The dragon... -pauses- The dragon is a large, mythological beast, having four separate—and of course therefore quite distinctive—legs, and a monstrous body with thousands of tiny scales. At one end of the monstrous body, we find an almost equally monstrous head with two flaming nostrils... the mean temperature of which sometimes reaches to a hundred and twelve degrees centigrade. –awkward chuckle, cleared throat- At the other end of the large monstrous body... we-um... The dragon. The dragon is a large, mythological beast, having four separate and therefore quite distinct nostrils, and a large, monstrous... scale... With thousands of... tiny legs? –clears throat- The dragon. ...Whoops!

Well, in any case, on to the chapter... (Oh, and I don't own the above 'speech'. Go look up Peter, Paul, and Mary in Concert, Puff the Magic Dragon. My writing it doesn't do it justice.)

"I thought Dark said dragons were intelligent?!" –Reighn

Chapter 12.2 – Out of Time
Part 99

The familiar heat was welcoming. Really, it was.

The dragon? Not so much.

"Fuck!"

I ducked behind a pillar, dragging Ion behind me. Sync cursed about as loudly and just hit the ground. The lava-ball the dragon had spat at us barely missed him.

"I thought Dark said dragons were intelligent?!" Reighn yelled. I reached out telepathically.

"Ah, well, if dragons can go feral, this one has certainly done so," I announced. "Feels like the ligers and replicas—shit!" I ducked back behind the pillar from where I'd leaned out to look at the angry beast.

"I think he mentioned something about old age?" Tear offered, also hiding, though she was in the slightly safer location under a pathway... Or maybe not.

"Tear, behind you!"

She turned, looked, and saw the lava. Yeah, it really does rise and fall in waves, and yeah, that's what she's now running away from.

"Now what? We can't all fit behind two rock columns," Reighn noted from his location behind a second pillar. Luke was still standing back in the 'doorway' of the cavern we'd just entered.

"Wait for the lava to recede and make a run for it. There are more of these pillars on the other side, we'll have to use them for cover as we go," I said, watching the lava. It reached what appeared to be 'high tide', then started retreating. "Jump the lava if you can... Go!"

Since Tear was now further away from the arch than me and Ion, the green-haired teen was the first one to race under the 'bridge'. He and Sync, the next one to follow, both had to jump the still-receding lava.

I followed after them, and Tear took my spot at the pillar. I didn't really have to jump the lava, since there was so little of it left by that point. I did, however, have to stop while under the bridge to wait for the dragon to stop spewing lava balls.

Sync made it a little further down the path before being attacked. Ion covered him from a ways away, and once I was safely behind the next block, I grabbed my wing pack and pulled my bow out. Given how spread out we were, long-range was best.

The monster died, and Sync jumped to the side and rolled as a lava ball passed through the air right where he'd just been.

"I really don't like this dragon," he announced. I looked back down under the bridge. The lava was back, which meant it would be a bit before the other three joined us. Twilight hadn't managed to break away from the fight in the cathedral lobby, so it was just the six of us. Me, Ion, Sync, Tear, Reighn, and Luke.

I hoped it would be enough. Five was enough in the game, but this wasn't the game. This was real life, and it was fucked up anyway, so even if it was the game, it wouldn't have done a lot of good. For all I knew, Mohs could have a bunch more replicas waiting to kill us. And while I'm pretty sure that's how he got away after Ion's death... didn't the replicas just walk away afterwards?

Tear running past me to hide behind the pillar up ahead brought me back to the present. "Um... Are you sure you want to stay behind that short boulder?" she asked after a moment. I smirked.

"No, I'm not sure. But I'm going to stay here a moment, anyway, while I wait for you to move to the next one."

She turned and realized that Sync and Ion were waiting for her. They'd found a path out of this part of the volcano and were waiting in that 'doorway'. She ran to the next pillar, then had to stop and wait for the dragon to stop being such an ass. I got up and ran after her. Reighn and Luke, who had both been stuck under the 'bridge', ran after me.

Sighs of relief echoed around as we continued along the path in the other chamber.

"That's gonna be a pain in the ass," I grumbled.

"You mean we have to actually fight that thing?" Sync whined. I nodded.

"The path loops back around, and it's... almost guarding another path. It's very likely we'll have to deal with it before we can get to Florian," I said, giving him a pointed look. He nodded, understanding what I didn't want to say out loud—it was in the game, so it would happen here.

Another group of monsters attacked us, and I unleashed a large number of arrows into them, scowling at one that fell over at one point and broke another arrow. "Damn it! I'm going to have to go to Barst and get my quiver refilled at this rate!" I cursed. That had been the fourth just since the Sword Dancer busted my first katana. Not to mention the six before that, though those had been spread out a bit more.

"You can worry about that later. Come on!" Luke called, having slashed through the last of the monsters and taken off running again. I growled something that probably wasn't friendly and continued to chase after him.

It didn't take us too much longer to realize that we really needed a break. And, judging from the blunted edge of something's mind...

"We're not far from the dragon. It's probably right through that passageway," I said, nodding toward the passage in question. "We should take a few minutes to rest."

"Florian—"

"We've been running for an hour straight, Luke. I was estimating two hours in here, remember? We're cutting that nearly in half, since I'm fairly certain it'll only be a short hop from the dragon to where Florian is. Sync doesn't handle extreme temperatures well, blame that on bad memories of both this place and Mt. Roneal, Ion's not as physically fit as the rest of us anyway, and Tear's about exhausted herself trying to keep up with all the burns we keep getting," I said. Luke paused and looked around, then looked over at Ion, who was panting hard.

"I'm sorry. I... I do the same thing to the soldiers. Aerith always has to call breaks, or I'll run right through them," he admitted, sitting down. It looked like he hadn't realized how tired he was, either.

I sat down as well and started digging around in my wing pack. Selenia had a habit of always carrying around sandwiches, and I'd started doing the same after a while. Since I knew I hadn't eaten yet today and the others likely hadn't either... "Here." I passed the bag of sandwiches off to Tear, and she took one out before passing it to Luke. When it made it back to me, I took one for myself and put the bag back in my wing pack. There were four sandwiches left, since I packed them in groups of ten.

"Thanks, Kairi," Reighn said, voice soft and showing his exhaustion. He ate slowly, being the last one to finish his sandwich. Luke looked apologetic, and I could tell from Reighn's expression that he really didn't blame the redhead. Ion had been pushing pretty hard too, not having the dark memories Sync had to slow him down.

Once I'd eaten my sandwich, I stretched my legs out, then dug out a water bottle from my wing pack. These, everyone had, though I knew Sync had been going through his a lot faster than the rest of us, a combination of the heat and the stress making his mouth dry faster and prompting him to drink more.

As if to prove my point, he pulled out his water bottle, lifted it to his lips, and then let it fall again with an upset glance. I smiled wryly and held out mine. He looked downright grateful.

"Alright... Ion's got his breath back, we've all eaten something and taken a drink. We should get going again," Reighn said a few minutes later. I nodded. I didn't want to waste any more time than absolutely necessary, myself.

We were back on our feet quickly enough, and headed off to face the dragon.

It was just as happy to see us as it had been earlier.

"Damn, I'm starting to hate this thing," Sync grumbled.

"Tricky fight... watch out for its tail, especially!" I warned him, settling into a casting stance. Reighn, Ion, and Tear did the same next to me, and Luke and Sync raced in to face off against the lava-spewing beast. It couldn't really get high into the air—its wings were too heavily armored against the lava of its home—which was a good thing for us, because if it was properly airborne... well, we'd have been dead when we first had to avoid its damn lava balls.

"Icicle Rain!" My pink arte landed next to Reighn's Crackle, and the dragon screeched at us.

"Holy Lance!" Tear's arte landed next.

"Prism Gale! No, no, not again!"

Sync ran away as fast as he could, but Luke hesitated, then lifted his sword in a defensive position. I recognized his casting stance immediately, and frowned. What was he doing...?

Ion gasped as the raging Prism Gale once again came under control, fifth fonons bleeding in easily. Luke glanced back at him, and he nodded once.

"O flurry of dancing flames..."

"The twin keys of destiny..."

"Sunset Faith!" The two cried out in unison.

It took all of my control not to make a comment about Axel and Roxas, now that I'd heard the other half of the arte.

The dragon didn't like it much, though, so I let off another Icicle Rain. Reighn seemed to agree with me on that and launched another Crackle before the two of us had to split. Tear and Ion were out of the way, but we were in danger of getting hit with a flying lava ball.

I bit my lip and considered something, then nodded and started pulling in fonons, using Energies to guide them and making a very pointed mental note of how much magic I had to spare.

After a moment, a silvery-white-teal glyph formed around my feet, twice as large as usual. Unlike when Reighn had cast it, mine had just a hint of a green tinge. This didn't surprise me much, since my usual fonic glyph was an emerald green color regardless of whether I was using Energies or not.

"Maiden of ice who sleeps in the silent forest, grace my enemies with your pure smile—"

"Don't forget the limiter!"

I nodded as I continued. "—and offer them thy bosom!" The sheer rush of power that followed the fonic glyph almost made me throw caution to the wind where the limiter was concerned, which I figured was why Reighn brought it up. "Final Embrace!"

I immediately decided that, in the future, I'd be sticking to using it with my fonslots only, since the drain from the magic I'd just cast was almost as heavy as operating the passage rings usually was.

Though, I will admit, it looked prettier with the pink tinge.

And the dragon really, really didn't like it.

Reighn followed up with a Raging Mist, and I smirked and cast Maelstrom. Then I flinched. Between the Icicle Rains, Final Embrace, and Maelstrom, I was quickly running out of energy. And I only had a temporary replacement for my stabilizer, not a proper one.

I scowled, drew an arrow, and let it fly.

It didn't take us much longer to defeat the dragon, thankfully, and it fell into the lava nearby with a rather pitiful moan. I turned to look at Reighn. "Alright. I'm now out of magic. Let's get this over with."

He rolled his eyes. "Limiter?"

"I did limit it. I should have just gone through my fonslots. I think I actually wasted energy using Energies," I admitted. Ion holstered his guns.

"We can figure it out later. Right now, we need to get to Florian."

I nodded, and we stepped through the passage into a relatively cooler area.

I was right, thankfully. Once we'd gotten there, it was just a short way to where Mohs, Anise, Florian, and a number of replicas stood. I glanced at Reighn, who pointed to himself, then at where Pamela and Oliver were being held. I nodded once, then drew an arrow. I stopped running, took aim, and fired, hitting the replica guarding their 'cell'. Reighn raced through the area without pausing, staff out and stopping the replica I'd injured from attacking the imprisoned parents. Mohs cried out in surprise when the next arrow narrowly missed him, hitting the replica that had turned to help its fellow against Reighn.

The next arrow was aimed for the pompous bastard himself, though I noted he was not still wearing his robes. Interesting...

Ion and Sync stood by Florian, Ion holding the Aska guns against a couple of replicas who had stepped over to try to stop them, and Sync with two Black Rose daggers in reverse grip. Florian's arms dropped, and he swayed a bit, but didn't fall over.

"I was wondering when you'd get here..." he said softly. Ion smiled, even though he wasn't facing his brother.

"I'd never leave you behind."

"Ion!" Anise cried, obviously ecstatic to see the gun-wielding replica for once.

Mohs huffed. "You two! Get away from the Fon Master!"

Ion tilted his head to the side innocently as Sync and Florian exchanged a look and then backed away. "Oh, me?"

Mohs paused. "You're... but..." He looked over at Florian. "The third replica..." He glanced at Sync. "The fifth..." Then at Ion again. "You're the seventh replica?!"

One of Ion's guns moved, and I smirked. "I wouldn't move too far, if I were you. That's two long-range weapons you've got trained on you now, Mohs."

He sneered at me. "This, from a know-nothing nomad."

I scowled. "I apparently know more than you do."

He scoffed, then dropped to the ground, two replicas taking the shots from myself and Ion. Mohs fled, another four replicas covering his escape. Anise watched him go, and sure enough, once Mohs was gone, the replicas turned around and left as well. Tear and I stepped over to join the others, Reighn and Anise's parents coming from the other direction.

"Florian, are you alright?" Anise asked.

Florian nodded, bright, cheery smile on his face. "Yep!"

Ion gave Anise a look. "You knew Florian could withstand the strain from reading the Score longer than I can, didn't you?"

Anise nodded. "I knew Mohs was going to do this, so as soon as I got a date out of him, I had Florian dress up in your robes. Mohs didn't have a clue until you guys showed up."

I smiled. "You set it up so we'd have the best chances at succeeding."

Anise nodded again. "Yeah... Now to face everyone else again..."

Fun Fact: Oh boy. Mohs is pushing it. Thank goodness he's a fairly easily dealt-with problem come AEtT. Chapter 3, methinks, assuming stuff doesn't get moved around too much... (I'm not holding my breath on the current outline. Not with Dist, Path, Ifrit, and Rem being the annoying creatures they are.)

Edit from about two weeks later: Yeah. I was right. They've rearranged my outline. AGAIN. It's now looking like Mohs won't be dealt with until Chapter 5 or 6 at the earliest.