The virus in Guadosalam didn't become big news until the multi-millionaire creator of the game Sphere Break caught it and was confined to his place of residence.

Once Rin caught the disease, people started to panic. This made way for the virus to spread even further as it fed on fear and chaos. The people of Spira caught the virus in rapidly growing numbers, and the mysterious death toll that started to accumulate over the next week only caused more confusion among the people.

And all the while, the black haze over Macalania grew darker.

------

------

The Crimson Squad, on the other hand, was having an entirely different problem. Its name was Rikku.

"The girl has become entirely too attached to you," Nooj said as he leaned against the doorway of the Machine Faction headquarters in Djose. "It's distracting and we're not getting anywhere."

Gippal threw his hands in the air defensively. "What am I supposed to do?" Even now, he could hear her. Ghiki... "I can't just ignore her, or I'll drive myself crazy. You guys saw what happened the other night... I don't want anything to happen like that ever again."

Baralai rubbed the bruise on his jaw absentmindedly. He had forgiven Gippal instantly for the hard right hook in the middle of the night, especially since he had been driven "spherecrazy", as Nooj had deemed it. They couldn't figure out exactly what it was that kept driving Gippal back to the sphere night after night after night, even to be gone for almost two days once. And once he was back, he was tired and lethargic, practically dead on his feet.

"We've got to figure out how to stop this," Nooj said, interrupting the silence that had grown between them. "There are no answers to be had in any of these spheres, and more and more people are falling ill--"

"Thanks for the reminder," Gippal said, resting his forehead in his palms. He had expressed his own guilt over the slowness of their progress many times, since he could not control his urges to enter the sphere and this caused problems whenever they were brainstorming or spherehunting. And it wasn't as though Rikku had been much help herself, anyway.

"There are no other spheres?" Baralai stood very quietly, trying desperately to figure out a way to fix the situation.

"Nothing else useful," Gippal answered as best as he could. "Just the White Sphere, the Historical Spheres, and the dress sphere."

"Gippal?"

Gippal looked over at Nooj. "What?"

"Have you tried playing back the dress sphere?" Nooj chewed slightly on his mechanical knuckle.

Gippal blinked. "Can dress spheres even be played back?"

"It couldn't hurt to try, could it?" Baralai reached into the pouch where he now carried the dress sphere and removed it, watching it glow with a soft yellow light.

"Well, put it in the reader," Gippal said, standing up and crossing the room to the machina sphere reader that had gotten more use since the Vegnagun incident than in the previous years of its existence.

Baralai, of course, followed Gippal's instructions. He put the sphere into the reader and removed the white cloth that covered it. Almost immediately, the sphere reader sprang to life.

title: totem sphere

age: approximately 1020 years

recorded: zanarkand vicinity

play...?...?

The three men looked at each other. Finally, Gippal reached forward and clicked the play button.

the fact that this sphere is being played indicates that there is a problem.

x-death is back, and the black death spreads again.

we knew it could not be contained forever.

Gippal inhaled sharply. "No image, just text."

"It's like an old-fashioned BBS sphere," Nooj mused.

"Is that all, or is there more?" Baralai leaned forward, looking at the sphere and its contents. The cursor on the message blinked expectantly at him, before the three lines flashed and disappeared, to be replaced with more scrolling text.

this is the totem sphere. it contains the power and memory of the three sacred creatures.

it is the only way we knew of to get to the tree. humans are too weak.

as a failsafe, however, not just anyone can use this sphere.

the three were blessed by the holy ones to be reborn when there would be a time of crisis.

if there are three, proceed to the fire forest and the tree of three trunks.

if you are true, you will be once again granted your sacred relics.

"The fire forest," Gippal wondered out loud.

"Kilika, I bet," Baralai replied, biting his lower lip. "The forest outside the temple. Fire fiends live there, and the area... well, Ifrit thrived there, so it only makes sense."

"Reborn?" Nooj's voice was unnecessarily harsh. "This sounds like a prophecy out of a cheesy fantasy novel."

"But it's real," Baralai countered, pointing to the sphere, "written right there."

"Things don't get reborn," Gippal added, standing up and looking at the other two, "but it couldn't hurt to head out to Kilika and have a look, could it?"