Sora immediately pointed his Keyblade at the cell's lock and pushed its door open, rushing inside the cold cell to grab the slumped Leon by the bloody shoulders.

"Leon!" he said, shaking the man slightly and promptly being snapped at to shut up by Riku. Leon's eyes were only half open, but he seemed to be trying hard to focus on Sora, who pointed the Keyblade at Leon and firmly commanded, "Cure!" To his dismay, however, nothing happened. Leon was still bloody, bruised, and on the border of unconsciousness, his body shaking uncontrollably. From cold? From hunger? Thirst? Fatigue? Maybe even anger? There could be a lot of reasons for that besides the fact that his body was below normal temperature. Sora looked at Riku in fearful askance.

"Your magic isn't gonna be good enough for damage this severe," Riku said moodily. "Even Merlin's magic isn't powerful enough to heal the body at this level. He did the best he could with Cloud, but at best, it just helped stop the bleeding."

"Cloud," Leon muttered, lifting his head at the name of his comrade. "Is he…okay?"

Sora and Riku looked at each other before turning back to Leon.

"Well, he's doing better than you," Goofy answered sadly.

Leon nodded. "Well that's…good," he said hoarsely. He then looked beyond the others at the cell bars. "They're…gonna be back soon."

The others understood what he meant: the men that had been torturing Leon would soon be back and they needed to leave now.

"All right," Riku said, "any reviving of any sort we do is going to have to wait, but we can't be too slow. I wanted to at least cast a Fire spell to get Leon's temperature up, but I really don't think we have time at the moment. Goofy, can you carry Leon with you behind your shield?"

"Sure thing, Riku," Goofy replied, putting his hand to his forehead in a salute and looking determined.

While the others guarded the cell, Goofy lifted up Leon from under the arms and tried to interlock Leon's with his own arms at the elbows, then held up his shield in front of Leon, who was at least able to keep himself relatively upright, whether by actually putting a little weight on his feet or dragging them. He was strong even in his weakest state.

The group filed out of the cell in a certain procession so that Goofy and Leon would be able to mobilize without being attacked. Sora and Donald went in front of everyone, Goofy supporting Leon went in the middle, and Riku and Kairi followed at the end, the idea being that there was a balance of fighting skills at both front and back. Sora and Riku had the most powerful weapons and skills, while both Kairi and Donald wielded just magic.

The group made their way back out of the dungeon, Sora looking around at the other cells with a frown. There were a few other prisoners too…could they not set the rest free? He looked over his shoulder at Riku who, as if reading his mind, nodded at him to keep moving. Sora did so, but felt guilty as they 

reached the top of the staircase and were on their way out of the cylinder-shaped room. He was surprised upon opening the door on the other side that they had still managed to be undetected.

They continued through the halls of the castle, looking around warily, waiting for enemies to appear at any moment and attack. They made it all the way back to the room that had the trap door, however, without any type of onslaught. Sora was grateful but found this ominous all the same. Would one of the guards not notice that their prisoner with the most information of use to them was missing?

"Okay, Sora," Riku whispered as he opened the trap door in the floor, "you go down first and wait at the bottom of the ladder. Then Goofy climb down with Leon, and Sora, you help them off the ladder. Use a Fire spell so we can see better; just be quiet about it. I have a feeling that sooner or later someone will find out about our little tunnel and infiltrate it. After Goofy and Leon, Kairi, you go, then you, Donald, then me."

Everyone nodded silently and made their procession down the ladder as Riku had advised. Once Sora's feet found the solid ground below him, he whispered, "Fire," and held the Keyblade in one hand like a lit torch, first looking around the tunnel to make sure no one was approaching that should not be, then looking back up at the ladder. Goofy climbed down, awkwardly supporting Leon. Once they were close to the bottom, Sora whispered, "I've got him," and slowly helped Leon out of Goofy's arms. Leon groaned, seeming to be only half conscious. Sora gently sat him on the ground against the tunnel's wall and stood in front of him in protection, checking the surroundings again for enemies.

Goofy hopped down from the ladder, followed by Kairi, Donald, and Riku. Once they were all in the tunnel again, they resumed the same formation as they had journeyed back to the trap door in, except this time, Sora holding up a lit Keyblade in the front and Kairi lifting her lit sword at the back.

After walking through the tunnel for a few minutes, Riku and Kairi both froze and simultaneously hissed, "Don't move!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy all looked over their shoulders, and Sora felt a touch of fear as he watched Riku and Kairi turn in the opposite direction, listening stilly.

"What is it?" Donald asked quietly.

"I heard a thud," Kairi whispered.

"Yeah, me too," Riku said concernedly.

They all stood there silently for a moment, staring at the darkness behind them, waiting for something to happen.

"I'm gonna go check it out," Kairi said quietly, holding up her lit sword and walking forward. Riku started to protest but she was beyond their sight before he could say anything more. Goofy took Leon closer to Riku and Sora and Donald followed suit. They all stood there, watching the darkness, listening for any sounds of a struggle.

"Kairi shouldn't have done that," Riku growled. "We came here to save one person, not lose another."

"She's something," Sora said proudly. "I'm sure she'll be fine. We've helped her improve her fighting skills a lot since returning to Destiny Islands. And while this may sound bad, and I would never want this to happen, it's better to send her than you. If you got kidnapped…well, everything's kind of up to you, Riku. You know?"

Riku glared at him. "Don't talk about sacrificing your girlfriend like she was a farm animal," he hissed.

"I'm not!" Sora protested. "I love Kairi! I just meant that she's strong enough to handle it and that it would be better for everyone in all the worlds to…to lose her in-instead of y-you…" Sora sniffled, and realized with embarrassment that he was crying. He wiped at his eyes with his sleeves, hating what he was saying but knowing it was true. If something bad happened to Kairi, there was still no reason that Reston and his plans could not be foiled, but if something happened to Riku…Reston would win, and all the worlds would be at an end. And while Sora would rather torture and kill himself before letting anything bad happen to Kairi, he understood her and knew that she was willing to risk and sacrifice herself for the rest of the worlds.

Riku stared at him, understanding what he was saying and the pain that it made Sora feel. He sighed and shook his head.

"This," he muttered, "is why I didn't want you guys to come. I don't want to see either of you get hurt, and I don't want either of you to have to see each other get hurt."

"Riku, Destiny Islands will be attacked eventually anyway from the sound of it. At least this way, Kairi and I feel like we're doing something about it, rather than sitting at home all happy and then being taken by surprised and attacked. And we're all doing this together, Riku! There's strength in numbers, especially with your friends. We're in this together, and we don't want you going at it alone."

Riku looked at Sora, feeling pained, not wanting the help but loving his friends for giving it to him anyway. He just hoped that they would not have to suffer for it…

The group stood there in the dark for another moment before deciding to make their way back to the ladder to find out what had happened. They were all nervous, as there had not been any noise or commotion that they had heard, and Kairi had not yet returned.

Upon reaching the bottom of the ladder, the group looked around the base of it to find nothing that could tell them anything. Sora pointed the Keyblade upwards and shined the light as high as it would reach, then brought it back down, shrugging at the others.

"Wait a minute," Riku said quietly as he took a hold of the Keyblade and guided its light along the ladder. He stopped it on a broken rung. "None of these rungs were broken when I climbed down, and I was the last of us to go. I think this is the source of the thump that Kairi and I heard. Someone must have been climbing down and then when the rung broke, they fell. It's only a couple feet off the ground, but the surprise of it would ruin their landing and make a little noise."

"What do we do about Kairi?" Donald asked.

"Well, I'm thinking we should all go back up and look for her. I'm getting kind of ner-"

The trap door way above opened before Riku could finish his sentence. The group jumped away from the ladder, Goofy covering Leon's mouth as he yanked him away. They had their weapons raised and ready, but lowered them when they heard Kairi's voice say, "Wind!" in a harried way. She floated back to the bottom of the stairs in a small whirlwind and landed lightly on her feet.

"Why-" Sora began only to be cut off.

"We need to leave, now," Kairi said, not bothering to stay quiet anymore. Without another word, she pulled Leon off the ground with surprising strength, handed him to Goofy as if he were a rag doll, and pushed Goofy in the direction of the opposite side of the tunnel before scooping up the short Donald and pulling at Sora and Riku's sleeves. "Come on!"

Kairi had them all jogging awkwardly through the tunnel; Goofy had picked up Leon completely and was now carrying him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Kairi, what's going on?" Sora asked.

"One of the guards from the dungeons had followed us down here and had gone back up the ladder when he saw me coming. I chased after him but I couldn't stop him. I think he was trying to figure out where we were going and was planning to sneak up on us, but when that ladder rung broke, he knew he'd been discovered and high-tailed it out of here. I'm pretty sure there are going to be people after us soon," Kairi explained breathlessly as they ran through the tunnel.

They had made it all the way to the exit ladder without problems when there was a sound of some kind of shots being fired and hitting the tunnel walls around them. Everyone ducked down and watched as about sixteen armored men came charging at them firing red beams of light from hefty guns on their shoulders.

"We've got to get out of here!" Sora yelled.

"Goofy!" Riku barked as he used his Dark Aura attack to fire spheres of darkness at the armed men. "Get Leon up there now!" Goofy began to quickly and clumsily climb up the ladder as shots were fired around him. The rest of the group fended them off for the most part, but it was unlikely they would be able to defeat the men in a short span of time and it was urgent for them to leave the world quickly. "Sora, Kairi, Donald! Target them, climb, and as you're climbing cast Thunder spells. None of us have enough magic to use Stop right now and there's no time for ethers!"

Sora, Kairi, and Donald hastily did as Riku advised, knowing they could not afford to linger in this tunnel. They climbed quickly, yelling "Thunder!" at intervals, trying to ignore the shots that struck very close to them. Riku, however, used his dark magic to create a sphere of darkness around each of them. It would not last long, but it would be enough. Riku climbed up after them, firing at the men as he climbed. The men ran over to the ladder in their pursuit, but Riku used his Keyblade to cut off the rest of the ladder from beneath his feet. He did this continuously until they reached the trap door, and he was pulled 

through it by his friends while more shots whistled past his ears. He was sitting on the ground, panting, before jumping to his feet and running over to their Gummi ship, the others hot on his heels. He glanced over his shoulder to see more armed men and Shadows coming swiftly through the castle's main entrance to chase after them. Riku ran up the ramp of the Gummi ship, opened the door, and stepped aside to let the rest of the group race in. He ducked under the now closing door himself, narrowly avoiding a hit by another red beam of light.

Sora started the engine of the ship and they took off into space with a blast, Riku watching the swarm of enemies on the ground below from out the cockpit window.

He wanted to feel relief and tell himself they were safe, but he knew better.

Their escape was far from over yet…