Wow… so what do ya think is gonna happen next? Is Baralai alive? How will he deal with his love being pregnant by Gippal… or is there something else?
((DISCLAIMER.. this chapter includes the song 'Music of my heart' by Gloria Estefan and Nsync, and it's translated into Al Bhed. I do not own it nor am I associated with any of those artists))
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I can hear my heartbeat a million times a second as we race over the dunes. Rikku is leading, taking us to the place where they found him… it might be Lai!
In the distance I see hundreds of Machina, and hope the sphere-cast hasn't arrived yet. I don't want anyone else to see him before me if he's there.
In the back of my mind is the pregnancy worry, but we can deal with it later. Right now, all that matters is that he's okay. I just want to hold him in my arms and hear his voice once more.
At the scene, Rikku breaks through the crowd for me and I go to the stretcher where the as-yet unidentified Spiran lies. I'm afraid to look for fear it may not be him.
"Baralai?" I manage to whisper. Of course, there is no response.
Only just now, I realize the carnage around me. The remnants of Baralai's ship are scattered about the Desert. There are blood and dead bodies everywhere. The smell of death is overwhelming.
I take another step towards the stretcher.. and my heart drops to my feet. "This is not Lai… those are not his hands… those are not his lips… he is not here…" I sit in the sand and cry, and Rikku comes up beside me and holds me. She sings an Al Bhed lullaby to me… the same one I used to sing to her when she hard a hard time while we were growing up. We had always been like sisters…
" Dra cyhtc lyh rayn ouin bnyoanc
Dra hekrd ec ymm oui haat
taab ehceta ouin raynd
dra tnaysc uv dnia muja cmaab
Fa yna ymm yc uha
dra Tacand rumtc oui cyva
oui yna hud ymuha
Duhekrd crymm aht dutyo"
She started to sing it again, but stopped. "Hey! What's that?" she pointed across the wreckage to a mutilated body, obviously dead… but… it was…moving? She took my hand and the two of us ran over, moving the dead body to find someone's arm above the sand. I dug, and she pulled on the arm, and we switched back and forth. Finally, he was out. Though he was caked in blood and sand, there was no mistaking him. "LAI!" I yelled it so loud as I held him that everyone stopped and looked.
I didn't care. I pulled him into my embrace, blood and all and rocked him, singing our own song to him.
Oui'mm hajan ghuf
Fryd oui'ja tuha vun sa
Fryd ouin vyedr eh sa
Ryc tuha vun so cuim...
Oui'mm hajan ghuf
Dra kevd oui'ja kejah sa..
E'mm lynno ed fedr sa
Drnuikr dra tyoc yrayt
E drehg uv tyoc pavuna
Oui syta sa ruba vun cusadrehk paddan
Yht syta sa naylr vun cusadrehk suna
Oui dyikrd sa du nih
Oui dyikrd sa du vmo
Rambat sa du vnaa dra sa ehceta
Ramb sa rayn dra sicel uv so raynd
Ramb sa rayn dra sicel uv so raynd
Oui'ja ubahat so aoac
Oui'ja ubahat dra tuun
Du cusadrehk E'ja hajan ghufh pavuna
Yht ouin muja...
Ec dra sicel uv so raynd..
Oui fana dra uha
Ymfyoc uh so ceta
Ymfyoc cdyhtehk po
Caaehk sa drnuikr
Oui fana dra cuhk dryd ymfyoc syta sa cehk
E's cehkehk drec vun oui
Ajanofrana E ku
E drehg uv frana E'ja paah
Yht uv dra uha fru ghaf sa paddan
Dryh yhouha ajan femm ykyeh
Oui dyikrd sa du nih
Oui dyikrd sa du vmo
Rambat sa du vnaa dra sa ehceta
Ramb sa rayn dra sicel uv so raynd
Ramb sa rayn dra sicel uv so raynd
Oui'ja ubahat so aoac
Oui'ja ubahat dra tuun
Du cusadrehk E'ja hajan ghufh pavuna...
Yht ouin muja...
Ec dra sicel uv so raynd
Fryd oui dyikrd sa
Uhmo ouin muja luimt ajan daylr sa
Oui kud drnuikr frah hu uha luimt naylr sa
Urr...urr...urr
Lyica oui ymfyoc cyf eh sa
Ymm dra pacd dryd E luimt pa
Ed fyc oui fru cad sa vnaa...
Oui dyikrd sa du nih
Oui dyikrd sa du vmo
Rambat sa du vnaa dra sa ehceta
Ramb sa rayn dra sicel uv so raynd
Ramb sa rayn dra sicel uv so raynd
Oui dyikrd sa du nih
Oui dyikrd sa du vmo
Rambat sa du vnaa dra sa ehceta
Ramb sa rayn dra sicel uv so raynd
Ramb sa rayn dra sicel uv so raynd
Oui'ja ubahat so aoac
Oui'ja ubahat dra tuun
Du cusadrehk E'ja hajan ghufh pavuna
Yht ouin muja...
Ec dra sicel uv so raynd..
Sicel uv so raynd
Sicel uv so raynd
Ec dra sicel uv so raynd...
I was crying, and my tears soaked his face. When He smiled, I nearly lost it. The rescue workers tried to take him away, to take him to the Al Bhed Healing Center, but Rikku kept them back. She told them who I was, and they went away.
Finally, I picked up Baralai… my Lai… and put him on the Stretcher that Rikku had been thoughtful enough to bring. It was a hover-stretcher, and would attach to my Dune bike.
Together, we left the carnage and headed back home.
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This cannot be happenning. It's not that I'm unhappy that Baralai is alive... but why now? why, when I get the happiest news of my life, does it all get taken away from me?
Sure, it's great that Baralai is alive, but now... now I'll never have.. our baby...
I know she plans to Marry him as soon as he is well... which won't be long under her healing hand.
Maybe she'll find it in her heart to let me be that child's father... I pray she does...
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I thought I was dead for sure. I felt like I was suffocating.. and of all the people to find me there...
I can feel her gentle touch as she cleans my wounds. she does not wnat to hurt me any more than I already am. All the pain I have felt for months as we were tortured is gone... I cannot feel it. All I can feel is her gentle hands. When I ahve the strength to open my eyes, just for a moment, i see her beautiful face smiling down on me.
She leaves the room for a mom,ent, and gippal takes the oppurtunity to try to ruin everything. "You know, she's pregnant with my baby..."
that's what HE thinks... "No... It is...Mine.." I manage to say. "A Spell... before I left...she... wandted..."
It was hard to talk.. but I didn't need to say anymore. there was a spell/potin.. something that, if she drank it while we were together, would hold onto what I put inside her and would try to get her pregnant every day. I had intended it as a surprise for her, but then the ship was captured. She had thought the potion was Cactus Juice... she would be thrilled to know...
I had known the trip would be dangerous, and so, if I dies, I wanted her to have part of me... she woulve known it was my child the moment it was born.
Gippal, whom I had known for years, understood all this in just what I had managed to say, and left the room.
What I didn't expect was to hear Miko right beside me. "You...Lai.. you did that?"
She understood as well. Only too well...
"Are you terribly mad at me for.. for being with him? I.. we thought.. you were on the Farplane and... and you... I missed you so terribly..." she began to cry
all I could do was smile, but it was enough. she hugged me. "let's finish you up" she said. I felt the air seem to pressurize around me, and my whole body began to tinlge as she poured all her energy into healing me.
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When Baralai sits up by himself, I take that as a sign and collapse onto the couch behind me. My whole body is drained with the power it took to heal him. He gets up and lays beside me, and his arms surround me. "Thank you... I love you..."
