Kingdom Hearts II: Home Sweet Sanctuary

Chapter 52: Is Zack Going To Ask Her?

We ran to the boat, but it began going toward the Underdrome before we could stop him.

"What's wrong?" Hercules asked.

"Hades is up to his old tricks. He's manipulating Auron into fighting you." I said.

"He's using some kind of statue." Goofy said.

"You know something? That sounds kind of familiar..." We all looked at him. "Hades may be using the statue to hold Auron's free will hostage." Hercules said.

"What do we do?" Donald asked.

"See if you can find that statue. It's gotta be somewhere in the Underworld." Hercules said.

"We're on it!" Zack said. That's when Hades suddenly appeared behind us.

"Tell me you're not thinking of leaving. You've got a match coming up." Hades said.

"I'll fight Auron in the final. One on one." Hercules said. Was Herc crazy?!

"Oh, you will?" Hades asked. Hades turned his back to us.

"I'll draw things out to buy you guys time." Hercules said.

"But-" Sora said.

"Just hurry back. I know you guys can do it!" Hercules said.

"Congratulations! You've got a deal." Hades said.

"Thanks." Hercules said.

"On 1 condition! The Keyblade bearer, Blueberry and their trusty friends have to meet the winner in one final clash, whaddya say?" Hades asked.

"That'll drive the crowd wild..." Hercules said.

"It'd better. I promised the crowd the event of their afterlives." Hades said. Hercules got on the boat and they went to the Underdrome.

"Where do you think the statue could be?" Goofy asked.

"If I had to guess, probably in Hades's Chamber." Zack said. We hurried toward the chamber. I looked toward the table and saw the statue.

"There it is!" I said. Sora went to grab it, but some kind of red electricity shocked him. I tried to pull him off of it, but I got shocked too. Zack, Goofy and Donald tried to help but got shocked just like us.

"What's going on?!" Donald exclaimed. That's when we started hearing Auron's voice saying multiple things.

It is not too late!

Let us turn back!

Yes, but I... I cannot accept it.

Where is the sense in all this?

But... there must be another way!

Your deaths will mean nothing!

You must live!

"Poor Auron..." I said.

"I get it. This is the stuff that belongs in Auron's heart." Sora said.

"He's like other SOLDIERS. We have hard lives. We need to give back to him." Zack said. We hurried back the Underworld entrance and then took the boat to the Underdrome. We got there and saw Auron had Hercules pinned down.

"Auron, stop!" I yelled.

"Auron, we have something that belongs to you!" Donald said. Sora took out the statue and threw it over Auron. It exploded and tiny particles of light were absorbed into Auron's body. Auron stopped what he was doing and then looked toward us.

"Sora... Piri... Zack... Donald... Goofy." Auron said.

"Auron!" we all exclaimed. He was back to his old self.

"Why those little-! Ugh, prisoner! What happened to our mutual agreement. I can give you a clean slate, but you gotta to work with me." Hades said.

"Maybe you didn't hear me. This is my story and you're not part of it." Auron said. Hades was furious. He disappeared in a blaze of fire and reappeared at our level.

"That's it! This game is over. I've played by the rules so far. Okay, I confess! I was hoping Wonderboy would lose, but it was till a fair fight. C'mon, is that really so wrong?" Hades asked.

"Really? A fair fight?" Sora said.

"Laugh, laugh, laugh all you want! Because the laughing is about to stop. Wanna know why? Because now we're gonna play by my rules." Hades said. He snapped his fingers and all at once, Meg was hovering over a pool of souls.

"Meg!" Hercules yelled.

"Hercules!" Meg screamed.

"Hey, I warned you right at the get-go. You don't compete, you lose the girl." Hades snapped his fingers and Meg fell down. Hercules jumped after her. "Looks like Wonderboy has dropped out of the standings." Hades said. Every single one of us was glaring daggers at him.

"We're still here, Hades!" Zack said.

"And we're going to make you pay for this!" I exclaimed. Unfortunately, we still couldn't inflict any damage on him.

"Why can't we beat him?!" Sora asked.

"This is impossible!" Donald exclaimed.

"Because it's his Underworld." Auron said.

"Gee, then how do we beat him?" Goofy asked.

"I think a true hero should be able to help." a familiar voice said. We all looked to see Hercules, glowing with a heavenly aura, with Meg in his arms. "I owe you one Hades. You helped me remember what makes a true hero; the strength of his heart." Pegasus took Meg out of the Underworld.

"How dare you get a happy ending! How DARE you!" Hades screamed. We could beat him now.

"Piri!" Hercules exclaimed. He shot a large sphere of light into air. I jumped up and into the sphere. I focused on my light and my light orbs surrounded the sphere. I popped out of the sphere and shot it toward Hades. It weakened whatever protected Hades from damage. We were able to attack and defeat him without much difficulty now. In the end, Hades ended up falling into the Sea of Souls. Auron thanked us for helping him, but he said it as 'meddling'. We went back to the destroyed coliseum and saw it was night out. It looked beautiful. That's when I noticed something with the stars.

"Guys, look!" I said. They looked and we saw the stars make silhouettes of me, Sora, Zack, Donald and Goofy.

"Looks like Zeus recognizes you all as true heroes." Phil said.

"At last! True herohood!" Zack exclaimed. All of them were jumping for joy. Me, I just looked up with a hand on my hip and a smile. I chuckled.

"You think Aqua would want to date you now?" I asked him and his face lit up.

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!" He blushed with a grin, "There's no way she'd reject me now!"