A/N: Wow, um, I didn't think it would take me this long to update, honestly. I lost my internet for a few weeks and I've been working a whole lot of extra hours at work so it's been hard to find the time to write. Excuses, excuses, I know. Well, in any case, the updates will come sooner from now on. Hope you enjoy the chapter. :)

to isley: Yeah, you're right- the ages don't add up. To be honest, it never occurred to my stupid self to do some research- I just kind of, er, made them up :) Thanks for letting me know- I'll fix it when I have the chance.

oooooo

A woman looked out of the dirty window, her eyes narrowed in thought. Dawn was coming, and a few tiny rays of light seeped in, revealing a floor of dirt. The place was becoming very hot even in the early hour of the morning, and she muttered a few obscenities to herself. He was taking too long. Not that she cared... she quite enjoyed not having him there, in fact. For once the place was peaceful. She just didn't want to be cooped up in that miserable place much longer.

Leana flung her long, braided hair over her shoulder and sighed. Where in Spira was he? She was beginning to grow worried. She sat down on a small wooden chair and put her face in her hands, sighing. What if something had gone wrong? If he had been caught... then she would be trapped out here. Alone. In the middle of the desert, miles from anywhere. It would be a miracle if someone ever found her.

After the first few months under his captivity, she had stopped hoping that she would ever be found. He was too strong, his threats too real... only a shell of the man she once loved. She still maintained a shred of hope, though, for sanity's sake. That was all she had left.

Not that it mattered.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his airship. Leana got up from the chair and sighed, glancing out the small window. She saw him step off the ship and when he got to the bottom of the ramp, he looked behind him and made a movement with his hand. A little girl appeared in the doorway, looking absolutely frightened.

A little girl? He said nothing about a child...

Confused and scared, Leana moved to the entrance of the shack, pushing away the tattered blanket that covered the opening. She gave him a small smile, as was expected of her. He wanted to be greeted when he came, and she stopped resisting months ago, knowing all too well what her resistance would bring.

The man walked briskly to her, his face covered with dirt, his clothes streaked with blood.

"I assume that you have made the final preparations, Lea?" His voice was deep, rough... poisonous.

"Yes, Ian. All of your things are ready to go."

"Good." He smirked unpleasantly and ran a hand through his horribly messy hair.

"Who is the girl?"

His face froze and he looked at her angrily. "Why does it matter to you?"

"You didn't say anything about a child when you told me about the plan. You were only to kill the old man, and nothing more."

"Well, the plan is changed," his eyes flashed in anger. "I was only there to murder the old fool, yes, but the girl ran in the room. Cid begged me not to hurt her. It was then I realized how much more I could hurt them, Lea, I should have thought of it before! I would take their daughter, their precious child, I would take her away, make them think she was dead!" He chuckled and rubbed his unshaven chin.

"This girl... she is Rikku's daughter?" Leana said softly.

"Yes. Her and that traitorous fool, Gippal's. They have paid for their disgrace."

Lea looked over at the frightened little girl. There was blood on her clothes, and she was sitting in the sand, shaking and clutching her nightgown. Lea couldn't help but notice how much she resembled a little Rikku, with her tiny nose and big eyes... she had Gippal's wild hair that was currently sticking out at all angles. Her heart hurt for the girl, and what her parents must be going through.

"You did not hurt her, did you? She's covered in blood." Lea sat down next to the girl and began to check for any sign of injury on her arm. She whimpered softly and shrank back in fear. "Don't worry, sweetie, I'm not going to hurt you."

Ian shoved Lea away from her quickly and spit in the sand. "I didn't hurt her. The blood is Cid's. When I tried to take her she just ran over to him and hugged him. I had quite a time trying to pull her away from him, but I got her." He walked inside the shack and grabbed his suitcase before walking back out. "Come on, we need to go. They'll find us if we stay here."

Lea nodded. "Do you plan to hurt the girl?"

Ian stopped and whirled around, giving her an icy glare. "I don't know yet."

"What about her parents?"

"I don't know, alright! Just get in the damn airship!" He stormed off angrily.

Lea looked down at the little girl and held out her hand. "Come on, sweetie." The girl just stared at her, unmoving. She realized that she must not understand too much Al Bhed so she repeated it again in the common language. This time, the girl nodded in understanding and stood up, holding Lea's hand as she led her to the ship. "What's your name?"

"Rei."

"Oh, that's a pretty name," Lea smiled and Rei smiled back. "How old are you?"

"Almost this many," she looked up at Lea, showing her three fingers.

Lea laughed. "Wow, you're a big girl. Well, my name is Leana, but you can call me Lea. That's what your mommy calls me. She used to be a pretty good friend of mine."

Rei's eyes widened. "You know mommy?"

"Sure do." Lea's voice lowered so Ian couldn't hear. "I promise I'll do everything I can to get you back to your mommy and daddy, okay? I'll keep you safe," she gave her a reassuring grin.

"Promise?"

"Promise." Lea led Rei up on the platform of the ship, where Ian was already beginning to start it up. She held the her hand tightly, trying to reassure her that everything would be okay.

She would make sure of it...

oooooo

I grew aware of voices around me as I slowly came back to consciousness. I opened my eyes slightly and I saw Gippal hovering over me, looking relieved.

"Spira, Rikku, you scared me," Gippal sighed and put his hand on my forehead. "You're sweating a lot. How do you feel?"

I squinted up at him, my eyes still adjusting to the bright overhead light. "Fine."

"Good. Do you remember why you're here?" He grasped my hand and stroked it reassuringly.

I frowned in concentration, trying to remember. I vaguely remembered sitting in the sand, crying, screaming, and then there was nothing. Then it hit me; Rei was gone. Dad was hurt.

It wasn't a dream.

"I... I passed out." Gippal nodded and kissed my forehead before standing up.

"You gave us quite the scare. The nurse said you would be fine when we brought you here, though. She said you passed out from shock, and that you just needed some rest. I'm going to tell her you're awake, okay?" He smiled slightly and ruffled my hair.

"Gippal... what's going on? How long have I been out?"

"Only a few hours. Yuna, Tidus and Paine are at the station. We're going there later, if you're feeling better."

"Have they... found anything yet?" I asked timidly and Gippal frowned.

"Nothing concrete. Just a few useless footprints. They're still looking around for anything we can use. The investigators told me that some kind of evidence was most likely left behind, it's just a matter of finding it."

"And how long will it take to find it?"

Gippal sighed. "I don't know, Rikku. It could be a few hours or a few days. I don't know." He ran his hand through his hair in frustration and frowned again. I could tell that he was feeling just as helpless as I was.

"So... all we can do is wait."

"Yeah."

I sat up and let out a frustrated sigh. I was never the type to just sit around and wait; I've always been the one to go out and take action, even if I was never fully sure if I could do anything. It looked like this time I had no choice, however. We couldn't investigate ourselves because we had no leads and nowhere to even begin looking.

I noticed Gippal looking at me from the corner of my eye. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just... I just wish we had somewhere to start looking. Something to start with."

"I was just thinking the same thing." I gave him a gentle smile. "I think I'm ready to leave this place, though. How's Cid doing?"

"Still the same, last I checked- that was about an hour ago. I told the nurse to let us know if anything changed."

I nodded. "Well, we're not doing much good just sitting around here. Let's go to the station."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just go." I got up off the bed and was glad to find that I wasn't dizzy or anything. I gave Gippal a reassuring smile and I took his hand as we walked out of the hospital. It was the only comfort we could give each other; little gestures to let us know that we were, in fact, still here and alive and breathing. We shared the same fears but we both had to believe, for ourselves and each other, that our little girl was still out there somewhere and that we would get her back. We gave each other all the reassurances we could, like hand squeezes and smiles and small hugs. This helped us feel less alone, less afraid.

It was the little things that would keep us going through the nightmare.

oooooo

When we entered the station I barely had time to look at my surroundings before I was enveloped in a bone-crushing hug by Yuna.

"You had us so worried, Rikku!"

"Yuna... you're squishing me..."

"Oh, sorry!" She let go of me and smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Any news?"

"They found some hairs in the house that didn't belong to any of us. They're testing it in the lab right now and hoping that the computer can match it up to someone."

I smiled. Finally, we had something to go on. Thank whatever-powers-that-be for Al Bhed technology.

"They told us not to get to hopeful, though. A match will only come up if whoever did this has their DNA on file, which most people don't."

My smile quickly faded. I knew Yuna spoke the truth; this technology had never branched out to include many people because, well, we did not often need it.

Sighing, I sank down into a nearby chair. My growling stomach reminded me that I had not eaten in quite some time but I knew I couldn't bring myself to eat. I wondered if Rei had eaten anything yet; if her captor had enough mercy to keep my child from starving, if indeed she was still alive.

I flinched. Of course she's still alive.

She has to be.

oooooo

We sat in that station for a good two hours, mainly in silence. Paine or Tidus would occasionally try and start up conversation, but it would never get very far before we lapsed into silence again. It wasn't necessarily awkward, and I know their hearts were in the right place. They were only trying to get our minds off of everything.

A few minutes after a failed conversation about blitzball ended a man came running down the hall and stopped in our room, breathless. We all stared at him and waited for him to speak.

"We... we've got a match."

Before waiting for details, all of us jumped out of our seats. Gippal shot me a huge grin before taking my hand and running after the others. We didn't get very far before we realized that we didn't even know where we were going. The man caught up to us quickly, however, and led us to a small, dark room that was filled with all sorts of computers and had two large projection screens. A woman sitting in a chair smiled at us as we walked in and an image began to materialize on the computer.

It was a man who looked to be around Gippal's age. He had short, messy blonde hair and striking large, green eyes. I had a vague feeling that I knew this man from somewhere, but I didn't know how I knew him, or who he was.

"So he's Al Bhed," Paine stated, her eyes glued to the image.

"Yes. His name is Ian, and he worked for the Machine Faction until a year and a half ago. He was fired from his job after he was caught stealing valuable machina parts. According to his file, he has not held a job since then and we have no information as to his whereabouts. He is not listed as living in this city or any other village in Spira, for that matter. It's like he just disappeared."

"Ian..." Gippal muttered. "Yeah, I know him. I thought he was a pretty good guy 'til he stole those parts. He was always real quiet, liked to keep to himself. Knew he was a thief, but I never would have thought... he would have..." his voice drifted off, and I gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Well, in any case, it's a lead. So how do we go about finding this guy?" Paine asked, her arms crossed in a gesture of impatience.

"Therein lies the problem. We have no record of where he lives. If he had bought an airship within the last few years, it would show up on his file, so if he has one it is most likely stolen. He's not married and has only one living relative, a sister, it looks like." The woman squinted at the computer. "Although she won't be much help."

"Why?" I glanced over the woman's shoulder at the screen.

"She's currently residing in Luca, in a home for the mentally impaired. She's been diagnosed with so many things I don't know where to begin."

"Well, we should try anyway. I mean, she might know where he is," I stared at the ground, frowning in concentration. "It's a long shot, but even if we can't get anything out of her we might at least be able to find out if he's been to visit her, or something. Anything. It might not be much, but that's all we have."

Gippal sighed. "That settles it, I guess. We're going to Luca."

A commsphere suddenly lit up in the room, and we all glanced around at each other. The woman moved over to the chair and we all huddled around her. A doctor's face appeared on the screen, a large grin on her face.

"You guys might want to get over here... Cid's woken up."