I'm back. Since I have more free time, expect faster updates for all In-Progress stories. Read and Review so I can get some good feedback because I've got some new ideas for this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokémon or Kingdom Hearts because if I did, Final Mix would be available in the US.

Chapter 4:

As Sora, Ash and the gang depart from Land of Dragon's after Ash successfully sealed the keyhole in the throne room and they left the world.

"Where should we go next?" Ash asked as he turned to look at the rest of the group.

"I think we should visit Olympus Coliseum because I think we could use a little brushing up on our skills, especially Misty and Kairi," Sora said and that resulted in Kairi smacking him lightly on the shoulder but Misty pulled out her mallet and started chasing him around the ship.

"Now's not the time for that!" Donald shouted as Ash took away the mallet and Misty pouted as Goofy steered the ship towards the coliseum and Sora and Ash started shooting at heartless and nobody ships.

With Luna and Fred:

"Whee!" Luna cried as she flew around the Organization's stronghold with Fred clinging to her fearing for his life as she lobbed something down at the castle and it exploded.

"What the hell is going on?" Xigbar demanded as he saw Luna fly away and he silently cursed under his breath.

With Sora and the gang:

"There don't seem to be any heartless or nobodies, for now anyways," Sora said, looking around.

"What's that?" Ash asked, looking at the new coliseum.

"The underdrome," a voice said and they turned to see Auron walking towards them with an emotionless look on his face.

"The what?" Ash asked, looking confused.

"The Underdrome, the creatures of the underworld used to clash there but Zeus did not like the senseless fighting so he locked the coliseum down," Auron explained.

"How'd it get unlocked?" Sora asked.

"Some fool must have broken the seal," Auron said indifferently as Ash shifted uncomfortably.

"Auron, we should catch up!" Pikachu suggested but Auron ignored him.

"If you want something to do, go help your friends," he said, pointing towards Hercules and Meg and left.

As the group approached, Hercules said, "Hey."

"Herc, you feeling any better?" Sora asked.

"Who's he?" Kairi asked Misty who shrugged and Ash sighed as recounted their adventure at the coliseum the last time around.

"Well, same routine," Meg said, "Wonder boy here thinks his hero days are over, and Phil thinks it's all in his head," she added.

"Gwarsh Herc, we know you're a hero," Goofy said to Hercules as a disembodied voice said, "That's right, Blunder boy." And in a puff of smoke, there stood Hades in all of his cheap glory. "How can you mope on a momentous day like today?" he asked while the others glared at him coldly.

"The Underdrome's back and you are gonna fill the stands," he said as he looped an arm around Hercules and smiled evilly.

"After all, your fans won't settle for anything less than a certified hero," he said as Herc clutched his hand and formed a fist.

"I mean if you are not up for it, you could always, oh I don't know, LOSE!" he said, shouting the last word for no reason.

"I bet you'd like that!" Pikachu shouted as Hades ignored him and the others.

"Excuse me? Hey, I'm not a selfish guy," Hades said as Ash, Sora, Pikachu, Goofy and Donald exchanged skeptical looks at each other but Hades caught them and said, "I'm not a selfish guy! I'm not like those high and mighty snobs up on Olympus, I stand for the masses and have I got a MASSIVE idea," he said as Sora and Ash exchanged a look that clearly showed their disbelief.

"The games ladies and gentlemen, are back!" Hades said in an announcer's voice while the others merely listened to him rant about who knows what.

"Yours truly Hades, the one and only Lord of the Dead, brings you the ultimate games to celebrate the reopening of ultimate coliseum!" he shouted as the group listened with their interest peaked.

"We'll finally answer the age-old question, who deserves the title "Ultimate Hero!" these games are gonna settle the debate once and for all, the winner reigns supreme," Hades said and everyone's curiosity was mounting at what he was talking about.

"Of what? You guessed it, The Hades Cup!" Hades shouted as Sora and Ash watched the speech intently as they thought about whether or not to enter.

"And I assure that the "Great Hercules" will be there," Hades said as he emphasized on the Great Hercules and stopped to think of a reason for him to enter while Herc put an arm around Meg and this gave Hades an idea.

"You will never see you girlfriend again," he said to Hercules as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Low life!" Sore shouted.

"You're too kind kid," Hades' disembodied voice said to Sora.

"What do you guys think?" Ash asked the group as he waited for their opinion on whether or not to enter the cup or not.

"I think Misty and I need to do some training with the keyblade before we can consider competing in something like this," Kairi said to Sora who nodded in agreement.

"Well if that's the case, then go up the stairs over there and ask for Phil, I'm sure that he'll be more than happy to train you," Ash said, pointing to the stairs and the girls quickly ran towards them so they could begin their training.

"What do you guys think? Should we enter the tournament or not?" Sora asked the other four.

"I don't know, it feels like a trap," Ash said as Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"We don't really have much choice, if Herc doesn't compete, he'll lose Meg!" Donald exclaimed.

"We can join up with Herc and fight our way through the rounds and win the tournament, Phil would then declare all of us True Heroes!" Sora said eagerly.

"I bet this is part of the reason you want to enter the tournament," Ash said with a knowing smile on his face.

"We can't be junior heroes forever you know," Donald said in protest while Ash chuckled in agreement.

"I'm handling registration for the Hades Cup, don't go to Panic for that one," Pain said when Sora and the other approached him.

"Yeah, the tournaments are a great to spend time if you get bored and have nothing better to do," Panic said.

"We should get registered and if we have some time, try out those other tournaments as well," Ash suggested and the others nodded in agreement as they signed up for the Hades cup and waited for their turn to compete.

"Who do we face first?" Hercules asked.

"Let's see," Sora said as he examined the tourney board.

"It says "Spin Strike"," Ash said, reading the board.

"Look! Auron is in the tournament too!" Donald exclaimed and true to his word, Auron's name was indeed on the tourney board along with all the other teams.

"Uh-oh, we might have to fight him in the finals!" Goofy exclaimed and Sora, Ash, and Pikachu would hate to have to fight him.

"I bet he's a real hero, huh?" Herc said.

"Well, I don't think he's a bad guy…" Sora said, his voice trailing off into nothingness.

"But you're the only hero around here, you know that!" Ash exclaimed, continuing from where Sora left off.

"You mean I was…" Herc said monotonously and Pikachu snapped saying, "Yeesh, enough is enough."

"Let's go," Goofy said as Sora, Ash and the others made their way to the battlefield and their opponents turned out to be heartless that they managed to beat in less than a minute so they divided and conquered.

A short while later, the arena was empty apart from them and Ash asked, "How's it going champ?"

"I'm just not what I used to be, sorry for dragging you guys down," Hercules said dejectedly.

"Don't throw in the towel Herc, we still need in the second round and in the rest of the tournament," Sora said, trying to restore Herc's confidence but with little to no avail.

"Are you ready for the semifinals, kid?" Pane asked Sora who nodded and they examined the board.

"Okay, so we're at the semifinals," Ash said as he looked for their opponents.

"Wak! It says "Bad Alert"!" Donald exclaimed, looking thoroughly surprised by this new piece of information.

"Are they any good?" Hercules and Pikachu asked in unison.

"They sound like they ARE "bad" but we can't chicken out of the tournament now," Ash replied as he turned to look at Herc.

"It's show time," Pane said to the group as they hopped into the boat and went to fight the next set of opponents waiting for them.

Like last time, it was more heartless and again, the group defeated them in record time like always.

"We made it to the finals!" Ash cheered because he'd never made it to the finals of any of his leagues up to this point.

"If we win, then we'll all be heroes!" Donald cheered.

"Oh, that's why you're so happy!" Goofy said with a grin on his face.

"Hey, we can't be junior heroes forever," Sora put in.

"I'll try not to mess things up," Hercules said as dejected as every and Donald turned to him and said, "Enough already…"

"Look over there," Ash said, pointing to something behind them and they turned to see Auron facing away from them.

"I guess he must be our final opponent," Pikachu said as Sora called to him only to have him glance at them with a dark red aura surrounding him and it gave Ash a feeling of foreboding for some reason but didn't press for information.

"And you are?" he asked indifferently and this definitely took everyone by surprise.

"Huh?"

"Auron?"

"I must defeat you and atone for my crimes," he said as he briskly walked away from the arena for the final round.

"What was that about?" Sora asked, looking confused at what was going on but Ash quickly gave chase with Pikachu and Sora quickly following.

Ash, Sora, and Pikachu went to the cave of the dead entrance and snuck inside, they made to proceed further but Sora held Ash and Pikachu back, gesturing for them to be quiet as he pointed at the scene that was unfolding between Auron and Hades.

"Okay, let's review, state your crime prisoner," Hades said in a commanding tone and Sora and Ash glanced at each other in disbelief before they heard Auron respond.

"I exist, that is my crime, it is…inexcusable," he said in a monotone as Hades smiled his evil smile.

"Good…oh very good," he said, looking pleased.

"What's wrong with Auron? He's never acted that way before," Sora muttered and Ash shrugged while Pikachu shushed them so they could hear the rest of the conversation.

"Okay, so you made one lousy mistake: you exist, but hey, I'm a forgiving guy, you keep your end of our little deal and I'm willing to overlook a transgression or two," Hades said with a devious smile on his face.

"I understand, defeat Hercules," Auron muttered as Hades turned to face him.

"And his meddling friends," Hades added.

"What? No! Only Hercules!" Auron persisted while Hades tutted in disappointment.

"Oh, don't tell me you've forgotten whose in charge?" Hades said as he pulled out a statue and put a hand on Auron's shoulder and that same red aura appeared and moving from Auron to Hades and that aura went to a statue of Auron that Hades was holding in his hand.

"Hercules AND the other five, are we clear?" Hades asked Auron.

"We're clear Hades," Auron grunted.

"Lord Hades," Hades said.

"Lord Hades," Auron corrected himself.

"Good, now go," he commanded, gesturing towards the door and Auron left the room to get ready for the finals.

"So that's how he's controlling Auron," Ash said as he took note of the statue Hades was holding as he went back to his personal chamber deeper in the cave.

"What a jerk," Ash said coldly.

"He'd probably think that was a complement," Goofy said as he and Donald entered the room.

"When'd you get here?" Pikachu asked, looking surprised.

"Never mind that," Ash said as Sora picked up the conversation by saying, "I can't stand seeing Auron doing that lowlife's bidding…we gotta help him!"

Auron passed and Sora tried and failed to stop him so they quickly chased after him and tried to stop him from getting in the boat but that didn't work either.

"I wonder how Misty and Kairi are doing with their training?" Ash mumbled to Pikachu who shrugged.

With Misty and Kairi:

Misty and Kairi were destroying barrel after barrel with their magic and they felt different sensations inside their hearts and sent that energy through their keyblades and they attained new abilities and stamina to do new things.

"Wow," Kairi said as she moved around faster than before and managed to cast spells more quickly and consume MP.

"This is awesome!" Misty said happily as she moved around faster and managed to strike with more speed and accuracy.

"I see you two are doing well," Phil commented as he watched them destroy more barrels with ease.

"Yeah, thanks for letting us use the arena, Phil," Kairi said happily as she destroyed another barrel with Thundara.

"No problem," he grunted as he walked away with a grin on his face thinking those two remind of someone I met before.

Back with Ash and Sora:

"Hey guys, what's wrong?" Hercules asked, looking at the quintet.

"Auron's in trouble! It's like Hades brainwashed him or something!" Sora exclaimed.

"He's using some kind of a statue," Goofy put in and Hercules began to think before saying in a tired tone, "You know what, that sounds kinda familiar."

"Hmm…Hades may be using the statue to hold Auron's free will hostage," Herc said as realization dawned on his face.

"What do we do?" Donald asked.

"See if you can find that statue, it's gotta be somewhere in the underworld," Herc replied.

"Right, we got this," Ash said, pointing to himself and Sora.

"Tell me you aren't thinking of leaving, you've got a match coming up," Hades said as he leaned on Ash's shoulder.

Everyone exchanged a nervous glance before Herc said quite bravely, "I'll fight Auron in the final, one on one."

"Oh you will," Hades said as he began to think.

"I'll draw things out to buy you guys some time," Herc said to Sora.

"But…" Sora began Herc cut him off by saying, "Just hurry back, I know you can do it!"

At that moment, Hades turned back to face them and said, "Congratulations, you got yourself a deal, on one condition."

"What's that?" Ash asked curiously.

"The winner has to meet the keybladers and his friends in one final clash, whaddaya say?" he asked.

"That'll drive the crowd wild," Hercules said monotonously.

"It'd better because I promised them the performance of their afterlives," he said as Herc and Hades got into the boat and the quintet tightened their fists as Herc left for the Underdrome.

"Sucker, you know for me, the rest is smooth sailing," he said nonchalantly as the boat made its way to the entrance and the coliseum admitted them inside.

The quintet nodded and left for the cave of the dead entrance and just kept running, killing all the enemies that they happened to see.

When they made it to the inner chamber, Sora noticed a symbol with a book on the front of it.

"What's this?" Sora asked, looking at the symbol.

"I bet its one of those absent silhouettes," Ash said as he looked at the symbol and something hit him like a pile of bricks.

Flashback:

A younger Riku was holding his weapon against a man in a black coat with weird shaped hair and was stealing Riku's energy and somehow acquired copies of his weapon.

"You're finished!" Riku shouted as he slashed at the man and he faded away to darkness.

End of Flashback.

"This was just like Beast's Castle, remember Sora?" Donald asked and Sora nodded as they proceeded inside and looked around to see that same man holding his book as weapon so everyone else whipped out their weapons and Pikachu leapt off Ash's shoulder so he could fight too.

The battle started with Zexion trapping Donald and Goofy in books and while Sora used Round Break and Flash Step to get them out, Ash went after Zexion and muttered, "Ienzo," which made him flinch but long enough for Ash to get in an air combo with Aerial Finish.

Soon both Ash and Sora were also trapped and were forced into the book world so Sora jumped the explosion while Ash used quick run to dodge and Sora did an air combo on him and swung his keyblade and got them out, which temporarily stunned him enough for Sora to combo him but he wanted to end this quickly so he drove into Limit Form and started a chain of limits with Sonic Blade but was again trapped in the book world.

A book flew at them that trapped Pikachu and it got itself out by using Thunderbolt on the pages and Ash lost control of his body somehow and Goofy had to pin him down while he got his control back and after five minutes of random events happening, he got his control back but Zexion changed the field and now it had three spotlights and Ash figured out that they'd have to figure out which one is blue in order to be safe. Ash told Sora this and Sora carefully timed his Quick Run and pulled everyone along to safety as they watched the meteors crash into the barrier while Ash was attacking the silhouette of Zexion and finally got them out of that place.

Sora did one last combo and finished with Ripple Drive and the absent silhouette vanished into thin air as they left the field.

"That was the weirdest battle I've ever been in my entire life," Sora said as they all sat down to take a break.

"I hear ya," Ash said, nodding in agreement.

A few minutes later and everyone was back on their feet and headed to Hades' Chamber and founded the statue on the table and when they grabbed it, they were electrocuted but Ash took the least damage because he was used to Pikachu's thunderbolts on him so it was no trouble but after the shock had worn off they had heard voice from Auron's past telling him to go back.

"I get it, this is what belongs in Auron's heart," Sora said, looking at the statue.

"I guess he musta had a pretty rough life," Goofy commented.

"Yeah but in the end, that's really what made him stronger," Ash said thoughtfully as he thought about the things that had happened so far.

"Let's give it back!" Donald suggested as they made to leave but nobodies surrounded them.

"Nobodies! Where did they come from?" Sora asked in exasperation as they killed them off one by one and killed them but they kept coming back.

"Hey, go away!" Donald shouted as another one appeared but the heartless attacked the nobodies and the quintet took this as their cue to make a run for it.

"Not what I had in mind but I'll take it," Sora said as they ran.

They quickly ran back to the Hades Cup registration area and went to rescue Herc and they saw him fighting Auron and close to losing as well but they made it in time to stop him.

"Auron, No!" Ash shouted.

"Here you go, Auron, this belongs to you!" Donald shouted as Sora threw the statue and it exploded in a flash of light and Auron stopped his attack and they both started breathing heavily.

"Sora. Ash. Pikachu. Donald. Goofy." He said to each one of them.

"Auron!" they all chirped happily.

"Why those little…ugh, prisoner, what happened to our mutual agreement, I can give you a clean slate but you gotta work with me," he said looking thoroughly frustrated at the outcome of what happened.

Misty and Kairi appeared and stood silently next to them as they watched the scene unfold.

"Maybe you didn't hear me, this is MY story, and you're not part of it," Auron said curtly and that was the last straw for Hades as in a burst of fire, Hades disappeared from his throne and came to the arena.

"That's it! This game is over, I've played by the rules so far," Hades said as everyone watched him with disbelieving looks.

"Okay, I confess, I was hoping Wonder Boy would lose but it was still a fair fight, come on, is that really so WRONG?" Hades asked.

"Really, a fair fight?" Sora asked mockingly as the other snickered.

"Laugh, laugh, laugh all you want, but the laughing is about to stop, you wanna know why? Because now we're gonna play by my rules," he said as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Hades snapped his fingers and a door opened to who knows what and he took Meg and said, "Hey I warned you right at the get-go, you don't compete, you lose the girl."

"Hercules!" she cried as Herc ran after her and jumped.

(Vim and Vigor starts to play)

"Looks like Wonder Boy's dropped out of the standings," Hades said as everyone clutched their hands into fists.

"Well you still got us to deal with!" Sora declared boldly as they whipped out their weapons and Hades popped behind and turned red saying, "Oh yeah, this is gonna be good."

They fought as hard as they could but couldn't do any damage at all and Hades laughed at their failed attempts.

"We can't win!" Ash muttered.

"How come?" Pikachu asked.

"Because it's his underworld," Auron replied.

"Geez, then how do we beat him?" Goofy asked.

"I think a true hero should be able to help," a voice said and they all turned to see Herc standing there, holding Meg in his arms.

"But…you…" Hades said, stuttering random stuff.

"I owe you one Hades," he said as they all turned to face him.

"I didn't hesitate to give my life for Meg's and then I remembered: a true hero is measured by the strength of his or her heart," Herc said with a proud smile on his face before adding, "I'll never forget that again."

"Just no more crazy stunts," Misty said as they all snickered.

"People always do crazy things when they're in love," Herc said and they snickered.

"What is so funny, you imbeciles!" Hades shouted while everyone turned to look at him with looks of boredom on their faces.

"How dare you get a happy end, how DARE you!" Hades shouted as they pulled out their weapons and went to work fighting the lord of the dead.

"Hmph, that's it," he said as the battle began.

Hercules summoned two Aura Spheres that Ash and Sora each whacked at the lord and made him reverted to his true form and they took the time to do a series of combos until he teleported.

Misty and Kairi were fighting from afar and Kairi was spamming Thundara until she felt an electrical feeling in her heart and channeled it to her keyblade, which gave off a yellow glow and she was now using Thunder Bolt. Misty was using Blizzara from afar and she felt a chilling sensation in her heart and channeled that to her keyblade and she was now using diamond dust.

"Wow," Sora said as he watched their combos steadily improve and Hades was red again and had summoned a huge orb of fire from nowhere and it was raining fireballs and it was near impossible to avoid so everyone got hit because the couldn't time reflera fast enough to block the damage.

"I'm on fire!" Hades shouted as he launched a fireball at Pikachu and sent him flying.

"I gotcha buddy!" Ash shouted as he caught him in his arms and his keyblade was at the edge of the arena.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked.

"I'll be fine, but let's deal with this guy first," Pikachu said as he whacked his head with an Iron Tail that knocked him out.

"Cool, that was easy," Sora said as he finished him off.

Unfortunately, Hades managed to teleport at the last second and was standing on another platform, clutching his side and steadily moving backwards.

"It's…not over…yet," he said as he fell into the pit.

"Is that pit bottomless?" Ash asked curiously.

"Who knows? But we should get out of here," Hercules suggested as everyone left the underworld but Auron.

"What will you do now?" Ash asked Auron.

"I lived my life defending others, but now there's no one left to protect. Maybe…it's time I started my own story," Auron said thoughtfully as he thought about the idea.

"Go for it Auron, you deserve it, after everything you've been through," Sora said encouragingly.

"I suppose I should thank you," Auron said with a smirk.

"Not at all," Sora replied.

"Fine," Auron said with that same smirk on his face as he walked away.

"I mean, you could thank us…a little," Ash said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"You should mean what you say and say what you mean," Auron countered with a frown on his face.

Auron turned to look at them again before saying, "I guess I could spare a few words, Sora, Ash, Pikachu, Donald, and Goofy, as well as those two girls, thanks for meddling," he said as the group fell anime style and Auron chuckled as he walked away.

The quintet left the underworld and made their way back to the coliseum and saw Meg and Herc standing there with smiles on their faces and along side them were Misty and Kairi.

"Thanks you guys, you're the best," Herc said with a grin on his face.

"Misty and Kairi helped to with those styles," Ash and Sora said in unison and the two girls smiled in victory.

"Excuse us for meddling," Donald said irritably.

"Aw someone's feather's are a little ruffled," Meg said teasingly as Ash and Sora chuckled at Donald's reaction.

"I'm just kidding. Thank you, Sora, Ash, Pikachu, Donald, Goofy, as well as you two," she said, gesturing to Kairi and Misty.

"So where are you guys headed next?" Herc asked eagerly.

Sora crossed his arms and watched them intently for a few seconds before replying, "Aw you know, you two love birds seem to getting along just fine without us hanging around."

They both hastily split apart, both sides trying to deny that they had feelings for each other in the first place.

"Yeah, we should get going," Ash said as he watched the scene with varying degrees of amusement.

"Yeah, before we start meddlin' ahyuck," Goofy said with a smile.

"Are you turkeys trying to put me out of a job?" a voice called and they turned to see Phil approaching them.

"If you keep acing every challenge Champ, then who am I gonna train?" Phil asked.

"Aw you can't abandon me now Phil, I gotta be at the top of my game in case Hades shows up again," Herc said with a grin on his face.

"Hey! Are we true heroes yet?" Donald asked eagerly.

"Yeah! How 'bout it?" Sora asked eagerly.

"Lemme see now…you're not wise enough…not quite…seasoned enough…" Phil said as he looked at the pair intently.

"Okay, okay, we get the hint!" Sora said irritably while everyone else chuckled slightly.

"Look kid, it's not my call! If it was, you'd have no problem, I'd make you all heroes in a heartbeat!" Phil replied loudly.

"Really?" Sora asked in stunned disbelief.

"Say that again!" Donald said eagerly.

"On second thought, if those are your hero faces, you got a lot of work to do," he said as the pair quickly gave chase to him.

"Leave me alone!" Phil cried as the pair chased him.

"See that?" Meg said, pointing to a constellation.

"Well whaddaya know," Herc said, looking at it.

"Hey Sora, stop chasing Phil for a sec and check this out!" Ash shouted to the keyblade wielder as he stopped chasing after Phil and looked up and immediately smiled at what he saw: a constellation of himself and all his friends that were with him on his journey to find Riku.

"I guess this means that you are true heroes now," Herc said as they all smiled proudly at their newest accomplishment.

"I guess we'd better get going," Ash said as he led the group towards the Gummi Ship.

What did you guys think of that? It took a lot longer than I thought it would but I guess that's what happens when you haven't written much in three weeks.