Ok people, sorry it's taken so long. Personal problems...(sigh). Oh well, everybody's got them. :) I'm sorry if this chapter isn't long, or like...good...or anything...But I'm working on some other non-fan fiction related stuff as well as trying to deal with my friends. So during this short break from all that today I decided to write the chapter and post it so I don't forget to do it. So here it is...after months of procrastination! Woo...
Paine ran out of the dirty shack, and then she hurried to find the nearest comsphere, which was many blocks away, and then she quickly called the Celsius. "Shinra, I need you to pick me up," she told the little boy frantically.
"Paine, I'm sorry but everyone is shopping in Luca, we're docked here. We can't pick you up for about an hour or two," said Shinra solemnly.
"Well can you please get a hold of Gippal and tell him that I need him to come here to get me?" Paine asked. She looked around to see where she was exactly. She saw a café and told Shinra its name. "I'll be there, got it?"
"Of course," said Shinra, "I'll tell him." The connection was severed from his end, and Paine sat back on her heels. Shinra seemed to get along with Paine much better then he did with any other Gullwing. It was certainly that way for her, most of the time. He was like a little brother to her, but sometimes it made her sad thinking about him that way...
Paine walked into the café and sat down at a table next to a window. After about ten minutes she still remained slumped in her chair, drumming her fingers on the table and staring out the window. How could he think I did it...sure, he doesn't know it was me...but...Wouldn't Sierra be the first suspect? Before Paine had hurried out of the house she had presented her question to Baralai. He merely stared at her blankly, before he began to explain his 'professional' opinion. He had been told that the brown haired girl (aka: Paine) was the other girl's (aka: Sierra's) sister. "If your sister had been stalked, wouldn't you want to do something about it?" he had asked her. Apparently he believed that all Alchemists were violent. And that the brown haired girl was probably especially temperamental, having had her mother killed by a Yevonite like Haro Taka so of course she would want revenge, and Haro apparently posed the perfect target since he was stalking her sister.
Paine had needed to use extreme self-control to stop herself from rolling around laughing at his pathetic theory. None of it was true at all. Paine wasnot Sierra's biological sister; her relation to the girl was her business. Paine's real mother had been killed when she was two months old, not eight years old, and had been killed by Sin and not Yevonites.
The door to the café opened, a bell ringing above the door to signal to the workers of the arrival of customer. Paine looked up, and smiled once she saw her fellow former Crimson Squad candidate. Gippal spotted her and came to sit down at the table across from her. "Took you long enough," said Paine in mock anger.
"I was in the middle of something," said Gippal. "I do run an entire Faction, in case you haven't noticed."
"Whoa, sorry," said Paine. "Slightly touchy this afternoon, are we?" It was like a complete personality swap. Paine was the one with the smug smile and Gippal looked like he had been stomped on by a Shoopuf.
"You're friend is...an interesting chick," said Gippal tiredly.
"Yes she is," Paine laughed. "What did she do?"
"She likes to talk," Gippal replied. He explained to Paine how the minute Crystal stepped inside Djose Temple to the minute she went to bed hours later, she had not stopped talking. Sure Gippal was curious about her story, at first, but after a while it became one: just a little boring and two: very, very confusing. And once she had finished it she still had not stopped talking, she simply found random topics to annoy him with.
"But she is safe?" Paine asked, needing reassurance. Gippal nodded. "Good..."
"Now what is your big problem?" asked the eye patch wearing young blond. "The kid said you sounded a bit upset."
"Baralai...it's just Baralai. He thinks that I murdered someone...but he doesn't know that the person he suspects is actually me. I know it sounds weird..." and she then told him everything about her trip to the deceased man's house.
"Sierra was stalked?" he gasped. "Well I bet that that man did something really bad. She probably had no choice but to kill him."
"She's so weak and scared," said Paine. "I saw it in her eyes when we met in the forest. She was scared of Yuna, Tidus and Rikku...and even of me!" she said, her voice cracking a little. Gippal put his gloved hands over one of her gloved ones instinctively.
"Paine," he said her name softly, "she didn't recognize you."
"I don't want her scared of me...and now she's out in the forest, alone and I..." Paine looked hysterical as she said basically the same thing over and over again. Gippal, no matter how he tried, just could not get through to her. So he pushed his chair over as he stood up and then knelt down next to hers, taking her face in his free hand and forcing her to look him in the eye.
"Calm down!" he commanded. Paine snapped out of it almost immediately. "Come on Dr. P, you're supposed to be the calm one, I'm the one who always screws up. Don't go all emotional on me now." He wiped the tears that had just begun to fall away. She nodded.
"Ok..." she whispered. "Thanks Gippal."
"No problem, that's what we amazingly good-looking best friends are for," said Gippal, flashing his cocky grin. She smiled and slapped his hand gently away from its resting place on her cheek. The two laughed, and Paine's eyes traveled up, to look past the Faction Leader. Her eyes widened immediately.
"Paine, I've been looking all over for you, you just ran off without a word," said the young white-haired man standing feet away. Baralai had come in without the two friends realizing. "You really had me worried." Gippal looked over his shoulder, taking his hand off of Paine's finally.
"Oh hey 'Lai," he said, waving. He glanced between Paine's shocked face and Baralai's much to calm one. He had an obviously fake smile plastered on it. And Gippal knew why.
"I'm surprised to see you here Gippal," said Baralai.
"I was uh...in the neighborhood, and I saw Paine through the window and now...I am going over there!" and Gippal ran off towards a door that Paine assumed led to the bathroom. All the pain that her friend had briefly chased away came back to her as Baralai picked up Gippal's chair and sat in it himself. What is he following me now? Paine asked herself, not making eye contact with the man.
"Was I interrupting something?" Baralai asked bitterly.
"Don't...Baralai, just stop it," snapped the warrior. "You know that there is nothing going on between me and Gippal! He is just, unlike you apparently, a good friend."
"Me? You're the one who started this! You punch me, you yell at me, andnow you run off when I need your help! You're mad at me and you have no reason to be! What did I do wrong?" The two both found themselves standing up.
"Everything!" Paine yelled, not knowing what she was saying. "Stop acting like you're always right! Have you ever thought you might be wrong about some things?"
Gippal was standing with his hand on the doorknob to the bathroom. The two people yelling had caught his attention as well as the attention of everyone else in the building. "Apparently!" said Baralai angrily.
"Oh really, well I'm glad you've finally realized that!"
"Yeah, me too! And do you know what I've realized?"
"WHAT?"
"I've realized that you're completely insane!" Paine's jaw dropped and Gippal groaned loudly, shaking his head. Insulting the young woman always led to one of three things. They were:Paine storming out of the room; her backhanding her insulter across the face; or she did both very, very quickly. She chose this time to hit him...again.
Everyone in the room was shocked to see their Praetor get slapped. Paine looked at Gippal and gave him a gesture that meant they should leave now. Baralai's fists were clenched as she bypassed him, knocking his shoulder with her own. The bell rang loudly as Paine wrenched the door open. As she slammed it shut she knocked it so hard that it clanged a few times before coming clean off the wall and clattering to the floor.
Gippal looked back at Baralai. "You really are an idiot," he mumbled.
"I didn't do anything," Baralai defended himself. "She's hiding something from me...isn't she?" he asked, having suspected all along. He knew that if anyone knew it was Gippal. Even if he didn't look like it, Gippal could keep a secret.
"She's just having a rough time ok?"
"Well I want to help her!" said Baralai.
"Dude, if what you're doing is trying to help her...then you totally suck at helping people...especially when that person is the girl youreally like," said Gippal. The man left the café as well, leaving Baralai angry and confused in his wake.
"I just can't believe that jerk!"
"Ok..."
"He's such a total idiot!"
"Yeah...I get it Paine-"
"And he keeps following me everywhere and its just so...ugh!"
"Paine!" Crystal yelled, causing Paine to stop pacing. "Shut up!" Gippal had dozed off in his chair and woke with a start. Paine had arrived at Djose and immediately ran to Gippal's office, where Crystal was waiting for her, reading a magazine. By the time Gippal had arrived in the room Paine had beganventing her anger towards Baralai, and Crystal had gone back to reading her magazine, occasionally muttering 'Ok...' or something like that. Gippal had never knew Paine to talk so much or so openly about her life. "Please...just take a deep breath and calm yourself."
"Look who's talking," muttered Gippal. Paine sighed deeply, crossing her arms the way she always did. She looked away from Crystal who was standing and leaning against the door.
"There is nothing you can do really," said Crystal. "If you told him he was wrong, he would ask you why...and if you didn't answer correctly then he'd keep bombing you with questions. It's better that you kept your mouth shut."
"Well even though I didn't...eventually he's going to find out that it's me in that picture you too! You just had to take that picture, didn't you..."
"Well that's going to take a very long time," said Crystal knowingly, "so for now just relax. And yes I had to take the picture."
"I think the first thing we should do is find Sierra, before Baralai does," said Gippal. "Who agrees?"
Paine raised her hand slightly in agreement, and Crystal nodded her head. "Definitely," Paine muttered. "If we aren't too late..."
"You really need to work on your attitude."
"That's what I tell her all the time!"
"Shut up, both of you."
Sierra had ventured out of her small little room, ignoring her growling stomach. There were only two other doors in the larger room, each on opposite sides of the room. One she knew led to the outside world. She knew from the word 'Praetor' that she was back in Bevelle. When she was thirteen she had left her job and home at the Thunder Plains Travel Agency and returned to Bevelle, the place she knew was her hometown. After two years, when she thought she was really adapting to life in Bevelle, it all went wrong. And now here she was...kidnapped.
The girl wanted to know what was behind the other door. She quickly but silently went over to it, and pushed. It was unlocked and opened with a creek. Sierra gasped. This room was completely different from the other two. It looked like a small apartment. There was another room that she could see led to a bathroom, there was a closet as well. A couch, a large sphere screen, and another closed door that she assumed led to the bedroom. There was even a mini kitchen type thing in one corner of the room. Also there was a mantel with pictures on it, and a large cabinet.
It was the cabinet that drew Sierra's attention. She walked over to it and saw there was a key placed in a keyhole. She turned the key and then opened it. "Wow..." It was full of spheres. There had to be at least twenty of them on shelves. Sierra pulled out the two drawers close to the floor, where even more spheres lay. They were all labeled, and seemed to be divided between Movie Spheres and those that were actually recorded by a camera. She picked up a few of both types and looked at their labels. They were: Ayame's 16th birthday, Pool Party, Sayuri & Auron's First Date, and Rachel's Most Embarrassing Moment. She was so tempted to watch the last one, but knew that would be a bad thing to do... So the girl replaced the spheres where she found them, and closed the closet, locking it.
Sierra suddenly felt tired, and yawned, covering her mouth. Her eyes traveled to the bedroom door. She really shouldn't...but she had not had a comfortable sleep for a long time. Her feet began dragging her towards the door, and she opened it. It was in fact a furnished bedroom, a small ceiling fan turning slowly, keeping the room cool. The large queen-sized bed looked so inviting in the dim lighting of the room.
She collapsed onto it. The pillows were soft and the mattress was so comfortable. Almost immediately the tired teenage girl was asleep.
The white haired woman walked into her lab, a plate of food in her hand. She was gnawing absentmindedly on a carrot from the plate. But she almost dropped it when she saw that her door was open. She looked to the room where Sierra was being held, and found its door ajar as well.
She stormed across the large room and into her living room. Ready to yell at the girl but she stopped again, mouth open. Sierra was not in the room. Sneaking towards her bedroom she looked inside.
Sierra was snoozing away on the bed. The woman's cold green eyes softened upon seeing her there. She looked down at her plate full of food. There was still a lot of food left on it. Glancing back at her prisoner she walked over to the bedside and placed it on the table next to it. Sierra had apparently not eaten in a long time, and the woman was so busy she had forgotten to at least feed her.
Sierra shivered at that moment. So the woman reached under her bed and pulled out a blanket, and gently placed it over her, making sure to cover her bare feet.
"Ayame, you are such a sap..." she told herself quietly. Straightening up she walked back to the door. Again she looked back at Sierra. "You look so much like your mother..." she whispered, with a hint of sadness in her voice. "But don't think that changes anything." Then she walked out, turning off the light and closing the door gently behind her.