Alright, so maybe it wasn't the most MASSIVE thing she had seen in her entire life, but it was pretty damn big. The fiend was a sandy color to blend in with its surroundings. Sand seemed to cascade off of it continually. Paine pulled her sword out quickly to counteract it's first attack. Gippal was right there next to her, his alchemy gun out and ready.

Paine used armor break on the creature's shell. After it's armor had decreased, Gippal attacked with a mixture of grenades and something else he pulled from his pocket. The fiend was hit with explosions over and over again in multiple places. It got knocked back a little, but it just shook it's head and powered up for an attacked.

Suddenly, it's tail came flying around. Gippal jumped out of the way, but it smacked Paine right across the face. She was dazed for a minute, and her health was low. She suddenly had the feeling like she was flying, and felt rejuvenated. It was a potion.

"Thanks," she muttered gruffly. And before Gippal could say 'your welcome' she was off on another attack.

After a while, they defeated the fiend. It dropped 500 gil, and a high potion. Paine gave the high potion to Gippal, because he needed it. Paine felt much more powerful once she left the battle then when it had started. She turned around in content, but that calmness was soon shattered when she found that the girl was gone.

"Oh shit…"

"What is it?" Gippal asked, walking over. He saw the girl had disappeared. He shook his head. "All that fighting for nothing… Let's head back to camp. I'll send out some squads while they're digging. Hey, if it's their goal in life to dig through a dessert, I'm sure they have time to…"

"Shut up. We aren't going back to the camp."

"What!" Gippal was astonished. "What do you mean! We've gotta go back! We don't know what's out there!"

"And I thought you were the more courageous one out of the Crimson squad…" she said blankly. She looked at him. "Or, was it the most idiotic?"

Gippal shut up, and Paine stepped forward into the sand. The girl couldn't have gone too far, so they decided that they should start looking. If they found her before it got dark, they could start heading back to the camp.

2 Hours Later, 5 miles from the oasis

"I don't understand, Paine. Where could that brat possibly have gone off to?"

"I don't think she decided to send us on a hunt, Gippal. I think the fiend we fought was a distraction for another one to take her from behind us."

"Well… that could make sense. Damn, if we had gone back to camp, I could have gotten some machina to carry us around. Instead, we're trudging through sand."

"Don't always rely on your machina."

That was the end of the conversation for a while. They decided to head to another area. They had heard that a cave somewhere in the West had been noticed for mild fiend activity. One of their machina had been returned all mangled, and the driver gone. Gippal meant to go and check it out anyway, so this was the perfect opportunity.

When they got to the cave mouth, it looked just barely large enough from them to crawl through. Paine didn't understand.

"The fiend that we fought was far too large to fit through this hole. If there are more of them, this can't be the place that they took the girl."

"Who said it was the same kind of fiend?"

Paine looked at him funny.

"Hey!" Gippal said. "I'm smarter then you take me for! I know a lot about this desert! Look, all I'm saying is that if there is a large enough group of smaller fiends, they tend to beat up the larger fiends into doing their dirty work here. This could be a situation where that happens. Let's check it out."

So they moved forward and crawled cautiously through the entrance of the cave. Inside there was a network of smaller tunnels, and hanging above one from wiring inside of machina… was the driver that had disappeared… hanging from his neck, dead.

Gippal's face cringed. "That's grotesque…"

"Did you know him?"

"…yeah," he answered quitly.

Suddenly, they heard a scream coming from the same tunnel the man was hanging from. It sounded like a girl, and they knew that they found the right place. Of course I figured as much when I saw the hanging man, thought Paine. They pulled out their weapons and walked down the tunnel, trying not to look up at the al bhed driver hanging underground.

(Please review these, as someone kindly pointed out, that WASN'T a happy ending to the last story… but the story isn't over yet! I didn't get what I wanted out of a happy ending for reunite in zanarkand. So, once all the sequels are up, I have an ending for all! But, what happens? And who is with who? This is my story, not yours… please respect my decisions and if you like it, thanks a lot! REVIEW!)