Do you sea monkeys know just how much writer's block sucks? I bet you do. I've gotten to the point that I might just post the second half of "Dining With the Enemy" that I didn't like. I still don't like it. Oh well. So instead of working on this, I have been working on my vampire story. I know, I know. I'm a bad tagg!

Let's see what I can come up with.

I don't own FFX-2, but if I did, I would soooo bring Auron back into the scene. That guy just kicked ass. Too bad he's not real. That is so my type of man. Hehe.

Chapter 17: Mardoc, the Sun Bob, er, God

"You have absolutely one minute to tell me what is going on." Lulu was not in a pleasant mood. No one was, really. She was glaring, and Lulu glaring was very…unpleasant to say the least. Being a very powerful black mage made her some one not to piss off. One just might get a bit singed.

"Girl's in danger, lady." Har answered. He looked like he would like to have a cigarette quite badly at that moment. "The madman that killed a bunch of girls here wants her dead."

It was a simple enough explanation. It gave Lulu a reason as to Rikku's weight loss, which had been bothering her considerably. She had not asked because it had not seemed appropriate at the time.

"And you're going to put yourself out as bait. Don't be stupid, Rikku."

"You don't understand, Lulu. When…when he took me, I stabbed him in the leg with a kitchen knife. One of the big ones. All the way to the hilt. It didn't faze him. He just…kept on going like nothing was wrong. Like it had been a splinter or something." Rikku's voice was small and quiet. It disturbed the people listening to hear the normally loud and jubilant Rikku sound like that. "And his eyes…" she shuddered at the memory. Gippal tightened his hold on Rikku. "They weren't right. I swear they were glowing. Like…like when Shuyin took over Barali's body. It was like that. Just…worse."

"Anyway, ladies and germs, you need to get that kid somewhere safe and get her out of harms way. You really don't want to mess with this guy. Killed three nurses and four orderlies with his bare hands. Ripped their throuts out. Very messy. He hasn't been out long, but he's probably on his way here." Har said, bringing the attention away from the poor trembling girl in Gippal's arms.

Lulu handed Vidina to Elizza, telling her to take him upstairs. Wakka was about to protest, but subsided when he received a glare. Elizza did as she was told, taking a now crying Vidina away from his parents. When Lulu turned her attention back to the others, she was stopped from talking by So Muja's hiss and following yowl near the front windows.

"What is it, cat?" Another hiss came from the kitten. "Something out th-"

The sound of something hitting the door very hard interrupted Raas' question. His opinion of the cat had grown steadily, which was why he asked her what was wrong. The door thudded again, this time harder and louder. Something reminiscent of a growl came from outside, although it was a human sounding growl. Lulu had a spell ready and was retreating to the stair case. She was not about to let anything happen to her son because she was not close enough to do anything to help him. Raas was motioning Gippal to take Rikku upstairs despite her earlier protests.

Before he got her halfway there, one of the small side light windows crashed open. A fist, lacerated from the knuckles to the forearm, was fumbling around with the door handle and bolt. Jagged pieces of glass still attached to the window frame tore long gashes in the flesh of the arm while it threw the bolt open. The fist pulled out and the door opened abruptly, banging on the wall and bouncing back quickly. It was halted by an outstretched hand attached to the lacerated arm.

Mr. Helpful, the psychotic desk clerk himself, was standing in the door way of the Sun Rose. He was wearing what looked like very thin pajamas; drying blood stains covered most of the fabric. The new blood oozing from the arm was mixing with the older (relatively) stains. It was in his hair, too. Black and matted to his head in places while in others it stuck out, all of it glistening with a sickening sheen. He was panting raggedly, like he had just run the entire Mi'hein Highroad in record time. The most disturbing thing was his eyes. They did indeed glow slightly, as Rikku had said. They stared with intensity directly at Rikku, barely noting the presense of the others in the lobby. They were a mere hinderance at getting the girl.

Unfortunately for him, he dismissed Lulu and the ludicrously powerful fire spell she held ready. Lulu had not truly believed Rikku when she spoke of the man that had taken her. Now she did. It was not right in every sense of the word. Those eyes staring at Rikku, only Rikku, were inhuman. She yelled for everyone to get out of harms way, and let loose her spell. She aimed it to throw the man backwards and out of the inn. The man had started to advance, and took the full force of the fire spell in the chest. He was not expecting it at all. It did indeed throw Mr. Helpful out of the door with a flash of light and flames dancing about in the wake of the spell's path.

He was thrown into the street, howling in agony as the flames scorched and devoured his skin. People were peaking out of their windows, wondering what had happened. They quickly left the grizzly scene that greeted them. No one wanted to watch someone burn to death.

Lulu, another spell at the ready, slowly walked out into the street, followed by Raas and Wakka, weapons in hand. Mr. Helpful was writhing and beginning to scream. He was about to be put out of his misery, but he suddenly came upright, glaring at the group in front of him. He grabbed some of the flames that were searing his flesh and hurled them at Lulu and the others.

No one should be able to take an already existing spell and turn it to their own use. Perhaps the fayth could have done so, but not anything still in this world could. It was not a reflect spell, so no one could figure out what happened to let Mr. Helpful do such a thing.

Everyone fell to the side when the flames came back at them. Hitting the hard cement steps combined with the impossible sight they had just witnessed left them shocked. Mr. Helpful took advantage of this, leaping to the steps in a single bound. He was poised to take another leap that would take him inside when he found himself looking down the barrel of a large, black gun. Said gun fired, putting a bullet in his head point blank. Mr. Helpful fell backwards, sliding down the steps. He left a trail of what can only be described as 'ooze' and burned flesh behind him.

The man was still twitching, trying to get up again. He found the gun barrel in his face yet again, and was finally put out of his misery with four more shots to the head. Mr. Helpful, lay still, the only sound coming from him was the crackle of his skin burning.

Gippal, who was the owner of the afore mentioned gun, looked down impassively at the body of Mr. Helpful. His gun was still aimed at the burning mass of flesh, waiting to make sure the job was done. Raas and the others went over to the scene, none of them believing that Gippal had just killed someone. The someone had been hell bent on killing and harming his girlfriend and probably hurting the other people present; but he had still killed him.

Lulu found it hard to accept that the same young man that had played happily with her baby, and played happily with Rikku, was standing before her. He had been so gentle with Rikku, despite his teasing. She knew it was not just because of what had happened to Rikku. Yuna had told her about Rikku getting a real boyfriend. One that really meant something to her. Gippal's attitude was completely loving toward Rikku. She privately wondered if the had already eloped or would do so in the near future.

"You can put your gun away, boss man." Raas said.

"He's still twitching Raas." Gippal nodded his head at the body on the sidewalk. Upon closer investigation, Raas saw that Mr. Helpful was indeed twitching; but not in death throws. This was something else. All of a sudden, the body jerked. The head was thrown back and the throut began moving, almost as if a creature was seeking to escape.

The mouth opened, and what looked like a tiny hand emerged, using the lower lip to pull the rest of the body out. What emerged was an impish creature. It had yellow, squinty eyes that glowed the same way Mr. Helpful's had. The body was orange and thin, like you could break it like a toothpick. It jumped down from the chin it had stood on, and landed on the pavement. It jumped up and down, throwing a tantrum, yelling and screaming and spitting at them.

None understood what was said, and gave the tiny creature very odd glances. That was until Gippal stepped on it, crushing and grinding the thing like it was an insect. He proceeded to wipe the residue of 'unknown-evil-thing' off of his boot. He looked at his boot, and decided to put the sole of it in the flames that were still in existence on Mr. Helpful. Once satisfied that all traces of the Thing were gone, he turned to Lulu.

"Burn it." was all he said, turning and walking back into the Sun Rose, putting his gun back in its holster. Lulu shook herself slightly, and did as she was told. She would have done so anyway. Fire was the easiest way to cleanse the world of evil. She watched as the body turned to pyre flies, only then extinguishing the flames.

Har, who had stayed behind with Rikku, looked up at Gippal's entrance. He moved away from Rikku, who hurridly flung herself into Gippal's arms. Tears streamed down her face, but no sobs were audible.

"He can't hurt you or anyone else now. Don't worry."

Rikku nodded and clung to him. She knew he had been the one to fire the gun. His gun had a very unique sound when shot. He had let her try it out once, but she found the kick-back was too strong for her. He had killed that crazy bastard who had come for her. Rikku was grateful to him. She was safe again. Really and truly safe. No more worries about sounds in the night or looking over her shoulder.

Soon, the sounds of police officers were audible. Har did not look worried at them finding him here at the scene of a crime. Raas poked his head in the door, eyebrow raised in a silent question at Har.

"We were having a nice dinner party when that guy with a screw loose came barging in. Very rude of him, wasn't it?"

Raas nodded and withdrew his head to tell the others. Soon, police were swarming everywhere. All of them asking question they already knew the answers to. They were just trying to make it look like they had everything under control. Rikku, who had stayed inside the whole time, was exempt from much questioning. Gippal, on the other hand, was not.

'You were the one who fired the gun? Who set him on fire? The woman did, the black mage. Why did you shoot him? There were enough of you to take him down.' This continued for some time, making everyone involved with it irritable and angry. Especially Gippal. He was ready to tell them to shove it when a whirlwind in human form came into the room. The whirlwind came directly to where Gippal was. He still had Rikku in his arms. She had refused to go upstairs with Elizza and Vidina.

The human whirlwind revealed itself as none other than Rikku's father, Cid. He marched right up to where the couple was standing, and then told the officer with all of the idiotic questions to go away. This, needless to say, astonished Gippal and Rikku. The officer protested, and caught the attention of the highest ranking policeman there. High-ranking Guy got all huffy and tried to bully Cid away. That was not a smart thing to do. No one told Cid what to do.

"You shut up before you say anything else stupid." High-ranking Guy opened his mouth, which was full of nothing but hot air, saying that there was an investigation going on and he had better leave now or be arrested for trying to bungle things. "What investigation?! You idiots aren't doing jack-shit! You people have been the ones messing up. You KNEW that someone was kidnapping, and most likely murdering young women in Luca. You KNEW and didn't say anything. Didn't warn the public. The reputation of you and your precious city is worth more than a human life! You KNEW that nut-ball would never stay locked up. You people put the life of my daughter and how many other people in jeopardy just to keep your noses clean!" High-ranking Guy stuttered something, but was cut off again. "You have your reports. Clean up that mess on the sidewalk, and get your sorry asses out of here! And you better hope to hell that you still got jobs tomorrow, cause all hell's going break loose with your higher-ups!"

High-ranking Guy abruptly shut his mouth, which was the first intelligent thing he had done so far, and turned on his heel, yelling for everyone to clean up and leave. Cid, standing with his arms crossed over his chest, had a very smug look on his face. It disappeared when he looked to where his daughter was standing with Gippal.

"You alright, bisgueh?" Cid had not called her 'pumpkin' in years. Not since her mother had died. She nodded, not quite believing that her father had just chased away the police after what he had said to her a few months ago. He had all but disowned her. "Good. Look, I'm sorry I went overboard with you. Wasn't right for me to do. You're just too much like your mother for your own good, I guess."

"Yeah, well I'm still mad about that. So don't think you're getting off the hook so easily, just cause you made those dumb guys leave us alone." Rikku said, half smiling at Cid. She was not about to leave the safety of Gippal's arms any time soon. Cid seemed to know that and just nodded. Rikku had been through too much to do anything else but stand there. "Why the sudden change of heart, Pop?"

"I remembered what Risa's (ok, so I don't know Rikku's mom's name. Gimme a break!) father told her when she said she was going to marry me, and it was almost the same thing as I said. She never forgave him for that, not even when you and your brother were born. He had tried to apologize a few years later, but I guess she just couldn't do it. It's the only time she was ever truly angry."

"Come on, let's go upstairs. They might try to worm their way back in if we stay in their view for much longer." Gippal said, moving to the stairs with Rikku in tow. He gave Cid a questioning look. Cid shook his head, and went to the door to glare at the remaining officers cleaning up the sidewalk. Gippal glared at his back, then continued up the stairs after Rikku. She was still shaking a little, so he squeezed her hand tightly. She turned her head and smiled at him. It was a little smile, but a smile none the less. She led the way to the room they shared. He always meant to ask if she wanted it to herself again, but he never did. He figured she would just shove him out when she wanted some privacy. She never did that either.

Rikku kicked off her shoes as soon as they entered. It was a ritual for her. She said that it made her feel at home where ever she was. Gippal followed her example, though his boots took more effort to remove than her shoes. He could just kick them off, but it damaged the boots, not to mention his own two feet.

Rikku was already pulling her hair down, removing pins and such in a startling quantity. I wonder just how many of those pins she loses in a month. And how can she find them in her hair like that? It would take me ages to do that. She then plopped down on the bed, waiting for him to finish removing his boots. The now bootless Gippal went over to Rikku, and sat next to her. She leaned against him, twining both of her arms around one of his own.

"Rikku…" She looked up at him, wondering at his tone of voice. "You know I killed him, right?" Gippal was staring at the floor, not wanting to know if she was now afraid of him, but needing to find out.

"Yes."

"Does it bother you? Knowing there's blood on my hands?"

Rikku took first one hand, then the other, and looked at them on both sides. Then she kissed each one gently and turned his head to look at her.

"There's nothing wrong with your hands, Gippal. And I'm not about to be afraid of you for protecting me." Her words eased the weight he had felt in his chest since he had pulled the trigger. "Just think, you're the only man alive that I've ever let play 'over-protective-male' to me. You should be honored." Gippal laughed softly, letting out most of his tension.

"I am." He ran a hand through her hair, watching a blissful smile emerge on her face. "Are you tired, so ryaynd?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I could sleep right now even if I tried. Can't we just lay here for a while?"

"Anything you want Rikku, anything you want."

So there they were, lying on a comfortable bed, snug and warm, when a soft 'mew' came from the door. Rikku got up to let So Muja in. She picked up her kitten, nuzzling her face against the soft fur. So Muja purred happily. Rikku went back to the bed, her kitten still in her arms.

"I can't believe I'm jealous of a cat."

Rikku laughed at Gippal, then snuggled herself against him. She was laying on her right side with her head against Gippal's chest. The kitten was still held in her left hand. She too was using him as a pillow. She let out a contented 'meow' and enjoyed being stroked and petted by Rikku.

"Are you really going to buy me a house?" she asked after a short period of silence.

"Yes. Did you think I was joking or something?"

"Well, kind of. You DO like to tease me a lot." Gippal chuckled at her, earning a glare from both Rikku and her cat. "Although most people would get married before buying a house for someone."

"So you want to marry me first, then? Or do you want to wait for a while?"

Rikku lifted her head to look him in the eyes. There was not much to see, considering the lights were all out. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

"You really want to marry me?"

"Yes, silly girl, I want to marry you. But as I said before, I wanted to wait until I could have a sphere recorder rigged to tape your expression when I asked you." Gippal sighed and shook his head when her face did not change. "Get up for a minute." Rikku complied, but So Muja 'meowed' unhappily at being moved. He was rummaging about in one of his bags. Rikku wondered why, since most of his stuff was intermingled with her own in drawers and the closet. He came back holding something small in his hand. Gippal turned on the bed side lamp before once again assuming the role of pillow. He opened the box and pulled out something shiny and sparkly.

Removing her left hand from her kitten's fur, he slid a delicate gold ring on her finger. The band was thin gold, and turned into two separate leaves at the top. Three small emeralds were sandwiched between the leaves.

"It's gorgeous…"

"I should hope so, considering I paid a lot of gil for it." Rikku looked up from the bauble on her finger to look at him. "It's a promise ring. So you'd better expect me to pop the question when you least expect it."

Rikku gazed at her ring again before sitting up and happily kissing Gippal.

"So I take it you like it?"

"Oh gods yes! Where'd you find it? I haven't seen anything like this in the shops here in Luca."

"I saw it at Djose, and I just had to get it for you. It reminded me of your eyes." Rikku blushed scarlet and went back to looking at her hand. "Good thing you like it. It means the pretty baubles I bought with it will go well with that green dress you're going to wear next time we go out."

"You got me something else?! Gippal, that's too much gil to spend on-" Gippal placed a finger over her lips, making her be quiet.

"You are worth that and a hell of a lot more, Rikku. I told you at the beginning I would spoil you rotten and that it would cost me a fortune. I enjoy buying you things. So quit complaining."

He removed his finger and received another kiss for his trouble. Rikku snuggled back against him and stared at her ringed hand while it petted So Muja. There was a rather silly grin plastered on her face. Gippal had a similar one as well. If cats could smile, So Muja would have one too.

Ok, kind of lame but the whole evil-unknown-thingy will be kind of explained soon. Writers block seriously sucks. Anywho, sorry this took so long. I tried to finish it Thusrday, but I had too much turkey and too much wine so I fell asleep instead of writing this. (tagg hangs head in shame)

Scroll on down and hit the little 'go!' button and make tagg a very happy person. I giggle like a little school girl when I get reviews and it inspires me to write more.

Thanks for reading! Hope you like it.

tagg