Chapter 5- Heroes
Phil didn't approve of the idea "How do you expect to get Herc if he's probably found the machine and is in Hades' chamber by now, deep in the Underworld?"
"Leave that part to me." said Ale confidently "I've learned one or two tricks with the Keyblade, one being telepathy."
He pointed the Keyblade into the air. 'Hercules…' he thought, 'Can you hear me?' All he could hear in his mind was faint breathing. He dropped the Keyblade to waist level again.
"Nice trick." Phil commented.
"Ale what did you hear?" asked Nela. He opened up a new Underworld portal. "We have to hurry, Herc's in it deep." Cloud and Nela entered the portal. "Phil, you coming?" "I'll sit this one out." He replied "I need to hold down the fort.". Ale nodded. He entered the portal and it disappeared.
They already felt weak as they entered the Underworld. "Guess we didn't notice the weakness either." Cloud said. "Wait." Ale said. He closed his eyes and unleashed the Keyblade. He swung it with no problem.
"What did you do?" asked Nela. " The curse of weakness is mostly mentally based. The darkness needs your awareness to work. Don't think about the weakness. Clear your mind." Just bringing the curse up made Ale temporarily weaker until he cleared his mind again. Cloud and Nela did as directed. They test swung their respective swords as if they were on a regular world. "Now no more talking about… it. Got it?" Ale asked. Cloud and Nela nodded.
Ale focused and the Keyblade pointed towards one of the rock doors they saw earlier. They walked up to it. "Now what?" asked Nela. "I think Ale knows what he has to do." Replied Cloud. Ale knew what was to be done. He pointed the Keyblade towards the door. Little streaks of light twisted and curved in towards the Keyblade's tip. A beam rushed to the door's crack and it pries open. But after they opened the door, they realized they might have not wanted to open it.
Behind the door was a black head. No two. Three now. Underneath them was the body of the giant dog guardian of the Underworld, Cerberus. "Darksides, Underworld lords, we can't get a break can we?" asked Ale. Cloud, on a more serious note said "Nela takes left, I take right, Ale takes middle?" "Sounds good to me." agreed Nela. Ale Nodded "Let's go!" he exclaimed.
They charged into the cave and jumped to their assigned head. Cloud on the right, Nela on the right, Ale in the middle. They slashed furiously at the monster and it had no way to counter with all three heads occupied. Nela couldn't stay in the air any longer. She started to descend, but the head she was attacking caught her off guard and slammed her into the cave wall. "Nela!" Ale exclaimed, as he turned his attention to Nela's barraged body. Then the head he was attacking took advantage of the moment and hit Ale. Luckily he was able to kick off the wall and keep consciousness. Unfortunately, the two heads that were attacked Ale and Nela worked together to aid the right. They fired black fireballs at Cloud and he fell to the ground near Ale.
Ale and Cloud ran to Nela. Ale lifted her up to an upright sitting position by one shoulder, Cloud by the other. "Nela, wake up!" Cloud exclaimed desperately. This was the most emotional Ale had ever seen Cloud. "Nela please wake up!" said Ale. She wouldn't wake.
Ale and Cloud stood up. "Ale," said Cloud sternly "That Chaos Needles thing, think if you had a little more power you could 'heat it up'?"
"You know, that's a good idea. Give me your energy!" Cloud placed his hand on Ale's shoulder. As Cerberus attacked with a flaming ball of fire, Ale exclaimed "Reflegun!" the large shield protected all three of the fighters. "Shatter!" Ale exclaimed. The shield broke into hundreds of pieces like before. "Enflame!" the pieces were now on fire. "And now…Chaos Flame Shower!" The flaming pieces rushed into the beast and exploded on contact. The beast fell unconscious.
They ran to Nela. Ale grabbed one of her shoulders, Cloud grabbed the other. They lifted up to her feet, but still had to support her balance. "Nela, please! You have to wake up!" exclaimed Cloud. Ale stepped back and closed his eyes. He then pointed the Keyblade at Nela. He tapped her on the shoulder he was previously holding. She woke up.
"What…what happened?" she asked sleepily. "You got knocked out." Replied Ale. "Are you okay?" asked Cloud "I'm fine now."
"Ok, now we have to hurry." Said Ale "That guy won't stay down for long" he said looking down at the Cerberus. Nela finally noticed it "What did you do to it?" she asked. "We'll explain it later, now we need to go to Hades' chamber." Said Cloud. "Right." She replied.
The inner portions of the cave were similar to how you would imagine the Underworld: dark, gloomy, and foggy. Heartless attacked them almost everywhere they went, and there were even some new ones. One looked like a crossbreed of a ghost and a Neoshadow. Just weird…
After slashing their way through the hordes of freak Heartless, they found a door. This was getting old… Ale lifted the Keyblade, the door opened. "Well, this it." Said Nela. "We'll get him." replied Cloud.
"Hades! You're cornered! Give up!" demanded Ale. Hades simply laughed. "Did you already forget about the curse?" "No!" Ale exclaimed. All three became instantly weaker. Cloud fell to one knee, Nela fell to a sitting position and Ale dropped the Keyblade. "Now you three losers are doomed!" Hades exclaimed. He rose his left hand into the air and conjured a huge fireball like before. This time Ale didn't have enough strength to protect them. They were devastated by this shot of fire. Ale only had one option.
"Cloud. Nela. Go." He ordered. "No, this is our fight as much as it's yours." Cloud replied.
"There's only one way to stop him at this point. Something I wish I could've given up. But now there's no choice." He said, sounding more serious than usual. Cloud understood at this point. "Nela, he's right." Cloud told her. "What?" she asked "I -pant- wanna help." "Only Ale can do this." He replied. Nela didn't move. Cloud used the rest of his strength to grab Nela, throw her over his shoulder and run out of the chamber. She tried to yell, but she didn't have enough strength at this point.
"Hades. Your plan has one huge flaw in it." Ale said standing up straight. Hades laughed hard "And what would that be?" Hades asked. "Your big scary curse only works on those who use the power of light." He replied. Ale closed his eyes. His body started to become darker and darker until his body was so dark you could barely see his physical features. His eyes opened to reveal two circles of light yellow.
"Feast your eyes on my Anti-Power!" he exclaimed. The curse was lifted and he regained his strength. His Keyblade turned completely dark and had a slight curve and a pointed tip "And my Anti-Key!" he added proudly. 'I should hurry' he thought 'I don't wanna lose control to this. Not again…'
He quickly leaped towards Hades and slashed furiously with the Anti-Key, Each time it made contact with Hades, small dark flares flew from his slashed skin. "AAAAAH!" Hades cried out in pain and fell to the ground. "Not so tough now are you?" asked Ale "Too bad!" he exclaimed and charged at Hades and slashed his arm. It started to bleed. Hades fell unconscious.
Ale tried to retain his light…but something said he didn't want to. So he stayed dark. He now wanted more destruction. He obliterated the Heartless machine with a large dark fiery flash. He then ran throughout the Underworld, desolating everything alive (or should I say dead) or Heartless in sight. He eventually found his way to a light flight of stairs. Where had he seen this before? He started to lose his memory. Something with Hercules… He stepped up to it and the light stung like nothing he had ever felt before. He angrily pounded at the floor and the walls. He had given into darkness.
Eventually on wall he had pushed had gone inwards like a button of some kind. Part of the wall opened up to reveal Hercules, asleep in a dungeon. Ale disregarded this and only focused on getting revenge on the light. He braced himself and ran up the light staircase. When he reached the top, he entered a coliseum. I know I know this. He told himself in his mind. But from where?
He saw three people: a strange creature, a boy about his size, and a girl with brown hair. He ran and hit the boy with his Anti-Key. This got the attention of the other two. "Ale?" exclaimed Nela in confusion. Ale turned his attention to the small creature. He slashed him. Both were still alive, but hurt and knocked out cold. "Ale, please snap out of it! Cloud told me about your darkness! Please!" Nela begged him in desperateness. Ale dashed to her right as he lifted the Anti-Key, she embraced him. His eyes dilated. He froze in mid movement. She held onto him with all of her mite. Then, still frozen, his body's darkness started to deteriorate. Starting at his feet, going up to the knees, to the waist, up to the neck and finally his head. His Anti-Key reverted to the Keyblade's normal form. His glowing yellow eyes shut. When they opened they revealed their normal shade of a light blue.
Nela released Ale and he finally regained his memories and control. "N-Nela…what happened?" he asked, "Your dark side took over you. But I think you beat Hades and now your ok!" "But how did I find my light?" he asked, "Let's just say your light came to you." She replied.
From a light path came Hercules. "Herc! You're ok!" exclaimed Ale. "Yeah! Someone opened the chamber where Hades held me captive. He stole the Olympus stone and I was affected by the curse."
"Hold on." Ale said. He took off his left shoe and shook it. A flat stone came out, about the size of Ale's palm. It was the Olympus stone. "How do you not notice that?" asked Hercules. "Dark powers do things to a person." He replied. "I'm not even gonna ask." Replied Hercules. Ale handed Hercules the stone and he turned to Phil and Cloud. As he did, the Keyblade glowed. He turned and saw the Keyhole. He pointed the Keyblade at it and sealed the Keyhole.
Cloud and Phil woke up. "Wow, you recovered fast!" said Nela. "Ale, how'd you turn back to your former self?" asked Cloud. "I don't know." Said Ale, "But Nela does, don't you?" he asked. "Well…umm…shouldn't we be leaving?" she asked, desperate to leave the subject. She grabbed Ale and Cloud and pulled them to the Gummy ship. Ale yelled, flying at incredible speeds "Bye" to Hercules and Phil. "Later." Replied Phil "Thanks guys!" yelled back Hercules. Their last cries were barely audible as the three left and boarded the gummy ship. Pressing random buttons, Nela eventually got the ship to take off to the next world…
