Roxas lifted the unconscious Phil onto his back. He had to get him out of the Underworld before they went off to find out what Demyx was doing in the world. Once again he had to trek the long stairs the separated the two realms within the world.

"Do you think Demyx is here for Sora?" Xion asked behind him.

"Probably, but if they were to take Sora, why send Demyx?" he replied.

Xion thought about it for a moment but ultimately came up with nothing. Out of everyone in the Organization, the ones she got to know after the whole incident in Castle Oblivion, Demyx was probably the one who treated her like her. After Roxas and Axel saw her as Xion, so did Demyx. He never treated her as inferior unlike Saix and Xigbar, but as an equal. So why send someone as easy going as Demyx a place like this?

Nearing the top, she held the doors open for Roxas as he reentered the overworld to return Phil.

Kneeling, Roxas carefully set Phil down on the ground just outside the main gates.

"HEY! GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Roxas froze, it was Sora. He needed to act fast. He quickly pulled his hood over his head, making sure to avoid looking up. He slowly got up and began to back away from Phil and ran.

Sora slid down to where Phil was placed in front on the entrance to the Underworld.

"Phil!" he shouted.

Donald aimed his staff at the goat man and casted a cure spell. Within seconds Phil began to come back around. Groaning in pain as he became more aware of his surroundings.

"…xas? … oohh." He muttered as he held his head while Goofy helped him up.

"What happened?" Sora asked, worried about the guy in black from earlier.

Phil took a moment to recollect himself. "I was talking to Pegasus, Meg she went to the Underworld to try to get Hades off Herc's back. Then… some guy in black showed up and stole the Olympus coins." He stopped, there was a sour taste in his mouth. "I chased him, probably not the best idea. Next thing I know, I'm seeing stars."

Sora, Donald and Goofy gave each other a knowing look. The guy that attacked Phil can't have gotten too far. They were going to need those if they were to find Meg.

"Do you know where he ran off too?"

Phil's face hardened, "To the Underworld. He's just a bad apple, all right." His voice was bitter, "All I wanted was to find a backup hero. Just in case Herc need to take a break."

There was a hidden meaning behind his words, but neither Donald nor Goofy pried further.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of that guy and get Meg back. Donald, Goofy let's go!"

-x-

The moment they entered the Underworld they could feel its curse taking effect. The trio's movements became sluggish, their reaction timed began to slow down. Heartless after heartless they fought, progressing further into the cave avoiding mysterious orbs and falling boulders.

They kept this up until they reached a large room with a door, deep into the cave. There they saw a figure surrounded by multiple heartless. Without hesitation Sora raised his keyblade, finishing off the heard of heartless.

The heartless disappeared in a puff of darkness, leaving only the figure behind.

"Hey, are you alri-"

Black coat trembled; Sora's mind stopped at the sight of blond hair. Instinctually he reached out.

"Sora!"/ "Get back Sora!" His friends shouted as they pulled him back from the man in black.

The man groaned as he opened his eyes, then he saw Sora. The man's blue eyes lit up as he pulled Sora into a hug.

"Roxas! You saved me! It is you!" The man in the black coat looked… relieved? "Thank you!"

Annoyed, Sora pushed the strange man away. "Excuse me? Who are you calling Roxas?" The name felt so foreign yet familiar on his tongue. Behind him, Donald and Goofy were shaking their heads at the strange encounter.

"Roxas?" Goofy questioned, the strange name felt foreign.

The man in the black coat looked genuinely hurt, "Come on Roxas. You know, it's me Demyx, we're buddies?"

Yet there was no reaction from the party.

Demyx sighed, his body dropped in disappointment. "It's no use." He pulled out a slip of paper out of his pockets and began to read out loud.

"'If they subject fails to respond, use aggression to liberate his true disposition…'" The tone of his body changed from whiny weakling to cocky and confident. "Right. Did they ever pick the wrong guy for this one."

Raising his hand above his head water began to form until a weapon appeared. A strange looking guitar. He brought the guitar down and shouted.

"Dance Water Dance!" He plucked a string, send a wave of water crashing on Sora and his friends, pushing them back.

The trio summoned their weapons as the tidal wave pushed them against the wall.

"Is this guy mocking us?!" Donald shouted over the chaos.

The water from the wave pooled into small circles that shot up forming water clones of Demyx. Without a moment to recover, the clones began their attack.

Still weakened from the effects of the Underworld, the trio did their best to ward off the mass of water. The clones themselves were weak, yet their numbers overwhelmed the struggling trio.

Donald struggled with his spells. Goofy faired better, his shield being the best to defend against the clones. Sora's method was more… unorthodox. Using a command move, Sora grabbed a clone with his keyblade and swung it around, smashing other clones in the process. With Sora taking charge and Goofy as support for Donald, they managed to smash half of the clones.

But the clones kept on coming at them. And the Underworld kept sapping at their strength the more they fought. The tides began to turn against them.

Sora grunted and fell on one knee as he used the keyblade as support.

The clones stopped and took a step back.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Demyx asked, oblivious to the situation the trio was in.

"The s-stone… give it back." Sora managed to spit out.

Demyx called off his clones and they returned to whatever murky waters they came from. Reaching into his pocket Demyx pulled put a golden coin. "Stone? Ah you mean this… You're in trouble without this huh? Here, catch."

With a soft thud the coin landed on Sora's face. Much to the confusion of everyone in the room.

'He's so sincere.' The trio thought to themselves.

Once again Demyx's tone changed, gone was the man that had them backed against the wall and the high-pitched whines returned.

"For some reason I feel really sick now." Demyx muttered to himself. "I think I'm just going to go." He opened a portal and began to walk halfway into it before turning to address Sora one more time.

"Roxas… Come back with us. Nobody's angry with you anymore. If you come back, so will Axel, and we can all be buddies again."

With that he disappeared.

There was moment of disbelief.

"The guy's a broken record." Sora broke the silence. Activating the coin, Sora felt his strength coming back to him. "Come on, we need to rescue Meg."

"Admit it, we're lost, and we lost Demyx." Axel complained to the kids, even with the Olympus coin, the Underworld creeped him out.

"We're not lost." Xion insisted as she tinkered with the world map. "Don't forget none of us have never been to this part of the world. You're just hoping we lose Demyx because you don't want to fight him." She huffed.

The trio travelled further and further into the cave system. They were met with the occasional heartless, and even saw a dusk or two in the distance. Yet there were no signs of Demyx or Sora anywhere. Not even the gps helped as the amount of Darkness was jamming the signal.

Down, and down they went, until they reached an unusually bright room. A beacon shot upwards, illuminating the entire area. And in the center, a large rock with a keyhole.

Roxas gasped, "Isn't that Meg?

Meg's image was beautifully frozen on the stone, surrounding the keyhole.

"Wasn't she above with Hercules?" Xion questioned as she walked towards the stone to get a better look. There was a light coming from the stone figure, Xion placed her hand over the keyhole. What happened in the time that they left? Why was Meg trapped?

The temperature in the room began to rise. Axel felt the change almost immediately. His eyes scanned the entire room for anything that seemed out of place. Something didn't feel right.

"Well well well… what do you we have here?" Behind them Hades made himself known. "When the Fates said there was a disturbance in the force, I didn't think they meant literally." Before Axel could react, Hades disappeared and reappeared next to the boulder where Xion was standing, startling the young girl in the process. "Jeeze, you look like you've seen a ghost."

Roxas summoned his keyblades, "You step away from her."

Hades looked unamused but kept his conversation going with Xion. "Speaking of ghost… aren't you a strange one. You… you're not supposed to be here, are you?"

The dynamic in the room shifted. With a quick flick of her wrist Xion sent a burst of air at Hades, blowing out his hair in the process.

Still unfazed Hades's hair grew back with a bright blue flame. Roxas and Axel summoned their weapons and aimed them at Hades.

Hades's eyes sifted to the keyblade.

'Another brat with the Key.' He thought to himself. The gears in his head began to turn. Who needs Sora when there was a perfect replacement right in front of him? But things were never that simple. This boy is a Nobody, if he felt threatened there was nothing stopping the boy from teleporting away. Unless there was motivation.

He eyed the small hooded figure backing away from him. Turns out motivation was much easier to find than he expected. If this boy was the who Hades thought he was then the girl… such an uncanny resemblance to the Princess of Light.

Tendrils of Darkness surrounded Xion, pulling her back and over the locked boulder.

"We seem to have reached an impasse, but hey. I'm a nice guy, do me a solid and I'll let your little girlfriend go. Afterall, normally once the dead reach the Underworld, they're usually here to stay but I don't mind looking the other way."

Stepping to the side, Hades exposed the lock that barred the Underdome.

Roxas and Axel gritted.

"Or I can keep her here… permanently."

"You can't do that." Roxas shouted.

"I'm the Lord of the Dead. This thing by all intent and purposes is dead."

Axel let out a defeated sigh and dismissed his chakrams, motioning to Roxas to stand down. "What do you want."

Hades grinned, "Now that's what I like to hear… What I want is simple. You use that oversized key of yours to open up my brother's lock. And boom, both Meg and the ghost girl go free."

"And if I don't" Roxas challenged.

Without skipping a beat Hades's hair began to glow a reddish hue, "If you don't then she joins Meg as wall decoration." He threated.

Roxas's face dropped before quickly recovering. "Wait!... wait I'll do it! I'll unlock your dome."

Axel immediately objected, "Absolutely not, this is Hades, we can't trust him to keep his word. He'll double-cross us."

Without bothering to listen, Roxas aimed his keyblade at the lock. And with a beam of light, he opened the dome.

Hades's eyes light up with excitement as the chains on his dome disappeared. Both Meg and Xion still now stood next to him, Xion standing protectively in front of Meg. "Now we're talking!"

"I did what you said, now let them go!"

Hades laughed, "Carefully what you wish for." Using the Darkness Hades pulled Axel and Roxas forward, causing them to collide with Xion and sending the trio into the dome.

Hades watched as they fell, Meg struggling to free herself. "Relax, they'll be fine. They can handle a few heartless… what? You'll be free as soon as you help me-"

"HADES!"

Hades looked over to see Sora, Donald and Goofy make their way towards him.

"SRUMPH!" Meg shouted behind her gag.

"Let her go Hades!"

So much for waiting for Hercules, luck wasn't going to help Hades a second time around. Without hesitation Hades threw Meg into the Underdome.

The Trinity trio jumped in immediately after her.

Now all he had to do was wait for Hercules to appear and he'd get rid of that so-called hero for good.

A/N: Wow it has been a while, hasn't it. After five wonderful years, the KHuX story has finally ended. How bittersweet. My union placed 11th place for the Vulpeus union in global, I'm so happy that I got to join such a cool party. And not to mention for the first time, another union ranked first, congrats to the Ursus Union. I wonder... what's next for the Kingdom Hearts fandom. Until then, let the fanfic continue.