Final Fantasy VIII 1. Chapter 1

A small 10 year old girl with big blue eyes and waist length blond hair stood by the beat up front door to her and her father's apartment in the violent and desperate back streets of Deling city.

Deling city was home to some of the richest people in the world. Many high-flying figureheads of society owned homes here and It was the large city centre and buzzing night life that brought many here looking for work, looking for a life and most of all a hope. Naturally only a handful found what they were looking for. The rest ended up here, here the same place as that little girl.

The back streets in Deling were filled with run down houses with broken front doors, smashed and boxed up windows. Rubbish lined the streets and the grey building continued to peel paint. The homeless and the hopeless cowered in door ways and alleyways, huddled under layers of dirty blankets. The needle scars stretching far up their arms. The people here wallowed in self pity. Their was little chance of anyone ever leaving this place. The police stopped caring long ago. Rarely did they respond to any distress calls. They found it simply wasn't worth it. Many were just prank calls while the police found they had better things to do than serve the city scum. It was easier to let them sort out their own problems, let them shoot each other. Hopefully eliminate each other.

But none the less the little girl carried on waiting. Her nightshirt was down round her knees as she stood there by the front door. Clutching a small teddy bear. Its arm ripped and an eye missing, daddy couldn't sew you see. She looked at the clock, 9:10pm. Daddy would be home any minute now. She didn't like this place at night. Daddy couldn't afford to get electricity. So candles lit the living room and caused an eerie glow. Mind you it wasn't like their was much to light.

Their crummy ground floor apartment had 3 rooms. The living room also had a kitchen in it. Well it was kind of a kitchen, the living room walls were pale green wallpaper peeling off the walls, the sofa was a nasty brown colour with ripped patches and stains all over it. But the sofa was also a bed, daddy slept here. their 'kitchen' was nothing more than a sink, a stove and small wooden table, with two wooden seats, one for her and one for her farther.

The bathroom was equally as grand and her daddy made she got the only real bedroom in the house, he even painted it sky blue, her favourite colour, he made sure that her room was the best room in the house.

9:15, her daddy still wasn't home she pulled the teddy closer to her chest. Where could he be? She hated it when daddy as late. Daddy was hardly ever late. He had to come home soon to put her to bed. She looked at the clock again and before she had time to register what time it was now, she heard the keys turn in the lock and her daddy walk in.

she screamed his name and ran into his arms and he crouched down onto his knees and swung her up into his arms. She giggled loudly. After a few words, he picked her up and carried her into her bedroom. He took her into her room, tucked her into bed and blew out the candle before wishing his little princess good night.

10 years ago her eloped with his daughter. After everything he went through and put others through he was still allowed to return balamb garden, what a relief a second chance at everything. He kept his head down and worked hard, he wouldn't mess up, no not this time; he was luck to get this second chance, so damn lucky. It was only 2 years later, that a relationship, a short relationship, Okays very short one night relationship developed with a female cadet. And funnily enough she was pregnant. She refused to kill a defenceless baby and agreed to go full term and left garden (secretly) for a 9month long 'training exercise'. Upon her return, much to his surprise she told him she'd been pregnant given birth and had given her baby up for adoption.

he wouldn't let that happen, he didn't have a mother and farther. They were killed and not a day went by where he didn't wish he knew them, had a picture of them, anything, he wished he had had a real family. Someone to aspire to, someone to make proud. He would not let his child go on thinking that it had no one out their to love it. He left the garden, his safe heaven and took her from the orphanage and raised her himself. Yeah okay it was bloody hard work. His name was dirt in most places and no one wanted to hire him. But he managed to find some work, not much. Jobs with real money wouldn't want someone like him. With help from an aging lady across the road he raised his little girl. He made her understand how important it was to work hard in school. he trained her in martial arts. He was a warrior and he felt his daughter should too become one. She was out going and rarely refused a friend, but the homework schedule and martial arts training didn't allow for much time to play, but she didn't mind, he knew all she wanted to do was please her daddy. She was young but she had such a good understanding for the world around her. She understood they were poor and she understood why. He kept nothing about his past from her, he told her everything he had done. The truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, she deserved to know. She knew that full acceptance in the real world would be a dream.

Seifer almasy took a deep long look at himself in the mirror. What a long way he had come. From a wanna be SeeD to a knight, to nothing, to a trainee again to a loving farther. Hmmm Farther. Farther. That word made him smile. Times with his daughter had been rough but he felt like he once again had purpose in his life. He was raising a child. Not any child but HIS child. And she was amazing. Okay more money would be good. but to come home every night to a warm hug from his child was all he needed. SeeD was all well and good but what was its purpose? To kill enemies? He had killed enough in his life time, now he needed to do something else he needed to cultivate and help life grow. Slowly but surly he was paying his dues.

It had been another day of working hard for little money and sleep was approaching upon him very rapidly, the sofa bed was made up and it was to get some rest, he'd needed to make sure he was up at 7 to start getting everything ready for the next day, his daughter would need her packed lunch made for school.

Remember that saying…nothing lasts forever. Well it might just be true…

The moment Seifer sat down a loud knock came on the door. A loud harsh forceful knock. Adrenalin rushed through his body, his mind immediately flashed to the worst possible scenario. His daughter, he had to make sure she was safe, she was top priority. Before answer the door he lightly and inaudibly lifted the sofa and produced a long black leather case, he opened up and pulled out that infamous gunblade. He approached the door. Pushing himself up against the wall he slowly unlocked the door. As soon as the 'click' was heard, the door flung open with such a force Seifer was knocked back, whoever was there was not alone, that was not the force of one man along. He through himself into the door way gunblade readied. Opposing swords flew down and was matched by the quickness of the blade. It maybe had been 10 years since he was last in combat, but it was like riding a bike. You never forgot. The opposing soldiers dressed in heavy amour black with their faces covered by black cloth, their bare arms covered in a series of identical and elaborate black tattoos ran in, screaming for him to drop his weapon and come quietly. Hmmm. Trade mark smirk time. Go down without a fight? A knight needs to protect his princess. The guards dressed in black amour came straight at him. This was real combat. Slice after slice, dodge after dodged. This wasn't looking good. he grabbed one guard form behind without even thinking he drew the blade across the neck of the enemy, blood everywhere. Years of skill and lack of conscious came flooding back, without thinking he spun around, The blade piercing the stomach of another. But this was getting too much, there were too many, he couldn't do it. In the corner of his eye he saw his daughter. Standing in the bedroom door way. Her big blue eyes wide. No! in his foolishness he let his guard down. The last thing he felt was blunt cold metal colliding with his head. The last thing he saw was one of those bastard solders taking another blunt object to his daughters head, she fell to the floor. Everything went black. All he heard were muffled sounds. He swore he heard the high pitched cackle of a woman.

When little sapphire Almasy woke up She was alone. Her blurred vision corrected itself slowly but surely. Figures and objects can back into focus. Her hands and feet were wet. She could feel the dampness has she twisted and wiggled her toes and fingers. she lifted her hands up to her face. They were red. Red? She took them down from her view. She screamed and screamed and carried on screaming. blood-spattered, dead solders lay all over he floor. The 10 year old girl had seen her first dead body. She ran over to where she last remembered seeing her daddy. He was gone. His gunblade lay their covered in dried blood, she remember how it shone in the light when her daddy used to take it out to show her. But today it didn't shine. It looked lacklustre. She picked it up. Daddy had let her use it a few times when they were training together in the forests just outside Deling. Realising that on one was coming back for her she started to call out for her daddy. No answer, panicking she ran round each room calling form him. She ran into the street calling his name. He didn't come to her. Tears became to flow freely again. The elderly lady across the street. Grandma able, who had helped her daddy bring sapphire up, ran over to her. She saw the blood that covered the child and went pale. She ran into hr house and let out a penetrating scream. She called the police who in turn contracted the galablian army. When sapphire saw the soldiers arrive she ran over to the man who looked to be in charge. A man who called himself Martine. She tugged on his long jacket. He looked down at her over the top of his long nose. She asked if daddy was coming home. He shook his head. It was obvious to little sapphire that who ever took her daddy must have been very important if they were going to send the army to sort it out and not the regular police men.

He looked down at her one last time an quite simply said. 'Someone's taken your daddy and they don't plan on bringing him back, not yet anyway.'


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for your kind words on the last chapter. I have in fact edited this chapter from the original I put up. Its not majorly different and their aren't any plot changes just extra detail.

PLEASE REVIEW! It only takes a minute extra and it makes my day!

Its was simple enough to say that from that day on. Simple life for little sapphire wasn't so simple anymore.

Sapphire move in with 'grandma able' who tried her hardest to look after each of them with what little benefits she got.

Sapphire. Had a great deal of respect for her for what she was doing, she didn't have to take her in, she could have watched while they shipped her off to some orphanage but she didn't, so as soon as sapphire turned 13 she got a little job dishwashing in a café, every gil she earned went straight back to grandma Able.

Life wasn't grand by any means. Food was sparse. Really sparse. And the tight money didn't allow for frivolous spending like fashionable clothes, computers, or even a new school bag. Grandma able pawned everything she owned, and despite the deep guilt the consumed her, she never told grandma able about what she had that she could pawn. Her father's gunblade was too sentimental. Sapphire deep down believed that daddy would want to use it again when he came home.

It was a week after her fathers disappearance that the biggest change happened. Her farther had always made sure he trained his daughter in the martial art. His knowledge wasn't that grand after all he was a gunblade specialist, not zell dincht for crying out loud! But every SeeD trainee had basic martial arts training and that's what he passed on to her.

Another day and the rough public Deiling high school was over and in the pouring rain 10year old saph walked herself home. Her blond hair sticking to her face, her clothes were soaking wet. They felt so heavy on her little frame. She wrapped her arms round herself in a last ditch effort to keep warm. She stumbled through the streets when all of a sudden the rain seemed to stop. No, the rain happened stopped. All round her it was raining. But why wasn't she getting wet? She looked up. Someone was holding an umbrella over her head. She was shocked, her farther had always told her to watch out for strangers and immediately she did the only thing she thought she could do. She drop her bag on the floor and took up an almost laughable, insignificant martial arts defensive position, just like she had bee taught. She froze her blue eyes just staring.

He began to talk.

"Little sapphire Almasy?"

she nodded. That mans voice. It was gentle and soothing. He wasn't going to hurt her, she didn't know how she knew that but that's what she felt. She felt safe with him. Really safe. In an odd sort of way. His long silk and heavily embodied martial arts clothes and long grey beard were perfectly kept.

She put her body at ease and stood their hands by her side looking up at him. A rain drop hanging off the tip of her nose.

"Yes sir, that's what they call me".

He chuckled lightly at her dry wit answer. "They call me master chi, I am a master of martial arts and I am supposed to train you".

"Who told you that sir?" she answered, a little confused she had to admit.

"When you were born I had a vision about you and I sort out your farther. You are a special child with a special future, Sapphire you need to be taught how to fight like a real warrior. You NEED to know. I am here to make sure you have that knowledge".

Sapphire didn't buy it for a minute. "How's an old man like you supposed to make me into a great fighter?" she raised an eyebrow.

"never ever judge a book by its cover. I am a leader in Mugen-Tenshin style. Yes it is true that I'm getting old and I only train one or two people now but it was decided many years ago by hyne herself that I would teach you my art. Sapphire you must understand theirs a reason your dad was taken. Are you willing to learn?"

So much for such a young girl to comprehend. Her fate already decided? She had to learn how to fight? Why? What was coming? Why did it involve her? And what did this old man know about her farther?.

She didn't answer him verbally she just nodded.

He handed her a small bit of paper containing a small, badly drawn map to the dojo. Tomorrow she would start to learn one of the most beautiful, graceful and deadly forms of martial art that would push her spiritually, mentally, physically and acrobatically.

Everyday their in she her life was hectic.

School started at 8:30 and break and lunch time was fully devoted to training. After school she went straight to master chi's dojo until 6 at night. Then if it was either a Monday Wednesday or Friday shed work her after school dishwashing job shed stay later and all day Saturday and Sunday would be spent training. On the eve of her 12th birthday she was presented with a spectacular pair of Chakrams. These were metal bladed rings which were held in each hand. They were carved with dragons and other mythical beasts. Off the handles at the top of each ring were glass beads and tassels that made these deadly weapons look almost feminine. She loved them. Yeah she had always dreamed of growing up and wielding her farther gunblade. But the Mugen-Tenshin style was extremely acrobatic, almost like a dance and it meant she had to be very quick, light and fatal on her feet. Learning to use a gunblade would mean she'd lose the speed advantage; sapphire was physically too weak to take someone on one on one. She realised this and threw her self into the exotic dance of the Macabre

When sapphire was 17years old grandma Able passed away quietly in her sleep. A flashy service was to expensive for these parts. A good person like grandma able was admired by everyone and people flooded to the pauper's funeral. They all came to pay their last respects to a woman who had showed then all kindness. You don't have to be a social icon or a millionaire to command respect. Able proved that. Everyone admired that.

But Sapphire was now alone in the world. At 17 years old sapphire was now living in a apartment with 2 other girls in the same horrid conditions she had always been used to. In the same dead end shit street, in fact she was only a few houses down from where her and her dad lived. She couldn't help but look at that house a reminisce every time she passed it. She was 17 years old, going to school. Learning to be a martial artist and work every night from 7pm till 2am as a bar girl just so she could keep a roof over her head.

Her flat mates were good enough. They were two aspiring 'pop star's who dreamt of becoming famous. It was upsetting to see another 2 people in this street with hopes and dreams that, would more likely than not, come to nothing. Sapphire didn't get much time to spend with them. Work and training commanded too much of her precious time but it was a happy enough environment to live in. sapphire had always enjoyed music and her flat mates made sure she got her fill of it.

Over the years it was easy to see how she had changed. At 17 she was now a well defined young adult, like most people her age. Her aerobic training gave her a tall thin well toned body. While luckily enough for her she wasn't blessed with to bigger chest. Her long blond hair always tied back into a pony tail with loose bangs falling into her face. She worse extremely baggy black cargo pants that was kept up by a black belt, which on the left leg was a large yellow patch which was the mark of her master and the dojo she trained in. while in the hot and humid Deiling city she only wore a black bikini top. With a long sleeve very cropped jacket when the sun went in at night, I mean bikini top was nice and all but it wasn't THAT practical. She was always kicking around in her favourite pair of trainers and her prominent eyes were always her foremost characteristic.

As another day of training started she entered the dojo by bowing to her master. But today something was different. She looked up form her bow and caught the eye of her master

"Ah sapphire I've got some you should meet. Please follow me".

Thanks for reading. I mean it, I really appreciate it. So please read and review, it helps me grow as a writer.


	3. Chapter 3

Sion, Sion sodding leonhart. Great, bloody fucking fantastic. He just loved being called 'sion leonhart'. It didn't take a genius to figure out who his parents were.

They were the high flyers of the world, they were the A list celebrities. Rinoa, the last living sorceress and talented signer and squall, hero extraordinaire, current commander of balamb and world class gunblade specialist. They were the loving parents of Sion leonhart. Both spent nearly all their time in the garden playing that devoted couple that they were thought to be.

Rinoa has always said that no child of hers would be a soldier like her or squall. She has always insisted that fighting wars was not the answer and her child would fight the academic battle instead, and that's exactly what happened. Sion leonhart to the downright disbelief of everyone around his family could not believe that Rinoa would not be allowing her son to attend the garden that they run. Surly it was fate that sion would follow in the foots steps of his farther. Maybe even taken on gunblade. Become a fine SeeD or one day maybe, even an instructor. But no. he attended 5 days a week Deiling's most privileged high school. Deiling privet. A school filled with stuck up children whose parents had, more than likely paid for them to get in and had more money than sense. It was a school filled with annoying girls whose entire lives were filled with designer handbags. Designer clothes, designer hair and designer plastic surgery all to attract the perfect designer boyfriend. While the guys flashed their money about in their convertible cars and played sports while discussing their families fortune. It was a school were basic conversation was always about someone else.

He hated it. In fact he hated at all so fucking much he would have gladly sawed his own arm off with a ruler just to have an excuse to leave for a few days.

Sion leonhart who distanced himself from these people, their for distancing himself for everybody instantly Making himself the person they more that likely talking about. He stopped caring a long time ago. Now let's not get it wrong. Sion's disposition was not like that of his fathers. He wasn't a 'whatever' kind of guy. He did value solitude and was normally a quite person but his personality swung a little bit more towards that of his mother. Well not to their faces anyway.

Sion lived in the presidential place. Pretty much alone. The 16 bed mansion was home to only one person. Well of course the house had servants, but Rinoa believed in rising Sion to look after himself instead of encouraging him to be lazy. Though nobody here could cook so the head maid was also a live in cook.

Sion resented his parents. To them he was cold and unforgiving. They brought him into this world and it would be nice for them to acknowledge his presents. Both of them were two wrapped up in themselves and their amazing friends, in the amazing garden with its amazing SeeDs. They spent nearly all of the time in the garden. And on the rare occasions they were home they were too wrapped up in business to even asking him how school was going, which was shit by the way. It has been 2 and a half months since the last time they all sat down for a meal together.

Oh yeah, squall and Rinoa fucking great parents they were.

A far as not being 'allowed' to fight went Sion couldn't have cared less. He was always attracted to the world the SeeDs lived in and luckily for Sion hyne had decided that he would fight. As a present at Sion's christening Zell had brought a pair of gloves, much like his own as a gift, of course assuming that Sion would be attending garden. Rinoa has taken them and hid them in the attic and as far as she knew sion knew nothing about them…well as far as she knew.

When Sion was 10 years old he rummaging around one day (one of the many days his parents were away on business) he found he small wooden box in which the gloves were kept. he took the gloves and for years he continued to hide them in his room under a loose floorboard where pretty much everything else that sion classed as privet was hidden. While in the high school library he checked out a few books on martial arts and every day for an hour after school he told the house maid he was attending 'a study group' when in fact Sion was in the forest teaching himself, as best he could how to become a martial artist. For someone who was destined to fight this wasn't the best way to go about it, his technique was poor and he had no real idea about the complicate workings of the art. Until he met master chi.

It started when Sion was 11. As per usual he had left school and was now travelling towards the forest where he would train for the 1 hour he had established. Apart from this time the class idiots had decided to follow him. Sion was bullied; he had been his entire life. Its common knowledge in his school that to not fit in made you a prime target.

"oi lion cub" one shouted as he emerged from the bushes. He was tall for his age and he was easily 2 years older that Sion, all the while his two lanky followers weren't far behind, laughing and gawping and the extremely witty pun the idiot in the middle had just made on his name, forgive Sion for not laughing.

Sion immediately turned around and met his gaze, he didn't need this, and he didn't want anything to do wit these people. He couldn't comprehend why this kid wouldn't just go away.

"Nice dance you got their" he continued to jest.

"Its not dancing lee, its martial arts" Sion replied bluntly, hoping, praying he'd just be satisfied and go away.

"Oh really? Didn't look much like martial arts to me; let me show you how the big boys fight". Before Sion could even respond one of the two cronies had already gotten round behind him and pinned his arms behind his back. He tired to struggle free but Sion was extremely scrawny for his age. He felt the fist of one collide with his face. It stung in fact it stung really badly. He could feel his face immediately swell and heat up .it felt like it was on fire! He felt a knee collided with his stomach now it hurt and he couldn't breath. He was severely winded. He waited for the next punch to come but it never did. He felt his arms loosen and his legs gave way. He fell to the floor in a small pile. He heard the voice of an older man warning the kids, he heard them laughing. He heard and few more punches and his thoughts immediately went to who just tried to intervene, would a bunch of kids really try and eat up an adult? He slowly opened his eyes, in fact he opened one eye the other was to swollen but he had a few potions stocked under his bedroom floor for when this type of thing happened, this way nobody would find out, sion did not need protecting, he would learn to protect himself.

He felt who ever the adult was pick him up.

"Sion leonhart, my name is master Chi, a long time ago, far before you were born I had a vision. A vision that required me to train you up to be a fine warrior, it was my job, appointed by hyne herself that I would train you to be one of the greatest fighters ever. Young leonhart you play a bigger part in destiny than I think you believe".

From that day onwards Sion leonhart trained from 7 onwards till he could no longer keep his eyes open. Nobody in his family ever bothered to ask where he was going or what he was doing. His mother would be beside her self at him learning to fight.

Master chi was indeed a great warrior, even at his age his skill was unlike that of any he had seen, he easily soared passed uncle Zell as far as skill came. Master chi taught Sion ninjitsu. And at the age of 15 he as introduced to a samurai sword. Sion was a great fighter and took to it like a duck to water. He enjoyed fighting with his hands rather than a sword, but as master chi had explained, if sion was ever surrounded by enemies had need something a little bit faster than fists to help him fight his way out. The sword easily became and extension of the young mans arm and has the years progressed he became a warrior that could easy serve as a knight to hyne herself.

Sion was 18 years old and he was, like many other years celebrating his birthday alone. Mum and dad were busy with important garden stuff and had left a present for him but he'd open it some other time he didn't care too much at that moment. It was master Chi's surprise he was more interested in.

The martial arts had changed sion quite a bit, he wasn't so scrawny anymore and stood at a tall 6ft with broad shoulders and well toned arms and stomach. He had extremely messy brown hair that hung in bangs over his eyes. Very much like his farther, he hated looking like his farther and he hated being told he looked like his farther. He wore baggy dark blue jeans that he wore way to low and was held up by a simple leather belt; on top he only wore his short sleeve blue hoodie with the symbol of master chi's dojo on the back. One his left arm was a black leather bracer.

He entered the dojo and greeted his master with a deep bow.

"Ah Sion my boy happy birthday! 18 years old my how you've changed, well anyway we can discuss all this in further detail in a minute, if you'd like to wait here I have someone you need to meet."

A blond girl with blue eyes walked in to the room.


	4. Chapter 4

Master chi led both sapphire and sion to small room, all 3 sat round a long mahogany wood table sipping some kind of herbal tea which sion could have sworn was nothing more than soapy water. He stole a glance at sapphire whose eyes were fixed firmly down at the table. She seemed to be enjoying what she was dirking? Was that even possible? She was probably drinking it to be polite. Telling master chi that this was like drinking washing up liquid might offend him.

The room they were in reflected the entire dojo. The room was dark and was lit only by candles which highlighted all the small statues and paintings on the wooden walls. The main training hall was the only place to be lit by electricity as far as sion and sapphire knew but of course their were places they didn't go. Sapphire could spend hours wandering round the dojo. In fact only the entrance room was visible above ground, which from the outside looked shabby but the complicated system of corridors and rooms were all hidden underground. Everything was wooden, the walls the ceiling and the floors. There were beautifully woven wall hangings in every single room which sapphire could spend hours studying; her favourite was in the second of the 4 training halls. It was a picture of a pretty ancient warrior princess, her delicate pink dress was kicked up in the air as she danced the same martial art sapphire herself was learning. As a child sapphire used to dream that she was that princess and that she was dancing for her imaginary prince. Thin was as sapphire grew up she learned that she wasn't a princess how ever well she could fight and she would never find a prince. In fact did princes who came in on white horses even exist? She looked at sion who seemed to be studying his drink with an enormous amount if interest and disgust, she looked back down at her drink, she hated it. Stuff tasted like washing up liquid but master chi would be offended if she didn't drink it. His face was bright red, he had obviously been training.

Master chi interrupted her train of thought.

"Sion and sapphire I have been training you both for years, I have watched you both grow up before my eyes, you have been like children to me. But I didn't just pick you two to train out of random, no, you both know I gave up professionally training a long time ago but it was fate that you two would be trained, you need to know how to fight! It is your destiny! You will fight! You can not avoid it. Sion and Saph you have become two amazing warriors and you skill can only grow from here, no longer will I train you separately but from here on you will train together, you will fuse your skills together, you will learning to read each others mind, fight along said each other, you will shield each other you will fight as one mind, body and spirit. Alone you are strong but, together my children, you will become invincible."

Sion and Saph both looked up at each other, theirs eyes met and they smiled. Mutually smiled.

"my children your background are both so different so similar at the same time, you need to forget who you are! You need to work together, if you fail to make a strong partnership the cracks in your foundation will be the end of you both, you don't need to be friends necessarily you just need to be able to trust each other and work together".

4 months passed very quickly. Master chi had thought both of them all he knew now all that was left to do was sit back and watch and give small bits of advise as they started to work together. They did it ever so well. It was obvious very quickly that sapphire was the strongest, she had started training many years before and it was encouraged giving here an early advantage which she never lost. The thing with Sion and Saph is that they shared a bond to start with, Saph's dad was infamous, and Sion's dad was famous. They found common ground between them, both had parents but neither were their for them, both wanted to achieve so much, both were in the big picture pretty much alone in the world. Sion on Saph built up more than just a partnership they built friendship, they became close, they became best friends, the only real person each other had. It was amazing how something a simple as having someone listen to you could affect life in such a big way. Master chi couldn't have been happier, it wouldn't be long before they were taken away from him, as long as nothing came between them, their destiny would hold great things for them. Great, great things.

It had been another day of hard training and Saph was in the extremely small backyard/courtyard of the dojo. She loved it her. The entire garden was filled with big grey stones, lush green plants and delicate little violate flowers, small water features ran all about the garden and the trickling of the water made it an extremely relaxing place to be at anytime. Saph was lying on her back in the middle of the garden, her one hand dangling into one of the small streams that ran past, she had her eyes closed and she was relaxing peacefully. "Hey Spah".

That was Sion's voice, she opened her eyes and adjusted her head to get a better view of him, after he sat down next to her she decided it was probably best to sit up as well and very slowly rose, to make sure she didn't get a bloody head rush.

"Hey Si".

He smiled gently at her "what you doing out here?"

"Just relaxing, I don't get much chance to normally, plus it's lovely out here when the sun is shining." She looked up at the sun shielding her eyes from the powerful rays with her hand. She turned back around to look at him. "Sion what do you parents think about you training, I mean shouldn't you be in that stupid garden filled with its little WeeD's?" sion started smiling and shaking his head. "No, they don't know, my mother never wanted me to fight. I was bullied badly at school, because of who I am, I wasn't like the other stuck up kids in my school, because of that they singled me out, master chi found me getting beaten up one day and I started training with him after that." Sapphire really couldn't believe it, sion had managed for 6 years to become an exceedingly good martial artist and her partner, he was a master of the samurai sword yet his parents had no idea, "you see my parent's aren't around much, they are so busy running garden they don't have much time at home, when they are at home their to busy playing the perfect fairytale couple they barley notice my existence, I just lie to them about training, tell them I am going over a friends house, tell them I'm in the school library, just tell them anything , they don't care enough to see if I am telling the truth, I've raised myself these years without them". Saph looked at him and smiled.

"If what master Chi says is true, were supposed to fight, with or without your parents consent or knowledge, Sion were both alone and neither by choice but were friends, that makes us all that each other has." They both smiled at each, Sion placed both his hands on Saph shoulders and pushed her down so she was lying down again staring up at the sun, this time with her head in his lap. That night both of them spent the night sleeping in garden together under the stars in the warm humid night of Deiling city. Their was nobody at home for either of them to wonder where they were.

Saph woke early the next morning; she looked at sion's watch, 6am. Yuk, she felt damp and clammy, the hot Deiling summers were a bitch, 6am and she already wanted to run back inside and stick her head in the fridge. She began to rise slowly. Very carefully, after all she couldn't sleep but that didn't mean that Sion didn't have the right to. She looked at him, she didn't get it, how could he sleep, he was covered in sweat, the boy must have been boiling, she shock her head in disapproval at nobody in particular. She went into the dojo and wandered into a very small kitchen she opened up modest fridge and pulled out a bottle of mineral water, she began drinking, the cool taste of water was so refreshing, she loved Triberia mountain spring water. She heard a noice and saw sion standing over the sink, he took of his t-Shirt and rung out the sweat. He looked at saph and made a disgusted face. Both laughed. he ran his hand threw his damp messy brown hair; she knew he'd get all moody if she said he looked like his dad. "Thanks Saph, for listening to me yesterday, I don't know its weird all of a sudden having someone to talk to but its cool, thanks." She smiled at him patted him on the shoulder and walked back out of the kitchen. "Hey saph"

She turned around and looked at him "yeah, si?"

"Why don't you ever tell me anything about you?" he looked directly at her, but as soon as he finished talking she broke the eye contact. "Because I don't want to share anything with you." Her voice was blunt and very to the point.

"Were friends though Saph, like you said we've all each other have yet your refusing to let me in on your past!"

"That's because my past is not up for discussion!" she was growing angry, the fact sion, some who she knew deep down she was close to was pushing at her inner emotional barricades was causing her to react defensively.

"You're acting like a child Saph, your just like you're farther! You're exactly the way he was!"

She stopped, her back facing Sion, her body that was once tense had now slumped. She dropped the bottle of water on the floor and she turned around, and with a sub zero stare she looked at Sion.

"Don't you ever insult my farther again, your nothing more than an ignorant little boy Sion, your just like your farther and mother, refusing to see that people change. All you see is the name, you never even met my farther, the only way you know him are those stupid little stories that people like squall and Rinoa and Zell and Selphie tell you. Rot in hell Sion." She left the room. Sion just stood their, he never imagined she'd explode like that. He wasn't mentally kicking himself, he was mentally hanging himself. He didn't have a right to judge her or her farther, he knew that but what sort of friendship was it if she wouldn't even trust her? Friendship, that's all built or trust? She trusts him with her life because that's how their martial art partnership works, so why, why couldn't she just be real with him? He slumped down against the wall being swallowed by his own thoughts, he could have ran after her apologised up and down, but the silent, defence thinking side of him kicked in. maybe he was to much like s farther.

Saph walked out the room, then she started jogging and before you knew it she was running thought the dojo at full speed, her blood boiling! She grabbed her kit bag and ran out the door. She didn't stop running until she was back in her shitty little hole of her bedroom. She slammed the door hard and bits of plaster fell down. She screamed and screamed and carried on screaming. How dare her! He's like everyone else! Assuming she's just like the Seifer Almasy that everyone knew and hated, not the farther he actually was al they remember was the man who served the sorceress, the man who orders the destruction of triberia. He wasn't like that he wasn't like that HE WASN'T LIKE THAT! She cared for Sion, Hyne she really did, and she had let him closer to her than anyone else. Saph was a defensive girl, and letting Sion know about her emotions and her past scared her. She slumped down against the wall. She was so angry. sion was right, he did have a right to know about her past, because they were fiends and without trust their friendship wouldn't survive and she didn't want to lose it, and yes, she did regret exploding like that but it was what he said! Hyne she was a martial artist she had spent the last how ever many years fighting, yet what Sion said was so painful it actually made her feel sick. She was stubborn yet she wanted to apologise for what she said, but she just couldn't get her head around what Sion said about her farther. So she just sat their in the dark. Thinking,

shit she hated thinking, it always made her feel worse.


	5. Chapter 5

5 days later and Saph and Sion's still hadn't said a word to each other, not that sion hadn't tried, he had tried apologising countless times, he couldn't stand having Saph angry at him, he should have been more sympathetic, he shouldn't have jumped down her throat when she didn't want to talk, every time he tried to talk with her she looked away, she wouldn't even train with him, he trained at one end of the room, she trained at the other.

He had been training in silence for what seemed like hours and he had to stop, he was bright red and sweating badly. Allowing his legs to give way he slipped down against the wall and let out a sigh of relief, Hyne it felt good to give his legs a rest and the hot summer really wasn't helping. He took a sports drinking bottle from his bag and starting drinking, pouring a little over his hair as well. He stopped and looked at Saph, she was doing that dancing martial art of hers, he sat their watching for a while, and didn't realise he was staring so hard until his mouth became dry from where it was hanging open. The dance was quite a thing to watch, she delivered it with such a degree of deadliness and swiftness that it was quit unbelievable, she was back flipping and cart wheeling all over the room slicing, and throwing her Chakrams around with super efficiency. She was also sweating, after all it didn't matter who you were, and if it was hot you were hot. But he noticed something, she wasn't red she was ghostly white, scarily pale and her eyes were zoning out, like she was staring dully into space. He was going to ask her if she was okay but she'd probably throw her Chakrams at him. her legs buckled from underneath her, her Chakrams fell to the floor and in the silent training hall the noise echoed continuously, it continued to ring in Sion's ears as he sprang up from the floor, throwing his bottle back towards his bag, he screamed her name and ran towards her as fast as his leg could carry him. Everything happened so slowly, like time compression. Her body hit the wooden floor with a dull thud. Sion dropped to his knees next to her. He put the back of his hand to her forehead, she was sweating alright, cold sweat. He panicked; I mean she had only fainted. He knew that but just this sight was scaring him. Saph had never looked so damn defenceless. Her face was porcelain white while her lips still remind red, she reminded him of a sorceress, like the ones he saw in books his mother kept in the library at home. He scrambled over her kit bag and pulled out her bottled water, and tipped it on her face, he felt her body tense as she started coughing and spluttering, inhaled deeply and sharply and her body sprung upwards. Sion caught her mid air and let her body fall back onto his knees.

"Saph, Saph? You okay, what the fuck happened?"

she looked at him and scowled, with all the energy her tired, drained body could muster, she pushed her self up and out of Sion's lap and dragged and crawled her way over to the wall where she propped herself up.

She continued to scowl.

"None of your business, anyway you'd never understand." She snapped in his direction.

"What do you mean none of my business?" Sion bit straight back, jumping to his feet and throwing his arms around for emphasis.

"you're my partner and you're supposed to be my best friend, when you hit the floor I felt my heart stop! Look Saph I'm sorry I hurt you dear Hyne I am, but please you have to forgive me, I only wanted to know about you because I care for you and I wanted you to know that you could trust me like I trust you! I know what I said about your dad was outta line, I bet from what I have heard you say that he was an amazing man, but Saph our friendship and this partnership is going to fail if you cant forgive me and trust me!".

She looked at him. Her eyes looked glazed over as she tried her damned hardest to concentrate on Sion's face without him going blurry. Shit he was making her feel guilty, had she been that much of a bitch? Right now she had her head rammed so far up her own ass she couldn't see how much this was hurting Sion, her scowl broke and she smiled very weakly when she saw Sion's face light up when he realised she wasn't pissed off anymore. Scraping some energy together she started talking, "Sion I'm sorry I am, it's just that since my dad was taken away I just haven't had anyone to trust, and just talking to people, it's well, difficult!"

Sion's crawled over next to her and sat up against the well as well, she let her head, which was feeling really heavy fall on to his shoulder. He was stroking her hair, funny how it always feels nice when people play with your hair. "Its all cool Saph, Hyne I'm just glad you've forgiven me. I'm sorry I shouldn't have pushed you into talking bout stuff when you didn't want to talk, but I just want you to know you can trust me, with anything".

She smiled weakly, god she needed to eat something, anything just to get her blood sugar back to normal. She felt her body being lifted up and she felt her self being moved. She opened her eyes and found she was in Sion's arms.

"Hey Saph, um, where do you live?" she looked up at him her eyes were side, she looked almost worried.

"um…it's a bit embarrassing, its not exactly the presidential mansion".

"Saph it's all cool with me, just give me directions."

This place was awful, it was dark and humid and hardly any street lights were working, police sirens could be heard in the back ground and he swore he heard gun shots. People were lying in doors ways, sleeping, drunk or even high. He could hear screaming, he passed houses in such awful condition that he didn't think it was possible for people to live in them, windows were boarded up and doors were broken and kicked in. had Sion really been brought up in such luxury he was totally unaware of the hopeless poverty that was hidden away within the depth of Deiling?

"Saph what number did you say was your flat again?"

"Huh? Oh sorry, um its ground floor number 12".

"Were here then". Very gently he put her down and he quickly slung her arm over his shoulder and placed his arm round her waist to support her. See fished a key out of her pocket and with a very shaky hand managed to get the key into the lock and open the door to a rather manky looking house. She pushed the door with all her might and it swung open quickly, Sion couldn't believe how shit this place was when he finally saw it. He was used to the presidential mansion, to beautiful antique furniture and ornate room after room. Mould was growing in the corners where paint peeled and wall paper shredded. The kitchen was horrid and the doors to the cupboards were breaking off. The sofa was brown and was covered in stains, it was even ripped. The smallest television he had ever seen was on the floor in front. Coming off the living room was 4 other doors, Saph pulled him towards the one on the far left, on the door was pained the words 'Saphy's room', sapphire noticed Sion looking at it. "Oh my roommate did that, she's one of those annoying perky people, theirs another girl as well.". Sion looked at her shocked.

"You mean to tell me 3 people share this place?!" She looked back at him. "Sion round here that's nothing, Sion take a look around, this is the real world. This is where people without hope end up. People with dreams who haven't yet achieved them end up. The Galbadia army are here recruiting the orphan kids with no future like me daily. They offer prospects, many join because it looks like the only way out".

Her room as tiny, both of them could barely fit, all their was a bare light, and bed and a chest of draws. She lay her self down on her bed, Hyne she felt weak she needed to get blood sugar back up, and Hyne she was hungry. When Sion had made sure she was comfy he decided to go into the kitchen and find her something to eat, she looked starving. He went out into the kitchen, if it cold be called that, and found the fridge and every cupboard empty. He heard a voice.

"If your looking for food, don't bother were all out, have been for days."

Sion's turned around to see a short girl, roughly sapphires age talking to him. She was only 5'3" and Sion was towering above here, she had big brown eyes and long flowing brown hair.

"Why don't you go buy some then? There's a supermarket in walking distance."

She began shaking her head side to side, spraying her long hair everywhere "its not that were to lazy or anything, we cant afford to buy any, look around this isn't exactly the presidential mansion, rent was due this week and the land lord has told us we need to pay more, their no where else for us to live so we had a choice pay or get out, were three 18 year old girls, we cant be homeless, we decided to keep a roof over our heads and worry about everything else later. Look anyway, what happened to our Sapphy? I saw you practically carry her in, is she okay?"

Sion looked down at the floor, "she collapsed tonight in practice, I'm worried about her, and I think she might be ill or something".

The small girl grabbed his hand and squeezed it in reassurance swinging from side to side, a big playful smile on her petite face.

"Oh no, Sapphy is just fine! Well you see Sapphy has been working really, really hard recently to afford the rent but because she's been training even more she's had barely anytime to stop, she and the rest of us haven't eaten a proper meal in days, guess her body final couldn't take the stress, so much work with so little energy got to her, but don't worry rents been paid so we'll buy food in a few days and it'll all be back to normal". She said bouncily.

Sion looked seriously worried, had she really not eaten because she couldn't afford to. "Look" Sion said sharply taking his hand from the bouncy girls grasp and pointing her toward Sapphires bedroom. "She's in their take care of her; I'm going to go buy some food for you guys"

The little girl looked worried. "You can't do that, you see theirs no way to could possibly pay you back, we couldn't take anything off you, nobody round her does that. This isn't exactly the kind of place where you can afford to give without receiving".

Sion smiled at the little girl kindly. "Don't worry I'm not from around here, their no need to pay me back, I can more than afford enough food for you guys for an entire year let alone a week, back in 5!". With that he ran out the door .

When Sion returned 30minuites later with arms full of carrier bag the girl with the brown eyes started jumping up and down ad clapping uncontrollably.

"You mean all this is for us?" she screeched excitedly.

"Yeah course it is" Sion beamed "help yourself to whatever you like!"

Reaching straight into one of the bag she grabbed a pack of chocolate biscuits and took them skipping and bouncing into sapphires room singing 'look what we've got, look what we've got!'

Sion was unpacking everything, putting things in the fridge and stuff in the cupboard when he felt a cold hand touch his arm, he turned around and saw, a rather worse for wear Sapphire looking up at him. "Thanks Sion, thanks for this, it means a lot, I'm a stubborn girl I know I am even though it kills me to admit it! And I've never accepted help or charity off anyone, but you I know this isn't charity, your helping a friend, and I appreciate that, and now give me something to eat before I go all firecross on ya ass!, I'm starving!" after piling their plates with food Sion and Saph headed into her room to eat. Leaving the brown haired girl sitting contentedly on the sofa with a tube of ice-cream watching T.V.

When they had both finished eating they had ended up lying down next to each on sapphires stupidly small bed, after all it was getting late and today have been very exhausting. "So," sapphire said turning her head towards Sion so they were facing each other, "what do you want to know about me?"

Sion looked confused "what do you mean?"

"Well we started fighting because I didn't share my past with you, Sion you've proven I can trust you so what do you want to know?"

"Nah Saph, don't worry about it, I know were friends you don't need to prove it to me, especially if you don't want to". He lifted his hand up to brush his deep brown bangs out of his eyes, but they just fell straight back.

"Okay, ill start with how my dad was taken away, I happened when I was still quite young, you see despite what everyone thinks, me and him were really close, he was an amazing father, imagine the sorceress Knight playing with dolls! Well one night he came home late from work and when he put me to bed these soldiers broke in, and they weren't any soldiers I've ever seen, they wore all black, so they weren't Galbadian or Estharian, they defiantly weren't SeeD's of any kind. I remember watching him trying to fight his way passed them, they knocked me out then I was all alone". She looked over at sion… Oh my Hyne his eyes were closed, he fell asleep! "Sion!" she hissed loudly, he started laughing.

"Calm down, Saph I'm not asleep I'm resting my eyes; I'm just getting tired, got a blanket? Ill go crash on the sofa if you have".

"Don't be stupid Sion you can stay here".

He opened his eyes and looked at her, propping himself up on his elbows, "you sure, I mean you don think it would be weird or anything?"

She looked at him "Sion, were friends were sharing a bed, this isn't sex and this isn't marriage, chill out, now come on I've got to work tomorrow".

"Saph?"

"Yeah Si?"

"Thanks for telling me that".

"no problem Si, thing is I got this feeling that me and you are going to be depending on each other a lot more before long, I want you to know that you can trust me the same why I trust you".


	6. Chapter 6

This chapter is a new edit, it was pointed out that the old ending was far to flawed and hopefully this new one will prove better. Please review just so I know what you think of these new changes.

From that day on the bond sapphire and Sion was never the same again. The quickly became inspirable. Sapphire had found the pillar of support she had need to her entire life while Sion and found the companion he'd been seeking, training no longer became training it was simply another way for them to see each other. But quite unbelievably and unknown to there own eyes the martial arts skills had improved beyond all belief. They were finally working together as one unit, they had reached a point where both were fully able to predict the movement of the other, to defend and attack for each other without a single word being whispered. There martial art and now become a feeling, Sion and sapphire could feel each others needs in battle. They were simple two beings acting as a single component, both now fully understood why master chi had them training together, but none the less each were powerful in their own right.

The sense of partnership quickly became a sense of friendship. There time in the dojo was basically training and both wanted to spend as much time outside the dojo together as possible. While both had school to attend and sapphire had her job not a lot of time was left for each other but some how they always made time as often as possible. In the end Saph and Sion were best friends and they wanted to enjoy what life they had. After all they were teenagers! In there free time they would be at Sion's or Saph's but sometimes they would go out in to many of the clubs, bars and other mindless teenage gathering places.

It was Friday night, and Saph had managed to get the night off work, which for a Friday was nearly impossible. So Sion and she decided to really make the most of tonight. Even though neither would be drinking much, it may be the start of the weekend but they still had to train Saturday morning, and master Chi did not give special treatment if they were hung-over.

Sion had turned up on his dad's motorcycle. After all the thing cost a bomb, looked totally sub zero cool and best of all Sion was strictly forbidden for using it (naturally making so much more appealing), the motorcycle was in the same style as the bike used for war in the Galbadian army apart from it was red and black with a silver lion and white feathers painted along the sides. The paint was stunning metallic and looked, in all fairness, pretty hot.

Taking off the matching red and black helmet and turning off the engine he pulled out his mobile phone and preceded to rings sapphires.

Actually he proceeded to ring the phone he bought for her. Sion knew that one day something was going to happen and they might be apart, so sion bought them both mobile phones so they could keep in contact at all times, it became there life line to each other.

Before she even answered her phone the front door opened and sapphire stood there ready to go. And in all fairness she looked amazing. Sapphire never really made a huge effort (money didn't really allow for new clothes) but tonight she really had. Her hair was left down for a change, is curled ever so slightly and bounced as she walked. Which, much to Sion's amusement was already bugging her. She was wearing a boned black corset and a pair of black hot pants which had layers of material in several different shades of white and off white hanging down the back forming a sort of half skirt that flowed and tossed with her walk, even her make up was perfect. Her beautiful blue eyes were framed with black shimmering powder, deep eye liner and long eyelashes. Sion laughed inwardly, it was obvious her flat mates dressed her! But the one thing that stood out was her necklace. Its was that dog tag type thing her dad wore, it was the exact same one, he recognised it from the picture in her room.

Sion continued to stare only having his concentration broken when sapphire slapped her hand on her hip and started tutting.

"Where have you been I've been waiting nearly half and hour?"

Sion smiled sheepishly "well you see my parents are going away tonight and I had to wait for them to leave before I could sneak out my dad's bike, but what do ya think? Worth it huh?"

She smiled at him and smirked "you're lucky…it is"

she ran down the steps grabbed the spare helmet, jumped on the bike, and with her arms firmly round Sion they sped off towards, the biggest club in Deiling, Evolution.

Using some well made connections that sapphire had worked hard for, herself and Sion walked straight into the club, passed the row of eager party goers and through the velvet rope, which as probably a good thing, she hated being cold.

The place was packed! People everywhere. Grabbing her hand Sion pulled Saph through the crowd towards the leather sofas right at the back of the room. They always sat here since it gave the best view of the club. The music was just loud enough so Sion and Saph could make convocation which is exactly what they did for the next 3 hours with the occasional dance to break up the time. It was the times like this that both of them appreciated so damn much. Neither of them had much of a childhood and defiantly much of a teenage life. So being able to hang out with there best friend, have a few drinks, talk, laugh, dance. It was all so perfect. So many people took simple things like this for granted but just being able to act like this meant everything to them. It reminded them that although things hadn't been so great up until a few years ago, things were different now, yes the same problems and heart aches still existed and it didn't feel like they were ever going to leave but at least they had something to make them feel good and it wasn't just some damn escape because this was reality.

Coming out from the club, at an ungodly hour they found it pouring down with rain, great just what they needed. Didn't matter how quickly they drove on the motorcycle they were going to get very wet indeed. Dashing to the bike as fast as possible both hopped on and sped off towards Sion's, if they were going to get wet the sooner they got to the fire place to dry off the better.

Arriving at the presidential mansion Sion left Saph standing in the porch which he returned the bike to the garages, it wasn't long after she heard the door creek open that she here Sion swear. With curiosity getting the better of her she ran round the corner to find Sion and very quickly she realised why he wasn't too happy. Rinoa and Squalls car was in there, which meant one thing. They were back and there was more, there was another 2 car which Saph didn't recognise, Sion quickly informed her they belonged to close family friends, Zell, Selphie and Irvine and chances are if they were here Quistis was too.

She entered the garage, her wet hair and clothes clung tightly to her body, she couldn't help but walk amongst the sports cars and motorcycles, take particular time to run her fingers over the bonnet of a particular fire red sports car. A smirk played upon her lips as she imagined what it would be like to drive this car along the Fisherman's horizon bridge as fast as the car could possibly take her, Sion quickly interrupted her chain of though. 'Okay my parents don't notice a damn thing so if it was just them I'd walk you in through the front door, but my aunts and uncles aren't so dumb, they'd notice.'

Saph gave him a suspicious look, this boy was formulating something and it didn't sound too good…

'There's only one way into my room if it's not through the door it's through the window…'

Her expression cracked. "Sion your joking right?"

he began to laugh sheepishly…"I'm afraid not Saph, the trellis along that wall you can climb it easy, but I'll go in through the front and meet you up there to help you in. see you in 5" he sped out of the garage and into the garden, not happy with this stupid plan she chased after him into the garden. She grabbed his hand to pull him back, he turned round to face her grinning, knowing how angry she'd be. But he looked over her right shoulder, he saw something move, but within the dark garden and the lashing rain it was hard to distinguish what was what. His concentration was broken by sapphires scream "Sion, Duck!" he threw himself to the floor in time while sapphire landed a square kick to someone's head. He jumped up only to return the favour by grabbing another's arm, hooking his leg over the top and pulling downwards until he heard a loud 'snap'. He turned so he and sapphire were back to back; they were both observing the two solders lying on the floor. The rain still lashing, Saph looked at Sion "Sion, those people down there I recognise them, there not burglars there soldiers"

"Soldiers? What type of army use uniforms like that?"

"none I've ever heard of but I've had a run in with them before, lets put it that way, I remember them, there uniforms, everything is exactly the same as all those years ago"

"Years ago?" Sion queered

"Those soldiers there dressed in heavy amour black with their faces covered by black cloth, their bare arms covered in a series of identical and elaborate black tattoos. There the same people who took my dad away, Sion I swear it's them!"

She shot a desperate glance at Sion, Sion couldn't get over it, the people who had torn up her life into so many little pieces for years, could quite possibly be here, for a second Sion's mind broke down, a million questions and scenarios started racing back and forth, some good others not so good. But he had no choice but to snap out of it and get ready for whatever was about to happen…

"If it really is them Saph you may final find a clue about your dad or something, but I don't get it, what the hell do they want to come here for?"

"Maybe I will, maybe I wont, but if they took my dad maybe them there after yours too. I mean it would make sense. Our dads may not have been friends but they certainly did have a much intertwined fate, maybe they know something special like a big secrete!"

A noise came from the bushes opposite Sion, their heads shot back and their bodies tensed, naturally these two weren't alone, bending down sapphire grabbed a sword from one of the fallen solders, she wasn't used to this kind of weapon but it would do. Before she even had time to look up properly, the solider jumped out of the bushes and headed straight at them.

Sion had already rushed towards the solders, Saph hot on his heels. He jumped up swung his body round and full 360o and ended up kicking the one solider in the back of the head, flipping his weight round in the air his placed both hand on the falling solders shoulders and pushed him self off twisting in the air to land on another, hooking his leg round the enemies throat he twisted round and a loud crack came from the solders neck and he feel to the ground not moving. Saph on the other hand was back jumping round with almost haste like speed. Running up to one solider she back flipped into a sitting position on his shoulders and quickly drew the blade across his throat, the man fell to the floor with a blood filled scream. Wiping the blood off her face she also jumped back and landed gracefully next to Sion.

The rest of the solders stood in shock. Sion and Saph had moved so quickly it had took them by surprise leaving nothing but destruction in there path.

On of the soldiers ran to the front of the pack. "That's him and the girls here too! Get them both. Mistress wants them brought to her alive! Understand!"

Nodding in acceptance (if it was a little reluctantly) the remaining solders ran towards them and lasted precious little longer than a few minutes leave the commanding officer standing alone…With Sion and Saph walking towards him very slowly. A scream from across the garden halted their movement. It was Rinoa.

"Sion! Stop it, get away!" She ran towards her son, her shoulder length black hair flowing behind her and her tight black dress clinging to her still incredibly slim figure. Sion looked up at her, showing his hand to her, commanding her to stop. And she did, out of utter surprise. She felt strong arms clash around her body as squall had now also grabbed her. Sapphire looked at them, Quistis, Selphie, Zell and Irvine also entered the garden. Sion continued to stare at them, stopping them from advancing and interfering. Sapphire continued to advance upon the officer. The rain mixing with the blood on her arms and face, "Where's my father" she shouted at him over and over again. The solder began to laugh he knew he was facing death so he had little reason to tell her anything he knew "why should I tell you, you little punk! If we have our way you'll never see your daddy again brat! In fact you'll be joining him; mistress has big plan for you and your little buddy. Don't worry little girly everything will make sense soon, Seifer Almasy still has a part to play in our game…" before he could even finish the blade had been taken across his throat and he lay dying. Sapphire looked like Hyne was living in her at that very moment, beads of sweat were clinging to her forehead, her whole body was tense and rising sharply up and down as she breathed. Staring at the dead solider who even dared mention here fathers name, the same people who took him away from her. She had wanted to kill him for taking her dad away, and she didn't just want to kill him she wanted to see all of them pay or what they had done. These people are evil and that's all there was to it. Her body felt warm and cold at the same time, her hands and fingers were tingling. Sion took a quick glance at her, she was glowing blue! He swore to Hyne he just saw her radiating a blue light, but if he had it had passed because after he took a long blink to double check with his sanity if what he saw was reality or not it was defiantly gone.

More shouts were heard and several more soldiers ran straight at sapphire and Sion, both turned to engage in combat again, beads of sweat hanging of their heads with the rain, training was good and all, but with this much adrenalin running through the veins it just felt so different. Sion got into stance, sapphire pointed her sword out in front, bending slightly, copying her father's stance. The ground under them began to shake, startled they broke stance and looked around, Riona was glowing a pale white, her feet hovering slightly about the ground, behind her, squall, Zell, Quistis, Selphie and Irvine were also ready to fight. Riona pushed her hands forward emitting a powerful wave of magic, thunder struck down from the clouds above hitting the last few soldiers hard, taking them out. She came back to earth. Her eyes zoned back in, everyone lowered their weapons behind her. She tried once more to run at her son. . Sion, took a protective step forward in front of sapphire, after all she was an Almasy, as far as Sion's parents and all were concerned, she too was an enemy…. Riona stopped. Rising up to her full height (how ever unimpressive it was compared to Sion) she took a deep breath. "Sion, I think there's a lot of explaining to do…when? How did you learn to fight? I told you never to learn to fight! What did those people want with you and why in the name of Hyne did they call that girl 'HIS' daughter?!"

Sion didn't budge an inch, his whole body was tense, even more so than sapphire (which right now seemed almost impossible to do) not only didn't the mother who had never shown him any affection start preaching suddenly and acting like she cared but she actually dared to insult the only person in his life that actually meant any thing to him!

Suddenly sapphire felt Sion's aura change…he was spoiling for a fight, his mum had pushed this to far, he was going to explode, she reached out her hand to place it on his shoulder, to try and tell him it wasn't worth it, to let it go, that shed just leave. But she didn't get a chance Sion had exploded…

"How Dare you! How fucking dare you!" Rinoa fell back into squalls arms…shocked by her son's outbreak…

When in the name of Hyne did you ever care about me or what I wanted?! I was bullied at school? Did you even know that?! Every day I fucking got beat up, all because of who I am! A kind old man found me and decided to train me up! Apparently its destiny that I'm supposed to fight, I don't know why we got attacked tonight but that destiny's got something to do with it! Weather you give a shit about it or not, something happening to me and to sapphire! You have never ever cared about me; you've never shown any interest in me! I've been training since I was 12 for Hynes sake and you never even noticed! But you wouldn't would you? I mean if you didn't notice the black eyes and the torn clothes you wouldn't noticed that! To wrapped up in yourselves, Sapphire is the only person who ever EVER cared about me! She is family to me! And don't you ever EVER mention her fathers name like that again! He loved her more than you EVER loved me…" he clamed down breathing deeply. Quietly he began to talk again "sapphire is my best friend; I don't care who she is, where she's from, or her last name or who her father is".

Sapphire looked at him, he was glowing red! She swore to Hyne he had a gleaming red aura but it was gone almost as quickly as she recognised it, she felt Sion drag her out the room after he and turned on his heels and marched out the room, leaving Rinoa sobbing in squall's arms……

Sion ran up to his room with Sapphire by the wrist, but he was running so fast, he was practically dragging her up the stairs; as soon as he was in his room he slammed the door. Riona sobbing into squalls arms, along with the others all stood their in the rain as it continued to lash down upon them.

Upon entering his room Sion disappeared into a large wardrobe, he came out a threw some closes at her, "You left this here last time, there dry you may as well change into them, you'll catch a cold otherwise". She smiled gently at him and watched him walk back into the walk in closet and shut the door.

Getting wet was one of her pet hates; she loathed it when her clothes and hair stuck to her like that. Unrolling the small bundle she found a large shirt that she slept in, perfectly simple and perfectly dry, but once dressed she again, found her self staring at Sion's room…

This room was pretty much as big as her flat which she still had to share with 3 other people and the en-suite was at least 4 times the size of her bedroom, for Hyne's sake the bath tube with the size of a small swimming pool. But the room it's self was gorgeous, everything was made of deep red coloured wood and all the walls and all the bedding were a deep navy blue. While on the ceiling someone had painted a mural of the night sky, it looked so realistic, it was obvious to see why Sion liked star gazing so much. After several minutes he appeared from the closet, wearing baggy cotton trousers for sleeping in and a plain white tank top, his hair still soaking wet and sticking to his head. He walked over to sapphire and threw his arms around her resting his head upon her. She held him back, breaking the hold she grabbed his hand led him over to the fire and forced him to sit in front of her, fetching a towel from the bath room, she kneeled behind and began towel drying his hair. The red flames of the fire place were warming and comforting. After a while Sion had moved to with his back propped up against a chair while Saph sat in between his legs. Sion was fast asleep she could tell, his body hadn't moved in a while and his breathing was deep and relaxed. And it wasn't long before she found herself falling asleep, mind you why were they sleeping on the floor when a king sized bed was on the other side of the room was rather ridiculous. She found her eyes closing and her body becoming heavy; finally she also gave into sleep.

That night Squall, his distraught wife, Zell, Quistis, Selphie and Irvine all sat round the table. Something had to be done, Sion was right, something immense was happening and Sion (and maybe even sapphire) was at the centre this time. Nothing could be done to say otherwise. That night the SeeD heroes decided on the best course of action to take. Sion had to come to garden….. (Although much to there displeasure, it was obvious Sion wouldn't go without Sapphire)


	7. Chapter 7

"Fuck it, fuck it, FUCK IT!" she threw the stupid yellow ribbon on to her bed. How ever she tried she just could not tie the yellow neck ribbon of her cadet uniform correctly. Why was this bothering her so damn much? Why did she care what this lot thought anyway? She let out a huge sigh as Sion walked in, picked up the ribbon and did it for her, annoying her even further. She looked him up and down. In fairness he looked extremely dashing in his uniform. Though probably much to sion's dissatisfaction, he did look a lot like his dad. You could always kind of tell sion came from a rich family. He always held himself with a certain level of dignity and the uniform really showed that. She looked at herself in the mirror. The cadet uniform skirt looked very short on her long legs but the jacket fitted will, it nipped in at just the right places, she twisted her upper body. It did feel a bit heavy, she examined the skirt, it was kinda tight, wondering if not it would restrict her fight ability. Finally she reached over to her dresser table, picking up her fathers dog tag she put it round her neck and adjusted, but letting it fall just slightly loose so it fell underneath the collar and was only slightly visible. Her hair was tied back with just one strand falling in front of her face, just like in the pictures of her dad when he was her age. She saw seeing leaning over her desk and looking at her timetable, she went behind him, went up on her tip toes and leaned over his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

"Our time tables..." he turned to look at her. "Their totally different, we don't even have one class together, their doing this on purpose!" In utter disbelief sapphire grabbed the time table out of his hand and then grabbed his. She took several looks back and forth between the pieces of paper then looked up at Sion. "I knew it, I knew this place would do what ever possible to keep us apart, this is just so typical". Sion shook his head, he totally agreed with her.

"Well what ever happens, we both know were friends through thick and thin, just because were not in classes together doesn't mean a thing."

"yeah Si, I know but still, its not what we need is it?"

"Well what ever Saph, we don't have time to debate right now, by the time we find these classes they'll be starting." Nodding they both left.

Luckily when sapphire walked into the room the instructor was just about to start. She stopped in the door way quickly to observe the room. Everyone was staring at her, straight at her, nobody took their eyes off her, even when another cadet walked in straight after her, she looked back at some of the students, and they were whispering and pointing. Ignoring what they could possibly be saying about her she looked for a spare seat, she saw Vaughn Asher sitting in the back row, nodding towards a seat next time him, nodding back she walked past everyone, now being able to over hear such things as…'that's her' and 'who does she think she is' and threw herself down pretty quickly, blood pressure boiling. Vaughn, very silently showed her quickly how to log onto the computer before turning his attention back to class. The class was weird for sapphire, she had always been used to studying maths and science but now she was studying battle tactics and leadership skills, and actually, she had a natural aptitude for it, every question she was asked she was able to answer well, with what appeared to be a lot of annoyance from fellow class members. Well both of her parents were know for being very good students intellectually so it was more than likely in her D.N.A. what she also couldn't fail to notice were the opposite row that had two students sitting at it, one girl and one guy. The guy had blonde hair that reached just down to his ears with the fringe being pulled across in one direction with what would need to be an extra ordinary amount of hair gel. His pierced bottom lip didn't stop moving as her was constantly talking in sapphires direction while the female was very short, easily just 5ft 2" or similar. She had long shiny wavy brown hair that she played with her fingers while she also talked when looking at Saph. Before she knew it Saph was scowling back straight at them, shooting daggers. She felt hot breath on her earlobe as Vaughn began whispering into her ear, "the guy in the blond, is Amanz Dincht, farther is Zell Dincht and the girl, is Karma Kinneas, daughter of Selphie and Irvine, while you'll be please to know your father did nothing but bicker with all three of their parents while in the end he tried to kill them, their extremely popular people within the garden, well respected to boot, don't expect them to be spreading the good word about you." Sapphire turned to Vaughn, "thanks for the heads up, Guess ill have to keep my wits about me".

He nodded, "you will, that night we met I the training centre, Amanz was also in their, your lucky I got to you first, he was hiding behind one of the trees to our left, he's a good fighter but not exactly good at hiding, to loud, like his dad, but he would have taken any chance to jump at you". Sapphire give a smirk.

"Tell that little bastard to bring it, ill beat that little chicken-wuss so far and so fast up and down these halls that I will actually learn my way around this place while I am at it". She shot him and her one last poisonous look, so poisonous that both actually looked away. Thank god class was over, she needed a drink to cool her off, and she was burning.

Walking into the restaurant, with more people whispering and staring she looked around for Sion, she spotted him walking with his tray towards a table by the window, she was about to walk up behind him but she noticed where he was going, a table full of people his own age, calling him over. one guy turned to a girl while looking at Saph, the girl ran over to Sion linked arms with him and dragged him almost forcibly towards the table shooting back a look at Saph, poking out her tongue, she stood their in shock, she couldn't believe it, and right next to them were karma and Amanz. She went into the queue to get food all the time watching Sion, hoping he would turn around and look for her, like hell was she even going to dignify that lot by going to go get him, but not once did he even look up to try to look for her, he was just sitting back laughing and joking along with them, did he not even notice that she was 20minuites late to meet him where they arranged.

"Theirs room to sit with me and my two friends, come on". She looked up to see Vaughn, "you knew it would be like this, your both from really different worlds, so people here will view you so differently". She felt her heart sink as she followed them back to their seats, but it was sapphire, be damned if she was going to show him how much he had hurt her.

She sat down at the table, their were two others sat their, one boy and girl. They looked up at her and smiled, the guy looked and Vaughn and mouth 'Wow' far too blatantly. Sapphire just raised her eyebrow at Vaughn who just clipped the guy round the head, the girl was laughing loudly.

"These are Gem Michael's..." he pointed to the girl who winked at Saph, who simply nodded,

"..And this is Nigh Michaels, twins, but not identically. He smiled sheepishly at Saph who made no response. They both had deep rich chocolate brown skin. Gems hair was elegantly long midnight black and down to her waist, tied back very loosely. Her left ear pierced continuously all the way up the one side. Her brother Nigh was tall with huge well built arms which looked extremely powerful, his hair was short and closely shaven to his head and he had a small stud in his nose. Sapphire did need the rescue effort Vaughn was making but none the less she did little but sit and eat. Occasionally making a dry remark. After class Saph didn't really wanna do much except crawl back to her room. Throwing off that stupid uniform and putting on her favourite clothes (the black baggy trousers and bikini top) and she crawled out through the open window in her room, on to the balcony. Taking her hair out of the pony tail she took several deep breaths inwards and ran her hands through it, bringing her hands down to her neck where she touched her fathers dog tag. "Sion…." She whispered under her breath.

"Yes?" startled sapphire spun around on her balcony to find Sion standing their. "Where were you at lunch I was looking for you? I met loads of people, their really great you should meet them too." Sapphire brought her eyes up to meet his.

"You didn't look for me at all, you were to busy with your new friends to busy to even look out for me, and they don't want to meet me Sion, don't you get it? They hate me. I'm an Alamsly, I'm not like you in the slightest. The two people their, Amanz and Karma their parents were the ones who fought along side your dad against mine, they couldn't give a shit about me, just get out Sion, I cant believe you've abandoned me already." With that sapphire walked over to the front door, opened it and closed it as he left without even looking back.


	8. Chapter 8

She was sitting on her bed, back resting against the wall behind her, legs stretched out in front. She had on her lap a beautiful long leather case. She opened it up slowly, inside was her fathers gun blade, the blade was so beautiful, she ran her fingers along the beautiful engravings along the side, she could feel the pattern glowing underneath her fingers, taking her hand away from the blade she moved her hand to the top of the case lid, pined up inside were photos, she picked up one particular. It was her and her farther. She was only 7 or so, he had picked her up in his arms, and she had a huge smile on her face. Her blond hair hung down over her shoulders, her dad was smiling, his black trousers and white shirt hung loose on his body. Several other people from their street were also in their, but they were in the middle. Putting that one down she picked another up, It was her and Sion. She closed her eyes, thinking back to when it was taken, when aloud knock on the door interrupted her thoughts, to a lot of annoyance. She quickly slammed the case shut, threw it under neither her bed and flung the door open only to find Gem standing their. She was grinning nervously scratching the back of her head once she saw sapphires displeased expression. Gems long black hair was let down lose and was tumbling over her shoulders and down her back. She wore black hot pants and royal blue shirt with several of the top buttons undone showing a rather fair amount of cleavage, which even sapphire couldn't stop staring at, while the back of the shirt was done up in corset like fashion with a ribbon Chris-crossing down her back, tied into a bow at the bottom, all topped off with a pair of flat heeled, knee high black leather boots. In her other hand she was holding onto a very beautiful weapon, it was a intricately carved metal pole, painted in the same match colour as her shirt, each end have long dagger connected to it, very much like a double ended pike, the pole was also covered with beads, ribbons and of delicate little trinkets and charms.

"um…hey…um…like, Vaughn and Nigh are waiting in the cafeteria and they like wanna know if you wanna come training with us to the training centre, it will be kinda cool ya know?"

Debating it for a short while sapphire agreed quietly.

"Yeah, why not, better than sitting in here alone". She invited Gem in momentarily while she took her Chakrams out of their case. Gems eyes grew wide.

"Those are like, so beautiful, ya know? I've never seen anything quite them before, totally different, ya know?" sapphire smiled to herself.

"Yeah, their something alright, but I guess you'll see that for yourself later, lets go".

As they entered the cafeteria Vaughn and nigh came over to meet them, Vaughn was wearing his red leather again, minus the trench coat and minus the guns. But the sword did look pretty menacing, it was strapped to his back, it was a beautiful ivory white handle and blade, a huge deep red jewel at the base of the handle. The whole thing measured easily a meter long and the blade was probably 4 or 5inchs wide. He smiled and nodded at sapphire and Gem. Nigh on the other hand seemed to dwarf everyone, he stood a good 6ft 5in and with very broad shoulders and amazingly well built arms. He wore unbelievably baggy black jeans that were pretty much shredded to pieces and white vest top with a black dragon pattern printed on the back. His weapons were already in his hands. Two black baton like devices but instead of having long metal pipes leading off from the handle it was two black blades. He spun one around in his hand, giving everyone the signal that he was also ready to move onto the training centre.

Arriving at their destination sapphire moved over to the screen to take a look who was inside, "it looks pretty busy, easily 20 or so student in their, even a couple of instructors".

Vaughn moved up beside her to take a look for himself "yeah you're right, Hyne it's annoying when it's busy and everyone acts like its some big competition". Sapphire raised her eyebrow at him.

"Well if it's a competition, don't you think we should go out their and show them what a winner looks like? She flashed them a smirk before turning around and strutting into the centre with everyone in tow.

The four of them stood back to back, Saph could feel herself tightening her grip around her Chakrams ready to make the first strike happen. The four gnats stood surrounding them. "On my count…" Saph ordered…."three….two…one, go!" Vaughn lunged forward plunging the sword straight through one of them, and just before he pulled the blade upwards, taking the giant insect in two, sapphire jumped on to the blade, balancing herself on the end she quickly back flipped off, vaulting over the top of the gnat and taking it from behind with surprise, she spun round, her blade taking out large chunks of the creatures body, leaving it withering on the floor. Taking the brut force approach Nigh rushed straight at his appointed, batting back all advances made by the creature, just as he reached the creature he spun the batons around and sent both blade down into the gnat head. It fell to the ground immediately stunned and dead. Finally gems far more graceful approach then her brother was proceeding well, she was spinning the pike around in her hands but each skilled twirl of the pike would use its blade to chop off more and more of the creatures arms until t was finally screeching in pain from its broken limbs, when she finally delivered the last few finished blows from her pike. Saph was about to turn around towards everyone when she caught sight of Vaughn's face, he held a look of pure contempt and was shooting it straight over the top of Saph, she took a side was glance over at Gem and Nigh who both looked the same, though Gem broke her stare quickly to gesture with her eyes for sapphire to turn around.

"well that was fantastic, I expected no less". Said a dry and sarcastic male voice. Sapphire spun around, Amanz was standing their, huge grin on his face, his blonde hair styled the same as always, but today is was sporting a thin chain going from one of his ear piercing to his lip piercing, oh how sapphire wanted to do little more than rip that right out of his face right now. He was wearing knee length black baggy jeans and black trainers that came up to mid calf. He wore a long sleeve tight black zip up hoody which clung very close to his body, almost like a new layer of skin. He wore a multitude of black studded belts around his waist that moved up and down as he did. He worse black martial arts gloves, much similar to his dads but his were plated with metal all the way up to his fore arm. He cracked his knuckles loudly. Amanz was quickly joined by 6 or 7 others, which sapphire and the others quickly disregarded, accept for Karma. She stood wearing midnight blue leather cowboy style chaps with a small matching skirt over the top, her top was long sleeved but was cut off just below her bust, her wavy hair was pulled up into a tight plate making her face cat like, she was obviously putting herself up their with the big girls by wearing a very high pair of heeled boots. A matching midnight blue pair of numb chucks were slung over her shoulder, decorated with golden stars and moons. She walked up to join Amanz and stood next to but slightly behind him.

"now im sure you already know Karma" Amanz gestured towards sapphire, who shot back dryly, "charmed, I'm sure".

Karma scowled at her, well I let me introduce one more person, she dragged out from the back a tall guy, easily 6ft 1" or 2". He had short messy platinum white hair. A stylish pair of glasses sat on his face, they were rectangular in shape but were thick framed and a deep black colour. He wore long black trousers the hung loosely on him, the tips of black leather boots were visible and on top he wore what a appeared to be a tight black sleeveless shirt, but the back was cut away and leather straps replaced it, holding the shirt together. He nodded towards them, holding an air of dignity. Amanz cut back in "this is Sky kramer, the last orphan our parent's matron ever took in and actually adopted."

Saphire was getting pissed off, she hadn't come here for this, "well this was all rather lovely but we have better things to do than stand here and humour you". She went to walk through the crowd of people, pushing Amanz out her way with her shoulder, only to feel him place a gloved hand on her shoulder to pull her back.

"Fucking touch me again and I promise I will make you hurt." She felt his grip tighten, Vaughn, gem and nigh picked up on it quickly and got their weapons drawn and combat stance ready. Sapphire pulled on amazes hand, she lifted her knee up and tried pulling him in towards it, he blocked quickly but his grip was lost. Jumping back to join Vaughn and the others, she drew her Chakrams from her side. Sapphire heard the wind rushing towards her and caught sight of Karmas numb chucks coming at her, before she even had a chance to think, Gm and thrown herself in front of sapphire and beat the shot back with her staff. She twirled it round at her side, "I have always wanted to take you down a peg or two bitch, ya know?" Gem jumped straight for Karma and all hell broke loose.

Nigh ran straight at the large group of hangers on, ho would prove very little match for him, he was a great fighter and they only advantage the others had against him were sheer numbers. Vaughn on the other hand stood still next to sapphire, which are both starting at Amanz and sky that was stood next to him, she felt of muscles in Vaughn's body tensed then, like a spring, released, and he shoot straight at sky. Not to be left out, sapphire followed suit and went for Amanz.

Gem was doing well, she was defiantly dominating the fight, she was very light on her feet and as long as she was able to stop karma from drawing back her numb chucks to strike she could do little to stop her. Karma lunged one of her numb chucks at gem who dunked down sweeping her staff round karmas legs and taking her down to the floor, Gem ready her self to pounce on her, but karma quickly called for the thundara to shoot down at gem, she screamed and was thrown back across the floor, she got to her knees using her staff for support and hissed "cure" under her breath before throwing herself at karma again.

Vaughn brought his sword up to protect himself from sky, who was wielding a stunning black samurai sword, even the blade was a deep onyx colour. He was quick with it, Vaughn's heavier sword was more difficult to block with but he was keeping on top for now. They came close and delivered a few more blows before Vaughn jumped back to catch his breath, both stood back watching, breathing heavily. Suddenly sky could feel the wind around him pick up, it grew stronger and stronger until his whole body was blown high into the air, "windage" Vaughn cried, but sky came back down to earth just as he had looked before, Vaughn seem surprised. "They don't call me sky for nothing" he taunted "I share the same element as you, so not only do I take no damage but it heals me too, rookie mistake".

Vaughn felt himself getting angry "RAGE!" he shouted as he grabbed as stunning aqua blue pinwheel (that was his mothers) off his belt, drew it across his chest the launched it at sky, who dodged it easily as it spun passed him, only to forget about the pinwheels return which took his leg out from behind. "Rookie mistake!" Vaughn shouted as he grabbed the pinwheel and clipped it back on, both stood facing each other, nursing wounds and panting heavily.

While the rest fought, sapphire took her chance to finally engaged Amanz In combat, she knew he was meant to be a prodigy, even if he was a totally asshole, she knew not under estimated him. Fighting in an environment like this was no holds barred. He kicked high to her face, but she bent down backwards and flipped back up kicking her own leg up into the air hoping to catch him of guard, but no such luck, he came at her with several paunches but she easily knocked them down, she side stepped him and swung her Chakrams up hoping to get him in the back of the head, but he threw his fist up and used the metal plates on his arm guards to knock the blades back, she quickly round house kicked her and knocked her Chakrams across the floor, "you bastard!" she shouted. She grabbed one of his legs that were in the air and forced it back towards him, throwing him to the ground; she then kicked the back of his leg, he screamed and was temporarily disabled as sapphire ran over to pick up her Chakrams. She was about to run back over when she heard someone shout.

"Stop it! Stop it all of you right now!" instructor Trepe and commander Leonhart were both stood their.

"Shit" sapphire whispered under her breath as she fell back to join Vaughn, Gem and Nigh.

"All of you are to report to the head masters office now for punishment!"

Sapphire and Vaughn led the way and as the entered the headmaster's office they walked to one side of the room, while Amanz, Karma and sky walked to the other.

Instructor Trepe and Commander Leonhert stood either side of the headmaster, "I have no interest in who started this! Only that nobody bothered to walk away! All of you involved will be punished, and that's no exceptions! Report to my office tomorrow and everyday for the next week after classes! Your all dismissed!" Headmaster Cid pointed towards the door and everyone filed out, once out of the room and ear shot Karma looked at sapphire " trust me, everyone here will make you pay for ever trying to drag your sorry ass into this place, your no better than your farther. And we'll make sure everyone including Sion sees that!' Amanz started laughing. Walking straight passed both Amanz and Karma, sapphire headed towards the lift, only to stop just before the doors closed "she the fuck up chicken wuss". She, Vaughn, Gem and Nigh all started laughing as the doors closed and the elevator descended.

They walked towards the dorms where sapphire was great by Sion; he was leaning against the wall, arms folded. He looked up at her "can I talk to you?" Sapphire raised her eyebrows and nodded for Sion to follow.

"Ill speak to you later". Vaughn said as he, Gem and Nigh walked towards their rooms.

"What the hell are you playing at starting fights?!" Sion's spat out once they were in sapphires room.

"Excuse me? Who the hell said I started the fight! It was that little blonde twat and his friends. They have been after me since I got here; they just had what was coming".

"Well theirs no need to make yourself more unpopular!". With that sapphire could feel her blood boiling.

"sorry, Sion but this isn't some popularity competition to me, if you feel the need to have people like you, then you might be better off staying the fuck away from me then hadn't you?!"

Sion sighed loudly, "look, Saph, I didn't mean it like that, I just mean that, well your not winning any brownie points by fighting with the garden heroes, are you?"

"Sion, do you honestly think they'd like me even if I left them alone? There are a lot of people here that will never accept me, and you know what that's fine by me, they will not stop me from becoming SeeD and making my dad proud, I'm not here for anyone but myself Sion".

"Tell you what, me and you tomorrow, after class and your punishment, we should go into Balamb, it's been ages since we spent time together".

Sapphire nodded, she did miss seeing him. They set a time and a place and Sion began to leave. "I'm sorry I gotta go now, but I'm meeting Karma."

Sapphire frowned when she heard that name, "well just make sure you don't catch anything". And with that sapphire stormed passed Sion and off towards Vaughn's room.


	9. Chapter 9

The wind was blowing through her hair as she sat on the railing in front of the main entrance to the Garden, waiting for Sion to arrive. He was nearly 30min late but he had at least text her to give her warning. But she loved the warm nights that Balamb had, even the wind blew warm as the red sun continued to set over the fire caves in the distance. She heard foot steps behind her, "bout time you got here Sion, starting to wonder if you were going to turn up at all", she spun around smiling as Sion stood their with a look of guilt plastered across his face. "I'm sorry Saph but Karma seemed desperate to not let me get away".

"Didn't by any chance mention it was me you were coming to see?" sapphire turned around to look up at the sky once more.

"Come on, let's get going". Sion flung his arms around her waist, and pulled her off the railing, screaming and kicking sapphire tried to protect, which only led to Sion letting go and her landing flat on her back. As she lay their with the dust settling around her she looked over and upwards towards Sion, "your paying for food tonight".

She loved the beach most of all. She loved to take her shoes of and feel the sand under her feet, she loved walking through the water and how it felt as it came in around her feet. Her and Sion were standing at the seas edge watching the SeeD hover ship's skim over the water and into the docks. She watched as the ripples they created tore through the moons reflection, distorting it. Peace had never featured heavily in sapphires life, but it with time like this, even more so with Sion, that's she felt most at harmony with herself. She took another deep breath in and let the fresh sea air fill her lungs, if she ever left Garden she knew shed miss the sea air the most. It was so refreshing.

Sion put his hand on her shoulder, "were really drifting apart Saph, aren't we? It's not what I want, but it was weird. When we were both in Dollet it was only me and you. Our world consisted of two things, everything in our world, which was me and you, and everything else. Humph I never realised that might actually have to be a day when other people may have to come into our world". Sapphire didn't turn to face him, but she lifted her own hand up to touch his.

"Just don't abandon me Si, I Still need you around and you still need me around. This is how it was supposed to be, this is why we trained so hard together all these years, I hate watching other people coming into our world only trying to push me out, and honestly, they seem to be doing a very good job at it. Even if we never speak again, I don't want it to be because you hate me". She could feel herself gripping his hand tighter and tighter, like if she let him go now, she'd be letting him go forever. She felt him rest his head on the back of hers.

"Right now saph him not going anyway and neither are you. But I do think your being to critical of karma and the others, they are really nice, I think your being to defensive, when you put your guard up the way you do, its no wonder people get edgy". He felt her grip let go and her hand dropped back to her side. She just nodded silently, though Sion wasn't sure if she was nodding because she agreed, or because she wanted him to shut up. He stepped back from her a few steps, and putting down his shoes, he took a deep breath, and began practicing martial arts, his arms and feet moved with expert grace as the sand kicked up around him, it was gentle and flowing. Saph turned around and moved over next to him, she closed her eyes, counted to three and then joined in with perfect timing. It had been so long since they last did this together. Their first few months at garden had already gone past so quickly in sapphires head it was a blur.

Aback from the beach, leaning against the promenade rails stood not only Zell Dincht but Quistis Trepe. Taking his eyes of the two kids for one moment he looked over to Quistis, she seemed hypnotised by their movements; she was even smiling a little.

"Who ever though that an Almasy and a Leonhart would be training together like that eh quisty?" she snapped out of trance and her eyes darted back to meet his.

"I know, I know. Maybe they grew up in a way their parents never could. She's strong though, Sapphire. She's skilled with her weapons, her magic, her tactics and her academic work, humph, just like her dad, if not more so than I ever remember him being. She certainly has lot more poise and grace than her farther that's for sure. But that fight the other week, was the tip of the iceberg, hoping that other student would leave her alone was wishful thinking." She looked back over to them, still training, sapphire leading. Zell shock his head defetidly.

"I just hope she doesn't follow the same fate as her farther. Every time I see her I can still se him ya know? What he did to us, to everyone. She's a different girl, I think Sions seen a side to her that nobody else has, but I still know she's HIS daughter. I look at Sion and Karma and ya know, it makes me happy, watching all our kids together, happy. But when he's with sapphire something inside me feels uneasy, its awful thing for me to say. But it's what's inside me".

Quistis looked at him sympathetically. "But, that last name of hers is going to play something more in her life, I've known it ever since they both fought together that night, I just hope when it does happen, that Sion is still going to be at her side". She folded her arms and spun around on her heels, she looked back towards Zell, "come on, I think this is enough reminiscing for one day, don't you?" He nodded silently and followed behind her.

Sion had gone back to his room hours ago, but sapphire was still up, she was outside in the quad, she didn't feel like training tonight, but she was still to addicted to that sea air and needed another fix, she was sat on the fountain edge, legs crossed playing with her hair, just musing with her thoughts, not really aiming to achieve anything.

"Hello Wench". Her eyes snapped jump and she rose slowly to her feet. Karma, Amanz and several others were stood their.

"Oh fuck this shit" sapphire whispered to herself. Her eyes shot over to Karma who was wearing Sion's chain.

"Oh you like this, well my BOYFRIEND gave it to me, and you know he really is so round my little finger".

Sapphire could feel her blood boiling, but what about Sion? She was already loosing him, she could already feel herself clinging desperately to everything they had left, these people were taking him away and every time sapphire fought with them, her gripped on Sion loosened at little bit more, as their grip tightened. Sapphire bit her tongue, if keeping quite meant she kept Sion, right now she could keep it bitten. She tried to walk past again, but no, they were defiantly after blood. It was nearly 3am, having an instructor walk in right now like last time seemed a hell of a lot less likely. She was weapon less anyway, and although she was a good fist fighter, against 6 people and martial art specialist it was fair to say she was pretty buggered and with nothing junctioned she was pretty weak in compatrison.

She felt the cold hard oak of Karmas numb chucks collide with the back of her head, she fell to her knee, followed by a kick to her shoulder from Amanz, she lay on the floor stunned, she swore she could feel blood from the back of her head, she rolled over on to all fours, head hanging down. Another kick from Amanz followed quickly to her rib cage, but her mouth stayed shut, the pain shot through her entire rib cage and she shock with pain, but she would not scream. More kicks and punch came at her from the others. She could feel the ice rushing from her heart towards her finger tips, the blizzarda spell was attempting to summon its self in her defence, her hands started turning blue and the ice crept along her fingers and started spreading across the ground (though without magic juncationed sapphire couldn't understand what was happening), the ice was shattered as another kick to her ribs, sent her rolling on to her back, blood ran down the side of her mouth, her eyes came back into focus as Karmas boot hurtled towards her throat, and pinned it down. Sapphire would not panic, these people would not gain that kind of satisfaction, she would not squirm, and she would not gasp for breath and fail about. Karma bent down towards sapphires face.

"Listen wench, your not welcome in this garden anymore, this isn't your world, you're an Almasy, your trash. Nobody wants you here, not ever Sion. He's got new friends now, the kind of friends a guy like Sion should have…" her little speech was cut short as a windage spell sent her sprawling across the concert floor, Sapphire let out a cough and splutter as the air rushed back into her lungs, only to find that, at this point, even breathing hurt. Sapphires blurry vision caught sight of Vaughn's red leathers trousers as he knelt down next to her head. She lifted her hand up, or she think she lifted her hand up, she had been kicked and punched so many times, she wasn't sure if any of her limbs still worked. This was the last time she ever went out without being junctioned up to the teeth. She felt Vaughn brush some hair out of her face. She heard screaming and shouting, it sounded like the headmaster. Shit, this meant that Amanz was probably stood their right now, convincing headmaster Cid of how Sapphire and Vaughn jumped Amanz, Karma and their little friends. Next thing sapphire knew, everything went blank….

Sapphire could hear a soft female voice calling her back to reality, it was sweet and gentle. Sapphire sat bolt up right and gripped her ribs as a short shot of pain was sent though her body. "Fuck!" She gritted her teeth tight she then looked up at the women, she was old be looked so pretty for her age, elegant, she reminded sapphire of a sorceress for the stories her dad used to tell her, just a lot less grand. She wore a black dress that clung delicately to her curves and lots of raven black hair fell over her shoulders. Sapphire looked over her shoulders to see the headmaster stood their, she bit her lip, was she really in this much trouble that the head master had actually come all the way to the infirmary to wait for her to wake up? this was totally the opposite of what she was going for when she decided not to bother fighting back.

The headmaster gestured towards the raven haired women "this sapphire is my Wife Edea". Sapphire nodded at her quietly.

"now, although we've cured most of your wounds with some cure spell your still in pretty bad shape, your lucky Vaughn came and got us when he did, but I will leave Edea here to help clear up some cuts on your back, please excuse me".

Edea smiled gently at her, she made sapphire feel so calm. "Come on now sapphire, you're going to have to take that top of yours off so I can get to your back", she held a towel up to sapphire "cover your front up with this for just a few moments". Sapphire again just did as she was told. If this really was Edea she was her dad's matron and an ex-sorceress too!

Sapphire hissed loudly as the antiseptic wipes hit the cuts and lacerations on her back. Hadn't she been through enough already?

"Sapphire, when I am done here, I want you to go back to your room, I've made arrangements for Vaughn to come and stay with you too. I want you to go and see the headmaster first thing tomorrow and get this sorted ou…."

Sapphire cut her off bluntly, "no! Its fine, forget about it. I certainly don't need your help, I can protect myself. If people want to fucking hate me that's fine! I have no intentions of coming her to make friends with anyone; in fact, everyone in this place can go fuck themselves anyway". She jumped up off the bed, refusing to allow the pain to get to her. She grabbed her top and slung it back on, not caring if she exposed herself or not. She walked over to the door Edea still sat their, the antiseptic oil splashed across the floor. "Ill shows them what it really means to be an Almasy".

As she threw herself back into her room she ran straight into Vaughn who was in his defence just standing there minding his own business.

"Well I'm glad to see you're still alive". He said dryly.

"….yeah well, I'm not the one who want to worry about living anymore". Vaughn raised his eyebrow.

"By the way, please don't feel the need to thank me for saving your ass, since your so jumped up on your own pride, well just let this one slip by, since we both know your thankful really".

Sapphire looked at him and nodded. Yes she didn't want to admit she needed help but at that particular point in time admitting otherwise was pointless. She went over and sat down slowly on the edge of her bed, the cura magic would need at least 24hours to heal her fully so easy did it until then.

Vaughn moved over to stand in front of her, "next month I'm planning on going home for a few days, as are Gem and Nigh, I was wondering if you wanted to come along to, I really want you to meet my mum and my uncle".

"Well I haven't got anything else to do, with me being public enemy number one and with Sion spending every weekend with his 'girlfriend' It would be nice to have something better to do than just train here, sure count me in Vaughn".

He smiled, "good, how lets hurry up and get to sleep, I am so tired. Fair play sapphire, my life's become a hell of a lot more interesting since you came alone".

She gave him a trade mark smirk "you that like I'm a bad thing".

Vaughn laughed out loud to himself, while lying himself down the on a spare bed that was put up in her room.


End file.
