Hello! First of all, I can't thank you guys enough for all the amazing reviews~! I love you guys, you're such great readers!

Disclaimer:

I don't own Hunter X Hunter, yadayadayada. If I did, half the male population would for some reason find all of their shirts missing, yadayadayada.

(Seriously, I just watched episode 108, and I totally squealed aloud when Killua was stretching topless. The nosebleeds!)

Enjoy!

Twenty questions?

Treno's laughing shook Riven to her very core, making her shiver. It also made Karasu jerk, and she took a step closer to the middle of the platform to hide it. Unfortunately, that was the opposite of where she wanted to run.

"Of course, if we played by the rules I learned, there would only be one final answer, and only one thing you can get wrong. Let's change it up a bit; we come up with ten questions each, real thinkers, and whoever trips up, gets choked up." Treno laughed at his own joke again. While it was cheesy, it was also unnerving, and it made her question his level of sanity for the hundredth time. So, instead of using twenty questions as clues to the identity of a secret word, they would ask ten questions that called for a difficult answer. Riven's neck grew more and more uncomfortable as each second passed. She checked to make sure it wasn't gradually tightened as they stood there, as she could have sworn that it was. It was just in her head, she knew that, but the constant reminder that her neck was on the line…

'Oh no,' Riven thought, 'my puns are just as bad as his.'

She tried to steady her gaze, and prayed she didn't appear as nervous as she felt. She felt like they were in a western stand-off, something she'd come across multiple time in western romances (hey, she couldn't always read non-fiction). The atmosphere was tense even with hysterics from the prisoner.

"What are the nature of the questions?" Riven asked, speaking-up for one of the first times. Treno swept his hair back, his wide eyes crinkling in the corners.

"You can ask anything. Even my name." He broke into laughter again, and it was like it had never stopped in the first place. "In fact, I think that might be my first question!" He looked straight at her, like he foresaw her death. "What's your name?"

Of course, he was joking, again.

Riven was extremely confused at his antics. Leorio had been shouting her name to the top of hills, and there was no doubt he had heard. Was he trying to shake her up, make her believe that he had an ace up his sleeve? Was he going to try and catch her off guard by giving her easy questions, and then suddenly switching to hard ones?

"But to answer your question for real," he added, "you can't ask a question you don't know the answer to yourself, and you can't ask anything that only you would know."

Riven nodded, understanding. She couldn't ask him how many hairs were on her head, and he couldn't ask her what his favorite color was. It had to be some sort of knowledge that anyone could come across. She began to brainstorm animal facts, then information about the planet, trying to think of a good one.

"What happens if neither of us answers any questions wrong?" Riven asked. Treno placed his hand on his chin, humming while he thought.

"I suppose we'd just have to fight. I'll go first, then." he grinned.

"Wait," Riven gasped at the last second. Treno leaned forward and cupped his ear with his hand.

"Yes?"

"I want to set a time limit on how long we can take to answer," Riven demanded, finding confidence in her voice that she didn't know she had.

"Very well," Treno nodded. Immediately, as if it had been set up before hand, the monitor on the platform flicked on, ten minutes on its screen. Riven sighed in relief. She had just barely avoided walking into a trap.

"I see," Kurapika noted to no one in particular. "Without a time limit, all he would have to do is waste all of our time by withholding his answer. His sentence would be drastically reduced."

"But now Riven will be rushed to answer," Leorio exclaimed, frustrated. He seemed to be on edge after watching their companion adjust a noose around her throat. "What if she just answers the questions wrong because she didn't have enough time to think?"

"At least now she actually has a chance to get them right," Killua yawned, disinterested. "If there were no time limit, that prisoner wouldn't have given her another turn."

"Her chances are better this way," Kurapika nodded.

"You can do it, Riven!" Gon cheered, throwing his fist up in the air.

"When one does not know what it is, then it is something; but when one knows what it is, then it is nothing. What is it?"

Riven's mouthed dropped open.

"A riddle?" she exclaimed. She felt silly for not realizing how well they fit the criteria. She would have used more time to come up with more of her own. Riddles were usually things that couldn't be guessed unless you already knew the answer, making them perfect questions for such a match. Treno chuckled at her reaction, nothing new. Riven closed her eyes and thought back to the words he had just recited, but his laughter did not cease. It only grew until tears trickled down his cheeks. The atmosphere was so thick that it could have been cut with a knife.

"That was so worth the loss!" he cried, holding his sides. "Yes, you are correct." Riven tensed to the point where her muscles hurt.

"What?" She couldn't believe her ears. She hadn't even guessed yet. Perhaps Treno had been hearing things, since he already seemed to be insane, so it wasn't much of a stretch.

"When one does not know what it is, then it is something; but when one knows what it is, then it is nothing. What is it? A riddle!" Treno broke back into hysterics. Riven wouldn't lie, it was intimidating. She didn't find it funny at all. He had just wasted one of his questions. He must have some sort of trick up his sleeve, but what...?

Perhaps he had been betting on her not saying that word aloud? Sometimes a riddle's charm was it's obvious answer. But why would he accept what she'd said as a response? He could've pulled a 'that's not finalized' card, and she would have never of gotten the answer. Riven gritted her teeth. He must have been trying to play some sort of mind game, but she couldn't tell what kind. She glanced at the clock; only two seconds had been counted off before it was reset. Treno was messing with her head to further and further degrees every passing moment.

"My turn," Riven did her best to shrug the prisoner off. She racked her brain in one final attempt to reassure herself. Again, most riddles were impossible to answer if you didn't know it already, so all she had to do was think of one Treno could have never heard of before. It seemed easy, but he had been the one to set the terms, so it wouldn't surprise her if he already had a slew of good ones. Unfortunately, she had never read a book on just plain riddles.

Riven took a minute to think of a really difficult one. Yes, Treno's goal as a convicted prisoner would have been to stall for time, but Riven calculated that ending the entire match in as little questions as possible trumped spewing out quick questions. She felt Treno's smirk even with her eyes closed.

"I am pronounced as one letter, and written with three, two letters there are, and two only in me. I'm double, I'm single, I'm black, blue, and gray, I'm read from both ends, and the same either way. What am I?"

Riven opened her eyes with confidence. Yes, that was one Treno definitely couldn't get unless...

"Hmmm..." he laughed.

Riven looked at the gleam in his eye and scowled.

He knew it, she could tell, but he was stalling for time. He was going to wait until the last second to answer.

She used her time coming up with a plethora of others she could use, ordering them in her in which she would use them. When she had five for sure, she noticed that only twenty seconds were left on the clock. The atmosphere in the room rose even more, if it was possible, until only five seconds remained.

"It is an eye," Treno told her coolly. She nodded, not surprised that he had gotten the answer correct. The Prisoner seemed to have calmed down quite a bit during the wait, and he was no longer laughing in hysterics. "This is my second question:What is the only question you can't answer 'yes' to, when it is true?"

Riven tried to hide her desperate confusion. She had never heard this one before, and she wasn't sure whether the answer was obvious and literal or not. Her head pounded for eight minutes before she found enough confidence to answer.

"The question you are looking for is, 'Are you dead?'"

She could have taken it too literal, but either way, the answer was true. You couldn't tell someone you were dead, if you really were.

Again Treno laughed and moved onto the next question, proving that Riven had been right. She had no time to celebrate, however, because she had to give her next riddle as soon as possible.

"What is found at the beginning of the end, and the end of time, but nowhere in tomorrow?" Riven recited. She prayed that the curious gleam in Treno's eye meant that he didn't know. She squeezed her hands in nervousness. In order to make the question more difficult, she had intentionally left a clue out; 'The middle of Yesterday'. The answer she was looking for was 'E', which took a very, very, literal approach.

Riven felt how sweaty her hands were. To her utter despair, Treno began grinning at the five minute mark. He must have figured it out. She closed her eyes and prepared herself for more questions. The rope around her neck grew increasingly heavier. She looked up again when five seconds remained. But Treno didn't say a word, not even when the clock ticked to zero. Riven gasped as his impressed grin was wiped off of face for several seconds when his entire body was jerked back by his neck. The pulley system of the rope spun and whirred before coming to an abrupt stop. Riven swelled with hope, and she began to think that maybe she could actually outsmart this maniac. Treno recovered quickly and let out a howling laugh.

"Good one," he praised. "My turn. I am more powerful than God and more evil than the Devil. The poor have me, and the rich need me. If you eat me you will die. What am I?"

Riven immediately felt her heart stop. She had no clue how to answer that. What in the world could the poor have that the rich did not? And what is there in the entire world that was more evil than the devil? She should be able to whip a response up right away, but instead the ten minutes flew by more quickly than they ever had. She reasoned that she should at least throw out something and increase her chances of success, but that proved more difficult than it seemed; She didn't even have a guess.

The clock hit zero. For several seconds, her vision went completely white. Some sort of gaggle was forced from her lips and her center of gravity did flips. When the white disappeared, Riven was several feet away from where she had been standing not seconds before, and her body was racked with coughs. Her throat burned and her eyes watered, but she miraculously stayed standing. Treno cackled the entire time.

"The answer was 'nothing', by the way," he teased.

"Riven!" Lerio called from the sidelines. "What the hell are you doing out there!? Geez!"

While he wasn't helping her cause or making her feel better, Riven knew that he was trying to show concern. At least he was on her side. She glanced up at the prisoner again with pure determination. There was no way she would mess this up. She couldn't.

Rene and Sennette flashed in the back of her mind, but then Riven realized that they were just an after thought. The reason she wanted to win so badly wasn't to get her Hunter License and find her sisters. She just wanted to see herself on the same level as Gon and Kurapika, and even Leorio. Even Tonpa. She was a terrible sister. But at that moment, she really didn't care.

Treno's laughing paused just long enough for Riven to ask her riddle. She took a deep breath; There were only eight more rounds.

Riven gasped for breath. It had been ten whole minutes since had last messed up, but it was getting harder and harder to recover. To make up for the distance that would have been lost with the riddles they had gotten correct, the rope dragged them longer and farther each time. Her neck was back and blue from the bruising and her legs shook from the lack of oxygen. Long lasting damage had surely been done. Her feet were right at the edge or the platform, a fact she tried to ignore.

The current record was 4-5. Riven had just asked her ninth. She was just behind by one, but she had also had five wrong answers.

Treno seemed to be having more trouble with this last question than he would have liked to admit. His mood had grown increasingly darker as the time passed, and his laughing grew more malevolent, albeit less frequent. The time ran on, eventually ran out, and Treno was dragged by his neck. He gagged loudly, and the other prisoners chuckled.

"Who would have thought he found someone who gives him trouble. Treno is so use to clean sweeps that he never felt the pain he inflicted on others," the small and skinny man Gon had defeated mused. Treno glared at him. Riven was surprised to see him so frustrated, a side she hadn't thought he possessed. He was even more unnerving than when he was laughing, something she never thought she'd admit. Now he was angry, and she wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Would he step up his or game or would he lose his head?

"I guess this is my last riddle... What always runs but never walks, often murmurs but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, and has a mouth but never eats?"

Riven gasped in shock. She couldn't believe it.

She knew this one.

"A river," she smirked, something very uncharacteristic of her. Treno growled at her, and then quickly turned around to the prisoners behind him. The three most talkative had been laughing like maniacs. Gon, Kurapika, Leorio, and even Killua congratulated her, some more then others. Riven felt so much closer to hope. Now she needed a question that would trump him, and then she could focus on a battle; All of which was easier said than done. She racked her brain. She had riddles to spare, but none of them were good enough. She needed something totally new...

'Something we both could know...And doesn't have to be a riddle...' she reminded herself. She knew what to ask, now she just needed to figure out the answer for herself. She needed to use her memory, and maybe some math...

She had never counted how many children had been gathered by the witches that night many years ago. There seemed to be too many. Counting now seemed crazy, was crazy, but her strange mind had already made an estimation when they had first arrived.

She could remember all the kids who came and went while she was at the orphanage, when she watched them in her perch by the window. She remembered the people, like how she recognized Treno's face. Now that she thought about it, there was no doubt he had been there the night of the fire. She had thought he was dead. She could recall the children's faces. She just had to count them.

Or did she? If he answered wrong, he wouldn't know whether she gave him a fake answer or not. Still, a nagging voice made her think that she should have the real answer no matter what. She counted them from her memory, and she made sure that she didn't miss or add a single one.

"What's the hold up?" Treno questioned, still aggravated. Riven tuned him out and double checked her numbers. Then she took a deep breath for the hundredth time in the last two and a half hours.

"The night that Diana's orphanage was massacred..." She began. Treno's eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly, but he said nothing. "How many children were there?"

She was met with silence, and she hoped it would stay that way for more than 10 minutes.

I'm sorry that it took so long to finish this. Hopefully ch 12 will come out sooner. Of course, I can't thank the people who helped me with the riddles. You rock, seriously! This chapter would've taken as long as chapter 7 if it weren't for you guys!

Cookie Cha

Puggle-Rock

DreameroftheRealm

Marygoround

Arrow-chan3

Universal808

Briar

Several Guests

-Mao