Disclaimer: (Have I ever done one of these...?) I don't own Hunter X Hunter.

Enjoy!

"You're a worthless piece of trash only good for sabotaging other applicants!" Leorio grabbed the front of Tonpa's shirt, nearly lifting the shorter man off of his feet. His display of strength was rather impressive, not to mention unexpected, but Riven was too busy seething in spite to notice.

"Exactly," Tonpa smirked with a dark and smug face. While Leorio had meant those previous words as insult, the pudgy man had been flattered and taken them as a compliment. "That's what I do every year, and I plan to continue the tradition."

After Tonpa had lost the group the first match, Riven had pretty easily put together Tonpa's motives. She had suspected some sort of harmful agenda, but to actually know he just took the exam to fail others… It was insane. Riven clenched her fists in frustration. How many people had he purposely gotten failed, or killed, when they otherwise would have passed? It avoided all logic, to be so cruel senselessly. There were so many people who had dire situations, who absolutely needed to pass as soon as they could, and Tonpa thought he could just play God like that, destroying lives. What if he had caused her to fail? She had no idea how long it would take to find Senette and Rene, and she didn't know if she ever would, but waiting another entire year couldn't help her odds. If she were to ever discover that they were dead, it may very well have happened the day before she gets to them. Time was always of the essence, for everyone, even Kurapika, Leorio, and Gon.

Leorio's face revealed that he was just as disgusted as Riven. She couldn't say why she didn't stop Kurapika when he attempted to calm to doctor-in-training down, but afterwards she relented that it was for the best. Besides, the blond had just been thinking and speaking logically, so it was difficult to argue with him. Riven tried to stop steaming quietly to the side, scolding herself for acting like a kid. She had been very unlike herself, passionate, the last week.

The only reason she didn't let her maternal instinct take over and hold Gon back from going next was the appearance of the next prisoner. He was skinnier and lankier than she was, which was saying a lot, and the way he held himself did not remind her of a fighter. Riven wasn't naïve enough to believe he didn't have tricks up his sleeve, but at least physical harm to Gon was unlikely. She watched as her green-clad friend cheerily made his way to the square, seemingly excited. Sedokan, as the Prisoner was revealed to be named, greeted him innocently.

"Now then… As you can see, I'm not very strong," he confirmed, trying to gain their trust. Repeating obvious truths made the lies blend in, Riven knew. Also, by admitting his weaknesses, he was attempting to lapse Gon into a state of false confidence. Riven had read many, many books on Phycology and reverse-phycology, and Sedokan's behavior was straight out of a page. Leorio muttered something under his breath about mistrusting the lad, and Riven had to second him. He nodded at her in confidence, like they were sharing a secret from Killua and Kurapika. Apparently, the others weren't considered human enough to receive such a recognition. Riven smiled humorously at him before the serious tension returned.

Sedokan pulled two different sized candles from behind his back. Riven wondered where he had been hiding them, and hoped he had some sort of bag. Going with a 'game' that required neither mental nor physical strain, the prisoner told Gon to press 'O' for the long candle and 'X' for the short one.

But the decision did require mental strain. Quite obviously, as even Leorio understood, the long candle would have been the initial choice, so some sort of trap must had been laid.

"That would be the safe assumption," Kurapika figured, his hand at his chin as he narrowed his eyes in thought. "But that could be a trick, and he's actually tampered with the short one."

"In that case, it's the same as with the doors," Riven interjected. "Those kind of mind games are never ending. It's like a cycle."

"Guessing would be the best choice," Killua agreed, peering at Gon in curiosity. Unfortunately, the boy couldn't hear them from so far away.

"You've got a real dilemma there," Tonpa mocked them, riling Leorio up.

"You just shut up!" he snapped, although he never turned to face him. Riven had, however, and found herself glaring at him. She noted with spite how his blue palette of clothing did nothing for his figure, but she decided that saying so wouldn't really hurt his feelings. The way she had grown to almost hate him, a very strong and passionate feeling, was still unnerving to her. Before, when she had felt nearly the same sense of bitterness towards Menchi and Buhara, she hadn't recognized herself. Before the exam, she saw herself as a mellow, level-headed girl who only really had time for survival. Now she was having to literally bite her tongue so she wouldn't say something stupid.

"When presented with such clearly uneven choices," Kurapika thought aloud, "people become suspicious and hesitate in their decision. Yes, this is a real Dilemma." He crossed his arms and stared intently at the platform, absorbing the details. "What's worse, if you make the wrong choice, the resulting mental anguish would be greater than if the problem had offered two fair options."

The group's discussion (and Tonpa's antagonizing) was interrupted when the skinny Sedokan plopped down on his bottom, his face a mixture of boredom and confidence. He assured them that they could take their time, and that there was no rush. Riven gritted her teeth, perplexed.

"Hey, which should I choose?" Gon called over lightly, turning to his friends. He didn't seem too worried, which made Riven feel worse when she couldn't give him an answer. There were just too many possibilities, and too many risks, and although they technically had over seventy hours to think about it, they really couldn't afford to use very much of it. It was obvious by the nature of the task that the longer they took in coming up with an answer, the better for the prisoners. But no matter how Riven looked at the situation, she couldn't give Gon what he needed.

"Gon! You decide," Kurapika called suddenly, making Riven jump. She glanced at him, relief in her eyes. He didn't sound indecisive, which was a way the words could have been taken, he sounded confident, like it had been an answer. Kurapika smiled at her as if to say, 'don't worry', and he turned back to their secluded friend.

"Are you sure about this?" Killua spoke up after his long silence. He was nonchalant, however, and didn't seem too concerned about it either. "He never thinks anything through."

Kurapika didn't argue. "Instead of wasting time by fretting over it, let's rely on Gon's instinct."

Gon chose to go with the long one, so Riven selected 'O' on her watch without hesitation. After he received the chosen candle, Gon lit it on the center torch and walked to stand opposite Sedokan. The prisoner copied, and the waiting began.

She nearly hugged Gon when he had won by blowing Sedokan's candle out. Instead, she just gave him a high-five and a smile when he returned to their side. Not only had he managed to win without using too much time, but he had put them at even lengths with the enemy. Now that they were tied, the moral was higher. Winning three more times didn't seem impossible. The five prisoners had regrouped as well. They seemed to be discussing who was going out next, but Riven knew they were just stalling. They couldn't not send someone out, since that wouldn't have been fair. They had probably already known what order they would go in, and they were just being meticulous over each minute.

It was an average heighted man who centered himself on the Platform next.

Riven felt light headed when he pulled his cloak off. She hadn't noticed, but she gasped and swayed on her feet as well. She felt as if her stomach had been punched, and bile rose in the back of her throat.

It wasn't quite a man who presented himself, confidentially, but more of boy. His face was young, and his skin was tan, flecked with freckles. His dull brown hair tickled his ears, and his similar eyes smiled at her sadistically, as did his mouth. He was familiar, someone she knew.

She recognized him…

There were hundreds of kids that went through Diana's Orphanage…

Where else would she have met anybody? Without really thinking things through, Riven made a spilt second decision, the only thing on her mind being her little sister, and clues to locating them.

"I'm going next."

"What?!" Leorio cried, turning on her. Riven couldn't look at him, so she closed her eyes and approached the edge of their ledge. The retractable pathway seemed impossibly slow-moving, and she wished she could just jump to the platform. "No way, Riven, that guy will tear you to pieces!"

"He's not that big. I'm going."

"Riven!"

"Are you sure?" Kurapika looked at her levelly. She hid her gulp and her unsteady hands, looked him right back in the eyes, and nodded. "Good luck," he wished her.

"Kurapika?! You can't be serious!" Leorio adamantly argued. Riven knew he was just worried, but he didn't realize how frightened his doubts made her. He was stomping on what confidence she had, affirming her insecuries. "Don't let her go out there! What if she gets killed?" Leorio's questions went unanswered.

Riven wiggled her toes in her boots, double-checking for her dagger. Its presence always made her body remember the burning sting in her wrist, currently covered by the velvet band, but she loved the thing. Knives had been impossible to buy, since they were so rare expensive. She would have died from hunger if she hadn't received it that day in the meadow. Karasu, who had fallen asleep from waiting so long, stirred against her again. He knew something was going to happen, and she prayed that he would just stay still until she needed him.

"Good luck!" Gon cheered for her, never missing a beat. She gave him a shaky smile, nodding back to a casual Killua, who seemed disinterested. Tonpa was silent, his face impassive as he leaned against the wall. The pathway was finally connected, so she made her way down, the combination of her heavy nerves and light-headedness making her sway dangerously close to the edge. She seemed to be the only one who noticed, so it was probably in her head.

She stopped on the square platform, hearing the humming and rattling of the path retracting behind her. She steeled herself and faced the prisoner, her blue eyes even and no longer afraid. She didn't say a word, but her expecting silence let the man know he could start. He smirked at her, his hands on his hips in a casual and condescending way.

"Hey there," he greeted, grinning widely. His teeth were white and contrasting against his tan skin. He chuckled heartily as Riven tensed and crouched slightly into a defensive crouch. "Wow there, hang on for a minute," he held his hands up in surrender, pausing, and then laughing hysterically. "Sorry, sorry, that was a pun, though of course you wouldn't know that yet."

Riven frowned and found herself inching back. His stare was intensive, especially when it was on only her.

"See, I'm a fan of games; bored games, kid games, the likes. One of my favorite games happens to be hangman…" His grin turned up in brightness. "For our match, how about a game of that?" He pulled two pre-tied ropes from his pocket, much like how Sedokan had his candles. Riven wondered again if he had a bag or he kept everything in his boxers. Her humor ran dry when she saw what kind of knots were in the ropes. He had two separate nooses in his hand.

"Hangman?" Riven echoed, asking him to elaborate with narrowed eyes.

"Yep." He loosened one of the nooses and adjusted it around his neck, his smile never leaving. "You and I answer questions, and every time someone answers incorrectly, the rope will get a little tighter, until one of us is hanged."

He tossed the noose at her feet, so she crouched to pick it up, never looking away from him, watching.

"Alright," she managed to accept coolly, a feat in itself. A mechanical whirring sound mad her jerk her head up; from about ten meters above them, above the doorways that each party stood in, metal bars emerged from recently hidden wholes. Riven shouldn't have been surprised, but the extent of the examiner's preparedness was ridiculous. It just went to show the large funds of the Hunter Association. She wondered if the boy before her had actually been the one to come up with this match… Now that she thought about it, Lippo was probably too busy to concern himself with this, so the boy had to of. That was a little disturbing, and it made Riven question his mental state and capacity. A genius lunatic was deadly, homicidal even.

When the bars were so far out that they were nearly directly above the middle platform, the mechanical workings stopped with a click, only to start back up again when a metal Carabine clip coiled down from a metal wire. It was lowered so quickly that it nearly hit her in the back of the head, but Riven caught it and stilled its swaying. The noose that the prisoner had another Carabine clip at the un-knotted end, so Riven attached the two. Reluctantly, she loosened the noose so she could fit it over her head.

Now with a rough rope around her neck, Riven turned to the examiner, wondering what to do next. He had copied her, or rather, she had copied him, and he stood to face her in the same smug demeanor. She averted her eyes, analyzing the contraption above her head. That was when she noticed that the metal bars didn't quite make it all the way out to the center square. She hadn't noticed because the rope and wire had been so slack. This shortened their room for mistakes, because every time they got an answer wrong, the rope tightened. Instead of having to answer enough to pull you straight up, the rope would pull out, and then you would lose room on the platform. The second she couldn't stand on it, the moment she feel off the side, she would be hanged. She found the courage to turn to the prisoner, who walked as close to the center as he could with the rope restricting him. He grinned at her.

"Did I mention my name?" Riven shook her head, not trusting her voice. She didn't really want to know his name, in case she ended up killing him, or vice versa, but admitting that seemed like he was beating her in something. Resolve? Nerves? Bravery?

"It's Treno," he told her, bowing in mockery, the noose around his neck tightening. He didn't seem to notice. "Treno, the Game Maker." He righted his back, insane chuckles escaping his lips.

"By the way… My other favorite game is 'Twenty Questions'."

I know I've been sticking to the show pretty closely, but hopely this is where is finally takes off and flies away, although not entirely right away. Thanks to all who read.

~Mao