Ch. 2 It's not you

Yuri trained until nightfall then started walking around Twilight Town. She had yet to see Sora, and she started to wonder if she would ever find Riku. As Yuri headed back to the house she caught sight of something white. "Riku?" She walked around the corner of the door and found that it wasn't Riku, but a duck and there was a tall dog next to him and next to the dog was…."SORA!" Yuri ran and jumped on him.

"Yuri?" Sora hugged her back and stared at the gang in confusion. "I saw Riku earlier today too."

"You saw Riku? I've been looking for him."

"Oh, so he's not with you?" Yuri shook her head. "Oh well, at least I know he's safe, and I was thinking I might see Kairi soon too." Yuri nodded and smiled encouragingly even though she had come to hate that name. She didn't mind Kairi, she liked Kairi quite a bit, but Riku loved Kairi and that just wasn't fair. "So how did you get here?"

"Well, my town was destroyed by the heartless, and I just kind of appeared here."

"Yeah, that's how I got here the first time too. What have you been doing?"

"Training mostly. I was gonna come looking for you after I got my strength up a bit so I wouldn't be a burden." Yuri smiled to show she was teasing herself.

"I can't imagine you would ever be a burden." Sora smiled back. "Well, whenever you want to, you can come with us. We're going to different places looking for King Mickey, Riku and Kairi."

"Who is King Mickey?" Yuri asked in confusion.

"King Mickey is our King. He told us to follow the Keyblade wherever it goes and to guide it's wielder." The duck explained.

"I'm sorry, who are you guys?" Yuri blushed at the rudeness of that question but the others didn't seem to notice the rudeness.

"I'm Donald, the King's Magician." Said the duck with pride.

"And I'm Goofy, The King's guard." Hyucked the tall dog.

"Ah."

They talked well into the night, but soon the moon started rising and Yuri was exhausted from training that day and knew she had to do something the next day. "Alright, it's bed time for me. I should be up when you guys leave. But in case I'm not, don't stay gone for too long. Good luck in finding the others and it was good to see you." Yuri gave Sora a hug before heading upstairs to her room.

Yuri sat on her balcony and looked out over the moonlit stones. "Riku……where are you?" She fell asleep on the balcony and woke up to hear Sora leaving with his two odd friends. "Bye Sora!" She waved to him from the balcony. He waved back and ran to the gate to the second district.

Yuri took a short hot shower to ease her sore muscles that were gradually getting used to her training. When she was finished she dressed in new attire of a black skirt with chains behind it and a red tank top. As she put her makeup on she saw that the sky was very dark and cloudy. "Better wear a jacket today." She went to her closet and grabbed her black jacket with chains all over it and smiled approvingly at it. Going down the stairs Yuri realized that everyone else was already up for breakfast. "Morning guys." She greeted cheerily.

Leon just sat at the table with his arms folded and his normal scowl in place. Yuri looked up then let her head drop back onto the table. Yuri giggled and walked into the kitchen to say good morning to Aerith. By the time they were done eating breakfast there was a light drizzle. Yuri didn't mind, she loved the rain, it always made a bad situation at least a little better. Leon had told her to take the day off so she spent it with Yuffie and Aerith. They went into the second district and shopped for clothing and looked at weapons. They made their way to the first district and stopped at the café for lunch where Leon met them and they talked and laughed.

Yuri spent the rest of the day walking around in the rain and she went and chatted with Merlin in his home. When Yuri was walking back to the house for dinner on the first night Cid would be home in about a month she heard something behind her. She turned to face the noise and saw a tall male figure with long silver hair. "Riku?" She was breathless.

"I'm looking for Kairi, have you seen her?" His voice was soft and dead.

"Of coarse you are. No. I haven't seen her. Where have you been?" She tried to reach out to him, but he pulled back.

"Around. Where have you been?"

"Here, waiting for you." She tried to reach out to him again.

"Why weren't you looking for any of us?"

"With no training? Die before I could even hope to find you? This is the first time you've seen me in years and you won't even look at me? This isn't like you."

"How would you know? You weren't there for all those years. I changed."

"Obviously." Riku turned and lunged at her with his own blade. "What—" Yuri blocked and swung back. "Riku, what are you doing?"

"You and Sora are in my way, I need to find Kairi."

"Well you'll never find her like this. Go find Sora, he's looking for her too. Then you can be with your precious friends again." Yuri shoved him off and ran into the house crying.

"Yuri?"

"It's not him….it's not him…..he's changing…it's not him." She ran up to her room and collapsed onto the balcony in tears. "It's not him…it can't be him." She whispered before crying herself to sleep.

What was getting into him? He had seen Yuri here and had wanted to talk to her. But when he got the chance he'd pulled away from her. He hadn't been able to tell her that he'd missed her or that he had come here looking for her. When he was talking to Yuri, Kairi seemed to be the only thing that mattered. What was Maleficent doing to him? Riku watched Yuri run onto the balcony connected to her room. She fell and cried, saying to herself that who she met wasn't the Riku she knew. But he had changed in the time that she'd been away. He'd changed even more since he had accepted the darkness.

It would be another two months before she would see him again. During that time Yuri traveled with Sora for a while. She met a man named Tarzan who was apparently raised by gorillas, she went to a wonderful place called Halloween Town and found she changed into a black dress with a witch hat. They went to a place where there was a mermaid called Arial, and an evil sea witch that they had to defeat. And she made many friends along the way. Sora was on his way to another world when Yuri finally decided it was time for her to go back to Twilight Town. When she got there not much had changed, she helped Cid with his gummis and she went shopping with Aerith and Yuffie, and she trained with Leon, and still every night she would sit out on her balcony and wonder about Riku. Was he all right? Was he back to normal? Did he find Kairi? If so, had he hurt her? Had he loved her?

It was on one of these nights when it was raining that Yuri saw a figure with long white hair wearing black clothing. "Riku?" Yuri jumped down from her balcony and went to him. "Riku?" He turned and lunged at her.

"Where is KAIRI!?" His eyes weren't the same. They were mean, angry.

"I don't know." He lunged and she blocked. They danced like that for thirty minutes, Yuri was getting tired and Riku wasn't backing down. He insisted that Yuri knew where Kairi was.

"Why are you lying to me?! You are supposed to be my friend!" His words stung and stunned her, so much so that she forgot to block. Riku's swipe cut deep into her stomach. After that, slicing her to pieces was a piece of cake. He tore up her stomach so that she hardly recognized it. Her red shirt was getting redder and was torn to pieces. All Riku had to show for their fight was a small scratch on his cheek that he hardly seemed to feel.

"Riku….Please!" Yuri sobbed. "This, what you're doing, it isn't you. Please. It's not you!" Tears streamed down her cheeks. He simply looked at her with disdain.

"You are a weakling. Always were. Not like the Princess Kairi."

"Princess Kairi?"

"That's right. And you are not worthy to talk of her. She will help open the door." Riku rushed her and forcefully sliced her stomach again, sending her flying back into a wall. "Now die in pain weakling." He kicked her in her already tender stomach then sauntered away.

"Riku…" She whispered in pain looking up into the crying sky, her own tears mingling with its. Is this really the end? Am I really going to die here like the weakling he says I am?....No….it's not my time. Not yet.

Riku had seen himself, as if looking at himself from another point of view. He'd tried to stop himself, but he couldn't stop his actions any more than he could stop the words that were produced from his mouth. He watched in horror as he sliced through Yuri's stomach again and again. Her body was bleeding profusely, her eyes were pleasing and crying but to no avail. Riku couldn't regain power over his body. What was going on? He heard himself call her a weakling. But he knew she was anything but a weakling. He didn't know anybody else that could have taken that beating and still be alive. He prayed that she would live through this. He kicked her in the gut and walked away from her dieing body. She looked up into the sky and whispered his name, crying. How he wished he could go to her and scoop her up and take her to safety, away from himself. But the only way to save her now was to do the only thing he could control, walk away. So he did. He walked away as if he didn't care when inside he was screaming at himself and trying to break free to regain control of his body.

Yuri grabbed her stomach and rolled to her side. Carefully she braced herself on the wall she had been slammed against and struggled to rise to her feet. Using the wall as support Yuri made her way to the house, but no one was in there. She carefully turned back and tried to walk down the steps but fell down them, banging her head and her stomach. Yuri tentatively used the wall again to raise herself and made her way to the door connecting the third and first districts. She knew she just had to make it to the shop where they would all surely be. Yuri made it to the stairs before she had to result to crawling. When she reached the top of the stairway Yuri righted herself and burst through the door to the shop. "Cid…help me…"