Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, I wouldn't be writing about it.

Chapter 2 - Hades's Infection

I slowly regained consciousness and sat up, peering around hazily. "Woah... Where am I...?" My eyes halted on a brown-robed figure, hood over his face. After a moment, he spoke quietly, "There can only be one Keybearer..." I got to my feet and stared at him in confusion. Blinking, I looked around, more concerned about where I was than what the heck that guy was doing there with me. "Hey...," I said to no one in particular, "Where's my..." I broke off as my red and black weapon appeared in my hand. I smiled. "Cool. Anyway... What are you talking about..?" He stayed silent for a minute or two, then spoke again (finally), "You will fail... You will be lost to the darkness." I stared at him like he was nuts, confused and scared. In an impulsive act of defiance, I burst out angrily, "No. I won't. I won't lose!" We regarded each other for a moment (at least I think we did, I couldn't see his face.), then my eyes closed without warning and I fell back, into darkness.

Then I really woke up. Glancing around, my gaze landed on a short, fat guy with hooves. I just stared at him for a moment, then, "Eh?" The fat satyr turned away from me and called to someone, "Hey! She's awake...finally!" and walked off. Well, more like waddled.

I sat up slowly with a groan, my back cracking loudly and painfully. "Ouchie...," I murmured quietly, trying my best to rub it. "What happened..?" I asked quieter still, thinking back. A memory flashed in my mind. A huge black hand hitting my right side of my back and sending me flying. "Oh," I said dumbly. Blinking, I looked around suspiciously, obviously wondering what the heck was going on and where I was. My gaze stopped on an orange-haired, bulky guy that was approaching me. "Hey," he called, raising a hand in greeting. "Hi...," I answered, trying to stand up and failing miserably, the pain in my side almost too much to bear. The guy frowned at me in concern. "Now, now, don't try to stand up. You're badly hurt." I stopped moving and eyed him. "How bad?" "Well... Umm... You have three broken ribs. I think something hit you on the right side of your back really hard." I grimaced. "No kidding." Changing the subject, the guy introduced himself. "I'm Hercules, but you can call me Herc," he said, then pointed to the satyr. "And that's Phil." I nodded slowly. "I'm Rhia. Nice to meet you... I guess."

Phil called Herc over to the other side of the room to discuss something and Herc walked away, leaving me by myself. A burst of blue fire appeared, making me jump, then vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving a blue guy with black robes standing there, eyeing me like he was a dog and I was a bone or something. I raised an eyebrow at him as he said, "Hey there, how ya doin', kid?" He waited a moment for a response, received none, and went on, "I'm Hades, God of the Underworld. I s'pose you'd like those ribs to be healed, wouldn't 'cha?" I nodded slightly, staring at him, basically struck dumb. He went on, "Well, if I fix them for ya, you're gonna have to do something for me in return." I came back to my senses at that and eyed him suspiciously. "What...?" "You're going to have to fight the boy with the Key.. To the death," he answered, grinning rather sinisterly.

"Hmm..." I smirked slightly, kinda liking the sound of this (violence is fun). "When?" "Soon. I'll let you know," Hades replied, "Now, lemme fix those ribs 'o yours!" He waved a hand around with a dumb little flourish and pointed it at my broken ribs. A purplish black substance vanished from his hand into my side, healing my ribs instantly. My eyes turned a darker gray, almost black, unbeknownst to me. I didn't feel any different, just better and stronger than I had a moment before, which I immediately connected to have been influenced by my broken ribs, now healed.

Hades glanced up at Hercules and Phil, and seeing that they were almost finished with their discussion, and blue flames started to engulf him again. "Remember... This is our secret." I nodded and he vanished.

Hercules came back over and I stood up, relishing the fact that the pain was now gone. Herc blinked at me, startled, then smiled broadly. "Hey, you're all better!" he said happily, obviously taking no notice of my eyes either. "Yep," I answered rather emotionlessly. "Great!" He kept rambling on, "You should go train in the ring! The tournaments are going to start soon and if you want to compete–" I cut him off with, "Good idea. I'll start right now." and walked outside and stepped into the ring.

I trained, ate, and slept for about a week or so, rarely talking to anyone, only speaking when spoken to. Little did I know, the darkness that Hades had used to heal me with had been spreading through my body, infecting me. Finally, after that long week of waiting, the Coliseum opened and the seats filled rapidly with cheering people. I was leaning against a wall when Hades appeared next to me.

I turned my head towards him unflinchingly and he grinned when he saw my eyes. They had darkened all the way to black and were flecked with a continuously shifting yellow, red, green, and purple. Hades announced, "You're up first. Just battle all the way to the top and wait for the kid with the Key to compete. If he's lucky, he won't get all the way up to you. However, we don't want that.. When he does make it up to you... Well, you know." I grinned and he disappeared in a poof of flame, thinking to himself, 'Excellent... Her memories of that brat have been erased, too.' I pushed myself off the wall and headed into the sunlight. The crowd cheered wildly as I walked into the ring. Reaching a hand out in front of me, I closed my eyes and called the same black and red weapon that I had gotten a week ago with my mind. It appeared in my hand with a flash of light, causing the crowd to cheer louder still.

My first enemy appeared in front of me and I attacked, slicing it up rather badly before it disappeared, defeated. I advanced ten more rounds with ease, then was finally at the top, ready to defeat a blonde kid named Cloud. I eyed him disdainfully, obviously unimpressed, and lunged, swinging my weapon at him swiftly. He parried the blow with his odd sword (ick) and leaped backwards. We circled the ring, staring at each other intently, looking for an opening. I forced myself to look relaxed, a ply to draw him in a attack. After a moment, he came at me, ready to slice and dice, a triumphant look on his face, expecting to catch me with my guard down. I ducked his sword and swung mine, landing a fairly decent blow (again, skipping details...)

I smirked triumphantly as Cloud fell heavily, unconscious (I won, if you hadn't guessed that yet). The crowd was still going crazy as I walked out of the ring and back to my shadowed wall. I sighed as I leaned against it, rather bored, and watched the other competitors. Finally, the names Sora, Donald, and Goody were called. An odd looking trio strode into the center of the ring, a brown-haired kid that looked about my age, a duck, and a dog. I stared at the brown-haired one, an emotion that might have been recognition flickering in my eyes for a moment, then vanishing as quickly as it had come and they went black once more. Hades appeared next to me (yes, it was getting rather annoying) and said, pointing, "That's the guy." I blinked. "The duck?" "No!" Hades glared at me, looking irritated. "The one in the middle. Sora." "Ah," I answered, smirking slightly. Hades rolled his eyes, calming himself with an obvious effort. "Ok. Remember... to the death." I nodded stiffly. "Right." With that, Hades disappeared again.

I watched Sora, Donald, and Goofy fight for the next half hour, studying their battle styles and forming strategies on how to defeat them with ease. I grinned savagely as my name was called and pushed off the wall, walking towards the ring. Sora's eyes were rather wide, as if he knew who the name Rhia was appointed to. I stepped into the sunlight slowly, almost majestically, the light slowly creeping up my body and to my face, my silver and black hair gently fluttering with the wind. My black eyes met Sora's blue ones and he stepped back a bit, looking shocked. I entered the ring, head held high, already looking triumphant. Sora stepped towards me, smiling slightly. "Rhia... So this is where you've been." I eyed him emotionlessly, giving no sign that I knew who he was and said nothing. He frowned, glancing back at the duck and the dog for a moment, then turned back to me, puzzled. "Don't you remember me? We used to hang out at the island. With Riku and Kairi. Remember?" The crowd was silent, watching us intently (and probably wondering why the heck we weren't fighting yet). My eyes cleared for a moment, like a fog lifted from them, the shifting colors disappearing. "I...," I said hesitantly, trying to remember. The shifting colors appeared in my eyes again. "I don't." I closed my eyes and reached out a hand, calling my blade to me. It appeared in my hand with a flash and I grinned and crouched, ready to attack.

Sora jumped back, rather startled, and his own weapon appeared in his hand. I eyed it, looking grim. 'So...,' I thought, 'He's a Keybearer.. whatever that means.' I leaped at him, only to be knocked back by Goofy's shield. I glared at the dumb dog, already full of battle rage, and swung my blade as hard as I could at him, knocking him out of the ring. His head hit on the of the pillars on the way out, knocking him out. I grinned savagely. Donald and Sora both rushed at me, looking rather ticked. Donald jumped up and came flying towards me like a maniac, screeching out who-knows-what. I reached up a hand and grabbed his bill, much to his surprised. In one fluid motion, I whirled around, the duck still in tow , and threw him out of the ring. After he hit the ground, I swore I could see little stars circling his head. I laughed silently and turned to see Sora charging at me, weapon raised. I dodged easily as he swung, smirking, and poked the back of his head comically. He teetered for a moment, losing his balance, then recovered, and whipped around glaring daggers at me. He ran at me, swinging his blade like a crazy person, obviously furious. I just kept dodging, toying with him.

Finally, I decided to end it. I swung at Sora quickly, giving no warning at all. He lifted his weapon and parried the blow–but just barely. I backed off a bit, eyeing him for a moment, then lunged again, attacking relentlessly, almost insanely. He blocked all my strikes (amazingly), looking rather desperate, until I knocked him off balance again. Grinning evilly, I raised my blade, ready to finish him off. Meanwhile, Hercules, who had been watching the whole thing with morbid interest, watched me with wide eyes, well aware are what I was going to do. He charged up to the ring, planning to separate us. I paused and snapped my fingers in boredom, causing a shimmering force field to appear, cutting Sora and me off from everyone else. The crowd was silent, their eyes all glued to me.

I narrowed my eyes at Sora and lifted my blade again and swung down towards him swiftly. I stopped as I was suddenly bombarded with memories of the island, the blade hovering inches above his head.

I was once again sneaking up on Riku, ready to pounce, when he held up a hand and said, "Hello, Rhia." without even turning around. I glared at the back of his head. "How didja know?" I asked. "That's my secret," he replied, turning around. "Anyways... Let's go find Sora and Kairi." "Fine," I answered, turned around, and ran off, planning to beat him there.

A minute after I left Riku in the dust, I spotted Sora and Kairi on the dock, staring out to the ocean. As I approached, the last words of Kairi's I heard were, "Sora.. Don't ever change." I raised a hand a waves at both of them, calling at the same time, "Hey, yous." They turned around, smiling. "Hey, Rhia," Kairi said happily, "And Riku." I glanced behind me, unsurprised to see Riku. Sora suddenly asked, "Hey, Rhia.. How old are you?" I stared at him. "You've known me for how many days now, and this is the first time it occurred to you to ask me that?" He nodded. I laughed. "Alrighty," I answered, "I'm fifteen." "Huh.. Same as me," Riku said absently. "Yep." I pointed to Sora and Kairi in turn. "Fourteen and fourteen." Sora blinked, "How'd you know?" I smiled secretly. "I have my ways..."

My blade disappeared and I staggered back from Sora, a look of shock on my face. He jumped up, eying me warily. "Do you remember now?" He asked hopefully. The force field vanished as I nodded. "Yeah... I do... Sora." My eyes cleared, turning back to their normal gray, the continuously shifting lights disappearing (much to Sora's relief, I'm sure). Hercules jogged over, looking worried. "Are you guys ok?" I nodded. "We're fine... but I don't know about Donald and Goofy." I glanced over to where Goofy was sitting, rubbing his head. Donald was still down, stars still circling his head. Sora ran over to them, looking concerned. I turned back to Herc as he said, "What happened to you?" I thought for a moment, then said "Well, I got here with three broken ribs, and someone healed them for me and–" I cut myself off, looking furious, then said, "Hades." "Hades!" Herc exploded, "I shoulda known!" "Anyway, " continued, looking reproachfully at him for interrupting me, "he healed me and at the same time he must've infected me with darkness." Hercules just looked confused (and rather stupid). "Eh?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Never mind..." Under my breath, I whispered, "Oaf." I walked towards Sora and the now standing Donald and Goofy, who were eyeing me with distrust. Sora gestured towards me and said to them, "See? She's one of the ones I told you about. Rhia." I nodded at them coldly. Donald walked up to me, staff raised, and regarded me for a moment, then said, "I don't trust her." I raised an eyebrow as Goofy came up and bumped Donald out of the way. "Huyuck, I dunno, Donald. She looks nice to me." I rose my head a bit and looked at Sora over Goofy's shoulder expectantly. "You can come with us, Rhia," he said, "we're going to find Riku, Kairi, and the King." At my confused look, he said, "I'll explain later." At my nod, Sora smiled. "Alright! Let's go!"

I poked Sora as he was about to run off and said, "One problem... How are we supposed to get out of there?" He grinned. "You'll see." I raised an eyebrow skeptically and shrugged. "Ok then..." Sora turned to Herc and waved at him. "Bye, Herc!" As an afterthought, he added, "And Phil!" With that, we all ran to the door and opened it. I looked around, frowning. "What...?" I stopped in the middle of the question as a big, colorful ship few into sight. I stared at it for a moment, then said blankly, "Ah."