Chapter 9 Prisoners
The marble slabs the make up the tiered stands in the Coliseum are hard and uncomfortable to lie on, but Sora is too exhausted from the eight matches he had fought earlier to care. Dozing in the warmth of the last dregs of sunlight, he feels a tapping on his shoulder that wakes him up. Opening one eye he sees Goofy leaning over him.
"What is it?" Sora asks, trying and failing to stifle a yawn.
Goofy points down to the arena below. "Phil tryin' to get everyone's attention."
With a groan, Sora sits up and stretches his arms over his head. He raises his hand to cover another yawn and looks down at Phil standing in front of the stands with his clipboard gripped tight in his hands.
"All right you lot, listen up," Phil says. "If you're still here, you made it through the Preliminary round." Phil's eyes sweep over the stands where about a third of the competitors from the beginning rounds are sitting. He pauses, looking at Sora, and nods his head slightly in approval.
Sora smiles, proud to have made it through the first round, and looks around himself at the remaining competitors. There are mostly heartless scattered around, not listening to Phil, but along with Sora, Donald, and Goofy, Herc and the green eyed man from the first match have also made it this far. Not that Sora is surprised. He had seen them both fight and knows they are much more seasoned fighters. Compared to them, Sora feels very inexperienced and is sure he wouldn't last five minutes against either of them.
Phil continues speaking while looking right at Sora. "Don't be too smug yet. There's still a long way to go." Sora nods and Phil looks down at his clipboard. "Matches continue bright and early tomorrow so don't be late. And come ready to fight. Tomorrow one of you will be Phil Cup champs."
Dismissed, the heartless all disappear like they can and the others rise to their feet to start making their way out of the stands. Sora steps onto the dirt of the arena and suddenly gets the feeling he is being watched. He turns to find the stranger staring unabashed at him a few steps behind. Sora smiles at him, but the man keeps his face stony. Descending the last few steps out of the stands, the stranger brushes past Sora and continues across the arena towards the exit without a glance back.
"Hey guys," Herc says. "Want to have dinner here with us? Meg is making her famous beef stew."
"Thanks. That sounds great," Sora replies only half listening. His eyes are still on the stranger who is nearly at the door out of the arena. "I'll be right back," Sora says to his friends and runs after the man.
"Wait up!" He calls and waves a hand as the stranger pauses and turns with slight surprise breaking through his stony face. Sora reaches him and pulls up short. The stranger has one eyebrow raised in a question and suddenly Sora doesn't know what to say or why exactly he decided to chase after the man. "Um…" He puts his hands behind his head and leans back a little. "Hi. I'm Sora and I just wanted to say...you're a great fighter. I think you're even better than Leon."
"Leon?" The stranger asks.
"He's a friend of mine," Sora explains. "He's taught me a lot about sword fighting. Whoever taught you must have been really good too."
The stranger glances behind him like there is some place he should be and Sora is keeping him. Realizing the stranger probably doesn't want to talk to some random kid, Sora is about to excuse himself and return to his friends when the stranger turns replying. "I taught myself."
"Oh," Sora says surprised. "That's cool." Now face to face with the stranger, Sora notices he isn't as old as he had first thought. If Sora had to guess, he would put the man's age around 26 or 27.
The man nods slightly. "If you say so." He glances behind him again and looks back at Sora, sizing him up. "Keyblade, huh? That's a hard life."
Sora lets his hands fall back to his sides. He is surprised the man knows about Keyblades. "Uh, yeah, I guess it can be," he says. He grins. "But I'm proud to carry it."
The man's lips twitch up in a half smile. "Good for you," he says and turns to walk away. He reaches the door out, but is stopped again by Sora's voice.
"You never told me your name."
The man glances back to meet Sora's blue eyes with his green. He turns back away quickly and Sora's shoulders slump thinking he isn't going to answer, then,
"It's Tay."
Sora smiles at the man's back as he disappears through the door. "Well, good luck tomorrow, Tay."
...
"Get the Princess!"
Kairi heard Ansem shout and lifted her head. She saw Cid's crumpled body against the wall and then turned to see Riku pinned by Ansem. His eyes were wide with fear; a warning.
She wasn't even fully upright when she was pulled off the ground by a huge black hand that stunk of darkness. The guardian had her. She struggled, twisting and straining to free herself. The grip on her torso only tightened.
"Riku…" she gasped, seeing black spots in her vision. She reached for him and he tried to throw Ansem off. It didn't work. Ansem sent a blast of darkness at him and Riku fell back against the paving stones with a grunt of pain.
The black spots were getting bigger. She could feel consciousness slipping away no matter how hard she tried to hold on. "...Riku…" she tried to say again, but there was no air left in her lungs to get the word out. Against her will, her eyes started to close and as the blackness became complete, she shouted out in her mind one more name that echoed around her as she fell into unconsciousness.
Sora
The dream of the battle dissolves and Kairi blinks open her eyes to find herself on her back, staring up at a single cracked light on the ceiling. She moves a hand to block the light that is making her pounding headache even worse. Confused and with scenes of her battle with Ansem still flashing in her mind, she tries to sit up only to fall back with a whimper at the burning pain in her ribs.
"Good. You're awake."
It is the same voice in her memories.
"Curaga," she whispers and tries to sit up again. She succeeds this time and once in a sitting position on the cold tile, she turns to the voice to see Ansem watching her with a smirk through cell bars.
She can feel his yellow eyes boring into her as she scrambles to her feet and spins on her heels to see the cell she is trapped in. It's placed in the middle of a large room with peeling walls. Only a few lights on the ceiling are working leaving the edges of the room in darkness. The cell itself is bare. The bars placed so close there is only a three inch gap between each make a square around her and reach from the floor to the high ceiling. The only things in the cell with her are a couple folded blankets, about ten water bottles, and a bucket that she shuddered to think about what it's for.
Having completed her inspection, she turns to face Ansem again and takes a few steps closer. "What do you want with me?" She asks, glaring at him through the bars.
"It is not you, but your heart that I want," he says in reply.
Kairi presses a hand to her chest. "My heart?" She says failing to stop her fear from making her voice quiver. "Why do you want my heart? What does that even mean?"
"I have searched a long time for you Princess," Ansem says walking right up to the bars. Kairi is forced to look up to meet his eyes, but refuses to let him scare her.
"I'm not a princess. I'm a keyblade wielder," she says. "And you're making a big mistake." Her heart is pounding painfully in her chest, but she is proud to hear her voice steadier than before. "I have friends who are going to come after you for this."
"Friends like that pathetic boy from your world?" Ansem says with a sneers. "He's already given up on looking for you. My heartless proved too much for him."
"Your heartless?"
Ansem nods. "That's right Princess. They chased that so called friend of yours out of this castle with his tail between his legs."
"Don't talk about Riku like that!" Kairi shouts slamming her hands against the bars. Ansem doesn't even flinch.
Now more angry than scared, Kairi reaches out to summon her keyblade only for it not to come. Surprised, she looks at her hand and calls it again, but it doesn't materialize.
"It won't work."
She jerks her head up and takes a step back seeing Ansem's yellow eyes gleaming in triumph.
"Your keyblade of light can not appear in this room," he says. "There is too much darkness here."
"That's-that's not possible," Kairi whispers, her voice back to sounding small and scared. She calls her keyblade desperately, but Ansem is right, it won't come. Now that he pointed it out, she could feel the darkness in the room. It hung in the air like dust and for a moment she couldn't breathe.
"This cell is inescapable," Ansem says, gloating. "I have been planning this a long time, Princess."
"Don't call me Princess!" Kairi shouts. She points at Ansem. "Blizzaga!"
The spell is aimed at the gap between the bars of the cell, but it ricochets as if it had hit a wall flies back at her, catching her in the stomach. Doubled over and winded, Kairi looks up at the spot in the air her spell had been deflected and is able to see the shimmering form of a magic barrier there before it turns invisible once again.
"Foolish," Ansem says shaking his head. "You might as well accept your fate. You are a Princess of Heart. One of seven with pure light hearts. For the longest time I could not find you, the seventh, but all this time you have been hiding in plain sight as a keyblade wielder. Now that I have you, I will gather the other six and finally have seven lights I have been seeking."
Moving to the bars, Kairi forces herself to ask, "Then what are you going to do."
Ansem regards her for a moment. "With the seven Princesses of Heart held captive, my part in the plan will be complete. When the thirteen darknesses are also brought together, we will have all twenty pieces."
"Pieces of what?" Kairi asks, but Ansem doesn't say, turning away and heading to the door out of the room. "Hey!" She shouts hitting the bars. "You can't just leave me here! What are you planning?"
He ignores her shouts and leaves the room with the doors slamming behind him. Sinking to her knees, Kairi wraps her arms around herself and lets her head drop in despair. She sits there a moment before a squeaking sound followed by the scuttling of small feet in the darkest corner of the room makes her jerk her head back up. Beady red eyes stare back at her and she hurriedly pushes herself away from the cell bars.
Rats, she thinks. Why did there have to be rats?
…
"Meg's beef stew sure was delicious," Goofy says as they cross the empty dark arena of the coliseum now lit only by the moon and the stars.
Sora and Donald nod in agreement, glancing back over their shoulder. Beyond the wall of the arena are living quarters for Herc, Meg, and Phil. It had once been barracks, but Herc had told Sora after he and Meg had gotten married she had redecorated them to be a proper house for them with a guest suite for Phil to live in as well.
"I'm stuffed," Donald says. He yawns. "Where are we going to sleep tonight?"
"The ship has sleeping bags," Sora says. "We can just crash there…" He trails off as they reach the door to the lobby only to find it ajar and with a strange blue light coming through the crack from inside.
"If Herc and Phil are over there," Goofy jerks his thumb over his shoulder, "then who's in there?"
Sora creeps forward. "Let's find out," he says in a whisper.
Crouching beside the door, Sora puts one eye to the small gap between the door and the doorframe. At first he sees nothing, but then there are shadows moving in the blue light.
Sora nearly yelps as he feels Donald and Goofy lean over him to look into the lobby as well. Returning his attention to peering through the gap, he sees a tall man in billowing black robes come into view. Sora's eyes widen in surprise seeing the man's blue skin and blazing blue fire for hair - the source of the blue light illuminating the room.
"This is not up for negotiations," the blue man says running a hand through the flames on his head. "Take out that little punk when you face him tomorrow."
"The great god of the Underworld is afraid of a kid?" Sora recognizes Tay's voice and a moment later the black haired man moves into view. He stands facing Hades and Sora can only see a sliver of his face, but his green eyes are glaring at the blue man. "Sorry, but my contract says-"
"I know! I know what the contract says!" The fire on the man's head turns red hot for a moment as he shouts. It turns back blue as he says, "I know it says you are only required to kill Hercules, but you won't have a match against him until the final. You have to fight that keyblade knuckle head to get there. A little slip of your sword and the kid won't be bothering anyone ever again."
"Not going to happen," Tay says. From his view, Sora can see Tay's hand move to the sword on his waist.
The movement doesn't go unnoticed by the blue man. The fire on his head turns dangerously red again and he almost seems to grow a few feet in size. "You seem to have forgotten our little deal," the man says, towering over Tay who doesn't flinch. "You get to walk around top side with the living again and in exchange all I ask is that you have a friendly little sparring match against a keyblade brat and Jerkules."
"I'm not about to murder a child for you," Tay says, pushing his way past the blue man to head for the door out of the Coliseum.
The blue man however grabs the back of Tay's jacket and yanks him back in front of him. "You seem to have forgotten who's in charge."
From inside his robes, the blue man pulls a small wooden statue, crudely carved to look like Tay. He hold it up to Tay and it starts to glow. Tay looks at it and stops trying to wrench himself free of the man's grip. The man releases him and Tay makes no move to leave again, his eyes glued to the little statue in a glazed over look.
"Now let's try this again," the blue man says in a smug tone. "In return for me resurrecting you from the dead, you will…?"
"Fight Hercules," Tay replies.
"You will fight Hercules to the death."
"To the death," Tay says through gritted teeth.
The blue man smiles broadly, showing pointed teeth. "The bratty keyblade wielder too."
Tay shakes his head and the glow on the statue fades slightly. "No...I can't...He reminds me of-"
The blue man grabs Tay by the back of the neck and forces him to look at the statue again. "Hercules and the kid. Are we clear?"
Tay struggles briefly against the blue man's grip, but gives up. "We're clear Hades."
"'Lord Hades."
Hades moves the statue closer to Tay who grudgingly says, "Lord Hades."
"Good," Hades says. "Now go."
Hades disappears in a puff of smoke, taking the statue with him. Tay stands in a stupor a moment before shaking his head and walking out the door opposite where Sora, Donald, and Goofy are spying from.
"C'mon," Sora says jumping to his feet and chasing after Tay. Donald and Goofy are right behind him as they burst out of the lobby and into the open area before the Coliseum. They run down the couple of steps and stand, looking around for Tay.
"He disappeared," Donald says crossing his arms.
Sora turns on the spot once more, but Tay is long gone. "Yeah, I guess he did," he says disappointed. "We gotta help Tay get away from that Hades guy."
"What was that little statue he had?" Goofy asks as they walk slowly towards the green circle of light that marks the transporter to their ship. "It seemed to be controlling Tay."
"Maybe Herc or Phil would know," Sora says looking back over his shoulder. "We should ask them tomorrow before the games start."
Donald and Goofy nod in agreement, stepping onto the green circle. Sora looks around one last time in the hope of Tay suddenly appearing, but he doesn't. With a sigh, Sora steps onto the green circle as well and closes his eyes as the three of them are transported up and away.
…
From the shadows of the enormous gold statue to the right of the Coliseum doors, Tay watches Sora join his friends on the green circle and disappear to their ship in the sky. With his will bound down by the spell Hades had on him, his mind is mostly empty. Still, he is himself enough to look up at the stars, all the worlds he had dreamed of seeing when he was a kid, and ask the night air,
"Where are you Ven?"
So the mystery man's identity is Tay. Surprised?
Mexi (Rhyme13kh14Xion8) I don't know if you're still reading this story, but I just wanted to say that it's thanks to you that Tay is alive again. In a review you posted forever ago for MEKA you said you had the feeling Tay wasn't really dead. I started thinking and decided it would be awesome for him to come back so when I was planning the sequel I put Tay's return in. It was a great idea so I hope you and everyone else is happy he's alive.
I also just want to explain how Tay died on Carinol and ended up in Hades' Underworld since I don't think it will ever be explained in the story.
In this fic, all the worlds are interconnected by both the dark and light realms which is how dark corridors and light corridors work for world traveling. When people die, their souls travel through the dark realm to Hades' Underworld.
Basically, Tay died so his soul found its way to the Underworld where he was then resurrected by Hades like Auron in cannon.
CatLoverx33: I miss Ven too :(
TopazDragon98: More on what Zack found next chapter!