Chapter 4! Geez! I'm putting out chapter a lot faster then I thought! But all day 7-17-04 I got to be on my computer! So I finished Chapter 2, 3, and started 4 all in one day! Wow! Sorry to those who like fast moving chapters this one's a bit slow but next chapter when they watch the sphere... you'll see! Okay soundtrack stuff! Well:

Investigating=Infiltration! (FFX2 soundtrack)

Paine's Theme=Misty Eyed (Paine's vocal collection)

Baralai's troubled mind=This Grudge (Alanis Morissette, So-Called Chaos)

Funny it always turns out to sound like what I was listening to at the time.

Paine yawned. She watched Rikku's mouth move and she heard the sound coming out, but her brain wouldn't process it. Paine had hardly slept at all last night! She'd been thinking of Nooj and Baralai. And still she was! Okay, this is really getting out of hand! You're taking everything too seriously! It's not that big a deal! I'm just over reacting! As much as Paine tried to convince herself the thoughts wouldn't leave her mind!

"Okay Paine you all set?" Rikku asked. No. At least someone got a good night's sleep!

"Yup, good to go Rikku!" Paine said more then a little dazed.

"Well too bad! I can tell someone had a bad night! Let me sum up what I just said. Baralai is coming with us to the Bevelle underground in case we get lost and we're leaving now follow me!" This time the information reached Paine's head, but it took a minute for her to get the "Baralai is coming" part. This is going to be a long day... Nevertheless, Paine followed Rikku, Yuna, and Baralai onto the lift. An awkward silence hung in the air between Paine and Baralai, as the lift slowly made it's decent. Thankfully Yuna broke that silence.

"Look I can already see one of the pieces!" she exclaimed.

"Whoever broke this sphere was either trying to throw us off or really didn't want to be caught" Paine said. This sphere must have something on it if the murder put all this effort into breaking it then scattering it all over here! Paine turned the shard of sphere over in her hands. "I wonder what's on it.

"Well, we'll never know unless we find all the pieces!" Rikku said. This overall lack of action was really taking a toll on Rikku.

"If we split up we can cover more ground." Yuna suggested.

"That's dangerous, what if someone gets lost?" Baralai pointed out.

"So we go in two's! Happy?! Come on!" Rikku prompted.

"If I go with Rikku, I don't think my sanity will hold up." Paine would've gone with Baralai, but after last night the only person left that didn't have a black spot on their record was Yuna.

"HEY! YOU BIG MEANIE!!!!"

"I'll go with Rikku!" Yuna said now she was frustrated too. No, no, no, no... You're going with Baralai, get used to it... Baralai and Paine exchanged glances. The look in Baralai's eyes said "maybe you'll talk to me now" but Paine's expression countered saying "good luck". Yuna must have planned this!

"Yunie and I will go this right, you guys go left! We'll meet back in two-an-a-half hours" Paine nodded and turned around. Baralai followed close behind her.

I have to talk to her. I want to know if she really dose trust me or not. I trust her, regardless of how she feels about me. How will I tell her? How can I prevent scaring her away? Is she thinking about me now? What's bothering her so much? Why am I acting like this?! The problem must be on my end. I wonder if Nooj told her something about the murder... that has to be what's bugging her! Dose he know who did it? When I get my hands on the guy who killed Tromell and find out who started this thing, I swear I'll kill them myself!

Little did Paine know, Baralai was just as confused as she was and had many of the some same questions. Paine and Baralai continued down the hall in silence for a few more minutes, before Baralai decided he'd go insane if he didn't say something.

"Paine..." though Baralai hadn't yet decided on what to say...

"Yah?"

"I... I think I saw part of the sphere, come on!" Baralai was lucky in the direction he'd gone there actually was a part of the sphere. Paine took the two pieces they had in her hands. They merged upon being together.

"Paine?"

"What?"

"What's bothering you? You've been so quiet and distant lately" Baralai looked at the floor "and composed meaning you're trying to distance someone from yourself."

"Nooj said something yesterday and... Who do you think is the murder?" the question almost hurt to ask, opening up to Baralai was harder then Paine thought it would be.

"They know how and where he was killed. No one can make a guess off that." Nooj can... Every moment Paine was getting more and more confused, Nooj had a good point but so did Baralai. "Paine..." Baralai broke off. "What did Nooj say?"

"I can't tell you that..." What's Baralai getting at? He's going to think I don't trust him at all... I still do, a little.

"Why?

"I will tell you, but only after we catch the murder." Paine wasn't going to let herself believe Nooj just like that! She was completely torn!

"Fair enough. At least I know you still trust me a bit." Baralai's words priced right through Paine. "Just know," he continued, "I still trust you, and I always will." Paine turned away. This whole conversation had brought them deep into Bevelle underground.

"There's a few pieces of the sphere" Paine ran off to pick up the two pieces of the sphere she found. Like before the sphere grew bigger in Paine's hands.

"We better start heading back. If Rikku and Yuna beat us they might get worried." Baralai suggested. Maybe I should go back to Nooj... He's probably still in Guadosalam, he has to have a better reason why it was Baralai. If it was at all...

When they got back to, Rikku and Yuna were there, and though they hadn't been there for long, Rikku made it sound like Baralai and Paine had taken forever. "Hey, what took you two so long?" Rikku shoved Paine.

"Nothing, now how much of the sphere did you find?" Paine insisted on the subject change, she didn't want Baralai to answer Rikku's question. She knew he would be a little more truthful then she did and Rikku would get suspicious.

"Half" Yuna said taking the half sphere Paine had in her hand. Just like before, they merged creating a whole sphere.

"Should we watch it now?" Yuna obviously wanted to find this convict and get back to Besaid.

"No, let's wait until we get back to the ship, then Zane can see it too." Paine was a little scared she'd see Baralai on the sphere.

"Alright! Let's get out here this place gives me the creeps!" Rikku looked around half expecting for some unsent person to come down and turn into a fiend, but they'd cleaned out all the unsent people a long time ago.

"Okay, let's go" Paine wanted out! She'd heard Baralai; he sounds pretty innocent but dose Nooj have anything else to say? I cut him off quickly; he could've been trying to tell me about some evidence that I don't know of... Well off to Guadosalam... again.

-Chapter 4 Complete-

Well there it is the slow chapter is over with! Was it bad? Well a sneek peek at what's ahead, watching the sphere and back to Nooj... What did he really want? Only I know! You will soon though! I'll start chapter 5 right now! Maybe I can even get it up later today!