So…ra? Riku tried to put the pieces together of what event had recently occurred, but he was too dazed to act or even think rationally so he just lay on the moist ground. He lifted his hand to his face which had lost most feeling and saw the blood which drenched his face, neck, and the bangs of his silver hair. He slowly turned his head to peer over his shoulder. And there he was; Sora. Sora was motionless on the ground, his face was bloody (as was Riku's), his arm was disfigured, his clothes were in tatters and his keyblade, Oath Keeper was caked with dried, red, blood. Riku struggled to lift his right arm to reach over to his wounded best friend. He ignored the searing pain and gently stroked Sora's soft hair. Then the memories came flooding back to him.

It was only a few days before when they had entered the Keyblade Graveyard. The sky was brown and a bastion of eerie gray clouds. Sora held Oath Keeper at his side as Riku held Way to Dawn. There was a low rumble as thousands of heartless and nobodies emerged from the ground and the surrounding cliffs. There were everything from shadows to guard armors and dusks to sorcerers. The battle raged thick and fast as the two fought off the heartless and nobodies. Riku and Sora must have destroyed thousands of them but their numbers never wavered. Sora soon began to tire and Riku quickly came to his aid. At that time both Riku and Sora were pretty banged up and a trickle of florescent, red, blood emanated from Riku's busted lip. Riku still fought on valiantly and Sora as well. And they kept pressing on until finally, the heartless and nobodies were vanquished. Tired and in pain from exhaustion and fatigue Riku collapsed. Sora limped to Riku's side and then, he too fell though he collapsed not from exhaustion but from a severe loss of blood.

And then reality came flooding back to Riku once again and the hot sun burned his fair skin. Then he heard footsteps, as of someone or something coming towards them. Riku opened his eyes and saw a boy who looked like Roxas, with kind yet intense blue eyes much like Sora's, spiky blonde hair, and he had a keyblade. Though the boy held it differently, he held it backhand. The boy then gently dragged both Riku and Sora to a wall of a cliff and propped them up against the rock. Riku was still dazed and could barely put together simple sentences, so he managed with one or two words at a time,

"…Who…?" Riku said. The boy softly smiled and replied gently,

"I'm a forgotten memory… I didn't expect for you to remember." Riku then whispered,

"Your…name…?" The boy smiled.

"I'm Ventus, but you can call me Ven."

"Ven…tus…" Riku shakily echoed. Ventus nodded.

"Riku…" He chided. "You need to get some rest. Don't worry; I'll keep both you and Sora out of harm's way." Riku stared at Ven with his light aqua eyes that had been tainted by an evil and dark aura. Ven reached into his pockets and pulled out some medical dressing and gauze and began to treat Sora's deep and bloody wounds.

Ven had treated and covered all of Sora's injuries and had cleaned the scrapes and dirt from his hands. Ven sat there gazing dreamily at the sky and Riku soon drifted off to sleep. Ven then turned and attended Riku's wounds too.

Soon both Sora and Riku had their wounds treated and were resting. Ven always kept a close eye on both of them but even more so on Sora. Sora was badly wounded and was barely hanging on. Ven was very concerned about them both.

The two slept and started to regain their strength. Riku's strength returned in two days but Sora still slept. Then Riku finally awoke on the third day.

"Ven?" He said questioning if the kid who looked an awful lot like Roxas was real. He was.

"Good morning, Riku." Ven told him in a cheerful voice. Riku didn't say anything. Ven looked at him and smiled. "You and Sora gave me quite the scare." He added. Riku summoned Way to Dawn to his hand and struggled to stand. Ven swiftly got to his feet and grabbed Riku's shoulder. "What do you think you're doing?!" Ven shouted. Riku escaped from Ven's grip and began to limp away putting most of his weight on Way to Dawn. Ven again grabbed his shoulder. "Riku, stop!" Ven shouted. Riku swiftly turned and struck Ven with his keyblade. Ven was thrown back and hit the wall of the cliff and he hit his head on the stone. He coughed harshly and Riku again began to limp away. Ven reached out to him as began to lose consciousness. "Stop…Ri…ku…"

Just then Sora awoke. He looked up and saw Riku limping away. "Riku…? Riku!" Sora called. Riku stopped. Sora got to his feet but then fell to his knees. "Riku…" He said. "Don't go…" Riku shook his head.

"I…" The silverette started to say. Then he lowered his head. "I need to go." Sora crawled over to Riku and winced at the terrible pain.

"Please…" Sora pleaded. "Don't leave me again…" Riku kneeled down in front of Sora.

"I…couldn't protect you…" He said. "I want to leave… It's compensation…" Sora then shouted back,

"For what?! You've done nothing wrong, so why do you keep punishing yourself?!" Riku shook his head.

"You wouldn't understand." Sora looked up at him with rage in his blue eyes.

"You're right; I don't understand why you do this to yourself, and to me! Every time you run away do you even consider how I feel? If you think I don't care about you then you are fucking dense!"

Riku stood and he closed his aquamarine eyes.

"I'm sorry…" He said. "I didn't think anyone cared for me that much…" Sora smiled and crawled back over to the cliff wall and leaned against it. Riku then sat next to him. Riku then turned to look at Ven but he was gone. Riku then sighed and drew his breath.

"Ven." He said in a hushed voice, "Thank you."

Ven smiled warmly as he stood watching them. He continued to stand for a while and then felt someone place a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw someone with spiky brunette hair smiling at him.

"Terra!" He exclaimed with joy. Ven threw his arms around his best friend and hugged him tightly. Terra returned the embrace fully and then they both let go and again gazed at Sora and Riku.

"They remind me of us." Ven stated. Terra looked at Ven questionably.

"How so?" Terra asked. Ven turned his head to Terra.

"We're best friends, remember?" Ven told him with a smile. Terra then smiled softly.

"Yeah…" He said. He again placed a hand on Ven's shoulder. "Never forget." Ven smiled.

"I won't… Not ever…"

I don't own any of these awesome characters! They belong to Square Enix.

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