Introduction to a Princess
Sora and the others teleported into the Main Lobby of the Olympus Stadium.
As Sora looked around he could see that they had really renovated it in the year that he had been gone. The brown stone was polished and new and the arena was newly constructed out of many colored crystals, some of it looked like it had come from Hollow Bastion.
"Kid! You're back!" said a voice near him. Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at the arena. Coming from there was a short, satyr, half man half goat. Phil shook Sora's hand quickly. "Nice to see you guys again. So, come to participate in the Tournaments this time!"
"You bet" said Donald, already thinking about the trophies they would get.
"Well…" said Phil. "I'm afraid the Tournaments are cancelled."
"What?!" gasped the dynamic trio at the same time.
"Yep. It's a fact" said Phil. "See, Herc went off to marry Meg and now I'm here by myself. No one's really interested in Tournaments anymore…well at least not these kinds of Tournaments."
"What do you mean these kinds of Tournaments?" asked Sora.
"Well, Hades is doing really well with his Underdrome being the center of all fighting for this world."
"Well, maybe we should go there?" Goofy suggested.
"Yeah, I guess" said Sora. "We could always check it out…that is, if Hades still isn't mad at us for what happened last time."
"And if he is…" said Donald.
"We beat him at his own game!" said Sora and Goofy together. They all laughed.
"We'll be back, Phil" called Sora. "We just want to see what kind of stuff Hades has down in the Underworld for us."
"Wait!" Phil called, but they had already passed through the Portal to the Underworld. "The Tournaments aren't exactly…for mortals."
As Sora and his friends walked down the stairway to the Underworld, they felt the familiar cold of the place envelope them.
"Gwarsh, this place is spooky" said Goofy. "I wonder what kind of Tournaments Hades puts on here."
"Knowing him, nothing good" said Donald.
"Yeah" said Sora, grimacing as he stepped into a pool of cold green sludge. "I wonder if his fighters are Heartless, or--- huh?!"
Suddenly he was knocked down by a figure in white. A silver haired woman dressed in some kind of white tunic with armored boots ran past him, a sword clutched in her hands.
"Wha…wait!" Donald called after her. But she paid no attention.
"I wonder who that was" Goofy said.
"I wonder what she was running from" Donald worried.
"Well, whatever it was, it was bad enough to---look out!" Sora called.
In a matter of minutes, a hoard of Dusks came flipping out of the Great Doors that led to the other areas of the Underworld.
"Get ready" said Donald. "We've gotta fight!"
"There's no need" said a voice from further along the rocky trail. They saw an Organization member teleport to that spot. "Who are you?" Sora asked.
"Please Roxas, there isn't any need to raise your voice" the member said. He took off his hood to reveal Luxord. "Have you seen anyone suspicious around here?" the Gambler of Fate asked.
"Well, there was---" Sora began before Donald shushed him.
"Wait Donald" said Sora. "There was one weird person here…" the Keyblade Master said. "He was this guy, dressed in a black robe."
"Hmph" said Luxord, knowing he was being made fun of. "And what happened to him?"
"He was killed by me!" Sora yelled and charged at him. "You guys hurt Kairi! And that goes way beyond my comfort zone!" he hacked down with the Kingdom Key---and Luxord vanished. Leaving the Dusks behind.
"Take that!" Donald said, blasting several Dusks with Flare. Goofy rammed another one. The Nobodies disappeared into white sparkling mist. Sora slashed out with the Keyblade, avoiding the Nobodies' blade like limbs. Soon all of them were gone.
"Where is he?" Sora yelled. "Where did he go?"
"Come on" said Goofy. "If the Organization's here, then there's got to be something that's valuable."
They ran the same way the woman in white had gone. "Hello!" Sora called.
"Where are you? You can come out now, he's gone!"
"Do you think she left?" Goofy asked.
"But how could she?" Sora said. "She couldn't have left because we would have seen her. There's only one exit, besides the Gummi ports."
"Sora, look out!" Donald yelled. A sword came out from the mist covered stones. It stabbed close to Sora's head. "What the heck was that?!" Sora yelled. The woman in white emerged. She wore a concentrated expression of a person who is used to killing. She swung the sword at Sora again.
"Wait!" Sora said as he blocked the blade. "What are you doing? We're not after you!" he said.
"Oh really?" the woman demanded. She ducked under his guard and swung at him. Only by using the guard ability was Sora able to keep from being killed. "Then why were you with the man in black?"
"He's an enemy of ours!" Sora said. "Please, don't make us use something like a spell" Sora said, seeing Donald readying his magic. "We just want to know who you are."
"Where I come from, one like me does not give that information freely" she said coldly. She attacked again.
"Please, we're trying to help" said Goofy as he blocked her sword from cutting Sora.
Finally she sighed and looked around at the misty place. "Fine. My name is Ashelia B'nagin, Princess of Dalmasca."
"Well then" said Sora. "Where is this Dalmasca place?" he asked. "Is it in the Underworld?"
"No it isn't!" Ashe said. She looked around at her surroundings. "I've never seen a place like this before. It makes me think of the Sochen Cave Palace, on the way to Archades. But that is only a passing resemblance."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at each other in confusion. They had never seen, or even heard of these places. "Are they all on one world?" asked Goofy.
Ashe glared at them. "Well of course it's all on one world! What kind of question is that?" she looked closer at Goofy. "Actually" she said, "what are you? I've never seen any of your species before…and you too" she said to Donald. "You look like a giant duck."
"Wait a minute" said Sora, stepping in. "How did you get to the Underworld?"
"I…I don't remember" said Ashe. My last memory is being hit by a sword somewhere in Rabanastre. Then it's a blank."
"Maybe you're like Auron" said Sora.
"Yeah!" said Goofy. "Maybe Hades summoned you."
"Hades?" Ashe asked. "Do you mean that blue man with…" she swallowed. "With fire for hair?"
"Yeah, that's him" said Donald.
"Why are you being chased by the Organization?" Sora asked.
Ashe shook her head. "As soon as I arrived here, I was approached by a man in a black robe. He said something about 'traveling through the darkness without becoming a Heartless'…whatever that is. All I know is that he started talking about making me into a nobody…and when I told him that I was not a nobody, I was the Princess of Dalmasca, he summoned an army of white monsters and chased me."
"That's the Organization for you" said Goofy.
"Well, maybe you could go to the surface" Sora said. "We can take you there."
"What surface. Is this…is this under Ivalice?"
"I don't know about Ivalice" said Sora, but I do know that what's at the top is a lot better than what's down here."