Hello again people, my adoring reviewers. I love you all. Really I do. And it makes it all the more fun to write chapters to see how you all would react to it. And I kinda took some stuff from full metal Alchemist, just so you people know.

So please read and review!

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Dream A Little Dream

Chapter 11 : Little Slips, Lots of Trouble.

You know, I really do think that no one in the great beyond likes me. I really, really, really don't think anyone up there likes me.

Damn you Powers that be!

I shake my fist at you!

Well....you know, actually, I don't, since people would think I'm in need of therapy if I shake my fist at nothing.

I barely resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at them instead. Gippal was talking.

"Hey, Cid's girl, you listening?"

No, not really, why, do you have something important to say?

"I'm talking to you, it isn't polite---"

Nope, Nothing interesting at all. Thus I shall further ignore you, and Shinra, and Brother, and whoever else is with you at the moment.

I walked over to the Bazaar, intent on ignoring them all(yes, I'm trying the cold shoulder kind of thing), grabbing my supplies, then heading off to Remiem Temple.

As it was I was avoiding even looking at Gippal, Brother, and Shinra. Hopefully they'll get a clue and leave me alone.

"Damnit, kid, listen to me!"

Hmmmmm, I frowned at the deplorable amount of High-potions the woman had to offer me. "Pardon me for asking, but, do you have anything other then Ethers? Um.....How about some Antidotes and maybe some components to create Frag Grenades, some bullets too, maybe? "

I was wearing my Gunner dress sphere, better to take out fiends from far away, then risk them poisoning me, besides, I wanted to be far enough to get away if I needed to, and close range combat is harder to get away from fiends(they tend to follow you)

She glanced over my shoulder, no doubt to look at Gippal, who was, no doubt fuming at the cold shoulder treatment and glanced back at me(that's right lady, I'm the paying customer here).

"Hold on one minute please, I'll see if we have anymore High Potions, I'm pretty sure we have Components for Frag Grenades, and our bullets are right here."

She showed me a large selection of bullets, from a glass case. "Just pick which ones you like and I'll get you however many you need"

How many do I need? Considering I'm going into Fiend infested temples? A lot.

Good thing I stocked up on Gil, got all my savings, so money isn't really much of an object (plus I get the oooh- is-that-a-guardian-of-lady-Yuna-discount)

I looked closely at the bullets. And frowned when I saw a particular one.

"Is that an Alchemy Bullet? I thought those things were unusable by regular Alchemists. Further more, aren't they illegal?" I asked.

"They are, We're just trying to get rid off all of them, special discount if you're planning to buy some. It's not like you can use them for anything other then regular bullets nowadays" The woman said, her voice muffled as she shifted through the stocks.

I suppose you're wondering why Alchemy Bullets are illegal. Okay, There are two types of Alchemy.

Regular Alchemy, which goes in dealing with mixing together ingredients to get something new (Similar to Chemistry) That kind of Alchemy is used by Al Bhed everywhere. Nothing Dangerous. The most dangerous it can get is if you mix two things together that don't belong, and you end up with Goo. So it's not really a big deal.

Then there's Forbidden Alchemy. Which deals with making something from nothing, Creating, changing, destroying. For lack of a better word, something like sorcery. It deals with Runes, and symbols, and all that stuff. Like making glass dolls out of paper. Extremely dangerous, something goes wrong, and you'll end up floating with the pyreflies. They say that fiends are made up of Pyreflies, and that pyreflies are made up of people's souls. There's an incantation that is said to revert fiends into their original forms, people that have passed away. Can you imagine that. dead people walking? I guess you can, (Seymour and Mika and all) But yeah. Something like that.

How do I know this? Well, I used to look at books of Forbidden alchemy when I was a really little. I understood every word of it. No one else did. I guess it was odd. I guess the Dream must have re-awakened some deep memory of me being a great alchemist in my past life or something, because I understand all there is to know abut alchemy now. Kinda freaky.

I stared at the Alchemy Bullet, I knew that each bullet had a different symbol, that no two Alchemy bullets were alike, that only the most skilled alchemists could create them. I forgot everyone who was around me. I was just staring at that mesmerizing metal. I thought of all the wonderful, and horrible things that Alchemy could do. I could use this. It's not like I had anything to lose, right? Besides, Alchemy Bullets were supposed to be extremely powerful. Rumored that if handled correctly, one bullet could take down entire armies. Kinda hard to imagine huh?

I glanced up at the shop keeper, who was still puttering around the shop, looking for all the supplies I had asked for.

"What is wrong with Rikku, Gippal?" I heard the voice of Brother, demanding from Gippal.

The shop keeper glanced up from the list of supplies I had made for her and smiled at me, "Anything else you need?"

"I need twelve boxes, relatively large, of your regular bullets, um...nine boxes of your spell attachment bullets, I think I might need at least, four medium boxes of your hard shell bullets. And Alchemy Bullets. Give me all you've got."

She stared at me. Wide eyed in shock. Yeah, I had bought enough Ammo to wipe out all the fiends from here to Zanarkand, and possibly to Besaid.

She seemed to regain her composure, she cleared her throat. "Do you need a New gun to go along with that?"

Heh heh heh, I felt like one of those bad girls you always see in Sphere Theaters. The ones with deadly calm and they buy cool weapons and stuff.

I resisted the urge to pull out my sunglasses just to feel more into the part.

Then I thought about what she said. I guess it would be nice to have a pair of new guns. Since my current ones weren't very good. They tended to overheat after a few rounds, causing me to burn my hands if I wasn't careful.

"Let me see what you've got" I said cheerily. She looked nervous now. I fisted my hands so that I wouldn't give in to the urge to spin around, grab the nearest person by the shirt and say "You feelin' lucky punk? Well, do ya?"

Shopping for supplies shouldn't want to make you act like those bad girls in Sphere theaters. Bad Rikku, Bad.

She came back with case of guns. All of them were very pretty. Well made too. But one pair caught my attention.

It was Silver, sparkly silver. An black opal carving on the side in a symbol.

I recognized that symbol from conversation I had with The Dream, it flashed in my mind once or twice when we were talking.

The symbol of the Fayth.

"That one." I said, pointing to it.

The woman stared at it, and frowned. "Odd....I don't remember having anything that looked like this in stock.....hmmm....must be a new model..."

She looked at me again. "Oh, and if you're in anymore need of....um....Alchemy bullets, we can send them to you anywhere. Here" She gave me a necklace. "A tracer necklace. So we know where to find you if you need more."

I laughed. "You really want to get rid of those bullets don't you?"

She looked sheepish. "To tell you the truth, they creep me out."

After I got all my stuff, I loaded two Alchemy bullets into the slot. (I had more Alchemy bullets then I could carry, So I bought a backpack to carry my ammo, a small one, in the shape of a Moogle. Cute!!)

I turned around to walk out of the bazaar when strong arms grabbed my shoulders. I blinked. Gippal? He was still here?

Opps, must have slipped my mind. Ignore him Rikku. Ignore him.

"Damnit Kid, what's up with you?" He shook me.

Do not strangle him Rikku. Especially not with that nice shopkeeper looking.

And how dare he call me "kid" when he's only a year older. I should hit him. But no. I will just freak him out with my silence.

I stared at him. Silent. He stared back.

And a staring contest ensued.

I felt my lips wanting to twitch dangerously. I wouldn't laugh. Damnit. I was always horrible at staring contests.

"Why are you avoiding m-Us?" Gippal said.

Did he almost say "me?"

Nah, wishful thinking.

Finally I snapped. I said the first lie that Came to my mind.

"Because I'm looking for the Man I love, okay?! Back Off!!"

He let go of me, shocked.

"W-what?" He asked startled.

Then his eyes narrowed slightly, and a suspicious twitch to his jaw, like he was ticked off.

"What?" he said again, this time in a dangerously low voice. Damnit, how does he manage to sound both sexy and threatening?

"WHAT!?!" I winced. Nice going Rikku, say that while Brother is within Hearing range.

I glanced over in the direction Brother was in, Only to see him marching his way over, Shinra, and Buddy, trying to hold him back, each holding one of his arms, their shoes were digging into the dirt as they tried to stop him from coming closer. Even with the two of them, Brother was still dragging them.

He was waving his finger like there was no tomorrow, I was surprised he didn't poke someone's eyes out. As it was, the shopkeepers were hurriedly grabbing their merchandise and scurrying out of the way of destruction.

"Rikku! Who is this man you are in love with. Where can I find him. I will rip out his eyes, And then run him over with the Celsius" Brother said. Still waving his finger like it was a weapon. It was comical, really, watching people duck behind things to avoid getting any of their vital organs impaled by said finger

"Who is this man you are in love with? Tell me!"

"Yeah, Cid's girl, do tell" Gippal asked. Arms crossed, looking for all the world like he didn't care, there was some emotion in his eyes that I could figure out though.

Who am I in love with?

Wouldn't you like to know?

I stared at Brother who was making his way closer. If he got close enough, he'd never let me go on to find the gates.

At least some of the braver shop keepers had thrown themselves at him, and were also trying to hold him back. One of them on his back, and two of them on his legs. One on each leg. Still being dragged.

Gee. I didn't know Brother was that strong. I did the only thing I could thing of.

I pointed the gun towards them. Time to try these babies out. They were the Lowest grade Alchemy Bullets, something to distract, and hold back, not used for attacking. If it were high grade, there wouldn't be anything left of them.

I imagined a cage. Something that would hold them until......I glanced at the sun. Tomorrow

Something that would hold them until tomorrow morning. That should be enough time right?

I fired. Brother's eyes widened as the bullet came racing across the Bazaar towards him. He didn't know anything about Alchemy, so of course he'd be scared (Alchemy? Riiight, the guy set his hair on fire trying to boil water. The hair that you see now is a result of what's left, and what will grow back, he always says that the mo-hawk is something of his traditional style, don't believe him. The rest of his hair won't grow back cause he burnt most of it)

Just before it made contact, the symbol on the bullet flashed in the air in front of them, and a glowing symbol on the ground. It exploded. And when everyone opened their eyes again, Brother, Shinra, Buddy. and the three shopkeepers were in a metal cage, completely unharmed.

I took advantage of everyone's surprise and awe, and ran as if my life depended on it. Where was a Chocobo when you needed one?

Run run run run run run run run run ruuuuuun!!

I heard footsteps behind me, Gippal. For sure.

I Thought of sticky goo that would hold you in place for an hour or two. I shot behind me, didn't even look.. Kept running.

I came to the Chocobo Ranch. I stopped. I needed a chocobo to get to the Temple, anyway.

I leaned down against the wall, completely out of breath. Closed my eyes, took a deep breath.

I felt a shadow in front of me, I didn't open my eyes, It was probably just Clasko.

I felt hands brace themselves on either side of my head.

My eyes snapped open. Oh no. It was--

"Gippal" I gasped. "What-what are you--"

He bent down, close to my year and said the one thing I wish I hadn't done, if I did it right, he wouldn't be here right now, he would be stuck in a puddle of sticky goo.

He nuzzled my ear and said, in that quietly seductive voice that made me want to hit him. I would kill him, just you wait.

I would kill him until he was very dead, and then I would feed his remains to the adorable chocobos in this ranch.

"Rikku" He said. "You missed."

He is so going to die. Mark my words. Die very painfully.

"Um...." A nervous voice said.

I glanced up. And was mortified to find Clasko staring at us, as well as a bunch of Chocobos.

I pushed Gippal away from me. And unconsciously fixed my hair.

"Oh...um....Hiya...Clasko" Damnit, Gippal got me flustered again.

Gippal's eye narrowed at Clasko. His arm went around my waist.

What was his problem.

"Is this the guy?" Gippal asked. What was he talking about? And why was he staring at Clasko like he wanted to murder him?

I blinked.

He thought I was in love with Clasko?

I very nearly laughed hysterically right there.

All I could do was stare at him in shock.

Then I got an idea. A very brilliant, not- so-nice Idea.

I pealed Gippal's hand off my waist, walked over to Clasko and gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek.

Clasko's cheeks look like they exploded with overripe tomatoes. And Gippal was looking Murderous.

Oh this was gonna be soo much fun.

Poor Clasko.