A/N: Here's another chapter! Thanks SO much for all the great reviews, they make my day, and help my writing! Umm…not much to say, except I hope I can fit in some stuff about Rikku and Gippal and their past and whatnot…hopefully. Don't count on it though.
The Beach, Nighttime
"A-At least it's light out." Rikku managed, her eyes darting around the scenery. Her and Gippal were walking slowly across the long stretch of pearly white sand. Waves lapped calmly onto the shore, anything but the same as those crashing against the cliffs at Djose Highroad. The darkness seemed to be getting thicker and darker as the night went on though, even if the moon was shining brilliantly.
"Can we hurry it up Gippal?" She asked, her voice higher than she would have liked it.
"Why?" Gippal asked, slowing down even more and throwing an arm lazily over her shoulder. "I'm sure I saw you on one of those dating services…long walks on the beach are your favorite, aren't they?"
Rikku caught the sarcasm as he gave her his genuine smirk. She almost melted underneath it, but instead, did what she always did—hurt him.
She bit the hand of the arm that was over her shoulders. With a yelp he withdrew it quickly.
"Ouch, Cid's Girl!" He moaned, scrutinizing his hand. "I think you drew some blood."
"Good." She said with a smile. There. Her mind had been off of the ghosts for at least a…a second.
"I thought Lady Yuna had sent all the spirits here." Gippal finally said, glancing around. "That's what I heard, anyway."
Rikku glanced up at him questioningly. It was so weird to hear someone so close to her calling her cousin 'Lady' Yuna! But she got over it, shaking her head.
"She told me she had…Tidus and everyone else that had been here backed her up on that. But I guess some of them just didn't want to leave…they're all too emotionally attached to Spira, or something. Maybe some had families, or—or lovers, or something that stopped them from leaving…"
She didn't notice Gippal looking down at her admiringly immediately. But when she did, she was a bit taken aback. He had never really…admired her, or, praised her, on something.
"What?" She asked, a blush growing on her cheeks.
"Did someone tell you that?" Gippal asked, an eyebrow cocked.
"No…I just thought of it right no—" Rikku froze. Her left foot stopped in mid-air, and her eyes were locked in the position of wide saucers. Her mouth was slightly agape, and she was looking to Gippal's left.
Immediately, a chill swept over the two. "Rikku?" Gippal asked, shaking her shoulders gently, his eyebrow's furrowed with worry. "Rikku?"
"S-S-Sp—Spi—" Gippal didn't need her to finish. He whirled around to see something that would probably haunt him for the rest of his life.
There, slowly climbing out the sand, to put it bluntly, was a spirit. The body was a man's, and it was a sort of shadow, grey in color, yet it glowed with a sort of evil aura. Gippal felt the need to run—he could even hear his brain screaming at him to move, but he just—couldn't. With a fascinated horror, (but just plain horror to Rikku), the two watched the mangled man arise from the sand. His flesh was cut in places, large wounds allowed bones that should have normally been hidden to show. The bottom part of his left leg was bent at an odd angle, and it seemed to be barely hanging on. The worse part was a large whole where normally a heart would have been. Of course, this being was smoky, so it was barely noticeable, but at the same time, you could clearly tell it was there.
"Holy Spira." Gippal muttered, his eye wide. He felt something tugging at his arm. He looked down. It was Rikku, and she was crying.
"Gippal. I need to get out of here. Now." She said this all in an eerie sort of calm, even though her face was livid with fear, and the tears wouldn't stop falling. Gippal nodded slowly, and grabbed her hand in his. Giving her a reassuring smile, he took a step away from the spirit.
But he stopped when a shiver ran up his spine.
"Where do you think you are going?"
The spirit had talked. His voice was raspy and quiet, as if it was barely there. Like it didn't belong where it was. It almost seemed foreign, or of someone's imagination. But it froze Rikku and Gippal in their tracks.
"Answer me."
Gippal was the first to turn around, though he realized his body was trembling. Rikku clung on his hand, and he was beginning to feel it go numb.
"Gippal!" Rikku hissed. "Answer him!"
He gave her a questioning glanced, as in 'why ME'? But she merely pushed him forward.
"We were just…going…to leave…that way." Gippal pointed his finger towards Mushroom Rock Road.
Rikku heard his voice. It was meek and quiet, something she wasn't used to. Was Gippal—scared? Well, THAT wasn't good. He was supposed to be protecting her, but if he was scared…
Rikku shivered as the thing stared at them, his eyes rolling. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying this was all over. She felt her knees weaken underneath her, and she clung even tighter to Gippal.
"You are scared." He said, and Rikku risked opening an eye to see something shimmer in the corner. Before she could see what the first spirit was doing, she saw another one spouting out of the sand. It was a female, and she seemed barely older than herself…
"Well…this is kinda creepy." Gippal muttered, the toe of his shoe digging nervously into the sand.
"Creepy?" He gave a harsh laugh, though Rikku was barely listening. Her head was moving left and right at a freakishly fast pace. She was watching all the other spirits rising up from the ground and standing, shaking their limbs (if they had any), like they didn't normally wake up at night. Rikku gulped, and couldn't help a small squeak escape her throat, though neither Gippal nor the spirits seemed to notice. They were all watching the man. Rikku nearly cried as she saw more and more standing up behind those in front. It was like a giant wave of smoky grey-ness, slowly growing larger. She wondered how many there were…how many there needed to be to kill two, scared, teenagers.
"I'll tell you what's creepy. Facing Sin down-and DYING." He gave a dark chuckle, and his eyes started to roll again. All the other spirits, mangled and bloody as they were, let out chuckles as well. Rikku saw Gippal start when they began to laugh. He didn't notice…he hadn't realized how many had awoken, how many were now cornering them slowly…
"Creepy is never being able to leave. We have to stay on this beach for the rest of eternity."
As the spirit gave another evil chuckle, Rikku felt her hands twitch to her blades. Oooh, if she could just swipe that one closest to her, show 'em what she was made of…
The spirit stopped, and watched Rikku with hardened eyes. "We cannot be killed." He said simply, yet the words were filled with an infuriated chill.
Rikku's eyes widened, and with a glance up, she saw just how scared Gippal was. Now both knew the danger of their predicament—these things could kill them, but they couldn't kill the spirits.
Not to mention the odds were, what? Two to two hundred?!
"Please…" Rikku finally muttered, feeling her lips tremble as she spoke. She bit the insides of her cheeks for a moment, took a deep breath, and started over.
"Please, just let us pass. We're not going to hurt you, we just need to get to Mushroom Rock Road as soon as possible. Please. You must understand. When you left to come to war, didn't you want to get here, unharmed? Well…we need to get out of here, unharmed."
Rikku didn't know if that statement had made any sense, but she was glad to see the spirits had stopped advancing.
"But I came here, and got nothing. I died. I wasted my life. Everything I had-is gone. I have nothing anymore. What's the use of letting you pass, if you are just going to die anyway? If this is so important to you, danger must be involved. With danger, comes death."
"Not necessarily!" Gippal cried before thinking. Everyone looked at him, even Rikku. She saw him blush and let out a small cough.
"What I—er—mean to say is…um, there can be success. Without danger, there would be no success either, right? If we could just…pass…success?" Gippal started to grow quieter and quieter as the spirits came closer, and Rikku felt her stomach clench. The spirits didn't care. They had no compassion anymore. What did they care if Rikku and Gippal got out alive? It didn't hurt them, or anything…
"Won't you just LISTEN?!" Rikku cried, feeling the tears that had stopped starting to fall again. "PLEASE!"
But the spirits just closed them in, with dull thunks as they slowly made their way.
"Rikku, we have no choice." Gippal said, looking down at her eyes, his face an abnormal shade of pale.
"What?" She asked, lips trembling.
"Rikku, we have to run."
"Running will get us nowhere!" She cried. "You said you would protect me! You promised me, Gippal!"
He gazed at her with an expression of a lost puppy. Rikku felt her heart nearly break, and she knew he was sorry.
"I know, I know I couldn't do it. I'm terrible at protecting, all right? But we have to run. If we get out of here, then I did my job. If not…" He looked back at the spirits. "We join the party."
"GIPPA—"
But before she could yell at him to take this thing seriously, he grabbed her hand and ran off in the opposite direction in which they had come, towards Mushroom Rock Road.
Rikku ripped her hand out of his and ran by herself, keeping up with Gippal. "They're—gonna—catch—us—" She cried between breathes. The two risked glances back to see the spirits slowly rising off of the ground, and now started to glide towards them.
"They'll pick up speed!" Rikku screamed in a defeated sort of way. "There's nothing that can stop them, Gippal!"
"THINK!" He cried, his eye trained forward. "These spirits can't go forever! There has to be a point in which they can't cross!" The two scanned the area, but neither could see a place that would stop them. They were closer. Much closer. Rikku could feel the chill they sent down her spine, and her legs were starting to weaken-she was slowing down.
"Gippal, they're gonna get me!" She screamed, feeling her head whirl with lonely thoughts. "Gippal…"
Something flashed orange in the corner. Rikku forced her head to look up. There! On the rock! Barely visible, waving in the wind, was a small piece of silk, back from when the war had been going on. There, on the silk, was the symbol of…
"Gippal!" She screamed, pointing at the cloth. "Get it! Get the—"
She hadn't even realized what was happening. She felt something cold grab her arm. She screamed and looked back to see the man holding her.
"Your little friend is already being taken." He growled, and the spirit pointed a smoky finger to the left, where Rikku was horrified to see a large pile of transparent figures on top of Gippal, who was screaming and kicking, his arms flailing, trying to keep them off…
"GIPPAL!" Rikku shrieked, feeling an anger surge through her body at the spirits. "GIPPAL!" She shrieked again, sobbing.
She couldn't see him like this. No. Gippal had always been there. Sure, annoying, sure, arrogant, but always there. Beside her. In her thoughts. But, to see him struggling, barely able to breathe…he wouldn't make it out. He was going to die if Rikku didn't do something. The truth stung, but she knew it was true.
"Get OFF me!" She screamed at the ghost ripping her arm away. He hadn't been expecting that, that's for sure. Before he could send more spirits on her, Rikku sprinted towards the fabric. Without even understanding why she thought it would do something, she felt her fingers skim across the fabric.
Just rip it off, just rip it OFF…
"NEVER!" Cried a spirit, and it jumped on her back and wrapped its arms around her neck. Rikku let out a strangled cry, feeling her body being pulled away from the cloth. She needed it. She needed it to SAVE Gippal…
A feeling she didn't know she had surged from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. With an angered roar, she spun around, her body sparking with electricity. She felt the bodies flinging off of her…or at least, a number of them. She was now light enough to grab it; she could feel the one spirit suffocating her…
Gippal…
She finally felt her fingers wrap around the silk. She ripped it off triumphantly, and waved it in the air. Immediately the spirit shrieked and shrunk back, as did the others surrounding her. She grinned down at the fabric, which in it was sewed the symbol of…
"Yevon?!" The main spirit cried, shock written across his ghostly features. "But how did you—how could you—"
Rikku advanced towards them, waving the cloth that was barely larger than her palm. "Yevon is everything you hate! Sure, it was a backstabber, sure, it was phony, but it had MEANING! It meant so much to the people of Spira. It kept them happy at nights and feeling safe. You LOATHE that, don't you?! You hate happiness, you hate people having a good life when you don't! So this is taboo, isn't it? This is the point you can't cross!"
She thrust it out like a sword, and the group of spirits backed up even more. She ran up to Gippal, and those spirits too ran off, shuddering and cursing and screaming as if they were on fire. She immediately kneeled beside Gippal, and she lifted his arm for a pulse. Anything…please, anything…
Thud. Thud. He was alive! Oh, Thank Yevon he was alive! She felt a sad smile spread across her face, and hurriedly wiped the tears from her eyes. She glared at the spirits and waved the cloth.
"Yevon is against you! It forbids you to pass! Go back to your holes and don't come out! Or Yevon'll get you!"
Of course, she forgot to mention Yevon had been destroyed, but…New Yevon counted, didn't it?
With hisses and shrieks, the spirits disappeared in a flurry of black. In an instant they were gone, and Rikku realized just now how much her body trembled, and how many tears had fallen from her eyes. She had been scared…so scared…she thought she was going to die…
"Rikku?" Came a slurred voice from beside her. Rikku looked down to see Gippal's eye open, though she knew he was disoriented. He propped himself up on his elbows.
"It's okay Gippal." She said, leaning down and hugging him. She let out a small sob. "Everything's okay…"
The two had made it across the beach. Gippal was still groggy, and he barely knew what was happening. Rikku had to lead him past the place she had grabbed the cloth, up the slope, and on top of the grass area, near the Youth League, though still in that large field beside it.
"Gippal?" She asked hesitantly, her eyes watching him. His body stumbled to the ground, and his eye was watching the ocean the two could see clearly. It was an orangey color, because the sun was just starting to come up.
"It was so scary." He finally croaked out. Rikku looked down at him in surprise and sat beside him, hugging her knees and resting he head sideways on them so she could watch Gippal.
"I know." She whispered back. "But we're safe now."
"But I couldn't do it, Rikku!" He cried, facing her. She saw all sorts of sad emotions in his eye, in turn making her feel sad…
"Do what?" She asked.
"Protect you! I promised, but instead, I—I get swallowed up and—and—and nearly killed…"
"But we still got out!"
"Because of you!" Gippal cried, running a hand through his hair. "Rikku, I just couldn't do it! You were brave enough, strong enough, to keep going! I couldn't even keep them off of me…"
"There were so many on top of you, Gippal!" Rikku cried, hoping he wouldn't feel guilty. "There was one on me, barely holding my arm down! It's all right! You did all you could!"
"And it got me nowhere. I can't do it. I thought I could—could protect you…even then, not now…I'm just USELESS!" He stood up abruptly and strode to the top of the field, where he stood alone watching the ocean. Rikku watched him curiously and walked up beside him.
The two were silent, just watching the ocean. "What do you mean, you couldn't protect me then? On the beach?"
"No…" Gippal sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "No, much before that. I'd say when you were fifteen."
Rikku's eyes grew wide. "But that's when we were da—"
"I know, I know…" His eye lifted up and continued to watch the waves in silence. Rikku waited, knowing sooner or later he would spill. Curiosity was killing her, but she forced herself to stay silent.
The quiet was deafening. Rikku couldn't handle it. She was just about to say something, when…
"Remember that last social thing we went to? And out on the balcony I said there was more to the break up then me not being able to handle a relationship?"
Rikku nodded. "Yea…"
"Well, I wasn't lying. It was true. You see, I didn't have any parents…" He turned to her. "You knew that already. I came to Home because I was alone, but you knew that. Right?"
She nodded once more, wondering what any of this had to do with him protecting her. "Yea…"
"Well, I lied about how my parents died. They didn't die in a hover accident. They died because they were murdered. By a man named Saleed."
Rikku gasped. "Gippal, I'm so sorry…"
He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. What matters is the murderer. He—he didn't exactly ever leave me alone."
Rikku watched him carefully. "Why not?"
"He-he said he needed me for something…I couldn't say no, or he said he would kill me. I had to leave Home every month or so and go out in the sand to meet him, because he wouldn't come into Home. I was scared to death. Without being in Home, I thought he would kill me there. But he didn't. He kept repeating he needed something. So he came, and told me things…he would tell me how he knew where my parents were, what they did…he told me why he killed them—so he could reach me easier, without being protected by someone. He'd haunt me with reminders of when they…when they…"
He hung his head and was silent. Rikku merely patted his arm, and he let out a sigh, continuing.
"Finally, one day, he told me to become friends with you. I didn't understand him, I was, after all, very young, but he told me being lonely was no fun, that I should come be your friend. So I did. But you annoyed me. You were rude, and you seemed to think I was gross. I told him this. He said if I didn't become your friend, he'd kill me, or destroy Home, or other threat's like that."
Rikku started to feel her stomach tighten.
"Finally, I was older. I was thirteen, and he was still paying regular visits. I was a friend with you now, and I had to admit it was nice having a friend. I wished so much to tell you about my real past, and about that man, but I couldn't risk it.
That's when he asked me about my feelings. I didn't understand. He yelled at me, and forced me to tell him about—oh you know, emotions and feelings and all that crap."
Gippal let out another sigh, and Rikku saw a blush in his cheeks.
"Then, I realized I liked you. A lot. I couldn't hide it from him. He got it out of me. He would always grin evilly, saying things would work out perfectly, everything would be fine. He was always underneath a hood, so I couldn't even report him to police. It was scary. I never knew who I was dealing with, other than a murderer. But, anyway, he asked me if I was dating anyone. I said no. He would always say 'what about that Rikku'? And I would blush, and say no. He would get angry. He kept yelling at me, telling me to date you, get closer to you…
And so I did. We started dating. I learned many things about you, like about your mother, how you feel left out, how Cid sometimes was disappointed in you, how Brother was overprotective…I realized that I liked you so much more now than I had before…the man didn't seem to like that. He would force me to tell him what I learned about you every trip he made. He knew if I lied-he'd hurt me. So, unwillingly, I told him. One day, he seemed satisfied after something I told him, though I can't remember.
Then he told me to break up with you. I was shocked, and hurt. I didn't want to. I never wanted to, really. But he told me if I didn't, he would kill you. And that was worse then killing me. I fought with him. I argued with him. But he always won. He was strong, he was a murderer. I really had no choice.
So I broke up with you. I still remember that night, and it still hurts. But you see, that's what I meant the other night. There was another reason to why I broke up with you…if I hadn't, he would have killed you. But now I realize, he needed something from you. And he was going to get it through me. He pretty much forced us to be friends, forced us to date, and forced us to break up in the end. He thought I might become too protective of you, too close if I stayed. So after we broke up, I was angry with him. Angrier than I had ever been. I went searching for him and…and found him. I—I—"
Gippal made a throwing sort of motion. "I tried to kill him. I didn't care that I would be a murderer. I just wanted him out of my life. I just wanted him to go. He had ruined everything I saw as important and meaningful, and I just wanted him to suffer. I burned him. I set fire to everything around him. And ran. I thought he was dead. These past few years, I thought he was dead. But he's come back. He's come back to get you."
He let out a small sob and sunk to the grass. "I'm sorry Rikku. I played right into his hands. I was never good at protecting you. I did everything to help me. I did everything for myself. That's why we have to run…we have to get out…"
Rikku felt her writhing stomach turn into nothing at all. There was nothing there-she was empty. So this man had…had pretty much planned out her and Gippal's whole lives?! That was really creepy. And he needed her?! Needed her for what?!
Rikku pushed all this aside and sat down beside Gippal. She wrapped her arms around his neck and dug her head into his shoulder.
"I never meant to hurt you." He finally murmured, wrapping his arms around waist. Rikku shuffled over into his lap and smiled up at him.
Gippal was suddenly reminded of that night on the boat.
"Gippal…don't worry. You saved me. You broke up with me to save me. How can you say you've never protected me? You got me off of the exploding boat, you gave me a job, you stopped fiends from attacking me when I was little…you've done so much for me Gippal. I should be the sorry one. If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have needed you, or anything."
Gippal sighed and looked down into her eyes, which weren't filled with sadness. They were filled with—with hope.
"But—"
"No buts. I know telling me everything took a lot of guts, because you've been hiding it all these years. And I'm in a strangely forgiving mood, so take advantage of it. Don't worry."
The two gazed at each other for a long time.
"As long as we're together, we can do this." Rikku whispered, and both knew she was serious.
And correct.
A/N: WHOA. LONG. HARD. I hope Gippal's explanation made sense, I hope I didn't forget anything important…don't worry, Sunny and Co. are STILL part of the story! Sorry if this one was boring, especially Gippal's speech. But READ IT, or it won't make sense. X-x
Thanks again for everything, and once again, I REALLY hope it made sense.
Review, please and thankee!
