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. Eventual pairing: 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.

A/N: Oh, heck, it's close enough to Thursday, and the cliffhanger at the end of the previous chapter wasn't really fair.

This chapter finally reveals the villains for this fic (and a lot of other stuff). I realize that a line from Zexion in COM basically states that this scenario could not happen, but I just don't care. Nyah. Oh, and I've read no other KH3 fics, so if this idea already exists, I apologize. I'm still gonna do it though.

Five

Ignoring the mice who continued to flutter about her, Yuko watched the boys approach. She refused to allow herself to be disappointed. After all, she had expected something like this.

The silver-haired one at least seemed to have some sense, and she could see an encouraging amount of muscle in his bare arms, but he was still a boy. And the brown-haired one was worse. He was a Hero, complete with a Lady Love by his side. She had seen so many Heroes arise to fight this war. Had watched their bright smiles and shining eyes. Had listened to their optimistic speeches. Had stepped over their motionless bodies to progress down the battlefield.

Yuko sighed. The last thing she needed was another Hero. And she truly doubted their claim of having fought Heartless before. They had probably swiped at a few of those small, creeping kinds and afterwards considered themselves monster-slayers.

"Miss Yuko," the head mouse was saying to her, "if you're feeling well enough, could you repeat to my friends what you told me before? About the reason why you're here and why you need help."

Yuko swallowed the urge to snap at him. She wanted to yell that she was fine and to stop calling her "Miss", but she doubted it would do any good. Instead, she asked, "What have you told them already?"

"Nothing," he replied. "I wanted them to hear it all directly from you."

She sighed again. "Fine." She folded her arms and, since she couldn't stand looking at the Hero or his Girl and would rather die than talk to any more animals today, stared at the silver-haired boy. His green eyes stared right back.

"I come from a trio of interconnected worlds. Each world is separate, but they are very close together and have simple space lanes connecting them, so we're essentially one unit. Luca houses the government, most of the military, and all the other stuff important to running a nation. It also has the recreational facilities, so it has the greatest population. Midgar is our business district, where all the industries and manufacturers are. The SeeDs are also trained on Midgar. That's what I am. A SeeD." She gestured vaguely at her uniform. "Balamb is the third world, and it's mainly agricultural. Peaceful farmers and all that."

Feeling the first ripples of sorrow approach, she unlocked her gaze from the green eyes that had not wavered and continued, "About five months ago, a strange man arrived on Balamb. Some farmers took him in and tended to his wounds. He repaid their kindness by killing them." She heard the Lady Love gasp but did not bother to turn her way. "He then proceeded to slowly take over Balamb, building a fortress and creating an army of Heartless to do his bidding. Unfortunately, since Balamb is not a center of activity, it took six weeks before anyone on either of the other two worlds even knew of his presence, and by then, he had joined with his allies and the five of them had dug in to the point where they could not be easily evicted."

"Yuko," King Mickey interjected gently, "tell them the names of these men."

"Oh, yes," Yuko responded, shaking her head slightly at the omission. "The first man who came calls himself Even. He runs their base along with Ienzo, and they keep Elaeus with them at all times to guard it. The other two take turns at the front line, and their names are …"

"Braig and Dilan," Sora breathed, shock spreading over his face.

Yuko sat up a bit straighter, surprised that he had finished her sentence for her. "Yes, that's right. How do you … ?"

"Ansem's remaining apprentices," Sora interrupted, turning to the King. "They're still alive!"

King Mickey shook his head. "I don't think so, Sora. According to the reports written by Ansem the Wise, they suffered the same fate as Xehanort. I think the men who've shown up on Yuko's worlds are their Heartless."

"Interesting," Riku commented quietly. Yuko looked at him to see his eyes studying the floor.

"If that's so, then this should be easy," Donald announced. "We've already beaten all these guys before when we destroyed the Organization."

"Did we?" Sora asked. He crossed his arms and leaned back on his heels. "Which Nobodies go with those five?"

"Well, Dilan kinda sounds like Xaldin, doesn't it?" Goofy replied. "We beat him at the Beast's Castle. And Braig is … uh …"

"Xigbar," Sora finished. He nodded. "Yeah, okay, those two are both toast. But what about the other three?"

Riku finally lifted his head and joined the conversation. "I took care of Lexeaus when I was in Castle Oblivion. And I fought Zexion although he ran before I could kill him. Naminé told me later that Axel finished him off with the help of the replica of me that Vexen made." He looked over at Kairi who had a thoughtful expression on her face. Eventually, she nodded in confirmation. Riku finished, "And you fought Vexen, Sora, even though you don't remember it."

Sora blinked at him. "I did?"

"Yeah, you wore him down, and then Axel came up from behind and finished him." Riku shook his head. "Axel sure was a strange one." Kairi huffed slightly but did not comment.

During this exchange, Yuko leaned back in her seat and stared. They had already fought The Five? And not only together but also separately on a few of them? Were they mad or was she? How could it be possible that this quartet of ordinary-looking creatures had succeeded where armies of their finest had failed?

But then again, she could hold the front line all on her own if needed, thanks to the unexpected "gift" she had received. Could it be that … ?

Sora's voice brought her back to the discussion in front of her. "Yuko, do you know what their goal is? Are they going after Kingdom Hearts again?"

"I don't know what their ultimate objective is," she answered him. "All I know is that right now they're building a great army of Heartless. Even has invented a machine that turns people into Heartless, and with it, they are filling their ranks. We can't confirm it, but we think most of Balamb's population met this fate." Her chest ached and her eyes burned, but she continued on. "They're also looking for particularly strong warriors to turn into Heartless so that they can have leaders for their army. Many of my comrades ended this way."

Her listeners were staring at her with wide eyes. "A machine that turns people into Heartless?" Sora asked.

"Yes," she said softly, turning her eyes away. "It covers you in darkness and slowly fills you with despair and fear. You feel utterly alone, not just that no one is with you, but that no one else even exists. You begin to lose your identity, your existence, until all that is left is the sorrow and emptiness, and you feel that you never should have existed in the first place."

She felt their eyes on her, and while most simply held their immense horror, one set gazed at her with terrible realization. "How," Riku asked in a low voice, "could you possibly know all that?"

Yuko hesitated. She had not even told the King this much. But it was not exactly a secret, more a private shame. She turned her head and met the eyes of the boy who had guessed her personal Hell. "Because they put me in it."

The others around her gasped and murmured in distress, but Riku continued to hold her gaze. She could see the sympathy and understanding in his eyes as she continued, "They captured my entire unit and took us to the machine. They put our captain in first; he came back a monster, and he threw the rest of us into the machine himself. I watched my teammates disappear one at a time, and then he came for me."

Yuko stood up carefully and walked a few steps away from them. She had decided to reveal everything, but she wanted some space in which to do it. "I fought the machine with everything I had. I clung to my identity even as I sank into the darkness. And then, just when I thought I was going to lose anyway, I found myself holding this."

She lifted her hand away from her body and flexed her fingers, summoning the "sword". It flashed into life, all black metal with stars studding its handle and a crescent moon resting at the end to serve as a blade.

"A Keyblade!" Sora cried as Goofy said "Gawrsh!" and Donald breathed "Waaaaahhhooow."

Yuko raised the blade and inspected it with a small smile. So, they knew what it was. Perhaps she had been wrong about them. "Is that what it's called?" she responded to Sora. "A good name for it." She lifted her eyes to him. "You've seen it before, then?"

"Well, not that one exactly," he began. Then, instead of continuing, he turned to his friend. "Riku?"

Riku nodded, understanding the unspoken question. Together, the two boys moved into attack stances, and two flashes of light accompanied the appearance of two more blades.

Yuko smiled, relief filling her for the first time since her arrival. She had been wrong, about everything. This trip would be worth it after all.

A/N: Can you say Square-squash, children? I knew you could. So a bunch of stuff revealed here, including large chunks of Yuko's background. And the Organization makes a reappearance ... kind of. The plot has begun, and we're off and running!

I swear I must smell like a vegetable garden because I've had to beat off inspiration bunnies with a stick. I now know exactly how this is going to end, and just today I came up with a couple more wrinkles to make it even more interesting. I'm still ahead on chapters, so I'll see you all again on Saturday.