The the mess caused by Clayton sorted it, the time had come for the heroes of the day to leave. Bidding a fond farewell to Jane and Tarzan, the group found the gummi ship not too far away from where Donald and Goofy landed. Fortunately still intact and surprisingly only a little scuffed from Sora's crash landing, everyone was pleased to see that the ship was still operational.

"This is your vessel?" Blake said, looking at the...unusual looking ship. She was likely expecting something similar to what Weiss was going by her confused expression. "Yup. This is the gummi ship. Cool huh?" Ruby said in a chipper tone as they were beamed into the ship one by one. 'Cool' wasn't quite the word Blake was thinking of, but she felt it best to just roll with it. If this weird looking ship helped them get this far, then it was probably best to just accept the ride, no matter how strange the vehicle.

As they took off from the Deep Jungle, Jaune spoke up looking at the collection of gummis they'd obtained from these past few worlds they'd visited. "I wonder what those gummis we've been finding are all about." His words drew the attention of the party. Obvious exception being Donald who was piloting, but still listening. "The one from that Wonderland place where you guys found Weiss and the ones from world we just came from are very different though. But the ones from those 'keyholes' are similar somehow?" Pyrrha observed with a curious hum.

Sora took out the two he'd received from said keyholes. "These ones came out of those 'keyholes' we found. I wonder what they're used for?" Donald gave a small shrug as he continued driving, answering with a simple, "I don't know." He and Goofy only knew about the gummis being used to make ships like the one they were on. The rest was a mystery. Fortunately, they knew someone who might have a better idea. "Maybe Leon will know?" Goofy suggested. Donald felt that was their most logical option as he nodded, replying, "Hmmm... He might. Back to Traverse Town, then?

"That was where we were gonna go anyway. Until we had an unexpected detour." Weiss said, giving a pointed glare at Sora. Ruby immediately jumped in, reminding Weiss, "Hey, it might have been an accident, but we found Blake because of it." Ruby's words brought a grateful smile to Sora's face. One that Ruby returned with a smile and nod. Weiss meanwhile looked at Blake who gave a rather smug look of 'She's got you there', to which the Schnee girl sighed in defeat. "Alright, I can give you that." Weiss admitted wearily. While she didn't approve of the childish antics that got them stranded in that jungle in the first place, Ruby was right. Because of it, they had Blake back with them, even if it was purely by sheer dumb luck.

But there would be time to ruminate on that later. They had places to go. "Alrighty then, to Traverse Town!" Ruby victoriously said, pointing out to the horizon.

"I wanna be pilot!" Sora exclaimed, shoving himself up to the controls, trying to push Donald out of the way...again.

"Hey, stop it!" Donald yelled, pushing right back, refusing to give Sora the controls again.

"Oh, come on! I'm the Keyblade Master!" Sora argued, equally determined to get past Donald and have a chance to fly the Gummi Ship.

"I don't care who you are! No!"

Their little back and forth drew a rapid, worried blink from Ruby, a facepalm from Weiss, a befuddled, wide-eyed look from Blake. And of course, a stumble from Jaune who had to be helped up by the far more steadied Pyrrha. "Here we go again..." Goofy sighed as the ship rocked a bit from their fight, but thankfully not as violently as before.

"Are they always like this?" Blake asked, holding tightly onto her seat as they flew off, rocking wackily.

"From what I've learned of them in the time Ruby introduced me to these three?... Unfortunately yes." Weiss answered, pinching the bridge of her nose as Ruby tried to assuage the arguing pair. This was going to be a loooong adventure.

"See ya later, Cid." Meanwhile at the Traverse Town itself, Yuffie was merrily walking down the stairs across from Cid's shop. She came to a stop after seeing a group of particularly familiar people. Or more accurately...HEARING them.

"Are you blind?! You almost crashed us into that meteorite!" Donald berated, clothing scuffed and feathers sticking out in awkward angles. Everyone else looked just as worse for wear.

"I'm with Donald. That is the LAST time you ever pilot the gummi ship! I'm gonna have to brush my hair at least a hundred times before I get these frazzles out!" Weiss groaned, running her hands along the silken white locks of her side ponytail.

Sora sighed and looked to his team apologetically as they all tried fixing their clothes or hair. Or in the case of a certain Arc, trying to keep his guts from spilling out with a bit of help from a certain redhead. As they did, he noticed something peculiar about Blake. She seemed to be fiddling with her bow extra diligently. More than any other article of clothing on her, in fact. "Uhh, Blake?"

Before he could ask more, or cause Blake to be even more worried when she realized what he was looking at, a familiar voice drew Sora, Ruby, Donald, and Goofy's attention. "Hey, guys! Seems like you've gained some more allies along the way," Yuffie said, approaching in an ever chipper manner. She came to a stop when she saw the state that they were in. "But, are you guys alright?"

"Thanks to this dolt, we nearly crashed our ship. We were spinning out of control so bad I was sure we'd hit something." Weiss said, the most bitter among them all.

"Well..." Jaune said, nearly throwing up after the event. "At least we didn't fly out and land some place else, this time." He held his mouth and ran to the nearest trash bin, barfing loud enough for them all to hear even from a few meters away. Pyrrha carefully rubbed his back to try soothing him, while also being ready to jump back should he be unable to keep it in.

Ruby looked a little unsettled, remembering the first time Jaune displayed his air sickness. But that bit of...reminiscence aside, she turned to Yuffie and took that opportunity to introduce her friends. "So anyway, this is Weiss and Blake. Pyrrha is over there, helping Jaune feel better. They're from the same world as I am."

"I see. Glad you found your friends, Rubie!" Yuffie said with delight for the young huntress. While she was glad to have found her friends, Ruby couldn't help feeling for the three among them whose own friends they hadn't found head nor heel of. "But, we still have yet to find Sora's or the King."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy felt rather morose at the reminder of the lack of any sign of Riku, Kairi, or the King. As if sensing their thoughts, Yuffie immediately spoke up, ever chipper, "Well if they managed to find your friends, I'm sure they'll find theirs as well."

Her optimism made the trio look up with slightly brightened expressions. While Yuffie's cheer was certainly appreciated, Sora noticed something else. "Hey Yuffie, where's Leon and Aerith?" he asked, not seeing any sign of them. He figured Cid was in his shop, but where were the other two?

"Leon's probably in the underground cavern. He trains there often." Yuffie answered, pointing toward the door connecting to the alley behind the hotel. "You know, the channel in the alleyway is connected to the cavern."

Sora followed her pointing finger and tapped his chin. Maybe if they followed the channel, they'd find Leon. "Alright. Thanks, Yuffie." he said, waving to her as he and his group of friends marched off.

"W-Wait up!"...with a still queasy Jaune following behind, being guided by Pyrrha. A sight which made Yuffie stifle a giggle. Sora really had collected a colorful group.

Much to their chagrin, as they followed the channel past the hotels, the group found their progress halted by a set of metal bars. "Huh? Why didn't Yuffie tell us there's a grate in the way?" Ruby asked, looking at the metal bars that stopped them.

"Maybe it slipped her mind? She seemed a bit on the bubbly side. Not as much as you perhaps, but she definitely seemed like the sort to let details pass her by." Weiss said with a shrug. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean, Weiss?" Ruby asked indignantly.

Weiss responded with a dismissive checking of her nails, saying in a somewhat haughty tone, "Ask a silly question." A gesture and response that made Ruby pout and huff. To which Weiss responded with a roll of her eyes. She liked Ruby, but she was just so childish sometimes.

"Pyrrha? Do you think that maybe you could...?" Blake said quietly, nodding her head to the bars as she spoke to her polarity using friend. At first Pyrrha didn't understand what Blake meant but pieced it together. "Oh, right. I'll just-"

"Maybe we can tackle it down!" Donald said when taking a running stance. Seeing what Donald had in mind, Sora suddenly grinned and said, "Good idea!" As Sora mimicked Donald's stance, standing beside him, Goofy chuckled and did the same.

"Um, guys?" Jaune said in worry. "Are you sure that's a good ide-"

"Chaaaarge!"

Donald's declaration was followed by all three of them rushing to the bars. Donald only bumped into it, making a small KLANK noise before feeling Sora bump into him and make a louder KLANK. They had no time to recover as Goofy crashed into Sora who pushed again into Donald, with all three of them impacting the bars at once. Much to everyone's surprise, the bars fell out of place and into the water, opening up the way into the cavern. "We did it! A-hyuk!"

Everyone stared in stunned silence. By some miracle, those three muscled their way through the problem. "Alright. The way is clear. Let's go, guys." Sora said with a soft smile to the others, walking inside as if everything was normal. Weiss shook her head muttered with a weary sigh, "I don't think I'll ever get used to this silliness."

Shaking off the shock at said silliness, Ruby and her friends went in after them. The darkness of the tunnel was fortunately only brief as, soon enough, they were guided in by a set of large pots with fires upon them at the outer edges of an intricate archway. Standing upon a stone platform slightly elevated off the water was just who they were hoping to see. Leon, making practice swings with his gunblade as Aerith watched with a towel ready for his use. "Hey, Leon!" Sora called out as he approached.

Hearing Sora's voice, Leon took a towel from Aerith to wipe the sweat off himself before turning to face the boy. "You're back. What's happened since we last saw you?"

-

After Sora explained everything from arriving in Wonderland til now, Leon, now clad back in his jacket, silently thought about what Sora relayed to him. "So. You found the Keyhole." Sora nodded as Leon immediately got to the point. "The Keyblade locked it automatically." he explained. At least, that was what he figured was going on, since...Key, keyhole, it only made sense...sort of.

"Good." Aerith said with a smile. She was the most confident that Sora would succeed, even if Leon was skeptical when he first met Sora.

"It was really weird, yet kinda cool too. Some kind of bright laser came out of the Keyblade and PYOOM! Fired right into the Keyhole." Ruby explained...eloquently as ever. "And we even found some of my friends along the way!"

Her chipper addition drew Aerith and Leon's attention to the four additional people beside Ruby.

"Ahem. Our team leader's description of the Keyblade's beam of light aside, allow us to introduce ourselves. I am Weiss." the Schnee heiress spoke up, speaking in a much more dignified manner.

"Blake." the black and white clad huntress introduced herself, stoically as ever.

Then came the two currently found members of Team JNPR. "My name is Pyrrha Nikos. It's a pleasure to meet you both." the redhead of the pair introduced sweetly.

Soon followed by Jaune who tried to make himself look as cool and tough as Leon. "A-Ahem. Hem. Hm. You can call me Jaune Arc." Though he just made himself look ridiculous, like a frilled lizard trying to look intimidating.

"Good to meet you all." Leon said simply as he wiped away the last bits of sweat.

"You're all just in time. I'm sure you're all quite exhausted. Here, have something to drink." Indeed, Aerith had an entire plate of drinks ready. Initially they were going to be for Leon, but since Sora and his friends had returned, she figured they could use a bit of refreshment too. "Oh boy!" Donald cheered, eagerly taking a cup as everyone else followed suit. "Thank ya kindly, Aerith." Goofy thanked, taking a sip of his own drink.

As Sora finished his first sip, he felt now was as good a time as any to ask, "So why are these Keyholes so important, exactly?"

"Every world among the stars has a Keyhole," Leon started explaining. "And each one leads to the heart of that world. There must be one in this town as well."

"Heart...of a world?" Ruby asked, blinking with confusion. "Wait a second. How can a world have a heart?" Weiss asked skeptically. She'd already been dealing with a myriad of fantastical things. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to take even more of them. Pyrrha however took it much more in stride as she said, "Remember what Blake said back in waterfall cave? The 'heart' can be the core of something, as much as it can be a bond one shares."

Aerith spoke up, giving the last of the refreshments and joined them in the conversation. "Pyrrha isn't too far off. The same thing was said in Ansem's report." she said before Leon spoke again.

"The Heartless enter the through Keyhole and do something to the world's core."

Jaune had started drinking the air out of his juice box as they spoke, drawing more than a few funny looks. Removing the straw and clearing his throat with embarrassment, he asked a question...that he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer to. "So... what happens to the world?"

Aerith responded with a more sorrowful tone. "In the end, it disappears."

Everyone gave a collectively shocked, "What!?" in response. The thought that their worlds, their homes, had just completely disappeared because of the Heartless...Leon and Aerith gave them sympathetic looks as they both said respectively. "That's why your key is so important." "Please lock the Keyholes. You're the only one who can."

This sounded like a really heavy burden. The fact that if Sora didn't lock them then the world and everyone in it could perish. For a moment he wondered if the same thing happened to his world and Ruby's. "I don't know..."

Leon figured Sora would feel a bit overwhelmed by all this. Like he said when they first met, he didn't ask for this. But the demands of fate were rarely in a one's control. "Seeing other worlds would probably serve you well." Leon suggested. If Sora knew firsthand how may people needed him, that might give him a clearer perspective on why he needed to do this.

"Yeah!" Donald agreed. While he was adamant about not meddling in the affairs of other worlds, it seemed they might have to skirt such things if they were going to find what they sought.

"We gotta find your friends and King Mickey! Just like we helped Ruby find her friends!" Goofy agreed, thinking the same as Donald. If they'd found several friends of hers, then he was positive they'd find Sora's friends and the King.

"I guess you're right..." Sora however still seemed uncertain. That is, until his face lit up and he gave a firm nod. "Okay!"

"Yeah! That's more like it!" Ruby cheered, clapping Sora on the shoulder. "If anyone can do it, Sora, it's you. And don't forget that we're right here with you." Jaune said, ruffling the younger boy's spiky hair, much to his embarrassment and chagrin.

"Well, at least now you're sounding more like a leader Sora. It's a start, I suppose" Weiss said with a small smile and approving nod.

Hearing Weiss compliment him for once was, to say the least, quite a surprise for Sora. She'd been an even harsher critic on him than Donald in some ways since they met. "Better savor that, Sora. A compliment from Weiss is rarer than a shooting star." Blake joked dryly with the shadow of a smile on her own lips. "Hey!" And of course with a protestation from the Schnee heiress. The exchange drew a lighthearted chuckle from everyone, minus Leon of course.

"Oh yeah!" Jaune said as he remembered. He turned to Leon and pulled the two special gummi blocks out of his hoodie. "These are the two gummis from those Keyholes. They're seemed kinda different from the ones on our ship. Any idea what we should do with them?"

Leon stared blankly at Jaune then the to Donald and Goofy, as if expecting they should have known. All he got from them was a shrug, showing they didn't know either. He said nothing but gently facepalmed himself. He couldn't believe that this was the group saving the worlds and not even the ones who brought the ship in the first place realized anything about the items used to make their vessel. Such information should have been basic even for starters, or at least left for them by the king.

"Ask Cid. He should know." Aerith said, thankfully being ever more patient than Leon..

Trying to forget the mild annoyance of the group's lack of knowledge, Leon turned to Sora. "I guess while you're still here, take this with you." he said when approaching and handing him what appeared to be a green spherical gemstone with a tiny light coming from within. "This stone holds some mysterious power. I've been carrying it for luck. I want you to hold onto it."

Sora eyed it curiously. Though it could easily fit in his hand, there was something about it that drew Sora in. Not only the tiny spark of light within it but also how it almost felt... alive. "Wow...What is it?"

At this point, Leon just wasn't in the mood to explain anything else. The palming of his face was a clear sign that he was REALLY hoping Sora would just figure things out for himself for once. Sensing his patience running thin, Aerith walked over to Sora and knelt down to tell him, "Maybe it'd be best if you found out for yourself. For now, just go speak to Cid about the gummis."

"Uhhh, okay." Sora said, still confused. Ruby thankfully decided to help him out, saying, "Alright, we'll head down to Cid's shop right away. It was great seeing you guys!" With that, Sora, Ruby, and everyone else ascended up the nearby spiral staircase, which they assumed Leon and Aerith entered from.

Once again, Leon found himself feeling doubtful about the Keyblade's choosing Sora of all people. But there was little to be done about it. Aerith at least was hopeful that he'd come into his own. And given the state of things...he would have to soon, or everyone and everything was doomed.