A/N: I've found a way to push myself to get these battle scenes done: Listen to Iced Earth, Morbid Saint and Sabbat while you do them, makes ideas come out of your head quicker.

Chapter 29: Retribution

Frank stepped forward to the arena as Riku was led out by Cloud and Hercules. Sophie's body still lay in the center of the arena. Sora stood up, facing Frank with the same emotionless look he had faced Sophie with. Frank looked at his surroundings. A small circular arena. Simple enough. What caught his eye was the small statue Hades had next to him. It looked a little like Sora… It seemed important. But right now he didn't care.

"FIGHT!" Hades shouted. Barely a millisecond after that word left Hades mouth, Frank punched Sora in the face. Hard. Sora was sent flying a few feet from the force, but Frank caught him by the leg before he went downwards to the ground, and punched him into the ground himself. Frank pulled out his gun and aimed straight for Sora's head. Just a Sora got out of the way, Frank fired, missing him by a centimeter.

Hades was in shock. 'Wow, whoever this guy is, he's good. And it seems he has no inhibitions about killing someone. Maybe Sora isn't so great after all… hehehe…'

Frank grabbed Sora by the leg as he attempted to escape, and threw him up into the air. Sora summoned the Keyblade, but Frank grabbed it by the end and used it to slam Sora into the ground face-first. The crowd 'Oooohh!'ed at the impact.

Outside, Riku was being tended to by Cloud and Hercules. The bullet had pierced his stomach, and in his condition, he wasn't going to last long.

"Ungh… A Potion… I need one. And quick." Riku said as he coughed up blood.

"Forget Potions, Riku, you need a Hi-Potion." Hercules said as he laid him down on the cold stone ground. "Cloud, you go back to shore and get some Hi-Potions from Phil. E should have some. If not… I don't know what we'll do."

"Got it". Cloud jumped into the boat and began rowing, as Riku's life depended on it. As Hercules looked around, he realized that hey hadn't retrieved Sophie's body. He felt a pang of guilt.

"No matter what she was, no-one should lie dead without a grave." He murmured, as he looked towards the stadium.

Meanwhile Frank was putting the hurt on Sora. Hades watched from his throne, with little to no signs of emotion, happiness or sadness for what was going on, but inside, he was getting a lot of pleasure from watching Sora suffer some more.

Frank began to build up a red energy in his hand, crackling with lightning around it. The crowd went silent as the energy was clearly beginning to tear away at his hand. He grabbed Sora and stared into his eyes and saw fear. Fear that showed only in his eyes, nowhere else. He readied the energy. Even Hades was completely still at this point, anticipating the inevitable death that would follow. Frank closed the distance between them and whispered to Sora:

"You ever. And I mean EVER. Do that to her again, and I WILL kill you. I don't give a FUCK if you're being controlled by that bastard up there. Got me?" Sora nodded slightly.

Frank threw the red energy at Hades. The god was so shocked he didn't have time to react as it exploded, taking out a chunk of the Underdrome. Bits and pieces flew everywhere as the crowd was in shock. A small toy figure in the shape of Sora landed next to Frank's feet. He picked it up, and threw it into Sora's hands, upon which it dissipated into a small energy and floated into Sora. He had his free will back. He breathed a sigh of relief. As he looked up at Frank, the memories of what he had done came flooding back to him. He turned over and retched, eyes staring at the ground in shock.

As Frank walked toward Sophie's body, he uttered one more sentence; "I'll see you again soon, Sora, after you've had time to reflect on the events today." Frank picked up Sophie's body and walked away.

"Frank! You okay in there?" Hercules called out.

"Frank's gone, but I'm back to normal!" Sora called back. He looked up and saw Hercules climbing up on top of the rubble.

"That's good to hear. Now come on, we need your Hi-Potions before Riku bleeds to death!" Sora didn't need anymore reason than that.

Riku screamed in pain as Sora poured the Potion onto his chest.

"Dammit, Riku, hold still, I only have 2 left!" Sora said as he tried to smother the wound in the green liquid. The effects were beginning to take place, but Riku's constant thrashing meant it was still taking time. About a quarter hour later, Riku's wound was (mostly) sealed up from the outside.

"Drink this, Riku." Sora handed him the last Hi-Potion.

"Why do I need to drink it? What if it's disgusting?" Riku complained.

"Just shut up and drink it already. We don't have much time before Hades shows up again."

"Well you're the one that got me shot in the first place!" Riku shouted back. Sora turned around, disliking the reminder.

Riku realized he might have hurt him with that last one. "Sorry." Riku said as he took the Potion. He downed it as fast as he could. He immediately made a retching noise, but luckily didn't puke, but he did cough profusely afterwards.

"My god, it's horrific! Worst medicine ever!" He complained. Sora however was laughing.

"Well, that's what happens when you're mean to others!" Sora joked. Riku smirked and pounced him.

"Oh yeah? I'll make you eat those words- Ow, my stomach…" Riku howled as he accidentally forgot he was still healing. Luckily he was fine, just a bit of pain.

Cloud returned with Phil, holding a bag of Potions. They realized, however, that things were okay again.

"You gotta be kidding me! I got three words for you all: You owe me BIG!" Phil ranted, realizing that the emergency he had been talked about was not there anymore.

"Well, I'd keep them here. We may need them very soon…" Riku turned towards the stadium.

"Hades isn't gonna be too happy we're back in business. Guess we can spoil people's days like that can't we?" Sora said as he looked up at Riku.

"Well, we better get prepared. Can't just run in there." Riku said as he got up.

"Same as last time, right Hercules?" Sora asked.

"You know it." Herc replied.

The crew waited in the stadium, knowing that he'd eventually show up. By now, all the spirits had left, making the stadium vacant and tarnished by recent combat. It was only a short while before that it was in good condition.

Meanwhile…

Hades was back in his chambers, clearly rattled by the attack. The hooded man was also back.

"This is outrageous! How dare he attack me! You said he was of no danger!"

"But you broke his rule; you harmed the girl."

"So?" Hades shouted.

"So." The man grabbed Hades by the throat. Hades was shocked that the man was harming him so easily. "You dare to speak back to me as if you have done nothing wrong. But thanks to you, our plans have been set several stages back. We now have no choice but to wait, while those fools gain ground with every day of existence!" He threw Hades aside. As Hades caught himself and began to stand up again, the hooded man spoke again: "You know not of what you are dealing with here. My plan is far beyond what you can comprehend. And if it fails, I will hold you responsible." He walked off, and uttered a final order:

"Go and finish what you started. It would be wise to not fail us this time. Otherwise, this deal is over, and I am leaving. I will not tolerate another failure Hades. He walked off into the shadows of darkness.

Hades smashed a nearby table to vent his anger.

Back at the stadium, he crew waited anxiously for Hades to inevitably return. Eventually they were greeted by a small pillar of fire. Out of it came Hades.

"Y'know, let's cut to chase, because it's been a bad day. You want to get me, I want you dead. So." He conjures up fireballs. "Let's get to it." His body turned a demonic red.

"Like you have to ask!" The crew readied their weapons.

Herc readied his spheres of light. "Sora! Let's do it!" he called out to him. Hades was on to this and fired off at him, but Herc sacrificed one of the spheres to use as a shield. As Sora ran to Hercules, Riku and Cloud ran straight to Hades, intending to attack him head on. Not being experienced with him like Sora and Hercules were, however, they quickly realized that it was useless; all their attacks were just passing through him.

"Man, you guys are boring, let's move on." He brushed them aside (literally) with ease. He turned to Hercules and Sora. "Now this should be interesting." He got a big fireball ready to throw. Both Hercules and Sora jumped, Sora giving the light sphere a smack towards Hades. It hit its mark, knocking the momentum out of Hades. Now was the time to strike. The whole party went straight for Hades and pelted him with attacks.

Hades quickly got sick of this, and blew everyone back with anther pillar of fire. All four of them were caught off-guard by this, and thrown back by it. Hades then immediately took advantage of the situation and tried to force Hercules out of the stadium. He succeeded by grabbing Herc in midair and throwing him over the rubble. Now the crew had no way to attack. Hades went on the offensive, throwing fire at Riku and Cloud, pushing them back. Hades went for Sora.

"You have caused me trouble for the last time, you little brat!" He shouted, as he grabbed for Sora. Sora jumped out of the way, but Hades had a new trick up his sleeve. He summoned what appeared to be a long rope made of fire, and lassoed Sora's ankle with it. The flames caused Sora unbearable pain, causing him to scream and try fruitlessly to get it off with his hands. Cloud jumped up and used his sword to cut the rope, only to be swiped in the face by it.

Riku the only one standing went in for a distraction to allow Cloud and Sora to recover, but Hades swatted him away again pretty quickly after he got bored. Sora rose to his feet first.

"This is useless! We can't harm him like this!" Sora proclaimed as his friends got up.

"Wish Herc would hurry up and get back here."

"Ha-ha! Looks like you guys are really relying on that fourth leg of yours. Too bad he's taking a nap at the moment! Why don't you guys just give it up?"

"Because their will is too strong. You will lose this fight Hades, as I predicted you would."

Sora and the group looked for the source, but Hades looked angered and knew who it was.

"Aahh, not you again! I have this covered, are you really that worried I'll not succeed?" Hades called out to the voice. The party was stunned to learn that Hades had an accomplice.

Out of the shadows appeared a hooded man. He drew back his hood to reveal a teenage-looking boy with a strange tribal marking on the left side of his face.

"I will take over from here, Hades. You've caused enough trouble." He made a motion with his hand and Hades was swept aside. The man then turned to Sora and his crew.

"My name is Brody. And I will truly test your will, Sora." The man said to Sora. Riku and Cloud stepped in front of Sora, but suddenly had their bodies restrained in mid-air by an invisible force.

"He must have psychic powers!" Riku called out to Sora.

"Now that the distractions have ceased, we may begin." Brody focused on Sora. Sora began to feel a splitting headache coming on, but could not do anything to stop it. He fell to his knees as his eyes lost their colour slightly, appearing diluted, no longer moving.

"This will be an… interesting experiment, to say the least." Brody uttered as he entered Sora's mind.

Chapter End