Disclaimer: The plot belongs to me. Nothing else.
A/N: Okay, some of the Al Bhed is translated at the end of this chapter.
Chapter VI
The Storm Only Brings Trouble
Though the Great Waters sleep,
That they are still Deep,
We cannot doubt
No Vacillating God
Ignited this Abode
To put it out- -Emily Dickinson
XxXxX
"Gippal! Gippal! Frana'c Gippal!" The voice of an Al Bhed came to Gippal's ears, waking up the young man.
"Huh? Fru'c lymmehk so hysa?" He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eye. "Fryd desa ec ed?" He asked no one in-particular. Letting a yawn escape his mouth, he slowly stood up and decided to see who was calling his name.
"Gippal! Frana yna oui?" An Al Bhed man, taller than Gippal, almost ran right into him as he came out of his room inside Djose Temple.
"Frad'c dra syddan? Fro yna oui lymmehk vun sa?" Gippal asked the other Al Bhed, who was out of breath.
"E…ryja…pyt hafc…vun oui…" The taller Al Bhed said in-between breaths.
This woke Gippal up fully. "Fryd!" Immediately thinking the bad news was about Paine, Gippal thought his heart had just about stopped.
"Drana ec y…" The Al Bhed tried to catch his breath before he continued, but Gippal was getting impatient.
"Drana ec y fryd?"
"Drana ec y cdnyhka cduns nekrd uidceta Kilika Island."
"Yhd fryd ec cu sdnyhka ypuid drec cduns?" Gippal asked, curious.
"Ed ec zicd caddehk drana uidceta Kilika."
"Dryd ec sdnyhka…" Gippal tilted his head to the side and scratched the back of his neck, keeping his eye lowered. "E'mm damm Yuna ypuid drec. Gaab yh aoa uh dryd cduns, ugyo?"
"Ugyo." With that said, the Al Bhed turned and ran off.
Gippal walked over to the Comsphere. "Hey, Yuna, you there?"
"Yep, I'm here!" Yuna appeared in the Comsphere. "Whatcha need?"
"To tell you about something. I was just told about a strange storm that was right outside Kilika Island, probably a few miles from the actual town."
"Okay, but what's so strange about it?"
"It's just sitting there outside Kilika."
"Just…sitting?"
"Yeah, so I want you to be careful out there on Celcius."
"Don't you worry. We'll be extra careful!"
Gippal nodded and turned off the Comsphere. Maybe I should warn Baralai and Nooj too… He turned back on the Comsphere and chose the destination Bevelle. "Hey, get Baralai for me, will ya?"
"Yes, sir!" The guard quickly ran out of view of Gippal and shortly afterwards Baralai showed up.
XxXxX
"Yes, Gippal? What is it?" Baralai asked the young Al Bhed through the Comsphere.
"Uh, there seems to be this strange storm outside of Kilika, so if you have any men there, I suggest you warn them about it -IF they don't know about it already."
He nodded. "Okay. Has anyone found anything on Paine over there?"
"Nah, not yet. We were thinkin' 'bout just lookin' in each individual house, but we've gotta get together later to come up with a good plan."
"Around what time later, exactly?"
"Oooh, probably after lunch."
"Okay then. Nooj's headquarters, I suppose?"
"Yup, see ya then, Baralai!"
With a click of the Comsphere, Baralai turned it off and stretched. I do hope you are all right, Paine… I'd hate for something to happen to you. We all would, he yawned as he walked outside into the fresh, cool air. A slight breeze blew through his hair. "I would like you to get word to the men in Kilika about a storm right outside their position." He told one of the guards outside the building.
"Yes, sir." The guard saluted and ran off.
A strange storm? I forgot to ask Gippal why he thought it was a strange storm… High winds, maybe? He shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe I should ask him." Turned around, he walked back inside. Those Comspheres were becoming very handy. He flipped on the switch and chose the destination Djose Temple.
"Oac?"
"Oh, um, Gippal? Is he there?"
"Gippal?" It was another Al Bhed, one who was dressed in the usual clothes for Al Bheds: a jump suit and goggles. "Ah, Gippal mavd y vaf sehidac yku."
Baralai only knew a couple words in Al Bhed, but never really fully learned the language.
"He says that he left just a few minutes ago," Translated an Al Bhed woman who had come up behind the other Al Bhed.
"Oh, thank you."
"Sorry about that. He doesn't know Spirian."
"That's okay. Thank you again."
"No problem."
He clicked off that view and went to Youth League Headquarters. "Nooj?"
"Yes, Baralai?" Nooj walked into view.
"Did Gippal tell you about the 'strange storm'?"
"Yes, he did. Why?"
"Did he say why it was strange?" The Praetor asked his good friend.
"No, not really. Before I could ask, he was gone. Sounded like he was in a hurry."
"Okay, thanks anyway." After saying goodbye, both Baralai and Nooj turned off the Comspheres.
XxXxX
"A strange storm, huh? What's so strange about it?" asked Rikku.
"He said that it was just sitting out there a few miles away from Kilika Island." Yuna answered.
"And he's right." Shinra spoke up. "I've never seen a storm like this before. Look at the wind speed," He pointed at the screen of his computer. "That's too fast for a normal storm. Besides that, it's not even moving and has been like that ever since early this morning."
"What's causing it to act like that?" Yuna walked up behind the boy.
"I'm just a kid."
Rikku made a face. "We know you're just a kid. Why can't you answer us?"
"Rikku behave!" Brother jumped up from his driver's seat and stepped in front of Rikku. "No yelling in this ship."
"I wasn't yelling!"
"You were too!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Were too!"
"Kids, calm down now." Buddy stepped in-between the two. "Things have gotten hectic ever since Paine left, so don't go making things worse."
"Rikku cdyndat ed."
"Tet hud!"
"Here we go again." Buddy sighed.
Suddenly, the alarm system went off. Buddy and Brother went back to their stations.
"It's the storm! It's comin' right at us!" Buddy explained to the others.
Brother, being the one who was the pilot, immediately took off auto-pilot and began steering the airship on his own.
"The storm from Kilika?"
Rikku was the one who answered Yuna's question from her seat. "Yep. It just started to come near us!"
"And it's moving at incredible speed!" exclaimed Buddy.
Having Brother doing the driving, Yuna felt she was in safe hands. Brother knew how to handle the airship.
"Rumt uhdu cusadrehk!"
Taking Brother's advice, Yuna held onto the back of Rikku's seat. She felt the airship beneath her feet rise higher into the air. Brother must be trying to fly over the storm, she thought as she watched out of the window in front of her.
A bright flash of lightning lit up the sky like the fourth of July. The thunder boomed loudly, causing the houses down on Spira to shake. The airship, Celcius, flew high into the sky and tried to fly over the storm. Celcius continued to fly, and the storm continued to rise; the deadly storm did not want the airship to get away from it and so it followed her.
The storm started to pull the airship in, making it almost impossible for Celcius to fly upwards anymore. Celcius was dragged downwards towards the threatening waves of the deep ocean. One wave after another, they tried to hit the flying machina, failing to do so each time. Brother wasn't about to let some stupid storm take the airship him and Buddy worked so hard into finding and fixing. He flew the airship a couple hundred feet above the ocean, dodging each wave that threatened to take them down. Celcius picked up speed quickly, and before they knew it, the waves were behind them and they were out of the danger zone.
A huge wave that could easily wipe out Kilika and Besaid Island in one shot if they were side-by-side came into view of the passengers of Celcius. That wave being in front of them and at least several thousand yards long, and the main storm (or what they had thought the main storm was) being behind them, they really didn't have that many choices on where to go -if any at all.
Celcius quickly turned around and flew in the other direction. The wave was literally chasing them, something that a normal wave did not do. It was like it had a mind of its own, or it was being controlled by something or someone that obviously wanted the group inside Celcius dead.
Knowing that they had to get out, Brother sped Celcius up even more in the direction of the main storm. As if the ocean knew what they were doing, another wave the exact size of the other came into view; this one was ahead of them.
"Rumt uhdu cusadrehk!" Brother repeated, his order barely being heard over the sound of the storm.
Before anyone barely had time to react, Celcius flew upwards in a straight line. With both waves at the same distance as each other -or so he guessed-, Brother figured he had enough time to fly upwards and out of the storm. Taking that chance, he continued to fly upwards.
"Cred!" Brother bit his lower lip.
"Fryd ec ed?" asked Rikku.
"Fa yna muf uh viam."
Yuna, understanding Al Bhed, quickly knew what he had just said and why he sounded so worried. They were almost out of fuel.
"Tu fa ryja ahuikr du kad ic uid uv rana?"
"E tuh'd ghuf," answered Brother.
Everyone still held onto their seats as Brother sped up Celcius to try and get them out of this situation. The waves came closer and closer to them at full speed… They came to a sudden stop. The airship started going downwards at amazing speed --like someone was pulling them down. Screaming could be heard on the inside.
A giant hand made of water was the one who was pulling Celcius down; its blue fingers wrapped around the flying machina perfectly.
A sudden stop and a loud splash let the group inside Celcius know that they had stopped falling. After the screaming had died down, Yuna stood and looked around in the dim light. No more sounds from the storm outside came to her ears so she guessed that the storm was over. The light that allowed Yuna to see around was the light which poured through the broken glass of the windows. She looked out of the broken window and she could see that Celcius just floated there in the middle of the ocean.
The sky was bright and full of white, fluffy clouds, and the ocean was a clear blue. It was like there had been no storm. That's when Yuna saw the dark clouds in the distance. Ahead of them, the storm was there. She saw small flickers of lightning, and heard the distant rumbling of thunder.
"Rikku? Brother? Anyone?" Yuna immediately looked around the airship to see where everyone was.
"Rikku here," came the small voice of the Al Bhed, Rikku. She slowly stood up and broken glass fell off of her. Her body had small cuts everywhere and her hair was a mess and still full of small pieces of glass.
Yuna hurried over to the body in the pilot's seat. "Brother?" She turned his head over so she could see him.
"Ah…yh angel…cu…bnaddo…" murmured the Al Bhed.
"Brother! You're all right!" Yuna helped him stand.
"Is everyone else all right?" Buddy stood also.
"I'm okay," called Shinra from beside his seat.
Yuna looked around and let out a sigh of relief. "At least everyone is okay."
"So Celcius ec niehat!" shrieked Brother.
"No worries. We can fix it. Should be no problem." Buddy walked over to the center of the room and looked around at the mess.
"Can she fly?" Yuna asked Brother.
"Uh…I think so…Yes, she should be able to fly." Brother quickly tried to start Celcius up. Succeeding, he gently rose Celcius up in the air, just a few yards above the water. "Yht fa ryja vmekrd!" Brother steered the airship in the direction of Kilika Island.
Yuna noticed that the dark clouds up ahead had disappeared, and she tilted her head to the side. Does a storm just…disappear as quickly as that?
They flew straight for a few minutes, and Rikku broke the silence. "Y'know, I could've sworn we'd be at Kilika by now."
Yuna agreed. "Yes, it should have only taken us a minute or two. Unless we were farther out in the ocean than we thought."
"No. We were just a few miles away from Kilika." Shinra was back in his seat, messing with his computer.
"I don't understand. We're right above where Kilika is supposed to be." Buddy was staring at the screen in front of him.
"He's right. We're above Kilika." Shinra looked back at the group.
Yuna, Rikku, and Brother all leaned over the edge of the broken glass to look down at the water. "Kilika is invisible," said Brother.
"No, you idiot! Kilika is underneath the water!" Rikku shouted, hitting her brother on the back of his head. "Kilika is underneath the water!" She shouted, her words just now getting to her.
"The storm! That must've sunk the entire island!" Yuna shrieked, hardly able to believe her own words.
"According to my computer, Kilika is not invisible," Shinra looked at Brother. "Nor has the island sunk."
"Then what happened to it?" asked Yuna. She didn't expect anyone to answer, but it would have been nice if someone knew what happened to an entire island…
XxXxX
In a room hidden underneath the ground of Spira……
A woman whose pale face could barely be seen in the candle-lit room sat in a large chair that could easily pass for a throne. The room around her was large and had both stone floors and walls. No windows, just stone. The woman's dark clothes blended well with the darkness around her. This woman was the woman who had spoken with the gray haired man somewhere in Spira. She was the one who had ordered him to deliver the note and make sure the Praetor had found it. Her gaze stayed glued on the thick door several yards away from where she sat.
A smile crept on her face as that door opened and a man with a rather strange hair style walked into the room.
"Why have you brought me here? How is this possible? The summoner Sent me." The man started asking questions, the blue color of his hair looked almost black as he walked through the shadows to the woman in front of him.
"To answer your first question, I have brought you here to…join me." The woman answered, her fore-arms lay on the arm-rests of the chair she sat in.
"How am I alive? Not that that matters right now, but I would like to know how it is that you brought me back from the dead." The man stopped walking when he was two yards away from her.
"I have power. Plain and simple." The woman stood, her gaze fixed on the man before her. "I would like you to join me in my quest to…take over a world, and at the same time, I could help you to rule over this world."
The man thought about this. "What world might you be talking about? I only know of Spira."
"Gala."
"So if I helped you rule that world, you would help me rule this world?"
"Yes."
"This world does need someone to rule over it." He stared at her. "Might I ask your name?"
The woman grinned. "You may call me…Sorceress Ultimecia."
A/N: Here are the translations:
The talk between Gippal and the Al Bhed:
"Gippal! Gippal! Where's Gippal!"
"Huh? Who's calling my name?"
"Gippal! Where are you?"
"What's the matter? Why are you calling for me?"
"I...have...bad news...for you..."
"What!"
"There is a..."
"There is a what?"
"There is a strange storm right outside Kilika Island."
"And what is so strange about this storm?"
"It is just sitting there outside Kilika."
"That is strange..." "I'll tell Yuna about this. Keep an eye on that storm, okay?"
"Okay."
Rikku and Brother arguement:
"Rikku started it."
"Did not!"
When Brother wakes up after the crash:
"Ah...an angel...so...pretty..."
That's almost all of the Al Bhed, 'cept a few lines here and there, but I'm sure you guys can figure out what they said.
