July 26, 2005. Wow, it's been a while since I've updated this fic! I reread the epilogue the other day (it's been done for like two months) and I became intrigued to write some more of this fic. I had a mild case of writer's block on it...but I actually was able to come up with a transition. It's kind of a short chapter, but I like the way I ended it. Okay, I'll eventually update the rest of my fics too...I just haven't had the time. Work owns me this summer (two jobs and 50 hours!), so I'm terribly sorry! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
7. An Unpleasant Surprise
The news of Baralai being fired from his position as Praetor hit us all hard and none of us were really sure what to do about it. When Gippal handed the phone back to Yuna, she silently put it back in her purse and continued biting at her fingernails. Even though she wasn't going to say it, I knew what she was thinking. Everything was starting to connected and the pieces weren't falling in a place that Yuna liked; everything was pointing at the followers of Yevon.
"Here's what we should do," I said to break the silence that was in the room. "Yuna and I will go back to your place, Gippal, and check it out. You said you had a lot of important documents and the like there, right?"
"Yeah," Gippal said with a nod of his head. "Since we're in the process of moving the Machine Faction Headquarters from Djose to Home, I figured that having all the papers at my place would be a smart idea. Of course, if I knew that Yevonites were going to ransack the place, I would've rethought out my plans."
Yuna glared at Gippal, but before she could snap at him, I spoke up first. "Okay, you guys stay here…well, obviously. Anyway, Yuna and I will make sure that nothing is missing. Do you have a specific place to where everything was, or is everything everywhere?"
"Most of it should be in the study," he replied, rubbing the back of his head in thought. "Yeah, most of it should be in my desk or the filing cabinets. If it's not there, then it's in the bedroom or living room. The problem is, I have so many things that have accumulated over the last few years that there's a lot to go through." He exhaled and shook his head as he searched through his wallet for something. After looking through it, he pulled out the key and held it up for me to grab. "Here's the key to the front door, but I'm afraid that you won't even notice if something's missing."
"We'll try our best," Yuna said, giving Rikku a kiss on the top of her head. "We'll come back in a little while to give you a full report. Is there anything that we should specifically look for, Gippal?"
"You mean something that the stubborn bastards of Yevon would look for?" Yuna was less than appreciative of the addition that Gippal put to her question, but with a shrug, she nodded anyway. "I don't think so. But then again, since Baralai was fired, they must have something against him. Therefore, try to look for anything with Baralai's signature on it."
"Or anything mentioning New Yevon," I said, nodding in understanding as I took the key and put it in my pocket. "Wait, can you draw me a map or directions or something? We haven't seen your new place yet, Gippal."
"Here, I've got it," Rikku said as she quickly scribbled some directions on a napkin that the hospital staff gave her with her ice cream. "These are the best I can do."
Yuna took the paper in her hands and gave it a queer look. "Oh yikes."
"What is it?" I asked, walking over to her to get a good look at the map. "Oh yikes is right."
"What?" Rikku asked, blinking innocently. "Those are perfectly good directions and there isn't a chance that you would get lost from them."
"Oh really?" I asked as I watched Yuna flip the directions upside down in her hands to see if they would make more sense that way. Home was built in a circle, but her directions gave us straight lines as roads. Not to mention that I couldn't read the chocobo scratch that she called handwriting. I looked over at Gippal, who was now holding a piece of paper in his hands.
"Here," he said, shaking his hand. "These will actually get you to my place instead of in the middle of the Bikanel Desert somewhere." Rikku made a face at him and he made one right back at her. They were the oddest couple.
I took the directions from him and smiled. "Hey, check this out! This actually looks like Home!" I showed the directions to Rikku and she only made a face at me this time. I ruffled up her hair and chuckled at her. "Okay, you two take care."
"Oh, and tell Brother we said good-bye as well," Yuna said, blinking at the end of her sentence. "Wait. Where'd he go, anyway?"
"Probably to go find Cid," Gippal suggested as we all looked around. He did sneak off unnoticeably, but oh well. He knew that our luggage was on the Rekrfeht anyway, so we would need to find him again. "Good luck and I hope you find something."
They nodded as we all said our goodbyes, and Yuna, Ari and I walked out of the hospital room. Yuna was quiet again and I could tell that this time it wasn't because of her hospital fear. Once we reached the elevator, she pushed the 'down' arrow then looked up at me.
"Am I being ignorant?" She asked as she gathered up her hair and put it in a ponytail with the hair ties that were around her wrist. "I…don't want to admit that it was Yevon, but who knows, ya know? It might not even be Yevon."
I nodded at her and we entered the elevator. "It might not be, you're right. However, unless some New Yevon Hater Cult is forming somewhere and attacking not only you, but Gippal, Rikku, and Baralai as well…"
"Maybe it's something to deal with New Yevon," she suggested with a shrug. "By the way Baralai was talking, it was more of a mutiny than anything. They all were against him for some reason that they wouldn't even explain to him. It was sudden and he wasn't expecting it. There wasn't any hint that they were unhappy with the way that he was ruling Bevelle."
"Of course there wasn't a hint. That's what a mutiny is, Yuna," I stated, wrapping my free arm around her waist. "What else did Baralai say?"
"Not a whole lot. I could tell that it was something that he wanted to tell us but not go into detail about it." She rested her head against my shoulder and again let out a lengthy sigh. "This is just too much to deal with right now. I guess that since it has been about two years since Spira has had to deal with anything perilous, so it's about time now or…something. I guess the danger card was again picked up by fate."
"I have never seen you so pessimistic and it's worrying me." I didn't mean to say what I was thinking, but the words slipped out. She looked up at me and furrowed her forehead, her eyes asking me to continue. "The whole situation is confusing, I know, but I feel like you know more about this then we do."
"What are you talking about?" She snapped, her lip curling slightly. "Do you think I planned to get shot or something?"
I scoffed at her for twisting my words. "No, you know that' s not what I meant. I simply meant that you've been hiding things from me and now all of a sudden it's all coming at us full force. Do you know anything?"
"Tidus, if I knew anything, don't you think I would've tried to solve it by now instead of watching my cousin and her boyfriend get shot and another one of my friends get fired?" She shook her head and I tried to believe her, but I couldn't. I hated doubting her, but I just couldn't help it. But…why would she hide it?
I gave up yet again and we walked the rest of the way to Gippal's place in silence. I put the key in the door and when I heard the lock release, I slowly opened the door. The place was dark, but even though the darkness I could see the disaster that was left of the place. I swallowed hard and flicked the light on.
Yuna closed the door behind us and we had a look around. Furniture was overturned, glass was shattered, and papers were everywhere. I bent over and picked up one of the papers, and at the bottom was Gippal's signature. Yuna and I exchanged a look for that was something that we really didn't want to see.
"Okay," she said as she rubbed her arms with her hands. "I guess this means that they were after some of Gippal's papers. Now I wonder if we'll be able to find out which ones are missing."
We walked through the mess, picking up papers on the way until we found the study. All the books that were once on the bookshelves were now on the floor. I saw Yuna frown when she saw a pile of glass on the floor on one side of the room, and I walked over there with her. The remains of a picture frame were in a pile and Yuna carefully picked up one of the pieces of glass. There was a small piece of paper there and she looked at it.
"Look at you, Detective Yuna," I quipped as she looked at the intricate border on the bit of paper.
"I recognize this," she murmured and looked back at the pile of glass. "There was something in this picture frame and I know what it was."
"What was it?" I asked as she continued to look around the broken picture frame.
"I don't know." I chuckled at her and she looked up at me again. "No, I mean, I've seen it before but I can't put my finger on where. Well, it's gone now."
"Okay, so that's one thing that's missing," I said, making a mental note to myself. "So now the question is, what would be important enough for Gippal to put into a frame and why would someone want to take it?"
"I'm not sure." She inspected the paper once again then put it in her purse. "I'll have to ask Gippal, I'm sure he'd know."
With a nod, we continued to go through the study. It was rather hard to investigate with only one hand because Ari was in the other one, but I didn't want to put her down. There was too much broken glass and other sharp things that she would want to play with. I also couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that was in the air, so it was better if I held onto her and let Yuna do most of the searching. She was better with detective work than I was anyway.
"Hey, look at this," she pointed out when she opened one of the drawers. Inside were hanging files and she was right, something was missing. The files were in alphabetical order, and 'N' file wasn't between the M and O. It was gone. "New Yevon, maybe?"
"Well, that's a nice lead," I stated as I looked on the desk. I saw another file on it, and there wasn't a tab on it, but I started to sift through the pages anyway. "Oh, Yuna…"
"What?" She stood up and watched me go through the pages.
"Look at this," I said, pointing to the signature lines. "These all have Gippal and Nooj's signatures on them. These are between the Machine Faction and The Youth League, but where are the ones with New Yevon?"
Before Yuna was able to say anything, I heard a click of a gun. I looked up in time to see a man pointing one right at us, so I grabbed Yuna by the arm and pulled her down right as the gun went off. The bullet thankfully missed us and shattered the window that was behind Gippal's desk.
"Shit," I whispered as Ari started to cry. I handed the baby to Yuna and looked around for something to attack back with.
"You hold her," Yuna said as she handed Ari back to me, reached into her purse and pulled out one of her guns. Leave it to Yuna to always be prepared. As I quieted down Ari, we both peered over the desk, but the man was gone. "Where'd he go?" She whispered as she made her way around the desk.
"Shh!" I held her arm so she would stop moving and I heard the slow sound of footsteps coming from the living room. They were coming closer and I could feel my pulse start to race. I was more nervous that Ari was with us because there wasn't any way that Yuna and I could both fight with the baby. I also didn't like bringing Ari this close to danger.
Out of instinct, Yuna stood up and fired her gun, hitting the man in the shoulder. He dropped his gun as he grabbed his shoulder and she fired again, this time shooting him right in the stomach. I knew she didn't aim for his heart because she would've hit him there; she hit him just to knock him down. As I consoled Ari, Yuna and I walked over to the fallen man and she put her foot right on the man's chest.
"Lady Yuna," he managed to say between his labored breaths. By the way he was dressed, I could tell that he was a New Yevon soldier, and that made Yuna furious. "How nice it is to see you."
"What do you want with me?" She asked him, aiming her gun at his head. "You were following us all the way from the hospital, weren't you?" He didn't say anything, so she applied more weight with her foot and asked again, "Weren't you?"
"I'm just listening to orders," he replied, a smug smile appearing on his face. "How are you doing, Lady Yuna?"
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm the one with the gun to your head," she snapped. "One wrong move and I'll blast you all the way to the Farplane. I'm the one asking the questions here so things would work out to your advantage if you work with me here."
"I'll never tell you anything," he said, letting out a sickening cough.
"Why are you after Baralai, Gippal, and myself?" Yuna asked, her gaze burning at him. The soldier remained quiet, and I could tell that Yuna was losing her patience. "All right then, who sent you here?"
"You know the answer to that question." My eyes widened at his response and I even saw Yuna falter slightly. She lowered the gun slightly and the soldier only chuckled. Without a word, she regained her posture, aimed the gun again and shot the man, sending a cloud of pyreflies into the air.
