Chapter 7

Rikku's thoughts were running like this.

72 hours. 71 hours, 59 minutes and 50 seconds. 71 hours, 59 minutes and 40 seconds. 71 hours, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds. 71 hours, 59 minutes and 20 seconds. 71 hours…

Enough!

Rikku shook her head to try and stop her thoughts as she marched into the inner sanctum of Djose temple. There was no one else here. With so little time left (71 hours, 58 minutes and 10 seconds) everyone had been told to go home and spent time with their families.

Rikku had come here instead of visiting her friends and relatives. Once again, she was here to check on a few things.

Once more, she did all the basic checks first. She'd placed herself in the Besaid shelter, along with Ifalna, Llaman, Wakka, Vidina, Yuna, Tidus, Lenne and Aura. Nooj, Leblanc, Dona and Barthello were all in the eastern shelter. Shinra, Rin and Paine were in Luca, while Lulu, Gippal, Baralai, Cid, Brother, Calli, Muja, Kimahri, the rest of the Ronso, and many others were in the Calm lands. The Calm lands shelter was the Machine faction's special project, and was said to be the strongest and safest, though of course nothing had been mentioned officially. It was enormous, capable of housing thousands of people. Lulu, however, had chosen it because it was far away from her husband and son. After that argument with Yuna, Rikku had seen Lulu's name on the mage list, along with many other of her friends. She hadn't attempted to argue with any of them.

Basic checks completed (70 hours, 27 minutes, 32 seconds), she moved onto the job she had been dreading most. Double-checking the mage list. It was in alphabetical order, so she started at the bottom. She passed Yuna's name, as she had known she would, though the emotions she felt were no less strong for expecting it. Then she looked for her own.

It wasn't there.

She checked again, going through each name. She performed a search thorough the whole list. She wasn't there. Annoyed - this was upsetting as it without some stupid computer messing up – she tried entering her name as a new entry. A message came up.

The operation you have chosen cannot be performed. This name has been blocked by the system administrator.

System administrator?

Her mercurial emotions turned to pure anger. After closing down the system she marched down to Gippal's office in the monks quarters where he sometimes slept. She was in luck, or perhaps he was simply unlucky. He was there, looking at a picture of something when she burst in screaming like a banshee.

"Gippal, fryd dra vilg yna oui b'myoehk yd?" (Gippal, what the fuck are you playing at?)

"Rikku, E – fryd tu oui sayh?" (Rikku, I - what do you mean?)

"Tuh'd b'myo tisp, Gippal. Oui duug so hysa uvv dra syka! Yht oui p'mulgat ed cu E lyh'd lryhka ed pylg!" (Don't play dumb with me, Gippal. You took my name off the mage list! And you blocked it so I can't change it back!)

"That's what this about, Cid's girl?" Asked Gippal, switching back to English. "Me taking your name off the damn suicide list?" He began to get angry too. "Rikku, what the hell was your name doing on there in the first place? You're not a mage!"

"It was my decision Gippal! You had no right!" Annoyed, she threw a fire spell at him. "Not a mage, huh?" She asked.

Patting out the flames on his arm, Gippal said, "Rikku, your dad ordered me to take your name off!"

"You listened to my dad!" She asked, dowsing him with a water spell.

"I - "

"And why me? Yuna's on that list too!"

"Yuna…she…"

"She's got two daughters Gippal! Two little girls who'll be left all alone!" She hit him with a lightening spell.

"Rikku, quit throwing magic at me!"

She prepared a blizzard. Gippal darted forward and grabbed her arms.

"Rikku, I don't want you to die!"

She stared up at him, burning with anger and adrenaline. They froze like that, each one frustrated and angry with the other. Then, out of that heady mix of fear, adrenaline, relief, panic, hate, lust and perhaps love, Gippal leaned forward and kissed her, crushing his lips down on hers.

Rikku kissed him back.