Chapter 17

Lila and Rikku journeyed for many days and nights. Rikku was surprised to see how much Spira had changed in the years since her previous journeys. The compass points had switched – North had become south, and South, north – and Lila told her it had happened years before. According to Shinra it was something to do with Meteor. The change in shape of Besaid Island which she had noticed before on Lila's sixteenth birthday had increased to such an extent that Besaid was now nearly a peninsula of a greater landmass rather than an island in it's own right. She wondered why this was. Lila theorised that maybe Shinra had been more accurate than he'd suspected when he linked the life force to water. He'd been experimenting with his reactors for years in the secrecy of his lab she said. Perhaps the life force was linked to the water of Spira in such a way that as that was used up the water level fell.

Rikku thought abut this. Ifalna had often commented on the large amount of water on Spira, far more than on other worlds, she had said.

The days passed.

They were camped out one night when they saw someone coming towards them out of the darkness. It was Llaman, soaked to the skin from his time spent on the sea.

He told them that Ifalna had never woken from her coma. That she had died the next night. Shrugging off their sympathy – Llaman had never been one to like relying on others – he told them that they had been right to leave Calm. The same night they had left their home had been torched, and it was widely assumed throughout Calm that they were dead. Llaman had not told anyone of where they had gone, and instead had simply followed them when Ifalna died.

Rikku overheard Lila and Llaman talking in the night, but didn't listen in on their conversation.

A week or so later, they reached the Calm Lands. Rikku nearly threw up as she saw the scene of destruction and devastation before her. She, Lila and Llaman walked through the bones lying on the ground. The stench of rot rose around them and they gagged, Rikku wondering, oddly, how bad it must have been before. The pyre flies rose before them, flittering around them. When one came near it brought with it the voices of those lying in front of them.

No…

My life…

My family…

Oh, my children, my children…

It's not fair!

Anyone...

We should have been safe….

Why did this have to happen...?

Oh Yevon, Yevon, save me!

Lila's shoulders shook with sobs. Lila never cried, but she was crying now. Rikku left Llaman to comfort her daughter and walked on, the ground marshy beneath her feet. The force of the meteor had forced the calms lands down to sea level. The meteor itself was in pieces in the middle of the field, half of it fallen into the sea, eroded by seventeen years, the shelter crushed beneath it. Many of the bodies around were half buried beneath the dust thrown up by the meteor when it landed.

The meteor seemed smaller than she thought it would be. She vaguely remembered Ifalna and Shinra talking about how it would be burnt away by the atmosphere, how most of the damage would be from the ground shaking, the earthquakes causing mountains to topple.

Though the meteor was smaller, the bodies were much, much, more than she had ever imagined.

She stood there, locked in her own thoughts. Then something caught her eye. One of the bodies was wearing the scraps of an eye patch. She knelt down next to it, gingerly touching the dry skull.

She gasped, feeling a blow to her heart. But it was just her emotions held back for so long. The dam had burst now, however. She didn't cry, no tears escaped her eyes, but she sobbed, gasping, barely able to breathe. She remembered back when meteor had hit, when the blood had rushed from her ears and the ground had seemed to fall away then rise up and hit her again and again. She wondered how it had been here. She remembered Gippal's petrified face, and she loved him for the way he had tried so hard to be brave.

She wondered why she hadn't come back earlier. Her father's body, her brother's, her sister in-laws…Lulu's, Kimahri's, everybody's…they were all here, every one.

Finally she finished sobbing. Well, not finished. She would never be finished mourning them. But she did manage to get herself under control again.

It was then that she noticed something clutched in Gippal's hand. Gingerly, she took it from him. It was a sphere, a black sphere. His memories and experiences? Her hand shook as she stared at the sphere. Lila ran over. She had stopped crying now, but her face was pale and worried – morbidly, she reminded Rikku of her father in his last moments.

"What is that?" Asked Lila. Silently, Rikku handed it to her.

"A sphere? Oh – ah!" Lila dropped the sphere on the ground, and then stood holding her hand as if she'd burnt it.

"What's wrong?" Asked Rikku. Lila stared down at the sphere in horror.

"That thing…it's evil, mom," There was a tone in her voice that Rikku had never heard before.

Llaman joined them. Seeing what they were staring at, he leaned forward to pick up the sphere. Both Rikku and Lila darted forward to stop him, but by that time he'd already dropped it and was half on the floor, clutching his head.

"Llaman!" Cried Lila.

"Death," he intoned, solemnly, seemingly unaware of what he was saying. His galaxial eyes gazed at nothing. "Destruction. Rikku, Rikku, why are you…? No. No. NO! This won't happen! Oh god, oh god… B'mayca, hu, tuh'd mad sa tea, E tuh'd fyhd du tea…RIKKU! Ur kut…ur so kut…b'mayca…" (Please, no, don't let me die, I don't want to die…RIKKU! Oh god…oh my god…please…)

Then Llaman screamed, an awful scream that went on far too long even after it stopped. Rikku and Lila stared at him as he sobbed. Then Lila put her arms around him to help him stand up, and Rikku picked up the sphere again.

"Mom?"

"Don't worry," said Rikku. "I…well…if this is what I think it is, we…"

Llaman stood up, still leaning on Lila. "What…what do you think…think it is?" He gasped.

Lila's green eyes widened. "Could…" she began hesitantly. "Could someone use Shinra's new invention - "

The child had always been quick on the uptake. This spherecontained the last thoughts of all those here. All their memories. Including the last thing they had ever experienced. The disaster that had ended their lives.

"Yes…I think someone could use it to summon meteor,"