Disclaimer: FFX, FFX-2 – neither of them belong to me, I'm just a poor, starving fan : )

A/N: Well they say 13's an unlucky number and after the fight to get this chapter written - I'm inclined to agree. I've been bogged down with every problem you can imagine, the least of which was a computer upgrade that seemed to cause more problems than it solved. Anyway, I can only apologise for the giant delay on this chapter - it's my longest delay ever, but it has enabled me to get this story back on track and work out what's going to happen in the next few chapters. I only hope there are still some people out there reading this and that I haven't driven you all away!

Our Story

Chapter Thirteen: Gippal

The morning after the night before and I hadn't slept. I hadn't even closed my eyes, red-rimmed as they were. I remembered Baralai gently suggesting that we break up the meeting to the following morning, but the murderous expressions on mine, Tidus' and Cid's faces had convinced him otherwise. We'd ploughed on through the night, discussing each and every possibility, going over each and every fact and piece of evidence to try and find out what had happened to Yuna and Rikku.

By the morning, everyone's patience was starting to run out. I was pacing at the back of the room, the monotonous counting of the steps helping to keep me sane. Cid was rigid in his seat, his hands slowly tearing a piece of paper into millions of tiny pieces. Tidus was shifting so much that his chair looked like it was dancing. Only Wakka's firm grip on his shoulder kept the younger man from standing up and charging out of the room.

Baralai looked as serene as ever – something that made me grit my teeth and fight the urge to punch him. Didn't the man ever get upset? My girlfriend had been kidnapped for Spira's sake!

Beside him, Nooj was re-reading the notes that we'd made sometime during the night, his brows knitted together and a frown on his face. He'd been the unofficial chair of the meeting and he was the main reason we were still sitting in this stupid room, rather than going out and actually finding Rikku and Yuna. I was on the verge of punching him as well.

The tension had stretched to unbearable proportions when, suddenly, it erupted.

"I can't take this anymore – let go of me Wakka! – I can't just sit here while Yuna's out there –"

"Tidus –"

"No – let go off me!"

With force born of fear, Tidus wrenched out of Wakka's grip and shoved his friend away from him. His blue eyes were shining dangerously.

"Tidus – just calm down, ya?"

"No! I'm sick of being calm! This – this –" He waved his hand around the room, "how is this going to get Yuna back? I was supposed to be married right now – not sat in this damn room going round and round in circles!"

"This isn't helping." Baralai's 'calm, preacher' voice was back. My fingers tightened into fists. "None of us want to be here, Tidus, but what else can we do? We have so little information to work with –"

"Then we go out and find some more! There must have been someone who saw something – Lulu, what about Lulu? She was a witness, wasn't she? Have we asked her –"

"She told us everything she knew," Wakka interjected firmly.

Tidus ignored him. "We should speak to her again – there might be something she missed!"

"No!"

"Get out of my way, Wakka!"

"Lulu's told ya everything she knows! I won't have ya upsetting my wife – I don't care what the reason is!"

Tidus stared at him and even Wakka looked taken aback by the expression on the younger man's face. "You don't care?" His voice was barely above a whisper but, perhaps unconsciously, Wakka took a step backwards. "This is Yuna – she's like a sister to you and Lulu! How can you just stand there and – and dismiss her –" He ran a shaking hand through his blond hair. Wakka tried to speak but Tidus overrode him. "You have no idea do you? No idea what I went through – what we went through to be together. What it felt like to fall so totally in love with someone and then be told – hey, you know what? You don't exist. Do you know what that feels like? To have to go on fighting for a world that's not yours, so that it can have a future you're not going to see? I lost everything when Sin died. I'm damned if I'm gonna loose everything now!"

The ringing silence after Tidus' speech was absolute. I watched this desperate man in front of me and felt a great respect rising up inside. I barely knew Tidus; I'd been busy with my own life during Yuna's pilgrimage and Sin's defeat, and when we'd been fighting Vegnagun, he'd been … well I wasn't sure where, exactly, but certainly not in Spira. And on the odd occasions when I'd spoken to him at those endless celebration parties, I'd got the impression that he was a nice enough guy, if slightly immature and definitely hot-headed. What I hadn't learned until later – courtesy of several conversations with Rikku – was how hard the guy had fought to be with Yuna. If Rikku was to believed, Tidus had left everything he'd ever known, had defied his own non-existence in order to have a future with Yuna. Rikku had once commented that there was nothing Tidus wouldn't do for her cousin – and I was beginning to believe it. I was also beginning to realise that this stranger and I had a great deal in common.

Which is why I finally gave in to my own impatience.

"Tidus is right."

Everyone turned to look at me. Baralai was frowning in disapproval; Nooj looked resigned, as if he'd been expecting this; Cid's expression wasn't giving anything away; Wakka was still reeling from Tidus's words and Tidus himself looked at me with such hope in his eyes that I knew I was doing the right thing.

"Gippal –" Baralai spoke up, right on cue.

I held up a hand. "No, I'm not getting into this with you Baralai. With any of you. And I'm not going to run out of here half-cocked." As much as I would love to. The relieved and slightly sceptical expressions on Baralai and Nooj's faces irritated me and I added, "I'm also not gonna sit here and listen to anymore of these meanin'less facts." Tidus grinned at me. "Hasn't everythin' that's happened over the last few years taught you anythin'? Talkin' doesn't seem to solve much. Was it a committee that took down Sin? Or Vegnagun?"

"Of course not." Nooj stood up and his eyes were hard behind his glasses. "But neither did we run blindly into danger without thinking things through first."

"You wanna think thin's through? Okay – lets start with what we know: someone, somehow got into the hotel in Luca, knocked out Lulu and Paine and kidnapped Rikku and Yuna. And somehow, nobody saw, heard, knew anythin' about this, which is why we're stuck in this damn room without anythin' to work with. And the best we've been able to come up with is that it was some kind of politically-motivated thing against the High Summoner!" I paused and held Nooj's eyes. "Did I miss anythin' out?"

For one long moment, I was sure that Nooj was gonna be the one who hit me. All the years we'd been friends, I don't think I'd ever spoken to him like that – with Nooj it was usually safer to put up and shut up. After all, his was our Captain. I was used to following his orders.

But he surprised me. As I had surprised him. Instead of lunging across the table at me, he sighed and sank back into his chair. "No, you didn't miss anything. And perhaps … maybe you're right."

I blinked. I was right? Nooj said I was right? All I needed now was for Baralai to agree and the world could come to an end.

As it was, my priestly friend was looking back and forth between me and Nooj, his brow furrowed with confusion. "Nooj," he began.

Nooj held up his hand. "Gippal's right, Baralai. We're wasting time here and as much as it pains me to say it, I think his approach to this might be better than ours."

"To just go out all-guns blazing?" Baralai's cultured voice couldn't hide his disapproval.

"To investigate," I corrected, adding blandly, "I've got kinda good at that recently. I've even started thinkin' of a career change."

Nooj's face twitched but he didn't say anything.

"Bout damn time!" a voice from behind us said abruptly. Startled, we all turned around to see Cid glaring at us. He'd been so quiet, I'd forgotten he was even in the room. Always a big mistake to make.

"Never thought it'd be this one who startin' talkin' the sense," He jerked his head at me and I felt almost flattered. "But he's the only one of ya who's come up with a good idea in the last hour so, what the hell, he can't muck up it all that much." The good feeling faded and I was reminded how much I disliked Rikku's father. "So if there's gonna be an investigation then I'm gonna be a part of it."

Oh thank you Spira, thank you very much. I cast my eyes to the ceiling. As eager as I was to find Rikku, the last thing I wanted was her dad tagging along for the ride.

"I'm coming too." This was from Tidus. Wakka opened his mouth as if to object and then he took in the mulish expression on his friend's face. His mouth closed with an audible snap.

I looked around the room. "Anyone else?"

Nooj and Baralai traded looks. "Some of us don't have the luxury of being able to drop everything at a moment's notice," Nooj said dryly, not looking at me. Seemed I still had some making up to do there. "Baralai and I will remain here and deal with the fallout of Yuna's kidnapping."

"And Rikku's," I said firmly.

His expression didn't change. "And Rikku's."

That left one person. "Wakka?"

An agonised look crossed the red-haired man's face and then he sighed and shook his head. "I can't. Not with Lu hurt. I gotta look after the baby …" He clapped Tidus on the shoulder. "I'm sorry man."

"It's alright."

Cid stood up, his chair scraping across the floor. He looked at Tidus approvingly. "Keepin' it in the family." He looked at me and grunted. "Let's go."

I could have said any number of things about the fact that I was in love with his daughter, but I didn't. Because as Cid swept out of the room, I realised something that made my blood run cold.

I was in love with Rikku.

And I'd never told her that.

Cid, Tidus and me.

Of all the investigative teams I could have picked, this one would have been on my bizzaro list. Cid and I barely spoke, our mutual concerns for Rikku leading to shortened tempers and a great deal of avoidance. And as for Tidus … well he seemed to have won some kind of approval from Cid – at least Cid didn't treat him like he was particularly distasteful fiend – and he seemed a nice enough kind of guy. Problem was, I barely knew him.

I hadn't realised how much that mattered. As many problems as there were between me and Cid, at least I knew were I stood with him. Tidus on the other hand, was an enigma. I couldn't predict how he was going to react in any kind of situation, let alone the high-stress ones I kept wandering into recently. Of course, he had been part of the team that had killed Sin so … I guess I could give him the benefit of the doubt.

It didn't stop me casting my mind back to the days aboard the Melatha with Rikku, Elhandra and, yes I couldn't deny, Lreav. We'd been a team, for all Lreav's problems and eventual betrayal. I even considered calling Lhan back from Bikanel to join up with us again. Instead I sent a message to Avrin, asking him recall Nhadala to Djose Temple. With Treilad away, I needed someone I could trust to take over my position. Nhadala was a smart woman; I knew with her at the reins I wouldn't come back to find the temple reduced to a pile of rubble thanks to an experiment gone wrong.

With my responsibilities taken care of, I was able to focus completely on the investigation. Cid, Tidus and I had actually managed to pick a starting point with limited argument – despite Wakka's protests that we weren't supposed to upset Lulu anymore, we were going back to question the only two eye witnesses of the event itself. Tidus and Cid got Lulu – I got Paine.

Both women were being looked after at a Healing Centre in Luca. When I was a kid, I used to wonder why a world with phoenix downs, potions and healing magic needed the healing centres that we're present in every town. When I got older and learned more about Sin, I'd understood. There are some situations where even the powers of the strongest lone healer are not enough.

Of course, we didn't have Sin anymore. But after Lreav's stunts with the bombs, the healing centres were still seeing far too many patients.

Set back from the docks, on the outskirts of the city, the Healing Centre was a white, three-storey building with a small, cheerful garden to one side. As soon as we got inside, Cid led Tidus off to Lulu's room, leaving me to track down Paine on my own.

She wasn't in her room. And she wasn't in the communal room either – not that I'd really expected her to be. Paine's a nice girl and all, but she's not exactly the most sociable person I've ever met. Finally I had no choice but to ask a passing member of staff. She was a slender girl with dark hair and huge dark eyes. Something in the way she looked up at me reminded me of Rikku.

Realising I was staring, I cleared my throat. "Sorry. I – have you seen a girl around …" I started again. "My friend was brought in yesterday. Her name's Paine. I'm trying to find her but she isn't in her room."

The girl smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, I don't –"

"She's got red eyes and grey hair. Wears a lot of black. Oh and she's really grumpy."

The girl's expression cleared. "Oh that girl. Of course! I think I saw her heading out to the garden a short while ago."

"Thanks."

Paine … in a garden? If the situation hadn't been so serious I would have found that thought incredibly funny. I didn't think Paine even knew what a flower was. She wasn't exactly the kind of girl I could imagine being given one. A sword maybe, but not a flower.

"Oh great. A visitor."

That toneless voice could only have come from one person. As I stepped out into the morning sunlight, I caught sight of Paine sitting on a stone bench in the middle of the garden. Oddly enough, she didn't look as out of place as I had expected. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that she was wearing a loose pair of trousers and top instead of her usual warrior clothes.

"Show me any more enthusiasm and I'll stay here all week." I plonked myself down on the bench opposite and smiled across at her. "You're lookin' better."

"You're not fooling anyone, you know."

"What?"

I could have been mistaken, but she almost looked sympathetic. "Rikku."

My heart skipped a beat. I'm not being melodramatic – I actually felt it happen. How could one word have such an effect on me?

" 'Course I'm worried about her. I'm worried about Yuna too. But right now you're here and …" I trailed off. Sometimes I forgot how long I'd known Paine. And how easily she could see through me. "Yeah, I'm worried about Rikku."

Paine's red eyes gave nothing away. "She told us about you. Weeks ago."

This was news to me. I know she'd spoken to Yuna about us, but Paine?

"You do know she's in love with you."

I shifted awkwardly. This was not something I wanted to discuss with Paine ever. And especially not when there were more important things we should be talking about. "She kind of … mentioned it."

"I know."

How much had Rikku told her friends?

"Look Paine, I appreciate you're interest in my relationship but to be honest, I'm more interested in actually tryin' to find my girlfriend right now."

She raised her eyebrows but – thankfully – let the subject drop. And so we went back over the events of the previous evening. Again. And again. And each time Paine came up with the same answer – she hadn't seen anything of the actual attack, she hadn't noticed anything out of ordinary before it had happened and she couldn't think of anything important she'd missed.

"Gippal, someone whacked me over the head from behind! I didn't see anything because I was still disorientated from the rubbish sleep spell – there you go, you're looking for someone who's not very good at casting sleep spells. Now you have something to go on!" Some of my own frustration was obviously rubbing off on Paine.

I held onto my temper with difficulty. "One more time."

"We were getting ready for the wedding." She spoke as if to a small child. "Yuna came out in her dress, we all smiled appreciatively. Rikku forgot the flowers and she went back into her room to get them. Next thing I know someone's thrown a sleep spell at us. I turned around but before I could see anything, I was hit with Spira knows what. I think you know the rest."

Something she'd said the day before came back into my mind then. "How'd you know Rikku and Yuna had been taken?"

Paine frowned.

"When Wakka and I found you, you said –"

"They'd been taken," Paine finished slowly. She rubbed her forehead distractedly. "I did say that …"

It wasn't like Paine to forget things. Was this something to do with her head injury?

"I know I didn't see anything …" Her eyes widened. "I heard something! Just after I'd been hit … I was lying on the ground and I heard – there was some kind of argument, shouting … then … then nothing. Just footsteps."

"Footsteps?"

"Yeah. Whoever took Rikku and Yuna, I heard them leave."

My mind was racing. "Did the footsteps just leave? They didn't come back again?"

"No."

"And Rikku and Yuna – you didn't hear them?"

"I don't think so … I assume they were knocked out too. What are you getting at, Gippal?"

I resisted the urge to get up and pace my way through my thought-patterns. "Let's go with the assumption that Rikku and Yuna were both knocked out like you and Lulu."

"Okay …" It was clear that Paine wasn't following me.

"Now I know Rikku's pretty small and skinny – but with Yuna and all of her weddin' dress … it would have had to be two trips."

"Would you like to translate or do you enjoy annoying me?"

In my growing excitement I ignored her sarcasm. "We've been assumin' that there was just one person. But if you heard them leave the room, and they didn't return a second time, then who carried the other girl out?"

Paine stared at me. "There was more than one person."

I grinned. "Exactly."

My sense of elation that had been inspired by the fact that we were finally getting somewhere quickly faded. Lulu hadn't been able to give Cid and Tidus anymore information and so the grand total of our visit to the Healing Centre was the knowledge that we were up against more than one person.

Which if you think about it, is kind of depressing. One person could be put down to a spur-of-the-moment thing, more than one and you were looking at some serious advanced planning. How long had Yuna and Rikku's kidnapping been in development? And as always, the ultimate question: who the hell would want to do such a thing?

The idea that Yuna or Rikku had enemies with such a grudge against them was the most worrying thought. And it was this lack of motive that had been causing problems for us as well – I mean, who in Spira would benefit from kidnapping the High Summoner and her cousin? The best we'd been able to come up with that it was some kind of politically motivated thing. That someone wasn't happy with the direction that Yuna had been steering Spira in and had decided to take matters into their own hands. But even that was a theory full of holes. Why target Yuna but leave Nooj and Baralai alone? All three of them were responsible for the leadership of Spira. And where did Rikku fit into all this? Was she some kind of insurance? But then, hardly anyone outside of our immediate circle knew that Rikku was Yuna's cousin so what kind of insurance could she possibly be? As a friend? If so, then surely Lulu would have been a better choice – Yuna's origins in Besaid were pretty well known by now.

Nothing about the situation made sense and as we left the Healing Centre and headed into town, I brooded in silence. Even with the bomb-investigation, we'd had something to go on – somewhere to head next. Now I was flailing around helplessly while somewhere out there, my girlfriend was in danger. It wasn't helping to improve my already tenuous grasp on my temper.

Cid had decided that the next place we should visit was the hotel that the bridal party had been staying in. Not suggested, decided. That hadn't helped my temper either; even though I knew it was the logical next step, the fact that he had suggested it was just so … irritating.

The hotel was a short walk down from the Healing Centre. Small and private it had been the perfect place for the High Summoner to prepare for her wedding without being bombarded by Spira's news networks. Unfortunately, it also decreased the number of potential eye-witnesses.

Ironically named 'The High Summoner', the hotel was a small, family-run business. When Cid, Tidus and I poked our heads into the reception, the whole Allonson family was gathered in the seating area. Someone – I suspected Baralai and his inbuilt need for diplomacy – had obviously rung ahead.

As soon as they saw Tidus, the leapt up and swarmed around her, stammering apologies. The youngest of the daughters burst into tears. Tidus flailed ineffectively for a few moments, casting helpless glances at me and Cid. I fought the irrational urge to burst out laughing. Cid put his hands on his hips and opened his mouth.

"Alright – that's enough!"

For years I've resented Cid's ability to silence a room with a single bellow. Now I found myself being grateful for it – would wonders ever cease?

"Damn me, it's like feedin' time at the Chocobo Corral in here."

I sighed inwardly. Bellowing Cid could do. Tact he could not.

I stepped in before he could make the Allonson's anymore hysterical than they already were. "Please, don't apologise. We know you didn't do anythin' wrong." We didn't know that of course – personally, I couldn't see how someone could have got inside Yuna's suite without it being their fault – but I thought I should say something to bolster their spirits. "We just wanna ask you a few questions about what happened last night."

The patriarch of the Allonson family stepped forward. He was a florid-faced man with greying hair.

"We'll do anything to help the Lady Summoner."

It's something I've observed in all of the Spiran's I've met since the Eternal Calm came – this blind devotion to Yuna. I mean, I know she saved them from Sin and all – but I'm half-convinced most of them would chop off their heads if the 'Lady Summoner' asked it of them. They're lucky Yuna's one of most self-effacing people I know, otherwise Spira could have one hell of a tyrant on their hands.

So we interviewed the Allonson – I say interview, although I think Cid's discussion with the parents was more along the lines of an interrogation. Tidus and I got the two daughters. The oldest one was the girl who'd been in the reception when Wakka and I had visited the hotel last time – Tidus got her on the grounds that she could hardly say more than two words in my presence. Normally I'd've been flattered by the attention; now she just represented one more barrier between me and Rikku.

The younger Allonson girl – Amea – was a slim, dark haired teenager. She was nervous and her eyes were constantly filling with tears, although, luckily, she didn't start crying again. She did talk a lot however – and she was still babbling on when Tidus finished with his charge and came over to join me. At my inquiring look, he shook his head. I sighed inwardly and turned my attention back to the girl.

"It was quiet – it's usually quiet – but we didn't have no one else booked in so … It was just the High Summoner and her four bridesmaids. I didn't see no one else, Sir, I swear."

I gave her a moment, but she appeared to have finally finished and was looking up at me expectantly. I smiled briefly, trying to hide my disappointment. "We believe you, Amea."

Patting the girl on the shoulder, I moved over to join Cid. Tidus followed, a faint frown on his face.

"Nothin'," I reported. "No strangers, no regulars – no nothin' – passed through this reception. They must have got into the hotel another way."

Cid was already shaking his head. "The backdoor's kept locked and the key's stored behind the desk –"

"- Which was guarded all day." I blew my breath out explosively. "Tyssed Cid, how did they get inside?" (Dammit)

I don't think he appreciated the interruption because he gave me a very direct glare and said slowly, "You musta missed somethin'."

Of course – it was bound to be my fault. Everything's always my fault in Cid's world. Yuna and Rikku's kidnap – my fault. The whole debacle with Lreav – my fault. Hell, I didn't know why he didn't go all the way and blame me for Vegnagun and Sin as well.

I bit the inside of my cheek as hard as I could. Rikku loves her Dad. The words cycled around my mind in a mantra-like fashion. She'll probably be upset if I kill her. Take a deep breath and calm down.

I took a deep breath but my words weren't exactly calm. "Or maybe there's nothin' here to miss." Idiot. "Has it ever crossed your –" Tiny, stunted, "- mind that the Allonson's might not have any information to give?"

He snorted, a familiar mulish expression on his face. I wondered if he'd listened to a word I'd said – what was I thinking? This was Cid – of course he hadn't listened. My mouth opened and his ears closed.

Suddenly all the tension that had been welling up inside of me – all the frustration – boiled over and I was instantly, furiously angry. I wanted to take Cid's smug, arrogant face and smash it into the nearest wall. I wanted to grind his face into the brickwork, poke his eyes out with a sharp knife, make sure that even if he wanted more children, he wouldn't be able to happen.

If Tidus hadn't chosen that moment to come out of his reverie, I honestly don't know what I might have done to my girlfriend's father. Probably something irreversible and definitely something that would have soured my relationship with Rikku.

"Four … four bridesmaids!"

Cid and I stopped glaring at each other and in turn, glared at Tidus. "What are you babblin' about, boy?" Cid growled.

Tidus's blue eyes widened. "That girl – Amea – she said there were four bridesmaids, right?"

I thought back. "Er … yeah, I guess. What -?"

"Four!" Tidus was almost bouncing on the spot now. "But Rikku, Lulu and Paine only makes three! Yuna only had three bridesmaids!"

The penny dropped. I suddenly realised just how important Paine's sliver of information had been.

And Cid turned to me, a scornful, superior expression on his face.

"Told ya you missed somethin'."

This time I didn't hold back. Bouyed by the fact that we were finally getting somewhere, I drew my arm back and punched him squarely in his self-satisfied face.