Hiya again, this was my first and best story yet. I swear it. I wrote this a loooong time ago but it took too long to upload for some reason on my old crappy computer a whiles bak. Anyways, I have to rewrite the entire 22 chapters and I barely even remember how they were. This chapter, was saved however online by some cyber-angel so mayb id b able to use this to start again. Anyways, I worked extremely hard on this story, and I hope u all like the first chapter. The story is mostly about Gippal and his life. Read and review please if you can. Byeou

FFX: 'Eyes of Crimson'

HUMOR/ ROMANCE/ ADVENTURE

CHAPTER 1: Journey Alone

Panting and footsteps, that's all you could hear. There are explosions going off; people are screaming. What's happening? Obviously something bad. A boy; he's running and crying. There's no one there for him, he's scared and alone…

The boy stopped in the middle of the burning road to get a glimpse of reality. Everything was a mess. People with blonde hair and green eyes running with their loved ones; about 40 at the least. And 'other' people who look a lot different. They didn't seem to like his people. They were using machina; what they call machines (or merely guns in this case) in his native tongue. It was very dark and the sky was clouded. The only light that shone was that of the full moon and the lighted torches of the 'other' people. They were all men and were killing anyone who was in their way. They were pushing him and his people out of the town that they had known to being called Besaid. What had happened to all the beautiful trees and sand grains? It now looked like a war field. The boy was pushed out of the way by a young man with a gun who he recognized. He also recognized him as a person he knew.

"KUOTOI!" the boy shouted as the young man stopped at hearing his name. He turned around to face the boy.

"Where are you going? The escape route is that-a-way!" Kuotoi said in a scared tone while pointing to where everyone was running.

"What is happening? Where are you going? Are we going to be okay!" the boy was beginning to panic and clutched onto Kuotoi's shirt in hopes for an answer.

At first, Kuotoi looked frightened in telling him the truth. But his face grew lighter, like an older brother who is looking out for his sibling, as he bent down on one knee to the younger boy.

"It's going to be okay. There are just some bad people who just don't want us here", he said calmly with a smile," Me and the others thought that we should hold them back while the rest of you go ahead to Rusa on the ships with our sign."

"But, what's going to happen to you? Aren't you coming with us? You can't leave me alone!" the boy began to sob as he felt a hand dry his tears for him.

"Don't you worry, I'll be fine," Kuotoi said reassuringly," It's just that if I don't do this then you and no one else will be safe. Please try to understand." He continued while standing up.

"Go now!" Kuotoi yelled to the boy but looking back with a smile.

"Kuotoi!" the boy yelled once again, "You're gonna come to Rusa when you're done right?"

Kuotoi was suddenly taken aback and took in a sudden inward gasp, though the boy could not hear. Fear took the shape of his face. Fear, sadness, despair, yet hope as well. Swallowing all these emotions, he suddenly turned his head back to face the boy with a cocky smile.

"Yeah," he said full of no type of emotion, "I'll be there to come get you. We can travel all over Spira when I do."

"Promise?" asked the boy with a determined yet teary face.

"… Promise!" Kuotoi said as he shooed the boy to go.

The boy started to back up slightly with little steps until Kuotoi yelled for him to run fast. And he did. His feet making a rhythm with his pacing breath as he ran as fast as he could while stepping on the burnt tree branches toward the large groups of his people while being pushed on the ships. Trying to look back, his head snapped quickly back to action as a man who was yelling for everyone to get on fast was throwing survivors onboard. The boy ran through the ship trying to get to the deck so he could look back to see Kuotoi although he doubted being able to see him from so far away. Still, when he reached the top, he looked frantically with the others at the burning town as the ship began to pass through the water. With a small glimpse, he saw a bunch of standing men in two groups. One being his people getting ready to arm their machina and the other enemies approaching from afar. Still, he could slightly see one figure waving his arms like crazy in his direction; it was Kuotoi! Ecstatically, the boy waved his arms laughing and grinning madly. People who were mourning looked at him like he was crazy, but he didn't care. He felt that everything was going to be alright, that is until, he lost sight again when the figure became smaller, and smaller.

It had been 6 days since the boy had been on the ship with his fellow people. The time was 3:24am, and the water was still as the boat grew quiet while everyone slept. He was lying on a cloth on the deck of the ship, along with 23 more people (it was a big boat) daydreaming while looking up at the sky with his hands behind his head just thinking.

"You know, they say that if you look at the sky for a very long time, you might see an angel fall." Came a voice from behind.

The boy quickly sat up and turned his body only to be greeted by a woman who looked to be 29 with golden hair that hung to her shoulders. She was wearing an Al Bhed stretch suit in colors of pink, orange, and black with a hanging black belt attached as well. Black boots came up to her knees and she had goggles around her neck. She stood there in the middle of the deck allowing the moonlight to show off her pale skin and dark green eyes.

"Who's 'they'?" the boy asked while looking back up.

"Why our people of course," the woman said while approaching him and sitting alongside as she too gazed at the stars, "We Al Bhed really do stand out a lot in Spira nowadays huh?"

"Yeah, just like the stars," the boy said dreamily while locking his gaze on the sky still as before.

The woman turned to get a glimpse of the boy before her. He looked to be about 7. His skin was slightly pale but had a distinguishing color with the shine in his beautiful, half light half dark, green eyes. He had blonde hair like the rest of their kind, and it stuck up in a kind of way to look as if someone ruffled it, yet it was still neat in a way. Noticing the glare, the boy turned to face the woman. He looked so familiar to her for some reason.

"What- what is your name?" she asked in a caring tone.

"Gippal," he said still confused, "and yours?"

"Nija. It was nice to meet you Gippal." She said while turning her gaze towards the ocean after getting up from the floor. "But tell me; is there anyone else you know on this ship?"

"No. Well, I had a brother, but he is back fighting on the island," Gippal said while smiling a little, "I can't wait till he comes back. Then we're going to travel and stuff all over the world and count all the stars in the sky."

All was quiet for a moment. Gippal lost in thoughts and Nija in depression. She suddenly began to walk away towards the commanders' lodge.

"Try to get some sleep Gippal. We will be arriving at Rusa shortly. You're gonna need your strength tomorrow when we land; people are going to be asking us all a lot of questions and many other things will happen."

Gippal began to lie back down and got underneath his sheet that he shared with another man beside him until another question came up in his mind.

"Nija, do you think Rusa is safe?" he said as he watched the startled Nija look back at him with consideration.

"I know Rusa is safe. It always had been for me; it's been nearly 30 years and I'm still here with no problems so you wouldn't have to worry about it either. Now go to sleep, get some rest." She said one final time as she disappeared.

Gippal looked at the sky one last time and slowly felt his eyes flutter closed…

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"Where am I?" said a young girl while looking around. Everywhere was dark and she awoke on a road. She was wearing a white short sleeved night gown that was a little torn on the bottom. Her dark hair was flowing down her back into the center. She had on no shoes, no real clothes, she didn't know where she was. But most importantly, she didn't even know who she was. She was scared and shivering and began to cry as she heard sudden whispers from the corner.

"Huh. Someone? Please help me!" she said out loud.

Suddenly, the something from the corner began to pace; she could hear it and started to run- fast. She could tell it was gaining on her as she cried for a mother, someone to hold her; it was all she could remember UNTIL…

The whole town could have awakened from the screeching sound of the screaming little girl as the center of the streets echoed…