Author: Stormforce
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Don't own either series.
Notes: <Anything in these are thoughts>

When the group had teleported back to the ship, a new world had appeared on the screen but with red dots covering a large section. Buffy jumped into the pilots seat and set course for the new world and arrived within a few minutes, after hitting the warp drive. Again like with Wonderland a yellow light appeared, knowing the drill the girls stepped into the light and disappeared.

They appeared in the center of a courtyard with a large stone building in front of them, there were four five-foot long scrolls hanging from the wall. With nothing else to see the group entered the stone building and saw a three-foot tall half goat half man trying to push a stone pedestal, but not budging it an inch.

"Um..." Willow started to say but was cut off by the little guy.

"Great timing! Give me a hand, and move this pedestal over there for me, please. I gotta spruce this place up for the games." He said not even turning around.

Willow shrugged looking at the others and with their help tried to push the pedestal, but even with six of them it didn't move.

"This thing weighs a ton!" Buffy grumbled.

"Hey, it's too heavy." Faith called out.

"What? Too heavy? Since when have you been such a little-" He stopped speaking as he turned. "Oh, sorry wrong person. Anyway, what're you doing here? This here's the world-famous Coliseum-heroes only! I've got my hands full preparing for the game, so run along, pip-squeaks. Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum, so you should leave."

"You've got heroes standing in front of you." Donald said proudly.

"Yup. These girls are real heroes chosen by the Keyblade." Goofy nodded.

"And we're heroes too!"

"Heroes? Those little girls? Look, don't try to fool the great Philoctetes, cause they ain't no heroes."

"Hey! We've fought plenty of monsters! Some you wouldn't believe!" Willow said getting angry.

"If you can't move this," Phil said pointing to the pedestal, "you can't call yourself a hero!" he said trying to move it again, and still not budging it. "Okay, so it takes more than brawn. But I'll let you enter a trial and see what you can do. All right?"

The girls glanced at each other and nodded before getting nods from Donald and Goofy. "Sure, you're on!" Tara smiled.

"Okay, just smash the barrels before time runs out. There are twenty-five barrels in all, go!"

The group ran into the Coliseum and split up smashing barrels as they went. Philoctetes watched the group from the doorway, he smiled as Willow and Faith jumped on to the two air platforms and smashed the four barrels on top. Donald used a Thunder spell on the last barrel just as the timer reached zero and smiled.

The group walked up to the Phil smiling. "Looks like we're headed for the games, huh?" Willow asked as a smirked crossed her face.

"Don't think so, girl."

"What? Why the hell not?" Buffy asked angrily.

"Two words. You guys ain't heroes!"

"Oh, come on!" Faith growled.

"If you wanna become real heroes, train more." Phil said and pushed the group out the door, and into the courtyard.

"Bastard." Willow grumbled.

"Stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?" a voice asked from behind the group.

"Who are you?" Donald asked narrowing his eyes.

"Whoa! Hold on there, fuzz boy. I'm Hades, and I assume you want to enter the games, right?" Hades asked placing his hand on Willow's shoulder. "Well, then, hey, get a load of this." He said as an Entry Pass appeared.

"A pass?" Tara asked suspiciously

"Yes, and it's all yours. Good luck, girls. I'm pulling for you." Hades said grinning as he turned and left the courtyard.

"Come on, let's go talk to goat-man." Faith smirked and reentered the Coliseum Lobby. "Hey, buddy, look what we got." Faith said as Willow held up the pass.

"How'd you get this?"

"Doesn't matter, can we enter the games now?" Willow said handing Phil the pass.

"I guess so. We start with the preliminaries, are you ready?"

"Yeah." Tara answered.

"Okay, but some real weirdos signed up for the games, better watch yourself."

When the group entered the fighting arena a barrier appeared around the edges making it impossible to escape. They watched as four groups of Heartless appeared at the far side of the arena, and waited for them to make their move.

Willow and Donald cast a Thunder spell on the small shadow Heartless, Tara cast a Protect spell on Faith, Buffy and Goofy as they ran forward. Buffy threw a Firestorm mix as she brought her blade down on a Heartless soldier and flipped to avoid a hit from a seven-foot tall Heartless.

Faith destroyed two of the soldiers and jumped back to avoid a hit from a shadow. Goofy spun around hitting the seven-foot tall Heartless and watched as it disappeared. Tara took out the last three with a Holy spell and smiled as the barrier fell.

"Congratulations. But you're no heroes yet. Now for the next round." Phil said watching as the barrier rose again.

After winning the next two rounds there was a break in the fighting, and the group approached Phil as sweat dripped from their faces. "Whatcha think, now?" Buffy asked sitting on a bench.

"You're better than I thought. Wish he was here to see this."

"Who?" Willow asked grabbing a cup of water.

"Hercules. He's a hero if ever there was one. Too bad he's off visiting his father." Phil said and smiled. "He would love watching you guys fight." He said as a man with spiky blond hair walked by with a large sword strapped to his back.

"Who's that?" Willow asked.

"That's Cloud, if you win the next two rounds you'll be fighting him, and let me tell ya: he's a tough opponent. Anyway time for the next round. Off you go."

As the girls were fighting in the next two rounds Cloud was watching from the back as Hades appeared standing next to him.

"Those punks are your next opponents, okay? Now, don't blow it, just take them out."

Cloud glanced at Hades before continuing to watch the fight. "The great god of the Underworld is afraid of a bunch of girls? Sorry, but my contract says-"

"I know!" Hades shouted as his flaming blue hair turned red. "You think I don't know? I wrote the friggin' contract! I know it says you're only required to kill Hercules in this tournament. But you've gotta fight those girls to get to him. Come on. Hey, it's like that old goat says: Rule 11: It's all just a game, so let loose and have fun with it! I mean, a casualty or a few along the way is no big deal, right?"

Cloud snorted shaking his head and left Hades to himself.

"Geez!" Hades said watching Cloud walk off. "Stiffer than the stiffs back home. Still, suckers like him are hard to come by..." he smiled as Cloud entered the fighting arena.

The girls watched as a dark light surrounded Cloud's body and sword, turning Tara cast a Protect spell on the group as Buffy cast an Aero spell. With the added protection the group was ready to fight. Willow cast a Flare spell as Donald cast a Fire spell, Faith leaped at Cloud and was thrown back as he deflected her attack. Goofy was thrown into the barrier as Cloud brought his sword down cracking the arena floor and splitting it.

Keeping her distance Buffy threw a Winter Storm mix, and threw a potion to Goofy. Tara cast a Holy spell before casting a Cure spell on Faith. Willow jumped into the air twisting her body around and bringing her sword down slashing Cloud across his chest, before landing in a crouch and rolling back to avoid his attack. Donald smirked as Cloud lifted his sword into the air, casting a Thunder spell, he watched as the lightning hit the sword and fried Cloud.

Shaking his head Cloud glowed black as energy surrounded his body again, and twirled once with his sword held in front of him. The shockwave hit the four girls and two guys knocking each into the barrier, hard.

Even with the Protect spells the force of the hit knocked the breath from their lungs, causing the group to gasp. Cloud smirked approaching Tara and raised his sword in the air, only to get hit by two Flare spells and a Thundaga spell. Cloud fell to the ground in pain and passed out.

"No one hurts my girl." Willow growled making her way toward Tara, not seeing Hades glare and then smirk as a twenty-foot tall three-headed dog appeared in the center of the arena.

"Oh, right, there was one other rule I forgot: Accidents happen." Hades said and disappeared, just as Hercules rushed into the arena.

"Phil, get them out of here!"

"You got it Herc!" Phil said helping the group out of the arena and watched Cloud run through the lobby.

"What the fuck is that!?" Faith asked glancing back into the arena where Hercules was holding the giant dog at by.

"That is Cerberus, the guardian dog of the Underworld. Herc should be able to handle him..." He trailed off seeing Hercules get pushed back. "The again, maybe not. This doesn't look good."

"Let's help!" Willow said running back into the arena, and cast a Flare spell as she did.

Hercules had picked up the unconscious Cloud and nods as the girls step in front of him with Phil standing in the doorway. "Girls, I got two words of advise for you: Attack!"

Cerberus swiped at the group with his giant paw knocking Donald and Goofy into the wall, as Tara and Buffy ducked under, and Willow and Faith jumping over. The arena shook as Cerberus' paw hit the ground and stepped forward.

Tara back flipped to avoid getting bitten by one of the heads, and cast another Protect spell on the group. Buffy hurriedly threw a Rolling Thunder mix, followed by a Howling Wind, and watched as the wind picked up the giant dog, and slammed him into the ground.

Faith cast a Gravity spell as Willow doublecast a Flare spell, and a Bio spell, poisoning the dog. With the dog disoriented from the poison and the spells, both Willow and Faith unsheathed their Keyblades and hit the middle head twice before he stood.

The girls jumped back so as not to get bit, and ran forward slashing an X on the right paw, causing Cerberus to fall. Goofy and Donald -having been healed- stood. Goofy began spinning and hit the dog's left head, as Donald cast Blizzard spell, following Tara's Holy spell.

The group watched Cerberus stand for a moment before falling over and vanishing from site, and fell to the ground worn-out from all the battles. Phil and Hercules helped the group into the lobby to rest, and smiled when they stood on their own.

"Well? How'd we do?" Faith asked rubbing her eyes.

"I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges t participate in the games." Phil said before being cut off by Donald.

"What do you mean 'junior heroes'?"

"You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero."

Tara giggled as the others looked at Phil unbelievingly. "And just what does it take?" Willow finally asked.

"That's something you'll have to find out for yourselves. Just the way that I did." Hercules said grinning.

"Okay, then. We'll start by proving ourselves in the games." Buffy said getting nods from the others.

"There ain't gonna be any games...at least not for a while. We've gotta clean up the mess from your fight with Cerberus first." Phil sighed.

"Okay, but we'll be back." Willow said and walked out of the lobby and into the courtyard with the others following.

Phil watched them go and shook his head. "I still can't believe those little girls actually beat Cerberus."

"Just between us, I'd already worn Cerberus down by the time the girls jumped in." Hercules said smiling.

"My lips are sealed." Phil smirked.

When the girls exited the lobby they saw Cloud sitting on the lower step and staring at the ground.

"You all right?" Tara asked concerned

"Yeah." Cloud nodded.

"Why did you go along with him, anyway?" Willow asked curiously

"I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired." He said and stood to face the group. "I fell into the darkness, and couldn't find the light."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find who you're looking for." Tara smiled.

Cloud studied the girls before letting a small smile show. "Please, don't lose site of your light." He said and shook Willow's hand. Willow staggered for a moment and smiled happily.

"Cool, thanks! How about a rematch sometime? Fair and square, no dark powers involved."

"Nah, I think I'll pass." Cloud said and left the courtyard.

"What was that about, sweetie?" Tara asked wrapping her arms around Willow's waist.

"He gave me a new ability... Sonic Blade. I can't wait to use it." She said before kissing Tara.

"Is that all you two do?" Donald asked rolling his eyes, and causing Buffy to giggle.

"Just you wait. You'll never get any sleep when they're making love." Faith smirked as both girls blushed.

"Way too much information!" Donald said running for the light that would take them back to the ship, with Goofy following.

"You just had to say that, didn't you?" Willow asked as they approached the light.

"Yup." Faith laughed. "I can't let a moment like that get away, now can I?" she asked and teleported back to the ship.

As the girls vanished from the courtyard and back to the ship, Hades appeared looking at an image of Hercules in his hand.

"He's strong, he's kind. He's always there for you, and he's handsome to boot. He's perfect. Perfect." Hades growled as his hair turned red. "Perfectly infuriating! He makes me crazy." He shouted then calmed down. "Wait a minute. What are you talking about? All the pieces are in place. Relax. Here's what you do. Let Hercules train the kid. In the next games, I'll take care of them both."

Maleficent appeared standing behind the god of the Underworld and waited until he turned.

"And just who invited you to the party? Stay out of this. This is my show."

"As you wish. Fight to your heart's content." Maleficent said and vanished, leaving behind a very pissed off god.