"Hey, Crimson Squad?" Buddy's voice crackled over the intercom, and Gippal – who had been on the verge of falling asleep – twitched violently and fell off the bed. He pushed himself up off the floor and glared viciously at Baralai, who was sitting on the adjoining bed and shaking with silent laughter. "Found something that might interest you guys. Come up to the bridge."
Swearing under his breath, Gippal somehow managed to stumble down the stairs, along the corridor and into the lift with Baralai supporting him. His companion pressed the button for the bridge and waited as the doors slid closed. Gippal leant against the side of the lift and breathed deeply, waiting for his eyes to refocus.
Yevon, but he was tired.
The doors opened, and Baralai was once again forced to half-drag Gippal through the corridors of the Celsius. "What did you do last night?" he hissed through gritted teeth.
Gippal blinked, considering. "Engine fault." He yawned widely. "Had to fix. Took..." he tried counting on his fingers, but quickly gave up, "...lots of hours. Too many hours."
Baralai rolled his eyes. "Touch the save sphere." The 'Save Spheres' had existed for as long as anyone could remember – dating back to the original Zanarkand, some said. They were installed at strategic points throughout Spira and built into all new airships. Touching one would restore your energy and heal your wounds over a short period of time, having much the same effect as a good night's sleep. Overuse of a particular save sphere, however, would weaken the magic and eventually render it useless – Brother had threatened Gippal with a slow and painful death if he ever used the airship's Sphere.
Not that he paid any real attention to Brother's threats.
Gippal obediently flopped onto the save sphere. The blue light surrounded him, and he smiled as his headache eased and tiredness lessened. "Excellent. Okay, let's see what Buddy's got."
"It's a sphere," explained Buddy, leaning back in his chair. "Out in the Bikanel Desert. What with your history there and all, I thought it might be what you guys're looking for."
"The Desert..." repeated Paine, thoughtfully. "Can you tell us which section?"
"I'm pretty sure that the waves are coming from the Central Expanse. If you need anything more specific, I can't help you."
"The Expanse is huge," Baralai reminded everyone unnecessarily. "If we get lost and run out of water..." He didn't need to finish his sentence. The Crimson Squad all knew the dangers that they would be facing if they went down there.
"I've finished developing a flying version of the CommSphere," said Shinra calmly from behind them. "It hasn't been tested yet, but it should definitely work. If you take it down there with you, you'll be able to communicate with the airship at any time."
Baralai smiled slightly, relieved. "That should be okay, then. Are we going straight away?"
Gippal nodded, gaining strength by the minute as the lingering magic of the Save Point continued to work on him. "'Course. There are loads of treasure hunters in the Desert now, and if we don't find it soon someone else might run off with it. Everyone ready?" Turning, he saw Rikku leaning against the wall and watching them with interest. "Hey Rikku, can you bring some water up here for us?" She muttered something unflattering in Al Bhed and stuck her tongue out at him before grinning and heading out the door, presumably to get some water from the Cabin.
...If she wasn't going to get the water, she would have an extremely irate Gippal to deal with.
The desert, observed Gippal, had a lot of sand.
This was hardly surprising. Deserts tend to contain rather large quantities of sand, and he was perfectly aware of this, having been either living in or working in the Bikanel Desert for much of his life.
The thing that was easy to forget was not how much sand there was; rather, it was just how irritating that sand could be.
Grains of sand worked their way under the fingernails. That was annoying, but tolerable.
The sand became trapped under his eyepatch, irritating the old injury there. Grains worked their way into his gun, clogging the mechanics and preventing it from firing.
That was... somewhat more serious.
The high wind whipped the sand up into a frenzy and flung it against him, into his face, into his eye. He raised a hand to protect his vision and squinted, trying – without success – to make out the other members of the Squad through the blinding sandstorm. As he moved, the makeshift bandage that Baralai had wrapped around his upper arm shifted, and he winced as the movement made the sand trapped beneath it scrape against the wound.
This would never have happened, he reflected bitterly, if it wasn't for the sand.
The mission had started well enough, as he recalled. The airship had landed on the uneven ground of the Central Expanse without any real problems, and the four of them had managed easily enough to disembark... they had been overly confident, he supposed. There was no sign of any fiends, the water supply was plentiful, the winds around were a mere shadow of the harsh winds that all too often plagued the desert. The four of them were all expert fighters (Paine in particular – by the end of the Vegnagun Incident, she had become one of the most powerful warriors in the world), and they had an easy way of communicating with the Celsius. What could possibly go wrong?
...Gippal had been either living or working in the Bikanel Desert for most of his life, but he had never seen anything like that... that thing.
The chain of events had been most unfortunate. Although the winds were low at first, grains of sand (sand again! How could something so tiny be so irritating?) still managed to get into Nooj's mechanical leg, and he had some difficulty walking. They had paused to allow him to wrap some of the bandages that they had brought around the joints in his left leg and arm, a barrier that – they hoped – would keep some of the bloody stuff out. The delay was increased when they were unexpectedly attacked by a small and doglike fiend, which managed to take an impressive chunk out of Gippal's arm before Baralai struck it down.
Had they carried on moving, they would probably have missed the creature.
Their first sign of its presence was a low rumbling sound, the ground beneath them seeming to shake. The four of them thought that it was a minor earthquake at first, but then Rikku's voice came over the CommSphere.
"Um... guys? Maybe you should look behind you."
Baralai turned instantly – and stood, frozen in shock. "What is that thing?"
"That is the Angra Mainyu," Gippal heard Paine say, before he turned around.
And swore. Violently.
And then the thing – the 'Angra Mainyu' – intoned "Unnatural Selection".
Gippal remembered little of what happened after that.
The storm had cleared, and still the other three were nowhere to be found.
A young Al Bhed man stumbled along, the bottle of water that he was carrying almost empty. He had brought a number of other bottles, but he suspected that they had been lost after the Angra Mainyu blasted him into the air.
Damn giant monsters.
He vaguely recalled Baralai's words before they landed in the desert, after finding out that they would be travelling with a CommSphere (which was also, joy of joys, nowhere in sight). Baralai had said... he had said that they would be fine. Because nothing could possibly go wrong when they had a link back to the airship, now could it?
And Gippal had believed him.
If I survive this, I am never trusting Baralai again, he thought, not for the first time. He laughed shortly, wincing at the pain in his throat as he did so, and then choked on the sand in his mouth. Gippal coughed harshly, watching with detached interest as a little blood spattered the ground.
Should've studied White Magic more thoroughly, he thought, smirking despite the situation. But no, Gippal, always thought that your Baralai in Shining Robes would be able to help you out. Eteud.
Gippal finished off the last of the water, fell to the ground, and passed out.