Three, well four if you counted whoever this person was, against; Terra wasn't sure how many as he had done a quick glance over at the battlefield and all the heartless swarming around. Creatures of varying size, some small, only to about mid-calf while others were much larger, towering over him and he stood at six feet himself. They were all dark in colour, just like the ones in the realm of darkness. Although here, in a world full of light they were much easier to see. There were slenders, faster ones that could easily evade attacks and counter with ones of their own and then rounder ones who were slow moving but if you were hit there would surely be a bruise.

Then there was the question of who this newcomer was. Her outfit was not like the ones of this world, and the blade she held in her right hand was undoubtedly a keyblade. It was long and about of medium weight, going from waist to mid-calf. The shaft was two colours, a deep almost magenta and dark purple spiraling around one another until the end, which was a pink star. Two spokes came from the indents of the star to a thin crescent moon shaped blade. The girl's own unique keyblade but if he had never seen her before, she couldn't possibly be a guardian of light. Terra sighed and summoned his keyblade in a flash of light, the size of his entire leg and then some. Now wasn't the time to start questioning her existence. Friend or foe, she needed help.

Aqua had also been looking at the girl's keyblade but came to the same conclusion as her friend. A proper analysis could be done later, they had to stop these monsters before they escaped the coliseum and attacked the innocent people of this world. She outstretched her arm and her keyblade formed in her hand. Shorter and thinner then Terra's, mostly in the blue colours as its tip curled and went into three sharp edges, the handle a dull grey and purple as it curled around her hand, acting as a guard. She charged quite quickly after the heartless that had knocked back the girl previously, dodging his belly attack with a high jump to get to his exposed back and cut at the creature repeatedly until it was defeated and a pink heart floated up to the sky.

Riley glanced over her shoulder when Aqua had come into her line of sight and saw Ventus had come with his two friends that had weapons of their own. Keyblades. They were also keyblade wielders? So then... the light must have won if the weapons were still around. That gave her some hope as she readjusted her grip on her own keyblade and rolled away from an attack of some heartless with helmets on their heads. They were smaller then her, only standing to about her waist and lanky with long sharp three fingers and sharp feet. Using their silver helmets as a shield, they could take many more hits then the smaller ones that littered the ground but else wise were not much different. She looked once more at Ven just as he summoned his own keyblade, holding it back behind him and spinning it a bit before getting a firm grip. This weapon was the shortest of all four and at a slight slant towards him. A dark grey near black in colour with gold flecks, the end of his blade went into five spokes, starting from the largest and longest at the top and progressively got smaller. That was not the blade she remembered. He had a much different one all that time ago; longer, very different colours of black, green and purple. Riley sighed a bit, her shoulders slumping as she looked to the ground.

He wasn't the same she remembered. In fact a lot of him was different. Perhaps he didn't remember her.

In her momentary stand still, some of the heartless that had the ability to fly launched magic at her. They were triangular in shape, orange, yellow and blue. From the black tips of their head, magic could be formed and then launched. Specifically from the yellow one, electricity and it zapped at her. The long haired female cried out in pain as it hit her leg, stunning it momentarily. The static shock went through her leg, making it painful to move. She looked up at the heartless in surprise and slight anger as three of them came closer to her, two yellow and one blue. Narrowing her purple eyes, Riley raised her blade just as the blue heartless attacked with ice magic. She was able to block, but her weapon froze over.

"Ugh..." her head snapped up again when hearing the static sound of electricity and narrowly forced her body to jump back to dodge another lightning strike. Banging her keyblade lightly against her foot, Riley tried to get the ice off her blade as well as get her leg to return its feeling when Terra came in front of her, deflecting another set of attacks then running forward and jumping up to slam them into the ground. As soon as they hit the creatures disappeared into darkness. He turned back to face her.

"Are you alright?"

Riley was shocked for a moment at how he just so casually asked if she was okay. No accusing of who she was, or any judging that she could be the enemy. He could've completely ignored her and continued on the fight but the man had asked. She gave a curt nod, finally able to free her keyblade from the ice and straightened up to look at the depleting numbers. Terra turned back as well, readying his keyblade in his hand then charging forward. She watched, then looked down at the keyblade in her hand. Her leg still had that pins and needle feeling from the static shock, running in wouldn't be wise, she'd come out more hurt then their common foe would be. The blue haired curled her fingers tightly around the handle then stepped forward with her uninjured leg, raising her weapon up to the sky.

From the star at the end base of her keyblade, a light glowed and sparkled, towards the sky. The blue sky with a few light fluffy clouds gained the same sparkle effect and down in bright twinkles, star shaped meteors flew from the sky and came crashing onto the field, a trail of pink and purple trailing behind. They were quite large in size, one meteor able to take out a few of the smaller heartless and knock out at least one of the bigger ones. One magic ability had depleted their numbers significantly, making it a more even playing field but it also exhausted her. Riley dug her keyblade into the ground, using it as support as she huffed, resting a hand on her chest, able to feel her racing heart. She hadn't fought for so many years her body wasn't used to the heat of battle. It was a strength she was going to have to work back to get to the way she was. Now she just had to hope the others were strong enough to handle themselves.

As the meteor spell slowly faded and all that remained were scratch like marks on the ground, Aqua re-evaluated the entire situation. She glanced behind her at the unfamiliar keybearer. She was powerful, but it also seemed like that spell had significantly weakened her. Perhaps a little too much. She would be an easy target for the heartless and they weren't dumb, they knew that. That meant she had to be extra conscious of the movements of the creatures. Luckily, there were significantly less of them as she straightened her back, lowering her keyblade slightly towards the ground.

"Let's do this," she murmured to herself and just as she was about to step forward into the fray, there was a new sound. It sounded like the neigh of a horse and a shadow casted over the coliseum floor. Another enemy? She, along with Terra and Ven looked up and had to squint as the sun blocked their view a bit. Glancing through her spread apart fingers she could see large wings on a horse, and a man sitting on top of the creature. The creature landed, stomping on a few of the small black creatures in the process and they vanished. The man jumped off the white horse and punched one of the larger heartless with helmets out of the way, crashing it into some of the smaller ones and they also disappeared.

"Come on!" the man shouted and ran forward towards one of the heartless with one of the massive bellies. It propelled itself forward, arms flailing behind it as it ran and he jumped out of the creatures way then grabbed onto it, easily able to lift the taller then human black and purple heartless over his head as if it were as light as a feather then threw it like a bowling ball, using its large round form to roll across the floor and defeat many of its smaller friends.

Riley was stunned, this man looked almost exactly like she had seen of the statue. Large muscles that it almost seemed impossible. He wore a dark brown tunic, a sash around his waist with some sort of gold emblem in it and a short blue cape hung from his shoulders. He had orange hair, pushed out of his face by a headband. His strength was beyond impressive... she had never seen anything like it. His companion was a pure white horse with teal almost like tail and mane, massive white wings sprouting from its back, though now folded against its body. It stayed near the outskirts of the main fight, stomping on a few of the low down heartless, quite happy with itself by the neighs of delight. She turned back to the others as the man used the same rolling maneuver on another but this time, Ven jumped on it, using his own feet to control where it went. She smirked, that was a creative way to do it. He then jumped off and let the heartless continue rolling until it hit the wall and poofed into a heart. Aqua launched another spell and Terra slammed his keyblade into the remainder of the heartless and then the entire battlefield fell quiet.

Terra looked around, waiting for any other sound that there might be more heartless on the way but after a moment of silence, he let his keyblade disappear in the same flash of light and turned to the newcomer.

"Herc!" Ven ran over, practically having to skid to a halt when approaching the orange haired.

"Ven!" the man, Hercules turned to the blond with a big grin. "Terra, Aqua," he looked to the brunet and blue haired respectively. "It's great to see you guys again!" he was practically smiling from ear to ear. "It's been so long I thought... y'know," he continued on a little awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "You wouldn't be coming back."

"I said I'd come back when you were a true hero, didn't I?" Ven asked, resting his hand on his chest as he smiled. Hercules nodded.

"Yeah. You did," he agreed.

"You've definitely grown up," Terra commented as he walked over, folding his arms across his chest. "It's great to see you again."

"You're no longer that boy who was unsure of himself," Ven commented, remembering when they met that he had still been in training and just needed that extra push to go towards his dream. "But geez, did you have to get so tall?" the blond continued, a slight whine in his voice as he had to raise his head to look up at him now. Hercules chuckled.

"Sorry, Ven," he said as the white horse trotted over, nudging him slightly with his snout. "Oh, Pegasus. These are my friends. Guys, meet Pegasus," he pushed slightly at his head.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too Pegasus," Aqua said, gently reaching out with her hand. The horse sniffed at her hand, then moved so she could rest and rub her hand against his neck. "I'm assuming Phil told you to come here?" she asked them both.

"Yeah, said there was trouble," Hercules replied, resting his hands on his hips. "Didn't tell me it was you guys."

"Well actually..." Terra looked over to where he had last seen the new girl who had been fighting the heartless herself previously. Her keyblade was gone by now, much like theirs was and she was just standing there, at a distance, her hands behind her back as she rolled her ankle a bit. "She was fighting them first," he walked over to her. "Hey," he watched as the girl jumped a bit, focused more on her leg. "Your leg okay?"

"What?" she blinked and looked up at him. "Yeah."

"What were you doing out here?" Aqua asked, walking over as well to stand beside Terra. She did a once over of the girl, she looked okay as she placed her leg firmly on the ground and rested her hands on her elbows in a kind of shy manner. She looked between the two of them then let out a sigh, lowering her head.

"Some friends of mine have gone missing. I've been looking around for them when I bumped into the heartless," Riley explained.

"And you think they're here?" Aqua prompted.

"I'm not sure," she replied with a slight shake of her head. "I've just been looking around,"

"You're looking for a friend too?" Ven asked as he also approaches with Hercules and Pegasus.

"Too?"

"Oh yeah. We're looking for Sora," the blond turned to the demi-god.

"You know Sora?" Hercules asked, a little shocked. Though now that he thought about it, they all fought with the strange key shaped blades. It made sense they were all somehow connected.

"Is he here?" Ventus continued on, a little excited in perhaps a possible lead. However, his shoulders dropped when Hercules shook his head.

"The last I saw him was... when Thebes was attacked by the titans. He was looking for a way to get stronger. I haven't seen him since," he explained, resting his rather thick fingers on his chin.

"Oh... ah- what about Zack?" Ven asked, remembering the other boy he had befriended when he was last at Olympus. The black haired had been trying to train under Phil as well, turning it into a competition against Hercules. Ultimately, Herc won and could continue training under the satyr. He said he'd return when they were both heroes.

"Oh yeah, he was part of this world too," Aqua said in thought, remembering when he asked her for a date. It was the first time a guy had ever asked her and it took her by surprise, though he seemed persistent after she turned him down. If Hercules had grown up so much... she found herself wondering what he looked like now too. The orange haired looked between them and then away.

"I haven't seen him in years either. Shortly after you all left, he did too. Without even saying goodbye," he admitted.

"But he wanted to be a hero, like you," Ven pointed out. It seemed so unlike him to just disappear like that.

"Do you think something could have happened to him?" the long haired fourth wielder voiced.

"Could Hades have taken hold of him again?" Terra wondered.

"What do you mean, Terra?" Aqua asked, turning to the taller brunet.

"I faced him in the finals of the tournament and he seemed to be... not himself. Darkness had taken over his mind and he was asking me to end it before he regretted it," he explained the memory. Darkness had taken over his heart for twelve years, he knew all too well what the feeling was like.

"If he did... he would be in the underworld with Hades," Hercules frowned. This didn't sound good and although he had been to the underworld before, at the time all he had thought about was saving Meg. He wouldn't have noticed Zack even if he was there.

"Is there a way to get there?" Aqua asked.

"It's dangerous down there, one slip and you could actually end up dying," Hercules warned. "I can't let you go,"

"It wouldn't be the first time we were faced with similar situations," she said with a slight laugh. "Sora could be there too. Hades is a villain after all," she pointed out, looking up to him.

"Herc. You know us. We're coming with." That wasn't a debate.

Hercules looked to Ven then sighed. He knew he was right, after all they had helped him become a braver person when he was training. He finally nodded.

"Alright."

"I'm coming with," Riley took a few steps closer to them. "My missing friends could be in this Underworld too," she said, really hoping they wouldn't turn her away. "I'm trying to find them and I plan to look everywhere, they're..." she took in a shaky breath and exhaled slowly. "They're my only friends..." she admitted. The group looked to one another, they knew that feeling a little too well.

"Who are you anyway?" Aqua decided to ask, this girl was still unfamiliar to them.

"Oh," Riley's cheeks flushed a bit. This entire time and she hadn't introduced herself, no wonder they seemed a little suspicious. "My name is Riley," she said, placing her hand on her chest below her collar bone as did.

"Nice to meet you," the other darker blue haired nodded. "I'm Aqua."

"Terra."

"Ventus but, you can call me Ven," the blond smiled at her then rested his curled index finger against his lip. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that name sounded familiar... that name to her appearance. But he didn't know anyone with a keyblade like that, or an appearance like that. He had known his friends, and then Sora's friends. Aqua and Terra had both noticed the confused expression on their friend's face but when he looked to them with a raised brow they didn't bother to ask.

"And I am Hercules," the final member of their little group. "Herc for short."

Riley nodded at the introduction to all of them, pausing a little at Ven. She wasn't sure what to make of his expression. He looked confused more then anything and eventually gave up on it, instead of clicking on who she was. He might have been the one she knew so long ago, but he didn't remember her, not anymore. That was definitely the loss of one of her friends but perhaps, maybe, they could be friends again. That thought alone gave her a little more hope.

"So how do we get there?" she asked.

"Flight," Hercules replied, gripping onto the mane of Pegasus and swinging over to sit on the horse. "But Pegasus can't carry everyone," he offered his hand to Riley.

"No worries Herc," Ven said, summoning his keyblade in his hand. "We got our own way of flying,"

"You do?" Hercules asked at the same time Riley had thought it. The three of them tossed their keyblades in the air and Riley's eyes widened in shock seeing them return in new shapes, hovering above the ground. This was definitely... new. Her keyblade couldn't do that. She took hold of Hercules hand and he lifted her up with ease and onto Pegasus behind him. When he let go, she shook her arm a bit, feeling like he could've yanked her arm out of her socket. The others got onto their vehicles.

"Lead the way," Terra said and Hercules nodded, patting his horse friend on the side.

"Hold on!" Hercules warned Riley and she clung onto his tunic just as the white horse got onto his hind legs to stretch out his wings and took off into the air. She looked behind her to see the trio following on their gliders and the group headed to the dark side of the world.