Pearlescent Tears

Summary: SEQUEL TO CRYSTALLINE KEY Rain: It was falling outside. It was falling down her cheeks and onto her damp pillow. It was the name of the girl alone in her dim-lit home, crying. Sad, longing Raine. Sky: So bright and cheerful. The exact opposite feelings of the being whose name bared its meaning. Depressed, lonely Sora. Ground: So strong and dirty. Just like Riku was. Strong as always on the outside, but feeling dirty for kissing another guy's girl. Pearls: Beautiful and mysterious, just like the new girl on the island. Cheerful, sarcastic, and kind, like Raine, yet so different in physical appearance. Could the two somehow be connected...? Riku/OC/Sora, Sora/OC(in the end)

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or their characters… just Raine and Shinju.

Quick Note: HI GUYS! I'M BAAAAACK! - Miss me? Hopefully so… Anyways, I'm back with a MAINLY Riku/OC fic, since Raine won't be in the story for a LONG WHILE. Anyways, I'm hoping I can pull out fifteen chapters in this. BTW, here's how this junk will work:

Thoughts are in italics and between apostrophes. Bold words are emphasized. Italics and bold are singing.

/-----POVs will look like this except with the name of the person in the middle-----/

……Passing time looks like this 'cept with the amount of time in the middle……

For a VERY detailed description of Shinju (and soon a picture), go to my HomePage on my profile.

Here's the first chapter of my first sequel, Heartless: Back!

/------Raine------/

A sob could be heard throughout the silent house, then a whimper. Another sob. A hiccup. The light in the house was tinted grayish blue from the rain clouds outside, matching the way I felt alone in my room.

I'd been like this ever since I left the game, ever since I'd left Sora. The pitter-patter of large raindrops on the roof was not enough to calm me, as it usually was. With every flash of lightning, I sobbed. Every clap of thunder, I yelped. Countless times I'd scraped the surface of my PlayStation2 game system with the heart-shaped sapphire pendant on the end of my silver chain. So many times that there were scratch marks on the PS2. Many a time my parents or younger brother found me screaming at the game to let me back into the Kingdom Hearts world. They always thought I meant my PS2 had frozen, and I was yelling at it to let me resume play.

But I wasn't. I'd fall to my knees and sob in front of the PS2, scraping the necklace across the PS2. I'd beg and plead for it to let me in, but nothing would ever happen.

I felt like my world had shattered around me, leaving me to hover in a void without emotion for all eternity. My heart did not exist any more. Or, at least, not my heart that held my love. My real heart, the heart that's part of my circulatory system, still beats rhythmically within me. But my heart, the heart that is universal symbol of love, was in pieces.

I sobbed hysterically at the thought of red shards of my heart falling, falling into a black abyss devoid of any positive emotion; the abyss that caused my grades to drop, the abyss that made me weep every night, the abyss that was the hole through which Sora was pushed out of my life, the abyss that expanded, just as the universe did, with every passing day without him.

'The shards would only fall back in place if I were to see him again…' I thought sadly. My eyelids became heavier and heavier. I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness.

Then I saw black nothingness.

/------Reader------/

The sounds in the house stopped. The sixteen-year-old Raine had cried herself to sleep, pearlescent tears streaming down her cheeks. The tears began to glow every color of the rainbow. They gently lifted from her face, and formed the small figure of a girl with angelic wings. The girl looked as if she were a figurine, for there weren't enough tears to make her larger. She hovered over Raine, looking at her with pity.

'Maybe, just maybe, I can go find a way for her to visit him whenever she wishes. But I'll have to go into the game to do so… hmm…' The figurine girl looked around, and, seeing nothing that would help her on her quest, sighed. 'Great. Since I don't have any tools with me, and this girl doesn't have any in her room, I'll have to send my soul to take on the body of a girl.'

The figurine flew to the PS2, hovered over it, and closed her eyes in concentration. She muttered, "Lne tzm yks oiu lri nwt oqt hce gsa mfe." In angel tongue, this meant 'let my soul into the game'. A smoky lavender light pulled itself from her open mouth, and flew into the game. The tears that made up the figurine girl separated from her body and fell onto the PS2.

/------Sora------/

I sat on the Paopu Tree, looking down at the star-shaped fruit I held delicately in my hands. 'Paopu fruit… I'd always wanted to give one to her…' The very thought of her made my heart sting with emotional pain. Why didn't she live in my dimension? If she'd lived in this dimension, none of this pain would have ever come to me.

'No, I can't blame her. I have to stop doing that.' I sighed and looked out to the spot I first saw her. I felt the pain again. Technically, it wasn't the pain, but the pains. I felt it in the front of my mind, the back of my mind, the bottom of my stomach, in my calves, in my forearms, and in my chest, where my heart is located.

I was torn from my pensive state when I heard a, "Hey there, Sora". I didn't need to look up to see who it was. Nor did I want to. She'd been trying to use the same wannabe-seductive tone of voice all week. It was the girl I thought I loved before Raine came along. It was Kairi.

Kairi had been trying to get me to share a Paopu with her since the day I returned to the island after Raine left. The only time I looked her way nowadays was to send her a slight glare.

I got off the tree, cradling the Paopu in my arms. I vowed to one day get Raine back and share a Paopu Fruit with her, a fruit that would bind us together for eternity.

/------Riku------/

I passed Sora on my way to the beach. "Hey Sora," I greeted. Sora lazily lifted a hand to wave at me. I sighed and watched Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka try to cheer him up for the hundredth time. They knew they wouldn't succeed, but they kept trying.

'If only someone would tell me it's okay…' I longed for someone to genuinely smile at me and honestly tell me that I can stop worrying about kissing Raine, when I'd certainly known she loved Sora, and Sora loved her. If only someone would pat me on the back, and console me. I sighed again, running a gloved hand through my silver strands. I remembered the kiss as if it were yesterday. So enticing, so lustful. I was so sure I'd won her over, so sure that she decided that she was my property. But I'd been wrong.

My jealousy of Sora helped me escape Kingdom Hearts, and make it back here. Only when I saw how miserable he was did I stop hating him and start pitying him.

…But I still feel a slight tinge of envy when I think about Raine.

……Sunset……Reader's POV………

The sun was an orange-red semicircle, one half of it hidden behind the horizon. The sky was orange-gold near the sun, and then it faded into pink, then purple, then starry blue, then midnight blue. Three friends –well, two friends and one boy-crazy girl- sat on the Paopu Tree, looking out to the vast ocean. How long ago had they thought they could reach another world on a mere raft?

"Two years…" Riku said, seeming to answer the previous question. Sora nodded silently.

Kairi added, "Since we went on a wonderful adventure." Sora raised a brow.

"We? You were unconscious for the whole thing." Kairi glared at him and Sora laughed. Riku was unusually silent, just like the day they had found Raine…

Sora's eyes immediately darted to the exact spot Raine had washed up on that day, and saw there actually was a figure lying in the sand. Instead of Riku being the first to leave to check it out, this time it was Sora. 'Please let it be Raine…' Unfortunately for Sora, whose eyes had brightened at the thought of her returning, his eyes dulled again as they reflected a mane of lavender hair. He lifted a gloved hand, moving strands away her face to see what she looked like. After all, Raine could have dyed her hair.

She had a creamy complexion, similar to Raine's, and a body shape also similar to Raine's. The femme looked to be the same age, too. She wore a white spaghetti strap top and short khaki shorts. What seemed to be a navy blue half-skirt was tied around her waist, and upon her feet were starry blue ballet slippers without the ribbons. 'Please open your eyes… please let them be Raine's eyes.'

"Hey Sora! Is she alive?" Kairi called as she and Riku ran up. The girl groaned softly, stirring, and then her eyes fluttered open. Sora's cerulean blue optics dulled even more at their color. Most of the irises were off-white, the only thing distinguishing that she had irises were the faint silver outline where the irises would be. Her pupils were a darker silver, and as she moved her head, her eyes seemed to tint different colors. They reminded Sora of pearls.

"Wh…where am I? Did I make it?" she asked, her voice audible yet wispy. It was as though, if it could take form, it would be wispy, rising smoke from lavender incense. It was not at all Raine's voice.

"You're on Destiny Islands, and yeah, you're alive." Kairi said. The girl looked to all three of them, blinking.

"Does one of you know someone by the name of… I think it was 'Sora'?" she asked. Upon hearing his name, Sora blinked.

"Umm… yeah. That's me. Why? And who are you?" The girl jumped up, smiled, and clapped her hands once. She threw her arms around Sora, then pulled back and danced around with him.

"Well that was easy! It didn't take me long at all to find you!" She stopped dancing, and answered, "I'm Shinju, and I'm here to help Raine see you again." The Keywielder's eyes widened.

Sora's throat became dry, but he managed to get out, "How… how d'you know Raine?"

Shinju blinked for a moment. "Er… I'm her… cousin." She answered. He nodded numbly as Shinju thought, 'What would I be classified as? Protector, maybe? Or maybe daughter, since I was born from her tears?' She shook her head. 'Definitely not a daughter. It'd be too weird to have a mom my age.'

"Did you hear me?" a masculine voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Riku had spoken while she'd been in a thoughtful state.

"Er… sorry, I didn't." She flushed slightly when the silver-haired male smiled, giving a small 'It's fine.'

"I said, that's Sora, as you know. That's Kairi," he pointed to Kairi with his thumb as he said this. "And I'm Riku," he finished, pushing his thumb onto his chest. A sudden explosion and scream in the distance caused them all to look to their right, except Shinju, who was looking to her left since she was standing opposite the others. Smoke slowly rose from a place on the other side of the island. The smoke rose into the sky, creating dark storm clouds that were all too familiar. Sora's and Riku's eyes narrowed, and Sora's Keyblade materialized in his hand as Kairi clung to him.

"Kairi, go warn the other islands. I'm going to go see if it's really true. Riku, you-"

Riku interrupted, "I'll go with Kairi and take Shinju, so I can battle anything that tries to harm them." Sora nodded, then ran off.

"Let's g-WOAH!" Riku looked up to see Shinju with angelic wings similar to her eye colour flapping just above her. There was no doubt in his mind those wings were attached to her back. Kairi was whimpering and whining, saying things like, "PUT ME DOWN!", "I hate heights!", and "I'm gonna kill you if you drop me!"

"I'll take you to each island. It will be faster than going by boat, since a storm is brewing." She nodded slightly toward the rotating black clouds, which were flashing slightly with purple thunder. Little glowing, yellow circles were starting to appear inside the clouds, and the bodies of familiar creatures were also starting to form in them. It confirmed Riku's fears: Ansem was indeed back.

-----------/End Chapter/--------------

Yay! I've finally redone the chappie! Sorreh, Ashley, if you read this, but Jade's not gonna be in this. It's too hard for me to do Shounen-ai, and since you'll be at you other Grandma's house for most of the summer…

Anyways, couples:

RikuShinjuSora – Riku likes her just because, and Sora likes her because, personality wise, she's a lot like Raine.

SoraRaine – Not 'til the very end, since Raine won't be in most of this.

And that's about it. Well, 'til next time!