A beautiful mountain with a quiant village at the bottom. Why must those terrible mana-stealing dragons choose such beautiful places to hide. Kairi sighed. She hated to think that not even a majestic mountain could be pure of the terrible things that take place. The village was deserted. Stepping inside the gates, the silence enveloped the group.

"Look!" Rikku said quickly, pointing and launching herself into a sprint. There was a tall figure cloaked in blue disappearing down one of the streets. The group set off at a run after it. Rounding a corner, they stopped quickly. A group of bird people dressed in blue and green cloaks stood blocking the gate that led to the foot of the mountain. The one that had been running away from them stepped out of the group and glared at them.

"You are not welcome here! Especially you, dragoon." It glared at Larc. If looks could kill, that blue-cloaked bird would have been dead 10 times over.

"You do you think you are?" Larc growled. One of the ones cloaked in green stepped forward, its nose (or I guess beak) in the air.

"We are the Windcallers, dragoons of the Dragon Akravator." It said haughtily.

"Then let me through so I may return to my master the mana stolen by Akravator." Larc answered.

"I dare you to try." The green cloaked dragoon answered. In answer, Larc pushed through them toward the foot of the mountain. Crying out, the Windcallers spread their wings, which had been hidden by the cloaks, and began to beat Larc with them. Trying to protect himself from the attacks, he threw something on the ground and with a snap, he had disappeared and reappeared just in front of Paine and Baralai. Still shrieking, the Windcallers flew off in a flurry, disappearing into the mists of the mountain.

"That was pretty cowardly." Baralai decided. Larc spun and glared at him.

"What?" He shouting, thinking Baralai had called him a coward.

"Not you, them." Baralai answered quickly. They started up the mountain with relative ease. Coming to a fork in the path, they found that one way was blocked by a statue. Curious, Yuna walked up to it and touched it. There was a zapping sound and Yuna jumped back, yelping in surprise. A green coloured ripple expanded outward from where she'd touched, continuing until it revealed the entirety of whatever shield was there, blocking their way. Paine sighed.

"How much do you wanna bet that's the way we need to go to get to the dragon?" She asked glumly. Tidus frowned.

"This is kind of frustrating." He noted. "First we couldn't get into the bone fortress, but when we finally did, we ended up having to run through countless halls looking for each other before we could finally get to Jajara. Now, we have to run around and find out what's making this shield so we can get rid of it before we can go get this Akarvater or whatever." He sighed. Rikku shrugged.

"But can you blame them? They're evil dragons, so of course they're going to try to stop us, not to mention the fact that we're out to kill them." At that, she started down the other path. "I say its one of those dumb Windcaller dudes that's made this shield-y thingy. Let's go find him so we can get on with this!"

They wandered the paths of the mountain, almost getting lost a number of times. Hitting another dead end (they'd already lost count of how many other dead ends they'd ended up in), Paine drove her sword into the ground, getting frustrated.

"Haven't we already been here?" Sora asked wearily.

"I dunno…" Tidus answered, just as weary. Suddenly, Rikku and Kairi gasped at the same time.

"Look!"

"It's a hidden…"

"SECRET PASSAGE!" Their shouts muffled each other's words, but Rikku's last statement was certainly heard.

"A secret passage?" Gippal asked, interested. Rikku ran over to a pile of rock. There were random patched of trees growing on the mountain, though they were scraggly and dying due to lack of water and soil. Rikku pulled something out of her bag and threw it at a tree near the rock pile. It was a bomb. With a loud boom, bits of the tree and some rock went flying, but after the dust settled, the new opening revealed a passage among the rock.

"I bet that nasty Windcaller's up there!" She shouted excitedly. Kairi nodded and the two girls ran up the passage, with Sora and Gippal chasing after them and everyone else following just behind. Both Kairi and Rikku stopped suddenly when they reached the end of the passage and found themselves standing on a huge flat slab of stone that hung over the side of the mountain, with the Windcaller in question standing twenty feet away, in the center of the slab.

"I will protect my master with my life!" The Windcaller shouted heroically. Kairi rollder her eyes, but stumbled backwards in surprise when a number of lightning bolts that didn't seem to originate from anywhere stuck the Windcaller. It shrieked and leapt into the air, hovering and staring around angrily. Kairi turned around and saw Sora standing behind her, swinging his Keyblade idly and grinning boyishly. Kairi giggled in spite of herself, but was cut short when a handful of metal feathers came flying at her like darts. She yelped and pivoted just out of the way, glaring at the Windcaller.

"You're gonna pay for that." She told it matter-of-factly. It glared back at her, beating its wings and lift itself higher into the air. She swung her arm up and shot her disk at it. The Windcaller moved enough that it wasn't seriously injured, but Kairi's disk did essentially clip its wings. Shrieking, it fell to the ground most ungracefully. Scrambling back up, it was on its feet on time to be knocked over again as Rikku came flying at it, kicking it back to the ground and snatching something from it. Backing away from the dragoon and admiring her prize, she tripped over a stone jutting out and fell. The small orb that she held went flying and smashed against a rock. The Windcaller's face fell.

"No! The shield orb!" Gippal raised his eyebrows at the creature.

"So that's the thing that made that shield. Well, I guess we won't have to bother with you anymore." He stated, grinning and walking back down the passage. A little ways down he saw the others. "You people need to hurry up! The fun's all over!" He shouted. Rikku tossed a bomb at the helpless Windcaller. It exploded in a mass of blue gases and the Windcaller dropped to the ground, fast asleep.

"Just to make sure he's not going to bother us again for a little while." She explained, running to catch up to Gippal. Sora and Kairi were walking side by side, pretty much alone as they walked down the path together.

"So, that lightning spell was you, right?" She asked casually. Sora laughed.

"Yeh, who did you think it was?" He asked. Kairi shrugged, skipping ahead a little and then turning around and walking backwards to grin at him.

"I dunno, you never really know I guess. I just wanted to make sure." She explained, turning back around so she was facing forward. There was a pause. A pair of hands grabbed Kairi's shoulders unexpectedly and she jumped. It was Sora. She tried to glare at him, but she looked neighter angry or intimidating, because she was trying to keep from laughing. He grinned micheviously.

"Of course you'd want to make sure. You never know what kind of monsters lurk in these mountains." He teased. Kairi stuck her tongue out at him, giggling helplessly. They stopped walking as Kairi kissed him quickly. She started to pull away but Sora caught her and kissed her again, this time a lingering kiss. He could feel Kairi smiling against his lips. They parted only for air and started kissing again. For a few minutes, they managed to forget where they were, Kairi managed to forget her sense of impending doom that she constantly fought. A voice brought them back to reality.

"You guys planning on helping get to Akravator or are you going to stay here and continue slobber on each other?" Paine asked, amused. Both Kairi and Sora glared at her, turning beet red and following her back out of the passage. "You two are sure lively for half-dead people." She noted lazily. (AN: They're still all half-souls, Drakonis will only return their full souls to them once they complete their mission). The others waiting for them looked surprised when they saw the two that had fallen behind. Yuna grinned.

"What were you guys doing up there?" She asked accusingly. Sora shrugged.

"Nothing, just kissing." He answered quietly. Gippal grinned evilly.

"I'd say from the colour of your faces that you were doing a little more than that." He poked. Kairi crossed her arms.

"That's right, we were slobbering on each other." She answered sarcastically, grinning a little as she glared at Paine. Gippal and Rikku died laughing. Yuna and Tidus both tried to keep from laughing but found that they couldn't and soon gave up on their efforts. Paine grinned evilly and Baralai barely managed to keep from breaking into laughter with the rest of them, but still did manage it. Only the stone-faced Larc didn't laugh.

"Let's hurry up then." He said gruffly, starting back in the direction he hoped led to the statue and the now-gone shield. Rikku scowled.

"Somebody's a party-pooper." She said airily while Gippal rolled his eyes and the group set off in search of the statue. The path back was much more straightforward that it had been getting there. They found the statue with relative ease. Larc and Sora pushed it over so they could step over it. Walking up the path, they came to another fork.

"Damn it!" Larc shouted, frustrated. There was another statue, and yet another field barring their way. This time though, as they went the other way in search of the Windcaller, it was easy to find. There was only one straight path, any others branching off were dead ends visible from the main pathway. Continuing to walk, Yuna stopped very suddenly, and everyone else behind her nearly walked into each other. She turned around.

"The Windcaller's just beyond that corner." She whispered. "We know what we're looking for, so Rikku and Kairi, you two sneak attack him and hopefully you can steal it without problem." She said. Kairi and Rikku nodded. Kairi peeked around the corner. The Windcaller was standing with its back to them, holding the shield orb protectively. At every little sound it would cast a penetrating glance over its shoulder.

"Ready?" Kairi whispered. Rikku nodded.

"Go." The Al Bhed whispered in reply. The two girls ran silently at the creature. It didn't seem to notice them. Once they were only about two feet away from it, it spun, casting feather darts like the ones that the other Windcaller had thrown out in every direction. Kairi yelped and dropped to the ground, sliding into the Windcallers legs and sending them both tumbling. Rikku just barely dodged the attack and scrambled to re-orient herself, dead set on helping Kairi. Sora, still on the other side of the corner, grabbed his Keyblade and took aim for a spell. Only problem was that he couldn't get a clear shot. He'd hit the Windcaller, but he was pretty much guaranteed to hit Kairi too. The Windcaller had Kairi pinned on the ground, her arms at her sides. There wasn't much she could do, her claws were usless as long as her arms were pinned, and her legs couldn't do much of anything either as the Windcaller was sitting on them. Rikku was running to her aid, but as she tried to tackle the bird off Kairi, it ducked and instead Rikku fell over its body and went flying through the air, hitting the ground most ungracefully. Cringing, she sat up.

"Ouch…" Kairi meanwhile was getting desperate. Gippal and Yuna were both trying to take aim at the Windcaller now too, but still they couldn't shoot it and not hit Kairi. Getting an idea, she clenched her fists tight. The Windcaller was holding her down by her wrists. She managed to hit the trigger for her disk and it launched out of its cradle, embedding into the Windcaller's wing. It screeched and sat up, freeing Kairi's arms. She saw the orb, hanging from a chain around its neck. She slashed, breaking the orb and catching the creature in the chest. It shrieked and rolled off of her. She scrambled to her feet with a little help from Rikku and both girls ran as fast as they could back towards everyone else. Running around the corner, Kairi ran into Gippal and tumbled into Sora. She grinned.

"I got the orb." She told them happily, her face flushed. Rikku grinned.

"Nice job Kairi! Only, where's you disk?" She asked, noticing the absence of the weapon. Kairi shrugged.

"Stuck in the Windcaller's wing I s'pose." She answered. There was another shriek from the Windcaller. Tidus made a face.

"I think if we stick around, the Windcaller's gonna want some revenge." He noted. Larc nodded.

"Sound like a plan. Let's get out of here."

Out of breath, they reached the now-unshielded statue. They had run the entire way back, fearing that a very angry Windcaller was following them. They found now, as they stood for a moment to catch their breath and address the girls' minor injuries that the Windcaller had retreated to deal with its own wounds. The quiet that surrounded them as they rested and treated the bruises on both Kairi and Rikku was broken only by the occasional murmur of conversation. A huge explosion interrupted the relaxation. Gippal was standing near the rubble (which was all that was now left of the statue) grinning.

"Ummm, I blew it up." He said after a moment. Rikku rolled her eyes.

"Duh. Now we'd better go because the dragon dude probably heard that. So much for the element of surprise." She glared at Gippal. Gippal frowned.

"Hey, you blew up the tree, now it's my turn to blow something up." He retorted. Rikku just rolled her eyes. They walked up the new pathway and foundthemselves standing in front of a cave. It wasn't really a cave, it was more like a short tunnel. Short enough that they could see clearly what was on the other side. It was becoming more and more apparent that this wasn't just any mountain, it was a dormant volcano. And the dragon had chosen to take shelter at the summit, inside the bowl of what once was boiling lava, but was now filled with smooth black stone, almost glasslike. They were all rather taken aback. Except for Larc. The dragoon walked firmly into the cave and emerged on the other side. The others followed slowly. As they walked, they could hear the conversation.

"Give me the mana stone and I will spare your life!"

"You don't see what Drakonis is really doing, do you Larc?"

"He is returning to his rightful place as the Emperor of Dragons!"

"He is deceiving you, and you must learn that before it's too late."

"I know what Drakonis is doing! Do not take me for a fool! He had not deceived me any more than I have deceived him."

"Than you must have greatly deceived him." There was a long silence after that. The others were almost through the tunnel now. Larc's answer was only a growl. They saw him leap at the dragon. They started at a run, but a force threw them back. When they looked up, they found that the tunnel had been blocked by rubble. Rikku glanced at Gippal.

"Here's your chance to blow things up to your heart's content." She told him, grabbing a handful of bombs and ordering everyone to back up. Gippal grinned almost insanely and the pair of them tossed their bombs into the air, turned on the heel and ran for cover. The explosion rocked the entire mountain and sent the whole side of the summit collapsing down on them. They raced out of the tunnel. Coughing and trying to see through the dust, Gippal grinned.

"Maybe that was a bit too big of an explosion." He observed. Rikku grinned back at him.

"Are you kidding me? That was AWESOME!" She shouted excited. Gippal laughed in spite of himself as she scrambled across the rubble. He followed her quickly, with everyone else running after them, appearing like ghosts out of the dust, one by one. By the time they reached Larc and the dragon, both were severely injured. All it took was one slash from each Paine, Tidus and Sora for Akravator to collapse. Larc was well enough to walk and refused any healing that they offered him. He found the mana stone, and once he took it in his hand, he seemed to heal. Rikku crossed her arms.

"How many more of those stones do we need?" She asked.

"One." Larc answered simply. "Here." He handed Rikku the Green Cane, their next artifact. They all stood back out on the flat stone surface, and found the Windcaller that Kairi had injured earlier standing near one of the walls. It would have come to them, but it was propping himself up on the wall, otherwise it would have collapsed. It was standing near what was left of the cave, so as they exited, it spoke.

"Why?" Everyone stopped and looked at the Windcaller, confused. Larc glared pitilessly at him.

"What?" He asked sharply. The Windcaller was silent for a moment, piecing together its words.

"Why do you kill for Drakonis?" It stared at Larc, fighting to survive long enough to hear Larc's answer. Larc didn't answer. After a moment, he turned around and walked away.

"Shut up, stupid bird." He could be heard muttering angrily. Slowly, a sense of guilt now weighing heavily upon them, they followed Larc. It took a long moment after entering the crevasse passage that would lead to the foot of the mountain for anyone to realize that they were missing two. And even then, everyone was so absorbed in their own thoughts and feelings after the revelation caused in each of them by the dying Windcaller that only Sora and Tidus noticed that Kairi and Yuna were missing. Turning silently around, they headed back up to the summit to look for them. It didn't take very long to them to find the girls. The pair were sitting against a rock, not far from where they'd been standing when the Windcaller spoke to them, nearly hidden in the cloud of dust that was still floating. Yuna's usually bright and beautiful mismatched eyes were now dull. Seeing Tidus kneeling down beside her out of the corner of her eye, she looked at him.

"Tidus, I'm supposed to be a protector, giving my own life so others can live. I'm not supposed to be a killer." She said, her voice hollow.

"I know." Tidus replied, feeling the same way. "We're not killers Yuna." He assured her. Though I sure as hell feel like one.

Sora sat silently, letting Kairi cry into his shoulder. What was there for him to say? Her sobs subsided into hiccups and she looked up at him.

"What are we doing?" She asked quietly, sounding as if her question was really her pleading for him to tell her that she had imagined it, she had dreamed it, that they weren't really 'Champions of Hell', as Sierra had called them. He shook his head.

"I don't know."

……………………….

Arg, what a depressing chapter. Well, a depressing end of a chapter. Anyways, I'm seriously on a roll today! Whoohoo! Review guys! PS: the last chappie should have been up much earlier, but the login was messed up, so there!