A/n: 6.18.11: This chapter amuses me so much. I added a conversation between Stef, Naminé and Roxas.

Disclaimer – I don't own KH or Hercules.

The sun was still shining brightly over Olympus Coliseum, and everyone was collapsed inside of the arena. Sora, Riku, Roxas, and Hercules were sitting on the bottom stands of the arena, Stefa was laying on her back with her arm cradled against her body, and the remainder of the girls were sitting on the fourth row. "That was too close," gasped Kairi, still exhausted from the encounter with Hades.

"We've rescued Hercules, at least," mumbled Naminé though she didn't seem too rejoiced.

"Herc, where's everyone else?" asked Sora.

Hercules was studying the sand very carefully. "Hades threw them in the Lock. He put the keyhole back, so you're going to have to open it to get down there."

"That won't be too hard, we can go straight there," replied Sora with ease.

Hercules shook his head. "I doubt it will be that easy, Sora. Hades has probably sent Cerberus to guard it by now."

Roxas shrugged his shoulders meekly. "That doesn't mean a thing; Sora and Auron were able to defeat Cerberus when it was just the two of them without the Olympus Stone, I remember." Sora had already gone through the introductions, including the explanation about Naminé and Roxas.

Still clearly displeased, the hero mumbled, "The Heartless count here is terrible. I'm surprised that they haven't come up here yet."

"You never told us exactly what happened," pointed out Riku. T

Hercules nodded. "Right. Well, not too long ago, three of those strange Organization members came here. When I exited the arena after a match, I saw them in the lobby," he explained. "One of them had a scythe, the other had knives and could use electricity." Kairi, Naminé and Nalani had scooted down the bleachers to get a listen. "The last one was much younger than both of them, which was obvious even though the other two were hooded; she didn't care about being seen and had a keyblade. I thought she might know you, and seemed to, but she made it obvious she was not a friend." Somewhat near them, still on the arena's floor, Stefa mumbled something incoherent about her dislike for Reixka.

"So I got ready to take the three of them out, but the girl held out her keyblade and pointed it at that one spot in the wall where you said the heart of this world was. A beam of light shot into the wall, and, the next thing I knew, they were sending hordes of Heartless at me. They left the Coliseum, but Hades went and captured all of us, including Auron."

Frowning, Stefa said, "How did we not figure this out sooner?

"The world might have disappeared for a while?" suggested Kairi, "Who knows."

Sora appeared troubled. "They unlocked the keyhole to this world? What could Organization XIII be up to?"

"We need help," declared Nalani with a look at the others. "Hades said something about having that stone, didn't he? We just need the right kind of person to help us get it."

Riku shook his head. "Like who?"

"I know someone," an unfamiliar voice called from the lobby. A tall, skinny boy with fro-like dark brown hair in a t-shirt and baggy jeans entered the arena; he looked unusually laid back. Nalani and Stefa both gasped, and the boys assumed it was for a different reason than it actually was.

Sora, Riku, and Roxas summoned their keyblades while Hercules got into a fighting stance. "Wait!" Nalani jumped off of the bleacher and ran to join the stranger, who chuckled.

"Hey, Hawaii," he greeted with a small wave. Nalani's cheeks turned a little red as she scowled at the nickname.

Hercules narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Who are you?"

The boy only glanced at him for a moment before returning his gaze to Nalani, "Ceron. Where are we, in Greece or something?"

Naminé, clearly trusting Nalani's judgement, nodded. "You could say that."

After a moment or so of silence, Sora, Riku, and Roxas allowed their weapons to disappear. "I'm confused," remarked Sora, exasperated, "Why does Nalani know you and how can you help us?"

"I met her in the darkness."

Nalani frowned a little at Ceron. "He saved me from the darkness," she corrected, to which he shrugged and smiled a little.

"And you can help how?" repeated Sora.

"I'm surprisingly stealthy. If you can distract, uh, Hades, then I can probably find that stone for you." This was a bargain they could not pass up, but who would be the bait?

Hercules answered the unasked question, "I'll distract Hades. I have a better chance at living through it than anyone else here."

"Alright, so Hercules can distract Hades, and, er, Ceron will get the stone." Roxas repeated with a nod. "Then what do the rest of us do?"

"That's simple; nothing," answered Ceron; no one liked that answer much.

Stefa pushed herself up with her right hand. "C'mon!"

"You hurt your arm. I don't think you should back into the Underworld again anytime soon," pointed out Riku, smirking when she pouted, "But Nalani should go with Ceron."

Nalani blinked and pointed at herself. "Me?"

Riku nodded, "You."

"Great! Let's get cracking, then." Ceron disappeared into the lobby and Nalani looked back at Stefa. After receiving a reassuring nod, Nalani followed after him, as did Hercules.

When they reached the gates, Hercules made Nalani and Ceron stop. "First things first, can you fight, Ceron?"

"A long sword," he answered, pulling the blade out of a scabbard on his back.

Hercules nodded, clearly relieved that Ceron could defend himself, "Got it. Now, here's the plan. I'm going to go down into the Underworld; chances are that Pain and Panic will be wandering down there. If I'm not back in seven minutes, you'll know that it's safe to go down to Hades' room, deal?" Ceron and Nalani nodded immediately. Why waste their time following after Hercules, getting found by Hades, and having their asses kicked? "Seven minutes," he repeated before descending the steps.

With a groan, Ceron fell onto the steps and Nalani mimicked his actions. "I see that you really did make it out of the darkness," he said in a conversational voice, "That's good."

"Yeah, but, to be honest, I was a little more worried about you," she stated without blushing though her heart was pounding so hard against her chest that she was shocked he couldn't hear it.

Ceron waved his hand. "A little bit of darkness never scared me," he informed her, gracing her with a rare grin.

"You know, I never really saw you smile quite so much in band," noted Nalani, and, finally, her cheeks did turn a little pink.

Ceron snorted. "With a band director like ours, can you blame me?" They both laughed.

"It's weird, though. You definitely gave me a different name in class," she remembered.

Shrugging and glancing down at his watch, he replied, "Ceron is my formal name; I gave you my nickname."

'He gave me his nickname? I don't know if I should be offended or delighted by that,' mused Nalani."It's been about seven minutes. Let's go," he announced.

One of the first things that she noticed as they headed toward the Cave of the Dead was that the boat from earlier was missing. "Hercules must have gone into the Coliseum over there," she remarked, looking across the River Styx; sure enough, the coliseum's lights were blazing.

"Hopefully he can last against Hades. He looks strong enough, but he isn't a god, so..." Ceron muttered right before they entered the Cave. As they walked down it, Nalani realized that she'd much rather fly on Pegasus again, but it would look a little suspicious if Hades or one of his little spies saw them flying on the winged-horse. Well, alright, even going through the Cave of the Dead on foot was suspicious, but at least they were a little bit less noticeable.

As Hercules had promised, the amount of Heartless was dreadful but, at least, there weren't too many Nobodies. Ceron was surprisingly skilled with his long sword, and they reached the Valley much quicker than she had anticipated. "So far so good," declared Ceron in a cheerful voice that she had never heard him use before. Nalani reached forward and knocked on his head with her free hand; the look she received from him was priceless.

As if this was perfectly normal and his reaction was the one that was odd, she rolled her eyes. "Well, I don't need you to jinx us now that we're so far." He laughed at her, and she vaguely wondered if it was a good laugh or a she's-so-psycho laugh. Either way, she decided that she liked his laugh though, admittedly, the fact that he laughed more in the middle of the Underworld than he ever had in band class said much about the class.

They zigzagged up the odd path, defeating Heartless and Nobodies, until they finally reached the god's chambers. Hurriedly, they ran up the stairs, and were extremely relieved to find it empty. "Did Hercules ever say what that stone looks like?" Ceron asked as they began to look around the room.

Nalani chewed her lip as she thought back. "It's a little golden metal with a lightning bolt on it."

"That should be easy to find in a place like this," he said without sarcasm; it was true, the medal should have shone like a beacon.

She poked her head around the throne and spotted a small golden spec on the ground. "I think I found it." She announced, bending down to pick it up. Sure enough, it was a golden medal with a lightning bolt etched into it. "Someone's a little careless."

"When you rule over the dead, I think you're allowed to be," stated Ceron, smirking.

XxX

"When Nalani and Ceron come back with the stone, we should go to the Lock," decided Roxas.

Sora appeared troubled by this plan. "What about Herc? He's probably in the Underworld's coliseum, fighting Hades or something."

"C'mon, Sora," Kairi said with a smile as she sat beside him. "You said that Hercules is really strong. I bet he can hold off Hades until we come back with reinforcements."

"I'm a little worried about something," remarked Riku; it was the first time he had spoken since the others had left. "Sora, you said that that cave collapsed after your battle with Pete, so wouldn't it be unstable?"

Sora thought about this for a minute before shaking his head. "It only came down because we were fighting Pete and his Heartless down there. Things got a little rowdy. If we don't have to do any fighting, we should be okay. And, besides, we only have to teleport ourselves out of there with the beam of light, anyway." Riku nodded in reply although he still didn't appear too convinced.

"You worry too much, Riku," said Stefa in a happy-go-lucky voice as she cradled her left arm into the air.

He raised an eyebrow at her before mumbling, "And for good reason."

Naminé settled on the bleacher closest to Stefa, who had returned to the ground, saying something about it being the most comfortable. "Give me your arm." With anyone else, Stefa would have fussed or outright refused but, with Naminé, she held out her left arm, wincing a little in the process. The cool tip of Chain of Memories touched her skin, "Curaga." Stefa was, admittedly, immediately reminded of Aerith as light green vines engulfed her body, healing her completely.

She winced a little in expectation as she bent her arm around, but it felt as good as new. Stefa managed a smile, "You're healing magic could rival Aerith's." Taking this as a huge compliment, Naminé smiled in thanks. "Could I ask you something? I... know it's different for you, but... When you were born, did you ever... hate people with hearts? When you found out about Kairi, did you hate her?"

Stefa felt odd for asking Naminé of all people that question; in her mind, the artist was not capable of such an awful emotion. And, much to her lack of surprise, Naminé shook her head. "I can't say I did. But, you know, it's different with Reixka. She had your heart for a while. That doesn't make her wanting to kill you right at all, but I suppose it could sort of shed a light on her feelings."

Roxas sat down beside Naminé as he joined in on their conversation. "I don't... think I ever hated Sora. In the alternate Twilight Town, I was upset, mostly because I figured out my time there was a lie, but I never hated Sora. I wanted to meet him."

Stefa sat up a little and leaned back on her forearms as she stared up at the sun. "So it's just my insane Nobody that hates me because of my insane heart; no surprises there."

Naminé nodded, but quickly explained, so that it did not seem she was being rude, "Your heart is contributing a lot to this. You didn't, after all, have a Heartless. Nearly everything about you is a mystery because of your heart."

Not for the first time, Stefa said, "Too bad the only one that understands best is dead."

XxX

Nalani and Ceron noticed a definite shift in their strength when they headed back for the Coliseum; they were able to defeat the Nobodies and Heartless much easier this time around. "This stone really does work," noted Ceron with surprise as they headed in the direction of the Coliseum's staircase.

"Pfft. Well, what do you expect from the gods?" smirked Nalani, glancing at the Underworld's coliseum as they passed. Though the lights were still on, the boat was back.

"Wait just a minute!" shouted an obnoxiously loud voice. Ceron and Nalani looked around the Underworld and saw nothing.

"D-down here!" mumbled a weaker voice. This time, they looked down and saw a fat, pink and skinny, green devil-like creatures looking up at them.

Ceron raised his eyebrows. "Midgets?" He began to swing his leg in preparation for a kick.

"Wait!" screeched the pink creature. "I'm Pain!"

"A-and I'm P-P-P-Panic," stuttered the green one, who was trying to hide behind Pain. "D-don't hurt us."

EaKaze in hand, Nalani raised a fine eyebrow. "You're telling us your names... why?"

"What business do you have in the Underworld?" demanded Pain, pointing a finger at Ceron and Nalani; he tumbled across the ground as Ceron kicked him.

"It's not polite to point," said Ceron sourly. Panic squeaked and ran over to Pain to see if he was alright. Ceron then turned to Nalani. "Let's go before they decide to bite us, or something." Nalani did not argue as they ran the remainder of the way to the Coliseum.

XxX

Out of pure boredom, and due to the fact that she couldn't do much with her own, Kairi had begun to play with Naminé's hair. "When do you think they'll be back?" she complained as she started a small braid in the blonde's hair.

"Soon enough," answered Naminé with confidence. Stefa also seemed impatient as she groaned and rolled onto her stomach from where she was laying in the middle of the arena. Out of the three of them, Naminé would clearly make the best mother.

"Guys!" Nalani's voice echoed throughout the arena as she and Ceron appeared in the doorway of the lobby.

Kairi and Stefa bolted up. "They're back!"

"Did you get it?" asked Roxas, receiving his answer a second later when Ceron flung the stone at him. He held it up, and the entire group was engulfed in golden light; they instantly felt stronger.

Without leaving the lobby's entryway, Ceron asked, if not al little bored, "So are we going to the Lock now?"

As the others joined them, Nalani remarked, "We met two little devil things called Pain and Panic down there. They're Hades' servants or something, right?"

"Yeah," answered Sora, hesitating. "To be safe, then, and to save the time, we should use a portal to get there." He turned around to look at Naminé with some expectance and was instantly faced by something resembling a glare as she put her hands on her hips.

Roxas grinned a little from beside Riku. "Nam, can you please open up a portal?"

The unhappy expression was promptly replaced by her usual kind one, "Of course, Roxas." A black-purple swirling mass of darkness appeared beyond her hand; Sora rubbed the back of his head as he walked toward the portal.

A few minutes after, an identical portal appeared inside of the Lock. When Sora stepped out, he realized that the area was much larger than he had remembered. He scanned the area, locating the keyhole rock with ease, and summoned Ultima. "Let's go do some rescuing," he said to the others before taking a few steps closer to the lock.

Everyone followed him but, with the exception of Roxas, hung around a little in order to get a decent look at the odd cave. Stefa instantly froze in her tracks as something black caught her eye. "Wait a sec-!" She called, but only Naminé seemed to have heard her. A large black figure dropped from the ceiling, forcing everyone to jump away from the lock and separate.

The three heads faced them with snarls. "Well, the hunch about Cerberus seems to be correct," noted Nalani as everyone's weapons appeared. Cerberus began to stalk forward, saliva dribbling from two of the heads.

XxX

Hercules hit the ground and rolled over, once again fortunate enough not to have fallen into the dark crevice that surrounded the circular arena. Hades stood over him, laughing. "It seems that you, Blunder Boy, are losing your touch." He declared, holding a large blue fireball in his hand. "I guess I'm finally going to get you in the Underworld for good, but it's such a shame that you're fight has been a huge disappointment. Better a blow to your ego than to mine."

"Sir!" The annoying voice of Pain shouted as he and Panic appeared in puffs of smoke behidn Hades. For a moment, the fire on Hades' head turned orange, but it quickly reverted back to blue as he turned around to face his servants.

"What?" he asked in a dangerous voice that suggested any stupid statements may cost them their health.

"W-we t-think that the keyblade wielders, the mage, and the boy are heading for the Lock, s-sir," stuttered Panic, clenching his thin tail in his hand as he peered up at Hades with a fearful expression from behind Pain.

The flames on Hades' head became orange again and did not go away. "You waste my precious moment to kill Herk the Jerk in order to tell me this? It means nothing! Cerberus will take care of them, eat them all alive!" He returned to face the weak Hercules, who was still on the ground. "Now, where was I...?"

"Actually, sir, they might beat him pretty easily... You see, the mysterious boy and the mage girl had the Olympus Stone..." explained Pain as he and his counterpart prepared for the inevitable blow. Hades turned around, slowly, and glared at them.

His hair flared up as he took very menacing, small, steps toward them. "I thought I told you to get back to my chambers and take the stone?" His voice was quiet and slow.

"We were going to, but we decided to wait, just in case... To head someone off or something..." Pain tried to explain, but even his voice had turned meek.

"You decided to wait, huh?" Hades shouted, throwing the fireball at his pathetic servants instead of Wonder Boy.