Irreplaceable

Chapter six, unfinished business!

Rikku was thrilled to be out of the rain...but Guadosalam? She hated this place more than the Thunder plains. The place was just so hot and muggy and left a weird taste in her mouth. Plus Seymour had lived here; that creep still haunted her nightmares. She would never admit that to anyone else, of course. Even worse, was that to see Leblanc, she had to go into his old house, yuck!

"Why did she have to move into that place anyway?" Rikku wondered aloud.

"What?" asked Gippal, who was walking besides her as they entered the retched town.

"Nothing." She replied with a frown "You wouldn't know...you weren't there to save me." She muttered bitterly to herself.

He didn't hear her, or at least he pretended not to. "She has to be here right?"

Rikku sighed; if Paine was here, and had run to Leblanc about her problems instead of Rikku; she would smack Paine when they found her.

"If she is, we'll find her." She said taking a deep breath to brace herself.

When they reached the door to the Leblanc's mansion, Rikku took another deep breath to brace herself before entering that forsaken manor.

Beside her Gippal frowned. "Why are you flinching? Leblanc isn't that bad."

Rikku sighed "It's nothing." She exclaimed. "Let's go."

When they entered the mansion the front hall was empty except for two she-goons who were near the back of the room chatting about who knows what, oblivious to the fact that Rikku and Gippal were even there.

"Excuse me!" Rikku exclaimed waving her arms to get their attention.

One of them gasped. The other girl didn't react, as though she had seen them already and had just chosen to ignore them. "Um...yes?" the former asked nervously.

"Um...we're looking for our friend. Her name is Paine; she's one of the Gullwings. Have you seen her?"

The quiet girl piped up; her voice strangely forced and high pitched. "No, we haven't seen her. The boss might know, you should go talk to her."

Rikku just stared at her for a few seconds; something was wrong. She just had a strange feeling, like she was missing something important. "Right, we'll do that. Please keep an eye out for our friend." She said slowly, as her and Gippal started towards the stairs.

As they walked Gippal leaned closer to her and whispered into her ear. "What's wrong?"

"Gippal, that girl, the quiet one, did she sound strange?"

Gippal frowned. "I guess she did...why?"

"I don't know, it's just I got a really weird feeling, like she was up to something."

Gippal nodded "I got that impression too." He frowned "but do you think it has to do with Dr. P?"

Rikku frowned, trying to think. She was sure it had to do with Paine, but how? After thinking about it for a few minutes she gasped.

"What is it? What'd she do?" Gippal asked, talking at a million miles per second.

"I think she abducted Paine!" Rikku exclaimed in a whisper. And immediately they turned around and started back down the stairs.

"It makes sense...kind of." Gippal whispered doubtfully, with a frown, as they walked down the stairs as quickly as they could without alerting the she-goons.

"It would explain why Paine didn't leave a note or anything!" Rikku panted. "Or why she hasn't come back. If she really just felt unappreciated, she would come back when she saw all the effort we have been putting into finding her."

Finally they got down the stairs and turned the corner, but when they did Rikku collapsed; the She-goons were gone.

"drec!" Gippal swore to himself. Then he faced Rikku again. "Riks, you said there was a secret passage in here right? And it leads to a different section of the mansion?"

Rikku nodded. "Do you think they went that way? Wha...what if they're keeping Paine back there?!"

She got up and walked into the next room, Gippal following behind her. "But wouldn't Leblanc notice? I mean this is her place isn't it?" he asked as Rikku ran to the activating switch for the secret entrance.

"Not necessarily." Rikku muttered as she pushed the glowing blue button switch. She then, walked over to the secret entrance wall and kicked it open. "Come on." She said "We've got unfinished business with that goon." She whispered. Then she ran off.

"Yikes!" Gippal muttered running after her. "She's pissed."

Gippal was worried about Rikku. Ever since Paine's disappearance she hadn't been herself; she'd been the Rikku that was overly serious and bitter, and who could snap and go crazy on someone in a matter of seconds. The last time she was like this she'd nearly killed Gippal with those knives of hers. If they didn't find Paine soon, Gippal couldn't imagine how crazy she'd get. He could only hope that they would find her today. If not they were in serious trouble; and they all knew it!

A/N Holy heck guys! I missed like two weeks of posting this story! I am so sorry guys! I have been psycho busy lately (And until now I've been writing these chapters in advance) and yeah no more, excuses. Basically I suck. Lol But I'm back and I'm going to do my best to catch up. This story is really starting to come together now (I already know where I want to have it go from here) I'm not sure how many chapters there will be, but we are still at the beginning of the story so it'll be pretty long. I don't actually expect this to win a Watty (A. because this fandom is not popular enough, and B. because my writing isn't good enough) but I am still having fun writing this. (And I can't stop now; I have to finish the story! Lol) Anyway so vote and please comment! (Even if it's just to give me hate or something that's still a comment. ^_~) Alright well hopefully I'll post another chapter tomorrow (and Saturday to make up for the missed day last Friday.) Please stay tuned for more Final Fantasy goodness! Love y'all -Reibun