Chapter 20, people :D Extra long because of the wait, I'm really sorry! I've been busy with school lately, and working some too. I'm trying so hard to bring this to a close, but... we'll see :D Thank you so much to all who reviewed! You really make my writing worthwhile:

Motet: Worry not, it's about to get more suspenseful :D Thanks, as always, for reviewin!

Musicmaker: I HOPE they get out of the frying pan... XD What am I talking about, I know what's going to happen XD

Paine3: I purposefully made it hard to guess, so I will be VERY excited for you if it turns out you have it :D

theweirdperson: Yeah, I realized after posting it that I was really unclear about the scream... it was more of a frustrated, URGGG type scream... it was horrible, sorry about that XD

DarkAnimePriestess: Whoooo :D Thanks again for reviewing!

Enjoyyyyy :D

Rikku managed to pull herself off the ground. She was panting heavily, sweating badly, and her eyes were scanning the area wildly for any sort of escape that there could have been. Her back was absolutely pulsing with pain—that had been a pretty big tree and an awfully hard hit, after all. The only exit she saw was the one she came in through, which was currently blocked by the werewolf.

The wolf charged at her, and she became momentarily paralyzed with fear. She had no idea how she was possibly going to get out of this. The werewolf tried to punch her in the face, but she blocked it with her forearm. Thankfully, she was wearing the Dark Knight armor, or she was certain all of the bones in that part of her arm would be broken. She felt dismayed that the armor hadn't helped at all when she had been knocked back against that tree. In fact, she was certain she was bleeding somewhere or another. She was tired to the point where she couldn't hardly bring herself to move any more.

She had no idea what had happened to her friends, but deep down, she prayed that one of them—heck, she'd take anybody at this point—would come to save her from what was certain… well… she didn't even want to think it. All she knew was, by now, even if she could manage to get away… she wouldn't get far. As she continued to block the wolf's blows, she gradually got more tired. Pretty soon, she was hunched over, on her knees, while the wolf stood several feet away, eyeing her with a gloating look on its face, as if to say, "I am about to win this battle."

Rikku's eyes drooped—this wasn't going to end this way. She reached into her pouch, and pulled out her last super potion. After using it, she felt almost new—it was amazing what those things could do. She quickly decided to try a new approach with the werewolf—the Berserker Dressphere, to be exact. She changed into it quickly, and crouched down into a fighting stance, ready to attack. It was do or die, and this was her last chance—if she didn't do, she'd die.

Paine was still beating off the wolves that were constantly attacking from all angles. She had lost count nearly half an hour ago—but she was certain that the death toll had to be into the triple digits, at least. There was no way she would have ever though she could kill enough fiends—but now, she was almost wishing she never saw another fiend in her life—almost being the key word. She was getting tired, and found the wolves getting closer to attacking her with every lunge they took. Her guard was getting down, and she knew if she couldn't get out soon, she'd be hurt badly—or worse. As she tried with immense difficulty to push this thought out of her head, a wolf sunk its teeth into her leg. She felt it give way, and found herself on the ground, in the middle of a frozen lake. She figured she'd give healing her leg a shot—she knew the spell, but wasn't nearly as good at it as Yuna.

She was surprised how much it took out of her to heal it—it could have been that she was just over-tired. She hadn't done a good job healing it, and could hardly stand. Another wolf got her arm in a vice-grip like hold between its jaws, and she had to use her sword to pry it off before slaughtering it on the spot. She winced as she felt the blood rushing freely through the open wound… there was no way this was happening. She collapsed to the ground almost immediately, sword stabbing deep into the ice.

Suddenly, the ice cracked. Paine felt like jumping up and praising the heavens for her amazing luck. The wolves wouldn't be able to get her if she managed to get on a chunk of ice without any of them on it. Fortunately, the area she was kneeled on split off from the wolves, and she let out a sigh of relief—she was safe. Her vision started to get fuzzy, and she realized that she should try to heal the bite on her arm. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't—she figured she was all out of strength. At her absolute limit. She felt suddenly dizzy, and a wolf made a spectacular leap over onto the chunk of ice that Paine was floating on. Paine gasped, and tried to pull herself up. Wincing, she realized for the first time ever—it was over. And she had lost.

Yuna still hadn't managed a way off her ledge. She couldn't even understand how she had ended up here! She had tried looking for footholds of some kind to climb up, but all of them were much too small to support her weight. She had even tried making footholds by hacking at it with a thief blade, and with claws from the Berserker Dressphere, but nothing had worked. As she stood there, clinging as close to the wall as she could, she suddenly heard wings flapping. Praying to God that it wasn't a fiend, she quickly turned her head in the direction of the noise to see what it was. Hundreds of bird like fiends. Swarming at her. She was pretty much stranded on a narrow ledge over jagged rocks hundreds of feet below her.

The birds began whizzing by her, cutting her skin each time their beaks ran along it. She screeched in pain the first time one got her—it almost felt like a bee sting. Eventually, she got used to it. She kept to the wall as best she could, but almost came close to falling several times due to the birds. After what felt like hours, she was certain she had scratches absolutely everywhere. The cloud of birds was so thick that she couldn't see anything but birds at all anymore. She tried to keep her eyes tightly shut as much as possible—watching her own flesh get ripped open wasn't exactly pleasant. She winced every time a bird cut her, now—it hurt more and more each time she got hit. They weren't bleeding all that badly, but getting cuts over cuts hurt a lot more than you would think. She felt her energy being drained from her as she fought to keep hold of the cliff. She tried to reach a garment grid, but one of the birds seemed to notice, and sliced the belt that had her pouches on it clean off. She watched in despair as her only hope of escape fell to the jagged rocks below.

One bird suddenly took a particularly good clip at her ankles, and sliced right through her boots. Catching her completely off balance, she slipped, but managed to grab the ledge that she had been standing on a moment ago with her hand to prevent herself from falling to her death. Now, she was dangling from a cliff, with no way to go but down.

Aya, Wakka, and Tidus were interrupted many times by being afraid for their friends. Each got closer and closer to dying without it actually happening, and if one of them couldn't get to Macalania and break this up soon… Aya couldn't tell if the illusion would actually be deadly, but she didn't want them to suffer more than they had to.

They were currently watching Paine on the sphere right now. They all listened worriedly as they tried to plan Aya's escape. Kana was still in a room somewhere, leaving them completely alone, so as long as none of them used any magic, Kana would never know…

Lulu slouched over, and eventually fell backward onto the ground. She resisted the pull of the ground and remained sitting upright, feeling increasingly dizzy every second. She used a small amount of her remaining magic to give herself some energy, and it was at that moment that she had a thought. Her teacher when she had been growing up had taught her how to send messages by magic, hadn't she…?

She shut her eyes, trying to remember. Her teacher had mentioned that if you focused your magic enough with a certain feeling to a certain person, if the person was good at recognizing magic, they could recognize what you were trying to tell them. Lulu didn't even take a moment to think about whether it worked over long distances or not.

Lulu pressed the palms of her hands together, summoning nearly all the magic she had, trying to send it to a certain mage in the form of a message. Aya… she thought desperately. Help!

Back in her cell, as they were watching Yuna clumsily attempting to get off of the ledge, Aya's eyes widened as she suddenly felt a powerful magical presence calling her name. Lulu… "Guys," Aya said urgently, "Lulu is trying to communicate with me."

"What?" Wakka and Tidus said together.

"She's sending her magic to me, like a message," Aya answered, hastily shutting her eyes and pressing her palms together. "I hope the wards don't block this…" Lulu, I know where you are. You're in trouble, Aya thought, cranking up her magic and focusing hard on Lulu.

In Macalania, just as Lulu felt herself becoming sucked dry of magic, she suddenly felt completely rejuvenated. A flood of emotions raced through her—knowing where she was at first, even if she didn't really know, and suddenly feeling in grave danger.

"So, Aya knows where I am, and that I'm in trouble," Lulu murmured. She summoned her magic again, and thought, How do I get out? I am hurt, and lost.

Aya was still sitting with her eyes closed in her cell, while Wakka and Tidus watched her blankly. She inhaled sharply as she received Lulu's message: she wanted to know how to get out of where she was. Before she could think, she shifted to feeling hurt, and then, finally, that helpless feeling of being completely lost.

"Lulu wants to know how to get out. She says she's hurt and lost, I think," Aya said, eyes still closed. "How do I do this…" Trickery. Illusion, Aya thought. It's an illusion!

Will Lulu be able to understand what Aya is saying and break the illusion? Can Rikku, Paine, and Yuna all survive certain death? You will see :D I'll try to be quicker on the update this time, I promise!

Preview for next chapter:

Lulu was focusing hard on the woods itself as she sat there on the ground. For a moment, she dared to open her eyes--but only for a moment. She didn't want to break her concentration. What she saw for that one moment was elating--half of her vision was still focused on the overgrown crystal forest that she had gotten herself caught into, while she could see the faint outline of what looked like one of the nooks in the Macalania Woods she knew...

Thank you kindly :D

Lulala