Kingdom Hearts {Reader Insert}

39. The Underworld

Cloud led the group through the large blue doors. They creaked open as you approached and then shut behind everyone.

"Organization XIII!" Yuffie shouted.

You looked across the space and found someone in dark Organization robes.

"Oh, woah!" a voice came from under the hood. You caught a glimpse of familiar blue eyes and blond hair. He looked around your group and then his eyes found yours. They seemed to hold for a moment, but then he turned and ran.

"Hey!" you shouted without thinking and started after him. "Stop!"

"[Name]!" Tifa shouted behind you.

He was fast. You barely kept up as he wound through tunnels full of fog. Occasionally you had to cut down a Heartless or parry a Nobody to keep going. At the end of the tunnel he disappeared into a dark, shadowy mist, the same way the Organization member had gotten away in Destiny Islands.

"Shoot!" you shouted in frustration, and then put your hands on your knees to catch your breath. "If he was just gonna walk into some magical darkness doorway, why didn't he do that to begin with?"

"Where'd he go?" Yuffie asked from next to you. Apparently she was the first to catch up, and the others were right behind her.

"He's gone," you said as you stood up straight. "Disappeared into darkness."

"Can't follow him," Cid sighed, the last of the group to join you.

"We'll have to go back to finding Hades. Do you know where to go from here?" Leon turned to Cloud.

Cloud nodded. "He brought us closer."

"I have a feeling that's not a coincidence," Leon grumbled.

Cloud led everyone through an opening in the wall, a crack large enough to fit a couple people through at a time. On the other side was a wide open space. The path in front of you led up an incline to a stone structure that looked almost like a skull, but the eye holes were windows. Mist danced around the space and rolled like waves on either side of the path.

"That's where Hades is," Cloud looked up at the structure. "Watch your step. One wrong move and you'll be falling for a while."

Your eyebrows rose and you made sure you were at the middle of the path. It took longer than you thought it would to reach the top. It was almost as if the path grew longer with each step. It honestly made you a little dizzy, but you made sure to maintain your focus. I don't want to fall over the edge. You shivered at the thought.

"Cloud," Tifa pushed forward to the front of the group. "We don't have a plan. We have to be careful."

"He's a god," Leon told him. "He's stronger than all of us combined."

"I know." Cloud pushed ahead and then threw the doors open.

"Did you forget who you're talking to?" Hades shouted. "I am the Lord of the Dead!"

A man with salt and pepper hair and a red cloak stood across from Hades with a smirk. He held his long sword at the ready with one hand, and the other was tucked into the cloak. "No wonder no one wants to die." As he spoke you noticed that one of his eyes didn't open. There was a long scar across it, running from his forehead to his cheek.

"You are fired!" Hades shouted in anger and burst into orange flame.

You could feel the heat from the entryway. The god charged the man, but the man blocked with his sword. Hades grabbed the sword and pushed back, but neither budged. Hades caught sight of all of you at that moment.