A/N: This chapter was supposed to go up August 2nd, but see... I sort of broke the rules... and I couldn't post until Friday, the 6th. But I was camping so I couldn't post until today.
-Chapter Fourteen-
A Dream or Something More
Piper was kneeling down on a platform, praying her heart out. She wasn't sure what she was praying for, or even where she was. A young man stood in front of her, a sword looming ominously in his hands. She tried to see his face, but it was too hard. All she could see was a pair of luminous turquoise eyes. She knew it was someone important to her. Someone she loved. He seemed to be struggling against himself, trying to pull the sword away.
"What are you doing?!" a familiar girl with dirty blonde hair shrieked.
"Cdub! Tuh'd rind ran!" a girl cried in Al Bhed.
Something stirred behind her, and suddenly... everything began to go black. Looking down, she saw the slender katana that had been thrust through her body. She managed to turn her head, and saw a pair of dark amber eyes. "Charis..." she mustered the strength to mutter. How could she betray her like that? Slowly, her body fell to the ground. She knew, she was dead.
Piper shot out of her bed, breathing heavily. Why... she wondered, Why were the people revealed to me this time? Evan... Nari... Zalèa... Charis... No! She wouldn't believe it. She couldn't! She saw that everyone was still asleep, and there was no light entering the room from the window. iIt was just a dream. Go back to sleep. Laying back on her bed, she closed her heavy eyelids, hoping for a dreamless sleep.
Piper. What are you doing here? Why didn't you go home?
"I tried! Really I did!"
Did you? Did you really want to go home...?
"Well... no."
Then you know what you must do.
"I won't kill Charis! Never!"
Piper, you have to. It's your destiny. Kill or be killed.
"Well I'm going to change my destiny!"
It won't work. Nothing you do works. You know that. Kill her. While she's asleep. Don't let her suffer any longer.
"No! Shut up! I won't do it!"
We're dying Piper. Because of you. It's all your fault. If you don't stop this, we will suffer even longer.
"Go away!" she screamed. Piper opened her eyes again, scanning the room quickly. What were these voices in her head? Who were they and why did they haunt her when things were bad? The sun was up and throwing light into the white bedroom.
"Bad dream?" Nari suggested.
"Huh?" Piper sat up, realizing Nari and Zalèa were awake too. "Yeah... I guess so."
"Me too," Zalèa put in, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. "I've had the dream before, but this time, it was different." The Al Bhed yawned, "Usually I was standing near this platform, and someone was kneeling on it. It felt like it was someone I really cared about. Then there was someone with a sword near her, and me and another person kept yelling at him." The blonde shivered, "Then someone came from behind the girl on the platform and... killed her."
"Weird, that's the same dream I had... except this time the people were revealed!" Nari exclaimed. "You and me were the two people yelling at the guy with the sword--"
"Who was Evan," Piper added.
"Yeah! And you... Piper! You were the girl who was praying!" Nari gasped.
"And the person who killed you was..." Zalèa trailed off.
"Charis..." Piper whispered, glancing at her friend's sleeping body. "How long until the sleeping potion wears off?"
"It already did. She's just sleeping," Evan said, walking in the room. "You guys won't believe it. I had the strangest dream again..."
"We know," Piper whispered, pulling her knees to her chest. "I have to get home... that's the only way I can... save Spira."
Evan tilted his head, "There is... another way, you know."
"No!" Piper yelled, "No! No! No! I won't do it!"
"But Pi--" Zalèa began.
Piper covered her ears, "No!"
The three looked down, helplessly. "Piper, we're just trying to help," Nari said.
"I know!" Piper cried out. "But think about it. If everyone told you that both you and Zalèa couldn't live in the same time period, and your only choice was to kill her, would you?"
"There are worse things than death, Piper." Charis had woken up, and seemed to have calmed down. "I want you to."
"But Charis!" Piper begged, "I can't!!"
The girl looked away, her jet black hair falling in her eyes. "Piper, you know the truth, don't you? I've been here for a thousand years. I don't want to live anymore. Jenova controls me almost all the time. If I'm not careful, I'll kill you."
"We will find another way," Piper said sternly. "I won't kill you and you won't kill me. Okay?"
Charis sighed, looking at Piper. "You don't have much time."
It's just not fair. "I know." Pulling her messy copper hair behind her ears, Piper stood up. "Do you guys believe in destiny...?" Although she didn't want to admit it, the voices that had spoken in her sleep were haunting her. Kill or be killed...
"What do you mean?" Zalèa asked, her emerald eyes sparkling.
"Like..." Piper put a finger to her cheek, as if in thought. "Like your guys' parents. They're all famous and stuff, right?"
"Don't remind me," Nari heaved a loud sigh.
Piper smiled a bit at her friends' reactions, "Well, do you think it was destiny for them to do all that stuff? Like with Sin and Vegnagun?"
Evan sat down on one of the beds, "When you put it that way," he looked at her carefully, "Yes."
"Why?" she asked, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"Because things could have easily gone the other way. It could've been worse, you know?" Evan leaned back.
Piper tilted her head to one side, "So you think it was destiny that they all lived and saved the world a lot of times?"
"Guess so."
"Oh," she replied softly. But I still won't do it. I'll find a way home... I have to, she thought.
"Piper, it won't work. You know you have to do it," Charis said quietly. "It's destiny. Fate."
Shaking her head, Piper left the room. She knew that they would only bring it up again. How could Charis WANT me to kill her?! she thought as she stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. I know I wouldn't, and don't, want her to kill me! "There's nothing I can do..."
"Piper... you have to do it."
Looking deeper in the mirror, Piper saw the speaker. "...No way..."
A/N: Two reviews...? Sheesh, oh well. A little cliffhanger, but since this is a triple update, you'll know who it is right a way. Darn. This chapter is really short, but the next one is longer.
