Part Three

"Foolish boy. Have you not learned anything?" the man exclaimed with a smirk, but Riku had yet to hear.

He only kept his concentration on the Heartless, looming ever closer to his being. He gritted his teeth, gripping the handles of the blades tighter as they approached. His patience was wearing thin, the Heartless seeming to play a game with his mind. He looked behind him, seeing that he was completely surrounded. He almost grinned to it, finding it humorous that they would do this. He thought of it almost as a standoff, putting his blades to his sides and shutting his eyes.

With the thunder bellowing overhead, it took a moments notice when all had gone quite to him. "Draw..."

He opened his eyes, slicing towards the nearest Heartless. With this, it seemed to trigger them, lunging for him. But it was inevitable. There were about thirty of them, but, technically speaking, there were two of him, leaving them with no chance. Though it did take a while for him to finish them all off, he managed, looking up to the man who still stood, his arms outstretched to the sky. Riku, leaping through the flames which still burned brightly, made his way to the stairwell, climbing to the top as fast as he could. When he finally came to the last door, he threw it open, stepping out.

But what he found struck him cold, and what he saw as the man turn froze him to the core.

A dark, most evil essence flowed in the sky, forming a vortex. A substance, like black mist, swirled from the feet of the man. He turned slowly with hearing the door, revealing his face...and his eyes, which glowed a violent red.

He looked...exactly like Riku, or at least when he was younger. But he was taller, his outfit much different. His hair, though, gave it away that it was almost as if he copied, silver with a ragged cut. But he only smirk, and laughed, as he saw Riku's fear.

"You managed to escape, and yet...you, as the others which have come before you, understand absolutely nothing." He shrugged. "And it seems that my daughter escaped as well. No matter, for her power is much too weak to deal with the powers I shall release onto this world."

With it, he looked up, his very existence flowing away into the vortex with the mist. As he was gone, however, was when everything else started to go. The cement roof began to crack, the very door he had opened, soon enough, ripping off it's hinges and flying up into it. He tried to keep his balance, but his shoes have no traction to the ground breaking up under his feet. His last and final moment on the ground was spent thinking of what would happen next, until his feet finally gave way and he was sent flying up into the air...

Suddenly, he felt himself stop, staring up into the sky as he was slowly dragged back to the earth. He could no see why, but was only glad he wasn't going any farther. Something was latched onto his coat, Riku finding himself being set of the ground and quickly pulled to the edge. He about shouted in fear as he saw himself dive off the edge, but only swallowed his stomach now latched in his throat as he swung up to the opposing building. He stopped for a brief moment before he swung to the other, and then the other, soon reaching so far away he could not see the light in the sky. But he did continue to notice the pulling towards that direction, though was thrown into a door, the wind stopping to make way for darkness.

A light was suddenly lit, and Riku sat up, seeing the figure which now stood before him. It was almost as frightening as the man from before, but not as quite evil as someone would perceive at first. This man, his face wrapped in a collar of blood-red material that lead to a holey cape, wore armor with a pair of black pants. His hair was a matted black, his eyes in the same color, with a pair of armored, knee-high boots. What struck Riku with fear was none of this, but the gold clawed hand which held the lamp now lighting the room.

"W-who are you?" Riku question, standing up.

With the numbness in his ears, he could still hear the dull tone of the man's voice. Barely, but still enough to understand. "The question is," the man shot back, his voice deep, dark, and cold, "who are you and what were you doing there?"

"My name is Riku and I-"

"You..." the man interrupted, narrowing his eyes. "Maybe I should have just let you gone up into the vortex."

"You've heard of me?" Riku questioned.

"Who hasn't?" the man stated, going over and sitting in a dust old chair. "Everyone knows you. You were the host to that Ansem fellow, were you not?"

"Uh, yes, I was," he proclaimed, his voice edgy as he found a chair across the room to sit in. "Why?"

"Why?" the man laughed. "If it hadn't been for you, Ansem wouldn't have escaped his tomb, and in doing so, wouldn't have released his Heartless."

"Hey, that was a long time ago!"

"Five years, three months, two weeks, and four days," the man said, taking Riku by shock that he knew that much. "But don't be so surprise. When you have your whole life in solitude, you notice such things."

"Who are you?" Riku repeated for the final time.

"My name is Vincent. I live here. And you still haven't answered my question as to why you were up there."

"I was asked to defeat him, but unfortunately it didn't happen."

"Your fears got the best of you."

"Well, you can't blame me! Anyone would've frozen up there."

"I can blame you all I like," he stated angrily. "First off, being the host of the one who were meant to destroy, you're lucky I didn't know who you were before I saved you. Second, I know who you are associated with, and that's just another reason I saved your sorry ass. You're weak, thus you should've died. Need I say more?"

Riku remained quiet in calm anger, but new he was right. He was weak, and he shouldn't have been up there in the first place. Why Jeria gave him those Keyblades was beyond even him, and he still couldn't understand why she had saved him. He was lucky that guy was there, for at least now he had a chance to ask.

"Well, thanks anyway," Riku said.

"Don't mention it, kid. Just stay out of the way next time."

As Vincent got up and walked out of the room, Riku was left to thought. What did he mean by stay out of the way? Out of the way of evil, or out of his way? Was he there to fight Ansem, but only had a kid get in his way by warding Ansem off into the vortex? Well, no big deal. All that was left was to wait to see what happened next, what tomorrow would bring.

Vincent climbed up to the belfry and out the single window, flipping up to the roof. He crouched there, watching the destruction as it took place. Dark streaks of purple light struck randomly among the city, and it made him wonder what life they would have left at the end of it all...

***

The next morning, Riku rose with the morning sunlight...or at least, that's what he thought at first. Instead, it was the lamp again, set close to his face to walk him up. Vincent grabbed his shoulder and threw him out of his chair when he saw him turn his head to get out of it, making Riku cough up the dust which he had inhaled by the surprise of the hard hit to the floor.

"Get up. We're going."

"What? Where?"

"Just get moving. That is, unless you want to be left to a thousand Heartless tearing at you to devour your soul."

Riku got what he was saying, standing up and dusting himself off. Vincent opened the door to lead, Riku following. They sky was now ash, dark, and the sounds which had plagued the city were now dead. The place was like a wasteland, buildings devastated, the cement cracked and thrown everywhere, cars flipped over and even crashed into those buildings. But, like a bad nightmare, there was no one in sight. Nothing, no one, and the only things moving were them and maybe a few pieces of paper left.

As they walked, he was relieved to know that they were heading away from the place of origin. He recognized these streets from earlier, however, and soon knew where they were going. When they arrived, Riku ran to the door, blocked by rubble and unbarring it. When he had and was about to open the door, Vincent tried to warn him.

"Wait, that's not such a good-" But Riku opened it anyway.

He frozen, seeing the buster sword, magic staff, and hands charged with energy pointed at him. There was a sigh and a growl of relief that it was just him.

"Oh, it's just you," Cloud said, shaking his head and lowering the sword.

"Riku! Are you all right? We thought you were dead!" Jeria stated, lowering her hands and walking over to him.

"Well, I'm still alive," he said.

The three of them stepped outside, seeing the destruction around. Frankly they weren't surprised, but two of them were by the man which stood there then.

"Vincent," Cloud stated. "What are you doing here?"

"Returning your new Keybarer," he said, eyeing Riku coldly as Jeria gave him another pill to hear straight.

"You saved him from Ansem?" Aerith questioned.

He nodded. "Unfortunately he was there to get in my way."

"You know who he is then?" Cloud inquired.

"Yes, but if he truly does have the power to control a keyblade," he shrugged. "Let that be the border line between Ansem and the rest of us."

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A/N I know, shorter than the last one, but sets out a good point. Well, that's all for now, so please review to tell me what you think!