Author's Note: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.
Ch.11 Survival Cup
Dexal watched through the crystal in silence as Sora entered Olympus Coliseum, and approached a notice board. "Hey, an announcement!" he called. The others came closer to it, and Jiminy jumped down to read it. "Hmm... It's for some sort of contest. They're calling it the 'Olympus Coliseum Survival Cup'. Contenders have to run an obstacle course, battling each other along the way. And listen to this: 'The great hero Hercules will also compete for the Cup'," the cricket read. He turned back around to face the others. "It says here he's never been beaten," he added. Dexal raised an eye at that, but make no comment as he watched. Sora grinned. "Sounds like fun? Who don't we sign up?" he suggested. Goofy chuckled. "I knew you were going to say that. Whenever there's a contest, you're always raring to join," he said.
Donald shook his head. "You're going to join even if we're not, right?" he asked. Sora nodded, still smiling. "Yeah," he replied. Donald sighed. "Guess we'd better tag along then," he concluded. Jiminy jumped up and down again, trying to catch their attention. "Hold on; there's more. 'Only contestants who complete the preliminary course may enter the main competition'. It says that the preliminary course is just ahead" he read. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sora said, and the group ran off. Dexal chuckled and was about to shut the crystal off, when suddenly a tall man in a black toga with blue skin approached the announcement board. Dexal paused, interested. The tall mad, Hades, looked down at the board and sneered. "'Hercules is a model of strength and gallantry'- the perfect hero?!" he read incredulously.
Shaking in rage, Hades turned around, both his skin and the fire on his head turning red. "Oh, he's perfect, alright- PERFECTLY INFURIATING! Just thinking about that little sunspot makes me BOIL! Hoo, I'd love to drag him to the Underworld!" he yelled. His ranting was cut short though, by another voice that said "Which is why you called me." At that Hades calmed down, and looked to see a blond young man with blue eyes and a tattered maroon cape. Hades smiled. That's right. You're my man... Cloud, is it? Your job is to beat Hercules in the games. And once you've got him cornered... finish the job. Do that for me, and-" he began. "You'll restore my lost memories. As we agreed," Cloud interrupted. Hades nodded. "You have my word," he promised.
Dexal waved his hand and the crystal glowed before turning transparent. He chuckled. With every memory-world that Sora went through, he was ever so slowly losing those very memories as they were rewritten. For a split second, he felt a pang of sadness at that. Memories were something that should never be messed with. A person was nothing more than the sum of their past experiences, and to have those messed with changed the very person themselves. Still, Dexal would not stop Sora's memories from being changed. It was only through that, that he and Axel could smoke out Marluxia and any other turncoats. At that, he chuckled. Even after so many years, he was still taking orders. Be they from Xemnas or Era- "No!" he suddenly yelled, shaking his head.
He tried to push the memories back, unwilling to fall back into the pain they brought. There were times when Dexal wondered if he should just ask Naminé to take apart his memory, but as always he relented. Whether it was due to some sort of instinct for self-preservation or because he remembered that he deserved that pain and guilt, he had no idea. In either case, he had yet to ask Naminé to relieve him of his burden, and Dexal doubted he ever would. But now was not the time to think about such things. For now, he had observe Sora and Riku, and see how things panned out. With that he vanished in a dark corridor, heading for the lower levels of the castle.
Back with Sora, Donald and Goofy, the trio had just made it into the Coliseum vestibule. Standing in the middle of it was a portly satyr, tapping one hoof impatiently against the ground. He turned around at the sound of their approached, and blinked. "Huh? Where did you come from? Don't tell me that you guys finished the prelims!" Phil said incredulously. Sora nodded happily. "We sure did. And now we want to compete for the Cup!" he replied. Phil chuckled. "Well, you came to the right place. Not that you stand a chance against Herc," he told them. Donald's eyes narrowed. "And why's that?" he asked. Phil held up two words. "Two words: You guys ain't heroes!" he declared. "You're wrong!" Sora said indignantly. Goofy nodded. "Yeah; he said four words." Sora shook his head. "Exactly, but that's not the point! How can we prove we're heroes without a chance?" he said.
"You know, he's got a point, Phil," they heard a voice say. Sora and the others looked behind to see a tall man in a brown toga and sword with brown hair and blue eyes come in. "They cleared the prelims. They deserve a shot," he continued. Phil crossed his arms. "Hmm... You got a point there, Herc. But still..." he began. The newly-named Herc cut in, adding "Of course, we could always cancel the games." "Cancel them?! But why?" Sora nearly yelled, his expression turning to horror. Herc shook his head. "Old Phil's prelim course was so hard, no one else could finish it," he explained. Sora frowned. "Is that so? Well, if you let us compete, you want have to cancel the games! What do you say, Phil?" he proposed. Phil looked from them, to Herc, to the floor before sighing. "Alright, you've got me over a barrel here, kid. Now, since you three and Herc-" he stared.
But then Sora interrupted him, saying "I'm not 'kid'; the name's Sora!" "Sure, sure, kid," Phil replied, much to his annoyance. "Now, since you guys and Herc are the only ones competing-" he started again. But once more he was cut off, this time by a new voice. "You're wrong," it said. Everyone looked at the entrance to see a young blonde man walk through, his gaze stoic. "The Games have a new competitor. Name's Cloud," he announced. Phil grinned. "The more, the merrier! Now the Games will really be something to see!" he said. Hercules smiled as well. "This will be fun. Don;t expect me to pull any punches!" he warned. Sora adopted his own grin. "Hey, just as long as you don;t expect me to take them!" he said. Then he turned to Cloud and said "Let's give it our best, right?"
"Hmph," Cloud simply said, looking away. Phil moved to the side of the room, stranding straighter. "Okay, let's get this show going! But first I gotta explain a few rules. Rule #1! First one through the obstacle course wins! Rule #2! In the event of a tie, a battle will determine the winner! Rule #3! You can interfere with your opponents on the course! And finally... Rule #4! All challengers have to give it everything they got!" he declared. All of the contestants nodded and moved into a straight line, side-by-side. Phil raised his hand. "Alright, enough with the spiel. On your marks..." Sora glanced over at Donald and Goofy and gave a thumb-ups, and they returned the gesture. "Get set..." Cloud narrowed his eyes at seeing Hercules tense, already trying to find a weakness for later.
"GO!" Phil yelled, lowering his arm. All five of them ran forward, racing for the finish line. As Sora and the others made it through they were almost immediately set upon by a pack of Heartless consisting a three Powerwilds and three Soldiers. Donald and Goofy vanished into card form, though Sora caught them and placed them in his pocket. The Powerwilds charged and swung their claws. Sora rolled to the side, casting Blizzard and Fire twice each. A shower of fire and ice crystals flew forward, destroying one of the Powerwilds and injuring the others. A Soldier went for a spin kick and hit Sora in the back, knocking him forward. A Powerwild was there with a hay maker, hitting him in the stomach and sending him back.
Sora gasped and tried to regain his breath, blocking another Solider and moving away. "Goofy!" he called, holding up his card. With a flash Goofy appeared and yelled "Come on!" He spun on one foot and held out his shield, turning himself into a deadly living top. One Solider thought to try and knock him off-balance, only to be cleaved in half at the waist. The other Heartless held back until Goofy vanished, and then charged again. Sora used Sliding Dash to move into the center of them, before spinning in a circle and sending them all away. The second Powerwild wrapped its tail around a pillar and used it propel itself forward, shooting at Sora with breakneck speed.
Unprepared, Sora couldn't raise his Keyblade fast enough to keep it from slamming into the his chest. What he could do, however, was roll over so the Heartless fell off, before standing and using Stun Impact. A blast of energy shot out and paralyzed both the Powerwild and a second Soldier, allowing Sora to both stab them in the chest and destroy them. Now there was only one Heartless and one Solider left, both of which charged at Sora. He swung and the Powerwild actually caught the Keyblade, pushing it away before slashing at his right arm. Its claws dug in and left three nasty cuts. Sora gritted his teeth in pain, but then he to duck a jump kick from the Solider. With his body low to the ground, Sora placed his against against the marble and kicked his feet out, hitting the Powerwild with both.
It stumbled back and Sora stood back up, pulling out a Guard Armor card and activating it. The Kingdom Key grew in length and he swung again, catching the Powerwild on the side of the head and knocking it out. The Solider desperately tried for one last attack, but then Sora turned and blasted it with Blizzara. The shards of ice tore it apart until all that was left was the heart, which rose into the sky and vanished. Sora smirked and dismissed his Keyblade, turning and continuing on the obstacle course.
Meanwhile, with Riku...
Once Riku exited the door, he was back in Castle Oblivion. Despite having left Hollow Bastion, the voice as before appeared. "Why do you shun the darkness?" it asked. Riku stopped, chuckling. "Come on, I knew you heard me. Every word is said to Maleficent," he replied. "Darkness is your weapon. It is time you learned to accept it," the voice told him. That wiped the smile off of his face, and he glared at the ceiling. "What do you mean?" he demanded. "Stop resisting. Accept the darkness. You must..." the voice began. Then a burst of darkness rose from the floor in front of him. When it faded, it revealed the owner of the voice to none other than... Ansem. The Seeker of Darkness.
"...If you are to serve me again!" he finished. Riku's eyes narrowed. "I thought it was you, Ansem," he said, making no attempt to disguise his tone of dislike. Ansem raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You don't seem surprised," he noted. Riku scoffed. "All you've been doing is talk about the darkness. I can only assume that you want to pull me back in so you can play puppet master," he said. Now Ansem chuckled. "Clever boy. I knew you'd be the one to most appropriately serve me. And now, surrender to me again-" he began. "You're crazy! Not a chance!" Riku yelled. Hu flung his hand out and summoned Soul Eater, before charging and swinging at Ansem. In return he simply raised his hand and blocked the attack, before grunting and blasting Riku back.
"Did you really think you could do me harm? A weakling like you couldn't even defeat Sora- and you had darkness on your side," he taunted. Riku grunted, rising back to his feet. "Well, excuse me... for being weak..." he said. Ansem smirked. "You are weak. You need to darkness. Surrender. Bow to darkness. Bow to me," he ordered. "Grr... That's not going to happen!" he retorted. Ansem shook his head pityingly. "Only my darkness can off you all of the strength that you will need," he said. But then a third voice called out "You're wrong!" Both of them looked up to see a ball of light. It flew down and hovered in front of Riku, who gasped. "That voice...! Your Majesty?!"
And that takes care of that. The Games have begun in the Coliseum, and Ansem has been revealed? What will happen to both sides? What is Dexal thinking of doing? Stay tuned to learn!
Please review! If you flame me Liam Neeson will look for you, he will find you, and he will kill you. (I'm just kidding... or am I?)
