Ven follows Sora's lead and lands in one of the upper rooms of the castle through a broken roof. His new friends land with him. He stands and tries to reorient himself.
"Kairi?" Sora asks.
She closes her eyes and raises her hands as if in prayer. Before long she opens her eyes and points in a direction they can't immediately go in.
"Lead the way," Riku gently ushers her forward with a hand on her upper back.
She nods and takes the lead, guiding them through the complicated labyrinth that is Hallow Bastion's Castle. Ven has long since gotten lost. The elevators go in every direction and don't follow linear paths. Not only that, but Kairi has stopped no less than three times and turned around, deciding that they're getting too far off course.
After that long fight with the Heartless horde and the large lizard Heartless, Ven is feeling the weariness in his bones.
But he pushes that aside as Kairi stops in front of a large set of doors. She hesitates before nodding and walking forward. The doors open with a loud groan from years of neglect.
The room is just like the rest of the castle save for the black stains on the floors and walls.
He feels a sense of dread fill him as they all make their way into the room. There's no one and nothing here except for a broken computer console and a few splintered chairs.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Ven sees Kairi stiffen. He turns to her and calls her name. Sora looks over at her from the other side and looks concerned.
Then the world explodes and Ven feels the air leave his lungs in a rush. He's going through the air and he can't stop himself from colliding with the wall.
He lands with a thud and the world goes black. When it swim back, he's not sure how long he blacked out but his vision swims and his ears ring incessantly.
What happened? he asks himself.
He opens his eyes again and sees the world in front of him tilting and refocusing but never on the right thing. He tries to push himself up, but pain explodes in his chest. His vision swims harder and he feels like he wants to throw up.
He might have bruised his ribs.
"What do you want with him?!" He hears someone – Sora, he thinks – yell, but it sounds worlds away.
The response is lost on Ven. Too far away.
What happened? he asks himself again.
He can hear someone yelling. He can hear a lot of yelling, but the only thing that sounds even remotely close to him is a loud thump as someone collides into the floor right next to him. Someone follows, but Ven doesn't think it's one of his friends.
Or is it?
He tries to pick his head up, but it's too heavy. He tries to get his eyes to focus on the person in front of him. It's no use. He's going to throw up.
And just like that, a cooling wave of magic spills over him and his mind clears up remarkably.
A hand cups the side of his face and neck in a comforting way. Ven looks up and his heart skips a beat. Then the hand on his cheek moves to his throat and the grip goes from comforting to painful in no time at all.
"Ah!" He chokes out, "What are you doing!?"
It was right for all of three seconds before it all goes wrong. Or…he notices how wrong it really is. Nothing is right.
The colors, the expression, the clothes. This isn't him.
He tries to kick out at the man in front of him, but it doesn't do anything. He picks Ven up by his throat and stands. Ven can't reach the floor, he's more than a foot taller than the blond, and the minimal air he'd had left his body.
He looks around for his friends. Sora is lying limp just two feet from them and Ven doesn't think he'll be getting up any time soon.
Roxas is lying on the other side of the room with Lea by his side, freaking out. He doesn't sound like he can breathe.
Keyblade in her shaking hand, Kairi is climbing out of a hole in the wall, looking absolutely wrecked. She's covered in dust and there's blood trailing down her cheek from a cut.
He can't see Riku anywhere.
"Wh-" he chokes off. He claws at the hand around his throat.
He can't breathe. He's going to choke to death by this imposters hands.
"Let him go, Xehanort!" Kairi yells, readying her Keyblade.
Xehanort? But he's so young, Ven can't think straight. He can't breathe.
"Let him go, Xehanort!" Kairi yells, scared.
"Not now, Princess. I've no use for you at the moment." He ignores her for Ven, "But you. You're finally awake. I forgot to thank Sora for finding you. I could never do it myself. Let's see if you have what I need." He summons his Keyblade, all dark mist and terrifying.
He ignores her and she decides to use that to her advantage. She brings her Keyblade up in front of her like she'd seen Cloud do with his Buster Sword in his sparring with Leon.
Xehanort raises his Keyblade so the tip rests against Ventus' chest and she can see the fear on Ven's face. The Keyblade shines and Ven's face contorts in pain before the light blocks it out.
She makes her way down the rubble hill the wall had made and charges.
"Where is it?"
Kairi uses her Keyblade as a shield and tackles Xehanort, forcing him to lose his grip on the blond and sending him flying into the wall.
Ven lands with a thud, going almost as limp as Sora.
Xehanort stands, acting like the hit hadn't done a thing to him at all.
"You're becoming more troublesome than you're worth, Princess." He spits the title like an insult.
"You're just as annoying as ever, Xehanort." She readies her Keyblade.
Ven's hand grabs her arm and he coughs out, "Stop."
She looks down at the blond with confusion.
He looks at Xehanort with rage, "What did you do…"
Ven can barely talk but Xehanort laughs and answers, "To your friends? I didn't do anything to the...'Master'…but you can see what happened to the failure." He waves a hand around, grin looking absolutely evil.
Ven's lip curls into a snarl and Kairi feels like that must have hit a nerve.
"Since I answered your question, answer one of mine." His face goes from pleasant to annoyed, "Where is it?"
Kairi has no idea what he's talking about.
Xehanort snarls at them, "If it failed to take you over it should have at least merged back into you. Where is it?! You could not have gotten rid of it."
So many questions swirl around Kairi's head. Xehanort readies his weapon to attack them but a large fireball collides with him, knocking him back.
"Kairi! Grab Sora and run!"
Kairi doesn't think twice about following Lea's advice. She hauls up Sora's limp body and throws him over her shoulders in a Fireman's Carry. Lea leads her down the halls of Hallow Bastion's eerie castle with a certainty she doesn't question. Doesn't let herself question.
Roxas is gasping for breath in Lea's arms and Kairi fears that he might die before they can get him any help.
Lea grinds his teeth as he tries to ignore the grip Roxas has on him. His fist is bunched up in his shirt, long since giving up on grabbing at anything.
There are tears in the blonds eyes as he tries and fails to get air into his lungs.
He feels his rage roll again, but it shoves it to the back of his mind as he tries to concentrate. He leads Kairi and Ven back the way they came but he quickly finds a flaw with his plan. How were they going to make it out of here with only two gliders and two unconscious people?
If they went through with that it would either end in disaster or someone would have to stay behind.
He voices his concerns and Kairi looks like she might cry from frustration.
Roxas kicks out with one of his legs, trying to get Kairi's attention. They all watch as Roxas raises his hand and opens a Pathway of Darkness. Lea feels his chest constrict in fear – he could never forget the feeling of fear – at the thought of going through the pathway.
He can see the apprehension clear on Ven's face, but he doesn't think about it. Kairi runs in first, never for a moment fearing the consequences, and she takes the unconscious Sora with her. Ven runs in after her, looking petrified, but Lea can't tell if it's because of their run in with Xehanort or because of Roxas' Portal.
Lea runs in after them with Roxas in his arms.