Title: Road Trip

Summery: Yuna, Rikku, Paine, and Baralai go on a road trip across Spira. For Rikku's 18th birthday. People will eventually join them along the way. Rikku-x-Gippal

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X-2. Simple yeah?

A/N: hello. It's me, Jade. No one knows me. And this is my first story on this account. I've got like…9 on my other one. I probably shouldn't be talking about this. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to have 2 account, and in truth, I don't actually give a damn. (I didn't read the rule thingy majig) Enjoy it. And if you review, I might actually finish this one. I hope I do. I've never finished a story before…I'm talking too much…sorry.

Prolog

Rikku was 8 years old, and Bikinel Desert still lived.

'I remember this place' Rikku thought in this dream. Yes, she still had her memory and thoughts. She'd been here so many times, she knew exactly what would happen. Her mind wouldn't let her forget. She wanted to forget. Why did this have to happen right before her birthday? The older Rikku followed the younger Rikku out of the door and into the night sky.

It was cold. Really, REALLY cold. But Rikku was used to it. After all, she'd lived here all her life. She started walking off towards the secret sand dunes that her, Gippal, Yami, and Vlem "discovered" It took several minutes, but Rikku didn't mind. After all, night was pretty. It was all dark, and secretive, and the stars just shined like a small beacon of hope in those hard days. Rikku still didn't understand. She doubted she ever would. Her mind wondered to the people that went to this special place, where they were all happy, and they had fun, and got whatever they wanted. They even got to have all the machina in the world! Mama got to go to this special place, and it made her want to go too. She really wanted to see Mama again. She would never admit it, but she missed her.

The older Rikku was, like always, sad that she'd get to see 2 friends for the last time until she had the dream again. Gippal was still alive, and they'd got to see eachother quite a few times over the commsphere. She missed Gippal, he was her only connection to home and her 2, now dead, friends. They'd died. No one had ever found the corpses. When ever She, Yuna, and Paine went to work in the Bikinel, she always hoped to find the skeleton's and give them a proper burial. The only time she'd ever told Gippal this, he'd gotten that distant look in his eye and said that he doubted that dream could come true. To this day, she wasn't sure why.

"RIKKU! RIKKU, OVER HERE!" Her three friends shouted to her from a small distance. She grinned and started running to them. There they were, Gippal, Vlem, and Yami.

Gippal had bright blonde hair that was set up in spikes. His blue eyes were hardly noticeable because of the night, yet, like always, he'd get that sparkle in his eye whenever they were all together.

He never has that sparkle anymore…

He was about 3 inches taller than her, and constantly reminded her of it.

Vlem was taller than him though. By about an inch. Vlem had light, silvery blue hair that he got from his human mother. Yes, Vlem was half-Al bhed. His eyes were as green as Rikku's, and his twin sister.

Yes, that would be Yami. Yami was Rikku's only female friend. And the only person she was allowed to hang out with during the day. No one knew of their nightly outings except the four who'd came to them. Yami looked exactly like Vlem except she was only slightly shorter. About the height of Gippal actually. Rikku hated being the shortest one there. It made her feel like they were older than her than they actually were. Gippal was 9. Yami was too. Vlem was 10. It was weird, but Yami was born December 31, at 11:53, and Vlem was born January 1st, at 12:01.

Yami would be turning 19 next month

Rikku got to Gippal first and she hugged him fiercely. After all, it was hard to have to see him at least once every day, and not be able to talk to him or even look at him much. He hugged her back.

"Hey there Shorty." He said playfully as he let go with one hand and ruffled her hair. She grinned and let go of him.

He hasn't called me shorty since that night…

Next came Vlem. They hugged each other with the same enthusiasm. Greetings were given and they teased each other for a minute before Rikku let go and looked at Yami.

"Hey Yami!" She said happily, just as Yami said

"Long no time see Riri." A few more greetings were shot out, and then everyone looked at Gippal. Gippal's father owned a weapon store. That's why they came out every night where no one could see them. After all, with all those people going to the special place, they needed to "train for the inevitable" Gippal's father had told them once. When Pops, Brother, and Gippal's father had left for a week somewhere in the desert. This was 2 years ago. After that, the four got together and "practiced" with various weapons from the weapon shop.

It ended up being more helpful then we all imagined.

Gippal pointed to a lump only feet away from them and everyone ran to it. The bag was quickly opened, and any sharp, metal objects were passed out.

Rikku was given the daggers she had been using since the day they'd started this. They were daggers only used by the Al Bhed, because most people wouldn't understand how they worked. The daggers were blood red. Where the handle would have normally been, there was a jagged type circle, with a piece of metal in the middle. Sticking out of the circle was long, sharp metal stem. That was the actual dagger part. Rikku quickly stuck both of her hands in the circle of each dagger.

Vlem was given the biggest weapon in there. Actually, Rikku realized with surprise, Vlem had been carrying it. Which meant that his father had most likely bought it. Suddenly, she remembered something Yami had told her that day, and shrugged. It was a sword, and it was HUMOGOUS! Rikku had tried picking it up once…she'd fallen down, with it on top of her. They had to give her a potion because it had struck her right through the leg. She shuddered at the memory. The sword had a long handle, about as long as one of her daggers actually. But the blade was about as tall as she was and at the top, right before it went into the handle, there was a gold design. It was only about an inch taller than Vlem. ONLY! She unconsciously glared at him. He looked at her questioningly, and she shrugged and instead glared at the sword. He laughed at her. She rolled her eyes.

Yami was already practicing against Gippal with her weapon. This was by far the coolest sword Rikku had ever seen. It wasn't nearly as long as Vlem's sword, but it was at least twice as long. The handle was short, and fit perfectly into Yami's hand. The blade itself was a work of art. It was jagged, and sort of curved at the end. At the top of the blade, it was black, the black faded into blue, and the blue faded into silver, at the end of the blade. All through it, silver, thin, intricate lines ran across the edges, and they seemed to glow. To sum it up: it was awesome. But, it was making Yami lose to Gippal.

Gippal's weapon was very…Al Bhed like. It was a gun. That's it, a gun. A large, heavy, powerful gun. But that's all it was, a gun. So what if it was the size of Rikku's entire arm, and was about 2 times wider than Rikku's calf. At least Rikku's could pick this one up. Though, she did have to use both hands. And at the moment, it was shooting silent bullets at one of Yami's legs. She was blocking them, but just barely. They looked remarkable, and experienced, especially for 9 year olds. She wondered if she looked like that when she was practicing…

"I hope he brought potions…" Vlem said from behind her, watching them go at it. Gippal had a revenging look in his eyes, and Rikku couldn't help but laugh at what Yami's teasings did to him. He looked as if he was about to kill the world. Suddenly, he looked at Rikku angrily and pointed the gun at her leg, Rikku had no time to react and the bullet shot through her skin, making her yelp in pain.

Bastard…he never did apologise for that

Yami and Vlem looked at him in surprise.

"I hate it when people laugh at me, besides, I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't brought potions." Yami rolled her eyes and ran to the bag to get a potion, while Vlem picked Rikku up only to set her softly on the sand. Rikku just glared at Gippal.

"What'd you do that for you big meanie?" She finally yelled. Gippal gulped.

"You were laughing at me…" He whispered, shifty eyed, as if waiting for one of the twins to start running at him with a lit torch, yelling 'traitor'.

"NO I WASN'T! YOU SHOULD ASK BEFORE SHOOTING PEOPLE IN THE LEG!" Rikku screamed at him. His eyes grew wide.

"Oh…" He started to slowly back away. Yami ran to Rikku and poured a purple, watered down potion on Rikku's shot leg. It immediately felt better, and Rikku couldn't help but sigh in relief. She hated pain. Then the situation was grasped, and she quickly got up and started running (limping actually, her leg was still sore) at Gippal, daggers in hand. He just stood there petrified, while Yami and Vlem cheered her on.

The older Rikku was now crying in her sleep. The worst part was about to happen, and a lot of her wanted to wake up screaming about pain, and the twins. She resisted the urge, she knew she needed to watch this. After all, this dream only came when there was a reason. Gippal…

Rikku and Gippal started fighting, well…Rikku was attacking Gippal in blind rage, while Gippal was just trying to keep her from killing him in her blind rage.

She turned to look at Vlem and Yami, waiting for them to keep cheering, like they always did in the dream. The thing was, what she saw made her gasp, knowing it was audible in real life as well. Instead of cheering like they always did in the dream, they were looking around them, with wide eyes, and Rikku could see why. All around them were dozens of Lupine's.. Rikku unconsciously screamed. She'd been there when it happened, but she hadn't seen it this early. It was painful.

Rikku stopped fighting when Yami let out a scream. She realized why. All around them were feinds.

"If we get separated, we head strait for home. We lock ourselves in our house. Right?" Vlem called in panic. Everyone nodded and let out gasps as the fiends attacked. As if it was a reflex, the first fiend that jumped at her was down on the ground, decapitated. Rikku cried out in surprise. She'd just killed something…oh no…oh no…she ran. As fast as she could, she ran. How could she kill something. There was red liquid on one of the blades. She cried out again. She'd killed something. She heard fiends running behind her, and footsteps next to her. She chanced and glance, and saw Gippal running too, the same scared and surprised expression etched on his face. How could they kill something? She looked around for Vlem and Yami, but didn't see them. They were probably trying to run too.

'It's okay…it's okay…it's okay…' Rikku thought. Of course, they were fine. She'd wake up in the morning and go with Yami and play with useless machina, like they always did. Yeah, she'd chance a glance at Vlem and Gippal, and they'd wait a few days before coming back out at night to practice. Yeah…that's what would happen…She threw herself into her house and ran to the bathroom to throw up. She'd taken the life of something…

The scene changed, it showed everyone outside, looking at Cid with worry, surprise, and sadness etched on their face. Rikku was crying silently, Gippal hugging her like an older brother would. Brother looked lost and confused.

"I'm sorry…we can't find them. No one knows where they went…we'll send out a search party to find them." Cid said with a look of grief upon his face. No one noticed the two lonely kids, striken with the pain of loosing friends. Knowing what happened, but not allowed to say anything. If they did…they would most likely be run out of Bikinel Desert.

In Kilika Island, in the same room, three girls woke up screaming of the dream all of them shared. But only Rikku fully understood it. Paine and Yuan looked at her questioningly.

"I won't talk about it. Forget it, and go back to bed." They had never heard, nor seen anyone so serious in their entire lives.

A/N: There you go, "mission accomplished" So to say. I hope you liked the prolog, and I understand it probably made no sense what-so-ever. You'll learn more about it later. Also, if you didn't figure it out, Gippal's weapon is Rikku's Alchemist Dress Sphere Weapon. Vlem's weapon is Rikku's Samurie Dress Sphere Weapon. And Yami's weapon is Rikku's Warrior Dress Sphere Weapon. See…not confusing at all:)

Jade