A/N: Eep… Wow, it's been a while. But to those of you who have been waiting for this, I'm really sorry. Life's been hectic, and I've also been working on other projects and this kinda go lost along the way. But hopefully this update will trigger more of them, and ALU can finally get wrapped up. So please review to let me know ya'll are still interested, okay? Enjoy!

Sunday, August 19th, 2003

1:43 pm

Besaid Police Department; Chief Officer Gregory Walter's office

Rikku stormed into Greg's office. She was going to find out just what the hell was going on, especially with Mitch and Auron, as well as why Tidus had been acting even stranger than usual lately. She figured Greg, of all people, would have to know something. Instead, she found Auron seated behind Greg's desk, typing away on the computer furiously.

"What are you doing here?" Rikku demanded. "And where's Greg? I have to talk to him about something really important." And that was all he needed to know. He didn't have to know it was him she wanted to discuss with Greg.

Auron motioned to the door. "Greg stepped out for a moment," came the gruff, emotionless response.

"Where did he go?"

Auron shrugged. "Don't know."

She stood there in silence, listening to the clicking of the keys, until she went over and looked at the monitor. "What are you doing?"

Auron seemed hesitant. "Typing up a report."

"On Greg's computer?"

"There's something wrong with mine. A virus or something. I managed to save it on there, but then the virus started and I couldn't access it. So now I have to do it again, and I asked Greg if I could use his."

"I see… Did you take it down to the Tech Shop? They could probably fix it."

"I just got back from there a little while ago."

She nodded. It wouldn't have sounded suspicious to her, had he not have been so hesitant when he answered her the first time. She was quiet again, until she finally built up the courage to ask, "What's the report about?"

He let out a faint grumble and closed out the program he'd been typing on. "It's no concern of yours," he told her, taking the floppy disk out of the drive and standing up. "Just a report about something I needed to turn in soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get going. I'm on a time limit with this."

She knew there was something going on, just like she had so many times before, but simply said, "All right, see you later."

Sunday, August 19th, 2003

4:08 pm

Besaid Technology Shop

Rikku stepped into the store and was greeted by the sound of people talking and machines whirring. She walked up to the front desk, where a man with short black hair and a 5 'o clock shadow was standing.

"Hello Miss, can I help you with something?" he asked politely.

"Yeah, I want to pick up a computer that was dropped off here earlier," Rikku told him.

"Of course. What was the name?"

"Auron."

The man looked over the sheet in front of him. "Oh yes, it had a virus that needed to be gotten rid of. I'll get that for you, one second please."

As he walked into the back room, Rikku had a party inside her head. Things were going smoothly. If she could get Auron's computer home now that it was fixed, she could see the report he'd been so secretive about. She just knew it had something to do with Tidus. What other reason could there be?

Stopping her thought process as the man returned, she took the laptop from him and smiled. "Thank you very much."

"You're welcome. Have a nice day."

"You too."

Score.

Sunday, August 19th, 2003

6:47 pm

Luca Apartment Complex; apartment 3A

Rikku had set up a station in her kitchen, ready to investigate the report. She had her mug of coffee to the right of her, the computer in front of her, and a pencil and paper to the left. She was going to write down everything she found out. She thought of doing it directly on the computer, but saving or printing would leave a trace that someone else had been on Auron's computer, and she didn't want that.

She turned it on and watched as the monitor flickered on and the desktop appeared. "Okay… documents, reports, anything…"

There I go, talking to myself again…

She shook her head at her own actions and opened the 'Documents' folder. There were a few files that weren't of any interest, and probably had to do with previous cases Auron had worked on.

It was funny. He wasn't a police officer or detective, but because he was a friend of Greg's he got his nose into every business the department was involved in.

Just when she was about to give up hope that the report was even on the computer, one last file remained, entitled 'drugs.'

"Drugs…?" Rikku couldn't recall any drug related events that had happened lately. She clicked on it, and a Word document opened up that looked very familiar. It was the same one Auron had been working on in Greg's office. The very one she had been looking for.

Her jade eyes scanned through the report. "Final report… Tidus… drugs in the bloodstream…?" What could it mean? Mitch and Greg had run a background check on Tidus a while back, and he came up clean. Why all of a sudden were there drugs in his system? It made no sense at all. He was stuck in that cell. There was no way he'd have access to drugs of any sort, aside from the ones he was being given for medical reasons, and they were a given. And the part about it being the final report disturbed her too.

That was all there was to the report, though, and just as she was turning off the computer, there was a knock on her door.

Afraid it might be Mitch again, she called, "Who is it?"

There was silence, then a gruff voice said, "Auron."

Shit!

Quickly shutting the computer down, she slid it underneath the bed and cleaned up a little. Then she went over to the door and opened it.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, trying not to appear suspicious.

Auron stared down at her. "I came for my computer."

Her brow furrowed as she feigned confusion, but inside, her heart was pounding and obscenities coursed through her head. "Why in the world would I have your computer?"

He didn't hesitate this time. "I went down to the Shop to pick it up, and they said someone had already come for it. Some perky little blonde girl. Who else could they possibly been talking about?"

She could've kicked herself. After all the precautions she'd taken, it all got screwed over because of her looks. Why couldn't Auron have known more perky little blonde girls? Not that she could picture it anyway, but still.

"I only did it to save you the trouble of going to get it," she lied.

"Bullshit, you did. Now where is it? You shouldn't be messing around with things that don't belong to you, Rikku!"

She took a few steps back, which turned out to be a mistake since he followed her inside. "What was that report on Tidus all about?" she demanded. "He was clean the first time we screened him, and now all of a sudden he's an addict? There's no way, Auron!"

He chuckled quietly. "Still letting our feelings get in the way of our job?"

"This has nothing to do with my feelings! I have no feelings for him! But I'll be damned if I'm going to let them just kill him all because of someone else's doing! Now you tell me what the hell's going on, because if I find out myself, there's going to be more trouble than you could ever imagine. I'll see to it you never help Greg with another case again… if that's what you've even been doing."

"I have," he insisted quickly.

"Then what's going on?" she asked again. "Why does your report say Tidus has been using drugs?"

Auron sighed, defeated. "He hasn't." After a pause, he added, "Well, he has, but not by his own doing."

Rikku looked puzzled. "What does that mean?"

"Listen Rikku, I have been helping Greg out on cases before. And it started out that way on this one too, until Mitch came along."

"Mitch…"

"He likes you, that's no secret. But because of the case, he feels like you're ignoring him, and he didn't take too kindly to that. So… in order to end this case quickly, he hired me to switch the medication they were giving Tidus at the asylum with harder, illegal drugs. That way, they'd shown up on a blood test, and they would be considered the reasoning for what he did. He'd get locked up, executed maybe, and you'd be free."

She shook her head in disbelief. "And you did it?!"

"Well, yes. You know I'm no officer or detective, so I don't get paid for just helping Greg. The money sounded good, so I took Mitch up on the offer."

"But he could die, Auron! And he doesn't deserve to! If I could just figure out why he really did kill those people, I know it would change everything. But… people like you and Mitch are making that really hard for me."

Auron sighed again. "There's nothing you can do about it now. He's already been tested, and in a few days. He'll probably end up going to a real jail. Then… they'll probably just kill him."

A thought struck her. "But a few days ago, Mitch told me since there were no leads, they were already planning to execute him."

Auron shook his head. "That's not true. He probably made that phony story up to try and lure you away from Tidus himself. He told me he didn't think I was doing a good job. That explains it then."

Rikku looked like she was about to cry. "Well what should I do then? If I only have a few days, and I have no idea how to go about getting anymore information… I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Auron thought a moment. "What about his girlfriend, Yuna?"

Rikku shrugged. "I could try. I haven't talked to her yet, so hopefully she'll have something of importance to tell me. If not…" She couldn't finish her sentence.

Auron could. "Tidus will die."