Hiya! This chapter took forever to write because I'm a lazy bum! I'm nearing hiatus, folks. It's getting' scary… But anyway, fun chapter. Wahoo. Blech. I don't like being too confident in the fic so uh… I'll just let you people review and adore me. ::waves a banner::
Props to Hidama for the "orally competent" thing. You'll all understand soon. And after this go read her fic Love and Duty!!
-----Update------: Sorry about the underlines--whenever I was on my computer (I'm on my cousin's now) it never showed up underlined or center spaced. How strange. Sorry about the eyes, guys!!!!
Chapter Six: Realizations
"Yddahdeuh! Yddahdeuh! Fa yna paehk yddylgat! Drana ec y nyet! fa yna paehk yddylgat! Ymm fusah yht lremtnah yna du ajyliyda! Ymm ypma-puteat sah yna du vekrd! Yddahdeuh!"
Baralai opened one eye, then the other. Gippal was shouting to him over the sirens.
"Baralai, we gotta leave!"
"What's--"
"We're being attacked--it's a raid."
"A raid?"
"The Guado hate us. A lot. They've come down with their maester to attack."
"Maester Seymour?"
"Huh? No, he calls himself the praetor."
Baralai got off the bed in a sudden rush, lost his strength, and collapsed into Gippal's arms.
"Wooaah there."
"He's the one!" Baralai squirmed. "He's the one who cut off my wings!"
Gippal looked down to him.
"You said it was a fiend!"
"I lied! It had nothing to do with you anyway, so…"
There was an explosion and Gippal crouched, trying to keep hold of Baralai.
"Whatever! Let's get outta here!"
"Painkiller?"
Another explosion. Louder this time.
"Later," Gippal replied, lifting Baralai to his feet, taking his hand and running. Baralai winced as they ran, squeezing Gippal's hand.
"I can't--"
"C'mon! Just keep running!"
Baralai stared hard at Gippal's back, trying to keep his concentration off of the pain he was feeling in his back. It was only helping a little.
"Gippal!" yelled a voice. It belonged to Rikku. She explained that she had been running to warn them. Her eyes were on Baralai.
"You okay?"
"Ugnn… my back hurts."
"If you collapse, Gippal will carry you! He'll make sure you're all right!" Rikku assured him. She ran with them as they made their escape. As they met with the outdoors, the smell of burning flesh and fire met with their noses.
"You Yevonite scum! Whatcha think yer doin' down here?!" yelled Cid, a grenade in his hand.
"Tyt! Fryd du oui drehk oui're tuehk? (Dad! What do you think you're doing?)" Rikku shouted, running to her father. Gippal reached for her but couldn't stop her.
"Rikku! Dyrd'c tyhkanuic! (That's dangerous!)"
"That's him," Baralai stared. He didn't care what happened to Rikku as much. All other feelings had left him once his eyes fell on the Guado that Cid was yelling at. He didn't care about who died around him, who screamed in pain, who was fighting, who was getting slaughtered, who was holding his hand… only about getting revenge.
He felt cold. And then he felt very, very hot as he ripped his hand from Gippal's and grabbed a spear near the body of a dead Guado. He ran over, past Rikku and next to Cid.
"Seymour!" he screamed. The Guado's eyes found him and his pale lips curled into a most evil smile.
"Ah… if it isn't the deceased ex-praetor himself…"
Gippal found his way to Baralai's side, his one eye on his face. Baralai didn't notice him at all.
"You bastard… how dare you take my life away from me…"
Seymour laughed.
"My, my… where are your wings? If I remember correctly, they were quite long and elegant… you kept good care of them."
"Quiet!" yelled Gippal. Seymour looked to him and without a word, raised his arm, collecting energy to the palm of his hand. The energy formed into a ball and he threw it in Gippal's direction. It never even connected with the man, but it caused him to fly back a few yards, skidding on the sand as he landed. Baralai watched him get knocked back but did nothing.
"Who was that?" asked Seymour, stepping off of his lift and to Baralai. He put a slender finger to the wingless man's face. Baralai knocked his arm away with the butt of the spear.
"None of your concern."
"You know," Seymour continued, "people in Bevelle think that you're dead."
"No thanks to you," snapped Baralai angrily. He felt Gippal near him so he turned his head.
"Gippal…"
"Hmm?" Seymour raised his eyebrows, looking at him. "'Gippal?' This is the man you decided to sex up?"
"Shut up!" yelled Baralai, glaring fiercely at Seymour. The Guado saw the concern and interest in Gippal's face.
"Ah yes… I was his first."
Gippal made a sound. Baralai wasn't sure what the sound meant and it bothered him. Out of fear that Gippal was disgusted with him, he clarified, "Of course, he was just using me to get into power. First you kill your own father to get into the maester position, then you get close to me, and then you try to kill me to become praetor."
Gippal looked around, noticing that the fighting had stopped. Everyone was listening to the conversation. Some Al Bhed were translating for their friends.
"And let me guess," Baralai continued, "you're the new praetor."
"Well, there was no question about who would get it. I knew the most about the position. Thanks to you."
"Hmph…"
"And although I wasn't able to kill you like I had hoped, I was able to remove your wings. At least now everyone in Bevelle thinks your dead. Poor Lady Yuna was destroyed."
"Yuna!" Baralai breathed. Seymour nodded.
"I shall make her mine soon."
"Leave her alone… what do you want with her?"
Seymour laughed and it annoyed Baralai to no end. He gripped his spear tighter.
"Though, I rather like your desert prison beneath the lowest of lows," Seymour continued once he noticed that Baralai was aggravated. He had always found enjoyment in making Baralai angry. "You have been forcefully exiled."
He covered his mouth and nose as though disgusted.
"At least you have this lovely cyclops to keep you company. I've heard many good things about the way to use an Al Bhed… apparently they're orally competent. Though that's probably it…" ((he read Hidama's fic, so that's how he knows))
Seymour leaned forward, grinning.
"You're so cute when you're angry."
A shot rang out and Seymour clutched his shoulder. Gippal was holding up his gun and his eye was so very angry, just like Baralai's had been. Baralai, however, was surprised. Angry, Seymour whacked Baralai across the face with his fist and Baralai fell, not expecting it. Gippal cocked the gun.
"Hit him again. I dare you."
Seymour saw that the gun was pointed at his heart. He grinned and held his hand up. The wound in his shoulder was surrounded by blue sparkles and it closed up, good as new. Because Gippal had been distracted by this, Seymour was able to knock the gun out of his hand.
"Why don't you help him up?"
Gippal looked down to Baralai and remembered the fact that his wings had just been amputated. He knelt down as Seymour stepped back onto the platform, calling to his fellow Guado. He floated up slightly, shouting out menacingly.
"I am Praetor Seymour ((again… WEIRD…)) of Bevelle! I am bringing upon a new era! Your deaths will soon come for you…"
He looked down at Gippal, who had an arm around Baralai's waist, steadying him.
"For now, however, I need reinforcements."
The Guado and their praetor floated up on individual platforms. Seymour raised his arms.
"And I leave you a parting gift…"
A ball of pure wind spun above his hands and started growing. He threw it down into a nearby dune and then left with his Guado followers. The ball of wind dug deep into the sand, spraying sand everywhere, creating a storm.
"Cyhtcduns! (Sandstorm!)" yelled Gippal. He looked into Baralai's eyes. "It's a… oh, I don't know the word in Spiran but it's bad!"
He watched as everyone fled to the indoors for shelter. In their current state, they wouldn't make it over there in time… but they needed things to cover their noses and mouths with. Gippal had nothing with him.
"We need something to keep the sand out of our faces! Do you have any sort of Protect spells?" Gippal shouted. The storm was loud and it was getting closer.
"Seymour placed a seal upon my magic! I can't cast anything!" Baralai answered back loudly. The storm was getting stronger.
"Ke… uth… ut!" Gippal called.
"What?" Baralai yelled. Gippal hugged Baralai to his body, keeping close to the ground.
"Keep your mouth shut," Gippal said into Baralai's ear. Baralai thought a moment.
"Why don't I just fly us out of the storm?"
Gippal looked at him oddly as he continued, "Yeah! I'll just fly out!"
"Baralai, your wings are gone."
Baralai hesitated, startled. Then he remembered and realized.
It had finally settled in.
He yelled in horror of his rediscovery. Gippal grunted.
"I said keep your mouth shut!" ((that sounds so mean!))
But Baralai couldn't comprehend anything. Gippal hesitated and then kept Baralai's mouth closed. With a kiss. Just in time, too, for the sandstorm caught up to them and beat down harshly. The sand bit at Baralai's arms and when the sand met with his back, he whimpered into Gippal's mouth. Gippal brought his hand up to where the scars from the amputation was and tried to keep the area from hurting as best he could.
The storm died out eventually and the two men disconnected. Baralai wiped at his face and nose, Gippal doing the same. Gippal shook some sand out of his hair and did the same to Baralai's, causing the man to almost giggle. Gippal's hands rubbed his back and he looked to Baralai's face almost sadly.
"You okay?"
"Yes."
"Good," said Gippal as he brushed some sand away from Baralai's neck and leaned over, kissing the uncovered spot gently. He then started sucking gently and Baralai smiled.
"So is it true about being orally competent?"
Gippal looked at him seriously.
"Wanna find out?"
Baralai's smile widened into a toothy grin and he bit at Gippal's neck. Gippal rubbed up and down Baralai's arms, brushing off any sand that had stuck to him.
"S-sorry if I'm… interrupting a-anything… but p-please, I need your help…" came a soothing feminine voice. Gippal and Baralai jumped and disentangled from each other, looking for the voice. It belonged to a tall woman limping over to them, one hand on her bloody arm and the other on her blood stained hip. She wore mostly black material that was made out of enough leather to scare off an army of Dual Horns. Her hair was gray and tossed to the side messily from the storm. Her piercing ruby eyes were staring at the two in need of help.
"My name is Paine… please help me…"
Paine's here to rock the house, y'all! :D But uuuhhhhh… yeah, no clue when the next chapter will be out. It's not done in my notebook… I wish I could just skip to the awesome parts… ::coughcoughSEXcoughcough:: I might hafta bump the rating if the next chapter goes as I have planned. ::bows and runs away::
Props to Hidama for the "orally competent" thing. You'll all understand soon. And after this go read her fic Love and Duty!!
-----Update------: Sorry about the underlines--whenever I was on my computer (I'm on my cousin's now) it never showed up underlined or center spaced. How strange. Sorry about the eyes, guys!!!!
"Yddahdeuh! Yddahdeuh! Fa yna paehk yddylgat! Drana ec y nyet! fa yna paehk yddylgat! Ymm fusah yht lremtnah yna du ajyliyda! Ymm ypma-puteat sah yna du vekrd! Yddahdeuh!"
Baralai opened one eye, then the other. Gippal was shouting to him over the sirens.
"Baralai, we gotta leave!"
"What's--"
"We're being attacked--it's a raid."
"A raid?"
"The Guado hate us. A lot. They've come down with their maester to attack."
"Maester Seymour?"
"Huh? No, he calls himself the praetor."
Baralai got off the bed in a sudden rush, lost his strength, and collapsed into Gippal's arms.
"Wooaah there."
"He's the one!" Baralai squirmed. "He's the one who cut off my wings!"
Gippal looked down to him.
"You said it was a fiend!"
"I lied! It had nothing to do with you anyway, so…"
There was an explosion and Gippal crouched, trying to keep hold of Baralai.
"Whatever! Let's get outta here!"
"Painkiller?"
Another explosion. Louder this time.
"Later," Gippal replied, lifting Baralai to his feet, taking his hand and running. Baralai winced as they ran, squeezing Gippal's hand.
"I can't--"
"C'mon! Just keep running!"
Baralai stared hard at Gippal's back, trying to keep his concentration off of the pain he was feeling in his back. It was only helping a little.
"Gippal!" yelled a voice. It belonged to Rikku. She explained that she had been running to warn them. Her eyes were on Baralai.
"You okay?"
"Ugnn… my back hurts."
"If you collapse, Gippal will carry you! He'll make sure you're all right!" Rikku assured him. She ran with them as they made their escape. As they met with the outdoors, the smell of burning flesh and fire met with their noses.
"You Yevonite scum! Whatcha think yer doin' down here?!" yelled Cid, a grenade in his hand.
"Tyt! Fryd du oui drehk oui're tuehk? (Dad! What do you think you're doing?)" Rikku shouted, running to her father. Gippal reached for her but couldn't stop her.
"Rikku! Dyrd'c tyhkanuic! (That's dangerous!)"
"That's him," Baralai stared. He didn't care what happened to Rikku as much. All other feelings had left him once his eyes fell on the Guado that Cid was yelling at. He didn't care about who died around him, who screamed in pain, who was fighting, who was getting slaughtered, who was holding his hand… only about getting revenge.
He felt cold. And then he felt very, very hot as he ripped his hand from Gippal's and grabbed a spear near the body of a dead Guado. He ran over, past Rikku and next to Cid.
"Seymour!" he screamed. The Guado's eyes found him and his pale lips curled into a most evil smile.
"Ah… if it isn't the deceased ex-praetor himself…"
Gippal found his way to Baralai's side, his one eye on his face. Baralai didn't notice him at all.
"You bastard… how dare you take my life away from me…"
Seymour laughed.
"My, my… where are your wings? If I remember correctly, they were quite long and elegant… you kept good care of them."
"Quiet!" yelled Gippal. Seymour looked to him and without a word, raised his arm, collecting energy to the palm of his hand. The energy formed into a ball and he threw it in Gippal's direction. It never even connected with the man, but it caused him to fly back a few yards, skidding on the sand as he landed. Baralai watched him get knocked back but did nothing.
"Who was that?" asked Seymour, stepping off of his lift and to Baralai. He put a slender finger to the wingless man's face. Baralai knocked his arm away with the butt of the spear.
"None of your concern."
"You know," Seymour continued, "people in Bevelle think that you're dead."
"No thanks to you," snapped Baralai angrily. He felt Gippal near him so he turned his head.
"Gippal…"
"Hmm?" Seymour raised his eyebrows, looking at him. "'Gippal?' This is the man you decided to sex up?"
"Shut up!" yelled Baralai, glaring fiercely at Seymour. The Guado saw the concern and interest in Gippal's face.
"Ah yes… I was his first."
Gippal made a sound. Baralai wasn't sure what the sound meant and it bothered him. Out of fear that Gippal was disgusted with him, he clarified, "Of course, he was just using me to get into power. First you kill your own father to get into the maester position, then you get close to me, and then you try to kill me to become praetor."
Gippal looked around, noticing that the fighting had stopped. Everyone was listening to the conversation. Some Al Bhed were translating for their friends.
"And let me guess," Baralai continued, "you're the new praetor."
"Well, there was no question about who would get it. I knew the most about the position. Thanks to you."
"Hmph…"
"And although I wasn't able to kill you like I had hoped, I was able to remove your wings. At least now everyone in Bevelle thinks your dead. Poor Lady Yuna was destroyed."
"Yuna!" Baralai breathed. Seymour nodded.
"I shall make her mine soon."
"Leave her alone… what do you want with her?"
Seymour laughed and it annoyed Baralai to no end. He gripped his spear tighter.
"Though, I rather like your desert prison beneath the lowest of lows," Seymour continued once he noticed that Baralai was aggravated. He had always found enjoyment in making Baralai angry. "You have been forcefully exiled."
He covered his mouth and nose as though disgusted.
"At least you have this lovely cyclops to keep you company. I've heard many good things about the way to use an Al Bhed… apparently they're orally competent. Though that's probably it…" ((he read Hidama's fic, so that's how he knows))
Seymour leaned forward, grinning.
"You're so cute when you're angry."
A shot rang out and Seymour clutched his shoulder. Gippal was holding up his gun and his eye was so very angry, just like Baralai's had been. Baralai, however, was surprised. Angry, Seymour whacked Baralai across the face with his fist and Baralai fell, not expecting it. Gippal cocked the gun.
"Hit him again. I dare you."
Seymour saw that the gun was pointed at his heart. He grinned and held his hand up. The wound in his shoulder was surrounded by blue sparkles and it closed up, good as new. Because Gippal had been distracted by this, Seymour was able to knock the gun out of his hand.
"Why don't you help him up?"
Gippal looked down to Baralai and remembered the fact that his wings had just been amputated. He knelt down as Seymour stepped back onto the platform, calling to his fellow Guado. He floated up slightly, shouting out menacingly.
"I am Praetor Seymour ((again… WEIRD…)) of Bevelle! I am bringing upon a new era! Your deaths will soon come for you…"
He looked down at Gippal, who had an arm around Baralai's waist, steadying him.
"For now, however, I need reinforcements."
The Guado and their praetor floated up on individual platforms. Seymour raised his arms.
"And I leave you a parting gift…"
A ball of pure wind spun above his hands and started growing. He threw it down into a nearby dune and then left with his Guado followers. The ball of wind dug deep into the sand, spraying sand everywhere, creating a storm.
"Cyhtcduns! (Sandstorm!)" yelled Gippal. He looked into Baralai's eyes. "It's a… oh, I don't know the word in Spiran but it's bad!"
He watched as everyone fled to the indoors for shelter. In their current state, they wouldn't make it over there in time… but they needed things to cover their noses and mouths with. Gippal had nothing with him.
"We need something to keep the sand out of our faces! Do you have any sort of Protect spells?" Gippal shouted. The storm was loud and it was getting closer.
"Seymour placed a seal upon my magic! I can't cast anything!" Baralai answered back loudly. The storm was getting stronger.
"Ke… uth… ut!" Gippal called.
"What?" Baralai yelled. Gippal hugged Baralai to his body, keeping close to the ground.
"Keep your mouth shut," Gippal said into Baralai's ear. Baralai thought a moment.
"Why don't I just fly us out of the storm?"
Gippal looked at him oddly as he continued, "Yeah! I'll just fly out!"
"Baralai, your wings are gone."
Baralai hesitated, startled. Then he remembered and realized.
It had finally settled in.
He yelled in horror of his rediscovery. Gippal grunted.
"I said keep your mouth shut!" ((that sounds so mean!))
But Baralai couldn't comprehend anything. Gippal hesitated and then kept Baralai's mouth closed. With a kiss. Just in time, too, for the sandstorm caught up to them and beat down harshly. The sand bit at Baralai's arms and when the sand met with his back, he whimpered into Gippal's mouth. Gippal brought his hand up to where the scars from the amputation was and tried to keep the area from hurting as best he could.
The storm died out eventually and the two men disconnected. Baralai wiped at his face and nose, Gippal doing the same. Gippal shook some sand out of his hair and did the same to Baralai's, causing the man to almost giggle. Gippal's hands rubbed his back and he looked to Baralai's face almost sadly.
"You okay?"
"Yes."
"Good," said Gippal as he brushed some sand away from Baralai's neck and leaned over, kissing the uncovered spot gently. He then started sucking gently and Baralai smiled.
"So is it true about being orally competent?"
Gippal looked at him seriously.
"Wanna find out?"
Baralai's smile widened into a toothy grin and he bit at Gippal's neck. Gippal rubbed up and down Baralai's arms, brushing off any sand that had stuck to him.
"S-sorry if I'm… interrupting a-anything… but p-please, I need your help…" came a soothing feminine voice. Gippal and Baralai jumped and disentangled from each other, looking for the voice. It belonged to a tall woman limping over to them, one hand on her bloody arm and the other on her blood stained hip. She wore mostly black material that was made out of enough leather to scare off an army of Dual Horns. Her hair was gray and tossed to the side messily from the storm. Her piercing ruby eyes were staring at the two in need of help.
"My name is Paine… please help me…"
Paine's here to rock the house, y'all! :D But uuuhhhhh… yeah, no clue when the next chapter will be out. It's not done in my notebook… I wish I could just skip to the awesome parts… ::coughcoughSEXcoughcough:: I might hafta bump the rating if the next chapter goes as I have planned. ::bows and runs away::