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

Sora was sulking.

He sat in the pilot seat of the Gummi Ship, and Yuko swore she could almost see the black cloud that hung over his head. Sighing, she raised her eyes to the front screen. The beautiful world of Balamb with its green fields, blue oceans, and white-capped mountains slowly grew in size as the ship approached. The last time she had looked on this world, she had been just one of an entire squad of young, nervous SeeDs. She remembered hearing her captain's stern voice telling a few overeager soldiers to sit down and shut up, remembered how the strength in his tone had eased the knots in her stomach. And less than three days later, he was gone.

Yuko shook her head to stop the sad memories. They didn't need two depressed people on this ship.

The cause of Sora's bad mood wandered up to Yuko to stand at her elbow. "Are we going to land right in front of the fortress and just barge in?" she asked.

"No," Yuko answered. "We'd probably get shot down before we came close." She leaned over and brought up a small map in the corner of the screen. She enlarged it a few times and then said to Sora, "Land here. It'll be a walk to get there, but I know my way."

"Okay," he muttered, still annoyed that Kairi had come instead of staying behind to help Donald and Goofy clear out any extra Heartless on Midgar.

Yuko straightened. She briefly felt a warmth approach her from behind before hands rested on her shoulders and gently started to massage the tight muscles there. Closing her eyes for just a moment, she swallowed the purr of contentment that rose in her throat. Riku had interpreted their rooftop conversation to mean that he could touch her whenever he felt like it. She fully intended to throw a fit at him for it eventually. Just not yet.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered, opening her eyes again. "Place brings back bad memories."

He laughed softly and without any joy. "I bet it does."

The tone of his voice sparked off a chain of thoughts in her head. He probably had places he'd rather not return to as well. What was the name of that castle? Hollow Bastion? The place he had met the witch, fought Sora, and lost his body to the darkness. He would probably feel like this if that castle sat on the screen in front of them instead of the world where she was born. But no, because she had other memories there as well. Memories of her and Zell and Vincent playing in the sun. Memories of harvest time and water fights and winter evenings curled up in front of the fire with the dogs as pillows.

"And good ones," she added in a whisper.

"Good," he answered and kissed her gently on the side of the head. Oh yeah. She would have to yell at him about that also. Eventually.

They spent the rest of the trip to the surface in silence, broken only by Sora's angry muttering and Kairi's occasional giggling, although Yuko couldn't tell whether the laughter was at Sora's rotten mood or at her and Riku - Kairi fully approved of the match and called them "cuuuute". The younger girl refused to accept the fact that they were not an item. Not yet.

Once Sora had landed the ship and the four of them had exited into the sun, Yuko took a moment to look around and calm the pain that leapt up inside her. There was the old house, the fence that ran alongside it, the mailbox with geese painted on the side. There was the tree that she had climbed, fallen out of, and, when the cast had come off her arm, climbed again. And there was the window that had let the morning sunlight into her room. It was probably still exactly the same. She smiled faintly. Wouldn't that throw her new friends for a loop, to know that she had once slept in a room that had walls painted pink?

"Yuko?" Sora said, anxious to be on their way.

She turned to him, nodded, and led them down the path. She had vowed never to set foot in that house again. Only ghosts lived there now.

As they walked, they passed field after abandoned field of crops growing wild. Plants had no hearts after all, so the enemies had not touched them. But without the farmers to tend them, the fields would decay. Yuko shook her head at the thought. Even if they won this war, how long would it take them to rebuild their worlds?

"So how long will it take us to get there?" Kairi asked as they passed yet another house of ghosts.

"About a day and a half," Yuko replied. "Assuming the Heartless don't slow us down. If we have to stop and fight them along the way, it'll take longer."

"Well, we haven't seen any yet," Sora inserted into the conversation. His mood seemed to have improved, and Yuko wondered if the boy was even capable of staying mad for an extended period of time.

"True," she commented. "But we will."

"Oh, I know," he answered lightly. "But for now at least, that's a good si-"

"Freeze!"

They stopped. The command had come from a field of wheat off to their left.

"Keep your hands where I can see 'em," the male voice demanded, "and don't make any fast moves, or my partner and I will blow your heads off."

"Oh for goodness sakes," a female voice suddenly said from another spot in the field. "They don't look dangerous to me. Look, the one girl has a SeeD uniform on."

"Wait! Wait a minute! Cera!"

The wheat rustled, and a dark-haired young woman stepped out onto the road. She wore a checked shirt and jeans and carried a large rifle comfortably in the crook of her arm. She smiled at them with friendly brown eyes. "Hi. I'm Cer-"

The male voice cut her off violently. "I swear if you touch one hair on her head, I'll cut your hearts out and feed them to Elaeus!"

Cera slammed her free fist onto her hip and turned to where he still hid in the field. "Enough, Reno! They are not going to hurt me. Now get out here and say hi before I come in and drag you out."

The wheat rustled again, and a grumbling young man with blazing red hair and strange red tattoos under angry blue eyes emerged. He also held a gun, although this one looked more modern and he did not lower it as Cera had done. She patted him gently on the arm and then turned back to them.

"Let's try this again. Hi. I'm Cera and this is Reno. You have stumbled into the territory of the Balamb Liberation Front. We thought we had found all the survivors, but I guess we were wrong. Who are you, and what part are you from?"

The four friends blinked at each other, stunned. It had all happened so fast, and they still didn't know exactly what was going on. But one word stuck out in Yuko's mind: survivors. Balamb had survivors. Enough to form a "Liberation Front" …

Expectedly, Sora recovered first. "Hi!" he said cheerily. "I'm Sora and this is Riku, Yuko, and Kairi. We just got here from Midgar. We're going to take care of the apprentices for you."

Cera's mouth fell open, and Reno snorted violently in suppressed laughter. "Excuse me?" He turned his head slightly to Cera. "They're obviously insane. Let me put them out of their misery." He lifted the gun to get a better position.

"No," she replied and easily pushed the muzzle of his gun towards the ground. She sighed at him. "I swear, you're so eager to shoot that thing off. Save it for something important. Something like …" Her voice died away, and her eyes, gazing further down the road, grew terribly wide. She lifted a hand, pointed, and cried in a frightened voice, "Something like that!"

They all turned and saw three Heartless swiftly approaching: two Neoshadows and one of the kind that Sora had called a Morning Star. Reno blanched in fear, but he ran forward a few steps and started firing at them.

"Run, Cera!"

"No! I'm not leaving you here!"

"Get out of here! Now!"

The terror in their voices surprised Yuko until she remembered that the people here would not have had any defense at all against the weakest Heartless. She swiveled to meet the eyes of Sora and Riku. They both nodded, and three Keyblades flashed into life.

"Stand back!" Sora ordered. "We'll take care of 'em."

"Are you nuts?" Reno demanded, not stopping his constant firing. He had not looked behind himself and therefore had not seen the appearance of the blades. But Cera had.

"Wait, Reno," she started in a voice tinged with awe. "Wait a min-"

Yuko saw the wheat behind the older girl rustle seconds before another Morning Star launched itself into the air directly above her.

"Look out!" She threw herself at Cera and knocked her to the side just as the large Heartless's spikes came down. They buried themselves harmlessly in the dirt.

"Cera!" Reno cried, turning around just in time to be punched. He sailed several feet down the road, and his gun disappeared into the field.

Yuko lifted her head and caught Sora's eye. "I got this one," she said, indicating the closer Morning Star. "You take the others."

He nodded curtly. "Right! Kairi, you help Cera and Reno." Once she had nodded, he took off towards the further Heartless with Riku on his heels.

Yuko leapt to her feet and started slashing at the Morning Star, dodging its fists as she did so. After a moment, it jumped and tried to squash her. She lifted her blade as she had seen Sora do and pushed, but she must have pushed too hard for the creature soared into the air, far too high for her to dribble it. Shrugging, she reached for her knives. A moment later, they clattered to the ground in a heap as the Heartless burst into dust.

She turned to Cera to find the other girl had gone to Reno. He had sat up and was gingerly poking at a growing bruise on his head while Cera clutched his elbow. Kneeling beside him, Kairi brought out a Potion from their supplies and applied it to the wound. As the three of them slowly got to their feet, the other two boys rejoined them.

No longer worried, Cera fixed her sparkling eyes on her friend. "Reno …" she prompted.

"You were right," he muttered with downcast eyes.

"And …"

"And I was wrong."

"Aaaaaaand …"

He sighed and scratched the back of his head, obviously unwilling to admit any more. He said very rapidly, "And just because I'm a city slicker and you're a country bumpkin, that doesn't mean I know more than you do."

"Good," she smiled and patted him gently on the head like some pet.

She turned to the others, but before she could open her mouth, Reno quickly added, "And because I admitted to it so readily, I deserve a kiss!" He grabbed Cera's arm and yanked her to him, planting his lips on hers with an ease that spoke of much practice. When it became apparent this was not a chaste kiss, Sora flushed and Kairi erupted into uncontrollable giggles. Yuko glanced at Riku who shook his head in amusement. The banter between the two suddenly made a lot more sense.

Cera finally pulled away from her amorous partner and took a few steps back. She shook her head lightly and said to herself, breathless, "Guess that's what I get for dating an exhibitionist." She flicked her brown eyes to Reno who grinned toothily. With a smile, she returned her attention to the four, and since Sora had turned a bright shade of maroon and Kairi was still giggling, she addressed Riku and Yuko. "You said you came from Midgar?"

"Yes, that's right," Yuko answered.

"Then Midgar is free?"

"Now it is."

"And Luca?"

"Has always been safe."

Cera nodded happily. "Good." She beckoned to them. "Come with us. We'll take you to our camp, and you can tell us everything."

She began to lead them away, but Reno interrupted her. "Wait, I need to find my gun."

She sighed and looked over her shoulder at him. "You can get a new one back at camp."

"But Ceeeera," he whined.

"Come on, Reno. I'm not waiting." To emphasize the point, she continued walking away.

"Blast," he muttered, kicking at the dirt. He turned to them and motioned with his hand. "Come on then." As they fell in behind Cera, Yuko heard him mutter to himself. "Tch. Girls."

A/N: Cera is the creation of ParisWriter from her fic "Project V". Thank you, Paris, for letting me use her. I'm imagining them both to be about nineteen or twenty here, so older than Sora's gang but younger than their FF counterparts.