No yaoi yet here either. This one is an AU Gippal POV fic from the possibility that being the neutral party what if he'd done something to stop the war sooner.
I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
Gippal turned from the sphere he'd just recieved a transmission on, grimacing as he tried to block out the image he'd seen. One of his scouts had been reporting the recovery of the remaining machina that could be salvaged after a battle between the Youth League and New Yevon forces. In the background as the scout had made his report Gippal could see the corpses everywhere scattered across the grounds of the Thunder Plains where the two forces had clashed. Turning he walked from his room in Djose temple, pacing outside to stand by the bridges outside the temple as he gazed at the setting sun.
"It just goes on and on.. Damn them! Why do they keep killing?" Gippal cursed and kicked at the dirt frustratedly, grinding his teeth. The skirmishes had been going on for over a year now with no sign of ending, more and more people dying for a cause that to Gippal seemed pointless. Turning away from the bridge once more he stalked back inside and stretched out on his bed gazing at the cieling.
It had been going on and on and he'd been waiting for something to hapen, something to change and yet nothing had. The death totals just climbed until there were more bodies than there were graves and they were being burned. He always knew when a battle had taken place by the way the wind would smell like charred flesh as the bodies were piled up and set afire.
The months drug on and Gippal found himself watching Shelinda giving a broadcast as he was stocking up on supplies in Luca one afternoon, pausing to listen. Her face was ashen and she looked as though she hadn't slept well in several weeks from the dark circles that rimmed her eyes yet still she gave her broadcast as she did every day to keep the people of Spira informed on the current goings on.
"The battles have escalated into larger proportions than ever. My contacts between here and Bevelle say that one of the lightning towers on the thunder plains was shot down by New Yevon forces during a battle, killing and injuring a large number of Youth League soldiers. Despite the fatalaties the Youth League seems to be amassing it's forces in order to assault another of the New Yevon temples in order to try to retrieve some of the spheres. Let everyone hope that these conflicts will come to an end soon and one side will win." Shelinda explained solemnly, facing the sphere camera with a serious expression as she spoke. At her last words the surrounding citizens watching gave a shout of approval.
"At least someone agrees that this has to be stopped.. Unfortunately the majority still wish for the battles continue since neither side is willing to relent..." Shelinda continued, shaking her head and then gave the current body count as Gippal turned away.
Upon returning to his base he called two subordinates to him with instructions to go to the Maevyn and the Praetor, asking them to meet with him at the neutral ground of Guadosalam.
You may ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
When a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war
"I'm shocked you both came considering how damn stubborn the two of you are but I guess it would be bad publicity if you refused a conference requested by the neutral party." Gippal snorted as he turned to look from Nooj to Baralai who stood rigidly as they glared at eachother.
"I was not informed that the Maevyn would also be attending this little conference. Otherwise, bad publicity or not, I wouldn't have come." Baralai snapped and turned his gaze to Gippal who rolled his good eye.
"Oh get over it, both of you! I didn't tell either of you because I knew you'd act like a couple of children and hide in your respective bases. But now you're here and you're going to stay here or else I'll kick both your asses so sit the hell down and shut up! We need to have a talk." Gippal commanded and pointed to the two chairs at the table in the inn as he took his own seat. Baralai bit his lower lip angrily to keep from snapping and took a seat leaving only Nooj standing who'd been silently listening with an expression of hate.
"I doubt you could stop me if I chose to leave right now. I'll hear you out though.." Nooj growled and finally sat, resting his arms on the table and facing Gippal.
"Now that I've got you both sitting let me preface what I'm about to say with this thought: I don't give a damn what happened between the three of us two years ago at the Den of Woe. I don't care whether Nooj shot us and betrayed us or any of that. I don't want to hear any excuses for your actions based on what happened two years ago, understand?" Gippal asked looking between the two other leaders, watching Nooj shrug while Baralai's expression tightened.
"How can you say that?! He shot us both! Didn't that effect you at all?" Baralai snapped, slamming his hands on the table and pointing at Nooj.
"I said I don't give a damn. Stop flailing around and sit still. Listen, do you two even realize what you've become? We've all seen this somewhere before! Are you so blind that you don't see what you're doing or are your egos just so big that you don't care? You're becoming just like Maester Mika and the former Yevon Clergy! You two are turning into a pair of power hungry bastards just like them, killing anyone who opposes you in any way! You're becoming the same kind of men that sent the Crimson Squad into the fucking Den of Woe!" Gippal verbally lashed them both.
"Your point? History just repeats itself.. You've lived your life hated by people like Baralai, you should expect no less of us than we expected of our former leaders. We were people who were used and who in turn learned to use other people." Nooj said indifferently, his cold gaze meeting Gippal's.
"I'm not like them at all! They used us as experiments to try to figure out how to control Vegnagun. Besides, I'm not the one who started this dispute. I'm just defending my faction that was there first!" Baralai attempted to justify himself. Gippal sighed and rested his face in his palms before with a groan he looked back at them disappointedly.
"I thought you two were different, after all we've been through I thought that you could've gone beyond the kind of assholes who put us through that hell. Nooj, how can you be so careless about all this when you grew up in the crusaders? You know the pain of living as a soldier so why would you put someone else through that? And you Baralai, it doesn't matter who started it because you sure as hell ain't ending it! You're liars, both of you.. Using these factions as a tool to settle your personal dispute. If you don't stop these battles will become an all out war!" Gippal raised his voice, his good eye narrowing with rage.
"No one ever stepped in on my behalf to protect me from that fate! My father and the other adults who were crusaders had been soldiers, known that pain, and it didn't matter to them that they were dragging me into a future full of that same pain. I put others through that because I've lived through it myself. I am what my life has made me.. At least I don't pretend to be a angel like the Praetor does." Nooj snorted, his lips forming a snarl.
"You're really one to talk, Maevyn. You can go to hell, traitor.." Baralai spat, turning to Nooj. Gippal sat, watching the two argue, realizing he wouldn't get another word in until the two had thoroughly satisfied themselves insulting eachother.
"Hell you say? This is hell! We've been in hell since two years ago." Nooj growled and stood up, leaning foward so that he was glowering over Baralai darkly as the Praetor impudently glared back at him.
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
That their business interest runs
"Hey! Break it up, I didn't call you two hear just to watch you two bitch eachother out. I want you both to look at me, not eachother, and only answer my questions." Gippal interjected, giving them both a severe look until Nooj sat down and Baralai turned his gaze away from the Maevyn.
"Tch.. So is there something else you have to tell us other than calling us here to tell us how badly we've fucked up?" Nooj asked, leaning across the table at Gippal, peering over the rims of his glasses.
"Would you two open your eyes and look at you both! Can't you see what I'm trying to tell you?! You're becoming monsters, and I'm trying to snap the both of you out of it before you do something you'll really really regret. I thought we made enough regrets before, but here you two are just keeping the slaughter going." Gippal's tone became a little more desperate as he looked from one leader to the other. Baralai lowered his face, turning away with closed eyes while Nooj's face was obscured by his bangs as he looked off at a wall. Gippal continued to stare at them in silence before getting to his feet.
"Go, just go. I can't stand to look at the two of you. You both make me sick. I'm going to be watching you both, and if you can't get it together I'll be calling on you both again and I will settle this." Gippal said and got to his feet, turning away from the both unable to look at them any longer. With Gippal's back turned the other leaders both glared at eachother briefly before both rising and departing in order to head back to their own bases.
On the radio talk shows and the TV
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
"Didn't they hear a word I said!?" Gippal yelled to himself and tossed the sphere he'd been watching across the room furiously so that it hit one of the opposite walls of the temple, startling several of the Al Bhed there who were working on a machina. Without a word to the other's working he walked to where the sphere was and walking outside as he continued to watch the broadcast.
"You all know our stance on this war and we will not surrender. We will fight on in the name of all that is holy against these vagabonds who try to disrupt the peace." Baralai spoke on the sphere transmission to the people of Bevelle who gave an excited cry at his words, cheering loudly.
"Moron! Don't call it war, if you declare it that Nooj will only fight harder because you both are idiots!" Gippal growled at the sphere as he sat down outside the temple glaring at the sphere.
"We will protect any friend of New Yevon and give them safe harbor in Bevelle, protecting them from those fiends led by the Maevyn. I will see that this war is ended quickly so that the good people following New Yevon can live in peace without constant harassment." Baralai announced to yet another cry of agreement and Gippal turned off the sphere throwing it away from himself once more where it rolled off one of the bridges leading away from Djose temple.
"Friends.. Pah, that word means nothing to either of you any more. Apparently words like friends are nothing more than words that you use when your situation fits using it. These two are starting to sound exactly alike. Rallying their soldiers in order to start a full blown war, it's like Sin is back. I have to stop them before they do anything else... It looks like it's time to call them back.." Gippal groaned and slammed his fist against the sandstone.
But who are the ones that we call our friends
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take anymore
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
"Again you call us here, did you think of something else to say or are you just going to repeat the same sentiment as last time?" Nooj muttered as he paused outside the Inn where Gippal stood waiting.
"I have more to say, and I'm going to settle this between you whether the both of you like it or not. Now get inside." Gippal ordered and turned, not looking back to see if the other two were following. As the other two leaders moved to follow them a large rock came flying in their direction, nearling striking them and causing the three faction leaders to turn.
"Murderers! Get out of here! You, and you! You two are the murderers, it was because of you that my son died!" a woman shrieked, approaching them with another rock in hand ready to bludgeon both men with it. Gippal moved between the woman and the other two, catching her by her wrists to keep her from throwing the rock.
"Easy.. Easy miss, you need to calm down. I agree with you but attacking them will only provoke them. I have come here as an envoy to settle things between these two so I advise you go home now.. I am extremely apologetic about your son as well.." Gippal calmly advised and the woman's eyes filled with tears before she nodded, dropping the rock and walking away solemnly. Gippal turned back to the other two with a cold expression before heading inside the inn. The display leaving both the Praetor and the Maevyn a bit wide eyed.
"I've been observing you both on the sphere broadcasts since then and my scouts have been following the movements of your forces. I'm here to stop you now.. This has gotten out of control and you two are causing as much damage as Sin." Gippal said as he led them into a private room and turned to face them.
"I see.. Does that mean you plan to assasinate us?" Baralai asked suspiciously, looking from Nooj to Gippal and moving a bit closer toward the door.
"No, I could've had you killed already if that was my aim. Though if it comes to that, I will. I do want to try to get you to agree to form a cease-fire pact of some sort in the least. These battles have to stop, because this little war game you have going is going to be the death of Spira." Gippal calmly answered, taking a seat at the table in the room, the same they'd sat at the last time he'd called them. Baralai moved to sit while Nooj stood with his back against a nearby wall, unwilling to sit among them.
"I've watched the sphere broadcasts. I've heard the lies you've both fed your followers and I'm tired of it. Do either of you even remember the time we were together, when we were REAL friends? Not the false friendship you both speak of on your diatribes about peace and war." Gippal looked from one man to the other, watching their faces intently.
"What does any of that matter? We've gone too far to turn back now. I'm a traitor, both the Praetor and I are murderers, and you sit on the fence telling us what we ought to do rather than taking any action yourself. The key word in your last statement was 'we were friends'. It's something in the past that I doubt we can retrieve." Nooj stated plainly, his eyes downcast as he spoke. The angle of using guilt to manipulate them was far more effective than trying to harass the two stubborn leaders who seemed able to bend with the strongest winds.
"It makes me sick to admit it but Nooj is right. The past is gone and we're stuck with now. What point is there in a ceasefire anyway? Stopping the fight now wouldn't make up for all the lives gone so why don't you just let us finish this our way?" Baralai seethed, grinding his teeth as he spoke.
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
"Because you two aren't just fighting with eachother! If you two said you wanted to go at it right now and beat eachother bloody I'd stand and watch, and probably laugh for the hell of it because you're both a pair of idiots. But you are both using human lives like pawns in this game of revenge chess between you two. People are dying! Have you seen what's left after the fights between your forces, have you actually had to look at the corpses or smell them burning while you hide away in your bases and send more off to die? No!" Gippal lost his temper, raising his voice and startling the other two men. He had been angry and yelled in the past but there was something different when Gippal became truly enraged, something deadly in his voice that warned to tread carefully or die.
"I didn't think so.. Sure you'll be the good leaders and look them in the eye and then send them away and never have to think about those countless people again. Not only that, you two are like Sin itself! The battles between your sides have inadvertantly had casualties that weren't even involved. Innocent bystanders have been slaughtered if they couldn't get out of your men's way quick enough. The most disgusting thing though, something I thought you'd know better than to do, using children as weapons of war. If you enjoy the fighting so much why don't you both go take a walk through the bloodbath that's left after the massacres between your forces!?" Gippal growled, gazing at them with a feral look in his remaining eye as though ready to strike both of them.
"Wasn't it said that Spira was named after the spiral of death that is eternal. Apparently that Spiral just isn't ready to end.." Nooj murmured, peering over the rims of his glasses at Gippal challengingly.
"Don't... Don't you dare even blame this on fate you selfish bastard. No one is forcing your hand to perpetuate this slaughter, it's personal choice so take responsibility and harbor the guilt rather than shunting it off onto the shoulders of fate like a coward." Gippal spat as he got to his feet and began to pace like a tiger in a cage while the two other faction leaders watched him edgily.
There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say the names
Baralai averted his eyes, lowering his gaze from Gippal while Nooj trained his gaze against a tapestry on one wall. Neither men able to look the Al Bhed in the eye and justify their cause.
"You both will stain this whole damn world red if you don't stop. When all three of us were mercenaries we had no choice but to soil our hands but you both are the ones in power now and could decide not to do that. But you're more bloodthirsty now than either of you ever were as mercenaries. Are you proud of yourselves? Are you satisfied being able to weild the power to send countless human beings to die for a cause that neither of you internally give a damn about?" Gippal pursed his lips, waiting for an answer expectantly.
"I am not proud, but at least I have a cause even if it's a hollow one! What have you been doing to stop this if it bothers you so much! You call us here and rail at us but if you really wanted to stop it you should've just formed an alliance with one of us and crushed the other side and then it'd be all over. Instead you sit back in that gutted temple while your faction picks through the remains of our battles like rats! If you give that much of a damn then do something about it rather than just screaming at us!" Baralai rose to his own feet and snapped back, slamming his hands on the table.
"God damn you.. Can't you see I don't really want to have to kill either of you! The whole point of the way I've been doing things is to try to avoid that from happening. I want no part in your bloodshed, even if it means I'm the indifferent one watching from the sidelines I'd rather not dirty my hands in the filthy war you two have engaged in. I'm different than you two. If your causes are so important to you both then why don't you tell us the real meaning behind them, beyond this personal hate-vendetta?" Gippal hissed, narrowing his eye.
They sell us our president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
"You say you've watched the sphere broadcasts so you ought to know.. But since you don't I'll explain it to you. Unlike the Maevyn's faction, New Yevon stands for the peace of Spira! We are just trying to maintain the old ways rather than making radical changes that will throw everything into chaos. This world needs order, and it needs the security of the name of Yevon even if the god is dead." Baralai explained haughtily, glancing at Nooj who rolled his eyes at the explanation.
"Ah... So what's your faction's cause Nooj? I want to hear what you both have to say." Gippal asked, tilting his head to look at the Maevyn.
"The Youth League is about change and while some are fearful of it change is how things evolve. If no one ever tried to change anything then summoner Yuna would be dead and summoners would still be dying while sin ravaged the world. This world wants change, it desires it and my faction can bring that change. We are also the seekers of the truth that the Yevonites try to cover up, like the truth about what happened in the Den of Woe and the fact that they're keeping that abomination of a machina under their city. False religion needs to be thrown away in order for a new tomorrow to be born." Nooj stated simply, shrugging as he finished and then looking off at one of the walls once more.
"Oh boy.. Well this has been a bunch of bullshit. It looks like both of you have trained yourselves well in that mantra that you dubbed a cause
Change? Religion? You just both think that people can't think for themselves and that they won't learn to cope if you don't guide them. Your words look nice on paper and in public but your actions don't match your words. Neither of you want peace, you tell people what they should do and how they should think while pointing fingers at eachother and sending people off to kill eachother in your names. You both.. are actually worse than those in charge during Sin's existance!" Gippal snarled and placed his hands on his hips.
"Your point?" Nooj replied dryly, shifting slightly where he stood.
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who
Our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
At the words Gippal stalked forward, balling his fists and drawing an arm back to throw a punch that caught Nooj in the left side of the jaw. The force of the blow sending the taller man staggering and finally slumping to the floor to stare up at Gippal in shock. Turning away Gippal drew back his fist and struck Baralai across the face sending him likewise sprawling on the floor.
"There's my point! You're both liars! You declare eachother enemies but you hide away safe while others are the one's fighting! Why don't you two just have it out rather than using others if you both dispise eachother and believe in your causes that much." Gippal barked, glaring down at both men on the floor who recoiled slightly at the words.
"What's the matter? Neither of you have anything to say for yourselves? Did that punch hurt? It should, though you deserve a lot more than a right hook to the jaw. Who are you two anyway? Who are both of you, because you are not my two beloved friends I was separated from two years ago. What did you bastards do with the real Baralai and Nooj?" Gippal panted, out of breath from yelling at both of them as he glowered down at them.
"Those two men... died back then. We're just what's left." Nooj murmured, propping himself up on one arm and turning away to spit the blood that was collecting in his mouth.
"Shut up! I can see that you're both not dead, I don't know what you're trying to pull pretending to be like this. What sort of advantage either of you are getting out of this... But I have just ONE other question for you both..." Gippal spoke, turning and pacing to where Baralai was first and grabbing him by the collar of his robes.
"Why!? I just want to know why you can't just let everything go. So Nooj shot us? Get the fuck over it, grow up, he probably had his reasons whatever the hell they might be. We all survived the Yevon clergy's dogs so why the hell can't you just let it go and move on so that the three of us can go back to being friends and forget about these meaningless factions!" Gippal yelled, shaking the Praetor roughly who winced at the words. Realeasing the quivering silver haired man Gippal turned to Nooj and grabbed him by his hair, twisting his fingers so that the Maevyn was forced to look him in the eyes.
"Why?! Why the hell are you doing this? You could've just came back and explained what ever crazy reason you shot us and we could go from there rather than forming an opposing faction! Are you so hard up for death that you're still looking for a way to make somebody kill you so you won't have to do it yourself? Is your selfish desires all you give a damn about? Poor you because life didn't go your way.. Well neither did any one elses so stop pitying yourself!" Gippal roared before releasing his grip on Nooj's hair and straightening, looking between both men who were watching him wide eyed. Gippal snorted, moving to the pack he'd brought with him, extracting two daggers and setting them on the table.
"Now... either you two can sit your asses down and figure out a way to make some cease-fire pact so we can work on fixing what's been fucked up and somehow trying to be friends again after all this shit.. Or, you two can take a dagger and finish this now. Your choice either way." Gippal sighed and took a seat at the table. The Maevyn and Praetor met eachother's gaze for a moment cautiously and then nodded softly, pulling themselves to their feet and moving to sit at the table.
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire