Stree opened his eyes to the brisk morning air, feeling distinctly unrested, though he didn't know why. Shaking his head to wake himself up properly, pulled on his pants – without the leg armor – and crawled out of his tent into the main area of the camp. He looked around to make sure no fiends were about, and found nothing. Taking the opportunity, he reached back into his tent, grabbed Hasamune, and walked over to a clearing, where he started going through some basic katas. He started off slowly, but got faster and faster, until he was swinging the blade with all of his strength and speed. He focused his senses to the point that he could feel everything, he let his mind disappear completely, and started performing the movements with more speed than he had ever managed before. After what seemed like a couple of minutes, he fellt a presence behind him, and he turned and swung, using all of his control to stop the blade just an nch from Auron's neck. To his credit, the older man didn't even flinch.

"Nice reflexes," remarked the samurai dryly.

"What do you want?" asked Stree bluntly.

"I thought you might want to talk."

"About what?" replied Stree,anting to return to his katas.

"Your seemingly natural ability to summon fire."

"What about it?"

"You need to learn to control it."

"I don't need any help to control it," said Stree. "I don't need help with anything. Not from you, especially not from Blondie. So don't bother trying."

"Then why did you drop the cage surrounding us at the thunder plains?"

"I—," he realized that he didn't mean to do it, but he didn't want to say anything. "I don't need any help

"Fine, then when it fails, be it on your own head."

"How do you know it's going to fail?" asked Stree, turning back around to stare Auron straight in the eye.

Auron met his stare openly. "Just a hunch. Be careful."

"Are you threatening me, Old man?"

"No. But I'd your sister if I were you."

"Touch her, and I'll make you believe that you should've stayed gone."

Auron laughed shortly, then turned to walk away.

Stree watched him go with a burning desire to throw the sword right at the man's back, but decided against it. Realizing he wasn't going to get the chance to practice anymore, he turned to go back to is tent and get changed. But found Paine and Kam standing on the edge of the clearing, watching him.

Suddenly wary of Auron's presence, Stree quickly made his way over to the two. "Something wrong?" he asked, looking out for the samurai. To his surprise, Kam laughed.

"Lighten up, brother." She slapped him on the shoulder, then turned and started to walk away. "Ill leave to two of you alone. Good luck."

Stree watched her leave, keeping an eye out for Auron, until Paine cleared her throat. He trned to fasce her,and watched silently as she started fidgeting with he hands. "Are you alright?"

"Stree, uh, I just uh, wanted you to…"

Though the sense that something was wrong wiehged heavily on his mind, Stree couldn't help but feel a little better at the sight of Paine acting the way she was.. "Think before you say each word," he joked.

"I'm trying," replied Paine, only half-joking. "Stre, I just wanted to say, if we get out of this mess, alive, would you, uh…"

Suddenly,a scream pierced the air, and fire erupted off to the side of them, engulfing most of the camp.

"Damn it!" shouted Paine angrily.

"Get down!" he shouted to Paine, throwing them both off to the side as bullet came whizzing past them. He grabbed his sword off his back, and turned to face their unseen foes.

Stree knew that the two of them were in a bad situation, but his stomach dropped when Auron strode through the flames, and started walking towards them. He dropped into a fighting stance, instinctively putting himself between Auron and Paine.

"Calm down," replied Auron. "It was a bomb. It self-destructed."

"Where's everyone else?"

"They're fine. They—," his statement was cut short by the bullets flying towards them. Auron grunted as several exploded through his shoulder, and dropped to the ground.

"Auron! Shouted Paine, running over to him.

"No, Don't!" shouted Stree, but he was drowned out by the screams of incoming Fiends.

Tidus watched idly as Yuna sat next to the spring where they shared their first kiss.

"Watcha doin?" he asked.

"Huh?" She jumped. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking."

"'Bout what?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

"Oh, nothing really, just remembering. And wondering."

"I think you'll have to be a bit more specific if you want me to understand."

Yuna laughed, but her laughter died away, and she stared across the lake.

"What?" asked Tidus.

"I just saw someone staring at us."

"Huh, where?" asked Tidus, looking around.

"He's gone. He motioned something, then left."

"What motion did he make?" asked Tidus, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Sort of a 'look behind you' wave," replied Yuna, making the hand motion herself.

Tidus and Yuna slowly turned around to see a slobbering bright orange face of a Mage Hater Dragon about thirty centimeters from their faces

Stree glared at the fiends as they came barreling down at them. "Paine get back! You're unarmed!"

"Are you crazy? He'll die!" she yelled, pointing down at Auron.

"So will you if you stay there! Move!" he grabbed Paine, then threw her back behind him, just as the fiends reached him. Holding Hasamune in his left hand, he grabbed the dagger from its sheath and sliced it across the throat of a bite bug, the first one unlucky enough to get near him. He turned and swiped both blades across the chest of a Wolf, narrowly missing having his eyes scraped out in the process.

"Watch out!" shouted Auron. Stree turned, then ducked as a huge rock came flashing towards his head. Stree glared, then threw his dagger at the Wendigo that had thrown it. The thing runted, then toppled, and Stree turned back to the rest of them. He punched his way through one of the beast with his swords, and saw something that made his blood go cold. Auron was standing and had hold of Kam, who was struggling in his powerful. Stree fought the monsters, though it was as though he was on automatic pilot, he was watching what unfolding between his sister and the samurai. He watched as she tried harder to struggle away, but she couldn't escape.

Then Auron knocked her to the ground.

Burning rage exploded within Stree like a furnace, and he let loose a scream as his his muscles stretched and tore, growing at an incredibly fast rate. His hair flailed wildly into his eyes as his screamed, but he didn't care. Pulses of heat and fire erupted from his body, driving back the fiends. Auron and Kam had stopped fighting, and were watching in terror as Stree's body twisted and contorted until his chest was as big as a shoopuf keg. Unnerved by the fire and screams, the Fiends started to bolt, but stopped suddenly as Stree's screaming stopped abruptly. The turned around with an eerie synchronization. It wasn't until they started floating up in the air that the thers realized they weren't doing it themselves. Stree stood still, his arms crossed staring at the fiends with the burning rage he called his own. He let his arms drop, then held one out to the side, and the dagger he had dropped earlier shot into his hand. He held it up like a throwing knife, and everyone, Find and human alike watched in terror as fire swirled up around the blade, heating it to the point where it was red-hot. Then Stree grinned, a feral grin that held no happiness for anyone, and threw the knife.

Screams were heard from all of the fiends as the knife punched through their bodies, then twirled and shot towards other fiends. The knife ricocheted of trees in it's chaotic journey setting everything it touched alight, including the corpses of the monsters it stabbed through. Not until every last fiends was dead did the dagger stop moving. It blew through the stomach of a Behemoth, and came to rest in Stree's hand. Kam and Auron watched as Stree stared at the knife in his hand .

Then his head came up to stare at Auron.

Tidus jumped back, pulling Yuna with him. The dragon laughed, something Tidus was sure that Fiends couldn't do. Tidus smiled and walked towards the beast.

"Tids, no!" shouted Yuna.

"Yuna, stay back," said Tidus, the grin on his face getting larger with every second.

"Tidus, why are you smiling like that?"

"You'll see. It something I picked up while I was on the Farplane. A guy named Vincent showed me." He reached the Fiend who, surprisingly, stood there as if waiting for what he would do. "Hey ugly. Watch this."

Tidus stepped backwards, and took off his jacket, leaving his chest completely bare. He closed his eyes, and concentrated, and slowly patches of dark blue fur started spreading across his chest, while his chest, along with the rest of his body, grew larger. Huge black diamond claws sprang out of his fingers, and wings erupted from his back. He opened his eyes, and Yuna found that they were now jet black His hair grew out, and the longer it grew, the more colorful it got, until it was flaming red. Then his face started morphing, until his chin was long and pointed, and his ear were pressed flat to the side of his head. He grinned, and his teeth started growing until they were as sharp-looking as his claws.

"So," said Tidus once he had finished. "How do you like it?" Yuna noticed that his voice had gotten a lot deeper.

"And you called me ugly," growled the Dragon.

"What the…?" gasped Yuna. The dragon turned to face her, and laughed again.

"I'm no normal Fiend. Even in such a powerful state, you friend will stand no chance against me."

"Oh yeah?" retorted Tidus. "We'll see!"

He flapped his wings once, then shot straight at the Dragon.