Hello again! Back to continue writing this and my Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic story, but honestly updates are going to be slow as I am now juggling school and filming projects that I created for class and all that. Anyway, I do have something new to say if you read my RWBY stories. I am taking a loooong break from them, I haven't been able to get into it as of late so my passion dried up.

Reviews for this and my Star Wars story are much appreciated (please only constructive criticism)!

All credit to respective owners!

-Y.A.R.N.

P.S. Edited (slightly)

"Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games. Furthermore -" Phil was reciting from a scroll as Hercules stood at his side.

"Hey! What do you mean 'Junior Heroes'?" Donald shouted indignantly.

Phil waved a hand in a dismissive manner, "You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero."

Goofy blinked, "So what does it take?"

Hercules smiled, "Well, that's just something that you'll have to find out for yourselves. Just the way that I did."

Sora thumped his chest and grinned, "No problem! We'll start by proving ourselves in the games!"

I smirked at Sora's enthusiasm, "Just you guys wait, we'll sweep the entire thing, no sweat."

Phil shook his head, "There ain't gonna be any games for a while. Gotta clean up the mess from that last battle first."

I sighed but tilted my head in acceptance, "Oh well."

Sora followed up with a cheerful, "Okay. We'll be back."

We left the coliseum to see Cloud sitting on the steps that led to the gummi ship, apparently lost in thought. In all honesty? He looked a bit sad and definitely gloomy after all the trouble he had apparently been put through by Hades.

Sora approached and asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

He looked up and replied with a simple, "Yeah."

Sora seemed to hesitate but pressed on, "So why did you go along with him, anyway?"

I bobbed my head to accentuate the point, "Sora's right, I was a bit thrown by how conveniently he just happened to have a pass for us."

Sora shrugged.

"I should have probably thought about it rather than just accepted it." I muttered to myself.

Cloud steepled his fingers and then lowered his face to his his lips behind his hand, pausing as though to gather his thoughts, "I'm looking for someone." He explained quietly, "Hades promised to help."

We all were quiet as that, a soft understanding passing between us as we knew exactly why he would be willing to make a deal.

We were looking for people too, after all.

He sat up and continued, "I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired."He looked up at the sky, "I fell into darkness, and I couldn't find the light."

Sora piped in confidently, "You'll find it. I'm searching, too."

"For your light?" Cloud inquired softly.

I smiled somewhat softly, somewhat sadly and exhaled in a short sigh while Sora nodded once, as both an an agreement to my emotions and and answer to Cloud's inquiry.

He nodded at that and walked up to Sora and me, reaching out with a hand and dropping something that glowed into Sora and my hands, "Don't lose sight of it."

Sora turned as he walked towards the coliseum and waved a hand, "How about a rematch sometime? Fair and square, no dark powers involved."

Cloud stopped and ran a hand through his hair, smirking, "I think I'll pass."

I looked at the item he dropped into my hand and saw it was a sphere of glowing blue light. I tilted my head and closed my hand around it, only for it to melt into nothingness in my hand. I stiffened as images of the lancing technique Cloud had used against us flooded into my mind. Sonic Blade. Everything was there; the mechanics of the energy input and footwork, how to focus it for the final strike of Blast, how many strikes it could be adapted to, and how we could continually improve it so long as we kept practicing at it. It was barely even a split-second but I knew that I could use it as though I had been using it all my life.

I turned to Sora and he was also shaking his head rapidly like a dog that was trying to shake off any wetness on it.

"Did you...?" I trailed off as I inquired.

He nodded, "Yeah, I know how to use Sonic Blade!"

I turned to give Cloud a very heartfelt thanks, but he had already vanished. Resigning myself - promising to thank him when I ran across him later - with a sigh, I looked away.

Hopefully it wouldn't be too long.

To be honest, the first thing I did when we got back to the gummi ship was lay down and catch a nap. I kicked off my shoes and shrugged out of my jacket and shirt. I had been awake and working for a while, and while potions and ethers could keep my body energized, my mind needed time to relax. I couldn't keep trucking on and on without some time to rest otherwise my thought processes and logic would begin to short circuit. When it came to fighting entities of darkness that had probably existed long before I'd been alive? I had to make sure I was at one-hundred percent as often as possible. Adrenaline could only do so much after all to keep me focus while on my feet. Now that I thought about it, it was straight from training in the coliseum to participating in the tournament to fighting Cerberus.

I sighed and closed my eyes.

I passed out almost immediately.

I woke to Goofy shaking my shoulder, "Niji? Time to get up."

I grumbled, "Quit it...Five more minutes..."

He let out a small chuckle but persisted, "Nope, we're getting to the next world."

I sighed and stretched as I reached out for my clothes before realizing something as I stared at my jacket which was streaked with dust from the coliseum and several tears that had been made when we had been fighting. I needed a shower as well.

To be frank, I probably needed new clothes.

"Hey Goofy?" I said as I slid my shoes on.

"Yeah?"

"Do we have a washing machine or something?" I asked, realizing that my clothes probably hadn't been washed in what must've been days, "I think my clothes are in desperate need of attention."

He blinked and turned to me, "I never told you about the slot for clothes?"

He turned and pointed at a panel in the wall that was a different color than the rest of the walls. He walked over and pulled it open to show a hatch that seemed to lead into the bowels of the ship.

"Throw them in and they'll come out in a bit." He instructed, "Good as new."

"I guess I have to wait until after this world, then I can enjoy fresh clothing again..." I sighed.

Walking up to the cockpit the first thing I head was Donald and Sora looking at the next world.

And the beginning of a heated argument

"The king in a backwater place like that?" The sorcerer scoffed, "Forget it! Let's just move on!"

"Riku and Kairi, could be there! Let's at least check it out!" Sora insisted.

"We're on an important mission!" Donald quacked.

"Just land!" Sora growled.

"No!"

"What's is going on?" I demanded, quickly interposing myself between Donald and Sora before the argument seemed to get to a boiling point.

Sora turned to me, frustration burning in his eyes, "I want to check out the next world to see if Riku and Kairi are on it! Donald wants to skip it because he doesn't think that the king is there!"

Donald also looked at me, "We have to find the king! We can't afford to waste time!"

I sighed and turned to Donald, "I get that Donald. Really, I do."

Sora opened his mouth, looking betrayed, but I sent him a sharp look to let me finish.

"But we are also looking our friends and need to find them." I said, pleading with the duck to get just how worried we were, "Please try to understand that Donald. I am not saying we aren't going to look for the king, but we can't just skip over worlds that might have our friends on it! I'm pretty sure the king is equipped to deal with any trouble, but none of our friends are! Besides, we should at least try to find this world's keyhole, right? Wouldn't the king rather the worlds be safer rather than skip over any world leaving it to be devoured by the heartless just because we were impatient?"

Donald did look conflicted at that, "But what if he needs our help? We don't even know that this world's keyhole is unsecured, it might be fine!"

I frowned, beginning to understand why Sora was getting mad, "What if our friends need ours?! I don't want to lessen how important your mission is, but you said we could look for our friends too! Besides, you don't know if the world's keyhole isn't fine!"

Sora had decided enough was enough though and walked over to the control panel and began pressing buttons that looked like they might get us to land, "We're landing, now!"

"Hey don't touch that!" Donald yelled.

I yelped in surprise as the ship listed and began to dive towards the planet while spinning. Despite floating in the free fall, Goofy managed to reach the control panel and slapped a hand down on a button.

Light filled the cockpit and there was the telltale sound of teleportation.

When the light had faded, I opened my eyes to find myself in free-fall.

I screamed as I fell from the sky towards what looked like a massive forest that was beneath me. I flailed wildly and saw Sora next to me as we spiraled towards the ground and tried to find a way to keep from crashing. Unfortunately, we didn't know anything that would help and crashed right through the roof of a large treehouse that was where we landed. We both sat there, groaning in pain as we tried to blink the stars from our eyes and figure out where we were.

"Ow... my head..." Sora groaned as he rubbed where he had hit his skull.

Fortunately, we weren't hurt too badly but I didn't want to take a chance with a new world, I summoned my keyblade, and weakly whispered, "Cure."

A soft green glow flashed over the two of us - soothing away the lingering aches - and we looked around as we felt better.

"Donald?" Sora said quietly, "Goofy?"

Just then there was a near silent creak followed by a loud roar from above and we both turned to see a leopard lunging at us from an upper balcony. We both threw ourselves sideways as it landed, snarling at the both of us as we materialized our keyblades. It lunged Sora and smacked him with a paw, sending him tumbling into the treehouse wall even with his keyblade held up in guard. It spun on its haunches and launched itself at me and I jabbed my keyblade and jumped back at it as the cat tried to clamp its jaws on my neck. It twisted around the attack and slid into me, knocking me on the floor as I frantically rolled away and swiped with keyblade, catching it in the chin and forcing it to hop back. It landed and made to chase after me, but two fireballs exploded on its skin and it tumbled to the side and it crashed into the wall.

Sora was on his feet and twirled his smoking keyblade in his hand before getting in his stance, "Payback sucks! Doesn't it?"

I smirked at him and struck with Zantetsuken just as the leopard straightened to its feet and made to dash at us once again. It yowled as it was sent sliding back after being struck squarely in the face. I leapt back and brandished my keyblade. While we put on a good front of being brave, I knew that I - personally - was more than a bit scared of this animal. The jungle cat's fangs were more than long enough to rip out a good chunk of meat it managed to bite us, and it's claws were razor sharp and could slice into us with very little difficulty. I may be a person with a keyblade, but it was only a single weapon and while it was an amazing weapon and I was stronger than I ever could have imagined with it...

I was still a relatively normal human and just as susceptible to what would kill someone as any other person.

The leopard left no more time to my musing as it snarled and leapt.

I waved my keyblade in a wide arc to fend off the rush and backed away in order to gain some room. I wasn't going to let this thing get too close. Apparently, Sora wasn't going to stay on the defensive and rushed in, swiping his keyblade at the overgrown cat. It spun and slashed at Sora, slapping the weapon away from its body with its claws. I rushed in to help but the cat twisted and leapt out of the way, landing with incredibly grace to face us snarling. I fired a sphere of flame at it, hoping to drive it away and discourage any further thoughts to attack. It leapt away, deftly dodging the fire as it landed a good three feet away and began to slowly slink around us teeth bared. We mirrored the movement, keyblades raised in case it decided to rush us and we had to defend ourselves. It snarled and dashed at us, it's claws slipping out from its paws and ready to slash. Sora and I dived apart and half-turned as we pointed our weapons and called out our spells.

"Fire!" I shouted.

"Thunder!" Sora called.

The fireball collided with the leopard sending it stumbling to the side only to be electrocuted by lightning raining down from the heavens. It yowled in pain and staggered away, eyes wide with fury and pain. Sora and I traded a glance and threw our keyblades in a synchronized Strike Raid, hitting the leopard and knocking it to the floor and hopefully knocking it out cold.

We carefully approached, not wanting to assume we were clear until we were at least out of the treehouse. We had barely moved within five feet when the leopard jolted up and tackled the both of us, sending us skidding back and onto our butts. I paled as its fury was almost palpable and raised my keyblade in a haphazard defense, I was sure it would leap on me and tear out my guts, but its eyes drifted to Sora who was watching in a horrified state of shock.

Sora blinked as he realized what the cat was doing and raised his keyblade in a hand, but the leopard was already lunging towards him.

Just then a blur of pink and brown landed in front of Sora and intercepted the cat. The blur turned out to be a person, or rather a wild-looking man. He had tangled brown hair in what seemed to be dreadlocks and was bare except for a ragged brown loincloth that was covering his modesty. He had caught the cat's jaws on a simple wooden spear that he was using and only struggled with a scowl on his face for a moment before he twisted and shoved his spear with a grunt of exertion sent the cat sliding away from Sora and towards the middle of the treehouse. The cat seemed to think that the odds were now bit too unfair and it simply hissed at us before it quickly darted away - crashing through a window - before the man could attack.

I sighed and the man looked over to us before he approached me and inspected me before going and doing the same to Sora.

"Sabor, danger." He said.

"Thanks for the help." I said, tilting my head at Sora.

Sora nodded, "Yeah, thank you."

"Thank you..." The man said slowly, as though testing the way it rolled off his tongue.

I blinked and decided to forge on, "Um... where is this place?"

"This place, this place." He said simply.

I turned to Sora with a helpless look and Sora shrugged and moved forward, "So...where are the others?"

The man stared blankly at us and I scratched the back of my head, before trying something that was probably stupid, "We. Look. For. Friends." I said, trying to use my hands to accentuate the actions.

"Right!" Sora followed my lead, "Friends. Riku. Kairi. Goofy... Donald."

I frowned as Sora seemed to hesitate to add the duck sorcerer, but I knew he was still upset with Donald. Heck I was still upset with how stubborn he had been, but Sora hadn't been any better, he just rushed to the controls while I decided to try to reason and not hit any buttons on a spaceship in space.

I sighed and ignored the hitch in his words as the man spoke, "Riku, Kairi, Goofy, Donald. Friends?"

I nodded eagerly, "Yes. Friends!"

I noticed Sora seemed to be shocked and was staring out the window as though he saw a ghost and I gently patted his shoulder, "Sora?"

He blinked and turned to me, "What?"

"You okay?"

He turned to the window and stared for a second before sighing, "Um... yeah. I'm good."

"Friends here." The man said.

We both turned to him, not bothering to hide our hopeful expressions.

"Really?" Sora inquired excitedly.

"Where?" I followed.

He let out a series of grunts like a monkey twice over before saying, "Friends here."

"Um..." I was a bit lost at that last part but continued, "Show us?"

"Tarzan." The man pointed at himself, "Tarzan go."

I nodded and pointed at myself, "Niji."

Sora repeated the gesture and said, "I'm Sora."