I had a hell of a time coming up for a title for this chapter...and To Zanarkand was playing...so yeah. That's how I got the title for this chapter! ha ha. Anyway, it's difficult trying to keep three fics going at once...I just posted a new one a few days ago called Zanarkand Dreams. (If you're interested to see what it's about, there's a summary in my profile!) Anyway, It took me a while to like the way this chapter ended up...but eh, it's okay. I wonder how long this fic is going to be...I'm sure it won't be any longer than 11 or 12 chapters. That's okay though...I don't mind. Oh, and by the way... "Rekrfeht" in Al Bhed is "Highwind." That's my way of bringing my beloved Kain Highwind into the fic! (And for you VII fans, Cid Highwind. Kain came first though!)
6. To Bikanel
Yuna was right yet again; Cid's new airship made a hell of a racket as it came closer to Besaid. Everyone ran out of their homes to make sure that the island wasn't under some kind of attack for it sounded like some kind of artillery was going off. When people realized what it was, they grumbled and shook their heads. Even after all the time that has passed, the people of Besaid were still prejudice against the Al Bhed. I'm surprised that the people never gave Rikku disgusted looks when she visited. I guess you could call it a pleasant surprise. I would never want her to feel unwelcome. Then again, maybe the people of Besaid are all clueless like how Wakka was during Yuna's pilgrimage. It did take him a while to realize that Rikku was Al Bhed.
"I think that's our cue," I quipped with a smile as I looked toward my wife, who nodded in agreement. I grabbed the suitcases as Yuna put a hat on Ariana and picked her up, then we walked toward the beach. Carrying two suitcases while walking on sand was quite the challenge, but I managed to get there without killing myself.
Cid's new airship, the Rekrfeht, was about the same size as the Celcius, but it was blue instead of the bright red. It looked more like the airship that he had when Yuna was on her pilgrimage more than anything. I don't really remember the first airship that Cid had, but if I recall correctly, the Rekrfeht was larger. It was a magnificent ship; definitely the most intricate of the previous two that Cid had.
"Yuna!" Yuna and I looked up to see Brother running down the airship deck toward us. It's amazing how he still looked the same after all these years. Actually, I stand corrected. He did look very nice for Yuna and my wedding; Yuna even got him to shave his mohawk off so he wouldn't stick out too much. However, now it's back to its normal length and sticking up mohawk style again. I don't know what runs through that boy's head, and frankly, most of the time I'm thankful for that.
"Brother!" Yuna cried back with a wave from her free arm. It was the first time I've seen her smile in a few hours, so I was able to let out a sigh of relief. She hugged her cousin and he kissed her on the cheek. "It's good to see you again!"
"What's this?" He asked, pointing to Ari as he looked between Yuna and I.
"All right, I think it's all right to tell you," I said with a playful smirk, putting down the suitcases that I was holding. "It's called a baby."
"You think you're so funny, Tidus," he retorted as he put his hands out for Ariana. Like usual, she squealed and went right into his arms. She loved attention, so whenever someone wanted to give her some, she ate it right up. "She's getting so big."
Yuna nodded and smiled as Brother spoke in baby talk to the baby. It was actually baby Al Bhed talk because I couldn't understand a damn word that he was whispering. Ari was babbling along with him, so it was an amusing sight. Now that I think about it, I think that was the first time that Brother had seen Ari. He knew about her, but he never saw her before.
I noticed that Yuna started to follow Brother into the airship; leaving me with all the suitcases. I really didn't mind though because I still didn't want her to carry anything heavy…even though I felt that I was going to break my back from the two suitcases. With a grunt, I picked them up and made my way up to the airship as quickly as I could.
"So, how are Rikku and Gippal?" Yuna asked as she sat down in a chair on the bridge with Ari on her lap. "Uncle Cid didn't really give me a lot of details but you seem pretty calm about the entire circumstance."
"Oh, you know vydran," Brother said with a wave of his hand. "He overreacts over these kinds of things."
I put the suitcases down and leaned on one of them to catch my breath. Damn, I was really out of shape. It's been about two weeks since I've played blitz, so I'm going to use that as my excuse. "Do you know what happened?" I was panting as I spoke, but he was able to understand me.
"No one really knows, but they'll be fine," Brother replied with a shrug. "Rikku was unconscious for about two hours, but she woke up as if she was only sleeping. The doctors did several tests on her, but she's not suffering from any brain damage. Well, besides the damage caused from dating Gippal."
"I'm just thankful that they're all right," Yuna stated with a sigh, ignoring Brother's humor as she bounced Ari on her lap.
"Just so my point is clear, I'm not happy that everyone I know is getting a first class ticket to the hospital." I folded my arms across my chest and scoffed, receiving a disgusted look from Yuna. "What? Come on, you don't think it's a little suspicious?"
She shook her head at me and pursed her lips. "Thank you, Tidus. We all know your opinion on the matter, all right? Nothing can be confirmed until we talk to Gippal and Rikku."
"Did I miss something?" Brother asked, raising an eyebrow at the two of us. I would say that he looked lost, but the boy always did look lost. It's odd to think that he's older than me sometimes.
"No, nothing at all," Yuna informed him, her tone icy. "Just Tidus overreacting about nothing."
I didn't want to make her more upset, so I sighed and sat down in the seat next to her without saying anything at all. "All right, Brother, we should probably get going."
"Right," he agreed as he walked over to the pilot's seat to fly us to Bikanel.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Leaving everything on the airship, we made our way to the fifth floor of the Home Hospital where Rikku and Gippal were. They managed to share a room together, which proved to us all that they were going to be okay. I held Ari in my arms so Yuna could nervously play with her fingers the entire walk down the hall. She looked into all the rooms, her face as pale as the bare white walls of the hallway. I felt sorry for her; she just got out of the hospital and she was walking through one again. I had to admit, I didn't like hospitals either, but Yuna always looked as though she had seen someone die right before her eyes.
"Honey, are you okay?" I asked as I put a hand on her arm. She gasped in shock at my touch, causing me to jump backward. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
"No, its…it's okay," she stammered, rubbing her arms with her hands. I watched the goosebumps appear on her body as she breathed in irregular intervals. "I'm just a little jumpy, that's all."
"At least if you faint, you're in the right spot," I quipped with a smile. Unfortunately, she didn't smile back. She only glared at me so I instantly wiped the smile off my face. "Sorry, that was inappropriate."
"Under different circumstances I would find it rather humorous, but I hate hospitals." Another shudder swept through her body as she looked around. "What room where they in again, Brother?"
"I think it was 518," he stated as he pointed to a room not far ahead. "It was something around there. If not, we'll just poke our heads in and see if we see two blondes."
"It's an Al Bhed hospital," I said with an amused sigh. "Basically everyone here has blonde hair and green eyes. That would be like going into a chocobo ranch and finding an insane worker there. They kind of go hand in hand."
"True, true," Brother agreed as we reached room 518. We walked in slowly, hesitant for we didn't want to walk into the wrong room, but luckily it was the right one.
"Yunie!" Rikku exclaimed with a squeal when she saw her cousin. "Ari, I think you've gotten bigger since the last time I saw you!"
I looked at Yuna and shrugged as we listened to Rikku babble on and on as quickly as she could about how great it was to see us again. I could tell that Yuna was thinking the same thing that I thought; if it wasn't for the fact that there was a bandage on her head and several scratches on her arms and legs, you would never be able to tell that she was beaten up. She also had a huge bowl of ice cream in front of her—another sign that she was healing quite nicely.
Gippal, who was in the bed next to Yuna, stretched and put his hands behind his head. His wounds didn't look that significant either. Again, a few scratches here and there, but otherwise he was basically untouched. He wiggled his fingers in the form of a wave and I nodded my head back at him.
"Wow, you two look good," Yuna said after a minute of silence. Rikku nodded and shoved another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "Are you in any pain?"
"My pride is hurt more than anything," Rikku replied with a shrug, Gippal nodding in agreement. "I was about to kick the pyreflies out of Shuyin, yet three low life thugs were able to take me out. What's up with that?"
"Three?" Yuna asked, sitting in the seat next to Rikku's bed. I shifted Ari in my arms as I watched my wife kick her concern into full gear.
Rikku thought about it for a second then looked over at her boyfriend. "Were there more than that, Gippal? I don't remember."
"There were three big guys and a little guy," Gippal clarified as he bit his lip in thought. "The big guys were the ones who went after us, and the little guy kind of went searching throughout the house. He didn't enter until I was pretty much out of it, so I didn't get a good look at him."
"I was out by this time," Rikku said, mushing her ice cream with her spoon. "Again, my pride is wounded."
"No, it's okay, Rikku," Yuna stated as she put her hand on Rikku's arm. "The odds were against you, they had weapons, and they caught you by surprise. Be thankful that you're here to tell the tale."
"Here's the funny part about this whole thing," Gippal began as he tried to sit up. He winced a little bit from the pain and swallowed once he was in a sitting position.
"You okay?" I asked and started to walk over to him to see if he needed any help.
He flicked his wrist and nodded his head, resulting in me stopping in my tracks. "Yeah, I'm fine. I thought that was going to be a lot easier than it was."
"Continue," Brother said, rushing the poor guy. "What's funny about what?"
"Well, not funny 'ha ha,' but I guess you could call it out of the ordinary. I'm trying to think of the best way to describe it." He rubbed his chin with his hand as he formulated his thoughts. "Maybe if I just ramble for a while things will make sense."
"Go for it," Rikku encouraged as she continued to make her ice cream into soup. "You were awake for more of it than I was, so your information will be a hell of a lot more valuable."
"They knew that Rikku and I were still alive," he stated quietly, Yuna and I listening attentively. "If they wanted to kill us, they definitely could've succeeded because we weren't ready for them to attack us, but instead they just knocked us out. It was more like they wanted us out of the way so baldy could come in and ransack the place."
"Was anything taken?" Yuna asked as she put her hair behind her ears.
Rikku shook her head and put her spoon in her mouth as she spoke. "That's another funny part of this story. Buddy and vydran went back to Gippal's to check everything out and, no, nothing was taken. Nothing noticeable anyway."
"I have a lot of expensive shit in my place too," Gippal explained with a chuckle. He wasn't trying to brag, but he was just stating the truth. Being the Machine Faction leader does bring in some quality gil, I would imagine. "Not just the luxuries of expensive paintings and sculptures, but I'm also talking about important documents."
"What you're trying to say is that you think it was more than a hit and run?" I asked, rubbing Ari on her back. She was starting to fall asleep and I wasn't about to stop her. I looked at Yuna before I continued, but she wasn't paying attention to me, therefore I looked back over at Gippal, who only shrugged again. "Now, what did you say these guys looked like?"
"The three bigger guys were just three big guys in black suits, that's all that I can really say about them," he said with an apologetic shrug. "The little guy though; he was wearing robes of some kind. And he was bald. Damn, the light reflected off of that bastard's head, it was so shiny."
"Bald and robes, eh?" I looked at Yuna again and now she was biting her nails in thought. "That's not a common description, unless…"
Rikku followed my train of thought and nodded. "Yep, that's the number one reason why vydran is pegging this on Yevon. My first intention was to call Baralai and ask him about it, but if Baralai came out here, vydran would try to kill him."
"Where is Uncle Cid, anyway?" Yuna asked as she glanced around the room. "I just realized that he's not here."
"He went to get some coffee, but that was about twenty minutes ago," Gippal replied with a roll of his eyes. "In other words, who the hell knows where he's at."
"Three hundred gil he's out smoking and getting yelled at by the nurses for hazarding his health," Rikku said with a giggle. "Oh well, it wouldn't be the first time it's happened since I've been awake."
With a sigh, Yuna stood up and started to tap her shoe against the linoleum. "So, okay. What are we going to do? I mean, what can we do?"
"Are you sure there wasn't anything that someone would be after in your house, Gippal?" I handed the baby over to Yuna and walked closer to Gippal. "You said there were important documents, right? Are there any that someone would want to possess?"
"No, that's the thing," Gippal said, shaking his head. "That's the first thing I thought of, and there just isn't anything that sticks out in my mind. If you want, you guys can go over there and check it out to make sure."
"You said that Cid already went to check everything out and everything was fine though," I mentioned as I crossed my arms. I tapped my fingers on my right hand on my left arm at the same time that I spoke.
"Yeah, true," Gippal stated and tried to lie back down as painlessly as possible. "But I think you two would recognize something that specific people would go after."
Yuna scoffed and stood up. "Just say that you're blaming it on Bevelle too, Gippal. I know that's what you're thinking, so you might as well just come out and say it."
"Not just Bevelle," Gippal began. "I'm talking about Yevon. I trust Baralai, so I don't think it was someone from New Yevon who wanted to see if the Machine Faction was keeping any secrets. Yevon is out of Baralai's control. He would like to think that the days of Yevon are gone, but he should think again."
Hmm, sounds like someone else I know. I refrained from looking at Yuna for I know that she would've only shook her head at me. I heard her sigh and then her cellsphere rang.
"Yunie!" Rikku gasped as Yuna reached to answer it. "You're not supposed to have those turned on in a hospital! What are you thinking!"
"I'll get over it," Yuna replied with a smile as she flipped it open. "Hello?"
"Tsk tsk," Rikku scolded with a shake of her finger. "Someone's gonna get in trouble!"
"Oh, hi Baralai," she said cheerfully with a smile. "I'm doing well, how about yourself?" She paused as Baralai spoke, then she nodded as if he could see her. "That's actually where Tidus and I are now…Yeah, we're in Bikanel. We're thankful to see that Rikku and Gippal are going to be fine."
Gippal's head whipped up, then he instantly put his hand on the back of his head. "Yuna, how does he know what happened? We didn't tell him! And, ow."
"Um, Gippal wants to know how you found out about…oh…" She trailed off and furrowed her forehead. Uh oh. "Okay…yeah…I see…When did this happen?" We were all silent and curious to know what the conversation was about. I didn't like the look on Yuna's face and I could tell that no one else did.
"Let me talk to him," Gippal said, motioning with his fingers for Yuna to give him the phone.
Yuna nodded at Gippal and put a finger up to tell him to wait a second. "That's terrible….I know. Yeah, that would be fine. Okay, Gippal wants to talk to you. Okay…okay…You too. Take care."
She stood up to hand the phone to Gippal then looked back at me with frightened eyes. "Oh this isn't good."
"What happened?" I asked her as she grabbed at her lower lip with her free hand. "Yuna, speak."
"You were what!" Gippal exclaimed into the phone. "What do you mean you were fired!"
