Silver Linings

Chapter 17: "Junior Heroes, Donald!"

A/N: It's been too long again, hasn't it?

Riku's moving out of familiar territory (scenes from any KH game) now, but Sora's been on the straight track to his destiny since shortly before he was born, and he's not going to start straying now. Certainly not while the interruptions from the Azure Timeline are comedic gold!

Warnings for: infodump conversations, extremely depressing people, Hades torching folks, a certain guest star's language, and B-list horror movie jump-scares...by very not-scary things.

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Blast Off! Phantom Storm!

As soon as the Highwind broke out of the warp tunnel and into the combat zone, Sora could tell that "Phantom Storm" was different from the "Sweep" zones. For now, it seemed like they were still in a warp tunnel, only it was blue and cloudy instead of shining gold. At first, the only things to worry about were stray rocks zooming in the other direction, some of which seemed to be part of broken buildings.

Chip suddenly shouted a warning over the communicator. "Look out, Sora! Something's coming up on the starboard side, really fast!"

Donald swiveled the Fire-G cannons to the right side of the ship, from which several silhouettes were approaching from beyond the cloudy edge of the tunnel. Donald wasted no time shooting them down, causing the enemies to fade away with a puzzling lack of explosions. More enemies continued to appear, and when one finally got close enough to make out details, Donald's finger slipped off the trigger. "G-g-g-ghosts!"

Sora was busy swerving around rocks, so he called without looking, "Do the guns still work on them? If they do, keep shooting!"

"Right!" Donald got enough of a grip on himself to spray the ghosts with shots, and the spectral enemies finally stopped adding reinforcements. "Ha ha! Take that, ghosts! Who you gonna call? Donald Duck!"

Donald's semi-hysterical taunts cut off when the Gummi Ship suddenly lurched off-course. Sora yanked the controls, but the ship still flew out beyond the wall, which parted into a much darker, wider space. "Guys, I think we're in trouble! I can't get us back in the tunnel!"

Goofy checked the navigation computer. "I dunno how it's put together exactly, but I don't think this computer is supposed to have this scary face on the screen!"

Sora made a quick check of the controls, and found that the combat steering still worked. "It looks like the ghosts only took over the long-range navigation. Donald, try the guns again! We're going to find the ghosts responsible for keeping us here, and we'll make them let us pass!"

Donald found that the weapons did indeed work, but he still had doubts. "Are you sure we can do that? Can we even beat ghosts?"

Sora gave him a look. "Are you Donald Duck, the great and powerful Royal Magician, or are you Disney Town's local chicken? We have to at least try! And since the guns do hurt them, what do we have to worry about? We're heroes, remember? Be brave! Now, where are those ghosts?"

Sora didn't have to search for long. A gigantic pirate ship rose out of the clouds. It seemed more fit for the open seas than the Ocean Between, and from its state of disrepair, it should have barely been able to float in water. But its cannons seemed plenty functional, and its ragged sails bore the Heartless Emblem. Goofy tried to scan the giant Heartless, but the scanning console popped up with the same spooky face as the World Map. "Gawrsh, I won't be much help like this, but that's our target, all right!"

Sora gripped the controls and focused fully on his share of the task. "Keep watch for enemies around us, then! I'll dodge those cannons and get us close. Donald, see if you can blow it up part by part!"

"You got it, Sora! Open fire!" Donald rained projectiles on the ghost ship's hull, but as Sora expected, they did little damage. Ghosts popped up right in front of the Highwind, trying to scare the heroes into swerving away...but all they did was line themselves up with the shots.

Donald stopped shooting for a second to try locking on with Thunder-G attacks. His hunch was correct; the lock-on markers in his view centered on the ghost ship's weak points. He launched the laser volley, which struck true against what seemed to be a massive waterwheel and some cannons on the deck. Donald focused his Fire-G attacks on the center of the waterwheel, which eventually broke off.

The ghost ship slowed down and lost some altitude, and the heroes cheered...but this was just to bring the Highwind in range of the ghost ship's cannons. Sora was forced to roll left and right to dodge the explosives that were continually fired from those cannons, and Donald could only get a clear shot through the barrage with Thunder-G lasers. Eventually, though, the ghost ship's port-side cannons were all destroyed, and Sora prepared to circle around for a pass at the starboard waterwheel.

"Nobodies incoming! Behind us!" It turned out that keeping Goofy on watch for other enemies was a smart idea, as the Highwind's crew were forewarned and prepared to deal with the swarms of Nobodies that appeared at the edge of the zone. The blue fighters from before seemed more intent on getting past the Highwind to shoot the ghost ship, which might be important to consider, but Donald was too busy shooting down the red Nobodies that tried to grab the ship. The first one that appeared made contact, so Sora jammed the Shield button and rolled to throw the clingy Nobody off. As expected, the enemy had been in the process of self-destructing, and its explosion destroyed a squad of enemy fighters as it was thrown away. The explosion also motivated Donald to aim carefully and prevent any more grabby Nobodies from hitching a ride.

After a few waves of this, the group was able to return their attention to the ghost ship, which lost its other waterwheel under a barrage of Fire-G shots. A bunch of broadside cannons popped out of hatches to retaliate, but they were just as vulnerable to attack as the waterwheel. The cannons kept getting replaced, but Donald was able to beat them back enough for Sora to escape their attack range and rise to fight the remaining topside cannons instead.

This time, the heroes were properly prepared for the explosive counterattacks, so they had a much easier time destroying the cannons, including two set beside the mast that fired cannonball-shaped ghosts instead. Destroying both cannons caused the mast to crack, so Donald made sure to destroy that part as well.

Sora was getting excited by the thrilling dogfight. "One target left! Show your face, ghost ship!"

"Wait! More ghosts off to starboard!" Goofy pointed out a swarm of spirits, and Donald swiftly shot them down.

Finally, the ghost ship lost all its momentum and stopped dead (or was "undead" the right term?) in the middle of the combat zone. Sora set the Gummi Ship to hover in front of the enemy's ram, which Donald promptly destroyed. Finally, a large, metal plate fell off the bow of the ghost ship, revealing the same skeletal face that took over the Highwind's peripheral systems. Sora lined up the Gummi Ship with this final target. "Fire! Show those ghost-space-pirate Heartless who's boss!"

Donald finally managed to laugh without a trace of fear. "When you put it like that, they do sound ridiculous! All weapons locked on! FIRE!" Orange shots and blue lasers rained down on the crippled Heartless vessel, tearing through more ghosts that tried to halt the barrage with their own sheetlike bodies. Soon the attack was joined by two squads of blue Nobodies, which thankfully focused entirely on the ghost ship. Their red companions still tried to latch onto the Highwind, but those that reached the heroes were simply tossed into the ghost ship's maw, where their self-destruct attempts were put to good use. Finally, explosions ripped all the way across the giant Heartless, which cracked in half and blew up spectacularly.

The Highwind's peripheral systems beeped as the interference disappeared, and Sora made sure to speed out of the area along a bright tunnel before the Nobodies could switch targets. The World Gate appeared before the heroes, and they made it through to Olympus Coliseum!

Before the heroes teleported down to the world's surface, Chip chimed in over the communicator. "Great flying, guys! We're working hard, too! We finished the first pair of Teeny Ships, so the Teeny System will be ready for you on your next flight! Good luck out there!" The teleporter engaged.

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Twilight Town Mansion: Library...

Riku led Lambda down the hidden stairs in the mansion's library, then turned toward the first point of interest to be searched. The door to DiZ's computer room still stood open, but there was another door on the left. It had been blocked by fallen pipes, so most people would assume there was nothing important that way, but there might be another reason why DiZ had never repaired the door.

Luckily, the crooked pipes weren't as impassable as they appeared. They obviously weren't connected to the walls, and they weren't wedged in place, either. Lambda tossed them against the staircase in a relatively neat pile, revealing a functional keypad. Before Riku could say anything, she keyed in a sequence of four numbers, and the door hissed open. "Well, this investigation is off to a good start!"

Riku's mouth took a second to catch up with his brain. "How did you know the passcode?"

Lambda smirked, her red eyes sparkling with mischief. "You know how DiZ left me in charge of maintaining the simulated Twilight Town while you two went inside to finish guiding Roxas to Sora? It turned out there wasn't much I could do to stop Nobodies from getting in, so I decided to do some poking around of my own."

Riku walked down the bluish metal hallway beyond the door, but his curious gaze was set firmly on Lambda. "What did you find?"

Lambda giggled. "Well, first I found that his security is a joke, compared to some common encryptions from the Azure Timeline. I'm built to fight gods, remember, which includes hacking their security. Which would mean the Master Unit is at least as much of a machine as I am... Anyway, along with the door codes, he had a neat folder called 'Secret Ansem Reports', so of course I downloaded all thirteen files. I didn't learn as much as I'd like, though. They don't have the context I'd need to make sense of them. They say Ansem was the king of some world called Radiant Garden, and his apprentices convinced him to make some kind of Heartless research lab. Then he was betrayed by them and left in the Realm of Darkness, or at least that's what I gather from his description of the place. He somehow gained the Power of Darkness to escape, and started calling himself DiZ: 'Darkness in Zero'."

Riku held up a hand. "Hold up, my brain is a bit overloaded right now. DiZ is Ansem?"

Lambda frowned thoughtfully. "No, I don't think so. The stories don't match up. Also, his apprentices had names that sounded sort of familiar. Ienzo, Aeleus, and Even all ring a bell, but I can't quite figure out why...and there's one name I don't recognize at all. Have you ever heard of a guy named Xehanort? What mom would name their kid that mouthful?"

Riku jolted as he recognized the name. Still, he tried to lighten the mood with a joke. "I dunno, what mom would name their kid Boundary Interface Prime Field...whatever the rest was? I know the last word was Lambda."

Lambda pouted. "Joke's on you; Prime Field Devices don't have moms. It's not a funny joke, though."

Riku stopped chuckling with an apologetic gesture, then got down to business. "You're right, that was mean, but I have heard that name before. When we got split up that one time, I ended up at Hollow Bastion. I found a room in the castle basement that I'd never seen before. It was an office, with a portrait of Ansem on the wall. There was a woman named Tifa poking around, searching for someone, but I don't think she's as important as the secret room I found after she left. It was a huge laboratory - so huge that the whole castle could probably fit into that secret basement. I decided to investigate, and things got weird really quickly."

Riku took a deep breath and continued his recap. "The computer in the first room didn't like people. It said something over the speakers about an MCP and 'drastic action'. I left it alone, but the fingerprint scanner locking the next room let me through. Maybe it sensed Ansem inside me, somehow. I wasn't in his body back then, and I still had the blindfold, but Ansem was throwing a total hissy fit at the time in the corner of my heart where he's still locked up. Anyway, the kicker was that the keypad said, 'WELCOME BACK, XEHANORT', as it let me in. Come to think of it, that place might be the Heartless lab you read about, though it looked more like a factory."

That didn't sound good. Lambda thought over it for a second; she didn't like her preliminary conclusions. "A Heartless factory? And this was in Hollow Bastion?"

Riku nodded. "It does seem like a lot of names have been changed since the Heartless sacked that world. Even some of the resistance members who fled to Traverse Town changed their names to show that they'd moved on from the tragedy. The factory wasn't all that was there, though. Apparently, Xehanort gets access to another section, far beneath the factory floor. Really far beneath; I passed the time while I was climbing down by cursing out the guy who invented stairs. Luckily, Merlin helped me skip the stairs before going back up. Anyway, there was a weird chamber at the bottom with a bunch of Nobody symbols and a throne, and on that throne was an empty suit of armor holding a Keyblade."

Lambda's jaw dropped. "My gods, you hit the secret-room jackpot!"

"Yeah, I was floored, too. I tried picking up the Keyblade, of course, but even though the armor was empty, the Keyblade vanished. I got this...feeling, though. I think that Keyblade will reappear when I find the chosen wielder for it, so I'm like the delivery boy. How ironic, after I called Sora that while I was falling to Darkness." Riku's smirk faded a bit.

Lambda ticked off points on her fingers. "So, to recap, Xehanort and Ansem are the same person, or at least they were connected at some point, and DiZ and Ansem are...also the same person?" The Murakumo Unit finally came to a stable, if unsatisfying conclusion: Ansem's history was a mess! "Give me a second to see if I can sort this out. Maybe...DiZ was Ansem before Xehanort betrayed him. And if Xehanort is the 'Ansem' we've been fighting over and over again, then he's just pretending to be Ansem, probably to spite his old teacher. No one seems to remember the truth, though, and the whole world was renamed, and the Ansem we fought was a Heartless, meaning he may have a Nobody running around... Is it just me, or is this conspiracy really complex?"

Riku gripped his head to stave off a complexity-induced headache. "You're telling me. Still, I doubt the real Ansem would be very happy about having his name smeared so much, which would explain why DiZ wants revenge. But right now, we're just throwing out our best guesses, right? Let's see if anything in here paints a clearer picture." Riku stopped at the end of the long hall, allowing Lambda to key in the code to open the door there.

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Twilight Town: The Colored Room...

"Well, something's painted in here, all right," Lambda noted as she adjusted her eyes to the sudden explosion of color. Every flat surface in the square room was painted a solid, bright color, such that no surface touched another surface of the same color. There were a few pieces of furniture, including two chairs and a table, and all of them were painted with riotous colors. All that color, though, only served to make Namine's white dress stand out more starkly among her surroundings. The blonde Nobody sat in a colorful chair, drawing in her sketchbook without reacting to the couple's entrance.

"So this is where you ran off to, Namine!" Riku looked around the room. "I like the...colors. Where did you get all this paint?"

Namine finally looked up and closed her sketchbook. "I wanted to have a room that wasn't completely white for once. I thought it would help my mood, and it worked...sort of. For starters, I used the wrong kind of paint on that red wall." The wall she pointed out did have several lumps of paint on it where the red liquid dripped before drying, but something about the way Namine said it seemed to imply that the problem ran deeper than improper paint mixtures.

Lambda sat in the second chair, across the table from Namine. "What have you been up to for the last few weeks? After you left through that Dark Corridor, we never saw any sign of you. Not that we were looking very hard; there were a lot of temporal anomalies and giant Heartless to deal with."

Namine sighed. "I've been...stalling. Finding this room, painting and decorating it, drawing, and generally hiding from all the problems that I should be the one to deal with." And that was the problem. "I was created with a unique power: I have control over Sora's memories, and the memories of all the people he's formed connections with. By now, that list includes practically everyone in all the worlds he knows. But every time I've used my power, I've either created huge problems, or tried to fix the mess from one of those problems...the keyword being 'tried'. Even the 'fixing' I've done has hurt so many people...especially Roxas."

Lambda cut in; there was another problem she needed to know more about. "Roxas was hurt, true, but Xion was hurt more. She's probably still hurting."

Namine blinked in confusion; not a good sign at all. "All the people I affected are still hurting. But who is Xion?"

Lambda blanched. "I can't be the only person who still remembers! All the lost memories were your doing in the first place; how could you also forget her? Heck, would Roxas himself remember, if he ever got his own body back? Or is it hopeless to try and help her?"

Namine thought harder, and suddenly clutched her head from a headache. "I...I do know that name, but I don't remember the face...no, her face. Other than the name and that Roxas called her a 'her', though, I can't... Her case must be even more unique than mine. If I can help her, I'd like to...but like I said, I'd just end up hurting someone else by trying."

Riku shook his head. "I still can't remember who Lambda keeps bringing up, but clearly it's important to Lambda. Right now, though, you need to chin up, Namine. There has to be a way to use your power to fix things without breaking others, but with that attitude, you might as well have already faded away."

Namine smiled ruefully. "Believe me, if it were just me, I would have eliminated myself a long time ago. But I can't just leave her behind."

Lambda asked, "Her? Are we still talking about Xion?"

"No, she's talking about Kairi," Riku guessed. "That's who you are, right? You're Kairi's Nobody. That's how you could replace Sora's memories of her so thoroughly."

Namine flinched, but managed to compose herself. "Yes...and no. When Kairi's heart was stolen, she didn't turn into a Heartless. She doesn't have any Darkness to form one. No Heartless, no Nobody. But later, Sora's sacrifice released both her heart and his, and he became a Heartless. At that moment, both Roxas and I were created. That's why I have that power over Sora's memories, and it's also part of where Roxas' Keyblades came from."

Namine continued without seeming to pause for breath. Her expression was perfectly neutral, and she kept unflinching eye contact with Riku. "Even though I can remember both of their lives and the emotions they felt in perfect clarity, none of it is mine. Like this room, everything that made their lives bright, happy, and colorful surrounded me, but I wasn't part of it. That was how Marluxia finally made me agree to rewrite Sora's memories. After weeks of isolation in the first of several White Rooms I've been locked inside, I wanted to have what Sora had. Friends, joy, adventure...love. What I did, though, and what I got from it... It wasn't worth it. It wasn't real. I deceived Sora as thoroughly as I could, but even when he fully believed the lies, and even believed he loved me, I couldn't believe. Nobodies like me can't be real people. We can't have hearts. We can't be born so unrelentingly good, like Sora was. He forgave me for everything, but I can't feel like I'mworth forgiving." Namine still showed no expression.

Suddenly, Lambda was on her feet, and she slapped Namine hard enough to knock her head to the side. "Don't say that, you...! If you can't be born good, then it's your job to learn! Don't just claim it's hopeless and give up. That is where evil comes from. Not to mention lies. That's the only path I know of that truly has nothing worth finding along it."

Lambda geared up for a rant. "DiZ always scoffs about how Nobodies only pretend to have feelings, but right now, you're only pretending you don't. You put up a good facade, but you put too much emphasis on very specific words, all of which paint a very unhappy picture. Here's what I think. I believe you've had a brand-new heart growing inside you all this time. That's probably true for all Nobodies, and I certainly saw it in Roxas, so the same probably applies to you, since both of you were formed from Sora. Why everyone thinks Nobodies have no hearts...I think it's another of Xehanort's lies, along with his 'Ansem' alias and everything he's ever said about Darkness. Everyone believes it, though, and the Organization are mostly jerks, so I don't think explaining it to them is the way to go." But now that Lambda realized the ruse, could she "eliminate" any of them, knowing that neither side of the battle would have meaning? No, that was a question she should save for later.

Lambda ticked off Namine's options on her fingers. "Anyway, if you start from nothing and practice until you grow a heart, there are a few ways you could turn out. I think Roxas took the most common path, or it would be if the truth were out. The emptiness he felt - you know what emptiness feels like; all Nobodies clearly do - turned into grief, which boiled over into rage, which burned him out. The Organization mostly took the worst path and became sociopaths, using their understanding of emotions and the weak self-influence of their own feelings to more easily manipulate others. But there's another path you could still take, Namine - the one I took. You could learn to be a good person."

Namine finally broke down and sobbed. "We're not the same. You're a machine made with a soul, but I'm a flat picture drawn with no heart. Don't say I'm like you. I don't want it to be true! I don't want this hope burning in my stupid, hollow chest. It only makes everything hurt more! Yes, I know that means I have a heart to be hurt, but that's not a good thing to me. It's just hurt. And if it's true that I could have been a good person, then that means I've been a bad person at every turn, and it's all my fault! I've tried and tried to make things right, but all I did was make things wrong! I hurt Sora, I hurt Roxas, I must have hurt Xion...I even broke Jiminy's Journal, for crying out loud! All those people are still hurting, and they'll keep hurting until someone else fixes my mess! Even if I knew Sora could fix it...I'm not sure even he could handle some of the things I found buried in his heart, which is why I used the Journal...but I'll still be the bad person who hurt everyone. If I ever returned to Kairi, having me inside her would probably hurt her, too. J-just leave me alone. You'd all be better off without my so-called power." Namine's self-loathing tirade sputtered, then finally dissolved into a steady stream of tears.

Lambda's expression softened, and she wiped a tear from Namine's cheek with a finger. "Namine, look at this. See this tear? This is proof of your sorrow, your regret, your pain. You've been so focused on everyone else's hurt that you ignored your own, and took on all that hurt by yourself. No one should have to deal with that alone, which is why I want to help you. I was alone at first...but then I met Riku, and things got better. Together, I think we can fix all those broken hearts without adding to the pile. And of course, Sora will always want to help, too. I doubt even a World-sized chasm separating you two would keep him from trying to help you and everyone else. The difference is, Sora doesn't try to help everyone on his own. Neither should you."

Namine sniffled, but Lambda's words finally seemed to be sinking in. "You're right, Lambda. I can't try to do this alone; that's why I've been failing. I've seen what happened when Sora tried it. He was deep under my manipulation, and he left Donald and Goofy behind when they questioned him. They thought he was acting strange - and he was - but he thought he needed to 'save' me as soon as possible. That was how he ended up in Larxene's clutches. Larxene is the best example I've seen of a Nobody trying to learn to be evil, not good...or she was, before Sora and his friends terminated her. She attacked Sora when he was still reeling from fighting the Riku Replica - another victim of my power, and probably the only one who can't be saved - and he would have been dead in seconds if his friends hadn't caught up to him. Sora did extremely well from that point onward. The change in the outcomes of his fights, in his attitude... It was all so obvious, which just rubbed the lesson in. Why didn't I apply that to myself?"

Riku chuckled. "I can forgive you for thinking that lessons which apply to Sora don't apply to anyone else. He never followed rules very well. From dropping coconuts on me in sparring matches on the Islands to coming back from being a Heartless in Hollow Bastion, he always did his own thing. He tends to cheat to solve his friends' problems, too."

That made Namine remember something. "Sora didn't come back from being a Heartless when I was created, though. Really, he was still just a bodiless heart walking around like a Heartless. Kairi shared some Light with him to help him stay himself. That could only go so far, though, which was why we needed to get Roxas back to him. Sora was clearly deteriorating in Castle Oblivion; he would never have left Donald and Goofy behind otherwise. Thanks to Roxas, he's complete again now. But all those people still in his heart...they're still broken, and I need help to fix them."

Riku's eyes widened. Sora had "cheated" even more than he thought! "Will Kairi be in trouble without you, Namine? Wait, 'all those'? Is this about Xion?"

"Hey, you finally remembered her name! YES!" Lambda wanted to cheer, hug Riku, and jump up and down. She considered buying some confetti. Finally, she was making progress! Xion's case wasn't hopeless after all!

Namine nodded. "Yes, it is about her, along with the others. It's about Xion, Roxas, Kairi, Sora himself, and a few more hearts sleeping within Sora's. Like I said, I found some...troubling things deep in Sora's heart. He doesn't remember it consciously anymore, but Kairi's not the first heart he's saved. There was another boy, and Sora saved him twice when Sora was really young, somehow. That boy is the source of Roxas' second Keyblade; he knows some of the Keyblade's lost secrets, too. I don't know those secrets, so please don't ask. I couldn't read that deeper layer of memories, only find his heart there. But if Sora wants to go back and save this other person, he'll have to deal with all the hurt that boy's heart built up from more than a decade spent shattered and asleep within Sora's. It's not time for him to awaken yet, and Sora isn't ready to handle the ordeal. I've made sure we'll know when the time comes, though. That's what the Journal is for. Don't worry, you won't be needed for that part. Actually, Sora won't need to be there, either."

Riku quirked an eyebrow. "Still being vague, Namine? Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll let us know when it's important, and before it's too late. But what about Kairi?"

Namine paused, then squared her shoulders. "Don't worry, the King and Jiminy will definitely let you know when they figure out why the Journal's empty. Anyway, I've decided. I'll go back to Kairi soon. It's where I belong, after all. The best time would be when Sora's current quest draws to a close. Until then, someone may need me as myself. Maybe it will be Kairi, maybe it'll be Sora. I can make Dark Corridors without relying on my memory power, at least. That's how I found this room. I'll watch Sora's progress from this place for now."

Lambda looked around. "If that's what your heart's decided, then the only thing left is to do it. Hey, what is this room, anyway? I had to move some pipes and hack DiZ's files for the codes to get in here. What's he hiding here?"

Namine pointed to a door on the back wall, which she'd painted with many splotches of color to help it stand out from the wall's solid green. "Whatever it is, it must be behind that door. I couldn't open it without the codes; I can only enter or leave this room by creating a Dark Corridor, and I'm not precise enough with them to try and check that room. If you know the codes, go right ahead and check it yourselves; I don't owe DiZ privacy, do I?"

Riku smirked. "No, you don't owe that racist jerk anything. We were exploring to figure out what he's still not telling us; running into you was a lucky accident."

Namine shook her head seriously. "Coincidences don't exist, I'm sure of it. There's a plan playing out, and everything that's happened is a part of it. With Lambda around, the plan veered off course, but the Organization will be working to pull events back on track. Marluxia used to grumble about a 'Xigbar' potentially spying on people from anywhere, and that what Xigbar knows, Xemnas knows. So be careful."

Lambda facepalmed. "Oh, that's right! The Black Coats were supposed to block them from spying on us!" Lambda was still in her bodysuit and cape, so she summoned her Black Coat to cover her further, and pulled on the hood.

Riku also hooded himself. "Sorry, Namine. If the Organization knows you're here because of us...stay safe, okay?"

"Don't worry; I have a few more Colored Rooms to use on various worlds. By the way, Riku, using Ansem's voice should throw Xigbar further off track, since his hearing won't be reliable either that way."

Riku gave her a thumbs up, along with an affirmative in Ansem's deep voice. "Got it. Good luck, Namine."

Lambda entered the code for the door, and Riku followed her into another short hallway. Behind them, Namine left through a Dark Corridor, and the door to her first Colored Room hissed shut.

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The Underworld: Entrance...

Sora, Donald, and Goofy appeared on the world's surface...or under it. Sora looked around - the stalagmites, the puddle of unidentifiable green stuff, and the river of purple gunk with what looked like faces floating in it...none of that was here the last time they visited Olympus Colosseum. "Do you think the teleporter was off target?"

"I see it!" Donald pointed to a staircase that rose way up, ending in a shining hole through which the actual Colosseum could be seen.

"Huh. I guess we were a little off. I wonder if Hercules is here?" Sora led the way to the stairs.

"EEEK!" A shrill cry reached the travelers from the opposite direction.

"Someone's in trouble!" Goofy, Captain of the Royally Obvious, perked an ear in the direction of the disturbance.

"Well, visiting the Colosseum can wait. We can tack this onto our 'real hero' accomplishments before we talk to Phil!" Sora summoned the Keyblade and charged off toward the river of souls, followed by his companions. None of them noticed the smoky clouds that briefly surrounded them.

The source of the trouble was a group of Rabid Dogs, small, roughly canine Heartless with a sonic barking attack. There were about five of them gathered around a woman in a purple toga-dress, who had collapsed on the ground, but seemed okay otherwise. The party crashed into the Heartless mob and took care of them in short order, then turned to the woman as she pushed herself up.

Sora extended a hand to help her up, but she waved him off. "Are you okay, um..."

"Megara. My friends call me Meg. Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm a big girl, I can handle myself."

Sora immediately jumped to using the shortened form of address. "So, Meg, what are you doing down here? Come to think of it, where is 'here?'"

"Huh, I guess we're friends now. Anyway, this is the Underworld. You know, the Land of the Dead. I was trying to talk to Hades about something, but those monsters caught me before I got very far." Meg brushed off her dress and turned away, debating whether to try again.

Sora nodded; trying to avoid encounters with Heartless was pretty much futile. "Oh... Wait, 'Hades' as in the Hades Cup? We were here to visit Hercules, and maybe join the Games again. We have to hold onto the title, after all."

Meg suddenly looked interested. "You three know Wonderboy? Who are you?"

"Sora!"

"Donald!"

"Goofy! Nice to meetcha, Meg!"

Meg glanced left and right, as though worried that someone would appear. "Nice to meet you, too, boys, but you should go. It's dangerous here. Ghosts, falling rocks, and now those monsters..."

Sora grinned as he summoned the Keyblade, and his allies followed suit. "Beating Heartless is what we do, Meg! If you need something from down there, why not send us?"

Meg studied the heroes. "You'd really brave the Underworld because a girl you just met needs help?"

Donald thumped his chest. "Yeah! 'Cuz we're heroes!"

Goofy leaned down and whispered, "Junior Heroes, Donald," to which Donald grumbled wordlessly.

Meg laughed. "That sounds like typical Phil. Okay, if you really want to go, try and convince Hades to give Wonderboy a break. He's been running himself ragged with match after match in the Colosseum."

"Sure thing! We'll be right back!" Sora led the Junior Heroes through a massive, blue-marked gate into the Cave of the Dead.

Meg watched them go with a bemused expression before starting the climb out of the Underworld. "So that's the Sora kid Wonderboy's been raving about. Good luck, tiger. You'll need it."

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Underworld: Cave of the Dead...

The trip into the Underworld wasn't actually very different from other worlds. There were still groups of Heartless that would pop up and try to impede the party's progress, there were still chests full of loot that Donald made sure to nab, and there was really only one tunnel to follow; both forks in the path led to the same place. The biggest difference Sora could see was that the ceiling sometimes tried to drop big rocks on his head. These boulders only ever fell on Sora, and after the seventh time, he couldn't really write it off as a coincidence. Maybe the Underworld itself was out to get him. It would probably explain the constant uneasiness in his gut ever since he'd arrived on the world.

Luckily, there was always a sprinkling of dust before a boulder fell, so Sora was able to dodge the rocks. At one point, the Keyblade wielder even hitched a ride by hanging underneath a Tornado Step as it spun around, letting the Heartless get hit by two of these malevolent cave-in attempts in his place. If Hades thought a few falling rocks would scare Sora off, the god had another thing coming.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Underworld: Inner Chamber...

There was a short break from the action at the bottom of the tunnel, which opened up into a wide chamber with no real features besides a shallow stream of green stuff. However, this area had a lot of ambient Light power. Sora loved rooms like this; they healed the party's wounds, never had Heartless in them, and to top it off, he could get great Magitek reception to teleport back to the Gummi Ship or contact the Moogle Shop over in Hollow Bastion to buy and synthesize items. Sora made sure to buy a few Potions before continuing to the next room.

Before they could get there, however, a man in a Black Coat came charging through the opening. Sora and company prepared for a fight, but the man, obviously a member of Organization XIII, just kept running. He even advised them to, "Run! Run away!" Judging by his voice, he wasn't much older than Sora, and he acted more like a frightened rabbit than a supervillain. Weird.

"Okay..." Sora stared at the Dark Corridor that the Organization member fled through, which dissolved in short order and left the party alone. This...did not match what they'd come to expect from the ominous group of Nobodies. Still, the weirdo in the hood didn't have any bearing on what the Junior Heroes came down here to do, so they continued onward.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Underworld: Valley of the Dead...

The next room was more like a catwalk over a glowing, green vortex. Donald and Goofy seemed to lose some resolve while staring down at the caustic abyss below the bridge, but Sora stepped forward confidently and called, "Hades, come out!"

Nobody showed up, because...

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Underworld: Hades' Chamber...

...Because Hades was busy plotting his next villainous scheme. It didn't make sense; surely Wonderbreath had a limit somewhere. He was definitely tiring out, but no matter how many giant monsters he had to fight in one day, he kept winning. Just today, Herc took out the Rock Titan - the gigantic stone golem was immortal, but could be chipped down to size, and it took time to rebuild itself. However, Herc apparently found it faster to defeat the Rock Titan by ring-out. How could Irkules still have the strength to hurl a walking mountain into the stratosphere after two weeks of such feats with no sleep? He must be perfect...perfectly infuriating!

The godling's bottomless resilience was just as infuriating as Maleficent's lap-dog-cat-whatever, Pete, who was in the room, guffawing over the outcome of the match. "Wow, Hercules takes out everything you send at 'im! What with all these dead monsters, pretty soon the Underworld's gonna be standing room only!" Pete gestured as though waiting for laughter. Receiving none, he tried again. "Hey, why don't you just send in someone already dead, and save him the trouble?"

This got a reaction from Hades. Pete mistook the god's intense-plotting look for a warning that Hades' stack was about to blow, and backed down. Hades was actually in a good mood now; he just prided himself on always looking scary. "Dead...dead is good! And I know just the warrior." With a snap of his clawed, bony fingers, Hades removed the cosmic chess table from his chamber, revealing a hole in the ground to a smaller, but more intense vortex than the one just outside (across which Sora continued to coax his team at this very moment). The Lord of the Dead formed fireballs in both hands and dumped them into the pit.

"So, what's down...there?" Pete backed away slowly as smoke and flames began to rise from the pit.

"Oh, just the Underworld's deepest dungeon. This time I'm bringing out the mother of all bad guys!" Hades watched with glee as smoke and flying embers rose around the silhouette of a human form.

"Is..that so? Well, maybe I should go." Pete vanished in a puff of smoke (Pete-brand teleportation smokescreens are always 100% fire and brimstone free; fun for the whole family!).

The smoke cleared, and the pit closed off with a seamless layer of rock. The person revealed, however, was certainly no "mother of all bad guys." He wore a red coat, carried a large sword, and wore small, dark sunglasses, but gave off more of an anti-hero vibe than malice.

Hades addressed the battle-scarred man in a clipped tone. "Let's cut to the chase. Here's the deal I'm going to offer you. I let you out of the slammer - no strings, you'll be free as a bird. A living bird, too. And all for one little favor: fight Hercules, in the Colosseum, to the death!"

The man's response was delivered with a sneer. "This is my story. And you're not part of it."

Hades didn't take such casual rejection calmly. "Did you forget who you're talking to!? I am the Lord of the Dead!" Hades' hair flared up, his claws extended, and he loomed over the man.

The man was decidedly unimpressed. "Heh. No wonder no one wants to die."

"That's it! You are FIRED!" With literal fire, of course. Hades' skin and hair turned red, and he lunged forward with a burning punch, but he had to catch the ex-prisoner's giant sword instead of landing a blow. Impressively, the man held off the god's divine strength with just his right hand, as his left was bound up in his coat like a sling; a casualty of some great battle long ago. This was the scene Sora and company barged in on. "You again!?" Still, Hades was able to overpower his opponent, and the man had to back off a few paces. This gave Hades an opening to rain some massive fireballs on the mortal, which brought him to his knees.

His self-appointed mission momentarily forgotten, Sora interposed himself between Hades and the stranger. "Get up!"

Hades was really fired up now. Forget Hercules; here was another upstart punk who needed some divine retribution for the humiliation Hades suffered at the Games a few months ago. "Oh yeah! This is gonna be good!"

Sora was still the superior fighter; for all his power and fire, Hades spent a lot more time manipulating his chess pieces from his throne than actually fighting. However, none of Sora's attacks did any damage. Whether it was Blizzard spells or swinging the Keyblade, it all just passed through Hades as though the god was made of smoke.

"Hah ha ha! Is that really all you've got, kiddo?" Hades made a show of plucking some brimstone from his ear while Sora tried another futile combo, then punched the Keyblade wielder across the room.

"That's not working. One more trick to try... Goofy, give me strength!" Sora attempted to engage Valor Form...nothing happened, not that it would have helped. "Huh? I...feel funny." The cloud of smoke from his first steps into the Underworld reappeared, canceling Sora's attempt to draw power from his friends and effectively locking down his Drive power.

Hades gladly explained. "Oh, right! See, that's the curse of the Underworld. 'In the Underworld, heroes...are zeroes.' Comes with the territory." Hades was still red with rage, but now he seemed relaxed as he lazily swung a few more punches.

The stranger picked himself off the floor and shook Sora's shoulder. "We can't fight him here."

"Oh, that's right! Hades, we need to talk!" Sora shouted at the god.

"What was that?" Hades made a show of sticking his bony fingers in his ears, then pulled out huge fireballs from each ear. "I couldn't hear you over the sound of you punks burning to death!"

"We have to go! Now!" The old warrior dragged Sora out of the chamber, followed by Donald and Goofy. They got clear just as Hades' attack blew up most of the room.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Escape from the Underworld!

Sora, Donald, and Goofy worked together to close the doors to Hades' chamber, then leaned against the sealed entrance to block him. Donald huffed, "Is he gone?"

"Don't count on it," the mystery man muttered ominously.

Sure enough, when Sora looked to his side, Hades was leaning against the door next to him. "Leaving so soon?" With a snap of his fingers, Hades summoned a group of Heartless to power a Dark Barrier that blocked the bridge. Sora and company immediately started fighting the Heartless off, joined by the stranger. The man's blade was just as effective as the Keyblade in slaying the monsters, despite having no power behind it but his own muscles and only one functional arm. In no time, the mixed group of Search Bats and Rabid Dogs were dispatched, and the barrier fell.

The group raced along the path until they were stopped by another barrier and another set of Heartless, this time a mix of Shadows, Soldiers and Lance Soldiers, who were really two Heartless that appeared together but did not get along. The Soldier would continually try to catch the Lance, who kept bouncing out of reach, but on the rare occasions when it caught the weapon and wielder worked together, the Lance Soldier could deal wide-ranging, powerful attacks. And the whole time, Hades harried the party with thrown fireballs, making sure they knew he was invincible (even to his own reflected attacks) and that the heroes' only choice was to scramble away.

The final barrier was right before the safe zone in the Inner Chamber, guarded by all the Heartless seen previously and a Large Body. The stranger turned to Sora and said, "We'll need to work together for this."

"Right with you, whoever you are!" In response to an unspoken cue, Sora and the newcomer launched into a series of spin attacks and jumping slashes, powered by a similar energy to Valor Form's Brave Shot. The Heartless were ripped apart in short order. The warrior nodded from Sora to Hades, and Sora got the hint. "Let's go!"

"Your pain shall be twofold!" The mystery man threw his sword toward Sora, who copied the move and met it with his Keyblade. The two weapons clashed, then spun together in midair faster and faster, until they produced a massive cyclone of wind, dust, and debris. Hades was left undamaged, but the wind still blew him far enough away for the party to escape his wrath.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Underworld: Inner Chamber...

Sora and company tumbled into the safe zone and collapsed in exhaustion. They needed a minute or two for the safe zone to heal their wounds, so Sora tried to learn more about the stranger who'd dragged them here. "You're really strong! Are you some kind of hero?"

The man scoffed. "No, I'm no hero. I'm just a..." He trailed off.

"Then what are you?" Sora wondered.

"Auron."

"What's that?"

"My name."

"Oh. Well, Auron, I'm Sora, and these are Donald and Goofy. We were going to try to talk some sense into Hades, but...I guess that's not going to work." Sora recovered enough to stand again. Donald and Goofy climbed on his shoulders to get a better look at Auron, but their combined weight sent the trio tumbling to the ground.

Auron appraised the pile of strangers; they obviously had a long way to go, but Auron knew a great destiny when he saw it. "We may have been fated to meet. Perhaps you need a guardian."

Donald and Goofy rolled off Sora, who stood up and brushed himself off. "Thanks, but no thanks. We can take care of ourselves."

Donald chimed in. "Yeah, 'cuz we're heroes!" Chest thump!

Goofy reminded him, "Junior Heroes, Donald!" Grr.

Auron turned to the door. "Either way, we can't fight Hades in his own realm. We've got to escape. Make sure you're rested up and ready to fight."

"Got it." Sora's group passed around a few Potions, but Auron pushed away the one they offered to him, instead using his own healing spell. It only took a few seconds to recharge his mana in the safe zone, and he didn't like getting help from others, only giving it.

The party was just about to move on when something red landed on Goofy's head. "Gah, dammit, Celica! If you're going to get lost, at least get lost where I can see you! You're going to get me blown up if you just run off!" The newcomer pushed himself up, grumbling under his breath, and moved on without so much as glancing at the people he'd fallen on. The parts of his appearance that stood out included a red jacket, a bunch of belts, and a giant sword. Apparently, the red-jacket-with-sword look was in style this year. The big differences between this man and Auron were that he had white hair instead of Auron's gray-black, and looked significantly younger, even from behind. He also had a limp arm, but this man was restricted to his left hand. "Celica! Where are you!?"

"Over here, Ragna!" The gruff voice of the man, Ragna, was answered by a sweet, feminine call from further up the tunnel.

"Well, at least you didn't go too far. Let's get out of here; we're probably already late. Come to think of it, where's Noel?"

The girl Ragna was talking to, Celica, met him at the connection between the Inner Chamber and the tunnels. She had brown hair in a ponytail and brown eyes, and wore a sort of student's uniform with a cape. "I don't know. She stopped running for some reason, so I just went ahead. She'll probably catch up."

Ragna facepalmed with his working arm. "No, she probably knew you were going to get lost again. That's what I get for letting you hold the map."

"I am not lost!" Celica stamped her foot.

Ragna raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then where are we?" Sora and company were still standing on the sidelines, caught between a desire to introduce themselves, a desire to stay out of unnecessary confusion, and a desire to continue watching the humorous exchange.

"I have the map right here. Let's see... We're... Huh, the map doesn't say anything about a cave..." Celica's big, expressive eyes flitted left and right across the map, and Sora found it more difficult not to chuckle when he realized she was reading it upside down.

Ragna declared, "Lost. We're so lost, we couldn't even find ourselves on this map even if you were actually holding it right-side up."

"Oh, that's what I was doing wrong!" Celica cheerfully flipped the map and began scanning it again.

"Well, that's a...OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT!?" Ragna's gruff demeanor suddenly shifted to screaming terror. He pointed a trembling finger over Celica's shoulder, and she slowly turned around to see...

...A wispy, ethereal, but entirely harmless ball of light floating in midair, measuring about a foot across its featureless diameter. "Ooh, I think it's a ghost! I didn't know ghosts looked like that! It's kind of cute!"

"G-g-g-g-g-g-g-g..." Ragna was reduced to a mess of nerves who could only repeat one letter.

Celica asked in concern, "What's wrong, Ragna? You look like you've seen a ghost! Well, I guess we did, but it's not that scary."

"GHOOOOST!" Ragna turned and bolted away from the harmless spirit, and almost bowled Sora's party over again. "Get outta my way, whoever you are! I'm not sticking around here to get eaten by ghosts!"

Sora asked earnestly, "If you're scared of ghosts, why in the worlds would you go anywhere near the Underworld?"

Ragna jumped again. "The Underworld?! H-hey, I'm n-not s-s-scared of g-g-g-ghosts, punk..." Ragna tried to rebuild his angry, badass image, but it was a little late for that.

Donald chuckled. "Tell that to that ghost there!" He pointed at a new wisp that formed right over Ragna's shoulder.

Ragna's high-pitched squeal was priceless; Yuuki Terumi would have paid millions of Platinum Dollars to buy a recording. Ragna reflexively grabbed his sword and swung it at the ball of light, which dispersed in a burst of mana.

Donald explained, "They don't hurt anyone, but you can hit them for extra mana! They'll just reform later, anyway. Dead people don't feel pain here." Donald demonstrated by bonking his Mage's Staff against another spirit. "I wonder if I'm a bad person for thinking it's fun to whack these things?"

Celica chimed in, "I'm sure they're just happy to help! Speaking of dead people, though, who are you?" she turned to address Auron.

"No one important."

"His name's Auron; he's really strong!" These were the simultaneous reactions of Auron and Goofy, respectively.

Auron turned to Ragna. "Ragna, was it? You have even less business here than I do; why don't you just go back through that rift?" He gestured to the Time Break that Ragna had fallen through.

"I t-think I'll do t-that. C'mon, Celica, w-we're supposed to be in Ibukido right now! Let's g-get out of here and catch up with Noel." Ragna scooped Celica up with his working arm and jumped through the Time Break with her in a definite hurry.

Sora recognized the rift. "Oh yeah, that Kagura guy said to help close these." He summoned the Keyblade and fired a Seal beam at it, but aside from a few sparks, there was no effect. "Right...we need help from that side, too."

Goofy pointed out, "Well, why can't we just pass through it ourselves?"

Sora nodded. "Good point. I'm sure someone will notice us and help out. Hey, Auron, do you want to check it out, too?"

Auron shook his head. "No, my place is in this world, so I'll be here until you return. Good luck, Sora."

"Thanks! Alright, guys, let's check out this 'Azure Timeline' we keep hearing about!" The three friends jumped through the Time Break.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Azure Timeline: just outside Ibukido...

The Azure Timeline end of the Time Break had formed in a featureless wasteland, which was all that was left of the Earth outside the Hierarchical Cities after the Black Beast and its postmortem seithr secretions were through with it. Celica had somehow managed to get lost in a flat wasteland, even with the ruined mountain of Ibukido in plain view with its humongous black pillar that rose to the clouds.

Sora and company were more concerned with the seithr density. People born in this generation breathed seithr all the time, but Sora's group had never experienced it, so the wavering clouds of raw possibility particles sent the group into a harsh coughing fit. "Ugh, what is with the air around here?"

"*Krrzt* Hey, kid! Are you Sora?" A voice spoke into Sora's head, but there was a lot of static noise.

"*Cough, cough* That's me. I dunno how you're *cough* talking in my head, but I need some help closing this Time Break. Didn't Kagura call you Kokonoe?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out. I'll be there before you can say 'Help Me! Professor Kokonoe!' You show up loud and clear on my sensors, so I need to sort you out before any unpleasant folks catch on. I've got a few new gadgets to test out, anyway." The air in front of Sora sparked and distorted, and Kokonoe teleported in. Sora was so surprised at the pink-haired catgirl's appearance that he stopped coughing for a moment. "Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot. Catch." The genius abruptly tossed a rectangular device to Sora, who managed to catch it after a couple of fumbles. "Radio. It's a direct line to me, so you don't need to come get me in person. If you find a Time Break, press the red button. Now get your asses back through that one before you come down with any long-term effects of seithr poisoning." Despite Kokonoe's rough language and the cloud of possibility-poison in his lungs, Sora managed a grateful smile before tumbling back through the rift.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

And now back to our regularly-scheduled timeline...

Sora gulped a deep breath of seithr-free air. Sure, it was the stale air of the Underworld, but at least it wasn't noticeably poisonous. He then pushed the red button on the radio he'd been given, just to test it. "Hello?"

Kokonoe's voice came out of the device. "Yeah, I hear you. Get ready to close the Time Break." The rift began to glow almost immediately, so Sora hurriedly shot another Seal beam at it. This time, the Time Break shrank down to nothing. As soon as it disappeared, Sora's radio gave off a horrible screeching sound.

"Agh!" Sora turned the device over until he found the power switch, which cut off the noise when he flipped it. "I guess we can't get reception after the Time Break closes. Remind me to get this thing off before then next time guys." Sora placed the radio in his right Pocket of Holding for safekeeping.

Goofy gave him a thumbs up. "Gotcha! Now let's get going!"

"Any more distractions, Sora?" Auron asked while leaning against the chamber wall. Sora shook his head, so Auron turned and started walking without a word, leaving the rest of the group to catch up.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Meanwhile, in Hades' Chamber...

Pete was still spouting on about how awesome his (Maleficent's) plan was. "I got Heartless all over the Underworld now, so you can leave those pipsqueaks to me! You just focus on turnin' Hercules into a Heartless - then he'll be all mine!"

Hades flared up; Pete shut up. "This is MY Underworld, you idiot! I'll handle this myself!" Hades turned to the window and called to his favorite pet. "Cerberus, go!"

"So, 'handle it yourself', huh?" Pete chuckled. "Looks to me like you're still sendin' minions at 'em! Just different ones."

Hades grit his fangs. "Yes, laugh all you want. I've already locked the gates; nobody comes in, nobody goes out. It'll hold up new dead souls for a few minutes, but those pint-sized pests can't possibly get out of the Underworld before the unkillable Cerberus finds them."

Pete scratched under his chin, pondering the merits of this plan. It sounded good in concept, but there was something telling him it wouldn't work. "Eh, if it works, it works. Just keep on Hercules."

Honestly, who did this punk think he was, ordering a god around? "No, you keep your mouth shut and get out! Tell your 'mistress' that I am opting out of her club, and if she doesn't like it, she's free to come down here to discuss it with my fire blasts. Not even she can beat me down here." Hades flicked his wrist, flinging the doors to his chambers open.

"Okay, okay! Yeesh." Pete scuttled out the door, but then poked his head back in. "Hey, uh, does this mean you'll open the gate for me?"

"GO!" Hades punctuated his shout with a beam of fire that narrowly missed Pete.

"Right! Ta-ta!" Pete was gone so fast that his words seemed to be spoken by the dusty outline he left behind.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Underworld: Cave of the Dead...

Sora and company made good time back up the tunnels. With Auron's help, the Heartless barely posed a threat. They emerged into the large chamber between the tunnels and the Underworld Entrance. The last obstacle was the giant, blue gateway they'd come through earlier.

Oddly, the gate didn't seem as willing to let them through in the other direction. Goofy stepped back from the group's fruitless yanking, and found the problem. "It's locked!" There was indeed a massive, stone lock on the gate, with thick chains extending in an X shape to hold it shut. Sora wasn't worried; he summoned the Keyblade.

Auron asked, "Will that open it?"

"Yeah, I think so. It always-" Sora was cut off by a thunderous growl from behind them. The party slowly turned around to see the three-headed dog, Cerberus, stomping toward them. Everyone jumped out of the way as the guard dog pounced.

Auron engaged the beast at close range, keeping its three heads occupied by himself. "Open it!"

Sora nodded and immediately Released the gate lock. Donald and Goofy shoved the gate open and charged through, and Sora made to follow, but he noticed Auron wasn't doing the same.

"Sora, wait!" Donald called as Sora turned back to help Auron fight off Cerberus. A Dark Barrier formed over the gate, splitting the party in half.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Help Auron defeat Cerberus!

Sora knew he could handle Cerberus, even without his Drive ability. After all, he'd beaten it alongside Donald and Goofy when it crashed the Games last time, and again by himself in the Hades Cup. This time, the dog seemed more fond of jumping around and creating shockwaves than spewing Darkness into the ground, though its homing fireballs were still present. Sora waited until it stopped moving to shoot fireballs, then signaled Auron for an Overdrive combo attack.

Cerberus seemed tougher than last time in terms of defense, at least - it managed to take the entire combo without faltering, and almost snagged Sora between its three jaws. Sora jumped up to escape, caught another bite with his Keyblade, yanked himself and his weapon free, and slammed down hard on the monster's forehead. It was left stunned, and the Dark Barrier went down. Sora got an idea.

The Keyblade wielder ran for the gate and reached Donald and Goofy, then rapidly explained his plan. When Cerberus got its heads together and looked around for its prey, it saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy taunting it. They were sticking their tongues out, making stupid faces, and (in Auron's case) getting away. Enraged, the guard dog charged at the group at full speed, which was the prompt for Donald and Goofy to slam the gate shut at the last minute. The group heard nothing more from Cerberus, besides a very satisfying thump from its heads impacting the impervious gate at a full sprint.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Underworld: Entrance...

Sora and company exchanged high-fives. "Great work, guys! Auron, are you okay from fighting it by yourself? ...Auron?" The veteran warrior had simply vanished. He'd definitely followed them through the gate...then again, as far as Sora could tell, Auron was already dead when they met him. Maybe he couldn't leave the Underworld? "Well, we've got to tell Meg it didn't work. Maybe Hercules knows how to beat the Underworld's curse." The party climbed the many, many stairs out of the Underworld, and were pleasantly surprised when each step was easier than the last, due to the Underworld's strength-sapping curse fading as they got farther away.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Back in Hades' Chamber...

Hades saw the whole thing, including how Sora had subverted the locked-gate part of his plan. He'd called Pete back to explain it. "So let me get this straight. That brat's Keyblade opens any lock?"

"Yup, and the Heartless don't do so well fighting it, either."

Hades began to form another plan. "Have I ever told you about the killer Colosseum we have right here in the Underworld? It makes the one upstairs look like an Olympic kiddie pool!"

Pete liked the sound of that. "Then that's where we end Herc the Jerk's winning streak!"

Hades deadpanned, "Problem: Zeus locked it tight, and I don't have the key."

Pete deflated, but then remembered the earlier topic of conversation, and put two and two together. "Heeey, I get it..."

"Bingo. All we gotta do is swipe that key, and reopen the Underdrome!"

Pete had more bad news, though. "Hate to tell ya, but that key is kinda particular. It won't work for just anyone, and that kid ain't no pushover!"

Hades had expected that; he'd seen Riku and Sora's little tug-of-war over the weapon in Hollow Bastion through his own scrying table. Of course, there were many ways to trick heroes into doing one's dirty work, and Hades had some bait in mind. "I think this calls for a woman's touch..."

To be continued in Chapter 18...

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

A/N: Yeah, this world went on forever, as has the wait since last update. I'm splitting it up to get something posted and get to work on the next part of the side story I posted under Blue Skies, Kingdom Hearts Online.

I came up with an explanation as to why no one from the Heart Timeline has crossed over so far - the Azure Timeline is covered in seithr. For the locals, it's something they're used to, but for people who don't know what to expect, it'd be very unpleasant. Even Ragna can be caught off guard when the seithr concentration rises too far.