A/N: Woot! The sequel to Caelum: The Red Eye is finally up and running! Wow, I've got so much to say right now, but I don't know how to convey it... How about a little summary? This story takes place two years after the chapter before the epilogue and one year and six months after the epilogue. So a little time has passed for our favorite characters. What have they been up to? This chapter should answer those questions and ask a whole lot more. *hehe* But as for the new readers that's discovering these stories for the first time and want to know whether or not you should check out the first before reading this, you can if you want to. There are a few references from that story in here but they're pretty small and you'll probably just glance at them and not notice anything. It would help to read it, but that's entirely up to you.

So, with that said, I hope you enjoy the very first chapter of this story and I look forward to hearing your thoughts in your reviews.

Summary: His past has come back to haunt him. In order to protect the ones he holds dear, he has to retrieve not one, but three items long thought to have been lost.
Rating: T (language, blood, violence, mild suggestive themes)

~1~
The Arrest

"We have resolved to endure the unendurable and suffer what is unsufferable."
-Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (reign: 1926-1989)

If any person asked about the man that was walking along the street with a skip in his step, they'd say that he was up to something. But with the grin on his lips and the dazed look in his eyes, one could say that he was in love. It was true, of course, and he lets his girlfriend of one year know every day.

At times, the man still couldn't believe it. He'd wake up in the morning and expect to see the canopy of the Amazon jungle or a crumbling roof in the Middle East. Instead, he wakes up and sees a head of red hair and a pale complexion that would make a porcelain doll jealous. Then she opens her eyes and he's lost in her violet sets.

Yup, Sora Villiers was a lucky man.

Everyday in the last year, he always finds something new with her. More than what he had found during their adventure together across parts of Europe and outside of their roles as the archaeologist and the ex-mercenary.

Like that time when they were walking through the park and were just about to be mugged. He remembered the exchange that they had (and by exchange, they played rock, paper, scissors) before he let Kairi kick the knife out of the muggers hand and the poor man ran screaming.

"Is this how you end all your dates?" he asked with a laugh as they continued their walk down the silent walkway, hands linking together.

"Only the ones that I like," she teased him as he let out another laugh.

"Don't I feel special then."

A comfortable silence fell over them as they took in the scenery around them. The night was warm and the flicker of the street lights hummed a tranquil sound.

"Sora?" Kairi nearly whispered, but loud enough to grab his attention.

"Hm?"

"You're crazy, right?"

He gave her a crooked eyebrow.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

The words caught up in her head as realization dawned on her.

"I'm sorry. That's not what I meant."

"Then what do you mean?" he asked, giving her a skeptical look.

"Don't you..." she trailed.

"Don't I what?"

She stopped before him as she looked quizzically up at him.

"How do you feel about me, Sora?"

He let out a small laugh.

"Now I get what you mean by crazy."

It was her turn to give him a crooked eyebrow.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"You know that I never felt the same for anybody before you. You're the one that drives me nuts," he said as he looked straight into her eyes.

"And?"

"You want to hear me say 'I love you', right?"

"If it isn't too much to ask."

"Kairi," he sighed, taking both her hands into his. "I'm crazy about you and I want to do things to you that'll drive you up the wall." She blushed a tomato red and seemed to thank the dim lights. "I'm insane about you, Kairi."

She gave him an endearing look that was somewhat teasing.

"You still haven't said it."

"Why say it when you know the answer?"

She shrugged.

"Reassurance, I guess."

"Kairi," he said as he took a step closer to her. "I'm in love with you."

Sora walked out of a store with confidence swelling in his chest as a large grin graced his face. Today was the day. All of his planning was going to be fulfilled. No doubts crossed his mind as the year replayed in his head. Some memories were good, others... not so great. He'd prefer not to remember, but some things inch into his head that he wished would ebb away.

"You and the elderly must be the only people in the world to still read the newspaper." He looked up from the newspaper to see the lovely red head staring down at him with a playful smile. A smug grin graced his face as he saw that she was only wearing his t-shirt.

"You calling me old, Farron?" he teased her back as he watched her take a sip of coffee from her mug. Her eyes glancing upward, she appeared to be deep in thought.

"Hmm... maybe," she answered as she stepped away to pour herself another cup.

"For your information, I'm only looking at the obituaries." He watched her lift an eyebrow.

"Why? Someone you might recognize?"

"You never know," he shrugged as she looked at him like another head had popped out of his shoulder. "What? I have a lot of enemies, I just want to see if any of them were in town, or at least their aliases. It gives me less to worry about."

"I'll never understand your line of work," she sighed.

"I'm fine with that. The less you know the better."

"I'm trusting you on that." She trailed her fingers across his shoulders as she walked back over to him, earning a shiver from him. "So, old man, are you up for some exhausting work?"

He looked up to her and saw the lust glinting in her eyes.

"How about we skip the metaphor match and go straight to the bedroom?" he smirked.

"So early in the morning? You think you can handle that?"

"I think you know what I'm capable o – huh?" his eyes glanced down at the paper for one second as a name surfaced to his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Kairi asked as she looked worried down at him, his eyes never leaving the newspaper.

"Somebody finally did my dad in," he announced as she held in a gasp.

"Are you sure?"

"That's his name and birthday," he pointed to the obituary that held his father's name as Kairi sank down to the chair next to him and grabbed his hand.

"You okay, Sora?" she asked with concern lacing her features.

"You kidding me? I'm ecstatic."

Shock traced her features as she drew her hand away from his like it was a toad.

"What?"

"The asshole can finally rot in hell."

"So... you're not upset?"

"He left my mom while she was pregnant with me and has been scamming people for money, which no doubt has come back to bite him in the ass from time to time, and basically called me a mistake. Why should I be upset?"

She sighed, she can't argue with that logic.

"Good point. But he's still your dad."

"He hasn't been my dad since the day I was born," he grunted as he took a deep breath to look at his red head with a suggestive glance. "So, are we off to the bedroom or what?"

"You know what?" she asked as she got up from her seat. "I'm going to get myself ready and leave for school. Students don't teach themselves."

She sauntered off as Sora baffled at her statement.

"Oh come on! That's really stupid!" He received only silence. "He's an asshole, Kairi!" he continued to shout but as her silence prevailed, he slumped into his chair and stared up at the ceiling. "Two seconds and everything went blue."

Kairi didn't speak to him again until two days later when he finally apologized for his behavior. Even though he thought he was in his right mind when he said those things. Regardless, they've moved on and had that fairy tale life style again.

He held in a laugh. A couple years ago he would've thought the idea to be absolutely ridiculous. Him and Kairi. Living together under normal circumstances. But here he was, about to meet his red head for a lunch date at the very same café where he'd met her again after six months of silence.

It wasn't his idea to go into hiding for that long. Riku had suggested it so that the two would disappear under the radar. After finding out that a cop infiltrated the Organization, it would be a no-brainer that he would report Sora and Riku to every agency in the world.

So, the two men spent six months hiding in jungles in South America and in rat holes in every slum until no one was looking for them. Then information came in from none other than Ansem that no one was looking for a 'Sora Villiers' but a 'Tidus Caelum' instead. Riku had an easier time. Seeing as he hadn't committed a crime since he left Xehanort's bunch, no one would suspect him for a thing. There was no proof that he was in the group and no evidence of his involvement. He was free to roam around without looking over his shoulder.

The two were free men and are able to go wherever they please.

Sora spotted the café and quickly made his way over. Nervousness suddenly gripped his nerves like a vice as questions of doubt raced through his mind. What's going to happen? How will this end? What will he do?

However, as soon as he saw his lovely red head through the window, waiting patiently for him, his doubts cleared and knew how she would react. He gingerly tapped the glass and watched as she looked up from grading a paper and sent him a loving smile. He stepped in to the café and made his over to her table.

"Hello there, beautiful," he said as he pecked Kairi's lips before taking his seat across from her.

"Hey," she replied as she clicked her pen before putting it down.

"Been waiting long?"

"Nah. Just arrived," she smiled. "So, why did you want to meet here?"

"Memories, I guess. It's a good place, don't you think?"

She laughed.

"Sure," she shrugged. "So what's this all about?"

He called her earlier and asked if they could meet up for lunch. She had no problems, but she found it strange that Sora would pick the one place where they had reunited a year ago. The last time they were here was six months ago, when they celebrated the one year anniversary of their reunion.

He gave a teasing smile as he leaned his arms on the table.

"Thought this would be a good place," he simply stated as she lifted an eyebrow.

"For what?" she asked curiously.

Nervousness flooded back into his mind. The words that he practiced in his head suddenly disappeared and he found himself searching high and wide for them.

"Kairi. You mean a lot to me and well..." he started and found his heart caught in his throat.

"Okay. And what?" she probed, finding herself concerned with the sudden change in his appearance.

"This all too new for me..." he voiced his thoughts.

"You've said that a few times." It was true, he did say that throughout the year that they've been together.

"And I mean it too," he stated as he reached across the table and took her hand into his. "There's something I want to ask you."

"What is it?"

He took a deep breath and thought "to hell with it" and took the plunge.

"Kairi, would you-"

"Sora Villiers?"

Sora mentally cursed at the person that had the gall to interrupt him.

"Yeah?" he asked, not looking up.

"Would you please stand up."

Sora found that strange. Why would this stranger want him to stand up. Unless... no. He didn't recognize the voice so it can't be one of his enemies. Who then?

He decided to oblige the man's request and started getting out of his seat.

"What's this about-hey!" Before he could get his question out, the man before him swiftly took his arm, twisted it behind his back, took hold of Sora's neck, and slammed him on the table.

"What are you doing?!" he heard Kairi yell.

"Sora Villiers, or shall I say Tidus Caelum," Sora heard the man and instantly felt his stomach drop and defeat embraced his features as he felt the handcuffs on his wrists. "You are under arrest for aiding the master terrorist, Xehanort. You have the right to remain silent and anything you say or do will be held against you in the court of law. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you by the District of Columbia."

The man then forcefully lifted him up by his shoulder and guiding him out of the café.

"Sora. No!" he heard Kairi's frantic yell as they left through the door and towards a black SUV. He watched the man open the door and he took the chance to look at his red head and give her a reassuring smile, only to see her horror struck face.

"Kairi, it's okay. We both knew this day would come," he said as he felt a tug on his arm again and he found himself in the back seat of the SUV.

"Excuse me, I would like to know who's pressing charges," he heard Kairi ask the man. Sora managed to steal a glance at the man, only to see the back of his blond head facing the brunette.

"That's none of your concern, Ma'am."

"Yes it is. My name is Dr. Kairi Farron. My grandfather, Ansem Farron, the director of Interpol, dropped the charges held against Sora," she explained to the man.

"Then it's him you should to talk to. Ma'am."

The man closed the car door, locking in Sora and preventing him from escaping.

He always hated the color orange, and now he knew why. He was forced to put on the jumpsuit as soon as he arrived at the prison. It was a tacky color and it didn't go well with the silver handcuffs. He wasn't complaining though, mainly because he had a mosquito buzzing around his head and it took form of the blond haired man that arrested him.

Sora finally got a good look at the man. His blond hair was curled at the tips and held up by gel, his eyebrows were furrowed while his brown eyes bore down at Sora like an insect waiting to meet its end by a newspaper, and his color choice seemed to be green as his clothes were in some variations of the color along with a white dress shirt and dark green neck tie.

The man was currently holding a pretty thick file as he paced around the interrogation room with Sora sitting at a steel table with his handcuffs tied to the concrete floor.

"Interpol, FBI, CIA, Mossad, MI6, and the list just goes on and on," the man listed as he snapped the folder shut and sent a hard glare at the brunette. "Gotta say, Villiers. You must be the world's most dumbest criminal. Coming back to the one place you'll know wouldn't hesitate to put you on death row."

Sora let out a slight laugh.

"I didn't come back here to get caught if that's what you're thinking," he answered.

"You trying to tell me you came back just so you can be with that girl?"

"May sound stupid for you, but that girl is worth killing for."

"So you killed for her then? Maybe we should bring her in too."

"No!" Sora jumped and then realized that it was a trap and he fell right for it. "The people I killed were before I met her. Anybody else after was to protect her. They were very bad people," he explained.

"So you thought you'd justify your actions by killing those that would in fact hurt her." Sora didn't answer to that. "Is that why you had this in your pocket?" The man stuck his hand into his own pocket and retrieved a small plastic evidence bag. He placed it before Sora, and he could see the small red velvet box through the clear plastic. "Must be pretty damn special then. So, how did you meet?"

Sora held in a grunt. He wasn't going to be riled up by this man.

"That has nothing to do with this," he stated.

"I'm sorry. After all, it is my job to interrogate," the man said with sarcasm dripping his words. To that, the corner of Sora's mouth curled up into a smirk.

"Gotta say, you're doing a damn good job. Why else would I be cooperating?"

Suddenly, the side of his face stung from pain as he watched the man before him retract his fist and shook off the dull pain.

"It's pretty unwise to mock me, Villiers. Now tell me, why should a jury listen to a goddamn word you say?"

"They would sympathize with me." He earned a raised eyebrow from the blond man. "Think about it, I was an impressionable eighteen-year-old when I met Xehanort. Thought everything he said was the word of God. I don't know what he has told you, but I can assure you that everything he says are mostly lies. He's a master manipulator. How else would I go along with everything he said?"

"Because you were an impressionable eighteen-year-old. A dog to his master. But how is it that you manage to get away when every cop in Peru stormed his hide out?"

"Something tells me the cops down there didn't find all the secret passages," Sora began. "Xehanort's not an idiot. He's ten steps ahead of everyone and whatever bullshit he fed you would only benefit him. But something tells me that he's still pissed at me for getting away for so long. How long has it been? Four... five years now?"

"You don't know when to shut up, do ya? You nervous?"

"About what? Going to jail? That's nothing," Sora scoffed. "I've been to other jails in Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, you name it. Even then, they don't hold a candle to the hell I've already seen with Xehanort. So what did he tell you anyway? Catch this guy and you'll be closer to saving the world?"

It was the man's turn to smile mockingly at him.

"Well, I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news. But Xehanort is no longer our biggest concern." Sora lifted an eyebrow. "Didn't you hear? He was killed in a prison riot last year."

The sole door to the room opened and a prison guard stepped in and walked towards the brunette.

"I'm sorry, Special Agent Dincht. Villiers has visitors," the guard said as he unlocked Sora's tie to the floor and lifted him by the arm.

"Well, I'd say that's good timing. But I'm the last person to say that, right?" he mused, remembering his interrupted question earlier in the day.

The guard that held the brunette guided him to the visitor's windows, where the most dangerous can talk with friends, colleagues, and loved ones without doing anything stupid. He sat down on the stool and, as best he could with his handcuffed wrists, picked the phone off its cradle from where it was sitting on the wall and rested the receiver to his ear. He glanced out the window and saw his silver haired friend who recently had a haircut and sporting a baseball cap. Sora understood why his friend did so, he would've done the same in his position.

"Hey," he heard Riku's deep voice through the phone.

"What're you doing here?" Sora asked.

"Thought I'd say hi, and Kairi contacted me."

"Is she here?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah, you'll talk to her in a minute. I'd like to know what happened."

Sora rolled his eyes, not wanting to relive everything in his head.

"I don't know what happened. This Special Agent Dincht just came up to us and arrested me on the spot. Somebody must've ratted me out," he eyed his friend and watched as Riku shook his head.

"Don't look at me, I'd be just as deep as you if they got me too." Sora let out a frustrated sigh. He hated this predicament very much. "Got any ideas?"

The brunette straightened up as he looked seriously at Riku.

"Maybe, but it's stupid."

"Try me."

"Him."

He watched the silver haired man's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"Sora you do know that he's dead. Right?"

"Do you honestly believe everything you hear on the news?"

"Point taken. But why?"

"Don't have a clue. No offense, but he should be after your ass, not mine."

"None taken. If I were him, I'd go after me too." Riku let out a sigh as the brunette watched him try to connect the dots in his head. "Sora, did you do something that would piss him off?"

"I dunno. Maybe because I ran?"

"If that were the case, maybe I should go into hiding. Never know, right?"

Sora nodded in agreement.

"I want to talk to her," he said, feeling that his conversation with Riku was over and desperately wanting to talk to someone that wasn't too heavily involved. He watched the silver haired man get up and signal to someone he couldn't see. Then his red head sat down and lifted the phone up to her ear, staring at him through the glass that separated the two.

"Hey," Kairi simply said, giving him a worried look as he smiled at her.

"Hey, babe," he said to her.

"Sora, what's this about?" she asked worriedly.

"Apparently, somebody ratted me out for what I've done before I met you."

She lifted a skeptical eyebrow.

"Why now?"

"Don't know. Maybe they have a sore spot?"

She averted her gaze to the table in front of her.

"I talked to Ansem. He said that the charges were in fact dropped, anything else is beyond him. Even with his status."

"So this is for something else then..." the brunette trailed as a thought crossed his mind. "Kairi? Remember after we met and I told you about my time with Xehanort?"

"Yeah?"

"I've got a theory, but maybe he's the one that put me in here?"

"Why? I thought he was dead."

"As I've told our friend here, I don't have any idea. But he's a master mind though, so it wouldn't be beyond him." Her face was downcast and it was one of those looks that he thought he would never see again. "Hey, look at me." She did as she was told and brought her gaze back to his reassuring smile. "Everything's going to be all right. Whoever's pulling the strings, they don't know who they're messing with."

"Sora... What if you get the death penalty?"

"Then I'll be an old man on death row before that happens." She didn't find that funny at all. She would've scowled at him if it weren't for the fact that she was concerned for his well being. "Hey, don't make that face. It's going to be all right."

"Sora... I thought you died in Ios. I may have looked all right to my colleagues but I was still hurting. I don't want to go through that again."

"And you won't. I promise that I'll get back to you. You're strong, Kairi. You can get through this," he said as he put his hand on the glass that separated the two. "Love you, Kairi."

She brought her own hand up to the glass and placed it where Sora's hand laid.

"Love you too." She put the phone back on the cradle and got up from her seat. Sora did the same only with a guard dragging him by his arm. On his way out, he saw the blond haired Special Agent and held in an annoyed groan as he passed by the man.

"You shouldn't of lied to her," the blond man said.

"At least she's at ease."

"So what's this about Ios? That where you kidnapped her?"

"Nope. That was here in DC," the brunette teased, earning a glare from the Agent. "Gotta bump up the security in the ventilation shafts."

"Don't mock me, Villiers."

Sora merely shrugged.

"Not my fault you have a deplorable system."

A/N: Huh? Well? Did you pee your pants yet? No? Just wait. This story is going to be a doozy in comparison to the last.

That said, don't forget to review using the review box below and let me know what you think.

See you with the next chapter!

Much love.