"Yes, yes, calm down young man," said the woman calmly. "Here, take this," she took out the photo of Sierra, her mother and Paine, and tossed it on the Praetor's desk. "That might help you a bit." She stood up, and turned to leave.
"Wait, don't you want to help me with this?" Baralai asked quickly.
"You don't need my help,"she said, "And like I said, I'm busy. Goodnight Praetor."
"Goodnight. I'll get to this tomorrow."
"Ok, have fun with that." The woman left, closing the door behind her with a snap.
Paine woke up the next day to bright sunlight streaming through the cabin window, and happened to find herself on the cabin floor. "Good morning sleepy head!" The warrior groaned.
"Yuna…what time is it…?" she asked slowly, picking her head off the floor.
"About ten," the woman answered her. "So, got any plans for today?" Paine sat down on her bed and nodded, while rubbing her temples to rid herself of the headache she had received from falling hard onto the ground. "And what would that be?"
"Bevelle," she answered shortly.
"Going to apologize to Baralai?" Yuna's friend looked up at her curiously.
"How'd you-"
"We talked to Gippal earlier, he called looking for you. He told us what happened after that girl attacked," Yuna said.
"How much did he tell you?" Paine asked.
"Just that: you punched Baralai because you two had a fight. He didn't say what it was about."
"Well, no, I'm not going to go apologize to that jerk," Paine said, standing up to face Yuna. "I'm going home."
Paine's old home was nothing but a pile ofdirt, ashand a few bricks. That was something that the warrior had not expected. Although, since she had not been back to this place since she left it ten years ago, running like mad with a sphere recorder in one hand, and Sierra's small hand clutched tightly in the other, she really did not know what to expect.
"It's all gone…" she muttered, stepping up onto the lot. All the furniture, the old sphere screen she and Sierra used to watch all the time, it was all gone. Walking through the area, Paine scanned the ground. That'swhen she saw something sparkling on the ground, covered almost completely by dirt. It was a sphere! No, two of them!
Excitedly, Paine reached down and brushed thedirt off of a blue sphere and a red sphere. "How'd this get by unnoticed?" she asked aloud with a small laugh. The girl remembered putting spheres exactly like these into a pinewood box with a bunch of photos before she left for the last time. The box and the pictures must have been destroyed but the spheres had survived and were still in suprisingly good condition.
Paine picked it up the red one, and quickly turned it on.
"Paine! Put that down, I don't want you to break it." The sphere focused on Rachel, in what looked like an ordinary living room, she was sitting on her couch, with a small girl sleeping in her lap.
"Aw come on Rae, I won't drop it."
"You like that camera, don't you Paine?" Rachel asked the person behind the camera. The young girl holding it giggled.
"Yep! I'm gonna be some kind of recorder some day, maybe for the news!" Rachel laughed.
"I'm sure you will," she said happily. "But until then, that's still my camera and-" suddenly there was a knock on the front door behind the couch and Rachel turned her head to look over her shoulder.
"Open up!" a man roared, pounding on the door. "Bevellian guard!" Rachel picked her daughter off her lap gently and placed her on the other end of the couch, before standing up. "Ms. Nock!"
"Rae…" Paine said slowly.
"Shh!" Rachel hushed her. The older woman stepped up to the door and opened it a crack. A person dressed all in Bevellian armor, with a helmet hiding his face, stood just outside. Rachel just stood there staring at the person before she opened the door completely with a smug look on her face. The guard was completely silent, until of course Rachel kicked him in the crotch.
"OW! Oh, for the love of Yevon!" Paine started laughing really hard, so hard she almost dropped the camera. "What the hell was that for?" the guard asked the violet eyed woman.
"You scared the shit out of me Zeke!" Rachel yelled. "I thought you were a real guard!" The man, who had fallen over in pain, stood up and removed his helmet. He was blond with brown eyes, very handsome. He looked about the same age as Rachel, around 26.
"Hey, I am a real guard," Zeke said. "And I'm going to have to talk to my commander about modifying our equipment. I'm sorry I scared you. But, if you don't mind I've come to stay for a few days, while everyone else thinks I'm in Luca visiting a sick grandmother." Rachelsmiled before hugging the man tightly. "I missed you Rachel," he said softly.
"I'm glad you're here," the woman whispered before letting him go. Zeke then looked towards the camera. Paine quickly put it down somewhere then rushed into view.
"Zeke you're back!" she exclaimed, jumping into the man's waiting arms. He twirled her around a view times, before setting her down again.
"Of course I am, been a while hasn't it Paine. I see you're still in love with that camera." Paine nodded her brown haired head vigorously. Rachel smiled and walked over to the couch again. She leaned over and gently shook her daughter awake.
"Sierra…Sierra wake up…someone is here to see you." Zeke sat down next to the girl.
"Hey baby…" he said quietly, stroking the tiny girl's dirty-blond hair as she woke up and blinked her eyes a few times, rubbing them with her small hands.
"Daddy?" Sierra squeaked, turning her head to look up at him. Paine ran over to the camera, and then she shut it off.
The present-day Paine wiped away a tear from her eye. She leaned down and picked the other sphere up, and placed them both in her pockets. Deciding she would watch the other one later, since she already knew what it contained.
She walked back to the street, and decided to take a walk around the city. Of course it was as crowded as ever.
Paine stopped again in the town square. That was where Rachel had been killed, right in front of her eyes and the eyes of most of Bevelle. "Paine?" The warrior turned around, recognizing the voice. "What brings you to Bevelle?"
"None of your business," she snapped at Baralai. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm on my way to someone's house," he said, "Would you like to come with me?"
"Not really," Paine said. Baralai looked sad, trying to make Paine feel guilty. His friend scowled.
"Paine, please, I don't want to do this alone, too boring," begged the Praetor.
"Fine," Paine sighed.
"Yes!" Baralai almost jumped into the air with happiness. "Oh and…" the smile wiped off his face. "I'm very sorry about what-"
"Let's not talk about it," the girl said irritably. "Just lead the way."
"This is it…I think," said Baralai, looking at a piece of paper in his hand. The house was more like a tiny rundown shack, unlike the nice fancy Bevellian houses on either side of it. It was obvious no one lived there. So why are we here exactly? Paine asked herself. Baralai began walking up the drive and cautiously pushed open the unlocked door. "Coming Paine?" he called over his shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Paine muttered, following him into the house. The inside was just as terrible as the outside, if not worse. A moth-eaten armchair across from a small sphere screen, that was broken. The floor was littered with bottles and cans of beer.
Baralai proceeded through the disgusting hovel, but something to her right caught Paine's eye. It was a door. But instead of like the other ones she could see from her spot, this one had a padlock on it. Walking over to it she examined the lock. "Ha!" she said softly. The lock was not even closed. Removing it she pushed open the door, and gasped. It was a small room, about the size of a closet. The walls were covered with pictures, probably hundreds of them! And all of them were of…Sierra! "Oh…my…" Paine whispered, stepping inside the closet. They started with Sierra when she was small, then suddenly she was around thirteen or fourteen.
Whoever had lived in this house had been stalking the girl. Then Paine suddenly realized they were in the victim's house! That's what Baralai was doing here. "BARALAI!" she yelled. There were footsteps and Baralai appeared behind her.
"What the?"
"Baralai…" Paine said again, "what was the name of the man who was murdered?"
"I don't think I'm permitted to-" Paine turned around and grabbed his coat and brought him close to her face.
"What was his name!" she growled. Baralai was shocked at how angry Paine suddenly looked.
"Uh…Haro, I think,"he said, andPaine's eyes narrowed.
"Haro what!"
"Taka. Haro Taka." Paine let him go suddenly and then pushed him out of the way and stepped out of the closet. "Paine!"
"Ha-ha, now what're ya gonna do ya little freak!"
"Let her down Haro!"
"Oh, it's the rat. Coming to your little friend's rescue again eh?"
"Tell your friends to let her go…"
"Or what! I'm not gonna listen to some little kid! I won't let her go until you call me Mr. Taka and show some respect."
"You can't be serious."
"Boys!"
"Ok fine! I'll do anything, just put her down please!"
That teenager humiliated Paine when she was a child. She hated him! He was always trying to do something to Sierra, but Paine had no idea that he'd grow up stalking her! I wonder what he did after we disappeared. Sierra must have come back to Bevelle when she got older and he must have found her again. What the hell happened to her to make her kill him, if she did kill him…? Baralai pulled Paine out of her thoughts and back to reality, "First you hit me, and then you completely freak out-"
"That man was stalking a child," she told him angrily. Baralai looked at one of the pictures of Sierra as a baby, then as a teen, and ripped the younger picture of her off of the wall. Then he took something out of his coat. He unfolded the picture Kim had given him and compared them. "What is that?" Paine asked.
"Just something I got last night to help with this investigation." Baralai said slowly, not taking his eyes off the two pictures. After a few minutes of comparing he ripped the picture of the older Sierra off the wall as well.
"What are you doing Baralai?"
"I think I might know who did it now," he said. "It's just a theory but..."He showed Paine the picture of the three girls. "I think it could be," She expected him to point to the baby sleeping on Rachel's shoulders, instead he pointed to the 8 year-old in the foreground, "her," he said calmly. Paine just stared at him, trying to keep her face blank.
Oh…shit…