A/N: Hey! This chapter took me a little longer to get up, but it is longer. So that's a plus! Thanks for your review Cute-Kitty. You're the only one who reviewed and it meant a lot. The actual beginnings of the plot might show at the end of this chapter, but most definitely in the next. Sorry, but it's necessary to get this other stuff in.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy X-2.

Chapter 3

Rikku's POV

When I finally awoke, we were already in Luca. So of course, I had to go give some orders because Brother seems completely lost when no one's telling him what to do. He couldn't make a decision if his life depended on it. So I got up and made my way to the Bridge.

When I got to the doors, I could here a lot of commotion on the other side. When they opened, I couldn't believe what I saw. Apparently, I had been sleeping longer than I thought.

From the looks of things, something really bad had happened. Brother was hysteric and was mumbling incoherently in Al Bhed. Shinra was in his normal spot, but he was typing away furiously. Buddy, unfortunately, was nowhere to be found. At least, I didn't think he was. What do I mean by that? Well…there were about 20 other people packed on the Bridge, all talking loudly and some were hysterical, just like Brother. They all looked at me when I came in.

"What the hell is going on here!" I yelled, looking around for someone to answer me. Buddy popped up from the crowd and told me to follow him. He led me to the front of the Celsius, so I could see outside.

I just stared at what I saw. "Are you sure we're in Luca?" I asked Buddy. He slowly nodded his head.

Outside, the city of Luca was in shambles. There was debris everywhere, and bodies littered the ground. We were currently over the square, right in the middle of the city. I really didn't know what the rest looked like, but I sure didn't want to see it.

"W-what h-happened," I asked slowly, barely able to get the words out.

"We're not sure, but from what we know, an explosion came from that café. Some say that fiends attacked, others say the machina went haywire and some exploded, while others started attacking," Buddy explained.

A few months ago, the café got some machina from the Machine Faction to help them out. They were always very busy and needed the extra help. It doesn't look like it was such a good idea, if they really did malfunction.

But I still didn't know why all of these people were on board.

"Buddy, what are all of these people doing here?"

"These are the only people in this area that survived," he replied. I couldn't believe it. Out of all of the people in the square, only about 20 survived. It was normally packed with people, not including the one's in the café. That means about 40 people lost their lives.

I looked back at Buddy and asked, "Is the rest of Luca okay?"

He nodded. "As far as we know."

"Why didn't you wake me up! I can't believe you let me sleep through this!" I shouted at Buddy.

He looked at me apologetically. "To tell you the truth Rikku, we had some much to do and there was so much chaos. With all of that going on, we kinda forgot you were in the Cabin sleeping."

That's just great. In the time of danger, they forget about me. Such great friends.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" I inquired.

"No, the Luca officials would hardly let us take these people. We need to take these people to the safest place nearby. They don't want anyone to get involved."

"I guess we should pick up Pop's orders before we leave," I stated sadly, still looking at the damage.

"Yeah, let's go."

So we quickly flew over to the docks and loaded our stuff. Brother wasn't much help, but some of the other people, who weren't too distressed, helped us. Since we were heading to Mi'ihen anyways, we decided that would be as good a place as any to let the people off. That way, they wouldn't have far to go to get back home.

When we got to the travel agency, everyone got off. I went to go see Rin to get the machina, and to question him about Luca.

I found him inside, fixing some machina. He looked up and smiled.

"Ahh, Lady Rikku. You've come for Cid's orders I presume?" He's the only one that calls me 'Lady' in all of Spira, I swear. But, it's kinda nice sometimes.

"Yes, but I wanted to ask you something. Do you happen to know exactly what happened in Luca today?"

He looked confused and said he didn't know anything had happened at all. So, I had to explain everything to him. He took the news worse than I had.

"What!" he asked in disbelief. "I have some very close friends in Luca. I must go see if they are alright!" And with that, he took off running towards Luca.

"Rin, wait! They won't let you in!" I shouted after him, but he didn't listen. He just kept going.

The orders were on the counter. There weren't that many, so I sighed and took them back to the airship.

On the airship, things had calmed down considerably. Mostly due to the fact that there were only four people on board, including me. I told them what had just happened with Rin. There really wasn't a whole lot we could due. We decided to get back Home as fast as possible. Of course, we still had to go to Djose, but know I had an excuse to make it quick.

We finally arrived after a little while, and I got off to find Gippal. The sooner I found him, the sooner I got out of here. Then maybe I could figure out what had happened in Luca. It's not likely that machina would go haywire on their own, or for fiends to attack on impulse. Someone must have been behind it, but I suppose I need to figure what really happened first.

While I was thinking, I accidentally ran into someone. I fell down, but quickly got back up, blushing from embarrassment.

"I-I'm s-sorry. I wasn't paying attention and I ran into. I "

"It's okay really," the guy said, laughing. He was an Al Bhed, and was taller than me. "Aren't you Rikku, Princess of the Al Bhed?"

I nodded my head, "Yes."

He held out his hand for me to shake and smiled "Hi, I'm Zafram. I just got hired here."

I shook his hand and smiled as well. "Hi, nice to meet you. Do you happen to know where Gippal is by any chance? I need some parts from him for my dad."

He frowned and shook his head. "Sorry, but I haven't seen him around lately. Last I knew he went to Luca for something."

My mouth dropped and my eyes widened. "He was in LUCA! Oh man, this is so not good! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! What am I gonna do? What if h"

Zafram stopped me. "Rikku! Calm down. What's the matter?"

I quickly told him what happened. "Well, he left a few days ago, so he should have been on his way back when it happened. I'm sure he's fine," he said, trying to come me down.

It wasn't working.

I may have disliked Gippal for always picking on me, but I never wanted anything bad to happen to him. So what, I might have liked him somewhat when we were younger, but now he was more of a pest than anything. Still, if anything happens to him, I'll be so upset. Ugh! If he comes back here, I'm gonna

"Hey, Cid's girl! Is there a problem? What are you doing here?"

Excuse me. I'll be right back after I go hurt someone.

A/N: And that's the end of Chapter 3. So, what do you think? Please let me know by reviewing. I need more reviews! Please?