The Sapphire Sorceress

Disclaimer: The rights to Kingdom Hearts belong to Disney and Square Enix.

Act 59: What Lies Beneath

"They came to see me. They came to see a hero. I can't let them down."

Olympus Coliseum: The Underworld ( Kairi's POV )

Sora told me about when he came to this world in order to find me, and how the three of them ended up taking part in a tournament of "glory" set up by Hades: The God of the Underworld. There was another contestant involved named Cloud, but he along with Sora were being used by that flaming headed god in order to defeat his nemesis in Hercules. Despite being a known hero to everyone here, the man actually proclaimed Sora and friends as being heroes in their own right, the group even got some trophies for completing several kinds of tournament cups. Each one became more difficult than the last until he encountered the strongest warrior, and he sounded like he was an angel descending from the heavens...

"Are ya sure this is the Coliseum?" Goofy didn't think this dark, gloomy, and the rather unsettling place was a respected battlefield of warriors and champions. I wondered if the Gummi Ship might have gotten something wrong with the course that was laid out for us. While Donald was pointing towards a stairway we all saw a girl who was being attacked by some bizarre-looking dogs; which likely weren't animals rather heartless instead. As we ran over to the dark-haired woman I hoped she still her heart within her chest.

"Thanks, but...I'm fine. And you're supposed to be?"

"Oh, I'm Sora, he's Donald, he's Goofy, and she is Kairi. We came to see how Hercules is doing." She certainly didn't seem impressed by looking at us but I wondered if she might know about Herc as Sora calls him.

"You know Wonderboy?"

"Yeah, 'cause we're heroes, too!"

"Ya mean junior heroes, Donald."

"Name's Megara. My friends call me Meg." Meg. Has a simple, but nice ring to it. As she told us about Herc battling up in the Coliseum with no real challenges as the "hero who's work is never done" the imagination of a guy tossing around giant monsters and foes, like they were nothing, did entertain me, the classes I took about brave men who faced off against dragons to save a damsel who was in distress seemed interesting, but a bit cliche in my point of view.

"Anyway onto the subject of why I'm down here to see the "Lord of the Underworld" in person. Herc is tough, but I think he could use a break after dealing with so many battles lately. If anything were to happen to that kid..."

"You know if you're this concerned about him, the feeling I'm getting from you Meg is that you consider him as more than a friend." I wondered if there was more to them from what she has only told the four of us so far. She began to get flustered about that remark causing Goofy and Donald to chuckle a little.

"Well, I guess we can go talk with Hades. I'd hate for anything to happen to you on your way to see him." Again, her faith in us wasn't certain but I agreed with Sora on this matter, since I doubted Hades was going to simply allow us to walk over him if he was truly a god of the dead. Running across the floor it looked like we would be swept into the current the water is flowing towards near the edge of the room. As we ran across the floor we saw more of those small heartless dogs who began to bark at us.

'Not much bite behind their barking...' Indeed, such enemies like this didn't seem that much of a threat easily being taken out with a few strikes from our keyblades. What is a threat is the figure in black who just ran past us?

"The Organization!"

We all ran in the direction of that nobody, the huge rocks that were stuck at the top above our heads suddenly began to come down to hurt us. Chopping down one before it could hurt my friend, which allowed Goofy and Donald to handle the small shadows running up in front of us. Sora returned the favor by chopping up the rabid dog-shaped heartless before they could get us.

"We sure do make a great team, Kairi."

"Couldn't have gotten here without you, Sora." Once the smaller heartless were cleared out we moved onto the next part of this cavern area, but suddenly that nobody appeared in front of us again.

"Run! Run away!" Before we could even figure out what's just happened that member of the dreaded organization...just leave us in a running motion through one of those portals...

"Okay...?" Exactly my thoughts, Sora.

After that bizarre encounter, we entered a gigantic room that was above a creepy-looking pit with green energy swirling around it. The place certainly gave off an unfriendly vibe to any poor saps coming to visit the place.

"I'm scared too, Donald."

"Hades! Come out!" I doubt it would be the simple to figure out. If he won't come out of his hole, then we will need to push him out of hiding but first, we need to deal with this flowers that certainly look like heartless. Lucky for us like real plants they didn't fare so well if they were hit with a bit of fire magic quickly removed them from the ground. Heading further up this small pathway several more lance-wielding heartless came at us with bats and another flower heartless, and if I had to guess they were trying to protect something or rather someone.

Nodding with Sora we each took our turns in wiping out these guys, moving with one another to avoid being hit by the enemy, and we both relied on our strongest moves in order to completely defeat them in short order. Things were only getting harder with each other we visit, but with friends like these enemies better look out for us. Stabbing the final lance heartless in the chest while Sora cut down a flower who tried getting me while I was distracted the last of the darkness was gone, but they were small fry compared to the owner of this place.

Running up into the room where Hades was hiding, the image we got certainly surprised us as there was someone already here but looked to be in bad shape at the hands of this guy, and his...flaming hair?

"This is Hades, Kairi." Well, I can for sure understand why he's gotten such a reputation but that shouldn't mean we can't take him down. As we tried hitting him with our blades however it was like striking a cloud in the air; despite being in front of us none of our attacks could even hurt him.

"Something's wrong!" Why does my body feel so much weaker than before?

"That's right! See, that's the thing. In the Underworld, heroes are zeroes - comes with the territory." Does that mean we aren't at our strongest down here? Before we could get attacked that man on the floor managed to hold off this hothead with his sword.

"Go now!"

"But I've gotta talk to Hades."

"What was that?!" Why you, you arrogant deity!

"We can't fight him here! We have to go - now!" I'd hate to agree with that, but there wasn't much else we can do besides run away except Hades didn't want us to leave, and neither did these heartless soldiers that spawned behind us. Looking at this older man for assistance we charged at the enemy hoping we could buy enough time to escape from this place once the heartless were gone. Of course, the self-proclaimed lord of the underworld made things difficult by trying to blast us with several fireballs.

"Mind telling us how you got involved with the lord of the dead, stranger?"

"Later when we're aren't being threatened by the worst god of them all..." Good point. As we continued getting away I saw the man spit some weird kind of drink onto his blade as he used it to cut down some of the Lancer heartless in just one swipe. Despite looking older than me and Sora he wasn't that bad with a sword at all. That said we were only getting better as I managed to block some of the fireballs being sent by Hades so that Sora could clear out some of the heartless still trying to get in the way.

"I can see the way out we just need to get a bit further ahead, huh?" Before we could even move further a barrier caused me to stop, my face landing hard on the invisible wall in front of me as I saw more bats and flower heartless coming to interfere with our escape again.

"Enough of this..." While Donald and Goofy tried holding back some of these guys this man who hasn't even provided us with his name suddenly asked for help with Sora's assistance, the both of them began to slice apart the enemy with their own swords. Before long they moved their swords together, and then a huge spiral of wind drew in all of the heartless roaming around not to mention me if I hadn't stuck my own sword into the ground to use as a pull to keep myself on the floor. Blinking my eyes, the enemies were gone allowing us to get away from that flaming loud-mouthed god.

"You're really good. Are you some kind of hero?" He certainly acted like one in battle, his answer seemed to disagree about Sora's thoughts. Of course, heroes aren't just people in costumes, the truth is they come in the form of anyone who stands up to evil no matter how big or small.

"No, I'm no hero...I'm just a...Auron. My name."

"Auron, huh? Well, I'm Kairi, that is Sora, Donald, and Goofy over there." I felt thrilled that for once I would be the one to introduce ourselves...even if they fell over each other while trying to pile onto one another in order to stand at the same height as Auron.

"It seems we were fated to meet. Maybe you need a guardian."

"Guardian? Thanks, but no thanks." What? Why would you not agree with him, Sora? He likely knows this place better than either of us, so why refuse such a generous offer like that...

"I know why you're questioning your friend, Kairi. It is acceptable to disagree with those you care about even now and then." I know, but that doesn't mean I'll always be silent on his choices. Sometimes...I feel like I should say more than what I do admit out loud to Sora and his friends. Heading upwards we saw more of those dog heartless sniffing around for us likely to go bark at Hades about where we were in these caverns. Of course, they won't be going anywhere considering I cut down a lot of them while Auron and Sora took care of some other ones who attempted to run away.

"So, if you don't mind me asking you this, but why exactly are you here? I mean you certainly don't seem like the party Hades would want to have around him, but I know that if you were willing to help us there must be a reason you're stuck in this underworld, right?"

"That...is a long story, and if you don't mind me returning the favor as to why your friend he wants to chat with the lord of the dead again?" That is also quite a long story to tell actually...

Running into a huge area I could see the doorway where we came from during this trip into these caverns meaning we were finally going to escape! No! It has been locked shut, but I know of someone with a pretty big key that can unlock it. As Sora opened the doorway I could hear the sounds of a dog, although it sounded much louder and more vicious than those little ones we've beaten up before now.

"Of course, the man who controls the dead would send out his little puppy to crew on us..." That "little puppy" turned out to be a three-headed dog that was anything but little in size. Auron, the guy who's only been helping us for a couple of minutes wasted no time in trying to keep the middle head of this Cerberus creature from eating him alive. Without help his demise was certain, and so I decided to help out by hitting the other two heads with some magic spells.

"What are you doing with your life! Why waste your story on someone like me?!"

"It is the right thing to do, Auron..." Too bad doing the right thing means getting smacked around by the paw of this huge guardian dog of the underworld. I certainly knew being a hero meant enduring pain like this, but thankfully so did Sora as he decided to come help us deal with this monster.

"Why did you decide to fight him like that? You could have gotten a lot more hurt than having a bruised arm this time!"

"I knew you would come and help out. That is what my heart told me would happen..." Despite the red marking on my skin, I placed my hand on my chest, the gesture meant to illustrate my trust in Sora as my friend and companion with my smile that matched his own.

"Kairi...I might not always be there for you..."

"Yes, but right now you are somewhere that I can pull you towards me." Grinning, I took hold of his arm while Auron reminded us about the unwanted guest in our midst. With three of us now, the trio of blades we use could focus on each head to avoid being overwhelmed by this monster's strength and height. Despite being this large it could move very fast, and with this minor injury, mistakes couldn't be afforded on my part in order to defeat such a foe. Looking at the rocks falling down I got an idea on how to deal with the huge gaping mouths on this beast.

"Sora, Auron can you somehow grab those falling rocks?" They must have thought I was insane for asking them that, but there is a method to this madness. Moving away from the shockwave being sent out by this dog's jumping I got into position a couple of feet away from Sora and Auron. Sure I wasn't strong enough to grab them myself, but with this keyblade, I certainly was capable of knocking them back into their mouths, very similar to putting a collar on a dog to keep it under control. Although, I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried putting huge rocks into the mouths of a three-headed dog before...

Despite the pain I felt on my other arm I pushed the rocks at the beast hoping that it would leave one of those mouths open for me, but then I saw the huge dog pounce onto Sora overwhelming him with its size and power.

"Sora!"

"He'll be fine don't worry about this. You're still got quite the journey ahead of ya, so don't let it end like this!" Despite how big that paw was on Sora's chest Auron simply grabbed it with one hand to knock the limb away from my friend allowing him to get back up. Nodding, I redoubled my efforts into helping them out by finally getting a rock into one of their mouths causing the beast to stop attacking them for a few moments. Sora and Auron took advantage of the moment by slashing at the other two heads while they were distracted.

In the meantime...I guess these other rocks can help draw attention away from my friend and his "guardian" who are trying to render it unable to follow us out.

"We can't beat this thing only keep it down for a while."

"How do you know about that, Auron."

"Trust me, kid, when you've been down here as long as I have you began to understand why Hades wants to keep souls stuck here..."

Why did he say that to Sora like he knew what it was like to be a soul or something? Did he mean to imply that-

"Look out, Kairi!" I almost didn't even see this Cerberus charge directly at me until I saw those three heads look ready to bite down on my own. Rolling out of the way I looked at the top of the cave and noticed a few stalactites sticking out that looked ready to fall down, so I helped them along by knocking a rock into the top of the cave making them fall onto the Cerberus beast.

"Good work, Kairi." Hehe, thank you, Auron.

"We have to get you out of here before you get even more hurt." Why are you concerned about me being in pain rather than trying to help you two? Whatever. With the beast down we finally could get out of that place returning to where we came from when we first arrived, however, I noticed we were one man short.

"What happened to Auron?"

"He can take care of himself," Sora! Did you not just have difficulty with this huge beast even with him helping us. "Besides we have to heal up Kairi before getting out of here and find Meg." Sora...

Olympus Coliseum: Coliseum Gates

I have to say compared to the bleak, grim, and overall unsettling atmosphere of that cave this place looked much more optimistic. The huge gold statues depicting heroes or gladiators was a nice touch to the entrance of this place. Now, this is a place I wouldn't mind hanging around in to see a couple of battles filled with men and hopefully women battling for valor and pride. I knew that football games during my first year in the academy were usually filled with excitement between the players, coaches, fans watching in the bleacher section, and the cheerleaders.

As we walked up to the front door we could see a man dressed in armor coming out, but he looked pretty depressed as he opened the doors before he saw us.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy! When'd you all get here? And if you don't mind me asking who is your friend there?"

"Oh, I'm Kairi. Nice to meet you Hercules or Herc whichever you prefer..." Gosh, he is kinda laid back for such a fabled hero of the Coliseum, and did he just handshake Sora like they were close buddies? Man, I must have missed a lot while I was asleep...

After getting inside of the building Sora began to explain what's been going on while I looked at the trophies that were standing behind of Hercules and Meg. It seemed like they were mostly ones that belonged to Hercules for being a "true hero" according to the nameplates. After explaining the Meg-Mega-trouble we ended up in down there we wanted to know how exactly we could stop Hades from abusing Herc without losing our strength down there.

"Well, there is a stone that guards against the underworld's curse." Perfect! Without losing our power down there Hades will not be ready for us this time around. As he began inspected us including myself with my left arm still feeling pain from that huge guard dog of the underworld he recommended that we take up some training to hone our skills with a guy named Phil.

"Umm...Sora? Are you sure this guy is the best person who can train us?"

"Oh, don't let his looks fool you. He managed to turn me, Donald, and Goofy into junior heroes." I couldn't help laughing; just the thought of Sora and his friends becoming "junior" heroes with the help of someone like Phil. Was it rude to believe that saving the world didn't mean they were anything more than that.

"Hey, if it ain't the junior heroes!"

"Looking good, Phil."

"Never better. How about you guys? Have you earned your "true hero" wings yet?"

"Does saving the universe count from the darkness count, Phil?" Even after everything Sora has accomplished since becoming a keybearer he still isn't considered to be a real hero? Instead of anger, Phil began to laugh at me like I had just made a joke that he found amusing.

"You kidding, girl? You're not even a junior hero, and you're the one telling me that your buddies here can be on the champ's level? How's about you do some heavy-lifting to back up those big words you're tossing around first!" By training, he meant hitting a bunch of weird spinning tops over and over again until he said time has run out. Despite questioning such an idea I did plan on proving to Phil that I was getting closer and closer to Sora's current level. It wasn't until I saw these spinning tops continue to move around faster, faster, and faster that I realized what Phil meant by training.

'How are they moving around this quickly!'

"Don't worry, Kairi. I had a tough time with these things when I first trained here as well!" Not helping Sora! Putting more speed into my steps I tried hitting several more of these tops before Phil yelled at me to stop moving. My body was covered in sweat as he told me that...I was still a rookie?!

"See, the fact is you're still a rookie at this hero stuff, so suck it up and improve so that you can become junior level." Junior...level. After working so hard I'm not even anywhere close to Sora...

"Oh, hey there Herc. So where is that stone you were talking about?"

"The Olympus Stone has been stolen, Sora." Huh?! Who could have stolen something like that and for what purpose exactly?

"All I know is it was some guy in a black-hooded cloak. And he had accomplices - a bunch of white-colored creatures." Organization XIII. It seems like everything is going on right now, but when I saw Hades show up I knew things were only going to get much worse. I wanted to bash my keyblade right onto his flaming head; despite his disdain for details if Meg was stuck in the underworld he was behind it even if he didn't outright admit that. I'm willing to bet he's been trying to make Hercules weak enough to make him vulnerable, and if this Hydra seemed as "bloodthirsty" as this god claimed then Herc was in serious trouble.

"Don't worry, Herc. You keep the Hydra busy and we'll go find your friend. Heroes or not..." I couldn't help but let that part out since I was showing a little bit of envy about how well Sora's been treated by everyone.

"Kairi..." I knew Sora wanted to say something, but right now we had to do some work not focus on how we might feel about things. It was a painful lesson I've had to learn before coming here.

Olympus Coliseum: Underworld Caverns

Already back in these dreadful caverns and I certainly hadn't missed looking around this place. At least there were some heartless to take out my aggression on that were holding little candles in their hands. They weren't inspiring fear out of me rather fury and rage...

"Kairi! Stop! You're pushing yourself too hard!"

"Why aren't you trying to help me, Sora!?" I nearly fell over while one of the ghosts began to float higher than I could reach with my height. As his arms began to wrap around my body I lost it by this point.

"Damn it, Sora! Can't you respect the fact I'm trying to become as strong as you, hero! Why are you holding me back out of concern for my well being?!" Hissing, I broke off Sora's embrace while pointing my keyblade at the heartless to make it disappear with a beam of light ensuring we can talk without distractions getting in the way for us.

"You have nothing to prove to me or anyone else! Look, the words Phil said don't mean anything."

"No! I have to become stronger to keep you safe. I can't afford to lose you because of my weakness..." My eyes were beginning to get wet, so I walked away from Sora in order to let out my feelings. Running into an empty area I leaned over on a cave pillar as my body started to weep out my tears, the water flowing out of my eyes came from sorrow about Zidane. Why was I feeling like this now besides being considered as less of a hero than Sora, of course?

'No. I shouldn't be envious of Sora.' Looking up I saw that figure in black! One of the organization members was right here and I just now saw him or her.

"Oh, it's you...wait you're not him." Compared to the long, booming voice from the nobody in Beast's Castle this guy was - less than impressive and that was before I got a look at his weird-looking hair.

"Hold on a second you're the girl who is hanging out with Roxas!"

"Ummm what? What do you mean by Roxas?" I knew that he was Sora's nobody, so what did he mean by that comment? Xion was the one Sora absorbed or at least took his memories back from and not Roxas.

"Then again...I guess that weird puppet is what I should be calling him instead."

"Mind explaining stuff instead of being cryptic like the other nobodies..." He suddenly pulled out a notepad?! What is going on with this guy and why is he acting so...normal. Like compared to the others, he does seem to know how to pretend to act like there is a heart inside of his chest.

"Let's see, here...If the subject fails to respond, use aggression to liberate his true disposition. Right. Well, that would be easy if I didn't need to deal with his girlfriend instead..."

"G-girlfriend?!" You have gotten something very wrong here, pal! Looking at him pull something out of his cloak, the stone that was shining in this dark cave it must be the stolen item!

"You're the thief!"

"Now that's just plain rude!" Before I could grab the stolen item he cast some weird barrier over himself, and then he began to play his guitar? Okay, this has to be one of the weirdest things I've ever seen in my life. No. Wait to see a bunch of strange water clones of this guy certainly managed to outdo that by a mile. Holding out my keyblade I began to charge at these guys who were not only fast but rather big in their numbers against me since I had to take all of these water clones down by myself.

"Dance; water! Dance!" Delightful.

I had trouble dealing with these many guys at once since unlike the heartless they behaved with more purpose and reason in their actions. It was as if they could think like nobodies who understood how to dodge of striking us keyblade wielders. Even with using some fire and ice spells these guys refused to go down easily making it hard to concentrate on all of them swarming around me like a swarm of bees.

"If you don't mind me asking, and if you don't find it rude to say where is your pal anyway? I'm like supposed to see him at least once before leaving for some more practice rounds with my Sitar."

"We're having some issues," I yelled out before zapping a couple of these guys with some lightning magic. "That is why I'm going to steal back that stone from you and break that stupid guitar of yours!"

"Sitar, keybearer. There is a difference between such instruments, you know?" I don't care about that stuff! Just give me the damn stone already you jerk! Tossing around my keyblade I knew there were still quite a few copies of water that were splashing me with their bodies, and to my surprise, these attacks really did hurt. Despite my best efforts these guys were beginning to overwhelm me, and I began to realize I may have been in a little over my head about this hero business...

"Oh, dear it seems you're running low on time." That doesn't mean it is over yet, nobody. Gripping my weapon tightly I tried piercing through the rest of these guys with newly discovered strength in my body. Jumping at the last few water copies I knew there was still a bit of time-

"Sorry, game over!" Suddenly, I could feel these water clones rush over my body pounding into my skin and body causing me to fall over in severe pain. My whole body was in a huge ball of water that continued to thrash around, spinning my body, and I feared that I would drown until I fell onto the ground a couple of seconds later. I'd underestimated this nobody: Organization XIII and Demyx. How foolish of a mistake I've made today...

"That's what I figured would happen. You thought you had discovered courage when you picked up that little blade of yours," I could see him move towards me, but it was getting harder to hear and breath due to this amount of water around and inside of my body. "What lies beneath isn't a brave warrior with a keyblade. It is simply a little girl who's afraid of being less than a hero. A mere zero." Why...does he sound different? Almost like he's become a different person all of a sudden.

"I know Roxas...or Xion wouldn't want me to do this, but she won't have to worry about you getting in the way of her hunt of the heartless. With that said can you do me a favor and make this your final performance?" That isn't gonna happen weirdo...if I can just get my body to reach my keyblade then...

"Nope! Not dealing with that pointy thing. Okay, time for your last solo by the Dem-ster!"

"Kairi?! Kairi!" Sora, oh thank you so much for coming. I never knew how stupid my feelings to be until now, and if I see you again just know...I'm sorry...

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone who isn't hurt, nobody."

"Roxas?! Oh, did they ever pick the wrong guy for this one..." Donald and Goofy picked me up as I saw Sora began to fight some of those clones before I passed out in their arms...

[ Okay, I have a little question for my readers. I've been getting this black pop-up that disappears in a couple of seconds. I will try screen-capture to read the box, but I fear this could be the sign my computer is having issues or worse a bug/virus. If you can recommend some tips to help me that don't involve buying malware or virus software I would appreciate the help very much. I wouldn't be asking if I didn't know the issue on my end was. Now back to your regularly scheduled afterthoughts on the chapter update.

As for Kairi yeah not what you expected, but I wanted her to see the consequence of her outburst with Sora and why they have to get over their issues with one another to survive as a team, so forgive me of their argument might seem a little forced in terms of the story by this point. Next time we check out Queen Minnie at Disney Castle. Hope you don't mind Demyx getting the best of her since payback will be coming later if you see where this is going after this little cliffhanger :P ]