After getting the location from Leon, Riku quickly makes his way out of the city and into the canyons beyond. He's mad at Sora, but he's probably not going to yell at him when he eventually finds him.
He'll be too happy to see the goofy brunet. He calls out the brunet's name, but he doesn't get a response. He's brought to alertness by the sound of blades clashing. It doesn't sound too far, so Riku charges forward towards the sound.
Light explodes from ahead and he runs around a ridge of canyon right as it's dying down.
Someone is diving at Sora so Riku doesn't think, he just yells, "Sora, look out!" and dives forward to try and intersect the assailant.
He doesn't make it, but Sora is smart enough to dive back and to the side at his call and Riku manages to send the assailant back a few feet.
The man, though vaguely familiar, is unknown to him but he knows the man in front of him hadn't backed off because of Riku. He'd chosen to.
Sora lets out a startled gasp in what sounds like pain and Riku turns to look at him. Sora is on one knee with a sword sticking partially out of his chest.
"Sora!"
"Focus! He's more important! I'm fine! He missed." Sora's breathing heavily, but other than that it looks like he'll be okay; he's surprisingly not bleeding.
Riku looks back to the offender, sensing a familiar feeling from him, but Riku knows he's never seen this man before. He glances back to Sora and zeroes in on the blade sticking out from his chest and tenses. It was the Keyblade Ansem had gotten Sora to use in order to free the princesses hearts. But how did this guy have it?
Riku focuses on him again and gets into his normal defensive stance.
"Oh, Riku. So glad you could join our little soiree."
"How do you know my name? Why are you attacking Sora?"
"It's Xehanort." Sora gasps behind him obviously not as okay as he'd said he'd been.
Riku takes a few steps to the side, situating himself more directly between Sora and 'Xehanort'. That could explain the familiar feeling he was getting. That would also explain the silver hair and golden eyes he hadn't paid attention to before.
"Oh good, we don't have to go through this again."
"Leave. Now. Or I'll force you to."
The man in front of him laughs, "How do you plan on doing that?"
"You have no weapon. I'm thinking that puts me at an advantage."
Xehanort just raises one eyebrow before falling into a stance similar to Riku's and summoning another Keyblade into his hands.
Well, shit, he thinks to himself.
Before he can rethink his plan, Xehanort is charging towards him and it takes everything Riku has to not let him past. It's a relentless assault and Riku barely has time to get his body in position to block an attack before it hits.
Eventually, he knows he'll give in because his body can't compete with the strength the man in front of him is presenting.
Another lunge and Riku dodges to the side. He tries to get his own hit in, but Xehanort is dancing away and attacking with a diagonal slash that numbs Riku's arms when he blocks it.
He gasps for breath as Xehanort dances away again and instead of charging at Riku again, he stands there looking smug. Riku tries to figure out what has him looking so smug, but he hadn't beaten Riku yet – though it was just a matter of time at this point – and he's missed whatever he'd been trying to unlock from Sora's heart. Unlike last time, Sora wasn't willingly going to –
Unless he was.
"I'll return to collect my reward soon." He backs away, into a portal of darkness, looking victorious.
Riku whirls around to see a small flash of light and his stomach drops. Sora, who had at one point stood from his wounded position on one knee, is surrounded by tendrils of light.
The light is emerging from his chest and there is a large round light in his hands that Riku knows is a heart. Riku rushes forward, dropping his Keyblade and not caring where it falls. Sora's body tilts back – there's nothing keeping him upright anymore – and the heart flies up, out of sight.
Riku catches Sora right as he's about to hit the ground and he's unsure if he should be grateful that Sora is still solid – instead of how he'd disappeared the last time – or not.
"Sora! Sora, look at me! Sora, please!" But Sora's eyes are lifeless and dull, like Kairi's had been those months he'd spent as Maleficents' errand boy.
"No, no, no. Sora please." He feels the familiar sting behind his eyes but he doesn't care as he shakes Sora lightly.
"Sora, come back, please." His voice cracks, "I can't do this without you."
After the initial anomaly the computer had sensed, another came up. This one the computer knew to recognize as the pathways of Darkness. The worrying part was that the area it had been in was around the area Riku was headed to.
Leon, with Cloud by his side, quickly rushed off to help. They'd been expecting to find another hooded figure and offer any help they could. They weren't expecting to find Riku curled up around Sora's limp body. The brunet's eyes stare off into the distance, lifeless and the only sound around them are the tiny, broken sobs coming from the silver haired boy.
Leon quickly walks over and kneels beside Riku, asking what happened. The silver haired boy doesn't respond, doesn't even act as if he's registered the question. He's about to press the question, maybe get Riku to a safer place, but Cloud stops him with a hand on his shoulder and a shake of his head.
Instead of forcing Riku to focus on him or the situation, Leon closes Sora's eyes. For Riku as much as himself; Sora's eyes should never be that dead.
He stands and lets Cloud lead him back and the two of them discuss what they should do about Riku, Sora, and the unconscious blond lying on the floor by the far wall. They're interrupted by a small groan.
Leon whirls around and he zeroes in on Sora, but he hasn't moved aside from the slight shift Riku makes every so often. That leaves the blond not far from them.
The boy is awake and sitting up, looking around in confusion.
Ven opens his eyes before quickly shutting them again. The light stings and it brings tears to his sensitive eyes. He blinks, trying to rid the stars from his vision, and pushes his body up from the awkward lying position it had been in.
He immediately wishes he hadn't as he feels dizzy right away. When he can finally see around him, he's surprised to find people he doesn't know in front of him.
He takes in the situation and is immediately worried. Off on the other side of the clearing he'd somehow gotten himself into, there is a slightly surprised looking pair. But that's not what worries him; there's a silver haired boy cradling a brunet in his arms and crying not that far from him.
It's not the crying you'd do if you were hurt or if you were upset. It's the kind of crying that happens when you've been broken inside. The blonde doesn't know how he knows that, but he does. He knows that the silver haired boy – man? Teen? It was hard to tell from this angle – wouldn't be crying unless it was drastic or devastating or even some mixture of both.
Ventus tries to sit up, but his body feels weak and he falls back down before he can get anywhere resembling standing. The blonde knows he should be worried when the two older men in the clearing make their way towards him, but all he feels is a sense of safety and trust.
"Are you alright?" The taller blond asks him, kneeling beside Ven.
"I think so, I'm just…I feel really weak."
The brunet grabs his arm and hauls him to his feet before nodding to the man next to him. Nodding back, the blond makes his way over to the silver haired teen. Ventus is forced to quickly hobble over to the three men.
"Riku, get up, we have to get out of here before Heartless start swarming. We've been here too long."
Ven gets the feeling that the blond doesn't talk much and he wonders briefly what a 'Heartless' is. He doesn't ask, though, as another feeling of weakness washes over him.
The brunet holding him up glances at him before glaring down at the man on the floor. The scar makes him rather intimidating, but no more than that creep Braig had been. That line of thought traces back to his friends. Where were they? They'd been fighting in the Graveyard when Vanitas had –
A dark feeling washes over him and he looks over to find shadows morphing into solid beings across the clearing. Glowing yellow eyes stare at him, lifeless and cold, as the little Unversed-esque monster shuffles for a bit as more form up behind him.
"What are those?!" Ven asks, slightly worried that Vanitas is still creating the Unversed.
Had he failed? Had Terra and Aqua failed?
The tall blond curses and Ventus looks down to where he is, kneeling beside the silver haired boy. He's shocked to find teal eyes glaring up at him with murderous intent. What had he done to this man?
"Riku, we need to leave." The silver haired man, Riku, doesn't move from his spot.
"Do you want to run the risk of Sora being carted off to the Darkness because of you?"
That murderous stare is directed to the blond man before the silver haired man stands with the sleeping brunet still in his arms. He barely has time to register the brunet tugging him along before the five – four? – of them are hustling along through a canyon he's never seen before.
The pace, while faster than a casual walk, should be no problem for Ventus. He knows that, but apparently his body hadn't gotten the memo. He's winded, dizzy, and he feels like he's about to throw up.
That dark feeling reappears behind him, so he looks. Those shadows are gathering again and trailing after them, as if they're testing how close they can get to their little group.
Ven wouldn't guess very close, judging by the large sword the blond leading them has strapped to his back. He turns his head back around, only he must have done it too fast or maybe their pace finally catches up to his fatigued body, and he's falling to the floor.
He blacks out before he can even make it all the way down .