Disclaimer: Same as last chapter. I don't own anything. Just the plot.
Chapter IV
The Note
In Spira, around the time that Paine had met Squall……
"I'm not sure the guys will handle this well," groaned Rikku. She and Yuna had asked Baralai, Gippal, and Nooj to meet them at Youth League HQ. All three wanted to know what this was all about, but Yuna refused to tell them until she could do so in person.
"I agree, but we still need to tell them," letting out a sigh, Yuna walked steadily toward the double doors in front of them. She didn't even need to explain why she was here to the two guards at the doors because they bowed and automatically opened the doors for her.
Rikku and Yuna walked inside, both tried not to look worried, but failed to do so.
"So what's this meetin' for?" asked Gippal, who looked back and forth between the two girls.
Baralai was the next to ask a question. "And where's Paine?"
Both Nooj and Gippal agreed on this. "Yeah, where's Paine?" The self-confident Al Bhed asked Yuna.
"There's no easy way to say this, but," Yuna swallowed her words, not wanting to say them until they looked around some more to at least find some evidence or proof that Paine was not missing. And unfortunately the evidence they had was not looking too good right now. "Paine is missing."
All the guys had shocked looks on their faces. "What are you talkin' 'bout? Paine can't be missin'. We just saw her last night-" Yuna broke off Gippal's sentence.
"She is missing. We had left her to sleep inside Celsius while we visited Besaid, but a storm forced us to stay there," Yuna started to explain in a quiet voice. "And after the storm passed, we went back to Celsius and she was…gone." She had more to say, but she thought that she would let all that sink into the guys before she told them the worst news.
"Then let's go find her! I can get everyone at the Machine Faction to start lookin'. She couldn't have gotten far, and even if she had, we'll have a lot of people lookin' and we can find her in no time."
"Gippal's right. With a lot of people looking, we should have no problem in finding her. I can get a lot of my guards, even all of them, to help look for her." Baralai explained.
"Same here. I'll pitch in some guards also," said Nooj.
Yuna looked sideways at Rikku, who had kept quiet. Rikku gave her a slight nod. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Yuna decided to continue her explaining. "Before you give the order to began searching, you should know something." The worry that now filled the guys faces stopped her from continuing, but she took another deep breath and continued anyway. "Barkeeps says a strong wave hit Celsius and…just a second after that wave hit, he heard glass shattering."
This kept everyone quiet. Rikku decided to at least give everyone some hope. "We can start lookin' right now and it shouldn't be that hard to find her, now that we have a good idea of where she is." She smiled a little, but that smile disappeared when she saw the look on Gippal's face. I hate seeing him like this… It makes me depressed just by looking at him.
"I'll get everyone I can on the search," after that said, Gippal left the room, not saying another word.
With balled up fists, Baralai soon followed Gippal. "I will do the same, also." He told everyone, then left.
Nooj tried to hide the worry in his voice as he spoke, "Rikku is right. It shouldn't take us long now that we have a general idea of where she should be." He knew that since the ocean was the last place that she could possibly be, it would take them a while; the ocean was a big place for one woman to be lost in. I'm sure she's safe somewhere, Nooj told himself, trying to keep him calm. He quietly left the room to start gathering up people for the search.
XxXxX
It was at least three hours after the group started searching the ocean for Paine, and so far, no one found anything. Gippal was pacing back and forth along the shoreline of Besaid.
Where could she be? That storm could've carried her off to anywhere, he couldn't stop himself from thinking these thoughts. He knew he was right. Just ten minutes ago, one of the Al Bhed had come up to tell him that they hadn't had found anything. He did so every ten minutes, and every time, Gippal knew what he was going to say and just hoped that sometime soon the answer would be different.
Nooj and Baralai had their people looking on other shore lines, while Gippal had his looking in the area near Besaid. The Gullwings flew low around in Celsius searching the ocean. News had gotten around fast in Spira about the missing warrior.
An Al Bhed man ran up to Gippal, obviously wanting to deliver a message to him. "Gippal, Nooj fuhtanc ev oui luimt buccepmo lralg Luca vun res cehla ra ec cdemm lralgehk Kilika."
"Oayr, E'mm lralg Luca vun res." Gippal shooed the man off and walked over to the Comsphere. "Hey, Yuna, I've got a favor to ask of you."
"Yeah, what is it?" Yuna appeared in the Comsphere.
"Some Al Bhed and I need a ride to Luca right quick. You can just drop us off there,"
"Sure. We'll be right over. We're not far from you,"
Gippal clicked off the Comsphere for now and picked out four Al Bhed to accompany him to Luca. He wanted to take more, but some still needed to stay here and continue their search.
It was five minutes later before Celsius landed near Besaid, and just a couple minutes later as they loaded up and took off. It didn't take them long to get to Luca, and when they did, Gippal and the four Al Bhed got off of the airship.
Not wasting any time, Gippal told each Al Bhed where to begin their search and to report back to him if they found anything. Gippal himself began to search the actual town of Luca, the others were searching the docks and ocean near Luca.
"Excuse me, Gippal! May I ask you a few questions?" It was the news reporter, Shelinda.
"Yeah, sure." Gippal really didn't feel like talking, but unless he answered just a few questions, that lady would continue bugging him.
"Is it true that the woman named Paine is missing?"
"Yeah, unfortunately, but we hope to find her pretty soon."
"How are you handling this situation? I mean, you and Paine are pretty close friends, right?"
"I'm handling it the same as Nooj and Baralai. We are all worried about her, and hoping that we will find her soon." He ignored her last question, and Shelinda noticed.
"How close are you and Paine, exactly?"
"We are just friends. Besides, what does that question have to do with the search?" He put his hands on the back of his hips.
"Well, uh, it doesn't. But how would you handle it if she was to be found dead?"
This question angered Gippal. "Look, she won't be found dead. We're gonna find her alive and that's that." Turning, he started to leave.
"Well, that's that-"
Shelinda's voice got softer and soon disappeared as he walked into the small crowd of people that usually stayed here in Luca.
We're going to find Paine alive and well --even if it's the last thing I do, he was confident in finding her. Very confident.
XxXxX
Baralai was on the shoreline near Bevelle and had been there for a while now. I can't believe we haven't found anything on her disappearance, and it's been a few hours now, he rubbed his head with one hand. "I hope someone finds something soon." He let out a sigh, his face showed the worry that he felt.
"Praetor!" One of the men on the job of searching ran up to him.
"Yes?"
"I've got good news and bad news."
Baralai was just happy that there was good news. It was like a miracle. "What's the good news?"
"We know where Paine might be, and she's safe and sound."
"If you don't know where she is exactly, how can you know she's safe and sound?"
"By this note," The man held a piece of paper in his left hand.
"What? Let me see that," Baralai took the paper that was handed to him. "'To all who are looking for Paine," He began reading what was on the paper, "'She is safe. For now. I have kidnapped this woman and I will keep her until you bow down to my master's power and surrender your world to her. If you do not do this, I will make sure the woman is no longer part of these worlds. She will be a lifeless body in the ground.'" He had slowed down near the end, trying to find it in him to not believe what was written.
"I'm guessing this is the bad news…" A shiver went down Baralai's spine. "I will deliver this…message to the others immediately." He headed to the Comsphere. "Yuna…"
"Yes, Baralai?"
"Come pick me up, please."
Yuna noticed the worry in his voice. "Okay…"
Nearly thirty minutes later, the Gullwings and the three leaders gathered back up inside Celsius.
"So what'd ya find?" Gippal asked Baralai almost immediately after he had arrived on the airship.
"A note." Baralai remembered what the note had said, word for word.
"What does it say?" Nooj asked the Praetor. Baralai did not read it, but handed the paper to Nooj.
After Nooj had read it, he was silent. He couldn't think of the right words to say. Gippal, on the other hand, knew the right words to say after he read it.
"Dryd cuh uv y pedlr! Ruf tyna ra dyga Paine!" Gippal was furious.
The paper had been passed around and read silently -no one wanted to read it out loud. After a long while of silence, Yuna spoke up. "We'll find her. Even if we have to search all of Spira; we'll find her, alive and well."
XxXxX
In a small house somewhere in Spira……
"Master, the group has found the paper." A man who looked to be in his late thirties, said.
"Good," echoed a woman's voice throughout the entire small room that the man was in. The room had a small bed on the floor along the wall across from the door and clothes and trash was scattered everywhere, covering most of the wood floor.
"What shall I do now, master?" The man asked the voice.
"Wait," the woman told him. The man lowered his head as the room grew dark. A low hiss of wind blew through a window that had been creaked open a couple inches. Light gray smoke trailed into the room much like the wind had done. The thin stream of smoke started to swirl around slowly in front of the gray haired man. As it did so, it got thicker and thicker.
Before him, a woman began to emerge from the smoke. On her face, a thick, dark purple mark started at the hairline and continued diagonally and stopped at a point in-between her eyebrows. Another did the same on the other side. On each mark, the purple continue down on the sides of her face, next to the hairline, and went inward on her cheeks - ending at the corners of her dark purple lips. Dark purple eye-shadow covered her eyelids and connected with the marks on the side of her face. A darker color of purple formed her eyebrows and went upwards, almost connecting with the other marks. Her eyes were a yellowish-green color, and her silver hair ran down the sides of her pale face.
Two thick horns came out of the top of her head and went outwards a bit, then curved up and ended in a sharp point. The base of the horns were yellow, then came a thin line of red, then finally, lavender was the color of the rest of the scaly horns. On the sides of her head - connected to the multi-colored horns - small, dark purple horns swirled around once and then pointed outwards. To finish up the woman's appearance, she wore a dark dress that had a large amount of dark fur attached to the neck line of the clothing.
"Master." Almost immediately after the woman fully formed, the man lowered his head and hands to the now cold floor.
"Until my plans are fully in action, I want you to stay hidden. No one should suspect you of kidnapping her." The woman grinned. "Or so you hope." Taking a step toward the man, she slightly turned her head to the side, that grin stayed glued on her face. "If anyone suspects you, just don't say anything. Better yet, say anything. They kan't stop me." She let out a chuckle.
"Whatever you say, master," the man was like a mindless slave, his voice monotone.
XxXxX
In Besaid, later that night……
Everyone else had went to their separate homes, but Yuna stayed up and stared into a burning fire in the middle of Besaid.
"She wouldn't want you to worry about her."
Yuna turned her head to look at the person who sat down beside her. "I know, Tidus, but how can I not worry about her? Some person out there is holding her hostage." She remembered back to what the note had said. "Are we just supposed tell everyone to surrender to this unknown person? How can we get her back?"
"We search every place in Spira 'til we find her. Who says we have to surrender to this person? They could just be bluffing. Ya never know." The blond wrapped an arm around her. "Don't you worry. We'll find her."
"I hope so." Yuna laid her head on his shoulder. "I hope she's alright…"
"She's Paine, and she would never let someone even touch her, so if they kidnapped her, we should probably feel worried for them instead of Paine."
She let out a small chuckle. "You're right." Letting her eyes close, she sighed.
Tidus rubbed her arm a bit and leaned his head against hers. "Don't you worry. We'll find her."
