The Night Within My Eyes

Description: A sequel to Kingdom Hearts II. When a Gummi Ship crashes into Disney Castle, King Mickey calls on Sora and Riku to help a previously unknown world rid itself of some very familiar Heartless. Pairings: RikuxOC, plus some SoraxKairi because they're cute. Rated T because I can't see myself ever writing K.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters are the property of Square-Enix. But you knew that already.


Twenty-Nine

"You okay?" Riku asked Yuko as they stood in the hallway of the fifth floor. The two of them had finally grown tired of exploring so they had taken to hanging around together while Sora and Kairi wandered.

She lifted her dark eyes to him, and he found himself wondering again about their original color. He had grown so used to black. Would it be strange to see blue gazing at him, to see gold framing her face? Maybe, but it wouldn't last long. He would find her beautiful even if her eyes were different colors and she dyed her hair pink. Definitely strange, but still beautiful.

She shrugged in answer to his question. "I'm fine."

"It's just that you've been quiet ever since Even attacked us," he persisted, noting the slight hesitation in her voice.

She worried her bottom lip for a moment before replying, "I … found something … on one of those desks. It's been bugging me."

"What?"

"Even's apparently been researching Shiva, and I can't for the life of me understand why." When he raised his eyebrows at her in interested curiosity, she asked, "Does your world have any legends about how it was created?"

"Sure. Every world does as far as I know."

"Well, Shiva is part of that legend for our world." She leaned comfortably against the wall and tilted her head back a little. "Shiva, Ifrit, and Ramuh are the three 'gods' who created Luca, Balamb, and Midgar respectively. Actually, I think they're supposed to be the spiritual embodiments of the worlds or something. I'm not sure. The story didn't interest me that much when I was growing up." She shrugged again. "But I can't understand why Even is interested. They're just made-up." She caught Riku's eyes with her own, and something in his expression made her add, "Right?"

"I guess," he answered noncommittally, but her worry had leapt from her mind to his. He had seen many things in his previous adventures. Many things that should have been "just made-up" had turned out to be real. Mermaids, the God of the Dead, Santa Claus. Riku couldn't stop the small smirk at that thought. Sora had really gone off on him for that one. "You told me he didn't exist!" A few years back, Riku had been confident that he knew everything; since then he had learned just how much he didn't know.

"You guess," Yuko repeated with a small smile on her face. "Well, thanks. That was hugely comforting."

He laughed lightly and yanked her from the wall into his arms. Planting a small kiss on her forehead, he said, "Just doing my job."

A small giggle stopped him from doing any more. Kairi stood a few feet away, smiling at them. When she noticed them looking at her, she said, "We're done. Ready to go up?"

"Yeah," Riku answered for the both of them. He scooped up Yuko's hand and started towards the stairs with her. "How many more floors are there?" he asked.

"Just two," Yuko answered as Sora appeared from a room and joined Kairi.

Riku snorted softly. "Guess Sora was right." Although he didn't understand what Even was doing all the way up here. Most of the rooms on the past two floors hadn't even been furnished. "What's up on those floors?"

"I don't know," she answered. "Before now, I've never been higher than the fourth floor."

Her casual statement triggered something in Riku's mind. On the fourth floor, they had found a large room full of dust, seemingly abandoned. In the center had rested a huge pile of scrap metal. Now it made sense. The machine.

Yuko hadn't said a thing.

Riku snuck sideways glances at the girl he loved, searching her for any sadness or worry brought on by her previous experience with this place. He could find nothing. It appeared as if she had finally let go of all her pain. He smiled, his heart swelling from relief, happiness, and pride. Gently, he squeezed the hand he held, causing her to look over at him. She smiled back, confused but not needing to know what had brought on his sudden show of affection.

Ahead of them, Sora stopped at the top of the stairs. From his best friend's sudden frozen alertness, Riku could tell that something was different even before he heard the younger boy's low, drawn-out "Whooooaaaa …"

Pushing Sora out of the way a bit so that he and Yuko could also come to the top, Riku looked about at the sixth floor. Instead of the normal hallways and rooms, the entire floor was one open space. A completely empty open space. Except for the far wall where a large statue of a half-dressed woman stood imposingly and demanded to be noticed. Riku surmised the statue had caused Sora's low-voiced utterance since the room held nothing else of interest.

He ran his eyes over the statue. The sculptor had made her face rather pretty and her body quite shapely although the stone made her skin a strange shade of blue. She had her arms held out to the sides and her head tilted slightly back, eyes closed, lips parted just a bit. Her long hair, styled in several separate plaits, had been sculpted to stand out from her body as if in a stiff wind. It was certainly a different and intriguing piece of artwork, made even more so by its completely bare surroundings. But it wasn't fascinating enough to hold his attention forever.

Shrugging, Riku turned to Yuko to suggest they find the next set of stairs, but when he saw her face, his words stuck in his throat. She was staring at the statue with a mixed expression of disbelief, awe, and fear.

Taking a slow, difficult breath, she whispered, "Shiva …"


"Shiva …"

She was just so beautiful. Yuko could only stare. The blitzball stadium in Luca had a very nice statue of her overlooking the entranceway, but the woman before them outshone anything any sculptor could ever create. Perhaps she was a bit … underdressed for a goddess of ice, but she was a goddess for crying out loud. She could wear whatever the heck she wanted.

Next to her, Riku cleared his throat slightly. She could feel the others looking at her in varying degrees of confusion and could hear their unspoken question. What's so mesmerizing about a statue? Nothing. Except it wasn't a statue.

Her friends all jumped or cried out in surprise, but Yuko didn't even blink when Shiva lowered her chin and opened her hypnotizing eyes to gaze at them. Those eyes held so much wisdom and experience. Knowledge of ancient secrets that no mortal could even begin to understand. Memories of places, cultures, worlds long since gone and forgotten. But Shiva's deep, penetrating eyes held something else as well. Something that Yuko had sensed the moment she entered the room; something that made her heart want to scream in anguish.

Even had found her - this perfect, powerful goddess of creation and life - and he had filled her with darkness.

"Sora," she whispered, bringing her Keyblade to her hand, "we can't kill her. She's the embodiment of Luca. If we kill her, the entire world will probably disappear."

Sora had seemed surprised that they would have to fight at all, but instead of questioning Yuko, he called up his own blade and replied, "So just knock some sense into her? Okay, I can do that."

"Who is she?" Kairi asked. The younger girl kept her bow on her back, somehow knowing that her magic would be more important in the upcoming battle.

"Shiva," Yuko answered, trying to keep her voice steady. "Frozen Goddess of Luca. And now a fellow victim of the darkness." Shiva had lifted a hand to hover before her face, eyes half-closed and lips moving slightly.

Riku had noticed it as well. "I think we should all move. Fast."

The four of them sprang away from the stairs just as Shiva's Blizzaga spell exploded around the space where they had been standing. Sora recovered quickly and dashed in to engage her, as was his style. She threw several icicles at him as he approached, but he lifted his blade and batted them back at her. The few that hit her did no damage, but she paused as if surprised and confused that her attack had been turned back on herself.

Riku, acting as Sora's backup, took advantage of her distraction to slide up from the other side and slice at her. Shiva did not defend but rather dodged all his attacks, moving with an inhuman agility. She aimed a kick at his head and, when he ducked, followed it up with a breath attack, blowing freezing snow into his face.

The sight of Riku staggering backwards, clutching his face, sparked something within Yuko who until then had hesitated. Shiva may have been a goddess, but she had just hurt Riku. Her anger exploded. While Sora leapt and slashed and attempted to land a hit on the agile woman, Yuko ran over to Kairi. She pulled two knives out of her belt.

"Kairi, fire spell."

The younger girl stared at her, confused, but complied, bringing to life a small ball of flame that hovered over her hands. Yuko thrust the tips of the daggers into the fire and watched as they slowly turned white. Kairi, finally understanding, flicked her gaze from the knives, to their target, to Yuko's grinning face. "Don't miss," she said.

Yuko nodded confidently and jerked her head up to get her aim. The knives flew across the room, burning brief trails of red light through the air as they passed. One clattered harmlessly to the ground several feet beyond the goddess, but the other buried itself up to the hilt into her willowy arm. Shiva threw her head back and screamed, the terrible sound making the four mortals clutch their heads in pain as invisible shards of ice dug into their ears. When the goddess opened her eyes again, they fixed their frozen wrath directly on Yuko.

"Look out!" Kairi cried, pushing Yuko to the side just as a huge block of ice appeared from thin air directly above the older girl's head. It crashed down and shattered, sending chunks of freezing ice everywhere. Both girls threw their arms across their eyes to keep from being blinded by the flying chips.

Laughing, Yuko brushed the flakes from her eyes and shook the shards from her hair. "I think she's pissed," she commented lightly to Kairi. She turned her heated gaze to Shiva again and said, "Well, that's what you get for hurting my boyfriend, wench!" Moonlight Arrow flashed into her hand, and she ran off to help Sora who had engaged again. In her haste, she only caught a brief glimpse of the dumbfounded look on Kairi's face.

"I thought you said we're not supposed to kill her," Sora called as she slid up to his side and crashed her blade against a perfectly-shaped leg.

"We're not," Yuko replied, avoiding a blast of snowy air. "But that doesn't mean I can't hurt her. Just a little."

The sound of laughter rang out from the other side of the room - a strange noise to hear in the middle of battle. "I think I'm being protected," Riku's strong voice floated to Yuko's ears. "I'm quite flattered." He appeared from behind Shiva, snow still clinging to his face. Way to the Dawn arced down and very nearly took her arm off. The goddess flipped away from this triple threat and paused to get her bearings.

To Yuko's and Riku's surprise, Sora let his Keyblade vanish. He took each of them by the shoulder and said, "I have an idea." His voice was hushed with hurried excitement. "Can you two hold out for a few minutes on your own?"

"Yeah, sure," Riku answered for them. He caught Yuko's eye, and she nodded to him in agreement.

"Good," Sora replied, and he was gone, back towards Kairi.

Yuko turned her eyes towards Shiva again and saw a smirk on the woman's face that made her suddenly very concerned. She had just opened her mouth to comment to Riku when the cold came. Brewing and billowing like a strong storm. Threatening to overtake the room, the fortress, the world with its death-like chill. Hardly thinking, Yuko took a step in front of Riku to protect him although she had no idea how. Then, just as Shiva lifted her arms above her head in preparation, Yuko remembered the aura of light Riku had used to protect Kairi and realized that, like the palm blasts, he had first used the move with darkness.

Shiva's arms came down just as Yuko lifted her own hands in front of her and concentrated. A huge wall of darkness spread out before them. The outpouring of ice that flew from Shiva's hands met the darkness strongly, but Yuko held it and pushed until the ice began to curl around the wall, creating a freezing world of death everywhere except where she and Riku stood. Frustrated, Shiva stopped her attack. She snapped her fingers, and the ice shattered all around them. Once she was convinced they were safe, Yuko dropped the wall.

"Thanks," Riku said quietly in her ear. "That looked like it would have hurt."

Yuko allowed herself a small smile, but she did not take her eyes from the goddess. "Are Sora and Kairi okay?"

"Yeah, they were far enough back that they weren't hit. In fact -"

"Guys!" Sora called, interrupting Riku. "Get back!"

With all the coldness in the air, Riku's hand felt abnormally warm in hers as he dragged her out of the way. Together they watched as Sora and Kairi ran forward. Yuko snuck a look at Riku and saw the confused look on his face; he had no idea what they were going to do either.

Still several paces from Shiva, Kairi stopped, put her palms together in front of herself, closed her eyes, and concentrated. Yuko gasped as the pillar of light that she had seen in Ienzo's illusion appeared again, this time very real. It rose above Kairi to the ceiling, swirling like a mild tornado. Without hesitation, Sora jumped into it, twisting his body around to face the goddess, and pointed his Keyblade at her. He also closed his eyes, and Yuko could see Sora's light - somehow a slightly different tint - rise from his body and mingle with Kairi's. The light gathered at the tip of the Keyblade and then shot out at Shiva in a wide beam that engulfed the goddess from head to toe.

Yuko inhaled painfully as she saw what was happening. The light flowed over the goddess like a river, and as it passed, it pulled away with darkness in its grip. Shiva stood with arms outstretched and head tilted slightly back as the waves of light stripped her of the invading darkness and carried it away. This had been Sora's idea. To stop the fight by freeing Shiva from the darkness that Even had forced into her. Yuko's heart hurt as she watched. She wanted to run to the light and let it cover her as well, but she realized with a pang of grief that she would never be able to withstand the force of the attack. Shiva was an immortal goddess; Yuko was most definitely not.

When the light finally faded and Sora returned easily to the ground, Shiva stood motionless for several minutes, head bowed and arms hanging loosely by her side. Then, she lifted her head and smiled at Sora and Kairi. After a moment, she turned her head and gave her smile to Yuko and Riku as well. The change in the goddess's expression was so dramatic that Yuko drew in a breath and held it in awe. For several heartbeats, those ageless eyes gazed tenderly into Yuko's. Then, Shiva gently closed her eyes, raised a hand into the air, and shimmered into nonexistence.

Before her beautiful form had disappeared completely, Yuko thought she heard a soft, cool voice whisper, "Thank you, my child."

"Argh!" a familiar voice raged from the direction of the stairs. "Will nothing kill you cockroaches?"

Yuko spun on her heel and glared at Even. He glared right back at her, furious for her continued "interference". As she looked at him, her mind flooded with all the ways he had violated her worlds. How he had killed and tortured countless people. How he had turned their homes into ghost towns, their fields into wild lands. And, this latest offense, how he had captured and corrupted one of their ancients, turned something pure and gentle into a monster like himself.

Yuko's blood boiled.

"Even!" she yelled, her blade springing to life in her hands. "You are dead! No more running. Right here, right now. We end this!"

In response, Even called a dark mist that produced his sword and shield and lowered his blazing eyes to her. "Fine," he growled. "Now you die."

Not bothering to wait for the others, Yuko flew at him, blade at the ready, crying out with all the pain and sorrow of her abused, anguished worlds, determined at last to avenge them.