-Chapter Eighteen-
The Ritual of the Seven Blades

"Hojo," Cloud growled. "Where's my daughter?!"

"Don't worry about her," Hojo chuckled.

"Tell us!" Paine pulled back her sword, her glare threatening.

The dark haired man shrugged, "With Jenova."

Letting out a cry of anger, Paine swung her weapon with all her might, slicing through the man's side. Or so she thought.

"You see," he said, his voice echoing around them. "Being dead has its advantages." Next to him appeared a copy of himself. And then another, and another, until the entire area around them was full of Hojo's.

"Get out of here," Yuna said, pulling out twin pistols.

"Not without you guys!" Aeris argued, instinctively pulling out her staff.

"Take our kids and go. We'll deal with the crazy guy," Gippal said, wielding a massive machina weapon.

"But Dad!" Zalèa gasped.

"Go!" Rikku, Tidus, Yuna, Gippal, and Paine all cried at the same time.

Cloud pushed through a few of the Hojos, "Come on you guys!"

Aeris ran, armed with her staff, behind the twins and the Al Bhed girl, making sure they weren't followed.

"You don't really think Charis would..." Nari whispered.

"I hope not," Zalèa shuddered.

"Charis wouldn't... Jenova would," Evan said gloomily.


"Charis, please!" Piper cried. Her only hope was to snap her friend back in place of this monster. The sharp daggers neared her skin slowly, ominously poking at her fear. "You have to wake up!"

"Charis is dead. She has been rewarded for her thousand years of service with death," Jenova cackled. "Now let's begin..."

An eerie chanting, or what Piper supposed was chanting, began to emit from Charis, now Jenova's, body. It came from neither her mouth nor was it in her voice. Eerie, yet soothing. Dark male voices chanted with a heavy female singing long notes over it. It was almost peaceful.

"We're almost there!" Nari said breathlessly as they saw the stadium at the bottom of the hill.

Piper let out a soft cry as she felt the first blade press through the skin on her right thigh.

"We're coming Piper!" Zalèa shouted, sprinting ahead.

She had little time to think for the second pierced into left thigh, two more into her shoulders. Everything seemed into slow motion.

"Please, be okay..." Evan whispered, chasing after.

Her head moved to the left and she saw the silver metal cut into her tanned skin, a deep red fluid flowing down her arm as tears began to clog her vision.

"There's too many of them!!" Rikku shrieked. "We'll never make it!"

"Keep fighting! We can't let him get to the others!" Paine shouted, fighting with all the anger she felt.

She turned her head to the other side, seeing the exact procedure. Why is this happening to me?

"Yuna!" Tidus knelt beside his wounded wife.

"Keep fighting!" Yuna ordered, holding her injured arm.

Piper watched as the fifth and sixth dagger sliced open her skin, creating a strange design.

"We're going to do it!" Gippal laughed. "There aren't many left!"

Each cry of the Hojo copies filled the air, drowning the sounds of a pained girl in the stadium.

Her shrieks of teary pain almost seemed to fit with the intensifying chanting.

"Piper?" Cloud called, searching parts of the stadium.

"Piper! Where are you?" Aeris cried.

A bright light appeared, tracing each of the careful cuts from her shoulders to wrists, thighs to ankles, and the newest across her upper chest. This is the end. Goodbye... everyone... Piper closed her eyes weakly, unable to let out another cry. She felt as if her very existence was being taken from her body. "Please... st-stop..." she whispered painfully.

"The Chamber of the Fayth. We have to be close!" Zalèa said, determined.

Silence. All except the sound of a swirling vortex, that had been opened sometime in Piper's period of unconsciousness. Her eyes fluttered open, and she realized she was on the ground, drenched in her own blood. "Charis?" she choked.

"Piper... You have to kill me now. It's the only way to reverse it and stop her from summoning Odin!" the real Charis spoke. She knelt beside her friend, clasping a dagger in between Piper's weak and shaky fingers. Her black hair clung to her face, her hands and knees covered in the same thick red liquid as she attempted to keep Piper conscious.

"I can't. I'll... never..." Piper floated in and out of consciousness.

A/N: Nothing great, but since my only reviewer is Emmy, deal with it Hehe. Next chapter is the last. The final in the trilogy will be posted up too. HOPEFULLY I'll get all my bum reviewers back.
Impatiently Yours,
-Letselina