Chapter 14 The Hydra
"They're really good aren't they?" Zack says leaning back in his seat as he watches Terra and Aqua fight in the arena below. His comment catches Ven's attention and Ven pries his eyes away from the match to look over at Zack seated beside him.
"Yeah," Ven replies. "I hope one day I can get as good as them, but they've been training with Master Eraqus so much longer than I have."
"Oh you'll get there," Zack says. "You have the keyblade. I've heard it only chooses people with the strongest hearts. Man, I wish I had one." Zack shoots an envious glance in Ven's direction and is surprised when Ven frowns and looks away.
"No you don't," Ven says bitterly. "My life sucks. I would never want anyone else to have to carry the keyblade."
"What?!" Zack says in surprise. "But keyblades are like the most powerful weapon. And you get to travel to all kinds of worlds! That's gotta be cool. Adventures all the time. Now that's the kind of life I want."
"Hmph," Ven says. "Sounds great except you're missing a couple small details. Everyone is scared of you, you're forced to wander forever because no one wants you to stay, and the heartless follow you destroying everything you love. You're always lonely, with no one to call your friend."
Zack's eyes are wide in shock and his mouth hangs open. "Bu-but you have Terra and Aqua," he stammers confused. "And Phil and Herc aren't scared of you. And neither am I. Why would you say those things?"
Ven ponders what Zack said for a moment looking out at Terra and Aqua. He watches as Aqua jumps over Terra to try and hit him from behind, but Terra is quick enough to jump out of the way. His eyes move over to Phil and Herc sitting a little ways away. Phil is talking incessantly about the match while Herc's head never stops bobbing in agreement. Ven brings his eyes back to Zack as he waits patiently for Ven to reply.
"Zack," Ven begins hesitantly. "You're right. What I said before, that's how my life used to be. I have to remember that that is all behind me now."
"Oh I get it," Zack says nodding. "I get how hard it is to start over with a new life. My first home was destroyed by a heartless invasion. My parents were killed and only a few besides me were able to escape."
"I'm so sorry," Ven says lowering his head.
"Don't be. It's not your fault," Zack says with a grim smile. "I was lucky to escape with the others and we started over in a new world."
"This world?"
"No, not this world," Zack says. "I just came here to become a hero, like my father. It's all I've ever dreamed about."
"I'm sure you'll be a great hero one day Zack," Ven says softly.
"Thanks Ven," Zack says punching him lightly in the shoulder. "I've gotta be getting pretty good, I mean, I've already beaten a keyblade wielder."
"Ha you won't be saying that after I get a rematch."
"Oh you really think you can take me?"
"I could wipe the floor with you."
"I think anyone who saw our match would beg to differ."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Isn't this just so sweet?"
Ven and Zack both jump apart. They hadn't even noticed that as they had argued they had leaned closer and closer to each other so their noses were nearly touching. Trying to hide his blush, Ven turns to glare at the man whose comment had interrupted them.
He stands a step behind them in the stands grinning with pointed teeth. His skin is blue and so is his hair. Wait is that fire?
"Who the hell are you?" Zack asks eyeing the stranger warily.
"Names Hades, Lord of the Dead, god of the Underworld, yadda yadda, how ya doin'," Hades says holding out his hand to Zack who just stares at it. "Sheesh, what ever happened to manners?" Hades asks bring his hand back to run his fingers through the blue flames on his head.
"Hades!" Ven turns to see Herc and Phil standing up to look over at them. Herc's hands are curled into fists as he regards Hades.
"Herc! Long time no see!" Hades disappears in a flash of smoke and reappears next to Herc with his arm around the boy's shoulders. "Last time I saw you you were just a-"
"Save it Hades," Herc says throwing his arm off and turning to glare at Hades once more. "What are you doing here?"
"I like your style kid, right to the point," Hades says. "No need for all this hostility. I just came to watch the oh so famous keyblade wielders fight."
Hades disappears again and reappears next to Ven causing him to jump. "And this one caught my eye," Hades says leaning down to look Ven in the eye. "Lots of untapped power in there." Before Ven can react, Hades grabs his shoulder and smoke surrounds them both.
Coughing, Ven looks around in shock to discover that he and Hades are now floating in the air above the arena. "Hey! What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Ven shouts angrily.
"Woah, someone's got a lot of spunk!" Hades says digging his sharp fingers into Ven's arm.
"Let him go Hades!"
Ven looks down to see Zack brandishing his sword at Hades. Herc stands next to him in a fighting stance with Terra and Aqua running up behind them staring up with confusion having missed most of the previous exchange. "Looks like I poked the beehive," Hades murmurs. "Just ignore them kid, I got a proposition for ya." With a flick of his wrist and another small cloud of smoke a scroll and a pen appear in Hades' hand. "Just sign your name on the dotted line and I can make sure you never lose another match against some weakling like spiky down there."
"What?" Ven says confused.
"Geez Louise, try and keep up," Hades says rolling his eyes. "Darkness. I can help you use all that wasted darkness you got inside. Write your name down and presto! You'll be the most powerful guy in the room, well besides me of course." Ven just stares at him in disbelief. "What did I grow an extra head or something?" Hades says.
"I-I'm not doing anything you say," Ven says feeling his hatred at Hades grow. "You are fucking insane to think I would want to use darkness! Especially against Zack! Now let me go!" With that, Ven yanks his arm away, pulling himself from Hades' grip. No longer in contact with the god, the magic holding him in the air vanishes and Ven begins to fall.
"Ven!"
His friends below shout his name in fear, but Ven just summons and tosses his keyblade quickly. His glider flies back to him and he land on it lightly flying through a large arc before landing beside Terra. "Are you ok? Did he hurt you?" Terra asks as Ven dismisses his glider his keyblade reappearing in his hand.
"I'm fine Terra," Ven says. "That guy is fucking insane."
"We can take him," Aqua says moving to stand slightly in front of Ven.
"Yeah," Zack says from next to Aqua. Then louder, "You hear that Hades? We are going to kick your ass all the way back to Underworld."
"Oh I'm so scared," Hades says mockingly. "No I don't think that is going to happen." Hades begins to glow red and Ven has to cover his eyes as an inferno erupts around Hades. When the bright light fades, he lowers his hand to see that the sky has turned purple and black and Hades is nowhere in sight.
"Is he-" Ven begins to ask but his voice is drowned by an ear splitting screech coming from outside the coliseum.
"C'mon," Herc shouts waving them after him as he runs for the doors that led out of the coliseum. "He must have gone out there."
Running through the lobby, they find Phil running in from outside. "Phil, what's out there?" Aqua asks.
Phil is taking deep breaths with his hands on his knees. "Hydra...he summoned...the Hydra..." The looks of fear on Herc and Zack's faces let Terra, Aqua, and Ven know without asking that that is very bad. "You guys have to hold it off," Phil says finally having regained his breath. "I'll round up some help up on Olympus."
With quick nods to Phil, the battle ready crew rushes out to meet the monster. Once through the doors, they pull up short staring up with sinking hearts at the huge monster before them. The hydra towers taller than the coliseum with four heads heads that all snap around to look at the five of them. As one they let out another ear splitting screech. Angered by their appearance, the Hydra whips its tail back and forth knocking down half the wall with the scoreboards and the door leading out to the city.
"We gotta stop it before it destroys the Coliseum," Herc says with a hard expression of determination. "It's time to see if all that training paid off."
"Let's go!" Zack shouts running forward without looking to see if the others are following.
Ven is only half a step behind Zack, and when the Hydra whips it's tail around it front of it trying to trip them up he calls out, "Jump Zack!" Without hesitation, Zack jumps into the air with Ven and the thick tail passes harmlessly under them. Zack turns, his word of thanks half formed on his lips, but Ven interrupts him shouting, "Again!" Zack is almost too late to react this time, but they both land back on the ground unscathed. The tail whips back for a third try, but they are both anticipating it this time and easily jump out of the way.
Seeing that a new tactic is needed, the Hydra draws its tail away and instead lowers it's four heads. One swings down to snap at Ven and Zack causing them to leap back out of the way of it's sharp teeth. Glancing around for half a second, Ven sees that the others are engaged with their own heads. Each head seems to have a mind of it's own, working independent of the others. Ven turns back to find himself looking straight into a pair of huge yellow eyes.
"Ven!"
Zack is suddenly at his side with his sword held out in a block covering both of them as the Hydra's teeth chomp down. It hits Zack's sword and roars as he throws it back. "Ven you gotta pay attention," Zack says through gritted teeth.
"Right," Ven says falling into a battle stance. The Hydra, having recovered from Zack's block, swifty thrusts it's head down almost like its pecking at them. After jumping out of the way of the first attack, Ven and Zack switch from defense to offense. Zack moves to the right and Ven moves to the left forcing the Hydra to pick who to focus on. It picks Zack and continues to try and peck at him with it's sharp snout. Zack tries to stab it's head with his sword, but is only able to land a couple of hits.
At the same time, Ven uses the distraction Zack is making to make his move. With a quick assessment of the Hydra's movements, he moves to the perfect position and, when the Hydra pecks down at Zack again, he jumps and strikes it with his keyblade under its chin. The head pulls up quickly and turns to face Ven. It snaps down at him, but he is expecting that and jumps back swinging his keyblade to catch it on the nose as it's jaws snap close around the space he used to be in. Ven watches as the Hydra's head rises up again, but it suddenly jerks and it's eyes roll up to the back of it's head. As it falls stunned to the ground, Zack jumps down from it's neck with a triumphant grin.
"Let's finish this," Ven says moving to make a fatal attack on the unconscious monster.
Zack quickly moves to stop him saying, "Wait Ven! Taking out one head does nothing. We gotta take it all out at once." Ven looks at him confused. "Just trust me. I've heard stories about this thing."
Ven nods lowering his keyblade. The screech of one of the heads catches his attention and he turns to see Herc frantically dodging left and right as the Hydra snaps at his head. "C'mon," Ven says hurrying over.
From a run, Ven jumps at the Hydra and strikes it solidly nearly hitting it's right eye. With a screech of anger the Hydra rears up out of striking distance to recover. Zack and Ven hurry to Herc's side. "Thanks guys," Herc says dejectedly. "I guess I'm still not that strong."
"None of that!" Ven says rather forcefully. "Now isn't the time to be talking like that."
"Yeah," Zack says in a slightly kinder voice. "You're doing fine. Just remember all your training."
"My training..." Herc mumbles deep in thought, then his whole face lights up. "I have an idea!" He looks over at them. "Do you think you guys can take care of this head? I have plan and I think-I think might work." He sounds a little unsure, but the look in his eye says otherwise.
"No problem," Zack says. "We got this, right Ven?"
Ven is already gone, charging at the wary Hydra head that had come back within range. Herc runs back towards the coliseum as Zack runs to catch up with Ven.
After watching Ven run off after Zack, Terra's first instinct is to follow his younger friend to ensure he doesn't get hurt. Terra forces himself not to, telling himself that Ven is strong enough to look after himself and Zack has his back. Instead, Terra charges forward at a different head of the Hydra and immediately swings his bulky keyblade at its throat. The head rears back making his hit only a glancing blow. In response, the Hydra pecks down at him with its mouth open wide to snap at him and Terra aims a well placed hit on its snout forcing it away.
Out of the corner of his eye he catches a flash of blue and turns for a moment to see Aqua engaging another head nearby. She is shooting fireballs at it and the explosions all around its head serve as a distraction allowing her to move in close and land a good combo on it's neck.
Terra turns back to his own head and points his keyblade at the monster. "Blizzara!" He shouts and a cold blast of icicles form out of the tip of his keyblade. He catches the Hydra with his magic full in the face and it screeches in agony and rage. He keeps up the magic for a second more before releasing it and moving at once to strike the Hydra with his keyblade. After a combo on its head, the Hydra is nearly knocked out. Its head lolls on its neck and Terra, seeing his opportunity, rushes forward and jumps to strike it in the neck in a fatal blow.
"Terra no! Don't cut its head off!"
Aqua's warning is too late and by the time Terra registers what she had said his keyblade had already passed through the Hydra's neck and its head falls to the ground before melting out of existence. He lands back on the balls of his feet and finds her beside him.
"What were you trying to tell me?" Terra asks.
Aqua's response is to shake her head and point back at the monster. "Look."
Terra takes a double take as the stump that he had just created from decapitating the Hydra begins to change shape. A second later he is staring up in disbelief at two heads that had grown out of where one had been previously. Both heads turn to train their eyes on him and he and Aqua move quickly to avoid getting bitten.
"What the hell?" Terra says to Aqua panting. "How did it do that?"
"I don't know," Aqua replies pulling him out of the way of the Hydra's attacks. "The head I was fighting did the same thing."
Terra looks to see that this is true and then glances over in the other direction. Ven and Zack are fighting a different head then they had first taken on. That one was lying on the ground out cold.
"Looks like Ven and Zack had the right idea," Terra says and Aqua also looks over.
They both jump back as all four heads try to snap at them. "This is not working," Aqua says in a strained voice.
Terra nods in agreement. Staying on the ground they are sitting ducks for the heads to try and pick off. Time for a change in tactics. Terra quickly tosses his keyblade into the air. As the glider returns he jumps on it and motions for Aqua to do the same. "I'll drive, you fight."
Aqua hesitates for a second, then nods and climbs on, sitting behind Terra but facing backwards so she won't hit him when she swings her keyblade. They take to the sky zooming around the Hydra, too fast for it to bite them. Terra expertly maneuvers the glider getting close enough to the heads for Aqua to slice at them with her keyblade. With each hit, the Hydra becomes angrier and more determined to catch the keyblade wielders.
Terra is forced to make sharper turns and quicker movements to continue evading the monster. After a particularly sudden turn, Terra hears Aqua gasp in surprise. Turning slightly, he wraps one arm securely around her waist while continuing to drive with his other hand. From the tensing he felt at his touch he knows Aqua is not happy, but at the moment he doesn't care. He is focused on flying around the Hydra and making sure Aqua doesn't fall off.
After they make another pass through the sea of snapping heads, Terra and Aqua hover above the doors that lead to the city beyond the coliseum. The heads all crane around to look at them, and with a snarl of annoyance, the Hydra jumps and turns its body all the way around so it is facing them with its back to the coliseum. Terra is about to fly back to continue their assault, but stops seeing Herc come running out the doors of the coliseum with one of the barrels he had been training with before tucked under his arm. He motions for Terra to stay where he is and, curious as to what Herc is planning, Terra does so.
...
"They make a great team," Zack says to Ven as they watch Terra and Aqua zip around the Hydra's heads. Ven nods in agreement leaning back with his hands behind his head.
"They sure do," he says. "I wish they had left us a couple to deal with." Distracted by the flying keyblade wielders, the Hydra had withdrawn the head that Ven and Zack had been fighting and it is now snapping at Terra and Aqua with the other four heads. The first one Zack and Ven had taken out is still unconscious.
The Hydra suddenly jumps and lands with a thud having turned it's body completely around. "Woah!" Ven exclaims as the ground shakes from the impact of the monster. He reaches out his arms for balance and Zack grabs one keeping Ven on his feet.
"Hey!"
Ven looks up to see Herc shouting and waving at them from the steps to the doors of the coliseum. "C'mon," Zack says running off in Herc's direction, dragging Ven by his arm which he still held firmly. "Let's see what his plan is."
As they run, Herc yells to them, "Ven! Get up on the Hydra's back!" They skid to a stop next to the thick tail of the Hydra and Ven looks at Zack confused.
"Just go along with it," Zack says shoving his sword into its holder. "Here, I'll help you up." Zack bends down slightly interlacing his fingers to form a step. Knowing he can't waste time arguing, Ven puts his hands on Zack's shoulders and his foot in his hands. With a grunt of effort, Zack brings his arms up and Ven jumps, reaching up his hands scrabbling for something to hold onto.
Ven grabs onto one of the triangle scales on the Hydra's back and hauls himself up. Getting to his feet, he summons his keyblade and looks over to Herc who is holding a training barrel in his hands. "Ven!" Herc shouts as he throws the heavy barrel with inhuman strength high into the air. Guessing what Herc wants him to do, Ven carefully watches the barrel's flight and times his jump perfectly. He meets the barrel at the highest point of his jump and it feels like everything is in slow motion. Ven swings his keyblade as the barrel falls past him and adds the power of his hit to the already fast moving missile.
The barrel rockets down even faster and strikes the Hydra where all the necks converge. The force knocks it flat on the ground with a small cry of pain. Ven lands lightly on the Hydra's back and jumps back to the ground where he is meet by Zack who is grinning at him with his fist held out. Ven grins back and pounds Zack's fist with his own. They both look up in surprise as a bright flash catches their eye.
...
"Way to go Ven!" Terra says pumping his fist into the air as he watches the barrel smash into the Hydra severely injuring it. He flies down and he and Aqua jump off the glider as it turns back into his keyblade.
"How are we going to kill it?" Aqua asks worried. "Taking out it's heads is out of the question."
"I don't know," Terra admits watching as Ven jumps down from the Hydra's back. The Hydra struggles, but slowly gets back on it's feet letting out another screech which sounds feeble compared to before. "What's Herc doing?" Terra asks watching the boy as he walks away from the monster his eyes squinting up at the sky.
Aqua follows his gaze and the two of them stare up at the sky as well wondering what Herc sees. Suddenly, the clouds break open and a gigantic lightning bolt explodes out, shooting down, and hitting the Hydra in the chest. The Hydra howls in pain and when the bright light fades Terra can see that the once fearsome monster is moments away from fading away for good. In it's final moments, the Hydra uses all its remaining strength to whip it's tail back and forth, slamming it repeatedly into the wall of the coliseum across from Terra and Aqua. Dust and debris explodes out with each hit and cracks appear in the rock. The Hydra finally fades away, but the damage is done.
Terra hears Ven shout, "Zack look out!" and watches in horror as Ven tackles Zack to the ground just as one of the pillars next to the entrance of the coliseum falls where Zack had been standing moments ago. Terra starts to run to the two fallen boys, and to his relief they appear to be unharmed as they begin to help each other up. Then a foreboding crack resonates throughout the arena. The whole wall tumbles down and Ven and Zack disappear in the cloud of dust and fallen debris.
DUN DUN DUN!
Ugh this chapter was so hard to write! I had to watch the video of Sora fighting the Hydra in KHII so many times to figure out what they were each going to do.
The lightning bolt from the sky was so deus ex machina...like literally...
So I'm going to change the title of this story slightly. I have officially decided that this is going to be a series not just a single story soooooo
MEKA will be renamed The Dark Seeker Saga: MEKA
Just wanted to give you all a heads up so you don't get confused. I'll probably change the title when I put out the next chapter.
Mexi: Glad you liked the fighting in the last chapter. I was really happy with how it turned out.
Next chapter probably won't be out for a while so I'm sorry I left you on a cliffhanger. But you know sometimes I just have to put real life ahead of my writing and with playoffs for varisty (oh yeah! we are going far this year!), summer softball taking over my weekends, and finals nearly here I don't really see myself getting the next chapter out for like two weeks.
:(
But you know, I might have the incentive to stay up a little late and get it done in a week if you all were to leave reviews. :) So please review! I really want to hear what you have to say!