CHAPTER 10

No one's POV

"You at half bad, kid!" Phil looked at Sora's results.

"Looks like I'm heading for the games!" Sora's fist pumped in air.

"Afraid not."

"Wak! Why not?" Donald demanded.

"Yeah! You seen them out there! They're really good!" Piri crossed her and tapped her foot.

"Two words: You guys ain't heroes!" the bluette counted on her fingers and snorted, trying not to laugh at Phil's count problem. Phil looked at her, "Little Ri, here knows what it takes!"

She widened her eyes, "I... I do?"

"Well, yeah!" he motioned her to come here. She knelt down and he whispered in her ear, "You know the strongest weapon ain't a keyblade, right?" she nodded. "Then, what do you think it is?"

"The measure of a true hero isn't a simple weapon, it the heart behind them." she unconsciously said quietly. Her necklace glew a little and Piri transformed into a tall young woman, who had hair like hers but was to her knees and her eyes were brown. "Right, Phil?"

Phil and the boys gasped but the saytr knew her. She trained here for her Mark of Mastery exam under orders from Master Yen Sid. "Anzu?" she sadly smiled and shook her head. She turned back into Piri.

She opened her eyes, "Wow! My necklace can gleam, can't it, Sora?" she was completely unaware of why he was standing there with his mouth was wide.

"Um... yeah... I guess?" Sora was at a loss for words. Who was that?

She raised an eyebrow and Phil continued talking, "Anyway, I could tell by the time she first arrived here ten years ago. Here, take this, Piri!" he hand her a pass. She frowned at this.

"What about my friends?"

"Sorry, can't help ya there." Phil stroked his beard.

"Then I'm not gonna!"

"WHAT?!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy practically yelled.

"But you won't get stronger, sis!" Sora said.

"You'll need the extra practice! You usually depend on us and can't do anything without us!" Donald said.

"Gee, Thanks a lot, Donald," she said with saracasm in every word.

"Come on, you can survive without us! Play in the games," Sora and the king's lackeys failed to see the heartbreak written in the girl's face. "We'll be back for you!" With that, they left.

Piri sighed and Phil growled, "Boy, howdy! Those boys are stubborn!"

She only put up a convincing smile, "You have no idea..."

"We've got a few til the games start. So... you can train if you want." he went to the rules board. She nodded and headed that way.

khkhkh

Piri's POV

I ran out there and looked around, finally back at the arena. I still remember Aqua defeating this huge Ice monster, who was summoned from a black toga and blue flames for hair. His scent was hard to forget, even though I forgot his name, the scent of darkness and fire. I also never forgotten that anger I felt when he called me Blueberry Pie.

She frowned and summoned my keyblade, "You better hope I never see you again..." I thought further back... his name was... was... "Hades..." I smirked as I remembered; one down more to go.

"Congrats! You found more of your memories!" Her blood began to boil and her teeth clenched. She turned and saw him.

"Speak of the devil..." she said saracastically, "What do you want?"

"Oh nothing..." he smiled, "I saw you and came to ask- how's your sister?"

"Go jump off a cliff!" I ignored his question and glared, "I know you want something!"

"Alright, then let's cut to the chase: you wanna see your boy don't you?" I gasped and nearly dropped my keyblade at this. How did he know?

I shook my head, "How do you know that?"

"Did you forget who I am? I am lord of the dead. Comes with the job, you know everyone."

"Well, I didn't remember til I stepped in the arena." she crossed her arms.

"Right..." I can tell Hades was getting impatient, "Look, do you want to see him or not?"

I looked away and slightly blushed, "The thing is, I do want to see him! It's just I really can't leave until Sora-"

"Eh, don't worry! You'll be back before you know it!" red flags went up in my head.

"What do you want?" I stepped back.

"I just wanna see you happy," he placed a hand on my shoulder.

I quickly slapped it away and snapped at him, "I'm sure you do, but I can't! So, get out of my hair!"

He scoffed, "Wow! Okay, fine! Have it your way..." he smirked, "princess." he left alone with a chilling fact: he knew what I was. I dropped my keyblade and ran to the lobby. There, I was greeted by a friendly face.

"Hey, sis!" none other than Sora's face. I glared and looked away. "Uh... please don't be-"

"Mad? Don't be mad?" I slapped his shoulder and he yelped. "I have every right to be mad! You were going to leave me! What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Oh yeah," he pulled out a pass and handed it to Phil.

"How'd you get this?" he asked.

"Can we enter the games, now?" he disregarded the question with his own.

"Well, I guess so. But we start with the preliminates." He said.

We headed to the arena, ready to take any challenge. Phill gave Sora a thunder spell for good luck. We blew through it, no problem.

"You're no heroes yet, but ain't half bad!" Phil told them, "Aren't you lucky I'm here to coach ya." I quietly and dryly laughed at this.

'You didn't want anything to do with them,' I rolled my eyes, placing a hand on my hip.

That's when a strange but familiar guy walked by and looked down at me. He suddenly gasped, "Ri?" I tilted my head. "It's me, Cloud!"

"Cloud?" I raised an eyebrow and yet again my necklace gleamed. He turned into a younger boy with a black muscle shirt and blue jeans. A tear ran down my face and I smiled, "Storm Cloud! Oh my god, it's you!" I ran up to him and gave him a hug.

"I'm grateful you remember me." he put and small smile, but I'll take what I can get. It's really hard to get him to smile.

"How could I forget? You saved me and helped me find my sister back at home!" I grinned.

"Hey!" we turned our heads to Sora, who was crossing his arms, "What's going on?"

"Oh! Uh... Sora, Donald, Goofy, this is Cloud!" I smiled and grabbed his arm. I looked up at his face. It was all calm and deadpan, as usual, but he was blushing. He gently unweaved his arm.

"I gotta go and get ready for the games." he walked away.

"Hey, maybe will get to face each other! I'll beat you!" I boasted.

"Heh, we'll see," he smirked, "You never change, Ri."

"Something tells me he's going to be hard to beat," Phil said.

"We can take him!" I confedently said, grabbing my right wrist behind my back.

We blew through the 2nd match easy-peesie.

"Say, you two are better than I thought! Wish he was here to see this." Phil said.

"You mean Herc?" he nodded at this.

"Who?" Sora asked.

"Hercules. He's a hero if there ever was one. Too bad he's off visiting his father." He After going through three rounds, we went back over to Phil.

khkhkh

The next match was relatively easy. Finally, we reached the last match. The boys were tired so I told to go watch the stands. That's when Phil told me I was battling Cloud. He was tougher than I thought he would be. Definitely different from the two bosses me and the guys faced.

He blocked my keyblade strike and knocked me back. I sensed his darkness growing more and more, "I thought you said you were going to beat me."

I panted as my energy level was getting low, "Not done yet!" I threw my key at him, throwing him off balance. I used my Light Slash. The wave of light clashed into him and he flew back into a pillar behind. Hell, I thought I killed him- he had his eyes closed and he wasn't moving. "Cloud?"

He slowly opened one eye snd smiled, "You... really strong..." he stood up and bowed his head, "Thanks for battling with me."

"You did it!" Sora cheered and I turned to him. He was pumping a fist in the air. I waved to the crowd, who cheered.

I felt a shove and fell to the ground. I got up, quickly, and shot around only to see Cloud got flattened by huge hell hound with three heads.

I jumped back, "Cloud!"

All three of the head lunged for me. One of the heads grazed my right leg when I tried to escape the attack. I landed and felt it snap. I screamed in pain, falling to the side and the ground.

"PIRI!" everyone yelled.

Then, all three heads attacked me again as I held my hand out, waiting for impact. It never came. A guy was in front of me holding the beast back. One look at that orange hair, I knew it was Herc. But he was older and had more muscles. I sighed in relief.

"Herc!" Phil and I exclaimed.

"Phil, get them out of here!" he said.

Sora ran to my side and helped me up. I threw my arm over his shoulder and he put his arm around my waist. I blushed at this.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you to the lobby!" we rushed to there. He gently picked me up and placed me on the pedestal we were trying to move earlier.

"Thanks for that, Sora!" I sweetly smiled.

"Phew! That was close! Are you okay, Ri?"

"Of course!" I slowly stood up and walked forward. My leg felt it was on fire. I groaned in pain and leaned against the pedestal.

Sora growled, "You're NOT okay!"

Phil gave me a wrap, which Sora put on, and looked to the doorway, "That was Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld."

"Hades!" I growled and stood straight up, ignoring the pain, "He has something to do with this! Herc can take that hell ho-" I was stopped by a loud roar that scared all of us. Donald jumped in Goofy's arms, Goofy widened his eyes, and Sora and I hugged each other. Phil began to worry about Hercules.

"Maybe I should go check on him.."

I pulled away from the hug and summoned Rainfell, "I gotta help! I can still fight."

"Gwarsh, I think you should sit this one out," Goofy said. I felt my anger rising.

"Goofy's right, you need to-"

"Don't tell me what to do!" I snapped at him and ran to the arena with them calling after me.

khkhkh

Sora's POV

Piri ran to the arena. She looked like she was in pain but she still went.

"Come on!" we quickly ran to the arena and to Pi's side.

"Go to the lobby, Herc!" Piri told Hercules, "We got this! Just take care of Cloud, 'kay?"

"Alright!" he smiled, "It's good to have you back, Ri," and he ran off.

"Kids, I got two words of advice for ya: Attack!" I heard sis laugh.

"You got it, Phil!" she put a thumbs up.

This was very difficult to fight him. Cerberus was either snapping at us, shooting giant fireballs at us, or causing spouts of darkness to come out of the ground.

The demon dog swatted it's paw at me and knocked me into the column. I groaned as I slide down it. I could even say I tasted blood.

"SORA!" I heard Piri yelled and looked up at the beast. Piri jump in between us, "Light Bloom!" She exploded with light and started to spin. Volleys of light hit the beast. It soon became to much for it and he collapsed. She stopped spinning only to fall to the side. I caught her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her and she put a hand to her head, shaking her head... probably to become less dizzy. She then took off the wrapping off. The wound was gone.

She smiled, "Better than I was! Remind me to use that for emergencies ONLY."

I still helped her back to the lobby. Phil and Hercules both stood in front of us.

"Thus, I hereby dub thee Jr. Heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to take part in the games. Further-" Donald cut Phil off.

"Hey! What do you mean, 'jr. heroes'?" he asked, sounding a bit angry and offended.

At least you're heroes, Donald!" sis commented, "Be grateful!"

"You're the one to talk!" I said, "Phil said you knows what it takes!"

"But in her defense, you guys don't know what it takes." Phil stroked his goatee.

"So, what does it take?" Goofy asked.

"Well, that's just something you'll have to find out for yourself. Just the way I did," Hercules told us.

"No problem. We'll start by proving ourselves in the games." I said with confidence.

"That's the spirit, Sora!" Piri cheered.

"Hold it! There ain't gonna games for a while. We got clean up from that last battle, first." Piri nervously laughed at this.

"Sorry."

"Alright, we'll be back!" I started to walk away until Pi stopped me.

"I think we should give the pedestal another go." I nodded in response. This time was different: Donald and Goofy helped push and it moved. Underneath was the keyhole to Olympus Coliseum. Me and Piri pointed our keyblades at it and seal it.

khkhkh

Piri's POV

We walked back to the gummi ship and I seen Cloud walking to me.

"I'll be in the gummi in a second," I told Sora and ran over to him.

"Are you okay, princess?" he asked.

"Yeah, thanks for saving me!" I hugged him and he hesiatated to hugged me back. "I gotta go, 'kay?"

"Hold on," he pulled away, "I'm sorry... for using the darkness against you, Ri."

I sighed and smiled at him, "Don't worry about it! You're still my Storm Cloud." I grinned a cheesy grin and he looked to the ground. I growled at this, " Hey! Learn to laugh! That way the darkness doesn't defeat you."

He chuckled, "I'm searching for someone. Hades promised to help," he muttered.

"I know Hades and he tried that on me," I sadly looked down, "He knew I was searching for him."

"For your light?" I nodded and blushed. He smirked, "He's always with you, where ever he is. You just got believe in it and never lose sight of it."

I looked up at him, "I think I understand. And same to you."

He smiled and nodded, "Thank you, i will." he walked passed me.

"How 'bout a rematch sometime? Fair and square, no magic or dark powers involved, just sword play." he stopped.

"Sounds tempting but..." he pushed his the spikes out of his face, "I think I'll pass." I giggled and ran back to the ship.

We went to another world, which was filled with animals. At first, Sora and Donald got into a fight. It caused us to crash and be separated. I was put with Sora. We meet a female researcher and a male hunter, even a man who was raised by gorillas! We were reunited with Donald and Goofy but the two were still mad at each. I chewed both of them out for not being grateful for not making up. They still were fighting. I shrugged it off for now and the the gorilla man led us to his family. We were stupid each to let the hunter with and he nearly killed an innocent gorilla. The researcher was highly pissed off when we told her what happened. He stormed away and soon we had to fight him. Shortly after defeating him, we closed a new key hole and another gummi block fell from it. The two stopped fighting, much to me and Goofy's relief, and we set our sights to Traverse Town.

A/N Sorry about being a little lazy for Deep Jungle but I really like it. This sums it up.