Broken Dolls

Rated T

"To everyone in Spira my family was perfect, it was perfect ... to everyone else but us that is"

Neeka is a fifteen yr girl, the daughter of Rikku and Gippal infact, an original story as Neeka struggles to understand her parents increasing coldness towards each other, how it happened and why

Chapter One:

To everyone in Spira my family was perfect

My mother Rikku, was a summoners guardian, the Al Bhed princess, she helped save Spira twice and she led the Sanubian and Bikanel digs.

My father was some sort of Machina prodigy, helped defeat Vegnagun, fought in the Al Bhed war and was leading the Machine Faction at 19

Such people should make the perfect family, but they didn't.

Neeka walked into the dull kitchen, her family moved around Spira so much, that her mother Rikku had given up trying to decorate, other then a few homely touches.

The kitchen was bland place full of beiges and browns.

Around a simple circular wooden table sat one of the most famous Al Bhed families in Spira.

Her mother Rikku was a woman to idolize, beautiful with an endless amount of energy, she had the stressful job of running both the Sanubia and Bikanel desert excavation teams, sometimes she did it with ease, other times you could find her with her head in hair hands next to a packet of panadol.

Seated opposite her mother was her father Gippal. Gippal was a strong proud man, he ran the Machine Faction, a team now solely devoted to Machina technology and research. Currently he was poring over the 'Spiran Gazette', coffee in hand and shaking his head at an article that critizied one of Baralai's polical decisions.

"I told him it would backfire" Gippal said

"The Bandai's attacking Bevelle had nothing to do with the Baralai cutting the Military budget" Rikku said, sipping her tea and studying a clipboard intently

"A bit of a coincidence that the Bandai's attacked as soon as Bevelle defence was cut in half" Dad said agressively

"Baralai made that announcement two days before the attack, the Bandai's raid went without a flaw, they needed more then two days to plan it ... it has to of been a coincidence Gippal" Rikku said, looking up from her clipboard.

"Who really cares? I'm sicking of hearing about it" My brother said loudly interrupting our parents. My brother Khan was sixteen, soon to be seventeen. Khan was a spitting image of our father in looks and personality, he absolutely idolized dad.

Khans dream was to run the Machine Faction one day as and right now he sat at the table tinkering with some broken Machina called "Osirius VA18"

My brother was right though, we were all sick of hearing about the Bandai's raid on Bevelle.

The Bandai's were a misfit group devoted to uncovering the secrets of Yevon that has still not been uncovered, and too prove to Spira that Baralai, the Bevellian leader was really an evil dictator who wanted to resurrect the Yevon beliefs and take over the rest of Spira ... of course the Bandai's were insane, but it still didn't stop them from causing problems.

Just last week the Bandai's stormed into Bevelle, terrified the citizens, fought the surprised soldiers with ease and raided the temple, the several Bandai's that raided the temple while the battle was raging still hadn't submerged, many believed they had lost their way in the dark depths of the temple and starved to death, other believed they had gotten away after all.

No-one really knew so everyone just concentrated on who to shove the blame on to ... they chose Baralai, who just two days before the attack, had announced publicly that he had recently cut the Bevelle defense budget and decided to spend more on education instead.

"Who in their right mind would announce the budget cuts publicly" Dad said, putting extra strain on the word publicly.

"Bevellians have a right to know where their taxes are going" Mum said offhandedly as she bit her lip and stared at some complicated figures on her clipboard.

"I might have to stay back at the Bikanel camp tonight" she added

"Why?" I asked disappointedly, we had plans to go out into Luca tonight

"Mishaai messed up some co-ordinates last night and we lost three weeks of work' Mum said exhaustedly

"Mishaai's always been a complete moron, demote him and send him to the faction and I'll give him some filing to do" Dad said smirking.

"Mishaai has his flaws but he's useful" Mum defended

Dad rolled his eyes and went back to the paper, mum always got defencive when he tried to interfere with her work, even when she knew he was right and dad got just as snappy if mum tried to interfere with the Faction.

Mum looked at the clock on the wall and pulled sun streaked blonde hair into a ponytail then she pored her remaining tea down the sink.

"Well I gotta go now kiddo's" and then she hugged me from behind and kissed my cheek and apologized for breaking our Luca plans and that she would make it up to me.

I knew never take that seriously though ... Mishaai would always loose co-ordinates, they would always make a huge new find, mum would always find a huge breakthrough in her research, it never really ended.

Mum ruffled Khans hair and stared down proudly at the fixed "Osirius VA18" which was crawling around the table and headbutting the cereal box.

"wow you fixed one of the smallest fiddliest Machinas ever invented in 30 minutes"
Mum laughed, she was always positively thrilled when we did something clever with Machina, regardless, while dad always pushed us to improve the perfect.

"Bye Gippal" Mum said with disinterest and walked out the door.

Dad just grunted in response, and didn't look up from his paper.

(Incredibly short, but I just wanted to introduce the family, if u sensed some sort of coldness between Rikku and Gippal you weren't imagining it, I just wanted to do something different, fan fiction based on them two seems to focus more on them two falling in love, but I wanted to focus on the angst of married life, I do realize that Rikku and Gippal did not seem very canon, that was intentional ... there true selves are lurking just beneath all the angst of their "perfect" marriage)