Hey everyone,
Like I said, this chapter is probably going to be pretty short. I'm not really going to describe the whole Hercules Cup, just a quick summary of the fight against Cloud and the fight against Hercules. Of course, I'm going to try and be more specific and detail-oriented when it comes to the cutscene that follows beating Hercules, but that's just details. After that, we'll jump over to Traverse Town and Sora's flashback and then
The day ends,

Venquine1990

Chapter 56
One Last Short Trip

31st of January 1996
The Viewing Room
Sirius' POV

I sigh and ask: "Let me guess? This is the end and tomorrow we're going to watch you guys head for Hollow Bastion to save Riku and Kairi as well as any of the other Princesses?" But my son winces and then I see that the movie is still going. The movie shows the same screen as the other times that Sora, Donald and Goofy are talking while inside the Gummi Ship. First it shows Donald at the top of the screen and he says:
"Well, we found the Navi-Gummi piece. Let's go back to town." His face disappears and Sora's appears, but then in the bottom right corner, while Donald was up in the top left. "Cid'll install it on the ship once we bring it to him." I grimace as I turn to look at Jessica. The girl is twitching and twisting in her seat, clearly annoyed that she is going to have to wait even longer until she can get to see Lea again.
I pity her as she obviously tries to focus on the movie, where Chip and Dale announce another tournament taking place in the Coliseum, again with a great reward for the winner. Sora, Donald and Goofy nod at each other and set off. They arrive at the Coliseum and tell Phil that they're here to do the Hercules Cup together. For the first four seeds, things go smoothly, yet then, at seed 5, they run into Cloud again.

I feel amazed and impressed at how well my younger son now holds up against the grown up man and how he uses some of his new techniques, including the one he learned at the end of the Hook battle that is apparently called Ars Arcanum, to defeat him. After this the three face another few seeds full of Heartless, before Hercules steps up and challenges Sora. "Show me what you've got." Yet to this Sora astounds me as he says:
"Hercules, wait. Let's go one-on-one." Jessica turns to her brother and asks: "You had no idea who you were going up against, did you?" Her brother laughs and tells her that he didn't find out until a few months ago, during his third visit to Olympus. "Oh, brother. What a show-off." Donald grumbles and Jessica snorts in disbelief at this before Goofy asks: "What're we gonna do?" I grin in pride of Sora as Donald concedes with the words:

"Let him go alone, I guess." Goofy wishes his best friend good luck and the two head for the stands. Yet for some reason, while the lot were talking, Phil has set a whole set of barrels in the arena. And when Herc and Sora step into the ring, it becomes clear why pretty quick. Hercules actually draws out an aura that surrounds him and makes him invincible to hits. Yet Sora quickly deduces that the barrels are meant to prevent this.
And each time Sora runs for the barrels and away from Herc, he asks: "Hey, you giving up yet?" Only for the young hero to get hit on the head with a barrel thrown by Sora. The barrel somehow makes the aura recedes and Sora makes ample use of the fact that the barrels hit Hercules hard enough to make him look dazed for a few moments. Yet Hercules also gets more than enough chances to hit Sora and the boy makes full use of his Cure spell.
And just like when they were battling the Heartless before their fight with Hook, Sora manages to learn another upgraded version of the Cure spell as he suddenly calls out Curaga. Then, after one last barrel and one last Strike Raid, Hercules suddenly stops fighting. His aura remains off and Sora's eyes widen as he realizes what this means. Hercules smiles and then plucks a shield off his back that he throws at Goofy, who catches it while shocked.

Phil directs the three up to the same point where they got their last trophy and this time he hands them a huge golden one that has Herc's symbol on the front. Sora happily takes the trophy and excitedly holds it above his head as he shouts: "We're the champs!" And even Phil starts to dance to express his pride and delight. Then the camera turns black and when it refocuses on Hercules, he shouts: "Wow! And I didn't even hold back!"
And yet throughout the battle I had noticed that, a few times, Sora looked ready to give up, only to send a quick glance at his friends. And when the boy says: "Now I finally know what you mean about strength of heart. Mine comes from Donald and Goofy" I smile as it's obvious that the boy has learned the value of his friendship with the two others. My young son in the room quickly reassures his mate, yet his mate just smiles at him in grateful acceptance.
Phil, on the other hand, seems completely befuddled as he asks the question Come again? Sora seems slightly oblivious to the fact that he got Phil's lesson completely wrong as he just continues: "If we stick together, we're unbeatable. Not even Hercules stands a chance. With these guys beside me, I'm ready for anything!" The young Longbottom Heir cringes at this and the wince looks like a warning for what's yet to come. This worries me about the rest of the movie.

"But that's not exactly what I - -." Phil tries to argue, yet Hercules seems too proud of Sora to break the moment. Instead he picks up the little satyr guy and says: "Of course. Your friends give you strength. Isn't that right, Phil? The three of you together make great heroes. And as a team, I'm sure you can overcome anything." And as he says this, he and Sora slam their hands together, both of them with large grins on their faces.
Yet suddenly it almost seems as if some of Herc's strength transfers itself into Sora's hand before both of Sora's hands turn yellow. The same happens to Donald and Goofy and Goofy exclaims that it has to be another Trinity power. Donald turns to the large stone slab that no one had been able to push aside, but Sora instead turns to the chest on the other side of the room. Hercules smiles and says that it was magically sealed for the winner of the Hercules cup.

Sora opens it with great excitement and inside he finds a gold coin that also has Herc's symbol on it dangling from a Keychain. Sora equips it and the wooden Keyblade turns into one made of thick white and grey stone as well as bits of gold and Hercules' name carved into one side of the blade. Then the three use their new power to push the slab to the side and to my shock, this reveals a Keyhole that Sora is quick to close with his new Keyblade.
Phil happily tells them that there might be a few more cups coming up later and the trio take their leave. They head back to Traverse Town through the Warp Drive and head for Cid. The man is still standing in front of the market stall like when the trio left and he instantly seems to know what they came to see him for as he smirks and states: "Hey, got another navigation gummi there, eh? I'll bet you want it installed."
Sora confirms this with a soft Yeah, please and Cid replies: "Okay, wait here. I'll get it installed right now." And while Sora, Donald and Goofy had used the barrels to get to the platform the market stall was set on, Cid takes the long way across the staircases that surround his former shop. Sora turns to watch him leave and then Donald calls out to him before Goofy says: "Now, just remember what Donald said to yah: no frowning, no sad faces." And when the camera focuses on Sora, he has his head tilted low and his eyes closed sadly.

The boy looks up and sounds desperate and confused as he asks: "How can you be so cheerful? There's still no sign of your king. Aren't you worried?" Jessica sighs and mumbles that her brother is just like her, that there really is only so much a person can take. All three of us agree with this, while Donald replies to Sora's question with a strange word. Aw, phooey. Goofy decides to elaborate and happily tells Sora:
"The king told us to go out and find the key bearer, and we found you. So as long as we stick together, it'll all work out okay. Ya just gotta believe in yourself, that's all." Sora repeats the two words Just believe… and closes his eyes. The camera twists around my son from his left side to slightly above and behind him. And as this happens, Kairi's voice echoes from somewhere and firmly states: "I believe in you." Before the screen turns white.
My eyes, my daughter's and the eyes of my son-by-bond all widen and the next screen shows Sora – or what I can only assume is a mental version of Sora somewhere deep inside his mind or heart – floating through a tunnel made of black with lots of golden lights that erupt from a point in the upper right corner of the screen. "You connected your heart with Kairi's." The eldest of the teen mumbles and his mate shrugs as he replies that it was done entirely accidental.

Then, once Sora has reached the other side of the tunnel, he seems to have entered the library of some ancient looking place. There is a table set underneath a circular staircase and a woman who looks to be Minerva's age, but then with much more grey hair sits at the table. A young girl that looks strangely familiar runs to the old lady as Sora's voice echoes. "Where am I?" The camera focuses on the old lady with dark blue eyes as she speaks:
"Long ago, the people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of the light. Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything and the world disappeared.
But small fragments of light survived … in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return. So, listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you.

Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away. Do you understand, Kairi?" Instantly I realize why the girl looked familiar and Sora seems to realize the same as he calls her name. But in that moment the old lady, who I assume is Kairi's grandmother, disappears and the girl starts to look around confused. Sora tries to reach out, but he gets pulled back into the tunnel.
With his eyes wide and his mouth open, Sora returns from his little trip inside either his own mind or heart. "What's the matter?" Goofy asks, obviously unaware of what his friend just went through. "Um, nothing. Kairi … did you call me?" The last question is asked softly. At that moment Cid returns to his spot and says: "I installed that navigation gummi. But, ya know? That place is crawling with Heartless. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Sora lets out a soft sound of confusion and Cid states: "Here, take this along." And he hands Sora another Gummi piece, which Sora instantly asks him to install as well. The man grins and tells him that he will do it free of charge, but just this one time. Again the friends are left waiting on the spot and I can easily see that Sora's mind is on the mental trip he just took. After this and a bit of shopping the team heads out.

The movie stops just as Sora and the others leave Traverse Town for the Gummi ship and I lean back in relief. Yet that relief is short lived as I realize that, at most, I'll only catch a short break before we get the climax of the movie. And seeing all that we have seen so far as well as all the hints that my son and his mate have been dropping, my heart feels weighted with concern over the confrontations that we will surely see happen tomorrow.
Because of this, I decide to just distract myself the best way I can. And because I know that Jessica is getting anxious for Lea's return the other day, I put my full focus on her and my family for the rest of the day. To my daughter's relief, the whole movie took the better part of the day and there's only three more hours till dinner. Yet during dinner, Sora and I both have to keep her from choking as she tries to gulp her food down without chewing.
And when, at around eight thirty, the girl kisses and hugs all three of us before she dashes up to her room, I sigh as I know that I did everything I could to help her. Riku also seems somewhat annoyed and I'm sure it's his inner alpha that has yet to determine if Lea really is worthy of the only female in the pack. For a short moment I wonder what is going to be more emotionally epic; the final parts of the movie – or the fight between Riku and Lea?

We'll have to see,
Yeah, I'm ending this thing on a bit of a cliffhanger. But don't you guys worry, I've been working up to this part of the story for some time now. To be honest, sometimes there were moments that I was so excited for the upcoming chapters, that I could barely focus on the current chapters. I know that doesn't sound like it makes a lot of sense, but I don't really care. I'm just glad that I finally got to this point. Because now
The fun begins,

Venquine1990