Chapter 26 Auron

Both Hades and Sora's group were ready to do battle with each other. However, before anyone could make a move, Sora, Corrin, Donald, and Goofy suddenly fell to their knees in exhaustion.

"Wh-What's happening?" Sora asked trying to catch his breath.

"Is this the Underworld's curse?" Corrin asked also out of breath.

"Yep. Down here, heroes are zeroes. Comes with the territory." Hades smirked.

The man in red suddenly grabbed Sora's arm and pulled him to his feet.

"Come on. We have to get out of here." The man said.

"But I have to talk to Hades." Sora argued.

"What was that?" Hades asked while plugging his ears with his fingers.

"It's pointless now. Let's go!" The man ordered and Sora reluctantly complied as the five made a break for the exit with Hades shooting fireballs at them.

"How cute. But let's see how far they can truly get." Hades smirked as he vanished leaving Pete alone with Pain and Panic.

"I guess we hold down the fort then?" Pete asked Pain and Panic who just shrugged.

Back on the long road:

The five managed to exit Hades's Chamber with Sora and Goofy closing the door as Corrin looked forward.

"Okay. The entrance was a straight forward path that way. Let's just get back to the Colosseum and figure out another way to deal with this." Corrin offered.

"Sounds good. Let's hurry before Hades catches up." Donald said.

"Too late." The man in red growled.

"Leaving so soon?" Hades asked appearing next to Sora leaning on the door casually. "You came all this way to see me. At least let me give you some hospitality for coming here." Hades smirked with fire burning in his hand.

"RUN!" Corrin shouted as the five bolted towards the entrance.

The group ran down the long pathway making it to the second larger platform above the Valley of the Dead when multiple Heartless appeared. Mainly Large Bodies and another type of Heartless. It looked like a small person in a green scholar outfit along with a matching hat carrying a massive book larger than their own body. The Heartless Emblem was present on the book.

"Great. More trouble." Donald spat as he readied a fireball. However, one of the Bookmaster Heartless intercepted his fireball with a fireball of its own.

The large Bodies then began to charge at the Duck, though he was thankfully pushed out of the way by Goofy before he was knocked off the edge.

"Thanks, Goofy." Donald panted.

"No problem." Goofy said.

Sora, Corrin, and the newcomer charged at the Heartless with their blades, but the Large bodies blocked it with their front body shields. The Bookmaster then rained Thunder spells on the three that they were barely able to dodge.

With each move, Sora and Corrin felt weaker.

"The curse…" Sora groaned.

"If we don't do something soon, we'll be in big trouble. These Heartless are set up mainly to stall us while the curse of the Underworld drains us of our strength." Corrin grunted.

"Feel the Heat!" Hades sang as he launched a fireball at Sora.

"Gah!" Sora shouted as the fireball made contact with his back knocking him over the edge.

"SORA!" Corrin, Donald, and Goofy shouted.

"Uh hi! Did you forget about little old me here? Rather rude." Hades mocked.

Thankfully, the man in red jumped forward and grabbed Sora before he could fall, pulling him to safety.

"Th-Thanks." Sora said.

"If anyone has any plans, I'd like to hear them." The man in red said.

Corrin was silent for a moment as he observed his surroundings. Hades was smirking as he readied another fireball from behind, the Heartless had blocked their path forward, and bellow them was a Valley that Corrin believed if they fell down, there would likely be no return knowing Hades.

That's when he got an idea. The Valley.

"This is probably going to be really stupid." Corrin muttered as he gripped his dragon stone.

In a flash of light, Corrin turned into his dragon form and started to gather water energy in his mouth.

"HYDRO BLAST!"

Corrin fired a massive blast of water but not at the Heartless, or even Hades himself, but rather the ground bellow Hades.

The platform shattered and Hades began to fall, though he did manage to grab onto the edge of the now broken road.

Corrin immediately returned to normal and collapsed to the ground unconscious, dropping his dragon stone in the process.

"Corrin!" Sora shouted running to his brother along with their new ally.

The red man checked on Corrin for a second before picking up the unconscious lost prince and hoisting him over his shoulder.

"He's drained. He needs to get out of here now. Let's use the opportunity he gave us." The man said.

Sora nodded. He picked up Corrin's dragon stone and pocketed it.

"Time for a new trick." Sora said as he ran towards the Heartless.

"Sliding Dash!" Sora shouted as he slid past the Bookmaster Heartless and right in front of the Large Bodies. As he did, his Keyblade was gathering energy.

"Ragnarok!" Sora shouted as he blasted the Large Bodies at point blank with a powerful magic spell destroying them.

"Now hurry!" The man shouted as he began to run.

Sora felt incredibly exhausted after that attack, but he had to ignore it for now. Pushing aside his exhaustion, Sora bolted to the other end of the Valley with the others.

At this point, Hades pulled himself up from the edge and looked at the retreating intruders annoyed.

"Little punks. First they barge in uninvited, and then they wreak my Underworld? This is far from over. But first…" Hades snapped his finger. "Pain, Panic. I want this bridge fixed!"

With that, Hades headed back to his chambers as Pain and Panic ran past Hades with some construction tools and hardhats to the damaged bridge over the Valley.

With the Heroes:

"Okay. I think we can break here." The man said as he set Corrin down.

Sora collapsed on his back in exhaustion.

"We really underestimated the Underworld's curse." Sora panted.

"Yeah. We were lucky to escape." Donald said as he patched up Corrin with a heal spell and pulled out an Elixir.

"We aren't out of the woods yet. I doubt Hades will give up that easily." The man said.

Corrin slowly regained conscious as Sora approached him with his dragon stone.

"You okay bro?" Sora asked giving Corrin the stone.

"Yeah. But I still feel really drained." Corrin said.

"The Underworld's curse is still in effect. It gets worse the deeper in you go in." The man said.

"So, the closer we get to the entrance, the less the curse will affect us?" Corrin asked and the man nodded.

"How come you don't seem to be affected?" Goofy asked.

"Because I'm dead." The man said as if it was obvious.

"Dead?" The group asked surprised.

"Are you really surprised? Did you forget where we are?" The man asked.

"Oh. Good point." Corrin admitted.

"Still, dead or not, you're really good. Are you some kind of hero?" Sora asked.

"No. I'm no hero. Just an…" The man began rather upset much to the group's confusion. "Auron."

"Auron?" Sora asked. That name sounded familiar but he couldn't recall where he heard it before.

"My name." The man named Auron said.

"Oh, well I'm Sora." Sora said.

"Corrin!" Corrin said jumping on top of Sora.

"Donald Duck." Donald said jumping on top of Corrin.

"Goofy." Goofy said getting on top of Donald. The weight was too much for Sora and he collapsed back to the floor with the others going with him.

'Sora…it is him. Doesn't seem like he recognizes me though. Not that I blame him. He was too little.' Auron thought. "Perhaps we were fated to meet. You in need of a Guardian?"

"A Guardian? Thanks, but no thanks." Sora said.

Auron let off a soft chuckle.

"At any rate, we aren't too much farther to the entrance. We shouldn't waste any more time than needed." Corrin said.

"He's right. If you are all set, we should get going." Auron said.

The others nodded and headed for the exit.

Hades's Chamber:

"I've got Heartless stationed all over the Underworld. You just leave those brats to me and you keep on working on turning Hercules into a Heartless." Pete offered, but Hades just got angry.

"This is MY Underworld you idiot! I'll handle this myself!" Hades shouted as he snapped his finger. From his window a giant black three headed dog popped up. "Cerberus, GO!"

The giant dog took off towards the entrance.

With the Heroes:

Sora and the others managed to slice their way through Heartless as they headed towards the entrance to the Underworld. Thankfully, the Heartless weren't too tough so not much energy was wasted.

Once they arrived at the gate, Sora and Goofy tried to push it open, but to no avail.

"Why won't it open?" Sora grunted.

"Because of that." Corrin said pointing upwards to a giant lock on the Underworld's gate.

"Hades must be trying to lock us in." Donald said.

Sora summoned his Keyblade in his hand. Auron looked at the weapon curiously.

"I've been meaning to ask but, what is that weapon?" Auron asked.

"It's called a Keyblade." Sora said.

"A Keybalde? Can it open that door?" Auron asked.

"It should. The Keyblade is capable of unlocking any lock." Sora said.

'Even a lock of a god? Wish we had something of that power when…no. No time to be thinking of that now.' Auron thought.

A roar was heard in the distance.

"Hurry!" Auron ordered as he readied his sword.

Cerberus jumped down behind the group and let out a roar.

"CERBERUS?!" Sora and the others shouted.

Auron ran forward to intercept Cerberus before it could harm the others, locking his blade with the middle head's jaw.

Sora quickly pointed the Keyblade at the lock and a beam of light shot from the Keyblade's tip and straight at the lock causing it to vanish and the door to open.

Corrin, Donald, and Goofy ran through the door with Sora following. However, Sora stopped and looked back at Auron still fighting Cerberus. He fought Cerberus before and Cerberus wasn't an easy opponent. Sure Auron seemed to be pretty strong, and he was already dead but still…

Sora ran towards Cerberus.

"Sora! Wait!" Corrin shouted, though he tripped and fell to the ground. "Damn it. I'm still a bit winded from that Hydro Blast."

Donald and Goofy began to chase after, but saw the door was closing.

"Quick grab it!" Donald shouted as he and Goofy grabbed the door and began to push to keep it open and prevent it from closing on Sora.

Sora summoned and Keyblade and ran next to Auron who was knocked back by Cerberus.

"I'm here to help!" Sora declared.

"What are you doing here? Get to the entrance. I'll be fine." Auron shouted.

"I can't just leave you to face this by yourself." Sora argued and Auron flinched.

'I can't just leave you guys to face this creature alone!'

'Damn it.' Auron growled as he and Sora readied their blades for the Guardian of the Underworld.

Cerberus jumped towards the two swordsmen as Sora dodge rolled out of the way.

Auron swung his sword at the beast hitting its left head, causing the three headed dog to recoil in pain.

"Blizzard!" Sora shouted shooting ice at Cerberus.

Cerberus responded by shooting fire balls from its three mouths. One hitting the ice spell and the other two heading straight towards Sora.

Auron intercepted and blocked the two fireballs with his sword.

'This isn't good. I'm still feeling weak from the curse. I need to find a way to get away and fast.' Sora thought.

Auron charged at Cerberus, but Cerberus knocked Auron away with a spin, striking the red swordsman with his tail.

Cerberus charged at Sora as the two side heads closed in at both sides.

Sora managed to push on both of its snouts holding the heads back, but the third head lunged right at him. Sora managed to push himself up in time to grab his Keyblade and lodge it into the middle's mouth preventing the head from chomping the Keyblade hero down to size.

The middle head started to try and shake Sora off as the right head tried to attack Sora.

Sora let go of the Keyblade and jumped into the air, re-summoning the Keyblade in his head.

"Take this!" Sora shouted as he dove down on the middle forehead knocking the Underworld guardian down.

"Let's get out of here!" Auron shouted.

Sora nodded as the two ran out of the gate.

Cerberus managed to get back up and tried to charge at the escaping heroes as Sora, Corrin, Donald, and Goofy made faces at him from the other side.

The gate closed just as Cerberus reached it and a large bang was heard from the other side.

"That's gotta leave a mark." Corrin commented.

"We made it." Donald sighed in relief.

Sora looked around and noticed someone was missing.

"Guys? Where's Auron?" Sora asked.

Everyone else looked around and failed to locate the dead swordsman.

"I know I saw him go through the gate as well." Goofy said.

"He can take care of himself. He made it out, but he can't exactly leave. He's dead after all." Corrin said.

"I guess you're right." Sora said though clearly not thrilled to leave him behind.

"For now, let's head to the Colosseum. I'm sure Kaze and the others are worried." Corrin said.

"Yeah. And maybe Hercules might know something about the Underworld curse." Goofy said.

"Well then, let's go." Donald declared as the four started to head up to the Colosseum.

Sora though looked back towards the entrance of the Underworld.

"Auron…I know I heard that name somewhere…" He muttered before following his brother and friends.

Back in Hades's Chamber:

Hades was absolutely shocked. He was sure he had them when he locked the gate. Brooding blond spiky wasn't here to help them and Cerberus would have easily drained the rest of their strength. Even with Auron's help. But what he wasn't suspecting was Sora managing to unlock his lock.

"So you're saying that kids Keyblade can open ANY lock?" Hades asked Pete.

"You didn't know? Weren't you a part of Maleficent's group last year?" Pete asked.

Hades grunted. To be honest, he never really cared about the Keyblade, or Kingdom Hearts. He only helped because he believed the Heartless may be his answer to crushing Hercules before he could stop his plans of taking over Mount Olympus.

'If that lock can even break my lock, I wonder if it could break HIS lock.' Hades thought with a sinister smile.

"You've got a plan?" Pete asked.

"Have I ever told you of the killer Colosseum we have here in the Underworld?" Hades asked. "It makes the one upstairs look like an Olympic kiddie pool."

"Then that's where we will put an end to Herc the Jerk's winning streak." Pete declared.

"Problem. Zeus locked it tight." Hades said.

"Doh." Pete grunted. Though he started to see Hades's plan when he heard the word "lock."

"All we have to do is swipe that key, and reopen the Underdome." Hades said.

"Hate to break it to ya, but that Key is rather particular. It won't work for just anyone, God or not. And that kid isn't a push over." Pete warned.

Hades frowned at that. He did remember that the kid was able to take on a Titan last year with his friends, and did managed to escape the Underworld, despite the curse. And even if he did get the Keyblade, he wouldn't be able to use it? Though he then smirked.

"I think we need a woman's touch." Hades said as an image of Meg appeared in his hand.

Back at the Colosseum, Meg felt a shiver through her body.

And that's a wrap!

Special thanks to Shiloh Aldwin for the suggestion of the Bookmaster Heartless.

Well, our heroes managed to escape that little predicament. Sorry this took a while, the escape part was annoying to write.

I did originally want a more drawn out battle with Cerberus, but considering Sora's condition of the Underworld's curse, it would have been rather farfetched.

But anyway, next chapter, Sora and co reunite with Hercules as they figure a way to get past the curse of the Underworld while Hades puts his scheme to action. Stay tuned.

RAX: Sorry but, I have to side with Guestwithideas on this one. Sakura is a bit too young for Phil to flirt with her. The Fates Royal Families are a bit younger than in canon to compensate Corrin's age being a bit younger as well. Sakura is only about 13 in this fic. If it was Camilla or Hinoka, then yeah he would. Aqua was a rather mature woman in BBS after all.

The Bich: Sorry there. Aside from some laziness towards the end, I had some other things going on.

Guestwithideas: They already feel out of their league. That's why Corrin wouldn't let them go with them into the Underworld. As for the magic thing, Phil did teach Sora the Thunder spell in the game so he does have some knowledge on it. Though Sakura just needs a place to get more practice. Besides, Donald will be joining her next chapter anyway.

The Chicken: Here? In this world? No. Takumi was abducted after Chapter 10 out of 28 of Conquest so there is still quite ways away from the ending to Conquest. Ryoma is still alive. And even if he was dead, Anankos would snag him before his soul could drift to the afterlife.