"Ow…." Sora rolled over in the dimly lit room.

"Sora?"

"Leon?"

"Yeah, I'm here, you okay?"

Sora picked himself up, his head spinning. "I think I hit my head on something."

"Yeah, me," Sora looked around to see Riku getting to his feet and rubbing his own head.

"Three of us," Leon said, looking up towards where the ceiling should have been, it wasn't of course. "I hope everyone else is alright."

"There's a door." Riku pointed towards one wall.

Leon sighed. "Xehanort is screwing with us. His Heartless couldn't kill us, so now he's just having fun."

"Well let's go get him!" Sora said, striding towards the door.

Leon and Riku exchanged glances and moved after him.

"He hasn't changed at all." Riku said, shaking his head.

"Did you expect him to?" Leon asked with a slight smile.

"Well, yeah, I thought he'd grow up."

Leon snorted, "Right, Sora grow up."

"Hey are you calling me immature?"

Riku smiled at him. "Well you've kissed Kairi but what else have you done?"

Sora turned red and looked away, Leon raised an eyebrow. "You haven't done anything else with Kairi have you?"

"N-no! Of course not, remember what you said about being too young? Don't you think that applies here too?"

Leon blinked, a slow smile creeping across his face. "Maybe, maybe not."

Sora scowled and continued moving through the hallway they found themselves in. There were pipes lining the walls and the hiss of steam could be heard all around them, the air was heavy and moist and soon they were all covered in sweat.

"For a change I actually don't like having my uniform." Leon said, unfastening the top of his leather armor.

They continued moving through the labyrinth of pipes sometimes they saw shapes moving beyond the pipes and Sora was certain that not all the hisses were from the steam but no Heartless came to face them as they moved through the gloom. Finally they came upon some kind of junction where several like pathways met.

Leon looked around at the other passages. "They all look the same."

Grates slammed into place over all of the doorways and Leon sighed. "They still look the same."

Heartless began spawning around them, big, armored, and armed Heartless. The trio backed into the center of the room, two keyblades snapped into being as Leon drew his sword-caster. The Heartless danced back and forth, hissing and cackling maniacally as they circled. Leon scowled and fired a shot into the faceplate of a larger Heartless; its head flew off in a burst of shadows. The headless body reached up curiously, feeling for its head before it fell over. The other Heartless froze and seemed to stare at their fallen comrade for a moment before howling angrily and rushing forwards. Sora swung, taking three down in one movement and then turned towards the next Heartless.

"More of them," Riku called, and indeed more had appeared.

Leon raised his hand. "Wind Cutter," what felt like a strong wind whipped around them and several Heartless were cut to ribbons, Leon finished the survivors of the attack with his caster shots. Still it wasn't enough as even more enemies poured out of the pipes around them.

"How many are there?" Sora shouted as he hacked another Heartless to pieces.

"Sora!" He heard Riku shout, he turned to see a Heartless with a blade on its arm swinging towards him, it seemed to happen in slow motion as he turned to try to block and realized he couldn't get the keyblade there in time. Almost lazily he looked for Leon but didn't see his brother; his view was blocked by the Heartless swinging for him. Then someone pushed him, and he fell back, his eyes widened as Riku stood over him, was he smiling? Then his eyes widened and a red mist burst from his chest as the blade found its way through him and he was lifted off floor and tossed away into the piping on the wall. It all happened so slowly, as it sank in Sora felt rage welling up inside him as the Heartless loomed over him. Then the Heartless erupted in a mass of black shadow, he could hear Leon's shouts but didn't understand what he was saying over the rapid fire of his caster.

The rage in Sora kept building as he picked himself up, he couldn't contain himself as he screamed, energy pulsed out from him, he saw Leon's eyes widen and watched his brother dig his blade into the ground. Whatever control he'd had was gone and he felt power course through every bone in his body, the world suddenly seemed to stop moving, he looked down, his keyblade was gone and his hands were covered in something black and mist like. He knew somehow what he could do with them, screaming in rage he ran at the remaining Heartless who seemed baffled and terrified by his coming. He howled as he tore them to ribbons, they fled from him but none of them moved fast enough for it to matter. They were so pathetic, they were barely worth his time but he wanted to tear them to pieces anyways, it was fun.

Suddenly he was out of targets and he looked around trying to find a new one, then arms wrapped around him, he hissed just like a Heartless and whirled slashing. Then his eyes found focus and he saw Leon staring at him in surprise, his armor's front had claw marks torn into it as he fell back.

He blinked, shaking his rage from his head as horror replaced it. "Leon!" He cried in anguish as he came back to himself. Leon was there again, holding him tightly as the shadow receded from his body and he began trembling uncontrollably.

"Shhh, it's alright, I'm fine, you missed me. Shhh everything will be alright."

Sora couldn't stop trembling, what had just happened to him? He'd nearly killed Leon, if he'd been taller that could have been Leon's head, not his armor.

His head snapped up. "Riku!"

Pulling free of Leon he ran over towards Riku's limp form, rolling over his friend and cradling his head in his arms.

Riku smiled up at him, blood trickling from his mouth. "You….got lost….didn't you…."

"Lost?" Sora asked, baffled as tears clouded his vision, the wound was too big he'd come to understand battlefield medication enough in the past several days to know that neither he or Leon could save Riku.

Riku nodded. "I…did too…after I beca—" he coughed and blood spattered on Sora's face. "A bearer….when I first….got the key," his speech was labored and Sora could feel his blood pouring out of the wound in Riku's back into his lap and then onto the floor.

Riku swallowed, trying to continue. "Your…heart is consumed…..by emotion….and for a moment you…..are a Heartless." He took several large draws of breath, his smile returning.

Sora was starting to cry, tears blurring his vision. "Why did you save me?"

"Kairi….been….lonely."

"Idiot," he yelled at Riku, unsure if he was angry at himself or at Riku.

Riku nodded, licking his lips. "I—I think…I know….why Roxas has….tw—"

He didn't finish the last word, he just stopped speaking, his mouth forming the syllables but unmoving, his eyes stared unseeingly up at Sora as his chest fell one last time in a rattling convulsion. Then there was nothing. Sora looked up at Leon.

"He's—"

Leon wrapped his arms around his brother, pulling him away from Riku's staring corpse as Sora curled up in Leon's arms. He felt like a child, alone and frightened the only thing that seemed secure was his brother's arms and he clung to Leon tightly. The gates around them rose and Leon looked up to see Roxas, carrying Namine come through one of them. Another produced a bruised and battered Cid being supported by Cloud and Tifa with Kairi in tow. Everyone froze when they saw Riku's body.

"Oh no," Roxas murmured, Namine buried her face in his chest, silently crying as he knelt with her.

"This is bad," Zack murmured, for once sounding like they were beaten. "We can't do this with just four bearers."

Leon looked at Sora gently, then up at Zack. "Riku said that Roxas had two for a reason."

Zack's face was grim. "Then let's hope he's right."

Kairi approached Sora cautiously, Leon let him go and Cloud's eyes widened.

"Leon your armor."

"It's nothing, it didn't penetrate."

Kairi tried to comfort Sora but he pulled away. "It's my fault, he was protecting me."

"I'm sorry Sora, please don't blame yourself."

He didn't hear her, or else ignored her. In either case he moved further away, his expression stunned.

Zack looked at Namine, leaning against Roxas. "Hurt her leg?"

Roxas nodded quietly, staring at Riku's body silently. "It's just like that picture." He whispered to no one in particular, Namine nodded as if in agreement and everyone looked confusedly at the pair.

"We need to keep mov—"

Zack didn't finish, the floor shuddered. "Oh not again," groaned Cloud.

But the floor didn't give way, instead shadows engulfed them all, Kairi screamed, Namine clung to Roxas who tried to grab onto a pipe but was ripped away. Sora watched in terror as he and the other three began to sink, Leon grabbed his hand pulling with all his might as Sora was sucked downwards but his brother's fingers just slipped through his grasp and into the shadow enshrouded floor. The four Elites stood there in the room with Riku's corpse, the floor was normal again and there was no trace of the bearers.

"We are so dead." Zack said to no one in particular as the doors were sealed off again and the chattering hisses of the Heartless could be heard growing louder and closer all around them.

Roxas picked himself up, he couldn't see anything, but he could feel Namine, still holding onto his hand tightly.

"Can you give us light?"

"I am." She whispered.

He blinked, wondering if his eyes were closed. "I don't see anything."

"I know, but I am casting the spell." She said, "it just…isn't lighting anything."

"Sora!" Roxas called into the pitch black.

"He's here," came Kairi's voice from somewhere nearby. "But he isn't speaking at all, he's just shaking."

"You children honestly thought you could stop me, how quaint."

The voice was not one he recognized, "who are you?"

"I am the architect of your demise of course, and the demise of that fool Ansem."

"Xehanort." Namine spat venomously, Roxas had never heard her sound so hateful before.

"Very good, now you'll excuse me I'm sure if I just leave you to wallow in shadow while I kill your companions. They seem a tad more dangerous than you little fools."

"Xehanort!" Roxas yelled, but he got no answer, he pounded his fist into the ground. "Kairi, keep talking, Namine and I will crawl to you."

"Okay, I can hear you too, just keep coming."

Roxas and Namine moved slowly towards Kairi's voice, they found her and Sora who was still silent. Roxas reached over and touched his shoulder.

"Sora?"

Sora shuddered in response to the touch, Roxas wrapped his arms around his cousin, he felt Namine and Kairi pressing in around him. None of them had any idea what they were going to, and Zack, Cloud, Tifa, and Leon were apparently about to be attacked by Xehanort, it seemed hopeless. There was a flash, it was strange because it wasn't light, it was like a shadow in the darkness. It looked like a living pillar of shadow had appeared. Roxas wondered if this was what Xehanort was going to use to kill them, and reached out, feeling his keyblades appear in his hands, though they didn't cast the light they typically did.

"Put those away boy, they can't do anything here." Came a gruff voice, and he saw a shape step out of the shadow, the shape vanished as the shadow did, but he could hear booted footsteps coming towards him.

"Stay back!" He said, swinging the keyblades wildly in the dark. The boots stopped, and for a moment he thought he'd scared their owner, but then he felt something grab a keyblade and jerk the weapon aside.

"You, Namine, let me see your leg." The voice said again.

There was another flash, this time it was a light and he saw a hand illuminated against Namine's leg she winced like she was in pain but she didn't cry out. The light faded and they were plunged in shadow again.

"Try to stand."

Roxas couldn't see Namine but he heard her shuffling.

"Does it still hurt?"

"No," she said, she sounded amazed. "What did you do?"

"Stupid question, I healed you. Come on, follow me."

"Wait!" Kairi called, "where are you taking him?"

Roxas realized that the owner of the voice must have taken Sora.

"I'm taking the five of you out of here."

"There are four of us." Namine said quietly.

There was a long pause before the voice spoke again. "Do you remember your friend? Does he have a place in your hearts?"

"Of course he does, he'll always have a place."

"Good, then let's go."

Another pillar of shadow appeared and the figure was silhouetted against it again, this time carrying Sora.

"Do we trust him?" Roxas asked nervously.

"I think," Namine said, though she sounded far from certain. "I recognize his voice."

"Me too," Kairi said, Roxas could imagine the frown that must be on her face. "But I don't know where I've heard it before."

"So we trust him?"

Both girls took his hand and he followed them towards the writhing pillar of shadow and their apparent savior.