Behind Those Blue Eyes

By: Rika Yuki Hikari

Chapter 3: Traverse Town

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Okay so yeah, I haven't been on here in a long long time. None the less I promised I would be re-writing my chapters and it ended up that my promise was left in the dust with me getting kicked out of my moms house and crap because of arguments and stuff.

Well it's summer and after this summer I will be a senior in highschool and I finally kinda have my head on straight so my grades have been pretty good. I'm living with my grandparents now and things have been great and since I finally have someone to beta-read my story, I'm going to get to re-writing these things, since all I really have been doing with my summer is Working and Hanging out with my friends and stuff. Well here's the third re-written chapter of BTBE by none other than me myself.

A ton of this wouldn't be possible without my first Beta Reader Kiyome-yasha who has just started helping me with my formatting for my new revised chapters and everything so this next chap def goes out to her. Thanks so much chicka ^_^.

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Sora awoke in a strange place, and he found himself in a dark brick alleyway illuminated by a single street lamp. He felt warmth next to him, a hand grasped to his. Using his free hand he rubbed his eyes getting his vision into focus so he could be more aware of his surroundings. He looked up to the sky to see millions of stars, some bright and some dim, some blinking, his attention turned to a star that was blinking rather rapidly, it kept blinking and blinking until suddenly, it just disappeared into nowhere. When he was little he remembered his teachers at school trying to explain how and why stars would die, but it's said to take millions of years for a star t actually die and disappear completely, he wondered why this star just immediately blinked out of existence. He looked back down to see none other than Rika, laying on the ground next to him, her hand clasped into his.

"Riku's sister?" Sora said softly confused on how she had ended up here with him, and then it came to him. 'She was with me when we were sucked up into that orb.' He thought as he slowly removed her hand from his being careful not to wake her.

He remembered the fear in her eyes as he told her that everything was going to be okay, and now here she was sleeping as soundly as ever. He scanned her body with his eyes to make sure she wasn't hurt or anything checking to make sure she was still breathing and everything, she just seemed tired with only a few minor scrapes and cuts on her body.

'She'll come to eventually, I hope.' He thought sighing to himself softly. He placed his fingertips to his temples, all of this confusion; of waking up in a strange new place, wondering where his friends could be it was already giving him a major headache.

'I wish I knew what to do, if only Riku was here, he always knew the right things to do in times like these.' He lifted his fingers from his temples as he heard a sound, a small soft clacking of boots.

He looked from side to side when a woman's figure started to come into view. He had to say she was definitely pretty, Long brown hair pulled back into a simple twist secured with a red ribbon, and a pink button up dress complimented by a red jacket that covered the thin straps. But he didn't know this place, he knew better than to let looks deceive him

"Who's there?" He asked alarmingly standing to his feet only to be hit with what seemed to be a wave of nausea, causing his head to spin, he leaned back against the wall for support; he didn't want to black out again.

The brunette woman raised her index finger to her lips. "My name is Aerith, we all knew you would be coming here sooner or later. If you can get your friend up I have friends who can help her and yourself, there is a lot that is needed to explained if you're willing to let us help you." The woman said very calmly in a rather reassuring voice.

Sora nodded and looked at Rika and then back to Aerith "I don't think I should wake her, I don't even know how we got here. I'll just carry her if you can show me the way." Aerith smiled and nodded turning to walk back down the dark alleyway.

Sora gathered Rika in his arms gently; she was lighter than he thought she would be for her being older than him. He followed Aerith as she led him through the dark alleyway into the main square of this dimly lit dark town, it seemed pretty late at night at the moment. He held Rika safely in his arms wondering where Riku and Kairi would be right now, if they were both okay. He remembered when Riku was sucked into the pool of darkness when the storm had attacked their island, more the less, he wondered about the islands. He wondered if they would ever make it back to them, if they were still there. In his battle with the huge black monster he remembered seeing the islands all broken up.

As the brunette woman led them through a big pair of double doors he looked up seeing a big bell tower ahead of them. It began to toll, he counted the rings, DING…He followed Aerith as she led him into a small inn, DING... The clock tower rung out once again and Aerith led him into a green room, inside were two other people, one was a man with shoulder length brown hair clad in a pair of leather pants decorated with an array of different belts, he also had a leather jacket to accompany his leather pants. Sora took a mental note to never piss this guy off he seemed rather testy due to his appearance and stance. DING... The belltower rang again followed by a preganant pause of silence, singnaling that it was three o' clock, Sora figured it was three o' clock in the am because of the darkness but why would all these adults still be awake at this time.

He shook his head as he looked at the other person in the room. She was definately older than him and Rika and scantly clad in a pair of very short kakhi shorts, around the shorts was a thick blue belt which was only through the back two belt loops and drooping slightly to the front, her bare stomach was exposed by a cropped green tank top that had buttoned straps.

Sora couldn't help but stare she look at what the woman was wearing he had almost forgotten that Rika was in his arms when Aerith spoke up"You can lay her down on the bed." Sora looked to Aerith and nodded walking over to the bed and placing Rika on the soft bed, she hoped that she was okay, it seemed as if she had been asleep for awhile but he was still trying to recover from the sudden disaster that was at hand.

"Are you sure it's him?" The brown haired man questioned Aerith sternely as he walked over to face Sora as he turned around from laying Rika on the bed, stumbling backwards at the small distance there was between him and the very mean looking man, he backed up a bit.

"Gosh, scare me why don't you?!" Sora yelled looking up into the eyes of the man. "Who are you anyways, don't you have a name?"

The man looked down to Sora and scoffed "The names Leon." With that he walked away from Sora.

Sora looked at Yuffie again and she smiled kindly "I'm the great ninja Yuffie." She said walking back to Leon, "Don't worry about Squall here, he's a little cold at first, but once you get to know him he's an okay guy." Leon looked to Yuffie coldly

"It's Leon now." He responded his voice as chill as his stare.

Sora watched as the others conversed "Well, since we all have introductions down can you help my friend, I'm really worried about her, and could you possibly enlighten me on where we are? Just awhile ago we were home at the islands and there was this big orb and everything just started falling apart."

Leon sat down at the table that was in the room and looked at Sora drumming his fingertips on the wooden tabletop. "Your world was destroyed, it's been happening."

With this Aerith stepped closer to to the table "Yes, it has been happening Leon but it's happening a lot more often now, Traverse Town is soon going to be full with people if we don't do anything."

Leon looked to Aerith getting up from his seat he walked towards Sora once again. "That's why we have Sora here, the King has told me about him...Now, let's see that Key."

Sora's attention was re-focused when Leon mentioned something about a Key "Wait, when you say Key, do you mean this Key?" As he asked this question the Keyblade magically appeared in his hands.

"Yeah, thats the one." Leon said walking over to Sora, he looked at the blade seeing his own reflection in the silver of the blade, with the swift of his hand Leon grabbed the Keyblade from Sora's grasp "Hey, What are you---." Was all that Sora could get out of his mouth when the blade was magically returned to his own hand.

"So I guess you really are the one, why would it choose a kid like you though is beyond me." Leon said shaking his head. "Are you ready Sora?"

Sora looked at Leon quizzicaly "Ready for what?" He asked wondering what was happening, but he had a feeling, it was only the beginning, the beginning of something big.

Leon went on about the details of what he would have to do now since he was in posession of this weird key-like weapon, he looked down to the Keyblade wondering how he was going to pull this all off

'Well, looks like i'm finally getting my adventure after all...' Were his thoughts as he gazed at his reflection in the blunt of the blade.

***A couple of hours later***

Sora was out training with Leon doubleteaming the heartless that invaded the 2nd district of Traverse Town.

"Good." Leon shouted as Sora blasted through the back of a Giant Body heartless with a couple of well executed combos. "If you keep on working on combinations like that, soon the heartless will be obsolete to you."

Sora blasted through even more heartless attacking shadows and soldiers with not a problem, they seemed to be like grunt heartless and they only traveled in groups, you rarely ever saw one alone. He found out that the best strategy for fighting these ones were to cut them off from their supporters when they were stupid and strayed from the group.

"This is a piece of cake!" Sora said walking back over to Leon scratching the back of his head with his free hand, his keyblade was weilded in his other hand, he slung the trsty weapon across his shoulder with a smile feeling as if he was on top of the world.

"Yeah it may be easy now, but there are a lot of more powerful heartless out there." Leon said to Sora as they headed back to the inn. "But that's enough practice for today, we should probably go and check up on your friend, Aerith told me that she was stirring earlier while you were off exploring the town and stuff."

Sora smiled when he heard that Rika was doing well, he didn't know Leon for long but it was true what Yuffie had told him, he was definately a nice person, and he had teached Sora a lot in the time that they were practicing.

Sora and Leon arrived back in the green room, being greeted by the sight of a consious and smiling Rika sitting on the bed, she was talking to both Aerith and Yuffie looking rather happy.

"Rika, you're okay." Sora said with a smile as he walked over to Rika looking at her making sure everything was right, he was sure that if Rika was returned to Riku in bad condition that Riku would be sure to kick his ass for sure. Riku was always a better fighter than him and he would always beat Sora when they would practice sword fighting on the island.

"It seems that way." She replied to Sora happy that he was okay also. "You're okay right?" She asked hoping to make sure he didn't have any problems while she was sleeping or anything. "Aerith and Yuffie told me about the whole situation and everything, so since we're going to be walking around maybe we'll be able to go and find Riku and Kairi." She said with hope, she was intent on finding her brother again. She couldn't stand that they were both seperated once again.

"I'm perfect." Sora said with a courageous smile as he punched the air with his free hand, the keyblade was still clutched into his other. "And we'll definately find Riku and Kairi, I promise." He said sitting down at the table in the middle of the room.

"Well, since you've been training all day you should probably get some sleep Sora." Leon said yawning himself.

"What do you mean all day, it's been dark the whole time!" Sora said alarmingly remembering hearing the clock toll seven times not to long ago. "It should be like seven in the morning, it should be light out by now." He said confused.

Aerith smiled at Sora and chuckled slightly "In Traverse Town it's always night time, so you can see all the stars at all time, it is a wayward place where people end up after their worlds are destoryed." She said with a smile.

"Wait... Then what about Riku and Kairi, are they here too?" Rika asked timidly wondering where her brother and Kairi could be.

"It's not that easy." Aerith said softly. "Sometimes when a world is destroyed it sends the people of the world to different places."

"I'm confused." Sora said pressing his fingertips into his temples when he remembered about Riku disappearing into that big hole of darkness, and Kairi, just fading. They weren't sucked up into the orb like Him and Rika were, he assumed that was the reason why they all weren't at the same place right now.

"Me too." Rika said softly looking at Sora, she looked at his eyes remembering how they reminded her of the clear blue sky of her home.

"Well why don't you both go to sleep, you may not feel it Rika but you seem very fatigued because of how much you slept, it would be best if you got a little more rest." Aerith said softly smiling at Rika who nodded agreeing with her suggestion.

"And you should get some rest too Sora, you trained a lot and we have a lot to go over tomorrow because we should be getting you off to the other worlds as soon as possible." Leon said to Sora firmly, Sora just nodded and agreed with him.

"The blue room next door is your guy's room." Yuffie said with a smile. "Just out in the hallway, if you need any of us we're just a few footsteps away." She assured.

Rika and Sora both nodded and walked out of the Green Room and headed to the Blue Room where they would both go to sleep.

"So, are you ready for all of this?" Sora asked Rika, he seemed to be a little overwhelmed by the thought of what happened.

"I guess I am, we don't really have a choice do we, the worlds are kinda depending on you." She responded to him.

"Yeah, I guess so, it just is.... so all of a sudden, like I'm not even ready for it." Sora continued as they walked into the room looking at the bed which was a full sized mattress, just enough room for two people. Sora's cheeks flushed at the thought of sharing a bed with Rika. "Uhh..." He uttered looking at the bed once again.

"I can sleep on the couch over there, if you want me to." She said looking at the bed and then to the couch that looked kind of uncomfortable.

"No, it's okay, I'll take the couch you can have the bed." Sora said quickly trying to avoid the bed subject.

"But you were training all day and I slept all day." She said with a smile. "That couch looks kind of uncomfy." She said looking at the couch again.

"Uhhh.... well... We could share, if you want, ya'know... We can keep.... A PILLOW, that's right, a pillow between us, no funny business. I swear!" Sora stammered with his words looking from Rika to the bed.

"Sounds fair enough." She said with a smile as she flopped down on the bed sinking into plushy mattress. "Oh wow, this is softer than that bed that the others had me laying on." She said with a smile as she covered up with the blanket. Sora walked to the other side of the bed and placed a pillow beside Rika so that it would keep them seperate through the night.

'Oh god what was I thinking. SHARING A BED WITH HER! Oh god, Riku's sister.... The last thing I need to be doing is putting moves on her!' Sora thought having a mental argument with himself. 'But those eyes! She's so pretty and everything I can't take it....How am I ever going to survive this...' Sora continued mentally fighting with himself as Rika was sleeping soundly on the other side of the pillow barrier.

He forced his eyes shut hoping that sleep would come to him soon, he continued worrying about what was going on until finally he felt his consiousness slip into a soft slumber.

...

Well there ya go. Re-write three of BTBE by none other than me.

Please R&R guys, give me ideas of what you would like to happen.

I know an ocXsora pairing is a very risky take at a fanfiction but I believe that this fanfic has great potential because it actually has a good storyline and everything.

I'll have the next re-write up as soon as I possibly can.

Thanks to all ^_^

~Rika Yuki Hikari~

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