Hello my dear readers, it's been a week I know. I'll probably be updating in weekly doses because I have a ton of papers to write, and novels to read, and a story to hash out in less than week. So my creative juices will be sucked up by everything else. Thank you so so much Black Eyed Mistress. Your reviews were amazing! And don't worry, there's a lot of Gippal goodness to come. I'm sorry if there's any confusion with the chapters. It'll be a bit like that, because you won't get the whole picture in one chapter. : )

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Chasm

Five hours—she knew she should have preoccupied herself in a better way, and several times she thought of walking over to the senate building, but she could not and would not expose herself like that. She had to trust Baralai—no—she had to hope that he would do as he promised and somehow delay the imminent collapse of the Den of Woe, and allow her to have the spheres. Five hours to fret and nothing to do, and several times she mused whether to head north to visit the other parishes that made up Bevelle, but each time she would reject the notion. There was no way she would wander deeper into Bevelle without so much as an escort, or a wig, and maybe one of those curtain-robes.

One of those hours was spent meandering from shop to shop, glaring at a pair boots she could decidedly not afford, and several racks of Bevellian dresses, a few of which she picked up and held against her body in front of a mirror. They caused ripples of comical images in her mind, followed by her own laughter and, consequently, the reproachful looks of the retailers who knew that she was not there to buy anything.

Three hours were spent in the library. She picked up a book from the methodology section, which she found drier than the current heat of Bevelle. She put it down and opted for something else, a recounting of some mythological story of a war that supposedly occurred two thousand years ago. However, around page twenty, Rikku realized that she couldn't read for leisure, because it required staying put for too long, and she was too uneasy to begin with. She decided to leave the library for certain when she dropped three books trying to put hers back, and the sound of her slight accident echoed to every ear in the library causing another set of reproachful expressions and a scoff from some young woman at a desk, who muttered under her breath "stupid."

So before noon, she sat the lobby of the inn, waiting for Baralai to show up, who had promised to meet her at his lunch hour, after the meeting was over. As it neared half past twelve, she left the building, too anxious to wait for him inside. Her heart nearly rose in her throat when she saw his outline in the distance, the handsome dark of his skin glistening under the sun, and as soon as she could make it out the smile on his face, her tension eased, gaining the courage to run toward him.

"So?" was her nervous greeting.

"All right," Baralai said to her. "I convinced Nooj that the Machine Faction will need a couple of weeks for planning and that since you were in Bevelle, there was no better person to hand the spheres to Gippal than you. I've bought you some time, but I'm afraid Nooj already informed Gippal about it."

Rikku simply stared, absorbing all the information, and then she embraced him, jumping excitedly. "Oh you did it, you did it!"

"We'll have to tell Gippal something regarding why you need to hold on to the spheres for bit," Baralai added still hesitant of her sudden celebration. She released him and met his serious stare with a smile.

"Oh, don't worry about that! I'll take care of it, no problem." She winked, and he shook his head with a light laugh.

"Well, I suppose so. Oh, Yuna called, and thankfully I answered. I told her I hadn't seen you since yesterday, which was the truth."

Rikku grimaced. "She gave you a lecture, didn't she?"

"Actually, I told her I had a meeting and kind of," he paused and swayed his head to the side, "err, cut her off." Rikku laughed at his mischievous frown, and then his boyish shrug that automatically unthreaded that Yevonite uptightness she had expected from him. Rikku couldn't have mustered a better plan, and she would have never succeeded at tricking Nooj. If she thought Baralai would be uptight, then Nooj would be unmanageable, and she would have probably been right about the latter. It was so much better that Baralai had handled everything.

"Rikku," he said as the mood turned somber. "I know I don't have to warn you about the dangers of that place, but be careful. There have been some rumors of someone wandering around there, causing some problems to travelers of Mushroom Rockroad." The way he stared at her so intently, brow tensed and jaw tightened, took her a little aback, but as if he noticed this, he added, "Yuna will have my head if something happens to you." Rikku grinned.

"Don't worry. There will be no decapitation on my behalf." She took the small bag of spheres and placed it in her travel pack. She planned to set out right away, and Baralai was too busy to bother him anymore. "By the way," she said as she slung her pack over her shoulder, "do you usually lie to the leaders of Spira like that?" The tension in his eyes eased, and he shook his head at her.

"Look who's talking. Besides, if Nooj knew," he paused, "well, he's Nooj," he said his eyebrows slightly raised and boyish smile on his face. "But, are you setting out right now?" Rikku nodded. "No, that's no good." He grabbed her arm and led her out of the inn. "We'll have lunch, get you provisions, and then you can set out."

After packing her things, having lunch with him, and being supplied with some provisions (thanks to Hella), she gave her thanks and said goodbye to him. She headed south, encountering a few fiends and some people she knew, and avoiding occasional comm. sphere calls from Yuna at the inns she stopped at. After a week of travel by foot—unwilling to pay Brother again and fearing he might have been suckered in by Yuna—she finally reached the Djose Highroad, which would lead her directly to the temple.

Rikku had never thought twice of defining herself as an Al Bhed. Before the eternal calm ever came, when people looked at her all they saw was an Al Bhed. She was the image of the blonde desert-dwellers, the machina exploiters and the unfaithful of Yevon. That is what her lush verdant eyes and their black swirled pupils stood for. That is what her skin tone combined with her light blonde hair stood for. That is what her clothes, those synthetic anti-inflammable mechanic suits, stood for. If she ever exited her circle, she ceased being the 'princess of the Al Bhed,' daughter of the leader that united them after the Great Dispersal, and instead became a symbol of everything that was wrong with Spira. She had been used to that, but she knew that back at Bikanel with other Al Bhed, they would know her and she would know herself. By the their tone or their accent, she'd be able to tell if they came from the desert like her or an island, or north from the mainland. By their clothes, she would know what they did. Whether they worked under water as scouts, or as diggers, mechanics, riders, or developers.

In Bevelle, she could tell from people's stares that they knew she was an outsider and that they knew she didn't belong in the city. Her garments, her mannerisms and even her walk were all different. She had wanted to disappear until Baralai met with her, but even then, noting his dark skin tone, his soft silver hair—not marred by the harsh sun of the desert like hers—and the thick colorful layers of his clothing, she felt alien.

When she entered Djose, she expected it to be an extension of the desert and her old home. She expected to find herself in territory she understood and would be comfortable in. This place she could handle, she had told Baralai. But when she entered, she found herself lost. All the faces looked the same and all the words sounded similar. She couldn't tell any of them apart, and she couldn't tell herself apart from them, save for the sudden awkwardness she felt by being in there.

It would have been easier to stop and ask someone where Gippal was at, but instead, she wandered the familiar halls, blending in as an unquestionable presence, and at the same, standing out as someone that didn't rightfully belong there. Some, she thought, may have even recognized her, but they said nothing and let her dwell as she wished. Finally, she heard Gippal's voice, echoing from deep into the temple in one of the rooms that used to be the priests' quarters.

She peered into the room and found him there, busy talking with Nhadala about papers and blueprints. She had caught them in the middle of their discussion about the progress of the reverse-engineering of the meta-racer. Nhadala was going back to Bikanel soon to start on a new project and didn't have time to baby-sit anyone anymore. Dread arose in her, and her cheeks colored slightly. She didn't know whether it was from embarrassment at the prospect of meeting her again or because she was still angry at the woman for having the guts to even insinuate that Rikku might be burnt out.

She was too deep into her thoughts, rehearsing what she would say, to realize the warning coming from the person behind her. A young Al Bhed man pushed a cart, tugging a large machine into her, which forced her to step into the room unannounced.

"Rikku?" Nhadala said with a tone of surprise. The boy tugging the machine yelled an apology and continued lugging the bulky contraption through the hall.

"Hey there." Rikku waved awkwardly, and Gippal instantly rose up with a smile.

"Cid's girl, it's about time," he said and motioned Rikku to sit in a makeshift metal chair next to Nhadala. His office was crowded with metal tables filled with trinkets, papers and tools. The multicolored Yevonite designs were fading, and a few brown rust stains were visible on the stone walls where blueprints and machina designs weren't covering them.

"What are you up to?" Nhadala asked with a curious smirk. Rikku would have smacked it from her face, except for the fact that she didn't have the energy, and indifference was better tool to use against Nhadala anyway. Despite the fact the woman always said she was too busy for nonsense, she always liked a good dramatic scene. Rikku wasn't willing to comply.

"She's here to help on a mission from a high council in Bevelle," Gippal answered before she could. "Isn't that right?" He turned to her, his eye gleaming with a shrewd expression. She took advantage of whatever he was trying to do.

"Yup! I was hired on a mission by Baralai and Nooj." It was only a small lie. She was more like a small time messenger with her own pretexts, but that sounded a lot less important and glamorous.

"Hmm, that's good then," she said in a coaxing tone. "I'm glad for you." Even though Rikku glared at the woman, she was still able to spot Gippal rolling his eye at Nhadala.

"Well, I think we're done." Gippal cut short Nhadala's scrutinizing glare. "You can leave as soon as that last team is done with the transference."

"Excellent," Nhadala answered still staring at Rikku with a dignified smirk. "Good luck on your mission," she said to Rikku and waved indifferently to Gippal.

"She's fucking insufferable," he slurred in Al Bhed. Rikku noted the familiar desert accent and smiled. She wasn't sure if he knew how much he had helped her, but she didn't want to give him the pleasure. "Typical," he added under his breath.

"What?" Rikku raised an eyebrow at his last comment. He always did this. He would do something nice for her and then ruin it with that big, brute mouth of his.

"Huh?" he asked, puzzled.

"What do you mean typical?" Rikku glared at the man, who had dropped a paper, then quickly picked it up.

"Oh you know, typical Al Bhed woman: bitchy and bossy," he said placing the paper back on his desk.

"Excuse me?" Rikku glared at him, and he fully turned to her as if realizing her part in the conversation for the first time.

"Oh, no offense and all." He dismissed it with a wave of the hand, but Rikku wasn't ready to let him off so easy.

"What, you forgot I was a woman?" She should have never said that, because it incited a reaction no woman would want. His gaze fell instinctively on her chest, and he shook his head.

"Nope, not possible." She immediately stood up and gave him a contemptuous look as she folded her arms over her chest. He simply smirked, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. His eye scanned her from top to bottom.

"You're sick. I liked you so much better when you were eight." She rolled her eyes. His smirk changed to a smile, the kind of smile that resulted from some small comfort in the past.

"My apologies, my lady," he said with an overdramatic bow. Rikku simply rolled her eyes. "So, you got the spheres then? Are you going to be part of the demolition?" He sat up again and removed some papers from atop a touch-screen sphere embedded in his desk.

"Right, about that—I'll be keeping them for a week, okay? Good." She turned to leave, but he raised his gaze from the screen to her.

"What?" he glared curiously at her. She turned around with a politician's smile on her lips.

"Well, you need time to plan out the demolitions, and they've given you two weeks for that, so there's no harm if I keep them for a week," she explained and turned to leave again.

"Hold up," he said; she froze, and he came toward her and slid between her and the door. "What are you going to do with them?" his eye inspected her closely. She grew flushed in his presence, heart pounding and the anxiety quickly rising to her brain, disallowing her any logical explanation other than the truth.

"I'mgoingtocampoutatthedenofwoe," she muttered under her breath. He scratched his head and asked her to repeat it. "I said," she spoke clearly this time, "I'm going to camp out at the Den of Woe."

The mention of the cave changed his expression entirely. His brow tensed and his lips became terse. He walked away from her, staring off to the wall as he walked behind his desk.

"So that's what it was about," he murmured, and she slowly turned her body to face him.

"What?" She asked alarmed. She didn't realize then what she should have known that he knew the minute she saw Nhadala in her office.

"You think that's going to solve anything?" he asked with an amused expression on his brow, leaning back on his office chair and glaring at her with that narrowed eye of his.

"It's none of your business, really," she said sternly. Not even her father had command on her, and she wasn't about to let some pretty-boy boss her around.

"Fine, you do whatever you want," he said after a long pause. "But first, since you don't seem to actually be engaged in anything important like the rest of us," he mentioned this as a jab, "I need an extra pair of hands now that Nhadala's unit is leaving. You're Cid's girl, so you outta know something."

"Of course I know something," Rikku answered indignantly. "I know a lot, thank you! Just put me to the test and you'll see."

"Fine, offered accepted," he smirked and that was when she realized she had been tricked, but she was interrupted before she could retract her coerced agreement into the situation.

"Oh I thought that militant pedlr would never leave. I swear," a tall, svelte woman said as she entered Gippal's office, but stopped as soon as she saw Rikku. "Oh, company." Gippal laughed.

"Don't worry, Leila. Rikku's not in the Nhadala fan club either," Gippal said. Rikku simply stared at the beautiful brunette a little intimidated by her observant stare. What was with everybody eyeing her closely today?

"The Rikku?" Leila cocked her head to the side. Her large, brilliant eyes gleamed with curiosity.

"Yes, the very same, Lady Rikku, princess of the Al Bhed," Gippal said dramatically, and Rikku went over to him and gave him a light punch in the stomach for trying to embarrass her like that.

"Hey! That's turning into a bad habit, you know," he muttered and Leila laughed.

"I like her," she said to Gippal with an amused smirk.

"Well great, then you can buddy up and show her around the place. She'll be working on the meta-racer once Nhadala leaves today." Gippal glared at both of them and then with a scurry motion of his hands, he demanded that they leave. He was too busy, he told them. Leila tilted her head to side, asking Rikku to follow her.

"What an ass," Rikku muttered and then realized that he was Leila's boss, and unfortunately, her own boss too. She hated admitting that one more than when she worked for Nhadala.

"I know, he's positively charming," Leila added sarcastically. They roamed the halls as Leila introduced 'Lady Rikku'—she looked quite amused when she said that—to all the workers, while the stumbled a greeting or wiped their greasy hands to meet hers. Some of them admitted they noticed her come in with much delight, while the very shy ones, just resumed their work after a polite hello.

Rikku supposed it was only natural that they would run into Nhadala as she headed out of the temple with her team of mechanics. Nhadala and Leila exchanged what Rikku felt to be cynical glares.

"So Rikku, I'm glad I was able to see you before I go off again into the expeditions. What kind of mission are you on?" Nhadala said, and Rikku glared at her.

"Oh, the demolition of the Den of Woe, but that won't happen for two more weeks," Rikku said.

"Yes, that's right, and while she waits, she'll be taking over your job. It seems she's quite qualified to figure out that meta-racer engine," Leila added with a condescending tone. "Come along, Lady Rikku, since the VIP room is now empty, you can stay there." One of Nhadala's eyes twitched, and Leila just smirked. "Have a lovely trip back to that old ship of yours." She cocked her head to the side and waved before leading Rikku down the hall. Rikku couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm so glad you don't like her either," she said between chuckles.

"Oh, I hate authoritarian figures. They bore me to death," Leila said, shaking her head and laughing a little too. Rikku felt an unspoken camaraderie with Leila, which would definitely make the next few days she was forced to spend working for Gippal much easier.

Despite Gippal, Djose wasn't so bad after all.