CHAPTER 10

Rikku was panicking. She had looked all over the place for Marlene and couldn't find her. All she could find was the monkey they had given her. "Gippal! Did you find her? I can't find her anywhere?"

"Nope. I'm startin' to think she flew the coupe." Gippal said coming out from the trials. "You call Tidus and Yuna, I'm gonna see if anyone saw her."

Rikku nodded and ran to the comsphere. Tidus and Yuna were there in seconds.

Meanwhile on Gagazet the storm had only gotten worse. Marlene was cuddled up to Seymour trying to keep warm; her thin nightdress didn't offer much protection from the cold. The fire was burning hot and yet she was still cold.

Marlene was suffering from phenomena and Seymour knew it. She had a very bad fever and couldn't stop coughing; she had complained about a pain in her chest a few times and was finding it hard to breathe, she was also dehydrated which wasn't good in this weather.

Seymour knew a few water spells but there wasn't even a cup to put water in. If Marlene died then all his plans would be ruined.

He looked around for a while and then saw an empty rock pool. Looking down at Marlene he noticed that she had a white moogle doll. Standing up he walked over to the rock pool he used a water spell, and then he took Marlene's moogle and put in in the water until it was soaking wet.

Seymour walked back over to her and put her head in his lap. He told her to suck from the moogle; she looked a bit confused at first but did as he asked her. Marlene's face looked pained as the water flowed down her small neck.

When she had stopped drinking she clutched her frost bitten fingers to her chest in pain. She started to cough and gasp for air causing Seymour to look down at her.

"It…hurts." Marlene whimpered her fingers starting to almost tear holes through the light pink material. "I can't breathe…" Now she was starting to panic.

Seymour used a small scan spell on her and saw that both her lungs were filled with water. He used a sleep spell to calm her down and then started to operate on her.

Back at Djose Tidus and Yuna had just arrived and were BOTH worried, if possible more than anybody else. "Have you found anything out?" Yuna asked running over to Rikku and Gippal.

"No. We have people searching the whole mushroom rock road now." Rikku said still very angry with her cousin for just dumping Marlene off, and angry with Tidus for letting her.

"We think that she might have gone back to Besaid… to get back to you guys. We've got people searching over by Guado Salam just in case she might have gone the other way." Gippal told them just as angry. "Paine's searching Macalania. She'll call us if she finds anything." He walked away.

Rikku frowned at both of them and ran outside to see if she'd come back. Then again maybe this is how Marlene felt? Just wanting Yuna to run through those doors and say that everything is alright? Rikku soon found herself burning with anger and starting to hate Yuna for what she had done.

Rikku knew that she'd do something she'd regret if she didn't get away from the Temple. So she ran off and joined the search.

Yuna was sitting by the comsphere waiting for Paine to call and say that she had found her. "Paine! Have you found anything?" She asked watching Paine's image come onto the screen.

"I found this." She held out a light floaty piece of pink material. "It look's like the material Rikku used to make Marlene's dress. I think she headed this way." Paine said not even she was feeling that pleased with Yuna or Tidus.

"Okay I'll go and tell Gippal to send everyone to Macalania." Yuna said.

"Before you do any of that I suggest that you stay out of Rikku's way. She didn't sound very pleased with you."

Yuna watched as the comsphere was turned off and sighed. "Gippal! Paine said that she thinks Marlene was in Macalania."

Gippal nodded and told them to set out a third search party.

At Gagazet Marlene was waking up. Her chest still hurt but not as much as before. She was wrapped up tightly in blankets with her head on Seymour's lap. Seymour was stroking her hair. "Daddy?" Marlene asked her vision blurry.

Seymour looked down at her and smiled. "Are you hungry?" Marlene nodded. "It's cooking." Marlene smiled and closed her eyes. Maybe someone did love her?

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