Chapter 5

Rikku was both surprised and pleased to see that the people of Spira greeted this disaster with good humour. Everyone volunteered to help with building the shelters; everyone was hopeful that they would survive. But of course, only a handful of people knew how bad it would truly be.

As one of the few people who knew what was going on, and, of course, as one of the people who defeated both Sin and Vegnagun, Rikku was in on all the plans. She helped with everything, same as Yuna, one day working with the Machine Faction, the next with the Youth League. She kept herself busy. She saw the others doing the same, keeping their own spirits up as she was. She knew they were faking, just like she was.

Within a month, Shinra had managed to work out the exact date that the meteor was to hit. They had slightly more time than they thought, though not much longer. Rikku tried not to think about it.

One thing that saddened her was how long the list of white mages had grown. All of the mages were told that they would probably not survive, but that didn't seem to be putting people off.

So she tried not to think about that either. Rikku did not put her own name down as a white mage. Though she could have, she'd hardly used the white mage dress sphere when she was a Gullwing. And since then, she hadn't used dress spheres at all. Besides, she'd always found healing a little slow and boring. Though she knew the spell, she'd barely used it. Besides, she'd never been good at magic.

Are those too many excuses? Or not enough? Rikku wasn't sure.

Over those months, when she wasn't working, she spent a lot of time with Llaman and Ifalna. The older woman taught her a lot of things about her people. She told her of different worlds, of her people's efforts to protect them, of their failures and successes.

Ifalna also told Rikku of the worlds that had destroyed themselves. Of worlds that had arrogantly used up all their natural resources and left their world a barren shell. Worlds that had built weapons to use in wars, much like the one between Zanarkand and Bevelle, and had destroyed themselves.

Hearing all of this gave Rikku a sense of how huge the universe was, and so she was forced to ask, "how do you get there in time?"

Ifalna thought a little before answering.

"We…my people, we know a little time magic,"

"What do you mean? Can you travel in time?"

"If we really need to, we can. It takes a great effort though. Many who attempt it die. Our scholars say that perhaps our being able to travel in time is perhaps connected to our ability to see the future,"

Rikku thought about this for a long time. She wasn't sure she understood, at least not in a way that could be put into words, but she knew there was something there to think about.

On another occasion, Ifalna taught her to feel the soul of a world. They lay outside in the soft grasses near waterfall way in Besaid, Llaman gurgling happily next to them.

"Close your eyes," Ifalna told her. "Listen to the sounds around you. The waterfall, the rustle of the grass, the soft breathy sound of the wind. Feel the sunlight warming your skin. The breeze caressing you. Listen to Llaman laughing, the soft susurrus of people enjoying themselves on the beach. Feel yourself as part of the world. These are the sounds of the world, these are the things that make up life,"

And so they had lain there for a time, until Rikku became unaware of time. Floating in the stillness, listening to Llaman, she began to hear another sound, echoing through his voice. A purring, like that of a cat only much nicer, entwined with every sound she could hear. The sound rose and fell like the tide.

Afterwards, she asked Ifalna about it. Ifalna told her she hadn't heard anything, but she didn't doubt that Rikku had. Ifalna told her then something that she had often thought.

"There are a lot of things we don't know,"

And so, slowly and quickly, quickly and slowly, the time passed. And meteor crept ever closer.