This chapter is dedicated to my wonderful new beta, Raxsah! Whom without, this chapter would be a mess of grammar and spelling errors.

Sorry for the minor delay. Been busy lately. I really do loathe high school.

Sora: "Makes you wish you were one of us, doesn't it? Take your pick, either fight Heartless, or suffer through Chemistry."

I'll take the Heartless, thanks.

Sora: "Here's your new Keyblade, good luck! (Pushes him into a mob of Heartless) He doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else... And if I don't help him soon, he might not own a heart either..."

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Chapter 38: Battle Royale

Sora charged at the nearest person to him: Axel. His blade descended, but it was intercepted by a chakram. Axel pushed him back and ignited his weapons. He tossed them at him, but he deflected both of them with the Keyblade, and they spun into the ground on either side of him. Axel summoned them back to his hands with a flourish.

Kairi rushed at Donald, who used a Reflega spell to block her strikes. When the attacks stopped, he shot a fireball at her, which she dodged. She leapt through the air and he scrambled away from her falling Keyblade. He fired a shard of ice her way, which she broke into shards with a single strike.

Bariss struck at Riku with her whip. It wrapped around the end of his blade, and she pulled. She nearly pulled it out of his hand, but he held on tight. With a tug of his own, he dislodged the whip from her fingers and sent it flying across the arena. She pulled out Rose Blade (the sai) and tossed it at him. He ducked under it, and recovered just in time to dodge a kick that could have broken his nose.

Mickey's blade made a sharp ringing sound as it struck Goofy's shield. He attacked it with a barrage of strikes. But the shield was always there to block them. Mickey jumped over the knight and swept at him from behind, but Goofy had already run forward to get away from the blade. Mickey followed him.

Nehrut flew at Yuffie (the only one left unoccupied) and swung his blade at her midsection. She leapt into the air over him and tossed her shuriken at his back. With a twitch of his hand, he sent the weapon spinning back at her. She was able to catch it in one hand, and instead took out three kunai. She tossed them at him, but he took to the air and blasted her with his mind. She landed twenty feet away, but landed on her feet.

They had all divided into pairs, but that changed soon. The fights ran into each other, and one-on-one fights got much more crowded.

Sora stabbed out at Goofy, only to meet his shield. He slipped out of the way as he rushed at him with it, then ducked under a fireball that Kairi had thrown at him. He blocked more fireballs with his blade until she was distracted by Nehrut, who had come up out of nowhere and attacked her from behind.

She blocked his attacks, and for a while it seemed an even match. Then Sora decided to step in out of the natural urge to defend his love. He brought his blade down hard on Nehrut's.

He took to the air, and blasted him as he had Yuffie.

Sora decided to pull out his trump card. Not quite knowing how he was doing it. He let his Keyblade float out of his hand, and it reassembled into the Keyboard. He jumped onto it, and summoned his second blade, it was just as it was in his dream.

He flew up into the air to meet a very shocked Nehrut. He circled around him and struck from all sides, Nehrut was only able to block most of the attacks, and he soon sported cuts on the side of his face, his right shoulder, and his left foot. He managed to land a lucky kick against Sora's chest, causing him to fall off the board, but it noted the loss of its rider, and swooped down to pick him up.

Sora shot back up and struck at the telepath again. Nehrut counter-attacked. Their fight became more and more intense as they rose higher and higher into the air. Soon (to the combatants below) they were nothing more then specks in the bright blue sky.

Kairi was engaged in a duel with Mickey and Axel simultaneously. Axel brought up a wave of fire, shooting towards her. She jumped over it and ran toward Axel. He brought up a brief wall of flame to repel her. She backtracked and met Mickey's blade as he jumped at her.

Mickey's acrobatic fighting style ensured that he'd never be in the same place for too long. He leapt all around Kairi, striking from all sides with quick attacks. Kairi could defend herself, however, guiding her blade to ensure his never hit her.

Axel walked back into the picture, throwing his flaming chakrams at the two. They jumped away from the weapons in opposite directions. Mickey went almost directly into Riku's blade, and then another duel broke out between the two of them.

Kairi went at Axel again, dodging fireballs. She swept low, but it was a fake. While his weapons were covering his legs, his chest was cut across by the real attack. He staggered backwards, and shot a wave of fire at her. She rolled out of the way, inadvertently dodging Yuffie's flying shuriken.

Yuffie ran at Kairi with her dagger ready. She jumped, and just missed Kairi as she ducked under her. She landed somewhat gracefully on her other side, and picked up her shuriken from the ground. She got up, and ducked under a strike from Axel's chakram.

At the same time, Riku was faring well against both Mickey and Bariss. He jumped out of the way of the whip and met the King's blade. They exchanged blows for a moment, and then he twisted around to catch the whip with his blade. He pulled her towards him, and kicked her in the gut before turning his attention back to Mickey.

Bariss twirled her sai between her fingers and lunged at Riku's back. In response, he disengaged from Mickey and leapt five feet away. Bariss landed on top of the King, and they started fighting each other directly.

Riku shot a dark fireball at Goofy. His shield was enough to protect him, but the force of the attack was still enough to knock him on his back. Donald jumped over his fallen friend and raised his staff into the air, calling down lightning.

Quick reflexes allowed Riku to call up a dark shield in time to save himself. He ran at the duck with his blade poised to strike, and was surprised when he managed to slip out of the way and fire a shard of ice at him. Riku managed to leap over it and sliced vertically at Donald, who called up a Reflega spell that just managed to stop it.

Goofy got back up, and tossed his shield at Riku like a frisbee. Using his Keyblade like a baseball bat, he smacked the shield away, where it embedded itself in the wall below the stands.

He was about to strike at Donald again, when something soft, but still heavy landed on top of him, bringing him to the ground. He assumed he must have shouted, because the fighting slowly stopped, and everyone looked at him.

A groan from the thing on top of him made him realize that it was Nehrut. He struggled to his feet with the half conscious telepath over his shoulders. "You alright?" He asked.

"Everything hurts." he croaked. Sora landed next to the two of them, and smirked. "Why didn't anybody tell me he could fly?" (1)

"Because none of us knew." Riku looked up at his old friend. "Where did that come from?"

"Dive into the Heart."

"Ahh..."

Everyone reached the unspoken agreement that the training session had ended, for now. They walked back into the atrium, nursing injuries that they'd have healed soon, and found Phil.

The diminutive satyr trotted up to them, smiling."Not too shabby, guys! Looks like you've been keeping in shape!" He made a few fake jabbing movements at Sora's leg.

Behind him was a thin woman with long, brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a pink, sleeveless dress and gave off the impression of having a strong, independent, take no-nonsense streak. She smiled at Sora. "Good to see you again, Keyboy."

"Hey Meg." He chose not to comment on the fact that Ruxik had called him that.

Everyone sat down in around the atrium for the next several minutes, reliving some of the finer moments in the combat and complimenting the others on particularly impressive moves.

"Why did you have us fight each other, Phil?" Bariss asked.

"Because little lady, it's important to be able to hold your own against a lot of powerful enemies. You never know exactly how a fight will go, so it helps to be prepared. All ya gotta remember is two simple words: 'Prepare for anything'!"

Bariss looked confused for a moment before saying, "But... that's-"

"Just don't say anything, Bariss." Sora whispered. Donald and Goofy were laughing behind their hands.

Hercules chose the perfect moment to walk into the room. He had a smile on his face, and Sora wasn't sure if this was because Zeus had given them permission on the mountain, or simply because Meg was there.

"Good news!" He said. "I talked to Zeus, and he says you're allowed on Mount Olympus."

"Awesome!" Sora cried, punching his fist into the air.

"He wants us to meet him on the mountain in an hour to see what we can figure out together."

"Ooooh, tough luck kid." Came an annoyingly familiar voice from nowhere. "Daddy's gonna have to wait." The sound of laughter came from the main arena, and everyone scrambled out of the atrium toward it.

The arena was deserted, but then there was a burst of fire and smoke in the center. In its place was the smirking figure of Hades, Lord of the Dead.

Although it was still the middle of the day, the air around him seemed to darken with his very presence. Sora had a feeling deep down in his gut that he had grown to trust. And that feeling was telling him that bad things were going to happen soon.

I honestly don't know where this chapter came from. It was just there in my head one morning when I woke up. It contibutes absolutely nothing to the plot, but I couldn't just not write it down.

The next chapter is better so far as advancing the plot.

(1) That was for anyone who considers Nehrut a 'Gary-Stu.' Sora can still beat him!

Review please!