The heat of Bikanel Desert has always been excruciating. The harsh winds accentuating the discomfort rather than give solace. The sandstorms often cause vehicles to malfunction from the debris of sand flying about or perhaps it can literally knock a person off her feet with its force. If one find herself wandering in Bikanel's seemingly endless land, one would find that danger of getting lost and dying in the middle of a sandstorm is a real possibility just as well as finding herself as a main course for a hungry Zu. All of these morbid fate flashes through Rikku's mind as she keeps her stance firm, knees bent slightly and her boots digging into the sand. Arms poised in a ninety degree angle as both hands gripping the hilt of her daggers vehemently. While the wind is indeed hot and mildly strong, Rikku can take in some cool air thanks to the sweat all over her body; the slight shine from the said perspiration is obvious from the sun's light. Her spiral eyes staying vigilant of her surroundings, or better yet, the Al Bhed soldiers who surrounds her. Every once in a while the wind would cause her disheveled hairstyle to get in her vision, but she blows them out of the way. She is going to need EVERY detail she can take in if she is indeed to get out of this. But even she has to be blunt to herself, it's NOT looking like things are going her way.

"You could tell me who the hell you are you know," She tries to vocalize her demands sternly but abstains from truly letting out her full anger just yet. They know she has no problem taking lives and yet they haven't taken hers. Rikku is trying her best to make sure it stays that way for now. "If not, I could tell you who I am and by now you'll realize that this is a big mistake."

"You are Cid's little girl, and you are coming with us."

A piercing voice among the crowd and the statement said punctured her trump card for this fight. Since they never lowered the aim of their gun and the fact that they know that she is the daughter of Al Bhed's most prominent figure would only mean that they don't care much for the ramifications of kidnapping her. She feels something heavy drop down on her stomach as her scarf gets carried by the next wave of hot wind.

"Like hell I am! You guys do realize that this is probably one of the stupidest thing to do! Cid is-!"

"Am I about to hear this right, Rikku?" The same piercing voice, this time, it sounds a bit more familiar. Rikku turns her attention towards the origin of the said voice. "Are you actually going to speak highly of your father? I thought he was 'no good' and 'useless'?"

Her eyes widening at the revelation of why the voice was so familiar. The voice belonged to none other than Gippal himself. Gippal, one of Rikku's acquaintance for a long time now, having met him through her father's connections. Basically as far as Rikku knows, her father and Gippal's are good friends and even better business partners. This turn of events takes Rikku by full astonishment.

"Gippal?!"

"Yup, that's me little one."

In this heated situation, Rikku can't help but roll her eyes as he still hasn't swayed himself away from his usual tone and mannerism when being around her.

"The hell are you doing?! And why the hell are your guys' pointing guns at me after nearly killing me?!" Her eyes wander towards Gippal's hand as he himself is brandishing a handgun. She tightens her grip on her daggers as he gets closer. "Gippal!"

"You've gotten better you know. I'm pretty impressed."

"I'm not interested in amusing you."

"That's funny because I wasn't amused one bit with you killing some of my guys you know."

"They attacked me first!"

"They were warning you," Rikku's eyes never allowed herself to leave Gippal's gun arm. When he lifts it up to point the said gun at her, a myriad of emotions starts to boil in her but of course the more evident one now is her anger. "Just like I'm warning you right now to put your weapons down and give up."

"You're out of your mind!"

Against her own train of thought, Rikku's stance deepens and the obvious need to attack is acknowledged by Gippal's men as the sound of their guns being prepared echoes. Rikku stops instantaneously with any further movement and considered the situation. Her spiral green eyes analyzing the numbers overweighing her and the possibility of making things worse if she doesn't play it smart now. As she finishes her clockwork observation, her eyes revert back to Gippal whose one eye that isn't covered by the eye patch that he wears remains attentive as well as the posture of his hand that points the gun towards her. He himself is too far for her to try and use him to her advantage, that and Gippal isn't entirely a full push over. For as good as Rikku is, Gippal can match that and of course the obvious number he has to command. With a click of her tongue, Rikku regretfully steps out of her fighting stance and puts herself in a bit more of a neutral position.

"Your weapons?"

Rikku can't help but glare at Gippal as his handgun acts as his pointing finger that is now directed towards her daggers. While still glaring at him, Rikku twirls her daggers in her hands and stabs them on the ground letting the majority of the blade be buried by the sand next to her feet. Rikku then puts her hands up as a sign of surrender despite her eyes continues to show defiance.

"Good. Now take five steps back and turn around. Keep your hands where I can see them."

"Don't tell me you're going to frisk me."

"You're outfit is tempting me to."

Though his facial expression still remains stern, the tone he used and the slight grin plastered on his lips insinuates things that Rikku can't help but grit her teeth in irritation. In her mind, she can't help but want to hit herself for letting Gippal get… somewhere with her. As she complies and takes her five steps, at least she can take solace that if he DOES put his hands all over to search her that they didn't go 'all the way' back then.

"Turn around."

"I hate you."

"I can live with that."

With a few more moments of her ever so burning glare, Rikku decides to comply and turn her back on Gippal. It was at this moment that a few thoughts passes through her mind about perhaps waiting until he gets in hand range to perhaps try something, however getting another angle of just how outnumbered she is and how many guns are pointed at her, it completely deters all of her thought process of attempting escape. Again it's back to biding her time and perhaps this could actually be alleviated once her 'no good father' is in the picture.

"You try something, and they have strict orders to shoot you in the leg." Then there's that threat that really takes away anymore incentives to try something.

"This is stupid, Gippal!" Though the only response she received is Gippal now upon her and his hands grabbing both her arms and forcing them behind her in a criss-crossed manner. Looking over her shoulder and pass her disheveled hair, Rikku managed to get a glimpse of the rope that Gippal is now using on her wrists. "Hey!"

Rikku flinches as Gippal cinches the rope digging painfully despite the white sleeves she is wearing. Every second, Rikku could feel the freedom of her hand slip form her grasp; every moment she can feel both her hands being glued to each other within Gippal's rope work. Biting her lip throughout the whole ordeal, eventually she feels the last pull which signifies perhaps that her wrist binds are done, and with Gippal no longer upon her hands like he was, it's more than obvious that he is done. Instinctively, her fingers tries to feel where the knots would be but unfortunately nothing is within reach and Rikku finds herself reaching out for emptiness. Of course the next test is to lightly twist against them, seeing if there are any loose areas that she work on if she can't find a knot to pick but to her dismay, the first attempt does nothing to show some sort of give. If she is to get out it would be through hard work and unsupervised time.

"If you don't talk too much, I won't gag you."

Though the harsh pull to turn her to face him made her squeal from surprise. Once again they are face to face; her eyes staring at his patch and his eye with confusion at first before it becomes that angry burning glare again. It fumes with more rage as his hands starts to search through the pouches of her belt, grabbing the remaining useful items that she has as well as her garment grid that holds the four dresspheres she has with her. She can't fully hide from her facial expression just how worried she is that all of her tools are being taken from her and placed in a bag that is hanging on his belt. Of course the frisking part hasn't even started.

"Let me guess."

"You got it, sweetie."

Rikku can feel her teeth grinding from pure anger as his face is showing some jubilance from what he is about to do. Whether it's actually perverted or the fact that he is being his usual self and is trying his best to get under her skin is unknown to her, right now she has bigger things to worry about.

"Don't enjoy yourself too much, you asshole."

"And try not to make too much noise."

Her first instinct is indeed to make a whole hell of a lot of noise. Screaming from the top of her lungs with that kind of barb does sound fitting however doing so would merely just convey that Gippal even has the upper hand in the wits argument so she abstains from yelling and instead merely gives him the 'deadly' glare. As a matter of fact that's all she has been doing but the moment his hands finds their way to her hips and to the outline of her mini skirt, Rikku can't help but let out a slight disgruntled sound with a slight need to flinch away.

"Don't." Gippal grips her hips tightly as his one eye becoming a bit more stern with her. "You make any movements that one of them thinks is a danger to me, and you'll get shot." Rikku hangs on to his words while her bound hands clenches in fists. "And some of them don't have the best accuracy."

"Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll end up shooting your other eye."

The comment elicited a chuckle from Gippal as his hands starts to frisk rather aggressively pass her skirt and now touching her bare part of her thighs. Aggressive, firm, and thorough, Rikku can't help but tense up as his hands go lower, grazing methodically about her legs as if her bare skin can hide something under. With Spira the way they are now, that wouldn't be a far fetched idea, but part of her feels that he is doing this from pure enjoyment. A few firm pats on her boots and he hovers back slowly to a standing position, his hands still grazing her every curve, her every form, and when part of his fingers hooked on her mini skirt and slightly raised it up, Rikku lets out a slight gasp as she feels the cool air hit part of her yellow lingerie.

"You would enjoy that wouldn't you?" The question widens Rikku's eyes and from her embarrassed looking away posture, she finds her eyes dart back at Gippal in a VERY angry glare.

"You prick! You think I'm enjoying this?!"

"I mean them shooting me in the eye, pervert."

Rikku can feel the wrinkle in her gloves as her fists clench even tighter in their bound position. A blatant display of Gippal's rather sardonic and sarcastic personality at its best and it's more than apparent that it's working. Without trying to satisfy that statement any further, Rikku tries her best to get her skirt to a somewhat conservative position. Gippal continues his task, applying the same 'gentle' patting on her arms, ruffling up the white sleeves a bit before working on her upper body, skimming her flesh and nearly untying the knot on Rikku's yellow bra.

"D-Don't-!"

"Relax," Despite the nonchalant reply, Rikku noticed how quickly he brought his hand back. "This is all too professional."

For a moment Rikku raised a brow out of curiosity, but that was just a momentary curiosity as it quickly faded away with Gippal continuing his frisking and his hand finding its way to the earpiece. Rikku's flinching away didn't deter him from grabbing it out of her ear. He himself raise his brow before snapping his finger to summon one of his soldiers to his side.

"Make sure there isn't any transmitter here that will notify the little princess' allies about her location. And take her little goodies too while you are at it."

Diligently taking Rikku's items and her ear piece, the soldier gives Gippal a slight nod before walking off, leaving Rikku in Gippal's care once again.

"Snooping into my private conversations too?"

"Well, that's what I've been doing the whole time. I mean, who else insinuated to your whiz kid that there's a sphere in the oasis?"

"WHAT?! You.. YOU!"

"No need to get too excited, it was actually kind of easy. Oh, that gag is getting pretty close to your mouth by the way."

Immediately after those words, Rikku bites her lower lip and made an attempt to back away from Gippal seeing how her hands are already robbed of freedom, having her speech taken away wasn't exactly something that she would need at the moment to help her situation. Gippal saw this as compliance despite his grip on her bound arms tightening. A slight smirk emerged from his lip and he continues the rest of his frisking. Of course the majority of useful things had already been confiscated so there was nothing else to find. With the firm grip on her left bicep still intact, Gippal fetches her daggers off the ground and happily sheathes them on his belt. Rikku had considered to try something while he was picking up her prized signature weapons, but there are still too many guns pointed at her and the slight limited movement of her hands reminds her that she is in a MUCH greater disadvantage now. With a sigh to herself, Rikku once again tells herself that biding her time is her only option. Keeping a close eye on the soldier who has her items and making sure Gippal doesn't leave her sight is probably the main concern she has right now.

"Well, we'd better get out of here before your Gullwings pal get here." Rikku gives a slight whine as Gippal ushers her to move with the pincer grip on her arm further ruffling the white arm sleeves. In the process of the tug, Rikku instinctively tries to pull her hands free from their bonds but of course receives no sort of solace. "Wouldn't want them to spoil our little ride together do we, Rikku?"

Of course getting tugged rather abruptly that forces her to stumble to Gippal's direction, it also gives her another concern to think about: where are they taking her and why? Better yet, how will she get out of this situation soon enough before it's too late? Tugging on her binds as Gippal escorts her to his vehicle, Rikku can't help but wonder if part of her freedom now depends on her inept brother of hers and his lack of ability to convey messages properly…

To Be Continued ...