Words left unspoken
Before I forget I just want to help promote this awesome ff9 fic which isn't getting the reviews it deserves. It really is worth the read and has an awesome plot and really cool characters! It's called The Neo Genesis Project by DarkMessenger-2005. really good fic!
Also I have to warn you that the next chapter may be later than usual. I have a lot of college work to do and I've only written a page of the next chapter. But I promise it will have lots of fluff in!
Torii: the WHOLE truth? Hee hee...you'll have to see. And yes he is definitely a silly Al Bhed as you'll find out by the weird idea he comes up with. lol.
Milkie: lol, right there with you! I completely forgot about that chocobo, let's just say it did, lol.
Voicelord: finally? Lol, I try to update every week, guess you won't like me with how long the next long will take, sorry. Glad I could create that effect! It means a lot cause I love stories that do that. Usually I try and do it but it doesn't work, lol.
Master Thief: don't die! Sorry about the cliffhanger, I do them a lot, lol.
Angel Taisha: glad you liked it, I really thought it needed a bit of comedy relief in there.
Marty78: truth or dare was kinda kiddy but I thought it fitted, it seemed something Rikku would play, lol. Better lie? Gippal? Lol, because he's male and males always break the girls heart. Glad you're liking it!
Cute-kitty2: yeah sorry about that, lol. She's a very confused girl. Yuna not help? Lol, its not in her nature, as you soon discover...
Back of Beyond: Glad you like!
Tanya Takaishi: lol, you don't have to tell him! Just kidding, you gave me an idea. I thought of a way so Gippal can flirt first and I could put in your fiancée to come and protect you. What you think? Glad to hear Rikku's behaviour was play, that worried me and I almost didn't post the chapter up. The Baralai and Lady Luck thing was just some fun, lol. I wanted to lighten the mood and show Gippal was back to his normal self as well.
Phew, the insomnia thing was worrying cause I thought it might be too unrealistic for him, but I actually got the idea from him in the game. Like in the farplane when he got hurt and he said ' I could use a nap'. And the other one that gave me idea is shown in this chapter.
Thanks for the character! Expect to see you in the thunder plains!
TheCalligrapher: glad you like it!
Violet121: thanks!
Mentalsunflower: Don't be silly! Your story is ace! I love it to bits! You're a really really good writer.
KariYuna14: the chapter was great! Nice and long with cute moments and that little argument with Wakka showed her fear over what happened. It was ace! Sorry about the cliffy, I'm evil with my frequent use of them. This one doesn't have much of one though.
Sakurachild: thank you! That means a lot to me! Don't worry this fic has a while to go yet, we're only just near the halfway point.
Rikkufan: lol, thanks. I couldn't really bring myself to kill poor Lance off, he's the fatherly friend figure to Gippal.
JadedSnake: lol, glad to hear it! Good job you never read my ff9 one, I never seem to update that one. I promise there will be lots of fluff next chapter! Honest! Its is? Lol, well she's not in it too much now but I think I'll make an exception after hearing that.
Starling94: lol, don't worry about it. A tie? Now you're being silly, that story is just incredible! You've read this one too my oh so brilliant beta, but here it is again! I promise you'll be the first to read the fluff chapter!
Gip-Rik: I couldn't hurt Lance...much, lol. Here's the next bit!
Unwanted delay
I'm going to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell you everything. No more secrets, no more twists. No more of bending the truth.
And then I'm going to give it to you. That third item Lidea gave me for you. A symbol to represent just how sorry I am for lying so long, for causing you so much pain. I love you so much Rikku and now I can finally prove it, I can finally admit it to you.
I just feel so happy! Lance is alive and I'm not cursed! I can finally have you, we can finally be together.
And I can finally save you. For the first time in so long you seen to really need my help again. And I'll give it to you. I won't fail like I did with my mother because this time I know what to do.
Who would have believed this could actually happen? After so long it's going to finally happen! I can look after you. You need me and I need you.
At first we could stay at the Machine Faction until you get bored. Then I can put you on the investigative team. We can have our own adventure, just the two of us traveling around Spira for valuable machina pieces. Finally we'll have our story.
Man I'm getting sappy! But you know what? I don't care! I have the right to be sappy. My men can tease me all they want when I get back but in the end I'm the one who got you. I'm the one you chose.
And all I have to do is be truthful. All I have to do is wait until we arrive at Djose.
Soon. Soon we will be together again. And this time I'm not letting you go.
The man sighed heavily as he reached the Macalania Woods. He still hadn't reached his destination but had decided to stop a moment. He had to do something first. He knew that within a day's time Gippal would reach Djose and he had to stop that. The boy would find out the truth when he did.
The man watched the screen in front of him, seeing what the rouge watcher could. He had programmed these all over Spira years ago, many kept being destroyed but he'd easily build more. He could watch Spira's ever move.
At the moment the screen showed only a nearby chocobo and flan but soon the man's blood began to boil as Gippal and his friends came into view. How he hated him! That boy represented everything he despised. He was weak, he was an Al Bhed and he still carried on living. That boy should be dead!
The man forced himself to calm as he watched the watched the scene before him. So Gippal cared for this princess scum. Well this should prove interesting.
"Fine, let him go to Djose and learn what he will. It will be so fun to watch him squirm." The man chuckled. "But it still won't be easy getting there." He grinned picking up a control device. "It is time to reprogramme those manic machina for his welcome home."
"Come on! You're going slow on purpose!" Rikku yelled at the others as she sped off down the road. Tidus saw Gippal chuckle and quicken his pace slightly.
"Something has changed within the last half hour with them two." He mumbled to Yuna. She smiled and took hold of his hand.
"I guess you were right, they couldn't deny such strong feelings for long." Tidus nodded and wrapped an arm round her waist while making sure his pace didn't slow. "And nothing can stop them from giving in when they reach Djose." Tidus grinned and was about to give her a kiss when they heard Rikku shout out in pain further up the path.
"Rikku what's wrong?" Yuna called beginning to race towards her. That was when the machine attacked.
"Owie!" Rikku protested as a machina rammed into her. Where had they come from? A minute ago everything had been clear...
The Mi'hen beach, they must have hid on the cliff's edge which meant the others were in danger too.
"Ouch!" She yelled as another stabbed her in the left arm. She quickly used a potion and got another ramming because of it. Now thanks to the stupid things her arm was hurting and she couldn't slash out at them properly. Time to change...
"Rao!" (Hey!) Gippal complained as a machina hit him. He shot it without even having to think of aiming, he had a good arm that way. The machina collapsed and Gippal rushed over to the pieces before any other machina could start targeting him.
"What are you doing?" Baralai asked as he cured a stab he'd gotten to his stomach.
"If I look at the parts close up I can figure out where these are from." Gippal explained to him. "Cover me."
"There's too many!" Baralai moaned as he crushed one with his when it came to close. Gippal ignored him and continued to examine the parts, looking for some kind of symbol.
He saw the Machine Faction symbol and sighed wearily. Great, someone must have overridden them. He flipped one piece over and found the marked destination he'd been looking for.
"They came from Mi'hen Highroad!" He called to the others. "Someone's overridden them! If I had my dressphere I could stop them."
"Where is it?" Yuna asked after finishing her trigger happy attack.
"Rikku has it." Gippal said and then froze. Rikku.
"Cusauha naymmo haatc du bnuknyssa kiemd eh draen cocdas." (Someone really needs to programme guilt in their system.) Rikku told the machina as she cast full cure on herself. She'd already tried being a Dark Knight and wiped a whole wave of machina with Darkness. But the wave had been replaced by another lot. "Cdibet drehkc." (Stupid things.) She glanced behind her and could see her friends struggling with their large share. They had more than her to deal with so wouldn't be breaking free any time soon.
Rikku sighed, the constant battles were just getting so hard and especially now when she was fighting all alone. She wanted someone there with her.
She glanced in her pocket at Gippal's dressphere she still had. She could use it but she'd end up losing an eye, better save that for the last option.
"Mad'y vekrd machina fedr machina!" (Let's fight machina with machina!) She yelled and began changing through her dresspheres.
Gippal threw an electromarble at a bunch of machines and watched them fall apart, man, making all these again was going to be a lot of hard work! If only he hadn't given Rikku his dressphere.
"Rao!" (Hey!) He yelled angrily as one of the machina stole a potion. "Tyshed! Keja ed pylg!" (Damnit! Give it back!) Why had he programmed them to do that? It had seemed like a good idea at the time.
"This is getting ridiculous." He heard Tidus mumble. Gippal agreed but was too worried for Rikku to care what happened to them. If it was like this for five people what would Rikku be like? Was she dead already?
No, he would have known...right?
"RIKKU!" He yelled out earning odd looks from the others. Gippal just shrugged before starting to strike at the little bastard that had stolen from him.
...That's when the ground began shaking.
"What the..?" Tidus asked while Yuna gasped slightly. Gippal was too busy trying to steady himself to offer his less than polite opinion.
"Oh no." Baralai muttered when he saw the large machina approaching. Gippal just grinned.
"Relax Baralai its just Rikku." They watched as the machina stepped on the small army of machines one by one and could hear Rikku 'Woohoo'ing about it.
"Alright!" Yuna giggled as she gave her cousin a high five when her dressphere was back to the default thief. Gippal just knelt by one of the squashed machina and carefully removed a potion from the scrap remaining.
"That was very impressive." Was Baralai's thanks.
"Thanks!" Gippal heard the cheery voice answer. He sighed with happiness, thankful she was safe but felt slightly annoyed about the machina. They were a lot of work to make.
"Ed'c y kuut zup Mi'hen fyhdat ibknytac." (It's a good job Mi'hen wanted upgrades.) He mumbled to himself earning a pout from Rikku.
"I don't even get a thank you?" Gippal grinned at her and ruffled her hair enough to cause the bandana to fall off.
"Thank you Cid's girl for saving my cute butt."
"Get off." Rikku complained earning a much needed laugh to escape the others. "And I wouldn't say your butt was cute!"
"Why? You been looking?" He smirked making Rikku angrier.
"You are so..."
"Gippal! Cen!" (Gippal! Sir!) Someone called as they ran up the Highroad. "Dryhg kuuthacc oui'na pylg!" (Thank goodness you're back!)
"I think the plan is already working."
"But we haven't done anything yet!"
"Paine, you can't be the matchmaker anymore.! Baralai chuckled. "They've done it themselves."
"But I wanted the extra blackmail I could have got on both of them." She complained. Baralai just grinned while shaking his head. Paine acted much more relaxed since they'd gotten together.
"Well I guess you could record them along the way in case they say anything embarrassing to each other." Baralai tried causing Paine to sit up and look at him with a quirked eyebrow.
"Since when did you love blackmail?"
"Since when did you smile so often?" He shot back while sitting on the bed beside her. Paine just smiled and gave him a long, deep kiss.
"I love you Paine." He whispered while pulling her into a hug. "And I was going to wait until we get to Bevelle but this seems as good a time as any..."
Gippal was smiling absently at himself and at the thought of the letter he'd just written to Rikku. Up till the attack he'd been planning on telling her everything straight away...but where was the fun in that? If he kept her guessing she might try all sort of interesting techniques to make him spill out the truth. He could picture it now...
"What's so funny?" The Al Bhed man asked him with a slight smirk. Gippal just shook his head and tried to concentrate on the topic at hand.
"So what can you tell me from the machina parts?" Gippal asked his analysis group leader. They were both in Gippal's quarters away from any priding ears. The Analysis was holding a paper with scribbled notes on and a piece of the machina from Besaid.
"Well the ones from Mi'hen were overridden which means the person must have been there to do it at one point. But the one from Besaid has revealed a lot more to us."
"Like what?"
"You remember a few months ago when a bunch of parts went missing? Some of them were what made up this machina which means if someone else were to examine this they would think the attacks were from us. But also only some of the missing parts are here, so we know we can expect more machina like this to attack at other places."
"Knayd." (Great) Gippal muttered while wearily rubbing his eyes. "You said only some of the stolen parts made this thing up, any idea where the rest came from?"
"Yes." The analysis stated triumphantly. "They are old yet very advanced and they could only be from one place."
"Zanarkand."
"Exactly. It is Al Bhed's playground for this kind of design."
"Good, at least we know where to go now." Gippal said with a smile. "Thanks."
"There's more Gippal. On the old Zanarkand parts was a newly engraved symbol." The man held up the piece he'd been holding and pointed to the symbol. "Looks like a Shoopuf and a rat or something." The Analysis frowned then at how pale his leader had suddenly become. "Gippal?"
Gippal could only stare at the symbol of the Shoopuf standing on the rat. A symbol he knew all too well, one he'd never wanted to see again.
"Ed lyh'd pa. Ra'c tayt." (It can't be. He's dead.) He said shakily, this couldn't be happening now! Not after so many years of trying to forget...
"Sir?" The Analysis asked again. "Oui ugyo?" (You okay?)
"Yeah." Gippal managed after a few minutes. "I think I just need some sleep. Could you tell the others what you found out?" The Al Bhed nodded, beyond confused as he watched Gippal leave in a daze. What was going on?
"It's dangerous to place too much trust in Machina." Rikku read out with a frown. This thing had some clever points.
"What you doing?" Yuna asked her cousin as she came in the room.
"I'm just reading all the possible questions for the diggers quiz you take to get a raise." Rikku told her. "Some of them are quite clever, who'd have thought Gippal would be able to come up with some of these."
"Let's hear them." Yuna pleaded.
"Well one for question six could be 'Without courage, there can be no cowardice.'"
"Sounds interesting."
"Yeah, but then he goes and say some really stupid ones." Rikku muttered and turned on the screen so her cousin could read them:
I'll always think of Gippal as 'The Gip' (Agree)
I meant well, really (Agree)
Everything's coming up roses! (Disagree)
The road of life is paved with stones (Disagree)
I can't remember anything (Disagree)
Long live the Machine Faction! (No Strong Opinion)
Long live Gippal! (Agree)
I can't believe it's not butter! (Agree)
Our exhaustion is our source of strength (Disagree)
"That last one sounds like a Gippal thing to say." Yuna pointed out.
"Yeah well he would." Rikku mumbled while rolling her eyes, she still found herself smiling though.
"Rikku...are you blushing?" Yuna asked with a smile.
"No! Why would I be?"
"Well you seem a lot happier around Gippal now. Are you guys...?"
"Yunie!" Rikku complained trying too escape through the door but finding it being blocked by Tidus. "Hu vyen!" (No fair!)
"Come on Rikku! I promise not to tell Paine." Her cousin insisted. Rikku sighed and was about to give in and tell her when someone outside the door called into them.
"I've been told by Gippal to gather you together and explain what we found out from the machina parts."
"Oops, better go!" Rikku said quickly and dodged past Tidus out the door.
"Hey!" Yuna complained.
Gippal could only lay numbly on his bed as he waited for the sleeping potion to take effect. It wasn't fair! This shouldn't be happening, him and Rikku should be able to have fun with their new relationship without his past getting in the way.
He remembered the note he'd written for her just before the truth of the machina had been uncovered and smiled slightly. At least they had each other through this, he wasn't going to be alone this time.
Gippal sighed tiredly as he thought of the time before he knew Rikku, a time he had been alone and helpless.
The corpse was so badly burnt you could no longer tell it had once been an Al Bhed, had once been a person. Gippal watched with his young eyes, weeping silently as the man finished carving his usual symbol in the remaining pink fresh of the corpse he could find.
"Al Bhed scum." He grumbled while gazing over at Gippal. "You're lucky your mother still wants you or this would be you." Gippal just nodded silently already having been told this many times before.
"Go and check on her boy! Who knows what she's doing these days." Gippal hastily climbed to his feet and ran through the small village of Kilika. His whole body ached from the beaten he'd gotten a few days ago when refusing to help lure a young Al Bhed girl a little older than himself into the shadows. He just couldn't do it.
The village people glared at him with either hatred or curiosity. Hatred because he was an Al Bhed who dared to live off Bikenel Island and curiosity at how he'd gotten his wounds. None offered any help but he was used to that.
His mother would be near the temple, she would be picking a fight with the guards to let Al Bhed in just like everyone else could. She did that a lot lately at the temples now instead of the usual waiting to sneak in at night like they had done for so long. Now she would attack during daylight with no real hope of winning. Ever since Gippal had almost run away she no longer seemed to care.
"Why would you do that to me Gippal?" She'd sobbed once the man had caught and punished him. "Why would you leave me alone?"
In reality she knew the reason, they all did. He had tried to leave so she would, because then she would no longer have a reason to stay with him. She'd had the chance to run, he'd been free for two days before being caught, and she hadn't even tried to escape. She wanted to stay.
"I love him Gippal. No matter what he does I still love him. You just don't understand what it's like." But it wasn't him anymore, he was just a shell of who he once was .His mother still couldn't accept this, nor the fact her son had almost left her for good. She had given up because of him, she had finally given up on her hope.
"Mum!" Gippal yelled as he finally reached the temple entrance. She was there struggling against the guards grip.
"Go away Gippal." She said harshly, she didn't call him sweetie anymore, not since he's left her.
"Please don't hurt her!" Gippal cried. "She's sick, she doesn't know what she's doing!" The guard just looked down at him with a smirk.
"Kill her? We were about to have some fun first." He nodded to the other guard. "Let's take them in the priest's chambers and teach them their place." His first instinct was to run, but he couldn't leave his mother alone again. Never again.
They were thrown into the room harshly and Gippal coughed as he hit the floor. All he could think about was how this was the place he was about to die in. This was the end of his unhappy story.
"Get the whip." He heard one guard say, he was too afraid to look up at them.
"You sure? He can't be more than six, he might die."
"It's just an Al Bhed." That caused all moral argument to end. After all, Al Bhed weren't ever considered as human.
"Aren't you going to beg for your son's life?" The first guard sneered at his mother who just shrugged. Gippal looked up to see this and felt tears prick his eyes.
"Mum?" He sobbed as she refused to even look at him, to her he was already dead.
"Shut your wailing!" The guard yelled and cracked the whip over his small back. Compared to the usual fist or knife wounds this was close to unbearable. His mother had tears in her eyes as she watched them slash him five times. If they lived through this they would be his first scars.
"Kill the boy while I have some fun with the woman." The first guard said while the second just nodded. "He's making too much noise to wait."
"Get off me!" Gippal's mother screamed as the guard grabbed her roughly. Gippal tried to move but it only sent a powerful wave of pain through him that almost caused him to pass out. Behind him he could hear a sword being drawn.
"Sorry kid." The second guard said before striking...
But it never came, and with what happened next Gippal half wished it had.
"Get away from my wife!" The man yelled as he fired a shot inside the back of the first guard's head. The second guard stopped his attack when seeing this and instead tried to run. He didn't stand a chance and received a bullet in the back. "Are you okay Acacia?" His mother was silent and it took Gippal a while to realise it was because the man's tongue was in her mouth.
"Mum?" Gippal whispered not daring to move. He heard a loud slap.
"Why did you do that you stupid woman!" The man yelled. "Why do you want to die so badly when I'm here?" Acacia didn't answer which only angered him further. "I should have let them kill you!" Gippal tried to move again but cried out in pain, drawing the man's angry attention to him. "As for you, how could you let her do this? You good for nothing scum!"
The man grabbed the whip off the dead guard and began finishing off his work. Gippal tried to distract himself from the pain, tried to imagine what the farplane he was about to see was going to be like. But the man stopped after five. He was distracted by his ultimate goal.
"I still need you." He said with a grimace. "You have to live for now." With that said he grabbed hold of Acacia. "Let's go pray for the Al Bhed's death to come." He demanded. They left Gippal there as he sobbed from the pain and finally passed out into a world of unwanted dreams.
The memory ended then and Gippal was just glad no such memories would follow him now into any dreams. Maybe insomnia had some good points after all.
Rikku frowned slightly as the explanation finished. All that technology made it clear this person was an Al Bhed.
"Do you know what the symbol means?" Paine asked coldly, she had not been happy about being called to the meeting when she'd been with Baralai. The Al Bhed man hesitated slightly.
"Not yet, but Gippal seemed to recognise it. It must be bad if he won't tell anyone. We are going to send the information to Bevelle, Mushroom Rock, Bikanel and to Rin. Maybe one of them will know."
"I would refrain from sending it to Bevelle." Baralai admitted sheepishly. "I wouldn't be able to control all the Yevonites from acting out." The Analysis nodded and made a note on his paper.
"Well I guess Gippal and I should head for Zanarkand." Rikku said aloud.
"I will join you as far as Bevelle." Baralai told her with a smile, Paine just nodded in agreement.
"I want to go visit Kimahri seen as he couldn't leave the mountain to come to the party." Yuna said firmly. Rikku and Paine exchanged a knowing look, Yuna just couldn't stay out of a dilemma and was a terrible liar.
"Fine, do what you want." Rikku said with fake venom. Yuna just blushed slightly and grinned at Tidus.
"Well we're going to sleep." Paine said firmly while pulling Baralai off before anyone could say otherwise.
"...Was that a ring on her finger?" Rikku asked eventually. The others just shrugged and decided to interrogate the pair in the morning.
"Well goodnight then." Yuna announced as the couple ran off to their room. Rikku sighed feeling very lonely; Gippal had already gone to sleep so she couldn't get any explanation out of him at the moment.
"Um, Lady Rikku?" The Al Bhed man said nervously. "Gippal wanted me to give you this."
Rikku glanced at the envelope held out to her and smiled her thanks. A letter was inside with some kind of accessory. She quickly decided to read the letter before examining the thing.
Rikku,
I'm writing this before seeing the evidence because that machina assault has made me realise this mission could take a while. So, I figured why tell you everything straight out when you can guess? We have plenty of time for you to come up with interesting ways of making me hint at it. I'll even give you a clue: physical pain won't work.
I know you want this mission to end soon but maybe this way it will be more bearable. Well...hopefully it will be more than just bearable, it should be something you want more of. But, just in case, I have managed to forget my ego, realised that my charms might not be distracting enough and included a little gift. Hope you like it. And don't worry it wasn't expensive, I found it in the desert just before I left Home. I knew you might start to worry your pretty little head about that so I thought I better make it clear.
"Cina E ys." (Sure I am) Rikku said while rolling her eyes.
Just for a soppy moment, remember no matter how annoying or awkward I am I will always be there when you need me. Despite any protests you may say that you don't want me there, you're just not fooling anyone.
Love
Gippal.
Rikku smiled widely, even in a letter he was still that cocky arrogant man she loved. She put the letter fondly into her pocket and then glanced at the accessory with a beautiful grin.
He'd given her a charm bangle.