Chapter 2:Rikku In Captivity
Rikku slowly awoke from her unconsciousness to an overpowering sense of pain in her skull. Reaching her hand up to where she deemed to be the source of the pain she touched the area tentatively and even in her pain stricken state was flushed with relief as her hand couldn't find any blood, dried or wet. With a small sigh she slowly dragged her body, which currently felt like it was made of lead and cooperated accordingly, to a sitting position. As the sharp pains racking through her head began to dull more than fade she found it somewhat easier to say where she was. The floor beneath her as far as she could tell, was composed of faded grey tiles many of which were cracked due to age and caked in the thick kind of dust that muffled footsteps. The walls were their bare stonework and too showed signs of wear and simple neglect. There was however an out of place set of furniture, a table, camping bed, some books, a large crate and a fire burning pitifully. The dying flames still served to keep her warm though wholly failed to shed any illumination on her situation both metaphorically or literally.
Forcing herself onto her hands and knees brought from her leg the horrifying scrape of metal on floor. With ever increasing dread her head slowly turned to her ankle and there it was, confining her to a nightmarish existence like an animal in a slaughterhouse pen was a thick presumably steel shackle and length of chain. The horror and bile rose up in her stomach as she felt a wave of tears sting her eyes. Too tired to fight them she laid on her side and brought her knees to her chest. Wrapping her arms around them she cried softly and as consciousness gradually returned to her, her sense of the situation she was in too increased and her tears rose in volume till within a few minutes she was sobbing with such force her body shook.
It was only then that the figure buried beneath the blankets grumbled to consciousness and slowly sat up. The large man rose to his feet and in a deep voice full of irritation demanded "Shut up! Stop your damn crying!" The anger in the voice chilled Rikku to the bone and she fought with herself to stop but fear kept the tears coming. The increasing crying did nothing to help her situation as with a pissed off bellow the captor rose to his feet and walked over to the fire. Putting something that from the foul smell Rikku could only assume to be some type of fuel or alcohol the fire roared to life illuminating the large warehouse type area that was her prison, though the figure of her tormentor was a mere silhouette. She could hear low irritated grumbling as he knelt there. The silence putting her on edge she yelled out. "You know my friends will come for me eventually!" A light chuckle could be heard as he responded, his voice now at normal proportions was somewhat muffled for some reason. "I do, I'm banking on it; especially for him to arrive." He turned and rose to his feet and Rikku wished he hadn't. Clutched in his hand was the one knife that she had held onto before he smacked her on the head with his gun, though the blade was glowing red hot. With a chuckle the masked kidnapper stalked towards her menacingly and she began to scream. Taking to his knees beside her he pulled off one of the sleeves she wore and tossed it to the side then pressed the burning metal to her skin holding it to her, sending white hot cascades of pain through her causing her to scream and writhe in agony beneath him. The more she screamed the firmer he pushed the knife against her, scalding her brutally. Her screams became much more pained and she struggled fiercely beneath him. "Scream all you want it won't help you because where we are no one can hear you!" Tossing the knife away, sending it clattering far beyond her reach he turned and briskly walked out the resultant slam of the heavy door leaving only a deafening silence in its wake. Trapped in the silent torture hall pain took her into a black void of unconsciousness.
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Yuna and Tidus frantically searched up and down the scene of Rikku's fight looking for more clues as to her whereabouts. They ripped apart bushes and moved the sparse clumps of rock they found. Paine had decided to keep guard on the path to prevent any curious onlookers. Aaron was sat atop a rock rolling one of the bullet casings between his fingers, a deep frown on his face. He looked up and squinted seeing a scrap of red poking out from a small clump of weeds. Giving a small "Hmm" He walked over and examined it, something about the fabric seemed familiar. Giving it a tug it unravelled and a glowing orange sphere rolled out. Putting the fabric up in his hand he held Rikku's scarf. Gripping it tightly he pressed it to his face using it to hide the tears of fear gathering in the corners of his eyes. Growling he wound it around his upper arm and picked up the sphere. Noticing the glowing object in his hand the other crowded around him and watched….
The sphere clicked into playback and a figure stood in front of a chair, his face was covered by a hood and when all that could be seen was a respirator. Standing aside he showed an unconscious Rikku tied to a chair, a deep cut on her shoulder had blood trickle down her soft skin. Her shallow breathing was almost undetectable. The man forced her head up and slapped her hard in the face. There was an irritated looking red handprint on her face, yet her breathing didn't show any signs of increasing. She must have been hit with a serious amount of force. "I've sent co-ordinates to your airship. You are sphere hunters and spheres are worth money. Is your friends' life worth the effort to find them I wonder? Do not bother trying to open these spheres, you'd need a decoder, something I spent many years looking for and have only ever heard of the one. You have two days, when you find it, lay it at the feet of the temple stairs in Kilika. I'll send you the co-ordinates. Any suspicion of me being spied on or followed and I'll put her down like a sick dog." With a definite finality the sphere clicked off.
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Aaron stared at the glowing orb in his hands and shook it a little, the same way an irritated child would do with a toy that refused to do as it should. He handed the sphere to Yuna then sighed. "There's somewhere I need to go, don't follow me, you'll only get in trouble." He tore off into the woods and was quickly lost from view amongst the thick trees growing there. Tidus and Paine watched him while Yuna held the sphere in her trembling hands. The blonde male wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "We'll find her okay? We'll find these spheres and when her kidnapper shows his face we'll make him pay for what he's done. Isn't that right Paine?" He looked over at her hoping for her assistance in cheering Yuna up. Paine simply nodded then spoke. "We're wasting our two days. Aaron has a commsphere he can contact us whenever he needs to. We'll have to come back here anyway to return the sphere. If we haven't heard from him by then we'll search for him." She turned and strode purposefully towards the town, the other two too much in shock from the contents of the sphere to disagree and they too followed behind her, ready to do whatever it took to get their friend back.