Chapter 5: The sending
The next day the group decided to go the Machine Faction to see Gippal, in hopes that he might have an idea about this Spite guy.
They had woken up early that morning. With the exception of Rikku, who complained that she only needed five more minutes, every time one of the group tried to get her to come downstairs.
Yuna ended up being the one to make her move, as Rikku could never say no to Yuna.
Finally when everyone was downstairs they waited for Baralai to say their goodbyes until next time. He arrived a few minutes later looking quite tired, the dark circles under his eyes were clear.
Rikku began to giggle and piped up, "So I guess you and Chineya had a little more fun last night after I left?"
Chineya gave her the dirtiest look she could muster and yelled, "Will you ever learn to keep that annoying mouth of yours closed for more then five minutes? I haven't even known you a whole day and you're already getting on my nerves"
She then stomped off out of the temple, leaving the others quite shocked at the sudden outburst. Baralai stared after Chineya and frowned as if deep in thought about something.
"What's her problem?" pouted Rikku, folding her arms angrily.
"I don't know. But she does have a point." Replied Paine, who felt she just wanted to stir Rikku a bit, before turning to Baralai once more.
Yuna spoke up quickly before there could be anymore fights and arguments.
"Baralai, thank you for letting us stay the night, we hope to see you soon. If you hear anything about this man named Spite, please find a way of getting the information to us. We would be so grateful." She said quietly, almost in a pleading manner.
Baralai nodded and began to walk down the stairs towards them.
"Well I hope you all have a safe journey and take care of each other." He said eyeing Tidus and Yuna, then Rikku and Paine, then Wakka and Lulu in particular before staring out towards the door of the temple.
He stood like that for some time, before shaking his head and saying goodbye and leaving them to head off once more.
A few minutes later the group had boarded the airship and were heading towards the Machine Faction.
"Why do we even have to go to the Machine Faction anyway? It's not like Gippal is gonna know anymore then Baralai." Rikku whined as she paced the ship.
Tidus gave her a curious look and said, "Because we have to find out anything and everything we can. You don't know what Gippal does or doesn't know."
She frowned and ran away to her cabin. No one took much notice figuring she was just being her annoying self again.
Chineya was leaning up against the wall once more and looking rather pleased that Rikku didn't get her own way.
She yawned and said, "I'm gonna go back to my cabin too for a while."
Most of them turned around to nod at her before turning back to talking with Brother, who was complaining about something.
Chineya had entered her cabin and was just about to lie down on her bed. However a noise coming from her closet stopped her and she drew her samurai sword without a sound.
She crept towards it and counted to three in her head and then flung open the door watching as a figure fell out before her feet.
She placed her sword at their neck, not seeing their face because their cloak was swept up over it. However it was obvious that it was a male.
"Stay where you are you pathetic jerk." She yelled threateningly.
He went to remove the cloak from his face, but was stopped by Chineya who said that she'd remove it for him and not to try anything stupid.
He surrendered and she lifted away his cloak with the tip of her sword. When she saw who it was she stepped back in shock against the wall.
He took this as an opportunity to stand up and fix up his clothing.
Chineya quickly got over her shock and frowned
"What do you think you were doing in there?" she cried.
He frowned at her rudeness and said, "I was trying to find you. I thought maybe you had become accustomed to hiding in closets." He said trying to make a joke of it.
However this didn't seem to make her even crack a smile so he went back to being serious, "I decided to come along for the ride, as I happen to have business with Gippal to sort out anyway. Not that it's any of your business." He finished.
"So you decided to hide in my closet? Why couldn't you just ask us for a ride?" she said looking confused.
"Because I…" he was suddenly cut off by Rikku who had heard the commotion and was now standing at the door.
She stared at them both cheekily, "So I see you sneaked him aboard after all." She said directing the statement at Chineya.
Chineya frowned at Rikku and said, "Maybe you can sneak Gippal aboard when we leave the Machine Faction, as it's pretty obvious you're infatuated with him, the way you've been acting."
Rikku went pale and said, "I am not. He's just so immature."
She left them once again, wondering how Chineya could have possibly guessed that she had some feelings for Gippal.
Baralai began to leave.
"Hey where do you think you're going?" Chineya questioned.
He turned around to face her and said rudely, "Well I don't plan to spend the rest of the trip in here with you, so I'm going to go and see the others."
With that he walked out of the room leaving Chineya to sit on the bed and pout about his statement.
Baralai entered the bridge and waited for someone to notice that he was there. Lulu, who was doing nothing in particular, spotted him out of the corner of her eye.
"Baralai? What are you doing here?" asked Lulu.
Suddenly Rikku ran into the bridge saying: "He was in Aya's closet!"
Everyone looked at him with a weird look and leaned away from him in confusion.
Chineya ran into bridge right after Rikku and yelled: "Don't listen to anything that stupid blonde says."
"Who do you think you're calling stupid blonde?" asked Rikku, who appeared to be hurt.
"Hmm…let me think…YOU!" said Chineya, sarcastically.
Rikku pouted for what seemed the millionth time that morning, until Wakka piped up and said, "Hey Rikku, you're gonna end up looking older before your time if you keep that up ya." Referring to the way she kept forming wrinkles over her face every time she frowned.
She almost looked as if she believed Wakka, giving him a look which said really?
Yuna gave both Chineya and Wakka warning glances as she walked towards Rikku to comfort her.
She led her back into her cabin until the ship landed, away from all the arguing.
A few minutes later they landed at Djose temple which was now known as the Machine Faction. Everyone jumped down off the ship and stood on the ground discussing what they should do first.
Baralai excused himself and headed off ahead leaving the others behind.
Chineya pretended she didn't care and turned back to the group and said, "So what's the plan?"
Tidus said that they should head off towards the temple and see if they could find Gippal anywhere.
They all nodded and followed Tidus who took the lead.
Yuna who was near the end of the group suddenly heard something on the right of her in the bushes and went to investigate.
As she got closer, she began to remove the bushes in front of her to take a closer look.
However just as she was inches away from revealing what was there, the rest of the group beckoned her to come back.
She turned to nod and frowned as she took one last look at the bush before leaving.
If she had in fact gotten any closer, she would have noticed that the very man they were searching for was secretly watching them. He had hoped that Yuna might have gotten closer so that he might be able to see her face better.
When Yuna ran back to follow them, Tidus was waiting for her while the others walked ahead. She almost ran into him but looked up just in time.
"What were you doing back there?" Tidus asked looking back at the place she had just come from.
"Oh I thought I heard something." She replied.
"Well try and keep up will you. I don't want you getting hurt." He said before taking her hand and leading her back to the group.
She knew he only wanted to protect her. But sometimes she felt like he saw her as a child not knowing how to take care of herself.
A few minutes later they had arrived inside the temple and saw that Baralai was already there talking to Gippal. They were relieved to find that he was there and that they didn't have to go searching for him.
Tidus went to say something to Yuna but as he turned to face her he realised she had gone.
"Hey did anyone see where Yuna went?" Tidus asked concerned.
They all shook their heads claiming that they hadn't even seen her come into the temple.
This made him become panicky, as he wished he had have kept a better eye on her.
"Look, you guys stay here while I go and find her." He instructed as he ran out of the temple.
They looked after him hoping that she was all right.
Tidus came outside to find that Yuna was conversing with a woman who was crying sadly about something.
As he got closer he could hear the conversation better between them.
"Please Lady Yuna…my child must be sent before it's too late." She pleaded.
Yuna was looking on, as a few people who seemed to be part of the family were crying.
"I'm not a summoner anymore…I'm sorry…I can't." She explained sorrowfully.
"Please…you're our last hope." She begged.
Yuna had heard this said to her many times before, and she could not refuse their wishes.
Tidus thought that she would soon walk away and come back to the temple but was shocked when she said, "I'll try my best. But I can't do it without a staff."
Someone appeared from the group and presented her with a staff, as if already knowing that she was coming.
She hesitated but as she saw the look in their eyes, she took it and said, "Very well…show me where your child is."
They began to walk off and she was about to follow when…
"Yuna…" Tidus called, causing her to spin around and stare at him.
He gave her a look of confusion.
She didn't say a word, but gave a small smile as if to reassure him that she would be alright.
However as she walked off he followed discreetly behind.
Moments later, Yuna was standing outside surrounded by people, who just wanted to get a look at the famous High Summoner.
The child was lying on the ground lifelessly and Yuna began to dance.
Tidus was watching form the crowd as she danced the dance he had seen her do so many times before…before he had left that was.
She was looking a bit exhausted in the process of sending the child and Tidus began to walk closer towards her.
Finally after the process was complete, Yuna began to loose her balance from exhaustion, and began to fall backwards. Everyone gasped. But Tidus was quick to run and catch her before she hit the ground.
He looked around at the staring faces and then ran back towards the temple, carrying Yuna in his arms.
As he entered the temple, everyone turned to see Yuna's limp body in Tidus's arms.
"Yunieeeeeee!" cried Rikku as she ran towards them.
"Rikku keep back, she needs some air." Tidus explained.
He made his way towards Gippal and whispered something to him. Gippal directed them towards the stairs and lead them to a room.
As Tidus lay Yuna down, Gippal said, "I don't understand she is no longer a Summoner."
"I know…but you know Yuna…she can't refuse anyone." Tidus explained scratching the back of his head.
"Do me a favour…don't mention this to the others. I don't think Yuna would want to cause more problems then we're already having." Tidus stated.
Gippal nodded and went back to the group, who were waiting anxiously for one of them to return, so that they knew what was going on.
"What happened to Yunie?" Rikku exclaimed crying.
"She's dehydrated." He lied.
"Where was she?" asked Lulu, giving him a curious look.
"Tidus found her by the stairs. Apparently she needed a rest." He lied once more.
They all looked at him strangely before deciding to go one with the purpose of their trip, even if they were worried about Yuna.
That night they were once again invited to stay the night, except this time with Gippal. Even Baralai stayed.
Yuna was still asleep which worried them a bit, considering she had been asleep all day.
Chineya had made a point of avoiding Baralai all together and went to bed early.
Baralai was rather annoyed with her rudeness.
Rikku was busy talking to Paine about how annoying Gippal was. Paine was mumbling under her breath every five seconds, "Yes Rikku. I know you like him Rikku. Please just leave me alone."
But Rikku was too busy complaining to even notice.
Lulu and Wakka were in their room talking about the situation at hand seriously.
As for Tidus he was lying in bed with Yuna, staying wide awake in case she woke up. He didn't think that she would have been able to do what she had done, seeing as she was no longer a summoner.
But what the group didn't know while they were safely sleeping was the presence of something evil creeping upon them. It was the man who had laid in the bushes; the man whom was drawn to Yuna that day.
Hate. Love. Desire. Revenge. The four things that your mind can disperse, but they're also four things which your heart will strive to achieve.
Evil. If it is immense enough, the person in which it is invested has no soul. They are said to be incapable of love or desire or things related to emotion. Then why is it that I am drawn to her. You would be so angry if you found out………………father.
A/N: Well, we're back, after a very long long time. Well, we got a lot of reviews...NOT! Please review and tell us what you think of our story. There is a lot more coming...and the plot willthicken...
Well, what did you think of this chapter? Well, the only way you'll tell us what you thought is...and wait for it...if you REVIEW...OK?
Yunie and Yuffie