Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts (although that would pretty cool!).
A few days had passed, which meant that another round of the Dionysus Tournament was to take place at the Olympic Coliseum. Roxas hadn't seen much of Xion since the last round. She was almost never in her room, but was instead constantly training for the tournament. And when he did see her, she seemed a bit irritated.
"Demyx, have you noticed anything different about Xion?" Roxas asked.
Demyx, who had the dubious distinction of being just as clueless as Roxas, wasn't sure either. "I don't know, man. I don't really see much of her. I know she's been training a lot, so Lexaeus might know. Maybe you could talk to him about it?"
"I probably should."
"I wouldn't worry about it too much, though. Everyone's been acting a little funny since like half the Organization left." The Organization had been together for a long time now, and missions of this length were never assigned before. Thus, the Castle That Never Was had never been this empty before.
"Yeah."
"But hey, that means I don't get yelled at as much, so I'm cool with that."
"Demyx," a new voice called out. Roxas and Demyx turned to see Lexaeus entering the Grey Area.
"I spoke too soon," Demyx muttered. "Yes?" he called out.
"The Superior told me to remind you that he wants to see what progress you've made on the Organization's anthem tomorrow." Seeing Demyx's fearful reaction, he furrowed his brow. "You have made progress, correct?"
Demyx's eyes darted around. "Yes…yes I have. Speaking of that, I've gotta go." Demyx dashed off to his room, no doubt to furiously prepare for his meeting the next day.
Lexaeus sighed, shaking his head. "Roxas. How is the tournament going?"
"I'm still in, so that's good." That drew a gruff laugh from Lexaeus. "I have to ask you something."
"Yes?"
"Have you noticed anything unusual about Xion recently?"
Lexaeus nodded his head. "She's been training a lot more. She seems to be more focused on the tournament."
"That's what I thought. It's just that-" Roxas stopped upon seeing Xion enter the Grey Area.
"Another productive round?" Lexaeus asked her.
"Meh. It was fine," she responded.
Sensing that it was his time to leave, Lexaeus disappeared in a Portal of Darkness, leaving the pair.
"Hey there, Xion," Roxas greeted with a little wave.
"Hi Roxas. Ready for the tournament tomorrow?" She gave him a weary smile, undoubtedly tired from all of her training, but wanting to show her happiness to see him.
"I think so." There was an awkward pause. "So you've been training a lot recently…" Once again, he paused. "You know, Lexaeus recently taught me how to use my Final Limit. Maybe he could teach you, too."
"Roxas, I've known about my Final Limit for a long time now." But once she saw Roxas' disappointed reaction, she backed off. "But thanks for the thought, Roxas," she said, falsely brightening up to keep up appearances. "Come on, let's go get something to eat."
That seemed to cheer up Roxas.
Naminé offered to go see Roxas (and to a lesser, much lesser, extent, Xion) compete in the next round of the tournament. This only fueled Xion's desire to perform as well as possible for the tournament.
They three of them arrived at the Coliseum, with Roxas and Naminé stopping by Phil first.
"Hey, there's my champ. How's it going, Roxas, ready to roll today?" the trainer asked.
"I think so, Phil. I'm feeling good."
Noticing Naminé, Phil prodded, "And who is this?"
"This is Naminé. She's a friend of mine."
"You've got your own cheering section now, huh? Atta boy! Now you need to go warm up. Can't have you going in cold, now can we?"
"You got it, Phil." Roxas headed off, trailed by Naminé.
"Tournament groupies. Gotta love them," Phil muttered to himself.
Hades was up in his booth scanning around the crowd until he found Xion. "There's our little blackbird," he said to himself. Noticing her talking to Roxas, his interest was piqued. He had seen her converse with Roxas before, so he knew that he wasn't a stranger to her. "Who is this guy? Boys!" he called out, and Pain and Panic appeared.
"What is it Your Most Evilness?" Pain asked.
"I want you to go find out everything you can about that runt Xion is talking to. I've seen him a few times now. Get me his name."
"What exactly are you looking for?" Panic questioned.
"I don't know yet. But this could provide me with just the thing I need to seal the deal. Now go!" he growled. His minions obeyed and disappeared. "Time for me to check in with her myself."
Xion was stretching as part of her warm-ups when she heard someone behind her. "I figured you'd be stopping by today," she said, not needing to see who it was.
"Well, duh! I always want to check up on my little superstar and make sure she's all set. Feeling good today, kid?" Hades asked as he walked around to her front.
"I think so."
"This is good. Confidence is good. I've got so much riding on you that I would hate to see you fail."
Xion said nothing.
"Now, just to be safe, I think I could give ya a little boost today," Hades offered.
"I don't want your help," Xion quickly shot back.
"I know, I know, you want to do it all on your own; I get that. But, let's just say, and this is definitely a possibility, that you struggle against your competition, huh? Would you rather me help you, or be knocked out of the tournament? It's not like it's cheating, it's like…training. Trust me, I know a thing or two about training."
Xion squinted her eyes at Hades. "So that's it, huh? That's your angle. You want to be my trainer instead of Phil. Don't like him?"
"Let's just say, he gets my goat." That statement caused Xion to roll her eyes. "Okay, that was a bad one."
Xion stood up. "I've got to go, do you have anything important for me?"
"Here's the deal, sweetheart. If you decide you need my help, you just shoot off a fire spell. You can cast a fire spell, right?"
"Of course."
"Good, if you send off a fire spell, I'll help you out."
"Fine. Although I know I won't need it," Xion remarked. With that, she walked past Hades, done with the conversation.
"Go get 'em tiger. Wouldn't want to disappoint me…or your boyfriend for that matter," he called out.
Xion froze, then turned around, but Hades had already disappeared. She swore she heard the echo of him laughing.
Once again, Roxas' fight was before Xion's, so Phil worked with Roxas before the fight. As soon as Roxas had left, two short centaurs, one pink and one blue, walked near Phil, pretending to talk to each other.
"You know, I simply can't decide who I should pick today," the pink one began, clearly loud enough for Phil to hear.
"Isn't that boy with the spiky hair competing today?" the blue one replied.
"He's been doing well, hasn't he? But if I don't know his name, then I can't put any money on him today. Do you remember his name?" the pink one asked. Phil had been eavesdropping on their conversation, recognizing that the two (supposed) centaurs were talking about Roxas.
"Hey guys, excuse me, but I think I know who you're talking about," Phil butted in. The two centaurs turned to him. "You're talking about Roxas. He's one of my kids."
"You're his father?" the blue one asked, a concerned looked appearing on his face.
"No no no! I mean I'm his trainer. He's one of my entries in the tournament."
"He has been doing well. Congrats to you, pal. I think I'll put some money on him," the pink one replied. The blue one nodded and the two headed off, leaving a content Phil.
As soon as they were out of Phil's sight, the centaurs turned back into Pain and Panic. "What a performance!" Pain crowed.
"I think I played a sophisticated gentleman centaur rather well," Panic gushed.
Pain nodded his agreement and rubbed his hands together. "Roxas, huh? The boss will be pleased."
Soon, it was time for Roxas' match. Naminé was in the stands, waiting to cheer on her friend. Fortunately for her, Xion was warming up, so she wasn't watching from the stands. This meant that the two friends (frenemies?) wouldn't have to sit next to each other while watching Roxas fight. Naminé was very nervous for the fight, but not for Roxas. She had decided that if he should be victorious today, she was going to kiss him on the cheek when she saw him after the match. It was just bold enough of a move for her to try it, no matter how scared she was. She had been sitting in the stands for the last ten minutes attempting to calm herself down in anticipation.
Roxas walked out into the arena and was greeted by the cheers of the denizens of the Coliseum. Naminé cheered as loud as she could, eager to see her hero vanquish his foes. His opponent appeared in the arena, a massive Behemoth Heartless. The crowd oohed and aahed at the size of the massive beast.
"He might be a big one, kid, but you can take him down!" Phil called out from the sidelines.
The match then began. Roxas immediately charged at the Behemoth and swung his Keyblade at the legs of the creature. However, the hits had no effect on the great beast. It stomped its feet, sending a shockwave that hit Roxas.
"You have to hit the horn, kid!" Phil called. "Get up on the Behemoth's back!"
Roxas obliged, and was soon on top of the great purple beast. He immediately started attacking the horn. The Behemoth could seemingly do nothing to shake him free. He just stomped around while Roxas attacked the horn. The crowd cheered for Roxas as he made quick work of the horn. After enough hits to the horn, the Behemoth reared up. Roxas jumped off and landed safely. The Behemoth then crashed into the ground, defeated, and then disappeared.
A large heart floated up into the air and disappeared also. "That's one big heart," Roxas said to himself as he watched. The Coliseum went crazy as the spectators cheered for Roxas' quick and decisive victory.
Up in his box, Hades politely clapped for Roxas. "It's almost like that Heartless was too weak to even put up a decent fight," he said to himself. The dark laugh after indicated he was behind it (of course). Pain and Panic appeared.
"I hope that's what you wanted, Lord Hades, because that Heartless went down pretty fast," Panic said.
"Oh, it was. Did you get his name for me?" Hades asked.
"We did. It's Roxas, and Phil is training him too."
"Roxas, huh? Excellent."
Roxas exited the arena, where both Phil and Xion were waiting for him. "Good work, Roxas! You made mince-meat of that oversized cow," said Phil.
"Great job, Roxas. I hope I can do as well as you just did," Xion told him with a big smile on her face. Although she really wanted to do well, she was more than happy to cheer for Roxas to do just as well.
Roxas smiled at her. "I have faith in you. Now go get 'em." She nodded and then headed into the arena to get ready for her match.
Naminé arrived and approached Roxas. "You were so great!" she told him. Before he could respond and before she lost her confidence, she quickly pecked him on the cheek.
"Th…thanks," Roxas was able to get out, his face becoming flushed.
Naminé was pleased with his reaction, but her face was flushed as well. In order to move on quickly, she told him, "Let's head to the stands so we can watch Xion."
Xion was more than eager to get her match on. She'd been training exceptionally hard for the last couple weeks in preparation for this moment. She was focused and determined to win this match. Her opponent was revealed to be three Invisible and one Angel Star Heartless. She nodded, happy that she had to fight multiple Heartless with weaker health than one giant Heartless.
She immediately focused on the Angel Star, but as she jumped up to hit it, its wings had closed around, invalidating her Keyblade strikes. Knowing that she could not continue to strike the protected Angel Star while the Invisibles made their move, she gave up on the Angel Star and went to strike at the Invisibles.
They were very hard to hit, she quickly found, but she was able to land a few hits on them. While attacking them, she got hit by some orbs sent from the Angel Star. The attack sent her tumbling to the ground. One of the Invisibles stabbed his sword into the ground and disappeared in a swirl.
"Stay out of the swirly ring!" Phil called out. "Take them down one at a time."
Heeding his advice, Xion ran around to avoid the swirly circle of death. She locked eyes with a certain Invisible and focused on attacking him. She chased him around the arena as the other Heartless followed her. Landing several hits on him, she was finally able to destroy it, leaving only two Invisibles left. She decided to surprise attack the Angel Star, but found that it was already in defense position.
"What unfortunate luck," Hades purred as he watch her struggle with the overpowered Heartless. "It's almost like it knew the attack was coming."
An Invisible scored a hit in on Xion as she had turned to the Angel Star. She spun to swing her Keyblade at it, but the other Invisible attacked her, hitting her. The three Heartless saw their opening, and began to attack her at the same time. She had no defense, and had to run away from them.
However, they chased her far faster than any other Heartless she had ever encountered did. She had lost her mojo and was now just scrambling for survival. A quick decision of what her new strategy would be was necessitated.
Hades had been eagerly awaiting this moment and he grinned in anticipation of Xion's next move.
Determined to win at all costs, she cast a fire spell at one of the Invisibles. "You got it," she heard the voice of Hades say.
"Not the strategy I would use kid, but if you think magic will work…" was Phil's response to her fire spell.
Xion swore she felt herself become more powerful and she decided to renew her attack. She swung at one of the Invisibles and connected. Remarkably, the Invisible disappeared, destroyed. That caused the other two Heartless to retreat, but Xion hunted them down. She then made quick work of the last Invisible. The crowd roared in approval. Full of confidence now, she strolled over to the Angel Star, which immediately went into its defense position. She swung down at the Heartless as hard as she could, and the Keyblade broke through the defense and destroyed the Angel Star.
The stunning victory made the crowd go wild. Xion received a standing ovation from the spectators, as they loved her underdog, comeback victory. Xion waved to the crowd, filled with pride.
She stepped out of the arena, to find an overjoyed Phil and Roxas. Naminé was present too, a fake smile plastered on her face.
"I'm not sure exactly what adjustment you made, but you finished that battle amazingly! Great job!" Phil exclaimed.
"You were pretty awesome," Roxas agreed.
"Mmhm," was Naminé's succinct addition.
"I've got to go deal with some scheduling stuff, but I'll see you both at your next training days," Phil said. "Great work today, both of you." He then waddled off, yelling at some poor worker about him slacking on the job.
"Let's go back home," Roxas said.
It was then that Naminé realized that she didn't have her purse. "I left my bag in the stands. We have to go get it first!"
"I'll go with you" Roxas answered. The two headed off to retrieve the bag. Xion knew who would then arrive.
Hades then appeared in front of Xion, clapping for her. "Well done indeed," he began.
"What did you do to me?" she asked.
"Nothing, really," he said (which wasn't actually incorrect, as he had only weakened the Heartless and did nothing to Xion specifically). "Just gave you a preview of your true potential."
"I felt so powerful," she mused.
"Trust me, there's plenty more where that came from," he offered. "You can have more power beyond your imagination."
"I'll think about it," she replied.
"As you should. I'll see you around," he finished. He then disappeared in a cloud of smoke, content that she was inching closer to his web.
Roxas and Naminé came back with the bag. "Let's head back to The Castle That Never Was and celebrate our victories," Roxas said.
Xion smiled a genuine smile. "Sounds good!" Naminé opened up a Portal of Darkness and the three went inside to head back home.
Hey there everybody, I'm back! I sincerely apologize for my long absence on this piece. It is NOT discontinued by any means, and with any luck, I'll be able to put a few more chapters up soon. Thank you for being patient with me and welcome to any new readers! As always, your input is greatly appreciated!
See ya real soon,
The Mustachioed Academic