Disclaimer: FFX, FFX-2 – neither of them belong to me, I'm just a poor, starving fan : )
A/N: Damn, this chapter has been long in coming. I checked out fanfic the other day and was amazed to see that I had posted since before my birthday (which is a REALLY long time ago!) To be brief, I've been quite ill recently (though I'm finally getting better!) and I have felt much like writing. I'm so unbelievably sorry that events conspired so viciously against me and delayed this post being written.
Anyway, as I said, things are improving so I've been able to turn my attention back to this story … and I hope you like the result. I think this chapter is one that many people have been waiting for and this, and the next, are pretty much the crux of the story. Enjoy : )
Oh and this chapter is dedicated to ALL of my wonderful reviewers, who continue to support me even when I do horrible things like leave them without an update for months at a time!
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Rikku's StoryBy: JoeyStar
Timeframe: Set a month or so after the 'perfect' ending of FFX-2
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Chapter 18
The trip to Kilika was mercifully short. The Melatha skimmed over the waves of the ocean like a great silver bird and sooner than I had expected, I saw the coastline of the island appear on the horizon.
I was sitting on a bed in one of the cabins, my knees drawn up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them. My chin was resting on my bare knees and my hair had fallen around my face but I hardly noticed. Although my eyes were staring absently out of the window at the approaching coastline, my thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
They were on Gippal.
It irritated me that I couldn't get him out of my head but every time I tried to think about something else, his face swam into my mind with that expression of frozen anger on it and my breath caught in my throat.
Damn him – damn him for making me feel like this! So – so unsettled that I could think of nothing but him. I hated the helpless feeling welling up inside of me; the feeling that said I would be able to get nothing done unless I sorted out my situation with Gippal.
Sighing in frustration, I closed my eyes and tightened my arms around my knees, unconsciously hugging myself.
I couldn't understand why I was feeling so depressed. It wasn't like Gippal and I hadn't argued before, Spira – we'd spent the better part of our time together arguing. There had even been a time when every word that came out of my mouth was an insult designed to prolong our argument! And yet, something about this time was … it was just different, you know?
It really hurt and I didn't know why.
Maybe it was something to do with the cool disinterest that had been present on his face whenever he had been forced to look at me. Maybe it was the way his eyes had passed over me without pause, showing nothing of the emotions we had shared before his capture. Or maybe it was the fact that I was slowing coming to realise just how much my actions had worsened Gippal's situation. He'd gone from one of heroes of Spira to a wanted criminal on the run … and I'd hardly helped the situation.
Damn … I was so sick of it all. Every time I tried to help anyone in any way, I always mucked it up! Despite the fact that my intentions were always good, I always, always made things worse, you know?
Feeling miserable, I stretched my legs out and braced my arms against the window ledge. The island out of the window was closer now and I knew it wouldn't be long before the Melatha landed and my mission with Elhandra began.
Like I wasn't feeling bad enough already.
As if my words had been heralds of doom, the communicating device that I had discarded earlier – and was currently lying on the floor – started beeping furiously.
Forced into action, I scrambled off the bed and jabbed the activation button. "Yes?"
"It's Gippal."
A thousand emotions swum through me upon hearing his voice, but before I could say anything, the transmission continued.
"We'll be arrivin' in Kilika shortly. Make sure you're ready."
And with that, the connected was severed and I was left clutching the small, black communicator and blinking furiously against the angry tears that had suddenly sprung into my eyes.
He'd sounded so cold … so impersonal. If he'd sounded angry, I could have coped with it. We could have yelled at each other for a few hours and then everything would have back to normal. But the fact that Gippal didn't appear to care … it scared me more than I wanted to admit. In all the years I'd known him, he'd never spoken to me in that tone of voice.
What did it mean for me? And more importantly than that, what did it mean for mine and Gippal's flagging relationship?
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There's one thing in my life that I've always prided myself on: being able to complete whatever job or task I have been set, even under the most horrific pressure. Take Yunie's pilgrimage for instance. Before the fateful meeting with Yunalesca – which changed everything – I spent half my time working out crazy ways of saving Yunie's life, while still being alert enough to carry my own weight in the fighting, and stop Tidus going mad with worry. Of course, in the end, none of my amazing schemes were needed … but that's beside the point. They were there, in place, and we could have used them had we needed to.
I'd like to say this multi-tasking ability was rife during the trip to Kilika … but I'd be lying. I'd like to say that I managed to devote almost all of my attention to the task at the hand … but I didn't. In fact, if I was forced to be completely honest, I'd have to say that I was actually glad of Elhandra's presence for once. Without her, I don't think we would have gotten out of Kilika without being arrested.
Damn him! I was completely distracted – and it was all his damn fault!
The actual mission had been a complete failure, but at least it hadn't been the result of my distraction. By the time Elhandra and I had reached the edge of the town, authorities from Bevelle had already been firmly in the place. Unlike the lax security of Guadosalam, the guards here had obviously been told to allow no one to enter and despite mine and Elhandra's – well Elhandra's really – efforts, we hadn't been allowed access. Apparently Baralai, Nooj and Yuna weren't going to take any further chances.
"Excuse me?"
Elhandra's unpleasant voice broke through the whirlpool of my thoughts and I raised my head to see that she was watching me impatiently, her hands on her hips. Her expression spoke volumes and I mentally shook myself, briefly managing to drag my thoughts away from the man-who's-name-I-was-refusing-to-think.
"Are you even listening to me?"
I fixed an attentive expression on my face and tried not to appear surprise that we were currently hiking through a forest. The last I recalled, we had been in sight of Kilika and now, by the looks of it, we were almost back to the Melatha. "Sure. Loud and clear."
"No you weren't," she countered, her eyes narrowing maliciously. "You're still mooning over the fact that Gippal raised his voice against precious little Rikku."
I wasn't going to take that from her, not now and not ever. Unfortunately my thoughts were churning so much that all I could think of to say was, "Crid ib Elhandra! You don't know what you're talking about!" (Shut up)
Not particularly original, I'll admit, but it did stop her in her tracks.
"We could have died or worse, been captured, and all because of your incompetence!" she snarled viciously, stalking towards me until our noses were almost touching. "Then where would Gippal be? Honestly, you're a pathetic excuse for an Al Bhed!"
I don't know what it was about her comment that irritated me so much, but the explosion of my temper that followed was akin to casting a Firaga spell in a room the size of a sphere. Maybe it was because I was upset about Gippal or maybe it was just one comment too many on the part of Elhandra, but whatever it was, I saw red and decided that it was the perfect time to let her know what I thought about her.
"Let's get a few things straight," I growled up at her, trying to ignore the fact that she was significantly taller than me, a factor that made being intimidating very difficult. "I don't like you. I don't know why you here and to be honest, I don't care. You seem to want to help Gippal, which I can support but if you make one more comment, one, about things that bloody well don't concern you then I will damn well wipe that smug expression off your perfect face." I took a deep breath in a vain attempt to control my growing anger. "Now get out of my way."
I made to push past her, but as I did so, she reached out and grabbed hold of my arm, swinging me around to face her.
It was the wrong thing to do.
As Elhandra opened her mouth to shout something back at me, I pulled back with my free arm and punched her squarely in the face. The force of my blow sent her sprawling across the ground, accompanied by her cry of pain and shock.
In the instant that followed, I remained motionless, staring blankly at her, barely aware of the throbbing pain in my knuckles. My chest heaved with exertion but I felt the anger rapidly draining out of me. Had I really just hit Elhandra in the face? Had I really just punched her?
Elhandra lifted her head slowly and pushed her tangled braids out of her face with exaggerated care. Then she turned her face towards me and I saw that her nose was already darkening and her hands were covered with the blood that trickled from her nostril.
Apparently I had punched her. And it had been a pretty hard blow if her face and my hand were anything to go by.
A flash of guilt filled me as I watched Elhandra struggle to her feet. No matter how much Elhandra and I disliked one-another, she hadn't deserved that. I'd completely over-reacted and no matter how hard I tried to justify it to myself – I'd been upset about Gippal after all – I couldn't help coming back to the fact that it had just been plain wrong to hurt her. Taking my frustrations out on someone who didn't deserve it was hardly the mark of the person I thought I'd become and I felt my cheeks burning with shame.
A sudden, awful, thought struck me: what would Gippal say if he found out about this? What if by doing this I had ruined everything for us? What if this was the final straw?
Filled with an abrupt need to fix a situation that was threatening to spiral out of control, I took a step towards Elhandra, my hand outstretched.
She flinched back instantly. "Keep away from me!"
"Elhandra – "
"You – you hit me! You made me bleed!" She thrust her bloodstained hands out towards me in an accusatory fashion. "Look at me – I'm bleeding!"
"I know and I'm sor –"
"You're sorry? You've ruined my face and all you can say is that you're sorry?"
So that was what she was worried about. Suddenly I felt my growing sympathy beginning to slip away.
"You wait until I show this to Gippal," she continued nastily, venom pouring from every one of her carefully chosen words, "then your pathetic excuse for a relationship will really be over!"
Any residual sorrow I had been feeling at hurting Elhandra was quashed by that statement. In fact, I had to fight to keep a tight rein on my temper and not stamp across and hit her again. What was it about this girl that so got under my skin?
And even worse … what if she was right?
It seemed that everything always came back to Gippal. I was beginning to realise that despite my own intense of dislike of Elhandra, Gippal was as important to her as he was to me. I doubted that she could think about him as much as did – at the moment that was pretty much impossible – but I could no longer deny that they had some kind of relationship.
And with that thought, a revelation came to me: in our disagreement with one-another, Elhandra and I had completely forgotten about the purpose of our mission. We'd been gone for so long now that Gippal and Lreav were probably beginning to worry. It didn't even really matter that we returned from Kilika with nothing to show for it; the important thing was to return to the Melatha and share that news.
My continuing silence seemed to unnerve Elhandra. She gingerly wiped the remaining blood away from her face and then glared back at me with the look someone gives a bomb that's about to explode.
I decided it was about time I said something to rectify the situation. "Look …" I decided that honesty was probably the best policy at the moment, especially if we wanted to get back to the ship before we died of old age. "I'm not sorry that I hit you. So I'm not going to apologise. To be honest," I continued, rapidly warming to my new, more honest theme, "I think you deserved it – and maybe more beside."
The anger was growing in Elhandra's eyes and I quickly reigned my tongue back in.
"Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that … is that … well, Gippal's important to me … and he's obviously important to you too," I added grudgingly.
Elhandra watched me distrustfully, but I was relieved when she made no more to interrupt me.
"So … I think we should put aside our dislike of one-another and try to actually work as a team in order to help him," I finished in a rush, hating the fact that I had to be so accommodating.
There was a brief silence in which Elhandra and I held each other's gazes across the clearing. I'm sure I had an expression of distaste on my face – I've never been very good at hiding my emotions – but Elhandra's expression was unusually veiled. Try as I might, I couldn't tell what she was thinking.
"You're right."
Her easy acquiescence surprised me and I actually found myself relaxing for the first time since we'd begun the mission to Kilika.
"But if you think that I'm going to work as part of a 'team' with someone who did this to me," she waved a hand at her bruised nose which, I noted, had finally stopped bleeding, "then you're even more stupid than I thought. I can help Gippal perfectly well on my own, thank you very much."
And with that, she coolly turned on her heel and disappeared into the forest, leaving me to find my own way back to the Melatha.
I sighed. "Well … I tired," I offered to no one in particular before following Elhandra into the darkness of the trees.
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I caught up with my still irate companion as she approached the outskirts of the wood. Beyond the trees I could see the vast silver bulk of the Melatha resting quietly, and as we drew closer, I noticed something else as well.
The landing ramp was lowered.
I don't know why this struck me as unusual. There could have been any number of reasons why the landing ramp was lowered, and yet something about the sight made me feel uneasy.
Apparently I was the only one who thought so. Elhandra didn't even pause; she strode up the ramp without looking back.
I suddenly wondered what she was going to say to Gippal about her nose. I began to regret my rash actions and idly considered claiming she'd walked into a tree.
"Gippal?"
It seemed like I was going to find out rather faster than I would have liked.
"Gippal? Lreav?"
I emerged onto the gangway of the bridge in time to see Elhandra slapping open the door to the bridge and sticking her head inside.
"Lreav?" she called loudly, "we're back!"
I frowned when Elhandra's declaration remained unanswered. Such was her surprise that when she turned around she actually addressed me.
"It's empty."
"They must be in the cabins then." It seemed a perfectly logical suggestion and yet …
"And leave the Bridge unattended?" Elhandra shook her head vehemently. "Lreav wouldn't do that." Her expression was unusually serious and I was inclined to believe her statement about her brother.
"We should still go and check, you know."
She seemed loath to agree with me, but then she shrugged. "I'll go and check the cabins," she announced, as if it had been her idea. She pushed past me and clattered off down the gangway.
I watched her go for a few moments before turning my attention back to the bridge. I had the distinct impression that something was seriously wrong here and as I stepped through the door and onto the bridge, that feeling only intensified.
Somehow I already knew Elhandra's search was going to end in failure.
Worried and restless, I prowled around the bridge, picking up random objects in the hope that they would put my fears to rest. I was just approaching the station where the CommSphere system was installed when I realised a button on the console was flashing furiously.
Now I might have been an Al Bhed, but I knew very little about the technology that Shinra had installed on the Melatha. And from an early age I had learnt that it was wise to leave big flashing buttons well alone.
Which is of course why I pushed it without a moment's thought.
Immediately the formally black screen sprung into life and I found myself staring wild-eyed into the tense face of my cousin.
"Yuna!"
"Where have you been?" she demanded urgently.
I blinked dumbly. "What?"
"I've been trying to contact you for hours! Where have you all been?"
I shook my head slowly, trying to get my thoughts in order. "Gippal didn't answer the call?"
"No. Where is he? What's going on, Rikku?"
So that was it; Gippal wasn't on the Melatha. I knew for a fact that he regularly checked for contact through the CommSphere network and in such a stressful time as this, he would have checked it more often, not less. The fact that Yuna hadn't spoken to him … it was a bad sign.
"Rikku? Rikku – talk to me! What's going on?" Yuna sounded desperate.
"I don't know," I admitted unhappily. "Elhandra and I have been – we were out, and then we got back and Gippal's not here and Lreav –" I realised it was the first time I had considered Lreav's whereabouts.
My cousin's expression turned grave. "Actually, he's why we're contacting you."
"Gippal?" I felt suddenly defensive. "I'm not bringing him back Yunie. If you order me to, I'll refuse. Besides, I thought I had your support in this, you know?"
"No, you didn't. And you never had."
Her words brought me up short. "What?"
Yuna sighed. "Rikku, I don't know what you thought but neither Baralai, Nooj, nor myself would ever have sanctioned your prison break of Gippal."
I stared at her. "But Lreav said he'd spoken to Baralai!" I protested. "Back in Guadosalam –"
"He lied Rikku. Lreav lied. Baralai's never even met him." Yuna's tone was gentle but nothing could have softened the blow that those words possessed.
I sank slowly into the soft, black chair in front of the console, hardly able to believe what I was hearing. My first reaction was to deny my cousin's words but as they rang incessantly through my mind, I began to see the horrible truth in them.
It certainly explained Baralai and Nooj's confusion and the way that they had done everything in their power to stop Gippal and I from escaping. They hadn't been acting and following the 'plan' because there had been no plan. And there had been no plan because Lreav had lied.
Lreav had lied.
"Spira Rikku … I'm so sorry."
I barely heard Yuna's words; my thoughts were racing. If Lreav had lied about this, what more had he lied about? Was his name really Lreav? Was he even an Al Bhed? What was his real purpose in being aboard the Melatha?
And why? What could he possibly have gained by sending me off after Gippal? He was Gippal's friend – they'd known each other for years. Why would he do something that couldn't fail to hurt Gippal? No, Yuna had to be wrong … she just had to be …
"He lied Rikku. Lreav lied. Baralai's never even met him."
My cousin's voice had been resolute and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she had spoken the truth. Baralai had not spoken to Lreav; had not supported my prison-break of Gippal.
Lreav had lied.
He'd been my friend … and he'd told me a bare-faced lie that had had catastrophic circustmances.
Spira, why?
"He lied Rikku. Lreav lied. Baralai's never even met him."
The words penetrated to my very core and suddenly other fragments of speech began coming back to me, words spoken so long ago that I had almost forgotten them. Words that explained so much if only I had paid more attention …
… "They're dirty, small ... and lonely. And the ones in Bevelle are the worst."
"Via Purifico."…
… "Who set all of this up?"
"You mean the sphere and the screen? That was Lhan."…
… "Lreav?"
"Yeah. He's half Al Bhed. He didn't tell you?"…
… "I would have asked Lreav but he's not in his room."
"He went down to Guadosalam." …
… "I know. And I know – I know that you care about Gippal. I know this is hurting you and I … I hate to see you so upset." …
… "Why don't you go back and guard the Melatha? Elhandra and I can get Gippal out."
"Are you sure? It's just – I don't want it to get stolen." …
… "We knew things were never going to be easy, Rikku. Whoever's doing this … they've covered every angle." …
… "Well, the reason I went down to Guadosalam was because I wanted to talk to someone in charge. I ended up talking to Praetor Baralai."
"You saw Baralai?"
"I was as surprised as you. I never thought I get to meet Praetor Baralai himself." …
… "He … well I suggested – I told him my idea and he … he didn't exactly reject it."
"What are you saying Lreav?"
"In fact, he almost indicated that he would support such a suggestion," …
And in that single moment I suddenly saw what I had been missing all along.
The terrorist who had attacked the party, who had destroyed Guadosalam, who had slaughtered Kilika … he'd been with us all along.
It was Lreav.
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So there you have it … or do you? I'm not giving anything away – you'll just have to wait for the next chapter to find out more!
Oh and apologies for the lack of a Gippal/Rikku conciliation. I tried to write it, but it didn't work out at this stage. It WILL happen eventually but there are a few more things to get through first!
As always, read, review and enjoy : )