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Chapter XVII
Strangers
I many times thought peace had come,
When peace was far away;
As wrecked men deem they sight the land
At centre of the sea,
And struggle slacker, but to prove,
As hopelessly as I,
How many the fictitious shores
Before the harbor lie. -Emily Dickinson
XxXxX
What…happened…? She sat up, putting a hand to her head. Slowly, the memory of what happened what felt like moments ago, returned. "What was that thing?" Looking around, she found that she was still in Celcius, which didn't seem like it was damaged much --which was pretty unbelievable, considering…
"Uuuuuhh…my head…"
"Rikku!" Raising to her feet, she saw the young Al Bhed on her stomach, hand on head as her other hand pushed her to her knees. "Are you all right?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," Rikku answered, "a killer headache, but I'll live."
"Are you guys all right?" Yuna asked loudly, so the others could hear her.
"I'm…uh…all right…" Brother sat up straight in his seat.
"I'm all right, too," Buddy reported from his seat.
"Me too," said Shinra.
"I'll go check on our passengers." Buddy stood and ran to the elevator, going to the cabin a second later.
"Whoa… Frana yna fa?"
Once Brother said that, Yuna walked over to stand beside him. "Oh! We're not…in Spira?" She hadn't meant for it to come out a question, but it just came out like one. She heard running footsteps behind her, then heavy breathing.
"Guys, our passengers are gone."
XxXxX
"Squall Leonhart, please report to my office. I repeat-"
As Cid's voice came from the speaker, Squall sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes. He got very little sleep last night, and now Cid was waking him up around seven in the morning. Usually he woke up on his own, but he's been strangely tired lately…
It didn't take long to get ready and head to Cid's office. A few kids were up, but none of his friends; at least, he didn't run into any of them on his way to the elevator.
A few moments later, he walked into the office, seeing Cid standing a few feet away from his desk. "Ah, good morning, Squall!" he greeted him. "Laguna called."
He knew what to expect every time his father called. "Where?"
"Actually, there's two things, now. The first is an island off the coast of the Serengetti Plains. And the other…is an airship, on the Serengetti Plains, near the coast."
"An airship…" At first, it didn't come to him, but when he thought about it… "Paine mentioned an airship the first time we met… Do you think it could be the same one?"
"Possibly." The headmaster thought for a moment. "Laguna's on his way here to take you to the Plains."
XxXxX
"There, land there, next to the airship," Squall ordered, pointing to an airship.
"Gotcha," Laguna landed Ragnarok next to the other airship. "You don't want to check out the island first?"
"No, I don't." Squall was already making his way toward the exit when he said that.
As he stepped outside, he saw the large airship that reminded him almost of a bike of some sort. Now how was he going to get inside…? If there were people in there like he hoped, he didn't want to seem like a threat. And hopefully if Paine said she used to ride in this airship (he hoped it was the right one), then the people --if there were any inside-- might possibly be her friends. Maybe if he yelled…but what if the enemy was inside? So far, he was doing a lot of hoping.
Decide now, Squall, his inner voice told him. "Luck be on my side…" he mumbled, taking a deep breath, hand on handle of gunblade. "Hello! Anyone in there!"
The entrance lowered, slowly, making his grip on the handle tighten.
XxXxX
She pointed her guns at the exit as it lowered, not knowing if the person outside was on the good or bad side. Rikku stood on the other side, her weapons ready, just in case.
When the door lowered completely, she had pulled her guns back and held them tight against her, counting to three quietly before looking at Rikku and nodding. Together, they came out from their 'hiding places' and aimed their weapons at the --person.
"Don't shoot!" The man in black hollered.
They lowered their weapons, Yuna shouting, "Who are you?"
"Squall Leonhart," the man, Squall, answered. "Do you mind if I come aboard?"
"Rumo luf! Drana'c yhudran airship rana!" Rikku shouted, pointing at an airship not too far away.
"Oh! You're right! Is that yours?" Yuna asked Squall.
"No…it's not, but I know the man who owns it." He glanced back at the airship once before looking back at them. "I pose no threat. I'm armed, but I won't use my weapon on you as long as you don't use yours on me."
She nodded. "Okay, come aboard, then."
He walked up, following them to the elevator, Rikku staring at him curiously.
"Guys, this is Squall Leonhart; Mr. Leonhart, meet Brother-"
"The leader!" Brother shouted.
"-Buddy, Shinra, Rikku, and my name is Yuna."
"Pleasure to meet you, and please, call me Squall." He seemed polite, so far, so Yuna thought it best to start asking questions.
"Do you know where we are, Squall? We do not seem to be on…Spira, anymore…" She lowered her eyes, but raised them to look at Squall as he answered.
"You are on Gaia, in a place called Serengetti Plains. If you come from this…Spira you speak of, then you should know about the other places from Spira that have shown up here."
"Oh! Bevelle? Djose? Kilika? Besaid?" She had just started spitting out names.
"Please tell us they're here!" Rikku begged, hoping for the best.
"Yes, they're here, but I'm not sure about this Besaid, thought it could be the island that just showed up." He answered.
'Oh yeah! Now we can see Gippal and Baralai!" Rikku jumped up and down, Yuna smiled and saying, "Yup."
"Gippal? Baralai? You know them?" When he got nods from both girls, a look of worry appeared on his face. "I suggest you come back to Balamb Garden with me. It'll take a while to explain. Follow Ragnarok --the airship outside-- to Garden, and I'll be waiting there for you."
Yuna nodded, watching him leave to go back to that other airship, Ragnarok.
XxXxX
"Oh, wow! This is your Balamb Garden? This doesn't look like any garden I've seen…" Yuna looked at the 'Garden', slightly confused…
Squall shook his head. "No, it's not a garden. It's…a long story; please, follow me." He walked toward the strange structure.
"Hey! Brother! Lusa uh!" Rikku yelled at the Al Bhed who stood there, staring at Ragnarok.
"Yhudran airship… Celcius ec cdemm pyddan!" Brother stomped off to follow Yuna. Rikku shook her head and followed.
Once they were all inside, Squall led them to an elevator, looking back at the others when he stopped in front of it. "It's going to be a tight fit," he told them.
And indeed it was. Thankfully it didn't take them long to reach the top. They stepped out, Squall leading the way past a couple doors and to an older looking man sitting at his desk, looking over some papers.
"Oh, Squall, you're back soon --and with friends. These the people on the airship?" the older man looked at them all, Squall first.
"Yes, it's them. Permission to fill them in on everything?"
"Sure, as long as you know what you're doing," the man said, putting the papers in his hands to the side. "First, my name is Cid, and yours are…"
"My name is Yuna, and this is-"
"Rikku!"
Yuna giggled. "Rikku, Brother, Buddy, and Shinra."
"Pleasure to meet you all. I'll let Squall tell you what's going on --well, all that we know, really."
Squall turned to face them. "If you say you know Gippal and Baralai, then do you know Paine?"
He practically got gasps from everyone --Cid excluded. "We know Paine, she's part of our team. Where is she? How is she? Can we see her?" Yuna asked quickly, obviously worried and happy to hear about Paine. Though, that happiness went away when she realized that something wasn't right…
"I'll start from the beginning… Days ago, Paine showed up outside of Esthar and was taken to the hospital. That's when I first met her, and took her back here to be questioned. She's been here ever since…at least until she was kidnapped when we went to go check out the place she called Bevelle." A couple more gasps, but he continued, "Ever since then, I've been trying to find out where that man would take her, but I've come up with nothing. It was only until yesterday that I found out she was from Spira when I asked an…Al Bhed at Djose."
"Oh my… Paine…" Yuna seemed more shocked than anyone else.
"We still have Gippal and Baralai…right? We can get together and hunt that guy down! …Right?" Rikku looked back and forth between Squall and Yuna.
"Baralai and Gippal weren't at Bevelle and Djose. Bevelle had been empty until yesterday, when New Yevon appeared there. From what the Al Bhed told us, New Yevon had tried to attack Djose because they thought Gippal ordered that machina to attack Bevelle and Baralai."
"That's a big bunch of bologna! Gippal would never do such a thing!" Rikku exclaimed.
"According to the priest at Bevelle, Al Bhed and machina are evil."
"Druca Yevonites tuh'd ghuf fryd drao'na dime ypuid! Drao ica machina duu!" said Rikku, making a face.
Squall looked highly confused, so Yuna translated, "She say those Yevonites don't know what they're talking about and they use machina too."
"You speak Al Bhed?" asked Squall.
She nodded. "I studied it on my travels, and Rikku's helped some."
"We are cousins, Yunie," Rikku wrapped an arm around Yuna's shoulders.
"Since Gippal and them aren't here, and Paine's missing again, I'd say we try to get in touch with Spira. Nooj is hopefully still there," Buddy said, looking sideways at Shinra.
"I'm on it," Shinra quickly walked toward the elevator, going down and toward Celcius.
"How are you supposed to get in touch with Spira?" Squall asked, a bit confused. Again.
"Shinra's a kid genius --literally. He'll have the CommSphere Network up and running before you can say "shoopuf"," explained Buddy.
"What's this CommSphere Network and a…shoopuf?" Both Cid and Squall asked.
"Uh… The CommSphere Network is a way of communication in our world, Shinra designed it, and…a shoopuf…is a…um…" Yuna looked at the others, unsure of how to describe a shoopuf to a person from this world. She could hear Brother mumbling something about Ragnarok in Al Bhed…
"It's a large, blue…uh, thing? Heh…" Rikku scratched her head.
"Okay…" Squall shook his head, saying, "Anyway, I can show you to the place you'll be staying at if you're staying here while we look for Paine and your friends."
"Okay," Yuna nodded, hands together in front of her.
XxXxX
"Hey! Come look at this! I think I found something!" shouted a soldier of Esthar, aiming his flashlight at something black. A second man ran up to him; both were in one of the dark cargo rooms in the city of Esthar. They had been doing their daily check-up on the city when one stumbled across something…
"What is it?" asked the second, leaning in to take a closer look.
"I…don't know…" the first poked the black with the tip of his gun. "Hey, it's soft!" he said, surprised. He moved the flashlight's beam up some and gasped. "It's a girl! She doesn't look any older than nine!"
"Quick! Let's get her to the hospital. She doesn't look too good…"
The first soldier was already picking the small, pale body of the girl up when something caught his friend's eyes.
Taking his flashlight, the second soldier aimed it in front of them. "Call back-up. This one's a man, and he looks heavier than the girl."
XxXxX
Squall had shown them each to their room, at least all except Shinra. The kid was still in Celcius, and Leonhart had decided to leave him alone so he could work. As he was going to his own dorm, Yuna walked up to him.
"Is the dorm okay?" he asked.
"Yes, it's very comfortable." She smiled. "But I was wondering if you could take me to Besaid. That's where I grew up at, and I'd like to tell my friends where they are, so they don't panic; though, I'm sure they won't take the news lightly."
"Alright, I'll take you. Let me find Laguna and tell him I'm taking Ragnarok, and then we'll be on our way."
They walked together, him looking for Laguna, her humming a song of some sort. He didn't know what the song was, but it sounded beautiful.
Squall knew Laguna was inside because he saw him follow them in, but not up to Cid's office. Pushing open the doors to the cafeteria, he spotted the man sitting at a table, talking to Rinoa.
"Hey, Squall!" Rinoa waved, smiling.
Giving her a kiss on the cheek, he asked, "How are you?"
'I'm okay. What about you?" She had a touch of worry in her voice.
"I'm fine," he lied, not wanting to worry her. He still felt guilty about the kidnapping of Paine, but he knew he had to get over it. It was harder than it sounded.
Rinoa didn't seem too sure about his answer, but she smiled anyway. "Who's your friend?"
"Oh, this is Yuna; Yuna, this is Rinoa."
"Nice to meet you, Rinoa," Yuna bowed slightly.
"Um, nice to meet you, too."
"Laguna, I'm taking Ragnarok." Squall told the man who was eating a sandwich.
"Huh? Why?" Laguna asked, mouth full of food. Swallowing, he looked up at him. "Gonna check out that uh, island?"
"Yes, Yuna would like to."
"Okay, you and miss Yuna can take it." He smiled. "Have it back before dark, kids."
Squall started to walk away, Yuna bowing once more saying, "It was really nice meeting you two," and quickly walking to catch up with Squall.
The two got aboard Ragnarok, Yuna looking around at everything. "Gippal would love to see this," she said, following Squall through a door and to an elevator. "Pretty much any Al Bhed would love to see this."
"Machine crazy, huh?"
She giggled. "Yes, they are. I think they built just about every machina on Spira. Gippal is the leader of the Machine Faction back on Spira. It's all Al Bhed who work there and they focus on repairing on machina, and occasionally trying to build their own from scrap parts."
"It's held at Djose, right?"
"Yes, it is." She lowered her eyes. "It's hard to believe that New Yevon would blame him for what happened; I mean, he would never do such a thing, and they use machina, too."
Squall sat down, immediately starting up the airship. "It shouldn't take us long to get there."
She nodded. "Okay."
They had taken off, and were a good several miles from Garden when a voice came through the walkie-talkie that lay in the chair across from where Yuna sat.
"Mr. Loire! Are you there? Over."
Squall clicked on the Auto Pilot, stood, and walked over to the chair, picking up the walkie-talkie. "No, he's not here, but this is his son, Squall. Over."
"Right, okay, since you're there instead, can you come to Esthar hospital? There's two people here that just…showed up and I thought either you or Mr. Loire would like to know. Over."
"Alright, I'll come check it out. Over and out." He laid the walkie-talkie back down, going back to his seat and taking the controls. Steering Ragnarok in the direction of Esthar, he said to Yuna, "We'll check that island out later, okay?"
"Okay; besides, I'd like to check out these people. They may be Gippal and Baralai." Yuna said, sounding hopeful.
Squall also hoped those people were Gippal and Baralai. Maybe they knew where that man took Paine…
Landing Ragnarok in the Airstation, he got off and walked toward the hospital. He looked behind him once to make sure Yuna followed, which she did, and turned his head back to pay attention to where he was going.
Two soldiers greeted them both when they stepped inside. Squall noticed Yuna had seemed shocked at the way Esthar was, and remembered the look on Paine's face when she had seen a train…
"Where are they?" He asked, knowing the two soldiers would know what it was talking about.
"Follow us, sir," the first one said, walking down the long hallway to the elevator past the nurses' station.
"We found them in the cargo room, both were out cold. We thought the girl was dead because at first she didn't have a pulse."
"A girl?" Squall looked back at Yuna to see if she knew who it could be, but she shook her head 'no'.
After getting off the elevator, they walked to the room a few doors to their right. When one soldier opened the door for them, Yuna gasped, running inside saying "Nooj!"
As Squall walked in, he saw the man, Nooj, lying in a bed, covered up with white sheets. His hair trailed down the side of the bed. Squall could see the machine --or "machina" as the Al Bhed had called it-- arm and leg under the thin sheets. The man was still in his original clothes, he noticed.
"Oh, Nooj!" Yuna was already by his side. "What is this technology?" She asked, referring to the tubes taped to his arms that led to a box.
"It tells his heart rate," he answered, pointing to the metal box that echoed the beeping sound throughout the room. "See? The beeping sound is how fast his heart is going. Right now he's calm and relaxed." The girl in the bed beside Nooj in this small room, caught his attention. Her blonde hair, though short, was spread out slightly on the pillow her head lay on. Eyes still closed, it was impossible to tell what color they man be at this moment, but Squall guessed blue by her hair. "You sure you don't know her?"
Yuna turned her gaze off of Nooj and on the girl. "No… I don't. I've honestly never seen her before." She seemed confused, but sat down in one of the chairs next to Nooj's bed.
So we've got a mystery girl here, he thought as he also decided to sit down.
Al Bhed Translations:
"Hey! Brother! Lusa uh!" -- Hey! Brother! Come on!
"Yhudran airship… Celcius ec cdemm pyddan!" -- Another airship… Celcius is still better!
