A/N: 3 MONTHS! Jesus!

Chapter 28: The Tournament

Sora began to walk toward the center of the arena, constantly showing no emotion as he stared ahead at Sophie. She was still shocked at the situation.

'I have to do something. But what? I can't dodge this forever!' She looked around, mainly looking for ways of escape. She decided to do the unthinkable.

"Hey, Hades!" Sophie shouted. "I forfeit!"

There was a stunned silence for a few seconds, followed by laughter and booing and heckling. The dead may be just that; dead, but they sure got restless easily.

"Forfeit?!" Hades was laughing along with the crowd, but suddenly put up his arms and went an angry red. "SILENCE!" The dead went as silent as normal. Sora also stopped moving. "Let me lay down the line for you, little lady." He raised his arms up, calling up a great wall of fire around the arena. "You will both stay here until one of you can no longer fight, and NOT when you say you can't. You'll die if it's the only thing that'll stop you from fighting!" Hades sat down, cooling back into his normal blue. "You may continue."

Sora didn't hesitate after hearing that. He lunged at Sophie.

Meanwhile, at the other side of the River Styx…

"What's that?" Riku said as he sat up, looking at the fire that was rising out of the Underdrome.

"I think Hades is making sure the fight will have no cowards. Sophie might be in trouble." Hercules replied.

"Then let's go help her. But we're gonna need a boat…" The group looked around and saw a wooden boat similar to the one Sophie used to get to the Underdrome. The oars were lying on the boat as well.

"Come on, this can get us across!" Riku said.

Back at the Underdrome, Sophie was trying to avoid actual combat with Sora. She was dodging as much as possible, much to the chagrin of the crowd, but Sora was not letting up. She decided to stand her ground, get up close to Sora, and maybe talk some sense into him?

She took a stand, motioning for Sora to come get her. He took the bait as she put up her hands to block the Keyblade. They clashed together fiercely, Sophie struggling to hold against Sora. 'Some force is powering him. He is not this naturally strong against me.' She knew who to blame. 'Hades…'

"Sora, listen to me." Sophie whispered to Sora. "Whatever has happened to you, you have to break out of it, and now!"

Sora shoved her back, showing strain on his face. Was she getting through? Sora launched himself at her, trying to catch her off-guard unsuccessfully.

'Dammit Sora…'

She stood her ground, trying not to harm him. "Come on Sora, you have to be in there! What's he done to you?" Before she could say anything else, Sora gave her a hard shove. She wasn't pushed off her feet, but she stepped back a few inches, not expecting it. Sora took the chance and attempted to strike her, but again she was just too fast.

"Wake up, Sora!" She shouted at him. He gave her another hard shove, but couldn't get her to lose any ground this time. They both stopped and stared at each other. Stalemate. Sophie refused to hurt Sora, and Sora couldn't beat Sophie's defenses.

'Geeze, guess if you wanna heat up the fight… you gotta get underhanded.' He waved his hand in a single motion. A split second later, Sora slapped Sophie in the face. Hard. She fell to the ground in shock, holding her cheek, as the crowd went wild, cheering the move. But quickly, her look of shock turned to a look of anger. She stood up, and took out her magnum, and proceeded to smack Sora across the face with it. The silver that the gun was made of burned Sora's cheek, causing him to scream in agony, and Hades to look on in surprise. By now the crowd was going crazy, knowing it was, as they say, on.

'Man, now she is fired up! This is gonna be good!'

'Okay, so it's gonna be the hard way…'Sophie thought as she looked at her gun. 'Well, Hades did say incapacitation counts as a win…' she pulled the gun up and aimed for Sora's chest, away from the heart so as not to kill him. Sora saw her and dodged quickly as she fired. She followed Sora's movements and fired two more times, missing both times. 'I have 5 shots left. If I reload, Sora could kill me. But it doesn't matter. 5 shots are all I need!'

She rushed towards Sora, holstering her gun, and prepared to battle him. They collided full force causing them both to collapse onto the ground below. Both however quickly returned to their feet, but Sophie saw her chance and grabbed Sora in a grapple hold. She started to knee him in the chest, preventing him from mounting a proper defense. She also twisted his arm, causing him to drop the Keyblade. He tried to summon it in his other hand, but she reached for her gun. Sora, not wanting to get beaten, used his knee to get the gun out of her hand successfully, also causing the gun to go off in a random direction.

Sophie quickly regained the upper hand and forced Sora to the floor. She began to punch him in the face, her gauntlets hurting him every step of the way. While Sora was trying to defend himself, she jumped off him and reached for her gun. She successfully grabbed it, aimed and fired at Sora, but Sora got out of the way before the bullet could catch him, and continued to dodge as she fired another shot. Not wanting Sora to get away again, she lunged at him, chucking the gun at him to try and harm him with the silver. Sora twisted his body out of the way, but didn't realize that Sophie wasn't going for him that time…

…she was going for his GUNS, which were fully loaded.

Realizing this too late, she swiped the holsters right off his jacket and proceeded to use the guns while still holstered. Sora flung himself at the wall, and began to run alongside it as Sophie unloaded at him, while keeping her magnum under her foot. She didn't succeed, using up the ammo too quickly. Sora saw his chance and lunged at her. She used her foot to kick the magnum towards her hand and fired at Sora. This time she caught him in the foot, causing him to lose his balance and fall down to the ground in front of her. He screamed in pain.

"Come on, ya wimp!" Hades shouted at Sora. "Stand and fight! It's only a foot wound, you chicken!"

Sora, invigorated by Hades' words, swiped at Sophie, and caught the magnum's wooden stock. He swung around, and held it point blank at her head, also grabbing her by the neck with his other hand. The crowd went silent at this tense moment. Sophie was trapped.

"NOW!" Hades shouted. "Finish her!" The crowd began to chant 'Kill her!' to egg him on.

Back at the Styx, Riku and the gang were close to the Underdrome. So close, they heard the words 'Finish her' leave Hades mouth.

"That must be Sophie, she could be in trouble!"

"Row faster!" Hercules said, worrying as much as the others for their friend.

The crowd continued to chant 'Kill her!' as both combatants remained still. It was make or break for Sophie. She couldn't physically attempt to get out of this. Sora was too fast, she'd be dead before she even moved her head. All she could hope for was that some miracle… something, anything, came.

"Ok, kid, no more waiting!" Hades commanded. "Fire away, and end this day!" The crowd continued to chant. "People, people, please! Have some class. I think he needs silence for his encore."

The crowd did as told as they waited for the final gunshot to ring out.

But it never came.

Sora wasn't pulling the trigger for some reason. Sophie realized this, but hesitated to do anything, in case it was a trick.

Hades however was getting impatient.

"Hey!" he shouted. "I am not gonna wait forever!"

"Sora?" Riku called from the entrance, alongside his companions.

Sophie saw her chance. She smacked the magnum out of his hand and it flew upwards above them. Sophie immediately gave Sora a left hook, stunning him and giving her a chance to grab the gun. Everything became slow motion. 'I have only one shot! It has to count!' She grabbed the gun by the stock and prepared to aim at Sora-

-but a sudden, searing pain in her chest caused her to fire prematurely, dropping the gun immediately.

She heard a scream in the back, confirming she'd hit someone. She had her eyes shut as she winced in pain from whatever had hurt her. Maybe Sora had punched her in the gut or something, she didn't care. She looked up…

…And saw Riku bleeding from the stomach.

She had shot Riku. How could she have been so stupid?!

But that was not all. What had hurt her? And why did she still hurt? She tasted blood pouring from her mouth. She looked down.

Sora had impaled her with his Keyblade. She stared in shock.

Sora leaned close to her and whispered, "I'm sorry, but the will of my master is absolute."

He proceeded to yank the Keyblade out of her, and she fell to the ground dead.

The crowd went crazy. Hades was clapping as well. Cloud and Hercules stared on in shock, while Auron tended to an injured Riku.

"Bravo, bravo! What an outstanding performance! Give it up, for the champion, your champion, of the Underdrome! SORA!" Hades exclaimed to the Underdrome's watchers.

Sora's (former) companions could not believe what they had witnessed. They were too shocked to say anything as Sora stood up and raised his hand in victory, looking down at his defeated opponent emotionlessly.

"And what do we have here? Why, it's the other competitors!" The crowd booed them. "Well, you may have all broken the rules by coming here when you were not going to be fighting, but how could I disqualify anyone for coming to see such a spectacle? After all, they just witnessed the loss of two of- *ahem* sorry, ONE of their friends!" He motioned to Riku as he whispered to himself, "And looks like another one is up for the chop. Go figure, they're dropping like flies today." Hades teleported himself to the group. "So, err… looks like you'll be forfeiting this one, I mean, no-one expects you to fight like this, now do they? Ah… if only you had-"

"A substitute?" A familiar voice echoed throughout the entranceway. The figure emerged as Frank.

Hades looked on in surprise. "Wow, another one of you vamps. So, you wanna replace platinum locks here? I'd advise against it, the death rate of vampires around here is dangerous-"

"I want Sora in a fight, and I want him now." The crowd got behind this quickly, much to the chagrin of Hades.

"Alright, alright, fine, I'll let it slide, so long as you are the only competitor, got it? I ain't gonna be tricked into you teaming up with Herc the Jerk."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

End Chapter

A/N: Wow, I'm a vicious bastard, ain't I?