A/N: sorry it's taken me so long to update. I just haven't been in the mood to type for a while. That and the fact that it's taken me forever to finish writing the chapter in the first place. Oh well, here's the next chapter.

chap 9:

My heart was pounding loudly in my ears. I felt as if I was going to be sick, but I swallowed the felling and kept quiet. The guards came around te bend and I could hear them clearly.

"I can't believe that Praetor Baralai sent every last guard away form the temple and from Bevelle to do the most ridiculous tasks you could think of." the first guard said.

"Yea I know what you mean. 'Protect the Al bhed during Lady Yuna's speech. If you ask me they should all be destroyed." the second guard said.

"I know but one of the Praetor's closest friends is an Al bhed."

"Really!"

"Yea" he said. They walked past us and out of earshot, talking about how he found this juicy piece of information out.

After I was sure they were gone, I got up and looked around, next to me I saw Gippal get up and brush the dirt and grass off of his clothes.

"How the hell did you hear that?" he asked "The only thing I could hear was the wind rushing past me."

"Years of training." I simply said "We have to be more careful, there could be more guards coming."

"We should try to blend in as much as possible, which means you should probably change into normal clothes." he said

"Your right." I agreed, changing into my trainer dress sphere, and dismissed my pet monkey. Gippal eyed my new look, apparently not used to me not sowing so much skin. The only part that was showing was my chest and not by much. I laughed at him. "Oh come on Gippal, I'm only wearing this until we get to Bevelle." I said

"I know, but that's just torture." he said with a mock pout.

"Awww, I'm sorry but you said blend in." I reminded him.

"Can't you change into your songstress dress sphere?" he asked me

"That's not really blending in." I said

"It is if you rarely wear that out fit, because then no one would recognize you."

"Fine." I said using my songstress dress sphere with the purple mini skirt he loves so much. I saw his face lighten up. I rolled my eyes. "Well shall we go?" I asked.

"Sure" he said taking my hand in his.

We walked the rest of the way to the Mushroom rock Road talking about our future, the wedding, and possibly and kids. We got to the Mushroom Rock Road and saw that there were no fiends at all. As a matter of fact no one was there it was completely deserted.

"That's weird there is absolutely nothing here." I said

"Yea, you're right" he replied

We walked the rest of the way to Djose in silence, each of us pondering what will happen when we got to the temple. When we got there, there were a few people mourning the ones they lost. They weren't paying attention to the exist, so we tried to turn back to go to the Moonflow without being spotted. But that's kinda hard to do when your walking on dirt and rocks.

Some one heard us and said "Excuse me." to us. We had no choice but to stop and turn around to face the woman.

"Can we help you?" I asked her

"You two are Al bhed aren't you?" the woman asked us

I looked at Gippal and nodded my head yes.

"Don't worry none of us here hate you. My Son is half Al Bhed. We don't blame the Al Bhed for what happened. My name's Layla. Do you think you could tell us what happened?" she asked.

"My name's Rikku, and this is my fiancé Gippal." I replied

"Are you Cid's daughter?" she asked me with a curious look

"Yes I am."

"Huh. Well anyway do you think you could tell us what happened?" she asked

"Well, we don't know to much our selves, but what we do know is that someone is trying to kill all of the Al Bhed." I said

"We're guessing whoever did this knew that there were a lot Al Bhed here at the time and decided to take advantage of opportunity." Gippal said

"You said your name was Gippal, right?" Layla asked

"Yes." he replied

"You were the leader of the Machine Faction weren't you? Please if you could just tell me a little more on what happened I might be able to help you." she desperately requested.

"Mother please, you're bothering them. They don't know what's going on any more than you do." someone said from behind us.

We turned around and saw Dravidian walking towards Layla.

"Dravidian's your son?" I asked

she nodded her head yes.

I was about to say something, but Gippal put his hand on my shoulder. And I knew he wanted to handle this.

"Thank you for your concern Dravidian, but she wasn't bothering us. Well we hate to be rude but we must be going now. Layla it was nice to meet you, and I assure you we're doing all we can to find who did this." Gippal said. He kept his hand on my shoulder as we walked away. We walked along the Moonflow, until we got to the shoopuf, in silence. We didn't talk until we were on our way across the Moonflow.

"What was that about?" I asked

"Simple Dravidian was following us, to find out how much we know. I didn't want to say anything until I was sure we were out of earshot." he replied

"And how do you know he was following us?" I asked

"Well we weren't there for very long and a few minuets later Dravidian shows up and silences his mother before she can tell us who she thinks did this."

"Your right we'll tell Baralai, when we get to Bevelle.

The rest of out journey was peaceful with the occasional race here or there. We raced each other in the Thunder plains ( he didn't believe that I was over my fear of lightning, so I lightly pushed him, but he fell in the mud, I took off running with him chasing right behind me.), I almost fell in the mud But Gippal caught me. We got to the Macalania woods and I changed back into my thief dress sphere as we came to the entrance to bevelle. We saw Baralai at the other end of the Highroad. He met us halfway and we walked with him the rest of the way. I saw him glance at the ring on my finger and then at me with a curious look. I smiled at him but also gave him a look that said 'don't say anything rigth now.' he nodded his head in understanding. When we got inside Bevelle, Baralai lead us to the city portion of Bevelle. It was huge. Everywhere you looked there were buildings and people, and hovers, and lifts. I had never seen anything like this before in my entire life.

"Wow, it's huge." I said in awe

"Yes, it's even bigger than Luca." Baralai responded proudly

"So where is everyone?" I asked

"There in the hotel. That's where I'm taking you guys. I don't mean to be rude, but do you guys think you keep your heads slightly down. I don't want people to recognize your eyes. The people don't exactly welcome the Al Bhed yet. I'm really sorry." he replied

"That's alright." Gippal said

the rest of the way to the hotel took only about five minuets. Once we were inside we were allowed to look up again. The inside of te hotel was huge. Everything was upholstered in red. Even the carpets were red. On one wall there was a mural to the Bevelle guardian, that I helped defeat about two years ago.

"Follow me." Baralai said. He lead us up a couple flight of stairs, and into a room, where the rest of our friends were.

We walked into the room and saw that everyone of our friends were there. Lulu, Wakka and Vidina were there, along with Kimahri and Tidus. Baralai and Paine were there and so was Nooj and Leblanc with Logos ad Ormi. Everyone who helped us defeat Sin and Vegnagun were here, with the exception of Auron of course. As soon as we walked in the room I hid my hand behind my back before anyone could see the ring. Of course Yuna saw me do it.

"Rikku? What are you hiding behind your back." she asked curiously

"Nothing." I answered quickly.

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Rikku!"

"Yuna"

"Oh come on, what are you hiding."

"Nothing!" I took the ring off my finger and Gippal took it and hid it in his pocket. You see we decided to keep it a secret as long as possibly, because everyone would want to help plan the wedding, and we still have to figure out who's going to be the best man, and maid of honor. Once we figured that out then we would tell them. Unfortunately leblanc saw him take the ring.

"Rikku, was that a ring you handed to Gippal in secret?" she asked

I knew Leblanc was evil. I thought to my self. I sighed in defeat knowing that it was to late to hid it now. Gippal handed me the ring and I put it on my finger again. It actually feels weird without it on my finger. I held out my hand for yuna to see. Just like I thought she squealed really loud and grabbed my hand for a better look. I sighed and glared at Leblanc. She just smirked at me.

"Oh my Faith, you didn't tell me about this over the comm sphere." she complained

"Gee I wonder why."

She glared at me. "Can I be your maid of honor?" she asked

"That's why we weren't going to say anything right away, because we still have to figure out who is going to be the best man, and our maid of honor, when we figure it out we were going to tell you." I said

"Oh sorry." she said

"That's alright, but next time Yuna, when I say 'nothing' leave it at that."

She grinned sheepishly. Well I'm really happy for you. I can't think of anyone more deserving than you." she said

"Thank you Yuna." I sad

I saw her glance at my ring one more time, but with a look of longing on her face

"Tuh'd funno Yuna, Frah dra desa ec neckrd, ra'mm ycg oui. (Don't worry Yuna, when the time is right he'll ask you) I whispered in Al Bhed so only she could hear me.

She looked up at me and I gave her a reassuring smile.

"Right, so mind telling us what we have to do?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

So after a few minuets we had our assignments, and we were off to Luca. We got to Luca in about five minuets, complements of Bevelle.

A/N: sorry that took so long. I know it was kinda short, but I wanted at least post something, before I started losing reviewers. I might be a while before I update again. I have to still write the chapter and stuff, so please review.