The Adjacency of Ones
Inside Djose

Rikku had never felt such apprehension walking into Djose temple before. The statues, the workers and even the machina seemed to be eyeing her as she followed behind Gippal, though at quite a distance back to hide her fresh embarrassment Paine had laid on her. Did everyone know about this thing she had for him? She had essentially told Yuna and Paine of her desires just by her body language, actions and even tiptoed around the subject on more than one occasion, almost as a boast. Still, her big secret did manage to be lost on the object of its existence.

It was quite the spectacle for them to enter into the temple together. The leader of the Machine Faction with Cid's daughter close in tow snared the attention of everyone in the main foyer of Djose, causing an uneasy calm to fall over the place and breeding a silence only spiced by the rattles and whirls of the few machina in for repair or redesign. Whereas Gippal walked straight to the small group of men at the base of the single column of stairs and began to speak to them in casual Al Bhed, Rikku gleaned straight-legged around them while, at once trying not to hear what he was saying.

Her attention was divided a bit by the unusual glances she was receiving from some of the technicians - the female technicians. The look was slightly stupefying at first, mostly because Rikku was oblivious to the fact that she probably wasn't the only one who had a discreet eye on Gippal, but soon enough she recognized the look in their faces. Before she had a chance to react, the raised Al Bhed voices turned her attention to the men standing in front of Gippal.

"You're going in alone! That's insane! Our leader can't disappear again! It was bad enough when you did it the last time but you can't..." the man was yelling in rushed Al Bhed until Gippal broke him with a composed snort.

"Chill out, gramps. It's not like you fall apart whenever I leave. I'm sure I can handle whatever fiend is down there and I can't risk anymore workers that should be distributing the new machina," he said in a tone that visibly made the men before him beam with pride and also understand their own tasks. With a perfectly sincere smirk, he jerked his thumb towards Rikku and gave her a glance. "Besides, I've got one of the Gullwings with me. If there's something down there that can beat Cid's girl, then there's more in trouble than just the Machine Faction," he said, almost with his tongue in cheek.

It was a compliment. It was really an honest compliment. Rikku looked at Gippal for a moment, fully letting his nickname for her slide, and felt a bit of pride come over her face. Of course, no blush could overwhelm the sudden smile which flooded her face as she posed for them all. With a shrilly tone of Al Bhed, she set about setting everyone at ease. "Hah, that's right! We'll kick some tail and take some names before you even know we're gone! There's no need to worry with Rikku on the job!" she cheered.

"See? What did I tell you?" Gippal said with a grin and crossed his arms, looking at all of the disbelief in his men's eyes. A few of them somewhat grasped what Rikku had done, but they also knew her as the loud little girl of the gruff leader of all Al Bhed. Still, Gippal had enough confidence in her and that was all Rikku needed to beam.

With a shrug, Gippal pushed through the line of workers and waved a hand over his shoulder, giving his last orders to the wind, "Just keep doing what you're supposed to and we'll be back before you know it. Oh yeah, close the caverns after we're in. I wouldn't want our fiend to get out." At the foot of the stairs, a technician was waiting with Gippal's Mortar, which did give the workers a bit more confidence in their success.

"I'll keep Gippal safe. You just go about your business and let me take care of that fiend!" Rikku continued, drumming her fists through the air as she bobbed around the old men, despite their dry glances and disbelief.

Rikku's assurances didn't go very far to the ignorant masses, but she did simply glow as she then strode by them all, her shoulders locked back and her head held high. As she stepped up in front of Gippal, she couldn't help but rock up and down on the balls of her feet in an anxious little dance, giving Gippal a little smile. "It'll be just like at Home again, huh? Maybe we'll have another big adventure!" she said excitedly.

"Huh, still the explorer. Some things never change," Gippal replied and slung the Mortar onto his shoulder, taking a moment to look down at the young girl.

In actuality, things had changed quite a bit since they were younger. Within the sand of Bikanel, life had seemed far simpler than it did now. At 9, Rikku had looked up to the young Gippal as they played and enjoyed the Al Bhed life. Mostly, it was Gippal's ability to get the best of Brother which always sent Rikku into giggles and she followed him around wherever he went. Although Gippal usually tolerated her being around, he did little else to encourage her. He did, even then, call her 'Cid's girl.' It was meant more as a taunt, but even when Gippal made Rikku cry, she was always over it within the hour and trying to follow him and the older children out.

In fact, it was because she following him that one day that his entire world changed before his eyes.

Memories were like a river current - unseen and fast until they pulled one under. They came fast and hard when wading and relentlessly drown anyone that couldn't swim. Gippal snapped out of his daze with the strange look on Rikku's face to anchor him back to reality. Though it hardly seemed like she was that same little girl, Gippal knew that the past was just that - past. Quick to get back to the task at hand, he turned and started to ascend the stairs with a sure step and a sandstorm of a pace.

Rikku was a bit perplexed at the pause in Gippal's face, but she didn't think much of it as she followed him, skipping every other step in an effort to keep pace with him. A surprise to her, he didn't say much else as they walked into the bowels of the temple, past the elevator and towards the back room where a sea of electricity usually covered the floor.

As she walked in, her eyes immediately locked onto a large set of supports and cables that was built over a hole in the floor. Set over this hole was a temporary elevator, obviously to give access into the pit. It was in this room that Gippal finally broke the silence between them. "We started excavating about six months ago when some of the workers detected a large set of caverns below. We don't think they're part of the temple itself, but they are large enough to look into. There's also what looked like a door. We never got it opened until today," he explained as he looked over the equipment to make sure it was safe to go down.

Although Rikku was staring at the hole, her mind was in a black pit of fear. She wasn't too fond of this idea now. The slight bend in her knees gave an outward appearance of her mindset, but she didn't want to say anything in front of Gippal. She wanted to go with him and help him. She wanted to make up for had happened so long ago. But this was a very deep and dark hole, reminding her of the ones that had led to the Farplane where they had faced Vegnagun and Shuyin. She didn't exactly want another experience like that and her mouth hung open, like a minute reflection of the gaping hole. Her heart was beating faster and her hands gripped tightly to her own body, as if something would reach out and grab her. It was the seriousness mixed with her fear which set her on the edge.

It was the object which suddenly clung to her leg which sent her over it. "Kyaaaa! The fiend has me! Get it off! Get it off! Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp, Gippal!" she screamed as the thing clawed at her legs, making her kick and flail as her shrilly voice boomed off the walls and fell helplessly down into the pit.

The fit filled the room with the shrieking and screaming and Rikku put on a production that could have made Tobli cry. Even when she fell on her rump and flailed about to get the beast off of her, Gippal merely leaned heavily onto his Mortar, cheek resting heavily into his open palm, and he yawned, watching with a very bemused smile.

After an acceptable amount of drama, Rikku's chest stopped throbbing long enough to let her open her eyes to what was holding her leg. She expected some terrible and horrendous fiend, something that was just waiting for the right moment to eat her or thrash her body to bits. What looked back was nothing more than a small, yellow machina. With four versatile legs and a spherical body, there wasn't much to it. Only a single, green light illuminated from the center of the face closest to her and seemed to follow her movements. And it was…looking at her.

"All that fuss over my little tinker-toy. It's not gonna hurt you, ya know," Gippal said dryly and turned to fiddle with the elevator controls, leaving Rikku to sit up straight and look at the small machina with eyes clear of fear.

It was true that the machina wasn't hurting her and was merely clutched to her leg and looking. Though it startled her, she found that the machina was actually a bit cute and a breath of relief slipped from her lips, dropping her chest and letting a sigh of relief shiver through her. "You gave me a scare, little guy. I thought you were a fiend!" she said with a slight laugh and reached out to touch the machina. Following her hand with the single green light, a mechanical whirl emanated from its insides in whatever the machina did. Even as the legs loosened around her, the machina made a foray of sounds. It made it even cuter to Rikku and she squealed at its mannerisms, "Awww, you're just a sweet little machina, aren't you? Do you have a name? Huh?" As it submitted to her handling it, she giggled a bit more and started to look at it more closely, hopefully finding a model name or number. What she found on its underside caused a breath to catch in her throat.

"Rikku Tau?" she whispered.

It had her name on it? Did Gippal just say that it was his tinker toy? Why was it named it after her? There was a small flutter in her chest that made breathing harder to ignore as she slid her legs under a bit, casting a gaze up to Gippal. He was casually watching her with a smile.

"And I thought you'd be more excited to have a machina named after you. You don't like it?" he remarked over his shoulder.

With a small burning on her face, she dug her chin into her chest a bit and wrapped her arms around the machina, hugging it as deeply as she wanted to hug him right then. "It's adorable. But...why name it after me?" she asked breathlessly.

Gippal grinned. "Mostly because it doesn't do much beside fall down a lot and make a lot of noise," he replied.

Enter Gippal's unholy ability to make even the most meaningful thing into a tease at her expense. Rikku's warm feelings for Gippal suddenly turned into a heavy pout and her eyes drained from the warm gooey feeling she had been cradling due to his unusually tender act. Again, he managed to hollow her with his teasing. Still hugging the machina to her, she twisted side to side and wailed into the air, "That's sooooo meeeeeaaaan!"

Gippal then burst into laughter at her reaction and stepped onto the elevator platform, setting his Mortar down beside him and leaning on the railing to give her a good pose. "I've been calling it Tau for short. Actually, I haven't exactly finished it yet, but I don't think there's much else I can do to make it better. Why don't you keep it?" said he.

Through her sniffles, Rikku managed to give Gippal a soft pout, though she was hard pressed to hide her joy at the gift. Again, he showed a terrible talent for instantly shifting from one side of the spectrum to the other, tearing her along for the ride. "You mean it?" she asked. After receiving a nod, she smiled and looked down at Tau, surprised how warm it was pressed up against her body. It was really cute and it even had an awesome name. Even when Gippal was teasing her, he could make her happy. "Waaaai, you're a cute little machina, Tau." Clamoring to her feet, her giggles echoed in the hole below Gippal as Tau crawled around her a moment before settling across her back and casting its green eye forward. It would make a very interesting companion for their adventure.

"Well, you coming or what?" Gippal said with a smirk..

With a skip, she jumped onto the platform and settled in across from him, the fear she had for the depths of the hole dissolving against the sweet gift she had received. "Thanks for the present. I guess you can be okay sometimes, Gippal," she said with an equal smirk, punching him playfully in the shoulder.

"Huh, don't mention it," he replied and pushed a button.

With a jerk, the platform lowered them both down into the caverns below the temple where their story would truly begin. In those depths, where no one and nothing could come to their aid, the would both be dependant on one another, something that festered in Rikku's heart as being exactly what she needed to fill the emptiness that she had been feeling since discovering the world revolved in the Universe without her.