"Well, I'm Sora!"

Sora… Xion thought to herself. He doesn't have an X in his name like everyone else I've met so far…

Sora laughed a bit nervously, scratching the back of his head when the girl didn't really respond, she only stared up at him. He helped her to stand.

Xion didn't say anything because she didn't know much about anything yet, she'd just been made after all. She had no idea what she would say. She needed some time.

"So, how'd you get in this castle?" Sora asked, walking down the hallway as Xion slowly followed. He noticed her coat and frowned. Same one that man was wearing… But he decided he wouldn't press it, maybe she'd tell him about it.

The girl didn't know how she'd gotten there. She wondered that herself. Certainly she'd been taken from her home, a beach, and that girl.

Xion had awoken on a table. Had those men been experimenting on her? She then remembered something and hurriedly patted her pockets. She then frowned. Her charm was gone…

"Are you missing something?" Sora asked suddenly, making her glance up.

She bowed her head.

Sora assumed that was a yes. She looked so lost, she was either too tortured to speak or she didn't know how to by the looks of it, had that man done that to her? He wanted to help, plus some company wouldn't hurt. "Don't worry, Xion, I'm missing something too. This guy in a coat like yours took it from me. Maybe he took your thing too? You wanna come with me to figure it out?"

Xion knew two guys in black coats. She wouldn't put it past them to steal by the way they'd spoken…. But they'd spoken about completing her. Either way, Sora would probably help her with both. She nodded.

"Great! Let's go!" Sora smiled. He took out his deck of world cards and showed it to her. "Oh, you got any of these?"

The girl looked at the cards solemnly before shaking her head slightly.

"Oh. Well, they're made of my memories and they're the only way to keep going." Sora explained, picking out the Olympus card. He lifted the card up and it glowed before it disappeared.

"Sora."

The boy gasped in surprise and turned to her. He had heard her voice before but it was still a shock. It was so soft and gentle, yet somehow got the attention of him right away. "Xion...?"

Xion clasped her hands in front of her before looking at him, there was a slight bit more of emotion then there had been before in her eyes, though he couldn't tell what the emotion was. "Thank you."

Sora and Xion arrived in the memory version of Olympus. The place was quiet as they walked through it.

"In the real world, they had a tournament here." Sora exsplained as they walked through the coliseum. "I heard it was supposed to be super cool!"

Xion looked at him curiously, tilting her head.

"I didn't get to participate though… or even watch for that matter. I was busy looking for my-"

Suddenly, heartless surrounded the children, making them back up against each other in shock.

"Heartless! Xion, stay back!"

"No."

Sora looked back to Xion in surprise. "But you can't-!"

The girl was able to kick and punch a few away from her and then glanced at him. She had a feeling she had to do this, it was a promise she'd made before… at least, she thought that was her. "We... protect… each other…"

In the past, Hades had promised Sora he'd find his friends. Despite this, it seemed he had other things on his mind when he suddenly got up from his orb and summoned a dark corridor.

"Hey, where are you going?" Sora asked in confusion. "We still gotta find my friends!"

"We will, we will! There's just something I need to take care of in another world." Hades smiled back to the boy.

"Another world?" Sora asked. "Can I come too? Maybe Riku and Kairi ended up there-!"

"Ah, ah, ah! No can do, kiddo! You're staying here where it's safe!" Hades insisted, as if he cared for the boy, placing a claw to the boy's lips.

"But-!"

"See you later, champ!" Hades ignored him, stepping through the portal.

The boy glanced between the portal and the sword Hades had just created for him. Kairi and Riku may be there in that world… He had to see them and apologize, maybe receive an apology from them for trying to abandon him but… that didn't really matter to Sora much, he just wanted to see them again. After take a breath for encouragement, he grabbed the sword and sprinted through.

The boy was immediately bombarded with darkness from every angle. His heart felt like it was going to be torn apart completely. He fell to the ground in pain, clutching his chest before seeing a light. Kairi and Riku… he couldn't die here without finding them! He started to crawl when he was suddenly snatched up by the shirt and yanked out.

"What did you think was gonna happen, genius?! What part of dangerous didn't ya' get?!" Hades boomed to the boy, raising him up into the air.

Sora coughed for air, looking down as Hades slowly came back into focus. He was red and furious, he didn't look like the sly Hades the boy knew.

They were in a world with a bright blue sky, at the entrance to a massive coliseum. There was a long line of strong men and women, all who wanted to talk to some goat-man. They didn't seem to care about the Lord's appearance, as if it happened all the time, not like they could stop him. The goat-man was too distracted, shattering some tiny kid's dream by rejecting his entry, to notice them.

Hades gave a scoff at the boy's look of confusion and dropped him to the ground of the coliseum. "If you had died-!"

"You would be no use to me." Was how it would've finished now that Sora knew his intentions.

"I'm sorry, Hades.." Sora mumbled, rubbing his head before getting up. "I just… Please don't leave me behind! I-I don't want to be abandoned!"

Hades smirked. "Oh, I see what this is, you think I'm a bad friend, like Kairi and Riku, huh?"

"They're not bad friends! They're great friends!" Sora insisted angrily at once, how dare he accuse them of that! "They just-"

"They just wanted to sail away into the sunset, together forever, without you, right?" Hades answered.

Sora grimaced. "..."

"Look, champ, I know you can't help caring for them even when they don't care about you as much… That's why I'm helping you find them, who knows, maybe my good-heartedness will rub off on them when they hang with us." Hades smiled, ruffling the boy's hair. "But before we can even think of finding them, I have to make some preparations here! For the games."

"The games?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, real big competition where only the best of the best compete to claim the ultimate title of a… 'true hero'." Hades couldn't hold back his disgust for the term, turning away from the boy. "Everyone has the pass the prelims to join, they're going on now."

"Can I try out for the games?" Sora asked hopefully, jogging after the god.

"Hm…" The god thought for a moment about it and then scanned the line of eager participants, one in particular catching his eye. He smirked. "Sure you can, champ! Don't want you getting bored."

"And right after you're done, we'll find my friends, right?"

"Yeah, it's a promise or whatever." Hades mumbled, not really paying much attention as he plotted out what to do next. He suddenly snapped his fingers and a dark portal opened, two imp-like creatures fell out of it.

"Ouch, get off me!" The little red pudgy one quickly fell flat on his face, revealing the skinny but still small blue one who had ran out as quick as possible, accidently stabbing his partner in crime with his sharp horns.

"R-Reporting for duty, my lord!" The blue one cried, saluting the lord while still trembling after the red had pried him off.

The red one did the same motion. "Present, your deadliness!"

"Sora, this is Pain and Panic, my underlings from the Underworld." Hades introduced, gesturing to them respectively.

Sora smiled, waving slightly. "Hey!"

Panic, the blue one, gave a shy wave back while Pain looked rather annoyed at the prospect of having someone else join their team.

"Sora here wants to join the prelims! You two will make sure he's kept safe." Hades demanded his lackies who nodded. He squeezed Sora's shoulder. "Oh, I forgot to mention! This is a partner-based thing, can't go in without one."

Sora glanced at the line in confusion. No-one seemed paired up… "I don't have a partner though."

"Sure you do! I'll pick one out for ya'!" Hades smiled, wrapping his arm around the boy before he counted them off. "Let's see, eeny-meeny-miney- her."

Hades stopped there without any hesitation on his choice and led Sora up to the girl.

She looked very cool, Sora thought, she had ninja attire and a black pixie cut that made her look like she meant business.

"Hey, shorty, meet your new partner." Hades announced to the girl, giving Sora a gentle shove to her.

Yuffie narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me? I'm entering alone, who are you supposed to be?"

It took everything Hades had not to destroy her on the spot. "Hades, lord of the dead, that's who."

The girl looked way more interested now, her eyes lighting up. "Wait, Lord of the Dead, that means you're super powerful, right?! I'm looking for someone like you, he's not a god but he's-!"

"Whoever he is, I'm sure I'll be able to find him, but unfortunately, I'm busy preparing for the games! And I'm very busy afterwards too, have a few worlds to visit, won't be back here for a long time. Though I suppose I could pencil you in if…!"

"If?"

Sora glanced between the two in confusion. Where did he fit in?

"If you take my apprentice here through the prelims. You both have to come out unharmed or you won't-"

"It's a deal!" The girl cried happily.

"Good answer…" Hades smirked. "Well, I'll leave you two to it! Don't have too much fun!"

Sora and Yuffie looked to each other and introduced themselves, unaware Hades had taken his minions aside and whispered to them a plan.

Sora and Xion had been fighting the Heartless for a long time now and were both starting to wear down. The boy was actually starting to feel a bit dizzy even, though he wasn't sure why. In this castle, there seemed to be a spell that prevented the need for food and water, and yet he felt the same as he did if he was being dehydrated. He felt so weak…

Xion glanced back to him, noticing this change. She had only felt more energized as the fights continued, but her partner… She put a firm hand on his shoulder to keep him steady.

Sora gasped in shock when he was suddenly forced into his dark form without the extreme feelings he had to make it appear before. It was like darkness had clung onto Xion, and was now effecting him as well. Little did they know, this was to be expected, seeing as she had been made by a man powerful in the darkness.

"Sora…?" The boy collapsed into Xion's arms, dropping his sword to the ground before it vanished. "Sora!"

"So, now you know who I'm looking for, what about you?" Sora asked Yuffie as they fought the monsters in the coliseum. "This guy a friend of yours?"

"No way." The young ninja hissed, striking her enemies a bit harder at the mention. A dark aura surrounded her, showing she was tapping into her darkness. "He teamed up with someone who could summon these shadows… and he destroyed my home… and separated me from my friends…!"

Sora watched with slight apprehension as she hit more heartless with more strength each time she paused in the sentence, it seemed like she was getting consumed in the power. "Oh."

"But because of him, I learned you can't always trust the light to be there for you." Yuffie grunted, putting her star on her back once the hoards were through. She gently shook herself and after a few deep breathes, the dark aura vanished. It seemed to glitch a bit, like she was having trouble locking it down in her heart, but she managed soon enough. "Darkness however… it's everywhere, so you might as well make good use of it."

"Oh, so you're using it to find your friends just like me!" Sora smiled as he jogged to keep up with her. "It can be used for good!"

Yuffie scoffed. "I'm not using it to find my friends, kid, I'm using my darkness to find him and get rid of him for good. Do what you want with your own."

Something Sora could not remember, because he hadn't seen it, was Pain and Panic, who had their backs leaned against the wall of a large entryway for the big monsters, all of whom were not allowed in the preliminaries.

"Hades said to l-let out Cerberus but w-why?!" Panic moaned in worry, shivering as he stared up at the beast that waited to be let out. "Doesn't he want that Sora kid alive?!"

"This isn't about him, it's about that girl he's with!" Pain explained. "Hades chose her a long time ago to be the one to kill Hercules and he apparently knew she'd grow stronger in the darkness after talking to some other god, or maybe it wasn't a god, I don't know, just a super powerful guy! Now… he's gotta see if she's got the stuff to take on a demi-god…"

"S-So…?"

"Let him at them!"

The two unleashed Cerberus only to get trampled by him in the process.

Yuffie gasped in shock before she quickly shoved Sora behind her. "Stay back, Sora!"

Sora could only stare up in shock at the large beast that loomed towards them.

"I need you to get someone named Hercules to help me out! He's in the coliseum, go! Don't be stupid and try to help me!" The ninja yelled. She radiated darkness and flew into action.

While Sora ran to get help, knowing he couldn't defeat that thing with only him and Yuffie alone, the girl threw out ninja stars that stabbed each of Cerberus' many eyes, blinding it entirely.

It tried to swipe at her but the darkness empowered her speed and helped her to jump right on top of the paw instead. She took off the shuriken from her back before throwing it out. She grabbed onto the chain that came out of the end, letting the blades wrap around the beast's legs before it locked with the chain, ensnaring it. She used all the strength she had, plus what the darkness had given her to finally stop the beast from moving.

"Hold on!" Hercules yelled, running out into the arena. He quickly grabbed the beast and was able to push it back into its cage before locking it.

"Yuffie! Are you okay?!" Sora asked, running to her. She gave him a thumbs up before putting her hands on her knees, panting heavily as the glow vanished from her.

"Are you alright, miss?" Hercules asked, walking up to the two. "You handled Cerberus incredibly well."

"Yeah…! We can… take him down easy together!" Yuffie breathed. "How did that thing get out anyway?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm going to tell Phil and we'll get it back to the Underworld where it belongs." The hero assured her before running back into the coliseum.

As soon as he was gone, Yuffie and Sora heard a loud clap and turned to see Hades walking to them. "Nice work there, shorty. Sora, you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks to Yuffie!" Sora grinned. "Did you see her fight?"

"Aw, no, missed it." Hades lied through his teeth, ignoring Yuffie as he walked to the boy, summoning a dark corridor behind him. "Unfortunately though, kiddos, it's time to say goodbye. Sora and I've got some people to find."

Sora nodded eagerly and then looked to Yuffie. "Thanks for taking me through the prelims, even if we got into a lotta trouble at the end. I hope you find your friends!"

"Same to you." Yuffie smiled weakly.

"Pain, Panic, lead Sora back to Hallow Bastion safely." Hades demanded. He smiled to Sora. "They're creatures of darkness so stick with them unless you wanna die in there."

Sora nodded before the two pulled him in by each hand. "Okay, but I'll see you soon, ri-?"

The portal closed once they'd entered, leaving Hades to turn to Yuffie, and make their deal.

In the lab near the top of the many basements, Vexen was about to check on Xion's progress when Zexion suddenly appeared before him from a dark corridor.

"Master!" Vexen gasped in surprise. He smiled faintly. "What are you doing here? I thought you were observing the hero of light…!"

Xaldin came in from the other room and quickly realized what was going to happen. He walked up to the two and wondered if he'd have to intervene.

"I was… but then I detected a new visitor down below, someone who's accompanying Sora through his memories." Zexion replied calmly, narrowing his eyes. "You wouldn't happen to know about it…. would you, Vexen?"

Vexen squirmed slightly. "I…"

"Strangely enough, it took me a while to detect this person, because it's barely a presence at all. It feels hollow, and yet it feels like an extension of our Hero of Darkness…"

Vexen bowed his head but Zexion grabbed him by the chin and forced him to look up. "You disobeyed me…"

Xaldin put a hand on Zexion's shoulder with a slight glare. "Release him. Let the boy explain."

Zexion did so, and Vexen stumbled back slightly before looking up. "Forgive me, Master, I know I disobeyed but… look."

The apprentice showed his master all his notes on his creation up on the big screen, along with theories and current observations.

"There's no going back now." Zexion only muttered after reading through. "For your sake, you should hope it becomes the perfect copy by the time it reaches us, otherwise we will have to deal with the real thing."

"... Though it has already begun, I shall try to quicken its progress the best I can…"

Sora opened his eyes to see someone fighting Cerberus… with his sword. The black blur defeated the creature like she'd done so a thousand times, even though it was her first time encountering the thing.

He sat up in surprise and watched as Xion gracefully defeated the beast, landing gently on the ground in front of him after it fell and then disappeared. Sora could sense Darkness on her, was it possible she also knew how to go into a dark form like he did?

"Sora, you're alright…" Xion sighed in relief, helping him up.

"That was amazing! Where'd you learn to do that?!" Sora asked. He then raised an eyebrow. "And how'd you get my sword?"

"Hm?" Xion glanced down and it was as if she hadn't noticed it herself. "Oh..!"

The sword vanished from her hands and back into Sora's.

"It's okay, I just think it's cool you can wield it too!" Sora smiled. "Maybe I rubbed off on you, plus this is my memory."

"Maybe..." Xion whispered, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

Sora wondered what she was thinking but eventually just grinned back when she said nothing more. The two walked together out of the world and into a marble hallway.

"It was a long fight, but at least we're one step closer to getting to my friends!" The boy cheered.

Xion blinked in confusion. "... Friends?"

Sora looked back. "Kairi and Riku. They're my friends!"

The girl still looked unsure.

"Do you… not know what friends are…?" Sora asked in shock.

"I will know… once you tell me." The girl whispered back, placing her hands behind her back.

Sora thought for a moment of his own friends. He smiled. "Well… they're people who you've felt like you've known all your life, even if you haven't, like you guys were destined to meet! They like you for who you are, but still allow you to change… Friends are always there for each other too, whenever you need a laugh, or someone to listen to you, or even just to hang around in silence…."

"Do you think… we could be friends?"

Sora looked back in surprise that she had asked to be friends with him, she'd seen the darkness engulf him, and the monsters that his memories made, and didn't mind them at all... "Yeah, I'd really like that!"

And with that, Xion had gained her first true friend.