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.

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:  Okay folks, some brain growing in this chapter.  No Tidus but there is some Rikku/Gippal and Yuna/Gippal interaction that will become much more spicy in the next couple of chapters so stay tuned!

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SILVER WINGS 3: Back Into My Arms

by akksgurl

Chapter Eight: Only The Dead Appear In The Farplane

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Early the next morning, Rikku awoke to a muffled curse that was coming from just outside of the crew quarters.  Flinging a robe over her chocobo nightgown, Rikku padded softly down the stairs so as not to wake her friends.  As she opened the door, her eyes were greeted with Gippal, hunched over in pain as he rubbed his foot, still cursing under his breath. 

"What happened to you?" she asked, closing the door quietly.

He looked up at her, his jaw tensing visibly.  It was obvious he was still angry with her and it only made her angrier with him.  He snorted, "I stubbed my toe on that damned door-jam you have sitting out here." He said, pointing violently toward the tiny metal chocobo that served as a way to keep the crew quarters door opened during the day.

"What did you go and do that for?" she sneered, trying to keep her angry hiss down so as not to wake her friends.

"It's not like I did it on purpose!" he hissed back at her, glancing down at her nightgown, "Steal those from Shinra?" he asked her.

She scoffed, "I really doubt that Shinra wears nightgowns, you idiot!"

"Maybe not," Gippal conceded, "but I also doubt that he'd be caught dead in a chocobo nightie and he is more age appropriate for it."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Gippal sighed and shook his head, "When are you going to grow up, Rikku?" he asked her with a frown, "No man in his right mind is going to want to baby-sit you for the rest of their lives.  Especially not me."

Her fury rose as she watched him wander down toward the elevator.  Balling her fists at her side, Rikku shrieked, "I don't want you to!!"

Her voice echoed along the walls of the thin corridor as Gippal's face disappeared behind the closing elevator doors.  She cursed to herself.  She hated that he could get her so angry.  She was sure she had woken her friends up – and became certain when she heard footsteps from inside the room. 

Sighing, she let herself back into the crew quarters and let the door slam shut behind her, "Sorry guys…" she said to Yuna and Paine as the duo came down the stairs. 

"I needed to get up anyway." Yuna admitted with a yawn as she worked on buttoning her shirt as she came down, "I have to meet Nooj today.  We're going to speak with Praetoress Rinoa."  Yuna hugged her cousin and smiled, "I'll see you when I get back."

"I'm actually going out later so I might not be back tonight." She smiled at Yuna's questioning gaze, "There is just something I have to take care of." She said, mysteriously.

"Okay…" Yuna murmured, not entirely convinced that her cousin wasn't up to something bad.  Grabbing her guns on her way out, Yuna said, "See you later."

"Watch out on the bridge…" Rikku warned, "Gippal the Idiot is in there."

Rikku thought for second she saw her cousin blush but she left the room before Rikku could be sure.

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His broad shoulders were the first thing that caught her attention.  As her eyes wandered downward along his back, Yuna wondered how Rikku could bring herself to stay angry at him. 

The entire night she had been plagued by a gnawing feeling of guilt that was boiling in her stomach and threatening to eat her alive.  Her heart belonged to Tidus and always would, but she was becoming increasingly aware of the long and cold nights that lay ahead of her without him.  She missed the feeling of a living, breathing, hard –bodied man lying next to her – and on top of her. 

But this was Gippal!  He was Rikku's boyfriend…well, sort of.  She had to stop this sudden lust she felt deep within herself.  Just because he looked nice in a pair of slacks and his muscular torso filled out that shirt didn't mean…

Oh, who was she kidding?  Just the thought of that tight body made her knees quiver.  She had felt it even before Tidus had come back.  When she had first met Gippal that day at Djose Temple he had managed to make her knees quake.  She had attributed it to her nerves then, and to varying degrees since, but deep inside of her she knew it wasn't nerves.

"Oh, hey Yuna." Said Gippal as he turned slightly to see who had entered the bridge behind him.  He smiled at her and motioned toward the window, "Nice day, huh?  We should get a lot accomplished with the rebuilding today."

Yuna nodded and rung her hands behind her back, trying to quiet her growing nerves, "Yeah." She replied quietly.  She took a few steps toward him in an attempt to feign nonchalance, "You're up early."

"I wanted to get an early start today." He said, "We've made some progress but not as much as I'd like.  I want to have the stadium up and running in another month or so."

Yuna gazed out at the remnants of the blitzball stadium to which the Al Bhed beside her was referring.  With the help of an army of Al Bhed with their machina, as well as Nooj and his Youth League followers, the stadium was about halfway complete in a short amount of time.  However, she wasn't sure if it could be completed in another month.  There was still quite a bit left to do.  She looked up at his profile and noted with some surprise that the expression upon his face made him resemble Tidus more than she had realized.  She knew she had thought he was Tidus during her brief moments of delirium when he had brought her back from the brink of death, but she hadn't realized that there was a reason behind it. 

"Is something bothering you, Yuna?" Gippal asked her.

She jumped a little at the realization that he had put a hand on her shoulder and she backed away a bit, "N…no," she stammered, "I just was wondering where Nooj was.  He's supposed to pick me up."

"Going to meet the Praetoress?"

Yuna nodded, "She apparently has wanted to meet me." Shrugging, Yuna said, "I guess she's anxious to talk to the person who saved the world what…three times already?"

Gippal laughed, "You've been busy!" he said, stopping for a moment to point out the window, "Here comes Nooj."

"Oh yeah," said Yuna, "Guess I'd better get going." She stopped and looked at Gippal, smiling a little, "Nice talking to you."

"Nice talking to you too, Yuna."  Said Gippal, "See ya later!"

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Rikku was thankful she managed to sneak out of the Celsius without having another encounter with Gippal.  She didn't want to deal with him at the moment.  Things between them had snowballed and she wasn't sure if they were ever going to be okay again, but at that particular moment she didn't have time to worry about it.

She had made arrangements with her father to borrow one of the smaller Al Bhed airships for the short trip she felt it necessary to take today.  Something had been nagging at her since Tidus' death and the young woman decided to return to the scene in the hopes of discovering something that would explain this strange feeling she was having that something wasn't quite right.

There was still quite a bit of debris in the Chamber of the Fayth when she arrived, taking a few tentative steps into what was once the most sacred of places.  The monkeys made it their home now, but Rikku still felt a chill in the air as she entered, almost as if all the souls of the departed haunted its walls. 

It seemed to happen in slow motion.  Rikku saw their fingers grazed each other as the earth cracked between them and flames shot up around him, forcing Yuna backward to tumble head over heels.  Rikku could hear his cry get fainter and fainter until it died out and, just as quickly as it happened, the earth stopped moving and the flames vanished leaving silence in their wake. 

Yuna scrambled to her feet and made her way over the remaining rocks and boulders that had fallen to where Tidus was last standing.  She scrambled on all fours around the area, searching desperately for him.

"Tidus!" Yuna shrieked as she saw sword lying under a pile of rocks and boulders that had formed behind where she'd last seen him.  She pulled and tugged at the rocks and boulders, oblivious to the pain as each ripped at the delicate skin on her hands. 

"Hold on, Tidus!" Rikku cried as she in turn joined Yuna, followed by the others – except Gippal, all digging frantically through the rubble to reach him. 

Gippal wandered over to the only fire still burning, a small bonfire ignited at the center of the chamber.  His eyes caught on something fanning those crisp, clean flames and he felt vomit forming in the pit of his stomach, "He's not over there." He managed to mutter.

Yuna turned and stared at Gippal, "What are you talking about?  How do you know that?"

He pointed a shaking finger at what had caught his attention; a pair of sneakers – Tidus's sneakers, some cloth from his clothes, and his Zanarkand Abe's necklace that he never went without.  Each glowed brightly in the flames as Yuna stared, her hands shaking at her sides.  She took a cautious step closer to the flames and as she did an explosion rocked the chamber again and the flames burned higher and brighter then before, practically destroying the shoes and cloth before Yuna truly had a chance to realize that they were, indeed, Tidus'. 

"Yunie…" Rikku began but Yuna violently threw her cousin's tender hand off of her shoulder and made a mad dash toward the flames.

"TIDUS!!!!!!!!!!!"

Rikku trembled and shoved the memory from her mind.  Hearing the pain in her cousin's voice was something Rikku didn't want to remember, but she hadn't been able to shake the feeling that there was more to this than they had seen.  Everything seemed far too convenient for it to have just been a coincidence, but if it had been planned then why?  Why would Shuyin plan for Tidus' death?  It would have meant his death as well!  It just didn't make any sense.

Dropping to her knees, Rikku bent to examine the floor that surrounded her from which the flames had shot up.  Something just wasn't right.  Her fingers gently caressed the cracks and ridges of the stones and she bent until her nose was practically implanted on the ground.

"Hello Rikku.  It's been a long time."

Rikku jumped up and screamed, spinning frantically to see who was behind her.  Her jaw dropped as her sight focused on the familiar form of Tidus' advisor and the former guardian to Lord Braska.

"Auron!" Rikku cried, excitedly jumping up and down, "What are you doing here?  Shouldn't you be in the Farplane?"

Auron shrugged, "I heard something happened here and came to check it out for myself.  Do you know what it was?"

Rikku looked at the apparition before her and more confusing thoughts entered her mind.  The one question, though, that plagued her most was…

Wouldn't Auron know Tidus was dead?

"Rikku…?"

Shaken from her thoughts, Rikku replied, "Tidus died here, Auron.  I thought you'd know that."

It was the apparition's turn to appear bemused.  During the entire pilgrimage, Auron hadn't shown much emotion, but if there was the slightest sentiment on his face it was that of confusion, "What are you talking about, Rikku?  Tidus was given a second chance several months ago.  I thought - we all thought – he was with Yuna."

"You mean…you haven't seen him in the Farplane?"

"No."

Rikku felt a sudden surge of excitement flow through her.  If Tidus wasn't in the Farplane, then maybe…

"I've gotta go, Auron!" she called to him as she made her way quickly passed him, "See you later!" she cried over her shoulder, but the apparition had already faded as quickly as he had appeared.  Fairly flying out of the Chamber of the Fayth, Rikku made her way back to the airship with the intent of going directly to Guadosalam.  The Farplane held the answer she was seeking as to whether Tidus was alive or dead and she knew just how to find out.  She'd call him there and see if he came to her. 

"Only the dead appear in the Farplane…" she whispered to herself, "So please don't be there, Tidus….for Yunie."