Author's Note: Hah! You guys thought that I've forgotten this fiction, didn't you?! Well... guess again!!!! I was just busy with school stuff and now that I'm back (with nothing else to do but this), Here ya go! The next chapter of my fiction! Sorry of the delay!!!!

Chapter Twelve

BLAG!!!

Baralai slammed his fists on the table, frustrated about the fact that they're back to square one. "I should've listened to Aeris..." The silence of the whole office was deafening. They knew that Baralai was right, they should've taken Aeris' words seriously.

"It's all our fault..." Nooj suddenly broke the silence and limped two steps forward. "We were overconfident and we didn't even thought of the worse."

"Well it's too late to be ranting about that now..." Gippal moved and looked at everyone at the room. "Now that we know what they're capable of, all we have to do is to regroup. Summon everything that we can and drop it to them."

"Easier said than done..." Paine pointed out. "Other than regrouping, we have to think of a plan to get Rikku back without risking Yuna." The warrior glanced at Aeris for a moment.

"Any ideas?" Nooj said, focusing his attention to Aeris.

"Huh?" Aeris looked up, her face was beet red from the sudden attention. "Excuse me, I wasn't paying attention. What were you saying again?"

Everyone fell silent as they switched glances with one another. "You don't have to worry about it, Aeris... It wasn't your fault that Rikku was captured again..." Yuna reassured her comfortingly.

"Yeah!" Tidus exclaimed, patting Aeris' shoulder plate playfully.

"Thanks but..." Aeris looked up again at them. "I wasn't thinking about that..."

Everyone looked flustered and at the same time confused. "What were you thinking about then?" Nooj asked.

"Stuff..." She grinned mischievously, "And a plan to bring 'em out at the same time without causing harm to anyone."

"Is that possible?" Baralai asked, eyeing her carefully- thinking about how her brain works to formulate such ideas.

"Nothing is impossible, you know..." Aeris answered intrepidly.

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SLAM!!!!

"Geez... I wouldn't be surprised if that door collapses..." Louise gazed at the door, expecting that it will sooner or later, drop down from the impact that it received, "and what's wrong with him?"

Riley amusingly smiled at the door before turning his gaze to his sister. "Well, that certainly is unexpected..."

"What is?" The gray-eyed woman looked confusedly at her brother.

"I was thinking that you know why he's acting like that at any rate..." Riley's comment earned himself a smirk from his sister. "Well that's a profound way of seeing things..." Louise rolled her eyeballs and decided to walk away with Riley following her behind. "I'm a strategist, brother... NOT a mind-reading sorceress..." Louise immediately tilted her head up and spun around to face her brother, "Wait... I am a sorceress in my own "little" way..." She turn her back on her brother again with a confident smile, plastered on her face, "just... not... a mind-reader..."

Riley guessed that something odd was going on since her sister wasn't exactly acting the way she should be. "It's either you've been possessed by some spirit... or something's really, REALLY wrong here..." Riley raised an eyebrow, eyeing her sister suspiciously. "What's up, Louie?"

"Oh nothing..." The mischievous strategist grinned wickedly on the marbled floor. "I'm just happy..."

"And may I know why?" Riley may not be showy about it, but her sister never fails to give him the creeps.

"Because," She spun around, her eyes were twinkling sharply, indicating a sort of mischievous-happiness surrounding her whole aura. "Everything's going according to plan."

Riley eyed her confusedly, "But you said that you didn't do anything to make Rexus cranky."

"I didn't..." Louise said, making Riley all the more confused, "I moved him into position; he did something that his heart desired..." A grin lit up on Louise's lips. "And it was his own doing THAT made him cranky..."

"In other words," Riley raised an eyebrow at her sister, getting the whole point of this conversation, "You manipulated him..."

Louise frowned at her brother's distasteful choice of words, "Why... that hurts, my brother..." She smiled innocently, "I didn't manipulate them... I just... guided them..."

Riley sighed and chuckled, "Whatever you say..."

There was never a moment that Louise ceases to amaze her own brother.

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"Why did I kiss her?" Rexus leaned on the rail of his balcony, thinking about the incident that have just occurred between him and the "monkey".

The blue-eyed knight sighed heavily and sank back on the nearest chair available. He was only planning to make her shut up but she can't hit her... His shoulders sank at the thought of him hitting the skinny blonde on the other side of his chateau. Well... I could've just walked away... The memory of the kiss that they shared lingered on his mind, making him smile like a total idiot. But why in Spira did I have to kiss her? Rexus frowned, suddenly realizing that there was no point of arguing with his self.

What's done is done anyway... He coolly made a mental note of the thought.

Minutes of silence have passed, the cool wind of Spira touched his face and oddly enough, it somehow urged his fingers to touch his lips where he could still feel the warmth of the cherry-flavored lips that he claimed a while ago...

And he didn't really like that thought at all.

The little voice inside him was screaming that he's a hypocrite. He forces his mind to think that he didn't like the feeling although her heart is still screaming that he enjoyed it very much... and... other things...

Something else...

All the things that have been happening around him felt wrong- including the thought of kissing the Al Bhed. Oddly enough, when he did... it was the only thing that seemed right.

"Oh no..." Rexus exclaimed in almost a husky whisper. He buried his face on his hands and continuously repeated the words over and over again...

Oh yes...

He finally gave in.

He loves her.

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Bevelle

Baralai is currently fighting his own battle at the moment- he's battling to keep his eyes open in order to finish his work. Planning another assault has been such a pain in each end of his joint. In fact, he hasn't slept all day with all the paper works occupying almost the whole of his office, leaving him only a pathway to reach his chair. "Oh crap..." He muttered, as he leaned backward on his chair closing his eyes to relax a little.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

So much for my little relaxation... Who the heck could that be!? He screamed inside frustratingly as he heard the door open up. He didn't even made a motion to look up at who's the intruder was until...

"What's all these?" A cool sounding voice suddenly vibrated through out the room, making its way towards Baralai's ears.

Paine... It took him a few seconds to register the thought...

"Paine!!" Baralai immediately sat up, finally realizing who the "intruder" was. It seems like his drowsiness dissolved at the unexpected visit.

"I see that you're drowning yourself again with these..." Paine looked around the room, disliking the sea of paper works, "new room fashion-trend... Where'd you get the idea of remodeling your office, Baralai? From a workaholic interior designer?"

Baralai grunted and chuckled a bit from Paine's dry humor, "Very cute, Paine..."

"What's the progress?" She asked, not bothering to sit down since there wasn't any chair- at least visible to her eyes- left.

"Well," Baralai began browsing through his work, feeling a second wind in front of Paine's presence, "We should be able to commence another assault within 48 hours according to the preparations and efforts of the Youth League, Machine Faction, The Gullwings and... believe it or not... the LeBlanc syndicate."

Paine snorted and chuckled a bit, "LeBlanc? As far as I know, she's only good at stating how good she is..." Paine smirked, "Beyond that... she's just all words..."

"But she doesn't give up that easily..." Baralai said, almost agreeing with the red-eyed warrior beside him.

"You have a point..." Paine agreed, "In fact... they deserve a medal..." Baralai stifled a laugh.

"What do you think would happen?" Paine asked, turning the mood in serious mode again. Baralai sighed and placed his pen down on his desk to think for a while. "I don't know... as much as possible, I don't want bloodshed..."

"Who would want to anyway?" Paine said, walking towards the possible walkway towards the tall window frame.

"Before anything happens, Aeris told me something..." Baralai said, lifting his gaze up to where Paine is. "Since I don't want anyone to die... I'm going to ask their leader first..."

"You're asking him?" Paine turn to face him.

"I'm going to ask him to hand Rikku over and then, I'll ask him for a truce..." The praetor smiled brilliantly at Paine, "Peace talk..."

Paine sighed heavily, "Good," She said, "For a minute there, I was thinking that you've lost your screw and ask him to give up before you launch the attack."

Baralai chuckled at her comment, "I may be naïve at times, Paine... but I'm definitely not stupid. I know very well that their defenses and technology- even their strategy is a thousand years ahead of us... What chances do we get if I made such a foolish decision?"

Paine stood, staring at Baralai for a while, "Might as well chop our heads off and offer it to them..."

Baralai was waiting for Paine to laugh at her morbid humor but when he saw that there was no trace of a single smile, he finally gave in and chuckled. "Serve it in a silver platter..."

Paine nodded casually. "I thought you'd never figure..." She finally chuckled. "Anyway," She began again, "Yuna asked me to force some information out of you even if it means threatening you to blurt out information about the attack."

Baralai laughed, "Hold it, Paine!" He chuckled and scratched his nape, feeling a bit uneasy about the threatening part. "Like I said, the attack will start at exactly 48 hours from now... Other than that, you guys should gear up Celsius to hold off any of those anti-air missiles." He said and took a sphere from his desk. "Here, I want you to have this..."

Pressing the button on the sphere, Paine saw the complete information that Yuna was bugging her about. "Well," She said, pushing the button again to stop the sphere from working, "At least this'll shut her up for a while..."

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Falcon Island (Next Day)

Rikku was walking around the corridor, trying to look at the marvelous piece of art scattered throughout the place. There were a lot of armor, paintings, busts and stuff scattered around the place. She didn't even have time to look ahead if she was about to hit somebody. Knowing Rikku, while she was walking along the huge hallways and dome of the chateau, she had already- at least "accidentally"- bumped into several people- servant, knights and medics alike.

At least, Louise has been kind enough to let me out of the room... A sudden thought suddenly occurred: Louise would never let her out unless Rexus gave her permission to do so. The memory of yesterday's incident crashed on her. It never has really left her mind- especially the unique feeling of the knight's warm breathe upon hers. She felt her face turn crimson. She's NOT thinking about IT again. She shook her head and forced a small smile on her lips as she let her eyes marvel on the beauty of the whole chateau. I guess I should thank that meanie for letting me out too... Her small smile widened a bit at the thought: He wasn't as bad as she thought he was...

Or maybe the kiss has something to do with it...

Don't be silly... Rikku told herself. After a minute, her smile faded. "Who am I kidding anyway?" She whispered, allowing only herself to hear her words. There's no use denying it... I'm beginning to like him... A LOT actually... Rikku allowed herself to smile a bit. At least out loud... I won't say that I do feel something... A smart thought indeed.

"They still won't give up, won't they?" Rex's voice sounded calm from a partly opened door, making Rikku jump a little in surprise.

The curious little cat inside Rikku told her to listen for a while...

"Well... you do have somebody in here of too much value for them..." Riley was evidently talking about Rikku.

"Too much value for both sides, actually..." Louise stated, making Rexus' face turn red.

"Excuse me?" Rexus asked, trying to be nonchalant about his sister's words. It was evident that he's feeling nervous about the whole idea because he turned around to face the window instead of facing his siblings like he normally would.

Louise grunted, "Looks like I'm not the only one who has fur, stuffed on both ears." She said sarcastically, making Riley chuckle a bit.

After gaining his composure, Rexus sighed and turned to face them. "Look, this isn't about any crappy thing okay? Rikku stays here no matter what!" Rexus was about to make an exit when Louise hold him off with a question:

"Do you think that Rikku would want to stay after you've assassinated, Yuna?" Louise asked, poker-faced.

Rexus freezes, 4 steps away from the door. "She'll never forgive you, Rex... You know that..."

The silence in the room suddenly became deafening. Rex turned his heels to face his siblings, "Like I care anyway..." He said half-heartedly, making Louise smirk in pure satisfaction over his reaction. She KNEW that she won this match yet again.

Why are they giving such a fuss over me, anyway? Rikku wondered as she immediately ran towards the juncture to avoid suspicion. When Louise and Riley finally got out of the room, Rikku disguised herself with her cheerful mood. "Hi guys!"

"Oh..." Louise gazed over at Rikku wonderingly. "Hi Rikku..." The wondering look was erased from Louise's face as she smiled at the blonde-girl walking towards them. Riley gave her a cheerful smile and acknowledge her presence by greeting her, "How do you find the place?"

"It's beautiful!" Rikku said with a wide smile that was suddenly erased when Rexus came out of the door, looking rather perplexed at her sight.

Rex locked his gaze on Rikku who was now frowning at him. "Sorry..." He said and nodded before finally turning around, disappearing in the other juncture, and opposite from where Rikku came in.

"That meanie..." Rikku said, earning a few amused smiles from Louise and Riley.

"Your opinion of him hasn't changed at all since day one, hasn't it?" Riley asked, voicing a fake disappointed mark in his tone- although it wasn't obvious.

"Well..." Rikku stopped, cupping her chin with her forefinger and thumb, "Maybe a little... I think he's not as mean as I thought he was."

The comment made Riley stifle a chuckle. Louise eyes sparkled joyously at what she just heard.

Bingo...

"Hey Louise," Rikku said, making Louise look at her. "I was wondering if you could show me outside..." Louise smiled at Rikku and began walking with her. "Catch you up, later bro!" Louise said before finally disappearing with Rikku on the other juncture.

When the girls were out of sight, the corner of Riley's lips raised in a brilliant mysterious smile, "You can stop eavesdropping there you know. I've gotten all I can to soothe your wounded ego..."

After a few seconds, Rexus appeared out of the juncture and leans his back on the wall. "You know, I think you know me better than I give you credit for, brother..."

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Author's Note: Well? How did I do on this one? Not really sure if I did any good since my story-making exercises were diverted into reading exercises. I've spent most of my time reading before our first break came so... clearly... I'm not sure if I did it right... hehehe... read and review, kiddies and welcome me back!!!