Author's Note: Heck yeah! I've updated again. That twice in one week, a record by my counts. :) We left of with a battle commencing between Ven's captor and Riku. This should be interesting.

The figure came at him, Riku dodged and parried many blows. He was trying to study his rival's strategy, his tactic to fighting, and see if he could find a flaw.

There wasn't any.

Riku decided to act aggressively, he pushed forward on the man, only to be dodged and blocked by the opposing figure.

At this point, Riku heard two screams, one male and one female. He oh so desperately wanted to help Leon and Tifa, but couldn't risk losing to his opponent.

"Oh, they're dead in case you're wondering." The man then looked to the side of the wall where Sora was chained. He blocked an extremely powerful blow of Riku's and then shouted. "No! I demand you not touch him," looking to throw off Riku's game. Riku looked, concerned for Sora, and this momentary lapse of concentration was all the figure needed to overpower Riku. He slammed his keyblade into the silver haired boy's side, then did a three sixty to smash the blade against his arm, disarming him of one the keys. He then elbowed Riku's opposite forearm, causing him to drop the other keyblade. The attacker's keyblade then rammed Riku's chin up with horrid force. He could taste copper in his mouth. Riku fell to the ground.

"Riku!" Sora cried out, tears pouring down his face. "Riku! No!"

The silverlet's eyes were growing heavy; the world was going dark, but no. He wasn't going to die without a fight, a better fight. He reached over to grab his keyblade while the figure was distracted by Sora's hysterics, and struck the man's leg. He fell on his knees before Riku, looking into those fading aquamarine eyes. Riku bashed the keyblade against the figure's side. This broke the figure out of his momentary lapse in judgment and he took his own keyblade, flipped Riku onto his back, and pulled it upward. Riku's eyes widened, and he looked to where the face of his attacker should be, but only saw the hood. He sensed something as the figure brought down his keyblade to meet with the silver haired one's chest. Mislead, like I was. The blade sliced his chest open. Riku's eyes widened impossibly more than before, and then he let out a final breath. The figure violently thrust the key from side to side. He pulled the blade from the boy, and looked down at his body.

Riku was staring at him. Like the woman from earlier, and he couldn't look away at the moment. He knelt down beside the boy and pulled his vest closed, zipping it up, to hide the wound in his chest. He grabbed Riku's keyblade and Sora's, before walking over the wailing boy.

"I…uh…thought you would want this." He held Sora's keyblade up to Sora, and then pulled Riku's up beside it. "And this…" Sora's blue eyes looked directly into his, though the boy didn't know that, and he sniffled.

"Aren't you going to kill me too?" Sora's hands were linked directly against the wall, and he let his head slouch between the raised arms. The man placed the keys on the floor and reached for the restraints to release Sora.

"No. I'm not." He simply stated.

"What?" Sora looked to where the figure's face should be, shock apparent in his features. "Why? I just had to watch my friends die, and you're not going to kill me? That makes no sense."

"Does anything make sense anymore?"

"I don't understand."

"Take the keys and go, before I change my mind." Sora stood there a moment. "Now. Go."

The brunette dove to the floor and snatched the blades. He stumbled to regain his balance and fled the building.

"Upon the completion of Boss Man's latest exploit, my best friend will come to meet you." A figure sitting on the bottom of the stair case said. "He should be back anytime now." The man swayed back and forth, seeming content.

"How many is he killing this time?" Ven responded, his head held low. The figure got up and walked to Ven. He patted the boy on the back.

"Aw, don't think of it that way." The figure pouted, at least that's what Ven assumed he was doing, "It makes me feel bad."

"Would your friend mind if I asked him some questions when he gets here?" Ven pleaded with his eyes, the man looked away.

"No! Not puppy dog eyes!" He laughed. "I'm sure he won't mind."

"That I won't mind what?" A short form was walking down the stairs and had obviously heard some of Ven's conversation with the figure. "So, this is Ventus?" He walked around Ven, examining him. "The boss was right, he's quite a specimen."

"Stop flirting!" called out the other figure. Ven's eyes widened, and he coughed a little.

"I assure you," said the smaller man, "that I am in no way, 'flirting'. I am merely making an objective observation." He approached the other figure and faced him. "Seems my friend here is jealous of the attention I'm giving you though."

"Am not!" Ven could tell the taller figure wasn't really angry, but feigning the emotion.

"You guys are funny." He commented.

"Only because he's always acting foolish in some manner." The smaller figure explained, pointing to his friend.

"That's not fair. You're just a stick in the mud sometimes." The other retorted in a playful tone, laughing at the end of his statement.

"This is a completely irrational and unnecessary discussion." The smaller one added, facepalming as much as the hood would allow him to.

"Sometimes my friend and I are like this. Teasing and whatnot."

"Did you say your friend?" The shorter man addressed Ven.

"Yes."

"Does he have brown hair by chance?"

"Yeah,"

"Blue eyes?"

Ven's heart started to race, "Yes."

"Does he look like this?" The man transformed into the appearance of Sora. Ven gasped. "Is this him?"

"Yes. That's him." Ven gulped, and started to shake a bit.

"Why didn't you tell me what he looked like?" He slammed the taller figure upside the head and returned to his cloaked form.

"Why? What's wrong?" Ven asked, panicking at bit.

"I'm afraid I might have led him into a trap." The smaller form explained.

Author's note:

To clear up any confusion, here are some helpful hints.

So far there are three different figures present in this story.

Figure one: Ven's captor (often referred to as the "boss man" or "Ven's captor") Just murdered Riku.

Figure two: The man who has befriended Ventus. (He is a sucker for puppy dog eyes.) Also referred to as Ven's favorite Villian.

Figure three: Figure two's best friend. (Can transform into the appearance of other people.)

In the next chapter, the identity of Ven's favorite villain and the short cloaked figure (aka, Favorite villian's best friend) shall be revealed. I'll accept guesses until the next chapter is posted, and give you a shout out in the author's note. Because, you are incredibly awesome if you read this, let alone guess the minor figures' identity correctly.

Ven's captor guesses are still highly appreciated.

Review please. :)