Why wouldn't I want one? Don't you?"

"Not really." Truth be told, Lightning really wasn't a fan. And the reason for that was because something about Bruta just seemed suspicious to her. That woman just showed up out of nowhere last week battling these monsters. Where did she even come from? It amazed her that the grand majority of the people don't seem to find this even the slightest bit weird.

And if that wasn't the only thing concerning her, the castle suddenly locked down completely, leaving Kai and Kairi stuck inside, and Cloud disappeared, leaving Tifa and Aerith immensely worried. Not to mention, the one time she managed to catch Bruta in action she noticed that the creatures she was fighting looked similar to what she, Lea, and Kai encountered in the caverns. Something just wasn't right here, and it frustrated her not knowing what it is.

Serah rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Claire. As a soldier in training, you'd think you'd want an autograph of a hero. Or do you think your 'too cool' for autographs that you're too embarrassed to get one yourself."

Lightning groaned. "Serah!"

The younger sister then saw the town hero disappear around a corner. "She's leaving! Come on! Let's hurry before we lose her!" She then ran after her.

"Hey, wait!" Lightning took off after her sister.

The pink haired sisters followed after the woman through an alleyway, which the elder was weary about. They soon saw her turn another corner, but as soon as the approached said corner, Lightning grabbed her sister and halted when she heard voices.

"Things are getting out of hand. More and more of those creatures are showing up everyday and I have to work harder to keep them out of town. Why didn't you say this was going to involve a lot of work?"

"Do you not remember how you were when we first found you?" A voice that sounded familiar to Lightning responded. "You were ignored by your classmates because of your size. You wanted to get noticed by your peers that you agreed to be experimented on."

"Yeah, I did. It hurt, but you kept your word. You made me beautiful and strong."

"And in return all we ask is that you do as we say. We haven't asked for much. Only that you protect the people from the monsters. Surely with your new strength that should be a simple enough task."

Peeking around the corner, Serah gave a small gasp when she saw that it was Bruta who was having a conversation with a man with an eyepatch in a guard uniform. Lightning quickly pulled her sister back and covered her mouth, hoping they didn't hear them.

"What did you see?" she whispered before uncovering Serah's mouth.

"I saw Bruta talking with that eyepatched guard," Serah answered.

"Braig?" Wasn't Braig supposed to be one of the guards still inside the castle when it was locked down? What was he doing out here? And what did they mean by making Bruta strong?

The man then spoke up again. "Now be a good hero and focus on saving the town from the monsters. Leave the lost children to us."

Bruta then sighed, "What a drag."

"What's with you?" A third voice neither of them recognized sounded. "You've been given power and yet you'd rather do nothing with it?"

"Hey, I only wanted to be taller not stronger. It does have its benefits, but do you have any idea how frustrating it is to break a cup you're trying to drink out of, or to open a door to find you just ripped it off its hinges?"

"Hah. You just have to get used to it. It certainly took me a while to get used to my new eye. But seriously, to be gifted with such power and not be willing to use it is such a waste."

"Gifted? Feels more like a burden. I now have more expectations on me than ever before because no one else is willing to help fight off those monsters. One of them had a face in its shield that bit me. I swear those things are more like leftover experiments from the mad scientists."

Experiments? Mad scientists? I really don't like the sound of that! Thought Lightning. Just what are they doing?

"Do not worry about what goes on in the castle." Braig told them. "Just focus on your little assignments and things will be good. Now, I think it's best you two-."

"Hold on," the third voice said. There was a slight pause before he then said. "It seems we have two eavedroppers around that corner, sir."

Both Lightning and Serah stiffened when they heard that. Lighting wasn't sure how they knew they were there, but it really surprised her that they knew there were two of them.

Before they could do anything however, Braig suddenly warped in front of them. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? One of the Recruits and her sister. Nice catch, Cyclops."

"Braig, what is going on?" As Lightning got in front of her sister, she reached for her weapon. "Tell me in the name of Ansem the Wise." It was then that Bruta and a boy they assumed was Cyclops walked around the corner. Serah gasped in fright at the boy's mutated eye, while Lightning stared at it with a disturbed face. "What… the…"

"Don't you know it's not nice to stare? Let me show you what happens when I do it." The boy grinned. He looked to the ground and an energy beam shot out of his mutated eye. The blast from his attack sent the two girls flying.

Lightning was about to pull out her gunblade, when Braig suddenly knocked her out from behind.

"Claire!" Sarah shouted before she was grabbed by Cyclops.

Braig then put the guard in training over his shoulders. "Normally, I wouldn't bother with the likes of you two, but you heard and saw too much. I think the boss would like to have a word with you."

"Whoa. What are you doing?" Skadi asked. "I don't think Ansem the Wise would condone his apprentices kidnapping people."

"It's not your concern, Gigas."

Sarah did a double take at that. "Gigas? Wait. Are you with them?"

"With us? We made her." Braig boasted.

"M-Made her?" Sarah couldn't believe it. The person she had just started looking up to, a traitor?

"Yes! Maybe we'll show you how."

"No!" Skadi told him. "Don't do it!"

"Listen, squirt. We gave you your beauty and your strength, and we can take them away just as easily. Do you want to go back to being that nobody?" The man smiled when she looked away from him. "Good girl. Now get back out there and keep playing hero. Leave these two to the professionals."

Sarah looked at her hero with a face that looked hurt from betrayal. "B-Bruta...how could you?" A tear fell from her eye.

"Let's go, Cyclops." And with that Braig and Cyclops disappeared in a dark portal, taking Lightning and Sarah with them.

Kai woke up from unconsciousness, to find Xehanort outside his cell.

"Nice work, Lycan," the scientist. "You may yet be able to control the beast more efficiently."

The boy growled. "You said Kairi wouldn't get hurt."

"I told Dhampir your sister was off limits. He was the one who disobeyed me. Rest assured, it won't happen again, as long as you remain in our good graces. Letting you handle his punishment was a courtesy. Though I do think you gave him more than necessary, considering she actually hurt him more than he hurt her."

"What do you mean?"

"It appears that trying to absorb her light had an adverse affect on him, resulting in a burned hand. A weakness my Chaos Program gave him and possibly the rest of you. I wonder how vulnerable you would be."

Soon a dark corridor, opened and in walked Braig. "Yo, Xehanort! Cyclops and I just nabbed ourselves a pair of eavesdroppers."

Kai gasped at who he was carrying. "Lightning!"

Cyclops walked in, dragging a struggling Sarah. "My eye is proving useful, I was able to see them from around a corner."

"Let me go! I-" Sarah shouted before noticed the boy. "Kai?"

Kai then growled. "What's going on here?"

"These two heard things they really shouldn't have," said Braig. "They know about Gigas being one of our experiments. What do you think we should do with them?"

Xehanort thought for a moment before flipping through the papers on his clipboard. "I may have a couple of experiments that I could use them for."

Kai banged on the bars of his cell. "No! Leave them out of this! Haven't you ruined enough lives already?!"

"Silence, Lycan. Or do you want your sister to suffer for real?"

The red head grunt in frustration.

Xehanort then smirked. "Yes, I think I have the perfect projects for these two. Put the Recruit in the that cell right there for now. We'll start with the younger one. Make preparations for Project Crystal. After where done with her, we'll see how Project Avatar works for her sister."

"You got it," Braig reply before he tossed the unconscious Lightning into an empty cell, before turning to Serah. "Well, girly, looks like you get to see first hand what we did to Bruta." He then grabbed hold of her other arm and he and Cyclops dragged her away.

Serah struggled fearfully. "No! Please stop! Claire, Kai, Bruta... Someone help me!"

Kai really wanted to just bust out of this cell and stop them. He didn't want one of his sister's friends and sister of his closest companion in the recruits to be experimented on. But because they have Kairi hostage, he couldn't do anything.

KAI: "All of the injustice going on around me, yet all I could do was watch and obey. Why did things have to be like this?

A/N: And there you have it. Let me know what you think of this.

Also I hope you take the time to check out my Keyblade Princess story.

Footnotes:

(1) After KH3 revealed that Lea and Isa were apprentices too, I felt that I had to incorporate it in this story somehow even if it's most likely not how it happened in canon.

(2) Special thanks to DinoWriter23 for his help with this scene.