Let the Games Begin
"Wake up."
The voice was distorted by the fog of slumber, as if it were coming from underwater. Raven couldn't tell which direction it came from, she wanted to follow it. But she was so very tired.
"Hey, wake up."
Her body and eyelids felt heavy, but the voice was clearer that time, cutting through the layers of sleep.
"C'mon, Raven, wake up!"
A firm hand on her shoulder shook her, not violently, but with enough vigour to break through the last remnants of drowsiness. She opened her eyes to the bright sunlight coming in through the balcony doors, squinting and grumbling at the mahogany canopy of her bed as she rolled to her other side. Yet someone was beside her mattress. And that someone crouched down to be level with her, revealing his silver hair and brilliantly blue eyes narrowed in a concerned yet annoyed expression.
"Are you up yet?" He asked, poking her forehead.
"WAH!" Startled by his presence, Raven sat up quickly and rubbed her head where he'd prodded her. "What're you doing here? Did I oversleep?" She asked, becoming equal parts embarrassed and panicked.
"Relax." Riku said, straightening up. "I saw you going to bed last night before we even had food. You looked terrible, like you were sleepwalking. I tried to talk to you, but you acted like I wasn't there." He walked around her bed to sit on the chaise at the foot of it and rested his arms on the mahogany baseboard. "Can't say I'm surprised. Yesterday was... a lot for you. So, I figured you could use a wakeup call." He nodded to the bowl of porridge he'd brought up for her on the dresser.
Raven blinked and rubbed her eyes, feeling the dust in the corners loosen as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed to sit on the side. She then realised she was still in her clothes, boots and all. Her hair tie had come out during the night and rested on the other set of pillows, leaving her hair in a messy mop. It looked like she hadn't even gotten under the covers. Was she really that exhausted? She figured she had to have been because she didn't remember getting back to her room. But now that she was awake, she had to admit she felt quite refreshed, although certain joints were stiff and achy, partially from the strain of the previous day, and partly due to the belts and boots digging into her while she slept. Her shoulder was especially sore, the metal of her pauldron uncomfortably lodged under her back.
"How do you do it?" Riku asked, bringing her back to the room. "The Limit Break." He prompted in response to her quizzical look. He looked annoyed again.
Raven picked up the bowl he'd been kind enough to bring up, feeling the last remnants of heat at its base.
"I don't know, really. I just... Well, I got angry. At the Heartless I mean. And it kinda... clicked?" She explained between mouthfuls of breakfast.
"You 'got angry'? That's it?" He arched an eyebrow, unconvinced.
"I think it's about powerful emotions and using them instead of letting them get the better of you." She explained while roughly combing through and then tying back her hair. "I suppose in theory that would mean being super happy could work too." Her hypothesis was lacking but the robed figure hadn't elaborated on the details. Perhaps if they crossed paths again, she could ask him.
Meanwhile Riku had become disinterested in the subject, not satisfied with her answer, and was taking in the details of her room, his face wrinkling with further irritation.
"Thank you." He looked her way and grunted. "For waking me up. You didn't have to but I'm grateful you did." She smiled at him, and he felt his irritation lessen, shrugging and stretching as he stood up.
"Don't mention it. Besides, it's not like I can do much sparring by myself, right?" He flashed her a smile of his own, his previous sullenness practically vanishing at the prospect of fighting her, his competitive streak winning out over his moody demeanour. Raven beamed back at him, wolfing down the rest of the now cold porridge and dashing into her bathroom.
"Let me just freshen up first, gotta be presentable!"
XXXXX
Maleficent was waiting for them in the tower and seemed in much better humour now that a fourth Princess had been rescued and Raven had performed her Limit Break. She welcomed them with a smile, the two students standing ready in front of her.
"Good morning, children. I trust you both had a restful night." She didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "The next spell I shall teach you is the ice spell, Blizzard." Maleficent swept her staff across the space in front of her and two snowflake crystals of clearest ice hovered before the two students, twirling gracefully.
As with the Fire spell, they each held out a hand. The snowflakes lilted in the air towards them, then landed flat on their palms. Raven admired the intricate beauty for only a moment before her whole hand became icy cold, the snowflake sinking into her palm, its spokes extending and spreading across her skin and up her arm. When it reached her heart, the cold grip was almost painful, forcing a gasp from her lungs. By the matching exhalation from beside her it was clear the spell had reached Riku's heart too. The ice stayed for just too long before the snowflake pulsed with an almost cyan shimmer that preceded the veins of ice melting into her skin. She felt a chill rush up her entire body, and when it reached her head. She could only compare the sensation to the brain-freeze she would often get after eating snow cones from the mountains. After a moment though, the pain faded into a light coolness, akin to a breeze settling on the skin.
"Blizzard, in its basic form, is useful for creating small projectiles that can leave a more permanent effect than Fire. As you have both had more than enough practice with aiming, we shall start with flying targets." With but a gesture, a gaggle of Heartless spawned in the air, similar to Soldiers but with mechanical wings strapped to their backs. They drifted from side to side as they circled above but did not attack. Raven and Riku looked at each other and nodded, each picking a target to take down.
As with Fire, Raven tried to recall the cold sensations absorbing the spell had left, holding her palms in front of herself, toward each other. A chilled mist flecked with snow began to form in the space between her hands, and she felt the underlying tingle that was magic. Feeling it was ready, she transferred the misty sphere to one hand and launched it at one of the Air Soldiers. At the point it would have left her fingers, an icicle solidified and flew straight at the Heartless, exploding on contact, causing ice to form in the gears of its wings. With it no longer able to stay airborne, the Heartless plummeted and shattered on the hard stone floor. A second after it, one of its fellows joined it by Riku's hand. The remaining few were short work and Maleficent seemed pleased with their aptitude.
"Very good, my students." She raised her hand again, this time summoning a small swarm of what looked like Shadow heads clad brightly coloured robes of red or blue and pointed crooked hats.
"Some foes will have specific weaknesses for you to exploit. Red Nocturnes such as these are vulnerable to ice attacks, whereas the Blue Rhapsodies have a weakness against fire. Test your ability to switch between the opposing elements in quick succession."
Switching between spells would prove significantly trickier than Raven had first thought. Casting Fire was something she had gotten used to by this point and found it much easier to switch back to it, but trying to cast its opposite took more time. Time to remember the feeling of the spell, to channel it and then aim. It was doable, but had the Heartless been instructed to fight back, she knew she wouldn't have had sufficient time to defend herself properly.
Riku on the other hand seemed to have no problem switching between the two elements, firing off an impressive display of ice and flame, dispatching his share of opponents in half the time. He looked very pleased with himself too, smirking smugly.
"Very good, Riku, very good." Maleficent applauded, a look of approval on her face. "We shall make a mage of you yet, dear boy." She then turned to Raven, with a far less enthusiastic expression. "You will need to practise, my dear." Raven looked away in embarrassment. "However, you continue to learn at a commendable rate. You are steeped in the idea that these elements are the antithesis of each other. A mentality that will not serve you well when grasping the fluidity of magic. Disconnect your thoughts regarding their opposing natures and you change between them with ease." She wasn't smiling, but she wasn't scowling, which to Raven was a great relief.
"Yes Ma'am, thank you." She bowed her head respectfully.
"Come, both of you." Maleficent abruptly beckoned them to follow through the portal to the Chapel. They shared a perplexed glance at each other but went along after her.
It was empty save for the flickering blue flame that indicated Hades was lurking in the shadows.
"Ah, Hades, you're here. Good." Maleficent greeted her associate with a regal nod.
"Boy, have we got a treat for you two." Hades clapped and rubbed his hands together with relish as he addressed Riku and Raven. Since her initial introduction to the members of Maleficent's council, she had only seen the man in passing, but he seemed to be one of the more laid-back companions from what little she could tell.
"It occurs to me that the both of you require something more... stimulating, to aid in your progression." Maleficent answered their quizzical expressions.
"And what better way than to test your mettle with the toughest muscle-heads across the worlds?" Hades stood behind them and put his hands on their shoulders, pulling them inward with a squeeze. "We're going on a little field trip to the Coliseum of Olympus!" Raven grinned excitedly at Riku who himself still looked sceptical.
"Do not mistake this for a trip of leisure, children. I expect you to excel at such a task and perform with proficiency."
"Ah lighten up, it's a game after all!" With a snap of his fingers, smoke obscured Raven's vision.
XXXXX
Hades' method of travel was preferable to Maleficent's, in Raven's opinion. In a puff of smoke, they were no longer in the gloomy halls of Hollow Bastion but bathed in the light of a golden stadium.
"Well, here you go, the multi-world-famous Coliseum of Olympus. Courtesy of Mr High-and-Mighty Zeus. My oh-so-radiant schmuck of a brother. I mean really, look at this dump." And look Raven did.
The three of them stood at the top row of the spectator stands, empty though they were, it took very little of Raven's imagination to see them all filled with a crowd of cheering people. Almost spilling over the outer walls were the fluffiest, curliest cloud formations that arced up into the brilliant blue sky. The arena below was rectangular with a stone square cornered by great columns in the centre. At the end nearest to them was a set of golden gates that lead into shadows and the further end had heavy stone doors. She would hardly call this place a dump.
She turned to Riku, beaming with excitement, but he was shielding his eyes from the brightness, wincing. "Tch! It's so bright."
"Oh, quit complaining. We've been in that dingey castle too long! Enjoy it!" Raven cheered, swinging an arm over his shoulders. "I can't wait to start!" She started to jump down the stands when a coil of smoke yanked her back by her scruff.
"Hold your Pegasi there little lady. This place has rules. Scrolls and scrolls of rules, ugh. Most of 'em you can bend but you can't use the facilities without a permit. Just like you can't enter the tournaments without a pass. Approved by an appointed coach, authority or 'Hero'. Yeesh Apollo loves his bureaucracy." Hades rolled his eyes as he used his hands to mime quotation marks. "Lucky for you two, I qualify as the second from that oh-so-short list. Check this out." With a theatrical gesture of his hands and a snap of his fingers, two tickets appeared in his grip. "Voila! Here you go, no big deal." He held them out for each fighter to take.
"Thanks, Hades!" Once she had hers in hand, Raven started hopping down the stands again. Hades looked down at Riku, raising an eyebrow. She got four rows down before a puff of smoke brought her back beside the lord of the dead.
"Love the enthusiasm, kid, love it but maybe let me finish before you go prancing off, huh?"
"Oh! I'm sorry! Guess I got ahead of myself there." Raven rubbed her neck sheepishly.
"Yeah, yeah. Look, you got the passes, you got my mark of approval on 'em, but you gotta take 'em to the registration to be allowed in. Don't blame me. Not my idea."
"What's the catch?" Riku asked bluntly. Hades' blue flame flickered red briefly as he turned to the young man.
"Ahaha, aren't you a little stickler! I'm doing Maleficent a favour bringing you here, giving you the means to compete yadda, yadda. In exchange, you two gladiators will do me a couple favours. One each you see. But we'll talk details later, over souvlaki, right?" The towering man snapped his fingers again and in a puff of smoke, Raven and Riku were in front of two giant golden gladiator statues in some sort of grand courtyard.
"Tch, I'm not his errand boy." Riku grumbled as he started walking towards the sign-up booth, Raven in tow, tickets in hand.
"Aw, you just don't like him because he's chatty. It's actually a nice change from the other council members." Raven couldn't help but enjoy the warmth of the place as she took in every detail of this new and bright world.
Yet in this shining place above the clouds, something inevitably stuck out - a pair of eyes glaring at the two of them, owned by a figure whose dark garb marked him as someone who didn't belong. He'd sat up and taken notice the moment they came into his view, eyes never leaving them even as other competitors milled about.
The sudden movement of the darker silhouette caught Raven's eye as they approached the booth, causing her to slow and look around for the source while Riku went ahead and signed up.
Their strange observer appeared to be a boy about their age, perhaps, with spiky brown hair and a lean build. His clothing resembled that of the statues all around, looking almost funny on his slender frame. Still, it was all black, with accents of red. Tasteless, on top of being conspicuous.
She saw the boy staring but thought nothing of it at that moment, catching up to her friend with a light jog. The clerk behind the desk was a lanky man with wiry black hair.
"Another one from Lord Hades?" He surveyed Raven, looking her up and down. "Who am I to question a god?" He shrugged and stamped her ticket, tying a red ribbon around her upper arm. "Just write your name or alias on the chart and you'll be good to go." She took the quill from the inkwell and filled her name underneath Riku's.
"Oh, I thought we were signing up as a team?" She asked the clerk when she noticed the number one marked in the 'party of' box.
"Tickets were for single entrants. Matchups will be posted after sign-up is complete. Next!" Leaving no room for contest, the next participant stepped up and Raven joined Riku a short distance away. He also had a red ribbon on his arm. Apparently it was the indicator that they were competing.
"We don't need to pair up to take this bunch." Riku smirked, nodding his chin in the general area of the rabble. Raven looked around at them all and upon turning back to Riku, saw the boy in the black and red over his shoulder, still glaring at them. "Besides, it gives us a chance to have that rematch since we've gotten stronger. I won't go easy on you."
"Yeah, that's true." He noticed her eyes kept flitting behind him.
"What's up?" Following her gaze, he saw the brunet. For a moment his eyes lit up and it looked like he was about to call out to him, but the light quickly diminished, and he scowled back at the stranger.
The watcher's posture was strangely aggressive, too - sat with one knee up, leaned forward, resting one elbow on his raised thigh. The look in his eyes was strangely cold for someone their age. A ribbon adorned his arm, as a sword hung from his belt. This was a competitor, like them. He just stared wordlessly at them, his face an impassive mask.
It unnerved Raven, causing a light shiver to run down her spine. Should they go talk to this boy? Before she could suggest it, Riku took her by the wrist and started walking in the opposite direction, towards the columns that framed the entrance, using one of them to block this individual's line of sight, though still giving them a decent view of the courtyard.
"Do you think we look odd?" She asked Riku after a moment, dangling her legs off the ledge. He had opted to lean on the pillar, his knee up and arm dangling on the knee, not too dissimilar to the other boy's position.
"They get people from all over here, so I doubt it. Probably just some creep trying to psych you out, don't worry about it."
They sat here for only a short while until the last few stragglers had signed up and the courtyard was littered with contestants, some keeping to themselves, others mingling and all sizing all up. Nobody approached the duo, likely, in Raven's opinion, because Riku was putting out just as much of a bad aura as the other boy.
It wasn't long before a bell rang and the scattered participants crowded together to see the notice board, Raven and Riku included.
"Looks like they weed out the masses using their own qualifying round before matches." Riku surmised after looking at the match map and seeing all the names in different sectors.
"Oh, they put us in different brackets. We'll need to get up to the semi-finals if we want a shot at facing each other." Raven pointed out but Riku just casually waved it off.
"Piece of cake."
"Confident as ever I see." She smiled and nudged his arm playfully. He smirked and folded his arms in response as they listened to the clerk to go through the rules of the tournament.
"No swapping positions in the brackets. No use of healing magic and/or rejuvenating remedies while within battles, this includes Potions, Ethers and Elixirs. Otherwise, these things will last hours each and we simply don't have time for that. Between battles is fine and in fact recommended to provide the best performance. No weapons are off limits and there are no limits to quantity, if you can carry it with you, you can use it. In the event of..." The clerk went on like this for a good while before the first competitors were being lined up and filed through the vestibule for their preliminary rounds, the strange boy being one of the first among them.
Looking at the tournament bracket, Raven could see there were to be five rounds in total and the first round had every competitor up against a team of varying Heartless. These preliminary matches would be done two at a time to save daylight, a match from each half of the bracket, with the following rounds being one at a time.
Riku was called up for the third match of their half, but Raven wasn't allowed to sit in and watch, having to wait in the courtyard with the other competitors, twiddling her thumbs nervously while listening to the reactions of the roaring crowd on the other side of the wall. Excited and apprehensive thoughts collided in the build up until she was called for the penultimate match from their half.
She was escorted through the vestibule, a small room with various tournament trophies lining the walls, and out into the bright light of the arena. A large wall had been placed at the halfway point, presumably the other half of the bracket had their matches on the other side of it.
"And facing our team Big Body Blizzard, a first-time competitor entering the ring and one of our youngest to boot, Raven!" The announcer's voice echoed over the throngs of spectators. Ahead of her, Raven saw three blue Rhapsodies floating above two enormous Heartless she had not seen before. They had bloated round bodies like the Darkballs she had faced, but unlike them, these ones had wide arms and short legs and their head was a tiny bobble on top of their bulky forms.
The starting bell rang, and the group of Heartless jittered into life. She knew Blue Rhapsodies were weak to Fire magic so immediately started shooting flames from her palms at the floating Heartless. She hit two out of three before having to dive to the side as one of the round Heartless charged at her.
Looking up just in time, she evaded a Blizzard spell cast at her by the remaining Blue Rhapsody but then wasn't quick enough to dodge the second large Heartless barrelling into her. The stampeding brute did not stop after making contact, pushing her around the arena before flinging her into the air using an upward thrust of its enormous gut.
From this new height, she was able to reorient herself and recover, casting a final Fire spell and disintegrating the last Rhapsody as she began her descent. She guided herself towards the Heartless that had launched her and grabbed her claws, diving down on top of it and raking her claws down its back to cushion her landing. It shuddered and dispersed into motes of Darkness, leaving only its twin in the arena with her.
It charged at her again, but she was ready to guard against it this time, holding her claws up in an 'X' formation and taking the brunt of the charge into their blades. She still slid as it pushed, but once it tired and it's gait began to slow, she jumped up onto its belly just as it propelled forwards and up, catapulting her upwards like a trampoline, she repeated the manoeuvre, diving down and clawing its back to slow her fall, watching it vanish.
The previously silent crowd erupted into raucous cheers and she couldn't help but grin, waving to the stands and bowing, surrounded by the appreciative applause of a thoroughly entertained audience.
"We have a winner! Our new contestant Raven defeated Big Body Blizzard in record time! Better keep an eye on this one!" The announcer rang out over the stadium again as she left the arena and, instead of going through the Vestibule, she was directed by an usher into a side room where Riku was waiting.
"Did you win?" Riku asked, jumping to his feet when he saw her enter the room.
"Record time apparently!" The pair grinned at each other, her friend clapping her on the shoulder fondly. "What about you?" She asked in return, and he smirked, putting one hand on his hip confidently.
"Obviously. I told you, piece of cake."
A singular round of applause caught their attention as Hades leant on the doorframe, clapping.
"Good show out there, kids! You got through the preliminaries. Congrats!" He sauntered over to them in the middle of the room, standing between them and putting his bony hands around their shoulders. "Now, you two have some time before they start the matchups and I believe I mentioned that the pair of you lucky ducks have favours to complete for me."
"Spit it out, Hades. What do you want from us." Riku pushed away the god's touch, his usual cynical expression settling on his features. Raven felt Hades' grip tighten on her shoulder ever so slightly and felt the heat of a red flame flaring atop his head momentarily.
"Always to business." He forced a smile and spoke through his pointed teeth, brushing his free hand against his robes. "I'm currently hosting three of the most, shall we say, distinguished ladies in the pantheon. Lovely gals, very, ahem, mature. See they've lost something very important to them, and by extension, important to me, so you two are going to go find it for them. Gee, I'd do it myself, but y'know, being Lord of the Dead, I'm swamped, just swamped I tell ya." He snapped his fingers, and the telltale cloud of smoke enveloped them all.
When it cleared, they found themselves in a circular room made of dark rock, with jagged gargoyles and carvings decorating the walls and ceiling. There was a cubic throne draped in white silk, a map table in the centre and two large circular holes in the walls.
As soon as the smoke had cleared, Raven felt her strength suddenly evaporating, leaving barely enough for her to stay standing.
"I feel... I don't feel good." She muttered. Judging by the grimace next to her, Riku was feeling the same way.
"Whoops, almost forgot." Hades conjured two gold coins into his palm and put them in the young fighters' hands. Immediately Raven felt her energy rise again. "In the Underworld, Heroes are zeroes. Can't have people being too lively down here, y'know."
"The Underworld?" Raven asked.
"That is correct, child." A croaky, withered voice echoed from the other side of the map table. Stood there were three crones, with skeletal features and empty eye sockets. Raven took a step back, bumping into Hades, while Riku simply looked repulsed.
"Ladies, ravishing as always." The Lord of the Dead poofed away from behind Raven and reappeared beside the crone with one socket.
"You gave your word you would assist us in retrieving the eye." She hissed at him, forked tongue flicking out with every s.
"And I am ever a God of my word. These two are here to help, just give them the details and they'll get right on it." He clasped her wrinkled hand firmly, making her giggle, a sound comparable to fingernails on chalkboard. "You look fabulous by the way. Now must dash, I've got to-"
"We know." The tallest interjected.
"Of course you do. Have fun!" He bowed theatrically and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The three crones turned their attention to the teenagers, scuttling towards them and surrounding them, running their clammy, talon-like hands over their arms.
"Yes, yes, they will do nicely." The tallest among them crooned, her blue skin sagging on her bones.
"Clever, creative." The one with green skin stroked the black strands of hair from Raven's face, her touch cold and sharp.
"Strong and relentless." The one with one socket added, caressing Riku's prominent bicep, despite his best attempts to shake her off.
"Um, Hades said you lost something important?" Said Raven, nervously trying to change the topic to the task at hand. The crones retreated their touches and stood in a huddle before the two of them.
"Our eye."
"Our sight."
"Into the past, present and future."
"When did you last see- have it?" She fumbled her words, desperately trying not to look at the empty sockets and wart-riddled skin.
"The buffoons Pain and Panic knocked it from our hands."
"Out the window it did fall, three noses where it lands."
"Find Cerberus, if ye are to meet our demands."
The three crones cackled and vanished into nothing, leaving the bewildered pair alone in Hades' throne room.
"Cerberus?"
"A riddle? Can't you give us a straight answer?" Riku complained to the empty air. "This is ridiculous, we should be getting ready for our fights." He growled in annoyance. Raven patted his shoulder gently.
"Well, we better find that eye quickly then, right?" She smiled reassuringly and led the way out of the cavernous room, down a flight of spiralling steps.
At the bottom, was a huge cavern, lit with an eerie green glow from below, a zigzagging path leading across to the exit. Curiosity led the young hunter to peer off the edge of this pathway, witnessing the bottomless pool beneath. The green light was the culmination of hundreds, thousands of ghostly spectres spiralling into an abyss.
"Riku, are those... souls?" She asked shakily, pointing down at the swirling shapes endlessly floating. He peeked and pulled her back from the edge.
"Nothing we can do for them. Let's just find the eye and get back to the tournament." He was on edge, walking at a brisk pace as they followed the path and kept to the centre of it. Raven didn't blame him for being unnerved in this place. It was distressing to know they were in the home of all who perished. Raven only hoped a better place was waiting for them all at the bottom of that pool as they left the green chamber and entered a series of corridors carved into the rock, a chilly mist running along the floor like a river.
"So, what did Maleficent say after you beat those Heartless?" Riku asked, deciding silence was too uncomfortable in this place.
"Oh, that? Well..." She hesitated, unsure of how much Riku was supposed to know. "She wanted to talk to me about her goal. About the missions we're going to go on and why. She told me about what's happening to the worlds, how they're vanishing into Darkness. For what it's worth I- I'm sorry it happened to you and your world." She went to touch him comfortingly, but he widened the gap between them, looking away sadly. She clenched her outstretched hand and brought it into her chest.
"All that matters is finding Sora and Kairi." He muttered.
"Well, that's the other thing. She was telling me about these seven Princesses we need to find, how they can stop what's happening. It will take us all over the worlds and I bet we'll be able to find your friends on one of them!" She smiled brightly at him. "Just think, we'll be heroes if we can pull this off!"
He couldn't help but allow a small smile at her encouraging optimism. "Sounds like a fairytale. But weirder things have happened to us already."
"That's the spirit! Now let's find that eye!" She punched the air enthusiastically and started running at a light pace, Riku catching up quickly. She looked at him, a challenge behind her smile as she ran faster, and he silently accepted her challenge, overtaking her. The tunnel twisted and turned, uphill the entire way, her legs were burning from the effort to keep pace with him, but her heart was racing with the thrill of friendly competition.
She saw an opening up ahead and urged her legs to move as fast as they could, but Riku had a longer stride and was the clear winner as they sped through the two lit torches either side of the exit.
"Whooo, you've been practising." Raven panted, hands on her knees.
"Heh, maybe you've been slacking." Riku teased, hand on his hip but still breathing hard. They chuckled, but a low, rumbling growl ceased their merriment, as they both turned to face the open chamber they now stood in.
A gigantic three headed dog, with inky black fur, blood red eyes and enormous, sharp teeth was snarling at the intruders. At its feet, Raven saw something round and white.
'Could that be the eye?' She wondered.
"Cerberus?" She asked cautiously. All three heads looked at her and the great beast jumped over to where she stood, knocking Riku aside and pushing Raven into the wall, face to face with the gnashing teeth and foul breath. She sank to the floor, terrified about what to do against this behemoth. Her hand brushed something long and solid and all at once, the giant dog stopped snarling. She opened one eye, and saw her hand was touching some kind of monster-sized bone. It was thin, but longer than her whole body.
"You want this?" She asked, dragging the bone side to side in front of her, the trio of heads following it with rapt attention, their teeth no longer bared. She carefully got back to her feet, and hurled what she assumed was a rib, across the chamber. Cerberus scrambled to chase after it, its central head snapping it up in its jaws while the other two tried to steal it as it brought it back to her and dropped it in front of her, sitting down patiently.
She looked over at Riku who was dumbfounded, staring incredulously at her playing fetch with a monstrous guard dog. She nodded her head towards the eye's location and indicated to the bone she was holding, throwing it again and watching the dog bound after it once more.
Riku got the message and snuck around the edge of the room until he was closest to the eye, waited for her to throw it again before running out to grab it. It was sticky and slightly squishy in his hand; he was never more thankful for his gloves than he was in that moment.
Before he could make a speedy retreat, Cerberus dropped the bone at his feet this time. He looked bewilderedly at Raven, and she mimed him throwing it. He swallowed, putting the eye in his pocket as he bent down to pick up the rib. He opted for a spinning throw, turning on the spot three times before he let the bone fly, the three headed beast skidding on the floor after it.
It brought it back to Raven but flopped onto the floor with an almighty thud that shook the cavern. She tentatively reached out and stroked over his middle snout, then was nudged by his left head demanding affection. She obliged and scratched under the chin, watching as his back leg started kicking. She started laughing at the absurdity of it. The right head started sniffing Riku as he approached until he hesitantly patted its muzzle.
"You're a good boy aren't you." Raven said, stroking the fur between the eyes of the left head, making them close and a contented grumble vibrated through the very ground. "Do you think you could give us a ride to the fates? Please?" He raised his middle head then stood, shaking his whole body before lowering his front paws to the ground, very clearly inviting them onto his back. She grinned at Riku as she clambered up onto the back of the dog's left head.
"This is insane." Riku commented as he too clambered up to sit behind its right head.
"Weirder things have happened, right?" She chuckled.
"No. No, this is definitely the weirdest thing yet."
Raven patted Cerberus' head to signal he could move. He stood up and leapt up into the darkness of the chamber's heights, landing on top of a stone structure that revealed ahead of them was a giant skull shaped building that joined the ceiling and floor of the Underworld. Now Raven knew what the two circular windows were. They clung to the dog's heads as he jumped and ran across the various structures towards the skull, hanging on for dear life, but Raven was laughing the entire time, even as they were let off at the eye socket window and the great beast ran off somewhere else, she giggled to herself.
"I stand corrected. You're insane." Though Riku was also smiling from the thrill of befriending and riding such a creature. He pulled the eye out from his pocket and Raven recoiled.
"Gross! It's a real eyeball!?" She exclaimed. It was indeed a real eye, with a red iris. Riku held it up and wandered into the centre of the room.
"Uh, hey, old ladies? We have your eye." He called out.
"Excellent!"
"Well done!"
"Give it here, darling!"
From nowhere, the tallest crone snatched the precious artefact from Riku's hand, breathing on it and rubbing it on her robe before putting it into one of her empty sockets.
Her green skinned sister tapped the back of her head and caught the eye as it popped out and into her waiting palm, only to be shoved into one of her sockets.
Finally, the smallest sister who only had one socket, plucked the eye straight from her sister's face and licked it before sticking it in her singular socket.
The oldest sister took it back but held it instead in her hand where it floated and the three of them seemed to flow into it. Cackling once again, they vanished quite literally in the blink of an eye.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Raven grimaced after such a display.
"Please don't. Or I will too." Riku begged, rubbing his glove frantically on his trouser leg.
"Not on the drapes, kids." Hades' voice echoed around the room before he appeared in a familiar cloud of smoke right behind them. "Just in time for your next matches!"
With a snap of his fingers, they were back in the Coliseum, in the side room they had left from.
"You're up first for this round, Snowflake." Hades grabbed Riku by the shoulder and began ushering him out of the room, leaving Raven alone to await her match.