*grovels at your feet for forgiveness* I'm so sorry I haven't publish anything in ages. work, babysitting, family and other on going projects kept me from finishing this chapter! And when i finally did finish it, our Internet went down (i nearly went insane) and when that was finally fixed, my less then a year old laptop had another spaz attack and me being an idiot didn't think to back my files up, but its fixed now (i hope) and I, thankfully, didn't lose anything.

So, After all that here it is! Enjoy! ;-)

Chapter 10 - Nice to meet you!

"Stairs! Gotta find the stairs!" Sora panted as he sprinted down a long, narrow corridor with Roxas a little bit behind him. On either side of the corridor were different sized doorways that seemed to lead off into every direction but down! They need to go down because Squall had told them that were the most likely place the dungeon, prison, whatever… was! And that's where Leah, Cloud's sister, would be!

"Sora! Wait!" Roxas skited to a stop in front of a darken doorway. At Roxas' words, Sora slowed to a stop, turned around and walked slowly back to his brother.

"You sure?" Sora glanced around nervously, to make sure no one had found them yet.

Roxas nodded, "yeah, look you can see where the stairs start to descend downwards"

Sora looked though the doorway to see Roxas was right. A few steps from the doorframe the floor began to slope into roughly hewed steps that led downwards into the dark.

"Hold on, we need some kind of light" Roxas stated looking around for a torch or something as Sora started towards the doorway. The moment his foot past the threshold, torches scattered at even distances along the passageway's walls, burst into flames illumining it.

Sora glanced back at Roxas, "guess that solved our problem"

Roxas hesitated before following, "what if it's a trap?"

Sora shook his head as he started down the steps, "no, I don't think so. The Heartless expects us to stay with the Heroes but we didn't. We ran off to search on our own while Squall and the others distracted them."

Roxas frowned, "and what makes you think The Heartless aren't gonna come after us once they realise we're not with the Heroes, huh? What then?"

Sora smiled grimly, "right now, I don't think they really care about us"

-F-I-N-A-L-K-I-N-G-D-O-M-

"Hope the Boys are having better luck then us!" Bartz grunted as he blasted back a wave of Shadows with an Aero spell.

"just stand your ground for a little longer" Squall growled out as he added a Fire spell to Bartz's causing a giant fire wave to blast though the income wave of Shadows. Hearing footsteps behind, he glanced back to see Zidane jogging out of one the hallways that him and Bartz were guarding, "anything?"

Zidane just shook his head as he ducked under Bartz's arm and cut a Shadow in half, "Nothing, all the rooms were empty!"

"Strange" Bartz blocked a claw swipe before he deftly countered, cutting the offending Shadow in half horizontally.

"well, not very" Squall stabbed a Shadow in half before sweeping his Gunblade to the right, taking down two more of the Shadows, "this place is used to store prisoners and probably to turn them into Heartless"

Zidane loosen an Ice spell on to three Shadows before smashing them to pieces with one of his short swords, "We better hurry then"

Squall glanced behind himself again, "where the hell is Cloud?"

As if to answer his question, Cloud walked out of the other hallway, his giant sword in its sheath behind his back. He placed something into his pocket before he drew his sword and re-joined the group.

Squall glanced at him, "well?"

Cloud shook his head, "nothing"

Squall opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching from behind them. Without hesitating, Cloud swung the massive sword and released a wave of electric blue energy that destroyed the remaining Shadows, then as one, the four Heroes turned and took their battle stances.

Soon the owner of the footsteps appeared form out of the hallway that Zidane had exited. A tall man with pale yellow hair and eyes of the same colour that glared at them from a hawk like face that wore an expression of hated and disgust. He was wear a black trench coat and an embroidered shirt. He was followed by three large Shadows.

"So, you are the troublemakers who broke into my fortress and spoiled my lovely morning" He sniffed at the Heroes, "What horrible guests, why you even smashed my gate down"

Squall stepped forward, "Well, I'd like to say I'm sorry but that would be a lie," He raised his gunblade at the man , "I am Squall Leonhart and these are my fellow Heroes, Bartz Klaussner, Zidane Tribal and Cloud Strife. May I ask who you are, O lord of this castle?"

"Lord Supabin, one of the Generals chosen to lead the army of Darkness" Supabin sneered, "now, do tell me where are the Keyblade wielders?

Bartz smiled, "nah, I don't feel like it"

Cloud stepped forward, "do you have a girl named Leah here?"

Supabin placed a thin finger against his chin as if in thought, "Leah? Is that her name? I never bothered to ask her name. Black hair, green eyes?" he looked over at Cloud who nodded once, stiffly then he shrugged and smiled sickly, "she is very resilient. No matter how much I beat and tortured her, she wouldn't tell me anything, just threw insult after insult at me"

Supabin cold yellow eyes gleamed as he looked over at Cloud, "you must be the Big Bother she was hoping would rescue her" he smirked again, "too bad, she's probably dead now, she wasn't in the best of shape when I left her yesterday"

Cloud's eyes glowed dangerously as he growled out, "tell me where she is?"

"Oh, I don't feel like it" Supabin threw back.

A low growl came from Cloud as he launched himself at the Heartless general, "then I make you!"

-F-I-N-A-L-K-I-N-G-D-O-M-

Sora and Roxas made their way carefully down the stairway, alert to potential dangers and enemies. After a while the stairs flatten out in to a short corridor that in turn lead to a smallish, dimly- lit circular room, lining the walls were a number of heavy looking doors.

"How do we know which one she's in?" Sora walked to the nearest door and banged his knuckles on it, "and how do we open it if we do?" Sora turned and leaned his back against the door, "we really didn't think this though, did we?"

When Roxas didn't answer, Sora glanced up to see him standing in front of one of the doors, "Roxas?"

"This one" Roxas raised his left hand and placed it on the door just above the lock.

Sora walked over and examined the door closely, "you sure?"

Roxas looked at Sora, "I… I just have this feeling" he glanced at the door then back at his twin, "that there's someone in there"

Sora nodded, "Ok but how do we get in there?"

As if to answer his question, Roxas eyes glowed softly for a brief moment before the door lock glowed a pale blue and let out a small click. Both boys stared at open mouthed before turning to each other.

"What did you do?" Sora gasped, "Did you just unlock it? How"

Roxas looked at his hand, "I... I... Don't know," he looked back at Sora, "I just imagined the door unlocking and… click"

Sora shook his head, "we'll figure it out later," he began to push it open, "let's see what's behind it first"

With some effort, the door slowly creaked open to reveal a small cell lit by a single small torch which cast only a faint circle of light within. At the edge of the light, sat crumbled in the far corner, was a small figure.

"What do you want?" it hissed out softly.

Roxas stepped slowly into cell, "we're here to rescue someone"

The figure stirred slightly, "someone?" it paused, "who?"

Roxas took another step closer, "her name's Leah"

The figure sat up a bit straighter, "who sent you?"

Roxas took another tentative step toward the figure, aware that Sora was behind him a step, ready to interfere if the figure turned violent, "Her older brother, Cloud Strife"

"Cloud?" the figures voice wavered slightly, "did you say Cloud Strife?"

Roxas nodded slowly, "yes and we helping him"

"I knew it" it whispered to itself as it seemed to relax slightly, "well then, mysterious rescuers of mine, undo these damn chains here" it lifted its hand to show wrists bound by heavy chains that linked to the wall, "and I'll help you with this search of your's"

"Sure" Roxas gave Sora a 'stay there' gesture with his hand before crossing over to the figure and kneeling down on its left side. As he gently took its left hand in his right, his eyes finally adjusted to the dim light of the cell and he let out a small gasp. Sitting in front of him was a girl with shoulder length raven black hair that framed a small pixie like face with pale skin, but what had captured his attention were her eyes, they were sea green and seemed to glow faintly. She smiled softly at him, "hi"

"Hi" he smiled back. Rising his left hand, he held it above the cuff of metal that encircled her wrist, keeping her chained to the wall. After a moment, the cuff and chain fell to the floor with a clink as he managed to repeat the same trick that he had used on the cell door. He quickly repeated the process with her right arm and helped her to her feet, where he saw that the top of her head only came equal to the bridge of his nose. When she started to sway slightly, he gentle put an arm around her shoulders in support.

She looked up at him in surprise before she smiled again, "thank you"

"It's okay, take your time" Roxas smiled back.

The girl took a breath before she stepped away, breaking the contact, towards Sora, "You probably worked who I am, right?"

Roxas nodded, "Pretty much"

She smiled again, "But I don't know you two, so?"

"I'm Roxas" he gestured to Sora, "and that's my brother Sora"

"Nice to meet you, Roxas and Sora, I'm Leah Fairborough" she nodded to both of them before she rolled her shoulders, "now, let's get out of this cell"

-F-I-N-A-L-K-I-N-G-D-O-M-

Cloud danced backwards as the Heartless General's sword slashed downwards before he bought his own sword up to waist height and swung it horizontally causing Supabin to redirect his sword to block it. Cloud grunted as he swung his massive sword back then changed directions suddenly to bring it down vertically at Supabin's left shoulder. The Heartless hissed as Cloud's sword sliced though his shoulder. Pressing his good hand to his injury, Supabin jumped out of the range of Cloud's sword. He glanced around to see the three large shadows he had bought were being slowly beaten back by the other three Heroes, he grimaced angrily, he would be getting no help from those weaklings.

"Don't lose focus now!" Cloud sprung towards Supabin, bringing his sword down as if to slice the Heartless General in half.

Supabin growled in pain as he rolled out of the way leaving Cloud to gouge a huge hole in the floor from the impact. As he got to his feet he sensed something amiss causing him to hiss in angry again, those damn Heroes, this was all a distraction so those damn Keyblade wielders could sneak around and free his prisoner.

His yellow eyes narrowed to slits as he raised his hand, "looks as if our fight with have to end here for now" twisting tentacles of darkness appeared from the ground and swirled around his body, as he glared at Cloud, "and next time we meet Hero, I will kill you!" and with that the darkness swallowed him and sunk into the ground, disappearing.

Cloud snarled at the spot for a second before he turned to see that the others were just finishing up their battles as well.

Squall's gunblade flashed red then white as he cut the Shadow he was fighting in half horizontal at the waist, a split second later the two half glowed white then red and burst in to flames before dissolving in to tiny pieces of dark dust. Across the room, Bartz parried a downward swing from his Heartless before he thrust forward with his sword, coated with an aero spell so that currents of wind travelled up and down the blood red blade. He managed to piece it in the stomach and increase the force of the magic spell on the blade, used the wind to rip it to pieces before it dissolved away too.

Meanwhile, Zidane back flipped over the top of the Heartless he was fighting and slashed it diagonally down its back with his two dual blades, the Heartless growled with pain as it swung around to try and shred Zidane with its claws but before it could, Zidane stabbed it in the chest with both blades and with that it began to dissolve away too.

"Well, that was exciting" Bartz rolled his shoulders and glanced over at Cloud, "what, he run away?"

"Yeah," Cloud walked over to Squall, "I don't like it. I think he figured out that the twins aren't with us."

"I thought as much" Squall let out a breath and began to walk back the way they had come, "there's nothing more here, let's get out of here"

-F-I-N-A-L-K-I-N-G-D-O-M-

"So, what are you two doing in a situation like this?" Leah asked casually as she, Sora and Roxas walked down one of the many long, winding corridors that that led back to the main entrance hall of the fortress.

"What?" Sora glanced into one of the many dark doorways that lined the corridor before he looked back at Leah with confusion.

Leah shrugged, "no offense, but you two aren't exactly the kind of help I expected Cloud to enlist in helping rescue me"

Sora and Roxas shared a look over Leah's head before they both replied, "we weren't either"

The spikes in Leah's hair swayed as she looked between the two brothers, "pardon?"

Roxas scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "umm, well, you see..."

"Hold it!" Sora cut him off sharply, "I can hear footsteps!"

Grabbing both Roxas and Leah's arms, he pulled them in one of the doorways to hide.

"Who or what do you think it is?" Roxas whispered as they all peered around the doorframe.

"I don't know but..." Sora whispered back

"shhh" Leah hissed out, "I can hear voices"

Falling quiet, the trio strined their ears and listened to the slightly muffled voice coming down the corridor towards them.

"Hurry, we have to find them before that Heartless guy does!"

"I know that but if we're not carefully, we could run in to a trap"

The voices and sound of footsteps passed by the doorway, the twins and Leah were hiding in and continued down the corridor away from them.

"It's okay, we'll just fight our way out of it"

"As much as I admire you confidence in us, I would like to avoid fighting as well"

At the sound of the last voice, Leah let out a small gasp and sprung out of the doorway.

"Wait" Sora and Roxas cried out as they made to grab her and pull her back to safety.

But before they could she cried out, "Cloud!" making the four figures stop and turn around, letting Sora and Roxas see it was indeed Cloud and the other three Heroes.

"Leah!" Cloud eyes lit up as he started towards her

"Cloud!" Leah sprung down the Corridor and met him halfway, where she pulled him into a fierce hug where she whispered, "I knew you would come"

He hugged her back and smiled softly, "sorry I'm late"

Leah smiled back, "it's okay, you here and that's what matters"

i decided to end it on a kinda cliffhanger, so hopefully I can finish the next few chapters and have them up soon!

Luv ya's, Bye!