Mikenno says:

And we're back! Olympus Colliseum part 2. Isn't it weird that Coliseum is spelled wrong with two Ls? The game is that way.

I think this'll be a short chapter. I don't really have much left to emphasize on... It's gonna be sooo boring. But if you want, skim and skip to the end. T.T I wouldn't blame you.

The Kingdom Hearts II OST is really awesome. It's such an inspiration. Can't wait till March! Also, Sarah McLachlan's "Train Wreck" is a nice song. Anyway... Story. Riiiight.

Olympus Colliseum II

I couldn't remember much the following day. I laid in my bed, stared at the ceiling, and my brain kept asking why I was still alive. I had no answer for it. I still don't and never will. By all means, Leon and Cloud should have killed me that day and my body was justifying it by aching as much as humanly possible. I was bruised, distorted, and pretty pissed off. They hadn't even come to check on me that morning and my mind was boiling with dirty remarks.

When the door did open, a completely new face appeared through it. The man was tall, buff, and had orange hair. Handsome and carried himself well, he graced into the room with a sheepish smile and a hand behind his head. "Hello."

"Hi," I cocked a brow at him. He pulled up a chair beside the bed and sat down as I sat up. "Who're you?" I asked, figuring I had a right to.

"Oh! Right, sorry. My name is Hercules." He held out his hand. I took it and winced at the strong grip he had. He pulled it back and nodded; I twitched my arm back to my side, hand regaining blood. "Uhm... I heard you're going to be the one to save Sora."

"Well," I felt my sarcasm rising, my fuming rage ready to present its ugly form but fighting itself to the dirt. "I was told I'm going to fight Sora. I don't see how beating him up saves him, but okay!" I slid back into the bed and flattened my face to match my demeanor and the ceiling. Hercules seemed nervous around me for such a strong-looking guy.

"Well, whatever it is, I hope it helps him," Thanks, Herc. You made me feel better, I thought cynically. I should've given him a break but I was still mad at the sword flailing duo for not doing the same for me. "I watched your fight yesterday. You held a lot better than I did against those two the first time." I'll give him this: He did boost my confidence on that one. I turned to give him an eye. "Really! You did."

"Why are you here?" I found myself asking. Hercules fumbled on the question and knew it was time to get to the point. He smiled.

"Well, I did want to thank you, for one. I... spoke with Sora. He fought me and lost, but I really had to struggle with him. But when he talked, I knew that wasn't the real him." I nearly threw myself forward off the bed. I heard my back crack and the pain shook through my entire body but that wonderful, wonderful sentence made me ignore it.

"Really! You don't think - !"

Hercules shook his head. "Sora... was definitely not a good person at the time." My shoulders sagged; I was clearly ready to be disappointed again. "But something in his eyes was screaming for help. It was disturbing, to be honest."

Actually, I didn't know how to feel then. Hercules managed to suppress my emotions into a puddle of goop on the floor. Why was I always in a position where I was destined to be confused? Of course, I couldn't answer that for myself. I tried changing the subject to the best of my abilities, redirecting the conversation to a more... less depressing topic.

"What happened yesterday?" I asked the gentle brute. He smiled again, which made me nervous. He stalled in his reply, undoubtedly trying to find the proper way to tell me how badly I got my ass beaten without hurting my feelings. "Give it to me straight." I grunted to save him the strain.

He nodded and his smile died a little from the inside. "Well," he began, still attempting to be optimistic for my sake. I already knew how much of a failure I had been but it was a nice gesture anyway.

Riku stalled in his step when he saw the two pairs of blades aiming right for his head. Neither Leon nor Cloud had intended to go easy on him, which Riku entirely believed otherwise was what was going to happen. His emerald eyes skewered the arena for a place to run but it didn't really matter when both men were on top of him. With a cry the boy dove off to the side, clutching his only protection in his fist: the keyblade.

"What the HELL!" He yelled at them from the ground, rising from his dodge with scraped palms and pants torn at the knees. "Are you trying to kill me!"

"The Heartless will be!" Leon ran forward, swiping his sword but not fast enough for Riku to not defend himself. The 16 year old threw his bar up and tried to push back against his power. "They won't take it easy on you!" Riku twisted his blade over Leon's and thrusted him off, a strong leap back throwing him right out of the ring. The fight wasn't to stop with him being out of bounds. "The Heartless will use any means to destroy you!" Leon took a slamming step forward but much to Riku's dismay, Cloud had snuck up beside him.

"Sora..." Riku's eyes widened, neck twisting toward him. "Will not hesitate to destroy you." That was all it took before Cloud smashed the handle of his blade right into Riku's jaw. The teenager soared like the wind, blood painting itself into the flickering silver hair tangling in his eyelashes. He smashed into the side of the arena and laid half unconscious on the ground. Cloud spat at the dirt and casually brought himself to hover over his fallen body. "You'd be dead right now if we weren't trying to train you."

The hair fell away in chunks from his eye, the blood binding the strands together. Blood shot and angry, it glared up at the blonde, which caused him to grab his head as he had before the fight. Leon jumped down beside him and rested a hand on his arm, only to get slapped away in response. Riku rose to his feet and watched the two of them have a silent argument. He climbed back in the ring and blew out the blood from his mouth.

"Come on! We haven't got all day!" Riku yelled out and started toward the center of the ring. Not liking to be challenged by someone he just practically defeated, Cloud was the first to charge after him. The out cry of rage left straggling in echoes was enough to let Riku turn around just in time to start striking back. Sparks were flying, the metal clashing similar to the amplified sounds of women screaming in torture. The glare in Riku's eyes was more powerful than his blade, obstructing Cloud's steps enough to have him struck down by the sixteen year old.

Leon tagged himself in and with his own grace and speed took over for his partner. Riku, though just barely, was keeping up. Leon narrowed his eyes to see Riku's have an eerie glow as he fought and knew silently it was time to end it.

He threw Riku's balance off with a strong uppercut of his sword and ran off to the other side of the arena. Cloud was already standing there in preparation. Riku could only stare in wonder and prepared to have them rush at him again.

Then came the red and orange glow around Cloud and the crystal blue shine surrounding Leon and he knew immediately something else was about to go down.

"Omnislash!" Cloud snapped forward.

"Lion Heart!" Leon dashed ahead.

"...And their swords went insane on you. It was amazing!" I gave him the most annoyed look I could manage and when he apologized, I was glad it sufficed to shut him up. "But you didn't die?"

"If it makes you feel better to say that," I gave shortly and curled back onto my bed like a sick, lonely child. Hercules rested his giant hand on my small head and patted it as gently as he could.

"It does," He chuckled. "Because now you can be a hero where I can't, Riku." I closed my eyes when I felt a tingle in my cheeks. My throat burned and squeezed itself, twisting around and around till it ringed all the moisture out through my eyes. I slid my arm across the bed till my face was covered.

The following day was gifted with recovery and cursed with rebound, for I found myself right back into Cloud and Leon's hands. I on one side, them on the other. It was starting to look like a repeat. Day after day I stood on that ground and they stood on theirs and we'd cross our borders and destroy what the other half had. But what I felt was repetition... was actually quite the contrary.

The third, fourth, fifth time was much less straining than its predecessors. My feet felt less like boulders as time passed us in the dust and the wind, the keyblade's weight as comparable to a feather than the ton of steel it had once been. The more I challenged my limits and faced my reasonable doubts, the more I found myself to be much more powerful than I imagined. It was a burning sensation in my heart, almost hot enough to actually seethe my soul and make me curl over in agony. I found myself mostly laughing at my random weakness eating me from inside. It wasn't a problem for me, I thought. I was a god before these men. Or I would at least soon become one.

The final day's end hit the horizon in the form of orange skies and singing crickets, drifting milk clouds and the fleeting sun. I was to learn that there would be no fighting that day when it began and I'd actually come face to face with the initial hatred I had for that world. It was time to talk, not battle.

Cloud and I sat outside the arena in a grass patch not too far off, staring at the time flow by. I was almost sure he didn't have anything realistically important to say to me so I was beginning to shift in my seat as I felt my day being wasted. His foggy blue eyes turned my direction and gazed over me like a painting in a museum. His lips parted and I was almost surprised to see he had lips. It was the first time I noticed them beyond his hair and eyeballs and the giant friggin' sword he had.

"I'll be blunt," he said, as if he had never been straightforward with me before. It was almost insulting. "The image... the presentation you set forth, anyway..." So much for being blunt. He was sawing away at my skin and was ready to hit the bone, just not before I bled to death. "You carry a contorted and endless darkness, Riku. A darkness that just looking into your eyes," He did so for a moment, a mutual awkward silence tightening around our necks. It didn't take him long to get sick of my face and spin his face in the other direction. "Fogs my mind and steps on my spirit. I can't even think."

The memories of Cloud stumbling on two separate occasions suddenly became clear to me. Whatever darkness he was talking about, which gave me a grasping, unnerving feeling in my intestines, had jarred him enough to malfunction even in a battle. The more I contemplated it, however, the harder I had to ward off a laugh boiling up inside. It was inevitable and caught looked completely offended for that instant.

"Darkness?" I chuckled. "The Hell are you on about? I'm obviously not evil or anything. I'm trying to save Sora!" I shook my head, resting it on my knees. "Jeez." Cloud tapped his fingers on his own knee, befallen to silence. I felt I had finally won a battle until he opened his mouth again.

"I... know darkness," Wasn't the last thing I expected to hear but it did surprise me anyway. "You don't understand anything. (I started to object.) You don't!" He brushed his golden hair behind his ear, away from his heart. He looked so lost in the world he just chased himself into. "You don't know anything about what happening; you don't know what is going to happen when everything comes to pass; you don't know what the Heartless are - You know NOTHING! You wouldn't know the darkness if it tore your body in half and ripped your heart out!" He was screaming. He was screaming so loud and it wasn't at me. It's a weird way to describe it but even though the words were for me, he didn't seem to be directing them to me. It felt like Cloud had dug himself into a deep memory and was drowning, deeper... deeper into an ocean and further from the sun. Reaching, reaching...

"You know nothing because you ARE NOTHING!" He snapped to his feet, grabbing at the handle of his sword. I immediately panicked, assuming he had been blinded enough to start killing without a conscience and I didn't want to be mistaken for something expendable. Fear disabled my legs, leaving me to sit in my own mess and watch him turn for me, poses erratic and unsure of what he was going to strike. I was so afraid... I didn't want to die through such recklessness.

"Cloud!" Before I could register anything else or plea with some unknown figure to spare my life, he was mauled into the ground with his arms pinned tightly. "Cloud! Stop!" Under Leon's pressure he kicked and screamed and howled toward the moon for freedom, to continue the rampage I very nearly came with head on. I began to wonder, though. Had I done that to him? With my darkness?

Leon pressed his forehead into the other's, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth at the tough leather smacks of both skulls colliding. "It's okay!" He was yelling at him. "I'm here! The darkness is gone! He's not here anymore! CLOUD! Open your eyes!" He did, almost immediately. I was looking for relief in myself while watching the fear sink in a watery grave in his eyes. He curled his wrists to try and touch Leon's hands with his own, fingers red with blood from the circulation loss.

"No..." Cloud whispered and closed his eyes again. Leon let go of his limbs and lifted his upper body into his arms, holding him tightly. "The darkne - "

"There's no darkness here. Only light. Remember. Light, Cloud. The shining rays that entangle your arms and legs. Remember that in your heart." I secretly wanted to see Cloud cry. I wanted to see that piece of weakness spring to life on his face, fleeting from those cold, harsh eyes only to dry away into the sky. I wanted to see someone as strong as him be humanized. I never did. Leon was crying for him.

And I began to remember.

"Sora! Stop it!"

"Why! Why, Riku! It's not fair! What he did!"

"Not like this, Sora. It's life... This is what happens. It's natural. You can't be mad at him for just trying to survive."

"But... what about their lives? What about the lives eaten away by a dark death? ... Riku?"

No one saw me off. I found Cid in the ship when I got back to it and he gave me no explanation as to why he departed from me. I didn't really care. He did make the comment I looked rougher upon return than when I had left but I didn't think about it either. I rested my elbow on the arm rest after take off and just stared off into space. That memory had come back so randomly that I was trying to remember it clearly right down to every detail. It was the first time I had seen Sora get angry enough to hurt someone. It was a bit of a reality breaker for me at the time. I knew I must've pushed it away from my mind due to every new event occurring where Sora had a bad name. That recollection only supported his ability to be violent.

I caressed the soft scarf under my other arm with my fingers, as if stroking a rose gently to feel it's petals without harming its beauty. I picked it up and studied it further. I thought: Even a rose torn from its thorny stem will still attract the dangerous bees.

Again, I'm so sorry. This is humiliating... This chapter is most definitely on my dislike list and not of my best work. I hope the ending made up for it AND I just hope you look forward to Agrabah because bigger and BETTER things are gonna happen! Just wait and see! I'm excited. :D

But first... A side story. What was that memory anyway? We'll see:O