I heard the gunshots but my brain couldn't process it. Could not process the blood seeping through my shirt or the searing pain in my arm. . . the almost lifeless body of my brother, slowly dying in my arms.

"No. . . no Dravidian please, don't die, you can't die now. You have to get to know pops, to get to know your little niece or nephew. Please Dravidian. I know Brother would just love to get to know you, he would love someone to scheme with… please."

My shoulders were shaking and my cheeks were tear-stained. I could do nothing but hold my brother in my arms and I couldn't stand that. I hate being so helpless. I hate watching anyone die, especially family and it made it worse that it was happening in my arms.

My arm was throbbing but I didn't have time to worry about that. Dravidian blinked a couple of times as if he was trying to clear his vision. He opened his mouth to say something but the only thing that came out of his mouth was a wet gurgling sound as blood trickled down the side of his mouth.

"No, don't say anything; you need to conserve your energy. Gippal! He's dying." I shouted as I looked up at my husband. "Call back up or something."

I finally noticed what was really going on when Gippal didn't answer right away. Gippal was standing in front of us with his legs spread and a spare gun held out in front of him aimed at someone I could not fully see.

"Now's not exactly a good time." He murmured distractedly.

I shifted my position to get a better view of the man standing in front of Gippal. The man was unquestionably Spirian. The old look of hatred for all things Al Bhed burned brightly in his eyes. Staring at him I realized that he looked familiar, that I somehow knew this stranger. I just couldn't think, my mind was shut down trying to protect itself from truly comprehending my situation.

"Do you at least have any potions on you?"

I heard Gippal growl deep in his throat. "If I did, I would have used one on you a long time ago."

"What? Wh…Ahhhh!" I tried to move my hair out of my face when a searing pain shot through my arm. Two shots, two injuries, while one bullet only clipped my arm, the other buried itself in my brother's chest, slowly killing him.

My injury wasn't all that fatal but if left unchecked for too long could be very dangerous, yet Dravidian's wound would almost certainly kill him slowly and very painfully. The wound was right below the heart. I couldn't think of any way to save him besides taking him to the hospital, which right now was impossible.

Silent tears dripped down my face. "Dravidian….No."

He opened his eyes again, and…smiled. He was smiling. "It's… okay. I deserve this."

"Don't say that!" I Hissed. "No one deserves this, and especially not you."

He coughed and more blood trickled out of his mouth. "I took you hostage; I was going to kill you and the baby."

"I don't care, that doesn't mean you have to die, especially like this."

I had forgotten how much it hurt to lose someone. I hadn't felt this much pain since my mother died. My chest was so constricted I could barely breathe.

"I'll finally be free from all of the pain." He tried to reason. He paused for a moment, drawing in a ragged breath. "Have you and Gippal thought of names yet?"

"What?" I asked completely thrown off guard.

"For the baby." He was breathing really heavily; he didn't have much time left.

"No… Not yet."

"Would it be too much to ask a favor?"

"Of course not, anything you want.

"If…If it's a girl, can you name her Amnara?"

Amnara. Hmm it was a pretty name. "Of course, and if it's a boy we'll name him after you."

He gave me a weak smile. "You really don't have to."

"But I want to… I love you Dravidian."

"I love you too. Tell my sudran and Ci… vydran that I love them."

"You can tell them yourself." I cried.

"Promise me Rikku." It seemed as if he could see into my soul, the way his eyes were boring into mine, pleading with me to promise him.

"I promise."

With one final painful shuddering breath, the brother that I barely got to know died in my arms, his blood soaking my shirt.

I was in my own world. It took me a moment to realize that Gippal and the armed stranger were talking very heatedly.

"You!" Gippal hissed, anger and recognition laced his voice.

"Very good Gippal, you finally figured it out. Though I must admit I am a little hurt that you didn't realize I was missing, or did I do such a good job of convincing you that Dravidian" He sneered "Was the bomber that killed all of those poor innocent people."

It was something in the tone of the man's voice that angered me. I gently laid my brothers body on the ground and stood up facing Gippal and the armed stranger.

"What did he do?" I growled with tears threatening to spill. "What did he do to deserve this? What is Spira's name could be so horrible that you had to kill all of those people and frame Dravidian? Why did you kill my brother?" I screamed.

"Rikku…" Gippal started.

"No, I wanna know what the hell Dravidian did to deserve this? To be killed so cruelly" I snarled. I was so angry. I had never felt this type of hurt before. Maybe it was because my brother had died in my arms, died thinking that he deserved his untimely end, but I was mad and I wanted answers and I wanted them now.

"Oh now you defend your brother. You, who were so quick to accuse him, were so sure that he was the one to kill all of those people and was the one who attacked your father." He laughed, finding the situation amusing, and oh was it an ugly laugh. A cold laugh devoid of all emotion and feeling.

"I only blamed him because of you, you bastard." It was aggravating that I couldn't place him, he was so familiar. I scanned his face trying to figure out where I knew him from. The answer hit me literally like a ton of bricks, I felt dizzy and short of breath as recognition hit me. "You… You're the inn keeper at Djose. But I thought you were killed. Your body was never found…" I trailed off.

That damn smirk never left his face. "That's because right after I let Cid in I left to go put my plan in motion. You Al Bhed scum need to be wiped out once and for all. You've caused way too many problems in our past to be left alive. You people have ruined my life." He was visibly shaking now and the gun was wobbling very unsteadily and since he had Gippal's gun, the one Dravidian kicked to the shadows, he was very dangerous. He composed himself "So you see I decided to attack the temple on a day where there would be more Spirians than Al Bhed, just to stir things up. You see things like this take time and careful planning. That's where attacking the elite of Spira who were also know Al Bhed haters came in handy to fuel the fire. I knew you two with your nosy natures would try and stop "the bad guy" so I decided to add a little twist, and what better way to do that then to up root the Al Behd's strength than to take out the favored princess of the Al Bhed and her husband. I mean lets face it, we all know with that brother of yours in charge the Al Bhed would never survive. So I decided to frame Dravidian, knowing of his tormented past. See I did a little digging on the little home wrecker's past and knew my plan was virtually fool proof. The only little flaw was the idiot's weakness for a family. I will give you credit for one thing. I never expected you to forgive him so quickly, but of course you go and ruin my plans and offer him just that. Dravidian was supposed to kill the both of you and then I was going kill him and no one would have been the wiser. I would have made his death look like a suicide, like he felt guilty for killing his family and so killed himself instead of living with the guilt." He sighed. "Oh well I'll just have to kill you both myself."

He pointed the gun at Gippal and everything seemed to happen all at once. Two shots were fired. I saw the inn keeper stumble backwards but my attention was on Gippal. His gun fell to the floor as his left shoulder jerked backwards throwing him off balance; he crashed to the floor, a rose colored stain quickly spreading over his shirt.

"Gippal!" I shouted, dropping down on my knees next to him.

He moaned and tried to move. "No Gippal, don't move please."

He ignored me and reached towards the collar of his shirt. "Help." He murmured into his collar, which I realized held a communicator. He looked at me. "I…I'm sorry." He whispered before falling unconscious.

"No, Gippal Wake up please, Gippal. Open your eyes. Come on! Damn it. Gippal please." I cried. I couldn't do this. Why was this happening? This wasn't supposed to happen. I've already saved Spire I've been through my fair share of suffering. Why wouldn't this end?

"Hahahaha. Touching princess, real touching. But I doubt your husband can hear you, and by the looks of things he'll be in the farplane soon enough." He said all of this with a smirk. The bastard found all of this funny.

My arm was throbbing and steadily dripping blood, my legs felt weak, my head was spinning, and my chest hurt from the whirlwind of emotions that was swarming my body, the strongest one; fear. The fear that I would lose my husband for good, that I would die, that my child wouldn't even have a chance at life. All I wanted to do at that moment was to give up. To just let him kill me and end all of this. But I couldn't do that. I had too many people depending on me. I stood up and wiped the tears that had been steadily falling out of my eyes and off my cheek.

Turning around to face my attacker I noticed that he wasn't injured in the slightest but he did have a nasty bruise that was forming right below his eye where the guns recoil hit him. From what I could tell when he fired the gun the recoil was too great , smacking him in the face with the butt of the gun with enough force to move him far enough out of the way that Gippal's shot just missed him.

I straightened my posture, squaring my shoulders and holding my high, ignoring the way my head swam from blood loss. That's when I noticed movement from the corner of my eye, fiends. They were gathering at the smell of blood. I knew it wouldn't be too much longer before they attacked. I could only think of one way out of this. The only way out of this it seemed was for me to play dead. Which at the rate I was going might not be too hard. I was already fighting to stay on my feet. Putting my plan into motion I slowly sank back down on my knees and finally lay flat on my back, acting as if the pain of my wound and the stress had finally taken its toll on me.

I heard him chuckle lightly. "Well that didn't take too long. That was easier then I thought princess. I was expecting some kind of fight, especially form Spira's savior. I'm not even injured and soon you'll all be dead, just like your brother." He chuckled darkly. "The all of this will finally be over and I can get beck to my life.

It was now or never. I closed my eyes and relaxed every part of my body.

"Well, well, dead already. What a pity. I was looking forward to having more fun with you." He kneeled down next to me to check whether I was really dead or not. When he was close enough I quickly kicked out the back of his knees and pushed him up and over me… and over the ledge that was right behind us. His shocked screams echoed through the rough cavern as his gun clattered to the floor.

I slowly sat up, breathing heavily. That required more energy than I had. As the adrenaline started to fade I took stock of the situation. My arm was still slowly dripping blood and I knew I had to stop it somehow. Using what energy I had and the hole from the bullet wound I tore off the rest of my sleeve and used it as a bandage.

I stood up willing my body to hold out just a little longer so I could figure out where I was and how to get Gippal and myself out of here. I looked around me, slowly surveying the area and the surrounding fiends, desperately trying to will my foggy mind to remember this place.

The Omega ruins. That's where I was. It finally dawned on me. Why it looked familiar. No other hellish place on Spira emitted the same purple glow as this place did. I Shuddered as I remembered all of the harsh fiends I fought here last time with Yuna and the other guardians. If I had that much trouble fighting them when I was at full the strength then how the hell was I going to fight them now, and by the look of hunger on their faces they weren't going to wait much longer to attack.

Gippal was still unconscious and his shirt had a bright red stain that was steadily growing. Kneeling down next to him I switched on his communicator.

"Hello? Pops, Yunie, Paine, Brother, anyone?" I waited.

"Rikku? Rikku is that you?"

"Oh vydran, we need help, Gippal's seriously injured; he might die. Daddy please come help us."

"It's going to be okay nyria. We're on our way. We got Gippal's transmission. We'll be there soon. Are you okay?"

"Yes, but Vydran, Dravidian's dead."

He was silent.

"He was innocent though Vydran. None of this was his fault."

"Okay. We'll… we'll talk about it later. We're almost there. We're not even minutes away."

"Okay, please hurry, Gippal can't last much longer."

"We'll be there as soon as we can. I love you sweetie."

"I love you too vydran." I clicked off the communicator and everything went silent. The only noise that could be heard was the sound of the wind whistling throigh the caves from some far off opening.

I grabbed the gun Gippal dropped when he got shot in case any of the fiends tried to attack. I rested Gippal's head in my lap and tried my hardest to keep my composure. 'I'll be out of here soon, Gippal will be okay.' I chanted this over and over again in my head and I'm pretty sure it was the only thing keeping me sane.

I heard a low hiss behind me and frantically tried to turn my as best as I could towards the sound. It was a Ghoul poised and ready to attack.

I raised the gun, thankful for once of my thorough weapons training, and my time as a guardian. I really learned a lot that year. I knew almost all of the weaknesses of all the fiends in Spira. My aim was dead on as the Ghoul exploded into a bunch of pyreflies.

I sigh in relief, my shoulders sagging in exhaustion. I looked down at Gippal's unconscious form, Scared out of my mind. He looked so pale and had lost so much blood. I had no idea if he would make it and that scared me. I could not lose him; it would break me completely to lose him, to have to raise our child without him. To have to try and describe him to our child. No words can do justice to the type of person Gippal is.

I put my fingers just below his pulse point just below his ear. I sighed in relief when I felt a faint pulse.

I had my other hand lightly resting on my stomach, rubbing soothing circles, when I felt my child kick. "It's okay honey, daddy will be okay, I promise." This seemed to calm it down for a little while, and yet I couldn't tell if I was trying to convince myself or my baby."

The ceiling shook above us, as what I assumed to be my brother's airship approach the ruins.

I nearly sobbed in relief when I saw a light towards the front of the cave and saw the faint outlines of my friends and family.

"Rikku!"

"Vydran!" I shouted. "Down here." I was frantically waving my arms, though my arm was throbbing.

"Rikku! Watch out!" In the blink of an eye Paine had transformed into the gunner dress sphere and fired three rounds directly behind me; the air from the bullet ruffling my hair.

I thought maybe there was a fiend behind me, but when I turned around I saw the Inn keeper's body slouched over the ledge, bleeding form Paine's three gunshots.

Seconds later my friends and family were all around us, Yuna, Tidus, Paine, Baralai, Cid and Brother.

"Yunie, can you heal him?" I asked in a broken voice.

"I'll do what I can, but a wound of that magnitude will take a lot more healing then a strong curaga Rikku."

I could only nod.

"Rikku, you're hurt" Pain said softly kneeling next to me.

"I'm fine, Gippal needs the help. What if he dies Paine? I can't lose him. I don't know what to do." I was sobbing uncontrollably into Paine's shoulder, just letting everything out, everything I had been trying in vain to hold back, all of my fears and worries.

She wrapped her arms around my shoulders trying her best to comfort me. "It's okay Rikku, He's going be okay. We won't let him die."

"Yunie?" I asked I asked timidly.

"He's stable but we have to get him to a hospital soon."

I nodded and stepped away form Paine only to be enveloped in an almost bone crushing hug from my vydran and my brother, and bone crushing hug that happened to put pressure on my wound. I didn't complain though, I was just glad to be safe and sound in my loving family's arms.

"Oh nyria(honey), you're okay" Vydran breathed. "We were so worried."

I couldn't help but wince this time. The tighter he hugged me the more pressure he put in my arm and it was beginning to throb. "I'm fine vydran, I'm just sorry I couldn't save Dravidian. I couldn't save my brother.

I felt a curaga quietly wash over me and I glanced at Yunie, who had a sad sympathetic smile on her face.

"Shh. It's okay honey. You did what you could." I've never hear my fathers voice filled with such emotion. It made me start crying again.

"It doesn't matter, my best wasn't good enough, I should have been able to do more. I should know by now to never travel anywhere with out the proper supplies. If I had I might have been able to use a curaga or potion on him to at least slow or stop the bleeding. I was so stupid what was I thinking."

Don't, don't you dare take the blame for this. This isn't your fault. You were kidnapped from a hospital, even if you had brought anything with you, it wouldn't have been taken from you the moment you were checked into the hospital. This isn't in anyway your fault. If anything it's mine. I should have taken responsibility of Dravidian. He was my son; he should have known I was his father. I should have been more help to Layla with raising him."

"Look you can play the blame game all you want but it doesn't change the fact that Dravidian's dead, the bomber is dead and we really need to move if you don't want Gippal to join the list of casualties. The fiends won't hold out much longer; they'll go for him, if he doesn't die from his wounds first." Paine interjected

She was right of course. We all knew that, but it sounded so bad when she said it so bluntly.

I nodded, staying silent as everything else around me continued on. I watched, as if from a distance, as Tidus and Baralai carried Gippal back to the airship while vydran and Brother picked up Dravidian's lifeless body.

"He's alive!" Vydran shouted.

I couldn't breathe. He was alive? But how was that possible?"

"Yunie!" I shouted.

She turned back around looking confused as she ran back to us.

"Dravidian. He might be alive."

She looked doubtful but made her way over to where my father and brother were standing. Pressing her fingers to his pulse point she waited. 'Rikku I don't feel. . ." She paused, eyes widening in shock. "There's a pulse. It's very weak but it is there. I'll see what I can do."

She rested her hands above his body, her faced scrunched up in concentration as a faint bluish white light emanated from her hands and hovered over his body. The light wasn't very strong, Yuna was weakening from using her powers but it seemed to have had some effects when all of a sudden Dravidian took a deep shuddering breath, but still remained unconscious.

Yuna stood up looking worried. "He's alive but no where near stable; his wounds need more medical attention then just a white mage. If he's going to survive then we need to move fast. But first things first. We need to stop the bleeding. I know there's not much left but he can't afford to lose anymore blood than he already has."

Vydran did not hesitate, taking his shirt off and pressing it against Drvidian's wound as Brother and he quickly rushed him to the airship.

I looked at my cousin with weary eyes. "How do you do it Yunie? How do you stay so strong when everything else is falling apart?

"Faith." Yuna responded with sympathy written all over her face. She wrapped a comforting arm around my waist gently leading me towards the waiting airship and our friends.

"Faith in what Yuna? What is there left to believe in? Yevon was a lying bastard, the Fayth are no longer, what is there left to believe in?" I felt so broken, my chest hurt from the weight of it all, and if it wasn't for my baby I probably would have just collapsed and given up right there and then.

"Faith in the Universe, faith that everything will work out for the best. Everything happens for a reason Rikku, you'll see everything will be fine."

She stopped, silent for a moment. "Three years ago when Tidus disappeared I had no hope Rikku, I was so angry at everything, you saw how I was. I couldn't believe that after everything I had been through, after everything I had and was willing to sacrifice, the one thing I wanted the most they were going to take it all away from me.

"I stopped going to the temples. I stopped praying. My world, my beliefs, everything I had ever known was shattered. I was angry Rikku, oh so angry. I resented the faith, the Aeons, after all I did for them they couldn't let me have this one thing, wouldn't let me keep the man I loved. I knew Lulu and Wakka worried about me. I could see it in their eyes, afraid to say something that would have brought back unwanted memories, but I couldn't find it in myself to care anymore.

"That's when you showed up with that sphere, the one of Shuyin. I so desperately wanted it to be him that I didn't notice the very subtle differences between the two. But I didn't care. If there was any chance that it was him, any chance of finding him then I was going to take it."

We had reached the entrance and the ladder that would take us back to the airship, when Yunie turned to me.

"You saved me Rikku, whether you realized it or not. Traveling all around Spira made me realize what I had been missing and showed me what all of us accomplished. And even though I wasn't okay with it, if losing Tidus meant that Spira was safe again and the Al Bhed were no longer as hated as they were, then I could live with that. I started to regain my faith, but this time it was my faith in Spira and its people that helped me get out and live my life again. It all worked out in the end for me and you have to believe that it will for you also. I do."

Yunie hugged me once before climbing up the ladder and into the airship.

I started after her and with the full force of the sun shining on me I whispered to myself, "Me too Yunie, me too."