The ship landed. "So, where are we now?" asked Asher casually, climbing out.

Star collapsed the ship down and placed it in her pack. "According to what the ship said, we're in a place called the 'Olympus Coliseum'."

Asher looked up and saw an enormous marble-looking building ahead of him. It had some strange writing carved into it. It looked like some kind of stadium. "Well, that would explain the cheering."

They heard distinct shouting noises coming from inside the building. They ran inside, only to be stopped by a strange, short, half man, half goat creature. "Hey, just whadda you guys think you're doin'?"

Star started to say something, but Asher noticed she was stumbling on her words. "Well, we were looking to join this nice tournament you guys have set up."

"Ha! Two newcomers, little KIDS in a tournament like this? Good luck! You've got a better chance of taking over Sora's job! Now that guy, he was a real hero."

Star showed the man the Keyblade. "I DID take over Sora's job."

"Well, I'll be!" the little man scratched his head and held out his hand. "Name's Phil. Who are you two, and what brings you here? We haven't had Heartless here in a while, so you can't be here to get rid of them. Sure, Hades has been acting up a bit but Herc'll take care of him just like he always did. These two new challengers, though, they're something else…But I digress."

"I'm Star, and this is Asher! It's nice to meet you, Phil."

"So why ARE you two here? You guys need some training?"

Asher stepped forward. "Well, I don't know about her, but I could definitely use some training. And some practice. I seem to have forgotten my ability to fight."

Phil smiled. "All right. Come with me."

He waved his hand, and Asher followed him to a small door that lead to a separate part of the Coloseum. As Asher looked around, he saw some pots.

"Okay, kid. Grab that sword of yours and let's get started. I'm gonna count to five. I want all sixty of these pots broken by that time."

Asher uneasily grabbed his sword. Sixty pots. That was a lot for five seconds. "Ready? GO!"

Asher dashed at one of the pots, but they suddenly started moving, and he tripped in surprise.

Phil shook his head. "ONE!"

Still in midair, Asher's head made direct contact with a pot and he fell to the ground. Struggling to get up despite a headache, he tried to shake it off.

"TWO!"

Asher grabbed his sword, and swung it against a pot. It made a clanging sound, and he felt a sharp pain in his hands. Apparently these pots were tough. They wouldn't break easily.

"THREE!"

In slight annoyance, Asher punched a pot. He screamed as he almost fractured his hand.

"FOUR!"

"I….CAN'T….DO IT……DAMNIT!" As the pots floated around him, he clutched his head in rage, then extended his arms. His hands began to glow until the entire training grounds was lit by an unimaginably bright light. A horrible roaring noise was heard, and when the light cleared, all the pots were on the ground in millions of pieces. Asher fell to one of his knees and began to breathe heavily, barely supporting himself with an arm on the knee on which he wasn't kneeling.

Phil stood in awe. "…Five."

Asher stood up, having caught his breath. He looked at all the broken pots and rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "How did I do that?"

"I was about to ask YOU the same question. You're no ordinary kid, are you?"

Asher clenched his right fist slightly and looked at it while he held his sword in his left hand. "I guess not."

"All right, then. Time for training phase two," Phil said as he snapped his fingers. "These look like Heartless, but they're just dummies. They were made so that I could train people, but there's some problems with them. Mainly they can't attack. They can just run and dodge."

"So…there gonna be a time limit here?"

"Nope. Just get 'em all."

Asher smirked. "Fine with me."

He ran out and began attacking some of the fake Heartless. He was surprised to find it was easier to use the sword he was carrying than he thought. It didn't take long to destroy most of the enemies. There was only one left, and Phil was impressed. "Just one to go, kid."

A sudden look of realization flashed across Phil's face. At that moment, Asher swung his sword at the last enemy. Smiling in triumph as the sword approached it, Asher was caught off guard by what happened next. The enemy quickly brought out a sword of its own…and BLOCKED his attack. Confused and surprised, Asher jumped back. "Phil…I thought you said these things couldn't fight back."

Phil started walking backward as well. "That one…that one's not one of ours."

The Heartless displayed its sword with an evil grin. "So," said Asher, trying not to sound discouraged, "this is a REAL one?"

"I think so."

"Great."

Suddenly, the Heartless charged. Asher flipped over it as it did, narrowly avoiding its attack. He took a swing at it, but it blocked. As it swung at him, he dodged, and tried to cut off its head. Unfortunately, it was faster than he thought, and the sword was in the way long before his own reached the neck. Asher pushed his own sword toward the Heartless, and it began to slowly move backwards under the pressure. "A Heartless took my heart once. It's not going to happen again."

Asher jumped backward and charged. The Heartless blocked a seemingly endless string of powerful blows from Asher, but it seemed to weaken. Asher pressed his attack more, and the Heartless was soon much to tired to block anymore. It dodged a final slash from Asher, but as Asher pulled away his sword, it went to block a final time. It realized its mistake only too late. Asher's last slash was a feint. He brought his foot hard into the stomach of the Heartless, causing it to flinch awfully. He slammed his elbow into the back of its neck, making it fall to the ground. He then unmercifully thrust his sword straight into the Heartless' would-be spine. It vanished in a cloud of dust.

Suddenly, an odd sound was heard, and more Heartless appeared, just like the one he'd defeated only seconds ago. Asher looked around and saw no choice but to fight the Heartless. He counted…one…two…three…four…five…six. Six Heartless. He readied his guard. As the Heartless charged, he parried one, causing its sword to plunge itself deep into another's skull. He kicked the wielder square in the face, so that it and the victim flew into a wall and vanished. Two down. As the four remaining Heartless got into a box formation around him, he knew what would happen next. They'd all charge at the same time. He jumped, and the four collided and vanished. Another appeared in front of him. "Just how many of these bastards are there?!"

Two more appeared behind that one.

Asher sighed. "I had to ask."

Heartless began to appear in rows behind the three, all with the same horrible grin.

Asher turned to ask Phil for some help, but he was long gone. He looked back at the Heartless. There were now too many to count. He took a step back. "What I wouldn't give to be a Nobody again for just one lousy second."

He heard a voice. It sounded familiar. "Giving up already?"

"Huh?"

The voice was his own, but it came from inside his head. "Oh, come on, Asher, I know you're better than that. After all, I only held HALF your power."

The world around Asher instantly faded. He found himself in the darkness, with a familiar face staring at him. The person laughed. "Surprised to see me, Asher?"

"Kinda. I figured something like this wouldn't happen…I kept consciousness while being a Nobody."

"So that makes you immune to seeing me?"

"Well, I…"

"Face it, Asher. Even if you think you were conscious, you weren't. At least, not entirely. Fact of the matter is, I'm not all you. I'm a part of you, for sure. But I'm also a different person. Of course, you obviously didn't know it. You've barely tapped my power, Asher. You tried to wield the Nothing Blade in Japan. A futile effort for a human with a heart."

Xanthas seemed to scoff at the word 'heart'.

"Why are you here? I'm about to die, and you decide to interrupt?"

Xanthas laughed. "I'm not interrupting anything. No matter how long it seems to you that you've spent here, this is happening faster than an instant. You think you're about to die? Then you're a coward."

"Easy for you to say. You can't feel fear. You can't feel anything. You CAN'T be a coward."

"I may not have the ability to be a coward, but YOU have the ability to NOT be cowardly."

"A lovely sentiment. But it doesn't help me any. It doesn't make me any stronger, doesn't get me any closer to beating these stupid Heartless."

"Forget the damn Heartless! Those pathetic fools are barely worth your efforts! Remember, there's still Remnant. Deal with the source of the Heartless later."

"Xanthas…"

"The girl can help. Star. And Brandon, too. Those two are going to be great allies to you. You guys are capable of a lot, if you work together."

"How do you know?"

"I just do. I'd do all this myself if I had the chance, but I'm part of you again. You can have my power and my skill, but my brain…my personality…It's all right here, neatly tucked away where you can't get it, not even if I want to let you."

"Who made you such a big hero, Xanthas?"

"That's not the right question."

"Then what is?"

"The right question is…Why do you have such a hard time believing YOU'RE a hero, Asher?"

Xanthas laughed. He grabbed Asher's sword, and tossed it aside. "Take this. It'll help you better."

Asher was able to make out the weapon's form, even in the darkness. "But…how?"

"Did you really think there was only one Keyblade? That there was only one Master?"

"Xanthas, I…"

"You got a lot to learn, kid. But you're strong, I'll give you that. That's partly because of me. Take care. And get rid of those Heartless. They really tick me off."

Asher was thrust back into the real world. As he saw the Heartless gathering to attack, he decided to charge. With a single slash, he destroyed four. With another, five more. They couldn't even block him at that point. His few successful attacks gave him confidence. He became bolder, and eventually destroyed all the Heartless.

As Asher sat down to think, Phil came running in, with a very buff guy following him.

"This is the place, Herc! There's way too many Heartless for the kid to…"

"Phil, I don't see any Heartless. But that guy looks really tired."

Phil looked in disbelief. The Heartless were all gone. Impossible…

Asher stood up and held out the Keyblade. "Guess you're right. Guess I'm not just some ordinary kid."

"But…how? How do you have the Keyblade?" asked Phil.

"I guess…there's more than one."

A flash of flame appeared. A blue man in a dark grey toga with flames for hair approached Asher. "Hey, kid. Name's Hades, Lord of the Dead, nice to meet ya," he said as he limply shook his hand. Without even taking another breath, he continued. "So, nice performance here, very nice. Say, how'd you be interested in joining a tournament? I'd say you're well-qualified and there is a TREMENDOUS PRIZE for the winner."

Hades snapped his fingers and a ticket appeared in his hand.

"What do you say, huh? You'd really impress that little girlfriend of yours if you won a tournament, don't you think?"

Asher looked up at the last sentence with anger. "Star is not my girlfriend."

"Aw, c'mon, kid, there's no need to hide it. Besides, guys don't usually go traveling with just ANY girl, especially if they're driving, am I right?" Hades laughed.

Asher brought the Keyblade to his throat. "My fiancé is gone. I don't know where she is but I intend to FIND her. Star's helping me look for her. I'm helping her look for Brandon, her friend. We're friends, that's all. If you want to think something differently I may have to remove your head."

Hades wasn't discouraged. "Hey, did you say Brandon? We got a Brandon here, I think. Actually he's in the Coliseum right now!"

Asher moved the Keyblade away. "Take me to him, then. And you'd better not be lying."

Hades laughed. "All right." Under his breath, Hades muttered, "Jeez, what a stiff."