New chapter and more fun story stuff happening here! Thank you ALL so much for all the reviews! It really helps!

Ch.27

Hearing footsteps he turned and saw a giant, snarling, three headed beast staring at him with blood red eyes. The beast moved in to attack Sora who was prone on the ground when suddenly it was pushed back by a beefy looking man.

"Herc!" Phil called out from behind.

'That's Hercules?! Wow… he's… changed. I mean I know he would have over the years… but wow.'

"Phil! Get them out of here!"

With that the group rushed out of the coliseum. The goat man gave a sigh of relief, "Whew, that was close! That was Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld. Herc should be able to handle him. But then again, maybe not... This doesn't look good. I hope Herc's okay. Wish I could go in!"

"Why would Cerberus be here though?" Sora asked, out of curiosity.

"How should I know? Probably something to do with Hades," Phil responded.

"Hades?" Goofy asked.

"The god of the Underworld of course! Don't you three know anything?" Phil said before scoffing.

"Wait, do you guys think that the blue haired guy was Hades?"

'Well he did have blue skin and hair, and that really isn't normal. So probably.'

'I did tell you I sensed darkness around him, he did seem to look the part of evil. He had yellow for the whites of his eyes. That is generally a sign of evil,' Vanitas deadpanned.

'I guess so… but I hope Hercules is going to be okay…'

Sora started to feel Ventus's worry for his friend and so he turned around and started to run back into the Coliseum.

"Kid, you're not entering the arena, are ya? This ain't just some match. This is for real!"

"I know that! I'm not afraid, besides I have to help, in any way I can."

"Be careful, kid."

He entered the Coliseum and saw that Hercules had Cloud slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Cerberus was currently bearing down at them, but paused and turned to them as they entered, giving Hercules a chance to get away.

Phil came a bit closer to Sora, but didn't get close enough for Cerberus to see him, "Kid, I got two words of advice for you: attack."

'You're right Ven, the idiot doesn't know how to count.'

"Not now Vani," Sora responded as he focused on the beast. The three headed dog roared and spat out large fireballs which Sora dodged out of the way.

Off to the side Donald was sending thunder spells at its three heads.

Seeing another fireball come his way Sora blocked it with his keyblade, deflecting the fireball back at the center head causing it to rear up in pain as it roared. The Cerberus growled as it slammed its feet down, sending a shockwave that unbalanced them.

Sora barely dodged another fireball and wiped off the sweat from his brow, that had been close. The Cerberus started to spew out dark energy that fell onto the ground creating deadly pools that Sora had to avoid.

Sora grinned as he saw Goofy on top of the beast and his companion was sending his shield flying at the multiple heads.

As the beast tried to bite Goofy in half he leapt up and whacked the beast as hard as he could on it's three heads and managed to knock it out. The Cerberus fell to the ground with a thud.

'Good job Sora!'

'Impressive, that beast seemed pretty strong.'

Sora beamed as his brothers complimented him, "Thanks guys."

'We should check on Donald and Goofy, make sure they're alright.'

Sora nodded and went towards where Goofy was just standing up, "You alright?"

"He-yup, just fine," Goofy said with a grin.

"Where's Donald?" Sora questioned looking around.

"Will someone get me out from under here!" The duck's voice squawked out angrily.

Sora and Goofy followed the voice to see that Donald had gotten trapped underneath one of Cerberus's heads after it fell.

Vanitas snickered inside his head.

Goofy gave a chuckle and helped to pull Donald out from underneath the beast.

The three left the room and went into the Lobby where Phil stood waiting, "You guys should take a rest, maybe explore town, we'll speak with you in a little bit."

So the three of them explored the town and a little bit later returned to the Lobby. "There you guys are, we got a bit of a reward for you," Hercules said grinning before giving a nod to Phil.

Phil cleared his throat and then read from a piece of paper, "Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games. Further—"

Donald interrupted before Phil could even finish, "Hey! What do you mean 'junior heroes'?"

'Yeah! What do you mean?' Ventus echoed in his thoughts.

"You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero."

"So, what does it take?" Goofy asked.

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

Sora gave a grin in response, "No problem. Once the coliseum is back up we can prove ourselves in the games. Properly this time."

"Well, it'll be awhile before the coliseum is back open. Gotta clean up the mess from the last battle first."

Sora gave a nod, "Alright, we'll be back later then."

They waved and soon left to head towards the gates. As they got closer Sora saw Cloud sitting down near the exit. "He looks a bit sad…"

'Maybe we should talk to him, you know to see how he is feeling,' Ventus replied.

"Should I? I… I don't know what I would say."

'Hmpf, I say we just move on.'

"But I think Ven is right… it doesn't feel right to see him looking like that then just leave…" Sora muttered in his thoughts quietly.

'Whatever.'

'Just ask him if he's alright,' Ventus adviside as they drew closer.

"Okay. I think I can try that at least," Sora replied before walking closer to Cloud.

Once Sora was right in front of him, he cleared his throat. It was only a few simple words he had to ask, but going out of his way to talk to someone he didn't know was still nerve wracking for him.

"Hey you alright?"

Cloud looked up and gave a slow nod, "Yeah."

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you go along with him? Uh Hades I mean," Sora said, after finding out from Phil and Hercules that Hades had some involvement in Cloud being there as well as Cerberus.

Cloud looked back down at his hands which he clenched and unclenched. "I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help. I needed to find someone… in order to try… try to fight my darkness. I tried to exploit the power of darkness on my own, but it backfired."

Cloud stood up and looked up at the sky pensively. His gaze became lost, and deep within that look there was also sadness and hurt, "I fell into darkness, and I couldn't find the light."

'Ask who he's looking for, that way if we meet them we can let them know,' Ventus suggested.

"Who are you looking for? I'm looking for someone as well."

Cloud glanced at him, the longing sadness still in his eyes. "For my friend, Zack. Though… I was trying to find Sephiroth first. He… I believe he knows what happened to Zack… and why he never came back…"

Ventus coughed in shock, 'Zack! That's the name of the other person I was trying to recall earlier! But wait… never came back?'

"And who are you looking for?"

"My friend, Riku."

Cloud gave a nod of understanding. He then stood up, but kept his eye contact with Sora. "Don't lose sight of your goal."

"Yeah," Sora responded giving a nod in return, "I hope you can find your friend."

"Same to you," Cloud responded.

'See? He doesn't seem like such a bad guy after all,'

'You cannot base judgement on just a few minutes of talking, people can pretend to act nice after all.'

'But he lost his friend Zack… and I met Zack before. Zack was a nice guy… I wonder what happened to him,' Ventus replied before sighing.

'And what if this Zack isn't actually his friend? But a person he is hunting down for some reason?'

'I can tell though, the look in his eyes shows his honestly. Looking for your friend… I remember doing that. I know what it is like.'

'Hpmf, you can still pretend to be sad. I don't like this Cloud person. That's all I am saying.'

"I'd like to make it up to you," Cloud said. "For causing so much trouble before."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"If you would like, allow me to at least teach you something when fighting. One of the abilities I know called sonic blade," Cloud answered.

"Uh, what do you guys think? Should I?"

'Sonic Blade… yeah that would be useful, but me or Ventus could teach it to you, it's not that uncommon of a move.'

'But Cloud is offering it right now, so we should take the opportunity. Let's not keep him waiting,' Ventu answered.

"O-Okay," Sora answered to Cloud. "If you think you want to then you can teach me it."

Cloud nodded before he took out his weapon. He began to explain how the ability worked, which was all mainly momentum based. It took a lot of focusing on his own energy before he could push it through his weapon to thrust it at the enemy in a series of quick movements.

It took Sora a bit of watching Cloud do it before he started to get a feel for it. It also helped that Vanitas and Ventus gave their own pointers on how to channel the energy right for the momentum. But eventually he caught on more and really got the hang of it.

"Wow," Sora mumbled as he thought over his new move. "This is pretty cool."

'Don't forget to thank him,' Ventus chimed in.

"O-Oh… Um thank you Cloud. For teaching me the move… you know," Sora replied, albeit it was quietly.

"You're welcome. Hope it can help you on your journey," Cloud replied.

'We should see about getting another fight sometime.'

"Alright then."

"Hey, uh, do you think we could have a rematch sometime? Fair and square, no dark powers involved. For fun?"

"I think I'll pass," He responded running a hand through his hair as he turned away.

'Hmpf, he could have at least said that he would think about it.'

Sora smiled, though inwardly he agreed with Vanitas. "Yeah." Slowly the smile faded off his face as he let out a sigh.

Surprising Cloud turned around and looked back at Sora. He saw the young boy's lonely and distant expression. Something resonating in him, and he turned around and walked back to Sora.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to brush it off like that. I just do not think right would be the best time for me. I still have a lot to clear out of my mind."

"Ah… okay," Sora said, dipped his head. He didn't really know if he could believe Cloud, he could feel his wavering feelings on trust lingering in him still.

"Hey, next time we see each other, I'll take you up on the offer, okay?" Cloud asked, starting to give a friendly smile.

Sora lifted his head, and found himself smiling back. "Yeah, that would be cool."

Cloud said goodbye after that and started to head off somewhere towards the town near the coliseum.

"I guess he wasn't so bad," Sora commented as he watched Cloud walk off.

"Yeah, seems like he just needed a friend," Goofy added.

The three then went to their ship and Sora went to go get some rest while they traveled to the next nearest world.

We've hinted about dear old Zack, but nothing more for now. It is a mystery haha

But next up, we got another world coming up. What could it be and what could happen?!