Seraphim
AN: Ahh… So late a chapter. I do apologize. For a while I had no idea what I was writing… That, and the end of the quarter projects were catching up with me. (Project upon project, what a pain) And I kept getting distracted, thinking about how much my writing sucks compared to some of the stuff I've been reading. (It's that way with everything with me! Ha! I laugh at myself!) Ah well It's finally here. And thank you, my patient reviewers. I'd thank you all personally as usual, but apparently we can't do that here anymore. So… without further ado…
Chapter 4:
Despite getting to bed late the previous night, Rikku was up with the sun the next morning, full of ambition. She had uncovered a list of those who'd remained after the attacks and was anxious to interview them. After a quick shower and even quicker breakfast, she set out the door with a purpose and glanced at her list. She would first visit a Kilika native called Terak, still in the infirmary with severe lacerations and other such injuries. Maybe internal bleeding, she couldn't remember.
"I'm here to talk with Terak," she said before the receptionist (who was surprisingly the same one she talked with the previous evening) could open her mouth.
"Visiting hours haven't-"
"Started, I know. I'm not visiting. I don't even know him. I'm conducting an investigation," she said, full of self-importance (which was bad, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She was sick of people standing in her way). "Call Gippal if you have a problem with it."
The girl stared at her wide-eyed.
"Terak's room…?" she prompted impatiently. Yes, it was rude. She had no patience to sit around, to be told to wait when she had a goal to see through.
She bristled at Rikku's tone. "Down the hall, first door on the right. Try not to disturb anyone."
"I won't, sheesh. I'm just going to ask some questions." Turning on her heel, Rikku headed down the hall she'd been directed towards. Sure enough, Terak's patient nameplate was on the first door on her right. Taking a deep break, she pressed the small button below the nameplate and the door slid open silently. The room was dark, as the shades were drawn, but she made out a sleeping form on the bed in the corner. Purposefully, she crossed the room and looked down at this man called Terak. Though his limbs were wrapped in bandages, he wasn't that bad looking, with short, spiky dark hair, richly tanned skin, and a peaceful face. Of course, he was sleeping- or so she thought until he opened one gray-blue eye.
She started and stepped back with a nervous laugh. "Uh, heh heh… sorry about that. I'm-"
But she didn't get to finish.
The young man bolted upright and, wincing in pain, tried to scramble back, only to be stopped by the wall. "You…you… get away from me!"
She blinked. What in the… "Excuse me?"
"You heard me!" His voice took on a shrilly quality. "Don't think you can fool me, demon!" He gave a strained laugh. "Oh no! You won't get me again! Nurse! NURSE!"
She took a step closer. "What the heck are you blabbing-"
"STAY AWAY!" he screamed. "I'll fight you this time, I will! NURSE!"
"Hey! I just wanted to ask-"
"NURSE!"
The door opened and a pair of hands seized Rikku and roughly hauled her from Terak's room.
"What the- hey!" she squawked. She glanced back and saw a nurse glowering at her.
"Fryd dra ramm tet oui tu :What the hell did you do?" he demanded over Terak's mad screaming.
"Hudrehk, E cfayn :Nothing, I swear!"
"Dryd tuach'd cuiht mega hudrehk! E's kuehk du ryja du nabund drec :That doesn't sound like nothing! I'm going to have to report this!" he grunted, pushing her towards the exit.
"Pid E teth'd :But I didn't:- oof!" She gagged when the nurse shoved her out the door and face first into the sand. Sitting up, she spat the grit from her mouth.
What had that been all about? She harrumphed and choked on a grain of sand. Clearly, Terak was insane. And by the look the nurse was still giving her, she wasn't going to be allowed back into the infirmary for quite some time. She made a face at him and, getting to her feet, headed in the opposite direction, completely stumped at what to do next.
Rikku sat on the edge of Zanno's choice hover and watched absently as diggers came and went, assistants ran to and fro, and friends joked and gossiped on their way to work or wherever they were headed. She shifted her weight awkwardly. This was the first time she felt out of place here. She had changed, and not all for the better. She felt trapped, as if there was something she had to do, could do, to improve her situation but she had no idea what. And it didn't help that she'd become hyperirritable and impatient with the world around her. What happened to her old self? She frowned. She knew what happened. The Plague. Effram. The feeling that she couldn't trust anyone anymore. It was a bad feeling. She hated that feeling.
Sulking, she dug her toe into the sand. 'This sucks. I mean it, it really sucks.' There was nothing for her to do. All of her other interviewees were in the infirmary and her investigation team was given time off so she had nothing planned. 'I hate this! I don't like sitting around doing nothing…'
A loud buzz startled her out of deep thought and she slipped clumsily off the hover with a squeak. Flushing, she yanked her commsphere out and slapped it on, brushing sand from her hair and body. The first sound she was greeted with was laughter. Quite familiar laughter.
"Trying to reinstate sand castles as legit work, Highness? Though I can't understand how you could go to the bathroom on a sand toilet. Royalty certain has odd taste."
She stuck her tongue out at him and spat again as she accidentally licked the sand from her lips. He laughed again for nearly five minutes. She arched a brow and waited until it finally began to fade. "Are you finished?
"Yes, I-" Another laugh escaped and he shook his head. "Hold on. Hee hee… ahem… haha… erm… yes. Okay, I'm done. You crack me up, your highness."
"Glad someone could do it." She brushed the last of the sand from her face. "What do you want?"
"Status check. What's happening?"
"Well, not much of anything at the moment." She filled him in on what had happened in the infirmary.
Gippal frowned. "What the hell kind of ship is Nhadala running out there?" He shook his head. "So this Terak fellow went crazy?" He straightened. "You don't think this is Plague-related, do you?"
Rikku paused. Was it? She thought about the symptoms. Darkness- well, she didn't actually touch him, so there was no way for her to know for sure; violent anger-certainly none of that. She shook her head. "I don't think so. He didn't want to hurt me. In fact," she mused, "it was like he was afraid of me."
"Afraid? Who would be afraid of you?"
"I know… hey! Meanie!"
He chuckled. "Anyway, either the attack addled this guy's brains or he was crazy to start with- that's my theory. I'll see if the meds can look into his medical history.
"Any plans on what you're going to do next?"
She shrugged. "Nothing. I doubt they'll let me back into the infirmary. Apparently I'm a threat to the patients." She pouted.
Gippal giggled- actually giggled! "Oh, I just can't believe that. You!"
"Yeah, I know. Me. Gippal, I'm trying to be serious here."
"You?"
She rolled her eyes but there was a faint grin tugging at her lips. "Yeah. I thought we just established that, you big lug."
"Well, I don't know what to tell you," he continued with a shrug. "There's no one who will pilot the hover to where you need to go?"
She shook her head. Especially not after what had happened to Zanno. "Well, maybe Tatts, but he's a piloting maniac." She sighed in frustration. Why couldn't Spira just stay safe? Why did someone- or something- always have a vendetta against this world? "I'll give it the rest of the day. If I can't find a pilot…" she gulped, "I'll have Tatts do it.
"Now that's more like the Cid's Girl I know. Contact me if anything changes." And the sphere went blank.
If anything changed? That was vague. She grinned. Could she contact him if the wind direction changed? Or if the minute hand on the clock changed from minute to minute? Oh the fun she could have with that one! …Like she would. With a chuckle, she got to her feet. Well, the least she could do was look for a pilot to take her to the Northeast Expanse.
''''
"He what!" Rikku yelped, staring at a gangly blond youth close to her age. He looked very nervous.
"Went on vacation, ma'am."
She bristled. "Don't call me ma'am like I'm your mother or something! I'm not even twenty!"
Tatts' roommate gulped. "Yes ma-… uh, okay."
Rikku sat on the edge of a nearby chest of drawers. Her pilot search had proven fruitless. Still was, as a matter of fact. "Tatts… went on vacation, you say? Where? And why didn't he tell me?"
"I-I don't know. And I don't know."
She grunted.
"Please don't hurt me!"
She stared at him in shock and straightened to her full height, which was about an entire head shorter than the boy. Was she really intimidating? This short? She laughed slightly at the thought. "Me? Hurt you? I'm not going to hurt you, cripes." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and said with a feral grin, "I'm going to hurt whoever forgot to tell me he had a vacation coming up."
He simply squeaked.
With a sigh, she bade the nervous boy farewell. 'Well? Now what?' she wondered, making her way toward her own flat. No one else would or could pilot the hover. She didn't even know how, not the ones used on Bikanel, anyway. She stomped in frustration. Why weren't they all taught such a useful skill? It would certainly make her job a hell of a lot easier!
''''
Rikku leaned against an unused hover, staring at the sky. It was a cloudless, whitish blue with heat- in other words, completely uninteresting. Anyone who knew her would've thought she'd finally gone mad. She was not the sort to be still for hours. Not normally. But she wasn't standing around just to enjoy the scenery. She waited, with remarkable patience, for Gippal to show up.
She had contacted him to point out a very big change in plans- the absence of a suitable hover pilot. And, after some uncalled for swearing and something about "If you want something done right…" he insisted that he'd be there within the next several hours.
Several hours had indeed passed. She wondered, vaguely, how he was able to take so much time away from Djose. With the way he carried on, no one was competent enough to take his place for fifteen minutes, let alone a day or more. And secretly, she was starting to agree.
She straightened as she saw a dark speck approaching over the sand horizon. The flight pattern was straight and true, ruling out the approach of a fiend. She smiled faintly, standing. Gippal had finally arrived. But, much to her impatience that finally came out now that she saw him, it took another fifteen minutes for him to finally land.
"It's about time!" she said the moment he set foot on the sand.
He chuckled. "I told you it'd be a few hours." With a smirk he reached out and touched her cheek. "You're sunburned. Did you wait out here all this time?"
She blushed. "Yes well… I'm impatient."
He laughed.
Her blush grew. "Can we just go now?"
"Just a minute, your highness," Gippal replied, letting the last of his laughter fade away. "I need to go stop in on Nhadala right quick."
"But-"
With a grin, he held a finger to her lips. His eyes danced mischievously. "It'll only be a moment. Then you'll have me all to yourself, your highness."
"No! That's not what I-"
"Ah-ah! Save it for later." He winked and sauntered off.
She plopped down on the hover, her face hot. "Dummy," she muttered, though she wasn't sure whether she was talking about him… or herself.
True to his word, Gippal returned in under five minutes. "We're good to go. I've got the keys and I instructed Nhadala to give Tatts a sound beating when he returns."
"You what?" Rikku squawked.
"Just kidding. Now come on." He clambered into the hover. "Nhadala told me there was a sandstorm heading for the site with in the next several hours. We only have a short time." He patted the seat. "Climb up next to Papa."
"If it was anyone but you saying that, I'd slug you," she replied, climbing in next to him.
With the practiced ease of a teenaged hover master, Gippal revved the engine to life and they sped off smoothly over the sand.
''''
They spent over an hour digging in a persistently hot sun. Gippal had shed his shirt well before and still rivulets of sweat trickled down his skin. Rikku fought hard to keep herself from staring. She found it was a losing battle, with his lightly tanned skin, and perfectly sculpted torso. Despite the fact he was an office man now, it was oh so clear he still worked out…
"Good grief. How long before we find anything?" he complained.
She blinked. "What?… Oh… We might not find anything," she grunted, returning to her determined clawing into the sand. "And then there are only two of us. You can't expect a whole lot."
"Are you serious? I came out here for what might be nothing?"
She didn't bother gracing that with a reply. Men could be such babies. With a sigh, she stood and dusted the sand from her gloved fingertips. "I'm going to get something to drink. Want anything?"
He shook his head. "I'll get something later."
She shrugged and headed to the hover, scavenging through the back seat in search of a water source. Men were babies… and such slobs too! She muttered to herself, shoving aside stacks of paper, coffee cups, and food wrappers.
"Holy shit! Rikku, come check this out!"
She sighed and straightened, smacking her head on the frame of the hover. "Ouch! What is it?" She rubbed the back of her head with a grimace and padded across the sand to where Gippal dug. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head at what she saw. At his feet were at least a dozen gray sphere shards. She jumped into the hole with him.
"This… this is incredible!"
Together they scooped up the fragments and dumped them onto a small towel Rikku spread out earlier beside the hole. Carefully, she pulled the pieces she'd previously excavated from her sack and set them next to the new fragments. In silence, she and Gippal began to piece it together.
Despite the length of time that passed, Rikku was remarkably patient. Gippal even commented on it.
She gave a cheeky grin. "With enough determination, even I can be patient- Gippal! That's the last piece!" she yelped, noticing the final fragment in his hand. This was it! The moment she'd be waiting for since she found the dratted sphere. "Hurry, hurry, put it in!"
Gippal laughed. "What happened to your patience?"
"Patience? Come on, this is me we're talking about. I don't have any patience. Put that piece in already!"
"Okay, okay." And he moved to carefully put the final piece into place. But it would go. He frowned. His gloves were far too bulky and cumbersome to allow it.
Rikku made a noise that sounded distinctly like "grrr" and she ripped a glove off of one of her hands with her teeth and spat it to the ground. "Let me have it." She seized the fragment and immediately felt a wave of utter 'weirdness' wash over her. She dismissed it as nerves, though she sore she thought she heard chanting. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the fragment into the final crevice and the sphere exploded with light.
''''
Ah hah! Cliffy! And… if anyone can think of a male Al Bhed name… I wouldn't mind some help I'm at a crossroad… I am in need of a name! Much obliged and a chocolate chocobo to those who can offer one!