I know it's been a little while since I updated Sora the Maelstrom, but I got bitten by a plot bunny. It's one of those 'what if Beast wasn't at Hollow Bastion' stories. I've read a few of them before, and I wanted to try my hand at it. My way will probably be kind of violent…That's what happens when you have a mind like mine.

I don't own any of the characters in this story.

Start the story!

Sora stared at the toy sword on the ground. Riku had just taken the Keyblade and left him there. And Donald and Goofy had gone with him. He'd been abandoned. By his friends. His eyes started tearing up a bit. What was he supposed to do now? He paused when he felt a weight on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw a familiar cricket sitting on his shoulder. "Jiminy? You stayed?"

"Of course! You didn't think I was just gonna leave you all alone did you?"

Sora smiled. "Thanks." Sora thought for a moment. "Why did Donald and Goofy leave? I thought we were friends."

Jiminy sighed. "I don't understand it either. They were ordered to follow the key, but Riku…" Jiminy shook his head. "I don't think he's what the king had in mind."

Sora sighed. "I don't get it. Why was Riku acting like that? He's never acted like that before…"

"It's odd, but we can't worry about that right now. We need to figure out what to do. We can't stay here. It's full of Heartless and we're defenseless. We can't leave though since we won't be able to access the gummi ship without Donald and Goofy."

"Yeah…" Sora stared at the castle in the distance while he tried to think of something they could do. Suddenly an image of Kairi flashed in his mind. "Kairi!"

"Hm?"

"She was with Riku before! I bet she's here!" Sora grabbed the toy sword. "I need to find her and get her out of here!"

"Hold on now! You just said she was with Riku! The way he is now, he might attack you!"

"He wouldn't do that…" He might have left Sora on his own, but Sora didn't see how Riku could attack him. They'd been best friends since they were 3! "Besides, maybe I can talk some sense into him."

"But the Heartless-"

"I'll use magic. If I run low on mana, I'll just run away." Sora nodded to himself. "It would take longer to get around, but it could work."

Jiminy sighed. "If that's what you wanna do, then I won't stop you."

Sora smiled at Jiminy. "Don't worry. I'm sure everything will be okay." And then Sora stepped onto the lift to the castle.

Sora put his plan into action. He was able to take out some of the Heartless with his magic. The only problem was that the Heartless here were stronger than he was used to, and they were unfamiliar. There was one with a huge shield that he had to attack from behind, one that was shaped like a ball that was prone to bounce around and try to eat him, and one that looked like a wizard or something. The wizards could absorb magic so Sora had to avoid that particular Heartless. Still he had managed to find his way into the lower levels of the castle. Only he'd gotten hopelessly lost.

"Sora, we're going in circles," said Jiminy.

Sora panted and wiped some sweat off his forehead. The constant fighting was starting to take its toll on him. "Are you sure?"

Jiminy nodded. "I've been watching. We're definitely going in circles."

Sora groaned. "Great, and I can't find anywhere else I can go."

"What if you tried gliding?"

"Everywhere is too high for that to work." Sora sighed and sat down, leaning against a wall. "I'm gonna take a break. Maybe I can think of something." Within a few minutes, Sora had drifted off. Jiminy wasn't surprised. Sora had been fighting Heartless for a while. He decided to keep a look out for any Heartless until Sora woke up.

Actually, no Heartless popped up around Sora. It was peaceful for a few hours. Jiminy took the time to look over his journal. It was surprisingly peaceful. Then out of nowhere, a bunch of dark energy suddenly started seeping up from the floor and wall under Sora. Jiminy's eyes widened. "Sora! Wake up!"

Sora jerked awake. "Wha?" Then he saw what was happening and tried to grab onto something to keep from getting sucked into the darkness. There wasn't anything for him to grab though so he got sucked in, fell for a few seconds, and landed on a hard floor. He shuddered. "That felt really weird." He quickly checked Jiminy. He was okay, just stunned. Then Sora noticed someone. "Kairi!" Sora quickly ran over to his unconscious friend and started checking her over. She seemed unharmed except for the fact that she was unresponsive. Sora let out a sigh of relief. "Kairi, how am I gonna wake you up?"

"What're you doing here? !" Sora looked up and saw a furious looking Riku. Donald and Goofy were with him but couldn't seem to bring themselves to look at Sora. Sora quickly stood up and faced Riku.

"Riku, will you listen to me?" Riku narrowed his eyes. "You said I abandoned you and Kairi and replaced you, but that's not true. I looked for both of you across so many worlds. I made a lot of new friends, but they didn't replace you. How could they? I've known you guys practically my whole life. How could I ever replace you? It's like that saying from kindergarten. 'Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold.'"

Riku gave Sora a disgusted look. "You're quoting nursery rhymes now? That's pathetic."

"I'm just saying. That's what it's like. Why did you think I was replacing you anyway?"

"Maleficent told me about it. I didn't believe it at first, but then I saw you laughing with those people-"

"Wait. Wasn't that after I ran into you? I asked you to come with me. Why didn't you come?"

"Because it was obvious you didn't really want me to go with you."

"That's not true! I wanted you to come with us so much! When you just disappeared, I was scared that I would never see you again! The only reason that I didn't turn Traverse Town upside down looking for you was because I know that you sometimes like to be alone when you think about things and you're strong enough to protect yourself from the Heartless. I still looked all over the town for you. And I kept looking for Kairi too. I never stopped looking, even after I found out you sided with the Heartless. I don't even care that you left me all alone after you took the Keyblade." By this time Sora was crying. He'd poured out all the emotions he'd had building up during this whole mess. He put on a happy face but that was because he figured that if he was carefree, others would worry less. Not that Sora wasn't usually happy. This kind of mess can just get anyone down. "Riku, please, I just want us all to be together again."

For a moment, neither of them moved. Sora honestly couldn't tell if his speech had any effect on Riku. Then Riku dashed forward, raising the Keyblade. Sora's heart broke. He didn't even try to dodge.

Now, a Keyblade is a rather unique weapon. It permanently kills creatures like Heartless that are spawned due to a person's heart. It works pretty well on regular monsters since most of them are created due to bad emotions. It can have weird effects on humans though. If it's a fairly normal human, they die, no questions asked. If a person is rather different, it might not be so final. For example, a stubborn person will become a Nobody, although that can be taken care of permanently with a Keyblade. If a person has ties to the darkness or light that are strong enough, they might be able to bring themselves back to life or find some other way to preserve their existence for a while. So the Keyblade wouldn't be the best weapon to use to get rid of these people. It's one of the reasons Keyblade wielders aren't supposed to meddle with the world order. If they have to do something about someone, they can't be sure they'll stay dead. If they do get involved, it's best to let someone else finish them, or use a different weapon at the very least.

Sora had never been normal. As such, when Riku landed what would have definitely been a killing blow, something very odd happened.

When Riku slashed Sora, it went through most of the younger boy's body. Fortunately, the way Riku slashed meant that Sora's spine was only lightly nicked. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else got damaged. Sora collapsed in a puddle of his own blood. Up until then, everything had happened normally. This was where it got odd. Sora's body started glowing. Riku turned and raised an eyebrow. Then Kairi's body started smoking. Riku's eyes widened. "Kairi!" Then four bright lights flew out of Sora's body as it started to disappear in a whirlwind of crystal fragments. The hearts and glows flew into the Keyhole off to the side that Sora hadn't noticed, inadvertently completing it. Then Kairi's body disappeared into darkness as Riku watched in disbelief. "Kairi!"

"How could you?"

Riku whipped around. That had sounded like Kairi, but he didn't see her anywhere. "Kairi! Where are you? !" No one answered. Then he heard bawling. He turned and stared at the crying anthros. "What's with you two?"

"You killed Sora!" accused Donald.

"And after he said all that too," sobbed Goofy.

Riku snorted. "Like he even meant any of that."

"But he did." Riku whirled around to see the hooded man from Destiny Islands. "He meant every word. He poured out his heart, and you crushed it. That's why he didn't try dodging."

Riku raised an eyebrow. "You again? What're you talking about?"

"That is no longer important." The man tilted his head. "What a foolish boy. You don't even see what's right in front of you." Then he walked into the Keyhole and a wave of darkness came out of it.

"We need to get out of here!" shouted Donald. The three quickly ran out. If they had stayed a bit longer, they would have seen the capsules containing the princesses start glowing.

That's it for now.

And that's the prologue. For some reason, I seem to have horrible things happen to Sora in my stories. Poor Sora.

By the way, Jiminy will be fine. He will reappear at a later point, but it won't be for a while.

Any guesses for what's gonna happen?