After stocking up on supplies, Stree led the group to the entrance of the thunder plains. He was just about to walk out, when he heard the wailing of a child. He turned around and found the mage trying to calm down the baby in her arms. He moved over to Kam.
"What's the mage's name?"
"Lulu, why?" asked Kam.
Stree turned to Lulu. "Lulu, take your child and go home. You're no use to me if you have to look after it, and I won't be responsible for it's death."
"Stree!" started Kam. "She's been doing all right so far!"
"It's alright," replied Lulu calmly. "He's right. I've spent too long without training to be of any use at the moment. Wakka, too."
"Hey, I'm as fit as I ever was, eh?"
Lulu took a few steps backwards, and motioned for Wakka to follow. "In that case, you can protect me on our way back to Besaid."
Looking slightly disappointed, Wakka followed Lulu. "I don't like it," he said.
"Hey, Lulu, Wakka. If you get a chance, can you bring our Airship to Bevelle?" asked Kam. Lulu nodded, and continued walking away.
Stree nodded, then turned to Rin. "Are you any good in a fight?"
Rin laughed. "You don't stay alive as long I without learning a trick or two."
"Good. Everyone else get ready." With that, he turned and walked out into the cold rain and harsh wind, the rest of the group following quickly.
As they moved along the plains, dodging random burst of lightning, Stree started to get a little uncomfortable.
"Why haven't we been attacked yet? We're almost halfway across, and not one fiend has gone for us," came Tidus.
"You'd prefer it if we were attacked?" asked Kam.
"Yes." Stree scowled, but – though he hated to admit it – he agreed with Tidus. It seemed unnatural.
"I know why," announced Rikku. She held out her arm. "I'm wearing a charm bangle. It keeps them away!" Stree's scowl deepened. Charm bangles emitted a low-pitched sound that humans, couldn't hear, though all types of fiends hated it. But they tended to wait just outside its working radius – about twenty meters – for the person to turn it off, and then they attacked.
"I don't think that's it. Fiends tend to wait a little distance away with those things. At the moment, there's not one in sight," he said.
"Ever get the feeling that you're walking into a trap?" asked Kam.
Stree started looking around, and noticed a cloud of dust coming up over the cliff to their right. "I think it just got sprung. I hate this." He grabbed his sword – he had taken the chance to examine the marks on the side, and found it was called 'Hasamune', and held it at the ready.
Kam looked at him for a second, as the fiends came steadily closer, making the whole ground rumble and shake. "Apparently, you really hate this," she said.
Stree looked down, and noticed sparks coming off his hands. He smiled a smile that had no humor in it. He placed the Hasamune on his back, and held his hands out in front of him. He let his mind slide deeper and deeper into the black hole of rage that threatened to take him constantly, and allowed it to fuel his strength. He felt a tangling sensation on his hands, and heard gasps coming from everyone else. He opened his eyes, and saw that his hands had turned into raging balls of fire. He then started walking towards the fiends.
""Stree! What're you doing?" shouted Kam, running after him.
"I have to do this," replied Stree, in a husky voice. He willed the flames surrounding his hand for a second, and created a gigantic dome of crisscrossed flames around everyone else, trapping them there.
"Stree! Let us out!" shouted Rikku.
"You'll be safe in there," he replied, surprising himself.
"You'll need help!" shouted Paine, jumping back when she touched the cage with her sword, and saw tongues of flame lash out.
"No I won't." The fiends were almost on him now, and his senses heightened, so that he could hear repeated gasping from Rikku, growling from Auron, and the strange voices that the Fiends used to communicate. When the creatures got to almost two feet away, Stree closed his eyes and let his anger almost completely take control, leaving just enough of himself to maintain the cage. Suddenly, he felt a strange pressure against his entire body, and opened his eyes to find out that not just his hand, but his entire body was alight. Everything he saw was tinted with orange. He looked at the strangely colored fiends, and saw them backing away in uncertainty. He glared at the fiends, then charged right into the middle of the pack.
"No!" shouted Kam as she watched Stree go on a suicide run into the gigantic pack of fiends. She struggled to find him again, using the flames as a beacon. But when he was in so deep that she couldn't see the raging fires, she sank to the ground, crying softly. As Yuna knelt down to console her, the rest walked right up to the edge of their fiery cage to watch.
"It's all right," said Yuna softly. "You know he's still alright if he can still manage to keep this cage up." As if to mock her, the flames flickered, then dissolved in the air. Kam started crying harder.
"Hit the deck!" said Tidus, his voice sounding shocked. Through tear-streaked vision, Kam turned her head to look, then ducked as a huge explosion sounded in the plains, and hundreds of the monsters flew in every direction. They all looked back into the middle of the explosion and saw Stree standing there, flames shooting in various paths across his body. He reached up his flame-encased hand, and grabbed his sword, swinging it around gracefully. He stood there for a few seconds, standing tall, with the blade pointing to the side, waiting for the fiends to attack. And attack they did – they all came in at him at the same time. Kam squeaked in fright, but continued to watch.
He moved almost as if in slow motion, circling around one fiend to slice another, then back stepping to take the first one out. He spun around, catching multiple creatures, then stabbed, spun again, jumped. The man, watching Stree's dance of death, smiled to himself. Though most people would have run at the first sight of so many fiends, this man knew he was in no danger. He is beginning to learn, thought the man to himself. But still more to go. He continued to watch Stree until he was certain victory was at hand for the young man. When he was sure of this, he turned to leave, his black cloak flailing in the wind.
Stree stabbed his blade through the last fiend left in the field – a ruby dragon – and stood there silently for a second, before dropping to the ground, exhausted. The flames surrounding him flashed out of existence.
"Stree!" shouted Kam, running to him as fast as she could. He stood back up again, and started walking over to the group. Kam reached him first, and started hammering him in the chest. "Never – do – that – again – you – stupid ass!" Stree let her go, knowing it was better than having her hold it in, and watched as the rest of the group caught up.
"Wowie!" shouted Rikku.
Gippal clapped in awe. "Man, you gotta teach me that!"
"Impressive," remarked Paine, smiling at him. He smiled, a proper one thistime. Rikku looked at the both of them, then started kissing herself again. Gippal quickly stopped her though, having heard about what happened previously. Stree's smile grew.
"Wow, a real smile, Stree?"
Stree laughed softly. "I drained all of my anger away in that fight. Happiness is the only thing I can handle at the moment. Give me an hour or two to get angry again," he said in a soft, slightly pained voice.
Kam stared at him. "What? A joke? Stree, you haven't told a joke in years!"
"You want me to stop?" Kam shook her head.
"Well, since you're in such a good mood, maybe you can speak to Tidus without threatening him." Stree's smile died abruptly, and Kam thought she had pushed him in angry-mode again.
"You," he said, pointing at Tidus, who was standing a little away from the group, away from Stree. "Over there, now." Tidus turned and walked to where Stree had indicated, a little away from the group.
"You're not gonna hit again are you? Asked Tidus, only half-joking.
"Look. As much as I hate to admit this, I need you to help me here. I don't know why these things are after me and Kam, but you've saved me a couple of times, and I thank you for that. You'll probably save me again in the future too—"
"Not if you keep fighting like that."
"Shut up. So here's what I propose. You and I, we have a truce for now. Until we figure this thing out, we'll be allies. No fighting between us. But afterward, we settle this, you, me and Kam. Deal?"
Tidus laughed softly. "Not going to get much better than that I guess. Deal." He held out his hand, and Stree took it, making it official. Tidus grinned, and Stree took his hand back.
As Tidus turned to walk back, Stree laid a hand on his shoulder. "One thing though, Tidus. You so much as talk to my sister about what you did, or anything related to what the two of you did, I will kill you. Got it?"
"Relax, Stree," replied Tidus, his face going serious. "I'm not that person any more. I've changed. Do you think the old me could've have gotten someone who's pretty much royalty?" he jerked a thumb backwards at Yuna.
Stree glared. "Yes. You'd make her fall in love with you, then break her heart. You've done it before."
Tidus winced. "Yeah, but look what happened then. Never again," he said forcefully.
"Good. Come on, we have to keep moving." Stree started back towards the group.
"Sort it out?" asked Kam.
"For now," replied Tidus. Stree nodded in agreement.
"We have to…what are you doing?" he asked Auron, who was standing at the body of the ruby dragon. "And why hasn't that thing exploded yet?"
Auron reached down and grabbed at on of the dragon's twelve-inch long teeth. Using all of his strength, he pulled it right out of the thing mouth. "This fiend is the only type that doesn't explode into pyreflies upon death. It is said, that its teeth are unbreakable, and make excellent knives." Reaching into a satchel he carried, he pulled out a knife sheath and a long piece of cloth. He soaked the cloth in one of the puddles that were around the plains, then proceeded to wrap it around the base of the tooth, creating a handle. He then placed the tooth into the sheath, where it fit perfectly.
"I didn't know you used knives, old man. Aren't they too small for you?" asked Tidus.
"I don't use knives," answered Auron. He held it out to Stree. "A fight like that deserves a reward, don't you think?"
"Thanks," said Stree, taking the knife. He took it out of its cover to examine it. He held it up in the air, when a bolt of lightning shot out of nowhere, and struck it, blinding everyone for a moment. When he could open his eye again, Stree looked at the knife, which now glowed silver, and had electricity crackling across it.
"Lightning touch," said Auron. "It seems that someone like's your new weapon." Stree smiled, then sheathed the knife again, and stuck it into his belt at the back.
"Come on, we have to go."