A/N: Yeah I know its been ages since I updated this, but I've been really busy finishing school and my attentions been held by other things. Most of this story is written, though I might rewrite the ending, I'm slowly getting through the editing process. Unfortunately I have the attention span of a goldfish and so it takes longer than it should. Sorry guys. Thanks to all of you who reviewed, i didn't get 10 but thats alright. Thanks guys

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 5: Discovery

"Danae, come on get up. It's time for school." Rikku shook her daughter awake. It was Danae's first day at school. Rikku wished that she could home-school her, but there was just no time. The shop was getting really busy lately. Gippal had had to hire someone to help with the work load and Rikku couldn't take any time off. So little Danae had to go to school.

Danae groaned and rolled over. Rikku pulled the blankets off the bed and the girl was suddenly wide awake. It was rather cold in Bevelle at this time of year, well anytime of year actually. "Come on, up you get. We're not going to have you late."

Ten minutes later, Danae was sitting at the table downstairs staring blearily at her breakfast cereal. Her father came in carrying her little brother, Kai, and sat down wincing as he got a tiny fist shoved in his bad eye. Her mother looked up from where she was packing lunch.

"Morning sweetheart." Gippal said though not indicating whether it was to his wife or daughter. "So Danae, ready for your big day at school?"

"You betcha." His daughter smiled. She had never been anywhere in the first five years of her life, unless you counted the shop down the road. School was going to be great. It was all the way up in the inner suburbs of Bevelle, and it was a private school. The shop was doing so well that her Mum and Dad could afford to send her to the best school in Spira.

"You ready to go then?" Rikku said as she placed a bag in front of Danae and a plate of bacon and eggs in front of her husband. Danae grabbed the bag and got to her feet, giving her father a kiss and following her Mum out to the hover. Hovers weren't that uncommon anymore, even in town though they'd had to get a lot smaller to navigate streets rather than just the open highway. Danae hopped up onto the hover right beside her Mum and held on. She'd been on the hover a couple of times before and it was always a special treat. Now she'd get to go on it everyday.

They reached the school several minutes later. It was a huge building with several stories, all brickwork. There was a huge oval and several really big trees around the edge, though you couldn't see much of this because there was a huge brick wall surrounding the place. Rikku drove carefully looking for anyone she might recognise. They'd never been this close to what had been her life. She could see the high bridge and the temple and all of the memories surrounding them seemed to flood back, tightening her grip on the steering wheel. She stopped the hover just short of the school. She wished that there had been another decent school closer to home, but this was the best school in Bevelle, and both Gippal and Rikku had agreed that they'd give their children the best education they could afford no matter what.

"There you go Sweet heart. Be good and try not to annoy the teachers." Rikku kissed her little girl on the cheek and watched as she skipped off to the front door. Rikku was reminded of herself when she was younger, so alive and full of energy. Rikku watched after the little girl until she had completely vanished from sight. It was then that she noticed a woman staring at her. The woman looked familiar and Rikku made sure her goggles were down, masking most of her face. The woman had long brown hair and seemed to be a teacher. A child ran past the woman and a smile lit up her face in greeting. Only then did Rikku recognise her. It was Yuna. Rikku quickly turned the hover around and headed out of the school gates. She had to tell Gippal.

Gippal was working hard under one of his latest Machina. He often had time for inventing in the morning when he got to watch Kai. Kai would sit there quite happily playing with a piece of machinery and Gippal would toy with this or that improving what he could and thinking of ways to improve his already wonderful life. He'd never regretted leaving the Machine Faction with Rikku. And now he had two beautiful children and a beautiful wife and no one had tried to castrate him. Life was good.

"Gippal!" Rikku cried as she burst into the room. Gippal sat up and immediately regretted it as he hit his head. He groaned and rolled out from under the Machina. Rikku was poised with a look half concern, half laughter on her face.

"Oh go on then, laugh away." Gippal said a look of mock hurt on his features. Rikku giggled and Kai started to laugh as well. Gippal smiled. "My whole family's against me."

"Come here silly." Rikku laughed and gave her husband a hug and a kiss on the forehead.

"I'll have to do that more often if this is what happens." Gippal eased. "Now what's got you so worked up that you came barging in here like that?"

Rikku sobered immediately. "I saw Yunie today." She said and Gippal's face drained of colour. They'd been doing so well. Seven years and they hadn't seen anyone from their past and then all of a sudden Yuna was there.

"Where?" Gippal finally managed as the shock faded.

"At Danae's school. She seemed to be a teacher there. I'm worried. I don't think she recognised me cos I had my goggles on, but what about Danae. She's so like us both, what if Yunie suspects something?" Gippal wrapped his arm around his upset wife and ran a hand through her hair.

"It'll be fine. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about." Gippal reassured both of them. "I'll pick Danae up this afternoon. I'll make sure she doesn't recognise me."

Rikku seemed slightly calmed by this. Everything would be okay, they'd been hiding for years now, they could keep going. It had tobe.

Danae sat in the class room, unaware of what was going on around her. She was bored. She'd tried to pay attention to what Miss Yuna was saying but it was just hard to focus on things that weren't related to everyday life. If she'd been talking about machina then Danae would have been listening, or even history and Lady Yuna's defeat of sin. However Miss Yuna didn't like to boast about her achievements and after the initial exciting five minutes, the class had settled down into English.

Danae was struggling. She spoke English reasonably well but she wasn't terribly fluent. They only spoke Al Bhed at home, though her mother had insisted that she learn as much as she could before she went to school so that she might fit in. So far she wasn't doing a very good job of remaining inconspicuous.

Danae's attention jumped back to class as Miss Yuna knelt down next to her. The woman was smiling, so Danae relaxed a little.

"Hi Danae," Yuna started quietly. Danae looked around and noticed everyone else was working. Whoops. "I know you're new here and everything's a lot different to being at home. But you've got to concentrate and do the work set for you. Okay?"

Danae nodded and put her head down to whichever book they were trying to read. The letters seemed to make no sense. Danae knew most of her letters, but she'd never learnt to read anything but Al bhed, though she could read her father's mechanical hand book back to front easily. Damn Language barriers.

Danae soon found her attention drifting again, much to Miss Yuna's distress. Yuna made up her mind she'd have to talk to the girl's parents when they picked her up from school. It wasn't a hard decision to come to. She'd seen Danae get dropped off that morning and something about the Al Bhed woman on the hover had seemed familiar, though she couldn't quite place what.

Gippal parked the hover outside the school, waiting impatiently. Business had just been getting interesting when he left. A complicating problem with a neighbours hover. If he knew Rikku she'd have it fixed by the time he got back there with Danae. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as the bell rang. Students came pouring out of the school. He spotted Danae easily, as she was one of the few blonde girls there, and the only Al Bhed.

"Come on Danae else you're mother'll have all the fun." He yelled over the crowd, and Danae turned at the sound of his voice and ran towards the hover, jumping on two seconds later. Gippal noticed Yuna had come out of the building and seemed to be trying to get his attention, but Gippal wasn't going to go anywhere near her. Besides the machine problem was waiting for him. He turned the hover around and sped out of the school walls.

Yuna walked the dark streets of down-town Bevelle carefully. She wished she'd brought Tidus with her but then what would he do while she went to talk to Danae's parents? It had been weeks since the little girl first came to the school and she wasn't improving. What was worth was she was being isolated from the other kids and teased. Every morning and afternoon Yuna tried to talk to her parents but they seemed to be avoiding the contact. Maybe they didn't speak English, she thought and didn't want to embarrass themselves. So she'd taken it into her head to come and talk to them at their own home. She just wished it had been in a safer less scary environment. Sure she'd fought a lot of things but that had been years ago and her technique was rusty. She glanced at the shadows nervously and hurried along. When she'd looked up Danae's address in the school files, she'd been surprised by its location. This suburb had a reputation for seedy lowlifes and dodgy dealing. Anyone who could afford to live elsewhere would. Or at least she thought so. But Danae's family must be able to afford living elsewhere if they could afford to send their daughter to the best school in Bevelle. It was yet another mystery surrounding the little Al Bhed girl.

She came to a stop outside a well lit mechanic shop. It made sense, Al bhed were still the best workers of Machina and it explained how they'd been able to afford to send Danae to the most exclusive school in town. Yuna collected herself, and taking a deep breath knocked on the door. She heard lots of yelling inside and some loud footsteps. Someone yelled "I'll get it" and it sounded like someone slid to a halt just before the door. The door flew open and Yuna stood looking at a face she hadn't seen in years.

A/N: There goes the next chapter. It's kinda short but that happens. It's just a convenient cliff hanger to pause with. I'll try and post the next chapter soonish cos its really only editing, but no promises. Got lots of stuff to do with work and christmas and finding out if i get into uni, so it may be longer than i'd like it to be. so hopefully next chapter up soon. Please Review