Disclaimer: Like every other time: I ONLY OWN THE STUFF I CREATED AND THE PLOT.
Chapter XV
I Don't Speak No Funky Language
Anger as soon as fed is dead;
'T is starving makes it fat. -Emily Dickinson
XxXxX
I could have stopped it. I could have saved her. But I didn't. He…he wasn't human…
"Squall?"
Leonhart looked up at whomever was in front of him, his eyes not focusing, his mind still in its own world. Paine… I'm sorry…
"Squall?" Another voice, this time…more gentle.
The person in front of him moved to stand and walk around something, standing next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault, Squall. You couldn't have known that he was going to show up like that and kidnap her."
It is my fault. I could have stopped him from hurting her, from kidnapping her, but I didn't.
"Squall…" The female voice came from his right.
Snap out of it, his inner voice snapped at him. If you sit here feeling guilty, you won't help her. You've got to search for her, help her any way you can. His eyes focused, looking sideways at the man beside him, then at the woman to his right. "Rinoa."
"Oh, Squall," She hugged him, her voice soft.
He put an arm around her, listening to Cid.
"Did you happen to see what he looked like?"
Nodding, he said, "Yeah, I got a good look at him."
Rinoa moved and sat in a chair beside him. "I hope she's okay."
But she's not, he wanted to say. He remembered what had happened before the man disappeared, the smug look on his face, the pain he caused her…
"Black hair, the man had black hair. Maybe gray eyes, dark clothes, reminded me of Seifer by the way he smirked, except he looked more evil than Almasy will ever look."
"I'll have someone start looking for a man with that description, for now, you need to get on Ragnarok. Laguna's outside, waiting." Cid informed, pushing off the desk and walking back around to his seat. "Apparently, a storm left something behind again."
"Where?" Rinoa asked, looking back and forth between Squall and Cid.
The headmaster sat down, resting his hands on the desk. "Talle Mountains, east of the orphanage. Laguna says you can be there in under ten minutes."
Squall nodded, standing, his eyes locking with Rinoa's. "I'll be back soon." As he turned to leave, Rinoa stopped him.
"Maybe you should take someone else with you? You haven't really visited any of these places that seem to fall out of the sky, except for the one that…Paine was kidnapped at…"
"Rinoa's right, you should take someone else with you."
"Fine. I'll take two others." He left, wanting to see if he could find anything useful at this new place. "Zell," he said once he stepped off the elevator and saw the young man walking toward the cafeteria.
"Yo," Zell turned and ran back to him. "You called? Hey, where's-"
Interrupting him, he said, "I'm going to go check out the new place that just showed up. I'll be looking for clues on Paine's whereabouts."
"You mean- Oh…uh, sure, I'll come."
"I'd like to come, too, if that's alright with you."
Both turned to look at the blonde that stood to Zell's right, and Squall's left. "It's fine with me, Quistis."
"Good, let's go then. We've got a place to check out."
XxXxX
"You all right?" Was what Laguna first asked Squall when he stepped aboard.
"I'm fine. Let's just go." He walked past him, and to the right, through a door.
The others followed, Laguna walking beside Quistis. "I'm guessin' he ain't okay…"
"I haven't been told much, but it has something to do with Paine. I'd ask him, but I know better than that. He won't tell me anything." Quistis watched Squall get on the elevator and go up.
"Uh, Paine was kidnapped, by whom, I don't know." Laguna explained, stepped on the elevator along with Zell and Quistis.
"Kidnapped? Who would kidnap her?" asked Zell, surprised.
"I don't know." Laguna quickly shut his mouth when the elevator stopped, knowing Squall wouldn't want to hear them talk about it.
Before long, Ragnarok was flying south, toward Talle Mountains. Five minutes passed and the sky grew darker by each passing minute.
"We're almost there," informed Laguna from the pilot's seat.
Squall was looking out of the window, watching the blurry ocean below. He was obviously deep in thought because when Zell tried to talk to him, he didn't answer or even acknowledge that he was there.
Ragnarok started to descend, turning around in a circle before landing on the sand in front of a tall structure. The structure itself was large, and in-between two rock mountains. Around the building, there were floating rocks and electricity everywhere, circling the structure. The sky above was a little dark, but not too dark that you couldn't see anything. It looked as if it was late in the afternoon here.
The three got out of Ragnarok, Laguna staying inside just in case they needed to take off immediately. Squall was leading as they stepped on the stone pathway leading to the building. Hand on weapon, he looked around cautiously. When they were close enough to the building, they saw people outside, looking around, confused looks on their faces. Most --no, all-- had blond hair and from Squall could see, green eyes with swirls.
None look harmful, but never judge a book by its cover. Squall cautiously walked up to one of the men there, hand still on weapon. "Excuse me-"
"Frana's Gippal? Ryc yhouha caah Gippal!" Shrieked the man.
"What?"
"Yo, I don't speak no funky language, speak ENGLISH. You know what ENGLISH is?" Zell asked, hands out with palms facing upwards.
"Fru yna oui?"
"What? I don't understand."
Knowing it was a lost cause, the man shook his head. "Spirians yht draen myhkiyka."
"Does anyone here speak English?" Squall asked, raising his voice so everyone could hear him.
"I'm guessing your English is our Spirian," a blonde woman walked up, the same color eyes as everyone else.
"Spirian?"
"Yes, the language most people of Spira speak. I take it you are not from Spira…and we are not there anymore." The woman looked sad, worried too. She turned her head to shout at the other people. "Luhdehia muugehk vun Gippal. Ra cruimt pa rana cusafrana."
"What language is that?" Quistis asked, curious.
"Al Bhed; we are the Al Bhed of Spira. It is a pleasure to meet you, people of this world. Please, tell us where we are," the woman bowed slightly, blonde hair falling in her face as she did so.
"Gala, this world is called Gala and you are in a place that is named Talle Mountains. How did you get here?" Squall removed his hand from his weapon, feeling no threat among these…Al Bhed. "And what is this place called?"
"We do not know. One minute we are inside the Temple among the New Yevon, then the next the storm hits and we all wake up here. Except for the New Yevon, of course. They are no longer here; we don't know where they disappeared to." A smile formed on the woman's face. "This place, my friend, is Djose."
"Wait --New Yevon? What are…New Yevon?"
"Ah, yes, of course; you don't know about them. New Yevon is a group of very religious people, they showed up at our doorstep, wanting to fight us for what happened to their Praetor. They accused Gippal, our leader, of ordering the machina to attack Bevelle-"
"Bevelle?" Squall seemed shocked.
"Yes, Bevelle, that's where New Yevon stays. How do you know of that place?"
"A friend told me. Say, do you know a woman named Paine?"
"You think- Oh, that would explain a lot…" Quistis absently put one finger to her lips, thinking. "Yes, it would…"
"Yup, sure do. Seen her a few times. She's a good friend of all three leaders: the leader of Youth League, Nooj; the leader of New Yevon, the Praetor Baralai, and our leader, Gippal. Why? Where is she? She went missing several days ago, she had all three leaders and her other friends worried sick about her." The woman seemed to know a lot about her…
"She was…kidnapped yesterday while we were exploring this…Bevelle that we found north of here. The city was empty, except for a few machine parts. Where's this Gippal?"
"That's what that Al Bhed was rambling on about. It seems Gippal has gone missing, but not for the first time. Though, the first time he was found, but this time I doubt we'll find him again. My gut tells me he's in trouble. And if you say that Bevelle was empty, then Baralai obviously disappeared, also. This is not good…" The woman stared at the ground, then looked back up at him. "If you find Gippal, please, at least tell him about Paine. He…cares for her greatly, anyone can tell. But if you happen to find any one of the leaders, tell them about Paine. They all care for her."
"Okay, what do they look like?" Squall glanced back at Quistis, who had already taken out a notebook and pencil, ready to write down the descriptions.
"Hard to miss any of 'em. Gippal has an eye patch over his right eye, and he's dressed oddly like any Al Bhed that you'll see; spiky blond hair, too, and in his late teens, same age as Paine. Baralai, a couple years older than Gippal, I think, white hair and is mainly dressed in green. Nooj…machina left arm and leg, limps, and uses a cane, long, brown hair, and is dressed in burgundy, I think. They are all pretty hard to miss, as you can probably tell," she explained, putting her hands on her hips. "I hope you find 'em. I'd like to help, or at least send someone to help, but we've got to stay here and make sure all machina here are okay, and besides, I don't think anyone wants to leave."
"Okay, thanks, we'll send someone here to watch over you, just in case, and so you can contact us if you need anything." Squall told her.
"Gotcha." She turned and left to help some other Al Bhed.
He headed back to Ragnarok, Quistis and Zell behind him. "We'll go back to Garden and I'll tell Cid about this."
"It's hard to believe that she came from another world…" Zell had his hands behind his head, looking up at the sky. "All of this is pretty hard to believe."
"You can say that again," Quistis rubbed her eyes, notebook and pencil back in pocket. "But I guess it does explain a lot of things… How she just…showed up and all."
"So how did Cid know?"
Quistis and Zell looked at him, shocked. "Cid? He knows?"
"Yeah, he knows, but how? I doubt Paine told him… Edea?"
"Possibly, she is a sorceress. Maybe she could, like, sense somethin' from her and ya know…uh…know that she came from another…uh…world…somethin' like that…" Zell was as confused about this as anyone else. "But how did she get here? It's not like she just wished to be here and BOOM, showed up here."
"She didn't know about this place, probably, I doubt this world was something you'd talk about over dinner." Squall said as they walked toward the elevator inside Ragnarok. "Those Al Bhed didn't know about Gala."
"So…what's the news down there?" Laguna asked when they stepped out of the elevator and sat down in their seats.
"You can catch up on everything when I report to Cid," Squall said, not feeling like repeating everything twice.
XxXxX
"I knew there was somethin' fishy about that woman…" Laguna stood behind the chair Squall sat in. Leonhart had just finished filling Cid in on…most things, when Laguna had spoken up.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Squall asked, sounding irritated.
Cid sighed. "I wanted her to tell you herself; I was going to give her a day to tell you, but…" he lowered his eyes. "I didn't know this was going to happen…"
"None of us did." Thinking about what he should say next, Squall said, "The people at Djose are called Al Bhed, and they speak a different language. Luckily, a woman there spoke our language and gave us a lot of information; though, not much that will help us find Paine."
Quistis took this as her cue and walked up to the desk, placing her notebook in front of Cid. "Those are the descriptions of Paine's closest friends: Baralai, Nooj, and Gippal. From what the woman told us, Baralai and Gippal went missing when the strange storm hit."
"Is it possible they made it out?"
"No, sir, the woman had said that Gippal was there the entire time, but she didn't know about Baralai."
"Well-"
Ring.
Sighing, Cid answered the phone. "Cid speaking… Yes… What?… Okay, okay, I'll send Squall over there." Hanging up the phone, he looked at Squall, adjusting his glasses. "That was one of the men left behind to watch over…Bevelle. It seems that these 'missing New Yevon' you told me about returned."
XxXxX
Squall walked down the long walkway, turning left a few moments later. A group of people stood outside the large building, all dressed strangely.
"Are you the New Yevon?"
A man, possibly a priest by the way he was dressed, turned to look at him. "Yes, and who may you be? Someone who could tell us where we are and how we got here?"
"My name is Squall Leonhart. You are on the world Gala, but I don't know how you all ended up here…" And I have a feeling I won't know anytime soon…
"A…different world! Not possible!"
Possible; you're standing right in front of me, aren't you? "I know it's hard to believe, but trust me --it's true." He waited a minute or two to let the man calm down before continuing. "I'd like to ask you a few questions, okay?" The man nodded, and Squall continued, "Do you know a woman named Paine?"
"Uh, yes, yes; she's that woman-friend of the Praetor. Ever since she went missing, Praetor Baralai has been depressed, but has been paying full attention to finding her. He, Nooj, and that filthy Al Bhed have been trying to figure out how to find her and where to look."
"Is this Al Bhed you speak of Gippal?"
Growling, the priest said, "Yes, that's him. He sent those cursed machina of his in and attacked our beautiful Bevelle! What's worse, is that he also attacked the Praetor --a good friend of his!"
So which side do I believe? The Al Bhed or New Yevon? "How do you know he sent the…machina to attack Bevelle and Bara- Praetor Baralai?" He thought it best to at least call the man Praetor in the presence of any New Yevon.
"Because he hates New Yevon! And the Al Bhed and their machina are cursed and evil!" The priest was infuriated. "I do not wish to speak to you anymore. Leave our city before I have a guard show you out."
Squall turned and started to walk away, not wanting to start a fight with a priest. I've got all the information I'll ever get out of him, anyway… Next time I'll remember to stay off the subject of 'Gippal' or 'machina'.
Al Bhed Translations:
"Frana's Gippal? Ryc yhouha caah Gippal!" -- Where's Gippal? Has anyone seen Gippal!
"Fru yna oui?" --Who are you?
"Spirians yht draen myhkiyka." -- Spirians and their language.
"Luhdehia muugehk vun Gippal. Ra cruimt pa rana cusafrana." -- Continue looking for Gippal. He could be here somewhere.
