Chapter 12: A Cynic Worthy of Riku

The trio walked into the Gummi Ship – Rikku floated, of course – and stopped.

"Who's driving?" Roxas asked, scratching behind his head. It was clear that he didn't want to drive. From what Riku had heard of Sora's driving, he didn't want Roxas to drive, either.

"I'll drive!" Rikku immediately offered, bouncing in the air.

"NO!"

"Aw, why not?" she pouted.

The honest answer was that Riku trusted Rikku with driving as much as he trusted Sora/Roxas (This is going to give me migraines, Riku thought). Rikku's pouting lip was properly pathetic, though, and Riku decided not to tell her this. "You're too small."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," she muttered. "Man, I hate being so small!"

That left Naminé or Riku, neither of whom had ever set foot in a Gummi Ship before. They hadn't needed to, not with the power of darkness to whisk them around the worlds and back. Naminé looked extremely uncomfortable with the idea of driving the Gummi, so Riku decided to bite the bullet.

"I'll drive. How hard can it be?" Riku said nonchalantly. "You two just settle in the back somewhere and don't let me hear you."

Roxas and Naminé didn't look convinced. They recognized Riku's ulterior motive, but he didn't care. They deserved some time together. Riku raised an eyebrow at them before turning and sinking into the driver's chair.

"We'll just be back here, then," Roxas said to Riku's back. "Call if you need some help."

"Got it."

"Hey!" Rikku squealed. "I'll come join you."

"Oh, no, you don't," grunted Riku, quickly grabbing Rikku out of the air and shoving her into the chair next to him. "Stay up here. I need some help with this."


Once Rikku had explained the buttons and levers to Riku, he found that driving the Gummi was actually rather easy. Granted, the pathways were mostly Heartless-less; things would have been more difficult if Riku had had to use the weapons. Riku found that it was quite relaxing, even with Rikku's constant insertions of, "Are we there yet?"

Truth be told, Riku wasn't sure if they were there yet, because he didn't know where they were going. When the Gummi's computer asked him for the destination, he tried to look into his heart the way Sora did. His Keyblade had glowed and emitted a shaft of light into the console. After that, the Gummi had lurched off to parts unknown.

Several hours into the trip, Rikku got bored and began playing around with the Commsphere.

"New entries!" she yelled.

"Huh?" Rikku's voice had cut into Riku's torpor.

"Oooooo, there's a new Halfhearted entry and, yikes!, Sora and Kairi were sentenced to death –"

"What?" The controls flew out of Riku's grasp as he lunged for the Commsphere. They couldn't die, not now. Not after they were finally together again on the same side. With shaking fingers, Riku began reading the article describing what had happened so far in Port Royal.

"What the hell are you doing, Riku?" Roxas yelled from the door of the cockpit. He ran forward and seized the controls, wrestling the Gummi back to a smooth course. Riku hadn't noticed the Gummi lurching about when his heart had been lurching so much more.

The article got darker as it went, disgusting Riku, but it also helped him breathe easier. Sora and Kairi didn't seem to be in too much danger from the Beckett guy, although Riku bet that they weren't too happy about being blackmailed. A smile formed on his face at the last sentence, though: Sora and Kairi are so cute! After taking a quick look at the Halfhearted entry, Riku raised his head.

"Are you going to take the controls back anytime soon?" asked Roxas irritably. Riku must have interrupted them. Sure enough, Naminé was standing in the doorway where Roxas had been before, her hair slightly rumpled.

Two pangs of guilt went through Riku's stomach; one was guilt, the other was jealousy. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, he was still jealous of Sora, and now Roxas. They both had girls that they loved and who loved them back. Riku wished he had his own girl to have a unique relationship with, a relationship that no one else could duplicate.

"Sorry," Riku muttered, relieving Roxas of the controls. "Before you go back, though, take a look at that." Riku indicated the Commsphere. A few silent moments passed as Roxas and Naminé read.

"This doesn't make sense," Naminé muttered.

"What doesn't?" asked Riku.

"We've only been in the Gummi for a matter of hours, right?" Naminé wondered. When Riku nodded, she continued, "This makes it sound like Sora, Kairi, Jiminy and Yuna have been in Port Royal for a matter of days."

Now that Riku thought about it, he realized that Naminé was completely right. "Rikku? Can you contact Yuna with the Commsphere?"

"Of course, silly!" Rikku giggled. "Commspheres have two-way viewing screens. Watch!" Rikku pressed a button on the Commsphere and it whirred for a moment, then went black. "Hey!" Smacking it once, Rikku sighed, "I guess Yunie has hers turned off."

"That's okay, we're here," Roxas said, pointing at the world that the Gummi now approached. It had many fluorescent lights and a large bell tower. "Traverse Town."

"That's right!" Naminé exclaimed. "Ansem said this was an in-between world –"

"Caught between light and dark," Riku muttered to himself. "Sounds like in-between is synonymous with twilight, which means this is our stop."


"Ooooooooo, everything's so bright!" Rikku trilled as she twittered about the First District. "Where are we going first?" she asked eagerly.

"Well, the Keyhole is in the Second District," Roxas said, "but there wasn't a problem with the Radiant Garden Keyhole, so I doubt there's a problem with this one."

Riku gave the air an experimental sniff. "There's nothing here, either. I guess that leaves the Third District."

"A lot of guys did show up there," Roxas admitted. "Donald and Goofy, then that Heartless, ...and you..."

"And Maleficent," said Riku bitterly. He stalked off toward the Third District, not caring if Roxas and Naminé followed. At the moment, he didn't want to hear talks about self-guilt. He wasn't feeling guilty, now, mostly just angry.

The heavy doors seemed like paper as Riku burst through them. Nothing immediately jumped out at Riku from the Third District, although he was reminded of chess. He took some calming breaths to master himself again. Since when did he let his anger get away from him?

Riku jumped as a hand was placed on his shoulder. Now he was letting his guard down, too. Great...

"I'm fine, just saw red for a minute," Riku said as he turned to look at Naminé's concerned face. This brought out her striking resemblance to Kairi, and Riku had to smile.

"Riku..." she admonished.

"You wouldn't understand –"

"Like hell we wouldn't," Roxas cut in. It amused Riku that Roxas's tongue was a bit looser than Sora's. "In case you've forgotten, we're not innocent like Sora and Kairi. I was in the Organization."

"And I'm the reason Sora was asleep for a year," said Naminé, more gently.

"Are you guys always so sulky?" Rikku pouted. "Are we here to save the world, or what?"

Riku laughed at the needed distraction and set off into the Third District. Closer inspection showed no more than Riku's initial glance. Then, he saw a door with a flame on the front. That was the door Sora had come out of when Riku had confronted him here.

"What's in there?" he asked Roxas.

Roxas glanced up at the door. "That's where Merlin stayed while he was here. Do you think it's worth a look?"

"Might as well," Riku said.

Through the door was a wide cavern holding a large lake. In the center was a small island with a pitiful, one-room house that looked like it had been recently remodeled before being abandoned by its latest owner. There was a section of oddly colored brick on the side that looked like a bad patch up, and the doorway facing the cavern entrance looked new.

"Boring," Rikku grumbled.

"Shh!" hissed Riku. He thought he had heard some scuffling noises.

"But, there's noth–"

Riku grabbed Rikku and put his hand over her mouth to shut her up. He'd heard the noises again, but the cavern was silent now. The silence worried Riku more than the noises, though.

Motioning the others to keep quiet, he jumped as lightly as he could onto the first of the floating stones that lead to the island. Any sound that his feet made was swallowed in the vast cavern. Riku sighed as he realized that the acoustics in the cavern were extremely poor. There was still a chance that the person he'd heard hadn't yet heard them.

Quickly, Riku jumped the rest of the stones until he stood on the small island in the middle, Roxas and Naminé soon joining him. Together, they peered into the room. A single torch spluttered on the wall next to the door, casting a wavering pool of light in the entrance. Riku strained his ears, but didn't hear anything else. Cautiously, they entered the room.

As soon as they had crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut with a muffled whumph. A second later, a loud bang echoed around the room. Sounds exploded around them; the small ripples of the lake were amplified to the point of sounding like waves crashing against a cliff.

Quickly growing nervous, Riku realized that the acoustics in the cavern weren't poor at all; the walls amplified every sound and redirected it toward the house. Whoever was here had easily heard them coming.

Naminé gasped and this small sound was bounced around the room and through the door, which didn't seem to block sound. This room acted like a small version of the cavern, amplifying sounds and redirecting them toward the cavern entrance. That's how Riku had heard the scuffling before. That's how this person could hear them now.

"What's going on?" Roxas whispered urgently.

"A trap," Riku whispered back.

"That's right," said a fifth, female voice. It echoed loudly and ominously throughout the room. As its echo died away, a low hum grew in its place, drowning out the sounds of the water. The walls began vibrating, matching the pitch of the hum. Dust flew into the air, stirred by the now violently shaking walls.

"She's going to vibrate the house down!" screamed Riku. Riku, Roxas, and Rikku huddled around Naminé, who cast Reflega over them. Bricks and mortar crashed down on them, only to slide off Naminé's spell and settle around them.

Finally, the hum stopped and the ruins of the house quit shifting dangerously, though dust still clouded the air. Naminé collapsed, utterly spent, and the boys had to grab her arms to keep her from hitting any sharp pieces of brick.

A shadowy figure – clearly female – approached through the dust, a strange looking sword in her hand. Her finger fiddled with something near the hilt, causing the sword to shorten. Riku and Roxas summoned their Keyblades.

"Don't move!" she commanded. She had a light, soprano voice that echoed clearly in the air. "Put down your weapons or I'll fry you with microwaves." The inflection in the flute-like voice was almost musical, varying in pitch in perfect intervals.

"Microwaves?" Roxas snorted. "Are you going to cook us and eat us?"

Naminé elbowed him. "She's not talking about the appliance. Microwaves are a high frequency radio wave. The appliance cooks food by emitting microwaves that heat up water molecules in the food. If we're exposed to enough microwave radiation, though, we will cook, literally."

"You understand my threat," the girl mocked. "Good for you."

Riku vaguely remembered covering microwaves in biology while talking about the electromagnetic spectrum and photosynthesis. It was doubtful that this girl could produce enough microwaves to be a serious threat, but why take the chance? He slowly placed his Keyblade on the ground in front of him, planning on summoning it back if he needed it. Reluctantly, Roxas did the same.

"Now back away," she ordered. Carefully, they clambered over the rubble towards the former back wall, Naminé leaning heavily on Roxas. The girl inched slowly forward towards the Keyblades, never taking her eyes off the group.

The dust was beginning to settle and Riku was able to get a good look at the girl. She was about average height, wearing a light blue, halter top; khaki, cargo capris; and tan, leather sandals. Blond hair brushed her neck, where it was pulled back in a low ponytail. Down, it might have been shoulder length.

Her weapon looked like a large tuning fork. There was a loop on the base of the hilt that was gripped by her pinky. Another loop at the top of the hilt was hooked by her pointer finger and was attached to a slide valve, like a trumpet. Riku guessed that this was how she changed the length of the weapon.

Her most curious feature, though, was her eyes. Riku couldn't tell whether they were blue or green; the color kept shifting with the light. They betrayed intelligence; both a learned intellect and a quick mind. They were also wide with fear.

Now Riku took in her rumpled clothes and several abrasions on her body. It gave her the appearance of a cornered animal that was willing to fight to the death. The most desperate were always the most dangerous.

"We don't want to hurt you," Riku said evenly.

"Forgive me for not taking your word for it," the girl replied, rolling her eyes. She bent and picked up Way to the Dawn. At her touch, it immediately vanished and reappeared in Riku's hand. Riku groaned as the girl picked up Oblivion and Oathkeeper, only to have them return to Roxas.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously and she pushed the slide upward. The weapon grew incredibly long, almost too long to be supported by the hilt. She hit the weapon on the sole of her shoe and it emitted a lower hum, almost too low to hear.

Riku felt the hum in his chest, felt his heart respond to the frequency. His darkness vibrated out of his control, causing some to escape his body and form a dark aura around him, emitting the same hum. Looking at his companions, Riku saw the same thing happen to Roxas and Naminé.

"You use darkness," the girl said with a slight tremor in her voice. She dampened the weapon on the ground – the hum stopped and the auras vanished – and leaned wearily on it. "Let's see how you handle light."

The weapon shortened until it all but vanished into the hilt. This time, the hum emitted was almost too high to hear. Riku's light vibrated out of control, creating an aura around him.

"Both?" the girl breathed, her eyes wide in surprise. Her arm dropped to her side, dampening the weapon on her thigh, and she swayed alarmingly. Riku darted forward to catch her arm and lowered her gently to the ground.

"What are you doing?" she snapped, her voice surprisingly strong considering how tired she had looked.

"Making sure you don't skewer yourself," Riku replied, raising an eyebrow. Her eyes bored into his, searching them for answers.

Her brow furrowed. "I attacked you," she said, a trace of wonder in her voice. "I could still attack you."

Riku smirked and turned back toward Roxas and Naminé, who were still struggling over the ruins. "I doubt you could hurt me at the moment."

A brick smashed into his head and Riku felt a small trickle of blood on his neck. "Did that hurt?" the girl asked sarcastically. He spun on the spot, regretted it instantly as his head began pounding, and glowered at her. For a split second, he saw it; a slight, playful grin.

"Sorry I attacked you," she called over Riku's shoulder. "Can't be too careful, you know?" Naminé smiled gently as Roxas grunted and helped her onto a smooth rock. The girl turned back to Riku, whom she seemed to identify with most. Lucky him... "So, you can use light and darkness. Just who the hell are you guys?"

"I'm Riku. That's Roxas and Naminé," Riku said, pointing to each in turn.

"Hey!" Rikku trilled indignantly. "What about me?"

"And that's...Rikku," he finished with a grimace.

Snorting, the girl giggled, "You have the same name?"

"Unfortunately," grumbled Riku. "What's yours?"

"Yukari, or Ri for short. That's it. Not Yuka, not Kari, and definitely not Yukes or you'll get some yukes in your face." She raised her fists to emphasize the point.

"Right, nice to meet you," said Roxas indifferently, "but we have places to go, people to see, bad guys to destroy." He helped Naminé to her feet.

"But, we can't just leave her here," Naminé protested.

"Yeah! You destroyed my house, the least you could do is help me find a place to stay," Ri said, taking up the argument.

"Excuse me," bit Riku. "You destroyed the house."

"I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't showed up."

"You didn't have to. We weren't going to hurt you."

"And you made that perfectly clear to me by sneaking around like that."

"That's because you were sneaking around in the house."

"I wasn't sneaking around, I was..." she muttered, "practicing." Her cheeks flushed, but she stared defiantly at Riku, daring him to pursue the subject.

Raising his eyebrows, Riku said, "There's an inn in the Second District. We can all spend the night there." He looked over his shoulder at Rikku, Roxas and Naminé. "Sound good?"

"You're the boss," Rikku grinned, winking.

Naminé yawned, "A bed sounds nice, actually." With that, she put her head on Roxas's shoulder and fell asleep.

Shaking his head, Roxas gathered Naminé in his arms. "Inn it is."

Ri smiled coyly. "What if I don't want to go to an inn?"

"Then I guess it's too bad," Riku smirked. "Let's go, Yukes."

As expected, Ri aimed a punch at his head. Ducking under her arm, he took advantage of the opening and picked her up.

"Hey!" she yelled. "Put me down! I can walk."

"Yeah, and you'll take all night just to get across the lake," Riku grunted.

Privately, Riku wondered if Jessu had sent Yukari to him, or him to her, his thoughts periodically interrupted by Ri's continued complaints. It seemed like Jessu's idea of a joke, answering Riku's wish this way. This certainly was a unique relationship and Riku fervently prayed that it wouldn't be duplicated. A tiny part of him liked the connection, but he would be lucky to survive his time with Yukari.

After placing the now sleeping Ri on a bed, Riku walked onto the balcony and gazed up into the night sky. "You have a sick sense of humor, Jessu," Riku told the stars. "You'd better not die before I find you; you're overdue for a serious tongue-lashing."


A/N: Make sure you check out my profile. That's where I write most of my author's notes.

New Characters:

Yukari: Kingdom Hearts III