Chapter 2
When Rikku awoke the next day, her first thoughts were of the mysterious woman. It seemed she was not alone in this, as when she went into the other room, she found Yuna vigilant by the woman's bedside.
"Has she woken up yet?" Rikku asked. Yuna shook her head. She was holding the woman's son in the crook of her arm, and feeding him out of one of Aura's old bottles.
"No…But I'm pretty sure she's only sleeping, not unconscious. There're no major injuries,"
"How's the baby?"
Yuna smiled. "Adorable. And perfectly healthy. Do you want to hold him?"
"Yep yep!"
Yuna handed the baby to Rikku, long with the half empty bottle. The baby mewled like a kitten, and opened his dark eyes, focusing them on Rikku's face. His eyes were black, speckled with flecks of a lighter colour, like looking into the universe. Rikku looked down at him, entranced. They were the…the deepest eyes she'd ever seen. The baby, wanting the rest of the bottle squawked a little, and the woman opened her eyes.
"Llaman?" She asked, trying to sit up. Knowing how fretful Yuna could be over her daughters, Rikku handed the woman her baby.
"Is that his name?" Asked Yuna. The woman was looking down at her son, checking him over.
"Yes," she said, looking up and smiling. "Thank you for looking after us,"
"Don't worry," said Yuna.
"What happened?" Asked Rikku excitedly. "What was that metal thing? How come you fell out of the sky? What's your name?"
Yuna and the woman laughed. "Don't mind her," said Yuna. "She's always like that,"
"No, no, she has a right to be curious," said the woman. "My name is Ifalna. It is a fairley common name among my people,"
"Who are your people?"
"Who are you?" Asked Ifalna.
"Oh! I'm sorry. I'm Yuna and this is my cousin Rikku,"
"High Summoner Yuna?"
"I am,"
"Oh, this fortuitous indeed! It is you I have come to see!"
"Oh?" Said Yuna, looking a little surprised.
"Where did you come from?" Asked Rikku, not letting go of what she felt to be the most important point. "You fell out of the sky!"
Ifalna laughed. "Yes. My people…we are travellers. We roam the galaxy, helping out planets that are in trouble," the woman pulled the blanket from her legs, and swung them onto the floor, so she was sitting rather than lying. In her arms Llaman giggled and played with the necklace she wore.
"You see," she continued, "My people have certain abilities. We…sometimes we see the future. We see what is to happen – wars, natural disasters, plagues - and sometimes we try and prevent it. That is why I'm here,"
Yuna and Rikku exchanged a glance. Watching them, Ifalna smiled. "You wonder why we did not come before? We do not interfere with the natural course of things. If you make war among yourselves, that is your own problem. We do not interfere. Besides, before you could deal with it yourselves,"
"So…" said Yuna. "What's different about this time? What's going to happen now?"
"This time, it is not you…it is not people. Normally, we would not interfere even for that reason, but…"
"But what?" Asked Rikku.
"There is a chance that all life on this planet will be destroyed,"
Yuna and Rikku stared at each other, dumbfounded.
Yuna looked away, through the window. Following her gaze, Rikku could see Lenne, Aura and Vidina playing a game with Tidus. They sat in silence for a while, watching the group.
Yuna looked back at Ifalna. "Go on. What's going to happen?"
"I know this is difficult," Ifalna said.
"Don't worry about it," said Yuna. "Just tell us what's going to happen,"
"A meteor is coming to this planet,"
"Meteor?"
"An enormous lump of rock, flying through space. It will crash into this planet," Ifalna looked down at her hands. "If you don't do something, every single person on this planet will die,"
"What can we do? Destroy it?"
"No…it's too big…it's about half the size of this planet,"
"Woah," said Rikku.
"So what can we do?"
"All you can do is protect yourselves. I came to you, Yuna, because you are the most respected person in Spira. People will listen when you talk to them. You need to warn them. Build shelters, anything, to keep people safe,"
"Don't you know how we can save people?"
"No…all I saw was the meteor hit, and I knew that no one survived. We can't control our visions my people…they just happen,"
Yuna and Rikku sat in silence for a while, as did Ifalna. The only sound in the room was Llaman's happy gurgles.
After a time, Yuna said, "Well, the first thing to do is tell Tidus, Lulu and Wakka. They can help,"
"Yeah. And then we can call Paine on the Comm Spheres. Shinra might be able to help, and the Machine faction could build shelters or something. The Youth League and New Yevon can help organise people,"
"Wait…Ifalna, how long do we have?"
"I think…a few months maybe,"
"Shinra's been watching the stars I think. He might be able to work out when it'll hit. Maybe,"
"Okay," Yuna sighed, and looked down at her hands. "You wouldn't have warned us if we didn't have a chance, would you?" She asked Ifalna.
"No," the woman replied. But Rikku could see that no one in the room believed her.