DISCLAIMER: I do not own FFX, FFX-2, FFVIII or any of the characters and locations affiliated with it. I do, however, own the story "Silver Wings", "Silver Wings 2: 1000 Confessions" and all references to dialogue not originated by Square-Enix.
PAINE OF SPIRA!!! DO NOT COPY MY STORIES!!
If anyone wants to post my stories anywhere else, please just ASK and then give me credit for writing it. Email akksgurl@yahoo.com with any requests.
Author's Notes: A little more character development and a twist that I'm sure nobody was expecting. I hope you all like it!
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SILVER WINGS 3: Back Into My Arms
by akksgurl
Chapter Five: The New Yevon Praetor
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His back was visibly tense as she approached him. He always seemed to know when it was her coming near him and not anyone else. She didn't know what to say to him. She had insulted him in the worst way and she didn't know how to make him see that, though she felt terrible about the accusation, she wasn't entirely sure if she didn't believe what she had said.
"Buddy says that Yunie is stable." Rikku said as she took another step closer to him. Buddy had been in contact via radio with boy genius, Shinra, and together they had taken care of Yuna and gotten her to relax and calm down. She had been pretty upset when her vision cleared enough to realize that Gippal wasn't Tidus. The way her cousin had looked at Gippal while she was delusional had made Rikku jealous for reasons she didn't understand. It was ridiculous to be jealous of a look that her cousin was giving Gippal, especially when he wasn't even hers to be jealous over and when her cousin thought he was someone else.
She waited for him to respond, or to at least look at her, but when he didn't she tried again, "So…" she began, taking a casual step toward him, her hands behind her back, "How's it going?"
Gippal turned toward her with a steady and even gaze, showing no hint of emotion in his visible eye, "What do you want?" he asked.
"I…I…" she stammered, unsure of whether to come up with something stupid to say or just admit the truth. Finally the truth won out and she whispered, "I'm sorry about what I said."
"You should be." He replied, turning his back toward her again to stare out the window.
Her ire rose and she threw her hands onto her hips, "Why should I be? Maybe I'm not! I mean, it was ultimately your fault Baralai got killed anyway!"
Gippal spun to face her, his eyes aglow with rage, "And how do you figure that?"
"If you hadn't hit him then he wouldn't have run away!" she snapped.
Gippal leaned in until his mouth was inches from hers. His breath was hot on her face as he whispered, "The only reason I hit him was because I was jealous of his attentions toward you." With a glare and a sneer, he hissed, "So if you want to point fingers, Rikku, you might want to start with yourself."
Her green eyes flew wide open as she gasped and took a step back from him as if she had been struck, "Why do you say that?! I didn't do anything!"
"You flirted with him…" Gippal said with a shrug, "You did something to make him think he stood a chance which made me jealous." With a sneer he turned his back to her, "That is why it's ultimately your fault."
"Gippal!" Rikku cried, "That's not fair!"
He turned to look at her, "And accusing me of being the cause of my best friend's death is fair?"
She didn't know how to respond. She wanted to tell him that she really didn't think it was his fault, but she couldn't. She wanted to blame him for Baralai dying, but she couldn't. All Rikku found herself able to do was stand in silence as the man she loved turned and walked away from her in disgust.
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The long red scratches along her wrists would be a reminder of how stupid she had been. Thankfully, neither Buddy nor Shinra thought that they would be permanent. Yuna had been confined to bed and told that she was not to rise for any reason whatsoever until further notice. She longed to stretch her legs, but decided that she would listen to her friends. She didn't want them to worry about her any more then they already had.
She had insisted upon awakening that they put her into another bed. She didn't want to spend several days in the bed she had shared with Tidus – and then Shuyin. She didn't want to have to wake up without a warm body next to her night after night. Although it was still difficult to be alone, she found it oddly easier in a different bed.
"How are you feeling?" came Gippal's voice echoing up the stairs as he approached her.
She shrugged, "As well as can be expected."
"Translation…" Gippal said with a grin as he sat down on the bed next to her, "Life sucks, right?"
"Absolutely," Yuna agreed, "but thank you for saving me just the same."
"Sure thing." Gippal said with a smile but Yuna could tell there was tension hiding behind his well shaped mouth and she cocked her head to the side.
"What's wrong?"
He groaned, "its Rikku…"
"What about her?"
"Where do I even begin?" he asked rhetorically before squirming to sit cross legged before her on the mattress. His beautiful companion did the same until they sat with their knees touching; a thin sheet as separation between them, "You know, I seriously thought she'd gotten over the whole Baralai thing. I mean, she busted me out of jail so I didn't think she thought I was responsible anymore."
"She thinks you killed him still?"
"No…" Gippal replied with a shrug and a sigh, "Not really. She just thinks that I'm the reason he was alone to begin with. Like, if I hadn't hit him then he never would have died."
Yuna let the sheets fall to her waist as she struggled against the mound of pillows to find a comfortable sitting position, "You can understand where she's coming from, though, right? You did hit Baralai and he did leave because of it."
Her blonde counterpart frowned, "I suppose it is technically my fault, but she still shouldn't have said it."
"You're right. She shouldn't have. She's being naïve and a little stupid."
Gippal smirked, "Naïve and a little stupid…basically she's just being Rikku then, right?"
Try as she might, Yuna couldn't fight off the smile that was forming on her features at Gippal's little joke and for the first time since Tidus' death, Yuna laughed.
"So you can laugh!" Gippal said gleefully, "Let's keep it going!" and before Yuna could react he had her pinned down on the bed, attacking her sides with the most ferocious of tickling fights she'd ever been in.
He learned quickly that she was most ticklish on her hips and took great joy out of making her squirm and giggle maniacally until she begged him to stop so she could catch her breath. The Al Bhed released her gently and rocked back onto his heels on the bed and laughed at her expression and bed hair. She feigned an angry expression, "That wasn't very nice, Gippal."
"You liked it." Her counterpart said with a grin, "Admit it."
Yuna laughed again and shrugged, "I suppose I did." And then she paused, fingering the Zanarkand Abes necklace that was still firmly around her neck, "I shouldn't have, though…"
"He wouldn't want you to live life like a priestess, Yuna." Gippal said, "Tidus loved you and he'd want you to be happy and go on with life." He wrapped a muscular arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him, "One of these days, a hot and hunky guy is going to walk by and you're gonna want a piece of that and it's going to be okay."
Yuna smirked a little at Gippal's interesting choice of wording before shaking her head, "I'm never going to love anyone but Tidus. Never."
"Who's talking about love?" asked Gippal, "I'm talking about sex!"
Yuna collapsed back onto the bed in a fit of giggles that continued until she had to hold her chest to keep from hurting herself, "I should have known that'd be the only thing on your mind." She admitted, "Paine told me you were quite the horn-dog."
The Al Bhed grinned proudly and winked at her, "And if you ever need relief, you know just who to call."
Yuna rolled her eyes at Gippal's offer and relaxed back on the mattress, staring up at the Al Bhed's profile silhouetted in the light from the nearby window. She felt bad for not believing in Gippal's innocence before and she couldn't understand why Rikku still thought he was responsible for Baralai's death. More than likely, Baralai would have left even if Gippal hadn't hit him.
Gippal turned to look at her and for the first time she noticed that his good eye was as green as her eye and it also matched the green of all Al Bhed eyes. She smiled at him, "Is there something in the genes that make all those with Al Bhed blood have green eyes?"
"I think so." Gippal replied, rubbing at his eye patch.
Yuna propped herself up on her elbows, "Can I see your other eye?"
Gippal looked surprised and opened his mouth to respond when Paine came into the room below, "Nooj and LeBlanc are here." She called up the stairs, "They want to know if you're up for a visit, Yuna."
She called, "Send them up!"
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Nooj followed Paine to the crew quarters with LeBlanc by his side. LeBlanc had asked him recently if there had been anything between himself and Paine to which he had replied with a profound no. He'd lied to her and he felt terrible, but he felt like he had no choice. She had been traumatized because of Shuyin and he didn't want to add to her worries and fears. She had seemed to believe his lies, but he could tell that she was still concerned by the way she hung close to his side and hadn't let go of his hand in Paine's presence.
That was why he was extremely grateful when Paine pointed up the stairs toward Yuna's bed and then left the room.
Gippal jumped up from the bed as if burned by something when Nooj and LeBlanc arrived on the landing. Nooj had noticed Rikku's angry expression at the mention of Gippal's name so he figured the two of them were fighting about something. Was Gippal venting to Yuna…or making a move on her? With his friend, he could never be sure.
"Yuna, love, are you okay?" LeBlanc asked as she rushed to Yuna as if the two had been best friends for years. It really amazed Nooj that the two were getting along as well as they were. Thanks to Shuyin, they all knew that in past lives the two girls hated each other – LeBlanc had even been responsible for Yuna's death – so seeing one so concerned for the other was surreal.
Yuna nodded, "Yeah, thanks to Gippal and his quick thinking."
For a split second Nooj thought his usually cocky friend blushed, but he quickly dismissed the thought as lighting. Smiling at Yuna, he said, "You gave us all a scare. Don't ever do that again."
"I won't," the ex-summoner promised, "I was just in a weird place and did something stupid but it won't happen again. Tidus wouldn't want me to do something like that."
"You're absolutely right." LeBlanc agreed, "He wouldn't."
Stretching her legs in the bed, Yuna smiled at Nooj, "So, what is new in Spira these days? Any evil I can vanquish? I really need a distraction."
Nooj laughed and pushed a stray strand of brown from his eyes, "No evil this time, Yuna. Business as usual in Spira. I'm working with the new New Yevon Praetoress. We're picking up where Baralai and I left off." He sighed, "It's weird to go over stuff with someone else, but I can't let that stop me."
LeBlanc scoffed, "Well, the Praetoress is weird too. I'd like to know just where she came from."
"What's weird about her?" asked Gippal.
Nooj shrugged and playfully poked LeBlanc in the side, "This one here just doesn't like her because she's eternally youthful."
"She is?!" cried Yuna, "How is that possible?"
Gippal nodded, "Yeah! And how old is she really?"
Nooj shrugged and looked at LeBlanc, "How old would you think that she is?" he asked her but his lady just shook her head and shrugged. Nooj thought for a moment, "Well, she looks like she's only 17 or 18, but I'd figure she's got to be about 1000 years older than that."
"Why?!" asked Yuna.
"Well," Nooj began, "1000 years ago was the age of sorceresses – early forms of the fayth – and the Praetoress is a sorceress. She's probably the last of her kind since most of them died in battles over the years."
"She's weird…" whispered LeBlanc.
Nooj laughed, "Yes, she is a little strange…."
"Strange is putting it mildly, love." Interrupted LeBlanc as she whispered to Yuna, "The woman has this weird machine that she hooks herself up to and she zones out for hours on end. We were over there one day and Nooj was going over stuff with her when she said she needed to take a break. She went away and I followed her and saw her get hooked to this machine!"
"You shouldn't have done that," Nooj said to her, "We discussed that."
LeBlanc waved his words off, "Spira needs to know if they have another loony like Seymour on their hands and I think they do. I just hope this time poor Yuna doesn't have to marry her."
Yuna laughed at the thought, "I hope so too!"
Gippal scratched his head, "What do you think the machine is?"
"I don't even know if there is a machine." Nooj said, and glanced at LeBlanc, "I was behaving myself and not spying on our hostess at the time." His girlfriend stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed, "Very mature, darling."
"What's her name?" Yuna asked, "Maybe I've heard of her."
"That's another weird thing…" LeBlanc said, "Her name is Rinoa Heartilly, but she insists that everyone call her Ultimecia."